Exercise: Your camera's dynamic range.

Outline: Undertake a series of instructions to determine the dynamic range of your camera.


Using my Canon EOS 1000D,  I managed to take this image on a sunny afternoon (yes, sunny days can be very sparse in Wales).

ISO 100 F13 1/500 -1/3exp

There is a good scale range from bright white door frames to deep shadowed windows. My camera was at the lowest ISO setting of 100 and on an auto aperture/shutter speed setting to allow me to gather the measurements of the separate areas in the image. I used the wide angle lens to take the image and then zoomed into telephoto focal length using the center weighted average setting to pin point the measurement of each position.

These were the readings taken of the scene. There is a vast range of aperture and shutter speed values shown indicating the differences in the levels of brightness.

Using photoshop elements 9, I then zoomed in to 100%, as requested in the exercise, and focused on the white area above the door.

Here we can see, in the pixel value sampler, that in the white area, the values are 215 in each of the three colour channels.

I chose the shadowed area in the glass door to highlight the shadow values. It has detailing through the 'reflection' but there are also some areas of noise.

Here, the values shown are a lot lower, down to 6 and even 4 in the B channel.

Given the normal lens aperture range, my camera's dynamic range has a healthy 9 stops. The brightest white area is measured at F14 (1/500) and the darkest shadowed area is measuring F6.3 (1/100) so in aperture AND in shutter speed values we have 9 stops difference:

Aperture: F6.3, F7.1, F8.0, F9.0, F10, F11, F13, F14
Shutter Speed: 1/100, 1/125, 1/160, 1/200, 1/250, 1/320, 1/400, 1/500

Conclusion: I think this was a great and simple exercise to explore the subject of dynamic range and also, for me, about learning more about the qualities of my camera. This course is proving to be a great insight into the basic areas of using the camera properly and also of the systematic way of taking images and editing them. As a beginner to digital photography, I find simple yet effective exercises like this one a really good way to learn.

Exercise: Your tolerance for noise.

Outline: Using a scene with the following criteria:

• Daylight indoors
• A combination of sharp detail and textureless area

set up a tripod and take a series of identical photographs, changing the ISO setting from one to the next.

Being completely honest, I haven't had fun completing this exercise. I've taken numerous different shots as I expected the outcome to be a lot different than it has on all attempts.
This is the set of images that I took in ISO setting sequence:

My camera has 5 ISO settings: 100, 200, 400, 800 & 1600 (seen here in order). I took photos of a toy box against a textureless wall where some shadow could be seen and have cropped the image to highlight just the shadowed areas.
With aperture priority at F22 the shutter speed fluctuated from 6 secs at ISO 100 to 0.40 secs at ISO 1600.

Looking at the images altogether, there doesn't seem to be much difference between them. And this was the outcome with the other 4 attempts of taking these images.

If there are any comparisons to be made here, I will state that the higher the ISO settings, the more grain you can be seen in the images although the actual shadow area seems a little lighter making the contrast slightly less.

Conclusion: I have had previous experience with noise appearing in images where I have needed to use a high ISO setting, it's just i haven't really shown a great example through the images for this exercise.  Looking at this image I took during a festival in the summer and used for my final assignment in The Art of Photography;

The image was taken in a stage tent during the day and so I needed a high ISO setting. The grain in the image is very noticeable through the artists skin, hair and even the background area. This is a prime example of noise that is not real detail and is purely due to the high ISO setting.

Exercise : Highlight clipping.

 Outline: Using a scene with plenty of contrast and an auto setting with exposure adjustment, make a series of photographs, adjusting the exposure setting to alter the area of highlight clipping.


I took my series of photos in the garden on a cloudy afternoon. The sky being overcast with white clouds would prove a decent experiment for the highlight clipping exercise. I searched the menu of my camera but unfortunately my camera does not have a highlight clipping warning, so I shot the images anyway in RAW and then used the highlight clipping warning in photoshop to complete the exercise as best I could.

I set the camera to auto setting where I could adjust the exposure and the aperture was set to F5 and the shutter speed was set to 1/30. I used the auto ISO setting.

