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Archive for the ‘Photography Tips’ Category

Few people realize that Lightroom can play an integral part in a tethered shooting workflow. In other words, you can connect your camera to your computer via a cable and have your shots immediately go to Lightroom rather than the camera’s memory card.

This setup can offer huge advantages. For starters, you can instantly see your shots on the large screen of the computer instead of the small LCD on the back of the camera, but it also saves time downloading images from your camera as the images are already in Lightroom.

So how do we do this?

Obviously, you first need a cable to connect your camera to your computer. You probably got one with the camera, it’s the same cable you use to download images from the camera. If you don’t have one, you can buy one from most computer and/or camera stores. Just check the connections in the computer (usually USB) and the camera (mini USB) and make sure you get one that is long enough for your setup.

You will need the software utility that “talks” to your camera. If you have Canon, that software is the EOS Utility which came for free with your camera. Unfortunately Nikon does not give their software away for free, you need to buy it. The software is called Nikon Camera Control Pro and you can get it at B&H for around $145. Here is the link

As I have a Canon, the following screenshots represents a Canon-specific setup.

In the Canon EOS Utility, you’ll need to identify the folder the EOS Utility will deposit the photos in. This is set up like in the screenshot below. I called this folder “incoming”.

Now we have completed the link between the computer and the camera.

Next is to setup Lightroom to watch this folder for incoming images. This is done in the Auto Import Settings under the FILE menu. First you need to “turn on” the Auto Import function, by selecting the first option, as seen here:

Then, you set it up in the Auto Import Settings . . . .

As you see below, I selected the “Incoming” folder as the folder to “watch”. That is exactly what Lightroom will do. It will sit there and monitor that folder waiting for anything to arrive. When you take a picture, the EOS Utility will save the picture into that folder where Lightroom will pick it up and process it, just like a normal IMPORT session.

The rest of the Auto Import Settings therefore look very similar to the normal Import settings. You specify a folder where you want Lightroom to put the image and you select the various other settings like presets and keywords.

Now you are all set!

Connect your camera to the computer, launch EOS Utility and Lightroom and shoot away. Every shot will be automatically imported into Lightroom.

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I have been experimenting on shooting products on a white background for stock agencies. In doing some research online regarding setup and lighting techniques, I came across this awesome video from Peter Belanger (see full credits and links just below the video). It shows, in a timelapse, the process from photoshoot to front-page design. Fascinating!

Several things hit me when watching this video. First of all, the setup required to take a photo of something seemingly simple, two iPhones. The lighting, the setup, the post processing, the number of people, etc. all show there is a heck more to taking these types of shots than one would imagine. Then, after the photoshoot, the front-page design exercise starts, which is in itself an interesting process.

Interesting to note too that the video itself was taken using a 5D MarkII because of its HD video capabilities. Peter explains how he used a 24-70mm lens and shot in sRAW1 to get smaller file sizes.

Thanks to the time-lapse approach of shooting this video, what you see in a few minutes actually took half a day.

Enjoy the video

Cover creation from Peter Belanger on Vimeo.

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Photoshop has a Highlights/Shadow tool that can be used to control tonal values in high-contrast scenes. However, using this tool can often leave the picture looking a bit “strange”. We take a look at creating a nicely exposed pictures by blending two images, one exposed for highlights and one exposed for shadows. Note that this is NOT an HDR process, eventhough there is some resemblance. Read the rest of this entry »

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The challenge: Lacrosse is a fast sport with lots of action and rapid changes of pace. This makes for a challenging environment. Picking the wrong place to stand, or not using your camera with the most optimum settings will lead to mediocre shots and will quickly lead to frustration and disappointment. In this article, I’ll discuss some points that can help.

I’m going to assume you have a Digital SLR camera, but even if you don’t, read on as I have some tips for the advanced compact shooters too.

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Getting sharp pictures is not always as simple as it seems. In this article we take a look at ways to ensure you get the sharpest photo possible

Regardless of the level of photography you engage in, getting blurry pictures sucks!
Sadly, many people blame such pictures on their camera not realizing that with a little care a more satisfying result could have been obtained.

