Nikon's CLS: Part 2

CLS=Nikon's Creative Lighting System. Part 2 in a series.

Let's take a look at some of the available CLS-compatible equipment. Recall from my last article that my focus, for now, is on using CLS with the Nikon D7100/D7000 cameras. 

Since the CLS uses infrared (IR) remote control and that is not built into the D7100, a controller must be added. Nikon offers the SU-800 Wireless Speedlight Commander for about $240. The SU-800 attaches to the hot shoe of the D7100, exactly where you could attach a speedlight. The SU-800 has no flash, it simply emits flash commands via its infrared communications interface.

This was written in October of 2013, and at this time Nikon produces only three speedlights that work with the CLS IR control:

SB-910       Nikon's top-of-the line speedlight, with a price of about $500. It can be attached to the camera's hot shoe or used as a remote flash.

SB-700       Another Nikon speedlight, priced at about $300. It can be attached to the camera's hot shoe or used as a remote flash.

SB-R200    This is the speedlight that is used in a dual configuration on the R1 Speedlight Remote Kit. The "R" in SB-R200 emphasizes remote, since the SB-R200 cannot be attached to the camera's hot shoe. The R1 (or R1C1, same as the R1 but it includes the SU-800 Commander) is typically used in macro photography. I find it strange, however, that amazon.com only lists used SB-R200 units, and both Adorama and B&H have them back ordered. Is Nikon about to discontinue this model?

Several discontinued Nikon flashes work with CLS: SB-900, SB-800, and SB-600. Neither the SB-400 nor the new SB-300 will work with CLS IR control. Likewise the new N1 speedlights won't work with IR control.

Yongnuo offers a number of speedlights: their YN-467 II is compatible with the Nikon CLS. At about $80 on amazon.com, it is a low cost option. It can be attached to the camera's hot shoe or used as a remote flash.

The SB-800 controller has 4 control channels (1 through 4) and three Groups (A, B and C). 

Experiment 1. Equipment: Nikon D7100 camera, SU-800 controller, SB-910 speedlight. The controller is mounted on the camera. The speedlight is mounted on a light stand about 4 feet to the left side of the camera. All three units are powered on. All settings are factory default. With the camera set to Auto, I took the shot. The remote speedlight fired. This tells me that out-of-the-box, the IR control channel and group defaults of the controller and SB-910 are the same, and the basic system works.

Now, the trick is to figure out what happens with non-default settings, and the purpose of the channels and groups.

Copyright © 2013 Philip N. Wheeler. All Rights Reserved.

Philip Wheeler Photography

f/14, 1/10 sec. (tripod mounted), ISO 100, 26mm

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Nikon's CLS: Part 1

CLS = Nikon's Creative Lighting System, a system of on and off-camera flash units.

"I have never found any sources of information that explain the Nikon flash system as a complete system." Ken Rockwell

I have to agree with Ken: The CLS sounds great and the demo videos on the Nikon site look great, especially the example location demonstrations by Joe McNally. But comprehensive information is just not there. And I want to understand it.

Many cameras have a pop-up flash. While this can help in low-light situations, it gives the photo a flat look. A better lighting setup places the flash off-camera, to one side. Adding additional flash or strobe light units can provide fill-flash, back lighting, bounced light, color fills, and other effects. One of my instructors told me that a typical Playboy centerfold shot uses 54 studio strobe lights!

Flash is not confined to indoor use. It can be useful outdoors too. Speedlight flash units such as Nikon's SB-910 can project light over a distance of 150 feet.

I'm approaching this an the owner of a Nikon D7100 (essentially the same as a Nikon D7000) and thus I will ignore other camera models for now. The D7100/D7000 has no built-in remote control capability, although it does have a pop-up flash.

Fundamental to any flash or strobe lighting system is the concept of remote control. The camera triggers a master controller that in turn triggers all the other flashes or strobes in the setup. Remote control can be accomplished in 4 ways:

Cable: sometimes called a PC cable, this is a wired setup. Some or all of the devices are wired together. You can imagine the danger of tripping over exposed cables and damaging expensive equipment! 

Flash: An on or off-camera flash can trigger lights that have optical flash sensors. The sensor detects the flash from another light and fires its flash immediately. Studio strobe lights have this capability.

Radio: Devices such as the Pocket Wizard use radio frequencies for control. A common studio setup places a Pocket Wizard on the camera, and another one is connected to a studio strobe. Triggering the strobe causes all the other strobes to fire through their optical remote sensors.

Infrared (IR): This is the method used by Nikon's CLS. Some Nikon flashes have this, and some do not. Don't be fooled by the "i-TTL" feature in this regard, as it has nothing to do with remote control. 

 Next time I'll delve into some of the available CLS-compatible equipment.

Copyright © 2013 Philip N. Wheeler. All Rights Reserved.

