Wedding Magic (2) (Photo 30)

Wedding Magic (2)
NEX-6, 50mm E-Mount Lens @ 50mm, Aperture Priority Mode, 1/800 secs, ISO 100, f/1.8

Despite my first ‘Wedding Magic’ photo being only 4 posts ago, I couldn’t resist using this image of my friends, Dion and Caroline, which I took at their wedding this weekend. With no more weddings on the horizon, and the fact that I love the happy couple’s expressions, stances and movement, I thought that I might as well tick off the second wedding photo from the list. This post will only feature two photographs, however, as  I aim to discuss the magic that can be added to photos with the help of processing software such as Aperture 3 or Lightroom. I use Aperture 3, but Lightroom isn’t too different (from what I have read) and you can essentially create similar effects with either tool. Here is the original photograph, that I took in RAW format, straight from the camera without any improvements:

My starting point for this post’s featured image.

The Bride & Groom arrive at the reception, where a tunnel of guests with confetti await. I was not the official photographer, and so I didn’t want to start jumping in and snapping away as though I were. I had spent the majority of the event taking photos of friends, leaving the Bride & Groom in the safe hands of the professionals, but I couldn’t resist getting in on the action as they arrived, albeit from a less favourable position than the official photographer.

Anyway, now on to my workflow process…

Once I have loaded all of my photos in to Aperture 3, I take a quick run through selecting the best (I simply ‘flag’ them, but pros probably use star ratings) and deleting the worst. I will probably go through the shots a few times before settling on my overall favourites, which lets me get to know each of the shots fairly well. Then the editing process can begin, with my first port of call almost always being the ‘Auto Enhance’ (Magic Wand) Button, which you can find just under the histogram, on the Adjustments tab, next to the Add Adjustment and Effects drop down lists. That tends to do something like this:

The magic of Aperture 3’s ‘Auto Enhance’ button.

You can see that the image is now punchier and more vibrant, as the software has made certain decisions on how the image can be improved, by changing things like the White Balance, Saturation, Vibrancy, and it also makes some small adjustments with the Curves tool. My photo is generally OK I guess, but it lacks that certain something that great wedding photos have, and is slightly spoiled by the official photographer being in the way of the Groom. To me, wedding photography is all about the expressions on faces, with the addition of some drama and feeling which is created by the photographer playing with things like the colour in their post-processing software, even if that means removing the colour and creating a black and white image. Therefore, what this image really needs is a good crop, so that we can see the expressions of our subjects clearly, and remove any unwanted elements from the scene. After hitting ‘Auto Enhance’, I generally then move on to cropping and straightening my images before getting too involved in making further adjustments – I think it helps to know what you’re going to be working with before you start adjusting areas of a photo that you are later going to crop out. This is how my first final image turned out:

B&W final image, cropped to remove the official photographer and to really show the joy on the faces of the Bride & Groom.

I don’t want this to read as a tutorial on how to use Aperture 3 – it is intended more to introduce you to some of the features that can seem rather daunting and confusing when first using the software. For instance, it is easy to convert an image to B&W by moving the Saturation slider to the far left, which simply removes all colour from your image. However, you will get much better results by adding the ‘Black & White’ adjustment, and playing with the Red, Green and Blue sliders, which give you total control over every shade of Black, Grey and White in your image, letting you choose which areas are darker and lighter.You can then Dodge, Burn, change Exposure and Contrast (amongst other things) to really make your final image shine.

I am by no means a professional at playing about with images, and it has taken me quite some time to get to grips with what each slider and Adjustment does to an image, but I have grown gradually more and more confident through general use of Aperture 3, and watching tutorials on YouTube and putting what I learn from those into practice. As I was never a child genius or anything like that, I have had to learn bit by bit, rather than watching all of the tutorials available and suddenly knowing and understanding exactly everything about the software. However, I have had several epiphanies about how things work and fit together along the way, with my latest coming after another round of watching a load of tutorials in the last week or so, and this latest has kind of made feel as though I am really beginning to understand the software and its possibilities. Here is a list of my main ‘Eureka Moments’ with Aperture 3, which may help you and give you ideas of what to look for on YouTube as well, starting from the beginning, when I first realised what a RAW file was:

