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Thread: How to: techniques explained by members in a tutorial

  1. #1
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    Backup: One way to do it

    Your image library is precious. It contains your memories and achievements. It could even be worth money. All that means it's worth taking care of, and this is how I take care of mine.

    During the shoot
    Firstly I'll go for the 'banker' shots early on, the basics needed to call the shoot a success. You should never put these off till later as there may not be a later; rain, accidents, who knows...get workable shots early and then spend the rest of the time working on improved versions.

    I usually shoot with two bodies and use 8Gb cards. Yes, there are 16Gb cards but less images per card with 8, so if a card fails all is not lost.

    During the day I will transfer the images to a laptop. However, I do not delete from the card. I just have plenty of cards. This the first rule; images should always exist in at least two places. Once the laptop transfer is done then the images are on the card, and on the laptop. Safe.

    After the shoot
    Transfer all the images to my workstation. The cards are left untouched. Then cull the ones that didn't work. I'll then quickly burn the rest to DVD. Now the images on are the hard disk (at least one), cards and DVD. If I accidentally over-cull I've still got the cards.

    Backup
    Backups are there to protect you against:

    1. User error, eg accidentally deleting things
    2. Hardware failure, eg disk failure
    3. Corruption, like viruses or even bad RAM sectors which will corrupt files
    4. External disasters, like fires
    5. Theft

    Copying your images to another media is important. That takes care of 1 and 2. However, a house fire will still toast your backup, and a thief could nick it too. So your backups must go offsite, no two ways about it. Simply having a backup unit sitting next to your computer is not an effective protection against some of the risks to your images.

    Corruption may not be noticed immediately. To guard against that you need old backups, and that means lots of media. Verifying files after backup is useful, but if you're backing up a corrupted file the verification will still check out.

    My backup
    What I use is 3 x 750Gb external hard disks in simple cases connected via USB2. Every time I use one it's reformatted and a full backup is carried out. Nothing fancy, just Nero's backup utility. I keep a written log of which of the three disks has been used when. Two of them are stored offsite, one at home. USB2 isn't the quicker, but it's cheap and it works well enough. I leave the backup running overnight so speed isn't a problem, even for a 500Gb backup. With this system someone could steal all my computers, burn the house and I'd still have two copies of my images. Paranoid? I put a lot of work into my image library, and put it this way, the hardware is insured and replaceable.

    If you have only a few Gb to back up just burn DVDs, or even use USB memory sticks. You can also copy data to an FTP site.

    Another advantage of USB2 drives is that they work anywhere, no software to install first, just plug in and play. I don't bother with compression as disk space is cheap, it'd make the backup slower and restores/verification more complex. Where possible, make it simple and standards-based.

    RAID
    Another option is RAID, or redundant disks. In a mirrored RAID system you have say two 500Gb disks which appear as a single disk. The idea is that if one of these disks fails the other will continue, so your system can survive a disk failure.

    I don't think RAID systems are appropriate for this sort of backup. Firstly, they don't protect against user error, theft, or a coffee landing on the unit as both disks are likely to be lost. You're better off buying seperate 500Gb disk units and storing them in different locations. Secondly you actually need to notice the disk has failed and then replace it. If you don't, then you're running on a single disk thinking you have two. This is more common than you may think. So, my advice is forgo RAID, get multiple singles instead.

    Memory cards
    After I've completed a backup only then, after the images are on hard disk, quick DVD backup, and proper disk backup, do I reformat (not delete from) the camera's memory cards. Then it's all ready for the next time.

    Any memory card that errors or in any way appears to malfunction is discarded instantly. You can't take a chance. I use SanDisk Xtreme IIIs and they've been the most reliable so far.

    Security
    Your backups need to be stored securely, otherwise the data could be stolen. You can do this by locking the backups away, which is best, and/or encrypting the data. If you encrypt the data then you'd better remember how to decrypt it, and this will also limit your ability to easily restore. It will also slow the backup down. I just rely on a locked cabinet.

    The human side of it
    Human nature being what it is you won't do backups as often as you should. It's like going to the dentist, checking your super, getting fit...all the good stuff you know you should do, but quite frankly checking out aulro.com for the tenth time that day is a lot more appealing.

    So make it easy on yourself. Get three identical disks or whatever you are going to use -- there's a lot of options -- set a time for it, whatever works for you.

    In my experience, there are two types of backup user; those that are diligent about it, and those that haven't *yet* lost data. It's a 'yet', because sooner or later you will, and I mean will, have some sort of problem that results in data loss. It is a statistical certanity if you use computers long enough.

