Category: Photography

How to Expose Correctly for High Contrast Wildlife
Photographing wildlife of deeply contrasting colors, such as black bears or white waterfowl, can present certain challenges setting up shots that are properly exposed for the wildlife and also the surroundings. Harsh lighting also makes exposing for these subjects especially difficult. The hurdle to overcome in these cases is to expose for the subject animal(s) properly and still capture a scene that is pleasing to the viewer. What often results are images where the exposure is correct for the surroundings, but the creature is either under or overexposed.

Getting the subject wildlife exposed correctly is a more important aspect because the background can be dealt with later in post-production. In some cases, the background just doesn’t really matter in comparison to the photo capture of the often elusive wildlife in the scene.What follows are methods to use in stark color-contrasting situations. One is for dark colored wildlife such as black bears or ravens, and another for light colored wildlife such as egrets or swans.

What follows are methods to use in stark color-contrasting situations. One is for dark colored wildlife such as black bears or ravens, and another for light colored wildlife such as egrets or swans.

Exposure Details

A reality of photographing wildlife is that when things happen, they happen fast. Lighting may change very quickly and there may not always be time to make adjustments while shooting the action of the wildlife in view.

Most experienced photographers want control of all camera settings and don’t generally choose to shoot in auto modes for shutter speed and aperture in order to control movement and depth of field. So is there was a way to set the shutter speed and aperture and still get the correct exposure without the hassle of continually changing settings as the light changes?

There are many ways of shooting wildlife resulting in a desirable exposure, but probably one of the most overlooked ways is using the Auto ISO setting in Manual mode. To use this method, set the camera in Manual mode, adjust shutter speed and aperture to the settings desired, and then set the ISO to auto-ISO. Most cameras will allow you to set a maximum ISO, so it’s helpful to know at what ISO the images become unacceptably grainy with your camera. However, this still doesn’t entirely solve the problem of correctly exposing for those dark and light animal subjects. To solve these problems you can fine-tune the exposure by using exposure compensation.

Correcting the background in post-production

As in any image, if editing is planned it is important that the image be shot in RAW mode. When opening an image in Adobe Raw Converter (ARC) (or Lightroom) and if the exposure for the animal is correct in camera, then only the background may benefit from corrections in post. In most cases for wildlife images, the background hues are green, yellow or blue. To enhance or balance these colors in ARC, go to HSL/Grayscale panel and simply darken or lighten the luminance for green, yellow or blue until the background exposure appears to match the exposure of the animal. A little saturation may also be added. If a little punch or contrast would improve any background flatness, one may use an adjustment brush to add some contrast and clarity to the background. It’s that simple!

Dark Colored Wildlife

In this image the correct exposure for the black bear over-exposes the green background.

The luminance of the green has been adjusted to decrease the background exposure.

The dark hues of some wildlife will absorb more light than the scene around them, so it becomes necessary to increase the light taken in by the camera by using exposure compensation as mentioned above. For wildlife with dark colored coats or feathers, use exposure compensation and adjust by adding light (+value). This will suffice in most cases, depending on the amount of natural light available.

Keep in mind that the wild subject is the most important component in the image, so if any aspect of the image should be sacrificed in the moment, make it the background. For really dark creatures, such as bears, start out by using a compensation of +1. Remember, don’t worry about the background. The animal is the important exposure!

The exposure is correct for the black bird, but the background is washed out and boring.

Again, the luminance of the green has been adjusted. Then an adjustment brush has been used to add contrast, creating a vibrant background.

Light Colored Wildlife

Conversely, for light colored animals, use exposure compensation and adjust by subtracting light (- value). The whiter color of many beautiful creatures will reflect much more light than the background will, so it helps to decrease the light the camera takes in so as not to overexpose the animal.

In keeping the white egret from being overexposed, the background appears dull and dark.

The green and yellow hues were adjusted to add life to the background. Notice that in every case the exposure of the subject is unchanged.

Why can’t I just correct the exposure of the wildlife in post-production?

Of course, this is an option. But there at least two reasons for not correcting the exposure of the subject later on the computer.
1. Any time a major exposure correction is undertaken, there is a certain amount of digital data of the image that is lost. Therefore, it is best to get the main subject of the image captured as closely as possible in camera. (This is true of any image, not only wildlife subjects.)
2. When photographing extremely light colored animals, if the white is over-exposed to absolute white there is nothing that can be done in post-production to pull out any detail. Darkening the subject will not bring back any nuance in the creatures coloring, and the image will lose desirable texture. Again, conversely, if the black-coated bear or bird is underexposed to absolute black there is no way to lighten the subject and pull out interesting details from the fur or feathers.
What about the Eagle?

Some animals are doubly challenging as in the case of the American Bald Eagle, with its white head and dark body. These magnificent creatures are almost impossible to photograph in harsh light. If choosing which end of your histogram to sacrifice, my opinion is to expose for the white head. Again, avoid harsh lighting if at all possible.

Conclusion

Remember, when you’re faced with a choice of settings for an extreme exposure while photographing wildlife, never sacrifice your subject. Whether a light or dark-coated bird or animal, intentionally set up the shot to capture the creature and its distinctive features and keep the background as a secondary consideration. To make sure the subject will be correctly exposed, use a 3-shot bracketed exposure, with an exposure one stop over and another exposure one stop under the setting.

Do you have any wildlife exposure tips? Please leave them in the comments below.

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The post How to Expose Correctly for High Contrast Wildlife by Bruce Wunderlich appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
October 25, 2016
How to Make a Sketch Inside a Photograph

This is one of those tutorials that’s great to play around with, maybe do it once or twice. But in the end, the thing they are great for is that they always teach you something. It may not be much, but it might help you think in a different way, or learn a skill you didn’t know about. This one is about how to make a sketch inside a photograph.

This is a simple tutorial that can help you learn how to use layers, and combine images. There are so many things you can do with layers, but in this example, we are going to work on putting a drawing of a scene in front of the photograph. Of course, it isn’t a real drawing, but one that is created from the image using the artistic filters in Photoshop.

The image

Deciding which image you are going to use can be harder than you think. It could take a while to find one that will work well, one with lots of contrast is good. You want an image that will stand out when you put the drawing over the top of it.

Open the image and process it normally to get it ready. If you have several layers flatten or merge all of them, and copy that new merged layer so there are two. To copy the layer press Ctrl/Cmd+J.

Turn off the top layer by clicking on the eye icon next to the thumbnail. That will make it disappear, or turn off temporarily.

Click the bottom layer to select it as the one that you will change into a drawing.

Making the drawing

Go up to the Main Menu and click Filters > Filter Gallery, or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl/Cmd+F.

If you can’t bring up the Filter Gallery or click on it in the menu, it may be because your image is either 16 or 32 Bits, so you will need to change it to 8 Bits.

To change the image to 8 Bits select from the top menu bar: Image > Mode > 8 Bits/Channel. You should now be able to use the Filters Gallery.

There are loads of options in the gallery to give you an artistic look. Select the one you like. For this example, I used the Graphic Pen found in the sketch section. If you don’t like any of the ones that Photoshop has to offer, you can look for artistic actions (google search) that may give you a better drawing.

Adding the hand

I took several images of my daughter holding a piece of paper. It’s good to get a large variety, and if you have the time, shoot in different lighting conditions as well.

Choose an image of the hand holding the paper. Open it in Photoshop and use the Quick Selection tool to select the hand and paper. It doesn’t have to be exact, as long as everything you need is selected. Once you have the hand on the image you can fine-tune it.

