The Perfect Photo: 71 Tips from the Top (Rocky Nook)

The Perfect Photo

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Elin Rantakrans ([email protected]) Tobias Hagberg ([email protected]) Editor: Gerhard Rossbach Translation: David Schlesinger Copyeditor: Julie Simpson Layout and Type: Petra Strauch Cover Design: Anna Diechtierow Printer: Tallinna Raamatutrükikoja OÜ Printed in Estonia ISBN 978-1-933952-85-7 1st Edition 2011 © 2011 by Elin Rantakrans and Tobias Hagberg Rocky Nook Inc. 26 West Mission Street Ste 3 Santa Barbara, CA 93101 www.rockynook.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rantakrans, Elin. [Grunderna. English] The perfect photo : 71 tips from the top / Elin Rantakrans, Tobias Hagberg. -- 1st ed. p. cm. ISBN 978-1-933952-85-7 (pbk.) 1. Composition (Photography) I. Hagberg, Tobias. II. Title. TR179.R3613 2011 770.1--dc23 2011014231

Distributed by O‘Reilly Media 1005 Gravenstein Highway North Sebastopol, CA 95472 Many of the designations in this book used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks of their respective companies. Where those designations appear in this book, and Rocky Nook was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps. They are used in editorial fashion only and for the benefit of such companies, they are not intended to convey endorsement or other affiliation with this book. No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of the copyright owner. While reasonable care has been exercised in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein. Copyright © of all photographs in this book belong to the photographer on record. This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Elin Rantakrans & Tobias Hagberg

The Perfect Photo 71 Tips from the Top WITH PHOTOS BY Knuth Bergholm Szabolcs J Csörge Lars Dareberg Robert Eliasson Camilla Eriksson Tobias Hagberg Hasse Holmberg Martina Holmberg Jesper Linse Hans Nydahl Elin Rantakrans Sebastian Romert Gerhard Rossbach Marie Rytkölä Per Stymne Elin Torger

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Contents

Foreword

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Camera Equipment

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To get the most out of the tips in this book, you’ll need to spend some time with your camera and become comfortable with it. Don’t be afraid of experimenting and, most importantly, don’t be afraid of this guidebook.

Broaden Your Knowledge, the Easy Way

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There are several rules of thumb and technical terms that you should know so you can manually set up your camera to take the pictures you want.

Capturing the Best Light

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Photography literally means painting with light. It comes from the Greek roots photo (light) and grapos (painting). We’ll explore what this really means.

Composition

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A photograph is a reflection of reality, or, to be more exact, a reflection of a part of reality. The composition of a photograph—or the selection of this piece of reality—is fundamental to a photo’s effect.

Impressive Landscapes

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Nature images pose additional challenges: How can you capture the overwhelming wonder of a landscape with only a finite number of megapixels? It’s difficult, but not impossible. 4

Portraits

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Take some time to get to know the person you’re photographing. You’ll not only be doing your subject a favor, you’ll be doing yourself one too. It’s important to get a sense of who your subject is, so you can photograph him or her meaningfully.

Bringing Movement into the Equation

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Movement can be captured and conveyed by various methods. A moment packed with action can be frozen in a razor-sharp image, for example, or it can be conveyed with motion blur. Both effects can even be used at the same time.

Effective Use of Flash

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A camera’s flash controls more than you might realize. The flash determines, for example, the contrast of a picture: in bright lighting, the flash lessens a picture’s contrast, and, in dim lighting, amplifies it.

Starting Out in the Digital Darkroom

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Now is when it really gets interesting. Load your photos onto your computer and start editing in your own digital darkroom. Afterword 125 Photo Credits 126 Index 127

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Foreword

Your camera doesn’t take pictures—you do. Photographic equipment may make up your toolbox, but ideas for pictures come from your head. Don’t worry if you can’t afford the latest equipment such as a flash with 3D light metering. Focus instead on how to take good pictures in the lighting conditions you have to work with. Someday you may be able to buy that fancy flash, if you still are interested in it, but in the meantime you can learn how to take amazing pictures. Don’t let the technology of your camera be limiting; instead, take advantage of the possibilities it creates! This book offers practical advice—simple tips that may be taken on their own or used in combination with each other. The sequence of the advice isn’t significant. The book is compact and light, so you can throw it into your camera bag and take it with you on your search for stunning photos. You should read your camera’s instruction manual to learn how to make the most of all its capabilities. Our tips aren’t designed for any specific camera model—our focus is on you. Your perspective and your ideas are what make your pictures great, so the most important advice we can offer has nothing to do with your equipment. It’s this: wherever you go, take your camera with you. You may think this goes without saying, but our experience has taught us that people make the mistake of leaving their cameras at home all too often. Do these excuses sound familiar? “My equipment is expensive and I don’t trust myself not to break it on the ski slopes.” “The lens is so heavy.” “I’m just taking the dog out for a quick walk, what’s the chance of coming across anything of interest?” And so the camera sits at home unused and covered in dust. Take our word for it: Always bring your camera. Maybe you’ll take the picture of your lifetime on your ski trip, when your friend completes a 1080-degree-turn while snowboarding in the half-pipe. Or maybe you’ll capture a rare bird with your heavy, super-telephoto lens. Maybe you’ll even win first prize in a contest of autumn pictures with your shot of a beautifully-colored fall leaf that you discovered on your seemingly boring walk with the dog. Seize moments like these and don’t let them go! Elin Rantakrans & Tobias Hagberg

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PHOTO: ELIN RANTAKRANS

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CHAPTER 1 CAMERA EQUIPMENT

PHOTO: ELIN RANTAKRANS

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A simple, compact camera is best for a visit to the beach. Here you don’t need to worry about your camera’s functions or megapixels, just be on the lookout for the makings of great pictures. // PHOTO: TOBIAS HAGBERG

1 What Is the “Right” Equipment? There are lots of reasons why it’s common not to have your camera handy at the perfect moment for a photo. One of the reasons may be that your equipment doesn’t suit your needs. To make sure you have the right equipment with you, ask yourself, “What kind of photos do I like to take? Do I need a heavy telephoto lens and a tripod, or will a convenient, small camera do the job?” Although you can learn about the latest equipment and technologies on the Internet or in a camera shop, the most important thing to a successful photograph is what you point your camera at. Not even the latest technology nor the highest available number of megapixels can make a bad image look good. 10

2 Simple Protection for Your Camera Large-aperture, top-quality lenses are expensive, but protecting them from unnecessary wear and tear doesn’t have to be. UV and skylight filters easily screw onto a camera’s lens to offer protection from bumps and scratches. Filters cost substantially less than new lenses, so they are a wise investment. Be careful when swapping out lenses on digital system cameras*, because dust that gets into the camera or onto the image sensor will cause unwanted spots in your pictures. Sooner or later any piece of equipment will need to be cleaned. You’ll have to send the camera body back to the manufacturer to have the image sensor cleaned. Cleaning the lens, though, is less difficult, because there are many good cleaning products on the market. The most dramatic light conditions occur during stormy weather. Instead of leaving your camera at home, use a special rain guard to protect against moisture. A supplemental insurance policy may also be a good idea. * Throughout the book we will refer to the terms “digital system camera” or simply “system camera,” which are used to describe those cameras that have a modular concept, e.g., cameras with interchangeable lenses or backs including rangefinder, DSLR, and EVIL cameras.

Ice and snow enchant everyday landscapes. Ekhagen, Stockholm. // PHOTO: TOBIAS HAGBERG

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3 Batteries and Memory Cards: Never Leave Home Without Them Digital cameras are electricity hogs. You should always carry extra batteries with you. Rechargeable batteries are expensive to purchase, but they pay off in the long run, so you should also invest in a battery charger if one didn’t come with your camera. On a related note, severely cold weather tends to reduce the charge of batteries so it’s wise to store them in a pocket that is close to your body where they’ll stay warm. There’s nothing worse than having a full memory card when you need to take a photo quickly. When a baby decides to take her first steps, you don’t have time to delete old images to make room for new ones. People used to say, “Film is cheap, time is expensive” and this is more true today than ever since digital cameras have made photography even cheaper. So don’t skimp on memory cards! Bad images should be deleted immediately to save memory space and to minimize the time-consuming process of sorting images later. A slice of Sweden. You won’t always find a camera shop nearby when you need to buy a new battery or an extra memory card, so always keep backups with you. A barnyard in Skellefteå, northern Sweden. // PHOTO: TOBIAS HAGBERG

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A system camera provides at least two file format options: JPEG and RAW. JPEG is practical and handy, but if you’re after maximum quality, RAW is the only choice. // PHOTO: GERHARD ROSSBACH

4 Alternative Data Formats Digital photographs can be saved as a variety of file formats. Digital cameras will usually save files automatically in the JPEG format and some compact cameras are actually capable of saving only in this format. JPEG format has the advantage of compressing images so you can fit more of them on your memory card. The picture will lose some of its data in this process, though, which sounds worse than it actually is—the loss of quality in the pictures is so minimal that it’s hardly noticeable. In the process of saving an image to the memory card, digital cameras correct the pictures quickly: the exposure and the sharpness are adjusted and the color is corrected. If you want to manually adjust the quality of your pictures, you’ll need to save them in a file format such as TIFF or RAW (check to see if your camera supports these file types). These formats produce large data files that contain the complete original information of the images. RAW format files include detailed gradations of brightness between the lightest and the darkest areas of a picture, which achieves smooth and even-toned color transitions. But with this added quality comes the added chore of manually optimizing the images on your computer—a process that’s automatic when saving as a JPEG. 13

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5 An Everyday Lens For family and vacation photos, as well as the spontaneous snapshot now and then, a normal lens is the right choice. It’s best to leave it attached to the camera body as long as you don’t plan to use another lens. A normal lens has characteristics that make it suitable for any type of photography. It has minimal distortion and a fixed focal length of 50 mm in full format, although zoom lenses with a focal length from 28 mm to 85 mm are also considered normal (see also tips 6 and 7 on telephoto and wide angle lenses). In addition, these lenses are generally high-quality, durable, compact, and convenient. Also, they are often fast, which gives you options in lighting conditions that would otherwise pose potential problems.

