The Histogram — Light Meter of the XXI Century

The 2008 fall/winter program of the local Volkshochschule¹ (VHS) came out today, and I will be teaching a course called “The Histogram — Light Meter of the XXI Century.” Since I like teaching, I’ve been wanting to do a photography course for a while now. My course will take place on Nov 1 and 2, four hours on each day.

On the first day I will explain what the histogram is, how to set up the camera to display the histogram and how the camera controls affect the histogram. Then I’ll get into the more controversial topic of how does an optimal histogram look like. And for the RAW-shooters I’ll explain the “expose to the right” idea. On the second day I’ll explain how to manipulate the histogram using brightness and contrast, levels and curves. And we will do lots of examples in ACR and Photoshop.

I’ve been teaching photographic concepts to my friends for quite a while, but this is the first time that I will be doing it officially. So I’m quite excited.

¹ Volkshochschule = German school for adult education. It’s similar to a community college, but it does not grant any degrees.

Wanna Become a Better Photographer? (2)

I’m fascinated by “photographers” who almost never photograph, but instead theorize in various discussion forums about the significance of certain technical features or constantly browse the Internet for news about new bodies and lenses. Or by “photographers” who mainly photograph brick walls and line-pair targets and then measure resolution, distortion, vignetting, noise levels, etc.

Now don’t get me wrong — I’m not making fun of those people. Which camera you use and knowing how to operate it properly is of course essential to making good photographs. And if your hobby is talking about gear rather than creating images with it, then by all means, enjoy it!

But if you want to become a better photographer, then focus on the images.

In my previous posting I recommended that you concentrate on your own images: edit them to completion, print them, frame them. Naturally this is the ultimate goal, but if you are as emotional about your images as I am about mine, about their content and the circumstances under which you took them, you’ll probably find it very hard to be your own critic.

So today I suggest an easier first step — focus on other people’s images. Go to exhibitions, look at books, look at image portfolios on the Internet. Try to express in words what it is that you like about some images, why you dislike others. Talk to your friends. Discover the “old” masters, young artists and enthusiasts like you. Write image critiques, join a photo-group, let others critique your own images.

If you want to explore some Internet resources, let me suggest a couple. My primary source of amazing (black-and-white) photography is Lens Work. If you don’t want to subscribe, you could look at the names of the published artists and then google them. They usually have great web sites. Another place to discover current and past photographers as well as photographic books is The Online Photographer. And if you are looking for a photographic community, it’s hard to beat photo.net. For $25 per year you get a chance to store and show your images, look at great photography from all over the world, write critiques and get your work critiqued.

Of course these three addresses represent an absolutely minuscule portion of the web sites related to photographic art, but these are the ones that I frequent, and you might find them interesting too. I hope so…

Wanna Become a Better Photographer?

The quick answer is: turn your images into prints!

In October 2007 I came this close to buying a Canon 5D and a 24-105/4 IS lens. I was tempted by the full-frame sensor, image-stabilized lens, great zoom range, lower image noise and the additional 4,6 megapixels. But while a new camera is nice, it wouldn’t have changed my photography in a fundamental way.

So I bought an Epson 3800 printer instead. The reason was very simple — I was having trouble getting good prints with reliable colors and reliable borders on a variety of papers. And to be honest, I probably also needed a new toy.

Little did I know how that printer would change my photography! Now wait, you’d say — a printer is an end-device, it cannot turn a crappy image into a great one! Well, you are right (even though the printer manufacturers would like us to believe otherwise), but I mean this. Using a printer means printing an image. But which image? So the first thing was to look at my images critically and select the better ones. But once I had those, I didn’t just print them. No, you don’t just send a good image to the printer — you edit it and make it excellent. Then you print it.

And then came revelation number one. When you hold a print in your hands you see so many faults that you didn’t see on screen, you rush back to Photoshop and correct them. Repeat this a few times and you realize that you need to learn more about sharpening. So you do and you print again. The results looks so gorgeous, you are in awe. So you rush to the store and buy some frames. You frame the prints and hang them on the walls and it’s a great feeling. That’s revelation number two.

But a few days later you want another great print to go with the first one, so you take the camera and hurry outside. All of a sudden it’s not about pixel peeping any more, it’s about covering your walls with great prints. Revelation number four.

