Light Adjustments With Lightroom

Here's a typical example of depending on the developing side of photography to realize my idea for a shot. I start with an exposure situation that's difficult to resolve  We've been over this in the past, I know. When shooting my Rotary meetings I can't be setting up lights and moving people around.

I wanted to catch this view at our meeting of the Rotary Club Of Metairie, LA, yesterday looking between two members at legendary New Orleans musician, Ronnie Kole delivering his interesting remarks. As often happens, my Canon 580 EX ll flash over exposed the nearby white table cloth. The lighting in our meeting room is mixed and spotty so I knew shooting this that I'd have to bring the exposure up on the background area to get a good looking image.

exp data: 1/30 @ f/6.3, ISO 3200, spot metering, Canon EOS 5D Mk2 wearing a Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS USM at 24mm

Important point: I could have taken a shot of Ronnie at the podium with no tables in the picture and avoided this minor issue. I wanted what I think is a more interesting picture.

In the beta version of Adobe's Lightroom 4 I first cropped the image, then reduced the brightness of the highlights (the near table area) and raised the brightness of the shadows (the background including the podium). Next I increased the overall exposure and the contrast to make up for the loss of contrast when I compressed the highlights and shadows.

Notice that I didn't make the shot look unreal. This is an attempt to bring the finished image closer to what the human eye would see. The camera just can't capture the tonal values and brightness range of the eye so the software lets me match the two up more closely.

Want to know why I didn't shot the original a little tighter? I wasn't sure what I'd want in the final image. I don't crop these to a specific ratio so I always leave a little room for creative cropping.

Get In Position For Juxtaposition

I guess I was lucky that the day was cloudy when I shot scenes at the Orleans Parish Temporary Jail just recently completed by DRC USA and its subcontractors. The gray sky added a depressed feeling to what might have appeared to be just another playground. To convey the idea that the basketball courts being shot were not a public play area but a locked down recreation yard I looked for juxtaposition: one element added to another creating a contrast to create the impact. 

I moved to a position that gave me this juxtaposition.

I tried leaving one or the other key element, the hoop or the lock, out of focus. I settled on this one with both elements in pretty good focus. I used my DOF preview button which many of you have and adjusted my distance to the gate and my aperture until I got this look.

exp. data: 1/160 @ f/14, ISO 500, 17mm, evaluative metering. This was shot with a Canon EOS 5D wearing a Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM lens. This was shot using the manual mode.

To many people the extra size and security of that lock may not be obvious. This is, nevertheless, the shot I wanted. Adding to the confined reality of this recreation area are the wire mesh enclosing the space from above and the concertina wire in the distance.

Content vs Exposure

Photographers sometimes must decide between getting their exposure settings just right and getting the content of their image just right. Actually in both cases there is an element of subjectivity. When trying to capture a fluid scene in one image you seldom have time to arrive at the "perfect" settings and composition. The reason photography instructors like to drill those exposure relationships in to students' heads is so that they can evaluate a situation quickly and come up with some pretty good settings without 10 minutes of experimentation. Learning about exposure and how your camera and lenses work won't mean that you get a perfect looking shot every time and won't waste any digital frames. It means you'll get the shots you want more often and waste fewer frames. It means you'll get the contents you want in an image you can use.

I have, of course, an example from my own work. The shooting situation on this job posed some challenges. I was shooting in a large meeting room where the keynote speaker of a convention was delivering remarks to a crowd. The lighting, as usual, was awful and turned low for the comfort and attention of the audience.

You Can Crop For Drama

Here's yet another example of using a simple crop to create what I think is a more dramatic looking image. We start with a photograph I took from a wharf on the West bank of the Mississippi River at New Orleans in March, 2008.

As I so often do, I was just digging another sunset on a clear March evening when the weather here was just fabulous. I was still working at WDSU TV then and taking a dinner break with my Canon EOS 5D. I had a 17-35mm Tamron lens on that evening set at 17mm. EXP DATA: 1/6 @ f/22, ISO 100, Evaluative metering. I used a tripod and remote release.