The first image without adjusting the exposure:

Even by looking at this image here, we can see that the sky in the image is completely white. The garage roof and the childrens play house are both white also, but here we can see a distinction between each of these details and the whiteness of the sky. There is a definite outline to where these subjects end and where the clouds begin. With the highlight clipping visible:

We can see the sky is completely highlighted with it being washed out. There is even warning on the top level of the childrens slide. The sky has no different levels of colour at all, it purely shows that all colour and visible information has been lost. The garage roof has also lost information but here we have a break that can be seen between where the colour has been lost and the actual white colour of the guttering.

By increasing the exposure by 1 fstop, we can lose even more information.

I notice by this image that the visible break between the garage roof / play house and the sky has pretty much disappeared. The shed roof still has some colour but this is also a lot whiter than in the previous image. This is worth mentioning as a visible break between white and nearly white.

The highlight clipping warning emphasizes these issues, showing more colour being washed out on the garage and play house. The slide is almost all washed out here and we have even lost information in some of the plants. The shed roof still has colour showing there is still a visible break between it and the sky.

However, just by decreasing the original image by 1 fstop we can see a huge difference.

The sky in this image does not appear to be white anymore, more of an 'off white' colour. There is a grey colour cast along the roof of the garage, showing a shadow and therefore, extra detail to differentiate between the garage roof white and the cloud in the sky. There seems to be a lot more detail through shadows in this image however, the colour saturation still shows no detailing through the sky. But then if we were to amend the image as a whole to highlight the detailing in the clouds, I am sure detail through other areas would be compromised.

With the highlight clipping warning on, we see that there are no areas of lost information in this image.

Going back to the original image and using the recovery tool, I moved the slider to the right and noticed a significant change with the recovery at '20'.

Here, we see that almost all the information has now been restored to the sky and we only have slight clipping warnings along the edges of the subjects against the sky. By the time the slider reached '26', all the highlight clipping warnings had disappeared.

I did experiment with the slider but after slider got to '26' (above), there was no change to the image at all no matter how far to the left I moved the slider.

Conclusion: This was a very interesting and necessary exercise to explore the highlight clipping facility and after all the evidence shown through using the highlight clipping warning in photoshop, I'm slightly disappointed that my camera does not have this facility built in. However, looking at the images above, I much prefer the image where the exposure was decreased by 1 fstop compared to the 'recovered' original image. I feel there is more detail available in that image and with more shadows it gives the image more of a 'cloudy/overcast' feel to it.

Middle finger news - The Defiled fan site inclusion.

Wow! I have just been made aware that the photos that I submitted for assignment 1, as well as a few others, have been included on the fan website 'Middle Finger News' for the band that was photographed 'The Defiled'.
Each photo has been tagged with my copyright as well and I can say that I'm very happy :)

If anyone wishes to have a look for themselves, they can be found here.

HAPPY! :)

Exercise: Sensor Linear Capture.

Outline: Simulate a linear image quite simply by applying the opposite type of curve.

The image below is a jpeg from a recent trip on a nice sunny afternoon with plenty of lighting.

After loading up Elements i noticed that there was no option to convert the image from or to 16 bits. I think that it was already set at 16 bits as the link to alter it to 8 bits was unavailable...

So heading into the next task, I then noticed that by going into 'Image' there was no 'adjustments' option and no visible 'curves' option but after a bit of searching I found the option to adjust colour curves.

So using this option, I screen printed the image as it starts, showing the histogram with the points stretched over the whole graph.

I then altered the curve to one similar to that shown in the diagram...

This screen shot shows the before and after image with the curve I have created. I then saved the linear image and took a screen shot of the new histogram.

As noted in the exercise, the tonal values have now squashed over to the right compared to the original image.

I then altered this darker, linear image and amended the curve to that of the gamma correction curve in the example.

We now have an image of the two pictures, the dark linear one and the lightened one.  The shadows have been lightened, as have the highlights.

Here is the final, re lightened image with the histogram showing the tonal values leveled out again. This image still differs from the original with a smaller difference between the highlight and shadowed areas than in the original. The tonal values in the histogram are a lot lower and flatter than in the original as well. 

Conclusion: The ability to alter the curves has a dramatic effect on the image and the exercise has given a good insight into what the camera's processor does to the image once it has been captured. 

Inspiration.

