This week, Bob Coates kicked things off by combining equipment from Olympus and Panasonic together for focus stacking, while Eric Renno walked us through some hidden features for Levels and Curves in Photoshop.
Jeremy Gray discussed why it’s important to have a telephoto lens in your landscape kit, while Bryan Esler showed off organizational practices in Capture One. Finally, Nate Torres tackled the debate as to whether women are better at judging color, and Rich Harrington gave us an in-depth look at the new Lume Cube Panel Mini.
Olympus and Panasonic together for focus stacking - Spring is here and cactus blooms and spring flowers are popping. Add in some down time due to the shelter at home orders, and it’s a great time to experiment with focus stacking in the micro four-thirds format. Two camera companies that play nice Panasonic and Olympus came into the micro four-thirds camera systems with teamwork in mind. Unlike other camera manufacturers, they share the same lens mount. Lenses from each can be used interchangeably. There are a few things that are brand specific that make each manufacturer’s gear work better on their own camera bodies. For example, image stabilization is better when paired and some computational features are only available with specific camera lens combinations. Ultimately, you can pick the camera and lens combo that works for you. Macro lens focus stacking I used the Olympus OM-D E-M1X with the Panasonic Leica DG Macro-Elmarit 45mm f/2.8. With a macro lens you need to increase the depth of field. Even at f/22, the area of sharpness is pretty shallow. Add to that that very small apertures tend to introduce diffraction in the image captures. The way we fix both problems is to make multiple exposures with a larger aperture. Focus is moved through a scene then blend the sharp bits together in post-production using Adobe Photoshop. Camera settings In this case I used f/10 with a movement of one focus increment and made 25 exposures. An ISO of 800 gave me a shutter speed of 1/500s. I needed the quicker shutter speed due to photographing outdoors in a slight breeze, or I would have used the native ISO of 200. I normally recommend exposing to the right of the histogram to get the highest quality file. In the case of focus stacking I highly recommend a slight underexposure, especially if the are very smooth or lighter tones. In processing files you need contrast for best results. The beauty of the micro four-thirds camera system is the ability to control the capture with a single button push. You can program the E-M1X to shoot your selected number of images with an incremental move in focus. The resulting images are blended in Adobe Photoshop using the Edit Mode with the Auto-Align and Auto-Blend settings. Get out. Get shooting. Experiment and learn new techniques. I know I’m pushing skills to new levels. How about you? Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
Photoshop’s undocumented feature for Levels and Curves - In this tutorial we’re going to take a quick tour of an undocumented feature — a hidden gem of sorts — in Photoshop’s Levels and Curves. I’ll be using Levels but it’s the same in curves too. A little introduction Here I am in Photoshop. I’ve got an image from Adobe Stock (more of Adobe Stock another time, but for now, take a look, your catalogue of images could be making you money.) This image is great but it like to give it a different look. To get started, I’m going to open Levels by going to the bottom of the Layers panel and choosing Levels from the menu on the black and white circle icon. What I might do here is choose the Red Channel from the drop down menu then use click the middle slider and move it a tiny bit to the left to warm the image up a little. Now, it could be that I get an image like this, with a color cast and want to correct the image. Historically, the Auto in any Photoshop or Lightroom product was floored. This changed a couple of updates ago, so I’ll give it a go and click the Auto button in Levels. Not bad! The undocumented feature you’re here for This time, before I click the Auto button, I’ll press and hold the Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac) key. This time I’m presented with a dialog box. By default its settings are for Contrast and Brightness, and most of the time that’s what you’ll want. But not this time. Clicking on the radio button Find Dark & Light Colors has no direct result, but it does make the the Target Colors and Clipping changeable. I’ll let you explore the options this opens up, but for this, I’ll click the Shadows swatch and then from the color picker choose a lighter grey. This gives an easy, editable, washed out effect. Going back to the theme of warming this image up, I could choose a dark orange here, then a very light orange for the highlights. You can get quite creative here, should you wish. My favorite is Enhance Per Channel. This works really well and I like to make this my default. It’s subtle and you may not be able to see the difference here, but flick between the two on your image and you’ll definitely see it. So there we are — short and sweet this time — but I encourage you to have a play. Remember I’m always open to comments, questions and feedback.
