Here are some small tips for shooting food & sweets:
1. Shoot from a low angle: by shooting from above it makes your images look like snapshots.
2. Use a macro lens which reveals detail and texture and allows for small working distances (the above shots were taken with a Nikkor 105mm 2.8 macro lens, except the image of the hotel hall which was taken with a Nikkor 14-24mm 2.8 wide-angle lens).
3. Overexpose by 2/3 or even a full stop, according to the subject. As a result, your subjects will look fresh and delicious.
4. Use a swallow depth-of-field. Your images will look more pleasing and professional, but please note that if you are using a macro lens you have to close down (to f8 or f11) in order to get a sufficient depth-of-field. If you are working handheld and using a wide aperture (e.g. 2.8) it’s very easy to get out-of-focus images.
5. Use directional light with off-camera flashes, softboxes/ umbrellas and reflectors. If you have to use on-camera flash, point its head to the ceiling (The above shots were taken at a recent wedding. I didn’t have the opportunity and time to use off-camera flash, so I used an on-camera SB900).
6. In post-processing, use strong contrast, to make colors come to life.
This article is the last one in a series of articles covering the subject of photographic exposure.
If you haven’t read Elements of Photographic Exposure and Exposure Modes, it’s a good time to do so now before moving on. In the above articles we talked about the factors that form the exposure (aperture, shutter speed, ISO) and the camera’s exposure modes (the programs that allow the photographer to take exposure control; Program Priority, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority and Manual Priority). So, in order to keep things simple, lets summarize all the above. Depending on the scene you are photographing and your artistic vision, you choose an exposure mode:
·Program Priority if you are in a harry: You let the camera set aperture and shutter speed based on what it things is best. You control the ISO.
·Aperture Priority if depth-of-filed is important: You set the aperture and ISO and the camera sets the shutter speed.
·Shutter Priority if motion is important: you set shutter speed and ISO and the camera sets aperture.
·Manual Priority: you have total control over the exposure by setting aperture, shutter speed and ISO.
As you might though so far, a piece of information is missing from the above decision workflow; how does your camera, or you, decide which the appropriate exposure is? Well, modern cameras have a build-in exposure meter which evaluates the scene and provide you (and your camera) with information about exposure.
The problem
Modern cameras have come a long way and they are becoming cleverer as time passes by, but still they are not perfect. There are some “tricky” situations that can fool your camera’s exposure meter. Even worsted, your camera can’t make artistic decisions. So how do cameras determine which exposure is right and which exposure is wrong? Well here’s the trick: your camera makes the assumption that the world is middle gray!(if you like the more technical term, middle gray is a subject with 18% reflectance). Please note: we are not talking about the actual color gray here, but the reflectance (tonality) of the subject.
Middle gray looks like this:
The problem is that not all subjects have an average reflectance. Some subjects are either darker or brighter than average:
So let’s say you are photographing a black subject (e.g. a black jaguar – it happens all the time right? !) - . If you let your camera make the exposure decision, it will overexpose your black jaguar and turn it into a gray jaguar. Or, you are photographing a white subject (e.g. snow). Your camera will underexpose the snow and turn it into gray.
So, what did the manufacturers were thinking when developing those meters? Well, as with most situations in life, you have to start with an assumption and build on that. On the other hand, if you sum the reflectance of an average scene, you come up with a mean that is middle gray.
Metering Methods
Nikon cameras have 3 metering methods for determining exposure:
·Spot metering: it targets 1,5% of the frame, where your focus point resigns.
·Center-weighted metering: it measures the entire frame but emphasizes on the middle area of the frame (exposure decisions are based 75% on the central area and 25% on the outer area).
·Matrix metering: It measures the entire frame. This method is becoming more complex as the technology moves forward. Older camera models were measuring the entire frame and gave a little emphasis on the area that is behind the selected focus point. Modern camera bodies take into account a lot more factors; lens focus distance, highlights, skin tones, color, etc and compare the scene with an image database in order to make their exposure decision. Newer camera models are cleverer than old ones and have a tendency to do the right thing. However, they are not 100% accurate yet.
