Stoppees' Guide to Photography and Light: What Digital Photographers, Illustrators, and Creative Professionals Must Know

503 Pages·2008·51.44 MB·English

by  Brian and Janet Stoppee

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Focal Press is an imprint of Elsevier
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© 2009 Brian and Janet Stoppee. Published by Elsevier, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Interior Design: Janet Stoppee for M Media Studios, Inc.
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Cover Design: Brian and Janet Stoppee for M Media Studios, Inc.
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Illustrations: Janet Stoppee for M Media Studios, Inc.
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Dedication
This volume is dedicated, in loving memory,
to Brian’s parents, Harry & Avalon, who have
been personal and professional inspirations to
Brian & Janet.
Harry, a self-made businessman, and
Avalon, a graphic artist, wanted Brian to write
books, since he was a child. T ey got Brian
interested in photography, when he was eight
years old. T ey whole-heartedly welcomed
Janet into their lives, as a second daughter.
Avalon died a few weeks before this book’s
production completed.
Dedication 5t
Contents
Dedication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2 Digital Exposure and Optics. . . 61
1 T e Color of Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 T e Exposure Trinity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
A Colorful Day of Sunlight. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Brightness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Time, Sensitivity, and Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
T e Temperature of Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Tone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 T e Time Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
T e Year in Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Hue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Camera Movement, Shake, and Stabilization . 68
Light’s Direction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Contrast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Be a Tripod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
What Your Eye Sees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Vibrant, Saturated, and Muted Colors . . . . . . 48 Freezing Action and Beautiful Blurs . . . . . . . . 70
How Your Brain Compensates . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 High-Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Extended Exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Color’s Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Low-Key. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Instead of Film Personality… . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Neutral Density Gray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Weather’s Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 …It’s All About the Sensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Minimum Density: Super White . . . . . . . . . . 26 T e North Light of a Painter’s Studio . . . . . . . 58 Sensitivity: T e ISO Equivalent . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Maximum Density: Blackest Black . . . . . . . . . 27 ISO in Action: Choose the Proper Speed . . . . 77
Angles of Incidence and Refl ection . . . . . . . . . 28 Avoid Noise; Enjoy Grain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
What’s Seen… What’s Hidden . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Volume of Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Refl ections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 T e Numbers on the Lens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Surfaces and Textures Everywhere . . . . . . . . . . 32 What Lenses Do to Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Plenty of Highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 T e Letters on the Lens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Plenty of Shadows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 EV: Exposure Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Create a Highlight; Control a Shadow . . . . . . 38 Autoexposure Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
6 Table of Contents
Camera Metering Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Exposure Locks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Exposure Compensation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Bracketing Exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Manual T rough-the-Lens Metering. . . . . . . . 90
Depth of Field Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Hyperfocal Distance = Maximizing Depth . . . 94
Visual Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Equivalent Focal Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Fisheye to Ultra-Wide Views. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 3 Measuring Light and Color . . . 131 4 Light, Color, and Use . . . . . . . . . 149
T e Wide-Angle Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Light Meter Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 T e End Use Determines Everything. . . . . . . 150
What’s Optically Normal?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Incident Readings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Color Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
T e “Fast” Lens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Light Source Size and Distance . . . . . . . . . . . 136 Color Gamuts and Working Spaces . . . . . . . 154
T e “Portrait” Lens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 T e Inverse Square Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 Color Depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Telephoto Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 T e Gray Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 File Format and the End Result . . . . . . . . . . 156
T e Ultra-Telephoto Eye. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 T e Flash Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Understand Image Size. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Macro Vantage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 Spot/Refl ective Readings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Upsampling and Downsampling. . . . . . . . . . 160
Bending Light, Bending Objects. . . . . . . . . . 114 Volume/Time Priority Metering and EV. . . . 143
Balancing Light to White . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Light Ratios for Multiple Light Sources . . . . 144
T e Color Moods of White Balancing . . . . . 118 Color Metering. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Bracketing Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Mired Shift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Visualize Angles of View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Light and Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Wide and Narrow Luminance Ranges. . . . . . 125
Diff raction and Image Crispness . . . . . . . . . . 126
Viewfi nder Screens and Your Eye . . . . . . . . . 127
Area Modes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Focus Modes and the Power of Manual. . . . . 129
Table of Contents 7
Contents
5 Preproduction Smarts . . . . . . . . 163 6 Raw Files and Scanned Films. . 195 7 Ambient Light. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Paper Planning and Tear Sheets. . . . . . . . . . . 164 Bridge: T e Metadata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 Early Morning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Scouting and Electronic Planning . . . . . . . . . 166 T e Raw File Advantage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 Midday = Diff usion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Manage Memory on Location. . . . . . . . . . . . 168 T e Adobe Camera Raw Environment . . . . . 200 Gender-Specifi c Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Data Storage and Backups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 Histograms in Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 Late Afternoon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Synchronize Color. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Histograms in Camera Raw . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 Silhouettes and Sunsets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
See All the Color. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 White Balancing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 Candles and Firelight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Calibrate a Monitor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 Temperature and Tint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 After Dark: Mixing Color Temperatures . . . . 248
Control Print Color. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 Tonality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
On Location with Cameras. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 Recovery, Fill Light, and Blacks . . . . . . . . . . 212
On Location with Computers. . . . . . . . . . . . 184 Clarity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
On Location with Lighting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 Vibrance and Saturation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Location Responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 T e Tone Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Sharpening and Noise Reduction . . . . . . . . . 218
Converting Color to Grayscale . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Hue, Saturation, and Luminance . . . . . . . . . 220
Split Toning: Highlights and Shadows . . . . . 222
Lens Correction and Camera Calibration . . . 223
Film to Digital: Pro Scanning . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Scanning Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
8 Table of Contents
Weights and Bags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
Headers and Drop Downs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
Magic Fingers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Grip Heads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Mafers and Mathellinis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Flexible Arms and Knuckle Heads . . . . . . . . 314
MiniGrips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Clamps, Pigeons, Ties, etc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
Lanterns, Pancakes, and Skirts? . . . . . . . . . . . 288 T e Right Tripod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
8 Man-Made Modif ers . . . . . . . . . 251 Filter Basics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 Weight and Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
Nature Modifi es Light. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252 Lighting Designer Color Tricks. . . . . . . . . . . 292 Tilting Column Wisdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Refl ect Light. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254 Diff usion Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293 T e Quick Release Ball Head . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
Diff users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256 Refl ection Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294 Off -Center Ball Head Control . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Refl ection and Diff usion Tools . . . . . . . . . . . 258 Polarizers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Flagging Light and Subtractive Refl ectors . . . 260 Color Correctors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
T e Framework of Scrims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262 Blue and Green Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Fabrics, Road Rags, and Lighting Control Kit. . 264
Tents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Dots and Fingers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Barn Doors and Snoots. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
Grids and Spots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
What Umbrellas Do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Multiple Umbrellas for Soft Light. . . . . . . . . 272
T e New Umbrellas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274 10 Daylight Fluorescent. . . . . . . 325
Light Bank Technology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276 Bright Lights, Low Wattage . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
Speed Rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278 9 Creative Support and Safety . . 299 T e Funny Shaped Lamps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
Light Bank Primer - Triolet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 Stand Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300 T e Total System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
T e Big Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282 C Stands vs. Inclines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302 Soft Box Simplicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
When Smaller’s Better. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284 Crate and Riser Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304 Create Refl ections: A Quick Starter. . . . . . . . 334
OctaPlus Banks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286 Arm and Boom Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306 Create Moonlight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
Table of Contents 9