PICTURE PERFECT

PICTURE PERFECT

Follow a few simple rules of photography to create stunning pictures.

By Dushyant khilnani AND Sandeep balachandran

As clichéd as it may sound, the truth is that a picture speaks a thousand words, and a well-shot picture always stands out. When you enter a living room, it’s common to see family portraits and vacation memories on the walls or show cases. Now, it can be embarrassing to have washed out or grainy pictures in those photo frames. In this workshop, we discuss the various aspects of shooting the perfect picture in different scenarios and enhancing them after they’ve been shot. Right from the initial steps of shooting, using proper cameras and equipment, to the post processing and printing of images, we’ll give you brief step-by-step guides on the various crucial aspects.

Photography

When shooting outdoors, the most important aspect to look at is lighting. With the right amount of lighting, you can achieve just about the same output as you would using in-house or studio lighting. However, there are certain factors to consider when shooting outdoors.

Camera settings and techniques

First and foremost, avoid shooting at noon or when the sun is directly overhead. Apart from the lighting conditions, you will also need to look into your camera settings. If you have a normal point-and-shoot, you should consider having settings like aperture, shutter speed and the manual mode. However, not all cameras come with a manual mode. In such cases, just the aperture and shutter speed controls will suffice. We have taken both indoor and outdoor shoots into consideration for the following tutorial as there are no fixed settings that apply to all situations.

Step 1: Rule of Thirds

A very common mistake that most of us make when shooting portraits is to place the subject right at the center. While it might seem like the most natural way of capturing portraits, it definitely has the makings of a very dull and unimaginative picture. The basis of this rule states that if you were to divide a rectangular frame with two equidistant vertical and horizontal lines into nine equal parts, then the point where the lines meet is where the subject should be placed. This rule is applied to prevent positioning the subject at the center. To make things simpler, you can enable the ‘grid’ view option that most cameras come with.

Step 2: Aperture and Shutter Speed

Both aperture and shutter speed are inversely proportional to one another, which means that if you increase the aperture range, the shutter speed will automatically decrease, and vice versa. However, this only happens when you choose to shoot either in aperture priority mode or shutter speed mode. The shutter priority mode is best used when you're shooting either in low light or when the subject that is being shot requires a really high shutter speed, like when you're capturing fast moving objects. If you want greater control over the depth of field, then the aperture priority mode should help achieve this. Decrease the number of f-stops to get a better depth of field. This is best used when you only need your product or subject to be your point of focus.

Step 3: ISO

The selection of ISO settings plays an important role in photography and how your images turn out. The lower the camera's ISO levels, the finer will be the overall image quality. However, the ISO levels all depend on the lighting conditions. Better the lighting conditions, smaller will be the ISO levels. However, we recommend not going beyond ISO 400 when using digital cameras, because anything over this value will produce visible noise. The same cannot be said when shooting with an SLR, because SLRs come with a larger sensor size along with better post-processing capabilities. The best way to overcome the noise issues with digital cameras would be to set it to manual mode (if your camera supports this) or switch to either shutter/aperture priority while not going above ISO 400. It is recommended that you make use of a tripod, especially when you are shooting under low light conditions.

Step 4: Flash Intensity

Depending on what you are shooting, you will need to selectively adjust the flash intensity, otherwise you might just end up burning your overall image. We do not recommend using the on-camera flash, as you will only end up spoiling the overall image. Try making use of the Bounce Flash method discussed later on in this workshop. For point-and-shoot cameras though, the Bounce Flash method won’t quite work since the flash comes fit with the device. So apart from reducing the flash manually, you can have a white sheet of paper placed in front of the flash to further reduce the flash intensity.

Camera gear

Lenses to look out for when shooting indoor and outdoor: As far as point-and-shoot cameras go, you obviously don’t have the choice of choosing the lens, as these cameras come fit with a decent amount of zoom out of the box. There are a few that offer upto 30x optical zoom, which is more than enough to capture objects that are at quite a distance. Adding to this are the preset scene modes that make the normal digital point-and-shoot a jack of all trades. So you get is a zoom lens, a macro lens and a normal lens all fit into one single unit.

