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November 25, 2014November 25, 2014

How much processing is enough

When doing artistic image processing, knowing when to stop is important. In a non-digital world, for example, when painting, continuing to paint beyond a certain point could actually ruin the picture. The colours would become dirty and lose vibrance. With a digital image, there is always a possibility to undo the last action, so as long as the versions are saved regularly, there is no danger of losing all the work. However, there is certainly a point of diminishing returns, when doing a lot of work results in progressively less and less noticeable changes in the image.

I find that some image adjustments are almost always worth doing. They are cropping, colour balance and exposure adjustments. Playing with them does take some time, but the results are significant and there is a good chance of drastically improving an image by playing with these tools.

On the other hand, more detailed work, such as local dodging and burning, using a Liquify tool in Photoshop, skin smoothing in portraits, etc. is not always necessary. Of course, the more work you put in the image, the better it ultimately becomes, but the return on the time investment decreases. There is one counter-argument to this, though, which is quite significant to me. When I spend time working on an image, I am not only investing time in improving it, but also in learning new skills and techniques. In the long run, this makes me more efficient overall. I learn which methods work or don’t work for certain types of images. I also learn to apply various methods faster.

Generally, whether an image is over-processed or not is a very subjective question. I believe that in order to make a photo unique, I have to touch most of its pixels with a brush (I use a Wacom graphics tablet) at some point in the editing process. Having said this, time is a very precious resource, and while I am doing fine tweaks, which might not be noticed by anyone, except myself, I am not doing something else, for example, shooting more photos or learning new techniques. In my experience, the “optimal” stopping point in post-processing is actually not a true optimum, in the optimization theory sense of the word. Rather, it is a bit of a moving target. Finding the balance between under- and over-processed image is like riding a bicycle: sometimes, I lean more one way, sometimes – the other. The important thing is doing it consistently and avoiding extremes.

November 24, 2014November 24, 2014

Time management for photo projects

Sometimes, when a photo shoot results in a couple of thousands images that need to be sorted through, post-processed and deliver to the client, time management becomes an issue. For me, photography is a part-time pursuit, so finding time to move the large projects along is an issue, which I continuously deal with. Lately, I found it effective to adopt an approach that I’ve been using in my work as a professor – working in brief regular sessions.

This concept applies to so-called “deep work” – something that needs to be done and is fundamentally important (such as doing research and reading technical literature), but that is not urgent and “in your face” (such as answering email and attending meetings). I first learned about it from a book called “Tomorrow’s Professor: Preparing for Careers in Science and Engineering” by Richard M. Reis. He describes that people, who are productive academically (read: publish many research papers) trend to work in brief, regular sessions. There is nothing surprising in this (it’s kind of eating an elephant one bite at a time), but in Reis’ observation, both words “brief” and “regular” are important. Brief work periods help avoiding burnout, and regular sessions ensure that progress is being made (otherwise, lots of time would be wasted to re-start the project at the beginning of every session).

For my photo projects, I try to adapt the same principle, particularly when some creative image editing is required. I work on a couple of images every day, as a way of taking a break from other tasks. This way, I can engage and have fun with the photos, and it doesn’t feel like work. After all, someone said that starting a photo business is a sure way to kill a perfect hobby, and I am determined to avoid that.

November 23, 2014November 24, 2014

Photographing newborns

Newborn photography is a very popular genre because it represents a major emotional milestone for any family. Overall, babies are easy to photograph, compared to toddlers, for example, but there are a few points that I keep in mind to improve the images and the photo shoot experience (which is probably at least as important for the young family as the photos themselves):

The best time to for a newborn portrait is within the first ten days of their life. After that, babies lose their natural curled-up posture, which makes iconic images of a sleeping child so cute. The first couple of weeks are also some of the busiest for the new parents, so it’s good to plane the shoot in advance.
It’s important to keep the room very warm (barely comfortable for adults) – babies get cold very easily.
Babies’ eyelids are very thin, so the flashes can disturb their sleep. The opportunities to capture the “sleeping baby” photos may be few. Of course, there is an option to shoot with natural light, if there is a large window in the room.
Post-processing is a must. Baby’s skin is not a smooth as we are used to think. In fact, it is spotty, scaly and translucent, showing all the tiny blood vessels. It is also very red, compared to an adult’s skin tone (I am talking about a white baby here – different races would have their own differences).

