Ricoh has updated the suite of apps provided with the Theta spherical image camera, to allow users to post images from the Theta to Google Maps and Google+. According to Ricoh, these new abilities are a result of collaboration with Google to make the Theta’s images compatible with Photo Sphere XMP, Google’s standard for panoramic images. Click through for more details.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Whenever I see “How I Got The Shot” articles, they are typically landscape or nature shots, or difficult lighting situations. Rarely do you see a detailed account of the taking of a portrait image. Maybe because for portrait shots, it’s often more about the connection between subject and photographer than the technicals, or maybe because it seems fairly straightforward. That said, when I was first starting out in portrait photography, I spent many hours drooling over beautiful images I admired and wondering how they had been taken, and more importantly, how could I try to take something similar.
This article will not only discuss the technical accepts of the shot and the editing process, but also the interaction I had with the subject, which was key to this, and every shot I’ve ever taken.
This beauty is Madeleine and these images are from her high school senior photo shoot taken last September. I don’t often shoot this type of portrait. But, I say the same thing about weddings and dogs and yet I’ve photographed both in the last week, so maybe I should just face the fact that if you are lovely and ask me real nice, I’ll shoot just about anything. Except food. Food photography freaks me out. Life is hard enough without having to make sure sesame seeds are all in the perfect place, or that there is just the right amount of shine on an edge of cheese.
Madeline has studied dance on and off and had just started pointe dancing prior to this shoot, so incorporating her new pointe shoes into a few shots was something she wanted to try.
These images were shot at Boulder, Colorado’s Chautauqua Park in the rain, near sunset. I was likely wearing a black t-shirt, jeans, and flip-flops if you want to get the full visual, but I doubt that mattered much because 90% of the time I am wearing a black t-shirt, jeans, and flip-flops. Probably of more interest to you was the gear. I travel light and I’m not into fancy equipment (my money is better spent on quality flip-flops), so this was shot with my faithful Canon 5D and my workhorse/splurge Canon 50mm f/1.2L which rarely leaves my camera body. I typically don’t use a lens hood, and didn’t here as I like a little flare.
The image below that I will detail was shot in Aperture priority mode (f/2.5). I could possibly wax poetic about my camera, the settings, and lighting and other technical components for a few more paragraphs but it is truly not necessary. Here, as with most portrait photography, the details of how this image came to be were driven by the subject matter: the location choice was her favorite park; the jump was something that she felt she could do and a way to incorporate the dance element that I felt was least awkward and most genuine; and the settings were dictated by the need to shoot towards the mountains.
An argument could be made that this isn’t a true portrait, unlike the image I’ve shown above. An argument could also be made that flip flips aren’t real shoes. But they get me from point A to point B, are extremely comfortable, and allow for me to continue my hatred of anything on my feet. A portrait is a documenting someone’s likeness. This is a picture of a 17 year old girl that does ballet, has a beautiful free spirit, and mountain living in her DNA. I can’t think of a better way to document her likeness.
Let’s start with the Straight Out Of Camera (SOOC) image
Other than minor editing to her skirt, this is exactly what the world looked like in my camera. I shot this in RAW and converted it to jpg in Photoshop. My settings were not spot on, and there are flaws. The most glaringly obvious flaw, being that focus on the subject is soft at best. I mean, really soft–clouds and fluffy bunny rabbits soft. There were other images in this sequence where the focus was much sharper. But in those, I didn’t care for arm placement, or light, or a hundred other picky details. I could have taken the sharpest one of the bunch and edited it to perfection, completely changing or correcting things, turning something unreal into reality. Some photographers would may do that, but I am not going to fight for either side of that battle today. This is a picture of a girl jumping in mid-air and if you are looking at that happening in real life, it’s not going to look sharp as a tack. This is an image worthy of being delivered to the client, soft focus or not.
The first thing I always do to an image during the editing process is clean it up if necessary. This park is always crowded, and waiting for random people to be out of the shot isn’t an option I like because the entire mood could change. I also don’t like to use Photoshop to drastically change anything (as mentioned earlier when I refused to do Photoshop Plastic Surgery on a sharper image), but here the lessor of two evils is just to remove the innocent bystanders from the image entirely in post-production. Beyond the hikers, there are a few other elements that are distracting including the trail markers, which only take away from her being in midair.
