Digital photography bible

Digital
Photography
Bible
Desktop Edition
Dan Simon

Wiley Publishing, Inc.


Digital Photography Bible, Desktop Edition
Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
10475 Crosspoint Boulevard
Indianapolis, IN 46256
www.wiley.com
Copyright

C

2004 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada
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About the Author

Dan Simon is a contributing author for Digital Photography All-in-One Desk
Reference For Dummies (Wiley). He is also a regular contributor to the Growing
Edge and Pennsylvania magazines.
Dan has more than 25 years experience as a journalist and photographer. He
began his career as a Navy journalist with assignments aboard several ships, and
in Norfolk, VA, Dededo, Guam, and McMurdo Station, Antarctica.
After leaving the service in 1990, Dan worked as a river guide and photographer
on Pennsylvania’s Lehigh River. During the past 10 years, he’s worked as a writer
and photographer for several Pennsylvania and New Jersey newspapers,
including the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader (Hazelton edition) and Allentown
Morning Call.
His writing and photography have appeared in numerous books, magazines, web
sites, and newspapers, including: The New York Times; ESPN; National
Geographic Reference Atlas of North American Birds, Fifth Edition; Mid-Atlantic
Real Estate Journal; Baltimore Daily Record; Tri-State Real Estate Journal; Corridor
Real Estate Journal; All Hands magazine; Army Times; Gloucester County Times;
White Haven Journal Herald; Butler Eagle; www.greenworks.tv; and
/>
Dan is currently working on a master’s degree in communications from Drexel
University (Philadelphia, PA). Dan holds a bachelor’s degree in general studies
(design arts) from Drexel and an associate’s in computer graphic arts from
Gloucester County College (Sewell, NJ). He is also a graduate of the military’s
Defense Information School (Information Specialist Journalist and Broadcaster
and Intermediate Photojournalism).


Credits
Acquisitions Editor
Debra Williams Cauley

Vice President and Publisher
Joseph B. Wikert

Development Editors
Brian Herrmann
Jodi Jensen

Executive Editorial Director
Mary Bednarek

Production Editor
Gabrielle Nabi
Technical Editors
Dave Evans
Lisa Simon
Copy Editor
TechBooks Production Services
Editorial Manager
Mary Beth Wakefield
Vice President & Executive
Group Publisher
Richard Swadley
Vice President and Executive
Publisher
Bob Ipsen

Project Coordinator
Erin Smith
Permissions Editor
Laura Moss

Media Development Specialist
Kit Malone
Proofreading and Indexing
TechBooks Production Services
Cover Illustration
Anthony Bunyan
Interior Design
Lissa Auciello-Brogan


I usually refer to her as the “Old Battleaxe”
and joke that she dragged me to the altar kicking
and screaming. The truth is, I can’t think of
anyone or anything more important to
me than my wife, Lisa.
I tease her about being my faithful assistant,
but I love her more than anything else in the world.
Thank you, Lisa, for being my wife.



Preface

I

n 1975, I met my first computer. Well, it wasn’t exactly a computer: it was
a dumb terminal connected to a computer at the local college. I was one of
about a half dozen students at my high school introduced to this desk-sized
apparatus in the school basement. Little did I know I was looking at a piece of
world-changing technology. At the time, the contraption seemed like one of

those interesting but not terribly useful gizmos high school science teachers
were fond of getting us to try and learn. You couldn’t do much with it, just plug
in some simple code to do basic mathematical operations. Since I could already
multiply 10 by 100 in my head, I wasn’t really sure what the fuss was all about. In
the two-and-a-half decades since, I’ve watched an almost magical
transformation. Computers have gone from room-filling multimillion-dollar
leviathans to tiny chips that can fit on your fingertip.

