How to make a crack and peel face

Here is a tutorial that show you how to make a crack and peel face.

This tutorial is created by kuschelirmel Read more!

How to manage exposure using your camera

Some of us might have wondered why some of our shot turned out quite bad such as overexposed skin tone or the underexposed sky. While there are a number of factors affecting, it will be good to know some of the camera limitation as well as the type of function that the camera offered in order to get a well exposed picture.

Limitation
Unlike our human eyes, a camera can take a certain amount of dynamic range. A dynamic range refers to the range between the highest and the lowest value in a single frame. Dynamic range in digital camera is captured by individual photosite that makes up the sensor and has a value from 0 -255. Think of this individual photosite as a bucket. When the amount is full, it overflows. Hence details are lost. When the value has exceeded, then the user has to decide which part of the scene should have the right exposure. You can’t have the best of both worlds unless you take a series of shot and use a technique call high dynamic range imaging to achieve it. Dynamic range can be reflected in histogram to tell you the range brightness and darkness area in the scene. Most cameras are calibrated to 18% gray tone. So no matter which type of metering you are using, it will always be given the standard 18% gray reference point in any shooting scenario. You can override them by switching your camera to manual mode and select the shutter speed and aperture that can give you an accurate exposure.

Having explaining the dynamic range and metering, you probably might wonder what the link between these two. The histogram contains a range of brightness and darkness value. Divide the histogram into half, and you will have you will have your dark area at the left side of the histogram and the bright value at the right side of the histogram. If you overexposed it, then the histogram will be biased towards the right side. If you underexposed it, the histogram will be on the left side. The thinking part of the camera will either controlled by the camera or manipulated by the user. You can use photo manipulating software to help you correct the dynamic range.

The camera’s functions
When you purchased your camera, you are not sure by the unfamiliar logo found on your camera. I shall touch on some of the common functions that are related to exposure.

1. Metering
There are different types of metering available on the camera. Spot/partial metering allows you to meter a small area of the scene. The difference between these two is the amount of area metered. Partial metering has a slightly larger area compared to spot metering. This form of metering is useful when you have a contrast scene such as a back lit subject or dark skin tone subject and a white wall. Centre-weighted metering takes reading on the centre of the frame while ignoring the surrounding bright and dark area. This is useful if you are interested in metering the centre of the frame while not including the edges of the frame. Evaluative metering divides the scene into different segment and then compute the metering based on the selected segment using the camera’s intelligence. While this metering is sufficient for most cases, due to the unpredictable selection, your shot either come out overexposed or underexposed. Hence it should not be used in area where there are a lot different exposure values.

2. Exposure lock
This function allows you to lock a specific exposure value when you want to expose a specific area of the scene. Depending on the brand of camera you are using, different manufacturers may assign different logo to indicate exposure lock.

3. Exposure compensation
This comes in the form of +/-EV in your camera. This allows you to deliberately overexpose or underexpose a selected scene. Usually this form is only available in most scene mode except in manual mode.

4. Histogram
After you have taken your shot, it is time to take a look at your histogram to determine whether your shot has been properly exposed. Unless you know which area to be exposed, a well exposed scene generally should have a range of brightness and darkness contained in the histogram.

5. Exposure bracketing
Exposure bracketing allows you to take a series of different exposure shots: underexposed normal and overexposed. You use that function if you are unsure of what values are needed to get a well exposed picture. You can also use it to create a series of shot that allows you to achieve high dynamic range imaging which can be done in photoshop.

6. Manual selection of aperture and shutter speed
Some cameras offer manual selection. To know whether your picture is properly exposed before you press your button, there should be an indicator usually in the form of +/-EV bar. If the slider is at the left side of the bar, your picture will be underexposed or vice versa. You can ignore the bar and choose the settings you think will be the correct exposure.

