BetterPhoto Instructor Insights

Understanding F-stops: Aperture Priority

By Rob Sheppard

I rarely shoot anything but aperture priority. Occasionally I shoot manual when I need a specific sort of control (such as controlling ambient light with flash). Many sports shooters use aperture priority, too. Here’s how I use it:

Depth of field — choose an aperture for appropriate depth of field. This doesn’t mean automatically choosing the smallest apertures, such as f/16. I will use f/16 when I really need deep depth of field, but I will shoot f/8-f/11 for distant scenes where depth of field is unaffected by f-stop; f/8-f/11 tend to be the sharpest parts of most lenses. I will choose wide apertures such as f/2.8-f/4 for selective focus effects to keep subject sharp and background soft. I will typically shoot close ups at f/5.6-f/8 to gain some depth of field, but not too much (since it is difficult to get close-up backgrounds sharp anyway, I would prefer them more out of focus).

Action - choose the wide f-stops. A pro technique is to set the lens at its widest or maximum aperture, such as f/2.8-f/4. You are looking for the smallest number you can set with your lens. Then with aperture priority, you guarantee that you always will shoot with the fastest shutter speed possible for the conditions. You cannot do that with shutter speed priority. The wild turkey seen here, for example, was shot with aperture priority, max aperture, so that as the bird moved through different levels of light, I was always getting the fastest shutter speed possible for the conditions. The only time I might consider shutter speed priority would be if I wanted to use a very specific shutter speed, such as a slow speed for a water blur.

Some photographers are very comfortable with manual exposure, which works fine, but some photographers use it because they think they “should” in order to be a “real” photographer. I used to feel that way many years ago. But honestly, modern auto exposure systems are so good that they are faster, more convenient, and can be just as accurate. They certainly require a lot less thought about technology! And with digital, you can quickly see if your exposure is right or not by using the LCD with highlight warnings and histogram.

More details: Become a master of exposure - and aperture - with Rob Sheppard's outstanding online photography workshop: The Magic of F-stops: Choosing the Right Aperture. Also check out BetterPhoto.com's other digital photography online courses.

Take Better Digital Pictures: Slow Down!

By Ibarionex Perello

I am almost always in a rush, even when I'm sitting down doing nothing. I'm often thinking of what lies ahead, a dozen different thoughts fighting for some elbow room inside the little space within my skull. Meditation helps a great deal in quieting the noise and providing me the breathing room to focus, but nothing really does it for me as when I go out with my DSLR camera and begin to photograph.

One of the biggest mistakes I see students make when they are photographing is that they are in such a rush. They see something interesting, something that makes them stop in their tracks and inspires them to make a photograph. And that's what they do. They make "a" photograph. And then they are eager to rush on to the next thing. They haven't even gotten started. They haven't even given themselves time to really see what they're seeing and they're off looking for the next best thing. That's no way to live a life and that is not a way to be a photographer.

Admittedly, I often have to fight the same tendency, but experience has shown me that I'm always served by sticking around a bit and exhausting as many possibilities as I can in the pursuit of taking better pictures. Though not every scene or moment can afford such leisure, when it can, I always find that it provides me the time to refine my vision, excising those things that work and building on the things that do.

Such was the case on a recent morning, when I walked out to a beautiful day with amazing light and clouds. I walked to the church that is down the street and started making images, drawn by the strong lines of the building and sky. For the next 30 minutes, I shot over a hundred images at different angles and perspectives, trying to find what image best expressed those qualities that made me stop in the first place. I even made some images that I didn't think would work, but created them anyway simply because the thought came into my head to take that picture. It might not work, but that's not a good enough reason not to make the photograph.

When I go out to photograph, that is time I'm dedicating for myself and not for anyone else. It's my gift to myself, and it's not intended to serve the needs of a client or a student or a friend. It's time that I take out of my day to practice something that I love and that provides me so much joy. So why rush it? If photography for me is ultimately about exploring and discovery - with a side benefit ending up being the production of a beautiful photograph - then why don't I just get out my own way and allow myself to enjoy the process and the moment.

