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Working with Different Focal Lengths for Macro Photography

07 Mar

At some point in your photography journey you may be fascinated by pictures capturing living creatures in great detail, flowers close-up, and in general intimate vistas, which may go unnoticed in our daily viewing habits. Such shots are commonly described as macro photography.

Working with Different Focal Lengths for Macro Photography - red flower

The purpose of this article is to provide you with theoretical and practical insight, to help you select lenses for macro photography with focal lengths suitable for your style.

What is macro photography?

The Collins English Dictionary defines macrophotography as: extremely close-up photography in which the image on the film is as large as, or larger than, the object. Extending this definition into the world of digital, the word “film” can be replaced by “sensor”.

The terms magnification and reproduction ratio (RR) are two ways of quantifying this definition. They describe how big the capture on the sensor is as compared with the subject you are photographing.

“As large as” means that whatever object is captured it is the same size om the sensor as it is in real life (magnification of 1x or x1 and RR of 1:1).
“Larger than” means if the image on the sensor is N times the actual life size of the subject, the magnification is then Nx and the RR is N:1.

An important distinction has to be made between the image on the sensor and the printed image. 1cm of object captured on 1cm of sensor may appear on a typical 10x15cm print as much bigger than 1cm.

It is important to note that not all lenses are capable of reaching 1x (1:1) magnification, even if they contain macro in their name. So it is important during your gear selection to know what is a true macro versus a marketed as a “macro” lens. This does not mean that you cannot and will not make breathtaking close-up pictures with that lens, it just means that you will only able to reach lower magnifications and RRs (e.g. a 0.25x magnification = RR of 1:4)

Now that we have established the realm of macro photography, there are a couple of other terms that are essential in this article.

Other definitions

Minimum focusing distance (MFD). This is a lens’s construction characteristic. According to Nikon, MFD is the shortest distance at which a lens can focus. In the case of DSLR Cameras, the focus distance to the subject is measured from the focal plane mark on the camera body, not from the front of the lens. MFD is important because 1:1 or life size RR only happens at the MFD of any true macro lens.

2 focal plane mark - Working with Different Focal Lengths for Macro Photography

The focal plane mark on a D750 is shown below to the left of the strap handle.

Minimum working distance (MWD). This is the distance from the subject to the front of the lens barrel (excluding the lens cap if used), while the lens is set to its maximum magnification (i.e its MFD).

On the web, there are various tools to help calculate MWD. This is a lens and camera combination characteristic, as different cameras contribute differently to the MWD (even if minimally so). A simple graph illustrating MFD and MWD is shown below.

MFD MWD - Working with Different Focal Lengths for Macro Photography

The purpose of this article is to practically demonstrate the difference in Minimum Working Distance between two lenses of different focal lengths, as well as some implications that arise from this difference.

Gear and settings

For the examples used in this article, two macro lenses, the Tokina 35mm f2.8 and the Sigma 150mm f2.8 were mounted on a Nikon D750. This will demonstrate the MWD difference between two considerably different focal lengths (short versus long).

4 Tokina 35 Sigma150

5 D750 - Working with Different Focal Lengths for Macro Photography

The supporting platform (all-important for macro photography) consisted of a SIRUI T-025X carbon-fiber tripod, a Manfrotto 410 Junior Geared Tripod Head and a Velbon Super Magnesium Slider Macro Rail. A Nikon ML-L3 remote was used to trigger the shutter to avoid adding additional vibrations.

6 Platform tripod - Working with Different Focal Lengths for Macro Photography

Quick comparison

Let’s start with a 1:1 macro shot of an everyday item like a coin. In the photographs below the coin was shot 1:1 with both the 35mm and 150mm lenses. Rulers were placed to show the sensor size of 35.9 x 24.0 mm. The difference of a few mm is probably ruler set-up error on my part.

35mm lens

Ruler in cm and mm showing the size of the image on the sensor. This is 1:1 which would be 24x36mm.

The distance needed to shoot the coin at 1:1 with the 35mm lens.

150mm lens

1:1 shot showing the images size on the sensor, 36mm which is fully 100% for a full frame sensor 24x36mm.

The distance needed to shoot the coin at 1:1 with the 150mm lens.

I measured an MWD of 19.5cm for the 150mm and only 1.8cm for the 35mm!

To see how this big difference affects a real-world shooting scenario, the owner of a close by flower shop allowed me to use his grounds and beautiful flowers. Continue reading for more info on this.

Doing macro photography of flowers with different focal lengths

To obtain the 1:1 photo shown below, the 35mm lens needs to actually be on top of the bulb as shown in the second shot.

A similar shot was done using the 150mm lens.

35mm lens in close to get a 1:1 shot.

While getting a similar photo with the 150mm lens is much more comfortable.

The settings for both flower macro shots were as seen here.

Focal length matters even more in macro photography

Macro photography is exciting. In the words of Roman Vishniac, “In nature every bit of life is lovely. And the more magnification we use, the more details are brought out, perfectly formed, like endless sets of boxes within boxes.”

However, in my experience, macro has more gear and technical considerations than other popular subjects (e.g., portrait or landscape), especially as magnification goes up. One primary point of concern is the Minimum Working Distance of the lens used (true macro or not). This will determine significantly, in my view, the ease of use of the lens and the subsequent willingness you may (or may not) show towards doing macro photography.

Working distance issues

Apart from static subjects, where you may be okay to handle a short MWD. But if at some point you want to shoot bees or other living critters, then most probably you will want a longer MWD. This will help you to not scare away your subject and also to avoid being bitten/stung by it.

Additionally and importantly, a longer working distance will allow access to more light (natural or flash). You can imagine the limitations trying to introduce extra light to the 35mm setup shown above. Things will get even more cramped if you introduce closeup lenses or do lens reversal to reach even higher magnifications.

A rough proposed working classification of focal lengths in macro photography could be as follows:

Focal lengths up to 60mm – Useful in product photography (e.g. jewelry) and small objects that can be approached and lit in a controlled environment.
60-150mm – Usable with caution for insects, flowers, and small objects from a greater distance.
Above 150mm – Ideal for critters where additional working distance and additional lighting options are preferred.

Finally, there are other considerations, such as perspective differences due to varying focal lengths. These are more aesthetic than technical and not in the scope of this article.

The post Working with Different Focal Lengths for Macro Photography by Konstantinos Skourtis appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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How to Make Your Digital Photo Look Like a Polaroid Using Photoshop

06 Mar

Nostalgic for the printed photos? Polaroids are coming back as trend as are many vintage things. Do you want to achieve this effect while still maintaining the advantages of the shooting digital? In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to make your digital photo look like a Polaroid and even like a stack of Polaroids in a very easy way using Photoshop.