• Shoot in RAW – I cannot stress this enough! If you do not believe me, set your camera to shoot both RAW and JPEG, and shoot one image with good contrast – say a sunny landscape with plenty of sky, white clouds and darker greenery in the land. Put both versions in to your editing software of choice, and start playing around with the exposure slider – you will start to realise just how much information is lost when your camera converts an image to JPEG itself.
• Take time looking through the various Adjustment sliders and seeing what they do for your images – just stick with the basic options that are added as standard by Apple to the left of the screen when you first open an image (I’m not sure how Lightroom handles these), as these are basic options that will really improve your image in small but significant ways, affecting things like Exposure, Colour Saturation, Shadows, the Black Point and Contrast. With these, you will effectively be making the decisions that your camera automatically would when shooting in JPEG format.
• The Quick Brushes are great for making targeted adjustments to your images, whether that be dodging and burning or removing dust spots from the image and wrinkles from faces! Again, watch some online tutorials on how to use the dodge and burn tools (I’m still having some difficulties getting these to work well for me, but I need more practice with them).
• Start to learn about Curves and Levels – type ‘Aperture 3 Curves Tutorial’ into YouTube and be prepared to be amazed at the possibilities. Do the same with ‘Levels’, then start applying these to your own photographs, to really increase contrast and get some different effects.
• Learn to experiment with the individual colour channels in the Curves adjustment. These can give your photos a professional-looking tint, and really make it stand out (in conjunction with other alterations of course). I realise that it may not be everybody’s cup of tea, but I really liked the following photo of my friend, Alice, seeing that it had some potential in an arty kind of way. Using a combination of Curves adjustments to the RGB spectrum and then the Red spectrum alone, along with Levels adjustments and so on, I think that I made it realise its potential and bring out more of what I wanted to see in the original.

Straight from the camera – I enjoyed the blown out background and halo-effect it had on Alice, but the image looks washed-out with not enough contrast or vibrancy.

A few adjustments later, and the image is punchier, with a bit of a colour tint to compliment Alice’s eyes.

Back to the original photo now though, and whilst I was extremely happy with the B&W image that I had created, I wanted to try out a few different things with it, so my next idea was to change the crop to fit all of Dion and Caroline in the frame. This meant including a slice of the official photographer, unfortunately, and I also decided to give it a sepia tone – I’ve seen many wedding photographs done with a sepia tone, so it seemed to make sense to at least try it.

2nd attempt at a final image of the happy couple, using a different crop and sepia tone.

As a rank amateur, the only way to learn is to practice and try different methods until you start to get a better feel of what works for you. In the above image I was happy with the idea of seeing the Bride & Groom from head to toe, but the smile on Caroline’s face, and the fact that she appears to be looking straight into the camera, made me feel that she should be placed centrally in the next frame I was to attempt – which would turn out to be the featured image, and the one that is without doubt my favourite edit of any photograph that I have ever achieved. To give you an example of what sort of things that I did to get the final image, I have taken some screen shots of the Adjustments that I added to the photograph. There is no point in copying them, as every photograph is different, but it would be worth while seeing how each of them affects your own images. This is the standard set of adjustments that Aperture 3 gives you when opening a new image:

Basic Aperture 3 Adjustments.

I needed to use two screenshots to get the full length of final adjustments that I used for the featured image:

They don’t quite match up in the middle of the Curves adjustment, but you should get the general idea. The areas that interest me the most right now, as this was the first time that I had really used them, are the change to the Green Curve, the reduction of the Saturation, and the use of the Polarize and Intensify Contrast Quick Brushes. It is often easy to boost Saturation, when in reality you can get a much more interesting result by decreasing it. At the end of the day, you need to take each photo on its own merits and try out a few different techniques to find the one that suits it.

Above all though, please remember that getting to grips with this type of software will probably take practice and patience, so take your time and learn the basics well before trying to do too much with your images. In my experience at least, it is too easy to read about techniques and think that they will suddenly be easy to replicate, when in reality it can take a bit of experience to really appreciate and refine your use of them.

Well, I hope that this post hasn’t been too boring, but during my own attempts to find ways of using Aperture 3 to make my photos look more professional I wasn’t able to find a great deal about how the Adjustments could be mixed to get different results. Therefore, I hope that this has been of some use to others in a similar position to myself, and if you have any gems of wisdom to share with me and others then please do so in the comments section. Another quick tip that I can give you though, is that using the full screen option for Aperture 3 is a real joy – just remember to hit the ‘H’ key to bring up the HUD, in order to actually make the changes that you wish to make.

My next post will probably use a number of other photos that I took at Dion and Caroline’s wedding, and will be for ‘The Face of Innocence’. As you can probably imagine, these photos will not be of the dance floor at the end of the night, but will be a selection of shots that I took of my friends’ children, which I am also quite pleased with.

