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Seeing change, with photographer Chloe Collyer and the Fujifilm X100V

14 Sep

Small, lightweight and offering great image quality from its APS-C format sensor, the Fujifilm X100V is designed for street photography.

In a season of unrest across the globe, Seattle-based photographer Chloe Collyer has been busy using the X100V to document the people – and the expressions of anger and creativity – which have made this summer unforgettable.

Fujifilm X100V sample images by Chloe Collyer

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This is sponsored content, created with the support of Amazon and Fujifilm. What does this mean?

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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The OnePlus 8 Pro has a new camera capable of seeing through some materials and objects

15 May

Announced in April, the new OnePlus 8 Pro smartphone is equipped with a multitude of high-end features, including interesting camera specs. But it also includes a unique 5MP Color Filter (infrared) camera. In the camera’s operating system, the mode that uses this particular camera array is referred to as the Photochrom filter within the native camera app, and as numerous users have been discovering this week, the Color Filter camera allows you to see through some objects, including various plastics.

Twitter user Ben Geskin photographed Oculus Quest controllers, for example, realizing that the Photochrome filter allows you to actually see through the dark gray plastic on the device. Other users have photographed television remotes, Apple TV devices and more, resulting in images showing internal circuitry that you cannot see with the naked eye or traditional image sensors.

OnePlus marketing materials divulge very little information about the Color Filter camera. On the OnePlus 8 Pro product listing, there is only a single example image, shown here in an enlarged format. Image credit: OnePlus

In marketing materials for the OnePlus 8 Pro, OnePlus states that the Photochrome filter allows the user to ‘turn ordinary scenes into surreal landscapes,’ but as OnePlus 8 Pro owners are finding out, it does a lot more than that. The 5MP Color Filter camera is essentially an IR camera, so if an object does not include a material which shields IR, the camera can see through it. In the video below from Unbox Therapy, you can view the effect on a pair of television remotes, Apple TV and a Nintendo Switch Pro controller. You can also see in the video below that the Color Filter camera can partially see through some fabrics.

There is a lot more to the OnePlus 8 Pro camera for photographers than the interesting Color Filter camera. The OnePlus 8 Pro also includes a 48MP Ultra Wide Angle Camera with a 120-degree field of view and 3cm Macro Mode, 8MP Hybrid Zoom camera with 30x digital zoom, and a 48MP Main Camera with optical image stabilization.

Image credit: OnePlus

The wide camera uses a 0.5-inch type Sony IMX586 image sensor with an F2.2 lens. The primary 48MP camera uses a 1/1.4-inch type Sony IMX689 sensor with an F1.78 lens. The primary camera also includes on-sensor omni-directional phase-detect autofocus. Further, the main camera can record ‘dynamic video,’ which is a form of HDR video.

The OnePlus 8 Pro is available now from a starting price of $ 899 USD. For much more information on the OnePlus 8 Pro smartphone, read our coverage of the camera’s announcement.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Shadows in Photography – How Seeing the Shadows Helps You Understand the Light

14 Dec

The post Shadows in Photography – How Seeing the Shadows Helps You Understand the Light appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Rick Ohnsman.

There are many great quotes about the relationship and importance of light to photography. You’ve read how the very word photography is rooted in the Greek terms meaning “writing with light.” You likely have heard of groups of photographers like Canon’s “Explorers of Light.” Yet while we focus attention on the component of light, we sometimes fail to recognize the importance of areas without light, the shadows in a photograph. As there can be no yin without yang, photography also must “embrace the Tao”, the duality of both light and shadows in photography.

Let’s explore the relationship in this article on shadows in photography.

The left side is Yin, the right is Yang. As with photography, the shadow has a spot of light within it, the light a spot of shadow. Good photographers understand the “Tao,” the dual nature of light and shadow and use both to enhance their work.

Yin and Yang in the rocks as light falls across the land.

More Yin and Yang as light and shadow play across the Bruneau Dunes in Idaho.

You find what you seek

Beginning photography students are taught to see and seek the light. Sometimes they fail to realize that to better see the effects of light, it can sometimes be easier to look at the shadows.

We use terms like hard and soft to describe the quality of light when what we are really describing is the line between light and shadow. A sharp delineation between light and shadow, that’s what we call hard light. A very gradual transition between the two and that’s soft light. We need to look at both light and shadow to fully understand.

As with many things, you will begin to see…really see…what is there once you start to look for it. Taking your camera out with the express intention of capturing shadows in photography is a great way to seek and see the light.

Image: Sometimes the photo comes to you. When the morning light came through the Venetian blinds, an...

Sometimes the photo comes to you. When the morning light came through the Venetian blinds, and I saw this, I went for my camera.

Shadow seasons and times

It’s late November as I write this, and at my latitude – about 43-degrees north – we’re getting into winter. The days are growing shorter, and the shadows are growing longer. With the winter solstice approaching on December 21, the sun will be the lowest in the sky for us in the northern hemisphere. For my friends down under in the southern hemisphere, that same day will be the longest and the middle of summer.

Of course, the time of day plays a big part in that too, regardless of the time of year. One reason photographers favor early morning and late afternoon/evening is not just for the golden hour, but for the low light angle and more dramatic shadows.

Yes, you will find shadows at any time of the day, but their size and characteristics will vary with time of day and time of year.

When the days grow short, the shadows grow long.

Then there’s artificial light. You can’t control the sun, but you can control artificial light sources. You can control their intensity, color, and direction, and with the use of modifiers, the quality of shadows.

