RSS
 

Posts Tagged ‘Getting’

Black and White Photography: A Beginner’s Guide to Getting Started

22 Jun

The post Black and White Photography: A Beginner’s Guide to Getting Started appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Andrew S. Gibson.

black and white photography a beginner's guide

If you’ve never tried black and white photography before, you may feel a bit intimidated. After all, how do you get started? Should you be shooting black and white on your camera, or should you be converting color images to black and white? And how can you create stunning black and white images, anyway?

In this article, I aim to answer all those questions. I’ll explain the value of black and white, how to do it, plus I’ll share some tips along the way!

Black and white photography

Why is black and white photography important?

In the photographic world, black and white is an art form of its own. Some would even say the best photographers work in monochrome. It’s a medium with a rich history; look at the work of Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, or Henri Cartier-Bresson for some truly stunning examples.

Just as importantly, working in black and white can help you become a better photographer. 

How?

It’s all about seeing.

Color is very powerful. It tends to dominate photos – to the point that beginners struggle to see other key elements like contrast, texture, shape, form, and quality of light.

Experienced photographers instinctively see these things, regardless of whether they work in color or black and white. But if you’re just starting out, you may need some assistance. Black and white strips away color, allowing you to focus on the other elements that matter.

seaside black and white
Black and white emphasizes the textures of the rocks and sea in this landscape photo.

Naturally, there are certain subjects that tend to work better than others in black and white. In particular, black and white lends itself to landscapes and portraits.

So if this is your first time shooting in black and white, then those are great starter subjects!

black and white portrait
Black and white portraits emphasize expression and light.

How to shoot in black and white

Before digital photography, the only way to work in black and white was to use black and white film.

But these days, you have two options:

  1. You can shoot in color and convert your photos to black and white in Lightroom, Photoshop, or some other post-processing program.
  2. You can switch your camera to its Monochrome mode.

I highly recommend you choose the second option, and here’s why:

By shooting in black and white from the beginning, you’ll get black and white previews on your camera’s LCD. You’ll also be able to see in black and white via your camera’s Live View mode. And if you use a mirrorless camera, you can look through a black and white viewfinder – so you know exactly how the different colors will convert before you press the shutter button.

(If you’re not sure how to switch your camera to black and white, check your camera’s manual. Don’t worry; it’s not difficult!)

One last piece of advice here:

Shoot in RAW, not JPEG (or shoot in RAW+JPEG, which will give you a file in each format every time you press the shutter button).

RAW essentially offers you insurance. If you decide you don’t like your shot in black and white, your RAW files can be reverted back to color with the click of a mouse. And if you decide to extensively edit your photos in post-processing, RAW gives you a lot of flexibility.

However, if you’re new to photography, I recognize that you may want to work exclusively in JPEG, and that’s okay. Just know that you’ll probably want to switch to RAW eventually (it’ll deliver better image quality in the long run).

Working in Monochrome mode

As explained above, I highly recommend you set your camera to Monochrome mode. And to get basic black and white shots, that’s all you need to do.

However, once you’re in Monochrome mode, you may have color filter options. And through careful application of these filters, you can capture even better black and white shots.

Color filters

The color filter settings come from the days of film photography. Photographers would use color filters to alter the tones in black and white photos. These days, digital photographers rarely work with physical color filters – instead, they use camera software or post-processing to mimic filter effects.

Your camera likely includes a few color filter options. For instance, you might use a yellow or orange filter to darken a blue sky or a red filter to turn it nearly black.

Here’s a shot before adding a color filter:

black and white church with less contrast
This scene works quite well in black and white, but it’s not nearly as dramatic as it could be.

And here’s the shot after applying a red filter:

Black and white church with red filter
Applying the red filter setting makes the blue sky go much darker, creating a dramatic version of the same scene.

There is also a place for green filters, which can bring out more detail in green subjects like leafy forests.

Those four colored filters (red, orange, yellow, and green) have made their way onto most digital cameras as black and white settings.

Quick tip: Don’t forget about contrast!

If you take a photo in dull light – in shade, for instance, or under a cloudy sky – the photo may look flat (i.e., two-dimensional), especially in black and white.

So what do you do?

You compensate by increasing the contrast. A contrast boost will deepen the shadows, brighten the highlights, and make your main subject pop!

Here’s a portrait without a contrast adjustment:

b&w portrait with no contrast adjustment
The model was standing in the shade when I took this photo. The light lacks contrast, and the black and white photo is flat.

And here’s the same portrait, but with a contrast boost:

Black and white portrait with contrast adjustment
Increasing contrast creates a much stronger image.

To my eye, the final (adjusted) result is much more powerful.

You can increase the contrast after the photo has been taken (in Photoshop or Lightroom), or you can do it in-camera by adjusting the contrast setting (see your manual if you’re not sure how to do this!).

Composing in black and white

Remember how I said black and white forces you to think about other key elements, such as shape and form?

It’s true. And it’s the reason why composition becomes so important when shooting in black and white.

Unfortunately, there’s not really a quick solution to capturing good compositions; a lot of it just depends on your ability to see shapes, lines, and textures (which you can develop through practice or study or simply by looking at great photography).

However, there is one item that can improve your black and white compositions:

The aspect ratio.

You see, certain aspect ratios (such as the 1:1, or square format) make composition easier. Whereas other aspect ratios (such as most cameras’ native 3:2 ratio) make composition tricky.

So after you’ve set your camera to Monochrome mode, I recommend heading into the settings and changing the aspect ratio to Square. It’ll improve the way you frame scenes (and if your camera has an electronic viewfinder, it’ll let you see the new aspect ratio in real-time!).

Black and white photography in a square format
Cropping to the square format emphasized the shapes of these three pots.

Toning in black and white

Toning is the process of adding color to your images, but only after they’ve been converted to black and white.

This can give very cool effects – for instance, it can turn your shots yellow or purple or red.

Now, your camera may allow you to tone your photos when you take them. But the effect is usually very heavy-handed, which is why I recommend you avoid in-camera toning.

Instead, test out toning in post-processing. You can have lots of fun applying a single tone to your images (such as a nice sepia). And if you want to get really creative, you can add multiple tones, an effect called split toning.

Black and white photography: final words

Black and white is a beautiful medium to work in, one that you will appreciate even more as your skills grow.

In the meantime, have fun and enjoy yourself. You are following a path trodden by some of the most famous names in photography!

Now over to you:

Have you tried shooting in black and white before? How did it go? Do you have any favorite black and white subjects? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

The post Black and White Photography: A Beginner’s Guide to Getting Started appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Andrew S. Gibson.


