Kathy Eyster's Blog

Get Creative with Photoshop

2012-01-29T13:47:00.002-07:00

I'm happy to announce that my colleague Eileen Rafferty has two new workshops coming up in 2012. She is presenting Creativity and Composition, August 20-24, 2012, at Pacific Northwest Art School on Whidbey Island, in Coupeville, Washington. Eileen is also teaching Creative Expression in Photoshop at Maine Media Workshops, September 9-15, 2012, in Rockport, Maine.

Eileen is an inspiring and capable teacher who brings the creative spark back to digital photography tools. I know you'll enjoy any workshop with her.
www.EileenRafferty.com
www.eileenraffertyconsult.com/

Adobe Revises Upgrade Policy for CS6

2012-01-19T10:50:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to share that Adobe has changed their upgrade policy for people who own earlier, individual products in the Creative Suite. If you have Photoshop CS3 or CS4, you now have until the end of 2012 to upgrade to CS6 (when it is released). You can read Jack Nack's concise clarification at this link.

If you, like me, purchased an upgrade to CS5, thinking it was a requirement to go to CS6, then you may want to contact Adobe to see if they can provide a refund.

FINALLY, some sense around this!!

New upgrade options for CS3 and CS4 customers

Adobe Announces Pricing Change for Photoshop Upgrades

2012-01-05T10:48:00.000-07:00

If you currently use Photoshop CS4 or older, you should know that Adobe has changed its policy regarding upgrades. Beginning with the upcoming Photoshop CS6 (anticipated mid-2012 release), you must have a current license for Photoshop CS5 to qualify for upgrade pricing to Photoshop CS6. This is a change from the previous policy in which photographers who owned Photoshop CS2 or newer could upgrade to the latest version at a discounted price.

If you don't have a license for Photoshop CS5, then you will have to pay full price to get a copy of CS6 when it becomes available. In the past, upgrade prices have been $150-$199 (depending on where you purchased) while full version prices have been $650-$699 (depending on where you purchased).

Adobe is offering "Creative Cloud" pricing for all desktop products (which include the Creative Suite of software), Touch applications, digital publishing services and community collaboration resources. This is a subscription service that costs $49.99 per month for individuals. It appears from the Adobe announcement that this entitles you to use any of the Creative Suite applications in addition to Photoshop (e.g. InDesign, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, etc.).

However, if you are only interested in Photoshop, then the cost of a subscription will equal the cost of purchasing a full copy of the new version within a year. If the production cycle extends beyond 12 months, you would end up paying more than the price of a full copy. But the benefit is that when a new version of Photoshop is released, it would be included in your subscription without your having to formally purchase an upgrade.

There has also been some discussion of the possibility that new features in CS6 would only be available through the subscription license and not in the individual upgrade license. If this turns out the be the case, people will undoubtedly express dissatisfaction with the arrangement.

There is some confusion over whether Lightroom is considered part of the "Cloud" of software or not. A video presentation by an Adobe Financial Analyst showed a slide with the Lightroom logo being part of the Creative Cloud. But Lightroom is currently not considered part of the Creative Suite. We will have to wait for clarification from Adobe on Lightroom's status in the new subscription model.

So if you only use Photoshop on a regular basis, you have a choice to make about moving to new versions. If you use Photoshop plus another Adobe product (such as InDesign or possibly Lightroom), then it may be more cost effective for you to purchase the subscription since this would cost less than buying upgrades to two or more programs.

This new pricing structure does not affect Photoshop Elements (now in version 10).

For more information about this change from Adobe, you can read the announcement here. My colleague Laura Shoe (from whom I learned about this change) has also written an informative post on the subject here.

Learn More About Your Digital Camera in 2012

2012-01-04T10:39:00.000-07:00

Holiday Flower

Did you get a new camera for Christmas? Do you know someone who did? If you live in the Missoula, Montana, area, I have several options for learning to use your camera and photo editing software effectively.

Rock River View

The first are classes offered through The Lifelong Learning Center. Learn basic, intermediate or advanced camera controls as well as how to take better photos of winter scenes, close-ups and your favorite people. I'm also teaching two classes about making black and white images, both in camera and with photo editing software. For all the details, see my web site.


Christmas Geese

In addition, I'm presenting two classes at the Rocky Mountain School of Photography. First up on January 17 is a FREE lecture on choosing a photo editing program. I'll be demonstrating the basic features of Picasa, Photoshop Elements, Lightroom and Photoshop. The talk begins at 7pm at 210 N. Higgins. Come early for a seat.

Looking for a handout

The second is a weekend course on using Photoshop Elements 10 on February 25-26. Using your own laptop, you'll learn how to organize, edit and share your favorite images. If you are using an earlier version of Photoshop Elements, most of the techniques will apply. And you can test Photoshop Elements 10 for free from Adobe. To register visit the RMSP web site.


Christmas Morning Walk

Tell you friends and extend your photographic Christmas!

Off Season

2011-12-06T13:43:00.001-07:00

Yesterday (and this afternoon) we enjoyed some sunny skies on our recent snowfall. So I went out to make some photos. Behind the elementary school near my home is a complex of baseball fields, now all shut down for the season. I hope my photos capture the feeling of the end of the season. Enjoy!

If you'd like to learn some tips for making better photos in winter conditions, check out my night classes in Missoula at The Lifelong Learning Center. Registration for next quarter is now open.

Winter Classes in Missoula, Montana

2011-11-27T12:00:00.006-07:00


Winter Aspen

Just updated my course list for winter quarter 2012 at the Lifelong Learning Center in Missoula. Registration begins Tuesday, November 29. Register early to be sure to get your seat.

Click here for online registration.

Making the Most of Your Digital Camera

Mondays, 3-5 pm, January 9 – February 6
Thursdays, 6:30-8:30 pm, January 12 – February 9
Saturday, 9am-6pm, January 28 (8 hours)
Tuesdays, 6:30-8:30pm, February 21- March 20, Frenchtown High School

Description

Taking the Next Step with Your Digital Camera
Saturday, 9am – 6pm, February 4
Description

Better Winter Photography
Wednesdays & Saturdays, 6:30-8:30pm, January 11-25
Description


Winter Swing

Creating Better People Photos
Saturday, 9am – 4 pm, March 3
Description

Better Photo Composition
Thursdays, 3-5pm, February 16 – March 8
Description

Making Better Close-up Photos
Wednesdays & Saturdays, 6:30-8:30pm, February 1 – 15
Description

Black and White Photography
Tuesdays, 6:30-8:30pm, January 24 – February 14
Description

Mission Mountains, Montana

Advanced Black and White Photography
Thursdays, 6-9pm, February 16 – March 15
Description

Digital Photography Certificate
Description

Enjoy photographing holiday events and winter scenes!

Zone System for Digital Photography

2011-11-25T12:30:00.000-07:00

Pintler Mountain Range, Montana

Here in Missoula, Montana, we are extremely fortunate to be enjoying an exhibit of original black and white prints by famed landscape photographer Ansel Adams at the Missoula Art Museum. There has been a very well attended series of free Saturday tours of the show by a variety of photographers in the area. However, there's no lecture this weekend (Thanksgiving holiday in the US). So I thought I would share a link I found that does an excellent job of outlining the basics of applying the Zone System (developed by Adams and Fred Archer in 1939) to color digital photography.

Landscape photographer Michael Frye has written an article for Outdoor Photographer magazine called "The Digital Zone System." In it Frye describes the basic concepts of the Zone System. Then he explains how to meter and expose a digital color photo to capture the most information possible. He concludes with a short explanation of controlling contrast using the Curves command, exposure blending, and HDR techniques. Take a look at this article and visit his web gallery for more stunning images.

Mule Ranch Vista, Montana

For Beginning Strobists --- aka Hot-Shoe Flash

2011-11-14T08:00:00.008-07:00

Off camera flash bounced from white card

If you're interested in learning to make better pictures using a supplemental flash for your digital SLR camera, look no further than David Hobby's blog The Srobist. Here's a video that gives a very basic run-down on what a "strobe" is and some of the accessories and techniques possible. Check it out!

Great Slideshow of Autumn Reflections

2011-11-10T16:05:00.000-07:00

Along the Clark Fork River, Missoula, Montana

I recently visited the New York Institute of Photography's blog and discovered this great slideshow of autumn reflections set to music. May it inspire you to create your own autumn reflections.

An Informal Review of Canon Professional Cameras & Lenses

2011-11-06T11:44:00.000-07:00

My good friend John Snell recently wrote me an email describing the Canon equipment he has used in his business as a nature & equine photographer in Lexington, Kentucky. It was so informative that I asked and received his permission to reproduce it here. Enjoy!

Canon Professional Equipment by John Snell

I have the 5D (full frame and approximately 13 megapixels [mp]), 5D Mark II (full frame and 21.1 mp) and the 7D (1.6 crop factor, 18 mp and 8 frames/second). I have owned the 1D Mark II (1.3 crop factor, 8.3 mp and 10 frames/second) and 1Ds Mark II (full frame, 16.7 mp).

I had no fault with the 1Ds. I have made prints up to 54" tall with amazing sharpness, and even the Red River Gorge book cover (Red River Gorge: The Eloquent Landscape by John Snell, Acclaim Press, 2006), which I shot at ISO 400, f/4 for 4 minutes 15 seconds, enlarged excellently with no noticeable noise.

The 1D Mark II was a good sports camera, but I never was able to enlarge any of my photos from it beyond 16x24 with sufficient sharpness. I used it primarily for my sports work, most often at Keeneland [horse racing track in Lexington, KY]. Occasionally, when I needed the extra 30% reach, I would use this camera. But I wonder if I should have used the 1Ds Mark II and cropped in. Probably I would have gotten a sharper image. And [even] with the 1.3 crop sensor of the 1D Mark II, I didn't see any noise
issues there.

The 5D is a great camera. At approximately 13 mp and full frame, it gave me a great backup for the 1Ds Mark II. In some ways, I felt it produced images that could be enlarged as much as those shot with its "big brother."

I loved the full frame cameras because they allowed me full range of the 17-40mm zoom lens. As you know, [natural rock] arch photography in the Red River Gorge requires up close shooting with wide lenses, so I could not sacrifice any of the wide reach of that lens when shooting there.

Princess Arch, Red River Gorge, KY

Now we come to the 5D Mark II. Exceptional! I often shoot it at 400 ISO without hesitation and rarely see noise at that ISO setting. About the largest print I've made from it to date is 40", but that's mostly because I don't want to spend the money to make "speculation prints" that are cumbersome to transport/exhibit and expensive to mount, mat, stretch and/or frame. I feel that whenever I need to shoot at even higher ISO settings, I can do so with the 5D Mark II.

I did get noise at 3200 ISO the other night in the Smokies. But the noise cleaned up pretty well with Imagenomic's Noiseware plug-in [for Photoshop]. The key to using the higher ISO settings is to absolutely not underexpose! You need to squeeze every bit of brightness possible out of those images without blowing out highlights. Histogram to the right. Histogram to the right....[Note: An exposure technique for raw format images that favors overexposing so the histogram is shifted to the right (brighter) but not so far as to clip highlight details. --- Editor]

The 7D is my current sports camera, and I also use it when I need the extra 60% reach. I'm not as prone to shoot it at ISO higher than 400 as I am the 5D Mk II, because it does show more noise. The Keeneland shot with the white horse was taken with my 70-200 f/2.8 lens at 70mm and ISO of 1000, I think. There is some noise. But the shot is well exposed, so the noise cleans up nicely.

White Horse at Keeneland Race Track, Lexington, KY by John Snell

I love the 60% more reach the 7D gives me. When added to my 300mm f/2.8 lens and 1.4x teleconverter, it gives me the equivalent of a whopping 672mm f/4 lens, which is not only great for sports photography, but landscapes as well. I'll often use my 70-200mm f/4 lens as a pseudo macro lens by putting it on the 7D. I don't know what the enlargement factor is...nowhere near 1:1...but it has allowed me to shoot some closeups of flowers and other small subjects without having to carry my 100mm macro lens along. I have made tack sharp 20x30 prints from the 7D, and am confident I can go even larger.

Magnolia blossom unopened by John Snell

None of these remarks are the result of scientific analysis on my part. They're just personal observations.

----John Snell, Lexington, KY

Ansel Adams' Prints in Missoula, Montana

2011-10-13T21:38:00.002-06:00

Yosemite High Country Above Tenaya Lake

Last Friday, October 7, marked the opening of a special exhibit at the Missoula Art Museum. Ansel Adams: A Legacy is a private collection of over 130 original prints by the black & white photography master. If you live anywhere within driving distance of Missoula, Montana, I strongly encourage you to visit this exhibition. Seeing master prints in person is a completely different experience from seeing them online or in a book. Admission and all events are free.

Yosemite Valley with Bridal Veil Falls at Sunset from Inspiration Point

One of the exhibit's sponsors is the Rocky Mountain School of Photography in Missoula, whose founder Neil Chaput de Saintonge studied with Adams in the 1970's in Yosemite. In honor of RMSP's participation in this event, they have posted a series of informative and interesting articles on their blog. Below are links to my favorites. You may also want to explore the links to online catalogs of Ansel Adams' images that are included in these posts.

Enjoy this feast!

Ansel's Yosemite

Neil and Ansel

A Bit of Ansel Adams Trivia

Ansel Adams: Gearhead?

Olmsted Point in Yosemite at Sunset

Basic Photo Student Slide Show

2011-10-03T11:46:00.001-06:00

Had a great time teaching these folks last month under perfect weather in Missoula, Montana. Take a look at the great images they made!

Student Favorites from Basic Photo 2011

Tips for photographing dogs

2011-10-03T08:47:00.000-06:00

DPReview.com, my favorite source for camera info, has begun a new section where guests can post articles on other photography related topics. Most recent is a very good article on making interesting pictures of dogs. Check it out!

How to Take Beautiful Pictures of Your Dog

Fall Classes in Missoula, MT

2011-09-23T14:40:00.000-06:00

Autumn Cottonwoods, Bannack State Park, Montana

Just updated my course list for fall quarter at the Lifelong Learning Center in Missoula. There's still room in the following classes. If you're interested but the section has already started, contact me directly. I may be able to get you in.

