Painless Digital Photo Tips
No-Hassle Fast Techniques for Everyone
Part 1
by JK and Steve McCrea
PREVENT FEATURELESS PHOTOS
Photos taken near water (or snow) run the risk of underexposure. An underexposed image lackscontrast and looks grey and washed out. A camera’slight meter is thrown off by a highly reflective surface.Behave counter-intuitively; turn the flash
On
whentaking your picture. Or leave it in automatic fullpower mode or in a “fill-flash” mode. The flash helpsto neutralize the highly reflective surfaces, reducingbacklight and underexposure problems. Another tipfrom an earlier column is to set the automatic cameraexposure to “cloudy” when shooting on the beach infull sun. It will add a subtle pink cast to sand thatwould otherwise look grey.
ALMOST TOO EASY BUT WHAT A DIFFERENCE
Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist Ron Laytner isknown for great people photos. His secret? Moveyour head to left or right of screen when taking your shot. Don’t take it when you’re looking directly intothe viewfinder. The subject will turn their attention just enough for the photo to look natural. Another protip: Don’t return from that Paris trip with full views of the Eifel Tower or a monument and a barelyrecognizable spouse somewhere ‘out there.’ You’reshooting too far away from both spouse andmonument. Stand far enough away to get the objectand very close to your spouse. Then use a larger aperture setting such as 8 or higher. Both the personand the Eiffel Tower will appear sharp and you’ll havea far better photo.
FACES AND SUNSETS PROPERLY EXPOSED
Photos of people in front of sunsets often don’t work.Use the flash and the subject’s face will beoverexposed. Don’t use the flash and although thesunset will look fine you can’t make out the face. Thesolution is to keep the flash but set your camera’s“flash exposure compensation” (EV or a one-stepbutton) to -1. The flash will then produce a moresubtle light. This technique also works when youwant visible puffy clouds in a blue sky, if subjects arefairly close to you in a dark room or to prevent whitefaces at a dinner table.
ONE TWEAK, SUPER PHOTOS
Digital “auto” users fear the Histogram. If you later auto-enhance or adjust tones, be brave, tweak itonce and get better photos. A histogram can be veryuseful. It tells the best tonal recording and is usuallycentered, showing the majority of the information inthe center of the scale. If you like to adjust, it’s better to slightly overexpose in the histogram for optimumtonal qualities. Viewing the histogram in your camera,the peak will be slighted weighted to the right (ETTR – “exposing to the right”). It means most of the data isrecorded in the brighter spots. This prevents“posterization,” abrupt changes in tones and shading.The image willnot look asgood on theview screen; itwill be a bitbright andlacking incontrast andsaturation. Theaim of ETTR isnot for photosto look great inthe camera butrather toproduce filesthat willprocess better and give asuperior end-result.
DON’T SKIPTHIS “QUICK& READY” DIGITAL SETTING
Photographers keep alert for the perfect shot whenwandering cities or traveling. You can’t afford tohesitate when you spot a child playing cat-toss in themiddle of a colorful alley – just kidding…make it aball. An unwanted flash or wrong film speed mightinterfere with the action or change the shadows.Before getting to this point, your camera shouldalready be in “Program” mode. With Program, thecamera will automatically set the aperture and shutter speed without the flash continuously popping up as itwould in “Auto.” Manual adjustments are also faster.Change the mode afterwards for more creativecontrol. But first get that spontaneous shot. It mightbe perfect as is, or can be touched-up later.
BLUE MAKES BETTER SUNSET PHOTOS
Did you know that a blue paint chip can turn anordinary sunset photo into something spectacular? Adigital camera’s automatic white balance works fine
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for most photos. But why does that great sunset lookso disappointing once you see the photo? It’sbecause the camera’s white balance has done its joband taken some of the color out of the scene. If your camera has a daylight or cloudy setting, try usingthese to make your sunsets “pop.” Also use your camera’s custom white balance setting to trick thecamera into bringing out more dramatic color. Oneexcellent warming technique is to carry a pale bluepiece of fabric or paint chip sample. White balanceyour camera against these instead of a whitesurface. This tricks the camera into taking the blueout, thus making the picture warmer. The color usedto white balance your camera with is the color thecamera will reduce or remove in the photo.
