Digital Photography Academy

How to make a crack and peel face

noreply@blogger.com (Regarding this blog) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:50:00 +0000

Here is a tutorial that show you how to make a crack and peel face.

This tutorial is created by kuschelirmel

How to manage exposure using your camera

noreply@blogger.com (Regarding this blog) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 07:40:00 +0000

Some of us might have wondered why some of our shot turned out quite bad such as overexposed skin tone or the underexposed sky. While there are a number of factors affecting, it will be good to know some of the camera limitation as well as the type of function that the camera offered in order to get a well exposed picture.

Limitation
Unlike our human eyes, a camera can take a certain amount of dynamic range. A dynamic range refers to the range between the highest and the lowest value in a single frame. Dynamic range in digital camera is captured by individual photosite that makes up the sensor and has a value from 0 -255. Think of this individual photosite as a bucket. When the amount is full, it overflows. Hence details are lost. When the value has exceeded, then the user has to decide which part of the scene should have the right exposure. You can’t have the best of both worlds unless you take a series of shot and use a technique call high dynamic range imaging to achieve it. Dynamic range can be reflected in histogram to tell you the range brightness and darkness area in the scene. Most cameras are calibrated to 18% gray tone. So no matter which type of metering you are using, it will always be given the standard 18% gray reference point in any shooting scenario. You can override them by switching your camera to manual mode and select the shutter speed and aperture that can give you an accurate exposure.

Having explaining the dynamic range and metering, you probably might wonder what the link between these two. The histogram contains a range of brightness and darkness value. Divide the histogram into half, and you will have you will have your dark area at the left side of the histogram and the bright value at the right side of the histogram. If you overexposed it, then the histogram will be biased towards the right side. If you underexposed it, the histogram will be on the left side. The thinking part of the camera will either controlled by the camera or manipulated by the user. You can use photo manipulating software to help you correct the dynamic range.

The camera’s functions
When you purchased your camera, you are not sure by the unfamiliar logo found on your camera. I shall touch on some of the common functions that are related to exposure.

1. Metering
There are different types of metering available on the camera. Spot/partial metering allows you to meter a small area of the scene. The difference between these two is the amount of area metered. Partial metering has a slightly larger area compared to spot metering. This form of metering is useful when you have a contrast scene such as a back lit subject or dark skin tone subject and a white wall. Centre-weighted metering takes reading on the centre of the frame while ignoring the surrounding bright and dark area. This is useful if you are interested in metering the centre of the frame while not including the edges of the frame. Evaluative metering divides the scene into different segment and then compute the metering based on the selected segment using the camera’s intelligence. While this metering is sufficient for most cases, due to the unpredictable selection, your shot either come out overexposed or underexposed. Hence it should not be used in area where there are a lot different exposure values.

2. Exposure lock
This function allows you to lock a specific exposure value when you want to expose a specific area of the scene. Depending on the brand of camera you are using, different manufacturers may assign different logo to indicate exposure lock.

3. Exposure compensation
This comes in the form of +/-EV in your camera. This allows you to deliberately overexpose or underexpose a selected scene. Usually this form is only available in most scene mode except in manual mode.

4. Histogram
After you have taken your shot, it is time to take a look at your histogram to determine whether your shot has been properly exposed. Unless you know which area to be exposed, a well exposed scene generally should have a range of brightness and darkness contained in the histogram.

5. Exposure bracketing
Exposure bracketing allows you to take a series of different exposure shots: underexposed normal and overexposed. You use that function if you are unsure of what values are needed to get a well exposed picture. You can also use it to create a series of shot that allows you to achieve high dynamic range imaging which can be done in photoshop.

6. Manual selection of aperture and shutter speed
Some cameras offer manual selection. To know whether your picture is properly exposed before you press your button, there should be an indicator usually in the form of +/-EV bar. If the slider is at the left side of the bar, your picture will be underexposed or vice versa. You can ignore the bar and choose the settings you think will be the correct exposure.

So now that you knew that there are so many ways to manipulate your exposure, why can’t I set auto in my camera and let the camera’s intelligence to decide. That is because no system is foolproof!! No matter how advanced the technology is, there is always a loophole in everything. It is a matter of how to overcome its weakness so as to maximize it strength. While auto mode works fine in most scenarios, there are certain situations which will fool the camera. Here are some of the scenarios:

1. Taking under a bright sunlight will certainly leave some shadow at certain part of the object. This will give the camera a range of brightness and darkness value which the camera has to decide which area should be chosen to give a correct reading. If you leave your camera in auto mode, you may get some good result. In this case, you can use fill-in flash to take away the shadow.

2. If there is too much white in the scene the camera will either underexposed the scene. The camera will then be fooled into thinking there is a lot of light in the scene. Hence, it thinks that underexposing the scene will give a good exposed picture. The reverse is also true when there is a lot of dark area. In this case, switch to manual mode to manipulate your camera setting.

3. If the contrast is high for a particular scene, the camera will unable to decide which area to be properly exposed. For example, if you have an area with a lot of white area and an area with a lot of dark area, most likely the dark area will lose a lot of details. In this case, you can use a spot metering to meter the dark area or you can shift your object to a less contrast area.

I have written most of the stuff that you need to know to manage your exposure. Hopefully it can help you to understand better.

Introduction to Colour theory

noreply@blogger.com (Regarding this blog) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 07:01:00 +0000

White colour is composed of three primary colours: red, green and blue. These primary colour are known as additive colour, make out the entire colour that we see in the TV and computer monitor. Subtract any one of these colour and you have the remaining colour which consists of cyan, magenta and yellow. The combination of these three colour will make up black. CMK is normally found in dyes or pigment in our inks on our white paper. Below is an example of the RGB and CMY colour. Take note at the overlapped section of RGB which are cyan, magenta and yellow. The same is goes for CMK.

Image from Mark Boulton
Colour wheel
By putting all these six colours together, you will have a colour wheel. Red, green and blue are found at 120^o apart. The same goes for cyan, yellow and magenta. In colour correction, you use the opposite colour to cancel each other out. For example, if you have more blue on the picture, you may want to eliminate by adding more yellow to cancel the effect of blue.

What do we need to know colour?
The human eye and brain will adjust our perception of white whatever the colour quality of the illuminating light source is. To the eyes, a white paper will appear white whether we are reading them in the daylight or in tungsten light source. Digital cameras do not have such ability to tell accurately, therefore you will need to manually set the camera or manipulate the colour in the photoshop. There are preset white balances to handle some common lighting scenario. However, they can only handle from warm (red) to cool (blue). Fortunately, any unwanted colour cast such as green, magenta can be corrected either by using the colour correction filters or to use the saturation/hue in the Photoshop. This will help you to render your colour to be as true colour as possible. Knowing the colour wheels helps us to manipulate light and to filter any incorrect colour cast result from a mixture of light source. You can either choose to remove any unwanted colour cast in the images or you can add in colour like magenta to create a funky image.

