Shooting at eye level

Our normal habit when shooting is to just raise the camera to our eye and snap the picture.  But what can make for a more interesting photograph is changing the position of the lens in relation to the subject.

Shooting from below tends to make the subject more powerful.  Shooting from above makes them less so.  The photograph shown here is a good example of how bringing the camera down to eye level of the subjects make the photograph more intimate and engaging.

Next time you are shooting, try shooting from directly above, or from ground level.  You'll find altering the camera position can yield some wonderful surprises.

Snow exposure explanation in detail

I've talked about how we have to trick the in-camera meter to deal with snow scenes before, but it is worth reviewing at times.

Remember that the meter is trying to make the value of the scene 50% grey, whether it is looking at a pure white scene or a pure black scene.  Try shooting a white card and a black card to prove this to yourself.

What that means, then, is that if you are shooting a snow scene, you have to increase the exposure so instead of the snow being grey, it comes out close to white.  I say close to, because we want to hold some detail so we do not want the values to go to 255 (pure white) in Photoshop.

What I suggest is using the exposure compensation feature of your camera, and add about 2 stops of exposure to make the scene work.  Check your histogram to make sure you haven't lost detail.

Now let's see what happens once the image comes into Photoshop for tweaking.  Here's the image as it was processed from the raw file.  Notice that I have made sure not to let the sky or foreground go pure white.

Here is the histogram for the file.

 

Now we'll use a Levels adjustment layer to brighten the whites, and make the dark values richer.  Be careful here because since it was a snowy day with low clouds, there shouldn't be a pure black.

I like to use adjustment layers rather than Image-Adjustments-Levels from the Toolbar because you can always tweak what you have done later with adjustment layers.  They sit as a non-destructive layer about the image in the file.  With the Toolbar approach, you cannot go back once the adjustment is made.

Take a look at the values for the lightest and darkest spots in the photograph.  I used the eyedropper tool to identify them.

Here are what the new values are in the Info tab of the Navigator window.

And here is what the final image looks like after the adjustments.  Keep in mind that seeing the subtleties online at this size is a bit challenging.  Try working on a file like this, and you will see how well this approach works.

Setting up your camera Part VI

In the days of film, the photographer would select a particular film for it's "look."  Some films had a lot of contrast, some very little.  Others pushed the saturation of the colors to make the images more vibrant, others went for accurate color rendition.

In the digital photography world, all that has been simplified.  The "look" is controlled by the Picture Style setting in the camera menu.  Generally, the camera manufacturer has a default setting, and then gives you options for things like Portrait (which aims for pleasing flesh tones), Landscape (which goes for strong greens and blues to help the foliage and sky), and Monochrome (to emulate Black and White Film).

What to use?  If you are trying to keep your post process editing to a minimum, and you are always shooting pictures of friends and family, I would suggest using the Portrait setting.  Maybe the Default if all you do is candids and travel pictures.  

Personally, though, since I expect that I will spend time in Photoshop refining my images, I use the Neutral setting.  Rather than letting the camera decide what the picture will look like, I like to maintain that control.  It's simple enough to add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to punch color, or a Curves adjustment layer to add or subtract contract.  In any case, I get to make the decision.  And since most of us shoot pictures to express a feeling in addition to documenting what we see, I suggest you may want to consider this approach as well.

Setting up your camera Part V

ISO 200

In past installments, setting up Image Quality, White Balance and Color Space 

in your camera menus were discussed.

In this installment, the focus is on the ISO, or sensitivity of the sensor in a digital camera.  It is similar to film speed in mechanical cameras, in that it measures sensitivity to light.

With film cameras, you would change films to be able to work with higher sensitivity materials.  In digital, you simply change the setting in the camera menu.  As a rule of thumb, as the ISO number goes up, there is more artifacting or noise in the image that is produced.  Therefore, unless the desire is there to create that effect, the photographer is best served to use the lowest ISO possible under the circumstances.  Most cameras have ISO ratings from 100-1600, with DSLR's often having ratings from 50 to 6400 or higher.

ISO 800

Here are cropped photographs taken with an ISO of 200, and 1600 in Denver in Montclair Park.  Notice the coarse pattern within the snow.  In film terms this would be called grain.  In digital, it is called Noise.

ISO 200

ISO 1600

Setting up your camera to get the best photographs Part I

A lot of people got new cameras for the holidays.  Because all the technology in the new digital cameras can be a bit daunting, this seems like a good time to go over some basics that will help you make the best possible pictures.

Many cameras have an Auto mode that allows you to simply pick up and camera and shoot.  This can be great in that anyone can start making images right from the get-go.  The downside to this is that the camera is making all the decisions, and they may not result in the best photograph from the technical or artistic side.

For example, the camera is deciding on the ISO rating (a measure of the sensitivity of the chip), the White Balance (what it considers to be a pure white in the scene), and what shutter speed and aperture to use (shutter speed can affect whether a moving object is sharp or blurred, and aperture can determine whether objects near or far from where you focused are sharp).  Additionally, the camera has decided what format the picture will be taken in, at what resolution, and in what color space.

Again, this is great if you are a beginner and just want to shoot as soon as you take the camera out of the box. But with just a few adjustments, you can insure you are actually getting what you want rather than give that decision making power away.

Over the next few days, we'll go over all the settings in detail.