Is that the Nikon digital D70? I’ve never used one but I know our effervescent Steve does, and it’s got really good reviews. Actually better than the Canon as far as color rendering is concerned.
Both the Canon and the Nikon however suffer from slight blurring the edges that some pictures might need help. There are various “tricks” on the internet to help with that, the best is using the Photoshop USM (Unsharp Mask) to firm up the edges. Don’t go crazy with it though as too much application of that mask might make the pictures look too “hard”. Again it’s completely up to you on how much to apply as it is really subjective and an artistic decision rather than scientific.
Another way to sharpen the images overall is to do the following in Photoshop (I use Photoshop Elements 3):
1. duplicate the image layer (never work on the original, just in case!)
2. apply Filters > Other > Highpass about 10 – 15%, experiment as the values differ from picture to picture, even higher/lower settings might be appropriate.
3. From the Layers menu, apply a “Hard Light” on the layer
4. Adjust the transparency of the layer to suit. Again this is an artistic rather than scientific application, anything between 20% – 50% shoud sharpen the picture quire nicely.
I find that I want to interfere with the picture at a very minimum. But some actually look better screwed up!
One of the best tricks I religiously use with any camera (and it actually works) is from my analog slide photography days in that I compensate with at least 1/3 stop (negative) as that gives me really nice and rich colours. I tried 2/3 but that renders the pictures too dark sometimes especially with high-contrast areas, and the colours look unnatural.
Check out http://photo.net and look at the pictures there. Some are really masterful and worth emulating. If you take the time to visit some of the photographers’ sites you can unearth real jewels as far as tips are concerned.
All in all though, it is fun to take pictures and even tinker with them later!
Don’t stop.. I’ve been doing this since I was 12 or so (shit, that’s 30 year!! man I’m old) and I still enjoy it immensly.
anonymous
Morning Shadow
I received the Digital Sony Cyber-Shot W1 for christmas. I guess I had a reputation of enjoying the art
of photography. However, It has only been used once or twice at most, and that’s because I can not comprehend its , in my openion, frivolous functions.
Could anyone of your readers Mr. Al-Yousif ,help or direct me to a website where I can understand it all, and
as a result start enjoying it.
In plain English please. 🙂 or arabic for that matter.
anonymous
Morning Shadow
It’s a pleasing shot and I like the contrast between the dark lamp and the lighter coloured wall. However, for me, there is a too much wall and the shot would be improved in the shadow was longer or some of the wall was cropped out.
mahmood
Re: Morning Shadow
I appreciate your critique of the photograph, thank you.
I don’t know how to describe how I take pictures. What part of my brain tells me to move up, down, left, right to frame a photograph. Nor do I know how I would select a subject. It just happens! Something in my brain goes “click” when it’s “just right” before my finger executes.
I almost never orchastrate a shot, other than the very few occasions for people who I pose deliberately for artistic result, preferring the ad hoc moment.
It’s just one of the many many voices in my head…
This time it told me to emphacise space, contrast and class.
When that view came into the viewfinder, my finger just reacted.
chrisamillion
Photographic Styles
I wrote the comment above…didn’t mean it to be anonymous…our PC is really screwed up at the moment!
Any way…its interesting to read how you take photographs, its a complete contrast to how I do it. I try and look at the scene, examine it and try to decide the best shot. I also try to obey the cliched rules like the rules of thirds and focus in the centre. I find that my method only results in about a 2 in 10 success rate, or less..but thats fine because this is the digital age and it doesnt cost anything!
However latley I have been trying deliberatly to break the rules and try something more like your approach but I still find myself taking lots of shots of the same subject untill I hit the nail on the head.
Chris
[Modified by: chrisamillion (chrisamillion) on January 24, 2005 12:39 PM]
mahmood
Re: Photographic Styles
There are so many ways to skin an onion I guess. Whatever works and produces a good photograph, painting, song, or any other artistic persuit is fine.
Your workflow is fine actually and I do follow it for some shots, but not all. I suspect that if you are a professional photographer who depends on the pursuit for income, then you can’t be too haphazard/creative as how I work, he will have to follow rules and stage shots in order to earn money out of it.
