The post dPS Roundup: The Best Photos of November appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.
We’re back with our second in the series of monthly roundups! November was a fun month, with Wheels, Down, Coffee, and Dark & Moody as our weekly challenges.
Join the challenges here!
For our Wheels challenge, I was really drawn to the unique red light in this photograph from Ira Papamalama:
Moving swiftly on to our theme, Down, we had a handful of drone photographs along with some other great images; it was really fun to go through the photos posted in the Facebook group and on the blog and see how everyone interpreted the theme!
And our second choice in the Down challenge came from a regular challenge participant, Chinmoy Biswas. The shadow and action in the photograph is really great!
And in the photograph below by Amal, it’s the light and shadow that really sets the shot apart! The layering (as my good friend Deanne Fitzmaurice always tells me) with the coffee, the light, and the newspaper, is all great. Well done, Amal.
Another regular to our weekly challenge, Moncat, dropped a lovely photograph into the Dark & Moody challenge this month! I imagined rowing into the fog on an eerie morning – but maybe that’s just me. Great photo!
And rounding out our best weekly challenge photos of November is this photograph from matt93, another cracking photograph with all the makings of a dark and moody scene. Thanks, Matt!
Don’t forget, you can join all of our weekly challenges for free. To sharpen your skills, go ahead and submit a photo to all of the past challenges (click here). Or enter the latest challenge, Light Painting, which is still open (here).
Our weekly challenge isn’t about the best photographers showcasing their work. It’s about getting us all out to make photographs and to keep practicing so we get better at this fantastic medium that we’ve chosen! Come and interact and get feedback in the private Facebook group, and submit your photograph there if you’d like!
See you soon!
Simon
The post dPS Roundup: The Best Photos of November appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.
The post Your Quick Guide to Understanding Photoshop Adjustment Layers appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Ringsmuth.
Adjustment layers are one of the most essential aspects of editing images in Photoshop. They let you apply rich, detailed edits to your photos that go well beyond what you can accomplish in other programs.
Now, adjustment layers can be a bit difficult to understand if you’re used to a more streamlined application like Lightroom, Apple Photos, or Luminar. But with a bit of practice, you can easily master Photoshop adjustment layers and take your photo editing to the next level!
When you open a picture in Photoshop, you can’t just start dragging sliders to change its appearance. Before you can do much of anything, you need to start with layers, which serve as the bedrock of everything that makes Photoshop so powerful.
To help visualize the concept of adjustment layers, think about a physical picture sitting on your desk. If you wanted to give the picture a green tint, you could simply drape a sheet of green cellophane over it.
That’s exactly how adjustment layers work in Photoshop: They let you change the visual properties of your image without destroying the underlying file. You can add as many adjustment layers as you want and use them to change things like white balance, exposure, hue/saturation, and over a dozen other properties.
In other words:
Photoshop adjustment layers are like stacking sheets of digital cellophane on top of your images. Each layer can be controlled individually and combined with layer masks to apply edits to specific parts of your images. All of this might seem needlessly complicated compared to the simplicity of other programs, but once you get the hang of Photoshop adjustment layers, you’ll never want to go back.
Another way to think about Photoshop adjustment layers is by comparing them to panels in the Develop module of Lightroom.
However, the Develop panels only offer a handful of adjustments that you can use. Photoshop lets you stack as many layers as you need – even multiple layers of the same type of adjustment – so you can tweak your images as much as you could possibly want. There is a bit of a learning curve, but the results are well worth the effort.
How to add an adjustment layer
The first step when working with adjustment layers is to load an image into Photoshop. Then click on the Adjustments panel, which is usually located above the Layers panel.
(If you don’t see the Adjustments panel, go to the Window menu and choose Adjustments.)
Load an image into Photoshop and then click the Adjustments panel.
The Adjustment panel offers sixteen adjustments to choose from, and sorting through all of these can be overwhelming (especially if you’re used to the simple, straightforward editing parameters available in Lightroom).
Each one of these icons is a specific type of adjustment. Hover your cursor over each one to see a brief description.
Some of these adjustments are similar to what you might find in Lightroom, such as Brightness/Contrast and Color Balance. But using the adjustments is much different from working in Lightroom and, in some ways, more complicated. Fortunately, that also means you can get much better results.
To see how this process works, I’ve included an image (below) that clearly needs some editing. Thankfully, Photoshop adjustment layers are here to help!
Fujifilm X100F | 23mm | 1/4000s | f/8 | ISO 200
I’ll start by adding a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer, which is a simple matter of just clicking the Brightness/Contrast icon in the Adjustments panel. Immediately, two sliders appear, which you can use to make the picture brighter or darker and to add or remove contrast.
After clicking an adjustment layer icon, the available editing parameters show up for you to start working with.
A few seconds later, my picture is much improved, thanks to a brightness boost. However, there is still a lot of work left to do.
Brightness +75, Contrast -5
One other thing happens when you click an adjustment layer icon that you might not notice but is critically important:
The Layers panel will create a layer specifically for that adjustment.
Clicking an adjustment icon automatically adds a new layer to your image with the selected adjustment as its title.
This new layer, along with all the icons associated with it, is what gives an adjustment so much flexibility. In Lightroom, you can enable and disable individual panels in the Develop module, but you don’t have this level of control over your adjustments.
Note the different icons in the short screen capture above:
Indicates layer visibility: Click this to hide or show the adjustment.
Layer thumbnail: Double-click this to show the editing parameters (sliders, eyedroppers, etc.) for the adjustment layer.
Indicates layer mask is linked to layer: Click this to unlink the adjustment layer mask from the adjustment. If you’re new to adjustment layers, you can just ignore this altogether.
Layer mask thumbnail: This is a very tiny preview of the layer mask that is created by default when you click on a new adjustment layer icon. Click this to show the editing parameters of the mask.
While my picture of the Minnesota sign is better than when I started, it still needs a lot of improvement. The next thing I want to do is set the white balance, but this option is missing from the Adjustments panel.
