This page covers a range of (what I believe to be) other Important Information. This Info is split into various catagories, such as:
* Settings for various Genres of Photography
* Links to some of the FREE Software I use in my Post Production Editing
* Some Post Production Techniques I have learnt from various Sources
* Some Techniques, Styles and Tricks to get most from your camera, Including things like
FOCUS STACKING, LIVE COMPOSITE & TIME LAPSE
In this part, we will talk about many types, styles and genres of photography, how to overcome some aspects to get great pictures, and how these settings will change the way your camera reacts to the image it sees. The Hints and Tips in this section merely runs over the surface of each of the styles. There is so much ,more information online, whether you go for full tutorials, videos, or full courses on each catagory. Hopefully, this will give you enough of an incentive to study further & gain knowledge to try styles that you haven't tried before.
There are two main types of Astro Photography, one being Lunar pictures, the other being Space, Solar System, and Beyond.
Lunar Pictures require less sensitivity on the sensor, and a shorter shutter speed to capture the right amount of light because the Sun's reflective light from the Moon is still so bright. Using the Manual Mode, a good place to start is based on the 100 theory. The ISO should be as near to 100 as possible, although an Auto ISO setting may also work. The shutter speed should be about 1/100th second, although this can be adjusted faster to 1/60th or slower to 1/120th second to get the exposure correct. The Aperture should also be around f11, which will give a good enough Field Of Focus to make sure the whole of the Moon is in focus, while still allowing enough light in. Manual Focus is a great idea too, especially if you have Focus Peaking enabled. Different camera brands have different sytles of Focus Peaking, for example, the Olympus show a highlighted line around the item or edge of the feature when it is in focus. The highlight can be adjusted to change different colours, etc. To get ultra close-ups of the moon, including detail of Craters, would require a 300mm ~ 600mm lens and most certainly, a Sturdy Tripod. One of the advantages of a decent Olympus Micro Four Thirds camera is it's sensor size, which plays tricks on the focal distance. The Crop Size compared with a Full Size Sensor is equal to X2, which means that, for example, a 150mm lens appears to be a 300mm lens when compared to a Full Size (35mm) sensor. This would make the 150mm lens the equivilent of a 300mm lens. Add to this, some of the Olympus Cameras have a built-in Teleconverter, which crops the image by two again. So, comparing a Full-Frame camera with a Micro Four Thirds with the x2 Teleconverter enabled would change the focal distance from a 150mm to a 600mm. With this knowledge, you can see how important a sturdy tripod is for clear, unblurry picture.
Space Pictures capture much darker sky scenes, therefore require different settings to Lunar captures. This type of photography is mainly aimed at the Milky Way (our own Galaxy). An important factor is to have some optimum equipment, for example, a lens with a large aperture - f2.8, or even f1 if you can, to allow as much light into the capture as possible. Put the camera in Manual Mode, and set each aspect from the control panel. Manual Focus is a must, but do not rely on the Infinity Setting, but, instead, aim your camera towards the brightest star you can find and focus until the star has a crisp outline and is a small clear dot. Once in focus on this bright star, don't touch the focus ring - some photographers place some masking tape over the focus ring to stop it moving. Ensure, if you are using a zoom lens, that it is zoomed out as far as it will go, giving you an extremely wide Angle of View, which will capture the entire Milky Way, plus any scenery that you also want in the shot. Now for the shutter speed. There is a formula for this setting (in fact, there are at least two formulas, but one seems to be used more than the other, so we will concentrate on that one). The 500 Rule specifies that, to take a clear image of the stars, without trails or blurring, divide the focal length by 500. This is changed when using Crop Sensors though. So, if you are using a Micro Four Thirds, which has a crop factor of x2. Here are a few examples:
Full Frame -> Maximum Shutter Speed = 500 / Focal Length
Crop Factor of 1.5 (APS-C) -> Max Shutter Speed = (Crop Factor 1.5) = 500 / (Focal Length * 1.5)
Crop Factor of 1.6 (APS-C, Canon) -> Max Shutter Speed = (Crop Factor 1.6) = 500 / (Focal Length * 1.6)
Crop factor of 2 (Micro Four Thirds) -> Max Shutter Speed = (Crop Factor x2) = 500 / (Focal Length * 2)
This would calculate a figure like this for me, using an Olympus OM-D E-M5 mkiii:
Focal Length = 14mm -> 500 / 14 * 2 = 17 seconds.
