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dPS Ultimate Guide to Night Photography

27 Jun

In this, the next installment of our dPS ultimate guides, learn what you need to know to get started doing night photography.

Introduction

Tower Bridge - dPS Ultimate Guide to Night Photography

Tower Bridge, London. Exposure: shutter speed 2.6 seconds, aperture f/5.6, ISO 100.

Night photography immediately solves a huge problem that you confront constantly in photography. That problem is being faced with ordinary scenes that just aren’t very interesting. If you take a picture of a building or a standard street scene during the day, it can be sort of dull. We are all used to seeing shots taken in the middle of the day. That same scene – shot at night – can be a really interesting photograph though.

The actual taking of pictures at night might seem a little bit like magic if you are just getting started. Even those who have been shooting a while may wonder how to get a proper exposure and focus in the dark. Although photographing in the dark certainly has its challenges, in some ways, it is actually easier than photography during the day.

So let’s take a quick look at the essentials of night photography. In particular, we’ll cover the gear you need, how to expose your photos, how to focus at night, great subject matter, and some post-processing tips. Hopefully, this will help open up the world of night photography to you.

What to Bring for Night Photography

Alpine - dPS Ultimate Guide to Night Photography

Breckenridge, Colorado – Exposure: shutter speed 15 seconds, aperture f/2.8, ISO 3200.

First, let’s talk about what you will need in terms of equipment for doing night photography. The good news is that you will not need much in the way of extra gear. Besides your standard camera and lens, the only thing you will absolutely need is a tripod. The darkness means that your camera needs to use a long shutter speed to gather enough light for a proper exposure (more about that in a second). So you need to be able to hold your camera steady and a tripod is the best choice for that.

Another helpful item for keeping the camera steady is a remote shutter release. I highly recommend that you get one – and the corded ones are very cheap (under $ 10). You can spend a lot on an intervalometer if the extra features will benefit you, but you don’t need that for standard shooting at night.

If you don’t have a remote or find yourself without one on occasion, you can use your camera’s 2-second timer to take the picture so that you don’t touch the camera during the exposure.

Miami - dPS Ultimate Guide to Night Photography

Miami, Florida – Exposure: shutter speed 0.3 seconds, aperture f/2.8, ISO 200.

Although not necessary, here are some additional items to consider having on hand for your night photography:

  • A flashlight: This will come in handy in a myriad of ways. It will help you with finding your camera controls if you don’t know them cold. It will help you set up your tripod and deal with straps and other attachments. Finally, a flashlight will also help you find things in your camera bag. Just keep a small one (or a headlamp) handy.
  • Lens hood: At night you will have bright lights coming at you from different directions – such as street lights and neon lights. Using a lens hood will help keep flares to a minimum.
  • Extra batteries: The long exposures you take at night will drain your camera battery at an alarming rate. You may also be using Live View, which drains them even faster. So does cold weather. Therefore, night photography always calls for spare batteries. Don’t take any chances here – a dead battery means your night is over.

If you are going to capture the night sky, you’ll need to be on top of weather conditions. In addition to your standard weather apps, be sure to add an app to your phone that will help you see where the moon, constellations, and Milky Way (if visible) will be. If you don’t already have apps you are using (there are several), I recommend PhotoPills and Star Walk 2.

Exposures for Night Photography

Pigeon Point - dPS Ultimate Guide to Night Photography

Pigeon Point Lighthouse, California. Exposure: shutter speed of 6 seconds, aperture f/5.6, ISO 1600.

The biggest difference between daytime and night photography is the exposure values you will need to use. The darkness changes everything. Don’t worry though, once you have your camera on a tripod, it is actually not that difficult to get the proper exposure in most cases.

Let’s back up and cover things that you might already know. Your camera’s exposure is a result of three controls (the exposure triangle) – shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. Because of the darkness, you need to let more light into the camera, and you can only do so by affecting one of these three controls. We’ll cover how to do that for each of them now.

Toledo Overlook - dPS Ultimate Guide to Night Photography

Toledo, Spain – Exposure: shutter speed 8 seconds, aperture f/8, ISO 200.

Shutter Speed

During the day, you will typically use shutter speeds that are a small fraction of a second. At night, however, the camera will use shutter speeds that are longer than one second – sometimes significantly longer. Think of it this way: because it is dark, the camera needs a longer period of time to gather light for a proper exposure.

The shutter will now be open for a longer period of time, so the camera needs to be held steady or the picture will move during the exposure process, causing your image to be blurry. That is why a tripod is required equipment at night. You can leave the shutter open as long as you want, as long as the camera is steady and does not move at all.

Millenium and St Paul - dPS Ultimate Guide to Night Photography

Millennium Bridge and St. Paul’s Cathedral, London – Exposure: shutter speed 4 seconds, aperture f/5.6, ISO 400.

Aperture

The aperture is the opening in the lens that lets light into the camera. The size of the aperture determines the amount of light being let into the camera for a given shutter speed, and it also affects the depth of field.

For the most part, there is no difference between how you will use the aperture at night versus how you use it during the day. The only difference is that the camera will struggle to get enough light for a proper exposure, so a small aperture will often require ridiculously long shutter speeds. In addition, the background is usually black, so you don’t need to worry as much about achieving a wide depth of field.

Both of these factors (needing more light, and not needing a wide depth of field) tend to mitigate toward using larger apertures at night.

Top Of Rock - dPS Ultimate Guide to Night Photography

When you are shooting a scene like this where everything is far away, you don’t need a wide depth of field. Hence you can get away with a larger aperture. New York, New York – Exposure: shutter speed 0.3 seconds, aperture f/4.0, ISO 400.

ISO

The third exposure control, ISO, is a measurement of the sensitivity to light of your digital sensor. Higher ISO values make your digital sensor more sensitive to light and thereby allow you to use a shorter shutter speed or a smaller aperture.

But, there is no free lunch here, and using higher ISOs will result in more digital noise in your pictures. Since dark areas of your picture tend to show more digital noise than lighter areas, it is often a problem with night photos. Therefore, resist the temptation to crank up the ISO at night if you can help it.

Since you will be using a tripod, you can usually avoid the need to use a high ISO. In other words, the tripod allows you to use a longer shutter speed, and that long exposure allows more light into the camera such that you don’t need to use a high ISO. However, in those cases where you cannot use a tripod or you have a moving subject, you will need to increase the ISO.

Path - dPS Ultimate Guide to Night Photography

I needed the foreground sharp in this image, so these exposure settings are brighter than the typical night sky shot, which you will learn more about shortly. Shutter speed 30 seconds, aperture f/2.8, ISO 3200.

That is certainly bad news, but the silver lining is that cameras are getting better and better at handling higher ISOs without showing much digital noise. In addition, post-processing software continues to improve at noise reduction, so you should be able to remove the digital noise later.

A Starting Point for Proper Exposure

It might seem a little silly for me to even try to give you some night photography default exposure settings, but that is what I’m going to do anyway in an effort to get you started.

Let’s say you are in Aperture Priority mode, which is what I find a lot of people use. If you are still using an automatic mode, give Aperture Priority a try, as it is still semi-automatic (meaning the camera will set the shutter speed for you to create a correct exposure), but you get to set the Aperture and ISO.

Brooklyn Bridge -

So, let’s talk about the aperture setting first. Start by setting your aperture to f/5.6, which is a fairly moderate choice that lets in a healthy amount of light. It won’t give you as much depth of field as you might like, but remember that you typically don’t need an extremely deep depth of field since the background will be black.

Next, set your ISO. Start at about 400, which is high enough that you won’t have to use an extremely long shutter speed. At the same time, most cameras can shoot at ISO 400 without digital noise becoming a problem.

After that, just see where the shutter speed ends up when you line up your shot. I’m assuming you are using a tripod for this example, by the way. You know the shutter speed is going to be long – probably a few seconds. I have tried to keep the other settings such that you won’t be standing in one spot for a minute or more while the camera creates the exposure.

Chicago River - dPS Ultimate Guide to Night Photography

Chicago River – Exposure: shutter speed 30 seconds, aperture f/13, ISO 200.

That’s not to say you should never do that. Depending on the scene and subject, you might want your shutter speed to be measured in minutes – but it is not the norm.

If you don’t have a tripod, your options are limited. In fact, there is only one option, and that is to open up the aperture all the way, crank up the ISO to at least 1600 (probably 3200 or 6400), and then use whatever shutter speed the camera sets.

Even with a wide aperture and high ISO, the shutter speed is likely to be long enough that camera shake will still be an issue.