Instead, you have to use the Curves adjustment, then click the gray point eyedropper. Next, click a neutral or slightly gray portion of your image to counteract any color casts. Note that this process essentially replicates the White Balance function of Lightroom.
Select the gray point tool, then click a slightly gray or neutral area of your photo to set the white balance of the image.
One thing you might notice is that the Curves options in Photoshop are much more comprehensive than the Curves options in Lightroom. This should give you an indication of how much more flexibility you have with adjustment layers. You can use Curves to do everything you would do in Lightroom, along with much, much more.
The final operation to fix this image involves a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. Click on the Hue/Saturation icon to bring up a panel that looks like this:
The Hue/Saturation adjustment layer parameters
The key to this panel is the hand icon in the top-left. Click it, then click on a part of your image that you would like to saturate or de-saturate.
In this case, I want to start with the grass below the sign. Clicking and dragging to the right makes it much greener, and gives a sense of vibrance that is sorely missing from the original.
The grass and foreground elements really pop, thanks to a quick tweak with the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer.
This is a good start, but I need to fix the sky, and that is where a layer-based approach really starts to come in handy.
Instead of editing the sky with the adjustment layer I just created, I can add a new adjustment layer and use that for the sky. This allows me to control my Hue/Saturation edits for individual parts of the image, instead of having just one Hue/Saturation adjustment layer that affects the entire scene.
The sky colors are now improved. These edits are applied using a layer separate from the grass edits, and thus can be controlled independently.
While the resulting picture is much better than the original, there is still some tweaking that needs to be done for it to truly feel finished.
Adjustment layer masks, explained
Eagle-eyed observers might notice something amiss with the picture above:
The Minnesota sign now has a purple tint to it.
Never fear, adjustment layers are here! Click the white rectangle next to a layer name to edit its mask:
You see, by painting black onto a layer’s mask, you prevent that area of the photo from being affected by the adjustment. So if you don’t want the sign to be affected by the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, simply paint black over the portion of the mask that covers the sign!
Here’s how it works:
First, select the Brush tool (press B or click the Brush icon in the left-hand toolbar).
Make sure your foreground color is white and your background color is black (to do this quickly, just hit D).
Now it’s time to actually paint the mask. Press the X key to switch between white (revealing) and black (hiding), and the [ and ] keys to increase or decrease the size of the brush.
For tricky shapes like the sign, you can use the Magic Wand tool to select the shape. Then, with the shape still selected, use the Brush tool to mask (remove) the adjustment from that portion of the image.
A closer inspection of the Layers panel now shows a black silhouette over the portion that has been masked out of the top Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. I have also renamed the top two layers so as to accurately describe the type of effect they have on the image.
(Double-click a layer name to rename it, and press Enter when you finish typing.)
The mask for the Hue/Saturation Sky adjustment layer shows a black patch where the adjustment has been concealed.
Nondestructive editing
One mistake some beginners make when editing images in Photoshop is applying adjustments directly to the original photo. This can be done using the Image>Adjustments menu, which gives you common editing options such as Brightness/Contrast, Hue/Saturation, and more. Unlike adjustment layers, these edits are not easy to work with, nor are they easy to alter once they have been implemented.
Photoshop adjustment layers, on the other hand, are nondestructive. You can tweak and change layers after they have been implemented, and you can easily delete them. That’s why layer adjustments are much more flexible than edits applied directly to an image.
Adjustment layers can be renamed, re-sorted, locked, disabled, and made transparent. And that’s just the beginning!
You can perform all manner of custom tweaks and changes to adjustment layers, such as:
Showing/hiding a layer by clicking the eye icon
Editing the adjustment by clicking the light/dark circle icon
Adjusting the opacity of a layer
Changing the blend mode, which adjusts how the layer interacts with layers below it
Adjusting the order of the layers by clicking and dragging
Locking a layer to prevent further changes by clicking the lock icon
Photoshop adjustment layers open up new editing possibilities that simply cannot be achieved in Lightroom. For example, the image of a leaf from the beginning of this article can be altered with a selective color adjustment in a matter of seconds. All I need to do is add a Black & White adjustment layer. I can then select the leaf with the Magic Wand tool and paint over the selection on the layer mask.
Adding a selective color black and white effect took about four seconds.
Photoshop adjustment layers: conclusion
If you have a Creative Cloud Photography subscription, you can use Photoshop in addition to Lightroom at no extra charge. Now, if the sheer level of options and buttons in Photoshop makes you want to run to the comfort and safety of Lightroom, I get it. I have been there, too, and I still have that feeling from time to time.
However, learning to use Photoshop adjustment layers is one of the first steps in understanding how powerful and flexible Photoshop can be. If you have not yet tried working with layers, take a moment to test them out. See what layers can do for you.
You might be surprised at how easy it is!
The post Your Quick Guide to Understanding Photoshop Adjustment Layers appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Ringsmuth.
Sony has announced a small but significant update to the Sony Software Development Kit (SDK). This update allows users to craft custom imaging solutions using Sony cameras.
The new camera automation software SDK has been created with product photographers in mind and is designed to streamline a product photography imaging workflow using Sony cameras. Sony writes, ‘It’s especially useful for large e-commerce businesses, allowing them to simplify, speed up and standardize product photography.’
This streamlining is achieved by the SDK enabling ‘virtually every facet’ of the camera and lens to be automated and controlled. This includes automation and control over white balance, image resolution, compression options, zoom, focus and video triggering. Multi-camera support is included, meaning that it will be easier than ever to capture 360° interactive product shots, for example.
The SDK is the first to support full-frame multi-camera control, allowing for multi-angle image capture. It has also gained macOS compatibility, which Sony states is the most-used operating system in the product photography industry. The SDK is also compatible with Windows and Linux. The SDK also launches alongside a Sony team and website prepared to offer support. Further, Sony states that bespoke apps are possible.
