Category: Tips

Phil Tughan found us these  great videos on white balance:

• Mike Browne on the basics of white balance
• Mike Browne on dealing with mixed white balance
• Phil Steele (uses grey card as reference)
• Mark Wallace from Adorama TV (uses grey card as reference, but mentions that there are other more accurate tools)
• Lynda.com (says grey or white can be used but uses white)

and a new twist from Marlene Hielema who says:

• I’m not talking about White Cards – but White Balance cards. Very big difference. The Canon manual is wrong. 18% Grey cards are for exposure, not for White Balance. In my classroom, I have lined up several 18% Grey cards in a row and they are visibly different colours, because that is not their purpose. Their purpose is to reflect a certain amount of light for metering purposes. You might think they are neutral and maybe you’ll get lucky once in awhile, but they are not exactly neutral.
• Yes. But 18% grey cards vary the most as they were not designed for colour, but for exposure. So in one of my classes I got all my photo students to bring in their grey cards and we shot them all in one frame and there were many “colours” to choose from.
• It will be close, and for most people close enough. You really need to do a side by side comparison with a proper calibrated WB card to get the true custom WB. Try the Xrite color checker passport and you’ll see the difference. The 18% Grey cards are printed on paper and will fade quickly over time. Actually all of the calibration cards will.

Natural Light in Photography

Paying more attention to light is perhaps the most important step you can take to improve your photography.  Different types of natural light can also produce a wide variety of subject appearance even though these all have the same light source.  Three factors influence how natural light renders a subject; time of day, camera direction and weather.
Overview:  Even though all natural light originates from the sun, a subjects illumination is actually composed of several components.

Direct sunlight – warmer, high contrast.
Diffuse Sunlight – cooler, low contrast.
Bounced Light – has qualities of reflecting object.

Weather:  Along with time of day, the type and extent of cloud cover is the other most influential cause of lighting variation.

Clear Midday Sunshine, is primarily composed of direct downward sunlight.  This results in the hardest and most neutrally-coloured lighting of any time of day. Due to these drawbacks, too often photographers put their cameras away-potentially missing unique opportunities.  For example, water may appear more transparent, since the light penetrates deeper.  If shadows appear too harsh and colours aren’t sufficiently saturated, try converting to Black and White, since these may even benefit from the high contrast of midday light.

Evening and Mid Morning, becomes slightly warmer and begins to cast noticeable shadows.  Subjects appear more three-dimensional.  It is not as neutrally coloured as midday, but not as warm or intense as sunset and not soft and diffuse as during twilight or overcast, but these qualities make it a good all-round time of day for photography, but also run the risk of making photographs appear too ordinary.

Golden Hour and Sunrise/Sunset are typically regarded as having the most desirable light to photograph.  Horizontal light that cast long shadows and gives subjects a warm glow.  Make sure your cameras Auto White Balance doesn’t counteract an otherwise warm-looking scene.  When the lighting is most dramatic is also when your camera is most likely to make an error with its exposure; take several shots or use partial or spot metering.  Sunrises often have calm quiescent quality particularly with scenes involving water – that isn’t present during Sunsets.

Twilight, Dawn and Dusk typically describes the 1/2 hour before sunrise and after sunset, when the sky is still bright. but there’s no longer any direct sunlight, with one side of the sky appearing warm and reddish and the other becoming a cool blue or purple..  Cameras can often overexpose a twilight scene when using auto exposure, potentially washing out the otherwise delicate colours.

Shade and Overcast Sunlight typically have a cool soft appearance since the source of such light is spread across the entire sky and doesn’t include any direct sunlight.  Many photographers shy away from this type of lighting but doing so is often a mistake.  Depending on the degree of cloud cover, bright overcast light can be ideal for outdoor portraits and wildlife , as can subjects containing both dark and light colours,since it doesn’t cast harsh shadows.  A common trick is to keep grey sky out of the picture unless the clouds are moody and highly textured.  Images straight out of the camera often appear more bluish than desired, so shoot in RAW and adjust White Balance afterwards.
Stormy weather can produce extremely light contrast since rain clears the air of haze and dust.  Sunsets after a storm are also often the most dramatic.

Other scenarios include photographing in the fog, mist and haze which not only decreases light’s contrast but also does so progressively for most distant objects.

Marg Jackman

This video may be a good primer for Depth of Field and may be a good one to show during the club meeting. It is 6:13 minutes in length.

Part 1- Short Lens by Mike Browne

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uU9O8c7Hss

And here is the other part of Mike’s demonstration where he pulls it all together

Part 2- Long Lens by Mike Browne

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98-WvzWvt7M

This one is pretty basic and is fairly easy to understand

By Cam Crunch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHxG1f3X1f4

This one is a bit more technical and is explained with drawings. While a little harder to get your head around, it may help to shed light on the concepts in a different way.

By Dylan Bennett

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34jkJoN8qOI

Some good tips on shooting photographs that require a very wide depth of field.

By lynda.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlQaiCPTFS4

(Hint: Also, search YouTube for “Hyperfocal Distance”)

Some good demonstrations on shooting portraits with a shallow DOF

By Adorama TV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUYuUs1aaCU

There are many Depth of Field Calculators available online and in Apple and Android environments. You can simply dial in your Camera Sensor Size, Aperture Value, Focal Length and Distance to Subject. The DOF calculator will give your DOF for those values.

Phil Tughan

At the April 7th meeting Ron Pearce gave us an excellent presentation on how to enhance an image by creating a composite with textures. His images are available here.

Click here to see Anne Jones’ notes on iPhone Photography from the April 7th meeting.

Anne also mentioned PhotoSync for moving photos between her Apple devices.

Figure Out What Type of Photographer You Are

You should try shooting all sorts of stuff – from food to landscapes, from portraits to sports, from products to travel, and everything in between.  When you are just starting out, shoot everything. And once you have done that, sit down and figure out what kind of photographer you really want to be and work on that.

The first step is to take a good look at the stuff you’ve been shooting and ask yourself, “Which one of these do I seen to have knack for? Or, Which shots have people told me I have a knack for?  Chances are there is something you shot that you particularly felt you had a knack for – you just kind of knew what to do.

Okay, that’s step one (and it might be more than one thing – you might feel like you have a knack for travel, sports and natural light portraits, and that’s okay).  The next step is to ask yourself, “Which one of these do I really enjoy shooting?”  This is really important, because this is what you should be focusing on.  There’s no sense at getting really good at product photography when what you really want to be is a natural light portrait photographer.

But, few photographers, even more experienced ones, really sit down and think this through – they just shoot what comes their way.  And while they may wind up being competent at shooting a lot of different things, I’m guessing being competent isn’t your goal (it’s like getting a C+ in class).  Finding who you are as a photographer allows you to focus your learning, your energy, and your time in the right direction.  When you start to get good at what you really enjoy, this is when the magic happens.

Marg Jackman

Did you know that Friday March 31st is World Backup Day?

If your computer or smartphone failed tomorrow or it was infected with ransomware, all the files it contains could be lost! Would you lose all your precious photographs?

Do you have a backup plan in place?

If you need help with setting up a backup procedure why not book an hour with one of the Seniors Council’s computer tutors? They can help you set up a safe, thorough and automatic backup procedure for all your files.