Pics Can Talk

One of the most important features of digital cameras which have changed the experience of taking pictures is the possibility of reviewing your picture at the point of taking a photograph. You are able to see if you have taken a good picture or a bad one and decide whether you should keep it.

However, most of us do not know about an additional feature in our camera that can also help in determining a good picture. This feature is called the histogram.

The histogram shows you the tonal range of your picture, usually depicted as the darkest to the lightest pixels in your picture. Reviewing your picture in such a small LCD on your camera, it can be hard to determine if your picture is of the right contrast level. A histogram can tell you details about your picture’s exposure and whether you need to make any adjustment to the settings on your camera.

A picture that is underexposed will show the following

You can see that most of the details are concentrated on the left side of the histogram showing that there more dark areas in your picture.

A picture that is overexposed will show the following

Here, most of the details are concentrated on the right side of the histogram showing that there are more bright areas in your picture.

In the above cases, what is necessary for you to do is to make the right adjustments such as using flash or to manually increase or decrease exposure level. Most of the time, your camera’s auto exposure feature will correctly make these adjustments unless you are faced with extreme cases.

What do you do if you have already taken the picture?

It’s always best to get a picture just right from the point of pressing the shutter button. But, there are times where you can’t get back the same moment and you end up with a picture that’s not well exposed.

What can you do?

Don’t despair. This is one of the main reasons why there are a number of photo-editing software available to fix the problem.

I’ll use Adobe Photoshop to give you an example of how you can fix your picture. Most good and even basic photo-editing software would have this feature available for you to make adjustments.

Using Levels

For most people the simplest way to adjust the tonal range of a picture is to just use brightness and contrast feature. However, this method leaves you with little control over the results of the adjustments.

Last month, I talked about using an adjustment layer. To recap on this, click on the on the black and white button at the bottom of the Layer box and select Levels.

You will then see a histogram which displays the level of colours for the red, green and blue (RGB) Channels.

If you see empty gaps on either side of the histogram, this means that your picture has low contrast level and could be better with a slight adjustment.

Move the slider on both ends to the edge of the histogram where there are tonal details. You can see the change in your picture instantaneously as the contrast level improves.

What you have done is actually improving the overall contrast of your picture by spreading the colour details over the entire tonal range. This makes for a more pleasing picture to look at.

The middle slider is used to adjust the overall brightness, or gamma level of the picture.

If your picture suffers from a colour cast, either due to poor lighting or a problem with white balancing, you can select the individual colour channel, red, green or blue and move the sliders to make adjustments to correct the colour.

Here are a couple more examples of how pictures can be improved by checking and tweaking the levels in a histogram.

Do remember that there may be some cases where it is not necessary to make the above adjustments such as pictures of a grey object, a misty atmosphere or soft colours of a fabric. It may be quite a subjective issue and you have to judge for yourself if it looks fine after the adjustments. Now that you know the basic steps in adjusting your picture levels, try practicing this on your existing pictures. In the next few months we will come across this feature to do some creative digital photo effects.

When photography was first invented, there was only black and white. To this day, black and white photography still captures the interests of many not just because of its nostalgic beginnings. Revisit the works of great photographers like Ansell Adams and you will instantly see why black and white images are still amazing and revered.

What we can discover and interpret from black and white pictures are shapes, forms, light and shadows. In a sense, colour does not become a distracting element and is not essential to the impact of the picture.

There are even times where a picture in black and white may look better than it does in colour. It takes a good eye and a bit of visualisation to see a scene in colour.

In analog photography, black and white films are different in terms of film grain, contrast levels, details of shadows and light. Processing black & white may also require some special treatment during the stage of processing the print to produce a good picture.

Processing a Digital B&W Picture

There are a number of ways to convert your picture into black and white. Although your digital camera may have a black and white setting, I would suggest you don’t use this method as the final outcome may not always be what you want and there is no turning back after the in-camera conversion.

