Amateur Photographer - Advanced Photography Skills

RAISING YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY TO THE NEXT LEVEL NEW
SPRING 2013 3.99
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
TECHNIQUES
O Secrets for sharper images O Learn to blend exposures O Shoot in low light O Capture infrared scenes O Understand focus stacking O Use enlarger lenses on your camera
Skills, techniques and advice for creating stunning outdoor images
PERFECT LANDSCAPES
FILL-IN FLASH SENSORS TECHNIQUES EXPLAINED

Beat shadows on bright sunny days
The science behind Produce high-quality Get creative without taking better photos prints at home using software
PRO PRINTING IN-CAMERA EFFECTS ADVICE
PLUS HOW TO CHOOSE A TRIPOD OGUIDE TO CONTINUOUS LIGHTING
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INTRODUCTION
WELCOME
Being in the right place at the right time is vital when taking landscape images. The time of day, the photographers position in relation to the sun, and the weather all make the difference between a good landscape image and a stunning one. While you may get lucky and stumble upon a magnicent scene that is beautifully lit, with a little planning and preperation you can increase your chances of capturing a great image before you have even stepped outside your front door. In this issue of Amateur Photographer magazines Advanced Photography Skills, we tell you everything you need to know to take great landscapes photographs, from preparing for a days shooting to getting home and editing your images. We even look at how to capture otherworldly landscapes by shooting in infrared. Of course, this issue is crammed full of other useful information to help you take better images, and to understand how your camera and equipment works. From printing to ll-in ash, we want to take you beyond the basics and give you the skills and advice you need to raise your photography to the next level. Richard Sibley, Editor
THE TEAM
EDITOR: Richard Sibley ART EDITOR: Simon Warren PRODUCTION EDITOR: Oliver Cotton ILLUSTRATIONS: Mark Jacobs CONTRIBUTORS: Damien Demolder, Mat Gallagher, Andrew Sydenham, Tim Coleman, Professor Robert Newman PUBLISHING DIRECTOR: Alex Robb SENIOR MARKETING MANAGER: Estelle Hicks-Bennett ONLINE MANAGER: Karen Sheard ADVERTISING: Julia Spencer, Simon Gerard
Amateur Photographeris a trademark of IPC Media Ltd 2013 IPC Media Ltd ISSN No. 0002-6840
Advanced Photography Skills is a Focus Network title, published by IPC Inspire, part of IPC Media Ltd, Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street, London SE1 0SU
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ADVANCED PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLS 3
CONTENTS
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CONTENTS
7 TOP TIPS FOR SHARPER IMAGES
Simple techniques for pin-sharp pictures
53 NO SOFTWARE REQUIRED
In-camera effects
73 CONTINUOUS LIGHTING
An alternative to ash
12 ADVANCED LANDSCAPES
Preparation, planning and dramatic compositions
60 BUILD A LCD LOUPE

Solve your visibility issues in bright light
76 LOW LIGHT
Capture detail for stunning results
24 RETOUCHERS GUIDE
Create smooth, noise-free skies
62 RETOUCHERS GUIDE
Blending multiple exposures
78 SENSOR DESIGN
Processes, principles and problems
26 CUSTOM WHITE BALANCE

Render hues and tones with accuracy
64 CAPTURING WATER DROPLETS AND SPLASHES

Try your hand at a classic technical challenge
82 TRIPODS
All you need to know about this essential kit
32 MACRO WITH A COMPACT

Ditch the DSLR
66 ENLARGER LENSES
Macro images without the expense
86 PROFESSIONAL PRINTING
Gallery-quality prints at home
38 FOCUS STACKING
Maintain sharpness in your macro images
42 COMPLETE GUIDE TO SHOOTING INFRARED IMAGES

Our comprehensive guide
70 FILL-IN FLASH FOR PORTRAITS

Use ash outside
91 FUTURE-PROOFING
Safeguard your archive
94 CAMERA CARE
Keep your kit in tip-top condition
48 CONVERT A DSLR FOR INFRARED

A step-by-step guide
4 ADVANCED PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLS
91 FUTURE-PROOFING
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12 ADVANCED
Find out how to capture your best-ever landscape photos
LANDSCAPES
7 TOP TIPS FOR SHARPER IMAGES
32 MACRO WITH A COMPACT
53 NO SOFTWARE REQUIRED
64 CAPTURING WATER DROPLETS AND SPLASHES
94 CAMERA CARE
86 PROFESSIONAL PRINTING
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FOUNDATION IN PHOTOGRAPHY

FOUNDATION IN FOUNDATION DIGITAL IMAGING IN DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY TECHNIQUES
Winning composition Making landscapes with impact Expert metering techniques Shooting striking portraits Mastering still life Depth of eld control Controlling ash Wildlife and nature photography Using colour Sports and action shots Choosing the right lens
Size and crop a digital image Adjust tones, correct colours and convert your images to monochrome Use the selection tools to adjust certain areas of your images Remove dust and scratches from precious photos Banish redeye forever Sharpen your images Create an archive to safeguard valuable pictures
Viewpoint
and composition How to use your cameras program modes All about lenses Sharpening your image Formatting, sizing and printing ISO, ash, exposure and white balance setting Basic image editing
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SKILLS
It doesnt take much effort to produce the sharpest possible images, nor is the most expensive equipment required in fact, its all a matter of application. Here are our 18 top tips for pin-sharp pictures
IF THERE is one thing all photographers appreciate, it is extremely sharp pictures. Whether it is a macro, landscape or architectural image, the sharper it is the more ne details will be revealed. Capturing pin-sharp images is neither difcult nor reliant on the use of lenses and cameras costing thousands of pounds. In fact, it largely comes down to the choices you make when setting up your camera prior to taking the shot. There is no one secret trick, but by using a combination of the following 18 tips you can be sure your images will be as sharp as possible.
1 FIXED-FOCAL-LENGTH LENS
IT IS well known that xed-focal-length lenses
generally produce sharper results than zoom optics. However, buying a range of such lenses is costly, so instead use image library software, such as the Organizer in Adobe Photoshop Elements, Lightroom, Adobe Bridge or Apple Aperture, to nd out which focal lengths you use most. Using the search lters, nd all images taken using a particular zoom lens and then search by focal length. I found that out of 5,062 images I took with an 18-200mm superzoom lens, 2,450 were taken between 18mm and 24mm a xed 18mm or 20mm lens would therefore be ideal and certainly a lot sharper than the optic I used. Fixed-focal-length lenses do not have to be expensive. Both Canon and Nikon offer 50mm f/1.8 optics at less than 200, and older, used AF versions can be found for around 100. And dont forget that old manualfocus lenses are also available for many camera systems. If your photography isnt reliant on fast focusing speeds, these can be extremely sharp and good value for money. One of the sharpest lenses I own is a 55mm f/3.5 Micro Nikkor lens from 1963, which cost me just 45.
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SKILLS
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18mm
22
2 CHOICE OF FOCAL LENGTH
3 MANUAL FOCUS AND LIVE VIEW
IF YOUR camera is mounted on a tripod, take advantage of this by

using live view to magnify the image on the rear of the camera. You can then manually focus the lens with real precision, making sure the desired area is precisely in focus for example, the subjects pupil rather than the end of their eyelashes.
THERE is no escaping the fact that some lenses are

sharper than others. This doesnt mean that you need to abandon all your optics and spend thousands of pounds on new ones, but it may help if you learn which of them are sharper than others, and at what settings. Take the kit zoom and superzoom lenses of the 18-200mm variety. These are never going to be the sharpest lenses you can buy, but there are ways to maximise their performance. For instance, a zoom lens will usually perform the worst at its extremes, so before you zoom all the way in, think about taking a few steps forward and using a focal length nearer to the middle of the zoom range. This slight adjustment can make a signicant difference. It is similar story at the minimum focal length where a zoom will also show distortion. Here, you should zoom in slightly and take a few steps backwards. Finding the focal length at which a zoom lens is sharpest is straightforward. Use a tripod to keep the camera steady and then simply photograph the same subject at different focal lengths, keeping the subject the same size in each frame. Now see which focal length produces the sharpest result. Of course, the more you pay for a zoom lens, the better the image quality should be and, as lenses hold their value far better than cameras and can always be used when you upgrade, it is always worth buying the best you can afford.
24mm
22
50mm
22
135mm
22
200mm
22
F/2.8
F/4
F/5.6
F/8
F/11
F/16
4 APERTURE
APERTURE plays a vital role in the sharpness

of an image. The rule of thumb is that a lens is at its sharpest when stopped down 2 stops from its widest aperture. Therefore, an f/2.8 lens should start to reach its sharpest at f/5.6. When used with an aperture set to its maximum, lenses are more prone to suffering from distortions, chromatic aberrations, are and coma, all of which have an adverse effect on sharpness. Conversely, diffraction starts to occur as an aperture becomes smaller. When
the aperture is very small, the light tends to bend as it exits the hole. These divergent rays have to travel further to reach the focus plane, which means they end up being slightly out of phase, resulting in a slight blurring. So while the effects of diffraction are often only slight, they can cause noticeable loss of detail. To test which aperture is the sharpest on any given lens, aim the optic at a particularly detailed subject and lock the focus to this point. Now, in aperture priority mode, take the same image at every given aperture. By examining the results at 100%, you will see exactly which aperture settings produce the sharpest image these
are usually between f/5.6 and f/11, depending on the lens. It is worth considering this information when shooting landscapes, when generally youll want to get as much of the image in focus as possible. While a small aperture of f/22 will increase the depth of eld, it will also increase diffraction, which will reduce the image sharpness. Instead, use hyperfocal focusing, where the aperture and point of focus are calculated, to maximise the depth of eld and sharpness across as much of the image as possible.
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SKILLS
5 AF FINE-TUNE
MANY DSLR cameras now
come with a feature that allows the autofocus to be ne-tuned, even allowing it to be adjusted for individual lenses. It can be the case that lenses display a slight front- or back-focus effect. Most of the time this will barely be noticeable, but for absolute precision it is worth checking your individual lenses. There are commercially available focus-checker devices that can help
you to check and adjust the AF of your camera. However, a quick search online will also present a variety of free charts that you can download and make yourself. The basic premise is to focus on the focusing chart and look at how sharp the point of focus is. If your lens is perfect, the focus should be on the exact point that you have focused on. However, if the lens is slightly out, the point of focus may be just in front, or
just behind, the intended target. Using the cameras AF ne-tune facility, it is possible to tweak the AF performance of the lens by a tiny fraction to accommodate any aw in the focus of the lens. Most cameras then have the option to save this setting so that it is automatically applied whenever this lens is used. By going through and adjusting each of your lenses, you can make sure that you get the best performance from them every time.
Fine-tuning the autofocus can squeeze a tiny bit more detail out of a lens
-5
+5
7 MIRROR LOCK-UP
THERE are a few things that are
hard to avoid when you press a cameras shutter button. One is that you will inevitably move the camera slightly. The other is that the movement of the cameras mirror springing upwards will cause tiny vibrations. One of the ways to avoid these movements is to use mirror lock-up mode. When available, this moves the mirror up when the shutter is pressed, with the shutter being released after a short delay or when the shutter is next pressed. This delay allows any vibrations or movements to settle. In taking these slight movements out of the equation, the resulting image should be slightly sharper.
6 SHUTTER SPEED
THE CAMERAS shutter is a tool for freezing motion, be it the movement

of the photographer or the subject. If you are photographing a moving subject, remember to use a shutter speed that is fast enough to freeze its motion. While 1/125sec may be appropriate for someone walking leisurely, it wont be fast enough to perfectly freeze the motion of someone sprinting or leaping over a hurdle. If the speed is too slow, the motion wont be frozen and the subject will appear blurred. Similarly, any movement the photographer is making will also have an effect. If you are shooting handheld, the rule is that you should always use a shutter speed at least as fast as the 35mm focal length. Therefore, if you are using a 300mm lens on a full-frame DSLR, you should use a shutter speed of 1/300sec or faster. If you are using a 300mm lens on a camera with an APS-C-sized sensor, then you should be using a shutter speed of at least 1/450sec (which takes the crop factor into account). Although image stabilisation will obviously help to reduce the effects of camera shake, for best results try and adhere to this rule as much as possible.
This is an extreme example, but choosing the correct shutter speed can make a big difference to the sharpness of your images
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ANOTHER habit of most photographers is to use the centre AF spot to focus and then, with the focus locked and shutter button half pressed, reframe the shot. This technique works if you have a large depth of eld, but with a shallow depth of eld the otherwise fractional shift in AF distance can slightly soften focus. It is far better to shift to a more appropriate AF point positioned over the subject. Another option is to use a single AF point and continuous tracking; it is then possible to use the centre spot focus and reframe technique as the focus tracking will adjust for the slight movement.
8 FOCUSING TECHNIQUE
10 SHARPENING
ALTHOUGH the level of
9 SHOOT RAW
AS WITH luminance noise reduction, you should remove any default settings and start sharpening from scratch. In this way you will have complete control. I nd that sharpening can usually be applied a little more strongly than the default settings allow, but it is dependent on the subject. Most sharpening tools use an Unsharp Mask technique, which increases edge contrast to make them appear sharper. To successfully sharpen an image to its full potential, it is important to understand what each of the changes you make does. Adobe Camera Raw has four different sliders for sharpening, each performing a different task. While they may have slightly different names in other software packages, the basic functions are the same. The Amount slider controls the strength of the sharpening, basically adjusting the low contrast of edges to increase or decrease the effect. The Radius slider determines the number of pixels from an edge that are affected by the sharpening. Using a small number will only affect the area around very distinct edges; a larger number will apply the sharpening effect to a greater distance away from the edge, causing
a stronger contrast effect. It can, however, create a halo effect around these edges, so it is best to keep the Radius fairly low, usually between around 0.5 and 2 pixels. Holding down the Alt key while moving the Radius slider shows a preview of which edges will be affected, highlighted in white. Grey areas remain unaffected. Look out for haloed edges and reduce the setting accordingly. The Detail slider is quite straightforward: it controls the degree to which details are sharpened. The higher the setting, the more ne edges are sharpened. When at a low setting, only the major outline edges will be affected, and not the smaller surface texture details. Again, holding the Alt key while moving the slider shows exactly which detailed edges will be affected. Perhaps the most useful of the sharpening tools is the Masking slider. This masks those areas of the image that you dont want sharpened. When set to 0, no masking is applied, but when at 100 sharpening will only be applied to major edges. Where the masking slider is particularly useful is in actually making sure that any luminance noise in skies isnt made worse by the sharpening process. Hold down Alt and use the Masking slider to ensure that you only sharpen those edges that need it.
sharpening and noise reduction can be set to varying levels in-camera, it is always best to shoot raw images. When an image is saved as a JPEG le, it is compressed to save space, but this can cause a loss of detail sharpness. Capturing images as raw les and then using raw-conversion software to process them offers far more control over how sharpening and noise reduction are applied.
Only sharpen areas that you need to so that noise is not exaggerated
COLOUR NOISE
COLOUR NR
NR JUST RIGHT
TOO MUCH NR
MOST raw-conversion software will apply default sharpening and noise reduction based on the ISO sensitivity of the image. However, these arent always the best settings to use. When it comes to noise reduction, it is luminance noise reduction that is the most destructive. It works by blending neighbouring pixels together to remove the speckled luminance noise. In doing so, the process often blurs texture detail, creating images that look blurred or smudged, but with sharp edges.
11 NOISE REDUCTION
When applying luminance noise reduction, start with no reduction applied and then gradually increase the level until the edge has been taken off any speckling, but before any signs of smudging or loss of surface detail emerge. It is better to leave a hint of speckled luminance noise in the image than cause a loss of detail and sharpness from too much noise reduction. Colour (chroma) noise reduction usually has no effect on the sharpness of an image, so it is generally acceptable to apply as much as is necessary to reduce any coloured noise.
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SKILLS
12 ISO SENSITIVITY
YOU MAY not think so, but ISO sensitivity has some effect
on sharpness because as the sensitivity increases so does luminance and chroma noise. These reduce detail, but not as much as noise reduction, which blurs and smoothes image noise causing a loss of image sharpness in ne detailed areas. Wherever possible, try to shoot at your cameras native ISO sensitivity, which is usually ISO 100 or 200. Doing so will mean the sensor and image processor will not have to amplify any analogue or digital signals an action that can itself create image noise. Similarly, avoid Lo ISO settings. These generally just use the cameras native ISO sensitivity and then underexpose the image accordingly, before boosting the signal to produce a correct exposure. Generally, any image noise produced is very slight, but there can be less detail in highlight areas compared to using the cameras native ISO sensitivity.
16 TRIPODS AND SUPPORTS

A TRIPOD is perhaps the best
tool for making sure that an image is pin-sharp. While it can sometimes be a pain to carry around, the benets of using one are huge. With the camera mounted on a sturdy tripod and head, there should be no camera movement during the exposure and virtually no excuse for the image to not be sharp. However, it isnt just tripods that can help steady your camera monopods also offer a great deal of support. Although they are not as stable as a tripod, monopods can make a signicant difference to the sharpness of your images. Some professional portrait photographers even use monopods when shooting in a controlled and well-lit studio environment, as they offer support but with a degree of exibility not found with a tripod.
WITH SUPPORT
WHETHER it is optical- or sensor-based image stabilisation, if you are shooting handheld you should always switch it on if available. Even if you are using a fast shutter speed, the extra stabilisation can make a difference. However, image stabilisation should not be considered a substitute for a proper camera support. Although it makes it possible to shoot images handheld at far slower shutter speeds than would normally be possible, for critical sharpness a fast shutter speed or an appropriate support should always be used.
13 IMAGE STABILISATION
WITHOUT SUPPORT
14 DEPTH OF FIELD
THE APERTURE of a lens is, of course, used to set the

depth of eld. It may seem obvious to say that the subject must fall within the given depth of eld, but pay real attention to how the depth of eld may affect sharpness. If you are shooting a portrait image at a very wide aperture of, say, f/2.8, and either you or the subject moves forward or back by just an inch or two when taking the picture, it may be enough to throw the subject slightly out of focus. The eyes, for example, may now be not as sharp as they should and the focus point may be nearer the front of the subjects nose. Increasing the aperture by just 1 stop will increase the depth of eld enough to help reduce the effects of this movement.
15 SELF-TIMER
IF YOUR camera doesnt have a mirror lock-up function,

the self-timer function can be just as useful. By setting the self-timer to re a few seconds after you have pressed the shutter button, any force you may have applied to the camera when pressing the button will have subsided before the image is taken. A self-timer becomes even more useful when combined with mirror lock-up. This means that the mirror can spring up and then, when you press the cameras shutter button a second time, it will be a further few seconds before the shutter automatically opens. Once again, this means that the camera should be perfectly still and free from even the slightest shake.
17 CORRECT AUTOFOCUS MODE

SOMETHING that is often overlooked is the correct autofocus mode. On a basic level you have a choice between single and continuous AF. If you are shooting a still object, such as a still life or a landscape image, then single AF mode is the most sensible choice, while continuous AF is the obvious choice if your subject is moving. However, if you are handholding the camera and shooting something like a portrait image, where the depth of eld may be shallow, it may be worth using continuous AF. As previously explained, if you or the subject lean forward or back slightly, continuous AF should help maintain sharp focus on the subject.
18 REMOTE RELEASE
FOR ABSOLUTE precision, a remote release is key. Using a remote release means that a cameras shutter button doesnt have to be pressed at all. As a result, the camera wont be subject to any movements created when you press the button. Once again, when combined with a mirror lock-up and a tripod, a remote release should allow for pin-sharp pictures.
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ADVANCED
The rst step to improving your landscape photography is to ensure you are prepared. We explain how to plan your shoot properly, what to take with you and how best to achieve dramatic compositions
The more preparation you put into taking a landscape image, the greater your chances of producing a fantastic photograph
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SKILLS
LANDSCAPES
LANDSCAPES are one of the most popular subjects in photography, and something that nearly all photographers turn their hand to at some point. Many photographers choose to take a landscape shot simply because they are in a nice
location with great lighting, so they set the cameras aperture to f/16 and click away. However, to be more than just a one-hit wonder in the world of great landscapes images, careful planning and preparation are essential, along with compositional skill. While most photographers are familiar with the basics of how to take a good landscape image, this guide will go beyond the fundamentals and explain how you can capture your best-ever landscape photographs.
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photographers lens completely, and looking at the images taken by other photographers will give you an idea of how to plan your own shoot. Look for features in the landscape, and see how the location changes at different times of the day or in different seasons. All these ideas will be useful when you come to make your nal decision about what your photograph should look like. to calculate precisely where and at what time the sun will rise and set on a specic day at any point in the future. By using a slider you can see how the position of the sun will change over the course of the day, so if you do want to see the sunlight hit a particular feature in the landscape you can nd out at exactly what time this will happen which will allow you to work out just how far in advance you need to be at the location to set up for the shot. For example, if you want to photograph a mountain with a lake to its east, the Photographers Ephemeris will show a map of that location. Moving the slider will change the time of day and show the exact position of the sun throughout. You will then be able to see at exactly what time the sun will be illuminating the mountain from along the lake, allowing you to stand at the far end of the lake and capture the mountain nicely lit up by the early morning sunshine. You can work out the time to the exact minute, so you can arrive and set up your camera gear in plenty of time. Although it is always ideal to know your intended location rst-hand, tools like the Photographers Ephemeris make it possible to know the right time to visit a location in order to catch sunrise or sunset. The information it provides even allows you to calculate where to stand to capture the perfect image. It can save a lot of time, and it means you dont have to get up early and visit your location time and again in an effort to perfect your picture.
PLANNING AND PREPARATION

The key to landscape photography is proper planning and preparation. Knowing exactly when and where to shoot dramatically increases your chances of success and saves a lot of time in the process
TIME OF DAY
One of the biggest decisions facing the landscape photographer is what time of day to shoot a particular location. Some of the most fantastic colours, as well as long dramatic shadows, are produced just before and after sunrise and sunset, and these make it the favourite time for most people. The sun will always rise roughly to the east and set in the west, but consider how this light will affect what is illuminated in the landscape. Will the side of a particular hill be lit up by the sun during sunrise or sunset? At what time of day will the sun be bright enough to cause a perfect reection of that hill in the lake? While these are questions that can be fairly difcult to answer without rst visiting the location at different times of the day, there are ways to work out when the light will hit certain features in the scene while youre sitting at home. An Ordnance Survey map will give you a rough idea of where the sun will rise and set in relation to your location, but for a more comprehensive solution try the Photographers Ephemeris (photoephemeris.com). This is a simple piece of software for use on either a computer or an Apple iPhone/iPad
FINDING YOUR LOCATION

Look through most photography magazines and you will see the same locations time and again. There are countless sites all over the UK that are notorious for photographers almost having to queue up to take photographs. Places such as Durdle Door in Dorset, or the wooden jetties on Derwent Water in the Lake District, are fantastic locations, but with so many images of them already existing, it is difcult to make your photograph stand out from the rest. While it isnt necessarily a bad thing to have a great photograph that is similar to someone elses, it is nicer to have your own unique image from your own location, or at least to see how you can photograph the more famous locations differently. Thanks to the internet, it is now possible to explore locations without having to leave your home, which makes the planning stage of a landscape shoot much easier. The rst thing to do is to nd out what locations have already been photographed many times before. If you are interested in a particular area, visit Flickr (www.ickr.com) and search for the name of the location. Very few places have escaped the
Timing is crucial for landscape photography. If you are planning to travel to a location for sunrise or sunset, make sure you know exactly how long your journey will take
TRAVELLING
If you are planning to visit your location at a very specic time, such
The Photographers Ephemeris can tell you the position of the sun at any given time, anywhere in the world
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SKILLS
THE WEATHER
AS UNPREDICTABLE as the British weather

can be, most 24-hour forecasts are reasonably accurate and offer at least an idea of what you may be faced with before heading out. So make sure you check the weather beforehand and, if you are determined to head out even in the pouring rain, make sure you have packed your camera kit and clothing accordingly. It may seem like common sense, but when that 10% chance of a downpour materialises youll be thankful that you packed a waterproof jacket and your camera in its waterresistant case. Checking the weather will not only help you decide whether it is worth getting out of bed or to remind you to take a coat it can also help to prevent a dangerous situation. Although some of the best-known landscape locations arent far from a main road, many more are well off the beaten track, out on the moors or in mountainous regions, so always take care and be prepared. If there is the likelihood of a thunderstorm, heavy rain or snow, think carefully about whether you will be safe going out. If you think the conditions are manageable, remember to dress and pack your equipment appropriately. If you plan to photograph seascapes, knowing the tide times is just as essential as knowing what weather to expect. There is no point turning up at a venue ready to take long-exposure images of a wooden pier heading out to sea if the tide is out and there is a mile of exposed sand when you arrive. Similarly, if you want to photograph the rugged rock pools off the coast of
Jersey, youll want to know when the tide will be low enough to do so. With safety in mind, it is important to know when the tide will be in. You dont want to be stranded in a bay that can only be accessed at low tide when the water is coming in. To check the tide times around the UK coastline, visit www.bbc.co.uk/weather/ coast_and_sea/tide_tables.
conditions where the batteries wont perform to their full ability. Also, even if your camera has an incamera level facility, it is always worth carrying a separate hotshoemounted bubble level to help ensure your images are straight. Besides camera equipment, there are a number of other items you should pack. If you are heading off the beaten track in the Lake District, Brecon Beacons, Dartmoor or a similarly remote landscape, a map and compass should be high on your list. Despite mobile phones being able to access maps, many will require an internet connection that may not be available in a remote landscape. Similarly, mobile phone batteries can also die. With this in mind, make sure your mobile is fully charged and use an in-car charger to keep it topped up while travelling between locations. The most obvious advice of all is to take a bottle of water and some sweets, chocolate or a banana or two. If you dont stay hydrated or are low on energy, you will tire more easily and wont be able to stay out taking images for as long. Also, tiredness can lead to simple mistakes, such as forgetting to shoot in raw or forgetting to set the correct ISO sensitivity.
Some of the most fantastic colours are produced just before and after sunrise and sunset
as sunrise or sunset, make sure you allow enough time to get there. If you are driving, take into account any trafc you may face, particularly in the evenings. Also include the time it will take to park and walk to your location, and allow yourself ten minutes to set up your camera and tripod and test your exposure settings.
PACKING YOUR CAMERA BAG

