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3D LANDSCAPES How to photograph scenery and make it look amazing
PLUS histo gr
B&W Convertion Techniques to give your colour images more life 1 Your Photography August 2013
your photography. ISSUE 01. march 2013
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EXPERT TIPS
MASTER THE RULE OF THIRDS
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WELCOME WELCOME to this months issue.
Contents: 03 landscape How to make yours come off the page with depth and scale.
07 what is.... Historgrams in a nutshell!
08 Mono converts you will become fanatical about B&W once you get Mono fever.
12 Camera control explained Save your friends and family from the horror of zombie eyes with this great little feature hidden in your cameras flash menu.
13 'RULE OF THIRDS' a compositional guideline that can improve the structure of your pics.
15 File formats Safeguard the quality of your images by using the right file type.
18 Tips and Tricks Handy little tips from a professional photographer that make your photographic life easier but don't
In this edition, we focus on LANSCAPES, which is one of the most photographed subjecs across the globe, and reveal how to make yours better than ever. from subject to composition, we have got a selection of great projects, tips and advice that will bring your landscape photo's to life, and you'll be guaranteed stunning scenic shots the next time you are out with your camera. It all starts on page 3, so have a read and then make sure that you take this issue with you for some expert information next time you go out on a shoot. Every photographer wants to have some great black & white shots in their portfolio, but what makes a great mono pic, and how do you transform a mediocre colour photograph into a stunning black & white image?you can find out on page 8. Other great features include how to master the 'RULE OF THIRDS', as well as other essential tips and tricks to improve your photography. As always we'd love to hear what you think, so please send us your feedback . Enjoy the issue, and we'll see you next month.
break the bank to do it.
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2 Your Photography August 2013
how to produce the perfect 3d landscape
A life in stills
"landscape - a genre of art dealing with the depiction of natural scenery"
It seems like an easy thing to do – we want to take a lovely landscape photograph of hills or the beach or the rolling countryside. What could possibly go wrong with that? It’s right there in front of us. It doesn’t have to smile or pose, do its hair or ask the question ‘Do I look fat in this?’ And yet, once the pictures are sitting there on the screen in front of us, they don’t seem to look anything like the mental image we remember seeing when we pressed the shutter. What is happening? Capturing successful Landscape images is not as straight forward as it would first appear. What we have done it take a three dimensional landscape and flatten it into a two dimensional image. This alters how the landscape is laid out and therefore how we see it in the image. In the image, subjects are stacked one on top of the other and flattened. They become indistinct from one another, jumbled up into a mass that we no longer recognise as a landscape with depth. Worse still, if the picture is taken on an overcast, grey day with a flat sky, there isn’t enough contrast to give the image any punch or impact.
Gone are the perception of depth, scale and distance, things that we use to gauge how far away things are and that separate objects from each other.
Landscape photography is not called an ‘Art’ for nothing. There is a definite skill in being able to capture a landscape in a photograph, while still showing depth and perspective and scale, but it is a skill that you can master, starting here. There are a number of things YOU can do which will add these things into YOUR landscape work.
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1. Get Some Perspective
The theory or art of suggesting three dimensions on a two-dimensional surface, in order to recreate the appearance and spatial relationships that objects or a scene in recession present to the eye; the appearance of objects, buildings, etc, relative to each other, as determined by their distance from the viewer, or the effects of this distance on their appearance Perspective is the way we see things – the further away something is, the smaller it appears to be. In this picture of a bridge, although the street lights are all the same size, you can see they get smaller and smaller the further away they get. You begin to get a feeling of depth and distance going into the picture the further to the right you look, even though the image you are looking at is flat. Another way of adding to the perspective is determined by how far off the ground you position your camera. We can get stuck in the same routine of taking pictures from eye level, after all that is how we see the world. But by altering the position that we take the picture from, we can add another aspect to the feel of the image and enhance what we are trying to convey. Think about taking your picture up high if you want a more aerial view or crouch down low to be on the same plane as an open scene. For a sweeping shot along the beach, shooting from very low down gives a great viewpoint, which leads the viewer into and through the picture.
2. Add Foreground Interest
While it is nice to stand on a large grassy plain to photograph the countryside, in a picture it just becomes a large boring uniform block of colour. Adding something into the foreground not only breaks up the uniformity but it begins to separate the foreground from the background, another way to add the illusion of depth into the image. Here, the round hay bale sitting in the foreground adds texture and another dimension to the image’s narrative, as it sits waiting beneath the approaching storm cloud. This image highlights a primary principle important in all branches of photography.
