5 Useful Tips to Focus in Night Photography

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5 Useful Tips to Focus in Night Photography

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With the arrival of summer it is also the perfect time to start doing some night shots. Like many landscape photographers I also love night photography and some time ago I wrote this guide about how to plan and shot the Milky Way

While shoting for the stars usually we are completely in the dark and is not always easy to find the correct focus point, so I decided to write this guide to give you som tips for focus in night photography

Manual Focus

During the night and without any light point the manual focus is one of the most efficient way to focus in the night. To achieve it simply move the manual focus ring until the infinity symbol. When using manual focus we have to consider that the exactly focus point can vary from the symbol of infinity from lens to lens.

So knowing your instrumentation is the key to the success of a manual focus. Write down or try to memorize then which is the optimal focus towards infinity on your lens so that you can easily recognize it in the dark

Live View + Zoom

This is also a recommended function during the day, it is about using the live view zoom to set the manual focus correctly. Just zoom in on a bright spot, such as the moon or the stars if we are shooting for the milky way and set the manual focus easily through the live view

Many mirrorless cameras have focus peaking as part of some live view systems, that shows you regions in the frame where the highest contrast exists by highlighting them in a bright color. Focus peaking consist to put focus very fast without any risk to wrong

Pre-focus during the day

This easy trick consist to focus your camera at a infinity subject during the day using autofocus. Then, switch the camera to manual focus and use a piece of gaffer tape to keep the focus on the lens from moving

Consider that using pre-focus which will be limited to the focus we set with light, so for every change of the subject it need to change method and focus

Target light points

Consists simply of focusing on a light source, if the moon is present in the sky it is surely the best point of focus to choose, instead if there is no moon you may be able to do it using a shining star

It is not always so easy to find light sources that can help us to use this function, in any cases can be very usefull light up the area with a lamp or laser pointers to illuminate the area, this may allow you to focus and set the desired shot

Hyperfocal focusing

Distance is defined when the lens is focused at infinity, where objects from half of this distance to infinity will be in focus for the lens. Instead, the hyperfocal distance may refer to the closest distance that a lens can be focused for a given aperture while objects at a distance (infinity) will remain sharp

Many lenses have hyperfocal markings on the lens barrel. This funcion allows you to set your lens so that, at a given aperture, you can determine at what distance objects in the frame will be in focus. So, without even looking at the viewfinder, you can set your focus

Here was the tip to focusing the dark, as you can see many relays to manual focus or with some experience in the field. And what about you? I’d like to know what methods you use to focus at night, let me know in the comments



7 Composition guidelines for Better Landscape Photography

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Composition is the main key in photography. Light, location and post processing are always really important but without a good composition, the image will never be a very good shot

On the web there are so many articles on this thread, often are called rules but since is not needed to apply them all together it would be better to talk about guidelines

For this reason I want to talk about 7 composition guidelines in landscape photography, that I often use during my shots, I hope it will be helpfull for you

 

1. Rule of Third

The rule of third is the most know rule of composition in every kind of photography. This is also the first rule learned by beginners photographers since it helps very much to create interesting balanced shots

The rule of thirds relies on the famous “grid” that sets it apart: imagining it during the shooting phase or displaying it from the live view screen of the camera

With this grid, the rule of thirds identifies four important parts of the image that you should consider for placing points of interest while composing your image

The rule of third also gives you four “lines” that represents the best locations for elements in your shot. Positioning points of interest in the intersections or along the lines your picture becomes more balanced and will allow an image observer to interact with it in a more natural way

It’s also possible to use just 1 or 2 spots moving along the lines created by them in order to form different point of interest on a side as opposed at the other element

 

2. Leading Lines

The leading lines are one of the most important tool in composition. They allow to virtually always follow with the eye a line between the key element of the picture. Through the leading lines it is possible to control the viewer’s eye through the frame

Leading lines are all around us in cities and in nature. You only need to find and arrange them in your shot so that they lead towards the key element of the frame

