My ever-restless and creative friend Reena was recently talking to me about a series of photographs she’d taken over her last trip to a national park in her neck of the woods. They were just not turning out as dramatic and eerie as she wanted them to. This, of course, set my photographer-sense tingling and I wanted to know what the original pictures were like and why they weren’t working out.

She had already attempted a black & white version of one of the images of a rock pool, and while it was fairly dramatic, the flatness of the tones and a very bright highlight told me that the image was very likely overexposed. Since my curiosity had been piqued, I asked her to send me the original image to play around with. Since I was playing anyway, I thought I’d record my thought process as I tried to fix this overexposed photograph.

Exposure Correction Tools

The best cure for overexposure is prevention. Making sure you get a properly exposed shot from your camera is really the only true answer, and you can usually do that by setting the Exposure Compensation to a negative(-) setting in your camera (if you’re using one the automatic or semi-automatic modes). In daylight, at least, I find most digital cameras tend to overexpose, and a bit of negative exposure compensation does nicely.

Even with these precautions, however, the odd overexposed shot does slip through, so it’s helpful to know how to salvage them on the computer. For these corrections, a proper photo-editing application is the best way to go. I am well aware that there are now a slew of software tools like Aperture and Lightroom and the like, which make it much easier to handle large volumes of images with various automated pre-sets and complex features. They take a lot of the decision-making out of the hands of amateur who just wants a stunning image with the least amount of fuss. I don’t know anything about those and am more of the hands-on type of photo editor, so my choice of tool is a more nuts-and-bolts image editor which I use for all my professional work, and that is the GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program).

A layer-based photo editor gives you the best fine-grained control over the final image if you know what you’re doing, and if you’re serious about photography in the digital age, you would do well to learn your way around one of these. It’s very much like printing your own pictures in the dark room in the old days as compared to handing it over to a photo shop, even a professional one.

GIMP comes with a fairly complex collection of built-in features and capabilities but I will also be using one additional plugin script for the software called Shadows & Highlights, which well help us deal with some of the specific issues faced in badly exposed images. So if you want to try these methods on your own photos, I suggest you get a hold of these tools, which are both free, keep the GIMP manual open to figure out the specifics if you get lost, and follow along.

What is Overexposure?

The concept of exposure is at the very basis of photography. Photographs are formed or captured by light falling on a sensitive surface for a specific fraction of time. In the old days that surface was film, and today it is often a digital sensor. Either way, the concept remains the same; A certain amount of light energy is required to be captured to form a clear image. Dark scenes thus need a longer exposure, while bright subjects require a shorter exposure time. A dark scene that isn’t exposed for long enough turns out dark and underexposed, while a bright scene exposed for too long creates an image which is overly bright and overexposed.

This is exactly what has happened in this original image. The sensors in cameras that decide on exposure and other settings in automated modes, look at the average light quality of the scene in front of them and mathematically calculate the optimum exposure time. If a scene is very evenly lit, these averages turn out good results, but in scenes with drastic contrasts of light and dark, averages are often skewed away from the ideal. This is how, in an image like the one above, the camera can select a longer exposure to properly capture the dark and shadowy cave and rocks, which leads to the sunny parts of the scene being washed out with an excess of light.

This is apparent when you’ve looked at enough photographs and know how it works, but it is still useful to analyse these images more thoroughly to understand exactly what has gone wrong. One method to do this is to use a visual tool called an image histogram. This is a graph representing the amount of light, dark and medium value shades in an image. Many cameras can show you this read-out live on the scene, but once you have opened your photo in GIMP, you can display its histogram by going to the image menu Color > Info > Histogram. That displays the Histogram dialogue shown above.

The histogram represents the occurrance of shades in the image ranging from black on the extreme left to white on the extreme right. So as you can see from the histogram of our overexposed photo, it has no pure black or very dark shades at all, and you can see a sliver of the graph that shoots up on the white end, showing that some of the highlight areas of the image have been washed out into pure white.

This washing out of highlights is the more serious issue with overexposed images. Dark shades can be darkened, but once a highlight has been washed out into pure white, a phenomenon called clipping, there is very little that can be done to restore the visual information lost in those places.

The fact is, nothing in the real world is ever a mathematically pure white. There is always a tinge of colour and variations of shade in even the whitest of objects, so when something is captured as pure white in a photo, it is merely a symptom of not enough information being captured for that area. Look at the excessively darkened section of our image above and notice how the highlight foliage is beginning to turn red. That is because the pure white has no correct colour information, so the computer mathematically jumps to red when extreme darkening is attempted. There is almost nothing to be done about this particular problem, but first, let us tackle the broader overexposure problem.

Level Adjustment

The best place to start correcting exposure problems like this, is to remove that gap in the image histogram we saw earlier, and stretch the photo’s values across the entire range of dark to light. We can do this by bringing up the Adjust Color Levels tool through the image menu Colors > Levels.

The levels dialogue includes a histogram display, but this time with adjustments for the black point, white point and mid-point or gamma of the image, which are represented respectively by the black, white and grey triangles below the graph display. You can adjust the image by sliding around those triangles to new positions along the graph, or changing the numerical values in the boxes below them (0-255). For this image, the idea was to close the blank gap on the dark end of the graph so the black point was moved towards the point where the image data actually began. To solve the excess brightness of the image the gamma point was also moved to reduce the level of the middle values to something more natural looking.

As you can see from the resulting image above, this one adjustment to the photograph already gives it much more depth, and makes it look more true-to-life than the washed-out original. Levels adjustment is one of those essential tools in a photographer’s toolbox to improve almost any photo and bring it close to what was intended. Learn to use it well, because for a universally applied adjustment it pays dividends for very little effort.

Selective Layer-Based Image Improvements

Universal adjustments to image quality are all you need if you have a perfectly exposed shot, but as the scenarios get more complex and the subjects more varied, you need to start delving into layer-based adjustments to the whole or parts of the image. Some areas of a photo often need to be processed differently to get a good result and that’s where editable layers and layer blending come in.

In photo manipulation software, layers are like transparent plastic sheets stacked on top of each other. Things can be put on these sheets to super-impose them on whatever is below without erasing it, with what is below showing through the transparent parts.

Photo editing layers go further in allowing the top layer to affect the look of the layers below it by blending with them using various mathematical methods. There are a growing number of blending modes in most software, but there a few basic ones that are universally helpful. In Normal mode the layer simply super-imposes itself on the layer below, depending on the transparency of the imagery on the top layer, and also optionally on the opacity setting of the layer. In normal mode, layers work exactly like plastic sheets.

The three modes shown in the image above are particularly useful in photo editing. The three sections of the image were created by duplicating the image layer, so that there are two stacked layers with the original photograph on it, and then changing the blending mode on the top layer.

The Screen blending mode lightens the result depending on the lightness of the the image on the layer. A light area lightens more than a dark area. The Multiply mode has an opposite effect, darkening the final image, with the dark areas having a stronger effect than the light ones. The Overlay mode mixes the previous two modes, with light areas lightening and dark areas darkening the final image result. By applying these blend modes on duplicated layers of photographs, many exposure issues can be corrected with a great degree of control, by varying the opacity of the affecting layer.

Since layers can have only sections of the image and transparent non-affecting parts, it allows us to selectively apply these effects on only some parts of the image to make more localised adjustments. This is exactly what the Shadows & Highlights script mentioned earlier helps you with. If you downloaded and installed it correctly, it should be accessible through the Image menu Filters > Light and Shadow > Shadows & Highlights.

The Shadows & Highlights dialogue that appears has two settings which you can change but you don’t need to, because they have no permanent effect. The plugin works by extracting a blurred version of the shadow areas and the highlights areas of the image and creating new layers with them.

The new layers are set to the Overlay blending mode with the ‘fix highlights’ layer rendered in black and the ‘fix shadows’ layers rendered in white. The image above shows what the two layers look like if set to the normal blending mode. If you remember the earlier description of the Overlay mode, this means the ‘fix highlight’ layer darkens the highlights and the ‘fix shadow layer’ lightens the shadows. How much of an effect they have can be adjusted by changing the opacity of the layers and it is simply their initial opacity which is affected by the plugin settings.

For this image I chose to switch off the ‘fix shadow’ layer (click on the eye icon in the layers list), because the problem wasn’t with the shadows. The ‘fix highlights’ layer was kept on full opacity to bring back as much detail as possible from the light areas.