    I can't tell you how many people I've seen that have lost work, in some cases days, others years, yes years, simply by not backing up. Just recently a friend was on the phone, literally sobbing because she thought she'd lost work. I thought someone had died until she got the words out! As it happened, we were able to recover it but the good news was she was scared into backing things up properly. I resisted a huge 'told you so', of course ;-)

    Don't let it happen to you, back up now.

    If, as soon as you read this post, your computer melted; could you recover your data?

    Backup Golden Rules
    1. Do it as frequently as your important data changes.
    2. Have at least three copies of the data
    3. Store at least one offsite
    4. Keep it simple
    5. Do test restores every other backup, and enable post-backup verification


    Others can post their backup horror stories and tips below. If we can save just one person from data loss our work will be done!

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    Howto: Pan shots

    What's a pan shot?
    A pan shot is where the subject is sharply focused but the background is blurred. Here's an example:



    Canon EOS-20D, 24-70 lens, 1/80 sec

    Why pan?
    Pan shots are useful for conveying a sense of movement for anything that moves at a walking pace or quicker. They work well for cars as these are objects that move quickly in a straight line, but you can also pan people walking, cyclists, animals...anything. They are also useful for photographing moving objects in low light where you wouldn't be able to get a fast shutter speed. You can pan at 5 or 500kmph, and from 1 to 1000m away from the subject.

    How to pan
    Practice is the key. Find yourself a nice straight bit of road where the cars will be going between 60 and 100kmph, and stand back from the road by around 30-50m. As a car approaches, say from the left, aim the camera at it and track the car as it passes directly in front of you and then moves away down the road. Do this a few times.

    Now you're ready to try and take some shots.

    Setup
    Put your camera on its fastest motor drive, and use a servo mode if you have it -- that's a method of focusing that constantly changes focus as your subject moves. If you have no motor drive nor a servo mode you can still pull off a pan shot, it's just more difficult. I'll describe that later.

    Work out what zoom you want. Don't try and zoom in so the car almost completely fills the frame, because as you pan you'll almost certainly get some car out of the frame. Zooming out a little gives you some margin for error, and you can crop to suit later on. Having a car stop on the road directly in front of you helps.

    Set your camera to centre-point focus.

    For your first attempts use a shutter speed of 1/100 sec in shutter-priority mode.

    The pan
    Adopt your favoured, most stable stance. Pick the subject car up through the viewfinder as early as you can; you need to be tracking it well before it is directly in front of you.

    As the car starts to pass by you should by now be smoothly tracking it with the camera. Now, while doing that, press the shutter button and hold it down while continuing to smoothly track. Follow the car through until it has gone out of sight even if the camera's buffer fills up.

    Review
    Have a look at your shots. You'll probably need to work on your technique but you should see some keepers fairly quickly. The quicker the shutter speed, the sharper the subject, but the less the background blur.

    Image stabilisation
    In general keep it on. If you have a two-mode Canon lens select mode 2.

    How to cope without servo or motor drive
    <tbc>

    Short-lens panning
    <tbc>


    D3 image notes: the car is silver, so it is important to select a dark background to avoid the car being lost in the background. The dust also provides some sense of movement. Alloy wheels, with their large spokes, work much better than steel wheels. On this occasion we did two runs as time was pressing, but usually I'd have the driver do at least four to make sure of a variety of shots such as a 3/4 pan shot, and at different shutter speeds.

    There is a lot more to say about pan shots, many more examples to show and I can do so if there is interest.

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    HOWTO : Head on shots



    A vehicle, or anything else coming straight towards the photographer can make a great shot. You can simply position the vehicle where you want and shoot it stationary, but if you can it is better to give a sensation of speed. This can be done with a dusty road, or a shot close enough to show the tyres are rotating -- best effect with coarse tread like a mud pattern.

    The problem is focus. By necessity you will be a long way from the vehicle and thus shooting at a long focal length. This will narrow your depth of field. Futhermore, the vehicle could be moving very rapidly, so will quickly pass into and out of your focus range. Obviously you need to compose the shot, pay attention to light and so on but that's for another howto.

    There are two basic techniques to achieve the focus required. The first is pre-focusing, and that's the only choice with most compact cameras. To do that decide at which point you want to photograph the car, and pre-focus on that spot. You may need to change your camera's focus mode to single-point only. Typically, select a rock or something on the road, hold the shutter button halfway down to focus and then wait for the car to come though. Just before it hits your focus point press the shutter all the way. This is also a good technique to use to avoid the shutter lag in compact digital cameras.