From digital to Polaroid effect intro

Make a new document in Photoshop

The size of the image in an original Polaroid (just the image without the white frame) is 3.1 inches by 3.1 inches. Therefore, you need to open a new document in Photoshop with those measurements. If you are going to keep the result digital then you can leave it at 72 dpi (dots per inch). If you want to print it then set it to 300 dpi. Make sure the background color is black and then click OK.

Polaroid effect tutorial size document

Double-Click on this background so that you make it a layer, that is by default called Layer 0. Then make a new empty layer by going to Menu > Layers > New Layer.

Add the white frame

Now you need to do the outer frame which is the white border of the Polaroid. In order to make sure it’s centered, you can do it in two steps. First, go to Menu > Image > Canvas Size and this will open a pop-up window. The original Polaroid has a width of 3.5 inches, regardless you put it as both width and height. Make sure the point in the grid below is on the center square.

Polaroid effect tutorial canvas size white frame

Now you just need to make the bottom part of the frame larger. For that, go again to the Canvas Size but this time the point should be in the top square. Now fill this layer with white color by going to the paint bucket tool, make sure white is the foreground color and then click on the layer.

Polaroid effect tutorial canvas size white frame2

Add the background and a drop shadow

Create a new layer that will be your background. It can be white for now, but you can also add a texture like wood, for example, if you want to make it look like a table top, and so on. Go to Canvas Size and make it bigger once again. You can choose the size that’s best for you, here I’m doing 5.5×6.5 inches.

Select the layer that contains the frame (the white rectangle) and click the Add a Layer Style button at the bottom of the palette (fx). Select Drop Shadow and in the window that will pop-up, you can choose your settings. I’m using a 45-degree angle, with a distance of 30, a size 10, and setting the opacity to 29. You can set all these however you want, just move them around until you like how it looks. Make sure the preview option is ticked so that you see what you’re doing.

Polaroid effect tutorial drop shadow

Put your image inside the frame

Up until now, you have prepared your Polaroid and you can use this process for any photo or save it as a template.

To put your photo inside the frame you need to open your raw image and make the adjustments you want until you are satisfied, as you would do normally.

Now open the image as a Smart Object by holding Shift to make the Open Image button turn into Open Object and click on that. Another way to do it is to click the link at the bottom of the image window and in the pop-up window tick the option “Open in Photoshop as Smart Object”.

For more information about Smart Objects you can see my previous article on that topic here: How to Create with a Good Workflow Using Smart Objects in Photoshop.

Polaroid effect tutorial open as smart object

Now drag the thumbnail of that image into the layers palette of the Polaroids document you’ve been working on and it will be added as a Smart Object there as well. Now you can choose the image and keep working on the Polaroids.

Make sure the Smart Object (your image layer) is on top of all the other layers (with your black square directly underneath). Right-click on the image layer and select Create a Clipping Mask from the menu. Then use the Move tool to position the image to best compose it within the square.

Oops, notice my layers are in the incorrect order here. Make sure your image is on TOP of the black square.

Try out some backgrounds to make it more interesting!

How to make a stack of Polaroids

If you want to make a stack of Polaroids follow these directions.

Select all the layers except the background and put them into a group by going to Menu > Layers > Group Layers. Now make as many copies of it as you’d to have like in your stack. You can do this just by dragging the group into the New Layers button at the bottom.

Finally just give a little twist to each one (use Edit > Transform > Rotate). There you go!

Digital to Polaroid Stack Effect tutorial

Digital to Polaroid Effect tutorial

Or you can play around with the composition. Remember you can also change the image that appears in each frame.

Digital to Polaroid Stack wide Effect tutorial

Extra effects

If you like to give your digital photo a printed quality but you don’t want to do a Polaroid, try curling the corner as if it was a page turning in only three steps.

1. Draw a square selection in the corner and draw a Gradient inside it with the Gradient tool set to go from black to white.

Tutorial Curl Turn Page effect 1

2. Go to Menu > Edit > Warp and drag the corner to create a curl.

Tutorial Curl Turn Page effect 2

3. Add a Drop Shadow like you did with the Polaroids.

Tutorial Curl Turn Page effect

Give it a try

So have fun making Polaroids in Photoshop and share your questions, comments and Polaroid compositions in the comments section below.

The post How to Make Your Digital Photo Look Like a Polaroid Using Photoshop by Ana Mireles appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Pros an Cons of Shooting Alone Versus Being a Group Photographer?

06 Mar

An age-old question in life, not just photography, is are you a pack animal or a lone ranger? Everyone reading this will have their own answer to this question, it’s not even a black and white answer. In this article, the question posed is whether you shoot alone or are more of a group photographer?

Let’s take a look at the two different approaches to doing photography, and then compare them to see which one is better. Whether one is better is really just subjective, but depending on your favored form of photography you’ll certainly have a preference.

Do you Shoot Alone or are you More of a Group Photographer?

Joining other photographers is great, although they sometimes get in your shot!

Photographing solo

The preference for many photographers is to photograph alone. There are a lot of good reasons why this is best, so let’s take a look at a few of them:

Get into the zone – To achieve the best photos, being distracted by others is rarely a recipe for success. Photographers will often get into a zone where a heightened sense of the environment around them will lead to better photos.
Set your own schedule – When you visit a place, and how long you spend there are very important factors in photography. Whether you’re a street photographer waiting for that perfect moment, or a landscape shooter photographing blue hour, the schedule matters.
Choose where to visit – Equally important, and related to the point above is where you choose to visit and shoot. Even if you travel with a fellow photographer, they may well want to visit a different place to suit their style of photography. Shooting alone allows you to be totally focused on your goal.

Photographing alone is the favored choice of many photographers, it helps you get more in the zone.

Get your own angle – There will never be another photographer standing in the way of your composition when you photograph alone. Equally, you don’t need to worry about getting in the way of someone else, or getting to the best angle second.
Curate your own photo – Those who do portrait photography will know that creative control of the pose and position of your model are key. As is forming a close working relationship with your model. When photographing without other photographers these things are easier to achieve.
Learn from your own mistakes – You’ll make mistakes along the way, even those with experience do. It might mean adding to your knowledge after you have made your mistake, but the next time you photograph this self-improvement will take you up a level.

The chance to work one to one with a model means you can work on your own concepts and ideas.

Photographing with a group

Of course, sharing your photography with others has some drawbacks, but there are also a lot of positives to photographing with other people. So whether you’re a solo or group photographer take a look at this list, and decide for yourself if you can benefit from joining a group, even if only occasionally.

Share your experience – The act of exploring and seeing a new place is often more pleasurable when you have company. You may even be able to model for each other if the location would be better enhanced with a person in the scene.
Pool your resources – Photography can be expensive when it comes to equipment, model hire, and location rental. These costs can be cut considerably by joining forces with other photographers.
Share knowledge – One of the very best ways to learn about photography is from other photographers, that’s why you’re here right? Whether you’re experienced or new to photography you’ll find everyone can offer advice or tips that could improve your work.