So, the first assignment has been completed and I can say I'm very happy with it. I know I've said it before but I'm really taking a huge liking to 'gig' photography. It's truly a case of practice makes perfect but I get such a sense of achievement when I pull off some decents shots, especially with the challenges of bad lighting etc.
I have recently come across two photographers who are exceptional in this field in my opinion.
They are Scott Chalmers and Fiaz Farrelly.
These guys take some amazing photographs in the music and gig field and I get great inspiration from them to achieve the images that I aim to get.

I'm looking to start on the next chapter of this course now and am looking forward to receiving tutor feedback for this first assignment.

Assignment 1 - Workflow.

I have had a good think about what subject I would like to use for this first assignment. My two main hobbies are photography and music and so I love being able to combine the two. I have two gig's coming up in the next few weeks and think I would like to use one of those for this first assignment.
At this moment, I can produce an advance workflow for going into this assignment and then I will complete any amendments and comments at the time of shooting and record them.

WORKFLOW


For starters, I will not be able to take my DSLR camera into the gig venue so therefore I will be using my compact camera. This will eliminate the need to charge my camera battery and sort any lenses but in preparation I will still need to check that I have enough space on my memory card and that I have replacement AA batteries just in case.
I will also not require my tripod due to the nature of the event. I will be photographing from the crowd and therefore unable to use a tripod but I am aware that the low lighting will be an issue and my compact camera does not have the ability to amend an ISO setting, so this will be a challenge to face at arrival at the venue.

I will be hoping to get a good spot at the front of the crowd to be able to get some good performance shots of the band. If at all possible, I'd like to be able to move about to at least three different positions/camera angles of the stage but depending on the volume of other attendees, I predict this will be highly unlikely. So I hope to arrive early enough to get a decent enough spot to be able to at least overview the whole stage area.

I will still have to adjust my camera settings, even though i'm only using my compact camera. I can still adjust the aperture/shutter speed or depending on the shooting conditions, I can shoot manual. I wont be able to use my flash so I will have to just be prepared to decide the best option when I get there.

This is obviously a timed shoot as I will be trying to get the best possible shots of the entire gig in the time the gig is on, so I really need to be able to capture the essence of the band and the atmosphere within that time scale through poses, expression and crowd participation. I am there to enjoy the music as well so I don't intend on taking pictures all night. I plan on making use of the 3 song rule for myself to see if I can capture what I need in that time scale but I can adjust accordingly. During shooting I would also need to check my histogram and use on the spot development to negotiate a change in any settings etc due to possible lighting changes.

Following the gig, I will be uploading all images from my memory card to photoshop elements to evaluate the images in a separate selection process.
Here, I will be using the five step process of refinement to narrow down my images, taking out noticeably unusable images immediately and then producing the best 6-12 images as my final choices. Along the way I will be labeling my selection choices for each step.

I will then save all my images and selection processes to my external hard drive and exhibit my final choices in an online web gallery for assessment.

I now have a couple of weeks until the gig so I will continue with the course during this time and will come back to this assignment then.

GIG SHOOT
In practice the shoot pretty much followed to the advance workflow.
On arriving at the venue, the lighting was a lot worse than I had originally expected and so even after altering my shutter speed/ aperture, the lighting was just too dim and therefore the best option was to use both the auto setting and the auto scene recognition settings. I was also able to use my flash after all so that was a another amendment to the original workflow.
I originally stated that I wanted to possibly move about to a number of positions but in practice, this was not possible. The venue was very small and without an actual 'stage' , so the gig was very intimate but also very crowded and there was no possibility of moving to shoot at different angles.
The gig lasted for about an hour for the main band so this was my shooting time. I took a wide variety of photographs during this time including different band members, poses and member positioning. I also used on the spot development to check images taken to keep tabs on my progress.

Following the gig, all photos were uploaded to photoshop elements to start the selection process and to evaluate the most appropriate images for editing. I have listed each process of selection below:

All images

I had a large selection of images to work with, therefore I uploaded them all to photoshop elements and then sorted through them, taking out all the immediate unworkable ones (see below).

Technical edit

Removing all the above images left me with the task of looking through the rest a bit closer and then picking out my 'selects' which are the ones I am most happy with. These start a group of images that I continued to narrow down to the final images I would use to represent the gig.