Philip Wheeler Photography

f/11, 1/40 sec. (tripod mounted), ISO 100, 50mm

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Nik Software for Post Processing

The Nik package of post processing software contains 6 powerful tool sets:

Color Efex Pro 4        55 Filters that can be stacked and combined into recipes

Dfine 2.0                    Adjust contrast and reduce color noise separately

Vivenza 2                   Selective image enhancements without using masks

HDR Efex Pro 2         High Dynamic Resolution tool; works with from 1 to 9 exposures

Silver Efex Pro 2        Advanced tool for black and white image processing

Sharpener Pro 3.0      Tool for enhancing subtle details and textures

This is really an amazing set of tools, with dozens of tutorial videos online. The entire package works with several versions of Photoshop, Lightroom, and Photoshop Elements (except for HDR Efex, which does not work with Elements).

I often use Photoshop CC. About every 3 or 4 times that I start HDR Efex Pro, it crashes Photoshop. So be sure to save your work before you try it! The free, fully functional demo lasts for a couple of weeks. 

Copyright © 2013 Philip N. Wheeler. All Rights Reserved.

Philip Wheeler Photography

Nikon D7100: f/5.0, 1/60 second, ISO 1600. Nikon SB-910 flash with incandescent gel bounced off the ceiling.

Processed with Nik Color Efex Pro 4

Measures of Exposure

The basic unit for designating a relative brightness of light in photography is a stop. The three main variables for exposure are aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. Each of these uses a different numbering scheme and yet they can be related to each other in terms of stops.

ISO, the relative sensitivity of the sensor, is the easiest to understand: double the ISO to add 1 stop to the exposure. Halve the ISO to subtract one stop. ISO is most commonly seen as the numbers 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400, etc. Thus to add one stop of exposure from ISO 200, you would select ISO 400. To add on-half stop to ISO 200, you would set the ISO at 300. This linear relationship makes the calculation straightforward. Higher ISO numbers mean added sensitivity to light. A word of caution, however: very high ISO settings can increase the noise in the final image. Your available ISO sensitivities depend on the sensor in your camera and on the camera's software (firmware).

Shutter speed is similarly linear. A 1/120th second exposure is one stop less bright than a 1/60th second exposure. A 2 second exposure is one stop brighter than a 1 second exposure. The maximum (fastest) shutter speed is determined by the camera/lens combination. There is a minimum, or longest, speed set within the camera's firmware: with a Nikon DSLR it is usually 30 seconds. You can switch to bulb mode, however, and when using a remote shutter release your maximum shutter open time can be many minutes.

Aperture is the oddball of the lot: full stops in aperture measurement are designated in a progression:
f/1.4, f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, f/22, f/32. This full-stop sequence of f/number is worth remembering. There are also sequences of half-stop and third-stop apertures. To double the exposure from f/8, you would set the aperture to f/5.6. Smaller f/numbers mean a larger aperture, or opening, by which light is admitted through the lens.

Higher ISO = more sensitivity to light. Longer shutter speeds = more light. Smaller f/numbers = more light.

In your practice, try combining these. Say you want a wide aperture of f/4 to gain a shallow depth of field. Your camera is set at ISO 200. Your light meter indicates a shutter speed of 1/15th second. But you are holding the camera by hand, and thus you want a shutter speed no slower than 1/60th second (two stops less) to reduce camera shake. Simply change your ISO to 800, thus adding two stops, and you've solved it!

Copyright © 2013 Philip N. Wheeler. All Rights Reserved.

Philip Wheeler Photography

f/22, 1/5 sec., ISO 800, 18 mm

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Photoshop Basics: Using Guides

Guides are very useful when you are lining up elements in an image. When creating centered text, it is useful to have a vertical guide line to follow. Both vertical and horizontal guides have many uses in layouts, and also when rotating an image. Your camera might have been slightly tilted when you photographed a building, for example. Using Photoshop, you can rotate the image in small degree increments until it is correctly oriented. Best of all, guides overlay your image. They are not part of your image. So you can add them, move them about, and delete them without affecting your image.

To create a guide, choose menu entry View > New Guide. The dialog box will appear:

Choose a position, then vertical or horizontal. It's easier to type in the position first, using tenths, hundredths etc. for fine positioning. Unless you positioned it off-screen, your guide line should appear. I almost always check View > Rulers so that I can see the rulers around my image. These help you when positioning guides. Now that you have at least one guide on the screen, select the Move tool and practice moving the guide around. If you drag a guide beyond one of the rulers, you are in effect deleting that guide.

Here are 2 guides, one vertical and one horizontal, each positioned at 2 inches:

Position your guide(s) where you want them. Then to rotate the image, in this example using Photoshop Elements, select menu entry Image > Rotate > Custom. The following dialog box will appear:

The dialog might say Right/Left, or CW (Clockwise)/CCW (Counterclockwise), depending on your version of Photoshop. You might need to rotate your image several times to get into the correct position. Finally, use the Crop tool to trim off the blank areas exposed by the rotation.

Copyright © 2013 Philip N. Wheeler. All Rights Reserved.

Philip Wheeler Photography

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What inspires you?

