Please note that the 'Graphics/anything goes' category MUST be in A4 fomat not in any larger format as reported under Latest News.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those members who have supported the club through a very difficult year and, of course, our sponsors OMM. We would not have been able to mount our exhibition this year without the support of OMM and their M.D. Robert Seaton.

A Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year to you all.

John Rope

23/12/09

One For The Ladies

I understand that there are a number of club members who feel that there is too much emphasis on Photoshop in the club. They range from the ‘I think you should take a good photograph in the first place’ individual to the ‘It looks like the flight deck of Concord, I’ll never get the hang of it’ individual. It had also been suggested to me that some of our women members think Photoshop is a bloke thing and not for them. 

I am not going to apologise for Photoshop, thousands of professional photographers and its authors, Adobe, can do that. I agree that every effort should be made to take the best possible photo in the first place. Right first time, every time, is a standard to be embraced. I wouldn’t be bothering with this blog otherwise. However there is the valid argument that no photograph stands on its own, or ever has, and some form of ‘enhancement’ or ‘manipulation’ is necessary to bring out of the image, whatever you saw when you took it. I am assuming we are talking about amateur photographers here who wish to enlarge and display their photos, improve their skills and not ‘happy snappers’.

In the days of film, you had to develop the negative (lots of scope there for enhancement and manipulation), you then made a selection of paper to print it on; that could make a significant difference to the end result. You then exposed the print, sometimes holding back areas (dodging) or giving others more exposure (burning) and finally you developed the print, again you had a choice of giving it a little bit more or less development to enhance the result. Even if you went to a photographic shop to do this, as I did when I first started, you still had a choice of paper, and the ability to ask for some global changes (lighter or darker). It was one’s quest for improvement, which drove you to learn the basics of developing and printing to give you that extra bit of control.

Modern digital cameras (particularly compacts) are designed to give very usable results straight out of the camera. The problem is, these results are what a technician in Osaka or Tokyo thinks will look good and they tend to be quite punchy and bright with sometimes, rather garish colours, which may need toning down. D-SLRs tend to have more realistic colours and these can sometimes need a lift. Then of course the conditions may not be conducive to good images, dull days, artificial lighting, etc. We may, just may, make errors in our photography leading to a less than perfect photo, or it may be a snatched image of a brief event, for which we might not have been prepared. Lastly there is the fact, which I alluded to in my last blog; cameras just can’t always capture what we see.

 When you buy a digital camera there is usually an image-processing package included. This is not because the manufacturer’s wishes to encumber you, but because they realise you may just want to tweak the output of the camera occasionally. Then there are free packages, such as Picassa, which offer the ‘click a button, make a change’ approach, or even one click and the package does it all for you.
I know many members use Picassa and are very happy with the results. My attitude is ‘if it gives you what you want then more power to you’. My problem with these packages is they make ‘global’ adjustments, which apply to the whole photo and are not under my control. Different effects, such as dodging and burning, cannot be made to apply to specific areas of the photo. It is the difference, in digital terms, between going to the photography shop to get your enlargement and learning the basics of developing and printing and doing it for yourself. I would not dream of suggesting that it is absolutely necessary to learn to use Photoshop, or any other software package in order to be a member of a photographic club, but I would suggest that it is a good thing to learn to use one of the available packages if you want to progress beyond the novice stage. Photoshop just gives one more scope. To reject photo enhancement software out of hand is rather like joining a golf club with only one club and one ball, then cocking a snoot at the professional when s/he asks if you want a free lesson.

Now to that idea that photo enhancement is a bloke thing and not for the ladies. If you surf the net for Photoshop help then you will find that some of the best Photoshop help sites, are run by women. One I found was ‘Digital Photography For Mums’ (later called ‘Digital Photography for Everyone’ and now on the ‘Texas Chicks’ website). Erin, who started the original site, has only been taking photos for 2 years, but has tackled Photoshop head on. She has an interesting approach to it, using pre-designed groups of enhancements known as Actions. This gives a one-click approach to enhancement, with access to some of the most powerful effects available in Photoshop, with the added advantage that you can modify things globally and locally to your heart’s content, using just the brush tool. It is a little bit like magic painting combined with painting by numbers but more fun because the pictures are your own. Also Erin kindly tutored me on how to write my own actions and use them. Have a look at her site and see for yourself at http://www.texaschicksblogsandpics.com.

