Five Words Never to Say to Pro Photographers

PDNOnline, the web site of photographer trade publication Photo District News, has a story about how pressure from angry photographers broke up a business relationship. Modern Postcard is a standard stop for pro shooters who have samples of their work printed to send to potential clients. The company was working with iStockphoto, a microstock site where photographers, often amateurs, upload photos and people can pay a pittance to use images for their projects. This is a major pressure on pros who can't ignore the costs of overhead, equipment, and so on, and must charge rates that let them run a profitable business.

Modern sent out a mailing with the following paragraph:

"As a Modern Postcard customer, you're entitled to free images, free credits and a 10% discount on any iStockphoto credit bundle over $20. So, skip the expensive photo shoot and create direct mailers with high quality images from iStockphoto.com!"

And the five words you can't say to pro photogaphers? Skip the expensive photo shoot.:

The response was so fast and negative that Modern Postcard sent out an apology the same day. "We sincerely apologize as this miscommunicates our intentions and our feelings about professional photography," the company wrote in another e-mail within hours of its first message Friday.

Technique: Using a Tripod

I've mentioned the technique of using a monopod, and so thought I should say something for its three-legged cousin, the tripod.

First, let's look at what you need in a tripod. Cheap ones are attractive because they're, well, so cheap. But don't skimp here. Better tripods will cost more but be more rigid, have smoother controls, and so forth. You can feel the difference when you use one.

If you're getting a good tripod, realize that you'll have to buy the head separately. I'd suggest at least looking at a ball head. You can smoothly move it in any direction and then tighten it in place, versus a pan-and-tilt head, where you monkey with three separate controls to move the camera forward and back, side to side, and around in a circle.

Look for a tripod with a bubble level on it. Although you can go for a rakish angle as a visual statement, you really do want to be able to take a level picture. If the tripod is level, then you don't have to fight that when trying to get the camera level.

To use the tripod, do the following:

1. Spread the legs apart.


2. Hold the tripod head up close to where you want it to be and extend the legs either as far as they can go or until the hit the ground. You want to rely on the legs as much as possible for height, with the center column for final adjustments.


3. Adjust the leg heights until the tripod head is level.


4. Take the quick release plate from the tripod head and screw it into the camera. Now connect the camera to the tripod head.


5. Make final adjustments with the center column to get the final height. Take your picture.

Tripods can be a pain in strong winds, but there are some things you can do. One is to hang your camera bag or other weight down from the bottom of the center column if it allows you to do so. That adds weight and makes it more stable. If that doesn't work, you can drape something heavy over the foot of each tripod leg to add some pressure holding it to the ground. One final tip for now: if you're in sand or dirt, consider bringing some plastic food storage bags with you and putting one over each foot so you keep the dirt out (though be careful that the plastic surface doesn't make the feet slide).

Terminology: Circle of Confusion

Yesterday I wrote about hyperfocal distance. I mentioned the concept of a circle of confusion. This sounds more confusing than it is.

It all comes down to perception. The human eye can only see so much detail. In fact, someone with perfect sight under good lighting can only distinguish between things that are at least a minute of arc apart or one-sixtieth of one degree. At reading distance, that means you could only distinguish between two points if there were at least a fifth of a millimeter apart. The distance is significantly larger if you're looking at a billboard from 200 feet away. That's because you're farther away, so a minute of arc traces out a bigger linear distance. (Think of stretching a long string from a central point outward. As you move the string around the point, the far end has to travel a greater distance than, say, the middle of the string to keep up.)

The circle of confusion actually has two meanings. In optics, it refers to the fact that no lens is perfect, so it won't actually focus images to a precise point. Instead, you get a little circle that is as close to a point as you can get. That is the circle of confusion.

To make that confusion a bit more confusion, photographers have a separate use of the term - the biggest circle that will appear as a point under the viewing conditions. It's really the maximum permissible circle of confusion, but photographers have shortened the phrase for convenience.