Joining a group of photographer allows you to dip into their pool of knowledge.

Safety – Carrying an expensive piece of camera gear? Heading out late at night for some photography? Having a few people with you when you photograph makes it a lot safer.
Collaborations – To create a group project, you need a group! So getting to know some fellow photographers will facilitate this. Likewise, photographing a model often takes more than one person, sharing duties to hold the light stand helps a lot.
Share your photos – Groups of photographers often share their work either each other. Sharing your photos is a great way to improve your photography, as you often get feedback on the photos you have shared.

This group of photographers was on a photo walk which I organized.

This is a photo taken on that photo walk, it was later shared with the participants through social media.

Being a solo or group photographer, which is best?

There are lots of pros and cons for shooting alone or with a group of photographers. The best answer is to make time to do both. Join a group perhaps once a week, and photograph by yourself on other occasions.

The genre of photography you do will also have a big impact on your choice, portrait photographers using strobes often need a team. On the other hand, if you’re a landscape or street photographer photographing alone may be best.

There is a middle solution though. The group doesn’t have to be large, perhaps only two or three. When all the photographers share the same interest, it can be just like photographing alone, only you have a group.

Are you a solo or group photographer? Why not be both? My friend and fellow dPS writer Pete DeMarco is someone with whom I’ve often photographed. We allowed each other enough space to photograph “alone” but then meet later after we’re done shooting.

Myself and Pete enjoy taking cityscape photos, so meeting up to do the same style of photography makes sense.

What kind of group should you join?

There are plenty of types of groups that you can join if you’re interested in meeting some new people. Not all of them even require you to meet other photographers in person, we do after all live in a digital global age. So let’s take a look at a few possibilities.

Attend a photo walk – These are often one-off events and can involve large crowds. They’re great for meeting a lot of new faces, not always so good for taking the best photo. A very well known event like this is Scott Kelby’s worldwide photo walk, held once a year. An alternative idea to a photo walk is a potluck photography party, why not try it out?

This steel wool fire spinning photography event was organized by a photography club.

Join a photo club – A great way to meet other photographers on a regular basis, and therefore learn from them. Groups like this often organize photography outings or perhaps hire a model for the club members to work with and photograph.
Online communities – In reading and participating with this website you are part of a photography community. Even though not in person, participating online is a great way to gain knowledge. There is always the possibility of travel as well, you can meet people on a trip perhaps.
Take part in a workshop – Meeting other photographers on a workshop is a great way to socialize, and learn at the same time.

Joining a group of photographer allows you to share the cost of hiring a model. It also means you lose control of pose and position. You also need to avoid getting into each other’s photos.

Are you a solo or a group photographer?

So which kind of photographer are you? A solo or a group photographer? Are there any other reasons why you like to photograph alone, or in a group?

If you photograph alone, why not reach out to a group and become part of a community. Although it’s nice to photograph alone, there is a raft of benefits to joining up with others. You’ll likely make some new friends, the type you can form a close friendship with through a shared interest.

The post Pros an Cons of Shooting Alone Versus Being a Group Photographer? by Simon Bond appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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SLC-0L-01: Flash or Continuous, Light is Light

06 Mar

In Lighting 101, 102 and 103, we learned to control our flashes. In the Strobist Lighting Cookbook, we're expanding that approach to learn to move in a fluid way between flash and continuous light. Read more »
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3 Things You Need to Know to Get Started with Infrared Photography

05 Mar

An Introduction to Infrared Photography

Infrared light is not visible to human eyes. The light your eyes see is that within what is referred to as the “visible spectrum” and infrared (IR) lies beyond this band. Thus Infrared (IR) Photography requires special equipment beyond your standard camera, to tap into this “unseen” world.

Over the years, IR photography has not only become more accessible but is also less complicated with more inexpensive options. If you have been exposed to infrared images, you immediately notice how the look stands out. While some find it rather eerie, others are intrigued by the way the ordinary transforms.

An Introduction to Infrared Photography

In this article, we’ll look at a few things you need to know to get started with infrared photography.

1) What gear do you need to shoot IR?

Filters

If you are just starting to explore this haunting genre of photography, a filter is an easy addition to your gear list. It is least expensive and a good way to gauge how much further you want to delve into and invest in infrared photography.

Infrared filters allow infrared light to hit your camera’s sensor, while at the same time prevent visible light from doing so.

3 Things You Need to Know to Get Started with Infrared Photography

Most manufacturers offer infrared filters and they can range from screw-on to slide-in filter systems. The Hoya R72 is a popular screw-on infrared filter. Interestingly this filter allows just a little bit of visible light through as well, which makes it a nice introductory filter to the world of infrared.

If you already have or prefer to use slide-in systems, note that the infrared filter should be closest to the camera body, to avoid any unwanted visible light hitting your camera sensor.

Different brand filters render color differently as they may address specific ranges of the infrared spectrum. The plus side is that you can experiment with different filters until you find the one that suits your vision.

3 Things You Need to Know to Get Started with Infrared Photography

Converted Camera

If you are committed to doing infrared, a more permanent option is having a dedicated infrared camera body. When a DSLR camera is converted, the infrared blocking filter (that resides in front of your DSLR sensor) is removed. It is a more expensive option, but the benefits include using your camera similar to how you usually do, with normal exposure values.

Note: once a camera has been converted, its sole use is infrared photography – you cannot take “regular” images with it any longer.

3 Things You Need to Know to Get Started with Infrared Photography

Film

With film photography on the rise again, infrared film is readily available and relatively cheap. Developing this film though may nullify that cost-benefit, as you will have to find a lab that has the ability to process infrared.

3 Things You Need to Know to Get Started with Infrared Photography

2) Camera Settings

RAW and JPEG

Shoot both RAW and JPEG files in the beginning. As with any images taken with a DSLR, RAW gives you the most scope when processing. If you are just starting out with infrared photography though, you may be horrified when you look at the back of your camera and see a flat pinkish red image staring back at you.

The JPEG option allows you to see a little more differentiation and determine how to adjust your settings. Believe it or not, with time you will be able to look at those dull pinkish RAW files and be able to tell if they are good or not.

3 Things You Need to Know to Get Started with Infrared Photography

Exposure

If you are using infrared filters, you will need longer exposures when you block out the visible light. So on a bright sunny day, you can work with exposure times between 30-120 seconds, at f/8. Thus a tripod is a must!

If your camera is infrared converted, your settings will vary depending on the amount of light as with normal exposures. Using the sunny day example, your settings could be 1/125th or faster at f/8.

White Balance

A topic all of its own, white balance is important in infrared photography. Refer to your camera’s manual on setting custom white balance, as this is your friend when it comes to infrared.

