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Category: Photography

  • RETOUCH TIPS FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS

    10 best retouch tips for photographers

    1. Eliminate skin imperfections

    Acne, wrinkles or scars on the face significantly ruin the impression of portrait photography. However, even these disadvantages can be eliminated by applying Photoshop tools.

    With the healing brush, it is possible to restore sections of shots using the appropriate fragments taken as a sample. The spot healing brush tool automatically selects pixel samples from the area around the retouched fragment.

    To achieve smooth skin, I suggest resorting to the frequency separation technique. It separates the texture in the shot from its tone and color. As a result, you will be able to tweak particular areas, and apply Gaussian Blur to smoothen the skin and retain its natural texture.

    2. Make the eyes more expressive

    Regardless of whether the makeup is present or not, the eyes are supposed to be the most expressive part of the face. You will need to lighten the whites of the eyes but it has to be done carefully so that they don’t appear unnaturally white.

    To increase the visibility of highlights and borders, add sharpness. These techniques are often used in fashion photography.

    Paint in the masks that you have created to slightly raise the brightness of the bottom part of the eyes, around the iris. A subtle touch on the catchlights for a brighter effect won’t hurt either.

    3. Emphasize or add lashes

    Thick and beautiful lashes are another way to make your eyes more expressive and a crucial part of the makeup retouching process. For this task, try the dry media brushes bundle. They aren’t only high-resolution but also full of detail and boast rich textures.

    Add lashes along their natural growth line and stick to the needed curve. Switch between different brush thickness and intensity values to achieve natural shapes. Also, don’t draw all the lashes at the same length, otherwise, they will appear artificial.

    4. Make the eyebrows neat

    This retouch makeup point requires you to be extra careful, as it is important to remove excessive hair without making the eyebrows unnaturally accurate. To eliminate all unnecessary elements, apply the Spot Healing Brush tool mentioned above.

    Moreover, you can add the missing hairs using the appropriate brushes. Once the excessive hair is eliminated, cover up the “bare” areas with the Stamp Tool (S). Then, hold Alt for cloning bunches of hair prior to painting them onto each brow.

    The next step would be to apply the Burn Tool (O) to make each shape darker and more intense. Portrait photographers often take advantage of such tricks.

    5. Fix the texture of the lips

    Makeup doesn’t look very neat on dry and cracked lips, and portrait photography will only emphasize the undesired effect. Therefore, you should carefully work on the texture of the lips while manipulating makeup in Photoshop.

    The defects may be eliminated using the clone stamp tool. In the same way, you will be able to correct the contour of the lips, copying clean areas of skin. The next step would be to align the light and shade on the lips. To do this, you need to raise the curve on the adjustment layer.

    With a white brush of a small radius and slight transparency, you will be aligning the light and shade over the entire surface of the lips. In addition, you should pay attention to the color of the teeth. Learn how to whiten teeth in Photoshop by means of this guide.

    6. Make the makeup brighter

    The camera often dims the colors, so you need to add brightness and saturation to make up Photoshop. For this task, you will have to resort to several adjustment layers. Mind that the intensity of makeup should match the overall atmosphere of the shot.

    The suggested adjustment layers are Curves, Gradient Map, and Levels. To begin with, adjust contrast via Curves. After that, settle on Luminosity for a gray Gradient Map. Pay attention to other peculiarities of editing pictures of this genre that are covered in my selection of portrait tutorials.

    7. Add contour and highlights

    To achieve realistic makeup for Photoshop, you need to figure out how it is actually applied in real life. Skillful makeup artists and regular people put on makeup in order to contour and highlight facial features. Dark shades are necessary for defining the bone structure.

    That’s exactly what you have to do while performing makeup retouch. A new layer should be adjusted to soft light. Then proceed to paint a lighter skin tone color with a soft round brush to the parts marked in the picture below.

    A second new layer should be adjusted to linear burn. Use this layer to make the cheekbones more defined by means of faded purple color. One of the essential stages of professional makeup retouching is figuring out how to smooth skin in Photoshop.

    8. Create eyes makeup

    It is possible to add makeup to photo in Photoshop if it is absent on the actual face. Using the adjustments tool, try creating shadows by darkening the outer corner of the eye and adding shine.

    Pick a hard round brush to achieve a neater black eyeliner. For the eyeshadows, reduce the hardness value to 0%. I would like to warn you against painting with a brown color. Layer blend modes will result in brown shades appearing with a profound red undertone.

    For a more eye-catching effect, discover how to change eyes color in Photoshop.

    9. Create eyebrows makeup

    To achieve a sharper line across the upper part of the eyebrows, I suggest picking the Pen tool (P) and drawing a path across that area. Then finish the selection (the video will show you how to do it step-by-step). Press Ctrl + Enter (Windows) or Cmd + Return (Mac) to load the path as a selection.

    The next step of the eyebrow makeup retouch would be to pick the Lasso tool (L). Using the arrow keys, push the selection downward for overlapping some of the eyebrow hair. After that, create a new layer, pick the Healing Brush tool, and take fragments of the skin from above the eyebrows on the forehead as a sample.

    10. Add gloss to the lips

    Using the solid color tool in the color overlay mode, it is possible to add the desired shade to the lips. To make the lips more voluminous, take advantage of the Dodge&Burn option as part of Photoshop make up retouching.

