Guarding the Beaches of LA, by Stuck in Customs on Flickr

Old solution to this problem

If you were facing such a scene in the old days of film, you had to analyze the scene and determine what the key tones were. Often, you needed to hold the highlights and allow some clipping in dense shadows or other dark areas. Sometimes the key tones were dark and you were forced to allow blown highlights. And in some cases, you would decide that the scene couldn’t be compromised. In other words: you couldn’t capture it the way you wanted, so you didn’t!

Thank the spirits we now live in a digital age! Now you can capture this scene using HDR.

My two cents in the HDR argument

Before I move on, I want to address the fact that HDR is frowned upon by some people. There are several reasons for this. Some claim that bracketing or multi-exposure shooting is counter-skillful (elitists). Others think that using HDR is “cheating”, creating a falsified representation of “reality”.

Ignore those people.

HDR is not cheating. Nor is it the path to enlightenment. It’s just another tool in your photography toolbox, to be pulled out when you feel the situation demands it.

Enough ramble! Let’s get on with the subject!

What is HDR photography?

HDR photography is the principle of using multiple shots to capture a high range scene, and then merge these shots together digitally on a computer during post-processing.

The process involves using specialized software tools. These tools will use the different exposures to create an “optimal” representation of the scene, ensuring that the clipped shadows or highlights are excluded from the resulting image. A little simplified, this enables you to expose detailed information in the shadows from the brightest exposures, and details in the highlights from the darkest exposures.

Old suitcase scene analysis

As you can see in the above image, the scene has a high range between the sun on the wall and the suitcase interior. When the interior is correctly exposed, the wall light is completely blown out. And when the sun on the wall is correctly exposed, the photo is underexposed overall, and almost all detail inside the suitcase is lost. To capture this scene, HDR is necessary.

HDR is in its infancy

HDR is still in its infancy. This means that although we’ve had it a few years in still photography, the tools and techniques are going to grow a lot more mature in the future. Camera manufacturers will definitely make use of HDR in some sort in future models to increase their cameras’ ability to cope with high dynamic range scenes.

And also, the tools for post-processing will grow much more mature. Still, some of the tools we have today are already relatively sophisticated. With proper knowledge we are able to create high quality HDR images.

Building the scene

Our own vision is rather limited for taking in a scene as a whole. But our mind has a wonderful way of compensating for this. Our eyes rapidly move around the scene, registering it bit by bit, and our mind then combines these visual impressions into one experienced scene. The brain is also an expert in completing known things where only a part is visible. If we see a car where half of it is hidden by a corner, our brain completes the car for us.

When moving around like this, our eyes quickly adjust to the light and tones of the different areas. And that is pretty much the same as we do with multiple exposures for HDR, except that the camera captures the whole scene in every shot. But we expose for limited areas with each shot.

So, in a sense, one might argue that HDR is more “natural” than capturing a scene with one shot!

Capturing the scene

First and foremost; if you have the choice: use a tripod! Slight movement from hand-held shooting can be compensated by the software, but you will be so much better off by making sure your image data is of the highest possible quality!

How many exposures you need will depend on the given scene. Often, around five exposures are needed. Today, most SLR cameras have a clipping indicator you can enable on the screen, and most also have the option to show a histogram.

Start out by under-exposing the scene. Under-expose to such a degree that the histogram is jammed up on the left side of the histogram, clipping the shadows. Slow down the shutter 1 full stop, and take a second shot (yes, the shutter; the aperture is fixed during HDR shooting!). Slow down another full stop, and take another shot.

Continue shooting in full-stop steps until the darkest part of the histogram is around the center of the scale. (Yes, that means that I should have shot at least one, maybe two stops more in the example shot!) This ensures you record all details in the darkest shadows.

HDR shooting sequence with histograms

Pitfalls when shooting for HDR

There are some pitfalls when shooting for HDR. Among the most common are ghosting, flare, banding and haloing. Ghosting is caused by movement, flare by light from a bright light source. Haloing and banding usually occurs when there are sharp edges between light or dark in the scene. Common examples are around the edges of a window in interior scenes, and at the edge between a dark building wall or roof and a bright blue sky.

I will return to these pitfalls in a follow-up article on HDR tonemapping.

Merging into a HDR image

There are several tools on the market for generating HDR images. I will focus on Photomatix as this is the oldest (and probably best-known) tool out there.

In this introductory article I will not go into details on how to tonemap. I only adjusted a little, mostly the saturation slider. You can experiment with this a little on your own. In a follow-up article I will delve deeper into the technicalities of producing the best possible result using tonemapping.

In Photomatix, click the Generate HDR image shortcut. In the following dialog, browse and select the sequence of photos.

The next dialog is the Options dialog. I recommend that you always check the “Align source images” choice, even when a tripod was used.

Then click the “Generate HDR” button. Photomatix then merges the photos and generates an HDR image. The resulting temporary image then shown is unprocessed and does not show the full range. Your next step is to click the “Tone Mapping” button. This will produce an image where you see the full details in both shadows and highlights.

As stated previously, this article will not cover the tone mapping process. Feel free to play around with the various sliders and see how they affect the photo.

