Tutorial: How to Reduce Background Haze with Masking

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You may wonder, “Why must I be concerned with photo editing and, in particular, using masks when photo editing?”

Here is a very short and direct answer:

“99% of the very best photographs that you see around you have been edited using masks… and the other 1% were probably shot on film.”

If you want to compete with your fellow photographers, this is a skill that you need to learn.

Fortunately, once you understand how it works; it’s not that hard, and, in fact, it adds an entirely new level of photographic fun to your activity.

There are many different ways that masks can be applied to your photos.

For the sake of this discussion, let’s examine a masking technique that is very common among users of Lightroom and Photoshop.

That technique is the “graduated filter”. Perhaps you didn’t even realize that a mask was involved with the graduated filter?

The graduated filter is commonly used to bring back some drama to a sky that is overexposed. It does this by allowing edits to affect the sky while everything else is unaffected.

This photograph is a classic example of how you can use a mask to improve your photography.
Due to atmospheric haze, the background is quite washed out compared to the foreground. I am going to show you how the use of a simple mask can even out that exposure level for improved contrast and color from foreground to background.

For my example, I’ll be using the ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) window in Photoshop. However, it works exactly the same in Lightroom and most other editing programs.

I selected the graduated filter. You can see the darkened “graduated filter icon” at the very top of the screen capture.
In this case, my horizon line (from foreground to background) is at an angle. So, I started in the upper left corner and dragged down to the lower right corner.

Before dragging the graduated filter across the picture, I checked “overlay” and “mask” in the lower right corner of the workspace. This allowed me to see the placement of the mask.

When you look at the image, the “red area” indicates where the mask has been placed. The tricky part with masking is knowing what part of the image will be affected. In this case, the red (masked) area will be affected by the changes made in the toolbox. In other uses of masks, the red area may be the area that is unaffected.

You have to learn how each masking activity works.

After I was happy with the mask placement, I unchecked the “overlay” and “mask” boxes so that I could see how my edits were affecting the picture.
As you can see, the use of a mask created quite a dramatic difference on the background.
 

This example is a very simplistic use of masking. With masks, your creativity can become unlimited.

If you’d like to learn exactly how to improve your photography through the use of masks, you may want to look into the in-depth Understanding Masking please join our Photoshop workshop

When & Why to Use Exposure Compensation

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For those of you getting used to new cameras, fully understanding exposure compensation with snow on the ground outside is a great place to start.

Ever wished you had a better control over exposure when taking photos? 
 
Exposure compensation is a useful technique that allows you to quickly fix exposure issues when taking photos in semi-manual modes like Aperture-Priority, Shutter-Priority and Program Mode.

Exposure compensation allows you to incrementally change the exposure around the default settings suggested by the camera after metering the scene.

It’s usually needed when there are excessive bright or dark regions in a scene. Dialing in an exposure compensation corrects the exposure according to your requirement.

If your image turns out darker than you had wanted (an underexposed shot), a positive exposure compensation can fix the exposure. Likewise, for overexposed shots, a negative exposure compensation is needed.

The amount of exposure compensation you need would depend on the scene and the lighting.

Take a look at the scene below: 

A scene that is predominantly white, like a snow covered landscape, can fool your camera into capturing the snow as grey in color by using the default, metered exposure settings (which is what the camera is programmed to do, and which works fine in most cases). An exposure compensation of about +2 lets you capture the snow as white.

It’s something to always remember when out taking photographs.

Understanding Metering Modes on Your Camera

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An underexposed or an overexposed photo results from using incorrect settings. The exposure settings are determined using a process called metering, based on the metering mode that is selected.

Having an understanding of the metering modes can give you much better control over the image exposure. There are three main metering modes that you should know.
1. Evaluative / Matrix metering – The default mode on most DSLRs. It measures light across the whole frame. Great for evenly lit scenes, with not a lot of variation in lighting. 
2. Spot metering – This is the most accurate – yet hardest mode to master. It reads the intensity of the light over a small circular area in the center of the image. Great for scenes with varied lighting and when utilizing Manual Mode. 

3. Center-weighted average metering – This mode meters the light across the whole picture but places greater emphasis on the center of the image. Great for portraits, since it leaves any highlights, or shadows, in the corners of the image out of the equation.

Fixing Exposure Extremes as a Photographer.

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What is “Clipping” in photography? 

When the brightest tones in your photograph are pure white, and they contain no image detail at all, this means the highlights have been “clipped” off. 

Conversely, when the darkest tones in your photograph are pure black, and they contain no image detail at all, this means the shadows have been “clipped” off. 

Clipped means that those areas of the photograph are outside of the recordable dynamic range, and they cannot be reproduced properly.