3. The ‘Rule of Thirds’ When composing any form of artistic picture, there is a compositional rule which helps position subjects inside the frame of the picture so that they give the image more interest and form a more pleasing impression of the picture. The rule of thirds divides the image up using 2 vertical and 2 horizontal (imaginary) lines. The four points at which these lines cross each other are known as POWER POINTS or CRASH POINTS. Placing a subject or part of a subject on one of these points can give your image more impact and energy than if you had just taken the picture with the subject in the centre. 4 Your Photography August 2013
4. Landscape or Portrait?
Landscape may have given its name to the orientation of a picture with the longest side at the top and bottom, but that doesn’t mean you have to shoot all your Landscapes that way. If you picture lends itself more towards a portrait orientation, then why not? Subjects like waterfalls flow vertically not horizontally, so shooting them in portrait style allows the water to cascade through your image from top to bottom, leading the viewer’s eye that way through the picture. Experiment with the same scene by taking a variety of different shots and angles. It doesn’t matter how many shots you take. Just delete the ones that don’t work. You will soon develop a feel for angles and subject matter that give you stunning pictures every time. August 2013 Your Photography 5
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5. What is a Landscape? When is a Landscape not a Landscape? We used to think all landscapes had to have trees or mountains or something green in them, but by definition Landscapes depict the NATURAL scenery. So if you’re in a city, the natural scenery is not nature but man made. URBAN landscape imagery can have just as much impact as something Turner would have painted, if not more. Cityscapes, graffiti walls, bridge structures all have a beauty and texture all their own. And if you can highlight and combine nature and manmade structures harmoniously, well it just brings the world to life!
You don’t need to travel far to find a Landscape. Why not take just an hour out of a weekend or evening and see what you can capture. Remember to include some of the components we’ve just been looking at and soon, you too will be taking fresh and amazing landscapes to be proud of.
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WHAT IS…..A HISTOGRAM? Have you seen this funny little graph that looks like a mountain range pop up on the back of your camera when you are taking a photograph? You may have seen it while editing a picture in Photoshop or other picture editing programs. You may have even heard this word whispered in hushed tones but don’t know what or how it relates to your photograph. There’s no need to fear it as part of some secret photographic society or conspiracy theory. Like the Da Vinci code, there is a key to understanding it, and once you know, you’ll wonder what all the fuss was about in the first place! The HISTOGRAM is simply a distribution graph of pixels and tones in each image. Running left to right along the bottom of the graph is every tone from pure black through grey to pure white. Running up the side is a pixel count. The image is broken down into tones and the pixels in each tone are counted. The results, presented as a graph, are known as THE HISTOGRAM. A visual representation of the image is most helpful, as you can see at a GLANCE if you have a problem - the peaks on the graph show that there are more pixels in that tone than the flatter lower troughs. In other words, it shows how well exposed your photograph is. The extreme left of the scale is the pure BLACK point, which is given a value of 0 because there is absolutely NO light OR colour. The extreme right shows the pure WHITE point. It is given a value of 255 when Red, Blue and Green (RGB) light combine in equal quantities at a certain brightness level. Although there are no values higher than 255 or lower than 0, if the brightness level is too high or too low, then you will see this symbol appear in the top right, as well as see a large graph spike at one end of the Histogram. This a CLIPPING warning. CLIPPING happens when there is too much or too little light for the camera sensor to record detail in a part of the image. If this happens, you may need to adjust your exposure. So why should you use the Histogram? After all, you can check the picture on the back of your camera right?
The truth is, review screens do not give a true representation of your photograph. It can make images appear lighter or darker, add extra contrast and colour, so you can’t trust fully what you see there. By viewing the histogram, you can tell whether the picture you are taking is under, over or well exposed. A well exposed image has a balanced spread of tones all across the histogram, including some pure black and pure white tones. If the histogram doesn’t extend to both ends, then your photograph may be missing some contrast and your picture may look ‘flat’ – that is, a bit lifeless with no punch or visual impact. The exception is High and Low Key photography. High Key images have very bright, white backgrounds. Low Key images have areas or backgrounds of dark tones or shadows. Using the Histogram, you can be sure you are getting the correct level of High or Low Key elements into your images. Below are a number of image types and their histograms to help you identify what you should see and what you should watch out for.
