Photo Basics
EXPOSURE 3 ST E P S TO EXCELLENT EXPOSU RE!
1
ISO (light sensitivity)
2
A PE R T UR E
3
S HUTTE R S P E E D
(f-stop)
ISO is otherwise known as ASA. It describes the sensitivity of your light meter to light. The higher the number, the more sensitive the meter is at picking up light. A higher number also means more noise (grain in film terminology).
You may find yourself indoors with ample light to use 200 or 400 ISO, so start low and work your way up!
ISO (light sensitivity)
SUNNY
C LO U DY
I N D O O R S / LO W L I G H T I N G
NIGHT
100 200 400 800 1600 3200 6400
APER T U R E
ƒ/1.8
ƒ/2.8
(f-stop)
ƒ/4
ƒ/5.6
ƒ/ 8
ƒ/11
Aperture is measured in f-stops, and refers to the size of the lens opening. The smaller the ƒ-stop, the larger the lens opening. Smaller ƒ-stops create a shallow depth of field (not much is in focus). Use lower ƒ-stops for a blurred background, or if you need to use a faster shutter speed but don’t have enough light. When a lot
ƒ/16
ƒ/22
of light is present, you can use a higher ƒ-stop (deep depth of field) to have most-to-all-of the composition in focus. Use higher ƒ-stops for scenery shots. A P E RT U R E O N T H E T 3 i : Hold the Av +/- button while turning the wheel on top of the camera to change aperture.
S HUT T E R S P E E D
Shutter speed measures the length of time light is let into the camera. Numbers with primes are whole seconds (2"), while regular numbers are actually a fraction of one second (15 equals 1/15 of a second). Higher numbers equal faster shutter speeds while lower numbers equal slower shutter speeds. A good rule of thumb for hand-held shots: try not to use a shutter speed lower than the lens length. Can’t avoid it? Use a tripod!
BUL B
Higher shutter speeds are used to capture action shots. They allow less light to enter the camera, and are perfect for sunny days. Lower shutter speeds are used in low-light situations, and to capture nighttime scenery. The bulb setting is awesome for experimenting in different low-lighting situations. You’ll need to use a tripod and a remote with the bulb setting to avoid camera shake. SHUTTER SPEED ON THE T3i: Use the wheel on the top of the camera to change shutter speed.
2" 4 6 8 15 25 30 50 80 100 125 160 250
HIS T O G RA M The histogram is used, both in-camera and during postprocessing, to evaluate exposure of an image. When data hits the wall on the right (overexposed) or left (underexposed), available information is clipped, or not captured by the sensor. Most visible data lies in the highlight range, so it’s always better to over- rather than under-expose an image. Bracketing refers to taking one shot multiple times, both overand under-exposing according to
the light meter, to find the best exposure for post-processing. HISTOGRAM ON THE T3i: Check an image’s histogram through the playback button. Then hit info until the histogram information pops up.
THE BAD & T H E U G LY Eww! This histogram indicates a high contrast lighting situation. Both black & white tones are clipped. Bracket exposures.
THE GOOD A good histogram featuring large dynamic range. Shouldn’t need much post-processing in terms of exposure.
White tones clipped, severely overexposed.
There is no one “correct” histogram. There’s no clipping in this example, and the exposure can be adjusted in processing to enhance the black tones.
Black tones clipped, severely underexposed.
LENS
85m m This lens is ideal for portraits, but is also an excellent general-use lens. It goes down to ƒ/1.8, making it ideal for low-light situations and the blurred background effect.
18- 200m m This lens has a slightly wide-angle, making it ideal for scenery or landscape shots! Stops down to ƒ/3.5, which isn’t ideal for lowlighting situations.
I M AG E S ET T I N G S
JPEG
versus
JPEGs offer the smallest file size. This small size is handy if you plan to shoot tons of images, don’t intend to do much editing, won’t be printing large-format, and are likely sharing via the internet or email. If you plan on heavy editing and/or printing large copies, you better shoot in RAW!
RAW
RAW files are enormous! Why is this a good thing? ED ITIN G ! RAW is not actually an image format. It’s technically the raw data captured by your camera. Whenever a RAW image is opened by editing software, it is converted to an image file. RAW files are all about control and flexibility.
C H O O S I N G J P E G & / O R R AW O N T H E T 3 i : Menu > Quality > Press Set button Select desired setting (Small–Large JPEGs, Fine quality or Lower quality NOTE: RAW + L will capture RAW and JPEG versions of each shot
)
B ASIC E DIT I N G This covers the basics of editing with Camera Raw. The software does many more things than what I’m covering. Here’s a good tutorial for more info: photoshopnews.com/photoshop-cs3-forphotographers/camera-raw-41-update
C A M E R A R AW : B A S I C
TIPS:
• f key for fullscreen • hold option while moving the Exposure, Recovery, & Blacks sliders to check clipped tones
W H I T E B A L A N C E Use to get rid of color casts. If you need additional fine tuning, Color Balance in Photoshop will give you more control. E X P O S U R E Try not to go too extreme (over +/- 1.00). R E C O V E RY Use to recover detail in highlights. Try not to go over 20–30. F I L L L I G H T Lightens up foreground of image. Again try not to go over 20. B L A C K S Recovers detail from shadows. I recommend not going under 5, especially if you shot in anything over 200ish ISO. Bringing back too much detail in the shadows will cause noise.