Why you should always have a telephoto lens in your landscape photography kit - When you think about landscape photography lenses, many photographers think only about wide-angle lenses. Classic lenses such as a 14-24mm f/2.8 or 24-70mm f/2.8 are popular optics for landscapes. This is with good reason — they’re fantastic options. However, it’s worth having a longer lens in your landscape photography kit, too. Why use a long lens for landscape photography? Many of the best landscape photos you see online or when browsing Instagram are impressive, sweeping vistas. When your subject is so massive, it makes sense to use a wide lens to capture as much of the scene as possible. However, there are times when you may capture too much of a good thing. A wide lens can often deliver a cluttered composition that is far too busy. Simply put, a wide field of view can make it difficult to focus on key aspects of a scene. Sometimes, capturing a huge area is precisely the ideal course of action. However, I think that it’s all too easy to capture too much with a “traditional” landscape lens. Take a 14-24mm f/2.8 lens, for example. If you are photographing a scene at 14mm on a full frame camera, that’s a 114-degree field of view. The result is a lot of elements within the scene and many more considerations when composing a photograph. Different compositions and perspectives The primary reason I always have a long lens with me when doing landscape photography is to capture different compositions. Compared to a wide-angle lens, a telephoto lens offers a very different perspective and thus creates dramatically different images. A telephoto lens allows you to focus on smaller elements within a larger scene. I often use a telephoto lens to find the photo within a photo, so to speak. It can be challenging to find patterns and structure within a scene when using a wide lens. A long lens can make this much easier, especially when trying to bring a potential composition closer to you. The strongest elements in a scene cannot always be captured with a wide-angle lens. A longer lens allows the photographer to place emphasis on different objects within a scene. In the next section, I’ll discuss using a long lens to bypass natural obstacles. However, you can also use a long lens to shoot past a boring foreground. An interesting foreground is a critical component of many great landscape photos, but sometimes there simply isn’t an interesting foreground element nearby. By using a telephoto lens, you can turn a more distant object into a foreground element in your composition. A wide-angle lens makes the distance between foreground elements and your background appear greater in your image. A telephoto lens, on the other hand, sort of compresses the perspective in your image, so to speak. It can make distant objects appear closer together. Using a telephoto lens also results in elements having a more natural perspective, rather than making foreground elements appear very large in your frame. Bypassing natural obstacles There are frequently obstacles to overcome when photographing landscapes. Sometimes these obstacles are physical and cannot be overcome. When photographing along the rocky Maine coast, for example, I cannot simply walk into the Atlantic to get closer to a subject. If I want a tighter frame, I need a long lens. This is a common reason to use a longer lens when photographing landscapes. There are times when it’s either too dangerous or impossible to navigate all the terrain around you to get closer to a subject. This is a time when a long lens can be a huge help. Tips and tricks for using a telephoto lens for landscape photography There are certain situations when I’m much more likely to want a telephoto lens for landscape photography. I’ve already discussed using a long lens to bypass natural obstacles or to create a more interesting composition. I also use a telephoto lens when the sky is boring or doesn’t fit the mood of the image I want to make. It’s very difficult to compose an image with minimal sky when using a wide-angle lens. Another common use case for a telephoto lens in landscape photography is when trying to isolate an object within a scene. For example, suppose you want to photograph a single tree against a background. If you are using a lens with a short focal length, such as a 24mm lens, you will need to get very close to the tree and it will appear disproportionately large in your frame compared to its surroundings. Summary While many of my landscape images have been captured with focal lengths ranging from 14mm to 35mm, there are plenty of my favorites that have been shot at 50mm, 70mm, 200mm and sometimes even 400mm. Without a telephoto lens in my bag, I would have missed out on many different landscape photography opportunities. The next time you’re out photographing, and a scene isn’t jumping out at you with a wide-angle lens, consider using a telephoto lens. Sometimes there’s a great photo right there waiting for you, you just need to bring it closer.