3 Things You Need to Know to Get Started with Infrared Photography

3) Post-processing Infrared

Auto Tone

As previously mentioned, when you shoot RAW images your output is a dull pinkish red image as shown below.

3 Things You Need to Know to Get Started with Infrared Photography

Infrared RAW image straight out of the camera.

There are several methods to start your infrared file processing, including applying a DNG profile conversion tool. One of the more common ways is to import it into Photoshop and apply Auto Tone.

Note: You can also do both of these processes if you wish.

Auto Tone applied to an infrared image.

Channel Swap

Next, to get those blue skies you need to Channel Swap your colors. While channel swapping is an essential part of infrared photography processing, there are mixed views on which channels to swap to what values. The following are some of the values that are used. Experiment until you find which one works for you:

Changing the Red and Blue Channels only:

Red Channel: Red=0, Green=0, Blue=100
Blue Channel: Red=100, Green=0, Blue=0

Changing all the channels:

Red Channel: Red=0, Green=0, Blue=100
Blue Channel: Red=100, Green=0, Blue=0
Green Channel: Red=0, Green=100, Blue=0

or another option:

Red Channel: Red=0, Green=0, Blue=100
Blue Channel: Red=100, Green=100, Blue=-100
Green Channel: Red=0, Green=0, Blue=100

After Channel Swapping has been applied.

Final Processing

Final touches include adjusting your hue/saturation and your curves and levels adjustment in Photoshop. It all comes down to your personal taste. Then there is the whole other topic of black and white infrared photography. Read more on that here: How to Enhance your Black and White images with Infrared Photography.

3 Things You Need to Know to Get Started with Infrared Photography

Conclusion

Infrared photography is a small but growing niche of photography, that has evolved with time. It offers creative choices and opens a whole new dimension to explore. You can start off simple with filters and then graduate to converting your camera to be a full-time infrared camera in time.

If you have tried infrared photography please share your tips and images in the comments below. If you haven’t, please let me know if you have any other questions.

The post 3 Things You Need to Know to Get Started with Infrared Photography by Nisha Ramroop appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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How to Shoot and Process Better Waterfall Photos

05 Mar

Everybody loves a good waterfall image with a long exposure, but in this article, I’ll show you how to capture more detail and motion in that fascinating tumble of whitewater. Water is the most powerful force of nature on our planet and there’s a simple technique you can use when photographing waterfalls that more effectively harnesses the fury and chaos of mother nature.

Tip 1 – Use a faster shutter speed

How to Shoot Better Waterfall Images - Comparison

While many photographers would consider 1/3″ (one-third of a second) a slow shutter speed, it’s typically a lot faster than many would use for shooting waterfalls. I’ll sometimes even use 1/6″ (like in the left image above) depending on the volume of water in my composition.

Shooting waterfalls using a 1/6″ to 1/3″ shutter speed captures far more detail and texture in the moving water. It’s still long enough to create motion blur but fast enough to capture the motion of individual water droplets as they blast through your scene.

I feel that these faster shutter speeds tell the story much better than a totally silky smooth white out because the added detail shows the true power of water as it carves through the landscape.

Tip 2 – Use a wider (faster) aperture if required

As a landscape photographer, I usually prefer to stop down to apertures like f/11 or even f/16 so that I can capture the maximum depth of field and sharpness. This is the ideal scenario if you’ve got enough light to work with, but what if there isn’t much available light and using faster shutter speeds just ends up giving you an image that’s way too dark?

There are two things you can do to deal with this problem. Firstly, I’ll open up the aperture to let more light into the camera. For the above images, I was shooting with the Zeiss Batis 18mm and was able to open up to f/2.8. This often gets me closer to the 1/6″ shutter speed while capturing an image that is still bright enough, even in low light conditions.

Tip 3 – Increase ISO as a last resort

Increase ISO as a last resort - waterfall tips

When it starts to get dark I can increase my ISO which makes my sensor much more sensitive to light and enables me to get away with faster shutter speeds in low light situations. Bumping up the ISO is the last resort as it introduces noise and degrades image quality drastically.

Tip 4 – Shoot an overexposed frame at f/11 with a low ISO

This overexposed shot captures bright shadow detail in the mossy rocks. I don’t care about the blown out white water. I’ll be erasing that later in processing.

My first three steps explain how I capture all of that lovely motion and detail by using faster shutter speeds. But I’ll also capture a super bright image with maximum depth of field at low ISO which I can use for the rest of the scene. This gives me great image quality for everything in the frame that doesn’t include white water.

I usually stop down my aperture to around f/11 (I used f/8 because my lens performs well at that aperture.) Then I watch my Live View display while increasing the shutter speed and overexposing the image until I can clearly see all of the shadow detail on my display. For this to work, I must have Exposure Simulation enabled on my camera (check the settings for yours).

When you try this you may find that the water is a completely blown out mass of pure white. That’s okay because you’ll be using the water from your darker, faster exposures when you blend these images together.

All we care about with this shot is capturing an image that clearly shows the surrounding area. In my shot, it’s the mossy rocks and cliffs around the waterfall that are the priority.

Putting it all together

There are a few options for blending multiple exposure images like this:

HDR – Fastest, easiest but less realistic and not the best image quality.
Luminosity Masks in Photoshop – Steeper learning curve but often results in the best image quality. Read more on that topic here.
Manual Blending in Photoshop – Easier than learning Luminosity Masks and almost the same image quality.

Photoshop users have more options here and I’m going to assume that if you already know how to use Luminosity Masks you probably don’t need me to show you how to blend these exposures. With that in mind, I’m going to show you an easy way to blend these exposures very simply in Photoshop. Lightroom users might prefer to use the built-in HDR tool of Lightroom to blend exposures.

Waterfall Image Processing

Shooting an Over Exposed Waterfall Image for Shadow Detail

First of all, let’s look at the RAW files and talk about the camera settings I decided to use. This first exposure was shot with an aperture of f/8 for great depth of field and sharpness. I used a long exposure time of 13″ so this is obviously the overexposed frame I talked about earlier.

My next frame was shot at 2.5″ which was the shutter speed recommended by my camera’s light meter. Even though the light meter was telling me that 2.5″ was ideal, it’s still not fast enough for me to capture water detail because as you can see below, the water is just a mushy white blur. So I decided to shoot a couple faster frames even though I knew they’d be underexposed.

How to Shoot Better Waterfalls - Still too long of an exposure

ISO 50, f/8, 2.5 seconds. The exposure was still too long to capture detail.

The next frame was shot at 1/4″ which I achieved by opening the aperture to f/2.8. I would have much preferred to have stayed at f/8, but it was getting dark and I needed as much light as I could get. Even though it’s clearly underexposed and quite dark you can see it captured much more detail in the water.