Digital Photography School

 
Comments Off on Black and White Photography: A Beginner’s Guide to Getting Started

Posted in Photography

 

Getting Landscapes Sharp: Hyperfocal Distances and Aperture Selection

07 Mar

The post Getting Landscapes Sharp: Hyperfocal Distances and Aperture Selection appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Elliot Hook.

How to use hyperfocal distance for sharp landscapes

Want to know how to master depth of field and hyperfocal distance – so you can capture consistently sharp landscape photos?

You’ve come to the right place.

Because in this article, I’m going to tell you everything you need to know about hyperfocal distance.

And by the time you’ve finished, you’ll be able to confidently use it in your own landscape photography.

Let’s get started.

Keeping your landscape photos sharp: depth of field

Great landscape photos generally have all of their key elements sharp.

This includes foreground objects that are just meters from your camera, as well as background elements that are kilometers away.

Sunrise over the limestone pavement hyperfocal distance for sharp landscapes
In this scene, it was important to capture everything in sharp focus – from the frozen puddle in the foreground to the hills in the background.

So how do you achieve such perfect front-to-back sharpness?

By ensuring that your depth of field is large enough to render everything of interest suitably sharp.

Let me explain:

When you focus on an individual point within your landscape, you are creating a plane of focus that lies parallel to the sensor.

Everything in front of and behind that plane is technically not in focus. But there is a region within which objects will appear acceptably sharp – even though they’re not in focus!

That region is the depth of field.

Put another way, the depth of field is the range of acceptable sharpness within a scene, moving outward from the point of focus.

For instance, in the graphic below, the camera is focused on a rock:

Hyperfocal Distance Diagram 1
A theoretical example showing the depth of field for a given focal length, aperture, and point of focus.

So the plane of focus sits parallel to the sensor at that rock, and the limits of acceptable sharpness that form the edges of the depth of field lie in front of and behind that plane.

If you were to fire the shutter button on that camera, you’d get a photo with a sharp rock. The front of the first tree would be sharp, and the rest of the trees would fade into softness.

Make sense?

Factors affecting depth of field

Thus far, I’ve talked about depth of field as if it were a fixed property.

But it’s not. Your depth of field can change depending on three key factors:

  1. Focal length
  2. Aperture
  3. The distance between the camera and the point of focus.

Let’s take a closer look at how each of these elements affects depth of field, starting with:

Focal Length

A short focal length (e.g., 20mm) will give you a greater depth of field than a long focal length (e.g., 400mm).

So while it’s easy to keep an entire scene in focus with a wide-angle lens, you’ll struggle to do the same with a long telephoto.

Of course, changing your focal length will alter your field of view and therefore your composition, so you should rarely adjust your focal length to change the depth of field. Instead, select your focal length, frame your composition, and then use the next factor on this list to achieve the perfect depth of field:

Aperture

A narrower aperture, such as f/16, will produce a deep depth of field. A wider aperture, such as f/2.8, will give you a shallow depth of field.

So if you’re after an ultra-sharp, deep-depth-of-field shot, you’ll want to use a narrow aperture.

But be careful; extremely narrow apertures are subject to an optical effect called diffraction, which will degrade image sharpness. So while you should absolutely use aperture to adjust the depth of field, be on the lookout for blur.

Distance to the point of focus

If your focal point is close to the camera, then you’ll get a shallower depth of field. If your focal point is far from the camera, you’ll get a deeper depth of field. So if you shoot a distant subject, it’ll be much easier to get the entire scene sharp!

In other words:

To increase the depth of field, you can either choose a more distant subject…

…or you can back up to frame a wider shot.

Note that these three factors work together to determine the depth of field.

grasses and mountain landscape using the hyperfocal distance to keep the landscape sharp

No one factor is important than any of the others; instead, they’re three variables in the depth of field equation.

So if you want a deep depth of field, you could use a narrow aperture or move farther away from your subject or use a wide-angle lens.

(You could also do all three of these things for an ultra-deep depth of field.)

And if you want a shallow depth of field, you could use a wide aperture or move closer to your subject or use a telephoto lens.

Keeping the entire scene sharp with hyperfocal distance

If you’re dead-set on capturing a scene with front-to-back sharpness, then you’ll need to understand another key concept:

Hyperfocal distance.

Hyperfocal distance is the point of focus that maximizes your depth of field.

In fact, by focusing at the hyperfocal distance, you can often ensure that the entire scene is sharp, from your nearest foreground subject to the most distant background element.

Look at the graphic below:

Hyperfocal Distance Diagram 2
By focusing at the hyperfocal distance, the entire scene will fall within the depth of field.

Do you see how the area from the point (or plane) of focus onward is sharp?

That’s what the hyperfocal distance will do for you.

And it’s the reason landscape photographers love using the hyperfocal distance.

Because by selecting a narrow aperture, and by moving the point of focus to the hyperfocal distance, you can render the entire scene in focus – for a stunning result!

(By the way, when focusing at the hyperfocal distance, the near acceptable sharpness limit is half of the hyperfocal distance.)

Now, you’re probably wondering:

How do you determine the hyperfocal distance when out shooting?

Technically, you can do a mental calculation, but this can get pretty complex. So I’d recommend you use a hyperfocal distance chart or calculator (there are plenty of apps for this, such as PhotoPills).

Eventually, you’ll be able to intuitively identify hyperfocal distances for common apertures and focal lengths – so you won’t even need to use an app!

Aperture selection and the dangers of diffraction

As you should now be aware, a narrow aperture deepens the depth of field.

So if you want your entire scene sharp, you generally need a narrow aperture.

Unfortunately, choosing your aperture isn’t as simple as dialing in f/22. Thanks to diffraction, if you set such a narrow aperture, you may get the entire scene in focus – but still end up with a blurry image.

For example, the image below shows a comparison of the same scene, shot at f/8 (left) and f/16 (right):

images taken at f/8 and f/16 to illustrate the dangers of a narrow aperture

The frosty fern leaf is an important part of the foreground interest here. And though both images look perfectly sharp when resized and compressed for browser viewing, the 100% crop for each image below shows a significant difference in detail:

100% crops of the f/8 and f/16 images, to illustrate hyperfocal distance for sharp landscapes
The sharpness of the fern leaf at f/8 (left) versus f/16 (right). The image was captured with greater sharpness via a wider aperture of f/8 – though I took care to focus on the hyperfocal distance.

Do you see how the image on the right (taken at f/16) is blurrier than the image on the left (taken at f/8)?

That’s diffraction at work.

And note that, for the scene in question, both apertures resulted in a depth of field that extends from before the fern leaf to infinity.