As a hobbiest however, and as your rightly pointed out with the digital medium now, there is virtually no penalty to “bracket” your shots as much as you like. If you get 1 out of 10 or 20 then you’re doing the right thing. Incidentally the attrition ratio for video shoots is about the same if not more, 1 good minute to 10-20 bad. I tend to get a bit better ratio, but then I don’t know how I would stand if critiqued, this is just me selecting the good and deleting the bad (although I have never deleted any shot I have taken! I just tend to get bigger disks.)
It would be interesting to see how your “new” pictures turn out. Go by instinct and the seat of the pants and see how it goes. That doesn’t really mean “point and shoot” however, you still will do quite a lot pre-exposure as far as framing, metering, colour-correcting (yes you can do that too by playing around with your white balance and exposure compensation) then and only then press the button.
Upload a few to Flickr or your own website and let’s see how you get along… Flicr is great isn’t it?
I’m about to attack it again.. I’ve just spent my lunch hour in the old Manama souq and shot a few photographs…
chrisamillion
Re(1): Photographic Styles
Here are some samples of my “planned” and “unplanned”. The planned one were set up for the photograph, they are mostly still life macro shots. The Unplanned ones are taken with a specific goal in mind for example “get a photo of that greenery over there”.
I like both Chris, well done. Why is the saturation so low on the outdoors shots? They’re slightly over-exposed. What kind of camera did you use for those?
The “studio” shots are ok. I like the tomatos but the rest would need reset as they are boring.
chrisamillion
Re(3): Photographic Styles
yeah I know…some of the unplanned ones, specifically the cricket pitch shots are too saturated. I went a bit crazy with photoshop!
As for the studio shots…I think boring is a very strong word…but I accept your point!
I think all the shots were taken using my D-70…some of them were cropped and edited in photoshop (probably too much)
[Modified by: chrisamillion (chrisamillion) on January 24, 2005 04:02 PM]
mahmood
Re: Morning Shadow
Start googling! Just a quick one resulted in this site which includes a decent review and links.
Looks like a very good camera with 5.1mp and decent optical zoom. You can do a lot with that even if you ignore all the manual settings, just keep it on auto and start shooting. Leave the “fancy” features to the time where you are ready for them.
Comments
Re(4): Photographic Styles
Is that the Nikon digital D70? I’ve never used one but I know our effervescent Steve does, and it’s got really good reviews. Actually better than the Canon as far as color rendering is concerned.
Both the Canon and the Nikon however suffer from slight blurring the edges that some pictures might need help. There are various “tricks” on the internet to help with that, the best is using the Photoshop USM (Unsharp Mask) to firm up the edges. Don’t go crazy with it though as too much application of that mask might make the pictures look too “hard”. Again it’s completely up to you on how much to apply as it is really subjective and an artistic decision rather than scientific.
Another way to sharpen the images overall is to do the following in Photoshop (I use Photoshop Elements 3):
1. duplicate the image layer (never work on the original, just in case!)
2. apply Filters > Other > Highpass about 10 – 15%, experiment as the values differ from picture to picture, even higher/lower settings might be appropriate.
3. From the Layers menu, apply a “Hard Light” on the layer
4. Adjust the transparency of the layer to suit. Again this is an artistic rather than scientific application, anything between 20% – 50% shoud sharpen the picture quire nicely.
I find that I want to interfere with the picture at a very minimum. But some actually look better screwed up!
One of the best tricks I religiously use with any camera (and it actually works) is from my analog slide photography days in that I compensate with at least 1/3 stop (negative) as that gives me really nice and rich colours. I tried 2/3 but that renders the pictures too dark sometimes especially with high-contrast areas, and the colours look unnatural.
Check out http://photo.net and look at the pictures there. Some are really masterful and worth emulating. If you take the time to visit some of the photographers’ sites you can unearth real jewels as far as tips are concerned.
All in all though, it is fun to take pictures and even tinker with them later!
Don’t stop.. I’ve been doing this since I was 12 or so (shit, that’s 30 year!! man I’m old) and I still enjoy it immensly.
Morning Shadow
I received the Digital Sony Cyber-Shot W1 for christmas. I guess I had a reputation of enjoying the art
of photography. However, It has only been used once or twice at most, and that’s because I can not comprehend its , in my openion, frivolous functions.
Could anyone of your readers Mr. Al-Yousif ,help or direct me to a website where I can understand it all, and
as a result start enjoying it.
