Beyond Megapixels

Photographing Infants – An Update

Laura Charon — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:17:38 +0000

Regular readers of Beyond Megapixels may recall my request for advice a couple of months ago, about how to photograph an infant.

Well, last week baby Oliver was born, and last weekend I visited him and his parents and his big brother at their home. I brought my gear with me, and with the help of Oliver’s parents, we got an impromptu studio set up.

Here are a few things I learned while photographing the baby:

1. At four days old, the best pictures were taken while Oliver was dozing. When such young babies are awake, they’re generally hungry or in need of a diaper change, which equates to grumpy faces being made at the camera.

2. Such young babies cannot be posed, they can only be placed. The photographer must work according to the baby’s whims, with the shots that we have in mind being secondary.

3. The 50mm f/1.4 worked very well in low light, so we didn’t have to disturb the baby very much with light sources. However, I’m still getting used to it – on auto-focus, the lens tended to focus on the parts of the image that it wanted to focus on, which didn’t necessarily jive with what I wanted it to focus on.

4. Bouncing the light source (a single bulb in a clamp-on fixture) off of the white ceiling, and off of a white screen affixed to one of the walls, worked really well to achieve the soft sort of indirect lighting we wanted for the photographs. Also, necessity is the mother of invention – in a couple of cases, we bounced the light off of an empty white pizza box.

5. A soft black fleece blanket is an invaluable tool. We laid the baby on it, and held the edges in various positions, to give the images the black background we were looking for. I might just buy one of those for my own use, I can think of a million scenarios where it would come in handy.

6. A boppy pillow is also an invaluable tool. Newborn babies are rather boneless and need lots of support – laying the fleece blanket over the boppy pillow provided just the support the baby needed for the photographs. We utilized the parents’ ottoman, which we could easily move around the room and light sources as needed for the individual shots.

7. One shot that we wanted that was too hard to achieve was of the baby laying across daddy’s forearm, on his stomach, head supported by daddy’s hand. The baby ended up looking uncomfortable – I think when the baby can support his own body and control his own limbs better, the shot will be possible.

8. An hour is the upper limit for a newborn’s patience for a photo shoot, even when taking several, well, we’ll call them “coffee breaks”. I’m thinking that several sessions spread over a couple of weeks, at a half-hour at a time, would be optimum. I plan on going back in a couple of weeks to take more photos, and it will be a delight to see how much the little one has changed, even over such a short period of time.

All in all, I took many pictures and came away with a handful that I felt were satisfactory. As a first attempt at infant photography, I have mixed feelings about my success. As a photographer, I want every single shot that I compose to come out perfectly. As a realist, I understand that it takes a hundred photos, sometimes, to come away with one great shot. No matter how many years we’ve been working on our passion, practice, patience, and perseverance will always be necessary!

My sincere thanks to everyone who left their helpful comments in the original post. I put them to very good use and really appreciate the advice!

Photo Credits (all): Laura Charon.

Examples of Great Composition

Laura Charon — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:00:52 +0000

Hello friends, I’d like to start a discussion on photo composition. Sometimes it’s easy to define why a photo does or does not have great composition – sometimes it’s hard to define. There are a lot of great “rules” out there to keep in mind when composing a shot – balance, rule of thirds, avoiding mergers, framing, simplicity, perspective, etc. Developing an intuitive eye for composition takes a lot of time, and practice practice practice.

I will expound upon individual composition “rules” in future entries. For now I thought I’d provide some great examples of composition, from my perusal of Flickr Creative Commons.

(Also, in a blatant bid for sympathy, I have the flu and my medicated brain isn’t up for coherent explanations right now!)

A great, almost literal, use of the concept of "framing".

Nice use of the horizon line - 1/3 up the frame instead of centered. 2/3 up the frame works well when the focus is on the ground, too.

Lovely and simple, with great balance.

Another lovely example of simplicity, with great application of the "rule of thirds".

A very cool use of balance, framing, simplicity, AND perspective.

Please feel free to share your own examples of great composition in the comments!