Exposing the Night Sky Photo

West Lakes

There is one specific exposure setting I can tell you right now because it is often the same. It is the exposure settings for photographing the night sky. Your exposure settings will be:

  • Shutter speed: 15 seconds.
  • Aperture: f/2.8
  • ISO: 6400

This is not set in stone, and you’ll notice that my night sky photos add a little exposure to these settings, but it is a good starting point. But what if your lens doesn’t open up to f/2.8? Then you have to just increase the ISO or the shutter speed by the corresponding amount.

For example, if your lens’s maximum aperture is f/3.5 – which is the case with many kit lenses – you’ll need to find another 2/3 of a stop of light. Either add that to the ISO, the shutter speed or just increase both by one click (remember one click of your dials is 1/3 of a stop).

Milky Way Big Bend Texas - dPS Ultimate Guide to Night Photography

Big Bend National Park, Texas. Okay, the exposure settings don’t have to be exactly the same. I wanted this brighter to accentuate the Milky Way. Shutter speed was 13 seconds, aperture f/2.8, ISO 6400.

You might be tempted to lengthen your shutter speed a lot on the premise that you are using a tripod. After all, that would seem like a good way to reduce your ISO to control digital noise and also to use a smaller aperture so you don’t have such a narrow depth of field. Don’t do it!

The stars in the sky are moving (okay, it is really the earth’s rotation, but they appear to be moving across the sky). If you lengthen your shutter speed too much, the stars will have little trails which appear as a blur in your shot. You may not see it until you get the pictures home and look at them on the computer screen, but it will be there and will ruin the shot.

Big Bend Night - dPS Ultimate Guide to Night Photography

Big Bend National Park, Texas. Look closely at this picture and you will see little star trails. This was the result of using a longer shutter speed than I mentioned above. Shutter speed 165 seconds, aperture: f/4.0, ISO 1600.

For more in night photography exposure, please read Tips for Getting Proper Exposure for Night Photography.

Circulo de Bellas Artes

Picking a Subject for Night Photography

Now that you have the right gear and know how to expose your photos at night, you have to pick a good subject for night photography. For the most part, that is no different than what you do during the day. A good subject is a good subject. Still, things will look different at night.

Let me introduce you to some of the things I like to photograph at night. Hopefully, these will give you some ideas, which you can take in your own directions.

The Night Sky

If you are out in the countryside, you need nothing more than a clear night to get a great photo. Moonless, clear nights are the best. If you can happen to catch the Milky Way (usually possible from March through October, and best from May to September), all the better.

Check out an app called Star Walk 2 to help you get a handle on the timing of these things. If you can add an interesting foreground to the shot, even better.

Museums and Public Buildings

Louvre - dPS Ultimate Guide to Night Photography

The Louvre, Paris. I was forced to hand-hold this shot (it was taken from inside the Louvre), so I really had to crank the ISO and open up the aperture. Shutter speed 1/8th of a second, aperture f/4.0, ISO 3200.

Well-lit buildings are an obvious choice for a nighttime subject. You almost can’t go wrong here. Although the concept is obvious, when executed well the result can still be great. You can also use this as a starting point for your night photography. You will have additional ideas as you stand there waiting for your pictures to expose.

Fountains

Buckingham Fountain - dPS Ultimate Guide to Night Photography

Buckingham Fountain, Chicago – Exposure: shutter speed 10 seconds, aperture f/18, ISO 100.

Perhaps my favorite nighttime subjects are fountains. Many times they are lit with different colors as well, adding additional interest. The long shutter speeds you use at night make the fountain appear to be flowing.

Bridges

Brooklyn Bridge Park - dPS Ultimate Guide to Night Photography

Brooklyn Bridge, New York – Exposure: shutter speed 15 seconds, aperture f/11, ISO 200.

It seems like every city or town has a bridge. It may not be the Golden Gate Bridge, but there will likely be a bridge and it will be well lit at night, which makes it an interesting subject. Plus the long exposure time you use for night photography will cause the water under the bridge to blur, and the traffic to appear as streaking lights.

Streetlights

Pay close attention to streetlights when you are doing night photography. They can be useful in a lot of different contexts. They can add a point of interest to it otherwise blank area of the picture. If there are multiple lights, they can create a nice leading line into your picture.

Washington Monument - dPS Ultimate Guide to Night Photography

Washington, D.C. For this shot, I wanted the twinkle or starburst effect from the streetlights, so I used a smaller aperture. Exposure: shutter speed 8 seconds, aperture f/16, ISO 800.

Car Light Trails

Dallas Streaking Lights - dPS Ultimate Guide to Night Photography

Dallas, Texas – Exposure: shutter speed 20 seconds, aperture f/16, ISO 100.

A really fun thing to include in your night photos is streaking light trails from moving cars. These are created when a car or other vehicle drives through the frame while you have the shutter open. The camera picks up the lights, but since the car has gone all the way through the frame while you had the shutter open, it shows up in your picture as streaks of lights.

Try to time your pictures so that vehicles move all the way across the frame while you have the shutter open. Read: How to Create Dynamic Photos of Car Light Trails for more tips on this technique.

Reflections

St Paul mirror - dPS Ultimate Guide to Night Photography

Reflections in London, U.K. – Exposure: shutter speed 1.3 seconds, aperture f/8, ISO 200.

A benefit of the longer shutter speeds you will be using at night is that reflections show up better on the surfaces of water. This is obviously true on ponds and lakes. But it is also true for puddles. After a rain can be a great time for night photography.

Overlooks and Vistas

Let’s end with overlooks and vistas. Some of the best night photography I have ever seen are nighttime views of cities. You can often get great skyline shots. Be careful though – a great view often does not translate into a great picture. Make sure you have an interesting foreground and/or a strong center of interest in the picture.

Downtown from Manhattan Bridge - dPS Ultimate Guide to Night Photography

New York City from the Manhattan Bridge – Exposure: shutter speed 10 seconds, aperture f/8, ISO 200.

When picking subjects for night photography, it is important to note that things will not look the same to the camera as they do to you. Take some test shots whenever possible. If the idea of a long exposure test shot seems tedious due to the wait time, crank up the ISO for purposes of your tests which will allow you to use a short shutter speed. When you go to take the final picture you can reduce the ISO and increase the shutter speed by a corresponding amount.

Nashville night - dPS Ultimate Guide to Night Photography

Nashville via drone – Exposure: shutter speed ½ a second, aperture f/5.6, ISO 310.

Focusing

One final difficulty you will face in night photography is that it is often tricky to focus your camera. That is because most cameras focus by detecting contrast. If the scene is too dark, there is no contrast for the camera to pick up. There are a few things you can do to get your camera to focus though.

The first is to focus on a bright light in the picture. A streetlight works well for this. Try focusing on the edge of the light (between the bright part and the black background), which will give you the necessary contrast. Be sure you are focusing the same distance away as where want your final picture to be focused. Once you have the focus set, recompose your picture and press the shutter button to take the picture.

Capital Clouds - dPS Ultimate Guide to Night Photography

U.S. Capitol, Washington D.C. – Exposure: shutter speed 30 seconds, aperture f/16, ISO 400.

Another trick to allow you to use your autofocus is to break out the flashlight and shine it on the thing that you want your camera to focus on. If it is close enough, the flashlight should provide sufficient light for your camera to focus.

Finally, if none of that works, you will need to manually focus your lens. Just put the camera in Live View and look at the LCD as you compose the picture (zooming in if possible) to see if your picture is in focus.

Henry Street nYC - dPS Ultimate Guide to Night Photography

Henry Street, New York – Exposure: shutter speed 1/13th second, aperture f/5.6, ISO 3200.

Processing Your Night Photos

You can make your night photos look a lot better with a minor amount of post-processing. Of course, given all the different types of night shots you may face, giving specific editing advice here is difficult. Still, there are a few general things you might want to consider.

Lincoln Memorial - dPS Ultimate Guide to Night Photography

Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C. Another benefit of night photography is that you get to take pictures of memorials without any people in your shot. Exposure: shutter speed 6 seconds, aperture f/11, ISO 200.

Highlights

The first thing to consider is how to handle the highlights. Given the nature of night photography, you are doing to be dealing with some really dark areas, and some really bright areas. Many times those highlights will be slightly blown out. Even if they aren’t completely blown out, they are still bright enough that they would look better toned down a bit.

