Syl’s new book LIDLIPS Lessons I Didn’t Learn In Photo School is available on Amazon for only $13.45.

Be sure and check out Syl’s websites: http://pixsylated.com and  http://speedliting.com

Show Host

Kerry Garrison
http://kerrygarrison.com Twitter Facebook FriendFeed

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This podcast is also available on iTunes.

• Hot Shoe Diaries
  Joe McNally [Amazon $26.39]
  You cannot go wrong with Joe’s tips on lighting, simply superb, a must read
• Fast Track Photographer
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• Digital Photography Book 1, 2, 3
  Scott Kelby [Vol 1 Amazon $16.49] [Vol 2 Amazon $16.49] [Vol 3 Amazon $16.49]
  I am including all three books in the series (hence 17 books), these recipe books help you get the shot you want
• The Moment it Clicks
  Joe McNally [Amazon $34.64]
  Excellent background and stories on different shots. Inspirational and educational
• Light: Science and Magic
  Fil Hunter [Amazon $30.91 ]
  Some consider this to be the ultimate book on lighting
• Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision
  David DuChemin [Amazon $26.39]
  Within the Frame is a book about finding and expressing your photographic vision, specifically where people, places, and cultures are concerned.
• Beaton: Portraits
  Terence Pepper [Amazon $40.50]
  This is an essay of the works of Sir Cecil Beaton who was a major contributor to Vogue and Vanity Fair
• Lighting for Photography: Techniques for Studio and Location Shoots
  Glenn Rand [Amazon $23.07]
  This book shows how to perfect lighting in the studio as well as on location
• Sculpting with Light: Techniques for Portrait Photographers
  Allison Earnest [Amazon $23.07]
  “With tips for working with individuals and groups, indoors and out, this book is not to be missed.”  —ImagingInfo.com
• The Daybooks of Edward Weston
  Beaumont Newhall [Amazon $44.97]
  This book gives an intimate view into the day-to-day trials of a working artist, Edward Weston
• Keith Carter Photographs: Twenty-Five Years
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  Be inspired by looking through 25 years of Keith Carter’s work
• Minimalist Lighting: Professional Techniques for Location Photography
  Kirk Tuck [Amazon $23.07]
  “Pure gold, showing real solutions to real lighting situations and along the way creating some of the most natural-looking on-location portraits.”  —Shutterbug
• Minimalist Lighting: Professional Techniques for Studio Photography
  Kirk Tuck [Amazon $23.07]
  “Richly illuminated with location portraits and a few still lifes, and written in a clean down-to-earth style.”  —ppmag.com
• The Photographer’s Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos
  Michael Freeman [Amazon $19.77]
  The Photographer’s Eye shows how anyone can develop the ability to see and shoot great digital photographs.
• Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera – Bryan Peterson [Amazon $17.13]
  For serious amateur photographers who already shoot perfectly focused, accurately exposed images but want to be more creative with a camera, here’s the book to consult.

If you have some favorites that I missed, please post in the comments.

The “Easy Way”
The easy way to get this shot is to shoot the card laying on its side. Once you have the image, take it into Photoshop and rotate it 90 degrees clockwise so it is then standing up, copy a portion of it, rotate it vertically, then add a gradient to fade to white, and viola, you are done. This would certainly have been less time in shot setup but more time in post production. What I wanted was to actually do as much of the shot in-camera as possible, hence, I didn’t do it “The Easy Way” and then “Fix it in Photoshop”.

The Shot Setup
The first thing I needed to get was the reflection under the product. A reflection actually isn’t very hard to do, I do it quite often. I just shoot the product over a sheet of thick plexiglass that is sitting on top of a sheet of white muslin. The image of the product will be reflected into the plexi and you have yourself a sweet reflection.

Getting the card to “stand up” required a little bit of thought. At first I tried some acrylic blocks but that stood out too much and would require more Photoshop work than I wanted to do. The same thing happened with white blocks. The final solution turned out to be super simple. I used a boom arm and suspended the cards using fishing line. With the strobes going off the fishing line just disappeared making touch-ups for real fast.

The Post Production
To get started, the images were imported into Lightroom and the Clarity and Vibrance were bumped a hair, the shots were cropped, and then the Adjustment Brush was used to completely blow out the background. A Foreground to transparent gradient was used to fade the reflection to white so the image would set nicely on a website.

The Results
The final images are exactly what I set out to accomplish with very little post production because I tried to get as much done in-camera as possible. While I could have used Photoshop I often think that it is better to get the shot as close to the finished product as possible when you capture it. By even taking simple shots like this and figuring out how to get the shot a different way is good exercise for when something more complicated comes up. Being able to improvise and come up with creative solutions to problems is a very valuable skill.

More Images

Video Explanation

Equipment Used

Strobelite Plus w/Barn Door Kit
Strobelite Plus w/24×36 softbox
Canon 50D
Canon 50mm f1/8
Photoflex Boom arm
Westcott light stands
Vanguard Ball head
Calumet tripod
Phottix Cleon II Trigger

Features

As we have already said, the core purpose of DSLR Remote Pro is to allow for tethered shooting. While that seems like a pretty trivial thing, its all of the extra things that DSLR Remote Pro brings to the table.

• Take control of your Canon DSLR camera from your PC (supported models)
• Retain full control from the camera
• Photos automatically downloaded to the PC and displayed in a large preview window
• Large high quality live view display on the  PC with live histogram, autofocus and intuitive manual focusing using mouse wheel with Canon EOS 40D, Canon EOS 50D, Canon EOS 500D/Rebel T1i, Canon EOS 450D/Rebel XSi, Canon EOS 1000D/Rebel XS, Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III or Canon EOS-1D Mark III
• Photos are saved on the PC’s hard disk and can also be saved on the memory card in the camera
• Full size preview window can display a critical area of the photo e.g. the eyes and face of your model during a portrait shoot
• Flashing highlight display to highlight over exposed areas
• Grid overlay display for accurate alignment of studio shots. The size and color of the grid is user definable
• Color management and sharpening options for more accurate display of preview images
• Auto bracketing of up to 15 shots ideal for HDR images, interior shots and product photography
• Timed bulb exposures controlled from the PC – ideal for astronomy (Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, EOS-1D Mark III, EOS 5D Mark II, EOS 40D, EOS 50D, EOS 500D/Rebel T1i, EOS 450D/Rebel XSi and EOS 1000D/Rebel XS only)
• Focus point overlay display for more precise control of auto focus
• Automatic screen blank option – blanks the screen before taking a photo so that the light from the PC display doesn’t affect the subject lighting
• Fullscreen mode for large, uncluttered display of images
• Automatic edit option – automatically loads the image after downloading into the editor or program of your choice
• Automatically stores a short comment in the shooting data of images for easy identification e.g. the person’s name when taking id photos. The comment can also be used for the image filename to make it easier to identify images when taking product shots, school portraits etc.
• Automatically stores IPTC data in images as they are downloaded
• Time-Lapse feature which allows the number of photos in a sequence and the interval between shots to be specified.