The revolution from mainframe to home computer, led by people such as Bill
Gates and Steve Jobs, has made the home PC as ubiquitous as the toaster. Even
more amazing has been the revolution in digital photography. I bought my first
home computer in 1980, a scant five years after that first meeting in the
basement of my high school, but I didn’t meet my first digital camera until the
mid-1990s—an early digital single lens reflex (DSLR) camera with the
breathtakingly low price of $14,000 (without lenses). Just a few years later, in
2000, I was able to buy my own digital camera for less than $600. Now, four
years after that, a camera with the same capabilities (and a quarter of the size)
can be had for less than $150, and it makes better pictures to boot. A DSLR far
superior to the one I tested in 1995 can now be had for less than $1000.
Looking back, the relatively swift transition from bulky view cameras and their
assorted paraphernalia to today’s point-and-shoot camera has been truly
astonishing.
The speed at which the current change is happening is almost frightening, for it
means that photographers constantly have to adapt to new technology. What
stops this transition from being completely terrifying is the payoff in increased
capability. Yes, photographers have to work harder to keep abreast of changes in
equipment, but at least you’re rewarded with superior performance. Although
film photography diehards bemoan the impact that digital has had on the
medium, the reality is that digital photography has rekindled interest in
photography for many people. Even better, in the hands of dedicated users, the

technology provides incredible potential for learning and improvement. The
ability to review an image immediately after its creation while there is time to
analyze it and improve upon it is immensely valuable. This alone is worth the
price of admission.


viii Preface

Who Should Read This Book?
Digital photography is for everybody. Although this book is geared for beginners
and intermediates, there’s information here that can help advanced amateurs
and working pros considering the switch from film to digital photography.
When you get right down to it, digital photography is still photography. Whereas
the process used to be divided between shooting and processing in the wet
darkroom, it’s now a question of shooting and processing in the digital darkroom.
There are some differences in making pictures with a digital camera and making
them with a film camera, but the real sea change in photography has occurred in
the processing end of the equation. This is in part because while lots of people
make pictures, a much smaller number have ever processed their film. The
advent of the digital process has made image processing possible (or necessary)
for many people who would never have entered a conventional darkroom.

What Hardware and Software
Do You Need?
It’s difficult to provide such a list for this type of book. If you’re a hobbyist who
just wants to take better pictures and plans on letting your camera do all the
processing, you don’t need much at all. A basic computer with a way to move
images from your camera to the computer, in addition to a CD-burner for making
file backups, is more than enough.
On the other hand, if you’re a working pro or advanced amateur looking to move

into digital photography and take advantage of all that the digital darkroom has
to offer, your requirements are greater. A little later in this section, I provide
Adobe’s requirements for its latest version of PhotoShop (PhotoShop CS). If
you’re thinking about getting into digital in a big way, meeting these
requirements would be a good way to start.
More than anything else, you need a camera. Beyond that, it would be nice if
your computer had some kind of image-editing software (such as Photoshop or
Photoshop Elements) and cataloging software (such as ACDsee or iView).
As long as your computer was purchased in the last two or three years, you
should have more than enough processing power to manipulate and manage
digital files. When in doubt, adding RAM (more computer memory) provides a
low-cost alternative to buying a new machine. Any home computer with 128MB
of RAM or more is in decent shape to start.
If you want to use the latest version of PhotoShop (PhotoShop CS), Adobe says
your system should meet the requirements described in the following sections.


Preface

ix

Macintosh
✦ PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor
✦ Mac OS X v.10.2.4, 10.2.5, 10.2.6, or 10.2.7
✦ 192MB of RAM (256MB recommended)
✦ 320MB of available hard drive space
✦ Color monitor with 16-bit color or greater video card
✦ 1,024 x 768 or greater monitor resolution
✦ CD-ROM drive

Windows
✦ Intel Pentium III or 4 processor
✦ Microsoft Windows 2000 with Service Pack 3 or Windows XP
✦ 192MB of RAM (256MB recommended)
✦ 280MB of available hard-disk space
✦ Color monitor with 16-bit color or greater video card
✦ 1,024 x 768 or greater monitor resolution
✦ CD-ROM drive
✦ Internet or phone connection required for product activation
Certainly, if you meet these requirements, you are more than ready for anything
in this book. If you’re planning to work with a less demanding image editing
program, or if you just don’t expect to process many images, a less powerful or
older machine should work just fine.

