Category: Photography

Deal 4: Our Best Selling Portraits eBooks are $7 Each

Today we’re rolling out a deal that our team are very excited about – our best selling Portrait eBooks are just $ 7 each for the next 24 hours!

Over the last couple of years we’ve worked with talented Aussie portrait photographer – Gina Milicia – to put together this comprehensive library of portrait eBooks.

There are four in the series that cover everything from taking your shots, lighting your subject, posing your subject through to processing your portraits.

Every time we’ve added to the series we’ve seen them push our servers to the limits so tonight we’re a little worried as we’ve never discounted all four of them this low at the same time!

These eBooks normally sell for $ 19.99 but are yours today for $ 7 – a saving of 65%.

Can’t Stop at Just One? Bundle Them!

Pick up any of the above eBooks for just $ 7 (USD) or… grab the full set for just $ 21 PLUS we’ll throw in our popular quick reference cookbook – 14 Recipes for Amazing Portraits as a bonus.

This great little cookbook is the perfect companion to the rest of the bundle and walks you through 14 portraits, how they were shot, how they were lit, how they were styled, the gear that was used etc.

That’s 5 eBooks worth close to $ 90 that are yours today for just $ 21.

Grab 1 for $ 7 or Buy the Lot – But Don’t Wait too Long!

Whether you pick up one of our portrait titles for $ 7 or pick up the full set for $ 21 – just be sure to get in before this deal is gone for good in just 24 hours time.

Invest in your portrait photography here.

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Digital Photography School

December 17, 2014
Shooting Motorsports with a Micro Four Thirds Camera

Can you use micro four thirds or other mirrorless cameras to photograph motorsports? Well, the answer is a resounding YES, but with some caveats.

You can certainly make good and interesting images using any camera at a motorsport event. All of the images in this article were made with either a Fujifilm X100S or an Olympus OMD EM-5 and two lenses – the m.Zuiko 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3 and the m.Zuiko 75-300mm f/4.8-6.7 II.

Planning

Perhaps one of the most important things to consider when you intend to photograph motorsports with a micro four thirds camera is the pre-planning you need to do before you actually get to the race track. Think about how you’re going to shoot the event. Remember that professional motorsport photographers use high-end dSLR cameras that are both fast and expensive; their choice of lenses is equally fast and expensive! A typical pro photographer covering motorsport may have two or three camera bodies and a selection of lenses ranging from fisheye to wide angle and telephoto. They could easily have $ 35-$ 40,000 worth of camera gear with them at the track – plus their laptop!

You probably won’t have that amount of gear with you, and if you intend shooting with micro four thirds you definitely won’t. Micro four thirds cameras use different focusing systems to dSLR’s and their lenses are often slower, that is they have smaller maximum apertures, than the typical lenses used by professionals. They’re also slower to lock focus due to the type of focusing system they use.

You’ll need to consider the limitations of the camera system you’re using, as well as many other factors.

Weather

Weather will play a big part in how you shoot motorsports. If it’s bright and sunny, you’ll be able to use lower ISOs and higher shutter speeds. Of course, if the sky is overcast and grey, or even stormy, then you might need to raise the ISO or lower the shutter speed. Bright sun creates harsh shadows which also need to be considered when composing your shot, simply because cameras don’t have the same dynamic range that our eyes have. You’ll also have to consider the position of the sun when framing. Even if the sun is coming from behind you, there can often be bright reflections bouncing back towards you and your camera. A few specular highlights on the front fairing of an approaching motorcycle is not usually a problem, but a large super-bright reflection from a sponsor’s sign is certainly going to be distracting and will probably ruin your shot.

ISO

Modern cameras are able to shoot at relatively high ISO without too much in the way of distracting noise. Micro four thirds cameras are no exception. The noise produced by most cameras manufactured in the last few years is more like film grain, rather than ugly colour noise, and simply isn’t an issue. It’s much better to correctly expose your image with a high ISO than it is to use a lower ISO and end up under-exposing the image. When you increase the exposure of an under-exposed image in post-processing you introduce a lot of digital noise and the image begins to break up and lose detail. There is much more data stored in the highlights compared to the shadows of a digital image. Exposing to the right, or for the highlights, is generally better than underexposing the image and boosting the exposure in software.

Shutter Speed

You can say a lot in an image by controlling your shutter speed. Using a slow shutter speed while panning a fast moving vehicle will blur the background while keeping your subject sharp. The slower the shutter speed, the more blur in the background and the more you convey a sense of speed. Conversely, if you use a high (fast) shutter speed you’ll probably have a nice sharp image, but the vehicle will look like it’s stationary, or parked on the track. With a high shutter speed the background will be sharp, unless you’ve used a large aperture to send everything behind the vehicle into soft focus, and the wheels will also be frozen in time.

Moving Towards / Away / Across

When a vehicle is moving towards you, you can get away with using a much faster shutter speed than if it’s moving across your path from one side to the other. Most race vehicles use slick tires on the track, which means there is no tread pattern. If the wheel/tire is frozen in time by a fast shutter speed it doesn’t really matter. There will be no visual clues that the tire is frozen because the tire is smooth anyway. Unless you’re zoomed right in on the tire you can’t tell whether it’s rotating or not. However, If you’re photographing something like a motocross bike or an open wheel race car in the rain, which do use treaded tires, then you should keep the shutter speed slow enough that the tires are blurred but the rest of the bike or car are still sharp. Blurring the tires helps to show motion rather than having the vehicle appear to be stationary on the track.

