Portraiture

Well, I have spent Easter break taking some shots of my best friends son, Cooper. I wanted to experiment with exposure (yet again since it seems to be my nemesis) and ISO settings. I am beginning to understand the importance of Aperture, Speed and ISO in manual photography, especially in low level light, indoors and you do not want to use a flash.

I hate the flash on the camera; it's harsh and not flattering. The type of portraiture work I like doing is candid shots, where the subject goes about doing what they want to do and I am there taking shots of them. It is better if they are unaware that I am there at all. The flash I have can ruin this aesthetic.

Instead I opted to play around with the ISO settings. I bumped the ISO up to 800. This means that the sensor in my camera is more sensitive to light; therefore it takes less light to expose the image onto the sensor. I also adjusted for a wide aperture - f3.5 - f4. This means that the aperture is open as wide as possible so more light can fall onto the sensor when the shutter is open.

Because I was shooting Cooper indoors in very low light, the camera (under normal circumstances) would want me to set it at a slow shutter speed. This is because it needs more time to expose the images. Because I didn’t want to use a tripod and I needed to twist and turn myself into positions to get the right shot, I bumped up the ISO to 800 and widened the aperture in a hope that the camera would allow me to use faster speeds and expose the image correctly.

I was fortunate that by upping the ISO and opening the aperture, the camera allowed me to have a faster shutter speed, therefore I could hold it and take an image without it blurring from my hand movements. It also exposed the images correctly - or near enough: D

I got some great close up candid shots of mummy and baby breastfeeding and playing. Though just by looking at the pic, what separates mine from a professional shot....one word! Photoshop

I had a bit of a play around with some of the close up pics of Cooper. I used a tip I found in a Photography mag to create these shots - I will try to explain the best way I can, since I don’t have the mag with me.

I went into the Image menu - adjust - Channels and kept the RGB Red at 100%, Blue 0% and Green at 0% and ticked the boxes for monochrome. This changes the picture to a warm black and white.

I right clicked on the layer and selected the copy background option. This makes a new layer.

Make sure the new layer is selected and then use the pen tool, wand or selection tool to select an area. For my images I selected the background area and left the face of Cooper un selected.

On the layers palette select masks option - it’s a button at the bottom of the layer window.

In the filters menu choose Blur - Gaussian blur and set it at around 15px. This had in my image blurred the background that I selected. It gives a soft, blur feel.

I then choose the image menu - Adjust-curves and I mess around with the highlights and mid tones to add a glow type of effect to the images.

A study of exposure - expose for the sky

Pictures I took at the AP meet last Sunday. I only took around 50 pics - which is strange for me as I usually take around 200 per shoot. What I did take, I didn't like - so in an effort to post something up to the AP forum, I cropped some pics, experimented with PS and the above pics are the results.

My biggest problem on the day was the over exposures of the sky - just couldn't get it right.

Panorama

I received some advise about cropping one of the landscape shots I took from the car around Liffey way. The main reason to crop was getting rid of the blown highlight of the sun and clouds in the top right of the image. The aim is to create a panoramic scene.

I have to say I don't mind the result.

Shutter Speed

My family and I spent half of Sunday at Liffey Falls. I though this was a great opportunity to experiment with shutter speed. So here I was taking the bush hike down and up, passing by tourists with my camera and tripod.

I managed to take a few posed pictures and thought at the time I had got some great shots. After processing them, I'm not too sure I like them. Again a bad case of over exposed areas :(

The below pics is the first attempt at seriously processing the images from Liffey through PhotoShop CS. I mainly fiddled around with saturation and levels. I also stepped my way through a tutorial on adding black boarders - which I think would make any pic look great.

I am still no closer to my goal of creating the perfect focused and exposed picture...

Adding a watermark

Over the last couple of days, whilst researching the photography forum, I have observed the other members watermarking and discussing the issues around copyright. This led me to do my own self learning on how I can add a watermark to my own images - not only to copyright them to myself but also to learn more about what PhotoShop can do.

The below image is my first attempt at watermarking.

I personally like to see cc images out there for others to use as long as they acknowledge. I think I might like to do the same to most of my images and spare the copyright for those money shot images and images of my family. Not that I think I will make any money of my art...in a million years!

The tutorial I found very helpful was the pssimply tutorial. Just a quick Web search using Google, first page.

I had an epiphany whiles shopping with my daughter - I was thinking about why I am always over exposing. My main concerns were with aperture and shutter speed and I did not rate ISO as a terribly important factor, maybe that's being harsh. I did know that it was relevant I just didn't realise how much. I think most of these shots that I have taken were on a 400ISO setting, when it should of been on 100, 200 at max (Outside, harsh light shots).

I joined up to a Photography forum, where over the last few days I have been spending my time, getting familiar with the navigation of the site and posting comments and images. Today I even posted to a competition - looking at the other entrants, I'm not holding my breath. Anyway this forum also has learning material and activities to do, so I have been reading up. The biggest lesson this week is the ISO and what it means.

Each digital camera has a light sensor and this acts in a similar way to the age old film. I often wondered why film had this ISO terminology - I just new that it stood for International standards and that it ranged from 100 to 400. In high, harsh light use 100ISO film, in cloudy and dark areas use 400ISO film.