Press Ctrl/Cmd+C, then Ctrl/Cmd+V. This will copy and paste the selection onto a new layer (in the same document). However, if you go back over to your original image and pressCtrl/Cmd+V it will paste the hand onto your image as a new layer. Use the move tool, the top one in the tool bar.

Size and position the hand

If you are lucky the hand will be the correct size, however, if it isn’t you may have to resize it. You might also have to change the angle. Free transform will allow you to do that, press Ctrl/Cmd+T to activate it. If you click on the corners you can make it bigger or smaller (hold Shift down to keep the proportions the same!). If you hover around the corners you will see a small curve appear with arrows on either end, this will allow you to rotate it to the desired angle.

The hand looks a little odd because it needs a shadow. Take note of your original image and how the shadow was placed. You also need to look at the main image, it will look a bit off if the light is coming from a different direction than the image of the hand.

Creating the drawing on the paper

To get the image on the piece of paper you need to ensure the layer that is the photograph is still not visible. It should still be invisible from when you did the drawing.

Add a mask to the layer with the hand and paper. At the bottom of the layers panel click on the mask icon, looks like a white rectangle with a round black circle in it. It should be down in the bottom right corner.

Next, make sure the layer mask is selected. If there are white lines around the outside of the mask (not the image thumbnail, it means the mask is selected.

Select the Brush Tool and make sure the foreground colour is set to black. Go down the tool bar and find the foreground and background colours. If white is on top click on the arrow above it to make it black (if other colors are showing hit D on your keyboard to set to the defaults of black and white).

You could mask out the whole sheet of paper, or leave an edge around the image. For this tutorial, I left a border intentionally. Once you think you have gotten the whole image, press Alt (PC) or Option (Mac), and click the mask. You should then be able to see what you have masked – the black areas are the mask, so make sure there are no white spots left. Brush over any white bits and remove them. If you realize that you are painting white, then the foreground color is wrong. Press X and it will reverse the color so you can go back to painting with black.

Putting the photograph back

Once you have the drawing showing through the paper, you need to make the photograph appear again. Click on the eyeball icon next to the image so it is visible. You will notice the whole drawing has disappeared, it is now behind the photograph. You will need to do another mask so you can see the drawing on the paper again.

The beauty of this image is that you can use the same mask that you used for the paper layer.

If you go to the layer mask that you used to show the drawing, press Ctrl/Cmd and click on the mask you will see it make a selection (marching ants around the selected areas). Press Ctrl/Cmd+C, to copy that selection. Then, make sure the photograph layer is selected and click the layer mask icon to create a new one. You should get a new layer mask the same as the other one. (Alternately you can click and hold Alt/Opt, and grab the layer mask from the paper layer and drag it over to the image layer. That will copy the same mask over for you).

It is time to remove the parts that don’t really belong. You can use the mask that you had for the hand layer. Use your brush tool and remember to make black the foreground colour. You can now mask out the parts of the hand that you didn’t mean to select when you did the quick selection (zoom in close, you can also use the refine edge function).

Fine tuning

The hand can look a little weird, so next you need to add a shadow that the hand would have created. This will make it more believable looking.

Add a new layer by clicking the icon at the bottom of the layers panel. It is the square outline with the folded corner, usually located next to the trash can. Alternatively, you can go to Menu > Layer > New Layer.

You will need to use the lasso tool. It is also helpful to zoom in so you can see what you are doing. The zoom tool is also in the tool panel, or you can press the letter Z which will make it appear. Click the image to zoom in, or to zoom out press the Alt or Option key and click the image. (Note: Press B to get the brush back.)

On the new layer, draw under the hand with the lasso tool to get the shadow. You don’t have to be exact as it is not going to be really dark. Go up to Menu > Select > Modify > Feather. In the popup window enter the amount of feathering you want. 5 pixels was the setting selected for this image. Alternatively you can press Shift+F6.

Add in the shadow area

Fill the selected area with black using the Paint Bucket Tool. Make sure that the foreground colour is black.

You may need to add a mask to remove any parts of the hand that you don’t need. You can also change the opacity of the layer so the shadow isn’t as dark. The opacity slider is located at the top of the layers panel near the blending modes. Adjust to where you think the shadow looks natural.

To deselect hit Ctrl/Cmd+D.

The image is now done.

Conclusion

I don’t know how many of these you would do, but some of the techniques used to create it can be used for many other things. Try doing this tutorial a few times, then see how you can use some of the processes in different ways. Don’t forget to share your images so we can see what you have done.

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The post How to Make a Sketch Inside a Photograph by Leanne Cole appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

October 25, 2016
5 Tips for Portraits of Musicians That Will Help You Hit All the Right Notes

I’d like to share a few tips for portraits of musicians that will help you avoid the awkward photos that make any musician cringe.

Sometimes we are lucky enough as photographers to be asked to photograph someone with one of their most prized possessions: their musical instrument. Most people that want to be photographed with their instrument really and truly love it, and it’s a part of who they are. As a musician myself, I love photographs with gorgeous instruments in them, and I am especially bothered by photos that don’t capture those instruments naturally. Sometimes I’ll come across a photo that makes me cry out, “Why?? Nobody would EVER hold their instrument like that!!” You can still be creative with your photos without making them awkward.

1. Trust the musician

If you aren’t familiar with the instrument you’re photographing, it is especially important to trust the musician. This isn’t the time to try every posing trick that you can come up with, ending up with flutes on top of the head, or cellos held under the chin.

Ask your subject how they hold their instrument naturally. You can ask how they hold their instrument while playing, or when they’re relaxing between songs. If it’s a big instrument, like a piano, ask them how they would stand next to it before they perform, or how they sit by it when they’re thinking about what to practice. Ask them to demonstrate how they carry their instrument from one place to another. These might seem like silly questions, but you can really get a sense of what positions and holds are natural, then you can build from there.

As an example, a violinist may tell you that she holds her violin under her right arm when resting. You could take that position, ask her to sit on a chair in a formal pose holding the violin under her arm and get a beautiful portrait of a girl and her violin. The key is to remember that they are much more expert at how to naturally pose with their instrument than you likely are. However, if you do happen to know their instrument well, feel free to use your knowledge to get beautiful natural poses.

2. Do your homework

Before a session with a musician, you could watch some videos on YouTube to see how people interact specifically with the instrument you’ll be photographing. Find a professional musician who plays the same instrument. Look at their website to see what kind of photos they have with their instruments. You may have a client who is very shy and need more guidance posing, so it’s helpful to have a few ideas ahead of time. Be prepared for challenges that an instrument might bring, such as unwanted reflections in brass, immobility of harps or pianos, sensitivity to temperature or weather, and have a plan.

3. Ask the musician to play for you

If you can get your subject to give you a little performance during the photo session, you will get some great action shots. It usually helps loosen them up a little bit too, and brings out some natural smiles. Remind them that it doesn’t matter if they make mistakes because your camera doesn’t catch any audio. It will only capture the perfect moments of their playing. Also, remind them that you aren’t there to judge their skill, you just want to capture the relationship they have with their instrument. Move around as they play, and catch the beautiful moment from every angle you can, close, and far.

4. Get close-ups of the action

Hands are the main part of playing most instruments. Get in close on the hands as they play. These shots often end up being some of my very favorites. Try focusing on the hands as you shoot down the neck of a guitar, the fingers on a flute, or hands that are frozen in mid-air during a drum solo. Getting in close on these details can create beautiful action photos that really tell the story. If their hands are moving too quickly for you to focus, ask them to freeze for a moment in that position while you get the shot.