    Owners of DSLRs can use that technique too, but typically they don't need to because they have a servo focus mode. This means the camera focuses on a moving object, and continually refocuses to keep the object in focus as it approaches you. Works best with objects that are moving at a constant speed. Simply set the focus mode to servo, focus point to single (centre is usually best) and before the car reaches your preferred point hit the motor drive.

    Shutter speed. Around 1/250 should see the car nice and sharp, but with enough blur in the tyres so they don't appear frozen which makes a terrible shot. Much depends on the speed of the vehicle, tread pattern, light etc, and of course the longer the focal length the greater the shutter speed needed to avoid camera shake. As ever, YMMV.

    Finally, a word on safety. It is very easy to forget how close you are to a vehicle when shooting. Both the photog and driver may risk safety for the shot, so be mindful of the probable velocity vector if things go wrong. The inside of a turn is better than the outside, for example.

    The shot above was intentionally taken on an S bend with a dip, which usually makes a great shot. There are actually some roadsigns but they are hidden behind the car. I specified 90kmph to get some dust and was probably lying prone or close to it. Canon EOS-20D and a 70-200 lens.

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    HOWTO: ISO

    Exposure is all about deciding how much light should enter the camera for any given shot. Three ways to control that are shutter speed, aperture and ISO.

    If you are shooting in low light you can slow the shutter speed, but then you can't freeze action and have problems with camera shake. You can use wide-open apertures, but that limits your depth of field.

    The answer is to increase the ISO. That apparently is a control with no downside, just increase it to make the camera more light-sensitive and away you go.

    Of course, life isn't that simple. The camera's sensor still receives the same amount of light whether you set it to ISO 100 or 1600. What it does above its standard setting is amplify the light it receives. Unfortunately, being an electrical circuit, the sensor also has a certain amount of 'noise' built into the circuit -- just imperfections in every electrical circuit. These imperfections also get amplified. At low ISO it doesn't matter, as the light is strong enough that while the errors exist, their are pretty well not noticeable. At higher ISOs, where things are amplified, they do become noticeable.

    Here is a static shot taken with a Canon EOS-40D from ISO 100 to 3200. The aperture remained constant throughout (Av mode), and the shutter speed was varied to maintain the same exposure as the ISO changed. Long exposures can cause noise, but the exposures even at ISO100 were less than two seconds, a point at which long-exposure noise isn't a problem for the 40D.



    As the ISO increases the shot becomes grainier, and less distinct.

    So, what ISO to use when?

    Here are the rules, break as required.

    1. Use the lowest ISO you can consistent with your shutter speed and aperture requirements.

    This means if you're in bright daylight, shoot ISO 100. Only increase the ISO unwillingly, because you pay a penalty in image noise. Never increase it unless you are forced to by the requirements of your desired aperture and shutter speed combination.

    2. Work out where your camera's maximum ISO is. For example, I'm quite happy with my 40D at ISO 200. I prefer to avoid 400 and don't like it at ISO 800. On the other hand my 1D3 works perfectly well at 400, so I don't hesitate to use that setting.

    3. Don't be afraid to increase ISO to get the shot, or get the shutter speed you need.

    There's no point trying to shoot at 200mm using 1/60 and ISO 100. You'll just get camera shake and a blurred shot, even with image stabilisation. Put the ISO up to whatever it takes to get something like 1/200 sec. It is better to have a high-ISO noisy shot that is sharp than a blurred shot with no noise. Of course, a tripod, flash, waiting for another time, resting the camera on something can work too, but this is about ISO.

    Sometimes it's high ISO, or no shot. An easy decision!

    4. As ever, break these rules as required ;-)

    Notes
    SLRs have larger sensors than compacts so perform better at higher ISOs. Low-light performance is one of the SLR's advantages over a compact.

    Sometimes a deliberately grainy shot has a pleasing effect.

    Some photographs are more prone to noise than others. Look at the example above; the red model Sport is clearly noisier than some of the other areas in the image. Bear this in mind when considering what your maximum ISO will be.

    There is noise reduction software, and various image editing programs can also reduce noise. Some cameras offer this as an option too. However, this does not mean an image shot at high ISO and then 'cleaned' will be as sharp as one shot at low ISO. Noise reduction systems do reduce noise, but tend to soften the image in the process, or introduce other problems. The overall result is often better, but will never match a lower-ISO image.

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    Lightbulb How to: Taking Panoramas

    Why take panoramas or stitch multiple pictures together?
    There are two reasons. Obviously the panorama aspect, you just can't get everything in the photograph, simply put the lens isn't wide enough. The other reason is to increase the saturation of the pixels that make up the image. Lets say your camera takes an image that is 3000x2100 pixels. Printing this at 300pixels/inch would mean you could print a 10"x7" image of high quality. What if you wanted a 10"x28"? Easy joing several pictures together and create one image that is 3000x8400 pixels.