Selects

With my group of selects I had a lot that looked the same and a lot of one band member so I then made my selection of 'first selects'.

First Selects

Again, I still had a lot of the same poses, etc but I managed to go back through and review these selects again  to choose my final favourite photographs of the night.

Group and Review

I decided at this stage to start editing all of the above images, as I wanted to include all of these in my personal portfolio, and then I would go about choosing my final edits afterwards. With the music being heavy rock, I wanted to edit the images so that the final result would reflect the genre of the music. I edited each photo in PICNIK as it has some great effects including sepia, grayscale, vignette, cross process and a number of others that I chose to use. The final images all have a selection of these effects to enhance the theme I was wanting to create. After looking through these edited images I decided on my final images.

Final Images

I have displayed these final edited images in a web gallery. This can be found here:

Workflow web gallery

I am extremely happy with my final choices and the final edits of these images. I have a real passion for photographing music events, due to the fact that I am joining two of my greatest passions. I think that the essence of the gig has really been captured through these images and that is what I was trying to do.

Exercise: Editing

Outline: Use a set of recently shot images and follow the steps given in time sequence. The steps are:

• The technical edit
• The selects
• The first selects
• Group and review
• A final choice

I have decided to use the images from the first exercise (your own workflow 1) for this exercise. 

I took a large volume of photos for the shoot and uploaded them to photoshop elements organiser.

The images -

These were the first page full of images that I uploaded. I took in the region of about 250 images in a half hour session. At first glance there were a lot that were immediately noticeable as no good, including lighting test shots.


The technical edit - 

These images were the first lot I decided to cull out of the main bulk of images. As you can see from this first page, above, they were mainly lighting issues where the shots were over or under exposed, where the shots were blurry due to my shutter speed being too slow or simply where the model is moving or blinking/laughing.

The selects - 

I then had a good look through all the remaining images and decided on the shots with the poses I had visualized. As you can see, there were some images that were the same except for slight alterations, like camera angle or focal length. I included all these in my 'selects' so that I could differentiate between them later.

The first selects - 

After MUCH deliberation, I settled on the above images as my 'first selects'. Again, I included two images the same but with different focal lengths, as I still wasn't sure which one I wanted. I converted the wide angle shot (the first shown here) into black and white to help to decide between that and the next image. The third image was one of the only images I shot at this camera angle and I like this as I am level to the model, emphasizing him over the graffiti, but also as I am lower and looking up at him slightly, It makes him fill the frame and look larger through perspective. These were the only three I really liked out of the first 'location' on the shoot. The graffiti was mainly oranges and I preferred the second 'location' as I felt the colouring worked better visually in the images, possibly due to the colours highlighting the models clothing.  The fourth image I felt was a lot more natural looking than the rest and I wanted to include this for that reason. The highlight clipping would've kicked in on the wall in the background, but that could be altered in processing. Images five and six I felt really give good emphasis on the graffiti without taking from the model. I like the poses and the facial expressions as well as his position against the graffiti. Seven and eight really emphasize the model. I liked the fact the camera angle was tilted in seven and again was more relaxed, but it wasn't too similar to image four so that it still seemed to be a completely different image. Eight is a classic head shot and I liked the angle of the models head and the camera angle making lovely diagonal lines through the image. You will see that this one image is over exposed. I had a selection throughout this process that were overexposed, due to using a flashgun, but I really liked the images so decided to keep them in the selection as I could always alter them during processing.The final two I loved because I I found it less 'norm' having the model looking in the complete opposite direction. Also the camera angle was quirky to highlight both the model and the graffiti. All of these images were pure personal choice, narrowing down simply to angles, facial expressions, poses and focal length.

Group and review - 


So, originally I was happy with the images I had chosen. But a day later, I had another good look through all my images and decided to add a few more for this selection.

I added an extra five images to this selection that you can see here in the bottom row of images. All very similar to the ones I had already selected but again with a few alterations to poses and camera angles. I was now happy with this selection.

A final choice - 


This bit was not easy. I wanted to include them all and here is where I probably would have processed them all and then chosen, after adding fancy filters, etc. Eventually I got down to the final two.

