Correcting colors on an image is one of the most widely used applications of photo-correcting software. Let us take a closer look at how and why this can be done.
The truth is, that any digital camera, however much effort has been put into its color correction and white balance settings; creates a color cast under certain situations. This is thanks to the different ‘color temperatures’ of different kinds of lights.For example, our everyday tube lights have a ‘cooler’ tone as compared to the ‘warm tone’ bulb lights from incandescent light sources. No auto white balance setting can be so perfect (at least not till today) that it can accommodate changes for a variety of light sources such as fluorescent, neon, bulb, tube light and daylight. Most cameras perform well under daylight. So what do you do when you get an image with a color cast? Well, you open Adobe Photoshop!
Check this image out for instance. The skin tones clearly tell you that it has a yellowish and unnatural tone. Well, we open the image in Photoshop, and then open the color corrections option. In fact it is called color balance in Photoshop, and you can reach this panel under IMAGE-ADJUST-COLOR BALANCE-
This shows you a sliding tool. In fact it shows you 3 sliding adjustments wherein you can adjust the red, green and blue tones - consequently adjusting their complimentary tones of Cyan, Magenta and Yellow respectively. Consider the image in question. We have declared that it has a markedly yellowish tone. This is obviously due to the fact that it was photographed under something like bulb light with the camera’s white balance set to daylight. Most compact camera users never fiddle with the camera’s white balance settings, and this is exactly what you can expect as a result. Anyway, we declare that it has a yellow tone simply by looking at the image.
Once you have the sliding tool open under the COLOR BALANCE option on Photoshop, we need to reduce the yellow. In other words, we increase the blue. Either way you look at it, it has the same effect on the image nevertheless. When we reduce the yellow (and a bit of red as well), the image begins to look much better - in fact we have adjusted it to clearly look much better, almost as if it were photographed under daylight -
Do keep in mind that the color correction tools cannot have an effect over the exposure (or the brightness level) of the images. It simply replaces one color tone with another of your choice. However, the wrong color balance at times does seem to look like there is a problem with exposure.
Photoshop also has an auto color correct option. Look under IMAGE menu (IMAGE-ADJUST-AUTO COLOR). This works very well at times, but we have learned that one can get much better results by doing the correction manually using the above described process.
Photographing pets is one of the most common of reasons why people buy cameras at all. Pets, children, family get-togethers and the likes of such everyday subjects make up the blk of photography of the ‘usual’ kind. Since photographing pets is one of the most common of reasons for people investing into cameras, we decided to run an article on how this can be done best.
When you are taking photographs of pets, remember it is much like photographing toddlers. Babies trust very few people, and so do pets. It will be difficult to get good images of a pet if its owner is not on location, especially if it is only a few times that you have met the animal. So, make sure that the pet owner is around, and ask him or her to interact with the pet as you look on and take photographs. Photographing a portrait of the pet with its owner is also a great idea. If you are looking for an individual portrait shot of the animal, you could ask the owner to stand by your side while you focus your camera on the dog or whatever it is that you are photographing. Well, thats the psycological part of things, now for the technical.
Use slightly higher shutter speeds, because the movement of an animal can be quite unpredictable, especially in the case of very young and active ones. Cats tend to dart at things all of a sudden, and so do puppies. Wait for the right moment - this is imperative. Pets rarely pose for you. Keep the animal in the vie finder at all times and be ready to fire away at literally a moment’s notice. More often than not, you miss the good shots simply because your finger was not present on the shutter release button, even if your eye was on the viewfinder. Keeping all this in mind, it is good to use fast ISO settings and greater depth of field and shutter speeds. However, if the pet tends to sit still for a bit, go to the larger apertures and thus blur out the back ground.
Another HUGE point here - ALWAYS get down to the eye level of the pet while photographing a portrait. It works wonders as far as composition goes, and also makes things more ‘personal’ if you may. You can interact much better with the animal from it’s eye level. The greatest pet portraits, as you will see on web sites and in magazines, have been photographed from low levels, in other words - the eye levels of the pets.
Finally, you may want to make sure that the pet is looking well-groomed, especially if the shoot is for professional reasons. A shining coat of fur makes the pet, and thereby our photograph, look that much better. Go ahead, have a great time photographing pets!