Old suitcase HDR (non-optimized), by Marius Waldal

As you can see above, the various exposures have merged into one photo where both the highlights and the shadows are held, and all details are shown.

I hope this introduction was helpful and that you are hungry for more! I will revisit this subject in a later post with more detailed info on how to perform successful tone mapping!

If you liked this post, you may also like:

1. How to simulate cross-processing in digital photography
2. How to create a black&white image with selective colors in Photoshop
3. Introduction to digital black & white photography

DSLR Camera Remote in Landscape mode

DSLR Camera Remote is not a new app. It has been around some time, and is now in version 1.2.0. I came across it by coincidence and was instantly impressed. Before I even installed it! It sounded wonderful, and so it turned out as well.

DSLR Camera Remote is, obviously, a remote control for your camera. I already have a remote for my camera:

But all this remote does is release the shutter. This definitely beats using the self-timer, of course, but I have to point it directly at the camera, and not be too far away either. Bright lights (i.e. sunlight) may interfere and reduce the working distance. But the DSLR Camera Remote is a remote control that is both more remote and gives the word “control” a whole new dimension when it comes to operating your camera remotely!

The timing couldn’t have been better discovering this app. I have just started a 52 Weeks project on Flickr, and this app makes this sooo much easier. And more fun!

Basic controls

Alright, enough babble. What does this baby do?

The Options page with intervalometer and auto bracketing

It lets you control your camera’s settings right from your iPhone. You can adjust shutter speed, aperture and ISO (the exposure triangle), white balance and image quality (JPEG, RAW etc). It tells you how many photos are left before you need to replace the memory card, what focus mode your lens is set to (auto or manual), and what exposure mode you are using (manual, aperture priority, shutter priority, auto etc). All this is immediately accessible from the main screen. If your camera is set to manual, you can easily make minor adjustments between shots and see the difference.

See, you say? That’s right. This is the best part:

Immediately view every photo you shoot

Ever positioned your camera on a Gorillapod SLR Tripod and used a remote? Maybe climbed a chair or worse to check the result on the LCD? No more

This feature is wonderful for self-portraits, or any situation where you’re tweaking on your subject. Take the shot, check the result on your iPhone after a couple of seconds, tweak some more, try another shot. Until you’re satisfied. You can even zoom in on your photo to see if it is properly focused.

I’m sure you can appreciate how much easier this makes my self-portrait project as I can immediately adjust my position to better catch the light, create shadows etc.

Intervalometer for series

The intervalometer can be useful in several situations. You can set it to shoot every 1-2 seconds and try different poses, you can set the intervals longer to shoot a series of photos of i.e. a flower opening up with the morning sun, or you can take one every hour for a series of photos documenting a full day and night.

Or set it to take a photo 2-4 times a minute for a few hours and make a QuickTime movie of it later.

Auto-bracketing for safety

Uncertain of your settings because of complex light or reflections? DSLR Camera Remote supports auto-bracketing of up to 5 stops above and below your chosen setting. You can choose if the photos will be 1 full stop apart, or 1/3 stop apart. Bracketing more than a couple of stops is seldom useful, unless you want to do some exposure blending.

You might also use it for a series of photos where you’re planning HDR treatment. But if you do, be sure to check the shots afterwards to ensure you have at least 1 photo without clipping!

What do you need?

Yes, that is my bathroom.
This was the setup for week 1 of my 52 Weeks project

It doesn’t have to be a laptop, but you really want to use a laptop. I’ll tell you why in a moment. And you’ll need a mini-usb cable to connect the camera to the laptop.

And you need a wireless network. Bummer! “That’s fine in the studio or at home”, I hear you say, “but that means it is useless on location, right?”. Not so.

Using DSLR Camera Remote on location

This is the moment when I tell you why you really want a laptop: Because you can bring it on location, setup an ad-hoc wireless network and you’re up and running just like when you’re in the studio or at home! If you like clicking around like a maniac, bring a Windows PC. If you like it fast and smooth, use a MacBook. I’m going to show you how easy this is using a MacBook right here. It’s a charm. If you want to know how it’s done on Windows, check this little screencast from onOne Software.

I’ve read that some have experienced problems using an ad-hoc network, and that onOne Software is guessing this might be interference with 3G communication. They are recommending setting the phone in Airplane mode and turning wifi back on if you’re experiencing this.

I don’t like the Airplane mode, even on an airplane. I would therefore recommend just going to Settings -> General -> Network and then turn off “Enable 3G”.

I would like to hear if any of you experience this, and whether this helps!

Possible improvements

A review like this should also include some negative points that should be improved. I must admit that there are not many things I don’t like about this app.

One thing I’ve experienced is that while I do have the ability to zoom in on the photo on my iPhone, I cannot pan it around to see different parts of the image. I’m not sure if this is a bug or by design, but I really don’t think the zoom-feature is very helpful if I can only see the center of the photo, as my main subject is often not dead center.