How This Book Is Organized
This book is divided into different parts. Like most instructional books, this one
starts out with simple concepts and then moves to the more advanced. While
every effort has been made to be as comprehensive as possible, I realize many
readers aren’t looking to become professional photographers—they just want to
do a better job of making the images they consider important. I’ve tried to
organize things in a way this type of person will find useful. Here is what you’ll
find in the various parts of the book:
✦ Part I, “Laying the Foundation—Basic Digital Photography.” This part
covers (no surprise here) the basics. It’s designed to help someone
making his or her first foray into digital photography. Here you find
information to help you understand the features digital cameras offer and
what you need to know to either buy and operate a digital camera.


x Preface

✦ Part II, “Taking the Next Step—Photographs That Wow!” This part is all
about becoming a better photographer. Here I cover the methods
photographers use to make images people want to look at. The
information in this part helps you take better pictures no matter how
simple or sophisticated your equipment. It’s a roadmap to good
photography.
✦ Part III, “Tackling Different Photographic Subjects.” This part focuses
on shooting various subjects, such as people, sports, or the outdoors.
Here I share techniques that can help you get better shots, regardless of
what you are shooting. I have done all these types of photography for
many years, and I try to share the things I’ve learned during that time. If
your goal is to grow as a photographer, trying new forms of photography
is a good way to stretch your abilities and learn new tricks.
✦ Part IV, “Doing Your Own Image Processing.” This part is your entry
into the digital darkroom. You learn the techniques pros use to optimize
their photos and correct image imperfections. This part is a primer on
how to use your computer to make your pictures better. It examines color
correcting, spotting and image repair, and how to sharpen a photo and
fix exposure problems. Part IV also introduces the idea of masking and
selecting areas of a photograph so you can apply an effect to just that
one spot. This part also lays out a step-by-step image management
process. This digital road map provides a clear path for how to handle
your images from the time you create them until you safely back
them up.
✦ Part V, “Photography for Professionals in Other Fields.” I wrote this
part to help people who have to take pictures on the job, even though
they may not have any kind of photographic training. Since many
professions require their practitioners to take pictures, I wanted to
provide you with some detailed advice on how to make the best of your
photographic opportunities. In Part V, I provide basic checklists to make

sure you show up with all the gear you need. This part also provides
information on gear that can help you make better photos while keeping
your shoots simple and inexpensive.
✦ Part VI, “Digital Photography Projects.” The chapters in this part fill
in a few remaining holes in this book’s coverage. This part covers
techniques and topics not handled in the preceding sections, such as
dealing with reflections, photographing fireworks, and other creative
endeavors.
✦ Appendixes. You can find some valuable additional information in the
four appendixes that appear in this book. Find digital photography
definitions and techniques; a listing of some handy tools, gadgets, and
gizmos; plus information about new features that two popular image
editing programs—Adobe’s PhotoShop and PhotoShop Elements—have
added to their latest upgrades.


Preface

xi

Navigating This Book
I’ve used some tools to help make this book easier to navigate and, hopefully,
easier to read. The following list explains what each of these special elements
means so that you can choose the ones you want to stop and read along the way:
Provides a trick I’ve relied on as a solution for a particular photographic
problem.
I use this icon when I want to call your attention to an important idea or
observation.
Some techniques or situations present hazards the photographer needs
to be aware of. The Caution icon gives you information to help you decide

whether getting a photo is worth the risks involved.
This icon refers you to another section of the book that contains pertinent
or more detailed information about the subject at hand. Keeps you from
having to read through information that I’ve already covered elsewhere.
On
The Web

This icon points you to the book’s companion web site (www.wiley
.com/compbooks/simon) for additional information and goodies. This web
site offers full-color versions of the grayscale photos that appear in the
book, links to manufacturers’ web sites, and offerings or freebies such
as PhotoShop actions or downloadable checklists.