A telephoto lens is a lens which is considerably longer in focal length, compared to the ‘normal’ 50mm equivalent (on 35mm film cameras). When you use a long focal length lens, quite a few things happen - your depth of field becomes shallower (as seen in previous article), your images appear sharper as a result, the perspectives become flatter (background objects appear bigger than they do to the normal eye or the normal lens), and then you have a lot of technical mumbo jumbo to take care of as well. Lets look at some of that mumbo jumbo.
When you use a telephoto lens, your hands have to be that much steadier. This is thanks to the obvious reason that the longer the telephoto, or the focal lenght of the lens, the greater the dimensions of the lens, and the greater the difficulty of holding the thing steady. Simple physics tells us that the longer the ‘arm’ from the ‘fulcrum’, the more is the effect felt on the end of the arm when the fulcrum is disturbed. If you don’t understand that, no worries. It simply means, the longer the lens, the more chances you have of getting shaky pictures. The longest tele lens that you should brave hand-held would be the 300mm. Here is a rule to swear by - make sure your shutter speed is at least the inverse of the focal length. There is no hard and fast technical logic behind this, but it is simply a convenient way of determining a rough minimum shutter speed setting, as a mental note. For instance, if you are shooting on the 200mm setting of a zoom lens, you will need to have a minimum shutter speed of 1/200 sec. However you will in all probability still have a negligible amount of shake on your images, only visible to the trained eye, or on enlarged prints. To get a brilliantly sharp image, always use a tripod with your telephoto lenses. Some lenses are so heavy they need their own tripods.
This image of a homeless man was photographed in Bombay, using a tele lens. Notice that the sizes of the people’s legs behind him appear the same size as his own legs. This would not have been the case if the image was photographed on a wide angle lens. Moreover, a negligible amount of shake is visible, which means the image cannot really be enlarged to say more than 6×4. But of course it was a candid image, so the photographer had no time to set his camera on a tripod. Anyway, what is to be demonstrated by this image is the flattened perspectives of telephoto lenses.
To put things in a nutshell,
Tele lenses flatten perspectives
They gave shallow depth of fields
They need higher shutter speeds (to avoid shake) if hand-held
Very long focal length telephoto lenses are used for wildlife and sports photography
Like most things in today’s world, there are two approaches to blurring out the background on your photographs - the classic method that is more difficult to master, but more rewarding at the same time; and the modern quick-fix digital method. It is good to be aware of both. But here we shall focus on the classic photographic techniques and leave the digital version to a later tutorial. The reason is, the digital version is a mimicry of the classic, so you would do well to be aware of the camera techniques.
Blurring out an area in front of or behind the subject is a very useful tool when you want to isolate your subject for obvious reasons. You understand how this is done when you understand the depth of field of the lens at the given aperture. As we know, an aperture determines the diameter of lens opening. The greater the aperture, the more light enters the camera and affects exposure. However, exposure is not the only effect of the aperture of a lens. Apertures also have a direct impact on the depth of field of the lens. When you focus on an object using your lens focusing ring (or on auto focus as may be the case), there is an area in front of the subject as well as behind the subject that are both ‘in focus’ up to a point. Objects in front of the subject will gradually fall more out of focus the closer they are to you (and the further they are from the point of focus). This gradual change in the sharpness or ‘unsharpness’ of objects is what we call the depth of field or ‘d.o.f.’ of the lens at the given aperture. When you are able to get your backgrounds (or foregrounds) out of focus at will, you have become a better photographer. But don’t forget to make an appropriate change in shutter speed to compensate for the increased amount (or decreased amount) of light that is allowed to enter the lens, with the change in aperture.
Take for example, the above image. It made a batter photograph to have the background out of focus. For this, the photographer used a large aperture. Another factor which has an impact of depth of field is the focal length of the lens. A longer focal length (’zoomed in’ for the beginners) produces a shallower depth of field. A 300mm telephoto lens was used to photograph the sample image of a bird in the hands of its rescuer. A wide angle lens has the exact opposite affect and produces a larger depth of field - directly proportional to the ‘wideness’ or shorter focal length. So - the shorter the lens focal length the more the depth of field, the longer the focal length the less depth of field. Also - the larger the aperture the less the depth of field, the smaller the aperture…you get the picture. Use focal length and aperture to control your d.o.f.
