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Notes by John Worley 1 Improving our Digital Photographs - Session 2

John

Worley

Instructors Notes

Slide actions are described in these notes as well as additional comments and information: <C> = Click on Slide Advance button. Actions follow the symbol and are enclosed in parentheses.

Improving our Digital Photographs – Session 2

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John

Worley

In the first session, we looked at some technical details of photography. Today, we will look more at the artistic side of photography. We will begin with learning to see situations where one or more of the things from the first session can be used to improve our photos. Then we will look at styles and effects.

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John

Worley

As we discussed in the first session, most often we see “what we want to see” – we miss small things that distract (at best) or ruin (at worst) a photo. In this photo, I could have removed the spent flower in the top center and on the right center, but primarily I should have moved my finger from the top left. • The sun shining through the slightly translucent flowers provides a plethora of yellows to admire.

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John

Worley

• Look for the best angle for each scene; this includes the best direction to capture the subject with minimum distractions as well as field of view (wide angle – telephoto). Stand up and look horizontal as well as downward; stoop over and look horizontal as well as upward; move left and then right.

• <C> The work shed in the upper right corner of the upper right photo is distracting. Moving a little to the right and looking back provides a more pleasing photo.

• <C> The caterpillar gets lost along the stem. Wait a moment to allow him to get in a better position. (OK, in reality take both – just in case he isn’t cooperative.)

• <C> Looking downward at the face of the roses in the left photo results in a flat look with dark shadows. Moving 90° to the right provides more pleasant photos.

• <C> The first cactus photo (with 2 red flowers) is nice, but the cactus is a little dark and the tree limbs in the background are distracting. The second photo (with one red flower) is a different leaf from the same plant but it is well lit and the sky provides a nicer background.


John

Worley

• In the left photo, I was on a hike at the Heard Museum and Preserve. I saw the red flower on the tall stem in the middle of the shorter plants and wanted to capture it. Unfortunately, I was paying attention to the plant and not the background.

• <C> In the second image, I doctored the image to move the flower so that it appears with the darker green background of the trees to simulate the image I would have captured had I stooped over a little and looked slightly up at the plant. • Many images look better if captured at some height other than us standing; get down on a child’s

or pet’s level rather than looking down at them. • <C> The pair of photos in the upper right were taken in Juneau, AK, and are 2 shots of the same

grouping of trees. I’m not going to presume to be artistic enough to say which is prettier; the right photo was taken by moving around 90° to the left from where the left photo was taken.

• <C> The first image at the lower right has been doctored to indicate how most of us would have taken the photo – with the flower near the middle. However, the flower is not symmetrical at all.

• <C> The overlay photo is how I took the photo. Putting the lopsided flower at the edge of the frame celebrates that shape. Also, by using a shallow Depth of Field, the background was forced enough out of focus to not be distracting, but to add movement to the image.

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John

Worley

The top-left sunset was taken from my backyard, using an old APS film camera. I wanted the sky and knew the landscape would end up black anyway. I put the horizon tree line at about the 25% or 30% line. I estimated that the brightness of the sky would be offset by that much dark area, lessening the chance that the camera meter would affect the final image. - Now that it was scanned to digital, the dark area provides a place for text (headline) in an article. <C> The top-right snowy cedars was taken from my backyard, over the fence to my neighbor’s land, looking toward the north. I used a polarizer to darken the sky. Conditions resulted in the right side sky being darker. <C> The bottom-left landscape was taken in Arches National Park in Utah, also using a polarizer. The bottom-center landscape was taken in the Grand Escalante area of Utah. In both cases, although the landscape was interesting, the sky was the primary interest, so I put the horizon line lower in the frame.