The Colours of Infrared (1) (Fail!) (Photo 24)

Well, it was bound to happen at some point, and that point has arrived – I’ve failed miserably in my attempt to capture a photo for this week’s post! However, I have learned a fair bit in the process, which should hopefully help me to take a decent infrared (IR) shot in the future. I’m glad that there are two other photos using this technique, on the bucket list, as I’ve decided not to put up a featured photo because there really is nothing to be proud of! I will, however, try and share what I have learned (along with the photos I took), to help anybody who is equally surprised by the difficulty as I was.

Knowing that IR photography was on my list I have researched it from time to time, and basically came to the conclusion that I needed a specially converted camera, but then I saw a video on DigitalRev TV (see it here) which made me think that I would be able to achieve reasonable results with a filter on the front of my camera lens. So I ordered the Hoya Infrared (R72) Filter from Amazon, and looked forward to taking some great IR shots.

To see the potential of IR photography, take a look at some wonderful shots here – I underestimated the difficulty of achieving shots like those in a massive way.

Firstly, I should explain what IR photography is about, and that is using a camera to record the light that our eyes cannot see from the infrared area of the light spectrum. We humans can actually only see a fairly small proportion of the light that is around us, but camera sensors are sensitive to IR light although manufacturers add filters to block this light out to a large degree. This means that there are two ways in which you can allow your camera to record IR light – you can have the filter removed, which is probably expensive and restricts your camera to only taking IR photos, or you can buy a filter for the front of your lenses, which only allows IR light to pass through. The second option is much cheaper (around £30), but it does mean that you need to use long exposure times of at least a minute or two, to allow enough IR light to pass through the camera’s internal filter, which attempts to prevent the light from reaching the sensor. As I mentioned above, this is the option that I chose, and this is how my first test shot turned out.

My 1st test shot with the Hoya R72 filter attached to my NEX-6. I used a 2 minute exposure and an aperture of f/18

As you can see, this is NOT how the IR photos I had seen look – not even close! What was I doing wrong?! Even now I am not 100% sure, but I do now know that the IR images that you can see around the Internet are not straight out of the camera – they require a fair amount of post-processing in Photoshop. The image is red because although the IR filters look black, they are in fact a very deep shade of red. I also took the above photo whilst it was somewhat overcast, which meant that there was not enough IR light being reflected off the green leaves and grass for them to turn the white shade that is customary in IR photos.

Being somewhat perturbed by my very red image, I decided to do some more research and scoured the Internet for more tutorials. I found that many of the tutorials did not really explain what to expect a straight-out-of-the-camera IR shot to look like, despite going through the various steps that you should follow when attempting such shots, and so I was still left a little bemused. For that reason I think it is important for somebody new to IR photography to be able to know what they should expect, to avoid the confusion that I was suffering at that point, so I will now take you through my journey of discovery! I do not have all of the answers, but I think that I can at least provide some help and understanding to people just starting out with this. The first thing that I realised I was doing wrong was that I was not setting a custom white balance, which should be set against green grass in good sunlight, so I quickly set this using Aperture 3 (one of the benefits of shooting in RAW format is that you can change the white balance when editing your shots, without any issues). This is how the above photo looked with a white balance set against the grass in the photo.

Adjusting the white balance helps to bring other colours through the red tint.

Changing the white balance has brought other colours to the surface, but everything is still heavily tinted by red. If you click on the image, you will also see a brighter spot in the centre, which is apparently as a result of using a long exposure with a filter on the lens, as the IR light is reflected off the camera’s own filter, and around the lens elements before landing back on the camera’s sensor – effectively over-exposing the centre of the image. This does not happen with all lenses, and so really you need to test your own kit to find a lens that works well. Of my E-Mount 16mm pancake, 18-55mm kit, and 55-210mm telephoto lenses, I found that the telephoto lens was the only one not to suffer from this hot spot. It so happens that this is the only lens of the three which has glass across the full diameter of it, with the front elements of the other two being smaller than the lenses themselves, which may or may not have something to do with it. The main problem with this is that a telephoto lens is not particularly ideal for taking landscape shots! If you have a converted camera though, I do not think this would be an issue.

