David D. Busch

Cheat Sheet / Updated 03-08-2022

The digital single-lens reflex (dSLR) camera is the great step upward for photographers who want to expand their creative horizons. Whether you want to become a serious photo hobbyist or simply want to take advantage of the improved control that digital SLR cameras give you, becoming familiar with the dSLR’s controls is one of your top priorities.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Believe it or not, filters were originally something you put on the front of your lens — not a plug-in mini-application in image editors, such as Photoshop. Certainly, software filters can duplicate many of the effects of their glass or gelatin real-world counterparts, but you don’t have to abandon the joy of using real, actual filters on your lens. You can find a lot of special effects tricky to duplicate in an image editor, such as polarization to remove reflections or split-filter gradients to even out the bright sky and dim foreground. You don’t even have to pay for special effects filters. You can make your own. Manufacture them out of ordinary, fairly useless filters (such as skylight or ultraviolet filters), or better yet, purchase a Series x adapter ring. Series adapter rings come in various sizes to suit the front filter diameter of your lens, with the x replaced by the number of the ring suitable for your lens, such as Series V, Series VI, Series VII, or Series VIII. A Series x adapter ring comes in two parts. One part has a thread that screws into the front of your lens. The second part screws into the first part, usually with a filter of your devising between the two, forming a little sandwich of two metal rings and your custom filter inside. The Roman numeral designations show the relative size of the ring set. For example, Series IX rings are sized to fit lenses with filter threads of 72mm, 77mm, and larger. Series VIII rings are good for lenses with 62mm to about 67mm filter threads. You can purchase step-up and step-down adapters so that you can use, say, a Series IX ring on a lens with a 62mm thread. Mounting a larger ring on a smaller lens thread is always better — and make sure the rings don’t cause vignetting (darkening) in the corners of your image (which you may find a particular problem if you use a wide-angle lens). Here are some ideas for special effects filters that you can create on your own: Create astarry night. Use a piece of window screen cut to fit the Series rings to create a star filter that transforms each pinpoint of light into a star effect. Color your world. Cut a piece of gelatin filter material into a circle to fit in the Series ring to create a color filter. Color your world times two. Use two pieces of filter material of different colors to create a split-color filter. For example, you can use orange-red on top to give the sky a sunset color and blue on the bottom to add cool tones to the foreground. The (expensive) filters of this type that you can buy have a smooth gradient between the colors, but a quick-and-dirty split filter approach can work, too. Life’s a blur. Smear the outer edges of a piece of round glass (or another filter) with petroleum jelly to create a romantic blur filter. This method is great for portraits of females, and teenagers who have complexion problems. Feature your filters. Try shooting through a feather or other textured material to create interesting effects. The figure shows some of these filters.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Sometimes, despite the best intentions and competent technique, you end up with digital pictures that have bad color. Perhaps the picture has a green color cast caused by fluorescent lights, or it has too much red because you took it late in the day. Fortunately, image editors, such as Photoshop, let you fix these. You have a lot of tools at your disposal. Some of these tools are easy to use, but others take a little practice. Before you get started, keep in mind that you can’t add color that isn’t there in the first place. If your image is way too red, you can’t compensate by adding its opposite color (cyan). Image editors work by subtracting hues. So, if your picture is dominated by red and has very little green or blue, when you remove the excess red, you don’t end up with a correctly balanced image. You wind up with a picture that’s grayish because a little bit of red, blue, and green is all that’s left. Photoshop’s color-correcting tools include the following: Auto Color: This is another one of those pesky “auto” controls that uses Photoshop’s guesswork to provide a possible correction to your color problems. Most likely, though, the correction isn’t what you want. Color Balance: To access the Color Balance sliders, press Ctrl+B on a PC, Command+B on the Mac. The sliders let you seemingly add red, green, or blue while subtracting their complements (cyan, magenta, and yellow). You can use the sliders while viewing your image to make color corrections. Of course, you can’t really add a color to an image; the dialog box’s operation just gives you an easier-to-understand representation of what’s really going on. When you move the Red/Cyan slider to the right, Photoshop actually subtracts cyan. If you move it to the left (to “add” cyan), you’re really subtracting red. If you understand what’s going on, you aren’t really fooled, but you don’t mind, either. The same thing takes place when you adjust the Magenta/Green and Yellow/Blue sliders. The Color Balance dialog box allows you to apply these color changes to the highlights, midtones, and shadows. Hue/Saturation: This control (which you can access by pressing Ctrl+U on a PC, Command+U on the Mac) changes color by using different components than the standard Color Balance tools use. Instead of modifying the primary colors of light, it adjusts the overall color of the image (hue), how pure or rich the colors are (saturation), and the lightness or brightness of the color. Moving the Hue slider rotates the color clockwise or counterclockwise around the edges of the color wheel (you don’t see this color wheel in the dialog box). The Saturation slider adds richness, turning a muted pink into a deep rose or dark red, for example. The Brightness slider controls the overall luminosity of the image; you probably don’t often need to use this slider. All versions since Photoshop CS5 have a Presets option that allows you to store saturation settings and apply them to any photograph. Variations: The Variations dialog box gives you a way to compare different color and darkness alternatives for an image. You get to choose the one that looks best. Curves: You can use this complex tool for more than adjusting basic (grayscale) tonal values. You can actually control the tonal rendition of each of the primary colors in an image. Using the Curves tool in this way usually requires a lot of experience unless you’re very adventuresome. Use whichever combination of color-correction tools works for you. They all have particular advantages and disadvantages.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

