4 Tips For Sharper Images

posted by Anna Gay 

Have you ever finished a shoot thinking that your images are perfectly sharp on your LCD screen, only to find that, once they are on your monitor, they aren’t quite as sharp as you thought they were? Here are a few tips to help you achieve sharper images.

1. Your Lens

We often read that opening your lens as wide as it will go is a best practice because it lets the maximum amount of light into the camera, and creates a blurred background. However, this is not always the case, and you might want to try avoiding opening your lens as far as it will go. If your lens will open to f/1.4, try stopping it down to f/2.8. If you have your lens wide open, you run the risk of having only part of your subject in focus (for example, their eyes will be in sharp focus, but the rest of their face will be slightly blurry) or, if you are shooting more than one person, the person your camera focuses on will be sharp, while the other person (or the rest of the group) will not be sharp. Adjusting the aperture just a couple of stops will still let enough light into the camera and create a blurred background, but more of your subject will be sharp.

2. Your Camera

If your camera moves too much while you are shooting, you will slightly blur your subject. This is often referred to as camera shake. If you are shooting without a tripod, make sure to gently press the shutter. Even if you have steady hands, if you press the shutter too vigorously, you can create a slight camera shake that will cause a blur that is not visible until the images are viewed or printed large. If you have unsteady hands like I do, you may want to try using a tripod. If I am excited, happy or nervous, my hands ALWAYS shake, no matter what! So, I use a tripod as much as I possibly can. Using a tripod may seem impractical at first, but the more you use it, the more comfortable it becomes. Personally, I prefer to take that extra step to make sure my subject isn’t blurry!

3. Your Subject

Depending on your subject, you will need to adjust your shutter speed accordingly. If you have a fast-moving subject, you’ll need a fast shutter speed. However, if you are shooting portraits, or your subject has very little movement, you can get away with a slower shutter speed.
Also related to shutter speed is the focal length of your lens. There is a (very) general rule of thumb that associates focal length with your minimum shutter speed to avoid camera shake. The equation: minimum shutter speed = 1/Focal Length (in millimeters). So, if you have an 80mm lens, your minimum shutter speed would be 1/80th of a second. Or, if you have a 50mm lens, the minimum would be 1/50th of a second. This is just a general rule of thumb, and the minimum shutter speed you can achieve also depends greatly on the steadiness of your hand. Like I said earlier, I have unsteady hands when I get excited (and I always get excited when I’m shooting!) so I usually take my focal length and multiply it by 4, and that is my minimum shutter speeds. So, if I am shooting with a 50mm lens, 50 X 4 = 200, so 1/200th is my minimum shutter speed to avoid camera shake.

4. Shooting in RAW

If you are shooting in RAW, once you import your images to Lightroom or Camera Raw, your image will appear less sharp than it did on your LCD screen. At this point, if you are using Lightroom, you will need to tweak the Sharpness and/or Clarity in your post-processing. Don’t overdo it, though! A little bit of sharpening goes a long way!

Source : http://www.lightroompresets.com/blogs/pretty-presets-blog/8297647-4-tips-for-sharper-images

JUNE + HUNG

6 Tips for Night Photography

All too often we put our cameras away when the sunsets. I know I am guilty of this because I use natural light in 99% of my photos. However, I encourage you to take some time this week to practice night photography.

There are so many different type of photos you can capture at night time.
1. Slow shutter speed. Play with lights to paint images or use the tail lights of cars to show movement.

ISO 100, f/22, SS 6 seconds

ISO 800, f/32, SS 20 seconds

2. Use different light to illuminate your subject. It’s really fun to use different types of light in your images during night photography. When shooting at night you have the option to use all sorts of lights to add a dramatic look. You can use electronics, light from another room, or even light from the refrigerator.

