Tony Northrup and Chelsea Northrup
Using multiple focus points simply means the camera is choosing where to focus. Unfortunately, cameras often choose the wrong focus point, leading to pictures that seem to be out of focus. (Location 1542)
For this reason, I recommend using a single focusing point, and selecting the focusing point closest to where you want to focus in the frame. Because all cameras are different, you will need to refer to your camera’s manual for specific steps that allow you to select a single focus point. (Location 1544)
I almost always use continuous shooting. Even if I’m photographing a still subject, I like to take a few pictures to be sure I get one that’s not shaky. (Location 1642)
If you want a nicely blurred background, try this: Choose aperture priority mode and adjust the main dial to select the lowest f/stop number possible, such as f/1.8, f/2.8, f/4, or f/5.6. Zoom all the way in or use a telephoto lens. Get as close to the subject as your camera will focus. (Location 1697)
my favorite standard zoom is commonly referred to as “24-105mm f/4.0.” (Location 1706)
The f/4.0 is the smallest f/stop number I can use with the lens. Some zoom lenses have variable apertures, such as the “18-55mm f/3.5-5.6.” When zoomed out to 18mm, (Location 1707)
Sensor size also impacts depth-of-field. The full-frame sensors included with most cameras costing over $1,500 have a much shallower depth-of-field than the APS-C sensors included with less expensive cameras. Micro four-thirds cameras have an even smaller sensor, making it even more difficult (Location 1714)
To determine the slowest shutter speed you can use to hand-hold a camera, follow the Reciprocal Rule: Keep your shutter speed faster than your focal length. If you’re using a 100mm lens, use a shutter speed faster than 1/100th. If you’re using a 400mm lens, use a shutter speed faster than 1/400th. The more you zoom in, the faster your shutter speed needs to be. Notice that the reciprocal rule uses the 35mm-equivalent focal length. If you’re using anything other than a very expensive full-frame digital camera, you’ll have to multiply your focal length by your camera’s crop factor. For example, if you’re using an APS-C camera with a 1.6x crop factor and a 100mm lens, your effective focal length is 160mm. Therefore, you would need a shutter speed faster than 1/160th (Location 1787)
Try using shutter priority when shooting moving subjects. If they’re blurry, increase the shutter speed. Set your ISO to automatic for more flexibility. (Location 1826)
In aperture priority mode, every time you double the ISO, your camera will also double the shutter speed, because the higher ISO setting means it requires half as much light. (Location 1833)
You can improve noisy pictures by using noise reduction software such as Adobe Lightroom (the easiest), (Location 1857)
Until you fully understand ISO, set your camera to use auto ISO. Auto ISO allows the camera to choose the ISO setting that will allow it to properly expose a picture. In manual mode, auto ISO allows your camera to auto expose pictures while still giving you complete control over shutter speed, aperture, and light. (Location 1872)
Exposure Compensation (Location 1875)
Tags: blue
That exposure would be fine if the snow were the subject of the picture. However, the subject of the picture is the dark-colored hawk. Because the camera calculated the exposure based on the bright snow, the hawk is underexposed, hiding the detail in his feathers. To resolve that problem, I used exposure compensation to increase the exposure one stop (moving the exposure compensation towards the + sign). The snow is now bright (as the human eye expects it to be) and the bird is properly exposed. (Location 1889)
If a photographer adjusts the shutter speed from 1/250th to 1/1000th, she might say, “I’m adjusting the shutter speed up two stops.” Even though the shutter speed is four times faster, it’s only two stops, because each stop is twice the light. (Location 2008)
Personally, I use Adobe Lightroom ($120) to convert them to digital negative (DNG) format. DNG is like RAW, but it’s not camera specific. (Location 2053)
Lenses tend to not be their sharpest when shooting wide open (at the largest aperture, such as f/2.8) or shut-down (at the smallest apertures, such as f/22). While the sharpest aperture setting varies for different lenses, most lenses are at their sharpest two stops higher than wide open. (Location 2194)
Therefore, a lens with a maximum aperture of f/2.8 would be at its sharpest around f/5.6. A lens with a maximum aperture of f/4.0 would be at its sharpest around f/8. (Location 2197)
Once your camera is attached to a tripod, turn image stabilization off if your camera or lens supports it (and if it does not automatically turn off when attached to a tripod). (Location 2203)