Stack it and Bracket

Typically if you want an exposure bracket for HDR images you are limited to the camera’s 3 shot bracket. While three shots is often sufficient, there are times you really want to use more images, with DSLR Remote Pro you can do bracket sequences using either shutter speed or aperture of up to 15 shots. Using tools like PhotoMatix, you can get really incredible results when using larger groups of images.

Another interesting thing you can do with multiple images is called focus stacking. With Focus Stacking you take a series of images of the same object with the focus positioned at different points. When you combine the images you can achieve a super sharp image with a longer depth of field. Photoshop CS4 now has this ability and there are some free tools that can do the processing as well. To use Focus Stacking you actually need a script that will automate some of the steps in DSLR Remote Pro. If you are interested in this functionality, read more about it at http://www.breezesys.com/DSLRRemotePro/focus_stacking.htm.

Live and in Color!

With the newer Canon cameras that support Live View, a whole realm of possibilities is opened up to you since you can display full-screen Live View with a live histogram. The Live View mode also allows you to zoom into the frame at 100% magnification to ensure that your focus is dead on. This is exceptionally useful when doing macro, product, or food photography.

What’s really unique is the ability to do autofocus while in Live View mode. Hitting Ctrl-F will perform a contrast detection routine that may be a little slow but is usually quite good. This however will not work well with moving objects.

Another interesting feature is Onion Skinning. Onion Skinning is a term that is used in animation to be able to see an overlay of the previous image in order to draw a smooth animation. With DSLR Remote Pro in Live View mode you can load in another image or the previous image in order to get precise alignment. This is good for stop motion animation or to accurately align images for panoramas.

Step into my booth

One thing you really wouldn’t expect from a program like this is the Photo Booth mode since there are a handful of companies that make specific photobooth software. With DSLR Remote Pro you can setup a nice photobooth station, even build a whole booth around it, and offer prints right after a series of images are taken. This can be a fun option to offer your clients at different events.

Integrating with Lightroom

Since Adobe Photoshop Lightroom doesn’t have direct tethering ability at this time, the next best thing is to use DSLR Remote Pro and Lightroom together. Lightroom has a feature that allows it to watch a folder and import any files that it sees show up in the folder. This allows you to take full advantage of all of DSLR Remote Pro’s features while having the images go into Lightroom automatically.

Summary

If you want to take tethered shooting to the next level than DSLR Remote Pro is probably worth looking into. The only real downside is that you are limited to the length of cable between the camera and the computer. For $95 you pick up a ton of functionality that the free EOS Utility doesn’t have. For my own studio shooting, I rely heavily on DSLR Remote Pro and as it continues to evolve it just keeps getting better and better.

Breeze Systems Website: http://www.breezesys.com

Goodbye Dust Bunnies

There are three things that I keep handy in order to keep my lenses clean. A good microfiber cloth, a Giottos Rocket Blower, and a LensPen. I do not use any cleaning process that uses chemicals since even the best will leave some residue. Preferably I don’t want to touch the glass at all so the first step is going to be to use the Rocket Blower to get as much off the glass as possible. If something isn’t coming off easily I turn to the brush side of the Lenspen. If the issue is something different like fingerprints (my personal biggest issue) then the best way to clean that is with the felt tip of the Lenspen. The carbon dust will clean and polish the lens to perfection.

The following video will walk through my cleaning process that I go through before any shoot.

Equipment Used

• Giottos Rocket Blaster Air Blower
• Microfiber cloth
• LensPEN Lens Cleaning System

Kerry’s Equipment List

• Think Tank Airport International 2.0
• VANGUARD PAMPAS 57 Backpack
• Canon EOS 50D 15.1MP Digital SLR Camera
• Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 IF EX DG HSM AF Standard Zoom Lens
• Tamron AF 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 SP Di II LD Aspherical (IF) Lens
• Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM Ultra Wide Angle Zoom Lens
• Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens
• Lensbaby The Composer for Canon EF mount Digital SLR Cameras
• PhotoVision 24″ Digital Calibration Target
• Westcott 6 In 1 Reflector Kit 30
• Giottos Rocket Blaster Air Blower
• LensPEN Lens Cleaning System
• SensorKlear Loupe and SensorKlear II Combo
• BLACKRAPID RS-1 Camera Sling Strap
• LumiQuest FX, Five Filter Gel Set with Holder
• Lumiquest Promax System
• WhiBal White Balance Reference Card
• ColorRight Neutral White Balance Filter
• ExpoDisc Digital White Balance Filter, 77mm
• Polaris Digital Flash Meter
• HonlPhoto Speed Strap for Shoe Mount Flashes
• HonlPhoto 8″ Snoot
• Honlphoto Gel Kit 2
• HonlPhoto Speed Gobo Flag / Barndoor / Bounce Card
• HonlPhoto 1/4″ Speed Grid
• Canon CP-E4 Compact Battery Pack
• Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Lens
• Think Tank Pixel Pocket Rocket
• Wolverine ESP 80 GB
• Canon Speedlite 580EX II Flash
• SanDisk 16 GB Extreme III CompactFlash Card
• Lensbaby Macro Kit

During this tutorial Kerry shows how to use a light meter to determine the difference between the background and the subject to achieve a good high-key look as well as using the meter to determine the proper exposure.

With the Canon EOS 50D that I am using now life has become MUCH easier with the Live View mode and the ability to zoom into the image and just nail the focus. In this video, I demonstrate exactly how this process works.

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• Understanding Exposure with the Exposure Triangle
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In this video Kerry demonstrates using a simple light meter in a product shoot.

How to use a light meter from Kerry Garrison on Vimeo.

Related Articles:

• Using a Light Meter for Proper Exposure
• Podcast #53 – Using a Light Meter

How to get the lighting we want

By now we would hope you wouldn’t be asking how to get your lighting setup dialed in, but if you need a little refresher you should start off with the following articles:

• Lighting ratios for portraits
• Using a Light Meter for Proper Exposure
• Understanding Light Stops

For the rest of the article, different images will also be presented with lighting diagrams to help illustrate exactly how each look was obtained.

