Using Adjustment Layers

May 082011
 
 May 8, 2011  Posted by Habenero at 12:31 pm How To, Photography , , , , , , ,  No Responses »

The control freak in me likes to be able to exercise absolute authority over my images.  As part of my regimen,  I shoot in camera raw in order to maintain as much control as possible and save the initial camera files on their own hard drive.  The first sort is copied as a PSD file to a different drive, and JPG files are derived from the PSD drive and stored on yet another drive.  Yet even when shooting this way, I do not always capture a scene the way I envision it.  That is where Photoshop comes in.  The power of Photoshop lies in the ability to manipulate an image as much or as little as you desire.  But if you do this recklessly, you can easily destroy your image.  You have a couple of ways to preserve your image, copy the original file or work in layers.  I choose to work in layers.

When working in layers, there are a multitude of adjustments you can make without harming the background image directly.  Levels, Brightness, Contrast, Hue, Saturation, Vibrance, and more can be applied either through a layer or directly to the background image (the latter is not a wise choice because you can not undo it if you decide you don’t like it at a later date).  To further enhance your ability to play with the image, one can also add masks to any layer so that the adjustment made only affects those parts you intend it to (a feature far more powerful than dodging and burning in the chemical darkroom).

Adjustment layers are made by either going to the drop down menu for layers and selecting “New Adjustment Layer” or by clicking on the half filled circle icon at the bottom of the layers pallet and selecting the style of adjustment you want.  You can use many layers and mask them as needed to create the image that satisfies you.

Masks will be discussed in a later article.

Do Megapixels Matter?

Apr 172011
 
 April 17, 2011  Posted by Habenero at 10:03 pm General Notice, Photography , , , , , ,  No Responses »

Digital cameras are constantly evolving.  One of the most prevalent ways the public sees is through the megapixel count published by the camera manufacturers.  Is a 6Mp camera good enough for you or do you need something considerably larger?  The correct answer is, “It depends”!  If you are shooting primarily for web use and have no intention of creating an image that is going to be printed larger than 4″ X 6″, you can probably get by with nothing more than the same number of pixels found on a high end cellphone (about 4Mp).  The problem is that cellphone cameras do not have interchangeable lenses and are mainly good only for fairly short distances. If you never print larger than 8″ X 12″, or shoot mostly jpeg files for web or newspaper publishing, a 6Mp camera will do.

As with film cameras, serious photographers are not satisfied with something that is adequate for the average user or the press.  There are “gadget freaks” who buy only high end gear because they have the mistaken idea that owning a high end camera makes them a better photographer.  Camera manufacturers take these things into consideration and create new cameras for these people and the race for the highest pixel count is one of the ways we get to see results.

The biggest advantage of a high pixel count is resolving power.  The higher the pixel count, the finer the detail the camera will be able to record.  Of course the disadvantage of very high resolution camera bodies is that if your lens is not also of high quality, you may not be able to take advantage of the better sensor.  If you have higher resolving power, you give yourself room to crop out more of the image and still retain enough detail to make a decent print.

The most important factors in deciding how many mega pixels you need should be how large of a print do you plan to make and how much cropping do you plan to do to the image before you make that print!

Camera Controls (Part 4, White Balance)

May 272010
 
 May 27, 2010  Posted by Habenero at 8:17 pm How To, Photography , , , , , , , , ,  No Responses »

White Balance is one of the least understood settings on a digital camera and one that can make the most difference in keeping colors accurate. Where our eyes are able to discern white objects as white throughout a wide range of lighting conditions, digital sensors have a problem. Film wasn’t good at it either. We used filters to compensate for shooting daylight balanced film under tungsten lights, or vice versa. With most digital cameras, you can dial in the color temperature that best matches the light at the time you shoot. If you are shooting in JPEG mode, it becomes a critical step, your camera is going to throw away the information that makes it possible to safely make the adjustment in post processing software. Some cameras use a simple pictograph of sun, clouds, lights, flash, and possibly other symbols to enable you to choose a setting that matches the condition you are shooting in. Better ones let you pick the actual temperature setting in degrees kelvin you are in, or let you shoot a target with a black, white and 18% gray area in the actual scene and set a custom white balance.