Yasuo Baba, Director of Digital Imaging for Sony Europe BV, said of the SDK, ‘This is a key part of Sony’s long-term vision. Sony’s Alpha range are the world’s most trusted mirrorless cameras, and this new move helps to back this up with the best software and the best support.’ Baba continues, ‘By doing this, we aim to make it easier and quicker for companies in e-commerce, and other B2B sectors, to automate every part of the image creation process.’
Many high-end Sony mirrorless cameras are supported by the SDK, including the A9 II, A7R IV, A7 III, A7C and the RX0 series. While a niche SDK, it should prove very useful for some photographers and allow for a streamlined, more efficient workflow. It will also be interesting to see what sort of creative uses enterprising photographers come up with for the new SDK.
This is not Sony’s first major SDK release of 2020. In February, the company released a remote control SDK kit. This SDK allows key camera controls and still image data to be captured via remote access, which Sony stated at the time is of interest to industries including security, entertainment and ‘many others’.
A lot of great things can be created when a platform is opened to development, so it’s nice to see Sony developing new software development kits for its cameras. If you’d like to learn more about the latest SDK, click here.
An overview of the aftermath at AKM Semiconductor factory following a three-day fire, captured by Nikogorio and used with permission.
Australian imaging publication, Inside Imaging, is reporting that some camera manufacturers could see supply chain issues following an October fire at an AKM Semiconductor audio chip factory in Nobeoka, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan.
According to the report, the fire started on October 20 and burned uncontrolled for three days, effectively destroying the entire factory, which products various audio chip components used by ‘most Japanese camera makers.’ Inside Imaging stops short of stating what components in particular camera manufacturers source from AKM Semiconductor. It does mention AKM produces analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), but there’s no confirmation whether or not these ADCs are used by any camera manufacturers.
A close-up of the burned AKM Semiconductor factory, captured by Nikogorio and used with permission.
Inside Imaging claims to have been told by a source that Canon, Nikon and Sony ‘[had] pulled back support for Black Friday promotions’ due to a shortage of supply, but that is yet to be confirmed elsewhere and we have yet been able to confirm that ourselves. We have contacted representatives from Canon, Nikon and Sony for comment and clarification on the matters and will update this article accordingly when we receive responses.
According to other reports, there were no casualties from the fire and all 400 employees were safely evacuated before the fire spread. Repairing the factory will take at least six months, according to SemiMedia, who also notes the audio industry is panic buying to ensure manufacturers’ supply chain isn’t affect in the near future.
The post Stellar Photo Recovery Software Review: An Easy Way to Reclaim Your Precious Photos appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.
Have you ever accidentally deleted photos or videos from your memory cards? Or, even worse, have you ever formatted your card, and only then realize it contained valuable photos or videos?
It happens to the best of us.
In fact, if you’ve never experienced either of the above situations, consider yourself lucky. Because while digital files are convenient, they’re all too easy to lose – and if you don’t have the right recovery software, those files will be gone forever.
That’s where Stellar Photo Recovery comes in.
You see, Stellar Photo Recovery offers an impressive set of DIY recovery tools for photographers and videographers; according to the website, you can recover almost any file on almost any device. And you can purchase a package that lets you repair corrupted files, which is tremendously useful for situations where your photos or videos have been damaged.
But how does Stellar Photo Recovery perform? Does it work as well as advertised? And how do you use it for file recovery?
That’s what this article is all about.
In it, I put Stellar Photo Recovery to the test, using some formatted memory cards of my own.
And I share all my findings with you.
So to find out whether Stellar Photo Recovery is a worthy purchase…
(Spoiler alert: The software works incredibly well!)
…keep reading.
Stellar Photo Recovery: Why might you need it?
Stellar Photo Recovery is a DIY recovery package, designed to help you find and recover lost photos, videos, and audio files.
But why, specifically, might you need Stellar Photo Recovery?
Imagine you’re out taking pictures and fill up several cards. You go home, download all the photos to your storage drives, and then – as many photographers do – format every card in-camera.
Moments later, you feel a dawning sense of horror, as you realize that you failed to transfer the photos from one of the now formatted cards.
At this point, your hard-earned photos are deleted, the card has been wiped, and your only real option is recovery software.
That’s just one of the many ways you could accidentally delete photos and videos. You could also format a hard drive and realize it had photos you needed. Or you could stick a full memory card into your camera while out shooting, format it, then suddenly realize that you hadn’t transferred the previous photos over to your storage drives. Or you could clear a flash drive, then realize it had valuable media that you needed for a client.
You could also end up with corrupted files thanks to faulty memory cards or old drives or viruses.
If you’ve been doing photography for a while, then you’re probably aware:
This sort of thing happens all the time. If it hasn’t happened to you yet, then it will, because it’s just the nature of having lots of easy-to-wipe memory cards. You’ll make a mistake.
And when you do, you’ll want to have software like Stellar Photo Recovery.
Right off the bat, you’ll be impressed by the sheer volume of scenarios Stellar Photo Recovery can handle. You’ve got the option to recover:
A whole host of image file formats, including Canon RAW files, Fujifilm RAW files, Sony RAW files, Nikon RAW files, Olympus RAW files, Pentax RAW files, Panasonic RAW files, JPEGs, TIFFs, GIFs, PNGs, and PSDs, plus quite a few others
Lots of video formats, including MP4, AVI, MPEG, AVI, 3GP, and so much more
Audio file formats, including MP3, WAV, MIDI, M4P, and AU
And you can do your recovery on a bevy of storage devices, including CF cards, SD cards of every kind, XQD cards, flash drives, HDD drives, and more (even if the drives are encrypted).
Plus, it doesn’t matter whether you’ve deleted individual files or simply formatted the storage device, because Stellar Photo Recovery can deal with both.
Honestly, if you’ve lost any type of photo, video, or audio to deletion or corruption, Stellar Photo Recovery Software probably has you covered.
Using Stellar Photo Recovery: A simple, three-step process
Using Stellar Photo Recovery is incredibly easy.