Broad Lighting

Broad lighting is certainly the easiest lighting style to use since the camera side of the face is lit brighter than the far side of the face. This look is easily obtained by simply bouncing your flash off a wall or reflector to the side of the camera back onto the subject. Broad lighting used to be taught as the “feminine lighting” but that is certainly not always the case.  Broad lighting will tend to make a face look wider which is not always a look that is the most flattering. With the right subject, broad lighting can certainly achieve very nice results.

With the subject facing to the camera right and a large light source to the camera left a broad light effect is created putting the side of the face furthest from the camera into shadow. With the tilt of her head it gave her face a more rounded appearance.

Short Lighting

Short lighting is considered by many to be the most flattering style and is certainly my personal favorite. Short lighting will tend to make a face look thinner. Short lighting is also harder to achieve because it virtually requires off-camera lighting since the light is coming from behind the subject.

With the shadow on the camera side of the face, the face looks thinner. Keep in mind, the examples so far have been achieved on the same location spot using only natural light and simply moving the subject and camera position to get the desired look.

Split Lighting

Split lighting is not very popular and is probably the least used of the different lighting styles. In split lighting the light is split down the middle of the subject’s face dividing it in half. The lighting setup is fairly simple with two lights on either side of the subject and one using less power than the other. I personally really like the split lighting effect to give someone some images that will have a different look than they are likely to get from other photographers.

As you can see, split lighting can be very effective and with just a slight turn of the head can look like a mix of split lighting and short lighting,

Summary

I hope this has given you a new set of tools to use to improve your portrait lighting techniques, done properly you can achieve a very classic, timeless look that your clients will love. The key to mastering any of these is to practice, practice, practice. Get some lights setup for one style, maybe get a model from a place like Model Mayhem, and work on each style until you really have it nailed down. Next time we will look at Rembrandt and Butterfly lighting.

Stop, Drop, and Roll

We we are talking about lighting ratios, we first need to understand a few key concepts. The first being what we mean when we refer to stops of light. For an in-depth article on this, please refer back to our article on Understanding Light Stops. To put it briefly, a stop is not a measurement of light output, it is the relative difference between two light values. If we double the output of a light source, we have increased our light by 1 stop, if we cut our light in half, we have decreased our light by one stop. This is an exponential increase or decrease since we have to again double, or half our output to change by a whole stop. For example, if we take the light output from a single light bulb, it will then take two light bulbs to increase by 1 stop. To increase by another stop we would then need four light bulbs, then eight, etc.

We we are setting up for doing portraits using light ratios, we typically want to have one side of the face lit properly and then the opposite side dropped by 2 or even more stops. Why do we want to purposely add shadows, because flat lighting (1:1 ratio) is actually unflattering. Using shadows will add depth, dimension, and realism to you portraits.

Be yee subtle or be yee dramatic – that is the question

Working with shadows can give you very dramatic differences in the mood of an image from being soft and feminine to being very hard and more masculine. While that is typically the case, there are excellent examples even when reversing the gender roles. One of my favorite recent images is of Haley and uses some very dramatic lighting and yet because the transition areas between shadows and highlights are fairly soft, the feminine nature of the image is retained.

By making the transitions between the shadows and the highlights harsher, you can change the mood. In the following two images, the models were light with pretty hard side lighting  with high ratios in order to achieve a more rough look that would really make all of the details on their bodies stand out more.

Notice in both images the shadow side of the image is almost completely dark and featureless adding to the dramatic feel of the images.

Sculpting with light

In this final section we are going to look at how we can actually appear to change the shape of someone’s face with the use of light and shadows. In the first image, Taylor is light with a 1:1 ratio which appears to make her face seem flatter and really shows her cheek and chin structure. In the second image we throw shadows into the cheek and chin which give her a different look altogether.

With the 1:1 ratio broad lighting, Taylor’s face looks more featureless and wider. With a 2:1 ratio short lighting setup her nose has more detail and her face looks thinner and taller.

Summary

Based on the recent poll here on Camera Dojo we know that many of you are struggling with lighting and we hope that this, and future articles on lighting will help take your images to a whole new level.

That Cheatin’ Histogram

Let’s look at what happens when we take a picture with our DSLRs. The exposure meter in the camera is using reflective light instead of incident light so a man’s tux will show a different meter reading than a bride’s dress even if the exposure for both of them was correct since the white dress will reflect more light than the tux, thus throwing the exposure meter out of whack. Secondly, when we press the shutter the camera creates a JPEG image with all of your picture settings and an S-Curve applied. Yes, this happens even if you are shooting in RAW mode since the display on the LCD is actually the JPEG image which is also the image the camera uses to calculate the histogram. I can’t count the times that my exposure meter was dead center, the preview looked great, and the histogram was good but when I brought up the RAW image in Lightroom, the image wasn’t quite exposed as well as I expected. Anyone who shoots a lot can attest to this issue. Yes, your LCD and histogram are usually accurate enough, but if you want to be accurate all the time then you need a reading from the point of few of the subject by measuring the actual amount of light hitting the subject and not the amount of light reflected by the subject.

What does a light meter tell you?

I asked a handful of photographers who had never used a light meter what they thought a light meter would tell them and surprisingly few actually knew even the basic functions of all light meters did with “Measure the light I guess” being the top answer. Even the most basic of light meters will allow you to set the ISO speed you want to use, then you set the shutter speed or aperture to what you want to use and the meter will give you the correct settings for a proper exposure. More fancy ones can also fire your flash equipment and some will even calculate the amount of flash versus ambient light.

Let’s say we have a nice bright sunny day and we set our ISO to 200, and our aperture to f/16, if we take a reading we will probably get something like 1/200th of a second as our shutter speed for a good exposure. With most digital light meters you can then make adjustments to the shutter or aperture and it will change the values on the screen to tell you what to change the other setting to.

If you aren’t familiar with the relationship between ISO, Shutter Speed, and Aperture, you should read the article we have about it (Link: The Exposure Triangle).

Testing the theory

Ok, I am sure many of you are skeptical that your camera, even a high end pro-series camera isn’t going to be dead-nuts accurate, but let’s take a few tests and see what our camera is telling us.

