What’s new in Stunning Digital Photography v5.0 (May 2015)

The photography book you purchased, Stunning Digital Photography, includes free lifetime updates—my lifetime, not yours :). This document shows you just the new content. In addition, we’ve made hundreds of minor corrections and updates throughout the book, in particular, to update it to be just as applicable to mirrorless cameras as DSLRs. If you want more free educational videos, subscribe to our YouTube channel at sdp.io/yt. We release new videos every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. We now review reader photos live every Thursday at 5pm eastern time in the US (New York City time). We’ve also released three other photography-related books since SDP. Our Lightroom video books include more than 14 hours of video training to help you master photo editing. Our Photography Buying Guide includes over 16 hours of videos that will help you save money by choosing the best cameras, lenses, flashes, tripods, studio lighting, and more. The ebooks are only $9.99, and if you’re not happy, just let me know at tony@northrup.org and I’ll give you a full refund. This document only contains the new content, so it’ll read very disjointed.

Free Camera Tutorials

Because readers have so many different cameras, this book can’t always tell you exactly which buttons to push on your camera. However, I have created free video tutorials that show you how to do everything you need for this book using many popular cameras. You can see them at sdp.io/tutorials. If you don’t see your camera, choose a similar model.

Click to play video: Online Print Services (10:00)

Carry Extras

Nothing is more frustrating than missing a shot because you ran out of batteries or space on your memory card. Buy an extra battery and keep it ready on your charger. When you go out, grab both batteries. Carry extra memory cards with you. Buy a handful of the cheapest memory cards you can find, even if they’re small, and stash them in your bag, purse, suitcase, and wallet. The next time you fill up your memory card, or forget your card at home, your extra will save the day.

Never Close an Empty Door

When you take a memory card or battery out of your camera, leave the camera door open until you replace it. The next time you pick up your camera, the open door will remind you that your camera’s not yet ready.

Photography Projects

Looking for inspiration? Try the projects from these six videos!

Click to play video: Still Life (5:55)

 

Click to play video: Photographing a Car Show (6:36)

 

Click to play video: Levitation photography (6:05)

 

Click to play video: Capturing Multiple Exposures (8:42)

Click to play video: Creating Impressionistic Art (6:36)

Click to play video: Making a Custom Do-it-Yourself Ring Light (3:37)

Click to play video: Fill Flash (2:44)

 

Click to play video: Bounce Flash (9:32)

Click to play video: Flash Modifiers (9:32)

 

Click to play video: How to Blur the Background (2:17)

 Using Manual Mode

First, let’s clear up a few common myths:

  • Manual mode doesn’t use autoexposure. This isn’t always true, because you can use manual mode to set the shutter speed and aperture, while still using auto ISO to control the exposure. Also, most cameras will use the exposure compensation display to show the photographer the proper exposure based on the camera’s meter. However, you can use manual mode and manual ISO to take control of exposure.
  • When you get to a scene, you should set the exposure with manual mode and then leave it. The theory behind this myth is that the light at a scene is constant, whether you’re at a wedding reception or a mountain range. So, you should meter the scene once, lock the settings in with manual mode, and then do all your shooting with those settings. That can work, but it’s not very reliable. Even indoors, a person standing near a light can be several stops brighter than a person standing a few feet away. Outdoors, a bird flying from sunlight to shadow will change exposure by 2-6 stops.
  • Manual mode is the choice of professionals. This isn’t true; most professionals use autoexposure. Lighting conditions can change instantly (for example, if the sun goes behind a cloud) and a working professional has more important things to worry about than changing the ISO. However, manual mode is the only choice for studio work (as described in Chapter 6).

Manual mode is incredibly useful, however, especially when used with auto ISO, because you can control the shutter speed to stop motion and the aperture to blur the background. Follow this process to choose the right settings:

  1. Choose the slowest shutter speed that prevents camera shake and freezes motion.
  2. Choose the lowest f/stop number that gets your entire subject sharp and within the depth-of-field.
  3. Select the ISO you need (if you’re not using auto ISO) to control how bright or dark your picture is. Verify that you’re using the right side of the histogram.

