Difference between revisions of "Photography"

From Eugene Eric Kim
(Lazy scanning)
(Synthesizing techniques section and moved it up to front)
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See also [[Digital Images]] for more on processing and organizing images.
See also [[Digital Images]] for more on processing and organizing images.
== Techniques ==
When you take pictures, there are basically three things you control:
* Composition: What's in the frame
* Focus: What you're focused on
* Lighting: How much light reaches your camera
Today's cameras do 90% of the focusing and lighting work for you, which means you can focus on composition.
Focusing on story.
10% of the time, your camera does the wrong thing. This is where the quality of your camera comes into play, specifically:
* Quality of your camera's lens
* Quality of your camera's sensor
* Ability to control manual settings ''easily''
[http://photography.bastardsbook.com/lessons/big-picture-of-exposure/ "The Big Picture About Exposure"] from the ''The Bastards Book of Photography'' offers a great, simple explanation for how to control the amount of light your camera receives using manual settings. You start with your camera's exposure setting, which essentially manipulates:
* ISO
* Aperture
* Shutter speed
You can also manipulate these four settings manually.
Focus:
* Focal length and aperture
* [http://www.petapixel.com/2013/02/16/dont-zoom-move-a-video-on-treating-your-zoom-as-a-series-of-prime-lenses/ Don’t Zoom, Move: Treating Your Zoom Lens as a Series of Primes]
[http://kelbytraining.com/ Kelby Training] a possible source for online courses.
[http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/introduction-to-white-balance/ Introduction to White Balance]. Use an [http://lifehacker.com/5659324/use-an-18-gray-card-for-better-color-balance-in-your-photos 18% gray card] for better color balance.
Wide [http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/aperture/ aperture] (smaller f-stop) decreases depth of field and gives you blurry background.
Try increasing the [http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/iso-settings/ ISO] for darker shots or action shots.
[http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/shutter-speed/ shutter speed]
My camera doesn't have [http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/aperture-and-shutter-priority-modes/ aperture or shutter priority modes], but they're good features to be aware of.
[http://digital-photography-school.com/8-guidelines-to-taking-panoramic-photos-with-any-camera 8 Guidelines to Taking Panoramic Photos with any Camera.]
=== Aperture ===
A nice [http://forums.steves-digicams.com/990799-post2.html explanation] of apertures and focal lengths, and why you can't get good depth-of-field in point-and-shoot cameras (like mine).
In general, to [get shallow depth-of field], especially w/ point-and-shoot cameras:
* Lower F-stop numbers (larger apertures)
* Longer focal lengths (zoom in)
* Get closer to the subject
[http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html Online Depth of Field Calculator]
=== High-Dynamic Range Images ===
* [http://www.flickr.com/groups/l4/discuss/72157594241560739/ The Definitive Guide to Realistic High Dynamic Range Images]
* [http://www.flickr.com/groups/gimpusers/discuss/72057594090329325/ HDR in Gimp]
=== Panoramic ===
* [http://gigapan.org/ GigaPan]


== My Camera ==
== My Camera ==
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* [http://flickr.com/photos/eugevon/61737832/ rays of light]
* [http://flickr.com/photos/eugevon/61737832/ rays of light]
* [http://flickr.com/photos/eugevon/2363591914/ bus]
* [http://flickr.com/photos/eugevon/2363591914/ bus]
== Techniques ==
[http://kelbytraining.com/ Kelby Training] a possible source for online courses.
[http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/introduction-to-white-balance/ Introduction to White Balance]. Use an [http://lifehacker.com/5659324/use-an-18-gray-card-for-better-color-balance-in-your-photos 18% gray card] for better color balance.
Wide [http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/aperture/ aperture] (smaller f-stop) decreases depth of field and gives you blurry background.
Try increasing the [http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/iso-settings/ ISO] for darker shots or action shots.
[http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/shutter-speed/ shutter speed]
My camera doesn't have [http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/aperture-and-shutter-priority-modes/ aperture or shutter priority modes], but they're good features to be aware of.
[http://digital-photography-school.com/8-guidelines-to-taking-panoramic-photos-with-any-camera 8 Guidelines to Taking Panoramic Photos with any Camera.]
=== Aperture ===
A nice [http://forums.steves-digicams.com/990799-post2.html explanation] of apertures and focal lengths, and why you can't get good depth-of-field in point-and-shoot cameras (like mine).
In general, to [get shallow depth-of field], especially w/ point-and-shoot cameras:
* Lower F-stop numbers (larger apertures)
* Longer focal lengths (zoom in)
* Get closer to the subject
[http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html Online Depth of Field Calculator]
=== High-Dynamic Range Images ===
* [http://www.flickr.com/groups/l4/discuss/72157594241560739/ The Definitive Guide to Realistic High Dynamic Range Images]
* [http://www.flickr.com/groups/gimpusers/discuss/72057594090329325/ HDR in Gimp]
=== Panoramic ===
* [http://gigapan.org/ GigaPan]


