TAKING PHOTOS OF WHAT YOU REALLY SEE

Capturing the
Moment
Volume 1: Observe, Aim & Capture.

Introduction

This book is for those who wish to love their photographs more.
It is for those who enjoy photography but feel disappointed by the results they achieve.
It is not for those who take snaps then leave them in a draw/Facebook/camera and forget about them.
It is about how to give your photos impact whilst keeping it simple.

I was, like most wannabe photographers, never truly content with

my photography, and continued like this for many years. The
reasons? Lack of knowledge and lack of time.

Developing my business also led me down the road to

understanding computers, having developed programmes for our
new kind of veterinary service. This means that giant programmes
such as photoshop do not automatically fill me with fear.

Lack of time was a very real problem, and not just for my
photography. As a veterinary surgeon for many many years, spare
time was consumed by catching
up on my sleep after endless days
and nights on duty. This 24/7 kind
of life can only be continued for so
long. Eventually I rebelled and
ended up developing a veterinary
emergency service, the first of its
kind in the UK, possibly in
Europe.

I was then introduced to the world of High Dynamic Range

processing, and my interest in
photography was reinvigorated.
I am hoping that this book will
help its readers to avoid having to
enrol in a veterinary course, suffer
interminable nights on duty and
then learn everything there is to
know about computers.
This book is a short-cut.

That was 20 years ago. Now I am

reaping the rewards of semiretirement. Time for my other
favourite thing, photography
oops, my family, er... then
photography...

However, if you really want to be

a vet as well, dont let me put you
off

My career and training in

veterinary medicine has given me
a great insight into the animal
world,
and
bolstered
my
observational powers. I have also
studied evolution, comparative
anatomy and physiology, wildlife
etc. all of which have made me more aware with my photography.

The 7 Golden Rules

of Photography

1. Always keep your camerawith you

2. Keep taking photos of everything

3. Make the most of interesting light

4. Obey the rule of thirds

5. Go for simplicity when composing

your subject
6. Don't be frightened by technology
7.Use your computer to find
pictures within pictures

Val Newton

Volume 1: Observe, Aim & Capture.

CHAPTER 1

What You See is NOT What You Get

There are enormous differences between the camera (and how it captures an image), and the picture
that you see in your head, resulting from the combination of eye and brain.
Understanding this can not only change the way that you take and process photographs, but can
fundamentally change the way you look at the world.

WHAT YOU SEE IS NOT WHAT YOU GET

This may sound insane, but it is not, and it is easy to prove. If
indeed we did see things as a complete picture, the memory space
taken up in our brain would soon be exhausted (although this may
go some way to explain some peoples aberrant behaviours...).
When you look at something, you only clearly see the very centre
of your field of view. Your eye darts around the scene, taking in
information that your mind uses to make up the complete picture.

The Camera vs the Eye

Testing your field of accurate view:

Sit comfortably and stare at a fixed point in the middle
distance. Do not stray from this point. Get someone to pick
a random card from a pack, then gradually bring it around
at about arms length into your field of view. State when you
can see the card, when you can see the colour of the card,
and when you can see the number and suite.
You may be surprised...

Most people assume that we see the world around us in much the
same way that a camera does. This is absolutely not the case. Our
eyes have evolved over millions of years to a point which may
have many similarities to a camera (which, incidentally, evolved
much more quickly), but how we assimilate the data that arrives
from the eyes is completely different to that of a sensor and
associated memory in the camera.

Range of View
Let me first try to discard one common misconception, and that is
that when we look at a scene, we see it all as one clear picture. The
truth is that the bulk of the image that you see is constructed in
your head by guesswork.

On the other hand, perception of motion is better in our peripheral

vision, resulting in vision being better in the near dark away from
the centre of the eye.

Range of Light
The next problem is one of dynamic range. This is not some kind
of advertising feature, nor is it a mutant superpower. It simply
means that, when looking at a view, there is typically a range of
darkness and lightness that we can clearly see. You look at a light
area - you see all the details there. You then look at a dark area your eye immediately adapts to see the detail there also. It takes
the eye some time to adapt to really bright and really dark areas,
but for the normal view - it is instantaneous.

In this way the eye can be easily fooled. We are, for example, hardwired to recognise faces. We can see faces in the most vague of
shapes. Thus, seeing things out of the corner of your eye can lead
to you mistakenly seeing something which isnt there, thus the
birth of many ghost stories...
The camera, on the other hand, is not so easily fooled. To do that
we need Photoshop!

The camera, on the other hand, cannot do that. Thus your typical
photo ends up with areas too bright or parts too dark. In these
areas the detail is washed out or just black. Nothing like what you
see in your head.

