camera controls and photoshop
TRANSCRIPT
CAMERA CONTROLS & PHOTOSHOP©ALEXANDRA COPLEY
TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT YOUR
CAMERA CONTROLS
Are you familiar with all of the buttons and what they can do for you?
VIEWFINDER MENU
FOCUS MODES
SELF TIMER
CAMERA MENUS
CAMERA MENUS
WHAT MAKES A DIGITAL PHOTO?
PIXEL ミ Picture Element: digital photographs are comprised of thousands or millions of
them; they are the building blocks of a digital photo.
CHOOSE JPEG or RAW
uncompressed (an 8 megapixel camera will produce a 8 MB Raw file)
the complete (lossless) data from the camera’s sensor
higher in dynamic range (ability to display highlights and shadows) lower in contrast (flatter, washed out looking)
not as sharp
not suitable for printing directly from the camera or without post processing
waiting to be processed by your computer
RAW
JPEGcompressed fairly small in file size (an 8 megapixel camera will produce JPEG between 1 and 3 MB’s in size)
lower in dynamic range
higher in contrast and sharper
immediately suitable for printing, sharing, or posting on the web
processed by your camera
PROS AND CONSRAW files are bigger and take more space on your memory card
RAW files need post production
RAW files are better quality
RAW files give you much more control over how the image will look
Better for professional photographers
JPEG files are smaller in size and take less space to store
JPEG files do not need any post production
JPEG files loose richness, detail (sharpness), color range
JPEG files give you less ability to control the final image
Better for snapshots
Take one photo in raw and one in jpeg. Can you see the difference?
FIND YOUR EV
EV-EXPOSURE COMPENSATION
CHARACTERISTICS OF EV
EV means exposure value
The range over which you can manually
over or underexpose to lighten or darken the image
Usually, the range of adjustment
goes from +2 to -2 EV in 1/3 steps
OVER & UNDER EXPOSURE
AEB- AUTOMATIC EXPOSURE
BRACKETING
CHARACTERISTICS OF AEB
The camera automatically takes three or more
shots with a different exposure for each frame
One image at the camera measured exposure, a second at a negative exposure compensation (usually -1/3 EV, though some
cameras allow you to specify the amount), and a third at a positive exposure compensation (usually +1/3 EV, though some cameras allow you to specify the amount)
Useful option for taking HDR scenes
Find the AEB on your camera
VIEWING MENU
IMAGE METADATA
HISTOGRAMS
HISTOGRAMSimple graph that displays where all of
the brightness levels contained in
the scene are found, from the darkest to the brightest
Displays a photographs dynamic range
In camera light meter
READING THE HISTOGRAM
HIGH KEY EXPOSURE
LOW KEY EXPOSURE
WHAT MAKES A GREAT PHOTOGRAPH?
MAKE GREAT PHOTOGRAPHS
THOUGHTFUL TIMING
COMPOSITION (RULE OF THIRDS)
PERSPECTIVE
PHOTOGRAPHS CREATE MEANING
SNAPSHOP VS. PHOTOGRAPH
*WHAT DO ALL OF THESE IMAGES HAVE IN COMMON?
RULE OF THIRDS
RULE OF THIRDSRefers to the placement of the subject
within the frame of your photograph
Places the main subject off center and away from the center of the frame. As a result,
photos can look more dynamic and interesting
Place points of interest in the intersections or along the lines
PLACE OBJECTS AT INTERSECTIONS
RULE OF THIRDS
PERSPECTIVE
Perspective is the way that an object appears to the eye
Dependent on focal length and picture angle
Creative way of looking at your photographic subject
Example ALEXANDER RODCHENKO, BILL BRANDT, HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON
PERSPECTIVE
Boring flowers become an amazing photo
PERSPECTIVE
ALEXANDRE RODCHENKO
HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON
BILL BRANDT
IMPROVE YOUR SKILLS
Practice photography on a regular basis
Avoid common photographic mistakes like over exposure, under exposure, or blur
Look at photographs of others to inspire
Read your manual and learn about your camera functions
Learn better compositional techniques
Don’t be afraid to experiment
PERSPECTIVE EXERCISE
Find an object/subject
Shoot 15 different ways (using rules of perspective and composition)
Get creative with angles
30 minutes
ADOBE CAMERA RAWused primarily to read and process raw image files
resulting images can be processed by Photoshop
considered a plug-in but comes with the program Photoshop
opens automatically when adjusting a .raw file
reads your camera default settings (or custom)
allows control over white balance, histogram, crop, sharpness, contrast, saturation and more
ADODE CAMERA RAW INTERFACE
WHITE BALANCE
3 ways to adjust white balance
White balance eye dropper, settings, or temperature and tint
allows control over final color balance
EXPOSURE
controls brightness of an image
moves in F-stop values (f/22-f/1.8)
