P&S fun

Well my darling wife just won both the Toastmasters International Area 56 (Skyway, 1st Burlington, 1st Oakville, OPS Brave Hearts, Masion clubs) Evaluation and International Speech Contests. She qualified to compete after winning both contests at our local club level. I came in second (as always) to her in the evaluation contest.

So what’s this got to do with photography?

Well rather than dragging out the big guns (D-300 and D-90 both with SB-900s and a variety of lenses) I packed the FujiFilm F-31fd. People laughed when I whipped out the tiny camera.

Nobody’s laughing now after seeing the images. Here they all are on my public Flickr site (I’ve also got a SmugMug site I use for my more commercial work.). Now why am I showing you all the images? Notice some look pretty yellowy. This is a white balance issue. In other words, the three little channel guns that feed the digital sensor (red, green and blue) are being adversely affected by the florescent lights in the room. And, because I am shooting with a point and shoot camera which can’t create a RAW file (which would allow me to fix any white balance issues in software in my computer), I had to find a way to balance the light coming into the camera. (Here’s Marion being congratulated by Diane Quigley, on right, of First Oakville Toastmasters Club.)

I think it safe to say that every digital camera of any note has the ability to change the white balance settings. They need to have this capability because JPG files (which unlike RAW files set all the parameters right in the image as it’s being shot. RAW files are much more manipulatable in the computer.) can’t be fixed later. So, I went off auto white balance (AWB) and looked for a setting where the images looked less yellow. I couldn’t find one. So I put the camera into “custom” white balance and shot an image which was saved to the camera memory and from then on, using the custom setting, I got pretty nicely colour balanced images. These images are easy to spot because they look a little bluer (or cooler to the eye) than the yellow images.

Here’s Marion with former First Oakville Presidents Matt Wagner and Katherine Ryell.

How to use colour points

I’ve never met Jason Odell (but I hope to run into him someday) but I’ve read just about everything he’s published. Jason’s excellent online “how-to” books on Capture NX2 and Silver Efex Pro. Now Jason doesn’t blog as often as I wish he would but today I came across this online article by him on using the U-point technology that’s at the heart of the NX2 and NIK Software packages.

So what’s so great about Capture NX2? Well if you shoot with a Nikon DSLR, NX2 is probably the best RAW file convertor you can buy. It’s also cheap at around $200 when compared to $1,000 for Photoshop. But this is serious software folks. It dead-drop easy to use, especially if you purchase Jason’s PDF books (at $20 online) which I liked so much I printed them and put them in a couple of three-ring binders so I could use them as reference guides.

If you don’t shoot with a Nikon you have to convert your files into TIFFS before working on them in NX2 and honestly you might be better off using another program. If you’re using a MAC (and I’ve got both MAC and PC running here) consider Aperture 3 which just came out to pretty good reviews. If you’re shooting professionally (or shooting a lot of images) consider Lightroom 2 (Lightroom 3 should be out this summer). I’ve got them all and LR2 is pretty nifty when it comes to batch processing large numbers of images.

If you’re not shooting professionally, any software will do so long as you take a little time to learn it. IPhoto for the MAC is more than enough for most people as is Adobe Photoshop Elements which does most of the stuff photographers want for around $100. Cool. Corel’s Paint Shop Pro is really nice and sometimes comes bundled with Lexar memory cards.

So let’s get back to Capture NX2: Why would you want this instead of anything else? Price is one consideration. Using the U-point technology is another consideration (and go visit the NX2 site and watch the demo movie. You can do a lot of photo editing much faster and smoother than in any other program including Photoshop (which can be clunky in the way it handles some jobs). And, it’s pretty easy to understand and get really top quality results when you’re editing your images and making changes to them.

One little caveat and that’s some people with less than really robust computers find NX2 can be a little slow. Okay it can painfully slow but that’s one of the reasons I bought a new MacBook Pro and I don’t much of problem at anymore. On my older “midnight madness” big box store discounted PCs oh yeah it’s slower than most but on those clunkers everything is slow.

The NIK software that I refer to works with a lot of different photo editors (Aperture, LR2, Photoshop, Elements) using the U-point technology to fix colours, sharpen images, reduce noise and add effects. On NX2, NIK’s rather wonderful Color Efex Pro 3 works inside the program as a separate editor. In other words, you can be working on an image in NX2 and can call up Color Efex Pro 3 from a menu. The image then opens up in a separate window inside NX2 which allows you to apply whatever effects you want and then saves the changes and returns you back to NX2. Again, really cool. If you shoot weddings, special events or portraits, you’d love Color Efex Pro 3 regardless of which program you use as your primary editor.