(In other words: The blurriness has nothing to do with depth of field.)

Diffraction becomes an issue in all lenses as the aperture gets smaller, though it is more pronounced on inexpensive lenses. Typically, the sweet spot, in terms of lens performance, is somewhere between f/8 and f/11.

So when selecting your aperture, you’ll want to keep your lens as close to the sweet spot as possible, while also ensuring sufficient depth of field.

Getting landscapes sharp: conclusion

Now that you’ve finished this article, you can hopefully see that it’s worth understanding hyperfocal distance, aperture selection, and how they affect each other.

So make sure you find a nice hyperfocal distance app.

And remember to avoid tiny apertures (because they cause diffraction).

That way, you can get consistently sharp landscape shots!

Now over to you:

Do you struggle to keep your landscape photos looking sharp? Do you think an insufficient depth of field is the culprit? Or is it diffraction? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

The post Getting Landscapes Sharp: Hyperfocal Distances and Aperture Selection appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Elliot Hook.


Digital Photography School

 
Comments Off on Getting Landscapes Sharp: Hyperfocal Distances and Aperture Selection

Posted in Photography

 

What Is Abstract Photography? (Plus Three Ideas for Getting Started)

19 Nov

The post What Is Abstract Photography? (Plus Three Ideas for Getting Started) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Charlie Moss.

What is abstract photography?

The exact definition can be tricky to pin down. It seems that everyone has an opinion, but those opinions can differ wildly depending on who you talk to. Of course, there will always be regional and cultural variants, but let me try and tell you where abstract photography came from.

That way, you can decide what abstract photography means to you.

What is abstract photography?

Abstract photography is no one particular style or technique. It has varied in style and approach for the last century or so.

However, all abstract photographers do have one thing in common: They are always looking to avoid symbolic representation.

What does that mean?

Well, it means that abstract photographers reject the idea that a photograph must always be of something recognizable. Instead, abstract photographers focus on color, shape, and texture.

what is abstract photography
Canon 5D Mark II | Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM | 100mm | 1/320 sec | f/2.8 | ISO 100

It was in the 1930s that abstract photography really became recognized internationally. Early pioneers include Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Weston, and Dora Maar. For some photographers, the process of making images was just as important as the result, which meant that new techniques and new ways of taking photographs were discovered during this period.

Much abstract photography today involves unusual framing and viewpoints in order to try and disassociate the object being photographed from the resultant images. Abstract photographers almost try and trick our eyes and minds into not being able to easily understand what they’re looking at. Such abstract images often use high contrast, sharp focus, and an emphasis on geometric structure.

Now that we’ve answered the question of what is abstract photography, it’s time to try and put the theory into practice.

Here are three techniques you can use to try and shoot your own abstract photos:

Make it out of focus

One of the first things we all learn in photography is how to get things in focus. In fact, our cameras will do this automatically for us if we want them to!

Accurate focus and good sharpness are two of the most desirable traits that most photographers look for in a photograph. So what happens when you subvert that traditional approach?

This bright red photograph (below) was created by using extension tubes to get right up close to a flower. I then ensured that the entire image was out of focus. The colors and patterns become the focus of the image instead of the flower itself:

flower abstract photography
Canon EOS 350D | Canon 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6 | Extension tubes | 1/1000 sec | ISO 200

You can take this one step further by turning your image black and white to remove all of the color information. This abstracts the subject even more, moving the photograph further away from the original object and reality:

black and white abstract flower
Canon EOS 350D | Canon 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6 | Extension tubes | 1/1000 sec | ISO 200

For a photographer who is trying to explore what is abstract photography, this approach of creating out of focus photos can be a great way to start. It forces you to think hard about the composition of your images as you play only with light, color, and shape.

Make it move

There are several ways to “make it move” when you’re doing abstract photography. You can move your subject, or you can move your camera.

Moving the camera can be as simple as panning the camera left to right during long exposures to capture the beautiful tones of a golden beach under blue skies. This will create smooth strips of horizontal color across the photograph.

An exciting way to shoot motion-based abstract photography is to attend sports events. The photograph below was shot at a classic car racing meet, the block colors of the barriers and curb creating stripes of colorful interest in the picture:

what is abstract photography? car in motion
Fujifilm X-T20 | Fuji 50-140mm f/2.8 | 140mm | 1/15 sec | f/22 | ISO 100

For creating abstract images with panning, first set a long exposure. You might need a very low ISO and a narrow aperture in order to get a shutter speed that’s long enough if it’s a sunny day.

Then move your whole body to follow the subject with your camera. It will take lots of practice!

what is abstract photography jar
Fujifilm X-T20 | Fujifilm 35mm f/1.4 R | 35mm | 1/170 sec | f/5.6 | ISO 200| Layered images in Adobe Photoshop

Instead of moving your camera, you can also try moving your subject. The deceptively simple image of a glass bottle (above) is not quite as it seems. It was created from a dozen different shots, layered on top of each other using a Pep Ventosa technique. For each shot, the bottle was rotated slightly to catch the imperfections in the glass and the slight movement.

Make it repetitive

Repetition is a technique that can be used to great effect in abstract photography. It makes the viewer focus on the patterns and shapes rather than the subject.

abstract photography building repetition
Fujifilm X-T20 | Fujifilm 35mm f/1.4 R | 35mm | 1/340 sec | f/8.0 | ISO 200

Try finding patterns in architecture and then isolating them, rather than photographing the whole building. This kind of approach of looking for details in larger scenes can help you really understand what abstract photography is all about.

If you want to shoot some architectural abstracts, modernist buildings are some of the best subjects. Their clean, smooth lines really lend themselves to abstract photography.

To remove your picture further from reality, you can experiment with color toning the image in Lightroom, or even turn it black and white.

Conclusion: What is abstract photography?

There are many different answers to the question, “What is abstract photography?” And there are many different ways to create abstract images.

What’s important is to try to move away from straight reproductions of scenes and objects that look just like reality.

Try introducing movement, repetition, or even making your images out of focus. Creating abstract photos is a great way to try breaking the rules and pushing the boundaries of what is usually seen as the correct way to do photography!

The post What Is Abstract Photography? (Plus Three Ideas for Getting Started) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Charlie Moss.


Digital Photography School

 
Comments Off on What Is Abstract Photography? (Plus Three Ideas for Getting Started)

Posted in Photography

 

Sony announces it’s getting into the drone game with its new ‘Airpeak’ brand

10 Nov

Watch out, DJI. Sony Corporation announced today it is getting into the drone market under the brand name ‘Airpeak.’

