Auto is Not Magic

Posted by Philip in Photo Processing

The auto button is not magic.  I know this sounds like a no-brainer but I find it rather surprising how many people new to photography use a powerful program like Lightroom or Photoshop and all they do is click the auto buttons and say that’s it.  I have several photos in this video from a recent session that we will go through and see what auto does for us.

Now I do like the auto button in these programs, but because in most cases it will get you to a “neutral” position, which is great to start from.  But I’ve found that anytime you are attempting to set a mood in your photography, auto doesn’t know what that mood is and therefore can’t guess.

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The Photography Tip of the Week #054

Posted by Philip in Podcast

054 Photography Tip of the Week (audio)

Go on a Mini Safari

Sometimes you feel like you are stuck in a rut.  A lot of this comes from living in one location.  Unless you travel a lot, your photos begin to look the same to you because of your familiarity with your surroundings.  Yes that last sentence had a form of “you” in there four times.  The point being, that you need to change your outlook and figure out how you can make your photos fresh to you.  Ha!  Five forms of “you” in one sentence.  For me, I’d love to go on a Safari.  Looking for and photographing animals in Africa or the Arctic would be a grand adventure.  Don’t get me wrong, I love photographing landscapes, portraits and events.  But every now and then I’d love to have one of those photos you hang on the wall and show off that you were there and brought back a moment.  But last time I checked I had no vast amounts of money to finance one of these trips or a job that sent me to remote locales.   So to get the “big game” photos, I have to think more budget conscious… the Zoo!

If you listen to podcasts of travel photographers one thing you will hear them say rather often is how much they dislike the zoo.  ”Captive animals lack that spark and seem so lifeless.”  They would prefer to photograph in the wild.  Well duh, don’t we all.  But the zoo can be a great way of honing your wildlife skills.  You don’t have to hunt very hard to find a photogenic animal.  The only thing you have to do is be patient.  Either you need to wait for the animals to be more active, the crowds to die down or for the animal to be in the right place for your photo.  Patience is key.  And of course the number one tip is to get in closer.  Since you often have a barrier to deal with, you will have to use a zoom lens like I did for this cougar.  This is an uncropped version of this image.  Even though I have some motion blur as I was tracking with the cougar, the frame is tight and gives me a really nice image.  Granted I’m not going to get the National Geographic style image of two lions fighting to the death, but if I didn’t tell you beforehand that this was at a zoo, there’s nothing here to tip you off.

The other nice thing about the zoo, is you have the chance to photograph a wide range of subjects without going too far.  And many don’t have barriers that will obscure your vision or distort your image.  But like all animals at the zoo you need to carefully frame your photo to create that suspension of disbelief.  The flamingo is a magnificent bird.  And they hold still and pose for photos.  You don’t have to track a lot of fast action here.  Just take your time and setup the photo you want to make.

If you don’t pull in close you will get things in your frame that are distracting.  In this case the railing can be easily cropped out, but if you wanted to make a photo of a flamingo standing on one leg, you would have to do something about the tag on their legs.  Either you would have to find one with the appropriate tag hidden, or you would have to work some magic in an image manipulation program to create that photo.

There are more things to photograph at a zoo than just animals.  Zoos will often import plants native to the animal’s natural habitat.  This is to create a more real and natural surround for the animal, but it is also for the visitors.  So be aware that you can get a wide range of exotic photos that will help you get out of that rut.

And finally, one thing to keep in mind, you may have to check with the zoo if you want to sell any of your photos and see what restrictions you may fall under.

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What do I need Photoshop for?

Posted by Philip in Photo Philosophy, Photo Processing

An interesting question came to me by way of one of the readers to my site.  Beyond the capabilities of Lightroom or Aperture, what does a photographer need Photoshop for?  These programs are evolving and adding new features as each new version comes out.  I can see where these pieces of software can handle 95% of what you do as a photographer.  They are great at reviewing photos, developing, and printing.  They are getting better at slidshows and web connectivity.  But if you have to perform anything that pushes your photos “beyond” or you have to do complex retouching, you will need to use one of the flavors of Photoshop or another image manipulation program.