Live view. DSLRs have a mirror in front of the sensor that directs the light to the viewfinder when you’re not taking a picture. Moving the mirror can make the camera shake a tiny amount. To eliminate this shake, enable live view (which moves the mirror) and then take the picture. (Location 2210)
Stock photo agencies allow zero visible noise in pictures. Even at ISO 100, I tend to get some visible noise in shadow areas and clear sky. Typically, I don’t apply noise reduction to the entire picture. (Location 2315)
incandescent light with the camera set to automatic white balance. The orange tint was fixed with two clicks in Adobe Lightroom—I chose the white balance selector and then clicked the paper, which I knew was true white. The software adjusted the color temperature of the photo so that the paper would be white and the rest of the picture was correctly balanced. (Location 2334)
If you include more than one person in your portrait or if you plan to take portraits in front of a background that doesn’t need to be blurred, just about any moderate telephoto lens will work. Zoom to 85-125mm and set your aperture to f/11. (Location 2618)
Outdoor lighting is notoriously unflattering: the sun creates hard top lighting that accentuates lines and hides the eyes. Even if you find some nice lighting, it will change constantly as the sun moves across the sky and clouds come and go. To take great outdoor portraits, you need to know how to find the best locations and how to handle different lighting conditions. (Location 2628)
When planning an outdoor portrait, follow this process: Find a location and background. Within that location, find the best natural light (which might involve (Location 2634)
moving into shade, choosing a specific time of day, or waiting for the right weather). Add light, as desired, using flash or reflectors. Pick your subject’s clothing and pose. Shoot! (Location 2636)
To properly expose both the model and the sky, follow these steps: In aperture priority (A or Av) mode, turn your flash off and have the subject move out of the frame. Take a picture, and make note of the aperture and shutter speed the camera used. If the exposure is off, adjust the exposure, and re-shoot until the sky is properly exposed. Switch your camera to manual (M) mode, and set the aperture and shutter speed to the previous values. This will properly expose the sky. If it’s too dark to hand-hold at the desired shutter speed, then attach your camera to a tripod. If you (Location 2709)
can’t use a tripod, increase both your ISO speed and shutter speed one stop at a time until you can hand-hold the shot. Every time you double the ISO speed, you can double the shutter speed. Turn your flash on, have the model pose (and hold very still), and take the picture. The flash should automatically expose the model correctly, and your manual camera settings should expose the sky properly. If the flash overexposed the model, use flash exposure compensation to decrease the light output from the flash. (Location 2713)
Reflectors are perfect for filling in shadows; while diffusers will help you soften light. When shooting in direct sunlight, position a diffuser between the model and the sun so that the model is in the diffuser’s shadow. (Location 2732)
reflection of the window in the model’s eyes. Because the main light is illuminating the side of the model’s face that’s turned away from the camera, this type of lighting is called short lighting or narrow lighting. Short lighting has a narrowing effect on the face, making it especially flattering for people with round or broad faces. The lighting in this picture could also be called Rembrandt lighting, because there is a triangle of light under the model’s eye on the darker side of her face. Notice that the background is very dark in this picture because the light was falling on the model’s face, but not the background. (Location 2751)
For waist-up photos, tell the client to wear a long-sleeved shirt so that the upper arms (rarely attractive in a photo) are hidden. Especially in group photos, nobody should wear shorts; the brightness of their legs would distract from the faces. (Location 2778)
Because you can only focus on one person and depth-of-field will cast other people’s faces more out of (Location 2835)
focus the farther they are from your focus point, have back rows stand VERY close to front rows. The closer everyone’s face is, the more in focus they will be. (Location 2836)
Your biggest technical challenge for group photos will be getting enough depth-of-field so that everyone’s face is in focus. Focus on the front row, if there are two rows, or the middle row if there are three or more rows. (Location 2846)
