http://www.chromasia.com/blog/ en djn1@chromasia.com (David J. Nightingale) Copyright 2013 Tue, 11 Jun 2013 15:00:25 +0200 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss There are two types of clipping you probably try to avoid introducing into your images during post-production: luminosity clipping (when the brightest areas of an image become white, or when the darkest areas become black), and channel clipping (when the data within an individual channel becomes compromised). Both forms – unless you've made a deliberate decision to clip your data – are something to avoid. As you'll probably know, Photoshop doesn't make this easy. The only tool that provides direct feedback on any clipping within an image is the histogram, but it isn't completely accurate, nor is it dynamic: it updates after you implement a change rather that providing feedback during an adjustment. And while there are quite a few ways that allow you to accurately measure clipping – more of which below – none of the methods are either especially convenient or automatic. Fortunately, there is a solution – a way to add a set of warnings that will provide real-time feedback on any shadow, highlight, and channel highlight clipping within an image – and I'll show you how to do so in the remainder of this article.]]> http://www.chromasia.com/blog/archive/1306111500.php http://www.chromasia.com/blog/archive/1306111500.php Photoshop for Photographers Tue, 11 Jun 2013 15:00:25 +0200 Over the years I've had quite a few protracted and often heated discussions about the role of post-production in photography, normally with people who seem to have a rooted objection to images that have been radically transformed. "But that's not photography, that's just Photoshop!" has been a relatively common criticism of some of my work. It's a complex debate – especially as it plays out differently within different areas of photography – and I certainly don't intend to provide a complete answer here, but an image I've been working on recently prompted the following. ]]> http://www.chromasia.com/blog/archive/1305161106.php http://www.chromasia.com/blog/archive/1305161106.php On Photography Photoshop for Photographers nofixednav Thu, 16 May 2013 11:06:13 +0200
Back in February I was asked to judge an architectural photography competition sponsored by Goodman Business Parks. There were two prizes up for grabs – a Sony NEX-5R Compact System Camera for the overall winner, and a £50 Amazon UK Voucher for the runner up – and we received a great range of entries from around the world.]]> http://www.chromasia.com/blog/archive/1304181628.php http://www.chromasia.com/blog/archive/1304181628.php Competitions News & Announcements Thu, 18 Apr 2013 16:28:47 +0200
As you'll know if you read my initial review of the Sony SLT-A99 I'm currently making the switch to shooting full time with Sony gear. I'm selling my Canon kit, have invested in a range on Sony/Zeiss lenses, and have recently acquired another Sony camera that I'll be blogging about soon (watch this space!). As such I was pleased to be asked to run and judge a UK based architectural photography competition that's being sponsored by Goodman Business Parks as the main prize is a Sony Nex-5R Compact Camera System. ]]> http://www.chromasia.com/blog/archive/1302021006.php http://www.chromasia.com/blog/archive/1302021006.php Competitions News & Announcements Sat, 02 Feb 2013 10:06:14 +0200
 
One of my favourite workshops is 'Shoot the City', a workshop I run twice a year for Gulf Photo Plus in Dubai. We start the day photographing architecture (normally at the DIFC in the heart of the city), after which we shoot the Jumeirah Beach skyline from the Palm: from late afternoon until about 30-40 minutes after sunset. We then head up to the rooftop bar of the Four Points Sheraton hotel on Sheik Zayed road: a great vantage point, with affordably great fries and tolerably cheap beer. During each workshop I teach pretty much the same techniques, most of which I've listed below, but during the latest workshop I decided to try something a bit different ...]]> http://www.chromasia.com/blog/archive/1211222124.php http://www.chromasia.com/blog/archive/1211222124.php Thu, 22 Nov 2012 21:24:09 +0200
 
 
 