So now that you knew that there are so many ways to manipulate your exposure, why can’t I set auto in my camera and let the camera’s intelligence to decide. That is because no system is foolproof!! No matter how advanced the technology is, there is always a loophole in everything. It is a matter of how to overcome its weakness so as to maximize it strength. While auto mode works fine in most scenarios, there are certain situations which will fool the camera. Here are some of the scenarios:

1. Taking under a bright sunlight will certainly leave some shadow at certain part of the object. This will give the camera a range of brightness and darkness value which the camera has to decide which area should be chosen to give a correct reading. If you leave your camera in auto mode, you may get some good result. In this case, you can use fill-in flash to take away the shadow.

2. If there is too much white in the scene the camera will either underexposed the scene. The camera will then be fooled into thinking there is a lot of light in the scene. Hence, it thinks that underexposing the scene will give a good exposed picture. The reverse is also true when there is a lot of dark area. In this case, switch to manual mode to manipulate your camera setting.

3. If the contrast is high for a particular scene, the camera will unable to decide which area to be properly exposed. For example, if you have an area with a lot of white area and an area with a lot of dark area, most likely the dark area will lose a lot of details. In this case, you can use a spot metering to meter the dark area or you can shift your object to a less contrast area.

I have written most of the stuff that you need to know to manage your exposure. Hopefully it can help you to understand better. Read more!

How to create animated GIF in 5 steps!!

*Click to enlarge the image
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How to manage your white balance

If you want to know more about white balance, you can refer to the article on Introduction to white balance. Most lighting condition has a colour temperature, ranging from warm where the colour cast is orange to cool where the colour cast is blue. Our eyes are well adapted to the lighting condition and we do not notice the difference in colour but for the camera, because the camera in-built intelligence may not be able to accurate tell the different lighting condition, thus you will have to choose the preset white balance or you will have to set manually the correct white balance. Most people will use auto white balance as it is convenient to let the camera set the white balance used. However, there are downsides where the auto white balance will fail.

Camera preset white balance and their approximate colour temperature
1. Your auto white balance will fail if it does not know where the light source is. This is because most light are reflected by the light source and the light source may not even be in the scene. The camera does not know what colour the light source in order to select the best colour temperature to compensate the light source.

2. If the light source is mixed (e.g tungsten and fluorescent), the camera will not be able to tell which colour will render accurately and may take both lighting into account and average it. In this case, you may want to choose different white balance to see which white balance will determine the correct colour.

3. When the subject’s unique properties will fool the camera’s intelligence into thinking it has abundance of warmness or coolness in it.

There are ways to correct if your auto white balance fails to choose the correct white balance. These are the following methods available:

1. Use preset white balance
There is a lot of preset white balance available in a digital camera. For example, if you encounter tungsten lighting, you will need to set your white balance to tungsten to compensate for the orange that tungsten is giving.

2. Shoot in RAW
Shooting in RAW will allow you to adjust your white balance in photoshop as RAW preserves the settings from the raw data. In this way, you do not need to worry about what white balance you set in your camera as you have the luxury to manually set your white balance when you work with your pictures in the photoshop.

3. Customise your white balance
If your camera allows you to customise your white balance, you can use it to set the lighting condition used in the shoot. Customising your white balance will allow you to either compromise and go for the overall average white balance, in which individual near-neutral colours may be askew, but the overall impression seems balanced to the eyes or select which colour in frame you want to make neutral, and allow the other colours to shift accordingly.

Note: The left one was shoot at auto white balance setting and the right one was shot at daylight setting. Notice how different white balance can affect the mood as well as the colour of the picture.

Hope this article in showing you how to correct your pictures using the appropriate white balance. Read more!

11 Tips to improve your macro shot

Shooting small objects such as insects can be fun and fascinating as you are curious by how they look like. You would like to share the pictures that you have taken to your friends and get them interested in the world of small things. Shooting small things has its challenges too. For example, you only want your viewers to be interested in the subject and not the background. Sharpness is important as you want to bring out as much detail as possible. The important thing you want to achieve in the end is a clean, neat and sharp pictures to tell the viewers how the object looks like. This article will introduce some tips to help you improve your macro shot.