    In order to quickly add gloss and contrast to lips, create two new layers first. Then pick a very small brush and try painting over the brighter areas of lips with white on one of the new layers. On the other layer, paint over the shaded areas with black.

    Click Filter>Gaussian Blur to blur these two layers by a couple of pixels. After that, these two layers should be adjusted to the blend mode Soft Light. The last step of the process would be to lower the opacity until you are satisfied with the result.

    GET YOUR DEMO PHOTO EDITING

  • Understanding ISO, Shutter Speed, and Aperture

    ISO, Shutter Speed, and Aperture: A complete guide

    • Shutter Speed – the length of time a camera shutter is open to expose light into the camera sensor. Shutter speed in photography are typically measured in fractions of a second when they are under a second. Slow shutter speeds allow more light into the camera sensor and are used for low-light and night photography, while fast shutter speeds help to freeze motion. Examples of shutter speeds: 1/15 (1/15th of a second), 1/30, 1/60, 1/125.
    • Aperture – a hole within a lens, through which light travels into the camera body. The larger the hole, the more light passes to the camera sensor. Aperture also controls the depth of field, which is the portion of a scene that appears to be sharp. If the aperture is very small, the depth of field is large, while if the aperture is large, the depth of field is small. In photography, the aperture is typically expressed in “f” numbers (also known as “focal ratio”, since the f-number is the ratio of the diameter of the lens aperture to the length of the lens). Examples of-numbers are f/1.4, f/2.0, f/2.8, f/4.0, f/5.6, f/8.0.
    • ISO – a way to brighten your photos if you can’t use a longer shutter speed or a wider aperture. It is typically measured in numbers, a lower number representing a darker image, while higher numbers mean a brighter image. However, raising your ISO comes at a cost. As the ISO rises, so does the visibility of graininess/noise in your images. Examples of ISO: 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600.

    Also, take a look at this article if you would like to understand what exposure actually means.

    And if you’re more of a visual learner, we recently published a comprehensive, beginner-friendly video on this exact same topic:

    1) How do shutter speed, aperture and ISO work together to create an exposure?

    To have a good understanding about exposure and how shutter speed, aperture and ISO affect it, we need to understand what happens within the camera when a picture is taken.

    As you point your camera at a subject and press the shutter button, the subject gets into your camera lens in a form of light. If your subject is well-lit, there is plenty of light that travels into the lens, whereas if you are taking a picture in a dim environment, there is not much light that travels into the lens.

    When the light enters the lens, it passes through various optical elements made of glass, then goes through the lens “Aperture” (a hole inside the lens that can be changed from small to large). Once the light goes past the lens aperture, it then hits the shutter curtain, which is like a window that is closed at all times, but opens when needed.

    The shutter then opens in a matter of milliseconds, letting the light hit the camera sensor for a specified amount of time. This specified amount of time is called “Shutter Speed” and it can be extremely short (up to 1/8000th of a second) or long (up to 30 seconds). The sensor then gathers the light, and your “ISO” brightens the image if necessary (again, making grain and image quality problems more visible). Then the shutter closes and the light is completely blocked from reaching the camera sensor.

    To get the image properly exposed, so that it is not too bright or too dark, Shutter Speed, Aperture and ISO need to play together. When lots of light enters the lens (let’s say it is broad daylight with plenty of sunlight), what happens when the lens aperture/hole is very small? Lots of light gets blocked. This means that the camera sensor would need more time to collect the light.

    What needs to happen for the sensor to collect the right amount of light?

    That’s right, the shutter needs to stay open longer. So, with a very small lens aperture, we would need more time, i.e. longer shutter speed for the sensor to gather enough light to produce a properly exposed image.

    Now what would happen if the lens aperture/hole was very big? Obviously, a lot more light would hit the sensor, so we would need a much shorter shutter speed for the image to get properly exposed. If the shutter speed is too low, the sensor would get a lot more light than it needs and the light would start “burning” or “overexposing” the image, just like magnifying glass starts burning paper on a sunny day.

    The overexposed area of the image will look very bright or pure white. In contrast, if the shutter speed is way too high, then the sensor is not able to gather enough light and the image would appear “underexposed” or too dark.

    Let’s do a real-life example. Grab your camera and set your camera mode to “Aperture Priority“. Set your lens aperture on your camera to the lowest possible number the lens will allow, such as f/1.4 if you have a fast lens or f/3.5 on slower lenses. Set your ISO to 200 and make sure that “Auto ISO” is turned off.

    Now point your camera at an object that is NOT a light source (for example a picture on the wall) then half-press the shutter button to acquire correct focus and let the camera determine the optimal exposure settings. Do not move your camera and keep pointing at the same subject! If you look inside the camera viewfinder now or on the back LCD, you should see several numbers.

    One of the numbers will show your aperture, which should be the same number as what you set your aperture to, then it should show your shutter speed, which should be a number such as “125” (means 1/125th of a second) and “200”, which is your sensor ISO.

    Nikon D5000 Viewfinder

    Write down these numbers on a piece of paper and then take a picture. When the picture comes up on the rear LCD of your camera, it should be properly exposed. It might be very blurry, but it should be properly exposed, which means not too bright or too dark. Let’s say the settings you wrote down are 3.5 (aperture), 125 (shutter speed) and 200 (ISO).