USEFUL NO-BRAINER AUTO SETTINGS
Try using two auto camera settings more often.
Landscape Mode
: Don’t limit “Landscape” toscenery such as mountains and ocean scenes. Useit to photograph large crowds and everyone will be infocus. Landscape makes everything in your photoequally sharp.
Fill Flash Mode
: This improves thelighting of daylight subjects that have shadows. Itgives people an even, more natural appearance andmakes colors more vibrant. Regular flash can be toomuch and cause a picture to look overexposed.Counter the over-exposure effect by holding a whitetissue or coffee filter over the flash to lessen the light.
DCIM FILES AND YOUR CAMERA
Your camera or photo chip comes with an automaticstorage device inside labeled DCIM, for “DigitalCamera Images.” This folder, also called the imageroot directory, keeps together the images capturedwith your camera. Take a photo and your cameraautomatically creates and names subfolders withinthe DCIM (like placing manila folders in a hangingfolder). The first three characters in a folder's name,called the directory number, are numbers between100 and 999. The next five characters are known asfree characters; any uppercase alphanumericcharacters chosen by the camera manufacturer.When an image is saved, the camera assigns it afilename and stores it in the current folder. Filenameshave two parts, an 8-character filename and a 3-character extension. Think of them as first and lastnames. The name is unique to each file, and theextension, separated from the name by a period,identifies the file's format. For example, a JPGextension means it's a JPEG image file, TIF meansit's a TIFF image file. Remember one important thingafter reading all this – it’s okay to DELETE the DCIMfolder when clearing your storage card or chip. Your camera creates a new DCIM folder as you begintaking new photos. Don’t leave images in the folder or they’ll be deleted when you delete the folder.
PIXELS DETERMINE PRINT SIZE
The number of pixels a camera delivers matters withlarger prints. Generally, the more pixels, the moredetails and sharper edges in a photo. Pixels areoften referred to as “resolution” in digitalphotography. Pixels determine photo size limits. Allthings being equal (and oversimplified), the greater the resolution, the higher the number of pixels. Thelarger the photo, the more space between pixels;hence the more graininess, i.e. “pixelization.” Lower resolutions such as 640 x 480 are perfect for Webpublishing, emails and small prints. Photo realisticenlargements over 5” x 7” need higher resolutions of 6 million pixels or more (multiply the two precedingnumbers for total pixels, or Megapixels). Good printsneed at least 200 pixels per inch. A good 10” x 8”print should have over 3 Megapixels, which is a 2000x 1600 pixel image. Greater resolution means larger files. These require considerably more storagespace. Worry about that later. Take extra photocardsand always shoot in the finest, highest qualitypossible.Printa fine enlargement or lower theresolution later.
DIGITAL PHOTO ORGANIZATION MADE EASY --Attach Names And Sequential Numbers In ASingle Step
Now that summer’s over ,most of us have acornucopia of cruise and travel photos to deal with.Change your photo card and you repeat a number sequence. It becomes a nightmare to remember andlocate favorite shots
.
There’s an easy solution. You can speed up thenaming process and at the same time ORGANIZEAND LOCATE your photos with this simplesequential naming technique. First, select and blockout a group of photos that deal with the same subjector place. For example, select all your Venicephotos. Then, move your cursor back to the first
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photo in the group and right click on “Rename.”Replace the current number ID under the photo with“Venice.” (Remember – this whole time the entiregroup of photos must still be blocked out.) Hit “Enter”after naming; the first photo of the group will benamed “Venice,” the second photo “Venice (2),” thethird photo “Venice (3),” etc. Your computer willautomatically attach the name and add the sequentialnumbers to the rest of the block.Move on to the next place, such as “France,”and repeat the process. Each place you visited willnow have photos with the topic name plus sequentialnumbering. An added plus is that if you print your photos at the local photo shop, the back of the photoswill also be printed with the name and sequentialnumber as it appeared in your file.
