Tutorial Tuesday: Bracketing

Bracketing is a very useful technique which photographers often use to capture a closer representation of the dynamic range within images. For example, if you’re shooting a landscape shot of the sea the sky may be very bright but the water very dull, so which area do you choose to expose for? If you correctly expose for the sky, you’ll lose detail in the shadows of the water, but if you expose correctly for the water the detail in the highlights of the sky will disappear instead. This makes it very difficult to decide on the correct shutter speed to capture the correct exposure over the whole scene. This is where the technique of bracketing comes in very useful. What this involves is repeatedly shooting the scene but using a different shutter speed for each shot to deliberately over-expose and under-expose, enabling you to capture detail within all areas of scene. Once this has been achieved Photoshop is used to stitch all these images together combining the various exposures to create one perfectly exposed image. Below is an example/tutorial to show you how this technique can be achieved.

Firstly, you need to take your shots, preferably with a tripod as it will be a lot easier to layer up your images in Photoshop later on. Here are two images below that I shot a while ago which demonstrate perfectly the need for this technique. I shot this flower in direct sunlight which resulted in a very bright, harsh light that was too much for the white areas in the petal yet not strong enough to capture the shadow detail in the pollen itself, the sun was positioned behind the flower slightly creating this ‘back-lighting’ effect. Being the main focus of this image, I need the pollen area of the flower to be perfectly lit.

Shutterspeed =1/160
©2013HannahBennett

    

Shutterspeed =1/400

©2013HannahBennett

If you feel the scene you are shooting needs bracketing then take one shot at the exposure your camera tells you to, then move the shutter speed by 1 stop to underexpose, and also 1  stop to over expose. For example, if your camera says to shoot at 1/160, to overexpose by 1 stop you’d then shoot at1/100, and to underexpose by 1 stop, you’d shoot at 1/320. For the example included in this post, I shot the overexposed image first at 1/160 then underexposed the second image by 2 stops and shot at 1/400. (This can be seen clearly in the pictures above)

©2013HannahBennett

To combine these two images, I opened them up into photoshop and placed the two layers on top of each other, then labelled them accordingly, whilst making sure that they were correctly positioned above one another. I then used the ‘Eraser Tool (E)’ whilst on the overexposed layer to remove the washed out petals, leaving behind the correctly exposed pollen area of the image.      

As you can see in the final picture below, I now have one perfectly exposed image, full of detail throughout the whole frame

©2013HannahBennett

Photomanipulation: Is it necessary?

I’ve been doing a bit of research lately about the use of photo manipulation within the media and the affect it has on the self-esteem of people viewing these images, and came across this interesting article on dove's campaign website for real beauty. It features a game which highlights the extensive use of airbrushing that is used within the media on an everyday basis. Below is a snapshot I took, whilst playing the game, of one of the examples they use.

Shockingly, this is a retouched image. It’s so difficult to tell because the shot is of a young girl whom you’d expect to be naturally beautiful like she is in this shot, eliminating the need to retouch anything. However, this image has been retouched. The amount of subtle changes that they've done to this image is shocking.

Here’s a long list of all the areas that have been altered:

-Lips darkened

-Eyebrows darkened

-Eyes made bluer

-Bust enhanced, uplifted and increased

-Left arm made thinner

-Right arm made thinner

-Back/shoulders made thinner

-Skin has been lightened

-Blemishes removed

-Under-eye bags removed

-Cheek creases toned down

-Teeth whitening

-Hair neatening (filled out and smoothed)

Would you have been able to notice all these alterations just by looking at the image, unaware it had been retouched? Probably not. I was only able to identify a couple at the most.

You can see the effect of these changes in the comparison screenshot below...

As you can see they are barely noticeable, the girl is already naturally beautiful, she doesn’t need these adjustments at all. The adjustments that have been made are extremely hard to notice when you’re unaware that any editing has been done, which I feel is when photo manipulation is at its most deceiving. 

(Source: http://jennifersproject.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/examples-of-airbrushing.html)

If something is quite clearly airbrushed like this example of Madonna then young girls are possibly more likely to realise that serious manipulation has been done and may not feel as pressurised to conform to this unrealistic representation of beauty. However, with this example in the game, young girls are more likely to feel pressured to look this way due to the fact that they've felt the need to make more adjustments to her, despite her original photograph being naturally beautiful. This will make young girls especially feel like they’re not good enough as long as perfection is still being “perfected”. I find this hard to put into words but I hope you can understand my viewpoint?    

                                                 

This 1-minute timelapse film by dove shows the full extent of the work that goes into fashion advertising campaigns and shows just how unrealistic it all is. I just wish everyone was able to realise the extent of the use of photoshop within the media so that people can become more confident within themselves and forget about trying to conform to these unrealistic representations of beauty which we are forced to view subconsciously on a daily basis.

If you'd like to find out more about the dove real beauty campaign follow these links below to the related websites:

• http://selfesteem.dove.co.uk/
• http://www.dove.us/social-mission/campaign-for-real-beauty.aspx

Or if you'd just like to play the retouch roulette game yourself then follow this one direct:

• http://selfesteem.dove.co.uk/Articles/Application/How_to_spot_airbrushing_beauty_tricks.aspx

Experimenting with Toning Darkroom Prints at Home

After watching the Art of Photography’s podcast based on using natural products to tone darkroom prints I was inspired to try this technique out myself.