When you’re panning with a vehicle as it moves across the frame it’s much better to use a slower shutter speed because then the rotation of the wheel is still visible. You get a nice blur of the spokes or writing on the tire’s sidewall. The rotation of the wheel, combined with the blurred background as you move the camera while following the vehicle, really adds a sense of speed and motion. The slower the shutter speed, the more dramatic the effect.

Aperture

When photographing sports such as football, a large wide open aperture is beneficial to isolate your subject from the background. However, when shooting motorsport, that’s generally not necessary. Remember, as you pan with the moving vehicle, the background remains stationary. By using a small aperture, which means you’ll have a much larger depth of field, you’ll also lower your shutter speed. Having a large depth of field means you don’t have to be as critical on your focus point. It won’t matter whether you focus on the rider (driver) or the vehicle, there will be sufficient depth of field to ensure the entire vehicle is in focus. Even if the background is in sharp focus with a stationary shot, it will become blurred due to the movement of the camera and the slow shutter speed.

Manual Focus

Expensive dSLR cameras, and their similarly priced prime telephoto lenses, focus very quickly. That’s why you pay a lot of money for them. But micro four thirds cameras and lenses aren’t as fast. They use a different focussing system which is very good, but not as good at tracking focus of fast moving subjects, particularly when they’re moving towards or away from you. So, how do you get around that? You focus manually!

You can focus completely manually or use autofocus and then switch to manual focus. Either method is easy to do. If you’re going to use the autofocus first method, simply choose something that is the same distance from your camera as the subject you will be photographing, and use the camera’s focus system to lock onto that; then switch off the autofocus and wait for your subject to appear.

Pre-Focus

Pre-focussing is another form of manual focus. An example of pre-focus in motorsports would be to focus on the apex of a corner using either of the manual focus methods above, then waiting for your subject to appear. In this case, you would wait for the motorcycle or car to approach the apex, then make your photograph. Most cameras have a burst or continuous shooting mode, so as your subject approaches the apex you can begin capturing images. Keep the camera still and capture numerous frames as the vehicle travels through the corner. In this case you can use a high shutter speed because your subject will be travelling towards you. You should get at least one sharp image as the vehicle passes through the corner. By using a small aperture you will have a reasonably large depth of field allowing the motorcycle or car to be within the zone of focus.

Stationary – Motion

There are numerous ways to show motion on the racetrack. Using a small aperture and slow shutter speed as you pan with your subject is one method. Another method involves keeping the camera still and using a slow shutter speed, combined with a small aperture for a large depth of field. Keep the camera stationary as you make your image and let the motorcycle or car pass through the frame. The slower the shutter speed, the more blurred the racer will be. Try to capture the racer as they enter the frame on the left and allow plenty of space on the right of the frame for them to travel through.

Of course, you can break the rules and have the vehicle on the right side of the frame, but it will generally look better and feel more natural if you capture it on the left, or perhaps both left and right.

Autofocus

While most of your action shots will probably be made using manual focus, if you choose the right locations you can still capture sharp images using the camera’s autofocus system. Choosing a very tight corner on the track will mean the racers will be travelling at their slowest as they travel through the bend. That may mean they’re going slow enough to capture without switching to manual focus. You’ll need to experiment because even the slowest part of some tracks will be too fast for your camera. Of course, some cameras are better at focusing than others too. The Olympus OMD EM-1 tracks focus better than its sibling the OMD EM-5, for example.

Conclusion

You certainly need to think about how you’re going to shoot a motorsport event when using micro four thirds and other mirrorless cameras, but it’s possible to achieve very good results. Plan your shots and position yourself so you can pre-focus; use manual focus, and pan with your subject.

Don’t forget to also make images with some background or foreground elements that help to tell the story. Images of track marshals, medical staff, and signage help your audience to appreciate the whole event, not just the action happening on the track.

You should also try to make images of things that are happening off-track. Photograph the fans enjoying themselves and the crowd after the main event. Think about your shots and make them happen, but above all, have fun at the event!

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The post Shooting Motorsports with a Micro Four Thirds Camera by Ken Lyons appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

December 17, 2014
Architectural Photography Using Layer Masking to Correct Contrast and White Balance

A challenging nighttime scene was overcome with multiple exposures and layer masking.

Blending indoors and outdoors in architectural photography can often create a compelling image. Unfortunately, however, it is often fraught with exposure and white balance issues. These issues are compounded at night, when artificial lights inside buildings coupled with the darkness of the night sky create an especially contrasty image with an unattractive colorcast created by the different light sources. Luckily, with multiple exposures and layer masking in Photoshop, you can create a photo that looks a lot like what you saw with your own eyes.

This method is a little different than HDR, which involves taking three or more photos at different exposures, then using automated software to combine them into one image that captures the range of light in the scene. Here, you’ll be taking three or more photos and blending them manually, since HDR software often creates unpleasant artifacts and odd color blending when used in the type of situations presented in this tutorial. You can always try HDR software first, and if the colors don’t seem to bleed, you can skip down to the later part of the tutorial for dealing with the colorcasts.

An image that required three exposures and had a color cast from the lamps.

