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Photography's Problem:
Representing What We See
Photographs don't represent the world as we see it.
After we press the shutter release, we look at our glowing LCD screens.
We then look at the
just-photographed scene.
Harrumph!
There's a difference.
The deep-blue sky is now baby blue.
The shadows are much darker.
Sometimes, this increase in contrast is beneficial.
For example, the too-dark shadow behind a person becomes a
great background for the portrait.
More often, the too-dark shadows and the the too-washed-out
highlights are detrimental.
Not New
Photography's problem is not new.
Bernice Abbott, in a 1944 Popular Photography Magazine article,
The Coming World of Photography, described the problem.
Abbott mentioned how you can't get the bright area of a scene,
and the dark area, on the same photograph: "Latitude: A dark deep
foreground should have as much tonality as a bright sky, without
sacrificing one or the other."
Sixty-some years later, it's still a problem.
More Evident Now
While the contrast problem isn't new, it may be more evident
to photographers in the digital era.
Few photographers, in the film era, worked in a darkroom.
Few photographers, then, had prints made by a person rather
than a printing machine.
So, they didn't know what they were missing.
They never delved into all of the information contained in
their negatives.
Why?
The brightness ratio is the measure of the range between the
darkest shadows and the brightest highlights.
This ratio is also called dynamic range.
A typical scene has a brightness ratio of 100,000 to 1.
The human eye can see a brightness ratio of about 10,000 to 1
while looking at a scene.
Your computer monitor has a brightness ratio of about 400 to 1.
That's about seven stops.
That's the problem.
We have to fit a 100,000:1-world on a 400:1-monitor.
The problem becomes worse when you make a print.
The brightness range of photographic paper varies from about
200:1 to 100:1.
Print Example
Let's say you have a photograph of a toad covered with
raindrops.
Each raindrop has a highlight.
On a monitor, the highlights are created with transmitted
light from glowing crystals.
The raindrops sparkle.
When you look at a print of the toad, the same highlights are
created by reflected light off of white plastic.
They highlights are dull.
White plastic can't compete with glowing crystals.
First, we'll look at solutions to the contrast problem using your camera.
Then, solutions you can employ at your computer.
Solutions with Your Camera
You can mitigate the contrast problem by keeping it in mind
as you photograph.
Try the following camera solutions.
Fiji Camera
Buy a new camera!
Fuji makes cameras with a unique sensor, such as the
Fujifilm FinePix S5.
The SR CCD sensor has two photosites for every pixel.
The S photosites are conventional.
When a S photosite becomes overexposed, its accompanying R
photosite can record image information.
This is because the R photosite is much less sensitive to
light than the S photosite.
Many wedding and portrait photographers use Fuji cameras with
this sensor.
Filters
Polarizing Filter
A Polarizing filter will darken blue skies on a sunny day.
Go to
Polarizing Filter.
Graduated Neutral Density (ND) Filter
A graduated neutral density filter is gray on top, and fades
to clear at the bottom.
You position the filter so the gray area is blocking the
bright sky, while the clear area is allowing all of the light
from the foreground to pass though.
Go to Graduated Neutral Density Filter.
Photograph with Low Contrast Light
The best light for photographers is a sunny day.
The best light for photographs is an overcast day or in the
shade.
The light source is the entire sky on an overcast day or in
the shade.
When the source of light is large, the light in the scene is
low contrast.
Saturated Color Settings
Increase Contrast
When color saturation is increased, the contrast also
increases.
The highlights will
become brighter, and the shadows, darker.
Your camera camera can be set to various color settings.
These settings change the way the raw data from the sensor is
processed into a JPEG file.
If the color setting is set to Vivid or Saturated, or similar settings, the
contrast will be higher.
If the increase in contrast is of concern, use Natural,
or a similar setting, instead.
Other settings may increase the color saturation, and
contrast, without you realizing
it's happening.
For example, on the Exposure Mode dial, you probably have an
icon of a mountain.
This Landscape exposure mode, on many cameras, will switch
the camera from a natural color setting to a saturated setting.
So, if increased contrast is an issue in a scene, don't use the
Landscape exposure mode.
These processing controls go by different names, depending on
the camera manufacturer.
|
Canon
|
User Defined (older cameras)
or Picture Styles
|
| Nikon |
Optimize Image (older
cameras) or Picture Control
|
|
Pentax
|
Image Finishing Tones
|
Next, we'll look at solutions to increased contrast using
your computer.
Solutions - At the Computer
Monitor Calibration
Is your monitor calibrated?
A calibrated monitor matches all other calibrated monitors.
If your monitor isn't calibrated, what you see on your
monitor isn't what your lab sees when they look at your
photograph.
What you think is a perfectly edited photograph, is not, on
the calibrated monitor at the lab.
Go to
Monitor Calibration.
Color Management
Color must be set up properly throughout the photographic
process—from camera to the print.
Go to
Color Management.
Shoot Raw
If you save your photographs as a raw file, there'll be more
information in the shadow areas to edit, compared to a JPEG
file.
Go to
Raw v. JPEG.
Below, we'll look at processing a single raw file into two
different versions.
The two versions are then combined.
Jump to Process a Raw File,
Twice.
Soft Proofing
Photoshop, and other programs, have soft proofing.
They simulate how your print will look.
Edit a Edit a photograph, and then use the soft proof feature to
evaluate how it may look as a print.
Go to
Soft Proofing.
Photoshop Elements
You can use Photoshop Elements to combine two exposures of
the same scene.
You can use two JPEG files of the same scene, taken with
different exposures.
Or, you can use a single raw file, processed for two
different exposures.
Two JPEGs
You can combine two photographs of the same scene.
Let's say you're photographing a landscape.
The exposure of the first photograph should be the best exposure for
the sky.
The foreground will be too dark, but you won't be using that part
of the photograph.
In the second photograph, set the exposure for the foreground.
The sky will be too bright.
But, you won't be using that part of the second photograph.
Go to
Combine Two Photographs.
Single Raw File
If your camera can save raw files, take a photograph of the
scene and save it as a raw file.
Go to
Raw Process, Twice, to Reduce Contrast.
High Dynamic Range (HDR)
Photography
Igor Iric
High dynamic range photography, combines several different
photographs of the same scene into a single photograph.
The different photographs are taken at the optimum exposure
settings for different parts of the scene.
Let's say you're photographing the Grand Canyon.
Because you'll be taking several photographs of the canyon,
the camera, and the scene, must be stationary.
So, the camera is on a tripod.
You ascertain the clouds in the sky are imperceptibly moving.
You take a photograph of the sky using the optimum exposure
for this part of the scene.
Next, you photograph the canyon wall, that's in the sun,
using the optimum exposure for this part of the scene.
Finally, you photograph the canyon wall, that's in the shade,
using the optimum exposure for this part of the scene.
Using software, you combine parts of the exposures.
HDR Photography Resources
FDRTools
Software
HDR PhotoStudio
Software
High Dynamic Range (HDR) Landscape Photography Tutorial
Royce Howland
OpenEXR
File format for HDR photographs
Photomatix Software
FAQ - HDR
images for Photography
PhotoResampling Software
Picturenaut Software
