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How to get ... / 3: Last Post

Exposure Exposure is one of the most mangy of digital photography. Exposure meters of the machines are constructed so that the brightest spot (white) of the photo is brought to a 18% gray . The result? For example, in photos taken with the snow, you'll see the snow and gray not white. Now, we could talk for hours of exposure, but for now I will base any advice. Your camera should have, in addition to various methods of measuring exposure, although the function of exposure lock (AEL function is sometimes called, auto exposure lock). This is a very useful feature. For example: if your camera allows, set the exposure reading on the spot. This means that the machine measures the amount of light only in the central area of \u200b\u200bthe frame. Now, suppose you have to shoot a subject too bright, like a landscape with the snow. What you do in these cases is to point the camera at the snow and press the shutter button halfway: here the machine calculates the aperture and to get a proper exposure. In fact it is not correct: we have seen that in this way, the machine tends to bring Snow White to neutral gray. So, you have to do is: keeping half-pressed the shutter button, exposure lock and exposure compensation of +1 E / V or more. Now ricomponente the shot and press the shutter button all. You should have a picture with the white snow and exposed correctly. One way to see if the picture is exposed properly is to check the histogram a. Virtually all digital cameras allow this type of display and the photo is well exposed if the histogram occupies the entire tonal range. If it is moved to the left, it means that there are too many dark tones, or that the photo is underexposed. The opposite if it is to the right. In digital photography, unlike analog what is good and right click "exposing to the right", or overexpose slightly, so as to retrieve information from the dark parts. (This is due to the fact that the film with the saying "Expose for the highlights and shadows to spread" (practically dodging during shooting and over-developed in the darkroom), but there is the digital development - not least that of the film!)

White Balance (WB)

The auto-WB (AWB) in most cases gives results pretty faithful, except for night shots and photos taken in low light details. In any case, Help yourself of how pre-set for the WB : if there is sun set on the WB Daylight, Cloudy and so on if it is cloudy. If you want more control, some cameras allow for fine tuning the WB, which allow you to act on the individual RGB channels and change the amount of R, G and B individually. But if you really want to have a perfect WB, you have to supply a neutral white paper (A4's generally going well, but I'm not 100% neutral) and manually set the WB. To do so, the method should be this: take a photo to the paper, taking care only to frame the paper and set the WB to "Custom". The machine will ask you to tell which photo to use for the WB and you say to use than the paper! Needless to say, this procedure must be done each time the light changes. One trick that works most of the time and that saved me in many situations is to use as a reference for the WB ... the asphalt! In fact the car enough to have a neutral reference, which is white does not matter. Very often the track has a color that is very close to neutral gray, and then you can use it as a WB reference, especially for night photos!

Take always M!

Finally, always taken - or more often as possible - in the manual. You will have full control of features and customizations. Again, the complete mastery of the machine is made after a thorough read of the manual, various tests and a lot of pictures on the field. Every time I started to shoot, remember to check the machine settings , such as the ISO sensitivity, exposure compensation, and the WB. Otherwise it ends up that you are with pictures noise (high ISO), overexposed (compensation to +1, 2 E / V) and blue (WB to tungsten)! It seems too trivial, but recently I've had to discard an entire session because I had forgotten the ISO to 400!

and post-production?

Well, even on post production (PP) could be discussed endlessly. There are those who make it, who does not want to know, who does but only to correct the defects of the photos or who makes it and upsets the whole picture (eg HDR pushed or who knows what other gadgets). For my part, I consider that a minimum of PP takes. In analog development was in the darkroom, with digital there is "room clear", which is essential for those who shoot RAW using RAW format - the compact, in theory, should not have this possibility. In any case, my concept of PP is to correct those errors that inevitably the machine (or photographer) commits. Here are some examples of adjustments that you can do once your home with JPEGs and photo-processing programs such as free GIMP:

• raise the contrast (which can be done by adjusting the levels or curves, creating a curve "S");
• adjust the hue, and eliminate annoying dominant (the most common are blue in the picture with the sun in summer and red in the picture at night);
• adjust the saturation, or saturate a bit 'colors without overdoing it, of course;
• sharpen with tools provided by the software, in particular, if any, apply an unsharp mask;
• straighten the horizon or, failing that, look at the vertical lines and make sure they are actually vertical. To do this during shooting, many tripods have a spirit level, or sale of spirit levels to put the flash on the slide - of course must have your compact flash slide!
• adjust the exposure, or bring the histogram so that it fills the entire tonal range, and then act on those levels and cut shades that are not affected by the histogram.

