Misinformation is a big issue online, especially with how quickly false stories are shared. The New York Times R&D team has worked with the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) on a prototype system ‘exploring tools to give readers transparency into the source and veracity of news visuals.’ If a picture is worth a thousand words, the picture must be verifiably truthful to its viewers.
As CAI points out, it used to be a given that a ‘photograph never lies.’ However, that hasn’t been true for a long time. It’s easy for an image to be manipulated and tell a story far from the truth. It’s hard to tell fact from fiction, and a fake or doctored image can make the rounds so quickly that you see it many times on your feed before you ever see the original image. That is if you ever see the real image at all. A study by Adobe found that there’s a lack of trust in images and that people are concerned about seeing doctored content. The study also found that photographers are concerned with image theft and plagiarism.
The NYT R&T team shows their ‘secure sourcing’ prototype visualization.
For photographers, it’s not just about the honesty of an image, it’s about credit. Someone can screengrab a photographer’s image and spread it around the web before the photographer ever has the opportunity to demand the financial compensation they deserve. After the image has been seen all over the internet, the value of their work has already been irreparably damaged. Santiago Lyon, Head of Advocacy & Education at CAI, writes, ‘Regardless of source, images are plucked out of the traditional and social media streams, quickly screen-grabbed, sometimes altered, posted and reposted extensively online, usually without payment or acknowledgment and often lacking the original contextual information that might help us identify the source, frame our interpretation. and add to our understanding.’
Scott Lowenstein of NYT R&D says, ‘The more people are able to understand the true origin of their media, the less room there is for ‘fake news’ and other deceitful information. Allowing everyone to provide and access media origins will protect against manipulated, deceptive, or out-of-context online media.’
Along with Adobe and Twitter, The New York Times Co. is a founding member of the CAI. The CAI and its partners ‘are working to develop an open industry standard that will allow for more confidence in the authenticity of photographs (and then video and other file types). We are creating a community of trust, to help viewers know if they can believe what they see.’ To this end, the new prototype outlines a ‘secure sourcing’ workflow, which will preserve metadata with secure signatures at each step as an image is captured, edited in Adobe Photoshop, and published. As an image is published, links to an original image will be attached and signed by a social media platform.
Photograph by Niko Koppel for the NYT R&D project, integrated with CAI Content Credentials.
Lyon writes, ‘This important work demonstrates how a well-respected news outlet like the NYT is experimenting with CAI technology, giving us a hint of what’s possible at scale. This aligns with our goal of displaying a CAI logo next to images published in traditional or social media that gives the consumer more information about the provenance of the imagery, such as where and when it was first created and how it might have been altered or edited.’
Lyon continues, ‘This will bolster trust in content among both consumers and capture partners (such as Qualcomm and Truepic), editing partners (in this case, our colleagues at Adobe Photoshop), and publishers, such as the New York Times and others.’
Eventually, the hope is that CAI logos can be placed next to images on traditional publishing and social media platforms, inspiring confidence in the provenance of images and explaining how an image was edited before being published. Ideally, viewers would be able to click on the CAI logo and find out about the image creator and see all the edits that have been made.
For the initiative and the NYT R&D prototype to work, widespread adoption is necessary. The overall distrust in the news and images will require considerable work to improve. Reliable, secure, and accessible records of image creation and edits will go a long way toward inspiring confidence in images.
The post Film Photography: A Guide (and How to Get Started) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Carl Spring.
Film photography is gaining in popularity.
At the start of the digital revolution, film was the realm of those who did not want to move to the new way of working (and those folks were usually harassed on forums and message boards).
But these days, film photography has a much different reputation. While some photographers see film as the preserve of hipsters trying to look cool, for many, film is a more organic method of photography. It allows you to slow down, focus on getting the shot, and experience a wait before seeing the results.
In this article, I’ll guide you through the process, equipment, and reasons to start shooting film.
Working with film means locking in your ISO and look for the next 36 shots.
What is film photography?
Film photography is the process of using chemicals to create a photograph. Film in roll form has been around since 1885. The film roll was invented by Peter Houston, who then licensed it to George Eastman (of the Kodak company). Kodak still dominates film photography to this day.
Without getting too complicated, film photography works by exposing silver halide crystals to light. The more light that comes in contact with the crystals, the darker the crystals become. Afterward, the film can be processed to create a negative (the inverse of the final image), and this can be exposed onto light-sensitive paper to create a final print.
Slide film is also available, which works slightly differently – but let’s not overcomplicate things too much!
Shooting with off-camera flash on a film camera can be daunting. Here, I used my digital camera as the meter for my film exposure.
Film vs digital: Why should you consider shooting film?
As I explained above, the process of creating a photograph on film is a science. It involves chemicals, darkness, and all sorts of other cool stuff. Anyone who has ever processed their own film images will talk about the feeling they had when they first saw a print come to life in the developer. It is a magical experience, and one that takes a lot of time and effort. But it is this time and effort that makes film photography so rewarding.
Let’s take a closer look at the many reasons you should shoot film over digital:
1. Film stops you from being sloppy
Film photography is much more deliberate than digital photography. Each time you press the shutter, there is a cost attached. So you quickly learn to nail the technical elements and the composition. Shooting a 36-exposure roll of film will cost you roughly $ 1 per image. So if you go out and shoot 200-300 images, as many of us do on a digital shoot, you will suddenly see how cheap digital photography is.
This shot shows how sloppy technique will hurt you when shooting film. I captured it using autofocus – but as the light dropped, so did my ability to focus, leading to a blurry result.
Also, when you can shoot bursts of 100 images, you don’t really need to wait for the perfect moment to unfold. You just shoot until you get it. You don’t need to worry about exposure because you can check the LCD, adjust as needed, and fix it in editing.
Film photography, on the other hand, isn’t about shooting hundreds of images. It’s about shooting a roll of 36 pictures (possibly 2 rolls if you have a great photoshoot). It is about making each exposure count and getting everything right in-camera.
In other words: With digital, it’s easy to become a lazy photographer because there are rarely consequences. With film, you’ll always be on your toes.
The best camera is the one you have with you. For NASA, it was a modified Hasselblad. (Photo by NASA.)
2. Film saves you hours in post-processing
Film tends to look great straight out of the camera, whereas digital photos can require hours of post-processing.
In fact, most popular editing styles are film-based. So if you want the look and feel of a polished photo without spending tons of time editing, just shoot film!
Digital photographs edited to look like film are the photographic equivalent of laminate oak flooring. Yes, it’s cheaper. Yes, it’s more practical. But it just isn’t the same as the real thing!
I don’t mean to say that printing film photographs isn’t an absolute art. If you look at some of the notes of Magnum’s master printer, Pablo Inirio, you will see how the process of creating a print from a negative is something that takes a true mastery of the craft. There are definitely no auto buttons in the darkroom.
But overall, the “film” look is pretty stunning – and requires little-to-no actual editing.
I could have edited a digital image to look like this, but it would’ve taken time behind the computer. The result you see here is simply how the photo arrived from the lab.
3. Film makes you better at problem solving
In film photography, your ISO is fixed.
So you’re forced to think carefully when doing photography. If the light is dropping and you’re shooting ISO 100 film, you’ll have to figure out how to get more light into the camera, or you won’t get the shot. Should you slow the shutter? At what speed can you still handhold? Are you sure? Should you open the aperture and sacrifice depth of field? How can you still get a great shot in tough conditions?
Film photography throws up a lot of questions, and you only get the answers when you see the developed images.
Slowing down is definitely the way to get better film photos.
4. Film is (potentially) cost effective
Here’s the thing:
As I mentioned above, it costs around $ 1 per shot to do film photography. And that seems like a lot.
But if you look at the cost of a high-end film camera compared to something like the Canon EOS R5 (which is around $ 5000 with a lens), you’ll quickly realize that film photography can be very budget friendly, depending on how frequently you shoot.
Even if you spend $ 1000 on a high-end film camera and lens, it leaves you with a $ 4000 film budget. Additionally, high-end film cameras will keep their value. In fact, many film cameras rise in value. So if you purchase a film camera and sell it 5 years later, you might make a nice little profit in the process. That definitely isn’t true of the latest and greatest digital cameras.
5. Film photography is enjoyable
Ask yourself: What do you enjoy most about photography? Is it taking photos, or is it wading through editing software to find the best image out of 100 almost identical files? Is your enjoyment in seeing the final image, or in spending hours of editing to make it look perfect?
