Photo Editors

The photo editing software is the digital version of the photographers darkroom.

As per my previous post, where I discussed some of the different computer platforms, some photo editors are only available for certain platforms,  so I will try to show what platforms these editors are available for.  I will also say a bit about some of the free software available which can be powerful, and even portable !

My personal choice of photo editor is Serif's Photo Plus X4:

Serif Photo Plus  (Paid for  -  Windows only)

This program can handle RAW formats as well as files from Adobe PhotoShop (psd) and Corel Paintshop Pro (psp), with both opening and saving files in psd and psp formats, with layers fully supported.  This editor is only available for the windows platform.

I find that this software is very powerful, with a wide range of options available, but without being too resource hungry (needing very high memory capacity, powerful processors, and storage capacity) and at a reasonable price.

PhotoShop (paid for - Windows and Apple Mac)

This is seen as 'the' photo editor, used by professional photographers world wide, because of its sheer power, but its power comes at a price, both cost wise and resources required.

Adobe photoshop is a very powerful editor used for editing photographs, images for websites, and advertising.

Photoshop, originally started in 1987 under the name of 'Display' by Thomas Knoll, this was later developed into an image editor, before a meeting with Adobe where they purchased the licence to the now named 'Photoshop' program.

Photoshop has a number tools to make adjustments to images including levels, curves, vibrancy and tones of colours, as well as cropping images.  There are also plugins available for photoshop for adding more tools to the very large selection available.

Photoshop can handle Raw files, via the Adobe Camera Raw interface, as well as a number of different image formats. 

Paintshop Pro (paid for - windows only)

This program originally started as a shareware image editor.

In fact I learnt a lot using version 7 of this software whilst studying digital imaging at the Hatton Centre.  I still have version 7 installed on my computer.

Although over shadowed by Adobe's Photoshop, Paintshop Pro has the advantage over cost, which is considerably cheaper than Photoshop, and can also use most plugins designed for Photoshop.

Like Photoshop, Paintshop Pro can make a large number of adjustments to images, including levels, curves and colours.

Originally developed by JASC, the company was purchased by Corel in 2004, and Paintshop Pro was added to their portfolio of software titles.

GIMP (free  -  Windows (installed and portable),

Apple Mac and Linux)

GIMP has been around for a number of years, remaining a free photo editor with a portable version available (which I do carry), which is available on all major platforms.

Although it does have an unusual if not quirky interface, which does take getting used to, it is a handy editor for using when you are faced with someone's computer where they only have Microsoft Paint !

GIMP does not have the following in some circles like Photoshop, but being free it is a good starting place for someone who needs to edit photographs, but cannot afford to spend money.

Like Photoshop and Paintshop Pro, GIMP has a very powerful range of adjustments available and can load and save files in a range of formats.  For handling RAW files you need to install UFRaw, a plugin for GIMP.

Paint.net (free - windows only)

This is another free photo editor, which is easier to understand than GIMP, but is capable of a number of adjustments and like the other programs can use layers.

Computer Platforms

With digital photography, an important element of the photographers tools is the computer used to download, store and edit the digital photographs.  With the increase in digital photography computers are becoming more powerful with large hard drives on which to store the photographs, and the integral DVD writers for recording the photographs onto DVDs for offline storage.

There are two main platforms:

• Windows based PCs
• Apple Macs

Although the Linux platform is working hard with its development of photo editors, like GIMP (which is a cross platform editor; Windows, Mac, linux, as well as a portable App for Windows).


Each platform has its advantages and disadvantages with some software (eg Corel Paintshop Pro, Serif Photo Plus) available for only for certain platforms.


To many people the Apple Mac platform is seen as 'the' graphics machine.


Within these platforms there are different forms available like laptop and desk top computers. 

Digital Camera Sensors

In a digital camera, it is the sensor that acts as the photographic film, in that it is where the image is focused and captured.  The image is then either stored directly on the camera’s media (memory card), in the case of a RAW image, or processed to the settings within the camera, compressed, then stored on the media, in the case of a JPEG image.  Therefore the sensor is a very important part of the camera, and the capture process.