While it is best to pack your camera equipment to accommodate any photo opportunity that you come across, if you are planning to walk for any length of time try to reduce the weight you will be carrying. As you are going to be specically taking landscapes, I would suggest taking a xed wideangle lens and a mid-range zoom, such as a 2870mm or a 28-105mm lens. This will allow you to have a sharp prime lens for most landscapes and a zoom lens to pick out specic subjects in the landscape. If you are driving between different locations, then by all means carry more lenses with you but leave them securely in the boot of your car to keep what you are carrying to a minimum. One essential item for sharp images is a remote camera release. Combined with mirror lock-up, this will allow you to keep to a minimum any vibrations caused by touching the camera, mirror slap or ring the shutter. If you plan to be out for the whole day, it is worth taking a spare camera battery, particularly in colder
ACCESS
Make sure you are not trespassing on private land when taking photographs. There are many public rights of way in the UK, with footpaths and bridleways for walkers, horses and cyclists. There are also paths where the landowner allows people to use walkways across their land, but these are not ofcially public rights of way. Ordnance Survey maps of 1:50,000 and 1:25,000 scale show public paths. Certain areas in National Parks, Forestry Commission woodland and National Trust land offer open access. This means that the public has legal foot access to any open area. Some of these areas are clearly marked, but always be sure you are not trespassing on private land by checking local maps and guides.
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COMPOSITION
With your scene now in front of you, it is time to decide exactly how to compose your image. There are countless ways to do this, and it is up to the photographer to determine a suitable composition for the scene at that particular moment. There are few rules when it comes to composition, although the rule of thirds is always a good starting point, but by breaking this rule you can sometimes produce some of the most striking images. Another similar method of composition is the Fibonacci curve. Like the rule of thirds, it places key compositional elements along certain points in the curve, and is meant to balance an image and draw in the viewers eye. Lone trees, a tractor or farm buildings can all be placed along the rule of thirds intersections to help balance an image and give the viewer a point on which to focus. Equally, placing an object in the centre of the frame can make it powerful and dominant, but it can also make it the complete focus of an image rather than the landscape itself. Control where the viewer will look through leading lines. Winding country roads that cut through a scene, or the ploughed lines in a eld, can be used to guide the viewer through an image. Leading lines can provide a sense of scale, which is important if your landscape is otherwise just blue skies and green grass. The aspect ratio can make a huge difference to the look of an image. Again, there is no right or wrong format for a landscape photograph. Many of Ansel Adams images are of a 5:4 ratio, while 3:2 and 4:3 aspect ratios are probably the most common today. However, there is nothing stopping you crop to other, less traditional aspect ratios. Although you will probably want to crop the image to a suitable aspect ratio using image-editing software rather than in-camera at the scene, it can be useful to know roughly what you want your image to look like. To help visualise this, it is possible to change the image format in-camera and then return it to its native aspect ratio before taking the image. Other photographers may use masking tape or card to cover part of the screen to help see their composition. Another trick is to use a series of small card frames with apertures of different aspect ratios cut out of them. Holding these in front of your eye will allow you to see roughly how an image will look, without even having to get your camera out of your bag. With a camera bag carefully
ON LOCATION
Once you have reached your chosen location, there is still work to be done before you even start setting up your camera
When positioning elements in the frame, use the rule of thirds as a starting point
Use a piece of acetate and divide it into nine equal areas. Then place it in a card frame to make a simple compositional aid
A Fibonacci, or Golden Ratio, curve can be used to help compose images
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LOW ANGLE EYE-LEVEL
SKILLS
The height at which an image is taken can dramatically alter the look of the scene. Here, the shallow waves of the low-angle image draw the eye to the building
1:1
Shooting from above eye-level will often result in the camera being angled down slightly to capture the landscape. The result will be that more of the landscape, but less of the sky, is visible
When cropping images, consider the scenes key elements. Here, the 3:2 ratio strikes a nice balance between the clouds and sunlit foreground
packed and a tripod in tow, it can take a few minutes to set up your equipment once you are in position. For all a tripods good points, it can be restrictive when it comes to creatively exploring how to compose a scene. With this in mind, it is a good idea to work out the exact position from which to take an image before you set the tripod up. Once again, you can do this using small framing cards to compose the scene, or you can even use a small compact camera, but usually it is best to use your main camera and take some test images at different angles, heights and positions. Once you have found the height and angle you are most happy with, set up the tripod and lock the camera in position. something slightly more unusual, and often more eye-catching. Shooting from above eye-level will often result in the camera being angled down slightly to capture the landscape. The result will be that more of the landscape, but less of the sky, is visible. Similarly, shooting from a low angle will reduce how much landscape is shown in the middle distance and draw attention to any subjects in the foreground. Think about how your shooting angle will draw attention to different parts of a scene. Remember that, as well as focusing your attention on one particular part of the scene, you can also avoid certain areas. For example, when faced with an amazing cloud formation made all the more dramatic by early evening sunlight bursting through, tilt the camera up to include more of the sky and less of the land. Conversely, avoid a dull, at, overcast sky by not including it at all in your image. Instead, place the camera up high and shoot with it angled downwards.
3:2 5:4
16:9 4:3 16:7
HEIGHTS AND ANGLES

With your scene in front of you, it is tempting just to pull out your tripod and take all your images at eye-level, but this isnt always the best option. We are all used to seeing the world at this height, so by shooting from a lower or higher angle we can create
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ND lters are semi-transparent and neutrally coloured. They lter the amount of light entering the camera
factor is making sure that any quickrelease clamps on your tripod legs are tight and will hold the legs rm when clamped down. Most tripods come with a key that will allow you to tighten the nuts that provide the resistance against the clamp springs. Before heading out, make sure that when clamped the legs wont slip.
ND grads are one of the key lters for any landscape photographer
The hook on the bottom of a centre column can be used to add ballast to weigh down a lightweight tripod
ACCESSORIES
FILTERS
On page 21, we explain when to use lters and how to use them correctly, but rst we will look at what kind of lters you should be considering.
reduce UV light, as are the lters that sit in front of a digital cameras sensor, so UV lters are largely used to protect a cameras lens rather than actually reduce UV light.
CIRCULAR POLARISER
An absolute must for a landscape photographer is a circular polariser. These lters polarise the light entering the lens and cut down glare and reections. In doing so, blue skies can be made even bluer, and clear water can become even clearer, which is useful when shooting in exotic locations next to lakes or the sea.
TRIPODS
There are few situations when a tripod wont give you a better, sharper image than a photograph taken handheld, but for landscape pictures they are essential for getting the sharpest images, particularly when small apertures are used at dawn or dusk. If you are planning to hike to your location, then a small, light, foursection, carbon-bre tripod may be the most convenient. However, in windy conditions, a heavier, sturdier tripod is a better option to prevent camera shake. Most enthusiast photographers dont have the luxury of owning two tripods, so the best one is the one you already own. If you have one of the lighter tripods, there are ways that you can weigh it down. Many tripods have a hook at the bottom of the centre column. This can be used to attach a weight, to add ballast that will help to prevent small movements of the tripod and act as a shock absorber to reduce any vibrations. Purpose-made sandbags or beanbags lled with sand are available, tted with clips to make them easy to attach to a tripods ballast hook. Other options could include hanging your camera bag from the hook, or even just a carrier bag lled with rocks or stones picked up at the scene. If your tripod doesnt have a hook, then string can be wrapped above where the tripod legs meet the centre column. It can then be used to attach a sandbag or your camera bag. Alternatively, you can use a water bottle, and if you are near a water feature the bottle can be lled up on location. Another important
PREVENTING CAMERA MOVEMENT

In strong winds it is not just the tripod that will need to be steady, as the wind will catch the camera and lens, and the tiny movements will cause a loss of a sharpness. To help prevent this, place a sandbag on top of the camera. The extra weight will help to reduce any vibrations.
NEUTRAL DENSITY
Neutral density (ND) lters are semitransparent and neutrally coloured. They lter the amount of light entering the camera, leading to an increase in the required exposure. When shooting landscape images, ND lters are most commonly used to increase the exposure time when photographing lakes or the sea to create a soft, misty water effect.
GRADUATED NEUTRAL DENSITY

Graduated neutral density lters (ND grads) help to even out the exposure between land and sky. The graduated, semi-opaque nish gradually darkens skies before the gradient fades into the landscape. Using the correct ND grad will darken a bright sky in a scene and balance it with the land. To a certain extent its effect can be replicated by blending different exposures or by darkening a sky in editing software, but it is far better to get it right in-camera.
In windy conditions, use a sandbag or beanbag filled with rice to weigh down the camera
ULTRAVIOLET
Ultraviolet (UV) lters cut down the amount of UV light entering the lens, which helps to make distant features in a landscape look clearer. However, most modern lenses are coated to
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FOCUSING AND EXPOSURE

With your image composed and your camera on a tripod, its time to choose your focus point and exposure settings
Focus here
When focusing on the subject, in this case a tree, the depth of eld extends in front of the tree and behind it, but not far enough for the distant mountain to be in focus
APERTURE, SHUTTER SPEED AND SENSITIVITY

OF ALL the exposure settings, it is the aperture that is the most important. The aperture of a lens denes the depth of eld, which is crucial when trying to get an entire scene in focus. The ISO sensitivity should be set to a low setting, which means it is the shutter speed that should be used to increase or decrease the exposure. With a low ISO sensitivity and a small aperture, exposure times may be quite long so a tripod will be essential for sharp images. In fact, particularly long exposures can be used deliberately to achieve certain effects. See ND lters on page 21 for more details on this. For best image quality, set the camera to its native ISO sensitivity, which will usually be the lowest ISO sensitivity. On some cameras, this will be ISO 200, with ISO 100 functioning as an extended or low setting. A cameras image sensor cannot become less sensitive than its native ISO setting. What happens in these low extended modes is that the image is exposed as if the sensor were at an ISO 100 setting, but it is actually at ISO 200. The information is then processed to reduce the signal by 1EV so the resulting image appears as correctly exposed. The result is often an improvement in measured dynamic range because the 1EV effective overexposure means there is detail and colour when you come to edit the dark areas. However, there is a downside. Extended low ISO sensitivities usually only offer a better dynamic range in the midtones and shadows, but the overexposure means that some highlight detail may be lost. If you are photographing landscapes and want to maximise detail in the sky, stick to the native ISO rather than the lowest sensitivity that is available .
Focus on subject Focus here
By focusing slightly further back, the tree is still in focus, but the depth of eld has now extended to innity, bringing the mountain in the background into focus
Focus just behind subject

FOCUSING
It may seem odd to discuss focusing before exposure, but when it comes to landscape photography the two are intrinsically linked. Before you select your aperture you should know how much depth of eld you require. For most landscape images, the aim of the photographer is to get as much of the landscape in focus as possible, from the very front of the scene to distant hills and mountains. To do this, hyperfocal focusing is used, whereby the lens is focused to a distance that allows depth of eld to extend from in front of the point of focus to innity With most modern lenses not having depth-of-eld scales, many photographers remember the simplied rule that the depth of eld extends roughly one third of its total distance in front of the focus point. Knowing this allows them to focus behind the subject, extending the depth of eld further back, hopefully to innity, but still keeping the foreground subject in focus. Although this knowledge is extremely useful, it is by no means accurate or precise. If you are using this technique, try increasing your aperture by another stop to increase the depth of eld further, or try focus bracketing to increase your chances of hitting the hyperfocal distance. A far better idea than all that guesswork is to create a hyperfocal distance graph for any lenses you own using free software from DOF Master (www.dofmaster.com/charts.html). This will allow you to create your own hyperfocal distance charts of each of your lenses, or for particular focal lengths of a zoom lens. Print these charts and carry them in your camera bag so you can refer to them to nd the exact hyperfocal distance for a given lens and aperture. Use the focus distance scale markings on your lens to focus to the correct hyperfocal distance. Generally, these markings wont allow you to set the exact distance so err on the side of caution and focus slightly further away. This should ensure the depth of eld extends to innity, although a little foreground depth will be lost.
Using exposure bracketing means almost certainly getting a correctly exposed image
foreground looking very dark, while exposing for the foreground can leave the sky looking very bright, with little or no colour from the sunset coming through. Solutions to this problem could be to use an ND (neutral density) graduated lter, create an HDR (high dynamic range) image, or carefully edit and blend shots together. However, it is best to try to create an exposure in-camera that is as close as possible to your desired nal image. Generally, a cameras evaluative metering system will produce one of two results when metering a scene with a very bright sky. It will either try to expose the foreground correctly at the expense of the sky, or it will dim the bright sky causing the land to be very dark. Neither is right or
EXPOSURE AND METERING

Dramatic natural light can give a scene a dynamic range that even the most high-tech digital and lm cameras will struggle to replicate. Exposing for a sunset can leave the
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Right: Bracketing your images gives you options when it comes to editing. Not only will it give you the best chance of a suitable exposure, but it will also allow you to blend exposures or create an HDR image
-1EV
+1EV
-1EV
0EV
+1EV
shadow detail, and allow different exposures to be blended together to create an HDR image.
0EV
Left: Carefully check your histogram for highlight and shadow detail. Ideally, avoid large highlight areas and patches of complete black
wrong in this instance, as the camera doesnt know where you want the emphasis to be, but after a while you should become familiar with how your camera will meter in certain situations and you can then use the exposure compensation accordingly. The aim should be to nd a balance between land and sky. Having taken a test shot, use the histogram to check for blown-out highlights. If you are photographing a sky, you should aim to have the right side of the curve just touching the far right of the histogram range. If there is a peak on the far right of the graph, this means an area is completely blown out to 100% white and will have no detail. It is ne to have some details that are completely white, but a large area like a sky will look odd. Also, when you later edit the image, the sky may create a posterised effect, with the burnt-out area appearing as a solid block of white, or off-white, colour.
Make sure you also check the histogram for shadow detail. As with the whites, any black tones on the far left-hand side of the histogram will show as completely black. While you will obviously want black tones in your image, unless you are going for a silhouette effect you dont want a large clump of the histogram curve to be on the far left. Use exposure compensation to brighten or darken the scene so that both the image on the rear screen and, more importantly, the histogram look good.
also manually change the exposure settings to bracket images. However, being able to set the camera to automatically take a sequence of three or ve differently exposed images is much faster, allowing you more time to recompose for another shot before the light changes. Even if you are happy with the image exposure shown on the cameras rear screen and by the curve of the histogram, it is still a good idea to set bracketing to -0.3, 0 and +0.3EV. As good as the rear screens on modern cameras are, they cannot be relied upon for complete accuracy and these slight exposure deviations make a lot of difference to highlight and shadow detail. Bracketing exposures will take up more space on your memory card, but when lighting can change from minute to minute, it is better to return knowing that you have a number of exposures to choose from rather than relying on just one. Remember that the less editing that is required, the less chance there is of introducing artefacts and noise. Bracketed exposures can also be used for HDR images or blended images. Setting the camera to bracket +2 and -2EV from the most suitable exposure should also be enough to recover highlight and
FIRING THE SHUTTER

While image stabilisation can help keep a camera still, the low light just before and after sunrise and sunset, combined with small apertures, will mean that a long exposure and a tripod will almost certainly be necessary. Yet even tripods are prone to slight movements, caused either by the wind or because of vibrations generated by ring the cameras shutter. This is why, on page 18, that we looked at how to stabilise a tripod and camera, reducing these small movements by adding additional ballast. To avoid any camera movement, it is best not to touch the camera at all when triggering the shutter. Using the self-timer will allow a few seconds to elapse from the time the shutter button is pressed to the time the image is taken, during which any small movements can subside. A remote release will allow you to avoid handling the camera altogether. However, minute vibrations can also be caused by the slap of the cameras mirror ipping up. These vibrations can be reduced by combining a remote release with mirror lock-up. Nearly all highend enthusiast and pro DSLRs have this feature, which locks the mirror up when the shutter release is pressed. Once any vibrations have subsided, the release is pressed again to open the shutter and expose the sensor or lm. The shutter then closes and the mirror returns.
EXPOSURE BRACKETING
One of the most useful features of a modern DSLR is exposure bracketing, but how often do you actually use it? When shooting landscape images, exposure bracketing is a convenient way of making sure that you go home with a correctly exposed image, or at least one that can be effectively edited. Of course, you can
When using long exposures, make sure your tripod is weighed down and use mirror lockup and a remote release to reduce vibrations
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SKILLS
WITHOUT POLARISER
POLARISERS
Polarising lters are a great way of making sure that skies are a nice shade of blue. They reduce the amount of image editing required, which is benecial because overediting can often lead to image artefacts and banding. However, polarisers are also one of the most notable culprits for affecting white balance, often giving images a slight yellow tint. Make sure, then, that
WITH POLARISER
A polariser can make skies bluer and reduce reections on water

you take a custom white balance and adjust the raw le to warm or cool the image to reproduce the natural colour of the light in the scene. Remember, too, that a polariser isnt just on or off it can be set to different strengths. So see which setting is most appropriate to the scene rather than simply setting it to its maximum each time.
WITHOUT ND GRAD
USING FILTERS
Filters are par for the course when shooting landscapes, so it is essential that you know how to use them correctly. As a lter goes straight in front of the lens, it is crucial that it is of good quality. Cheap lters may cause are, a loss of contrast or sharpness, and they often affect colour balance. Some lters will affect white balance slightly, so take a white balance reading with the lter in place, or set to the correct strength or position. Shooting raw will give you the exibility to alter the white balance when the le is converted. Always keep your lters clean and seal them when not in use. With the small apertures used in landscape photography, any dust on a lters surface is much more likely to appear on the image, making for laborious, post-capture retouching work.
WITH ND GRAD
An ND grad lter darkens skies and is a must for all landscape photographers
ND GRAD FILTERS
To use an ND grad, take an evaluative meter reading of the scene, then adjust the exposure until the land is correctly exposed. Make a note of these settings, then darken the exposure until the sky is correctly exposed. Again, make a note of the settings. Given that the same aperture will be used each time, look at the difference in shutter speed between the two exposures. Use this difference to work out which ND grad lter to use. For example, if the exposure for the land is 1/60sec and the exposure for the sky is 1/250sec, a 2EV lter will be necessary to darken the sky sufciently.
An ND lter can be used to create long-exposure images that show movement

ND FILTERS
We all know what a neutral density lter does, but most photographers seem to use one solely for achieving a longer exposure to blur moving water. However, the longer exposure means that any other moving object in a landscape image will also be blurred. In an exposure time of more than a few minutes, clouds will start to blur and form patterns as they move across the sky. This will show in contrast to static subjects such as trees or bales of hay, which will remain sharp. Similarly, the wind will blow the branches of trees back and forth, creating blurred patterns as they sway around the trees static trunk. Fields of crops also produce an interesting effect as they move very often, the blurred effect will only be visible at the top of the crop, which blows back and forth, while nearer to the ground the crops lower centre of gravity leaves it more static, and sharper, in the image. So the next time you are taking landscape pictures, think about how an ND lter can be used to capture movement on the land and in the sky, and not just for blurring water.
Keep your lters clean. With small apertures, any dust on a lters surface is much more likely to appear on the image
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IMAGE EDITING
With the raw les safely captured and loaded onto a computer hard drive, it is now time to begin editing the images to ensure the landscapes look perfect
GENERAL EDITING
With ongoing improvements to image sensor technology, more and more detail can be recovered from shadow areas without introducing too much image noise. But by far the best option is to get the image as close as possible to its nal version in-camera, and to shoot and edit raw les. Many images can be adjusted using the basic colour and contrast editing tools in Adobe Camera Raw. First use the Exposure adjustment to lighten or darken the image as necessary. Check the histogram when lightening the image to see that it isnt creating large burnt-out highlight areas. A computer screen cannot always replicate every highlight tone, so the histogram is a more accurate indicator. With the overall image exposure corrected, it is time to assess the individual tones. Often the Fill Light tool is the next feature to use. This lightens the lightest shadow areas and midtones to recover more detail and brighten the image. For landscape photographers, the Fill Light tool is one of the most useful as it can reveal detail in areas that would otherwise appear as silhouettes. When working with a particularly dark image, it can be a good idea to shift the black point slightly. By default this is set to 5 in Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom. Setting it to 2 or 3 will reduce the areas that register as 100% black, which will again reveal a little more detail in these areas. Be sure to check any areas that are affected by this adjustment, as sometimes changing the black point can create banding or a posterised effect in shadow areas. With these corrections made it is time to look at the images contrast. Use Levels or Curves to increase the contrast, but keep an eye on the histogram while doing so to check that it doesnt clip any black or white areas. The nal step for brightness and contrast is to use the Highlight Recovery tool. This darkens highlights to pull back any detail that may have been lost during editing. If there was no detail there originally, this will just darken the highlights slightly and create a grey patch that will look out of place. It is best used to recover any details that may have been lost when performing the nal contrast adjustment.
TOO MUCH
IDEAL
BLUE/GREEN
AS SHOT
BRACKETED exposures can be blended together using software to create a high dynamic range (HDR) photograph, which displays increased colour and contrast information for each pixel. Some photographers may feel uneasy about producing HDR images because of the way they are often processed. A full range of tonal information is used to form an image with no shadows or highlights, and full of midtones and it looks completely unnatural. This is often combined with local rather than global contrast, all of which gives hypertoned HDR images their distinctive look. It is a look that landscape photographers should avoid. There is nothing wrong with creating an HDR image, but the extended dynamic range should be used to pull out shadow detail, not turn that detail into a midtone. Be sure to keep some highlights in the sky and shadows on the ground, and avoid adding excessive local contrast if you want the image to look natural.
latter is more subtle, and increases the saturation of colours in relation to each other. It also has less effect on skin tones. A slight move of +10 on the Vibrance slider is often sufcient. A far better option is to alter the colours individually. In Camera Raw there are Hue, Luminance and Saturation sliders for each colour that can be used to ne-tune particular areas. For example, I am often unhappy with how green grass looks in images taken in dim sunlight. But using the green slider, I can adjust the hue to give it a slight bluey-green colour, rather than yellowy-green. Then I can then use the Luminance slider to darken or lighten all the greens in the image. Often I will slightly darken the greens using the Luminance slider before increasing the Saturation to produce vivid, but realistic, dark greens. How you work with a particular colour will change depending on each image. On a bright summers day, dark-green grass under a bright-blue sky will look odd, so a brighter green will be more suitable. The same applies to skies. At dusk, the hue and saturation of a blue sky can be changed slightly to produce a cold, steely-blue colour. If you increase the saturation and brightness so that the sky is as blue as it would be at midday, it wont look natural. So emphasise natural colours without overexaggerating them. Also try reducing the saturation of some colours, such as in the foreground of a landscape. This gives the perception of increased saturation in the sky without actually having to do so.
HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE
YELLOW/GREEN
COLOUR
The reason that many photographers favour shooting at dusk and dawn is for the variety of colour that appears in the sky. Reds, pinks, oranges, purples and blues can all be visible within an hour of each other as the atmosphere refracts the light from the sun as it passes the horizon. When editing the colours in an image, do so sympathetically. Add saturation and brightness, but avoid creating a comic22 ADVANCED PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLS
Think about how you edit particular colours. Landscapes can look very different depending on how the green colours are rendered
book landscape. The aim should be to enhance the natural colours rather than impose articial ones. Sometimes a quick nudge of the Saturation and Vibrance sliders is all thats required. The former increases the saturation of all colours, while the
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SKILLS
MASKING AND ADDING A GRADIENT

BEFORE
AFTER
Copy the original image layer by selecting Layer>Duplicate Layer. Name this new layer Dark Sky. Alternatively, load a bracketed, darker version of the image onto a new layer.
If you arent using a bracketed image, use the Levels tool to darken the new Dark Sky image layer until you are happy with the contrast in the sky.
IF YOU are editing a single image rather than multiple ones, some local adjustments will almost certainly be necessary. There are many ways in which to do this. For small changes, the Dodge and Burn tools set to a very low strength of 2-8%, and with a very soft-edged brush, can be used to lighten or darken areas. For larger areas, such as skies and landscapes, selection and masking tools can be used. Which ones you use will depend on your software and, more importantly, which you feel most comfortable with. In Photoshop, for example, the Quick Mask or Marquee selection tools are among the easiest to use. Most of the time you will want to concentrate on editing the sky, as this is easier to blend into the landscape. The reason for this is that during early mornings and evenings, the sky will be lighter towards the horizon. This makes it easy to select the sky and use a large feathered edge to fade the effect off before it reaches the horizon. From here the brightness, contrast and colour saturation of the sky can be adjusted to blend it into the landscape. If you havent used an ND grad lter, it is possible to go some way to replicating the effect in Photoshop and similar editing software. The trick is to add an adjustment layer to the image and then add a gradient to the layer mask. SPOT RETOUCHING
Sensor dust is a particular problem for landscape photographers, as images are usually taken at a smaller aperture when dust becomes most visible. Once combined with an abundance of smooth sky, the small black and grey dots become obvious. The trick is to keep the cameras sensor as clean as possible. Always change lenses quickly and in a clean environment. Try doing so with as much of your camera inside your camera bag as possible, to shield it from wind, which can blow dust into the camera. Despite the best of intentions, however, some dust is inevitable, but thankfully it is relatively simple to remove. Before nishing an image, view it at 100% and meticulously scroll through the entire photograph to look for any dust spots. Most raw-conversion software will allow spot retouching to be applied to other images, saving time looking at each one at 100%. Photoshop Elements users can apply batch-processed spot adjustments by opening a selection of images, spot correcting one, and then selecting all the other images. By hitting the Sync Images button, the same corrections will be applied to all images. The Healing tool is also useful for retouching skies, as it works by blending the correction with the surrounding area. The Clone tool takes an exact sample but, as it doesnt blend, it can make any retouching look obvious if not done with care.
In the Layers palette, create a new Layer Mask for the Dark Sky layer.
Select the Gradient Fill tool from the tools palette and select a black-to-white gradient.
Use the Gradient Fill tool to add the black-to-white gradient to the Dark Sky layer mask. Drag the gradient from black at the bottom of the image, to white at the top. Hold down the Shift key while you drag to keep the gradient at 90.
The dark side of the gradient creates a hole in the Dark Sky layer, which reveals the original, lighter layer. If the effect is too strong, adjust the opacity of the darker layer.
With small apertures used for landscape photography, dust can be a problem. Keep your sensor as clean as possible, and carefully check images for dust
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RETOUCHER S GUIDE
Find out how to use Camera Raws Clarity and Sharpening tools to get smoother skies
ONE OF the great things about
editing digital images is that there is no single correct way of doing things. As software developers come up with new features and tools, photographers discover new ways to edit and correct their digital images. While the most obvious way to reduce noise in an image is to use the luminance and colour-noise removal tools found in raw editing software,
BEFORE
there are in fact other ways. One method to reduce the amount of noise in the sky of a landscape image is to apply a localised correction using Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom. Rather than simply applying noise reduction, you can actually reduce the sharpness of the sky by using the Masking slider to make sure that only the edges with the strongest level of contrast are sharpened, meaning that any slight patches of noise arent sharpened and are less visible. Having done this, a rough selection of the sky is created. With the mask in place, the sharpness of the sky can be reduced further. However, the trick at this stage is to also reduce the amount of local contrast between pixels, by
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SKILLS
BEFORE
1
AFTER
Open the raw image in Adobe Camera Raw and perform all the basic colour and contrast adjustments. Zoom in to 200% and reduce all the noise reduction and sharpening settings to 0. This should allow you to see any colour and luminance noise.
Zoom to 100% and use the Amount, Radius and Detail sliders to sharpen the image. Dont worry too much about the sky becoming noisier.
Now hold down the Alt key while using the Masking slider. Anything black will not be affected by the sharpening, so the aim is to get as much of the sky as possible to be black, while leaving some edge detail in the clouds.
Find a part of the image that is affected by colour noise and use the colour noise slider to reduce the noise. You can be quite aggressive with this, particularly on newer raw conversion software. However, be careful as heavy use can slightly reduce the colour saturation.
BEFORE YOU START