A huge improvement, though, would be the ability to replace the laptop with another iPhone! Imagine connecting an iPhone directly to the camera and then communicate with it from another iPhone! This would be great for those already carrying a lot of equipment out on location. It does involve 3rd party accessories, though, like a custom cable. Maybe someday…

Conclusion

And, for the record: I am not in any way affiliated with onOne Software.

Graffiti bridge, by Marius Waldal on Flickr

A community this huge is difficult for members to handle. There are so many members and so many photos. How do you find photos you’re interested in, and members that share that interest? Flickr has some tools to compensate for this.

Current tools for finding your way on Flickr

One is Explore; a showcase of the 500 currently most interesting photos on Flickr. Explore gives you a window into Flickr, a way to see a selection of popular photos (I recommend flickriver if you want to view the explored photos).

Another is groups. Members are free to start their own groups, and decide what type of photos are welcome in the group. A group admin can remove photos that are inappropriate, or even establish a moderation layer so that photos must be approved by an admin to be displayed.

A common way to find photos, of course, is to search. You use tags to describe your photo, and people can search those tags. But, mind you, as the Flickr home page states when I write this: 160,129 things tagged with morning. So you might not get exactly what you’re looking for

An important part of the social aspect of Flickr is the comment section underneath every photo. This enables you to receive comments, insights and tips from other members.

All good? Sure, but things could be better. These are the 3 improvements I would like to see, which would make Flickr a photo sharing service that kicks, well, ass…

1. Discussion-capabilities in the comments section

For me and many others, the comments section is often used for two-way communication; not only for “critique-and-run” comments. If I leave well-considered thoughts on other members’ photos, I would like to see how they respond to this. Today, the only way to do this is to regularly check the “Recent activity” function. This, though, has obvious limitations. Mostly because if there are more than 10 comments after mine, a potential reply from the photographer can only be seen if I go to the photo-page again and scroll down to see if there is a comment from the photographer (hassle!).

Suggested solution: Flickr could add basic discussion capabilities to the comments section, allowing threaded comments. An obvious feature would then be to offer the opportunity to receive a Flickr mail if any of my comments are replied to. Or at least enhance the Recent activity view to display discussion threads that include me, regardless of how many other comments the photo have received after mine.

This functionality is a must-have! Social services is all about communication, and functionality that cultivates this one-on-one “open” communication is therefore important (bear in mind: not even the “Discussion”-section support threaded discussions!)

2. Functionality for limiting who can comment on a photo

Yes, I know that I can limit this to my friends and/or family, or any contact. This, however, is insufficient. Many Flickr users have tons of contacts. It is not uncommon that these users receive hundreds of comments on a photo. I must admit: when I look at a photo and have constructive critique I would like to offer, I usually bail out if there are already gazillion comments there (often with blinking GIFs, awards etc). How will the photographer notice my critique in the middle of all that “noise”?

While it is nice to see that others like your photo (“awesome”, “stunning”, “fantastic” etc), it doesn’t give you much in terms of learning what works and what doesn’t work in your photo. Because of this “superlative abundance”, some members create their own “private” groups where only select members are allowed to participate. However, this does nothing to limit the number of comments from a person’s other contacts on a photo.

Some may say that one can add the group members as “Friends”. That is not a good solution, as many use the “Friends” role for other purposes, and this may contradict that use.

Suggested solution: Flickr could add another permission layer: Only allow comments from other members of groups where this photo is added. If I add a photo to a specific group for well-considered critique, only other members of this group can comment. If I add it also to “the world through my eyes”-group, all the thousands of members there suddenly get permission to comment.

3. Twitter-like lists of contacts

People use the concept of contacts for several purposes on Flickr. Whatever the reason, you may end up having lots of contacts. This makes it near-impossible to follow all contacts’ uploads (which you probably don’t want to anyway). And it also makes it very difficult to keep an eye on your “closest” contacts; i.e. those you communicate most with.

For those of you using Twitter, you may recognize the challenge: How to stay up to date with those 20 most interesting people when you follow 1000? Twitter solved this elegantly with “lists”. A Twitter user can create a list called “Photography” and add only those they follow that are into photography and tend to tweet about it. And a list can be compiled for any area of interest. Today I might be interested in reading my photography list. Tomorrow it might be rock climbing.

Suggested solution: Flickr should implement a similar functionality that Twitter did. This way, I can choose to follow only my “strobist” contacts for a while, or those into black & white photography. Or those who are Photoshop wizards. Or whatever. I’m in control.

Do you have other suggestions? Do you agree on mine? Please have your say in the comments!

If you liked this post, you may also like:

1. Explore yourself with a self-portrait project on Flickr
2. Fast and easy Flickr upload with FlickrExport for Aperture

Photo by DaveJ86 on Flickr

I didn’t know Nodar. He was only 21 years old, which means he was only 5-6 years old when I quit competing. But as a former luge athlete, I feel somewhat related to him.

The accident is a tragedy. For the Olympics and Luge, of course, but most of all for Nodar and his family. I think it’s rather scandalous of the International Luge Federation (FIL) to acquit the track of any guilt in the accident so quickly, apparently without thorough investigation. Would that be the case had it been a Canadian or American athlete who died?