1. Aperture
Control your depth of field using aperture. This is done by selecting a large aperture value such as f/8 and above to gain image sharpness. Setting a large aperture value will require you to have a longer exposure time. So use flash to help you freeze the subject. Do not get afraid to increase depth of field.

2. Focusing
Focusing is another important aspect in macro photography. You want to let your viewers to see the interesting aspect of your subject such as the insect’s eyes and not the surrounding background. If your camera has the ability to do a manual focus, use it!! Doing so will allow you to select the point of interest which will add punch to the overall image.

3. Fill up the frame
This is one of the rules of composition in photography. Filling up the frame with subject minimize any distracting background and guide your viewers to the interesting part of your subject. If you find that there is a distracting element in the background, determine if you can take them out of the background or you can shift yourself.

Image by Glenn Scott

4. Flash
There are times whereby nature does not provide you with enough sunlight. This depends on the time of day and the condition of the weather. When you do insect photography, you can use flash to provide you with extra light but mount a diffuser on top to diffuse part of light to prevent overblown picture. For other types of macro work such as product, using a flash is a must as you will need to get a well exposed picture.

5. Tripod
The need of using a tripod is important as you will need to consider subject movement. Macro photography magnifies the subject and this gives it a high chance of getting a blur image. If you have a tripod in your hand, you can mount your camera to stabilize your camera.

6. If no tripod available… …
If you are the type who do not like to use tripod, then you can use other settings to pump up your shutter speed. Use manual mode which offers you the control of both shutter speed and aperture. If your flash offers you the ability to control its power, adjust its power accordingly to get a well exposed picture. Experiment with different variable to see what works.

Image by Greg 50

7. Get a dedicated macro len
If you are a serious macro shooter, invest in a good macro len. There are many macro lens available in the market such as Tamron, Sigma, Tokina or first party lens. Depending on what type of macro work you are interested in, there is a range of different focal length for macro len. If you are shooting insect photography, it will be wise to invest in more than 100mm macro lens as this gives you a longer focusing distance. If you are doing a product shoot such as jewellery, you may want to get a shorter focal length len.

8. Experiment with other macro equipment
There are many different equipment to shoot macro. You can use a telephoto len mounted with close up filter, a len attached with extension tube or a reverse macro ring to help magnify the subject. Take note that these three approaches have its cons. You may not be able to get a good quality images when you are using close up filter and you will need to put them on and off when you want to shoot normally. For an extension tube, the length of the tube is important as the longer it is, there is a high risk of light loss thus the need for using large aperture. Lastly you can choose to use reverse macro ring method. The downside of using that is your rear end of your len will be exposed to dust and you will need to clean it immediately after you finished using it. Experiment with what works and you will be on your way to shooting macro.

9. Be patient
When you take photograph of small insects and bugs, you have to be patient! Approach them slowly and try not to alert them. You do not want them to fly off as a result of making unnecessary movement. If they fly off, wait for a while to see if they return before moving off to the next location.

Image by Spendruleziya

10. Eliminate Distracting Backgrounds
Background is another important aspect in macro photography. You do not want your viewers to be distracted by what is in the background but rather the main point of interest. If you are doing insect photography, you can try to add some colour card behind your subject if you find the background is distracting or you can shift your position such that you can find a clean background.

11. Use self timer or cable release to control your camera
If your camera has a self timer or you happen to have a cable release, use it. You use them is because you want to minimize camera shake. As mentioned earlier on, macro photography magnifies subject and hence, increasing the risk of image blur if there is a slight movement.

I have listed so many tips on how to improve your macro shoot. If you have any tips that you want to add on, feel free to comment on it. Read more!

How to expose skin colour correctly in portrait

It is always nice to take picture of your family members and your loved one for memory sake. Sometime after a picture is taken, you are puzzled why some of the people are not properly exposed. Below are some videos that will teach you how can you improve the skin tone using some camera features as well as simple photoshop.