Sidebar
These gray boxes indicate that I’m off on a tangent, but one that is instructive.
Sidebars frequently provide insight into how you can actually use a technique;
or they show an alternative method or comment in more detail on a potential
problem.

The Companion Web Site
My goal is to make this book’s companion web site a valuable resource for you.
To meet this goal, I’ve provided color versions of all the photos appearing in this
book, links to web sites I feel are valuable, downloadable materials such as
checklists, and extra information I wanted to include in the book but couldn’t
because space considerations prevented it. Please remember that my copyright
still applies to the images provided on the web site. Feel free to download these
images to experiment with; just remember that they are not available to sell or
give away.

xii Preface
Feel free to download my images from the web site and run them through the
same processing steps I describe in the digital darkroom section. When
applicable, I provide before and after versions of the images so you can see what
I started with and what I ended up with.

Further Information
The web is a gold mine of valuable information and advice, and manufacturer
and software developer web sites are often excellent places to start when
searching for the latest online advice. Adobe maintains a very useful PhotoShop
web site you can access from the Help menu of the program itself. This site
contains tutorials and links to user forums. It’s a good place to turn for detailed
information on the program.
You can also contact me via e-mail at
I make an effort to answer all e-mail I receive. Give me some time, and I’ll try to
get back to you.


Acknowledgments

W

riting a book is more of a collaboration than people actually know.
While one person may do the bulk of the writing, it takes a team of
people to see a book from idea to fruition. I’ve been blessed with a truly
outstanding team of people to help me with this project.
First and foremost, I’m grateful to my agent Margot Maley. Margot has been
described as “the best agent in the world,” and she certainly has been for me.

I’d also like to offer special thanks to my friends at Wiley Publishing. Debra

Williams Cauley helped guide me through the shaping and planning stages of
this project. Her wisdom and experience have helped produce a work fitted for
the needs of today’s digital photographers.
I’d also like to thank Jodi Jensen, who has been a real joy to work with. Jodi has
borne the demanding task of dealing with the fairly regular stream of questions,
comments, and harebrained ideas I sometimes came up with. Through it all, she
has been patient, enthusiastic, supportive, and cheerful. In addition, I’m grateful
to development editor Brian Herrmann. His efforts have done much to make this
book tighter and easier to read.
I further benefited from the help of two talented technical editors: my friend and
colleague, David Evans, and my faithful assistant, Lisa Simon. These two have
been constantly looking over my shoulder, at least figuratively, to help make sure
this book was as accurate as possible.
Several organizations provided access and assistance for both research and
photography for this work. The Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, Kempton, PA;
Longwood Gardens Kennett Square, PA; Greenworks.tv/Greentreks.tv; and
Norwegian Cruise Lines, Miami, FL; have all been enthusiastic, cooperative, and
accessible.
Certain companies and software makers have been kind enough to provide me
with evaluation copies of their software or loan me their product to make this
book as comprehensive as possible. One of these companies, iView Multimedia,
has been kind enough to offer a discount on their software for readers of this
book. I use their product myself and have no problem recommending it.
I’d also like to thank LowePro, Kaidan, SmartTrax, Extensis, the Digital Imaging
Factory and ACD Systems.
On a personal basis, I’d like to thank two hard-working people at the U.S.
Veteran’s Administration, Louis Namm and Dennis Best, for the help they’ve
given me over the years. They’re just a couple of the many terrific people I’ve
encountered at the VA.

xiv Acknowledgments
And finally, for each of us there is that one person who started us down the path
that led to works such as this. For me, that person has been my friend, mentor,
and colleague, Sherry London, who has my heartfelt thanks for her part in
helping me realize a lifelong dream.


