Photography
Amazing 3D Portrait Almost Real: Really Breathtaking
On 23, May 2010 | 132 Comments | In Blog, Inspirations, Photography | By grapikom
Computer graphics are continuously turning the digital art into reality and I always wonder to what extent it will go. You may find 3D CG characters and portraits that looks very real and it gives very incredible feeling that how can human characteristic be mimicked by computer graphics. This 3D art is too realistic to be mistaken as actual photographs. You won’t believe it? Let’s take a look at these CG portraits. You will surely be mesmerized and get motivated to create your own. I hope that you enjoy these amazing portraits as much as I did!
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Photography Troubleshooting: No More Bad Photos
On 31, Mar 2010 | 125 Comments | In Blog, Tutorials | By grapikom
Running into problems when taking photographs over, and over
again? Here’s a handy guide that will help you troubleshoot your
problems, and improve your shots all at once!
Rather than stretch this out over several articles, it
seemed like a good idea to provide solutions to
common problems in Photography all in one
informative list. Please be sure to ask any questions
if you’re having problems not mentioned here!
Blurry Images Caused by Poor Focus
Photos that aren’t sharp are almost always caused by focus problems — either you, or the auto focus
didn’t do their job correctly. If you are using auto focus and still get blurred photos it might be because
the camera used another focusing point rather than the one thought you intended to use. Another
reason might be the setting of the focus and then moving the camera without refocusing.
Blurry Photos Caused by Camera Shake
Camera shake is a result of unsteady hands or a too long of a exposure. To counter this you can change
the shutter speed,or make the exposure time shorter. If you don’t want to change the aperture you can
always change the ISO setting. Higher ISO will create noise, but noise is better than a blurry image
caused by too long of a exposure time.
Another option is to use a tripod or monopod.
Standing Steady: Proven Ways to Reduce Shake in Photography
Learn how to get those steady shots, both with the help of tripods, monopod, and additionally with your
bear hands. These tips are guaranteed to improve your stability while taking photographs!
To get good photographs you usually have to hold the camera steady. Sometimes a blurry photograph
or one in motion can be desired, but most of the time it’s unwanted. The most common equipment to
help counter this is the tripod, but I will also give you a few other tips to reduce camera shake in this
article.
Tripod
As I said, the tripod is the classic tool to make your photographs sharp and crisp. It’s by far the steadiest method and produces great result time after time, but there are a few things to think about.
Just like everything else the tripods comes in all different shapes and sizes, not to mention price classes. It’s important to sit down and think about what you want out of your tripod — is it going to be used in a studio or outdoors, what type of lenses are you planning on using and how much do they weight, do you want a ball head or a 3-way pan-tilt head?
If you’re only going to use the tripod indoors it doesn’t have to be as sturdy and rough as an outdoors tripod needs to be. The heavier the tripod the more stable it is, and I’ve learned a ‘rule’ that says “for every 100mm focal length the tripod should weigh 1kg (2.2 lbs)“. So if you are planning on using a 300mm telephoto lens the tripod should weigh about 3kg (6.6 lbs). I’m not sure how accurate this rule is, but it can work as some kind of guideline. Do keep in mind though that high-end tripods can be both very stable and light, but rather expensive.
The choice between a ball head and a 3-way pan-tilt head is simply personal preferences. With the 3-way pan-tilt head you can easily change just one axes, such as panning or tilting, without affecting the other axes. The ball head gives you more ability to move the camera around and is much faster to change, but ball heads are often more expensive.
Monopod
A monopod is a great alternative to tripods and handheld. You can’t have a shutter speed of 1 hour on a monopod like you can on a tripod, you can most likely not even have a shutter speed of 30 seconds — but that’s not the target market for monopods. They are a more mobile tool to help you stabilize your shots without having to carry around a tripod, and monopods are far more simple and quick to set up.
It can take some time getting use to a monopod, and the most effective way to use it is to have its foot placed against your back foot. Do not just have the monopod stand in front of you; this will not give enough stability to help you very much. Try finding a good posture where you can hold the camera as steady as possible.
Hand held
This is the most common way to take photographs and most of the time it will do just fine, but there are ways to take advantage of your surrounding and changing your stance to help you with stability.
Always hold the camera close to you, inhale and hold your breath for the duration of the shot. Don’t just tap the shutter release button — you want to press it down and hold down the finger a short while before lifting it again to minimize camera shake.
If you’re using a telephoto lens or other lens that is somewhat heavy or long place your left hand under the lens and grasp it — do not hold the camera body with both hands if you’re using a heavy lens.
Keeping as low profile as possible is a great way to increase your stability. If possible, lay flat on your stomach with both your elbows on the ground. Not as stable but another good stance is with one knee on the ground and the other one at a 90° angle.
Leaning against a tree or wall is another great way to take the stability of something else and help it make you more stable. If possible, place the camera against the tree/wall to maximize the stability. The same goes for rocks, logs, railings and more or less everything you can find to rest your camera on. On many occasions it can be more helpful to rest your camera on a rock than using a monopod.