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4 WAYS TO CONVERT YOUR COLOUR IMAGES INTO BLACK & WHITE
B&W : MONOCHROME : MONO : GRAYSCALE These are all terms that describe the same thing – BLACK AND WHITE PICTURES.
Digital photography has ushered Black and White photography back into mainstream use. Everyone loves black and white pictures, but the introduction of cheap colour film processing and printing had caused it to all but die out. Now, thanks to digital technology, not only is it making a comeback, but anyone with a computer can do it easily, cheaply, but more importantly anyone can have fun with it. Perhaps, though, you may be a little unsure of the best way to convert your pictures. Or maybe, you’ve tried converting your pictures but aren’t happy with the results you’ve got. Well never fear. We are about to start you off on the road to fantastic monochrome imagery. B&W images can often convey more feeling and atmosphere in them than their colour cousin. Deep shadows can add drama, frame a subject, bring out texture or help a subject stand out in the picture. Soft grey hues can add a mood of serenity, sorrow, calm, peacefulness, loss or countless other emotions to your picture. Sometimes, removing the colour from an image lets the viewer concentrate on what is happening in the frame, getting the maximum impact out of the image’s narrative. So how do you know what picture will look good when it’s converted from colour to B&W? Should you take the picture in B&W on the camera? What kind of conditions make for a good B&W subject?
LOOK AT THE TONES Not all colour images will look good in b&w. Why? It’s because once you remove the colour information from a picture, the only thing you have left of the colour tones are shades of grey, and many colours have a similar grey tone. This results in your picture looking very grey and flat (not much difference in the contrast between white and black), and ultimately, without the colour highlights, very uninteresting. This is why it’s not really a good idea to take the actual picture using the B&W mode on your camera. The better plan is to shoot everything in colour and if you want to experiment with it in B&W, take the colour out yourself. It’s easy to convert pictures from colour to B&W. You CANNOT put
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the colour back in if you shoot in B&W mode on your compact camera. So what should you look for? Trying to see how something will appear in B&W before you take doesn’t come naturally to us because we see in colour. As you gain experience and see your results, this skill will develop, but to begin with, here are a few guidelines to increase your success and confidence. To begin with, you are looking for subjects that have good strong contrast in them (good shadow and highlight detail appear naturally when you take a picture in sunlight). Strong contrast gives a good punchy B&W effect.
INTERESTING TEXTURE
Strongly patterned brick work, geometric form and motifs, combined with low directional lighting turn this covered walkway into a visual feast for the eyes.
Something that JUMPS out of a B&W picture is TEXTURE. To really see the texture in something, you need shadows across the surface. This means that the light hitting the subject should come from the side of the subject and not the front. This creates little shadows and highlight detail that enhances and defines the look of the texture. Texture is all around us - in natural surfaces, such as tree bark, stone, the surface of water and in such natural features like stormy skies. Man-made texture is by no means difficult to come across. It is everywhere in the cities buildings and architecture, such as churches, railings, brick walls and fencing, towers and windows and bridges. The list is almost endless.
Once converted to B&W, the distracting colour tones are removed and the image changes from a building to an abstract art form.
CONTRAST
Another good rule of thumb for getting excellent results with a B&W conversion is good contrast – so deep shadows or extreme bright highlights. B&W pictures really work well where the subject doesn’t have to compete against a background that contain lots of confusing overlapping elements, so for example if the background is deep shadow, the subject can really be framed. You can always go the other way, and use brightness to create a high contrast in the picture by removing some of the pictures mid-tones, either deliberately, by over exposing the picture, or by adjusting the picture on the computer using Levels or Brightness & Contract commands. Contrast is essential to give a successful B&W conversion - you can take it to the extremes and make it very harsh or very subtle. But however much contrast you use, make sure that your image looks balanced and does not look flat or dull.
Look for shapes and patterns in sculptural things and in structures like buildings, bridges, architecture, trees, shadows and reflections. They can look so different once you have stripped away the colour to reveal the beauty hidden inside. Once you have an image you want to play around with, it’s always best to copy it and experiment on the copy file. That way, you won’t lose anything if you go too far. There are many ways to convert a colour image into black and white picture. There is no single right way. It all depends on what result you prefer. Open the file that you want to convert into B&W and you’re ready to start.