I have tried and tested these figures &, starting at 17 seconds, I have reduced it down to 13 seconds without star trail. So, the Rule of 500 is really just a guide.
Taking several images can be an advantage when using certain Software, such as Sequator (more about this later), which will Stack the images & give a clearer final picture. If you have a camera advanced enough that it has built-in capture timers, all the better, but a reasonably cheap Intervalometer can be purchased to make multi captures easy.
For Deep Space Images, more specific, expensive equipment is required. I will not go into this equipment as it is not something I have used, and is out of the scope of this particular stage of Photography. There are plenty of tutorials and Youtube videos on this subject if you wish to continue with this advanced topic.
This genre is quite versatile, in that it can be used for wildlife, insects, flowers, miniture models, or anything else you wish to zoom in to for an extreme close-up..
As mentioned in the Macro page, the equipment for this style of photography can vary from a few pounds, to a few hundred pounds, depending if you want dedicated Macro Lenses, or you want to go the cheaper route and use Macro Tubes. There are also different options when going for Macro Tubes, do you still want Auto Focus or go even cheaper with Manual Focus Tubes (which have no electronic contacts to link the camera to the lens). There are several areas of thought within this topic, some saying that a tripod is essential for a steady and clear shot because of the closeness of the camera lens towards the subject. But I am not one who shares this theory. If your camera and/or lens has a good enough Image Stabilisation System built in, this should keep the equipment steady enough to get a great shot. The Olympus cameras that I have used for my photography have built-in In Body Image Stabilisation (IBIS), which is an excellent bonus to these compact Mirrorless cameras. Another potential problem is that, when getting these pictures, it is important to get really close to the subject, which can restrict the amount of light by blocking it with the camera. An option would be rig one or more flash units to the camera, ensuring that there is always good light and correct exposure. Luckily, I take most of my Macro shots outside, where there is plenty of light on a bright and sunny day. The main issue with Macro photography is the Field Of Focus. Due to the physics involved in close-up captures, an extremely narrow Field Of Focus (FoF) is available. While focusing on the head of an insect, for example, the body or legs may not be in focus. One of the "work-arounds" for this is to change the aperture setting to f8 - f11, instaed of a really wide apature like f2.8. This will make the FoF slightly larger. Another method which is often used is Focus Stacking. This consists of taking several pictures, each one focused on a different part of the subject. For example, the first shot may have a Bees Head in focus, the next may have it's Thorax in focus, the next having the Tail & Stinger in focus. This set of images will then be loaded into software, such as GIMP or Photoshop in Layers. Each layer will be edited so that the parts which are out of focus will be made transparent, leaving only the focused parts of each layer visible. Most decent Photo Editing software packages will be able to load images into layers, so this technique can be used on the majority of them.
Included in this catagory are Long Exposures and Short Exposures. The pages showing these type of images have some information on each picture, but this Extra Info gives more of an explanation on what is happening and why these settings are important to get the desired shot..