I dug out some old darkroom prints to practice with and began experimenting. I decided to use coffee like they suggested in the podcast as I felt this would work best to stain the image as you can achieve a darker liquid with this than you can when using tea.  I followed the steps given in the podcast and the results and instructions that I followed can be viewed below.

My Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Firstly, I added boiling water to a cup full of 6 teaspoons of coffee then allowed it to cool
2. Meanwhile soaking the print in water for around 20 minutes
3. Then I transferred the coffee solution into my tray and added another cup of water to the solution and then placed the print into this
4. I agitated the tray every two minutes
5. After 6 minutes I checked the progress of the toning and felt it needed longer in the coffee solution so I soaked it for a further 6 minutes, continuing to agitate every 2 minutes
6. Finally I took the print out of the solution and rinsed it with water then left it to dry naturally

My Final Outcome:

©2013HannahBennettPhotography

(The short video clip above displays the change between the original and the toned image)

To conclude, I found this experiment to be very beneficial as you can see a definite sepia tint on my image above proving that the concept itself works perfectly. However, I feel that my image needed slightly longer in the coffee solution as the difference in colour is very subtle and I feel it would look nicer if it was slightly darker. In the future I would like to repeat this process again but I would like to try experimenting with food colouring instead to see if I can create more interesting colours. I think purple would be an interesting tone to try and achieve so I might experiment with that.

If you saw my previous blog post you’ll know that I got this idea from ‘The Art of Photography’ podcasts, if you’d like some more information about their podcasts then you can read my previous post where I discussed them in more detail here: http://hanbphotography.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/photography-podcasts.html

Photography Podcasts

Recently I decided to explore the ‘Podcast’ app on iTunes and found some very useful photography aids. Previously I thought podcasts were purely audio and that they weren't really geared up for photography as ideally you need to see whatever it is they’re discussing, however during my search I noticed that video podcasts exist. I decided to watch a couple of them to see if any were worth tuning in to on a regular basis and found a podcast named ‘The Art of Photography’ (http://theartofphotography.tv/) to be very helpful. The episodes mostly range from between 10 to 20 minutes long and are targeted towards a different topic throughout each one.  An episode which I found interesting in particular was one based on toning darkroom prints using natural products, such as tea and coffee, enabling you to experiment with your work at home thus eliminating the need to use a proper darkroom and specialised toners.

Throughout the episode they gave detailed instructions on how to use this technique. They said that it’s important to soak the prints in room temperature water for 5-10 minutes, ‘the main purpose of this is just to open up the pores of the paper’. Then mix up your solution and place your desired print into it, agitating every now and then as you would when developing a normal print for as long as desired. For ‘a really subtle effect’ to give ‘just a slight warmth to it’ then 2 minutes in the tea/coffee is plenty, whereas if you want something more ‘antique looking’ then longer time will be necessary. When your print reaches its desired tone remove it from the solution and be sure to rinse it well then allow it to dry. They also mention that you can use anything you want to stain your prints, not just tea or coffee. (Quotes taken from Ted Forbes throughout the episode)

This podcast has really inspired me to try out this technique so I am definitely going to give it a go in the near future. If you want to check it out for yourself there are lots of different web links it can be found on, these are just a few:

• http://theartofphotography.tv/episodes/toning-prints-with-tea-and-coffee/

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXlZtuFa1qA

I've got lots of other podcasts lined up to listen to so I will be sure to mention them on here if I feel they are worth listening to, just as I have done with this one.

Photographer of the Week: Harold Davis

As I briefly mentioned in my last post, flowers are one of my favourite subjects to photograph. I love capturing them up close with my macro lens and experimenting with a variety of different focal lengths, apertures and shutter speeds to find an interesting combination which results in a beautiful shot. I also love capturing them in really abstract ways so it’s difficult to tell that the image is one of a flower. This is why I have chosen to focus on the work of Harold Davis throughout this post as his work always inspires me when I’m working with flowers.

Harold Davis is an award-winning, contemporary, American photographer who creates his own unique methods to produce extremely eye-catching images. There is such a huge amount of variation between every image of his despite them all being of the same subject matter (flowers). His use of colour is incredible; every image he takes is always bursting with such vibrant colours. Above are just a few examples of his work that I like in particular, most of his images can be found at his flick page (http://www.flickr.com/photos/harold_davis/) or on his blog (http://www.digitalfieldguide.com/blog).

© 2013 Hannah Bennett

Here is an image of mine that I took in the style of Harold’s work, focusing on just the stigma of this tulip to create an abstract quality within the shot, making the flower look almost alien-like as a result of the extremely shallow depth of field I have achieved by using a low aperture to blur the anthers behind and the petals in the far background.

There is one technique in particular that Harold Davis is known for, and that is his ‘lightbox’ technique. He creates beautiful pictures of flowers by placing them on a lightbox to give them a soft transparent look like this one displayed to the right. I have attempted this before and the outcome was unsuccessful but I would really like to master it so I am planning on attempting it again at some point in the future. I shall do a blog post with the result if I manage to achieve a shot worth sharing.