However, the stock lens that you normally get with a DSLR gives a maximum of just 3x zoom, which isn’t much, especially if outdoor photography is what you are mostly into. Here, however, you have lenses to take care of each aspect of photography. There are three types of lenses that generally fit a DSLR - zoom lenses, prime lenses and macro lenses.

Zoom Lenses: A typical zoom lens (24 – 90 mm) will give an approximate zoom range of 3.5x. However, if you want the best of both worlds, try going in for a 28 – 200 mm zoom lens. That way, you wouldn’t need to carry an additional lens when travelling.

Prime Lenses: Prime lenses, on the other hand, don’t offer any kind of zoom. In other words, these lenses have a fixed focal length. But what they lack in zoom, they more than make up by delivering superior image quality. In addition, these lesnses are lighter and cheaper than traditional zoom lenses. They also have a larger aperture range that is capable of capturing images in low light conditions while maintaining the same shutter speed of a zoom lens. Prime lenses are best used when you require the picture to have a certain depth of field.

Macro Lenses: Macro lenses are best used when you want to capture extreme close up shots of subjects. They are best used to highlight specific parts of a subject while blurring out the rest. However, they require sufficient lighting to make the overall picture stand out.

Tripods: Tripods are an essential part of any photographer’s equipment. So making use of a tripod when shooting will undoubtedly produce much better results. There are a few things that you need to look at before taking the plunge. First and foremost, you will need to check the overall weight of the tripod. This will depend on your requirements. If you are the kind to make use of several lenses and camera flashes, it would be advisable to settle for a tripod that’s slightly heavy. But if you are always on the move and all you have is the camera, you should consider buying a tripod that’s light and compact enough to carry. Secondly, check the tripod for stability as there are a few that tend to wobble when fit with a camera. The best way to do this would be to mount the camera with the legs of the tripod spread out. If it feels wobbly or uncomfortable, you should consider looking at something else.

NNext, consider the extensibility of the tripod. Choose something that reaches your height when fully extended. However, this also depends on what you are trying to shoot. Tripod heads should also be taken into account i.e.: their ease of use, overall movement of the camera when attached to the tripod, and if they are easy to detach when the need arises. So make sure you take all these into account before purchasing a tripod.

If you are not too keen on purchasing a tripod, you can instead invest in a monopod. Monopods are much lighter to carry and since they only have a single leg, they wouldn’t take you more than a few seconds to set up. They are also considerably cheaper than their three-legged counterparts. However, keep in mind that a monopod will not eliminate camera shake as well as a tripod, but will only reduce it to a certain extent. Their usage all depends on what you're looking  to shoot. For example, a monopod would be best used when you need to shoot in cramped places, where setting up a tripod would be cumbersome or impossible. However, for outdoor shoots or when taking a slow shutter shot, a tripod would be a much better choice and would provide more stability.

Bounce Flash: The problem with using a flash is that it tends to make the overall image look too flat or burnt. For instance, if you are shooting a product that is dark and reflective, it won’t come out right if you have the flash directed at it. You’ll get an extremely over exposed picture that wouldn’t effectively grab the viewer’s attention. There are many ways to get around this problem, such as investing in a flash diffuser or by making use of the bounce flash method. Adding a diffuser helps soften the overall light, thereby making your pictures look more natural. However, bounce flash is a totally different technique of diffusing light. For starters, you can try the ceiling-bounce by tilting your flash towards the ceiling at an angle of 75 – 80 degrees. Here, the ceiling acts as a diffuser and reflector as it bounces the diffused light onto the subject. However, you will need a pretty low ceiling to make this work effectively. If it’s a person that you are shooting, you might notice shadows underneath the eyes as the light is being reflected from a higher surface. In such cases, the reverse ceiling bounce method is the way to go. Here, you have to tilt the flash 45 degrees backwards, allowing the light to hit the wall, then the ceiling, and finally on your subject. Here again, you will need to make sure that the rear wall isn’t too far away from the flash, otherwise the final image will turn out rather dull and dark, making the flash pointless.

For outdoor photography, you can make use of reflectors. There are various types of reflectors that one can make use of, such as lamp reflectors, board reflectors and portable folding reflectors. Unlike bounce flash, portable reflectors are flexible to use as you can have them positioned just about anywhere to help give you that perfect shot.