Trying to Recover Detail in Clipped Highlights

The clipped highlights are always the trickiest part to handle, because there is no amount of mathematics that can be applied to it to get back what was lost. Baring painting in all the missing details manually, there really is no way to recreate the missing detail, like in that one blown out branch in our overexposed image. That doesn’t mean the loss can’t be minimised, however, so I experimented with making the best of what was available. This entire section is entirely optional and may or may not even work for many images.

Since detail had gone missing, I thought I’d try to add in some random noise at least, to not have that part of the image be the only blank colour. I created a new layer filled with a middle grey, and then applied the RGB noise filter accessed from the menu Filters > Noise > RGB Noise.

The noise needed to only be applied to that one clipped highlight, so I right-clicked on the noise layer and created a layer mask using the Add Layer Mask option, setting it to white when asked. A layer mask decides which parts of a layer are opaque and transparent, without losing any actual image data. White makes the entire layer visible. The ‘fix highlights’ layer already had a selective representation of the highlights, so selecting that layer, it was copied (Edit > Copy), and then selecting the layer mask of the noise layer, the copied image was pasted (Edit > Paste). With the new floating layer anchored into the layer mask by right clicking on it and selecting Anchor. Now all the highlights were black on a white background in the layer mask, but since that would make the highlight areas of the noise layer disappear, the layer mask was inverted by selecting Colors > Invert from the menu.

All the highlight areas of the image now had the RGB noise appearing in them. Since I wanted them only for the branch in the top left corner, I selected the layer mask and right clicked on it to make it visible using the Show Layer Mask option. Then used the Magic Wand tool in the toolbox (with a threshold setting of 20 in this particular case) to select that white shape of the branch. I then used the Selection > Grow menu to increase the selection by a few pixels in every direction to make sure the highlight shape was fully covered.

To make sure everything else on that layer was transparent, I inverted the selection on the Layer Mask and then used Selection > Clear to make everything except the branch black. Now the RGB noise layer would only affect the branch in the corner.

Now, since pure balck & white noise isn’t exactly a natural occurrence, it was time to bring some colour into it. Making sure the RGB noise layer was selected and not the layer mask (notice the white border around the grey noise in the Layers list, rather than around the mostly black layer mask to its right), the Colorize dialogue was brought up from the menu Colors > Colorize. The Hue and Saturation slider were adjusted to create a leaf green. Here the saturation slider has been set to 100 to heighten the effect, but that should be lower to fit in with the natural colours in the image.

Perfectly sharp noise is also unnatural so the noise layer was then blurred using the Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur dialogue set to 10 pixels to create a more muted noise effect. To complete this attempt to add detail to the clipped highlight, the noise layer was set to the Dissolve mode which creates a mosaic-like noise effect on the image below, and layer was also duplicated with the top copy set to the Burn mode to darken the highlight area using the noise as a template, with a lowered opacity to make it blend in.

The dual noise layers did a decent job of adding some detail to the highlight and even helped recover some of the edge details of the branch. I wouldn’t say the dissolve and burn layer modes are the definitive method to achieve this effect. In fact, the dissolve mode can be quite distracting in most images, but I hope this gives you an idea as to the sort of thinking that can help you experiment with the various modes to achieve the effect you need.

The final layer-adjusted image above is quite strong and would be enough of an improvement in most cases, but I thought the image could still be pushed a little more for that extra dramatic flair.

Monochrome Layers For Dramatic Images

No matter what political and social arguments can be put forward about the dangers of the supposedly new issue of manipulated images, there is no such thing as a real photograph. Every photo is a representation, either a limited one, or a heightened one, based on what the equipment is able to record. So there is no less validity in processing an image to create the desired effect as there is in trying to make it “real”.

Since this little experiment started with the need to create a dramatic image, I thought I’d try bringing in the power of B&W into the mix. While a conversion of a colour image into monochrome isn’t always desirable, black & white images do have a sense of drama and a graphic starkness to them that few will deny. So even if you don’t want to lose colour information, a monochrome layer can often help you push an image into pleasingly dramatic territory. I flattened all the layers that I’d created thus far and made a new image file to work on from this step forward. Such consolidation is often necessary when working on large images, for both your sanity and that of your computer hardware.

I duplicated the image layer to create a B&W version to play with. The simplest way to do the conversion is through the Colors > Desaturate menu, which will convert the current layer to monochrome using the setting provided. For many images, it can do a decent job of it, but there are other methods too.

The B&W conversion method that can provide the most dramatic flair, I find, is a GEGL operation in GIMP simply called c2g (colour to greyscale). It can be accessed in the menu under Tools > GEGL Operation, and then selecting c2g from the drop-down list.

This c2g operation can be very slow and processor intensive, so use it and make settings changes with care, especially if the live preview is enabled. It allows for 3 settings. Radius is a pixel size that is considered to create the range of greys. Setting it to around the width of your image will give you good results. Samples should be used with care because a higher number makes for a smoother image, but anything more than an increase of a few points can bring older computers to their knees. Increasing Iterations is also meant to improve quality, but the effect isn’t clear enough to bother with in most cases. Using mostly modest settings, I created a c2g version of the image on a new layer.

Considering the very high contrast look of the images produced by the c2g method, I set the layer opacity to 50% to temper the effect on the colour image, and blended the layer using the Darken only mode. This way the white areas of the c2g image wouldn’t effect the colours while the dark areas would deepen the shadows and provide more visual depth.

A final touch was to add a darkened vignette effect to the edges of the image. This was achieved by creating a new layer filled with a plain black. I then created a layer mask for it to control how much of it shows through. To create the vignette itself, the layer mask was filled with a radial black-to-white gradient with the whites towards the edges, so that the black fill of the layer would show through. The Colors > Brightness/Contrast adjustments were used to tweak the gradient as needed, and the vignette layer was then set to the Soft light blending mode to allow it to darken the edges without completely drowning them in black.

I am generally happy with the final result, because it corrects the problems with the image and also manages to achieve the drama that was missing. Having said that, it’s not perfect and I’m sure more tinkering would yield better results at various steps in the process described. Also, there are always options such as cropping to solve some of the issues, which were not considered for this particular walk though. The noisy highlight at the top left is an improvement, but the image would be a lot better if that top horizontal band of the photograph were removed completely to create a more wide-screen format image, for example.

These and many other improvements are possible and entirely different ones will be possible with the particular image you try these methods on. The purpose of this exercise has been less to tutor you in exact techniques and more to expose you to the thought process of trying to correct images. Once you understand more of that you will be better equipped to adapt your techniques to the need of the individual images and your intended effects for them.

Most of all, experiment, and learn your way around the software and the way layered editing works. Your photographs will be better for it.

Samir

I don’t take many pictures in Dubai. The more I’ve travelled to India over the years, the more I have realised that my enthusiasm and success with taking good photographs in Dubai is a mere shadow of its potential self. When I returned from my last trip to the visual assault that is Mumbai, I knew I needed to change something around so that I could be inspired to continue taking pictures in the city I spend most of my time in. So, flipping through the options in my Canon G9 camera, I settled on the Widescreen image format setting and decided to play.

Camera aspect ratio is a fairly obscure issue. It is rarely talked about, because people are usually more concerned about capturing the moment, and then there is much that can be done later. Cropping images down to more pleasing compositions is an old practice, which often modifies the inherent proportions of the image as it came out of the camera. But, that’s not to say the available shape of the image frame in the camera doesn’t influence your photographic choices. Most digital cameras use the 4:3 ratio inherited from computer screens of old, with digital SLRs using the 3:2 ration of 35mm film. With the increasing importance of high-definition video and wide-screen TVs, however, the widescreen 16:9 ratio is also becoming a common camera option.

My G9 uses a simple letter-boxing method of turning out widescreen images, so the width of the image remains at it’s maximum 4000 pixel resolution, but the height of the photograph is reduced down to the new proportion. Since it is a post-process step of sorts, this also means that the camera can only save in JPEG while shooting in the widescreen format; The RAW file needs to contain the entire 4:3 pixel data dump from the sensor.

As I’ve been taking widescreen format photographs in Dubai, I’ve realised that the greatest effect of this is in getting rid of a lot of the blank sky and ground from my compositions. In Dubai this can be a very good thing. For you see, while Dubai is meant to be this modern shiny metropolis, there is very little in the form of visual detail beyond that thin skin of human development that clings to the horizon. Through most of the year, the weather here is very hot and the skies are a neutral dusty colour with not a cloud in sight. Only during the few months of winter are we graced by a blue sky and some cloud cover to add interest to the top half of our photographs of the place. While photographers are always supposed to look for the compositions within the composition, this cropping of the top and bottom of the visual frame has helped me see strength in scenes that previously would have gotten lost in a sea of drab sky and featureless ground.