B R I G H T N E S S I don’t really mess with the default brightness setting. C O N T R A S T I usually leave contrast on default. Sometimes will bump it up for images of scenery or objects. More flexibility via Curves layer in Photoshop. C L A R I T Y I like to add a little clarity, about 10–18. Similar to sharpening/contrast. V I B R A N C E I don’t usually add any, sometimes will take away some. S AT U R AT I O N I don’t usually add any, sometimes will take away some.
C A M E R A R AW : T O N E C U R V E
The Tone Curve section is similar to adding a Curves layer in Photoshop. You can use the sliders in the Parametric tab to subtly increase or decrease contrast. Point is just like a Curves layer, you can use a preset (it defaults to medium contrast) or create your own curve. A note on curves, people often use the term S-Curve in the contrast context.
An example will be given in the Photoshop portion. Just know that a subtle S-Curve adds contrast, while an inverted S-Curve decreases contrast. I usually only tinker with the Parametric tab, and create my own curve(s) in Photoshop using Curves layers.
C A M E R A R AW : D E TA I L In the Detail tab, less is more! Don’t go crazy with any slider. I usually leave the Noise Reduction sliders alone; they tend to posterize if used in excess. If you sharpen portraits or images with large solid color fields, use the Masking slider! It removes effects from areas of solid color, skin tones, etc. Holding option while using the slider will show you where it’s applied.
TIPS:
• hold option while moving the Sharpen sliders to easily see effect in b&w. Must be zoomed in at 100% or greater.
A M O U N T Use to get rid of color casts. If you need additional fine tuning, Color Balance in Photoshop will give you more control. R A D I U S Try not to go too extreme (over +/- 1.00). D E TA I L Use to recover detail in highlights. Try not to go over 20-30. M A S K I N G lightens up foreground of image. Again try not to go over 20. NOISE REDUCTION recovers detail from shadows.
B ASIC E DIT I N G
(continued)
PHOTOSHOP After editing in Camera Raw, some of the steps in Photoshop may be making fine-tuning adjustments. Make your adjustments in this order: Spotting & Removal Levels Curves Dodge/Burn N O T E : If you need to make edits that aren’t on an adjustment layer (like using Content Aware Fill to remove something) duplicate your original (background layer). Any edits not made in a separate layer are destructive to your original!
P R O P E R L AY E R O R D E R
S P OT T I N G means combing over the image for dust/spots from the lens or sensor, sometimes referred to as mowing the lawn. You can use the Spot Healing tool &/or the Clone Stamp tool. Make sure to spot on a duplicate of your background layer! Next, zoom in to at least 100%, and start in the top left corner. It’s helpful to use the navigator box to select the top. Go through the entire screen, then click on the next section of the scroll bar to move you over to the next section of image.
Don’t use the mouse to scroll over, clicking the scroll bar ensures you won’t miss any portion of the image. START HERE!
DONE, WOO!
L E V E L S is used to check overall exposure of an image. If there is a lot of space in the shadows or highlights move the slider closer to the data. You can also move the grey slider left or right to lighten or darken the midtones. In the example, I moved the highlights slider to the left to brighten the highlights.
adjust exposure and add contrast! I like to add a Density layer (left) and a gentle S-Curve (right) to most images. For the Density layer, make sure the layer mode is set to Luminosity. For super contrasty images, try an inverted S-curve. Never use the contrast adjustment layer, Curves allows for the ability to tailor contrast to your image.
CURVES LEVELS
DENSITY
CONTRAST WITH S-CURVE
B A S I C S - C U RV E Place the following points (refers to input/output values) on Curves layer: Midtone: 128 Highlights: 204, drag up to brighten Shadows: 51, drag down to darken
C O LO R B A L A N C E enables you to minimize color casts. You can make multiple changes within the same layer, or create multiple Color Balance layers to tackle the different tones (one layer for yellow/blue, one for magenta/ green, and another for cyan/red). You may not need to do much color balance, and you definitely may not need to adjust each color space! Multiple layers makes it easier to see how each setting affects your image. D O D G E / B U R N to lighten or darken specific areas in your images. Never use the dodge/burn tools. They’re destructive. Instead go to Image > Layer > New Layer. Set Mode to Overlay and check Fill with 50% grey (see right). Make sure your color swatches are the default black and white. Select the Brush tool, with the hardness set to 0 and opacity set to 8–12%. If you intend to lighten, make sure white is the foreground color. To darken areas, set black as the foreground color.
TIPS:
• use bracket keys to make the brush area bigger (]) or smaller ([) • toggle the eye beside the layer name to preview layer effect
C O LO R B A L A N C E
D O D G E / B U R N L AY E R S E T T I N G S
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