With regard to shadows, remember that the hardness/softness of shadows is a factor of the size of the light source relative to the size of the subject.

A softbox makes for soft shadows because it increases the size of the light source relative to the size of the subject. You will also get softer shadows when you move the light closer to the subject (which also increases its relative size).

You can learn more about the qualities of light in my previous article, “How to Understand Light and Color to Improve your Photography.”

All photos contain both light and shadow. Seeing it, and learning to best use it, is the key.

Can you study this photo and figure out, by looking at the shadows, how the light was used?

The shadow shows

Looking at a photo, studying the shadows can tell you about:

Direction

Look at a photo and study where the shadows are falling. The light source will be exactly opposite from the directions the shadows fall or from the darkest side of the subject.

The subtle gradation of light and shadow gives shape and form to these apples.

Shape and form

The way light and shadows fall, give us clues as to the shape of a subject. Photography is a 2D medium we use to capture a 3D world, and light and shadow help add depth, dimension, and form to subjects.

Photograph an egg with the light source directly coming from the same direction the camera is pointing, and you will see a two-dimensional oval with little clue as to the depth of the egg.

Now move the light to a 45-degree angle, and the shadow will begin to give evidence to the true shape of the egg.

Move the light 90-degrees to the camera direction, and your perception changes again.

Whatever the subject, the direction of the light, and the areas in shadow are our clues to interpreting our subject.

Low cross-lighting brings out the texture of these subjects with harsh light and shadow gradation.

Texture

Often we want to control how textured a subject looks in our photo. For some subjects, we may wish to emphasize the texture as much as possible. Hard light raking the subject from the side, behind, above, or below the subject will increase apparent texture by creating both lit and shadow areas.

Sometimes we want minimal texture, perhaps when making portraits. Large light sources like softboxes or nature’s lightbox, the sky on an overcast day, will soften shadows and minimize texture.

Want drama? Find a way to use the light and shadow creatively in your photo.

Mood and drama

What is in light and shadow, what is bright and dark, how and where the shadows fall – all of these work together to communicate the mood of an image.

This is another example of learning to see how both light and shadow work together.

Note how non-traditional side lighting adds drama to these portraits.

We can also use light and shadow as we make portraits.

Standard three-point studio lighting can make for a pleasing portrait. Still, when we want to emphasize shape, form, texture, or create an edgier, moodier portrait, we will want to look at more dramatic light and, in particular, how light and shadow interplay.

Image: Photographers travel the world to photograph the Palouse country in eastern Washington State....

Photographers travel the world to photograph the Palouse country in eastern Washington State. The play of light and shadow on the rolling hills is the main attraction.

Same shot, one color, one monochrome. Note how the simpler mono image is more about the lines, shapes, and tones.

Color vs monochrome

If you have worked much with monochrome photography, you may know that one reason for choosing it over color photography is that without the added distraction of color in the image, a monochrome image can be more about the lines, texture, and tones in the photograph.

When doing shadow photography, you may also be looking for an emphasis on those same things. So, if you are unaccustomed to making monochrome images, you may wish to give it a try when doing shadow photography as the two techniques often complement one another.

The shadows are as much the subject as the other objects in these photos.

The shadow as the subject

All photographs will have areas of light and shadow.

A good photographer will pay attention to how both work together to enhance their image. Sometimes, however, instead of simply having shadows be a component in your photo, you may want to try making shadows THE subject – the main focus of your image.

I said that you find what you seek, and going out with the specific mission of capturing shadows in photography is a great way to learn to see shadows better and understand light.

Let’s look at some examples of shadows in photography.

Image: In the image on the left, the shadows enhance the subjects. In the photo on the right, the sh...

In the image on the left, the shadows enhance the subjects. In the photo on the right, the shadows ARE the subject.

Go out with the intent of taking shadows in photography and you’ll find some interesting compositions.

Early morning or late afternoon when the light is low is a great time to go “shadow hunting.”

“A Little Fork Music.” Shadows can surprise you. See the hand strumming a guitar?

Seek and see shadows in photography

So now it’s all yours… get out there with your camera and go on a shadow hunt. You’ve always heard that photographers should seek the light. “Mr. Kodak,” George Eastman obviously knew a thing or two about photography and he said –

Light makes photography. Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography. – George Eastman

I heartily endorse his advice. However, I would also suggest that while you learn about the “Yang,” the light, you do not overlook the “Yin,” the shadows. They are immutably entwined, two sides of the same coin, both to be, to use Eastman’s words, embraced, admired, loved, and known.

To practice capturing shadows in photography will help you become a better photographer. When you see the shadows, you will also see the light.

Do you have any other tips for capturing shadows in photography or shadow photography images you’d like to share with us? If so, share them with us in the comments!

The post Shadows in Photography – How Seeing the Shadows Helps You Understand the Light appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Rick Ohnsman.

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Image Resolution Explained – Seeing the Big Picture

28 May

The post Image Resolution Explained – Seeing the Big Picture appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Herb Paynter.

The very first thing you must understand about photography is that it is totally based on illusion; you choose to believe what you perceive. This concept didn’t originate with photography’s pixels and dots; it is the very basis for human sight. Your brain chooses to believe something to be true well beyond what your eyes can verify or recognize to be true. The very word “resolution” gives light to this concept. The resolving power of a lens is its ability to distinguish small elements of detail. This same issue is true concerning the human eye and its perception of images on a computer screen and the printed page. Each of these “interpretations” relies on a mechanism to carry out an illusion. The eye’s mechanism is rods and cones, cameras use photo receptors, computer screens use pixels, and printing machines use spots and halftone dots. The degree to which each device succeeds in their illusionary quest is dependent upon the resolution of the mechanism and the resolving power of the device.

