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Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Seven Common Mistakes When Taking Digital Photos

You have probably taken photos before just to find out later that they did not come out as expected. Although digital cameras are getting smarter there are still a lot of decisions that the photographer has to make. There are also many mistakes that the photographer can make. Here are seven common ones.
Many mistakes can ruin a photo. Here is a list of seven common ones. The first step to avoid these is to understand what they are and why they ruin a photo. The second step is to be aware of them when shooting your photos.
Out of focus: An out of focus photo looks blurry and has low contrast. Usually such a photo is useless and can not be corrected. Most digital cameras can automatically set the focus for you and in most cases they choose the right focus for the scene. Some scenes however are harder to focus on and can fool the camera’s auto focus mechanism. If you are using an SLR camera you can make sure that the objects are in focus by looking through the viewfinder. Most cameras sound a short beep when the focus is locked and also display a green rectangle around the area that they focused on. Always make sure that this area is where the objects that you care about are. For example if there are two objects in the scene in different distances from the camera make sure that the camera focused on the object you want.
Blurry photos: Blurry photos are most likely the result of camera shakes. Learn how to hold your camera to minimize shaking: it should be held firmly with two hands and it should “touch” your face. If you are shooting photos using slow shutter speeds you should use a sturdy tripod to prevent shaking. If you can not guarantee that the camera will be stable – for example if you are shooting while you’re moving – set the camera to shutter priority and choose a fast shutter speed (assuming of course that the light conditions allow such setting) – for example setting the shutter speed to anything faster than 1/250 of a second will most likely guarantee a non blurry photo even if the camera shakes a bit.
Underexposed: Photos that are underexposed look dark and lack details. The reason for underexposed photos is setting the exposure too low. Although the camera can measure ambient light and make the exposure decisions for you it can be confused by more complicated scenes. For example if there is a very bright light source in the photo it can confuse the camera to believe that there is enough light in the scene for a low exposure setting. The result will be a photo that captures the bright area but darkens all the others. Usually you can assume that scenes that have extreme lighting gaps between different areas confuse the camera – for example if a quarter of the photo is very bright and the rest is very dark the camera is likely to set the wrong exposure. In such cases you can manually correct the exposure.
Overexposed: Photos that are overexposed have blown out areas and sometimes are completely saturated and white. The reasons for overexposed photos are similar to underexposed ones. The camera makes an exposure decision that is incorrect due to complicated scene conditions. In such scenes you can manually correct the exposure.
Shaded objects: A good example of shaded objects is when taking a portrait photo in daylight. The camera measures enough ambient light to set a low exposure value. Although there is enough ambient light shades can appear on the object depending on the angle of the light source relative to the object. For example if the object’s face is lit from the side the object’s nose can create shades. Or maybe if the object is wearing a hat and is lit from above the hat can create shades on the object’s face. The camera can not automatically correct such shades. By understanding what causes shades you can easily eliminate them by turning on the fill-in flash. Firing the fill-in flash (make sure that the object is within flash range) will remove the shades from the object.
Red eye: This is a very common phenomenon. When taking photos of people or animals using a flash in a dark environment the eyes have some red glow in them. There are a few things that you can do to prevent red-eyes: some cameras support a “red eye reduction” mode. In that mode the camera fires the flash a few times before taking the photo. Although this can help reducing red-eye it can also result in photos of people with their eyes closed (as they are blinded by the pre-flash their reflex is to close their eyes). Other ways to prevent red-eye is to use bounce flash (you can do that with special equipment or for example by pointing the flash to a white wall) and using more ambient light if possible (for example by turning on all the lights in the room). Some cameras include built-in image processing software that automatically removes red-eye from the photos or alternatively you can use many software packages on your home computer to accomplish the same.
Dark Silhouettes: When taking photos with a bright light source behind the object (for example when the sun is behind the object) the result will be a silhouette of the object. One example is taking a photo of someone on the beach against a sunset. The result will be a dark silhouette of the person with a good photo of the sunset background. This problem can be solved using a fill-in flash. The fill-in flash lights the object making sure that it is captured with all its details. Simply remember to use a fill-in flash when taking pictures of objects with a bright light source behind them. One limitation is that the objects must be within the flash range – otherwise the flash is useless and they will appear as silhouettes in the photo.

By: ziv haparnas

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Saturday, March 17, 2007

Lenses to choise

The speach of the photographer is very curious, cause usually professionals use the different words about lenses and other digital equipment. So, I created a simple guide to professional lenses names.

