5 Take Aways from Week 4

1. In Lightroom: create virtual copies does not take up any space!  This alone is worth buying Adobe Lightroom 3.
2. In Lightroom create a normal processed image, then create a virtual copy and then BE CREATIVE!  You'll be surprised!!!  Really!
3. In my ISO TESTS, that shooting in ISO 800 had noise on my Canon 5D Mark II, but I was able to use the Noise Reducer in Lightroom and the image looked GREAT!!  I used to only go up to ISO 400 but now after all the tests, I feel comfortable bumping it up to ISO 800 if necessary.
4. That my Canon 5D Mark IIspot meter is 1/3 stop underexposed.  So that I should always overexpose by 1/3 stop.  Bottom line is when I shoot in Manual mode that I should always go right 1 click (1/3 stop).
5. Lastly, I've learned how to measure RGB and LAB values to determine the true speed of my camera.  And that each camera is different even if it's the same Canon 5D Mark II.  I'm sure you are saying "Shelly....what the heck are you talking about?".  Yes, I know!  I'll have to explain myself one day and show you my revised homework to explain how to find your true speed of your camera.

Hope this has been helpful for you all.  

5 Take Aways from Week 3

1) Vignettes: Go easy on them!  This week we submitted some of our images for our instructor to give feedback on.  I was almost embarrassed because some of my vignettes were a little too much.  I love vignettes, but you can easily go overboard on them.  Really depends on the image and if will add to it and help you focus on where you want to focus on.  Remember subtlety is the key when in doubt!

2) Noise in an Image: This is noise:

See all that grain?  Noise is the digital age of cameras come from many things.  One of the most common ways is shooting at a higher ISO.  For example this above shot was taken at ISO 6400.  Below is an image shot at ISO 100.

The trade off is sometimes by keeping your ISO too low, you may miss the shot.  I personally stay between 100 and 400 ISO.  When shooting in dark lighting conditions, I stay below ISO 2000.  I have shot both with Nikon and Canon and Nikons do a better job with minimizing grain.  But the newer Canons have done a better job.

So now that I've explained noise.  Here is what you can do in Lightroom to recover your image with a high ISO.

Now compare this to the first image.  See how much of that grain is gone.  Remember that as you smooth things out with the NOISE REDUCTION slider you will loose sharpness.  But it sure looks a lot beter with the noise reduction.  Back to why this is a HUGE LESSON for me.  Hold the OPTION | ALT key while moving the Mask slider under the sharpening section in the Lightroom DEVELOP module.  And drag it to the far right.  This is called a mask.  This mask allows you to sharpen the edges only.  Then the Noise Reduction in the middle areas removes the grain while the sharpen slider keeps it sharp.  This was a BRILLIANT discovery for me!  I use this method on almost every image these days when reducing noise.

3) Cropping: Sometimes we try to put too much into a picture.  Here is a crop my instructor shared with me that after she did it kicked myself in the shin for not thinking of it.

Before: 

After:

Notice how simple it is?  Don't try to do too much in a shot.  Here is another tip: see how the chopsticks are coming in from the bottom left corner.  I planned that!  I probably will write another post one day on it, but try to frame things that come from the corners.  Gives your eyes something pleasant to look at instead of everything so straight.

4) Sandbox Time:  Spend 30-60 minutes each week playing in your sandbox.  As a kid playing in a sandbox is a fun place to be.  Making things up digging and creating.  Well as adults we get so busy in life that we don't take time to just play.  So as you are learning new things like Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.  Spend 30-60 minutes just playing with an image.  You can really learn a lot!

5) Be creative: I'm working on a calendar project for 2012 and one of the homework assignments I had was to be creative with an image.  So it was kinda like a forced sandbox time.  As I was playing around in Lightroom I started messing the presets and colors and check out this before and after shot of Asia's LARGEST train station.

Before:

After:

The second image just pops and add's in a creative element.  Wish you could see it bigger, not as black as it appears here.

5 Take Aways from Week 2

First of all there are way too many to list.  And to compare them all?  Crazy!  So here it goes:

1. "Shoot to the right": You'll hear this term a ton.  Basically as you shoot in the Manual mode you'll want your histogram to lean to the right if possible.  Which means more WHITE or OVER EXPOSED.  But "why" I hear you say?  There are a few reasons.  
• There is actually more data in the right.  Even though it looks all white, there is more data in there than if you were to shoot it dark or under exposed. 
• When you go to edit your photos, it's easier to add in the blacks, but if you shoot it dark and then you try to brighten your picture, you end up with NOISE.  Noise is all that grain in the shadow areas.
• For class I had to shoot in manual changing it one full stop at a time under exposed and over exposed, and the images that were over exposed were significantly bigger in megabytes.
2. Understanding Dynamic Range: very very helpful!  Oh my gosh! Check this article out. Warning very technical, but can really help you in understanding how to shoot when you know your range.
3. Camera LCD Lies to You: Bottom-line, when you shoot in RAW you are shooting 16 bit, but in the view finder it's a jpeg representation of what is going on in your camera.  Meaning it's 8 bit.  So if you turn on your blinkies in your camera and see that your highlights are being clipped, it's because it's giving you info on the 8bit.  
4. When Editing a Photo and you are stuck, walk away, then come back to it.
5. After copying your pictures to your drive and you make a backup, then don't delete the files on your card, use the CAMERA to FORMAT the card for next time.  I knew this already but it was reinforced how important it is.  You can be shooting on a card that already has data on it and it could be unstable.  So PLEASE use the format feature in your camera after you've transfered all your data.

5 Take Aways from Week 01

As some of you know I started my masters degree in Digital Photography from one of the top Art schools in New York.  Here are my top 5 take aways from week 1.

1. Organize, Organize, Organize: Taking the time to get your workflow organized is EXTREMELY important.  Everything from taking the shot down to exporting it for your clients and backing up. Yes, backup, backup, backup.  
2. Importance of Keywords in my own workflow, not just when it hits iStockphoto.  Yes, I'm guilty of not spending time key-wording, but as my instructors say, if you can't find your photos then you might as well have not shot it.  Wastes time, and money.  Sure you can remember where it was this past year, but try finding your files 10 years from now.
3. Getting the right tools: I know photography is an expensive hobby, but if you don't have the right tools, your pictures can look like crap!  It may look nice on your screen but when you print it out, it's dark and flat could be simply embarrassing.  
4. Convert your files somewhere in your workflow to DNG.  Yes, every camera maker out there makes RAW files, but over time DNG will remain open-source and supported by the photography community.  So just get it right and start converting your RAW files to DNG.  FYI, JPG's do not need conversion since it's already a compressed and a limited file.
5. Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop is pretty much the standard!  Buy it and use it!  And most of all get over the price of it.