However, it all comes down to whether the circles the lens makes will look as though they're in focus. How this fits in with hyperfocal distance and depth of field is that when you focus your lens, you're actually focusing on a plane. Look at the image below:


Everything on the plane will be equally in focus. But as objects are farther from the plane, the image you get from the lens is a larger circle. When that circle gets too big - grows beyond the maximum permissible circle of confusion - it looks blurry. That's why you can take a photograph that looks in focus, hold a magnifying glass over it, and suddenly notice things that now look a little blurry.

If you're curious about the circle of confusion for a digital camera, I'll refer you back to DOFMaster, which has an extensive reference table and calculator.

Technique: Using Hyperfocal Distance

Your lens aperture setting will affect depth-of-field - the amount of an image that will appear to be in focus. The smaller the f-stop number, the smaller the depth-of-field. Practically speaking, if you open your lens all the way up and focus on something, chances are that less of what you see will ultimately seem in focus than if you stop the lens down.

But you may find that you need to use a wider aperture because of the specific lighting conditions. If you still want s big a DOF as possible, then you want to know about the hyperfocal distance. If you focus the lens on something that distance away, you'll get everything from that point to infinity and some about in front of it. Better lenses come with a scale that can help, as you can see in the image below:
The small numbers at the bottom are different f-stops. The numbers in the window are the distance at which you are focusing. Say you wanted the hyperfocal distance at f/16 (a smaller aperture, but the technique works there, as well). Then you'd set the focus on manual and turn it so that the infinity sign on the right was lined up over the 16. The center line on the scale below will point to the hyperfocal distance. The distance over the 16 on the right shows the closest distance that will appear in focus.

Ah, but what do you do when the lens doesn't have this feature? Use either a hyperfocal distance chart or calculator. Here's a spot that has some free downloads that should be useful. You might notice the term circle of confusion - I'll get to that tomorrow.

Technique: Making Autofocus Work

If you've used a digital SLR more than three or four times, chances are that you've had an experience where the image suddenly seems to go out of focus. Or it may be that you're scrambling around, trying to figure out how to focus in on a particular spot. Autofocus is great, but there are a few quirks and tips you typically need to know:

• AF Points A camera isn't a mind reader; you have to tell it where to focus. Most cameras use autofocus points (AF points, at least for the Canon owners). These are spots that you can see in the viewfinder. You should be able to choose which of the points to use, or whether they should try to average things out among them. If you have autofocus set for one point and that point isn't over the spot you want in focus, then chances are things will look fuzzy. Check to see which autofocus is active and set the point closest to the subject of your photo.


• Use Focus Lock If you are concerned that a picture might get away and don't want to start fussing with which AF point to use, then you can cheat. Move the camera so that the active AF point is over your subject, and then press the shutter button halfway. That generally locks in exposure and focus. Holding the button pressed part way, move the camera back to get the composition you want, and then press the button the rest of the way. You get the picture in focus.


• Look for AF Conditions There will be times that the camera keeps changing the focus but never settling in. That may be because either there's not enough contrast or that the image is too dark. Autofocus works by trying to maximize the contrast on edges in the image. If there is naturally low contrast in the subject, then the camera might not be able to figure out if it's in focus or not. Low light similarly makes the autofocus system crazed. In such a situation, there are two things I try. One is to find something else in the image that is about the same distance away from me. I focus on it, holding the shutter button half-way down, again, and then move back to the subject and finish pressing the shutter button. The other choice is to use manual focus, and there are occasions when that is the only choice that will work.


• Autofocus Switch If you've had to focus a lens automatically, or if you just wanted the practice, you might have forgotten to flip the autofocus switch back to automatic.

Technique: Use Negative Space in Composition

When composing an image, you want to call attention to your subject. One way of doing this is using negative space - the blank areas of your image. Now blank is a relative term. You won't see unexplained missing sections. Instead, the negative space is generally uniform in contrast to the rest of an image. Look at this example:

Negative space can become a powerful element of your compositional tools. Notice that in the picture there is largely undistinguished areas of grey on the right-hand side. That very lack of content and detail helps define the placement and arrangement of the arm with its painting equipment.

