I’m back again, this time with a photo lighting experiment. Last time, I started this post and got a lot of suggestions. Unfortunately, it ended up getting “locked” due to some overzealous commenting.
Now, I haven’t made all of the adjustments suggested, but there were common themes that the picture was too busy, as well as boring and taken from too straight an angle, and the lighting was bad. Here is the original picture:
Now, I have tightened up the shot to just two locomotives and moved the camera angle. I am doing a lighting experiment with my Canon PowerShot SX110 IS. I have not selected the highest image size and I realize the front of one locomotive is out of focus. This is just to illustrate the lighting settings. I did not run a range of exposure times to find the best one.
Here is a sequence of shots, made with different lighting and settings.
First, mixed lighting with mostly incandescent, but with some daylight and some fluorescent.
Auto White Balance
Daylight setting
Tungsten setting
Manual White Balance (using a white paper)
Then I used only incandescent bulbs and repeated the sequence (these are a little overexposed):
Ahhh… much better. I tend to like the Tungsten or auto white balance myself as far as color rendition. The angle of view is a big improvement over the straight on side shot, don’t you think. Next time you might leave a little more space in front of the rear engine, but that’s just me. Well done! Jarrell
I agree with Jacon on all points. MUCH BETTER! Just one more thing; if your camera has a manual setting, try shutting your aperture down as far as you can (higher f-stop number). This will improve the depth of field, making the grass in the foreground a little sharper.
I’ll agree that the tungsten and the auto-white are the better, and I think I like the first lighting more. Though the manual-white has a “winter-sky” look which could be nice in some situations.
The composition is also greatly improved. You are really determined to get this right, aren’t you? Good work.
I kinda like the tungsten setting myself. The auto White balance looks a bit too “washed out”, I think. I think the tungsten setting allows more of the natural yellow and greens to show through, but the auto white shows off the black of the locos better. So either one could do it. {I know real help}
And you already know the fore loco is out of focus, so if you can fix that…and stick just with the two locos…
The Daylight Setting used under artificial light will generally be too orange. Using the setting on the camera for the type of light will usually give the best result. Since the operative word is, “Usually,” thats why even a simple photo storage program like Windows Photo Gallery provides for making adjustments to contrast, brightness, temperature, tint and saturation under, “Fix.”
I like #3 Tungsten setting best, #1 Auto White Balance next and finally #4 Manual White Balance (using a white paper). The others are either too orange (bad color balance) or over exposted. One suggestion for compositon, you might want to take the locomotive on top and reverse its direction. Also you should make the locomotive in the foreground in focus instead of the one in the rear.
OK, it was a toss up between the Auto White Balance and the Tungsten setting. So, let’s go with Tungsten. Now, let’s work on the focus. Here is a Focus Experiment sequence:
Auto Focus setting - Loco 5 & foreground track out of focus (as before)
Macro Focus setting - Pretty good, except track in extreme foreground, could be cropped later
Manual Focus 15 cm (distance to front of Loco #5) - Loco #5 in focus, #6 out of focus
Manual Focus 20 cm
Manual Focus 50 cm - Loco #5 out of focus (as you would expect)
I think I like the Macro Focus setting the best. Am I getting enough in focus, both up close and at a distance? To get more depth of field I would need even more light, right? Or software to combine images with different focal distances?
Well Oakhurst, you’re a glutton for punishment when it comes to backgrounds. A black steamer against pale cliffs is a challenge for anybody. Set the exposure for the locos and the rocks burn out. Set it on the rocks, the locos are dark. You can correct a lot, but not all, of this with your photo editor. Still, life would be easier if you had a darker background.
Medina 1128 did a good job of lighting that black geep a few posts back.
I’m not so sure that your camera settings alone are the culprit for lighting. It looks to me that the scene is not evenly lit to begin with. There’s a real hot spot in the foreground which causes me to wonder if you have too strong a lighting source set up near the camera. The further left you go in the picture, the dimmer it gets.
You can also try to pushing the aperture setting to improve the focus, but a software application like Helicon Focus or CombineZP (which is free) will overcome this issue.
Oh… you’re gonna have fun with that! Just remember, the camera has to stay absolutely still, nothing changes except the focus. I use it quite often now that Selector told me about it. Jarrell
Those programs are amazing. It seems almost impossible what they can do. I started out with Z5…can’t beat the price. Keep in mind though that with Z5 there are (or at least were) limitations on file size. It’s also slightly more cumbersome to use than Helicon as I remember. A one year subscription to Helicon Focus Lite is just $30.
Helicon is the easiest program you’ll ever use. You shoot five to ten photos at different focal lengths, storing those shots in one folder. When you open Helicon you’ll see your folder on the screen. Just click “run” and it does it’s magic. Just one button push. Even I can figure that out.
And for those of us who can’t stay absolutely still for that long [;)], CombineZP has an “align and balance” feature that analyzes and makes subtle adjustments to each shot (as needed) so they all line up. I think it’s a new feature because I don’t recall it on their previous release. It’s a real lifesaver because I’ll always end up with a shot or two in the group that is off by just a hair.
Just remember, the camera has to stay absolutely still, nothing changes except the focus. I use it quite often now that Selector told me about it. Jarrell