Personally, I am not a fan of editing, especially when I compare it to the enjoyment of taking photos. For you, it may be different, but photographing film sharpens my skills. It helps me get more keepers and means I spend less time behind the computer.
The easiest analogy I can draw here is with music. I love my phone with thousands of songs on it. The ability to carry every record I ever wanted to in my pocket is amazing, and it is how I listen to 90% or more of my music. However, when I really want to listen to music, I make a coffee, turn on my hi-fi system, and put on a record. It isn’t as convenient, and you have to get up to turn the album over halfway through, but it sounds better. And because I have invested more, I focus more, and I always enjoy it more.
6. It makes you cooler
Let’s face it:
Shooting film just makes you look cooler.
What equipment do you need for film photos?
You need a camera and some film. You then need a place to develop it. Pretty simple, really.
Let’s take a closer look at cameras and film:
Don’t be fooled by the looks; this Yashica T5 packs a 35mm Zeiss lens for amazing image quality.
Cameras
There are three main types of film cameras:
Point and shoot
SLR/Rangefinder
Medium format
Each has its own advantages and disadvantages.
The easiest way to get into film photography is with a good-quality compact camera. It’s the analog equivalent of taking photos on an iPhone. The camera will work out the exposure, leaving you to work on the composition.
There are many compact film cameras out there, ranging from the cheap all the way up to the incredibly expensive. If you want to try shooting film, this is where I suggest you start. You can pick up a decent compact film camera on a well-known auction site for under $ 100.
A film SLR is a lot like a digital SLR except not as good. There are those with autofocus and those without. SLRs without autofocus will add another layer of complexity to taking photographs. Generally, you can find a manual focus SLR for cheaper. Manual focus cameras are also more reliable mechanically due to the smaller amount of internal electronics.
Even if you do use an autofocusing film camera, note that old autofocus systems are not anything like those we enjoy today (though they can make film less daunting). The right option is something only you can decide.
Finally, there’s medium format. Medium format cameras use much larger film, though with 12-16 exposures per roll. In the same way that a bigger digital sensor improves image quality and gives a shallower depth of field, medium format film creates ultra-stunning results. Many iconic photographs have been taken on medium format film, including shots of the NASA space missions.
Medium format cameras have some advantages (e.g., many are able to change film partway through a roll). But they also have many quirks, and these can be overwhelming for photographers new to film. Medium format cameras are bulky, heavy, and expensive compared to the other types mentioned here, so I’d hesitate to recommend them if you’re new to shooting film.
If you really want to try medium format film on a budget, you can get a Holga. It uses medium format film in a point and shoot style body with a plastic lens. Holga cameras have a very specific look; just don’t expect images like those shot by a “proper” medium format camera.
I bought this on a well-known auction site for under $ 50. It came fully working and even included the retro paperwork.
Choosing film
Your film will determine the look of your photography. It also fixes your ISO (i.e., if you put in ISO 100 film, you’ll be shooting at ISO 100 until the roll is finished). So make sure you carefully select your film’s ISO based on the day/time you’re shooting.
Now, each film has distinctive characteristics, such as color vividness and shadow softness. So the film you choose depends on the type of look you want to achieve. The main brands to check out are Kodak, Fuji, and Ilford.
Every film out there has an example photo or two on the internet, so get your Google on and see what looks good. I’d suggest buying a few different rolls of film and finding your own favorite. Trying a new film is part of the fun of film photography!
How to develop your film photos
Products such as this Lab-Box make developing film much easier. And there’s something magical about seeing negatives appear!
The easiest way to develop your film photos is to send them off to a professional film lab. If you’re just starting out with film photography, this is the method I would definitely recommend.
However, many photographers (myself included) like the experience of developing their film at home. It’s a relatively simple process, and if you shoot a lot, it can be cost-effective. The main equipment and chemicals can be bought at many photography stores – some may even offer a discounted kit to get you started.
How to develop film at home is a whole different article. However, if you think you might want to try it, a basic equipment list is as follows:
Film changing bag
Film tank
Developer
Fixer
Distilled water
Thermometer
Measuring cylinder
One quick tip for developing your film at home:
Dry it in the bathroom. The moisture from showering will decrease the amount of dust in the air, which will in turn decrease the amount of dust that will settle onto your negatives.
If you want to take things even further, you can set up your own darkroom for printing – but it’s more expensive and requires a dedicated space.
A guide to film photography: conclusion
Shooting film is a great way to learn more about photography. It gives you new methods of thinking about composition, exposure, and editing; it might even be the thing that can break you out of a creative rut.
As you now know, you can start film photography for cheap, and it may take your photography in a whole new direction!
Over to you:
What do you think of film photography? Have you tried it yet? If so, do you have any advice for beginners? And if you haven’t tried film, what camera and film do you plan to use? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
The post Film Photography: A Guide (and How to Get Started) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Carl Spring.
The post 7 Tips for Colorful Landscape Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Rick Ohnsman.
Color evokes emotion – so if you can become a master of color, then your colorful landscape photography will affect viewers on a deep level.
You may understand exposure, control your camera like a wizard, have the best equipment, get to the most exotic locations, and excel with editing. But if you don’t purposely imbue your images with intentional emotion, they will never “speak” to your viewer (or if your photos do speak, they might say the wrong thing).
That’s where color comes in handy. Let’s learn the language of color and how to use it – through seven colorful landscape photography tips (that’ll take your images to the next level!).
A big reason we love sunset photos is the colors and the way they make us feel. Understanding the psychology of color is beneficial to color landscape photography; it will help you better communicate with your viewer.
1. Learn the psychology of color
The human brain is hardwired to respond to different colors. Psychologists have studied this, advertisers use it masterfully, and to be a good photographer, you need to understand how different colors will make your viewer feel.
Each of these images works with one primary color. Note how the color of each makes you feel. Learn how to communcate with color in your photos.
Here are the feelings that colors produce:
Red: Exciting, important, passionate, angry, call to action
Purple: Beauty, exotic, royal, luxurious, sensual
Blue: Calming, serene, trustworthy, cold
Green: Peaceful, tranquil, natural, alive, growth
Orange – Fun, warm, energizing
Yellow – Happy, sunny, bright
Brown – Earthy, grounding, strength, dependability
Black – Mysterious, elegant, bold, powerful, edgy
White – Clean, healthy, pure, sterile, cold
2. Color relationships and the color wheel
In colorful landscape photography, we usually can’t choose our subject’s color. That said, if we understand the different color relationships, we can produce better photos.
You’re likely familiar with the color wheel (displayed below). Take a look at it as we discuss key color relationships:
Complementary colors – These colors sit opposite each other on the color wheel. They can work nicely in a photo; for example, blue (often a sky color) and orange/brown (often an earth color). Thus, a sky/land photo can be pleasing because the colors are complementary. Look at some of the examples below!
The blue sky and the golden wheat are complementary colors; they’re opposites on the color wheel.
Here, you see blue water/sky and the complementary golds in the clouds/reflections.
Here, golden hour has just begun. The rising sun catches the peaks of the Idaho Sawtooth Range, giving a nice complementary orange to the blue scene.
Good compositions are further enhanced by the use of complementary colors.
Analogous colors – These are what we might call “color families.” For example, blue, blue-green, green, and yellow-green are adjacent to each other on the color wheel and therefore analogous. We can often make pleasing, colorful landscape photos with scenes comprised of analogous colors.
The lush greens and blues in the Columbia Gorge in Oregon are analogous colors, adjacent on the color wheel. Note how the colors create a calming effect.
Color triads – These are three colors equally spaced out on the color wheel. For example, green, violet, and orange. If you look carefully, you will find color triads in nature, and they can help create impactful photos.
The rolling hills of eastern Washington’s Palouse Country are magical enough on their own. Add a spectacular sunrise with the triad colors of orange, green, and purple, and how can you go wrong?
Another shot from the same morning as the one above.
3. Pay careful attention to the time of day
You won’t be involved in landscape photography for long before you’ll hear the terms “golden hour” and “blue hour.” Golden hour is the time of the day when the sun is rising or setting. The color of the light is very warm and golden.
The color of the rocks in Arches National Park is further enhanced by golden hour light.
These shots were taken about 10 minutes apart. The first shows the warm morning colors of golden hour. As the sun got higher, the light cooled and became bluer. Of course, I also used different white balance settings later in editing. That’s a big reason to shoot in RAW – you can adjust the white balance later without problems.