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PHOTOSHOP TUTORIAL To help you decide which mono conversion method is right for you, here are 4 of the easiest methods for you to try. There are no right or wrong ways. You should see which one you are most comfortable using and which one produces the results you are happiest with.
1. Hue & Saturation
Select IMAGE from the menu bar, then ADJUSTMENTS from the drop down menu, then HUE/SATURATION from the second drop down.
Click on and drag the SATURATION slider all the way to the left to remove all the colour from the image.
2. Desaturate
Click on the MASTER drop down. You will be able to select each of the 6 colour channels and fine tune the contrast until you are happy with the look of your image.
Desaturate literally takes the colour information out of the image, no more no less.
Select IMAGE from the menu bar, then ADJUSTMENTS from the drop down menu, then click DESATURATE from the second drop down.
The colour is removed out of the image according to pre-set conditions. (That means Photoshop removes the colour the same way for every image, regardless of what colours are there)
If the image lacks contrast in the colour version, there will be no contrast in the B&W conversion. You will have to add it back in at the end, which is covered at the end of the article with LEVELS.
3. Change The Colour Space
Select IMAGE from the menu bar, then MODE from the drop down menu, then GRAYSCALE from the second drop down.
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A small pop up will appear, asking if you wish to discard (remove) the colour information from the picture. Click ‘DISCARD’.
The image will turn B&W. From now on, it will only appear and print in shades of grey. It will not support any colour elements. Again, lack of contrast must be added by LEVELS or CURVES adjustments.
4. Channel Mixer The Channel Mixer is a slightly more complex operation to convert the image into B&W, but you can better control the spread of tones to give you more contrast and a better balance of tones in your B&W conversion.
Select IMAGE from the menu bar, then ADJUSTMENTS from the drop down menu, then CHANNEL MIXER from the second drop down.
Tick the ‘MONOCHROME’ box in the bottom left corner of the pop-up. Ticking this box turns the image B&W, but you can now begin to make finer adjustments.
Tick the ‘MONOCHROME’ box in the bottom left corner of the pop-up. Ticking this box turns the image B&W, but you can now begin to make finer adjustments.
FINAL ADJUSTMENTS USING LEVELS Depending on the method you have used to convert your image into B&W, you may feel that you want a little more contrast in the final image to give it a bit of punch and mood. A quick way to add contrast is with LEVELS. Select IMAGE from the menu bar, then ADJUSTMENTS from the drop down menu, then CHANNEL MIXER from the second drop down.
Drag the Black Tone and White Tone Sliders (small black and white triangles) in toward the centre, until each begins to touch the black line of the Histogram graph. You can adjust it visually too, to make sure you get the right amount of contrast. Hit ‘save as’, rename it and you’re all done!
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RED EYE REDUCTION Understanding Camera Controls It can be frustrating! Your child, all dressed up looking ever so cute at a party. You want to capture the moment, so you get out your camera, remember to switch on the flash, get them to say ‘CHEESE’ and there, on the back of your camera is a sweet child with the eyes of a zombie. Another victim of the dreaded Red Eye! You’re not alone, believe me. Red eye is a big problem with many Compact cameras because of where the flash unit sits on the camera, and it can cause people to look like a blood-thirsty vampire or an animal to look totally demon possessed.
Red eye is caused when light enters the eye in a straight line and then bounces straight back out off the retina, illuminating the blood vessels at the back of the eye and so giving the human eye its red glow. It’s also the thing that turns your cute little pooch into a hound from hell! An animal’s eyes are designed to capture as much light as possible to help them see in very low light conditions. They seem to light up and glow when you shine a torch at them because they have a special coating on the eye’s retina which acts like a mirror to help capture and enhance as much light as possible. This coating means that animal eyes are extremely reflective, even with a very small amount of light. THE SIZE OF A COMPACT CAMERA RESTRICTS WHERE THE BUILT-IN FLASH CAN GO, AND SO MOST COMPACT CAMERAS HAVE THE FLASH UNIT ALMOST DIRECTLY OVER THE LENS. THIS MEANS THAT THE LIGHT COMING OUT OF THE FLASH HAS NOWHERE TO GO BUT STRAIGHT INTO THE EYE, AND SINCE THE EYE’S PUPIL WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY BE VERY DILATED BECAUSE OF THE DIM LIGHT, THE FLASH WILL CAUSE RED EYE IN MOST CASES. SO WHAT CAN YOU DO TO SOLVE THIS? ONE SIMPLE SOLUTION IS TO TRY AND GET A LITTLE ANGLE BETWEEN THE FLASH ON THE CAMERA AND YOUR SUBJECT, SO EITHER TRY TO ANGLE YOUR CAMERA SLIGHTLY SO THAT IT IS NOT DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF YOUR SUBJECT, OR YOU CAN GET PEOPLE TO LOOK SLIGHTLY OFF CENTRE TO MINIMISE THE AMOUNT OF PARALLEL (STRAIGHT) LIGHT GOING INTO AND BOUNCING STRAIGHT OUT OF THE EYE. THE CAMERA HAS A TRICK UP ITS SLEEVE, A FLASH SETTING DESIGNED TO TRY AND MINIMISE THE EFFECT: RED EYE REDUCTION AND IT’S FOUND IN THE FLASH MENU.