Once you have the software downloaded on your computer (you can grab your copy here), you’ll simply need to follow a three-step process:
Step 1: Select the drive in need of recovery, and hit “Scan”
When you first open Stellar Photo Recovery, you’ll see a list of all accessible drives:
By placing a checkmark next to the location you need to recover files from, you’re telling the software where to look. To save time on the scan, I’d recommend checking only the precise drive/memory card on which your files originally existed.
Then hit Scan:
As soon as you’ve done this, the software will start checking your drive for any and all media. This might take a while, depending on the size of your drive; I used a 32 GB SD card for my test, and the scan lasted around 30 minutes.
You can minimize the window while you wait and leave it scanning in the background.
By the way, if you’re in a hurry, you can always shorten the scan time by heading into the Advanced Settings menu:
And clicking on File List:
You’ll then see a list of all file types you can recover. By checking the files you’re after, you’re telling Stellar Photo Recovery where to focus its search.
Neat, right?
Step 2: Go through your recoverable files and select the ones you’d like to restore
Once the scan is complete, the software will report the number and size of the files it found:
Then you can go through the folders and preview files for recovery (not all file types will offer previews, but my Olympus RAW files showed up nice and clear).
By putting a checkmark next to a file, you indicate that you’d like to recover it:
So make sure you do this with all relevant files.
Step 3: Hit “Recover” and watch as your images appear!
Once you’ve checked off all the files you want to recover, hit the Recover button:
Then select the folder where you’d like to save the recovered files:
Finally, click Start Saving.
You can then watch (in the Saving Data window) as your files are recovered and saved. This isn’t a long process; each RAW image I recovered took about one second to save, which means that you can recover quite a few images in a minute or two.
Then, if you go to the folder where you’ve saved the files, you’ll see them completely intact and unharmed.
One nice additional feature here is the ability to go back and recover different photos, even once you’ve done one recovery sweep. So if you accidentally recovered the wrong files, you can just go back into the list of recoverable media and check off a different set of files – without having to scan the drive again.
What’s even nicer is that you can save your scan data when you exit Stellar Photo Recovery. So if you’re tired of recovering images and want to continue later, you can work from a previously-scanned drive without needing to go through the whole process again.
Stellar Photo Recovery: Performance
Speaking as a longtime photographer, I’m always worried about losing my photos.
Yet I’ve never managed to find any recovery software that I really, truly trust, especially because there’s all sorts of dodgy options out there that aren’t worth the money.
But I am genuinely so impressed by Stellar Photo Recovery. It’s easy to set up, easy to use, and it works amazingly well. I tested it out on a 32 GB SD card that was full of Olympus RAW files. The card had been formatted twice in recent days – but Stellar Photo Recovery managed to bring back every photo from before the second wipe, and what appeared to be all 400+ photos from before the first wipe, all in perfect condition.
The most difficult thing about Stellar Photo Recovery is the waiting – as I explained above, the scan takes some time. But you don’t have to babysit the software, so you can easily get the scan started, go do something else, and come back in 30 minutes or so.
Now, I do think it’s important to be up front, here:
I didn’t try to restore any corrupted files, and my sense is that Stellar Photo Recovery works here but won’t always do a perfect job. So it’s certainly worth using for that sort of thing, but while recognizing that repairing corrupt files is inherently difficult and might not happen.
Also recognize that the more you overwrite files, the more Stellar Photo Recovery will struggle to recover the originals.
In other words:
Don’t take pictures, format the card, take more pictures, and only then try to recover the originals; instead, make sure any accidentally-formatted cards are immediately put aside for recovery.
If you don’t do this, your results will vary, depending on the amount of new photos you took.
Make sense?
Ultimately, I’m now a huge fan of Stellar Photo Recovery. And I guarantee it’ll be the software I turn to the next time I lose images.
Stellar Photo Recovery: Pricing
There are three Stellar Photo Recovery packages (all are available for both Mac and Windows):
The Standard package, which costs $ 39.99 for a one-year subscription, and offers complete recovery capabilities, but cannot repair corrupted files.
The Professional package, which costs $ 49.99 for a one-year subscription, and offers complete recovery capabilities plus the ability to repair corrupted photo files.
And the Premium package, which costs $ 69.99 for a one-year subscription, and offers complete recovery capabilities, the ability to repair corrupted photo files, plus the ability to repair corrupted video files.
Which should you get?
If you’re just looking to recover deleted files, the Standard package will work just fine.
But if you have corrupted image files, then the Professional package is a must.
And if you have corrupted video files, you’ll want to go for the Premium option.
So make sure to grab your version of Stellar Photo Recovery software here.
Who should get Stellar Photo Recovery?
Stellar Photo Recovery is a fantastic option for photographers and videographers looking to recover files.
It’s simple to use, its performance is impeccable, and I can’t recommend it enough.
So the next time you find yourself needing to perform file recovery or repair…
…turn to Stellar Photo Recovery.
Stellar is a paid partner of dPS.
The post Stellar Photo Recovery Software Review: An Easy Way to Reclaim Your Precious Photos appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.
Hähnel recently launched the Lantern Diffuser, a new speedlight diffuser that creates an exceptionally wide-angle spread of illumination in a very compact form factor by using a clever folding design. This new lighting accessory is just one part of Hähnel’s modular flash system and is designed to attach to hotshoe flash units via one of the company’s magnetic accessory clamps.
Jump to:
What is it? | How it works | What the light looks like | Conclusion
Key features:
Compact, folding design
Comes with six color gels
Works with Hähnel’s other modular magnetic accessories
Hähnel magnetic clamp is required and is a separate purchase
Compatible with most larger speedlight-style flashes from various manufacturers
The Lantern Diffuser is available now at B&H and other authorized Hähnel retailers for $ 99 USD.
What is it?
