Category Archives: Tips

If you have any photographic tips to share please post them here.

25 January 2024 (Sets of Six and Macro Presentation)

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This week we had a “Sets of Six” evening, where members bring along images or give interesting demonstrations. I started the evening by giving a macro photography demonstration. I brought along a small (25cm x 25cm) lightbox into which I placed a “Musselburgh mussel” on a stand.

An image of a mussel inside a light box.

Macro photography is extreme close-up photography where the original idea is was to make the image on the camera’s sensor at least the same size as the subject itself. To achieve this you need a lens which can focus very close. A macro lens is one designed to have a close focus distance for macro photography, but if you don’t have a macro lens (or want to try macro photography at a different focal length than your macro lens) the following gadgets can also help:

  • Extension tubes will reduce the focal distance when fitted between your camera and lens. These are the best option because they contain no glass and won’t affect the performance of your lens. But make sure you buy ones compatible with your camera.
  • Close-up lenses can be screwed to the front of your lens, just like a filter. These have the advantage of being cheap and easy to fit, but because they contain glass they affect the performance of your lens.

One of the most difficult things in macro photography is getting the focus right. Macro photos tend to have a very narrow depth of field, especially if you choose a longer focal length to keep clear of your subject. One way to correct the narrow focal length is to use a narrow aperture (such as f/16 or f/22) but that leads to a longer exposure time and motion blur. Good lighting is very important in macro photography. For still subjects you can use a light box. Click here to see a review of the one I demonstrated, but there are other makes and sizes available. For moving subjects you can use a ring flash which fits on the front of the lens, which won’t cast shadows like a flash attached to the camera body. If you are lucky enough to have bright natural light available, a small reflector or diffuser can be used to soften the lighting and brighten the shadows. A gadget, such as a Wimberley Plamp, can be attached to your tripod to hold subjects like flowers that might be blown by the wind.

Another way to achieve a better depth of field in macro photography is using a focus stacking. Here is a YouTube video which explains how to do it.

You can change the focus by using the focus ring on your lens, but some photographers find a focus rail (which moves the camera back and forth on a rail) is easier to control. This site shows you how use a focus rail: https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/tutorials/how-to-use-a-macro-focusing-rail-for-a-focus-stacked-close-up.

Finally, I demonstrated a USB microscope, which can produce extreme macro close-ups. The depth of field for these devices is extremely narrow and they work best with two-dimensional subjects. But they can detect tiny objects invisible to the naked eye, such as dirt on the front of your lens you didn’t know was there. Here is a review: https://gadgets-reviews.com/uk/review/1388-best-usb-microscopes.html. These range from cheap to very expensive. I demonstrated a mid-range Jiusion microscope which saves HD images.

Several members then showed a selection of interesting images: Kevin Johnson showed how classic album cover art can inspire photography; Mike Clark showed some “before and after” results in underwater photography; John West showed how you can use ICM to transform an image of the interior of a cathedral; Malcolm Roberts described his visit to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition; There were also some unique views of The Kelpies. George Smith showed his first attempts at astrophotography; Elaine Gilroy showed her photographs of birds; George Todd showed a selection of holiday images; and Derek Muller showed a rig he had set up to capture water splashes. Derek also showed some of his favourite images of acorn people created by David M Bird. More of these images can be found on David’s YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@davidmbird

Finally, Joe Fowler showed us how images can be improved by removing the distractions and using the clone tool to add more interest. Thank you to everyone who showed their images. It was a long but very entertaining evening.

Next week we have a digital knock-out competition. Please bring up to 3 images on the subject a “water” and then vote for your favourites.

Digital Images Competition and Aurora

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A reminder that this coming Thursday is the deadline for entering the Digital Projected Images competition. This is an open competition where you can enter colour images of any subject. To enter the competition please email your 3 JPEG images to our competition secretary, George Todd (georgetodd1957@me.com). If you can’t email your images you can give them to George this Thursday.

Images need to be sized to fit into a 1600×1200 pixel rectangle, as shown below. A 4:3 landscape image can be resized to 1600×1200, but a 4:3 portrait image needs to be resized to 900 x 1200.

If you are a beginner and don’t know how to resize your images, send them anyway. George is always happy to help beginners to resize their images. Best of luck. The competition will be judged by Eddie Telford on 12th October 2023.