There are two types of sensor:

• CCD (Charged Coupling Device)
• CMOS (Compound Metal Oxide Silicon)

With the CCD sensors the charge builds up, once an image has been recorded, has to be read in a serial way, sensor by sensor, row by row.

CMOS sensors, on the other hand, have transistors for each individual sensor so that data from each of them can be read independently of the others.

Digital SLR Sensors

Within a modern digital SLR there is a sensor, but not necessary the same size as a traditional 35mm negative.

There are four sizes of sensor:

• APS-C
• APS-H
• Full frame
• Micro 4/3

Below is a diagram showing the difference between the APS-C and full frame sizes of sensor, which are the two most common sizes:

The APS-C and APS-H sized sensors get their names from the APS (Advanced Photo System) negative sizes (hence the last posting).  Where as the Full Frame gets it’s name from the fact that the sensor is the same size as a traditional 35mm negative.

The Micro 4/3 size is a newer size sensor as used in some of the newer Panasonic cameras and some of the micro system cameras.

One advantage that APS-C sized sensors have over full frame sensors is what is called a crop factor, where because of the smaller size of the sensor (in comparison to a traditional 35mm negative) a 200mm lens would seem to give the same focal length of a 300mm lens.  This is handy when taking photographs of subjects that are some distance away.

A comparison between a view from the point of a full frame and APS-C sensor is shown below:

So as you can see care has to be taken when using a camera fitted with a APS-C sized sensor when you wish to capture more of a scene or landscape.

There is a debate over which is better, APS-C or full frame, and below I will give some advantages and disadvantages, but I have to ask why did Canon use a APS-H in their flagship EOS 1D DSLR ?

Below are some points to consider when deciding:

Point	APS-C	Full Frame
Price	Cheaper	More Expensive
Image Quality	Good	Best
Viewfinder	Smaller	Larger and brighter
Lens availability	Wide choice of lenses	Limited choice of lenses
Crop Factor	Increases focal length	No crop factor

Personally, I think that technology is improving all the time, just look at the rave reviews of the Canon EOS 7D, which has an APS-C sensor, for example.

At the end of the day, if you are happy with what camera you have got, that’s what matters, after all it is not just down to the camera to capture the photograph, its the person behind the camera.

You can chase the technology and buy the latest, but there will be another one out soon after you have paid for it !

Photographic Film Formats

There is a reason for this posting, that will become clear later on.

There have been a number of different formats of photographic film, but I am only covering the consumer sizes and formats, to avoid writing a very long blog that will end long after the course.

The one we all know is the 35mm film, sometimes referred to as 135, but there have been other formats, including some weird looking ones !

110 Pocket Cameras

My first camera was a Prinzmatic 110 camera, that I was given in 1976, before going on a school trip.

An example of a 110 camera is shown below:

The 110 format was a cartridge loading format:

where the film was wound on from one spool, through the camera where it would be exposed and then onto the second spool.

These cameras, commonly known as pocket cameras (due to their size) were available everywhere with some manufacturers branding them for the retail chains like Boots.

Because the film was encased in a cassette, therefore no threading a film leader into the camera, it was a very easy operation to load and unload the film into the camera, making these cameras very popular through their ease of use.  But due to the small size of the negative, 13 mm x 17 mm, enlargements where difficult.

Some manufacturers, including Pentax even made a 110 SLR, to take advantage of the smaller film size:

I did actually see one of these cameras at an antiques fair some years ago, where it was too expensive for me to buy, as they are seen as a classic and hold there price well.

126 Instamatic Cameras

The 110 format took over from the earlier 126 cassette based film (which was a new cassette based film as opposed to the older 126 roll film, which was introduced in 1906 and discontinued in 1949).  This new 126 cassette  was introduced in 1963 for the new instamatic cameras, making loading and unloading the film very simple.

An example of one of the 126 Instamatic cameras is shown below:

Like the 110 film format that followed, the 126 format was a cassette based format:

where the film was wound on from one spool, through the camera where it would be exposed and then onto the second spool.

Again,  like the later 110 film format, due to the small negative size (26.5mm x 26.5 mm) problems meant that very few people would try to print enlargements off these films.