One last trick I learned from a friend of mine; take your left hand and place it on your right shoulder, take your camera in your right hand and place it on your left elbow/forearm — this might take some time getting use to but the result is a very stable stance that works great with telephoto lenses.
Stop Motion Blur in Photographs
This is the result of photographing a moving object with a too long exposure… no matter how steady you are. A faster shutter speed is the only solution in this problem — some action sports require speeds as quick as 1/1000+.
Too Much Contrast
The sensor is not able to pick up the whole spectrum of light and expose it correctly in some situations. Unless you want to manipulate your photographs in post-production (such as HDR) you have two options: either select the part of the scene that is most important to expose correctly, or use a graduated ND filter to get the entire scene exposed correctly (primarily used in landscape photography).
Add More Contrast
Low contrast can be a result from photographing in bad lighting conditions, or in unique instances, environments can play a role in this problem (such as a snowy landscape). This is most often easily fixed in Photoshop by using the adjustment layer Levels to change the black and white point. The example photograph is lacking contrast due to stray light reaching the sensor, which can be countered by using a lens hood.
Digital Adjustments & Development
Back in the old days with 35mm film the photographer had his darkroom where he developed the film, in our day and age the computer has taken over the role. This article will deal with some of the adjustments you can use to develop your photographs in the digital darkroom.
The software I have used in this article is Photoshop CS3 (on a Mac) but most of these features are available in any decent photo-editing software.
Levels
Levels are one of the most important tools to use when you are working with post-production. This adjustment layer is used to correct or enhance the histogram. To learn more about what the Histogram shows and how it works, please read my article about it.
A word of advice is to work with levels in a separate layer instead of working on the actual photo layer.
There are two methods to use this adjustment layer:
SET WHITE & BLACK POINT
This method will give you an eyedropper and you will have to set one point for the darkest (black point) and one point for the lightest (white point) area. There is also the option to set the grey point (18% grey, in the middle of the tones).
This can be a bit tricky to the beginner, but it’s a very powerful tool. It’s often easy to spot the white point in the photo, often from a light source or something white and/or reflective. The black point may be a bit harder to locate, the best way is to think about where the light is the least likely to be reflected.
In the photograph below you can see that the white point is where you can spot a cloud in the sky behind the trees and the black point is inside the poor sheep’s nostril — there isn’t much light reaching in there.
What this will do is that it will stretch the histogram so that the lightest point will be to the very right edge and the darkest point will be to the left edge.
DRAG THE LEVELS YOURSELF
An example of a levels slider from Adobe Photoshop CS2. Similar Level Adjustments can be found in other software, including GIMP.
Instead of stretching out the histogram you narrow down the field by moving the dark and the light levels in this method. You can achieve the same effect as the method listed above, but you will be able to see the gradual change in the photograph better this way. What you want to do is dragging the black triangle to the right until it’s under the left edge of the graph, and drag the white triangle until it’s under he right edge of the graph. If you have a histogram like the one above you might want to move the white triangle a little more to the left than the very edge since the levels of white are very small at the edge.
Which of the two methods you like the best is up to you, try the both out and see what you like the most. (I only go through how to use the RGB level here, there will be some more info on the other levels later in this article.)
Curves
This adjustment layer is quite like the levels, but with a bit more control. You can choose to either set the black/white or you can create your own curves. Unlike the Levels layer, Curves will often times have easy to use Presets, either the standard ones that come with the software or your own custom ones.
Sharpening
This is something that has to be done on a photo layer, so you might want to duplicate your photo layer (usually the background layer).
Go to Filter -> Sharpen -> Unsharp Mask
The settings here are very different depending on whether you’re photographing portraits, landscapes, urban etc. But somewhere around Amount: 85, Radius: 1, Threshold: 0 or Amount: 100, Radius: 0.5, Threshold: 0. Try and see where you find a good spot between sharp and overly sharpened — white halos will appear around some object if you sharpen the image too much, this will not look good.
There is nothing that can beat a sharp image straight out of the camera, but Unsharp Mask can at least help you get a little closer.
Color correction
Color correction is an important but difficult part of post-production. There are several different ways to deal with untrue colors. It depends on what the problem is; is it just one colors that is off, is the entire photo lacking color, is the photo tinted in a weird color? Each of these problems need a different tool, I will go through the very basics of some of the color correction tools that Photoshop have.
Selective Color — Controls several different colors and can do just about anything to a specific color. This is a great adjustment layer to use when a specific color is untrue in the photograph, such as a green shirt looking blue.
Channel Mixer — The RGB channels, can add and subtract RGB from each channel. A good tool when an entire image is experiencing a colored overcast.
Hue/Saturation — This layer have three main settings; Hue, Saturation and Lightness. Stay away from Hue and Lightness unless you know what you’re doing. Saturation is a great tool to boost or drain the colors.
Color Balance — Here you have RGB again, with different settings for Shadows, Midtones and Highlights. Can be used to correct the color in just one of those areas.
Levels & Curves — Use it like described above, but change the channel to one of the RGB ones. You will be able to control the colors with good accuracy. Works good both with highlights/shadows as well as photos with a color overtone.
Dodge & Burn
These two tools are designed to mimic the effect of the Dodge and Burn tools used in darkrooms before the digital age. These tools are used to change the exposure on selective parts of the photograph, such as giving more exposure to shadowed areas.