How to create animated GIF in 5 steps!!

noreply@blogger.com (Regarding this blog) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 14:33:00 +0000

*Click to enlarge the image

Types of lighting position

noreply@blogger.com (Regarding this blog) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 09:17:00 +0000

There are different ways to position your main light. This section will explore the basic positioning of the light and some examples that each will achieve.

Frontlight
Basically frontlight means the light that will light up the subject in front of you. Frontlight has the ability to illuminate evenly your subject and it is considered one of the easiest kinds of lighting to work with. It can make your portraits flattering and enhance the beauty of the landscape and cityscape composition.

Image by robster16

Overhead lighting
Overhead light provides illumination almost directly above the objects. It can produce a clean and attractive tonal contrast between the subject (highlights above, shadows below) and the background (light below, dark above).

Image by leprechaun947

Sidelight /Rim lighting
If you want to add depth and shadow, you should use side light to help you to achieve it. Side light is place at the sides of the subject to create a three dimensional effects. When the side light is being moved back, it can be turned into rim light. This technique is quite effective if the edge or rim of the subject is shot against a dark background.

Image by picsynel

Image by Maggie's World
Backlight
Backlight means the light is at the back of the subject and hit the front of the photographer. When encountering this lighting, there are two ways where you can shoot: Either you can meter the underexposed area and get a overexposed background and properly exposed foreground (usually in portrait) or meter for the overexposed area to get a properly exposed background and underexposed foreground (silhouette).

Image by Enzo D.

How to manage your white balance

noreply@blogger.com (Regarding this blog) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 07:22:00 +0000

If you want to know more about white balance, you can refer to the article on Introduction to white balance. Most lighting condition has a colour temperature, ranging from warm where the colour cast is orange to cool where the colour cast is blue. Our eyes are well adapted to the lighting condition and we do not notice the difference in colour but for the camera, because the camera in-built intelligence may not be able to accurate tell the different lighting condition, thus you will have to choose the preset white balance or you will have to set manually the correct white balance. Most people will use auto white balance as it is convenient to let the camera set the white balance used. However, there are downsides where the auto white balance will fail.

Camera preset white balance and their approximate colour temperature
1. Your auto white balance will fail if it does not know where the light source is. This is because most light are reflected by the light source and the light source may not even be in the scene. The camera does not know what colour the light source in order to select the best colour temperature to compensate the light source.

2. If the light source is mixed (e.g tungsten and fluorescent), the camera will not be able to tell which colour will render accurately and may take both lighting into account and average it. In this case, you may want to choose different white balance to see which white balance will determine the correct colour.

3. When the subject’s unique properties will fool the camera’s intelligence into thinking it has abundance of warmness or coolness in it.

There are ways to correct if your auto white balance fails to choose the correct white balance. These are the following methods available:

1. Use preset white balance
There is a lot of preset white balance available in a digital camera. For example, if you encounter tungsten lighting, you will need to set your white balance to tungsten to compensate for the orange that tungsten is giving.

2. Shoot in RAW
Shooting in RAW will allow you to adjust your white balance in photoshop as RAW preserves the settings from the raw data. In this way, you do not need to worry about what white balance you set in your camera as you have the luxury to manually set your white balance when you work with your pictures in the photoshop.

3. Customise your white balance
If your camera allows you to customise your white balance, you can use it to set the lighting condition used in the shoot. Customising your white balance will allow you to either compromise and go for the overall average white balance, in which individual near-neutral colours may be askew, but the overall impression seems balanced to the eyes or select which colour in frame you want to make neutral, and allow the other colours to shift accordingly.

Note: The left one was shoot at auto white balance setting and the right one was shot at daylight setting. Notice how different white balance can affect the mood as well as the colour of the picture.

Hope this article in showing you how to correct your pictures using the appropriate white balance.

11 Tips to improve your macro shot

noreply@blogger.com (Regarding this blog) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 08:56:00 +0000

Shooting small objects such as insects can be fun and fascinating as you are curious by how they look like. You would like to share the pictures that you have taken to your friends and get them interested in the world of small things. Shooting small things has its challenges too. For example, you only want your viewers to be interested in the subject and not the background. Sharpness is important as you want to bring out as much detail as possible. The important thing you want to achieve in the end is a clean, neat and sharp pictures to tell the viewers how the object looks like. This article will introduce some tips to help you improve your macro shot.

1. Aperture
Control your depth of field using aperture. This is done by selecting a large aperture value such as f/8 and above to gain image sharpness. Setting a large aperture value will require you to have a longer exposure time. So use flash to help you freeze the subject. Do not get afraid to increase depth of field.

2. Focusing
Focusing is another important aspect in macro photography. You want to let your viewers to see the interesting aspect of your subject such as the insect’s eyes and not the surrounding background. If your camera has the ability to do a manual focus, use it!! Doing so will allow you to select the point of interest which will add punch to the overall image.

3. Fill up the frame
This is one of the rules of composition in photography. Filling up the frame with subject minimize any distracting background and guide your viewers to the interesting part of your subject. If you find that there is a distracting element in the background, determine if you can take them out of the background or you can shift yourself.

Image by Glenn Scott

4. Flash
There are times whereby nature does not provide you with enough sunlight. This depends on the time of day and the condition of the weather. When you do insect photography, you can use flash to provide you with extra light but mount a diffuser on top to diffuse part of light to prevent overblown picture. For other types of macro work such as product, using a flash is a must as you will need to get a well exposed picture.

5. Tripod
The need of using a tripod is important as you will need to consider subject movement. Macro photography magnifies the subject and this gives it a high chance of getting a blur image. If you have a tripod in your hand, you can mount your camera to stabilize your camera.

6. If no tripod available… …
If you are the type who do not like to use tripod, then you can use other settings to pump up your shutter speed. Use manual mode which offers you the control of both shutter speed and aperture. If your flash offers you the ability to control its power, adjust its power accordingly to get a well exposed picture. Experiment with different variable to see what works.

Image by Greg 50

7. Get a dedicated macro len
If you are a serious macro shooter, invest in a good macro len. There are many macro lens available in the market such as Tamron, Sigma, Tokina or first party lens. Depending on what type of macro work you are interested in, there is a range of different focal length for macro len. If you are shooting insect photography, it will be wise to invest in more than 100mm macro lens as this gives you a longer focusing distance. If you are doing a product shoot such as jewellery, you may want to get a shorter focal length len.