What I have linked today is that that film had grades of sensitivity. 100ISO film was less sensitive to light than 400ISO film. This is also true with the digital sensor in a DSLR camera. The 100ISO setting will set the cameras sensor as less sensitive to light, therefore use in well lit, sunny day environment (outdoors). The 400ISO setting will set the cameras sensor at a higher sensitivity, therefore best used when light is at a minimum, e.g cloudy overcast days or inside a darkish house.

In fact as I reflect and write, the ISO setting should be the first thing you consider when taking a shoot or picture. Evaluate the light in the environment - not only the light source itself and direction but also the saturation of light.

So if I was to write a 10 point checklist of what to do when taking an image - evaluating the light and light source and selecting the appropriate ISO setting would be in the top three in the list, maybe even number 1.

For me if I want to take a quick shot of my daughter especially in a setting where I will not get time to think or prep the best setting for me to use would be a scene mode - because everything is set for me.

I would like to thank the members of Ausphotography for the information and learning modules and for the feedback and advise.

Photo Gallery so far...

The images below are what I consider my best shots with the Olympus E410 14-24mm taken so far from Dec 08 to Mar 09. These images are not taken with correct technique and as I grow and develop I will probably look back on them thinking "Newbie shots"

I use a camera with a standard small portrait type lens, so the landscape shots I shouldn't be attempting - but with such lovely dawns, I couldn't resist. I even had a play with Raw mode!

Please take into consideration my lack of experience and expertise, don't be too rough on me, however I would love some constructive critique.

My fave is the shot with my daughter on the concrete steps of Royal Park with the wind in her hair. The diagonal composition gives a dramatic feel, especially the juxtaposition of the harsh, grey concrete colour against the soft blue sky - Mia's hair in the wind adds to the over all atmosphere of wind - again may not be a good technique but I love the composition.

Olympus E410

It looks like the choice of the Olympus was not a bad choice indeed. I was told by another Photography expert, all be it at sales rep, that the Olympus is just starting its journey into the SLR trade and that they are taking a different path than the traditional SLR brands of Nikon, Canon and Pentax. The latter brands are the forerunners in SLR technology however they tout the same features - that is more mega pixels, lens options etc. However the Olympus decided not to compete with these features and though of new innovative ways that they could fill niech markets in the SLR field.

Olympus build their cameras as light compact units which are directly aimed at the beginner demographic and those snap shot enthusiasts whom what a better performing camera that the point and shoot cameras. I purchased my kit for around $600.00AUD (of course that was in OCT 2008, sat wrapped up until Xmas and now they are cheaper and the newer unit E520 is available. So by no means did I get a bargain that the sales rep touted, but I did manage to but into a brand which which is innovative and heading down a new SLR road. I am happy to stick with this camera for a few years - though ask me after a few years time and I will probably know enough about the art of Photography to want a better unit.

Until then I am extremely happy with the Olympus E410. It is a great SLR to learn from and I am far from done with it yet. So what are the features of this little beauty?

As the company touts it is a compact unit with all the basic features of a digital SLR camera. That is to say, on the outside it has:

A detachable and interchangeable lens capability
Auto, manual and raw shooting options
10 mega pixel
Extensive menu options and easy to use navigation buttons
A large LCD screen with the option of live view (although I don't use it to take pics - I use it to get a feel on the light and exposure at a glance)
Easy shooting and advanced shooting modes
Manual and auto focus settings
Exposure compensation settings
White balance customisation
Metering mode
Saturation
Preview function
Flash modes - slow sync
Sequential shooting
Recording mode
Noise filter

Olympus - E410

Christmas 08, I actually spent some money on myself for once and brought a digital SLR camera. It was an impulse buy really but I knew that I wanted an SLR I just didn't know which one, and to be quite frank I didn't know that I had to be concerned with finding the right brand camera.

I purchased my Olympus E410 at Harvey Norman - they were having a sale and the sales rep showed me two brands:

A canon with 12 mega pixels and two lenses
An Olympus with one basic lens and only 10 meg pixels

Don't ask me why I cam away with the Olympus E410 - lest just say the advise given to be is that it had a better quality lens - and after all the lest is what takes the photo.

So since Xmas I have been playing around with my camera trying to figure out how it works. What I have had a ply with is using a low aperture setting - between 3.5 - 5f and taking pictures close up in a natural portrait technique. This gives me clear crisp focus on a close up object - usually my daughter and a soft blurred background. I am concentrating on this technique at the moment because I am learning the sensitivity of exposure -over and under, I am learning how to use the camera and its settings and im practicing composition and building up an image.

Because I am a trained artist, though not practicing , I have been using the manual setting - because I want to get to know aperture and speed (I haven't even looked at white balance yet). Two weeks ago I spoke to a camera expert at Stallard's (I want to buy a new lens) and he said that the other setting on the camera e.g A, P and the programed options would be much better for me to play with. I guess he advises that for the best possible technique to get a good photo - however I want those abstracted types of shots, plus I just want to know all there is to know about the theory of photography.

Anyway I played around with the Speed program and set portraiture options and he was right, I didn't have to think much to get a perfectly exposed and focused shot - but where is the fun in that! Good for when your at a wild life park and wanting some happy snaps of your family because quite frankly you just don't have the time to think about the shot and set it up. However I want to get arty farty so as much as the programed areas are good - I want to get to know my camera as an art medium.