latitude based on quality of camera and lens used
Using the alt button you can find ‘clipped’ pixels of pure white if over exposing (means losing detail in highlights)
SHADOWS
Much like using the black eye dropper in levels in Photoshop
Allows control over dark details in image
Holding down the alt button allows you to see if you have ‘clipped’ any shadow detail in the image
BRIGHTNESS
overall lightness adjustment
gamma adjustment
maintains all of the image details (shadows and highlights)
No clipping
Histogram not really affected
CONTRAST
is created by the difference in luminance
measures difference between the colors (how stark or not)
think of a black silhouette on a bright white sky (high contrast)
SATURATIONchanges intensity of a photographs colors
high saturation will result in special effects and brighter colors
low saturations will result in a black and white effect
increasing too high will result in color shifts when printing
SHARPNESS & SMOOTHNESS
best to zoom to 100% view of image
used to enhance "sharpen", the detail of an image
sharpening isn't about making a blurred image sharp; it's about getting the optimum sharpness from a photo that was shot sharp
Smoothing also known as antialiasing, is the electronic process of eliminating or reducing noise in an image
or averaging pixels with their neighbors to reduces contrast and simulate an out-of-focus image
RGB HISTOGRAM
R-red channel
G-green channel
B-blue channel
measures color's intensity distributed throughout the image
an RGB histogram produces three independent histograms and then adds them together, irrespective of whether or not each color came from the same pixel
RGB histograms can show if an individual color channel clips
HISTOGRAMhistogram is a graph counting how many pixels are at each level between black and white
black is on the left
white is on the right
the height of the graph at each point depends on how many pixels are that bright
lighter images move the graph to the right
darker ones move it to the left
can be used as in camera light meter for exposure
CLIPPINGa little bit of clipping is OK on things like the
highlights of sun dancing on water (specular highlights)
overexposed digital images are almost useless.
Anything that washes out to white is gone forever
images that are too dark are easy to correct later; just drag the right slider in Photoshop's
Levels command to the left to meet the edge of the histogram
In this histogram you'll see a peak on the left at 100% black, even when overexposed. This is the dark shadow on the left of the photo. This shows that the camera's contrast needs to be lowered, or better still, add fill light in the shadows.
Overexposed histogram means loss of detail in the highlights
IN CAMERA HISTOGRAMS
COLOR/RGB HISTOGRAM
PHOTOSHOPtaking your photograph to new creative heights
useful tips that will improve your Photoshop
skills such as editing, enhancing, practice, tutorials, subscribing to galleries and forums and reading magazines
INTERFACE AND TOOLS
1. START WITH FUNDAMENTALS
http://www.tutorial9.net/photoshop/photoshops-basic-tools/
The Crop Tool allows users to redefine their active image area but not resize the ENTIRE image. It’s sort of like cutting out a smaller picture from a larger photo with a pair of scissors.
There are several healing tools in Photoshop which
are used to repair imperfections in images, or handle blemishes and red-eye
With the Clone Stamp Tool, a user may select a source starting point somewhere on an image, and then paint elsewhere using that starting point as a reference, effectively
cloning the source.
The Eraser Tool can
be used to erase parts of an image, selection, or layer
The Sharpen Tool is used to sharpen edges in an image, while the Blur Tool burs edges. The Smudge Tool smudges an image, similar to using fingerpaint.
The Dodge Tool lightens parts of an image while the Burn Tool darkens. The Sponge Tool is used to saturate, or desaturate parts of an image.
WORKING IN PHOTOSHOP LAYERS
CREATING INTERESTING EFFECTS
PHOTOSHOP TEXTURES & VECTORS
http://zentextures.com/
http://www.smashapps.org/2009/07/42-free-photoshop-textures.html
http://www.vectorportal.com/
PHOTOSHOP PLUG-INS
Photoshop functionality can be extended by
add-on programs
most common type are filter plug-ins that provide various image effects
many free plug-ins online
http://coffeeteaphotography.blogspot.com
http://tutorialblog.org/free-photoshop-plugins/
2. EXPERIMENT
The best way to learn anything new is to
experience it for yourself
3. PHOTOSHOP TUTORIALS
http://psd.tutsplus.com
subscribe to a few that you like the most so you don't miss out on new posts (you may also want to bookmark other tutorial sites in case you want to find them in the future)