Composition really is the most important aspect of photography, which is why it constitutes more than a few of the points I make in my tips for taking professional pictures. The most important compositional elements are the boundaries of the image itself. The shape that contains the image determines a lot of the image’s character. Starting to look at the world through a widescreen perspective, whether through a mind’s eye approximation in the Canon G9‘s optical viewfinder, or through the letterboxed image on its gorgeous LCD screen, has made me see different things than I normally would, and it has made me consider new subjects to be valid which I might have over looked before. It has resulted in tighter, more efficient compositions.

Changing the way you look at things is a core aspect of taking photography seriously and moving beyond the simple need to record events and places for memory. I’ve been quite happy to note that some of that initial excitement of visual discovery can be added back into the process by this straight-forward step of changing the shape of your image. By forcing a point of view different from what you’re accustomed to, widescreen photography lets you see better, see anew, and capture some extremely cinematic images of places and scenes you had long thought to be routine. Widescreen is not a universal solution to all photographic problems. It is more the change of format than the format itself that makes you see with a fresh photographer’s eye. But being a fan of cinema, I can’t think of many better investment-free tricks in experimenting with photography further and taking better pictures.

Samir

It was time to expand the experiment. I contacted a few people I knew on Twitter who took very nice pictures and whose camera quality was sufficiently suspect, and that’s how this wonderful showcase of Women With Bad Cameras came to be.

Alexa Brown

Alexa is an actress and a model, living in London and travelling to the far flung corners of the British Isles and beyond, as she battles rodents, spiders and runaway cars for her craft. She is also a freelance writer.

She received her first camera as a free gift with her bank account, and has since used a Polaroid camera, a series of unglamorous phone cams, and some disposables. The pictures here were taken with A Sony Ericsson K800i, an iPhone 3G and a 3GS.

Alexa Brown can be found at her website and @alexabrown on Twitter. She assures me she will be the official announcer of Government safety warnings at the Apocalypse, so I feel it prudent to follow her daily musings.

Andrea McLeod

Andrea is from Brisbane, but now lives, breathes and practices her Hindi skills on the unsuspecting passengers of Mumbai’s local trains. She loves travelling, cameras, good books, good food, and bad movies, which she used to write reviews for at some point. In her day job, she works for Help A Child, an NGO that funds the higher education of deserving students from the villages of India.

When she was 12, Andrea was gifted her first film camera, and she’s been clicking away ever since. She was a reluctant convert to digital photography and has stuck to phone cams and cheap point-and-shoot compacts. Most of her images below were taken with a Blackberry 8520 phone and a Kodak C613 compact.

Andrea McLeod can be found at her hibernating blog (which she should be goaded into restarting) and @andreaclear on Twitter. I follow her for her uncanny skill of staring blankly at computer screens while wondering what she wanted to do.

Leena

Leena practices immigration law in Oakland, CA. She also dabbles in writing, music, acting, and radio presentation on the side, and would be very happy to add Resourceful Slacker to her list of credentials. Who am I to refuse a worthy request?

She is the officially designated paparazzi among friends and has owned a series of cheap Sony and Canon compacts since she was in college. This selection of her photographs was taken with an iPhone 3GS and a hot pink Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS. Yes, of course, the hot pink is important photographic information; Have I taught you people nothing?

Leena can be found at her blog and @leenark on Twitter. Her short updates on her road trips are interesting to me because I like road trips and she has a lot more road to play with than I do.

Neelima

Neelima, by her own admission, lives in a galaxy far far away. Needless to say she loves movies, and writing about them, and ranting about them, like all wonderful people from far-off galaxies. This, her travels, and theatre she likes to blog about. She is also rumoured to be the first wave of an alien invasion force trying to brainwash unsuspecting humans with propaganda from the alien plant people, but you didn’t hear it from me.

Since the days of film, Neelima has always liked carrying a camera with her on her travels. She used a Canon PowerShot SD790 IS to take the images below, which she graduated to after she smashed the LCD screen of her older Canon IXY with a laptop. How medieval!

Neelima can be found at her blog and @gobbledyspook on Twitter. We may or may not have been separated during childhood at the fair grounds, Bollywood style. I’m waiting for tell-tale signs that she’s the evil sibling in this story.

Vivia

Vivia lives on a very picturesque village lane somewhere in Suffolk. So it’s a good thing she likes the countryside. She also enjoys gardening, swimming, cycling, maps, drawing, and clouds, many of which show up in her pictures. On a more sombre note, this brave woman battles with a life-long and debilitating allergy to ironing.

She comes from a family of social photographers, her Grandfather even developed his own pictures. At 10 she was handed her first Kodak Instamatic film camera and cameras have been constant companions ever since. She loves the idea of capturing and sharing snapshots of what she sees, and depends on very traditional wisdom for her pictures, such as going in closer and always saving one picture in the can (Wow! I haven’t heard that gem in way too long). All the images below were taken with her trusty iPhone.

Vivia can be found on her blog and @Farctum on Twitter. Her #floweroftheday posts are the perfect thing to brighten up your day, if, like me, you enjoy plants and flowers. But I’m really just after her mopping secrets.

An ode to bad cameras and the women who use them

This post started as a simple exercise in showcasing the good work of people who might not consider themselves serious photographers, and were producing great results with technically limited cameras. It just so happened that those I knew who fit the profile happened to be women, and it made for a really cool title.

The ladies included in this little gallery were extremely gracious to let me tinker with their photographs, and in some cases even gave me access to their large personal collection of images so that I might have more to choose from. I can’t thank them enough.

If there’s one pattern that emerges from the profiles above it is that all of them have a variety of interests, and are not satisfied with resting on their laurels. I think that need to do more and better shows through in the beautiful photography shown here. That attitude allows them to do wonders, regardless of any limitations of the equipment they use.

Putting this together was a lot of work, but more importantly, a lot of fun. I got to better appreciate some very talented people, and play with a lot of photographs and push them to their potential. I should do things like this more often. More Women With Bad Cameras perhaps, or Some More Persons of Un-specified Gender With Lousy Photographic Equipment. The possibilities are endless!

Until then, thank you for browsing, and if you have your own bad-camera stories, questions and ideas for me, or for the five real stars of this show, you should leave a comment below.

Samir

Great Pictures! Which Camera did you use?

On your less understanding days, there can’t be a more irritating thing to be asked, because the person asking usually assumes your good pictures are the result of the secret magic camera you use that automatically produces remarkable images.

If you are a photography enthusiast who’s been around the block, you know that is simply not true. But if you’re a regular sort of person who is just getting used to the idea of using a camera and having one around with you, you still think this way. This is my attempt to convince you otherwise. Why? Because if you ever want to take professional pictures and go beyond using your camera as a recording device, you need to understand that good pictures don’t come from your camera. They come from you.

The Experiment

Being a very scientific sort of chap *cough*, I figured the best way to show you that good pictures had nothing to do with great cameras, was to prove it with examples. From this came my idea for an experiment. I would take both good and bad pictures with the best and the worst camera in my possession.

Having used and abused over half-a-dozen cameras since I was a child, I thought deciding on the best and the worst might be a challenge. But I very quickly settled on my current regular camera, the Canon G9, as the best one, and my currently active and ageing phone, the Sony Ericsson K500i, as the worst one. The G9 was bought about 2 years ago and is a semi-professional beast of a compact, which can take 12 megapixel (4000×3000 pixel) digital images in RAW format (the best option for the maximum quality), and the K500i, while being a good phone, is a really bad first-generation phone-camera from 5 years ago. It produces mostly crappy VGA (640×480 pixel) JPEG images.

I did look at my older cameras. I gathered up the film cameras I could find (pictured here) to consider them. There are a few more that are packed up somewhere, but these should suffice as representation. The Samsung Zoom camera(top) from over 15 years ago, was a brilliant thing, with a body by Porsche design, no less. The Praktika MTL5(left) was my first try at SLRs. It’s a completely manual old-school piece of German engineering with a Russian Zenit lens. I still love the sound of that shutter. The Ricoh compact was bought for a photography art class in university and produced some beautiful black-and-white shots for me at the time. While none of these can compare to all the technological wizardry of the G9, they are also nowhere close to being as bad as my phone camera. So, these old beauties were left out of this test.