Using software like Adobe Photoshop, you can convert your picture simply by using the “Grayscale” or “Desaturate” tool. It’s simple but this method offers little control over the final results of the picture. The method used here is “Channel Mixing”

Here is a tip before you begin: Create an “adjustment layer” rather than directly altering your picture. Changes using this method are not permanent and you can always go back to the layer and adjust the setting. You can access the adjustment layer by simply clicking on the black and white button at the bottom of the Layer box. You can see an example of this in the conversion described below.

Here is the original picture:

1) Select a new adjustment layer and select Channel Mixer. As you can see this splits your picture into the 3 colour channels, Red, Green and Blue. Sliding the tabs back and forth alters the mix of colours. But now, we will be working with black and white therefore on with the next step.

2) Click on the box below to choose monochrome. You can see that your picture has turned to Black & White. At this point, tweaking the colour sliders with change the shades of different elements in your picture (based on their original colours). You can try different combinations and select what works best for your picture.

3) Instead of using the brightness and contrast, use “Levels” which. To check the contrast of your picture using levels, simply open up a new adjustment layer, and choose layers.

Look at the two ends of the slider. If there are blank spaces on either end, push the slider to the point where the histogram begins to rise. This simply creates “pure” whites or blacks in your picture.

Most of the time, you will need to do this for your picture but as you become better at evaluating your picture, you may sometimes decide not to alter this simply because your picture look better as it is.

Digital Effects

After converting your picture to black and white, you can also add effects to your picture.

1) Adding film grain: You can achieve this by using the “Add Noise” option under the Filter menu. Remember to check the “monochromatic” box at the bottom to create black & white grain.

2) Toning your picture: To tone your picture, again use the adjustment layer and select colour balance this time. Try using a variety of monotone colours. You would be amazed with the effects you can create.

If you have been shooting digitally in colour for a while and feel that your images lack mood, try converting a few to black and white and see how it turns out. You may lease new life into them. I’ll leave you with a few more pictures of subjects that lend themselves well to black & white.

Okay, smile and say “Cheese”!

I won’t be surprised if you have heard this said so many times before in the past. But, do realise that most of the time just having “Cheese” won’t make a perfect portrait picture. All you would end up with is a picture of a person saying “cheese”, and it was really just the “cheese” that made the smile.

Let’s look at what else you should be working on to get a more impressive portrait. Work on this more and soon enough you would be doing it by heart.

The Expression

Let’s look at the face first. Our face is the most memorable part of our body. The most important focus of a portrait picture is the face of a person. For a majority of your shots, you probably would ask your subject to smile when you take their picture. Because a smile is so complex, it is sometimes very easy to tell if your subject is not smiling for real. That’s what I meant when I said “cheese” don’t work most of the time.

Now, you would need your subject to be relaxed. Tell them something funny. If you know your subject, it would even be easier to get them at ease. When it’s time to press that shutter button, crack a joke. That should get all the facial smile muscles working. Relaxing your subject also make them more inclined to have their pictures taken. Believe it or not, there are people who get more tensed when they are taking pictures.

Take note that not all your shots need to be of your subject smiling. Other expressions may break that monotony of smiles and add a little extra interest to your collection of pictures. Catch your subject in all sorts of funny expressions and yes, even an angry expression can be funny and interesting to behold.

The Pose

After the face, the pose and body positioning is the next most important element of a portrait shot. It would be quite straightforward if you take a straight frontal picture of your subject standing with his or her arms down the sides. This is the type of pose most people would naturally take.

Your subject may not be a model but it would make your picture more interesting if you could get your subject to pose in a relaxed manner. Try to use the elements around your subject to have the pose as natural as possible. Your subject could lean on the edge of a balcony or a high cupboard. Perhaps there is a nice chair that he or she can sit down on. Instead of putting their arms down the sides, have them hold onto a pillar or simply just laid across their chest.