And now the second part of the news. I am getting a red alert for an aurora this evening, and the sky is clear! If you have the time, and are able to find a place with a good view of the northern sky, you could get some great shots this evening.

https://aurorawatch.lancs.ac.uk/

See you this Thursday, when Neil Scott will give us his talk on “Minimalism My Way”.

20 April 2023 (Justin Minns: Interesting Stuff)

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This week, in our last club meeting of the 2022/23 season, we joined Beeslack Penicuik Camera Club for a fascinating Zoom talk by landscape photographer Justin Minns. His talk “Interesting Stuff” was inspired by a 1947 quote by photographer Jim Richardson:

“If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff.”

Justin began by showing us some landscape images he had captured around his local environment in Norfolk and Suffolk; mostly beach and woodland. He tended to capture his images around sunrise, but would sometimes stay longer and walk around to see what other opportunities were available in the area. His advice was to go with the flow and work with what you have. Look at the shapes and textures in the landscape. Even ugly subjects can become interesting if you apply the right technique, as demonstrated by a long exposure shot of Felixstowe docks taken during the blue hour after sunrise. The blue hour provided just enough residual daylight to balance the artificial lights of the docks. Justin advised us to compose shots carefully. Try to avoid overlapping objects in the frame. If you have taken a landscape shot which seems to look great on the back of the camera, zoom in and check it carefully for small mistakes before walking away. Justin referred us to his books “Photographing East Anglia” and “Photographing Essex” for more details.

The second part of Justin’s talk was on the theme of “Making it Interesting”. He demonstrated the following techniques you can use to enhance landscape shots:

  • Using motion: Photographing a moving subject with a long exposure, or moving the camera when photographing a stationary subject, can add drama and movement to a shot. Keeping the camera still for a while and then moving it before the exposure ends can create a striking double exposure effect. Justin recommended a shutter speed of 0.3-3 seconds for creating a “swoosh” effect which emphasises the motion of water or a long exposure of 30-120 seconds to render moving water into a minimalist mist. When only part of the scene is moving, a long exposure can make stationary subjects stand out.
  • Using focus: Most landscape photographers will try to make everything sharp, but you can make a shot more atmospheric by deliberately blurring part of the scene. Justin showed a woodland image where some heather in the foreground had been turned into a blurred mist by throwing it out of focus with a narrow depth of field. There was also an atmospheric shot of some blurry, back-lit seed heads.
  • Using infrared: If you have an infrared-converted camera, or use a conversion filter, infrared shots can make dramatic black and white images of woodland or old buildings.
  • Framing: Using a wide angle lens and including small figures in a scene can give a sense of space. Conversely, a telephone lens can pick out important details from a scene and cut out distractions. For example, woodland images look more dramatic if you cut out areas of distracting bright sky. A scene can also be improved by viewing it from an unusual angle, for example by looking down using a drone.

The third part of Justin’s talk was about “Interesting Places”, where he showed us fabulous shots of his favourite places for photography, which are:

Justin’s final section was about “Interesting timing”; how your approach to landscape photography might change with the season or time of day. The golden hour and blue hour are good times of the day, but if you can’t visit a place at those times you can make the best of what you have. Frosty conditions during the winter can transform a landscape into something unusual, especially when the combination is unexpected, such as a frozen beach. Another example of “going with the flow” was a snowy scene where all the sky detail had been lost. Justin used the opportunity to create a minimalist image. The same thing can be done in foggy or misty conditions. In calm conditions look for interesting reflections. Some of the most dramatic scenes happen at the transition point where good weather ends and bad weather begins. Justin finished the section with a collection of images of the aurora borealis. If you are lucky enough to capture an aurora, don’t forget to include some foreground interest to make a more balanced composition.

Justin concluded that he disagrees with Jim Richardson’s quote. You can visit and photograph lots of interesting places, but the really good photographs arise from your own ideas, inspiration and creativity. He felt this quote by Henri Cartier-Bresson was closer to the mark.

“To photograph: it is to put on the same line of sight the head, the eye and the heart.”

Thank you to Justin for a fascinating and inspiring presentation, and to Beeslack for hosting it. Next week we will be holding the club’s AGM at 7pm in our usual room, G3, at the Fisherrow Centre. Please come along with ideas for set subjects we can use next year.