It wasn’t too long ago that this might have required using HDR (high dynamic range) software, but not anymore. Most RAW editors can bring back the highlights a bit (assuming you’ve’ shot in RAW format).

If you use Lightroom or Photoshop (Adobe Camera Raw or ACR), all you need to do is find the Highlights slider and pull it to the left a bit. That will decrease those highlights. As an added benefit, it will often make those same highlights appear a bit more colorful.

Westminster Bridge - https://digital-photography-school.com/?s=HDR

Westminster Bridge, London. Here I used a 5-second exposure to capture the lights of the bus passing by. Shutter speed 5 seconds, aperture f/8, ISO 200.

Shadows and Blacks

Now you have to deal with the dark areas of your photo. There will be parts you want to brighten, but at the same time, you should allow the darkest parts of the photo to go pure black. There is no point in attempting to preserve detail in a black sky.

To accomplish both of these goals, I have another quick move for you. Pull up on the Shadows slider, and then pull down on the Blacks slider. Areas of detail you want brighter will benefit from the increase in the Shadows, but you will maintain contrast by pushing down the Blacks.

Tabernacle - https://digital-photography-school.com/?s=HDR

Salt Lake City, Utah. In this shot, I needed a wide depth of field to keep both the fountain in the foreground and the Tabernacle building in the background sharp. I used a long exposure, which also created a flowing effect to the water, but I still had to raise the ISO a bit. Shutter speed 6 seconds, aperture f/16, ISO 400.

Sharpening

Sharpen your night photos the same as you would any others, but you will likely need to deal with digital noise more than you are used to. If the whole picture is noisy, then give it a global noise reduction. In Lightroom and ACR, there is a Noise Reduction section in the Detail panel, and you just pull up on the Luminance slider to the right.

You might just need to reduce noise in specific sections of your photo though. Noise often manifests itself in the darkest areas of your image. In that case, apply a local adjustment. If you are using Lightroom or ACR, use the Adjustment Brush, paint where you want the noise decreased, and increase the Noise slider. That should take care of it.

You have to watch noise reduction though. Applying too much of it will reduce detail in your photo. That’s why you don’t want to apply a global adjustment if you don’t have to. If you have a serious noise problem and want to fix it without sacrificing detail, there are some plug-ins that are truly wonderful. I use Noiseware and I am often shocked at what a good job it does of reducing noise but preserving detail. Other good products are Noise Ninja and Dfine by Nik.

Golden Gate Bridge - dPS Ultimate Guide to Night Photography

The Golden Gate Bridge from the Sausalito side – Exposure: shutter speed 30 seconds, aperture f/6.3, ISO 200.

Read more on noise reduction in my article here: Good, Better, and Best Noise Reduction Techniques

Getting Started with Night Photography

Night photography is a great way to get really interesting and unusual pictures. It is also a great time to go shoot since it is not during business hours (you’ll be off work) and others will be asleep (notably spouses and children).

Rockefeller Center

Hopefully, this guide will help you get started with night photography. As you get ready for your next outing, just remember a few things:

  • The only additional items that are necessary for night photography are a tripod and remote shutter release. Some other helpful items are a flashlight, a lens hood, and an extra battery.
  • For exposure, start with moderate ISO (around 400) and aperture (around f/5.6-8) and see where that puts your shutter speed. Adjust from there with an eye toward getting the shutter speed (exposure time) you want.
  • Pick a subject that lends itself to night photography. Remember that things look very different at night, so take some test shots.
  • Focus your camera by finding or creating areas of contrast and setting the autofocus on those areas. When necessary, switch to manual focus.
  • When you get home, edit your images as you wish, but you might try decreasing the Highlights, increasing the Shadows, and pulling down the Blacks slightly.

Brooklyn Bridge Park

If you have these things straight, you should end up with some impressive night photos. Good luck!

The post dPS Ultimate Guide to Night Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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5 Camera Filters That Can Enhance Your Photography

27 Jun

Photography can be an expensive hobby, with equipment improvement really making a hole in your wallet. What if I told you there was an inexpensive piece of equipment, which can greatly improve your work! You’d want to know what that is right? Well, step forward the humble camera filter.

Although in truth, there are some camera filter systems that are quite pricey, you can also get ones that are a great value. So let’s take a closer look at what camera filters are all about.

What is a camera filter?

In the age of smart phone filters, it’s worth explaining what the term “filter” used to mean in photography. A filter is something that attaches to the front of your camera lens and is used to alter or adjust the light coming into the camera in some way.

5 Camera Filters That Can Enhance Your Photography - orange warming filter

Camera filters allow you to add more creativity to your photography.

Filters come in two different shapes

  • Circular Filters – These filters screw directly onto the front of your lens. You’ll need to buy a filter of the same diameter of the front of your lens (look at the back of your lens cap for the correct size). It is also possible to buy step-up or step-down rings that will allow you to attach your filter to camera lenses of different diameters.
  • Square Filters – These sometimes come as a rectangular filter, and always as part of a system that allows you to attach them to the front of your lens. There is typically a bracket, which itself attaches to a round ring, that you will screw onto the front of your lens. Systems like this make stacking filters easier and are better for graduated filters.

There are in fact many different filters which you can use, and not all of them are going to be mentioned here. Many people like to use a UV filter to protect the glass on the front of their lens. This is a functional use, and this article seeks to look at the creative use of lens filters.

A few notable omissions to this list are the starburst filters, and the softeners/diffusers used in portrait photography. With all this covered, let’s take a look at the five best camera filters that you can use to enhance your photos.

5 Camera Filters That Can Enhance Your Photography - set of different filters

Circular filter are one of the main options out there.

#1 – Circular Polarizing Filter

The circular polarizer is a great filter, it’s a must-have in your bag. Its primary use is for landscape photography, though it can be useful for outdoor portrait scenes as well. This filter works by only allowing polarized light into the camera, that means light traveling from one direction. This has several effects on your photo.

  • Reflections – A circular polarizing filter can enhance or remove reflections from a scene, depending on what you desire. As you rotate the filter, you will see the reflection either increase or decrease.
  • Saturation – This filter can also add more saturation to your photo, giving it more impact with the viewer. You can adjust how much by rotating the filter.
  • Clouds – Related to the increase in saturation, is the enhancement of clouds. On days where there is a mixture of sky and cloud, this is especially effective.
5 Camera Filters That Can Enhance Your Photography - blue sky and a green field

Circular polarizing filters are great for enhancing skies like this one.

#2 – Neutral Density Filter

Neutral density filters are ones that block the light in varying amounts depending on the strength of the filter. The strength ranges from the ND2 to ND1000, weakest to strongest respectively. These filters are mainly used for either portrait work, or landscape work with the stronger filters used in landscape photography.

The darkness these filters add is referred to as a stop, and a stop means one exposure value (1EV). That means an ND2, which is a 1 stop filter, darkens the photo by -EV1. The ND1000 filter is referred to as a 10-stop camera filter.

  • Portrait filters – ND2, ND4, and ND8 filters can broadly be described as portrait filters. They are used with prime lenses when there is too much light for that lens to be used with a large aperture. Their other function, when using a strobe (flash), is to block enough light so you can use the flash at the camera’s regular sync speed (without the need for high-speed sync HSS).
  • Landscape filters – While there are times you might want to use some of the weaker ND filters for landscape photography, typically you’ll be using an ND110 or ND1000 for landscape photography. This allows you to make dramatic long exposure photos during the day, ideal for moving water or clouds.
  • Solar eclipse – Should you be lucky enough to witness a solar eclipse, you’ll want to use the 16-stop ND100000 filter (a special solar filter).
5 Camera Filters That Can Enhance Your Photography - long exposure scene

If you want to take a daytime long exposure you’ll need a strong ND filter.

#3 – Graduated Neutral Density Filter

These filters are the domain of landscape photographers. Graduated Neutral Density filters come in two types, hard and soft. They’re used to make the sky darker, so it balances out the exposure of the image in relation to the foreground.

Purist photographers who like to create their photos from a single image, and avoid techniques like HDR or digital blending like to use these filters. Even those who like to blend their images will use them, as it makes post-processing easier later on.

If you’re looking to buy one you should look at the square variety, as this gives you the ability to adjust where the horizon line is. Let’s look at the types you could use.

  • Hard – This means there is a sharp line between the dark and light areas of the filter. They are more difficult to use but create nice results when applied correctly.
  • Soft – Soft graduated filters have a more graduated transition from dark to light. Easier to use, and better when the horizon line isn’t sharp if it contains buildings or trees.
  • Strength – As with the regular ND filters these vary with strength. You can get ND2, ND4 and ND8 graduated filters.