Finally, for the next frame, I went for an even faster shutter speed of 1/6″ and this is the one I’ll use to blend with the first overexposed frame.

The ideal amount of motion blur for waterfall photography

1/6th of a second was the magic number to get detail in the water.

Step 1 – Process the overexposed image

Even though the water in this image is completely smoothed out, all I really want from here is everything BUT the water. I might choose to keep a few parts of the silky water movement but for the thicker sections of water, I’ll be getting rid of that mushy white stuff.

Processing Overexposed Waterfall Image in ACR

I’ll open this in Adobe Camera RAW and bring down the exposure slightly, brighten shadows by +18 and then brighten the blacks to +8. I’ll also punch the color vibrancy up to +8 and then hit Open Image to bring it into Photoshop.

Step 2 – Process the underexposed image

Processing of Underexposed Waterfall Image

The first thing I need to do here is to increase the exposure to +1.50. This brightens the image up but also kills some of the detail in the brighter sections of the white water. I’ll fix that by pulling the highlights down to -27 and the whites down to -17 then hit Open Image to bring it into Photoshop.

Step 3 – Stack and align the layers

I can easily stack the overexposed image on top of the darker one by clicking in the layers panel and simply dragging it to the tab for the underexposed image. Photoshop will drop a copy of that layer on top of the original.

Align the layers just in case there was any camera movement between shots by making sure both layers are unlocked. Hold down shift and click on each layer so that both layers are selected. Then go to Edit > Auto-Align Layers. I go with the default Auto and hit OK. In this case, nothing happened because there was no misalignment.

Step 4 – Selectively erase the overexposed water

The Photoshop Eraser Tool

This is the fun part where a bit of skill and judgment comes in handy. With practice, you’ll get better at choosing which parts to erase on your own waterfall images. My goal here is to get rid of any boring bits of overly silky water to reveal the more interesting motion blur of the layer underneath. Take your time and use a bigger brush than you think you might need. If you use a brush that’s too small you’ll be able to see the halo edges of your brushwork.

You don’t have to erase ALL of the white water, just the parts you find lacking in action and drama. Some areas may look better from the overexposed shot and others may look better from the underexposed shot. Finding the perfect balance is down to your artistic judgment.

Try switching the top layer on and off by clicking the eye icon next to the layer. This helps you to see if the changes you’ve made work towards creating a better image.

You can also change the opacity of the eraser brush so that the effect is less intense. For the top part of the falls, I’ll use an opacity of 50% so the effect is more subtle. If you prefer non-destructive editing and are already familiar with Layer Masks you could perform the exact same process. I just prefer the fast simplicity of this method and wanted to show you the easiest way to get a quick and effective result.

Step 5 – Fine-tuning the blending

To make the two layers blend more seamlessly I’m going to make the overexposed layer slightly darker. I choose Image> Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast and set the brightness to about -38. I can also brighten up the darker exposure slightly so that it gets closer to the brightness of the overexposed layer by going to Image > Adjustments > Shadows/Highlights and setting the Shadow Amount to 3%.

Shadows / Highlights - processing waterfall images

This result is a nice, flat looking image that has a great dynamic range with lots of texture, detail, and motion in the water. From this point, you can do whatever you like to the image, such as add contrast, play with colors, or dodge and burn – whatever it is you like to do with your nature images normally.

The benefit of using this method is that your water motion will be much more interesting and engaging to your viewers than just a silky smooth white out.

If you prefer, you can watch the whole thing on video, see below:

Final thoughts

How to Take Better Waterfall Photos

I just want to state that all of this is subjective. If you prefer waterfall photos that contain little to no detail in the motion of the water, good for you. By using the techniques I’ve outlined in this article you can get the best of both worlds and decide which combination of options works best for your image in post-production.

It’s always better to have more than you need than to regret not taking a variety of shots. I encourage you to play with different shutter speeds to decide which look is best for you. I hope this helps to improve your waterfall photography and please feel free to post any questions in the comments section below.

The post How to Shoot and Process Better Waterfall Photos by Gavin Hardcastle appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Thoughts and Field Test of the Rokinon 12mm f/2.0 Wide-Angle Lens

05 Mar

If you’re a mirrorless camera shooter on the market for a fast wide-angle lens, look no further than the Rokinon 12mm f/2.0 lens. While this lens is indeed manufactured by a third party gear company, Samyang of Korea, don’t let brand names fool you. This unique little lens gives you an ultra wide point of view and is relatively inexpensive.

Read on for more!

Rokinon 12mm f/2.0 lens details

Introduced in 2014, the Rokinon 12mm f/2.0 lens is special because it is designed specifically for mirrorless cameras. With its maximum f/2.0 aperture, it is noted as the fasted 12mm lens for APS-C (crop) sensor cameras. At this time, the Rokinon 12mm f/2.0 comes in either black or silver from about $ 299-399.00. Lens mounts exist for the following mirrorless cameras:

Thoughts and Field Test of the Rokinon 12mm f/2.0 Lens

Sony E-mount
Fuji X-mount
Canon M
Samsung NX
Micro four thirds (Olympus and Panasonic)

The Rokinon 12mm f/2.0 is an APS-C lens, meaning it was designed to provide a 35mm (full frame) equivalent focal length of 18mm. Although specifically designed for crop sensors, this lens can be used on full frame sensor and micro 4/3 cameras, but with a different effective focal length.

The only catch is that this is a Manual Focus only lens, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. More on the lens focusing below.

NOTE: Check your manual – for some camera models you may need to set it to “Fire Without Lens” as is the case with Fuji X cameras. As the camera and lens do not talk, the camera needs to know it’s okay to take a photo.

Lens build

Considering this is a relatively inexpensive lens, it’s no surprise that much of its build is plastic. The aperture ring, manual focusing ring, and 67mm filter ring are all made of plastic. Thankfully, the lens mount is metallic. Despite being made mostly of plastic, the lens has a really solid feel and it weighs in at 0.47 lbs (215 g).

Thoughts and Field Test of the Rokinon 12mm f/2.0 Wide-Angle Lens

Image quality

This lens performs surprisingly well for its size and price. The center of the Rokinon 12mm is very sharp at f/2.0, peaking at around f/5.6. While the corners can at times be rather soft at f/2.0, they are quite sharp at f/4.0.

Vignetting, or light falloff, is visible when shooting at just about any aperture, but it is especially strong when shooting at f/2.0. Despite being an ultra wide angle lens, there is very little distortion in the images.

When to use this lens

Given its 12mm focal length and fast f/2.0 aperture, the Rokinon 12mm is best suited for real estate, architecture, and landscape photography. Perhaps the most popular reason why photographers buy this lens is to shoot the stars. That was my reason for purchasing it, and so far it has not disappointed.