Click here for online registration.

Making the Most of Your Digital Camera
Tuesdays, 3-5pm, September 20-October 18
Saturday, 9-5pm, September 24
Description

Taking the Next Step with Your Digital Camera
Mondays, 6:30-8:30pm, September 19-October 24
Description

Advanced Digital Camera
Wednesdays, 6:30-8:30pm, October 19-November 23
Description

Landscape Photo Critique
Thursdays & Saturdays, 6:30-8:30pm, September 22-October 6
Description

People Photos: Casual & Candid
Co-instructor Bret Tate
Thursdays, 6:30-8:30pm, October 13-November 3
Description

Shooting & Processing Digital Camera Raw Files
Mondays, 6-9pm, October 31-November 21
Description

Enjoy photographing fall colors!

What do you want to see in my 2012 calendar?

2011-08-30T11:19:00.003-06:00

For the last six years, I've put together a small calendar of photos for friends and family. It's time once again to start that process, as I was reminded when I saw 2012 calendars for sale in Barnes & Noble!

So this time you get to help with the project. I'm looking for suggestions on a new theme. Past calendars have featured trees, flowers, sunrises & sunsets, Glacier National Park, night lights, waterfalls.

Post a comment or send me an email with your favorite calendar theme. If I select your idea, you'll win a free calendar.

See images from previous calendars.
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005

Interested in Buying a Photo Quality Printer?

2011-07-23T10:49:00.000-06:00

Then you'll want to head over to my favorite camera review site DPreview. They have just launched a printer review feature and begin with a comparison of three multi-function printers from Canon, Epson and Hewlett-Packard. There are also two great articles on the types of photo printers available and suggestions for getting the most from your new photo printer. Check this out!

dpreview printer hub

Revisiting Photographing in Bright, Midday Sun

2011-07-16T08:00:00.001-06:00

Photographed with Sunny 16 exposure

A few weeks ago I posted a short article with links to information about how to get good exposures in bright sunlight. One of the techniques I didn't include was a method of exposing for photographs called "Sunny 16". This technique requires a camera that lets you set the ISO, aperture (lens opening) and shutter speed (time) manually. Using the Sunny 16 "rule", you ignore your camera's meter and set the controls for exposure according to the Sunny 16 guidelines.

I learned about Sunny 16 from Neil Chaput de Saintonge, founder & owner of the Rocky Mountain School of Photography. Much to my delight, he has republished his article describing how to apply this technique on the school's blog. Check out the series of articles and give Sunny 16 a try while we enjoy the summer sun.

Sunny 16 Exposure without a Meter: Part 1

(P.S. If you ever shot Kodak film, you might recognize some of the techniques in Neil's articles as the same ones that appeared on the inside of the box.)

Want to Learn Adobe Photoshop Lightroom?

2011-07-11T16:48:00.000-06:00

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3

Then check out Laura Shoe's Lightroom Fundamentals: Workshop on DVD. It contains 36 different videos, a total of 6.5 hours of training. Laura is an ardent fan of Lightroom and an experienced, Adobe certified instructor. I know you'll learn a lot from watching.

Congratulations, Laura!

The Height of Summer

2011-07-05T12:00:00.002-06:00

Pushing up Poppies

A while back I posted an article that talked about photographing with a compact digital camera without looking at the screen or through the viewfinder. Well, I've been doing that again. It's a great way to turn the "lemon" of not being able to see an image on your camera's screen into "lemonade"!

I went out in the middle of the day to try my hand and camera at making good photographs in bright, midday light. I used several of the techniques listed in these articles. Since these are exactly the kind of conditions that make framing a picture with the LCD monitor difficult, I relied on "not looking" to make my photos. My goal was to make images that conveyed the feeling of dazzling bright light and the height of summer.

Swing Sunburst

To get sharp focus with my camera close to the subject, I turned on macro focusing (the little flower icon). And since I purposely was shooting into the sun, I used the fill flash (or forced flash) setting to reveal the details in the underside of the flowers.

I also set the camera to Aperture Priority exposure mode (A or Av on the exposure mode dial) and chose the largest number (for this camera f/8). In addition to helping keep everything in the image sharp, this also created the starburst effect when I included the sun in the frame.

Selphy Sun

Give these ideas a try and see what new images you can make!

Flags in America

2011-07-04T08:00:00.000-06:00

Captain Bob's Flag, Lewistown, Montana

A colleague of mine, Larry Blackwood, has an on-going project called Patriot's Dream in which he photographs American (and sometimes Confederate) flags in unusual places. In honor of Independence Day, I'm sharing my flag photos. Celebrate the day!

Flag, Hendersonville, North Carolina

Photographing Fireworks

2011-07-01T12:00:00.040-06:00

Fireworks, 2009

It's America's Independence Day weekend (the official day is July 4, Monday) and people and communities around the nation will be celebrating with fireworks, a tradition since 1777! It's great fun to make pictures of the pyrotechnics. You can read my original article on the subject here.

Fireworks, 2009

The pictures in this article were taken with a DSLR using a 105mm lens with a cable release on a tripod. Exposures were f/11 @ ISO 400 for 1 or 2 seconds. I actually placed the shutter speed on Bulb and held the shutter open with the cable release button for each burst. I found I could time the explosions better this way than using the camera for the length of the exposure.

These images are also heavily cropped to remove a nearby electrical pole and tree branches I failed to see in the dark! Check your surroundings before shooting!

Also check out two excellent articles from the New York Institute of Photography. They cover both the professional displays and the type of fireworks you might celebrate with in your own backyard.

Fireworks Photos or Have Fun on the Fourth of July

Fireworks Pictures: Photographing Fireworks in Your Backyard

Have fun and Be Safe!

Fireworks, 2009

Photographing in Bright, Midday Sun

2011-06-29T08:00:00.005-06:00

Smokestack, Anaconda, Montana

The local photo club has a different topic for pictures each month. For July members have been challenged to bring photos taken in bright sunlight. I found some excellent suggestions in three articles from the Digital Photography School website. Take a look, try the suggestions and see if your midday photos improve!

Bright Ideas for Shooting in Midday Sun

3 Tips for Shooting Portraits in Bright Sunshine

Using Light to Create Texture in Your Photograph

Good tips for better photos from Kodak

2011-06-25T08:00:00.008-06:00

Kanuga Canoes at Sunrise

In the days of film photography, Kodak published a number of good books offering information on how to take better pictures. These covered everything from cameras and lenses, exposure and processing film to special effects and lighting. This is just to say that Kodak is a good reliable source of how-to information.

While doing some searching online for a different subject, I came across this very good article with basic tips for better photos. I like these ideas especially because they apply to any type of camera, film or digital, simple or advanced. They are basic tips all of us can use to improve our photos.

Now that summer is here and we're all outside enjoying vacations and other activities, you'll bring back better photos if you use these suggestions. Enjoy!

Kodak's Top 10 Tips for Great Pictures

Golden Light in Lewistown, Montana II

2011-06-17T08:00:00.002-06:00

Buildings aren't the only things that benefit from the soft, warm light of late evening and early morning.

Golden Light in Lewistown, Montana

2011-06-15T08:00:00.000-06:00

I visited Lewistown, Montana over the weekend. After a cloudy day of intermittent rain, the skies cleared at sunset, bathing the old facades of downtown buildings in golden light.

Hanging On

2011-06-10T08:00:00.000-06:00

Walking to work one day last month I discovered that city workers had begun to tear this ivy off a building wall. This was one of the last remaining sections. The next day it was all gone. I'd admired it for years and now it's history.

Quiet Corner

2011-06-08T08:00:00.001-06:00

Saw this view through a window during my printing workshop last month.

Father of the Digital Camera

2011-05-21T15:45:00.000-06:00

Without the invention of Willard Boyd, none of us would be taking photos with our phones today! Read about the man who was awarded the Nobel Prize for his invention.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-willard-boyle-20110519,0,4043815.story

Repairing Pet Eyes in Photos

2011-04-24T15:41:00.000-06:00

Most of us love to take photos of our family and friends, including the four-legged ones. One of the disappointments is getting red-eye in our people photos and "pet-eye" in pictures of our pets. I say "pet-eye" because the discoloration can be yellow, green, blue or white, but seldom red. In both cases, the discoloration is the result of light from the camera's flash reflecting off the back of the eye and recording in the picture as a color other than dark black.

This presents a challenge when trying to fix the problem later. Nearly every photo editing program has a "red-eye tool" that efficiently removes the demon red with a click or a drag. But these tools don't work on pet-eye, as I'm sure you have discovered. The reason? The tool is programmed to find and replace only the color red, not the variations that appear in animal eyes.

But there is a remedy. The following steps describe how to turn your four-legged family members' eyes back to their adoring darkness using Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. (And you can use the technique on red eyes, too!)

Open a pet portrait that shows the "pet eye" effect.
Create a copy to work on.

Choose File>Save As.
Give the copy an understandable name, such as adding “retouch” at the end (e.g. Fido retouch).
Click Save.

Click on the Background layer.
Create a new layer.

Choose Layer > New > Layer
Name it “eyes”.
Click OK.
In the Layers panel, change Normal blend mode to Color.

Choose View > Actual Pixels. Adjust the picture to see the eyes you want to work on.
Press the letter D to make the paint color black.
Select the Brush tool.

Choose a soft round brush.
In the Options bar set the Opacity to 100%
Adjust the size of the brush circle to match the eye by using the bracket keys.

[ makes the circle smaller
] makes the circle larger

Paint over the discolored areas in the eye.

If the eye is pure white, nothing happens.
In the Layers panel, change Color to Normal to see the black paint.

To replace the catch light (sparkle), do the following:

Press the X key to switch the foreground color to white.
Make a very small soft brush.
In the Options bar, set the Opacity to 10%-20%
Carefully paint in the catch light, making sure both eyes match.

Choose View > Fit on Screen to check the overall effect.
Save your results.


Cat pet eye repair


Dog pet eye repair

Now that you know how to fix the wrong eye color, your pets will look like regular members of the family!

Getting Sharper Photos with Hands-Free Photography

2011-04-12T11:39:00.000-06:00

Landscape photo shot from tripod with self-timer

One of the most important criteria for excellent photography is achieving sharply focused pictures. Cameras' automatic focus systems are very good at doing this. But even if you achieve proper focus with the lens, you can still have an image that's not quite sharp. This is most often the result of the camera moving (even slightly) at the time the exposure is made.

When you are photographing a stationary subject (such as a landscape or still life close-up), you can improve your chances of creating a tack sharp photo by doing two things. First, place your camera on a tripod so you do not have to hold it. A tripod doesn't breathe or have a heartbeat, both of which make humans a moving platform. Second, don't touch the camera when you take the exposure. Here's how:

Turn on the Self-Timer
All digital cameras have a self-timer feature. This is the setting that creates a delay (usually 10 seconds but 2 seconds is available on some cameras) between the time you press the shutter button fully and when the camera takes the exposure. Most people use this feature when they want to join their family or friends in the picture.

Standard, 10-second and 2-second Self-Timer Icons

But using the self-timer also means that at the moment of exposure, you are not touching the camera. It is taking the picture all by itself. So there is no danger of your jiggling the camera body by pushing the shutter button. As a result, you will get a sharper photo (if the subject doesn't move during the exposure).

To use the self-timer, locate the control on your camera. It may be a button on the back or top of the camera. Or you may have to access it through a menu choice. (See your camera manual if you have trouble locating it.) Once you find the control, turn it on. The self-timer icon will appear on the LCD screen or panel on your camera.

Next, frame the scene and set any exposure or white balance adjustments you want to make. Press the shutter button halfway down to confirm that the camera focuses properly. Then press it the rest of the way down. You will know you pressed the button far enough when you hear the camera beep or see a light flashing from the front of the camera. (Some cameras do both.) The camera counts down the seconds and then takes the photo. When you see the image on the back of the camera, you know the picture is finished.

After the picture is taken, check to see whether the self-timer is still turned on or whether the camera canceled the setting. This varies from camera to camera. Learn which way yours works so that you don't end up with the self-timer still active when you try to capture a moving subject!

Evening at Big Hole Lodge, Montana

Use a Remote Shutter Release
A self-timer is effective, but its drawback is that pesky delay. If you are trying to time your exposure of a wildflower to the moment between puffs of wind, then the camera's delay can be frustrating. If you're willing to spend the money for a remote shutter release, you can better control the timing of your picture, still without touching the camera body itself.

A remote shutter release (in the old days we called it a cable release) is literally a shutter button on a string or an infrared remote like the one for your television. Which one you use is dependent on your camera model. Entry level digital SLRs usually have a wireless remote while more advanced models offer the wired (cable) type.

Wired (left) and wireless (right) remote shutter release

To use the wireless remote shutter release, you have to set the camera to receive the wireless signal. This is usually associated with the self-timer feature. Turning on the self-timer/remote setting does not mean there is a delay, only that the camera is "looking" for the wireless signal instead of the shutter button being pressed. Also, you have to be at the right angle (usually in front of the camera) for the
camera sensor to see the wireless signal (just like for your TV). Check your camera manual for additional details on using the wireless remote.

If the remote shutter release is a wired version (on a cable), all you have to do is attach it to the proper socket on the side of your camera. Then it works exactly like your shutter button; no other steps are necessary.

Wired cable releases tend to be pricey for what they are, mainly because they are electronic, not mechanical. You can purchase the "official" wired remote from your camera's manufacturer. To find the model number, check the back of your camera manual under the accessories section. Or you can look for third party companies that sell compatible remotes for less money.

Using either the self-timer feature or a wireless or wired remote shutter release keeps your hands off the camera at the time of exposure and helps you take that next step to a razor sharp image.

How to View Raw Files with Old Photoshop or Elements Versions

2011-03-21T08:00:00.010-06:00

Many of my students have new digital cameras and want to shoot and process raw files from them. But these same students have older versions of Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Photoshop Elements. When they try to view their raw files with the Bridge or Organizer, they just get a placeholder icon instead of a picture. This means that the version of Adobe Camera Raw installed on their computer does not recognize the new camera raw files.