Shoot three or more exposures on a tripod

You need to shoot as many photos as it takes to capture the dynamic range (the range from light to dark) in the scene. It is really important to shoot in RAW, to get as much mileage out of each photo as possible. A tripod is also necessary, since you’ll probably be taking these at night, and also because you won’t be using HDR software which aligns the images. You can use auto exposure bracketing to capture three images, but at night, exposures on the high end can often exceed 30 seconds, the longest shutter speed most cameras will let you shoot manually. It’s probably easiest to use manual mode, set your ISO to 100 or 200, stop down your aperture to f/7.1 or f/8 (if it’s really dark out, you can open it up wider), and then take a series of shots at increasingly slower shutter speeds until you’ve captured the range of light in the scene. If you need to go past 30 seconds, go into bulb mode (consult your camera’s manual for how to find it), and use a remote trigger release, holding the shutter open as long as you want. Don’t worry about white balance yet.

Processing one of the RAW files in Lightroom. Here you can see where just processing one RAW file wouldn’t be sufficient.

Process each exposure in Lightroom or Camera Raw, then open as layers in Photoshop

First, you are going to process the photos for exposure only, ignoring white balance. If you don’t have Lightroom, you can do this in Adobe Camera Raw. Since you have multiple exposures, you don’t need to go crazy trying to recover lost highlights (overblown bright spots) and shadows (dark parts that look black), but you want to recover them a little bit to give you more leverage later on in the process. There’s no magical formula for processing here. I usually apply lens profile correction, remove chromatic aberration, and do a little noise reduction before bringing down the highlights a little bit and bringing up the shadows and whites a little bit. Once you’re done processing each exposure, select them all, right click, and select “open as layers in Photoshop. Now you’ve got an image with three or more layers all ready to go, but we’re no quite ready to do the layer masking yet.

Go back and reprocess for white balance

White balance is a setting that keeps the whites in the image white, removing any colorcasts. Different light sources have different white balance settings though, so if you have a photo with two or more different light sources (such as the night sky and an artificial light), no matter how you adjust your settings, you’ll always have a color cast somewhere on your photo. What you’re going to do here is reprocess each photo so that you’ve corrected any colorcasts. If you’re lucky, you’ll have no more than two light sources in the photo. Unfortunately, though, there can often be more.

It’s important to note that you only have to correct for colorcasts that are in properly exposed parts of each photo. For instance, in one of your overexposed photos, don’t worry about the white balance for the overblown highlights. You’ll be discarding that part of the photo later. For one of your underexposed photos, don’t worry about correcting for the shadows, since you’ll also be discarding that. Start with your most properly exposed photo, and correct for any colorcast you see (for instance, the lights inside a building have a yellow cast).

All you have to do to correct the white balance is slide those two sliders (one goes from blue to yellow, and the other goes from green to magenta) until the part of the photo with the colorcast looks normal. When you’re done, open that photo in Photoshop, and make it a layer in the other image you have open. Do this by hitting Ctrl-A on Windows, or Command-A on a Mac to select the photo you just opened, then Ctrl-C or Command-C to copy it. Then click on the image with the three layers, and hit Ctrl-V or Command-V to paste it in as a layer. Repeat the processing until you have corrected all colorcasts in the photo. Then, move on to the other exposures, and correct any color casts there (remember, only the properly exposed parts need to be corrected).

Mask in one layer at a time

Once you’ve finally got every exposure and every colorcast accounted for as separate layers, you’re going to mask them in one by one. I start by making all but the bottom two layers invisible and masking in one layer at a time (by the way, the order of the layers does not matter, but having the most properly exposed image on the bottom will probably make things easier). Do this by clicking the little eye to the left of each layer except the bottom two. Then, with the layer one up from the bottom selected, click the layer mask icon (it’s a rectangle with a dot in the middle, found at the bottom of the layer panel). Make sure the paintbrush icon is selected as well (this can usually be found on the left hand side). You may need to adjust your brush size as you go through.

When painting with black on the layer mask, you will cover up the parts of the layer you don’t want appearing (the improperly exposed or color cast parts of the image are what you want to cover up). When you want to go back and reveal parts because you’ve made a mistake, paint with white on the layer mask. Click X on your keyboard to toggle back and forth between black and white.

When you’ve masked out all the parts of the layer you don’t want shown, select the layer on top of that and make it visible (click the space where the eye used to be). Then create another mask and start masking that layer. Keep revealing layers and masking them in until you’re done. In some cases, one part of the photo may be properly exposed in more than one image. In this case, keep the one that looks better to you. Once you’ve finished this process, save the photo as you would normally. If you think you might come back to this photo later and edit it, make sure to save a copy as a PSD.

Sometimes you get lucky, and the part of the image that’s colorcast has a very strong hue to it. If you have a colorcast that’s almost all one color, you can automate the masking process a bit for that layer. In the top pane, go to Select –> color range, then click somewhere in the colorcast. Look at the preview. You want the part of the image that’s your colorcast to be almost completely white, and the rest to look almost completely black. Adjust the fuzziness slider until this is the case, and then click ok. You actually want to select the inverse of that, so go to Select –> inverse. Now click the layer mask icon, and you’ll have a mask that hopefully masks out the colorcast. If it doesn’t look right, undo it and try it again with a different fuzziness setting. This is not a perfect fix. You will still need to do some fine-tuning, but it really helps move things along quicker.