Switching to Capture One: Choosing an organization strategy - When I first switched to Capture One as my primary photo management and editing tool, I knew I wanted to come up with a workflow that suited how I photograph. But I also knew that I needed a quick and easy way to find the photos I needed, whether it be in a week, month or year from now. I did a lot of research on Capture One’s organization tools when you use a catalog system. If you use a session, you’ll obviously treat your photos differently, and we’ll have more on that in a future article. But what’s the best method to organizational madness in Capture One? Understanding Capture One’s organizational tools A lot of people say that Capture One’s weakness lies in its organizational tools. I couldn’t disagree more — I find that Capture One has put together a toolset that can make it easier to keep track of your photos, as well as offer some automation that isn’t present in Lightroom. In the User Collections area, you’ll be reminded of Lightroom Classic in that you can make projects (like collection sets) and albums (like collections). But you can take it much further, too. There are four different options in Capture One’s User Collections that can help sort your images: Group: This can’t hold images, but it can hold projects and albums, and display the photos that are present inside of the albums. Groups can be nested within each other. Project: If you’re used to Lightroom, think of a Project like a Collection Set. These again can’t hold any individual photos. You can nest groups, albums and smart albums inside of projects. Album: This is exactly what you’d think it is — this holds your photos. Smart album: Smart albums can display photos based on a specific criteria, and can be nested inside of groups and projects. If they’re inside a group, they search from your entire catalog. But if they’re inside of a project, they only work with images that are a part of that particular project. Common organization strategies As a corporate event photographer, I’ve found that it’s often most convenient to organize my catalog based on client name. When I open the Library tool in Capture One, I see three groups, one smart album and one album. The smart album holds any images I’ve given a 5-star rating to, which gives me easy access to photographs that I might want to post on social media for promotional purposes. The BTS album holds any of my behind-the-scenes photographs I’ve taken. Client-driven strategy If I drill down into my Clients group, you’ll see that it has sub-groups for each individual client. This makes it easy to quickly and easily find a client, which I sort alphabetically. If I expand one of those sub-groups for a client, you’ll see an individual project. In this example, I photographed several people for a local magazine for an upcoming July issue. So the project is the July 2020 issue, and underneath that are nested albums. Group and album strategy What happens if you don’t have a specific project you’re working on? Well, simply put, that’s when you would take projects out of the mix. In this example, I have a main Photofocus group and a sub-group called Gear Reviews. Inside of that I have individual albums for each product I have reviewed. In this case, projects aren’t necessary because it’s not an ongoing thing I’m working on. And it’s not a specific use case to a client. Utilizing smart albums I’ve learned to really love smart albums in Capture One. As I said earlier, these can be nested, so I can have them only pick up the photographs in the parent group and project. In this instance, I have a project under a sub-group called Coronavirus. This is where I put all of my Coronavirus-related photographs that I’ve taken for various clients. Inside of that are two albums. “All” holds all the photographs, while “Selects” is a smart album that only pulls images from the project’s photos that have color labels of yellow, green and blue. You can obviously edit this to show photos based on ratings or other data, too. What’s the right organization for you? Only you can answer that question. But Capture One gives a lot of organizational options to help you keep track of and manage your photos. With the latest update to Capture One, there’s never a better time to switch. Do you have a method to your organizational madness? Let me know in the comments below! Ready to try out Capture One? Click here to get a 30-day trial.
Are women better at judging color? - In this post, I’m going to dive into how men and women are wired differently when it comes to judging color. If you’ve ever found yourself in the paint store with the opposite sex debating on whether a certain color is “laguna blue” or a lighter “turquoise,” there is actually a physiological explanation for that which I will be diving into. Importance of judging color As photographers and artists, our ability to judge and implement color is very important to the overall composition of our photograph. Colors can evoke certain emotions such as happiness, sadness and even warmth or coldness. When it comes time to color grade your photograph for a particular color harmony, it is important that your audience see the same colors you intended for your composition. You can also use color to emphasize and lead your viewer’s eyes to a particular point within your image. Allowing you to have control over the overall composition of your photograph. With color playing such an important role within our photographs, our ability to judge color also comes into play. Men and women have been shown to judge and recognize color differently with women being able to see more colors than men. But why is this so? Does that mean men and women color grade their photos differently? Are men at a disadvantage when it comes to accurately color grading their photographs? Let’s dive into the research. Do females see more color? Research has shown that women actually have a larger color vocabulary than their male counterparts. Think of the words “periwinkle” and “blue macaw.” But does having a larger color vocabulary translate into females being able to see more color? Israel Abramov, a behavioral neuroscientist at CUNY’s Brooklyn College, dove into finding answers to this question. He was curious about how men and women’s different “wiring” in the brain may lead to a different perception of color. When visualizing color, it can be broken down into three categories: Hue, saturation and luminance. Hue deals with the actual color, saturation deals with the intensity of the color and luminance deals with how bright the color is. In Abramov’s study, he had men and women break down the hue of each color and assign a percentage to the categories red, yellow, green and blue. The results from the test showed that women were “more adept at distinguishing between subtle gradations than the men.” Women were able to better distinguish the tiny differences between colors that may look identical to males. Abramov found that men required slightly longer wavelengths of light in order to see the same hues of women. For example, hues identified as orange by women were seen as more of a yellow by men. The results Abramov found suggested that there are wiring differences in visual areas of the brain that contribute to the slight difference in perception of color between men and women. This study does not differ from many of the others that have found other sensory differences in the realms of hearing, smell and taste — where women often perform better than men in terms of distinguishing slight differences. It has been found that hormone levels may be the basis for these sex differences. “Abramov believes that testosterone expression in early development plays a major role in these differences between males and females.” Testosterone levels promote different organization of neurons in the visual cortex in men and women. Since men have more testosterone receptors than women in the visual region of the cerebral cortex, it would make sense that the different number of receptors could result in visual perception differences. Why do men and women actually judge and perceive color differently? Further research needs to be done on this topic for a conclusive reason, however, Abramov believes one potential explanation can be related to men and women’s roles during the period of early nomadic tribes when men were the hunters and women were the gatherers. As hunters, men had to be better at distinguishing predators from prey from afar. On the other hand, women might have developed better close range vision from the act of foraging and gathering. Although further research needs to be done for a conclusive reason, men and women do experience visual differences which could also have an impact on how they perform at tasks such as art and sports. How color perception impacts photography In terms of photography, you may be wondering whether that means women are better when it comes to color grading and understanding all of the colors in their photograph. That is not the case. When editing photos in your preferred photo editing software, it is calibrated within the software to provide and tell you which color is which. Although a male may perceive a certain shade of blue to be slightly different from a female, within the photo editing software, the blue you edit is the one directly influenced by your photo editing software. The only worry is making sure the blue you see due to your monitor settings, is the blue everyone else will see on their computers or phones. With so many factors into play on how colors are perceived, what is the best option to ensure you are editing for true colors within your photograph? That’s where a monitor calibration tool and other capture and print calibration tools can be used. We may not be able to change how we perceive colors physiologically, but at least we can have control over color as much as we can with calibration.