One solution, of course, is to update Camera Raw (free from the Adobe web site). But often the new version of Camera Raw is not compatible with older versions of Photoshop or Elements. For example, the most recent version of Camera Raw is 6.3. This version only works with Photoshop CS5 or Elements 9. If you have an older version of either program, updating Camera Raw does not work for you.

But there is another solution and it's Free! If you convert your raw files from the native camera raw format (e.g. CR2 for Canon, NEF for Nikon, etc.) to Digital Negative format (DNG), any version of Adobe Camera Raw since 2.4 can display these files and allow you to process them with older Camera Raw versions. All you need is the Digital Negative Converter, available for free download from the Adobe web site. Be sure to click on the link that matches the type of computer you are using (Windows or Macintosh).

Adobe Digital Negative Converter Set-up Window

After you download and install the software, start the application to convert your files. Here's a quick set of steps to follow.

Select the folder of raw images you want to convert to DNG. If some of the raw images are in subfolders, check the box to include the subfolders.
Choose where the new DNG files should be saved. I recommend creating a DNG subfolder inside the original folder of raw images. So choose Save in New Location. Click on Select Folder and make a new DNG folder. If you checked the subfolders option in step one, also turn it on in this step.
You can choose to give your converted files a different name than the originals, but this is optional. I suggest you leave the file naming as Document Name (which keeps the original name) and skip this step.
Last you set the preferences for the new DNG raw file. Click on Change Preferences. If you know which version of Camera Raw your old software is using, select the version number that matches. If you don't know, just stay with the default choice of Version 5.4 and later. Leave the JPG Preview as Medium Size. Do not turn on Embed the original raw file unless you plan to use the camera manufacturer's software later to work on your images. Click OK to save your choices.
Double check all your choices in the Digital Negative Converter, then click the Convert button. The DNG Converter starts processing your files automatically. After it is finished, click the OK button to return to the main setup window.
You can now choose another folder of raw images to convert to DNG. Or if you're finished, click Exit to quit the program.

DNG Converter Processing Raw Files

When the conversion is completed, open Adobe Bridge or the Elements Organizer and navigate to the new folder.Your raw images should now be visible and available to be edited with whatever version of Camera Raw you have installed.

Your original raw files are not deleted in this process. Once you confirm that the DNG raw files work for your software, you can go back and erase the original raw files (CR2, NEF, etc.) if you want to save disk space.

Adobe's Digital Negative Converter is not changing any of the content or appearance of your image. It is just changing the order in which the data is stored in the file to make it accessible. For more details about DNG files and their advantages, check out this video by Julieanne Kost.

Organizing Old Photos

2011-03-14T08:00:00.006-06:00

Winter Horses

In an earlier post, I described a way to bring order to all the photos on your hard drive. If you missed the article, I recommend you read it before continuing with this post. In this article, I describe how to get all your old photos into the same location so it's easy to find them and back them up for safe-keeping. You should be familiar with navigating your computer to find folders and with copy and paste techniques before following the instructions in this post.

(Remember, you can use Picasa or other software to organize your photos for you, but they will not move your pictures from their current location.)

Make a Year Folder
Since I recommend using the Pictures folder as the biggest container for your pictures, this is where we will start. And I recommend starting with the most recent old pictures first. In our example, this would be pictures taken in 2010. In other words, work backwards in time.

1. Create a 2010 folder inside your Pictures folder.

Search for Pictures by Year

2. Use the computer's Search or Find command to look for any photos made between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2010. In most cases, your digital photos will all end with the same four characters

.jpg

If you add a star (*) in front of those four characters

*.jpg

the computer will find all photos no matter where they live.

If you have a big hard drive this may take a while. If there are lots of pictures, you may want to find just six months' worth at a time (e.g. January 1, 2010 to June 30, 2010).

Once the computer has completed the search, it will display the pictures in a window.

Put the Pictures in the Year Folder

3. From the Edit menu, choose Select All. After the pictures are highlighted (selected), go back to the Edit menu and choose Move.

4. Navigate to (locate) your Pictures folder and open the 2010 folder.

5. Click inside the 2010 folder. From the Edit menu choose Paste. The computer will move all your 2010 pictures into this folder.

At this point you can go back to your Pictures folder and make another year folder (2009). Then repeat the process described above. Or you can continue to work with the 2010 pictures to organize them inside the year folder. That's what we will do now.

Separate the Pictures by Month and Date Folders
At this point, you may not have any idea of the location, event or subject of all these (hundreds) of pictures! So it will be a little difficult to give them descriptive names as I suggested in my earlier article. But you can fairly easily group the pictures by date taken. Here's how.

1. In the year folder, choose to view the photos by "Details" so that you can see the date associated with each photo.

2. Sort the pictures by date. On a Windows or Mac computer just clicking on the word Date at the top of the column usually sorts the pictures in ascending order. Scanning through the list, you can see which pictures were all made on the same date.

3. Create a new folder with the first date, for example 01-01 for January 1st, New Year's Day.

4. Click on the first picture name with that date. Hold down the Shift key and click on the last picture name with that date. All these will be selected (highlighted).

5. From the Edit menu, choose Move.

6. Double click on the 01-01 folder to open it.

7. From the Edit menu, choose Paste. All the appropriate pictures will be moved into their new home.

8. You can open this new folder and view the photos as thumbnails to see what they are about. Then you can add a brief descriptive name after the month and date, if you want to.

9. Repeat these steps for each date in the list.

10. When you are finished organizing the 2010 pictures, burn a CD or DVD back-up of each folder and/or copy the 2010 folder to the external hard drive. You will have to use several CDs or DVDs to back up all the pictures.

Take Your Time
This is a BIG JOB! I recommend that you do it in stages, a little at a time. If you start to become tired, you are more likely to make mistakes in organizing your photos that might be hard to correct. So work at it a little bit at a time.

Eventually, all your photos will be stored in one location on your hard drive, in folders with helpful names, and backed up for safe-keeping. Congratulations!

Learn to Make Quality Black & White Prints with Lightroom

2011-03-09T08:00:00.007-07:00

Black & White Photo of Low Hills, National Bison Range, Montana

Getting good black and white prints is a challenge with inkjet printers as well as some photo labs. The problem comes from using color inks or traditional color photographic paper to reproduce an image with no color. In order to make a black & white print, the colors have to be combined to cancel out all color, leaving just the brightness values. But the pigments in ink and dyes in photographic paper are not pure. So the combo often creates a color cast. There are a couple solutions, depending on your preferred printing method.

If you are using an inkjet printer, set the printer to use only the black ink. This removes the colors from the equation. However, not all black inks are pure black. Some may exhibit a warm or cool appearance, especially under some artificial light sources. Inkjet printers that have more than one black ink cartridge usually produce better quality black and white prints than ones with single cartridges.

Choosing black ink only

If you prefer to have a lab make prints for you, check for a company that prints on black & white photographic paper. This eliminates the color dyes from the process and ensures that you get a picture that is truly black, white and gray.

A third option can work for either inkjet prints or lab prints. Instead of being disappointed with random color casts in your black and white prints, add a color that you find appealing. A traditional and favorite one is sepia, a color that can range from a light yellow brown to a dark red brown, depending on your taste. By adding a bit of a color tint to your black & white image, it is no long black and white but a subtle monochrome color photo. This often reproduces well on both inkjet and photo lab prints.

Sepia Photo of Dry Goods, Garnet, Montana

If you'd like to learn more tips about printing your photos, join me in Missoula, Montana, for my basic printing from Lightroom workshop. We'll cover both making your own inkjet prints and ordering prints from online or local photo labs. Details and registration are available online.

Learn to Photograph in Any Light

2011-03-08T12:15:00.000-07:00

White violet, North Carolina

Enhance your photographic skills by learning to see and work with the light in your surroundings at my workshop in North Carolina this May 8-13. Enjoy spring and the company of other photographers in a supportive, fun atmosphere near the Blue Ridge Mountains. Details and registration are available online.

Organizing and Backing Up Digital Photos

2011-03-07T08:00:00.007-07:00

Winter Ghost Trees

With all the digital pictures we make so easily with cameras and phones, it's easy to "lose" them on your hard drive. In this post, I'm going to describe some simple steps you can take to organize your digital photos and back them up for safe-keeping.

What I describe below is a Do-It-Yourself method of organizing your pictures. If you would rather trust this process to some photo organizing software, you may want to check out Picasa, a free program from Google. After you install it (works on both Macs and Windows), it will search your hard drive for all photos and organize them inside Picasa. But your pictures will remain scattered all through your hard drive. If you want to organize your photos at the hard disk level, then follow the steps below BEFORE you use Picasa.

Organize
The first step is the most important. Decide on an organization method and follow it. Begin with your newest pictures, the ones you download today. Here's what I suggest.

Keep all your pictures in one folder on your hard drive. Both Windows and Mac computers make this easy; they each have a folder already made called "Pictures" (or "My Pictures" on older Windows systems). Use it.
Inside the Pictures folder, create a folder named for the current year (2011). If you just dump your pictures into the Pictures folder, you'll have to look through thousands to find the one you want. This way you break the photos up into annual folders. Next year create a new folder for 2012
Inside the year folder (2011), make a new folder with the month and date you took the pictures and a brief description of the location, event or subject. For example, 02-14-Valentines-Day-Party. I recommend that you use numbers for the month instead of words and that you use two-digit numbers for January (01) through September (09). All computers sort folders and files by numbers before letters. Including two-digit numbers ensures that January (01) comes before October (10).
Download (copy) the new pictures into the new folder you have just created for them.

So now you have the following set-up:

Pictures folder > 2011 folder > 02-14-Valentines-Day-Party folder

If several people share the computer, then inside the Pictures folder you could make folders with each person's name (e.g Mike and Julie). Inside those folders, continue with the naming suggestion above. Then you might have a folder set-up that looks like this:

Folders for Each Person with Year and Even subfolders

A Note About Names
On all computers there are some characters we use in typing that are not appropriate for folder names (or file names, either). The best technique is to use only numbers, letters, hyphens (-) and underscores (_) for names of folders. (Picture names can include one period before the file extension, such as Photo1.jpg but no where else.) Notice that there is no other punctuation and no spaces in the sample folder names above. This keeps your computer happy.

Back Up
In the world of digital information, including photos, the way to protect the information from damage or loss is to make more than one copy of it. In the digital world copies are just that, exact duplicates of the original photo or folder. In the case of your digital pictures, I recommend you do one of two things to make a back-up copy:

Burn (save) the new pictures to a CD-R or DVD-R disk (do not use CD-RW or DVD-RW disks). In the example, you would burn the 02-14-Valentines-Day-Party folder to a disk. You might want to include the year in the disk title, like this 02-14-2011-Valentines-Day-Party. OR
Copy the pictures to an external hard drive using the same folder and naming structure you created above.

For example, on a Windows computer the Pictures folder (and the year and event folders) lives on your C drive. If you attach an external hard drive with a USB cable, that new hard drive might be called the D drive. Select the Pictures folder on your C drive, choose Copy from the Edit menu. Then switch to the D drive and choose Paste from the Edit menu. Now your pictures exist in two places. For future folders, you only have to copy and paste the new folder you make, not all the previous ones.

If you use a Mac, your main hard drive is usually called Mac HD; you can name your external hard drive anything you like. The rest of the process is the same.

For an extra measure of safety, do both: burn a CD or DVD and back up to an external hard drive.

What About Old Photos?
Now that you have an organizing system for your newest photos, you might want to work on all the older pictures you have on your hard drive and put them into this new organization. I'll describe how to do this in another post.

Problems Printing Photos? It May Be Your Paper

2011-02-28T08:00:00.015-07:00

In my last post, I talked about the most common cause of printed pictures not matching the screen version---lack of monitor calibration. But if you've already followed my suggestion and calibrated your monitor, your prints may still not look like the display. The second area for improvement is the paper you are using to print on.

The easiest and best way to help the print-to-screen match is to use inkjet photo paper that is made by the same company as built your printer. So if you have an Epson printer, use paper made by Epson. If you have a Canon printer, use paper that Canon makes. The printer manufacturer has designed the printer, paper and ink to all work together to give you great results. So feeding your printer paper that was made to work with it increases your chances of getting a good print.

Nearly every inkjet printer maker also provides a variety of different types of papers that work with their printers. To start out, use a glossy surface paper. This type generally helps the printer produce the most vivid colors and the darkest shadows in your photo, which most people like. Once you can consistently produce good prints on glossy paper from the printer company, then be adventurous and try a matte or watercolor paper. Again, select one of these varieties made by your printer company for the easiest solution.

But, you say, the local store doesn't carry photo paper made by my printer company. And besides, they have a photo paper on the shelf that says it works with all printers and costs a lot less than the one my printer company sells. Can't I use that paper?

You can! There are lots of companies that produce inkjet photo papers that don't make printers. Companies like Kodak and Ilford have made photographic papers for decades. Office supply stores like Staples and Office Depot carry their own brands of photo papers. Even the companies that make regular copy paper, like Hammermill, sometimes make inkjet photo paper too. I refer to these types of papers as "third-party" papers; they are made by someone other than the company that made your printer and ink.

But your printer doesn't automatically know how to best put ink on these third-party papers. So you have to read the directions. Inside each box of such paper is an instruction sheet. It usually lists the printer brand, the printer model number, and then the recommended printer settings. Here's an example:

Instructions for using a third-party paper with different printers

To use these instructions, you first locate the printer brand and model that most closely matches your own. Then you make note of the printer settings the paper manufacturer recommends.

So if you were using this paper with a Canon i-Series printer (e.g. i9900), in the printer window you would select the Canon paper type called "Photo Paper Pro", the Print Quality of "Fine" and make two color adjustments, one to subtract 15 points of Yellow and another to add 5 points of Intensity (vividness). By following these directions, you increase the chances that your printer works well with this third-party paper.

The one thing that doesn't work is using one printer company's paper with a different company's printer. For instance, trying to print on Canon photo paper using an Epson printer may give you terrible results. And you won't find any instruction in the Canon paper box explaining how to use it with an Epson printer! They are competitors and their papers usually don't print well on other machines.