Photo Credits (in order of appearance):
- “Outside the frame” by Hamed Masoumi on Flickr Creative Commons.
- “And the road goes on and on” by Eugeni Dodonov on Flickr Creative Commons.
- “My Breath of Joy” by Vincepal on Flickr Creative Commons.
- “Rose Bud” by Abhijit Tembhekar on Flickr Creative Commons.
- “Tiree Perspective” by MacJewell on Flickr Creative Commons.

Prepare for Black Friday!

Laura Charon — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:00:45 +0000

There are twenty days until Black Friday, my friends! Time to get your gameplan together!

Black Friday, that traditional chaotic Christmas shopping day that qualifies as a quasi-holiday all on its own, is the Friday after Thanksgiving in the U.S. every year. This year, I want to help you to plan your gift-buying for the photographer in your life!

On-line, Amazon.com always holds a one-day, Black Friday sales event for the majority of their in-stock items. This event usually kicks off the Christmas season sales, though specifically on Black Friday there are deals that are not offered at any other time. Be sure to visit Amazon on 11/27 and take advantage of the discounts!

Find your local Ritz Camera, or visit them on-line. Take advantage of no sales tax and free shipping if ordering on-line, and find deep discounts if you visit your local store in person.

The big retailers, such as K-Mart (link is to specific Black Friday ad), Sears (also linked to specific Black Friday ad), Target, Costco, and Wal-Mart, often have a surprising amount of camera gear in-stock and on sale during Black Friday, whether you shop on-line or in person.

Visit B&H on Black Friday and take advantage of one-day-only on-line deals on cameras, lenses, and accessories. Best Buy will also be offering major Black Friday discounts, on-line and in stores.

This list represents a good place to start when looking for Black Friday deals. In order to help you with your gift-buying, once retailers release their “official” Black Friday ads (probably within the next week or two), I will post an updated entry to point you all in the direction of great deals on specific cameras, lenses, and other photography equipment. So be sure to check back in with us!

Photo Credit – “Equipment for US Trip” by Geisha Boy on Flickr Creative Commons.

Photo Rescue

Laura Charon — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:00:53 +0000

I made the complete switch from film photography to digital photography somewhere around 2003 or 2004. So you can imagine my surprise when, while recently digging through some old bags I had stuffed in the back of my closet, I came across several rolls of undeveloped film. I took them to my local one-hour developer and asked them to put digital copies on a disc, as well as make prints.

The photos were of extremely poor quality, given the age of the film. So I set about to improve them the best that I could, in Photoshop CS3.

Here is one of the original images, of my grandson Robert in his high chair:

Such a sweet face! Which is being totally detracted from because of the poor film quality. But we can fix that!

The first thing to do is to use the “Spot Healing Brush” to remove the milk stain on his shirt. It’s the one that looks like a band-aid in the palette:

This is what the spot looked like after I “healed” it:

I also used the Spot Healing Brush to “heal” the tiny scrape that was on his forehead.

Then, because using the Spot Healing Brush removed the texture of Robert’s shirt, I used the “Clone Stamp Tool” (looks like a rubber stamp in the palette) to clone textured areas of the shirt back into the “healed” spot.

This is what the spot looked like after I cloned it. You can’t even tell a spot was there, can you?

With those little details taken care of, it’s time to reduce the noise and speckling of the grainy photo. I ran Filter/Noise/Despeckle three times to remove the speckling, then ran Filter/Noise/Reduce Noise and left it on the default settings.

Performing these steps greatly softens the look of the photo, so if a return to sharpness is desired, simply go to Filter/Sharpen/Unsharp Mask to sharpen the photo as needed.

I decided that I wanted to “warm up” the photo a little by increasing the contrast, so I went to Image/Adjustments/Curves and chose “Darker” from the drop-down list.

Here is the final result:

Not perfect, but a vast improvement over the original, I think:

Elsewhere

Laura Charon — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:25:55 +0000

Beyond Megapixels has recently been given the honor of contributing as a guest writer for the following fine websites:

The Digital Photography School:
- Photoshop CS3 – Adding a Neutral Density Gradient

Learn how to use Photoshop CS3 to create the effect of having a neutral density gradient filter on your lens.