Five Benefits from a Camera Bag

People often get camera bags without considering what the bags can do for them. Yes, you can heft bodies and lenses, but there are other advantages:

1. It adds an extra layer of protection for your camera.


2. Some bags come with built-in rain shields that you can pull over when the weather gets nasty. That's not only good for rain, but dust and sand.


3. You can more easily carry non-camera items, like a cell phone or notebook, without bulging pockets or purses.


4. It can be a way to carry your laptop. When you're traveling, go for a model that has space for a computer. That cuts the carry-on luggage for an airplane from two to one, making it more certain that you can keep the expensive equipment on your person.


5. A camera case can be a great improvised camera support. Put it down on a rock, table, or the ground, set the camera on the bag, and you have a way of adding tripod-like stability to a shot.

When choosing a camera bag, do not, I repeat, do not pick one sight unseen from a catalog. I've found that the styles some manufacturers use suit me better than others. See what works closest to how you use your camera.

Also, consider how you want to carry the bag. Shoulder bags have been a traditional choice, and are good if you need quick access to your equipment at all times. But they can pull down on your body and throw off your posture. Backpack style bags distribute the weight more comfortably, but you have to take them off to get into them, meaning that the fleeting image may be gone by the time you're ready. If you have a lot of traveling and a lot of equipment, consider whether a wheeled bag with an extensible handle might not make sense. I actually have more than one type so I can use the sort that best fits my needs at any time.

Some Notes on Sizing Images: Part 5, Changing Image Size

Remember this screen from yesterday?


Now we learn how to change the image size. So long as Constrain Proportions is checked, when one things shifts, everything will. But generally you'll either want to change the size and keep the resolution the same, or change the size and resolution simultaneously. To do so, uncheck Resample Image. Now if you change the size (or pixel dimensions), now the resolution will remain the same and the image editor will make the necessary changes to the image to make everything.

So say that you have a 4x5 inch image at 300 dpi and you want the same size, but a lower resolution because you want it on the web and there's no need to use extra storage and take longer to downlond. So change the 300 dpi to 96 dpi and then click the OK button.

You can enlarge the image size or resolution, as well. Go back and recheck Resample Image. (Don't worry about the method - bicubic will do fine for now.) Now try changing the size. The resolution remains the same becuase the software is calculating what necessry changes to make.
Making an image smaller is always easier than making it larger, because in the first case you toss out informaiton, and in the latter, the software must make a calculated guess as to what additional image information it would need to fill in all those spaces that appeared when you spread the pixels out over a bigger distance. It's not perfect, but it's pretty good, and you'll have a larger image.

Some Notes on Sizing Images: Part 4, Meeting an Image Editor

Now that we know something about the resolution and image size trade-off, let's see how you'd actually change the image settings. Take a look at this screen shot from Photoshop Elements:


The top section shows you the current dimensions of the image in pixels, at you can also see that the image has 32.7 megapixels. The latter isn't necessarily the same as the file size, depending on the type of image file. A JPEG file will be compressed and, so, smaller than, say, a TIFF image file. Although you see the width and height in pixels, you can choose other forms of measurement, like inches. However, pixels is a useful choice because you can relate it to the properties of the file - X pixels across and Y pixels high.

Next section is called Document Size. This is how the image will display, and you can see both the dimensions and resolution. You can change the units here (even choose a percentage unit if you want to scale the image up or down a given amount).

In both the Document Size and Pixel Dimension sections, the a bracket with a chain connect the width and height figures. That keeps the dimensions in a constant ratio. If you wanted to change the two disproportionately (not done that often in photography, unless you're trying to distort the results), you can click on the chain and it will appear broken, telling you that the two are no longer linked.

You can also change any of the numbers and all of the others will change accordingly, so long as the Constrain Proportions box at the bottom is checked.

Tomorrow we'll actually manipulate the image size.

