# Put your photo tips here



## mathjak107 (Apr 1, 2006)

we all have some photo tips to share that the bulk of the people here may not know. lets post them here.

sooooo tip 1 watch your histogram and for best results if you have that feature that displays the individual color channels use that. the one histogram cheaper cameras give you is only average brightness. 

you can take a picture of a rose and that histogram can show all is well while the individual red channel histogram shows it is slammed into the right wall.

shooting during the day almost guarantees a dynamic range greater then almost any sensor can capture unless its a day with those darker blue skys...

so the tip is if your camera has different color settings start to try portrait instead of say landscape mode.... the stronger color saturation of vivid or landscape mode will push the histogram even further to the right .... you could try exposure compensation to offset the vivid colors but the result usually underexposes the darker parts of the picture creating noise even though its a nice bright day....

reducing the contrast setting also in the camera will give you a little more range before blowing out.

later in in post processing you can add your saturation and contrast back while watching your histogram again so you dont slam against the left or right walls indicating blown highlights or lost shadows...

blown highlights are those white or turquoise skys you get, or roses that have no features and look like tomato skin. crushed shadows are just very very dark spots with either nothing or lost details as well as lots of noise aqnd grain in those areas


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## mathjak107 (Apr 1, 2006)

ONE OTHER THING I WANT TO ADD; even if you shoot raw your still basing your exposure settings on that scene mode or color profile you selected... if you picked landscape as an example your histogram is still based on that mode even though you are in raw so you will compenste the exposure either up or down based on what your seeing... that can leave your raw photo either under exposed or over exposed compared to what the sensor is actually seeing....

with nikons you can use that nice sharp vivid color profile only really during the golden hours, during the day the intense colors blow out the histogram... i usually use neutral , standard or portrait picture controls on contrasty day shooting... i use the lanscape or my favorite extra vivid ken rockwell settings during the low contrasty days


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## Kzang (Apr 12, 2006)

Heh just a few simple tips from me 

Use the rule of thirds!
Avoid using flash
Use the timer for night photograpy if you don't have a remote.


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## mathjak107 (Apr 1, 2006)

dont have a tripod...screw a screw with a string attached into the threaded hole on the camera, step on the string and pull tight against it


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## mathjak107 (Apr 1, 2006)

Kzang said:


> Heh just a few simple tips from me
> 
> Use the rule of thirds!
> Avoid using flash
> Use the timer for night photograpy if you don't have a remote.


flahes arent really bad, they are mis-used, all the pictures i posted in the comparison between the point and shoot and the d300 had the d300 macro using flash.. i called the thread if you thought it was the camera, heres point and shoot
reason? we wanted to shoot macro at at least f/16 for depth of field , the 90mm macro lense needed a min speed of about 125th of a second for stability.... the exposure really needed to be at f/8 or so and so we shot manual using the flash ... the sb900 is a great flash and we used it in balanced mode where it balances itself with avail light and is hardley perceivable as a flash but allows us to use those settings on the camera with enough light


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## Dave 330i (Jan 4, 2002)

I do not use flash. A picture should reflect what a person sees.


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## mathjak107 (Apr 1, 2006)

problem is it would be great to be able to capture a scene the way our eyes see it, but camera sensors and film wont let us. lighting is everything and the same scene has many looks from drab, to wow to ruined all based on lighting.. if only cameras saw like we did, what a great thing that would be. on the other hand while the light at the golden hours look like nothing special to our eyes ,to the camera sensors and film that light is incredible in photos.

problem i think is un-skilled people with flashes let the harsh white light of the flash dominate their picture instrad of just complementing the natural light....

without flash there is noooooo way to hand hold a camera at those slower speeds and still get sharp clean pictures unless you have one of those mega buck high iso wizards like the nikon d3 or d700 ...im not familiar with canons line but they have them too....

i have shot up to 1600 with the d300 but there is a definate difference in quality from 200


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## Chris90 (Apr 7, 2003)

I don't know how to read the histogram, need to learn that I guess. Shooting landscapes in Yosemite last week I played around with exposure compensation a lot, seemed to need -0.7 to -1.3 ev for most of the shots. 

I just switched from Paint Shop Pro 8.0 to Nikon's Capture NX 2, and now realize that PSP 8.0 was total crap. I have to learn how to use a real post processing app.


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## photohunts (Oct 16, 2008)

not using flash is like telling a videographer not to use lights...http://www.strobist.blogspot.com/


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## mathjak107 (Apr 1, 2006)

Chris90 said:


> I don't know how to read the histogram, need to learn that I guess. Shooting landscapes in Yosemite last week I played around with exposure compensation a lot, seemed to need -0.7 to -1.3 ev for most of the shots.
> 
> I just switched from Paint Shop Pro 8.0 to Nikon's Capture NX 2, and now realize that PSP 8.0 was total crap. I have to learn how to use a real post processing app.


just try to keep the exposure from hitting the side walls.. once you hit the walls you lost detail.... in mid-day its not always easy to avoid as the light is wider then the cameras range... graduated filters , a flash or coming back in the golden hours may help... worst case decide whats more important and expose just for that.


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## bkmk5 (Feb 19, 2008)

If you have a Nikon, you should subscribe to Dtown TV on iTunes or visit dtowntv.com

Having "Highlights" enabled on your playback (at least on a Nikon) will allow you to see what you've blown out aka clipping(sky's that are just too white that have no detail in them anymore)

I am dying to get an SB-900(anyone want to donate some $? haha)! Flashes like others have said are misused. Some like the au'natural look with very earthy tones and you try to take a picture how your eye perceives the subject and others like the Glam/ fashion look. I personally like both.

If you have dirty / cheap filters, your pictures will reflect that. Your photos will be as good as your weakest link.


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