Let’s look at some ways to ensure getting sharp pictures:
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Many cameras have a “Long Exposure Noise Reduction” feature hidden in their settings. As the name implies, it plays a role during long exposure times. We take a look at this feature and how it works.
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When looking at lens specifications, MTF curves are often encountered. We’ll take a look at what they mean, how to interpret them and, most importantly, how to use them when selecting your next lens.

MTF Characteristics explained

MTF stands for Modular Transfer Function and is a method of evaluating the lens performance based on its contrast and resolution.

Contrast expresses how well an image differentiates between the object’s black and white lines.
Resolution expresses how well object detail is expressed, how sharp it is. A high-resolution image will display crisp edges and shows much detail while in a low-resolution image detail can run together causing blur (also expressed as “softness”).

MTF charts are created by measuring how well lenses capture a series of evenly spaced lines of black and white. By measuring multiple “densities (how close together these black and white lines are), we get meaningful information at how well the lens can distinguish the boundary between black and white.

The Canon MTF curves (which are the ones we’ll be looking at) display results measured at 10 lines per millimeter and at 30 lines per millimeter. Generally speaking, the 10 lines/mm curve is a useful indication of contrast while the 30 lines/mm is a useful indication of resolving power. Many photographers are primarily interested in the 10 line/mm curve.
Measuring these characteristics is of course influenced by the aperture used so the MTF charts typically display two sets. A black set for measurements at the lens’ maximum aperture (note that this can vary by lens) and a blue set for measurements at f/8 (always f/8).

Another characteristic that can influence the lens’ performance, is the lens curvature from center to edge. This is reflected in the chart on the horizontal axis where the numbers “0″ to 20″ are millimeters. Zero is the center of the lens.
The dotted lines vs the solid lines are measurements representing the orientation of the black and white lines. Strangely enough, most lenses resolve these differently as you can see in the difference curves below.
Putting this all together in the illustration below, we can see an MTF chart (in this case of the Canon EF 300mm f/4 L IS lens).

As indicated in the illustration, any line above 0.6 is considered good. Above 0.8 it is considered excellent. In this example, wide open (the black lines) the lens is excellent, with both black lines being well above the 0.6 mark. When stopped down to f/8 (the blue lines) the results are even better.

What is also evident here is how the lines are relatively flat from left to right, especially the solid lines. This indicates the lens’s performance is consistent all the way to the edge. In other words, little deterioration in sharpness and contrast towards the outer edges.

What is also immediately evident, is that a Full Frame sensor will be more prone to differences in edge-sharpness than smaller sensors such as the APS-C sensor found in the Canon Rebel and Canon 30D/40D lines.

A Full Frame sensor is 36×24mm. Measured from the center, the longest side is therefore 18mm. Looking at the MTF chart above, one can see this puts the “edge” close to the outer edge of the chart. Here we see the curves starting to trail downwards, a sign of lesser performance, indicating a “softer” picture.

The APS-C sensor is 15×22.5mm. Here, the longest side is only 11.25 when measured from the center. That puts the edge of that sensor in the middle of the MTF chart. Usually at a spot where the curves have not yet trailed downwards, or only very slightly. Therefore, you’ll find the cameras with this size sensor to have better edge-sharpness characteristics than Full Frame cameras.

This lens used in the example above (the Canon EF 300mm f/4 L IS lens) is a very sharp lens with excellent contrast.

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Confused about which profiles to use when printing on Canon printers? Don’t know the difference between PR3 and SP3? Then this article is for you. Read on.

Information about using ICC profiles on Canon printers appears to be scarce. It exists, but it is well hidden and not all that intuitive when found. We’ll take a look at what to do and how to set up a color managed environment using a Canon printer. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Rule of Thirds is an oft used and mentioned “rule” for composition. What is is and when do we use it?

First of all, we should establish that there are no hard and fast rules. Photography is an art form and you don’t get great artistic results by following strict rules. However, there are “rules of thumb” that can be helpful, guidelines so to speak that when followed, can lead to results that are esthetically pleasing. The only real “rule” is that the photographer should follow his or her creativity and feeling when pursuing that perfect shot. Read the rest of this entry »

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