The following is a series of images of a product that has a black front and a light top, not something a camera’s meter is going to be good at so it will help illustrate the point well. Simply adjusting the camera’s settings to center the camera’s exposure meter at ISO 200, f/5.6 the camera gave us a setting of 1/400th shutter speed. Shooting the gray side of a WhiBal card it changed to 1/400th of a second, and shooting the gray/white/black side we got a setting of 1/640th of a second. By doing this test we can see that the camera’s exposure meter is going to change based on how reflective the subject is. In each image you can also see Photoshop’s histogram to see where the image’s exposure actually came in at.

Image 1 – ISO 200 f/5.6 1/400th – Slightly Underexposed (Based on WhiBal Gray)

Image 2 – ISO 200 f/5.6 1/640th – Underexposed (based on WhiBal White/Black/Gray)

Image 3 – ISO 200 f/5.6 1/200th – Showing good exposure (based on light meter)

Now some people may say that a perfect exposure should be centered in the histogram, however, digital sensors retain more detail in the highlights than they do in the shadows so you actually want your highlights to be fairly far to the right without going into the last little bit of the histogram which is exactly what we got with the final image.

But how does the meter know what the background is?

One of the most commonly asked questions is how does the meter know what the background of the subject is, since that should affect the exposure right? Well, let’s just try some experiments and see what we get. The following images were taken using the exposure settings provided by the light meter which were identical for both images, take a close look at the histogram for each image.

ISO 400 f/4.0 1/125th – Properly Exposed yet histogram says its underexposed

ISO 400 f/4.0 1/125th – Properly Exposed yet histogram says its overexposed

Of course the white paper is providing some bounce light that is providing more details around the edges and since I only metered for the center of center of the phone. So yes, the background can affect the exposure because you may not be metering for any reflected light, although this is typically only a problem with a situation like this. If I wanted to expose for the edges, then I could have metered at the edges. Does this mean the background affected the exposure? Yes, but only because the background in this situation actually is acting as a light source that is reflecting light into the edges around the product.

Will a light meter work properly in every situation?

So far we have looked at using a light meter for incident lighting, where this can break down is with highly reflective surfaces or in situation where the lighting is uneven, in this case a reflective meter is going to be more accurate. Most all light meters can do both types by adjusting or moving the light sensor dome. In reflective mode, the meter is going to act just like the meter on the camera.

Like anything else, a light meter is just another tool that is designed for a specific purpose. Used properly, it can dramatically improve your exposures and you camera setup time. The following image was taken in bright daylight with a large diffuser to the camera right and a large beauty dish flash to camera left. Combined with the ambient light, that is three different light values. With the light meter getting a reading taken at the subjects face, and the meter facing the camera, the settings provided were certainly dead on.

Model: Taylor Thorne

Ok, I want one, what do I do?

Light meters, especially used ones can be had for pretty reasonable prices. I see meters like the Sekonic L-358, which is a pretty nice meter with lots of functionality, often sell for $150-$200 on Craigslist. Cheaper models with less features, but still fully capable can be had for as little as $50-$60.

Model: Taylor Thorne

• Canon EOS 500D (EOS Rebel T1i)
• Epson R-D1x
• Hasselblad CF-22
• Hasselblad CF-22MS
• Hasselblad CF-39
• Hasselblad CF-39MS
• Hasselblad CFH-22
• Hasselblad CFH-39
• Hasselblad CFV
• Hasselblad 503CWD
• Hasselblad H2D-22
• Hasselblad H2D-39
• Hasselblad H3D-22
• Hasselblad H3D-31
• Hasselblad H3D-39
• Hasselblad H3DII-22
• Hasselblad H3DII-31
• Hasselblad H3DII-39
• Hasselblad H3DII-39MS
• Hasselblad H3DII-50
• Kodak EasyShare Z980
• Nikon D5000
• Olympus E-450
• Olympus E-620
• Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1
• Sigma DP2

To download Camera Raw 5.4, go to http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Camera_Raw_5.4.

What exactly is this colorspace stuff anyway? Basically its the amount of color that is contained in the file when you save it. The three most common colorspaces are Adobe RGB, sRGB, and ProPhoto RGB.  As my friend Rick Miller puts it, you can relate gamut to containers of beer. With sRGB being a 12oz can of beer, Adobe RGB would be a pony keg, and ProPhoto RGB being a full kegger.

The image shown here (courtesy of Cpesacreta) shows the relative sizes of the different colorspaces.

The difficulty here is knowing when to use which colorspace. Who would take a 12 ouncer when they can have a whole keg right? You would think, but the problem is that not all devices can actually display the larger colorspace  which can cause even more problems when it comes to viewing the images, add to that the lack of color management in most applications (like web browsers) and you will often get dull or washed out colors when viewing the images.

Wait a second, huh? If you use a colorspace that allows MORE colors, than why would the images look WORSE when viewing them? The answer that since almost no devices can actually display Adobe RGB, you wind up with an intepretation of the image causing it to look dull.

Effects of Color Space

Does all of this really make a difference? Let’s take a look at some images that were shot in RAW (thus no colorspace recorded on capture) and then saved as both Adobe RGB and sRGB using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

Adobe RGB

sRGB

Adobe RGB

sRGB

Adobe RGB

sRGB

Adobe RGB

sRGB

In all of these cases, the images saved as sRGB should appear more vibrant in Internet Explorer and Firefox since they are not color managed applications. Apple’s Safari browser is supposed to properly display Adobe RGB files and Firefox is supposed to have color management in upcoming versions. However, until everyone is using a browser you should avoid Adobe RGB in order to provide the best images to the widest audience.

What about ProPhoto?

ProPhoto offers the widest gamut of the available common color spaces so should have a place somewhere right? Well yes it does. The best use of the ProPhoto is to use it within your workflow to preserve the largest amount of color in your images and then only do a final conversion to sRGB when saving your images as jpegs.  This is quite easy with Photoshop and Camera Raw while Lightroom uses ProPhoto RGB internally (Geek Note: Actually, Lightroom uses Melissa RGB which uses ProPhoto RGB chromatisity values working in linear gamma, named after Melissa Gaul, one of the Lightroom engineers).

Should you shoot in Adobe RGB or sRGB?

This is another tough question that different people will answer differently. The simple answer is niether. Shoot in RAW and convert to the colorspace you want during your workflow process. If you want to shoot in JPEG then you have to make the choice. The best thing to do is actually experiment with your equipment and software to determine what gives you the best results. Some people think you should shoot in Adobe RGB and then convert to sRGB if the file is for the internet, while others think you should shoot in sRGB so no conversion or translation is applied, thus you should get more accurate color representation.