I could go on and on about the many different types of poses there is but the best is really for you to be creative. To get some ideas, you could even flip through many fashion magazines and see how professional models do it.

The Scene

The scene or the background really depends on what you are shooting your subject for. If the purpose is to focus just on your subject, take the picture against an uncluttered background such as against the sky, a plain wall or in a wide open space. This leaves out distracting elements in your picture, and you end up with a nice clean shot of your subject.

If the purpose is to shoot your subject against a nice background, make sure that there is adequate lighting for your subject or the background to make a good picture. If your subject is standing in the shadow, use fill-in flash to light up the shadows. Set it manually if your camera doesn’t activate the flash automatically.

If you are taking a shot of your subject in a occupational background, get them to pose in their natural state, at work. This type of shot tells you a little something about the person and what he or she does for a living. Alternatively, this could be applied to scenes in a playground, at home, or on a holiday.

Composition

In our August 2004 issue, I talked about composition. With portraits, composition is even more important as you will be taking the picture of your subject close up. Even the “Rules of Thirds” can apply here. A general rule of thumb is to make sure the eyes of your subject is on the top two thirds of your photograph.

A horizontal format is usually used when you are shooting a picture of your subject against an interesting background. Try using the “Rules of Thirds” here also to place your subject in the picture.

A vertical (or Portrait format) is the most common type of composition used for a picture portrait. A very tight close-up of your subject’s face creates a very strong and impactful image. With this type of shot, make sure you focus your camera on the eyes.

A head and shoulder portrait still keeps the focus on your subject’s eyes but allow for a little more body expression and poses. Try experimenting with different angles when taking this type of shot such as turning your body 45 degrees but keeping your head faced forward.

A full length portrait reveals the entire facial and body expressions of a person. Try and get your subject relaxed so he or she may be free to pose in a manner they may be more comfortable with.

When you take a picture of your subject against nice background, a general tip is to make sure your subject fill up at least a 1/3 portion of your picture frame so he or she don’t look too small in the picture. Leave 2/3 of the picture for the background. In this case, the background could be a building or scenery. Of course this is not a steadfast rule and there is room to be creative with your compositions.

The Group Photo

When taking a picture of a group, firstly make sure that they fill up your picture. To do this, consider different heights for your subjects such as having some of them sit on chairs or squatted on the ground. If they all need to be standing, be aware of each person’s height and rearrange them according to their height, the centre being the tallest, to have a well balanced picture composition.

Wherever possible, try and create a links between your subjects such as putting arms on each other’s shoulders or hand on the back of the chair so that they look like they all belong in the picture together.

There is also a higher possibility that someone in the group may not be ready for the shot or accidentally closed their eyes for the shot. Therefore, always take more than one shot of a group.

Babies and Small Children

Some people may say that it is not easy to take pictures of babies and especially of small children, but the opposite is true. Children exude innocence in everything that they do, and the pictures usually reveal their true self rather than being a posed picture.

Babies who are too young to understand what you are doing with a camera are generally very easy to shoot. The best type of picture is of the babies smiling or laughing and you can do this by playing with him or her before you take the shot.

Pictures of toddlers and young children are best taken in their natural environment ie, a children’s park, in playschool with other children or in their own bedroom among their toys. This type of picture tells a story about the child and depicts their true age.

Don’t take pictures of a child for a long period of time as they their attention span is short and they tend to get bored easily. Make each photography session short and quick. After a while the child will get used to having their pictures taken and will naturally smile or pose for the camera.

If you are using a digital camera, show them the picture. This would usually excite the child to want to take more photos.

As it is the holiday season, I know most of you will be taking a lot of portrait shots of loved ones this season. Remember the tips that I have mentioned above and may you end up with a lot of cherished photos and of course wonderful memories. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Traveling is one word that excites many. The core reason of traveling on vacation is to enjoy and see unique sights away from home, and most of us can’t get enough of it even when we have to come back to our real life. And so, what do we do? We record our memorable trips on our cameras. Indeed travel photography is where we use our cameras the most.