My plan was to take two pictures of the same subject with each camera, one bad picture and one good picture. While I wasn’t about to ruin images to prove my point, I did attempt to take pictures which were fairly typical of what normal people take when handed a camera. I wanted to cover a small variety of subjects, but also to concentrate on pictures of people, since it’s a popular subject. So, I’m afraid you’re going to have to suffer multiple self-portraits of me in this experiment. I just didn’t have the gorgeous models who I would have liked to photograph instead lying around my living room. Also, I work for cheap.

The Bad Camera – Sony Ericsson K500i phone

Let’s start with the bad picture using a bad camera. Obviously, that’s easy to do. The phone camera has horrible image quality, and this completely uninspiring shot of a building that seems to be showing nothing in particular is the perfect example of the average snapshot. Dull and boring all around.

The second image was taken a few seconds after the first, using the same phone, standing in the same spot, and of the same building. And yet, this one isn’t all that bad. As pictures go it’s dramatic and pleasing on the eye. This one was more thought out, this one has a focus, and no, I didn’t use fancy settings or anything, because the phone doesn’t have any! It’s still a good shot.

Moving on to the human element, this shot of myself is fairly typical of the kind many take. Badly lit and no composition to speak of other than sticking a face in the middle of the frame. Bad.

This, on the other hand, is far from bad. Here the same phone camera captures some good detail, and all that was done was to change the angle of the shot, let the light from the window fall on my face, and put on one lamp in the background to form a strong silhouette. Considering this was taken in bad evening light with a very noisy camera, it’s a minor miracle. All good photographs are.

The Good Camera – Canon G9

Might as well stick to my mug for now, to provide a more direct comparison. This shot was taken in typical self portrait fashion, with the G9 held at arm’s length and with it set to full Auto mode. The results are typically bad. The flash has gone off, washing everything out, the wide-angle lens is distorting my face into a strange bulb, the composition is boring with random distractions on the bottom right, and worst of all, the camera has focussed on my shirt instead of my face, making it a bit fuzzy. In spite of vastly superior image quality of the G9 over the K500i, this is a pretty lousy self-portrait. Yes, you can laugh.

For the second shot I used the G9 at a slightly different angle. I’m still standing in the same spot, but the settings are changed for a close-up shot, the camera is taken off auto, the flash is disabled, and the composition is improved by putting that interesting twisted yellow curtain and the window frame in the background. That’s a pretty good shot for a scary-looking unshaven guy, don’t you think?

Now for a change of photographic subject. I tried taking a picture of some CD cases I had lying around, using the G9. As I’ve said, it’s a great camera, but set it on auto and take an unthinking snapshot like this one, and you will end up with a bad result even with the best camera. It’s boring, it’s bland, and I haven’t even bothered to make sure a bit of my foot doesn’t show up in the frame at the bottom right. Am I being unrealistic? No, this is how most people’s pictures look, and I’ve taken many like it myself in my time.

Photography is about a fresh way of looking at things. I switched the G9 to macro mode and took a shot of the same CD sleeves, but this time extremely close-up with a dramatic angle, and light from the window in the background. Notice that while back-lighting ruined the self-portraits, it makes this one more interesting; There are no strict rules. Does this even look like it’s in the same place or using the same camera as the previous one? It won’t to most people. That is the difference between good photography and bad. And that brings us to the end of my little experiment.

Good cameras help

One thing that does become clear from these images is that while a good camera can’t make you a good photographer, it can certainly help with its superior image quality. I am not contesting the fact that there are good and bad cameras. In fact, finding a good camera among the hordes of mediocre ones is always a challenge, and something I get asked about often. I do plan to tackle that large topic at some point on this blog.

In the meantime, you should get the best camera that you can afford and the best one that fits your need. Everyone doesn’t need a huge SLR to lug around, and everyone doesn’t need a cute slim fashion statement to slip into their pocket, but you should certainly get a good camera to get rid of some of the technical challenges for you.

Magic cameras don’t exist

Technical challenges, such as speed, image quality, and stabilisation, to name a few, are really the only things a good camera can bring to the table. While there are an increasing number of intelligent cameras that have face-detection and smile-detection and all sorts of tricks that pretty much take the photograph for you, you, the photographer, are still the only one who can actually take a good picture. If you think your professional photographer friends are holding out on you by not giving you the model number of that one magic camera that turns out brilliant images all by itself, you’re wrong.

Photography is a craft, like writing, or drawing. It is true that the technologies involved in photography are a more sophisticated, and the end results depend more on them, but cameras can’t make you a better photographer any more than a certain keyboard can make you a great writer, or a certain brand of pencil can make you a master artist. The skill and the thought must still come from you, because if there’s anything you can learn from my experiment above, it is that to take good pictures you need to think like a photographer.

Brain-On Photography

The real difference between the good and the bad images above are not in the camera used but in whether or not I thought about what I was trying to show, and what would be the best way to present it. It’s thinking about light, angles, composition, balance and several other things that all sound complicated, but which become second nature once you’ve experimented enough with your camera.

Good photographs come from having your brain switched on while you take them, and bad photographs come from having your brain switched off. The bad news, for all you aspiring photographic super-stars out there, is that there is no secret weapon camera which you can buy to make you a great photographer; It’s all in your thinking. The good news is that with a bit of practice, you can upgrade your thinking and train your brain to be the photographer’s secret weapon you always wanted. And that’s all there is to it.

Samir

Most of my time with the G9, while I’m in the UAE, is spent inside a car. Weekend drives are my photographic laboratories to capture as varied a series of subjects as this little country has to offer, without suffering the heat and sand that prevails outside through a large portion of the year.

Taking pictures from a car is far from the ideal set-up. It doesn’t let you get close to your subject, and you’re often trying to hit a very rapidly moving target as you zoom past, but like I’ve mentioned about street photography from a bus, it does have its advantages and unique perspectives.

On the road

The road itself can be a very attractive subject when you’re on the move, because the road is rarely a straight and boring strip of tar. More often it twists and turns, hugging the contours of the landscape and creating a mesmerising line that disappears into the distance in front of you.

The front wind screen also happens to be an attractive target for your camera when you’re in a car; It’s large and wide, giving you a wonderful viewing angle, and more than all the other windows it is designed to have the minimum of reflections, which can ruin a photograph.

Architecture

The buildings you come across on your travels are always interesting subjects for photographs. Taking pictures of architecture while moving can be tricky because angles and positions change so quickly. With my first digital camera, the Olympus C400Z, the limitation was most often its slow reaction time to shutter release. Anticipation and timing comes into play no matter how quick your equipment is, but the Canon G9 is certainly a big improvement in the timing department. It’s no SLR, but it performs admirably for what it is.

Industry

In a similar vein to architecture, industry has always fascinated me as a subject of images. It has all the magic of architecture, often with grander scales and even more detail to capture, in the form of conduits and mechanisms all laid bare to see.

One challenge with industrial subjects is that they are usually placed a good distance from the road. While some very dramatic shots can be achieved with a wide angle view of factories and landscapes, it is useful to be able to frame more details with a good telephoto setting. The bump up to a 5x zoom on the G9, from my old 3x zoom on the C400Z, is a welcome addition for subjects such as these. The extra focal length helps target more interesting compositions rather than resorting to wide shots for lack of choice.

Signs

Everywhere there are roads, there are signs. Signs on the road, and also next to it, can be interesting elements in photographs, but they are a challenge to capture when they are small.

Some signs you can freeze by panning the camera as you drive by, but most often you will get some blurs unless you are in bright sunlight. Thankfully, signs are plentiful at traffic lights and junctions where you get the chance to slow down or stop for a few minutes, and that provides the perfect opportunity to properly compose a sign into your shot.

The G9 has quicker focus responses, which is an immense plus in situations like this. The separation between road signs and the background is often dramatic and easy for the auto focus to get wrong. But by aiming at the sign, half-pressing the shutter release to focus and then recomposing the frame before taking the picture, you can achieve the sharp results you need.

Construction

Dubai is the construction capital of the world. There is almost no photography possible in the city without showing some bit of construction in the frame, so when you can’t avoid it, it makes sense to embrace it. Construction sites and machinery make for strong images, and the fact that they are often found very close to the road you’re driving on gives you a ring-side seat for the best shots.

An SLR would perform better under the circumstances, but the G9 does a fairly good job of focussing within the narrow time frame when you’re in just the right position to take a shot of something next to the road, or even something hanging above it as you drive by.