Part 1

Part 2


Part 3


Part 4

Read more!

9 ways to take candid

Candid photography is very popular. The pictures taken using candid style are different from the normal style. Your subjects are unaware of your presence and their poses are unplanned as compared to the normal style where your subject s look at your camera and smile. It can be quite difficult to take candid photography as it happens very fast. Below are some tips that can help you to get a good candid shot.

1. Take your camera everywhere
Candid can happen very fast. It is important to be fully aware of your surrounding and capture them whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Image by Spencer Jarvis

2. Use a long zoom
Using a long zoom will enable you to take candid with ease. This is because people are not aware of your presence thus they will be able to act naturally and in a relax manner. Furthermore, using a zoom len enable you to isolate your subject thus blurring the background.

Image by Vincent Wo

3. Blend into the surrounding
The most obvious reason of blending into the surrounding is to get a feel of the surrounding mood and not knowing people that you are the photographer who shoots them. This allows people to think you are like one of them and they will able to act as per normal. When you see a shooting opportunity arrives, bring your camera up and start snapping.

Image by 16WadeSt

4. Know where you stand
Candid photography is all about capturing a prefect shot at the right moment. If you will be able to anticipate what kind of events will happen like how do people interact, where will be the people facing, where is the best place to capture candid, you will be able to save time having yourself to reposition yourself when you are shooting images.

5. Shooting in continuous mode
Since shooting candid happens very quickly, you may want to adjust your camera setting and switch to continuous mode. Shooting in that mode allows you to capture a series of event and enable you to shoot the best shot out of the series. You can also use the series of photo to tell the viewers a story of the actual event happening.

6. Use faster shutter speed
Spontaneity happens in a flash. If you find that your shutter speed is slow, change to a fast aperture len such as f/2.8 or pump up your ISO to increase your shutter speed. This allows you to freeze the moment and prevent you from having a blur shot.

7. Taking people doing things
Taking photographs of people doing things tend to be more interesting than people doing nothing. This adds some elements to the photograph and tells a viewer a story about the event. Timing is essential in capturing them as people are engrossed into what they are doing and will not be able to detect your presence. Wait till the right moment and bring your camera when it arrives.

Image by kevindooley

8. Include images with foreground elements
Doing so will add a feeling of “sneak shot”. You can do that by shooting over the shoulder, or you can try to use a tree branch or pillars as a foreground to capture it.

Image by JR Shot

9. Shoot candid in different perspective
You can take your candid shot to a new level by trying different framing. It is not necessary to take candid through normal means (i.e you follow rules of composition). Break some rules and try shooting candid from low or high angle. You will be surprised to get a different perspective and an amazing shot. Read more!

15 tips for portrait photography

Taking portrait can be quite fun. If you fret over how to take a good portrait shot, read the rest of the article to give you some insight on portrait photography.

1. Use low aperture
If you find a clean background and you want to emphasize more on the people, you can try to use wide aperture len such as f/2.8. Doing so allows you to blur your background while making your subject stays sharp.

Image by BobMacMillan

2. Use longer focal length
You can’t take subject with a wide angle len as wide angle will distort their face. Most portraits are done using 50mm or above. Using longer focal length will produce a nice bokeh. You can try to alter the shape of the bokeh by placing a cut shape cardboard on the front element of the len.

Image by E. B. Sylvester

3. Use reflector if you have any
If you find that you are under the sun, and you want to use it as the backlight, you are bound to have an underexposed subject. If you have a reflector with you, you can use it to direct the sunlight from the background and use it to lit your subject face. Use the reflector if you wish to minimise the amount of shadow on the face such as under the nose and the eyes.