PHOTO: MARIE RYTKÖLÄ

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An ordinary telephoto lens makes it possible to leave the background blurred while accentuating the subject of your picture. // PHOTO: KNUTH BERGHOLM

6 Accentuating Details A telephoto lens enables you to capture details even when the distance between the camera and the subject is vast. This will also reduce the depth of field, which can be useful when a busy backdrop would detract from your desired subject. When set against an out-of-focus backdrop, your subject will be isolated and you can give attention to what’s really important in your photograph. For portraiture, a short telephoto lens with a focal length of 85 to 105 mm (relating to a full-frame sensor) is advantageous (see tip 22). The telephoto effect is such that it will create pleasant and accurate proportions of your subject’s face. If you were to use a 200 mm telephoto lens, for example, your subject’s face may look wider and more compact than in reality. So, shorter telephoto lenses are the way to go, and they’re still strong enough to render the background of a picture blurry. 16

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7 Showing Wide Spaces To make a room appear more vast or to better illustrate the expansiveness of a landscape, affix a wide-angle lens to your camera. All lenses with focal lengths less than 50 mm are considered wide-angle, but 24 mm lenses or shorter (relating to a full-frame sensor, see tip 22) will demonstrate the effect more clearly. Extreme wideangle lenses cause distortion to appear in the image, which can be problematic, as buildings may appear to lean and people’s faces may look a bit odd. Consider, for example, photographing people with wide-angle lenses: you run the risk of causing faces to appear unrealistic. Your subject’s nose can quickly start to appear too long if the camera isn’t close enough to their face. At close distances, distortions in the foreground are less pronounced and you will be able to view more of the setting in your photograph. This can be a desirable perspective, because surroundings reveal a lot about people.

PHOTO: SZABOLCS J CSÖRGE

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19

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A tripod is a must for nature photography—don’t ever leave it behind. // PHOTO: HANS NYDAHL

8 Avoiding Blurry Images Here are a few tricks to avoid taking blurry photos. Use the correct shutter speed. A simple rule of thumb suggests that the longest possible shutter speed you can allow—and still avoid blur while taking a free-hand photograph—depends on the focal length of your lens. If you’re using a 50 mm lens, the maximum shutter speed is approximately 1⁄50 s; if you’re using a 100 mm lens, it’s about 1⁄100 s; and so on. (This rule of thumb applies to focal lengths that have been converted to a 35 mm film format.) Bring a tripod with you. This sounds logical, but many people leave their tripods at home. While they may be heavy and cumbersome, sometimes their weight is exactly what you need. There’s nothing like a heavy, stable tripod to guarantee razor-sharp images. Use a remote shutter release or the automatic timer functions of your camera in combination with a tripod. These measures will ensure that your camera won’t shake during the exposure.

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CHAPTER 2 BROADEN YOUR KNOWLEDGE, THE EASY WAY PHOTO: ELIN RANTAKRANS

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9 The Right Shutter Speed Pictures with brilliant, natural colors are an indication that the photographer exposed the image well. Black appears black and white appears white (see tips 30 and 31). Burned-out areas of an image indicate overexposure, and dark areas without detail indicate underexposure. For a photograph to succeed technically, it needs to be correctly exposed. There are three main factors at play here: light sensitivity, aperture, and shutter speed. The measurement gauge for light sensitivity is ISO speed, which can be programmed on digital cameras (see tips 11 and 12). Keep the ISO speed as low as possible to minimize image noise (see tip 13). The size of the aperture determines how much light will reach the camera’s sensor at the moment of exposure. A low f-stop number (e.g., f/2.8) indicates a large opening allowing a lot of light to reach the sensor. A high f-stop number (e.g., f/22) means the opposite: a smaller opening and less light entering. Shutter speed determines the amount of time the shutter remains open to allow light in. Slow shutter speeds (e.g., ⅓0 s) mean more light will reach the sensor than with faster shutter speeds. If shutter speed and aperture settings are altered in inverse proportions, the same amount of light may reach the sensor, but this doesn’t mean these different settings would create the same image; the images would differ because altering aperture and shutter speed results in different effects (see tips 15–19).

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The details of a picture that is exposed well will be visible in both light and dark parts of the image. // PHOTO: MARIE RYTKÖLÄ

Choose a fast shutter speed to keep the bird in focus. A buzzard searches for its prey in Padjelanta, Norrbotten, Sweden. // PHOTO: HANS NYDAHL

10 Full Control, Partial Automation Modern cameras are generally so advanced that when set to auto nearly every picture is exposed correctly. That said, a camera never knows exactly which image you intend to take. Should the landscape in the foreground be in focus, as well as that in the background? Should your photo of a penalty kick have the soccer ball in focus or all of its surroundings? Digital system cameras, and some advanced compact cameras, allow you to manually set the aperture and the shutter speed. Selecting only the aperture: You may choose between a small, medium, or large aperture and let the camera determine the appropriate shutter speed. This will allow you to have full control over the depth of field in your photo. A small aperture increases depth of field (where the foreground and background of an image are be in focus), a large aperture provides a shallow depth of field (where your subject is in focus but the foreground and background not). In this way you can actively determine how you’d like your photo to turn out. Selecting only the shutter speed: When you manually set the shutter speed, or the duration of the exposure, the camera will determine the appropriate aperture setting. To freeze a movement (see tip 17), you’ll need a very fast shutter speed. Pictures with intentional motion blur are created with a slow shutter speed (see tips 18 and 56). 25

Chose the correct ISO setting in order to reduce image noise. //

PHOTO: MARIE RYTKÖLÄ

11 Adjusting ISO Speeds for Brightness In normal lighting conditions, you don’t have to worry about ISO speeds. ISO 100 is great for everyday photography; the light sensitivity is perfectly acceptable and image noise is minimal. When photographing in the mountains or at the beach, however, snow, water, and sand can reflect sunlight to create lighting situations that warrant reducing the ISO speed below 100. There are other reasons you may want to do this. One is to capture movement in well-lit environments. In order to prevent overexposure, your camera may automatically select a quick shutter speed, which will freeze your subject in place without allowing for motion blur. The same problem exists with the aperture. You may wish to limit the depth of field by using a large aperture, but your camera may automatically select a smaller aperture to prevent overexposing the image (see tip 30). Flash photography is another instance when reducing the ISO speed below 100 can make sense. Even though you’re actually in control of the lighting, making this adjustment can be advantageous to reduce image noise (see tip 12 about high ISO speeds). 26

12 Faster ISO Speeds in Dim Light When taking photographs in the dark or inside where lighting can be low, using the largest aperture and the slowest shutter speed possible doesn’t always work. And if you don’t have a tripod or a flash handy, then you need to find another way to make your photographs work. In these situations, you can increase the ISO speed to alter the camera’s light sensitivity (see tip 13). A faster ISO speed enables the camera’s sensor to absorb enough light even in dark environs, but unfortunately, it also increases image noise. This distracting side effect is more noticeable in digital images than the graininess effected under similar situations while using a film camera. But sometimes it’s better to have an imperfect picture than no picture at all. Faster ISO speeds will enable you to take pictures under dimly lit circumstances without underexposing your photographs. When lighting is bad, try to take your images using a setting of ISO 400 or ISO 800; anything faster than that will cause the image noise to become ruinous (results, of course, will vary, depending on your camera model). Every now and then, when you have an interesting subject or composition, taking the speed up to ISO 3200 can pay off, without suffering from too much noise.

Increase ISO speed to rescue potentially interesting pictures from poor lighting. // PHOTO: MARTINA HOLMBERG

13 Controlling Image Noise Even when you’re caught in bad lighting without a tripod you can capture great images by increasing your camera’s ISO setting. With digital cameras, the ISO speed controls the light sensitivity of the image sensor. When a low ISO speed is selected, for example ISO 100, a camera needs a significant amount of light to expose an image correctly. Conversely, high ISO speeds, such as ISO 800, require less light. However, higher ISO speeds cause an increase in image noise, or small colorful pixels that are mostly visible as grains in dark areas of an image. Since image noise is more noticeable when your camera is set to higher ISO speeds, it’s always advisable to use the lowest possible setting. Most cameras are designed to select the best ISO setting to expose a good image. Of course, you can also take control of the light sensitivity yourself. (Consult your camera’s instruction manual to learn how to alter this setting manually.) You’ll know that a higher ISO is required if your aperture is opening all the way and you’re still not able to select a fast enough shutter speed to freeze movement in your photograph. If your camera has an image noise reduction function, it may be a good idea to use it. 28

Set the ISO speed manually to control image noise. // PHOTO: PER STYMNE

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To take razor-sharp images, you should select an aperture that is two whole settings smaller than the largest aperture of your lens. // PHOTO: GERHARD ROSSBACH

14 Aperture and Optimal Focus You need to be familiar with your lens in order to take crystal-clear images, because lenses do not produce the same sharpness at each aperture setting. You’ll generally find maximum sharpness at about two whole stops above the lens’s largest aperture. If the maximum f-stop is, for example, f/2.8, then optimal focus will be achieved at f/5.6 or f/8. Trial and error is the best method to figure out the optimal aperture for any of your lenses. If you really are keen to take a sharp photo, set the camera to aperture priority mode and then manually select the optimal aperture and your camera will take care of the rest. 30

15 Reducing Depth of Field If you’d like to isolate a subject in front of a distracting background, let the surroundings appear out of focus. Choose a large aperture setting (for example, f/2.8) to reduce the depth of field. This effect will be especially pronounced when using a telephoto lens, which characteristically has a narrower depth of field than a normal or a wide-angle lens. You also will need to use a large aperture in poor lighting conditions to allow enough light to reach the camera’s image sensor. Large apertures are additionally useful to reduce the risk of camera shake when you can’t use a slow shutter speed because your tripod isn’t handy (see tip 8). When working with a shallow depth of field, it’s especially important to choose your plane of critical focus precisely as depth of field is greater beyond this plane than in front (see tip 16).