5. Make the instrument the star

Take a few photos of the instrument by itself, too. Musicians love their instruments, and they will love photos that show their beauty. Make sure to ask permission to touch their instrument, and to set it down, move it, or anything you might want to do for the shot that could potentially harm it in any way. You can even ask the owner to do all of the touching and moving, and you can move yourself around to get the photo that you want.

Tell the musician what you have in mind, and they will most likely be on board, and be happy to help you get some amazing instrument photos. Instruments can be extremely expensive, and even more importantly, can have sentimental value that can never be compensated. Keep this in mind throughout the session, whether your subject is in the photo with the instrument, or not. Never ask them to do something that could harm or damage the instrument.

Conclusion

Every time I’ve been asked to create photos for album covers for musicians, head shots for websites, art to print and frame, or just to capture someone’s favorite hobby, my goal is to create a photo that they will love. One that will stay true to what they would naturally do with their instruments.

I hope these tips can help you create beautifully genuine musician portraits too. I would love to see your musician portraits in the comments!

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The post 5 Tips for Portraits of Musicians That Will Help You Hit All the Right Notes by Melinda Smith appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

October 25, 2016
Cluck Yeah! Two New Downtown San Francisco Fried Chicken Sandwiches!

The Bird’s fried chicken sandwich offers a juicy, succulent piece of fried chicken complimented by a slightly sweet apple based slaw on a brioche bun.

Organic Coup’s fried chicken sandwich offers a slightly larger piece of chicken with a tangy and spicy slaw with jalapeno on an equally tasty bun.

Downtown San Franciscans were treated to not one but two new fried chicken sandwiches this week in the heart of San Francisco’s Financial District. Two new restaurants, Organic Coup and The Bird are both located a mere 2 blocks off of Market Street. Organic Coup North of Market at 224 Kearny and The Bird South of Market located at 115 Montgomery.

The Bird is open Monday through Saturday from 11am to 10pm.

Organic Coup is open 11am to 3pm Monday through Friday for lunch.

Since who the cluck doesn’t like fried chicken sandwiches, I tried both this week and thought I’d write a few thoughts on each of these fine new chicken coops. My co-worker Sam Greene joined me (because birds of feather stick together) and I’ve added his thoughts on each section of this review.

Let the great San Francisco Cluck Off begin!

Organically Cocky at the Organic Coup.

The Bird, Fried Chx Sandwiches, 200 Daily #CluckYeah.

50 Deep in line at The Bird. Get there early and plan on a wait.

Ordering. (Winner: tie)

Although it’s probably not fair to compare the foot traffic at both of these restaurants on opening week, plan on spending a lot more time waiting for your chicken sandwich at The Bird than Organic Coup.

I arrived to a line already 50 deep at 11:10 am Friday at The Bird. The wait was approximately half an hour from start to finish. By contrast you get in and out of Organic Coup much faster. I went to Organic Coup on Wednesday and Thursday at 11:10am and there was no line. On Friday I went to Organic Coup after the Bird at around 11:45am and the wait still was only about 4 people for about 5 minutes.

Organic Coup had a very efficient ordering system. An order taker walks you through your order on an iPad. You make your designation side by side and then when you swipe your credit card the system automatically pulls your name and then uses your name to call you when your order is ready. The Bird offers a more formal across the counter cash register based system where they print out a receipt for you to sign. They do capture your name from your card as well though and use it to call your order.

Organic Coup has a sign up by the order taker that says no cash / no tipping. On their website they say that they are committed to paying their workers a livable wage and say that they “pay the highest wages in the industry.” With tax their sandwich is $ 11.

By contrast the Bird has you either write in or decline a tip on your credit card receipt when you sign. Their sandwich is cheaper at $ 9 with tax no tip.

I will write more on the whole tip no tip thing below, but I will say I liked the fact that Organic Coup doesn’t allow cash. Cash tends to slow things down and pretty much everybody has a credit or debit card these days.

I would clearly give the win to Organic Coup here based on the faster service, except for the fact that The Bird had a server come outside to the line and give everyone in the line a free sample of their clucking amazing ice cream sandwich, one of the best I’ve ever tried. Not only did they hand out free samples to the line, the guy handing out the samples came by afterwards to take everyone’s trash from the sample that was handed out. Such thoughtfulness and such an amazing treat made the line totally worth it. That was very smart. So the verdict here is a tie but both were pretty clucking great.

SAM’S TAKE:

Ordering (winner: Organic Coup)

I’m a big believer in the holistic evaluation process so it is hard for me to say which restaurant offers an absolutely better ordering system. I would start by saying the ordering systems are different. The Organic Coup offers a clucking-efficient iPad based self-service ordering system while The Bird offers the more traditional cash-transaction at the register system. I personally like the iPad self-service system much better for a few reasons. For starters, the pressure of having to field a barrage of questions at the counter is completely removed with the iPads. Additionally, what’s nice about ordering on the iPad is that it gives me a little more time to consider what options are available before making my selection. This way you don’t have to fumble over your words dictating your order to the cashier while you’re looking at the menu. Sure, it may be a bit awkward and anti-social to prefer the iPad system, but the reality is that ordering through the iPad is much easier and simpler for all parties involved and saves everybody a little bit of time.

However, since the fried chicken sandwich itself is a bit simpler at The Bird in that there is only a spicy and non-spicy option as opposed to an overwhelming assortment of sauces to add and choose from at the Organic Coup, I didn’t feel like the register-based system slowed down the ordering process significantly. Overall, I think the two are tied for the best ordering system. The Bird’s products don’t complicate ordering at the register, and Organic Coups iPad system nicely handles more complicated orders.

Cost (Winner: tie)

Sure the sandwich at Organic Coup is two clucks more, but the fact that there is no pressure to tip and apparently you can feel ok about not tipping because of the living wage thing, it sort of makes up for the extra cost. If you tip a buck at the Bird, the sandwich still comes in a dollar cheaper, but I’m sort of a fan of including gratuity in the price of a product which feels more like what Organic Coup is doing. It would be interesting to know how much each place pays their workers, but to me there’s not much difference between paying $ 11/no tip or $ 10 or $ 11 with manual tip.

Atmosphere (Winner: tie)

Both sandwich shops feel really nice although just a little crowded. Organic Coup feels a little more like a chain/corporate (and with multiple locations it sort of is) vs. the pop up feel of The Bird. The Bird (which is in the space that the old Melt use to use) has some seating which is nice if you want to eat your sandwich there. Seating is very limited, but at least they have some. I usually take my lunch to go though so seating didn’t matter to me. The Bird offers you a water cup which is nice. Organic Coup is more open and airy and light in my opinion — both are very nice and clean.

Both restaurants had people with menus outside greeting you. Both restaurants had friendly employees. Both restaurants were marketing with the San Francisco “Cluck Yeah” tag line sure to appeal to millennials everywhere. The Bird uses a hashtag based #CLUCKYEAH while Organic Coup chose to go with an exclamation point based CLUCK YEAH!

SAM’S TAKE:

Both shops were nice, clean and up to snuff. However, I feel like the Bird may have a slight edge in the overall atmosphere. Fist and foremost, the Bird has a larger space that is big enough to offer counters, seating, and complimentary water and bathrooms. Keep in mind though that around 11:00am when we went the place was hustling and bustling so it was difficult to find a place to stand and lean let alone sit and dine, so if you’re looking for a place to enjoy a leisurely meal I would look elsewhere. That being said, the fact that seating is available for less rushed and frenzied times during the day is a huge plus for me.