These are my final choices. I decided I wanted a head/shoulders shot to focus on the model and then a full length which highlighted the graffiti as well.

 Of all the images, I really like this image of the model. A strong close up of his face but still quirky enough with his head to the side. I though the composition was probably better in this than any other close up one and I love how the line of his shoulder is not only emphasized by the graffiti line behind him but also continues up through his face by his beard. The graffiti is still visible here but is not the main focus of the image.

After processing

My second image shows off the graffiti really well. I like the diagonal lines again in this image and the low camera angle making the wall seem as though it goes on and on. The model being at the front of the image and filling the frame shows his dominance in the image but I don't feel that he in any way takes away from the art on the wall.

After processing  

Conclusion - 
I found this exercise brilliant. It really focuses on enhancing your personal creative side and the procedure of using the steps is great to avoid being completely overwhelmed when taking a high volume of images. 

Exercise: Histogram

Outline: Increase your familiarity with histograms by relating each one to the image you have shot. Take and image of a low contrast scene, one of a mid contrast scene and one of a high contrast scene and for each one, take another two images varying the exposure. Write a short note for each image and histogram combination explaining how they relate.

I will hold my hands up on this exercise and say I messed it up pretty much from the start. I had set my camera setting, unknowingly, to shoot RAW, but not with the jpeg image aswell and then due to a distraction I only took images of each contrast on the level exposure setting. Seeming as I have been confused about histograms up until now, I really wanted to get a good grip with this exercise and thought, due to my mistake, that I would be worse off. BUT....

I actually understand them now.

I tried to set up my canon 1000D to show the histogram at the time but for some reason, it wont actually show it (I'm also having the same trouble with the live LCD shooting!). I uploaded all the images to elements organizer and as I have shot them all in RAW, I have the exposure slider as well. So with a lot of fiddling about, not only can I see and record the effects by altering the exposure slider, I have also really understood the theory behind the histogram.

As for the exercise:

This image of a garden playhouse shows very low contrast. The values for this image, as shown in the histogram are all bunched up in the centre of the column graph. This confirms the lack of shadow and depth, creating a flat image.

The over exposed image shows how the bunched up values moves across to the right..... 

...and the underexposed image shows the values move across to the left. 

As there are no shadows or bright areas in these images, the shadow and highlight warnings have not shown here with any areas of concern.

The above image has a medium contrast. The shadow warning has picked up the dark areas between the leaves on the bushes, indicating the shadow as being the darkest level that the camera can manage, with it already showing as black and cannot appear to be any darker.

In the over exposed image, the histogram shows the values heading more to the right side of the graph (white). The highlight clipping (the red area) shows us that the colour has been lost here as the brightness level is too high for the camera to record any data, and the area will appear as white.

This street scene on a cloudy day has a high contrast, with areas of bright reflection and also some shadow. The histogram shows the values really spread out, right up to the edges of the graph on both sides. 

Highlight clipping has indicted a few small areas where the brightness is too high, but this can be amended by altering the exposure f-stop.

 The over exposed image shows that most of the light coloured surfaces have now been affected by the highlight clipping, showing any colour that was actually visible in these ares has now been completely burnt out and made to look white.

The underexposed image is the better of the three here. The histogram is a lot more leveled out and the highlight clipping has disappeared because now there is enough darkness in the image to show some colour. 












Conclusion:  I have a much better knowledge of histograms and shadow and highlight warnings from this exercise. The final image of this exercise shows exactly what the highlight clipping does and how it warns you that vital image detail can be lost due to incorrect exposure. And that the histogram is actually a great tool to have ( if it actually can be used on the camera) to assist in creating the ideal exposure at the time of shooting. 

Exercise: Your own workflow 2

Outline: As before, devise a workflow for a specific shooting assignment however this time the shoot will be unlimited and unstructured. Make notes afterwards.






So this exercise has the same approach as the previous one, except for the fact that this shoot is not to be timed in anyway. There is no official 'backdrop' or model and the final image cannot be be foreseen. Whether shooting a holiday or a music festival, it's the memories, place or performance that you will be trying to capture and obviously you have no timescale of when during that 'event' that moment will be.