Polarizers: If you are into outdoor photography, you should consider investing in a polarizer. Such filters are mostly used when the requirement is to eliminate reflections. Moreover, they also help in saturating and darkening the overall image. When shooting with a polarizer, the direction of the sunlight should be perpendicular to the position of your lens.

Props: Adding props to your products can enhance the overall outcome of the photograph. For example, if you have a gaming laptop that you would like to sell/resell. Just photographing the product won’t quite define the product at hand. A better and more viable approach to this would be to have some kind of a gaming poster in the background along with the product. However props will vary from product to product. It is best to keep it simple and minimal. Moreover, make sure that the prop isn’t as big as the product, because then the whole focus would be on the prop rather than the product.

Here are two questions you should ask yourself when shooting with props –

1. Does it enhance the product that is being shot or does it simply overwhelm the subject?

2. Does it help define exactly what you want to convey to the potential buyer?

‘Save as’ for print and web

When giving photos for printing to a professional studio, there are certain specifications with regard to the DPI and resolution of an image that you must keep in mind. This is also the case when you want to upload images on websites. There are various sizes (in inches) of prints that studios offer, such as 16 x 20, 8 x 12, and, the most common, 4 x 6. Ideally, 200 dpi to 250 dpi images suffice for these sizes. But when you want to blow up an image, use higher dpi and resolution. The larger an image, the more pixels are required to maintain the image quality, or else the image would lose detail and cause pixilation. So a higher-quality image helps scalability. While 4-color (offset) printing machines, which are used for printing magazines, booklets, etc, need images in the CMYK format, photo printers use RGB. Therefore, to print photos, save the files in medium or high quality JPEG. For web, a 72 dpi value with a 1024 x 768 resolution JPEG should suffice.

Benefits of RAW over compressed

If your camera supports RAW, use it. Why? Because the unprocessed file contains pixel information that can be used to make fine adjustments to the image using an image editor such as Photoshop without sacrificing details. Consider it as the negative equivalent to a film camera.

Here are the benefits of RAW:

Better image quality.

Freedom to manually sharpen and remove noise

RAW formats make use of lossless compression or remain uncompressed. So the file contains maximum detail when compared to compressed formats such as JPEG.

RAW files allow you to make finer adjustments to a wide range of parameters such as white balance, hue, saturation, sharpness, etc.

Fewer artefacts when increasing the overall exposure of an underexposed photo.

RAW also has a few drawbacks:

RAW files are two to six times larger than a normal JPEG. So fewer images can be stored on the memory card.

Since the files are large, the write speed is much slower than clicking in JPEG.

Post Processing

As the terms suggest, post processing is the cleaning and enhancing of images to make them ready to use for high quality print or web publishing. In this workshop, we’ll be using Adobe Photoshop to show you step-by-step guides to various techniques to quickly and seamlessly enhance portraits, landscapes and indoor product shots.

Cut-out

When you shoot a product, even with a white background, the backdrop isn’t always appealing, which is why cut-outs are used. The idea with cut-outs is to get only a product without its jarred background so that you can place the product onto a fresh white backdrop or another background of your choice. Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Open the image in Adobe Photoshop, zoom in to it (100%), and select the pen tool from the tool bar on the left. Create a digital trace along the edges of the product, we’ve used a laptop for illustration.

Step 2: Look for the edge of the product that runs in a straight line, and click on it to create your first node. Instead of creating multiple nodes, go to the end of this straight line and click to create the second node. Ensure that the line joining these two nodes matches the edge of the laptop.

Step 3: If the line doesn’t match, click in the middle of the line to add a new node. Hold down the [Ctrl] key and drag this new node to adjust the line. The same technique is used for curves.

TIPS: Use the [Ctrl] key whenever you would like to re-position or adjust a node. To delete a node, click on it and hit [Delete].

Step 4: When you come across a curve or a protrusion, click on the last node in the row, and click on the other end of the curve to create a new node. You notice a line running across the curve, where part of the product is falling out of the trail. Here, use step 3 to bend the line and match it with the curve.

Step 5: Now click on the last node to continue the trail along the edges. When you are nearing completion, at the starting point (the first node), you’ll notice a tiny circle next to the pen. Click on the starting point to close the loop. You’ve just created a cut-out path for the laptop.

Step 6: Now, go to the side panel, select the tab ‘path’, double-click on the work path, rename it, and save the file.