What types of photography does not require image manipulation beyond Lightroom and Aperture?

1. The first is Photojournalism.  As a photojournalist, it is your job to show it like it is.  Anything beyond basic cropping and developing and you can lose your reputation really fast.  In fact, I can’t really come up with a good reason for a photojournalist to even shoot in RAW.  You see the scene, compose your frame and make the photo.  If it’s there it needs to stay there and if it wasn’t there, you can’t add it after the fact.
2. The second is Landscape photography.  In most cases as a landscape photographer, you want to present the scene as is.  The bulk of your enhancements are adjustments like saturation of skies and foliage. Even urban landscapes don’t really need much more than a simple crop and dust removal.  I believe you can even perform HDR exposure blending from Lightroom and Aperture if your landscapes require that extra dynamic range. The one exception here is if you need to create panoramas which is extremely popular for landscape photography.

Basic image manipulation software is desirable for portrait photography.  When you make a portrait, you will most often need to do a little more than spot removal.  Portraits are a balancing act between lighting the subject for making a great photo to beating the pixels down that have too much definition in the lines of someone’s face. You also may want to heighten the focus (not just sharpness) on someone’s face like what I’ve done in the photo above.  There are other things that you can more easily do in an image manipulation program that can be the difference between an image someone likes verses one they can’t live without.  All of these changes can be done in a very basic image manipulation program like Photoshop Elements.

Bring out the big guns when you are doing fashion or any artistic photography that push the definition of a photograph.

1. You can easily see where the tools in image manipulation software comes into play with artistic photography.  Artistic photography pushes colors beyond the norm and selectively uses components often from many photos to make the image.  For this you need the ability to draw elements into the photo.  This is much more demanding than performing an adjustment and applying a simple mask to select the adjustment area.
2. And then there’s fashion… Contrary to popular belief, fashion photography is more art than it is photography.  The photographer does have the job of selecting the best light, and pose for the subject, but there is a makeup artist that “paints” the look and a wardrobe designer that chooses colors and shapes to accentuate as well as hide features.  And finally there’s the retoucher that “fixes” everything.  It’s such a shame that so many people pound on the retouching artist as the one who “fakes” the photo.  There are so many people involved that get that photo up to a point where it can be retouched.

That’s my take on image manipulation.  I don’t feel that just because you can change things you ought to.  When ever I’m in any of of these modes, I visualize the photo I want to make and get as much of it right in camera.  I don’t want to spend a lot of time manipulation the image beyond my vision.  If I can do it all in Lightroom, that’s the fastest for me.  But I’m not scared to open Photoshop to enhance the photo.

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Non Destructive RAW in Photoshop

Posted by Philip in Photo Philosophy, Photo Processing, Photo Technique

I enjoy listening to other podcasts and reading other blogs.  I was listening to one of favorites the other day when I heard some wrong information.  On this podcast he was answering a question from a listener who was asking about file resolution and he said to capture your image in the highest resolution RAW file as possible.  I agree, but then he went on to say that destructive programs like Photoshop constantly degrade your image on every action you take.  WRONG.  Every action you take changes the data, but it doesn’t need to destroy.

The only time you really need to be concerned is when you save the file.  However, you can easily maintain the original quality of the image without losing data or the ability to go back to the original image.  Like my paranoia about losing photos, I have a paranoia about losing data in my photos, albeit not as strong.

Here’s my workflow for working with photos and maintaining the original data:

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The Photography Tip of the Week #053

Posted by Philip in Photo Philosophy, Podcast

053 Photography Tip of the Week (audio)

Doubly Redundant

What is the one thing all photographers fear? Lost photos. Horror of horrors. I’d rather have my appendix removed three times than lose a single photo. Even if the photos are just some family snapshots. Photographers have an emotional bond with every image they create. Around Christmas, I did lose some photos for about 2 weeks. I actually misplaced a memory card. It was a strange case where the memory card got stuck to the inside of a lens cap. I felt horrible for quite some time, because on that card was my annual Christmas Eve photo with family. It’s difficult reshooting a Christmas Eve photo, especially after the tree and decorations are down. Obviously I did find that card and it re-instilled in me my paranoia about my photos. Last year I mentioned that I had one girlfriend in the past that thought that photography was a waste of time and money and decided to “help” me out and get rid of my camera equipment, film, photos and negatives. She didn’t stay my girlfriend too much longer. I lost an enormous body of work that day including many negatives for paid sessions. I was in a world of hurt for a long time and didn’t get back into photography until the digital cameras came out. Now we can easily backup our photos and ensure we never lose anything. So here is how I ensure I never lose another photo. This isn’t so much a single tip, it’s more a suggestion as to a way of life, photography style.

