DP September 2010

M & SU IN G B I T ET S RA A CR VE SU IB L PE E TR R IP B OD

Britain’s best-selling photography magazine!

H W TO O USE

RAW LIK A PRE O

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ISSUE 133 SEPTEMBER 2010 £4.99

USINGA START CAMER YOURIGHT WAY THE R

CAMERA SKILLS

ESSENTIAL

D D-SLR SLR TECHNIQUES Get creative with focus. From blurred backgrounds to super-sharp scenics – all you need is right here!

DO IT BETTER!

BRILLIANT FLOWER PICS

Get studio-style floral shots in your own back garden

ON TES PAN AS T

PLUS! THE VERY BEST PRIME LENSES FROM JUST £89

ROBERT CHARITY

O VS C ANO NIC G2 BUD N 550D G MON ET LCD ITOR S

ALL NEW D-SLR & PHOTOSHOP SKILLS!

UP SET R YOU RA E CAM R FO IVE T !

CREA CTS EFFE

WHAT YOU NEED ANY D-SLR WHAT YOU’LL LEARN FOCUS SKILLS

If you want to get the best from your D-SLR and produce top-quality shots, you need to master focusing and depthof-field – just follow this simple guide to find out how!

T COMAKE CON PLETE TRO OF W L H IN F AT’S OCU NOW S !

MASTERING FOCUS & CONTROLLING DEPTH-OFFIELD are hands down the most important skills you’ll learn as a creative photographer. Fact. The ability to choose and control what is in and out of focus in an image is what separates considered pictures from snapshots – and it’s one of the easiest ways to mark out professional looking photos from more naïve compositions.

In this guide you’ll learn how to take control of focusing and use it to your advantage, so whether you want to reproduce pro-style narrow depth-of-field effects or retain pin-sharp detail throughout the frame, we’ve got you covered.

DON’T SHOOT THE LAZY WAY! If you don’t harness depth-of-field control, you’ll always end up with so-so pictures...

MASTER FOCUSING EFFECTS ... but by controlling simple camera settings like aperture and autofocus you can produce pro-style pics with any D-SLR and lens!

SEE HOW EASY IT IS TO MASTER APERTURE OVER THE PAGE WWW.PHOTOANSWERS.CO.UK

DIGITAL PHOTO

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RN W A E L L-NE AL ILLS SK

Photoshop Masterclass

» Your expert guide to the tips, tools & techniques that really matter...

Camera Raw CONTROL COLOUR & LENS DEFECTS IN CAMERA RAW Discover how to control colour and fix common lens-based flaws with these three advanced RAW techniques...

TECHNIQUES BY MICHAEL TOPHAM

A

DOBE’S Camera Raw interface sports an excellent selection of features, which allow us to control a wide range of variables, from basic exposure adjustments through to lens-based deficiencies in the Lens Corrections tab. Last month we explored the Basic and Detail tabs to find out how they are used to rescue under-exposed images and high-ISO shots suffering from digital Noise and a lack of sharpness.

This month we’re going to look at three tabs, starting with HSL/Grayscale. This tab offers control of three main colour variables including Hue, Saturation and Luminance – great for adjusting specific colours as well as altering the colours of your main subject.

“ Read through our three projects and make sure you watch the videos on the CD “

PAR T

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Another tab that has an effect on colour is the Split Toning tab. With Hue and Saturation sliders, the Split Toning tab lets you assign specific colours to highlights and shadows and is great for introducing subtle colour into black & white images – something we’ll be exploring how to do in another RAW project.

Lens flaws Our third RAW project concerns itself with the Lens Corrections tab, which is designed to minimise the effects of lens flaws such as fringeing (chromatic aberration) – which shows itself as a coloured halo on a high contrast edge – and dark corners (vignetting) The latter is a common problem that’s often seen when shooting at wide apertures with less expensive lenses. We’ll see how this tab cures both types of lens-based defects. So, read through the three projects we’ve got lined up and make sure you watch the accompanying videos on the CD.

KNOWLEDGE THE THREE SEPARATE TABS The HSL/Grayscale, Split Toning and Lens Corrections tabs are found to the right of the Basic and Detail tabs. To cycle through the tabs in ACR very quickly, use the shortcut Alt+Ctrl and hit the relevant number on the keyboard. For example, to access the Split Toning tab, use Alt+Ctrl+5.

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SPLIT TONING TAB

LENS CORRECTIONS TAB

To apply a fine-art toning treatment non-destructively to your RAWs, use the Split Toning tab. You can control the tone in Highlights and Shadows and fine-tune the effect with the Balance slider.

This is great for controlling chromatic aberration (fringeing) in your shots. It’s also used to remove (or add) vignetting effects – dark edges found towards the corners of your images.

DIGITAL PHOTO

HSL/GRAYSCALE TAB This tab gives you masses of colour control. You can adjust the Hue, Saturation and Luminance of the colours in your RAWs with eight sliders under each of the three headings.

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WHAT YOU NEED PHOTOSHOP CS OR HIGHER WHAT YOU’LL LEARN HOW TO EDIT IN CAMERA RAW

CAMERA RAW PROJECT 1 Change colours with HSL/Grayscale

V LESIDEO ON SONS T CD!HE

When you want to adjust the colours in your images, or need a fast means of switching a colour shot to mono, you need to turn to the HSL/Grayscale tab. With 24 sliders in all to control the Hue, Saturation and Luminance, it gives you the option of getting really creative with colour. In this first technique, we’re going to switch the turquoise colour of the building and the model’s dress to a vibrant blue without affecting the natural colour of the skin tones. Best of all, any adjustments we make in Camera Raw are non-destructive, so we can easily reset the colours to Default at any time if we’re not happy with the effect.

