Fans of our Facebook Page heard the news that there would be no Beyond Megapixels article last Friday because my husband and I were in the process of rescuing a dog from our County animal shelter. While I don’t intend to turn this site into a forum for Public Service Announcements, I would encourage everyone who is considering a new pet to adopt from their local shelter, Humane Society, or animal rescue group. Our little girl Bailey was considered “unadoptable” because she was so frightened of the shelter environment that she didn’t display the usual friendly, tail-wagging socialization they consider imperative during their evaluation. So, she was put on the list to be euthanized. Due to the wonderful efforts of Arizona’s New Hope and the Friends of Arizona’s Shelter Animals, Bailey was given a second chance and is now a permanent member of our household.

She seems pretty happy, wouldn’t you agree?

And our Miniature Pinscher, Gadget, is ecstatic to have a new friend!

While I was in our back yard trying to take pictures of the dogs, I thought the subject would make a good article. I’m talking about my dogs here, but the principles can be applied to any pets.

Use a long lens. Like any other portrait, the subject tends to look better when shot from a distance with a telephoto lens. Plus, I found it was a little hard to photograph these characters since they were usually stuck to my side. So, I used my telephoto lens and tossed a ball out into the yard to get them at a distance from me. If you don’t happen to be in a place where you can let your dogs run free, have someone hold the leash for you and walk a distance away. Compose so that only the animal is in the frame.

Use continuous shooting mode for action shots. My dogs NEVER stand (or sit) still. In order to get one shot out of twenty that I considered to be “good”, I kept my camera on continuous shooting mode.

Use continuous auto-focus mode too. For dogs that are REALLY on the go, use the AI Servo auto-focus mode (Canon) or Continuous Servo AF (Nikon). Your camera’s auto-focus will continue to adjust for the moving subject, making your chances greater for a focused shot.

Keep a damp cloth handy. After throwing the ball a few times, it got to be rather slobbery. I didn’t want to handle my camera with slobbery hands, so I kept a damp cloth handy to wipe my hands on.

Catch them at their goofy moments. Yawning, scratching an itch, doing that little bow-wiggle thing they do when they want to play. Not every photo needs to be a head shot for the Westminster Kennel Club.

Get in close. Again, just like portraits of people, you don’t have to get the whole dog in the frame. Focus in on noses, eyes, ears, paws.

Shoot at their level. Get down on the ground and photograph your pet at their eye level. This was hard for me to accomplish since every time I knelt down and aimed my camera, they came charging toward me. So, try this one after they’ve been racing around for a while and are ready to sit still for a bit.

Sometimes the bad shots are actually good shots. Some shots that are composed a bit off or are a bit blurry are actually great shots for portraying action (chaos!) and mood. So take a closer look at the shots that you may ordinarily discard.

We would absolutely LOVE to see photos that you have taken of your pets!! Please share them with us on our Facebook Page.

All photos copyright Tiffany Joyce.

Related posts:

1. 5 Simple Tips for Pet Photography
2. Photography 101 – Exposure Bracketing
3. Macro Photography 101

I was standing at the top of a mountain when I took this picture (click to enlarge). The wind was blowing, my hands were freezing (even in Arizona, it’s cold at an elevation of 7600 feet in January), it was about 4:30 in the afternoon, and I was completely blown away by this LIGHT.

This extremely tricky light.

I’m standing in the shadow cast by the peak of the mountain. The sky is overcast. Beams of light are hitting the landscape from mid-frame all the way to the horizon. There are reflections on the water (that’s Roosevelt Lake there, by the way). All the time my eyes are soaking it all in, my brain is thinking, “Now how the heck is my camera going to translate THIS?”

Pretty darn well, actually, with a little know-how applied by yours truly.

My Canon 7D locks in the exposure when I press the shutter half-way. If I achieve the exposure I want but need to recompose (which often times will change the exposure), I simply press the * button on the back of the camera, and compose away. The exposure remains locked for multiple shots if I hold down the * button while pressing the shutter (which is handy for panoramas when you don’t want obvious changes in exposure from frame to frame).

