Photography 101 – Part III

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Lyrt
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Photography 101 – Part III

Post by Lyrt »

Part I is here.
Part II is here.

Hello, sorry for the hiatus. I wish I could say I was overloaded with work but the truth is I was busy doing nothing. As promised, today is white balance and metering.

White Balance
Contrary to our eyes, digital cameras (even those costing $8000) suck at judging what is white under different light sources, thus the need for the photographer to correctly set the White Balance in the boring menus and submenus of his P&S camera. Again, I’ll be pragmatic for the neophytes.

Situation n°1: natural light
Sunny weather, rainy day, sun behind cumulus, whatever, use the automatic white balance (AWB) of your P&S, the results will be either great or good.

Situation n°2: Artificial light
There are great chances that 90% of the photographs you’ll take under artificial light will be at home. Incandescent light sources will result in a warm (yellow) cast which can be removed either by setting the camera WB on “incandescent” or by removing it with an image software.

Here’s what your menu should look like:
Image

Here’s a random example of how a camera reacts under artificial lighting.

Automatic White Balance (see the yellow cast):
Image

Incandescent White Balance:
Image

Nota Bene: if you set your camera on Incandescent WB and shoot in day light or using a flash you’ll get a cold (blue) cast.
Image

Morality: always use AWB. When shooting indoors, use incandescent. If neither works, you’ll need to learn how to use manual white balance or an image software.


Metering mode
This part about metering is totally forgettable. I wrote it just so you understand why it’s there and how it can be useful in peculiar situations. Only use the matrix/evaluative mode and you’ll get great results most of the time.

Ehem. Let’s start. Today most cameras have a light meter to determine the proper exposure for a photograph. Different metering modes exist. Here’s what your menu should look like:
Image

1) Matrix (or evaluative) metering: the default mode of many cameras. Here the camera measures the light intensity in several points in the scene and then combines the results to find the settings for the best exposure. Most of the time, it will work great. When taking contre-jour shots, however, there are great chances that the foreground will be underexposed. Look at the peanut butter pot below:

Image

You can clearly see there was a great source of light that tricked the camera. Photographers have three solutions here. They can overexpose the shot or they can change the metering mode.

2) Centre-weighted average and spot metering: here the camera measures the centre or a very small area (usually the focus point) of the scene. In my photograph of the peanut butter pot, the camera will ignore the source of light behind, which will result in a correctly exposed peanut butter pot and overblown highlights in the background:

Image

The method to get the best results is to use a flash. In photography jargon, it’s called fill-in flash. Fill-in flash balances the picture by filling in the shadow areas. This is why you often see photographers using a flash in daylight:

Image


Morality: forget what I said.

I have no idea what I’ll speak of in part IV.
mobi9957
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Nice Tips. Thanks for Sharing tips.

Post by mobi9957 »

Nice Tips. Thanks for Sharing tips.
brothers
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Post by brothers »

Great tip about the IWB. Now I've got to go home and see if my camera has that feature. Thanks.
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Post by brothers »

Following up. It took me a year and a half to "get around to" it. Now that the beautiful LOTH/SWMBO has her own camera to be in charge of , I've got the old one all to myself, so I've learned how to do just as the gentleman suggested 2 years ago. It's fun being able to control these aspects of photography. I guess I should make a note to read Parts I and II one of these days. There might be something interesting there also, that might contribute to my picture-taking education.
Gary

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Post by jww »

I enjoy these threads quite a bit -- and usually am reminded of some gem that I have forgotten over the years.

My personal solution for perfect white balance is a very simple tool (yes you can do the same thing with a white sheet of paper -- but I prefer my ColorRight Pro).

In all my years of taking pictures (since 1975), I have found the ColorRight Pro to be perfect for all situations. And what is truly cool is that it works with flashes -- either on-board or dedicated units. Very cool. It only works with cameras that have a forced custom WB setting - DSLRs, and higher end digitals and bridge cameras.

I am not compensated by the sellers of any tools which I use. The recommendations I make are of my own accord.

