Photography Tips

Editing digital photos tip - Use Dodge Tool in Photoshop to whiten eyes & brighten eyes

in

With Photoshop, there is always a very complicated way to do a particular digital photo edit.  The key to getting proficient at Photoshop is learning the "quick & dirty" ways of doing the same complicated edit.  You may not have 15 minutes just to brighten eyes in a portrait, or the 30 minutes to follow a complicated tutorial for how to do it.  I use a much simpler process to whiten eyes that is as easy to do as any other Photoshop edit.

To whiten or brighten eyes in Photoshop:

  • Select the Dodge tool (O)
  • Set the Range to:  highlights
  • Set the Exposure to:  10%

Setting the Range to highlights means only white areas are mostly affected by the Dodge tool, perfect for the whites of eyes.  It is very easy to overbrighten the eyes, which is why I set the Exposure low to 10% and click as needed.  I find that a subtle brightening works best and keeps the eyes looking natural.  I set the brush to be within the upper and lower eye-lids then click first on the iris of the eye to give them a little pop, then on the white to one side and then the other.  

Even a little eye brightening can have a large impact on the overall face of the subject.  Look at the graphic above and see how it appears that the entire face has been brightened.  The only difference in the photos is that the lower one has had the eyes brightened using the Dodge tool.

O selects Dodge Tool, then change Range to highlights and Exposure to 10%

Photography Tip - use a monopod with your DSLR and telephoto lens

in

For a very simple piece of photography gear, a monopod is very useful in many different ways.  Traditionally, a monopod is used by sports and wildlife photographers who shoot with large, heavy telephoto lenses.  Using a monopod with such a setup it suddenly becomes weightless, something you can balance in place with one finger.  If you are shooting with a lens that has a lens collar (see above photo, which allows one to attach the monopod to the lens not the camera body) then using a monopod is highly recommended for prolonged shooting.  If your lens does not have a lens collar available, but the weight of holding even a non-f/2.8 telephoto lens or sub-500mm lens is taxing, then a monopod will help with that also.

Other ways you can make use of a monopod even without a telephoto lens?  You can shoot from a very high perspective by elevating the camera way up in the air holding the monopod at its bottom most point.  You can see photographers trying to get shots of someone surrounded by a group of people using this technique.  

Also, if you are shooting in a low light situation, but there is not space for the large footprint of a tripod, then a monopod will add a lot of stability helping reduce camera shake, especially in the vertical axis.  

How do you use your monopod?

Photography Tip - how to spice up oft photographed places

in

Using a long exposure and converting to black & white to create a nature and architecture shot

I am often teaching 1-on-1 photography lessons in downtown St. Petersburg and have personally photographed almost everything there is around that area.  For my students, this is good because I can show them all my favorite spots.  For me to make an image of some interest for an oft photographed place, sometimes I need to spice up the image.  So for the above shot I went off axis, used a long exposure to blow out the sky, and then finally converted it to black & white using an infrared filter.  I also tried to combine nature and archicture in one image.  These are all photograpy tips to try for when you are at a place you have photographed a lot before, but still want to try and come away with something new.

Let me know what you do to spice up photos of places you have shot in many times before.

Photography Tip - Screen should be the brightest light source in the room

in

Your computer screen should be the brightest thing in the room when editing digital photos. This is my editing setup as seen in the middle of a sunny afternoon.Editing digital photographs in a consistent environment is the key to getting consistent results.  When editing  photographs during the day, I make sure that my computer screen(s) is the brightest thing in the room.  I close all the blinds tightly and even let my eyes adjust to the ambient light before starting to edit.  This way, if I continue to edit photos from the same set at night, the results will be consistent.  Not only does editing photos in a bright room not allow one to properly see contrast, etc, it also means that if you edit another photo at night in a dark room it is very likely to turn out different.  

So when editing photos during the day be sure and close all the window blinds and make sure your computer screen is the brightest thing in the room.