The Dodge tool will lighten up parts, the Burn tool will darken parts.
Use them with care, but when you’ve mastered them they can be a great asset to change your exposure on just some parts in post-production.
Prevent Lens Flares
A lens flare is created when the lens picks up stray light. The best way to block out this unwanted light is to use a lens hood. Different lenses create different lens flares — cheaper lenses usually create uglier flares than high-end lenses, but even with a high-end lens one should always use a hood to minimize the risk.
Prevent Double Lights
This is an optical effect that can occur in low light situations in combination with some (often cheaper) lenses. A UV filter can increase this effect, so if you notice these types of odd lights on your night photographs you might want to consider removing the UV filter for the duration of the shoot.
Underexposure
Not enough light reached the sensor, you need to change the exposure settings to get a correctly exposed photograph. Either a slower shutter speed, a larger aperture or higher ISO — or all of them combined.
Exposure and Camera Modes
The exposure is the combined factors of how long time the sensor is exposed to light, how much light comes through and how sensitive the sensor is to light. It’s based on three things, Aperture size, Shutter speed and ISO.
Exposure
There are 3 parts of exposure that you should understand. The following examples ought to illustrate how these 3 components of exposure interact with one another.
Example 1
You take a photograph with the following settings: ƒ/8, 1/250s and ISO 100
But let’s say you want to freeze the object more, which requires a faster shutter speed, you can either change the ISO or the Aperture. First of all let’s change the shutter speed 1 stop faster, 1/500s — now only half the amount of light will reach the sensor. To compensate for this and keep the exposure the same you can change the aperture size 1 f-stop larger, ƒ/5.6.
So ƒ/5.6, 1/500s and ISO 100 will give you the same exposure as ƒ/8, 1/250s and ISO 100 (but now the shutter speed is faster which allows you to freeze your object in a different way).
Example 2
You’re indoors with bad light conditions which makes your current setting too slow and are unable to hold the camera steady enough. The settings are: ƒ/5.6, 1/60s and ISO 100. Your lens’ largest aperture is ƒ/4 which is 1 f-stop larger, changing your shutter speed 1 stop faster will result in: ƒ/4, 1/125s and ISO 100. The shutter speed is still too slow and the result is blurry due to camera shake. Since you can’t change the aperture anymore you will have to change the ISO setting, 1 stop will result in ISO 200, you now have: ƒ/4, 1/250s and ISO 200 which should be enough to get a sharp photograph.
As you hopefully can see from these examples all three parts of the exposure are related to each other. If you just change one of them the result will be either an underexposed or an overexposed photograph, but if you change both you can keep the balance.
55mm, f/5.6, 1/60s, ISO 100
300mm, f/5.6, 1/800, ISO 400
50mm, f/5, 1/320, ISO 400
Overexposure
Overexposure happens when the sensor is exposed to more than enough light, resulting in white images or at least white areas in the images around the light source(s). Sometimes it’s impossible to expose the photograph correctly without getting some overexposed areas. Overexposure can be used as an effect, but most of the time it’s unwanted and avoidable.
Underexposure
Underexposure is the opposite of overexposure, and is the result of the sensor not getting enough light, the photo is dark. Underexposure can be used artistically but just like overexposure it can be unwanted and hard to avoid.
To Underexpose, or Overexpose? That – is the question
With digital cameras it’s much easier to bring back the light and colors from underexposed areas than it is to bring back shades into overexposed areas. If you’re photographing in RAW you might want to consider to underexpose your images on purpose to avoid loosing details in overexposed areas and then use a digital lightroom to bring back the light from the underexposed areas if needed. This depends on the light conditions, and indoors it can be a good idea to overexpose instead.
I personally always underexpose my outdoor photographs 2/3 of an f-stop for this reason, and have found the results much more pleasing than a “correct” exposure.
Exposure Lock
Exposure Lock is a great feature that’s available on most cameras. It’s rather easy to understand what it does, it locks the exposure so that it doesn’t re-calculate the exposure if you move your camera around. Try to find a neutrally exposed part of your object, not the light source nor the shadows but something in between, and press the exposure lock button — recompose your photograph and take the picture.
Camera modes
MANUAL MODES:
- M — Manual mode; this gives you full control over both aperture and shutter speed.
- Av or A — Aperture priority; you control the aperture and the camera calculates the shutter speed for best exposure
- Tv or S — Shutter priority; you control the shutter speed and the camera calculates the aperture
- P — Program mode; a more advanced form of an auto mode. The camera calculates both the aperture and shutter speed, but doesn’t affect settings like ISO or flash.
AUTOMATIC MODES:
- Auto — everything is on auto, including ISO, flash and image quality
- Portrait — uses a large aperture to shorten the depth of field
- Landscape — uses a small aperture to gain more depth of field
- Sport — uses higher ISO to use faster shutter speeds
- Night portrait — uses long exposures to capture the entire scene, often combined with built in flash
- Macro — uses a large aperture to great a softer background
Just Say NO! to Automatic Modes
There is no reason what so ever to use the automatic modes. After you’ve read through this series of articles about photography you should have enough knowledge to control the camera on manual modes — which will result in better photographs.