A large aperture will allow you to separate your subject from its background. //

PHOTO: ELIN RANTAKRANS

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16 Increasing Depth of Field When shooting landscape pictures, it generally looks best to have the entire image in focus, and a large depth of field enables you to do this. If you swap out several lenses on your camera while keeping the aperture the same, the depth of field will vary with each lens: a wide-angle lens will have a larger depth of field than a normal or a telephoto lens. If you select a small aperture, or, in other words, a large f-stop such as f/22, the depth of field will be larger than if you select a large aperture (or a small f-stop 32

Use a wide-angle lens and a small aperture to obtain a large depth of field. The midnight sun in northern Finland. // PHOTO: ELIN RANTAKRANS

like f/2.8). So to have the largest possible depth of field for a landscape image, choose a small aperture and the shortest possible focal length (or the widest-angle lens possible). You’ll want to set the camera on a tripod to avoid unwanted camera shake (see tip 8). Compose your image and focus the camera on a point located a third of the way into the scene. The actual depth of field extends well beyond this plane of critical focus, enabling you to achieve optimal results. 33

17 Effects with Fast Shutter Speeds Moving subjects must be frozen in place with a fast shutter speed to appear in focus (unless, of course, you intend to produce a blurry image). If you’re photographing a soccer match for example, you should set your camera to a short shutter speed so you’ll be ready to snap away when a player takes aim at the goal. In dynamic situations such as this, the shutter speed should be as quick as possible: no longer than 1⁄500 s. The shutter speed you choose depends in whether the player is running toward your camera (if you are positioned behind the goal), parallel to the camera (if you stand along the longest side of the field), or diagonally to the camera. Obviously, it also depends on how fast the player is running. To ensure that your pictures will turn out well, adjust your camera’s settings so you determine the shutter speed manually and the corresponding aperture will be set automatically. The right shutter speed is more important than the aperture when attempting to freeze moving subjects.

Moving subjects can be captured using ultra fast shutter speeds. // PHOTO: ELIN RANTAKRANS

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When using slower shutter speeds, pictures will look less static. //

PHOTO: HASSE HOLMBERG

18 Effects with Slow Shutter Speeds A slow shutter speed is necessary when you want to create the effect of motion blur in your images. You may, for example, wish to capture the dynamic of flowing traffic. A slow shutter speed will make the cars appear as a blurry stripe of color across the width of the photo, while the street and the surroundings will be in focus. In an opposite situation, if your aim is to display the short distances separating the individual cars, freeze their movement by using a fast shutter speed. Making photographs in low light also requires a slower shutter speed (see tip 27). Late at night, when there is hardly enough light to expose a photograph at all, you’ll need an exceptionally long shutter speed—often lasting several minutes. In such a situation, a tripod is a must to prevent camera shake from ruining your image. At the same time, though, this can be a great opportunity to create intentional motion blur in a picture. Experiment with a variety of shutter speeds to achieve your desired effect. 35

To avoid unwanted camera shake, you should select a shutter speed whose reciprocal value equates to the focal length of the lens in millimeters. (This rule applies to focal length values that relate to full-frame sensor formats.) // PHOTO: ELIN RANTAKRANS

19 Focal Length Determines Shutter Speed A camera and lens together can be quite heavy, and it’s not always easy to hold them steady enough to keep from shaking during an exposure (see tip 17). Therefore choose a faster shutter speed to keep camera shake from ruining pictures. Generally, the maximum shutter speed (measured in seconds) should be close to the reciprocal value of the focal length of the lens (measured in millimeters). If you’re shooting with a 200 mm lens, for example, your shutter speed shouldn’t be more than ½00 s. (This rule applies to focal length values that relate to full-frame sensor formats.) A handheld camera with a 50 mm lens won’t pose any camera shake problems, because you can use a shutter speed of up to 1⁄60 s without producing unwanted blur. With telephoto lenses, though, the focal lengths are longer so the shutter speeds must be faster—the magnification effect will cause even the slightest tremble to be noticeable, causing your lovely picture to be blurred. And trembling hands are especially a problem with telephoto lenses, which tend to be heavy and are difficult to hold steadily. Because these lenses use a smaller angle of view than shorter lenses do, it’s wise to use a tripod to keep your pictures in focus. Otherwise the aperture would need to be wide open in order to expose the image correctly. (This is also why you should use the fastest lens with the lowest possible f-stop that your budget will allow.) However, a tripod allows you to use a small aperture and a slow shutter speed without worrying about camera shake. 36

20 The Sunny 16 Rule You’ll probably take pictures with a modern digital compact or system camera. But somewhere in a closet at home you might also have a film camera with or without a built-in exposure meter. When you feel like dusting off your old friend to experiment with (and if you can pick up some film), make use of a helpful rule of thumb to select an appropriate aperture. It’s the so-called Sunny 16 rule, which suggests using the aperture setting f/16 for sunny weather (for other weather recommendations, see the table below). Since digital cameras are more sensitive than film cameras, when you’re trying to get your light exposure just right, you may need to slightly adjust this rule of thumb. When you do use the Sunny 16 rule, your next step is to select the right shutter speed. Determine shutter speed by choosing a number that corresponds to your ISO setting in full steps. For example, if the ISO is set at 100, you should choose a shutter speed of 1⁄125 s (1⁄100 wouldn’t be a whole step). With ISO 200, the shutter speed should be 1⁄250 s, and with ISO 400 it should be 1⁄500 s. Consult this table when choosing an aperture in various kinds of weather: • Weather Aperture (f-stop) • Bright sun f/16 • Hazy sun f/11 • Partial clouds f/8 • Cloudy f/5.6 • Shady f/4 – f/5.6

A general rule of thumb says to use f/11 for the aperture setting in hazy sun. // PHOTO: MARIE RYTKÖLÄ

21 Controlling White Balance When you are photographing a sunset, you want the light in the photograph to be rich and warm, just like reality. The camera has no idea, though, that you’re trying to capture a sunset and will automatically correct the warm light to appear like normal daylight, causing your image to be cold and clinical instead of warm and romantic. Fortunately, there are a couple of ways to set the white balance manually. You can either select a programmed setting in the camera’s menu (the usual symbols include a light bulb, a fluorescent lamp, a sun, or a lightning bolt and a cloud), or you can adjust the white balance to the color temperature of the ambient light. To do this, hold a neutral, white piece of paper in front of the camera. Make sure the lighting is just what you want it to be in your desired shot and take a picture. Now the camera can use the new white balance setting. Your camera’s instruction manual will explain how this process works.

The correct white balance will allow you to avoid unwanted tints and your pictures will appear natural. // PHOTO: TOBIAS HAGBERG

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A lens attached to a camera without a full-frame sensor will enlarge your subject. This can be useful in telephotography. // PHOTO: MARIE RYTKÖLÄ

22 Is Full-Frame Right for You? Many digital cameras have an image sensor that is much smaller than the exposure area of 35 mm film or the full-frame sensor found in high-end digital cameras. Compact cameras are equipped with tiny sensors, and system cameras usually have larger ones that can be around half as large as the exposure area of 35 mm film (i.e., half-frame format). Only high-end DSLRs have full-frame image sensors that compare in size to the exposure area of 35 mm film or slides. The same lens can have different effects when used on cameras with differently sized sensors. If you affix a lens to a camera with a small sensor, it will produce a smaller exposure on the sensor than if the same lens were attached to a camera with a full-frame sensor, which is possible because manufacturers of reflex cameras use a similar lens-connection apparatus for half-frame and full-frame cameras. For example, a 50 mm lens attached to a camera with a half-frame sensor, wouldn’t be considered standard. It would instead be a moderate telephoto lens, roughly equivalent to a 75 mm lens on a 35 mm film camera or a full-frame digital camera. If you attached the same 50 mm lens to a digital camera with a full-frame sensor, the image would appear the same as that produced on a film camera. Although the focal length of the lens is identical in each scenario, the image produced is not. This means you’ll have a boost in telephoto potential when working with cameras that don’t have full-frame image sensors. A 300 mm lens paired with a half-frame sensor is roughly equivalent to a system of a 450 mm lens and a full-frame sensor. The inverse scenario is also true: a 20 mm wide-angle lens paired with a full-frame camera is tantamount to a 30 mm lens paired with a half-frame sensor. In other words, you’ll have less of a wide angle than expected. 39

Learn from the information of your own photos. Comparing the EXIF data with the resulting photo will help you determine ways to improve as a photographer. // PHOTO: TOBIAS HAGBERG

23 Learn from Your Own Photos Every time your camera takes a photo, it stores information about the shutter speed, aperture, ISO setting, etc. in what’s called the EXIF standard format. Among other things, EXIF data reveals information about the image settings that were used with each picture to create specific effects. You can view this information on your camera’s display or on your computer after you’ve transferred the images, and understanding this information will allow you to further develop your abilities as a photographer. Was the shutter speed short enough to capture your subject in focus? Is the depth of field adequate? Have a look in your camera’s instruction manual to figure out how to view the EXIF information on the camera’s display and look for the relevant menu option in your photo editing software. By the way, you can easily examine a picture’s focus by zooming in on the image as far as possible on the camera’s display. Many system cameras have a shortcut exactly for this. 40

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CHAPTER 3 CAPTURING THE BEST LIGHT

PHOTO: GERHARD ROSSBACH

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The nature of the prevailing light determines the mood of a photograph. Here the light is diffuse and soft, creating a feeling of enchantment. // PHOTO: SZABOLCS J CSÖRGE

24 Getting to Know Varieties of Light Take a look around. Once you become comfortable differentiating between various qualities of light, you’ll be able to make calculated decisions about lighting conditions in your images. A bright sun high overhead creates harsh, direct light with squat, compact shadows. This light can be useful to enhance contrasts in architectural photography. A sun lower in the sky creates softer, warmer light with longer shadows. During the golden hours of dawn and dusk, twilight especially creates rich textures (see tips 26 and 27) and emblazons the countryside. Overcast weather causes uniform light with shadows that are diffuse and hard to see. High humidity can cause subjects to appear in a haze, an effect that increases in proportion to the subject’s distance from the camera and can result in a dreamlike quality. Rays of light breaking through thick fog create many visual effects that you can play with when making photographs. These effects, too, are best observed at twilight. Fog and cloud cover, for example, can create a variety of phenomena with sunlight, like a rainbow or a halo around the sun. The soft light of an overcast afternoon is the perfect circumstance to take a portrait. The indirect, diffuse light minimizes wrinkles and blemishes and, when combined with a short depth of field (see tip 6), people will literally appear in their best light. Pay attention to light, and know which kinds of light are best for different subjects. 45

Get familiar with the brightness correction feature so your camera can make snow look white and clean instead of gray and dirty. // PHOTO: TOBIAS HAGBERG

25 Just the Right Touch with Snow and Sand To prevent your pictures of your ski vacation or your trip to the beach from being washed over in gray, you’ll need to override your camera’s light meter. The combination of sunshine and chalk-white snow or bright sand causes cameras to underexpose photographs, because the light meter senses more brightness than actually exists. A simple solution for this problem is the brightness correction function that even compact cameras generally have. By adjusting this correction function to between +1 and +2, your photographs will better reflect what you see with your own eyes. Snow will appear white, not gray, because more light will be able to reach the image sensor. Another tricky situation arises when you want to make a photograph through a window (see image on page 7). The light outside the window is brighter than the light inside the window and a camera’s light meter has difficulty measuring this discrepancy. Take a close look at the camera’s display to see if the scene outside looks too bright. If it does, adjust the brightness correction to between −1 and −2 to limit the amount of light entering the camera and to make the scene darker. The window frame around the scene will appear dark, however, so if your goal is to showcase the details of the windowsill itself instead of the scene outside, do the opposite and correct the brightness to somewhere between +1 and +2. 47