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HOW DOES RED EYE REDUCTION WORK?
SO IT MINIMISES THE AMOUNT OF RED EYE EXPERIENCED.
WHEN YOU SET THE FLASH TO RED EYE REDUCTION MODE, YOUR CAMERA IS GOING TO TRY TO MAKE THE PUPIL SMALLER BEFORE IT TAKES THE ACTUAL PICTURE WITH THE FLASH LIGHTING. ONCE YOU HAVE FOCUSED AND PRESSED THE SHUTTER TO TAKE A PHOTOGRAPH, THE CAMERA SENDS OUT A BRIGHT BURST OF PREFLASH BEFORE IT TAKES THE ACTUAL PICTURE. - (WORD TO THE WISE - RED EYE REDUCTION MODE CAN CAUSE MUCH CONFUSION. WHEN THE PRE-FLASH GOES OFF, PEOPLE THINK THE PICTURE HAS BEEN TAKEN SO THEY START TO TURN AWAY OR MOVE OUT OF THE PICTURE. IF YOU USE THIS FLASH SETTING, IT IS BEST TO WARN PEOPLE THAT THERE WILL BE 2 FLASHES AND THAT THE PHOTOGRAPH WILL BE TAKEN ON THE SECOND ONE.) THIS FIRST FLASH WILL CAUSE THE IRIS TO CONTRACT AND SO MAKES THE PUPILS SMALLER. THIS MEANS LESS LIGHT CAN ENTER TO BOUNCE IN AND OUT OF THE EYE, AND
SO IF YOU WANT LOTS OF PICTURES OF PARTY PEOPLE AND NOT THE LIVING DEAD, THEN RED EYE REDUCTION IS JUST WHAT YOU NEED. BUT DON’T FORGET TO TELL THEM ABOUT THE TWO FLASHES. OR YOU’LL END UP WITH LOTS OF PICTURES OF BACKS OF HEADS OR FUNNY EXPRESSIONS. DON’T YOU HAVE ENOUGH OF THOSE ALREADY!
MASTER
MASTER ‘THE RULE OF THIRDS’
You may have heard of the golden rule – the ‘Rule of Thirds’. More a guiding principle than a strict rule, it can help to create well balanced and interesting shots, where the point of interest in your picture is situated at a specific area within the frame. Most compact cameras now come with setting for ‘GRIDLINES’. When activated, you will find a series of horizontal and vertical lines appear on the back viewscreen of your camera, which overlay the live view.
graph but are there as an aid to help you with your picture composition. These lines divide the frame into 9 equal parts. Each horizontal or vertical line is precisely a third of the way into the frame and there are 4 points where the lines intersect. How do these lines help compose a better image? By aligning elements of your composition with these lines, such as the horizon or a person standing, it creates a more dynamic feel to the composition and can add a sense of movement in front or behind the subject.
These lines will not appear on the final photo-
The 4 points where the lines cross are known as ‘CRASH’ points or ‘POWER’ points, and by placing or aligning part of your subject there, it creates more interest and intensity within the overall picture than simply placing the subject dead centre.
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Landscapes work well with the Rule of Thirds. By placing the horizon on one of the horizontal lines, you accomplish two things: 1. You stay clear of the feeling that you have split the picture into two halves. It might seem a sensible thing to do, to balance the top and bottom of the image, but it removes a sense of height or depth from the image and your brain interprets the image as flat, or dead. The image has no appeal. 2. By giving one part of the image more space, you can inject a mood, an impression of scale, a direction for the eye to move through the image, or a sense of movement in the subject. By choosing to place part of your subject on a power point, you will automatically create an off-centre composition. The POWER point you select depends on the subject, how you want that subject to be viewed and what mood you want to convey.
