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Chapter 3_Color

White Balance Made Simple 54

Look for the Gray 56

Color Target for Total Accuracy 58

Custom White Balance 60

Check on a Laptop 61

Impact from Color Contrast 62 Subtlety from a Restrained Palette 63

Unified Color 64

Shooting for Black-and-White 66

Chapter 4_Technicals

Customize Your Settings 70

Dust Check 71

Clean Your Own Sensor 72

100% Sharpness Check 74

Repairing Poor Focus 76

Really Sharp Focus 78

Know Your Steadiness Limit 80

Improve Your Steadiness 82

How to Hold a Camera 83

How to Squeeze the Shutter Release 86

Carry a Tripod 87

When Tripods Are Forbidden 88

Instant Weatherproofing 89

Cold Weather Handling 90

Heat and Dust 91

Chapter 5_Composition

Compose for Contrast 94

Dynamic Placement 96

Dynamic Division 98

Simplify 100

The Essence in Detail 101

Shapes Organize 102

Basic Triangles 103

Diagonals Move 104

Curves Flow 106

Vertical Virtues 107

Look for Rhythm 108 Try Motion Blur 109

Alignments 110

Juxtaposition 112

Wide-angle Involvement 114

Telephoto Detachment 115

Wide-angle for Dynamics 116

Telephoto to Fill the Frame 117

Chapter 6_Stitching

StitchingDigitals Specialty 120

Stitch Big 121

Stitch Wide 122

Efficient Overlaps 124

Keep the Settings Consistent 125

Finding the Nodal Point 126

Chapter 7_Multi-shot

BracketingThe Safety Net 130

Aligned Sequences 131

Blending Exposures 132

HDRFrom Workhorse to Weird 134

Simple HDR Capture 136

One Light, Many Directions 138

Noise-Removal Sequences 140

High-Low ISO Blending 142

Crowd-Removal Sequences 144

Infinite Depth of Field 146

Make Movies 147

Chapter 8_Low-Light

Right Camera, Right Sensor 150 Decide Your Priorities 151

Noise Reduction 152

Know Your Cameras Noise Potential153

Ad Hoc Supports 154

Fast Lenses 155

Shoot for Detail, Not for Smooth 156

Hand-held or Locked Down 158

Noise Depends on Image Size 159

Night Shooting GearHand-held 160

Night Shooting GearTripod 161

Chapter 9_Processing

Assemble the Right Software 164

Anticipate the Processing 165

Raw Converters Are Not Equal 166

Recovering Highlights and Shadows 168

Caption and Keyword 170

Managing EXIF Data 171

Glossary 172

Index 174

Acknowledgments 176

Chapter 1_Basics

Just Shoot 10

It Happens Only Once 11

Shoot Raw 12

Shoot for the Future 14

Prepare, Forget, Shoot 15

Back Up Constantly 16

Workflow Questions You Should Ask 18

Work Out Your Own Workflow 19

Situational Awareness 22

Stay with the Situation 23

Explore the Subject 24

For Candid, Shoot Blind 25

Give Chance a Chance 26

If Youre Uncertain About Permission 27

Chapter 2_Exposure

Know Your Dynamic Range 30

Know the Scene Dynamic Range 32

When Good Histograms Go Bad 34

Be Histogram-Literate 36

Shoot for the Highlights 38

Choose the Key 40

Low-Process Settings 42

A Touch of Flash 44

Backlighting Solutions 46

Reliable Portrait Lighting 48

Reliable Product Lighting 50

Contents

Michael Freemans 101 Top Digital Photography Tips

First published in the UK in 2008 by

I L E X

The Old Candlemakers

West Street

Lewes

East Sussex BN7 2NZ

www.ilex-press.com

Copyright 2008 The Ilex Press Limited

Publisher: Alastair Campbell

Creative Director: Peter Bridgewater

Managing Editor: Chris Gatcum

Editor: Nick Jones

Art Director: Julie Weir

Designers: Jon Allen

Design Assistant: Emily Harbison

Any copy of this book issued by the publisher is sold subject to

the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise be lent,

resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior

consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it

is published and without a similar condition including these words

being imposed on a subsequent purchaser.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from

the British Library.

ISBN 13: 978-1-905814-34-3

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or

used in any form, or by any means graphic, electronic or mechani-

cal, including photocopying, recording or information storage-and-

retrieval systems without the prior permission of the publisher.

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With all the technical invention that goes into

cameras, lenses, and the software needed

to process images, you might be forgiven for

thinking that photography is on a never-ending

path to complexity. Digital capture seems to have

unleashed quantities of information, techniques,

controls, and features that we never knew we

needed. And thats just itthe huge number of

possibilities opened up by digital now threatens

to swamp photographers in a morass of menu

choices, buttons, mouse clicks, and, well, sheer

exasperating detail.

Introduction

I wont pretend that you can ignore all the

technological advances and demands on your

attention, but I can make a stab at cutting through

the information overload. Here, in as simple and

direct a manner as I can think of, are what I believe

are the essentials for shooting.

At the end of the day, photography is about

the act of taking picturesyou, the camera, and

the subject youre facing. Just that.

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Chapter 01_

The subtitle for thisshould be never rely on

returning. This is one of those painfully obvious

pieces of advice that call for one or two bad

experiences to bring home the truth. Most

photography is about the moment, and even

though it may seem to matter less in some kinds

(studio still life) than others (sports), it permeates

just about everything. Even a landscape, which you

might think is relatively static, has the dynamics of

lighting and sky and possibly some other moving

elements. The timescale is definitely not the same

as in street photography, but even so, one moment

for a landscape is not the same as the next.

If anything, the dangers of waiting might begreater for slow, fairly static subjects, simply

because they dont seem urgent in any way.

Planning a shot and thinking it through is a great

idea, but every so often youll be surprised,

unpleasantly, that time was not standing still for

you and the situation didnt get better. Its very easy

to come across a scene, check it out, and predict

that it should look great when the light changes

just so, or the clouds move, or maybe tomorrow

morning when the shadows will be falling the

other way. Bit its always maybe.

Better insurance is to shoot the scene the way

it caught your eye at the time. Apart from the time it

takes to do this, there is no loss. You can still come

back at sunrise or whenever, but if that doesnt work

out you will at least have something already shot.

2 Arriving late in the afternoon at the mountaintopoverlooking this volcano in Costa Rica I saw that the clouds

were beginning to close in, so rushed back to t he rental

car to get the camerasand found that Id locked the keys

inside. By the time I found them (worse, they werent in

the car after all, but in my pocket), we were all shrouded in

cloud. Sheer stubbornness kept me there for three days

until