These shots of Great Fountain Geyser in Yellowstone National Park were taken the same evening. The first was earlier when the daylight was still bluish. Later into the golden hour, the sky color warmed up. Again, adjusting the white balance enhanced the look I was going for.
Well before sunrise or later in the evening after sunset we have the blue hour. The sky is not dark and black. Instead, it’s very cool and blue in tone. Blue hour can produce interesting light and color with a whole different mood.
Leave right after the sun goes down and you’ll miss the blue hour, the time just before dark when the light gets very blue in color. The shot at the bottom right shows two different light sources, the blue hour sky and the warm incandescent lights of Swan Falls Dam. The complementary colors play nicely together.
I’ve seen new and inexperienced landscape photographers come to shoot a sunset and make shots right up until the sun dipped below the horizon. Then they’d pack up and leave. That’s a mistake! The best sky color often comes well after the sun is already down. And if you wait even longer, the blue hour comes and continues until it gets truly dark.
Do enough colorful landscape photography during the sunrise/sunset/blue hour times and you run the risk of becoming a “light snob,” only wanting to make photos when the light and colors are “pretty.” (Shooting during midday? You must be joking!)
However, you won’t always have the luxury of getting to places during great light. Plus, even if you do, conditions won’t always cooperate. Many photographers can make nice photos of a spectacular sunset, but it’s the great photographers who can create impactful images at any time of day in any kind of light (and in any kind of weather).
4. Think about the season
Colorful landscape photography knows no season. There are great images to be made year round. But when planning a photo outing, you may want to consider how to take advantage of the colors of the season.
In the spring, colorful flowers and fresh green fields make for great subjects. Summer brings bright golden days, the sun and sand colors of the beach, bright colors and sunny scenes. Autumn is often a photographer’s dream with fall colors that delight the eye. Winter might be the least colorful season, but brilliant whites and deep cold blues are still impactful.
Colorful landscape photography knows no season. These are summer shots, such as “Sailing the Sea and Sky” (left), a midday shot playing to the cool blue colors. The sunset reflection (right) was taken during the golden hours; the warm colors are more pronounced thanks to a smoky sky (the result of nearby forest fires).
In any season, you can use color to communicate with your viewer. How do you want the photo to make them feel? Use color to carry that message: the cool blue tones of a winter’s day, the bright and happy yellow color of a field of flowers, the peaceful greens of a forest, or the fiery reds and oranges of a summer sunset.
When composing, shooting, and editing, give conscious thought to the colors you’re trying to bring out and what they say to your viewer.
Does this shot make you feel cold? That was the idea! I edited to emphasize the blue tones.
This was a bitter-cold, sub-zero day in Yellowstone National Park. The blue sky and stream contrast nicely with the brilliant white snow. The word I want this photo to communicate is “crisp.”
For the best colorful landscape photography, make sure to consider what’s in season. When do the camas flowers bloom? When are the aspens at peak yellow color? When are the fields in the Palouse Country deep green or golden? What is the best time to get a moonless dark night and have the Milky Way high in the sky?
Late May is when the camas fields usually bloom in Centennial Marsh near Fairfield, Idaho. They only peak for a week or so – and many years the display is not nearly as nice as this.
Knowing when to be at a location for the best colorful landscape photography takes good research and a large measure of luck. It all came together this evening several years ago. It’s never been quite as good since, but each year I still go back.
For great colorful landscape photography, it’s tough to go wrong with autumn in New England. Even then, finding the best locations and hitting them during peak color takes some research.
If you hope to get the very best colorful landscape photos, you need to do your homework, develop good information sources, and be ready to go when things are just right.
The old saying holds true: “Luck happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
5. Shoot when the weather is bad
If you’re a “fair-weather photographer,” someone who only gets out when the skies are clear and the weather is comfortable, then you’re missing some of the best colorful landscape photography.
Here’s another saying for you: “When the weather gets bad, the photos get good.” It may not be pleasant, but I’ll take a cold, stormy day with dramatic clouds, interesting light, and striking color over a clear, cloudless, warm bluebird day (if my goal is impactful landscape photography).
When the weather gets bad, the photos get good. It was cold and snowing hard when I made this shot of the Rainbow Bridge over the North Fork of the Payette River in central Idaho.
The same goes for rainy, foggy, or snowy days. Don’t think that good color always means contrasty, heavily saturated scenes. Watch for the more muted color and low contrast provided by inclement weather conditions.
Bright, saturated colors might be more impactful, but soft pastels and muted colors create mood and carry a completely different feel and message.
Stormy, cloudy, and rainy; that’s how I’d describe this day at Vista House overlooking the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon. Fair-weather photographers won’t get the same moody shot on a beautiful sunny day. The blue and purple colors enhance the mood.
Once again, ask yourself, “How do I want to make the viewer feel?” Capture photos that speak your message and use color as your “words.”
6. Carefully edit colors for the best results
There are many good articles about how to edit color. That is not my intent here. Instead, I’ll offer some general things to keep in mind when editing colors in your photos.
Learn to selectively edit color. The blue areas in the shade and the warmer colors in the sunny clearing (left) were purposely enhanced here. And I gave the red flowers in the foreground some extra pop (right). Use color to draw attention to objects and communicate with your viewer.
Shoot in RAW. You greatly limit your options if you only shoot and save JPEG images. The most obvious reason to shoot RAW is the flexibility to adjust the white balance later in editing rather than trying to get it right when shooting. Warming or cooling an image by adjusting the color temperature slider becomes much more difficult if you’re trying to overcome the wrong white balance baked into a JPEG.
There was more editing and working with color here than meets the eye, but that’s the idea. Your colors in landscape photography can be vibrant, but they should not look unnatural or scream for attention. If they do, you went too far.
Understand the difference between global and local adjustment tools. Sometimes, you might want to adjust the color of the entire image – so global adjustment sliders and controls work fine. Other times, you might want to make the sky bluer without affecting the land below or bring up the saturation of just the red flowers in a landscape; such edits will require the use of local adjustment tools. If your objective is to communicate with color, knowing how to carefully and precisely control specific colors in your image is an important skill to master.
Don’t overprocess. How much is too much? That’s a judgment call, but let me express a personal bias. Just as you can over-salt a meal, you can also oversaturate a color photo. Glowing “postcard color” is not a good look if you want to be taken seriously as a landscape photographer. Neither is a grungy HDR. I believe in using color to creatively speak a message, but I don’t want it to shout.
Where does your eye go in this shot? Red is a powerful color, and in an almost monochrome scene, the red barn immediately draws attention. (It also complements the cold blue.)
7. Make it monochrome
Sometimes, color is not the best way to give your image the most impact or communicate your message. Here are some reasons you might want to go monochrome instead:
The image is more about the “bones” of a good image: shape, form, tone, and texture. The color is an unnecessary distraction.
The image is almost monochrome anyway and the color isn’t adding anything.
Black and white might better capture the old, nostalgic, or period feel of the image.
In some genres of photography such as photojournalism or street photography, black and white offers a gritty reality.
These gnarly bristlecone pines in eastern California’s Sierra Nevada mountains are thousands of years old. I knew before I even clicked the shutter that this would be a black and white image. Color would be a distraction, hindering rather than helping the story.
You want to create a lot of drama. You can often push a monochrome edit far, whereas the same amount of processing on a color image might look garish or just plain bad.
You are unable to get good colors, so you save your image with a black and white conversion. It’s the last reason to favor monochrome, but it happens. That said, the choice to go color or black and white should be intentional rather than a rescue mission. Good photographers know their intent for a shot before they make it. But realistically, the fix for a bad color image might be a conversion to monochrome. While editing, you might think, “I wonder how this will look in black and white?” Also, this circles back to something I said earlier: Always shoot in RAW. Your images will be in color – but should you later decide black and white is preferable, it’s an easy conversion.
Color or black and white? It often depends on what you want to communicate.
Help your images speak: conclusion
Imagine your photograph is printed and hanging on the wall of a gallery. You are not there, only the image and the viewer.
Now, what do you want the viewer to see, think, feel, hear, smell, and experience when looking at your photo? You are not there to interpret, explain, justify, or defend. Your photo must speak for itself.
Once you determine what you want the image to say, apply all the “visual words” at your disposal, many of which use the language of color. Do it well, and you’ll be a master of colorful landscape photography.
How does this image feel? What does it say? What’s one word that describes it? Use the power of color to speak to your viewer, and you’ll be on your way to mastering colorful landscape photography.
