ACD Systems Blog

Aperture, Speed & Sensitivity (Part 2)

2013-04-10 17:20:00 GMT

By ACDSee Guest Blogger & Professional Photographer Alexandra Pottier

After aperture, one of the three facts that make a good exposition in a picture is the shutter speed.

It is the time while the sensor is exposed to the light while the curtain is open. If we think of it as a window, it is the time while the window is open.

Usually, we express the shutter’s speed in seconds or fractions of a second.

A long exposure time, 1 sec for instance, exposes the sensor for a longer period of time. That is useful when there isn’t much light in the scene.

On the contrary, a short exposure time, 1/1000 sec, exposes the sensor very shortly to the light when there is a lot of it.



Usual shutter speeds are : 1/2000, 1/1000, 1/500, 1/250, 1/125, 1/60, 1/30, 1/15, 1/8, ¼, ½, 1 second, up to 30 seconds. Then you have the Bulb mode, where you can decide for yourself the length of the time of aperture.

As you can see the numbers are equally proportional. When you double the exposure time (from 1/250 to 1/125 ) you let twice as much light in.

Of course the speed has consequences on the final result of the picture. The use of a fast shutter speed (1/1000s sec) will freeze the action even if the subject is moving.



The use of a slow speed (1 sec) will show an amount of panning.



The shutter speed must be chosen according to four criteria which are :

The effect you want for your picture. Frozen action or fuzzy yarn.
The movement’s speed. The photographer’s stability is important, below 1/60s, it is better to use a tripod, because the human, even very still, suffers from micro-movements, and the result is a fuzzy picture.
The subject’s speed. The more the subject is moving, the more fuzz there will be. And vice versa.
The focal length. It is common to say that it is better to use a focal length ratio 1/focal length. For example, if you are using a 200mm lens, it is better not to go under 1/200 sec.

If you want to keep the same exposition while changing the shutter speed, you’ll have to change the aperture increasely.

To change the shutter speed, there are two options : use the manual mode or the S mode. This way, you get to choose the speed you want for your camera.
To practice, you can start with the focal length rule (1/focal length) then you can try on different moving subjects, a walking person, a cyclist, a jogger, etc…

Have fun!

Semi-Annual Sale!

2013-02-19 17:21:19 GMT

Save up to 65% with ACDSee’s Semi-Annual Sale!

For a limited time only you can receive one FREE year of 40GB of ACDSee Online storage with the purchase of ACDSee 15 or Pro 6.

Using ACDSee Pro to Create an HDR Image with ONE Photo!

2013-02-18 17:25:00 GMT

By ACDSee Guest Blogger & Professional Photographer Serge Timacheff

High Dynamic Range (“HDR”) photos allow you to bring out the comprehensive tonal range in an image. This brings out detail, colors, textures, and tonal elements in photos, giving them an intense, colorful, almost surrealistic look-and-feel, often more like a painting than a photograph.

HDR Basics. Most HDR shots are created by taking a series of multiple photos of exactly the same image with the same aperture (f/stop) setting, varying the shutter speed from underexposed to overexposed, and then layering the images together in post-production. An HDR image might comprise anywhere from three to as many as nine or more photos.

The accompanying photo of this colorful truck was taken in Northern California with 11 RAW photos, all at ISO 200, an aperture of f/7, and shutter speeds ranging from 1/80 to 1/8000 second (1/80, 1/125, 1/200, 1/320, 1/500, 1/800, 1/1250, 1/2000, 1/3200, 1/5000, 1/8000). While I shoot many photos hand-held (including this one), using a tripod can help make sure your photos are consistent (and so that slower shutter speeds aren’t blurry).

Following the shoot, I entered the 11 photos into Photomatix, an industry-standard HDR processing application. It provides multiple options for combining photos (including native RAW images) intelligently (it automatically aligns them, etc.) and then giving you multiple options for adjusting various versions of your image, from more natural to a wild and almost psychedelic look. From there, I save my “combined” HDR image and bring it into ACDSee pro for final editing. I often will use some adjustments to levels and colors, sharpen a little, and use the correction tool to tweak any minor glitches that the HDR process produced (sometimes, for example, it will create small aberrations in evenly toned areas, such as the sky, that need some touch-up).

HDR from One Shot.One of the biggest problems with HDR shots is that they have to be made from multiple images with wide-ranging exposures. If you’re shooting moving images, like people, animals, cars, or even landscapes on a windy day, HDR images are difficult because it’s essentially impossible to shoot multiple shots of the same subject that are exactly the same.

Using ACDSee Pro and its editing and developing features, and specifically the “Exposure” tool, you can use one photo, and, one-by-one, change the exposure to be over- and under-exposed, and save each one as a separate photo. This is what I did with the photo of our Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Nicodemus, from a single photo I took of him on the beaches of Ocean Shores, Washington.