Fill-in flash is probably one of the best kept secrets of photographic lighting. Most folks have no clue what a difference it makes. And most digital cameras -- yes even many of the low-end ones - have this feature -- i.e. to force the flash to fire in any picture. Not all, mind you, but many.
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Post by IsaacRN »

Is there a big difference between the Pro and the Classic? I dont know that I would necessarily need the Pro, and the Classic appears to be more traveler friendly.
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Post by jww »

The advantage of the pro is that because it is round and sticks out well beyond the end of the lens, it works will all flashes. The classic works less effectively with flash lighting, but fine with all natural light. I don't have any issues on portability as I always carry lots of gear with me (my Kata 3n120 bag is easy to carry and holds copious amounts of kit). I believe it is worth the extra expense.

I own two Pro models -- a Natural and a Portrait -- the portrait being slightly warmer for indoor shooting. To be honest -- they are always running deals -- I got both of mine for the price of one essentially --- there was a 45% discount off my entire purchase when I ordered. These are in the final stages of going to a photo tools distributor -- and when they sign the final deal sometime later this spring, apparently the products will only be available in authorized stores (for a presumably higher price). Get on their mailing list and wait for a couple of weeks to see what kinds of deals they come out with. One downside -- neither of mine came with the case which they are now including with most purchases -- that would assist with portability I would expect.

There are certainly plenty of wb tools available -- but this is the one I have found to be the best all round in terms of results and ease of use.
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Post by brothers »

Wendell, I have a Sony DSC-P31 camera. Is that considered a SLR camera? I ask that question because the ColorRight information states it works with SLR cameras. This is probably a very basic fact, but I still have to ask because I don't know! :lol:
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Post by jww »

Nope -- you have a pure point and shoot with some white balance options - but no opportunity to actually fix the white balance manually.

Digial SLRs are digital cameras based on 35mm SLR film cameras. SLR means single-lens-reflex. There are now mirrorless DSLR-like cameras available such as the Olympus Pen series and the Sony Nex series. You would need something more recent with full manual white balance capabilities -- your P&S doesn't have it, so it would be moot for you to get a ColorRight.
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Post by brothers »

Now I have another goodie to put on the wish list. My wife's been telling me for a really long time that my camera's out of date. I guess for now I'll just point and shoot, but I'll start doing some product research on a better camera.
Gary

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Post by IsaacRN »

Well my impulsive nature "made me" purchase the pro. I really cant wait to get the tool in. I definitely need to get me another bag though for all my gear.
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Post by jww »

IsaacRN wrote:Well my impulsive nature "made me" purchase the pro. I really cant wait to get the tool in. I definitely need to get me another bag though for all my gear.
I think you will really like it -- it couldn't be easier to use. Just set your manual white balance setting -- the one that asks you to take a picture of a white piece of paper (different cameras have different setups, but all DSLRs do have this option/feature), pre-focus the camera on anything, hold the ColorRight Pro in front of it, take the picture, then when you are asked to accept the new white balance, simply select yes. Takes all of 10 seconds to set the white balance. I do it for pretty much everything I shoot -- outdoors or indoors.
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Post by IsaacRN »

I cant wait to get it in. Ill have to find that setting on the white balance. By the way, your camera bag is quite nice. How many lenses can you carry at one time? I cant remember what model I have, but i have a Tenba messenger style bag that can hold 2 lenses and the camera. Im looking for a bag that could possibly hold 4 lenses with the camera. Im tending to prefer a backpack style.

I really liked the tripod option on your pack as well.
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Post by jww »

My bag usually carries the following:

Olympus e-620 body & battery
Olympus-Zuiko 14mm-42mm zoom + hood
Olympus-Zuiko 40mm-150mm zoom + hood
Metz AF-48-1 flash unit
Cables, 4 or 5 memory cards
8-10 cokin filters plus lens mount and hood
Demb Pro Diffuser
A Better Bounce Card Jr
2 ColorRight Pros (portrait and natural)
1 pair of thin, grippy gloves
A circular polarizer (handy that my two lenses have the same filter size)
card reader
cables
battery charger
Giotto rocket blower
Lenspen
small travel tripod from Eddie Bauer
manuals for flash and camera body

I would have room to add at least one more lens by slimming down on other items. The really cool thing about this bag is that the upper compartment opens into the main body of the bag to hold a really long tele-zoom.