When you go to a park, a city, a tropical beach, or any  place at all, what do you photograph? Digital photography has opened the floodgates to new photographers, amateur and otherwise. Flickr provides a hefty sampling of new photos every day, many from people just trying to be different, to make their photos stand out from the rest. That's a good thing! Your photos must be technically excellent, but they must also be different to get noticed.

Recently a fad on Flickr was to upload photos captured while tossing the camera into the air. A dangerous way to try and be different! Some of the photos were interesting, but I do NOT recommend tossing your camera about like an old pillow.

Suppose you go on a long hike, seeking some mighty vista to photograph. You arrive, all sweaty and tired. Its late. Do you settle down to take a break? Or seize the moment to photograph the amazing scene before you?

Sometimes it takes a bit of craziness to produce photographs that really stand out. After all, you are showing people a part of your personality. Your photos need to express your own style, as some textbooks say. Whether your passion lies in photographing mountains, or people, or toilets, or whatever, do it! Photography is not a spectator sport.

If the scene looks mediocre, or like a hundred other photos you've seen, why bother taking the photo? Find something that inspires you!

In his later years, Ansel Adams was asked, "Have you taken the perfect picture yet?" He answered, "No, the best picture is around the corner."

Copyright © 2013 Philip N. Wheeler. All Rights Reserved.

Philip Wheeler Photography

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Photoshop Basics: Layers

Photoshop layers should be a key part of your post processing in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. When you open an image, it is usually called Background as shown in the Layers panel below. You can select menu item Layer > Duplicate Layer to create a copy of your image. By default it is called Background copy, but you can give it any name you like. Since it is above the Background layer in the list, it will show as the foreground on the display. Note in the list that Background has no eye symbol to its left, while Background copy does. I clicked the eye symbol on Background to make it invisible. Now I can edit the Background copy at will, knowing that I can always make another duplicate of Background and start over if I mess things up.

You can edit the Background copy with the Spot healing Brush and other tools. If you want to make changes to the entire area of the image you can, for example, choose menu entry Layers > New Adjustment Layer > Levels. With the Levels tool,  you can adjust brightness, contrast, and tonal range by using a histogram. You can experiment with changes, then click the eye icon to compare before-and-after. You can add more adjustment layers, such as Gradient Map, add Fill layers and more, until the combination of adjustments produces the photograph you like. You can drag layers to re-position them in the list, or delete a single layer by selecting it and clicking on the trash can icon.

Since all of these layer adjustments are non-destructive, you can go back to your original image at any time. Once complete, you can Save as JPEG or another file format for your intended use. While you can flatten all the layers to produce a single modified image, this is destructive and NOT recommended. You should simply save your .PSD file in case you want to make additional adjustments later.

There is much more to learn about layers, but this will get you started!

Copyright © 2013 Philip N. Wheeler. All Rights Reserved.

Philip Wheeler Photography

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Photoshop Basics: Spot Healing

Both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements have the Spot Healing Brush Tool:

The spot healing brush tool is very useful when small dust spots intrude upon your image. You select the tool, adjust the brush size, and click the cursor on the dust spot. The healing brush tool looks for nearby groups of pixels that are similar to those surrounding the offending area and fills in the spot. Sometimes this works extremely well. Other times you might need to try several times to get it right. If you have an area of distraction that is larger than a spot, try to clean it all up at once. If you don't, the healing brush tool may fill in the area with other portions of the distraction. For example, if a power line crosses your image, brush over the entire length of the line before releasing the mouse button. 

Suppose you have a photo that has a small area that distracts from the subject. In the  photo below, magnified and cropped from a much larger photo for illustration purposes, there is a "Please Stay Outside of the Root Cellar" sign that is distracting:

Use the spot healing brush to paint over the sign:

Then release the mouse button and the "healing" process will produce the result:

For small areas of an image, the spot healing brush is often a quick and effective tool.

Copyright © 2013 Philip N. Wheeler. All Rights Reserved.

Philip Wheeler Photography

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Photoshop Basics: Cropping your Photos

Cropping is the process of reducing the area of the scene covered by your image. A DX format camera crops the scene when compared to a full frame camera. With Photoshop, you control additional cropping of your photo to achieve a desired result.

Open your photo in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. Here is a horse named Dancer:

Locate the Crop tool in the toolbar.

Select the Crop tool. Four handles will appear, one on each side of your image. Click on one and drag it toward the center of the image. Use all the handles as needed until only the desired part of your image is showing. Another handle appears at each of the four corners of the image. You can use these too. Double-click on the image to complete the crop. Here is the cropped version of Dancer:

Cropping reduces the image area. At the same time, the image resolution is reduced because parts of the original photo have been discarded. This is why cameras with more megapixels are handy: an image can be cropped but still have enough resolution for your print or other purpose. If your original image has insufficient resolution, your cropped image could look as bad as the pixelated image of Dancer below:

Copyright © 2013 Philip N. Wheeler. All Rights Reserved.