The track is the fastest in the world, and FIL president Josef Fendt even said the track was too fast a few days earlier, and called this a planning mistake. How can they so quickly put all the blame on Nodar himself?

I have crashed numerous times in many different tracks. Many of these crashes had similar causes to Nodar’s crash. None of them have been close to throwing me anything like that. I have watched the accident over and over again, feeling my stomach churn, to try and understand it. An important question is, of course, how would this have turned out had the track been slower?

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying the track is to blame for anything. But I suspect the real background for the acquittance is the fact that without it, the competition would probably have been stopped. Many of the athletes have expressed concerns about the track.

I understand the terrible anguish his family must have felt hearing the news back in their poor village in Georgia. Without any economic means to watch their son in his (their) moment of honor. And with no possibility to go there after the accident, stuck in Georgia waiting for their son to return home in a coffin.

I hope the IOC take the necessary responsibility and give Nodar and his family a worthy treatment. Their honor depends upon it!

Hips on green velvet, by Marius Waldal

What is aperture?

The aperture is the opening – the hole if you like – in the lens. The opening is adjusted by a diaphragm that controls the size of the hole, stopping various amounts of the light entering the lens from passing through to the sensor/film (the focal plane). Thus, the various aperture sizes refer to “f-stops”.

What many inexperienced photographers have problems grasping is the concept of the f-numbers, or more precisely, the seemingly unintuitive “reverse scale”: higher f-number means smaller opening. The f-number scale is actually dimensionless, meaning that f/4 or f/16 does not refer to a specific size, like 4 and 16 millimeters. If you like techie-stuff, read why in the box to the right. If not, just accept this fact and move on!

What happens when you adjust the aperture is that you increase or decrease the amount of light that is allowed to reach the sensor. This means that wider apertures allows for faster shutter times. Large-aperture lenses is therefore often referred to as fast lenses.

Aperture controls depth of field

While larger aperture makes your lens faster, it also reduces your depth of field (DOF). In some situations, this can be limiting. But most of the time, this is something you can actively choose to use to your advantage.

Small thoughts, by Marius Waldal

Another example is macro or close-up photography. You want the viewer’s attention only on your subject, or maybe just a part of it.

The parts of the photo that are not in focus, is called bokeh. Shallow DOF in a photo may create large amounts of bokeh. In many situations, this can be used actively to “paint” a background for your subject, like in the top photo where the green bushes in the background are so blurred out that they create a soft green colored background.

In other situations, you want as much depth in your photo as possible, e.g. you want most or all of the scene to be sharply focused. The most notable type of scene is of course landscapes. To achieve this you would use a small aperture, like f/16 or even f/22.

The corners of the triangle affect each other

Getting a good grip on all the corners of the triangle is essential, as adjustments to one have impact on the others.

Adjusting the aperture one stop wider or smaller doubles or halves the amount of light reaching the sensor, respectively. Following the same pattern, adjusting the shutter speed one step up or down has the same effect. Let’s say your light meter says your settings will produce a correct exposure. You realize that your aperture is so large that your depth of field will be too shallow for the scene you want to capture. By stopping your aperture down two stops, you need to increase your shutter speed equally two stops to achieve the same exposure. These two settings follow like hand in glove.

But this metaphor is actually not very good, as there is a third element here; the ISO. Your ISO setting has the same effect on exposure “correctness”, meaning that if you stop down your aperture 1 stop, you can go from ISO 100 to ISO 200 to achieve the same exposure.

Shooting in aperture priority mode

Normally when I’m out shooting, I first decide what aperture will fit the scene. If the lighting conditions are not complex (as with strong reflections, large dense shadows etc), I sometimes go for aperture priority mode (A or Av on the mode wheel, depending on your camera). This is faster, as I don’t have to constantly adjust the shutter speed as I move around exploring the scene from different angles. The camera measures the light and determines the shutter speed automatically. This will give me a consistent scene and depth of field and save me some time (and also ensure I don’t freeze my fingers off during the winter. Today, it’s minus 16 degrees (celcius) outside!).

Hettie, Nettie and Lettie, by Marius Waldal

Notice that in the above photo, only the middle duck (Nettie) is in focus. The other two are slightly out of focus, while the background is completely thrown out, revealing only a hint of what is there. When photographing these ducks I had to react quickly to movements, so I chose to use aperture priority mode to reduce the hassle whenever I found a nice scene. As you can guess, the ducks didn’t hold this lineup for a long time…

Although I normally shoot in full manual mode, I’ll definitely recommend those of you that are taking the step from fully automatic to manual modes to use this as a starter. It will give you less to think about, and at the same time all the benefits of shooting in RAW (you are shooting RAW, right? If not, stay tuned for an upcoming article on RAW!).

Large-aperture (fast) lenses

Most “budget”-type zoom lenses are relatively slow, with a maximum aperture around f/4.0. For Canon, if you step up to the “L” lenses, they start at f/2.8. Primary lenses are often even faster.

If you need a lens to take photos hand-held in low-light (like in a wedding, I would recommend a 50mm primary. Canon has three of these:

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II – This lens is very fast, and extremely cheap. If you want a fast lens but don’t have the money for it, this gives you a lot of speed for a low price.