So, I slow down and don't worry about the next thing or the next shot. I just stay present and raise the digital SLR camera to my eye and working on discovering something about what I'm seeing. In the end my photographs are the better for it.

More information: Learn to take better digital pictures in Ibarionex Perellos excellent online photo class: The Pursuit of Light. In addition, BetterPhoto.com's online photography school has many more courses designed to show you how to take better digital pictures.

Note: All photos copyright by Ibarionex R. Perello

People Photography: Natural Light Portraits

By Kerry Drager

f4 @ 1/90th sec., 50mm, ISO 400

A photogenic subject, a great location, and soft overcast light were ideal ingredients recently for an outdoor portrait photography session. Of course, a red umbrella added visual interest too. :-)

I captured these images at the BetterPhoto Summit in New York City's Central Park on a fine autumn day. It was late afternoon and Summit workshop participant Barbara graciously posed. The solid gray sky acted like a giant softbox to provide very pleasing and even light.

Choosing a low f/number (wide aperture) helped create a shallow depth of field - important to separate the sharp subject against a blurred background.

The right subject and the right light just seem to deserve multiple compositions!

Additional info on photographing outdoor portraits: Take your photography to the next level through Kerry Drager's online photo course that covers natural light and creative composition. In addtion, the BetterPhoto online school of photography offers many courses on people photography and natural light portraits.

Note: Both photos copyright by Kerry Drager

Digital SLR Cameras: Exposure Vs. Noise

By Rob Sheppard

Noise, that annoying sand-like texture in a digital photo, has been seriously attacked by all major DSLR camera manufacturers.

It is unwelcome in most photography, but especially in nature photography. You can actually get away with more noise in certain types of photography because viewers accept it there, such as low-light photography of people and news. And some photography, such as travel and fashion, will use noise in creative ways. But most photography needs “cleaner” images, meaning less noise.

Most digital SLR cameras today have better sensors and noise-reduction algorithms built into cameras to keep noise low even at high ISO settings. With some of the newest digital cameras from Nikon and Canon using full-35mm-frame sensors, noise levels are extremely low, even at high ISO settings (low noise at high ISO is a good reason for a full-35mm-frame sensor). In addition, programs like Nik Software Dfine do a terrific job in reducing noise (it makes my smaller sensor Olympus E-3 perform much better at higher ISOs, for example).

But one thing you don’t hear too much about is how exposure is still a limiting factor. In fact, exposure becomes more critical with higher ISO settings. Higher ISO settings are not changing the sensor - they amplify the signal coming from the sensor. Manufacturers start applying noise reduction right on the sensor itself, then to the signal being amplified and more to keep noise down. However, as you amplify any signal, noise increases. What happens, in a sense, is that noise is just waiting to be revealed.

So if you underexpose a high-ISO exposure, you are likely to make that noise visible. The more the underexposure, the more likely noise will be noticed. You have more latitude with exposure with low ISO settings because the noise is less to begin with and not so close to the final image.

This also shows up when shadows from high ISO shots are processed. Shadows are essentially “underexposed” compared to the rest of the scene, making them closer to the noise, as dark areas will always hold more noise than brighter areas. That’s not a problem as long as those shadows stay dark. But as soon as they are brightened in Lightroom, Photoshop, etc., noise will quickly become obvious no matter what camera you use. You have less flexibility in processing an image when it is shot with a high ISO.

The solution to all of this is, first, be sure you expose correctly for a scene without underexposing key tonalities in that scene. Second, if you need to get the most out of an image, from shadows to highlights, then expose properly and use a lower ISO. You will start hearing people say that you can shoot all the time at higher ISO settings. That can be a benefit for some digital SLR photography, but remember, that as the ISO goes up, the exposure latitude goes down and the ability to get clean, noise-free shadows also goes down.

Note: Rob Sheppard is a longtime columnist and also editor-at-large for Outdoor Photographer magazine. His online photo courses at BetterPhoto.com include Guaranteed Better Photography and Impact in Your Photographs: The Wow Factor. In addition, BetterPhoto's photography school specializes in digital photography online courses and also online courses on digital exposure.