John

Worley

The top three landscapes were taken around Durango, CO. In all of them, the camera was basically facing toward the sun. I knew that the sky wouldn’t work, so I used reflections off the water where I could. The landscape was the interest, so I put the horizon line high in the frame to emphasize the landscape. <C> The bottom-left landscape was taken in Arches National Park in Utah. At that time of evening, the shadow area roughly balances the sky area. The bottom-center landscape was taken at Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. The bottom-right landscape was taken at Capitol Reef National Park in Utah. In both landscapes, the landscape is far more interesting than the sky, so I put the horizon line high in the frame. In the latter image, I moved around until the foreground tree played off the cliffs in the distance.


John

Worley

The top-left image of the Seattle Space Needle reflected in a glass ball was taken at the Chihouly Art Glass Exhibit. I bent way down so my reflection would be lost in the clutter at the bottom. <C> The bottom right image was taken at the Dallas Arboretum. I wanted an image of the artwork with the sky. Unfortunately there were a lot of people around, so I looked down and let the sky reflect in the pool, cutting (most of) the people out of the image. <C> The right image was taken near Leadville, CO. The perfectly still water just begged to split the frame down the middle.


John

Worley

This example show the thought process to capture the image on the right.


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Worley


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John

Worley

Art experts say that when looking at an image, given no other reason, we settle on items on the intersection and lines of a tic-tac-toe board over the frame. So if we place our subject on one of those locations, the viewer will more easily focus on it. (OK, it is not really thirds; it is really something called the Golden Ratio.) <C> “Never Center the Subject”: So why did I? “Because” – that’s whyu. The hummingbird on the left is not centered. I knew when I took the photo that I would crop it this way – with the clothes line diagonal across the frame – and I needed the vertical room. The hummingbird on the right is centered on the light area of the background and the frame. <C> The bees in these photos are balanced by the flowers. <C> The bees are located very near the Rule of Thirds intersection. <C> Art experts say to never split the frame with the horizon: So why did I? “Because” – that’s why. <C> But note that the image of Park Avenue area of Arches National Park in Utah also have significant boundaries near the thirds lines.


John

Worley

Horizontal lines, commonly found in landscape photography, can give the impression of calm, tranquility, and space. An image filled with strong vertical lines tends to have the impression of height and grandeur. Tightly angled convergent lines give a dynamic, lively, and active effect to the image. Strongly angled, almost diagonal lines produce tension in the image. Compared to straight lines, curves provide a greater dynamic influence in a picture. They are also generally more aesthetically pleasing, as the viewer associates them with softness.. <C> This seascape has a strong horizon line. <C> However, that line is not level – and thus disconcerting. Won’t the water run downhill off the edge of the image? <C> There! Isn’t it more comforting with a level horizon. Here are two lightening photos. <C> There is nothing significant except the lightening in the right photo. Doesn’t it look more powerful and dynamic cropped in the portrait format rather than landscape? <C> Notice how the horizon line in both images on the left fall on the lower third line, and the sky changes brightness near the upper third line. <C> This bird is in the very corner, but the branch points to it. <C> But what is that confusion (bird) near the center about? <C> The right photo is actually symmetrical. How? <C> The line of the base of the trees is mirrored by the line of the tree tops. In fact, the lines pull the eye to the right end of the trees, where we just want a subject. <C> Well, maybe not Maxine.


John

Worley

The Rule of Space says that having the subject looking or moving out of the frame is somewhat unsettling whereas looking moving into the frame is more calming to us. <C> The two bee photos are similar, but the bee in the right photo is moving out of the frame. (Uncooperative little guy, huh?) <C> I reversed the bee’s direction. The elk is looking out of the frame in the original image. <C> I moved the elk to the right (and reset the background).


John

Worley

I’ll let you decide. I will say that the bottom-left image bothers me just a little. The two deer are posed almost symmetrically, and the trees (more visual weight on the right side of the image) along with the red hay ring on the far left balances fairly well.