Each system requires two elements – a transmitter and a receiver. Just as a magic trick requires both a salesman (the magician) and a customer (the viewer), each “visual” process requires a good presenter and a willing observer. The common phrases, “seeing is believing,” and “perception is reality,” pretty much define the benchmark of success. Now let’s get image resolution explained and show you where it’s is most effectively used.

Image resolution

There comes a finite distance when viewing any image where your eye can no longer distinguish individual colors. Beyond that point, your brain must sell the idea that detail indeed exists beyond that point of distinction. The detail you see when viewing an object at close range continues to be perceived long after that object is too far away to verify that detail. There are limitations to the normal resolving power of the human eye with “normal” defined as 20-20 vision.

In the image reproduction process, delivering an image with excess resolution becomes useless when the result of that extra resolution has no purpose. Thus, the gauge of all visual resolution must ultimately be framed by resolving capabilities of the human eye. Producing more image resolution than the eye can perceive doesn’t increase the detail or improve the definition, it just creates bigger files.

While you feel more confident when you pass massive amounts of pixels on to your printer, your printer doesn’t appreciate the excess. It throws all those extra pixels away. More ain’t better; it’s just more.

Dots, Pixels, Lines, and Spots

Beware of the numbers game that is played by manufacturers in the imaging industry. There is ample misinformation and misused terminology floating around that causes significant confusion about imaging resolution. Allow me to clarify some very foggy air beginning with terminology.

DPI (Dots per inch)

The term DPI is probably the most misconstrued acronym in the digital imaging world as it is loosely cast about in digital imaging and applied to just about every device. DPI, or dots per inch, is a reference to printing device’s resolution and describes the dots and spots that each technology uses in various combinations to simulate “tones.” Dots are neither pixels nor halftone dots. We’d all be a bit better off not using this term as it has little practical application.

PPI (pixels per inch)

The basic structure of every digital image is the pixel. Pixels are the square blocks of tones and colors that you see when images are enlarged on computer screens (see the Eye illustration below). The measure of those pixels (typically in a linear inch) determines an image’s resolution and should always be addressed as PPI, or pixels per inch. This setting is affected by the Image Size dialog box in editing software. The higher the number of pixels in an inch, the higher the image resolution. Scanners, digital cameras, and paint programs all use the PPI terminology.

Of all the resolution terms in the industry, this is one that deserves top billing. While the rest of the terms need to be recognized, rarely will they have to enter the conversation.

When viewed in imaging software, these squares are referred to as pixels and should be defined in values of pixels per inch (PPI). This particular dialog defines the size of the “Eye” picture in this article. Internet images are defined by pixel count and concern the linear measurement of horizontal pixels in the image.

LPI (lines per inch)

LPI refers to the halftone dot structure used by laser printers and the offset printing process to simulate the continuous tones of photographic images. LPI refers to the number of “lines” of halftone dots used by various printing processes. “Lines” is a throwback reference to the days when actual lines were etched in glass plates to interpret photographic tones in early printing processes.

This LPI number is specific to the printing industry. Lower numbers refer to larger, more visible halftone dots (newspapers) while higher numbers refer to much smaller and less visible dots (magazines and artwork). I’ll get into the numbers later.

Spots and SPI (spots per inch)

A spot is a rarely used term that refers to both inkjet and imagesetter processes. With inkjet, it is the measure of micro-droplets of ink sprayed during the inkjet printing process. SPI, or spots per inch is a User-Selectable issue concerning the resolution choices when using some inkjet printers. Higher SPI also affects the quality of the printing process by slowing the speed at which the paper is fed through the printer. The spot “marking” size of both plate and imagesetters determines the quality of the shape of halftone dots produced and only applies to high-end lithographers and service bureaus.

Device real-world requirements for optimal resolution

Now we’ll look at each device’s real-world requirements for optimal resolution. How much is too little and how much is too much? The answers require a bit of explanation because there are some variables involved in the projects and the printing devices. First I’ll clarify some misconceptions about digital camera files, then I’ll address three specific printing technologies and give you some concrete examples.

Digital Cameras

The most common reference to camera resolution relates to the camera’s image sensor. These sensors contain a grid of cells called photosites, each cell measuring the light value (in lumens) striking it during an exposure. The actual number of cells contained in an image sensor varies depending on the camera model. When the number of horizontal cells gets multiplied by the number of vertical cells on the sensor, the “size” of the sensor is defined. The Nikon D500 sensor measures 4,288 x 2,848, or 12,212,224 pixels, making it a 12.3 mega (million) pixel camera.

The individual cells in the image sensor are covered by either a red, green, or blue filter called a Bayer array. Each cell records the filtered light, converting the combined values into individual pixel colors.

These pixels can produce any number of different size pictures for various purposes. Each printing process requires a different number of pixels per inch (PPI) to deliver optimal quality prints at a given size. This is because the technology used for each type of printing is different. For example, high-quality inkjet printers spray liquid inks onto paper using very small nozzles (usually 1440 spots per inch).

Laser printers

Most laser printers are either 600 or 1200 dpi devices meaning that a solid line printed horizontally will be composed of either 600 or 1200 dots. Type is printed using all these dots while halftone images can be effectively reproduced from 220-300 pixel-per-inch (PPI) images.