Thoughts and Field Test of the Rokinon 12mm f/2.0 Wide-Angle Lens

Manual Focusing Tips

Probably the biggest challenge about shooting with the Rokinon 12mm f/2.0 is getting used to shooting with its manual focus settings. Personally, this was both the very first third-party lens, and the very first manual focus lens I’ve ever purchased.

If you’ve used Rokinon lenses or manual focus lenses, then all of these observations may not apply. But if you’re also new to Rokinon and manual focusing, you’ll probably relate to these challenges.

1. Practice, practice, practice

The Rokinon 12mm has two plastic rings that you must toggle in order to set your own aperture and focus. Both rings rotate pretty smoothly. There’s no way to control aperture or focus via your camera body, and this can be a big adjustment for some people.

The best way to overcome this challenge is practice. You’ll get used to it, eventually.

2. Turn on Focus Peaking

Thoughts and Field Test of the Rokinon 12mm f/2.0 Wide-Angle Lens

Focus peaking in action on the Sony a6300

While manual focusing a lens might sound intimidating, many mirrorless cameras are equipped with features that help you out tremendously. One such feature is focus peaking.

This focusing aid can be viewed when shooting in Live View or with an electronic viewfinder. When enabled, focus peaking places colored highlights on the in-focus edges of your image. It is a huge help to making sure your manual focus lens is focused on the right places.

3. Use the Focus Magnifier

Thoughts and Field Test of the Rokinon 12mm f/2.0 Wide-Angle Lens

Another way to ensure accurate focus with a manual focus lens is to enable your camera’s focus magnification system if it exists for your model. For Sony cameras, this feature is called Focus Magnifier, and it enables you to magnify your screen four times. This helps you really nail your focus.

In Conclusion

Rokinon 12mm wide angle lens

Overall, the Rokinon 12mm f/2.0 wide-angle is a compact, relatively cheap lens that is a great addition to any mirrorless shooter’s gear kit. It delivers superb photos without adding too much bulk or breaking the bank.

Sample Photos

Rokinon 12mm wide angle lens

The post Thoughts and Field Test of the Rokinon 12mm f/2.0 Wide-Angle Lens by Suzi Pratt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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How to Use Adobe’s DNG Profile Editor to Make Custom Camera Profiles

04 Mar

Have you ever heard of Adobe’s DNG Profile Editor? No? It’s okay if you haven’t because up until about a month ago I had no idea it even existed. It’s a little bit of an Adobe secret.

Despite being a relatively unknown piece of software the DNG Profile Editor (no easy way to abbreviate) is somewhat of a necessity when it comes to editing infrared images. Not only that, it is extremely useful if you like being a complete photography nerd and you enjoy creating your own unique flavor of processing.

Think of the DNG Profile Editor as a way to make presets that are something more just your run of the mill develop preset. Enough of introducing it, this is the DNG Profile Editor in all its glory:

Just kidding, it’s not very impressive but it serves to facilitate a very useful function. What function do you ask? It allows you to create your own custom camera profiles for use inside Lightroom’s Adobe Camera Raw.

Camera profiles are the silent weapon of post-processing but they don’t get a lot of press. I won’t go too far into explaining the usefulness of camera profiles here, but there is an excellent article by Andrew Gibson here on dPS if you want to learn more about camera calibration and profiles in Lightroom.

For the purposes of this article, I will focus on how you can make your very own custom camera profiles using Adobe’s little secret, the DNG Profile Editor. Oh, and did I mention the software is available absolutely FREE from Adobe? If you want to follow along with me then click one of the links below to download the latest build of the DNG Profile Editor from Adobe.

DNG Profile Editor for Windows
DNG Profile Editor for Mac

Adobe DNG Profile Editor Geography

Finding your way around the DNG Profile Editor is alarmingly straightforward because the majority of the controls are nestled on the right-hand side of the window.

This is where you will make your custom camera profiles. As you’ll notice there are a number of tabs at the top. I’ll briefly explain what each one of them does.

Color tables

The color table is just the color wheel and it is laid out for you to pick colors from your image (more on this later) to adjust their hue and saturation as well as lightness. You can also control the temperature of the color table in degrees Kelvin just as you would in Lightroom.

This is all birthed from the embedded profiles (or downloaded) from the camera used to make the image being used as a reference. Base your custom camera profile on existing profiles of your particular camera by using the “Base Profile” drop-down.

Tone Curve

This is the familiar face in the DNG Profile Editor. The Tone Curve is a long-standing staple in not only Lightroom but many other post-processing software offerings. Here, it operates exactly the same as it does elsewhere by allowing you to adjust luminance values.

Color Matrices

Through 99% of your work, you will likely use the Color Matrices tab of the DNG Profile Editor more than any other section. This is a boiled down version of the color table and is extremely useful for adjusting the global white balance of your image as well as RGB hue and saturation.

As I mentioned earlier, if you are a practitioner of infrared photography the Color Matrices tab will become your best friend.

Options

In the Options section, you can name your custom camera profile and add the copyright information.

The Options tab is incredibly simple but don’t let that fool you. It is perhaps the most important part of the DNG Profile Editor as far as the way you will eventually be able to locate and apply your custom camera profiles.

Chart

In a program that is already geared towards more advanced manipulation of RAW files, the Chart tab is the Jedi level of the DNG Profile Editor. It is used for making color profiles based on the use of a color chart to fine-tune accurate color renditions based on different natural and artificial lighting scenarios.

I seldom find myself in portrait, product, or other situations when light-based color rendition is needed. However, if you are a studio or location shooter who uses speedlights or constant artificial lighting the Color Chart option is a valuable tool.

How to make a Custom Profile

Next, let’s walk through the making of a custom camera profile using the DNG Profile Editor.

Make a DNG file

You’re going to need a DNG (digital negative) RAW file to base your profile adjustments upon. The great thing is that Lightroom offers a super simple way to convert any RAW image file to a DNG.

To get started, right-click on a RAW file in Lightroom. Select Export > Export to DNG (under the Lightroom Presets section). I usually just send my DNG base files to the desktop for quick access but feel free to place yours anywhere you choose.

Next, open the DNG Profile Editor program and select File > Open DNG Image from the drop-down menu.

Locate the DNG file you just exported from Lightroom and it will open automatically in the editor.

Using the DNG Profile Editor

From here, the world is your oyster as far as creating your custom camera profile. You can adjust the color tones and hues of colors within the photo based on your needs. The possibilities are virtually limitless so I will show a few examples to demonstrate the effects.

In the Color Tables section, I select three separate colors within the leaves in the image and they now appear both on the color wheel and in the color picker table at the right. You can choose as many colors as you like. I’ve based my profile on the Faithful profile from my Canon 5D MK3.

You can select each color from the table and adjust their individual hues, saturation, and lightness. Toggle the on/off of your edits using the black boxes and completely remove the selection with the minus (-) sign. Here is the photo after some fairly drastic hue and saturation adjustments from the color table.

