Huawei has once again been caught using an image captured with a DSLR to promote its mobile cameras. This issue was discovered on Chinese social media website Weibo, where Huawei published a video that contained multiple images allegedly snapped using its smartphones. According to the South China Morning Post, some of the images were traced back to a 500px user.
The issue was first spotted by photographer Huapeng Zhao, who recognized some of the images and traced them back to a 500px user named Su Tie. Rather than having been captured with a Huawei smartphone as the company’s promotional video claimed, Su Tie’s 500px account indicates the images were captured with a Nikon D850.
In a post on the matter published on Weibo, Huawei said that a ‘negligent editor’ had ‘incorrectly marked that [the DSLR images] were taken with a Huawei smartphone.’ The company thanked Huapeng for spotting the issue and apologized to the community. An updated version of the video without the DSLR images has been posted on Weibo.
This is not, however, the first time Huawei has been caught passing DSLR content off as images captured with its mobile phones.
In early 2019, for example, Huawei used stock images of a volcano captured with a DSLR to promote the zoom lens capabilities of its P30 Pro smartphone. Before that in 2018, the company was caught using an image captured with a DSLR to promote its Nova 3 smartphone. Sadly, this practice isn’t limited to Huawei — Samsung has also been caught passing off DSLR images as mobile images.
In 2018, Samsung Malaysia was caught using an image captured with a DSLR on the website for its Galaxy A8 Star handset, failing to state on the page that the image was not captured using its mobile camera and software. Before that, Samsung Brazil was caught using selfies captured with a DSLR to promote its Galaxy A8 model.
At this point in time, it’s unclear whether Huawei had received permission from Su Tie to use the images in its promotional video. The discovery highlights the importance of taking manufacturer promotional images with a grain of salt, particularly ones that look too good to be true. Though mobile camera technology, including both hardware and software, have improved considerably over recent years, they’re still no match for expensive professional camera systems.
The post Fun 5-Second Photos – Using Long Exposures for Creative Images appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Rick Ohnsman.
Survey your collection of photos, and I’d bet that most will have been taken at 1/30th of a second or faster. Usually, we want to freeze any action, getting as sharp an image as possible. Other times, however, we might want to purposefully use long exposures for creative images.
Silky waterfalls, streaked clouds, oceans waves that look more like mist – those are the images where we might use shutter speeds that last multiple seconds or even minutes. But how about a middle-ground, say a 5-second exposure? What kinds of looks might that give you?
I wanted to tap into the frozen, non-moving ice and the moving fluid water in this photo. I needed an ND filter to get me to the shutter speed I wanted. Canon 6D with Canon 24-105mm lens, 6-seconds, f/22 ISO 100.
For the examples in this article, let’s be a little flexible saying anything between four and eight seconds is what we’re interested in.
Fortunately, Lightroom can filter images by looking at the shutter speed recorded in the Exif data. I was easily able to see which of the over 105,500 images in my Lightroom catalog fell into that range. It was just 1,036 of those or .981%.
So, while perhaps shutter speeds in the 5-second range are not often used for general photography, as you will see, occasionally that range is just right for the look you seek.
Tripod or hand-held?
The “inverse focal-length rule” says that to prevent camera shake blur you should always try to shoot at 1/lens focal length as your minimum for hand-holding your camera. For example, using your 70-200mm zoom lens if you were zoomed wide to 70mm your shutter speed should be 1/70th or faster like 1/100th of a second.
Zoom in to the full 200mm setting, and you’d best be at 1/250th or faster to prevent camera shake.
Keeping the still objects sharp while the water smoothed during this 4-second exposure required a tripod. It was shady and darker here, but I still needed an ND filter. Canon 6D with Canon 24-105mm lens, 4-seconds, f/20 ISO 50.
Those rules apply here. If you intend only to blur those things that move during your 5-second exposure, you’ll definitely need a tripod. However, there might be situations where you could make a 5-second exposure without one:
Your creative intent is to show some camera motion blur. A creative “swish-pan” is a good example.
No tripods are allowed where you are working. Crowded places, sports events, indoor locations or other places might not allow you to use a tripod. Come up with some workarounds – brace your camera against something, set it down on a bench or something, and use the 2-second timer for a hands-off shot. Maybe you could carry a beanbag or improvise with your jacket. If smaller variations of a tripod are allowed, things like a Gorillapod or Platypod might be the answer.
Consider mirror lockup to reduce vibration.
Exposure
You’re familiar with the “exposure triangle” right? If not, follow this link to learn about it. It is foundational knowledge for all serious photographers. Briefly, it states that all exposures are governed by three things, the “holy trinity” of photography:
Shutter speed (how long the sensor is exposed to light),
Aperture (the size of the hole through which light enters),
ISO (the sensitivity of the sensor to light).
Whether you are in Manual mode, Full Auto, or any other camera exposure mode, those three things are always at work. Now, if we’ve already decided we want a 5-second shutter speed, we’re left with just the other two to control our exposure.
ISO and Aperture – which?
You are likely going to want to choose one of two modes when practicing 5-second exposures: Full Manual (which will give you full control over all settings), or Shutter Priority (Tv on Canon and Pentax, S on Nikon and Sony).
Shutter priority lets you choose and lock in a shutter speed and then the camera adjusts aperture (the f/stop) and ISO (if you have that in Auto ISO). If not, ISO will be locked to whatever you set.
Now, you’ve locked in 5-seconds as your shutter speed, should you use Aperture, ISO, or maybe both to get the exposure right? Like so many things in photography, the answer is, “it depends.”
Let’s speak to ISO first. We’re trying to make a 5-second exposure. Doing so will allow quite a bit of light into the camera. So as not to overexpose the image, dialing down the ISO will help. Many cameras have 100 ISO as their lowest setting. Some can go down to 50 ISO. The benefit of lower ISO is less noise. So, set to the lowest ISO possible, yes? Sure, but that by itself may not get you there, and there are other considerations.
Let’s consider aperture.
Setting the aperture (remember the aperture is the “hole.” The term f/stop is the way we reference the “size of the hole.”) to a larger number, i.e. f/11, f/16, or f/22 will let in less light. That too may help us get that 5-second exposure.
Of course, changing aperture also affects the depth of field. We could also encounter a reduction of sharpness if we use the smallest apertures due to what is called “diffraction.”
Pre-sunrise. I didn’t have a lot of light to work with, so a slow shutter speed helped here. It also smoothed the water a bit at the inlet at the Coquille River Lighthouse in Bandon, Oregon. Canon 6D with Canon 24-105mm lens, 6 seconds, f/5.6, ISO 1600.
Proper exposure while considering the implications of each “leg of the exposure triangle” is always a juggling act. If you’re still a novice photographer who has always used automatic exposure settings, I might have lost you here. If so, I suggested you read up on these things:
Aperture
Shutter Speed
ISO
Exposure Triangle
Lens “Sweet Spot”
Depth of Field
Lens Diffraction
Cut the light
So, we have our shutter speed set at 5-seconds, our ISO at say 50, and an aperture of f/22. We check and see the image will still be overexposed. What now? Well, as we might put on sunglasses on a bright day to cut the amount of light coming into our eyes, in photography we use neutral-density (ND) filters.
These come in various grades of darkness. A rating system indicates how many stops of light they reduce. Each increase of ND 0.3 results in one additional stop of light reduction. So an ND 1.8 is a six-stop filter.
That means whatever a good exposure for the scene might be with no filter, putting such a filter on will allow you to adjust to the now correct exposure by six stops.