Here are just a few tips that came to my mind and I hope you have been useful. Post are not under the pretense of "teaching" will be missed. These are just some observations arising from my small experience that I wanted to share with you! So if I missed something - very likely - do this well. In any case, have fun but also ... good light!

° ° °

As the title suggests, this will be the last post. This blog shuts down. I do not know if I will miss, but it is a choice that I feel I must take. Perhaps I will return, do not know when I do not know how, but certainly not here. I thank all those who participated in these (almost) three years with comments, ideas, reflections and so on and helped make a good blog. I hope not to have too bored and I also hope that some things I've written it may be useful.

Goodbye my friends, Mark

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Getting good photos with a digital compact / 2

In this second part we will see some tricks to pull out the best in compact cameras. Before you begin shooting, however, you must do two things. The first is to document a minimum on photographic technique, or read some articulate concerns that exposure, ISO, focal length, aperture, shutter speed, WB and all those useful information to the next step. I'm not saying to study the manual of photography, but at least get the basics of the technique. So, then you can approach more easily to the second stage: know your camera. Although many times this may seem obvious, get to know their compact camera is extremely important. In addition to knowing the various menu items, in order to make best use of all functions during shooting is also necessary to know how the machine works like in different lighting conditions. Try, for example, taking the same photo but varying:

• ISO;
• WB;
• AF points;
• exposure compensation;
• various parameters that depend on the machine.

In this way, after some tedious but essential test, you'll know exactly how the car behaves and will not have unpleasant surprises when you go to take seriously.

And now we move on to some practical advice. As mentioned in previous posts, these considerations apply particularly in the case of photos of landscapes, or still photos taken with the sunlight.

Depth of Field

The depth of field (DoF, Depth of Field) is a very important factor in landscape photography. Unlike the picture, where the DoF is pretty low, landscapes it must be adapted to the composition . For example, if framed in a mountain landscape with a rock in the foreground, the meadow and mountains in the background, you will need a DoF that both the rock and the mountains are in focus. To do this we must close the lens iris. Most of the compact does not allow this type of regulation, but is it a way to remedy the problem. In fact, although it has no way of so-called Av (Aperture value ), almost all machines should have a compact mode "Landscape." Take heed: you do not find this mode of styles photo - this will likely lead to a different WB combined with a higher contrast and colors a bit 'more saturated. No, there should be a real shooting mode called "Landscape" or "Panorama" or "Landscape" or something. In this mode the machine automatically maximizes the DoF and the result should be a picture in focus both the foreground and background. But if you have the ability to manually close the iris ... use it! Appropriate values \u200b\u200bare more focal ratio of f / 8, although this depends on the focal length using the shell (with a maximum wide angle, the DoF is reached already at f/10, and you have to close with a telephoto lens even more than f/20).

Sharpness

The sharpness of a photo is the result of some precautions to be taken during shooting.

1. First used as often as possible a tripod. It seems trivial, but even the smallest vibration can cause a loss of sharpness. In the photos at night, in addition, it is essential. There are tripods for all tastes and budgets. Obviously, more robust and more stable it will be. But this also leads to a weight and a compact footprint and weigh no more so much to take in carbon tripods. So, if I can afford to advice, forget the tripod 15-20 € made in China and seek the good stuff. Recommended brands are Benro and Manfrotto. Of this there are some economic models suitable for compact and cost around € 50. Alternatively I would recommend the excellent and very effective GorillaPod : a mini tripod with rubber and plastic jointed legs. I can put just about anywhere and women is also in her purse. A flaw? It 's small, so you have tangled with some light pole, for example, to bring it up to considerable height.
2. Second, along with the use of the tripod, turned on the self-timer . In this will prevent further risk of vibration and micro-motion.
3. Third focus . Focus on the subject properly and use the mode "Landscape" to maximize DoF (or if your machine allows it close the aperture as much as possible). Council to focus repeatedly pressing and releasing the shutter button half: in this way reduces the risk that the AF I fail.
4. Fourth used ISO values \u200b\u200bas low as possible . This will ensure a negligible noise. The sensors of the compact, in fact, being more dense than those of a reflex, they are practically unusable over ISO 400. Try always use the lowest available for your camera (values \u200b\u200bare likely to ISO 64, 80, 100).