In contrast, the smaller, more cooped up space at the Organic Coup (no pun intended), did not feel large enough to adequately handle the 11:00am rush of lunch-goers who inevitably end up waiting on the sidewalk. Granted, the line at the The Bird wound around the block as well when we went — however, once all the hype dies down from the opening weeks for each location I think The Bird will be more attractive to a larger percentage of the lunch-going population since it does offer a place to sit. In light of all that, the smaller space offered by the Organic Coup is nice in that it sort of naturally moves folks along in and out of the building faster since nobody likes to stand around in claustrophobic, shoulder-to-shoulder, tight-knit spaces for long. If your intention is to grab your food and go, the Organic Coup is perfect. However, given the choice, I would rather have the option to sit and schmooze over a quick bite with a co-worker than feel rushed in and out of the place.

Secondly, the Bird felt like it actually had a personality. The interior design maintained what appeared to be the original look and architecture of the establishment that preceded The Bird. As a matter of personal preference, I thought it was nice that The Bird chose to maintain the integrity of style rather than give it a radical makeover to conform to the recognizable and modern look. There is an aura of traditional, classic fried chicken sandwich shop that emanates from the old-school single-letter-insert-menu hanging down from the ceiling. Overall The Bird presents itself as more of unique local, self-sufficient, one-of-a-kind joint while the Organic Coup is more of a modern and contemporary fast-food chain.

I have to hand this one to The Bird.

Nutrition (Winner: Organic Coup)

Organic Coup markets itself as America’s first USDA certified organic fast food restaurant. What’s more, they provide you with calorie nutritional information on their website. According to their website their Chicken Sandwich is 500 calories. For such a big fried sandwich I almost can not believe it is only 500 calories. They also offer a bowl, which is more like a fried chicken salad, with only 320 calories. For someone like me trying to maintain my sleek physique, those numbers are very reasonable and I appreciated that they shared them with me on their website.

The Bird does not provide nutritional information on their website. Based on the taste of their sandwich though (and the fact that it has mayo on it), I’d suspect it’s more than 500 calories.

SAM’S TAKE:

I have to agree with the Hawk here. I think it’s clucking-smart that the Organic Coup makes an effort to disclose nutritional facts on its website to its frequenters. In the age of the IoT, information is data and data is power to the consumer. As a consumer, I feel clucking-empowered by nutritional information in what I’m choosing to buy and eat, even though the information may not necessarily ultimately drive my decision. For example, I may find that the Organic Coup is less calories than The Bird, but I may still like the bird better since it has those incredible pickles. Merely the fact that Organic Coup openly shares with us the nutritional facts so transparently makes me more trusting of them as a restaurant regardless of whether or not their sandwich is any healthier, less caloric or has overall more nutritional value than The Birds. Props to Organic Coup on this one.

The Sandwich (Winner: The Bird, by a beak)

First off, I have to say I liked both sandwiches. I will definitely be back to both in the future.

Organic Coup’s sandwich reminded me very much of one of my favorite East Bay secrets, the fried chicken sandwich at Bakesale Betty’s in Oakland only on a tasty bun instead of a roll. Organic Coup uses a vinegar based slaw with jalapenos in it just like Betty does. This is also the base for the slab of fried chicken that they serve with their bowl (which is more like a fried chicken slaw salad) and it is clucking delicious. You get a choice of four sauces for your bowl/wrap/sandwich. I got my sandwich with the vegan mustard vinaigrette sauce. The sauce was good but the irony that they were marketing my choice of sauce as “vegan” when I was eating a fried chicken sandwich was not lost on me. The spicy BBQ sauce seemed the most popular.

Organic Coup’s piece of friend chicken felt a little bit bigger to me than The Bird’s and hangs out of both sides of the sandwich.

As much as I enjoyed Organic Coup’s sandwich, The Bird edged it out here by a beak. Given the mayonnaise on the sandwich it definitely made it taste a bit richer. More than the mayonnaise though the chicken itself was more tender, flavorful and succulent. The Bird’s bird was a juicy, flavorful, delicious piece of mouthwatering bliss. The Bird’s sandwich had less slaw than Organic Coup’s but the slaw itself was a cabbage-onion-apple based slaw which gave it just the slight amount of sweetness that went perfectly with the spicy flavor. It also had Super Duper pickles on it which added a nice finishing touch.

The Bird had two versions of their signature sandwich, spicy and non-spicy. I of course opted for spicy and I’m glad I did.

SAM’S TAKE:

The Sandwich (The Bird, it was beak-and-beak the whole way through)

Both places offer un-clucking-believable fried chicken sandwiches. Both offer great, high-quality sandwiches sure to satisfy any afternoon deep-fried craving San Franciscan dropping by for quick bite to eat. The Bird differentiates itself from the Organic Coup in a few notable ways. While both offer delicious crunchy deep fried gustatory experiences, The Bird seems to let their birds simmer a bit longer in the pan allowing a thicker, deeper-fried coat to form. The deeper-fried coat made it all the more delicious and rich, though perhaps slightly less healthy. Additionally, the sandwich served at the Bird championed an artfully infused African Berber spice in the batter that was a flavorful and interesting homage to the origins of the fried chicken sandwich.

The coleslaw prepared at the Organic Coup offered more intense, spicier coleslaw than The Bird though. It beautifully complimented the spicy BBQ sauce served with the sandwich that I had chosen. Additionally, the Organic Coup offered a much larger chunk of chicken than The Bird which made me feel like I was getting better value for the two extra clucks I paid.

However, although Organic Coup made an eggs-ellent final product, the bird at the The Bird was slightly more succulent and juicy than at The Organic Coup. I’m pretty sure there was an element of marketing responsible for this perception though. Since I knew in advance that the Bird only made 200 sandwiches a day for the lunch crowd I think I was primed to believe they put more TLC, attention and energy into making each sandwich perfect than the Organic Coup. Upon deeper reflection, however, I do not think the modern fast-food nature of the Organic Coup takes away from the quality of their artfully though more industrially crafted sandwiches. It was just an observation I made when writing this review. I simply think I got a bit luckier at the Bird at the time I went in regards to the juiciness factor of the chicken. All in all, The Bird stood out to me as overall slightly tastier due to the tenderness of the meat and the deliciousness of the deep-fry recipe despite its shortcoming in size compared to the Organic Coup.

The Logo (Winner: The Bird)

Very hipster San Francisco looking fox with a chicken sandwich in his mouth, would also look good on a Bon Iver album cover.

I didn’t really get into the extras beyond the fried chicken sandwiches in this review, but it is also worth pointing out that The Bird sells beer which may be a plus for some while by contrast Organic Coup offers fresh squeezed lemonade. I have a general rule that I don’t consume alcohol before 6pm so I can’t imagine having a beer at lunch, but for more thirstier friends that might be a good option to know about.

The bottom line is both of these new fried chicken sandwiches are abso-clucking-lutely delicious. So the next time you and your cluck buddy get a craving for some fried chicken sandwich for lunch try one of these two hen houses. You won’t be disappointed and you might even get a free sample of some ice cream sandwich to go with it.

Cluck Yeah with an exclamation mark instead of the hashtag.

No Cash and No Tipping at the Organic Coup.

Organic Looks Good on You at the Organic Coup.

Fresh Squeezed Lemonade at Organic Coup.

Standing outside Organic Coup on Kearny Street.

Interior shot of The Bird.

