Are you a Lazy Digital Photographer?
Digtal Photography has made photographers lazy. Photographers need to remember how to work for great images. This article has a few simple tips.
Digital Photography has made us lazy. I believe we expect too much and do too little to produce great photographs. Right now we tend to settle for decent pictures captured in the camera that we can improve in Photoshop later. Now don’t get me wrong I like digital but I think photographers have forgotten how to work for great images.
Let me give you an example. When photographers take a picture with a digital camera today they turn on the camera press the shutter and the camera does the rest. The camera determines the exposure, auto focus, and even color settings if we want it to.
When photographers use to take pictures they would work for it. They would choose the right film, measure the exposure with a gray card or hand light meter, pre focus the camera manually and then release the shutter.
The problem is that today’s digital cameras are 80% right. We as photographers have begun to trust the camera computer and not our own brains. We figure if the camera it isn’t right then just fix the photo in Photoshop later. This extra step takes time and money. If we can do it right the first time then we don’t need the extra Photoshop time.
I suggest breaking free from the auto everything mode and try things the old fashioned way. Here are a few ideas:
Use a Kodak gray card: gray cards are a great way to determine the right exposure for your subject. Simply hold the camera in the same light as your subject and take a meter reading from the gray card. Set your camera to that exposure and regardless of what your meter says later don’t change the camera setting. Gray cards represent a photographic middle gray or zone V. Most camera meters that have been built both old and new are set to read this middle gray. The camera meter recommends adjustments based on how far off the subject is from the middle gray exposure. Making exposure adjustments while using the middle gray card will help you make perfect exposures.
- Use manual focus. Manual focus will allow you to produce sharper images and have more control over your photo. Most digital SLR cameras have the option of manual focus. I suggest picking a location that you want perfectly sharp like your subject’s eyes and move the lens until focus snaps into place. You can also measure the distance between you and the subject and set the camera accordingly.
- Last choose the color and contrast setting manually on your digital camera. If it is an overcast day you might want to push the contrast up slightly to compensate. If you are taking pictures of flowers and autumn leaves you might want to punch up the color using a more vivid color setting.
For a more accurate reading it is possible to rent or buy a color temperature meter like the Gosen color Pro F Similar to an exposure meter but this meter also reads the color of light falling on the subject in degrees Kelvin. 5500 - 6500 degrees Kelvin is very standard for mid day sunlight.
I believe if we work to make every image great in the camera then we will produce better photographs and spend less time in Photoshop.
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Comments
Digital is different. Don't try to drag new technology back to old ways.
Even when we shoot film a manual exposure meter can be wrong. Not all meters give the 'correct' exposure they only give 'their' interpretation of it. It also depends on 'where' you point your meter, and for what effect you want. Lots of so called photographers don't know which way to point a camera yet, least of all where to point a meter!!
Say for instance you set up a single light for a portrait on the left hand side of a sitter, and you tell the sitter to look towards the light. Where do you point your meter? Towards the light? Towards the camera? The answer depends on your intention. Most Pros would know where to point it, and some wouldn't even bother - they'd know the aperture to use already. Realistically you would probably shoot a Polaroid anyway which would show up the error of your ways but why bother with all this when a guess and a preview shot with histogram would make it right?
Digital does make things easier, but like the lightmeter all digital cameras respond differently to differing light situations. Even the lens that you use will affect the exposure you give, even the distance it's focussed on. For this reason I would rely more on the cameras meter and the histogram before getting my meter out.
The colour meter is a different matter.
I've not yet tried this, but speaking from experience of being one of the few photographers who owns a colour meter and has used it - unlike when shooting film, using the colour meter with digital might actually save some time and give a better result. Once the meter is calibrated to your requirements I'd expect that by using the colour meter more consistant results could be obtained and faster.
You have to remember though. Although your exposure and colour temperature might be technically correct, when you look at the images and they're too dark and yellow - do you blame it on your equipment or just get on the computer and sort it out ?
The truth is, if a transparency was too much a wrong colour, despite the use of a lightmeter, colourmeter and Polaroid someone, somewhere down the line needs to correct it. Digitally - I don't mind doing that if you pay me. After all I've already saved you the costs of the colourmeter, lightmeter, film and Polaroids.
Lazy? With Digital photography I work harder and faster and I have results that would never have been created with film in the same timespan. The only people who are lazy with digital are those who would be lazy anyway - and theres no cure for that.
Posted by Ian Casement on 07:15, March 29 2005
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