I a short press release, accompanied by the above teaser video, Sony says the Airpeak brand will ‘reflect its aspiration to contribute to the further evolvement and the creation of the unprecedented value through its imaging and sensing technology.’

While Sony does hint at industrial purposes for its drones, the company specifically says the Airpeak brand ‘will support the creativity of video creators to the fullest extent possible.’

An illustration from a patent application Sony was granted back in January 2020.

Sony says the project will launch in spring of 2021. In the meantime, it will share information along the way and work on partnerships to test their products and get feedback from drone users. You can keep up with the latest updates on Sony’s new Airpeak website.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Sony announces it’s getting into the drone game with its new ‘Airpeak’ brand

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Opinion: Camera names are getting ridiculous

11 Oct
Canon’s EOS 5D Mark II changed the camera industry forever. In more ways than one.

Looking back, I can’t honestly say I recognized the long-term impact of Canon’s big announcement at Photokina 2008. It’s only with hindsight I can see the significance of the unveiling of the EOS 5D Mark II.

It ushered in the era of Full HD video in DSLRs: that was obviously a big deal. But it was also the herald of an insidious trend in consumer cameras whose enormity is only now becoming clear.

At the time it seemed innocent enough. After all, the ‘Mark II’ was an iteration on an existing design. Sure the whole video thing meant that the second-gen model was arguably even more significant than the original ‘first-sub-$ 4000 full frame digital’ EOS 5D, but that ‘Mark II’ branding seemed logical, given how much it appeared to have been developed from its forebear.

The Canon EOS 5D Mark II was the herald of an insidious trend whose enormity is only now becoming clear

Hemmed-in by the 30D, 40D, 50D APS-C series on one side and the flagship 1D series on the other, it made sense that Canon wouldn’t want to squander the remaining seven single-digit options available to it on a like-for-like replacement (a decision justified with the arrival of the 6D, five years later). So Mark II it was. And, without any fanfare, an uncontrollable naming phenomenon had begun.

In isolation, it might have been fine, Canon had already had Mark II models in its professional EOS-1D range, so where was the harm in releasing it into the consumer market? Meanwhile, though, another insidious trend in nomenclature was developing: the quasi-algebraic insistence on adding ‘X’ to everything.

Again, it started harmlessly enough: Nikon used it to signify its high-resolution pro DSLRs and later-on, Sony would use it to denote the presence of a CMOS sensor its compacts. But it rapidly expanded, to the point of near ubiquity. Panasonic dubbed its rangefinder-ish enthusiast G-series mirrorless cameras ‘GX’ and Canon decided ‘G X’ was a good way to style the large-sensor successors to its own G-series of compacts. To add to the fun, Fujifilm decided to use ‘X-series’ as the branding both for its mirrorless cameras, which use the ‘X’ mount and a diverse range of fixed lens cameras, which don’t.

But the perniciousness of both of these creeping trends came when they started to cross-breed.

It’s not just a circle, but it’s interesting to see that every brand has used the letter ‘x’ in its model names at one time or another.

Canon, having already produced models called G1 X, G3 X, G5 X, G7 X and G9 X, decided to adopt ‘Mark’ designations for its compacts, giving us three G1 Xs, two iterations of the G5 X and three of the G7 X. Thankfully Panasonic thankfully kept the GX7 Mark II and Mark III nomenclature to the Japanese market, instead confusing the rest of the world with a GX8 that wasn’t considered part of the GX7 series, before following on with the GX9, which was.

The Canon G7 X Mark II, not to be confused with the Panasonic GX7 Mark II (GX85). Likewise the G7 X III and GX7 III (GX9).

But, as ever, it’s Sony that’s really exhausted all possible permutations. Probably not helped by a period where it seemed determined to address every possible industry niche and replace each model before the previous generation had arrived in the shops, its naming system has got properly out-of-hand. So, we now have multiple ‘Marks’ of the very, very different RX0, RX1, RX10 and RX100 ranges. This system has become so unwieldy that the RX100 series has apparently divided into parallel short- (Mark 1-5) and long-zoom variants (Marks 6 and 7) necessitating the creation of the RX100 Mark 5A. Surely that’s a sign that this all needs to stop?

It just causes problems. As well as me not being able to remember any camera’s names anymore, it also means that some once-useful terminology has been squandered: I feel Olympus’s latest E-M1 model, for example, might have been better received if its had been pitched as ‘Mark II’ version of its predecessor. But I’ll acknowledge that calling it the E-M1 Mark II – Mark II was probably wasn’t an option.

Loath as I am to draw automotive parallels, it’s worth nothing that, with a few exceptions such as Toyota’s defunct US-only Scion brand, most motor manufacturers manage to avoid the obsession with the letter ‘x’ or calling things Mark II. This allows simple names that can’t be confused, such as Solara, Nova, Alpine or Bonneville.

Between pitching this article and finding the time to write it, Nikon has announced it’s joining the far-from exclusive club with its Z6 and Z7 replacements. Hoo – and I can’t emphasize this enough – ray.

I’m sorry: I know none of this matters. Camera naming schemes make not the blindest bit of difference to the pictures any of these models take, or how enjoyable the photographic experience they give is. But, possibly because I have to remember and write about them all, and perhaps because my brain is becoming less agile with age, I’m finding it all too much. Is it really too much to ask that camera companies stop calling all their cameras the same bloody thing?

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Opinion: Camera names are getting ridiculous

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Shooting Stock Photography: Getting the Most Out of a Single Subject

10 Sep

The post Shooting Stock Photography: Getting the Most Out of a Single Subject appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Charlie Moss.

Most photographers who experiment with shooting stock photography quickly become disillusioned. They struggle to see a return on their time and financial investment. Even worse, they turn to fellow photographers for advice and are often told that the stock photography market is dead.

But that isn’t the case. There is still a market for stock photography.

However, to create a revenue stream from shooting stock photography, you need to work smarter. That way, you’ll have a more significant library of images with less investment, and you’ll be able to build a revenue stream from your images much quicker.

What is stock photography?

Stock photography is where a photographer takes images that they’ve already shot and makes them available to businesses for licensing.

In return for a fee, the client can use the pictures in their book or on their website. It usually works out cheaper for the client to use a stock photograph than to commission a photographer to go out and shoot a similar image.

The images are usually managed by an agency, who handles all of the marketing and administration.

Is stock photography dead?

This is the first question that photographers often ask me when they find out I’ve been shooting stock photography for over a decade. I am a relative beginner in the world of stock photography, but I can tell you that, in my experience, it is very worth exploring the stock photography market.

shooting stock photography
This old photograph was one of the first I submitted to stock libraries. Back then I used to focus on photographing everything on white backgrounds. It still sells, but if I’d shot more variety ten years ago then I’d be seeing more revenue now!