    Now change your camera mode to “Manual Mode“. Manually set your aperture to the same number as you wrote down, which should be the lowest number your camera lens will allow (in our example it is 3.5). Then set your shutter speed to the number you wrote down (in our example it is 125) and keep your ISO the same – 200. Make sure your lighting conditions in the room stay the same.

    Point at the same subject and take another picture. Your results should look very similar to the picture you took earlier, except this time, you are manually setting your camera shutter speed, instead of letting your camera make the guess. Now, let’s block the amount of light that is passing through the lens by increasing the aperture and see what happens.

    Increase your aperture to a larger number such as “8.0” and keep the rest of the settings the same. Point at the same subject and take another picture. What happened? Your image is too dark or underexposed now! Why did this happen? Because you blocked a portion of the light that hits the sensor and did not change the shutter speed.

    Because of this, the camera sensor did not have enough time to gather the light and therefore the image is underexposed. Had you decreased the shutter speed to a smaller number, this would not have happened. Understand the relationship?

    Now change your aperture back to what it was before (smallest number), but this time, decrease your shutter speed to a much smaller number. In my example, I will set my shutter speed to 4 (quarter of a second) from 125. Take another picture. Now your image should be overexposed and some parts of the image should appear too bright. What happened this time? You let your lens pass through all the light it can gather without blocking it, then you let your sensor gather more light then it needs by decreasing the shutter speed. This is a very basic explanation of how aperture and shutter speed play together.

    So, when does ISO come into play and what does it do? So far, we kept the ISO at the same number (200) and didn’t change it. Remember, ISO means sensor brightness. Lower numbers mean lower brightness, while higher numbers mean higher brightness. If you were to change your ISO from 200 to 400, you would be making the photo twice as bright.

    In the above example, at aperture of f/3.5, shutter speed of 1/125th of a second and ISO 200, if you were to increase the ISO to 400, you would need twice less time to properly expose the image. This means that you could set your shutter speed to 1/250th of a second and your image would still come out properly exposed.

    Try it – set your aperture to the same number you wrote down earlier, multiply your shutter speed by two and set it to that number, then change your ISO to 400. It should look the same as the first image you took earlier. If you were to increase the ISO to 800, you would need to again double your last shutter speed from 1/250 to 1/500.

    As you can see, increasing ISO from 200 to 800 will allow you to shoot at higher shutter speeds and in this example increase it from 1/125th of a second to 1/500th of a second, which is plenty of speed to freeze motion. However, increasing ISO comes at a cost – the higher the ISO, the more noise or grain it will add to the picture.

    Basically, this is how the Three Kings work together to create an exposure. I highly recommend practicing with your camera more to see the effects of changing aperture, shutter speed and ISO.

    Note: If you want to make some adjustments to the photo just let me know. I can do it for you at a very low cost. You can hire me to edit your photo.

    2) What camera mode should I be using?

    As I pointed out in my “Understanding Digital Camera Modes” article, I recommend using the “Aperture Priority” mode for beginners (although any other mode works equally well, as long as you know what you are doing). In this mode, you set your lens aperture, while the camera automatically guesses what the right shutter speed should be.

    This way, you can control the depth of field in your images by changing the aperture (depth of field also depends on other factors such as a camera to subject distance and focal length). There is absolutely nothing wrong with using “Auto” or “Program” modes, especially considering the fact that most modern DSLRs give the photographer pretty good control by allowing to override the shutter speed and aperture in those modes.

    But most people get lazy and end up using the Auto/Program modes without understanding what happens inside the camera, so I highly recommend learning how to shoot in all camera modes.

    3) What ISO Should I Set My Camera To?

    If your camera is equipped with an “Auto ISO” feature (known as “ISO Sensitivity Auto Control” on Nikon bodies), you should enable it, so that the camera automatically guesses what the right ISO should be in different lighting conditions.

    Auto ISO is worry-free and it works great for most lighting conditions! Set your “Minimum ISO/ISO Sensitivity” to 100 on Canon cameras and 200 on latest Nikon cameras, then set your “Maximum ISO/Maximum Sensitivity” to 800 or 1600 (depending on how much noise you consider acceptable).

    Set the “Minimum Shutter Speed” to 1/100th of a second if you have a short lens below 100mm and to a higher number if you have a long lens. Basically, the camera will watch your shutter speed and if it drops below the “Minimum Shutter Speed”, it will automatically increase the ISO to a higher number, to try to keep the shutter speed above this setting.

    The general rule is to set your shutter speed to the largest focal length of your lens. For example, if you have a Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 zoom lens, set your minimum shutter speed to 1/300th of a second. Why? Because as the focal length of the lens increases, so do the chances of having a camera shake that will render your images blurry.

    But this rule doesn’t always work, because there are other factors that all play a role in whether you will introduce camera shake or not. Having shaky hands and improperly holding the camera might cause extra camera shake, while having a lens with Vibration Reduction (also known as Image Stabilization) might actually help to decrease camera shake. Either way, play with the “Minimum Shutter Speed” option and try changing numbers and see what works for you.

    Auto ISO on Nikon

    If you do not have an “Auto ISO” option in your camera, then start out with the lowest ISO and see what shutter speeds you are getting. Keep on increasing the ISO until you get to an acceptable shutter speed.