Why I use a P&S

What! Where’s your D-300 or D-90? Why they’re at home. Why? Because they won’t fit in my sports coat pocket.

Yup I’m going out tonight to watch my love compete in the Toastmasters International Area International Speech Contest (Marion took first place at our club level contest) and when (!) she wins tonight I want to take a couple of photos of her for my Toastmaster blog. So the appropriate camera for the occasion is my tiny FujiFilm F31fd. Why not the big boys? They would get in the way of Marion’s night. Also Toastmasters won’t allow photos during the contest so the best I can get will be a snapshot which is really all I need for the website.

And, because I’m a pro, the camera is being charged right now so it will be ready tonight.

I apologize for not posting

It’s been a month since I posted and I beg the forgiveness of all of you who have been faithfully showing up here everyday looking for the next tip on how to be a better photographer. I’ve been busy I’m launching a new social media initiative aimed all of us who aren’t techno-geeks or web designers. Using social media tools such as freely available blogs like WordPress,  communications tools like Twitter and video and audio podcasting plus just being smart about using an email address that helps direct people to your site, you can grow your photography business or any other small business or non-profit agency. Of course then there’s Facebook and Linked-In and list goes on and on.

What got me started on this idea was a talk I gave at my local United Way during their very successful fund-raising campaign. I spoke to a room full of agency executives and when I asked if any of the agencies had a Facebook page. Nobody put up their hands! One person in the room had started blogging. This got me thinking that with my extensive experience in journalism, photography, public speaking, public relations added to the social media skills I had learned myself maybe I could be helpful here.

And so started Peter West’s Social Media Made Easy webpage which I am working on as we speak. So am getting away from photography? No. Of course not. Photography, especially digital photography, is just way too much fun and I be posting a lot of new things this month so stay tuned. You haven’t seen anything yet

Another thought on looking good

Maria Langer is a freelance writer, commercial helicopter pilot and “serious” amateur photographer. She’s got a pretty interesting website and this week’s post is about “How to make everyone think you’re a great photographer.” It’s worth a read at her site called An Eclectic Mind.

Five ways to better for photos for $0

I tell my students my three secrets of better photography.

1. Get closer. I mean way closer. Most of us shoot from too far back from our subject. Zooming in when shooting portraits results in a pleasing look. But whether you zoom in or step in closer to your subject the number one advantage is you automatically crop out clutter and distracting objects that can crop up in the background;
2. Shoot at eye-level. We all shoot our kids from a height of five feet and up making the kids look like little in munckins. Whether it’s kids or animals, get down (or up) to eye level;
3. Once you’ve got a shot you’re proud of, get it printed bigger than 8″X10″, frame it and put it up on your wall. Your family and friends will smoother you with compliments.

But there are more ways to instantly improve your photography. Here’s a link to a web site called Light Stalking that offers five more suggestions.

World Press Photo 2010

An Italian photographer, Pietro Masturzo, has been chosen by an international jury as the winner of the World Press Photo of the Year 2009. It’s a simple image that won. The picture shows women shouting from a rooftop in Tehran protesting the contested presidential elections.

And, for the first time in history, the jury made special mention of a frame grab from a You Tube video. The image was of Neda Agha-Soltan taken as she lay dying  in the street after being shot likely by an Iranian paramilitary. The haunting image of Neda has been seen by millions.

What the heck are plug-in filters?

As regular readers know, I LOVE my NIK Software products. I’ve got their sharpener, noise reduction, black and white convertor, color changer and effects software and I used them all the time. BTW to be fair to NIK here’s what they call their software  –  Sharpener Pro 3.0; Dfine 2.0; Silver Efex Pro; Viveza 2; and Color Efex Pro 3.0. These software packages are sold individually or you can get the entire collection (at a reduced cost). They work in conjunction with photo editing programs such as Photoshop (and Elements); Lightroom 2, Apple’s Aperture and Color Efex Pro 3.0 also works with Nikon’s really wonderful Capture NX 2. All of these editing programs work on JPG images (where the image parameters are set in the camera and you can’t changed them much) or RAW images where almost nothing is set and everything is changeable in software editing).

So what do I use and why?

For my commercial work I use Lightroom 2. I’ve got a big job on Saturday night shooting a formal dinner and gathering of about 100 people. I’ll likely shoot 500 to 800 images. Lightroom 2 is the only way to handle this volume of work easily. Now if I’ve got really serious photo editing issues (like removing scars or former lovers) I’ll use Photoshop (which honestly: I’m still learning but with manual in hand, it’s pretty easy for most of what I do to an image). If I’m working on my own landscapes I’m using NX2 which is by far the superior RAW editor for Nikon NEF images.