Your Photo Tips:
- Photoshop CS3 – Add a Touch of Color

Add an element of color to your black and white photos.

- Basic Tips for Photographing the Stars

Camera setup tips for photographing stars with your DSLR.

- Essential Gear for the Beginning DSLR Photographer

Four items of gear that I found to be essential when I first started out as a DSLR photographer.

PhotoDoto:
- Four Basic Tips for Photographing the Moon

Four camera setup tips that will assist you in taking pictures of the moon.

I hope that you find these contributions to be helpful!

Straightening a Photo in Photoshop

Laura Charon — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:00:19 +0000

I was recently hired to do the photography for a wine event at a local restaurant. Much to my chagrin I discovered that, in a couple of photos, my tripod wasn’t quite straight at the time, and I ended up taking a few slightly crooked pictures. What may have once been a BIG problem is now fantastically easy to fix in Photoshop (I’m using CS3 for this tutorial).

Here is the original photo:

After opening it in CS3, I clicked on the “Ruler” tool, which is hidden in the palette under the “Eyedropper” tool.

Next, I drew an angled line that corresponded to the shift I needed in the photo. Since the photo was slightly angled to the right, I drew a shallow angle starting at the bottom right corner and moving up slightly to the left side.

Next I selected Image/Rotate Canvas/Arbitrary. Photoshop automatically populates the angle of the rotation based on what was drawn with the Ruler tool. Click on “OK” and the image will rotate. You may have to “undo” and perform this step a few times to get the angle you want. This was the result:

There will be white space along the edges of the photo, as the canvas and the image will be oriented differently (the picture above, as seen outside of Photoshop, looks like the subject itself is straight, but the photo is crooked). You will need to crop your photo (using either the “Crop” tool from the palette, or the “Rectangular Marquee” selection tool, then Image/Crop) to remove this white space.

Alternately, you can get artsy with your bad self and color the white spaces to compliment the photo, creating a matte effect. I did this with a different photo, with these results:

I hope that you find this tutorial helpful in “saving” your crooked photos!

Should You Upgrade to Photoshop CS4?

Laura Charon — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:00:56 +0000

Adobe Photoshop came out with CS4 in late 2008, improving upon the immensely powerful CS3. I, like many other CS3 users I know, have been undecided about upgrading. It’s hard to imagine any functionality that I would need that is NOT contained in CS3. There is a ton of information (and opinions) out there, making research on the subject a little overwhelming.

I’ve listed a handful of sources at the end of this article, and I’ve summarized some of the key points that I’ve discovered (note: in this article I’m covering changes in “CS4″, NOT “CS4 Extended”). Hopefully this will help condense the information overload.

- The overall program opens and functions at a faster rate than CS3 (which is somewhat dependent on the processor speed of the computer, as well – if you have an older model computer, CS4 might not be for you).

- There have been some changes in menu organization and application toolbars that make navigation and multi-window work easier.

- Depending on the graphics card in your computer (OpenGL capabilities), CS4 has smoother screen refreshes and clearer previews/zooms.

- The creation of the “Adjustments Panel” (”panel” is the new name for “palette”) is an improvement over having to go into Image/Adjustments menu over and over again.

- The creation of the “Masks Panel” (which is in the “Layer” menu of CS3); again, an improvement over menu navigation.

- “Content-Aware Scaling” analyzes the photo and automatically re-scales it according to the subject of the photo.

- An enhanced ability has been created, to stitch progressive photos into a panorama using “Photomerge”.

- An extended “Depth of Field” feature has been added which allows photos of different focal lengths to be merged into a single focused image.

- Various improvements have been made to tools and brushes including live previews and easier on-the-fly adjustability. Max brush size has also been increased.

- Adobe Bridge has been enhanced for better performance (file opening, thumbnail processing, 1:1 preview).

- Camera Raw 5 has been enhanced to improve functionality. More powerful editing capabilities, including additional presets, bring a lot of the features of Lightroom 2.