Some 80% of our total sensory input is through the eye. Compare
that to, say, dogs where the most important input for them is smell.
Imagine what our cameras would be like if the sensor responded
mostly to smell! On second thoughts, I dont think I will.

Colour
Having spent much of our evolutionary history in the dark, where
colour differentiation was much less important than light
sensitivity, our ancestors started to venture out in daylight. Our
retinas had to change, and change they did.

Our large brains process this huge volume of information, about a

third of our processing power is used. Even so, this amazing
system is surpassed by birds and most reptiles. With them, the
processing occurs in the retina itself, giving them superlatively
rapid reflexes.

Some primates (including us) have also evolved a third colour

pigment to better see colour clues around us. We are less easily
fooled by camouflage, and we can see which are the best fruits to
pick - are they ripe or rotten? This allowed our ancestors an
advantage over their two-colour competitors. It allows us to see
the same colours no matter what the lighting. For example, a
lemon is yellow in daylight and artificial light, even though the
wavelength given off and sensed by the retina is completely
different!

It also allows us to see much more vividly. Make use of this

advantage passed on to you by your ancestors!

Her: Well, I remember going round to Aunt Doris house just after
little Harold was born, and he must be about 4 by now, so ...

Memory

Snugglepuss: Nine.

The final important difference is with how we remember what we

see. A cameras memory is unchanging (hopefully). Our memory is
mutable, it changes. To remember a scene, bits of memory are
accessed from all over your brain to make a whole. This is
unreliable. Witness statements from crime scenes are notoriously
unreliable. Clients memory is something to wonder at.

(The last bit was me looking at the cats teeth...)

So, when it comes to photographs, we have an interesting
dilemma. How much do we change the photo? Is it as you
remember it? Is it as others remember it?
If you decide to make significant changes to an image (like
removing irksome Uncle George from a group photo) then you
must show no-one the original photo. Doing so makes the changes
obvious, showing the finished product; no-one should notice.
People cannot see what isnt there.

Picture the scene in a veterinary clinic. One pampered cat, two

doting owners. One simple question.

The worst thing that you can do is show your beloved wife/
daughter/girlfriend etc a photo youve taken BEFORE
photoshopping out the spots and wrinkles. Honestly, theyll have
no idea that you have doctored the photo if you dont tell them
instead, they may ask you to get rid of some spot or other that you
have missed!
Anyway, your final image should be as you saw it, (female
portraits excepting) in your head, with your eyes, mutated by your
memory. If someone says it looks too real (if that were even
possible), simply tell then that it is what you saw (unless, of
course, the subject was female...)
Its fine, by the way, to increase the features (er, wrinkles) on men.
Who said that it was fair?

Me: How old is poor little Snugglepuss?

Him: Er... I dunno, A couple of years? What do you think Edith?

To get it more real as you saw it, you would have to underexpose
the photo thus: (dont worry about how to do that for now, Ill
explain all that nerdy stuff later)

LETS LOOK AT AN EXAMPLE:

This photo was taken at dawn. Ive used all the normal settings
with no post-processing.

It bears no resemblance to the picture in my head.

Well, the sky looks much better, but the foreground is just black no detail.

What I could see was a bright red coloured sky, and a dull but
detailed foreground, coloured by the dawns blush.
The outstanding feature is the sky.

So we well overexpose to get some detail in the foreground:

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It doesnt stop there. Vision normally uses two eyes, meaning a

significantly wider view than its height. In other words, a
panorama.

Crap! Weve now lost the sky!

Your eye (or, most importantly) your brain can see ALL the detail
simply by darting around the scene.

Here is what I really saw:

If we combine those three photos, taking the detail from each

photo then we get what I saw in my head:

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The first three photos of different exposures were in a very basic

format called RAW. Heck, photography loves its acronyms, just
like every other speciality. My entire career has been full of em.

If someone does not process a photo that they take, then it has to
be processed by the camera!
This can be very straightforward, as in point and shoot cameras
(most obviously in camera-phones where everything is done for
you, short of tucking you up in bed).

Medicine fills its vocabulary with acronyms to make it easier for

doctors to confuse their patients. Veterinary medicine is even more
confounded by having different acronyms for each species! Is CPD
Continuing Professional Development or Caprine Pustular
Dermatitis? Well, photography is no different.

If you want everything done for you in life, then read no further.
The camera-phone is for you. If you are taking the next step
however, and want a photo to be proud of, in-camera processing
has some serious drawbacks.

So, try not to worry about it; throwing these letters about is only
there to impress and intimidate. Dont let it get to you,
photographers are just human too. (Im not
sure about doctors though!)

This processing is decided by the camera

manufacturers, who are unlikely to be anywhere
near you when you take the photo...

Anyway, back to the story....