Moving on to the Tone Curve, you can adjust the image just as you would anywhere else by changing the curve. For our example, I’ll add contrast by implementing a classic S-curve.

In the color matrices section, you can further manipulate the colors and white balance of the RAW file. I’ve made some radical changes here just for the sake of example (plus it’s fun).

Keep in mind that when using the DNG Profile Editor you are free to use as many or as few of the tools it offers, either together or singularly.

Saving Your Custom Profile

From here it’s just a matter of naming and saving the custom profile you just made. Switch over to the Options tab.

Enter a name for your custom profile so you can easily identify it later in Lightroom. Also, it is here where you can add in copyright information and other options.

Unless you’ve chosen to use a custom color chart, it’s time to export and actually put your freshly made camera profile to use. Exporting the profile is incredibly easy. Click File > Export (your camera name) Profile.

Yes, Adobe calls these profiles recipes, which is fitting in an odd kind of way.

Make sure the export was successful and then click OK (see below).

And you’re done! (Unless you’d like to also save your recipe for editing later in which case just select Save As in addition to the export.)

There’s no locating the new profile or trying to remember where you placed it on your computer. The DNG Profile Editor does everything for you and will park it exactly where it needs to be for use in Lightroom. Speaking of which, let’s use the new profile in Lightroom. Here’s how.

Applying Your Custom Profile

If you had Lightroom open while you made your new profile, be sure to restart it for the changes to take effect. Next, scroll down to the Camera Calibration Panel of the Develop module. Click on the Profile drop-down.

Boom. There is your newly minted camera profile. Remember, these profiles are camera exclusive. For example, the profile I just made will only work with a Canon 5D MK3. It won’t work an image from my Sony A7R, for example.

Some Final Thoughts on Adobe’s DNG Profile Editor

Is the DNG Profile Editor a piece of software that is intended for everyone? Well, not exactly. That isn’t to say that even non-professional shooters can make great use of its tools.

It allows you to customize exactly how Adobe handles its RAW files and enables you to save new camera profiles to fit different situations. If you regularly employ artificial lighting on location or in the studio you will love the DNG Profile Editor. Oh, and remember, as I mentioned before these profiles can also be used in Adobe Camera Raw (inside Photoshop).

Just select your custom profiles from the Camera Calibration section of ACR and continue as usual.

Thanks for sticking with me all the way to the end. I hope you at least give the DNG Profile Editor a test drive. After all, it’s free and could potentially open up new creative possibilities for your work.

The post How to Use Adobe’s DNG Profile Editor to Make Custom Camera Profiles by Adam Welch appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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

04 Mar

Most cameras today can shoot pictures in one of two main formats: RAW versus JPEG. The debate about which format to use is as old as digital photography itself and the internet is rife with articles, blogs, videos, and seminars illustrating the differences between the formats as well as opinions regarding which one to use.

Ultimately the question of which is the correct choice becomes steeped in subjectivity. There is no single objective correct answer, which is a lesson I learned over the course of many years. Instead of asking which option is right, the real question should be which option is right for you.

RAW Versus JPEG - Which one to use and why?

Straight-out-of-camera JPEG file.

Differentiating between the formats

Understanding the difference between RAW and JPEG file formats is a bit tricky since both appear somewhat similar at first glance. Afterall, when you load either file type into Lightroom or another photo editor you see pretty much the same thing.

However, when you take a picture in RAW you are saving as much data as your camera sensor can possibly collect. Whereas a JPEG file discards some of the data in favor of creating an image that takes up less space on your memory card and is easy to share. With RAW files you gain a huge amount of flexibility in terms of editing the file, and a lot of photographers prefer this as a way to get the most out of their images.

RAW is somewhat comparable to analog film in that RAW files can be manipulated, massaged, and modified to bring to life details from dark areas, recover crystal-clear clouds from what you thought was an overexposed skyline, and improve images dramatically in almost every way.

JPEG files don’t offer nearly as much flexibility, but they do have some significant advantages in their own right. The most notable of which is a much smaller file size and ease of sharing, since JPEG files don’t need to be converted in a program like Lightroom, Photoshop, Luminar, etc.

It wasn’t RAW or JEPG that helped me get this photo. It was an understanding, developed from years of practice, of how light, aperture, focal length, and other parameters can be manipulated to create a compelling image.

The important thing to note is that neither format is inherently better than the other and each has its uses. To illustrate what I mean I’m going to share a bit from my own experience.

Starting from scratch

My own journey through the RAW versus JPEG continuum started shortly after I got serious about digital photography many years ago, in a manner not dissimilar from many photographers. When I got my first DSLR I didn’t know anything about RAW and instead fiddled with different JPEG settings in order to find a balance of quality and quantity.

I eventually settled on the Medium size and Medium compression so as to make sure I could take well over 4000 images before running out of space on my memory card. I had heard about the RAW setting but ignored it since it would only let me fit a couple hundred shots on my memory card which seemed silly compared to several thousand.

RAW Versus JPEG - Which one to use and why?

As months went by, I became intrigued with the flexibility offered by the RAW format despite the larger size of each image file. I learned to edit my pictures in Lightroom by changing White Balance, boosting the shadows, editing color filters in the black and white mode, and even applying Radial and Gradient filters.

I soon realized that the trade-off in file size was worth it because I could do so much more with my images in post-production. “Who wouldn’t want to shoot in RAW?” I asked myself. I also often engaged other aspiring photographers in the discussion of shooting RAW versus JPEG while believing that RAW was clearly the superior format.

RAW Versus JPEG - Which one is right for you and why?

Original picture, shot in RAW format.

Finished version after some editing in Lightroom. If the original was shot in JPG I never would have been able to get a final result like this.

It didn’t take much longer until I was shooting everything in RAW. My kids eating breakfast, my family vacations, formal portrait sessions, random nature shots of animals and leaves…you name it, I shot it in RAW. Shooting in JPEG, I told myself, was for suckers who didn’t know any better!

Each time I loaded yet another round of my RAW files into Lightroom (while getting something to drink and finding a place to put my feet up while the initial previews loaded) I knew that no matter what the pictures looked like I had the absolute best photo quality money could buy.

I was enamored with the RAW workflow and editing flexibility. Shadows too dark? No problem, just lighten them with a few sliders. White Balance a little off? Sky looking a bit too gray? Spots from dust on the lens? Too much noise from shooting at ISO 12,800? All these worries could be erased with a few clicks and sliders, and my images would be ~~instantly~~ slowly transformed from adequate to awesome.

RAW Versus JPEG - Which one is right for you and why?

Cracks in the facade

As the years went on I found myself learning, growing, and changing as a photographer, but ironically enjoying the editing process less and less. I recall the distinct and overwhelming feeling of photographic oppression settling in as I returned home from family trips only to load my RAW files into Lightroom and be faced with hundreds of minor edits to make on each one before I was satisfied with the results.