How can I use color theory in photography?
Understand the relationships between colors, such as complementary colors, analogous colors, and color triads. That way, you can create pleasing color photos.
How can I create better color landscape photos?
When you make a color landscape photo, consider what you want it to communicate to your viewer. Then work with the colors in that image when composing, capturing, and editing – so that the colors of the image “speak” to your viewer. Understand how different colors carry different feelings. Use the feelings to create more impactful images.
Should my landscape photos be color or black and white?
The answer is that it depends. If the idea is to concentrate on the basics, such as the shapes, forms, tones, and textures of an image, sometimes color becomes a distraction. Other times, a color photograph can communicate things a black and white image cannot. Photographers and artists have long debated the merits of each approach. Here is a quote worth considering: “To see in color is a delight for the eye but to see in black and white is a delight for the soul.” – Andri Cauldwell
The post 7 Tips for Colorful Landscape Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Rick Ohnsman.
The post 5 Secrets for Creating Perfect Silhouette Portrait Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Alana Orth.
Silhouette portrait photography produces some of the most gorgeous images imaginable – which is why I recommend every portrait shooter try a silhouette shot or two.
In this article, I’m going to show you exactly what you need to do for perfect silhouette portraits. I’ll share plenty of tips and tricks I’ve learned from my own time as a portrait photographer. And by the time you’re done, you’ll be a portrait silhouette expert.
So let’s get started.
1. Shoot low and head to toe
Powerful silhouettes start with clear, minimalistic compositions. Here’s what I recommend:
Place the subject’s entire body, from head to toe, against the sky. To pull this off, you’ll need to be lower than the subject, so try lying on your back or stomach.
If you are unable to get low enough, you may need to have your subject get higher; ask them to stand on a rock, small hill, or sand dune. In most circumstances, this will allow you to get an angle that places the subject’s entire outline against the sky. (You can see a variety of examples throughout this article.)
Why is this so important?
If you can’t place your subject’s body against the sky, they will merge with the background, and the recognizable silhouette will be lost. You’ll end up with a lot of confusing darkness, and your viewer won’t be able to immediately tell what’s going on.
Also, pro tip:
It’s so, so, so important that your subject’s feet are outlined against the sky! Legs in a silhouette portrait that are cut off above the feet look like weird, short stumps:
Even with all this composition advice in mind, there will be times when you just can’t find a suitable spot for a full-body-framed-against-the-sky type silhouette.
And when that happens, you don’t need to give up on silhouettes entirely. Just get closer to your subject and create tighter compositions, focusing on the areas of your subject that are framed by the sky.
2. Shoot at the right time of day
Silhouettes work best around 20-30 minutes before sunset. The ideal time does vary with the angle you are able to achieve; the greater the height difference between you and the subject, the earlier you will need to take the shot.
Because if you wait too long, the sun will hide behind whatever your subjects are standing on, and the sky might not be bright enough to make a silhouette.
Shooting too early is also a problem, however; the sky’s colors can be a bit boring and you will have other issues, such as sun flare.
Pro tip: Silhouettes can be taken earlier in the day (i.e., before sunset) if the sun is partially blocked or filtered through strong clouds.
3. Choose your portrait silhouette settings carefully
Perfect silhouettes require careful settings.
Set your camera to Aperture Priority mode and dial in an aperture of f/2.8 and an ISO of 400. Select Evaluative Metering; that way, the camera will consider the whole scene when determining the exposure.
If you fill the frame with your subject’s face or body, the camera will expose for their skin even with a bright background (see the photo below, left).
But if you fill the frame mostly with a very bright sky, then the camera will expose for the sky – bringing out the natural sunset colors and making everything else dark (see the photo below, right).
So place your subject directly against the bright sky and make sure their body takes up a small portion of the frame. The subject will be heavily underexposed, and the sky will retain detail.
The result? A perfect silhouette portrait!
Both the photographs above were taken with the settings I mentioned above (just seconds apart).
The difference? What was filling the frame – subject or sky.
4. Use perfect silhouette portrait posing
Silhouettes are very forgiving of poor facial expressions (because you cannot see them!). But silhouettes are very harsh when it comes to posing.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when posing subjects for a silhouette:
Hugging poses do not work. A hug silhouette looks like a great big blob monster. Instead, all subjects need to be clearly defined, which means they need to be at least a couple of inches apart from each other. It’s nice for subjects to still be connected – but by holding hands or kissing, not by hugging.
Have your clients look away from the camera. Face profiles look beautiful and natural.
Watch the clothing. Very baggy clothing won’t work well for silhouettes; the shape can become unflattering. It is best to wear form-fitting clothes, as this helps clearly define your subject against the sky.
5. Take portrait silhouettes whenever you can (because they sell!)
Try to capture at least one silhouette at every photo shoot, whether it is a family portrait, maternity, engagement, or wedding.
Why? Because silhouettes sell!
Here are some reasons why silhouettes are great for client shoots:
Silhouettes add variety to the series. Silhouettes are so different in their colors and style – and the variety they give instantly makes any shoot more interesting. Plus, because silhouettes are unique compared to standard portraits, they’re easy to sell individually as a piece of artwork.
Silhouettes are perfect for shy clients. Some clients hate the idea of their faces hanging up on the wall. This makes silhouettes the perfect compromise! A silhouette can be marketed to a client as the perfect piece of personalized artwork – without making them feel uncomfortable or self-conscious.
Silhouettes look better when printed big! Wide-angle silhouettes and scenic, environmental compositions look great, especially when printed large. So if you do capture wider silhouettes, you can sell them as a large piece of artwork. The client will love it, and it’ll be a more profitable sale for you.
Perfect silhouette portrait photography: final words
Well, there you have it:
Five simple secrets to capture stunning portrait silhouette photography.
Silhouette portraits are a lot of fun – so the next time you’re doing a portrait photoshoot, try a few shots! I’m confident you’ll love the results!
The post 5 Secrets for Creating Perfect Silhouette Portrait Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Alana Orth.
The post Two Autofocusing Tilt-Shift Lenses From Canon May Debut Next Year appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.
Canon will release its first RF-mount tilt-shift lenses within the next year, claims Canon Rumors. What’s more, these will “be the first tilt-shift lenses with autofocus.”
At the time of writing, Canon offers a number of tilt-shift lenses for its DSLR lineup, including the 17mm f/4L, the 24mm f/3.5L II, and the 90mm f/2.8L Macro. But all of Canon’s TS lenses are manual focus only, and Canon has not yet produced a tilt-shift option for mirrorless shooters.
If the rumors are right, Canon will release two wide-angle TS lenses:
A 14mm f/4L lens
A 24mm f/3.5L lens
The 14mm f/4L lens should be perfect for ultra-wide landscape photography; with a 14mm focal length, you gain the expansive field of view that’s especially popular among pro landscape photographers. It’s a perspective that cannot be matched by Canon’s current tilt-shift offerings (Canon’s widest TS lens is the aforementioned 17mm f/4L, followed by the 24mm f/3.5L II).
The 24mm f/3.5L, while perhaps less groundbreaking, offers a “standard” wide-angle perspective. It’ll undoubtedly excel when shooting landscapes, architecture, and even environmental portraits, either as a conventional lens or with the tilt-shift effects applied.
But what’s the value of a tilt-shift lens?
Lenses featuring tilt-shift capabilities allow you to address certain problems posed by architecture and landscape photography (though the TS effect is also just cool!). Specifically, tilting the lens adjusts the plane of focus. You can use this to produce a “miniature” effect, where all the elements look small and human-made – or you can use it to keep certain elements in focus while blurring out other elements.
So a landscape photographer might use the tilt effect to keep an entire scene in focus from front to back, even with a shallow depth of field. And a portrait photographer might use the tilt effect to creatively blur out all but the subject’s face.
You can also shift the lens; this essentially lets you choose a vantage point off to the side of your camera, but without having to move the camera body. It’s invaluable for architectural photography, where shifting the lens upward prevents unwanted distortion. You can also use the shift effect when capturing panoramas in landscape photography (it makes for beautiful, easily stitched results!).
Currently, Canon’s tilt-shift lenses are relatively expensive, and I doubt this RF-mount glass will break the mold, especially given the added autofocus capabilities. But we’ll ultimately have to wait and see; Canon Rumors suggests a “first half of 2022” announcement (one that should, incidentally, come “alongside a high-megapixel camera”).
So keep an eye out for more information. And if you’re thinking about purchasing a tilt-shift lens, you might want to hold off until these RF-mount options have been unveiled.