There are a lot more paper choices and paper manufacturers out there than the ones I've mentioned in this article. If you would like to learn more about printing on the vast array of papers out there, check out my Basic Printing with Lightroom workshop in Montana this spring.

Problems Printing Photos? It May Be Your LCD Monitor

2011-02-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

There are lots of challenges in digital photography and one of the most common is getting good prints of our favorite shots from our home printer. There are a number of steps you can take to improve your results. The first one is to adjust your screen so that it displays brightness and color accurately. This is called calibrating your monitor and is best accomplished using a tool specifically for that job.

For simple monitor calibration, I recommend the Spyder3 Express by Datacolor. (Available from B&H Photo.) It costs about $80, works on both Mac and Windows computers, and calibrates both desktop and laptop screens. To use it, you install the software and then attach the Spyder itself via USB cord. The software gives you easy to follow directions and in less than 15 minutes your monitor has been adjusted to display color and brightness appropriate for digital photographs. (Calibrating your monitor will not hurt any other programs on your system.) You will need to recalibrate your monitor about once a month because the display will slowly change over time. You can set the Spyder software to remind you when it's time to recalibrate.

A few of you (especially people with Apple monitors) might be thinking you can use Apple's Calibration Assistant (part of the Display System Preference) or maybe Adobe Gamma (a free application that comes with some Adobe products and is installed under the Control Panel on Windows) to adjust your monitor. After all they are free! I do not recommend you use these programs to adjust your monitor. Both of these tools rely on your vision to adjust your monitor to the proper brightness and color. However, our eyes are not a reliable judge of these qualities. Spend the money for a basic calibration tool and you will get much better results.

Sometimes, however, this calibration process isn't enough to get your prints to come out looking like the monitor. Recently a friend of mine had this problem. He had gotten a new monitor and a new inkjet printer. He had calibrated his screen and was following all the proper steps to print his pictures, but they were coming out nothing like the monitor. This was puzzling! So I took a look at the screen settings directly by using the menus on the monitor itself.

All LCD monitors are delivered with the screen set to be very bright and to display extremely vivid colors. This is fine for surfing the web or writing letters and emails. But it does not make a good match to a photo printer. Images on paper will always look less colorful and less bright than how they appear on screen. So we have to adjust our monitors to be closer to the ink on paper version to accurately preview our printed pictures.

If you have calibrated your monitor and still are not getting a good match, you may need to change the monitor settings directly. Under my friend's monitor menu was a choice for "display color" or "preset modes". (Your monitor's menu choices may be different.) It was set to Standard and this was not working well. But there was a choice for "sRGB", which is an abbreviation for "standard Red Green Blue". This setting is a nearly universal one for digital photography. So I changed the monitor setting from "standard" to "sRGB" and recalibrated the screen. On the next print...Success!

Special note to people with Apple monitors: you do not have the same monitor menu that I talk about in this article. So your monitor should calibrate just fine without having to make a change to "sRGB".

Even if you upload your pictures to Kodak or another online photo lab instead of printing them yourself, calibrating your monitor will help you get good results from the lab as well. Lack of monitor calibration is the number one reason people are unhappy with their lab prints, too.

So to help you get a better match of your photos to your prints, set your monitor menu display to "sRGB" and then calibrate your screen using a calibration tools such as the Spyder 3 Express by Datacolor.

If you would like to learn more about printing your pictures and getting great results, check out my Basic Printing with Lightroom workshop at the Rocky Mountain School of Photography.

Note: I do not receive any compensation from Datacolor. I have been happy with their monitor calibration tools for many years and use them myself.

Resetting Your Digital Camera Controls

2011-02-16T12:00:00.001-07:00

Hard Hats

If you share a digital camera with other family members, and even if you're the only person using it, sometimes you change controls and forget that you have them set differently. The effect can be disasterous for your pictures, causing you to end up with photos severely over or under exposed or with problem color casts. If you are just beginning to learn how to adjust your camera, it's easy to overlook one critical setting and end up with images destined for the trash can.

But there's a quick way out of this situation. Every camera has a menu choice or button combination that resets the camera's controls back to the way they were when the camera left the factory. So exposure, white balance, flash, focus modes, metering methods, image size and quality all change back to settings that will get you good general photos without any bad surprises.

On Canon SLR cameras, look under the Tools menu for a choice that says "Clear All Camera Settings". Even if you don't think you used any Custom Functions, it doesn't hurt to reset them as well. On Canon Powershots (and other compacts) the command is "Reset All".

For Nikon SLR cameras, you hold down the BKT and metering buttons (marked with green dots) for longer than 2 seconds. (This does NOT reset custom functions.)

Other camera brands have a similar choice. Check the camera manual for the specifics.

One thing that does not change is the date and time you have set in the camera. So after you put all the menus and buttons back to their default settings, you are ready to take photos again without any unexpected results and all will be dated accurately.

Golden Retrevo Awarded for the Second Year

2011-02-14T16:46:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to announce that Essential Digital Camera has won a Golden Retrevo Award for 2011 in the Photo/Video category. This is the second year in a row that the site has been honored.

Thanks to all my readers who voted in the competition. I'll keep posting articles that help you get the most from your digital camera and editing software.

Keep Shooting!

More About Lenses

2011-01-28T16:55:00.007-07:00

Canon 24-105mm lens, Canon 10D body

Lenses seem to be the theme of the month! The people at the New York Institute of Photography wrote a great article on purchasing high quality glass for affordable prices. Check out the article at the link below.

Beyond Your Kit Lens

A good lens for digital SLRs

2011-01-24T11:09:00.000-07:00


Japanese Garden, 50mm lens

In the days of manual focus, manual exposure 35mm film cameras, the standard "kit" lens was a 50mm. This was almost always a fast lens (meaning it was capable of letting in lots of light with a large aperture) and a lightweight one. For many photographers, it was the only lens they used for years. (Look up the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson.)

I came across this great article about using 50mm lenses with digital SLRs from a Facebook post. Check it out! And if your digital camera uses a cropped sensor (most models), then consider purchasing a 35mm lens for the same perspective as a 50mm on a 35mm film camera.

Get the Most out of Your 50mm Lens

Retrevo Award Nomination - Vote Today

2011-01-09T12:15:00.000-07:00

For the second time, Essential Digital Camera has been nominated for a Golden Retrevo Award. This award spotlights the best and brightest independent bloggers of the gadget blogosphere.

You can help me win an award by voting at the link below. You have until January 24 to cast your ballot.

http://www.retrevo.com/search/vote.jsp?q=GRA281

Thanks for your interest in my blog.

Visualization by Ansel Adams

2011-01-02T17:26:00.000-07:00

Winter Clouds with Sun Stripe

One of the hallmarks of landscape photography is learning to imagine what your photo of the scene will look like as a printed picture. This process is called "visualization," a term coined by Ansel Adams. I recently discovered a video that features Adams talking specifically about this technique. You can watch it here:

Ansel Adams on Visualization

Another technique that Adams taught in his workshops (and that I learned and use) is a viewing frame or "cut-out". This is a piece of cardboard, preferably white or black (you can make one from scrap mat board), with a hole that is the same proportions as your camera sensor or film. You hold this card and look through the hole to find and frame your picture. The cardboard border isolates part of the scene from the rest of its surroundings so you can better "visualize" how the subject you chose will look as a picture.

The closer to your face you hold the card, the shorter the lens (or zoom setting); the farther you extend your arm, the longer the lens (or zoom). In addition, it helps to close one eye when looking through the hole. This removes our three-dimensional vision of the scene and helps us see it as our camera will record it (in two dimensions).

Landscape photographer and master printer Charles Cramer was interviewed about how he uses the "cut-out" card. You can watch the video here.

How to Use a Viewing Frame for Landscape Photography

If you are using a digital (or 35mm film) SLR camera, cut a piece of cardboard 5x7 inches on the outside. Then make a 2x3 inch hole in the center for your viewing frame. If you are using a compact digital camera (or a Four Thirds camera), use the same 5x7 piece of card, but cut your hole to be 3x4 inches. These different sizes reflect the different proportions of the sensors in SLR vs. compact digital cameras.

Enjoy!

Tips for Photographing Snow and Ice

2010-12-01T12:00:00.024-07:00

Winter has officially arrived where I live in western Montana. After a week of below zero temperatures and about six inches of snow in the valleys, the icy world beckons! If you enjoy making pictures of snow scenes, here are some suggestions to improve your results.

Adjust the Exposure

Snow is actually brighter than the camera's exposure records it. To make your snow look pristine white, lighten the exposure but keep texture in the brightest areas. You can do this by using the Snow (or Beach) scene setting. Or you can set the Exposure Compensation to +1 for snow in direct sun or +1.5 for snow under overcast skies
.

Camera's Exposure

Brighter Exposure

The most controlled method is using spot metering to measure the light on just the snow. (You will still need to adjust the exposure.) If your camera can display a histogram (a graph of the brightness in your photo), check it as a guide to an exposure that's brighter but not too bright. The graph should be shifted toward the right side instead of being in the middle. You can also practice on white subjects inside to figure out how much to lighten the exposure while still keeping important details.

Read the whole article...

Dealing with Shadows

Shadows record very dark compared to sunlit snow. Your camera can’t record detail in shadows even though you can see it. Watch for shadows and make them part of the composition. Side lighting and back lighting produce shadows that give snow texture. Cloudy days and shade create no shadows, so no texture is visible in the snow. On cloudy days look for color subjects to add an accent to the scene.

Side lighting shows texture

Cloudy light shows little texture

Adjusting Color

Because snow is white, it reveals the color of the light shining on it. Shadows on snow are the color of the sky---blue. Highlights are the color of the sun---yellow in the midday, pink at dawn or dusk. To record these colors, try the sunny white balance setting in addition to automatic white balance. Winter is also a good time to experiment with black and white photography since dormant trees and other plants have turned gray and are surrounded by white snow.

Sun on the snow is yellow; shadows from clouds are blue

Winter scenes make nice black and white photos

Snowdrifts

Early and late in the day, snowdrifts show the color of sunlight and texture. Look for interesting shapes and abstract compositions. Watch where you walk so you don’t track footprints through a scene you want to photograph as pristine.

Snowdrifts create abstract patterns of light and shadow

Falling Snow

If you want to record snowflakes falling through the air, find a dark background so the flakes will be visible. Use a shutter speed of 1/60 second or faster to stop their motion, or 1/30 to 1/15 second for streaks. You can also try fill flash to freeze falling flakes close to the camera.

Falling snow is easier to see against the dark windows

Frost on Plants and Windows

Extremely low temperatures often result in intricate patterns of frost and ice that make fascinating pictures. Avoid touching the plant and making the frost fall off. The slightest breeze makes frost fall like snow! Opening the curtains or door and touching the window may cause frost to melt.

Watch for patterns of color visible through the ice on windows. Use the close-up focusing setting on a compact camera to record the details. For an SLR camera a macro lens or close-up filter is useful. For either camera a tripod holds the camera steady for a sharp shot.

Frost on rose hips

Frost on window

Ice in Streams and Ponds

As puddles, ponds, streams and rivers begin to freeze over, air becomes trapped below the surface. These bubbles make interesting designs especially for macro photography. Leaves, pine needles and other vegetation frozen in the water create still lifes. If you have waterfalls in the area, visit them for interesting ice sculptures created by the flowing water.

Leaves frozen in ice

Snowflake pattern in pond ice

Camera and Personal Care

Finally, don't forget to take care of your camera and yourself when out in cold temperatures.

For your camera, always carry spare batteries inside your coat to swap with the first set when cold saps their power. The batteries aren't really dead, just too cold to produce a charge. If your camera can use them, lithium batteries last longer than alkalines in the cold. If snow sticks to your lens, use a soft brush to remove it. Don’t try to blow the snow off or your breath may freeze on the glass!

When you are finished shooting, put the camera in a plastic bag or your camera bag while you are still outside the warm house or car. This traps cold air around the camera and prevents condensation from forming both outside and inside the camera. Too much moisture could damage the electronics. Then warm the camera up slowly, such as under a blanket or inside a padded camera bag, away from direct heat sources.

For yourself, dress in layers that wick away moisture if you are going to be active and wear an outer layer that blocks the wind. Wear thin gloves inside mittens. Mittens always keep your fingers warmer than gloves, but you need dexterity when adjusting the camera controls. So the gloves provide a measure of protection from the cold air. Wrap your tripod legs with pipe insulation or padded bicycle handlebar tape so you aren’t touching bare metal even with gloved hands. This will help keep the warmth in your hands. And stick a couple chemical hand warmers in your coat pockets so you can warm up those fingers (and batteries) when they become chilled.

With all these suggestions you should be well prepared to capture photos in your amazing winter landscape.

Additional Resources

“Snow Photography: How to Take Better Pictures of Winter Sports” by Kerry Drager, BetterPhoto.com

“The Most Useful Exposure Override” by Peter K. Burian, BetterPhoto.com

“Digital Photography Tips --- Winter Photography” by Tom Cavalieri, New York Institute of Photography

“Cold Weather Pictures: How to Use Your Camera in Cold Weather”, New York Institute of Photography

“How to Take Great Skiing and Snowboarding Pictures”, New York Institute of Photography

The Costco Connection with Adobe Photoshop Elements

2010-11-22T11:43:00.002-07:00

Bannack State Park, Montana

Do you regularly use Costco's photo service for making prints of your digital pictures? If so, you may want to consider purchasing (or upgrading to) Photoshop Elements 9. According to Tim Grey's free Elements Weekly e-newsletter, if you buy a copy of Elements from Costco (and you must to get this feature), the program contains an option to order prints directly from Costco from inside Elements.

First, select the images you want to print. Then from the File menu, choose Order Prints and select the Costco option. You'll need to have an account at Costco to use this choice, but once it is set up, it makes ordering high-quality prints very easy.

I've ordered prints from my local Costco and been very happy with the results. And I've been using and teaching Elements since it came out. It's a powerful program for a very reasonable price ($99 retail). You can download a free trial (either Windows or Macintosh) to see what Elements 9 looks like from Adobe (though it will not contain the Costco print option).