Inside these laser printers is a raster image processor (RIP) that generates halftone dots from square pixels. The value of each image pixel gets transposed into a halftone cell. The formula for exchanging this grid of square pixels into a diagonal pattern of variable-size dots goes way beyond explanation in this article, but it’s kind of like magic.

Laser printers simulate gray tones using the halftoning process provided by the printer’s RIP.

Inkjet printers

Inkjet printers use totally different technology to translate color pixels into printed images. Tiny spray nozzles distribute ink to specific parts of the image to deliver their version of the imaging illusion. The resolution (PPI) required to deliver accurate inkjet images differs from laser printers. This is because they do not use the geometric mechanism of halftone cells but instead, spray microscopic amounts of each ink to precise locations as determined by the pixel values.

Inkjet printers require significantly fewer pixels per inch (PPI) than laser printers to carry the illusion. Typically 150-200 PPI is quite sufficient.

Lithographic printing

Offset printing includes newspapers, magazines, and brochures. Each requires a slightly different lines-per-inch (LPI) pattern of dots. Newspapers are typically 85 LPI, magazines are 150 LPI, and high-end brochures and other collateral material require up to 200 LPI resolution.

Each line screen value is produced by a different PPI formula. While all these types of printing can be produced from 300 PPI files, all that resolution is certainly not required and is technically overkill. Even those high-end brochures technically don’t require this much resolution, but the early-adopted myth of 2xLPI persists yet today. The actual requirement for all high-end printing is only 1.4xLPI. Any more resolution simply gets discarded by the platesetter’s RIP.

In this calculation, newspapers (85LPI) need only 120 PPI, magazines require only 212 PPI, and even the best quality print is ideally produced with just 283 PPI.

In case you’re thinking that this is splitting hairs and irrelevant, consider this… using the 1.4 rule totally meets the mathematical requirement and saves a whopping 50% of the file size in storage real estate and transfer time.

I fully expect to hear some pushback about these numbers, but science and math don’t lie. Phobias about resolution are long entrenched, respected, and expected. However, in the end, it really doesn’t matter that much.

No-nos

There are two unforgivable sins in preparing your images for proper resolution. Low-res and up-res.

Low-res

The biggest sin of all is sending files to the printer/publisher with too little resolution.

That is a certain formula for poor results and shows up in the form of soft detail and bitmapped edges caused by normal sharpening.

Every form of print technology requires a minimum of pixels to produce fully-detailed and sharp images. So do not shortchange your project in this respect.

Remember, size your images for the final appearance and assign the PPI at that final size. If you want to see an 8”x10” image appear in print, make sure you address the issue of PPI in the Image Size dialog and before you save the file.

Monitor the Image Size dialog carefully when you make changes. Resample an image while watching the Image Size figure at the top of the dialog. Try to never let it increase. You can get away with a small increase but do so only when necessary.

Up-res

Make it a rule never to increase your image size as it is a sure-fire recipe for disaster. You can’t create detail; you can only destroy it. Whatever size file (pixel count) you begin with is the largest pixel count you should print unless you’re okay with soft images.

Pixels are not rubber, and you cannot stretch them to a larger size without sacrificing the sharpness of the image. Your digital camera most likely provides you with ample original pixels to print most projects, try to stay within that original ratio.

You can increase the image size, but you can’t increase its detail. Every time you enlarge an image, you distort the pixels. So if you want to print sharp images, don’t enlarge them!

The major advantage to maintaining higher resolution files for an archive is that if an image ever needs to be cropped or enlarged, that extra resolution will undoubtedly come in handy.

It remains standard operating procedure in the printing industry to send all files to the printer with 300 PPI resolution. Cloud services, backup systems, and storage media sales folks certainly want you to continue the 300 PPI trend and rent more parking space on their sites.

Final thought

Make it your goal to make the best of this visual illusion called photography. Your camera, your computer, and your printer provide all the tools you need to perform your magic with great success. Enjoy.

The post Image Resolution Explained – Seeing the Big Picture appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Herb Paynter.

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Seeing into space: Cosmic Microscapes with photographer Neil Buckland

22 Apr

A slice of meteorite, sandwiched between two linear polarizers.

Neil Buckland is obsessed with detail. For more than fifteen years, the Seattle-based photographer has been doing stitched landscape photography composed of dozens of images, captured on everything from Micro Four Thirds cameras all the way up to medium format. These days, he’s become enamored with a new type of landscape – one that is very, very small. It also happens to come from space.

“I’ve always been fascinated with abstract photography of ordinary things,” Buckland says. “There’s beauty everywhere, and I especially love using macro lenses to reveal more detail than I can see with my eyes – an extension of seeing more detail is capturing more resolution, more clarity, more information.”

When it comes to his newest work, which he’s titled Cosmic Microscapes, the objects of Buckland’s abstract photography are anything but ordinary. They’re impossibly thin slices (i.e. 30 microns ‘thick’ – human hair averages 90 microns) of formerly space-faring objects that have crashed into Earth over the millennia. And though most of these slides are around 0.75″x1.5″ in size, Buckland is making prints from them that are around 12 feet wide and even larger.

By rotating the polarizers, Buckland can alter the visible colors seen through the sample.

I had a chance to sit down with Buckland in his studio in south Seattle to discuss not only how this project came to be, but also how he manages to produce these images – and this insane amount of detail – on a fully custom-built rig.