I would like to eventually add a 12mm-60mm lens to my kit --- along with a 70mm - 300 mm zoom -- I would still have room for at least one of these -- possibly both - but probably would take out the 14-40 to make room - as it becomes moot with the 12-60.

You can truly put a ton of gear into this bag -- and the carrying options are wonderful. Sling, backpack, cross-sling -- it does it all. I highly recommend it -- and it comes with a life-time warranty to boot. I don't have the tripod adapter -- but will get one eventually. I need a new tripod one of these days -- but am in no rush -- my Sunpak Fieldmaster is fine for now.

Wow -- have we digressed with this thread..... :wink:
Last edited by jww on Sat Jan 08, 2011 4:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by jww »

brothers wrote:Now I have another goodie to put on the wish list. My wife's been telling me for a really long time that my camera's out of date. I guess for now I'll just point and shoot, but I'll start doing some product research on a better camera.
The new Olympus e-5 is really nice -- as is the Nikon D7000. I am less impressed with the Canon 60D - and prefer the previous model, the D50. Pentax is doing some great stuff with recent products and Sony -- of all people -- have really leveraged that purchase of Konica/Minolta to come out with some interesting cameras of late as well.

There are also some wonderful lenses available for all these brands -- my personal preference being the sharp optics of Olympus-Zuiko, obviously.

DSLRs are wonderful tools -- so long as you know what you are doing. It's well worth it to enroll in some photo classes to learn about taking pictures. A better camera doesn't make you a better photographer. I can't tell you how many people I see running around with Canon EOS DSLRs -- taking pictures of everything in auto or scene mode. What an enormous waste of money.
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Post by Trendkill »

jww wrote:
brothers wrote:Now I have another goodie to put on the wish list. My wife's been telling me for a really long time that my camera's out of date. I guess for now I'll just point and shoot, but I'll start doing some product research on a better camera.
The new Olympus e-5 is really nice -- as is the Nikon D7000. I am less impressed with the Canon 60D - and prefer the previous model, the D50. Pentax is doing some great stuff with recent products and Sony -- of all people -- have really leveraged that purchase of Konica/Minolta to come out with some interesting cameras of late as well.

There are also some wonderful lenses available for all these brands -- my personal preference being the sharp optics of Olympus-Zuiko, obviously.

DSLRs are wonderful tools -- so long as you know what you are doing. It's well worth it to enroll in some photo classes to learn about taking pictures. A better camera doesn't make you a better photographer. I can't tell you how many people I see running around with Canon EOS DSLRs -- taking pictures of everything in auto or scene mode. What an enormous waste of money.
This is exactly what stopped me from getting a DSLR. I have no clue about how to use it properly so I passed and I'm glad I did. Maybe someday...
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Post by jww »

Trendkill wrote:...
This is exactly what stopped me from getting a DSLR. I have no clue about how to use it properly so I passed and I'm glad I did. Maybe someday...
Have you considered taking some photography lessons? Local shops, school boards, etc. all offer some very good classes at fairly modest prices as well. Once you figure out basic composition, aperture, shutter speed and lighting, you can go quite fare with some experimentation and experience.

You can get the capabilities of a p&s in a bridge camera -- such as the Canon G series. You may not get the larger sensor and speed or optics of a DSLR, but you get full manual mode, aperture and shutter priority shooting, RAW shooting, and can go a long way with one of these. My first camera was a Canon G3 -- and I purchased a couple of conversion lenses and was able to get some outstanding results. I worked that camera into the ground almost, before I got my e-620. It's a lot less cost to go this route.
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