Every picture tells a different story and thus every

picture needs tweaking in a different way. To
overcome this, camera manufacturers provide you
with many in-camera adjustments to try to make
the final photo match the scene. If this isnt
processing then what is?!?

These RAW files (or raw information if you

prefer) needs something done about them
before they look acceptable to the human eye.
It needs converting to another format before
making any sense. Now dont be fooled,
EVERY file produced by a camera HAS to be
processed in some way before we can use it.
Those who say that they much prefer to use a
photo without processing, that the skill of
photography is in taking photos that dont
need photoshopping etc., are talking through
their back-ends (another part of the anatomy
well understood by us veterinarians).

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Now this is all well and good, but say youve gone through the
laborious (and often erroneous) process of setting your camera up
for a shot of your pet rabbit, then you want to take a picture of the
buzzard swooping down to snatch it away for breakfast, and then
you want a panoramic photo as the buzzard flies away to the
distant sunset - how are you going to achieve all that? (Let alone
how are you going to tell your kids that their bunny has given a
helping hand to feeding nature?)

Dont Panic!

Well, using all these bloody settings is not (in my humble opinion)
the answer.
Look, my current favourite camera (more on this later) has 28
knobs and dials plus a menu the length of a Tolstoy novel. How
am I supposed to fiddle with all that between the cuddly rabbit bit
and the final departure scene?
Well, frankly, theres no bloody way. Im going to screw up and
end up with no proof to show my infant accusers.

There are ways and means around this problem, and that is really
what this book is about.
Although all the knobs and dials are in someway necessary to
someone, they are not all necessary for you. There are many of
them that you can safely ignore. In the section on camera settings I
will explain what I think is necessary, what is not needed, and the
bits that you might one day need but will probably have bought a
new camera by then!
The one main lesson in all of this is that you should shoot photos
in RAW (nah, dont remove your underwear, Im talking about the
RAW format).

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For years I could see no point in doing this, now I truly wish I had,
if only for the reason that I could now go back and re-edit those
photos using what I have since learned. That opportunity is lost
forever...

Another effect is on your enjoyment of holidays. For normal

mortals, holidays are to be enjoyed and then, when finished, sadly
missed. For photographers that use the techniques in this book,
coming back from holidays is not tinged with sadness, but tinged
with the anticipation of looking at all those photos and spending
time working on them! Holidays become even longer, and
memories of them even stronger.

Im not saying that using a decent DSLR camera is easy, but there
are several ways to make it very much easier.
If you shoot in RAW, the photos you get wont look that brilliant
straight from the camera, because youve instructed the camera to
leave them alone. Its you that will have to do this at a later date
when you have the time.

Open You Eyes!

Importantly, if you know what you are doing, it is FUN!

Long-term effects of shooting in RAW

Shooting in RAW, as explained above, means that you have to find
time to concentrate on your photos not just when you take the
picture, but later on as well. This can double the fun you have with
photography. Using such methods as HDR (yep, another acronym,
this time it means High Dynamic Range) you can transform a
photo into what your brain remembered - and more. Because of all
the details these techniques bring out, you will find yourself
looking out more for these details in real life., After time, you will
start to realise that you really do see in HDR!
So, the first step in taking photos is to look around you, use the
power in your eyes given to you by three and a half billion years of
evolution, observe the detail in everything, spot the interesting
shot - then click.
Observe, Aim & Capture Simple.

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TAKE THE PHOTO

THAT YOU WANT!

Just joking. Although you do see a serious amount of animals

bottoms on safari...

We all have our own ideas of what makes a good photo. These can
vary wildly. When you start into the world of photography, the
temptation is to copy the ideas of others. This is fine, but only up
to a point. Look at what others do and see what techniques they
use. Then decide what you like and try to achieve your own wish,
so that you end up with photos that YOU love, not (necessarily)
what your neighbour down the street likes.
Much of this book is there for you to follow techniques and master
them. That does not mean I am trying to produce clones of my
work. Take what I say and do, then distort it as you wish, to make
a photo that you can put up on your wall or in your book.
If others like it - fine, but first and foremost, you must love it.
If you love taking photos of animals, do so, but try to make it
unique to yourself in some way.
If you want to take photos of birds, do so, but find a way of
making your photos something other than a simple collection of
stuffed avians; make them interesting.

Now that we know what we want, we now have to learn how to

get it.

If you love old buildings, study their detail and individuality then
capture them on film.

You need to learn where to aim, all subjects have a target to aim
for, although they are usually not as obvious as the one above...

If you love landscapes, photograph them, but make them

interesting.

Of course, having a camera would also help...

If you love photographing animals bottoms, see a psychiatrist.

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Further Reading:
For a very thorough
explanation of the
evolution of the eye, along
with some really great
pictures, try out
Evolutions Witness -
How Eyes Evolved by
Ivan R. Schwab

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