Disc Cameras

A very different type of camera, and film format was the disc camera, which were developed from 1982:

This type of camera was completely different in how they fed the film through the camera, instead of being on a roll, the film was on a disc, again this was a cartridge type:

As you can see from the picture below, the negatives are in a completely new way of arrangement, almost star like:


But these cameras had a very limited appeal due to the production of cheaper 35mm compact cameras.

APS (Advanced Photo System) Cameras
These were the first serious attempt to take on the traditional 35mm film, with some manufacturers, including Canon, Nikon and Minolta producing APS SLRs:

This format allowed different types of photograph to be produced by one camera, including panoramic photographs.  These different sizes or types of photograph are known as:

• High Definition (negative size 30.2 mm x 16.7 mm)
• Classic (negative size 25.1 mm x 16.7 mm)
• Panoramic (negative size 30.2 mm x 9.5 mm)

The way the classic and panoramic sizes are produced is by masking off areas of the high definition sized print.

Like the 35mm film the cassette is only loaded into one end of the camera, as the film is exposed it is wound through the camera, but then wound back into the cassette afterwards.  This allowed the cassette to be removed before it had been fully exposed, without ruining any prints.

One advantage over the 35mm cassette system is that the film can be removed from the camera, before it is fully exposed, without ruining the film. There are indicators in the end of the cartridge, to aid the photographer in identifying if the film is exposed or not, these indicators are shown below:

These indicators show:

1. Full Circle  -  Unexposed
2. Half Circle  -  Part Exposed
3. Cross        -  Exposed but not processed
4. Square      -  Exposed and processed

In fact when people refer to the sensor sizes in a digital camera as APS-C or APS-H the sizes of the sensors relate to the sizes of the effective negative in APS cameras !

Instant Cameras

Finally, there are the instant cameras, made popular by Polaroid.

These cameras held bulky film cassettes containing the film and battery pack, but once the photograph had been taken the print could be viewed almost instantly.  Early cameras used a film cassette that contained a film with a tear off front paper which was torn off to reveal the photograph, later cameras used a cassette that removed the need for the paper.

Although these cameras produced almost instant photographs, they were very limited and could not really be used for much more than snap shots.  Polaroid did produce smaller cameras, the “Joycam” with sticky backed prints, but these did not really catch on, being seen as more like a gimmick.

With the advent of digital cameras instant cameras lost any advantage they had before.

Krys Bailey

Krys is a Hampshire based photographer, who shoots amongst other things plants.

Krys has been a keen photographer since the age of seven, when her father gave her a camera, where she found the Dolomites mountains in northern Italy her first inspiration.  She has photographed the diverse landscape and climate in Chile.

In 2004 Krys became a full time photographer, having previously worked as a Planning Engineer in the defence industry.

Flowers, animals, and macro photography have become areas where she had became increasingly interested. She also use photo subjects as a basis for her growing collection of photo art - just letting her imagination take over.


After many years of using traditional film media, she is now a dedicated digital photographer, enjoying the freedom, flexibility and high quality of the digital SLR. Her equipment includes professional Canon DSLRs and lenses

Below are some examples of her work


Analysis of Krys' work


Krys's photographs show texture and vibrant colous and uses the light to illuminate the subject to bring out the detail.

Krys has concentrated on the centre of many of her subjects, with the subject central in the image.

Looking at Krys's work, I feel that I should not be worried about closing in on the subject, and concentrating on one element rather than try to include all the subject in the viewfinder.

Macro Photography - Statement of Intent

Assignment Title

Nature's Beauty

Professional Application

The professional applications of this type of photography includes nature publications, both internet based and commercial magazines.  With the increase in people's interest in nature and conservation, partly due to television programmes (for example David Attenborough's series 'Life'), close up images of the natural world are becoming more widely used.  Although in recent years, some advertisers are using macro photography to promote a number of consumer goods, especially where the items are small, where the intention is to emphasise the small size of the product.

Intention

My intention with this photographic project is to explore the beauty of nature, in a way that is often missed because of the way we see things, especially in today's busy world where we rarely have time to look and see a lot of the world around us. But where I want differ from some macro photographers, is that I do not want to concentrate on spiders and other insects, because I feel that there is more to the micro world than insects, like nature's architecture which can be seen in the construction of a simple leaf.