It is better to make a choice than to leave the white balance become determined by the camera. The primary reason for this is that when there is no true white, the camera’s pick may not be accurate. This is due to the camera checking for flesh tones as a second best target and you may not have anyone in the shot. Setting the temperature is fairly easy, normal sunlit scenes are between 5,000oK and 6,000oK. Lower light levels have a color temperature less than 5,000oK, and at those settings, blue is added to compensate for the overly reddish tones. Higher color temperatures add red to the mix to compensate for the deeper blues at higher temperatures. Then, again, there are further adjustments one can make to be a bit more creative. That permit one to increase or decrease the amount of enhancement done at a particular level. This is of great use when you wish to emulate some of your favorite film stocks. One word of caution, if you know that the fluorescent lights you are shooting are daylight balanced, do not set your camera for fluorescent lights. The old tubes used to appear too green to film and the setting on the camera attempts to take that into consideration.

For those who shoot in camera RAW mode, you may find it easier to set your white balance in the mid range and make your critical adjustment on your calibrated monitor within your software. It is just one of the big advantages you gain from not tying your hands prior to shooting.

Print at Home, Maybe Not

Apr 202010
 
 April 20, 2010  Posted by Habenero at 10:38 pm How To, Photography , , , , , , , , , ,  No Responses »

When you take photos, how you post process them is dependent upon the output format you plan to display them. If you are using them only for email or web pages, you are pretty much done as soon as you cut the resolution and size down and create the jpeg. If you plan to make hard copies of the images, a bit more work is required. How do I ensure what my screen shows me will match the print? How large is the final print? Where is it going to be displayed? What is the best method to produce the print? The answer to these questions determine the survivability of your print.

To ensure that what you monitor shows you matches the print can be done in several ways. The best method (and the only one worth doing) is calibrating your monitor to the industry standard. There are several manufacturers that make tools for doing this. I own a Spyder 2. Calibrate your monitor at least once a month, more often as it ages, and every time you move the monitor to a new location. When calibrating your monitor keep the lighting around it at the same level it normally is when you edit photos, as ambient light affects the calibration results. There are some calibration target photos you can adjust your monitor with, but they do not ensure your monitor is meeting the industry standards, and if you adjust your monitor using them there is no guarantee that your printed image will match very well. The absolutely worst way to adjust your monitor is to print an image and then adjust your monitor to match. Doing that only makes your printed images and monitor match, but if you have to send the file to someone else, it may look extremely bad! Whichever method you use, remain consistent with it. The biggest advantage of a calibrated monitor is the uniformity your images will have between different displays and printing devices.

Email and web use generally does not need a resolution greater than 72 DPI, and a maximum dimension of around 10″ These settings produce very good images for most computer applications, but printing them gives poor results. Further security for the images can be made by encasing them in flash files, disabling right clicking, water marking, or any combination of these techniques, Be assured, if somebody really wants to steal an image from your site, they can, so only allow them to get an image that is of low resolution. Keep your high resolution files on your computer and an external media (CD, DVD, External HD, Etc.)

Post processing for a printed image takes more care. Images on the screen have about 7 stops of lightness (about the same as slide film) whereas, paper handles about 5 stops. The excess information has to be removed and either you will be doing it on your computer, or you are at the mercy of someone else. Even if you print the files straight from the camera, you are ceding the post processing to the camera’s and the printer’s manufacturers. The results may be good, but they will be weighted towards making an average shot that includes people. Since I am a control freak when it comes to my images, I post process them using Adobe Photoshop. I shoot in camera raw, which gives me the maximum amount of data my Nikon D300 can gather. I adjust color temperature, brightness, contrast and the histogram Adobe Camera Raw and then export a PSD file to Photoshop. There I fine tune using curves and saturation in adjustment layers and masks. I try to find out what the lighting will be in the area that my photos will be seen and adjust the color to create the best image for that kind of lighting. Just prior to sending the file to the printer, I make a final adjustment so that my output file will match the printers profile for the paper that has been chosen.