Choosing the slowest shutter speed and the lowest f/stop number configures your camera to gather as much light as possible without ruining the picture. This ensures you’ll be using the lowest ISO possible, minimizing the noise in your image. This process is similar to the process your camera uses in automatic modes, but your camera doesn’t know as much about the scene as you do. For example, your camera might not know that you need more depth-of-field to get everyone’s face in a group photo sharp. It also won’t know when you’re resting your arms against a table, allowing you to use a slower shutter speed without camera shake (and thus use a lower ISO to get cleaner images). In Shutter Priority mode, your camera will almost always choose to use the lowest f/stop number. It will only choose higher f/stop numbers when there is plenty of light, such as when shooting in direct sunlight. In Aperture Priority mode, most cameras will choose the slowest shutter speed that will cancel camera shake without going below about 1/60th. Only in bright light will it choose a faster shutter speed. Each camera is different, however.

Click to play video: How to Use Manual Mode (7:29)

Click to play video: Troubleshooting Blurry Pictures (5:08)

Troubleshooting Unsharp Lenses

The most common cause of all-over unsharp photos is pairing full-frame lenses with APS-C or smaller sensors. Even professional lenses produce unsharp results when used with smaller sensors. For detailed information, watch the video below.

Click to play video: Using Full Frame Lenses on Crop Bodies (13:55)

Lost Pictures

Your pictures are gone, but don’t panic! If a memory card or hard drive with your pictures fails, or you accidentally format it or delete images, PhotoRec might be able to save them. PhotoRec (sdp.io/PhotoRec) is a free tool for Windows, Mac, and Linux that scans your disk or memory card for traces of pictures that have been deleted. PhotoRec can often recover images (and almost any other type of file) when the media has been formatted, the images have been deleted, or the media is failing. If you accidentally delete files or format media, immediately stop using the media until you can run PhotoRec. Any new files might overwrite your lost files. The video below will show you how to use PhotoRec.

Click to play video: Recovering Lost Photos (7:08)

Click to play video: Portrait Basics (4:51)

Click to play video: Using Diffusers & Reflectors (5:40)

 

Click to play video: Wedding Behind-the-Scenes (31:31)

Group Photos During Weddings

If you must arrange a group on a flat surface, position the couple in the center, and have the other participants balanced on either side, facing inward, as demonstrated by Figure 7-8. Be sure you have enough depth-of-field to get everyone’s faces in focus. Take a test shot, and then review the shot and zoom in to everyone’s faces, especially people in the front and back rows. For more information, refer to the Group Photos section of Chapter 6. Lighting so many faces can be very difficult, especially outdoors. Make sure everyone has the same lighting; you don’t want half the group in shade, and half in direct sunlight. The shade of a tree acts like a huge diffuser, creating flattering light across a large group. However, having your subjects in shade can make them 4-6 stops darker than the background. To better balance the foreground and background lighting, use two off-camera flashes located on either side of you, raised slightly above eye level, and pointed at your subjects. Use manual mode on your camera to properly expose the background, and then increase the flash output until your subjects are properly exposed. Figure 7-8 shows the results of this technique: bright, even lighting in the shadows and a balanced exposure for the background scene. 

Click to play video: Aquarium Photography (5:27)

 

Click to play video: Stuff that Annoys Wildlife Photographers (3:45)

Click to play video: Landscape Tips (6:46)

 

Click to play video: Focus Stacking for Landscapes (9:27)

Improving your Technical Image Quality

Any modern camera and its kit lens will have enough image quality for landscape photos that are shared online or even printed up to 8×10”. However, if you’re making larger prints, or inspecting your digital images closely, you’ll start to notice two types of technical problems: sharpness and noise. Fortunately, both can be improved with either extra time or better gear.

Improving Sharpness

To get the best sharpness, use these techniques:

  • Use a tripod. Even at faster shutter speeds, a tripod is usually more stable than hand-holding your camera.
  • Use a moderate aperture, such as f/8 or f/11. Lower f/stop numbers (such as f/2.8) are generally less sharp, and higher f/stop numbers (such as f/22) suffer diffraction problems caused by how light photons pass through the iris’ small opening. If moderate apertures don’t provide enough depth-of-field for your scene, consider using focus stacking, as described earlier in this chapter.
  • Use a delayed shutter. Two seconds should be enough to eliminate any shake from pressing the shutter. Of course, this only helps when your camera is on a tripod.
  • Use precise focusing techniques. These were discussed in Chapter 4, but in a nutshell, this requires enabling live view and zooming in 1:1 on the most important part of the picture. Then, manually focus your lens for optimal sharpness. Pan around the rest of the image to ensure everything is sufficiently sharp, and use a higher f/stop if necessary for more depth-of-field.
  • Create a panorama. You can achieve unlimited detail (restricted only by atmospheric conditions) by taking multiple telephoto images of a scene and blending them together into a wide-angle photo. Panoramas also allow you to capture a wider angle than you would normally with your lens. For detailed information about creating a panorama, refer to Chapter 2.
  • Get a sharper lens. There’s no such thing as a sharp kit lens; all modern kit lenses are relatively unsharp. Upgrading your lens can definitely give you sharper pictures, but beware of using full-frame lenses on APS-C bodies. For more information, watch Using Full Frame Lenses on Crop Bodies (13:55) at io/BigGlass. While I can’t recommend lenses for every camera manufacturer, for Canon, Nikon, Pentax, and Sony APS-C cameras, the Sigma 18-35 f/1.8 lens is perfect for landscapes. For full frame Canon and Nikon cameras, the Sigma 24-105 f/4 is substantially sharper than either the Canon or Nikon full frame kit lenses. If you’re using a full frame camera and don’t mind carrying multiple lenses, the Rokinon 14mm f/2.8, 24mm f/1.4, and 35mm f/1.4 lenses are remarkably sharp for their prices. They’re also all-manual, however.

Reducing Noise

At larger print sizes, noise becomes obvious, even when using ISO 100 or 200. Noise is particularly obvious in blue skies. Because of the red, blue, and green Bayer filter most digital cameras use, blue skies lose three-quarters of the incoming light, so even at ISO 100, the noise levels will resemble those of ISO 400. Here are some tips for minimizing the amount of noise in your images:

  • Use your camera’s base ISO. Most cameras have a base ISO of 100. Don’t use an extended ISO, such as ISO 50. Lower ISOs reduce the dynamic range of your photo.
  • Shoot raw. Even though you’ll probably share your pictures using the JPG format, capturing them in raw allows you to recover highlights or shadows with less noise. Additionally, the raw processor from applications such as Adobe Lightroom or Capture One can do a better job than your camera’s internal JPG processor.
  • Use the entire histogram. Even if your picture looks overexposed, it’s important to “shoot to the right”. This involves adjusting your exposure until the right quarter of the histogram has data. The darkest parts of your picture can have more than 250 times more noise than the brightest parts, so it makes sense to make the picture as bright as possible—even if you adjust the brightness down during post-processing. For more information about using the histogram, refer to Chapter 4. For more information about dynamic range, refer to Chapter 11.
  • Shoot High Dynamic Range (HDR). HDR photography, as discussed in Chapter 11, isn’t just for creating over-saturated photos; it’s a technique for reducing or eliminating shadow noise. If you use the latest version of Adobe Lightroom, you can use the built-in PhotoMerge HDR feature to combine bracketed photos into a realistic-looking photo with virtually no noise in the shadows, and it takes only a few clicks.
  • Use image averaging. Image averaging involves taking multiple photos of a scene at the same exposure, and then combining them in post-processing. This essentially creates a long exposure and lowers your base ISO. If your base ISO is 100 and you combine two photos, it’s like having a base ISO of 50. If you combine 32 photos, it’s like having a base ISO of 3. For detailed instructions on how to use either Adobe Photoshop or the free Gimp tool for image averaging, watch the following video.
  • Get a bigger sensor. Full frame cameras capture 225% more light (for most cameras) or 250% more light (for Canon cameras) at their base ISO than an APS-C camera, meaning you’ll have less than half the noise.
  • Get a lower ISO. Look for cameras that support native ISOs lower than 100. Currently, the only full frame camera that offers this is the Nikon D810, which supports a native ISO of 64.

If you have an unlimited budget, go and buy a Nikon D810, the Nikon 14-24 f/2.8, and the Sigma 24-105 f/4, and you’ll get sharp, clean images. The whole kit will cost you about $6,000. If that’s not in your budget but you have spare time, you can get even better results with an inexpensive camera and lens by using panorama and image averaging techniques. For detailed instructions, watch the following video.

Click to play video: Image Averaging & Panoramas (10:05)

Click to play video: Night Photography Introduction (5:00)

Click to play video: Photographing the Moon (6:00)

Click to play video: How to Photograph Fireworks (2:57)

Click to play video: Dynamic Range (5:02)