Step 7: Press [Ctrl] + [Shift] and click on the renamed path to activate the cut-out selection. Now press [Ctrl] + J to duplicate this selection to a new layer with a transparent background. Press [Ctrl] + [Shift] + N to turn this into a new layer and click OK.

TIP: Since the cut-out path gets saved along with the file, you can re-open the file and start from step 7, if an error occurs.

Step 8: In the side panel, switch to the ‘Layers’ tab, and press [Shift] + F5 (you’ll be prompted) to fill this layer with ‘White’. The canvas will turn completely white. From the menu bar, go to Layer | Arrange | Send to back. You now have the laptop with a clean white background. Go to file | Save as, and save the file as a PSD (default).

TIP: At this stage if you want this laptop on another background, import the background (File | Open | background file). Revert to the saved laptop document, right-click on the cut-out layer, and select ‘duplicate layer’. Here, in the ‘destination’ drop down menu, select the document that contains your background image, and click ‘OK’.

Retouching

Retouching and enhancing images is perhaps the most common practice in photography. Be it for product or glamour photography, all images are cleaned before they get published. Using the stamping tool is a very quick way when there is very little correction to be done. But what really makes a huge difference is the layer masking technique (especially for human faces). Let’s look at each of them step-wise.

Step 1: The clone stamping tool is useful for removing tiny marks, such as a finger print or stain, but it is tedious task when making major corrections. To use it, select the tool, push the [Alt] key and click on a clean area close to the mark. Then release the [Alt] key and paste the cloned portion onto the mark.

Step 2: When cleaning images with uniform colors, the spot healing brush tool is even more effective. It quickly and automatically cleans tiny spots. All you have to do is use it as an eraser.

TIP: If you’re looking to smoothen the skin texture, layer masking along with gaussian blur can prove to be magical.

Step 3: To use layer masking, first let’s duplicate the original image and turn it into a new layer. Press [Crtl] + J or go to Layer | Duplicate layer.

STEP 4: Go to Filter | Blur, and select gaussian blur. Keep the pixel count at 5.

STEP 5: Select the blurred layer, go to Layer | Layer Mask, and select ‘Hide all’. In the side panel, next to the blurred layer, you’ll notice a black (masked) layer. This layer acts like a coin under paper (original image), so when you shade it with a pencil, you get the impression of it.

STEP 6: To reveal parts of the blurred layer, which is underneath the original image, select white from the color palette and the paint brush from the tool bar, and start painting the marks on the original image. You’ll see the blurred layer partly surfacing, which makes the marks magically disappear, hence giving the face a smooth texture.

STEP 7: Do this carefully so that the details and sharpness are not lost, especially close to the nose and eyes. You can even control the opacity to give a more realistic look to the picture.

TIP: In case the blurring goes out of proportion, you can reverse the painting by switching to black (to retrieve parts of the original image).

STEP 8: To give a more vibrant look to a face or to tone it down a bit, press [Ctrl] + [Shift] + I and adjust the tones accordingly. You can also change the brightness and contrast level by using Curves. Simply press [Ctrl] + M to get the option on screen.

STEP 9: To flatten the image before saving it, go to Layer and select Flatten image. Now, to Image | Mode | CMYK and click Ok when prompted for conversion.

STEP 10: Finally, save the file as TIF if it is for print, or JPEG for the web.

Artificial DOF

Layer masking along with gaussian blur can be helpful in achieving artificial depth of field. The only addition would be that you’ll have to change the pixel count of the gaussian blur for different areas of the picture. The area in full focus remains sharpest (unchanged). As you move away from the focus point, you increase the pixel count for gaussian blur. For instance, in the closest area you can keep it at 2 pixels, and the most distant object can be blurred with about 5 or more pixels. It entirely depends on the perspective and how the image is shot.

Printing booklets

We checked with a couple of photo studios in Mumbai for printing prices. The starting price for a 10-page (20 sides) photo-booklet of 6 x 6 (inches) dimensions is approximately Rs 500 (the better the quality, the higher the price). Studios even take up printing jobs for pamphlets, brochures, etc, which can cost less because the pages could be fewer and they are usually printed in bulk. Also, in this case, you can ask for discounts of up to 10 percent. 

– dushyant.khilnani@chip.in

– sandeep.balachandran@chip.in