Photography Tip - use the subject to block the sun in portraits

in

Photography Tip - when the sun is still strong in the sky, block it with the subject to soften its effect.

Making sunset portraits is a photography skill unto itself.  When shooting on a beach at sunset the conditions are rarely the same.  Thus, not only do you have the usual variables to deal with when shooting on location, and not only is there a ticking clock with the sun getting closer and closer to the horizon, there is also the unknown of how the sun will effect your shot according to its strength.  

If you find the setting sun is overpowering your portrait, then a good photography tip to use is to block most or all of the brightest part of the sun with the subject.  This will reduce lens flare too.  

Of course unless you want the subjects to be silhouettes, you will need a speedlight or two off camera to light them up.  The sun is then used as a backlight source complementing your portrait instead of dominating it if the subjects were not blocking any of the strong light coming from the setting sun.

Photography Tip - remember favorite shooting spots with ShootLocal app

in

It is very good practice to always have your camera with you, especially when you are in the beginning of your photography experience.  However, toting around a DSLR is not always practical.  I did make this effort though when I first got my DSLR, and I lived in Tokyo then which means public transportation and lots of stairs up and down into and out of train stations.  Still, I did not always have my Nikon with me and I would have to rely on my (faulty) short term memory when I passed by a location I wanted to shoot at.  I could have written an address down, but that is not always easy to do if street signs are not visible from where you are.  Fortunately, cell phones do actually prove to be useful in solving this problem.

I use the app ShootLocal to record the exact location of spots or subjects I want to shoot in the future.  As you can see in the screenshot above, you take a photo with your phone's camera for a visual reference and of course the gps data is recorded with a Google Map pin provided to guide you right back to where you were.  It is very handy to have both visual and map data so you remember why and where you wanted to shoot there.  You can even add notes, etc about the location.  Additionally, locations can be shared publicly and via social media.  

ShootLocal is free and can be found in the App Store.

Photography Tip - set DSLR Drive Mode to its fastest for action shots

in

One big differentiator between DSLR models is how many frames per second it can shoot.  10 FPS is fast, 3 FPS is not.  6 FPS is a minimum for being able to produce pretty good action and sports photography shots.  The faster the FPS of your DSLR, the better the odds are for you to capture the best moment in an action sequence.  Knowledge of the action type definitely helps, but ultimately a lot of it comes down to just being lucky enough to have had your DSLR capture that particular frame that looks the best, the coolest, the most dynamic.  

By default most DSLR will be set to take only a single shot no matter how long one holds the shutter down for.  For me, I always leave my Nikon in its faster FPS setting.  In the menus this is usually called the Drive Mode and its symbol looks like a stack of cards (see photo above).  Many DSLRs will have a button for changing this setting on the camera body.  My thinking for leaving it set to the fastest is you never know when something cool will happen and I much rather have 6 chances in a second of capturing it than one.  Of course I do not always hold the shutter down and take 6 FPS.  I have trained my finger to only actuate one shot each time I press the shutter if I only want to make one shot.  I have seen though that many newer model DSLRs have a very sensitive shutter button making this very hard to do.  Maybe those will eventually wear in and not be so sensitive.

If you find you are taking too many shots at once due to a sensitive shutter or other reasons, there is usually a second, less fast FPS setting you can use, without having to go to just a single shot setting.  When photographing the St. Anthony's Triathlon that was the drive mode I was recommended to use in order not to end up with too many shots of each triathlete.   

In the above dog photos these were made withing a split second of each other.  If I was trying to specifically get an ears up or ears down shot, I would never rely on having perfect timing to do it with one shot!  For sure I would use the fastest burst mode available.  This is definitely a case where you lock onto your subject and just hold the shutter down and hope the final frozen action of the subject looks good.  You use your skills to set exposure and focus, and to position yourself well relative the moving subject.  This minimizes how much you need to be lucky to capture good action shots.  Get your settings right, put yourself in good position, then hold the shutter down and hope you got just the right moment!  The faster your FPS, the better your chances.