Canon 350D | Canon EF 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6 | 50mm | 1/125 sec | f/8.0 | ISO 200 | Strobe Lighting

Anyone thinking about shooting stock photography needs to understand that it is a long game to play. You shouldn’t expect instantaneous results. It may take a couple of years to start seeing regular sales that you can predict in your business plan.

But don’t let that put you off. Time spent on photographing and submitting images to stock libraries is an investment in your future income.

Where do stock images come from?

There have always been photographers dedicated to shooting stock photographs. However, many photographers have made a good side income by submitting images that came from other shoots or jobs.

shooting stock photography
An image shot for a DPS article that has since earned me money through a stock library. I used the same subject as the previous shot, but a very different approach.

Fujifilm X-T20 | Fujifilm XF 35mm f/1.4 R | 35mm | 1/350 sec | f/2.0 | ISO 200 | Window Light

In doing this, photographers have made their images work harder for them by pulling double-duty. The photographer has been paid for their time to shoot the initial photographs. But then they may also get paid for the images again when they are licensed from the photographer’s stock agency.

If you are shooting images specifically for your stock library, then you need to make sure you optimize the way you shoot. Getting a wide variety of photographs from a single subject is the key to quickly seeing regular payments with minimal investment.

Getting more from a single subject

If you have purchased a prop to photograph for your stock photography library, then it makes sense to get maximum return on your investment.

This advice will also work for hiring models or visiting particular locations; just take the general principles and apply them to your subject.

shooting stock photography
Fujifilm X-T20 | Fujifilm XF 35mm f/1.4 R | 35mm | 1/240 sec | f/4.0 | ISO 200 | Window Light

I often shoot stock photography images alongside fine art images. By using the same subject with different props and compositions, you can shoot a wide variety of pictures in a short space of time.

Understand what each stock photography agency that you submit to is looking for. If you shoot a variety of images in different styles, you can then send them to various agencies.

In a food photography shoot, it is quite possible to shoot for a wide range of stock photography agencies during the same session. You could shoot a shot for a cafe to market themselves with on social media. You could also shoot an image for a food magazine or recipe book. You could perhaps shoot a fiction book cover, an educational textbook image, and some creative images for bloggers to use.

shooting stock photography

Above are some of the images from a shoot I did with a single subject. I made sure to shoot with both light and dark backgrounds, as well as both modern and more rustic backgrounds. Image buyers want to purchase photographs that will fit with the feel of their brand. The more options that you can give them, the better.

Think about where your images could be used

Don’t forget to shoot in both landscape and portrait format for your stock images. You never know where your image will end up. While a fiction book cover will almost always need a vertical image, a magazine or a blog could use either vertical or horizontal images depending on the page layout.

Another tip is to shoot images that have space for text to be added later. Think about a magazine front cover. It has room at the top to put the name of the magazine. But it also has plain or out-of-focus areas on the side to write the headlines. Browse through magazines and books to understand more about the kinds of images that get purchased and published.

Where to start with shooting stock photography for profit?

As I often say: Just start somewhere.

Research the kinds of images that different stock photography libraries are interested in. Agencies will usually have blog posts on their sites listing the pictures that they’re looking for. And then get shooting.

shooting stock photography
Make sure you capture a wide range of different angles and compositions while thinking about the different ways that your images could be used.

If you’re shooting stock images of small objects, then try creating some different backgrounds so that you can easily change them out while shooting.

That way, you can create multiple styles of photographs in the same session. If you’re shooting models, then scout out locations that have a number of different backdrop styles within a few minutes of each other.

But what you really need to do is shoot images and get them placed with stock photography agencies. If your images aren’t out there and in front of the eyes of potential clients, then you won’t sell any at all! You can refine your workflow later.

Have you had much success with shooting stock photography? Let us know how you’ve got on in the comments!

The post Shooting Stock Photography: Getting the Most Out of a Single Subject appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Charlie Moss.


Digital Photography School

 
Comments Off on Shooting Stock Photography: Getting the Most Out of a Single Subject

Posted in Photography

 

Getting Started With Affinity Photo Editing Software

06 Sep

The post Getting Started With Affinity Photo Editing Software appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.

Affinity Photo is a powerful image editing software. It’s both affordable and enjoyable to use.

But, as with any program for custom manipulation of photos, there is a reasonably steep learning curve involved. If you’re used to editing your images with Adobe Photoshop, you’ll find the interface is different. This will take only a little getting used to.

I haven’t been using Affinity Photo for very long and have found it to be well designed, allowing for intuitive use. Switching image editing programs is not something I choose to do lightly. When you’ve been used to a particular workflow within a computer program, there must be a reasonable motivation to change.

My motivation was partly price. Affinity Photo is a product you can purchase outright without any monthly subscription fees. It’s also discounted from time to time, making it even more affordable. Even still, at full price, it is very reasonable for the quality of the product you receive.

Tone map persona in Affinity Photo
The Tone Mapping Persona interface in Affinity Photo

Opening files in Affinity Photo

The first step is to open a photo file you want to edit. This is pretty straightforward and there are a few options for making it happen.

For Windows users, you can right-click an image file in your file manager and choose Affinity Photo from the list. If Affinity Photo is not listed (and it probably won’t be the first time you use it), click Choose Another App. You’ll then need to locate Affinity Photo on your C:/ drive and select it. Here you can also check the box at the bottom of the panel to always use Affinity Photo to open the type of image file you have chosen.

Using a Mac, you can simply open Affinity Photo, navigate to File in the top menu, and click Open. This also works on a PC.

You can also drag and drop photos from your file manager onto Affinity Photo when it’s running.

Affinity Photo opens all standard image types, including RAW files. There is no need for two separate programs to open and edit RAW files. Affinity Photo combines functions that require both Lightroom and Photoshop. I am finding this makes for a great image editing workflow.

opening a RAW file in Affinity Photo
Opening a RAW file in Affinity Photo

Becoming familiar with the interface

Once you’ve opened your first photo, you have a massive number of options available to work with. Let’s walk through some of the most important features and where to locate them in the user interface.

Under the main menu at the top you have the Persona and Context toolbars. Here you’ll find buttons for various Personas such as:

  • Photo Persona (for photo editing)
  • Liquify Persona (for manipulating distortion)
  • Develop Persona (for developing RAW images)
  • Tone Mapping Persona (for mapping image tones)
  • Export Persona (for when you’re ready to export your image)

As you select a Persona, the Context toolbar changes to include only the tools you’ll need with that Persona.

With the Develop Persona selected, the Context menu shows a different set of tools.