Thomas Hawk Digital Connection

October 22, 2016
An Introduction to Photoshop Layers Possibilities and Properties

When Photoshop was first introduced to the world in 1990 it could only do the most basic of image editing tasks such as clone a selection, crop a picture, and work with some filters such as Blur, High Pass, and Sharpen. However, for its time it was incredibly advanced and the ability to work with digital pictures in this manner was practically unheard of for desktop computers, most of which were still using black and white screens. It wasn’t until late in 1994 when version 3 hit store shelves that the program included a key feature which continues to be the foundation for nearly all image editing programs to this day – layers.

Understanding how layers work is essential for anyone who wants to upgrade from a program like Apple Photos or Microsoft Pain. But learning how to use them with all the hundreds of icons, buttons, and menu options competing for your attention in Photoshop, can seem completely overwhelming. Getting the hang of a few basic concepts will set you on your way to image editing success, and help you figure out many of the other options Photoshop has to offer as well.

Basic concept of layers

To wrap your head around the concept of layers, think back to when you were in grade school and your teacher worked out math problems on an overhead projector. She probably started with a sheet of transparent plastic that had equations printed on it and then used a washable marker to perform the required multiplication, division, or other operations to solve it. The bottom layer, the transparency itself, never changed but the teacher was free to alter what students saw on the projector screen by writing on top of the acetate layer.

You could even stack transparencies on top of one another and end up with a background layer and a few plastic sheets stacked on top of it. Each layer could be drawn or written on which would alter the final image shown to the students on the projector screen. But the layers existed separately from one another and could be edited individually without affecting the actual content of the underlying or overlying layers. Layers in Photoshop function in much the same way.

First layer – Background

When you open a picture in Photoshop the first thing you will see in the Layers panel is a background layer with a small thumbnail of your image on it. It’s always given the label “Background” and on the right-hand side of the panel is an image of a padlock. Photoshop uses this icon this to indicate that the image is to be the foundation on which all future edits are built but the picture itself is not to be altered.

It is the transparency sheet that your math teacher would write on; the edits and other operations you can perform on it are stacked one on top of the next, but the bottom layer is sacrosanct and never to be changed. Icons that let you adjust opacity, fill, blending mode, etc., are grayed out so you might be wondering just how to actually edit the picture. One place to start is by right-clicking on the background layer and choosing the “Duplicate Layer” option.

Duplicate layers

As soon as you create a copy of the Background layer a whole new world of creative possibility opens up. You now have access to tools like Opacity and Fill, you can change the Blend Mode, add Layer Masks, and hundreds of other options as well. The choices are staggering, and it’s important to remember that there is no one correct way of using layers in Photoshop. Each photographer has his or her own approach, and what works well for you may not be good for someone else. So don’t get caught up thinking you have to use a certain process when working with layers or anything else in Photoshop. The important thing is to find a solution that works for you.

How layers work

To dive a little deeper into the concept of layers and illustrate how they work, I’m going to start with the image of the husband and wife above. I’ll remove them from the garden in which they were photographed, and insert them into another location (new background). The first issue when doing any type of edit like this is that your computer doesn’t know that the people are separate from the background. It treats everything as one cohesive image but you can use layers in Photoshop to separate, remove, add, and otherwise edit the various parts of the picture.

In the image above, the subjects are clearly distinct from the background with highly contrasting colors so an operation like this is pretty straightforward. But if your subjects blend in a little more with the foreground or background it can get a little tricky. Press the “W” key to access the Magic Wand tool. Then click [shift]+w until you end up with the Quick Selection tool (or you can access it on the toolbar see the screenshot to locate it). Now click and drag the Quick Selection tool around your subjects until they are outlined with a cycling dotted line that looks like black and white ants marching in a loop.

Refine the selection

If you try this operation and you aren’t quite getting your subjects selected how you want, you can use the Refine Edge (Select > Refine Edge in older versions, Select > Select and Mask in the newest Photoshop CC 2015.5) option to get your selection precisely how you need it. Once you are satisfied with your selection, choose Layer > New > Layer via Copy (you can also use the keyboard shortcut Cmd/Cntrl+J) and you will now see a third layer on the layer panel consisting of just the subjects and nothing else.

Now the real fun begins! Click the eyeball icon to the left of all the layers except the new one with just your subjects and you will see everything else disappear.

How Photoshop sees layers

Pause for a moment and consider what is happening here. Your computer now sees the image not as one cohesive whole, with two people in front of a meadow, but as two distinct layers. One is a layer with just the people and the other layer below that is the background (the meadow). Technically there is a third layer, the locked background layer, but we’re ignoring that since we don’t do anything with it.

Add a new image as a new layer

To move the people to a different location all you have to do is insert an image as a new layer and place it below the layer with just the people. For this example, I’m going to put the couple in front of a photo I took with some trees and a bridge crossing a stream.

In Photoshop you can drag and drop images directly into your composition or use the “File > Place” command. When I insert the image of the bridge into the document with the couple I now have a new layer that I can manipulate like all the rest. You can also start to see the vertical structure of layers and how they are mixed together.

The Layers panel functions from a top-down perspective in that whatever layer is at the top of the panel is literally the top-most layer in the entire composition. Layers below it are arranged in descending order. In this example, it’s essential that the layer with the two people appears as the top-most layer in the Layer panel itself, followed immediately by the new background.

Voila! The couple now appears in an entirely different location, all with just a few mouse clicks in Photoshop. If you are still trying to wrap your head around the concept of layers, here’s an extruded view of what you are seeing in the above image.

Cover your bases, keep all layers

I could remove the bottom layer entirely but I left it in place because I don’t like to delete any layers when making a composite image like this. You never know when you might need to go fetch an errant strand of hair that you overlooked from the original layer, or use it for a bit of color correction later on down the line. If I want I can add more pieces to this image just by using layers and stacking things on top of each other, and using layer masks to refine and edit things even more.

You can also edit the new background separately from the people such as adding a blur effect or desaturating it slightly. If you convert to a Smart Object any editing you do on that layer can be altered or changed later. But if you apply it directly to the layer it cannot. Make sure to match color balance when combining images for a more realistic look.

Additional adjustment layers have been applied to the background to shift the color, blur it in some areas, and darken the edges.

Conclusion

This type of switch-out-the-background edit is just a small taste of what you can do when using layers in Photoshop. Add empty layers by going to “Layer > New > Layer” and then using the Brush or other tools to start creating in them. You can re-order layers by clicking and dragging them up and down in the Layers panel. You can show and hide layers, adjust the opacity of a given layer, choose how one blends with the layers below it, and even create special Adjustment Layers that you can use to edit colors and add effects to other layers.

I have only scratched the surface of what layers are capable of doing. Hopefully this gives you a basic understanding of what this powerful feature is all about. Do you have any tips or tricks for using layers that I missed? Please share them in the comments section below.

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Digital Photography School

October 21, 2016
Remote Shutter Release Versus the Built-In Delayed Shutter
It’s no secret that being a photographer, amateur or professional, can be quite expensive. We both travel and we want the latest and best equipment but we can’t always afford it all. Being selective with the equipment we choose to purchase can be wise as it’s better to spend a few dollars extra purchasing something of quality. A lot of the gear we have isn’t essential and can easily be done inside the camera itself. Let’s look at using a remote shutter release versus the delayed timer built into the camera.