== Photo Mosaics ==
== Photo Mosaics ==

Revision as of 17:47, 3 March 2013

See also Digital Images for more on processing and organizing images.

Techniques

When you take pictures, there are basically three things you control:

  • Composition: What's in the frame
  • Focus: What you're focused on
  • Lighting: How much light reaches your camera

Today's cameras do 90% of the focusing and lighting work for you, which means you can focus on composition.

Focusing on story.

10% of the time, your camera does the wrong thing. This is where the quality of your camera comes into play, specifically:

  • Quality of your camera's lens
  • Quality of your camera's sensor
  • Ability to control manual settings easily

"The Big Picture About Exposure" from the The Bastards Book of Photography offers a great, simple explanation for how to control the amount of light your camera receives using manual settings. You start with your camera's exposure setting, which essentially manipulates:

  • ISO
  • Aperture
  • Shutter speed

You can also manipulate these four settings manually.

Focus:

Kelby Training a possible source for online courses.

Introduction to White Balance. Use an 18% gray card for better color balance.

Wide aperture (smaller f-stop) decreases depth of field and gives you blurry background.

Try increasing the ISO for darker shots or action shots.

shutter speed

My camera doesn't have aperture or shutter priority modes, but they're good features to be aware of.

8 Guidelines to Taking Panoramic Photos with any Camera.

Aperture

A nice explanation of apertures and focal lengths, and why you can't get good depth-of-field in point-and-shoot cameras (like mine).

In general, to [get shallow depth-of field], especially w/ point-and-shoot cameras:

  • Lower F-stop numbers (larger apertures)
  • Longer focal lengths (zoom in)
  • Get closer to the subject

Online Depth of Field Calculator

High-Dynamic Range Images

Panoramic

My Camera

My primary camera is an Olympus OM-D E-M5. I also have a Canon PowerShot S95.

Old cameras:

When I was considering the Lumix, I also considered:

For my upcoming BurdensLanding:Korea trip, I'm considering a new camera:

Camera Thoughts Links Examples
Canon G11
Canon S90

The Olympus E-PL2 seems like a good option for a Micro Four Thirds camera.

One day, I'm going to get a Leica M8:

Other possible equipment:

Managing Photos

Most of my public pictures are on Flickr. View analytics via flickrstats. One day, I'll upload some of these to Wikimedia Commons. I'm intrigued by ThisLife.

I'm migrating over to Adobe Lightroom for editing and photo management.

I wrote some of my own tools for cataloging my digital prints, which are now heavily outdated. They were inspired and based heavily on Gerald Oskoboiny's digital photo publishing software.

I'm experimenting with exiflow for managing my digital photography workflow (renaming files, metadata, etc.). F-Spot has an extension that supports an exiflow workflow.

I'm constantly disgruntled by F-Spot, but I keep returning to it, because it keeps getting better. I'm not crazy about F-Spot for importing images off of my digital camera, so I'm thinking about switching the default to gThumb.

I pondered a move to Google Picasa, but decided against it due to lack of development of its Linux client. If I ever do make the move, I'll need to import my F-Spot albums.

And now I've moved to Shotwell, because that's now the default in Ubuntu. I'm thinking about Lyn on my Mac.

Other tools of interest:

Services for scanning old photos:

Notes

Tags + types. Tags can have types. If I want to get really funky, types can have relationships -- an ontology! For example, the "Eugene Eric Kim" tag could be of type "People." This would allow me to do faceted classification.

Collections (or albums) cannot be tags, because you want to be able to do special things, like define cardinality and other metadata within a collection. However, you ought to be able to assign a photo to multiple collections.

I'd love to integrate Greg Elin's Fotonotes for granular annotations.

Favorites from Eugene Chan

Photo Mosaics

The best tool for doing these on Linux seems to be metapixel:

See Also

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