I am so enamoured of this approach that I will introduce it in later blogs as ‘Easy Photoshop’ and put some specially designed Actions on the Photoshop Training CD.

Well that’s it. Rant over, on with the blog.

Let Your Digital Camera Teach You Photography –2

 So far I have encouraged you to delete the bad photos and retake them wherever possible. You may ask, how does one know which ones to delete? The short answer is, if you get home and find one you don’t wish to keep because of an obvious fault, delete all similar photos in the future. Below is a short list of the main culprits.

Camera shake. Use your stabiliser and or a tripod.
Out of focus. Use spot focus and focus lock (half press the shutter button. You should hear a beep, indicating that focus has been achieved. Hold this and recompose if necessary, then press the button all the way down. You should hear a shutter sound.)
Over exposed. burnt out skies and highlights cannot be recovered. Use exposure compensation.
Under exposed. A little (1-2 stops) is not necessarily a bad thing; these can often be rescued and it may be necessary in order to preserve skies and highlights. Very under exposed shots will loose detail in the shadows. Use exposure compensation.
Trees, lampposts etc growing out of people’s heads. Move and recompose to eliminate.
Poor composition. Move camera and or self, to recompose.
Lack of emphasis on the main subject. Fill the frame with the subject.
Noisy image. Use lower ISO, image stabilisation and/or a tripod or avoid noise in low light.
Don’t like it much. Take one you do like.

Remember my particle on histograms in the last blog? Well now is the time to get out your manual and find out how to activate your in-camera histogram. As indicated in the previous particle, the safest exposure is one in which the piles of pixels end just before the right hand side of the graph, with just a few pure whites to take account of spectral highlights. If you keep an eye on this graph, you will virtually eliminate poor exposures. It will also have the benefit of slowing things down, giving you time to think. While you are looking up histogram, look up exposure compensation. With these two in your back pocket, very little should phase you, in any shooting situation.

This week’s maxim is. ‘Take fewer photos more often.’. In other words think more about each photo and take fewer photos each time you go out, but go out more often. That way you will learn quickly.

Glossary

Analogue To Digital Conversion. (A to D Conversion)

All data recorded by the sensor has to go through an analogue to digital conversion before it can be stored in the camera’s memory chip. The information (signal) recorded by the sensor cells (pixels) varies in a continuous fashion, so that for example one might have values of 5.673, 5.4 and 4.791, recorded by various pixels in the array but these values would be converted, by the analogue to digital converter, into the nearest whole number as follows, 5.67=6, 5.4=5, 4.79=5 and so on. This applies to colour and tone information and a small amount of the original information, captured by the sensor, is lost by this process. Another reason why digital can be said to be in need of enhancement to bring it back to what was originally photographed.

Raw

In Raw mode, no processing is done in the camera except, conversion of the data from analogue to digital and demosaicing. In order to print the photo it must be processed by computer using the software provided by the manufacturer or third party software, such as Adobe Camera Raw. It has the advantage that you can adjust the exposure, the white balance and other parameters to suite yourself. For those not wishing to delve into such things, there is usually a software-suggested default setting, which should do a better job than the in-camera output. The latter is usually in the form of a compressed ‘JPEG’ but with Raw you can save your photo in an uncompressed form and keep maximum image quality. In addition your original is preserved and if you don’t like the outcome then you can do it again differently.

Review

Budget D-LSR’s

If you are going to invest in a new camera, you may be asking yourself if it is worth considering a D-SLR. A lot of the content of this and previous blogs has been alluding to the fact that compact and bridge cameras (digicams for short) do not have as good image quality as D-SLRS. So what, you may ask, are the pros and cons of buying a D-SLR as opposed to say a bridge camera and are the budget models any better than, say, the equivalent bridge camera? Below is my summary of the main pros and cons.