The Program mode (P) is fine to use, this way you will have the aperture and shutter automatic but still be in control over everything else. Most photographers find a mode that they like and maybe switches between two different modes, this is personal preferences and let me just tell you that far from every professional photographers uses only the fully Manual setting.
I personally use M and Av most of the time, depending on the situation. Av for the situations where I don’t have enough time to set the correct exposure between every shot and then M for the rest.
Overexposure
Too much light reached the sensor — you need to change the exposure settings to get a correctly exposed photograph. Either a faster shutter speed, a smaller aperture or lower ISO — or all of them combined.
Dark Corners — Vignette
Vignette are dark corners in a photograph, which occur when the light is not evenly distributed on the sensor or when the flash just lights up the center of a shot.
Many lenses, even high-end, create this effect when opened wide (largest aperture). To fix this problem simply stop down the aperture a few stops and this should even out the distribution.
Lens distortion
Mostly a problem when photographing architecture with a wide-angle lens. A lens below 50mm usually creates some distortion but in most cases this is not visible. However when you are photographing straight lines (such as buildings), standing close to the object and pointing the camera upwards you will more easily see these distortions. Take a few steps backward or change to a more suitable lens.
Lenses and Focal Length Photography Tutorial
In Photography, your lens is often your most important purchase. This photography tutorial outlines some important qualities of different lenses, and how each performs in identical situations.
Choosing a lens is often more difficult then choosing a camera when it comes to purchasing. One thing to remember is that a lens will last several times longer than digital cameras. A D-SLR has a limited lifespan of a couple of years, the prices on cameras just keeps on dropping and purchasing a new camera every 3-5 years is quite reasonable if you want good quality photographs & equipment. A lens on the other hand will (if handled correctly) last much longer then that, so a good lens will be an investment that you can use for a longer period of time.
Another thing to think about is the fact that all the light that reaches the sensor needs to pass through the lens. A low quality lens on a high quality camera will result in bad image quality, but a good lens on a low quality camera can still produce good results (and with low quality camera I mean the companies “entry level” D-SLR cameras).
It’s important to realize that different lenses distort and compress the view. A wide angle lens will distort the view and distances can seem greater than they really are, while in contrast, a telephoto lens will compress the view and make far away object seem closer than they are. To show this effect I have taken three photos with different lenses, the front object (a street sign) is kept at the same size but the background is drastically different.
Above: 18mm, Wide Angle
Above: 50mm, Normal
Above: 300mm, Telephoto
Normal lens
Normal lenses have a focal length of around 50mm; it resembles the view of the human eye and creates a natural view — unlike wide-angle that distort and telephoto that compresses the view. These lenses usually have a very low f-number, which makes them perfect for photographing in low light conditions.
Back in the days this was the standard lens everybody had, often a 50mm prime lens (more about prime lenses later in this article) with an aperture of f/1.2–f/1.8. The fact that they were so widely used might be one of the reasons why they have now been left behind for most beginners and amateurs — they are just seen as too boring.
Wide-angle lens
Lenses with a wide angle of view have become standard as kit-lenses on most low-end D-SLR cameras on the market, always as zoom lenses. These lenses are great for landscapes, architecture and indoor photography — but be aware of the distortion they create. The closer you are to your object the more distorted it will become, and the distortion is most predominant in the corners.
With such short focal length they can be useful in low-light situations, both because they take in light from a wider angle and because a little camera shake is not as visible as it is on longer focal lengths.
Telephoto lens
These lenses have a narrow view field and a long focal length. Telephoto lenses are great for wildlife and sport photography, and can be good to use for portrait when you want to isolate the model from the background. Telephoto lenses compresses the view which can be both positive and negative depending on the situation.
Telephoto lenses with their longer focal length require better light conditions or the use of a tripod. There are fast telephoto lenses, like a 400mm f/2.8, but these are often very expensive and out of reach when it comes to most amateurs — and most of these lenses are too heavy to be handheld.
The last decade most companies have started to produce these high end telephoto lenses with Image Stabilizer (different companies have different names for it, but the effect is the same) to make them more usable without tripods. Lately this feature has been implanted in more and more low-end lenses as well.
Macro lens
Macro photography is close-up photography. Macro is a word that has been severely abused lately, every photograph of an insect or flower is not macro, and many people seems to have missed the point of what macro is supposed to be. True macro photography is at the scale of 1:1 or greater — this means that the object you’re photographing should be the same size or larger on the sensor.
Most macro lenses have a focal length between 50mm and 200mm, and they usually have a large maximum aperture (low f-number) that gives them both the ability to be fast as well as totally isolate the subject. The background and shallow depth-of-field is a very important part of macro photography and can take quite a lot of time to master.
There are several ways to achieve macro or a macro-effect without a true macro lens; I will go into detail about this in a later part of this series.
Special lenses
FISHEYE LENS
Fisheye lenses are extreme wide-angle lenses, having a 180° horizontal angle of view. There are both Circular and Full-frame fisheye lenses, the circular will create a round image in the center with unexposed (black) edges and the full-frame lens will fill the entire sensor but will only have 180° horizontal and not vertical.