Starting with Long Exposures, often called Slow Shutter Speeds, this is where the shutter is open for a longer pariod of time. This may range from about 1 second, to as much as many minutes, or even an hour or so for extreme shots. It is important to bear in mind that, all the time that the shutter is open, the sensor is capturing the light hitting it. If the light is moving, those parts will be blurry or have some sort of Trail. A great example of this is the Star Trail on the Astro Photography page. Some other examples of Long Exposures include Waterfalls, which appear to have a Smooth flow of water. The ripples and waves of large lakes and the sea can also be made to look Smooth by using this technique. One of the main problems that can occur in this type of photography when too much light enters the camera because the shutter is open for a long period of time. Luckily, there are several ways to counteract this. The first (and main) one is to use an Neutral Density (ND) Filter, which simply filters the light out without adding any other colour tint to the exposure. Many strengths of ND filter are available, even adjustable ones where an outer ring is turned to alter the amount of light which is blocked out. Another less used option is adjust the setting on the camera itself, forcing the exposure to be darker. When in bright daylight, this option may not be enough to cut the desired amount of light out. When the light isn't too bright, using a Polarising Filter may be sufficient to block out enough light to get the correct exposure. A lot of this is Trial and Error, especially for new photographers.
Short Exposures are the exact opposite to Long Exposures. This technique is used for fast moving subjects, such as motor vehicles, Photographing Bicycles and Runners in sports competitions. If the shutter speed is too long, the image will be blurred, and, although this type of picture has it's merits, it is not outwardly seen as good. Examples of this type of photo can be seen on the Short Exposure page, where Motorcycles are seen in fast moving action shots. There are also other techniques which can be used to prevent blurring of fast moving subjects, which involves Panning the camera as the subject moves past. When done successfully, this gives a clear image of the subject, while the background appears blurry, thus giving the further impression of speed.
Many people take this type of photograph, either with a Point & Shoot pocket camera, or their mobile phone. Modern Smart Phones have improved to such a level now, that some great images can be captured without the need for bulky and expensive camera equipment. However, the techniques and settings explaned here can also be used to improve mobile phone photographs of scenery. Many options and settings are available to Phone Apps on both Apple and Android versions, usually just by clicking on the settings Cog.
The main issue with the vast areas of Landscape or Scenery pictures is the Depth Of Focus (DoF) The main option to check first is the Aperture number. A setting of f8 ~ f11 are great for this type of picture because they give a greater margin for DoF. If your camera has Focus Assist options, such as Focus Peaking , you would be advised to use this. It gives a highlighted enhancement of the area which is in perfect focus. For images with large distances front to rear, concentrate the hightlighting on the 1/3 to 1/2 distance of the area you are trying to capture. This will get the most part of your image in focus due to the margin of focus applied to the focus point. With an aperture of the above value, a range from 1/3rd of the distance will give enough of a margin to cover nearly the whole scene, the possibility of slightly blurred detail in the background would be so un-noticeable, that the human eye wouldn't be able to percieve it. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule of thumb. For example, when you are capturing a specific subject, like some wildlife (sheep, rabbit, fox, etc.), which is when you would focus on the subject itself, and in particular, focus on the eyes. Most cameras have this ability in the settings, which allows you to Auto Focus on the eye, making that the main point of focus for the entire image. This may blur the outlying scenery, but that, too, will enhance the subject matter.
Another option which may bring out more colour and contrast in scenic and water pictures is the use of a Polarising Filter. These are sold in various formats, some are square and fit into an attached slide frame fitted to the front of the lens. The most popular seems to be circular versions, which screw onto the screw threads on the front of the lens, which can also accomodate the lens cap when required. The version I have is adjustable, which allows the amount of polarisation to be intensified as I need it. I have used this on many occassions to enhance pictures whilst fishing, as well as waterfalls and features. It brings more depth to a clear blue sky as well. For anyone who has ever used Polarised sunglasses to cut out glare from sun reflections, you will know how effective this technology can be. I have a pair of Polaroids in my car, another pair in my bag for work, and a spare pair at home if I need them. I consider them to be an essential part of all aspects of my life.
I have briefly mentioned Timelapse in the heading on that page. I have also explained what Intervalometers are on the Equipment page, However, I would like to go into a little more depth here, because I think it is such a simple technique, which has so many possibilities. There are many modern cameras which have built-in timers and features to take multiple captures automatically, but many only take a small amount of images, instead of the hundreds needed for a longer video clip.