What to do (the easy method)
If you are photographing a subject and you do not agree with your cameras’ exposure decisions, you can use exposure compensation to override your cameras’ decision. Use “-“ if your subject is darker than average, use “+” if your subject is brighter than average.
What to do (the accurate method)
1. Set your camera to Manual Priority Mode and to Spot Metering Method.
2. Set your ISO accordingly, depending on the situation and your lens aperture (if depth-of-field is important), or shutter speed (if motion is important).
3. Point your active focus point on a subject:
(a) If the subject is middle gray, zero out the harsh mark of the metering bar (by adjusting accordingly ISO, Aperture or Shutter Speed):
(b) If the subject is completely white, put the harsh mark of the metering bar to +2 (e.g. if you are photographing a wedding, you can set the bride’s wedding dress to +2) .
(c) If the subject is completely black, put the harsh mark of the metering bar to -2 (e.g. if you are photographing a wedding and the groom is a wearing a black suit, you should set the back suit to -1,5 in order to retain detail).
Note: Blue skies, light green and red in nature have an average reflectance. Yellow color is +1 stop, while brown and dark blue colors are -1 stop. Caucasian tone skin is +1 stop, while darker skin tones may fall under average reflectance.
Tip: A good practice is to start using a dedicated gray card in the scenes you are photographing. Zero out the harsh mark of the metering bar on the card and then observe where the other tones in the scene fell. In no time you will gain a lot of experience and the card will no longer be useful to you!
Digital photography has gone a long way in the last decade. Today’s digital cameras offer amazing capabilities and exceptional image quality that it was difficult to even imagine a few years ago. Digital has change everything; darkrooms have become “Lightrooms”, film has become 64 GB flash disks (take as much shots as you want; it’s free!), new and intelligent matrix metering systems, extraordinary ISO capabilities (at a rotate of a wheel, not by changing films all the time), new lenses with CPU, 10 fps, digital printing (a lap at home), etc, the list is endless. However, there is one major problem; the restricted dynamic range (or latitude). The problem is due to the linear nature of sensors, meaning that digital has no tolerance to metering mistakes; highlights are blown very easily. A modern DSLR has about 10 – 11 stops of dynamic range at the base ISO (the range is being decreasing as ISO values are becoming higher), meaning that the sensor is able to record 10-11 stops of image data from dark to bright values:
e.g. in the following image, we have pixels that are either completely dark or completely white (no detail). The histogram shows the distribution of these tones:
If we try to photograph a scene with a greatest dynamic range (contrast) than our camera’s dynamic range, the results are rather disappointing:
(a) If we meter for the highlights (sky), darker subjects (tree, ground) get underexposed.
(b) If we meter for the darker subjects, brighter subjects get blow out.
(C) If we take a an overall reading, we end up with compromise results.
“Traditional” Solutions
1. Use light (flash, reflectors, softboxes) to illuminate darker subjects.
2. Use filters (ND graduate, polarizer) to darken the highlights.
3. Use Fill light & Recovery (camera raw) and Selective Adjustments in Photoshop, to darken the highlights and brighten the dark tones.
4. Use Dodging & Burning in Photoshop, to darken the highlights and brighten the dark tones.
5. Use Exposure Blending in Photoshop (blend different exposures in separate layers and selectively erase certain areas).
6. Contrast Masking in Photoshop.
7. New Technologies, like Nikon D-lightening.
8. You can photograph during the “blue hour” of the day, where the sky and the ground have the same amount of brightness.
! Use the above methods with caution, as they may result in contrast loss!