Fisheye lenses are widely used photographing and filming skateboarding, since the entire scene is always in focus and you can easily capture the entire trick without too much movement.
TILT-SHIFT LENS
Tilt-shift lenses are common in architectural photography to avoid the distortion a regular wide-angle lens creates while keeping the entire building in focus. Tilt-shift lenses have more features than just correcting the distortion, they also gives the photographer total control over the focus and depth of field. The lens can create rather odd looking photographs where the field of depth looks “unnatural” and the entire scene looks like it’s a photograph of a miniature.
Prime lenses vs. Zoom lenses
There are two types of lenses, prime and zoom. A prime lens is a lens that has a fixed focal length, these lenses comes in all shapes and price classes. Zoom lenses have taken over the market almost completely on the lower-end; this is mostly because zooms are more versatile. A zoom lens can be a wide-angle lens, a normal lens and a telephoto lens — all in one — where as a prime can only be what it is. High-end telephoto lenses as well as macro lenses are almost always primes.
So why choose a prime instead of a zoom lens then?
Most prime lenses are considerably sharper than the zooms in the same price class, even when you go to the very high-end lenses the primes are sharper but the difference is not as distinct. Not only are primes sharper but they often have a larger maximum aperture which makes them faster and ideal in low-light situations. However, the technology is moving forward at a great speed right now and the noise levels at high ISO isn’t as visible as it was before which makes zoom lenses able to be faster as well.
All in all I would recommend that people have at least one prime in their camera bag, preferably a normal lens, which is the perfect lens for many situations — sharp, fast and light-weight.
The aperture will also affect the sharpness, and most lenses are softer when they are wide open (largest aperture). To prevent this you can always step down one or two f-stops, if the situation allows for it.
Some quick advice on buying a new lens
When it comes to purchasing a new lens there are a few things to consider.
- Who much are you willing to spend
- What do you need it for (sport, landscape, portraits etc)
- What lenses do you already own
- Prime or Zoom
- Image Stabilizer or not
- Filter size
The budget question is rather obvious, don’t buy lenses you can’t afford, period. What you need your lens for is another very important factor, both when it comes to focal length and speed. Previously in this article I explained what the different focal lengths were used for, but I didn’t go into the different lenses in each of the focal length categories. For instance, there are many telephoto zoom lenses on the market but many of them are not suitable for sport due to the fact that they are too slow — and with slow I mean that their largest aperture isn’t letting enough light through to freeze action. Many sport situations require a lens that has an aperture of f/2.8 or larger (consumer telephoto lenses are often f/5.6). For situations with low light, especially weddings and such, requires even faster lenses, often between f/1.2 and f/1.8.
It’s also important to consider what lenses you already have in your collection and what a new lens will add. Sometimes you purchase a new lens as an upgrade from your previous lens, sometimes it’s for a focal length that you do not already have. Don’t worry to much about small gaps in the focal length in your collection. For example it’s no problem to have a 16-35mm wide angle, a 50mm prime and a 70-200mm telephoto lens — sure you don’t have lenses that covers 36-49mm or 51-69mm, but those are not big gaps and buying extra lenses to fill such gaps is not something I advice you do.
My personal opinion is that upgrading should add more than just better image quality, for a worth upgrade you should get a faster lens, or a feature such as image stabilizing (article on Image stabilizing coming later). The choice between prime and zoom lenses was described earlier in this article and there’s no right or wrong here, just personal preferences and also depending on the situation.
Last but not least, an aspect that is overlooked most of the time, the filter size. If you don’t use filters you can skip this part. If you’re like me and use several different filters it’s more economical to have the same filter size on all your lenses as well as more convenient. Let’s say you have several lenses with a filter size of 77mm and your looking for a new lens, you can either buy a cheaper 67mm or a more expensive 77mm lens (remember, I’m talking about filter size here). It might actually be more expensive to buy the cheaper lens since you need to buy an extra set of filters. Using step-up rings are an alternative, but they often prevent you from using a lens hood.
So after decided on your next lens purchase, where to buy? The only non-Swedish photo store I can personally recommend is B&H Photo. Great service, good prices and a useful website, I recommend B&H to everyone that ask, it’s a great store. There are other stores, but be careful, there are a lot of fake/bad photography stores online.
Skewed horizon
You were either holding the camera skewed or the tripod was set up uneven. Some DSLR cameras have the ability to change the focusing screen and install one that has guidelines. This is rather easily fixed in post-production by rotating the image, but you will loose some of the edges.
Red eyes
This effect occurs when the flash is located close to the lens and is a common problem with our modern point-and-shoot-cameras due to their placement of the flash. To prevent red eyes, do not use the cameras internal flash if your camera has one. Use an external flash that you can bounce on a wall or on the ceiling.
Reduce Noise in Photographs
Most likely due to a high ISO setting, but can also be caused by long exposures. To prevent noise, use a low ISO setting. If you have photographs with much noise you can always use a software to remove it, such as Photoshop or Noise Ninja, though some detail will be lost of course.