Lume Cube Panel Mini: An in-depth review - I’ve had the chance to play with the new Lume Cube Panel Mini for about two weeks (full specs here). An early release version was sent to me for review. This light is virtually perfect and very affordable. As a user of the other Lume Cube lights, I was curious about what would change from the original Lume Cube Panel to get the price down. What is a Lume Cube? When Lume Cube first burst onto the scene, they made a big splash with their small waterproof lights that are shaped like Cubes. These lights are quite durable and have gone through a few revisions with different features. All told I’ve bought more than 20 of their small lights for use in my video/photo business. The new form factor While the original Lume Cubes are still an essential part of my kit, they aren’t as useful for video interviews or product photography. The Lume Cube panels are better suited for both close-up work or when a more diffused light is needed. I also find them a bit easier to pack and carry as they are thinner and easier to slip into a pocket like a phone. Introducing the Lume Cube Panel Mini I’ve been looking for a light like for some time. First off, it’s super affordable coming in at $59 USD, which makes it easy to add multiple ones to your kit. It’s about the size of a deck of cards (3.6” wide x 2.2” tall x .45” deep). But this small size doesn’t skimp on features. LED lights in the Lume Cube Panel Mini With 60 LED lights, the Panel Mini is bright. It’s also accurate with a 96+ Color Rendering Index value. Half the lights are daylight balanced while the others are tungsten. This means you can easily mix the two LEDs for color adjustability from 3200k to 5600k. The light offers a maximum of 550 lux of brightness at a half meter distance. That’s a decent amount of light, but it means this is best for tabletop photography or close-up video. But don’t worry, the light looks great close-up thanks to the included silicone diffuser that can easily slip on or off. Even without the external diffuser, the light is gentle as there is a built-in diffusion panel. Battery life for the Lume Cube Panel Mini The new Panel Mini has good battery life for its size. If you’re using it at lower power, its possible to get 10+ hours. But practically speaking you’ll see about 80 minutes at full power and 140 minutes at half power. The LCD screen shows you an estimated time remaining display, which is really helpful when shooting. Need to charge up the battery? That’s simple as any USB-C cable will do. You can charge from a computer port but will see faster charging using a USB charger. It’s also possible to leave the light plugged in and run it from a wall outlet. I’ve done this and left the light on for four days straight with no issue. I could have tested longer but couldn’t think of a reason to push the light any further. Controls for the Lume Cube Panel Mini are great The controls are simple and elegant. With just one button and one rocker dial, this light can be operated single-handed and even without looking at it. But the intelligent LCD makes precise operation a breeze thanks to simple controls. To power on, press and hold the main button for three seconds. The same holds true to power off. This means no accidental changes in lighting or draining the light’s battery when it’s packed in your bag. Tap the same button to switch between power levels and color temperatures. You can easily adjust the power from 1% to 5% to 10%, all the way up to 100% (in 5% increments). The same goes for color temperature as you can toll between 3200 K and 5600 K. Mounting the Lume Cube Panel Mini is easy The light offers two 1/4″ 20 tripod mounts on the bottom and side. These work with almost all accessories. Included in the box is a low-profile hot shoe mount for DSLR, mirrorless and video cameras. But it’s also easy to attach the light to a mini tripod. With two mounting points, the light is easy to mount in a variety of angles and works very well with a gooseneck. I was very pleased with how it worked with the Platypod Gooseneck kit. Since the light was so light, it didn’t tip over when angled even dramatically. The bottom line on the Lume Cube Panel Mini I enthusiastically recommend the Lume Cube Panel Mini light. I already own four of the Lume Cube full-size panels but will pick up an extra one of these. It’s perfect for my macro and product photography work. I also like its lightweight size for mounting to a cell phone or my mirrorless camera. Highly recommended — a must-buy, and at $59 it’s the most affordable light in my professional kit.
