Secrets to Nice Photos
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
A lot of people have asked me in response to my blog "What camera do you use?" and "How do you take such nice photos?". Here are some answers.
To answer the first question, I use a Canon PowerShot s500. I would probably still be using my old Canon PowerShot s410 but I was taking photos on the beach a couple months ago and apparently sand is really small and easily breaks cameras. Lesson learned. The s500 is really small, well-built, and takes excellent photos. I just got a new 1 GB CompactFlash Card so I will never need to worry about running out of space (on my camera at least, but my iPhoto library is pushing the limits of my hard drive).
The answer to the second question, besides having a good eye for photos, lies in a few simple tricks that are easy to learn. When I am posting photos I always do what I can in Photoshop to make sure they look their best. One of the best places to start when correcting your photos is the "Levels" panel in Photoshop or the new "Adjust" dashboard in iPhoto 5. These controls help almost every photo look more vibrant and rich, making the photo look more like it did when you took it. One other easy trick you can do when scaling photos for the web is to apply a slight sharpen. This always brings out a ton of detail that will not go unnoticed. So remember to color correct and sharpen.
Here is a before and after example of an image I corrected and sharpened.
19 Comments:
again, you wow me, sir.
Dude, was that done in PhoPho shop, or in iPhoto 5?
You can see it looks more rich in color, deeper blacks, just look at your knee... that is the big difference to notice.
I just bought that camera for my upcomming Ireland trip and it is nice. I'll second your recommendations, sharpening is a must and color correction can really help add to the "wow" of a photo. The four samples I recently posted were done in iPhoto 5 by doing this.
I never knew about sharpening until I read Cameron Moll's excellent article on using Photoshop's unsharp mask filter earlier last month. It's now a staple in my daily activities.
Not to steal Mike's spotlight... I just felt it was relevant to this entry. :)
First of all, i really like your blog man.
last year i really got into digital photograpy, switched, bought an imac g5 and using iPhoto is really nice.
Although iPhoto is just for the basics is works great like you showed us.
A cool effect you should check out is the LOMO effect, for photoshop, check it out here: http://yallara.cs.rmit.edu.au/~tbujor/blog/archives/000010lomo_effect_in_photoshop.php
its really neat
i really need to get more photoshop skills...
I don't know what this effect is, but I have been making photos look old at my site: Distinct Memories.
I did this one in Photoshop. I would make sure to only use the sharpen filter if you are scaling you images down. If you do not want to mess with the complicated "unsharp mask" filter you can do like I do and just run the normal "sharpen" and then use the "fade" command under the edit menu to make it a little less intense.
I actually just got this camera. I'm pretty happy with it.
If you use a high speed CF card, do you see any performance hikes as compared to a regular CF card?
If I may be permitted to post a dissenting opinion…
I agree completely with color-correcting your pictures before posting, but I do not agree with the idea of sharpening your pictures. While sharpening may make your pictures “pop,” it does so at the expense of fine detail, and can look somewhat artificial. For example, looking at the two pictures you posted, the edges of your arms and face against the white background look a little too outlined. Right at the edge of your skin, you can see a slight black line along the transition. This is what the sharpness setting does: It darkens the dark side, and lightens the light side, to emphasize the transition. But once you notice it, it seems much less natural than in the original picture. And in areas of fine detail (like the trees in the background, for instance), you lose some of the subtlety in the textures.
You can see more information about this effect at http://www.videophile.info/Guide_EE/Page_01.htm. Granted, that information is applied to video, but the concept is the same. It is more of an issue the larger the image is magnified, but it is something that you should be aware of.
Sharpening is not for everything and everyone but I really like the look of it when posting photos on the net. I would never sharpen images like this if I were going to print it out and hang it on my wall. For the web sharpening makes stuff look in between a photo and a drawing. Those lines you are talking about help your eye pick out the different pieces of the photo.
Mike, love the blog - your young success defniitely inspires me. In terms of having 'an eye' that's the best part of digital photography, that people who want to improve can so inexpensively learn from their mistakes. To anybody wanting to sharpen their skills - photography or digital editing - just stick with it.
Mike,
I'm just starting to get into digital photography, and this site has inspired me to post some pictures on my blog. Unfortunately I'm a user. Any thoughts on a good, inexpensive photo editing program for that platform? I wish Apple would make a Windows version of iPhoto.
Thanks.
reminds me of my post on the same topic :)
http://www.pketh.com/pketh/archives/000157.html
Although, at the time, I was a iphoto5 virgin ..
I'm better now- i swear
Awesome blog you have. I have the S400, which I've had since they were introduced. The Digital ELPH's are really great cameras. They are especially great because they can fit in your pocket, and you can take pictures at places that people might not even notice you photographing. :)
I use the Canon Powershot S500, too.
Thanks for great sharpening tip! I've just started to really get into using iPhoto's Adjustment dashboard and I've noticed that the slight sharpen for web pictures really makes a difference at times.
If you have Photoshop CS, there's an option when you resize that does the sharpening (probably not totally the same). When you select resize image, select Bicubic Sharper when you scale down and Bicubic Smoother when you make it bigger.
Hi Mike,
Could you tell me about how long the battery life is. And do you ever get stuck (especially when you went camping?) with no battery life?
thanks,
Ross from the UK.
Damnit, Mike they discontinued the cannon pwershot s500. Can you believe this mess. I went to the mall today to make a purchase and the clerck led me on for half an hour to only tell me they weren't ordering more and they had no more in stock because the company isen't making more of that model. They just hadn't got the go ahead to take the display down, I felt a day late and a dollar short. Don't freak out ppl they are making newer models, but the s500 was just what I was looking for at the perfect price.
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