The Lantern comes in a kit that includes the diffuser along with a set of six colored gels and a gel holder that gets sandwiched between the magnetic clamp and the diffuser frame. The whole kit comes in a folding wallet that also has room for the magnetic clamp that isn’t part of the kit – but which is essential for its use. The clamp is central to the company’s range of clip-on accessories and needs to be bought separately.
The diffuser is made using a fan of concertinaed white material that both diffuses the light and sends it out over a 180° angle as the flash passes through it, with the idea of producing a very soft light that covers a very wide area.
I was initially concerned about how well the fanned out diffuser would survive lots of use, drops and getting its delicate design dented, but in all the use I made of it I didn’t manage to damage it. I guess if you dropped your flash with it attached and it landed face down the consequences mightn’t be good, but so long as you don’t do that it should be fine.
The kit comes in a roll-up pouch and includes 6 colored gels, a magnetic gel holder and the diffuser itself
When not in use it folds away into itself and is protected by the rigged plastic-covered metal ends. I haven’t used it long enough to know whether it will yellow with time, and the weather has been too good to test it outside in the rain – I’d be nervous to do that with the Lantern, while my softboxes would just dry out.
I’m a big fan of good speedlight accessories that are easy to use, which don’t take up a lot space and which have a dramatic impact on the characteristics of the light produced. And I have quite a collection, from inflatable frosted panels to snoots, softboxes and those yogurt-pot-like tubes the flash fires up into. This Lantern is quite different to anything else I’ve used, so I wanted to give it a try.
How it works
This video from Hähnel shows how the Lantern folds and attaches to a flash of your choice.
I used this diffuser on the Hähnel Modus 600RT flash unit, both on the camera and off using a Viper TTL trigger for Micro Four Thirds cameras and Panasonic full-frame S-series cameras. The Modus 600RT is the more powerful of Hähnel’s speedlights, and offers a guide number of 60m at ISO 100 at the 200mm zoom setting.
To attach the Lantern to the flash, I used the Module 600 clamp which, with its sprung grip, will fit most larger hotshoe style flash guns from all manufacturers. The clamp grips the head of the speedlight with the Hähnel logo facing forwards and the Lantern diffuser sticks to it when the magnets in each item attract. The gel holder can go on first, which offers a more obvious placement for the diffuser, but it doesn’t have to. Take a look at the video above for a clearer picture of how it all works.
Used in the hotshoe the light from the Lantern Diffuser is direct and straight on, but very much softer than you’d expect from such a small accessory.
Overall, the Lantern diffuses light more than you’d expect from such a small flash accessory. With a bare bulb the light would be much harder and highlight on the sun-creamed forehead would be dramatic and distracting. The accessory is small enough to create a definite direction, but the multi-layered diffusion makes that light seem quite gentle.
The Lantern diffuser folds in half, so we attach one half to the magnetic clamp and then unfold the other half to get the full 180° dome effect.
What it looks like
I started by testing the spread and the evenness of the light the diffuser gives by clamping the flash onto a stand using Hähnel’s Bowen’s mount adapter and firing the flash at a blank wall.
The difference in spread is immediately clear when you compare the Lantern-diffused exposure with that of the bare head and even when an 80cm/31in double-diffused square softbox was used instead. The Modus 600RT is a TTL gun, but if you shoot manually expect to lose about 2 stops of light due to the Lantern diffuser – about the same as when using the softbox with the extra internal diffuser sheet – but a much wider spread of illumination.
This is the coverage of the flash with no modifier
The flash was left in the same position, but with the Hähnel 80cm softbox attached
Here’s the same arrangement but using the Lantern diffuser
And the same again, but with a green gel in the gel holder
What is significant about this little diffuser is that it offers both a diffused and a bounced light effect, so the light is very soft once it reaches the subject. The softness is remarkable considering how small the accessory is and that the flash is still effectively a point source. Shadows are defined but filled at the same time, and lack the hard-edged contrast we get with a bare head.
The Lantern Diffuser avoids that artificial look of a direct burst from an uncovered flash bulb
I found that even when used with the flash mounted on the camera the light is dramatically altered, and still provides a nice softness when used quite close to the subject. It avoids that immediately artificial look of a direct burst from an uncovered bulb, or even that of a light bounced into a kicker reflector.
I tried the Lantern for some single-light still life shots with the flash at a relatively close range and a small subject – things that tend to bring out high contrast when hotshoe flash units are used. You can see though that the Lantern has done very well to produce a soft light that doesn’t display hotspots or reflections on the waxy surface of the avocado skin.
Click or tap-and-drag the arrow to see a soft box and the Lantern Diffuser differ.
The light is as soft as that produced by the 80cm softbox, though the shadow profile is slightly more defined due to the smaller surface area of the source. As the light from the Lantern is thrown around the room we get much more fill in the shadow areas too.
The spread of the light is also very impressive. The Lantern will light a room evenly when we are using a super-wide lens to fit it all in. This means we don’t have to worry about finding a clean white surface to bounce from. Fall off is more dramatic than with a bare bulb or a bounce, so a powerful gun will work best.
To give you an idea of the diffuser’s coverage, this was shot on the full frame Lumix S1R with a 9mm lens – at f/8 and 1/200sec at ISO 400. All the light on the foreground is from the flash. You can see that the post on the right as well as the tree trunk on the left are both lit with the flash. A 9mm lens has an angle of view of 135 degrees.
Conclusion
I’m very impressed with this Hähnel Lantern. It’s small, highly portable and weighs almost nothing, which means you can afford to carry it around in the camera bag even when you don’t actually get to use it without it having been a pain all day. The clamp is simple to fit and the gel holder and diffuser just snap on, so assembly is quick and easy too.
I don’t often use colored gels with single flash set-ups, but they are handy for second and third guns for rim lighting and coloring a background. Background lights with these diffusers on will be very useful, and the lack of hotspots, and their size, means they are ideal for hiding within the shot without the danger of them producing give-away bright blasted areas.