Clouds

In photography, clouds are almost cheating. I say that because it is quite difficult to take a bad picture of clouds, but that’s not to say it can’t be done. Clouds do provide an almost infinite collection of good compositions, but capturing them well, and with a certain amount of your own style put in, is still as challenging as any other subject.

While taking shots of the sky from inside a car, reflection on the glass can be a big problem. Not only can they show up in the frame and ruin the shot, they can also confuse the auto focus and give you a fuzzy image. The G9′s manual focus setting is fairly easy to get into, and setting the focus to infinity takes a few quick rotations of the settings ring at the back. This can be quite convenient for taking those tricky sky shots through glass windows. The rest is up to finding the interesting composition and waiting for the right moment to click.

Vehicles

You generally ignore them, unless you’re trying to avoid barrelling into one, but the other vehicles on and around the road can also make good photo subjects. You can have them zooming past as a blur, or frozen with a quick shutter and some smart panning.

Either way, with the right light, even the most boring car or van can be a striking visual element. Strange or unusual vehicles help add that little extra, of course, but even your bog-standard white van in the right context can look great.

Landscapes

A classic subject for all forms of art, landscapes seem like an easy subject, but they are almost always a tricky one to make interesting. There is the traditional idea of what we consider a landscape, wide angle images showing plenty of land and sky, but there are many variations you can make to that rule.

One interesting alternative is to try out landscapes shot in portrait orientation. It might sound counter-intuitive, but it’s often the best way to capture some subjects. The Canon G9′s zoom helps greatly in narrowing down the field of view to interesting features some distance from the road, while still keeping the image in landscape territory. Since these scenes are often rushing by, the G9′s built-in optical stabilisation is a boon, getting rid of all the minor vibrations and hand movements to provide crisp shots of even the most complex natural scenes.

Man on the street

We gravitate towards images of people, but sitting in a car in Dubai, people are a bit hard to come by. Not being the most pedestrian-friendly place in the world, people at close quarters are a rare sight unless you enter crowded market areas, not quite the usual destination on weekend drives. But go to the right out-lying areas or near public places and you can get some good shots from a distance.

One opportunity for photographing people at close quarters on the roads in and around Dubai are the many construction and road workers constantly toiling on the ever present construction sites. On one hand you get to see them busy in a variety of positions and activities, but on the other hand what you end up with is images of hard hats and uniforms, anonymous and iconic.

Most people shots, while out on a drive, invariably involving panning the camera very rapidly to keep them in frame. The stabilisation feature mentioned before is very helpful in this (the Canon G9 even has a special panning stabilisation feature that only works in landscape orientation, which I rarely use), but the surprise feature of the camera that helps is its relatively heavy metal body. The weight helps steady the hand and avoid mistiming while making smooth panning movements.

On foot

Even while on a drive, sometimes you need to stretch your legs. And when you get away from the concrete jungle that is Dubai, you take what little natural solitude you can get and you like to savour it outside the confines of your car. The desert is ever present in this region, and while its lands are fast being taken over by human development, vast tracts of virgin sands still remain in places. These areas are great for some close up photography.

My Olympus C4000Z was a difficult act to beat when it comes to macro shots. Its lens went up to an astonishing aperture of F1.8, a brilliant thing for those dramatic macro images. Thankfully though, the Canon G9 is no slacker in that department either. Its aperture is not as wide as the Olympus, but it makes up for it in weight and balance, and with a brilliant LCD screen, which makes taking properly framed macro shots even in bright sunlight pleasant.

Those are some of my observations about using my Canon G9 camera on the road. I loved my Olympus, but the G9′s improved performance means that I now take many more usable pictures on the move than I ever did before. Then there is the fact that the G9 saves in RAW, which I have been using for a while, and the benefits of which I have not even begun to scratch the surface of.

Samir

Taking photos from a bus is a great way to get images of street life in a city. It has it’s advantages, you can concentrate on the photos rather than the traffic, and you’re bound to travel through many parts of town you might not usually visit. But, photography from a bus has many challenges too, not the least of which is the near-constant motion.

What follows is a collection of photos I took on the streets in and around Mumbai city, while riding every conceivable kind of bus available. Looking back at so many pictures taken from a bus over a fairly short stretch of time (6 days), I realised that there are tricks I’ve picked up along the way that allow me to take some decent shots from the runaway chariot that public road transport often is. Here are some of those tricks.

1. When the going gets slow, the photographer gets clicking

The bad news is, buses move a lot. They throw you from side to side, they bump around all over the place, you wonder how anyone could stay in their seat on some routes, let alone take clear pictures. The good news is, buses also slow down and stop a lot, at bus-stops, at traffic lights, at busy intersections, all places with plenty going on for you to photograph. A picture like the one above, of the man running across the road at an intersection would be impossible to get when the bus is barrelling down a road at full clip. But, wait, watch, click, and much is possible.

The starting and stopping of a bus has its own rhythm, and if you’re really interested in getting some good shots from a bus, you’ll learn to read that rhythm and be prepared for the next convenient stop. That anticipation is essential if you want to take any properly framed shots. I had a pretty good idea the bus would slow down somewhere near this woman selling tomatoes on the street, which is why I was able to get this zoomed in shot without much blurring.

The other trick to anticipating slow downs is to look ahead. How much you can see is limited, obviously, there are things blocking your view down the road, but sometimes you can spot an interesting subject a few seconds before you’re next to it and that can be enough to get the picture you want.

2. Look up in the sky!

Street photography wouldn’t work without streets, and streets wouldn’t work without the buildings that surround and create them. Architecture is a very rich subject for photographs, and street-level architecture can have a dynamism of its own. As with all architectural photography, it pays to look up, but the bus-eye view of things provides some extra benefits.

The problem with taking photographs of the top of structures while standing on the street is one of angles. Stand next to a building and you’re staring up the nostrils of a giant, all you can see are air conditioners and pipes. Stand across the street, and you often get a boring distant angle, or an interesting angle constantly marred by passing traffic. Ideally, you’d love to stand in the middle of the road and take your precious picture from the perfect dramatic angle, but taking photographs while standing in oncoming traffic is not something I recommend, for health reasons. The above photo of the municipal headquarters in Mumbai was taken from one of the busiest intersections in the city. Thankfully, a bus can stand in the way of traffic all it wants without any chances of you being run over.

While snapping pictures from a bus, it’s tempting to concentrate on all the action on the street, the people, the signs, life, but on occasion, I suggest you pay attention to the world above. The road can offer some startling views of a building, and the bus is high enough to give you a clear shot above the other swarming traffic. Use it.

3. ‘On the road’ is not just a state of mind

Another obvious subject often missed by street photographers is the traffic on the street itself. Being in that traffic in a bus, can offer you some very interesting views. We like to think of the commute as down time, when people switch off as they travel from A to B, but people do a lot on the road, and the road has much to offer the adventurous photographer riding a bus.

One positive of taking pictures of other vehicles on the road is that you can often manage to do it even while in motion. Since you are both moving, usually at similar speeds, the dangers of blurring are fewer. Add to that the possibility of wonderful motion-blurred backgrounds, and you have the makings of some very striking images.

If you’re taking photographs from a bus, a traffic jam is your friend. Sure, jams can be boring and frustrating and uncomfortable, but all those people not going anywhere in a hurry can provide good fodder for photos. For one, they’re standing still for you, and more importantly they’re likely taking a moment to relax while they don’t have to worry about the traffic and a moving vehicle. An ideal combination.

4. The dazzle is in the detail

The term street photography brings to mind sweeping images of crowds on streets and cars on streets and all sorts of activity on streets, but there is more to it than that. That more can often be seen by showing less. A street photograph, doesn’t have to show the whole street, and sometimes the best discoveries can be made by concentrating on small details.

Streets are the arteries of any busy city. Thousands, tens of thousands, maybe millions of people pass through these streets everyday. This fact isn’t lost on the people trying to sell things, and you will find a cacophony of signs, billboards and posters screaming for the attention of the passer-by, luring them to partake in whatever product or service is on offer. Sometimes these can be profound, sometimes they can be funny, and sometimes the can be the centre piece of a beautiful scene. Whatever they are, watch out for them, because signs are as much a part of streets as any thing else, and your seat on a bus gives you a front and centre view.