Most camera manufacturers, if not, all, make their own ancilliary equipment, like Intervalometers. However, with a little bit of research, and viewing some Youtube videos, I soon found out that many cheap, third party devices are just as good, and do an extremely professional job. With this knowledge, I purchased one from China for about £10, which was £40 cheaper than an original Olympus version. I watched a couple of videos to learn how to use it, although they all work in a very similar manner, and ventured out to experiment with a few Milky Way sets. It is important to note that different camera makes, may have different plug ports, so it may be necessary to buy an appropriate adapter to plug the device into your camera. I bought mine to use with my Olympus PEN E-PL5, which has a Mini-USB port, but when I bought my Olympus OM-D E-M5 mkiii, it has a priority port, so for a few pounds, I purchased an adapter cable online. Even these cables are generic, and can be purchased at most places.
The buttons on an Intervalometer's Display follow the following pattern:
The Amount of seconds to delay before taking the first image.
The Amount of time the shutter will open for (Shutter Speed). Although this figure is over-ridden by the settings on the camera.
The Interval between each Exposure
The Amount of Images to capture
Turn Audible BEEP On or Off
Once you have used it a few times, it really is easy. As I mentioned earlier, the versatility of this device will keep you taking pictures and pushing your limits for many years. From Clouds passing overhead, to Flowers Opening. From watching the progress of a snail, to the path of Stars in the Night Sky. As the saying goes: You Are Only Limited By Your Imagination.
I have always been a big believer that FREE stuff doesn't have to be worse than expensive stuff, despite the saying "You Get What You Pay For". As with all my camera equipment, I bought my cameras and lenses second hand, I bought non-branded ancilliaries, and I used FREE Software. It's not that I'm CHEAP, I just refuse to pay for something when I can get the same quality for less. I'm sure many of you feel the same way. So, here is a list of Software that I use regularly. There are other FREE software Applications, but i couldn't recommend them because I haven't used them.
The first one is called GIMP, which is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. This FREE and Open Source Image Editor is very similar to Photoshop, in looks and layout, although it is NOT just a free knockoff, but it is a quality program in it's own right. The Team who have programmed it say that, because it is Open Source, you can alter the code to suit yourself, and distribute your changes. Apart from it being FREE and editable, there are many plug-ins for it, which make it incredibly adaptable and customisable. The amount of Tutorials (both written and video based) are amazing and the users have a huge following. It has all the potential of an Image Editing Family.
The Current Version is GIMP 2.10.34 and can be downloaded Here
GIMP doesn't load RAW images from your camera, but this isn't a problem because there is another program which runs alongside GIMP. This program is also FREE and feels like a plugin or extension to GIMP. This one is called Darktable, and works perfectly along with GIMP. In fact, they are so compatible, you can load a RAW image into GIMP, GIMP will run Darktable for you to edit the photograph. Then, when you are finished editing with Darktable, just close it down & the edited file will open in GIMP for any final edits before Exporting it to JPEG, TIFF, or whatever format you require. As with GIMP, there are hundreds of Tutorials (both written and video) for you to learn all the intricacies of this software. The learning curve is steep because of the power of both these programs, but, with perseverence, these two programs should be all you need for the majority of your image editing.
The current version is Darktable 4.2.1 and can be downloaded Here Simply pick your Operating System, and download to use.