Some Notes on Sizing Images: Part 3, Image Size

We've looked at the image resolution. Today we start to include image size, which means the size at which the image displays. Image size is a second constraint put on an image - its display size. It's fine to know the resolution, but you also want to know how large the image will actually be. Note that you can theoretically display an image at virtually any resolution and any size - a 500 foot wide 60 dpi imge, or a 5 inch wide 300 dpi. So, when resizing an image, you will need to specify this in the image editor.

Resolution and image size are inversely related. The lower the resolution, the more you can spread out the pixels, and so the bigger the image. Similarly, the smaller the image, the more you can crank up the resolution.

This will be a trade-off: You only have so much image data and so must make due with what you have. If you have a 300 dpi image that is 4x5 inches in size, without adding to or subtracting from the image data, you can have an image double that size - 8x10 inches - but the resolution is only going to be 150 dpi, because you're spreading the dots farther apart to get them to fit in the new image display size. Similarly, you can take the 300 dpi image and squish it down to 2x2.5 images, only the new resolution will be 600 dpi. Even if you print the image to see at arm's length, you'd only need 300 dpi. In other words, you have more resolution than you really need, and that means taking up more storage for the one photo than is necessary.

What you want to do is give an image the resolution and size you really need. An application like Photoshop Elements gives you a lot of options on that front. More on that tomorrow.

Some Notes on Sizing Images: Part 2, Resolving Power

The human eye is an amazing instrument, but to distinguish between two separate points, we all need a little distance between them. But the distance is a matter of arc. If you set a compass with one leg where you are and the drawing part on one of the points, then twisted the compass so that the drawing part was on the second point, you would have just drawn an arc, or a short section of a much bigger circle. Remember that there are 360º in a circle and there are 60 minutes, or parts, to every degree.

The human eye can distinguish between two points if there is about 1.7 minutes of arc between them. However, the actual linear distance between them is the amount of arc times the distance from you to the points. The farther away the points are from you, the farther away they can be from each other and still keep the same amount of arc between them.

The idea behind images is that we don't want the eye to be able to distinguish between the points. Otherwise every picture would look like a bunch of points - like a pointillist painting by Seurat. The closer you get, the more you notice the points. But if you move away far enough, then everything blends together to look like a continuous image. So when you are resizing images, you need first to understand the resolution you want, and that depends on the medium you choose to display the image and the conditions under which an audiece will see it. (Tomorrow, something on image size.)

Some Notes on Sizing Images: Part 1, Resolution

One of the most common thing to do with photos is resize them, whether to get the ready for the web, fit them onto 4 x 6 standard prints, enlarge them, or even crop to improve the composition. And your ability to do any of these comes down to resolution and image size. Resolution refers to how many little digital dots you have in a given linear measure. For example, you might have 300 dots per inch (dpi) on a traditional print, or you might have 96 pixels per inch (ppi) for a screen display of an image. Here's an example of resolutions you'd need for some common uses:

Use	Resolution (in dpi/ppi)
Monitor viewing	96
Prints to be seen at a couple of feet	300
Prints to be seen at ten feet	60

The word resolution is clearly related to the word resolve, and that's the whole issue, as we'll see tomorrow.

What Not to See (in the Viewfinder)

When in the throes of shooting, you can get carried away and miss things that will make your picture look bad, Here's a quick list of what can be problems and ways to solve them:

• Busy backgrounds can distract from your subject and draw someone's eye away. Try shifting your position relative to the subject, getting the subject to move or using selective focus to blur the background.


• Scenes often have natural horizontal and vertical lines - like a tree or the horizon. If you work in haste, you can make them look tilted, causing the whole scene to seem odd. Line the horizontal or vertical lines up with the edges of your viewfinder to get closer to level. If you do make a mistake, fix this in your image editing program.


• Tip a camera and look up or down or along something's side, and you'll find that formerly parallel lines will start to meet. You can just be careful or use something called a perspective correcting lens, which is generally expensive. However, your image editor should let you stretch things back more or less to normal.