Photographing Jack o' Lanterns

2010-10-21T14:06:00.001-06:00

It's that spooky time of year again. Ghosts and goblins and witches all knocking on our doors for treats. Here's an article that gives good suggestions on photographing that carved pumpkin decorating your front steps. Enjoy!

Shooting the Ultimate Jack-o’-lantern

Easy Picture Resizing Online

2010-10-11T12:10:00.000-06:00

Resized using ShrinkPictures.com

I've published an earlier post about one of the sizing issues important to digital photographers: shrinking the original picture to a size small enough for emailing or posting to Facebook or Flickr (or other online viewing sites). (See How Many Pixels Are Enough?) Lots of people who shoot digital pictures don't know how to use photo editing software to accomplish this. And, frankly, sometimes the steps are not that easy to understand or accomplish.

Today, Alyson Stanfield, Art Biz Coach, has posted two links to online picture resizing services. I've checked them out and they are definitely easy to use. Try either Resize Your Image or Shrink Pictures for a simple way to make email or social networking copies of your favorite photos! Your email recipients will be grateful!

14 Tips for Creative Fall Foliage Pictures

2010-09-28T20:23:00.003-06:00

The autumn equinox was last week (along with an amazing harvest full moon) and the trees around us in the northern hemisphere are beginning their annual display. Here are some easy tips for making memorable images of the vibrant colors.

Shoot early or late in the day when the warm sunlight accentuates the autumn colors. The air is often stillest in the morning so leaves and other plants are not moving, ensuring your photos are sharp.
Shoot under overcast skies for richer color. Leave the sky out of the picture to focus attention on the leaves.

Read the whole article...

Photograph the light coming through the leaves and accenting their color and translucency for a dramatic effect.
Use a polarizing filter to cut the glare off the foliage. The filter works best when the sun is to your right or left. For compacts without lens threads, just hold the filter against the lens. Be careful if using your polarizer when shooting reflections; too much polarization can make the reflected color disappear.

Isolate a particularly colorful group of trees with the telephoto setting on your zoom. If you isolate a single colorful tree or cluster of color, try placing it off-center for more visual impact. (Think Rule of Thirds.)
Lie down, or put your camera on the ground, looking up through the colorful leaves toward the sky. Use the wide setting on your zoom to exaggerate the "reaching" effect of the tree trunks.
Photograph the leaves fallen on the forest floor with your macro setting (compacts) or a close-up filter.

Include a stream, path or road winding through the autumn display.
Look for colors reflected in still or moving water or in windows or puddles or any other reflective surface. This works best when the reflecting surface is in the shade and the source of the reflection (i.e., the trees) is in bright sunlight. If the water is not mirror smooth, experiment with various shutter speeds for different effects.

Look for complementary (opposite) colors. Plain blue sky can set off yellow leaves; red foliage looks more vibrant against green conifers. Out of focus color in the background can be the backdrop for another subject. Color opposites are bold and eye-catching.
Put your camera on a tripod, a rock or another stable surface to ensure a sharp shot. Use the self timer or a remote release to prevent camera movement.

Slightly underexpose your pictures (by -0.3) to deepen the color.
Use the Daylight or Cloudy white balance setting (instead of Automatic white balance) to record the colors better.
Intensify the colors by changing your camera Picture Style or Optimize Image setting to Vivid color. Or use the Foliage scene mode.

You can use any of these ideas, alone or in combination, to make autumn photographs that are out of the ordinary. So grab your camera and head for the woods!

Inspiration for People Photographs

2010-08-28T18:08:00.000-06:00

Michelle

I've spent the past month practicing photographing friends as part of a class on learning to use my flash. I always have admired the work of excellent photojournalists, who seem to be able to create great portraits anywhere and make effective use of camera flash (supplemental or hot-shoe flash, not the built-in variety) while they're at it.

Street Musician

My instructor has been Paul Gero, one of the teachers at BetterPhoto.com. He has also been working on a blog project of one camera, one lens. The images represented in August are great! Check it out if you enjoy photographing people of all ages!

One Camera, One Lens, One Photo a Day for August

Scott & Jessica

Fixing Exposure Problems

2010-07-12T17:04:00.051-06:00

In my earlier posts, I've talked about ways that you can adjust the brightness of your pictures. Even using Exposure Lock or Exposure Compensation, your pictures may turn out too light or too dark. Here are some possible causes and what you can do to prevent exposure problems in the future.

Exposure Compensation

One reason your photos may not be properly exposed is the new controls you've just been using. If you did not reset the Exposure Compensation marker back to zero after your last picture, your picture could be too light or too dark because the camera is still following your instructions! Check to be sure that exposure compensation is set to zero.

Read the whole article...

Wrong Exposure Mode

Another cause of exposure problems is not having the camera set to the correct picture taking mode. Automatic exposure generally works fine for outside and indoor images. However, if you decided to experiment with some of your camera's Scene modes, the one you chose might not be a good match for your subject. Here in Montana people sometimes get washed out photos when they use the Snow scene setting. This generally happens because there is only a small patch of snow in the picture instead of the entire scene being a winter wonderland. It's a good idea to take a photo in Automatic mode as well as the scene setting you think is best. That way, you have two chances for a satisfactory exposure.

Besides automatic and scene settings, some digital cameras have "letter" exposure modes: P, S, Tv, A, Av, and M are common choices. If you have not learned how to use these more manual exposure modes, stick with automatic. All except P (Program) mode assume that you are going to tell the camera at least part of what it needs to know in order to properly expose the subject. If you don't know what to tell the camera, you could end up with an over or under exposed photo.

Metering Mode

Every camera has a light meter built-in to help achieve a good exposure. This meter can be adjusted to measure the light in different ways. In most situations, matrix or evaluative metering (or another overall light measurement setting) provides the best exposure results. If the metering method accidentally gets switched to spot or center-weighted metering, your picture could turn out too light or too dark. Each camera manufacturer uses different symbols for the metering choices. Check the camera manual for the symbol that indicates matrix, evaluative or another overall metering method and use that setting.

Distance from Built-in Flash

If you are having exposure problems with your flash pictures, it's often because your subject isn't the right distance from the camera. If the subject is too close, the flash can wash it out. If the subject is too far away, the light from the flash may never reach it and the photo turns out dim. Subjects that are between 3 feet and 10 feet from the camera are exposed best when you are using the built-in flash.

If your subject is the right distance from the camera and you are still having flash exposure problems, you may be able to change how much light the flash puts out. Look for a flash intensity or flash exposure compensation control. Changing the flash to a lower setting can prevent overexposure; changing the flash to a higher setting can prevent underexposure. Use this control with caution.

ISO Setting

If you have trouble with outdoor photos being too bright or indoor photos being too dark, it could be the result of your camera's ISO or Sensitivity setting. Having the ISO set extremely high (such as 1600) for outdoor pictures in sunshine could wash out the subject. Having the ISO set too low (such as 80) for indoor pictures at night, especially if you are not using flash, can make your subjects inky black.

Check the camera's ISO or Sensitivity control and return it to Auto ISO. If you don't have an Auto ISO choice, use a low ISO number for outdoor subjects in sunshine and a high ISO number for inside pictures at night without flash. You may have to experiment to find the best ISO choice for your situation.

LCD Screen Brightness

Sometimes your picture only looks over or under exposed when in fact it is just fine. The surrounding light can affect how light or dark your photos appear on the back of the camera. In bright sun, the screen may appear very dark. At night in the dark, photos on the screen may seem too bright. Review your pictures on your home computer screen or the screen at a photo lab kiosk before deciding that the exposure is wrong.

If the images look fine on a larger screen under average lighting conditions, check the LCD brightness setting. You might have the LCD screen brightness turned up too high, making your pictures look washed out. Or the opposite could be true: the LCD screen brightness is too low and your pictures look dark. Consult your camera manual for the LCD screen adjustment and use a medium setting.

Bright Light in the Picture

Sometimes the reason the exposure is not what you want comes from what you have included in the picture. Often indoor photos made during the day turn out too dark. This can happen when you include a window with bright light streaming in from outside. This light fools the camera into believing the scene is brighter than it actually is, and the camera makes the exposure for the rest of the room too dark. If you shoot from a different direction or eliminate the window from the scene, the camera will be able to make a better exposure of the room and its contents.

A similar situation occurs outside at sunset or sunrise. If you include the sun itself in the photo, its bright light can cause the camera to underexpose the whole scene and make everything too dark. Once again the solution is to point the camera to the side so the sun is not in the picture. If you do want to include the sun, lock the exposure without the sun and then add the sun back into your composition.

Learn From the Bad Exposures

Learning how to get the best exposure in tricky lighting situations comes from experience. You can help yourself learn what went wrong with your exposures by studying your mistakes. All digital cameras come with software designed to display your pictures on a computer screen. In addition, these programs can show you detailed information about which camera settings were in effect when you made the photo. If you use this software to look at a picture that has an exposure problem, you may be able to find out which camera setting caused the problem and adjust it for future images.

Camera Settings

Getting the Exposure You Want, Part II

2010-07-05T15:48:00.016-06:00

In my last article, I explained how you could get a different exposure for your shot by using a simple technique called Exposure Lock. This is a quick and easy method that is especially useful for landscapes or overall scenes. But exposure lock doesn't let you adjust how much lighter or darker your picture becomes. If you want to decide how much the exposure changes in your photo, you need a different control.

Exposure Compensation
Most digital cameras have a button or menu choice that lets you adjust the camera for a different exposure setting than the regular automatic one. This control is called exposure compensation or exposure value. In order to use it, you may need to change your camera from the regular automatic exposure mode to Program exposure mode (designated by the letter P).

Program Mode

Getting the Exposure You Want, Part I

2010-06-28T12:00:00.003-06:00

After sharp focus, good exposure is the next characteristic we want for our photographs. Most of the time, the camera's automatic exposure gives us a photo that's not too bright and not too dark. But sometimes the camera is wrong when it comes to exposure. How can we make the camera take a picture with a different brightness?

Exposure Lock
One way you can get a different exposure is very low tech and works on every camera in nearly every shooting mode (except Manual exposure mode). This is called exposure lock. When you press the shutter button half-way down to prepare to take a photo, the camera is making adjustments to a variety of automatic settings. One of these is exposure. The camera determines the exposure (or brightness) of the image based on what you have included in the frame.

For example, the picture at the beginning of this article is made up of half mountains and half sky with cloud. When I made this picture, I pointed the camera so that the scene was evenly divided between foreground hills and sky. The camera based its exposure on this and produced the photo.

Read the whole article...

If I point the camera at a slightly different part of the scene, I can create a very different exposure. In the photo below, I tilted the camera up so that only the sky with cloud was visible. Then I pressed the shutter button half-way down to lock the exposure. Still holding the shutter button half-way down, I reframed the scene to include the mountains. Then I actually took the picture.

Darker Exposure of Sky

The effect of pointing the camera at the sky and locking in the exposure gives me a photograph that is a better version of the cloud than I had with the first picture.

What if I'm interested in a better exposure of the foreground instead of the sky? In the first picture below, I pointed the camera up at the overcast sky and pressed the shutter button half-way to lock the exposure. Then, keeping my finger on the shutter button, I reframed the scene to include trees and river. Then I clicked the picture. The result is a good exposure for the sky, but the foreground is too dark.

Dark Exposure of Sky

In this situation, the sky is not very interesting. So having a darker exposure of it doesn't help my photo. Let's try again. This time I pointed my camera down at the trees and water, and pressed the shutter button half-way to lock the exposure. Then I reframed the picture to include the top of the mountain and pressed the shutter button down to make the image. Now the camera has made a brighter exposure for the more interesting part of the scene, the trees and river.

Brighter Exposure of Trees

From these examples, you can see that where you point the camera has an effect on the exposure. How do you know where to aim the lens for the best exposure? Ask yourself, what is the most important part of the scene?

If the most important part is the sky, point the camera at the sky and lock in the exposure by pressing the shutter button half-way. Then adjust the composition if needed and press the button to take the photo. If the most important part of the scene is the foreground, point the camera at that part of the scene and lock in the exposure with the shutter button. Adjust the framing if you want to and then take the photo.

These examples demonstrate tilting the camera up or down to change the exposure. But you can also turn the camera left or right to achieve a similar effect. Just remember to point the camera at the part of the picture where the exposure is most important. And remember to take a picture normally (without exposure lock) for comparison.

You can see that exposure lock is a very easy way to change how light or dark your photo is. But you don't have any control over how much lighter or darker the picture is. The camera is still deciding that for you. If you want to tell the camera how much brighter or darker your picture should be, you need to use a different technique. And that's the subject of the next blog post! Stay tuned!

Photographing Air Shows

2010-06-23T15:36:00.000-06:00

The New York Institute of Photography, a correspondence photo school, is 100 years old this year. They have a great web site with lots of free articles on photography. In this month's newsletter is a piece about photographing planes at an air show. The author includes a brief slideshow with music. Check it out for some great tips and fun presentation!

What Is the Black Semi-Circle in My Flash Pictures?

2010-06-18T19:00:00.004-06:00

In my last article, I talked about a common flash problem, over or under exposed pictures caused by the subject being too close or too far from the camera. Another flash problem is a black half circle appearing on the side of a vertical flash picture or on the bottom of a horizontal flash photo, like the example below.

Flash shadow created by lens

There are two causes of this problem. The most common is being so close to your subject that the lens of the camera blocks some of the light from the flash. This creates a semi-circular shadow or black area in the lower part of the image. That is what happened in the close-up of the flowers above. The solution is either to turn off the flash or to move the camera back and zoom in on the subject instead.

No lens shadow without flash

The other cause of a dark shadow at the bottom or side of the picture comes from leaving the lens hood on the lens when using a digital SLR camera's built-in flash. Even if you are an appropriate distance from your subject, the lens hood interferes with the flash, blocking some of its light and casting a shadow. The same effect can happen if you have a lens with a large diameter attached to the camera and fire the built-in flash. The solution is to always remove a lens hood or to change to a lens with a smaller diameter before using the camera's built-in flash.