Other things aren’t announced or advertised, but they live on the street. Tiny details that would go unnoticed unless you were looking for them. A key maker with his collection of blanks, found on many street corners in Bombay, but you probably don’t notice unless you locked yourself out of your home and need his services. From a bus you can notice, just as long as you’re paying attention.

5. As far as the eye can see

I’ve already mentioned how the bus gives you a vantage point for many unique shots, but there are ways it does this beyond just its height. We’ve seen how being on the road can give you a great view above, but being on the road can also give you some great views below.

Fly-overs, bridges, and raised highways are a part of most cities, a natural extension of the growing traffic and the large commuting population. They ease the congestion of those great rivers of automobiles surging through the streets, and if you happen to be in a bus going over one of these, they also provide you some spectacular views forbidden to pedestrian eyes. The eye-level photo above, of the top of a small temple in the Mumbai suburbs would not be possible without it.

Bridges are a classic. There’s a reason they have been the subject of so much art even before photography. For one, they are a romantic structure, not built by humans to live in, or for protection, or for worship, but simply to travel, to join. Bridges take us where no one could have gone before, and likewise they gift us visions no one could have seen before. If you’re on a bus and lucky enough to be driving down a bridge, don’t waste the opportunity to capture the horizon.

6. All the street is a stage

The streets are always flowing, with people, with traffic, with activity. But, the most interesting scenes often occur on the sidelines, away from the flow, just at the edge of the current where the eddies lap lazily at the bank and travellers rest for a moment to watch the world go by. You can’t spot these scenes from the pavement, because you are too close and you lack perspective, but from a bus they come alive as the players take their positions.

People are the evergreen subject of street photography, for how long could you go only taking snapshots of deserted streets? People let their guards down as they stand, walk or converse with friends, acquaintances or complete strangers on a street. Watch out for these opportunities and scenes from your vantage point on the bus, and use them well.

Beyond the obvious pictures of an interesting pair of people or some human story unfolding on the side of the street, don’t ignore the chaos. The bus affords you a view of various layers of people walking, standing or going about their business, and sometimes a random snapshot of these whirlpools of activity can produce exquisite results. There is nothing like a shot of people connecting on the street, but there is even less that provides the visceral human visuals of complete strangers passing each other on a road. It highlights how similar we are, and how different, and it makes for great photographs.

A bus is a very useful thing. I’ve always preferred them over trains, because trains are purely A-to-B. Buses on the other hand, take you on adventures through strange streets, unknown localities, and many lives. There’s no better way to really get to know a city than on foot, but buses come a very close second, and they take you places you would not have thought to go. Street photography is a challenging art, but try taking some street photos while in the flow of traffic on a bus and you will come up with some gems that would have been impossible to get without the journeying.

Bon voyage,

Samir

Needless to say, such high expectations are often disappointed. You can have the best camera in the world and read all the professional photography tips you want, but it all comes down to whether or not you feel like taking photographs. Without inspiration to make them special, your pictures will be cold and mechanical, not for lack of technique but because you just weren’t looking right. And believe me, stellar photos of tired-looking cousins require more right looking than you think.

The solution is to always keep your photographer’s eye active and inspired to meet the challenge. If you find yourself uninterested, uninspired, and unmotivated to take the great pictures you would like to be taking, try these simple techniques to find your photographic inspiration.

1] Devour interesting photography

There is nothing as encouraging as seeing the remarkable work of others. The internet has become a haven for the photographic image and we all know of the ubiquitous Flickr. But if you want to browse through a large variety of photographic images, hand picked by fans, I would highly recommend We heart it (as long as you don’t mind the occasional bout of nudity). It’s a wonderful social site where people tag and vote for outstanding images; A great way to see the pick of what is out there on the web.

Having mentioned the remarkable, I can’t ignore how inspiring the seemingly mundane can be. I recently stumbled across Facehunter, blog of street pictures of people who the photographer considered stylish or noteworthy. It makes for a strange collection of ordinary images of sometimes extraordinary people. The subjects are varied and the settings are eclectic, a heady combination.

When it comes to studying images in detail, nothing can replace the visceral nature of seeing them in print. A good book of photographs can serve forever to pick you out of your less creative phases. It can provide many enjoyable hours of flipping through it at leisure. The kind of photography books you like is very much a personal choice. There are hundreds of good ones out there so take your pick.

There are some classics amongst these books of photographs, and one such is The Decisive Moment, a large and handsome manuscript of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s stunning images. Copies of this out-of-print masterpiece are much sought after by collectors, so unless you are in the mood to spend a small fortune on getting the real thing you’re out of luck. Thankfully in emergencies such as this digital technology sometimes comes to the rescue. A kind soul has helpfully photographed the manuscript and made it browsable online. Take your time and savour the images.

2] Study the arts

The early photographers very often painters experimenting with a new medium, so they brought into it many painterly sensibilities. Painting has the longest history of all the visual arts, and in it can be found all the visual techniques and lessons any image maker might care to learn. So, like painters throughout history, the interested photographer would do well to study the masters and imbibe some of their visual inventiveness and wisdom.

Modern graphic design and visual arts might never be regarded with the same reverence as the painters of yore, mainly due to the fleeting nature of the medium, but that is not to say they are any less deserving of your attention. Every designer worth his graphics tablet has a portfolio of work online which you could track down, but like photographs it is so much better to have a single source selected by other fans of the medium. Ffffound is just such a source. It is similar to We heart it, but while you will find some photography, its outstanding examples of the other graphic arts is much richer and more vibrant. For a more magazine-like exploration of artists and projects in a variety of creative fields (with a heavy bias towards the visual), don’t forget to drop by Computerlove, a worthy pit stop on your path to visual inspiration.

While the visual arts are a natural choice for photographers to gravitate to in their quest for visual stimulation, it would be unwise to ignore the myriad of other art forms that exist. In the material arts, architecture can not only be a great stimulator of the photographic eye, but also one of its most rewarding subjects. Become familiar with the great architecture of the world and you never know what tangents of photographic invention it sends you off on.

3] Learn something new

Knowledge can be a great inspiring force. When in a rut, pick up your camera manual and start reading. Unless you are an old school purist with a completely manual film camera, it is safe to assume that your photographic tool is a very complicated thing with many hidden complexities. Most of us never scratch the surface of what our cameras are capable of, settling into a comfortable ignorance of all those features we don’t regularly use. It is a good idea to remind yourself of what you have forgotten or conveniently ignored, because new techniques can open new trains of thought, which can lead to previously unexplored areas of photography.

If you cant find the manual to your digital camera, try to track it down. And if you rely on some classic piece of equipment there is even more searching to be done. In fact, even if you don’t own a classic old camera, I suggest you visit that last link and browse through some of the old manuals. Not only are some of them great visual material, but they will make you realise how little technology is actually required to take good pictures. I found the manual to a Praktika MTL5 SLR, an old heavy workhorse of a camera that could take exquisite photographs and also be used as a blunt weapon when required. I still have one of these and even I was reintroduced to some nuances I had forgotten.

Beyond the technicalities and the machinery, what you must learn is how to think like a photographer, and when it comes to quick photographic thinking, there is little that can compete with documentary photography for a challenge. There are many books by many photographers on the subject of photography but few include the thoughts of 61 photographers on how they think and how they thought when capturing some of their images. Magnum Stories is a valuable addition to any photographer’s bookshelf.

4] Scrutinize your world

Photography, like drawing, is ultimately about looking and seeing things in a certain way; The photograph itself is simply a record of that seeing. This is why the ultimate source of stimulation and inspiration for any photographer is life itself, and the world around you. The world sits there unchanging but it is up to us to challenge it and push our perceptions to the edge.

Really look, study and observe things. Learn to analyse as well as enjoy the scenes you witness. Soon you will learn to see things you never saw before and make visual connections that were not apparent. That is your actual talent as a photographer and it is once you gain this insight that the most mundane of worldly scenes and objects will take on a whole new fascination for you.

Look up at ceilings, look down at floors, be curious about how things look when seen from angles and points of view removed from your daily experience. This curiosity will result in many visual discoveries about the world, some startling and some amusing, and you will be able to share these treasures with the rest of the human race through your photography. The first time you hear someone who has just seen your photographs say that they never knew something looked like that, you know you’re on the right path.