In the case of this photo, I wanted to meter for the sunlight hitting the landscape. Generally, Evaluative Metering works just fine but I wanted to make sure I nailed the exposure (it was hard to tell if I was capturing it just right on the image preview). In this case I used Center Weighted Average, as the brightest point I wanted to expose for was at the center of the frame. Then just to make REALLY sure, I bracketed the shots at -1 stop, 0, and +1 stop. This shot just happened to turn out just fine with no exposure compensation. But, you know, it’s always good to be sure.

I did a bit of color and contrast correction (darn haze) and sharpening in Lightroom, and this was the result! Taken with a Canon 17-55 f/2.8 IS at f/16, ISO 400, 1/125th.

Has there been a shot recently that you REALLY wanted to get right, and took extra steps to ensure that you did so? We’d love to hear about it, and see your results! Please share with us in the comments or on our Facebook Page.

Photo copyright Tiffany Joyce.

Related posts:

1. Balancing Ambient Light with a Speedlite
2. Painting with light!
3. Photography 101 – Exposure Bracketing

Sometimes it’s easy to focus so much on the subject that you forget to visually survey the background and decide if you want it to be part of the photo. Below are some of the things I’ve seen in photos or experienced myself that diminish the quality of the photo.

Household clutter – I’ve seen photos where there were dirty clothes on the floor, dirty dishes on the kitchen counter and other day-to-day household clutter. If you’re shooting indoors, make sure the area you’re shooting in is neat and clean. Otherwise, when someone else looks at the photo the first thing they’ll see is the clutter, not the subject.

Background too busy – Whether indoors or outdoors, when shooting a subject in front of a busy background, the viewer’s eye is drawn away from the subject to all the objects, colors or activities in the background. Over the years, I’ve seen photos where it was even difficult to tell what the subject was. Okay, over the years I’ve taken some of those photos.

Background is too dramatic – It is possible to have a background that is so dramatic that the viewer wonders why there’s a person in the way when the photographer was actually photographing the person and not the background. There are places in Seattle, WA that afford some spectacular views of Mt. Rainier on a clear day. There’s a little park on the top of Queen Anne hill in Seattle where on a clear day I used to sit and watch Mt. Rainer as the sunset turned the snow covered mountain from white, to pink to purple. Breathtaking.

One day I arrived there to watch the mountain at sunset and observed someone with a camera photographing a bride, dressed in her gown, and using Mt. Rainier as a backdrop. I think I understand what the photographer was trying to do, but I would be willing to bet that a few years later if the bride was showing the photos to some friends or family members that weren’t from the Seattle area, the first comment they might make is, “Wow! What an awesome mountain. Where is it?”

Unexpected people or things in the background of the photo – A few years back I was photographing a fully restored 1929 Duesenberg J automobile. I also had two people in period dress that were going to pose with the car. I had these great creative thoughts about the photos and how I was going to finish them in sepia and make the resulting photos look old and worn. I painstakingly selected the spot and angle to make sure there wasn’t anything modern in the background. I probably took 20-25 photos. I was really excited until I saw the results. Across the sky in all of the photos were two jet contrails. In today’s digital age with Photoshop this is fairly easy to correct. With the film I was using, not so much.

When you’re photographing outside the studio keep these things in mind:

• Study the background before you start shooting. Make sure there’s nothing in the background that you don’t want. Avoid surprises after the shoot.

• Select a background that enhances the photo not detract from it.

• In the studio I can move the lights around to get the lighting I want. If you’re shooting outdoors you can’t move the sun around. This means that you may have to move the subject after you thought you were set to shoot so you can get the lighting you need or want. When you do this make sure you start over with the background.

• Remember that if the sky is in the shot, it’s part of the background.

• Once you’ve selected the location where you’re satisfied with the background and have started shooting, look at your background from time to time to make sure nothing has changed.

If you keep these tips in mind when shooting you’ll produce more and better photographs and fewer snapshots.

By now you may be wondering where are the photos that are usually included with the articles on Beyond Megapixels. There are two reasons there are none with this article.

1. I’ve taken a number of photos over the years that violate everything in this article. Where do you think I got all the ideas? However, when I do screw up a photo this way I delete it. There’s no reason to keep it around although I could have used some of them here.

2. While I could find a lot of photos on Flick to illustrate the points I was trying to make, I won’t use someone else’s photo to show what not to do.

One last tip, don’t get so anxious about the background that you miss the photo you wanted to take.