The final program i feel strongly about is one called Sequator This is used to Stack Astro Photography Images to enhance the quality of them. Although it is possible to just take single images of The Milky Way, edit them and still produce a reasonable final picture, stacking several images tends to give a cleaner, crisper picture, with less anomolies in the star detail. As everyone knows, the Earth rotates on it's axis, giving the appearance the the stars moving. If the shutter was open for too long, the stars would look elongated, which we call Star Trails. What Sequator does is grab the sky part of the images, rotate them so the stars match up, then paste them back down. The clever part is that it doesn't move the foreground, which will always be stationary anyway. There are also paid software that does the same thing, but, as mentioned before, when FREE software such a great job, why pay for it. The other alternative to non-blurry star images would be to use an Equatorial Mount, which rotates the opposite direction of the Earth's movement, making the stars appear to be stationary. But, these things range from Fairly Expensive, to EXTORTIONATE. The disadvantage of these mechanical mounts are that the ground will be blurred, so taking a separate photo with the mount turned off is essential. However, if you need a professional option because you plan to sell your sky images, maybe an Equatorial Mount would be more Future proof.
The current version is Sequator 1.6.0. and can be downloaded Here from Softpedia.com
It's nearly impossible to predict what you will need to do to your photographs in Post Production Editing because they all require different tweeks and levels of editing. This is all dependant on so many aspects. However, I always use certain options in my software to correct aspects of the picture. Options such as Exposure, Brightness, Colour Hue and Contrast are all done on a Picture-By-Picture basis, mainly because each picture will have been setup differently, having a different aperture, exposure level, ISO, and Shutter Speed, which in turn affect the final outcome of the images Colour, Hue, Tone and Brightness
Some of the settings in Darktable are left unchanged, and are automatically utilised when an image is loaded into the software. This is in the History section, and can be set to add any option you wish to auto-run on all loaded images. The 2 options I run are:
Lens Correction, which removes the distortion from wide angle lenses. When using any type of lens which is even slightly wide angle, there will be a distortion to get the Field Of View crammed into the space given by the sensor. This angle may not look noticable, but when this option is applied to the image, you can see how it is supposed to look. Of course, there are times when a squeezed image looks right, a typical Fish Eye picture would give this aspect, and can look right if a lot of space is required to fit into a small dimension.
Hot Pixels, which removes any damaged pixels in the image, caused by an occassional bad pixel on the sensor. Technology, as we all know, is unpredictable, which means that, even the best tech is prone to failure at some stage. The Sensors fitted to modern cameras and phones are really quite remarkable - until it goes wrong! The amount of individual pixels in these sensors is staggering. For example, the Olympus OM-D E-M5 mkiii is a 20MP sensor, meaning that there are 20 Million Pixels. At some stage in their life, one or two pixels may fail, but you will rarely see any unless you look extremely closely. This option in the software looks for pixels which are not displayed correctly, and, using the colours and luminescence of the surrounding pixels, converts them to what the software considers a "Best Guess".
Other settings may include things like Sharpening, which subtley enhances edges of contrasting detail to make them slightly "Crisper". Brightness and Contrast also help to make a picture "POP" (a term used to make an image more appealing to the viewer). And, of course, there is often the need to Crop an image to get the most appealing composition, either by using the Rule Of Thirds, Leading Lines, Symmetry or any of the other commonly known Techniques.
There are many popular camera makes, and many photographers, whether they are hobbyists or professional, prefer to use their favourite ones. For me, I have only known Olympus, and currently have no intention to buy any other brands, models, or variations. Speaking from my experiences, here are some of the features I use regularly from the built-in advantages of the Olympus camera series.
One aspect I use EVERY time I take my camera out is the Super Control Panel. This Quick Access menu saves going through the pages and pages of options in the Main Menu, allowing me to change such things as Auto/Manual Focus, Single/Multi Exposure, Exposure Meter Type, plus nearly all the regularly used functions. I am sure that most cameras have a similar Fast Menu System, and this is paramount to changing settings "On The Fly" as you change, for example, from wildlife shots, to landscape shots, to timelapse shots.