I have a lot of rubbish accessories, and others that are well thought out but the size of studio modifiers so you can’t carry them around on the off-chance that you might need them. This though sits in a side pocket of a bag ready for that moment you want to soften a burst of flash whenever it happens to occur. I would also actively take this with me to light backgrounds, multiple people facing inwards, for filling in on a sunny day and for using as the main light for a portrait or a still life.
The flash was held just off-camera for this shot. The defined shadow is still there but the light on the subject is soft and attractive. The subject was in the shade and exposure was 1/200sec at f/9, so almost all the light on the subject was provided by the flash.
I love using speedlites for ‘proper’ photography especially on location (I used two Hähnel Modus 600RT units with a softbox and a small dish for the male model shots in the Hasselblad 907X sample gallery) and this will definitely be joining the collection of tools I use – and ousting a few that simply don’t do the job so well.
The Hähnel Module Creative Lantern Kit costs £59.99/$ 99.99. For more information see the Hähnel website.
What we like:
Amazingly well diffused soft light
Really wide, even spread of light
Small and easy to carry all the time
Quick to assemble
Nice pouch and accessories
Don’t like:
Dome feels a bit fragile, though it hasn’t dented yet
Gels are strong and for dramatic effects rather than colour correction
The post 6 Tips for Capturing Dramatic Skies in your Landscape Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Hillary Grigonis.
Don’t let the “land” in landscape photography fool you; a great landscape photo relies just as much on the sky as the land. Boring gray skies make for boring landscape photos, after all!
That said, capturing a dramatic sky in-camera is trickier than it seems. When the sky is lighter than the land, your camera will typically overexpose it, turning a brilliant blue into a vague and unexciting gray or white.
But with a little fine-tuning, it is possible to capture a sky that is the cherry on top of a great scene! Here are six tips for capturing more dramatic skies in your landscape photography.
1. Time it right
Landscape photography may not require the split-second timing that’s necessary for capturing a toddler’s smile or a wide receiver’s catch, but timing is still a big part of the picture. The sky that’s gray one day could be bright blue the next. So when planning out a landscape photo, consider how the timing will impact the sky.
Watch for weather patterns that add interest to a shot, like a storm brewing just above the horizon. Weather plays a big role in the overall mood of the image – so if you’re hoping to capture a dark and gloomy shot, head out when the sky is stormy.
On the other hand, if you’re hoping to capture a more relaxed or happy photo, look for blue skies dotted with clouds.
The time of day matters, too. While the middle of the day will produce the most shadows on the land, it’s when the sky tends to be the clearest blue. And just after sunset and just before sunrise is often a good time to capture wispy clouds and a warmer tint of light.
Of course, sunrise and sunset is great for dramatic skies, as well.
2. Try the wrong white balance
Photography rules are sometimes meant to be broken, including rules about always using the correct white balance.
You see, the wrong white balance setting can create a more dramatic sky. This is especially true when shooting toward the beginning or end of the day – using a different white balance preset will adjust the color in the sky.
Auto, Cloudy, and Shade white balance presets will get you an orangish sunset with a light blue sky (with slight variations in warmth depending on the setting you choose). A florescent setting, on the other hand, will typically turn an orange sunset purple with a brilliant blue sky. Tungsten offers a similar effect, but with even deeper colors.
Using Kelvin temperatures to adjust your white balance results in even greater control over the colors in the sky. At around 5500K, you’ll usually capture a sunny sky with an accurate white balance – that is, where things that are white are still white in the picture, and where things that are gray are still gray in the picture.
A higher temperature – 6500K, for example – will give the land an orange glow but also enhance the colors in a sunset. A cooler temperature, on the other hand (e.g., 3000K), will play up the blues and purples. By using the Kelvin scale, you have more options for picking a white balance setting that best captures the colors in your photos.
Here, the white balance was altered in post-processing to warm up the sky.
While it’s always best to get the shot right in-camera, shooting in RAW offers you even more flexibility when it comes to adjusting the colors in the sky (and the rest of the image, for that matter).
If you overdid things by making the shot too warm or too cool, you can easily adjust a RAW photo in post-processing, so that you use the color temperature that best fits the image. If you have a landscape photo that you already shot in RAW, open it and try different white balance presets, or the temperature slider, to see first-hand how shooting with a different white balance would have impacted the shot.
3. Compose for the sky
When the sky is more dramatic than the land, why not use that to determine your composition?
Pay attention to where you place the horizon when you are composing your shot. Use the rule of thirds to imagine the image is divided into threes, then place the horizon on one of those horizontal lines. If you are shooting a photo with an average-looking sky, try placing the horizon on the upper third of the image, so more of the land is included in the photo, like this:
As the sky here isn’t very dramatic, the higher placement of the horizon improves the composition.
But if the sky is really dramatic, take advantage of that and include more of it in the frame – by placing the horizon on the lower third:
The sky here is dramatic, so the image was composed to show less ground and more sky.
4. Use a filter
There are two filters every landscape photographer should have in their camera bag in order to capture more dramatic skies.
The first is a graduated neutral density filter. Now, a regular neutral density filter is like putting sunglasses over your lens – it limits the light coming in for bright scenes or long exposures. But a graduated neutral density filter places that darkening effect only on a portion of the image. And by positioning the dark portion of the filter over a bright sky, you can properly expose the entire scene.
Without a graduated neutral density filter, the sky will often be overexposed and bland, or the land will be underexposed and dark. With the filter, you can achieve an exposure that works for both portions of the scene. The only downside is that graduated neutral density filters don’t work as well with an uneven horizon, like when shooting a cityscape. Graduated neutral density filters come in both circular and square formats, but the square is often preferred because you can place the horizon anywhere in the frame.
The second filter landscape photographers should use to capture more dramatic skies is a polarizing filter. Polarizing filters work by adjusting the reflected light coming through your camera lens. Since the sky is blue because of this reflected light, turning the front of the polarizing filter will adjust the intensity of the blues in the sky. Since polarizing filters only affect reflected light, they can still be used when mountains or buildings make the horizon uneven. Polarizing filters are also great for enhancing or removing reflections on water or other shiny surfaces.