Related posts:

1. Studio Backdrops/Backgrounds
2. First Time Studio Session
3. Build a Home Photo Studio for Under $800

However, that capability to take photos in low light costs us in the way of increased noise.

Noise is that “grain” you see, which when magnified appears as tiny speckles of white and tiny colored specks that don’t correspond to the color of the subject. It is caused by a variety of things, but not to put too fine a technical point on it, it basically has to do with how the components of the camera’s sensor handle electronic signals at high ISO settings. The higher the ISO, the higher the appearance of noise. The larger the camera’s sensor, the better quality the photographs taken at a high ISO will be – so, a photo taken with a crop sensor camera at ISO 6400 will have more noise than a photo taken with a full frame sensor at ISO 6400. In addition, each camera model and each camera brand handle noise differently. Lots of folks like to play around with noise and grain as an added artistic element to their photographs.

With all of that said, there are ways to reduce the noise in your photographs, regardless of how high your ISO or which camera you use. Just keep in mind that the more noise you reduce, the “softer” the appearance of the photograph.

Here is a photo that I took with my Canon EOS 7D, ISO 12,800. Ordinarily, ISO settings are only available up to 6,400, but I activated the ISO expansion option on my camera. This shot is straight out of the camera (click to enlarge):

As you can see, it’s pretty grainy. And actually, zoomed out the grain is fairly aesthetically pleasing, given the subject. When I zoom in using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3, the amount of noise is very apparent (click to enlarge):

In the Develop module of Lightroom, you may have noticed the “Detail” panel:

In the “Noise Reduction” area, slide the “Luminance” slider to the right until all of the white speckles disappear. I had to drag it all the way over to 51 (click to enlarge):

Now, notice the purple-ish speckles and streaks in the spoke on the lower left? That’s an indication of color noise, and to remove it we just slide the “Color” slider over to the right until it disappears, as well (click to enlarge):

Here is the photo with the noise levels reduced (click to enlarge):

Removing noise also has the added benefit of reducing the file size. The original is 16.6 MB, and the file with the noise reduced is 10.5 MB. This application of noise reduction works in a similar fashion in Photoshop, Aperture, and other post-processing software.

Photos by Tiffany Joyce.

Related posts:

1. A Splash of Color in Lightroom
2. My Lightroom Workflow
3. Image Stabilization and Vibration Reduction Explained

This subject has been on my mind for the past several weeks. My husband and I had to make a last-minute trip to Wyoming – his father passed away in December, and he did not leave a will or any indication of his wishes. There are a LOT of details to be taken care of, when someone passes away. Especially if they haven’t made arrangements first. So, in tandem with the grief that we felt at my father-in-law’s passing, there was also the stress of being completely unsure of how to proceed.

As we were organizing my father-in-law’s belongings, we came across a lot of loose photographs. Some were tucked in books, others were stashed in envelopes. Very few of them had any description whatsoever about the people, places, and things in the photos. We were left wondering who these people were that meant something to this man, that he would take or receive their photos.

Then we came across some photographs that were quite old – my father-in-law was born in the 1930′s, and photos of his childhood were tucked here and there throughout his belongings. There were friends and family members, vacations and homes, that we just couldn’t identify. Even with the input of my husband’s VAST collection of cousins, we were unable to determine any specifics for many of the images.

It made us sad, that the last person on Earth who knew who the people were in these photos had passed away without leaving their stories behind for us to enjoy. I experienced a very similar concern last spring when I visited my Uncle in Maine. As the eldest surviving relative on my mother’s side of the family, I MADE him sit down at the kitchen table with me, for several days in a row. We’d look at one photo after another, and I would scan merrily away type furiously as he told me the stories behind the photos. Even though he knew most of them, he didn’t know all of them, and so the mystery endures.

I can’t stress enough how important it is to KNOW those stories. And it will be important to your loved ones in the future when they come across the photos that YOU’VE taken. So please, take the time to write a quick note on the back of your prints. Keyword and describe your on-line photos. Add information to metadata. Give future generations the gift of your experiences.

Photo (click to enlarge): A wheel from one of the wagons that my husband’s descendants traveled in to their homestead in Wyoming in the 1800′s. Now THAT is a story I wouldn’t have wanted to miss!!!!