.DNG START IMAGE LAUREN

Adjust the Hue Locate the file named LAUREN.dng from the cover CD and open it up in Photoshop to load the Camera Raw interface. You’ll be welcomed by the Basic tab, but we’re going to be using the HSL/Grayscale tab to change the colours instead, so use the shortcut Alt+Ctrl+4 to access it. With Hue selected, set the Oranges to +10, Greens to +95, Aquas to +95, Blues to +50 and keep all the remaining colours set to zero.

Alter the Saturation Click on the Saturation heading and you’ll find the same list of sliders to increase or decrease the ‘volume’ of the colours. Set the Oranges to

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FINAL IMAGE

+35 to make the hair stand out slightly more.

Reduce the Greens to -80 to diminish the green cast in the window reflection and move the Aquas slider to +90 to boost the richness of the building colour. Increasing the Blues slider to +40 will enhance the colour intensity of the model’s dress.

Enhance with Luminance To change the brightness of the colour range click on the Luminance heading. To lighten the

skin tones fractionally, increase the Oranges to +30. Drag the Greens slider left to -80 and increase the Aquas amount to +90 . Take hold of the Blues slider and set this to -30 to make the colour tone of the dress match that of the background building. You can now click on Done to apply the changes and to dismiss the dialog without opening the image.

MORE GREAT CAMERA RAW ADVICE OVER THE PAGE DIGITAL PHOTO

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SHOOT FABULOUS FLORALS IN YOUR GARDEN

O VIDEON LESSTHE ON D! C

Use our tips on composition, lighting, aperture & shutter speed to get better flower photos!

TECHNIQUE BY GAVIN HOEY

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DIGITAL PHOTO

PHOTOGRAPHY IS A GREAT EXCUSE for getting out of the house and enjoying some fine late summer weather.

But you don’t need to travel far to get amazing photos. All you need is a garden and it doesn’t have to be big or amazing to yield top-quality flower images.

We don’t believe there’s a photographer on the planet who can walk past a

colourful bunch of flowers without whipping out their camera for a quick snap. But snapshots are for the masses – if you want to create something truly impressive you need to spend time getting the best from your flowers. To make that easy we’ll show you how to apply creative camera techniques that’ll transform any garden into a flower studio.

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WHAT YOU NEED ANY D-SLR & PHOTOSHOP WHAT YOU’LL LEARN SHOOT BETTER FLOWER PHOTOS

VI E O LESD S O ON T N H CD! E

ON THE CD

EXCLUSIVE LIVE-ACTION VIDEO LESSON ON THE DISC

Watch Gavin’s video on the cover disc, and see this entire technique ‘live’ on your computer. Once you’ve seen the video, give it a whirl yourself with your own floral subjects!

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By controlling your D-SLR’s creative exposure modes and improving your composition skills you can get great floral shots.

TURN OVER FOR MORE DIGITAL PHOTO

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GEAR

PANASONIC G2 CANON EOS 550D

VS

The Panasonic LUMIX G2 is an excellent Compact System Camera, but does it offer enough to tempt users away from a traditional D-SLR? We put it up against the DP Gold award-winning Canon EOS 550D to find out TEST BY PHIL HALL

PANASONIC LUMIX G2 ÂŁ599 The Panasonic LUMIX G2 is our pick of the CSCs.

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DIGITAL PHOTO

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HEA TO H D AD TESE T CSC F IGH !

PANASONIC LUMIX G2 VS CANON EOS 550D

GEAR

CANON EOS 550D £689

OUT S IT WITT D-SL H A R

The best mid-price D-SLR currently available.

IF YOU’RE THINKING of upgrading from a compact in an effort to progress your photography, there’s now an extra layer to that decision-making process – which camera to buy. Until recently, it was what D-SLR to choose, but now there’s the question of whether to go for a D-SLR or a Compact System Camera (CSC).

With the mirror removed from the

internal workings of the camera, CSCs have a shorter distance between the lens and the sensor. This produces a much more compact solution compared to a D-SLR while maintaining many of the benefits, including a sensor with a similar physical size – and much larger than one found on a compact.

Panasonic was the first manufacturer to

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DIGITAL PHOTO

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GEAR

AFFORDABLE LCD SCREENS FOR DIGITAL IMAGING

WHAT WE TESTED » Acer S243HL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £255 » BenQ V2420H . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £175 » HP ZR24W . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £325 » NEC P221W . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £300 » LG W2453TQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £180 » VIEWSONIC VP2365WB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £230

Does size really matter? When it comes to choosing a monitor for editing your pictures you bet it does! And with some large 24in displays now well under £200, there’s never been a better time to buy one…

TEST BY PAUL CARROLL

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MONITORS GROUP TEST

GEAR

WE’ MAKLL SUR E GETE YOU T BES HE BUYT !

GET ALL THE INFO YOU NEED OVER THE PAGE WWW.PHOTOANSWERS.CO.UK

DIGITAL PHOTO

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