Night Photoraphy Techniques: Wet Pavement

By Jim Zuckerman

photo copyright by Jim Zuckerman

When I am shooting cities at night or twilight, I'm always happy if there is a light rain or drizzle. The wet pavement or cobblestone glistens and reflects all the lights, and it enhances the photography considerably. It's necessary to protect camera gear from the water, of course, but the hassle of that is well worth getting great images of reflections while photographing at night or twilight.

The picture you see here was taken in the old town of Krakow, Poland. You can see how much more attractive this image is because the street was wet.

I now carry with me a microfiber cloth to wipe the water drops of the lens, and I use a clear shower cap to protect the camera. I find them in many hotel rooms, and they have an elastic band that goes over the camera and it hugs the body and a portion of the lens. You can see all the controls and work with them, and at the same time most of the rain stays off the camera.

Note: Get creative with your digital photography by taking one of Jim Zuckerman's online photo tutorials - such as Perfect Digital Exposure or Techniques of Natural Light Photography - at BetterPhoto.com's digital school of photography.

Free Email Newsletters for Photographers

By Kerry Drager

BetterPhoto.com's free email newsletters allow you to kick back and let the photographic tips, techniques and inspiration come right to you!

Here's a list of available free newsletters:

• Photo of the Day: This daily newsletter showcases outstanding pictures selected from the BetterPhoto monthly photography contest ... in other words, this provides a daily dose of visual creativity!

• SnapShot: In this weekly photo newsletter, you'll find news, tips, techniques, and an excellent samply of questions and answers from the BetterPhoto photography Forum.

• PhotoFlash: This monthly newsletter features articles written by a pro photographer, plus many interesting - and helpful - photo discussions.

• Digital Darkroom: In this monthly photography newsletter, Photoshop and other digital darkroom techniques are discussed - in articles by professional photographers, as well as discussions on specific images.

Learn more and sign up for the free email newsletters here. In addition, check out the many online photography courses and online Photoshop workshops at BetterPhoto's school of photography.

Camera Flash Techniques: Rear Curtain Sync

By Doug Steakley

Flash units have several menu choices and there is one that is particularly important to understand and become familiar with - the rear curtain sync. The rear curtain sync choice appears on flash units that are a part of the camera or on flash units that are attached to the hot shoe on the top of the camera.

As you scroll through the flash menu you will see the normal flash mode, which is indicated by a lightning bolt. Then there is red eye, slow flash and finally Rear. The key difference between the regular flash setting and the Rear Curtain Sync setting is the timing or when the flash fires. With the regular flash setting the flash goes off as soon as the shutter button is pressed and the shutter opens. With the rear curtain sync selection the flash goes off when the shutter closes - at the end of the exposure. This timing difference creates very different images in some situations.

Generally the regular flash setting is used for anything that is moving or might move, such as wildlife or people - times when you want to freeze the action or where you are not worried about illuminating the background beyond the reach of the flash--usually 6-12 feet.

Rear curtain sync should be used when you are shooting a scene where you want to gather the ambient light and incorporate the flash to illuminate the foreground. Use rear curtain sync for dark interior shots where the exposure is slower due to a high aperture (f/14-f/16) and a low ISO setting.

When you use rear curtain sync the shutter opens and while it remains open the images sensor collects ambient light and then, as the shutter closes, the flash fires and illuminates the foreground.

Example 1: Carmel Mission, California...

The top image above was taken using the regular flash and the bottom using rear curtain sync. In the second image the exposure time was 1.5 seconds, which means that during the second and a half that the shutter was open, the image sensor was processing the image without a flash. Then, as the shutter closed, the flash fired and illuminated the foreground. The important difference is how the information behind the doorway comes to life in the second image, whereas it is just dark in the first image. This is the benefit of using the Rear Curtain Sync setting on the flash unit.

I see that the blue behind the santos is more saturated in the first image, but that is because the sun came out and was shining through a window to the left. You can see the sunlight creating shadows and washing out some of the color.

Now look at two more images that were taken in the same manner:

Example 2: Copper Font at Carmel Mission...