Workflow:

• Prepare equipment - ensure battery is full and memory card has sufficient space.
• Shooting - as and when the situation arises. Camera settings are adjusted at the time of shooting each individual photograph. There is an open-ended time scale for shooting depending on how long the 'event' takes place. Photos are taken to document a moment, place or person as opposed to a set time scale with a specific visual outcome.
• On the spot development and technical checks to delete obvious mistakes
• Number of photographs is continuous.
• Upload images to hardware.
• 'Official' technical check.
• Select images for processing.
• Processing.
• Label and rename.
• Save to external hard drive.
• Print final image(s).

Conclusion:

This exercise was definitely different from the previous one. I found that even though I initially thought there wouldn't be a specific visual outcome, which overall there is not, I had certain visual outcomes depending on what I was shooting and so I took a variety of the same image to try to capture that outcome. For example, if an artist was performing and constantly moving, I took quite a few photos in the hope that one would come out exactly as I imagined.  The volume of photographs taken was almost three times that of the timed shoot. There was a lot more work on the selection process due to the high volume of images and I found it really difficult to narrow down to my final selection. I felt that I needed to show the 'best bits' of the festival but there were so many best bits I still had a handful of images that I wanted to use. I found that I didn't actually use much on the spot development as I had initially thought I would've. This meant that the volume of 'mistakes' during the technical check was larger than I had expected. Other than that, the workflow was pretty much accurate.

Exercise: Your own workflow 1

Outline: Devise and then put into practice a workflow that personally suits you for a portrait session that is limited in time. Make notes of your experience.






When I first read about devising my own shoot, I already had an idea in mind. I have always wanted to do a portrait shoot in front of a graffiti wall, I have no idea why. So I took this opportunity to actually put that into practice. As this exercise is only to create the workflow and to explain and make notes on how effective it was when actually undertaking the shoot, I will use the photos from this shoot in another exercise is this course.

There is a 'gallery' of graffitti at our local recreation centre and wanted to use this is my location. A friend stepped in as my model.
Ahead of time I am already aware that this will be a time limited shoot. I have an idea in my head of the type of images I would like to capture and this exercise, although time limited, will have a set amount of photographs doing the poses that I have already decided. On the spot development will help me to  determine when sufficient shots have been taken by reviewing images on the camera at the session. As I have visualized the shots I would like, the session will end when I feel these have been captured.


Workflow:

• Prepare camera and equipment - ensure that the memory card has sufficient space and that the camera battery is full. Also, gather other equipment to take to the location, such as a tripod, flash gun and a selection of lenses.
• Arrive at location and judge lighting conditions etc. Adjust camera settings accordingly.
• Time limited shoot - use on the spot development to get the right 'look' by reviewing images on the camera screen.
• Upload images from camera to 'elements organizer'.
• Technical check to delete any images with immediate faults.
• Select images for processing.
• Process final selected image(s).
• Label/rename images.
• Save to external hard drive.
• Print final image(s).

Conclusion:

This exercise was really good. I enjoyed putting the workflow together beforehand and seeing how the workflow actually fit in with the process on shoot day. I think my workflow was pretty spot on to the actual physical exercise. I decided on the day to shoot against two different backdrops which I hadn't really accounted for at the time of producing the workflow but I found the second backdrop looked better in the shots, as noticed during on the spot development.

The exercise did open my eyes as to what you actually do pre and post shoot though. Even though it's pretty much the norm that the above points are undertaken when shooting any type of photographs, however you don't really acknowledge each individual step until you write it all out like this. I was very happy that my workflow was pretty accurate and that I didn't seem to stray from it, with the exception of changing the immediate backdrop halfway through.

New Blog!

Here I am. Fresh out of 'The art of photography' OCA  course and straight into 'Digital Photographic Practice'.
I am about to submit my previous completed course for formal assessment and so rather nervous about that, but am happy that I am now able to start this new course as my course material arrived this morning.
After having a flick through the material, I am looking forward to starting it and excited to see how I progress through it. I am excited to learn about the presentation and editing side of photography after learning all about the composition of photography in the previous course.

I originally started a whole new blog with a different web host but I found it even more difficult than this one and decided to return and stick to what I know.

Hopefully my next post will be my first exercise details, unless I have anything to say beforehand.

Until then :)