Planning for your next holiday? Read on to see how you can bring back more memories and interesting shots within a travel album which you would be proud to show to all your friends.

Recording Images

When we are on a trip, our eyes record every interesting element, storing it in a special area of our brain. When you see something interesting, be aware of how it makes you feel and then remember to take a picture at the same point. It’s good to make a strong impression of the feeling as when you look back at the pictures from your trip, your mind will instantly bring up the same feeling. It’s is as if you are revisiting the place.

Don't Spare on Your Shots

One point I always tell friends is not to be stingy with taking shots while traveling. Remember, that you may be taking a once in a lifetime trip, so for goodness sake, take as many shots as you feel you need. If you can spend on souvenirs, surely a few extra roll of films or larger capacity memory cards would be worth buying.

With digital cameras nowadays, you can delete and retake shots right at the very same spot. If you are unsure whether to take or not, just take the shot.

Sometimes bad shots or candid ones make excellent pictures and are worth a laugh. Not every shot in your travel album need to be posed or perfect. Otherwise you may just end up with a boring set of “normal” pictures.

Use Your Still Camera Like a Video Camera

Yes, you may have a video camera handy when you are taking pictures of your family having fun. However, do realize that you would most probably be showing off your photographs more than your video camera after your trip. With this in mind, use your still camera like a video camera. Take a sequence of pictures of the activities. Switch on the “multi-shot” function on your camera if you have one. Then when you put these pictures into your album, place them side by side to show “movements” rather than just a still shot.

Tell A Story

It is widely known that Japanese tourists take their cameras with them almost everywhere they go and they can’t help but take pictures of almost everything. Perhaps they may have the right idea.

Make your trip into a story. Start every point of your journey with a title. This means when you arrive at a tourist destination, find the name of the location on any signboard and take a picture of it. This will be the first picture in the picture collection. Then, as you proceed with your visit, take pictures along the way at “checkpoints” (ie entrances, ticket counters, refreshment counter, getting onto a tourist tram).

Your tour pictures will almost be like a comic strip storyboard and making it even more interesting and meaningful for friend and family flipping through your album.

Shooting Reality

Don’t just take shots of tourists’ spots. In between these, look around you and discover “real-life”. Tourists’ spots would most probably have been “made-up” for tourists but more interesting shots can be had if you look around you. Take pictures of the locals and what they are doing. It is interesting to see and think about how different the foreign culture is to your own as well as the lifestyle of the people.

Vary Your Shots

Mix your shots. In addition to taking scenery shots, take shots from up-close when there is an interesting design or object. This allows you not just to have pictures from a distance but also near to highlight the details of the design or object.

Some Do's & Don'ts for your Trip

1) Don’t rush when you pack your equipments (you might forget something)

2) Bring along your battery charger and camera tripod

3) If possible pack a backup camera (better safe than sorry)

4) Never leave your camera unattended

5) Be wary of passing your camera to a stranger to take a photograph

6) Keep your camera dry in a weatherproof bag

So, enjoy your next trip and make sure your memories and pictures will be things that you will cherish and be proud of!

Some of you may have had the childhood fascination of looking through a magnifying glass and discovering this strange world of the small and tiny. We are so used to seeing things in our normal field of vision that we pass by things which we take for granted. Well, ever thought about “stopping and smelling the flowers”? While you are at it, take some really cool macro or close-up shots?

Compact digital cameras benefit from the fact that they have really close focusing range. On some cameras you can focus down to 1cm from the subject. That’s why almost all new cameras come with a “macro” mode.

WHAT MAKES IT SO INTERESTING?

Firstly, it is actually interesting to look at something at a different angle and close-up. It shows a world that is unknown to us in revealing minute patterns, shapes, colours, textures and structures.

Secondly, by going close-up, you are actually eliminating distractions by other objects and creating an image purely of the subject. This creates a powerful expression and a bold, beautiful image of the object.