If all of this makes your head hurt, I suggest downloading a free ND calculator app (Android / iOS) which will tell you the settings you need.
Lee Filters (who makes a 6-stop ND filter called the “Little Stopper,” and a 10-stop filter called the “Big Stopper“) offers a nice free app. To use an example, if I had to shoot in bright daylight and the longest shutter speed I could use was at 1/200th of a second, using a 10-stop Big Stopper could get me down to that 5-second shutter speed.
Another option is a “variable ND filter.” These have two layered polarized filters, that when rotated, allow progressive darkening. They can be nice, but sometimes introduce weird visual artifacts, create color casts and such, particularly at darker settings and when using wider focal lengths. Do some research before you decide to buy one of these.
Standard circular polarizing filters can work to a degree as they will typically cut light by 1.5-2.5 stops. You can stack filters too, but a word of caution here – stacking filters runs the risk of vignetting the image, or worse, sometimes stacked filters can get stuck on the lens. This is a sure way to ruin your day. A filter wrench is a good tool to have in your kit.
In daylight conditions, even with a small aperture and low ISO, you might not be able to get to the longer shutter speed you’d like and have the proper exposure. ND filters which cut the light are often the answer. All of these photos were done with such a filter.
Suitable scenes
Okay, techy stuff out of the way. When and why might you want to take 5-second exposures? Let’s look at some example photos.
Flowing water
Silky water effects are a favorite with photographers. Slower shutter speeds allow you to get the look. Note the various shutter speeds on these images. A recommended practice is to bracket your moving water shots. The speed, volume, and proximity of the water to the camera will make a difference when finding that “just right” shutter speed to create the look you like.
Smooth water, streaked clouds
Whatever moves will blur during a longer exposure. Water, waves, and clouds will all have a different look. You need not always go for extra-long exposures either, note the shutter speeds on these were between 6 and 8 seconds.
Special Effects
A longer shutter speed buys you time for creating special effects photos. The “smoke” in the first shot is actually a piece of dental floss moved during the 6-second exposure. I used sparklers and laser pointers to create the other shots. Note the shutter speeds are all 4-seconds.
Fireworks
I find 6-second exposures are often just right when doing fireworks photos allowing capture of multiple bursts and a nice look.
Zoom during exposure
Longer shutter speeds allow you time to zoom the lens during the shot, producing the kinds of images in the first two photos. In the third image, it was the car that was doing the “zooming.”
Combining with flash
Combine a slower shutter speed with a pop of second-curtain-sync flash, and you get an image like this. The motion blurs during the ambient portion of the exposure, and the flash at the end freezes that part of the exposure. Second-curtain-sync flash shots are two-exposures in one. Canon 6D with Canon 24-105mm lens, 2-seconds, f/5.6, ISO 100.
Low light and night photography
Before sunrise, after sunset, dark days and nights – sometimes you go for a slower shutter speed because there’s not much light. Knowing when to “go slow” can make for some nice images. All of these are between 3.2 and 8 seconds.
Light painting
A longer shutter speed buys you time for light painting. The first image had a 4-second exposure, the second a 5-second exposure. Go read my article on this fun technique.
Lightning
When you don’t have a lightning trigger, you do it the old-fashioned way – Point your camera where you’ve been seeing the flashes and shoot many longer exposure shots. With luck, you’ll catch a bolt or maybe even several during a shot. Canon 6D with Canon 24-105mm lens, 4-seconds, f/9, ISO 800.
Now go “take five”
Shooting into the sun, a six-stop ND filter was mandatory to get me to a 6-second shutter speed here. Canon 6D with Canon 24-105mm lens, 6-seconds, f/16, ISO 50.
So what is the “right” shutter speed to use? When making long exposures for creative images there is no absolute.
Use the shutter speed that best captures the vision you had when making the image. Learn to adjust aperture and ISO to get you to that speed you want and ND filters when you must. The key is taking control of your camera.
As a master painter knows exactly what brush and stroke to use, you as a photographer can make masterful photos when you know the right settings and controls to use. If you have not typically worked in the 5-second shutter speed range, use the photos in this article as inspiration. Now, go “take five.”
The post Fun 5-Second Photos – Using Long Exposures for Creative Images appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Rick Ohnsman.
Sony World Photography Awards Open Competition 2020 winners and shortlisted images
The World Photography Organisation has announced this year’s category winners and shortlisted entries in the Open competition of the Sony World Photography Awards, 2020. The annual Open competition, now in its 13th year, recognizes the best single images captured in 2019. Judged by Gisela Kayser, Managing and Artistic Director for Freundeskreis Willy-Brandt-Haus e.V. in Berlin, more than 100 photographs were shortlisted across 10 categories.
‘To have my image make the shortlist of this prestigious contest is an incredible honor, especially when it was selected from such a huge number of entries from around the world. I am over the moon to have my work recognized. Congratulations to all the shortlisted and winning photographers for their amazing work,’ Marc Le Cornu tells DPReview about his recognition in the Motion category.
Each category winner will receive a set of Sony’s latest digital imaging equipment and compete for the Open Photographer of the Year title. The overall winner will be announced on June 9th and be awarded a $ 5,000 USD cash prize along with recognition on the World Photography Organization and Sony’s online social accounts.
The ten category winners are:
Architecture Rosaria Sabrina Pantano (Italy) for ‘Emotional Geography’
Creative Suxing Zhang (China) for ‘Knot’
Culture Antoine Veling (Australia) for ‘Mark 5:28’
Landscape Craig McGowan (Australia) for ‘Ice Reflections’ – who was also a finalist for the International Landscape Photographer of the Year
Motion Alec Connah (United Kingdom) for ‘Going Down!’
Natural World & Wildlife Guofei Li (China) for ‘Tai Chi Diagram’
Portraiture Tom Oldham (United Kingdom) for ‘Black Francis’
Still Life Jorge Reynal (Argentina) for ‘A Plastic Ocean’
Street Photography Santiago Mesa (Colombia) for ‘Colombia Resiste’
Travel Adrian Guerin (Australia) for ‘Riding a Saharan Freight Train’
Due to the current pandemic, this year’s Sony World Photography Awards 2020 exhibition has been cancelled. The World Photography Organisation has launched the Stay Connected page to keep photographers inspired with educational resources. They will also recognize the work of past and current competition winners and finalists across their various online channels.
Open Competition, Travel, Winner: ‘Riding a Saharan Freight Train’ by Adrian Guerin (Australia)
Artist Statement: At 2.5km long, the iron-ore train in Mauritania is one of the longest trains in the world. It covers over 700km on its journey from the coastal town of Nouadhibou to the Saharan wilderness of Zouérat. More than 200 carriages are loaded with rocks in Zouérat, before the train begins its long journey back to Nouadhibou. I rode the train in both directions in July 2019.
On the first leg of the journey I learnt that in order to photograph the full length of the train I needed to stand on the rocks for height, position myself in a rear carriage to get the full view, and keep the sun behind me. Alas, none of this was possible until the morning of day three, at which point I had almost given up.
This shot was taken as I balanced on my toes atop a mountain of rocks, trying to remain steady as the train jolted from side to side.
Open Competition, Street Photography, Winner: ‘Colombia Resiste’ by Santiago Mesa (Columbia)
Artist Statement: In recent years, a number of protests have broken out across Latin America. Reasons for this unrest range from a proposed end to fuel subsidies in Ecuador to a rise in metro fares in Chile, and feelings of inequality and a general lack of opportunity in Colombia. In Medellín, north-western Colombia, workers and street vendors were taking part in a march when the Medellin riot squad dispersed them.