Photography Basics
Ever wonder what it is that actually makes a camera work? This tutorial will cover the inner workings of a camera, and introduce you into photography basics and the expansive world of taking better photographs.
To take beautiful photographs you do not need an expensive camera and a bag full of equipment. What is important is the photographer’s ability to see his/her surrounding and use knowledge and personal feel for the subject.
Being the first article in a series, this lesson is meant to only cover the basics of photography. The idea with this series is to get people more interested in photography, awaken creativity and hopefully help people enjoy this hobby even more. The community here at Tutorial9 is an important part of this series and I would love to hear your feedback and questions.
An introduction to Photography
The word “photography” is French but is based on Greek word and literarily means “drawing with light“. That’s what photography is all about, without light — no photograph. The art of photography is basically seeing and balancing the light.
The illustration to the left shows the path the light travels from the object to the sensor (or film in non-digital cameras).
First the light needs to go through the lens, which is a series of differently shaped pieces of glass. If the focus is good then the light will meet on the sensor.
The aperture is placed inside the lens and is basically an opening that controls how much light reaches the sensor.
On most modern cameras the shutter is placed inside the camera body. This piece of mechanics is what controls how long time the sensor is exposed to the light.
The sensor is a very sensitive plate where the light is absorbed and transformed into pixels. As you can see on this illustration, the image the sensor picks up is actually upside down, just like our eyes sees the world, the processor inside the camera then flips it.
Aperture
The aperture sits inside the lens and controls how much light passes through the lens and onto the sensor. A large aperture lets through very much light and vice versa. Knowing how the aperture affects the photograph is one of the most important parts of photography — it affects the amount of light, depth of field, lens speed, sharpness and vignetting among other things. I will talk more about these things in later parts of this series.
F-numbers, a mathematical number that expresses the diameter of the aperture, are an important part of understanding how the aperture and exposure work. All f-numbers have a common notation, such as ƒ/5.6 for an f-number of 5.6. There are a set numbers of f-numbers that are used in photography, there are several different scales but the “standard” full-stop f-number scale is this:
These are known as full-stop f-numbers. If you decrease the f-number with one full-stop, like ƒ/4 to ƒ/2.8, the amount of light that passes through will double. If you increase the f-number with one full-stop, like ƒ/5.6 to ƒ/8, only half the amount of light will reach the sensor.
There can be several f-numbers between the ones above — depending on what scale is being used. The most common one is a 1/3 scale, which means that every third step is a full-stop, and thus giving you two settings between every full-stop. For example between ƒ/8 and ƒ/11 you will find ƒ/9 and ƒ/10. This can be rather confusing at first, so here’s a short reminder:
Shutter
The shutter is what controls how long the sensor is exposed to the light. The longer the shutter is open the more light can be captured by the sensor. A fast shutter speed will result in “freezing” a moving object and a slow shutter speed will let you capture the motion of a moving object.
There is a scale of stops for the shutter speeds just like for the aperture, below are the full-stops.
And just as with the aperture, the shutter speed is often on a 1/3 scale, giving your two steps in between every full-stop. For example between 1/60s and 1/125s you will find 1/80s and 1/100s.
ISO
The ISO speed (the name comes from the International Organization for Standardization) is a measure of the film speed, or its sensitivity to light. With digital cameras the ISO affects the sensor instead of the film, but the principal is the same. A low ISO speed requires a longer exposure and is referred to as slow, a high ISO speed requires less time to give the same exposure and is therefore referred to as fast. One step in the ISO equals one full-stop, so the ISO is not on a 1/3 scale — film can be found with 1/3 ISO speeds, but it’s uncommon in the digital world. These are the most common ISO speeds.
On 35mm film, a film with high ISO speed had much more grain than a slower film — but the modern sensors don’t create the same grain with high ISO speeds. Instead it creates noise. The digital noise is not as favorable as the film grain and can destroy a photo if it’s too visible (the same goes with the grain, but it’s effect was more subtle and often more liked).
If light is no problem, then always use a low ISO number but if you’re indoors with bad light or other conditions when you find the combination of aperture/shutter not to be enough the ISO speed can be a great asset. New digital sensors are constantly developed and the noise levels with high ISO speeds are decreasing with every new release.
Photo is yellow/orange tinted
The camera is most likely to have miscalculated and thought the photograph was outdoors and added orange tones to compensate. The white balance is the fault here, and if you’re photographing in RAW there’s no problem since you can easily just change the white balance to a desired level. If you’re not using RAW-files then you might want to check your settings in the camera — most cameras have W/B setting for indoors and outdoors, as well as custom settings and auto. The fault could also be that you used a flash that bounced off an orange surface as well, so try to always bounce the flash at a neutral surface, such as gray.
The Power of RAW Photography
Take a look at what a RAW file is and how it compares to an ordinary JPEG file. Which one should you choose when taking photos and why?
What is RAW?
RAW is an image format that is used in many D-SLR cameras. There is no standard file extension, every camera developer (and some software tools) have their own extension — but the backbone is the same.
The RAW format captures what the camera sees and stores it together with the metadata information in the file. In fact, every camera shoots in “RAW”, but if not set up properly (or if not capable) will compress the RAW files to JPEG’s. In this article, I’ll show you the ups and downs to using RAW in photography.
