Memory Colours

Took two shots, then wind blew away the yellow leaf.

When I worked at a daily paper, one of my responsibilities was preparing colour separations for publication. I learned that sky blue, grass or foliage green and some other colours such as tomato red are memory colours. Oddly enough, memory colours vary from culture to culture. For instance, I was taught that North Americans like their memory colours, especially sky blue and foliage green, more vibrant, more saturated than Europeans.

I don't know whether or not this is completely true but I do know that brightly coloured pictures in the paper were received better than dull ones — even though the dull ones might have more accurate. When I think of fall, I think of incredible colours. Impossible colours. Like the colours in today's photo.

This image was shot RAW and punched up before being converted to a jpeg. Then it was taken into Photoshop and posterized before being saved. (Image -> Adjustments -> Posterize...) When doing stuff like this to images, always keep a copy of the untouched original. The bold look you like this year, may simply look cheesy next year.

Point-and-shoot zooms have changed photography forever

When I got into photography my camera had a fixed lens. Then, in the '60s I discovered the single lens reflex camera and ordered a Pentax Spotmatic from Asia Photo Supply in Hong Kong. I can still recall the excitement when a large, wooden crate arrived with my new gear. I had a 28mm lens, a 135mm lens and a 300mm lens.

But because it took a crate to carry all that stuff, I often didn't have all that stuff with me. Often, I was back shooting with one lens.

Today, almost every point-and-shoot has a zoom lens and many have lenses capable of emulating my entire camera kit from the '60s. The pictures today were taken with an older Canon S90 but they could have been shot with any one of dozens of little cameras.

For the dandelion picking picture, I set the lens to wide angle. For the shot of Fiona enjoying a high-flying ride on a swing, I set the lens to its longest setting. For the picking dandelions shot, I wanted to see some context. I wanted to see the little girl surrounded by grass with the suburban neighbourhood in the distant background.

For the swing shot, I wanted to try and show the flying, mane of red hair and the child's reaction to being pushed hard, fast and high. The long lens setting allowed me to fill the frame.

What is important here is to capture the moment just after she has reached the highest point and is beginning her return. Stopping action with point-and-shoots can be difficult. If you nail the shot at the instant the little girl is changing direction, you will have a tack sharp picture but the flying hair won't be flying. But, if you wait too long to shoot , she will very difficult to frame properly. Set your zoom to a long lens setting, I used 105mm, and be sure to shoot lots.

A shot in the dark

I shot today's photos with my Canon S90, a model that has now been superseded by the Canon S95.

The little point-and-shoot had two features that attracted my attention. One, it had an f/2.0 aperture available when emulating a 28mm lens on an SLR. This f/stop lets in twice as much light as the more common maximum aperture of f/2.8.

Two, it has a little trick up its sleeve that allows it in dark, picture-taking situations to treat two adjacent pixels as one. This ups the light sensitivity of the camera while cutting the photo file size in half. If all you want are snap shots, this is a good trade-off. When set to low-light, the camera also turns to a brute strength strategy and ups the ISO rating in use.

When I saw my granddaughter, Fiona, sitting with her grandmother, both engrossed in a television program, I thought picture. The light was poor; It was night. But with the camera steadied against the television stand, I squeezed off some shots. I should take Judy into Photoshop and brighten her face a little but overall I'm happy.

Later, I caught the little girl running up and down a "stone" path she had constructed through our kitchen using place-mats. Again, I grabbed my Canon S90, set it to low-light level photography, braced the it against a chair, and shot away.

Personally, I like the low-light level shots better than the ones illuminated by the little camera flash. The colour in the picture may be off a bit and there might be more grain or noise marring the image but it has the feeling of the moment. I have a personal hatred for direct, harsh, on-camera flash. Deciding to shoot available is not a difficult decision for me.

Don't let low light levels stop you from taking pictures. Make sure you have a camera eager to take a shot in the dark.

One example of enhancement correction

In my last post, No tripod? No problem, I mentioned that the images were posted without colour correction. I believed that a little time spent in Photoshop might improve the flesh tones of the little girl and remove the overall blue colour cast in some of the images.

Here is an example of what I was referring to.

Enhanced.