    4) Exposure compensation

    Another great feature of all modern DSLRs, is the ability to control the exposure by using the “exposure compensation” feature. Except for manual mode, exposure compensation works great for all camera modes.

    Whether you are shooting in Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority or Auto/Program modes, dialing the exposure compensation up or down (plus to minus) will allow you to regulate the exposure and override the camera-guessed settings.

    If you find your image (or parts of your image) underexposed or overexposed, you can use exposure compensation to adjust the exposure without manually changing the aperture or shutter speed.

    5) Should I use flash or increase ISO?

    It really depends on what you are taking a picture of. Sometimes it is not possible to use your built-in camera flash in a low-light environment. For example, if your subject is standing far away, you might not be able to reach the subject with your flash.

    In that case, the only solution is to either come closer to the subject, or turn off flash completely and use a higher ISO. Obviously, for landscape or architectural photography, you should always turn off your flash, because it will not be able to brighten up the entire scene.

    So in a low-light situation, the only two options are to either increase the ISO so that you can shoot hand-held, or set the camera to the lowest ISO and use a tripod.

    6) What are “full stops”?

    Have you ever heard of a term “full stop” in photography? Each of the increments between ISO numbers is called “a full stop” in photography. For example, there is one full stop between ISO 100 and ISO 200, while there are two full stops between ISO 100 and ISO 400. How many stops are there between ISO 100 and ISO 1600? That’s right, four full stops of light.

    Why do you need to know about stops? Because you might see it in photography literature or photographer might mention stops and it is sometimes confusing to understand what it truly means. But the term “full stop” does not just apply to ISOs – the same concept is there for shutter speed and aperture. It is easy to remember full stops between shutter speeds because you just start from one and divide the number by two: 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, etc.

    Obviously, the numbers are rounded (starting from 1/15, which should be 1/16) to make it easy for photography. It is harder to memorize stops in apertures, because the numbers are computed differently: f/1, f/1.4, f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, etc. To read more about stops, please see our detailed Exposure Stops article.

    7) Specific examples and case scenarios

    Let’s now go over what you could do in your camera to properly expose an image in different lighting conditions.

    What should I do in low-light situations?

    Use Aperture-Priority mode, set your aperture to the lowest possible number. Be careful if you have a fast lens such as Nikon 50mm f/1.4 because setting aperture to the lowest number (f/1.4) will make the depth of field very shallow. Set your “Auto ISO” to “On” (if you have it) and make sure that the maximum ISO and minimum shutter speed are both defined, as shown in section 3. If after increasing your ISO you are still getting small shutter speeds (which means that you are in a very dim environment), your only other options are to either use a tripod or a flash. If you have moving subjects that need to be “frozen”, you will have to use flash.

    What do I need to do to freeze the action?

    First, you will need plenty of light. Freezing action during broad daylight is easy, whereas it is extremely tough to do it in low-light situations. Assuming you have plenty of light, make sure that your aperture is set to the lowest number (again, be careful about depth of field), then set your “Auto ISO” to “On” (if you have it) and set your minimum shutter speed to a really high number such as 1/500th or 1/1000th of a second. For my bird photography, I try to keep shutter speeds at 1/1000th of a second and faster.

    What settings do I need to change to create a motion blur effect?

     Turn off Auto ISO and set your ISO to the lowest number. If the shutter speed is too fast and you still cannot create motion blur, increase the aperture to a higher number until the shutter speed drops to a low number below 1/100-1/50 of a second.

    What do I do if I cannot get proper exposure? The image is either too dark or too bright.

    Make sure that you are not shooting in Manual Mode. Set your camera meter to “Evaluative” (Canon) or “Matrix” (Nikon). If it is already set and you are still getting improper exposure, it means that you are probably taking a picture where there is a big contrast between multiple objects (for example bright sky and dark mountains, or sun in the frame) – whatever you are trying to take a picture of is confusing the meter within your camera. If you still need to take a picture, set your camera meter to “Spot” and try to point your focus point to an area that is not too bright or too dark. That way you get the “sweet middle”.

    How can I isolate my subject from the background and make the background (bokeh) look soft and smooth?

    Stand closer to your subject and use the smallest aperture on your lens. Some lenses can render the background much better and smoother than others. If you do not like the bokeh on yours, consider getting a good portrait lens such as the Nikon 50mm f/1.4 or the Nikon 85mm f/1.4, which is considered to be one of the best lenses when it comes to bokeh.

    How can I decrease the amount of noise/grain in my images?

    Turn off “Auto ISO” and set your ISO to the base ISO of the camera (ISO 100 on Canon and ISO 200 on Nikon).

    Note: If you want to make some adjustments to the photo just let me know. I can do it for you at a very low cost. You can hire me to edit your photo.

  • What is ISO? The Complete Guide for Beginners

    ISO is one of the three pillars of photography (the other two being shutter speed and aperture), and it has a major effect on your images. How does camera ISO affect your images? In this article, we will introduce ISO for beginners and explain how to use it effectively for the best possible results.

    What is ISO?

    In very basic terms, ISO is simply a camera setting that will brighten or darken a photo. As you increase your ISO number, your photos will grow progressively brighter. For that reason, ISO can help you capture images in darker environments, or be more flexible about your aperture and shutter speed settings.