How many times do we hear of people going out to buy a camera and ending up with something too complicated, something not applicable to their use, something they cannot understand or use easily? The first thing you need to keep in mind is the fact that what is applicable to one photographer may not be the right camera to you. Ask yourself why you want the camera at all - is it for your outings with family friends and for snap shots? Is it for dedicated segments such as landscape, architectural or panoramic photography? Are you a professional photographer looking for a versatile system? Cameras have conveniently been divided into the basic divisions of compacts, prosumer level and professional cameras. Let us look at the major differences between the categories. Of course this article is aimed at the absolute novice, who does not have much of an idea about photography.
Compact cameras are generally aimed at the non-professional segment of the camera buyers. However, this by no means implies that they are substandard cameras. It does imply that these cameras may have limited applications as compared to the versatile professional cameras. Compacts have in-built flashes, generally come with their own rechargeable batteries, have fixed lenses with a certain zoom range and today have interesting features such as image stabilization. Perfect for the odd family picnic and portraits with your friends. However, compact cameras usually do not allow you too many manual controls, which means they may not be the best bet for the creative minded. It is also true that compacts are able to deliver excellent pictures within their limited abilities.
SLRs are single lens reflect cameras, and have remained the favorite with photojournalists since the seventies when they became more popular than TLRs. SLR cameras have removable lenses, which make them versatile tools - you can use a different lens for every different type of photography. Maybe a wide angle for your interiors and landscapes, a 150mm for your portraiture, and a 500mm for sports photography. However, the ‘Dont use canon to kill mosquito’ philosophy is most applicable if you do NOT know much about photography and buy your self an expensive SLR simply because you believe the more money you shell out, the better the product you get. That may be true, but not of much use if you do not know how to use one, and neither wish to learn.
Prosumer cameras are rightly called semi-professional cameras as well. They generally have all the manual controls that you could ask for, have an SLR-like appearance but do not allow interchangeable lenses. However, some of them have such a wide range on the in built zoom lens, that you would probably never require to change lenses for most photographic applications. You do not spend money on extra lenses, and you never have a problem with dust getting in to harm the sensor. Such cameras are often used by upcoming photographers and students of the subject.
Many a time we (including professional photographers) miss out on great photographs thanks to careless errors. There is no substitute for discipline while you shoot your images, however experienced or inexperienced one may be. We have put down a set of five golden rules to keep in mind when you go photographing your subjects. More to follow later -
A. Always use a tripod - there is no other tip that one can stress on more than this. And it is often the most overlooked as well. While it is true that you can shoot acceptable images with a hand held camera, it is also true that your hands will have some amount of ’shake’. To get impeccable results, you will need to ensure that the camera is mounted on a tripod or a support, especially on shutter speeds lower than about 1/100 second.
B. Keep your fingers away from the flash - this is especially true with compact cameras, which usually have the in-built flash on the top left corner of the camera. That is also the area your forefinger rests when you hold the camera in a proper grip, and it is easy to let your finger get in the front of the flash, resulting in underexposed images, or a shadow on a part of the image. With digital cameras and preview screens, it is easy to see the error soon after you photograph your subject.
C. Think before you fire - in these days of instant everything, we forget at times that composition is one of the two crucial factors of a good photograph. Take the time to compose your frame - resist the urge to fire away at everything that you see. Do get a few shots and then rethink, re frame, re compose and THINK how you have arranged the subjects in your frame and why…
D. Visualize - Try and visualize the finished image on print/computer screen. This is especially true for studio photography and landscapes. When you are able to visualize the finished image, back track your thought process and plan out every step of the photo taking process - the lighting set up, the exposure points, the filter, the lens, the film/ISO level, the shoot timing, the model make up and costumes if any, the photo editing stage and finally the presentation. When you are able to break it up into segments like this, you have a control over your photography like never before, and you have arrived!
