Digital Photography Tips

Understanding “latitude” is such an important part of digital camera conversations. As both a filmmaker and photographer I hear the topic of dynamic range and latitude come up more amongst filmmakers than I do amongst photographers. I think part of the reason is that many filmmakers feel that the digital look is inferior to the classic look of film and they strive to replicate the look of film in their digital videos.

However, I feel that digital photographers don’t feel the same type of inferiority to film as their filmmaker friends do. In fact, digital photographers tend to celebrate the technology as almost superior to film (especially since the invention of digital SLR). That being said, one of the main criticisms about shooting digital on either video or sill cameras is that the CCD chips in these devices do not handle dynamic range (latitude) as well as film. So what does this mean?

Technically the definition goes something like this: Dynamic range is a term used frequently in numerous fields to describe the ratio between the smallest and largest possible values of a changeable quantity (such as light).

In other words latitude (used interchangeably with dynamic range) is the ability of the camera to capture details in the pixels in the lowest end of the tonal spectrum (i.e. dark shadows) while at the same time capturing pixels in the highest and brightest end of the tonal spectrum (i.e. a bright sky).

Both film video cameras and still cameras have always fared easier in this field than their digital counterparts. Photographing a subject in front of a window on a sunny day once with a film camera and once with a digital camera will make the technical limitations of the digital camera much more apparent.

Most often the victims of a low dynamic range are exposed lighting sources and the sky in the bright end of the spectrum, and darker shadows in the low end of the spectrum. The result is an “underexposing” of the shadows and a “blown out” look to the light areas. Look at the photograph at the top of this blog post again. Notice the texture of the wall around the florescent lighting is gone. It’s completely overexposed. It’s just a blob of white. Photographers and filmmakers call this either “burnt out” or “blown out”.

It’s the compromise your digital camera makes to expose the majority of the pixels in your photograph at a good level. However, latitude is getting much better in digital cameras. The larger the megapixel count in a digital camera the better it is for the dynamic range. However, it’s also important to remember to use your menu settings to ensure you’re shooting with the highest resolution to take advantage of this feature.

If your camera has good latitude you’ll be well on your way to taking pictures that stand out due simply to the fact that it handles lighting extremes well. A feature too few digital cameras can boast about.

Here is a quick Photoshop tutorial on how to make bad skin look great. Retouching skin is not a simple task. You can easily overdo it and make the skin look unnaturally airbrushed and almost cartoonish. That being said, with some care and a few practice runs you’ll be touching up skin in your photographs with Photoshop in no time.

Step 1: Open your photograph in Photoshop

Step 2: right click on your background image in you layers window and click “duplicate layer”. You’ll now have a clone of your background. This is important for both masking your image and adding the right skin texture later on.

Step 3: This is where you make most of the changes to your subjects skin. Make sure your second layer is active and go to your “filters’ button at the top of the Photoshop window. Click “filters — Blur — Surface Blur”. Ensure that “preview” function is activated so you can see the changes that you’re making to the skin tone immediately. There are no ideal settings for this filter. simply play around until you feel comfortable with having cleaned up any sking blemishes in your subjects face or body.

Step 4: You will have lost some detail in important areas such as the eyes of your subject as well as any areas with hair. This is easily fixable by ensuring your second layer is active and clicking on “layer — layer mask — reveal all” (found at the top of the Photoshop window). You need to use this mask to expose the textures in the eyes and the hair. To do this simply choose black as your foreground color and paint with the “brush tool” over the objects eyes and hair. The original texture of the image will become visible.

Step 5: However, you’ll probably notice that your image has a slightly plasticized look to the skin. Although the skin blemishes are fixed, the image now looks unnatural. In order to fix this you need to expose some of the background skin texture. To do this simply ensure your second layer is active and then use the “opacity” level in the layers window to expose some of the original skin texture. Usually a setting above 50% is desirable because it allows you to maintain the effects of the cleaned up skin while at the same time making the photograph look natural.

If you’re relatively new to photography you have undoubtedly had difficulties properly framing a photograph. This is not something that only happens to amateur photographers, it is a problem that all photographers face no matter of their experience levels. However, some elements of photographic framing become second nature to you after a while. Meaning as time goes on, framing your pictures properly becomes more and more easy.

The biggest mistake that first time photographers make is that they pay too much attention to the main subject of interest with little or no regard for the objects surrounding the primary object of focus. Photographers forget that photography is about story telling. It’s a visual language that should communicate ideas to people. This means, that like painters, photographers need to put great thought into composition and framing. However, unlike painters, photographers don’t have an endless amount of time to make decisions. As the direction and intensity of light changes, as people move, and expression change, so will your photograph. You need to think quickly and frame your photograph even quicker.

The two best tips to give amateur photographers is to firstly, pay special attention to all of the elements which make it into the 4 walls of your photograph and pay extra attention to the area around the 4 walls of your photograph. “Amputating” parts of objects with one of the walls of your photograph is a dead give away that you were not paying attention. Either an object makes it into your photograph or your reposition yourself to get rid of the object. Secondly, you need to find a way to place emphasis on your main object. However, this is much more complex than it sounds. Too many people just place their main object dead center and click. However, your main object doesn’t have to be center, or the biggest element in the photograph. You can use lines, shapes, colors, or contrast to draw attention to your main area of interest (All of these concepts are discussed more in our online photography school), but for now just practice using the rule of thirds and proper object organization to help better your photography framing.

Proper photography framing is not easy task. You can spend a lifetime experimenting with different framing techniques. Just enjoy yourself and have fun along the way.

If you are looking for a new way to boost your photography portfolio’s impressiveness you may want to consider looking into buying new lenses or filters. These add ons can range in price from $10 to thousands of dollars but there are a few “must have” add ons for your digital and film cameras.

While these are not necessary add ons to increase the quality of your work, if you’re getting bored of the current photographs you’re taking these camera add ons can create a dramatic difference and help re-inspire you to get out there and take photographs.

1. Polarizing filter: the polarizing filter is very cheap and can often be picked up for $10 - $30 for a starter filter. What the polarizing filter does is helps takes the glare out of non metal surfaces and it helps exaggerate the blue of a blue sky. You’ve often seen photographs that look absolutely spectacular with their fluffy white clouds and brilliant blue skies. This effect was created with a polarizing filter and no photographer should leave home without one.
2. Wide angle lens: this lens can often be purchased for digital cameras as an “accessory lens” which simple means that it isn’t a proper attachment in and of itself, but instead attaches onto a pre-existing lens to create a similar effect of a traditional wide angle lens. Alternatively if you have a digital SLR (DSLR) or a regular SLR (Single Lens Reflex) you can but high quality wide angle lenses that can help fit more of your foreground and background into your photographs.

The polarizing filter and the wide angle lens are two add ons that will inspire even the most burnt out photographers to keep taking new pictures on a daily basis. They are also to the two lenses that have dramatic effects while still ensuring the photograph remains “real” looking. Not only this but based on current rating systems on internet photography websites it seems that audiences rate photographs taking with cameras that use the polarizing filter or wide angle lens very highly.