You can check for “clipping” by looking at your Histogram. In this image, we are using Lightroom as an example. This description would also apply to Photoshop and Adobe Elements as well. If you are using another editing program – one that shows the Histogram- then these tips will help you as well. 

The Histogram (in Lightroom) is located in the upper right corner of the “desktop workspace”. 

It typically looks something like a mountain range with peaks and valleys. 

A Histogram’s purpose is to display all of the tones located within a photograph using a numerical value on a graph. 

Concentrate on the two red arrows that are pointing upward at the Histogram. 

The left arrow points out the shadow end of the Histogram. Take notice that the “mountain range” (aka “the graph”) drops down to the baseline before it reaches the red arrow. 

This means that the shadow end is not clipped. All of the shadows that you see in the image preview window have recordable detail. 

The right arrow points out the highlight end of the Histogram. Take notice that the “mountain range” (aka “the graph”) is cut off before it reaches the red arrow. It never drops down to the baseline. 

This means that the highlight end is clipped off, the result being that not all of the highlights that you see in the image preview window will have recordable detail. 

Now, turn your attention to the two red arrows at the top of the Histogram. At the tips of those two arrows you will see two small icons. 

These icons are buttons. By hovering your cursor over them and doing a left click on your mouse, you can turn on, or off, a “clipping indicator”. 

The left icon is the “shadow clipping indicator”, and the right icon is the “highlight clipping indicator”.

In the image above, the clipping indicators are turned on. 

Look at the image preview window. 

The shadow clipping indicator would appear as a “blue overlay” wherever the clipping occurs on the image. 

We know from the Histogram that this image has no clipping in the shadow end, so we aren’t seeing any blue overlay. 

The highlight clipping indicator appears as a “red overlay” wherever the clipping occurs on the image. 

We know from the Histogram that this image does have clipping in the highlight end, so we are seeing a red overlay in those areas. (The far left red arrows are pointing at the areas of clipping.) 

Now that we have identified the clipping, and where it is located, we can attempt to fix it.

Minimum Handheld Shutter Speed for Crisp Photos

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Minimum Handheld Shutter Speed for Crisp Photos

There is a good reason why professional photographers suggest that you use a tripod for tack sharp photos. We do not realize it, but even the tiniest of movements from our hands can creep into the image in the form of camera shake. This does not make much of a difference in general photos, but in those cases where sharpness is critical, even that minor shake can render your image unusable.

There are various factors that influence camera shake, and the shutter speed that you choose to use is one of them. By using a fast enough shutter speed, you can counter the camera shake caused by your shaky hands. This way, you can still end up with sharp photos. So, what is the minimum shutter speed that you should be using when handholding a camera? Well, the answer to this question is again influenced by the focal length of the lens that you use.

Reciprocal “Rule”

If you haven’t noticed, there is a direct impact of focal length on the amount of shakiness when handholding the camera-lens combo. When using short focal lengths, camera shake is usually not an issue unless you have a physical condition with shaky hands. On the other hand, when using a lens with long focal length, even a tiny bit of camera shake gets amplified and that can cause a good amount of unwanted blurriness in your photos.

In photography, there’s this concept called the reciprocal rule which gives a general idea of what shutter speed you should be using based on the focal length you’re working with. Simply speaking, this rule of thumb states that the minimum shutter speed you can use when hand-holding in order to nullify camera shake should be at least the reciprocal of the focal length (35mm equivalent).

Minimum shutter speed for shake-free image = 1/focal length (35mm equivalent)

For instance, if you are hand-holding a full-frame camera with a 200mm lens, your shutter speed should at least be 1/200s to cancel out any camera shake. And in case you’re using a crop-sensor, you’ll need to factor in the crop factor as well. So, if you’re hand-holding an APS-C camera with a crop factor of 1.5 with a 200mm lens, your minimum shutter speed should be at least 1/(200*1.5) = 1/300s (approx. 1/320s) in order to counter any camera shake.

However, keep in mind that this is just a general rule of thumb and not scientific. But, it is widely accepted because it works in real life. Depending on certain factors, you can vary your minimum hand-held shutter speed.

• If your lens and/or camera has stabilization, enabling it can allow you to shoot steady images at a shutter speed slower than the one recommended by the reciprocal rule.

• If you hold your camera steadily by tucking in your elbows while holding a firm stance, you can get sharper images at slower shutter speed.

• If you have a very high megapixel camera (>24MP), they are even more sensitive to the tiniest of shakes. So, you will need to use a shutter speed faster than the one recommended by the reciprocal rule.

If you’ve been getting camera shake in your images when working hand-held, now you know why. Practice how to hold your camera better, make use of the stabilization features in your camera and lens, and most importantly, use a fast enough shutter speed. Try these tips and you will realize an increase in sharpness in your images.