A self portrait captured by using a remote shutter

A remote shutter is something you may have heard repeatedly that you need to purchase, especially if you’re into landscape photography. One of the main uses of a remote shutter is to minimize the vibration when taking a image to get a sharper result. What you also may know is that your camera has a delayed shutter function, typically of 2 and 10 seconds. So do you really need to purchase a remote shutter when you can do it in the camera? Let’s look at some pros and cons of using each – a remote shutter release and delayed shutter.

Delayed Shutter

Most digital cameras have a Delayed Shutter function. In fact, even smartphones have it.

Since I was close to the camera I could use a delayed shutter

A delayed shutter is, in simple words, a function that tells the camera to wait a few seconds after you push the shutter before it takes the picture. This allows you to either run in front of the camera and take a selfie or reduce the amount of vibration. This function is especially useful when you’re using a slow shutter speed and have your camera mounted on a tripod. If you use a shutter speed of 0.5 seconds and press the shutter you’ll see that the image will come out less sharp than if you use a delayed shutter.

Pros of the Delayed Shutter:
- It’s a standard function in most digital cameras and smartphones.
- It’s free.
- It reduces vibration and leads to a sharper image.
- You can choose between a short delay or a longer delay.
- You have the time to position yourself in the image after pressing the shutter.
Cons of the Delayed Shutter:
- It’s not flexible.
- If you’re photographing something with motion it’s hard to time the shutter release perfectly and you might miss the shot.
- In some cameras, the function is found deep in the menu.
Remote Shutter Release

Remote shutter release can vary in form, shape, and price. Some are tiny and inexpensive, while others are larger, with more options but also a less attractive price tag.

I used a remote shutter and interval timer to photograph myself on the edge.

Choosing the right remote shutter release can be a hassle sometimes as you may not know your needs. You may only need a simple one to avoid any motion when taking the image, or may need something more advanced that lets you do interval timing or perhaps something that has a “Bulb lockup”.

Once your needs are established, you have to sort out if you want a cable release or wireless. I won’t get into the topic of which is better, but again you need to consider your needs for a remote.

Pros of remote shutter releases
- Wireless remotes allow you to stand far away from the camera and take pictures.
- Advanced models have many options such as interval timers.
- You can use “Bulb Mode” without having to hold the camera’s release button and cause vibration.
- Many models have LCD screens with a timer.
- Take a picture at the exact moment you need.
Freezing the exact moment with a cable release

Cons of remote shutter releases
- More advanced models can be very pricey.
- It takes extra space in your bag.
- It might be hard to choose the right model.
- Cables break quickly on low-end cable releases.
- Small, wireless remote shutters are easy to loose.
What is best?

To be honest with you, they both have their advantages. It would be wrong to say that one is better than the other in any case.

That being said, as a landscape photographer, I am dependent on my remote shutter. A lot of the time I can’t wait the extra two or three seconds before the image is taken, as the moment is gone by then. When I’m photographing rushing waves I need to capture the image at the exact moment I want, ergo I need a remote shutter. If I’m in the woods and not photographing anything that might move, I don’t need the remote shutter (even though I use it by habit).

Shutter speeds over 30 seconds require a remote shutter

If you only photograph still landscapes and you don’t need a shutter speed of more than 30 seconds, I don’t see a reason to purchase a remote shutter. If you photograph anything with motion or need a shutter speed of more than 30 seconds I recommend you to purchase one.

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Digital Photography School
October 21, 2016
3 Tips for Creating Double Exposures In-Camera Using Flash
Have you ever wondered how double exposures are done in digital cameras? I have. Back in film days, we knew that to double expose a frame, all you needed to do is rewind it back to the frame you have just exposed, thereby taking two separate shots using one frame of the film. Nowadays with digital SLRs, there is no film to re-expose and no rewind mechanism to go back to a previous photo so you can re-shoot on top of it. However, double exposure and multiple exposures can be done in post-production quite easily. But this little tutorial will focus on how to take double exposure in-camera using a digital camera.

Equipment needed for double exposures

What you will need:
- A tripod.
- Your camera.
- Remote trigger, receiver or transceiver.
- Flash guns (speedlights) or strobes (one or two).
- Some light modifiers (optional) such as umbrellas, softboxes, or octaboxes.
- A backdrop or wall.
For my experiment below, I used two strobes mounted on stands and modified by gridded octaboxes. I used Paul Buff’s Cybersyncs for the wireless remote transceiver system. I also had three backdrops: one black, one beige and one patterned. See the image below for my studio setup and an iPhone picture of behind the scenes.

The camera and flash settings

The strobes were kept on a constant setting and I chose the lowest power. My ISO was also on the lowest setting (ISO 100) for most of the shots except for the f/16 ones where I cranked it up a little. The aperture varied between f/8 – f/16, depending on the look I was after and the length of my exposure. Shutter speed also varied between one second to a few seconds, to bulb. In other words, experiment until you get the look right.

How to take the double exposure

This is the trick. While the camera is exposing the image so that the shutter is open, keep triggering the flash. For these shots, I triggered the flash 2-4 times depending on the length of the exposure and how fast I could press the trigger button. The flash freezes the action so the more time the flash fires the more frozen actions you get on your image.

This leads us nicely to the first tip.

#1 Exaggerated movement is key

If your subject makes very small and minor movements, the likelihood is the images will sit on top of each other. This may result in one final image that looks like a blurry mess as in the photo above rather than many separate frozen images on a single photo as shown in the photo below. It is better to tell your subject to move distinctly away from the first position so the movements are separate. The camera still captures the trail of movement as a blur. But when you trigger the flash, that particular moment is rendered sharp and still.

I asked my kids to walk across the frame, counting each step and on a certain count to turn their heads. I would trigger the flash when they moved sideways or turned their heads. At other times I asked one of the children to only join the frame on the third flash so that there is only one of her that registers. I also got them to walk towards me (see photo at top of article). It was at that stage that I changed my aperture to the smallest my lens allowed, in this case, f/16 so that I could still get the head sharp at various depths of field.

In the photo below, I got my kids to shake their heads as fast and as many times as they could. I wanted the focus here to be the movement rather than their frozen faces. Don’t be afraid to experiment. The beauty of digital is that unlike film, you have an infinite number of frames at your disposal so can afford to make many mistakes until you get what you are looking for.

#2 A dark background is better

Compare the image above with the light background to the other images with the black background. The difference in the final image is vast. I prefer the dark background where my intention was to freeze several portraits and the lighter background where my focus was on capturing the trail of movements. Overall I shot and preferred more of the images with a dark background as the delineation between actions and the clarity of subjects are easier to see. Contrast between the skin and other lighter parts of the image was also easier to achieve compared to images shot with the beige background. In the photo below, I edited quite aggressively to get the contrast I wanted. I also added grain to simulate a film look.

#3 Experiment with materials and textures

Bring in other materials such as aluminum foil. This one here is an emergency blanket. Two of my kids stood on either side, held and waved the blanket up and down in front of the middle child so the slow shutter captured some of the movement of the foil. The kids also carried a torch (flash light) and did some light painting. The problem I found with both photos was the blurry look of their faces. Because they did not do big movements with their bodies, hence the frozen photos captured by each flash just got stacked up in roughly the same spot. Other things you can use are glow sticks, flashing lights, moving lights, iPhone and iPad screens – pretty much anything that reflects or emits light.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with backgrounds too. In the photos below, I changed the background to a zebra striped black and white rug just because I wanted to see what would happen. I used the same movement techniques as above and the same camera and light settings but the results were very different and unique. The last image below was a happy accident. My third child popped her head up on the third flash, but she came closer to the camera than I had intended so the flash didn’t quite illuminate her face enough. However, I thought this looked really effective as it provided the gray tone of the image as well as a solid form in the middle thereby making the overall image more dynamic and interesting.

