Jumbled Mess
From ReefPedia
Creative Flair
The difference between a picture and a photograph
Awareness
Basics of composition
Waiting for the moment
Creating the moment
Capturing the moment
Advanced techniques
Depth-of-field
Aperture again
Manual Focus
SLR Techniques
Predictive focus- good sometimes
Mirror Lock-up
Second-curtain sync
Manual Focus
DOF preview
Macro lenses and working distance
Teleconverters, diopters, and extension tubes
Post-processing
Image capture: RAW Vs. TIFF vs. JPEG.
Most digital cameras allow you to have the photos saved as one of several file types. Of these, RAW, JPEG and TIFF are the most common.
JPEG files are the most commonly used for digital photographs. While they keep the file sizes small and the quality reasonably high, JPEGS use compression to keep the file size down. This means that, every time a file is saved as a JPEG, more of the information making up the picture is lost. After being saved once, it’s noticeable only to expert eyes (and mine aren’t on that distinguished list). But save it three or four times and the quality of the photo becomes noticeably compromised.
TIFFs, on the other hand, use no compression at all. Save it ten times and the same amount of data and picture quality will be there. The downside? They’re huge. Monsters. They eat mem ory cards for breakfast.
RAW files are the way to go if your camera can create them. While a JPEG turns data into a photo, RAW files can be much more easily manipulated after the fact. If you took a photo and it’s a little dark for you, there are few good ways to fix it with a JPEG. With a RAW file, however, you can adjust the white balance and exposure AFTER the photo has been taken, while you’re looking at it on your screen. This is incredibly useful and has saved hundreds of photos for me. You can’t beat the flexibility of RAW files, but they require additional steps with additional software, and like TIFFS, they’re big. Really big. But worth it.
Photoshop – noun or verb?
Enhancing a photo
The line between photography and photo art
Levels adjustments
Contrast
Sharpness
In-Camera or out? Sharing your photos
Resizing for the web
Posting on the web
Creating a web site
Printing/printers Troubleshooting
Time to look at some really bad photos and how they got bad.
Underexposed
Hey, who turned off the lights in here? An underexposed photo looks dark, and some important detail is lost in the shadows.
Overexposed
Hey, now the lights are too bright! Notice the white areas with no detail. Those areas are overexposed, and you’ll never get that detail back. Adjust accordingly and try it again.
Color cast
Blue, blue, blue. Adjust that white balance.
Camera shake
Whoa there, get a tripod buddy! And lay off the coffee. See how everything in the picture has a faint outline of blurriness around it? That’s you moving while the shutters were open.
Motion blur
The subject is blurry but the rest isn’t. That’s because the subject was moving and everything else wasn’t. you need a faster shutter speed.
Failed focus
Everything is blurry, but no outlines as with camera shake. This one’s out of focus. Clean the glass, try manual focus if you have to. And don’t move backward or forward after you’ve focused. (Did I mention get a tripod?)
Distortion
Chromatic Aberration
Needs a crop
Shallow DOF
Part of the coral is in focus, part of it isn’t. It would look a lot nicer if the whole thing was in focus. Try a higher F-Stop number.
Harsh lighting/on-camera flash
Notice the harsh, unnatural looking colors? That’s my favorite piece of equipment to bust on, the ol’ on-camera flash. Told ya.
Soft image
Color Cast
Advanced sections:
Of aperture, F-stop, stopping down and shooting wide open
Aperture and image quality- stop down, young man!
Stops to go. Zen and the art of Aquarium Photography
When you discover your art, you’ll find insights and things to remember that will help you turn snapshots into an art form. For me, the word is “mindfulness.” Sounds awfully new-age, but the word carries a lot of meaning to me. At all times, be mindful of your shutter speed and aperture. Be mindful of your camera’s settings. Be mindful of your position to the glass. Be mindful of composition, framing the shot in a pleasing way. Be mindful of the depth of field you’re going to get. Be mindful of behavior versus the portrait. Be mindful of exposure. Be mindful of what’s going on outside the lens as well as inside it. Sound like a lot to keep track of? It is. So just be mindful instead. Think about all those things as one thing, mindfulness, and you’ll be on the right track. At least, that’s how it works for me. I have no idea how they did it all in the days of film.
STOPS
When talking about exposure, it’s important to understand the concept of stops.
Stops are pre-defined measurements for shutter speed, aperture and ISO setting derived from changes in the amount of light that will be used for exposure.
For example, shutter speed is measured in the following increments:
…1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500, 1/000…
Notice that each number is a doubling or halving of the numbers on either side of it. Each change from one of these shutter speeds to the next is called a “stop.” So, if you were to increase your shutter speed from 1/30 to 1/250, you would have moved three stops.
Aperture (f-stop) is also measured in stops.
f/1, f/1.4, f/2, f/2.8, f/3.5, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16 are each one-stop increments.
Notice that the apertures listed above are not doubling or halving (for mathematical reasons I’ll not confuse you with here), however, each stop in aperture will correspond with a doubling or halving of the shutter speed.
Likewise, changes to your camera’s ISO settings are measured in stops- once again, doubling or halving values as you go. ISO 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, etc.
Now that we’ve simplified each change into a common currency called stops, we can examine the effects one element of exposure has on the others.
Let’s say you have a shutter speed of 1/30, and you want to raise it one stop to 1/60. This means you’ll have to take away a stop of aperture (say, from f/5.6 to f/3.5). The amount of light reaching the sensor hasn’t changed- it’s the amount you need to create a good exposure. What you’ve done is changed HOW that light reaches the sensor.
Now, what about ISO?
A one-stop rise in ISO setting will buy you one full stop of shutter speed (remember, at the expense of image quality).
More about aperture
You’ll notice I don’t refer to a “larger” or “smaller” aperture, but rather a “higher/lower f-stop number.” There’s a good reason for that.
Exposure is confusing enough without adding a few more inverse relationships to the puzzle. But if you’re serious about photography, this is important to grasp along the way.
Aperture is expressed with an “f” in front of it, such as “f/32.” The “f” and the “/” are there for a reason.
A lens’s aperture is the opening of the lens through which light travels, and adjusting the aperture with which you shoot adjusts the size of that hole.
The larger the hole, the more light comes through it at any given moment, and therefore the less shutter speed you need. Makes sense, right?
Now, here’s where it gets complicated.
The expression “f/32” is actually a mathematical statement where “f” equals the focal length of the lens.
So at “f/4” the aperture is opened up to a size equaling one fourth of the lens’s focal length. At “f/32”, the hole measures only 1/32 the focal length of the lens.
1/4 is a larger number than 1/32, and as such, f/4 is a larger aperture than f/32.
So when you “stop down” the aperture, you’re making the hole smaller by raising the f-stop number. When you