My verdict – It seems to me that CS4 doesn’t offer any new overwhelming capabilities – “evolutionary rather than revolutionary”, is the phrase that I came across a few times, and I agree. CS4 seems to just make it easier to do some things, that you can still do in CS3 with more steps and knowledge of the program. Still, I’ll probably upgrade at some point in the near future, especially if it makes the leap to CS5 (which is rumored to bring significant changes when it comes out) easier and more intuitive.

Sources:
- What’s New in Photoshop CS4 on GraphicSoft.About.com.
- Adobe Demos Photoshop CS4 Content Aware Scaling on Tuaw.com.
- Comparison of Photoshop CS3 and CS4 on Photoshop Tutorial.
- What’s New in CS4 on Photoshop News.

Happy Halloween

Laura Charon — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:00:28 +0000

“Spooky Cabin” by Laura Charon.

A Wordless Wednesday contribution.

Sunny 16 – A Rule of Thumb

Laura Charon — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:00:56 +0000

“Sunny f/16″, or “Sunny 16″, is a mnemonic to help photographers recall a “rule of thumb” for estimating correct daytime exposure. Initially established for film photography (which is an obvious statement, since most “rule of thumbs” that have been around for a while, such as this one, were based in film photography) to help estimate exposure without the use of a light meter, “Sunny 16″ can also be applied to digital photography.

The basic rule states that on a sunny day, the photographer should set the aperture at f/16, and set the shutter speed at about the same number in hundredths of a second, as the ISO being used. For instance, if the photographer is shooting at ISO 100, the shutter speed should be around 1/100 to 1/150. ISO 200, shutter speed around 1/200 to 1/250, etc.

The correspondence of f-stop, ISO, and shutter speed can be applied to any light conditions:

f/16 – Sunny, distinct shadows
f/11 – Somewhat overcast, shadows are soft around edges
f/8 – Overcast, shadows are barely visible
f/5.6 – Very overcast, no shadows

With the auto-exposure features available in today’s digital cameras, it’s easy to allow our camera to do all the work. Still, it’s beneficial every now and then to remind ourselves of the how’s and why’s when composing our shots.

Photo Credit: “Sunny Day” by jhoc on Flickr Creative Commons.

Creating Textures

Laura Charon — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:00:33 +0000

Following up on my previous entry about textures, creating textures of your own is a pretty easy process.

Everything has texture, some subtle, some overt. In creating your own texture to apply to photographs, the easiest way is to simply take a photograph of something that has texture, itself. Items with repeating patterns work well, too. I’ve seen textures made of a square photograph of beach pebbles, the surface of pulpy hand-made paper, and fleur de lis patterns. Scan in your favorite stationary, or hand-draw floral patterns on paper and scan that in.

Here is a lovely example of texture made from a scan of sheet music:

Here is an example of texture created by photographing a linen towel:

Here is one made of a piece of hammered and scratched up metal:

You can also create textures by altering photographs in Photoshop to stylize them for better application as a texture. For instance, this is a photo I took in the Rose Test Garden in Portland, Oregon:

I opened it in Photoshop, then ran a Bas Relief filter (Filter/Sketch). I fiddled with the Curves (Image/Adjustments/Curves) to lighten it up a bit. This was the end result:

When applied to one of my pictures (here is the original) using the steps from my previous article, it came out like this (I rotated the texture canvas to align with the portrait layout of the photo, opacity at 33%):

Though, as the photo itself has a lot of texture, perhaps the “linen” texture from above – a finer and more consistent pattern – would look better:

Yes, I believe I like the second one better. It’s even at 100% opacity, so you can see the difference between applying a broad-patterned texture such as the roses, and a fine-patterned texture such as the linen.

Enjoy creating your own textures and experimenting with their applications. It has certainly afforded me several pleasant hours fiddling away at my laptop.

Photo credits (in order of appearance):
- “M&Ms Texture” by Tassieim on Flickr Creative Commons.
- “Linen, Texture” by AJawin on Flickr Creative Commons.
- “Texture, Hammered Metal” by AJawin on Flickr Creative Commons.
- “Oregon Rose Garden” by Laura Charon.
- “Rose Texture” by Laura Charon.
- “Stalk with Rose Texture” by Laura Charon.
- “Stalk with Linen Texture” by Laura Charon.