• Iif two things are close to the same shade, they may blend into each other. This can lead to some pretty funny things, like having a person in a black turtleneck in front of a black background and getting a picture of a floating head. Your choices are to increase the lighting on one of the objects, moving the subject in front of something else, getting the subject to change clothes, or use your digital darkroom to change the image contrast enough to separate the two.


• If you're in a hurry to take someone's photo, you can inadvertently become a surgeon and lop off some part of the body or head. If you do it to a great enough degree, you could try to bluff your way out and call it artistic. Otherwise, pay attention when looking through the viewfinder.


• You can also become a Dr. Frankenstein and add things that nature never intended. Juxtapositions between subjects, foreground, and background can make for some odd effects, like the telephone pole behind your cousin Rita that will look as though it's growing out of her head. You'll need to move yourself or the subject or be ready for some intensive computer work to actually retouch significant portions of the picture[md]possible, but a big pain in the shutter finger. If the pole actually is growing out of her head, there's probably nothing I can do for you. Or her.

Review: Photoshop CS3 Photographer's Handbook: An Easy Workflow

I seem to be on the Rocky Nook mailing list. I just got a copy of Photoshop CS3 Photographer's Handbook: An Easy Workflow. If you've been using Photoshop for years, this probably has little interest for you. But if you've decided to take the plunge, this is a good first book. Notice my emphasis. You won't learn all the mysteries of the software available in the index. Certainly I noticed a few techniques in here that aren't, to my mind, the best ways of accomplishing a goal.

But what the book does is offer a roadmap, from bringing images in to learning the basic tools and retouching, and preparing images for their final use, whether print or electronic. The book (lists for $35.95) is only a couple of hundred or so pages long, but that's a strength in this case. You get at least one way of getting images through Photoshop. After you're comfortable with it, then there are many other references and more tricks than you could learn in a month of Sundays. This gives you a basic workflow that you can adapt and change to meet your own preferences and to incorporate the new things that you learn. But might as well get walking before you break into a sprint.

NFL Forces Photographers to Wear Product Logos

I was a little aghast when I heard an earlier version of this story. According to newspaper trade publication Editor and Publisher, the National Football League insists that working photojournalists documenting games must wear read vests that have logos for two product companies: Canon and Reebok.

The National Press Photographers Association has been protesting the action, but apparently not all that loudly:

"The NFL says there are no plans to add additional logos to the vests, or to increase the size of the marks, and that they think the Reebok and Canon logos are appropriate because the vests are made by Reebok and because Canon ‘has made the commitment to fund the cost of the vest,’" NPPA reported on its Web site after receiving the letter from NFL vice president of public relations Greg Aiello, which added that "Both logos are directly related to the manufacture of the vest. Given this, it is inaccurate to characterize them as advertising messages sold to NFL sponsors or others."

Not advertising messages? So they paid for the vests - but I wonder did they pay the actual cost, or did the NFL manager to eke out a few extra dollars of profit doing this?

As for saying that it's not advertising, oh, please. Who do they think they are fooling? The logos are there to be seen, and that means it's part of the marketing of the two companies. No plans to add logos? I'm sure that's true - at the moment, though I wonder if they asked whether the NFL might add logos in the future.

It was disappoiting to hear that this practice isn't all that unusual, and that in other sports photographers routinely have to be promotional billboards when they're supposed to be acting as journalists. One might wonder what woudl happen if a publication had a story that was unfavorable to one of the non-sponsors.

Technique: Using a Monopod

A tripod is great to keep a camera steady so you can get a sharper image than you would from handheld shot. But tripods can be a pain to set up. Sometims a monopod - really a collapsable long stick with a bracket on one end for the camera - is the way to go. For example, I've used them in theaters, to keep an extra degree of stability when shooting under low light, or in crowds, so I can move about. But a monopod, missing two legs, isn't as stable as a tripod.

To solve that problem, extend the monopod a few inches longer than you might otherwise. Set it on the ground or floor in front of you and then lean the top, with the camera, back toward you. Now tip the camera forward so you can get your shot. Your two legs provide the additional stability the monopod misses by having only one leg.