A simple “select color range” layer mask got rid of most of the colorcast in this photo.

Conclusion

This is just one method of conquering the challenges brought on by nighttime architectural photography. As you start working with photos of this nature, you may find a different method that you prefer. Luckily, many photos only require some of the steps detailed in this tutorial. Sometimes you only need one exposure, but you need to process for colorcasts. Other times, the white balance is even, but you need to mask for exposure. It takes practice to master these intricate masking techniques, so don’t give up if you’re unhappy with your results at first. Start with simpler photos with fewer colorcasts and exposures needed before diving into a really complex one. In time you’ll be creating photos that look as natural as they appeared when you saw them in person.

A single exposure that required layer masking to correct colorcasts.

Have you got any tips for doing architectural photography or using layer masking? Please share in the comments below.

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The post Architectural Photography Using Layer Masking to Correct Contrast and White Balance by Samantha Decker appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

December 17, 2014
Deal 3: Save 57% On This Fantastic Lightroom Post Production Course
Today is day 3 in our 12 Days of Christmas and today is all about helping you improve your post production skills with a great deal on Gavin Gough’s Lightroom Video Tutorials.

The Deal

For one day only you can pick up Gavin’s ‘Post-Production Lightroom Video Course’ for just $ 29 – that’s a saving of just over 57%.

This value-packed course with 20 videos, companion eBook and some great high-res RAW files to learn with gives you step by step training in using the incredibly powerful Lightroom to help take the photos that you’ve taken to their potential.

Gavin has thoughtfully created these videos to walk you through the skills you need. From basics right through to more advanced techniques.

Here’s a video that gives you a feel for Gavin and what is covered.

The Photographer’s Post-Production – An Introduction from Gavin Gough on Vimeo.

This course is practical but also a lot of fun and today instead of paying $ 69 it is yours for $ 29. Grab it here.

Bundle It to Learn about Post Production Workflow

If you are looking to go beyond just processing your images (as is covered in the course) we’ve also got the option to bundle the processing course with Gavin’s best selling eBook – The Photographer’s Workflow.

This eBook is all about backing up your photos, cataloging and arching images, presets and developing a workflow management system for your precious images that helps keep them safe and secure but also allows you to process them efficiently.

The full bundle of Course and eBook together normally retail for $ 99 but today only they are yours for just $ 49.

Two Options: But Only for 24 Hours

So today’s deals in a nutshell.
1. Grab Gavin Gough’s ‘Post-Production Lightroom Video Course’ for just $ 29 (normally $ 69)
2. OR get Gavin’s ‘Post-Production Lightroom Video Course’ AND his eBook ‘Photographer’s Workflow’ for $ 49 (normally $ 99).
But don’t wait too long – this deal is for today only and the clock is ticking.

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The post Deal 3: Save 57% On This Fantastic Lightroom Post Production Course by Darren Rowse appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
December 16, 2014
How To Evaluate Photo Contests Before Submitting Your Images And Cash
Flickr/Crystian Cruz

Barely a day goes by when I don’t see a tweet or Facebook post about yet another photo contest I must enter. “Big prizes! Fame! Exposure! Magazine Cover!” they yell out at me and I’m often tempted for various reasons.

On the surface, most contests seem like a good idea given the potential upside. However, there are many aspects to any contest which photographers should consider. Those considerations will depend upon where you are along the photography spectrum, from beginner to advanced professional.

When I look at a photo contest more closely, there are many questions I regularly ask to see if the contest is a good fit for my desires and time (and pocketbook). I’m going to list out some basic questions you want to ask yourself before entering contests in hopes that it helps you decide the next time you see a listing. There are no right or wrong answers as we all have different needs and desires for our photography. I want to help you make a conscience choice, not a reflexive one.

After the questions I will present a few current contests I feel are worth entering and why.

What is in it for me?

If you are thinking of entering a contest then you want to get something back out of it. It’s important to know what you want before you submit, otherwise you will never find what you are looking for.

By Images Money

I break down the three main reasons for entering contests into the the 3Fs:
- Fame – Are you doing it just for the exposure and fame? Do you want to be known as “X Magazine’s Fashion Photographer of the Day/Month/Year”? If so, will this contest help you with that goal? Will it add to your resume/CV?
- Fortune – Are you looking for the big bucks and could care less about the fame? Does the contest offer decent prizes to help you meet that goal? What about second and third place, are those good prizes too?
- Feedback – Some contests offer a chance to receive a critique from one of the judges (sometimes at an additional cost). This is helpful especially if you don’t win a prize. Improvement is likely why you are reading dPS in the first place!
Personally, I go for fame once in a while but mostly go for fortune. After all, I met my wife in Costa Rica after winning a Facebook contest to a surf camp there, so I am a little biased. That being said, there is no right answer for everyone, pick the criteria that works for you.

Who picks the winners?

For me, this is the next big issue. Is the winner picked by a single judge, a jury, or is it an open popularity contest voted on by likes and shares?

I prefer juried and judged contests, especially when I can research those doing the picking. I pick these contests because the judges are typically photographers, or someone with advanced art education and experience. I feel the playing field is more level with these contests.