Here is a basic lighting setup for outdoors portraiture images:
1. Set your camera to Manual Mode and underexpose the background for about 1 stop
2. Use the sun as a backlight (if there is no sun available, place a speedlight on a tripod and point it on the subject’s hair)
3. Set up a speedlight in a softbox (for smooth lighting) and place it at 45 degrees angle high and above from your subject (if you don’t have a softbox you can use an umbrella or a diffuser)
4. Control your speedlight(s) via the pop-up flash of your camera (if you don’t have a pop-up flash you can use the SU800 IR transmitter, another speedlight, pocket wizards, or cords)
The above image was taken to a local park by using the sun, an SB900 attached on a softbox and an SU800 on a D3s.
A friend of mine is going to Santorini in a few days time and he asked for an advice on how to shoot great sunsets. It is said that Santorini has the most beautiful sunset of the world. I haven’t been to all over the world, but I’ve been to Santorini and I can say that is absolutely beautiful. In fact, that trip was the reason I started photography; I bought a point-and-shoot camera from the island and started taking pictures. Colors were amazing, the volcano rocks getting into the sea had a wild beauty on them and the small white houses built into the rocks were magical. By the time I came back home, I bought my first DSLR (a Nikon D80) and subscribed to a local photographic community. If you haven’t been to Santorini, I advise you to do so and take some beautiful images!
Well back to our subject. We see beautiful images of sunsets everywhere; in magazines, travel guides, on the internet. In fact we believe that if we’ve been there these amazing sunset colors will be captured by our eyes. Well that’s not true. These dramatic colors can be captured only by the sensor! You see sometimes life is more beautiful through the viewfinder than it is in reality, but that’s why you are dealing with the subject of photography, isn’t it?! It is our job, as photographers, to see the ordinary and capture it as extraordinary…
Shootting stunning sunsets couldn’t be easier! Just follow these steps:
1. Start with the lowest possible ISO value for best image quality.
2. Set your camera to Manual Mode and Spot Metering.
3. Set a small aperture (e.g. f11, f16) for great depth-of-field.
4. Point the focus-point at a spot near the sun and adjust the shutter speed to zero out the hash mark of the exposure bar displayed in the viewfinder (sunset colors are usually midtones), as shown below:
5. Check your shutter speed. If you are not on a steady tripod and the shutter speed is not fast enough to get a sharp image by handholding the camera, increase the ISO or open aperture, until you get a fast enough shutter speed (but be aware that sunset skies are prone to digital noise).
6. Reframe and take the shot! That’s it!
Extra tips
- If you want richer colors you may underexpose intentionally and set your exposure to -0,5 or even -1,0, depending on the situation.
- Sunset light (and colors) change very rapidly as the sun moves towards the horizon, so every now and then you have to check your exposure settings by repeating steps 1 – 6.
- Don’t just photograph the sun in the sky; compose your frame with a subject in the foreground to add interest to your shots. With the procedure described above, your foreground subjects will be displayed as silhouettes (because their reflectance is much lower that the reflectance of the sky). This is an interesting effect, but if this not what you wish, you can avoid it (if you are not far away from your subject and if your subject is not very big) by using flash (off-camera flash works best, but if you don’t have an external flash unit don’t hesitate to use your camera’s build-in flash). Set your flash to iTTL. Start with a flash compensation of -1,7 and adjust accordingly (remember you don’t want to use much light; just a small amount as a fill-light).
Have fun! You don’t have to be in Santorini; beautiful sunsets happen everywhere (except from your living room) so get out there and create some stunning sunset images!
If you haven’t read Elements of Photographic Exposure it’s a good time to do so now, before moving on! In this tutorial we are going to talk about how you apply this knowledge in practice.
Every DSLR has several exposure modes, which control the way the camera makes exposure decisions (the combination of aperture, shutter speed and ISO). Many consumer DSLRs have a number of auto exposure modes, eg. Auto, Portrait, Landscape, Night Landscape, Sport, Beach, etc). These modes contain settings loaded in the factory and they promise to make things just work, even if the user doesn’t understand basic photographic concepts (that’s why they are also included in point-and-shoot cameras). So what are the disadvantages of these modes?