If you get your picture printed (maybe even up to 8R or 10R sizes) your viewer would be able to enjoy looking at the subject of your picture from a comfortable distance rather than peering through a magnifying glass.

When I am not away on a photographic expedition, I get to do small close-up photography projects right at home with the things available around me. This adds variety to the types of shots I take.

TIPS FOR SOME COOL CLOSE-UPS

Get Down On Your Knees.

Yes, getting down on your knees is a good way to start. Sometimes great close-up opportunities are just right next to your feet. Some examples to begin with are seashells on a beach, blades of grass, wildflowers, an insect perched on a plant, colourful pebbles, water droplets and the list goes on.

Spare a little time from looking at the entire scenery to look at the small things which form parts of the whole surrounding. Having these types of shots gives a set of pictures more variety.

Look for Unique Shapes and Colours

Mother Nature has a knack for creating some really interesting shapes out of plants, insects and natural formations. Look out for what catches your eye. If need be, carry a magnifying glass with you on your hunt.

Consider the colour contrast between your subject and the background. A strong contrast between your subject and a clean background makes your subject stand out more.

Get Creative with Stuffs around You

Look around you right at this moment. Everything around you can be shot close-up. You are only limited by how creative you can be. Try close-up of a piece of fabric, corners of a stamp, textures on a wood surface, weaving on a basket, a digital circuit board and lots more endless possibilities.

Take Your Time

Don’t rush in taking a close-up shot. Sometimes, you may just miss the obvious and the opportunity to get a good shot. For example, you need to take your time when taking shots of insects as sudden movements will scare your subject. A good tip is to watch that your shadow do not surprise the insect.

Don’t use your flash

For extreme close-ups a camera’s built-in flash is virtually useless. The very short distance between the camera and subject means that your subject is most likely to be overexposed by the flash.

Professional SLR cameras have special macro lighting used to illuminate close-up subjects. Make sure you have enough lighting or you may have to give a little more distance between your camera and the subject to get a good exposure.

Use a Tripod

Getting close-up means high magnification which also means any movement or camera shake is magnified. If you do not have adequate lighting to prevent this try setting your camera on a higher ISO setting or use a tripod.

Remember to Compose!

Even though you are shooting close-up sometimes with virtually minimal background, you need to remember to compose your shots properly. Most of the time, you would have your subject placed right in the middle of the frame. But, take into consideration the shapes and lines on your subject and how it would look in various compositions (Check out our August 2004 issue on Composition Rules). Even the Rules of Thirds can apply effectively here.

HERE’S SOMETHING YOU CAN TRY AT HOME

If you have a subject such as a flower and you are not sure what type of background you can take its picture with, try making your own background.

1) Simply print out an A4 sized picture of a suitable scenery.

2) Place it upright on a table.

3) Position your subject so that it is in front of the “background” picture.

4) Make sure you have adequate lighting for this.

5) Set your camera on “macro” and compose your picture with the A4 picture covering the background.

6) And shoot.

The shallow Depth of Field (DOF) would sufficiently blur the background enough to create a soft background against the sharp close-up shot of your subject.

Great photographers make great pictures simply because they have perfected the art of looking at things in a unique way and are able to convey it so effectively that we see it the same way they do. Don’t just look at the big and obvious, find uniqueness in the small and intricate. It helps to take a little break from the hubbub of daily life and look at the little things that make up the big picture. Have fun and happy shooting!

This time we look at one of the most useful feature you have on your camera, the flash. Surprisingly we almost always take this feature for granted, thinking that all there is to it is to switch it on and off whenever we need it or don’t. Well, this month, I’ll share some tips with you on how you can effectively use your flash.

Most of us would have the standard flash unit built-in on our (digital) camera. Of course if you have moved on to a prosumer (digital) SLR camera, then you may already know about the different ways of using an external flash. This set-up gives you the versatility of using bounce flash and a more powerful flash output. But this month we’ll focus on the compact digicam.