Philip Wheeler Photography

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Photoshop Basics: Resizing an Image

Photoshop and Photoshop Elements contain powerful tools such as layers, masking, filters, and much more. Photoshop can be intimidating for a new user. Resizing an image is a skill that every photographer should know.

Terminology: ppi stands for pixels per inch. This is the number of pixels that line up to measure one inch. Computer displays typically show 72 ppi, while printers can exceed 1200 ppi.

How to Resize an Image

Start Photoshop and open the image that you want to resize. The File > Open menu is common to both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. For a RAW image, another dialog will open with additional options. After the file is open, locate the Image Size menu entry:

Elements: Image > Resize > Image Size
Photoshop: Image > Image Size

Below is a screen capture of the Image Size dialog box from Photoshop Elements 10. Make sure Constrain Proportions is checked in order to preserve the image's aspect ratio. Uncheck the option Resample Image. Then set either the width or the height, and the other dimension will be recalculated for you. Or, set the Resolution and the width and height will be calculated. When selecting Resolution, realize that most computer monitors display somewhere between 72 and 96 ppi. Finally, click OK to resize the image.

There are Resampling options that you can play with using the dropdown box that allows you to select an interpolation algorithm. Only resample if you know why you are doing so, and be aware of the consequences. You will either lose data if you make the image smaller, or you will allow Photoshop to invent data that is not in your original image when you enlarge.

Resampling for print is generally not recommended. A printer uses much higher resolution when putting dots on paper. A quality photo printer is capable of printing at 1440 dpi (dots per inch) or higher. After you set the size, it is often best to let the printer driver take care of any resampling that is required for an optimum printed image.

Copyright © 2013 Philip N. Wheeler. All Rights Reserved.

Philip Wheeler Photography

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Choosing a Camera, Revisited

In my Choosing a Camera article I discussed my process of selecting a refurbished Nikon D600. It was a great camera, briefly. But I immediately noticed a few features that are really not up to par. For example, the focus area is limited to the center area of the frame, and the auto-exposure bracketing (AEB) is limited to 3 shots. After a hundred photos the oil spot problem started to appear. After about 700 shots it was obvious that the camera was defective and so I returned it to B&H Photo.

I initially decided on the D600 because I wanted the advantages of a full frame sensor as I start building my lens collection. Ultimately, camera bodies are upgraded every few years, but high quality glass lasts pretty much forever. In the long run your lenses will represent a more substantial investment than your camera.

Here are a few of the top rated Nikkor full-frame lenses:

Nikkor AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8 G ED N   $2000
Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8 G ED VR II   $2400
Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/4 G ED VR   $1400
Nikkor AF-S 85mm f/1.4 G   $1650

Canon has similar high quality, high priced lenses designated by "L" (Luxury). I considered the Canon 70D camera body, but DxOMark sensor ratings show that Nikon and Sony sensors consistently achieve the best results. I have no way to prove or disprove this. Subjectively, I like the results from the Nikon DSLRs (D7000, D600) better than some of those from my Canon 60D, although the 60D is a fine camera.

My current thinking is to purchase a Nikon D7100 body. It has a number of improvements over the D7000/D600/D610 models, such as 5-shot AEB, and without the anti-alias filter it is capable of sharper images. Over time I can purchase quality full-frame lenses as my budget will allow, and ultimately upgrade to a full-frame body that can take maximum advantage of the lens collection.

Copyright © 2013 Philip N. Wheeler. All Rights Reserved.

Philip Wheeler Photography

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New Sony Mirrorless Digital Cameras

Yesterday Sony announced two new full-frame mirrorless digital cameras, as expected. Sony calls these Interchangeable Lens Digital SLR cameras. Others might call them Single-Lens Translucent (SLT) cameras.

The α7 (Alpha 7) Interchangeable Lens Camera, full-frame sensor, 24.3MP, is about $1700 (body only) or with 28-70mm lens, about $2000.

The α7R (Alpha 7R) Interchangeable Lens Camera, full-frame sensor, 36.4MP, about $2300 (body only). Similar to the above but with more MP, and the low-pass filter has been removed just as in the Nikon D800E. This increases sharpness.

Both models have improved noise reduction, built-in WIFI and NFC (near-field communication) networking, and many improvements over the Sony NEX mirrorless cameras. The α7R is also weather-sealed like the Nikon D800 and D800E. Some nifty new autofocus features have also been added, such as eye focus, an upgrade of the existing face-recognition system that focuses on the nearest eye.

Five new Sony full-frame lenses will also be launching in Dec 2013, but we will have to wait until sometime in 2014 for a wide angle lens specific to the Sony E mount system. However, there are Leica to Sony E mount adapters available for $33 and up. Likewise, lens adapters are available for Canon, Nikon and many other lenses.

A mirrorless interchangeable lens digital camera does not have a mirror reflex optical viewfinder. This means you get a digital viewfinder in these Sony cameras, called an OLED finder. I have not tried one yet, but I'm told that it is better than the traditional DSLR viewfinder because you see exactly what the sensor sees, including depth-of-field.