8. Experiment with other macro equipment
There are many different equipment to shoot macro. You can use a telephoto len mounted with close up filter, a len attached with extension tube or a reverse macro ring to help magnify the subject. Take note that these three approaches have its cons. You may not be able to get a good quality images when you are using close up filter and you will need to put them on and off when you want to shoot normally. For an extension tube, the length of the tube is important as the longer it is, there is a high risk of light loss thus the need for using large aperture. Lastly you can choose to use reverse macro ring method. The downside of using that is your rear end of your len will be exposed to dust and you will need to clean it immediately after you finished using it. Experiment with what works and you will be on your way to shooting macro.

9. Be patient
When you take photograph of small insects and bugs, you have to be patient! Approach them slowly and try not to alert them. You do not want them to fly off as a result of making unnecessary movement. If they fly off, wait for a while to see if they return before moving off to the next location.

Image by Spendruleziya

10. Eliminate Distracting Backgrounds
Background is another important aspect in macro photography. You do not want your viewers to be distracted by what is in the background but rather the main point of interest. If you are doing insect photography, you can try to add some colour card behind your subject if you find the background is distracting or you can shift your position such that you can find a clean background.

11. Use self timer or cable release to control your camera
If your camera has a self timer or you happen to have a cable release, use it. You use them is because you want to minimize camera shake. As mentioned earlier on, macro photography magnifies subject and hence, increasing the risk of image blur if there is a slight movement.

I have listed so many tips on how to improve your macro shoot. If you have any tips that you want to add on, feel free to comment on it.

Inspirational Photo

noreply@blogger.com (Regarding this blog) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 03:43:00 +0000

Here are links that will lead to some of the photo that will inspire you.

16 Inspirational Portrait Photography Techniques
29 Amazing Long Exposure Pictures
25 Beautiful Macro Photography Shots

Macro Photography

noreply@blogger.com (Regarding this blog) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:49:00 +0000

By definition, macro photography is producing an image such that your object taken in your image sensor is 1:1. Anything less than that is termed as close up photography. There are many different types of accessories available in the market that enables you to do macro photography. While some of these accessories may not offer you the ability to do 1:1 image but they cost less than a dedicated macro len. You should consider getting them if you wish to try out macro photography.

Close up filter

Close up filters are some magnifying glasses which you can mount on the front element of the len. They came in different rating such as +1, +2, +4, +10 and can be bought cheaply. They can be stacked together to provide more magnification.

Extension tube
Extension tubes are mounted before the len so as to move the len further away from the film plane. This allows increased magnification and the higher the extension, the closer you will be able to focus. There is always a limit as to how much focusing you can get. This is because all lens have minimum focusing distance. If you use a wider angle, you probably would not be able to take a picture since the front len is closer to the object.

Reverse macro ring
Reverse macro ring is an adaptor that mounts the front element of lens in order to achieve close up ability. Reverse macro ring is another cheap alternative you can consider but you will risk exposing your rear end of your lens to unfavourable dust particles. There are couple of articles available on the Net that will teach people how to do-it-yourself.

How to expose skin colour correctly in portrait

noreply@blogger.com (Regarding this blog) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 13:02:00 +0000

It is always nice to take picture of your family members and your loved one for memory sake. Sometime after a picture is taken, you are puzzled why some of the people are not properly exposed. Below are some videos that will teach you how can you improve the skin tone using some camera features as well as simple photoshop.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

9 ways to take candid

noreply@blogger.com (Regarding this blog) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:10:00 +0000

Candid photography is very popular. The pictures taken using candid style are different from the normal style. Your subjects are unaware of your presence and their poses are unplanned as compared to the normal style where your subject s look at your camera and smile. It can be quite difficult to take candid photography as it happens very fast. Below are some tips that can help you to get a good candid shot.

1. Take your camera everywhere
Candid can happen very fast. It is important to be fully aware of your surrounding and capture them whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Image by Spencer Jarvis

2. Use a long zoom
Using a long zoom will enable you to take candid with ease. This is because people are not aware of your presence thus they will be able to act naturally and in a relax manner. Furthermore, using a zoom len enable you to isolate your subject thus blurring the background.

Image by Vincent Wo

3. Blend into the surrounding
The most obvious reason of blending into the surrounding is to get a feel of the surrounding mood and not knowing people that you are the photographer who shoots them. This allows people to think you are like one of them and they will able to act as per normal. When you see a shooting opportunity arrives, bring your camera up and start snapping.

Image by 16WadeSt

4. Know where you stand
Candid photography is all about capturing a prefect shot at the right moment. If you will be able to anticipate what kind of events will happen like how do people interact, where will be the people facing, where is the best place to capture candid, you will be able to save time having yourself to reposition yourself when you are shooting images.

5. Shooting in continuous mode
Since shooting candid happens very quickly, you may want to adjust your camera setting and switch to continuous mode. Shooting in that mode allows you to capture a series of event and enable you to shoot the best shot out of the series. You can also use the series of photo to tell the viewers a story of the actual event happening.

6. Use faster shutter speed
Spontaneity happens in a flash. If you find that your shutter speed is slow, change to a fast aperture len such as f/2.8 or pump up your ISO to increase your shutter speed. This allows you to freeze the moment and prevent you from having a blur shot.

7. Taking people doing things
Taking photographs of people doing things tend to be more interesting than people doing nothing. This adds some elements to the photograph and tells a viewer a story about the event. Timing is essential in capturing them as people are engrossed into what they are doing and will not be able to detect your presence. Wait till the right moment and bring your camera when it arrives.

Image by kevindooley

8. Include images with foreground elements
Doing so will add a feeling of “sneak shot”. You can do that by shooting over the shoulder, or you can try to use a tree branch or pillars as a foreground to capture it.

Image by JR Shot

9. Shoot candid in different perspective
You can take your candid shot to a new level by trying different framing. It is not necessary to take candid through normal means (i.e you follow rules of composition). Break some rules and try shooting candid from low or high angle. You will be surprised to get a different perspective and an amazing shot.

15 tips for portrait photography

noreply@blogger.com (Regarding this blog) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 08:54:00 +0000

Taking portrait can be quite fun. If you fret over how to take a good portrait shot, read the rest of the article to give you some insight on portrait photography.

1. Use low aperture
If you find a clean background and you want to emphasize more on the people, you can try to use wide aperture len such as f/2.8. Doing so allows you to blur your background while making your subject stays sharp.

Image by BobMacMillan

2. Use longer focal length
You can’t take subject with a wide angle len as wide angle will distort their face. Most portraits are done using 50mm or above. Using longer focal length will produce a nice bokeh. You can try to alter the shape of the bokeh by placing a cut shape cardboard on the front element of the len.