ISO 3200, f/2.8, SS 1/100

ISO 6400, f/3.2, SS 1/100

ISO 1600, f/3.5, SS 1/80

3. Use a tripod and keep your ISO low. When you are not shooting a moving subject get your tripod out. This will allow you to keep your ISO as low as possible and decrease your chances of noise. I have a fantastic travel tripod that is light weight and has a ball head. If you don’t have a tripod available, rest your camera on something sturdy. If you are using the side of the bridge like I have before make sure the strap is around your neck incase you drop your camera. :O) However, if you are photographing people or moving objects please bump up your ISO so your photo is properly exposed.

Tokyo Disney does not allow tripods, used a bush and a back pack. ISO 250, f/32, SS 25 sec.

4. Capture the activity that goes on at night. If you are out you can still capture the activity of a festival or the quiet of a street.

ISo 800, f/3.2, SS 1/100

ISO 100, f/4, SS 0.6 seconds

5. Use your imagination. Have you thought of an emotional picture that would only enhance the image if taken at night with dramatic lighting??

ISO 6400, f/2.8, SS 1/160

6. Change your metering mode to evaluative (Canon) or matrix (Nikon). Since you probably shoot on spot metering 99% of the time you want to change your night time shots to this setting. Unlike spot metering, this mode takes all the light and dark into consideration when figuring out your exposure.

ISO 200, f/4.5, SS 4 seconds

I challenge you to keep your camera out after the sunset this week. What will you capture? Will you step outside your comfort zone??
source:http://clickitupanotch.com/2011/09/6-tips-for-night-photography/#_a5y_p=1156140

Backlit Photography 101: Secrets of Expressive Backlit Portraits

By Guest Blogger

May 8, 2013 9 Comments

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Do you want to avoid an overworked edit in order to obtain golden portraits with sunrays and lens flares? Shooting against the sun is challenging, however three factors and a bit of practice can easily transform your backlit photography.

Photo by Tamas Somoskeoy

One of the leading rules in elementary photography is to avoid shooting against the sun. Usually you will end up with either completely over exposed photographs, or a dark and indefinite shadow.
However, if you can control the natural backlighting, it will give you excellent and dramatic results. Here are just a few examples of captivating summer portraits with powerful lightning.

1/200, f/3.5, 70 mm

1/320, f/5.6, exposure + 1.3, 52 mm

1/80, f/5.6, exposure + 1.3, 68 mm

1/250, f/2.8, 70 mm

The lighting gives the photograph an artistic quality, which makes it stand out from portraiture with flat lightning. The only lightning used is natural light from the sun – no advanced equipment, studio lightning or flash have been used.
Your model will not have to squint, and the skin turns out beautifully without any unflattering shadows on the face. Here are three factors that will determine your final outcome:

1. POSITION OF THE SUN

It is essential to choose where in your frame you want to place the sun – only thereafter it is possible to get the exposure right.
Basically,there are three options: The sun behind the model, outside the frame or in the actual shot. The last option is the most difficult, since it gets considerably harder to compose the shot.
A good alternative is to place the sun just outside the frame or partly behind the model:

1/640, f/2.8, exposure + 1, 70 mm

1/100, f/4.5, 48 mm

It is a good idea to keep the majority of the sun blocked and avoid too much light. In order to create the desired golden outline, you do not necessarily have to wait for the golden hour, namely the first or last hour of sunlight during the day.
An afternoon sun which is still fairly high in the sky can also work out:

1/250, f/4, 54 mm

It is advantageous to have your lens in the shade. A lens hood is useful while shooting with backlighting.
Another option is to use your left hand to create a small spot of shade for the camera. This is honestly quite challenging, so a natural shade or a helping hand is preferable. When you have composed your shot and found the right angle, exposure is the next step.