Image by Bahman Farzad

4. Use fill-in flash
If you find that your subject is poorly lit, either they are backlit or there is not enough available light, you can try to use flash to fill in. Fill-in flash is a good way to eliminate shadow on the face and allow you to get a proper exposed picture. Take note not to use a high power flash as this will blow out your picture completely.

Image by tombothetominator

5. Try creating catchlight on the subject eyes
Having a catchlight in the subject eyes can create a powerful impact to any portrait photography. Catchlight is a reflection off the surface of the eyes and comes in all shapes and sizes. You can use various tools to help you create catchlight such as using a reflector, flash, umbrellas, softbox or any available light that you can use.

Image by Bahman Farzad

6. Choose your background carefully
It is always good to choose a good background that you can match with the subject’s personality and clothing. This will enable the subject to stand out from the background. If your background is too messy, the viewers will be distracted by it. Any distracting element such as lines and people passing by should be avoided.

Image by Stefan Tell

7. Try different angle
Most portrait shot are done at eye level. It can be quite boring sometime if you keep shooting the same angle. Try experimenting with different angles such as taking portrait at high level or low level. You will be amazed to get an unexpected result.

Image by !Just_In_Time!

8. Focusing
It is not necessary to get your subject in focus every time. You can focus on the foreground while blurring the subject to create an element of mystery to leave the viewer to wonder how the subject looks.

Image by Cartocci

9. Shoot candid
If you find that your subject is uncomfortable taking pictures, why not ask them to do something? I personally find that the most natural way of taking portrait is when they least expect you to take pictures of them. Try engaging them in conversation and make them relax and when the moment arrives where they are too engrossed, shoot them and you will have a natural portrait shot.

Image by briantmurphy

10. Try different lighting
You can shoot portrait in different lighting condition. Having lighting lit on certain part of the body can create depth, mystery and mood of the picture. Try playing with different light set up and you can get unexpected result.

Image by omar

11. Gives your subject some room
When you want to take a person looking at elsewhere, always frame the picture in such a way there is a extra space at the direction they are looking. This makes the viewer curious what is the person looking at.

Image by Jevaun

12. Do selective colorization
Selective colorization simply means getting certain parts of the photo while making the rest of photo black and white. This type of technique is useful when you want to guide the viewers to the point of interest. Selective colorization can be achieved using photoshop.

Image by Furryscaly

13. Try different posing
If your subject has some experience in posing, you can get them to pose whatever you want them to. Try a variety of combination such as different facial expression, positioning of hands, legs and body.

Image by Diego Sierralta

14. Give them prop to play around with
If you find that you have exhausted all the possibility of posing, give your subject a prop and ask them to play with it. By doing so, not only they will be restricted to the posing you required them but the shots that you took will be more candid. Introducing a prop will create a new point of interest which will add on to the theme that you are doing.

Image by evaxebra

15. Conceal part of the subject
Portrait does not mean you must always take the person looking at you or with features of the person seen. Sometime it is good to hide some part of the person features to let viewers have a little imagination to focus on some part of the body that you want them to.

Image by dajiang1999

What have I missed? This should be more than enough for you to play around with. I will continue to add on if I find any pictures to share with. Read more!

Some tips to take a beach shot

Going to the beach is very exciting as you will find lots of shooting opportunities such as sports, people splashing water, nice sunset and sunrise, etc. While these may seem exciting, you will find a lot of challenges when shooting in the beach. Here are some useful tips to help you overcome the challenges.

Image from Bobesh

1. Use spot metering
A spot metering can overcome some exposure problems. Spot metering offers you to take a small area in the frame and this is useful if you want a particular area to be well exposed. You can use spot metering to take a back lit object or you can use it to help you take silhouette. Whichever the case is, you may find spot metering an indispensable feature to be used in beach shot.

2. Try silhouette shot
Due to the bright condition in the beach, you might want to try a silhouette shot. Silhouette creates a sense of mystery, emotion and moody which will leave the viewer to ponder about. You can try doing silhouette by metering the bright area in your scene and recomposing your shot to a different scene.