Image by E. B. Sylvester

3. Use reflector if you have any
If you find that you are under the sun, and you want to use it as the backlight, you are bound to have an underexposed subject. If you have a reflector with you, you can use it to direct the sunlight from the background and use it to lit your subject face. Use the reflector if you wish to minimise the amount of shadow on the face such as under the nose and the eyes.

Image by Bahman Farzad

4. Use fill-in flash
If you find that your subject is poorly lit, either they are backlit or there is not enough available light, you can try to use flash to fill in. Fill-in flash is a good way to eliminate shadow on the face and allow you to get a proper exposed picture. Take note not to use a high power flash as this will blow out your picture completely.

Image by tombothetominator

5. Try creating catchlight on the subject eyes
Having a catchlight in the subject eyes can create a powerful impact to any portrait photography. Catchlight is a reflection off the surface of the eyes and comes in all shapes and sizes. You can use various tools to help you create catchlight such as using a reflector, flash, umbrellas, softbox or any available light that you can use.

Image by Bahman Farzad

6. Choose your background carefully
It is always good to choose a good background that you can match with the subject’s personality and clothing. This will enable the subject to stand out from the background. If your background is too messy, the viewers will be distracted by it. Any distracting element such as lines and people passing by should be avoided.

Image by Stefan Tell

7. Try different angle
Most portrait shot are done at eye level. It can be quite boring sometime if you keep shooting the same angle. Try experimenting with different angles such as taking portrait at high level or low level. You will be amazed to get an unexpected result.

Image by !Just_In_Time!

8. Focusing
It is not necessary to get your subject in focus every time. You can focus on the foreground while blurring the subject to create an element of mystery to leave the viewer to wonder how the subject looks.

Image by Cartocci

9. Shoot candid
If you find that your subject is uncomfortable taking pictures, why not ask them to do something? I personally find that the most natural way of taking portrait is when they least expect you to take pictures of them. Try engaging them in conversation and make them relax and when the moment arrives where they are too engrossed, shoot them and you will have a natural portrait shot.

Image by briantmurphy

10. Try different lighting
You can shoot portrait in different lighting condition. Having lighting lit on certain part of the body can create depth, mystery and mood of the picture. Try playing with different light set up and you can get unexpected result.

Image by omar

11. Gives your subject some room
When you want to take a person looking at elsewhere, always frame the picture in such a way there is a extra space at the direction they are looking. This makes the viewer curious what is the person looking at.

Image by Jevaun

12. Do selective colorization
Selective colorization simply means getting certain parts of the photo while making the rest of photo black and white. This type of technique is useful when you want to guide the viewers to the point of interest. Selective colorization can be achieved using photoshop.

Image by Furryscaly

13. Try different posing
If your subject has some experience in posing, you can get them to pose whatever you want them to. Try a variety of combination such as different facial expression, positioning of hands, legs and body.

Image by Diego Sierralta

14. Give them prop to play around with
If you find that you have exhausted all the possibility of posing, give your subject a prop and ask them to play with it. By doing so, not only they will be restricted to the posing you required them but the shots that you took will be more candid. Introducing a prop will create a new point of interest which will add on to the theme that you are doing.

Image by evaxebra

15. Conceal part of the subject
Portrait does not mean you must always take the person looking at you or with features of the person seen. Sometime it is good to hide some part of the person features to let viewers have a little imagination to focus on some part of the body that you want them to.

Image by dajiang1999

What have I missed? This should be more than enough for you to play around with. I will continue to add on if I find any pictures to share with.

Some tips to take a beach shot

noreply@blogger.com (Regarding this blog) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:06:00 +0000

Going to the beach is very exciting as you will find lots of shooting opportunities such as sports, people splashing water, nice sunset and sunrise, etc. While these may seem exciting, you will find a lot of challenges when shooting in the beach. Here are some useful tips to help you overcome the challenges.

Image from Bobesh

1. Use spot metering
A spot metering can overcome some exposure problems. Spot metering offers you to take a small area in the frame and this is useful if you want a particular area to be well exposed. You can use spot metering to take a back lit object or you can use it to help you take silhouette. Whichever the case is, you may find spot metering an indispensable feature to be used in beach shot.

2. Try silhouette shot
Due to the bright condition in the beach, you might want to try a silhouette shot. Silhouette creates a sense of mystery, emotion and moody which will leave the viewer to ponder about. You can try doing silhouette by metering the bright area in your scene and recomposing your shot to a different scene.

Image from norcali80

3. Use exposure bracketing
Because in beach there is a lot of bright area, you will find that the pictures taken will be underexposed if you leave your camera in auto mode. If your camera has exposure bracketing function, you will find it extremely useful in taking pictures at the beach. Depending on which area you want to be well exposed, you may try experimenting different set of exposure value.

4. Take some action!!
If you find it bored to take people lying down sun bathing why not try something exciting? Take a moment to look around you or take a stroll along the beach to see if there are any sports or games that people are having. Try framing them at different angle and you might get a few candid shots.

Image from pasma

5. Use waterproof camera
If you have waterproof camera, it will be plus point. Taking a beach shoot will have some form of risks. If you have a waterproof camera, you can bring it to the water area and take a few shots of people playing water games or people doing scuba diving.

6. Use polarizer
Because of bright condition, you may find that the beach may contain a lot of reflective area such as sea which will render your picture to be underexposed or contain a lot of reflective area. Using polariser can greatly reduce the amount of reflection and improve contrast of the picture.

7. Using fill in flash
You might it difficult to take a nice portrait under a bright sunlight in beach. You will get some shadow appearing in the face. If you have a flash, fire them directly at your subject will eliminate the shadow on the face and will give you a well exposed picture. Take note that firing flash at full power will give you a washed out picture. Instead if your camera allows you to manipulate flash power, try to experiment with the flash power.

8. Pay attention to the rule of composition
You should try to stick to the rules of composition as much as possible to achieve better pictures. Try to look for textures such as rock, colour such as the beach tents and etc. Unless you are experienced photographer, you can break the rules and get some unexpected pictures.

Image from WisDoc

Conclusion
Taking beach shot can be quite fun. While there is a lot of attraction that you will find in beach, it is important to take care your camera. You do not want to introduce any unnecessary elements such as sand into your camera or expose your camera to water (if you have waterproof camera, you will have less to worry about). One thing I always do is to bring cleaning equipment along so that I can clean them right away should any dirt get into my camera. This will prevent sand or dust from sticking onto them if you left them for too long. I hope you will find this article useful and try using some of tips mentioned here in your beach shoot.

Few reasons why compact camera over DSLR

noreply@blogger.com (Regarding this blog) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:21:00 +0000

As I have written an article on the reasons why DSLR over compact camera, I will tell you why it is convenient to get a compact camera over DSLR.