At the start of September I received an email from GPP asking me if I'd be interested in being involved with the launch of a couple of Sony's new cameras, to coincide with my upcoming visit to Dubai for their Fotoweekend event: the SLT-A99, their new full frame pro-spec camera, and the NEX-5. I wasn't especially interested in the NEX-5 – it's a good little camera, but not one that I'd use – but the SLT-A99 looked more promising. If you're not familiar with Sony's SLT cameras the basic difference between them and a DSLR is that the mirror doesn't move, hence Single Lens Translucent rather than Single Lens Reflex. With a DSLR the mirror flips out of the way before you take the shot, with an SLT the majority of the light is fed continuously to the sensor, with a portion being routed to the main AF module via the mirror. In theory this means that you're losing around 0.3EV to 0.5EV from the outset, but in practice this loss of light seems to have little or no effect on the quality of the image. The deal was that I'd get to keep the camera and a couple of lenses in exchange for spending some time shooting in the UK followed by two days intensive shooting in Dubai. Those images would be used to create a range of A0 prints, a photo book, and so on. I was also asked to give a 10 minute presentation at the press conference and another public talk on my experiences of shooting in Dubai as part of GPP's Fotoweekend event. So, an intensive schedule (I was shooting on the 2nd and 3rd of November and the press conference was on the 6th), a fair amount of pressure (the images needed to be good), but I'd get to keep the camera and two lenses: the Zeiss 24-70mm F2.8 ZA SSM Vario-Sonnar® T* and the Zeiss 85mm F1.4 ZA Planar T*, both of which are great pieces of glass. Was I delighted? Initially, no. Let me explain why ...]]> http://www.chromasia.com/blog/archive/1211141737.php http://www.chromasia.com/blog/archive/1211141737.php Reviews Wed, 14 Nov 2012 17:37:30 +0200 Here's a competition for any of you who are based in the UK or plan on visiting at some point soon. Millennium & Copthorne Hotels have launched a new blog and are holding a photography competition to kick start proceedings. Given the company's affinity with city life they are asking photographers to submit an image that captures the essence of their favourite city. Entry's so far can be seen here and I am pleased to have been asked to judge the 'Most Dramatic' category. Other categories include 'Most Shared', 'Most Creative' and 'Honourable Mentions'. ]]> http://www.chromasia.com/blog/archive/1210200818.php http://www.chromasia.com/blog/archive/1210200818.php Competitions News & Announcements Sat, 20 Oct 2012 08:18:01 +0200 Earlier this year I was invited to take part in Digiarte 2012 (9th edition), an exhibition of smart phone photography in Sesto Fiorentino and Florence, Italy. The exhibition featured a range of my images, alongside ones from Zack Arias, Dave Hill, Seymour Templar, Misho Baranovic, Martino Pietropoli, Simone "brahmino" Bramante, Agnese Morganti, and Corrado Nuccini. I don't know what devices, apps and software anyone else used, but most of mine were shot with an iPhone 4 and Hipstamatic, with a some additional editing in Filterstorm. Here's how the project was described: "The starting idea is: of course anyone can take a photo with a mobile device, but how can an expert photographer optimize his workflow using a smartphone? Eye, Culture, Sense of Composition, Knowledge of Photography History and Aesthetic principles, the use of filters: How can these element affect the quality of a "mobile" photo? Our aim is to exhibit mobile photos by famous (and non-famous) great photographers that sometimes drop the heavy stuff (but nevertheless do not drop their creativity, their sense of art and style) and take some good shoots using a mobile phone camera. We invited artists who are active in any mobile photo communities, with both individual projects and works displayed within the big communities (e.g. Instagram, Hipstamatic, picplz, to name a few)." ]]> http://www.chromasia.com/blog/archive/1210111629.php http://www.chromasia.com/blog/archive/1210111629.php News & Announcements Thu, 11 Oct 2012 16:29:42 +0200 I'm planning two series of short articles for this blog: one will cover digital workflow and post-production, the other, shooting (e.g. composition, depth-of-field, and so on). These aren't going to be complex, or exhaustive – anything that warrants a more detailed discussion will become a tutorial – but I do want them to be interesting, informative and useful. I'll write another post about the Shooting: 101 series soon, but it's the Digital Workflow series I want to talk about here as I'd like your help to pick the topics. Here's an initial list: some are my own ideas, while others were suggested on Facebook earlier today.

• Sharpening for the web.
• Setting up a Photoshop workspace.
• Configuring Camera Raw.
• Using 'Blend If'.
• 16 bit versus 8 bit editing.
• Understanding the Apply Image command.
• Using the Info Palette effectively.
• Noise reduction techniques.
• How to create and use Actions and Droplets in Photoshop.
• Dodging and Burning.

]]> http://www.chromasia.com/blog/archive/1209051554.php http://www.chromasia.com/blog/archive/1209051554.php News & Announcements Wed, 05 Sep 2012 15:54:23 +0200 I've spent a lot of time over the last few months concentrating on black and white photography, mostly because I was developing and recording my new course for Udemy: The Art of Black and White Photography, partly because I'll be running a one-day black and white photography and postproduction workshop during the GPP Fotoweekend training event in Dubai in November, but also because it's a form of photography I find enduringly fascinating. For my Udemy course I cover a whole range of topics: how to use Photoshop to best convert an image to black and white, what makes some images easier to convert than others, how to make a range of selective adjustments using curves and masks, and so on. And I suspect it will be much the same for my GPP workshop. The question I don't cover in much detail is the one I've used for the title of this post: which images should you convert to black and white? In other words, I don't want to talk about how to convert an image to black and white, I want to focus on why you should consider doing so. So, why is it that some images look great in colour, but bland and uninteresting in black and white, while others are considerably more striking? It's that question I want to focus on here.]]> http://www.chromasia.com/blog/archive/1208141115.php http://www.chromasia.com/blog/archive/1208141115.php Photoshop for Photographers Tue, 14 Aug 2012 11:15:40 +0200 On a good day – when I've planned exactly what I'm going to cover in a video, have rehearsed the order and phrasing in my head, and have all the images prepped and ready to go (and there's a strong following wind), I can record somewhere up to about an hour of video. For my new Udemy course – The Art of Black & White Photography – things went a lot more slowly, mostly because I knew I'd be talking to a partly new audience. When I'm recording a video for our tutorials I don't always explain something I've covered in a previous video or tutorial, I take it for granted that either people will know it already, or, if they don't, I can refer them to the relevant source. For my Udemy course then I tried to make sure that I explained everything, and explained it in a way that made sense in the context of the course as a whole. Now it's finished I'm fairly sure I managed to do that, but it took me twice as long as usual – I only managed about 30 minutes a day – and then only because I was working at least ten hours a day. And the promo video took even longer!]]> http://www.chromasia.com/blog/archive/1208041712.php http://www.chromasia.com/blog/archive/1208041712.php Behind the Scenes News & Announcements Sat, 04 Aug 2012 17:12:45 +0200

