Better Photography Magazine

Where Do You Focus?

Peter Eastway — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 18:00:00 +0000

Click to enlarge

Dales Gorge, Karijini National Park, Western Australia

I'm just back from a very enjoyable workshop in Karijini National Park, Western Australia. Tony Hewitt, Christian Fletcher and I had a great group of participants who simply excelled with their own photography. On the last evening, we presented a slide show of their best images and it was of world-class standard! Every year I'm surprised at the different angles and amazing interpretations. I'm already looking forward to next year's workshop so I can steal some of their ideas!

The fallen tree above was taken in the middle of Dales Gorge in the late afternoon. The pool of light in the middle is reflecting the sky above, while a 10X neutral density filter has been used to give the shallow water a super smooth sheen.

The question with a subject like this is, where do you focus the lens? Do you focus on just one spot with a wide aperture and let the rest drift out of focus? Or do you focus in the middle of the scene with a small aperture and hope that depth-of-field will ensure the front and back are sufficiently sharp?

With the lastest DSLR and MF cameras sporting so many pixels, focus needs to be carefully considered and depth-of-field can't be relied upon to produce enough sharpness if you aim to make a large print. For small reproductions like this one, then depth-of-field will cover a multitude of sins.

I've chosen the tips of the trunk because they are nearest the camera and in a prominent part of the frame. When the image is viewed, I want this important area to be tack sharp so you can see the texture in the wood. In comparison, the roots at the other end of the trunk can fall out of focus and this doesn't worry me.

Of course, with my camera set up on the tripod, it was easy to take a series of images with different focusing positions, so I can also focus stack the image if required.

While many photographers already bracket their exposures, think about bracketing your focusing points as well. Sometimes letting the autofocus system do it for you isn't the best solution.

Roman Baths, Kars

Peter Eastway — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 19:00:00 +0000

Click to enlarge

Roman Baths, Kars, Eastern Europe

Kars is in Eastern Turkey, away from the main tourist circuit, but near Ani which is certainly popular once you're out this way. Down the end of town is the original castle, situated on a bend in the river and perched up on a hill - a perfect defensive position before the days of aeroplanes!

Around the river are some small farms and a few ruins, including an old Roman Baths. I'm assuming the baths are around 2000 years old, but rather than being a treasured monument, they are simply in a state of decay. Inside are half a dozen rooms and you can see the heating system and how the waters were warmed for the chosen few.

When we walked through, we found a couple of middle-aged men outside on the river bank. They looked up, embarrassed at being caught having a quiet drink, no doubt while their wives worked hard at home! However, that could just have been my take on the situation - and I never let the truth get in the way of a good story!

This room has a wonderful dome above and what looks like an altar in the middle. I'm sure it's not an altar. Another story perhaps? The room is a little smaller than it looks, so I had to take a series of ten or twelve images and stitch them together - digital makes this so easy.

I then grabbed a photograph of a ballet dancer and dropped her into position. No, this isn't my usual type of photography, but I was preparing an article for Better Photoshop Techniques magazine and how to use the Colour Range tool to make a mask. (The magazine won't be on sale for a few months yet.)

With the subject dropped in, I then use a 50% grey layer set to soft light blend mode underneath the layer with the girl, and using a 10% black brush, darkened the area underneath the girl's legs to create shadows. This helps ground the subject a little better.

But there's something else that's not quite right in this version. Can you see what it is?

Background image taken with Alpa TC with a Phase One P65+ back, 23mm Rodenstock lens, stitched.

Photo Critique - Steven Hu's Winning Image

Peter Eastway — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:00:00 +0000

2011 Emotive Portraiture Winner: Steven Hu, Australia. Score: 87

Steven Hu won our 2011 Emotive Portrait category prize in the Better Photography Magazine Photograph of the Year Award with what is certainly a very emotive portrait. Why? Let's take a look at what may have impressed the judges.

Subject Matter. For an Austrailan based competition, with Australian judges, the subjects of this portrait are exotic, unusual, not seen every day. Immediately the choice of subject matter is helpful. For readers who live on the subcontinent, or visit there regularly, the impact might not be quite so strong.

Framing. The framing is quite tight with very little room under the feet or above the head. However, there is sufficient space within the image, between the subjects' heads and around the bodies, and so the photograph doesn't feel crammed. If Steven wanted to concentrate our attention on the women's faces, then this is excellent framing.

Composition. And the composition is great too. The composition is as much about posing, or recognising posing.The photograph has the feeling that these women were already sitting in position and it was simply a matter of recognising this and then finding a suitable camera angle. Notice how the eye (the viewer's eye) goes from the women's folded arms to their faces and back, creating a number of imaginary diagonal lines. This creates more interest in the composition.