Affinity Photo Develop persona tool bar

These tools allow you to control how you see your photo as you’re working on it. You can view a single instance of your image. There’s also a split-screen and a mirrored option. The mirrored option is shown below.

Split screen in Develop persona

Within this Persona, you have a set of adjustment tools in the right-hand panel. These allow you to make similar adjustments to your RAW files as you can in Lightroom.

Once you’ve finished making the adjustments to your RAW image, click the blue Develop button in the top left corner. The interface changes to the Photo Persona, where you can continue to refine the edits on your image.

Here is how the Context toolbar looks when you have the Photo Persona selected while you’re editing your photos:

Affinity photo personal tool bar

You have buttons for making auto adjustments to levels, contrast, color, and white balance.

When editing photos in the Photo Persona, you also have a specific set of relevant panels open. These panel sets make up your Studio of editing tools. They are also highly customizable. To show or hide various panels, go to View in the top menu, then select Studio.

Here I have the panels for Layers and Adjustments open:

photo editing persona in Affinity Photo

Getting a feel for Affinity Photo

As you can see, there are many similarities between Affinity Photo and other image editing software. I’ve found that working in the Photo Persona is very similar to my workflow in Photoshop.

The Develop Persona took a little more getting used to. But it offers a very well-designed interface and makes working on RAW images straightforward once you get used to how it functions.

Like anything new, getting used to Affinity Photo takes some commitment and practice. This is true whether you’re new to photo editing or have been using other software to manipulate your images.

Having everything you need to edit RAW images from start to finish, including the option to use multiple layers, has been very satisfying.

Not having an image organizer included means you need to work with your operating system’s file manager or use an additional program. There are many free and cheap digital asset management programs that you can use to organize your photos.

customizing panels in Affinity Photo

Conclusion

For any photographer with years of experience using a particular brand of editing software, changing is a big step. If you’re new to photo editing, learning to use any photo imaging software manually is a big step, too.

Affinity Photo provides an impressive set of photo editing tools all within one application. I find it to be well laid out and intuitive to use after using Adobe products for many years.

For people new to photo editing, take the time to learn Affinity Photo. You’ll be able to use it to edit your photos just as well as any other available software.

The post Getting Started With Affinity Photo Editing Software appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.


Digital Photography School

 
Comments Off on Getting Started With Affinity Photo Editing Software

Posted in Photography

 

Tips for Getting Your Portraits Right In-Camera

06 Sep

The post Tips for Getting Your Portraits Right In-Camera appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by John McIntire.

Getting your portraits right in-camera is a skill that every portrait photographer should strive to develop. Doing so will save you time and improve your photography across the board.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t post-process your images, and it doesn’t mean that Photoshop is cheating. But by putting in the extra time and effort at the capture stage, there will be less post-processing to do.

It’s also good if you have certain post-production techniques in mind. If you are able to shoot to the requirements of the technique (that is, if you’re able to get it right in-camera), then the whole process will be easier.

Getting Your Portraits Right In-Camera
Putting extra effort in at the capture stage will help you to get the best results possible straight out of the camera. If you take a lot of portraits, this will wind up saving you hours upon hours of time in the post processing stages.

This article will provide you with a series of tips to help you create better portrait images during the capture stage of the process. It should be noted that the points discussed here fall firmly on the technical side of things. Subjective things like composition, posing, expression, etc., won’t be discussed.

Also, nothing discussed here is a rule. I would hesitate to even call it a guideline. If you try something here that doesn’t get you the results you are after, that just means it’s the wrong tool for the job. By all means, do something else. 

Aperture

One of the easiest things you can do in the pursuit of getting your portraits right in-camera is to prioritize sharpness. One of the easiest ways to do this is to choose the right aperture.

Shooting wide-open can be great in low-light conditions, and it can also provide a nice shallow depth of field for aesthetic purposes. The trade-off comes in terms of getting the focus right. The focal plane of a wide aperture lens (f/1.8, f/1.4, etc.) is very, very narrow, making it very easy to miss the focus on your subject’s eyes.

Getting Your Portraits Right In-Camera
Left: Shot at f/4, this image has a shallow depth of field. Canon 5D Mark III | Canon EF 50mm f/2.5 Macro | 50mm | 1/125 sec | f/4 | ISO 100

Right: Shot at f/14, this image is sharp from front to back. Canon 5D Mark III | Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM | 35mm | 1/125 sec | f/14 | ISO 100

A good way to combat this is to choose a smaller aperture. By selecting an aperture around f/5.6 or f/8, ensuring the focus is where you want it to be becomes much easier. When you’re starting out, this can be the difference between a couple of sharp images (or even no sharp images) gained out of luck and a memory card full of them. 

Again, this is not a rule, and shooting wide open is fun and has plenty of its own merits. But that doesn’t mean you should always shoot wide open. 

Taking control of the light

You’ve probably heard the phrase “Photography is light.” It’s everywhere, but it cannot be repeated enough. If you want to take better photos, you need to learn to take control of the light. This is especially important for portraits. 

Natural light

With natural light, you will want to learn how to find the light with the qualities best-suited to the portrait you want to create.

For the most part, you will want to avoid shooting in midday sun. Instead, learn to find patches of soft light. This can be an area of open shade, it can be window light, or it can be garage door lighting. 

Getting Your Portraits Right In-Camera
Looking for situations like this overcast day, where the light is more flattering for portraits, is a key skill to develop. Canon 5D Mark III | Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 | 85mm | 1/320 sec | f/1.8 | ISO 200

Studio lighting

In the studio, you will have a somewhat easier time of things.

After all, a studio should be designed from the ground up for you to alter the light at will. Use the right modifiers, learn some of the basic lighting patterns, and use modeling lights whenever possible. All of these will make it easier for you to take control of the lighting in your portraits. 

Getting Your Portraits Right In-Camera
Studio lighting is a lot easier to control as you are in charge of everything, but there are a lot of options to sort through. Canon 5D Mark III | Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM | 35mm | 1/125 sec | f/14 | ISO 100

Flattering light

Another thing about light that is important when getting your portraits right in-camera is whether or not the light is flattering. While this is quite a subjective topic, there are a few things for you to keep in mind that will help you to get more flattering light. 

Light from above

In most natural circumstances, we humans are lit from above. This is how we generally see other people. Lighting your subject from other angles will result in oddly-placed shadows that won’t feel right to your viewer.

By placing the main light source above your subject, you are working to ensure that you are presenting your subjects in a way that people will recognize. 

Getting Your Portraits Right In-Camera
Lighting from above will help to ensure that your studio lighting looks more natural. Also, bringing the light source in close softens the light, making it more flattering.