Open Competition, Still Life, Winner: ‘A Plastic Ocean’ by Jorge Reynal (Argentina)
Artist Statement: Each year, eight million tons of plastic end up in our oceans – equivalent to emptying a garbage truck into the water every minute. This is my protest against pollution.
In my language (Spanish), we use the words ‘Naturaleza Muerta’ to refer to still life, which ironically translates as ‘Dead Nature.’
Open Competition, Natural World & Wildlife, Winner: ‘Tai Chi Diagram’ by Guofei Li (China)
Artist Statement: These cheetahs had just eaten an antelope, and were licking the bloodstains off each other’s faces. It’s a very rare posture, and one that reminded me of the traditional Chinese Tai Chi diagram. The picture was taken in Botswana in January 2019.
Open Competition, Portraiture, Winner: ‘Black Francis’ by Tom Oldham (United Kingdom)
Artist Statement: Photographers for MOJO Magazine enjoy a rare degree of freedom and trust with what is usually an open brief. This allows us to capture our own experience with very high profile musicians. However, when photographing famous singers, we are often painfully aware of how many times the sitter has, well, sat.
I like to acknowledge this and asked Charles (aka Black Francis) to show me the level of frustration photoshoots can generate. He offered up this perfect gesture of exasperation, and the image ran as the lead portrait for the feature.
Open Competition, Motion, Winner: ‘Going Down!’ by Alec Connah (United Kingdom)
Artist Statement: Despite measuring 125 metres high, it took the four cooling towers of Ironbridge Power Station in Shropshire, England, just 10 seconds to be demolished on 6 December 2019. The towers had been a feature of the landscape for 50 years, but were brought down as part of a new development on the site.
The demolition had been a long time coming – the towers were close to a river, railway line and protected woodland, so their destruction had to be precise. This picture was taken from my garden, which is on the hillside opposite the site.
Open Competition, Creative, Winner: ‘Knot’ by Suxing Zhang (China)
Artist Statement: This picture is from my series ‘Hua,’ which means flower in Chinese. Flowers are often used as metaphors for life and eroticism in art. Hua explores the commonalities and connections between flowers and the feminine – in particular, emotional vulnerability and sensitivity. Qualities such as calmness, and emotions such as uncertainty, fear, anxiety, and loneliness are translated into conceptual and artistic forms.
In Knot, I use a combination of light and texture to create strong visuals that heighten the senses. I like to use symbolic and metaphoric ingredients in my work, which I hope allows the audience to blend their own subjectivity with the objectivity of the photograph, leading to different interpretations and emotions.
Open Competition, Culture, Winner: ‘Mark 5:28’ by Antoine Veling (Australia)
Artist Statement: When audience members were invited on stage to dance at an Iggy Pop concert in Sydney Opera House, Australia, on 17 April 2019, it showed the warm welcome Aussies extend to overseas artists who travel long distances to reach them.
A woman’s outstretched arm lunges to touch Iggy. He seems unaware of her approach as the crowd presses around him. One of Iggy’s assistants, Jos (in the grey checked shirt) tries to make some space around Iggy. The scene is reminiscent of a passage from the Bible: ‘Because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.”’ (Mark 5:25-34, line 28).
The image has been likened to religious paintings by Caravaggio, and his chiaroscuro technique. It went crazy on social media, making 40,000 people, including Iggy Pop, very happy.
Open Competition, Architecture, Winner: ‘Emotional Geometry’ by Rosaria Sabrina Pantano (Italy)
Artist Statement: Having returned to Sicily for the holidays, myself and a group of friends visited Fiumara d’Arte, an open museum showcasing sculptures made by contemporary artists, located along the banks of the Tusa River. Among these works is 38° Parallelo by Mauro Staccioli – a pyramid that stands at the exact point where the geographical coordinates touch the 38th parallel.
Open Competition, Motion, Shortlist: ‘NEOM Spin’ by Marc Le Cornu (United Kingdom)
Artist Statement: This image was taken during a commission to capture the area of NEOM in Saudi Arabia as part of a project for the NEOM tourism team. Our captain asked for a photo of his vessel, and I happily obliged! The golden hour light was catching the boat and its wake, and the patterns on the water looked incredible from above.
Marc elaborated a bit more for DPReview: ‘The inspiration for the shot came from our transport driver who requested a photo of his boat. I couldn’t just give him a standard photo, so I asked him to maneuver the boat in a circle whilst I captured the shot by DJI Inspire 2 drone from above. The light was perfect for giving a lovely, rich, warm feel to the image as it caught the boat’s wake and the boat itself, and the patterns left in the water from the boat’s wake created the final striking image.’
Open Competition, Natural World & Wildlife, Shortlist: ‘A Fever of Cownose Rays’ by Alex Kydd (Australia)
Artist Statement: A rare encounter with a fever of cownose rays on the Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia. The rays were circling and rubbing together in a behavior that is not fully understood. They were spiraling up and down the water column for approximately 20 minutes, at which point they disappeared.
Undeterred by my presence, they continued to focus on each other while I documented the encounter. There have been few reports of cownose rays in the Ningaloo Reef region in recent years. The image was taken while free-diving – it was a once-in-a-lifetime encounter.
Open Competition, Landscape, Shortlist: ‘Come on In’ by Kai Hornung (Germany)
Artist Statement: A small path in the ancient forests of the Anaga Mountains in Tenerife, Spain. The clouds hung inside the moss-covered trees, creating a spooky atmosphere. When I arrived at this spot, I was smiling while setting up my tripod – I just knew I was about to take one of my best images of that tour, if not one of my best pictures of 2019.
Open Competition, Creative, Shortlist: ‘Fractals and Flowers’ by David Swindler (United States)
Artist Statement: The Badlands of Utah, USA, are fascinating to explore and photograph. We had a really prolific wildflower bloom last year, which only happens every decade or so. The yellow flowers added a nice accent to the erosion lines and patterns in the ground. These patterns reminded me of fractal mathematics.
Open Competition, Culture, Shortlist: ‘Colourful Catrina’ by Sergio Carrasco (Mexico)
Artist Statement: My wife dressed as a Catrina – one of the most recognizable symbols of the Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico.
Open Competition, Street Photography, Shortlist: ‘Back Home’ by Liu Jon (China)
Artist Statement: After a downpour, there is often a moment of beauty. Here, a zebra crossing, an umbrella and a lone figure combine to make a colorful composition.
The post How to Easily Make Images ‘Pop’ with these Luminar 4 Tips appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Christian Hoiberg.
Luminar 4 has become a popular photo-editor since it’s release, partly due to it’s groundbreaking AI tools used to replace skies, introduce elements or give an overall ‘pop’ to your image. However, these Luminar 4 tips go beyond the AI tools and teach you how to quickly make your images look more impressive.
In this article, I want to show you how we can transform this rather ordinary sunset panorama into something more visually pleasing that’s sure to grab people’s attention.
The original raw file we’re going to work on
To avoid making this too complicated, I’m going to avoid using layers and masks and instead show you a series of very basic tips that you can immediately implement into your workflow.
Let’s get started and dive into these Luminar 4 tips:
1. Use AI only when needed
While Luminar 4 has become widely known due to its Artificial Intelligence tools such as the AI Sky Replacement Tool and AI Augmented Reality Tool, you should avoid using them for every image.
These types of composite tools are a very personal choice (there are many opinions on both sides of the discussion, but I don’t want to delve into that now), but there’s no secret that it’s an easy way to make a boring photo interesting.