Things to clean up in Photoshop
This was not the first image we shot. People take time to warm up. If I had asked her right off the bat to leap as high as she could, without care as to who was watching or how she would do it, or what it would look – she wouldn’t have been comfortable enough to even try it. We started with some basic face-only shots, worked up to some dance poses in the shoes, and then found a spot where she felt comfortable enough to jump. Because of this, I didn’t have a lot of options for the exact frame. This was the flattest and least rocky area for the jump to be safe and successful.
Whenever I attempt an action portrait shot, I do several things the same when interacting with the subject:
#1 – I always watch them the first time with my own eyeballs.
I don’t even touch my camera. Not only do I need to see the entire view without the limits of a viewfinder, I need to earn their trust that I am interested in what they’re doing, with or without the picture. Then after encouragement, I make it clear that we may have to try this several times; she may not nail the jump, but then again I may not nail the shot, successful jump or not. To give you an idea, for the five jumps she did, I have 32 shots taken over the course of about 8 minutes.
#2 – this is typically the only time I break my rule of never letting a client see the image in the back of my camera.
For an action shot like this, I shoot until I have an image I like and then show my subject. It’s their action, their talent, their special trick. I have no idea how to leap in the air like this; I want to know that whatever they are doing is coming out as they envisioned it, or at least that they are happy with how it is likely to turn out. I, like most of the people who will view this, have no idea if this jump is technically correct in the world of pointe dance. That one ballet class I took in the first grade didn’t really cover much beyond how to stand straight in a tutu. However, in the moment I remember questioning even photographing this considering I didn’t know what to look for. In those moments, it’s best to realize that the only thing you should be looking for is a great image—you’re not always qualified to look for much else.
After image clean up
Now that I have cleaned up the things that didn’t need to be there and adjusted my exposure a bit, I will tell you the most important technical piece of this image: none of it matters. It really doesn’t. Why? I’m glad you asked. Even if I had the fanciest equipment available, perfect light, sharp eyes, and sturdy flip-flops, there is no way I could have gotten this shot if Madeleine didn’t feel comfortable. Not only is she fairly new to pointe dancing, she is a teenage girl. The most important thing I brought to this shoot was an ability to make her feel comfortable, a ton of patience, and an honest desire for her to love these pictures.
Without those things, this image and every other one I shot that day, don’t happen. For me, portrait photography is 95% people skills and 5% equipment. Maybe even a little luck thrown in for good measure. But we still need to make it sing the tune it was meant to carry. Throw in a little sparkle. Wave the magic wand a bit. Put a layer of frosting on this cake. Everyone loves frosting–I don’t know if I could trust someone that doesn’t.
I started with a manual adjustment in Photoshop with Levels, a quick sharpener with the oddly named Unsharp Mask (60% and 2.0 pixels is my go-to setting), and then removed a few stray raindrops that were showing on her dress. I opted to leave the framing the way I shot it—I like the bit of shadow you see of her legs in the bottom left corner, and I like where she is in relationship to the mountains in the background.
Now for the fun part: I use a few actions to kick-up the color and clarity a notch on most of my images. I like Totally Rad and the Pioneer Woman’s actions quite a bit and over the years have managed to customize my favorites to exactly what I like, saving me a great deal of time. Here I have used a few actions to both sharpen the color and also warm it up a bit, to give a nod to the sun flare that was already there. In doing so, I lost a bit of my sky detail, but I don’t miss it. Here is the finished version of the image:
And voila! It’s just that easy. Years of ballet lessons, a scheduled photo shoot, waiting out a rainstorm, getting to the perfect jump, and a bit of editing. Oh internet, I kid.
This is an image that I love. This is an image that my client loved. Will it end up in a magazine or be noticed by people beyond those that love Madeleine, and obviously anyone reading this? No. But it’s a shot that I am proud of. It’s a great example of the kind of portrait photography I like to do and a lovely addition to my portfolio. It happily hangs on a wall in my office, where it will stay as a reminder that not all beautiful and loved shots are technically perfect and portrait photography is a lot more than a camera and a pretty girl.
The post How I Got The Shot: Portrait Style by Lynsey Peterson appeared first on Digital Photography School.