Now over to you:
What do you think of Canon’s potential tilt-shift lenses? Would you be interested? What draws you toward tilt-shift glass? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
The post Two Autofocusing Tilt-Shift Lenses From Canon May Debut Next Year appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.
The post The Weekly Photography Challenge – BlackAndWhite appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.
Last week I ruffled some proverbial feathers and made sure to mention that we want you to go out and make a NEW photo for this challenge, which is kinda the point of a ‘challenge‘ as there really isn’t a lot that’s challenging about dipping into your Lightroom catalogue and pulling out a photograph from 1984, is there?
This week your challenge theme is #dPSBlackAndWhite (Or, mostly B&W)
Omaha Beach
Ideally, being digital photography SCHOOL we want you all to push yourselves with ‘easy’ themes that you have to spend a little time THINKING about how to make an awesome image! THat’s the goal, but, we get it – some people can’t, and so that’s why it’s not a ‘Rule’ it’s more of a guideline. So, that little gem of information out of the way, let’s get on with this week’s challenge which is B&W or, more commonly ‘Black and White’ which we haven’t done for a good while and I thought it might be good to see how you’ve progressed!
B&W Portraits | Still Life | Street | Headshots | …but HOW? click here for a post that might help.
This is Battersea Calling
Because I just had a little mini-rant about making this a new photograph and so on, I popped the camera on the tripod and photographed my guitars – they’ve made their share of grunge-type noises, so I opted for a messy gritty B&W conversion in Lightroom. You can use many different was to convert your photograph to B&W if you shoot it colour in raw, or just use the B&W filters (if your camera has them) options in your camera – most cameras have a ‘creative’ set of filters including B&W.
One thing I have always loved in a B&W image is higher contrast (as is evident) the photo of Battersea Power station and the tree (I like trees, huh) at Omaha Beach are older, depicting my love for gritty, contrasty B&W through the years, and the one below was taken about an hour ago, here in my office. ANyways, enough about me, let’s see what YOU have for B&W theme challenge this week. (Read on below for instructions on how to post)
Washburn, Washburn, Music Man, Washburn
Great! How do I upload my photos?
Upload your photo into the comments field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section below this post) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see. Or, if you’d prefer, upload them to your favourite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them.
Share in the dPS Facebook Group
You can also share your images in the dPS Facebook group as the challenge is posted there each week as well.
The post The Weekly Photography Challenge – BlackAndWhite appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.
Winning photos from the Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year 2021 contest
Editor’s note: There are images in this gallery that show animal carcasses being butchered (slide 8 and 9, in particular). Keep this in mind going forward if you would rather not see this content.
The winning photographs for the Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year 2021 contest have been announced, with the overall prize being taken by Chinese photographer Li Huaifeng for their photograph Taste, which shows a young family enjoying a meal in their home as the sun cast rays through the smoke-filled room.
The Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year awards is celebrating its tenth anniversary. The finalists and winning images were whittled down from nearly 10,500 entries submitted from more than 70 countries around the world.
In lieu of an in-person event, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the winners were announced in a livestream, which can be watched in its entirety, below:
In addition to the usual categories, this year’s contest also featured a ‘very special category’ to honor Claire Aho, ‘Finland’s greatest woman photographer,’ according to contest organizers. The inaugural winner of the Claire Aho Award for Women Photographers was Marina Spironetti for ‘her magnificent portrait Female Butchers of Panzano – Martina, one of the women trained by Dario Cecchini, world-famous butcher of Panzano.’
As for the judges of this year’s contest, the event organizers say:
‘This year’s global judging panel, chaired by legendary food photographer, David Loftus, includes Fiona Shields, Head of Photography, Guardian News & Media, Susan Bright, Writer and Curator, Nik Sharma, Cookbook Author and Photographer, Chef Simone Zanoni, Restaurant Le George, Four Seasons Paris, Alison Jacques, Founder, Alison Jacques Gallery and Vitalie Taittinger, President, Champagne Taittinger.’
An exhibition for the 2021 finalists will premiere at The Royal Photographic Society in Bristol from November 20 through December 12. Entry is free.
The following gallery will showcase images from twelve of the more than three dozen categories in this year’s contest. You can see all of the finalists and winning images on the Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year 2021 contest website.
Taste, Overall Winner
Credit: Li Huaifeng via Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year
Photographer: Li Huaifeng, China
Image Description: The photograph was taken in Licheng, Shanxi, on a warm and sunny day, and shows a young family sharing in the joy of preparing food.
Drying Okra, Bring Home the Harvest
Credit: F. Dilek via Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year
Photographer: F.Dilek Uyar, Turkey
Image Description: Drying okra flowers in Tokat, Turkey. Women pick okra flowers from the field and arrange them on a rope, then the dried flowers fall and the okra becomes ready to be used in winter
A Grape View, Errazuriz Wine Photographer of the Year – Overall
Credit: Oscar Olivera via Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year
Photographer: Oscar Oliveras, Spain
Image Description: The photograph captures the filling up of Semillon grapes ready to be pressed at the cellar. It was taken on the first day of the harvest of Sauvignon Blanc at Chateau des Ganfards, in Saussignac, France. The harvesting machine is unloading the fruit into the tractor, ready to take them into the winery for pressing. The tractor is being driven by M. Jean Claude Géraud, the owner of Château des Ganfards. Oscar took the photo whilst working there as a winemaker.
Breakfast at Weekly Market, Food at the Table
Credit: Thong Nguyen via Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year
Photographer: Thong Nguyen, Vietnam
Image Description: People enjoy their Pho (beef of chicken noodle) for breakfast at a local weekly market.
Making Rice Noodles, Fujifilm Award for Innovation
Credit: Abdul Momin via Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year
Photographer: Abdul Momin, Bangladesh
Image Description: A worker is inspecting rice noodles if they got dried rightly or not.
Old Friends, Politics of Food
Credit: Sandro Maddalena via Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year
Photographer: Sandro Maddalena, Italy
Image Description: Tskaltubo – Refugees from the Abkhazian – Georgian conflict gather in the basement of an abandoned sanatorium to share their food. Almost thirty years after the conflict, Abkhazian refugees are still living in abandoned buildings in conditions of poverty.
Female Butchers of Panzano-Martina, The Claire Aho Award for Women Photographers
Credit: Marina Spironetti via Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year
Photographer: Marina Spironetti, Italy
Image Description: Part of a project about the female butchers at Dario Cecchini’s, the world’s famous butcher from Panzano in Chianti. For some time now, Dario has been training a team of young ladies, who came to Tuscany from all over the world to learn the art of deboning. Traditionally, women butchers have always existed in Tuscany.
Head to Head, The Philip Harben Award for Food in Action
Credit: David Thompson via Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year
Photographer: David Thompson, Taiwan
Image Description: Taken at Wanhua District night market, Taipei, Taiwan the photo depicts a butcher preparing cuts for the daily traditional market, here seen working on a pigs head cutting out the cheeks.
Family, WFP Storytellers Award
Credit: Ziney Abdulhakim Ibrahim via Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year
Photographer: Ziney Abdulhakim Ibrahim, Iraq
Image Description: The importance of all family members meeting around one dining table at least once a day, as this habit helps to strengthen family ties and gives family members a sense of emotional warmth and provides an opportunity for dialogue, exchange of ideas and problem-solving.
Orishas Tribal Markets, Young – 11 – 14
Credit: Indigo Larmour via Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year
Photographer: Indigo Larmour, India
Image Description: The tribal markets in Odisha are some of the most colourful in all of India. Vendors commonly sit on the ground and spread-out vegetables that they are selling.
Spill the Tea, Young – 15 – 17
Credit: Dewi Hollema via Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year
Photographer: Dewi Hollema, Egypt
Image Description: Men gather round on the side of the street in old Alexandria to share the local gossip with a cup of black sweet tea and snacks. This is a common sight in Egypt where their national drink is enjoyed throughout the day: tea ???.
The post 11 Food Photography Ideas (for Easy Inspiration) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Ana Mireles.
Are you looking for food photography ideas to get inspired? You’ve come to the right place.
Professional high-end jobs in food photography often have a producer, an art director, a home economist, and a food stylist – or a subset of these. But if you’re just starting out, or you use food photography for your blog, you have to take care of everything on your own.
These food photography ideas are meant to help – and cover lots of key information, from picking the props to editing the photos. So keep on reading!