SORT PHOTOS, THEN TITLE
Digital photography makes it almost too easy to shoothundreds of photos. The downside is in finding aparticular photo or remembering a place that lookslike other photos. If you’ve deleted photos in thecamera, the order may be scrambled. The easy wayto sort your photos is to organize them by number sequence, size or date. Go to the top TOOLBAR andclick LIST under the thumbnail icon. Click DETAILS,then choose any of the four choices at the top of thephoto layout; name, size, type, or date. The photoswill be rearranged numerically or your preferredchoice. The sequence choice can be changed at anytime. Add titles and coordinate the numbering anewafter deleting the bad photos
BETTER DIGITAL ON AUTO
Think your digital camera set on “auto” is goodenough? There’s room for improvement. Why shoota hundred extra photos just to be safe and thenspend the next month sorting out the best ones?Shoot smarter, then enjoy your free time.
Overexposure is better
(your photos, notyour outfits): Given a choice between a slightly too-light (overexposing) or too dark (underexposing)photo, stick to overexposing. Darkening a photo later will produce less “noise” than lightening a photo.Whether you do it on your computer or at the photostore, touchup results are better from overexposedphotos. (This only refers to digital photography).
Batteries:
Digital batteries don’t last as longin cold weather. Shooting snow? Then bring abackup battery or your photo session will be shorter than planned.
One Leg Up on Tripods:
Tripods havethree legs. Make sure only one leg faces you whensetting up your tripod. If you’re on an incline and thecamera starts to tip, the single leg will act like ananchor and keep it from falling. In other words, putting the two-legged side on the ground witha single leg on a rock or hillside (not where youare), will usually cause the camera to tip over in thedirection of the grounded legs.
TRAVEL SEASON IS COMING. VISITPHOTOSECRETS.COM TO FIND THE BESTSHOTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Part of the excitement of travel is envisioning whatyou’ll do and see ahead of time. It may be worth your time seeing the tips top photographers have on of thebest locations worldwide for getting that “perfectphoto.” One website I recommend isPhotoSecrets.com. This website includes not onlygeneral tips and advice, but also city by city lists andphotos by other photographers. The tips are dividedaccording to photography level, from beginner toadvanced. Although the website is set up to primarilypromote books on photo topics and places, theinformation includes shoot locations and photos thatare exceptional and informative. These ideas andhints will prepare you for 100’s of photo destinationsas well as stir up a little excitement before you travel.
IMPRESSIVEDIGITAL PHOTOCOLOR FORPEOPLE IN AHURRY
Most of us havegreat digitalcameras that do aleast 50 things.But life is short sowe usually usethe “Automatic”setting. Delayscaused byresetting thecamera can loosethe moment. Although it’s important to have thecorrect white balance setting, you can get moreimpressive color with a little cheating. One way is tochange your camera white balance setting from“sunny” to “cloudy” the next time you’re shootingoutside. The ‘Cloudy” setting adds deeper shades of red and yellow to your color photos. This, in turn,warms up the resultant colors, making areas such asgrey sand more attractive, greens more intense, andskies more impressive. You can also get a morecolorful picture by boosting your contrast andsaturation. Many digital cameras have a “vivid” in-camera control that does this. However, you’re better off boosting color later using the simplest version of Photoshop (Adjust Color, Hue/Saturation, etc).Adding too much color and saturation at the time of capture can sacrifice important details that can’t berecovered later, such as peeling paint, skin shadedifferences or the middle tones of grey.
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Painless Digital Photo Tips - Part 1 by JK McCrea (RoadLovers.com)
Quick Tips for any level photographer from the popular News Cocktail column, TheNewsCocktail.com, published in Fort Lauderdale, FL and also found on RoadLovers.com.
(No-Hassle Fast Techniques for Everyone)
by JK and Steve McCrea
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