If you’ve got a boring blue sky, you can easily replace it with a more colorful or dramatic one. This can be fun and useful at times, but I strongly recommend that you avoid replacing the sky or introducing elements to it all the time.
Most images simply don’t need to be worked on in such a way. Most of the time, it ends up looking more distracting than attractive.
Use the AI Augmented Reality Tool only when needed – it won’t always look good
For example, using the AI Augmented Reality Tool to introduce a flock of birds or a rainbow in the image we’re working on in this article makes no sense. It looks misplaced.
Reserve these tools for particular images only.
2. Don’t forget about the basic adjustments
Playing with the various AI tools, adding sun rays, or dramatic effects can be fun, but don’t forget about the basic raw adjustments; these are crucial for the image and will set the basis for further development.
The basic adjustments I’m talking about can be found in the Light Tools inside the Essentials Category. More specifically, I’m talking about the following sliders:
Temperature
Tint
Exposure
Highlights
Shadows
Whites
Blacks
To enhance the warm sunset feel and give the image a little more contrast, I increased the Temperature and Tint, darkened the Exposure (as a result of the next adjustments), darkened the Highlights and increased the Shadows, Whites and Blacks.
After applying basic adjustments
By applying these few basic adjustments, we’ve introduced some more details in the shadows, increased the contrast, and warmed the image slightly.
3. Correct mistakes using AI Enhance and AI Structure
Now, I said that you should only use AI tools when they’re absolutely needed, but the AI Enhance and AI Structure tools are the exceptions. Unlike the other tools, they don’t add or replace anything. Instead, they use Artificial Intelligence to ‘correct’ the image.
I’ve always been a skeptic of these types of automatic tools (I still have nightmares about the good ol’ Photomatix days), but these two have proved me wrong. AI can have a place in photo editing.
Don’t get me wrong – pulling too much in these sliders is going to make the image look overly edited. But applied at a lower amount, they can add a lot to it.
After applying AI Enhance and AI Structure
For this example, I applied them with the following settings:
AI Accent (AI Enhance): +9
AI Sky Enhancer (AI Enhance): +20
AI Structure Amount: +19
As you can see, these adjustments have made the sky and image ‘pop’ a little more than previously. The nice part about these tools is that they don’t add any unwanted noise or grain to the image.
4. Add a vignette
A vignette is commonly used to shift the focus of an image towards its more interesting parts by darkening the surroundings.
This is a particularly useful tool when the borders of an image are bright. That’s not quite the case in this image, but I do find that darkening the outer areas can help emphasize the setting sun.
Adding a vignette darkens the corners and puts the emphasis on more important aspects
I recommend using the Vignette tool with some caution too. Don’t go to the extreme, as that will quickly make the vignette too obvious and distracting.
It’s also a good idea to use the ‘Choose Subject’ button to set the midpoint of the vignette, it won’t always be in the middle! For example, if you’ve got a person standing to the left of the image and they’re the main subject, that should be the middle point.
5. Add a glow (but be careful!)
Techniques such as the Orton Effect is loved by landscape photographers, and it’s a technique that’s been around since the 1980s (created by Michael Orton). This technique can easily be replicated in Luminar 4. In fact, it can be found two places.
The Orton Effect tool is found in the Portrait Tools Category. By placing it here, Skylum has made it clear that this particular effect is mostly meant for portraits.
For other genres of photography, you can use the Glow Tool found in the Creative Tools Category. This tool introduces a nice soft glow to the image that can help give that much desired ‘dreamy’ atmosphere.
The image after using the Glow Tool
BUT don’t go all-out and apply this technique at a high amount. That’s going to look more distracting than appealing and will make the image look amateurish.
Instead, apply this at a low amount. If you’re feeling brave and have some knowledge about Luminar 4, this is a technique that’s best added through a mask.
6. Midtone contrast is your friend!
For years I’ve been using Luminosity Masks in Photoshop to introduce Midtones Contrast. However, in Luminar 4, it’s done with a simple slider found inside the Advanced Contrast tool in the Professional Category.
The problem with adding contrast to the entire image is that you essentially brighten the brightest parts and darken the darkest. This quickly results in clipping of the shadows and highlights.
Applying the Midtones contrast is more efficient than adding contrast globally
By introducing contrast to the midtones only (i.e. any pixel that’s neither bright nor dark), you avoid this problem and get a much more desirable result.
This is one of my most important Luminar 4 Tips that will make your image pop. Go try it for yourself!
7. Adjust the focus by using the Adjustable Gradient Tool
The final tip I’m going to share in this article is one that’s not necessary for this particular image. It’s something that’s going to do wonders in the majority of your images. Use the Adjustable Gradient Tool to shift the focus in your image.
Very often, I find the foreground or sky to be too distracting in images. There’s no reason why a foreground should be as bright and sharp as the main subject of the image. Remember, our eyes naturally gravitate towards the brightest parts, which is where you want the main subject to be.
The Adjustable Gradient Tool is an easy solution that even complete Luminar beginners can take advantage of (there are more advanced methods that are superior, but I’ll save that for another time).
You can switch between the Top and Bottom gradient and choose the gradient’s orientation in order to better fit your image. It’s possible to add adjustments to both the top and bottom at the same time.
I used the Adjustable Gradient to darken the foreground and shift the focus upwards
For this example, I only applied adjustments to the Bottom as I wanted to remove some details in the rocks visible in the lower part of the image. All I did was increase the Exposure, Highlights and Vibrance.
This tool is also used to darken/recover a bright sky. For those scenarios, simply choose Top and increase the Exposure or Shadows.
Conclusion
The truth is, you don’t need to spend hours upon hours editing your images to make them look impressive. Applying a few simple adjustments can often be enough to give that extra pop.
In the 7 Luminar 4 tips shared above, we’ve managed to take an ordinary sunset image and make it slightly more appealing:
Original ImageFinal Image
I hope that you found these Luminar 4 tips useful and that you can apply these techniques and tools into your workflow. I would love to see the images you’ve edited, so make sure to leave them in the comments below!
Make sure to have a look at my popular eBook ‘A Photographer’s Guide to Luminar 4′ if you’d like to learn how you can take full advantage of all the organizing and processing tools and create professional-looking images with this popular photo editor. There, you’ll learn everything you need to know about organizing and editing, as well as receive several step-by-step workflows you can use for yourself.
The post How to Easily Make Images ‘Pop’ with these Luminar 4 Tips appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Christian Hoiberg.
The post How to Correctly Resize Photos to Print Images Big appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Mark C Hughes.
In this digital age, fewer people are printing their images, missing out on what can be an amazing experience with their images. Many images only exist in the ether (or the internet, if you want to be more literal), or on people’s hard drives. However, there is nothing more impressive than to print images big.
Viewing images on phones and tablets means that the resolution is generally pretty forgiving. However, when you actually take photos and print images big, you need to resize them. Doing so will tend to expose problems related to resolution and color.
When you print images big, your images become even more impressive, with more vibrant colors and detail being visible, which can work for or against you.
Printing big always starts with a great image (f/6.3, 1/800, ISO 320).
Practical and technical issues to enlarging images
Beyond simply printing, there is a question of size.
What if that phenomenal image you took with your camera is so memorable, or of such a decisive moment, that you want to make it big?
There are practical and technical issues you need to address if you want to print those images, particularly when making images that are growing in size.
Questions like, for a given image resolution…how big a print is too big for the camera (or phone) that you used? What are the limiting factors? How do you properly resize your images to make them bigger and appropriate for the size of the print you are looking for?
Printing from a cell phone is typically limited in size.