Related posts:

1. Short Tips and Thoughts
2. Oh No! Someone Used One of My Photos
3. Four Ways to Save Your Photos

View from Bird Bridge

Greg Stephens is a nature photographer I have mentioned before and who submitted a guest article about nature photography and one of his favorite spots for photographing birds and other animals – Paynes Prairie in north-central Florida. On December 30, a photographer friend of mine, Rick Marshall, and I travelled to Paynes Prairie at Greg’s invitation. In addition to the three of us there were three other nature photographers and we all lined up side-by-side along Bird Bridge to capture images of all the birds. Unfortunately, there weren’t very many birds to see or photograph except for three Bald Eagles way over there across the lake, a Phoebe that wanted to stay at the very top of a tree so the only shot you could get was against the bright sky, a cormorant, a couple of herons and egrets and a few assorted warblers that stayed mostly deep in the brush and refused to be still and pose for us. As a result we didn’t get a lot of good photos. However, because of the dearth of birds, we spent most of our time talking about photography, wild life and life in general. We had a great time. There are times when I want to go out alone but there’s a lot to be learned and to experience when a group of photographers get together. If you haven’t had this experience I recommend you give it a try.

The ongoing debate about what color space to shoot in and whether to shoot in RAW or JPEG came up that morning at Paynes Prairie and the answer I gave was so erudite I shocked myself. This seems to be one of those subjects that everyone has a strong opinion about like deep dish or New York style pizzas. Kidding aside, I’m aware that if I send an image file to a color lab for printing or if I want to post an image on line and want it to look right I need to make sure the file is a jpeg file and that the color space is sRGB. So the obvious question is why not shoot in jpeg and sRGB all the time? If I shoot in RAW I’m capturing all the information the camera is capable of capturing. If I shoot in ProPhotoRGB, which I do, I’m capturing all the color information the camera is capable of capturing. If I save the file, I’ll always have all that information. I can always reduce the amount of information by converting to jpeg and sRGB but if I shoot in jpeg and sRGB I can never increase the information. Do I ever really need all that information? Who knows, but if I do I have it. If I don’t capture it, I can never recover it.

Image with color space set at ProPhotoRGB

Image with color space changed to sRGB

Frequently I hear people complaining that their images never look the same when they print them as they look on their monitor. There are two things that can cause that problem. One, your printer isn’t calibrated. See my article on printer calibration. Two, the image is in Adobe RGB (RGB) or ProPhotoRGB instead of sRGB (see the two images above). Check your color space settings.

Last Tuesday I posted an article about decorating your home using your own photographs. A reader, Renan Le Caro, posted the following comment:

“Nice idea, but I’m afraid it would feel a little narcissist for a beginner like me.”

Upon reading the comment my immediate thought was, NO! NO! Being a beginner doesn’t mean you can’t take good or even great photographs. It does mean that you probably won’t take good photos as often as someone who’s much more experienced, but you can still take good photos. Isn’t showing off your photography why we do this? If you were a painter and you painted something you really liked, wouldn’t you hang it on your wall or try to sell it? Besides, hanging your work on the wall in your home is a somewhat subtle expression. That is until someone asks where you got the photo and you go into a 30 minute dissertation about it.

While I’m on the subject of last Tuesday’s article, a co-worker brought in a bunch of photos that she wanted to use as decorative art work in her home. The problem is that she had taken a couple of the photographs with the camera too close to the subject and the subject was cropped. When taking photos, especially as a set and especially when you’re photographing similar subjects on different days and you want to display them as a set or group, always give yourself a little room. You can always crop the photos to the image you want if you left some room in the photo but if you crop it in the camera you can’t recover the part of the image that was never photographed.

Lastly, on the subject of comments and questions, Tiffany and I both greatly appreciate the comments and the time you took to make it at the end of our articles and always look forward to reading them. We welcome those comments even when you are expressing a different opinion or disagreeing with us. However, comments that are abusive or written in a manner that is impolite and unprofessional will be deleted. Further, comments that are made solely to “advertise” a product or vendor will also be deleted. We welcome advertising, but only when the advertiser is paying for the space.