When it comes to the (literal) nuts and bolts of cameras and lenses, Roger Cicala at Lens Rentals is the man to ask. This week he’s been busy disassembling Sony’s flagship mirrorless camera, the Alpha 7R. We’re in the middle of our review right now, and we must admit – some of the pictures of his detailed tear-down make us wince. But we can’t… look… away. Click through for an edited selection of images from the whole gory process.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Zeiss has announced an addition to its Touit family of lenses, in the shape of a 50mm F2.8 Macro. The Touit 2.8/50M is designed for mirrorless cameras with APS-C sensors, and will come in Sony E and Fujifilm X mounts. With an angle of view equivalent to 75mm on full frame, it offers 1:1 magnification for close-up shooting. Like the other Touit lenses it includes autofocus, but no image stabilisation. It will go on sale in March 2014 with a recommended price of EUR 755 (excl. VAT.) or US$ 999 (excl. VAT).
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
 Extra photos for bloggers: 1, 2, 3 |
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Kids, home ec has never been this cool.
Use your sewing skills to give your photos some pizazz with colorful embroidery thread and you can bet that your granny will be proud of every stitch.
Embroidery gives your photos an extra kick of creativity. Plus, they make great DIY gifts and are the epitome of nana chic.
Sew, are we doing this or what?
Learn How to Make Your Own Embroidered Photos
(…)
Read the rest of Embroidered Photos (203 words)
© Erika for Photojojo, 2014. |
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[ By Steph in Gaming & Computing & Technology. ]
A large storefront window in a Belgian designer’s work/live space invites passersby to pause and play an arcade game with a fun interactive installation. Where others living in such a busy urban location might want to prevent strangers from peering into their private spaces, Kris Temmerman asks them to stop and stay a while.
Tennerman designed and created the entire thing himself, including the console that’s currently attached to the exterior windowsill and the LED screen. The game is run on an Arduino without an external computer, just to make the process a little more challenging.
The game is also his own creation, and he even had a friend record the music. “I needed something that would appeal to a large audience (the people in my street) and something was fun to play. So I took the good old gaming cliché, where the world gets invaded by aliens and you have to fight your way to the end boss, save the world and the human race . With my minimal resolution of 16*90 pixels, I didn’t have much other choice than making it pixel-art style.”
The entire process, including diagrams of the wiring, can be found in detail at Tennerman’s website.
Only a few games have a successful sequel, yet there are some that manage to make the generational leap from game console to game console, for decades.
Click Here to Read More »»
Where was your absolutely favorite place to play as a kid? Few manage to find something quite so exciting as these strange free-for-all platforms for fun.
Click Here to Read More »»
Gaming takes skill. Your gaming console is like your beloved baby. These are 40 of the coolest gaming case mods made by hardcore gamers with great imaginations.
Click Here to Read More »»
[ By Steph in Gaming & Computing & Technology. ]
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Olympus has issued a firmware update for the OM-D E-M5, adding two new features that owners should welcome: an extended ‘Low’ ISO setting and smaller AF points. The ISO 100-equivalent setting promises lower noise, and enables shooting of fast primes at closer to maximum aperture in daylight, but comes at the cost of earlier highlight clipping. Also being added to the E-M5 is the ability to select smaller AF target points for more accurate focusing. Get the update
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
A question we often get asked at Digital Photography School is which lenses are best for portraits. It’s a tricky question because the answer is subjective. It depends on your budget, personal style of photography and the make of camera. It is further complicated by the relationship between sensor size and focal length.
Let’s start by exploring some of the things you need to think about when choosing the perfect portrait lens.
It may be that you already own a lens that you haven’t thought of using to take portraits, but could actually do the job quite well. Do you have a 50mm prime? Or maybe a 100mm macro lens? A 70-300mm zoom? All of these are capable of being great portrait lenses.
Even if your only lens is a kit lens, you may still be surprised by how well it performs (within its limitations). You can read more about that in my article Why Your Kit Lens is Better Than You Think.
Getting to Know Your Lenses will also help.