Camera limits
In this day and age, even cameras on smartphones tend to produce at least 12 MP images. You should be able to print them if the image is good enough (sharp/well lit), to produce a 10 x 13 inch image natively.
With a little help from image processing software, you can improve this to some extent. There are some newer software techniques available to boost those images size, both internally from the cameras (such as high resolution mode and HDR), and externally from image processing software that uses sophisticated algorithms to boost the image size by interpolation.
Cell phones use multiple cameras and computational photography to make images better.
Understanding the fundamentals
The size of digital images is measured in megapixels. Each pixel is a single-colored individual group of photosites that are sensitive to particular colors of light (red, green or blue).
A pixel is the smallest dot that makes up an image. The combining photosites from your sensor produce each pixel. As you add more and more pixels, you eventually get an image.
A megapixel is 1 million pixels (give or take, depending on how it is calculated) for the entire image. When you have a camera with a certain number of pixels (i.e. 16 MP), that tells you how many individual pixels there are within the image. Camera sensors generally come in two flavors (3:2 or 4:3 ratios).
The ratio will affect the overall size relationship. What this also means is the megapixel count tells you how many individual pixels are in each direction.
Crop sensor relative sizes.
Basic math
Megapixels just provides you with the total number of pixels. In order to actually print it, you need to figure out how big you want your print and then do some very basic math to figure out what works best for your image.
When you print, typically, you are looking at print resolution, in dots-per-inch (dpi) rather than megapixels, that is appropriate for the medium and the size of print you are going to make.
For most print media you might hold in your hands, you need a minimum of 300 dpi. This means that megapixels divided by dpi will give you the maximum dimensions natively produced by your sensor.
If you simply use pixels, there is no weird conversion. For example, a 12-megapixel image (common cell phone resolution) on a 3:2 sensor translates into pixels that are roughly 4290 x 2800 on the sensor. If you use 300 dpi to give you a print, the maximum size is 14.3″ x 9.3″ (this is not overly large). Even for a 36-megapixel image, you only end up with printable dimensions of 24.5″ x 16.4″.
Native resolution to size of images.
Hold the Phone
Wait a second, isn’t a 36-megapixel camera a pretty high-resolution camera?
If a 36-megapixel image only corresponds to 24.5″ x 16.4″ that seems really small, how do they print billboards? How do you print something larger than that?
There are two answers to that. First, you don’t hold a billboard in your hands, and you view if from a distance, so the resolution to print can go down. Secondly, to enlarge an image, you use a process called interpolation. Interpolation is the process of how you create new pixels to fill the gaps between the existing pixels so you can enlarge the image.
Nikon D810 (from NikonUSA site) is a 36 megapixel camera.
Confusion in figuring out size
Sometimes, image processing software will tell you the dimensions of your image are 60″ x 39″ at 72 dpi. That seems so much larger. So where does this number come from?
There was a time where it was thought that the resolution you needed for monitors was only 72 dpi (this has changed with technology and time), but the early number of 72 dpi stuck and made the images seem pretty large. The reality is, all you really need to know is that the total number of pixels in each direction will define your image size, not theoretical inches and dpi combined.
The difference between 72 dpi and 300 dpi for the same image (hint: there is no difference) – (f/6.3, 1/800, ISO 200).
Viewing distance matters
To make matters worse, the image resolution of your print is also dependent on how big your image is. A magazine will need a minimum of 300 dpi, whereas a billboard in a subway station may only need 40 dpi. What really matters is how far away from the image you are standing when you view it.
As a general rule of thumb, you need to have a minimum printed resolution of 300 dots per inch (dpi) for most prints.
Printing wall sized images (24″ x 36″ Print).
Real-world example
To make things more clear, let’s start with a simple 20-megapixel image taken on a micro 4/3’s sensor (the proportions are 4:3) and work through the process of printing an image for a wall, say a 36″ x 24″.
The image was taken by an Olympus EM1 mark II, 20-megapixel sensor. The image out of the camera is 5184 pixels wide and 3888 pixels. If you open it with image editing software, it may say that the image is 17.28″ x 12.96″ at 300 dpi (the software has done some simple math). The problem is, this is smaller than the image you actually want to print. I want to print an image that is 36″ x 24″
Sample image for printing big (f/5.6, 1/1250, ISO200).
Interpolation… the magic of resizing
The problem with resizing is that each pixel in an image is discrete. In order to make bigger images to print, we need to create new pixels to fill in the gaps between the existing ones. This sounds much simpler than it is in practice.
The classic example is a sharp edge.
As you enlarge the image, the pixels get jagged. It makes it look like something out of Minecraft. This is called pixelation.
Very early versions of photo imaging software would simply average the color and luminance, and put that new pixel in between the existing pixels. This just made the images soft and mushy.
Currently, Photoshop CC 2020 provides 7 different and discrete ways of changing the size of the image. Plus, it has an automatic setting (that selects from the other 7) to make 8 ways. However, it is limited by the content that is already there.
Each algorithm does something slightly different in its approach to interpolating between pixels. Depending on the type of image, each has varying degrees of success.
As you get close into the image, you can see the pixelation.
Although Photoshop has improved much of its algorithms for image size changes, these work reasonably well for smaller changes in size. However, significant changes in size of images can be particularly problematic.
For scaling larger, I have found the best way to increase the size of an image, as of the beginning of 2020, is to use a product from Topaz called Gigapixel AI.
Gigapixel AI uses artificial intelligence to look at the image compared to millions of similar images and creates new pixels with this algorithm.
This is a slow process and CPU intensive. That is because it uses AI to create the missing pixels to come up with a proper scaling that interpolates new pixels that work with the image. It really does work quite well. Each image can take up to 5 minutes, depending upon size.
The process using Gigapixel AI
To scale the images, here is the process I follow.
I shoot micro 4/3s (MFT), so my image sensor is a 20.1-megapixel sensor that produces raw files that average in size around 17 to 18 megabytes. The resolution of the image is 5184 x 3888 pixels.
Doing the math, for a print at 300 dpi, the largest size for the native image (not resized) is 17.28 inches x 12.96 inches. A fair size, but not a huge image.
Suppose we want to print a 36″ x 24″ image. We need to resize it.
In addition, the proportions are not exactly the same. 36 x 24 is a 3:2 ratio and my image is at a 4:3 ratio. Ideally, to get the 300 dpi, we will want to print an image that is 10,800 x 7200 pixels.
Before you start
Before I start, I always use a RAW file from the camera, not a JPEG. JPEG is a lossy format, so you never want any of your intermediate steps to use JPEG images. Even the final one should be a non-lossy image format like PSD or TIF. You can read more about file formats here.
Image sensors record light, not dark. The dark areas are the absence of light.
That seems obvious, but there are ramifications of this. In general, the majority of the image data is located on the right side of the histogram. This means that to have a successful image it must be properly exposed or slightly underexposed and brought back in a raw editor.
Close up of an image sensor
Calibration
Finally, before you start, you will need to ensure your monitor is calibrated.
Calibration of your monitor will ensure that the printed version of our image will be closer to the version you see on your monitor. In general, uncalibrated monitors are too bright. Using an uncalibrated monitor will result in prints that are much darker than what you see on your monitor.
This can sometimes happen even with a calibrated monitor too, but test prints will help assess how far off your monitor is from your prints.
Color Calibration tool for monitors
Noise
When you enlarge an image, you need to ensure that the noise levels are under control before you start.
Enlarging an image with a lot of noise will only increase the amount of noise present. All resizing programs will do their best to examine the underlying data of your image and use it to scale upward, but the noise on an image will only get worse.