See you there.

Steven

23 March 2023 (Sets of Six / Technical Presentations)

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This evening was very busy and varied. We started with a “Sets of Six” session. This was an idea that folks could show a short video or AV or show a set of (up to) six images on whatever subject they choose, and folks could ask questions and discuss. The first item was a short AV presentation from Allan Cameron that was prepared from film images taken on a compact camera on a visit to Tunisia in 1986. This featured some appropriate music and on-screen captions. The film-based images have a certain look and colour that added to the aged look of the photos that digital images just don’t have. Ross Robertson provided a selection of landscape shots. Malcolm Roberts had a set of images from a studio day organised by Ron McCombe, from a harvest mice to a tarantula. Steve Williams had a set of aviation images, including some taken from Traprain Law so that he was even higher than the planes. Derek Muller brought along a set of images that he thought captured Feelings, and they sparked some discussion. New member Jim Innes had a variety of shots from the iconic dark hedges in Northern Ireland to the lit up phone box in Portobello with a light streak from a passing bus. Liz Sowler had some images from her travels including Lake Garda and the Faroe Islands. Gavin Marshall showed some photos of clay pigeon shooting, one freezing the shot in mid-air while another showing the moment the clay disintegrated. Joe Fowler brought a set of images that highlighted his photoshop compositing skills. George Todd brought 2 versions of the same image showing how a problem image that had a colour cast (from the long exposure used) and many blotches caused by light rain, that was not too obvious at the time. He then showed a mono version that got rid of the colour cast and had various other adjustments made along with a lot of careful cloning to get rid of the many raindrop splodges. His patience was rewarded with a striking image produced from a fairly unpromising start image.

Next up were ideas submitted for a poster to advertise the club in local shops etc. There were quite a few candidates shown. An interesting suggestion was made that we could use more than one design. A decision was deferred until next week and George invited anybody who wanted to submit any other ideas.

Finally, Joe gave a very clear and useful demonstration on how to prepare a window
mount using a Logan mat cutter along with a scalpel, scissors, masking tape, etc. This led
to some discussion around whether competition judges subconsciously preferred window
mount images to the simpler method of sticking prints straight onto the mount board.

  • Steve Williams announced the request that the club has received about running a Photo Walk as part of WalkFest 23 later in the year. Any interest should be discussed with Steve in the first instance. The web page for last year is here:
    https://www.volunteereastlothian.org.uk/latest-news/east-lothians-festival-of-walking-and-wheeling-15-21-august
  • There is a “free to enter” photography competition being held by the Royal Over-Seas League (ROSL) and more information can be found on their website:
    https://www.rosl.org.uk/photography
  • This coming Thursday, 30th March, we will be holding our annual joint meeting with Musselburgh Art Club. We will be meeting in G6 at 7pm. Our meetings with the art club tend to be hands-on, with artwork displayed around the room, which is not a good format to view by Zoom. Members are encouraged to come to G6 in person.

16 February 2023 (Alan Walker: Discovering Nature Photography – Japan and Beyond)

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This week we joined Beeslack Penicuik Camera Club for a fascinating talk by Alan Walker of Keswick Photographic Society, who described his experience discovering nature photography around the world. This particular talk, Japan and Beyond, is part 4 of Alan and Julie Walker’s “Discovering Nature Photography” series. You can find Keswick’s summary of this talk at the following link:

Julie and Alan Walker “Discovering Nature Photography Part 4 – Japan and Beyond” October 30th

Alan began by showing us the photographs he had taken from a visit to Japan in February 2018. The trip began in the Japanese Alps, where macaque monkeys gather to warm themselves in the hot pools. The two main problems in photographing these monkeys are the large numbers of people who gather round them and the steam from the pools. Alan avoids these problems by getting in close and waiting for moments when the steam subsides. He uses a Canon 200-400mm zoom lens with a built-in 1.4x converter, which can take the lens to 560mm. Photos were typically taken at ISO 1600, f/5.6 and 1/1000th second. Next he showed us photographs of the iconic red-crowned cranes at the Akan-Mashu National Park. These cranes are black and white birds photographed against a white snow background, so are difficult to capture. Alan recommended an exposure compensation of about +2 stops to get the whites looking right. The birds can be darkened in post-production. The best images are taken by getting down low to capture the birds against an out of focus distant background. Alan also described his experience photographing Steller’s sea eagles in the Sea of Okhotsk, birds which make great silhouettes when captured in profile.