In plain English please. 🙂 or arabic for that matter.
Morning Shadow
It’s a pleasing shot and I like the contrast between the dark lamp and the lighter coloured wall. However, for me, there is a too much wall and the shot would be improved in the shadow was longer or some of the wall was cropped out.
Re: Morning Shadow
I appreciate your critique of the photograph, thank you.
I don’t know how to describe how I take pictures. What part of my brain tells me to move up, down, left, right to frame a photograph. Nor do I know how I would select a subject. It just happens! Something in my brain goes “click” when it’s “just right” before my finger executes.
I almost never orchastrate a shot, other than the very few occasions for people who I pose deliberately for artistic result, preferring the ad hoc moment.
It’s just one of the many many voices in my head…
This time it told me to emphacise space, contrast and class.
When that view came into the viewfinder, my finger just reacted.
Photographic Styles
I wrote the comment above…didn’t mean it to be anonymous…our PC is really screwed up at the moment!
Any way…its interesting to read how you take photographs, its a complete contrast to how I do it. I try and look at the scene, examine it and try to decide the best shot. I also try to obey the cliched rules like the rules of thirds and focus in the centre. I find that my method only results in about a 2 in 10 success rate, or less..but thats fine because this is the digital age and it doesnt cost anything!
However latley I have been trying deliberatly to break the rules and try something more like your approach but I still find myself taking lots of shots of the same subject untill I hit the nail on the head.
Chris
[Modified by: chrisamillion (chrisamillion) on January 24, 2005 12:39 PM]
Re: Photographic Styles
There are so many ways to skin an onion I guess. Whatever works and produces a good photograph, painting, song, or any other artistic persuit is fine.
Your workflow is fine actually and I do follow it for some shots, but not all. I suspect that if you are a professional photographer who depends on the pursuit for income, then you can’t be too haphazard/creative as how I work, he will have to follow rules and stage shots in order to earn money out of it.
As a hobbiest however, and as your rightly pointed out with the digital medium now, there is virtually no penalty to “bracket” your shots as much as you like. If you get 1 out of 10 or 20 then you’re doing the right thing. Incidentally the attrition ratio for video shoots is about the same if not more, 1 good minute to 10-20 bad. I tend to get a bit better ratio, but then I don’t know how I would stand if critiqued, this is just me selecting the good and deleting the bad (although I have never deleted any shot I have taken! I just tend to get bigger disks.)
It would be interesting to see how your “new” pictures turn out. Go by instinct and the seat of the pants and see how it goes. That doesn’t really mean “point and shoot” however, you still will do quite a lot pre-exposure as far as framing, metering, colour-correcting (yes you can do that too by playing around with your white balance and exposure compensation) then and only then press the button.
Upload a few to Flickr or your own website and let’s see how you get along… Flicr is great isn’t it?
I’m about to attack it again.. I’ve just spent my lunch hour in the old Manama souq and shot a few photographs…
Re(1): Photographic Styles
Here are some samples of my “planned” and “unplanned”. The planned one were set up for the photograph, they are mostly still life macro shots. The Unplanned ones are taken with a specific goal in mind for example “get a photo of that greenery over there”.
Unplanned [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/91932303@N00/tags/unplanned/[/url]
Planned [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/91932303@N00/tags/planned/[/url]
Enjoy
Re(2): Photographic Styles
I like both Chris, well done. Why is the saturation so low on the outdoors shots? They’re slightly over-exposed. What kind of camera did you use for those?
The “studio” shots are ok. I like the tomatos but the rest would need reset as they are boring.
Re(3): Photographic Styles
yeah I know…some of the unplanned ones, specifically the cricket pitch shots are too saturated. I went a bit crazy with photoshop!
As for the studio shots…I think boring is a very strong word…but I accept your point!
I think all the shots were taken using my D-70…some of them were cropped and edited in photoshop (probably too much)
[Modified by: chrisamillion (chrisamillion) on January 24, 2005 04:02 PM]
Re: Morning Shadow
Start googling! Just a quick one resulted in this site which includes a decent review and links.
Looks like a very good camera with 5.1mp and decent optical zoom. You can do a lot with that even if you ignore all the manual settings, just keep it on auto and start shooting. Leave the “fancy” features to the time where you are ready for them.