Will mirrorless digital cameras replace traditional DSLRs? Only time will tell!

Copyright © 2013 Philip N. Wheeler. All Rights Reserved.

Philip Wheeler Photography

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Mirror Flipping

An SLR (Single Lens Reflex) or DSLR camera typically uses a mirror and prism system that lets the photographer see through the lens when preparing to take a photograph. When you press the shutter release, the mirror flips upward to allow light to pass through to the sensor instead of being reflected to the viewfinder. And therein lies a problem: no matter how steady your tripod, the mirror flipping will introduce a tiny amount of shake to the camera and might cause a slight blur in your image.

This can be a difficult problem to isolate. Getting your focus exactly right is a primary concern. A steady camera, with aid from a tripod, vibration reduction (VR) system, or other methods is also very important. A fast shutter speed helps a lot, but this is not possible in low light situations. And some VR systems can introduce shake when used on a tripod, further complicating the situation.

Two possible cures exist for the mirror flipping problem.

Using the first method, you lock the mirror in place before taking the shot. Use your camera to compose the scene and set the exposure, then lock up the camera mirror before releasing the shutter via remote shutter release. For many Nikon cameras, this involves setting a dial to MUP (Mirror Up). Then you use a remote shutter release: the first press locks up the mirror, the second press releases the shutter.

The second method is to use a mirrorless camera instead of a DSLR. I am waiting for a chance to try this when I purchase a full-frame Sony mirrorless digital camera.

Copyright © 2013 Philip N. Wheeler. All Rights Reserved.

Philip Wheeler Photography

f/22, ISO 100, 24mm. A combination of 9 images captured from a tripod.
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Dirty Sensor on Nikon D600

The image below is the upper left corner of a photo that I took yesterday. During post-processing, I noticed lots of spots on the image. I examined the image at 100%. There are spots over much of the image, with the largest concentration in the upper left corner. Tonemapping can really emphasize any dust or spots.

I read about the Nikon dirty sensor problem on the D600 model before I purchased it. Some sources said that the problem only existed on early units. A camera-store professional told me that reconditioned D600 units were repaired by the Nikon factory on Long Island and that the oil spot problem was corrected during repair.

Others noted that the upcoming Nikon D610 was a redesigned D600 that corrects the problem. Some said the D610 was just for marketing, since the problem had been corrected in current D600 units.

Your DSLR has a sensor cleaning menu function. My Canon is set to "clean" the sensor on power on/off. This involves an ultrasonic shaking of the sensor. Some dust might shake off, but oil spots will not. The official Canon sensor cleaning recommendation is to use a dust blower only. Nikon has dire warnings about damaging the filters that cover the sensor. It might be best to leave sensor cleaning to professionals.

The image below shows a problem that goes far beyond a few dust specks. I'll be returning my reconditioned D600 to B&H.

Copyright © 2013 Philip N. Wheeler. All Rights Reserved.

Philip Wheeler Photography

Saving Your Photos

Digital media isn't perfect. Computers crash. Disks fail. If you value your digital photos, you need to plan and implement a backup strategy for your files.

Planning a backup strategy is complicated by many factors. File naming conventions among digital cameras vary. A download from a Canon 60D results in one or more folders named with the date the photos were taken. A download from a Nikon (D40, D50, D200, D600) results in a numbered folder that contains the files. Usually the camera will number the photo files sequentially. For example, IMG_1685.CR2 or DSC_0012.NEF. However, on some DSLRs you can reset the numbering scheme to 0001 at any time. The file prefix, such as IMG, can also be changed in the camera menus.

My strategy is to use file folders that are named with the date that the photos were taken. This is the default Canon strategy. It takes a bit of extra effort after each Nikon download, but I think it is worthwhile. It works well with Lightroom Collections too, since a collection is just a set of links to the actual files, which can be scattered over many folders or disks.

Once the folders are on my main hard disk, I copy them to an external hard disk. This is my backup disk. I also use a networked hard disk. From the networked disk I can manipulate the RAW images from several computers. For example, I might start a batch of photos through lens perspective correction software on one PC while editing files on the other PC. My only concern is to back up original RAW files and any "finished" photographs after post-processing. Anything that can be recreated, such as perspective correction files, is not backed up.

Backup software could also be used. However, I prefer to control the process myself.

But things happen. This morning I noted that a file, IMG_00393.CR2, that I stored two years ago is now corrupt. My backup scheme failed since I had not manually backed up the file folder. I attempted to repair the file with disk recovery software RescuePRO Deluxe to no avail. Then I tried PHOTORECOVERY 2013 from L C Technology. Again, no luck.

Always back up your photos!

Copyright © 2013 Philip N. Wheeler. All Rights Reserved.

Philip Wheeler Photography

f/3.5, 1/40 sec., ISO 100, 18mm

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Do It Again!