In the end, you have to make up you own mind as to what works best for you, but you do need to be aware of the differences and some of the issues you can run into based on your choice.

Author: Kerry Garrison

References used in this article

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/sRGB-AdobeRGB1998.htm
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/adobe-rgb.htm
http://www.steves-digicams.com/techcorner/October_2006.html
http://www.smugmug.com/help/srgb-versus-adobe-rgb-1998

DSLR Sensor

What are you really cleaning?

There are two components that we will look at cleaning, the first being the focusing screen mirror. If you remove your lens and look into your camera with a lens off, you will see a small mirror.  Dust typically doesn’t stick to this surface very much, so a few quick blasts of air from something like a Rocket Blower should keep the mirror in relatively clean and clear.  This mirror, however, only affects what you see through your viewfinder and not what the sensor sees.

The second component is the “sensor”.  To get to the sensor you have to put your camera into sensor cleaning mode which moves the mirror out of the way, letting you get to the sensor plate. It is important to note that we are never actually touching the sensor itself.  The sensor sits behind a thin sheet of glass and it is this glass that we will be cleaning.  Knowing that you are actually going to be cleaning a piece of glass, and not the actual sensor itself, will hopefully make some of you feel a little better about this process.

And for those of you who take your camera bodies to Canon and get a free cleaning whenever you want (like we do), be aware that the days of free cleanings are about over.  Manufacturers are soon going to be discontinuing this free service, from what we have been told.

Lenspen SensorKlear II CCD Sensor Cleaner and SensorKlear Loupe

Tools of the trade

There are many things you can stick into your camera body to wipe down the sensor, but the goal of this article is to show you how to do it right.  There are many, many products available on the market to clean sensors in DSLRs today.  And quite frankly, many of them just don’t make sense.  Recently, we were at PMA in Las Vegas and we saw the myriad of cleaning products and solutions available for this job.  It is both overwhelming and confusing.  Then, we came across a product and a solution that just made perfect sense.  It’s called the Lenspen SensorKlear II CCD Sensor Cleaner and the SensorKlear Loupe.  These two items, together with a blower ball like the Giottos Rocket Blower or the Lenspen Hurricane Blower, make perfect sense as a solution to the problem.

Blowing out the camera

What are we getting into here?

The inside of the camera body is a dark and tight space.  To know what you are getting into, the the SensorKlear loupe is what you use to look into the camera to see if there is any dust that needs to be cleaned off the sensor.  This device is specially engineered to light the interior of the camera body and sensor surface, magnify the view to the eye and allow easy side access to get to the sensor.

There are also two kinds of dust that we will encounter.  Dry dust and sticky dust. Dry dust will make up about 95% of the dust particles you will encounter which is good news since they are easily removed with a blower ball.  A few quick blasts on the mirror, then putting the camera into sensor cleaning mode and then a few quick blasts onto the sensor is usually all you need for the majority of the dust you will encounter.  This should always be your first step when cleaning your camera’s sensor, and many times will be more than enough to solve your problems.  Once you complete this step, either check your sensor with a SensorKlear Loupe or put a lens back on, turn on manual focus and shoot a photo of a white background.  Check to see if there are any spots on your image.

Any dust that remains on our sensor and refuses to budge with just a simple blast of air is known as “sticky dust”.  This dust may be sticky from humidity or it is static charged and wants to just hang on the sensor.  There are several ways to get the sticky dust off and dozens of companies that are ready to sell you all manner of cleaning supplies to solve this problem.  In the worst case, it is possible that a spec might not be so easy to remove.  There are brushes that may work, or sometimes they just end up moving the dust around.  The other products offered are chemicals that will often leave a residue on the sensor glass (and yes, they ALL leave a visible residue… some just less than others).  Depending on the environment, some dust could even have some oil on it and the best you can do with brushes is to move it around and never get it to come off.  That’s when a chemical process and swab may (worst case scenario) have to be used to get that stubborn piece of dust off.

Lenspen SensorKlear

But outside of the worst cases (which RARELY occour), a simple blow, look and swipe should handle all your needs.  This is where the two piece solution of the Lenspen SensorKlear II CCD Sensor Cleaner and the SensorKlear Loupe make the perfect combination.  Let’s get into detail about these two pieces.

The SensorKlear Loupe is an electronically lighted eyepiece that sits over the body where the lens normally sits.  With it’s multiple LED lights, it gives you a wonderful, lighted view of your sensor that is magnified many times.  With this, you can see every spec of dust and debris on your sensor’s surface.  This is the only way we know of today to effectively see what needs to be cleaned.  You simply tell your camera to pup up the mirror for sensor cleaning, remove the lens and lay the camera on its back.  Then, you put the SensorKlear over the body opening and turn on the light.

The Lenspen SensorKlear II CCD Sensor Cleaner is a pen-like device with a hinge in the middle.  It has a capped cleaner surface at one end.  This cleaner surface is a specially designed chamois surface that is shaped like a rounded triangle to allow you to get into the corner of the sensor area and reach any surface.  Unlike brushes that can simply move things around, this pen can wipe just the area where the dust sits and pick it right up.  If the dust is sticky, it will usually pick it up too, or in some cases, it will move it around and turn it from sticky to dry dust, which can just be blown out of the camera.  Either way, there is no form of dust it cannot seem to handle.

Using the SensorKlear Loupe and SensorKlear II CCD Sensor Cleaner

So, the next step is to remove any debris we see.  We are assuming at this point that you have blown out the camera.  With the SensorKlear over the opening, there is a side access opening.  You simple bend the CCD sensor cleaning pen at a slight angle and reach in through this side access opening, watching the whole time throuh the eyepiece.  You make a small wipe or blot of the area where the dust is and it is immediately picked up and swept away.

We know that this sounds like a product plug; and truthfully, it truly is.  This is the first series of products that have actually made us feel comfortable cleaning our own camera sensors.  And that is saying a lot.  As a matter of fact, we heard rumors that Canon service techs themselves use these products for the work that they do on customer’s cameras.  I guess that makes sense to us too.  After all, its the best solution we have seen.

SensorKlear and Lenspen CCD Pen

Lenspen Website: http://lenspen.com

Authors

Maurice Naragon
Digital Creations
Website Development and Marketing
Professional Photography in Orange County, CA

Kerry Garrison
Orange County Wedding Photographer

Canon DSLR Hot Shoe

During a wedding shoot one day I noticed that my flash was only firing occasionally. After the initial panic, I quickly figured out that if I held the flash with a little counter-clockwise tension, then the flash worked fine. At the first break, I tried my backup camera and it was doing the same thing. When I got home, I checked it against my daughter’s 20D and it worked fine, and it also seemed that the hot shoe on my cameras was loose compared to hers.Another symptom of this is that the flash will switch from E-TTL mode into TTL mode and the exposure will usually be very overexposed.