1. Small size – Compared to DSLR, compact camera is lighter in weight and this is an advantage to people who wish to carry them all the time taking pictures. DSLR is bulky in term of design and may not be ideal to carry around as they could not allow people to slip into their pocket or in their carrying bag. You may need to purchase a cushion bag to house a DSLR.

2. Image stabiliser capability – Nowadays you can see that compact cameras are equipped with image stabilizing function which allows you to take image blur free pictures. This is not possible in DSLR as you may need to purchase specialized len that comes with image stabilizer and they are expensive.

3. Inexpensive investment
With the digital camera, it is a one-time investment as you only need to purchase the camera plus memory card, LCD protector and camera case. With a DSLR, you will need to pour more money on accessories as well as len and flash and these come with a hefty cost. You will definitely save a lot of money if you know why you need a camera for.

4. It is definitely easier to use for a complete newbie
Compact cameras come with a lot of auto function that helps a newbie with no experience in photography to take a good picture. Thus you will not need to worry about what setting you should use as the camera’s intelligence will help you to determine the correct setting to use.

5. Video taking function
You can shoot video using a compact camera and this is an added advantage to DSLR. Newer models of DSLR enable you to take video but they are expensive to purchase. With price of compact camera getting cheaper, you can shoot HD video quality which you can then share with your friends.

6. Large LCD screen to compose your picture
Compact camera now comes with a large LCD screen which enables you with ease. You do not need to squint your eyes and make your eyes uncomfortable if you use viewfinder. In the case of DSLR, even though you can take pictures using LCD but you can’t actually focus your object without you bypassing the autofocus system. In order for DSLR to focus properly, the mirror needs to be flipped down for the camera to focus. This will increase the lag time and you will miss a great shooting opportunity.

7. Reduced load
You do not need to carry a lot of stuff as compared to DSLR. All you need is to carry a camera. Depending on the type of shoot, DSLR user will have to carry a lot of equipment such as flash, additional len, few set of batteries, tripod, monopod and etc. This will translate to heavier equipment and you may find it a chore to carry them around.

8. Large zoom
Some compact camera offered long zoom from 7x to 12x which you can purchase. Zoom range from 28mm to 336mm allows you to shoot almost anything. This will free you from having to change len and prevent you to carry additional len for a shoot.

9. Cleaning sensor
While having the advantage of not changing len, you do not need to worry about your sensor getting dirty in compact camera. In DSLR, due to design of the camera, you will need to change len to match different type of shooting conditions. Dust will apparently get into the camera while you are in the midst of changing and it will eventually dirtied the sensor or it may jam your shutter blades.

10. You can try different shooting angles which would otherwise not possible in DSLR
Because small size of compact camera, they are easier to hold in one hand and you can angle them whatever you want. Shoot up, shoot down or you can shoot sneakily without people knowing that you are shooting at them. You may get an unexpected image coming out if you shoot in any angle. With DSLR, because they are bulky, you cannot perform the same “stunt” as it is or you will risk dropping the camera.

Conclusion
Most people have this thinking that if you owned a DSLR, you are able to shoot anything good but a compact camera can also offer you good images. What are important are the skills and experiences of a photographer rather than the specification of the camera. I hope this article is useful in helping you to make a better decision and do take a look at digital camera buying guide.

Few reasons why DSLR over compact camera

noreply@blogger.com (Regarding this blog) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:47:00 +0000

If you are shopping for a camera and fret over between a compact camera and DSLR, I urge you to seriously consider your choice. DSLR is an expensive tool and if you have the passion and interest to go into photography, then a DSLR will be suited to you. If not, you are wasting money over on something that you shouldn’t even need them and probably settle for a lower end camera. I will share with you some advice why you should get a DSLR over compact camera.

1. Larger sensor size
Most compact camera have smaller sensor size. Smaller sensor size is not very sensitive to light, thus it affects the picture quality when you are shooting at night. Try increasing ISO in compact camera and you will find that noise is visible and picture starts to degrade.

2. No shutter lag
When the shutter is half pressed, the camera needs time to focus on the subject and when focus is complete, it takes time to take a picture when the shutter is fully depressed. Shutter lag is common in compact camera as camera will take most of the time focusing an object. With a DSLR, the shutter lag is negligent because of fast auto focus system. This will prevent you from missing a great photo opportunity.

3. Faster start up
Most DSLR has quick start up time. This means if you switch off your camera and you happen to see a great shooting opportunity, you can instantly on your camera and take your picture immediately. With a compact camera, you will need time for it to start up. The reasons are most cameras have retractable lens and you will need time for the retractable len to complete its extension. Even if it does not have retractable len, it still needs to take some time for the camera to “warm up”, most noticeably the appearance of brand in LCD screen.

4. More controls over camera
Although compact camera has manual features but they are restrictive to allow you to control ISO, aperture and shutter speed. You may not be able to control metering, flash power or change file types and etc unlike using DSLR. This gives more option to control your camera and enable you to shoot creatively.

5. Able to change len
Most compact camera has range from 24-60mm. While this range is sufficient for general photography but it may not allow people to shoot far or extremely wide. Compared to DSLR, the ability to change len is a plus point as it can allow them to branch into specific area of photography like macro, sports, portraits, landscape and etc.

6. Able to mount external flash
while some compact camera do allow you to mount an external flash, they are only catered to small percentage to the market. The majority of the people still carry compact camera with in-built flash. Getting a external flash allows you to do a wide application of flash photography such as stroboscopic, second-synchronization flash, etc.

7. More accessories
They are countless list of accessories that you can get from DSLR. Flash, lens, remote controllers, len filters and so on. These accessories can greatly enhance your shooting experience and give you more options to shoot creativity. With a compact camera, your option is limited by the accessories that come along with the model.

8. Cheaper price
With the price of DSLR getting cheaper, more people can own DSLR cameras. Lower ends DSLR are offering at such a cheap price that there is little price difference as compared to compact camera. Even if you still find it expensive, you can try to source them cheaply at used market.

9. Ergonomic
Most compact camera has plastic built which will give you the feeling of fragile or it may break easily. You will feel tired after you hold the small camera for a long period of time. With DSLR, the built are more rugged and some have magnesium casing which will give you the feeling that the DSLR can withstand punishment from any conditions. Moreover, with better grip, you will be able to hold them comfortably.

10. Ability to shoot RAW
Not all compact cameras will allow you to shoot RAW. RAW is an uncompressed image file which can be manipulated in photoshop software. RAW allows you to adjust the image white balance, exposure, colour without losing any image quality. With JPEG that is the standard image format found in compact camera, you will find that there is little control after the image is taken.