On the other hand, pictures of kittens, sunsets, rainbows, and oversaturated mountains do very well with the voting internet as a whole. I shy away from popularity contests because A) I’m not ultra-popular and B) they can be rigged and often bury great work in favor of pretty work. The main reason a website will run a photo contest is to make themselves more popular and visited and that’s why these types of contests exist.

By Chris Potter

What about my rights?

As a professional with a vested interest in protecting the use of my images, I read the full rules of every contest I enter. They aren’t as hard to read as the iTunes regulations, and the key bits are often labeled with a header such as “Rights” or “Permission”.

What you are looking for here is how your image may be used. A good contest will limit their use of the images submitted to only promote that particular contest. In that case, they will display the images so others can see them and potentially share them (with correct links back to the contest which contains proper credit to me as the photographer) and that is all. They will display winners and may also use them in promoting the next contest, such as showing the 2014 winners when advertising the 2015 contest.

Other contests are simply a rights grab. They offer a juicy prize, such as $ 10,000, but state they can use the images worldwide, royalty-free forever, however they wish. These contests are looking to avoid paying stock companies (and their photographers) for a boatload of images they may use later. They receive the images often at less than a dollar per image. These contests make good business sense for the company, but stink for what they do to everyone except the grand prize winner. Avoid these contests if possible.

What does it cost?

Let me state up front that nothing is free. If a contest is totally free, there are great odds that it is looking to grab rights. Be wary of free (except the Sony contest mentioned below).

Second, what is the entry fee? A legitimate contest with judges or jury will almost always pay those judges and juries. There is the cost of running the contest and paying for prizes. These are, after all, businesses that are running the contests and they don’t want to lose money.

You need to decide for yourself if the cost of entry is worth the reward (see the first item to set your contest barometer).

By Hans Pama

What do they want?

The best way to be disqualified before your images are judged is to mess up the entry procedure and send something in the wrong size or format. Read the entry rules carefully and make sure your images match the size, DPI, and format regulations. Also, read the rules specifically mentioning digital manipulation and compare that to what you have done. Some contests are no-holds-barred (like the Nikon contest below) and let you submit images that have been highly manipulated to the point where objects are removed or inserted. Others stick to what could traditionally be done in a darkroom with an enlarger.

As a starting point, most contests allow for changes to anything for which your editing software has a slider. Things like Exposure, Contrast, Sharpness, as well as Burning and Dodging. Saturation is usually okay too. Realize too that the winning entries in almost every contest have been edited to bring out the life in the image, so expect that you will have to do the same.

Some contests don’t want to see corporate logos in the images or need recognizable people to have a model release on file. If there are images of animals, some contest ban pictures from zoos and game parks, while others allow it. This is why you need to read the rules first to make sure you don’t waste your time and get disqualified.

Where to find contests

I love it when others do the legwork for me and find a plethora of contests which meet my standards. To that end, I am thankful to Photoshelter for regularly putting out a list of worthwhile contests (and notes on some that aren’t worthwhile). They already released their 2015 photo contest guide posted. It’s a great place to start.

The internet is obviously a great place to search. I suggest narrowing the search by defining what you are good at. Don’t type “Photo Contest” into Google, instead, try “West Coast Photo Contest” or “Wildflower Photo Contest”. This will help you find contests better suited to your strengths.

Lastly, don’t forget to look locally. Many communities have contests that can be a great stepping stone for your career or business. It can also help you make contact with your local arts community. Summertime really brings out the contests at art fairs.

By Bram Van Damme

What looks good to me?

Here are a few contest I will be entering in the coming months/year. I chose these contests specifically because they are judged, are not rights grabs, and offer either decent prizes or worthwhile exposure.

Please feel free to link to your favorite upcoming contests (and tell us why we should enter) in the comments section below.
- The Open – $ 50,000 in prizes and it plays to both fields with 100 entries selected by public vote and 100 from judges. Final selection from 200 finalists is chosen by judges. Emphasizes photographers retain their rights to photos. Entry Deadline May 1, 2015.
- PDN Photo Annual – 10 categories give you many options and it is a highly regarded contest with good exposure inside the industry. Entry Deadline February 3, 2015.
- Sony World Photography Awards – Also 10 categories and open to all. Groups for professional, student and open. $ 25,000 top prize and each group winner gets flight to London for showcase gala. Entry Deadline January 5, 2014.
Good luck!

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The post How To Evaluate Photo Contests Before Submitting Your Images And Cash by Peter West Carey appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
December 16, 2014
How to Use Hard Lighting to Create a Dramatic Portrait

When was the last time you did not primarily light your scene using a large soft source, such as a soft box or umbrella? Large soft sources easily create a beautiful, wrap-around quality of light. Just pop one up and you have instant “good” light.

Final image: before and after in Lightroom

Though soft light is beautiful and has its place, it represents only one part of the artist’s palette. In this article we are going to dissect the lighting setup for a men’s fashion shoot, and look at how using hard light can add dramatic impact to your photographs.

I think two-time Academy Award-winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler said it best when it came to using hard light:

“Everybody should still work in hard light as well. Not to do it and to say that it has to be all soft light is like throwing away part of the artist’s palette. I think the more variety you can have, the better it will look. To be able to light well in hard light makes the soft lighting a piece of cake, because soft light is very forgiving. Soft light, uncontrolled, is still acceptable photographically. It is really hard for soft light to look bad, but it is really not hard for hard light to look bad.”