After some research on the net, I discovered that this is not an uncommon problem for cameras that get heavy use. Typically, a quick trip to a service center will fix it, but the actual fix is quite simple and you can help ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

What you will need

Protective Plate

The tools needed to make this repair are quite simple, although small. What you will need is a very small flat screwdriver and a VERY small Phillips head screwdriver. A typical cheap set of jeweler’s or eyeglass screwdrivers should do the trick quite nicely.

To make the fix more permanent, you may want to get some mild Loctite or other thread adhesive. I would not use the heavy duty stuff as that is only needed under heavy vibrations and someday, someone may actually need to take your camera apart for service so the more mild version should work perfectly.

You will also want a good clean work area, preferably with a towel underneath everything, if you drop one of the damned-near-microscopic screws you will be in a world of hurt trying to find it in the carpet.

Getting Started

Hot Shoe Removed

I don’t know if this is the same for Nikon or other brands, but I would assume its not too different, if you run into this issue on other cameras, its worth a try before sending it to service.

When you are looking down into the hotshoe, you will not see any screws, they are covered by a removable plate that slides off. This plate is a good thing to have there as on one of my cameras several of the screws were completely backed out and would have been lost if that plate hadn’t been in place.

There is certainly a technique to popping the plate off which is a bit hard to explain but simple once you get the hang of it. The way I do it is to slide the flat screwdriver under the plate coming from the rear of the camera towards the front. You want to be gentle here and not bend the plate, it will come off with very little pressure. With the screwdriver under the plate, the goal is to lift the back of the plate (side closest to the front of the camera) so that a little lip on it clears the bottom section. With a little pressure on the screwdriver to life the backend, and a little pressure on the plate with a finger it should slip out of place slightly. A little wiggling should allow you to pull it the rest of the way out.

Screws Holding Hot Shoe

At this point you will have access to the four small screws that hold the hot shoe connector in place. if you just want to tighten them up, go ahead and do so and skip to the section of reassembling the protective plate. If you want to use a little thread lock, then continue reading.

The cleanest way I have found to remove all four screws without dropping them is to loosen them all up all the way and then place a magnet (I stole one off the fridge). This will allow you to lift the hot shoe connector and all four screws at once. I then clean up the connector and the camera to remove any dust or debris that is there and put the connector back on the camera. If you are using some thread lock, you just need the smallest dot of liquid on the threads, you can do a quick dunk if you have small enough fingers or apply a little to the threads with a toothpick. Put the screws back in and tighten them up.

Putting the plate back on

Plate Rear Hooks

Oh sure, you popped off the protective plate like a pro, did a solid to your camera with a little Loctite, so putting this little piece of spring-steel back into place should be child’s play right? Its actually pretty easy to screw this part up and end up wondering for an hour what the heck you did wrong. Take special note of the picture here showiing how the plate goes back in with the little hoops going DOWN towards the camera. Those little hoops slide into two slots on either side so you have to make sure they are lined up when you push the plate into place and the rear lip slids into place. If you don’t have those two hoops in the right position, removing the plate again to reseat will be an excersize in frustration.

Trust me on this one, I am speaking from experience here. Once the plate is back in place properly, you are all finished and ready to go. If you are using some thread lock, be sure and give it a little time to dry before attaching the flash and torquing the screws, you might end up loosening them before they get glued into place which would really not be a good situation to be in.

At least you now have one thing you can fix if it becomes an issue for you.

Author: Kerry Garrison

It all adds up

If the visual references isn’t quite enough, then another way to think about it is to think of a perfect exposure as the combination of the right proportion of ingredients made up of ISO, Shutter Speed, and Aperture setting. If a perfect exposure = 9, and you have equal parts of Shutter, ISO, and Aperture, then you have a good mix (3+3+3 = 9). If you need to adjust one of the ingredients, then you have to adjust one of the others to come up with the same final number (2+4+3=9), subract from one, you have to add to another to make up the difference. If you have too much of one, without substracting from another, you end up with an overexposed image. Conversly, if you take away from one but don’t add another, you end up with an underexposed image.

The Sunny 16 Example

In a previous article we looked at the sunny 16 rule, this states that on a bright sunny day, a perfect exposure should be f/16, ISO 200, 1/200th of a second. (ISO and shutter are the reciprocal of each other). If we wanted a shallower depth of field and wanted a larger aperture like f/2.8, then since f/2.8 is 5 stops brighter than f/16, we would then need to compensate with either a lower ISO or a faster shutter. Increasing the shutter is the easiest in this example then we need 5 stops of shutter giving us a speed of 1/6400th of a second.

Low Light Adjustments

In low light we have the opposite issue, trying to get enough light into the camera. We only go so slow before we run into blurring issues with slow shutter speeds, and the aperture limit is going to be based on the lens we are using. If we still don’t have a bright enough exposure then we have to compensate by increasing the ISO speed.

Bringing it all together

While each setting can have an effect on the overall image quality, the sum of the three effect the overall exposure. For a refresher on the other settings, be sure and go back through these previous articles:

• Beginner’s Guide to Aperture
• Controlling Exposure
• The Sunny 16 Rule in Photography
• Capturing movement with shutter speed
• Understanding Depth of Field

Author: Kerry Garrison

“Hey Guys,

I got a question for ya. Sorry the answer to this might already be on your site somewhere but I’d just thought I would msg you instead. I was wondering if you had any suggestions for photography books either having to do w/ business or the technical side of things. I’ve read Professional Wedding Photography by damien lovegrove and am in the process of reading understanding exposure bryan peterson. I have fast track photography on order..

Maybe one to do w/ posing??? Its weird I study photography all day long everyday.. but when it comes down to being w/ the couple it’s like I forget everything I ever learned and freeze. Then i want to slap myself because I could have done this or this shot but was having a brief moment of anxiety. I suppose posing and things will come with practice and the more I do it but I really thought I would have the hang of it by now. Any suggestions? ”

Yes Heather, David and I both have a list of suggestions for you.