Early morning sun is perfect for landscape photography. Here the morning sun melts fog over Mount Aavasaksa in northern Finland. // PHOTO: ELIN RANTAKRANS

26 Sunrise: The Light of Dreams There’s only one way to catch the rich, dreamlike light that the photographers of GEO and National Geographic always seem to find: set your alarm clock for very early in the morning. Early morning light is amazing because the sun is still low in the sky and the shadows are longer and clearer than later in the day. The light is warmer causing leaves and plants to shimmer. Warm colors have luster and the sky is a deep blue. Another advantage to getting up early is that subjects in your vicinity will be accessible in ways you never would have imagined. Normally hectic streets can be free of people early in the morning; lakes can be mirror-like and shrouded in fog. There usually isn’t any wind and the range of colors looks different than later in the day. Aside from all of this, the air is cleaner and cooler and our senses are sharper. 48

27 The Special Quality of Twilight Night shots of skylines are impressive, but they are not difficult to take. The main thing is to realize that most night pictures aren’t taken at night at all, but during twilight. If they were actually taken at night, they’d be more or less black, simply consisting of a few specs of light and absent of the striking colors of the sky. Because cameras are less sensitive than the human eye, they need more light to perceive colors accurately. This means you need to take night pictures during twilight, because an actual night sky would require an incredibly slow shutter speed. If you’re in a situation to plan your photo shoot in advance, watch the weather report and choose a day with a stable outlook. This will allow you to observe the preceding night to see how the light changes, and you can set an exact time to take your photos when the sky is in its fullest glory. The next day, when the time arrives for your photo shoot, place your camera on a tripod and take a series of pictures with a variety of shutter speeds (otherwise known as bracketing); one with a neutral brightness control setting, and one each with reduced and increased brightness settings. Try exposing the image for several seconds or even minutes and compare the different effects on your camera’s display.

Night shots are usually made during twilight in order to capture the intense colors of the sky. Philadelphia, PA. // PHOTO: ELIN RANTAKRANS

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28 Working with Backlighting Common wisdom says it’s best to photograph with the sun at your back. The result of this thinking is usually a picture capturing a group of people squinting in front of a camera. We don’t find this type of photograph particularly interesting, so we recommend you switch things up to make use of the existing light and to create a more relaxed feel in your image. 50

If the sun is shining directly into the lens, use your hand to cast a shadow over it. // PHOTO: GERHARD ROSSBACH

Set the photo up so the sun is behind your subject and make sure to use a lens hood. You can also use your hand by holding it over the camera and casting a shadow on the lens. If the lens flare in the viewfinder or the display disappears, your hand is in the right place, and your photo will turn out despite the backlighting. 51

If you don’t have a tripod handy, try leaning on a wall to steady yourself. // PHOTO: TOBIAS HAGBERG

29 The Human Tripod Even when conditions are such that you don’t think photographing without a tripod is possible, it’s still worth giving it a try, if the subject is worth the effort. Choose a large aperture and the fastest shutter speed possible that will afford enough light for the exposure. Take a strong stance, hold the camera firmly in your hands, lean your elbows against your body, and breathe slowly. If there’s a lamppost or a wall nearby, you can lean against it for added support. Under these conditions, it’s advisable to take as many pictures as possible with the hopes that at least one will turn out. And sometimes a technically flawed photograph is also the most creative one. 52

30 Avoiding Washed-Out Contrast Sunny days can make it difficult to get the color tones right in both a white shirt and black pants. Since digital technology has a narrower range of contrast than film technology, the differences in light can’t be reproduced as accurately—a deficiency most noticeable in light and dark subjects. When taking photographs with a digital camera, part of the color contrast is lost, and even the best digital editing software can’t do anything if the buttons on a white shirt aren’t visible. By viewing the image on the camera’s display, you’ll be able to recognize right away if a white shirt appears as a bright mass without contrast. Many system cameras even have an automatic warning feature on the LCD screen that indicates overexposed areas of a picture with black flashing spots. (You can read about activating this function in your camera’s instruction booklet.) There are a few solutions to this problem: Ignore the spots, because sometimes these bleached out areas are not important to a picture. Sometimes photographers intentionally want a completely white background to focus attention on a specific detail. Underexpose your image slightly to achieve more detail in the white areas (often sources of light), by altering the brightness correction feature (see tip 25). First try a setting of −1 and then make adjustments as needed (try −1 ⅓ if it wasn’t enough, or − ⅔ if it was too much). This will eliminate nuances in the dark areas of your picture, so be sure to consider what the most important parts of your picture are. You’ll have to decide whether you want your image to have a richer range of contrast in the dark or the bright areas.

Washed-out areas of images with no contrast are common in digital photography, but with the proper measures, they don’t need to be. // PHOTO: SEBASTIAN ROMERT

31 Using a Gray Card With a system camera you can use a gray card instead of the brightness correction function (see tip 25) to optimize your exposures. The gray card corresponds to the middle tone of the gray scale, which should also be the middle tone of your photo, regardless of whether you’re shooting in black-and-white or color. When photographing a white, snowy landscape in sunlight, for example, the snow causes the light meter of the camera to believe that it’s brighter than it actually is. If you use the gray card to measure the light before you take a picture, then the middle tones of your picture will be calibrated correctly and the snow will appear its natural color. Hold the gray card a small distance in front of the camera, so that the light falls on it in the same way it will fall on your subject. Depress the shutter release button partially to see the correct shutter speed. Then manually set the shutter speed accordingly, set aside the gray card, and take your photo.

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PHOTO: GERHARD ROSSBACH

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A high key portrait is light and airy because pastel color tones dominate. // PHOTO: ELIN RANTAKRANS

32 High Key Photography A high key picture is a photograph in which light tones dominate and dark tones aren’t evident at all. It is characteristic of these photographs that the range of colors is entirely lighter than middle gray. When taking high key portraits, make sure the person is wearing light clothes and that the background is free of distracting details. Illuminate your subject with flash or with strong sunlight to give the effect of modest overexposure. Also use the brightness correction feature of your camera (see tip 25 about bright lighting conditions) or a gray card (see tip 31) to achieve a correct exposure. This step is necessary because otherwise the bright conditions will deceive the camera’s light meter into underexposing the image. It’s best just to experiment to determine what effects you’ll be able to achieve with different settings. You can, for example, consciously overexpose the image to emphasize the high key effect. But be careful not to wash out too many parts of your picture (see tip 30). 56

Dark tones dominate in low key photos. The challenge is to depict all the necessary details in spite of this. // PHOTO: KNUTH BERGHOLM

33 Low Key Photography Low key photography is dominated by subdued color tones and rich blacks. Accordingly, the person being photographed should wear dark clothes and the background should be dark and clear of distracting elements. Use lighting to illuminate the parts of the subject you want to emphasize. For portraits, of course, the face is the most important feature. Many sensual pictures are low key photos. Calibrate your camera to middle gray (see tip 31). Dark lighting deceives the camera’s sensors just as easily as bright lighting, so you must correct the brightness by a couple of increments (see tip 25, brightness correction in dark lighting conditions). You should again test a variety of exposures and inspect them to see how they turn out on the camera’s display. You can underexpose low key photographs, but there is a risk that the picture will feel muddy, so choose the camera settings carefully to ensure you’ll achieve rich enough color in the skin. 57

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CHAPTER 4 COMPOSITION

PHOTO: GERHARD ROSSBACH

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The empty seats on the train between Philadelphia, PA and Atlantic City, NJ create a rhythmic pattern which is broken up by the lonely passenger. // PHOTO: ELIN RANTAKRANS

34 Dynamic Picture Compositions A picture’s composition is based on the elements within your frame and how these elements affect one another. The goal of an image is to grab a viewer’s attention for a moment and entice him or her to examine the image further. A large part of the composition rests on the placement of specific elements in your picture. Many photographers use the rule of thirds for this, whereby the picture’s frame is divided into three imaginary columns and three rows creating nine equal squares. Some cameras even have this nine-square template built into the viewfinder or display. If your subject is in one of these areas or at an intersection of the lines, it can help to bring special attention to it. No one rule of thumb applies to every situation, though, so there’s only one way to find out what works and what doesn’t: take lots of pictures. 61

A coincidental gap in the crowd before the Coliseum in Rome—a mother and a child set against an effective paved backdrop. // PHOTO: TOBIAS HAGBERG

35 Take Advantage of Patterns and Colors Sometimes the difference between a picture that works and one that doesn’t work is an intriguing pattern or structure. The subject itself can be simple, such as peeling paint on a rough stone wall, contrasting colors, or a single detail that stands out and breaks up the rhythm of the picture. 62

36 The Best Perspective Lines of sight give two-dimensional pictures perspective and depth. Photographing from eye level establishes a descending shot that is the least obtrusive but can become boring. Looking down on a subject from a bird’s eye perspective diminishes the subject, and a frog’s perspective, looking up from below, makes it appear more impressive. The right perspective is always important when photographing buildings and cityscapes. In order to provide your architectural shots with depth, you can stand at a slight angle from a building rather than right in front of it. Light is also key when photographing. Harsh sunlight emphasizes architectural details and shapes, while the diffused light of an overcast sky accentuates other details of the building such as its colors or the prevailing mood in specific lighting conditions.

The Ribersborgs open-air swimming pools in Malmö, southern Sweden. This formal composition focuses attention on the middle of the picture. // PHOTO: ELIN RANTAKRANS

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Get closer to your subject or use a telephoto lens—that’s how you’ll isolate simple and clear details even amid a sea of chaos. Gröna Lund amusement park, Stockholm, Sweden. // PHOTO: TOBIAS HAGBERG

37 Emphasizing What Counts If you want to highlight a particular detail in a photo, place it toward the front of the composition or emphasize it with lighting. For example, if you take a photo of a man standing directly in front of the Parthenon, he will appear quite small in relation to the structure. This kind of photo demonstrates the immensity of the site. But, if you want the man to appear more important than the structure, it’s better to place him closer to the camera so the Parthenon will function as a backdrop rather than the main feature. Here’s another tip: our gaze is automatically attracted to writing. Pay attention when the scene contains an advertisement or a T-shirt with text on it, because anyone who looks at the picture will tend to read the text before examining the rest of the picture. 64

38 Discovering Details A small detail can say a lot. If you take a photo of the entire facade of a house, the charm of the house can get lost, but sometimes just a unique detail can speak for the whole building. Instead of using a wide-angle lens to capture large subjects, impressive images are also to be found in small things. Pay attention to what’s underfoot, get close up to your subjects and focus on what you really want your picture to express. Less is more.