    However, raising your ISO has consequences. A photo taken at too high of an ISO will show a lot of grain, also known as noise, and might not be usable. So, brightening a photo via ISO is always a trade-off. You should only raise your ISO when you are unable to brighten the photo via shutter speed or aperture instead (for example, if using a longer shutter speed would cause your subject to be blurry).

    What is the meaning of ISO?

    The acronym ISO stands for “International Organization for Standardization”. However, camera ISO does not directly refer to the organization that creates various technology and product standards. Ever since two film standards called ASA and DIN were combined into ISO standards in 1974 (later revised for both film and digital photography), they were referred to as one word “ISO” from that point on. Although ISO initially defined only film sensitivity, it was later adopted by digital camera manufacturers with the purpose of maintaining similar brightness levels as film.

    Common ISO values

    Every camera has a different range of ISO values (sometimes called ISO speeds) that you can use. A common set is as follows:

    • ISO 100 (low ISO)
    • ISO 200
    • ISO 400
    • ISO 800
    • ISO 1600
    • ISO 3200
    • ISO 6400 (high ISO)

    Quite simply, when you double your ISO speed, you are doubling the brightness of the photo. So, a photo at ISO 400 will be twice brighter than ISO 200, which will be twice brighter than ISO 100.

    What is base ISO?

    The lowest native ISO on your camera is your “base ISO”. This is a very important setting, because it gives you the potential to produce the highest image quality, minimizing the visibility of noise as much as possible. Some older DSLRs and a number of modern cameras, such as the Fuji X-T2 have a base ISO of 200, whereas most modern digital cameras have a base ISO of 100. Optimally, you should always try to stick to the base ISO to get the highest image quality. However, it is not always possible to do so, especially when working in low-light conditions.

    Side note:

    Some cameras have extended “HI” and “LO” values for ISO that might stretch beyond their native range. However, these are completely simulated and lower your image quality. We recommend avoiding them.

    Low vs High ISO noise visibility

    To give an example of two photos taken at different ISO values, take a look at the comparison below. Pay attention to the level of noise (graininess and blotchy colors) in the images:

    The difference is clear – the image at ISO 3200 has much more noise than the one at ISO 200 (which I brightened with a long shutter speed instead). This is why you should avoid high ISOs whenever possible, unless conditions require you to use them.

    How to change ISO

    Changing ISO varies from camera to camera. Here are some common ways to change ISO:

    • To start, enter a mode that lets you select the ISO yourself. Get out of Auto mode, and go to Manual, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, or Program (we tend to prefer Aperture Priority or Manual).
    • For entry-level DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, you probably need to open a menu (possibly the “quick menu”) and find the section for ISO. Select the value you want, or set it to Auto.
    • For higher-end cameras, there may be a dedicated “ISO” button on the camera. Press it while spinning one of the wheels to change your ISO setting. If you don’t see a button labeled “ISO”, it is still possible that your camera will let you program one to perform this task.
    • Other cameras may have a dedicated wheel that already has various ISO settings marked. This makes things even easier.

    Check your camera manual if you still aren’t sure. However, it is worth being very familiar with how to change your ISO setting quickly, since it’s something you will likely be adjusting quite often, especially if you shoot in low light conditions without a tripod or flash.

    What camera ISO should you use?

    Many photographers understand the basics of ISO, but they aren’t sure which ISO value to actually pick in the field. In practice, there’s a reason why your camera allows such a wide range of ISO settings: Different situations call for different ISOs. Below, we will cover some of the common scenarios you may come across.

    When to use low ISO

    As discussed above, you should always try to stick to the lowest ISO (base ISO) of your camera, which is typically ISO 100 or 200, whenever you can. If there is plenty of light, you are free to use a low ISO and minimize the appearance of noise as much as possible.

    Even in dim or dark environments, you still might be able to use a low ISO. For example, if you have your camera mounted on a tripod or sitting completely still on a table. In that case, you can safely use a ghgdw low ISO and brighten your photo via a long shutter speed instead, since you won’t introduce camera shake. However, keep in mind that if your camera does use a long shutter speed, anything that is moving will look like a ghost:

    Just kidding, of course! That’s my lovely nephew being the subject of my long exposure test. I set the camera to the lowest ISO to retain the detail, which required a long shutter speed of five seconds in order to capture a bright enough photo. My nephew sat still, while my friend stepped in for a brief moment to introduce the ghost.

    Note: If you want to make some adjustments to the photo just let me know. I can do it for you at a very low cost. You can hire me to edit your photo.

    When to use high ISO

    Even though it is ideal to use low ISOs, there will be plenty of times when a high ISO is necessary in order to take a good photo in the first place. The simple reason is that you are often fighting against motion blur, and you will need to pick between a sharp photo at a high ISO, or a blurry photo at a low ISO. Take a look at the image below:

    I captured these Black Skimmers at 1/2000th of a second and ISO 800. Here, my camera needed 1/2000th of a second to fully freeze the birds while they were in flight. What would have happened if I had set ISO 100 on my camera instead? I would have needed a shutter speed of 1/250th of a second to capture a bright photo. At that setting, there would have been a lot of unwanted motion blur in the picture, since the birds were moving so fast. In short, I would have ruined the picture.