David’s Picks

• Jerry Ghionis’ Pic Pockets $80
  These are small reference cards that show a specific scene, then on the back it goes into detail as to how the shot was taken.
  https://www.theicesociety.com/?page=72
• Bambi Cantrell’s Cue Cards $100
  These are stacks of cards demonstrating different poses and ideas to give you recommendations for setups.
  http://cantrellportrait.com/extra/online_store.php
• John Mireles Look Book $75
  More like a paint swatch sampler, the look book contains a wide variety of common poses to help you from getting into a rut or just for inspiration if you need some.
  http://photographerstoolkit.com/lookbook

Kerry’s Picks

• Photographing People – Rotovision $26.00
  Excellent book on posing and lighting setups and each shot includes a 3D drawing showing exactly how the set was designed with the placement of lighting, subject, reflectors, camera, etc.
  Photographing People: Portraits, Fashion, Glamour
• Posing for Portrait Photography: A Head-to-Toe Guide by Jeff Smith – $21
  This is  great book that goes through the correct placement of each section of the body from head to toe with plenty of example images to help make the point.
  Posing for Portrait Photography
• Professional Portrait Posing: Techniques and Images from Master Photographers by Michelle Perkins $23.72
  This book goes through the particular styles of a handful of professional photographers to show their distinct styles for posing and lighting subjects.
  Professional Portrait Posing: Techniques and Images
• The Moment it Clicks – Joe McNally $39.59
  Joe is a master of lighting and this book, while designed as a book on lighting, uses almost exclusively human subjects so it also is an excellent book for posing.
  The Moment it Clicks

What is a RAW image?

By RAW, I mean an image that is shot with your camera image quality set to RAW mode which stores the actual sensor data for the scene that was shot. This is different than a JPEG image that is a rendered image of the RAW data that has different effects applied to it by the camera such as sharpening, saturation, and contrast. A good quality JPEG image can look incredibly good and can be printed at large sizes and will look great. A RAW image will need some form of software program to convert the RAW data to something usable. The most popular programs for this today are Lightroom, Photoshop, Aperture, Capture One (Nikon), and Digital Photo Professional (Canon).

Is there a technical difference?

Anyone that tries to tell you there is no difference in image quality between a RAW image and a JPEG is simply mistaken or ill-informed. From a purely technical perspective, a RAW image will always give you a better image. A RAW image simply has more data, for each pixel there is at least twice as much data on older cameras like my 30D and as much as eight times as much data with newer cameras that have more bit depth. This means that a RAW image has the ability to have a greater tonal range than a JPEG. A RAW image will also then have greater latitude than a JPEG image, giving you the ability to process the image to recover shadows and highlights more than you can if you started with the JPEG. Since white balance settings are applied when an image is saved as a JPEG, shooting in RAW will allow you to adjust the white balance during post processing without sacrificing any image data.

This is not an opinion, it is a pure technical fact. So let’s accept that this is true and that RAW has a distinct technical advantage over a JPEG saved from the camera. I don’t think we need to debate that RAW has an inherent technical advantage and I think some people get caught up in this. I think the real issue is whether or not you need the advantages of RAW versus the negative reasons for using RAW that we will look at later.

Getting down with the downside of RAW

The big debate over RAW vs JPEG is whether or not the pros outweigh the cons so let’s look at the cons and see what the downside of using RAW images is:

• Increased file size
  This is probably the biggest issue there is. RAW images are considerably larger files than their corresponding JPEG images. With my 30D, a RAW file will typically be around 5mb while a fine quality JPEG will be around 1.5mb. As the megapixel count goes up, the files get downright huge with RAW images from a new Canon 5D MkII being around 22mb each. If you are shooting lots of images, at a wedding for example, then the larger size of RAW files will be a significant hit. Since the files are larger, they will require more horsepower from your computer to process. For the same number of images, you will need more flash card storage.
• Specialized software needed to process
  If you can call Photoshop, Lightroom, or Aperture specialized software, then yes, you will need something like this or use the software that came with your camera. If you use something other than these programs then you may have issues dealing with RAW files. For a brand new camera, you may have to wait for updated versions of these programs before they can recognize your files. This also means that if your camera is discontinued in the future, there is no guarantee that your camera’s format will always be supported (this is a good reason to use DNG files, but that’s for another article).
• RAW workflow is different than a JPEG workflow
  Is it? If you are already using Aperture, Lightroom, or Adobe Bridge for processing JPEG’s, then there is little to no change in your workflow. Two years ago, before tools like Lightroom and Aperture, working with RAW images was such a pain that RAW was said to mean “really awful workflow”. Since many of us are using Lightroom and Aperture now, there is little to no changes at all for working with RAW files other than they take longer per image to download off a CF card.
• RAW images in third party tools don’t look as good as the JPEGs
  This has been a real serious problem for a while as only the camera manufacturers really have the secret sauce for decoding their RAW images properly. Adobe has pretty much solved this issue with Lightroom 2.2 and the inclusion of camera profiles that setup the RAW processor to match the settings used to create the JPEG images in your camera.

Again, we are looking at facts here and not opinions, but it is important to understand that there is a downside to using RAW files even if I personally feel that the negatives are typically blown a bit out of proportion with the exception of the increased file size which can be a really significant issue for heavy shooters.

The non-destructive workflow

One of the biggest advantages of shooting RAW is that it inherently provides you today with a non-destructive workflow. What it means is that there is no image degradation between saves and any given step in the editing process can be removed. If we are using any of the three most popular tools today (Photoshop, Aperture, or Lightroom) then when we edit a JPEG, and make our changes, those changes are permenant, and because we just re-saved our image as a JPEG some compression has occured, every time we do this we lose some image quality. Sure you can make multiple copies along the way so you can go back to previous versions, but that negates the whole point of JPEG’s saving disk space. I personally work in Lightroom and I can take my RAW images and apply as many edits to them as I want but these changes are simply stored as a set of instructions to Lightroom, thus the original image is never modified. This also allows me to make virtual copies of an image so I can have a color, B&W, Sepia, or dozens of different versions of an image and take up only a trivial amount of disk space since it is only storing the steps to make the changes and isnt storing a new copy of the image itself and again, no matter what I do, there is no image quality lost at all during the post-production process.

Is anyone still using JPEG these days?

If nobody was shooting JPEG anymore than I wouldn’t have so many questions about it but are any real professionals shooting JPEG and the answer is yes.

Carlos Baez is a wedding photographer from Florida, this is someone who makes his living delivering top quality images to high paying clients and yet Carlos shoots JPEG because he can consistently deliver great images without the extra overhead of RAW files. Carlos is an expert at lighting and understanding exposure so he doesn’t rely on post processing to get his images right.