For a great tip on how to avoid the black shadow from your built-in flash, read David Wells' article about Using Built-in Flash.

Why Are My Flash Pictures Washed Out?

2010-06-12T18:00:00.001-06:00

Flash Indoors at Night

Flash is a very helpful accessory. It lets us take pictures when there is not enough natural light (such as at night). It can freeze a moving subject for a sharper photo. And it can improve colors of subjects photographed in classrooms or offices.

But sometimes the flash seems to ruin our photos. A common complaint is flash pictures that are overexposed or "washed out". The main reason is the subject being too close to the camera and its built-in flash. The best flash pictures happen when your subject is between 3 feet and 10 feet away. Any closer than 3 feet and your subject gets overexposed, looking almost like a ghost! Any farther than about 10 feet and your subject gets underexposed, looking dim and murky.

Nancy is washed out by the flash

Dale is too dark

How far is three feet? At least the length of your outstretched arm. So if you can reach out and touch your subject, you are too close and your flash picture will likely wash out. The solution is to back up one or two steps, zoom in for the original framing, and then take the photo.

How far is ten feet? No more than three or four steps away. So if you are five or six steps away, move in closer to be sure light from the flash will reach your subject.

In the picture at the beginning of this article, my cousin is sitting across the banquet table from me, about 5 feet away. So he and his new son are properly exposed by the flash. The rest of the banquet hall behind him is too far away to be lit by the flash, so it is very dark.

If you are trying to photograph several people, make sure they are all the same distance from the camera so the light from the flash reaches them evenly. For example, if you are photographing a group at a long table in a dim restaurant, don't shoot down the length of the table. Photograph across the table instead. If you want everyone in a single photo, ask the people on one side of the table to stand behind the people on the other side.

If you remember to keep the right distance from your subject when you are taking flash pictures, you will be able to prevent washed out and too dark photos.

Having Fun & Learning About Your Camera

2010-06-09T11:15:00.000-06:00

If you're in a photographic slump or just don't know what to take a picture of, consider visiting the Rocky Mountain School of Photography's new blog, Paper Airplanes, and clicking on the Assignments link. Every month the school posts an article explaining some aspect of photography. Readers are invited to participate in the assignment which puts the article topic into practice. Photographers submit their favorite images (usually 3) that relate to the assignment and share what the experience was like for them.

Most recently, the assignments have been about two subjects that I think all photographers need to remember: perspective and fixed length lenses. To read about these and participate in the next assignment, visit the blog and wake up your photography skills!

Getting Sharper Pictures in Low Light Indoors

2010-06-05T17:00:00.002-06:00

If you try to take pictures without using your flash indoors, you might get a blurry photo. This happens because the camera uses a longer exposure time to get enough light for a picture without the light from the flash. As a result of this longer exposure, you unintentionally wiggle the camera and that makes your picture blurry.

Blurry Indoor Picture with ISO 80

The solution is to change your camera's sensitivity to dim light, essentially helping it to "see in the dark." Some cameras call this setting "sensitivity"; others refer to it as "ISO." The control may be in a menu or on a button. Refer to your camera's manual for the details.

There are two ways to increase your camera's sensitivity to low light. If you are using Auto exposure mode (usually represented by a green square or camera icon), you may be able to change the sensitivity from Auto ISO to Hi ISO. If that option is not available, you may need to change your camera to Program exposure mode (usually represented by a P). Program exposure is still automatic, but you can override standard camera settings when you need to.

Program Exposure Mode

Read more...

In Program exposure mode, you can usually select an ISO number instead of just auto or high settings. The higher the number, the better the camera can "see in the dark". As a general guideline, ISO numbers between 50 and 200 are good for shooting outside in bright light. ISO numbers from 400 on up to 1600 and higher are good for shooting inside without flash. The photo at the beginning of this article was made inside a hotel room without flash at ISO 800.

Exactly which ISO setting you need to use depends on how much light is available. Using ISO 400 is a good starting point for indoor shots during the day. If you are photographing moving subjects inside (such as a basketball game or children playing), you may need to use ISO 800 or ISO 1600. Experiment to see which setting gives you the sharpest picture.

Sharper Indoor Picture with ISO 1600

If your subject is not moving, keep the camera steady by setting it on a table or chair or attaching it to a tripod. This lets you keep the ISO setting low and still get a sharp picture.

Indoors No Tripod or Flash

Indoors with Tripod and No Flash

Compact Digital Cameras Used by Pro Photojournalist

2010-06-01T13:05:00.002-06:00

Those of you with compact digital cameras might sometimes feel like you are not a "serious" photographer because you use a little camera. As the article in the link below describes, it's not the camera that makes good pictures, it's the photographer handling it. Read how Alex Majoli has taken award-winning photos with point-and-shoot digital cameras in war zones from China to Afghanistan to Iraq. And remember this story when any digital SLR owner wants to "dis" your equipment!

Alex Majoli points and shoots

Use Scene Settings for Better Pictures

2010-05-29T18:16:00.011-06:00

An article on the Digital Photography Review web site stated that scene modes on digital cameras were the least used feature. I was shocked and vowed immediately to do my part to change that.

So what are "scene modes"? These are shortcuts to better pictures of all kinds of subjects. Camera manufacturers provide tiny pictures, or icons, that represent common photographic subjects and situations. You select the icon that matches what you are taking a picture of and snap away. Scene settings are an automatic way to get better pictures than you might on regular Automatic mode.

Nearly all digital cameras have the two most common scene settings: "Landscape," represented by a mountain, and "Portrait," represented by a person's profile. Landscape scene mode is designed to help you get a colorful picture of a scenic vista with everything in sharp focus.

Landscape Scene Mode

Photographed with the Automatic setting

Photographed with the Landscape setting

Portrait scene mode is intended to help you take a sharp picture of a person with the background blurred.

Portrait Scene Mode

You can even use the setting for a Portrait of a flower.

Photographed with the Auto setting

Photographed with the Portrait scene setting

For the most dramatic results, stand close to your subject and have a distant background. The effect of this setting is more obvious with digital SLR cameras than compacts.

Another common scene mode is Action or Sports. Some compact digital cameras call it Kids & Pets. This scene setting helps you get a sharp picture of a moving subject.

Sports Scene Mode

Kids & Pets Scene Mode

Photographed with the Sports scene setting

Compact digital cameras usually have far more scene settings to choose from than digital SLR cameras. My Canon Powershot A570 has half a dozen scene icons on the exposure dial on top of the camera. If I switch the dial to SCN, I can choose from even more scene settings using the menu.

Scene Mode Setting

For summer time shots of colorful flowers, look for a "Foliage" setting. This scene mode makes the colors of flowers (and autumn leaves) more vibrant.

Foliage Scene Mode

Photographed with the Auto setting

Photographed with the Foliage scene setting

Photographed with the Auto setting

Photographed with the Foliage scene setting

For winter snow scenes, look for a "Snow" setting. This scene mode makes the snow in your picture brighter and whiter.

Photographed with the Auto setting

Photographed with the Snow setting

The best way to practice with scene settings is to take one picture on the regular Auto setting. Then take a second picture with the matching Scene mode and compare the results. Sometimes you will like Auto better and sometimes the Scene version.

So experiment with this feature and tell your friends so you are not missing out on this helpful digital camera feature.

What Macro Equipment Should I Have?

2010-03-19T13:22:00.000-06:00

Trillium in black & white, North Carolina

The kind of tools you need to get the most from a macro photography class depends on the type of camera you own. If you have a compact digital camera (one without interchangeable lenses), you generally do not need any extra camera equipment to take macro shots. Your camera’s close-focusing setting allows you to get the camera very close to subjects and still get sharp focus. Check your camera manual to see how close the camera can focus; 1 inch or closer is preferable.

If you have an SLR digital or film camera (one with interchangeable lenses), you do need at least one accessory in order to make macro photos. Just because you have a lens which is described as "macro" does not mean it is capable of true macro photography (reproducing subjects at half to full life size or larger). The "macro" description often just means it can focus relatively close for its focal length. For macro photography you have a couple different equipment options of varying prices.

Find out about close-up filters, extension tubes, macro lenses and tripods for macro photography by reading the rest of this article here.

12 Tips for Printing Great Photos

2010-03-19T10:49:00.000-06:00

I recently gave a lecture about printing digital photos yourself or using a photo printing service. I focused on getting professional quality prints from either process. One of my students then shared this article from PC Magazine. It gives several useful suggestions for getting good results with automatic photo printing. Check it out!

12 Tips for Printing Great Photos

Amateurs Get Some Respect

2010-03-10T16:39:00.000-07:00

Check out this great post from photographer David duChemin on what it means to be an amateur photographer! After you've read it, I think you'll join me in saying "Amateurs Unite!"

Just an Amateur?

Essential Digital Camera Wins!

2010-02-01T11:10:00.000-07:00

Essential Digital Camera won a Golden Retrevo Award in the Photo & Video category! http://bit.ly/9TSWzO Thanks for your support!

100 Days in Glacier National Park

2010-01-27T11:43:00.000-07:00

Mt. Reynolds, Logan Pass, Glacier National Park, Montana

In honor of Glacier National Park's centennial in 2010, photographer Chris Peterson, who runs Glacier Park Magazine and works for the Hungry Horse News weekly paper, decided to spend 100 consecutive days photographing in the park. He published a blog of his photos and will produce a special edition of the magazine. You can see some of his photos, read the captions detailing his adventures and learn more about his project at the links below.

100 Days in the Park

Glacier Park Magazine

Some of you might consider a project similar to this in your own area. It doesn't have to be a national park nor does it have to be 100 straight days. But any dedicated time spent photographing one subject yields photographs you wouldn't have made otherwise. My colleague John Snell has spent years photographing in Kentucky's Red River Gorge. His efforts have culminated in a book, Red River Gorge---The Eloquent Landscape, and three full-color calendars. Enjoy the adventure!

Help for Animals in Haiti

2010-01-18T08:49:00.000-07:00

All of us have been affected by the stories and pictures of devastation in Haiti from the earthquake. Many have donated money, goods and services generously to help bring succor to the citizens of the capital.

I'd like to make a personal request that you remember the animals, domestic and wild, affected by this tragedy as well. Consider making a donation to the Humane Society, the ASPCA or other animal service organizations by visiting their websites.

Thanks!

Rescue dogs in Spain awaiting air transport to Haiti

Essential Digital Camera Nominated for Award

2010-01-12T10:00:00.000-07:00

If you've been reading my blog for a while, I hope you've found the content interesting and useful. Another group has. Essential Digital Camera has been nominated for a Golden Retrevo Award.

Retrevo is a leading consumer electronics shopping and review site visited by close to 6 million visitors a month.

These awards honor the best and brightest independent bloggers of the gadget blogosphere. Nominations come from gadget enthusiasts as well as Retrevo's own panel of gadget experts. Read more about the award at: http://www.retrevo.com/content/golden-retrevo-awards

Winners will be invited to participate with Retrevo to share their quality content with our users.

To vote for Essential Digital Camera, click on this link:

http://www.retrevo.com/search/vote.jsp?q=GRA51

Voting ends on Monday, January 25, 2010. Winners will be announced on February 1st.

Thanks for your support!

10 Easy Editing Steps to Enhance Your Photos

2010-01-09T12:00:00.024-07:00

You have made that perfect picture and you want to share it with friends and family. Before you post it on Facebook, upload it to Flickr, email it to anyone or print it, take some time to bring out your photo's best qualities by doing some basic editing.

You do not need a fancy, expensive photo editing program to accomplish these steps. Picasa, a free editing program from Google for Windows and Mac computers, or iPhoto, often included free on Mac computers, has enough choices to enable you to accomplish these steps. Other programs may have come with your camera on a CD or DVD that you can install on your computer.

Most photo editing software has an "Auto Fix" button or menu choice. This is certainly worth trying. But sometimes this "one size fits all" kind of edit makes your picture look worse instead of better. In that case, knowing what choices to use in which order can help you make a good picture great!

Original photo from camera

These steps are the equivalent of what a photo lab does with your picture when you drop it off for printing. All digital camera photos, no matter how good they look on your computer, can be improved in 10 easy steps.

Select
Copy
Rotate and/or straighten
Crop
Expose
Color correct
Size
Sharpen
Save
Print or Email or Upload

If any of the changes makes your picture look worse instead of better, use the Undo feature of your editing software (or press Ctrl+Z on a Windows computer, Apple+Z on a Mac) to reverse the change. Then go on to the next step.

Photo after editing with Picasa

In future posts, I'll expand on these ten steps with more helpful tips and examples.

Remember, this is a very brief overview of editing your pictures. If you would like to learn more, check for classes or workshops offered in your area. Look up online videos for more advanced tips and techniques. Continue to practice improving your best photos. Just like using your digital camera, learning to enhance your pictures takes time! Enjoy the process!

New Camera? Now What?

2009-12-26T12:00:00.008-07:00

Montana Winter 2008

Did you get a new digital camera for Christmas? If so, you might be wondering where to start. Here are a couple suggestions to get you taking pictures in no time!

Power

The first thing you need is power for the camera. It may come with some alkaline AA batteries in the box. If so, open the battery compartment (usually on the bottom of the camera) and insert them in the correct orientation.

If your camera came with a rechargeable battery, you need to charge the battery first before putting it in the camera. There's probably an included battery charger for you to plug into the wall. This will take a couple hours and then you'll be ready to go.

Note that alkaline batteries don't let you take many photos before they run out. You might want to experiment with the new lithium AA batteries made for hand-held devices of all kinds, or try some rechargeable AA batteries called Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH). The rechargeables will be "dead" when you buy them so plan on some charging time before use.

Storage

While you're waiting for the battery to charge, locate the memory card. A memory card saves your photos as you take them. Your camera may have come with a small capacity card (16MB or 32MB). Or Santa may have included a higher capacity card (2GB or 4GB) for you.

In either case, insert the memory card in the camera. In a compact camera, the slot is often in the same compartment as the batteries. In an SLR camera, the memory card slot may be behind a door on the side. In both cases, the card only fits in the slot in one direction. If the card doesn't go in smoothly, try turning it over.

