I started out in film at college, but got straight into the digital formats as soon as they arrived. I loved experimenting in the darkroom, and understanding the traditional techniques, but the joy of digital is it’s versatility. A lot of old school photographers will tell you it doesn’t have the ‘look’ of film but that’s like comparing a vinyl record to a CD. If you know what you’re doing in PhotoShop, digital photography can look like anything you want it to (even polaroid or slide film), but the advantage is you’re starting from the highest quality image in terms of clarity and resolution.
I work with digital formats and own two Canons, a DSLR (Digitial Single Lens Reflex i.e. a changeable lens camera) and an Ixus 80 (point and click) which is perfect for slipping in my pocket when I travel. Anyone will tell you it’s not the camera which counts, but the lens (when buying a DSLR its something to keep in mind, good lens are very expensive and most camera packages come with lower end kit lens). I am however, a big believer in great photos aren’t necessarily taken on expensive cameras. Composition is the key to great photography, and an eye for spotting a potentially great capture; from cool angles, interesting foreground & background images to just being in the right place at the right time.
A few Photoshop tips:
I find digital cameras can often loose saturation and have incorrect contrast levels. With DSLR you can easily correct this when shooting in ‘RAW’ format, but that’s not an option for small, point and click style cameras and unless you’re a professional, processing ‘RAW’ images can be overly time consuming and complicated. High quality JPEGs, especially in high resolution are more then most people will ever need and the contrast issues are where PhotoShop or similar software comes in.
Many people know what contrast is, and will attempt to make an image less grey, or simply more contrasted for style or colour by using this option. However, the results tend to loose a lot of detail, especially in shadowed or dark areas. It can also introduce a lot of noise or ‘graininess’, lowering the quality of the image. Try using ‘Levels’ instead (found in the image menu of PhotoShop), to tweak highlight and shadowed areas.
Try ‘auto levels’ first; this isn’t correct 100% of the time but it’s easy to undo and quick for those less confident. If you’re feeling more adventurous, try doing it by hand. Areas to pay special attention to are the eyes, they can often be in shadow and the eyes are absolutely vital to any portrait. As they say, the ‘soul’ is in the eyes, so you need to keep as much iris detail as possible, and make sure you have that little ‘pop’ of light in there too. Dark clothing can also quickly loose detail, this isn’t always vital but it can make a difference and can also indicate if the contrast levels are too high (in technical mumbo, jumbo, this is called ‘crushing the blacks’).
Another tip for improving colour/contrast is using layers. Sounds scary for the non-PhotoShoppers but it’s very simple and can make a massive difference, especially in terms of preserving image quality. The best tip I can offer is using ‘Overlay’ (though other options can produce interesting results). To do this, copy the main layer to create a clone of the original image (two identical versions of the image), and use the layer blending options to set it to ‘overlay’ (found at the top of the layers palette set to ‘Normal’ as default). You may find this is too strong or darkens the image beyond a suitable contrast level, but you can adjust this by changing the opacity level (top slider found on the layers palette set to 100% by default).
And the biggest tip for using PhotoShop is EXPERIMENT! Find images or photographs you like, and use them as inspiration for composition, and if treated, try to recreate the style in PhotoShop when you get home. It may seem scary at first, with lots of buttons and menus but Photoshop (or PhotoShop Elements) is like a lot of software, there’s 3 or 4 ways to do the same thing, and even pros rarely use every option or tool. Conversely, don’t try to add every effect, text or filter you can lay your hands on and over clutter or over-treat the image. The best images are often the simplest ones.
Suggested links:
Blurb.com – for printing your images into great keepsake books. Blurb’s downloadable software is simple to use and their service is great.
Flickr.com – One of the best photography communities on the net. You can use it for feedback, to get inspiration or simply to store your photos (up to 200 free, and unlimited with pro membership).