Contents at a Glance

..............................................
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv

Part I: Laying the Foundation—Basic Digital Photography . . . . . . 1
Chapter 1: What You Need to Know to Get Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Chapter 2: Basic Camera Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Chapter 3: Taking Interesting Photographs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Part II: Taking the Next Step—Photographs That Wow!. . . . . . . . .43
Chapter 4:
Chapter 5:
Chapter 6:
Chapter 7:

Creating Magic with the Right Lens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Going to Extremes: Aperture and Shutter Speed Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Expanding Your Horizons: Panoramic and Bad Weather Photography . . 77
Let There Be Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Part III: Tackling Different Photographic Subjects . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Chapter 8: Photographing People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Chapter 9: Photographing Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Chapter 10: Photographing Nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Chapter 11: Photographing Landscapes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .205
Chapter 12: Photographing Travel Destinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Chapter 13: Telling a Story with Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

Part IV: Doing Your Own Image Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Chapter 14:
Chapter 15:
Chapter 16:
Chapter 17:

Introduction to the Digital Darkroom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Image Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Setting Up a Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
Image Management and Archiving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

Part V: Photography for Professionals in Other Fields . . . . . . . . 321
Chapter 18:
Chapter 19:
Chapter 20:
Chapter 21:
Chapter 22:
Chapter 23:
Chapter 24:
Chapter 25:

Getting It Together: Help for the Occasional Photographer . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Digital Photography for Realtors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Digital Photography for Automobile Sales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Digital Photography for Company Newsletters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Digital Photography for Insurance Adjusters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Digital Photography for Research and Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Digital Photography for Artists and Graphic Artists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
Digital Photography for Public Relations Specialists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389


xvi Contents at a Glance
Part VI: Putting Digital Photography to Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
Chapter 26: Creating a Digital Presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
Chapter 27: Photographing Business Subjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
Chapter 28: Techniques for Unusual Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421

Appendix A: Digital Photography Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
Appendix B: Digital Photography Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437
Appendix C: Tools, Solutions, and Emergencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
Appendix D: What’s New in Photoshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .461


Contents

..............................................
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv

Part I: Laying the Foundation—Basic
Digital Photography

1

Chapter 1: What You Need to Know to Get Started . . . . . . . . 3
The Advantages of Digital Photography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Getting a Handle on Digital Camera Choices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Camera Basics—What’s Important? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Decisions, Decisions: Point-and-Shoot versus DSLR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Point-and-shoot cameras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
DSLR cameras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Project: Choosing a digital camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Chapter 2: Basic Camera Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Prepping the Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Camera Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Quality settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
White balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
ISO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Choosing the Exposure Setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Aiming for Technical Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Proper exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Exposure compensation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Choices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Project: Setting up a point-and-shoot camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Simple, But Useful, Accessories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Camera bags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Flash units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Tripods, monopods, and other stabilizers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Tripods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Monopods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Other supports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Chapter 3: Taking Interesting Photographs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
The Rule of Thirds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Framing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Leading Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Horizontal versus Vertical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38


xviii Contents
Playing the Angles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Part II: Taking the Next Step—Photographs
That Wow!

43

Chapter 4: Creating Magic with the Right Lens . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Understanding Focal Length Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Working with wide-angle focal lengths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Using wide-angle lenses creatively . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Working with telephoto lenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Using telephoto lenses creatively . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Digiscoping—The poor man’s answer to a super
telephoto lens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Thinking Outside the Box with Focal Lengths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Using focal lengths creatively . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Telephoto lenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Wide-angle lenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Using focal lengths for artistic effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Chapter 5: Going to Extremes: Aperture and Shutter
Speed Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Getting the Most from Your Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Speeding up your camera’s response time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Selecting the right shutter speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Making your aperture selection work for you . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Zone focusing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Selective focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Getting Close to Your Subject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Close-up photography tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Getting creative with macro photography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Lighting for macro photography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Project: Shooting close-ups of flowers with and without
lighting improvements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Chapter 6: Expanding Your Horizons: Panoramic and
Bad Weather Photography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Creating Panoramic Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Handling the technical challenges. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78
Handling the creative challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Creating panoramic images the standard way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Creating panoramic images the easy way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Project: Assembling a high-resolution panoramic image . . . . . . . . 83
Oh, the Weather Outside Is Frightful . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Dealing with the elements 101 (for humans) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Dealing with the elements 101 (for cameras) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Some Final Thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89