My goal was fairly simple, I thought: apply the Rule of Thirds to portray a summer flower in full bloom. It was a cloudy, rainy week in August. Each morning at about sunrise, I went to a local park to photograph one of a a group of flowers. Day after day, the weather refused to cooperate. But it was a great opportunity to practice in the diffused light of the overcast mornings.

I spotted the scene depicted in the photo below: a tiny spider weaving a dew-drenched web on a nascent cluster of flowers. The photo was taken with the lens at its closest focal point, which for that lens was 1.5 ft. The spider was hard at work over several days, and I took a lot of photos. I rejected most of them because of unwanted stuff in the background. When going for a shallow depth of field, it's easy to forget about the background sometimes.

This uncropped 5184x3456 pixel photo definitely does not follow the Rule of Thirds, but I like it. The focus could have been sharper, however, and using a camera with a better sensor might have helped. I will be revisiting this scene in the future.

Copyright © 2013 Philip N. Wheeler. All Rights Reserved.

Philip Wheeler Photography

f/5.6, 1/20 sec., ISO 500, 18mm

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Landscape Photography Part 1

I enjoy photographing landscapes. A wide-angle lens works well but I most often use a zoom lens that is capable of a fairly short focal length since it is more convenient for walkabout photography. The question is, what is the best aperture, or f number, to use? Here is my rule of thumb: use the smallest aperture at which you can still get a correct exposure.

To help convey the illusion of depth, you want all objects in the scene to be in reasonably good focus from near to far. Those of you who have read my article on depth of field may recall that a smaller f number gives you a shallow depth of field, which is not what you want for landscape photography.

I read a photo "secret" written by a photography instructor, who said that landscape photography is best done with an aperture setting of from f/7.1 to f/9.0. Nonsense! To maximize depth of field, try f/22. Use a lens that can be set to a short focal length such as 18mm and focus on an object about 5 feet away from your camera. You should use a tripod to steady your camera and thus allow the longer exposure time that will be necessary with the small aperture. Go ahead and increase your ISO up to 800 if necessary, especially if there is some movement in the scene. A higher ISO sensitivity will allow you to increase your shutter speed and thus reduce movement blur.

Oh, you do use manual exposure, don't you?

Copyright © 2013 Philip N. Wheeler. All Rights Reserved.

Philip Wheeler Photography

f/22, 0.3 sec., ISO 100, 18mm

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sRGB vs. AdobeRGB

While browsing through your camera's menus you might have seen an entry where you can choose between the sRGB or the AdobeRGB color models. What's the difference?

RGB stands for Red Green Blue. It is an additive color model, in which red, green and blue light are combined to achieve a spectrum of colors. Adding more of each of these three colors gives a brighter result, until ultimately it reaches white.

In the RGB model 8 bits are used for each of the three colors. Thus there can be only 256 shades of red, 256 shades of green, and 256 shades of blue, because 2 to the 8th power equals 256. Combining the three colors gives you 16,777,216 possible colors, or 2 to the 24th power.

sRGB is similar, but it was created specifically for use with CRT computer monitors. Most LCD/LED/etc. displays follow this standard.

LCD/LED/plasma displays emit light as opposed to a print, which reflects light. Prints use the CMYK color model, which stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key (Black). CMYK is a subtractive color model. As more cyan, magenta and yellow ink are added, the result gets darker until it finally reaches black. The black color was added to the model in order to conserve ink when printing darker colors. The printing process is further complicated by the use of dithering and halftones.

The AdobeRGB model allows light-emitting displays to reproduce most of the colors possible with the CMYK model. The problem is that not all devices support AdobeRGB. So while you may set your camera to AdobeRGB, only very expensive computer monitors are capable of displaying AdobeRGB. The safest choice is to set your camera to sRGB.

Copyright © 2013 Philip N. Wheeler. All Rights Reserved.

Philip Wheeler Photography

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Polarizing Filters

The most useful lens filter that you can employ for landscape photography is called a circular polarizing filter. A polarizing filter reduces the glare from non-metallic objects. It also reduces haze and deepens the color of a blue sky.

A polarizing filter has an outer ring that you turn until you get the effect that you want, from full to none. The effect is strongest when your lens is pointed in the direction perpendicular to the sun. Observe the effect carefully as you turn the filter. Sometimes you can inadvertently cause an unwanted color fade, or cause your sky to become too dark.

Note that using such a filter will decrease the amount of light that travels through your lens, perhaps as much as 2 or 3 stops. This can be an adverse factor for handheld shots since you may need to use a slower shutter speed and thus camera shake may be introduced, which will lead to images that are not in sharp focus. The filter can introduce unwanted vignetting when used on a wide angle lens, thus it is not recommended for those lenses.

Be sure to use a circular polarizing filter. A linear polarizing filter is much less expensive but cannot be effectively used with your DSLR's metering and autofocus systems.

Your lens is most likely marked with a Ø symbol and a number in mm. This is the diameter of filter that you need to fit that lens. I recommend that you avoid the cheapest circular polarizing filters. The better ones are made of higher quality glass and have more durable coatings.