In the next section, you will find the reasons why compact camera over DSLR

Light meter

noreply@blogger.com (Regarding this blog) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 06:28:00 +0000

The function of a light meter is to measure the exposure of the scene and give accurate reading so as to get a properly exposed picture. There are two types of light metering: camera in-built light meter and handheld meter. The former allows you to meter the scene via through-the-len and does not always give you the most accurate reading due to following factors:

1. When there is a len filter (e.g neutral gradient and polariser) mounted on your len, it will reduce the amount of light entering the camera thus affecting the reading.
2. Because this type metering is based on reflected rays, the camera in built metering will be tricked into thinking that the scene has more exposure and will underexpose (i.e if the object has more white) the picture and vice versa (i.e if the object has more black).

The latter allows you to measure the scene in both ways and this makes it popular. You can choose to measure incident ray which is light coming from the light source or reflected ray which is light bounces off from the object. Measuring an incident ray will give you the most accurate reading as it does not be tricked by the object’s reflective qualities and is used by most photographers to get a proper exposed picture.

Some light meters will have the ability of taking multiple reading from different light source thereby enabling you to average out the reading. There is also this feature in some light meter which enables you to measure exposure from your studio strobe by pressing a button to trigger a studio strobe. However take note that the more features the light meter has, the more you will have to pay. There are some web links available that teach you how to use light meter and the pro and cons of camera in-built meter and handheld light meter.

Guide to using a hand-held light meter
Using a Light Meter
In-Camera vs. Handheld Light Meters

Light modifiers

noreply@blogger.com (Regarding this blog) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 07:16:00 +0000

There are two types of lighting: hard light and soft light. Hard light is generated by small light that will result in a harsh shadow. Soft light is generated by diffusing light using light modifiers to minimise shadow. There are many ways to diffuse light source. These will be discussed as below:

Umbrella
There are many different type of umbrella available in the market. Generally they can be used in two ways. They can be used to “shoot-thru” type which some part of the light is penetrated to the umbrella to the object while the rest is reflected. Or a reflecting type where a piece of cloth is covered on top of the umbrella to bounce most of the light source back to the object. The advantages of using umbrella are:

1. It allows light to be bounced over a large are due to their design but there will be light loss if you are using the “shoot-thru” type.
2. It is cheaper and it is recommended to photographers who want to start up small. You may want to get specially made umbrella that offers “shoot-thru” type or reflecting type.
3. Because of the near circular shape of the umbrella, it can create beautiful catchlight shown in the photo.

However, the only disadvantage of using it is, since it can bounce light over a large area, you will find it hard to control the light. If you want a specific area to be lit, then an umbrella is not recommended.

Softbox
Softbox as the name suggest is box with the interior covered in reflective surface and a piece of white cloth is attached to the front end of the box to soften the light. Softbox offers some advantages over umbrella:
1. You can control the lighting as the light is spread in one direction.
2. You can light up some specific area that you want.

The disadvantages of using softbox are:
1. It is expensive to purchase.
2. Because of the different components needed to assemble the softbox, you may need to handle them with care so as not to miss them.
3. Softbox can create catchlight that are square shape and this will look unnatural in the photo.

To see how the light falls off for both umbrella and softbox, you can refer to Zack Arias website on Umbrella VS Softbox. This will give you some ideas before you made your purchase.

Reflectors
Reflector is used to bounce part of the light to the object. They come in white, silver, gold, black and translucent with various sizes. Reflectors is useful when you want to soften some part of the shadow or you can use it as a fill light by reflecting some part of the main light. You can use reflector to create a catchlight.

Barndoor / Flags
Both flag and barndoor are used to reduce flare resulted from direct light or from large white area. They can be used as a subjective lighting (opposite of reflective lighting), adding shadows to certain part of the subject. Barn door is attached to the lighting such as tungsten, fluorescent and allows you to control the area of light while flag is a black paper attached to a frame which can position anywhere you want to block the light.

Snoots
These modifiers are a funnel like device that restricts the light down to a small focused area of the subject. Their main advantage is to focus light to a small area of the subject. They are mainly used for product photography, but in glamour-style photography they are used to highlight select portions of the body which would otherwise be shadowed without lighting other parts. One advantage to snoots over honeycomb grid is they can be placed closer to the subject from behind angles as the light does not tend to show as easily. One primary disadvantage (can be advantage instead) is the snoot will reduce the light by 2-4 stops.

Honeycomb Grids
These modifiers are a honeycomb like grid that fits in front of the studio lights and are used to restrict the fall of light to the desired subject only. They are not as focused as snoots and come in differing degrees of angle (such as 10, 20, 30 and 40 degree honeycombs) unlike snoots the honeycomb grid does not reduce f-stop (or at least by less then about 1/3 stop), but unlike a snoot can not get as small a spot (example on a particular 20 degree honeycomb will have a minimum of a 7" circle of light at the end of the reflector spreading out from there, while the snoot which also has a 20 degree spread will have about a 2" diameter light so can create a smaller point of light at the subject.

Gels
Gels are useful when you want to change the colour of light in order to create a special effects or mood in the pictures. You can use gels to change the colour temperature of the light if you only have one type of lighting equipment (i.e you have fluorescent and you want to use orange gel to stimulate daylight). Gels come in various colour and is placed on top of your lighting equipment.

Studio Photography

noreply@blogger.com (Regarding this blog) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 07:08:00 +0000

This section will introduce studio photography. There are many ways to arrange light setup and I find some resources to give you an example on how you can arrange your light configuration.

Introduction to Studio Photography
Type of Lighting used in Studio Photography
Light modifiers
Light meter
Setting up studio lighting
Types of lighting position

One light set up
One light set up using Canon 550EX and umbrella
Dramatic 1 Light Studio Portrait
One light set up outdoor
One light studio set up using white cards
1 light studio set up with reflector and foam core

Two light set up
Softbox on a boom
Beauty headshot
Lighting a model at the beach
2 light studio set up using striplights
Two light studio setup with reflector as fill

Three light set up
Mood lighting
Three light tutorial - Dramatic lighting
Three Light set up - Sexy cow girl
Photo lighting - 3 light set up
Studio lighting three light set up - lingerie model
Key lighting on a female model
Three point set up with defuser panel

Four light set up
Photography tutorial using four light
Four light set up using alien bees
Photo lighting a car and model tutorial

Six light set up
Advanced Fashion Portrait tutorial
Six light set up - Advanced lighting tutorial

Eight light set up
Super advanced eight light studio set up
Advanced photography eight light set up

Type of Lighting used in Studio Photography

noreply@blogger.com (Regarding this blog) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 06:15:00 +0000

The choice of lighting used in studio photography is very important as it will affect your overall pictures. No matter how good the camera and the len are used, the quality of picture will be good if the lighting is right. This section will introduce the two different lightings used in studio photography: continuous and flash.