- They are automatic modes, so they don’t allow the user to take exposure (and thus creative) control (e.g. in Auto mode, if the camera perceives that the light of the scene is too low, it will pop-up the build-in flash in order to illuminate the scene. It’s ok if this is what you want, but it’s a big problem if this is not what you want).
- They are programmed according to average situations, but not all situations (scenes) you are photographing are average (not all portraits are the same, not all landscapes are the same, etc).
- The settings being applied by these modes are quite hidden and the user doesn’t know exactly what the camera is doing, thus it’s difficult to master these modes.
Pro DSLRs have only 4 exposure modes that give the photographer total control over the exposure:
- P (Program Priority)
- A (Aperture Priority)
- S (Shutter Priority)
- M (Manual)
P (Program Priority): Camera sets aperture and shutter speed. You control ISO, focus point and flash, but you can also alter camera’s decisions and set aperture or shutter speed (this mode is like Auto, but allows you greater control).
A (Aperture Priority): This is the most famous exposure mode; the one that serious amateurs and pros use most of the time. It allows you to set aperture and camera sets shutter speed accordingly (based on the aperture and ISO set). It’s the mode to use when depth of field is important.
S (Shutter Priority): You set the shutter speed and camera sets aperture accordingly (based on the shutter speed and ISO set). It’s the mode to use when shutter speed is important (if you want to freeze motion you set high shutter speeds, if you want to blur motion you set slow shutter speeds).
M (Manual): This is the mode that gives you full control over exposure. You set both aperture and shutter speed, but manual mode doesn’t throw you in the middle of the ocean and tells you “swim to get out”! It gives you “clues” on which you can rely to set the appropriate exposure (when Manual mode is selected, the viewfinder displays a bar that looks like this:
The middle line represents 18% middle gray reflectance. Everything above or beyond are perceived by the camera’s meter as over or under exposed. This is the true power of Manual mode; it allows you to set exposure in the way you wish, not the camera!
Strictly speaking, all exposure modes, except Manual, are automatic modes, in a sense that the camera takes control over exposure. e.g. when using Aperture Priority, you set the lens aperture in order to control depth of field, but the camera sets shutter speed assuming that the scene has an average gray reflectance. Of course you can alter the shutter speed set by the camera, by using exposure compensation.
Putting them to work in practice!
In practice things are very simple!
1. You are photographing a scene where depth of field is important. Set you are ISO according to available light (start when the lowest possible value for best image quality). Set Aperture Priority and specify an aperture (if photographing a portrait use a wide aperture, e.g. f4, or even 2,8 or 1,4, in order to isolate your subject from the background. If shooting a landscape, use a smaller depth of field, e.g. f11 or f16, In order to get everything in focus). Check the shutter speed set by the camera. If you are not on a steady tripod and the shutter speed is not fast enough to get a sharp image by handholding the camera, increase the ISO until you get a fast enough shutter speed. Note: if you are photographing a black or white subject, the exposure most probably is going to be wrong. Use exposure compensation to override the camera’s meter; -1,5 or -2 for black subjects, +1,5 or +2 for white subjects).
2. You are photographing a scene where motion is important. Set you are ISO according to available light (start when the lowest possible value for best image quality). Set Shutter Priority and specify a shutter speed (if you want to freeze motion, set a high shutter speed, if you want to blur motion, set a slow shutter speed. How much is high and how much is slow depends on the moving speed of your subject. On average, 1/60 blurs rain, 1/8 blurs people walking, 1/250 freezes sports, 1/1000 freezes a bullet). Check the aperture set by the camera. If the camera needs a wider opening that the lens’ widest aperture, in order to expose the scene correctly, it will display Low; in that case set a higher ISO. If the camera uses the smaller available aperture and still the quantity of light coming in the sensor is high, it will display High; In that case you have to lower ISO or/and use a faster shutter speed. Note: if you are photographing a black or white subject, the exposure most probably is going to be wrong. Use exposure compensation to override the camera’s meter; -1,5 or -2 for black subjects, +1,5 or +2 for white subjects.