SOFTWARE Adobe Camera
Raw and Photoshop
Select the Adjustment Brush and reset all the Adjustments to 0 except the Clarity slider, which should be set to -10. Click on Show Mask and paint to adjust the sky, avoiding any detailed edges.
Zoom in closer to any ne edges and select Auto Mask. Use a small brush to paint around any ne edges. There will usually be a slight halo, but for this effect it shouldnt be too much of an issue.
KEY TOOLS
Adjustment Brush, Sharpening, Clarity Slider Skill required Time to complete
20-30mins
using the Clarity slider tool. This makes any noise in the sky far less obtrusive and gives the overall impression of a smoother sky. With this editing now done, only a very, very slight luminance noise reduction is necessary across the entire image, and best of all, it can all be done from within Camera Raw or Lightroom.
Turn Show Mask off and switch to a 100% view to see how the following changes will affect the image. Reduce the noise by lowering the Clarity slider. This affects the local contrast, so it should even out the brightness of neighbouring pixels. Also, reduce the sharpness to add a slight blur. Only the sky should be affected.
Exit the Adjustment Brush tool and perform a luminance noise reduction of around 5-15 across the entire image. Now open the image in Photoshop (or similar) and use the Dodge tool, set to Highlights and 2% strength, to brighten highlights in the clouds. Then set the Burn tool to Shadows and 2%, and darken the shadows in the clouds. Finish with a nal tweak in Levels.
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CUSTOM WHITE BALANCE

The way that colour is rendered is an important factor in creating an image, and the best way to achieve an accurate rendition of hues and tones is to set a custom white balance. We explain how
HOW COLOUR is used in an image is crucial to its mood or feel, and it determines the viewers emotional response to a picture. For instance, warm light from a sunset establishes the mood beautifully, while the vibrant colours of autumn leaves display the season in all its wonder.
These colours are best shown by enhancing them, not muting them. A portrait, however, can be ruined by an overly vivid and unattering colour cast, which may give an incorrect skin tone. This can be disastrous for, say, fashion photographers, who need colours to be rendered accurately when they are attempting to capture the glories of the latest haute couture. For all that, there is no single dening rule for accurate colour when taking photographs. This is partly because human perception of colour is often inaccurate, as our brain makes adjustments for what we see. It is only when an extreme colour is detected that we notice something looks out of place. This makes the accurate viewing of images on a camera difcult, especially given the various light sources that compete for our attention when we are looking at a camera screen. Neither is a cameras white balance system (the means by which a digital camera makes the necessary adjustments to record colour) infallible. When set to auto, it too can be tricked, so even the very latest models cannot be relied on to get it right every time. The best option for ensuring accurate control over colour is to set a custom white balance. In this article, we are going to explore white balance itself, investigate the methods of using custom white balance both on location and on the computer, and learn how to make creative use of colour.
26 ADVANCED PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLS I
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CUSTOM WHITE BALANCE
1,000K
1,000-2,000K tungsten bulb
2,000K
2,500-3,500K tungsten bulb
3,000K
3,000-4,000K sunrise/sunset
AUTO WHITE BALANCE USE OF CREATIVE COLOUR
4,000K
4,000-5,000K uorescent 5,000-5,500K ash
5,000K
5,000-6,500K daylight (clear sky)
6,000K
7,000K
6,500-8,000K overcast
8,000K
Top: The yellow leaves have tricked the auto white balance system, which has given the scene a cool colour cast to compensate Above: The cool colour cast in this early morning scene is important to the feel of the image Right: The Kelvin scale shows the colour temperature in different situations, along with the camera presets
WHITE BALANCE
White balance systems in digital cameras are designed to ensure that the white tones in a scene are rendered accurately by removing colour casts created by the light source. Most cameras have several settings from which to choose, and these usually include auto white balance (AWB), around six presets, such as cloudy, ash and tungsten, a manual (Kelvin) setting and a custom setting. The AWB setting and presets cover a whole variety of light sources and provide a quick means of adjusting colour. They are fairly accurate, too.
AWB, PRESETS OR CUSTOM

I suspect most enthusiasts usually leave the camera set to AWB or rely on the presets and why not? On the whole, these settings do a great job, whether on a compact camera or a DSLR. They are also the best options for high-pressure shoots when there is no time to ddle with the settings. The presets in a white balance system are set to a particular colour temperature. This makes each preset a great option when it matches a scene because it will not be swayed in ways that AWB can, which
9,000K
9,000-10,000K shade/very overcast
10,000K
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CUSTOM WHITE BALANCE ON LOCATION

CAMERAS usually record a custom white balance reading in one of two ways: from an existing le, or by taking a reading from a new exposure. Check the manual to nd out how your camera records a custom white balance. The Nikon D300, which we used for most of the pictures in this article, uses an existing le. Both methods require a neutral reference in the scene to record an accurate colour temperature. In the rst method, simply select custom white balance in-camera and then choose the le with the neutral reference to take the reading from the colour temperature will be set for the next capture. For the second option, select the custom setting and take an exposure. The best neutral reference for exposure and colour is middle 18% grey, angled towards the light source. The nal temperature will be affected if the grey is any lighter or darker than this. If the correction method is via an incamera custom white balance, the grey should ideally ll the
AWB
CUSTOM WB
A grey card (left) is ideal for adjustments post-capture, while lling the frame with a grey card is ideal for in-camera changes
greater part of the frame. If the method is via post-capture adjustments, however, then the reference only needs to be placed in the most important part of the frame. In the case of a portrait, this will be next to the subjects face. For a mixed light source, it is worth using multiple grey cards in different parts of the frame, and then calculating a median temperature post-capture (see page 30). Failing a grey card, a white card is a good backup. Once the information is gathered, the processing varies because each camera uses a different algorithm. This occurs even within the same brand, so there is no set way the camera produces the nal result. Both grey and white card options are good for correcting the balance of neutral colours. A full GretagMacbeth colour chart goes one step further by offering a full spectrum of 24 colours, covering a number of natural objects.
continually makes adjustments according to the light. Furthermore, a preset can be quickly selected in a high-pressure situation. Where custom white balance has an advantage over AWB is that it allows us to choose a neutralcoloured object in the frame to act as a reference when creating an accurate colour rendition, according to the temperature of light. An AWB system does this job automatically, interpreting the scene as it sees t.
WHERE THE AUTO SETTINGS GO WRONG

Auto white balance systems in compact cameras and DSLRs usually work well, although there are several situations in which the system can be thrown. For instance, when a particular colour is dominant in the frame such as a bunch of red owers, a green eld or a plethora of yellow autumn leaves the system may think this dominant colour is actually a colour cast, so AWB will adjust accordingly. For example, a scene dominated by green can typically have a magenta cast, which is at the opposite end of the colour spectrum. A mixed light source can also present problems, such as light from inside a building mixed with the cool cast of outdoor evening light. With AWB, the user has no control over which light source is being balanced. Problems can also arise when taking the same image and adjusting the focal length or the position, by switching to a panorama, for instance. This alters the content in the frame, which can cause the white balance to vary between images in a sequence. As far as presets are concerned, they are great if they match the specic scene but even then there
Raw allows the white balance to be set post-capture using any one of the presets, AWB and even manual adjustment
are variables. Using a tungsten setting under tungsten lighting is better than sticking with AWB, but the sheer variety of tungsten bulbs and the temperature each emits, depending on how long they have been on, means that one setting does not cover all types. In these situations, other options must be considered and employed. The manual setting will allow the user to select the temperature (measured on the Kelvin scale), but this requires the user to have an accurate perception of the scene, and the eye is not always the most accurate of tools. Time permitting, the best precapture option for any of these situations and, in fact, in most circumstances is to make a custom setting. Colour rendition is the most accurate because the custom setting works according to the exact temperature of light. Often the differences between custom and AWB are minimal and can be hard to perceive, but making the smallest change can mean the difference between getting the nal result just right or not. It is not just a case of the right colour cast, but also the vibrancy.
CREATIVE COLOUR
AWB is typically neutral, so it removes colour casts to produce a neutral white. While custom white balance does the same, it enhances the colours in a scene rather than neutralising them. In both cases, though, the colours are corrected. There may, however, be times when having the wrong white balance gives a pleasant effect, and there are no hard-and-fast rules about this. Whatever looks good to the photographer in the way they want to convey the scene is best. Adding a warm cast is likely to make a pub on a winters day seem invitingly cosy, while a cool cast provides a threatening atmosphere that isnt really possible with a neutral colour balance.
SHOOT RAW
It is best to shoot in raw format for a variety of reasons, not least of which is the level of control it offers. Raw allows the white balance to be set post-capture using any one of the presets, AWB and even manual adjustment. Colour in a scene is also affected by the exposure, and raw gives greater control postcapture to adjust the exposure correctly. That said, relying on the raw data and post-capture changes alone can mean time-consuming alterations, so it is better to get the balance right in the rst place, and there are several ways to achieve this in-camera. Doing so even frees up the possibility of shooting JPEG only, provided the exposure is correct.
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CUSTOM WHITE BALANCE POST-CAPTURE

IF AN image has not been shot
using a custom white balance, it is possible to correct it post-capture. Shooting raw will be particularly helpful for this, although all is not lost even with a JPEG le. Creating a custom white balance post-capture is more timeconsuming, although once a prole has been set up on one image, it can be applied to the remainder of the images that were shot under the same lighting conditions. All raw correction software has the option to select the white balance setting from any one of the presets and AWB, as well as a manual Kelvin adjustment. This is achieved by the click of a button. However, while the temperature slider, although this takes some time to produce accurate results. In Adobe Camera Raw, a quicker option is to click on the White Balance picker tool (top left in the toolbar, see left) and nd a neutral reference in the frame either an 18% grey card or a mid-grey object. After clicking on the neutral area, the white balance changes, with the colour of the grey itself affecting the nal result. The information about colour temperature and tint (green/ magenta) is indicated. When using multiple grey areas, make a note of each temperature and tint, and work out a median result. These results can then be applied to other raw les recorded under the same lighting conditions.
A grey reference point is essential for accurate white balance corrections

is changed, correcting the colour cast needs another step. The colour cast can be removed by adjusting the green/magenta shift on the
RESCUING JPEGS
Like raw les, JPEGs can be opened in Adobe Camera Raw and adjusted using the White Balance picker tool. However, Photoshop and Photoshop Elements have tools to bring back the colour in a JPEG le, too
1
TECHNIQUE ONE
Select Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Levels, set Mode to Normal and click OK. In Levels, click on the grey point
2
dropper and then click on the area that is supposed to be a mid-grey. If this doesnt look right, click on another grey area in the frame. For any minor tweaks, select
3
Image>Adjustments>Color Balance and tweak the sliders. This technique is unlikely to look right on every image. If the image still requires work, try technique two.
1
TECHNIQUE TWO
Make a layer via a copy (Layer>New>Layer via Copy). Click on this layer and set the blending mode to Overlay.
2
With this layer still highlighted, click on Filter>Blur> Average and then Image>Adjustments>Invert. The colour will change and look a little muted. Select
3
Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation and add or remove saturation to taste. Then tweak the Hue slider for any nal adjustments.
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AP EVERYWHERE GET IT ON THE MOVE

Download it onto your iPad or via Kindle Fire, Barnes and Noble Nook HD, Zinio, Lekiosk or Pixel Mags Reader!
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MACRO WITH A COMPACT

Macro photography doesnt require expensive, specialised equipment in fact, all you need is a compact camera. We explain how to get great macro images
WHILE AN expensive lens, bellows
or a set of extension tubes will help you to take stunning macro images, one of the simplest methods is to use a compact camera. The optical design of compact-camera lenses means that the minimum focusing distance can be as little as 1cm from the front end, making it easy to get very close to a subject. Technically, this isnt actually close enough to be considered a true macro image, which is dened as 1:1 magnication or greater. However, because of the small minimum-focus distance and subject size in relation to the image frame, photographs tend to show enough detail to be regarded as such. Better still, a compact camera can be carried easily in your pocket. This gives you plenty of oppurtunities to get started in macro photography, without going to huge expense. Over the next few pages well show you how the get the best out of your compact camera and shoot fantastic macro images.
A compact camera and a basic tripod are all you need to start experimenting with macro photography
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your camera, see Testing a compact cameras magnication below. Imagine that a compact camera could also frame this same area of the ruler. Although this is a 1:1 life-size magnication when photographed using the DSLR, a compact camera has a much smaller sensor, usually less than 10mm in width. So, despite both cameras producing exactly the same image, and potentially also having the same resolution, one (the DSLR) is considered macro, while the other (the compact) isnt. Of course, the end result is virtually the same.
OPTICAL MAGNIFICATION
OPTICAL magnication is a
measurement of the difference in size between the subject and the image on the sensor. For example, in a true 1:1 macro photograph, the image of the subject projected onto the sensor is exactly the same size as the subject in real life. So, if you were to use a DSLR with a 23.6mm-wide APSC-sized sensor to take an image of a ruler, and could get in close enough to photograph the area of the ruler from 0-23.6mm, this would be a true 1:1 macro image. To nd out how to calculate the optical magnication of
TESTING A COMPACT CAMERAS MAGNIFICATION
To test the magnication of a compact camera, place a ruler on a at surface and align the camera so that the length of the image frame is parallel with the length of the ruler. Now focus the camera as close to the ruler as possible and note the length of the ruler that has been captured in the image.
Next, nd out the size of the image sensor in the camera. This can usually be found in the cameras manual, or check the specication online. Most advanced compacts will use 1/1.8in, 1/1.7in or 1/1.6in sensors. Use the table below to nd out the approximate width of the image sensor.
To calculate the magnication, divide the sensor width by the photographed length. For example, a 1/1.7in sensor has a width of 7.6mm and the camera can capture a length of around 31mm. So the magnication of the lens is 7.6mm31mm=0.24x, or roughly 1:4.
SENSOR SIZES
SENSOR 1/2.7 1/2.5 1/2.3 1/2.0 WIDTH HEIGHT 5.37 x 4.04mm 5.76 x 4.29mm 6.16 x 4.62mm 6.40 x 4.80mm SENSOR 1/1.8 1/1.7 1/1.6 2/3 WIDTH HEIGHT 7.18 x 5.32mm 7.60 x 5.70mm 8.08 x 6.01mm 8.80 x 6.60mm SENSOR Micro 4/3 APS-C Full frame WIDTH HEIGHT 17.30 x 13mm 23.6 x 15.6mm 36 x 23.9mm
Despite having the same resulting image, only one of these is true 1:1 macro. Shown here are the relative sizes of a 1/1.7in sensor (top) and an APS-C-sized sensor (above). When the APS-C-sized sensor captures a length of 23.6mm, it is providing 1:1 magnication, whereas for a 1/1.7in-sensor compact this is 0.32x (7.60 23.6mm) or roughly 1:3
SUPPLEMENTARY LENSES
JUST as dioptre lenses can be added to the lter thread of interchangeable lenses, supplementary lenses can also be added to most advanced enthusiast compact cameras. Rather than screwing them to the end of the lens, a tube accessory is screwed to the camera around the base of the lens barrel. This tube allows the zoom lens to continue to work back and forth, and takes the weight of the supplementary lenses, which are often heavier than the lens itself. However, although some manufacturers produce teleconverter and wideangle
supplementary lenses, not all produce macro lenses. There are a number of thirdparty solutions available, some of which use a tube that attaches to the camera, which then provides a lter thread to attach other lenses. Others are simple clipon devices that work just like a clip-on lens cap. Raynox is a well-known manufacturer of these products (UK distributor: www.digitaltoyshop.com). As these third-party products arent endorsed by the proprietary manufacturers, nding information about exactly which is the best
solution can be a difcult, as there is often more than one option. A quick internet search on Flickr (www. ickr.com), for example should
nd photographers who are using a suitable combination for your camera, which will help you make the correct decision.
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SKILLS
EXPOSURE
WHEN taking macro images
with a compact camera, exposure considerations are reasonably straightforward. When using any compact, it is best to shoot at as low an ISO sensitivity as possible. This will keep noise levels to an absolute minimum, which is important for capturing the nest detail. The choice of aperture will affect the depth of eld, which should usually be large enough to cover the entire subject being photographed. However, as compact cameras have an extensive depth of eld, this is not generally a problem. Alternatively, you can use the maximum aperture to create a shallow depth of eld and blur distracting backgrounds, such as brick walls or fence.
LARGE APERTURE
Also, remember that by stopping the aperture down slightly, image sharpness can be improved. Again, this is particularly important when trying to capture ne macro details. With aperture and sensitivity decided, all that is left is shutter speed, for which the fastest speed possible should be used. Flowers,
SMALL APERTURE
Using a compact camera at its largest aperture will provide a shallow depth of eld, while stopping down provides a large focal range
for example, will sway slightly in a breeze, and this will not only cause image blur but it can also move the subject out of focus. Similarly, insects move quickly and need to be photographed before they y off, without any hint of movement. For any type of macro image, it is important to use a tripod. This will avoid camera shake, which can both blur the image and cause the subject to shift out of focus.
SHOOTING macro images on a
USING AN LCD SCREEN TO YOUR ADVANTAGE

compact camera as opposed to a DSLR has some advantages. One of these is the portability of the camera itself. If the light is bright, it is possible to hold a compact camera at arms length and really stretch to take an image at an awkward angle. Whether it is holding the camera low to take a shot at ground level, or reaching high into a bush to photograph an insect, the size and weight of a compact camera can make this possible. A further advantage when shooting in this way is the ability to see the image using live view. When the size and weight are combined
with live view, it is easy to explore interesting and unique angles. Even better is a compact camera with an articulated screen, such as the Canon PowerShot G12. These screens make it easy to shoot at ground level, or perhaps even underneath the leaves of plants, without having to crawl around the oor.
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MINIMUM FOCUS DISTANCE

WHILE most compact cameras have minimum focus distances of 1-5cm, many switch off their closefocusing ability to make focusing faster for general use. Switching to the macro or super macro mode will enable this close focusing, so do this before taking any close-up images. The one issue with such a closefocusing mode, however, is that insects tend to be easily scared off when you attempt to photograph them. This is why 105mm, 150mm and 200mm macro lenses are popular with DSLR users, as they allow a good working distance between the end of the lens and the subject. This not only makes it
easier to photograph insects, but it also means that any macro subject is less likely to be cast in the shadow caused by the camera and its lens. Most compacts will only shoot macro images when the lens is at its minimum focal length. In fact, some cameras will lock the zoom to its widest position, switching the function off completely. Double-check to see whether the zoom function can be used, and if so, nd out which focal length and focusing distance offers the best magnication. Remember, sometimes it is better to have slightly less magnication if it makes it easier to photograph certain subjects, such as insects.
WITHOUT RING LIGHT
WITH RING LIGHT

and shadow areas in the image, which will in turn make it easier for the more restricted dynamic range of compactcamera sensors to record. Dont forget that contrast can be added when processing and editing images in software. Another way to ensure softer shadows and reduce contrast is to use a diffuser, such as Lastolites 5:1 Bottletop diffuser (from around 35). Place the diffuser in the path of the sun in front of the subject to soften the light. With the camera on a tripod, it is easy to hold the diffuser in one hand while ring the cameras shutter, or use a remote release or self-timer. A purpose-built diffuser isnt essential as there are plenty of materials around the home that can be used for the same task. A sheet of white paper, or even a few sheets of tracing paper, can provide exactly the same effect. Using articial light can be difcult when you are photographing a subject that is just a centimetre or so from the front of the lens. A compact cameras built-in ash will be of no use as the lens will cause at least some of the subject to be in shadow. When using off-camera ash it can be difcult to place the ash in a suitable position to light the subject, although it is possible if the ash is carefully positioned above the subject and angled down. Also, some high-end compacts, such as the Nikon Coolpix P7200, Olympus XZ-2 and Canon PowerShot G15, have the ability to use compatible wireless ashguns. Another solution for lighting macro images is to use a ring light. Thirdparty ring lights, such as the Hama Compact LED Macro Light, attach to a camera either via the tripod mount or hotshoe, and allow an LED ring light to be placed around the front of the lens to light the subject, in much the same was as a ring ash works when using a DSLR.
LIGHTING
WITH such a close distance
between the compact cameras lens and the macro subject, lighting the subject can be difcult. In bright sunlight the camera may cast a shadow when shooting away from the sun, so try to shoot into the sun instead. As the camera will usually be pointing slightly down onto plants and owers, it will be easier to position the camera to avoid shadows. Where there is no choice but to shoot with the sun behind you, try to make sure that the entire subject is in shade to avoid strong, hard and distracting shadows falling across the image. Shooting on a bright but slightly overcast day can be an advantage. The light and shadows will be softer. The lower-contrast light will reduce the dynamic range between highlight
Hamas Compact LED Macro Light can be attached to the tripod mount or hotshoe and costs around 90
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A camera phones short focusing ability means it is possible to get closer to your subject and take stunning images
MACRO WITH A CAMERA PHONE

ONE OF the reasons compact cameras are
so good for macro photography is that their small sensors require short focal lengths, which in turn let the front element of the lens get very close to the subject. Camera phones have even smaller sensors and thus make equally good macro devices so long as the general picture quality is up to standard. As camera phone lenses are tiny, it is easy to supplement their close-focusing abilities using a normal magnifying lens over the front element. For these shots I used a photographic magnifying loupe, but an old lens element or any good-quality magnifying glass will do the job. Larger-diameter magniers allow you to use a smaller proportion of the lens area and provide a smaller degree of curvature. This helps to prevent the chromatic aberrations and coma smearing that can occur with smaller or lower-quality glasses. You dont need to create a special rig just hold the magnier over the lens, trying to align the centre of the cameraphone lens with the centre of the magnier as much as possible. This careful alignment will deliver the best quality, while off-centre alignment will blur corner detail and generally reduce optical quality. If you dont want to hold the magnier, and its not too big, x it to the phone with BluTack.
Placing a magnifying glass over the lens of a camera phone is a quick and easy way to achieve macro results
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STACKED IMAGE
FRONT FOCUS
FOCUS STACKING
Maintaining sharpness with a shallow depth of eld is a problem that all macro photographers must face. However, there is a solution: focus stacking. This is how it works
ONE OF the major complications
in macro photography is trying to overcome the extremely shallow depth of eld that can affect such images. With many macro photographs having a depth of eld of just a few millimetres, it can be very difcult to get all the subject in focus. The photographers natural instinct would be to reduce the size of the
the following pages, you can learn how to use focus stacking to increase depth of eld.
THE BASICS
Focus stacking works by capturing a series of images of a subject, each taken at a different point of focus. With image-editing software, a composite image can then be created that uses the in-focus section of each photograph. The resulting image should have a depth of eld greater than that produced by a single shot. The increased depth of eld isnt the only advantage. Focus stacking allows photographers to use a lens at its sharpest aperture, as any concern
aperture, but when shooting an extreme macro image, such as an insect, even an aperture of f/64 may not produce a large enough depth of eld. Compounding this problem is the fact that the smallest apertures wont produce the sharpest images due to the effect of diffraction. Luckily, digital imaging has provided a solution. Using the techniques on
about this setting not producing a deep-enough depth of eld becomes redundant. Although focus stacking is primarily used for macro photography, it can also be applied to still-life images and, in fact, any other image where the subject doesnt move. Even landscape photographers can use this technique to ensure that everything from the foreground to innity is in focus, while using a lens at its sharpest aperture so long as it isnt windy, of course.
Above: Focus stacking allows the sharpest aperture of a lens to be used without a shallow depth of eld being a concern
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FINAL IMAGE FOCUS MAP
SKILLS
Software is used to combine the focus-stacked images into a single composite