Prime lenses are great for portrait photography. One advantage is that they have a wider maximum aperture than a zoom lens covering the same focal length. This is useful for creating images with shallow depth-of-field (a common technique in portraits). It is also handy in low light, as it lets you take photos with faster shutter speeds or lower ISO than you could with a zoom with a smaller maximum aperture.
Another benefit is image quality. Prime lenses tend to have less elements than zooms, and the result is that image quality is better, and they produce sharper images with more contrast and less lens flare. If you’re on a budget (see next point) then an inexpensive prime will give you better results than an inexpensive zoom.
This is an important consideration because, as with most things, good quality lenses cost more. The best example of this is Canon’s 50mm lens range. There are four models, ranging from around $ 110 to $ 1600 in price. That’s a big difference, and your budget determines which model makes it to your shopping list.
More expensive lenses usually produce sharper images with less flare. The construction quality is better, they may be weatherproofed and have better or quieter autofocus mechanisms. The difference in image quality is usually greater between expensive and cheap zoom lenses than it is between expensive and inexpensive prime lenses.
The other trade-off (besides cost) for better quality built lenses, is extra weight. Top of the line lenses are usually made of metal and are heavier than the less expensive plastic lenses.
Bear in mind that good camera lenses should last decades, and sometimes spending more up front is beneficial in the long run. In the words of Sir Henry Royce (of Rolls-Royce):
“The quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten”.
The answer to this question depends on the size of your camera’s sensor (our article Crop Factor Explained tells you why). Rather than discuss specific focal lengths it’s easier to split lenses up into four categories. Once you’ve figured out what category of lens you’re interested in, and whether you would prefer a prime lens or a zoom, you can investigate which models are available for your camera.
Wide-angle lenses are good for environmental portraits – those where you keep your distance a little from the subject and include their surroundings. They are generally not as good for close-up portraits as they distort your subject. Here are some examples:
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A normal lens is one with a focal length equivalent to around 50mm on a full-frame camera (that’s around 35mm on an APS-C camera, or 25mm on a Micro four-thirds camera). You may have read that these lenses give a similar perspective to that of the human eye. It’s a debatable point, but there’s no doubt they are interesting for portraits, occupying the middle ground between wide-angle and short telephoto lenses. They can be used for close-up portraits, although not completely without distortion (see image left, below)
A “normal” 50mm lens portrait |
A short telephoto 85mm lens |
These lenses are often called portrait lenses because they are an ideal focal length for taking flattering photos of people. You can move in close and take images without distortion, or step back and include the entire figure without moving so far away that it becomes difficult to communicate with your model. If your short telephoto is a prime lens, you get the additional benefit of wide apertures. Best of all these lenses, especially primes, tend to be reasonably priced.
My favourite lens for portraits is an 85mm prime lens (you can read more about it in my article How a Humble 85mm Lens Became My Favourite). (see image right, above)
If you have an APS-C camera then a 50mm prime lens is effectively a short telephoto. Yes, I’ve written about 50mm lenses too – let me point you towards Nifty Fifties – Why I Love 50mm Prime Lenses and Why a 50mm Lens is your new best friend.
Telephoto lenses are often used by professional fashion and portrait photographers for the compressed perspective and their ability to isolate the model from the background. The downside of telephoto lenses is that they tend to be more expensive than shorter focal lengths, especially if you’d like one with a wide maximum aperture. They are definitely heavier as well. Having said that, there are plenty of relatively inexpensive lenses, especially zooms, in the 100mm-200mm range.
If you’re unsure which focal lengths appeal to you, try this exercise. Go onto Flickr or 500px and do a search for portraits. Mark any you like as favourites. When you have marked at least twenty, go and have a look at them together. Examine them carefully and think about why you liked each one. Are there any common themes? Which focal lengths are used the most? Are the photographers using wide apertures for shallow depth-of-field? Are they predominantly black and white or colour? Is the photographer using natural light or flash? Are they predominantly close-ups or environmental portraits? The answers to these questions may help you decide which lenses to shortlist. Read more: 5 Easy Steps to Choose the Perfect Prime Lens for You
I’m going to be specific and tell you exactly which lenses I use. My favourite lens for portraits is my Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 prime lens. I use it for approximately 80% of the portraits I take. I also use my Canon EF 40mm f2.8 pancake lens (it’s a moderate wide-angle) on my full-frame camera and, occasionally, a Canon EF 50mm f1.4 or EF 17-40mm f/4L zoom. The next lens on my list is a 24mm prime, and when I buy one I’ll no longer use the 17-40mm zoom for portraits. I favour primes over zooms because of image quality and the wider maximum apertures.