3. You don’t have the time to make exposure decisions (e.g. street or wedding photography). Set your ISO according to available light (start when the lowest possible value for best image quality). Set Program Priority and start shooting. You can bypass camera’s decisions (choose a different aperture or/and shutter speed) by rotating the camera’s front and rear command dials. Note: if you are photographing a black or white subject, the exposure most probably is going to be wrong. Use exposure compensation to override the camera’s meter; -1,5 or -2 for black subjects, +1,5 or +2 for white subjects.
4. You want best exposure control and you have the time to do so (you don’t need much time, trust me!) Set you are ISO according to available light (start when the lowest possible value for best image quality). Set Manual mode and adjust aperture and shutter speed according to your appetite and by taking notice of the exposure bar in the viewfinder display. If the subject you are shooting is black, set the exposure to -1,5 or -2 on the bar scale. If the subject is white, set the exposure to +1,5 or +2.
Practice
Once you apply exposure modes in practice, you will soon realize how easy is to master them! If you used to shoot in Auto mode, start shooting with Program mode. It has much more fun to select the focus point you wish and not to have the build-in flash pop in the way.
As soon as you feel comfortable, move to aperture priority. It takes some practice, but in a few days time will start shooting like a pro! (just watch out of your shutter speed).
Once you get yourself familiar with Aperture Priority, move on and have some fun with Shutter Priority. You have unlimited creative choices when experimenting with motion.
For ultimate control, move on and start practicing in Manual mode. There is only one boss here and that is you!
There is no right or wrong exposure; only creative exposure choices. Explore your passion and yourself. One of the main things that distinguish amateurs from pros is exposure handling. Don’t make average images; make stunning images!
In the world of photography, exposure stands for the amount of light collected by the light sensitive material of the camera (film or digital sensor). The same term is also used as a synonym for the words picture, image, shot (eg. “I shot multiple exposures” mean “I shot multiple pictures”). In this article when I use the word exposure I’ll be referring to the amount of light collected by the digital sensor.
So, exposure is controlled by (only) 3 factors:
1. ISO sensitivity
2. Aperture
3. Shutter speed
These factors work in conjunction to form the final exposure.
1. ISO sensitivity: In the old film days (when the grass was greener and you could still hear the birds singing), each film loaded into the camera had a fixed ISO sensitivity. In the digital era, you change the sensor’s sensitivity by altering the sensor’s amp circuit (boosting a chip). But how does ISO affects exposure? Well, it’s quite simple actually; the higher the ISO value, the more sensitive the sensor is to the light. In other words, higher ISO’s values require less amount of light to be capture by the sensor. Straightforward ha? When you need more light (eg. inside a church) you increase the ISO value, when you need less light (eg. outside the church), you set a lower ISO value.
Side effects: By now you should be wondering why the hell not to set a high ISO value all the time and get away with. Well, there are some drawbacks. Best image quality is recorded at the base ISO. As you increase the ISO the image quality starts to decrease. With film, higher ISO values produce more grain. With digital, higher ISO values produce more digital noise (artifacts). Please note that digital noise is not as pleasing as grain (grain is perceived by the eye as “more natural”. Sometimes we may even want to add some amount of grain to our black & white images, in order to reproduce the feeling/look of film). The amount of noise each digital sensor produce varies. In general, the larger the sensor’s size, the lower the noise it produces at a given value (eg. full-frame cameras tend to produce less noise than crop-factor cameras). Also the image processing engine of the camera plays a role in noise handling. For instance, when Nikon D90 came out, its EXPEED processor proved to have better ISO handling performance than Nikon’s more professional model D300. So as the technology keeps moving forward, cameras are gradually becoming better in such issues. Another drawback of high ISO values is that the sensor’s dynamic range is reduced (in other words, you may not be able to capture the scene’s dynamic range as you would with a lower ISO value), colors are shifted and contrast is increased. So, what is the higher acceptable ISO value you can assign? In terms of specific numbers that depends on the camera model you are using (eg. Nikon D3s is an exceptional ISO handler). In terms of a general principle, it’s up to the point above from which noise is dominating true image detail.