REFOCUSING
There are two ways that a focus stack can be created. The most obvious is to lock the camera to a tripod and then photograph the same scene many times, changing the focus point incrementally. The second is to use a micro-adjustment head, and rack the camera back and forth to change the focus point of the photograph. Both techniques work, but there are occasions when it may be easier to use one method rather than the other. When a lens is refocused, its focal length changes. By default, the focal length of a lens is measured at the point at which it focuses to innity. At its minimum focus this will be different. So when a focus stack is created by focusing the lens, the focal length can change between images. Most focusstacking software should be able to accommodate these changes, but it is possible that a few more anomalies and artefacts will be created. Using a micro-adjustment head (see right) to move the lens will mean that the focal length will not change from image to image, but the perspective will. Again, this shouldnt be an issue for most software, but it can sometimes create artefacts and haloes. As a rule, I would recommend using a micro-adjustment head for extreme macro photography, and try adjusting the focus ring for larger still-life images. The very ne micro adjustments shouldnt be too much of a concern for tiny subjects, and it is a far easier method than precisely adjusting the focus of a lens.
Stacking software detects the area of each image that is in focus and then creates a map of where to blend the images
TOP TIP
Make sure the entire subject is in the composition when at the closest and furthest point of focus It is better to take too many images than too few. Excess images can always be removed from the stack Use the same exposure for each image in the focus stack
MICRO-ADJUSTMENT HEADS
ONE PIECE of equipment that can really
aid the shooting of focus-stacked images is a micro-adjustment head. This is a tripod head with a geared plate to which the camera is xed. A knob controls a long threaded rod and each turn moves the plate/camera combination forwards or backwards, and sometimes from side to side, along the length of the rod. Because even a full turn of the knob may move the camera only a millimetre forwards, it is easy to position, then reposition, the camera in very small increments. Being able to set the point of focus so precisely means the focus area of each image can overlap the previous one, which will help to ensure that the entire nal focus-stacked image is in focus.
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If in doubt, leave some space around the subject Be patient and meticulous when taking images
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STEP-BY-STEP CAPTURE
Mount the camera and a microadjustment head securely on a tripod. Rack the positioning plate so that it is focused on the furthest point you want in focus. Make sure everything you wish to include in the image is positioned in the image frame. It is advisable to leave a little extra space around the subject to aid the software and give room to crop the image later.
Set the lens to its sharpest aperture. Usually this will be around 2-3 stops down from the largest setting. If in doubt, set the aperture to f/8 or f/11. In manual exposure mode, calculate the correct exposure by taking a few test images and using the histogram. Once the exposure is set, keep it at these settings throughout the focus-stack series. Make sure the camera is in manual-focus mode so the focus and focal distance do not change.
With the exposure set and the lens focused on the furthest part of the subject, re the shutter to take an image. It is better to use a remote release or the cameras self-timer to avoid camera shake. Any small movements can greatly affect the composition and make it more difcult for the software to stack the images successfully.
Once the rst image has been taken, review it using the cameras LCD screen. Look how far the depth of eld extends and make a note of where it starts to become out of focus. Then move the micro-adjustment head backwards in order to bring the point of focus closer. Move the focus to where it begins to diminish on the previous image. The key is to make sure the focus overlaps with that of the previous image. When satised with the focus position, take the next shot.
Repeat steps 3 and 4 until enough images have been taken to cover the entire subject. This may be three images or 50, depending on the lens, magnication and subject. For precise micro adjustments, work out how large the depth of eld is and then move the camera using the same measurement on the positioning plate.
The nal image will be the one in which the closest part of the object is in focus. It is always advisable to take one or two shots more than are necessary. These may not be used in the nal focus stack, but it is better to take too many images rather than have to reshoot because there are not enough.
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SKILLS
FOCUS-STACKING SOFTWARE
THERE are a number of software
packages that can create a focusstacked image, but the two most popular are Helicon Focus (www. heliconsoft.com) and Combine ZM (hadleyweb.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ CZM/News.htm). Combine ZM is free to use, but Helicon Focus is the more user-friendly of the two. It is available in both PC and Mac formats and there is a fully functional 30-day trial version available. The Lite version costs $30 (19) per year, or $115 (73) for life, and will be suitable for most users. Helicon Focus Pro has many advanced features, such as the ability to retouch individual frames in the stack from within the software. It also offers Helicon Remote, which, with the right equipment, such as the Stack Shot by Cognisys Inc (www. cognisys-inc.com), can help automate focus bracketing by using a motorised micro-adjustment head and ring the cameras shutter. All the images in this step-bystep guide have been created using Helicon Focus Pro.
STEP-BY-STEP EDITING
If you have captured your images as raw les, edit the rst one in the sequence until you are happy with the way it looks. Once the raw le has been edited, apply the same settings to all the other images in the stack and export them as JPEG les.
It can be helpful to rename the images so they match the time they were captured to form a sequence. This can be done once the images have been converted. In Adobe Bridge, select all the images, right-click and choose Batch Rename. Then select Date and Time, and then Date Created.
Now load the focus-stack sequence into the software. To import images, select Add images in the top left of the software. Provided all your images are in the same folder, it is easy to add them all in one go.
Creating the stack should now be as simple as selecting Render in the top right of the software. Usually the default Focus Parameter values for the Render Method, Radius and Smoothing will provide a good focus-stacked image straight away.
If there are image artefacts, adjust the Radius and Smoothing values. Increasing the Smoothing can remove visible joins between focus areas, but it causes a loss of detail. Some areas may need to be individually retouched. Helicon Focus Pro has tools to do this. Often it is easier to reshoot the stack or spend some time adjusting the settings until the nal image requires minimal retouching. Some haloes are caused by perspective obscuring part of the image. The only thing that can be done about these is retouch them by cloning from an area nearby.
4 6
Check the image list on the right-hand side and make sure that all the pictures are in the right order and all are needed in the stack. To remove any unwanted images, select the image and press the - button. Conversely, if a photograph is missing, press the + button and select the missing image from your computer.
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SKILLS
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COMPLETE GUIDE TO SHOOTING INFRARED IMAGES

You may not be able to see infrared light, but a camera can. We explain everything you need to know about infrared photography
42 I ADVANCED PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLS I
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such as that used for televisions, and point it at the camera while taking an image. If you can see the light from the remote controls LED, then your camera is sensitive to infrared light. If a camera shows some response to infrared light after testing it using an infrared remote control, then an infrared lter can be bought to block out most or all of the visible light spectrum and allow only infrared light through. Which lter to use depends on the exact effect required. For more information on this, see our round-up of infrared lters on page 50. If you already own an infrared lter, you can test your cameras response just by using the lter on a bright sunny day and seeing how much, if any, infrared light is captured.
THERE are many different ways

in which infrared images can be captured. Some cameras, including compacts, DSLRs and compact system cameras, will be sensitive to infrared light to some degree straight out of the box, while others will require modication. The majority of digital cameras are tted with an infrared blocking lter, also known as a hot mirror, that stops infrared light reaching the sensor. Depending on the strength of this lter, a little infrared light may creep through, but for the most part it is this lter that prevents true infrared images from being captured on digital cameras. It is a simple matter to establish a cameras suitability for shooting infrared images. All you need to do is use an infrared remote control,
An infrared lter blocks visible light, so focusing and composition must be set before the lter is tted
CHOICE OF CAMERA
There are some DSLRs available that are ideally suited to infrared use, particularly the Sigma SD range, which have hot-mirror lters designed for easy removal without having to take the camera apart. With the lter removed the camera is sensitive to infrared light, so an infrared lter can be tted over the lens to block out visible light and allow only infrared light through. Also suitable is the Fujilm FinePix IS Pro, which has no hot-mirror lter but is sadly no longer in production. If you can nd one for sale, either new or second-hand, it commands a price of around 1,000. The problem with using an infrared lter with a DSLR is exactly the same as when shooting on lm. The lter blocks visible light, which means that focusing and composition
Landscapes look particularly pleasing, as blue skies go very dark while foliage is very bright
BLACK & WHITE
AWB
CUSTOM WB
CHANNEL SWAP (SEE PAGE 47)
WHITE BALANCE
AS OUR eyes dont see infrared light, there isnt a right or wrong way of adjusting the colour of infrared images. However, we have become accustomed to seeing these images in a particular style due to the way in which they are printed from infrared lm. The starting point when adjusting the colour of an infrared image is to set the correct white
balance in-camera. Using the AWB setting is useless if the images are to be kept in colour because they will appear as a bright salmon pink, although this is ne if they are ultimately intended to be black & white. For colour images, it is best to set a custom white balance. This can be done by taking a reading from a piece of white paper or grey card, although many infrared photographers simply use a patch of green grass. The result will be foliage that is a light grey or white, and skies that are brown or dark amber. Sometimes it can be difcult to take an white balance reading successfully, which can often be due to the length of exposure. If so, simply increase or decrease the exposure time.
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must both be set before the lter is tted. Thankfully, DSLRs can overcome this with the use of live view, which accounts for the lack of light and brightens the image on the rear screen. Converting a camera for infrared use, such as we have done with a Nikon D70S on pages 48-50, is a more convenient solution. After removing the hot mirror, an infrared lter is put in its place. As the lter no longer lies in the optical path between the lens and the viewnder, focusing and composition are possible without having to constantly take the lter on and off each time. For those serious about infrared photography, converting a DSLR for infrared use is denitely the best solution, although it will mean that the camera can only ever be used for shooting infrared.
SKILLS
INFRARED LIGHT
While there are many man-made sources of infrared light, by far the best source is the sun. Infrared light will be at its strongest on very bright sunny days, at around noon when the sun is at its peak. Usually, landscape and portrait photographers avoid shooting at this time of day because of the very high contrast that bright sunlight creates, but for those shooting infrared this time of day is perfect. One of the reasons that infrared photography is immediately associated with landscapes is due to the particular way that infrared light affects foliage and the sky. Clouds reect infrared light, so the denser the cloud the brighter it will appear in the image. Blue skies, on the other hand, absorb infrared light and
become very dark. This contrast can turn even a fairly ordinary-looking bright sky into something much more dramatic. Foliage also reects a lot of infrared light, and this causes grass and leaves to turn a very bright white. Again, this effect is most visible in the middle of the day, but it is even more pronounced in late spring when plants are ourishing. However, just because the middle of the day is seen as the optimum time for shooting infrared images, it doesnt mean that interesting effects cannot be captured at other times. Just before sunset and just after sunrise are equally interesting times. The sun is low in the sky, which causes very long shadows, and where there are shadows there is usually very little infrared light. So while
LENSES AND FILTERS
USING FILTERS
ONE THING that is often
overlooked when shooting infrared images is the use of lters in front of the lens. Photographic lters are designed to block visible light, not infrared light, and as such some of the most popular lters simply wont work. For example, an ND lter will have no effect, as although some visible light is blocked, infrared light is not. The camera will perform as if the lter isnt there. To increase the length of the exposure, a hot-mirror lter must be used. This will block out most of the infrared light, although exposure times could be very long, even in bright sunlight. Graduated ND lters wont work, either. The infrared light will pass straight through the darker gradient. Thankfully, this is less of an issue as the sky in an infrared image will usually be high contrast and wont require an ND grad lter to darken it. A lter that can affect infrared photography is the UV lter. Although in theory this shouldnt have any effect, the lter coating can cause images to look soft, even when the lens has been correctly focused. Again, the only way to nd out if the lter is having an adverse effect is to compare images captured with the UV lter on and off.
Lens are is much more of an issue when shooting infrared images, as lens coatings are designed to work with visible light
IN THEORY, any lens can be used to shoot infrared
images, although there may be a few limitations and some will be better than others. Issues occur with the coatings that are used with lenses. Optical coatings are designed to work with visible light, and may or may not work with the infrared spectrum. As a result, some lenses may display a lot of lens are, sometimes even when not shooting directly into the sun. For this reason, it is advisable to use a lens hood, and remember that any slight lens are visible through the viewnder may be hugely exaggerated in the nal image. Another issue is hotspots, which show as large circular ares directly in the centre of the image frame. They are caused by the internal reections of the infrared light within the lens, and are again due to the coatings of some internal lens elements that are designed only to reduce the reection of visible light. The best way to nd out whether a particular lens is suitable for infrared use is to test it at different apertures and focal lengths. Just as when shooting conventional images, it may be the case that some lenses perform better at particular settings. Alternatively, search online. There are lists available on the internet from people who have reported back on the performance of a particular lens when used for infrared. One such list, compiled by Jim Kramer, can be found at www.jim-kramer.com/IR-Lenses. htm. While not comprehensive, there are a number of popular lenses listed, although there are some conicting reports of the performance of some of them. If you are buying a lens for infrared use, make sure you do some research and, if possible, try the lens before purchase. Another tip to remember is that just because a lens has infrared markings doesnt mean it will necessarily work on an infrared digital camera. While ideal for lm, some lenses, due to the sensitivity of the sensor and the anti-reective coatings used on the lens not being specically designed for digital cameras, may not perform as well on a digital model.
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Focusing has always been an issue with infrared images. Lenses are designed to focus visible light, not infrared light, and so the AF system of a camera cannot be relied upon
only a slight adjustment to get the desired exposure. In very strong sunlight, exposures didnt need any adjustment, but I generally found that simply setting the exposure compensation to +3EV allowed me to happily point and shoot. The exact exposure adjustment required will depend on the sensor of the camera and the lter in use. An 890nm lter blocks the passage of all visible light, as well as some of the infrared spectrum so that only an extremely narrow frequency of infrared light can pass through. When using this lter, exposure times can increase slightly, but again it should still be ne to handhold the camera. Long exposures occur when a camera with a weak hot-mirror lter is used for infrared photography. In these instances, the hot-mirror lter will block some, but not all the infrared light, so a longer exposure of a few seconds may be necessary to allow enough infrared light to pass through to the sensor.
an image exposed as normal may pick up some visible light in shadow, an infrared image will show these shadows as being far darker. Look to photograph scenes with interesting shadows, such as shooting through tall trees rst thing in the morning. Also, pay attention to items that are in the shade, as they will be darker than they would be in a normal exposure.
AUTOFOCUS
Focusing has always been an issue with infrared images. Lenses are designed to focus visible light, not infrared light, and as a result the autofocus system of a camera cannot be relied upon. Infrared light comes into focus just in front of visible light. It can be compared to chromatic aberration, where different colour wavelengths focus at slightly different points, and if a lens cannot bring the different colours to focus at the same point, chromatic aberration is the result. Many older manual-focus lenses have an infrared focus marker, which can be used to adjust the focus for infrared light. However, even these cant be completely relied upon as many are inaccurate, and if using a zoom lens the infrared focus point
METERING AND EXPOSURE

Most digital camera sensors are more sensitive to infrared light than is the case with infrared lm. When using the converted Nikon D70S with a 720nm IR lter tted over the sensor, I found that I could quite happily use the evaluative metering system, which is obviously completely unaware that there is now an infrared lter positioned in front of the sensor. Generally, the results when using evaluative metering were exactly as would be expected, requiring
Timing is important, as a delay of just a few seconds, when clouds block sunlight, can change the look of an infrared image dramatically
can actually change throughout the zoom range. For most landscape images, autofocus can be used in conjunction with an aperture of f/8 or f/11, and the depth of eld should be sufcient to ensure that the image is in focus. However, remember to pay attention to any subjects in the foreground and make sure they are sharp before leaving the scene. For images where a shallow depth of eld is required, manually focus slightly in front of the subject and then review the image on the rear screen to see whether it is in focus. Although the autofocus of a converted camera can be adjusted for infrared use, it can still vary from lens to lens. If you are having a camera converted and know there is a lens you will use more than any other on the camera, then supply the lens with the camera and ask that the AF be adjusted for this lens.
BRIGHT LIGHT
DULL LIGHT
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BEFORE
SKILLS
AFTER
SWAPPING CHANNELS
ONE POPULAR technique when shooting digital infrared images is to swap the red and blue channels around. Having taken a custom white balance reading, the resulting image should have a red/amber sky. To turn this into a bright blue sky while leaving foliage looking white, simply swap the red and blue channels of the image.
In image-editing software, select the Channel Mixer. In Photoshop, this is found under Image>Adjustments> Channel Mixer.
With the Red channel selected, move the Red slider from +100 to 0, and the Blue slider from 0 to +100.
Now switch to the Blue channel and boost Red from 0 to +100 and reduce Blue from +100 to 0.
With the Red and Blue channels swapped, all that is left to do is adjust the image Levels.
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CONVERT A DSLR FOR INFRARED

Converting a DSLR for infrared photography is an intricate task that requires care, but the results can be rewarding. Heres what to expect from the process
INFRARED photography has been
around for a long time and there are a number of ways to achieve the look, from lm to lters and in-camera effects to post-production editing software. Many DSLRs offer infrared (IR) modes among their many effects, but a DSLR conversion is by far the best option for those who are really serious about infrared photography. The reason for this is that DSLR sensors are able to see near-infrared light, but this light is blocked out by a hot-mirror lter situated in front of the sensor that allows only visible light to get through. To convert a DSLR for infrared use, this hot-mirror lter must be removed and replaced with another lter that allows IR light to pass. Possible options for replacement lters are listed on page 50. procedure unless you are absolutely condent in what you are doing. Exactly how much disassembly is required depends on the make of camera. Some models, such as the Nikon D70, are notoriously easy, while others, such as those made by Canon, are more difcult. Once the camera has been taken apart and the sensor unit removed, the hot-mirror lter can be taken off. More often than not, the lters are lightly glued into position around the edge of the sensor. Using tweezers to apply a little pressure around the lters edge may be enough to carefully pry the glass lter off the sensor. However, the glue may need to be dissolved using alcohol or acetone. Be warned: these chemicals can melt and damage plastic, so this technique cannot be used on sensors that contain plastic surrounds, or that are held in place with a plastic cage. Whichever method is employed, patience is key. Once the hot-mirror lter has been removed, the replacement lter should be tted into position and the camera reassembled. However, the conversion doesnt end there. The focus position to which the camera is set is based upon visible light, not infrared light. As such, infrared images focused to the same point as a visible-light image will often display front focus. To fully convert a camera, therefore, the autofocus (AF) must also be adjusted. There are many ways to do this, such as making tiny adjustments to the sensor position, the AF mirror or the AF system itself. Most technicians who perform such conversions keep their cards very close to their chests regarding which method they use, and some use more than one. The problem, however, is that lenses are designed differently. Most are not designed with infrared use in mind, and different lenses will focus infrared light to different points. When converting a camera, if there is one particular lens that is likely to be used most of the time, then ask if the AF adjustment can be set for use with this lens to give you the best results.
WHATS INVOLVED
Sitting directly in front of the imaging sensor, the hot-mirror lter is in many cameras bonded with the anti-aliasing lters. To remove the lter, you must rst access it, which means dismantling the DSLR. Do not undertake this
WHAT CAMERA SHOULD I CONVERT?

For most photographers, infrared imagery is of supplementary interest a fun and creative foray into a different photographic world. Clearly, then, it would be unwise to convert
a main camera, but with many photographers now on their second or third DSLR, an older model could be converted instead. And if this camera has only been lying around unused, then an infrared conversion could give it a new lease of life. If you dont have a older, spare DSLR, they can be bought secondhand for a fairly modest sum. One of the most popular models for conversion is the Nikon D70S, which we have used here. As a 6.1-millionpixel camera, the resolution is ne for an infrared hobbyist. In fact, with the anti-aliasing lter also removed as part of the conversion, images are sharper than before. If you hunt around, you may nd a 6- or 8-million-pixel DSLR for around 200, although the cost of the infrared conversion can add up to another 250 to the cost. Early Nikon DSLRs tend to be cheaper to convert than their Canon counterparts because it is easier to remove the hot-mirror lter. Of course, there is the option to undertake the conversion yourself, and there are many websites that feature step-by-step guides. Remember, though, that the procedure is more complicated than it looks, and there is always the risk that you may damage the camera.
Using a converted DSLR is the best way to shoot infrared images, but the conversion is best left to the experts
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SKILLS
STEP-BY-STEP CONVERSION GUIDE
Here is our brief guide to the steps involved in converting a camera for infrared use. The camera in question is a Nikon D70S, on which many of the images in this section were taken
DO NOT ATTEMPT TO CONVERT A CAMERA YOURSELF UNLESS YOU ARE CONFIDENT IN DOING SO AND HAVE THE NECESSARY TOOLS AND KNOWLEDGE
We need to be able to access the image sensor unit to replace the hot-mirror lter with the infrared lter. To do this, the rst step is to remove the base of the camera.
With the base of the camera removed, the back of the camera can now also be unscrewed and taken off. Most cameras, as with the D70S here, will have a ribbon cable that runs from the cameras main circuit board to the LCD screen on the back of the body. This cable simply unplugs from the socket and can be carefully prised apart using a pair of tweezers.
The next step is to remove the sensor unit itself from the camera. Again, you can simply unscrew the unit, but take care not to damage the data ribbon cable. Prise the sensor unit out of its socket and lift it completely free of the camera.
Usually, the hot-mirror lter is held in a surround that will need to be unscrewed. In some cameras, such as the Nikon D70S, the lter can be carefully lifted from the sensor. In others, however, strong glues are used so extra care and attention will be required. One slip and you could damage the sensor, which is why the procedure is best left to those familiar with the process and the challenges that particular cameras present.
With the hot-mirror lter removed, the replacement infrared lter can be inserted. Obviously, at no point should you touch the surface of the lter, as any marks will affect image quality. Also, be sure to perform the conversion in as clean an environment as possible. You dont want to get any dust between the sensor and the lter glass, as it will require the camera to be completely taken apart again to clean it.
With the lter securely in place, it is time to put the camera back together, following these steps in reverse. Make sure that all parts are correctly reassembled, and that great care is taken not to introduce any dust or debris into the camera body.
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WHICH FILTER?
Removing the hot-mirror lter is only part of the process, as another lter must be tted in its place. We list some of the most popular lters available, and explain what they do and the effects they have
ALL IMAGES THIS PAGE PROTECH CAMERA REPAIRS
This lter is used in a digital camera to block out most infrared and ultraviolet light while allowing visible light to pass through. It is positioned in front of a cameras sensor and must be removed to allow infrared use.
HOT-MIRROR FILTER
CLEAR FILTER
This clear-glass lter has a number of advantages. It allows infrared light to pass through, but it also does not contain an anti-aliasing/low-pass lter so images should be sharper. However, it allows visible light to pass through as well as infrared, so for infrared shooting an IR lter must be placed over the lens. To revert to the normal visible spectrum, place a hot-mirror lter over the lens, although as third-party hot-mirror lters wont be designed for a specic camera, colours may vary slightly from the original. Alternatively, shooting raw images will allow more precise control over the individual colours.
AUTO WB
CUSTOM WB
590NM
Without a hot-mirror lter, the cameras sensor is sensitive to the entire colour spectrum, including infrared. Placing a 590nm lter in front of the sensor blocks the colour spectrum below 590nm and allows the wavelengths of light above this through. Dark yellow/amber, orange and red light can reach the sensor, as well as infrared light, with the result that the blue spectrum is rendered a lot darker as this region in particular is blocked. Greens should also appear dark, but foliage reects a lot of infrared light, so grass, trees and plants will appear very bright when photographed in bright sunlight.
AUTO WB
CUSTOM WB
665NM
This lter is a step above the 590nm lter and blocks all light below 665nm, which lets only very dark orange/red colours pass through. All other colours, including yellow, blues and greens, will be blocked and show up as darker areas in an image.
AUTO WB
CUSTOM WB
720NM
The 720nm lter is the most popular choice for infrared photography. It blocks out the entire visible colour spectrum, so only infrared light can pass through. As a result, only surfaces from which infrared light is reected will be visible in the image, so a blue sky will turn very dark, but any clouds reecting infrared light from the sun will be very bright. Plants reect a lot of infrared light, particularly in the spring, so grassy landscapes can look as though they are cloaked in snow and trees covered in white blossom. On a practical note, the 720nm lter can require around a 1EV exposure adjustment, so handheld shooting is possible.
AUTO WB
CUSTOM WB
830NM
The most difcult lter to use is the 830nm lter because it blocks out not only all the visible spectrum, but also some of the infrared spectrum. This lter allows only really deep infrared wavelengths to get through and results in very highcontrast infrared images. Exposure times may be slightly longer than when using a 720nm lter.
AUTO WB
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CUSTOM WB
Many thanks to Kelvin and Jo at Protech Camera Repairs (www.protechrepairs.co.uk) for converting our Nikon D70S and for advice on converting a DSLR for infrared use
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PROJECTS
Image-editing software can be immensely creative, but a good number of effects can also be achieved in-camera. Learn how to create eye-catching images without a computer
MANIPULATING images is nothing new. Photographers have always played tricks in the darkroom to remove unsightly objects, add new skies, adjust contrast, or even merge and distort whole images. While digital imaging and editing software has made these effects easy and commonplace, many of them can still be achieved in-camera. Some of the techniques seem to have been forgotten about in the digital age, so perhaps now is a good time to revisit them. Why not set yourself the challenge to see just what you can create using nothing but light, technique and some imagination?
NO SOFTWARE REQUIRED
With an exposure time of 4secs, it was possible to move the zoom lens a total of five times and hold each position for a fraction of a second. This creates the stepped zoom burst pictured here
ZOOM BURST
ZOOM bursts are an easy technique to learn and the image that results can be very striking. All that is required is a zoom lens and careful timing. You will need to set an exposure of longer than 1/30sec, during which the zoom lens must be shifted from one focal length to another. As a consequence, the subject in the very centre of the frame will appear to have been stretched out to the edges, giving the image a sense of movement and action. For best results a tripod should be used, as it is difcult to twist the barrel of the zoom lens and keep the camera steady. Set the zoom to either one of its extremities you will get slightly different results depending on which end of the zoom you start with. I always start at the
widest setting. When the shutter is red, the zoom should be turned simultaneously during the exposure, in one uid movement. The longer the exposure, the more time there is to zoom further. It is virtually impossible to time the turn so that it lasts for the exact duration of the shot, so for this reason remember that the start and end positions of the zoom will often receive a fractionally longer exposure. If the subject isnt bright enough, increase the exposure slightly but keep the zoom movement at the same speed. This will keep the nal composition exposed for longer. Alternatively, use an exposure time of a few seconds and zoom the lens in stages, to acheive an effect similar to the one pictured.
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PROJECTS
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On the left, rear-curtain flash has been used. On the right, frontcurtain flash was chosen
SLOW-SYNC FLASH
THE MOST common task for slowsync ash is to illuminate the subject with a burst of ash, while using a slow shutter speed to record some of the ambient light in the scene and capture a sense of the surroundings. When taking a portrait at night, for example, a short exposure with a ash will create a very dark background with just the person illuminated. Using slow-sync ash, on the other hand, will leave the shutter open after the ash to allow in ambient light, which will ensure the background is illuminated as well as the subject. Slow-sync ash can also be used creatively to freeze motion. During such an exposure, any subject movement is recorded as the ambient light exposes the sensor or lm. When the ash is red, that precise moment is then frozen in the scene, though blur will still be visible in the image. Those photographing live music concerts will often use a relatively slow shutter speed to capture the blurred movement of a subject, but combine this with a burst of ash. This will expose the subject correctly and freeze its movement to create a clear image, while retaining the energy of any movement. Generally, setting a cameras ash to its slow-sync mode should be enough to produce good results. However, the shutter speed can sometimes be too slow and let in too much light, thereby overexposing the background. If this is the case, make a note of the exposure and ash power settings and switch to manual mode. Keep the aperture and ash power the same, but reduce the shutter speed. Doing this will keep the ash exposure the same, but reduce the brightness of the ambient light. Another consideration is whether to use front- or rear-curtain ash. By default, cameras are set for front-curtain ash, which means the ash res when the sensor or lm is rst exposed. With rear-curtain ash, it is red just before the shutter closes.
Generally, setting a cameras ash to its slow-sync mode should be enough to produce good results
Imagine you are photographing a stunt motorcyclist performing a jump using front-curtain, slow-sync ash. The ash will re at the start of the exposure, which will show blurred movement in front of the bike as it continues to travel during the exposure. Rear-curtain ash res at the very last moment instead, and any blur will be captured behind the motorbike, giving the sense that the subject is moving forwards, not backwards.
STROBED FLASH
A FLASH is usually red just once to

illuminate an entire scene. However, when using a longer exposure, the ash can be red numerous times to light the scene at different points in time. If you are in a dark environment, with someone running through the scene, you can use a 2sec exposure and re the ash four times to capture the movement of the person running through the frame. The resulting image should have the person captured in four different positions in a single exposure. The environment in which the image is taken is critical. As when taking a multiple exposure, a black background is needed to create perfectly exposed movements. For example, if the same runner was photographed against a brightly lit brick wall, the subject would appear to be semitransparent unless the subjects clothing is very bright itself, some of the exposure of the brick wall would be visible through it. Against a black background, however, there will be nothing bright behind the subject that will be better exposed than it is when the ash is red, so the background will
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MIRRORS AND REFLECTIONS