Note – The quality of the ND filters will be better the more you spend. Cheaper varieties may introduce a color cast to your image and are therefore not entirely neutral. If you have the money to spend, the Lee filter system is highly recommended.

Read these dPS reviews for more on these filters:

  • Comparison – HDR Versus Graduated Neutral Density Filters for Landscape Photography
  • Review of the Vü Professional Filter System
  • Review of the Wine Country Camera Filter Holder System
  • How to Use Graduated Neutral Density Filters for Landscape Photography
5 Camera Filters That Can Enhance Your Photography

The square shape is best for graduated filters.

#4 – Graduated Filter

Progressing on we now look at the Graduated Filter. These are used to enhance the color in the sky. They work just like the graduated ND filters but instead add color. This type of filter will often be used to make a sunset sky even more dramatic, by making the sky orange, or perhaps rose red.

Other options for graduated filters are adding sepia to the top half of your photo. Even more experimental is adding one color to the bottom of the image, and another color to the top by using two of these filters together. This is a great camera filter to be creative with, but you need to apply it to the right place.

Those wishing to try their hand at this type of photography with a filter should look at this excellent guide.

5 Camera Filters That Can Enhance Your Photography - colored filters

You can use filters to add color to the sky, even when it’s not there yet.

#5 – Infrared filter

Do you want to create a dreamscape from your photos, with foliage that looks like it’s from a snowstorm? Then you’ll need to learn how to make infrared photos.

One of the most accessible ways to do this is by using a filter. When you buy a filter like this it will appear black, that’s because the human eye can’t see the infrared spectrum of light. A popular filter for infrared photography is Hoya’s R72. Even with a filter, you’ll need a camera that will perform with this filter attached, and some cameras are better at this than others.

Most manufacturers will block infrared light from reaching the sensor to some extent, the stronger that block is the less effective this filter will be. Should you choose to use this kind of filter on a non-converted camera expect your exposure times to range from 30 seconds up to 4 minutes, depending on your ISO and aperture settings.

Read more: My First Time Shooting Infrared Photography

5 Camera Filters That Can Enhance Your Photography - b/w infrared style image

Infrared photography is a lot of fun to try. This photo was shot with the Hoya R72 filter.

What camera filters do you use?

There are lots of methods you can add creativity to your photography, a good camera filter is one of those ways. In this article, you’ve seen five of the best filters available to add that little extra to your image.

Have you used any of these filters? Is there another filter that you use in your photography, that can add more creativity? Those who take black and white photos will no doubt point to the effects that red, orange and yellow filters can add to this genre. As always we’d love to see examples of your photos in the comments section, together with hearing about your experience using filters.

5 Camera Filters That Can Enhance Your Photography - landscape scene

Filters can be used to darken the sky in landscape photography. This can make it more dramatic.

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Understanding Creative Profiles in Lightroom Classic CC

26 Jun

In April of 2018, Adobe took a much-anticipated advance in the way it allows users to process their images in Lightroom. Beginning with the version 7.3 release of Lightroom Classic (and ACR 10.3) Adobe now offers the use of something called “Adobe Profiles” as well as “Creative Profiles”.

For us photo nerds, this is a BIG deal.

Understanding Creative Profiles in Lightroom Classic CC

Image courtesy Adobe Blog https://theblog.adobe.com/april-lightroom-adobe-camera-raw-releases-new-profiles/

But exactly what are these new “profiles” and how can you use them in your everyday image processing? Well, sit back and relax because I’m about to tell you all about the brand new creative profile section in Lightroom Classic. If you can’t tell…I’m really excited about this!

What are Creative Profiles?

Before we go too far it’s important to note that you’ve probably used profiles before either in Lightroom or right inside your camera. All those settings in your camera for things like Vivid, Standard, Landscape or Portrait are all considered profiles.

Understanding Creative Profiles in Lightroom Classic CC - camera profiles landscape

All of those modes found in your camera are just a way that your camera’s tiny internal computer can process your images. When you shoot RAW, those profiles are simply bypassed in favor of more control in your editing later. The new creative profiles in Lightroom Classic work in essentially the same way.

Think of the profiles as ways to “cook” your RAW files while not needing to sacrifice any editing power. Furthermore, Lightroom’s new profile feature harnesses the user-friendliness of develop presets and integrates that creative simplicity with the power and flexibility of what’s called a color LUT (look up table). I won’t go too far into explaining LUTs in this article but just know that they are used extensively to color grade images.

The great thing about the creative profiles is that they allow you to use custom made LUTs in your editing.

How to Use Creative Profiles

Making use of the new profiles feature in your editing is extremely easy. These profiles can be applied just like develop presets…only not. What I mean by this is that a profile is similar to a develop preset in that it instantly performs edits for you with simply a click of the mouse. But this is where the similarity between profiles and presets end.

The difference comes down to how the nature of the profiles and how they apply their edits. Develop presets are simply saved blueprints of adjustment slider settings. This means that develop presets override the current setting of each adjustment slider and set each slider according to the saved value on the preset.

Understanding Creative Profiles in Lightroom Classic CC - LR preset settings

While develop presets are a powerful tool for any workflow, you can still run into trouble when you begin to use multiple develop presets while editing the same image.

Applying Profiles

A creative profile works differently from a preset in that it does not rely on the adjustment sliders to make changes. This means that a profile can be added at any time during your processing workflow without affecting the edits you might have already made. Let me show you.

This image has had some basic processing and now I’m going to apply one of my presets.

Understanding Creative Profiles in Lightroom Classic CC - scene of a desert and dark blue sky

Have a look at the adjustment sliders before…

Understanding Creative Profiles in Lightroom Classic CC - sliders in LR

…and now after the develop preset is applied.

Understanding Creative Profiles in Lightroom Classic CC

The preset will automatically change the respective sliders that I saved when I made the preset. This can cause some problems especially if you choose to apply the preset at the end of your editing. It can be one big post-processing headache.

Next, we’re going to take that same image and apply a creative profile.

Just look at the image and the sliders as compared to before we applied the profile. The profile has applied edits without affecting those we already have made.

Understanding Creative Profiles in Lightroom Classic CC

I don’t have to tell you how extraordinarily convenient it is to be able to impart a certain look to the photo without disrupting the things I’ve already adjusted.

Adjusting Profile Density

Not only can profiles be used completely autonomously of the current image adjustments, but you can also control how much of the profile is applied. Think in terms of opacity and intensity.

You can now determine how much or how little of the effect you need and then dial in the desired setting using the amount slider.

Understanding Creative Profiles in Lightroom Classic CC

Here’s the profile effect at approximately 75%…

Understanding Creative Profiles in Lightroom Classic CC

…and now with about 25%

Understanding Creative Profiles in Lightroom Classic CC

Something to keep in mind when using profiles is that even though they are more flexible than develop presets that doesn’t mean they don’t come without their limitations.

The main one being that you can only apply one profile at a time. So don’t get any ideas of stacking profiles…at least not yet.

Final thoughts on Creative Profiles

I love presets. I love making presets. In fact, a good bit of my work revolves around the developing and constructing of develop presets for Lightroom. So when I say that I love the direction Adobe is heading with the profiles feature in their latest versions of Lightroom Classic CC hopefully you’ll want to give them a try as well.

Profiles are extremely similar to develop presets in that they allow you to perform a lot of processing in the fraction of the time it might normally require. The difference between profiles and presets is not in their outcome but rather in the little detours each one takes to reach the final destination.

Will profiles ever totally replace develop presets? I don’t think so, at least not for a while. And why should they? Like most aspects of photography, each small link in the chain serves to pull together a greater whole; it’s in this way that presets and profiles complement each other.

Once you understand the basics of using Adobe’s new creative profiles each one of them will serve you extremely well. As always, use presets and profiles up to and never beyond the point of your own creative vision for your images. Less is usually more. Have fun and enjoy shooting!

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A Few Common Photography Abbreviations Explained

26 Jun

For a visual medium, photography is a bit of an alphabet soup when it comes to abbreviations. AWB, DOF, RGB… Even for the seasoned photographer, photographic abbreviations can be a confusing encounter. Here are a few of the most common photography abbreviations to help you tell your TIFF’s from your TTL’s.

A

Aperture priority commonly abbreviated to A or Av (for aperture value) is a setting on your camera that allows you to adjust the aperture value (otherwise known as the f-number or f-stop) while the camera automatically selects a shutter speed to produce an image with the correct exposure.