In the next post will talk about: exposure, white balance and post production.

Stay tuned ...

Do Nose Retainers Work?

Getting good photos with a digital compact / 1

Following the principle that "the picture does not do the car but the photographer" , here are a couple posts with some tips for taking quality photos although it has no equipment of professionals. I refer in particular to all those who, possessing a compact digital, when they see pictures to the computer exclaim, "here, that lousy picture! If only I had a reflex ... ". Well, I can assure you that having a camera will not save you from making bad pictures or low alloy . If anything, the advantage of a digital SLR is that you may have provided virtually all the focal lengths (providing of course objectives) and the sensor, having a lower density of pixels, is less noisy (and of course other advantages that are not list for short).

The compact today, allowing for a range of adjustments that may not even imagine. High-level stuff, which sometimes even have the reflex. Some examples? Ability to change the points and modes of self-focus (AF), bracketing exposure, exposure compensation for flash, with fine adjustment of white balance bracketing (WB), selection of shutter speed for long exposures, at least 3 or 4 methods for calculating exposure, and many others. To learn in depth I suggest you dig up the instruction manual or search in internet. Alternatively, groom at the bottom of your camera menu and I'm sure you'll be amazed how many adjustments are possible.

But there is to say that, even with a super-equipped, the photos will not necessarily impact - do not want to come across the controversy Photo like beautiful photos or so. The fundamental things, in my opinion, are the light and composition. Let's say that, with regard to landscape photography (which is my thing), we can divide the responsibilities of success in this way: 6 0% light, 39% composition and the remaining 1% equipment. Too extreme? I think not.

Let's talk about landscape photography or simply travel photography (ie all those situations where you go to a new place and bring your camera to capture views and landscapes to show then to relatives and friends). In this photographic genre, the light is the most important, in my opinion much more important than in other types of photography. We speak of the sun, of course. So the search for the right light is a first step towards the success of a good photo . Needless to say: the best time dawn and early morning hours (say up to 10 in winter and up to 9, even before the summer) and dusk (from 18 d onwards 'summer and winter and then in about 15 - say that in winter even during the middle there should be no big problems). During other daylight hours do not expect to take home to show shots, especially if the day is not a cloud: you too hard and dark shadows, illegible, colors saturated and often unpacked, difficulties with the WB that will lead to dominant more often than blue, just to name a few problems.

A second thing comes into play the composition. Suppose you are in a fabulous place, the right light of sunset, the clouds pink and a sky that fades from blue to red to yellow and then near horizon. This is where the composition, element and driven by the personality of each one (I'll talk about this later, when I collected all the ideas). This is where the photographer, the photographer puts us here on his and the result will be different depending on who takes the photo. This is where game, therefore, the personality and style of the person. It 's a bit like saying "show me the pictures and I'll tell you who you are" .

Finally, the equipment. Trust also that I have seen pictures taken with the compact from € 100, which gave a hard time in pictures taken with equipment for thousands of euro. Sure, is that now I'm going to take pictures with cardboard and a hole , you know. The cameras and targets to have thousands of euro's definitely something more than the compact eh. Indeed, some things you can do only with a certain piece of equipment, very expensive (I can think of such architecture, which banks use optical medium or large format cameras or decetrabili objectives - the so-called tilt & shift). There is a reason, then, if some trinkets at any cost. But for recreational needs, and especially for those who want to do good work while not spending a crowd, even a compact 100-150 € can be a starting point to learn this art.

In the next post I will talk to the latter question, therefore, that how to get great pictures with your compact digital .

Stay tuned ...