Do Commit These Mistakes!
Well, honestly, you cannot call them ‘mistakes’ because you are going to commit them intentionally. It is a learning process. Often, to know what is correct, you first need to know what is wrong! So the next time you go out for a shoot, please commit these sins. Then, follow that up with the right move. 1. Let’s start with an early morning shot – a sunrise. When shooting JPEG, set your camera to ‘Auto’ White Balance. In the resulting pictures, notice how the warm early morning colours have been either washed away or subdued (that’s the time you would like to kick yourself in the butt). Let’s understand why that happens: When you set Auto White Balance, you are telling the camera that in this particular colour of light, I want my whites as white. Hence all the light tones ( whites, off- whites and light tones which the camera interprets as shades of white) are recorded either tone- less or with very subdued colours. What should have been the correct wayout? While there is no really ‘correct’ way, try to set your White Balance to ‘Daylight’. Notice how the recorded colours appear closer to what you see in the scene. You could even try ‘Shade’ or ‘Cloudy’ presets for more saturated colours. The Daylight, Cloudy and Shade White Balance pictures have been tweaked slightly to display the differences.
Why did I mention “when shooting JPEG”; why not Raw? When you shoot in Raw, the White Balance settings (and some other settings too) are not applied to the picture. When you process the file in Adobe Camera Raw (or the Raw Converter of your choice), you can specify which White Balance setting you prefer. The moral of the story? Don’t use Auto White Balance when shooting sunrise (or sunsets). 2. As the day progresses, set the White Balance to ‘Incandescent’. See how the picture turns a shade of blue. Depending on the exposure set, it may even give you a feeling of having taken the shot in moonlight!
Let’s understand why that happens: By setting the White Balance to
‘Incandescent’, you are fooling the camera into believing that the ambient light is ‘ yellowish’. The camera in turn, introduces a blue filter (not physically, but electronically) to compensate for the supposed-to-be yellow light. But since the ambient light is not actually yellow (it is normal daylight), the final result is a blueish picture.
The mora lof the story? Do make mistakes (read that as ‘don’t be afraid to experiment’). 3. Now find a fast moving subject – a man on a motorcycle for example. Moving subject, eh? Okay. Your senses tell you that it calls for a fast shutter speed ( like 1/1000 or 1/2000 sec maybe). Take the shot but study the result. Does your picture convey that the motor-cycle was speeding fast? Obviously not. If you use a slower shutter speed, you would most likely get a blurry image. Again, not acceptable ( generally speaking). So what’s the way out? Try ‘panning’. When you ‘pan’, you move the camera in a arc of a circle, while keeping the subject centred in the frame. The subject and the camera move at the same relative speed, (and hence will be reasonably sharp) but the background (which needs some clutter) which is stationary, records fuzzy. This creates an impression of speed. It is important to try various slow shutter speeds, like 1/60 or 1/30, 1/15 sec etc. The shutter speed to use would depend on the speed at which the subject is moving and the distance between you and the subject. I find that using a wide-angle lens helps to create a better overall impact. Also keep in mind that, for a better panned picture, the subject should be more or less perpendicular to the axis of the lens. 4. Now locate a water body and take a shot with a tilted horizon (this comes naturally to some people!).
Why is this wrong? When the horizon is tilted, it appears as if the water would run down the tapered end. Remember, water maintains its own level! So take the next shot by keeping the horizon perfectly parallel to the lower edge of the frame and see the instant change for better. It helps if your camera has a built-in ‘auto-leveller’ or a grid-screen. 5. Next, find a friend and make him/ her pose for a portrait. Ensure that a pole or a tree branch ‘grows’ out of her body. You may even try to have the horizon line pass through the head. Nice, isn’t it? Certainly not! 6. Now let’s try an exposure blunder. Select a subject that is really dark (much darker than mid-tone). Your camera’s exposure meter will turn that into a mid-tone (don’t worry, exposure meters are designed that way!). So what do you generally do? You quickly set the exposure compensation dial to minus compensation and re-take the shot. The dark tones are recorded as you see them. Happy at the result? You shouldn’t be, because you have just committed a blunder!
Why is that, you may ask? When you underexpose to turn the mid-tones to dark/black, you are definitely increasing the chances of getting digital noise.
Then, what is the way out? Shoot in Raw and do not use the minus compensation. This means that the shadow areas would receive more light and consequently have more data. Now, using Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) or
your favourite Raw Converter, adjust the Exposure and the Blacks slider (on CS6) till the supposed-to-be dark tones turn dark ( you will be pushing the slider to the left, as shown in the print-screen overleaf). By pushing the data to the left side of the histogram, you will actually avoid the digital noise. Note that this will not work if you shoot JPEG. 7. Take a portrait of a very fair person. Go quite close to the face to take the exposure meter reading (that is how the reading should be taken in the first place! If you have a 1-degree spot meter, you could get a similar reading without going close to the subject). Shoot as per the reading. The fair person turns darker, indicating exposure error.
What should have been done?
After taking a close-up reading, ‘open up’ the exposure by about one f-stop and then take the picture. The fair person will appear the way he/she is. In the excitement of a shoot, we often forget (or don’t pay enough attention) to implement the basic rules governing photography. However, committing these mistakes will help you get better at the game and become a better photographer.