All photos by Bob Rosenbaum except where noted

Shoot Like a Pro(with a camera built for amateurs)

Taking interesting photos suitable for publication

All photos by Bob Rosenbaum except where noted

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What you’ll learn

• Basic concepts– What’s a photograph– How photos get from your camera to paper

• Setting resolution• “Seeing” a good photo• Using your camera to capture it– Smartphone, iPad, point-and-shoot

• Uploading your photos to the Observer

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Basic concepts

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Basic concepts: What’s a photograph

• Light is focused, condensed through a lens• Captured on a light-sensitive surface

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Basic concepts: What’s a photograph

• Only real variable: How much light gets in• 2 ways to control it

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Basic concepts: What’s a photograph

• Only real variable: How much light gets in• 2 ways to control it– Size of the aperture

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Basic concepts: What’s a photograph

• Only real variable: How much light gets in• 2 ways to control it– Size of the aperture– Length of time aperture is open

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Basic concepts: What’s a photograph

• Length of time affects ability to stop motion• Controlled by shutter speed– 100s or 1,000s of a second– Low shutter speed: moving objects blur– High shutter speed: moving objects freeze

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Basic concepts: What’s a photograph

• Size of aperture affects focal plane– i.e. depth of field

• Controlled by F-stop / aperture

Low number/larger aperture

High number/ smaller aperture

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Basic concepts: Printed photos

• A printing press is like a computer: it only knows on and off– A space on the page either has ink or it doesn’t– Black ink is never gray; it’s just black

• Half-tone process overcomes this limitation when printing photos– Photos are rendered using “half-tone” process– Optical illusion – recreates image as a series of dots

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Half tones

• Pre-digital– Created by re-photographing picture through a

screen• Digital– Created in

Photoshop orprepresssoftware

Image: graphicdesign.spokanefalls.edu

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Mastering Resolution

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Resolution

• A technical issue – not artistic• It’s the amount of data in a photo– More data = more flexibility in using the photo– More data = more memory

• Must reconcile 3 data storage technologies– Digital cameras store data in pixels– Computers store data in bytes– Printed paper stores data in dots

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Digital camera

• Captures image on electronic screen– Unlike analog photography, it’s not a “true” image– Image translated into pixels– A 5 MP photo (i.e. 5 million pixels) is

2592 p x 1944 p

– iPhone 4: 8 MP– Nikon Coolpix S6200 ($119): 16 MP

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Digital photo

• You choose resolution when photo is shot• Typical settings– High/Medium/Low– Large/Small– Actual photo dimensions

• You choose resolution again when moving photo from camera to computer

• Once removed, information is gone forever

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Digital photo

•Originally photographed at 4 MP

•Stored at593 kb(1/2 MB)

•Already too low for print; original was ≈2MB

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Digital photo

•Originally photographed at 4 MP

•Scraped from a web page

•33 kb

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Resolution

• When a photo is SIZED digitally by dragging on screen:– The number of pixels stays the same– Resolution decreases/increases as it’s sized

• When a photo is SAVED at a smaller size:– Most software (e-mail clients, websites, etc) will

reduce the number of pixels – resulting in loss of resolution

– It’s because their goal is to save on memory

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Resolution

• Websites/computer screens reproduce at the equivalent of 72 DPI

• Newspapers print at 300 DPI– “Dot gain” reduces clarity– Colors lose brilliance

• Glossy magazines print at 720 dots per inch (DPI)

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Online

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Newspaper

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High-end magazine

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Resolution Takeaways

• Shoot photos at highest resolution• Store photos at highest resolution• Understand how printing process will

compromise photos– Colors lose brilliance– Images lose clarity

• Don’t even think about printing a photo scraped from a website; it won’t work.

All photos by Bob Rosenbaum except where noted

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Rules of Thumb

• A photo needs to be 1-6 MB• Maximum printable size (in inches) of a digital

image in a typical newspaper:– File dimension in pixels ÷ 200– Example: • Your photo is 1,000p tall x 1,400p wide (1.4 MP)• 1,000 ÷ 200 = 5• 1,400 ÷ 200 = 7• The photo will print acceptably at up to 5” x 7”

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Seeing a good photo

Before you actually take it

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Seeing a good photo

Newspaper photos aren’t snapshots• Snapshots are souvenirs• Newspaper photos tell a story

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Seeing a photo

• Key components of photo– Subject– Everything else

Most people give all their attention to the subject and none to everything else.