As you adjust the aperture for different photographic effects, the camera’s internal light meter measures the lighting conditions of the scene and adjusts the shutter speed accordingly.

Read more here: Getting off Auto – Manual, Aperture and Shutter Priority modes explained

AF

AF is an abbreviation for autofocus. The AF feature automatically adjusts the camera lens to focus on a subject, creating a sharp image.

There are several types of AF focus modes. Single focus, known as AF-S (Nikon) or One Shot AF (Canon) will cause the camera to lock focus on a subject and the camera won’t re-focus while you keep the shutter actuator depressed half way. Continuous or tracking focus – AF-C (Nikon) or AI Servo (Canon) on the other hand, continuously readjusts the focus if you keep the shutter button half-depressed. This maintains focus on moving subjects. Some cameras also have a mode called AF-A (Nikon) or AI Focus AF (Canon) that switches between the two modes automatically.

Read more here:  5 Beginner Tips for More Autofocus Success

Auto

Auto is short for automatic and is sometimes signified by a small green rectangle on the camera’s shooting mode selector wheel. In this mode, the camera calculates and adjusts all camera settings for correct exposure, taking into account shutter speed, aperture, focus, white balance, ISO and light metering automatically.

Some cameras have automatic modes programmed to specialize in taking photographs of a particular subject. For example, action or sports mode prioritizes a higher ISO value and faster shutter speeds. It is represented by a running figure on your dial if your camera offers such modes.

A Few Common Photography Abbreviations Explained - camera mode dial

Auto mode is sometimes signified by a small green rectangle on the camera’s shooting mode selector wheel.

AWB

Light is different under different conditions. AWB or Automatic White Balance works in-camera to measure the white balance (WB) of a scene and remove any color casts that may impede on a photograph. In short, it tries to automatically analyze and color correct your scene. It works fairly well in most cases but can be tricked.

Note: if you shoot in RAW format you can easily tweak the White Balance later in post-production.

Read more: Auto White Balance: Yay or Nay?

B

B stands for Bulb, a mode designed for longer exposures like those often seen in time-lapse photography. In Bulb mode, when you depress the shutter button, the shutter will remain open until the button is pressed again (or until it is released, depending on your camera).

This mode is usually used in conjunction with a tripod and a remote shutter release and is necessary to achieve exposures longer than 30 seconds (the maximum exposure time on most cameras).

Read more: How to Use Bulb Mode for Long Exposure Photography

CMYK

CMYK stands for cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Black is referred to as K which is shorthand for the key plate – a printing tool which makes the artistic detail of a picture in black ink. CMYK is the color space used for most color reproduction printers (magazines, posters, business cards, etc.). This four-color mode utilizes each color in set amounts to create a color print. It is a subtractive process, so each additional color means more light is absorbed to create colors.

Because RGB (the color space in which your camera records an image) provides a larger range of colors available on the digital screen, a printed image will be inconsistent with the image you see when you press “print”. Converting an image to CMYK in Photoshop or Illustrator before printing will produce an image on the screen that is much closer to the printed product, allowing you to print an image accurately.

DOF

Depth of Field or DOF is the zone of focus in a photograph. Depth of field is affected by the aperture. A large aperture creates a shallow depth of field with a small amount of the image will be in focus. A small aperture creates a large depth of field with more in focus. Depth of field is also defined by lens focal length and the distance from the subject to the camera.

Read more: Seeing in Depth of Field: A Simple Understanding of Aperture

A Few Common Photography Abbreviations Explained

A small aperture creates a large depth of field with more in focus

DPI

DPI or dots per inch is often used interchangeably with PPI or pixels per inch. Technically, DPI measures the number of dots that can be printed in a line within the span of one inch. PPI also measures the number of dots in a line within the span of an inch but on a computer screen instead. Printers and screens with higher DPI or PPI values are clearer and more detailed.

You need to know the DPI of your printer or lab to correctly size your images for printing. Read more: How to Choose Your Lightroom Export Settings for Printing

DSLR

DSLR stands for Digital Single-Lens Reflex camera. A DSLR camera has a mirror that reflects the light coming in from the lens and directs it through a prism or set of mirrors to the viewfinder. This arrangement allows you to see what you are shooting by looking through the viewfinder. When the shutter button is depressed, the mirror flips up and allows the light coming through the lens to reach the camera sensor.

Canon 5D Mark IV full-frame DSLR camera – Image by dPS writer Mark Hughes. 

Read more: The dPS Ultimate Guide to Photography Terms – a Glossary of Common Words and Phrases

F-stop or f-number

The f-stop or f-number is a term that indicates the size of the aperture opening on your lens. Every aperture is expressed as an f-stop or f-number, like f/8 or f/2.8.

Read more: How to Take Control of Aperture and Create Stronger Photos

IS

IS stands for Image Stabilization. This technology goes under several names; Vibration Reduction, SR, VR, and VC are a few. Image stabilization is a feature in your lens (not all lenses have it!) that enables you to photograph sharper images when shooting handheld at lower shutter speeds, in dark conditions, at longer focal lengths.

Note: Some cameras have the stabilization inside the camera body. Read your user manual to be sure.

ISO

ISO stands for International Standards Organization. In film photography, ISO (or formerly ASA) was an indication of how sensitive a roll of film was to light. In digital photography, ISO measures the relative sensitivity of the camera sensor. This value can be adjusted in-camera.

The higher the number, the more light the sensor can capture. However, the greater the sensitivity of the film or sensor, the grainier the image will be (in digital photography it’s called noise).

Editor’s Note: Before you jump up and down and add a comment below about the fact that the sensitivity of the camera sensor does not actually change, let’s agree to keep it simple for the purpose of this article and these definitions. No, it isn’t that simple, but people new to photography need to take baby steps in understanding these terms, so please accept that we’ve simplified it here.

A Few Common Photography Abbreviations Explained - digital noise and bokeh

The graininess in this image is caused by a high ISO value.

JPEG

JPEG (sometimes shortened to JPG) is an image file format. It stands for “Joint Photographic Experts Group” – the name of the group that created the format. It’s one of the most common image formats saved by digital cameras, the other being RAW.

JPEG files are lossy which means that images in this file format are compressed. Lossy formats are smaller and easier to handle, but they suffer from a loss of quality.

Read more: RAW Versus JPEG – Which one is right for you and why?

M

M or Manual Mode is a shooting mode on your camera that when activated, means that you have complete control over every setting on your camera. This includes the aperture, shutter speed, ISO, white balance, metering mode, and more.

Note: Manual Mode and Manual Focus are NOT the same thing and are not exclusive of one another. Meaning you can shoot in Manual Mode using Autofocus, or in an Automatic mode using Manual Focus.

Read more: Simplifying Manual Mode to Help You Take Control of Your Images

M4/3

M4/3 is short for Micro Four Thirds and it is also known as MFT. Developed by Olympus and Panasonic in 2008, the M4/3 is a mirrorless interchangeable lens system for digital cameras and lenses. This mirrorless system means that the camera does not have an optical viewfinder system like conventional SLR/DSLR cameras, but an electronic viewfinder (EVF) instead. This system is simpler, lighter and allows for smaller cameras than DSLRs.

Read more: The 19 Most Popular Compact System and Mirrorless Cameras with Our Readers

The Olympus OM-D EM-10 is a micro four-thirds camera which means it has a smaller sensor size but is every bit as capable as most other cameras on the market.

P

P stands for Program Mode. This shooting mode has the camera adjust aperture and shutter speed automatically, while allowing you to adjust other settings like ISO, flash, white balance and focusing functions.

Read more: Your Guide to Understanding Program Mode on Your Camera

RGB

Based on the human perception of colors, RGB stands for Red, Green, and Blue. RGB is an additive color space designed for viewing imagery on digital displays (see CMYK above).

Read more: Adobe RGB Versus sRGB – Which Color Space Should You Be Using and Why

S

Shutter Priority Mode (also known as SP or TV for Time Value) is a setting that allows you to select the shutter speed while the camera automatically adjusts the aperture for proper exposure. As you adjust the shutter speed the camera’s internal light meter measures the lighting conditions of the scene you’re shooting and adjusts the aperture accordingly.

This mode is best used for shooting fast moving objects or when you want to blur or freeze a moving subject.

Panning a moving target is a good time to use Shutter Priority Mode.

Read more: Getting Your Priorities Straight – A Guide to Selecting Your Shot Priority

SLR

SLR or “single lens reflex” refers to a non-digital camera with single-lens reflex capabilities (see DSLR).