The feel the magazine wanted was a dramatic, high-contrast look. One of the problems with soft light is that it can be hard to control and can easily kill the contrast of your scene – especially in small spaces. The location for our shoot just so happened to be one of those small spaces, so I decided that reflectors and honeycomb grids were the best tools for the job.

The shoot was held at a local area builder’s office. The office provided the perfect backdrop for the shoot, but did not offer a lot of room for equipment.

In the pre-planning phase, I chose to use a simple three light setup which included a key light, a fill light and kicker. I had room on camera left to place the main key light, but did not have much room for a kicker opposite camera right; however, there was a window.

As luck had it, the office window overlooked a back patio that had electrical outlets, so I did not have to rely on a battery pack or generator. The only problem was that the patio was a lower in elevation than the office window, so I had to extend my 13′ light stand up to its near maximum height.

To secure the stand, I fastened several 10 pound ankle weights to the legs. Ankle weights are a great and inexpensive alternative to sandbags. The set I use cost about $ 20 at Walmart, and came with Velcro straps for easy attachment to light stands or boom arms.

Since the strobe was outside the window and placed a distance from the model, I attached a radio slave and set it to full power. (The strobe was rated at 600ws)

Back in the office, I took a meter reading using a light meter with the dome retracted and pointed towards the light. The meter gave me a reading of f/5.6 at ISO 100. I decided the reading would be a good base to build my lighting ratios, so I set my camera to f/5.6 at ISO 100. As far as the shutter speed, I set my camera to 1/160^th of a second because I did not want to capture a lot of ambient light. When using strobes, the shutter speed only controls the brightness of the ambient light.

This first light would act as the kicker light, in the scene.

Position of the kicker light

Test shot of the model with just the kicker light

When lighting with hard lights, you will often find the need to bring up the shadows, since they can easily go black. A large soft light source, placed close to the camera, is great for filling in shadow areas, because it resembles directionless ambient light.

The fill light in our scene was fitted with a medium soft box and placed behind and slightly to the right of the camera.

Position of the fill light

Since most of the elements in the scene were dark brown, including the suit the model was going to wear, I could not set my fill light much lower than my base exposure of f/5.6. If I had set it lower the elements in the shadow areas would quickly go black. I set the fill light to 1 1/3 stop lower than my base exposure, which read f/3.5 on my light meter.

Test shot of the model with both the fill and kicker lights.

The last light I set up was the key (main) light. I placed this light in an open doorway, towards camera left and slightly above the model. I wanted to keep the light on the model and off the walls, so I fitted the light with a 20 degree grid to control the spill.

Position of the key light.

Since most of the scene was dark brown, I decided to have the key light one stop over my camera’s base exposure of f/5.6. I adjusted the light until it read f/8 on my light meter.

Test shot of model with the key light and kicker, no fill. Notice how the shadows go completely black without the fill light.

You may have noticed that the key light on the left side of the model’s face does not appear as bright as the window kicker light on the right side of his face, despite it being one stop brighter (left: f/8 vs right: f/5.6) This is because the kicker is placed more behind the subject, while the key light is placed more towards the side. You might have heard the photography term “the angle of reflection equals the angle of incidence”? This is basically that principle in action. Since the kicker light is slightly behind the model, the angle at which the light is being reflected off the skin is causing the highlight to appear brighter.

Positions and settings for key, fill and kicker lights. Notice the camera positioning at the bottom left of the desk.

Shot with all three lights set and in place. Before and after adjustments in Lightroom.

Once the lighting was in place, the model was dressed and the shoot began.

A nice benefit of the positioning of the key and kicker lights was that they pulled double-duty, switching roles whenever the model turned his head. A nice short lighting pattern was created, whichever direction he faced. You can see this in the variations above and below.

Shot with all three lights set and in place. Before and after adjustments in Lightroom.

In closing, I would encourage you to think of creative ways to use and experiment with hard lighting in your photographs. Hard lighting is not just limited to men. The photo below was lit in the same fashion as the photo of the male model. A word of caution, though. Hard light is unforgiving when it comes to wrinkles and blemishes, so you will have to be very careful with your light positioning when your are lighting women.

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The post How to Use Hard Lighting to Create a Dramatic Portrait by Joel Dryer appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

December 15, 2014
The Ultimate Guide to Depth of Field in Photography

Depth of field basically means how much of your picture, from foreground to background is sharp. So there you have it, see you next week, bye, byeeeeee….Oh, are you still here? That wasn’t enough? Ok, so depth of field depends on several things, all centering arount the f stop of your camera, one of a triumvirate of things that allow Continue Reading

The post The Ultimate Guide to Depth of Field in Photography appeared first on Photodoto.

Photodoto

December 15, 2014
2 B&W Photography eBooks Worth $30… Yours Today for $7
It is day 2 in our 12 Days of Christmas and if you like $ 7 eBooks (and the popularity of yesterdays deal says you do) you’re going to LOVE this one.

The Deal

It’s our very own Essential Guide to Black and White Photography for just $ 7

It’s normally $ 20 so that’s a discount of 65%… but that’s not all. We’re going to throw in a bonus eBook ’10 Recipes for Amazing Black And White Photography’ which is worth $ 10!

This eBook from renowned photographer David Nightingale launched earlier in 2014 and got some fantastic reviews.