Beef Up Storage Now

"I've got plenty" is the last call of the computer owner who will end up with a rude shock when suddenly nothing more fits on the hard drive. I've said this multiple times when I kenw better, and the most recent was realizing that I needed a much bigger hard drive. Now, I had something on the order of 200 GB split between two drives. But if you're going to keep a lot of photos at close reach, then that is nothing. Shoot RAW images and you can easily find one session sucking up 1 GB or more of storage. Forget the online services for this. What happens if you forget to pay or if yo uhave a big problem? Do you want umpteen gigabytes of data to evaporate or to be downloding for hours? I just checked at a store and saw a 750 GB hard drive well under $300. Now, it will be a pain to transfer everything and set up yet another drive, but that's what I'll end up doing within the next few weeks. And I'll be all set - until next time.

Dealing with Latency

Ever push the shutter button on your digital camera and find yourself waiting ... and waiting? That time between pressing and snapping is called latency, and it's a bigger problem than you might realize. You're fine if having a friend or family member stand in front of Grant's Tomb and taking a snapshot, because chances are the person won't be going anywhere until you're done.

When things are moving quickly, though, you can find that the picture you wanted it gone by the time the shutter gets around to opening and closing. Newer models of cameras, particularly DSLRs, keep shaving the latency time. But you don't want to buy a new camera every year, so here are two strategies.

One is to experiment with your camera and get a feel for how much time passes after you press the button before it actually takes the picture. Then you have to anticipate the rhythm of events and take a picture so that things are just where you wanted when the shutter opens.

The other approach works when your camera supports a number of frames a second - the so-called burst rate. Make sure you set the camera to continuous shooting (if you need to do that). You start shooting just before the key moment you expect and stop just after it's done. There's no absolutely guarantee that you'll get what you wanted, but you stand a much better chance that at least one of the frames will get it.

Mastering Photo Modes

Most digital SLRs have different programming modes - one for portraits, one for fast action, another to set the shutter speed and have the camera select the proper aperture. Each mode has its own characteristics, and it's a good idea to learn what they are before assuming that you're really get what you want with one.

For example, I was trying to use one of the full programming modes once and learned the hard way that the camera automatically saved all the images in a JPEG format (a compressed image) rather than the RAW files (the image information as it comes off the sensor) I prefer. JPEGs are fine, except that to make the image smaller, software someone throws out data. That means it's harder to enlarge these images or do certain types of retouching or manipulation because you don't have available what the camera originally captured. A given mode can easily affect sharpness and color settings or make decisions that affect how the image will look at the end.

I"m not suggesting to only shoot manual mode, but read through the computer manual and see what decisions you may be making without realizing it.

Manual Focus on DLSRs

I've come to delight in the existence of autofocus. But there are times that the camera can't do what you want. The lighting may be too dim, or there might not be enough contrast in the scene. Or you might just want a couple of shots with varying points of focus, but don't want to wait for the autofocus to kick in between them. Here's how you make manual focus work for you:

1. Set the lens to manual focus.


2. Choose the most important part of your picture. That’s most likely the one you want to be sure is in focus. (Though there are times that deliberately putting the subject out of focus can work.)


3. Hold the camera viewfinder up to your eye and look at the subject.


4. Watch the viewfinder as you turn the lens’s focus ring. Concentrate on the important part of the image. That part will keep getting sharper until it can’t get any better, and then it will start to get fuzzier again. When it does, start the ring back the other way s-l-o-w-l-y until the image again looks sharp.


5. Press the shutter button and take your picture.

If the image doesn’t seem to be getting sharper, you may be turning the ring in the wrong direction, so spin it back the other way. And if you’re using a zoom lens and the image keeps changing sizes, you’ve just grabbed the zoom ring instead.

Especially at first, you may find yourself twisting the ring back and forth, trying to find the point at which the image is in best focus. Chalk it up to learning; as you practice, you’ll find that you can put a scene into focus quickly.