Questions
March 28th Workshop? Location?
Assignment Review
Quote
There is a brief moment when all there is in a man’s mind and soul and spirit is reflected through his eyes, his hands, his attitude. This is the moment to record.
Yousuf Karsh
Photographer
Yousuf Karsh 1908-2002 a Canadian photographer know for his intimate portraits of well know world figures.
Contrast
Drive Modes and Bracketing
Focus Stacking or Focus Bracketing
Landscape Photographers often confronted with how to keep everything in focus from the foreground to the background. This is usually done by using a wide angle lens but sometimes this is just not enough, and you don’t really want to stop down to f22 and introduce diffraction. The solution in this case is focus stacking.
In order to focus stack you need to take a series of images getting a sharp focus in the foreground, middle ground and background. The number of images you need to take will vary depending on your lens, camera and lighting situation. These are then combined using photograph into one image. Photoshop isolates the sharpest area of each image and then combines these sharp areas into one image where everything is sharp. Instructions on how to do this can be found at the following link: How to focus stack landscape photos in Photoshop.
Keep in mind most new cameras have a built in focus stacking capacity, and some will actually calculate how many images need to be taken and where to place the focus point, all the photographer needs to do is frame the scene, select focus stacking and push the shutter button.
Tips for Focus Stacking:
- Focus Stacking relies on a series of captures so it is important that the camera does not more too much, so the use of tripod is recommended, or if you are adventurous a camera with a high frames per second rate with a stable shooting stance.
- The bracketing feature of you camera will have to be turned on and it should be set to Focus bracketing. Here you may have to set up the number of shots you want to take and the focus increments between each shot.
- In order to keep the camera steady during the process you should be using your timer, so the camera is free of motion when the shutter begins to fire.
- Some people recommend shooting early in the morning because at this time of day the winds should be low and movement in leaves should be diminished.
- Once you select your first focus point and have the camera focus, you can then trigger the sequence by setting off the shutter. At this point the camera will begin the countdown and then take the number of shots you have set.
Automatic Exposure Bracketing (AE Bracketing)
If you are using a mirrorless camera you can see your exposure in the viewfinder, if you are using a SLR then you will have to look at the photograph after you have taken it to see the exposure. You may notice when you are shooting in bright sunlight that the image you capture is different from what you saw with your eyes, the sky may have gone all white when it is actually blue, or the dark coloured areas may have gone black with a loss of detail.
This is because a camera has a less dynamic range than your eyes. Your eyes have a range of 20 to 30 stops although at any given time they may only be seeing 10 stops of light. Cameras typically have a dynamic range of between 12 and 15 stops.
To overcome this limitation in dynamic range some photographers use exposure bracketing. Exposure bracketing takes a number of shots in rapid succession at different exposures. These different exposures are then merged in post processing software. When bracketing you will need in most cases to be in Aperture Priority with your ISO locked rather than floating. The speed should then determine the different exposures. If the light is not bright you may need to either be on a tripod or raise your ISO to avoid camera shake.
What Does it Mean When they Say BSI Sensor
When considering a new camera it is important to understand a few things that directly impact the image quality of your photographs. The sensor type, size, and it’s pixel pitch (the size of the pixels on the sensor) all play a critical role in image quality. It is also important to know the age of the sensor as often even though the camera is a new announcement, the sensor could be five years old and has been used in many previous generations of the same sensor.
- Do all Cameras have the same noise suppression capacity?
Front illuminated sensor versus Back illuminated sensor.
Panasonic and Fujifilm developing a global shutter
In order to reduce heat build up on camera sensors newer sensors are based on copper rather than aluminum, copper has a thermal conductivity that is approximately 1.75 to 2 times higher than that of aluminum. Which means it dissipates heat faster thus reducing the amount of noise being produced by the sensor. In addition to this the BSI sensors have located the electronics below the photo diodes which also reduces electronic interference and increases the accuracy of how the sensor measures light.
My Favourite Lenses
Although I have a number of lenses these four are the ones that I use most frequently.
Zoom versus Prime
Prime Lens are bright and usually have lower f-stops, shallower depths of field, better image quality in lower light, generally smaller and lighter. Prime lenses have less moving parts, than a zoom lens, which usually means better image quality. Most zoom lenses will have certain fields of view where they are sharp and accurate and other fields of view where they are not.