All Photos by Steve Russell

Related posts:

1. Tips for Action Photography
2. Ten Tips for Photographing Birds
3. Thoughts on Family Photos

Since my husband and I went off-roading last weekend, I have 171 photos to process of us, the Jeep, and the Arizona landscape. Here’s how I’m going about it:

Import: Append Metadata and Add Keywords

The first thing I did when I first started using Lightroom was to set up the import settings so that specific metadata was appended to the files whenever I imported them from my memory card.

- From the Import window (Command-Shift-i or Ctrl-Shift-i), choose “New” from the Metadata pop-up menu under the Apply During Import panel.
- In the New Metadata Preset dialog, input your copyright information and any other metadata you wish to be appended to your files.
- Assign a name to your metadata preset (at the top of the dialog box, “Preset Name”).
- Click on the “Create” button.

Click to enlarge

- On the Import panel, you will see your preset listed in the drop-down menu. This preset will be active every time you open the Import dialogue, unless you change it.
- At this stage I always assign keywords to the collection of photos I am downloading. Once you start amassing a large catalog of photos, keywords will be immensely helpful when you need to find something in the future.

Library: First Pass Flagging

Next I attempt to whittle down the photos into a manageable number that I will want to finish through post-processing.

- In the Library module, I choose the Grid view but expand the thumbnail size so that I can see two at a time. I happen to have my view modes set up such that I can see sorting, flagging, rating, color labels, and navigate buttons (use the arrow at the very bottom right of this screen shot to show/hide sorting options):

Click to enlarge

- This first pass is very simple – I decide whether it’s a “keeper” or not. If I know I absolutely do not want to keep the photo or bother editing it, I click on the “reject” flag while the photo is highlighted (as in the screen shot – I rejected the photo on the right, and you can see the reject flag in the top left corner of that photo).
- Next I filter the photos for all rejected photos, and delete them. That just gets them out of the way right off the bat and unclutters things, at least in my mind.

Library: Second Pass Rating

Once the rejected photos are removed, I go back through the photos again and rate them using the scale of five stars. This time I use loupe view to look at one photo at a time. I also hide the bottom, left and right menu bars so that all I see is the photo and the rating buttons.

Click to enlarge

- A photo gets one star if, upon a second look, I realize that it isn’t a keeper after all. (I’ll probably delete these after I’ve gone through the entire second pass.)
- A photo gets three stars if there is something about it that I want to try to keep – either a significant crop or some strong Photoshopping.
- A photo gets five stars if it’s great just the way it is, or just needs a bit of tweaking for exposure and sharpness right in Lightroom.

Develop: Five Starred Photos

Now I move into the Develop module. By this time I have a small selection of the highest rated (five-starred) photos, so I prioritize those for post-processing.

- Using the filters, I display only the five-starred photos. In the case of my series of photos from the weekend, I have seventy of the original 171 that I deem to be “five-star” worthy.

Click to enlarge

- I look at each photo individually and adjust exposure, contrast, sharpness, and whatever else needs tweaking. Once I have it where I like it, I move on to the next photo.
- If I come across a photo that I don’t want to mess with after all, or have multiple similar shots to choose from, I reduce it to three stars (or one if I decide I want to delete it later).

Export

Once I have gone through all of the photos and adjusted them appropriately, I then select them all (Shift-click), right-click and select Export. My Export settings are as follows:

- Usually I export to the folder the original files were in on my hard drive.
- I use “Custom Name – Original File Number” so I can easily match up the RAW files with the JPEG’s should I need to.
- The file format is JPEG, quality is 100%, exported in sRGB color space.
- Resolution is 240 pixels per inch.
- Sharpen for screen, standard amount (unless I was printing).
- Sometimes I include a custom watermark, depending on the project.
- I don’t minimize metadata, and I don’t typically resize the photos.

Develop: Three Starred Photos

Once the five-starred photos are completely finished, I turn my attention to the three-starred photos. Sometimes I don’t even get to them, to be honest, but I know they’re there should I be after something specific. These are the shots that take more time in Photoshop to bring up to par, so unless there’s something very specific I want to do with them, they tend to be de-prioritized in favor of the five-starred photos. However, I don’t delete these, even if I never get around to processing them.

What does your post-processing workflow look like? Share any ideas or advice with us in the comments or on our Facebook Page.