Soft light

As mentioned, using a soft light source will help you get more flattering results. This will reduce the overall contrast in your images, and help to reduce the appearance of skin textures in your portraits. It will also help to make the transitions from shadows to highlights smoother. 

Getting Your Portraits Right In-Camera
Using as soft a light source as possible reduces contrast and provides more flattering light for your subjects. Canon 5D Mark III | Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM | 35mm | 1/125 sec | f/5.6 | ISO 100

Lens choice

Selecting a focal length suitable for portraiture is another important thing that will help you get your portraits right in camera.

The focal length you choose will dictate how your images are distorted. At the extreme ends, wide-angle and long telephoto lenses cause significant distortion in your images. In order to avoid this, you will find that most portraits are taken at a focal length somewhere between 50mm and 135mm. As a general guide, you can’t go wrong by selecting a focal length in that range. 

Getting Your Portraits Right In-Camera
Left: With a focal length of 35mm (taken up close), you should be able to see the distortion on the subject’s face caused by the wider angle lens. Canon 5D Mark III | Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM | 35mm | 1/125 sec | f/8 | ISO 200

Right: A 50mm focal length is a safer choice for portraits and is close to how the human eye sees. Canon 5D Mark III | Canon EF 50mm f/2.5 Macro | 50mm | 1/125 sec | f/5.6 | ISO 100

Now, that is, once again, not a rule. There are some amazing examples of portraits taken at extremely wide focal lengths, just as there are plenty of portrait examples taken with much longer focal lengths. If you think an extreme focal length is right for your portrait, go ahead and try it. 

Getting Your Portraits Right In-Camera
While you can use extreme focal lengths (such as 16mm, used in the photo above) if you want to, you will find that it’s usually best to stick to more traditional focal lengths for most purposes. Canon 5D Mark III | Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM | 16mm | 1/125 sec | f/5.6 | ISO 100

Perspective and viewpoint

Your viewpoint as the photographer has a huge impact on your portrait images, and there are a few things you can do and avoid to help you get better portraits. 

Viewing angle

For the most part, try to keep your lens at the same level or below the level of your subject’s eyes. Shooting above and downward toward your subject has the effect of making your subject appear vulnerable and weak.  

(This is my bias speaking. I really don’t like taking photos from above, but it is still not a rule.)

For stronger portraits, try to avoid that.

Getting Your Portraits Right In-Camera
Left: Here, the camera was on a level with the floor. You can see the mild distortion this viewpoint has caused; the subject appears to be falling backward. Canon 5D Mark III | Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 | 85mm | 1/160 sec | f/9 | ISO 100

Right: Bringing the camera up to navel-height has removed the distortion. Canon 5D Mark III | Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 | 85mm | 1/160 sec | f/9 | ISO 100

Distortion

Just like when you are photographing buildings, having your camera not level to the ground can cause distortion in your images.

Converging verticals on a human subject look even weirder than they do on buildings. If you are shooting from above your subject, this can lead to distorted facial features. If you are shooting from below, it can cause distortions of the legs, arms, and torso that just won’t look right to your viewer.

Some of this can be mitigated by selecting a longer focal length or stepping further away from your subject, but this won’t completely prevent distortion. To avoid any of this distortion in close-up portraits, shoot from eye-level or just below eye-level. To avoid it in half-length to full-length portraits, shoot from the level of your subject’s navel. 

Exposure

For the most part, exposure is another subjective topic. There is often no right or wrong exposure, but if you’re starting out with portraits, there are a few things that will help you along the way. 

Getting Your Portraits Right In-Camera
To ensure that you are retaining all of the details in your images, take test shots and watch the histogram as you are building your scene. Here, the spike on the left is the background, and the rest of the tones fall well within the two sides of the histogram, denoting relatively low contrast.

Portraits can have a lot of contrast in them. Just imagine a subject with light-colored hair who’s wearing a black shirt. For the best outcome, you will want to ensure that the exposure retains details in both extremes. 

Getting Your Portraits Right In-Camera
If you have access to them, tools like the light meter and the ColorChecker Passport shown above will help to give you accurate exposures and colors just about every time.

To ensure that you have retained all the details in your images, you can refer to the histogram on the back of your camera. A simple way to use this is to make sure that the information depicted by the histogram does not go past either the left-hand or the right-hand sides of the graph.

If the histogram goes off the right-hand side, your image will be overexposed and you will be missing details in the highlights of your image. If the histogram goes off the left-hand side, your image will be underexposed and you will be missing details in the shadows. 

Manipulate the exposure

Sometimes, you won’t be able to retain all the detail in a given scene, as the contrast will be too high. In order to keep your shadows and highlights from clipping, you will want to manipulate the scene. There are a lot of ways you can do this.

You can use a reflector to bounce light into areas of the scene that are too dark, thus reducing the overall contrast of the scene. You could do the same with flash as fill light. 

Getting Your Portraits Right In-Camera
Using a reflector is a great way to help control the contrast in your images. Here, a piece of polystyrene (styrofoam) board from a package did the job and didn’t cost anything.

You could also use a diffuser in front of your main light source to soften the light and reduce the overall contrast in the frame. This works with both natural light and studio strobes. 

Of course, in a studio, you could always opt to use a bigger modifier, or move your light source closer to your subject. Both of these have the effect of softening the light and reducing the overall contrast in your scene. 

Getting Your Portraits Right In-Camera
To soften your light, use bigger modifiers or bring them in close. Alternatively, as shown in the image above, do both and add a reflector for good measure.

If you are new to portraits but familiar with other aspects of photography, you can think of this as similar to using graduated neutral density filters in landscapes.

By placing a graduated neutral density filter in front of the lens, you are (usually) increasing the exposure time needed for one part of the image (usually the sky) so that it falls at a value closer to the foreground, reducing the contrast in the image by however many stops the filter represents.

You can think of these tools for portraits in the same way, except that they manipulate the actual light in the scene in front of you, rather than fitting onto the lens and manipulating the final exposure. 

End

Getting Your Portraits Right In-Camera
I feel the need to reemphasize that this article is in no way anti-post processing. Doing what you can at the capture stage is simply about better camera craft and obtaining a better starting point. Canon 5D Mark III | Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM | 35mm | 1/125 sec | f/5.6 | ISO 100

While this article is definitely not a complete and exhaustive guide to portrait techniques, these few basic tips should help you get your portraits right in camera. If you take your time to be mindful of your choices regarding camera settings, lighting, and exposure, you will start to find that you need to spend much less time in post-production. 

Of course, if there are any tips that you use to get your portraits right in-camera, please feel free to leave them in a comment. 