E. Use a UV filter - there are more uses to a UV filter than simply blocking out the UV rays. Remember, the filter costs you only a fraction of the amount you paid for your lens. Keep a UV filter attached to every lens that you have (considering it is an SLR of course). If you happen to scratch the ‘lens’ surface, you will find solace in the fact that you have only damaged the cheap filter, and not your lens surface.
Did you know that the first people to use a camera-like apparatus (the camera obscura) were in fact artists who needed to trace out the image of the landscape (or whatever subject before them)? Once they traced out the outline of the scene, they could go home and make their image at peace, with the right perspectives. After this, the eventual and logical next step was to try and capture the ‘tracing’ on a paper rather than hand-draw it. And this is what led to the birth of the classic black and white process we are so very familiar with today. Many different light sensitive processes and chemical coatings were used and experimented with until the silver halide was accepted as the most dependable. This is what we shall speak about…
The black and white photo chemical process involves three basic steps (be it paper or negative) - developing of the light sensitive material/ a water bath and finally making it a permanent impression using a fixing chemical. The black and white process is a fairly simple one compared to the later color chemical procedure, and can easily be undertaken in the comfort of a light tight room at your house. One of the most common developing agents or ‘developers’ as they are commonly called, was the D-76 chemical. You can purchase it at photo markets all over the world. Apart from this developer you will need to get a bit of ‘fixer’ or simply a small amount oh hypo crystals to begin processing your own black and white negatives or prints. Of course you will need three trays for the three stages of the process - developing, water wash and fixing.
Take the exposed film out of the camera in a light tight room. Take care that the room is completely light tight. Even a speck of a light leak can ‘fog’ your film and make it appear overexposed and over softened. As an alternative one could always use a developing tank to process an entire roll of film.
The film tank can develop an entire roll of film, and all you need is to load it in the dark, after which the lights can be turned on. Whatever method you choose, leave your film in the developer for about 5-7 minutes (check the developer packing for accurate instructions), after which the film needs to be immersed in a water bath for about 5-7 minutes. In case of the developing tank, you may agitate the tank mildly to ‘wash’ the film well. Once this stage is past, remember - the film is already developed but it is still light sensitive, which means it would eventually turn black if exposed to light. So - the final stage of fixing in the fixer (or hypo crystals) removes the light sensitivity of the film, and thereby ‘fixing’ the image. The lights can be turned on after about 6 minutes in the fixer, after which it is recommended you leave it immersed for another 10 minutes.
Being a black and white buff doesn’t always mean that you have to use film. Modern digital cameras are more than capable of shooting black and white files. Well, that is one way to create digital black and white photographs. The other method would be to first shoot in the normal color mode of your digital and then convert the file to black and white using an editing software. The only downside to the latter method is the fact that you will need to invest in an editing software (lets face it - no decent software is available free of charge). However, using post production techniques to get digital black and white images is by far the better option…for various reasons.
The most obvious advantage would be that you have a color back up. Not every photograph looks ‘better’ or ‘more suited to one’s liking’. When you have a color photograph you could always convert it to black and white at a later stage, maybe experiment with the file to see if the monotone version suits the subject. When you shoot in black and white you have already committed to using that version and there is no way you will be able to reproduce the colors if you wish for it later. Also, when you shoot using the black and white mode of the camera, you are recording only about 256 shades, whereas you are able to record thousands of shades on color. Starting with a color file, you would much better and more easily be able to give the black and white filter effects to the color file (black and white filter effects dealt with in a separate article).
To convert a digital file to a monotone, you should get your self a good editing software. We highly recommend that you stick to using Adobe’s Photoshop software for the simple reason that it is a world standard imaging software, and studios and photographers are constantly exchanging and working with the .psd format files. Once you have the file open in Photoshop, all you need to do is change it to monotone using the commands -
Go to the IMAGE menu - select MODE and sub select GREYSCALE
The first option is the simplest to understand, while the second and third have their own applications when you need to create sepia images etc. Once you are familiar with converting images to black and white on the computer, you will no doubt opt to do things this way rather than shoot in color on the camera. You will be able to make convenient comparisons between the color and BW versions of your photographs and then begin to learn what kind of images look better in the monotone format.
