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Digital Infrared Photography – A Cut Above The Rest

Posted by admin May 16, 2011 No Comments »

Do you know what infrared is all about? Infrared is a spectrum of light further than that which you normally see. If you wish to take “infrared” pictures all you need to do is filter out the visible light and allow the infrared spectrum all the way through to the lens. The best you can do is use a Wratten filter, which you can avail from any professional camera shop. These Wratten filters are very dense filters, nearly opaque in appearance.

Digital infrared photography has revolutionized the art of photography in the recent past. The film or CCD sensor is sensitized to infrared light in infrared photography. In this type of photography the wavelengths vary from 700 nm to about 900 nm. An “infrared filter” ensures that the infrared (IR) light pass through to the camera but obstructs the entire observable light spectrum.

The moment these filters are clubbed with the infrared-sensitive film or sensors, the in-camera effects can be achieved. Like for instance the false-color or black and white images with an illusory or sometimes garish appearance. This happens mainly because of the foliage strongly reflecting in the similar way light is reflected from snow. What else the infrared photographs does is that it produces very dark skies and dispersion of atmospheric mist, brought about by reduced Rayleigh scattering and Mie scattering in the environment in contrast to visible light.

The things you should consider in digital infrared photography are as follows: – Focus, once the filter is put on. – Now, all that is needed is to lay the infrared filter in front of the lens. – You need to enable the manual exposure mode to get the proper exposure. – Remember to rest the camera to a higher ISO rating than standard. – Finally, when you are through with your infrared shot and you want certain manipulations, you can do it with the help of any image editing Software. Whether you want to remove the color, balance the image levels, sharpen the edges or even make it look grainy or add edge glow, all can be done via such software.

Setting your camera to B&W mode is a safer option as infrared filters get rid of most of the usable color information. Make sure that the incandescent lamps don’t put out much infrared. You may come across another problem, as you’ll find out that when you filter all the visible light, exposure times will be quite extensive.

You can convert an appropriate digital camera for digital infrared photography. But factually speaking, it makes more sense to leave any camera conversions to experts to be in safe hands.

Digital infrared photography, no doubt adds a new dimension in the world of photography.

About the Author

Connie Fillmore is a successful writer and publisher of photography related issues, for more informative articles go to www.digitalphotographyguy.com

[techtags: San Antonio Photography, San Antonio Photographers, Senior Portraits, Family Portraits]

The Beauty Of Large Aperture In Digital Photography

Posted by admin May 12, 2011 No Comments »

In digital photography there is one thing that, for crisp images, you simply must know about. And that?s the proper use of your aperture. When you use your aperture the right way in your digital photography you can really influence a lot of creative factors. What I am about to tell you will help your digital photography a lot, because you?ll be discovering a professional digital photography technique.

In digital photography there are measurements of light control called ISO, Shutter speed, E/V and Aperture. The most important thing to start with in digital photography is to ?get your head around? aperture and how ti controls many creative aspects of digital photography.

As you know digital photography images depend on just the right amount of light falling on to the sensor. An aperture, measured in F stops, is a crucial aspect to how much light the camera gets. A large aperture allows a lot more light to fall onto the sensor, and when this happens you have the freedom of using a faster shutter speed. This is especially handy in situations of low light and fast movement, such as indoor sports or a water fall at the end of the day. That?s why larger apertures and fast action shots indoors need to go hand in hand. By widening your aperture you have a better chance of the movement being ?frozen? in time and the camera won?t have time to think about camera shake. If done right, you?ll find good sharp images of freeze frame shots without any blur at all.

In your digital photography you should also know that also a large aperture can give you a crisp depth of field. It gives you the opportunity to have your background out of focus giving you clearer focus for the subject close up. (You should always use macro lenses for very, very short depth of field because you get more clarity and sharpness. You can get in closer too, without the subject blurring as it would have without the macro lens.) Portrait photography works well this way.

On the other hand, a small aperture in your digital photography gives you the opportunity to get a slower shutter speed because once light is reduced onto the sensor, the shutter speed will respond.

A smaller aperture in digital photography increases the depth of field because it influences the focal length. When you have an increased depth of field you will notice much sharper images in long distance shots such as landscapes and cityscapes. So if you are having any challenges with lighting and movement then try this digital photography tip!

If You Want To Get Clear, Sharp Digital Photos With Superb Detail And Clarity Even If You Never So Much As Picked Up A Digital Camera Before In Less Than 14 Days just go to www.digitalphotographysuccess.com

[techtags: San Antonio Photography, San Antonio Photographers, Senior Portraits, Family Portraits]

Digital Photography: Unsharp Mask Demystified

Posted by admin May 09, 2011 No Comments »

Whenever you resize or edit a digital image, you should consider sharpening your image as a final step. If you sharpen first, and then edit your image further, you are likely to exaggerate the “artifacts” created as part of the sharepening process. Make sure you save your edited image with a different file name, or in a different folder than the original, in case better sharpening algorthims come along in the next few years – I burn my Original images to CD and also store them locally in an “Original Photos” folder. I place the edited versions in a “Photo Editing” folder.

Unsharp Mask There are many techniques for sharpening a digital image, each with pros and cons. The following steps and ideas for using Unsharp Mask apply to Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Elements.

Radius: In general, if you have a low resolution image (fewer dpis) then you need a lower Radius – try setting it to 0.3; if you are working on a high resolution image, then you need a higher Radius. To avoid creating coloured halos around edges of things in your image, reduce your Radius. If you make the Radius too high, you may lose detail in light areas.

Threshold: For “busy” images, set this value to 0. As soon as you have large areas of a similar colour (e.g. blue sky), you should increase this setting to reduce introduction of noise in otherwise smooth areas.

Amount: This value will typically depend on the two settings discussed above. To reduce the constrast introduced by sharpening, try setting this value to its maximum (500%) and then find the smallest Radius at which sharpening is adequate (e.g. start at 0.1 and increase slowly). Be sure you view your image at 100% its actual size.

For more photography articles, please visit Jennifer Clarkson’s website at http://www.jclarksonphotography.com. To learn more about the books in her eSeries on Digital Photography, or to promote sales, please visit the following sites:

Choosing your camera and accessories
Getting the Most out of your Camera’s Basic Settings

[techtags: San Antonio Photography, San Antonio Photographers, Senior Portraits, Family Portraits]

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