Image from norcali80

3. Use exposure bracketing
Because in beach there is a lot of bright area, you will find that the pictures taken will be underexposed if you leave your camera in auto mode. If your camera has exposure bracketing function, you will find it extremely useful in taking pictures at the beach. Depending on which area you want to be well exposed, you may try experimenting different set of exposure value.

4. Take some action!!
If you find it bored to take people lying down sun bathing why not try something exciting? Take a moment to look around you or take a stroll along the beach to see if there are any sports or games that people are having. Try framing them at different angle and you might get a few candid shots.

Image from pasma

5. Use waterproof camera
If you have waterproof camera, it will be plus point. Taking a beach shoot will have some form of risks. If you have a waterproof camera, you can bring it to the water area and take a few shots of people playing water games or people doing scuba diving.

6. Use polarizer
Because of bright condition, you may find that the beach may contain a lot of reflective area such as sea which will render your picture to be underexposed or contain a lot of reflective area. Using polariser can greatly reduce the amount of reflection and improve contrast of the picture.

7. Using fill in flash
You might it difficult to take a nice portrait under a bright sunlight in beach. You will get some shadow appearing in the face. If you have a flash, fire them directly at your subject will eliminate the shadow on the face and will give you a well exposed picture. Take note that firing flash at full power will give you a washed out picture. Instead if your camera allows you to manipulate flash power, try to experiment with the flash power.

8. Pay attention to the rule of composition
You should try to stick to the rules of composition as much as possible to achieve better pictures. Try to look for textures such as rock, colour such as the beach tents and etc. Unless you are experienced photographer, you can break the rules and get some unexpected pictures.

Image from WisDoc

Conclusion
Taking beach shot can be quite fun. While there is a lot of attraction that you will find in beach, it is important to take care your camera. You do not want to introduce any unnecessary elements such as sand into your camera or expose your camera to water (if you have waterproof camera, you will have less to worry about). One thing I always do is to bring cleaning equipment along so that I can clean them right away should any dirt get into my camera. This will prevent sand or dust from sticking onto them if you left them for too long. I hope you will find this article useful and try using some of tips mentioned here in your beach shoot. Read more!

How to create a photo mosaic

Mosaic is an assemblage of many different small images into a big image. You can use mosaic to create fond memories of your loved one by storing a collection of different photo to be used to assemble into a big photo. There are numerous photo mosaic software available, both free and paid one, in the web. I personally preferred to use free one to try out as you don’t create mosaic often except for some special occasions. I am recommending this free software called AndreaMosaic.

1. When you use AndreaMosaic, you will be guided to make a tile collection. If you happen to skip this step, choose the "Select Tiles" when you open the programme.

2. Choose "Add Folder" and you choose the folder where you store your images.
3. Click on "OK".
4. Click "Save Archive". The archive can be accessed anytime and contained your stored images. You can use that to create mosaic.
5. Watch the status till it is 100% completed.
6. Click "OK" to finish the process.

7. Click "Create Mosaic" to finish the process.

8. You are done!!

When you set the parameter, there are a few things you need to take note of:
a. Size parameter: This will determine the final quality of the mosaic. The higher it is, the bigger the size of the mosaic.
b. You can set the amount of duplication and the duplicate spacing if you have limited amount of images. The creator recommends that to check all "Tile Variants" boxes to minimise the amount of blank tiles on your mosaic.
c. The "Pattern" will specify how the image will split into tiles and the "Colour Change" will specify how the tiles can be modified to fit into the image into order to look better.
d. There is "More Options" where you can set where you want to save your file to as well as the quality of mosaic.
e. When you are done, you can see the details under "Mosaic Information".
f. The "Status" will display "All parameters are ok. :-)" when you are done with the setting. Click "Create Mosaic" and wait for the status to be 100% complete.
g. There are some recommendation on the size and the amount of photo used to create mosaic. You can read the parameters in AndreaMosaic website. Read more!