High ISO image ISO 6400 (f/2.8, 1/13, ISO 6400)
Sharpening
The sharpening of your image should only happen at the end of the process of resizing an image. Sharpening is a process of looking at areas of high contrast (these are typically edges) and emphasizing the transition to make those transitions seem more distinct. If you do this early in your editing process or during resizing, the scale of the sharpening will create halos or bizarre artifacts that will be really obvious.
Sharpening can cause a crunchy appearance (f/5.6, 1/250, ISO 200)
Photoshop versus Topaz Gigapixel AI
Although many people use Photoshop to resize, as of 2020, I have found that it does not do as good a job as Topaz’s Gigapixel AI.
Larger scale resizing through Gigapixel AI takes longer, but the results are substantially better. All you need to do is to launch the application and tell it how big you want the new image to be. Press Start and go have a coffee, as it takes a little while. However, the results are really good.
Topaz Gigapixel AI is a tool for resizing images large
Making the Big Print
Finally, once you have resized the image to a larger size you need to print the image. There are basically two main methods to print images big. Chromogenic (C-prints) or Giclee (inkjet) prints.
Both can produce big, high-quality images, but the processes are quite different as is the look of each. I generally prefer inkjet-based, but there are lots of people who still use C-print techniques.
Final product printed and on a wall
Conclusion
When you print images big, there are lots of things to consider when resizing your images and then getting them ready to go to print. However, the results are truly breathtaking.
If you have a great image and you take the proper steps to resize the image and print it big, you will be incredibly satisfied with the result. Moreover, you will create a lot of interest in your images, particularly now that few images get printed anymore.
Do you have any other tips to print images big that you’d like to share? Please do so in the comments.
The post How to Correctly Resize Photos to Print Images Big appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Mark C Hughes.
The post Learning to Embrace Lens Flaws to Add Character and Nuance to Your Images appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Adam Welch.
As I grow increasingly “long in the tooth” so to speak, I look back over the last twenty years or so since I first picked up a camera and reflect. I entered the professional arena of photography relatively late, being in my mid-twenties before I began to think about photography more in terms of a profession rather than simply an enjoyable hobby. Since then, it’s been a wild ride. I’ve used all sorts of lenses and have been fortunate enough to evaluate a host of lenses for published tests, many of which can be found right here on Digital Photography School. As of late, I’ve noticed a marked difference in the way I approach lens flaws in my reviews.
This has caused me to reevaluate how I approach not only my own professional lens tests but my attitudes towards my own lenses and personal photography.
Why do some of us expend our energy searching for a “perfect lens” and feel that a lens’s flaws are determinants of our work? This is the question we’re going to examine today.
Come along with me for a unique investigation of the attitude we often take towards lens flaws and why many of these individual nuances are completely paradoxical and can actually bolster the creative magnetism of your photographs.
A question of character
Consider for a moment what you might consider to be the “ideal lens.” Not in terms of focal length or aperture but rather the quality of the image it is capable of producing. Think about its sharpness and contrast, the way it renders colors, its vignetting, and distortion.
Naturally, I think many of us would like a lens that has maximum sharpness from corner to corner, crisp contrast, zero distortion and vignetting while producing true, rich color tonality.
Why do we think this way?
24mm, 1/640th sec at F/2, ISO 320
What I mean here is why do we feel as if a perfect lens equates to a lens which carries no inherent flaws?
I think we can all agree that issues such as massive chromatic aberration aren’t desirable in any situation. However, I suggest we should begin to embrace other behaviors present in our lenses more as inherent character traits that can enhance our photos rather than issues to be avoided.
Going further (and likely stepping on a few toes), the approach that lenses ought to present the scene or subject as optical perfection could be viewed as quite a photo-modernist attitude.
We find ourselves bombarded with highly-advanced digital cameras capable of enormous resolving power.
Naturally, and rightfully so, we seek out lenses that we feel will bring out the most potential from our cameras. And yet, many of these lenses tend to present themselves as benignly unobtrusive tools that only serve to channel light into the camera while adding as little flavor as possible.
These are new concepts for a new time that have not always been so, at least not intentionally.
24mm, 1/200th sec at F/10, ISO 80
An unfortunate byproduct of this “lens sterilization” approach is that many, especially those who are just beginning their journey as photo makers, feel a looming sense of inadequacy if their lens or lenses present themselves with so-called lens flaws.
This is a dangerously slippery slope that can often breed the notion of gear dependency over-reliance on one’s own creative opinion and self-expression.
Famous lens flaws
It’s arguably true that some of the best examples of the benefits of embracing the flaws present in your lens come from the recent resurgence of photographers opting to use vintage film lenses with their modern digital cameras. Not only are these lenses relatively inexpensive compared to more modern lenses, but they also carry unique characteristics that have come to be desired.
Case in point, the fabled Helios 44-2 lens.
My beloved Helios 44-2
The interesting thing about the Helios (and other vintage lenses) is that it offers a distinctive “swirly” bokeh that has become prized by portrait photographers and others.
Even more interesting is this swirl is brought about by the type of technical “flaw” with the lens elements, which results in the signature spherical aberration of the bokeh.
You can also approximately simulate this effect in Photoshop, which I describe here in this article.
Made with the Helios 44-2 at F/2, 1/320th sec and ISO 320. Note the distinctive swirling of the background.
There are, of course, other lenses that have been embraced due to their inherent optical qualities as of late. These include the cult classic Kodak Aero Ektar, the Zeiss Jena series, and the Lomography Petzval along with many others.
The Petzval, purposefully engineered to offer heavily swirling bokeh and vignetting, is especially interesting.
The bottom line here is there could very well be a predominantly apparent splitting of the schism with photographers choosing lenses that offer more inherent character. This makes for more unique photos as it is left to the user to determine the exact application where and when these lenses work best.
Embracing the imperfections
Let’s face it, there are many cases where we have to make do with the lenses we have, myself included.
I used my very first digital camera for years with only the “kit lens” included with the camera.
The lens wasn’t considered an upper-tier piece of glass, but it was all I knew and, for me, it was beautiful.
Looking back, I can’t find a fault other than my assumption that it wasn’t good enough because it was the lens that came in the box. This is highly revealing of the common mentality of today’s photographic climate. It’s quite easy to look at our gear as the scapegoat for what might be lacking in our photography simply, well…because.
There’s no denying that we all evolve as photographers and with that evolution, we must recognize that we will eventually outgrow our tools.
This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t shy away from our lenses because they might exhibit properties that are undesirable by the common mentality of our age.
Your lens isn’t sharp corner to corner? It has a heavy vignette at its wide-open aperture?
Think about these problems from a practical standpoint for a moment. How often do you add in a post-crop vignette in Lightroom during post-processing? Do you ever add an intentional Gaussian blur?
These questions hint at a deeper insight into our own approach to photography. Could it be that the very characteristics that we desire in our photographs tend to be viewed with a negative connotation depending on the context?
What’s the endgame?
The purpose of these thoughts is to show that the merits of any camera lens are truly based in the eye of the beholder.
Sure, there are some poorly-made, un-sharp monstrosity lenses out there that hinder rather than help you make the photographs you want. At the time, many of the lens flaws we have been conditioned to abhor possibly aren’t as detrimental as we might think once we drill down and identify for what they are.
This is the main objective of this article.
It could very well be that the old cliche’ of “the best lens is the one you have with” carries with it connotations which extend past mere practical convenience. This is especially applicable if you are new to photography.
As a professional photographer who has used some of the best modern lenses on the market, I can tell you my favorite lenses have been those that fit my own proclivities, regardless of their inherent flaws and quirks.