Using ACDSee Pro, and starting with a RAW file taken with my Canon EOS 1D-X, I first edited the “source” image so it was what I wanted (cropping, sharpening, level adjustment). I then saved that as a TIFF file to ensure I had the broadest-range of tonality (JPEG files are limited in tonal range, although you can save your final image in JPEG). From this source image, using the Exposure tool in ACDSee Pro, I saved eight different “exposures” that were evenly incremental in exposure adjustment: Using the slider, the exposures set to 25, 50, 75, and 100 percent up and down (exposure values, or eV, of +/- .75, 1.50, 2.25, and 3.00). I made no other adjustments, and each of these differently “exposed” images was saved as a separate TIFF file.

I then imported these nine TIFF files into Photomatix Pro (see www.HDRSoft.com for more). Photomatix automatically recognizes the incremental differences between the shots; if you have made a mistake and included a duplicate or your increments were uneven, it intelligently alerts you so you can fix or override it for processing.

The final result was this exaggerated and colorful image of Nicodemus, in his element at the beach. The colors and textures help bring-out his personality, and the artistic effect of HDR processing make the photo memorable and ready to be displayed, shared, or sold. They look especially good when printed onto canvas.

Try this yourself with a single photo—the nice thing is that if you ever had a photo you wished you could try experimenting with as an HDR but you only had one shot of it, now you can achieve simulate a wide tonal range using ACDSee’s robust ability to manipulate exposure. While you will always get the most optimal HDR results from taking actual different exposures and original images, when that’s not an option this can be a remarkably successful alternative.

Think you're funny & witty? Lets see what you've got!

2013-02-13 19:45:00 GMT

‘Like’ ACD Systems on Facebook and take part in our February Caption This! contest for your chance to win FREE ACDSee photo editing software.

Prizes will be awarded to the top 3 captions & include:

ACDSee 15 
ACDSee Pro 6
and
ACDSee Pro 2 (mac)

Make sure your caption is submitted by Sunday night (February 18th). Voting starts first thing Monday morning (February 19th) and closes Friday, February 22nd. You can vote once per day.

Winners will be announced Monday, February 25th.

View the photo and submit you entry here.

Good Luck!

Just in time for Valentine's Day: Romantic Photo Editing Techniques

2012-02-13 21:16:00 GMT

In today’s blog post, ACD Systems’ Graphic Designer and freelance photographer, Kirsten Harris, shows us a few tricks for adding maximum romance to your images.

Orton

The easiest way to give a romantic, ethereal look to any image using ACDSee software is to use the new Orton Effect, found in the Special Effects palette of ACDSee Pro 5 and ACDSee 14. The effect can be applied as-is or you can adjust it using the “blur” “contrast” and “brightness” sliders. It gives a soft, glamorous look to human subjects and is really simple way to diminish the look of facial and blemishes (though you might need to use the healing brush on a really wrinkly and/or pimply subject). Orton isn’t just for hands and faces, it’s a great effect to try on landscape images and urban scenes as well.

Blur

When you’re in love, everything fades away except the object of your affection. Here’s how to blur the background in an image, putting the viewer’s attention squarely on the subject: In the Edit mode of ACDSee 14 or Pro 5, use the Selection Tool (either Freehand or the Magic Wand) to outline your subjects. Then choose “Blur” from the Detail Palette to blur the background.Kirsten chose the Gaussian blur because it gives a more subtle, natural effect.

Once you’ve outlined your subject, you could also use Dodge and Burn in Edit mode to desaturate colour from the background, leaving your subject in color.

Here’s the before and after:

Convert to Black & White

Some folks believe that black & white can look a little cliched but it can be a a powerful way to draw attention to the subject and away from a very busy, colorful background. In the original version the image we see here, the bride and groom receded amongst all the colourful clutter in the images.

Once the color was removed, the subjects came back into focus. Plus, let’s just admit that black and white IS romantic!

To convert an image to black and white quickly, just use the “Convert to Black & White” tool in the Color palette in Edit Mode and then use the sliders to adjust color percentages and brightness. If you want even more control you can desaturate the image with advanced color in Develop mode, then use the lighting tool and/or the brightness sliders of advanced color to set the tonality of certain brightness (lighting tool) or hues (brightness sliders of advanced color). In ACDSee 14, you can convert to black & white by choosing “Color Balance” on the Color palette, and then moving the saturation slider all the way to the left.

Visit ACDSee.com this week and check out our “Candy is Dandy” promotion for super-sweet savings on the products you love.

Kirsten’s freelance photography is focused on travel and events. To see more of her work, visit Kirsten’s online gallery at ACDSee Online. While you’re in ACDSee Online, why not share some of your own favourite romantic photos?