John

Worley

Balance: Having a symmetrical arrangement adds a sense of calm, whereas an asymmetrical arrangement creates a sense of unease, imbalance. In the top-left photo, the hummingbird is slightly left of center, balanced by the dark area at the right. In the top-right photo, the hummingbird is centered. Dark areas on both sides maintain the balance. <C> There is a differing balance technique in each. <C> In the bottom left photo, the dark shape of the seagull sitting on the pier in Seal Beach, CA is balanced by the sun as dawn breaks. In the bottom-center photo, the very bright, but smaller sunburst on the far right is balanced by the larger light area glistening off the surf spray that is just left of center. In the bottom-right photo, the block of flamingoes balances the mountain in the upper right.


John

Worley

These photos show how balance can change based on cropping alone. We will use the photo of Park Avenue in Arches National Park in Utah. <C> The top-center original has fairly symmetric brighter areas (sky) and darker areas (shadows). <C> It also has a very bright area on the face of the rocks at the right that is balanced by the dark area at the lower left of the image. <C> The bottom-left image contains only the bottom area (top cropped off). To me, the shade overloads the bright areas. <C> The top-left image contains only the top area (bottom cropped off). I like this image slightly better than the bottom image. The remaining bright areas only slightly overpowers the dark areas. <C> The top-right image contains only the top-right area. Almost all of the shade has been cropped out, and I like this image the least. <C> The bottom-right image contains only the bottom-right area. The dark and light areas on the left have been cropped out, but good balance remains. Of the modified images presented, I like this image the most.


John

Worley

Just for fun, include a bee or butterfly. The bear is in the Arboretum in Juneau, AK and was happily munching on those berries, getting ready for a long winter nap.


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John

Worley

A polarizing filter only passes light wave that are oscillating in the same direction as the crystals in the filter. All reflected light is at least partially polarized, depending upon angles (and a few other things.) <C> Recall that we noted that the sky is blue because white sunlight reflects off of ozone atoms in the upper atmosphere; due to the size of the ozone atoms, blue light is reflected more – the sky looks blue from those reflections and the remaining direct sunlight looks yellow with the blue removed. Well, due to those reflections, skylight is partially polarized; and due to the angles involved, different areas of the sky are partially polarized more or less and in different directions. <C> A polarizer can darken the (polarized part of the) blue sky. As shown in the upper-right pair of photos, by holding polarized sunglasses in front of the camera lens, when the glasses are rotated 90°, the sky changes from lightest to darkest. The next lower pair of photos have had the sunglasses pulled very close to cover the lens completely. Notice that the ground brightness is not affected. <C> In the lower-left photo, I used the polarizer to darken the sky to a deep blue to offset the bright yellows and reds in the rock face. It was late afternoon looking north. In those conditions, the polarization can be quite dramatic. <C> By darkening the sky, clouds (which are not polarized) can be enhanced as shown in the next two pairs of photos on the right. Notice also that reflections off the surface of the lake have also been darkened in the lower pair of photos. <C> In the bottom-right pair of photos, the glare from the sun reflected off the glass tabletop is mostly removed. As noted, a polarizer can block reflections. In the top-right pair of photos, the maximum and minimum effect are reached at 45° from the horizon. Light reflected off the road’s surface is polarized 90° from light reflected from the windows of a building; by placing the polarizer at 45°, some of both reflections are blocked. <C> The bottom-center photo was taken near sunrise looking south. The wide-angle shot shows the polarizer working more directly south than on either side.


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John

Worley

This feature showed up on a friend’s new smart phone. You can drag the box around to force the camera to focus on any part of the image. However, that part of the image is also used to determine the exposure. While it is a convenient way to enhance a cluttered image that has only one area of interest, it has a significant effect on the final image as demonstrated here.