The Essential Guide to Black and White Photography will walk you through:
- how to ‘see’ in black and white
- the best gear to use
- the special skills and setup needed to shoot
- how to process your black and white photos to perfection
- much much more
This eBook has it all covered and has helped thousands of dPS readers to improve their black and white photography.

Here’s the table of contents of the main guide:

The bonus guide (pictured right) shows you exactly how 10 black and white images were created – a fantastic companion to the main guide to show you how to put the theory into action!

Don’t Miss This Deal

Ready to take the quality of your black and white photography to a whole new level?

Grab this amazing deal in before our 24 offer expires here.

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The post 2 B&W Photography eBooks Worth $ 30… Yours Today for $ 7 by Darren Rowse appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
December 15, 2014
How to Use LAB Color in Photoshop to Remove an Unwanted Color Cast
In a recent article about the LAB colorspace, I covered the basic LAB move to enhance colors. Hopefully that gave you an idea of the power of the LAB colorspace to manipulate color in Photoshop. In this article we are going to build on that a little bit. Whereas in the last article we simply used the basic LAB color move to enhance color, now we will get into color manipulation. Specifically, I will show you how to remove an unwanted color cast from your photos using LAB. In many ways doing this in LAB is simpler and more powerful than doing it in your normal color space (RGB).

Setting the stage

Removing color casts and manipulating color will be simple for you once you know a little bit about how LAB color works, so first let’s make sure you understand what is going on in the LAB colorspace. Once you understand how LAB works, everything else will be easy.

LAB stands for Lightness, A channel, and B channel. The L channel strictly controls lightness and we won’t be working with it for purposes of this article. All color in the LAB colorspace is within the A and B channel. The A channel consists of greens and magentas. The B channel consists of blues and yellows. The histogram in both of these channels almost always looks like a spike in the middle of the histogram. Because LAB is such a ridiculously broad color space, there will be a lot of empty space on either side of the histogram. As you saw in the last article, this empty space is what gives us the opportunity to enhance color so effectively in the LAB colorspace.

Now let’s look at the histogram of the A channel more closely so that you can see how this works. The A channel is a combination of green and magenta. The further to the left you are in the histogram, the more green is present. Conversely, the further to the right you are in the histogram, the more magenta is present (see diagram above).

The middle of the histogram is a gray tone without any real color. It is designated as zero. As you move away from the zero (gray) point in the middle, more color is added. To the left, the numbers go into negatives (all the way down to -128) and things get more green. To the right, you move into positive numbers (toward a max of +127) and things get more magenta (pinkish).

It works exactly the same way in the B channel, only the colors are different. In the B channel you still have a starting middle point of zero, which is also gray. But, as you move to the left on the histogram towards -128, the colors get bluer. As you move to the right towards +127, the colors get more yellow.

Also note that the center line of the histogram runs right through the zero in the center of both the A and B channels. This will be important for identifying and correcting color casts.

If you are still with me thus far, everything will be easy from here. Now you can take what you just learned and see how to identify and fix color casts easily in LAB.

Identifying color casts easily

It is easy to identify a color cast in LAB mode. Just look at the A or B channel. If the colors are more or less evenly distributed on either side of the midpoint of the histogram, your picture will probably not have a color cast. But if the histogram values are skewed to the left or to the right of the histogram, you are probably have a color cast. Here is how it works in the A and B channels:
- In the A channel, if the colors are more on the left side, you will have a greenish color cast in your image. If they are to the right, you will have a magenta color cast.
- Similarly, in the B channel you know if the histogram appears shifted to the left, you will have a bluish cast to your picture. If the values are to the right of the histogram, your picture will appear more yellow.
In this way, the LAB colorspace makes it super simple to determine if you have a color cast. Just look at the middle of your histogram, and if the colors are skewed to one side or the other, you know you have a color cast or shift. This is important because a slight color cast is not always apparent to the naked eye. Your eye gets acclimatized to seeing the picture in a certain way, and accepts that as normal. Now this we’ve identified a color cast, let’s set about fixing it.

Fixing color casts in LAB

Much of the power of the LAB colorspace comes from scooting in the endpoints on either side of the histogram. In the last article, we did that to separate the colors, which enhances them. We moved the endpoints in toward the center the exact same amount on each side of the histogram. That enhanced colors without affecting the overall color cast of the picture. This time, however, we are going to move the endpoints in different amounts to fix color casts.

For example, let’s say your picture has a blue color cast. When you open up the B channel, the spike showing color is skewed to the left of center on your histogram. To fix it, you simply scoot in the right endpoint of your histogram more then the left endpoint. It’s as simple as that.

Let’s try another example, let’s say you open the A channel of one of your pictures, and noticed that the values are skewed to the left of center on the histogram. That means that you likely have a green color cast. To fix it, simply scoot in the right endpoint a little bit. Don’t do it too much, usually three to five points will make a major shift in color.

Identifying and fixing a slight color cast

This might make more sense to you if we walk through an actual example. So here’s a good example of everything we have been talking about in this article so far. We will start with a photo that I was in the process of editing:

I frankly did not see a color cast, however, I decided to check it out. I converted to LAB, opened a Curves Adjustment Layer, and looked at the histogram of the A channel and the B channel. Here is what I saw:

Two histograms in LAB. The left histogram is the A channel. The right histogram is the B channel. Notice that both are skewed to the right of the centerline – a sure sign of a color cast in the picture.