I have always absorbed my inspiration for photography from these four eternal sources, and I hope you will benefit from them too. Whether you choose to get your photo inspiration from the world of inspirational photography or from other visual arts, from new techniques or from new ways of looking at your world, the photographer’s life is not a simple one. Along the way you will need to stare at people, have an unhealthy obsession with your camera, and be forever on the lookout for the perfect composition. You will find yourself hugging columns to study vaulted ceilings, getting your nose to the ground for a worm’s eye view of fascinating mushrooms, and generally being an embarrassment to your friends, family, and anyone who happens to be with you at the time. Enjoy it; You are now a photographer. That awkward kid in the living room has grown up, and chihuahua cousins from out of town don’t scare you any more.

Samir

• Bert Stern recreates Marilyn Monroe’s last photo shoot [CONTAINS NUDITY - If you are alergic, you have been warned]
  If you’ve been anywhere online that’s pop culture or entertainment-centric in the past week or so, you’ve probably come across the fact that Lindsay Lohan has posed for some Monroe-a-like nude photographs. Going beyond the tabloid facts, this is actually a great study for the challenge of recreating old photos, because in this case you have a photographer trying to recreate his own work from 46 years ago, for New York magazine. That has to be a unique situation, the results of which are worth a look.

  While Lohan is no Monroe, the photos themselves are interesting, though I get the feeling the shot selection to decide what goes into the magazine might have been a bit rushed. The set includes some beautiful shots and some mediocre ones, where it seems to be a split-second before or a split-second after what would have been a better composition. Also of interest to photography buffs will be the unfortunately sparse collage of shots behind the scenes of the shoot. Really nice dramatic stuff, on par, if not better than, the final presented pictures.

• Kate Boswort does Vogue retro shoot
  It would seem Kate Bosworth has also been upto retro photo shenanigans for the US edition of Vogue. Only in this case the inspiration is more indirect and what they came up with is more regular fashion photography with a retro twist. Some interesting images, with a bit of behind the scenes stuff to also keep you busy.
• Achieving the vintage look
  If you’re interested in the mechanics and technicalities of producing images with that old-world flair using in-camera and studio techniques, this discussion should be of interest. While there is no step-by-step instruction for anything, there are many valuable tricks you can pick up along the way — everything from setting the right depth-of-field, to choosing the right lens.
• Bokeh
  Bokeh is as much a specific phenomena as it is the lack of something, and that thing is sharpness. Bokeh is that particular smooth fuzzy look you only get when a camera lens is pointed at something that is out of focus. Ken Rockwell explains how this effect is formed and how it is actually being made difficult to achive due to the increasing quality of camera lenses. Sometimes progress comes at a price. If you want to achive those soft portrait photographs of old, you must understand bokeh.
• Coco Chanel in action
  If you want to recreate old photographs you muct study plenty of good examples. A wide variety of ‘study material’ is best. Take these crisp shots of Coco Chanel in her element, for example. They’re excellent examples of the photographic conventions of an era, but they are also simply great photos that any photographer can learn from. As the lady said, “Fashion fades, only style remains the same.”
• Vintage Valentines Day Photos
  Vintage Japanese Photos
  For more inspiration, look no further than this embarrasingly large collection of old Valentines Day themed photographs, and this blog that is dedicated to posting old Japanese photos. Some of these images are not as staid and static as you might think. A lot of the composition and framing is as dramatic and challenging as any you would see today.
• Alexia Death’s LOMO and Vintage Effects for GIMP
  GIMP Old Photo Tutorial
  If you’re more of a digital photographer, or would just like to recreate the vintage look with some of your existing images, software comes to your rescue. Here are some interesting automated scripts you can apply in the GIMP. For the more hands-on amongst you, there is also a detailed tutorial on how to create the typical sepia faded vintage look. There is plenty of room for your own personal adjustments in the described techniques.

And that brings us to the end of another round of Fresh Finds. Hope you enjoyed this little stroll down the photographic memory lane, and I hope you have got a few new ideas for recreating some old photo tricks. Enjoy.

Samir

One of the most common problems faced by photographers of all levels of expertise is shaky, blurry, fuzzy pictures caused by your hand shaking the camera at the wrong moment. This becomes worse when you’re taking photos in a dark setting and the camera needs to use a longer exposure. The longer the exposure, the more likely you are to have an unsteady hand. “Use a Tripod!”, is the easy answer, but what do you do when a tripod is not at hand or simply not an option? That’s where these tips come in.

The language associated with cameras is the language of guns: “shooting”, “reloading”, you get the picture. But if you really want to get the best out of your camera in a shaky situation you are going to have to learn to treat it right. In my book, photography is nothing as violent and barbaric as a hunt, it would be better served by the caring, sensual, and sometimes colourful language of love and romance. Keeping that in mind here are some tips you can use to take crisp and sharp photographs without a tripod:

If that has wet your appetite enough for some hot photography tips, let’s move on to the details …

1] A Firm Embrace

Did you ever read a romance yarn where anyone was tentative or delicate. No! Absolutely not! All those hot-blooded people gripped their lovers passionately and held them like there was no tomorrow. Your camera deserves the same treatment. A common problem with amateur photographers is that they hold the camera with their fingers. Fingers are excellent for delicate work and all the touchy-feely stuff, but they aren’t the steadiest things, no matter how hard you try.

Instead grasp the camera firmly, with the sides supported against the palms of your hands and your fingers encircling it. Another way is to hold the camera as described above on the right side (usually the side of the shutter release button) and to slightly change the position of the other hand so that your fingers support the camera from below. Depending on the shape and size of your camera, either of these grips, or a combination of the two will give you the most shake free results. It for this reason that the bulkier cameras can sometimes be better that the ultra-tiny ones. The bigger ones have more to hold on to. If you want to take a steady shot, lock your camera in a passionate hug.

2] The Stationary Position

For any activity there are some classic poses and positions, and photography is no different. When you’re on your feet and you want to take a steady picture with your camera, it is important to get into a steady posture before you take the shot. Once you have tried it out a few times you will realize that the best and most optimum position is to stand with your feet next to each other but wide apart.

You will find that you often take pictures without giving a thought to your body posture, and if you are doing it with your feet together or with your weight on only one foot, your body is not in its most balanced position. This imbalance is transfered to your camera and ultimately your photographs. So get into the right pose before you take that tricky shot. It’s best to stick to the tried and true classics.

3] Pushing the Right Buttons

I’m not trying to insult anyone’s intelligence here. I am sure all of you know which button to push to take a photo with your camera. But like in many other things, the trick is not in what you push, but how you push it. There are many out there who might actually have a good steady grip on the camera and a good balanced position, but they end up shaking the camera when they jab at the shutter release. Unfortunately, that is the exact moment the camera needs to be steady.

This “jabbing” that I describe is precisely the problem. Let’s go back to our romance novels for an important lesson. All those passionate people with their firm embraces and their fiery instincts are also usually very gentle when they need to be. Hey! I’m not saying it’s realistic, but I’m pretty sure you can pull off this complex Jekyll and Hyde behaviour with one puny camera. Don’t jab the shutter release, or push it, or click it with force, or bounce your finger off it as if it was too hot. Instead squeeze it gently and take your time with it. Think simmering passion rather than elephant in heat, and you will be fine.

4] A Shoulder to Lean On

So you don’t have a tripod to support your camera. If you are a risk taker, you might have tried placing your camera on other horizontal surfaces when taking your shot, table-tops, the top of walls and numerous other things can work. Sometimes though, you’re in the middle of nowhere and the highest flat surface is the ground, which is not the best vantage point. What do you do then?

This is one of times in photography when a partner can come in very handy. You will be surprised to know that a well placed shoulder can make an excellent tripod in some cases. Support your camera or the extended lens of the camera on your friend’s shoulder, and as long as both you and your partner-in-crime can stay still and avoid giggling like school girls for the duration of the shot, you just might get some nice crisp images. I have got some pretty good results with this technique, so even photographers can always use a strong shoulder to lean on.

5] A Little Action on the Side

Never discount the usefulness of unorthodox arrangements. If you have no platforms to keep your camera on and no friendly shoulders to burden, why not try leaning your hand or one side of your camera against some vertical object or surface to steady the shot. Sides of walls, lamp posts, trees, and fences all work well. Don’t worry about the camera being in a rock-solid and unmoving position. A little movement is fine as long as the extra support can help you keep the camera perfectly still for the second or so that you need to actually take the photo.

This is definitely not something I suggest in your human entanglements, but in photography at least we have a strange paradox: a little action on the side can actually help you go steady with your camera.