5. Experiment with motion blur and long exposures
Long exposures aren’t just for photographing waterfalls. If you use a long enough shutter speed, the clouds will blur, too, creating a sky of wispy streaks and a slight feeling of motion.
To capture motion blur in the clouds, you’ll need to use a long shutter speed. The best settings will depend a bit on the weather and how much motion blur you’d like, but you can try starting with a two-minute exposure and adjust up or down from there.
If you are shooting during the day, you may not be able to balance out a two-minute exposure with a narrow-enough aperture or a low-enough ISO; instead, you’ll end up with a photo that’s way too bright.
So how do photographers capture motion blur in the clouds when the photo obviously wasn’t taken at dusk or dawn?
They use a neutral density filter – which helps block out some of the light so that you can set a long exposure during the day.
(Note that a neutral density filter is the same thing as a graduated neutral density filter, but the entire filter is dark instead of just half of the filter).
6. Use the Adobe Camera RAW Graduated Filter tool
While it’s always best to get the shot right in-camera, there are a few editing tools that can improve the sky in your landscape photos. One of those tools is the Graduated Filter inside Adobe Camera RAW (this works the same in Photoshop and Lightroom).
With the Graduated Filter, you can drag an effect over the sky in your photo. Like an actual graduated filter, the effect will only cover the top portion of the image and gradually fade away, making it possible to create natural-looking edits.
The Graduated Filter tool can be used to adjust the exposure, creating an effect much like an actual graduated neutral density filter. But the tool can also adjust contrast, saturation, clarity, sharpness, and color. That opens up a lot of possibilities for applying edits just to the sky for more drama – creating effects that sometimes can’t be done in-camera.
This is the original photo.
This is the same photo, but with a Graduated Filter used on the sky to increase the drama.
Capturing dramatic skies in your landscape photos: conclusion
The sky can make or break a landscape photo. From timing and composition to filters and post-processing, when you consider the sky as you shoot, you’ll end up with more dramatic, frame-worthy shots.
Do you have any other tips for creating dramatic skies in your landscape photography? Share them in the comments!
The post 6 Tips for Capturing Dramatic Skies in your Landscape Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Hillary Grigonis.
The post 10 Ways to Take Stunning Portraits appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Darren Rowse.
How do you take portraits that have the wow factor?
Today, I want to talk about taking portraits that are a little out of the box. You see, it’s all well and good to have a portrait that follows all the rules – but it recently hit me that often the most striking portraits are those that break the rules.
I want to look at some ways to break out of the mold and take striking portraits by breaking (or at least bending) the rules and by adding a little randomness to your portrait photography.
1. Alter your perspective
Most portraits are taken with the camera at (or around) the eye level of the subject. While this is good common sense, completely changing the angle that you shoot from can give your portraits a real wow factor.
Get up high and shoot down on your subject, or get as close to the ground as you can and shoot up. Either way, you’ll be seeing your subject from an angle that is bound to create interest.
2. Play with eye contact
It is amazing how much the direction of your subject’s eyes can impact an image. Most portraits have the subject looking down the lens – something that can create a real sense of connection between a subject and those viewing the image.
But there are a couple of other things to try:
A.Looking off-camera.Have your subject focus their attention on something outside the field of view of your camera. This can create a feeling of candidness and also create a little intrigue and interest as the viewer of the shot wonders what the subject is looking at. This intrigue is particularly strong when the subject is showing some kind of emotion (i.e., “What’s making them laugh?” or “What is making them look surprised?”). Just be aware that, when you have a subject looking out of the frame, you can also draw the eye of the viewer to the edge of the image, and this will take them away from the point of interest in your shot: the subject.
B. Looking within the frame. Alternatively, you could have your subject looking at something (or someone) within the frame. A child looking at a ball, a woman looking at her new baby, or a man looking hungrily at a big plate of pasta – it can all work. You see, when you give your subject something to look at that is inside the frame, you create a second point of interest and a relationship between it and your primary subject. It also helps create a story within the image.
3. Break the rules of composition
There are a lot of “rules” out there when it comes to composition, and I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with them. My theory is that, while composition rules are useful to know and employ, they are also useful to know so you can purposely break them – as this can lead to eye-catching results.
The rule of thirds is one rule that can be effective to break. You see, placing your subject dead-center can sometimes create a powerful image. And creative placement with your subject right on the edge of a shot can sometimes create interesting images.
Another “rule” that we often talk about in portrait photography is to give your subject room to look into. This can work really well – but again, sometimes rules are made to be broken.
4. Experiment with lighting
Another element of randomness you can introduce in your portraits is the way you light them. There are almost unlimited possibilities when it comes to using light in portrait photography.
Sidelighting can create mood, while backlighting and silhouetting your subject to hide their features can be powerful.
Also, using techniques like slow sync flash (as well as long exposures combined with light painting) can create impressive images.
5. Move your subject out of their comfort zone
I was chatting with a photographer recently who told me about a corporate portrait shoot that he had done with a businessman at his home. They’d taken a lot of head and shoulder shots, shots at the desk, shots in front of framed degrees, and other “corporate” type images. The photos had all turned out fairly standard – but there was nothing that really stood out from the crowd.
The photographer and the subject agreed that there were plenty of usable shots, but they wanted to create something special and out-of-the-box. The photographer suggested they try some “jumping” shots. The subject was a little hesitant at first, but stepped out of his comfort zone – and then, dressed in his suit and tie, started jumping!
The shots were amazing, surprising, and quite funny. The shoot culminated with the subject jumping into his pool for one last image!
While this might all sound a little silly, the shots ended up being featured in a magazine spread about the subject. It was the series of out-of-the-box images that convinced the magazine the subject was someone they’d want to feature.
6. Shoot candidly
Sometimes, posed shots can look somewhat…posed. Some people don’t look good in a posed environment, and so switching to a candid-type approach can work well.