My recommendation, though, would be this lens:
Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM – This is a very sharp lens with good quality, and with a price that can be justified by many. I use this myself, and I love it.

Canon has an L-series 50mm as well, for those of you with serious needs (or seriously fat wallets):
Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L USM – This is a high quality lens aimed at professionals, and priced accordingly.

Conclusion

When adjusting your exposure, the aperture is the setting that will more often than not have an “artistic” impact on your composition. Using large aperture will create areas of bokeh in your photo. It is also the most important setting for portrait photography, to separate your subject from the background.

Nevertheless, the two other settings on the exposure triangle, shutter speed and ISO, are settings that you need to know innately to be able to adjust correctly and fast for any given scene. So stay tuned for articles on these settings in the near future!

If you liked this post, you may also like:

1. Take pictures in aperture-priority mode

(Every image is linked to the photograph’s page on Flickr. Do click to see other photos!)

(yes, I actually had the nerve to include one of my own… )

If you liked this post, you may also like:

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Others share my thoughts. Therefore, someone started the group “52 weeks“; a project where you shoot and post one self-portrait every WEEK instead.

Missing you, by Marius Waldal

Even this requires a great deal of self-discipline, but it is achievable (for me). And there is another reason I prefer this: I imagine the quality of the portraits will be higher, as you have more time to plan and execute them.

One of the beauties of self-portraiture is that you always have a model at the ready! And you don’t need to feel self-confident when asking your model to perform certain tasks or acquire certain postures (at least if nobody’s watching!).

Doing self-portraits will teach you loads about portraiture and probably a few things about yourself as well. Also, I found it quite interesting to brainstorm ideas for self-portraits. Some of them will likely not be implemented, but some of them I’m really looking forward to try out!

Abandoned, by Marius Waldal

8 tips for a successful 52 Weeks project

1. Brainstorm ideas – Before you start, brainstorm ideas for types of portraits you can shoot. I myself have jotted down more than 20 achievable ideas up front.

2. Save ideas for a rainy day – Sort out 3-5 easy-to-accomplish ideas and put them away. You save these for upcoming weeks where you will either have little time to do something fancy, or little motivation. This will increase you chances of actually succeeding. Because if you fail one week, you have lowered the bar for allowing yourself to fail again. And if you do, you might lose motivation completely and throw in the towel. And you won’t be happy about it.

3. Get a smooth start – Sort out another easy-to-accomplish idea and choose this as your first-week portrait! When you begin such a project, your motivation is high. Getting a good start will solidify this motivation, while a poor start can be a killer.

4. Get moral support – If you’re already on flickr, talk to some of your contacts and tell them about your upcoming project. Explain that you are a little anxious about the whole thing and that you need their support! If they are good at encouraging you in the beginning, your confidence will build much more quickly!

5. Be active on the 52 Weeks flickr group! – Be generous with comments on other photographers’ self-portraits. You can get some tips on how to do photo critiques in this article, but as a general advice I recommend being less critical on peoples’ self-portraits than on their other photos.

6. Collect ideas from other participants – As you browse the group, write down ideas you get when seeing what others have done. Try to make your own twist on the idea. Just copying an idea from another is also ok, but it is polite to write in your description that you were inspired by another user and include a link to that photo.

7. Keep brainstorming – Every other month, sit down and brainstorm for new ideas. Don’t be picky. Any idea is fine at this stage. Even ideas that seem far out may trigger other great ideas later on.

8. From ideas to plans – Every week, spend some time going through your ideas from tip #7 and see if you can mold some of them into real assignments that you can use in your project.

I will do this project now! Will you?

February 1st 2010, week 5, I will begin my 52 Weeks project! I look forward to it, and I will be writing something about it here as well.

How about joining 52 Weeks yourself? You know you want to…

Have you done this already? Are you doing it now? Great! I would love to hear what you think!

If you liked this post, you may also like:

1. Why I did a 365 project, and why you should too!
2. 20 inspiring examples of monochrome portrait photography
3. 3 things Flickr needs to become a kick-ass service

Smoke on the water, by Marius Waldal

A multitude of light sources

Depending on your environment, your surroundings are lit by different sources of light. If you’re indoor, your light source may be fluorescent light, incandescent light, candlelight, a window, or (often) a combination. Outdoor, apart from the sun, your scene may be lit by street lights, fluorescent light or even moonlight.

These various lighting conditions call for some care when photographing, as they all have their specific characteristics. I will guide you through these common light sources and offer a few tips on the way.

The difference between the eye and the camera

It seems prudent to first say a few words about how the camera sees light compared to the eye. Our eyes have an impressive ability to adjust to the available light, trying to achieve some kind of “normality”. Even light with a strong color cast will appear a lot more normal (white) than is really the case.

Not so with a camera, which will record the light as it is. This is why your camera has a white balance control that will try to simulate what your eyes do; “normalizing” the colors in the scene. For several common lighting situations, this does the trick. But some situations, like when you shoot scenes lit by street lights, call for more thought. Learn why below.