Related posts:

1. Noise Reduction in Lightroom
2. RAW vs. DNG
3. Establishing a Post-Processing Routine

Let’s say you have what you consider to be the minimum amount of gear to begin your adventures into professional photography – a good camera, a couple of quality lenses, and good working knowledge of post-processing. From there, your wish list has grown to epic proportions and includes everything from a back-up camera body to studio lighting and lenses galore. So how do you know what you really need, and in what order do you prioritize your purchases?

1. Ask yourself the right questions.

What kind of a professional photographer do you want to be? Do you want to take studio portraits or work on-location? Do you want to capture landscape or wildlife photography? Are you going to be traveling great distances, or staying close to home? Will you have a home studio or a rented space, or will you be working out of your car? All of these questions are key aspects of discerning what kind of gear you need to prioritize.

2. Protect your client’s photos.

First and foremost, get yourself an external hard drive to back up your photos. Consider backing up your backup, too! Choose a reputable on-line backup resource like Mozy, CrashPlan, or Carbonite. Since you are now going to be providing a service to paying customers, it is ESSENTIAL that your photography projects are stored safely.

3. Get the colors right.

Make sure you are working with a calibrated monitor and printer – you can’t get the colors right for your clients unless you’re working with properly calibrated displays! Purchase color calibration software and tools, and repeat the calibration process occasionally to make sure your colors continue to be accurate.

4. Develop your Essentials Kit.

Your Essentials Kit should include a selection of memory cards, spare batteries, microfiber cloths, lens caps, white balance cards, UV filters, lens hoods, and other odds and ends. Make up a kit for every camera bag you use, plus an additional kit for your storage cabinet. As you use a battery and plug it in to charge, IMMEDIATELY replace it with a charged battery. As you pull out a memory card for post-processing, IMMEDIATELY replace it with a blank one. By doing this you will seriously decrease the odds of being without an essential item when you’re out in the field.

5. Achieve the bare minimum.

Understand the BARE MINIMUM amount of gear you absolutely need to have, and prioritize those purchases over anything else. For instance:

- Portrait Photography: A basic three-light setup is essential, or two lights and a good reflector. The bottom line is, for portrait photography you absolutely need off-camera flash. Buy quality equipment and resist the urge to purchase cheap, flimsy kits. Get a softbox and an umbrella that can act as either a reflector or a shoot-through diffuser. Purchase with an eye toward traveling with your gear, if that is the route you’re going to take. You’ll also need remote transmitter/transceivers, like those you can get from Pocketwizard. Finally, invest in a quality light meter.

- Wedding Photography: Invest in “fast” lenses that work well in low light – get a wide-angle and a medium-length telephoto (such as the oft-recommended 70-200mm f/2.8). Many wedding photographers swear by the “three lens prime kit” – the 28mm, 50mm, and 85mm. Accompany those lenses with a Speedlight or two, which are highly portable and flexible. Have a light stand and a light modifier for each Speedlight, and remote flash triggering. If you have a full-frame camera body, consider a crop-sensor body as your backup (and vice-versa).

- Landscape Photography: You’ll probably want to prioritize lens purchases to make sure you have a full range of focal length capability. Always purchase lenses with an eye towards quality – the better the lens, the better the photos. A backup camera body is also essential to be prepared for any mishaps. Full-sensor cameras are highly recommended for wide-angle landscape photography. You’ll need a rugged tripod, one that is designed to be used out in the field. Finally, you will need a hardy, weather-proof travel case or two in which to store your gear.

- Wildlife Photography: Once you have a quality DSLR in hand, it’s all about the lens when it comes to capturing photos of elusive wildlife. Start with a high quality telephoto zoom lens, then add on with telephoto prime lenses. Get a rugged tripod, one that is capable of resting on uneven ground. Consider a crop-sensor camera body as your backup – they have the added benefit of adding on to the effective focal length of telephoto lenses. Choose a light weight but sturdy weather-proof backpack for your gear.

- Architectural/Real Estate Photography: Prioritize the purchase of an extreme wide-angle lens, or a tilt-shift lens. Choose a couple of portable strobes and battery packs, with enough power to light dim corners and large spaces. Your tripod should have a ball head and spirit level.