1. Use non-reflective props whenever possible
One of the most difficult technical challenges in food photography is dealing with reflections. Usually, plates, glasses, and cutlery are made with reflective materials that can be very tricky to photograph. That’s why I advise you to work with matte props if possible.
Canon 70D | 31mm | f/2.8 | 1/8s | ISO 100
Consider the two cups above. To make a good picture with the shiny, ceramic cup, I would’ve spent a lot of time and effort managing the reflections in-camera – and I would’ve probably finished the job in post-processing. But with the matte cup, I had no issues; the downside is that it’s not always easy to find non-reflective props.
Salt-glazed ceramic or terracotta are good choices for plates and bowls depending on the look you want to achieve. As for cutlery, find tarnished silver or wooden utensils. But it needs to make sense with the mood of the photo.
Finally, you can try a matte finishing spray for bottles and glasses. There are some professional options, but you can also experiment with deodorant and hair spray.
2. Practice every chance you get
Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark III | M.Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 | f/3.5 | 1/20s | ISO 2000
Practice makes perfect, so you should be practicing your food photography as much as possible.
Going out to eat is a great way to practice because it will give you a different setting as well as challenging lighting. Plus, practice photos are also great for your social media; you can post food photos on sites like Instagram to build your brand and grow your business.
You won’t have much control when shooting in a restaurant, especially if you’re using your phone – but that’s a challenge that will help you improve.
And you can do some things, such as:
Choose the right camera angle
Arrange the elements on the table in a pleasing way
Carefully exercise composition guidelines
Actually, if you enjoy it and you become good at it, photographing restaurant food for social media can be your area of specialization. Many restaurants are currently hiring professional photographers to populate their own social media channels.
3. Pay attention to composition
Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 | Native camera app | f/1.8 | 1/35s | ISO 250
Food photography composition refers to the positioning of elements (food, bowls, cutlery, etc.) within the frame. It’s an essential food photography factor because it will define how the viewer perceives the entire scene.
There are many compositional guidelines you can use to make your food photography stand out. Keep in mind that these guidelines aren’t universal; while a “rule” may fit one image, it might not be right for the next one. It all depends on the elements in your scene and what you’re trying to communicate.
For example, straight lines and a square composition convey stability, while diagonal lines and triangle compositions make for a dynamic image.
Most cameras have a grid with the rule of thirds, which is a basic composition guideline that suggests you position key elements a third of the way into the frame. However, many camera apps offer a wider selection of grids, such as the golden ratio – so experimenting with your smartphone can be a good way to train your eye.
Keep in mind that you can always improve the composition in post-processing using the Crop tool. In fact, Lightroom and Photoshop offer composition grids to guide your crops.
4. Learn to use – and prioritize – the camera settings
Canon 70D | 55mm | f/5.6 | 1/200s | ISO 800
There are three settings to consider when you expose your image: the lens opening through which light travels (aperture), how long the light comes in for (shutter speed), and the extent to which the light is amplified by your camera (ISO). But you must be careful because each of these camera settings comes with other effects that can ruin a photo.
So what should you use to adjust the exposure?
Widening or narrowing the aperture will determine how much of your image is in focus. This is known as the depth of field. So if you have a still subject and you’re using a tripod, first adjust the aperture to achieve the desired depth of field. Leave the ISO at 100, then slow down your shutter speed to properly expose the photograph.
Now, with a slow shutter speed, all moving objects appear blurred. If you want to freeze motion, you have to keep a fast shutter speed. So for food photography scenes with movement, you should prioritize the shutter speed. Then set the aperture based on depth of field concerns. Finally, adjust the ISO.
Note: The higher the ISO, the more noise you’ll have in your photo; the lower the ISO, the smoother and sharper the result (all else being equal). So you should always use the lowest possible ISO.
5. Choose the right angle
Canon 70D | 55mm | f/5.6 | 1/6s | ISO 100
Your choice of camera angle can make or break a photograph. There are three main camera angles in food photography:
The top angle. Most commonly known as flat lay, this is a trendy style on Instagram. To create a top-angle shot, you should have the sensor parallel to the subject’s plane. (For top-angle inspiration, search Instagram for the hashtags #flatlayphotography or #flatlaystyle.)
45 degrees. Position your camera at a 45-degree angle from the flat table or surface on which the food lies. This angle mimics the way you normally see food.
On a level. For this angle, you must drop the camera down to the subject’s level (your lens will often sit just above the table).
6. Choose the right light
Canon 70D | 55mm | f/2.8 | 1/60s | ISO 100
The type of light and lighting setup you use will determine the mood and ambience of your food photography.
Do you prefer to do dark, moody shots or light and ethereal ones? Do you like to use artificial light or daylight? Should the light come from the side, the back, or the front?
There isn’t a hard rule that says what’s right or wrong. Make lighting choices based on what you want the image to communicate.
7. Take some macro shots
Canon 70D | 200mm | f/5.6 | 1/6s | ISO 100
Macro photography produces magnified food close-ups, and it can be a simple way to add some variety to your food photography.
To achieve macro magnifications, I recommend a macro lens or extension tubes, though you can do near-macro photography with a telephoto lens.
You might capture macro images of a small ingredient, or you can highlight a detail from a bigger dish. It’s a creative approach that can enhance common subjects. Here are a few tips to get you started with macro food photography:
Always use a tripod. At macro magnifications, even the smallest movement can change the focus and composition. A tripod will lock in your focus and keep the composition consistent.
Use the rear LCD and focus manually. In macro photography, the depth of field is very shallow. If you want to nail the focus every time, you should forget about the viewfinder and work with the LCD screen of your camera. Then you can zoom in and manually adjust the focus.
Use the self-timer or a remote release. This will avoid any camera shake from pressing the shutter button.
8. Food is culture, so step out of the studio
Canon 50D | 35mm | f/4.5 | 1/25s | ISO 400
As Penny De Los Santos, a former National Geographic, award-winning photographer, says: “A food photographer is a visual food anthropologist. It’s not just about food on a plate; [it’s also about] the moments, the connections, the scenes, the places, the stories.”
Most people think of food photography as a prepped-in-the-studio job or as quick smartphone photos at a restaurant. But photographing a harvest or a food market allows for other types of food photography (that blend with genres such as travel photography and documentary).
So to enrich your food photography experience and to expand your creativity, give this a try!
9. Develop your personal style
Canon 70D | 40mm | f/8 | 2 sec | ISO 100
Food photography is a vast field with many different approaches. What type of food photography do you want to do? Lifestyle photography? Still life? Product shots?
Another way to think about this is to start with the type of subject you want to shoot. You can choose between raw materials or cooked dishes. In any case, the decisions you make will determine your personal style and aesthetic.
Don’t worry, though; you don’t have to decide everything at first. Once you’ve made a few basic choices, your style will develop as you go. Then you can reflect on it, make conscious decisions, and perfect it with time.
But remember that your editing process will influence your style, so pay attention to it, too.
10. Retouch your photos
Canon 70D | 45mm | f/7.1 | 1/5s | ISO 200
If you’re not working with a home economist or a food stylist, you might not have the perfect-looking dish or ingredient every time.
That’s where your retouching skills come into play. In Photoshop, you can perfect the edge of a rough cookie, color the border of a not-yet-ripe fruit, or reposition the cherry on top of a cupcake. You can also get rid of any unwanted reflections.
11. Use presets
Using presets and actions is a great way to speed up your editing and develop a consistent workflow. You can make your own presets, or you can get them from other professionals. There are many options on the market either for free or for sale.
Food photography ideas: conclusion
Well, that’s it:
11 food photography ideas to get your creative juices flowing. So have some food photography fun!
Now over to you:
Which of these food photo ideas is your favorite? Do you have any food photography shots you’re proud of? Share your thoughts (and photos) in the comments below!
The post 11 Food Photography Ideas (for Easy Inspiration) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Ana Mireles.
The post Nikon NX Studio Review: How Good Is This Free Photo Editor? appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Ringsmuth.
In order to write a good Nikon NX Studio review, it’s important to step back to see who this program is for and how it fits into the image editing landscape.
In 2006, Nikon released a software tool called Capture NX, which was designed for its fledgling line of digital cameras. Over the years, Nikon slowly added new features, but Capture NX was never a serious competitor to Adobe Lightroom, Capture One, or other popular image editing and management software. That all changed in early 2021; Nikon retired Capture NX (and its companion, ViewNX) and replaced them with Nikon NX Studio.