Not enhanced.

The enhanced image has had the colour warmed in Photoshop using Curves to add yellow and remove a bit of cyan. The contrast was pumped up a little using Levels. The picture has not been saturated.

No tripod? No problem.

It is dark in our living room for available light photography. My little Canon PowerShot S90 needs every bit of help it can get. One easy way to make pictures in these situations better is to use a tripod to steady the camera; This removes camera shake from the picture-taking equation.

To steady a camera, one may immediately think tripod or monopod. But often something a lot less official will not only do but do wonderfully. For shooting these photos of my granddaughter, Fiona, I steadied my point-and-shoot on the front of Fiona's yellow, toy bus.

This had the advantage of providing quick sideways movement to frame the picture. The little, toy bus has wheels, a tripod or monopod doesn't.

To show what is possible, I posted these pictures without any enhancement other than cropping plus sizing and sharpening for Web display.

The creativity involved in taking a picture doesn't stop with the camera.

A better camera would capture a better picture

I loved the look of my niece's dog taking a break from all the company. The light seemed right: Soft with a hint of direction resulting in nice highlights and there were subtle catchlights in both eyes. What could go wrong.

It is times like this that a DLSR looks good. The better quality lenses on DSLRs would make this picture snap in a way that my simple Fuji FinePix HS10 can't.

On the other hand, I can't afford a DLSR accompanied by a small case stuffed with interchangeable lenses. Also, with my failing health, carrying a bulky and weighty bundle of camera gear with me all the time is out of the question. The HS10 with its super zoom answers my needs.

So, I find myself grabbing my Fuji bridge camera, lying flat on the floor, bracing the camera and my hands against the carpet and squeezing off a couple of shots before the mutt decides he's not a model and stops posing.

When I was shooting pictures for my living, this quality would have been questionable but still acceptable; Hey, I worked for a newspaper. I'm no longer shooting pictures for money but for fun and simple cameras supply fun at a price I can afford.

When buying a camera buying one you can afford is always a good idea. Remember, if you shoot a lot, it is just a matter of time until you drop your photo buddy. I've dropped my HS10 a number of times. I'm getting old and clumsy. If I were to break my HS10, I would shed fewer tears than if I dropped an expensive lens or a pricey DSLR. Replacing my HS10 would hurt, but it wouldn't break me.

No matter what camera you use, always try and capture that that attracted your eye in the first place. If your lens isn't long enough to crop the image in the camera, crop the picture afterwards. The only caveat is to make sure the new, cropped shot is still a large enough file to make a good image when printed or displayed on the Web. (Images for making prints require from 150 dpi up, check with your printer; While images for Web display can get by with 72 dpi. And smaller files load quicker; Another reason for keeping Web files small.)

Colour, Shape and Moment

When I saw the circular slide I was hesitant to let Fiona use it. It's too long, too steep, I thought. But a young mother who was watching her child at play noticed and instructed me in a very firm tone, "Let her."

Hey, what does an old geezer know? I went with mom's expertise and told Fiona to go, and she did. "Whee!"

I didn't get a picture of her first time sliding down a tubular slide but I soon had a chance and I took it. Brightly coloured plastic, great shape, laughing child. Put all this together properly and you've got a picture.

This image can be made even stronger by cropping off the holes on the left side. This moves Fiona father away from the centre of the image. This crop also removes the distraction in the lower left corner, putting more emphasis on the child.

Note the quality: This is a resized and cropped image from a larger image saved as a jpeg.

Although I have had problems timing action when using my Fuji FinePix HS10, it all came together for this image. The long zoom lens makes framing images such as this very easy. The picture was shot as a RAW file and some minor changes were made in Photoshop before saving the shot as a jpeg.

Also notice how the line of the diagonal line made by the slope of the slide runs to the lower, left corner of the image. I'm partial to this style of crop and try to achieve this in the camera whenever possible.

You don't have to imitate this but you should try to crop in the camera as much as possible. With point and shoot cameras, the less after-shooting-cropping the better. Point and shoots do not have the ultimate quality of SLR cameras. The files from cameras like the HS10 suffer when cropped, especially if they must be enlarged to bring them back to their original size.