I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial on in-camera double exposures using flash. If you have more ideas, do share them here in the comments below!

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Digital Photography School
October 20, 2016
10 Non-Technical Ways to Improve Your Street Photography

The technical side of street photography is incredibly important to master, because if you do not understand your camera, then you will not be able to do the tips in this article well. You want to be able to know your camera so well that you forget it is even there.

However, it is the non-technical tips, thinking beyond the camera, that can help you to improve to the next level. So here are 10 of my favorite tips to help improve your street photography.

1. Be spontaneous

While out shooting, I hear photographers all too commonly worry about cutting people’s legs off in the photo, not composing it right, or skewing the photograph by accident. Of course, these are technical issues to keep in mind when you review your work later. They can be important, but wasting your energy thinking about this nitpicky stuff while shooting can kill your ability to notice and capture those quick and wonderful moments that constantly appear.

Try to turn the analytical side of your brain off when you’re out photographing. Enjoy the process, and spend your time seeking out your subjects and looking at the light. Allow some spontaneity and chance in how you compose and shoot your photographs. Let your instincts take over. The more you train these instincts, the better they will become. William Eggleston only takes one photograph of every scene that he comes across. While you don’t have to go that far, many photographers do the opposite, try to ease any tension when you’re out there shooting and let your instincts guide you.

Garry Winogrand skewed more of his photographs than not, and everyone cuts off peoples legs constantly, but none of these factors alone have ever ruined a great photograph. By shooting more spontaneously you might miss a few shots, but the good ones will be even that much better.

2. Slow down and look

There is no need for a brisk pace when out photographing. Doing this will hurt your ability to notice your surroundings. Many people will come across an area and completely disregard it and move on to the next spot before they give it a proper chance. They just keep moving on and hoping for that magical location. But magical locations usually don’t swoop down on you like that. All of the places that you immediately disregard have a good photograph somewhere, maybe even a great one, you just need to find it. Those elusive photographs can be more interesting than the ones that immediately pop out at you.

Instead of spending your energy walking, spend it looking. Go high, get low, look left, and look right. The more you might disregarding an area, the more you have to ask yourself why you feel that way, and the more you should push yourself to try and get a good photograph there.

3. Do not be afraid of taking bad photographs

Photographing this way will yield many bad photographs, and it will also yield incredibly interesting ones that many people will not understand. But try to not let this affect how you photograph and how you feel when you are out shooting. Do it for yourself.

The bad photographs come constantly, but it is important that you spontaneously take them, because it means you are getting yourself ready for the moments when those incredible images will briefly appear before you. Shooting the bad ones will help you to better notice the good ones, and those bad photographs are just practice for those rare and elusive moments that you do not want to miss.

4. Notice the light

The more you slow down, the more aware you will become of your surroundings. This will help you to better understand and work with light. Light dictates how the scene will look in the camera, so you need to pay attention to its strength, the locations of the light sources and how they hit your subjects, the color of the light, and any contrasty areas with significant differences between the shadows and highlights.

Light is not necessarily the first thing you should notice, though. The subject needs to be the first thing that catches your eye, but you should always be aware of the light when entering a new location. If you are aware of the light, then you can work with it in a spontaneous way as well.

5. Notice people from afar

While street photography is not only about capturing people, candid photographs of people are at the heart of street photography. When you slow down and pay attention to your surroundings, you will now find yourself with the ability to pay more attention to everyone walking around you, along with their interactions. Try to go beyond just noticing people as they cross your immediate path. Try to look farther away to see people who might be interesting. The earlier that you notice them, the easier it will be to get the shot when you both intersect.

Really watch people. In street photography, your eyes are the true viewfinder, and the better you do at locating your subjects before you look through the viewfinder, the better your photography will be.

6. How will your work age?

Try not to take anything for granted. We all wish we could go back 50 years in time to photograph for a day. If we were able to do that, everything we saw would look so foreign and interesting to us, but back then they were just going about business as usual. They thought about their surroundings in they way that we think about ours today.

Think about how the photographs you take today will look in 50 years. What do we take for granted that people in the future will love? What will go out of style, what will seem weird and foreign, and will everyone still be staring at a mini handheld computer while walking down the street? These are not the types of photographs that most people take, and so they will stand out much more in the future.

7. Be consistent

Consistency is the real key. Street photography is such a difficult skill to master, and it’s easy to get rusty if you don’t do it often enough. Try to figure out a way to integrate a consistent shooting schedule. Maybe it’s a half day once a week, maybe it’s 30 minutes a day during your lunch break or after work, or maybe it’s in 10 minute increments constantly throughout your day.

Keeping some level of consistency will not only get you better photographs because you are giving yourself more of a chance to come across them, but you will improve much more consistently. Over time, your style and what you like to photograph will begin to emerge as well.

8. Use the camera as a key

The beauty of a camera is that it acts as a key to new experiences. It forces you to go out at times when you would normally be watching TV. It makes you photograph at night, in the rain, in a snowstorm, and in the worst weather. It makes you want to explore places that you would normally be too tentative to try to get access to. When people see you with a camera, many of them will understand and let you do things that they would otherwise be suspicious of. Use that to your advantage. Try to get access to areas that you would normally not take the effort to see.

In addition, a camera is a key to making new friends. This does not only apply to other photography enthusiasts. People love cameras, so use yours to break the ice. Take a portrait. Make some new friends and get yourself into new situations to photograph. This access will help to improve your photography in profound ways.

9. Expression, gesture, and emotion

Photography is about bringing out some sort of emotion in a viewer. Capturing expressions or gestures in people are extremely important ways to achieve this. The look in someone’s eyes or the stance that they hold can create a powerful feeling and make or break a picture.

The surface is so important to a photograph, but so is what lies beneath it. Try to see what might be hiding or hinted at under the surface of your photos. Questions will keep the person interested in the image over the longterm. You do not need to give them the answers. They will come up with some themselves.

10. Photography books

Look for inspiration outside of your own work. Purchase books from the masters to read through at night. This will give you more ideas about what you can possibly achieve when you are out there shooting. Try to find books with all different styles to shake you up a bit, such as one from Garry Winogrand and another from William Eggleston.

Over to you

Do you follow any of these ideas? Or maybe you have some other suggestions that have worked for you. Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

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The post 10 Non-Technical Ways to Improve Your Street Photography by James Maher appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

October 18, 2016
How to Take Cool Food Photos in Your Refrigerator
Nothing gets me more excited creatively than coming up with different scenarios or ideas to further develop and hone my photography skills. For me, this is what makes photography so interesting and never dull. Yes, it can be frustrating and challenging. However, there are so many ways and endless possibilities for capturing images.

Bottled water in a refrigerator.

A picture is worth a thousand words, as the phrase goes. But I also like the story behind the photograph or image. Recently, I came across online the work of Mexican photographer, Felix Hernandez Rodriguez, who has a wonderful behind the scenes (BTS) video of his “The Love Car | The Making Of”.

I won’t spoil it for you by describing it in words. Instead, I feel It is best that you watch it for yourself at your leisure (see below).

Got lemons – make lemonade

Anyway, I had the misfortune back in July during a hot spell, of my refrigerator (or fridge is the term I use for this apparatus), deciding to just quit. I got a replacement and the first thing I noticed was the LED light inside. So it got me thinking, could I possibly use that one light source and produce decent enough shots with it?