2. CAMERA SETTINGS

First, aperture. All the presented photographs are shot with a wide aperture in order to achieve the characteristic lens flare. Likewise, it gives a shallow depth of field. The aperture varies from f/2.8 to maximum f/5.6.
When shooting with a strong backlight you definitely want to use the manual settings. The picture has to be significantly overexposed, otherwise the model will turn out completely dark and the background/sky correctly lit.
Therefore, select your wide aperture and experiment with the shutter speed. Try to take a few shots with auto settings just to get a sense of where to start experimenting. Mostly it varies from 1/100 to 1/640 seconds.
Another way of finding the right shutter speed is to measure the light with the spot metering. Here the camera will only measure a small area of the photograph – point at your subject and avoid underexposure.
Second, the camera’s focus. One of the hardest parts of shooting the perfect backlit portrait is control the focus. Cameras are definitely not very fond of shooting against the sun – frequently the autofocus does not work at all.
You might look in the viewfinder just to realize that you are completely blinded, and cannot see your subject by any chance. This is one of the most problematic parts of shooting with backlighting.
Give up trying to make it work with autofocus; it is an extremely time consuming process. Either ask your model to block the sun and get your autofocus right in order to shift to manual, or simply try to adjust the focus and keep a fixed distance to the model.
Third, keep your ISO as low as possible. There will be plenty of light to work with. All the shown photographs are shot with ISO 100.

3. THE EDIT

Far from all your shots will be perfectly focused with a correct exposure. The most important thing is to have your golden outline, sunrays or lens flares in the shot. The exposure can be adjusted and the flares intensified with some simple Photoshop work.
Always shoot in RAW to have the best editing possibilities.
Here is an example of an unedited photograph with the sun just outside the frame. The sunrays and flares are clearly visible, however the photo lacks contrast and color.

1/100, f/4.5, exposure – 1, 32 mm

1. Light and contrast. Adjust the light using curves. Increase the highlights and intensify the shadows as well to create the vivid contrast:


2. Colors. Experiment with “Color Balance” and “Curves” to achieve the desired color tone. For instance intensify yellow and velvet.

3. Burn/dodge. Make your photo even more captivating by dodging the lens flares and sunrays. Dodge some of the model’s features as well. Thereafter burn the corners of the photo and areas that lack contrast. The final result:

The techniques are quite simple, however it obviously takes some practice. Start experimenting and succeed in creating these vivid portraits with a powerful atmosphere.

Source :http://photodoto.com/backlit-photography/

TUTORIAL PHOTOGRAPHY

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Dear Photographer,
Here's the deal -
If you want to be able to take the really cool photos - those crazy special effects images others just can't figure out - what I'm about to share with you will blow your mind…
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Trouble was, I wanted to take all these cool shots, and I had all these great ideas… but I didn't know how to get started… and I didn't think I had all the specialist equipment I'd need…
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I Had No Choice - I Didn't Have
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Eventually, all the crazy experimentation started to pay off. My photography buddies started asking how I was taking my pictures, what techniques, what equipment…
… and I'd be creating crazy images like this just using my plain old digital camera, while everybody was assuming I was using Photoshop.

And eventually, I was getting so many people asking me how I did all this stuff, that I put together a simple guide revealing everything.
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… and I've just updated it, and released the second edition.

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• How to capture infra-red light with your DSLR to create impactful images with surreal color

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• How to shoot and edit amazing 360 degree panoramic shots like these…

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• Why your computer scanner is the key to some of the coolest, wackiest pictures you've ever seen - and no, I'm not talking about scanning them

This amazing guide will show you exactly how to break through the ranks of "ordinary" photographers and become the person who takes shots that amaze everybody.
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In fact, your photos are going to be so amazing (starting just a few minutes from now), people flat out won't believe you took them, until they see it with their own eyes.
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And That's All Great, But There's One
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I'm talking about super-cool images like these:

Right Now You're Probably Thinking
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& Don't Want To Pay Out $700 For It Too

Don't worry. For the tricks that require Photoshop, you can use an alternative program called Adobe Photoshop Elements (Version 10 or above) which is less expensive compared to Photoshop CS6. Adobe Photoshop Elements will be able to do the majority of the Photoshop tricks I teach.
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This guide is going to totally revolutionize the way you take photos, starting today, and you'll discover Photoshop and photography tricks that are going to stay with you for the rest of your life…
… and sometimes, learning this stuff can actually improve your life for good, like it has for so many others. Here are a few e-mails I've received from people who have read the e-book:
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