In these photographs (above) of the copper font, the one at top was taken using a regular flash and the one on the bottom was taken using rear curtain sync. Shooting in regular flash mode uses a much faster shutter speed - in this case, 1/15 second. Shooting in rear curtain sync slows the shutter speed and allows the ambient light to be collected, which gives the background detail. The image sensor is collecting all the background information and then the flash goes off at the end of the exposure, lighting up the foreground.

When using rear curtain sync it is a good idea to shoot in the aperture priority mode at an aperture of f/11-f/16 to ensure that the information in the background is also in focus. Shooting at a narrow aperture will also create a slower shutter speed, allowing more time for the background to register on the image sensor.

Rear curtain sync works well in static images where there is background information that is important to the image.

Note: Learn all about flash photography basics and creative flash techniques in an online photography course at BetterPhoto.com's school of photography. See the class listings for light, exposure, and camera flash techniques. Boost your camera skills and your creative photography in Doug Steakley's excellent Internet photo class: Photographing Motion.

Camera Tripods: An Essential Photo Accessory

By Rob Sheppard

Many photographers skimp on tripods and I think that is a mistake. I see this when traveling all the time, and sometimes in my classes. You see an expensive digital SLR camera and lens on a low-priced tripod. Many photographers think nothing of spending hundreds of dollars for a lens, but complain about spending the same for a tripod.

Yet a good tripod can make or break the sharpness of any lens. In my Olympus gear, I have lenses that cost anywhere from $500 to $2000. To me, the cost of my tripod and head, about $1000, was a very important investment and worth every dollar. You can get good tripods for less, but the really low priced tripods are not worth the price. A cheap tripod that does not do its job well is too expensive.

I recommend a carbon fiber tripod for its light weight and a lightweight magnesium alloy head. In addition, carbon fiber is not as hard on the fingers when it is cold — metal tripods will sap the warmth and energy from your fingers. A quick release head helps make using a tripod easier.

Manfrotto and Gitzo are always good brands, both imported by Bogen. Manfrotto tripods are solid units that are a good value for their money. Gitzo tripods are expensive, but their fine construction is a pleasure to work with. Both manufacturers also make good tripod heads.

I use a Gitzo Mountaineer GT1540 tripod plus a BH-40 Really Right Stuff head. What is more important than the specific models are the reasons that I use this combination. I think you should look carefully at your needs for a tripod as this will affect which ones you use. I got this tripod for its compact size and light weight for travel - it easily collapses to suitcase size. Plus, the Really Right Stuff head is quite light, too. So in the field, I am not carrying more than a very few pounds of tripod and head. I also like the Really Right Stuff tripod mounting plates which allow for secure, quick-release of camera/lens.

That said, there are some new heads from Manfrotto and Gitzo that have come out in the past couple of years that I quite like and would easily consider them a challenge to the Really Right Stuff head. The Gitzo heads are very finely manufactured and a true pleasure to work with, while the Manfrotto heads offer a solid, great value for the budget-limited photographer.

If I did less travel, I would probably opt for a three-section leg tripod (mine is four), as they are just slightly sturdier and faster to set up (though my four-section legs are very sturdy) and a slightly heavier head. One thing that is quite nice for carbon-fiber tripods now is that you can tighten and loosen the knurled locking rings all at once and open and close legs, which is not possible with older styles (and some tripods on the market now - this is not a quality issue, but a convenience feature).

Bottom line for my tripod and head is that it is lightweight, compact and easily taken anywhere. You can have the sturdiest, most wonderful tripod in the world, but if you hate taking it with you, it is worthless. I have no problem making sure my tripod is always with me.

The photo seen here was taken in the Ancient Bristlecone National Forest near Big Pine, California, nearly 20 minutes after sunset, which meant a long exposure of many seconds. A tripod was a necessity.

Note: Rob Sheppard is a columnist for Outdoor Photographer magazine, an author of many photography books, and an instructor for BetterPhoto.com's photography school online. Rob's online photo courses include Impact in Your Photographs: The Wow Factor, The Magic of F-Stops: How to Choose the Right Aperture, and Successful Publication Photography.

Flash Photography Settings: Get Creative!