Overall, I think newborn portrait are a lot of fun, particularly because of the opportunity to capture the emotional connection of the adults and the newest member of the humankind. Taking this king of photos always feels like a privilege.

November 22, 2014November 23, 2014

Shooting hockey: dealing with low contrast

At yesterday’s ice hockey game, I used Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM lens to shoot the action through transparent plastic panels that surrounded the rink for safety of the fans. The panels were covered with scuff marks from the puck hits, which did not interfere with focussing, since the lens hood was, practically, touching the panels. However, the resulting photos showed significant loss of contrast.

I corrected the images in Lightroom by moving “Blacks” slider to the left until the black levels are clipped (around -75 in most of my images). To compensate for the large amount of light reflected from the ice surface, the “Highlights” slider also has be moved to the left (my typical values were around -50).

Generally, I found that the 300mm f/2.8L lens worked well on a full-frame camera (Canon EOS-1D X). A friend of mine was shooting with a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens on his Canon EOS 7D Mark II (with a crop sensor), which gave him more flexibility of a range of focal lengths without sacrificing the reach at the long end of the zoom range.

November 21, 2014November 22, 2014

Retouching portraits of children

Retouching children’s portraits requires a surprising amount of skin smoothing. Baby’s skin is a proverbial reference for smoothness. This is why it is expected that skin in a child’d portrait would be impeccably smooth. In reality, children have very thin, quite translucent skin, so an unretouched portrait shows variations of colour, as well as small blood vessels under the skin. While this image is technically accurate, it appears unnatural, because of our expectations of smooth baby skin.

I have just finished post-processing a series of photos that my associate Armando and I took last week for an advertisement campaign of a dance school. I used Portrait Pro Studio 12 – a retouching software that can be called as an add-on from Photoshop. I found that the default settings for a “girl under 12 years old” result in too much processing for my taste. Through some trial and error, I found that these global tweaks give more reasonable results:

Turn off face sculpting and lighting effects. Children’s faces are rather round and flat; the Portrait Pro algorithms for enhancing the shape of the face detract from these features.
Reduce the default amount of skin smoothing (controlled by the Master Fade slider under Skin Smoothing Controls) by half.

Before applying the Portrait Pro filter, which appear on a separate layer, I make a stamp visible layer underneath it (create new layer, then press Shift-Option-Command-E). This way, if at a later point I decide that the retouching effects are too strong, I can reduce the opacity of the layer containing them to tone them down.

November 20, 2014November 20, 2014

Photo backdrop materials

A good background can greatly enhance a studio photo, whether it is a portrait or a still life. Generally, I try to select a background that ether complements or contrasts with the subject in terms of colour, tone and texture. In terms of material, here are the typical choices, with their advantages and limitations:

Paper

Paper is the least expensive material. It is available in many colours and is a better choice than fabric if you want a smooth background. It is definitely the most versatile material, particularly white paper, because it can be made grey, by limiting the amount of light shining on it, or any other colour by illuminating it with a spot light with a coloured gel on it. On the other hand, black paper is not as good as fabric for creating a solid black background, since it is more reflective.

The disadvantage is that paper gets dirty and wears out relatively quickly (from models standing on it). It can be argued that considering the cost of replacement, paper is the most expensive choice over a long time. However, the dirty part of the paper would be only under the models’ feet, where it is typically not very noticeable in the photos. Also, I have learned about a hack (is it the new work for “trick”?) of using a 4′ x 8′ of glossy white wallboard from a home improvement store as the surface for the models to stand on (the paper would be underneath the plastic). The line where the paper and the plastic meet would not be visible in the photo, since the paper curves under the plastic sheet.

Fabric

Cloth backgrounds are slightly more expensive than paper. They can be changed very easily, and are more durable than paper, but it’s not recommended to stand on them.

Fabric is the material of choice for the black background. Conversely, it does not work well for solid white background – you would need ridiculous amounts of light to blow out the shadows on the tiny wrinkles. With white or grey fabric, any colour, except for very saturated colours, can be created by using spotlights with gels. I also like mottled cloth backgrounds: I have one in cool grey and one in warm brown colour. I find that it’s almost necessary to blur the fabric background by using shallow depth of field.

Another feature to consider is the amount of storage space the background requires when not in use. If you don’t have a dedicated studio space that is set up for photography all the time, then fabric backgrounds take the least amount of space when folded for storage.

Vinyl

Vinyl backgrounds are heavier and more durable, but also more expensive. They crease easily and slippery to walk on.

