A popular joke among photographers is, "Wow, that's a great photo, you must have a good camera." The funniest part of it is that many people believe it to be true. Back in the good old days of film (that's the smelly plastic stuff that came in rolls), consumer cameras were very limited.
It’s Not the Hammer, It’s the Carpenter
Hybrids
DSLRs
DSLRs are larger and can carry larger batteries, allowing them to take more photos before needing to be charged or replaced. Again, this is great for shooting action subjects, sports and wildlife, as the camera is able to capture individual moments of fast-moving scenes – scenes where we might not be able to press the button at exactly the right time to capture them. catch them.
Professional DSLRs
Stop Taking Snapshots, Start Taking Photographs
Stop Taking Snapshots, Start Taking Photographs
The Snapshot vs. the Photograph
But the focus is on the person to bring out 'them': the background or setting is not the subject. The focus is what is beautiful in that setting: the light, the color or the contrast.
Getting a Photographer’s Vision
Getting a Photographer’s Vision
The “photo” (bottom of Figure 3-1) was taken just four hours later in the same spot the arrow pointed to in the previous “snapshot.” I have a 'lead-in line' (the line in the foam of the water) that leads me into the background.
Finding the Light
There are times when you want the flat light of the image on the left. Even the side of the house windows in your home or studio can change the light.
Composing as a Photographer
If you can't wait until later in the day when the light is at a lower angle or softer, take them in the full shade of a tree or a building or other shelter. This can lead to hot spots on the face that will be difficult to get rid of later.
The Rule of Thirds (darn, there’s that rule word)
I divided the image into thirds and as you can see the subject falls within those intersections. This feather dynamically aligns a third from the bottom and right instead of being statically placed in the center of the image as a whole.
Leading Lines
Balance
Grape vines naturally frame this winery and its land. left) these baskets of berries reflect their colors and shapes producing a symmetrical arrangement, (right) the weight of the front tree is offset by the weight of the three trees in the background - this composition is asymmetrical but balanced.
Natural Frames
Bad Lines and Backgrounds
The Three Basics of Exposure
The Three Basics of Exposure
Exposure
Aperture
Shutter Speed
Artistic Use of Aperture
Typically, portrait photography will use a shallow depth of field to isolate the subject and keep the focus on them rather than a distracting background. If we are shooting wildflowers and we want to isolate them from the background, we will use a large aperture such as f2.8 or f4. If we were instead shooting a field of flowers stretching out to beautiful mountains in the background, we would use a small aperture such as f11 or f16.
Artistic Use of Shutter Speed
But sometimes we want to show movement: the movement of dancers dancing, or to make the water in a waterfall swish to show the sound of the water. Otherwise, you will not only see the movement of the object, but also the movement of the camera in your hand. So even though we want to see motion, we only want to see it in our subject.
Panning
So if you are shooting with a 200mm lens, the minimum shutter speed should be 1/200 of a second.
Artistic Use of ISO
Get Out of that Green Box!
Get Out of the Green Box
The “Other” Settings
Aperture Priority
The only caveat here is that we have to keep an eye on what shutter speed the camera has chosen for us. If the light is dim, the camera may choose a shutter speed that is too slow to either keep the camera shake-free or stop the action if our subject is in motion (such as trying to stop a child small in action). So if we see that our shutter speed is too low, we can use a tripod or we can adjust our ISO higher so that the shutter speed is increased to a hand-held range or that which stops the action.
Shutter Priority
So set your mode dial to Shutter Priority, choose the desired shutter speed, compose the composition and shoot away. If you select a high shutter speed, but the camera selects an aperture of, for example, f4, you will not get the DOF you need. So you may need to make some ISO changes again (higher) so that the camera can give you both the shutter speed you choose and the correct aperture you need.
Manual Mode
If we measure the sun, the image will be completely dark except for the sun. If we are meters too far from the sun, the sun and surrounding sky will be completely blown out and have no detail. If we meter just to the side of the sun or slightly above, we can achieve a good compromise in the exposure of our scene.
Hey, wait a minute! My camera doesn’t have creative modes!
The Glass Is Always Full
Lens Types
Fixed Lens vs. Zoom Lens
Wide Angle Lens
Normal or Standard Lens
Telephoto Lens
Note the shape of her face and proportion, but note something Fig 6-1. So these are the differences in taking the same subject and frame and applying the effects of different lens focal lengths. Now you may remember that I said "apparent focus". You can look at these five images and tell that focal length really affected the DOF (depth of field) as we talked about previously in the chapter on aperture.