- Product Photography: Get a couple of high quality macro lenses – one with a 1:1 ratio and one with more extreme magnification. Powerful light sources are essential, whether they be constant lights for use with light boxes, or studio strobes. Buy light boxes of various sizes, and consider getting something like a Lastolite 7′x8′ HiLite for larger subjects.

6. Take notes.

As you gain experience in your chosen genre of photography, you will quickly learn about what works and what doesn’t work. Take notes on every photo shoot that you perform, with an eye toward simplifying everything from the amount of gear you need, to the amount of time it takes to set everything up. Figure out the gear that you bring but DON’T use, or the gear that you left behind that would have come in handy. As the essentials become obvious, you will continue to re-prioritize your list of gear purchases to suit your circumstances.

Photo credits (in order of appearance):
- “Randi in Wedding Dress” by Walt Stoneburner on Flickr Creative Commons.
- “Monument Valley” by Marco Bellucci on Flickr Creative Commons.
- “Female Great Horned Owl” by Tiffany Joyce.
- “Spiral Stairs” by Icelight on Flickr Creative Commons.

Related posts:

1. Photography Gear Research
2. Stepping Up Your Gear
3. Traveling with your Camera Gear

Last week Tiffany invited everyone to grab a cup of coffee and get comfortable. I thought I would suggest something a little stronger as I list my goals for 2012. So grab a cold one and get comfortable. To be very honest, I rarely write down goals but usually have them accessible in my head. Tiffany’s insistence that I write this article forces me to do something that we should all do if our goal is the same or similar to hers – learn, grow and push our boundaries.

1. My goals for this year are being driven by some upcoming major events in my life and photography is playing a very large role as these changes occur. At the end of January my wife and I are retiring and leaving Florida to move back to Texas. So, goal number 1 is to establish a successful photography business in our new location.

2. My second goal, which is a critical part of number 1, is to complete the updating and redesigning of my portfolio. I’ve been working on a new portrait portfolio for the last few months and I’m almost to the point where I’m ready to finalize it. I still need to photograph two or three more subjects but that’s on the calendar for January.

3. The first objective of the photography business is to support my photography habit. Goal number 3 is to make and save enough money to purchase my dream lens, the Canon 500mm f/4L IS II USM. Hopefully the version II will have been released by the time I’ve saved the money needed to purchase it.

4. In November of last year I posted an article called Photography Bucket List. Goal number 4 is to start checking off some of the places on that list. In turn, I’m sure I’ll have to add to the list as well. I already plan to travel to Albuquerque, NM in early October. There I’ll watch and photograph the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. From there it’s an easy drive to Shiprock, New Mexico and Monument Valley.

5. Re-join and re-connect with the nature photography club I belonged to in the 80s. I’ve written before that photography or camera clubs were great places to meet other photographers and learn from them. This relatively small club has monthly field trips, meetings and an annual contest that attracts many nature photographers. Here is a link to the website of the Heard Nature Photographers club

6. Attend seminars. There are people that own and use cameras and there are photographers. I believe that one mark of a photographer is the thirst to learn more and more about photography. I attended two live seminars in 2011 and walked away from both with more knowledge about photography than I had when I arrived.

7. Make more and better use of my Kelby Training membership.

8. While Tiffany and I are business partners with this blog, we’ve never met in person. Goal number 8 is to meet Tiffany and her husband, Bill, and go on a photo excursion with her. Tiffany, see my goal #4.

9. Find a location where it’s dark enough to photograph star trails. It’s something I’ve never done and I really want the experience.

10. Make plans and arrangements to attend Photoshop World in 2013. There is no way I’ll be able to attend in March 2012 with everything that will be going on in my world at the time, but getting a head start on 2013 is a good thing.

Tiffany was able to set twelve goals for herself. If I can accomplish all ten of these I’ll be a very happy camper or photographer if you will.

I hope that Tiffany’s article and this article inspire each of you to set your own photography goals for 2012. Whether they’re modest or somewhat grandiose as mine may be, setting them will give you a direction for next year.

Photo Credit:

Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale by KajJr on Flickr Creative Commons

Related posts:

1. Twelve Goals for 2012
2. Set Your Goals for 2011
3. Setting Goals in Photography

We all want absolutely tack-sharp photos. We all know that sharpness begins with the shot itself – there is no saving a blurry photo in post-production. We are somewhat familiar with sharpening techniques in Lightroom or Photoshop, but what is the best way to apply sharpening for landscapes? Portraits? Cars? Street scenes? When is the best time to sharpen? Is there a difference between sharpening for viewing on-line and sharpening for printing? What do the terms “amount” and “radius” and “threshold” mean?