The 'Spirited Community' competition I mentioned in my last blog post, organised by the Isle of Jura, is now half way through. The first four weekly winners (selected from almost 500 entries) have been announced, and have each won:

• An Olympus VG-170 camera.
• A bottle of Jura 16 year old single malt whisky.
• A 12 month subscription to David's online Photography and Post-production tutorials.

If you would like to take part, you have just another four weeks to upload your images.]]> http://www.chromasia.com/blog/archive/1207131146.php http://www.chromasia.com/blog/archive/1207131146.php Competitions News & Announcements Fri, 13 Jul 2012 11:46:52 +0200

If you enter just one photography competition this year, make sure it's the 'Spirited Community' competition organised by the by the Isle of Jura (one of the Southern Inner Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland). All you need to do is submit a photograph and 50 word description of why it captures a sense of community spirit. For the next eight weeks, the photo that gets the most public votes during that week will win the photographer:

• An Olympus VG-170 camera.
• A bottle of Jura 16 year old single malt whisky.
• A 12 month subscription to David's online Photography and Post-production tutorials.

At the end of the competition the three overall winners (one from the UK, one from the US, and one from the rest of the world) will win:

• A week's all-expenses trip to the Isle of Jura, including a stay in the exclusive Jura Lodge and a VIP tour of the Jura distillery and island.
• An Olympus PEN E-PL3 camera.
• A one-day photography workshop on the island provided by David.

You can jump straight to the competition website below, or read on for the full press release. http://www.isleofjura.com/communityspirit/ If you do submit an image, please leave a comment to let us know.]]> http://www.chromasia.com/blog/archive/1206120808.php http://www.chromasia.com/blog/archive/1206120808.php Competitions News & Announcements Tue, 12 Jun 2012 08:08:52 +0200 Every year Gulf Photo Plus – the premier photography training company in Dubai and the Middle East – runs two major international events: one in March, the other in November. I've been lucky enough to be an instructor at every one since 2007 and have run workshops on various aspects of post-production (e.g. Creating Dramatic Images, Understanding the Curves tool, and Enhancing Portraits), a Landscape Photography workshop on the shooting and post-production of desert and urban landscapes, how to shoot the architecture of Dubai, a crash course in HDR photography, and a whole range of other workshops and seminars. The November 'FotoWeekend' events are relatively small scale – around four of five instructors – but the March event brings together a much bigger group. This year there were 13 of us – me, Zack Arias, David Burnett, Greg Heisler, David Hobby, Chris Hurtt, Bobbi Lane, Joe McNally, Louis Pang, Martin Prihoda, Claire Rosen, Steve Simon and David Tejada – and, as always, it was a delight to meet up with those I know well and a pleasure to meet those who were attending GPP for the first time. I could spend a long time writing nice things about GPP, including how well it's run by Mohamed and Hala and the rest of the GPP team, and could spend an equal amount of time writing about how much I enjoy taking part, how great it is to work with capable and enthusiastic students, and how much I enjoy taking photographs in and around Dubai ... but I won't, at least not now, because what I want to talk about in this post is one specific aspect of the March event: the shoot-out.]]> http://www.chromasia.com/blog/archive/1203301440.php http://www.chromasia.com/blog/archive/1203301440.php Workshops & Events Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:40:39 +0200 If you're a subscriber to our photography and post-production tutorials you'll be familiar with our Critique Slot Screencasts. These are critiques of our subscribers' images, normally about an hour long, and split into two sections. In the first part I work through and critique the edit supplied by one of our subscribers – explaining the changes that were made, offering alternative solutions, and so on – while in the second I re-edit the image from the original RAW file. For this image, supplied by Doug Stroud, the processing centred around Doug's creative aims. Specifically, whether it was possible to create an increased tension between the foreground and background: the happy/innocent children at play, offset against a moody and ominous background. If you'd be interested in taking a look at a low-res version (730px wide rather than 1280px), and finding out how I would process this image, read on …]]> http://www.chromasia.com/blog/archive/1201171223.php http://www.chromasia.com/blog/archive/1201171223.php Photoshop for Photographers Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:23:35 +0200