Zooming in on a detail creates a more intimate impression than photographing the entire building from afar. // PHOTO: ELIN RANTAKRANS

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When shooting a common subject, study photographs by other photographers and think about what makes them good. Maybe you’ll discover a new perspective on the subject. City Hall, Stockholm, Sweden. // PHOTO: HASSE HOLMBERG

39 Photographing Well Known Subjects Familiar tourist attractions have been photographed time and time again, so it’s easy to learn from others. When you’d like to photograph these same subjects, allow the thousands of pictures in books and postcards to inspire you. Studying the photographs of others is a great way to get started, if for no other reason than to avoid making the same mistakes. To define your own voice as a photographer, it’s a good idea to consider what you find pleasing in an image and what you don’t. 67

These three photographs of a monastery in Wadi Natrun, Egypt, give a sense of stillness and harmony. The different perspectives create a documentary feel. // PHOTO: ELIN RANTAKRANS

40 Telling a Story Photographs can take on new meanings when they are included as part of a series documenting the same subject from different perspectives. Each image on its own may not say much, but together they tell a story. In order to create a series of images with a documentary feel to them, take several images from different perspectives, as in the example on this page. One picture in the series is a close-up and is focused on a single detail—a door with a cross. The image of the monk in the monastery provides a little wider perspective, and the third image, the exterior of the monastery, depicts the theme in its totality. What’s important is to get close to your subject and explore it by changing perspectives. It’s important to have an idea of the kind of story you want your images to tell. 69

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CHAPTER 5 IMPRESSIVE LANDSCAPES PHOTO: MARIE RYTKÖLÄ

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41 Enchanting Landscapes with Depth To ensure your pictures have that certain something, many factors must be considered, especially composition, light, and focus. To lend depth to landscape images, you can include an object in the foreground, such as a branch that juts into the frame or a couple of boulders. Done well, this technique will cause the eye to spend time wandering through the layers of the photo. A great depth of field is achieved by using a wide-angle lens and a small aperture. It’s also useful to consider the shapes of the landscape, the colors, and the sunlight in the various areas of your picture. After a rain shower, the sky often affords a dramatic background when the first rays of sunlight break through the gray cloud cover. All of these details can play into the depth and dynamics of a picture. A tripod and an effective lens hood are the most important tools for successful landscape photographs. Also make sure that the horizon is level, or the landscape will appear to tilt off to one side and your picture will be imbalanced. The fantastic sandstone and granite landscapes of the Wadi Rum desert in Jordan: the polarization filter on the lens intensifies the sky’s blue. // PHOTO: ELIN RANTAKRANS

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One advantage of compact cameras is you can always keep them with you in case a fleeting opportunity for a photo pops up. Bjärred, Sweden. // PHOTO: JESPER LINSE

42 Devising a Dramatic Sky To keep clouds looking like soft puffs of cotton and not like empty white blobs, attach a graduated gray (ND) filter to the lens. These filters gradually transition from middle gray on one side to total clarity on the other side, and they allow photographers to tone down the light of the sky without affecting the bottom half of the image. This will make the colors and shadings of both the clouds and the shadows look natural. To prevent reflections from appearing in pictures of shiny surfaces such as window glass or water, you can use a polarization filter on the lens. With an easy turn of the filter, the risk of unwanted reflection is minimized. This will also cause colors to appear more saturated and you’ll be able to get an intensely blue sky, just like professional photographers. 73

43 Nature Photographs That Really Work Small black ants walking along a forest path, light dancing through the leaves of a tree, and rugged stones resting in the warm sun: wherever you look, there is something to photograph. Take time to observe nature and its patterns, colors, shapes, and inhabitants, because the best pictures are readily found when you are least expecting them. To ensure that your pictures will be in focus, you’ll need a tripod that can be set at ground level as well as at eye level. Tripods designed to sit on tables work well too. Lighting can also be a challenge, which can be overcome by using reflectors. A white piece of paper or the white backside of a gray card can be used to reflect light and remove shadows around immobile subjects. When you spot a moving subject, like a butterfly floating from blossom to 74

This photo was taken with a compact camera that had a close-up filter attached to its lens. A fill flash was also used to reduce the shadows cast by the bright sunlight. // PHOTO: SEBASTIAN ROMERT

blossom, you’ll want to use the flash to freeze it in place. Using the flash can pose problems, though, when taking close-ups, because the circumstances disable the light meter from computing the proper shutter speed. You can deal with this problem by taking a series of photographs with varying exposures (a technique called bracketing). First try a normal exposure in relation to the ambient lighting conditions, then one that’s overexposed, and finally one that’s underexposed. One of the pictures in the series is bound to turn out well. A telephoto lens is necessary for photographing wild animals when you don’t feel like putting yourself in harm’s way. As a rule, the better the optics, the more expensive the lens. For any nature photographer, though, a telephoto lens is indispensible. 75

When photographing animals, patience is critical. And don’t forget to bring a large memory card. // PHOTO: TOBIAS HAGBERG

44 Successful Photographs of Animals Animals are always rewarding subjects, but sometimes they can be difficult to photograph. You’ll need to rely on lots of patience and you’ll also need to equip yourself with a large-capacity memory card. While outside, use the fastest possible shutter speed, because animals are unpredictable and often move right when you least expect it. Since animals don’t respond well to bright flashes—they often close their eyes or flee in fear—it’s best to rely on natural lighting. When taking photos of pets indoors, though, use a flash that can be directed towards the ceiling. The light that reflects off of the ceiling will be softer and will better illuminate your subject. Soft light can also be created by using a diffuser (see tip 57). These pictures tend to work best in front of a simple neutral background, such as a pet’s favorite blanket or the corner of a couch. 76

Macro lenses and close-up filters that screw onto the end of a lens open a door to a world of entirely new subjects. // PHOTO: SEBASTIAN ROMERT

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45 Getting Up Close If giant ants and giant spiders don’t intimidate or disgust you, there’s a whole new world of macro perspectives to discover. Macro pictures are extreme versions of close-up pictures that isolate one specific detail and allow it to become the main subject. If the lens on your camera doesn’t have a macro setting, you can purchase a relatively inexpensive close-up filter that screws on to the end of your lens, or you can buy a special macro zoom available for system cameras. These will enable you to get close to your subjects. The cost of this perspective, though, is a shallow depth of field. It’s impossible to keep everything in focus so you’ll need to prioritize your main subject. You’ll additionally lose some of your light when you use a close-up filter, so use a shutter speed that’s slightly slower than usual.

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CHAPTER 6 PORTRAITS

PHOTO: MARTINA HOLMBERG

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46 Don’t Be Shy Taking a portrait of someone means building a relationship with him or her, even if it’s just for a moment. This is only possible by taking it easy, because making a connection takes time. Imagine you’re in the Egyptian countryside and you meet an intriguing old man with a fascinating face that you’d like to photograph. As a tourist your only option may be attaching your telephoto lens and shooting from afar without ever speaking to him. But you could also try to have a chat with him. He’ll either say, “No,” or he’ll say, “Yes,” and then you’ll have an opportunity to begin an interesting conversation, even if it’s just with hand gestures, and then you can take an intimate portrait. Take care to always show respect for the people you photograph—a rule to live by at home as well as abroad.

The harsh contrast in the portrait of the Egyptian monk is softened with a diffused flash. // PHOTO: ELIN RANTAKRANS

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The relaxed pose, the light, and the composition are integral parts of a timeless portrait. // PHOTO: ELIN RANTAKRANS

47 Taking Timeless Portraits In classic portraiture, photographers like to focus on the eyes. It can be useful to use a short telephoto lens in these situations to emphasize your subject’s features and drown out disturbing elements in the background. Alternatively you can zoom in on your subject to render the background out of focus. You must exercise some caution, though; a telephoto lens that’s too long can cause the face to look flat and a wide-angle lens used at close range can cause the face to appear out of proportion. Adjust the colors of your portrait by using the white balance function to make sure your subject’s skin tone looks natural. If you set the white balance to “cloudy,” the result will be a warm color tone. Be careful when doing this, though, because it can also cause an unwanted tint of orange in your images. When framing your image in the camera, make sure you don’t cut off any fingers, wrists, or knees—no one wants a subject to look mangled. When subjects aren’t sure what to do with their hands, have them place them on their knees, on their hips, in their pockets, or anywhere else to create your desired effect. 83

Provide your portraits with an extra dimension by integrating the surroundings of your subject into the picture. // PHOTO: ELIN RANTAKRANS

48 Providing a Wider Perspective A photograph of someone in his or her natural setting conveys more information than a picture of someone’s isolated countenance. The pianist at her piano, the painter before his canvas, the farmer on her tractor. A successful environmental portrait means killing two birds with one stone: first, your subject will be more at ease in his or her familiar setting, and second, your picture will have more to say. A wide-angle or a normal lens paired with the smallest possible aperture for the greatest depth of field will allow you to capture the details of a setting clearly. 84

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A neutral background can help direct attention solely on the subject of a portrait. // PHOTO: KNUTH BERGHOLM

49 Creating a Neutral Background Most portraits benefit from a neutral background. Sometimes all it takes is a step to one side or toward your subject to avoid distracting background elements such as a tree or lamppost that appears to grow out of someone’s head. Squat down or hop up on a bench to get around these problems. Or set your portrait in front of a quiet background like a monochrome wall or a bush. If none of these possibilities work, you can always neutralize a busy background with the aid of a telephoto lens and a relatively larger aperture, which will make the background of your portrait appear out of focus.