Now it’s time to share your personal experiences. Which lenses have you purchased for taking portraits, and how did they work out?
I’ve written two ebooks for Canon EOS users about camera lenses. Click on the links to learn more about each one:
The post How to Choose the Perfect Portrait Lens by Andrew S. Gibson appeared first on Digital Photography School.
About a year ago I decided to try and take my photography to the next level – to go beyond basic snapshots and try and get the wow factor into my images. I hope this article covering my photographic experiences of 2013, and the lessons I’ve learned gives you some ideas for 2014.
This is the story of my year of photographic lessons – maybe you can relate, or are on a similar journey.
Note: the images in this article are in chronological order with my early work near the top, and my most recent images at the bottom. Hopefully you can see where I’ve started from and how much I’ve progressed in a year. You can do this too!
The single biggest thing that made a difference to my photography in 2013 was joining a local club in Dublin, Ireland (www.offshoot.ie). This proved to be the turning point for a few reasons:
Competitions are one aspect of photography clubs which tends to put a lot of people off. However, I found that the competitions are very useful to help concentrate the mind on a particular topic, or learn a new technique. For example: long exposure or macro photography, which I had never tried before.
Getting expert feedback from judges can be invaluable – usually they will want to help you improve, and will provide helpful feedback on your image, e.g.. exposure, cropping, etc. Competitions are also a chance to show your off your work, and let’s face it, we all like some recognition. So winning competitions doesn’t exactly do any harm.
It’s important to get to know the basics on the technical side. It’s no substitute for the photographer’s eye, but the lack of technical skills might prevent you from capturing the image that you want. The good news is there are loads of great sources from the photography club, great websites like dPS, flickr, books, and podcasts. The big lessons for me included:
Getting a good understanding of the above should make a big difference in the quality of your images.
I try to consider the basics above and the results are improving. I generally manage to get a few images that I really like, and I think the occasional one at least that has the wow factor. With a modern DSLR you don’t need to understand all its complexities but you do need to know the key features, to get the most out of it. You don’t want to miss a shot of a spectacular sunset while you trawl through the manual, so understanding the main controls are essential including:
A big milestone for me as I got to know my camera, and got more confident, was stepping out of Auto mode and going Manual. I can attest, when you get it right, it really works. When you get it wrong, delete – it’s the busiest key on my keyboard. I still need to get my head around the focus modes, white balance and some of the more exotic possibilities like HDR.
When I joined the club I must say I had a bit of camera envy – mine being a Nikon 8 megapixel E8700 bridge camera, of 2004 vintage, which had served me well. People in the club correctly told me that it’s not the camera that makes the difference but the photographer. My vintage Nikon was great for many situations, but couldn’t match the quality and versatility of a modern DSLR.
Unfortunately, when I bought it on a family visit to New York in 2004 I explained to my wife that this $ 1100 camera was a lifetime investment. After some negotiation with my wife, I made a new lifetime investment in 2013, and am delighted with my Nikon D7100, although I’m still trying to come to grips with its incredible capabilities. I would definitely recommend a tripod also as one essential piece of gear that will improve your results, and help you to with long exposure, night shots and getting sharp images in focus.
Don’t rush into buying a whole load of gear however, wait until you find that your current camera or lens is holding you back.
Note: the images below were all taken with my new D7100.
So where to next? What does 2014 bring, I hear you ask. Now is the time to put a plan together!
This was the biggest lesson of all for me – use everything you have learned to get the best possible result. Use your knowledge of the exposure and composition. Try a different camera angle or point of view, depth of field, lens, or shutter speed to try and create an image with the wow factor.
Above all get out there taking photos and enjoy, there is no substitute for practical experience.
For more tips for beginners – head over here.
Photo Nuts and Bolts – know your camera and take better photos, a dPS ebook.
The post A Year of Photographic Lessons – Journey of a Novice Photographer by Rob Hackett appeared first on Digital Photography School.
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