Finally, when you don't need it, take the filter off of your lens and stash it in your bag. It may not be needed indoors, for example. You should have a case in which to safely store the filter when not in use.

Copyright © 2013 Philip N. Wheeler. All Rights Reserved.

Philip Wheeler Photography

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Creating a Panorama

Here's how to create a simple panorama!

Equipment needed: Your DSLR and a tripod with a built-in level. You can also use a level that attaches to your camera's flash shoe, and a tripod. For post processing, you will need Photoshop or another software package that allows you to stitch multiple images together.

First, put your camera on M: Manual exposure. During the shots, leave the aperture constant.

Locate your scene and set up your tripod. In this example I am using a pan/tilt tripod with a built-in bubble level. Level the tripod, then attach your camera. Use the pan control and position your field of view to cover first one, then another, and then another part of the landscape, until the entire area for the panorama is covered. Allow a bit of overlap between shots. Be sure to get the exposure exactly right for each shot. I used 4 shots to achieve the example image below; you might need more or less.

Load the images into your computer. Preprocess each image with lens optics distortion correction software (Photoshop, Lightwave, DxO Optics, PTLens, etc.). In this example, I preprocessed each image using DxO Optics Pro 8 and then opened the corrected images in Photoshop CC.

Once your files are preprocessed, choose Photoshop menu File > Automate > Photomerge... Add the files for the panorama, or use them directly from within Photoshop if they are open. Click OK. Photoshop will merge the images, placing them left to right according to their characteristic patterns. After processing, you will have a new panoramic image!

Copyright © 2013 Philip N. Wheeler. All Rights Reserved.

Philip Wheeler Photography

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Composition: Framing Your Subject

Another composition technique that is used in photography is framing. Using part of the scene as a frame of some sort helps to draw attention to your subject. The frame can also provide context and help minimize distractions.

A frame can be a hole in the rocks, branches of a tree, a tunnel, the view under a bridge, an opening in a fence, or architectural structures such as arches, windows and doors. Effective framing can help emphasize the subject, and perhaps keep the viewer's eye from being distracted by what surrounds the frame.  A frame need not completely surround the subject.

As with leading lines, the frame can add depth to your two-dimensional image. You can also use the frame to provide some empty space. When you have a subject who is looking to one side, you can arrange the composition such that there is space in the direction the subject is looking.

Look for opportunities to use the framing technique in your compositions. It can sometimes turn what would have been an ordinary photograph into something more interesting, perhaps even a good photograph.

In the example photo, the adult camel's body provides an unusual frame for the young camel's head.

 Copyright © 2013 Philip N. Wheeler. All Rights Reserved.

Philip Wheeler Photography

Trey Ratcliff's Landscape Tutorial (use code SIC-6683 for 10% off!)

Camels

Composition: Leading Lines

I discussed the Rule of Thirds for scene composition in my last article. Now consider leading lines. When composing a scene for your photo, leading lines can provide a path for your eyes to follow to the subject.

Recall that a good photograph has a clear subject. The subject is emphasized while distractions are minimized. 

Leading lines can create a sense of motion in your composition. They can also help convey a sense of depth to your two dimensional image. Any objects lined up in a row can be used as a line in your composition. Examples include fence posts, a row of cows walking through a field, a line of parked cars, and street lights. Watch for lines created by such objects as masonry, a sea shore, a mountain range, rivers, trees, roads, and buildings. Lines are everywhere. The key to using them in composition is positioning your camera at an appropriate spot such that the lines help direct the eye to your subject.

In the example photograph shown below, the lines created by the garden path and its border masonry lead the eye to the old English cottage.

 Copyright © 2013 Philip N. Wheeler. All Rights Reserved.
Philip Wheeler Photography
Trey Ratcliff's Landscape Tutorial (use code SIC-6683 for 10% off!)

English Garden

Composition: The Rule of Thirds

Ansel Adams said, "There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs." Rules for photographic composition are useful, but they do not ensure that you will produce a good photograph. The trick is to know both how to use the rules and when to break them in order to help you achieve that elusive good photograph.

A good photograph has a clear subject, and uses various techniques to emphasize the subject and minimize distractions.

The most common photographic composition places the subject squarely in the center. In general, this is not very interesting. Exceptions exist, however, such as when the subject fills most of the frame of the image. But you should master other composition techniques as well.

One common and useful rule is called the Rule of Thirds. The drawing below represents your image area in the common 3:2 aspect ratio. Within the large rectangle, there are lines dividing the length and width each into 3 parts. These lines intersect at 4 points, marked below with circles. Using the Rule of Thirds, you would center your subject at one of these 4 circles.

The Rule of Thirds was invented by the master painters of the Renaissance. Its purpose is to allow space in the painting to provide some context to the subject, to help tell a story. The eye tends to wander to these four points more readily than to the center of the image.

In the example photograph below, I used the Rule of Thirds to position the flower, emphasizing the subject. I also used a shallow depth of field to throw the background and extreme foreground out of focus in order to minimize distractions.