Purpose of this Project

The purpose of this photography is two fold. Firstly, I want to explore this micro world that we never see and try to capture this world in my photography. Secondly, I would like to take forward some of the techniques that I learnt during my last photographic project, product photography, by taking it outside and into the natural world where you cannot control everything, unlike in a photographic studio.

Stimulus

The stimulus for this project originally started after I took some photographs in our garden, after some rain had stopped, basically to try out a macro mode on my Fujifilm Finepix S7000 bridge camera, which has two macro modes one being supermacro mode where the camera is supposed to focus down to 25mm. With the rain drops still on the leaves, I liked how they refracted the light, in the same way as a glass lens does.  This started me looking more at this area of photography, but only as an interest.  This interest became reignited when I was looking at product photography.

Inspirations

Something that has inspired me is some of the early photographs that I took to try out some camera options, together with seeing some of the nature programmes on television, having grown up with seeing Jacques Cousteau, an underwater film maker and explorer, who brought the wonders of the undersea world into millions of homes, and some of nature programmes. Since I took those original photographs, I have been inspired to look at what other photographers have been photographing, but I chose not to cover insects as I feel these are only part of the unseen world, and that sometimes people have concentrated too much on these.

Techniques and Equipment

For this project I want to build on some of the techniques that I learnt during the product photography project, but working outside in natural light as much as possible. How I want to capture these photographs is in a way that the viewer can see the world that is often missed, because it is so minute and cannot be easily seen, but this is another unseen world, that I feel people should see, and that is what I want the viewer to see, and then often they look closer, like I did, to what they see in their daily life. For this project I will be using a combination of both cameras, with the Pentax I will be using the 18 - 200 mm lens, which has a macro facility, which would allow me to use the power and facilities of the Pentax camera with the macro ability of the lens. To use natural light as much as possible I may use reflectors to bounce light, where it would otherwise not reach.

Macro Photography – Part 2

Well, more rain, so more macro shots, so here is my selection:

Unnamed

Nature’s Web

Veins and Water

Highway

Pink in the rain

Brown Leaf

Macro Photography - Part 1

What has inspired me with these photographs is the beauty of drops of water, which I sometimes call nature's lenses.

For these photographs I have waited for the rain to stop, and gone outside immediately with my camera to capture photographs of plants with the rain drops still on the foliage.

Here are my first two photographs:

Nature's Lenses

Water Chase

First area of photography

Having covered a range of areas on previous modules; Air Displays, Landscapes, Portraits and Product photography, for this course I want to cover two different areas.

One area that I want to look at is Macro photography, but not where it is involving spiders, because I feel that I want to look at plants and flowers more, and because sometimes I feel that this area has been covered very extensively, and no I don't intend to cover wild mushrooms !

I have discussed this option with Steve, together with a second option of Architecture, where I can look at the old and the new designs, especially where I have strong opinions of some of the local architecture !

Therefore I am calling this project "Micro and the Mighty". 

Media

This is the biggest difference between traditional film and digital photography.


Traditional Film Based Photography

There are a number of manufacturers of photographic film, including Ilford, Kodak, Fujifilm, and Agfa.  Although with the popularity of digital photography the selection of photographic film is decreasing, with some manufacturers completely finishing their production of photographic film.

Basically there are three types of photographic film:

Colour Print Film
Colour Slide Film
Black and White Print Film

These types films are available in different sizes, 35mm (for SLRs), 120 for larger more professional cameras.

Within these three types of film, there are different film speeds, eg 100, 200, 400.  These are the different ratings for the sensitivity of the films, measured in the ISO standard.  The lower the film speed the better the finished photograph looks, but more light (and therefore lower shutter speed) is required.

Finally, the films are available in different film lengths, usually stated as 12, 24 or 36 exposure films.

Digital Media (Memory) Cards


These cards have been described as digital film !


There are a number of different memory cards available on the market today, with some being replaced with newer upgraded formats.


The most common are:

Secure Digital
Compact Flash
XD
Sony Memory Stick

In the case of the two last types of card, these are specifically for Olympus and some fujifilm cameras, and Sony cameras.