Continuous light

Continuous light refers to tungsten, fluorescent and metal halide iodide which burns continuously. They are sometimes termed as hot light because of the amount of heat they produced continuously over a long period of time. Tungsten lighting produced warm colour that are in the range of 3200K – 3400K. They are useful if you want to imitate the effect of a sun shining to an object. Fluorescent and metal halide iodide are used if you want to have a daylight white balance. The advantages of using them are:

1. You do not need to take a shot unlike the flash to determine where the light falls. What you see is what you get.
2. You can get them at a relatively cheap price and it is good for those photographers who wish to start up at a small budget.

The disadvantages of using them are:

1. Tungsten especially produces more heat than light. They will make the model very uncomfortable if it is used directly to them.
2. Tungsten poses a high risk of fire due to the amount of heat produced.
3. Since the amount of light produced is limited, they are less ideal for using slow shutter speed or small aperture if depth of field are used.
4. It is difficult to mount light modifiers such as filter gels, softbox or umbrella as they may burn them. Even if they can be mounted due to the ability to withstand heat, care must be taken to dismount them as the tungsten lamp will still be hot after you switch off.

Flash light/strobe

Flash light are sometimes referred to as cold light because they do not generate as much heat as continuous light. Flash and strobe are used interchangeably and do not refer to any specific unit. Most will refer flash used in studio as strobe. Flash light can differentiated into two categories:

Hotshoe camera flash unit and built in camera flash: These are “intelligent” flash that enable communication between the flash and the camera such as firing pre-flashes to help camera to focus as well as determine the correct exposure which normally occurred in the poorly lit environment.

Studio flash unit: They do not possess the necessary intelligent as the above mention flash. They are more powerful than the normal flash. Studio flash needs light meter to determine the correct exposure.

Studio flash comes in two configurations: power pack and monolights.

Power pack

Power pack has all the adjustments compacted into a box and what is left is to attach the flash head to the box via cable. The flash head contains a flash bulb, modeling lamp and maybe a cooling fan. Some power pack allows power to be distributed evenly (i.e if you have a power pack of 2400 watts and if you attached two flash heads, the power will be distributed equally to them), while others allows power to be unevenly distributed (i.e you can have a flash head of 1800watts while the other to have 600 watts). The advantage of using power pack is that you need to make most adjustments in the box rather than on the flash head.

Monolight

Monolight has most of the adjustments contained in the flash head. This made them heavier as compared to the flash head used in the power pack. They are ideal for location work as they need less cables running around.Flash strobe has some advantages over continuous light:
1. They are termed as cold light as they do not generate too much heat. They are triggered either sync cord or radio trigger unlike continuous light where the light is on continuously. Thus they have a low risk of fire.
2. They can be used together with light modifiers such as softbox and umbrella because they do not produce as much heat.
3. They produced consistent lighting over continuous light as the light used in continuous lighting will degrade over time (i.e lamp used in continuous lighting is on over a long time and this affect the quality of light over time).

The disadvantages of using them are:

1. They are expensive to start with. This is due to the fact you need to purchase many accessories as well as flash heads in order to achieve good result.
2. You probably need a few shots to get the result you want as you do not know how the light falls. Some flash heads come with a modelling lamp which allows you to know where the light falls but they are often expensive.
3. They have a lot of cables running around and you will need to proceed with care as you may trip them.

Introduction to Studio Photography

noreply@blogger.com (Regarding this blog) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:02:00 +0000

You must have heard of this from your friends, through the Internet or photo magazines you have subscribed. You are quite impressed with the photo produced from lighting equipment used in studio photography and wanted to know how it is being achieved. There are many applications that involved studio photography. For example, you can use it to help you take portrait shots of your loved one, take a product so that you can sell it in some websites or take a picture of delicious dishes. You can also take pictures under natural lighting but, there are times when nature doesn’t provide us with enough light prevent you to have good images. That is where you might need to find more lights to properly expose your photo or use it creatively to get what you want.

Why Studio?

1. Studio photography allows you to have more control over light used in studio that nature does. How you want your lighting to be depend very much on your creativity. Lighting involved such as tungsten, fluorescent, strobe lighting will be explained later.

2. You can control the type of background you want in studio photography. You can do this type of controlling when you are in a studio room or you can do it even in your room. If you find that you need a different background for different objects, you can buy the background at the usual camera stores or book stores (if you need some fanciful background like colour paper for small objects).

In the next few sections, you will find out more about studio photography, the different lighting equipment used and the light setup used.

How to create a photo mosaic

noreply@blogger.com (Regarding this blog) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 02:11:00 +0000

Mosaic is an assemblage of many different small images into a big image. You can use mosaic to create fond memories of your loved one by storing a collection of different photo to be used to assemble into a big photo. There are numerous photo mosaic software available, both free and paid one, in the web. I personally preferred to use free one to try out as you don’t create mosaic often except for some special occasions. I am recommending this free software called AndreaMosaic.

1. When you use AndreaMosaic, you will be guided to make a tile collection. If you happen to skip this step, choose the "Select Tiles" when you open the programme.

2. Choose "Add Folder" and you choose the folder where you store your images.
3. Click on "OK".
4. Click "Save Archive". The archive can be accessed anytime and contained your stored images. You can use that to create mosaic.
5. Watch the status till it is 100% completed.
6. Click "OK" to finish the process.

7. Click "Create Mosaic" to finish the process.

8. You are done!!

When you set the parameter, there are a few things you need to take note of:
a. Size parameter: This will determine the final quality of the mosaic. The higher it is, the bigger the size of the mosaic.
b. You can set the amount of duplication and the duplicate spacing if you have limited amount of images. The creator recommends that to check all "Tile Variants" boxes to minimise the amount of blank tiles on your mosaic.
c. The "Pattern" will specify how the image will split into tiles and the "Colour Change" will specify how the tiles can be modified to fit into the image into order to look better.
d. There is "More Options" where you can set where you want to save your file to as well as the quality of mosaic.
e. When you are done, you can see the details under "Mosaic Information".
f. The "Status" will display "All parameters are ok. :-)" when you are done with the setting. Click "Create Mosaic" and wait for the status to be 100% complete.
g. There are some recommendation on the size and the amount of photo used to create mosaic. You can read the parameters in AndreaMosaic website.

Depth of Field (DOF)

noreply@blogger.com (Regarding this blog) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:53:00 +0000

Depth of field refers to the degree of sharpness in front of and behind of the main subject when the main subject is in focus. Depth of field is affected by aperture, subject distance and focal length.