CAUTION: If you already have pictures on your memory card, skip this next step! Otherwise, you will erase all your photos!

Once the memory card is in the camera, it's a good idea to format the card. This prepares it to work optimally with your camera (though it will work without this step). Get out the instruction book that came with the camera and look up Format in the index. Follow the directions listed there.

Instruction Manual

The batteries may still be charging, so while you wait, take the time to read through the manual's introduction to using your camera. This section, sometimes called "Getting Started" or "Basic Operation", includes directions on loading batteries and memory cards and attaching the camera strap. Then it explains basic picture taking and picture reviewing techniques as well as how to delete any photo you don't like.

Note: Some camera manufacturers supply only a very small, incomplete printed manual. The complete manual is on the CD that is also in the camera box. If you take the CD to any copy shop, they can print and bind it for you. I highly recommend you do this.

Shooting

By now the batteries should be charged, so you can install them in the camera. Find the power switch and turn on the camera. Set the camera to automatic picture taking, usually a red camera or green square icon or even the word AUTO. Following the guidelines given in the manual, frame a photo using either the screen on the back or the viewfinder. Try moving closer or zooming in on your subject to eliminate unnecessary information. Focus by pressing the shutter button halfway. Then take the photo by pressing the shutter button all the way.

Automatic Picture Taking Icon

Reviewing

The photo you just made should instantly appear on the back of the camera. If it doesn't stay visible long enough for you to check the results, you can call up the picture manually. Press the playback or Review button. The playback button looks like a right-pointing triangle inside a rectangle, much like the play button on your DVD player.

Playback Icon

If the picture isn't framed exactly the way you wanted or the exposure doesn't seem right, adjust your camera angle and try again. Check the results of the second photo and see if you like it better. This instant feedback on whether or not you got the shot is a great teaching tool. Make use of it!

Erasing

If you take a bad picture by accident (maybe you photographed your toes and the carpet), you can delete it. First, press the Playback button and use the arrow keys to display the photo you want to erase.

Then look for a trash can or Delete button on the back of the camera. When you press it, the camera asks you if you're sure you want to erase the photo. You need to press the OK or Delete button again to confirm this action.

Delete Icon

IMPORTANT: When you send a photo to the trashcan on your camera, it is not the same as the trashcan on your computer or under the kitchen sink. You can retrieve something from your computer or kitchen trash if you haven't emptied it yet. But the trash can on your camera is more like the landfill. If you put a picture in the landfill, it's going to be pretty hard to get it back again! So be sure you really don't want the photo before you hit the delete button.

Repeat
That's it! You've just taken your first photos with your new camera. Repeat the shooting, reviewing and erasing steps as much as you want! Enjoy your new digital camera!

Montana Winter 2008

Holiday Greetings

2009-12-25T11:08:00.000-07:00

Wherever you are in the world, may your celebrations of the return of the light be joyous! And may 2010 bring you the best of what you wish for!

Thanks for reading my blog! Stay tuned for more great articles in the coming year!

Three Best Digital Camera Accessories

2009-12-13T15:19:00.000-07:00

Shopping time for holiday gifts is winding down. If you are still wondering what to give the photography fanatic in your family or circle of friends, consider these three very helpful camera accessories.

#1 Tripod

Whether the photographer has a compact digital camera or a full-featured digital SLR (a camera with interchangeable lenses), a tripod is the one single accessory that can improve anyone's pictures. Because the tripod holds the camera, it stays completely still during the exposure. This helps produce the sharpest possible photograph of a stationary subject. There is no motion blur that softens details from the person holding the camera. As a result, the quality of the photographs from any digital camera go up, sometimes exponentially!

Tripods for compact digital cameras

There are a variety of camera supports available, everything from professional carbon fiber models from Gitzo to traditional aluminum units from Manfrotto to innovations like the GorillaPod and The Pod beanbag. So you have lots of choices for a tripod to fit any budget. Just be sure the model you buy is sturdy enough to hold the person's camera. An SLR with a long zoom lens needs a stronger tripod than a simple compact digital camera.

Indoor Photo without Tripod

Indoor Photo with Tripod

#2 Polarizing Filter

If your photographer already owns a tripod, the next most useful accessory is a polarizing filter, or polarizer for short. This filter acts like a pair of Polaroid sunglasses for the camera, removing glare and reflections to produce richer colors in skies and foliage. There are two styles of polarizer, round and rectangular. Round filters screw onto the front of the lens. Rectangular filters can be held in front of the lens (if the camera is on a tripod) or slid into a special holder that attaches to the lens.

There are also two kinds of polarizer, linear and circular. All digital cameras require a circular polarizer to ensure that the filter lets enough light through the lens so the autoexposure and autofocus features still work.

To be sure you purchase the right size filter, you need to know the lens diameter. Most SLR lenses publish this information on the lens itself or you can look on the inside of the lens cap for the number. The lens (or filter) diameter is always given in millimeters, such as 58mm.

If your favorite photographer uses a compact digital camera instead of an SLR, the lens on the camera probably does not accept the round, screw-on filter. So the rectangular variety (such as those made by Cokin) would be best.

Before Polarizer

After Polarizer

#3 Memory Card Reader

If your photographer already has a tripod and a polarizer, then the next most useful accessory is a memory card reader. When it is time to download pictures from the camera, instead of attaching the camera directly to the computer, use the memory card reader to transfer pictures to the hard drive. The card reader attaches to the USB outlet on any computer (Mac or PC). Then you remove the memory card from the camera and insert the card in the reader. From there the transfer process works as it does from the camera. But it is often much faster and more reliable than using the camera itself.

Memory card readers come in single or multi-card formats. Single card readers have a slot for just one type of memory card, like compact flash (CF) or secure digital (SD). Multi-card readers have slots for all types of memory cards: memory sticks, xD picture cards as well as CF and SD cards. If the household has numerous cameras all using different kinds of memory cards, then the multi-card reader is a good choice. Otherwise, you can save a few dollars and buy a model dedicated to the memory card your camera uses.

You can leave the card reader permanently attached to your computer, so it's always ready when you are. Some computers even have memory card slots built in!

Multi-Slot Memory Card Reader

So make your photographer friend or family member happy and help them take better photos this holiday season by giving them one or more of these accessories. In no time at all, they will wonder how they ever got along without them!

Choosing a Digital Camera

2009-12-06T17:15:00.000-07:00

This is a popular subject this time of year! Just yesterday someone telephoned me and asked for suggestions on buying a new digital camera. So I took the opportunity to revise my "Choosing a Digital Camera" article. You can read my answers to the following questions:

What kind of digital cameras are there?
What features should I look for in a digital camera?
How much control do I want over my picture taking?
What are some useful camera controls?
Where can I find more information?

The whole article is too long for a blog entry! So visit my web site to read the details. You'll need a copy of Adobe Reader (available free here) to see the file. Happy shopping!

Photographing Holiday Lights

2009-12-02T10:35:00.002-07:00

When I was a kid, my parents used to bundle up me, my sister and my brother, stick us in the car and drive into town to look at holiday lights. The place where my dad worked always had an elaborate set-up on the front lawn, complete with sound. (But we had to roll down the windows to hear it! Brrrrrr!) If you like to photograph holiday lights, whether indoors or outside, here are some suggestions for better results.

Inside Lights
Indoor photos can be challenging because there is not much light for your camera to make a picture. Usually the camera uses the flash, which gives you a picture but not necessarily the look you wanted. If you want your photo of the decorated tree or holiday dinner table to look as it does when you turn off the room lights, your first step is to turn off the flash.

Indoor photo with flash

With the flash turned off, your camera will take extra long to make the photo. If you are holding the camera, this usually means you get a blurry image. To have a sharp picture without the flash, set your camera on a small tripod or some other sturdy surface during the exposure. Then no matter how long the camera takes to record the scene, it will be sharp.

Indoor photo without flash hand-held

In addition, sometimes when you press the shutter button to take the photo, you wiggle the camera just enough to cause a bit of blur. All cameras have a self-timer feature which creates a delay (usually 10 seconds) between the time you press the button and when the camera actually takes the photo. If you turn on this control, the delay lets the camera stop moving before it takes the image and you get a sharper picture.

Indoor photo without flash, self-timer on, camera on a chair

Outside Lights

These same suggestions apply to taking photos of outside lighting displays.

Flash off.
Camera on a tripod or other support.
Self-timer activated.

Outdoor photo without flash, self-timer on, camera on a tripod

Batteries in the Cold
In addition, the cold weather affects your camera's battery, making it appear to go dead before very long at all. The battery is not really expired; it's just too cold to operate. The solution is to carry a spare battery inside your coat, next to your body, to keep it warm. When the first battery quits, swap it for the warm spare battery and keep shooting. Eventually the second battery will quit too, but by that time the original battery should have warmed up. Just exchange the batteries again and keep working. This can go on at least until you get too cold!

Outdoor photo without flash, self-timer on, camera on a tripod

So be adventurous this holiday season! Turn off the flash on your camera and make memorable pictures of the pretty lights whether indoors or out!

Better Holiday Flash Photos

2009-11-24T16:27:00.000-07:00

Thanksgiving is this week and if you are like many people in America, you'll be gathering with friends and family to celebrate over lots of food and football! You'll also probably be taking pictures to commemorate the occasion. But since so much of our celebrating takes place inside and after dark, our digital cameras rely on the built-in flash to light up our photos. Frequently we're disappointed in the results. Backgrounds are dark and foregrounds (including people) are washed out.

If you have a digital SLR camera (one with interchangeable lenses), you might want to check out a new flash accessory called the Lightscoop. It was invented by photojournalist Ken Kobre because he "hates ugly flash photos"! With that in mind, he developed this handy gadget that slides into the hot shoe on top of your camera (where an expensive external flash would go) and works with your built-in pop-up flash.

After setting up your camera to work with the Lightscoop (see the instructions and videos on the web site), all you need is a room with a light-colored ceiling no more than 12 feet high or a light-colored wall no more than 4 feet away (for vertical shots). When the pop-up flash fires, the Lightscoop bounces the light off the ceiling or wall, making the light much more attractive.

Check out the Lightscoop and see if it turns your photos of family gatherings into great shots instead of trash can fodder!

(Disclaimer: I have no association with Ken Kobre or Lightscoop except that it's a great idea!)

Speed up Your Trigger Finger

2009-11-11T12:00:00.002-07:00

If you have a compact digital camera, you might be frustrated with how slow the camera responds when you press the shutter button to take a picture. Especially if you are trying to photograph an erratically moving subject, such as a small child or pet, it seems like your subject or their expression is gone before the camera makes the photo.

There is a way to speed up the camera's response, though. Nearly all digital cameras (SLRs included) have a feature called Continuous Shooting or Burst Mode. This setting makes the camera take a series of pictures as long as you hold down the shutter button. (It's the equivalent of a motor drive or winder on a film camera.) So your camera takes several pictures instead of just one, increasing your chances that you capture the moment you want.

The symbol for continuous shooting looks like a stack of photos. The opposite of it is a single photo (rectangle) called single shot. Often the button or menu choice that controls this is the same one by which you turn on the self-timer. Check your camera manual for where this control is located on your model.

Continuous Shooting icon

Once continuous shooting is turned on, you still have to press the shutter button half-way to focus and set the exposure. But once you are past this delay, the camera is ready to take a series of pictures as soon as you press and hold the button.

Consecutive frames made with a

compact camera in continuous shooting mode

There are a couple of things to know about continuous shooting mode. The first is that you should turn off the flash if your camera does not do so for you. If you leave the flash on, then one of two things is likely to happen. First, the flash might fire for the initial picture in the series but not for any of the others because it hasn't recharged yet. This makes your first picture properly exposed and the rest too dark because the camera figured the exposure based on the flash going off. Without it, your pictures are underexposed.

Second, if the flash does fire with every frame, your camera will take pictures much more slowly because it has to wait for the flash to be ready. This defeats the purpose of using continuous shooting in the first place. So remember to turn off the flash when you turn on continuous shooting.

If the camera wants to use the flash to make your photos, it probably means the light is pretty dim in your situation. Instead of turning on the flash, try raising the ISO or Sensitivity setting to a higher number, like ISO 400. (You might have to change the camera to Program mode in order to have access to this choice.) The higher ISO setting helps your camera "see in the dark" without the flash and keep your photos looking good.

On some cameras the burst mode setting is described as "last best" or "first best". In these cases, the camera takes a series of photos but only saves the sharpest one at the beginning of the series or the sharpest one at the end of the series. It automatically erases any others. You'll need to read the manual to find out if your camera works this way.

Finally, if you can't find your camera's continuous shooting setting, use the Action, Sports, or Kids & Pets scene choice. This setting turns on continuous shooting, turns off the flash (usually), and raises the ISO to about 400. Then all you have to remember is to hold down the shutter button for your series until the moment has passed. Much faster on the draw than trying to press the button faster!

Sports or Action scene icon

Optical vs. Digital Zoom

2009-11-04T10:00:00.000-07:00

Rodeo Bull

Wilsall, Montana

Almost every digital camera today comes with a zoom lens, one that lets you adjust the length to include more (wide angle) or less (telephoto) of the scene. Most of these cameras have lenses that provide a 3x or 4x increase in lens length. If your camera lens extends from 24mm to 100mm, it's providing a 4x zoom (100mm/24mm = ~ 4x). Other models sport 10x or even 12x zoom lenses.

In both these cases, the difference in how much the lens zooms is determined by how the optical pieces of glass in the lens are adjusted. So this is called "optical zoom" because it's based on the optics of the lens itself.

Many compact digital cameras also have a feature called "digital zoom." (Digital SLR cameras don't have this feature.) This produces a "super telephoto" effect, you might say. Using digital zoom makes your photo look as though the camera has an even longer telephoto zoom. But this is an illusion!

Digital zoom is actually not an effect of the lens at all. It is software in the camera which crops out the center part of the picture and enlarges it in the camera to make it appear as though you used a longer zoom. This sounds neat, you say! How do I use it?

Well, let me caution you. As good as this sounds in theory, you might not like the actual results. Below are two photos of the same scene. The first I made using the maximum optical zoom on the camera. If you enlarge this on your screen (just click on it for a bigger version), you will see that everything looks nice and crisp.