Next, we were treated to a collection of nature photographs captured at the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico, USA. Here Alan photographed snow geese and sandhill cranes in dim lighting. He experimented with photographing the flocks of birds at slow shutter speeds (e.g. 15th-60th second) while panning, which created images with movement. He also captured individual birds when taking off or landing. The birds look better when taking off, because they are looking up, but it is much harder to catch a bird doing this.

Alan moved on to show us photographs of mountain hares and red squirrels captured in the Cairngorms National Park in Scotland, and photographs of tawny owls and other birds captured from a hide in Otterbourne in Hampshire. Alan also showed us photographs of big cats captured in the Kalahari Desert in South Africa. He explained that the Kalahari is not a good place to visit for a safari if you want to see lots of animals, but if you are a photographer you go for the yellow grass and the lovely light. Alan finished by showing us images of polar bears captured in the arctic tundra around Churchill in Canada. This is a very bleak and cold place, and the polar bears are out to get you! Alan showed how polar bears are photographed safely from large viewing vehicles. In the question and answer session Alan gave some tips on keeping your camera operating in the extreme cold:

  • Keep your batteries warm at all times. Keep charged batteries in your pocket, not in your camera bag. Be aware that even the discharged batteries need to be kept warm, or they won’t charge properly.
  • Be aware of condensation when you return to a warm room after being out in the cold. If you need to take your batteries out do it before you come in. Opening the camera in a warm room when it is still cold could let condensation form inside.

All in all this was a fascinating talk from beginning to end. Thank you Alan for entertaining us with the talk and thank you to Beeslack Penicuik Camera Club for organising it.

Steven

This week’s Digital Photo Feedback session

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This Thursday evening we will be having another digital photo feedback session. Please bring along any JPEG images you would like to show members and get some feedback. This time we will also be taking the opportunity to run some demonstrations. Steven will demonstrate how to make adjustments with Photoshop, so if you have images you would like corrected or adjusted please bring them along. Joe will also demonstrate how to use the mount cutter.

It has been suggested that we show some video tutorials on Photoshop. The following YouTube series have been suggested:

Anyone can watch these videos at home, so the main reason to show any of these on a club night would be to talk about them. Do any of these look interesting enough to show?

See you on Thursday.

08 December 2022 (Julian Elliot: Breathless in Nepal)

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Our last meeting before Christmas was another joint Zoom talk hosted by Beeslack Penicuik Camera Club and joined by Earlston Camera Club members. Julian Elliot, an award-winning landscape and travel photographer, connected with us from France and gave us a fascinating talk about his experiences. You can find more about Julian on his web site:

https://www.julianelliottphotography.com/profile/

Julian began his talk by describing his kit and explaining his techniques. He normally travels with a Canon DSLR camera plus 6 lenses (3 zoom lenses and 3 tilt/shift lenses), although 90% of his travel photography is made with the following gear:

  • A 24-70 zoom lens. Julian finds this lens makes great portraits, and is also useful for landscapes and use in cramped spaces. He likes to photograph hands with this lens.
  • A 100-400 zoom lens. Julian uses this lens to make landscape images of distant mountain scenery. Some people are surprised that a telephoto lens can be used for landscapes, but mountains tend to look more impressive when the depth is compressed. The lens can also pick out interesting details from the landscape. Julian also uses this lens to make panoramas, and to take distant portraits with a compressed background.
  • A 24 tilt-shift lens. Julian finds a tilt-shift lens invaluable for photographing architecture. It gives superior results than taking a picture with a normal lens and using a lens correction filter because you can see the result you are going to get in-camera, and there is is no cropping of the image at the edges. Julian showed some examples of what could be done with this lens: a superb shot of the inside of a cathedral, or a photograph of a statue in front of a temple taken from only a few feet away with all the verticals vertical.
  • A 1.4x extender, which Julian uses to extend the capabilities of the above lenses/
  • A carbon fibre tripod (lightweight for travelling).
  • A polarizer filter and a neutral density filter. Polarizer filters can enhance the sky or remove reflections, and the neutral density filter allows longer exposures.
  • A decent camera bag. Julian explained that most bags are designed to be used in an airport, and it is hard to find a bag that is versatile enough to use on a flight and carry outside.