Contents

xix

Chapter 7: Let There Be Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Finding Quality Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Handling high-contrast lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Considering light’s direction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .96
Improving the Lighting in Your Photographs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Built-in flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Using supplemental flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Part III: Tackling Different Photographic
Subjects

103

Chapter 8: Photographing People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Choosing the Type of Photo You Want to Take . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Formal Portraiture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Camera requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Necessary accessories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Making interesting portraits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Setting up the formal portrait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Project: Posing your subject for a formal portrait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Posing a group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Lighting the formal portrait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Project: Setting up a home portrait studio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Informal Portraiture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Environmental Portraiture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Candid Photography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Stealth photography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Striving for naturalness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Glamour Photography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Categories of glamour photography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Portraiture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Glamour lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Swimsuit photography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Shooting at Family Gatherings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Project: The window-lit portrait. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .133
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Chapter 9: Photographing Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
The Essence of Sports Photography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Capturing the Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Anticipating the shot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Prefocusing the shot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Prefocusing for cameras with shutter lag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Following motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Panning in low light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Stopping motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Choosing the right lens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Telephoto lens: King of the sports world . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Medium zoom lens: Shooting indoor sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Wide-angle zoom focal lengths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Photographing Individual Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Archery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146


xx Contents
Badminton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Adventure racing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Auto racing (NASCAR style) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Auto racing (small track) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Auto racing (hot rod, funny car) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Baseball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Basketball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Biathlon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Billiards (and pool) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Bobsledding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Bowling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Boxing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Bullfighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Canoeing/kayaking (flat water) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Canoeing/kayaking/rafting (white water) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Cheerleading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Cricket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Curling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Cycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Equestrian (You shoot horses don’t you?) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Fencing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Fishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Football (American style) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Golf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Gymnastics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Hockey (ice) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Hockey (field) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Lacrosse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Motorcycle racing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Motorcycle stunt events (Moto X, Big Air, X-games) . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Paintball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Racquetball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Running . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Sculling/Crew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Skateboarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Skiing (cross-country) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Skiing (downhill) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Soccer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Softball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Swimming and diving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Tennis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Track and field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Volleyball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Wakeboarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Weightlifting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Wrestling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Chapter 10: Photographing Nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Nature Photography Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Equipment readiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Equipment concerns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Types of Subject Matter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Spiders and insects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Plants and flowers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185


Contents

xxi

Birds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Land animals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Nature Preserves and Wildlife Sanctuaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Animals in the wild . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Wildlife photography on the move . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Wait for them to come to you . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Blinds: A way to stay out of sight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Another form of nature preserve: Your backyard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Captive animal demonstrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Zoos and Aquariums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Zoo photography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Aquarium photography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Shooting through glass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Underwater photography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Ethical Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Chapter 11: Photographing Landscapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Getting Started in Landscape Photography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Technical Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Rural Landscapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Urban Landscapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Industrial Landscapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

Chapter 12: Photographing Travel Destinations . . . . . . . . . 213
Planning and Preparation for the Trip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
What to take . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Cameras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Laptops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Laptop alternatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Portable CD drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
Miscellaneous items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Getting to Your Destination Intact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Getting through security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Carrying all your stuff. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .219
Creating a Sense of Place. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .220
Shooting from an Airplane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Shooting from a Train . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Photographing the train itself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Shooting from Your Car . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Using cars as mobile photography platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Shooting from a Cruise Ship. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .228
Making Better Travel Photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Chapter 13: Telling a Story with Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Planning Your Picture Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Considering the key elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

Create a shot list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Create a storyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Take the photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235


xxii Contents
Mixing up your images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Give your photos a sense of direction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .238
End the story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Project: Storytelling with a Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

