Photography Tips

Manual Mode shooting tip - read the meter first then the histogram after the shot

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If you are hesitant to use manual mode on your DSLR because of concern over getting the exposure right, you DSLR has the tools you need to help you!  Before you push the shutter you can use your camera's meter to get an idea of what it thinks the exposure should be.  Then after the shot read the histogram to see how the exposure really came out.  After using these two tools you can then adjust your exposure settings (aperture, shutter speed, ISO) to get the results you want.

Shooting in manual exposure mode is greatly simplified if you use the meter before pressing the shutter, then read the histogram after pressing the shutter.  Try it out and let me know in the comments below how it worked for you!

Photography Tip use Unsharp Mask for sharpening in Photoshop

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Sharpening is a key part of editing digital photos and perhaps one that goes overlooked due to thinking sharpening is not needed.  On every shot I edit, I use the Unsharp Mask filter in Photoshop (I still use CS5).  In the above example of a cabbage palm tree, I did all my usual editing except sharpening.  The unsharpened image may look fine, but I know it can look better.  In the sharpened version much more detail is visible in the palm fronds, especially on the edges.  Another photography tip within a tip, I did all other editing first because sharpening should be the last thing done when editing an image.

To find Unsharp Mask in Photoshop go into the Filter menu, then Sharpen, and there you will find Unsharp Mask.  I kow it sounds totally crazy to use something called unsharpen to sharpen, but that is just one of the thousands of quirks you either find charming about Photoshop or infuriating!  Note that if you used Unsharp Mask already, on a Mac you can just hit CMD-F to apply the same sharpening to the current photo you are working on.

You can see the settings I use in the Unsharp Mask filter in the above screenshot.  Radius and Threshold never change and are at settings I found I liked, though I learned these from another photographer and fine tuned them a bit.  The only setting of the three I change when applying the Unsharp Mask filter is the Amount percent.  For a very large majority of my photographs, I use 60%.  For portraits (single subject) I may use less.  For HDR shots, I may use more.  Each camera and lens may dictate more or less sharpening to be used.  

Try out the Unsharp Mask filter and let me know what you think in the comments below!

Photography Tip - Format memory cards to erase photos

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277 photos remaining on this memory card before formattingThis photography tip is about how to get photos off of your memory card once you have downloaded them, and backed them up!  The best and fastest way to do this is to format the memory card right in your camera.  This will virtually instantly delete every photo and also keep the good Nikon (or Canon, etc) formatting on your memory card reducing the chance for errors.  Many Nikon cameras make it very easy to format memory cards.  On my D300 there are two buttons you hold simultaneously (see the red format logo in the photo above).

Formatting ready to be executedIf I hold the two format buttons for a few seconds, then the screen will flash "For" indicating the camera is ready to format the memory card.

Formatting of the memory card is being done in cameraIf I press both format buttons again that will activate formatting and in the place of the remaining number of photos area of the screen, "For" will briefly be displayed.

After formatting the memory card there are now 678 shots leftIn this case formatting the memory card took my remaining photo count from 277 to a maximum available 678.  This whole process just takes a few seconds and helps keep your memory cards in good working condition.

Photography Tip - Intro to the Histogram

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The histogram is a very useful way of checking and confirming exposure, especially out in the field.  It may just look like a bunch of strange squigly lines or a series of jagged mountains, but the histogram tells you exactly what your photograph really looks like in terms of exposure and color.  Since it is often hard to see the camera's review screen in direct sunlight to judge exposure, the histogram for a photographer is like a pilot flying an airplane by using only instruments.  You do not even need to see the photograph to tell if it is a dark image, a bright one, or even a very colorful one.  Essentially, the histogram looks like a rectangular box representing 256 shades of gray or individual colors, or all of them (see the histograms above showing grayscale and RGB color as Aperture 3 represents the histogram).  Black is on the left edge and white is on the right edge.  The more data to the left, means the darker an image is, and potentially underexposed.  The more date to the right means a brighter image, and possibly an overexposed ones.

It is usually best to try and get as much of the data in the center forming a nice mountain, with no spikes at either the far left or far right edges.  In the samples above, the left histogram has most of its data on the right side, indicating the photo is a bright exposure, as can be confirmed by looking at the photo itself.  The histogram on the right is much more balanced and a more even exposure, as seen in the photo showing a bluer sky and better whites in the pelicans' heads.