‘The depth-of-field is 3.5 microns thick’

It all started when Dr. Tony Irving of the University of Washington first came to Buckland’s studio three years ago to have meteorite slices photographed for a scientific presentation. At that time, Buckland didn’t know what this project would grow into.

Buckland’s rig is almost entirely custom-made for this specific purpose.

“The first time I looked at [the slide], I thought, ‘okay, nothing special,'” Buckland said. Then, Dr. Irving used two linear polarizing filters to pass cross-polarized light through it. “What is this magic? With the cross-polarized light, you get these crazy colors you never knew existed,” Buckland said. The colors tell scientists a lot about the chemical composition of what they’re looking at – but they also happen to be stunningly beautiful.

Buckland started out using a standard macro lens on a Pentax K-1 DSLR, and while this served him well enough for Dr. Irving’s scientific presentations, one thing led to another – and another. He soon bought a Venus Optics 2.5x-5x macro lens, but that also wasn’t enough.

Buckland must make incredibly fine adjustments to ensure precise focus across a 1.5″ specimen.

After months of tinkering, Buckland found what he was really after: a 10x microscope objective, mounted to his camera via a custom-made adapter, with the camera on a custom-made reinforced metal mounting base that weighs in at around 50 lbs. Despite the concrete construction of his studio building, Buckland couldn’t work with a lighter stand. “My biggest, heaviest tripod was useless,” Buckland said. “A UPS truck would pass by and I’d see the camera live view shake like crazy.” And when you’re using Pentax’s Pixel Shift technology at this level of magnification, you need absolute and complete stability.

This is because a 10x microscope objective is more magnified than you might think. “I’m only seeing 2 millimeters square of the slide,” Buckland said, which is about what you’d see looking through the microscope with your own eye. “But I want to see the whole thing,” Buckland said, and so he captures 300 to 400 2x2mm tiles and stitches them together. The capturing process can take up to 4 hours per slide, and focusing alone can take an hour or so. The depth-of-field is only around 3.5 microns(!), so precise calibration is necessary to ensure the whole slide stays in focus throughout the capture process.

Buckland takes a break from lining up his camera to pose for a portrait.

“I’ve looked at these slices my entire career, and no one has ever really been able to see more than one or two millimeters of the thing at a time [with this detail],” said Dr. Irving. “When you take a slide and you look at it as a geologist, you move it around. But when you move, you lose the context. So there is a practical aspect that these images make for an enhancement of scientific study.”

The images already look amazing on a 65″ OLED monitor in Buckland’s studio, but of course, on the digital display you can still zoom in to see greater detail – and just keep zooming. But then you’re moving around again, and losing context. So how do you avoid that? You make prints. Really, really big prints.

Seeing the whole picture

Neil and his pup, Brian, next to a print in his studio.

As referenced earlier, one of Buckland’s specialties is stitched panoramic images of vast natural landscapes. The creation of these images was largely inspired by Thomas Hill’s early paintings of what would become some of the United States’ most treasured national parks.

“I’m obsessed with detail. When I make these giant landscape prints, I want you to stand in front of them and feel like you’re there,” Buckland said. “With this custom rig, I can do that with a micro subject – not just giant landscapes.” Thus, the name ‘microscape’ was born.

Here’s a sampling of some low-res images of Buckland’s meteorite work (and you can see far more here).

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After spending anywhere from 6 to 10 hours capturing, stitching and cleaning up a meteorite image, Buckland selects a relatively small crop for a final print. His Canon wide-format printer is limited to prints 44 inches wide, so for a 12-foot-wide print, he has to divide the image into strips. These are then painstakingly cut and mounted together, with careful attention paid to a lack of visible seams between the strips. And even though they’re enormous, the detail isn’t exactly lacking.

After all, prints that large can often fall apart when you’re too close – they’re meant to be viewed at a distance. “That doesn’t work for me,” Buckland said. “I want you to get really, really close to my prints – you can’t get too close, because your eyes won’t be able to focus at that point.” Dr. Irving said that, aside from the educational advantages, “if you have the time to stand in front of it, you can really appreciate it – like all art.”

What’s next

A gallery visitor lingers in front of Buckland’s more modest-sized 30 x 40″ prints.
Photo by Nate Gowdy | Courtesy Neil Buckland

Dr. Irving continues to bring more samples to Buckland, who continues to photograph them in staggering detail. But Buckland isn’t satisfied yet. In addition to a newly opened gallery showing in Seattle, Buckland aims to produce a traveling exhibition of mammoth prints to be shown at natural history museums and continues to tinker with his photography setup for even better results – including considering Panasonic’s Lumix S1R and its 187MP high-res mode. But in the meantime?

“I just ordered a 20x microscope objective, which would probably quadruple the number of tiles – which is totally insane.” Buckland said. “There’s just no logical reason to capture that much detail!” he laughs.

So I ask, why do it then? He points to an enormous, stitched image of El Capitan at sunrise in Yosemite national park hanging prominently in his studio. “Why would you climb such a thing? Because it’s there.”

Neil Buckland is a photographer based in Seattle who specializes in nature, portrait and product photography. He also runs educational workshops, both at his REDred Photo studio and on location around the world.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Seeing into space: Cosmic Microscapes with photographer Neil Buckland

21 Apr

A slice of meteorite, sandwiched between two linear polarizers.

By rotating the polarizers, Buckland can alter the visible colors seen through the sample.

‘The depth-of-field is 3.5 microns thick’

Buckland’s rig is almost entirely custom-made for this specific purpose.