Julian went on to explain how he plans his travels. He learns about destinations by reading travel magazines and using travel guides for research. He looks at photographs published by other photographers to get an idea of the possibilities. You can follow particular photographers on social media, but you can also follow specific hashtags, such as “#vietnam”, to see all the posts made about a particular place. But he warned us that landscapes are constantly changing. What you see described in a guide or shown in a past photo might not be there any more, so be prepared for the unexpected. He uses the following tools to plan his shots:

  • Google street view can be used to explore a destination virtually, but not all countries allow it.
  • Once Julian has decided on a destination, he uses Google Mind Maps to plan his travel. It can be linked to maps, and the application can be used on a phone to create an itinerary.
  • The Photographer’s Ephemeris can be used to plan your shots and investigate where the light will come from at different times of the day. The PhotoPills application is also a very useful planning tool.

After taking us through the basics, Julian then took us on a journey to Upper Mustang in Nepal, showing us the spectacular landscape images he had take on the trip, the portraits of the people he had met on the way, and his architectural photographs of the towns and temples. Travelling to Upper Mustang was like travelling back in time, with very different norms and customs. He became friends with a local guide who introduced him to interesting people. Julian would often ask permission to take his shots from unusual vantage points, such as the roof of a temple. On his journey through Nepal, Julian needed to climb to some high altitude view points, and on one of these excursions he suffered from serious altitude sickness. Julian told us the story of his treatment and recovery and warned anyone else travelling to Nepal to be aware of the effects of the altitude and not to push themselves too quickly. Julian finished his presentation with a selection of portraits and images of more spectacular temples. It was a very entertaining and enlightening evening.

That was the last club meeting at Fisherrow until the New Year. Next week we will be meeting at the Ravelston House Hotel in Musselburgh for the club’s Christmas social evening.

Steven

20 October 2022 (Paul Money: Astrophotography)

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This week was another joint Zoom talk hosted by Beeslack Penicuik Camera Club. Paul Money, an astronomer and ‘Reviews’ editor of the BBC ‘Sky at Night’ magazine, connected from Lincolnshire to give us a guide to astrophotography. Paul has written a book on astrophotography called “Nightscenes: Guide to Simple Astrophotography” and mentioned that a new version of that book is about to be published.

Paul began by describing his early forays into astrophotography, using a Zenit film camera and high ISO slide film. Those were difficult days for astrophotography because the relatively low ISOs meant you needed long exposures, and you couldn’t see what you were getting until the film was developed. Paul was enthused by the latest developments in digital photography. His latest Canon camera can go up to 120000 ISO, and even modern mobile phones can now capture hand-held images of the night sky! Canon and Nikon cameras seem to be equally good at capturing good images of the night sky. We were given the following hints and tips for good astrophotography:

  • Turn off the noise reduction in your camera settings. Faint stars look like noise and will be removed.
  • Set your camera to manual exposure and manual focus. Most night shots are too dark for your camera’s autofocus to work properly. You can focus on a bright street light at least a mile away or use the “live view” option on your camera to adjust the focus to make the stars look as small as possible.
  • Most exposures will need a high ISO setting, but Paul recommends going no higher than ISO 1600 to get the best quality. Shots of the Moon or bright planets can be done at lower ISO settings.
  • Use a wide aperture, ideally a stop down from the widest setting of your lens. Paul tends to use f/5 but recommends stopping down to f/11 for scenes which include the full Moon or bright lights.
  • Use a decent tripod so you can take long exposures without camera shake. You can fit the tripod with a ball and socket bracket that allows you to point the camera upwards at any angle.
  • Also use a remote shutter release; preferably one that can make a timed exposure or take several exposures at regular intervals.
  • Don’t use a filter. You need to get as much light into your camera as possible through as few glass surfaces as possible.
  • Use a red light to help you see without spoiling your night vision. You can buy a special red torch or just cover an ordinary torch with a red wrapper.