    The bottom line is that you should increase the ISO when there is not enough light for the camera to capture a sharp, bright photo any other way. When I shoot handheld photos indoors without a flash, I always set my ISO to a higher number to capture the moment without introducing blur. Or, when photographing ultra-fast action like in the bird picture above, raising your ISO is often necessary.

    On most cameras, there is a setting for Auto ISO, which works great in low-light environments. The beauty of this setting is that you input the maximum ISO you are willing to use, so that the camera does not cross that limit. Personally, if I want to limit the amount of noise in a photo, I will set my maximum ISO to something like ISO 800, 1600, or 3200. The downside is that the camera will start using progressively longer shutter speeds if it reaches these ISO limits, which leads to more motion blur. Everything is a trade-off!

    Minimizing noise and maximizing image quality

    Some photographers think that the best way to capture high-quality images is to use Base ISO 100% of the time. However, as demonstrated above, that simply is not true. Sometimes, you’ll be in dark environments when you have no choice but to use a higher ISO.

    You should only use base ISO when there is enough light to do so. Don’t try to force ISO 100 in a dark environment, or your photos will come out way too dark. Similarly, if you’re using a fast shutter speed to capture action, it’s essentially the same as taking pictures in a dark environment (since you strictly limit the amount of time your camera sensor is able to capture light). So, for certain types of sports and action photography, a high ISO might be your only option.

    To maximize your image quality, here are the four steps you need to follow:

    1. Select the aperture setting that will provide your desired depth of field.
    2. Set your ISO to its base value, and put your shutter speed to whatever setting provides a proper exposure.
    3. If your subject is blurry, progressively raise your ISO and use a faster shutter speed until motion blur disappears.
    4. If your ISO is getting too high and you still have the ability to use a wider aperture, open it up until the ISO gets to a more manageable level, even if it means sacrificing some of your desired depth of field.

    That’s all it takes! If you follow these steps, you’ll capture the maximum image quality each time. You’ll find the ideal balance between noise, motion blur, and depth of field.

    Common ISO myths and misconceptions

    ISO has a lot of myths surrounding it, including some that are quite common to hear. In this section, we will quickly address some of those concerns so that you are not misled about this topic in the future.

    Is ISO “Sensor Sensitivity”?

    This is the most common myth related to ISO. It is something you will see all over the web (and in print). However, although it may help you to think of ISO as “acting like” camera sensor sensitivity, that’s not what it actually does. Instead, digital sensors only have a single sensitivity, regardless of your ISO. It is more accurate to say that ISO is like a mapping to tell your camera how bright the output photo should be, given a particular input exposure.

    Is ISO Part of Exposure?

    No, ISO is not part of exposure. Shutter Speed and Aperture brighten your photo by physically capturing more light. ISO doesn’t do that; instead, it essentially brightens the photo you already captured. So, photographers don’t consider it to be a component of exposure.Is

    Raising ISO just like brightening your photo on a computer?

    This is a clever question, but, again, it is simply a misconception. Brightening a photo on your computer can act in many ways like raising your ISO, since it does make noise more visible (and it leads to a brighter image). But the simple difference is that raising your ISO in the camera nearly always provides better image quality than brightening a photo on your computer. In other words, it is better to use ISO 800 when necessary, rather than brightening an ISO 100 photo to a huge degree in post-processing software like Lightroom!

    How does ISO affect a photo?

    ISO increases or decreases the brightness of a photograph, but also affects both grain / noise levels and dynamic range. At the lowest (base) ISO setting, your images will have the least amount of noise and the highest dynamic range, giving you the most flexibility in post-processing. As ISO is increased, noise levels increase and dynamic range typically decreases as well. What is the Best ISO Setting for Low-Light?

    When shooting in low-light conditions, your shutter speed will typically decrease, resulting in camera shake or motion blur. To avoid such issues, you should increase ISO setting to a higher value, such as ISO 1600. Depending on your aperture and light conditions, you might need to increase ISO even more.

    What is the best ISO setting for landscape photography?

    When photographing landscapes, you should use a tripod and set your ISO to your camera’s base ISO, which is typically 100.

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  • Introduction to Shutter Speed in Photography

    One of the three most important settings in photography is Shutter Speed, the other two being Aperture and ISO. Shutter speed is responsible for two particular things: changing the brightness of your photo and creating dramatic effects by either freezing action or blurring motion. In the following article, we will explain everything you need to know about it in very simple language.

    Shutter speed exists because of the camera shutter – which is a curtain in front of the camera sensor that stays closed until the camera fires. When the camera fires, the shutter opens and fully exposes the camera sensor to the light that has passed through your lens. After the sensor is done collecting the light, the shutter closes immediately, stopping the light from hitting the sensor. The button that fires the camera is also called “shutter” or “shutter button,” because it triggers the shutter to open and close.

    What is shutter speed?

    Shutter speed is the length of time the camera shutter is open, exposing light onto the camera sensor. Essentially, it’s how long your camera spends taking a photo. This has a few important effects on how your images will appear.