THERE are countless ways that a
reective surface such as a mirror can be used creatively to add interest to an image. One of the most obvious is to have the subject look into the camera, but via a reection in a mirror rather than directly. This allows alternative angles to be explored, such as shooting over the subjects shoulder, or even taking images around corners. It isnt only mirrors, of course: metallic, glass, plastic and other reective surfaces can also be used to create interesting images. Look out for curved surfaces that produce distorted reections, such as the convex mirrors commonly used to see
Look for reflective objects that can produce interesting distortions
around corners in foot tunnels or for cars pulling out of concealed drives. These mirrors offer an almost 180 eld of view, both vertically and horizontally, making them interesting for self-portraits and distorted portraits around corners. Puddles are a favourite source of reections for street photographers. They can provide a good point of interest, revealing a different perspective of a scene, or reect blue skies and uffy clouds, which can make a puddle look almost like a portal to another world. And rather than being just part of a scene, water reections can also be used to ll the entire frame and create interesting images. Try taking a portrait using a reection from a bowl of water. Dripping water into the bowl will create ripples that will distort the reected image, often with surreal results. Similarly, the shards from a smashed mirror will also create distortions.
show as being completely solid. The duration of the exposure is the key setting in a such a shot. It should be long enough for the subject to move signicantly and for the ash to be red the correct number of times. To capture the image, place the camera on a tripod and set an aperture that is small enough to give an appropriately long exposure, and which will not capture too much ambient light. Setting a suitable ash power is dependent on a number of things, including whether your subject will be moving across the frame or stay on the same spot, and whether you wish to light the whole scene or just the subject. If the subject remains in the same spot say, someone playing the drums work out the ash exposure as you usually would to light the subject. Then divide this by the number of times you wish the ash to re. So if the correct standard ash power is 1/1 and you wish to re the ash four times, set the ash power to 1/4. Firing the ash four times will then give the same exposure. In this example, the stationary body of the drummer, and
the drum kit, will be correctly exposed, but each arm will be captured four times by the four different ashes, although they will be underexposed (see left). If you are photographing a subject running across the frame, you can snoot the ash and point it at the subject as it moves. Keep the power the same as if you are photographing the subject normally, because each time the subject moves it will appear in a different position in the frame and, if you time it correctly, you shouldnt overexpose any other part of the image. Many ashguns have the ability to set a ash strobe frequency, which means you can decide in advance how many times and how quickly the ash will re during the course of an exposure. Of course, you can still try the technique even if your ash doesnt have a strobe facility, but a longer exposure will be required as the ash will have to be triggered numerous times manually using its Test/Dump button. Ideally, a second person should be on hand to help re either the camera or the ash.
A SIMPLE lens is a single glass lens element, such as a magnifying glass or an individual glass element removed from a photographic lens or telescope. These can be used creatively in images to exaggerate or enlarge certain features. Perhaps the classic, and now rather clichd, use is to hold a magnifying glass in front of a subjects eye. This enlarges the eye, creating a slightly surreal image. Remember that you will be focusing on the image in the glass, which will have a different focal plane to the actual magnifying glass, and as such you will need a small aperture to get as much of the image in focus as possible, including any hands that may be holding the glass. Also remember that when focusing on distant objects, the image in the glass will be upside down. Most importantly, think about how you can use this simple effect to take more than just the clichd shots mentioned above. For instance, try using a magnifying glass to take a landscape photograph (see page 57).
SIMPLE LENSES
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MULTIPLE EXPOSURE
STITCHING images together in editing software is relatively simple thanks to all the various tools and automated processes. However, it wasnt so long ago that performing such a task would require the careful splicing or sandwiching of negatives, or the creation of a multipleexposed negative. Most DSLRs have a multiple-exposure mode and, while the technique may not be as popular as it once was, it is in fact easier in the digital age. These days, rear screens allow us to check exposure and carefully align parts of the image so that all the elements come together successfully. Once upon a time, wed have to wait with
ngers crossed after having spent money on lm, development and printing to see if we had done the job properly. Whether capturing a scene on a digital sensor or on lm, the principle behind a multiple-exposed image is the same. Two or more exposures are made to the lm or sensor, which allows different scenes to be merged into a single image, or a subject within the scene to move and be captured in different positions. With the lm being exposed more than once, you must remember to adjust the exposure settings accordingly. For example, if you are exposing a scene twice, you must halve each exposure time so rather than
Lit with a single softbox, this portrait was taken three separate times. The subject changed position each time, overlapping as little as possible Each image: 1/250sec at f/11
a 1/60sec exposure, use two 1/125sec exposure. Likewise, if you are exposing the image four times, use four 1/250sec exposures. There are exceptions to this rule for example, if you are photographing a subject against a completely solid black background and the image of the subject
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PROJECTS
This image has been created by shooting one picture of a black lamp against a white background, and another of a wicker blind. Bright white areas remain white, while unexposed dark areas show the second image Lamp: 1/250sec at f/20; Blind: 1/250sec at f/13
MOST people are used to seeing scenes from head height, and we generally take photographs from between waist height and eye-level. However, you can create dynamic images by exploring different angles and heights. Shooting from the ground, with the camera pointing up, provides a whole new perspective. Combine these angles with wideangle or sheye lenses and the perspective will be distorted, allowing certain features to be exaggerated. This can be used to make body parts appear enlarged or elongated, which is not usually very attering but, if done deliberately, can be used as a interesting effect. Often it is the simplest of tricks that are the most effective you can use perspective to your advantage by altering the sense of scale. Even the clever positioning of a subject or furniture, then turning the nal image on its side, can be enough to fool and disorientate the viewer, or produce an effective optical illusion.
ALTERNATIVE ANGLE
doesnt overlap, then you can fully expose the image twice. Each time the subject will appear correctly exposed, and the background will still be black. If you were to do this against a background that isnt black, and two full multiple exposures are used, the background will be 1EV overexposed. If the exposures are halved, the background will be correctly exposed, but the moving subject wont, creating a semi-transparent, ghost image. One way around this is to expose the image in different parts. Masking lters are available, such as the Cokin Double Mask, which has a hinged mask that allows half the scene to be masked at a time. Simply mask half the scene and take a picture, then repeat the action covering the other half. You can, of course, make your own mask by covering half of your
lens with black card. Use the cameras live view screen with grid guides to help you correctly align the mask each time. Another use for multiple exposure is when shooting cityscapes at dusk. Set your camera up on a tripod and take the rst half of the exposure with a bright vivid sky, before the sun goes down. Leaving your camera and tripod completely still, take the second multiple exposure setting after the sun has gone down and all the ofce buildings have the lights on. Because the sky will be very dark compared to the bright ofce lights, the bright and dramatic sky from the rst exposure should be completely unaffected by the second. Remember, anything black wont show. no matter how many times it is exposed, while anything that is bright white will show through each exposure.
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PROJECTS
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BUILD A LCD LOUPE

When bright light hinders the use of a cameras LCD screen, an LCD loupe is an ideal solution. Follow our step-by-step instructions and build your own
NOT ALL cameras come equipped with a viewnder, which leaves the LCD screen as the only way to view and compose images. However, visibility can be seriously affected by bright light. Even for cameras that do have a viewnder, the ability to view the information from a distance away from the camera body is very useful, especially for macro photography and video. An ideal solution to this problem is a hood with a loupe to protect the screen from bright light and provide clear viewing. As those available to buy can be expensive, follow our steps for a cost-effective DIY version.
ESSENTIAL MATERIALS
Ruler Pencil Stanley knife Scissors Electrical tape or duct tape 1 Black plastic 1 12mm general-purpose braided elastic 1.50 Magnifying glass 1 Total cost 4.50 OPTIONAL Velcro 1.75 Reading glasses 1 13mm snap fasteners 1.50 TIME TAKEN: 1 hour The reading glasses and magnifying glass can be bought from a pound shop. For the tape, elastic, fasteners and Velcro, try a hardware store
Start by measuring the dimensions of the LCD screen, but be sure to also measure a border around the edge. The 3in screen of the camera here measures 47x62mm, and I have added an extra 3mm to the height and width for the border. The total dimensions are therefore 53x68mm.
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PROJECTS
For the loupe unit I am using a value black plastic clipboard, but any thick plastic or Correx corrugated plastic is ne. Draw the inner 47x62mm measurements on the plastic sheet, and then the outer 53x68mm dimensions. Then from each side draw out a ap, at roughly 75mm in length (see 2A), with a slight angle inwards, because the viewing end will be smaller than the screen itself, although it needs to remain large enough to t the magnifying glass. Check this by placing the glass up against the end of one of the aps (2B).
2A
2B
Using the scissors, cut the lines for each ap (3A) and then, with a ruler as a guide, take the Stanley knife to cut out the LCD screen hole along the inner dimensions. Score the pencil line of the outer dimension so the aps fold more easily (3B), but make sure not to cut all the way through. Fold the aps to ensure that they close up together. Check that it is the correct size by placing it over the LCD screen.
3A
3B
Fold the aps in to create the loupe (4A). Use the duct or electrical tape to x the sides together, making sure the x is secure (4B). To prevent light spill, ensure there are no gaps in between the sides. The loupe should now resemble a slanted box with two empty ends.
4A
4B
Fix the electrical tape onto one side of the magnifying glass (5A) and slide it through to around 15mm from the glass end of the loupe. Once the tape is xed to the internal sides, tape the other side to secure the glass inside the loupe unit (5B). The LCD loupe itself is now complete, but it needs to be attached to the LCD screen.
5A
5B
6A (VELCRO)
6B (ELASTIC)
6C
While holding the loupe up to the LCD screen is ne for use over short periods, attaching it properly to the screen is better. There are a couple of options here. One is to attach a Velcro strip to the rim on the LCD end of the loupe (6A). You will then need to cut a 3mm border of Velcro to go around the LCD on the camera itself. But while this is a very quick way of attaching the loupe, it does mean the Velcro is permanently xed to the camera body. If selling on the camera is of interest, this may not the best option. Another simple, effective solution is to use elastic.
On both the top and underside ap of the LCD loupe nearest the camera body end, cut a small hole on the left and one on the right side (6B). Feed the elastic through this on one side. To ensure a tight t, place the loupe up against the LCD screen, stretch the elastic around the camera body and feed it through the hole on the other side of the loupe, xing it in place (6C). Now repeat this process for the opposite side. To be doubly secure, using a snap fastener on each hole for the elastic is ideal. This method does not mark the camera itself, and is quick to attach when needed.
FINAL PRODUCT
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AFTER
Dodging and burning is useful for small areas, but when dealing with a whole image, blending different exposures produces far better results. We show you how
RETOUCHER S GUIDE
BEFORE
WHEN it comes to selectively lightening and darkening specic areas in a colour image, even the Dodge and Burn tools in a program as sophisticated (and expensive) as Photoshop can ruin a picture, replacing white highlights and black shadows with contrast-reducing greys, and altering colours beyond recognition. However, if you shoot raw les, theres a way round this: process the image multiple times for different areas of the image (effectively producing different exposures), and then blend these by hand in your editing program. This may sound somewhat similar to creating an HDR image, in that multiple exposures are combined to (hopefully) produce a more detailed end result, and to a certain extent that is what were doing here. There is one signicant difference, though whereas HDR is an incredibly opaque process, manually blending images is easier to understand and far more transparent in its application. Basically, SOFTWARE what you see is what Adobe Photoshop CS5 you get. Sure, it will take much longer, but the KEY TOOLS outcome is an image Layers that can perhaps be Layer masks described as handcrafted, rather than the by-product of Skill required complex mathematical Time to complete 30mins+ algorithms.
BEFORE YOU START
0 STOP
-1 STOP
+34 STOP
+112 STOP
The rst step is to prepare your source images, which means opening your raw-format original and processing it a number of times. Start with your base exposure and adjust any of the other parameters you want to, such as the white balance and saturation, but leave the exposure untouched. When youre happy with the way it looks, save it as a TIFF le, giving it a meaningful name (such as 0.TIF, so you know the exposure hasnt been adjusted). Then, adjust the exposure of your raw le to lighten or darken it, and save your adjusted version, too. Dont adjust any other settings, as this may make the nal image look a little peculiar. You can create as many alternative exposures as you want, but remember that each should be exposed for a specic part of the image. Here, I ended with four exposures: the unadjusted base exposure (0); an exposure 1 stop darker (for the tower); an exposure of a stop lighter (for the sky); and a nal exposure 1 stops lighter for the foreground.
Open all your converted images in Photoshop and choose File>Automate>Photomerge from the top menu. In the Photomerge dialogue choose Auto from the Layout Options, and click Add Open Files. Ensure the Blend Images Together option is checked at the bottom of the window and click OK.
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PROJECTS
Photoshop will combine and open your images as a single le, with each exposure on its own layer with an accompanying layer mask; one image will have a white mask and the others will have a black mask, shown by the white (or black) rectangle next to the image thumbnail in the Layers palette. What this means is that one layer is fully revealed (the white mask), while the others are concealed (by a black mask). In effect, all youre seeing on screen at this stage is a single layer in this case, the image that was overexposed by 1 stops. Were now ready to start working on the image, and this largely comes down to selectively editing the layer masks. Start by setting the foreground and background colours to black and white (by pressing D) and then choose the Brush tool. Select a layer to work on and click its accompanying black mask icon so that youre working on the mask, rather than the image. With white as your foreground colour, you can paint over the mask to reveal an area on the layer Ive started work on the sky in this image.
4 6
The lowest layer should be the 0 exposure and its mask should be white. The rest of the layers should have a black mask so we can selectively add them to the base exposure. To move your layers into order, drag them up and down the list in the Layers palette, making sure 0 is at the bottom. To change the colour of the masks, click on the mask icon and choose Image> Adjustments>Invert to switch from black to white, or vice versa. Do this for each layer that needs changing, so you end up with a white mask for your base (0) layer and black masks for the rest.
As you work on the layer mask you can change the size of your brush to deal with larger or smaller areas, as well as the hardness of the brush and its opacity. If you make a mistake, switch to black as your foreground colour and paint the mask back in. The rule here is that white will reveal parts of the layer, while black will conceal it, and anything in between will reveal the layer to a greater or lesser degree. However, its easier to alter the opacity of the brush than start confusing yourself with shades of grey. My lighter sky is now fully revealed.
8 7
Now to reveal the optimum bits of each layer for the best overall balance using a mix of brushes and opacity settings. Using large, softedged brushes at a low opacity and making several passes with the brush will help you avoid obvious edges appearing in your image. Take your time, and be careful when you switch between layers that youre selecting the mask rather than the image on the layer.
As well as manipulating the masks, your layers can also be adjusted using more familiar tools such as Levels, Curves and Opacity. Here, for example, Ive reduced the Opacity of the dark (-1) layer to 75% so the effect isnt quite as strong, and then applied a contrastboosting curve to the sky (+0.75) layer to enhance its colour. A Curves adjustment layer was also added to boost the contrast and saturation of the image as a whole, with a nal saturation boost nishing the job.
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PROJECTS
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CAPTURING WATER DROPLETS AND SPLASHES

Why not try your hand at a classic technical challenge? Follow us to the waters edge
BEAUTIFUL, timeless images of
drops splashing onto the surface of a liquid to form myriad shapes and patterns are often considered to be achievable only by well-equipped studio photographers with an array of strobe lighting and sophisticated electronic triggers. However, with a little time and patience, anyone can capture the perfect water-droplet-inmotion picture using just a camera, a ashgun and some everyday items. The joy of this project is that spectacular results can be achieved almost straightaway, but if you enjoy the process and the mood takes you, it can lead you on a voyage of discovery as you ne-tune your technique and venture into the world of macro and scientic photography. Diffusing the light is worth a try, and using backlighting through tracing paper combined with coloured gels lifts any picture to even higher levels. If you have a glass-sided aquarium or sh tank, try shooting through the glass with your lens set to manual focus, dropping coins and other small objects into the water and freezing the very different splash patterns that they create.
ESSENTIAL MATERIALS
DSLR Flashgun Tripod Large glass mixing bowl Plastic sandwich/freezer bag or lid of a CD stack Coloured paper for experimentation Food-dye colouring Fishing line Pins and needles Craft knife
With a little time and patience, anyone can capture the perfect water-droplet-inmotion picture using just a camera, a flashgun and some everyday items
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PROJECTS
First, you need to nd a bowl or dish to drip water into 20-30cm in diameter is perfect as it enables you to avoid including the edges in your picture, and allows the maximum surface area of clear liquid for ripples and splashes.
Thread the shing line through four equally spaced pinholes pushed through either a resealable freezer bag or CD stack lid and tie to create two loops. This is to hang the drip source symmetrically above your receiving bowl.
Suspend the drip reservoir above the bowl and pierce a hole in the bottom. Start with a small pin and progress to a larger diameter to achieve a rate of around one drip per second.
Position your camera in front of the bowl and set it to manual focus. Hold the blades of a pair of scissors at the point where the drops will hit the surface of the water, and focus on them to ensure the water splash will be in sharp focus.
Set your ashgun to manual and to the lowest power (1/16 in this case), as this will be the shortest ash duration.
Take some test shots to nd the best exposure, then set the shutter speed to the fastest that will synchronise with the ash. If you have an extension ash lead or remote triggering device, try positioning the ash off-camera for a different effect.
Coloured paper or card under the water bowl will provide impact and contrast, while adding a dye or food colouring to the reservoir will also create an interesting effect.
Capturing the perfect splash does take time and a certain amount of luck, but watching the rate of drops falling and predicting the best point should, with practice, yield results a 10% success rate is about right.
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PROJECTS
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ENLARGER LENSES
Fascinated by macro photography but lacking the right kit? Enlarger lenses are among the cheapest good-quality optics available, so they are great for using on your camera to create unique images. We explain how
ENLARGER lenses are among the simplest of optics. With no internal focusing mechanism, their design is very straightforward some have only four aperture blades. This simplicity, and the lack of demand for them, means they are currently extremely cheap to buy. A quick search online shows that you can get hold of one for as little as 5, but generally they range in price from 20-40. However, enlarger lenses were never intended for use in capturing an image, so there are some issues that must be overcome if you are to do so. WHY USE AN ENLARGER LENS?
Designed as they are to project a at piece of lm onto the at surface of photographic paper, enlarger lenses show virtually no curvilinear distortion. This is why they are generally standard lenses: 50mm for 35mm lm, or 80mm for medium-format lm. Edge-to-edge sharpness is also important when printing and, again, enlarger lenses must perform well in this regard. Vignetting is also a consideration at the edges of images, as the whole print must receive as close to an even exposure as possible. Therefore, enlarger lenses will have a minimum aperture of only f/4, or even f/5.6, which helps to avoid vignetting. Like any other optics, there are certain enlarger lenses that perform well in all of the above, while others arent quite up to scratch. However, by learning the qualities of a specic lens, you can exploit it to take some stunning images.
THE BASICS
The vast majority of enlarger lenses have a 39mm screw thread. This thread is nearly identical to the M39 screw thread used by Leica and other manufacturers for their early rangender cameras. As such, it is possible to mount enlarger lenses onto M39 thread-mount cameras, and this means it is also possible to mount them to modern compact system cameras via a M39 adapter. The problem is that the lenses have no means of focus. When used on an enlarger, they have the ability to focus back and forth by using a bellows. When on a camera, to focus an enlarger lens at different distances requires some back and forth movement.
HELICOID FOCUSING ADAPTERS

A HELICOID is a circular spiral
mechanism that extends backwards and forwards when turned. The most obvious example of this is the movement of a lens barrel back and forth when a focus or zoom ring is turned. Like any other lens adapter, these have a camera mount on one side and a lens mount on the other. Twisting the helicoid mechanism will move the lens back and forth, and thus change the position of the focus. Most of the time, helicoid adapters are used for macro focusing. In effect, the helicoids become an adjustable macro extension tube, moving the lens back and forth to give the required level of magnication. When used with an M39 screw thread, a helicoid can be used with an enlarger lens, and the lens used like a normal optic. Simply set the required aperture and use the helicoids adapter to focus the lens back and forth. Depending on the size of the helicoid and the exact lens being used, it should be possible to focus to innity. The drawback here is the availability of these adapters. You wont often nd them on the shelves of photographic retailers, so the internet and eBay are the best sources.
The helicoid adapter moves the enlarger lens back and forth to enable it to focus. This will only work on a compact system camera as the ange depth is short enough for it to focus. On a DSLR system, it will act more like an adjustable extension tube for macro images
Taken using the enlarger lens and bellows pictured right, these macro shots are of a dragony larvas shedded exoskeleton
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PROJECTS
USING A BELLOWS
THE MOST logical way to get an
enlarger lens to focus when using it on a camera is to replicate the bellows of an enlarger using a set of macro bellows. Mount one end of these bellows to the camera, and the other to an M39 mount to allow enlarger lenses to be used. Some bellows, such as the old, but very popular, BPM Universal bellows, or the Novoex Universal BALPRO 1 (www.novoex. com/en/products/macro-accessories/ bellows-systems/universal-bellows) allow various combinations of lenses. For example, an M39 mount can be connected to the front of the bellows and a Nikon F mount to the rear, to allow enlarger lenses to be used on a Nikon camera. At the very short extensions of the bellows, an enlarger lens may just about be able to focus on innity using a compact system camera, but the larger ange depth means that innity wont be available on a DSLR. Instead, the enlarger lens will only be able to focus at very close distances on a DSLR. Also, by extending the bellows on a DSLR or a compact system camera, the enlarger lens will make an excellent macro optic.
Like any other type of photographic lens, enlarger lenses can vary tremendously in price. Cheap lenses may have square aperture blades, which can create interesting effects
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HANDHOLDING
THE SIMPLEST, but least exact, method of using an enlarger lens is to shoot handheld. With no lens mounted on the camera, wrap the enlarger lens in your hand and press it up against the camera mount. Moving your hand back and forth, it should be possible to roughly focus the lens. It is extremely hard to hold the lens in the correct position to focus, so
images will tend to be soft. Similarly, it is difcult to match the horizontal plane of the lm and sensor, so there will usually also be a slight tilt-and-shift effect, often with a narrow focal plane. Despite the obvious aws in shooting handheld, this method can produce some striking images unique, too, given that it is so difcult to take exactly the same image twice.
Above: Holding the lens slightly tilted has created a very selective depth of eld Left: The square aperture blades of the enlarger lens have created a strange crosshatched bokeh effect in this handheld image
Many thanks to SRB-Griturn (www. srb-griturn.com) for the M39 to Nikon F T-mount adapter used to mount the enlarging lens to the bellows
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THE NEW IPAD APP FROM THE MAKERS OF WHAT DIGITAL CAMERA
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PROJECTS
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FILL-IN FLASH FOR PORTRAITS

We explain how to use ash outside to create bright and dramatic images
HE benets of using ash outside in daylight to brighten up portraits are numerous. For example, it can add an attractive catchlight to a subjects eyes, help to smooth skin by lighting it evenly and, most importantly, reduce shadows on the subjects face. However, this can be taken a step further. Rather than merely using a ash to complement light from the sun, you can use a ash to actually beat the sunlight, making the ash the dominant light in the scene. To do this, you need a camera
with a fairly fast ash-sync speed. Thankfully, most digital SLRs can sync at a speed of 1/250sec, and some are even faster than this. The aim is to underexpose the scene, causing the subject to be in almost complete shadow, but then to use a ash to illuminate the subject to create studio-style lighting outside. You may think you need a powerful studio ash to illuminate subjects outside, and while this is certainly an advantage, it should be noted that all the shots on these two pages were taken using Nikon SB-600 Speedlights.
Setting the scene
The location in which you choose to take your images is important. While you can use the technique anywhere, nding a shady location with a bright background works well. This allows for your subject to be in shadow, meaning that little ambient light will fall on them during the exposure. As the technique has the effect of darkening backgrounds, it can work well on overcast days to make dramatic, cloudy skies. Equally, on a bright sunny day, it can make the sky a very deep blue. Overall, it creates
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1/30SEC 1/60SEC 1/125SEC FINAL 1/250SEC
PROJECTS
With the aperture set to around f/16 and the sensitivity to ISO 100, altering the shutter speed mainly affects the brightness of the background
A wireless flash is perfect for dramatic fill-in flash, but a long sync lead works just as well
an effect very reminiscent of HDR, as parts of the image normally in shadow are made bright and punchy.
Technique
Having found an appropriate location, place your subject in the scene and ask them to pose. While you can use a ashgun placed on a cameras hotshoe, results are better when the ash is mounted offcamera. A wireless ashgun is perfect for this, but equally a long sync lead allows you to use a conventional ashgun with the same results. Using a slave cell may be a good idea if
you are shooting a shadow area, but generally they dont work well, if at all, in bright conditions. Choose an appropriate angle to light your subject. Generally, you want this to be around 45 to their left or right. The precise position depends largely on where the ambient light is coming from. Most ashguns come with a small stand that allows the ashgun to be mounted on to a tripod or lighting stand. Alternatively, ask someone to simply hold the ash in the required position. In manual exposure mode, set the cameras ISO sensitivity to ISO
100 and the shutter to the fastest possible ash-sync speed, which in most cases is around 1/250sec. Take an exposure reading without ring the ash and adjust the aperture size so that it creates a nice dark sky. In bright light, f/16 is a good starting point. Having taken your test image of the background, set your ash to full power and take another shot. You should nd that the ash lights the subject. If the light is too bright, you can turn the power of the ash down or move it away from the subject until you are happy with the result.
TOP TIPS
O Shooting a subject placed in shade allows ambient light to affect the image less, making the ash more prominent OMake sure that the background is exposed a little darker than you would normally OSet the shutter speed to the fastest possible speed at which the ash will synchronise OJust as you would in a studio, use light modiers, such as diffusers and grids, where appropriate OTo help soften shadows, or simply to provide extra light for a full-length portrait, try using multiple ashguns OUse the sun to your advantage by using it as a backlight OTry increasing the saturation of the image in editing software for a punchy, vibrant effect
MULTIPLE FLASHGUNS
Just as when you use a ash in the studio, you may nd that your single ashlight creates a harsh shadow. To soften it, simply use another ashgun set to half or even a quarter of the power of the main ash. For example, if the main ash, or key ash, is on 11 power, set the second ash to 12 or 14 power. If the key ash is set to 12 power, set the secondary ll ash to 14 or 18 power. This will ll in any shadows. In this image, I have used a second ash to help illuminate the trailing leg and the log.
USING THE SUN