Hack your Camera to Support RAW
Even if you own a simple point-and-shoot camera that doesn’t support RAW format, there is a possibility that you can grab developer tools that will allow you to get by! Lifehacker put together a nice post describing how to enable RAW and other features on a large selection of Canon Digital Cameras.
The Positive Sides of Using RAW
Unlike JPEG files that are compressed, the RAW files remain uncompressed (or uses a lossless compression in some cases) which doesn’t affect the image quality.
In post-production, the photography has the ability to set the white balance without affecting the image quality, allowing for greater accuracy — such as being able to select a specific point to set the white balance at AFTER the photo is taken, instead of settling for a default setting like “indoors”. Even if you have your camera set to “Auto W/B” you will still have full control over it if you shoot in RAW during post-production.
The RAW format also gives you the ability to set color saturation, contrast and sharpness to greater extent than you can in other formats. If you shoot in JPEG these settings will be compressed into the file when photographing and changing then later will decrease the image quality. If you shoot in RAW you can decide whether you want to use the cameras settings or select your own.
The ability to bring back shadows and change highlights is greatly increased. This is mostly due to the fact that RAW is either 12 or 14 bits, while JPEGs are only 8 bits and are severely lacking the detail in shadows/highlights.
The Negative Sides of Using RAW
Unfortunately, this powerful set of tools that are RAW does come with some negative aspects as well.
RAW files are much larger in size than JPEG, but with the low prices on both hard drives and flash cards this issue is becoming less important. RAW files takes longer for the camera to write, which will decrease the frames per seconds or need to buffer longer — this can be a problem for sport photographers that want rapid series of shots.
RAW is for photographers that intend to do some sort of post-production, if you want to print/upload your photos directly from your camera this is not the format for you.
So far there is no standard RAW format, every developer have their own format; sometimes different formats for different cameras in the same series even. This has led to some uncertainty on what’s going to happen in the future, will there be a standard format or will this “madness” continue?
Due to these several different formats most post-production software needs to be updated to support the latest format/cameras.
Final thoughts
If you find yourself rarely doing any post-production work on your photographs you should probably not use the RAW format. The same thing goes for people that just photograph snapshots or the like, when the details aren’t visible.
For post-production use there are several different software solutions. Each camera company has their own software, and in most cases I would stay away from these simply because there are better tools out there. A commonly used software is the Camera Raw in Adobe Photoshop (CS and later versions), which gives you a great set of tools, although I find it a bit bulky.
Adobe also has a dedicated workspace for photographers called Lightroom that’s a good tool with great workflow. Capture One from Phase One is yet another alternative, with both pro and consumer versions. Last but not least is Apple’s Aperture, which is a Mac only software, provides great workflow and powerful tools, but is the most hardware demanding of the ones listed here.
Photo is blue tinted
These photographs look very cold and are most likely due to a miscalculation by the camera and just like the previous problem discussed, you can fix it the same way. Another reason why a photograph can get a blue tint is because of large amounts of UV-light, to reduce this problem use a UV-filter that prevents the UV-light to reach the sensor without affecting the overall quality of the photograph. (Not a problem for most digital SLR cameras.)
Photo is half black
The flash doesn’t sync correctly with the camera (shutter). This problem was more predominant before the digital era, but old flashes can still cause problems with newer technology. Either buy a new flash or learn which shutter speeds work best — 1/125 and 1/60 are usually good.
Chromatic aberration
Chromatic Aberration (sometimes also called “purple fringing”) is an optical effect and it’s seen as purple edges around an object, sometimes green edges on the opposite side are also visible. This effect is most common in situations with strong contrast, such as sunlight against dark objects or black text on white background. The problem is more prominent on zoom lenses, the longer the range the worse the problem usually is. To prevent it you could use a smaller aperture — shooting with the lens wide open will enhance the problem.
Sensor Dust
These gray spots are usually caused by sensor dust. The best way to get rid of this problem is to keep your gear clean and dust free. The sensor is very sensitive and cleaning it will mean that you expose it to further risks. Some photographers send their cameras to be cleaned while others clean the sensor themselves. Choose which option you like best.
Dear all Visitors and Commentors… Grapikom is glad that you like the articles being post in this blog and having great information for free, to EXTEND your gratitude may we request please to follow us on our tweets (by clicking Grapikom/Twitter be a follower) or be a fan of Grapikom (by clicking Grapikom Fan Page and LIKE it). Thank you very much and more great articles soon!
Gorgeous HDR Photos that Will Really Inspire your Photography
On 24, Mar 2010 | No Comments | In Blog, Photography | By grapikom
Applied carefully, High Dynamic Range-technique (HDR) can create incredibly beautiful pictures which blur our sense of the difference between reality and illusion. In graphics HDR imaging is a set of techniques that allow a far greater dynamic range of exposures than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes, ranging from direct sunlight to the deepest shadows. This is usually achieved by modifying photos with image processing software for tone-mapping. And the results can be really incredible; in fact, many artists and designers come up with some pretty fancy results.