    When you use a long shutter speed, you end up exposing your sensor for a significant period of time. The first big effect of it is motion blur. If your shutter speed is long, moving subjects in your photo will appear blurred along the direction of motion. This effect is used quite often in advertisements of cars and motorbikes, where a sense of speed and motion is communicated to the viewer by intentionally blurring the moving wheels.

    Slow shutter speeds are also used to photograph the Milky Way or other objects at night, or in dim environments with a tripod. Landscape photographers may intentionally use long shutter speeds to create a sense of motion on rivers and waterfalls while keeping everything else completely sharp.

    On the other hand, shutter speed can also be used to do just the opposite – freeze motion. If you use an especially fast shutter speed, you can eliminate motion even from fast-moving objects, like birds in flight, or cars driving past. If you use a fast shutter speed while taking pictures of water, each droplet will hang in the air completely sharp, which might not even be visible to our own eyes.

    All of the above is achieved by simply controlling the shutter speed. In summary, quick shutter speeds freeze action, while long ones create an effect of motion when you photograph moving objects.

    How shutter speed is measured

    Shutter speeds are typically measured in fractions of a second when they are under a second. For example, 1/4 means a quarter of a second, while 1/250 means one-two-hundred-and-fiftieth of a second (or four milliseconds).

    Most modern DSLRs and mirrorless cameras can handle shutter speeds of up to 1/4000th of a second, while some can handle much quicker speeds of 1/8000th of a second and faster. On the other hand, the longest available shutter speed on most DSLRs or mirrorless cameras is typically 30 seconds. You can use a longer shutter speed by using external remote triggers, if necessary.

    Shutter speed and exposure

    The other important effect of shutter speed is on exposure, which relates to the brightness of an image. If you use a long shutter speed, your camera sensor gathers a lot of light, and the resulting photo will be quite bright. By using a quick shutter speed, your camera sensor is only exposed to a small fraction of light, resulting in a darker photo.

    However, shutter speed is not the only variable that affects the brightness of an image. There are also Aperture and ISO, along with the actual brightness of the scene in front of you. So, you have some flexibility when you’re deciding on a shutter speed, but you need to pick your other settings carefully.

    Shutter speed can be a vital tool to capture a photo of the proper brightness. On a sunny day, you may need to use a fast shutter speed so that your photo isn’t overexposed. Or, if it is dark out, a long shutter speed may be necessary to avoid a photo that is too dark (which, in turn, could require a tripod, due to motion blur from handholding the camera). For many people, this is the main reason to adjust shutter speed: to make sure your photos are the proper brightness. Still, motion blur concerns are also very important, and should not be overlooked.

    Fast, slow and long shutter speeds

    A fast shutter speed is typically whatever it takes to freeze action. If you are photographing birds, that may be 1/1000th second or faster. However, for general photography of slower-moving subjects, you might be able to take pictures at 1/200th second, 1/100th second, or even longer without introducing motion blur.

    Long shutter speeds are typically above 1 second – at which point, you will need to use a tripod to get sharp images. You would use long shutter speeds for certain types of low-light / night photography, or to capture movement intentionally. If anything in your scene is moving when you use long shutter speeds, it will appear very blurry.

    In between, shutter speeds from 1/100th second to 1 second are still considered relatively slow. You may not be able to handle them without introducing camera shake from your hands, especially close to the one-second mark.

    Also, this strongly depends upon your lens. Some lenses, such as the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8, have specific image stabilization (also known as “vibration reduction”) technologies within the lens that can help photographers take pictures at very slow shutter speeds when hand-holding cameras, without introducing camera shake. Other lenses do not have vibration reduction, which means you need to use the reciprocal rule instead to determine how long your shutter speed should be without introducing blur from camera shake. It is also important that you know how to hold a camera.

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    How to set shutter speed

    Most cameras handle shutter speeds automatically by default. When the camera is set to “Auto” mode, the shutter speed is selected by the camera without your input (and so are aperture and ISO). However, you can still set the shutter speed manually if necessary:

    1. By setting the camera to “Shutter Priority” mode, you choose the shutter speed, and the camera automatically selects the aperture.
    2. By setting the camera to “Manual” mode, you choose both shutter speed and aperture manually.

    Within both of these modes, you can choose to set ISO manually or automatically.

    In most cases, we recommend letting the camera select the correct shutter speed for you. Still, watch to be certain that you aren’t introducing too much motion blur in a photo (or freezing motion that you want to be blurred). I cover more of this in an article on camera modes, but I tend to shoot in “Aperture Priority” mode 95% of the time, letting the camera calculate the shutter speed automatically.

    How to find shutter speed

    Do you know how to find what your camera shutter speed is set to? It is typically very easy to find it. On cameras that have a top panel, the shutter speed is typically located on the top left corner, as circled:

    If your camera does not have a top LCD, like some entry-level DSLRs, you can look through the viewfinder, where you will see the shutter speed on the bottom-left side. And if your camera has neither a top LCD nor a viewfinder, like many mirrorless cameras, you can see your shutter speed simply by looking on the back screen.

    On most cameras, the shutter speed will not show up directly as a fraction of a second – it will typically be a regular number. When the shutter speed is longer than or equal to one second, you will see something like 1” or 5” (with the quotation sign to indicate a full second).

    If you still cannot find the shutter speed, set your camera to “Aperture Priority” mode, and make sure that you have turned “AUTO ISO” off. Then, start pointing around your camera from dark to bright areas. The number that changes will be your shutter speed.