Once you find the leading lines is compose the photo using the perspective to enhance your composition: Some examples of leading lines are: rivers, waves, sand dunes, roads, rocks etc…

 

3. Framing

Framing in photography consist in creating a visual picture frame within your image to draw attention to the main subject

In landscape photography the frame is natural, like trees, branches, rocks or leafs. In architecture are usually used window, arches, doors

Framing images helps very much to give attention to key elements. Many times, frames are easy to find in other cases creativity is needed but the prominence of the subject is guarantee

Finding frames while shooting is sort of like being on a really creative scavenger hunt. You’re constantly looking for new ways to frame your subject or finding creative tools to incorporate

 

4. Add Foreground Elements

Adding foreground or use foreground elements to fill the composition is one of my favourite rules of landscape photography composition. The use of the foreground helps very much to fill the space between the main subject and the rest of the image, it gives imediately a sense of depth

To add a foreground elements it depends of what you are photographing and on your own creativity, in most cases just to take a look of what you have around and add it at the bottom of the shot

Sometimes is enough lower the camera angle view by including a good part of the foreground towards the main background element

Whe you use this composition rule remember that is helpful if it adds to the impact of the image but it should not be distracting, which is why it is important to balance the use of the foreground in favor of the key elements

 

5. From Light to Dark

Light is one of the key factors that captures the most attention. When I wrote my article about 10 Tips To Improve Your Landscape Photos I was talking about shooting in the direction of light; this is because the sun will add a wonderful point of energy in your image, it will change and enhance the entire balance of light in your picture

Playing with light and creating transition areas between warm and cold or bright and darks is what drives the viewer towards the main subject

 

6. Viewpoint

Today on the web we often see images very similar to each other, strongly influenced by social media and by the desire of photographers to emulate some top shots found on socials

All this is normal and also understandable, we live in the age of social networks and we are constantly influenced by beautiful locations images

When you take a shot try to change your angle view, it helps a lot to create new interesting compositions. This gives the possibility to create a more personal content

All this changes in viewpoint can add a deeper meaning or feeling to your image, doing it is not always easy but a scouting of the location always gives interesting and different points of views

 

7. Mind the Corners

This is not a compositional rule, but more a warning. When we take a shot we need to ask if every element in the frame is necessary and it help the composition of the image

About this keep attention to not to leave elements in the corners that could distract the viewer’s attention. The presence of some spots or distracting elements may easily grab attention out. It is easily removable zoomin or moving the tripod or removing it in post processing

How to Dodge and Burn using Luminosity Masks

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Dodge and Burn is a very used technique in photoshop, it allows you to emphasize some of the main elements a image focusing on some points of it. Dodge and burn is mainly use to guide the viewer’s eye to the leading lines. Some time ago I wrote an article about this technique called Dodge and Burn 2 non destructive techniques compared where I talked about how to create the effect without any risk to make any damage to your image

Among the methods illustrated to create dodge and burn there  is the use of a 50% gray  layer and to use separate layers, both are efficient methods but they apply globally to the image. The risk is to apply the effect where is not needed, for this reason the application of luminosity masks into the dodge and burn layer is the key

In the video below I explain how to dodge and burn using luminosity masks. If you do not know how to create luminosity masks I invite you to download my free panel where you can create luminosity masks and launch some very useful effects including dodge and burn

I hope you find all this useful. I always love to ear this from you!

 

Colours Enhancements using TTS PRO

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In this new video we will see how to use the colours adjustments buttons using TTS PRO panel. 

The colour correction is composed by Auto Correct – Colour Adjust – LAB Colour and Autumn Colour and in the finishing page we can find a Black and White conversion

Auto Correct will automatically correct your colour cast with one click, it usually make a good job but for every variations and how to use it without TTS PRO please read this article

Colour Adjust is a black and white based level to change the color cast of the picture moving the sliders of the colours, it’s an easy and great instrument to brighten and darken the image without affecting other colours.