A support stand is needed for any type of background, and in case of fabric, some clamps are very handy.

Note: While green or backgrounds are commonly used for composite video, it is much better to use a grey background for composite photos. The reason is that a green background would cast a very unnatural reflected light on the edge of the model (e.g. the tiny hairs on the skin), and it would be very difficult to make a selection in Photoshop to get rid of this green edge light.

November 19, 2014November 19, 2014

My iPhone camera apps

Here are the camera apps I currently have on my iPhone 5, which has been my pocket camera for the last couple of years. While I would not want to shoot a serious project with it, it is invaluable for capturing fleeting family moments and quickly sharing them with friends on social media. There is a great number of third -party camera apps for the iPhone, but to me personally, the deciding factors for choosing a particular one to use are

easy access to my most used features, and
intuitive interface (because I want to use the phone camera to capture the moments, not fumble through menus and settings).

For those reasons, I have these thee apps on my front screen.

Camera (native iOS app)

The native iOS app for controlling the camera (intuitively called “Camera”) has been greatly improved in iOS 8.x. I particularly like the integration of the image editing tools, which makes basic, high-impact adjustments, such as cropping, easy and intuitive.

In terms of managing of the photos, everything captured by Camera automatically goes to the Photo Stream in the iCloud, which I look through every month or so and pull the best shots in to my Lightroom library, which serves as the reference for my archives.

Camera+ ($1.99)

This is my go-to app, primarily because of its ability to set the focus and exposure points separately by dragging their icons on the screen. There is also an on-screen exposure compensation slider that lets you adjust the overall exposure. However, this is just a software feature, rather than an aperture/shutter speed/ISO adjustment found on a DSLR camera. Thus, I prefer to leave the exposure correction to the post-processing step in order to keep things simple and quick during shooting.

ProCamera ($4.99)

This app also has the separate exposure and focus settings, which is the must for my style of shooting. In addition, it has an ISO Boost mode, which raises the maximum ISO from 800 to 3200, allowing faster shutter speeds. Also, if the lash of the phone is set to torch mode, the intensity of the light can be adjusted. Note that the torch mode is a huge drain on the iPhone’s battery. In addition, there is a Night Camera mode, which allows exposures as slow as 1 sec. One really needs a tripod for this kind of shooting, which kind of defeats the purpose of a super-compact, pocket camera. In ProCamera, you can specify the level of JPEG compression (or save the photos in TIFF format), and the volume buttons of the phone can be used to trigger the shutter.

I am looking forward to receiving my new iPhone 6 Plus, with its new and improved camera hardware. My goal is to take iPhone photography a bit more seriously and, through practice, determine a set of conditions/situations where the phone camera can reliably produce good results. I have a sense that I will be using more and more of the post-processing features of the phone. Normally, I avoid heavy processing of my photos, but for the iPhone shots, the artistic filters are half of the fun. The image quality of the original photo is often not particularly high, compared to that taken with a full-frame pro DSLR, which often releases my creativity.

Generally, looking at and reading about the work of others has been invaluable for developing my own skills. Recently, there emerged a vast body of resources on iPhone photography, such as this book that brings together variety of styles, subjects and software tools use by some of the best artists in this field.

November 18, 2014November 19, 2014

Flash vs natural light

The choice between natural light and flashes is an important decision in photography. Sometimes, the choice is easy – the flash is simply not allowed in many venues, such as museums, or at certain sporting events, such as swimming and martial arts competitions.

There are many good reasons for foregoing the flash: it disturbs the participants of the event, the referees, the audience, interferes with the photo-finish equipment and destroys the ambiance of the natural light. Another advantage of using just the natural light is the unmatched flexibility due to the lack of strobes, light stands, light modifiers, cables and triggers (here is an example of a starter kit, but there is not limit to how complex a lighting setup can become). Being nimble is particularly important for sports photography. Often, it makes a difference between capturing the key shot that tells the story of the game or missing it.

The obvious downside of natural light photography is, potentially, high noise levels in the photos. Fortunately, modern DSLRs, such as Canon EOS-1D X or a more affordable Canon EOS 5D Mark III (Nikon’s counterparts are Nikon D4S and Nikon D810) handle high ISO very well, i.e. with fairly limited noise. Besides, noise can be somewhat controlled in post-processing.