Therefore, as you add more people, you will need to zoom out to fit them in the frame and increase your f/stop number to get the depth-of-field you need: For people standing side-by-side, 100mm and f/5.6 is usually good. For multiple rows, use the widest angle lens you can (down to about 50mm) while still having a good background. If you want to show less background, step back and zoom in (Location 2854)
farther. Use an f/stop number of f/11 or higher. Keep your shutter speed at 1/60th or 1/125th. Then, adjust your ISO or flash output to expose the picture properly, as described in Chapter 4. These suggestions are just guidelines; you will need to take a sample shot and zoom in on your display to make sure that everyone’s face is sharp. If some people are out of focus, use a higher f/stop number and take another test shot. (Location 2857)
For most shots, especially those of women, you should have the subject’s shoulders turned at an angle to the camera while holding a comfortable, but straight, posture. For women, this also adds shape and definition to the bust. The squarer they are with the camera, the wider the shoulders will appear, and the larger and more powerful the subject will seem. Figure 6-21 compares a traditional portrait with the shoulders square to a portrait with the shoulder turned at an angle. (Location 2967)
For individual shots, most women look best at three-quarters, while most men look best at seven-eighths. (Location 2983)
Most photos you see in the media show people with straight, white teeth. However, most people don’t have perfect teeth. In Photoshop, you can select the teeth and then add brightness and reduce the saturation to whiten and remove color. You can also use the clone or Liquify tools to straighten teeth. (Location 3016)
Though they won’t always tell you outright, most people want to appear thinner than they actually are. There are several things you can do to provide this (other than using the Photoshop Liquify tool): (Location 3311)
No matter how thin the person is, if there’s light from underneath their face, it’ll look like they have a double chin. Move the main and fill lights high enough to cast the neck in shadow. (Location 3321)
Instead, use a remote shutter timer, such as the inexpensive models made by Neewer (which are also available under other generic brand names), which typically cost about $15 USD. Configure the timer to take a photo every one or two seconds. (Location 3379)
If you need to retouch a large amount of pictures, you can use software tools to speed the process. I use Imagenomic’s Portraiture, available at http://www.imagenomic.com/pt.aspx (Location 3392)
During the dancing, have one photographer shooting close-ups from ground level. If possible, have the other photographer above the dance floor on a balcony or ladder, shooting a wide-angle shot that shows the dance floor. When the guests begin dancing, take a few shots from this high perspective with a slow shutter speed to blur the motion. (Location 3570)
For best results, shoot at twilight. As the sun touches the horizon, street lights automatically turn on, and people flip on their office and home lights. It’s these lights that give the city a night-time feel. For ten or fifteen minutes while the sun sets, you’ll have the best lighting: (Location 5044)
In Photoshop, you can do this by adding different fireworks pictures as layers and setting the layer blending options to Screen. Then, move the layers around so the fireworks don’t overlap too much. (Location 5196)
Night photography requires long exposures that blur movement. This gives you three options for including people in your pictures: Light them up. You can combine flash with a long exposure—simply (Location 5208)
turn your flash on. After the flash fires, have the subjects continue to hold still to allow the camera to properly expose the background, as shown in Figure 10-7. If the subject is in front of a completely black background, they can move out of the way after the flash fires. As a less-precise alternative, have the subject hold still and use a flashlight to light the subject during the exposure. (Location 5210)
sky. For the second picture, I used my LED flashlight to paint light onto the edges of the fountain, separating it from the background. Because the flashlight uses LEDs, the light appeared as a cool blue color compared to the warmer light cast by the streetlights. (Location 5243)
If you’re considering using a sparkler in your light painting, use steel wool instead. Fine steel wool throws bright, hot, orange sparks in all directions, creating the effect of a bursting volcano. (Location 5302)
Fortunately, cameras have a feature called bracketing that automates the process of taking pictures at different exposures. (Location 5416)