If you’re looking for a new type of photography to play with, infrared imaging with digital cameras can easily become your new playground. By ignoring visible light and capturing subjects solely by the infrared light they reflect, you can picture the unseen — in more ways than one. That’s because, thanks to the magic of the digital SLR, you likely have to shoot blind. The same techniques that shield your sensor from visible light also keep you from seeing anything through the viewfinder. Fortunately, work-arounds exist. Infrared photography lets you render foliage in eerie shades of white and the sky in an unearthly black color. Human skin takes on a soft, fuzzy glow. You’ll either love or hate the effects. First, get your camera set up for infrared photography. Because digital camera sensors are highly sensitive to infrared illumination, most camera vendors try to filter this light out by placing a filter called a hot mirror in front of the sensor. Some hot mirrors are more effective than others. You can test your dSLR for infrared compatibility by taking a picture of a TV remote control pointed at the camera in a darkened room with a button on the remote depressed. If a spot of light shows up in your image, your camera is sensitive to infrared light. After you know whether your camera can take infrared photos, follow these steps: Get a filter that blocks visible light while letting the infrared illumination through. Try the Hoya R72 filter, but some photographers have reported success with Wratten #87, #87C, #88A, and #89B filters. Set up your camera on the tripod, compose your image, and then place the infrared filter on the lens. Unfortunately, after you place the filter on your camera, the view through your finder is completely black. Infrared exposures are likely to be very long (up to several seconds in duration), so use a tripod. Set your white balance manually (check your camera’s user guide to see how to set a manual white balance) by using a subject that reflects a lot of infrared. Grass is a good choice. Take a few pictures by using manual exposure. Use a small f/stop because the infrared focus point isn’t the same as for visible light, and your autofocus mechanism doesn’t work when the filter is in place anyway. (You’ll need to manually pre-focus, perhaps before mounting the IR filter.) Small f/stops lead to even longer exposures, but your tripod keeps the camera steady. Start with an exposure of 0.5 to 1 second and then double the exposure time for each successive picture. You might be able to see an image on your camera’s LCD after the shot and gauge exposure that way. Initially, your infrared (IR) images will be highly tinged with red. Set your color balance manually, using a subject such as grass that reflects a lot of IR, to make the red tinge vanish. (Your camera’s guidebook explains how your particular model sets manual color balance.) Play around with your pictures in your image editor to adjust brightness, contrast, and color.