Part IV: Doing Your Own Image Processing

247

Chapter 14: Introduction to the Digital Darkroom . . . . . . 249
Making the Computer Work for You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Transfer methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Camera to computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Media to card reader device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
PC card adapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
File Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
TIF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
JPEG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Raw Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Raw format’s advantages and disadvantages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .253
Choosing between 8-bit and 16-bit images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Chapter 15: Image Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
File Preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
Rotating an image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
Keystoning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Cropping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
Exposure Correction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
Reading the histogram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Setting levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Working with curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Setting black, white, and gray points using curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
Adjusting the curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Fine-tuning the color in the Variations dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Using adjustment layers: A nondestructive approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Masking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Dodging and burning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Other Methods of Image Tweaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Gray fill (for increasing tonal range) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Contrast masking (for salvaging high contrast images) . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Digital color filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Spotting and Image Repair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
Project: Dust spotting—An alternative technique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Sharpening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .276
Unsharp Mask filter sharpening technique (destructive) . . . . . . . . . . 277
High Pass sharpening technique (nondestructive) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Handling Noise Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Masking and Making Selections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Programs That Do the Work for You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Intellihance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Dfine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

Contents

xxiii

Increasing Image Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Using Photoshop’s bicubic interpolation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .284
Third-party solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Genuine Fractals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Pixel Smartscale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Chapter 16: Setting Up a Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
Determining Which Type of Workflow to Use. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .288
JPEG/TIFF workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Phase I: Capturing and reviewing the images. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .289
Phase II: Processing the images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Phase III: Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
Differences between Raw and JPEG workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
Phase I: Capturing and reviewing the images. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .298
Phase II: Processing the images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Chapter 17: Image Management and Archiving . . . . . . . . . 303
Managing Your Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
The alphabet comes to the rescue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
EXIF—Leave the note taking to your camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
IPTC—The tool the pros use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
A few words about keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Project: Setting up a photo drive and master catalog . . . . . . . . . . 308

Simplifying routine tasks using actions and batch
processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Project: Setting up a Photoshop action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Project: Creating a batch processing action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Making Sure Your Images Last . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
A realistic look at some archiving methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Archiving plan for light shooters (1-200 pictures
a year) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Archiving plan for medium shooters (200–1,000
pictures a year) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Archiving plan for heavy shooters (1,000-plus pictures
a year) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
A word about physical storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

Part V: Photography for Professionals in
Other Fields

321

Chapter 18: Getting It Together: Help for the Occasional
Photographer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Unique Challenges of the Occasional Photographer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .323
Basic Equipment Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
Pre-Shoot Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
Shooting Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
Common Camera Problems Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329


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Post-Shoot Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

Chapter 19: Digital Photography for Realtors . . . . . . . . . . . 333
The Basics of Real Estate Photography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Equipment checklist for real estate photography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Tips for getting the best shots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Photographing the Home’s Exterior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
Ensuring curb appeal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
Getting the proper perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
Project: Shooting exteriors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .338
Photographing the Home’s Interior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Ensuring the right light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Setting the white balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Adding homey touches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
Photographing large interior spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
Project: Shooting interiors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
Back at the Office . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

Chapter 20: Digital Photography for
Automobile Sales. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .345
Automobile Photography Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Dealing with Reflections and Glare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
Using a polarizing filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
Composing an Automobile Shot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
Choosing an angle of view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
Deciding on focal length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Depth of field concerns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350

Chapter 21: Digital Photography for Company
Newsletters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Newsletter Photography Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Composing Interesting Photographs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
Shooting for Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
Avoiding traps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
Creating a Shot List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .356
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

Chapter 22: Digital Photography for
Insurance Adjusters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Insurance Photography Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
Choosing the Best Camera for the Job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
Making Prints in the Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Choosing the right portable printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Powering your portable printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Finding emergency printing solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Dealing with Lighting Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Using your built-in flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Lighting for detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365