By Jim Zuckerman

One of my favorite techniques when photographing dancers is to use a camera flash in conjunction with a long exposure. The result is an image similar to a double exposure where one of the pictures is blurred and the other one is sharp (from the flash).

I photographed some Turkish dancers using this flash photography technique and liked the results. My shutter speed was 1/6th of a second.

Note: In his online photography class, "Taking the Mystery Out of Flash Photography", Jim Zuckerman covers flash photography settings and creative flash techniques. Also see other BetterPhoto online photo workshops such as Paul Gero's Mastering Your Canon Flash and Rob Sheppard's Creative Flash Photography.

photo copyright by Jim Zuckerman

Auto White Balance: Why It's Rarely a Good Choice

By Rob Sheppard

Everyone says that it is so easy to change white balance in RAW, that you can simply set your camera to AWB when you shoot RAW and set white balance in Lightroom or other program. Yet, though this may be true in concept, I consistently see problems with white balance due to that technique because of the problems with auto white balance or AWB.

First off, AWB is inconsistent. You can take a picture of the same scene with wide angle and telephoto focal lengths and get two different white balances. The colors will be different, even though they should be identical. Now you are faced with a workflow problem - you have to adjust white balance of at least one of the photos, yet if you set your camera to a specific white balance, often you would not do any adjusting at all.

Now if you have to adjust white balance, then you are faced with a decision. Suppose you have those two images that came up with different color because of AWB - which one is correct or alternately which one is better? Or maybe neither! So regardless of what program you are working with, you have a workflow issue where you have to go in and change white balance settings.

And that gives another problem. A lot of people see the settings for white balance in Lightroom and Camera Raw, notice that they are similar to the camera’s settings, and figure that they can just set these settings there. Actually, you can’t. Those settings are Adobe colors, Adobe interpretations of digital image files, not interpretations of a real-world scene as your camera is doing. This means that if you have two radically different images that are both in standard daylight conditions and set both to Adobe’s daylight setting, for example, you can get different looks for both photos. That’s definitely a problem.

And there are other problems, including one that I had not thought about until I started seeing so many photographs from my students at BetterPhoto.com that I was recognizing as having been shot with AWB. When digital cameras first came out, I was an advocate for setting a specific white balance, especially when shooting outdoors. This, to me, was simply a part of the craft of photography now modified by digital. I have always felt that it is best to capture the best image from the start rather than trying to “fix” it later, which is what using AWB plus a RAW software to set white balance does. But I did not believe that I could actually recognize AWB until I started seeing consistent color problems such as weaker colors and colors that are contaminated by blue.

What I think seems to happen is that the photographer gets back in front of the computer after shooting something outside and sees the image in isolation. AWB may often give a compromised color, but it usually looks “okay” on the monitor, and most photographers don’t shoot a series of varied shots of the same subject, so they don’t see the variation in color that AWB gives. So they don’t make the white balance adjustment needed, the white balance adjustment that some RAW aficionados say makes AWB fine to use. AWB would be okay to use if the photographer always made an adjustment, but so often, like I said, the AWB photo looks okay and so the photographer accepts the weaker color and contaminated blues because there is nothing to compare to.

So for me, it is a workflow and photographic craft issue. I set my white balance to a specific setting because I want consistent results when shooting in the field, because I want to be sure I have captured the best colors while I am still in the field, and because I don’t want to have to “fix it” in Lightroom (which is my program of choice).

However...
Do I use AWB? Yes. I think it is an important control when you are indoors with screwy lighting. It can be hard in those conditions to figure out what to do for white balance. I also think that custom white balance is a good thing to use in those conditions, including devices such as the Spyder Cube that are a great help when working with a RAW file in Lightroom or other program in order to get neutral colored neutral colors. Custom white balance is trickier to use outdoors in nature because there are often important natural color casts to such scenes that you want to retain or even emphasize.

Note:
Rob Sheppard - the editor-at-large of Outdoor Photographer magazine - teaches a number of online photo tutorials, including Successful Successful Publication Photography and Impact in Your Photographs: The Wow Factor. The online photography school at BetterPhoto.com offers Internet photography courses in an exciting range of subjects and for all skill levels.