In this image, by placing the seagull in the bottom right and leaving space above, you can almost hear and feel the energy of its call exiting out the top left of the frame, which is exactly where your eye is naturally taken.
When it comes to taking portraits of people, lining them up with one of the vertical lines can infer that they are either coming or going, and when combined with a leading line, such as a pathway or road, you can begin to develop not just a sense of movement but start adding a narrative in to your images, and people start to wonder where your subject is heading, what they have been doing, and before they know it, they are interacting with your image. The ‘Rule of Thirds’ should really be renamed the ‘Guide of Thirds’, because like every good rule, it can, and should, be broken. There are always going to be exceptions. It’s up to you to have fun and find them!
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QUICK GUIDE CHOOSING THE RIGHT FILE FORMAT FOR YOUR IMAGE As photographers, we are all committed to taking the best photographs we can. So we work hard at improving the look of our pictures, learning new skills and techniques to enable us to get better and better photographs. Then why is it that we let the fantastic pictures we take lose their initial quality by not putting them into the correct file format? It is something that is rarely addressed early but is so important for photographers to understand so they can safeguard those precious pictures. File Format is the way an image is stored when closed and falls into one of two categories – LOSSY and LOSSLESS. LOSSY compression methods can produce great reductions in file sizes but they are a destructive side to file formatting. If a format uses Lossy compression, it means that it removes some of the original file’s image information and throws it away. How much information is removed depends on how much compression you choose, but whatever original information is removed, that information is lost forever. It cannot be restored and the quality of the image cannot be recovered. LOSSLESS compression methods still reduce down the file size of an image, but they do not produce the extreme file size reduction we see in LOSSY formatting. BUT….. Because the compression is LOSSLESS, this method of compression ALWAYS returns the file back to its original condition. There is no loss of data, so no loss of quality. The file is fully recovered back to the original, identical state before the compression was applied to store the file. Different file formats have different ways of compressing the image down into a file that is stored either on a memory card (that you put into your camera) or on your computer’s hard drive. Each format type comes with its own set of pros and cons. We’re going to look at the three main types of File Formats most useful to a photographer: JPEG, TIFF and PNG.
JPEG Probably the most widely used file format, and certainly one almost every photographer will be familiar with. Virtually every camera can take a JPEG image, (if you use a compact camera it is certainly the file format your camera used to
write your pictures to the memory card), and is the most universally recognised file format for images on computers, viewers and photo printing kiosks, although other formats are now being recognised and used a lot more widely. JPEGs use a LOSSY method of compression by modifying the information in each pixel. The image is examined to determine what the least amount of information can be used to reproduce the image. The resulting image file can be compressed down into an impressively small file size, but while this is very useful for saving space when storing images, it does come at a cost to the quality of the image over time, especially if they are edited several times. Areas of tiny detail, such as minor colour changes, do not effectively compress down well, so they are disregarded – in effect they are overlooked and are deleted out of the image altogether. Larger areas of smoother colour start to appear as if they have little areas made of blocks inside. These are called JPEG ARTIFACTS and show that the image has had excess amounts of compression applied to it. Each time you open and SAVE a JPEG image, the compression method will look at the image anew and apply the same level of compression to close the file down, but because it views the file as a completely new version, more of the quality is removed out of the image. Over time this gives an unpleasant look to the image as detail and definition are replaced by blur and artifacts. Because of this, JPEGs aren’t very good for reproducing text or graphics with a lot of straight lines in. But they aren’t all bad. They are great for web use, if you want a fast loading image on a website, or you want to send a picture via email or phone. But probably the worst artifact of all is seen on the sharp edge that objects have which defines their shape. This edge starts to have a dark almost shadow-like edge around, blurring and concealing edge detail. Compression methods do not recognise shapes or edges. All the program is interested in is applying the right amount of compression.