The key to notable photos is to pay most attention to everything else.

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Seeing a photo

• The subject– Large– Interesting– Colorful– Not centered in frame

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Seeing a good: Subject

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Seeing a photo: Subject

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Seeing a photo: Subject

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Seeing a photo: Subject

Nobody wants to see this

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Seeing a photo: Subject

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Seeing a photo

• Key components of photo– Subject– Everything else

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Seeing a photo

• Lighting• Composition• Foreground/Background• Lines & Patterns• Framing/Orientation

The only aspect that requires making adjustments to camera settings

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Seeing a photo: Lighting

• Lighting– Where is the light source• Above/font of subject: post card• Behind subject: backlight (shadowy/moody)• Side: intensity

– Look at the shadows• Long v. short (long is more dramatic)• Vertical (connects foreground w/ background)• Horizontal / diagonal (creates balance/interest)

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Seeing a photo: Lighting

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Seeing a photo: Lighting

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Seeing a photo: Lighting

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Seeing a photo: Composition

• Rule of thirds

Photographer unknown

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Seeing a photo: Composition

• Rule of thirds

Photographer unknown

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Seeing a photo: Fore/background

• Foreground/Background– Narrow

focal plane

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Seeing a photo: Fore/background

• Foreground/Background• Wide

focal plane

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Seeing a photo: Fore/background

• Foreground/Background– Look for the unusual

and interesting

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Seeing a photo: Fore/background

• Foreground/Background– Blend foreground and

background

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Seeing a photo: Lines

• Look for patterns of lines– Converging

Photo by Jennifer Kuhel; taken with an iPad

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Seeing a photo: Lines

• Look for patterns and textures

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Seeing a photo: Lines

• Look for the letter Z

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Seeing a photo: Lines

• Look for patterns of lines– Z-pattern

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Seeing a photo: Framing

• Framing/Orientation– Use objects to create a frame within a frame

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Seeing a photo: Framing

• Framing/Orientation– Use objects to create a frame within a frame

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Seeing a photo: Orientation

• Framing/Orientation– Don’t feel bound by horizontal, vertical, eye-level

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Using your camera

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Using your camera

• Your point-and-shoot is capable of great things• But it’s set to take snapshots and postcards– Auto focuses on center of frame– Defaults to wide depth of field– Auto-flash eliminates shadows

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Using your camera

• How to get it to do more– Hold it still (keep elbows in)– Turn off auto flash– Explore settings

Still Life with iPhone Grid

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Using your camera

• Most cameras allow selective focus/metering– Point camera at

subject; holdshutter half-waydown, reframephoto

• Experiment w/scene settings

iPhone “selective focus”

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Using your camera

• When possible, use manual settingsto adjust shutter or F-stop– For narrow focal plane• Open aperture/F-stop• If manual isn’t available,

use “scenes” or “modes”– Portrait– Party– Dusk/Dawn

• Anything designed to let in a lot of natural light at expense of shutter speed

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Uploading to the Observer

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Uploading to the Observer

CLICK ON MEMBER CENTER

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Uploading to the Observer

CLICK ON “Submit new story”

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Uploading to the Observer

•Populate Title, Category.•You can leave “Article” section blank.•Then scroll to bottom

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Uploading to the Observer

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Uploading to the Observer

Look for upload counter

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Uploading to the Observer

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Reward yourself

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Resources

• Resources abound online. Here are a few:• How a digital camera works

– https://sites.google.com/site/photomedic1/how-does-the-digital-camera-work

• Photo composition– http://digital-photography-school.com/digital-ph

otography-composition-tips– http://www.photographymad.com/pages/view/1

0-top-photography-composition-rules– http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2012/04/12

/10-rules-of-photo-composition-and-why-they-work/

• iPhone– http://www.grumblesandgrunts.com/2013/01/ho

w-to-best-iphone-camera-tips-tricks.html