The best way to protect your next photographic creation starts in your camera before the first press of the shutter.

1. Format your memory card right after you put it in your camera. Even if it’s empty, formatting ensures the card is set correctly for the camera you are using. Now that there are only two major styles of memory cards, if you have multiple cameras, they each could have different ways of storing the data on the card. If you are in the habit of deleting your photos from the card while it’s hooked into a computer, those files may not be gone until you empty the trashcan or recycling bin.  Formatting the card ensures all of the files are gone and you have the full capacity of the card.
2. Next never fill the card up completely. In most cases the displayed number of photos you can put on the card is an estimate based on the average size of a photo on the memory card. If you are at the end and can only add one more photo, it’s possible for the last image to be bigger than the estimated size. When it tries to add that final image, it knows that it can add a photo, but in the process of writing that last image the image overwrites something else on the card. If it’s the directory structure or listings, you could lose all of the photos on the card.
3. Deleting images from your card should be used only in the case of an emergency. Like when you have room for only one more photo and an important celebrity is crossing your path. Deleting images leaves a fragmented card, and makes it difficult for new images to fit on the card.
4. Finally don’t take out your card unless you run out of space or you are ready to dump your images. It’s easy to lose one of the cards as my story above showed. But misplacing cards aside, there is the chance that having the card exposed to the elements could corrupt them.

Now it’s time to dump the images off your card. I use an external reader for several reasons. The main one being speed. Many external card readers can download your photos much faster than connecting your camera to the computer directly.

1. Organize your photos immediately. Even though I have my image downloader set to make individual folders by month/day/year this doesn’t tell me the type of image. So I have several folders setup so I can perform a gross sorting of the images. The folders I have are “Business” , “Family” , “Artistic” as well as a folder for any specific project. I know that there are many pieces of photography software that easily helps you to organize the files within their software. This is all well and good, but if you stop using that piece of software, you will lose all of that structure. If you have your photos in a physical structure, in the future if/when you switch to a different piece of software, you can easily find your photos based on these categories and dates.
2. Don’t delete images from your card or format your card yet.  The next section has to be done before you format your card.

Now it’s time to be doubly redundant. Should I say that again? I have my photos in at least two other places than my main hard disk. I do want to keep at least my recent photos on my main hard disk, but I have all of my photos in several other locations.

1. The first backup location is my big hard disk array. I’m using a drobo which in and of itself is a redundant storage mechanism. But I still treat it as a single drive and thus a single point of failure. It just isn’t as likely to fail as a single hard disk.
2. My second location is one of those small external hard drives. This is a copy that I can easily put in my pocket as I’m heading out the door. In many cases one or two of these drives are in my camera bag. So when I grab my camera bag to run away from a tornado and do a photo session with the wicked witch of the east, I’ll have one or two backups with me on my travel down a yellow brick road.
3. My third location is a cloud backup solution. There are several with a small monthly or yearly fee (I use backblaze), your hard disk is backed up automatically as new files enter your system. This isn’t an extremely fast way of backup but it ensures that if something happens to your computer and your external hard disks, you can still retrieve your photos. I’ve told many people that I want to have at least two full copies of my photos further apart than the width of the largest hurricane. A cloud backup solution solves the problem.

That is my rather exhaustive list of what I do to be doubly redundant with my photos. If I lose a photo in the future, it’ll probably be because I didn’t do one of my steps and corrupted or lost a memory card. You may not be as paranoid as me, but I hope this has given you an idea or two to help you to protect your photos.

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