Buckland must make incredibly fine adjustments to ensure precise focus across a 1.5″ specimen.

This is because a 10x microscope objective is more magnified than you might think. “I’m only seeing 2 millimeters square of the slide,” Buckland said, which is about what you’d see looking through the microscope with your own eye. “But I want to see the whole thing,” Buckland said, and so he captures up to 300 to 400 2x2mm tiles and stitches them together. The capturing process can take up to 4 hours per slide, and focusing alone can take an hour or so. The depth-of-field is only around 3.5 microns(!), so precise calibration is necessary to ensure the whole slide stays in focus throughout the capture process.

Buckland takes a break from lining up his camera to pose for a portrait.

Seeing the whole picture

Neil and his pup, Brian, next to a print in his studio.

Here’s a sampling of some low-res images of Buckland’s meteorite work (and you can see far more here).

What’s next

A gallery visitor lingers in front of Buckland’s more modest-sized 30 x 40″ prints.
Photo by Nate Gowdy | Courtesy Neil Buckland

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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How to Make Well Exposed Photos Every Time. Part 1 – Seeing the Light

03 Apr

The post How to Make Well Exposed Photos Every Time. Part 1 – Seeing the Light appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.

Part One – Seeing the Light

Opinions about what a correctly exposed photograph is must be about as numerous as what people choose to take pictures of. Some opinions are more common than others.

‘Every photograph must contain an even range of tone with no details lost in the highlight or shadow areas.’ This is the one I encounter most frequently. It’s probably been learned from technical books and academics.

Durian How to Make Well Exposed Photos Every Time

Performing a quick Google search on this topic brings up the Canon Australia website with this:

“The act of having ‘correct’ exposure means your combination of settings between aperture, shutter speed, and ISO speed have produced a perfectly exposed image. When nothing is blown out (highlights) or lost in shadow in an image, it has achieved correct exposure.”

I’m not including this quote to get at Canon users or Aussies, (even though I am a Nikon user and a Kiwi,) but because it represents a purely technical approach to exposure choice.

How to Make Well Exposed Photos Every Time Flower and Moss

How can creative expression be judged as correct?

Photography, at its best, is a creative expression of how we perceive what we see. Our world view is unique. Each of us has the ability to interpret and convey our experience through the photographs we capture.

Freedom to expose our photos so some parts of our compositions have no recorded detail is a natural part of this art form. If our minds are boxed in by technical restraints such as are expressed on the Canon Australia website, our expression is inhibited.

I’m not suggesting we disregard technical quality – this would be like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I am recommending you reach beyond purely technical restraints to expose your photos so that they are more expressive of what they are about, not just what they are of.

Conforming to the opinion that photographs are best when no details get lost due to exposure choice can provide documentation of what you are photographing. This approach to taking pictures will not often infuse your photographs with much life, emotion, or energy, apart from what your subject may naturally provide.

Histogram bells taste like Vanilla ice cream

Vanilla ice cream – enjoyable sometimes – but plain nonetheless. You are likely to get bored with it if that’s all you eat. It’s not the most exciting flavor at the ice cream parlor.

A bell-shaped histogram indicates your camera has recorded a lot of mid-range tones and little or no extreme dark or light ones.

Striving for a bell-shaped histogram is not going to produce the most flavorsome photographs. At times you’ll make a great image that’s got a bell-shaped histogram, but not often.

I believe it’s a common myth that the ideal histogram is bell-shaped.

Even Exposure Buddha Statue How to Make Well Exposed Photos Every Time

You can see that the histogram for this image is reasonably balanced. There are no spikes to the left or right. This indicates we will see detail in the darkest and brightest parts of the composition.

I took the photo mid-afternoon on an overcast day. Because the light was soft and even, and the tones in my composition are all fairly neutral, I have obtained a ‘correct’ exposure.

How to Make Well Exposed Photos Every Time Contrast-Buddha-Statue

Subscribing to the ideal of the bell shape, you might look at this histogram and think the photo is extremely underexposed. You might even consider deleting such an image based on this information alone.

It is the same statue photographed on a sunny day in the mid-afternoon. It’s a much more appealing photograph than the one made on the overcast afternoon.

It was my intention to lose shadow detail. I wanted to isolate the statue from the dull background and add some drama.

Exposure choices are as personal as ice cream preferences

How to Make Well Exposed Photos Every Time Chocolate Ice Cream

Seeking to only create photos with an even exposure throughout the tone range is like choosing to eat just vanilla ice cream and always ignoring all the other flavors.

Great photographs express what the photographer sees and experiences. Sometimes they are technically correct, many times they aren’t. It all comes back to the intent of the photographer.

Choosing to let most of your composition fall into darkness is your choice. If you want to use the shadow areas to enhance your subject, then do it. If light streaming into your lens from behind your subject creates softness and depth of feeling, let it happen.

Don’t just focus on the technical details. You will usually end up with photos containing little or no feeling.

Before you bring your camera up to your eye, you need to see the light. Consider the brightest parts of a scene. Are they important? Do you need to show detail in them to convey what you want to with your photo?

Likewise for the dark areas of your photo – if there are a lot of distracting elements in the shadow areas – let them be buried in the darkness.

How to Make Well Exposed Photos Every Time Woman Tourist with an Elephant

Behind the woman and elephant was a large, open building casting a helpful shadow over its messy interior. By positioning myself so I could only see the shaded area behind my subjects, I knew I could isolate them. I set my exposure for the woman’s face, as it’s the most important part of my composition.