LAB Colour is a great instrument to enhance all the colour of your picture, it gives a nice boost of vivid colours without overdo it. You can find my LAB Colour Tutorial here

Autumn Colour is the color effect that converts all the greens into red foliage autumn feel

Black and White creates a high contrasted black and white conversion of your image, it’s always possible to adjust it by clicking the window on the layer thumbnail and moving the slider to brighten od darken the picture

Enjoy the video

Light Bleeding and Glow Applications using TTS PRO

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In this new video tutorial we will see how to use the glow buttons using TTS PRO panel. 
We can take advantage of the two effects in various ways including that to lighten and give a touch of brightness, give more strength and a magical look to the lights, add vignettes, or add more heat to your photos using light bleeding technique. With the TTS PRO panel you can launch all this very quickly and speed up your workflow as well as having many other effects and very useful applications for image blending

If you are not yet a TTS PRO user you can create a new layer change the blending mode to soft light and you’re done, you can adjust the opacity later and follow the video with some of the applications you can do with this combination

Enjoy the video

How to Plan and Shot the Milky Way

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Astrophotography  is a fascinating world, finding yourself under a magnificent starry sky is an experience that everyone likes, it is always fascinating for me to photograph the night sky and enjoy stars photography

Years ago photographing the stars at night was something that perhaps few people would have the lucky to do, but today with modern DSRL and technologies, astrophotography has become more easy

In this article, I am going to show how to plan and shot the milky way, what you have to know to do it, what you need for and how can do it!

WHEN TO GO

Milky way is clearly visible during the summer months, before you go always search on internet that milky way will be visible in your area

WEATHER

Essential condition for photographing the milky way is a cloudless sky, more clouds will make it more difficult to see the stars, so always check the weather before you go to shoot

MOON  PHASE

Another milky way enemy is the moon, always consider the moon phases of the rise and the sunset to avoid having a bright ball to ruin the show in the sky. The best time to go is during the new moon or with low moon visibility rates. To check the best moment to go you can check on the web but there are many apps to do that, I use PhotoPhills

WHERE TO FIND A DARK SKY

In astrophotography is very important to find a good location to photograph a starry sky with some composition element of course to composite a landscape. You have to get away from the big cities and light sources as much as possible, which is the main element of disturb for good visibility of the milky way. Fortunately it’s easy to find apps and tools to do this. Before go give a look on light pollution map  it will to help to find good locations or confirm that the place you chose is good to shoot the night sky

COMPOSING THE SHOT

the best thing would be going to the dark location before night, with sunlight you can better understand the location and think about how to take the picture once night comes. There are many apps that allows you to find the milky way once darks begin. Some of this are Google Earth, Stellarium, Photopills, Google Sky Map and Sky View. If instead you go to the place when it is already dark, if you have found a good location with dark sky you can see it with a naked eye

GEAR YOU NEED:

 

A Good Camera

A good camera that is capable of working with high ISO is an indispensable requirement to capture the milky way. As nikonist I know the fabulous performance of the D810A, but there are many other here great mirror-less options available these days, even cheaper, solutions on the market that guarantee excellent low light performances

Tripod

It is not possible to do a long exposure without a tripod, so this is an indispensable requirement for photographing the milky way. For a landscape photographer investing on the good and sturdy stand is very important

Lens

To capture the milky way you need to have a wide angle lens, the reason for this is that the milky way is very large in the sky and if you want to have a good frame need to include a composite element below, the wider will be your lens more is better. Another important element is the aperture value, a good aperture lens will capture more light this allows to  play with ISO and get great results, I personally use the nikon 14-24 f2.8 that I use in most of my landscapes

Remote Shutter

I’t highly recommended to have one with you. During a milky way/night shot you, you may need to shot for 25-40 seconds exposures. Normally you can do it with self timer but over 30 sec camera switch to bulb mode, to avoid staying the whole time with your finger pressed on the button with an almost always moving result a remote shutter will not let you shoot without interacting with the camera keys, risking having a blurred picture. Also, if you like to shot startrails  is a key requirement

