Björklunden Photography and Photoshop: Beginning Digital Photography

Organizing your photos:

Always save them in 2 places (memory card, computer hard drive, flash drive, external hard drive, CD...)
Make a folder on your desktop (right click - new - folder - type a name for your folder). Double click on this folder and you can make more folders that are labeled by day or by project. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmarTa22J2Q (YouTube "how to" clip)
You can view your images by double clicking on them or open them in Adobe Bridge or iPhoto.
When you are working on your photos and doing Photoshop adjustments always remember to hit SAVE AS so that you do not lose your original. Whatever method you choose to keep track of your edits is up to you.

RAW is another way to shoot your pictures but it saves it as an enormous file size because it records all of the information from when you took the picture. Before you can actually use the image you have to process it in Photoshop. It is an amazing tool and option but if you are not comfortable with this you can always stick with JPEG.
When saving your pictures we recommend you use JPEG and TIFF. JPEG is a smaller file size and is more easily transferred via memory cards and email. However, with every edit and save you lose a little bit of the file information and will eventually notice pixalation. TIFF files will not lose that information and you will save the various layers in Photoshop (that will make sense later). However, the file sizes are a lot larger and do not transfer as easily. We recommend that you edit using TIFF and save a final image in JPEG to share with everyone.

Improving your photographs technically:

Always start with the highest photo size (Large). You can reduce the size later but this will give you the best quality.
ISO (reacts to the light). When you are in bright lights use 100-200, dark lights 800 and an average pick is 400.
F Stop is like the pupil of your eye. When a room is dark your pupil gets larger and when a room is light your pupil gets smaller. The same thing happens within your camera and it is called aperture. We will talk about this more later.
P (program) and A (auto) will pick your selections for you.
M (manual) - You pick both the shutter speed and f-stop, while watching the exposure scale.
TV (time variable - sometimes S)- You pick the shutter speed and the camera picks the f-stop.
AV (aperture variable - sometimes A)- You pick the f-stop and the camera picks the shutter speed.
Informational site: http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/camera-exposure.htm

White Balance:

Your camera will adjust differently to the different light. A fluorescent bulb will light pictures differently than natural daylight. Therefore, you need to set your white balance before each shoot so that your colors will be more accurately recreated in your photos.

Focus:

If you are using auto focus, press the shutter slightly to lock the focus, then continue to press until the shutter releases.
Auto focus will focus on the center of the image. You can counteract this feature by pressing the shutter slightly to focus and then moving your camera before taking the picture.
If you are using manual focus, carefully adjust until the subject is sharp.

Recommendations:

Brace yourself. Hold your arms to your body.
Hold your breath as you cautiously press the shutter release. For some, slowly breathing out while you go to take your pictures will also help. Don't be talking.
Use a tripod in low light situations.
Get close to your subject.
What the background because images in the back could interfere with your composition.
Position the light to your back or side to avoid a silhouette shot... Unless that is what you are looking for!
Pay attention to the quality of the lighting... Watch for where the light is coming from, the harshness of the light, the shadows it produces, the color of the light...etc.

Sunday, June 10, 2012