Paul then gave us a quick introduction to the night sky. The stars rise in the east and set in the west and appear to rotate around the north celestial pole. If you point a camera north and take a long exposure you will see star trails revolving around the pole. The stars tend to move more slowly in the sky around this point, so you can get away with longer exposures before they start to trail. If you point your camera away from the pole the stars will move across the sky more quickly and you’ll need a shorter exposure. The exposure also depends on the kind of lens you are using, with telephoto lenses requiring the shortest exposure. Paul gave us the following guide to maximum exposure time before the stars start to trail:

  • Wide angle lens (18mm): Near the pole (60 seconds), Away from the pole (40 seconds)
  • Standard lens (50mm): Near the pole (30 seconds), Away from the pole (20 seconds)
  • Telephoto lens (135-300mm): Near the pole (20 seconds), Away from the pole (10 seconds)
  • Super telephoto (500mm): Near the pole (2 seconds), Away from the pole (1 second)

Paul took us on a quick-fire, enthusiastic and fascinating tour of various types of astrophotography, ranging from wide-angle shots of the constellations, star trails with foreground objects, telephoto views of the planets, a lunar eclipse, Earthshine on the Moon, noctilucent clouds and shots of the aurora borealis. Paul mentioned that, although most photographers like Adobe Photoshop, he prefers PaintShop Pro. He also recommended StarStax software for combining multiple images of the night sky.

If you would like more information here are some of our previous talks on astrophotography:

Ford Renton: Practical Astro-photography

Andy Bennetts: Astrophotography & Action Photography

Next week we have a Digital Photo Feedback session. This session replaces our old “Photo Advice Night”, which was based on prints. Please bring along up to 6 digital images (or email them to me) to get feedback and advice from other members. See you on Thursday.

Steven

13 October 2022 (DPI competition review)

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This week we reviewed the feedback from last week’s Digital Projected Images competition and came up with the following hints and tips on how to improve the images and make the corrections suggested by Doug.

Quality Improvements: Some of the images contained noise, unnatural-looking halos and JPEG compression artefacts. Doug had speculated if these images had been taken on a mobile phone camera. Check the settings of your camera (looking for the gear wheel symbol on a mobile phone) and look for an “Image Quality” setting. If your camera has the option to save to RAW, switch this on. If the camera can only save to JPEG, change the quality setting to “High”, “Large” or “Fine”. If you see an “Image Compression” setting, change it to “off” or “minimum”. Also check the “Image Size” setting and make sure you are saving to the largest size possible. If you find a “Sharpening” setting, turn it off or reduce it to minimum, as the unnatural-looking halos can be caused by over-sharpening in the camera. Some mobile phone cameras have a “Pro” setting which allows you to change more settings when turned on. One of the poor quality images (a soft-focus view of the setting sun called “Pink Evening”) could be saved by reducing the clarity and blurring out the defects. That particular image worked because of the beautiful colours.

Cloning Improvements: Some images contained cloning artefacts, such as unnatural focus changes, duplicated objects or background areas laid on top of foreground objects.

  • Always apply cloning to your images at 100% magnification, so you can see the changes being made. If possible, clone your images in a duplicate layer, so you can erase mistakes.
  • If you are cloning around the edge of a foreground object, first make a selection around the edge of that object and then invert the selection. The selection will prevent your clone brush strokes accidentally replacing parts of the foreground object.
  • Look carefully when cloning and ensure you choose a clone source with the same level of focus as the area being replaced. Ensure there are no unnatural sharp-to-fuzzy boundaries.
  • Look carefully after cloning and look for duplicated objects. Clone these duplicated objects out a second time to remove the evidence of cloning.
  • Lastly, look for any mistakes you might have made during the cloning. Do the boundaries of all the objects still look normal? One of the competition images showing a cricket match looked odd because there was chunk missing from a wicket, showing where the photographer had used Photoshop to move one of the bales. Clone the wicket again to hide that mistake.

Better Composition: Some images were technically good but lost out because of poor composition. The best way to improve your composition is to view the works of other successful photographers, especially those entered for exhibitions and salons. For example, the Edinburgh International Exhibition of Photography 2022, the Dingwall National Exhibition, or the SPF Digital Championship. You can also “Google” for images of specific subjects you are interested in (e.g. “Images of wellington boot plant pots“) and see how some of the stock photos are composed. You will notice the most striking compositions tend to be the simplest, where the subject stands out from the background and isn’t competing with other distractions. Best of luck.