The fact that the background is dark and contains no detail helps make my photo stronger.

Understanding light and tone will help you make more interesting exposures. Knowing how your camera evaluates and records light and tone is equally as important. How to manage your exposure is the topic of the next article in this series.

What’s the most important element in your composition?

Recognizing your key subject is an important early decision in taking a photo. Most often it will be your first.

This will be what you focus on and what you want to expose well, (usually). If your subject has a wide tonal range – say a bride in a white dress and a groom in a black suit – be careful. Your camera will not be able to render detail both in the dress and the suit because the tones are extremely different.

Likewise, if part of your subject is in bright sun and part is in the shade, you will need to choose your exposure carefully. The contrast created by sunlight and shade is also extreme.

Discerning your primary subject helps you compose everything in your frame around it. Exposing it well helps make it the center of attention in your photograph.

How to Make Well Exposed Photos Every Time Fancy Kaftan

What mood do you want to capture or create?

To me, the answer to this question is more important to focus on than trying to obtain a full tonal range in my photographs.

The type of light you’re photographing in will influence the feeling in your photographs. So will your exposure choice. Is the light bright and hard, or soft and gentle? Should you set your exposure so you can see all the detail in the shadows or chose to let them become very dark and contain little or no detail?

Letting your camera make these choices for you, by not controlling your exposure, your photos may become flat and somewhat lifeless. By taking control and exposing your main subject well you can infuse story, drama, and imagination.

How to Make Well Exposed Photos Every Time Karen Grandpa

I have a mantra of sorts. Look. Think. Click.

Look at what you want to photograph. See what is before you. Your subject, it’s surroundings and the background. The light.

Think about how you want to portray your subject. What is your intention?

How much or how little do you want to include? What will fill your frame?

What quality is the light and how will it affect your photo?

Where will you stand or position yourself?

When will be the best time to take your photo?

Which exposure settings will you choose to best suit your intention?

Click. This should only happen once you have thought these things through.

How to Make Well Exposed Photos Every Time Chedi

It may seem a whole lot to do before taking a photograph, but this is what makes the difference between a snapshot and an image you may want to have framed and hang on your wall.

In the next article in this series, I will cover how to manage your camera settings to match your intent.

The post How to Make Well Exposed Photos Every Time. Part 1 – Seeing the Light appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.

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Weekly Photography Challenge – Seeing Red

01 Sep

Okay, this should be an easy one for you. All you need to do to participate in this week’s photography challenge is come up with something red!

Photo by Jacek Dylag on Unsplash

That could mean finding a red subject, making your own (oil and water and dye) or using a selective color technique to remove all the other tints in the image except for red.

Weekly Photography Challenge – The Color Red

Simply upload your shot into the comment field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see or if you’d prefer, upload them to your favorite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them. Show me your best images in this week’s challenge. Sometimes it takes a while for an image to appear so be patient and try not to post the same image twice.

Share in the dPS Facebook Group

You can also share your images in the dPS Facebook group as the challenge is posted there each week as well.

The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Seeing Red appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Focus on Photographing a Different Color Each Day to Practice the Art of Seeing

22 Mar

Color is all around us. As beautiful as black and white can be, color gives us variety and sometimes, unpredictability. But funnily enough, it’s also easy to take it for granted.

Over time, I’ve come up with a few exercises to keep color at the forefront of my mind. One of these exercises is to focus on photographing a different color each day. It’s great for keeping your photography fresh and training your eyes to look out for new photographic opportunities.

Getting started

Color may make up the majority of our world, but photographing it might not be as easy as you think. Sometimes the abundance of color can be overwhelming, and sometimes it’s hard to find the color you’re looking for at all! Before taking up the challenge, grab a pen and paper. Write down a heading for each color and list as many different things you can think of under each. Sometimes it’s even worth Googling specific color schemes, just to give you some ideas of what to look for.

Next, designate a day for each color you would like to photograph. And it doesn’t have to be the generic gamut of colors either. Why not try looking out for a more pastel pallet? Soft pinks, greys, and blues make wonderful, atmospheric photographs. More earthy colors like oranges, browns and dark greens are great colors to keep a look out for in Autumn.

Look for bold colors…

Humans have evolved to seek out bold coloration. Deep, saturated colors catch the eye and pull the viewer in for a closer look. A bold color scheme emphasizes texture and shape, especially within a limited color pallete.

Focus on Photographing a Different Color Each Day to Practice the Art of Seeing

Deep, saturated colors catch the eye and pull the viewer in for a closer look.

And a softer color pallete…

Color photography doesn’t always have to be about a bold color scheme. Subtle or almost monochrome color schemes emphasize detail and lend a softer atmosphere to a photograph.

Pastel photographs are best taken during cloudy or low-light days to minimize shadows for a more even-toned image.

Softer pastels like pink and purple can add color without overpowering the image.

Why not both?

The foreground of this image is made up of bold, contrasting colors while the background is predominantly made up of a soft pink pallet. The bold and soft colors emphasize each other and create a more dynamic image. The negative space around the top half of the image is important too, it maintains balance, making sure the full extent of the color palette isn’t too overwhelming.

The opportunity to combine both soft and bold colors doesn’t happen frequently, but you’ll know when it does. Combining the two color schemes creates a dynamic image where bolder and softer colors reinforce each other and bring the image together.

Using movement

Color can accentuate camera movement, and movement can accentuate color. It’s a well-loved dichotomy that is great for abstracted imagery.