Made with the Helios 44-2,
So I will leave you with this bit of hard-learned wisdom; there are no perfect lenses, just as there are no perfect photographs or perfect photographers for that matter.
All lenses have some measure of flaws, no matter their cost. Just because you might be using a “kit lens” or one that happens to have several so-called lens flaws, doesn’t mean that you can’t go out and make terrific photos as long as you shoot what makes you happy.
The post Learning to Embrace Lens Flaws to Add Character and Nuance to Your Images appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Adam Welch.
The post Images and Text: The Untapped Power of Photography Blogs appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Charlie Moss.
There is a lot of advice online about blogging for photographers. It’s often extremely good advice, and applicable to most photographers. But the advice is often more about the technical aspect of setting up a blog, or how to grow a blog to support a photographic business. Very rarely are they about the power of photography blogs for creative development.
There’s nothing wrong with creating a photography blog if you’re in business, of course. But what about if you want to use a blog to help you develop creatively? Or to explore different aspects of an ongoing photography project?
Blogs can be a great tool for inspiring creativity in photographers. For this reason, I think you should consider the idea of writing alongside your documentary or fine art photography practice.
Writing to develop your creativity
The most basic way to think about blogging for your photography is as an archival tool. By posting images and commentary regularly and then looking back through your archives, you will be able to see the journey that you have been on.
If you make your blog public, it also allows others to see the work that you’ve done – something a documentary photographer might find particularly useful.
I’ve been writing a “Behind the Image” series on my blog. I record my thoughts about the image-making process and sometimes ideas on what I might do in the future.
By understanding your journey, you can plan a path for the future of your photography. You’ll be able to more easily see what worked and what didn’t.
Being able to look at your entire body of work in a timeline format can be very beneficial.
Sometimes, because you see your own work all the time, it can feel like you aren’t making progress. There can be a real feeling that you aren’t creating anything new and exciting photographically.
But a blog can help with that by reminding you of pictures that you took months, or even years ago. The power of photography blogs comes from being able to compare your current pictures with this older work you will surely see an inspirational improvement.
A picture can paint a thousand words – but should it have to?
I always remember being told when I was learning photography, that if you had to explain a photograph beyond a title, it failed as an image. I suppose in a way that was good for me – it certainly made me work harder with my storytelling.
But I never understood why it should be the case that photographs should not be accompanied by words.
Is a title enough to explain a photo?
I wonder if this comes from a desire to imitate grand historical paintings that were full of signs and symbols.
Back then, the educated audience would have largely understood the visual language used. But it would also have been common for the owner of the painting to show off his knowledge by explaining it to his friends.
You’ll find that these paintings did often have long accompanying explanations – they just weren’t written down.
Of course, there will always be images that stand without words and tell a great story. But these images and series are comparatively rare – most images are at least helped out by the inclusion of a title.
A Japanese tradition
It’s often observed that the favored publishing medium for the greats of Japanese photography has been the photobook.
The book format allows photographers to write texts to accompany their images, and these texts are often quite lengthy. Certainly, they amount to more than a mere caption or title.
Publishing texts alongside their photographs in books and magazines means that their words can be every bit as influential as their images. This kind of approach is rarely seen in Western photographic traditions. I can’t help but wonder if blogs had been invented many years earlier if Japanese photographers would have harnessed the power of photography blogs alongside photobooks and magazine publishing.
Japanese photographers have traditionally explored photobooks as a way to put their images alongside the text they write.
The result of this writing that accompanies their photographs is often the feeling of a more intimate relationship with the photographer and their work. The viewed can gain more of a sense of why the photographer took the images and a deeper connection with the photographs.
It also gives the photographer a chance to link their work more closely to current affairs or politics. These themes are often reflected in the images and writing of the early pioneers of Japanese photography who lived through the Second World War.
How to write about photography
There are lots of different ways that you could write about your work on a blog and being able to mix and match styles is a power of photography blogs.
In the past, I have favored blog posts reflecting on how and why I took and photo. I like to also speculate about what I might do differently if I was to approach the same subject again.
Other photographers have taken a more reflective approach, considering their thoughts and feelings at the time they shot the image. This incredibly personal approach to writing about photographs is understandably too intimate for some. But when it works, it can help a photographer develop creatively, while bringing the audience on their journey with them.
One way to retain flexibility when blogging about your work might be to approach it like a diary. That way you can vary your approach on any given day. Let your mood and the photograph dictate how personal you want your words to be.
Alternatively, you could take an altogether more academic approach. Looking at aesthetics or even the technical aspects of photography and how it applies to your work could be another route.
This would be a different way to create a body of work made up of both images and text. Throughout history, artists have tried to formulate their own ideas of what constitutes good art. There is no reason that you shouldn’t do the same!
Beyond the blog
While a blog is a great format for text and images, there is always the possibility of transferring your work into a different medium. One option could be to publish your own book – collecting your photos alongside the words that you wrote about them.
You could choose to put everything you write and shoot into a series of books or pick pieces based on theme or location. If you think you might want to do thematic books in the future, this would be a good use of the tagging feature in your blog software!
I like to paste still life polaroids into notebooks and write about my thoughts for the day. It’s a way to slow down photography and take it away from the digital.
Alternatively, you could experiment with exhibiting your work. I worked on a project some time ago about the idea of showing work in a gallery space and using QR codes on the labels to link to digital content, such as long texts. This kind of thinking outside the box could really make a gallery show stand out!
Of course, if you don’t feel like telling the world about your photos you could simply keep a traditional paper journal with your thoughts and feelings alongside your photographs.
Printing the images and then pasting them into notebooks is a relaxing and creative process that can inspire all kinds of thoughts to write down. You can harness the power of photography blogs both in digital and analog formats.
Do you have anything else you’d like to add about the power of photography blogs? If so, please share them with us in the comments.
The post Images and Text: The Untapped Power of Photography Blogs appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Charlie Moss.
The post How to Use Radial Composition in Photography to Create Awesome Images! appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Megan Kennedy.
Radial composition (also known as radial balance) is a tool used to influence balance and impact within a photograph. In this article, we’ll look at some of the in’s and out’s of radial composition in photography.
f/2.8 1/1000 ISO 500
What is radial composition?
The term radius refers to the distance between the center of a circle and its outer edge. Therefore, radial composition means imagery that radiates outward from a particular point.
One common example of this is the wheel, with spokes radiating away from the central hub.
Another example would be flowers, with petals fanning out from the flower head.
By using radially orientated lines, shapes and forms, the eye is attracted to a central point within an image, creating emphasis. In this way, radial composition can appeal to our sense of momentum, generating visual movement. Some radial compositions even trick the eye into perceiving actual movement within in a fixed image.
In addition, lines that diverge into a central point also cultivate a greater sense of depth within a photograph. However, keep in mind that not all radial compositions need to be constructed of circles!
In the right context, you can use rectangles, triangles, waves, lines, spirals, or other forms to cultivate radial composition.
The history of radial composition
Because of its visual energy, radial compositions have been an enduring presence in visual art and culture. For example, ancient petroglyphs carved into rocks depict spirals and labyrinths as well as lines radiating out from a central focal point.
Rich with symbolism and sacred meaning, the mandala features in numerous religions and beliefs. In Greek mythology, the Sun god Helios was often depicted with a crown of radiating lines. These lines were understood to indicate radiant light, signifying the rays of the sun.