Tonal Corrections: The simplest way to make tonal corrections is to use the “Exposure”, “Contrast”, “Highlights”, Shadows”, “Whites”, “Blacks” and “Clarity” sliders in Adobe Camera Raw. If someone suggests toning down the highlights, try moving the “Highlights” slider to the left. To brighten the shadows, move the “Shadows” slider to the right. To make an image more punchy you can try moving the “Clarity” setting to the right. The “Blacks” and “Whites” sliders can also be adjusted so the image fills the whole histogram. However, when David Clapp spoke to us in March 2022 he told us that he makes his landscape photographs look more natural by lowering the contrast and not including the blackest black or whitest white in his images. So whether the brightness and contrast looks right can be a matter of individual taste.

You can make more specific tonal corrections by using the dodge and burn tools in Adobe Photoshop. Select one of these tools and use it like a brush. Change the “Range” setting to select where you would like most of the changes to be made (highlights, midtones or shadows) and reduce the “Exposure” setting to a small value (15% or less). Using a low “Exposure” setting helps you build up the effect gradually by brushing over the area that needs correcting. The “Burn” tool was used to darken the highlights in the background of one of the portraits without darkening the face.

  • The “Dodge” tool, which looks like a black wand, can be used to lighten areas. Try Range=Shadows or Midtones.
  • The “Burn” tool, which looks like a white hand, can be use to darken areas. Try Range=Highlights or Midtones.
  • The “Sponge” tool, which (funnily enough) looks like a sponge, can be used to change the colour saturation of an area. More about this later.

Lastly, if you have an image that needs a lot of dodging and burning (lots of areas that are too dark or too light) and would lose its punchiness if you just reduced the contrast of the whole image, there is a Photoshop shortcut you can use to save a lot of work:

  1. Open your image in Photoshop and duplicate the background layer by pressing Control+J.
  2. Select the background layer and desaturate it with Image/Adjustments/Desaturate, or by pressing Shift+Control+U.
  3. Now invert the background layer with Image/Adjustments/Invert or by pressing Control+I. You will see a black and white negative version of your original image.
  4. Now blur this black and white layer with Filter/Blur/Gaussian Blur or Filter/Noise/Median (the “Median” option is better if you want to preserve sharp edges). The amount of blurring determines the overall look of your final image. More blurring will give you a more natural look in the end.
  5. Now change the blend mode of this black and layer to “Overlay”. Voilà! You will see an automatically flattened version of your original image. The result might not always work. If you don’t like the look, try changing the blending mode to “Soft Light” or go back the step 4 and change the amount of blurring.
  6. Once the image has been adjusted in this way, you can now increase the contrast without losing the shadow and highlight areas.

Colour Corrections: An image showing a train emerging from under a bridge had a blue colour cast in the smoke. You can check for colour casts in your images by using the “Colour Sampler” tool in Photoshop. It’s the one that looks like an eye dropper next to a crosswire. Click the colour sampler on an area that is supposed to be white or grey and check that the R, G and B values are about the same. If the values are different it suggests a colour cast. (This works even in that frustrating situation when you are colour blind and a judge can see colour casts you missed.) The first thing to try is correcting the colour cast by adjusting the colour balance. You can use the “Temperature” slider in Camera Raw or the “Colour Balance” adjustment tool in Photoshop. Try selecting more than one area that is supposed to be white or grey. If you can correct them all by changing the colour balance then the job is done. But if you are happy with the overall colour and want to remove a cast from just one area (the smoke in this case) you can use the “Sponge” tool mentioned above. Change the “Mode” to “Desaturate” and use a fairly high “Flow” setting.

Sharpness and Focus: We reviewed some of the images which had poor focus or sharpness. It is worth trying the Photoshop “Filter/Sharpen/Smart Sharpen” tool to sharpen your images one last time after reducing them to 1600×1200 pixels for the DPI competition. Set the “Radius” to 0.5 and move the “Amount” slider to recover the fine detail that is sometimes lost when reducing the image size. I tend to use “Amount” in the range 20-80.