Pros of owning a D-SLR

Larger sensor: means less noise and the ability to use higher ISOs; hence less camera shake and usually, more even tones.
Interchangeable lenses: means you can take photos over a wide spectrum of focal lengths with excellent image quality (with the right lens).
Quick operation: Means little or no delay between pressing the shutter button and taking the photo[/b] Means that precious moments will not be lost.
High frame rate: Capture as many as five frames (images) per second. Good for action shots and for capturing the nuances of human reactions.
Wider range of apertures: the ability to use apertures smaller than f8 (usually the smallest aperture on a digicam) allows a wider ‘depth of field’ for landscape shots. Similarly f numbers as low as F1.7 are available (at a price).
Wider range of shutter speeds: Exposure times in excess of five seconds (30 seconds to ‘bulb’, where the shutter stays open as long as the shutter button is pressed) make all kinds of photography possible such as those which exclude human movement in low light. Extra fast shutter speeds (1/3000 sec – 1/4000th sec) allow the capture of very fast action.
Wide range of lenses: Even with a budget D-SLR, the common mount means that you are able to mount any of the lenses in the manufacturer’s range.
Higher dynamic range: less ‘clipping’ of highlights and shadows. Easier to get still more out of the shot using ‘Raw’.
More easy access to functions: frequently used functions, such as white balance and exposure compensation are usually on a button somewhere and this makes control of each shot easier.
Tough: Some have a metal substructure, or a full metal body.
Damp and dust proof: more expensive ones have rubber seals on joints. This does not make them waterproof however.
Synergy: put all the above together and you have a major leap forward in the potential quality and scope of your images. The more you pay the more you get. That is why professional photographers a prepared to pay small fortunes for their kit. However a lot of these benefits are available with the cheapest D-SLRs plus one kit lens. See cons. An added bonus is that they nearly all now have ‘live view’ and video.

Cons
Expensive: A mid range DSLR will set you back £1000 with a couple of kit lenses, £1300 plus, for a body and one ‘good’ lens. Budget D-SLRs start at £350-£500 with one or two kit lenses. Better lenses can cost from £250 upwards.
Heavy: Even the lighter models weigh in at around 600 grams together with a light, kit lens. Carry a camera and two kit lenses around and you can be hefting 800 grams plus.
Large:   A small D-SLR is going to be 20-30% larger than most bridge cameras.
Sensor dust: Constantly changing lenses means that dust can get onto the sensor where it looks like a rock in the middle of your image. If a blower brush does not solve it, sensor cleaning by a professional outfit is recommended. Some have an in camera cleaning system the best of which is by Olympus.

In Summary
There are many benefits from owning a D-SLR but you have to be prepared to spend a bit more, carry a bit more weight and work with a larger camera. Things may be changing however. The introduction of the new ‘micro four thirds’ systems by Olympus and Panasonic looks like giving many of the benefits of the D-SLR to nearer the size and weight of a digicam. Expense still remains a problem. Perhaps in a couple of generations of these new concept cameras we will laugh at lugging D-SLRs around but at the moment they reign supreme.

The Choice. (Prices are from Amazon and include one kit lens)

Make/Camera       Price    Comment                          Value Stars  (1-5)
         
Canon EOS 1000      £400    E, A, ISS, no ISC              4.3
Canon EOS  450       £468    E, A, ISS, no ISC              4.3
Nikon D3000            £410     E, A, ISS, no ISC              4.4
Panasonic G1**      £470      E, A, ISS                          4.5
Pentax K2000***    £400     G,(B-A) (improving), ISC  3.9
Olympus E520         £400      G, B, IIS, ISC                    3.9
Sony Alpha 230*     £343      G-E, A, IIS, ISC                 4.5

Key

E    Excellent image quality
G   Good image quality (G-E good bordering Excellent)
P   Poor image quality
A   ‘Low noise/noise free pictures (up to ISO 800)
B   ‘Low noise/noise free pictures (up to ISO 400)
C   ‘Low noise/noise free pictures (up to ISO 200)

ISS    Image Stabilisation needs a special lens.
IIS   In camera image stabilisation means all lenses are stabilised, including older ones.
ISC   In camera sensor cleaning.

*   Alpha 200 may still be available at very good price.
**   A new innovation. Panasonic has removed the mirror box from the D-SLR and replaced it with a EVF. This seems to be no detriment to the view provided and hardened photo reviewers are raving about this camera and its new micro four-thirds siblings. It is smaller and lighter than any other D-SLR and gives better results than some. It is loaded with ‘Intelligent Auto’ functions and it is almost certainly a glimpse of the future.
***   Not Available from Amazon.

Next time I will look at the micro four thirds systems in more detail.

A Happy Christmas and a Good New Year to my reader.