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The greater the degree of compression you ask the program to apply, the greater the loss of integrity and detail from inside the image. One little known element of viewing your JPEG images in some viewers (such as Windows Photo Viewer) is that if you have to rotate your image to look at it properly, it will resave the JPEG in the correct orientation, which re-subjects your image to compression and adds more artifacts. JPEGs don’t support layers at all, so the images must be flattened before you can save the file in a JPEG format, which means all the editing you perform on a picture is irreversible once saved as a JPEG. On the surface, JPEGs look to be the terrible mother of the photographic world. But JPEGs aren’t really a monster. Think where we would be without the ability to get more than 20 pictures on a memory card or having to wait another 5/10 seconds in between shots for a larger image to write to the memory card? How much space would be taken up on our hard drives if we couldn’t compress down our image files? Used intelligently, JPEGs do a first-rate job in letting us record and communicate our photographs quickly and easily. The easiest way to prevent JPEGs from losing quality is to burn the files on to a CD or DVD. Once on a disc, the file cannot be changed, so no matter how many times you open it from the disc and print it or email it, you’re not going to degrade the base file at all. But what if we want to edit our image but not lose any of the quality over time? If you have a special image, or something you want to change in the image, the first thing to do is save a copy of the JPEG into a LOSSLESS format, either a TIFF or PNG file format.
TIFF/TIF Very few cameras record images directly to the memory card as TIFF files, but the TIFF file format is rapidly becoming more widely recognised and accepted in picture kiosks and online photo printing site (such as Photobox, Snapfish, etc), as well as being increasingly used by both professional and amateur photographers to store images. While JPEG is the file format of choice for camera images, TIFF is the most widely used and supported format within publishing, scanning and image-manipulating programs as the TIFF format was originally created for desktop publishing programs. TIFF files are the most popular way to archive an image collection because TIFF files have a LOSSLESS compression method to reduce the size of the image file to store it. You can store TIFF files uncompressed, but this means that you will have a stored file that is the same size as the open file – anywhere from 25 to 50MB. Multiply that by a set of holiday snaps and you’re talking anywhere up to 6GB of hard drive space! 16 Your Photography August 2013
This LOSSLESS compression method (usually the LZW option in the file saving pop up) is a total, cast iron ASSURANCE that when the file is opened, every single byte of information will be restored and the file will be EXACTLY as if it had never been compressed. That means NO loss of quality, NO reduction in sharpness, NO artifacts being introduced and NO corruption of any file information no matter how many times you open, save and closed the file. TIFF LZW compression looks in the picture information for identical strings of data that are repeated and then replaces the numerous repeated strings with just one string. The encoded strings let future programs decode and restore the image file back to its original state without any data loss or corruption. (The only thing you have to worry about is your own bad composition – heaven forbid!) Because the image does not degrade over time with use, TIFF format is great for images that are precious to you, especially if you want to edit anything within the picture (such as colour, brightness, cropping, sharpness, etc) as well as images that have a lot of detail such as texture or colour, and for graphics such as logos, designs and other graphic images. Tiff files also allow you to save files that have multiple adjustment layers and layer masks, so you don’t need to apply these and flatten images to save them. You can save files and continue editing them at a later date. The downside to TIFF files (but it’s not a huge stumbling block) is that even with LZW compression, you will not get the kind of reduction in file size that you get with JPEG compression. So it is a personal call which format you want to save each file as, because only you know what future use you have for your images, but if you are looking to develop your photography and want to safeguard the image quality of certain images, get into the habit of saving a copy as a TIFF file. Store them externally on a portable hard drive or disc if you want to keep space freed up on your own computer. There is another LOSSLESS file format, the PNG.
PNG PNG file format (pronounced ‘PING’) is not as widely known as JPEG or TIFF formats, and so people tend to shy away from it in confusion as much as fear. But this file format is a useful and wonderfully friendly version of formatting. It can do things the other two can’t and improves on the lossless LZW compression of the TIFF format. PNG is the most recently developed between JPEG, TIFF and PNG file formats and was designed to both replace and improve on TIFF’s LZW compression, as well as to replace the use of GIF files in web use. It is similar in quality and use to the TIFF file. It can be used as the format in which to store and protect the quality of
image files without any loss or corruption of data, but PNG’s superior LOSSLESS compression reduces the overall size of the closed file down even further than.
The choice is yours as to which File Format you ultimately use, but used properly, all three formats have their place within your folders.
However, unlike TIFF files, it does not allow you to store a file with adjustment or editing layers without flattening the file first.
The choice is yours as to which File Format you ultimately use, but used properly, all three formats have their place within your folders. Quick Check – Which File Format to Use?