CAMERA SETTINGS:

 

Focus

During the night, auto focusing in the dark is very difficult , so it is necessary to use the manual focus (which I generally recommend for every landscape photo)
You can focus manually in the dark with great results adjusting the lens, setting it to the infinite symbol and then moving it slightly to the right, shot a trial shoot  and zoom on it,  you will be able to see if it’s all in focus correctly

Shutter Speed

Talking about exposure time may be lower or higher depending on the lens you use or the ISO that you set. In most cases, good results are obtained with 25-30 seconds, but many photographers rely on the 500/600 rule that displays exposure times of the the milky way before stars that make it passes from point to trails (you can find the app for this rule the name is dark skies). I personally think it useful but with good DSL with high ISO sensitivity you can quietly use values much lower than those that are reported in these two rules.

Aperture

For this type of photography, the camera’s aperture value must be the lowest f/value added. This will allow the camera to receive as much light as possible without raising ISO too much,  more this value of your lens is as low and cleaner will be the final result

Iso

This is a decisive value and linked to the previous point. Usually I get best results in an ISO range ranging from 3200 to 6400 before noise starts destroying the image. With particularly bright lenses you can keep this value low gaining photo cleanliness, so it is to balance the shutter and ISO aperture value to find the best compromise

I’ve talked about the composition before, always try to photograph the milky way below some compositional element to have a good overall landscape.

CONCLUSIONS

Once photographed, the post-processing stage is what allows you enhance the visibility of the milky way. In my opinion, this kind of photo requires initial work on Camera Raw before starting to work with Photoshop so you need to take it in this format to get the best results

How to process the milky way depends on your personal taste, if you prefer something more natural or something that increases more colors and details.

This might be the subject of my next tutorial, let me know what you think in the comments!

I hope you enjoy and you find this tutorial usefull, I’m always happy to ear it from you!

3 Different Ways to Create Beautiful Orton Effect

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Giuseppe Sapori - Frostbite Touch

The Orton Effect is a glow effect added to photographs in post-production. I’ts largely used in landscape to create a dreamy effect. The Orton Effect found applications also in portrait photography and it is used to create a surreal impact. For this reason it is very used by photographer during editing

The Orton effect consisted of superimposing two or more images of the same scene with very different exposure characteristics on a slide. Of these, one is perfectly focused while the others are blurry

Being a widespread effect in photography I noticed that it is also full of tutorials about how to make it, but it seems that everyone does this in a different way from the others and there is no standard way to accomplish it

That is why I did my guide within the orton effect to make it three different typologies that I usually use:

 

FIRST METHOD (MORE DARKS)

1. Duplicate your background layer by holding Ctrl+J, or CMD+J on a Mac.

2. With this new layer selected, go to Image>Apply Image. Make sure your settings are the same as the settings in the image below

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3. Next change the Blend Mode of the top layer to Multiply. This will darken the image

4. Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. While looking at the image, change the Radius until you have the

effect you are looking for, then press Ok

Schermata 2017-06-13 alle 21.49.47

 

SECOND METHOD (MORE BRIGHTS)

1. Duplicate twice your background layer by holding Ctrl+J, or CMD+J on a Mac

2. With the first layer, go to Image>Apply Image. Make sure your settings are the same as the settings in the image below, repeat it twice

Schermata 2017-06-13 alle 21.52.35

3. Now go to the layer on top and Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. While looking at the image, change the Radius until you have the effect you are looking for, then press Ok

4. Merge all layers and set Screen as blending mode

 

THIRD METHOD (MORE DETAILS)

1. Duplicate twice your background layer by holding Ctrl+J, or CMD+J on a Mac

2. Deselect the layer on top than with the second go to Go to Blur>Gaussian Blur set it between 20/25

3. Go to Image>Adjustments to increase brightness and contrast, then decrease the opacity to 10%

 