John Rope 18th December 2009

Well done Sue an enjoyable evening.   lithman

Another good one John. You explain things very well. I look forward to the next one 

John

I want to add to John's blog,  sometimes we tend to forget the basics, even the most experienced of us.     When you are about to take a photo ask yourself,  why am I taking this? what do I want to comunicate to others?.  Look in the live view or viewfinder and ask yourself would I hang this picture on my wall?, if not why am I taking it?.  Are all the conditions as I would like them to be?.  It may well be that you can't return on another day,  this may well be a one off event and the circumstances can't be repeated,  then we have to work twice as hard and make the best photo that we can, rather than just point and shoot.
Light is the be all of photography,  and luckily for us there are only three points to consider. The first is the amount of light, ie.   the exposure.  The second is the direction of light,  ie.  do I want side lighting to show up texture?  do I want long shadows?  do I want to shoot into the light and create sillouhettes?. And fineally the quality of light,  the emotion of the early morning light,  or that lovely warm glow of late evening light.   When taking photo's after sunset try taking them whilst there is still some blue left in the sky. before the sky goes completely black.
You must express yourself through your photography,  make a statement,  be proud of what you are doing,  you should be able to say YES I did this,  not hide it at the bottom of a drawer.
Speak to you again soon.      Lithman.

Great Blog John,
                         I enjoyed it and you explained thingds great. All we need now is new cameras.

I’m going to start this blog with a few definitions to help with the particles. Part two of ‘Let your digital camera teach you Photography’ will appear next time.
Glossary
Stop
A stop is the term given to increasing or decreasing the light entering the camera by a factor of two. Increasing by one stop means to increase the amount of light two times and to decrease by one stop is to decrease by a half, this is achieved by either changing the shutter speed or the size of the aperture by a factor of two. It is useful to think in terms of adjusting the exposure of a shot by a number of stops or fraction of a stop.
Dynamic Range
The range of light to dark tones that a camera can capture is typically 7 or 8 stops for a good DSLR and more like 5-6 for other cameras with smaller sensors, this means when the exposure of a good DSLR is set, say, to the midpoint of a scene it can record detail in the darker areas which are 4.5-3stops (24-16 times) darker and lighter than the midpoint respectively. The human eye (when adapted to a particular scene) has a dynamic range equivalent to 6 or 7 (64-96 times) stops in either the dark or the light direction. Hence we cannot photograph what we see and need to compensate for that fact.
Histogram
A histogram is the graphical representation of the distribution of pixels across the range of tones from black through all the shades of grey to white. Ideally a photo should exhibit pixels over the full range from black to white with the majority in the middle of the graph (the mid tones). Most cameras these days have a histogram function, which will tell you exactly what the exposure characteristics are of your photograph.
Below are two exaggerated examples of histograms



If the pixels are too far to the left, then the photo will be underexposed and if they lie too far to the right then it is an indication of an overexposed photo. The large number of pixels on the left of histogram 1, represent black or nearly black pixels difficult to recover detail from. The large number of pixels on the right of histogram 2, represent white or ‘burned out’ pixels which contain no data and which cannot be recovered. The trick is to expose, so that the pixels end just to the left of the extreme right of the histogram. A small number of white pixels, representing spectral highlights and white fluffy clouds etc, are of no concern.
Some subjects do not exhibit this distribution however and the histogram has to be interpreted in the light of the subject.
Below are examples of a ‘normal’ histogram and an ‘unusual’ one

   

   


 
Fuzzy Photos

A couple of meetings ago, Liz Russell asked Chris Hicks and I why her digital images were not as sharp as her 35mm film pictures, given that she was using the same lens. We both, rather glibly, replied that all digital images need a little sharpening. Quite rightly, she was not satisfied with this and asked why this was so. Now I thought I knew the answer but it seemed like a good idea to check it out thoroughly before committing myself to anything. Here are the probable reasons.
1.   Incompatibility between the lens and the camera,
Not all lenses from SLRs are fully compatible with DSLR’s. You may need to check this out with your manufacturer’s website if you are having difficulties.

2.   Problems with the camera focussing system.
On a couple of occasions, in the past, one or two of the Canon D1. series of  DSLRS have been reported to show back-focussing errors. That is to say if you focus on the last soldier in a line, your camera actually focuses on the second last one and so on. This results in softness where the image should be pin sharp. So far as I know, these problems were solved by a firmware download.
3.   Demosaicing
This is the most important reason for softness in digital photographs. The sensor chip in most digital cameras consists of an array of red, green and blue filters over the sensor elements, so that each colour is recorded by the sensor as a mosaic of spaced colour tiles. This mosaic has to be interpreted  by the camera computer or by whichever Raw development program you use.