To combat this I made a develop custom preset that contained basic adjustments such as highlight/shadows, sharpening, and clarity and applied that to every single one of my pictures upon import.

Weeks would often go by before I would be ready to share my pictures because I was stuck in the rut of meticulous editing. Even a simple birthday party for my son’s friend turned into a month-long wait because I didn’t want to share any pictures unless they were adjusted to perfection. With a family and a full-time job, the act of tweaking my images became more of a burden than an enjoyment.

I did not like the idea of tweaking hundreds of RAW files just to enjoy pictures of my family.

What I came to realize after years of doing this was that I simply wasn’t interested in reaping the benefits of shooting RAW for my own personal photography. For client work, I continued to shoot RAW in order to make sure the end results were as good as they could possibly be.

But for nearly all of my own personal pictures, I got to a mental state where I simply didn’t care about editing each and every single picture. Occasionally I would make some cropping adjustments, but I realized I was pretty happy with the results I was getting straight out of my camera.

I didn’t dare shoot in JPEG though because Real Photographers Shoot RAW…or so I thought. I didn’t want to admit that RAW wasn’t really doing much for me, and I thought shooting JPEG was tantamount to admitting I didn’t know what I was doing. That I couldn’t handle the ropes of what it meant to be a true photographer, a true artist.

A revelation occurs

This state of confusion and self-doubt continued until late 2017 when I came across this video from Tony Northup.

Watching that was somewhat of a revelation and helped me realize that I wasn’t any less of a photographer if I shot in anything but the RAW format. While there’s certainly something to be said for capturing images in the highest possible quality, there is also something to be said for speed and convenience – both areas in which JPEG excels.

What I have realized as I looked back over my images from the past several years is that I’ve gotten significantly better at the aspects of photography that shooting in RAW can’t fix at all. I’ve learned about composition, lighting, capturing emotions, when to shoot, how to ask for permission from strangers, and even how to share images online in a more effective manner.

I have learned to put my camera down and enjoy the moment, and I’ve learned that not everything in life needs to be photographed ad infinitum. RAW can’t help if my kids are out of focus or if my angles are bad, and I’ve learned to pay better attention to my light meter and exposure settings so I don’t need to recover highlights and shadows in post-production like I did when I started out.

Straight-out-of-camera JPEG.

Permission to be imperfect

More importantly, I have come to a place as a photographer where I don’t need each and every one of my pictures to be perfect. When I look through photo albums from when I was a kid almost none of the images are ideal. Many are a little under or over-exposed, the framing isn’t always right, and there’s plenty of red-eye issues that could use fixing thanks to my dad’s copious use of his external flash. But it’s the emotions, the feelings, the memories, and the people in those images that really matter the most to me.

When I scroll through images from 15 years ago when all my wife and I had was a cheesy little pocket camera, I don’t care that most of them are low-res JPEG files. It’s what’s in the pictures that matter, and nowadays I’d rather spend my time capturing good photos than editing my RAW files.

A photo of my friends and I on a high school trip to Disney World in 1997. It may not be perfect but I don’t need it to be. It’s the people and the memories I care about, not whether it was shot in RAW or JPEG. (Spoiler: it was shot on film!)

Enabling the JPEG option on my camera has felt like a breath of fresh air, and I’m back to enjoying photography in a way I haven’t done in years. I’m experimenting with my Fuji camera’s built-in ACROS and Classic Chrome film simulations, and I’ve even created what basically amounts to a Lightroom preset in my camera by adding some highlight/shadow/sharpening adjustments using the various menu options. It’s great fun, requires no extra Lightroom editing, and I’m back to enjoying photography the way I used to so many years ago.

Choose both

Above all else, it’s important to understand that shooting in RAW versus JPEG does not have to be a strict dichotomy. It’s taken many years, but I now feel comfortable knowing when to use RAW, when to use JPEG, and understanding the benefits and drawbacks of each. Even though I mostly shoot JPEG for casual snapshots I’ll occasionally switch over to RAW if I think the situation demands it.

I chose to use RAW instead of JPEG for this snapshot because I knew I would have to deal with some bright highlights and dark shadows, and I’d be able to finesse the image in Lightroom to get it how I wanted if I shot RAW.

Finding a solution that works for you

The reason there is no answer to the question of whether to use RAW or JPEG is that every photographer must figure out his or her own approach. For me, shooting JPG is just fine in most situations. One could argue that I’m not getting as much out of my images as I could be, and perhaps that is indeed true.

But if using RAW causes me to dread the process of editing and abate my photography altogether then I would say shooting RAW actually results in me getting less out of my photos than I could be if I were using JPEG.

When doing formal sessions for clients I always use RAW even if I think I might not need it. It’s a safety net that has come in handy far too often.

Conclusion

I should also note that many cameras can offer the best of both worlds by letting you shoot in RAW+JPEG mode. If you like the JPEG file, great! And if not, you have the RAW file which you can edit to your heart’s content. If you’re on the fence this might be an option to consider, but beware that it will fill up your memory cards much faster than you might realize.

As I close I want to offer one final piece of advice, or rather, reiterate a point I hinted at earlier. Don’t let anyone tell you that your method, approach or viewpoint is not valid. If you like RAW, great! Go ahead and use it. If you prefer JPEG, you are no less of a photographer than someone who swears by RAW.

I would recommend learning as much as you can and experimenting with available options so you can make an informed decision. But at the end of the day, if you like the results you’re getting from your approach then, by all means, go ahead and do it. Now stop reading, get off the internet, pick up your camera, and go out to take some photos!

The post RAW Versus JPEG – Which one is right for you and why? by Simon Ringsmuth appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Weekly Photography Challenge – Water

03 Mar

Water, water, everywhere. Your challenge this week it to photograph water in some way – it could be the liquid form or frozen in the form of ice. Pick flowing water or still water. Capture it frozen in time or with motion. The choice is yours.

Water droplet photography and refraction make for great images.

As it’s spring in many places now you might want to photograph the rain, or kids jumping in a puddle. Or raindrops on the window and some stunning bokeh. Or try some refraction in a water droplet. It’s time to get creative.

Photo by Daiga Ellaby on Unsplash

Weekly Photography Challenge – Water

Here are some ideas on photographing water:

5 Fun Tips for Photographing Water
6 Tips for How to Photograph Waterfalls
9 Water Photography Ideas to Make a Splash
Water Splash Photography Made Easy
How to Create Abstract Photos with Oil and Water and a Little Dish Soap
How to do Photography of Frozen Flowers
How to do Frozen Object Photography at Home
Tips for Doing Macro Underwater Photography

Oil and water and a bit of color make for a fun afternoon photography project. Image by Ramakant – see how to do this here.

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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