The ISO scale, in terms of full stops (each stop doubles the amount of light):
(The above values correspond to the values available at the moment this article in being written. Depending on the camera model you are using, the limits of the above scale may vary).
2. Aperture: This is simply the hole (opening) of the lens (which is not constant and it’s controlled by the user). Bigger openings let more light get into the sensor, thus allowing faster shutter speeds and vice versa (this is the reason why lenses with wide apertures, eg. f1.4, f2.8, are called “fast lenses”). The Aperture scale, in terms of full stops follows this sequence:
f: 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, 32
(In order to remember the scale you can just memorize the first two numbers and that each number doubles every two. Notice! the above pattern is only a way to memorize the scale. Remember that every next number doubles the amount of light reaching the sensor. Also note that smaller numbers represent bigger openings: eg. f1.4 lets in double the amount of light than f2 and four times the amount of light than f4).
3. Shutter speed: The heart of every digital camera is the sensor which collects the light to form an exposure. The sensor is not always exposed to light. In front of the sensor is located a “devise” called the shutter. You can imagine it as a window with a number of shutters! (although we call it “the” shutter). Every time you press the button to take a picture (called the shutter released) the shutter is being released for a specific amount of time in order to let the light reach the sensor. Longer exposures (the time the shutter remains open) let more light hit the sensor, than shorter exposures. The Shutter Speed scale, in terms of full stops follows this sequence:
(Most cameras today have a highest shutter speed of 1/8000 of a second and a slowest speed of 30 seconds. If you want to set a slower speed than 30”, you have to set the camera in “bulb” mode. In bulb position the camera opens the shutter as soon as you press the shutter-release button and keep it open until you press it again. In the above scale note that each time you lower the shutter speed to the half, you lower the amount of light by half as well and vice versa).
Putting it all together: With that being said we have to see how in practice we combine Aperture, Shutter Speed & ISO to come up with the desired exposure (I intentionally avoid using the word “correct” because exposure is a subject of aesthetics and personal interpretation of the scene). For any given exposure there are several combinations of the above factors that form it. For example A: ISO 100 f:8 1/125 will result to an image that has the same exposure as B: ISO 100 f:11 1/60, or C: ISO 100 f:5,6 1/250, or D: ISO 400 f:11 1/250, Don’t panic, I’ll make it clear to you right away!
Combination B: I closed the Aperture from f8 (combination A) to f11, in order to get greater depth of field, but in terms of exposure, my action results in half the amount the light hitting the sensor (1 stop). So, in order to keep the exposure constant between the two combinations I doubled the amount of light by reducing the shutter speed by 1 stop (from 1/125 to 1/60).
Combination C: I opened the Aperture from f8 (combination A) to f5.6, in order to get more swallow depth of field, but in terms of exposure, my action results in double the amount the light hitting the sensor (1 stop). So, in order to keep the exposure constant between the two combinations I reduced by half the amount of light by increasing the shutter speed by 1 stop (from 1/125 to 1/60).
Combination D: In order to get more depth of field and retain the same shutter speed as combination C, I increased the aperture by 2 stops (from f5,6 to f11) and thus I also doubled the ISO value (from 100 to 400) to keep the exposure constant.
Summary
Exposure is controlled by (only) 3 factors: ISO sensitivity, Aperture, Shutter speed. The combination of these elements affects the final exposure. Although it may seems difficult at the beginning, it’s not! Move straight away from “Auto” and start becoming more creative (that’s why you bought a DSLR in the first place)!
Upcoming articles will deal with two related subjects: exposure metering and exposure modes.