    There's a lot of information already on the internet so I thought I'd list some of the key parts to effectively taking a panoramic shot. After all a lot of the P&S cameras have this as a picture option. I'll also only discuss horizontal (single plane) panorama's.

    The key things in taking a panorama are:
    1. Keep the camera in manual - manual focus, manual shutter and aperture
    2. Rotate the camera around the nodal point of the lens
    3. Keep the camera level
    4. Overlap the pictures

    1. Keep the camera in manual
    With a P&S digital camera this is usually easily accomplished by selecting the panorama setting. That's about all it really does. On a DSLR you will need to select manual focus and manual exposure though. The reason for this is to keep the images similar and to underexpose rather than over expose. This leads to what exposure setting to use. Usually focus is at infinity so a good small aperture is better as you want to keep the depth of field reasonable. As for the shutter speed I will then set that according to the brightest part of the picture. This way you avoid any flaring in an overexposed frame and it is always more likely you will recover a darkened shot than one that is blown out. So it is important to move the camera across the proposed subject and watch the light meter.

    2. Rotate the camera around the nodal point of the lens
    What is the nodal point I hear you ask? This is simply the point at which the camera needs to be rotated around so that you avoid parallax errors in the panorama. Don't mistake it for the focal plane of the camera. On most P&S cameras you can simply rotate the camera about the point directly under the front of the lens and this will be close enough. On the higher end pro-sumer camera's and on DSLR's it becomes more lens specific. This is a good explanation of the nodal point and how to adjust for it: Determining the Nodal Point of a Lens.

    Of course the easiest way to do all this is have a panoramic rail on a turntable head on the tripod. This allows the camera to be off-set from the normal mounting point on the tripod, so the nodal point is over the centre. The whole platform is then levelled and progressive shots taken by rotating the turntable. You can even set it up for different lenses e.g. I have mine worked out for my 70-200, 24-70 and 50mm lenses.


    3. Keep the camera level
    Panoramas are best taken with a tripod but with a bit of ingenuity you can always build a steady platform on a fence post or car roof or similar. A handy thing to carry is bean bag (something like this: cam-pod) and a small spirit level. Of course if you have a tripod it may have a level built in to it. What ever method you choose it's important the camera is level as you rotate it through the successive shots and that it is set back from the centre of the tripod (over the Nodal Point). If you are using a beanbag or a fence post then mark the spot with something and rotate the camera around this spot.

    4. Overlap the pictures
    I invariably use about a 50% overlap of my shots. In general at least a 30% overlap is recommended as this makes it much easier to align (even for the software that does it all for you).

    So visually what does this all mean?
    Well here are some pictures to demonstrate.
    Using a Panoramic head and rail on a levelled tripod and rotating about the nodal point, 5 shots.


    Here are the individual shots masked and overlaid, the red mask is what is then cropped off the final image


    As you can see very little is wasted. In this case the main reason for cropping was the camera was not perfectly level. This is something that can be hard to achieve, but as you can see it is very close and often near enough is OK.

    Software:
    This is like asking what tyre is best for a Defender. I use Photoshop CS3's Photomerge action. There a lot of good applications out there to stitch photos together.

    Additional information:
    Really Right Stuff - Panoramas
    Panoguide - How To

    And of course you can always Google "Panorama"
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    How to: Multiple exposure in backyard

    HOW TO: A different slate on Multiple Exposures
    I posted this in the Backyard Pic's thread:


    So how did I get 21 pictures of my dog?

    Well Nikon very nicely has an interval timer on the D200/D300 DSLR's. With this you can tell the camera to take x consecutive shots every y seconds for a given time interval. So I simply set the camera up to take 1 picture every 10 seconds for 12 minutes whilst I played with the dog in the backyard. Yes this is the result of 74 images, of course some (most) weren't used.

    You don't need a Nikon DSLR for this, but you do need a layer capable photo editing software like Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.

    What else you need:
    Digital Camera (obviously) with good charge in the batteries and enough room on the card for the expected shots.
    Tripod or stable platform that camera won't move about on.
    A Dog (optional)

    Set the camera up for manual exposure, manual focus. Focus on the area you want to take and the exposure you desire - a good DOF is best with a reasonable shutter speed to stop motion. Also pick a day when the suns not going behind clouds all the time and the light is reasonably stable.

    If you have a Nikon then setup the interval timer, if you don't have an interval timer then have someone operate the camera and fire off the shutter every so often - it doesn't have to be a fixed interval does it!