When it comes to plug-in filters I’ll probably run my 100 or so best picks through Dfine to reduce noise (noise in the digital world looks like old fashion film grain) and Sharpener to make the RAW images look as sharp as JPGs. The depending on the images I may run a few through Colour Efex Pro 3.0 filters. I love the golden glow filter for party shots but you must be careful not to over do it.

Once I get my 100 edited images finished, I’ll post them as high-resolution JPGs to my gallery so my client can have a look at them and pick what they want.

So you might ask: Why go to all that trouble? Why not shoot JPGs and be done with it?

IF, AND IT’S A BIG IF, I knew for certain that the white balance was perfect and the exposures right on the button I could shoot JPGs and all I’d have to do is just crop them to eliminate extraneous bits and pieces and I’d be done. If these weren’t important images, I’d be tempted and might just do that and save a bunch of time. But here’s what you can do with your RAW images. First of all my D-300 and D-90 are capable of taking RAW images with virtually no delay for processing as I’m not likely to shooting in continuous (sport-type) mode. Also, once I’ve got my RAW images loaded into any of my editing packages all of them will allow me to produce a batch of JPGs right away. So if I have a need for speed I can go this route.

But what if the white balance (the colour cast being emitted by the lights in the room) isn’t pure white and I am getting a slight yellow or green tinge. Well if I’ve shot JPGs I’m up the creek because they can’t be changed. Also, if I miss my exposure (and I’m likely going to be shooting with the flash all night) RAW will give me a four-stop ability to make changes. JPG – well, not so much.

But let’s get back to plug-ins. They work a whole lot better on RAW images because you can make so many changes without hurting the image quality.

One of the better websites for plug-in filters is a company called Totally Rad. They’ve just brought a $99 package of filters for Lightroom 2 which if I get my hands on a copy I’ll do a review. But in the meantime, you can do your own review. Totally Rad has an online preset page. You pick one of the photos they have as examples and then go down the list and apply the various filters in the package. Totally Rad filters are used by many of the world’s best wedding shooters.

I’m adding this note on Alien Skin which has a 20% off to help the Haiti Earthquake victims. I own a copy of Boken and it’s great fun.

Shoot twilight shots just like the pros

It can be frustrating. I’m talking about trying to capture images of the same quality as those shot by the pros. Images that appear in the best sporting and travel magazines are universally excellent. Here’s an example from Canoe & Kayak Magazine. The images and the explanation of how they were shot come from the excellent Strobist blogsite. Notice the images shot at sunset. They’re great. So why can’t you or I get the same image? Well we can but let’s look at how these shots were taken for the magazine. (I’m not going to show the images here as I don’t have permission to use these commercial shots but you can just go over to the Strobist site and see them for yourself.)

Notice the image of the crew (note: Crew! Not just us with our speedlight popped up on our Canon Rebel) and the softbox and the big monoblock flash head held up on a stand. BTW this image was shot with an iPhone!!!!!!.

So do we need all this equipment? No, but it helps. And, when it comes to a pro-level magazine shoot, it’s absolutely essential.

So how can you get shots of people at twilight?

The simple answer is you use your flash. But if you use your pop-up speedlight, you’ll get a “flash” picture with no twilight in the background and harsh bright light on your subject. If you’re using a point and shoot, try using the night-portrait setting. It’s amazing what you can do with the pre-set modes on many smaller cameras. A tripod might be very helpful to avoid the dreaded camera shake that causes blurry images.

If you’ve got a higher end point and shoot or a DSLR  you can experiment with the “slow sync” flash mode. This mode will allow you to set your camera exposure to capture the background light (Again a tripod maybe essential to avoid camera shake. Light levels that are too low will cause the camera to shoot long time exposures that will make handholding the camera really tough.) while the flash can be set to put just enough light on your subject so that you can get a shot that will look a lot like the one in the magazines. If you’ve got a flash you can control wirelessly that you can put on a stand or duct tape to a nearby tree branch (or have someone hold it for you) you can shoot an image that has side lighting just like the pros.

Canon 1D Mark IV Review

My good friend and fellow shooter Michael Willems has written one of the first professional reviews of the new Canon 1D Mark IV. Michael’s  reviews focus on the real-life experience of a professional Canon user so any of you Canon types out there contemplating dropping $5K plus, this is the review to read.

Here’s the link to Michael’s Blog review.