The most common light sources

Natural light

Even though natural light is as simple as being only 1 light source – the sun – it is also the most complex type of light, and by far the one with most varieties. There are so many factors that affect sunlight (clouds, haze, temperature, season, time of day, reflections to name just a few), each with their own distinct effect on color. Actually, this subject is so vast that I will dedicate another article to natural light alone. Here I will limit myself to just a few basics.

Untitled by tbg78 on Flickr
This is a great example on the warm colors of evenings. This silo is actually gray, but when hit by the late evening sun, the sunlight paints it orange.

When sunlight (which is more or less white because it includes all colors) hits the atmosphere, some of this light scatters. The short wavelengths scatter the most, and these are at the bluish end of the scale. In the morning and evening more blue light is hindered, causing the remaining light to have a warm red or orange color cast. During the day, the sunlight passes through less atmosphere causing more blue light to hit the earth, and this creates a cooler color cast (often bluish because of reflections from the blue sky).

Different types, and amounts, of clouds affect sunlight in a multitude of ways. Most surfaces reflect sunlight, in various amounts. Depending on these surfaces, the lighting conditions may vary greatly. The weather can be hot, cold, bright, dark, rainy, misty etc, which affect the light in their distinct ways. Even when the sun is gone at night, sunlight hits the earth via the moon (which does not produce its own light but merely reflects the sun).

If you add to this the various angles to the sun or reflecting sources both you and your subject may have (and often, your camera is the only factor where you have control of positioning), you may appreciate how numerous the lighting conditions of natural light are. So stay tuned for a follow-up article on the subject of natural light!

Glowing light sources

Bulbs based on heat (tungsten lamps) – incandescent light – have for a long time been (and still is) the most common source of light in our homes. We are so accustomed to the warm yellowish light created by these lamps that we perceive it as fairly white. But our camera records the yellow color cast as it is. This is sometimes desirable, as it creates a warm, cosy effect. But more often this effect is not what we want, forcing us to adjust the white balance accordingly. As this kind of light is based on heat, the color temperature in the Kelvin temperature scale is pretty low; between 2500K-2900K (not unlike sunlight at sunrise and sunset).

Even warmer is the light emissions from flames, like candlelight or a fireplace. The white balance setting for tungsten usually works well with candle-lit interiors, but as the temperature of candlelight is just below 2000K, even more adjustment may be warranted.

Fluorescent light sources

Another light source that is not uncommon in private homes and very common in office landscapes, shops, malls and other public indoor areas are fluorescent lamps. To our eyes this light looks all white, without much “automatic adjustment” by our eyes. But to a camera, this light has a green color cast. Most people will react negatively on a greenish photo, as green is often associated with sickness and decay, so a white balance correction is most often warranted.

As always, shooting in RAW will reduce the need for choosing a correct setting, as the white balance can be easily adjusted in post-processing. If you shoot in JPG, however, you will need to take into account the fluorescent lighting in your white balance settings. Be aware, though, that fluorescent light sources may wary greatly according to the effect the manufacturer is trying to simulate. The amount of green varies from almost nothing to a stark cast. A manual correction may be necessary.

Vapor discharge light sources

That night, by Rick Elkins on Flickr

Vapor discharge lamps are on the rise. They are not new, but are gaining momentum over fluorescent lamps in many indoor lighting situations. Outdoor, they are the most common lamps for street lights and for floodlights (buildings, parking lots, stadiums etc). The two main types are sodium-based and mercury-based.

Sodium is most commonly used in street lighting. They have a strong yellow color cast, even to the eye.

Mercury-based lamps are not so easily distinguished, as they appear a lot whiter to the eye. On a photo, however, the color cast is quite green.

In some places where a more balanced spectrum is needed, like in a stadium where television cameras are used, a mixed (multi vapor) type is used.

What is special about this type of lamps, is that they peak strongly in a small part of the spectrum (like yellow or green), and at the same time are completely devoid of other parts (most notably blue). This is very obvious if you convert such a photo to monochrome and use the tonal sliders to adjust the photo. You will often experience that adjusting the blue (or similar) slider has now effect, as no blue light has been captured by the camera.

In some cases, the green color cast is so intense that it is very difficult to adjust it properly (mainly due to the very limited color spectrum available). In such cases, I recommend converting to monochrome; either as a black & white image, or choosing a psychologically more acceptable color than green; typically yellow (which is usually accepted by most people, due to familiarity created by the yellow color casts of evening sun).

Mini case study: Street lights

As you can see, the original (shot with daylight WB setting) has a stark yellow cast. At the far back, you can see a car approaching. These lights are also a bit yellow, but a lot whiter than the street lights.

In the second version, I’ve dragged the white balance setting down to 2500k. The street lights are still not entirely white, but looks reasonably normal. What’s also happened, though, is that the headlights on the car have now turned blue. In addition, the lights in the windows of the building all the way to the right have a green cast.

In this particular photo this setting would work ok, since both the headlights and the window lights are so small and unobtrusive. Had the car been clearly visible, we would be less inclined to accept the unnatural look.