Understanding Your Camera’s Built-in Flash

We are most familiar with the usage of flash at times when there is not enough light to take a good picture. Set on Auto, your camera would compensate by adjusting shutter speed and aperture to light up and give you the best exposure for your subject. It is also the most portable lighting equipment that you will ever have.

On a standard camera, your flash unit has 4 settings, namely “On”, “Off”, “Auto” and “No Red-Eye”. “On” and “Off” is quite obvious, allowing you manual control in switching the flash on and off. “Auto” setting lets your camera choose to activate the flash depending on lighting conditions. The “No Red-Eye” setting prevents red-eye effect on your subject caused by the flash illuminating the blood vessels at the back of the eye and bouncing it back to the lens. Almost all cameras do this by activating an initial flash which shrinks your subject’s pupils before taking the actual shot.

Let There be Light

Okay, on with the tips. Here are a list of things you would use your flash for apart from just illuminating the scene.

1) Light up shadows

One of the most useful times to use flash is when natural light is at its brightest. This is when harsh shadows are created on your subject. Because of the amount of light, your camera would not automatically switch on your flash; therefore you would have to do it manually. The resulting flash will light up the shadow areas on your subject giving you a more balanced shot.

2) Put a sparkle in her eyes

Sometimes even when natural light is enough, consider using the flash to give a sparkle in your subject’s eyes. This also lights up your subject’s face resulting in a livelier look.

3) Flash in a night scene

When you are taking a picture of your subject against a night scene with the normal flash setting, you would probably end up with your subject brightly exposed by your flash and little else of the background. Most new digicam have “Night-Scene/Mode” setting on them. This means the camera uses flash along with a slow shutter speed. Use this to illuminate your subject and at the same time enough lighting from the scene will be captured by your camera.

4) Freeze the moment

Using your flash is also a great way to freeze motion. What happens when you are faced with low lighting condition and you have a moving object to capture? Use your flash for a burst of light to freeze your subject. Your shot is then less likely to result in blurring. You could even try using “Night-Scene/Mode” and panning (using your camera’s viewfinder to track your subject) to create nice effect. This allows you to capture your subject sharp against a motion-blurred background.

5) Improve contrast and saturating colours

Low ambient lighting results in poorly lit low contrast images. Use your flash to improve the contrast level of the object you are shooting. This also brightens and increases the colour saturation of your picture. You will have to trigger your flash manually to do this.

When Not to Use Your Flash

Okay, in getting to know when to use your flash, you should also know when not to use it.

1) When your subject is out of range

Most built-in flash have an effective range of approximately up to 10ft or 3m. If your subject is standing beyond this range, either move closer to your subject or switch off your flash and use a slower shutter speed setting. On your digicam you can also use a higher ISO setting to capture your subject at a higher shutter speed.

2) When you are taking a pleasant and usually warm ambience.

If you want to effectively take the pleasant nature of a scene that is lit by warm lighting such as candle light, don’t use flash if it is possible. However, make sure you have enough ambient lighting to prevent underexposure or blurring due to movements. A tripod is best used here.

3) When you are shooting a reflective surface

Shooting with the flash on and directly in front of a reflective object is a sure way of ruining your picture. This includes shooting through a window or between metal bars or fencing. The reflection from your flash will bounce off the shiny surface and right back to the lens resulting in a blurred highlight. If you have no other choice, try shooting from an angle to avoid reflections.

4) No flash photography allowed

Some places like museums, art gallery, or specialty zoos do not allow flash photography. Here using a slower shutter speed coupled with a tripod or simply switch your camera to a higher ISO setting.

Personally, I almost always keep my flash on. The added highlight created by the flash on my subject is a good ingredient in creating a brighter and livelier shot. Practice on having a good eye on observing lighting conditions around you. Eventually you will be able to predict how your flash will work in different conditions without having to do a double-take. So, go ahead, flash it!