If You Can’t Find the Light, Create the Light
If You Can’t Find the Light, Create the Light
Fill Flash
Indoors
The truth is you can, but it takes a little more work and awareness on your part. However, due to the low amount of light, the camera may choose a very slow shutter speed and may show some movement in either the subject or hand-held camera shake. Also, those of you who don't have the creative modes, try using just the auto flash mode, but raising the ISO if possible, or if you have a night scene mode, try switching to that and turning on the flash.
Outdoors
We get a silhouette when the camera adjusts for the bright light from the background that isn't falling on our subject, so your image will look like this (figure 7-3, left). If you use shutter priority, the camera will choose an appropriate aperture for you. Now it's important that you and the camera get the background right, because it's going to be down to the flash and its auto mode to get the subject exposure right.
Reflectors
In either manual or shutter priority (TV/S), set your shutter speed to the maximum sync speed. Reflectors work best when your subject is at an angle of approx. 90 degrees in relation to the sun, then you can place the reflector at an angle in relation to the sun and reflect it towards your subject (figure 7-6). You can also do this when your subject is backlit, although the reflected light can sometimes be blinding, so make sure you don't squint your subject with all that light.
Finishing Your Photos
Finishing Your Image in Editing Software
Now the two biggest players in this game are Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. It can handle a lot of the organizing that Lightroom can do using Adobe Bridge (the two work differently but ultimately achieve similar goals), but its forte is photo editing and manipulation. It gives the user control over all aspects of the image, as well as allows
Finishing your Photographs
Contrast and Color Corrections
Levels
If we bring the two end sliders to where the photo's information begins, and adjust the midtone slider for the best appearance of those colors, it increases the contrast of the shot (figure 8-1, right).
Hue and Saturation
Sharpening
It "defogs" the image, as the professionals call it, and even adds a bit of sharpness to it. The most common tool, or should I say "filter", that we use for this is called unsharp mask. Note: Due to the publication limitations of this book, you may not be able to detect the subtle difference in sharpness of this image.
Cropping
Now this is only a small part of what is possible for post-processing, but these are the little things that you can use to take something from being a good original and add just enough “pop” to bring out the best in your picture.
Sharing Your Images
Printing
Print at Home
If you have to remove five centimeters from a print, you are not cutting off something important for the photo. So once you have your photo ready and your size selected, load the paper into the printer and then select 'Print' in your photo editing software. A dialog box will appear asking you to make some selections (Figure 9-1). The orientation determines whether you have an image that is wider than tall (landscape) or taller than wide (portrait).
Printing at a Print Lab
Resolution
If you look at your file information, you will see a pixel by pixel dimension for your image. Now, if we went to our lab's FAQ on file preparation, we would find that they require a minimum of 100 PPI and have a recommended resolution of 240 PPI. We now know we have enough resolution to make the print size we need.
Color Space
If you can change it in the menu, you will have a choice of the two. In most photo editing software, even if you are one color space, you can convert to the other. If you don't know what to do, the safe course of action is to shoot and stay in sRGB.
Color Correction
You want to do this so that even if you have the wrong color space, the person or machine on the other end will be able to see it and know the "language" your photo is speaking. Try not to crop your images repeatedly - the more you crop an image, the more pixel information you throw away, and the less sharp they will print at larger sizes. If you are unsure how an image will turn out, try a small sample print on your own Fig 9-2.
Digital Frames
Sharing on the Web and E-mail
Preparing your Images for the Web
So check what the requirements are and then use your favorite photo editing software to resize your image for the web. It gives you a dialog where you can reduce the image size and save the image to a size suitable for the web - all on one screen. Web”, for example, and all your resizing for the web images will go in there, reducing the chance of overwriting your original file.
Watermarking
If you use Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, one of the nice features of those programs is their "Save for Web..." option (sometimes called "Save for Web and Devices..."). So if you're proud of your work and at least want to admit it's your work, you should watermark every image that appears on the web. And just one more word: remember, the world wide web is open to everyone, so if you don't want everyone to see a picture of you or your family on the web, don't post it there even if you think, oh it's just my blog - only my friends will find it there.
Social Networking Sites
Blogs
Your Own Personal Website
POSTSCRIPT
Postscript
Tech Term Index
About the Author
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