Technique. The techniques of using overlays to produce a painterly feeling, and the introduction of warm reds and oranges, create a strong, emotive response - and so the techniques are appropriate for the subect. You woudn't necessarily use these techniques for a landscape or a sport photograph, but it suits this subject very well. If you're going to use techniques to enhance your photograph, they should suit the subject.

Light. There is some great side-lighting across the face of the woman on the left, and my guess is the woman on the right was shaded a little more, so Steven has lightened her to ensure both faces have similar importance and strength in terms of their tonal values (lightness within the image). The use of light and shade within the portrait produces a good three-dimensional rendition, which in turn plays well with the flatter overlay and colour cast.

Feel free to add your own comments...

Reef Beach

Peter Eastway — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:00:00 +0000

Click to enlarge

Reef Beach, near Bremmer Bay, South West Australia

Light is everything. Especially with landscape photography. This image is essentially a design of shapes, but they are brought to life with some wonderful light.

Of course, I have played around with the image, adjusting colour, contrast and exposure to end up with what my eyes saw from the plane window. And while the processed raw file (click Read More to see it) is not as startling, that's because it was processed carefully to retain all the detail in the capture.

With photography being a two step process, it's important to manage how you process your files. If you're shooting JPEGs, then you should consider the camera settings for contrast, colour, saturation and sharpening, rather than just leaving the default values. A number of photographers produce relatively flat JPEGs from the camera because they are easy to enhance in post-production. On the other hand, a high contrast, highly sharpened JPEG out of the camera is much harder to adjust, even if it has more initial impact.

For the same reason, if I know I am going to work on a file in Photoshop, I will produce a relatively flat image with lots of potential. It means I can leave my decision making until afterwards when I have the control of my adjustment layers, rather than locking in my adjustments during raw processing.

This isn't to say you shouldn't lock in adjustments during raw processing - it depends on the workflow you plan to use. If I am producing a large volume of images, then getting them 100% right during raw processing makes great sense.

This is the original file which is much flatter, but you can see the reds and aquas in the file are just waiting to come out. Although I have used a vibrance adjustment layer, a lot of the colour was enhanced simply by increasing the contrast with a curves adjustment layer.

However, at the heart of this photograph is the light that is already there. After a beautiful clear day, some afternoon clouds threatened to block out the sunlight and ruin the shoot, but a few gaps allowed the sun to peek through and this is what it produced.

Taken with Phase One 645DF with an IQ180 back, 80mm Schneider lens; 1/500 second @ f5.6, ISO 200.

Desert Queen Baths - Which One?

Peter Eastway — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 19:00:00 +0000

Click to enlarge

Desert Queen Baths, Ruddell River National Park, Western Australia

One of the great things about photography is that you are never wrong, but someone else might be less wrong than you are! The photo above is my version of a lone gum tree in the rocky ground surrounding Desert Queen Baths. I was there with our Ninety Degrees Five team the year before last and we're currently working on images for another exhibition to be held in conjunction with the FotoFreo photography month in Freemantle. Our exhibition will be at Midlands with FORM.

Tony Hewitt and I were working around each other as the light faded. I remember having difficulties getting the tree, the moon and the little hill in the background into a good relationship. I have around 20 different versions of this tree from slightly different angles, with the moon, without the moon, with the hill, without the hill. I knew there was something there, but I was struggling.

My most recent edit is above and I was discussing it with Tony Hewitt as a potential candidate for the exhibition. He made some observations about how the three elements didn't sit properly and that either the moon should go or the hill.

Click through to the article to see the different versions and perhaps you can give me your thoughts.

Tony suggested a square frame might work better, given the moon is directly above the tree. It's a good suggestion in terms of the moon, but when you actually do the crop, the little hill on the right is within the frame and it isn't quite balanced. I could crop in even tighter, but then I lose the space around the tree and, for my eye, it is too tight. Or I could digitally remove the hill, which is probably the preferred option for a square format.

Talking it through with Tony, I wondered if the photo might work better without the moon. It's funny how things happen because no sooner had I made the suggestion than I remembered thinking the same thing when taking the photograph! It certainly makes the composition simpler.

A fourth option would be to move the moon somewhere else...

So, the question is, does the moon work? If it does, does it sit properly within the rectangular composition or the square composition? Or is the rectangular composition better without the moon because the tree and the small hill are balanced? Please feel free to leave a comment.

Taken with an Alpa TC with a P65+ digital back and a 23mm Rodenstock Digaron lens; 3.0 second @ f5.6, ISO 50