Let’s begin to de-mystify the process of sharpening!

Two Rules of Thumb

The first rule of thumb is to apply sharpening as the very last step in the post-processing workflow. This is because softening can result from various editing techniques, so you want to sharpen the photo after all of the editing has been completed. The second rule of thumb is to view the photo at a magnified level (like 50%) as you sharpen, so you can really tell how the sharpening levels are affecting the image.

How Does It Know?

Post processing software such as Photoshop CS5, Lightroom 3, and Aperture 3 determine the where the edge lines are in the photograph by looking at the demarcation between lines of light pixels and lines of dark pixels. Depending on the settings that you use, sharpening is achieved by lightening the pixels next to the light lines, and darkening the pixels next to the dark lines. This creates greater definition along the edges of the subjects and details in the photograph, which translate into a sharper images as seen by our eyes.

This is a great exaggeration, but shows what I’m referring to. The first image is not sharpened at all, zoomed in to 1200% so you can see individual pixels:

This is an example with an extreme amount of sharpening added. Note the layers of contrast between the red and blue that the program added (click to see full-sized pixels):

What Do Those Unsharp Mask Settings Mean?

Amount: This refers to how significantly you want to sharpen the image. The higher the number you use, the more exaggerated the edges become. The light lines added next to the light edges become even lighter, and the dark lines added next to the dark edges become even darker. In the exaggerated photo of sharpening above, I set the Amount to 200%. This is what it looks like at 50% – notice the added blue lines aren’t AS blue, and the added red lines aren’t AS red (click to see full-sized pixels):

Radius: This effects how many pixels away from the identified edges the sharpening will be applied. A lower radius number means the changes will stick closer to the identified edge line, and a higher radius number means the changes will spread out further from the identified edge line. In the exaggerated photo of sharpening I applied a Radius of 5.0. This is what it looks like at 1.0 (click to see full-sized pixels):

Threshold: Threshold defines what the program considers an “edge” and what it does not. A high threshold number tells the program that a pixel needs to be very significantly different than surrounding pixels in order to be considered an “edge”. A low threshold number tells the program that only minor differences in pixels should define an edge. In the exaggerated photo I used, I set the threshold to “1″ – this means that more content within the photo will be sharpened because there are more incidents of slightly differing relational pixels than greatly differing relational pixels. In this example I set the threshold to “50″ (click to see full-sized pixels):

What Settings Should I Use?

Flowers and other “soft” subjects: You’ll want a fairly high amount (around 130-150%) with a very low radius (1 or 2) and a moderate threshold (8-12).

Portraits: You don’t want to overly-sharpen a portrait, but you do want to make things like eyes and hair highlights stand out. Try an amount of 75-100%, a radius of 2 or 3, and a threshold of 3-5.

Landscapes: There tend to be lots of edges and details in a landscape photo, so it’s appropriate to boost up the sharpening. Try an amount of 110-125%, a radius of 1, and a threshold of 3 or 4.

Very detailed (buildings, cars, anything intricate): If you want to sharpen the HECK out of your photo, set the amount to 60%, the radius to 5 and the threshold to 1.

Scott Kelby’s “All Purpose Sharpening”: In Scott Kelby’s book The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers , Kelby mentions that his favorite “all purpose” sharpening settings are amount 85%, radius of 1, threshold of 4. I do find this to be just the right amount of sharpening for most of my photography.

Sharpening for printing: If it looks just a little bit TOO over-sharpened on the screen, chances are it’s going to look just right when printed. Print out a few test prints on your printer until you establish how much sharpening results in the best prints.

In the shot at the beginning of this entry (taken at this summer’s MotoGP race in Indianapolis – the red Honda tents are in the foreground, and the track’s Pagoda is in the background), which was used for each example, I finally settled on an amount of 85%, radius of 1, and threshold of 3.

Photo credit: Tiffany Joyce

Related posts:

1. My Lightroom Workflow
2. Back to Basics: Image Resolution
3. The Beauty of Soft Focus