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  • What is a Mirrorless Camera?

    What is a Mirrorless Camera?

    While a DSLR camera uses a mirror mechanism to either reflect light into an optical viewfinder or pass it through directly to the camera sensor, a mirrorless camera completely lacks such mirror mechanism (hence the name), which means that the light passing through the lens always ends up on the imaging sensor. Since light is no longer reflected on an optical viewfinder (OVF), mirrorless cameras typically rely on electronic viewfinders (EVF) and LCDs that basically project what the imaging sensor sees. Because of the lack of a mirror mechanism and an optical viewfinder, mirrorless cameras can be made simpler, lighter, and less bulky when compared to DSLR camera.

    Below is an illustration that shows the difference between a DSLR and a mirrorless camera:

    DSLR Compared to Mirrorless Camera

    As you can see, when compared to a mirrorless camera, a DLSR has a lot more components that make up the internals of the camera. Aside from the complex mirror mechanism, there is a focusing screen, a condenser lens, pentaprism / pentamirror and other components such as a secondary mirror and a phase-detection autofocus sensor that are present on a DSLR.

    How Mirrorless Cameras Work

    In contrast, a mirrorless camera is much simpler mechanically – light passes through the lens (#1) directly onto the image sensor (#4) and the optical viewfinder is replaced with an electronic viewfinder (#9) that replicates the image sensor. In normal operation, the mechanical camera shutter (#3) stays open and is only typically utilized at the end of exposure. Due to lack of both mirror and pentaprism, the flange distance (which is the distance between the lens mount and the image sensor) on mirrorless cameras can be shortened significantly, as the illustration above shows. Because of this, most mirrorless camera bodies are thinner and lighter compared to DSLRs.

    Mirrorless cameras have many advantages over DSLR cameras. Aside from the potentially lighter weight and bulk of the camera itself, the use of an electronic viewfinder can bring many benefits to photographers. Since everything is duplicated directly from the image sensor, camera settings such as white balance, saturation and contrast can be seen through the viewfinder directly and additional information overlays including live histograms can be placed within the viewfinder, allowing photographers to see exactly what they are about to take a picture of. When combined with fast contrast-detection or on-sensor phase detection system, one can take advantage of being able to zoom in on a subject to verify focus, use focus peaking, face detection and other powerful features to ensure that focus is achieved precisely with every shot. When shooting in daylight conditions, one can utilize the electronic viewfinder to review images, instead of relying on the back LCD of the camera.

    At the same time, mirrorless cameras have their list of disadvantages. First, the electronic viewfinder can only be active when the camera is turned on and power is provided to the image sensor, which can significantly affect the battery life of a camera. Second, electronic viewfinders can have noticeable lag, blackouts and high contrast, which can make it difficult for some photographers to get used to. When it comes to autofocus, although the latest mirrorless camera models can be very fast and accurate, they still do not do as well when shooting fast action, especially in low-light situations.

    We wrote a detailed post that compares mirrorless cameras to DSLRs, so if you would like to find out more about the pros and cons of each, please take a look at our Mirrorless vs DSLR article. Explore the article of best cameras for movie production.

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  • What is a DSLR Camera?

    DSLR stands for “Digital Single Lens Reflex”. In simple language, a DSLR is a digital camera that uses a mirror mechanism to either reflect light from a camera lens to an optical viewfinder (which is an eyepiece on the back of the camera that one looks through to see what they are taking a picture of) or let light fully pass onto the image sensor (which captures the image) by moving the mirror out of the way.

    Although single lens reflex cameras have been available in various shapes and forms since the 19th century with film as the recording medium, the first commercial digital SLR with an image sensor appeared in 1991. Compared to point-and-shoot and phone cameras, DSLR cameras typically use interchangeable lenses.

    1) What DSLR camera consist of

    Take a look at the following image of an SLR cross section (image courtesy of Wikipedia):

    DSLR Cross Section

    2) How DSLR camera work

    When you look through a DSLR viewfinder / eyepiece on the back of the camera, whatever you see is passed through the lens attached to the camera, which means that you could be looking at exactly what you are going to capture. Light from the scene you are attempting to capture passes through the lens into a reflex mirror (#2) that sits at a 45 degree angle inside the camera chamber, which then forwards the light vertically to an optical element called a “pentaprism” (#7). The pentaprism then converts the vertical light to horizontal by redirecting the light through two separate mirrors, right into the viewfinder (#8).

    When you take a picture, the reflex mirror (#2) swings upwards, blocking the vertical pathway and letting the light directly through. Then, the shutter (#3) opens up and the light reaches the image sensor (#4). The shutter (#3) remains open for as long as needed for the image sensor (#4) to record the image, then the shutter (#3) closes and the reflex mirror (#2) drops back to the 45 degree angle to continue redirecting the light into the viewfinder.

    Obviously, the process doesn’t stop there. Next, a lot of complicated image processing happens on the camera. The camera processor takes the information from the image sensor, converts it into an appropriate format, then writes it into a memory card. The whole process takes very little time and some professional DSLRs can do this 11+ times in one second!

    The above is a very simple way to explain how DSLR camera work.

    To read a lot more about DSLRs, check out this great article at Wikipedia.

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