TIFF

Short for Tagged Image File Format, TIFF is a file format for digital images that does not lose color and detail in the way that lossy compression formats such as JPEG files do. This type of file format is described as lossless.

TTL

TTL stands for Through the Lens and refers to an automatic flash metering system. The flash fires a short burst prior to the actual exposure, the camera reads the amount of light coming through the lens, and sets the power of the flash according to the selected aperture. This mode is most often used with the flash on the camera.

Read more: How to Understand the Difference Between TTL Versus Manual Flash Modes

TTL versus manual flash – image by dPS writer Kunal Malhotra.

USM

USM stands for Ultra Sonic Motor, a type of autofocus motor in lenses trademarked by Canon. Equivalent systems include Nikon’s SWM (Silent Wave Motor), Sigma’s HSM (Hyper-Sonic Motor) and Olympus’ SWD (Supersonic Wave Drive Motor). They are designed to have the lens’s autofocus work as silently as possible.

WB

WB stands for White Balance, the act of balancing the color cast found in different lighting conditions for an accurate image (see AWB). White Balance can be set in-camera and adjusted in post-processing if you have shot in RAW format.

Read more: How to Use White Balance as a Creative Tool

Conclusion

There you have it. Of course, there are plenty more photography abbreviations where they come from. But knowing these basics will get you on the right track to navigating the alphabet soup that is photographic lingo! Be sure to add any extra abbreviations you’d like to see in the comments below.

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How to Use Conceptual Contrast in Photography

26 Jun

Contrast is one of the most important aspects of any photograph. It adds focus, distinction, and punch, and gives the viewer both a first impression of the image as well as a journey into its details.

How to Use Conceptual Contrast in Photography - cat on a tire

At its most basic, contrast is defined as a difference. The most common types, which you’re probably quite familiar with, are tonal contrast and color contrast. In this article, I want to introduce yet another kind of contrast to your photography toolbox: conceptual contrast.

What is Conceptual Contrast?

How to Use Conceptual Contrast in Photography - plant in an electrical box

The photograph above has conceptual contrast. Can you figure out what it is? Conceptual contrast is different from tonal and color contrast; it’s more abstract and perhaps less obvious. It has to do with ideas and as the name suggests, concepts, not with physical aspects such as light levels or color.

Just like other kinds of contrast, conceptual contrast can add punch by bringing together things that you might not normally expect to see in the same image. It makes a photograph more interesting and raises questions about the contrasting parts of the image.

When it’s done well, conceptual contrast can help tell a story, function as an eye-opener, surprise the viewer, and jar them into considering their response.

How to Use Conceptual Contrast in Photography - police and people dressed up

Why should you use conceptual contrast?

Visual storytelling is a part of any great photograph. It’s how your photo goes beyond being just aesthetically pleasing, how you get people to stop and really look at your photograph, and how you create an emotional response in the viewer.

Conceptual contrast is not only a great way to add depth to your photographs but also an opportunity for you (the photographer) to learn to look at and become aware of your surroundings in a new way.

How to Use Conceptual Contrast in Photography - red and yellow subjects

You can use this technique to share a sense of wonder, to make a point, and to bring the viewer out of their comfort zone and make them think. What could be more important than that?

waterfall and garbage - How to Use Conceptual Contrast in Photography

So how do you do it?

It takes some forethought and observation to create a photo with conceptual contrast. Coming up with an idea that works will be the hardest part; the rest is as easy or hard as taking any photograph. The steps I’ll be talking about focus on photography outside of the studio, but it can also be a very powerful tool for posed photographs.

How to Use Conceptual Contrast in Photography - paddle boarder with relics in the ocean

The first and most basic stage is observation. You can find good material for conceptual contrast almost everywhere if you pay enough attention.

Try it right now! Move around in the space where you’re reading this, and see if you can find something that stands out and could make an interesting photograph.

banana leaves and fruit - How to Use Conceptual Contrast in Photography

After finding something to capture, the second stage is developing the idea. Just because the contrast is obvious to you doesn’t mean that it will be to others.

It doesn’t have to be obvious, but think about how you want to take the photo to make it both interesting to look at and eye-opening to explore.

For the best effect, your photo should contain more than just the conceptual contrast. To bring the viewer in and give them a chance to notice and react to the less obvious aspects of the photo, you should use everything else you know about photography to make it stand out and draw them in.

rows of sticks for vines and mountains - How to Use Conceptual Contrast in Photography

The final stage is capturing your photograph. This is the technical part where your abstract idea takes physical form. After you share it with others, it will gain a life of its own as viewers enjoy your photo and interpret it from their own perspective.

man on a beach in the fog - How to Use Conceptual Contrast in Photography

Conclusion

Is conceptual contrast something you have used or will try to use in your photography? What good examples of conceptual contrast have you seen? I’d love to see your images with conceptual contrast and hear your feedback and ideas in the comments below, please share.

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Why I Always Use an L-Plate Bracket for Landscape Photography

25 Jun

There’s no secret that there’s an abundance of accessories for landscape photographers. Some of them are considered absolutely essential while others might just be unnecessary extra weight in your backpack. With so many tools to choose between it can be hard to separate the useful from the unuseful, which is probably why we end up purchasing so many unnecessary products.

When talking about accessories that are useful for landscape photographers I find that there’s a handful of products that keep coming up: a tripod, a variety of filters, a remote shutter release and a cleaning kit. There’s no doubt that these are tools that can make a huge difference in your photography.

L-Bracket Plate in use shooting on tripod.

But there’s one that I feel goes under the radar quite often, which is fascinating as it’s one that the majority of professional landscape photographers use: an L-plate bracket.

What is an L-Plate Bracket?

If this is the first time you’ve heard about an L-plate bracket I urge you to keep reading this article and to consider if this is a tool you should be adding to your equipment list.

The L-Plate bracket is a piece of metal that is fastened to your camera body as a replacement for the regular quick release tripod plate. Unlike a regular quick release plate, an L-Plate is shaped as an L, bending 90 degrees up the side of the camera. This makes it easy to quickly switch between a horizontal or vertical orientation, which is a benefit I’ll come back to in a minute.

To connect the camera to the tripod you place a clamp on the tripod’s ball head. These clamps come in a few different options, including a quick-release lock and a twist lock.

Why I Always Use an L-Plate Bracket for Landscape Photography - camera mounted on a tripod with an l-plate bracket

Why I Always Use an L-Plate Bracket

Ever since I started with landscape photography and purchased my first L-Plate, this has been an accessory that I have recommended. During the last few years, I’ve noticed that more and more beginners are understanding the value of this tool and I’m often surprised to see that the majority of my workshop participants use one.

The main benefit of using an L-Plate is that you can easily switch between a horizontal and vertical orientation. Now, you might ask “how is it easier to remove and re-attach the camera than to just loosen the ball head and readjust it?”.

That is a good question and one that might not seem that obvious but the answer is actually quite simple. When shifting from horizontal to a vertical orientation with an L-plate you keep the same composition.

L-Plate Bracket for Landscape Photography - camera mounted vertically using an l-plate

It’s easy to change the orientation of your camera when using an L-Plate

When shifting from horizontal to vertical orientation without an L-Plate you need to move the tripod as you’ve also moved the camera a few centimeters to the side, meaning you’ve lost the composition you had previously. With an L-plate attached, you maintain the composition and don’t have to worry about moving the tripod back and forth each time you change the orientation.

Another big benefit for those who shoot panoramas is that the camera perfectly pivots around the right spot, meaning you won’t have problems stitching the shots together later.

Who are L-Plates for?

Now I’m not going to lie and say that L-Plates are for everyone. If you’re a studio photographer or if you never use a tripod, it’s better not to waste your money on this tool. However, if you’re a photographer who regularly uses a tripod, I highly recommend that you get one right away.

a vertical photo of a landscape scene - L-Plate Bracket for Landscape Photography

It’s easy to quickly change to a vertical orientation when using an L-Plate

Here are a few photography genres which will greatly benefit from using an L-Plate:

  • Landscape photography
  • Astrophotography
  • Architectural photography
  • Commercial photographers
  • Macro photographers
  • Studio photographers (who use tripods)

Shot vertically using the L-Bracket.

What to look for when purchasing an L-Plate

Unlike many of the other types of accessories we find for photography, there aren’t a whole lot of options when it comes to L-plate brackets. There’s no fancy technology or must-have features. This is a simple tool, but there are still a couple of things to look for when you’re purchasing one.