With the other cards, these are compatible with most other makes of camera, with some manufacturers moving between one format to the other, for example Canon who have used the older compact flash for some cameras and the newer Secure Digital for other cameras.

Multimedia cards look identical to Secure Digital memory cards with their size and shape but the difference is that the Secure Digital cards have a slide switch that can lock the card so that nothing can either be deleted nor added, making these cards safer when using on other peoples computers where you can lock the card to prevent the spread of any computer viruses.

All the memory cards come in capacities ranging from 512Mb to 16Gb, or even higher, with the exclusion of the XD cards who have a range up to 2Gb.

The memory cards also come in a range of write / read speeds, ranging from 2Mb per second up to 30Mb per second, with the latter more important to those who use HD video recording and high speed of frames per second when using RAW format.

      

White Balance

 

This is where the photographer works to ensure that the photograph is a true representation of what they saw through the viewfinder without any colour casts, either as a result of the interior lighting or as a result of the sun either passing through something, like leaves on a tree, or being reflected off something and onto the subject.

With the traditional photographic film when you used a higher speed film, for example 400 ASA (400 ISO) which was set for daylight (white balance) inside a room lit by normal tungsten light bulbs, the photograph would appear yellowish or reddish.  This was because the film was more sensitive not only to the light, but also to the temperature of the light.

With photographic film, the answer was to either buy film that was (white) balanced for tungsten lighting or use a colour correction filter, like an 80a filter which was blue to counteract the yellowish colour cast.  Other forms of lighting caused similar problems including florescent tubes which caused a greenish colour cast, and was corrected by a purple filter.

With digital cameras, the problem still exists, but is often automatically solved using the AWB or Auto White Balance, but this is not perfect.  Therefore digital cameras offer alternative white balance settings for tungsten lighting, Fluorescent lighting, daylight, cloudy and custom.

There are two fool proof methods of getting the white balance correct, these are:

1. Using the RAW format at the time of capture and using the photo editor to set the white balance of the photograph by selecting something in the photograph that is white in colour.  The software then adjusts all the colours in the image to ensure that the target is in fact white.
2. Finding something white, before you take the photograph, select the custom white balance on the camera, and take a reading from the item.  Then when you take the photograph the camera will compensate for any colour casts.

Below are some options for changing the white balance with a RAW conversion application (see option 1 above):

Below are the options from the Pentax RAW conversion software:

Which, as you can see has more settings available, but also has an option for setting the grey point, similar in the way to the RAW conversion software above, for when the light is difficult to assess.

Third Party Printing

 

Printing your photographs at home can be very rewarding as you control the whole process from the capture of the photograph, right up to printing out your finished photograph.

But sometimes you have to consider other ways to get that finished print.

Often it is a case of cost, for example a good A3 printer can cost over £500.00, couple that to the cost of good quality A3 photographic paper (in different finishes and weights) and the cost of the ink can deter many people from printing photographs larger than A4.

There are a number of companies, for example DS Colour Labs, who can take your photograph and turn it into an A3 (or even larger) print for around £1.00 a print.

Although you will have to adjust the settings on your computer to match those of the companies printers to ensure that the finished print is correct, this works out far cheaper and opens up a wide range of possibilities !

Photographic Papers – film and digital

First of all, it is very important to say that there is a very important difference between the photographic paper used for printing from photographic film and the photographic paper used in digital photography:

Traditional photographic paper is very sensitive to light !

This might sound obvious, but I have heard about some people who bought a pack of traditional photographic paper, between them, and before someone could stop him, one of them started counting them out to the group in a well lit room, suffice to say the paper that he had taken out of the box was exposed and of no use to anyone !

Traditional Photographic Papers

That said, there are different grades of traditional photographic paper, which ranged from fine to course and gloss to matt and with different weights (thicknesses).

These papers must be used in a darkroom where they are first placed upon the enlarger where a negative has been placed in the enlarger head.  The enlarger is used to project and expose the photographic paper to the light through the negative.

Once the paper has been exposed with the necessary time it is put through a series of baths that develop and fix the exposure onto the paper.

This paper is then allowed to dry properly.

Digital (Printer) Photographic Paper

Unlike traditional photographic paper, digital photographic paper is used in photographic and other colour printers.