And the final revelation? In the eyes of your friends you are no longer the nerd with the camera, you are a photographer.

Good luck!

Making a Black-and-White Photograph “Sing”

I’ve received a few questions about what “tricks” I’m using for my black-and-white images. Well, I’d say that I don’t use any tricks, just the tools of the trade. Let me show you…

Here is a typical image straight out of the camera. It’s quite good already — it shows an interesting face with a very intense gaze, it’s sharp and well exposed.

But naturally there is room for improvement. In Camera Raw I cropped to a 3:4 ratio, increased the exposure some, darkened slightly and increased the contrast a good bit.

Now the face is much more dominant, and the eyes, mustache and beard are more vibrant. I could leave the image in color, but it begs to be converted to black and white. But before doing that, I inspected the whole area at 200% magnification and removed any dust, skin blemishes, etc. That small triangle of background in the upper-left corner bothered me too, so I filled it with pixels from the turban.

The next step was to look at the three individual channels. I liked the green one much more than red or blue one, so after experimenting some, I settled on -20, +170, -50.

There — the clash of the skin and turban colors is gone, but the image lacks contrast. I added a contrast layer and it did wonders to the face, but made the turban too bright. I counteracted that by adding a mask and limiting the contrast increase to the face only.

Now the eyes, forehead and especially the right quarter of the face became too dark, so I added a lightening layer and a mask that revealed the effect only in the desired areas.

The right eye is still too dark, which I corrected with a lightening layer.

The most noticeable problems have been addressed now, but the turban, the mustache and the background in the lower-right corner are still too bright. I counteracted that with a darkening layer.

Now, that’s already very good! In fact, this is the first version that I printed and showed around. I even glued it on my wall and stared at it for a few days. After getting over my initial excitement, I started noticing further possibilities for improvement.

First I darkened the brightest areas of the turban, shirt and collar as they were drawing attention away from the face.

Then I darkened the edges and corners of the image a good bit.

The light area of the background on the left-hand side and by the much brighter background on the right-hand side bothered me immediately, so made them very dark, almost without any detail.

And that’s where I am right now. Admittedly the last three changes were quite subtle, but in my mind, they are the ones that make the image really “sing.”

I’ve been staring at the version above for a while now and I can’t think of any further improvements. I’ll look at it again tomorrow, and if then too I don’t see anything that bothers me, I’ll make a second print.

That print might reveal further problems and lead to even more adjustment layers, but for now I’m satisfied.

By the way, here is what my layer stack looks like right now:

UPDATE: It is now one day later. This morning I didn’t see any problems on screen, so I made a 10×15 cm print on cheap glossy paper. When it came out, I immediately saw three areas that just had to be improved. I lightened the white collar on the right-hand side, then lightened the whole image a tiny bit. Finally I spotted the very dark area in the middle of the chin, which, although perfectly natural, was too obvious and distracting.

I’m making another small print right now, and if that one holds for a day, it will be time for an A4-size print on pearl paper.

The Candid Frame Blog and Podcast

I have an iPod which I use quite often, but instead of listening to music, I usually listen to podcasts. There are so many great ones out there dedicated to any topic you can think of. And naturally there are also many that are related to photography.

The one that I’d like to bring your attention to today is The Candid Frame. Once or twice a month Ibarionex Perello talks with a professional photographer for about half an hour and we get a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes of how commercial photography works. Sometimes the photographers talk about their creative process (Craig Tanner comes to mind here), and sometimes they talk about the “mechanics” of getting clients, archiving photographs or producing a portfolio.

Naturally not all photographers are born as public speakers, so some podcast guests are more interesting than others. And if you don’t like the work of someone, you probably won’t like their interview either. But in general I find The Candid Frame very entertaining/interesting/stimulating. And to boot, about twice a month it introduces you to not one, but two new photographers. That’s because at the end of each episode, the interviewee has to recommend another artist whose work they look up to.

I actually discovered the podcast not all that long ago, so I haven’t heard that many episodes yet. I started listening the oldest ones first, and a few days ago I got to number 37, Emilio Banuelos. I found his interview especially inspiring.