Try taking photographs out a moving car window or bus. A slow shutter speed in the late afternoon will allow enough light to create a softness of color.

This image was taken with a slow shutter speed while traveling through the outback. The afternoon light mingles with the light of traveling cars to make a soft, atmospheric abstracted photograph.

Detail

Colour has the power to illuminate detail, adding to the depth of a photograph overall. In a good image, color is the cherry on top – the final pop of color to resolve your photograph.

The subtle yellow road sign and red symbols add detail to an image and invite the viewer in for a closer look.

Look for color in unusual spots

Like I mentioned before, finding your selected color of the day may prove surprisingly tricky. Focusing on red one day will take you on a completely different journey than if you were looking for blue subjects.

Try looking in less frequented locations for unusual colors and patterns. Or take a drive and explore a new location altogether. Changing your perspective or focusing on compositional techniques like leading lines and texture can help get those creative juices flowing.

A red pallete for Monday. Trying to look for unusual perspectives often yields unexpected results, revealing your color of the day in new and interesting ways.

Wednesday’s color pallete, green and blue tiles adorn an urban walkway.

Conclusion

While color is all around us, it’s easy to take for granted. Simple exercises like focusing on photographing a particular color each day help keep your practice fresh and unique.

Keep your eyes peeled and don’t be afraid to explore, color often reveals itself in unexpected and fascinating ways!

The post Focus on Photographing a Different Color Each Day to Practice the Art of Seeing by Megan Kennedy appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Beyond Human Vision – Seeing More With Photography

20 May

Have you ever been frustrated because you don’t seem to be able to photograph a scene the way it looks to you, with your vision? Maybe you can’t get a sharp image even though the scene is perfectly clear, or perhaps the camera fails to capture the beautiful variety of light in a landscape.

It’s possible that you’re having technical trouble in getting the most from your camera, but it might also be because the human eye and the camera aren’t the same, despite their compelling similarities. For instance, our eyes have a much broader dynamic range than any sensor or film, and our binocular vision gives us amazing depth perception.

But have you ever thought of the ways in which cameras can outperform the vision of your eyes? These aspects of your favorite tool are not obscure quirks, but commonly used techniques that broaden your perception of the world around you.

So let’s dive into the mysteries of the camera! Maybe realizing how photography expands your worldview will make you look at photography (and reality) in a slightly different way.

1. Capturing time

With the camera, you can capture time in different units than your eye does. This, of course, is done by choosing a shutter speed. There isn’t a direct counterpart to shutter speed in human vision, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take advantage of the camera’s ability to observe the passage of time beyond our own vision.

A long shutter speed of several seconds lets you see movement that isn’t discernible at all or in the same way by vision alone. Exposure: 1/3rd of a second, f/14.0, ISO 100.

Controlling shutter speed is also what makes light painting possible. Exposure: 134 seconds, f/5.6, ISO 100.

Using a really fast shutter speed lets you transform continuous motion that you see as a blur into a frozen instant. I thought I was photographing a bird sitting on a snowy branch, but all I got was a miniature snow flurry. Exposure: 1/500th, f/2.8, ISO 800.

2. Capturing light

Even though your eyes are better than cameras at distinguishing a wide range of light levels in the same frame, the camera can extend your observation of very dark and very light scenes. You can accomplish this by carefully balancing shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. Modern cameras allow for ever higher ISO levels, which increase the light sensitivity and allow you to capture images in really dark scenes.

If you’re lucky, you can see The Milky Way with your naked eye. Capturing it with a camera, though, allows you to see even more details of our galaxy. Exposure: 35 seconds, f/4.0, ISO 1600.

3. Field of view

The human field of view is static, about 190 degrees depending on the anatomy of your face. By using lenses, you can vary that field of view from slightly larger to much smaller.

A wide field of view, but still not as wide as that of most humans. Exposure: 1/13th, f/7.1, ISO 400.

A very small (narrow) field of view. This close-up, or macro, shows the tiny details of a fungus growing. Exposure: 1/25th, f/6.3, ISO 100.

4. Depth of field

Although you can’t control it, your eyes do have a changeable aperture called the pupil. It’s difficult to find information on exactly what kind of apertures the human eye can pull off. But whether the camera can do more or less, the effects of a small or large depth of field differ between eyes and cameras.

Examples of this are bokeh, which is achieved by a large aperture (small depth of field), and the starburst effects caused by a very small aperture (large depth of field).

Snow and ice crystals creating bokeh. Exposure: 1/100th, f/4.0, ISO 160.

Starburst over a snowy sea. Exposure: 1/500th, f/20.0, ISO 100.

5. Color

Although cameras have been designed to capture the same colors that we see, some can detect color in a very different way, including sensors used mainly by scientists to detect ultra-violet, infrared, or other parts of the non-visible spectrum.

The ability of some film to capture black and white offers us a new way to see the world, focusing on tones rather than colors. You can also make black and white photographs with a digital camera, though this is almost always a conversion from color to monochrome, either in-camera or in post-processing (there are a couple of monochrome digital cameras available on the market, but they are neither common nor cheap).

A monochrome vision – this photo was taken as a color image, then converted to black and white in post-processing. Exposure: 1/80th, f/4.0, ISO 1250.

Conclusion

Can you come up with more things that the camera can do but you can’t? Do you think your camera helps extend your vision – both literally and metaphorically? I’d love to hear from you and see some of your creations in the comments section below.

The post Beyond Human Vision – Seeing More With Photography by Hannele Luhtasela-el Showk appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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