The following is a link to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demosaicing  with a detailed explanation.

Review

Fuji F200 EXR and the Panasonic TZ7

The F200 EXR is a very interesting camera with a new type of sensor, designed to overcome some of the limitations of small sensors. The TZ7 is the latest in the TZ line (TZ=Travel Zoom) and it was the TZ1, which started the long zoom, pocket camera market.

The F200 has a 5x zoom lens from 28mm to 140mm, and the TZ7 has a 12x zoom from 25mm to 300mm.

Both offer full auto modes, which do virtually everything for you, although the Fuji does give a limited amount of manual control the Tz7 does not. Neither offers a raw mode, and therefore they do not allow total control of the photographic process. For a beginner, they take the sting out of taking good photos and for the more experienced they offer a convenient, carry anywhere, record camera and both offer good image quality.

I should say a word about the F200’s new sensor. By rearranging the pixel configuration on the chip, so that pairs of like-colour sensitive cells come together in diagonal rows, Fuji uses these to act as one larger cell, and in this way extend the ISO range of the camera. This reduces the pixel count from 12 megs to 6 but the image quality remains good. A similar process is used to extend the dynamic range by using pairs of cells to measure both high and low light levels in the at each point of the scene. When you don’t have High ISO or dynamic range problems, you can use its full 12 Megs to get a really high-resolution image. If it sounds complicated (some experienced reviewers got a little confused at times) don’t worry, EXR Mode does it all for you. The F200 EXR is a good choice for anyone who wants to get into ‘proper’ photography slowly, since it does at least have some manual control and focuses one’s attention on two of the most important issues in photo quality, noise and dynamic range.

The TZ7 has 12 mega pixels as opposed to its’ predecessor’s 10 but I have not found anyone who thinks this has been unduly detrimental to its’ ISO performance. Keep the ISO below 400 and you should get good results. Like a lot of Panasonic offerings its’ strength is its’ Lieca Lens coupled with Panasonics’, excellent, optical image stabilisation technology. If you want a lot of zoom, very wide to quite long and don’t want manual or modes or raw, then the Panasonic is a good buy. Even better value is its sister the TZ6, which does not have HD movies but is considerably cheaper.

Both of these cameras are highly recommended by all reviewers. My choice? I have long been a fan of the TZ series but my vote goes to the F200 EXR. If it had raw mode, it would be a lot better. If you want EXR technology and a longer zoom then there is the F70 EXR, which has a ten times zoom but less pixels (10 megs but still no raw mode).

John Rope
28/11/2009

What about the most important bit,  when do we eat?.

Unsharp Mask;                           filter-  sharpen-   unsharp mask.
                                                   In Elements,     unsharp mask is found under Enhance.

When the unsharp dialog appears you will see three sliders.   The Amount slider determines the amount of sharpening applied to the photograph.    The Radius slider determines how many pixels out from the edge the sharpening will affect.
The Threshold slider works the opposite of what you might think- the lower the number the more intense the sharpening effect.
A good starting point is :  Amount 125 Radius 1 Threshold 3.
Try to avoid going over 2 with the Radius slider it can lead to halos.
Threshold works best between 3- 20
The amount slider is dependant on how much sharpening is needed.
If you always work at 100 % you can keep an eye on the pixels to see if they are affected.
The best all purpose setting is:  Amount 85,  Radius 1,  and Threshold 4,   the advantage of this setting is that it can be used twice if necessary.
Other sharpening dialogs are Sharpen,  Sharpen Edges,  Sharpen More, it is best to leave these well alone, there are better methods.
Smart Sharpen Filter.
If you use CS2 upwards, Smart Sharpen is replacing Unsharp Mask.  Smart Sharpen Filter does a much better job of avoiding nasty colour halos and allows you to control the shadows and highlights.   You can usually get away with much lesser settings.
I don't intend to go into detail as not many people have the more modern versions of Photoshop.
Othe methods of sharpening include,  High Pass,  Luminosity,  Lab Colour, Edge Sharpening,  and Extreem Edge Sharpening.   It will be better to leave these more advanced methods to a later date.