NO FLASH
However far you stop the aperture down, you will nd it difcult to darken the sun completely. Instead, use it to your advantage. When taking portraits in the studio, a light may be positioned behind and above the subjects head, to act as a hairlight. This adds highlights to their hair, making it stand out. When shooting outside, place the subject directly in front of the sun and use it like a hairlight, as I have done in the image on the opposite page.
ONE FLASH
TWO FLASHES
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KNOWLEDGE
such as a dancer leaping into the air. Performing the same task with continuous lights would require extremely bright lights, or a high ISO sensitivity, to allow a fast shutter speed to be used. The former can be very expensive and generate a lot of heat, while the latter can introduce noise into the image.
COLOUR TEMPERATURE
Traditionally, shooting with tungsten lights requires photographers to compensate for the fact that tungsten light is far warmer than daylight. This can be achieved by using a blue lter gel over the light, or by using the appropriate blue lens lter. Tungstenbalanced lm is also available, which is specically designed for use when shooting under tungsten lighting. When shooting digital images, white balance is less of an issue provided you arent mixing two sources of light. Also, many modern lights are daylight-balanced, which allows them to be mixed with daylight from a window, or sunlight outside, without having to worry too much about mixing light sources of different colour temperatures.
CONTINUOUS LIGHTING
Often overlooked in favour of flash lighting, continuous lights have many advantages. We take a look at the different lights that are available
WHETHER to opt for continuous
or ash lighting is a decision that anybody investing in studio lights will have to make. Years ago, the decision was easier due to the fact that continuous studio lighting largely relied on using high-powered incandescent bulbs that generate a huge amount of heat. However, there have been a number of advances in continuous lighting. The highpowered, electricity-guzzling tungsten bulbs now have competition in the form of more energy-efcient, light, cool sources. is the fact that the light source is the same one that is used to illuminate the image. While most studio ash heads have modelling lights, these only give you an idea of what the nal image will look like. The lower-powered modelling lights do not replicate exactly how a split-second bright burst of ash will look. Continuous lights, on the other hand, show exactly how the image will look and take the guesswork out of adjusting the lights for best results what you see in front of you is what will appear in the nal image. Another advantage of continuous lights is that they dont need to be triggered, so they will work with any camera and without any cables or wireless trigger devices.
TYPES OF LIGHTING
Where once photographers only had the option of tungsten lighting, continuous lighting now comes in various forms. Each particular lighting technology has its own advantages and disadvantages, and these may have a particular effect depending on the type of photography you wish to use them for.
FLASH VS CONTINUOUS LIGHT

The obvious advantage of using continuous lighting, instead of ash,
With these plus points in mind, you start to wonder why ash is still preferred by many photographers. In the past, this was partly down to the heat generated by high-powered, continuous tungsten lights, which can make it uncomfortable and difcult for both the subject and photographer to be at their best. Smaller, cooler and more energyefcient lights have solved this problem to some extent, but the bright lights can still cause the subject to squint their eyes and their pupils to become smaller. This doesnt occur with a sudden burst of ash as the subjects eyes dont have time to react to the bright light, so pupils remain large and attering. Flash can also freeze motion,
FLASH LIGHTING
CONTINUOUS LIGHTING
Continuous lights can cause the subject to squint and make the pupils smaller. Flash doesnt produce these effects
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FLUORESCENT LIGHTS
Fluorescent lights are ideal for shooting portrait, still-life and macro photographs, although standard accessory fittings arent common
MENTION uorescent lights
and most people immediately think of the long tubes that are used to illuminate ofce buildings, but smaller uorescent lamps and bulbs are now common. These lights work by using electricity to excite mercury vapour, which then emits ultraviolet (UV) light. This UV light then causes a phosphor in the tube or bulb to uoresce, or glow, which produces visible light. Fluorescent lights are much more efcient than traditional household tungsten bulbs, and most energysaving light bulbs are, in fact, uorescent. In the past few years, more and more photographic studio lights that use these types of bulbs have come onto the market, and they have very distinct characteristics. Perhaps the biggest selling point of uorescent lights is that far less energy is lost as heat. This has led to uorescent continuous lights often being referred to as cool lights. The fact that they run cooler than incandescent lights means they are far more practical for shooting portrait, still-life and macro photographs. The lack of heat also means it is possible to use accessories such as softboxes. However, standard accessory ttings arent common with these lights, so check what accessories, if any, are available before making a purchase. Often the bulbs used in photographic cool lights are the same as those used for domestic lighting, except that they use multiple bulbs to achieve a light that is bright enough for photography. For example, the Intert Super Cool-lite 6 uses six bulbs, which gives the equivalent brightness of a 770W tungsten light. Using so many bulbs also gives some control over the brightness, with the ability to turn each bulb on and off individually. The colour temperature of uorescent bulbs can vary greatly depending on the phosphors used. For household applications, bulbs can now be produced with a warm hue, but generally for photographic purposes you will need a cool white or daylightbalanced light. Cool white bulbs have a colour temperature of around 4,100K,
LED LIGHTS
LED lights have an extremely long life, but can be expensive compared to the brightness of the light produced
ALTHOUGH light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are not new technology, it is only recently that they have found a use in photographic lighting. They use very little power, which is why we are used to seeing individual LEDs used as small lights to indicate whether an electronic item is on or off. In fact, LEDs are about the
most efcient form of lighting when power consumed is compared to light generated. They also have an extremely long life that is far in excess of other types of lighting, meaning that an LED will probably last a lifetime of use. It is for these reasons that LED lights are now used for trafc lights and many external car lights. However, there are some considerations when LEDs are grouped together and used for photography. The rst of these is the expense compared to the brightness of the light produced. A cheap LED light that outputs the equivalent of a
Colour temperature from incandescent lights can vary greatly and depends on the brightness of the bulb
but daylight-balanced lights rate from 5,000-5,500K and are more useful for photographers. It can also take a few minutes for the bulbs to reach their maximum colour temperature, so it is best to leave them switched on for around 15 minutes prior to shooting. Fluorescent bulbs last far longer than incandescent bulbs, but as they start to die they may begin to icker and develop a pink hue.
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traditional 50W tungsten light bulb may cost anywhere between 50 and 300, depending on the technology used. Larger, brighter panels are even more expensive, with a Litepanels 1x1 Standard LED panel costing 1,440 for the equivalent of a 500W tungsten bulb. Another issue can be the colour temperature of the light output by the LEDs. Premium panels, such as those produced by Litepanels and the relatively inexpensive Manfrotto lights, have a high level of quality control and will use LEDs from a good supplier, so the companies can guarantee the colour accuracy of their lights. The lights produced by these two companies have a colour temperature of 5,600-6,000K, so they are daylight-balanced. Filter gels are even supplied with some lights so they can be mixed with tungsten lights for indoor use. However, the colour temperature of cheaper LED lights can vary greatly, even from unit to unit. Some of the better lights will also have adjustable power, and again, like other forms of light, the colour temperature can vary throughout the power range an effect that is minimised on better LED lights. Those planning to use LED lights for shooting video should also take note that some cheaper LED lights can produce a high-frequency icker that can sometimes be seen in video footage. So while cheaper LEDs have their uses, for best results it is worth spending a few pounds extra. Of course, this is not to say that there arent advantages to using LED lights. The low power consumption means that nearly all panels are battery-powered, which allows them to be recharged. Without the need for mains power, their small size makes them very versatile and they are suitable for mounting on a hotshoe as a portrait ll light or for shooting video. Smaller LED lights are great for macro imagery and also for ower and food photography. They are so efcient that little energy is lost as heat, meaning that owers will not wilt and frozen food and ice wont melt quickly.
KNOWLEDGE
INCANDESCENT LIGHTING
For entry-level photographers, incandescent lights are the most affordable way to start using continuous lighting
INCANDESCENT lights work by passing an electric current through a metal, usually tungsten, lament, which is contained within a bulb that is typically lled with either an inert or a halogen gas. Those lled with inert gas are similar to traditional light bulbs used around the home. Halogen lamps have many uses, from household lights and desk lamps to car headlights, outdoor oodlights and work lights. Incandescent lights are cheap to manufacture and their mass-market use means they are produced in great numbers. However, compared to more modern types of bulb, they are extremely inefcient. Much of the energy that goes into the bulb is released as heat and the brighter the light, the more heat is produced. This waste of energy is one of the reasons why many places, including countries within the EU, are gradually phasing out the household use of some older types of traditional lament bulb. Although in the past most studio photography lights used photoood tungsten lament bulbs, most lights are now halogen capsules or strip tubes. While they are relatively inexpensive, the amount of energy wasted as heat is the major problem with this type of lighting. Using a couple of 500W lights in a room
over a long period can generate a lot of heat, which can become uncomfortable for both the photographer and the subject. Having a hot, bright light pointing at their face can also make the subject sweat, which is far from attering when taking portraits. The heat also causes a problem when it comes to light-modifying accessories. For some types of light, only barn doors and metal snoots are available. Items made of plastic, particularly softboxes, can cause the lights to overheat as there is nowhere for the heat to escape and, at worst, the lights can catch re. This means that other ways of softening and diffusing the light are needed, such as bouncing the light off a wall or placing a sheet of suitable diffusion material a few feet in front of the light. Many incandescent lights have little in terms of power adjustment. Some use more than one bulb, for example a 650W and a 350W. This gives three different power settings of 1,000W, 650W and 350W. If the brightness of a light cannot be adjusted, it means that it has to be moved further away from the subject to make it appear dimmer. This in turn has an effect on the look of the light, as shadows become stronger and more dened. Colour temperature from incandescent lights can vary greatly and depends on the brightness of the bulb, but generally the light will be around 2,500-3,000K. An important consideration is that the colour temperature can change as the bulb warms up and it can also vary over the lifetime of the bulb. This isnt too much of a concern if you are shooting with a digital camera and the incandescent light is the sole light source, but it can be problematic if you plan to mix different light sources. If you are trying to match the incandescent light with daylight, then an appropriate colourcorrection (blue) lighting gel should be used. It is important to use a specially designed gel rather than just coloured plastic; gels are designed to withstand the heat produced by the lights and wont catch re, although they can become brittle and crack over time. The main advantage of using incandescent lights is the cost compared to the power output, making them an ideal choice for a rst set of continuous lights. However, technological advances mean there are better options available if you are prepared to spend a little more.
Left-right: Intert Super Cool Lite 9 (around 350 for two-head kit), Litepanels MicroPro Hybrid (350) and Calumet Bravo 300W (119.99)
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LOW LIGHT
Capturing detail in low light is one of the biggest challenges for any camera, but it is possible to overcome this difculty and achieve stunning results
RECENT advances in digital imaging
have seen manufacturers improve how cameras perform in poor lighting conditions. However, even when using the best cameras currently available, it is still vital to correctly expose the image to minimise noise and ensure maximum image detail. When shooting in low light, getting the correct exposure for the subject is key to crisp, saturated and dynamic images. The best exposure settings are highly camera specic. Unfortunately, many of us switch to autopilot when shooting in low light simply increasing the ISO rating without giving much thought to noise or shadow detail. However, some basic techniques can help to improve images taken in low-light conditions, particularly at high ISO settings. In this article, we will explore how to avoid the impact of noise in low light using a series of tests. Different cameras have been studied, and by understanding and implementing the results of the simple test on the opposite page, you can discover the ideal exposure settings to produce the best results in low light. But before we do this, here are a few things that will help you to understand your camera and its sensor.
ISO 200
ISO 1600
The correctly exposed image taken at ISO 1600 has less noise than the underexposed picture shot at ISO 200 Nikon D300, 0.8secs at f/5.6
ISO
The trouble with understanding ISO ratings in digital photography is that the term ISO sensitivity originally comes from lm photography, and there are differences between lm and digital capture methods. The chemical make-up of a lm base affects its sensitivity to light, with a higher ISO rating being more sensitive. A digital imaging sensor does not have an ISO rating. In fact, the sensors sensitivity to light is
constant and is in no way affected by the ISO setting. The quoted ISO sensitivities found on cameras are, in fact, equivalent settings. Rather than the sensor actually becoming more sensitive to light, all that happens is the development process (raw sensor output to nal digital image) adjusts the brightness and contrast to produce an image with a correct tonal range. A simple analogy is that a digital sensor is like shooting on ISO 200 lm and then changing the camera settings as if using ISO 3200 lm. The sensitivity of the lm doesnt change it is still ISO 200, despite what the cameras exposure settings say. To be able to use the now underexposed lm, it must be pushprocessed and printed appropriately to get usable images. A silicon digital camera sensor yields
an output directly proportional to the level of light that it receives. So, to increase a digital sensors exposure to light, one must either increase the strength of the light source, the length of the shutter speed or the size of the aperture. How much light is collected and used by the sensor depends on its quantum efciency (see right).
EXPOSURE
As the sensor doesnt become more sensitive as the ISO setting increases, it is advisable to give it a brighter exposure than the nominal one that the camera recommends. The lower the sensors exposure to light, the greater the level of noise will be. Therefore, by giving the sensor more light, the level of noise can be reduced and the tonal range can be improved. One way to give the sensor more
light is to expose the scene so that the brightest point is exposed as much as it can be without clipping. In many cases this will cause the overall image to look overexposed. However, by increasing the exposure from the nominal setting (which was suggested by the camera), the sensor receives more light and therefore produces less noise and more detail in shadow areas. The image can then be adjusted in editing software to reduce its brightness, with the added advantage that any noise that does still exist in the image will also be darkened, making it less visible. So, regardless of the ISO setting, overexposing an image up to the point of highlight clipping, and then reducing the brightness in software, should help reduce noise and improve detail in shadow areas. In summary, the best exposure is the brightest before highlight detail is unrecoverable.
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KNOWLEDGE
WHAT IS ISO? PROFESSOR BOB NEWMAN EXPLAINS

When photographers talk about ISO they are talking about the Exposure Index as dened by the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO). The Exposure Index denes the tonality of an image made with the nominal exposure for that ISO setting. A misconception is that ISO dictates how that tonality will be achieved it does not. In essence, in digital photography, ISO is about processing by selecting an ISO you are selecting the processing, on the assumption that you will be using the nominal exposure. The cameras user interface is designed around this, and when you select an ISO setting the cameras metering will be adjusted to achieve the nominal exposure for that ISO speed. However, that doesnt mean you have to use it, and in some cases better results can be achieved by not doing so. If you use in-camera processing (JPEG), the internal workow assumes you are using the nominal exposure, and some of this processing can be hard to undo.
READ NOISE AND SWEET SPOT TEST READ NOISE CURVE

Read noise (RN) is the electronic noise added by the camera to the image captured by the sensor (which already has built-in photonshot noise). It provides a constant noise background, so tends to be the noise that can be seen in the shadows. When the light is low (low number of photons), and is then processed by the camera to achieve a full tonal range, the digitiser read noise signal is brightened, resulting in more noise in shadows. A way around this is that the ISO control boosts (gain) the sensor signal. At the top ISO end, though, the digitisation system cannot deal with as high a light level and the dynamic range drops. To an extent, RN can be tackled simply by darkening the shadows, although this just results in featureless black blobs on the image. It is up to the photographer to decide whether featureless or noisy shadows are more objectionable. To estimate the read noise difference between two cameras, take equal-area crops and compare them for the deep shadow noise, rather than bright and midtone noise. A similar technique can be used to nd the ISO sweet spot for your own camera. This is the point at which the camera stops adding gain (boosting the signal) as the ISO is raised. Manually set the exposure to nominal for the highest ISO setting on your camera. Then take a series of images of the same subject (with the same lighting), reducing the ISO by 1 stop each time without changing the exposure. Process the captured images to the same brightness range and then compare the sequence. As the ISO setting lowers, there will often be a point at which the shadow noise starts to rise. The last ISO setting before that rise is your sweet spot for low-light exposures (see read noise curve, right). The ISO sweet spot of a camera can be seen on the read noise curve graph as the point where the curve levels out. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3s noise curve levels out at ISO 1600, while the Nikon D7000 is almost a straight line across the entire ISO range, making the base ISO its sweet spot. By using this sweet-spot ISO setting and overexposing just before the point of clipping, noise can be kept to a minimum and the tonal range of a low-light image maximised. Overexpose as much as possible before highlight clipping for the lowest levels of noise.
Read noise for Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3

101
Sweet spot
Read noise for Nikon D7000

101
50
100
200
400
800
1600 3200 6400 12,800 25,000
QUANTUM EFFICIENCY
THE QUANTUM efciency
(QE) of a sensor is one of the most important factors in a cameras performance in low light. QE is the percentage of available light (photons) that the camera sensor collects (sees) and releases into photoelectrons. The photoelectrons produce an electronic charge that is detected by the sensor circuit and is then converted from an analogue to digital signal, from which the image is produced. Of two same-size sensors for the same exposure, the one with a higher QE returns lower noise. A perfect camera would have a QE of 100%. The diagram on the right shows some of the ways in which collected light is lost. The Nikon D3S has one of the highest QE percentages at 57% (5.7 of every 10 photons get counted), while the Hasselblad H3DIIs QE is 15% (1.5 in every 10). The quantum efciency of the Hasselblad camera is roughly a quarter that of the Nikon D3S. However, the sensor of the Hasselblad is twice the size of that of the Nikon camera and therefore has double the number of photons striking it for the same exposure. But of these striking photons, the D3S converts four times the amount, which results in twice as many photons being used by the D3S, despite the physically larger sensor of the Hasselblad H3DII. With more light being used by the sensor, the Nikon D3S will perform the better of the two in the same low-light conditions. So, when we say low-light performance has been enhanced in todays cameras, it is largely down to improvements in a cameras QE. For example, the original Canon EOS 5D has a QE of 25%, while the EOS 5D Mark II has a QE of 33%. Compare two cameras and the one with less noise in the bright and midtones has a higher QE.
The percentage of photons not seen by the camera sensor are for reasons such as being dissipated as heat or released as electrons
1 On-chip lens Colour lter
Metal wiring
Light-receiving surface
Photodiode
1 Misses the photo detector 2 Released electrons
3 Dissipated as heat 4 Received light
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KNOWLEDGE
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SENSOR DESIGN
We explain the processes behind sensor design, and examine the operational principles behind it
BUYING a digital camera entails
purchasing the lm with which it will be loaded, for the rest of its useful life. Not surprisingly, potential purchasers pay a considerable amount of attention to the qualities of that sensor. While many words have been expended on the parameters that are the outcome of the sensor design process, less has been spent on the process of design itself. This will attempt to redress that. To prepare for a discussion of the design process, we start with the operational principles of a sensor.
P-type pinning
TG
Fig 2
THE PHOTOELECTRIC EFFECT

To operate, sensors depend on the photoelectric effect. This is the generation of electric current by light incident on materials called semiconductors. These are not normally conductive to electricity, but can be induced to have surplus (or decit) of electrons in their crystal structure. This is done by doping the silicon with small amounts of other materials, such as arsenic or boron. Silicon has four active, or valence, Fig 1
electrons per atom. By including elements which have three (such as boron, aluminium or indium) or ve (such as phosphorus, arsenic or antimony), the required surplus or decit can be arranged. In those circumstances, the surplus (or decit) may be made to move through the body of the material, resulting in a current ow. The most used semiconductor material is silicon, because it is abundant and cheap. The photoelectric effect occurs when a photon strikes an atom of silicon in the silicon crystal. The energy of the photon is transferred to the atom, and as a result provides an electron with enough energy to break free of the atom. As a consequence, there is a free electron in the system as well as an atom with one fewer than it should have a hole the quality that makes a material a semiconductor is that its atoms can operate with an extra electron or a lack of one with a small energy disadvantage. However, there is still some energy disadvantage to this state, so the natural propensity would be for the electro-hole pair
N-type anode
P-type bulk
A slice through a four-transistor CMOS pixel. In this case, the performance of the photodiode is improved with an additional p-type pinning implant. The transfer gate (TG) selectively isolates the photodiode from the readout circuit
to recombine. It doesnt because there is an electric eld applied across the silicon. This draws the negatively charged electron one way and the positively charged hole the other. Figure 1 shows silicon doped with phosphorus (n-type), boron (p-type) and an equal mix of the two as would happen at the border between a p- and n-type implant.
The photoelectric effect occurs when a photon strikes an atom of silicon in the silicon crystal
BSi Si Si Si Si Si Si BSi Si Si BSi Si BSi Si Si Si
MAINTAINING THE FIELD

As has just been discussed, an applied electric eld is necessary for a photodetector to work. This can be achieved in two ways. One is by the application of an electric potential difference, or voltage, across the detector. The other is by building that potential difference into the silicon itself. If the silicon consists of a layer of electrondecient silicon, called p-type and a layer of silicon with an electron surplus, called n-type then this will create the conditions that drive the freed electrons toward the p-type semiconductor. This layered structure forms a diode, so the photodetecting structure in a sensor is often referred to as a photodiode. If a photodiode structure is constructed and subjected to light, electric charge in the form of electrons will accumulate on the anode (positive terminal) of the diode.
Si Si Si Si P+
P+ Si Si Si Si
Si Si Si P+ Si
P+ Si Si Si Si
Si Si Si Si P+
Si Si BSi Si
Si Si Si Si B-
Left: N-type silicon is implanted with an element such as phosphorus, providing additional electrons that are mobile, making the region conductive. Right: P-type silicon is implanted with an element such as boron, leading to a decit of electrons, or holes, which also render the region conductive
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READING OUT THE CHARGE
Collecting charge is only half the job; to deliver a photo, the charge has to be measured. This entails using a eld-effect transistor (FET). A control electrode, called the gate, is laid over a channel of semiconductors. If a charge is applied to this gate, the electric eld that it generates will change the conductivity of the channel, thus the charge may be made to control an electric current. By connecting the anode of the photodiode to the gate of a FET, the charge accumulated due to the incident light can control a current large enough to be read by an analogue-to-digital conversion system. Figure 2 shows diagrammatically a slice through a photodiode, connected to a source follower transistor via a transfer transistor. The FET is connected in a conguration known as a source follower, which provides no voltage amplication but signicant current amplication. In fact, since the gate is insulated, no current ows from the photodiode; it is truly the charge that is measured. All sensors, whether CCD or CMOS (the dominant technology in still photography), use a similar technique, the difference being that in a CCD there is a single read transistor, and the charge is moved from pixel to pixel to reach the transistor, whereas Fig 3
KNOWLEDGE
RD
SFD
Column bus
RST TX
Collecting charge is only half the job; the charge has to be measured. This entails a eldeffect transistor
Pinned photodiode
C1d
Row Select
The circuitry of a four-transistor CMOS pixel

in a CMOS pixel there is a separate read transistor in each pixel.
A CMOS PIXEL
A section through a CMOS pixel is shown in Figure 3. Current pixel design uses four metal-oxide FET transistors. The cell works as follows. At the beginning of a capture cycle, the reset transistor (RST) is opened along with the transfer transistor (TX), which charges the photodiode and the read node to a high voltage. The transfer transistor is then closed,
Fig 4
isolating the photodiode. As the exposure continues, photoelectrons are collected on its anode, causing the voltage to fall (electrons are negatively charged), resulting in a voltage difference from the reset voltage, which is proportional to the total amount of light incident on the pixel over the exposure. The source follower transistors (SF) output follows the voltage on its gate, and the select transistor allows that output signal onto the column line, which connects via an amplier to the ADC system. In a normal exposure cycle, two reads are made. First, a read is made with the transfer transistor closed, so that the voltage read is the reset voltage. Secondly, the transfer transistor is opened, letting the charge accumulated in the photodiode ow onto the gate of the source follower. The output signal for the pixel is taken as the difference between these two reads, which allows the removal of any noise, fed into the pixel via the reset signal. This process is known as correlated double sampling and makes a considerable difference to the noise oor of the sensor. A plan view of a possible arrangement of these components on the chip is shown in Figure 4.
transmission to the next stage of circuitry. This is usually a multiplexer, which serialises the column outputs, allowing the signals to be fed through a single wire channel to an analogue-to-digital conversion circuit. There might be between two and 24 channels. A radical alternative is that seen in the Sony Exmor sensors, where each column line feeds into an individual analogue-to-digital converter, whose outputs feed onto a digital bus. The advantage of this is twofold. First, the signal from the pixel has a minimal distance run in its delicate analogue state, and is converted to a more robust digital form before additional noise sources can add in. Second, as there are so many ADCs they can run very slowly, which means they add very little unnecessary conversion noise.
Whatever the output circuitry, the other essential part of the sensor is a circuit that generates the pixel control signals in the right order to ensure a properly sequenced readout. This subsystem is called a controller or sequencer. In many sensor designs it is programmable, allowing the camera designer to produce a particular control sequence that suits the design one reason why the same sensor can perform differently in different cameras. Finally, there are the optical parts of the sensor applied as two overlays: the colour lter array, which is a photographic lm product often sourced from Fujilm; and a microlens array to concentrate the incoming light on the pixel, thus improving efciency.
PERIPHERAL CIRCUITRY
The sensor is read a row at a time. The select gates are connected row-wise, so that all the pixels in a row are switched onto the column lines together. These are generally terminated by a voltage amplier (sometimes with variable gain), which boosts the output voltage to a level robust enough for
Plan view of a possible layout for a four-transistor pixel. The output column line runs right to left at the bottom of the pixel. The reset and source follower drain (SFD) line run vertically
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KNOWLEDGE
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CONTROLLING QUANTUM EFFICIENCY
There are several factors that affect quantum efciency. We will deal rst with those that affect the silicon part of the sensor. The photodiode has to be deep enough so that the incident light does not pass straight through it. Red light penetrates up to 6 microns into the surface of silicon. If the photodiode is not at least that deep, some of the incident light will be wasted and quantum efciency reduced. Next, it must be ensured that the released electrons are counted. The electrons are shepherded towards the read transistor by an electrical eld, which is maintained by implanting doping elements into the silicon. The prole of this eld impacts its effectiveness, and must be carefully controlled. Although it is often said that an advantage of CMOS imaging sensors is that they can be produced on standard memory and processor fabrication lines, these two factors alone ensure sensor processes are these days very specialised. If the silicon is as efcient as possible, then the overall efciency depends on the number of photons that actually reach it. Thus there
TROUBLESHOOTING
The problems that sensor designers face...
THE PREVIOUS pages
concerned the essential operating principles of a CMOS imaging sensor. Armed with that knowledge, we will now look at the design trade-offs that sensor designers face and how these affect the cameras we buy. The rst matter to be examined is the metrics that sensor designers work with to decide whether a sensor is good or not. Quantum efciency (QE): Despite the grand name, this is a very simple concept. If a sensor is subjected to, say, 100 photons of light, how many will be counted? Being counted requires that the photon strikes a silicon atom and releases a photoelectron, and that the photoelectron so released nds its way to the gate of the read transistor. The QE is thus the percentage of incident photons that do this. The QE is important because it is a measure of how much light available is being wasted by the sensor, and since the main component of image noise, the photon-shot noise, depends directly on the number of photons counted (the signal-to-noise ratio in an area is actually the square root of the number of photons counted), this affects directly the low-light performance of a camera. Current cameras have a QE of 40-60%, which represents something like a doubling of efciency over the past ten years. Read noise: Nothings perfect, and even if all the incident photons were to make their way to the read transistor, it is not guaranteed that the number will be counted with perfect accuracy. In practice there is an error, which varies randomly between read operations (and therefore from pixel to pixel). The error is constant (at a given ISO setting), which means it is usually of small signicance when there are a lot of photons (the highlights), but is of more importance when there a few (the shadows). Pixel response non-uniformity (PRNU): In a perfect world, all pixels and their associated readout circuitry would be perfectly identical and would respond to light in precisely the same way. Not only is this not the case, but the difference in pixel response can be inuenced by which row or column the pixel is in, resulting in distracting tartan patterns in the noise. Sometimes, in sensors with a multi-channel readout, differences in the channels can cause regular repeating patterns of noise. Dark current noise: As well as photons, thermal energy can release electrons from the structure of the silicon. Once released, these electrons are indistinguishable from the ones due to light. At normal exposures, there are not enough thermal electrons to signicantly affect the image, but for longer exposures this may not be the case. The use of live view and video modes will tend to result in the sensor becoming warmer, and increase the problems of thermal noise.
Fig 1
The photodiode has to be deep enough so that the incident light does not pass straight through it
Incident light
On-chip lens
Colour lter
Lightreceiving surface Metal wiring