1. Aperture

Using a large aperture will result in a shallow depth of field. This is especially useful if you want to isolate the subject as the subject will be in focus and the background will be blurred. On the other hand, using a small aperture will result in large shallow depth of field as the main subject as well as in front of and behind the subject will be in focus. Use that when you want to take for example landscape.

2. Subject Distance

By moving nearer to the subject, the depth of field will be shallow. Likewise by moving farther away from the subject, the depth of field will be deeper.

3. Focal length

Using the same aperture but different focal length, you will find that a wide angle has a deeper DOF compared to the telephoto len.

<< Return to Glossary

9 ways to take pictures at night

noreply@blogger.com (Regarding this blog) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:55:00 +0000

One of the most challenging parts of photography is how to take a good picture at night. At night, your shutter speed is slow and using handheld camera can easily create a blur in the image. There are many ways to improve sharpness and minimise the blur image in low light. You can try one or few of the following below:

1. Use tripod or stabilized platform

Mounting your camera in your tripod can be useful. Not only it can support your camera, but it minimise handshake. In addition to using tripod, a timer is usually used to help to minimise camera shake (Take note that when you press shutton button, you create a slight movement in your camera). If you find it troublesome to carry a tripod around, you can find anything around to support the camera weight.

2. Use image stabilizer

Most cameras come with in-built image stabilizers. It comes in handy when you need them in low light condition. If you are taking at night, it is best to turn them on. Remember that an image stabilizer can only help to combat handshake and but not subject movement so if a subject suddenly moves, your final image will show the blur subject.

3. Use high ISO

Using a high ISO at night will help you to get more speed so that you can freeze the subject. However, pumping too high ISO will result in undesirable noise appearing in the pictures. Depending on the camera model, try to pump your ISO till the point where noise starts to appear and use it to shoot.

4. Use small aperture

Using a small aperture also helps by allowing more light into the sensor. A small aperture has big hole and thus it permits you to use a faster shutter speed to combat handshake as well as freeze the subject.

5. Use slow shutter speed

At night it can be sometimes difficult to achieve a shutter speed that is fast enough to match the recommended rule which is 1/focal length. As such if your camera has an image stabilizer ability and you can achieve a shutter speed of 1/30, it should be good enough to take a sharp picture without using flash. But if you are in an area with poorly lit light, you can try to use a slow shutter speed. For example, the below shot was taken when the area has not enough light and there is a lot car. You can create a light trails by using a long shutter speed. To do this, you will need a tripod or a stable platform.

6. Use flash

If flash is permitted in an area you are in, then use flash to light up your subject. Take note that flash has a range limit and you should check your manual about the flash range. If you are using a external flash, you can try other flash types such as 2nd synchronization or stroboscopic flash to do creative light shooting. 2nd synchronization flash works when the flash is fired just before the shutter is close and stroboscopic flash works by firing multiple flash at specific interval.

7. Move to area with more ambient light

If you find that there is a good lighting condition nearby, then you should try to move your subject to that area and take them.

8. Hold your camera steady

It is not easy to take a camera handheld at night. Even though there is a recommended rule of 1/focal length, but it is hard to achieve it if you are in a very dark area. This “hold your camera steady” basically means holding your camera in two hands, is only useful when you can achieve quite a reasonable shutter speed of 1/30 second.

9. Use self timer or cable release

If you have either a self timer or a cable release, you should be able to take a picture without you pressing the shutter button on your camera. This will help to minimize camera shake and it is best used when you mount your camera on your tripod or any stabilized platform that can support your camera.

Using Photoshop to remove red eyes effect

noreply@blogger.com (Regarding this blog) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:25:00 +0000

Red eyes effect is commonly found image taken by compact camera. There are few causes of red eyes:

1. The flash is beside the len which is common in compact camera.
2. Red eyes reduction is not on in camera.
3. The subject is on the poorly lit environment thus the eyes dilates. Using a flash at this condition will have a high chance of getting red eyes.

There are ways to prevent red eyes but not necessary foolproof. As such, there maybe times where you need to open your Photoshop to take away the red eyes effect. In this tutorial, Adobe Photoshop CS3 will be used to eliminate red eyes effect.

1. Select colour replacement tool.
2. Select the appropriate brush size and set hardness to 100%.
3. Select colour.
4. Select tolerance to 100%.
5. Paint over the red eyes.

6. Because of the colour replacement tool, the red eyes will be converted to grey. You will still need to darken those grey eyes. So select the burn tool.
7. Adjust brush size.
8. Set to shadow.
9. Set exposure to 100%.
10. Colour over the grey eyes.

11. Finished!!

5 tips to prevent red eyes

noreply@blogger.com (Regarding this blog) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:52:00 +0000

Red eyes effect is caused by light bouncing off the retina. The red colour actually is a reflection from the blood vessels found inside of the red eyes, hence the red eyes effect. Usually, it happens in poorly lit environment and the size of the pupils dilates to allow us to see better. When that happens, if a flash is fired at the eyes, and also there is a law of reflection that states that the angle of reflection is equal to angle of incidence (where the light is coming from), there is a high chance that the light reflected back to the camera will be red.

If you can change the angle of the flash such that there is no reflection bouncing off the retina and to make the size of the pupils smaller, then you will not get a red eyes effect.

1. Use the red eyes reduction found on your camera

Most cameras have this feature which allows you to reduce the red eyes. Although not 100% foolproof, it comes in handy as you can minimise the effect of red eyes. Red eyes reduction does by firing a pre-flash light before firing a main flash to the subject. The theory is that by firing a pre-flash light, the size of the pupils become small, thus fewer chances for the light to bounce off the retina when the main flash fires.

2. Move to an area with more ambient light

When you move your subject to a more ambient light, the size of pupils will become small as there is sufficient light to enter into the eyes. This will help us see better as well as reducing the need to use flash as there is more light to be captured by the camera.

3. Ask the subject to look at light source

If you find that the area is poorly lit and there is a lamp post available, ask them to look at the lamp post. This will help to reduce red eyes as the size of your subject' pupils will become small.

4. Use photoshop tools to correct red eyes

If you find that there is still red eyes visible, this could be due to some people have larger pupils than the other, you should use photoshop to remove the red eyes.

5. Mount an external flash

As explained earlier about the law of reflection, if you can change the angle of light source such that the angle of reflection goes the opposite way rather than bouncing off the surface of the retina, red eyes effect will not occur. Unfortunately, most compact cameras flash sit beside the len and there is no way you can move you flash. In this case, you can try to use red eyes reduction or you can photoshop to remove them. All digital SLR allow external flash to be mounted on top via hotshoe. Thus, the angle can be changed such that you can minimize the effect of red eyes.

I hope these tips will help you to reduce red eyes!!!