Optical zoom photo

In the second photo, I backed up much farther and used the digital zoom to frame the same thing. If you enlarge this picture on your screen, you'll notice that details are blotchy and edges are smudged. This is the result of the in-camera crop and enlarge process.

Digital zoom photo from farther away

You can almost always get a much better cropped version of your photo by doing it yourself, with photo editing software, than you can by using digital zoom. So I recommend that you test out your digital zoom and see if the quality is acceptable. If you decide it's not, then refer to your camera instruction manual for how to turn off this feature. Your photos will be sharper as a result!

The Monopod That's a Tripod

2009-10-28T16:57:00.002-06:00

One of the tips I always repeat to beginning photographers is the importance of a sharp photo. If you're photographing a stationary subject, the best way to ensure a sharp photo (one that's free of blur due to camera movement) is to put the camera on a tripod. And if you want to try photographing night scenes or inside without using the camera flash, a tripod becomes a necessity. (Exposure times in these situations are usually too long for you to hold the camera steady and get a sharp image.)

There is an almost endless variety of tripod designs, sizes and prices. For most people with compact digital cameras, I recommend starting with a table-top or mini tripod. These are inexpensive (usually $30 or less), lightweight, and small enough to fit in a fanny pack. (Does anyone use these any more?) With these advantages you're more likely to take the tripod along with your camera and have the support when you need it. A Gorillapod, a Flexpod, or even just a plain Pod (a beanbag camera support) all fit into this category. If you want a mini tripod more traditional in appearance, check out models from Slik, Sunpak, Hakuba or Manfrotto.

GorillaPod, The Pod, Hakuba Table pod

Last weekend I discovered another camera support: the TrekPod! This model is designed to serve as a monopod, tripod and walking stick all in one. It has a telescoping main section with a padded grip. The lower section fans out to three short legs, providing more stability than a monopod (one leg) alone. And it has a cool new camera attachment system...a super-strong magnet! You attach one magnet piece to the tripod socket of your camera and this magnet snaps to the top of the TrekPod, holding your camera securely in place, even when turned sideways.

While the TrekPod offers a taller support for your camera than a mini tripod, and one that weighs less than a traditional design, it's still not going to be as sturdy as a regular, three-legged tripod. Especially if you own a digital SLR (like a Canon Rebel or Nikon D40), I recommend buying a quality full-sized tripod for your camera support. Companies such as Manfrotto, Slik, Velbon, Impact, and Giottos all make good entry-level tripods for reasonable prices (~$150).

Look for models that do not have center braces (metal pieces) between the legs, which prevent you from lowering the tripod all the way to the ground for low-level shooting. And prefer a model that has a Quick Release (QR) method of attaching your camera. This is a separate plate that you attach to the bottom of the camera and click into the top of the tripod for mounting. To remove the camera, you release a lever and the camera clicks out. Way faster and more convenient than screwing your camera on and off the tripod screw!

Most people pay too little for their first full-sized tripod and fight with it every time they try to use it. It doesn't hold their camera steady; it doesn't let them position the camera the way they want to; maybe it doesn't even stand up!! As you might expect, these people hate their tripods and avoid them like the plague! But as soon as these people spend money for a quality tripod, they can't believe how easy it is to use, how securely it holds their camera and lens, and how much sharper their pictures become. Tripods are definitely an area where being penny wise usually means you are pound foolish!

No matter which camera support you decide is right for you, I recommend purchasing and using one regularly. You'll soon notice the difference in your pictures!

The Nobel Prize & the Frankencamera

2009-10-07T10:05:00.003-06:00

Every time you press the shutter, you are using Nobel Prize winning technology! The inventors of the CCD sensor have been awarded part of the 2009 Nobel Prize for Physics. You can read the details here:

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0910/09100601nobelprize.asp

You've heard of Frankenstein? Well, now some Stanford University researchers are developing a new type of digital camera which they've nicknamed "Frankencamera". Watch the video at this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Psi_njPBryE

Choosing How Many Megapixels

2009-09-06T10:42:00.000-06:00

Nine Pipes Wildlife Refuge, Montana

Made with a 1.9 megapixel camera

In an earlier post I described what a megapixel is and how to find out how many megapixels your digital camera can produce. The next step is setting the camera to record the number of megapixels you need for your images.

Check your camera manual index or table of contents for "Picture Size" or "Resolution" or even "Quality". These are all names for the same thing: how big is the photo your camera is going to record.

Depending on your camera, the sizes are given in different formats. Some simple cameras use stars; three stars is a larger picture than two stars. Other cameras use letters---L, M and S for Large, Medium and Small photos. Still other models give the dimensions of the picture in pixels, for example, 3072 x 2304. Others display only the largest number of pixels on the longest side of the photo, 3072 in the previous example. Finally, some cameras show the picture size in megapixels (abbreviated "MP"), such as 3mp or 6mp.

Changing the number of megapixels your camera records is, literally, changing how big your digital picture is. A photo that is 1500 pixels x 1000 pixels is half the size of an image that is 3000 pixels x 2000 pixels. The more pixels you have in your photo, the more space it takes to store on your memory card. But memory cards with lots of storage capacity are inexpensive these days. So if you can't save enough photos on your current memory card, buy another one. (It's always good to have a spare card anyway.)

Given all these options, how do you know what size of picture to choose? It's actually really simple. Use the largest size, the maximum amount of pixels, that your camera can produce. If you are using all the pixels that the camera makes, you are taking full advantage of its maximum quality. And, since you probably paid more for a camera with more pixels, you are getting your money's worth!

Also, the more pixels in your digital photo, the larger you can print it and keep all the details sharp (provided they were recorded sharply when you took the photo). And you can crop the picture (delete pixels from the edges) to better emphasize your subject and still have enough pixels left over for a print. If you need the picture to be smaller, such as for email or web pages, you can change the number of pixels after you take the photo.

Nearly all digital cameras today have more than enough pixels for excellent small, medium and large prints. If your camera has at least 6 megapixels, it can produce photos that can be printed up to 15x10 inches (before cropping). A 12 megapixel camera can make prints up to 20x15 inches (before cropping).

So set your digital camera to use all its megapixels and start clicking the shutter button!

Daisies Galore

2009-08-30T17:03:00.000-06:00

I uploaded some macro shots of daisies to my new business Facebook page. Take a look and while you're there, consider becoming a fan.

Organizing Your Pictures on Your Computer

2009-08-30T11:06:00.001-06:00

While browsing in the bookstore last week, I discovered a new book called Digital Photography: The Missing Manual by David Pogue. It's divided into two parts, one about using your digital camera and one about managing your pictures on your computer.

The part I like best about it is Pogue's approach to the whole computer section, which is often intimidating for new digital camera owners. He talks about two photo organizing and editing programs that are free and simple to use: iPhoto for Apples and Picasa for Windows. The best thing about these programs is that they are FREE! iPhoto comes installed on every new Macintosh computer and Picasa is available for download from its internet web site.

Check out this book and these programs if you need help organizing your photos on your computer. By the way, both iPhoto and Picasa help you easily email your big digital camera pictures as well.

How Many Megapixels Are Enough?

2009-08-30T10:46:00.008-06:00

Now that you know what a megapixel is, the next question is how many do you need? The answer depends on what you're going to do with your picture.

If you're going to share your photo by email, Facebook, Flickr, or other web page, then you need very few megapixels at all. How many of you have received a message that took two days to download? And after it arrived, all you could see was an eye?!

When you display a digital photo on a computer screen, each image pixel becomes a screen pixel. Almost no one has a monitor with a million pixels on it. So if you send even a 1 megapixel photo, your recipient won't be able to see the whole thing without scrolling (the eye mentioned above).

Original 6 megapixel picture with too many pixels for screen display

In addition, the more pixels in your photo, the bigger the size of the file. If you have too large a file, then it takes a long time to upload from your computer and a long time to download on your recipient's computer, whether as an email message or a web page (the two-day download).

So email photos need very few pixels. I recommend a maximum size of 800 pixels on the longest side to ensure you have a small image that will be completely visible on the screen and transfer quickly from your computer to theirs.

Photo reduced to 800 pixels on the long side for screen display

If you are going to print your picture, either with your own inkjet printer or from a photo lab, then you need lots more pixels! When you print a digital photo, the pixels must be small enough and close together enough so they become invisible. Otherwise, you would see squares like a mosaic instead of a photo.

I recommend you have at least 200 pixels per inch of printed photo. So if you want a 4x6 inch print, you would need a digital photo that has at least 800 pixels x 1200 pixels (4 inches x 200 pixels per inch = 800 pixels; 6 inches x 200 pixels per inch = 1200 pixels). In fact, you almost cannot have too many pixels for printing. The more pixels in your digital photo, literally the larger you can print it and keep all the details sharp.

If you've been reading carefully, you may have noticed that the recommendations for an email photo are very different from those for a printed photo. To refresh your memory:

Email/Web Photo --- Maximum Size 800 pixels on longest side
Printed Photo --- Minimum Size 200 pixels per printed inch
(800 pixels x 1200 pixels for a 4x6 inch print)

So what do you do? I recommend that you always use all the megapixels that your digital camera can make when you are shooting. After the pictures are on your computer, then you can make a COPY of your photo and change the number of pixels to suit your purpose.

This method works best for digital images because they retain their sharpness and color better when you shrink the size of the photo instead of enlarge it. In addition, if you have more megapixels than you need, even for a printed photo, then you can crop the picture (cut away some pixels on the outer edges) and still have enough pixels left over to make a print.

Time & Light

2009-08-23T10:50:00.004-06:00

Western Montana Fair 2009

I spent some time photographing the carnival lights at the Western Montana Fair last weekend. You can see an album of some of my shots on Facebook.

What's a Megapixel?

2009-08-22T11:21:00.027-06:00

A while back, I sent out a survey for people to contribute their top three burning questions about digital photography. Many people asked questions related to “megapixels,” so here goes.

Most of you know what a mosaic looks like: a picture created with lots of small tiles of different colors. If you stand very close to a mosaic, all you see are the individual tiles. But if you back away, your vision causes the tiles to blend together and you can see the image.

A floor mosaic

Your digital camera contains a sensor (computer chip) with a grid of photo cells which collect the light coming in through the camera’s lens. The computer inside your camera processes this light and turns it into a grid of tiny colored squares called pixels (short for “picture elements”). So a digital image is really a grid made up of lots of little squares of color. If you greatly enlarge a digital photo on your computer screen, you can see the pixels themselves (like the tiles in a mosaic). But usually you just see the picture.

Individual pixels visible at high magnification in sunflower image

Every digital camera has a maximum number of pixels it can create, based on the grid of photo cells on the sensor. For example, a camera sensor might contain 3000 pixels across and 2000 pixels up and down. We can describe the size of the digital picture this sensor makes by saying the image is 3000 pixels x 2000 pixels. (Here “pixel” is a unit of measure like an inch or a foot.)

If we actually multiply the two numbers, we end up with the total number of pixels in the image (like the total area of a rectangle): 3000 pixels X 2000 pixels = 6,000,000 pixels. Six million pixels is the maximum number of pixels the camera can create. Another way to say the same thing is 6 megapixels. “Mega” means “million”.

(not to scale)
3000 pixels x 2000 pixels = 6,000,000 pixels
6,000,000 pixels = 6 megapixels

You can find out the maximum number of megapixels your camera creates in one of two ways. If you have a compact (point & shoot) digital camera, sometimes the number of megapixels is printed right on the camera body. The other way is to look in your camera's manual in the section usually called "Specifications". (Check the table of contents or index for the exact page.) In the Specifications section you are looking for an entry called "effective pixels". This number tells you the maximum number of megapixels the camera can create.

Compact camera displaying 7.1 megapixels

Now you can impress all your friends at your next cocktail party with what a megapixel is!

Day & Night

2009-08-16T13:09:00.003-06:00

It's time for fairs around the country and Montana is no exception. I spent some time at the Western Montana Fair held in Missoula and made pictures both during the day and at night. You can see that the time of day makes a big difference in what the carnival looks like!

If you're photographing people during the day, be sure to turn on your flash. It brightens the shadows on a sunny day and lightens your subject if the sky is gray. At night, do the opposite. Put your camera on a tripod and turn off the flash to record the lights of booths and rides. If you can, shoot from a high vantage point for a different perspective. I was on stairs leading up to (of all things) the Photography display.

Try visiting the fair more than once. The light and weather may change and you'll become more familiar with the best angles and subjects for pictures during the day or night.

Free Photography Articles

2009-08-01T10:40:00.007-06:00

One of my favorite sites for photography is BetterPhoto.com. They have a whole list of free articles about techniques to improve your pictures. Just click on the Learn Photography link at the top of the home page for a plethora (that's a lot) of choices. And if you're feeling particularly ambitious, try one of their online courses. I learned a lot about flash from taking a 4-week class from Rob Sheppard.

Another resource is the New York Institute of Photography. You can subscribe to their monthly newsletter or just visit their home page for a list of current topics. The newsletter always contains lots of helpful information pertinent to the season. This month highlights how to photograph your toddler. And there is a large archive of articles on their web site, easily accessed at the bottom of the opening page (scroll down).

So even if you live in the boonies, you can still get help learning to use your camera for better photos!

Improve Your Pictures with This Book

2009-08-01T10:15:00.007-06:00

I teach night photography classes here in Missoula and the fall catalog will soon be in people's mailboxes. (Watch my web site www.KathyEyster.com for updates to classes and times in the next week.) When I'm preparing for a new round of courses, I'm always looking for better textbooks to support what I teach in the classroom. This time I've found a brand new book that I'm sure will help my students and might help you, too.

It's called The Shot Doctor: The amateur's guide to taking great digital photos by Mark Edward Soper (June 2009, Que Publishing). It has lots of practical suggestions for better images, and lots of before and after pictures showing how adjusting your digital camera's controls can improve the results. My favorite suggestion? For indoor pictures of all kinds, set the camera ISO (sensitivity) to 400. This both improves flash pictures and even allows you to make some photos without flash. Enjoy!