6] Cheek to Cheek

One boon of the new digital photography revolution has been the inclusion of an LCD screen on the back of cameras. One curse of the new digital photography revolution has been the inclusion of an LCD screen on the back of cameras. Why? Because while the LCD screen allows for flexibility when taking photographs, it also allows people to hold the camera at arm’s length as they click the shutter release. Extended human arms are usually pretty shaky and shaky arms lead to fuzzy pictures.

One simple solution to this is to get a little retro and get up close and personal with your camera. If your camera has an old fashioned viewfinder, by all means use it. Put your eye up to the viewfinder and rest the back of the camera against your cheek. This can help immensely in not only steadying the camera in your hands, but also in making you more aware on when the camera is steady and when it’s not. A little slow dancing never hurt anyone.

7] The Midnight Rendezvous

When all else fails, or you are in some uncontrollable shaky situation where you can’t trust your fingers, it is time to turn to technology. Cameras have had timers for ages, and while their original purpose is to let you take photos of large groups of grinning people who you can join at the last minute while the timer releases the shutter for you, it can be useful in one other way.

You can use the timer to take the photo while you are still holding the camera. As strange as that might feel, using the timer removes the need for you to click the button, which is often the biggest source of jitter. This way the photo is taken while you are holding the camera steady without trying to move any fingers. This technique can be quite effective in some situations. Think of it this way, while the chance spontaneous encounter between lovers can make for good romances, the predetermined midnight rendezvous can be even more passionate and exciting when done right. Why should photography be any different?

8] Indecent Exposure

What all this comes down to is shaky pictures, and shaky pictures are caused by the camera moving during the exposure. So obviously, the longer the exposure the more the chances of the camera shaking and ruining your photograph. This is where another technology can come to your rescue: film speed.

Film speed is expressed as an ISO number, usually anything ranging from ISO 80 to ISO 3200 and beyond. It is called film speed because it literally is a measure of how fast a particular film can capture a photograph. The larger the ISO number the faster the film, and faster film means shorter exposures and crisper photographs. In the digital world this norm of “film” speeds has been maintained with digital cameras being able to simulate various film speeds. Many digital cameras allow you to choose a film speed in the settings, in which case you can increase the film speed to reduce camera shake.

One issue to keep in mind here is that larger film speeds come with the unfortunate side effect of noisier and sometimes unusable images. Experiment with the various film speed settings in your particular camera in different lighting, and see where it can help you without making the images too noisy. The right amount of exposure can do wonders for your photographic relationship.

9] Let’s Do Some Heavy Breathing

I left this tip for the end even though it is a basic one, because it might either seem deceptively simple or like a load of mumbo-jumbo to some. But I stand by it, because I think this tip gets me more crisp shots than all the others above. What it comes down to is this boys and girls, if you want to get far in photography, you’re going to have to do some heavy breathing … err … well ok, deep breathing. If you’re all nervous and excited as you hold the camera and squeeze the shutter release, chances are you are going to get a shaky shot. Instead you need to take a few deep breaths and relax your muscles.

I have actually come across some people who seem to hold their breath as they take a picture, and in my experience this is the worst possible technique. Holding your breath increases muscular tension in your chest and ultimately your hands. You need steadiness and that will come from relaxation. The technique I use is to always click the button as I exhale. Try it out and you will find that you are less likely to make any sudden muscular movements as you exhale, which can lead to better photographs.

And with that I wrap up my collection of tips and tricks to help you take crisper and sharper images with you camera, without a tripod. Don’t just take my word for it. Try out these technique on your own, go steady with your camera and enjoy the bounty that results from this intercourse (I couldn’t resist). Better yet, put up your results on your blog or website and/or share your findings and reactions to these tips in the comments below. I would love to see and hear about the results of this newly sown love affair with your camera. *Sniff* I love a happy ending!

Samir

My thanks to Christine and the Tips & Tricks Blog Writing Project for inspiring this article.

A couple of days ago Vishal woke up in the morning to find that one of our computers wouldn’t start up. In that monochrome text graphics limbo world of PC BIOS screens, it was deciphered that one of our hard drives was missing. Well, not physically missing, because it couldn’t disconnect itself and walk off for a stroll now could it? But it wasn’t listed in the hardware detection screen that shows up when a computer does its initial starting and beeping (POST). That meant trouble!

Drive Errors

My first reaction in situations like this (at least in my head) is to run around screaming while throwing my arms into the air in utter despair and panic. I have a lot of por… err documents and work files stored on all our drives and losing one can be quite disastrous if I haven’t backed-up for a while (which like all human beings is most of the time). So after doing a silent mental panic run, to which I added in the elements of being naked while in a class room taking an important exam just for maximum effect, I settled down and decided to get on with the rest of my morning business and come back to the computer issue in a while.

“When in doubt, use a screwdriver”, is my motto when it comes to anything mechanical or electrical that dares to malfunction on my beat. I opened up the old tower and stared into the abyss. Being a very small box very far from a window, it usually gets very dark in there, but even in that darkness I realised after a bit of wire shifting and cable moving that I was looking into a disaster zone. I quickly forgot about the malfunctioning hard drive because I was mesmerised by the tenuous tangles and enough accumulated dust to fill a small desert. When I tried to blow away a little dust and was greeted by a storm of fine fluff that cover my head, I knew this was going to be a long day.

Cleaner Computers

My first motto regarding screwdrivers and malfunctioning equipment invariable puts me face to face with complex mechanisms which I don’t completely understand, so it really becomes necessary for me to have a more comprehensive belief system on how to deal with these things. This is why my second motto is, “When in possession of an open mechanism and in doubt, clean like hell and hope for the best”. Since I didn’t remember completing my computer cleaning ritual for many years, and because this was a good excuse to do it, I started taking the old work horse apart.

If you live in a temperate part of the world in an area where the land is not prone to dust or sand you might find these photos ghastly, but let me assure you I’ve seen a lot worse. When you are living in a desert in a hot and sometimes humid climate, dust has a way of collecting and congealing in all the most inappropriate nooks and crannies inside equipment, and my computer was a great example of this as you can plainly see. Discovering all this monstrosity hiding inside my own little desktop convinced me that these drive errors were for the best. I had no idea whether I could solve them, but at least I would have a cleaner malfunctioning computer.

Better Photos

No strange sight goes unexploited in my house. My camera was quickly ready and willing to capture the carnage, and the indirect sunlight streaming through my window provided a moody atmosphere for the proceedings. The thing to note here is how genuinely interesting some of these photos are, and that leads me to my point about one important aspect of taking better photos.

I’ll tell you what professional casting people in Hollywood have known for a century: a subject with some flaws in their features make for better images from the camera. Often actors who look better on screen are not the perfectly “pretty” looking ones but the ones with the strange nose or the slightly crooked teeth. These flaws add character and make them more photogenic. The same holds true for any photographic subject. Flaws and blemishes can add interest that might not exist in perfection.

Look around at these photos and notice that while you might have seen a million fancy product photographs of mother boards and electronic gizmos on hardware review sites, these dirty and dust-infested images make the cold and lifeless pieces of silicon and metal more intriguing and interesting. Suddenly it is not just any piece of equipment, its an object with a story. Photographs and images that tell us stories or hint at stories are more interesting to look at. Images with unexpected flaws or imperfect features engage us on a deeper level and make us ask questions about them — Why are these circuit boards filthy? How did the get this way? Do they work any more? You see, mystery, intrigue, and depth is suddenly added to what could have been boring product shots.

You must sometimes seek out what you might think is ugly, unpleasant, or simply imperfect, to capture some of your best photographs. Not only does imperfection add inherent interest, but it also forces you, the photographer, to look at your subject more actively and seek out the beauty in it.

The moral of the story is to not be afraid of the unusual or the ugly as a photographer. You might be surprised by the results you can get if you force yourself to tackle the weird and blemished side of existence. But how can you face the imperfect if you are scared of dirt and squalor? These you must face head on and tackle with the fanaticism of a spring cleaning mother during a three day weekend. Cleaner computers lead to cleaner minds, and better pictures.

And what of the villain who started this all, you might be wondering. What of the drive error that resulted in these pretty pictures? In my usual round-about way, that problem too was solved. When putting back the computer after the day’s cleaning frenzy, I re-assigned the drive positions of the IDE cables and rearranged how they were attached to the motherboard for less tangling. It turned out that when I finally switched on the system my CD drive was now not working. It would seem the fault had been with one particular cable all along. Thus the problem was solved, the computer was cleaned, the sexier photographs were taken, and all was well with the world.