Ken Rockwell is a huge advocate for shooting in JPEG mostly because a lot of people use it as an excuse to not get the image right in camera. Although he has an article about this (http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/raw.htm). I have posted a link to his article because he does make a few valid points but I think he does go over the top a little on some of the negatives while I do agree that many people use RAW without either knowing why or using it to correct their mistakes from not knowing how to use their camera properly.

Pros against JPEG

It’s only fair that I point out a few pros who have made the switch to RAW and some of their reasons for doing so.

Scarlett Lillian from Florida has been shooting RAW since she started shooting weddings but then tried going to JPEF to save disk and CF card space. After really giving it a try, she finally switched back to RAW because she felt she just wasn’t getting the color and skin tones from the JPEG files that she was when she was using RAW. She uses Photoshop with Bridge as her workflow tool.

David Ziser is, without a doubt, one of the biggest names in wedding photography and recent convert to the RAW side. David’s big switch came when he started using Lightroom for his workflow and then discovered that the images he was getting with Lightroom and RAW files simply gave him a better image than starting with JPEG. David details his experience in a post on his site, although he also make a case for use JPEG for less critical shots that will never be printed at larger than 5×7. Anything destined for the album or enlargements he suggests shooting in RAW and the filler shots can safely be shot in JPEG to conserve space.

Rick Miller who is a Senior Solutions Engineer at Adobe does a segment when he is demoing Lightroom where he shows a picture of his girlfriends dog that is a white curly haired dog. Rick took a picture of the dog that when the rest of the scene is properly exposed, the dog is overexposed. Saved as a JPEG, the details in the dogs fur are completely lost and unrecoverable. The same image shot in RAW is able to use tools like recovery and exposure control to regain all of the detail in the dog’s fur. This demonstrates how even a shot that is technically correct for the rest of the scene may still suffer from being shot in JPEG.

RAW or JPEG – Which is for you?

Since I am far more likely to forget to change my camera from JPEG back to RAW when I need to, I simply leave it on RAW and take the disk space penalty. With a large wedding costing me around 10-12gb of space, it isn’t that big of an issue. If I upgrade this year to a 50D or 5D MkII and I move to having 30-40gb of space per wedding, I may have to rethink this strategy. What I like about shooting RAW for weddings is that in the thick of things, if you do make a small error in exposure or white balance, it is far easier to correct it afterwards. I don’t use this as a crunch, but it is a safety net.

To decide If you should stick with JPEG all you need to do is to take a close look at your images and compare them with what you can get from a product like Lightroom and then decide if your images are good enough or if any improvements that you get from using the RAW image are noticeable and worthwhile.

What do some other photographers say?

Mark Teskey “RAW only. Shooting JPEG is like working without backing up files or a second body/flash. There’s no safety net with JPEG.”

JE Images “RAW all the way. if I need to tweak anything then I have full access to all the info..”

Denise Clay “[I shoot] RAW – I used the best film I could that matched the job in film days, why not do the same now with the best digital file?”

MrsBoesch “I shoot JPG. It takes up less space on my hard drive, and I am of the opinion that you should try to “get it right” the 1st time”

So what are you to make of this?

There is certainly a case to be made that higher quality final images can be made from using RAW files and that shooting in RAW provides a technical safety net (even if you dont need it because you are wicked good). The main issues of working with RAW for me are the non-destructive workflow and the ability to have multiple virtual copies of an image without eating up more disk space. I do believe that almost all of the main complaints about RAW have been more than satisfied with current software leaving the issue of disk space and storage being the only real issue, albeit a signifigant issue for some people.

In the end, the only thing that matters is that you are happy with the images that you are delivering and if you are shooting for clients, that they are happy with the images you are delivering. If you are shooting in JPEG and are happy with your images and you see no compelling reason to switch, then don’t. If someone like Carlos Baez can shoot a wedding in JPEG and he makes a LOT more per wedding than I do, I am not going to tell him he is wrong for shooting in JPEG. On the flip side, if you are shooting in RAW and the disk space is killing you and you are good enough that your images require basically no tweaks for color, white balance, exposure, fill light, highlight recovery, or saturation, then you may be a good candidate for shooting in JPEG. It all comes down to a personal choice. There is no right or wrong answer to this debate, its just a question of what works for you in order for you to deliver the best quality images to your clients.

Author: Kerry Garrison

Have you ever imported some RAW files and when you first open the image in Lightroom the image is vibrant and looks great and then all of a sudden the image switches to something that is less sharp and the colors are all bland? If you have seen this phenomenon, what you are seeing initially is the embedded JPEG image being displayed first and then the on-screen image changes to the RAW sensor data image. The reason why there is a difference is that the JPEG images have had your camera settings applied to them before being saved. With Canon camera, this is usually Standard, Faithful, Landscape , Neutral, and Portrait. Other camera brands have similar types of basic settings. Many people complained that the JPEG image was often very nice and it took a lot of work to get your RAW images to look as good as the JPEG image.

To solve this, Lightroom needed to have a way to understand what the cameras where doing to the images. Initially, you could use the camera calibration controls to dial in some default settings, but this was really inaccurate and rather a pain to use. Shortly after Lightroom 2.0 came out, Adobe came out with the first beta versions of the camera profiles. These profiles were actually based on the characteristics of the different cameras and can be used to very quickly get your image looking better right from the beginning.

Sometimes the effect is more subtle

For some people who still shoot JPEG instead of RAW, one of the complaints about RAW is that it takes longer to process RAW images to get them look good. Lightroom 2.2 with camera profiles solves this problem quite nicely. You can easily create a camera profile preset (or download ours here) and use them as an import preset so that it is applied to every image as you are importing them. Applying the Standard profile during import will get the vast majority of your images looking almost identical to what you would get from saving the image as a JPEG.

Beta Profiles

If you have installed the beta profiles, you can go ahead and remove them using the following instructions specific to your operating system.

Go to the following folder (based on your operation system) and delete anything with the word “Beta” in it’s title. Then restart Lightroom and all should be good in the world again.

Mac: /Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/CameraProfiles
(note: the Library folder for Macintosh HD, not your user account)

Windows 2000 / XP: C:Documents and SettingsAll UsersApplication DataAdobeCameraRawCameraProfiles

Windows Vista: C:ProgramDataAdobeCameraRawCameraProfiles

Video Demo

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.0 Camera Calibration from Kerry Garrison on Vimeo.

Author: Kerry Garrison