Another thing that I had read about IR photography was that you need very strong sunlight in order to get the best results, with midday shooting being advised for a change. The problem with living in Stockport is that many days can be overcast and wet, and so during Thursday and Friday I had no chance to take any more test shots. However, I had also read that IR light comes from any light source, even man-made light bulbs, so IR photography is also possible at night. This is backed up by some IR shots that I have come across being of night scenes, so I ventured out on Friday evening to have a go at taking shots of a church in Poynton which is lit up and also surrounded by fairly bright street lights. I decided to use an exposure time of 5 minutes, with a wide aperture to allow as much light in as possible. This is what I got in return.

5 minute exposure at night – the light trails are from cars on the roundabout, but none of the rest of the scene is visible!

Obviously, I was less than impressed once more, and so got straight back in the car and went home again! I had been taking some test shots in my kitchen earlier that evening, to prove to myself whether or not it was possible with artificial light, and also to test which lenses had a hot-spot, as well as taking the opportunity to experiment with the white balance settings. As I had at least been rewarded with more than just a black screen with those images, I was especially disappointed by the experience I had in Poynton. Here are a couple of the shots that I took of coloured chopping boards in my kitchen.

I set a custom white balance in camera, without the IR filter on the lens, for this shot.

I set a custom white balance in camera, with the IR filter on the lens, for this shot.

I think that is probably safe to say that the custom white balance should be set without the IR filter on the camera’s lens, to avoid some overly green images, but then again – does it matter if your image is very green as opposed to very red?! If you can advise, please do so in the comments section at the bottom!

It probably makes sense to give you a quick checklist of things to do when taking your shots with an IR filter on the lens now:

• Use a tripod for long exposures – you will probably need a minute or two depending upon the light.
• Take your shots in Spring and/or Summers, when there are plenty of leaves on the trees to turn white in the final image.
• Set a custom white balance, based on green grass in direct sunlight – I’m not convinced this is necessary though, as when I have played about with custom white balances in Aperture, it doesn’t seem to make a difference what area of the photo I choose as the white balance point!
• Remove the IR filter from the lens in order to frame and focus your shot – use manual focus to prevent the camera trying to auto-focus when you take the shot. With the IR filter on, you will not be able to see anything other than a very dark red (if not black) image.
• Use the Manual setting of your camera, and turn it to Bulb mode for exposures of more than 30 seconds – you will need a remote to achieve this without keeping your finger on the shutter release button.
• Use a large aperture to allow plenty of light through the lens, although landscape photography is best with a smaller aperture to give a greater depth of focus – adjust exposure times to compensate for this.
• Try to shoot on a still day – long exposures and wind don’t mix well if you want sharp images of trees!
• Choose a bright, sunny day in order to get white leaves and grass.
• Images with a lot of trees, water and sky seem to work well.

On Saturday I did manage to get a couple of shots in my back garden, when the sun decided to show for about 10 minutes. I could immediately see the difference this made to the leaves in the image.

I left the camera in auto white balance for this shot. The bright sunshine turned the green leaves white at last!

This shot looks the most like the odd out-of-camera shots that I did manage to find on the Internet, so I think that it probably makes sense to not bother setting a custom white balance in camera, and deal with that in your editing software. This is what changing the white balance in Aperture, based on the leaves, looks like – along with a few other exposure and definition changes.

Setting the white balance against the leaves made them much whiter.

I also took a shot after setting a custom white balance in camera, with the IR filter on the lens.

White balance set in camera, with IR filter on the lens.

This looks dreadful, but by setting the white balance against the leaves again in Aperture, the final image came out like this.

In camera custom white balance set, but then changed in Aperture.

To be honest, it doesn’t seem to matter how you set the white balance, and it probably makes sense to try doing so in different ways, as it then allows you to achieve different colours in the final image. The real magic happens when you move the image in to Photoshop and start playing with the channel mixer, and swapping the red and blue channels. You need the full version of Photoshop in order to this though, which is not cheap! I have Elements, which does not include the channel mixer, and so am currently unable to try and achieve a truly great IR photo look. There is a plug-in for Elements though, called Elements+, which promises to unlock the channel mixer, but I was unable to get this working in the short time that I had between realising the enormity of the task ahead of me and having to go and get drunk for a friend’s birthday!

I will of course be trying to get to the next step of IR photography in due course, but will be waiting for the leaves to come out on the trees, and I will also need to sort out access to photo software with a channel mixer! In the meantime, I hope that I have helped any newcomers to IR photography realise that they are not mad – it is just a lot harder to do than many of the tutorials on the Internet make it seem! Please leave any advice and comments that you may have, as I would really like to create a stunning IR image in the near future.