But is Nikon’s software ready for prime time, and can it hold its own against a growing list of competitors? What exactly does NX Studio do and who is it for? The answers might surprise you.
RAW file processed with Nikon NX Studio. Nikon D7100 | Nikon 50mm f/1.8G | f/2.8 | 1/3000s | ISO 100
Nikon NX Studio overview
In a very basic sense, Nikon NX Studio is like Lightroom – but designed specifically for Nikon shooters. It’s not really a fair comparison, though, because Nikon NX Studio isn’t supposed to be a replacement for Lightroom. The two have a lot of overlap, but when doing a one-to-one feature comparison, Nikon NX Studio comes up woefully short. However, NX Studio does have a workflow that appeals to a lot of photographers, as well as some advanced tools absent from Lightroom.
Nikon NX Studio is great for photographers who want to do more with their photos than what basic programs like Apple Photos can offer. It has tools for common edits such as white balance, brightness, color, noise reduction, cropping, and sharpness. Nikon NX Studio also goes one step beyond Lightroom by letting you perform basic edits on videos, such as trimming and stitching.
It also has one very important advantage over Lightroom and most other programs: It’s free, so you lose nothing by trying it out.
Nikon NX Studio goes way beyond basic image editing, and it has some powerful tools that appeal to amateurs and professionals alike.
For enthusiasts and even professionals, there’s a lot to like about Nikon NX Studio as long as you keep your expectations in check and don’t mind some frustrating bugs and shortcomings. It’s not a full-featured digital asset management tool like Lightroom, though it does offer some basic file management and storage.
But where Nikon NX Studio really shines is in the sheer depth of its tools. The Lightness, Chroma, and Hue adjustments give you incredible control over editing colors, and the Color Point tool gives you fine-grained control that takes several steps to replicate in Lightroom.
Finally, Nikon NX Studio has a trick up its sleeve that no other image editor can match: it works with Nikon RAW files without needing to reverse-engineer the RAW algorithm or convert everything to DNG.
Nikon NX Studio pros
The price is great. It’s a free program and should be updated by Nikon regularly for years to come.
Lots of features that appeal to amateurs, hobbyists, and professionals
Basic movie editing tools are simple and practical
Everything takes place in a single interface without the need to switch between Library and Develop modules like in Lightroom
Nikon NX Studio cons
Very basic import process compared to Lightroom: no keyword management, applying presets, or metadata adjustments
Lacks Brush and Graduated adjustment tools, along with other editing options offered by competing programs
Lack of a simple Undo feature
Lots of bugs and glitches. Some would say this is expected with Version 1 of a program, but these issues happen more frequently than I would like
Nikon NX Studio utilizes a separate program called Nikon Transfer 2 to import images from a memory card or other source. It works fine, but it’s fairly simplistic in terms of functionality.
If you’re a Nikon shooter, you can’t go wrong with just downloading Nikon NX Studio to check it out. It’s free, and it won’t alter your current photos even if you use Lightroom, Luminar, or another program. You really have nothing to lose by trying it, and you might find that the results you get from your Nikon RAW files are much better than what you get in Lightroom. (Note that Nikon NX Studio only works with Nikon NEF RAW files. It will not load DNG files or RAW files from Canon, Sony, Fujifilm, and other manufacturers.)
While I do think Nikon NX Studio is worth trying out, let’s take a closer look at some of its characteristics to help determine whether it’s the right program for you.
Layout and ease of use
If you’ve ever used a program like Lightroom, Luminar, or Capture One, you’ll feel right at home in Nikon NX Studio.
The interface is pretty simple: the left side is where you access your photos in folders or albums. The middle is where you scroll through your photos or look at them more closely. Your tools are located on the right and clicking the title of a tool expands and collapses its options just like Lightroom.
The Nikon NX Studio layout is similar to other programs like Lightroom, Luminar, and Capture One. Photo storage on the left, editing tools on the right, and your image in the middle.
An Import button in the top-right corner will let you start loading images from a memory card. Additional icons at the top of the main window let you switch between views: thumbnail, map, 2 and 4 images at a time, before and after, and list, which users of Apple’s Aperture software will certainly appreciate. Along the bottom are more tools that let you show view overlays (such as a grid or a histogram), assign star ratings, and rotate photos.
All these buttons and options might seem overwhelming, but it’s very straightforward; you should be able to find your way around the interface after a few minutes of exploring.
One key difference between Nikon NX Studio and Lightroom is that the former stores your image edits in sidecar files, whereas the latter is based around a single massive database, called a catalog. Some prefer one type of storage over the other, but while there have been reports of corrupted Catalogs causing problems for some photographers, it’s not an issue I have experienced.
Still, if you want a powerful image editor but are wary of putting all your editing eggs in a single basket, Nikon NX Studio might be a good choice.
Performance
In terms of sheer speed and editing efficiency, Nikon NX Studio does leave something to be desired. On a 2020 27″ iMac with a 3.6 GHz, 10-core i9 processor, lots of RAM, and a large internal SSD, my edits were fairly smooth.
But running NX Studio on a machine just a few years old with a spinning hard drive felt positively sluggish by comparison. Adjusting any given slider, from White Balance to Highlights to Color Booster, resulted in a visible checkerboard pattern across the image while edits were applied. Each adjustment only took a second or two, but these little bits of time add up quickly when editing dozens or hundreds of images.
On slower computers, editing operations like changing the white balance can result in a tiny delay, during which time a checkerboard pattern is visible.
Other Nikon NX Studio features resulted in slow response times or outright crashes. Navigating through folders to locate images took much longer than I expected, and simple operations like cropping were slow and choppy. I generally zoom in to a photo to check for focus and sharpness and then zoom out for more editing, but even this relatively basic operation was slower and clunkier than I would have liked. After leaving NX Studio running for a few hours – not processing photos, but simply open in the background – it brought my Mac to its knees with a strange memory management error.
I left Nikon NX Studio running overnight; the next morning, I found that my computer had slowed to a crawl. It had some kind of memory leak that was using every spare scrap of RAM I had available.
I’m not saying that the program is unusable, just that users ought to approach it with a bit of caution. Programs such as Lightroom were just as buggy in their early incarnations and are much improved now, and I have no doubt the same will be true of Nikon NX Studio. It will get better over time, but right now you can expect to encounter some glitches.
However, it’s not all bad news in terms of performance. Loading Nikon NEF RAW files was snappy, navigating between editing panes was quick and easy, and import/export operations had no noticeable lag. When Nikon NX Studio works, which it usually does, it works quite well. But when it doesn’t work, it can be a bit frustrating.
Photo organization
It’s not uncommon for photographers to have tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of pictures to wade through. Nikon NX Studio isn’t going to win awards for groundbreaking AI-powered image management, but it does have some useful tools to help you organize your pictures.
Nikon NX Studio imports images to folders on your hard drive, not to a proprietary archive. To find your images, use the folders on the left-hand side.
In lieu of a Lightroom-style Catalog system, NX Studio shows you a hierarchical view of all the folders on your main drive and lets you navigate through them to locate your images. It’s not dissimilar from Luminar and others, and I prefer this method over the all-in-one archive system used by Apple Photos. When you import images from a memory card, you can create a new folder to store the pictures. You can create custom names for each import, as well.
When browsing through your pictures, you can assign star ratings, color labels, and keywords. There is a Filter bar that you can use to sort your photos according to these criteria as well as other information, but Nikon NX Studio does not have Smart Albums or other dynamic methods for automatically sorting your images. I use Lightroom’s Smart Collections to help me organize my images, but if you aren’t a fan of this method, then NX Studio will be fine.
The Filter bar lets you sort by many different criteria.
Longtime users of Apple’s now-defunct Aperture software will find the Thumbnail List View to be particularly useful when managing photos. This shows a list-style view similar to what you see when browsing through your Mac OS Finder or Windows Explorer, with columns that display various parameters such as exposure information, file size, date modified, and more.
List View is a very useful way of viewing and sorting your images. It is very similar to List View in the Mac OS Finder and in Microsoft Windows Explorer.
While Nikon NX Studio’s photo management tools are not as robust as I would like, they’re certainly a good start. If you prefer a straightforward approach that does not rely on a proprietary catalog or database system, then there’s a lot to appreciate.
Photo-editing capabilities
This is where the rubber meets the road, and fortunately, Nikon NX Studio can hold its own against the competition in virtually all the areas that matter. While some NX Studio features are not as refined as other programs and some tools are missing in action, what it gets right, it really gets right.