Notice that in the A channel most of the pixels are stacked up to the right of the center line on the histogram. That is a sure sign that there are more magenta pixels than green in the picture. Notice also that in the B channel most of the pixels are also stacked up to the right of center, which means there are more yellows than blues in the picture. Neither necessarily means there is anything wrong with the image, but that might mean a color cast. So let’s make an adjustment as described above and scoot in the left endpoints a little bit in each channel. Here are the two minor moves I made:

Here are the histograms after the adjustments. Notice that I pulled in the left endpoints of each to the center.

All I did was pull the left endpoint of each histogram to the center a little bit to offset the fact that the colors are skewed to the right of the histogram in each channel. As mentioned above, a change of three to five points will create a large adjustment, so that is all I did. As the numbers below the histograms reflect, I made the following adjustments:
- A Channel: I pulled the left endpoint to the center by four points (from -128 to -124).
- B Channel: I pulled the left endpoint to the center by five points (from -128 to -123)
After the adjustment, here is the resulting picture:

I think it looks better now. To me, it had a color cast that I just wasn’t seeing. The difference is subtle, but significant. In particular, look at the clouds. Here are the before and after pictures side-by-side:

The original picture is on the left. The picture on the right had is after a minor LAB adjustment. I did not even see the original color cast, but I think it looks better after the adjustment.

Incorporating this into the LAB color move

Sometimes, you will notice that the spike in the A or B channel is to one side of the center of the histogram, but you do not really want to change the overall color of the picture. It is still important to understand what is going on when you are making your normal LAB color move.

If you ignore the shift to one side or the other, then when you scoot in your endpoints by equal amounts, you may be exacerbating the color shift. Therefore, keep an eye on your histogram and try to make your shift pivot around the spike rather than on the center of the histogram. In other words, if the pixels are to the right of the histogram, scoot in your left endpoint a little bit more (and vice versa). In this way, you can make your normal LAB color move, but at least not add any color cast to your picture.

Why not just do this in RGB?

You may be asking, can’t I just remove color casts in RGB? The answer, of course, is yes. But the LAB colorspace has advantages that I want to make sure are clear to you.

First, because LAB separates Lightness from all color adjustments, LAB allows you to fix these casts without any impact on lightness or contrast. This is not possible in RGB. When you affect the red channel, green channel, or blue channel in RGB, you are necessarily affecting lightness. It is all tied together in RGB.

Second, LAB makes it easier to identify color casts. As you saw above, you just open up the A or B channel and see if the spike is shifted to one side of the histogram. If it is, you likely have a color cast. If it isn’t, you do not. In RGB, you have to compare channels and see how one channel appears compared to the other two channels.

Isn’t this like setting your white balance?

You may have noticed that the LAB colors correspond with the sliders in Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) that are used to set the white balance in your picture. You can think about LAB in those terms and it might help you to understand how the colors work together. But using LAB to manipulate color offers certain advantages over just setting your white balance. For one thing, you can change the colors later in your workflow, and are not compelled to do it right up front. For another thing, you can take advantage of Photoshop’s layers and selections in manipulating color. Although Lightroom and ACR have very helpful aids in setting the while balance, like the White Balance Selector (the little dropper) or the presets, there is no histogram to allow you to really see and fine-tune your changes.

Applying this to your worklflow

What the technique shown in this article will allow you to do, is make your normal LAB color move in a more nuanced fashion. In the last article, I showed you how to make the LAB color move in a basic, unthinking way. You simply moved the endpoints of your A channel and B channel by equal amounts. It is sort of a one-size-fits-all approach, which doesn’t always work in photography. Now, you can use this to manipulate color a little bit or at least keep it from getting worse as you edit.

I have talked about correcting color casts as if there was a special correct way. But of course that isn’t really true and what looks correct to me might not look exactly right to you. Use your own judgment and do what seems right to you. As you make these moves, however, you might want to bias them in one direction or another. Remember that sometimes a color cast can add effect or mood to your picture. Sometimes a slight color cast just looks good. For example, a warmer tone created by a yellow or magenta cast can actually enhance your picture. Sometimes, but less often, a bluish cast can be appropriate. Also remember that a greenish cast never looks good and should be avoided.

I know it can sometimes be confusing knowing where colors reside, and how to fix them within the LAB color space. To try to make it easier for you, here is a chart:

Conclusion

The LAB colorspace is a powerful beast. You previously learned how to unleash that power by using the basic LAB color move. Using the technique in this article will allow you to tame that beast a little bit. It will allow you to use the power of LAB without getting garish effects or color casts in your pictures. It will also allow you to fix these color casts simpler and easier than anything that RGB allows. Give it a try and see if it corrects your colors.

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The post How to Use LAB Color in Photoshop to Remove an Unwanted Color Cast by Jim Hamel appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
December 15, 2014
Now Live on Lynda.com: The Traveling Photographer_LONDON

For much of 2014, I have been on the road for Lynda.com, producing the series, The Traveling Photographer. The latest episode, on London, has just posted.

Hard to believe it, but we have now logged over 50,000 miles. In addition to Hong Kong, Dubai, Paris and London, we have just finished filming the New York City segment, which will be published soon.

For more information about the entire series, see this earlier post.

Strobist

December 15, 2014