It is great for storing graphics and designs with text without affecting the look or quality of the image file. However, it is the poor cousin to TIFF when it comes to being recognised by photo kiosks and online photo print services, although this is changing as more and more sites begin to recognise the increase in PNG usage. PNG formatting applies its compression in a complicated way, using what are known as pre-processing filters to filter the data before it is compressed and this allows PNGs to have a much more efficient LOSSLESS compression. You don’t need to know any more than that, unless you’re a bit of a geek, in which case you can do a bit more digging yourself! Suffice to say it works and it’s easy to save. So why use PNG over TIFF? Well, apart from the saving in storage space you get with PNG compression, PNGs can do some interesting things; most of which are quite advanced but one is particularly useful for web use and design projects. Both PNG and TIFF files will save images on transparent backgrounds, but PNG images will open on the web without putting a background in, whereas TIFF images can open with a white background embedded. This means if you take a PNG image that has been saved with a transparent background (such as a logo, web page header text, etc.) and put it onto a web page, the PNG will keep the transparent quality to its background, meaning you can layer them over other text or objects without any problems. Great for Header Banner text.
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Image quality not overly critical – Use JPEG and save copy to disc. Is the image special or precious? Use TIFF with LZW or PNG. Do you want to edit a JPEG? Save a copy to TIFF with LZW or PNG before you begin and edit the TIFF/ PNG file. Do you want to store the file with layers still in? Save to TIFF with LZW. Does your image have text, writing or fine detail in? Save to TIFF with LZW or PNG. Does your image have text, writing, fine detail or a transparent background and is for web use? Save to PNG.
FILE FORMAT COMPRESSION
OPEN IN EDITING PROGRAM TIFF UNCOMPRESSED TIFF WITH LZW COMPRESSION PNG 14.5 MB JPEG HIGHEST IMAGE QUALITY (12) JPEG MEDIUM IMAGE QUALITY (7) JPEG LOW IMAGE QUALITY (4)
FILE SIZE WHEN CLOSED 45.6 MB 45.5 MB 17.2 MB 5.77 MB 1.28 MB 744 KB
This image was saved with different file formats to allow you to compare the reduction each compression method makes.
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TIPS & TRICKS ESSENTIAL EQUIPMENT FOR YOUR CAMERA BAG Small enough to slip into your pocket, handbag or strap to your belt, a mini tripod, (or minipod), is a useful and flexible addition to your compact camera kit. It doesn’t take much room to use it – you only need about a 4” (10cm) square space. Lightweight and compact, it will fit into your hand luggage for your holiday, into your backpack for the day trip out with the kids or hiking, into your bag for special events and so much more. Use it for those self-portrait moments so that you don’t have to be missing from all the memories. Capture evening landscapes or cityscapes free from camera shake or blur.
QUICK TIP Don’t leave batteries inside your camera for long periods of time. Batteries can degrade and leak corrosive acids which destroy the connection terminals inside the battery housing. Instead, as soon as you have returned home, remove the batteries out of your camera and store them inside the case with the camera so you know where they are. If you use rechargeable batteries, give them a quick charge before you put them away so that you are ready to go the next time you need the camera.
QUICK TIP Many people have family spread far and wide, not just around the country but all around the globe.
If you get one of the minipods with flexible legs, you can wrap it around a tree or fence post for greater stability and crystal clear pictures. A minipod is great to use in places like churches or stately homes where larger tripods just get in the way of other people. Minipods are very reasonable priced now but an invaluable resource to use with your compact camera!
QUICK TIP If you are planning to take a picture of someone without their glasses, make sure they take their glasses off at least an hour beforehand, to make sure that the little marks on their nose from the glasses have faded!
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If you want to keep everybody up to date with the latest pictures and events, such as weddings, it can be rather time consuming to have to load numerous pictures onto multiple emails, especially if they want a file that is big enough to print. You can load all the images you need to onto a memory card. An SD card or USB drive can hold all the images you need AND they fit inside a normal card or envelope, so you won’t have to pay the earth in postage to send them. HANDY!
DID YOU KNOW If you photograph the inside of many Stately Homes, museums and other buildings, you cannot sell those images for profit or for commercial gain. Properties such as these are protected by law, and you must obtain a Building Release form, signed by the owners or Custodians to do so. You can, in most cases, sell the images of the outside of the building, PROVIDED you took them whilst standing on PUBLIC land and not in the grounds of the property.
www.eyemediastudios.co.uk www.eyemediaphotographycourses.com
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