A section of a pixel showing the microlens separated from the photodetector by layers of wiring. The more light that fails to make it to the detector, the lower the quantum efciency
Photodiode
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Fig 2
KNOWLEDGE
Incident light On-chip lens
The microlens must form an image of the exit pupil that ts completely on the photodiode
Inner microlenses shorten the focal length of the microlens, which results in more concentration of the light from the exit pupil of the taking lens, thus increasing the likelihood that it will hit the photodetector
Colour lter
Photodetector
are two layers over the silicon: the colour-lter array, and microlens layer. The function of the colour-lter array is to stop two thirds of the light (the primary colours other than the one that the lter is intended to record). The lters can be made to be a little less discriminating, and the quantum efciency will increase, but at the cost of a little colour blindness, which manifests itself as increased chroma noise. The role of the microlens is to ensure that all the light heading in the direction of a pixel from the exit pupil of the lens strikes the sensitive part of the pixel. Essentially, the microlens must form an image of the exit pupil that ts completely on the photodiode. This can be achieved either by making the photodiode large, or by making the focal length of the microlens short so that it acts as a wideangle. The limit to this is the layer of wiring over the sensor chip. To ensure good quantum efciency, this must be as shallow as possible. Alternatively, light guides can be built in to convey the image from a short focal-length microlens to the surface of the silicon, or back-side illumination can be adopted, in which the chip is thinned to expose the rear surface of the photodiodes, and the microlens and colour-lter array are situated on that side, opposite the wiring layer. Another way to shorten the focal length is by adding an inner lens to produce a two-element arrangement. All these processes add signicantly to the cost of the sensor.
Inner micro lens

with the photoelectrons making up the image. For a given amount of electronic noise in the system, its visible effect is determined by the conversion gain the number of photoelectrons that represents a volt of sensor output. The higher the gain, the fewer electrons correspond to a given voltage and the less read noise is visible. Thus, the conversion gain needs to be made as large as possible to minimise read noise. Unfortunately, the total amount of light the sensor can measure is generally determined by the maximum possible output voltage, so a high conversion gain results in a sensor that cannot accept many photons in other words, it has a high base ISO. design must in all cases be a compromise between conicting requirements. Once a fabrication process has been optimised with deep and carefully proled implants, then the designer has limited options. Quantum efciency can be raised by improving or changing the colour ltration or by improving the microlenses. The latter might involve moving to a new process with thinner wiring (maybe using copper instead of aluminium), by adding inner lenses or by designing a cell conguration with less wiring as, for instance, is done in the Panasonic sensors. However, this might have the downside of adding to the electronic noise generated. So far as read noise is concerned, one part of the equation is to minimise the electronic noise. This can be done by using careful design and superior components, or by placing as much circuitry as
CONTROLLING PRNU AND THERMAL NOISE

To an extent, both PRNU and thermal noise can be controlled by processing after capture. If the pattern of the noise is known (since it is not strictly random noise), then it can be subtracted from the captured image. In the case of PRNU, this is done by building the sensor with a black border that is shielded from the light. It is assumed that the pixels in the border will share the same characteristics as those in the same row or column, so by measuring these black pixels, the PRNU can be estimated and subtracted away. This is usually done before the raw le is written (raw les arent always so raw). In the case of thermal noise, a black frame with the same exposure time as the image can be taken and subtracted from it.
possible on the sensor so that signal runs are short. However, this also has a downside, because the on-chip circuitry increases the heat dissipated, thus increasing thermal noise. The second part of controlling read noise is to raise the conversion gain, which is done by minimising the capacitance of the pixel. As stated above, the trade-off is that the amount of light that the pixels can collect is reduced. The way to maintain the overall light-collecting ability of the sensor is to then reduce pixel size, resulting in higher pixel counts with the knock-on effect of slower read-out times. The options offered to a sensor designer are relatively limited, and progress depends on the availability of smaller geometries, leading to higher efciencies with smaller pixels. That is the essential technological driver behind the megapixel race.
Fig 3
The Canon EOS 5D Mark IIIs red colour lters allow more green light through than the EOS-1Ds Mark IIIs red colour lters, thus increasing the amount of light reaching the sensor, but reducing colour sensitivity
1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 -0.2
Canon EOS 5D Mark III Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III
CONTROLLING READ NOISE

The measure of read noise that is important is how it looks relative to the light reaching the sensor. It is therefore normally measured in electrons, its effect in comparison
THE TRADE-OFFS
If it were possible, every sensor would be designed to be perfect. Since this is not possible, the
R sRGB
G sRGB
B sRGB
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most out of your camera kit, and which equips you for the type of photography you like to do. A tripods reach, load capacity and versatility for shooting at different angles are all factors that should be considered. Furthermore, its size and weight must be taken into account, as it will directly determine whether or not you take it out with you. After all, carrying a heavy tripod is not an enticing prospect for a full days walking. Like any key photographic item, there are a number of options from which to choose, so over the next four pages we will lead you through the various options for tripod legs. There are no hard-and-fast rules when choosing legs; just consider all the features and decide which are most important to your photography.
TRIPODS
A tripod is an essential photographic accessory. We explain everything you need to know about them
IN SPITE of improved resolution
for low-light shooting and image stabilisation in many cameras today, the tripod remains an essential accessory. Accurate framing, stability with telephoto lenses, low light without ash, slow shutter speeds and small apertures, bracketing, multiple exposures and time-lapse sequences, videos, 360 panoramas, self-portraits, awkward shooting positions all are possible with a tripod and all are compelling reasons to own one. It is important to get a support system that will enable you to get the
WEIGHT
Size and type Mini (A/CF) Standard (CF) Standard (A) Eye-level (CF) Eye-level (A) Overhead (A) Heavyweight studio A: aluminium
SPIRIT BUBBLE
We are starting to see the introduction of cameras with electronic levels built in, for accurate and level shooting. However, there are many that still do not. A spirit bubble is commonly found on tripod heads, but is also present on some legs typically in the upper casting. This particularly useful if the legs come without a head.
THE FOLLOWING table indicates the difference that size and

material make in real terms. Each weight indicated excludes a tripod head. These weigh another 150-400g for compact models, and 400-800g for more heavy-duty versions. Weight (g) 300-600, up to 1,000 800-1,400 1,200-1,800 1,200-1,500 2,000-2,500 >3,000 >3,000 CF: carbon fibre Carry comfort All day At least half a day Half a day Half a day 1-3 hours A few minutes A few minutes
is
LEG LOCKS
Most tripods have a number of leg sections to extend their height. Leg locks are a factor in the strength of the tripods legs. There are generally two types of leg lock a lever lock or a twist lock with benets to each. A lever lock grips the legs by pinching, so to speak; it is slightly bulkier but can be quicker to operate. The twist lock usually grips the circumference of the tube and is less likely to break than a lever, but it is susceptible to dust, grit and freezing temperatures. There is no rule as to which type is strongest because this will vary between manufacturers.
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CASTING
The upper casting is made from either a lighter magnesium alloy or a heavier and stronger aluminium. There are some unique examples of materials used, like Gitzos Soulid 238, which is even lighter. It is not unusual to nd more than one type of aluminium casting in the same set of legs one for the leg locks and one for the upper casting as well as another type for the tubing. Die-casting is the most common production method for aluminium and magnesium-alloy casting, with injection moulding for plastic (polymer) casting. While this method is achieved using force, Gitzo employs gravity casting, which lets gravity do the work. Much less air is captured inside the casting, which makes it even stronger.
KNOWLEDGE
TUBING
Carbon, aluminium and plastic: just what is the difference?
WHILE wooden tripods are still available, most tripods are manufactured from three main material types: carbon bre, aluminium and plastic. Each type has its own benets, be it value, strength or weight. There are some unique examples of alternative materials being used by certain manufacturers for leg tubing, such as basalt and titanium. These t somewhere between carbon bre and aluminium in terms of cost, strength and weight. The exterior of the tubing can be grooved, smooth or shiny. A grooved nish, as found on Benro tripods and some other models, prevents the legs from spinning around when they are unlocked. Some feature a soft grip on the legs, made from rubber (typically nitrile butadiene), which makes for easy and comfortable carrying in hot and cold weather. CARBON FIBRE
Tripods made from carbon bre are the most expensive type. They are chosen by professionals because it is the lightest and strongest tube material, and tripods constructed from it offer the best weightto-stability ratio. What this means, though, is that the cost increases signicantly. This is demonstrated layers for increased strength, and the bres are the densest at 1,200 strands per bre. Carbon bre with a density of 400 or 600 strands per bre is cheaper to manufacture, as is non-pure carbon bre. This is why carbon-bre tripods vary in price. The number of layers in tubing is one of the most publicised pieces of information from manufacturers, and is certainly a factor that affects its strength. Manfrotto states three layers, whereas Gitzo, Giottos and Vanguard say six layers and Benro eight. However, this number of layers is not necessarily dened in the same way across manufacturers, and so it is not always the most helpful information for gauging strength. The maximum weight load gives a clearer indication. Gitzos six-layer carbon tubing is made up of alternate longitudinal and crossed-bre layers for added rigidity, while Vanguards tubing has multi-directional bres. In theory, the more layers and more densely packed the bres, the heavier the leg should be, but this is not always the case.
Multi-directional carbon bres increase the strength of the tubing. Here there are six layers
Aluminium is a popular choice because it is more affordable than carbon bre, yet many of these tripods can appear virtually identical to their carbonbre counterparts and offer the same features
ALUMINIUM
Aluminium is a popular choice because it is more affordable than carbon bre, yet many of these tripods can appear virtually identical to their carbon-bre counterparts and offer the same features. The main difference, however, is that aluminium is much heavier, although advances in aluminium tubing have seen the weight of the material reduced, primarily thanks to a lesser tube thickness. Another factor, as with carbon bre, is the purity of the composition. The purity of aluminium tubing ranges from 100% in high-quality models, down to 40% or even lower. Virgin aluminium is stronger than recycled and is generally the type used for tubing, with the lower-quality aluminium used by some for casting.
FEET
The material of the feet will affect how well the tripod grips the surface, and also whether they will cause any damage. Rubber feet are good for indoor use as they are less likely to cause damage, while spikes will grip certain outdoor surfaces very well but may damage indoor oors. Some tripods have metal spikes built into the rubber feet, which can be unscrewed so that the spikes protrude. Others offer spikes as extras. Furthermore, some feet have a wider surface area so they will not sink in wet ground, and still others have an adjustable angle to suit legs that can spread very wide.
clearly by manufacturers that sell both carbon-bre and aluminium tripods, with the cost of carbon-bre tripods often increasing threefold over those made from aluminium. Which version to buy is not quite so clear-cut, however, as it is about more than crunching numbers. The strength and weight of carbon-bre tubing is affected by several factors: the production process, the number of layers, the purity of carbon bre, and the density and direction of the bres. As such, the level of quality differs between manufacturers. Epoxy is used in the production of carbon bre, and so traces can be present in the bres, usually between the layers. Manfrotto and Vanguard are two manufacturers that claim their tubing to be 100% carbon bre, with no epoxy between the layers. Gitzo tubing features both crossed and longitudinal-direction bre
PLASTIC
For those on a tight budget, plastic is a great choice, but is not recommended for DSLR users because it will not support heavy bodies. These tripods are typically for compact cameras and are much less durable. Spending a little extra on a tripod that will last can, in the long run, be the cheaper option.
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KNOWLEDGE
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REACH
Tripod legs are typically grouped into four levels of reach: compact (mini), standard, eye-level and overhead. Each size up has larger legs than the size below it, or more leg sections to achieve a higher maximum reach. Three- or four-leg sections are standard, although the more sections there are, the thinner the tubing gets and the greater the number of leg locks, which will in turn affect the strength of the tripod. Clearly, the size of the legs affects the weight of the tripod itself. Mini tripods offer a compact platform, but will not support heavy cameras or reach eye-level, making them more awkward to use. There are positives and negatives to each size, but lightweight traveller tripods are a good option because they fold away small but often still reach eye-level. Equally, reach is considered in terms of how low the legs can go (minimum reach). This is affected by how wide the legs can spread and whether or not the central column can be reversed. Cheaper tripods will typically have a xed angle to which the legs can be pulled out, whereas more expensive models often offer three angles and the option to adjust each leg independently. These angles tend to be roughly 25, 55 and 80, which is ideal for shooting awkward surfaces and low angles.
TRIPOD HEIGHT
Tripods come in a variety of sizes depending on their purpose. Make sure you get the correct height for your needs
OVERHEAD STANDARD
EYE-LEVEL
COMPACT
CENTRAL COLUMN
A tripods versatility is hugely affected by whether it has a central column, and its level of functionality. Many older types have a geared lever to crank up the height of the column, which gives sturdy but slow operation; other columns are simply unlocked manually by a twist lock, pulled into place and locked again. The central column further extends the maximum height, although this affects the tripods stability. In some cases it can be removed and ipped upside down for low-level shooting (great for macro), or even set horizontally for positioning a camera at overhanging or difcult angles, such as over a stream and for wheelchair users. The speed at which the column can be operated is a key consideration. Manfrottos version has a quickadjust central column for horizontal positioning; Vanguard has a similar column that can be positioned at any angle between 0 and 180; Giottos allows horizontal positioning but is slow to adjust. Vanguards Nivelo mini tripod can swing its column upside down without it being removed, which is a much quicker form of operation.
MONOPOD
A monopod is a single-leg support that is ideal for use with large and heavy telephoto lenses. It is common to see press and sports photographers using them. Recently, we have seen a monopod built into a tripod in the form of 3 Legged Things Brian carbon-bre tripod.
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KNOWLEDGE
FOLDED HEIGHT
A tripods height when folded is an important factor for storage and travel. An extra leg section will give greater height, but could well fold away as small as those without. Legs fold away in different ways, and this affects the fold size. Traveller tripods fold the legs up 180 and into the central column, which is around 20% more compact than the standard fold-in legs. One of the most compact tripod design we have seen is the Benro Traveller series. Its design positions the legs in a line rather than around a central point, which means they fold away at. This does, however, limit the functionality of the legs. If a tripod is likely to accompany you on your travels, then weight and size must be a consideration. It can be worth buying two tripods: one for regular use and a more compact model for travelling. Do check with your airline for weight allowance and permitted hand-luggage dimensions typically 560x450x250mm and then check your tripod. It could be the difference between checking it in or attaching it to the side of your camera bag and taking it through as hand luggage. Unfortunately, there is no denitive answer to whether a tripod can be taken as hand luggage, with people having mixed experiences, but frequently they are being allowed to take it through. If you check it in, wrap the tripod up in clothes and place it in the centre of a bag.
TOP TIPS
extra tripod plates, one for each camera you own 1Buy it saves time over removing and rexing a single plate if you use multiple cameras on the same days shooting. about transporting 2Think your tripod. If a case with a strap is not included, then factor in the cost of buying one. Other options include a separate shoulder strap or, if possible, attaching the tripod to your camera bag. the legs down is a 3Pushing good test of the strength of leg locks, but twisting the legs tests stability. the head drift by 4Check mounting a longer lens on your camera. Gitzo claims a 0.03% tolerance, but other tripods may be signicantly higher, which is frustrating when trying to frame precisely. other types of 5Consider camera support. Options include a beanbag, a piece of string (SteadePod), a monopod, bendy tripods (Joby) and pocket tripods for smaller cameras.
HOOKS
On many models a hook can be found at the bottom of the central column, or in some cases added as an extra. This is useful for hanging a weight to increase the tripods stability.
TRAVEL TRIPODS
3 LEGGED THING BRIAN

Materials Min height cm Max height Weight (kg) Max load (kg) Carbon fibre 12.5 204 1.715 8
BENRO TRAVEL ANGEL 2

Aluminium 40 156.5 1.73 8
GIOTTOS GITZO VITRUVIAN VGRN8255 TRAVELLER GT1542T

Carbon fibre 27 165 1.38 6 Carbon fibre 22 (without head) 149 (without head) 1 (without head) 7
Brian offers an expansive range of shooting heights, with no compromise on stability, making it a great all-rounder. It might be slightly heavy, but the monopod leg is a nice touch, and 3 Legged Things Brian sits quite rightly near the head of this pack. It costs around 360.
The Travel Angel 2 (around 170) is the heaviest tripod here, but its also one of the most stable and is capable of holding a solid load. Overall, its a good choice for long-lens wildlife shots, but not quite so ideal for long treks through the countryside.
It folds down to a small size, weighs little, holds a lot and can take a camera from ground level to over 1.6m. In short, the VGRN8255 offers everything that could be wanted in a travel tripod, with no obvious downside. The 270 price and ve-year warranty are a bonus.
Light, versatile and capable of supporting a serious load, the Gitzo Traveller GT1542T ticks all the right boxes, but the nancial outlay limits it to those who consider 500 to be pocket change. For the rest of us, an extra lens might be a better investment.
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KNOWLEDGE
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PROFESSIONAL PRINTING
Professional-quality prints can be difcult to achieve. Here are the key factors for translating what you see on screen onto paper
YOUR image has been retouched and is ready to print, but how can you ensure that you achieve a print you would be happy to display? There are many factors that contribute to a professional-looking print from a correctly exposed digital image. Along with advice from printing professionals, I will take you through how to prepare your image and your inkjet printer for the best possible results. WORK SPACE
David May, production manager at The Printspace in East London, stresses the importance of a good working area. Making minor adjustments to image detail and colour rendition will be tricky with glare from bright sunlight
A neutral environment with consistent light helps your eyes when checking for colour accuracy
THE PRINTSPACE
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KNOWLEDGE
GETTING THE IMAGE READY

RESOLUTION
CANVAS SIZE
LEVELS
STEP TWO IMAGE SIZE

Most DSLRs shoot in a 3:2 format, which may not match the format you wish to print. Use the Crop tool to adjust the format by typing in the correct ratio or dimensions in the Crop tools settings. Borders are best added to the le rather than centring the print through output. This can be achieved in Photoshop by increasing the size of the canvas to the desired dimensions. It is good practice to print the digital le at 100%. A 240ppi le is 150% larger than 360ppi. If you want to print larger, then compromising resolution is ne because it is difcult to spot any difference between 240ppi and 360ppi. This maintains the pixel dimensions to the output of the camera sensor, which in a 12.1-million-pixel camera in 4:3 format has an output of 4000x3000 pixels. For larger changes, resampling the image can be a better option. To do this, check the Resample Image box, and use Bicubic Sharper for reducing the size and Bicubic Smoother for enlarging.
STEP ONE RESOLUTION

An inkjet printer uses nozzles to spray ink onto the paper, typically at a resolution of 360dpi. As a general rule, therefore, 360ppi is the ideal resolution for image les because the quality cannot be improved with a higher output. Straight out of the camera, the resolution of digital les is usually 72ppi, so this needs to be altered before printing. Although 360dpi is the ideal resolution for image les, you can use 240ppi or 180ppi for cameras with lower resolutions. When altering the ppi resolution, uncheck the Resample Image box rst, alter the ppi resolution and then recheck it. The document size will change, but the pixel dimensions will remain the same. Do not increase the pixel dimensions drastically as you cannot create data from nothing, while if you make huge reductions in the pixel dimensions the quality will be reduced.
STEP THREE COLOUR CHECK

Poor colour rendition is most obvious in shadow areas. Look at the blacks in the image to check for a colour cast and at the highlights as these are also good indicators. If you are unsure about the colour balance, look for known colours in the scene, such as the colour of a wall, and then use that as a guide. If this becomes tricky, then balance the colour for the most important aspect of the image. In a portrait, for example, this would typically be the skin tone.
IMAGE SIZE
STEP FOUR LEVELS

Images with blown-out highlights, which are seen as areas of white, can cause a problem when printing. Because there is no data in this part of the image, the printer will not output any ink on this area, essentially leaving patches on the paper with no ink at all. Adjusting the Levels helps to avoid this problem. If you adjust the highlight to 252 on the output slider, this should add enough data for the printer to distribute ink in these areas without affecting the image quality too much. Alternatively, dull down the area by pulling down the highlights via Curves. Both of these options will mean that the image has a little less contrast, but the print will have total ink coverage.
sharpening until you are happy with the print. Go to View>Print Size as a nal check. Because a monitor is effectively a lightbox, it is an ideal way to view and edit an image. However, what appears on screen is brighter than what will be produced on inkjet paper. To adjust for this, lighten the image by 10% before printing. A calibrated monitor has a more accurate output. Otherwise, you can darken the monitor by10% and make nal image adjustments. Once you are ready to print, view a soft proof to see how the image will look in accordance with the printer and paper being used. Go to View>Proof Setup>Custom... Device to Simulate to see how the print will look. Under this heading you will see a list of ICC proles already loaded into Photoshop (see ICC proles on page 89). Choose your desired paper. There is a discernible difference between papers, particularly in bright blue and red areas of an image. C-type paper is less vivid, but the tonal range is good. Select the correct rendering intent (see Output on page 88) and then click OK. Finally, make your nal colour and Levels adjustments.
STEP SIX FILE FORMAT

Before printing, make sure that all the les adjustment layers are attened. Using the TIFF format from a raw le is ideal for image editing, and Photoshop users will be equally pleased with PSD les. JPEG les compress information and are not ideal for editing, but once the nal edit is complete, it is difcult to see the difference between any of those formats.
STEP FIVE THE FINAL EDIT

For a crisp and sharp print, add a bit of sharpening as a nal touch. Set the view size somewhere between 33% and 50% (at 100% you risk sharpening too much) and increase the
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TOP TIPS
Calibrate your monitor Use a consistent light source in your work environment, and surround yourself with neutral colours Work from Adobe raw and steer away from JPEG format Even with instant dry paper, leave prints to dry completely and handle with gloves
shining on your monitor, he says. Try to work in an environment away from strong light and with a consistent level of light. A monitor hood shields your screen from strong light and allows the monitor brightness to be turned down, which is energy efcient. Try the Colour Condence PCh00D Monitor Hood Pro, which costs 71.44 from www.colourcondence.com. Use a neutral colour, such as grey, for your desktop background and restrict bright, distracting colours within your vision. It is important to view prints in daylight conditions. Bright light is not helpful when viewing image detail, but neutral overcast light is. There are plenty of options for daylight-balanced light sources, and some are very reasonable. For example, the Daylight Company sells portable lamps from 54.99 (www.daylightcompany.com). Calibrating your monitor is a key part of your preparation. There are software options to calibrate your monitor that rely on the human eye, but for best accuracy hardware calibration devices ensure the colour rendition and levels are correct. The X-Rite i1 Display Pro is a popular choice for professionals (available for 199 from www. colourcondence.com). Monitors should be calibrated every six months or so, but if you do a lot of printing this should be every two months. Some photo labs, including The Printspace (www.theprintspace.co.uk), offer a monitor-calibration service for free if you can take it to the store, which is useful for laptop users.
THE PRINTSPACE
Use a compatible print resolution to the size of your camera sensor Check that you are using the correct rendering intent A custom ICC prole ensures the correct colour values and ink output Run a test print to avoid wasting paper and inks
Perceptual is the alternative option, which shrinks the whole colour gamut down to t within the smaller gamut of the printer. The relationship between colours is maintained, but this often means there will be a shift in colour values. This option holds shadow detail, making it best for images with dark areas and shadow detail. Check the correct option when viewing a soft proof to ensure accurate colour management.
OUTPUT
Once the image has been edited, the settings for output must be set correctly. As a default, most printers
A viewing booth is useful to check prints under controlled daylightbalanced lighting
COLOUR SPACE
Colour space comprises all possible colours created from red, green and blue (RGB). The limit of these colours
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MANY THANKS TO DAVID MAY FROM THE PRINTSPACE, VIJ SOLANKI FROM PERMAJET, DOMINIC FOWLER FROM EPSON AND ESTELLE SEXTON FROM CANON FOR THEIR HELP WITH THIS ARTICLE
is dened by the colour gamut. It is always best to use the same colour space in-camera and when you come to edit the image. For example, always use the Adobe RGB colour space in-camera and on a computer. For top-quality prints, Adobe RGB is better than sRGB because it has a larger colour gamut. This is particularly noticeable in the green, blue and cyan areas, all of which are particularly important to landscape photographers. sRGB was designed for web use, so is ideal for online images. You can nd out the current editing colour space by selecting Edit>Color Setting in Photoshop.
are set to use high-speed mode. This in turn affects image quality, so make sure this option is not selected. Also, uncheck the box for colour management, because this is being carried out manually, and make sure the image is the correct size for the print you require. Rendering intent tells you how to deal with the colours you cannot reproduce those out of the colour gamut. As a default, this is set to Relative Colormetric, in which the white of the source colour space and that of the destination space (printer) are compared. Out-of-gamut colours are shifted to the closest match, which means accurate colours are maintained. The tone is then attened, so it is less able to render shadow detail and is therefore best for use for brighter images.
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KNOWLEDGE
GETTING THE PRINTER READY