  • Never purchase “universal” plates: When you’re searching for L-Plates you’ll most likely come across several models which are branded as universal plates. Do not purchase one of these! While they claim to be universal, this is rarely the case. Most likely parts of the plate will block the pockets and plugs on the side of your camera.
  • Metal plates are always best: Metal plates might be a few dollars more expensive but they are worth every cent. A sturdy metal plate is more durable and less likely to malfunction (I’ve had my RRS L-Plate for 4 years and it still works like new).

Final tips

The best option is to find a metal plate which is specifically made for your camera model. For example, I’m using a plate that perfectly fits the Nikon D800 and D810 but when using it on my backup camera, the Nikon D750, it covers the ports on the side, meaning I’m not able to use a cable release.

Lastly, you don’t need to purchase the most expensive alternatives. I know many photographers who use L-Plates that cost between $ 10 and $ 30, and these work just as well as more expensive versions. Just make sure that it’s made of metal and fits your camera. You’re likely to find good options for less than $ 50 so don’t feel like you have to get one of the premium $ 200 versions.

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How to Mimic Window Light in a Studio Environment

24 Jun

One of the most common reasons you hear from photographers who avoid off-camera flash lighting is that it looks artificial. Yes, studio lighting can look artificial, but sometimes that’s part of the charm. Nobody claims portraits made with a ringlight look natural, but that doesn’t stop the thousands of photographers (myself included) that use them all of the time. But that doesn’t mean that it is impossible to mimic window light in the studio.

In fact, that’s kind of the point most of the time.

How to Mimic Window Light in a Studio Environment - portrait of a lady in the studio

Obtaining natural looking result in a studio is fairly easy with a few basic tools and some know how.

With studio lighting, you can create whatever lighting you want at any time. Providing that you have the right tools (and they are pretty basic), creating natural looking portraits in a studio environment with off-camera flash is exactly as difficult as creating portraits using window light.

Why is window light so wonderful?

b/w window light portrait - How to Mimic Window Light in a Studio Environment

Window light has a lot of wonderful qualities that make it a great choice for photographing people and other subjects.

In a nutshell, windows give you a constant (during daylight hours) and large light source to work with. The light itself is soft, diffused (assuming that direct sunlight is not entering through the window), and lends itself well to virtually all subjects including portraits.

It also tends to be very directional (depends on how you position yourself and the subject in relation to the window), making it easy to work with to shape your subject.

two b/w portraits - How to Mimic Window Light in a Studio Environment

Window light can give a variety of results depending on the time of day and the size and shape of the window. As such, there is no one size fits all solution to mimic window light and recreate it in the studio.

On top of that, we see things lit in window light all day, every day. It is a very natural state of things and it’s how we recognize the world around us. This familiarity makes window light an obvious choice.

Add to that that the master painters created a great many of their portraits in a studio lit by window light. The most obvious point of reference here would be Rembrandt since this style of lighting is one of the most common techniques that photographers use today.

The reasons for unnatural looking light

b/w portrait with ring lighting used - How to Mimic Window Light in a Studio Environment

Some light sources, like the ringlight used here, are by nature very unnatural looking. When trying to recreate natural light, try to stay away from specialist tools like these and tri-flectors.

There are a couple of reasons why studio lighting can look canned and unnatural. These are:

  • Too many lights – When using natural light, you’re usually shooting with only one light source. Perhaps there’s a reflector involved or there might be multiple windows, but for the most part, it’s one light. Going into a studio environment where a single setup can involve a key light, a fill light, a hair light, two rim lights and two background lights can feel both complicated and wrong (unnatural). Fair enough.
  • The modifiers are too small – In most cases, windows are quite big. This means that the light source you are using to light your subject is large. Big light sources give soft, flattering light. Add some mesh curtains to that window and the light gets even softer and more diffused. What does that tell you about the size of modifier you need to use on your studio portraits to get soft light?
  • The lights are too far away – In terms of the softness of the light, it’s the size of the light source in relation to the subject that determines how soft or hard it appears. If you have an 8′ octabox twenty feet from your subject, it will appear quite small comparatively; therefore, the light will be a bit hard. If you have a small pop-up softbox on there, it will be even harder. Bring your lights in as close as you dare to get for the softest light possible. If you have a small modifier, I recommend having it so close you can barely shoot past it without getting the light source in the frame.
  • You’re using an odd light source – Specialist lights, like the ringlight used in the image above, create light that you wouldn’t normally find in natural scenarios. Even if a viewer doesn’t understand the why behind it, people are quite intuitive when things seem weird. If you’re going for a natural look, avoid lights like these.

How to recreate and mimic window light in the studio

Here, you’ll see just how easy it is to mimic natural light in a studio environment. Here’s what you’ll need to get started:

  • An off-camera light source. Strobes, flashguns and continuous lights will all work equally well.
  • A large light modifier. These examples use a 5′ Octabox (or recessed softbox as PixaPro like to call it), but anything will do. If you don’t have any large modifiers yet and are unsure about what to get, consider starting with a large translucent umbrella. They’re big, dirt cheap, fold away easily and produce a nice, soft light.
  • White or silver reflector. This one’s optional, but you should have one anyway. If you’re using a really big modifier, the wraparound of the light may mean you don’t even need it, but they are useful for filling in dark shadows on the unlit side of your subject.

Setting up

behind the scenes studio shots - How to Mimic Window Light in a Studio Environment

A medium sized octabox placed close to an above the subject and a silver reflector was all it took to create these images.

To get started, place your light about three or four feet from your subject. Turn the light so that it’s forty-five degrees (in relation to your subject.) Raise the light up as high as you can (making sure the subject still has catchlights in their eyes). High ceilings are a bonus.

The reason for this is that with window light, the light is often coming from above. The window is shaping the light into the room, but it is still coming down into the room. If you’re using modelling lights or continuous lights, watch the catchlights in your subject’s eyes. Once they are falling towards the top of their eyes, you’re good to go.

Likewise, also watch where the shadows are falling. If the contrast seems too high, introduce a reflector. This does take practice, so don’t worry if you can’t tell just yet. It may help if you squint your eyes tightly. This makes it easier to see the contrast. In these examples, the silver reflector was placed flat and in front of the subject at around waist level.

Now, all that you have to do is to take a light meter reading (or take a test shot), adjust your settings (either in-camera or on the flash) and start taking photos.

portrait of a lady in pink - How to Mimic Window Light in a Studio Environment

To start with, try having your subject turned toward either the light or the camera. Beyond that, there’s not really much else to it.

How to Mimic Window Light in a Studio Environment

Practice makes it simple

If you are completely new to off-camera lighting, this may seem like a lot to get. I promise it’s not. Once you’ve set this up a few times, it becomes so easy that there’s not much more effort involved than placing someone in front of a window.

The advantages here are that you aren’t at the mercy of the weather or the time of day and once you get started with a set-up, the light won’t change unless you tell it to.

Just remember to keep the light both high and close and there isn’t much room to go wrong.

two images of a lady - How to Mimic Window Light in a Studio Environment

Putting it to use

If you’ve had any hesitance to use studio lights for any of the reasons listed in this article, hopefully, you can see that with the right techniques, you needn’t worry at all. Honestly, it’s not as difficult or complicated as it seems. If you’re still unsure, rent a studio for an hour and put it to practice. You may be surprised at what you find out and learn.

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How to Improve Your Landscape Photography By Understanding Portrait Lighting

24 Jun

The further I have gone on my photography journey, the more I have come to learn about the importance of understanding light. I believe light is the single most important element that makes a photograph. Not a great subject. Not great composition. It’s great lighting that will make a photograph amazing.

colorful landscape scene - How to Improve Your Landscape Photography By Understanding Portrait Lighting

So what is great light? There is no one type of light that makes a photograph good or bad. Hardness, brightness, color, direction. All these things and more will dictate how your image looks, and more importantly, how it feels.

One of the ways I’ve learned to see and understand light and how it affects my landscape photography is by learning about and understanding portrait lighting. Portrait photographers know that the way light falls on the human form dramatically affects the photograph.

Although you can’t control the light in landscape photography, learning to apply the principles of portrait lighting will help you create far more dramatic landscapes that make the viewer feel something.

