Camera Controls And Photoshop

©ALEXANDRA COPLEY

Are you familiar with all of the buttons and what they can do for you?

PIXEL ﾐ Picture Element: digital photographs are comprised of thousands or millions of them; they are the building blocks of a digital photo.

uncompressed (an 8 megapixel camera will produce a 8 MB Raw file)
the complete (lossless ) data from the camera’s sensor
higher in dynamic range (ability to display highlights and shadows)
lower in contrast (flatter, washed out looking)
not as sharp
not suitable for printing directly from the camera or without post processing
waiting to be processed by your computer

compressed
fairly small in file size (an 8 megapixel camera will produce JPEG between 1 and 3 MB’s in size)
lower in dynamic range
higher in contrast and sharper
immediately suitable for printing, sharing, or posting on the web
processed by your camera

RAW files are bigger and take more space on your memory card
RAW files need post production
RAW files are better quality
RAW files give you much more control over how the image will look
Better for professional photographers

JPEG files are smaller in size and take less space to store
JPEG files do not need any post production
JPEG files loose richness , detail (sharpness), color range
JPEG files give you less ability to control the final image
Better for snapshots
Take one photo in raw and one in jpeg. Can you see the difference?

EV means exposure value
The range over which you can manually over or underexpose to lighten or darken the image
Usually, the range of adjustment goes from +2 to -2 EV in 1/3 steps

The camera automatically takes three or more shots with a different exposure for each frame
One image at the camera measured exposure , a second at a negative exposure compensation (usually -1/3 EV , though some cameras allow you to specify the amount), and a third at a positive exposure compensation (usually +1/3 EV , though some cameras allow you to specify the amount)
Useful option for taking HDR scenes

Find the AEB on your camera

Simple graph that displays where all of the brightness levels contained in the scene are found, from the darkest to the brightest
Displays a photographs dynamic range
In camera light meter

THOUGHTFUL TIMING
COMPOSITION (RULE OF THIRDS)
PERSPECTIVE

*WHAT DO ALL OF THESE IMAGES HAVE IN COMMON?

Refers to the placement of the sub ject within the frame of your photograph
Places the main subject off center and away from the center of the frame. As a result, photos can look more dynamic and interesting
Place points of interest in the intersections or along the lines

Perspective is the way that an object appears to the eye
Dependent on focal length and picture angle
Creative way of looking at your photographic subject
Example ALEXANDER RODCHENKO , BILL BRANDT , HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON

Boring flowers become an amazing photo

ALEXANDRE RODCHENKO

HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON

BILL BRANDT

Practice photography on a regular basis
Avoid common photographic mistakes like over exposure, under exposure, or blur
Look at photographs of others to inspire
Read your manual and learn about your camera functions
Learn better compositional techniques
Don’t be afraid to experiment

PERSPECTIVE EXERCISE
Find an object/subject
Shoot 15 different ways (using rules of perspective and composition)
Get creative with angles
30 minutes

ADOBE CAMERA RAW
used primarily to read and process raw image files
resulting images can be processed by Photoshop
considered a plug-in but comes with the program Photoshop
opens automatically when adjusting a .raw file
reads your camera default settings (or custom)
allows control over white balance, histogram, crop, sharpness, contrast, saturation and more

WHITE BALANCE
3 ways to adjust white balance
White balance eye dropper, settings, or temperature and tint
allows control over final color balance

controls brightness of an image
moves in F-stop values (f/22-f/1.8)
latitude based on quality of camera and lens used
Using the alt button you can find ‘clipped’ pixels of pure white if over exposing (means losing detail in highlights)

Much like using the black eye dropper in levels in Photoshop
Allows control over dark details in image
Holding down the alt button allows you to see if you have ‘clipped’ any shadow detail in the image

overall lightness adjustment
gamma adjustment
maintains all of the image details (shadows and highlights)
No clipping
Histogram not really affected

is created by the difference in luminance
measures difference between the colors (how stark or not)
think of a black silhouette on a bright white sky (high contrast)

changes intensity of a photographs colors
high saturation will result in special effects and brighter colors
low saturations will result in a black and white effect
increasing too high will result in color shifts when printing

best to zoom to 100% view of image
used to enhance "sharpen", the detail of an image
sharpening isn't about making a blurred image sharp; it's about getting the optimum sharpness from a photo that was shot sharp
Smoothing also known as antialiasing, is the electronic process of eliminating or reducing noise in an image
or averaging pixels with their neighbors to reduces contrast and simulate an out-of-focus image

R-red channel
G-green channel
B-blue channel
measures color's intensity distributed throughout the image
an RGB histogram produces three independent histograms and then adds them together, irrespective of whether or not each color came from the same pixel
RGB histograms can show if an individual color channel clips

histogram is a graph counting how many pixels are at each level between black and white
black is on the left
white is on the right
the height of the graph at each point depends on how many pixels are that bright
lighter images move the graph to the right
darker ones move it to the left
can be used as in camera light meter for exposure

a little bit of clipping is OK on things like the highlights of sun dancing on water (specular highlights)
overexposed digital images are almost useless. Anything that washes out to white is gone forever
images that are too dark are easy to correct later; just drag the right slider in Photoshop's Levels command to the left to meet the edge of the histogram

In this histogram you'll see a peak on the left at 100% black, even when overexposed. This is the dark shadow on the left of the photo. This shows that the camera's contrast needs to be lowered, or better still, add fill light in the shadows.

Overexposed histogram means loss of detail in the highlights

taking your photograph to new creative heights
useful tips that will improve your Photoshop
skills such as editing, enhancing, practice, tutorials, subscribing to galleries and forums and reading magazines

INTERFACE AND TOOLS

http://www.tutorial9.net/photoshop/photoshops-basic-tools/

The Crop Tool allows users to redefine their active image area but not resize the ENTIRE image. It’s sort of like cutting out a smaller picture from a larger photo with a pair of scissors.

There are several healing tools in Photoshop which are used to repair imperfections in images, or handle blemishes and red-ey

With the Clone Stamp Tool, a user may select a source starting point somewhere on an image, and then paint elsewhere using that starting point as a reference, effectively cloning the source.

The Eraser Tool can be used to erase parts of an image, selection, or layer

The Sharpen Tool is used to sharpen edges in an image, while the Blur Tool burs edges. The Smudge Tool smudges an image, similar to using fingerpaint.

The Dodge Tool lightens parts of an image while the Burn Tool darkens. The Sponge Tool is used to saturate, or desaturate parts of an image.

http://zentextures.com/
http://www.smashapps.org/2009/07/42-free-photoshop-textures.html
http://www.vectorportal.com/

Photoshop functionality can be extended by add-on programs
most common type are filter plug-ins that provide various image effects
many free plug-ins online
http://coffeeteaphotography.blogspot.com
http://tutorialblog.org/free-photoshop-plugins/

The best way to learn anything new is to experience it for yourself

http://psd.tutsplus.com
subscribe to a few that you like the most so you don't miss out on new posts (you may also want to bookmark other tutorial sites in case you want to find them in the future)

http://www.canonians.org	10
http://www.slideshare.net	4
http://translate.googleusercontent.com	1

Camera Controls And Photoshop

by alexandra copley

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