The above image of Smacks Bayou (as seen from just off my back patio) has a histogram that is about as ideal as it can get.  The majority of the data for grayscale and RGB color is in the middle-center and there is a lot of range in those colors.  The taller the peaks, the more of that particular color or shade of gray.  There are also no spikes at either far edge of the histogram.

Have a Photography Philosophy Part 1 - make photos for yourself

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One of my all-time favorite personal photos, man contemplating Tokyo - Nikon D80 Nikkor 50mm @ f/8 ISO 400 1/250th (notice early in my DSLR photography learning I used settings I would definitely not today!)Earlier today I came up with an idea for a new photography tip series entitled, "Having a Photography Philosophy," as there are intangible things that going into photography beyond mastering exposure and even composition.  One of my personal photography philosophies has always been, even from the very start of getting more seriously into photography, was to first and foremost make photographs for myself.  It also may surprise you that I even carry this philosophy into shoots I do for clients.  The way I see it, clients have browsed my portfolios.  Therefore, they must like what they have seen to have hired me.  Thus, if I make shots that appeal to me, as I have always done in the past, then the photos I make for the client now will appeal to them as well.  Of course not every shoot allows for such creative freedom, but when I make portraits for clients or photograph cars for clients, I make shots I think look cool.  I want the final shots to also be ones I like.  This philosophy balanced with client input I believe creates very successful final images.

In my personal shooting I entirely shoot for myself first and foremost.  I go out to make shots that I like.  If someone else happens to like them, that is great, but not necessarily important to me.  After all, if you do not even like the photos you are making, how can you ever expect anyone else to like them either?  

The photo in this post is one of my all-time personal favorites.  If I could only choose one photo to remind me of what my life was like in Tokyo, it would probably be this one.  I walked by this very spot almost every day, and like the man pictured, never ceased to stop and stare at all the action, all the craziness, all the life before me.  It was also one of the very first, if not the first shot I ever took with my Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D lens that I bought in Bic Camera just to frame left.  So as you can see, this photo cannot possibly have the same amount of meaning to anyone else, which is why it is important to make photographs for yourself.

Photography Tip - think of ISO like a pair of sunglasses

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Over the past few months I have started to describe ISO to my photography students like a pair of sunglasses.  You have sunlight hitting your eyes.  When wearing sunglasses your eyes feel all nice and comfortable even with all that sunlight.  However, if you take off your sunglasses, the same amount of light is hitting your eyes, except now it hurts and you squint.  There is a cost to taking off your sunglasses.  

It is the same thing with ISO.  There is a certain amout of light hitting your DSLR camera's sensor.  If you increase the ISO setting, the same amount of light will hit the sensor, except now the camera's sensor with a higher ISO is more sensitive to that same amount of light.  This is just like your eyes getting more sensitive without sunglasses.  The tradeoff with no sunglasses is squinting.  The tradeoff with high ISO is introducing noise, grain and artifacting into the photograph.  

This is why I usually only increase ISO last when trying to get the correct exposure.  Most of the time I will use the largest aperture possible with the slowest shutter speed possible.  Once I hit those limits, only then do I start to increase ISO because I want to maximize image quality as much as possible.  

Purple Hyacinth Flower Macro Photograph from Publix

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My purple hyacinth growing right in water in my living room!

I am a regular Publix (Florida grocery store franchise) Friday shopper, and have been all my adult life in Florida.  On a recent shopping trip I was thinking to finally get a new plant to replace the one that had long since died (of natural causes!) in my living room.  I was very quickly talked into getting the above purple hyacinth by the lady behind the counter.  Growing a plant right in a vase of water appealed to me, and she promised when in bloom the scent would fill the room.  She was right, it now smells great anytime I pass by the bloom!

Purple Hyacinth in bloom in my living room - Nikon D300 Nikkor 105mm VR Micro @ f/8 ISO 200 0.4 sec natural light

Having flowers right inside your house also makes for a very convenient photography subject too.  So my photography tip is if you live somewhere that is really cold, so cold it deters you from going outside with your DSLR in winter, then go out and buy some flowers and shoot from the comfort of your living room!