On the other hand, the advantage of using strobes is not only the additional amount of light that they provide, but also total control of the lighting conditions that they enable. As a friend of mine remarked recently, using studio lights makes one learn about the light much faster than using the natural light alone. To me, this is a sufficiently good reason to use the lights, despite their cost, the inconvenience and even despite occasionally missing a shot. On the balance, I think both flash and natural light photography have their place, and both have been incredible fun to learn.

November 17, 2014

Dressing for the weather

Dressing according to the weather when shooting outdoors may seem like an obvious thing to do, but it is easy to under-estimate how cold and/or wet it can be outside when packing for the shoot in the warmth of the house. Having appropriate clothes can definitely make a difference between an enjoyable and miserable shooting experience, but even in terms of photography itself, having an extra reserve of comfort often gives me that extra bit of patience that is necessary for waiting for the perfect shot or for trying another vantage point or focal length or exposure time.

Being able to try different types of shots or just being patient enough to wait for the perfect conditions is particularly important for night photography. The photo of the the Temple Bar at night (see above) is one of my personal favourites from my sabbatical in Ireland back in 2010. I took this long exposure shot on a very cold January night. Despite being very substantially bundled up, I waited for the lonely motionless woman to be separated from the passing crowd for such a long time, all the while experimenting with different exposure times to get the motion blur “just right”, so by the the time of this shot my fingers were in excruciating pain, and I was just about to call it a day (the knowledge that only a few steps separated me from the warmth of the pub and the comfort of a pint of Guinness was only adding to the test of my will).

Likewise, during the rowing photo shoot a few weeks ago, by the end of the rainy day, only one layer or dry clothes separated me from being quite happy with the all the action shots and probably leaving early (and likely, sick) without the best photos.

I find that the most important cold-weather clothes are:

Shoes. I find that a good pair of hiking boots works best for most situations.
Gloves. Recently, I bought a pair of HEAD Digital Sport Running Gloves, which I find excellent for photography, because they have silicone bumps on the palm side that are not too thick, but just substantial enough to really improve the grip. These gloves also work on the touchscreen of my iPhone. One note for size selection: the material is somewhat stretchable, so it’s good to err on the smaller side.
Hat. A toque works great for me.
Base layer. I like a merino wool top, because it can be worn as a turtleneck without the top layer is needed. The bottoms are also a must for me in cold weather.
Mid layer. I like mid layers without pockets, because I almost always wear a shell on top.
Jacket. I like a wind-proof shell with pockets and a hood.
Pants. Most often, I wear jeans or ski pants.

Note: The links above are affiliate links – they point directly to Amazon.

November 16, 2014November 16, 2014

Black background: controlling the light

The dance studio photoshoot this weekend took place in a large room with a black curtain on the back. Armando and I set up four strobes surrounding the subjects (a group of children), and another strobe fitted with a large softbox directly in front and overhead of the subjects, as the key light. Even though the background curtain was black, it did have folds, wrinkles, etc., so it was important to make sure that no light fell on it in order for the background to come out completely black. I set my Canon EOS-1D X in manual mode with ISO 100, f/10 and 1/200 sec, so that ambient light was not registering at all. In order to avoid spilling the light on the background, we turned the two strobes located closest to it away from the curtain, so that they faced the camera and illuminated the subjects from behind. We used parabolic reflectors with honeycomb grids on these strobes to focus their beams.

The other strobes were turned towards the background, so to avoid illuminating it, we took advantage of the large size of the room and positioned the subjects sufficiently far from the background, so that the light from the strobes would fall off and would not reach the curtain. To have more control of the light direction, we put strip banks (a rectangular grids on soft vanes) on the front to the softboxes. This way, all the lights coming from the front were soft, but still relatively focussed.

One surprising feature of the dance floor, which is basically a matt black material with a texture somewhere between plastic and rubber, is that it is not so matt, but rather quite reflective under the strobe lights. We did not want the light themselves reflecting in the floor, so we tilted the softboxes slightly upward. The reflections of the subjects, on the other hand, looked very nice, and I tried to make them part of the composition whenever possible.

The floor was also scuffed everywhere by the dancers’ shoes, and every scuff mark was prominently visible in the photos. In the past, I used to spend substantial amounts of time removing the most prominent scratches from the floor in Photoshop, but after reviewing many photos, I now think that the beaten-up floor adds authenticity to the shots. It conveys that the photos were taken not in an artificial environment of the photo studio, but in the actual dance school, where children spend a lot of time practicing their art.

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