It can be really difficult to get the depth of field and sharpness right in a macro image. Poor light, combined with a moving subject, might force you to use a wide aperture or high ISO. Adding more light with the aid of a diffused flash is one way to improve hand-held macro images. There are apps you can use to calculate the depth of field in macro shots: for example PhotoPills. Some members have also successfully used the Topaz Sharpen AI tool to recover detail and correct motion blur (as long as you check carefully for artefacts before accepting the changes it makes).

Thank you everyone who entered the competition. I hope you all got some useful feedback from the experience.

08 September 2022 (Introduction to Photography and Printing)

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We had our second club night of the new season on Thursday, 8th September 2022, where Steven Beard, Joe Fowler and Charlie Briggs gave an introduction to photography and offered hints and tips to members. Gavin Marshall was the only member attending by Zoom.

The meeting began with Steven Beard giving a shortened version of his “Introduction to Photography” presentation. The presentation offered new members advice on composition, focus, exposure and colour. A PDF of the presentation is available on the club web site and may be downloaded by clicking the link below:

2022IntroductionToPhotographyDownload

A much more detailed version of the presentation can be downloaded in several parts from this club web page:

Introduction to Photography References

Steven also gave members a brief introduction to the club competitions, which can be downloaded by clicking the link below:

mcccompetitioninformation2022Download

Joe Fowler then showed members a series of images and explained why some shots worked and some didn’t. Joe explained that long exposure shots of rivers and waterfalls work better when the exposure time is just a few seconds or shorter, as longer exposures tend to burn out the water and remove detail. Shots of stunt riders (or birds) in the air worked better when there were fewer distractions in the background. Joe showed how he used the clone tool in Photoshop to remove the distractions. He had used this tool to construct a tight composition of boats at Fisherrow harbour or remove distractions from the edge of a shot of sea birds on Bass Rock. Joe finished with a motorbike racing shot which had won him “best image” at the Borders Digital Challenge. The image was constructed from 3 separate riders placed together using layers, with background distractions cloned out or blurred. Joe always take a shot of someone wearing a clear face visor so he can clone their eyes onto riders who insist on wearing black visors.

In our third presentation of the evening, Charlie Briggs explained how he prepares his images for printing. He begins with a calibrated monitor, so he is better able to judge the colours of his images. He also calibrates his printer and uses top quality printer paper. Charlie explained that the same image looks very different when shown on a screen or printed on paper. An image on screen is made by adding light to a dark background, but an image on paper is made by adding dark ink to a light background. An image which looks great on the screen will tend to look a bit dark and drab when printed. Charlie uses the following Photoshop tip to correct for the different.

  • Start with an image which looks good on the screen.
  • Open the image in Photoshop.
  • Click on the background layer and uses CTRL/J to duplicate the layer.
  • Select the duplicated layer and change the blending mode to “Screen”.
  • Adjust the opacity of the duplicated layer to around 20-25%.
  • Now print the image and see the difference.

Charlie showed members some example prints which showed how this method brightens the result and makes the prints punchier. This technique will be very useful for the Colour Print competition submission on 13th October 2022.

Here are some additional announcements since opening night:

  • Please don’t forget to contact Stephen Williams (sgpwilliams@outlook.com) to rejoin the club.
  • There is a PAGB award presentation this Sunday, 11th September at 1pm. Please email Steven Beard or Stephen Williams for the Zoom information if you would like to attend.
    Check here for details: http://www.thepagb.org.uk/awards/apm-awards/
    (NOTE: The Musselburgh Communities event was cancelled. I don’t know the latest status of this PAGB event.)
  • There is an astrophotography special Sky at Night being broadcast on Monday, 12th September at 10pm on BBC4. The program features some video images which I submitted to the BBC!
  • Our next meeting on September 15th is our first “Sets of Six” evening. Please bring along up to 6 images, or one video, to show club members. The night is also an opportunity to present a useful trick or technique (such as Charlie’s printing trick) that other members might find useful.
  • Please submit you 3 JPEG images for the Digital Projected Images competition to Geroge Todd (georgetodd1957@me.com) by 15th September.

I won’t make it to the next meeting, but I’ll see you all in 2 weeks for our first speaker of the season: George Robertson.

Steven