Now let's crop this shot for effect. I'm showing this full blog size for maximum appreciation.
To me this looks more like a panorama of several images even though we know it is not. I kept the horizon lower than mid frame even with the clear sky. I like that "picture window" effect.

It's a suggestion. Play around with that crop tool and remember that if you shoot RAW files you'll get the maximum cropability (?) from your images.

Same DOF Only Different

Here's another shot from the shoot at the Orleans Parish Temporary Jail compound that uses a deep DOF but, as promised yesterday, with different effect.

I'm showing this one full size so you can clearly see the effect of getting up close to the fence nearest to me and spot focusing on the long side fence to get the security cameras in focus. You shouldn't be surprised to see that my aperture was closed way down. If I had let the camera select the focus point, the setting in which all the AF points are indicated, it would have focused on the nearest fence. By using the center AF point, my favorite, I could get my focus and then move the camera to recompose the shot as I wanted.  EXP DATA: 1/60 @ f/22, ISO 800, evaluative metering using the Canon EOS 5D Mk2 and EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens at 105mm.

This finished image is a result of using that DOF, spot focusing and a composition idea of lining up the cameras to show through the fence.

The client wanted several features of the jail shown in the resulting photographs. Among them was the array of cameras that will keep inmates under constant surveillance. I mean constant surveillance.

How To Use Spot Focusing And DOF

You probably know that Depth Of Field is changed by changing your aperture but other things will affect your DOF. Of primary importance is your distance to your focal point, that spot where your image should be the sharpest. In this case I wanted a deep DOF for a shoot recently at the nearly completed temporary jail to be used by the Orleans Parish Sheriff. I was shooting the guard room which provides views of two living areas (living?).

For this shot I wanted to get the monitors on the desk and the beds way down in the sleeping area looking sharp. I settled on an ISO of 500 after trying a few different settings. This image is likely to be used on the web and in brochures or other handouts so the slight loss of sharpness around the far parts of the image won't be noticed. I just wanted to get it as sharp as possible with that impossible distance from closest to farthest subject matter.

You must use spot focusing for a shot like this to keep the camera from focusing on the nearest horizontal and vertical lines. On the Canon EOS 5D Mk2, like most cameras, the button shown at right will open the AF point selector. A turn of the control wheel will select either all the points or a single point. I always use the center point.

I put the center AF point on the corner of the far monitor and pressed the shutter button halfway to grab that focus. The 5D Mk2 has a DOF preview button as do many cameras so I had an idea this would work before completing the shot. I moved the camera just a little to recompose before completing the press of the shutter button.

exp data: 1/40 @ f/7.1, ISO 500, evaluative metering, 17mm

In Defense Of On Camera Flash

Some jobs just don't allow for setting up lights on stands. In fact most of my jobs are like that. The shoot last Tuesday is a perfect example. Caps For Kids arranged for a cap donation from the John Deere company. Hospital room lighting is just plain crappy but with my trusty flash and some help from Adobe's Lightroom 4 beta I was able to get some very useful shots.

The lighting is not artistic or even very flattering. It's coming from my Canon Speedlite 580 EX2 sitting right on top of my Canon EOS 5D Mk2. I couldn't locate my flash cord so I couldn't even mount the flash on a bracket to move it off the center line of my lens. The situation was happening and there was no time to waste.

exp data: 1/40 @ f/5, ISO 800, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens @ 24mm, evaluative metering

I never had a thought of setting up a light on a stand to be moved around during the 30 min. presentation and chat. I wanted to get as many angles as the cramped hospital room would allow. The people were interested in making a few happy moments for little Cale and I wasn't about to interrupt them to ask them to wait while I moved lights.
exp data: 1/40 @ f/7.1, ISO 800, 60mm, spot metering, flash EC -2/3

Sometimes you must make the best photographs you can with the situation at hand. In this case I'm satisfied with the photography and I got to meet a great young fellow and his mom and dad. I've since located my flash cord. I may tie that to my wrist from now on.