Normal Lens - This lens will give you the angle of view that you normally see with the naked eye. A lens about 50 mm (Pentax 43 or Helios 56) on a 35mm camera is considered a normal lens. Remember the digital cameras have sensor smaller than 35mm (since you haven't got Mark I or EOS 5D, than why you're reading this). For Canon you need to multiply focal length on lens to get a real number by 1.6; Nikon/Minolta/Sony/Pentax and other x1.5; Olympus x2.

Wide Angle Lens - Good for landscapes, as well as big buildings, they also add foreground to your photograph. For a standart film camera, anything smaller than 38mm would be considered a wide angle. Best choice is a 24mm to 28mm. But sometimes you may need a wider angle.

Portrait Lens - Created specially for portraits, can be a good choise shooting naturemort. Anything between 75 and 150 mm focal length are considered for portrait lenses.

Telephoto Lens - These come in a variety of lengths, starting at 150mm and going up to 500mm. They are useful when you need to bring the subject closer, f.e. shooting car race or flying birds. For most purposes a 150mm or 200mm lens is recommended. The longer focal lengths are used for wildlife and sports photography where you must stay a long distance from your subject. Be sure to use a tripod and a fast shutter speed, if you are shooting with an extremely long lens.

Zoom Lens - Because they offer a range of focal lengths, these lenses are perfect for travel photography. They are very useful in isolating specific elements within your photographs. Zoom lenses cover a variety of focal lengths. Most common are a wide angle to a medium, such as a 28mm-80mm lens. Or a medium to a long, such as a 70mm-210mm lens.

Macro Lens - Macros come in a variety of fixed focal lengths or as a zoom lens with macro capability. This is a great lens to use when shooting close-ups of insects, flowers, or other small objects.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

New Look: Transform to Black & White

With digital photography, it's easy to transform a photo you've taken to black and white. Some cameras even have this ability inside. But what to do if we need both identical pictures: black & white and colorful photo. There is a solution, we need to Transform Colorful Photograph to Black and White Picture! Why so, but not a vice a versa? It is a simple answer: it is easier to lose something (colors), than to give something (colors).

There are different ways for this transformation, so I offer you the one I especially liked. This tutorial video is specially created to demonstrate how easy can transform to black & white photo can be.

Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Glamour Photography Secrets





What is the glamour photography? How to differ the glamour photography from simple human portrait?

Glamour photography is the photographing of a model to emphasize the subject, instead of the fashions or products endorsed.

Standards of glamour photography have changed over time, reflecting changes in social morals. For example, in the early 1920s, USA photographers like Ruth Harriet Louise photographed celebrities to glamourise their stature. During World War II pin-up pictures of scantily clad movie stars were extremely popular among US servicemen. However, until the 1950s, the use of glamour photography in advertising or men’s magazines was highly controversial or even illegal. Magazines featuring glamour photography were usually marketed as "art magazines” or “health magazines”.

Photographers all over the world use special techniques for taking this kind of photos. The light and soft-focus lens are the main points. With Rembrandt Lighting, key light placement determines the modeling (shadowing) on your subject. As described above, placing this light at 45 degrees between camera and subject and about 45 degrees above subject eye level, will give you what is termed Rembrandt Lighting. This is perhaps the most popular type of portrait and glamour lighting. The key light will cast a shadow from the nose that falls down across the face, joining with the shadowed side of the face, leaving a “triangle” of light on the cheekbone. The nose shadow should not fall below the mouth line for best effect. You can make a face thinner by shooting the shadowed side (called short lighting) or more full by shooting the side lit by the key light (called broad lighting). In boudoir portraiture and glamour photographs we often want a soft focus look to add a romantic look to the photos or to conceal skin blemishes. Traditionally, this was done by putting various soft focus filters on front of the lens. There are two problems with this approach. First, you are then having to focus the camera through the soft focus lens which can be hard at times. Secondly, you are stuck with the amount of soft focus that the combination of lens, lens aperture, and filter provide.

Usually, this kind of photography is used by the "glossy magazines". So, if you can make it, than why don't to try? There are plenty of photo galleries to fill up with your glamour photos :-) And it doesn't matter that we leave the soft focus filters at home and use Photoshop to add the effect later, which allows us to add just the right amount of soft focus effect that we need.



 

Monday, March 5, 2007

Let's Remove Wrinkles

This tutorial shows how to remove wrinkles from a photo in just few easy steps, using Photoshop.



If you use other technique for removing wrinkles (I know some people do), feel free to leave a comment, so I can include it in the post.