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This portrait was taken while the subject was standing at the window on a cloudy day. The soft daylight gently shapes the face. // PHOTO: ELIN TORGER

50 Lighting a Portrait The importance of light in shooting a portrait can’t be overstated. A soft, warm light angled from below flatters most faces, while a harsh flash in front of your subject eliminates all of the shadows that give a face its character. When taking photographs indoors, you have a few options to make use of indirect lighting: you can use an external flash that can be angled upward, you can use a diffuser for the flash (see tip 57), or you can position the subject to face a window. An easy way around the problem of glare from eyeglasses is to have the subject slide his or her glasses down a bit. Check to make sure that your subject’s pupils aren’t hidden. Photographic reflectors are useful in eliminating shadows, but you can also use a sheet of white foamcore or cardboard in a pinch. These tricks also work outdoors, where you may also have the converse problem of needing a white screen such as a white umbrella to temper harsh sunlight (make sure that whatever you use for a screen doesn’t have text printed on it, because it will cast unwanted shadows). Your subject can be placed under the screen or umbrella, so natural soft shadows will appear in his or her face and squinting in the sun can be avoided altogether. 88

51 Arranging Group Photos Group pictures are often static and boring, but you can easily liven them up by setting up an interesting backdrop: a soccer team in front of the goal, the wedding party in front of the church. It’s also easy to bring life to images of small groups with an odd number of people: arrange the group into a triangle with their bodies turned towards one another. Things are looking better already. Pictures of school classes are also often dull, but there’s an easy trick to make them better too: arrange the smallest students sitting in the front row, the middle students standing behind them with their bodies turned toward the middle, and the tallest students standing on a bench in the back, again with their bodies turned to the middle. With the help of a wide-angle lens and a small aperture, everyone’s face will be in focus.

Group photographs work better when the people are positioned as close as possible to each other. // PHOTO: ELIN TORGER

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52 Allow Plenty of Time When Photographing Kids Taking pictures of kids can be fun, but it can also be a challenge: kids are relaxed, but they’re unpredictable too, so it’s easiest to work with them while they’re playing in a familiar environment. In any case, bring a wealth of patience and a large memory card. Try to capture their gentle faces by using a soft filter and indirect light. A soft filter causes the bright parts of your picture to appear muted and warm without affecting your focus. It also has the effect of smoothing images out so not every skinned knee or pimple will show up. Indoors and out, a neutral background will create a calm mood.

Soft lighting, a long focal length, a shallow depth of field, and a neutral background will establish harmony in photos of children. // PHOTO: TOBIAS HAGBERG

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CHAPTER 7 BRINGING MOVEMENT INTO THE EQUATION PHOTO: LARS DAREBERG

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Good sports photographs stand out when they portray the emotions of a deciding moment. // PHOTO: LARS DAREBERG

53 Capturing Actions and Emotions Excellent sports pictures capture concentrated facial expressions in moments of intense exertion. To achieve this, photographers need to follow the action as well as the drama of the game; this suspenseful combination makes sports photography rewarding. The real brunt of the challenge here is to shoot a picture that’s in focus. To freeze a long jumper in the middle of a jump or a soccer player at the moment of a shot, you’ll need to adjust your shutter speed to a fast setting and focus on the athlete. When you’re taking pictures of ball sports, it’s always a good idea to try and capture the ball in the frame too, otherwise, the action of the picture can be confusing. A camera’s burst mode can be a real help when taking sports pictures: when using this function, your camera will rapidly snap several shots each time you press the shutter release button. 94

54 Conveying Speed It’s possible to capture a moving subject in focus while rendering the background blurry if you follow the subject’s movement with your camera. The trick is to keep the subject in the same place of the viewfinder for the entire exposure. Your camera’s autofocus may have difficulty working well when you’re panning the camera like this. When photographing skiers, runners, or cyclists, for example, it can be useful to set the focus either by hand or by locking the autofocus into position. This will allow you to avoid missing that critical moment due to an autofocus that wasn’t yet set. After you’ve locked the focus in place, all you need to do is wait until your subject comes along and then fire away.

When your autofocus can’t bring your subject into focus fast enough, set the focus manually in advance and wait for the right moment, when your subject comes along, to release the shutter. // PHOTO: ROBERT ELIASSON

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55 Capturing Movement with Flash The combination of natural and artificial light can create interesting effects. Using a flash with a slow shutter speed will cause part of your subject to stay in focus while the rest of it will be blurry. This effect conveys to the viewer the movement in the image. Many system cameras with an external flash have a function called rear-curtain sync (or second-curtain sync), which can produce striking results (have a look in your camera’s instruction manual). This mode alters the timing of the flash. Normally the flash illumines right as the shutter opens, but with this setting, the flash goes off right before the shutter closes. Your subject will be frozen in place, but the motion blur will create traces of movement behind it. Capture the feeling of movement by using a slow shutter speed in tandem with the flash. // PHOTO: MARTINA HOLMBERG

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With a neutral density (ND) filter attached to the lens, the exposure time stretches out to four seconds—long enough for the moving water to create substantial motion blur. // PHOTO: SEBASTIAN ROMERT

56 Enchanted Impressions of Water Varying shutter speeds can cause a sparkling stream or waterfall to take on a completely different look. Choose a fast shutter speed to freeze the movement of water: 1⁄125 s is a good starting point. If you’d like the stream to look like a swirling veil, use a slower shutter speed: 1⁄30 s or longer. The correct setting will depend, of course, on the water’s speed, so it’s advisable to take several pictures with differing shutter speeds to compare the results. At high noon it can be difficult to use slow shutter speeds, even when you’re also using the smallest aperture and the lowest ISO speed settings: it’s just too bright. In these cases avail yourself of a gray (ND) filter. These filters function like sunglasses for your camera and can be purchased at photo stores in a variety of tones. Since these filters allow less light to reach the image sensor, you can use slower shutter speeds. 97

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CHAPTER 8 EFFECTIVE USE OF FLASH

PHOTO: MARTINA HOLMBERG

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57 Dimming the Flash If the main source of light in a scene is a direct, built-in flash, the lighting will be harsh. To create softer lighting, use an external flash with a swivel head that can be pointed upward and bounced off the ceiling or against a wall. If you often take indoor portraits, an external flash and the knowledge of how to use it are indispensible. Adjust the flash head to a 45-degree angle toward the ceiling or wall. Take a test shot and examine the image in the display to determine if enough light is being cast on your subject. If there isn’t enough light, you can adjust the angle of the flash, bring the camera closer to your subject, or set the brightness correction function to +1. (Your flash’s instruction manual will explain how to do this.) A diffuser is also a great tool to make use of flash without losing the pleasant effects of natural lighting. A diffuser is a small white plastic box that rests on the flash reflector and casts a gentle soft shimmer on the subject. With a diffuser, you can point the flash directly at your subject without worrying about creating harsh shadows. To redirect a portion of the indirect light back onto your subject, you can attach a white card to the flash head. With a little cunning, you can craft a reflector card out of a white piece of paper and a rubber band. Angle the flash so it’s pointing toward the ceiling, fasten the reflector card to the rear of the flash (which is facing you) so that a flap of the card bends over the top of the flash. The white paper will now act like a reflector and will shed an additional glow onto your subject.

An indirect flash creates soft, natural-looking lighting. // PHOTO: ELIN RANTAKRANS

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The different sources of light in a room conjure up a particular mood. Use a tripod and a slow shutter speed to bring out the warm light of the table lamp. // PHOTO: ELIN RANTAKRANS

58 Mood Lighting Even images exposed with a flash can be full of feeling if the flash doesn’t completely cancel out the natural light, so try to use of a variety of light sources to keep the flash from dominating your pictures. It’s worthwhile to use an external flash with a swivel head that can be directed forward as well as upward. Select a semiautomatic system and set the shutter speed to 1⁄60 or 1⁄30 s. The longer exposure time will mean that the ambient light in the scene will have a greater effect, such as the table lamp in the picture above or the daylight coming in through the window. If the light of the flash is still too harsh, you can reduce the flash intensity (if your flash has this capability) or you can direct the flash toward the ceiling or a wall so that the light has farther to travel before it reaches your subject. 101

A simple fill flash reveals more detail, even if your subject is partially hidden in shadow. // PHOTO: ELIN RANTAKRANS

59 Brightening Shadows with Flash In cases when sunlight causes stark shadows or when the light beneath a tree is too dark, you can use fill flash to complement the natural lighting. Oftentimes, the automatic fill flash setting is problematic, because it can be too harsh. An external flash can eliminate this problem if you adjust the flash slightly downward to lighten the shadows a bit. An external flash has a brightness correction function similar to a camera’s. If you set the flash to −1 (read the flash’s instructions), you’ll adjust the intensity without affecting the natural light. Even the flash intensity of a camera’s built-in flash can be adjusted. With the help of the brightness correction function of the camera (e.g., −1, as above) in combination with the flash brightness correction (e.g., +1) you can manipulate the blend of natural and artificial light. 102

60 Avoiding Red-Eye Red eyes in an otherwise perfect portrait can be downright frustrating. There are methods, however, to avoid this. Most cameras come equipped with a function that causes the flash to pulse just before the exposure. This preflash reduces the risk of red-eye, but also comes with a drawback: the additional light, which causes the pupils to constrict, delays the actual exposure slightly. So, instead of using the camera’s internal function, you can make use of other nearby light sources. The brighter a room, the more constricted the pupils, which reduces the effect of red-eye. You can also use an external flash from above that will create a different angle between the light source and the lens. This wider angle, from the light bouncing off the ceiling or the wall, will cause less light to reflect off of the retina and red-eye effect won’t mar your pictures.

Turn on as many lights as you can to prevent red-eye. //

PHOTO: TOBIAS HAGBERG

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CHAPTER 9 STARTING OUT IN THE DIGITAL DARKROOM PHOTO: TOBIAS HAGBERG

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Many computers are equipped with builtin memory card readers that import digital pictures. You can also buy similar external devices in camera shops that connect to computers through a USB port. // PHOTO: TOBIAS HAGBERG

61 Transferring Images with a Memory Card Reader In order to do anything with your pictures, you must first transfer them from your memory card to your computer. You can do this by transferring your pictures directly from your camera via a USB or a FireWire cable (all instruction manuals will explain this process), or you can use a memory card reader, which connects to your computer through a USB port. The latter option is preferable, because it allows you to conserve your camera’s 106

battery life and you don’t need any special software. Some computers even have card readers built in, but if yours doesn’t, external card readers can be found in camera shops starting around 15 dollars. If you decide to purchase one, make sure to choose one that is compatible with your camera’s memory card. Once you insert your memory card into the reader, you’ll be able to see the images that are on it right on your computer’s screen. Copy your images into a folder on the hard drive that you’ve designated for organizing your pictures. 107

There are a number of high-quality, easy-to-use image editing programs out there. GIMP and Photoshop Elements are two examples that are introduced in this book. // PHOTO: TOBIAS HAGBERG

62 The Digital Darkroom There are a slew of image editing programs that will allow you to touch up your photos by cropping, correcting color, removing red-eye, and much more. In the following tips, you’ll become familiar with the most important tools of two software programs: Photoshop Elements and GIMP. Photoshop Elements is available for around $150.00 in computer and camera stores (sometimes you can even get a copy of the program gratis with the purchase of a camera or a scanner) and it works equally well on both Mac OS and Windows platforms. GIMP, which is available for free download at www.gimp.org, works on Mac OS, Windows, and Linux systems. 108

The toolbox of the free image-editing program GIMP contains everything you’ll need. Select a tool by clicking on it. For a short description of what each tool does, hold your mouse over its symbol. Photoshop Elements works similarly.