Copyright 2013 © Philip N. Wheeler. All Rights Reserved.

Philip Wheeler Photography

Flower

HDR Software Notes

Here is a useful tip for HDR enthusiasts who use Photomatix: always convert your RAW files to TIFF first. The RAW converter in Photomatix is not of the highest quality, according to the Photomatix developers. If you use lens correction software, which I recommend, it will probably handle the conversion for you (DxO Optics, Lightroom). Users of PTLens must do the conversion from RAW before the PTLens processing can start so that works out well.

SNS-HDR Pro 1.4.22 is an alternative to Photomatix that is said to be the most halo-resistant of all HDR software. I downloaded and installed the demo version. I loaded it with a set of 5 images I took in the Blue Ridge Mountains at dawn. But first I used DxO Optics 8 to correct the lens aberration and convert from NEF to DNG. Using the default settings, the result from SNS-HDR was very clear and halo-free. I like the feature that asks if you want to save the image as 8-bit or 16-bit TIFF; Photomatrix saves as 16-bit, which is nice if you need it but for my work it just results in a larger file that I need to flatten before processing in Photoshop. (Note that I mean 8-bits or 16-bits per channel.) My first impression of SNS-HDR is positive, although it is a lot slower than Photomatix 5. The demo version places a huge watermark on all finished images.

Expose 3 is another HDR software package that I need to try.

Dynamic Photo HDR 5 is said to be less expensive than Photomatix, but it supposedly has a better RAW file converter. It does not include batch processing, however.

Many image processing software packages include a batch processing feature. This is very useful, for example, when performing lens corrections using DxO Optics Pro 8. You can quickly set it up to process entire folders of files, instructing it as to your preferred settings and output file format. Since it can take well over an hour to process 100 images, allowing batch processing means you can go about your business while the computer works away.

Copyright © 2013 Philip N. Wheeler. All Rights Reserved.

Philip Wheeler Photography

Hen

Choosing a Camera

I have been using a Canon 60D for the past couple of years. It's a great camera, and the kit lens (18-135mm) is a good walkabout lens. But now I would like to expand my lens selection to include a wide angle lens, to start with. And therein lies the dilemma. You can easily invest much more in your lenses than you typically spend on a camera body. Therefore it would be best to purchase lenses that you can use on future upgraded versions of your camera body of choice.

Leaving the subject of lens adapters aside, my goal is to use Canon lenses on Canon cameras, Nikkor lenses on Nikon cameras, etc. In previous articles I have written about sensor size and ISO sensitivity, and based on that information I concluded that I want a camera with a full-frame sensor.

In my research I looked primarily at Canon and Nikon DSLRs, but I also looked into the new mirrorless cameras. An SLR or DSLR lets you see though the lens when you look through the viewfinder, and this requires a mirror inside the camera body. A mirrorless camera shows the viewfinder image on an electronic screen. This is similar to the Live View shooting mode common in many DSLRs, and like Live View it has a lag that makes it difficult to use in action/sports photography. The Sony NEX series of mirrorless cameras are tempting: the Sony NEX-7 offers 24MP and 10 frames-per-second shooting speed, and the price is very reasonable, but it has a smaller APS-C sized sensor. The Sony DSC-RX1 has a full-frame sensor, but the price is rather high. At this time, there are few full-frame mirrorless cameras from which to choose. I expect that more will appear on the market in the next few years, and it is possible that they will overtake the DSLR in popularity at some point. However, that hasn't happened yet.

Thus my research came down to finding a DSLR camera with a full-frame sensor from a manufacturer who offers a decent selection of full-frame lenses. Since using FX/full-frame lenses on DX/APS-C sensors results in a cropped image, I concluded that mixing lens and sensor sizes was not what I wanted to do.

Next came the question: buy new, used or refurbished? A factory refurbished camera by Nikon or Canon, purchased with warranty from a major dealer such as B&H Foto or Adorama, seemed like the best choice based on recommendations from a number of photographers who had already gone down that path.

Then I considered design flaws. For example, the Nikon D40 and D80 DSLRs had an exposure design flaw, easily compensated for but annoying just the same. I looked at the Nikon D600 and D800: the D600 had a history of oil spots on its sensor. I found that this seemed to be limited to the early units and was corrected by the factory in refurbished cameras.

The D800 has features that some reviewers don't like, such as the small autofocus coverage and non-intuitive menu system. The D600 has 24MP, and the D800 has 36MP. Another of my articles discussed MP. An additional concern is that a huge MP count requires more disk storage space. I can easily use 5 to 10 GB of storage space in a few days with my 18MP Canon 60D. Add storage space for post-processing and the numbers grow to multiple terabytes per year. The D800 is also more expensive than the D600.

After much deliberation, I decided to buy a refurbished Nikon D600. This will help reduce the noise in my photos and provide a basis upon which to build a full-frame lens collection.

Copyright © Philip N. Wheeler. All Rights Reserved.

Philip Wheeler Photography

Tree