The third version shows how these challenges can be avoided by choosing monochrome treatment. There are no important colors in the image that call for using a color version. On the contrary, as the bright yellow neon sign (which IS a yellow sign!) demands too much attention (as discussed in this article). By choosing monochrome, this bright yellow light becomes just another light.

Multiple sources in one scene

The Fabulous Baker Hotel, by Noel Kerns on Flickr

Life is usually not simple. Often, your scene contains multiple different types of light, and this may create complicated situations for photography. Compromise is often necessary, depending on how much control you have over your scene.

The first thing you should do is shooting a test frame to see the different color effects your lightsources create. I recommend using the daylight white balance setting for this.

If you can control your scene and some sources are especially troublesome, turning them off may be necessary.

If you can’t control your scene

If the main part of your scene is lit by one type and the other types only represent small parts of your scene, adjust for the main source. Small sources of light that look unnatural are usually acceptable.

If your scene includes daylight (i.e. from a window, especially if you can see through this window in the frame), your best option will probably be a white balance setting that will ensure this light looks natural. This is because people viewing your photo will have less tolerance for an unnatural appearance of daylight than any artificial light source in the scene.

Without natural light, you need to analyze the scene and decide on which are your key tones. Depending on what type of light source lights this part, adjust your white balance accordingly. Shoot another test frame and analyze the scene again. If this setting works for the key tones, what about those parts of the photo that are lit by other sources? If these now look even worse, you may need to experiment with your settings and select a white balance that creates the most acceptable blend of color casts in your photo. As already mentioned, yellow is usually preferable to green.

Conclusion

The subject of light and color is great. In this article I hope you have learned a little on how different light sources affect your photos, and how you might handle it. Of course, trial and error is key. Sometimes, like in the photo of the Brooklyn Bridge above, the color cast is desirable, as it contributes to a certain mood in a photo. Whenever you walk around in the evening, with or without your camera, train yourself on seeing the colors on different light sources around you. Happy shooting!

And don’t forget: I would love to read your thoughts or insights on this subject in the comments section!

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1. Color in photography – Color theory

Partly because of the great inheritance of old monochrome masters like Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, Paul Strand, Edward Weston and (many) others. Monochrome is for many strongly associated with and often favored for reportage photography (even today), especially for “serious” topics like war, poverty and suffering.

But monochrome also has an artistic leverage. It is by many viewed as more serious than color, which is often considered a distracting element. As I will come back to below, removing color puts emphasis on other artistic qualities in a photograph.

This is the first article in a planned series of articles covering monochrome photography. This first article discusses monochrome photography in general, while the upcoming articles will mostly cover small topics in a little more depth, some with hands-on case studies.

… and I hear the Sound of Summer Running, by TommyOshima on Flickr

Monochrome in the digital age

Before digital, the choice of color versus monochrome had to be taken before shooting. Today, you can browse through your images and decide if any of them would perhaps be better off as monochrome. And some photos may work equally well in both versions, though differently.

Film is monochrome, and so is the sensor in your digital camera. To achieve color, your sensor is covered with a filter (usually a Bayer filter) that records the color information in the light coming through your lens. So in digital photography, the end result is always a color photo, meaning that the color must be removed to achieve monochrome. Sounds quirky?

This is actually a great advantage! In digital post-processing, the tonal response of each hue can be adjusted separately. This means that you can use the original color information to apply local tonal adjustments during post-processing.

Some colors have similar brightness values. This means that if you convert a photo to monochrome, some colors look fairly identical in grey, resulting in loss of contrast, depth or detail.

Example:

Consider a photo that contains two colors that are equally bright, like red and green. If this photo is converted plain into monochrome, the distinction between these two elements can barely be seen. If the photo depicts a red ball in front of a green wall, the ball would all but disappear for lack of contrast between the two. A film photographer could counter this by applying a filter in front of the lens, but the decision had to be taken in advance. With digital, you can adjust the red color information afterward, applying the contrast that was lost during default conversion.

Learn more about color in the article “Color in photography – Color theory“

Effects of removing color

Waterworld, by Dave G Kelly on Flickr

This is true in all situations, of course, not only photography. For every element that is removed, more focus is concentrated on the elements that remain.

Another effect is that you get a lot more leeway in what level of adjustments people will accept. This is because monochrome never directly represents normality, being devoid of color. You can therefore allow yourself to pull harder on the controls to manipulate a photo, and still produce acceptable results. There is a lot of psychology in this. If something is close to reality, our mind will not accept much alteration to it before we will view it as just that; altered. But as monochrome is already a big leap from representing reality as it is, then we will accept a great deal more. (I am pretty sure that the color version of the feature photo on top of this article would not have endured the amount of adjustments made to the monochrome version, but in monochrome I think it looks great!)

Which photos are suitable for monochrome?