John

Worley

We are going to look at photo editing. Imagine that you are a paparazzi photographer, shooting the famous Maxine (from Hallmark Cards’ Crabby Old Lady). <C> You see something in the background, so back on your computer you enlarge the image of the honeybee. Well, this image is a composite of two photos. <C> I took the photenia photo for the purpose to demonstrate that we do not need to get nearly as close as we think. Our camera has lots of resolution. Maxine is the mascot of a group of quilters. She goes along everywhere. I used that photo and selectively selected and removed the background cloth colors. After I finished, I saved the image as a GIF with a transparent background (instead of white in a JPEG). I overlaid Maxine over the bush. <C> The bottom-right image of the baby Great Horned Owl was taken after it fell from the nest. <C> By selecting the background, I can blur it. <C> We called Raptor Rescue and they put the little guy back in the nest. (He is the smaller one). And we were there when he fledged from the nest for the first time. <C> Before there were so many custom business card and photo card makers, I would add text to make custom Christmas and business cards.


John

Worley

Shown are four photos that could use minor edits. <C> I chased butterflies around my front pasture for an hour, trying to get close for the bottom-right image. After I got tired, I realized that I have 10 Mega-Pixels to work with and I took this. I used a photo editor to crop as shown, placing the butterfly on the lower-left Rule of Thirds intersection, flying towards the center of the frame. <C> A student took the bottom-center cardinal image and asked what I think. Well, being a Rule of Thirds believer, I cropped it as shown. I felt that the white background forced the camera to take a slightly dark image, so I brightened the image slightly so the detail in the cardinal was more apparent. <C> I took the bottom-right cardinal image in the landscape mode, figuring I would crop it to portrait mode as an example (later in this program). <C> The top image is too dark. The image has few dark areas for the camera to see, so it darkened the image to “middle gray”. Simply using any photo editor to brighten the image brings it back to life.


John

Worley

Years ago I used a Point and Shoot Digital Camera to take a panorama of the Grand Canyon. (Cameras do this automatically now.) I couldn’t really control brightness, so I knew I would need to work on things on my computer significantly. So I plopped them down in PowerPoint, placed and sized them for a continuous scene, adjust the brightness and contrast of each photo as best I could, and cropped the final image.


John

Worley

<C> Starting with a grab shot of a baby rabbit in my vegetable garden, I wanted a round image. Many photo editors will let you crop to a shape. However a JPEG will have white outside the shape. (This is fine if you are placing the image in front if a white background.) Other formats will allow transparency outside the cropped area. <C> We took these photos from the deck on an Alaskan cruise. So I mirrored Sherry’s image, cropped them to fit together, pasted them together, and then played with the background (copy a nd paste) as needed for an acceptable image. Finally I cropped the image into a heart shape. <C> A student took the bottom-left roadrunner image and asked if I could do anything with the distracting alarm sign. (I suggested I put “ACME” over it, but that was not acceptable.) I took the bottom-center image after doing some landscaping for a friend. In both cases, I carefully selected areas to cover the distractions. I copied them, feathered the edges and adjusted the brightness and contrast, and pasted them as needed to cover the distractions. Finally, I carefully selected the shadow areas and brightened them to remove them as needed.


John

Worley

Microsoft Office Picture Manager is part of the Office Tools folder. It is a reasonable photo editor. You can Rotate, Crop, Resize, Adjust Brightness and Contrast, and Enhance Colors. But mostly, UNDO is your friend! You can zoom in on the image to see details. But most important, ALWAYS work on a COPY of the original.


John

Worley

First, we will zoom in and pan as needed to determine if we need to rotate the image at all. (It is extremely common to find that we weren’t standing straight up.) <C> Next we will crop to shape. We are using an 8x10 aspect ratio. We need to be sure that we have enough resolution left. At 150 pixels/inch, we need 1200 x 1500 pixels.


John

Worley

We go ahead and resize the cropped image to 1200 x 1500 pixels. <C> Then we decide if we need to adjust the brightness and/or contrast.


John

Worley

Next we will look at the color balance. <C> Here are examples of the color balance adjustments.


John

Worley


John

Worley

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John Worley - University of North Texas › sites › default › files... · chance that the camera meter would affect the final image. - Now that it was scanned to digital, the