The explanations of how to work in the digital darkroom are thematically linked and written in simple terms for those who aren’t computer experts. The tips provide fundamental procedures that can be followed regardless of which editing software you’re using; the individual steps and menu names may vary, but the processes will be similar. You’ll be surprised how powerful these tools can be.

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63 First Things First: Backup When you open up an image in your photo editing software and before you make any modifications to it, you should always start with a simple but important step: save your image as a new file, with a new name. Think of your original file as a film negative you must safeguard. You should only make changes to the newly saved file, because you may later regret cropping a photo or altering a nuance of color and it is critical to be able to go back to the original image. If you’re not sure which file format to use when saving your pictures, we recommend using TIFF; the Photoshop format PSD; or the GIMP format XCF, even if your camera originally saved the file as a JPEG. None of these recommended file types compress data and they’re all equally useful (see tip 4). JPEGs are great if you intend to reduce file size in order to post them on the Internet or attach them to an email (see tip 69). JPEGs are also useful when you want to send your picture files to a photo company for prints. Just be sure to save your files with the highest quality or, in other words, the most modest data compression.

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Save each image under a new name, as you see here in GIMP.

When saving files, you can choose from a variety of useful image file types, as you see here in Photoshop Elements.

Saving Files in GIMP • Go to the File menu and select Open. • Browse in the folder that contains the images you’ve transferred to your hard drive. • Select the picture you’d like to edit, and click Open. After the picture opens up, it’s now time to save the file under a new name. • Go to the File menu in the newly opened window and select Save As. A new window will pop up. • Select the destination folder for your new picture file. • Give the file a new name in the appropriate field. • Click Select File Type and a list of available formats will appear. Select your desired file type and click Save.

Saving Files in Photoshop Elements • Go to File menu and select Open. • Browse the folder that contains the pictures you’ve transferred to your hard drive. • Select the picture you’d like to edit, and click Open. After the picture opens up, it’s now time to save the file under a new name. • Go to the File menu in the newly opened window and select Save As. The Save As window will pop up. (If this is the first time you’ve used Photoshop Elements, an additional window will open with information about the Elements Organizer. Ignore this information for now and familiarize yourself with the Elements Organizer later. Click OK and the window will close.) • Select the destination folder for your new picture file. • Give the file a new name in the appropriate field. • Click Save.

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You can look at the composition of an image in the camera’s viewfinder and on the display, but it’s sometimes useful to improve an image’s balance afterward by using the crop tool, as seen here in Photoshop Elements.

64 Cropping Images You can improve images after you’ve already snapped them by using a photoediting program to crop, or trim away, outer portions of the picture. Sometimes it’s difficult to settle on the best composition by looking through the viewfinder or at the display, and sometimes you change your mind afterward about what works best. You might decide a square format works better than the traditional rectangular one or you might discover a new detail that you want to highlight after taking another look at your image. Cropping in GIMP • Select the Crop tool. • Click and drag the pointer over your image to create a rectangular selection of the picture area you wish to keep. After drawing the rectangle, you can adjust it by clicking and dragging its edges or corners. You can also click and drag in the middle of the rectangle to move it around the picture. • After you’re satisfied with your selection, double click on the picture and it will be cropped to the area you selected. • Save the edited image.

PHOTO: TOBIAS HAGBERG

Cropping in Photoshop Elements • Select the Crop tool from the tool palette. • Click on the picture and drag the cursor to select a rectangular area of the image. You can adjust the selection rectangle by clicking and dragging the sides and corners of the rectangle, and you can also click on the middle of the rectangle and drag the cursor to move the entire selection area. • When you’re satisfied, click on the green checkmark beneath the bottom of your selection and your image will be cropped to your specifications. If you decide you no longer want to crop the image, click on the cancel sign instead. • Save the edited image. 113

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PHOTO: GERHARD ROSSBACH

65 Rotating and Aligning Images Pictures that are oriented in the portrait format sometimes appear in landscape format on your computer monitor, so you’ll need to rotate them 90 degrees (either clockwise or counterclockwise). There’s a shortcut for this: in Photoshop Elements, go to the Image menu and select Rotate; and in GIMP, go to Image and select Transform. Taking pictures in a hurry sometimes leaves you with a horizon that is not level or a tree that is tilted awkwardly. Fortunately, these problems are also easily solved by rotating the image around its center point, and the following instructions explain how to do this. Rotating a Picture in GIMP • Select Rotate in the toolbox. • Click on the image and drag the cursor to rotate the image around its axis. A new window will also open, in which you can manually input the exact angle of rotation. It’s also possible to move the point of rotation to another part of the picture by clicking on it and dragging it somewhere else. • Click Rotate when you’re satisfied with the result and save your image.

Rotating a Picture in Photoshop Elements • Open the Image menu, and then the Transform submenu, and select Free Transform. A selection frame will appear around your image. • By clicking on the square handles on the picture’s frame and dragging them clockwise or counterclockwise you can rotate the picture around its center point. • When you’re finished rotating the image, click the green checkmark. To abandon the change, click the cancel sign. • Save the file.

With the Free Transform function in Photoshop Elements, you can use your mouse to rotate images around a central axis. The measurement of the angle of change is also indicated.

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66 Colors, Brightness, and Contrast Nearly all pictures benefit from an adjustment of white balance and color values. It’s not uncommon, for example, for images to have a slight color cast, which reveals that the camera wasn’t able to set the white balance correctly. Generally, increasing the contrast also improves digital photographs, because the process removes a grayish fog from the image. This fog exists because digital cameras retain all of the information from the lightest and darkest parts of an image, and this throws the contrast settings off. The solution to this problem lies in your image editing software. The window Color Levels has several useful and sophisticated functions. If you aren’t pleased with the automatic color tones, this tool gives you the power to control the values manually for each of the three color channels that make up an image: red, green, and blue (RGB). Color Correction in GIMP • Open the Colors menu and select Levels to open another window. Check the box that enables you to view the preview of your picture as you are editing, to decide whether or not you like the changes. • Beneath the title Input Values you’ll find a histogram. You can alter the color tones of your image by dragging the small arrows below the histogram to the left or the right. Experiment a little, or make use of the Auto feature, which optimizes the values automatically. • When you’re finished editing, click OK to accept the changes and close the Levels window. As always, remember to save your file.

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Color Correction in Photoshop Elements • Open the Enhance menu, then Adjust Lighting submenu, and select Levels. The Levels window will open up. Choose to view the preview of your image as you’re editing to decide whether or not you like the changes. • Beneath the title Input Values you’ll find a histogram. You can alter the color tones of your image by dragging the small arrows below the histogram to the left or the right. Experiment a little, or make use of the Auto feature, which optimizes the values automatically. • When you’re finished editing, click OK to save the changes and close the Levels window. As always, remember to save your file.

PHOTO: PER STYMNE

Red-eye is annoying, but it’s easy enough to fix with a photo-editing program, as seen here in GIMP. // PHOTO: GERHARD ROSSBACH

67 Eliminating Red-Eye Taking photographs indoors with the built-in flash often results in redeye problems, even when using a red-eye reduction function. Image editing software offers special filters, though, that can correct pupils so they appear black again. Eliminating Red-Eye in GIMP • Designate the region of the picture with the red-eye effect. To do this, use the Rectangle Select Tool, which can be found in the top row of the toolbox. • Open the Filter menu, then the Enhance submenu, and select Red Eye Removal. A new window will open. • Make sure the preview is selected and slide the controller to a threshold that produces an acceptable result. • Click OK and save. 118

Eliminating Red-Eye in Photoshop Elements • Select the Red-Eye tool in the tool palette. • Simply click on one of the red pupils and it will disappear automatically. • Repeat the above with the other eye. • Save the edited file.

The sharpness filter increases the contrast along the lines and edges of an image to make the whole image look better defined. // PHOTO: MARIE RYTKÖLÄ

68 Enhancing Sharpness If you intend to print your images or to share them via email, there is one last trick you can use to polish them up: Unsharp Mask. Despite the misleading name, with just a few clicks, your images will appear sharper through this process that increases the contrast between bright and dark edges. Unsharp Mask in GIMP • Open the Filter menu, then the Enhance submenu, and select Unsharp Mask. A new window will pop up. • First define the Radius value, which will depend on your picture resolution: a higher resolution should be paired with a higher value here. A good starting point is a value of two. • Now set the Amount value, which will determine how strong you’d like the sharpness effect to be. At first, try a value of one-half. • Next set the Threshold value. Lower values will increase the definition in all of your picture, and higher values will have less of an effect on the monochrome areas of your picture, such as the sky. To avoid introducing image noise, start with a high value and work your way down until focus has been restored in all of the important areas of your picture. • Finally click OK. It sometimes takes a moment for the filter to be applied and for the result to be displayed on your monitor. • Save the edited image.