The advantage of a zoom lens is the ability to have multiple fields of view in one lens. So you can change perspectives in seconds rather than having to change a lens. When travelling it might be easier to take one zoom lens rather than a number of prime lenses, although primes are usually more compact. However, if you are prepared to spend the money for a high quality zoom lenses they can rival prime lens quality, but these more expensive zoom lenses are larger.
If you have a zoom lens and are considering a prime lens and are interested in which lens might be more useful, Lightroom and other similar programs will tell you on average which focal length you used the most. In most cases people who have a 24-70 zoom lens or the equivalent in APSC, are mostly at either 24mm or 70mm. The most popular lenses, depending on what kind of photography you do, are the 24mm, 35mm, 50mm and either and 85mm or 110mm.
Early release of lenses gives a good indication of what the most popular lenses.
Artistry of Camera
Portrait Shooting and Processing
Taking a good portrait or group photograph has a great deal to do with how the photographer interacts with the subject or subjects. It is often said that when a photographer makes a portrait, it is also a self portrait as the subject of the portrait is interacting with the photographer, reflecting back their reaction to the photographer in their facial and body expression.
Here are a few quick tips to keep in mind when taking making a portrait:
- Keep in mind your composition tools such as rule of thirds, texture, depth of field, directionality, leading lines and framing strategies.
- To eliminate unwanted distractions fill the frame or use shallow depth of field
- Experiment with different angles
- Consider how colour plays in with the photograph
- In most situations you should stay away from wide angles with your lens because of the distortion. A field of view of 85mm or 110mm is much more flattering because of compression
- Lifting the camera above eye level will emphasize the face more than the body making the person look slimmer
- Lowing the camera below eye level will make the person taller or perhaps seem more in charge, but you will be looking up their nostrils and the body will appear larger than the head if you go too far.
- Group photographs are most often taken at eye level or slightly lower so as not to distort the either the head or the body.
Courtesy of the Digital Photography School
When taking the portrait the photographer should be aware of a few things to ensure the image will be suitable for processing: make sure the eyes are in focus, camera speed is 1/125, watch out for strong shadows falling across the person, look out for distracting background objects, make sure you have a RAW file, do not crop too tightly, shoot on continuous a number of shots, and avoid a wide angle lens.
Practice
- Third position
- Crossed arms
- 5 levels chin, nose, eyes, forehead and top of head.
- Angle of head
- Hands at an angle
The website, where the suggestions above came from, outlines how one would edit a portrait (click here to go to website). Although the processor he is using is Lightroom, most processing software will have all these editing tools.
Basic Edition Tools
White balance controls the temperature of the light it is listed in Kelvin and moves through the various temperatures of light. Daylight and artificial light have different temperatures so this slider allows you to correct the temperature if the camera has estimate the light incorrectly. If the image is too yellow or too blue then the white balance is off, and moving the slider in either direction to bring back a more accurate colour.
Exposure adjustments is use when the camera has either over or underexposed an image. If this happens you should also see the histogram pushed too far to the right or left and indication that the exposure is off. Moving the slider in either direction should bring back the correct exposure. If the image is too overexposed it may not be possible to bring back the highlights. So when in doubt under expose. When looking at the histogram if you see areas at either extreme where the lines do not descend to either the right hand or left hand bottom corner then corrections may be necessary not only in the the exposure slider but the also the Highlights Shadows, Whites and Blacks slider.
The Contrast adjustment alters the highlights and darks in an image by darkening the darks and brightening the highlights. You can increase or decrease the contrast. Increasing the contrast can help pop an image decreasing can flatten an image. This slider should be used carefully as too much will quickly ruin an image.
The Highlights, Shadows, Whites and Blacks sliders allow you to fine tune an image, if the shadows are too dark they can be lightened and if the highlights are too bright they can be reduced. If you feel the whites are not white enough or too white this can be adjust, the same would be true of the blacks. Pay attention to the histogram when using these sliders.
Clarity adjustments sharpens and adds contrast to the picture, in a landscape it will bring out some detail, but in portraits it will intensify blemishes and wrinkles. In either case this slider should be used careful, too much clarity can also quickly ruin an image.