Once you learn a bit more on Photoshop you will also be able to convert isolated areas of an image to black and white (very common technique in jewelery ads) and add lighten or darken selective color areas on the B/W version. The latter technique is exactly what is achieved on B/W film using color filters.
As mentioned in the previous article, Ansel Adams introduced the famous ‘zone system’ to black and white photography. Also, we have seen that photographers try and get both extremes of gray (that is the colors black and white) in their print to make it look attractive. There are about 7 shades in between, the middle shade being ‘the middle gray’. The middle gray shade if often used to calculate the exposure, and in modern studios to compare and calculate white balance effects. More often than not, you will hear of the middle gray shade in reference to black and white photography.
These are the zones of Ansel Adams. If you notice, they are a gradual change from pitch black to paper white. As far as photography goes, one could look at that as totally underexposed to totally overexposed. Remember, you need to select the point in your landscape (or whatever subject you are photographing), from where you take your exposure. THIS point will appear as the middle gray in your image. If you want it to appear darker or lighter you need to under or over expose accordingly. Keep in mind that all other tones in the photograph would be equally affected from your exposure. If you have honed the skill of visualizing then this should be not very difficult. In any case you do get used to it over a period of time.So - when you are photographing a subject, you need to identify the middle gray or the center zone and take your exposure from that area in the scene/subject.
One cannot stress enough on this point - if you follow the camera’s (or hand held meter) meter reading, EVERY image will be similarly exposed. Let us illustrate this with a simple example. Take three cards of black, gray and white shade. Load black and white film into your camera (or shoot using the BW mode). Take meter reading from the different cards and expose accordingly. Every card will appear to be the middle gray in the three images. This is because, speaking in terms of reflected light readings 9which is what the camera does), the meter suggests (+) or (-) depending on the amount of light reflected back to it from the subject. A black subject will obviously reflect less light and that is why it compensates to make it appear the middle gray in your image. So, when you want a black object to appear the same shade in the image, you need to UNDEREXPOSE it adequately. Similarly when you wish for a white subject to appear white, you will need to OVEREXPOSE it accordingly.
Try experimenting with a variety of shades on black and white film (or mode) so as to make them appear the same shade/different shade as per your choice. Also, try and make the same object appear a darker or a lighter shade by controlling exposure. Soon you will begin to feel in control over the tonal range of your black and white photographs.
The famous black and white photographer Ansel Adams (recognized particularly for his zone system and landscape photography) coined the term visualization in the world of photography. To understand black and white composition (or color for that matter) it is extremely important to be aware of what visualization truly means. To put it simply, visualization refers to imagining the final print of the photograph in your mind, before you even press the shutter or plan on your exposure for that matter. It is not as simple as one may believe it to be. The fact is, it is not merely a reproduction of the scene in front of you that you always want on your photographs. You would want to get creative with your depth of field, you may want a certain shade to appear darker than what you see etc. Add to that the fact that you will need to visualize the scene (in fact the print of the final image) in black and white, and that is not something every one of us will be able to do with ease. It is imperative that a black and white photographer learn to see or visualize his or her images in shades of gray rather than in color. Some may find it easy to do so, and some may need time to hone their skills of visualizing. But do remember - visualization is much more important with black and white, although it is required in professional color photography as well.
So, when you compose your image, we see that the first thing you need to do is visualize the final print. Next, you will want to get your exposure readings. While it may seem that exposure is more to do with lighting that with composition, it is not so in black and white photography. The point from where you take your exposure readings can make all the difference to your final print, and you have more of a latitude with black and white film than with color film or digital cameras. Another great plus point while shooting in black and white (film) is the fact that color filters have an effect of darkening out complimentary colors and lightening the same color(as the filter).
In the simpler sense of the word composition, try and find subjects where you have extremes in brightness levels (NOT complimentary color). For example, a scene with strong lighting from one side, and strong shadow on the other would make a very special black and white print. Try shooting portraits against window light and you will see exactly what we mean.
When you begin to play with light and shade on black and white, you will soon see that it has much more of an effect on monotone than on color. A ‘good’ black and white print, it is often said, will have both the extremes of the gray tone - black and white - and a good deal in between. More on the tones later.