Schermata 2017-06-13 alle 22.03.39

4. Now make visible the layer on top,  go to Filters>Others>High Pass and put radius as your personal taste

5. Group all layers

4 Methods to Correct Color Cast in Photoshop

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In this tutorial we will see how to correct color cast fastly and very effectively, I selected 4 methods among most used for final results.

some of these techniques are more rapid other more longer,  below you will find all this methods starting from the easiest to the most longer. This is because not all the techniques work in the same way with different images, there are some of this that may be work great with some pictures but they could not do the same with others, that’s why below there are 4 methods to correct color cast in Photoshop, so that you can use them in every situation

 

THE 4 METHODS

1) The first method is very simple to use, go to Image>Auto Color this automatically correct your color cast neutralizing the main color cast

2) The second method is by using match color, go to Image>Adjustments>Match Color and select Neutralize this restore the color cast and it does a better job than Auto Color

3) Next one is to use Adobe Camera Raw, go to Filters>Adobe Camera Raw, now change the white balance from As shot to Auto to have a auto correct of color cast, if you don’t like it, you can move the temperature slider below to customize colors

4) The last method to correct color cast in Photoshop is to use the white point, select threshold adjustment layer and move the slider to find the brights. Now select the color sampler tool and put it on the white point. Now go to levels adjustment layer and select the white eyedropper tool, click on the white point selected and photoshop will auto correct color relying on the white point selected.

These was the 4 methods to correct color casts in photosh, below you will find the video tutorial, enjoy!

 

WATCH THE VIDEO

How to Sharpen and Resize Photos for Web

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After each photo editing a very important step is the final one: saving for web. This is a very important passage to upload photos for web and social networks in a small format. Below the passages to create a final sharpen and resize photos for web.

Take the photo already finished to save it for web, first thing let’s resize it.

Go to Image>Duplicate this will create a copy of the photo in a new window, then go to

Image>Image size and change the resolution in 72 Dpi. The width/height width will change automatically, once that’s done change below in Bicubic Smoother (enlargement).

schermata-2016-11-16-alle-23-02-45

Once resized, let’s continue with the sharpening . In the new window duplicate layer, rename it “Sharpen and Resize” and go to Filters>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask. Set a smaller radius (0.5) and higher strength (100/120), you can change theese values as your personal taste but usually theese values works the best.

schermata-2016-11-16-alle-23-04-14

Once sharpening applied we need to resize again the image, this time as the final width/height desired, go again to Image>Image size and change the width or height (it depends if you have a orizontal or vertical photo) for the final size of the photo, for web I usually set it on 1000px on the long size.

schermata-2016-11-16-alle-23-04-41

The final step to sharpen and resize photos for web it to save the photo. Go to File>Save As and set the your desired final quality. And that’s it. Just choose a name you want and save it 🙂

If you know other techniques to sharpen and resize your photos, comment below this post and let me know it, I love hear it from you!

WATCH THE VIDEO

10 Tips To Improve Your Landscape Photos

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I Have always been a lover of  Landscape photography. A suggestive spot, natural locations or a beautiful sunset over the sea for me have always been something unique, a moment to stuck. In my experience I have made ​​many mistakes during my shots over that places, but I’ve also learned from them what are the main warnings to keep in mind when need to photograph a landscape. So in this article I will  share with you 10 Tips To Improve Your Landscape Photos, hope you will find them usefull:

Plan for your shots

If you plan well your photos, you’re already a step piece. This means to know the shooting place and location features.  In  Landscape Photography we need to know so many factors such as the position of the sun, weather conditions, moon phases and moon sunset for the milky way.

There are so many apps that allow you to know the conditions of  your shooting location. I usually use Photo Emeries, Photo Phills and Golden Lite, they are all good for the direction of the sun, or times for the golden/blue hour, or even where you will locate the milky way in the sky

Giuseppe Sapori - Moonwalk

Arrive Early to get the best position

It seems a small thing but it isn’t, get there early helps you find the best position before other photographers, you will also have all the time to understand where it will comes the sunrise or sunset and calculate the shot. For example when I was in Oia Santorini, many people wanted to take the famous sunset, the best spot was invaded by many tourists and photographers.