An LED light inside a refrigerator.

Taking photos inside a fridge sounds a bit daft, I hear you say. However, for this article I will show you that even a daft idea can be cool. (Pun intended)

Shooting inside a fridge

I approached this project in five ways:
1. Taking photos of the food or items just using the LED light source inside the fridge.
2. Try to create decent food shots while working with two major constraints, time and size. Time: I couldn’t leave the fridge door open for long periods of time, which meant I had to set up my scenes and shoot fast.
3. Size was another factor, especially in trying to get different POV shots
4. Get imaginative and create a shot that the viewer doesn’t realise it was taken in a fridge.
5. Just go with the flow.
Preparation

My fridge is relatively small in comparison to refrigerators in the US or Canada, so taking the food items out and storing them in a cooler bag for an hour or so wasn’t an arduous task. However, if you have a huge refrigerator, the next time time you do a clean out of your refrigerator may be the time to try out this project.

A packed refrigerator full of food items.

The space I was working with was really small, 19” x 19” x 33”, so I decided I would use my Sony RX100 which has a 35mm focal range equivalent of 28-100mm.

The inside of my fridge which is relatively small in comparison to refrigerators in the US and Canada.

Initial shots

My initial test shots were random, in order to test the lighting and to determine what camera settings I would end up using. Shooting in RAW, I settled on an aperture of f/2.8, ISO 400 and a shutter speed of 1/50 – 1/60 and handheld the camera. I didn’t want to go higher with the ISO, as to keep noise down to a minimum. A wide open aperture allowed for the background to remain out of focus.

I left everything in the fridge and took some random shots of food items.

Cherry tomatoes taken from underneath a glass shelf in the refrigerator.

The Shots

Next was to take everything out of the fridge and start with just the top shelf left. It was nearest the light source and I wanted to see what type of shots I would get. From taking many shots at different angles, an idea sprung to mind. I wanted a slice of lemon shot from underneath the glass shelf. Later in post-production, I added in the frosted glass along with the broken glass effect to give it more zest! (Sorry pun intended again).

A red apple taken sitting on a shelf inside a refrigerator.

A test shot with Lucy and some turtle black beans.

A slice of lemon taken from underneath a glass shelf. This is straight out of the camera.

This is the same shot as above but I added a frosted glass and broken glass effect for impact in the editing process.

I also took a slice of cucumber. Notice how it appears to have a sad face?

A poor sad looking cucumber!

Second setup

The next plan of attack was placing items on the bottom part of the fridge, as in the furthest point away from the light source. I wasn’t really expecting to get any decent shots. But I was pleasantly surprised. I felt the shots had an almost ethereal feeling to them.

A Jack Sparrow lego figure with a bunch of red grapes.

A fruit composition sprayed with a little water inside the refrigerator.

A yellow flower taken inside the refrigerator.

The sad looking slice of cucumber looked happier against the flower!

Key Takeaway Points

Unless you have a moderately small refrigerator, this project is most likely not for you. Was it worth doing? In my opinion, any excuse to take photographs is well worth doing.

I found it was better to take the shots over a few days. This allows for planning what type of shot and what food or other items to use. Plus you need the least amount of time to have the fridge door opened. Spray water on the food so that the light catches the water droplets to add depth to the shot.

Have you had a crazy idea for a personal project? If so please leave a comment or share your images and story below.

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The post How to Take Cool Food Photos in Your Refrigerator by Sarah Hipwell appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
October 18, 2016
The Cheapest and Easiest Lightbox Macro Photography

Have you ever done macro photography? If you have, there is little doubt that your first experiences with it were magnificent. What a cool aspect of photography! If you haven’t, give it a go and experience the world up close and super personal. Some photographers go crazy about it and although I have taken my fair share of macro photos, and have even purchased a dedicated lens for macro photography, I don’t want to spend wads of cash on a photographic style that is not my main niche. That doesn’t mean I don’t strive for the best photos I can get, it just means I need to be a little more creative.

A toad I stumbled upon on a mountain trail.

There are so many gadgets and gizmos that you can buy to help modify light such as flashes, soft boxes, reflectors, etc. Attachments like slide rails can also help you image stack in post-processing. However, I use macro photography simply as a change of pace and to help me keep honing my skills. So, I would like to share a very simple trick that I use that you can to without having to spend a penny. So what is it? Well, let’s first look at an important concept about macro photography so you will get the best results when you are experimenting based on this tutorial.

Depth of field

The first tip and technique that we need to think about before I reveal my simple method, is depth of field (DoF). Generally, in macro photography, you will be really close to your subject, especially if you use a designated macro lens. If you use a telephoto lens with an extension tube, you may not be as close but due to the focal length you will still have a very narrow depth of field.

So to keep in true macro fashion your best option to increase your depth of field is to increase the f-stop. Thus you will need plenty of light. For my trick, the sun is all you will need. No need to spend any money. If you want to brush up on all the parameters that go into depth of field then please check out this articles: Depth of Field and the Importance Distance to Subject Plays.

The trick is – a white paper bag

So what is the trick? Well, it is a large white paper bag. The best ones I’ve found are the shopping bags that you get from mid-range clothing stores which are made of fairly thin white paper. Yep, that is it, a white paper bag and you have your own lightbox or white box.

By Jeffrey Beall

A smaller sack would work too, but obviously, that limits the size of what can be placed inside. Fold your bag up and out the door you go to find, critters, animals, flowers and fauna, or beach treasures.

The white paper is translucent so light will permeate the bag and create a white-box, also known as a lightbox. If you shoot when there is strong sunlight, there will be enough light to give you shadows. And because the light source (the paper bag) is so close to the subject the shadows are extra soft and very pleasing. Thus, you can create fantastic results with something you may already have in your cupboard or closet.

Working with small critters

The second tip is about the bugs, butterflies or animals that you choose to place in your bag. The anxiety of a living creature is most likely going to be high after you capture them and stick them into a foreign environment. For the sake of the creature, let it calm down. Place it in your paper bag, close it and let the creature calm down for a minute or two.

This will also give you time to get your camera in the proper shooting mode and adjust the settings. From a photography standpoint, giving your subject time to become calm will allow it to slow down or even become still. Thus you will have a good opportunity to get crisp, clear and clean shots. Remember to kindly capture and release any living thing back into their habitat.

Use exposure compensation

The third tip is another technical one and is about exposure compensation. The bag is white so you need to increase your exposure compensation by a minimum of a plus half a stop to get the best results so that the white bag will appear white.

Remember your camera does not have a brain and will automatically adjust your exposure to 18% grey. The goal is to achieve a nice clean white background, so you need to increase your exposure compensation. If you’re in manual mode make sure that you have adjusted your settings to overexpose your photo (plus side). Even if you completely overexpose parts of the white bag, as long as your subject is properly exposed you will be okay.

The goal is a white background with subtle shadows from the subject. If you need to refresh your understanding of exposure compensation you can check out the following: How to Use Exposure Compensation to Take Control of Your Exposure.

Other uses for the bag

This cheap and easy lightbox can be used for all kinds of subjects. Even for product photography if you are in a pinch. It works best in strong, full sun, so the light can penetrate the paper and let you keep your ISO settings low.

The only subjects that this method really doesn’t work for are white subjects (e.g. sun bleached seashells).

Your turn

Now you have few excuses but to get out into the field and get some cool new photos. Please share your white bag photos below along with your comments or question.

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The post The Cheapest and Easiest Lightbox Macro Photography by Branson Quenzer appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

October 18, 2016