During the Renaissance, radial composition was used to emphasize important figures within a scene. In Assumption of the Virgin by Titian, subjects are seen to radiate away from the main figure (Mary) and a circle of radiant light frames her upper body. In Raphael’s School of Athens, famous philosophers are emphasized by the radial properties of the surrounding architecture.
f/4.0 1/640 ISO 320
Modern art
Inevitably, radial composition has been a strong compositional feature in modern visual art. A famous example is Kandinsky’s circle paintings that radiate pulses of color. Dada artist Marcel Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel also takes advantage of the radial structure of the wheel to evoke both a sense of motion and stasis.
In photography, there are countless variations on the use of radial composition. Taken in 1920, Edward Steichen’s Isadora Duncan at the Portal of the Parthenon makes use of radial composition to emphasize the subject within the ancient Parthenon. In Henri Cartier-Bresson’s Children Playing in Ruins, the child subjects are framed by a hole in a wall within the ruins of a city.
How to cultivate radial compositions
Radial composition relates to visual elements that expand from or center around a central point in an image. Eyes, flowers, snail shells, doorways, fireworks, tree rings…there is an abundance of opportunities to capture radial subject matter.
Fluid radial elements create a harmonious flow throughout the image, whereas sharp, erratic lines generate a scene of energetic movement.
Archways, staircases, reflections, plants…you can find radial features in all genres of photography. You can even create radial imagery through camera movement or abstraction.
2 seconds f/4.0 ISO 100
You can also use radial composition as a tool to emphasize a given subject. Framing an aircraft aligned with the halo of the sun’s rays, or photographing a portrait with the sitter positioned within a window or door frame can seem easy enough. However, incorporating simple radial elements into your composition can add much more depth and impact to your image.
f/6.3 1/400 ISO 100
Conclusion
From landscapes to architecture and everything in between, radial composition can add impact and depth to your photography.
Keeping an eye out for radial compositional opportunities can lead to engaging material that guides the viewer’s eye around the image more effectively.
Do you make use of radial composition? Share your images in the comments below!
The post How to Use Radial Composition in Photography to Create Awesome Images! appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Megan Kennedy.
The world’s largest museum and research complex, the Smithsonian, has unveiled Open Access, a new portal to more than 2.8 million 2D and 3D images. The Smithsonian refers to Open Access as a ‘vast and diverse digital resource’ for the public, one that contains images of historic artifacts, classic paintings and some of the world’s oldest photographs.
The images are free to browse and download, marking the first time the Smithsonian has offered a resource like this. The content was sourced from all 19 Smithsonian museums, as well as its research centers and other facilities. Because these images are all in the public domain, the Smithsonian notes that anyone can use them for ‘just about anything,’ including printing them and putting them on other products.
Another 200,000 images will be added to the collection throughout 2020, according to the institution, which plans to add even more in the future as it continues to digitize its vast collection. Though other institutions around the world have started sharing digitized versions of their content, the size and scope of the Smithsonian’s new digital cache is described as ‘unprecedented.’
King’s College London expert Simon Tanner who served as an advisor for the initiative said:
The sheer scale of this interdisciplinary dataset is astonishing. It opens up a much wider scope of content that crosses science and culture, space and time, in a way that no other collection out there has done, or could possibly even do. This is a staggering contribution to human knowledge.
All 2.8 million 2D and 3D images are listed under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license.
The post Viewing Images in Lightroom – What Are The Options? appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.
Digital photographers can tend to take tons of photos. Viewing images in Lightroom can be a tedious and time-consuming task if you are not familiar with the various tools available to you. In this article, I’ll outline some techniques and tools to help improve your post-processing workflow.
Viewing many images in Lightroom
The most common way of viewing images in Lightroom is by using the Grid View option. You can also use the Filmstrip option.
In Grid View, your main panel in Lightroom is populated with the thumbnails of photos stored in the folder you have open. To select the folder with images you’d like to view, open the left module panels. To do this, you can press F7 on your keyboard, or click on the triangle to the left of your main panel. Then navigate in the Folders tab to the folder you want to open.
Alternatively, you can use the Filmstrip. This shows up below your main panel when you press F6 or click the triangle at the bottom. Using the Filmstrip module, you are limited to viewing the thumbnails at only one size.
In Grid view, you are able to alter the size of the thumbnails. Three ways you can do this are by:
Using the Zoom slider below the main panel and to the right
Using the + and – keys
Holding down the Ctrl key (cmd on Mac) and scrolling your mouse wheel.
Below the main panel, you will also find the option for choosing how Lightroom sorts your images. By default, it uses Capture Time, but you might find it more convenient at times to change this. There are lots of options including File Name, File Type or Label Color.
You can customize the way your Grid View looks.
To do this, go to View in the top menu then click on View Options. Alternatively, you can press Ctrl+J (or cmd+J on a Mac). Here you have a lot of control over how the information about your photos is displayed. It may seem overwhelming if you are new to viewing images in Lightroom, but keep in mind these options. They will be good to visit again later when you are more familiar with the software.
Selecting and viewing more than one image in Lightroom
There are various options for ways to view images in Lightroom when you want to compare images. To select the photos you want to compare, click on one, and then, while holding down the Ctrl (Cmd on Mac) key, click on the other photos you want to select.
When you have selected more than two photos, you can press the “N” key. This will bring you into Survey View, where you will only see the photos you have selected. I use this feature often when I am initially culling my photos. Being able to view a limited number of images helps compare them and then select the best one.
If you select only two images, you can use the “C” key to bring you into Compare View. This can help you see the differences between two very similar photos. You can view the images side-by-side, full size, and you can zoom in. When you are zoomed, you can use the hand tool to drag around and view different parts of the photos. Both images will move together when you do this. You are also able to change the Candidate image using the arrow keys at the bottom right.
Viewing images with Loupe View
Viewing images in Lightroom using Loupe View allows you to see them much larger. Loupe View gets its name from the magnifying loupe used to view slides and negatives on an old fashioned lightbox. To switch to Loupe View from Grid View, use the “E” key or the spacebar.
When you are in this mode, you can view other images in Lightroom by using:
The arrow keys
The scroll wheel on your mouse (when you are not zoomed in)
Or the film strip panel
You can zoom in on an image using the slider under the main panel. Or you can hold down Ctrl (Cmd on a Mac) and use the scroll wheel on your mouse. Once you are zoomed in, you can use the hand tool to move the image around.
You can also choose to show a Grid overlay on your images in Loupe View. This option is at the bottom right. If you cannot see one of these options, click on the triangle to the lower right to bring up the panel to display the available tools.
Viewing images in Lightroom Develop Module
The Lightroom Develop Module is where you make adjustments to the way your photographs look. In this module, it’s’ good to be familiar with some of the ways you can view your photos.
One of the functions I use the most in the Develop Module is the “\” key. Hitting this backslash key will show you what your original image looked like prior to you making any adjustments. This helps you see what you are doing and guide you towards further steps you might take.
Another similar option is to use the “Y” key. When you’ve made some changes in the Develop Module, hitting the “Y” key will bring up your original image alongside one with the changes you have made. Once again, when you are zoomed in, you can move the images around in tandem using the hand tool.
Viewing image information
One more handy tip is to use the “I” key to bring up a display of image information about the photo you are currently viewing. This will show you EXIF data from the image.
You can control and change what you see. To do this, go to View in the top menu and then click on View Options. In either the Loupe View or Develop option panel, check the boxed for the information you’d like displayed.
Conclusion
I hope you’ve picked up at least two or three useful tips from this article. I’m sure there are many more ways of viewing images in Lightroom. Please share some of the techniques you employ in your regular Lightroom workflow.
The post Viewing Images in Lightroom – What Are The Options? appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.
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