I arrived at my spot at least 4 hours before sunset (it’s too much I know, but in my case it was really necessary) finding the spot I chosen, during this long time I set the camera, I cleaned my lenses, I set the shot while I made an aperitive with beer and chips while waiting. By the time all the others  photographers and tourists crowded behind me in bizarre positions 🙂

Giuseppe Sapori - Oia Sunset 2

Clean your lenses

If you arrive early to your location you will also have time to give a clean the lens you decide to use. The best solution is to use specific products for lens cleaning but if you don’t have something of this try to clean them using cleenex.  Avoid absolutely to breathe on the lenses and to give him a clear brief with the shirt 🙂 breath is not suitable to clean and shirt can drop pesky lint that attach to the lens

Always use tripod

In one word “essential”, to get the freedom to shoot with manual focus, with long exposure times and with bracket shots. Depending on the light and the type of photo it may not be necessary but photographing landscapes at dusk  is a prerequisite

IMG_4898-min

Don’t move tripod

In landscape photography tripod always it assumes a fundamental role, but personally I think it also aids in shooting creativity. Once I have chosen a good position I hardly move my tripod, this because it allows me to be able to catch and shoot the various moments of light alternate with the passage of time. This means choosing the best light, the best color or just have the choice to do it.

For example in the pictures I took in the new district of Milan Porta Nuova I stayed for about two hours withoud moving my tripod capturing everything I needed even if far apart them in a time frame. At home with Photoshop I merged all the layers I needed to put it all together in one frame: light trails, city lights and sky with the colors of the first sunset. Moving tripod or changing the direction of the camera this would have been impossible

Giuseppe Sapori - Faster ride

Manually focus

The auto focus is definitely more practical, but to improve it and sharpen your images nothing is better as manual focus, expecially in cases where there is low light manual focus is the best choice.

If you want to be sure to don’t mistake with the manual focus I can suggest a little trick: Set the live view and enlarge the picture on the part to focus on, turn the focus ring until the image is perfectly in focus and then returns to classic view in this way it will be easy and fast do it

Bracket your exposures

It ‘a personal taste choice, some photographers prefer to work with single RAW but personally I bracket all the time because it allows me to capture the entire dynamic range in a picture and to work more freely. Have a series of shots allows great control on the result final, all this is not always possible with the individual RAW exposure

With foreground is better

Many photos of landscapes made by the greatest photographers are characterized by this element, in fact, never underestimate the potential of the foreground which serves to capture the attention of potential frame viewers. For example when we are capturing a mountain, or a sunset in the background have an interesting foreground to insert make the image much more complete and interesting, helping to broaden the overall vision. It can make the difference

Giuseppe Sapori - The last light

Shoot looking into the sun

Shooting into the sun will completely transform your images. Sun will add a wonderful point of light into the frame, it will change and enhance the entire balance of light in your picture. Don’t worry if the image may be too overexposed in some places, taking with brackets shot you can bring back the light where you need to create a more dynamic and natural look

Giuseppe Sapori - Coastal Sunset

Focus stack

This last point of 10 Tips To Improve Your Landscape Photos can be connected with point number 8 “with foregound is better”. When I spoke about foreground, it can happen that the image is not perfectly sharp between the foreground and background. For this reason, using the focus stacks  is important to have a perfectly focused image in all its parts without sacrificing a full-frame elements. I talked about the stack depth focus in this article.

Giuseppe Sapori - The Heaven Mirror

these are my 10 Tips To Improve Your Landscape Photos. if you were to tell me your what you put it? Your point of view is important, write me in the section below

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Hi, my name is Giuseppe Sapori, a professional photographer and author of this website, created by yours truly to show my work and share with you the techniques I use. My expertise is in the field of Landscape Photography... (Read More)

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