Vibrance adjustments and Saturation adjustments work differently, but have a similar effect. The saturation adjustment slider decreases or increases the intensity of the colours in you photograph whereas the vibrance adjustment adds saturation to colours that are not saturated. When working with skin tones it is better to use vibrance and not saturation.
RAW and JPG Differences
Keep in mind these sliders are much more effective with RAW files than with JPG files. RAW files contain all the information the camera sensor produces in an unprocessed file which sometimes looks a little flat when you open it. Using this RAW file you can create your own JPG. JPG files on the other have already been processed by applying many of the adjustments mentioned above and to compress the file much of the RAW information has been discarded. This is why RAW files are much larger than JPEG files. Another problem with JPG files is they are “lossy files” and RAW files are “lossless.” This means RAW files never lose their information but everytime you resave a JPG file it rewrites the compression process and overtime the file can degrade.
The Hue Control and Isolating Colour Changes
It is now possible in Lightroom to modify the hue of colour without creating a universal change that impacts the whole image. Previously this was only possible with Photoshop. Rick Ohnsman has written a good article on how to use this “Hue Control” to creatively alter colours within an image.
Digital Processing Software
- ACDSee Photo Editor 10 $169 Windows non-destructive RAW editor, layer editing, asset management,
- Adobe Photoshop Lightroom $9.99/month Subscription Only Mac/Windows full feature RAW non-destructive editor.
- Alien Skin Exposure X2 $149 Mac/Windows RAW non-destructive editor, view not catalogue, presets, layers,
- DXO PhotoLab $129 Mac/Windows RAW non-destructive editor presets, batch processing, metadata image sorting, (lens correction is excellent)
- Iridient Digital standalone version only which is RAW demosaicing software
- MacPhun Luminar Mac RAW non-destructive editor, layers, masking, soon to have a Digital Assets Management System
- ON1 Photo RAW $119 (with tutorial subscription $149/yr) Mac/Windows RAW non-destructive editor, assets management, presets, masking, panorama, HDR,
- Phase One Capture One subscription and standalone available non-destructive editing, presets.
- Photo Ninja (2015 top recommendation for Fujifilm cameras)
- RAW Therapee free RAW processor that runs on iOS, Windows and Linux
- Serif Affinity Photo $69 (no subscriptions) Mac/Windows non-destructive RAW editor, batch processing, layer editing, stitching, image stacking,
Street photography, according to Eric Kim, is …the joy of walking, being in public places, love of fresh air, love of being around other people, the joy of thinking, and the joy of making photographs. It is many things to many people but most practitioners, whether it is deliberate or not, record a kind of people’s history and the fabric of society around them. The process of street photography for me starts with a journey often into the familiar but as I photograph I become engaged by the unfamiliar, unknown and a restructuring of the context in which I find myself occurs. In other words, the process of “seeing,” which we have talked about before, begins to happen.
Street Photography
Taking or Making Photographs
This first video gives you some idea of the variety of street photography styles.
Eric Kim, a well known street photograph likes to interact with people in the street, this video gives you some idea of how he interacts with his subjects.
Zack Arias on the other hand sometimes practices a process of trying to blend into the environment and capture his subjects without them interacting with him.
Mystical Marrakech | Street Photography with Zack Arias
Photography Events of Interest
- Capture Festival the month of April
- Artist Talk on Alternative Photographic Processes April 19th Shadbolt Centre
- Lumen Print Demonstration May 2nd and 3rd Shadbolt Centre
- Pinhole Photography Workshop April 26th at the Shadbolt Centre, part of the Capture Festival.
- Student Submissions Reminder
Assignment
The assignment this week is to capture a streetscape with people in it. Locate a spot where you can sit down. Take your time getting your camera out; this will allow time for you to blend into the location where you are sitting. Once you feel comfortable, start to work on a composition.
Relocate yourself once you have exhausted the possibilities of this location and repeat the process. If anyone approaches you and questions what you are doing, you can tell them you are taking a course and learning how to use your camera and your assignment is to photograph a streetscape with people in it. Usually. this gets a smile and solves the problem.
If you wish you could choose to use the methods outlined by Zack Arias in the video above where you try to capture the scene without disturbing it, or you could elect to try Eric Kim’s method where you interact with the people in the scene you are photographing.
Please send me three of these photographs so we can discuss them in class.