Photograph your subject at work, with family, or doing something that they love. This will put them more at ease, and you can end up getting some special shots with your subject reacting naturally to the situation they are in. You might even want to grab a longer zoom lens to give your subject space and get really “paparazzi” with them.
I find that this can work particularly well when photographing children.
7. Introduce a prop
Add a prop of some kind, and you create another point of interest that can enhance your shot.
Yes, you might run the risk of taking too much focus away from your main subject. But you can also really add a sense of story and place to the image that takes it in a new direction, and gives the person you’re photographing an extra layer of depth that they wouldn’t have had without the prop.
8. Focus on one body part (and get close up!)
Use a lens with a long focal length, or get up close so that you can just photograph a part of your subject. Photographing a person’s hands, eyes, mouth, or even just their lower body can leave a lot to the imagination of the viewer.
Sometimes, it’s what is left out of an image that says more than what is included.
9. Obscure part of your subject
A variation on the idea of zooming in on one part of the body is to obscure parts of your portrait subject’s face or body. You can do this with clothing, objects, your subject’s hands, or just by framing part of them out of the image.
Doing this means that you leave a little to the imagination of the viewer. And you also focus the viewer’s attention on the parts of your subject that you want focused on.
10. Take a series of shots
Switch your camera into burst mode (also known as continuous shooting mode) and fire off several shots.
In doing this, you create a series of images that could be presented together, instead of just one static image.
This technique can work very well when you’re photographing children – or really when you’re photographing any active subject that is changing their position or pose in quick succession, like the runners below:
10 ways to take great portraits: conclusion
Capturing stunning portraits is easy – as long as you remember a few of these simple tips!
And if you’re interested in improving your portrait photography even further, make sure you’re subscribed to the Digital Photography School newsletter, where we share lots of photography tips and techniques every single week.
Also, make sure you check out the second half of this series here: 10 More Tips for Stunning Portrait Photography, as well as our Portraits: Making the Shot eBook!
And start taking some great portraits, today!
The post 10 Ways to Take Stunning Portraits appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Darren Rowse.
In the latest episode of ‘Darkroom Magic,’the George Eastman Museum’s historic photographic process specialist, Nick Brandreth, teaches viewers how to make a 35mm daguerreotype at home without the use of dangerous or expensive chemicals.
The daguerreotype gets its namesake from its creator, Louis Daguerre. The daguerreotype was introduced to the masses in 1839, becoming the first commercially viable photographic process. Although it fell out of favor about a decade later, the process has distinct characteristics that made it the process of choice for some specialists throughout the 20th century.
Nick Brandreth with some of his 35mm daguerreotypes
As Brandreth says, the at-home daguerreotype process is quite simple. In addition to a 35mm camera, you need a silver plate, or in his case, a piece of copper with silver plating. Orange or red glass is required in lieu of using mercury, which is part of the traditional daguerreotype process. You need iodine fuming materials and a glass vessel. Additionally, polishing materials are required to give your silver plate a mirror-like finish. The full ingredients are shown in the video below.
After you have gathered your materials, you must first buff and polish the silver plate. The first step requires a buff, olive oil, and rottenstone compound. This step removes any big scratches. Be sure to wash the plate with soap and water in between steps. The next stage is to polish the plate using lampblack, bringing the plate to a mirrored finish.
You’ll need a variety of materials to do this project, but they’re all safe, unlike the mercury used in the traditional daguerreotype process.
With the polished plate ready, the next stage is fuming. Combining silica gel beads and pure elemental iodine in a glass, you create a fuming material and place the polished plate above it, creating a photosensitive surface. The surface is sensitive to ultraviolet, violet and blue light, so you’ll want to expose it with natural light or a suitable artificial light source.
Orange or red glass is used to develop the plate. It takes between 30 and 45 minutes to fully develop the plate. It will then require fixing and a finishing stage.
The plate is now ready to be exposed. Place it inside your 35mm camera and the camera’s pressure plate should keep it stable. After exposure, it’s time for the ‘magic to happen,’ as Brandreth says. Place your exposed plate under a piece of red or orange glass and hit it with sunlight or a strong work light. You can watch the plate develop over the next 30 to 40 minutes. After this, give it a smooth, consistent fix and then wash the plate. To watch the finishing stage, be sure to watch the video above, as it requires a few steps.
If you’re interested in the science and art of photography, you can learn more about workshops at the George Eastman Museum’s website. Many more interesting videos can be viewed on its YouTube channel.
The post Under $ 10 Holiday Deals: Deal 1 from Photzy appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Darren Rowse.
Instead of our usual 12 Days of Christmas promotion, we’ve considered the impact of the year to date and selected just 4 deals to promote (one per week) during December, all under USD$ 10. We hope you can find a little something to treat yourself or a loved one these holidays. We’ve negotiated some amazing deals for you with our trusted partners, who pay us a commission and have added some extra special bonuses for you.
Our first “Under $ 10 Holiday Deal” is from our trusted partner Photzy, and is a great alternative to their full set of Snap Cards . . .
Have you ever gone out to shoot, but forgotten a technique you recently learned?
We don’t all have a photographic memory, so having a compact reference guide at hand can help you recall what you learnt.
That’s why the folks over at Photzy made these 20 printable Photography Training Cards called “Snap Cards”.
As part of our Under $ 10 Holiday Deals, they’re offering them to dPS readers for just $ 7USD. And they have already been flying off the shelves! It’s unbelievable how popular these cards are every time we mention them.
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Aperture Explained
Shutter Speed Explained
ISO Explained
Shooting Modes Explained
Auto Focus Modes Explained
Taking Sharp Pictures
Exposure Compensation Explained
Landscape Photography Checklist
Tips on Photographing Night Scenes
Composition Tools
Portrait Cropping
Working with Natural Light
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Happy Holidays Darren and the dPS Team
The post Under $ 10 Holiday Deals: Deal 1 from Photzy appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Darren Rowse.
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