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UER Forum > Archived UE Photo Critiques > Ian Needs to Learn How to Take Pictures (Viewed 412 times)
ian_evil 


Location: Providence, Rhode Island
Gender: Male


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Ian Needs to Learn How to Take Pictures
< on 1/18/2006 10:01 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
So, I have no idea what the hell I'm doing. I know of light painting, and extended exposures and whatever, but not how to use any of it. So, I'm posting a few pics here that I'm proud of, and I'm wondering how to make this shit look awesome.

All images shot with a Cannon Powershot G3, bicubic resize from 1600x1200.

#1


#2


#3


#4


#5


I also took my first ever stab at macro shots. Absolutely no idea how these work. Other than that you put the camera close to something, hit the macro button, and focus on the foreground.

#6


#7


#8



Some of the major problems I'm having:
How to set up shots that are properly lit in some areas, but dark in others. I'm usually just metering for the brighter parts, and making sure to only light the shadowed portions. Is there another trick?


I also know very little about "properly" framed shots. Usually I just frame whatever looks best. Is there a scientific means to compose images better?



[last edit 1/18/2006 10:06 AM by ian_evil - edited 2 times]

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unikprodukt 






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Re: Ian Needs to Learn How to Take Pictures
<Reply # 1 on 1/18/2006 3:48 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
One tip that might help with your digital dark areas/bright areas exposure problem is that you can retrieve a lot more information from underexposed areas than from overexposed areas. I have tweaked one of your pics to demonstrate, hope you don't mind...



AS you can see quite a lot of detail can be brought out.

yokes 


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Re: Ian Needs to Learn How to Take Pictures
<Reply # 2 on 1/18/2006 4:09 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
High contrast brightness is the bane of many people's photographic existence. Personally, I use spot metering and try to find the sweet spot between the areas of extreme bright and extreme dark. From there I use bracketing to see whick works best. Some people use photoshop to layer these bracketed shots to produce a single image with multiple exposure zones.

As for composition, the most basic and easy to use (but still effective) is the rule of thirds. But of course, rules are meant to be broken.

When you're doing macros, if you camera allows you to change the aperture (i.e. the f number), adjust it so that it is a large aperture (i.e. the smallest number). This will help produce a shallower depth of field, which puts only what you want in focus with everything else trailing off into blur. Nice and dramatic. Your photo #8 is a good example of this technique.
[last edit 1/18/2006 4:10 PM by yokes - edited 1 times]

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jumpfences 






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Re: Ian Needs to Learn How to Take Pictures
<Reply # 3 on 1/18/2006 4:24 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Posted by unikprodukt
One tip that might help with your digital dark areas/bright areas exposure problem is that you can retrieve a lot more information from underexposed areas than from overexposed areas. I have tweaked one of your pics to demonstrate, hope you don't mind...



AS you can see quite a lot of detail can be brought out.


that was my favorite one, i don't think it needs any help. the area you brought out just looks underexposed and distracting.

[last edit 1/18/2006 4:26 PM by jumpfences - edited 2 times]

seicer 


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Re: Ian Needs to Learn How to Take Pictures
<Reply # 4 on 1/18/2006 4:39 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
#2 - Needs to be focused with a shallower depth of field on the foreground subject, since that is the interest.

#4 - Nice composition and nice metering. The 'randomness' of the openings of each cabinet, coupled with the dark atmosphere that reflects off of the floor and the metal cabinets, gives a nice touch.

#5 - While I would like to see more detail in the floor, I would not bring it out as much as unikprodukt, in order to keep with a moody and dark theme.

#6->#8 - Nice examples of macro shots but perhaps find subjects that are more interesting or diverse. And I don't mean go out and take photos of paint chips, because you and I know we've seen too many of that.

As for the last one, follow the 'rule of thirds' for the most part. And if you can, get a 'straight-on' shot with it.

If you have Adobe Photoshop CS2, you can fix the lens distortion or angle from which you took it in - its a filter. If you can shoot in RAW, I would suggest that as well, since you can adjust your exposure, shadows, etc. with ease to fine tune an image.

http://www.america...tid=542&image=2319
http://www.america...tid=542&image=2331
http://www.america...tid=542&image=2330
http://www.america...tid=542&image=2329
http://www.america...tid=542&image=2332
http://www.america...tid=542&image=2328

Those were all disorted at the ends due to barrel distortion, slightly, since I was using a 17-70 mm zoom lens, and several were tilted in a direction that I had not hoped for, but after using that filter and tweaking the settings, it came out nice.

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unikprodukt 






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Re: Ian Needs to Learn How to Take Pictures
<Reply # 5 on 1/18/2006 5:03 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Posted by jumpfences
that was my favorite one, i don't think it needs any help. the area you brought out just looks underexposed and distracting.


Sorry if I gave the impression that I was trying to improve the picture, I picked that one because it has very dark areas. I just wanted to provide an example of a technique you can use if you are forced to compromise on an exposure because of high contrast.