    While that's all happening go about your business in front of the camera getting a picture every so often.

    The result is a whole collection of pictures like in this contact sheet:


    The next thing is to load all the images into your editing software. But you aren't editing each image, rather, each image is a separate layer of a single picture. So you need to know how to use the photo editing software. If you don't know what to do for the software you have, I would suggest googling something like "photoshop layer masking tutorial".

    There's a great thread on all this on the dpReview forum and this shows other uses for the interval timer.
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    How To: Little Planets

    I won't put to much detail into this as there is a lot of detail on sites like Flickr and other sites.

    Little Planets is very simple but requires a reasonable editing tool. I use Photoshop CS3, but you can do it any a lot of other applications.

    Take an image - a 360 degree panorama is actually the best kind, but none of the ones I've posted are 360's.


    Change the image size to be square - use the shortest dimension and tell the software not to constrain the proportions (i.e. let it distort the image). In this case it would be 2592 pixels.



    Rotate the image 180 degrees


    Now you need something to convert from Rectangular to Polar co-ordinates. Photoshop does this in the Distort Filter



    Next clean up the join with the healing brush and some cloning of details. It also pays to do some of this before you start if its not a 360 degree shot.
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    How to: Tilt Shift photography

    Have you seen those adverts on TV where it looks like models of real beach scenes?

    The technique is called tilt shift and is pretty cool.

    You can find out about it from the creator of the adverts (complete with sample video) here: Metal Heart Keith Loutit PhotoBlog and here: Submarinechannel.com video

    Essentially you take an image, apply an artificially short depth of field, boost the saturation and contrast and you are done.

    A simple online tool is here: tiltshiftmaker.com - Transform your photos into tilt-shift style miniatures

    And a walkthrough with PS is here: Tilt-Shift Photography Photoshop Tutorial | Miniature Faking | TiltShiftPhotography.net

    Have fun, Steve

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    misc howto

    Not a specific howto but some ideas.

    While on a training day I decided to get a few action shots. Now one of the first rules of photography is you need to control your environment. You position your subject(s), fix the background, wait for the light, reflect the light and generally arrange everything to your liking. Then you take the shot, stare unhappily at the result and change it, but that's another story.

    However, often you can't really control all those variables, or simply don't want to put in the effort required. Such was the case on this training day. Nevertheless, I wanted to get a tracking (vehicle to vehicle) shot. Usually you'd pre-brief the drivers, pick a spot, hang out the window and get going but obviously that wasn't an option.

    To get a sensation of speed you need some form of blurring. A fast shutter speed will make the car looked parked and that's pointless. The idea is to have the car sharp, but the wheels and background blurred. In a straight line this is possible, but difficult unless it's a specific tracking shot setup. Ideally you need to get the camera low, as low shots look more dramatic and the closer the camera to the ground the more the blur. You'd also try and get some kerb or other contrasting track in the shot rather than just black tar.

    Anyway I had to shoot through the window so settled on a corner shot, choosing to take it in the afternoon when the light was on the inside, visible side of the car rather than the morning. At least that part I could control. The corner was selected as it allowed me to see the side of the car, and as both vehicles were cornering the background is blurred not only from the forward speed but also from the cornering.

    Once I'd decided on the shot it was a matter of setting the camera up. Image stabilisation is worth every cent in these situations. You zoom out as far as you need to, and anticipate the action, using motor mode to squeeze off a few frames. I used 1/60 -- would have preferred 1/50 or 1/40 but to be sure of the shot I went a little higher, few chances to get it right. The car is not centred, which is intentional. I used one of the autofocus points to the right of the centre. A polarising filter was used to reduce glare in general.




    EOS-1D, 1/60, ISO 100, f/8, 24-105L with IS, AI servo.


    This one is just a basic pan shot, but as it was a quick car (120) quite close by the back end was always going to blur. Hence I was careful to put the AF point right on the nose. The other interesting point about this shot is that my camera wasn't even on three seconds beforehand. An advantage of the DSLR is that you can turn it on and fire off ten shots before P&S has even powered up. Again I would have preferred a lower shooting point but I did have time to drop to my knees before commencing the pan.





    1/80, f/14, ISO200, AI servo

    I don't usually do B&W but this one looked much better in B&W than colour. If I had time I'd have moved the cones a little, and indeed the car as I'm not real happy with the background. This shot was taken by placing the DSLR right on the ground and pointing. You can't see the viewfinder, but with practice you get to know where to point it.



    I hope this is of value to someone. Like I said to do a proper shoot you'd control things, but even if you don't and have limited time it is possible to get the occasional result.

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