It is important to set the preferences of the printer to suit the type of paper used:

Setting the wrong paper can cause the printer to print too much ink onto the paper.

Colours also look completely different when printed on plain paper compared to printing on gloss photographic paper.

Like traditional photographic paper, digital photographic paper comes in a number of different sizes and finishes, including:

Sizes

• Traditional photograph sizes (6” x 4”, 7” x 5”, 8” x 6”, 12” x 10”, etc)
  
• Standard European sizes (A6, A5, A4 and A3)
  
• Special sizes (panoramic, banner, etc)

Finishes

• Gloss
  
• Matt
  
• Perl
  
• Semi-gloss
  
• textured
  
• Canvas

Digital photographic paper also comes in a range of different weights, producing traditional photograph like prints, to slightly thicker than normal paper prints.

I have used a selection of papers myself including canvas which gave an almost traditional canvas painting feel to the finished photograph.

The colours, their saturation and hue can be set using photographic editing software and the whole, or selected colours, can be brightened if necessary.

Size Limitations of Film Based Cameras

For many years the cameras were limited in their sizes by the sizes of the film cartridge, the introduction of the APS photographic film format, which was smaller than the traditional 35mm film cartridge, allowed the size of the camera to be reduced, although I can only remember one manufacturer producing an APS SLR.

With the introduction of digital photography, again the cameras were limited by the size of the memory cards, especially in the case of those cameras using the compact flash memory cards and the smartmedia cards (the latter of which have since been replaced by the much smaller XD cards which offered much larger capacities than the larger smartmedia cards which were limited to 128Mb), but with the introduction of smaller memory cards, like the Secure Digital (SD), the Sony Memory Stick, and the XD card, this limitation has been removed, and because the memory card does not have to be in any particular position, as opposed to traditional film cartridge which had to feed the photographic film directly behind the lens aperture.

Sensitivity

Traditionally with film based cameras, the photographer would carry different films of varying film speeds, usually measured in the old ASA (American Standards Association) and the old German DIN scale.

Today the ISO (International Standards Organisation) scale is used, as this is more familiar to most photographers, as it is based on the more widely used ASA scale.  In the ISO arithmetic scale doubling the speed of a film (that is, halving the amount of light that is necessary to expose the film) implies doubling the numeric value that designates the film speed. In the ISO logarithmic scale, which corresponds to the older DIN scale, doubling the speed of a film implies adding 3° to the numeric value that designates the film speed. For example, a film rated ISO 200/24° is twice as sensitive as a film rated ISO 100/21°.  Commonly, the logarithmic speed is omitted, and only the arithmetic speed is given (e.g., “ISO 100”).

With photographic film I have used films ranging from Kodak Ektar 25 (a very slow film, with very fine grain) for taking photographs of people and places, as well as helicopters, on bright sunny days. With the helicopters, this slow film speed has enabled me to capture the movement of the rotor blades, right up to Kodak Ektar 1000 (a very fast film, but with Kodak's “T-grain” which reduces the grain and therefore produces a photograph) for taking photographs at concerts or in other lowlight situations or where very high shutter speeds are required. I have used Fujifilm 1600, but I found that too grainy and have not used it since.

With digital cameras the sensor is fixed so the sensitivity in controlled within the camera and therefore the full range of ISO (sensitivity) ratings is available, without the photographer being limited to the speeds of the film that they carry with them. Although increasing the ISO rating allows pictures to be taken in darker situations than a lower ISO, as with all photography there is a trade off. This will be an increase in the sensor noise (which in the case of photographic film was grain), see above.

Another problem with increasing the sensitivity or ISO rating of a photographic film, is that colour temperature can become an issue. The different colour temperatures of light are shown below:

This is the reason that when you take pictures inside a room where there is normal tungsten lighting, using daylight film, at a ISO of 400 or above there is a yellow cast to the picture. This can easily be corrected using colour correction filters (eg 80a).  This problem rarely appears in digital photographs with modern cameras, but if it did it could be corrected either by changing the white balance (pre-shutter) or at the post production stage.  Although if the photograph was captured as a RAW image the white balance could still be corrected easily at the RAW workflow (pre-conversion) stage.