Printers, whether attached to your computer or located in a lab often have a profile or digital print parameter file that can be applied to your image so that the calibrated monitor will show you a truer representation of the finished product. Epson, Canon and HP have generalized profiles that are to be used for specific papers run through the printer. If you choose to go a more commercial route, many of the labs have down loadable profiles for the same purpose. When you have a file that has been optimized for a specific printer, you will get the best results. If you have a lab make prints for you and you have already optimized the file, be sure to inform the lab technician that ALL CORRECTIONS MUST BE OFF. This is because most labs deal with people that have not bothered to do any adjustments on their own and your efforts will be trashed if the computer in the equipment tries to further enhance your work.

I base my current print output on the cost. Printing at home costs about $4.50 to print an 8″ x 12″ print on my Epson when archival ink and paper are added up. Since I have a local lab (Costco) that can produce an image on Fuji Archival Paper for $1.99, it wouldn’t require being a genius to figure out which place is getting my business (sorry Epson).

Consider hiring a photographer!

Apr 202010
 
 April 20, 2010  Posted by Habenero at 4:43 pm General Notice , , , , , , , , , , ,  No Responses »

Cheap access to powerful camera equipment makes it so anybody that wants to call themselves a photographer does so. The big camera manufacturers, Nikon, Canon, Pentax, etc., have put a lot of effort into figuring out what and how most people shoot and their latest cameras are designed to enhance those aspects of photos. When a photo straight out of the camera looks good, the logical question follows, Why should I pay someone to take a picture I can do myself? Is there a reason to hire a photographer? Can’t everyone with a good camera take great pictures?

You should never hire a photographer to take a picture you yourself could do! You do not hire a photographer because his camera is better than yours, it may not be. You do not hire a photographer just because you need someone to push the button on a camera. You hire a photographer that has a particular style of work you like. The artistic vision of a photographer is his knowledge of what his camera can do, what types of poses fit the occasion, and the kind of post processing he or his lab performs. Photographers look not only at the subject, but also at the details in the background, foreground, and middle ground and use their choices of white balance, ISO, shutter speed, f-stop, and sense of timing to create their shot. You hire a photographer because you like what they create out of a scene.

Equipment is not capable of compensating for mistakes like; the lamp post growing out of Uncle Bob’s head, the garbage can just behind the banquet table, or the toilet seen in the mirror the bride is using to apply her makeup. Your photographer should see those things and adjust the shot to compensate (they will not be in his direct from camera shots). The most expensive camera when placed in the hands of a novice will produce pictures that look like they were shot by a novice. A good photographer, can take just about any camera and compose a shot that looks great.

The best photographers get great shots consistently right out of the camera, but will still have a bit of post processing done. Photoshop, Gimp or some other software will be used to ensure that skin tones will be correct in all shots, that minor blemishes not already concealed by makeup are hidden, and that the look of the images remains consistent. Be wary of any photographer that does not do any post production work.

Some photographers create works of art! Even if you know where a particular shot was done, and the time of day, you may not be able to capture a shot similar to the one done by a photographic master. Cameras set in “program” mode with auto white balance are by nature, going to give a good exposure for skin tones. Most great landscapes come out rather poorly when shot that way. Overly red or orange scenes throw off the camera’s sensor, similarly, so will overly dark or overly light scenes. There is far more to taking a picture than pushing a button. If you see a photographic work that you like, buy it! If it is one of mine, I will gladly tell you how I created it! I assure you, since all photos tell lies (if only of omission), telling how I created the image you see is the only way you will find out the truth the image conveys!

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