Multi-leveled softness, by Marius Waldal

Of course, there are no absolutes here. Over-simplified, you might say that any photo where color is not an important part is suitable. But that’s not very helpful, is it? Here’s a few rules of thumb to store in the back of your head:

If color creates conflict – Color can create conflicts on multiple levels. It might be colors that don’t go well together or colors that are just unpleasing to look at. But most often, it will be subordinate elements in the photo that steal attention from the main subject because they are brightly colored. Or maybe a subordinate element has the same color as the main subject, and therefore needs to be subdued? In this situation, you might also consider using both color and monochrome, with the use of selective coloring.

If color does not add to the photo – If the color in a photo does not do anything to enhance a photo or add to the overall quality, removing color may be an advantage.

If your main subject’s shape or form is a little subdued (or you just want to emphasize it) – Sometimes, your main subject may be a little subdued by its surroundings. If, for example, your subject is a rocky formation in the middle of the woods, the multitude of different green tones, leaves and twigs may create a chaotic appearance. Removing color may reduce the chaos and force the eyes to focus more on shape and form.

If you want to create (or emphasize) a somber mood – Monochrome, especially low-key, is great for emphasizing melancholy, seriousness, sadness, somberness etc.

If you aim for simplicity – Fewer elements may simplify your photo.

If the dynamic range is very high – A very high dynamic range forces you to accept clipping either in the shadows or in the highlights. Most people are more prone to accept loss of information in shadow areas. And as we are naturally accustomed to monochrome environments with lots of dense shadows (whenever we’re in the dark), we will also more readily accept loss of shadow detail in monochrome photos than in color.

If you want an “artsy” look – For many, monochrome is more associated with art than is color.

Or the best reason of them all:

If you just love black & white photography!

Shooting for monochrome

Having said that the path to digital monochrome is always via color, I didn’t mean that monochrome photography now is merely a post-processing activity. With experience you will enhance your creative vision and learn to anticipate what type of scenes, lighting and composition will work well in monochrome. Shooting for monochrome means that you have the resulting monochrome image in mind even before you start shooting. It means that you plan and compose your photo for monochrome.

What this entails is that you are able to visualize how the resulting scene will (or should) look in monochrome. A photographer experienced in monochrome will look at the colors in a scene and be able to see how these colors translate into monochrome, or even be able to look through them. You can learn that too!

The road ahead

What I aim to do in the following articles is to give you a better understanding of the differences between color and monochrome, and help you learn to think in black and white. I also hope to provide a little toolbox that you can use when digging into your existing photos to create exciting monochrome photographs.

If you liked this post, you may also like:

1. HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography – An introduction
2. How to create a black&white image with selective colors in Photoshop

Christmas Shopping HBW, by Photocillin on Flickr

Watch the background

Christmas time is decoration time. Often loads of it. This is of course an important part of creating the right Christmas mood (good), but it can also generate very fuzzy backgrounds for your photos (bad). Be sure to take your background into account when shooting, to avoid elements in your background that takes too much attention from your subject.

Move closer to your subjects

If the background is fuzzy, consider moving closer to your subject. More often than not, a photo will improve by removing the surroundings and filling the frame with your subject(s).

Christmas-time is bokeh-time

Day 4, by Phil Peck on Flickr

Don’t take only posed photos

When you look at Christmas photos, they often include people looking straight into the camera (“Say cheeeeeeese!”). In gatherings like these, I usually prefer that people are not posing, as this often looks unnatural. I want my photos to capture the mood as it was, not how it was staged. Candid shots are great. Capture the intense glee the kids show, instead of the unreal calmness when they are posing.

Use a tele for kids

Speaking of kids. They have an uncanny ability to notice that someone is taking their picture (“Can I see, can I?”), so why not try and make it more difficult for them? If there is sufficient light, try using a tele lens so that you can get more distance to the kids and perhaps get some really nice shots of them playing.

Get down on children-level

Let’s not leave the kids just yet (after all; they are the most important part of Christmas, right?). Too many photos of kids are taken downwards. Get down to their level. This perspective is a lot more pleasant and interesting. Or even better; get lower! Photos of kids taken from below creates an unusual perspective that will add an interesting twist to your photos.

Cross-process some of your photos

Unique, by pixelprints on Flickr

Try to avoid flash

If you own one (or can borrow), go for a fast lens like a 50mm 1.4 or 1.8. This will enable you to take a lot of your photos without flash. If you use the built-in flash, most photos will have hard shadows and unnatural lighting. And a quality flash won’t help you much if it isn’t used right. To capture the warm, cosy Christmas mood, it is better to shoot without a flash. A fast lens (and a little higher ISO) is your friend!

Capture the details

As I said earlier, Christmas is very much about decoration. Which means details details details. Many of these details can be interesting subjects if you use your creative vision. Photos of details will add a nice touch to your Christmas photo album (you do print some of your photos, right? They don’t all just stay on your hard drive…?). Well, they look great in digital albums as well, of course

I hope these tips will help you take better photos this year! Do you have some tips on your own? Please share them with us! And if you’ve taken Christmas photos that you are particularly satisfied with, do share them in the comments section.

I wish you all a wonderful Christmas!

If you liked this post, you may also like:

1. 10 tips to get you started with flash photography, part 1
2. 10 tips to get you started with flash photography, part 2
3. Wedding photography: How to capture the mood of the celebration