Light and Shadow

At its most basic level, a photograph is made up of light and shadow. We have a tendency to focus a lot on light in photography, but shadows are just as important, if not even more so. Shadows reveal shape, depth, and texture.

aerial photo - How to Improve Your Landscape Photography By Understanding Portrait Lighting

Portrait photographers understand light and shadow better than anyone. They shape a portrait by moving the light source around until the light falls in just the right way so that the shadows reveal the contours of the subject. When shooting with natural light that can’t be controlled, they will move the subject instead.

The transition from light to shadow is often lost in modern landscape photography. Camera sensors with incredible dynamic range, along with the popularity of HDR techniques, have allowed us to bring back a lot of detail in the shadows of our landscapes.

This isn’t a bad thing in itself, because usually, we want some detail in the shadows, but it often goes too far. Just because we can brighten the shadows doesn’t mean we should. Leaving parts of the image in darkness add mood and mystery.

long exposure seascape - How to Improve Your Landscape Photography By Understanding Portrait Lighting

Rembrandt Lighting

I learned about Rembrandt lighting before I had ever heard of the artist it was named after. Rembrandt was a master painter who understood the principles of light and shadow better than anyone. Studying his paintings will teach you a lot about how they can create mood and drama in an image.

Rembrandt self portrait - How to Improve Your Landscape Photography By Understanding Portrait Lighting

Rembrandt self-portrait.

Rembrandt lighting has become known as a classic lighting setup in portrait photography. Using soft side-lighting, this technique creates a beautiful look that you will likely recognize.

When the light source is coming from the side of the subject, it causes the light to reveal and conceal various elements. The parts of the subject that are visible to the light source will be illuminated while the parts which aren’t visible to the light source will be in shadow.

portrait lighting for landscape photography - How to Improve Your Landscape Photography By Understanding Portrait Lighting

Understanding portrait lighting to bring out texture and dimension.

You obviously can’t control the light source when photographing landscapes, but you can still apply the same principles.

Considering how the light will fall on your landscape can guide the way you photograph it. The position you shoot from, your composition, and the time of day will all affect how the lighting affects your landscapes. Even though you can’t control the light, it never stays the same, so waiting for the angle of the sun to change or for a gap in the clouds can make a big difference to that way it illuminates the scene.

Reverse Engineering Photos

A great exercise for learning to understand light is to reverse engineer a photograph. When I was learning portrait photography I would regularly study an image and try to figure out how it had been lit. Is it natural light or flash? How far away from the subject is it? How big is the light source? Is there more than one light source?

How to Improve Your Landscape Photography By Understanding Portrait Lighting - lighthouse on a rocky shoreline

These days as a landscape and travel photographer, I still ask myself those questions when looking at a photograph. Which direction is the light coming from? What time of day was it taken? Was the sky clear or cloudy? Learn to get in the habit of analyzing photos that you admire by asking yourself more specific questions like this rather than what gear or presets the photographer used.

Dodging and Burning

Shaping light and shadow doesn’t stop when you take the photo. Dodging and burning is the process of lightening and darkening areas of a photo in post-production. It doesn’t need to be a complicated process. Often all that is necessary is burning (darkening) areas that could use more shadow or might be distracting.

portrait lighting for landscape photography

One of the best ways to think of dodging and burning is to ask yourself where you want the viewer to look. It may be a specific element of the photo, or you may want to draw the viewer’s eye through the image. You can paint more light and shadow into a photo to guide this process.

Our eyes are naturally drawn to brighter parts of an image. Portrait photographers will often dodge and burn to draw the viewer to the subject’s eyes or another important element of the subject. When editing landscapes, try to paint in light and shadow to control which parts of the image are attracting your attention.

waterfall and mountain and reflection in a pool of water - How to Improve Your Landscape Photography By Understanding Portrait Lighting

Go Practice

The next time you’re photographing a landscape, try taking another look at the light. Ask yourself some of the questions I’ve mentioned. Look for the shadows. Experiment with side-lighting. Wait until the light changes. By understanding portrait lighting you will be better equiped to apply it to your landscape photography.

You’ll find that thinking of the landscape as contours with depth and shape rather than separate elements will help you make more engaging landscapes with mood and drama.

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Two Ways to Replace the Sky Using Photoshop

23 Jun

There are many things that you can control when shooting a photograph, but the weather is not one of them! If you have a great landscape or architecture photo but the sky is too dull it will bring down the entire image, so just keep reading to learn how to replace the sky with Photoshop.

Paste sky Photoshop tutorial before after - Two Ways to Replace the Sky with Photoshop

“Give the clouds an assignment.” said photographer Werner Mantz.

He was right, sometimes you can have the best weather and end up with a flat blue sky. Even worse if you have a horribly cold day that gives you a dull grey sky. Either way it can be the win or lose element of the image. No need to panic though, you can composite two photos into one perfect shot and replace the sky with a better one.

Method #1 – Sky Replacement in Photoshop

Most importantly you need an image from a cloudy sky that matches the mood of the image onto which you’re going to paste it. I’m going to work with a vertical shot so it’s better if the one from the sky has the same format. The subject is a ship aground in iced waters so my sky should be ideally from a stormy day.

Paste sky Photoshop tutorial subject clouds - Two Ways to Replace the Sky with Photoshop

With the image of the subject open, make a selection of the sky that needs to be covered by the new one. For this you can use any tool with which you feel comfortable. I usually start with a broad selection using the Magic Wand and then get closer with the different types of Lasso tools. You’ll see a dotted line (marching ants) around the area that is being selected.

Paste sky Photoshop tutorial selection tools - https://digital-photography-school.com/3-ways-make-sky-selection-photoshop/

Refine the selection

I find it’s also useful to go into Menu > Selection > Edit in Quick Mask. This will show the parts that are not selected in a red mask, so you can paint with the Brush tool what you want out and use the Erase tool to include in the selection.

Paste sky Photoshop tutorial quick mask selection- https://digital-photography-school.com/3-ways-make-sky-selection-photoshop/

Now open the sky image and select it all (Cmd/Ctrl + A), then go to Menu > Edit > Copy. Turn back into the first image and go to Menu > Edit > Paste Into. Notice that it becomes a new Layer and it has a Layer Mask with the shape of the selection you made, therefore you can now scale it and move it around and your subject won’t be affected, you’ll see the new sky directly as it would be fit in the image.

Paste sky Photoshop tutorial transform - Two Ways to Replace the Sky with Photoshop

Once you’re happy with the montage, you can add some adjustment layers so that the two parts have the matching brightness, tone, etc., and the result seems as natural as possible.

Paste sky Photoshop tutorial before after - Two Ways to Replace the Sky with Photoshop

Method #2 – Sky Replacement in Photoshop

When your landscape has a diffused horizon line like one with trees, for example, especially if you just need the sky to have a few more clouds instead of completely replacing the original sky then this technique is much more efficient because you don’t have to do the precise selection needed in the previous method. So go ahead and open both images on Photoshop.

Paste sky Photoshop tutorial before sunny day - Two Ways to Replace the Sky with Photoshop

In the image of the sky go to Menu > Selection > Edit in Quick Mask Mode and then choosing the Gradient tool draw a line from bottom to top, this will make the image appear with a red mask, faded gradually from one edge to the other.

Paste sky Photoshop tutorial quick mask selection gradient - Two Ways to Replace the Sky with Photoshop

Now go back to Menu > Selection > Edit in Quick Mask Mode and click again, this will turn the Quick Mask off, and you’ll see a rectangular selection on your image without noticing the gradient. But don’t worry, it’s still there.

Now pull the tab of the image to the side so that you can access the two images simultaneously, then drag the sky selection and drop it on top of the first image.

Paste sky Photoshop tutorial drag subject clouds

Now pick the Eraser tool and with a soft brush start erasing the part of the new layer that is covering the subject. You can also decrease the opacity of the layer so that it blends in a bit more smoothly.

Paste sky Photoshop tutorial erase opacity

There you go, you can do the final touches with adjustment layers so that levels and colors match.

Paste sky Photoshop tutorial after sunny day

Conclusion

So there you have two methods to replace the sky using Photoshop.

Have you tried this technique before? Please share your questions and comments about it below.

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Weekly Photography Challenge – Macro

23 Jun

Time to get close-up with some macro photography this week.

Need some tips? Read these dPS articles:

  • 5 Camera Settings That All Macro Photographers Should Know
  • How to Choose the Perfect Macro Lens
  • 5 Tips for Killer Macro Backgrounds
  • How to Use Natural Light for Macro Photography
  • 5 Quick Tips for Outdoor Macro Photography
  • How to Get Stunning Macro Photos with Your Mobile Phone

Weekly Photography Challenge – Macro

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.

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