This post covers 35 extremely beautiful and perfectly executed HDR-pictures. Some of them might look surreal, too colorful, even magic or fake, but they are not — keep in mind that they’ve all been developed out of usual photos, and not a single image is an illustration.
Absolutely Fresh Photo Manipulations From Deviantart
On 24, Mar 2010 | 65 Comments | In Blog, Photography | By grapikom
On my recent walks through the amazing artwork on DeviantArt, I came across some pretty awesome photo manipulations. I have compiled a list of the best ones submitted in DeviantArt. Enjoy these and get inspired!
Dear all Visitors and Commentors… Grapikom is glad that you like the articles being post in this blog and having great information for free, to EXTEND your gratitude may we request please to follow us on our tweets (by clicking Grapikom/Twitter be a follower) or be a fan of Grapikom (by clicking Grapikom Fan Page and LIKE it). Thank you very much and more great articles soon!
Fresh Photo Manipulations To Tease Your Imagination
On 24, Mar 2010 | 5 Comments | In Blog, Photography | By grapikom
I felt like some photo manipulation inspiration today. It has been a while since I put up fresh manips. They are always fun to browse and give your imagination a good exercise. No, I still haven’t dabbled in any photo-manipulations of my own. I am just apprehensive and I know they take a while to complete, maybe I’ll make that my new year resolution. Meanwhile enjoy these, I do love the giraffe aping a chimpanzee the most, I really wonder how they did that!
Trees Walker by animationstudios
Tomorrow After Yesterday by beautifulreal
You can’t beat it by Black Ban
Smoking Bubbles By Samya Photography
Liquid Serpent by Mario Escobar
Art re-vision by Carlos Sanchez
61 Even More Awesome Photo Manips To Stare At In Wonder
On 24, Mar 2010 | 8 Comments | In Blog, Photography | By grapikom
A couple of months ago, I had sat and compiled a photo manipulation roundup over a good many hours. The compilation was lost and one thing led to another and I never got around to doing that post. It was a happy fate of chance when I came across the links I had saved at the time in an obscure text file on my computer. These fantastic photo-manipulations were handpicked from various sites for the best kind of inspiration. As I have divulged before, I have never done a photo-manipulation, but there is something about them that draws me to them. I love looking at great photomanips and seriously admire anyone who can make them as fantastic as the ones here.
Amazing post production and photo manipulation by Platinum FMD
On 24, Mar 2010 | 25 Comments | In Blog, Photography | By grapikom
Platinum FMD is a Brazilian image manipulation studio which uses combination of photography, illustration, 3D and CGI to make “the impossible become reality”
Breathtaking Infrared Photographs with recommended Readings & Gears
On 08, Jan 2010 | 4 Comments | In Blog, Photography | By grapikom
There is nothing quite like Infrared Photography. Maybe you’ve run across an IR photo before on the web, and if you have, you’re familiar with it’s almost surreal appearance.
This post highlights 101 of the most stunning infrared photographs on the web, and also suggests reading materials and equipment photographers should look through for taking infrared photos of their own.
Breathtaking Infrared Photographs
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from CowGummy
from Nasey
from Roger_Deng
from night86mare
from - Virgonc -
from Omar Junior
from Markisy_em_Portugal
from Simon Crubellier
from Dannie Tj.
from Josh Sommers
from Steve Castle
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Infrared Photography Tutorials
Getting Started with Infrared Photography
Infrared photography looks like nothing else. I’m sure you’ve seen some IR photos around the web, but maybe you don’t know how to achieve this special effect? Look no further, here’s a guide on what to think about when choosing your object, how to shoot and what to do in post-production.
Comprehensive Digital Camera Infrared Photography Guide
This is one of the most complete Infrared Photography Guides the internet has to offer. If you are looking to take this subject seriously, this is a must read.
Infrared Photography Startup Guide
Some nice advice for shooting landscapes using Infrared Photography. Nice overview of what you will need, how it is done, and how to start taking your own infrared photographs.
Recommended Equipment
If you’re really taking Infrared Photography seriously, it may be time to upgrade your gear. In case you’re not aware, you’re Digital Camera probably has a built in infrared-blocking filter that automatically prevents you from taking Infrared Photographs by default. Therefore, you’ll need a few things to get started.
The most common way for shooting in Infrared is with a good Infrared Filter, and usually using an older model camera (As cameras continue to develop, they are created to intentionally block out more IR light). While newer modesl can still take IR photographs, the exposure time will typically need to be longer to get the same results without a modified camera.
You’ll also need a nice, steady tripod for taking long exposure shots. Most Infrared Photography shots are long exposures with unmodified equipment, so this is a necessity.
Recommended Infrared Filters:
Recommended Tripods:
- Slik Tripod with 3-Way Panhead ($25)
- Velbon El Carmagne 530 Carbon Fiber Tripod with Pan Head and Case ($264)
- Manfrotto 055MF3 3-Section MagFiber Tripod without Head ($356)
- Slik Professional Universal Deluxe Tripod with 3-Way Panhead and Panoramic Photo Guide ($125)
- Sunpak 620-092 9002DX Tripod with 3-Way Quick-Release Pan Head ($35)