ICC PROFILES
I spoke to Vij Solanki from Permajet to get his thoughts on the importance of ICC proles. He said: An ICC prole holds information about the range of colours that a printer or monitor can utilise. To obtain accurate colour rendition, particularly in shadow areas, it is vital to use the correct ICC prole. The default information will be correct if you use, for example, an Epson printer, Epson ink and Epson paper. However, if any one of these variables is changed, then the default is incorrect. Your operating system is also a variable. It is fairly straightforward to download the correct generic ICC prole to match your printer, ink and paper combination through the website of the paper brand you are using. This will improve the accuracy of print, but it is a prole that has been created on another printer. Every printer is unique and performs slightly differently. The same prole and output may be ne on one printer, but could show a slight cyan tinge on another and even a variable such as humidity can inuence the outcome of the print. So for the most accurate colour rendition it is worth investing in your own unique ICC prole that is specic to your printer. Software to do this is available, such as Canons Colour Management Tool Pro 2. Alternatively, Permajet gives free advice for using its own paper, or charges for other papers. This process includes downloading two generic colour patches, printing them off with no colour management or manipulation, and sending them off to the company. For more details, visit www.permajet.com. There is online
Using manufacturers own inks ensures the bestpossible-quality prints
remote ICC proling, but for the best accuracy it is best to send off the colour patches.
INK CHOICE
For professional-quality prints, using the printer manufacturers own or top-quality third-party inks is important. Cheaper, poor-quality third-party inks have several downsides. For example, an ICC prole may not exist for the ink, and the longevity of it is much lower, leading to faded prints. The general density and saturation of the inks will produce poorer results, too. Permajets continuous-ow system is one example of goodquality third-party inks. A complete Eco-Flo system costs between 159 and 249, with each bottle of ink holding 125ml. The company claims this produces an 80% saving on ink and that the ink quality is even more saturated and equal in longevity to the print manufacturers own ink. Rellable inks cost 27.95. Manufacturers inks are expensive. A complete set of proprietary inks for a printer such as the Epson Stylus Photo R2880 will cost just under 100. Each ink cartridge holds 11ml of ink, although this can produce less than 10ml of usable ink.
PRINTER MAINTENANCE
It is possible to get all the output and printer proling correct, but still have an unsatisfactory print. If you are not happy with the print you have produced, begin by running a nozzle check. This can be found through the printer set-up and will indicate if there is any issue with the mechanics of the printer, such as head alignment, and if the heads are clean and clear. It takes just a paper-feeding issue to misalign the print heads. If it has been a while since the printer was last in use, the print heads may need cleaning. In the UK, long-term storage is less likely to be an issue in terms of clogged printer heads, whereas a hot, dry climate is more problematic. Give pigment ink cartridges a shake before use in this instance. Cleaning a print head uses up ink, but it is cheaper than wasting a sheet of expensive photo paper. Complete a nozzle check rst to avoid the unnecessary wasting of ink.
and loss of detail. Also, the base colour of the paper affects the warmth of a print. Each paper has a different level of texture, so setting the correct paper type is important for an accurate level of ink output.
FEEDING
Sheets of paper that are dense and thick may not feed through the printer correctly. Typically, sheets over 300gsm will need to go through individually, or in some cases through another feeder on the printer, but read the manual of your printer to make sure. If the printer is stacked with several sheets, it may feed more than one through at a time and throw the printer head out of alignment, which will consequently need xing.
HANDLING
Although most inkjet papers produce prints that are dry straight from the printer, it is worth handling them as little as possible to make sure they are thoroughly dry. When handling prints, particularly with a gloss nish, ngermarks can spoil the surface, so wear gloves to avoid any damage.
PAPER CHOICE
Depending on your image and the way you wish to present it, your choice of paper is key. Typically, gloss paper is a popular choice because the high-contrast, bright and saturated colours make for bold prints. Paper with a baryta layer has many of these advantages, but with a greater choice of nishes and thicknesses. Matt and textured paper can give a nice arty feel, but often this results in more muted colour reproduction, limited contrast
TEST PRINTS
To save money on ink and paper, run a test strip, much like in darkroom printing. It is advisable to do this for both sharpening and colour balance, set at incremental levels. Use the same section of the image with key points of interest. When you print, uncheck the centre image box and move the strip along the page set-up from left to right so the strips do not overlap.
The different bre base of these papers affects the warmth of tone
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KNOWLEDGE
FUTURE-PROOFING
How long will your digital images last and whats the best way to make sure they can be viewed in the future? We look at how to safeguard your archive
WITH lm photography, there is an
automatic backup to your prints in the form of negatives or slides, and by keeping all these safe you can ensure that a record of your work will be maintained for many years to come. However, when some photographers switched to digital imaging they forgot about archiving and put their faith, often misguidedly, in their computers hard drive. Yet all you need is a single error on the disk drive and suddenly your precious photographs have vanished. This may not have happened to many of us, but the point is, it could. So when it comes to backing up your work, it is important to have a secondary location for storing images, either in the form of prints, an additional disk drive or a version stored online. In this feature we will look at the options available, their pros and cons, and their respective prices. We will also delve a little deeper into online and networked storage options and the benets they bring.
BACKING UP AND ARCHIVING

Downloading images onto a computer is essentially a process of storing the les, but as weve already mentioned, putting all your faith in one computer hard drive is risky. By placing les in two locations, any risk of loss is signicantly reduced, and should something happen to one, you still have access to another copy. Storing les in three locations reduces the risk even further, and those with sentimentally or professionally valuable images should consider this level of backup.
The archiving method you use is down to personal choice, but it is best to nd something that suits the way you work and then stick to it. If using editing software to manage the downloading of images from a card or camera to a computer, it will inevitably provide backup options within the controls. Many programs allow the selection of a second location to which images can be saved. This should be a completely different physical device to the primary storage space. This ensures that a copy of your original le is safely stored straight away, although any adjustments made to the les will not be. For this reason, it is best to back up edited work separately, copy the les manually once they have been edited, or use a separate program to back up working les. If you shoot using raw format, the
options for storing les are greater but more complex. JPEG les are unlikely to become obsolete any time soon, but there is a chance that future editing programs may not support every type of raw le that has been produced. The safest option is to save older raw les into the universal DNG format, created by Adobe. Adobe software allows an automatic conversion of raw les when downloading or the ability to manually convert them in the software. There is also a free converter that can be downloaded from www.adobe.com, which is handy for accessing raw les that are otherwise not supported by current software. Pentax and Ricoh cameras have the option to shoot in DNG format, so no conversion is needed. Files can also be converted into TIFF formats for storage. This is ideal for nished edits of your images, as they can be saved as 16-bit les, although they dont contain the same amount of data that a raw le holds.
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ADVANCED PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLS
KNOWLEDGE
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PHYSICAL STORAGE
A SOMETIMES overlooked method of backing up images is storing physical prints. Prints from professional and high-street labs are made using photographic paper and have the same archival qualities as prints from slides or negatives, which is normally stated as being around 65 years for Fujicolor Crystal Archive paper. Prints made on inkjet photo paper, especially with pigment inks and using matt or art papers, often have even greater life, with some rated up to 200 years if stored correctly. With such an extended life, backup prints should be considered for those prize photos. However, with more photographs usually taken with digital, it would be time-consuming and expensive to print all your les.
LOCAL STORAGE SOLUTIONS

LOCAL storage includes the various methods that can be used to back up les in the home. The most popular are the CD-ROM and DVD-R discs. These can now be bought for a few pence per disc if purchased in bulk and they are easily catalogued. CD-ROMs soon gave way to DVDs as camera resolutions increased, but a DVD-R with a 4.7GB (or even 8.5GB for double-layer discs) can barely contain the images from a single memory card, as photographers opt for 8GB or 16GB cards. The longevity of CD and DVD-R has also been questioned, both due to new formats superseding them and to an estimated life of just ten years for some discs. While Blu-ray discs with their 25GB or 50GB storage potential
may seem like the natural progression, the value and ease offered by external hard drives has made these a more exible option. External hard drives are now available in 500GB and 1TB capacities for less than 100, which is enough to store the equivalent of hundreds of DVD discs, and they make transferring and editing data quicker and easier. Larger-capacity hard drives usually require a separate power source and feature a moving optical drive, much like the one inside your computer. For this reason, they are designed for desktop use and must be treated with care, as a bang or knock while the disc is spinning could lead to data loss. Smaller-capacity drives (powered by the computer they are plugged into) are available in sturdy cases for those on the move. These devices often use a form of ash memory, similar to that used by memory cards. They have no moving parts, but cost more as a result. It is worth placing les on two identical external drives in case the original le doesnt remain on the computer. Alternatively, use an external drive in addition to another form of backup.
ONLINE storage is a relatively new option for
ONLINE STORAGE
the amateur user, as data speeds and hosting costs have previously been prohibitive to transferring and storing large les on a server. Now, though, fast home broadband and healthy competition mean that it is relatively easy to upload large les and store them for very little cost. As with all online transactions, it is best to stick with
a trustworthy and known brand. If a company is to be entrusted with your images, it is important to know they cannot be accessed by others, the server wont fail, or the company go bust. Popular image-sharing sites such as Flickr are an easy way to save versions of your favourite images, and these sites allow full-sized JPEGs to be saved for no fee. Adobes Photoshop. com offers users free storage of their images up to 2GB, and even provides online editing facilities. For more general backup services, including raw les and other documents, it is best to look at a
specialist hosting company such as Carbonite (www. carbonite.co.uk), Livedrive (www.livedrive.com) or Mozy (www.mozy.co.uk). These may provide a basic storage package for free and then additional storage for a nominal fee or just a at rate per month. If you are paying for storage, it is best to limit the les that you upload to just your valuable images. This is because even with a fast home internet connection, upload speeds tend to be much slower than download speeds, which means it can take many hours to upload even a small number of les.
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KNOWLEDGE
BACKUP MANAGEMENT
THE PROCESS of backing up les takes time and can seem a bit of a hassle for an event that might never happen. However, there are software applications, such as Clickfree (www.clickfree.com), that are designed to take the effort out of the process. Apart from a little time spent setting them up, they work completely automatically and ensure that you never forget to back up your les. The software will require the folders and les for backup to be selected, which can be a regular image folder or your
entire My Documents le. A location will also be needed to save the backup to, which can be an external hard drive or even an online storage location. Instructions regarding the frequency of the backup will also be required, which can be anything from every hour to once a month, while some systems may allow you to back up new les. Systems such as the Time Machine backup (which is integrated into Apple Mac operating systems) will archive versions of your les on an external hard drive or Apples Time Capsule, and remembers how your system looked on any given day so you can
revisit your Mac as it appeared in the past. The number of versions is limited by the storage space you have available, but as only the altered les are resaved each time, the amount of storage isnt as vast as you may think.
THE CLOUD
THE TERM cloud computing
refers to the idea of programs or services being hosted from an online server that requires just an internet connection to access and use them. The idea is that les stored online can then be viewed and edited from wherever you are in the world, rather than being tied to a specic computer or hard drive. Storage is typically charged by the amount needed rather than a set fee, although there are free services available, such as Dropbox (www.dropbox.com). Apple has made a show of its cloud facility, which allows you to mirror what you see on your computer, phone or tablet, including your images. Adobe also has a solution known as carousel (www.adobe.com/products/carousel. html), which allows you to upload your images to its server, and view and edit them as you would in Lightroom on either a tablet or smart phone.
PRICE COMPARISONS
SO WHICH of the backup solutions is best? Each has pros and cons and there are variations on price, ease of use and time taken. Here is a rundown of the prices and details for some of the main solutions, based on the storage of 300GB of images. Remember, the best option is to have at least two backups.
PRINTS PROS CONS DVD PROS CONS EXTERNAL DRIVE PROS CONS ONLINE STORAGE PROS CONS 300x 10x8in prints (1.09 bulk price from www.photobox.co.uk) 327 Long-lasting, easy to view Time taken to print 100 discs (470GB) 20 Cheap solution, good as an extra backup Time to burn discs, lots of disc swapping to view, limited life 500GB model 65 Large capacity, easy access Electronic storage and risk of failure 41.95 per year or 101.95 for three years (www.carbonite.co.uk) Safe and accessible storage, unlimited for the contents of your computer Fast connection to internet needed, work could be lost if server fails or company goes bust
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KNOWLEDGE
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CAMERA CARE
As a photographer, it is vital that you take proper care of your camera kit. We explain how to avoid damage and maintain your equipment to keep it in tip-top condition
that is free of dirt and moisture is essential as any marks present on the lens during exposure will consequently appear on the lm and these are permanent. In digital photography these errors can be rectied post-capture using software, but keeping things clean means less time chained to the computer. Avoiding damage to kit not only ensures that it holds its value, but
MOST modern cameras are very well made and durable enough to stand up to plenty of rigorous use. However, just because they are durable does not mean they are bulletproof. If you want faultless images and kit that holds its value, you need to maintain it well. As soon as factors such as dust, dirt, moisture and shock come into play, the camera is at risk of damage. For lm photography, having kit
it also prolongs its life and reduces the risk of costly repair work. If your kit does get dirty, then the problem is more easily rectied if you see to it quickly. For example, moisture on a lens can develop into fungus, and although the rst stages of infestation are simple to deal with, leave things too late and youll be making a visit to the repair shop. Just as you would with your car, making regular checks is good
practice. There may be nothing wrong, but then there may be an issue that is not immediately obvious without such checks. Over the following pages I will be looking at the best ways to avoid damage in the rst instance, and then how to maintain the camera body and lens should they become dirty, marked or damaged.
AVOIDING DAMAGE
Obviously, it is easier to avoid damage than it is to repair it. Unfortunately, some of the most spectacular places to photograph, such as beaches, rivers, streams and mountains, are
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areas where dust, dirt and water are most prominent. So if you are going to these danger zones, remember to protect your kit as you scramble over rocks or crouch down on the sand for that amazing photograph. Also, make sure you protect your gear when shooting in adverse weather conditions, such as in extreme cold or rain. Both the camera body and lens are equally important, so take care of each.
PROTECTING THE CAMERA

Dust and moisture get everywhere, so ensure these do not enter the camera by keeping any holes and joins closed.
The rubber seals for ports should always be closed when not in use, and check for dust and dirt before connecting any cables. It seems obvious, but dont force in a card that is resisting. This can damage the pins in the camera and xing them can cost around 120. Look out for damage to the holes in a CompactFlash (CF) card, which can in turn damage the pins. Loosely carrying cards in a pocket is not a good idea; SD cards can split in half, while uff can nd its way into the holes of a CF card. Instead, store them in the supplied case or in a bag.
Now we come to that heartstopping moment dropping the camera. This is likely to happen at some point if you are not careful, so keep the camera on a shoulder strap, hip holster or in a bag when not in use. Although it may not feel all that comfortable, reducing the length of the strap means the camera is less likely to swing away from your body and hit a fence you are climbing over, or worse, smack your subject on the head as you reach over to x his or her hair. A holster is an even better option because the camera does not swing at all.
A few general practices may seem obvious, but are always good to remember. For instance, check periodically that the camera straps are secure, as the fastening can become loose over time. When using a tripod, always test that the tripod screw and plate are securely xed, and that the lock on the head is tight before letting go of the camera. When putting camera kit away in a bag, always make sure the pockets are zipped up before lugging it onto your shoulders, otherwise you are likely to hear the thud of expensive kit hitting the ground.
Be extra careful in danger zones, such as on a sandy beach
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KNOWLEDGE
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This plastic LCD cover is an affordable option and uses an adhesive for a secure x
BEATING THE WEATHER

Waterproof covers (also known as camera sleeves) protect the camera and lens barrel from dust and water, so are ideal for rainy weather. Disposable versions are cheapest (from 7.95 for a pack of two), but more expensive and durable versions are available from 17.95. Of course, you can easily make your own using a carrier bag. Pierce a hole in the bottom of the bag through which you can place the front of the lens, and then x it to the lens barrel using a rubber band. A clear plastic bag will ensure that the cameras controls remain visible.
LCD PROTECTION
Scratches and dirt will affect the clarity and quality of an LCD screen. This is a problem when focusing and viewing exposures, especially in bright daylight. If your camera comes with a plastic LCD cover, make sure you use it. Alternatively, glass protectors are available from 12.50, and often include a
Keeping the length of the strap short reduces the risk of the camera swinging around and hitting hard surfaces
TOP TIPS
Check your household and holiday insurance to nd out what items are covered and where they are covered. Consider separate specialist insurance for camera kit that is not included A sensor clean is a skilled job and should be completed with extra care To stop moisture building up, avoid a rapid change between hot and cold environments. Do not pack kit away before it is dry
Plastic covers keep out both water and dust

viewnder cover, while a cheaper option is a protective lm (5.95 for two). the sensor to dislodge any settled dust and dirt, and can be activated manually via the camera menu, or in some models on start-up and/or shut-down. Barry Edmonds of Fixation (www.xationuk.com) says that a dirty sensor is the most common reason for a camera to be taken to the repair shop. If you clean the sensor yourself, it is unwise to do so when out in the eld, so do it before you embark on your photo shoot. First check for dust and dirt on the sensor it will be most noticeable by photographing a solid background like a piece of white paper, or if you are out and about, the sky. Using a wider aperture will soften the edges of the dirt and make it less obvious. However, if you intend to shoot landscapes with a more narrow aperture of, say, f/11 or smaller, then it is doubly important to check the sensor prior to setting out.
HOW TO AVOID DUST ON THE SENSOR

When changing a lens, the inside of the camera and the sensor in particular can pick up dirt. The sensor in a compact system camera is particularly exposed. The best way to avoid trouble is to make this change as quickly as possible while protecting the camera from the elements. Face the body downwards when mounting the new optic so that dust does not settle in the cavity behind the lens. The charge in a camera creates static that attracts dust, so turn the camera off during a lens change. Many interchangeable-lens cameras offer a sensor-cleaning function. This works by vibrating
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KNOWLEDGE
CLEANING THE SENSOR

MOST of us have at some point looked over a digital image on the computer and noticed out-of-focus blobs and squiggles that are constant even once the lens has been cleaned. These marks are most obvious in the sky of a landscape and are caused by dust and dirt on the camera sensors lter/cover. This surface of the sensor is fragile and susceptible to damage, even more than the glass of a lens. To clean the sensor, rst make sure the battery is charged or plug the camera into a mains supply. Set the camera to its mirror-up (sensor-cleaning) mode (step 1) see your cameras manual for instructions on how to do this. There are two types of cleaning: dry and wet. A dry clean is for loose items, and a squeeze blower should be sufcient (step 2). Air canisters are too powerful for use on the sensor and the liquid propellant can leave gunk behind. Peter Brogden of Camera Clean recommends the Silicon Jumbo Blower (6.95 see below right). Peter says he has seen sensors scratched by the hard end of a blower, but this version has a soft silicone end. When not in use, store the blower in a clear bag, otherwise it may suck up dust and consequently blow this out when used. If the dirt is hanging on doggedly, it will require a wet clean. For this you need the correct cleaning solution. Eclipse lens and sensor cleaner (12.95) is a pure and rened methanol that evaporates quickly, leaving no residue. Apply a couple of drops of the solution (step 3) onto a sensor swab (from 20.95 for a pack of four), and gently but rmly stroke it in a single motion over the sensor (step 4). After completing this process, mount a lens and set its aperture to around f/11. Now ll the frame with a white card and overexpose by 2EV to get a bright white result. Examine the image at 100% on a computer screen, keeping an eye out for the blobs and squiggles that indicate dust and dirt. Do this before a clean too, to see exactly where the dust is located. PROTECTING THE LENS
Lenses are perhaps at their most vulnerable to damage when they are being taken off or mounted on a camera body. For instance, when swapping lenses, there is always the possibility that one could be dropped and broken. Dirt and dust ingress is also more likely, so to guard against this make sure the lens body cap and lens cap are close to hand so they can be xed in place quickly. Avoid touching the lens element directly as skin contact will leave oily ngermarks on the glass. Attaching the lens cap when the camera is not in use is obviously good practice, so be sure to keep it to hand. There are devices available that x the cap to the lens itself (from 1.99), while some shoulder straps offer handy compartments in which to store one.
STEP 1
STEP 2
STEP 3
STEP 4
STARTER KIT
Silicone Jumbo Blower 6.95
Eclipse CCD cleaner (59ml bottle) 12.95 Sensor swabs from 20.95
PecPad 10x10cm (100 pack) 11.95 Microbre lens cloth (170x250mm) 2.70 Lens brush (lipstick-style) 4.25
THE FRONT ELEMENT

A lens hood will reduce the amount of dust and water landing on the front element, but only a protective lter will completely stop this from happening. The lens quality should be matched by the quality of lter, so it is worth buying a premium lter if the lens is good. Alternatively, to ensure the best image quality, remove the lter when the camera is ready for an exposure and replace it again between shots. Most importantly, a lter will take the brunt of any impact should the camera be dropped, and it is much cheaper to replace than a lens. Another option is a rubber lens guard (from 21.95), which slots over the outside of the lens and absorbs the knocks. Add plastic bags to your camera bag in case any kit needs storing away from
A UV lter is the most common type of protective lter

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KNOWLEDGE
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the elements or to use as a makeshift rain sleeve.
LENS CARE
WHEN carrying out a minor clean, it is tempting to be lazy and take

short cuts, be it using your mouth to blow dirt away, or the sleeve of a jumper or a tissue to wipe dirt off. Take the time to use the right tools. Removing dust from a lens, for example, should always be done using a blower, soft brush or microbre cloth. For such a clean, be careful when removing dirt or sand as this can scratch the lens surface when rubbed. Microbre lifts dirt from the surface much more effectively than a regular cloth and a gentle ick should remove any debris. For dust that takes more persuasion, a circular motion is ideal. For more stubborn dirt, a cleaning solution may be necessary, together with the correct type of wipe. Solutions start from 1.82 for a 6ml dropper bottle.
DUST IN LENSES
If dust does get inside the lens, dont be too concerned. Dust particles get everywhere and trombone or extending zoom lenses are particularly susceptible because they suck in air and dust during the zoom motion. The best way to check for dust is by removing the lens from the camera, opening the aperture and shining a torch up through the rear element. A large amount of dust can reduce image contrast and introduce are. Extremely large bits that are millimetres in size, such as loose particles that have broken off due to an impact or from general wear and tear, will show up in an image. In this case, it is best to take the lens to a repair shop.
Vacuum your camera bag regularly to remove dirt and dust

to light or cold. When returning from a cold winters shoot, stagger the change of temperature. For instance, initially keep your camera in a colder room in the house before sitting by a cosy re looking over the days images. When the camera is not in use, place it in a bag or container, but make sure your kit is dry before storing it away. A common issue for lm SLRs is that the foam in the joins and back door can deteriorate over time, leading to light spills. If it has been a while since the camera has been used, a visual inspection is sufcient to see if a replacement is needed.
STORAGE
A key part of kit care is storing it correctly, but even when it is tucked safely away, camera equipment can be at risk from dust, dirt and moisture. Always use a good camera bag and lens pouches. Most have individual compartments to provide a snug t and padding to prevent any damage from impact and knocks. However, over time the bag itself will pick up dirt, so periodically give it a good clean. First, remove the inserts and check the corners and crevices for any lost small accessories, then use a vacuum cleaner to remove dirt, followed by tape to pry away any stubborn bits of uff. Virtually all bags come with at least one silica gel pack. These are designed to soak up any moisture and keep the inside dry. A silica gel pack can only absorb so much moisture, though, so look out for types that change colour to indicate whether they are wet or dry. Packs can easily be dried on a radiator. For extras, try www.7dayshop.com, where a pack of 10 costs from 4.99. The best way to stop moisture forming in the camera and lenses is to keep them at a constant temperature. Avoid sudden changes between hot and cold environments, and prolonged exposure
MOISTURE AND FUNGUS

There are times when it is not possible to keep camera gear free of moisture, and certain types of damage can be dealt with yourself. In extreme cases, though, where the moisture has led to the growth of mould or fungus (or where obstructive particles are inside the lens), it may be necessary to take the camera apart to clean the affected area. However, this is a highly skilled job that most of us should leave to a professional in unskilled hands it is more than likely that the lens will end up in a worse state than before. A basic lens service costs from 80, but can be considerably more depending on the damage, so think about whether the value of the lens makes a repair cost-effective.
SHUTTER ACTUATIONS
KNOWING how many shutter actuations a camera has clocked up is good information to have, especially if you are selling or buying a second-hand model. If the shutter is near the end of its life, it is a costly replacement to make. Professional models offer 100,000+ shutter actuations, while more budget models usually offer fewer than 100,000. You can use Adobe Bridge to display this shutter actuation information by highlighting the le of the latest image and selecting File>File Info. Scroll the tab to Advanced and click on the Schema folder labelled exif/ aux. Alternatively, visit www.myshuttercount.com and upload the most recent image taken with the camera. The shutter actuation and Exif data will be displayed immediately.
A sealed Ziploctype bag with silica gel packets inside is a great way to remove moisture build-up
All prices listed in this article are from www.cameraclean.co.uk (tel: 01793 855 663) unless otherwise stated. Thanks to Peter Brogden from Camera Clean and Barry Edmonds of Fixation (www.xationuk.com/tel: 0207 582 3294) for their help on this article
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Amateur Photographer - Advanced Photography Skills

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Amateur Photographer - Advanced Photography Skills

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RAISING YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY TO THE NEXT LEVEL NEW

SPRING 2013 3.99

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

FILL-IN FLASH SENSORS TECHNIQUES EXPLAINED

PRO PRINTING IN-CAMERA EFFECTS ADVICE

PLUS HOW TO CHOOSE A TRIPOD OGUIDE TO CONTINUOUS LIGHTING

WorldMags.net Photographica Auctions 28 February and 16 March 2013 specialauctionservices.com

An Ilford Witness, in makers case, sold for 13,200

ADVANCED PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLS 3

60 BUILD A LCD LOUPE

26 CUSTOM WHITE BALANCE

64 CAPTURING WATER DROPLETS AND SPLASHES

32 MACRO WITH A COMPACT

42 COMPLETE GUIDE TO SHOOTING INFRARED IMAGES

70 FILL-IN FLASH FOR PORTRAITS

48 CONVERT A DSLR FOR INFRARED

7 TOP TIPS FOR SHARPER IMAGES

32 MACRO WITH A COMPACT

64 CAPTURING WATER DROPLETS AND SPLASHES

Improve your photography

IN ASSOCIATION WITH AND WorldMags.net

DIPLOMA IN DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY

FOUNDATION IN FOUNDATION DIGITAL IMAGING IN DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY TECHNIQUES

COURS FEES ONLE Y

COURS FEES ONLE Y

COURS FEES ONLE Y

COURS FEES ONLE Y

Please quote ref: SPI010

ADVANCED PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLS 7

2 CHOICE OF FOCAL LENGTH

3 MANUAL FOCUS AND LIVE VIEW

IF YOUR camera is mounted on a tripod, take advantage of this by

THERE is no escaping the fact that some lenses are

APERTURE plays a vital role in the sharpness

8 ADVANCED PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLS

THE CAMERAS shutter is a tool for freezing motion, be it the movement

ADVANCED PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLS 9

ALTHOUGH the level of

10 ADVANCED PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLS

16 TRIPODS AND SUPPORTS

THE APERTURE of a lens is, of course, used to set the

IF YOUR camera doesnt have a mirror lock-up function,

17 CORRECT AUTOFOCUS MODE

ADVANCED PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLS 11

ADVANCED PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLS 13

PLANNING AND PREPARATION

FINDING YOUR LOCATION

AS UNPREDICTABLE as the British weather

PACKING YOUR CAMERA BAG

ADVANCED PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLS 15

A Fibonacci, or Golden Ratio, curve can be used to help compose images

16:9 4:3 16:7

HEIGHTS AND ANGLES

PREVENTING CAMERA MOVEMENT

GRADUATED NEUTRAL DENSITY

18 ADVANCED PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLS

FOCUSING AND EXPOSURE

APERTURE, SHUTTER SPEED AND SENSITIVITY

Focus on subject Focus here

Focus just behind subject

EXPOSURE AND METERING

ADVANCED PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLS 19

FIRING THE SHUTTER

'95 'ERG\ '95

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