The post Tips for Getting Your Portraits Right In-Camera appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by John McIntire.


Digital Photography School

 
Comments Off on Tips for Getting Your Portraits Right In-Camera

Posted in Photography

 

Woman, 72, gored by bison in Yellowstone after allegedly getting within 10 feet for a photo

01 Jul

Last week, a 72-year-old Californian woman was gored multiple times at Yellowstone National Park when she is alleged to have gotten within ten feet of a bison in order to take a photograph of the wild animal.

In a statement shared by the National Parks Service (NPS), authorities say they’re investigating the June 25 incident that took place not far from the Bridge Bay Campground, which sits near Yellowstone Lake and is one of the largest campgrounds in the park. In the statement, Yellowstone Senior Bison Biologist Chris Geremia explains the seriousness of getting in the personal space of bison and emphasizes the importance of staying at least 25 yards (23 meters) away from the animals:

‘The series of events that led to the goring suggest the bison was threatened by being repeatedly approached to within 10 feet […] Bison are wild animals that respond to threats by displaying aggressive behaviors like pawing the ground, snorting, bobbing their head, bellowing, and raising their tail. If that doesn’t make the threat (in this instance it was a person) move away, a threatened bison may charge. To be safe around bison, stay at least 25 yards away, move away if they approach, and run away or find cover if they charge.’

The unnamed woman received immediate medical care and was flown via helicopter to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center. No subsequent information has been shared on the woman’s condition at this time. This isn’t the first time visitors have been injured or killed while attempting to take photographs of the animals inside Yellowstone National Park, despite multiple warnings posted throughout the park and on the NPS website.

A photograph of just one of the many signs within the park warning visitors to keep their distance from the wild animals.

The NPS reiterated in the news release the following guidelines for how distant you should keep from the various wildlife within the park:

‘Stay more than 25 yards (23 m) away from all large animals – bison, elk, bighorn sheep, deer, moose, and coyotes and at least 100 yards (91 m) away from bears and wolves. If need be, turn around and go the other way to avoid interacting with a wild animal in close proximity.’

People are understandably excited to get back out to explore nature — this incident occurred just two days after the park re-opened following restrictions put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic — but it’s not worth risking lives (or camera gear) for the shot.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Woman, 72, gored by bison in Yellowstone after allegedly getting within 10 feet for a photo

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Getting Started with Layers in Capture One Pro

25 Jun

The post Getting Started with Layers in Capture One Pro appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Darina Kopcok.

using layers in capture one pro

One reason that Capture One is such a versatile and efficient RAW editor is the ability it gives you to work in Layers. It combines the ease of working in Lightroom with the functionality of Photoshop Layers.

If you’re new to the software, learning to work with layers in Capture One will elevate your photos and help you in creating a more efficient workflow.

Getting Started with Layers in Capture One Pro

What are layers?

Layers help you make targeted adjustments to certain areas of a photo. They are similar to Local Adjustments in Lightroom. You can make tweaks to color, exposure, clarity and other adjustments you’d typically make in a RAW editor, as well as more complicated edits.

Capture One’s Layers tool enables you to combine brush adjustments, gradients, and repairs to masked areas using multiple layers.

How to get started with Layers

layers in Capture One

The Layers option is indicated by the + Plus Icon in the Layers panel under the Histogram, which can be found in the Exposure tab. Layers can also be found in the top of the screen in the menu bar and has its own dropdown. Click on the Plus icon to create a new layer.

layers in Capture One

When creating or working on multiple layers, it’s a good idea to name each layer in a way that tells you what adjustments you made to the layer. Double click the layer to rename it.

Getting Started with Layers in Capture One Pro

Notice that if you make a new layer and start making adjustments, nothing will happen to the image. You need to create a Mask to determine where on the layer the adjustments will be applied.

There are different ways to create masks: for this article, I’ll focus on the brush tool to brush in Masks. You can find the brush tool in the lower right of the Layers panel.

layers in Capture One

You can also use the shortcut B.

To change the settings on the brush, simply right-click on the photo.

Note that a soft brush is usually desired.

The mask can be seen in red and will, by default, only show when you’re actually brushing on the image.

layers in Capture One

The shortcut M will toggle this setting, to show or hide. You can also choose to keep your Mask on. Options for the Mask are available in the Brush Panel dropdown in the tools panel at the top of the Capture One workspace.

layers in Capture One

There is also a Layers panel in the Capture One Menu tab. The great thing about Capture One is that there are several places where you can access any given tool all from one workspace, instead of having to switch Modules, as you do in Lightroom.

layers in Capture One

If you select too much or spill over into an area that you don’t want included in the adjustment, you can select the Erase brush and subtract the area where you didn’t intend to brush. You can also use the shortcut E.

Getting Started with Layers in Capture One Pro

The square bracket keys [ ] on your keyboard will help you change the size of your brush quickly.

Once you have made an adjustment, toggle off the color so you can see the effect, and if you need to make any further adjustments. That’s why it’s a good idea to have the mask show only when you’re brushing over your image.

Notice that every time you brush over the same area, the effect is stronger.

Reduce the opacity if you want to lessen the effect.

Getting Started with Layers in Capture One Pro

Heal Layers

Another type of layer is a Heal layer, which can be used to cover or conceal objects in your photo. It’s a very useful tool when working with layers in Capture One.

Clone Layer will copy pixels from a source point to destination, however, it is not as efficient. The Heal layer is more dynamic; it will update according to changes made to the background layer or other layers.

You can use the Heal layer to fix blemishes by copying and pasting pixels from a different part of the images.

To start a new Heal layer, choose New Heal layer from the dropdown beside the Plus icon or choose it from the choices in the left-hand dropdown over where your named layers are located.

Getting Started with Layers in Capture One Pro
Getting Started with Layers in Capture One Pro

Using Healing requires you to create a source point.

Create source point by clicking Alt and then clicking once on the photo.

Heal layers will intelligently blend the area with surrounding pixels.

layers in capture one
Choose a source point to heal from.

Now brush on the photo.

It will take the area from the source point and cover the object or blemish.

If the appearance of the target area does not match the surrounding pixels, click on the source point and drag it anywhere within the same image in the Viewer.

layers capture one

Conclusion

Capture One is a powerful program that can help take your editing to the next level. The ability to work with layers in Capture One is one way to do that. If you’ve been on the fence about whether to make the switch from Lightroom, they have a free 30-day trial available for you to check out.

The post Getting Started with Layers in Capture One Pro appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Darina Kopcok.


Digital Photography School

 
Comments Off on Getting Started with Layers in Capture One Pro

Posted in Photography