There’s a long list of editing options at your disposal, including:
White Balance
Exposure Compensation
Active D-Lighting, which is unique to Nikon cameras and is a nice way to automatically brighten shadows and create a more even exposure
Brightness and Color
Levels and Curves
Lightness, Chroma, and Hue
Adjust Details, which includes Noise Reduction and Sharpness
Touch-Up, to remove spots and blemishes
Adjust Composition, which includes cropping, straightening, and perspective control
Camera and Lens Corrections
Once again, it’s worth remembering that Nikon NX Studio is a free program, and that fact alone makes the inclusion of all these options kind of amazing. While tools like a graduated filter, a radial filter, and an adjustment brush are missing, the options you do have should suffice for most photo editing. You can even create multiple custom sets of adjustment options that include only the tools you use in specific scenarios. This is quite useful if you prefer different tools when editing landscapes compared to editing portraits.
You can create custom sets of editing adjustments, then switch to your custom sets with a simple click.
The Color Control Point editing tool is particularly useful, and one that I’d like to see in other applications. It allows you to click anywhere on your image and immediately have access to eight common editing sliders. Drag any of them to the right or left to increase or decrease that particular parameter. The top slider adjusts the size of the area to which the edits will be applied. It’s a highly useful tool for precise color editing, and the ability to adjust sliders right on the image instead of in an editing pane is something I have grown to appreciate a great deal.
The Color Control Point tool lets you click on any part of an image and use sliders to adjust colors on the spot.
The Lightness, Chroma, and Hue Adjustment takes an innovative and highly effective approach to manipulating color. While similar to the Hue, Saturation, and Luminance option in Lightroom, the Nikon NX Studio implementation offers useful options that professional and amateur photographers will appreciate.
You can use the eyedropper tool to select a color in your image, then click and drag up or down in the rainbow panel to adjust that color’s parameters. You can also change the angle of the rainbow, which means that your edits can be implemented more dramatically or more subtly. Finally, Width lets you target your edits to either a very narrow or very wide band of colors. It’s a powerful tool for global color adjustments.
Nikon NX Studio has a very useful tool for making global color edits to an image. Click and drag up or down on the horizontal line to adjust the parameters of a color, and adjust the Width to control the range of colors affected by a given peak or valley.
There are some important drawbacks to NX Studio’s photo-editing capabilities, and any Nikon NX Studio review would be remiss in not pointing them out.
First, there is no Undo option. Yes, you read that right; instead of an Undo, you can create a saved state for your edits then revert to that saved state at any point, but an actual Undo feature is missing.
Also, there is no History tool that shows you every edit and lets you step through them one by one. While Nikon NX Studio is nondestructive and all your edits can be changed or removed at any time, a History feature would help when doing lots of in-depth changes.
Other strange feature implementations are present, as well. After you apply a crop, you can’t actually make changes to it; you can start over with a new crop, but you can’t edit the crop once it has been applied. You also can’t darken shadows or lighten highlights – at least, not with the Shadows and Highlights sliders. The Retouch brush has no customization options at all other than its size. Finally, there is no way to make export presets, which could be a dealbreaker for those who rely on this feature in Lightroom and other programs.
The Export dialog in Nikon NX Studio has plenty of options, but its use is limited by the lack of export presets.
There’s a couple of ways to look at these drawbacks.
Compared to a program like Lightroom, NX Studio might seem limited. But on the other hand, you could argue that Nikon NX Studio is free, so there’s not much to complain about. It’s also currently on Version 1 and will no doubt be refined and upgraded over time. Many of the drawbacks have workarounds or alternative methods of accomplishing the same task, even if it does involve some extra steps. And finally, there is always a learning curve with new programs.
So are these missing features drawbacks, or is it more a matter of learning a new workflow? One could make a strong case for the latter over the former.
Who should get Nikon NX Studio?
While I can’t recommend Nikon NX Studio across the board, it’s a great option for many shooters. Certainly, Nikon users will appreciate all the tools NX Studio has to offer, especially for editing RAW files. If you are a hobbyist or working professional who needs a suite of powerful editing tools and you don’t mind some interface quirks, Nikon NX Studio could be right up your alley. Beginners might be intimidated by the plethora of buttons, options, and tools, especially compared to more basic image editors that are available for free on mobile phones and some computers. But Nikon NX Studio could be a good way for those individuals to start using a more advanced image editor without spending any money at all.
People who should definitely not use Nikon NX Studio are those who have a mobile-first workflow. There is no version of the program that works on phones or tablets, and it’s unlikely to be created anytime soon. If you primarily shoot and edit with a smartphone, you’re better off sticking with the tools you already have.
Nikon NX Studio review: final words
Nikon NX Studio is an outstanding program in many ways, and the fact that it’s free is certainly one of its most important advantages.
If you shoot in JPEG, you can use everything Nikon NX Studio has to offer, no matter your camera brand, while Nikon users will greatly appreciate its RAW editing capabilities. While there are certainly some important caveats to consider, as well as some messy bugs that will get ironed out over time, I certainly recommend you download it and give it a try.
Hopefully, this Nikon NX Studio review gave you some information to help you understand a bit more about the program and whether it will work for you!
Now I’d like to hear your thoughts:
Are you interested in Nikon NX Studio? Do you think you’ll use it? What do you like and dislike about the software? Share your views in the comments below!
Do I need to have a Nikon camera to use Nikon NX Studio?
Nikon NX Studio will only work with Nikon RAW files. RAW formats from Sony, Canon, Fujifilm, and others will not work, and neither will universal RAW formats like DNG. However, the program works just fine with JPEG images. So if you don’t use a Nikon camera but shoot in JPEG, you can easily use Nikon NX Studio for your editing and photo management.
Will Nikon NX Studio work on my mobile phone?
Nikon NX Studio is designed for desktop-based workflows; there is no mobile version. You can take photos on a mobile phone, transfer them to your computer, and edit them in Nikon NX Studio, but that workflow adds many more steps and probably takes too much time for most people to consider.
Is Nikon NX Studio better than Lightroom, Capture One, or Luminar?
There are advantages and disadvantages to all of these programs, and it’s impossible to say which one is better. Nikon NX Studio is free, but most of the others have free trial periods for new users. If you’re unsure of which to use, I recommend downloading them, signing up for free trials (if available), and making use of dPS’s many articles to help you learn. That way, you can make an informed choice and find the program that suits your needs.
Will Nikon NX Studio run on my computer?
Most computers made in the past few years will work just fine with Nikon NX Studio. I personally found better results when I was working with an SSD instead of a spinning hard drive, but almost any modern desktop or laptop will run the program just fine.
Can I use Nikon NX Studio to edit video?
While Nikon NX Studio does have a built-in video editor, its capabilities are very limited. It works for basic trimming and combining clips but not much else.
The post Nikon NX Studio Review: How Good Is This Free Photo Editor? appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Ringsmuth.
Star Stacker, an astrophotography app available for iOS, allows users to create star trail images and timelapses on their phone, computer or tablet. Michael Webb, the developer, posted about his latest creation on Reddit’s r/LandscapeAstro community. To demonstrate a final result from using the app, Webb posted the image, seen above, and explained how he achieved it in the post’s comments section.
Using a Sony a7R III camera and Rokinon 14mm M2 lens, Webb captured 170 15-second exposure images with an ISO of 640 and an F4.0 aperture. Webb then copied the 170 RAW files to his phone using an SD card adapter and stacked the images in the app. To be clear, you can also import JPEG, .tiff or .png images from your iPhone or iPad’s photo app into Star Stacker. Pixelmator was used to combine images of the foreground and stars together for a final product.
After importing your selected photos, you can start creating images or timelapses with the following effects:
Full trails – shows every star at full brightness.
Faded trails – stars get brighter as the process runs.
Shooting star – similar to faded trails but the last image is brighter than the previous, giving off a shooting star effect.
Warp mode – zooms into the image stack slowly creating a warped effect. This will also impact the foreground so post processing may be required if the images have the foreground included.
Astrophotographers typically take a series of images in the same place and stack them to reduce noise. Is 170 necessary? Likely not. This video from Milky Way Mike breaks explains how many photos you should stack and why.
The app isn’t available for Android yet though Webb mentioned he would ‘certainly consider making an Android version depending on how popular this version is.’ One Reddit user pointed out that Star Trails, available on Google Play, could be a decent alternative. Star Stacker is available for $ 1.99 in the App Store for the Mac, iPhone and iPad.