[last edit 1/18/2006 5:28 PM by unikprodukt - edited 1 times]

ian_evil 


Location: Providence, Rhode Island
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Re: Ian Needs to Learn How to Take Pictures
<Reply # 6 on 1/18/2006 6:02 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Posted by seicer
#2 - Needs to be focused with a shallower depth of field on the foreground subject, since that is the interest.

...

If you have Adobe Photoshop CS2, you can fix the lens distortion or angle from which you took it in - its a filter. If you can shoot in RAW, I would suggest that as well, since you can adjust your exposure, shadows, etc. with ease to fine tune an image.


I keep forgetting that the aperture and depth of field are important. I made myself a note card with a few camera specific funtions on it, and I incuded:
<-2.0-Bright-Portrait---Darker-Scene-8.0->
Hopefully I can start remembering this, because people keep mentioning "depth of feild" to me, and I just ignored them.

I read someone else post about RAW format a few days ago. I can shoot RAW, and have about 1288MB worth of CF cards with me, so I don't know why I wouldn't try this.
I only have Photoshop CS, but I'm pretty sure there's ways to do what you're describing.

Posted by AgentNox
Shoot RAW, develop once for highlights and once for shadows, and run an exposure blend in Photoshop.

I'll have to figure out how that works, and give it a shot.

As for adjusting levels in underexposed areas:
If an image has any problems with being under exposed, usually I just run the "auto-contrast" item, and it cleans it up a little. But I'm trying to avoid post-production edits and too much tweaking makes pictures look weird.

I appreciate the tips and links from yokes.
Any one have any other opinions about the photographs?

[center][b]New England Industrial Culture Online[/b]
Stencil/Graffiti, Street Art - Industrial/Exprimental Music - Urban Exploration
"[i]We are the ones you had to dehumanize.[/i]"[/center]
yokes 


Location: Toronto
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Re: Ian Needs to Learn How to Take Pictures
<Reply # 7 on 1/18/2006 6:37 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
A lot of cameras that show RAW these days (which camera are you shooting with?) shoot "RAW + JPG", in that it will also give you a jpg of what you just shot (though, often at a reduced resolution). If yours does this, and you have that much memory available, you might as well shoot RAW. Like the JPG it made? Sweet.. don't need to process the RAW. JPG looks crap? You have the digital negative to do more work on it.

I never thought of using the RAW to do bracketing. Good idea.

"Great architecture has only two natural enemies: water and stupid men." - Richard Nickel
ian_evil 


Location: Providence, Rhode Island
Gender: Male


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Re: Ian Needs to Learn How to Take Pictures
<Reply # 8 on 1/18/2006 6:53 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Posted by yokes
A lot of cameras that show RAW these days (which camera are you shooting with?) shoot "RAW + JPG", in that it will also give you a jpg of what you just shot (though, often at a reduced resolution). If yours does this, and you have that much memory available, you might as well shoot RAW. Like the JPG it made? Sweet.. don't need to process the RAW. JPG looks crap? You have the digital negative to do more work on it.

I never thought of using the RAW to do bracketing. Good idea.


Its a PowerShot G3, and it has an option to convert any image on the CF card to RAW format before downloading. But.. I have a ton of memory, and the pictures I've posted here are about 2/3 of what I shot that day. No reason why I can't just shoot RAW all the time.

[center][b]New England Industrial Culture Online[/b]
Stencil/Graffiti, Street Art - Industrial/Exprimental Music - Urban Exploration
"[i]We are the ones you had to dehumanize.[/i]"[/center]
KBaller 


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Re: Ian Needs to Learn How to Take Pictures
<Reply # 9 on 1/18/2006 10:47 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Posted by .(ian_evil)
I keep forgetting that the aperture and depth of field are important. I made myself a note card with a few camera specific funtions on it, and I incuded:
<-2.0-Bright-Portrait---Darker-Scene-8.0->
Hopefully I can start remembering this, because people keep mentioning "depth of feild" to me, and I just ignored them.


The little aperture notecard is not entirely accurate. f 2.0 would be good for a dark scene since it allows more light in. f 8.0 would be good if you had a lot of light available. As for depth of field <-2.0 shallow-depth---Deep-depth-8.0>



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ian_evil 


Location: Providence, Rhode Island
Gender: Male


we hope you have enjoyed our program.

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Re: Ian Needs to Learn How to Take Pictures
<Reply # 10 on 1/19/2006 2:06 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Posted by KBaller


The little aperture notecard is not entirely accurate. f 2.0 would be good for a dark scene since it allows more light in. f 8.0 would be good if you had a lot of light available. As for depth of field <-2.0 shallow-depth---Deep-depth-8.0>




That's what I meant. 2.0 for a brighter photo or the subject highlighted, or 8.0 for a darker shot or the whole scene in focus. If I wrote "2.0 for a dark scene", I'd be taking a whole bunch of pictures with the edges out of focus. I'd pick the aperture based on the subject, not the lighting.

[center][b]New England Industrial Culture Online[/b]
Stencil/Graffiti, Street Art - Industrial/Exprimental Music - Urban Exploration
"[i]We are the ones you had to dehumanize.[/i]"[/center]
UER Forum > Archived UE Photo Critiques > Ian Needs to Learn How to Take Pictures (Viewed 412 times)



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