The built-in Teleconverter is a must for me in a lots of situations. In fact, I use it so often that I have programmed a button to switch it on and off as I need it. The teleconverter doesn't really magnify anything, but merely crops the image, which makes it look larger. This is great for capturing detail in long distance shots. But I have learnt to bear in mind that this option does not make the image better, only appear bigger. It is similar to cropping a picture in post production software, but it does it in the camera. The only disadvantage I have found with this technique is, as with all magnified/zoomed shots, a sturdy tripod is essential.
For certain types of AstroPhotography shots, the built in Live Time or Live Composite are great. These are very similar to the BULB function on nearly all cameras (including analogue versions). The concept is that the shutter is held open, until you tell it to close. This can be done with the cameras timer, which holds the shutter open for the amount of time you set. Or, by manually holding the shutter open for a set amount of time. It can also be setup with the aid of an Intervalometer. The LIVE part of this indicates that the screen on the rear of the camera shows what is being added to the image - in Real Time. This type of technique is amazing for Star Trails, Unique Light Shows, and many other spectacular effects that your imagination can conjour.
The built-in Pro Capture mode has 2 settings (Hi and Lo), which is a must for fast action, especially bird and wildlife shots. This unique feature allows the photographer to start taking a series of pictures, even before the shutter button is fully pressed. With a half-press of the button, the camera will start saving images into a memory buffer, so when the button is fully pressed, some of the images are already captured. Even if you miss the first irratic movement of a bird or rabbit, the camera has you covered. When used with an Auto Focus setting, which can also have Auto-Tracking and Eye-Focus to concentrate the point on the eye of your subject, you can see why all these features make for a stunning wildlife camera. The differences between the Pro Capture Hi and Pro Capture Lo are mainly the frame rate (the amount of pictures per second that can be captured).
Bracketing is a type of feature which can be used in multiple ways, and can produce some amazing images. Amongst the many types of Bracketing are:
Focus Bracketing will take a series of exposures with a slightly different focus point on each one, which gives a range of focus points. You can merge these pictures in post-prosessing. Due to the extremely narrow Field of Focus in Macro Photography, this may come in handy for this type of photography.Exposure Bracketing takes multiple shots with a range of Exposures. This could be useful if you are not certain which exposure value would be best. You can then choose the best result later.White Balance Bracketing is similar to the one above, except it takes a series of pictures with slightly different White Balance settings.Flash Bracketing is the same process, except it changes the power settings of the flash (if you are using one).ISO Bracketing adjusts the ISO setting over a range of exposures.Art Filter Bracketing uses the art filters you have built in to your camera. It's difficult to specify all of them here due to the amount each camera manufacturer adds to their hardware. However, here are some of the common filters built in to most modern cameras: Grainy Film (to give a Vintage look), Diarama (When looking down on street views from a window above, it gives the look of a model village), Sepia (The old brown-tinted vintage pictures), Partial Colour (Looks like an old monochrome image which has some faint colour added to the subject in the center).
Focus Peaking is a great feature for exposures taken with Manual Focus. As the Focus wheel is turned, the subject or range of the area will have a highlight around it when in perfect focus. The colour and intensity of the highlight can be changed to suit your preference. Alongside this, a histogram can also be displayed, which will show you over-highlighted areas (Blownout) and Darker areas (Shadowed). These 2 features can run alongside each other to give you a good idea whether your final picture will be in Focus & have the correct Exposure.
There are many more features to these Olympus cameras (or, OM System as they are now called). But, this isn't a page to convince you which camera to buy, just a showcase of a few of the features I admire about the cameras I have used over the last several years.
If you are adamant that you want to know all there is to know about your particular camera make and model, I highly recommend reading the manual, asking Google (or the equivalent search media) for lessons, tutorials and help for each menu item. I have viewed some exellent Youtube videos which took me through the complete menu system of my Olympus OM-D E-M5 mark iii, and I still watch them occassionally to recap on certain features before venturing out on a new style. For example, I have yet to try Light Painting with the use of Live Composite. Hopefully, I will update these pages when I have mastered that technique. Watch This Space...