Unsharp Mask in Photoshop Elements • Open the Enhance menu, and select Unsharp Mask. A new window will pop up. • First adjust the Amount, which controls the intensity of the sharpness filter. Start with a level of 50 percent. • Then define the Radius value, which will depend on your picture resolution: a higher resolution should be paired with a higher value here. A good starting point is a value of two. • Next set the Threshold value. Lower values will increase the definition in all of your picture, and higher values will have less of an effect on the monochrome areas of your picture, such as the sky. To avoid introducing image noise, start with a high value and work your way down until focus has been restored in all of the important areas of your picture. • Finally click OK. It sometimes takes a moment for the filter to be applied and for the result to be displayed on your monitor. • Save the edited image. 119

69 Reducing Images for E-mail It’s always smart to reduce the scale of your digital images before you send them to friends and relatives. This way the pictures will take up less space on the hard drive and they’ll be easier to send and receive. The JPEG file format is ideal for reducing images to an appropriate size for email attachments or Internet posts (see tip 71). If the resolution width as seen on your computer monitor is 800 pixels, reduce the picture width itself to 800 pixels as well. This will cause each pixel of the picture to correspond to each pixel in the computer’s display—a one-to-one ratio, in other words. A higher pixel count than this is generally not practical, because the picture will end up being reduced anyway in order to be displayed on the monitor. After you’ve rescaled your image, you may need to sharpen it. Use the value one for the Radius value when using Unsharp Mask—if you have indeed reduced the picture to a one-to-one ratio with the monitor’s resolution—and the result will be realistic (see tip 68). Reduce an image’s size before sending it in an email or posting it to the Internet—here this is demonstrated in GIMP. // PHOTO: TOBIAS HAGBERG

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An image resolution of 600 × 800 pixels is practical for email attachments or for Internet sites like Facebook. // PHOTO: MARIE RYTKÖLÄ

Reducing Pictures in GIMP • Open the Image menu and select Scale Image—the controls for this function will open in a new window. • Check to make sure that the chain symbol is intact, linking the height and width fields. If it’s not, click on the chain to make it so. This links the two values and ensures the software will automatically update the height if you alter the width, and vice versa. The picture’s original proportions will now be retained throughout the rescaling. • Input the desired pixel count for the height or width. • Finally, click Scale and save.

Reducing Pictures in Photoshop Elements • Open the Image menu, then open the Resize submenu, and select Image Size—the dialog box will open in a new window. • Check to make sure that the chain symbol is intact, linking the height and width fields. If it’s not, click the Constrain Proportions checkbox. This links the two values and ensures the software will automatically update the height if you alter the width, and vice versa. The picture’s original proportions will now be retained throughout the rescaling. • Input the desired pixel count for the height or width. • Finally, click OK and save. 121

70 Safely Storing Digital Images Digital images must be securely stored, just like film negatives. Otherwise, you face the risk of losing them. Therefore, it’s essential that you regularly create backup copies of your images. We describe a solution for this that’s somewhat tedious, but nevertheless guarantees your pictures won’t suddenly disappear. We recommend you invest in a DVD burner and a pack of blank DVDs. Once you’ve written your images to the DVDs, store them in a safe place such as a desk drawer or better yet, at a location that is offsite from your computer. A safe deposit box would be a good choice. Your pictures will remain safe there, even if your house should burn down. DVDs do have a drawback, though: it’s not yet known how well DVDs age. In other words, we’re not sure whether we’ll still be able to read DVDs decades from now. To minimize the risk of losing all your pictures and to safeguard against a catastrophic hard drive failure (just because it hasn’t happened yet, doesn’t mean it won’t happen someday), purchase an additional hard

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drive. External, portable hard drives with a sturdy housing and an independent power supply are best, as they also offer added protection against power surges. Get in the habit of backing up new pictures to your external hard drive frequently. As a supplementary precaution, you can also save your pictures to a variety of Internet servers. Some examples of these services include Dropbox (www.dropbox.com for Windows MacOS X, Linux, and most smartphones), MobileMe (www.me.com for OS X, iPhone, and iPad), and UbuntuOne (one.ubuntu.com for various smartphones, Ubuntu Linux, and Windows). These providers offer a simple way to make sure that your pictures are safe and to synchronize multiple computers. They also allow you to access your images easily, so you can share them with your friends. These services aren’t free, though; most providers charge a monthly or annual fee that corresponds to the amount of digital storage space your images require.

Back up your images regularly by using an external hard drive or an Internet storage provider. You can also burn copies of your new pictures to DVDs. // PHOTO: GERHARD ROSSBACH

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There are a number of websites that allow you to share your images publically. // PHOTO: KNUTH BERGHOLM

71 Displaying Your Images on the Internet Amateur photographers have traditionally created prints of their best pictures to share with friends and family. A much less expensive option is to create a digital photo gallery on the Internet and then share the web address in an email with your friends and family. There are many good websites that make this possible and some even have built-in procedures to order prints. Here are a few examples: (www.photobucket.com) Photobucket is a popular photo sharing and storage website where you will find competitions, printing options, and other community resources. You can sign up for a free account, or pay for additional features and storage capacities. (www.smugmug.com) Smugmug is an image sharing site for dedicated photographers who want to showcase and sell their images in a nicely presented design. There is a cost for this service. (picasa.google.com) Casa Web Albums functions as a complement to the free image editing software Google Picasa. 1 GB of storage space is available free of charge. (www.facebook.com) Facebook, the largest social network on the Internet, has many functions to download and publish pictures. Take a close look at Facebook’s terms of use, however; the company reserves the right to use your pictures without paying any royalties. 124

Afterword

You may not know it, but you already have your own vision for seeing and taking great photographs. You’ll become more conscious of this with every image you take. If you read a specific newspaper regularly, you’ve probably already learned to distinguish the styles of different photographers and you may even be able to guess the name of the photographer without looking at the photo credit. Isn’t it impressive that a professional photographer can always find his or her own personal style, despite making images on a variety of assignments? One photographer’s hallmark may be extremely constructed images with slanted horizons; another’s, using a fast lens without flash. And yet another photographer uses a wide-angle lens and works knowing that he’ll intensify the contrast later in an imageediting program. Treat these thoroughbred photographers as guides and use what you learn to create your own voice as a photographer. What do you like? What subjects capture your attention? What equipment works well for you? Here is some final advice to help you find your voice as a photographer: • Browse through the pages of this book now and then, and experiment with one tip at a time (spend one day capturing details and the next day taking pictures of people, for example). • Talk with others about your photos. Turn to an honest person whom you trust, or a serious online photography community. It’s important to accept that sometimes you’ll have to do away with your favorites, and sometimes images that you don’t care for will be praised. Through these conversations, you’ll gain new insights and you’ll be forced to reevaluate your art. • Examine as many images as you possibly can, in newspapers, photography books, photography magazines, advertisements, and photography galleries. • Use your computer to work actively on your images. This will help you to consciously decide what works and what doesn’t. Sometimes you’ll stumble across a stroke of unexpected luck, and other times you’ll invest careful planning into something that utterly flops. • Take your camera with you—and use it—as often as possible. If you become more aware of your personal preferences and interests, you’ll develop into a photographer with a confident eye for good images, faster than you think. Good luck! 125

Photo Credits

Knuth Bergholm, 17, 57, 86, 124 Szabolcs J Csörge, 18, 19 44 Lars Dareberg, 92, 94 Robert Eliasson, 95 Camilla Eriksson, 118 Tobias Hagberg, 10, 11, 12, 38, 41, 46, 52, 62, 64, 77, 91, 103, 104, 106, 108, 112, 120 Hasse Holmberg, 35, 66 Martina Holmberg, 27, 80, 96, 98 Jesper Linse, 73 Hans Nydahl, 20, 25 Elin Rantakrans, 7, 9, 22, 31, 32, 34, 36, 48, 49, 56, 60, 63, 65, 68, 69, 72, 82, 83, 85, 100, 101, 102 Sebastian Romert, 53, 74, 78, 97 Gerhard Rossbach, 2, 13, 30, 42, 50, 54, 58, 114, 122 Marie Rytkölä, 14, 24, 26, 37, 39, 70, 119, 121 Per Stymne, 28, 117 Elin Torger, 88, 89

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Index

A Animals, 74–79 Aperture, setting, 25 Autofocus, 95

underexposure, 53 bright spots, 53 Eyeglasses, avoiding glare, 88

B

F

Backlighting working with, 50 Batteries, 12 Burst mode, 94 Backup, copies, 110, 122–123

Facebook.com, 124 Flash, correction, 102 close-ups, 74 freezing movement, 96 bracketing, 75 indirect, 100 portraits, 88 red eye, 103 creating a mood, 101 rear-curtain sync, 96 eliminating shadows, 75, 102 directed upward, 100 Filters graduated neutral density, 73 gray filter (ND), 73, 97 polarizing, 72 skylight, 11 soft filter, 90 UV filter, 11 Flickr.com, 124 File formats JPEG, 13, 110, 120 RAW, 13 TIFF, 13 Framing portraits, 83 Focus controlling, 40 optimal aperture, 30

C Close-ups focusing, 79 close-up lenses, 79 Composition, rule of thirds, 61

D Depth of field shallow, 25, 31 deep, 25, 32, 72 Details, accenting, 65 Documentary photography, 69 Dropbox, 123 DVD, backup copies, 122

E EXIF, image information, 40 Exposure setting aperture, 25 bracketing, 49, 75 brightness correction, 47, 53 flash compensation, 102 fast shutter speeds, 25, 34, 97 slow shutter speeds, 25, 35, 96, 97 gray cards, 54 setting shutter speed, 25

G Galleries, on the web 124 Gray card, 54 Group photos, setting up, 89

H Hard drive, backup copies, 122

I Image noise ISO speed, 48 reducing, 48 Image sensor, cleaning 11 Internet, image gallery, 124 iPad, 123 iPhone, 123 ISO speed minimizing image noise, 26–28 definition, 28

J JPEG, 13, 110, 120

K Kids, 90

L Landscape photography, 70–79 Lens normal, 15, 84 telephoto, 16, 75, 83, 87 wide-angle, 18, 72, 84 Light twilight, 45, 49 correcting measurement, 47 learning to perceive, 45 reflectors, 74, 88 sunset, 38

M Main subject, placing, 64 Memory cards, extra, 12 MobileMe, 123

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Motion freezing, 25, 34, 94, 96 motion blur, 25 water, 97

P Perspective, selecting, 63, 69, 74 Picasa Web Albums, 124 Pixels, 120 Portraits background, 87 bounce flash, 100 kids, 90 hands, 83 skin tone, 83 indirect flash, 88 exposure, 88 reflectors, 88 telephoto lens, 83 timeless, 83

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R Reflections, avoiding, 73, 88 Red eye, avoiding, 103 removing, 118 RAW format, 13 Reflectors, 74, 88 Rain protection, 11

S Sand, 47 Server, 123 Shutter release, automatic, 25 Shutter release, remote, 21 Sky, 73 Shadows, controlling, 102 Shutter speed fast, 25, 34, 97 slow, 25, 35, 97 slow with flash, 96

rule of thumb with focal length, 36 selecting, 24 Smugmug.com, 124 Snow, 47 Sports photos, 94

T TIFF, 13 Tripod, 21, 72, 74 improvised, 52 Twilight, 45, 49

U UbuntuOne, 123

V Voice, photographic, 67, 125

W Water, movement, 97 White balance, 38