I could have just as easily titled this, “How To Be A Good Photo Workshop Participant” but it didn’t sound sensational enough to me.  Gotta have a headline that jumps out and snags people, right?

So my post/rant about photo workshop leaders gave me another idea.  Now that you all have some ideas of what to look for in a photography workshop instructor I thought I’d tell you what I, as a workshop leader, like to see in those brave souls who sign up for one of my workshops.  I’ll bet if you polled other workshop leaders you’d hear a similar wish list.

First and foremost, I love, love, love workshop participants who want to have fun.  News flash: nature photography is fun.  Why make it anything but that?  I promise you will learn a lot of stuff about photography while we’re together but we’ll also have tons of fun.  I cut jokes, I make fun of myself and I’ve been known to get down on all fours and howl like a coyote because I was asked to do so by a client.  Wait a minute, that didn’t sound right.  Let’s just move on.  All I’m saying is arrive for the workshop with a good attitude and be prepared to have a good time.  I’ve only ever had to fire one client and that’s because he was a complete ass.  He bitched and moaned about everything and never once did I see the guy smile, even when the sun came up and the whole canyon lit up like it was on fire.  After a half day with him I gave him his money back and told him to get lost.  Sorry, but if a killer sunrise doesn’t make you happy I feel so very sorry for you.

After an earnest desire to have fun, the next most important attribute is a longing to learn, to accept constructive criticism and an open mind to take in stride whatever may come.  I can’t control the weather.  Only Todd Caudle has the power to will clouds into place at just the right time.  That’s why they call him “The Cloud Man”.  I am more like “Blue Sky Man”.  Some times I’m “Rain and Overcast Man”.  Regardless of the weather you can still find value in a workshop if you are willing to set aside your ego and expectations for a couple days.  Show your work and ask for critique.  Not just from the workshop instructor but from everyone in the class.  It’s a tremendously valuable exercise for photographers to critique the work of others and to have their own images critiqued.  Even in the worst of weather we can still huddle at a coffee shop and talk about camera settings, hyperfocal focusing, finding your creative vision, how to use the light you’re given and whether dark or milk is the better chocolate (dark is, by the way).

So you’re willing to have fun and you checked you’re super eager to learn.  What else?  Come prepared!  Write down a list of questions that have nagged you and bring the list with you.  Realize that there are no stupid questions except the ones you don’t ask.  If you’re not comfortable asking in the group environment flag down your workshop instructor and ask them in private.  You’re at the workshop to learn and if you spend a little time preparing for the event you’ll get even more out of it.  As a side note, a good question to ask before you even pack your bags is what kind of weather to expect and what kind of gear to bring with you.  You can have the most awesome attitude on the planet but if it’s 20 degrees and all you brought was a windbreaker it’s going to be awfully difficult to have a good time!

As part of “come prepared” I’ll add a few things that may seem obvious but you’d be surprised how often they crop up.  Bring extra batteries and extra memory cards.  Bring your battery charger.  Bring a laptop and, if you use one, an external hard drive to back up your images.  Don’t forget your camera manual.  I shoot Canon and I don’t know the first thing about Nikon cameras.  I’d love to help you figure out why your camera isn’t doing what it’s supposed to do but I probably won’t figure it out without your manual handy.  Most importantly, don’t forget your camera.  Go ahead and laugh but this actually happened once.  Luckily, I had an extra camera to loan out!

Communicate your goals to the instructor.  We should ask at the beginning of the workshop what you’d like to get out of it.  If we don’t, feel free to volunteer the information.  It’s a huge help to know that you’re struggling with composing intimate landscapes or that you just can’t figure out what the difference is between f/4 and f/22.  Seriously, this is good stuff and it will help any workshop instructor worth his or her salt to get you over the hurdles you’re facing.  When you return home after the workshop and realize that you forgot to ask an important question, send the instructor an email or call him up.  Chances are he or she will be more than willing to help you out.

Last, but not least, be realistic about the experience.  Workshops come in all shapes and sizes.  There are one day seminars and multi-day, full-immersion workshops, and everything in between.  Even the most intensive workshops can’t possibly teach you everything you will ever need to know about nature photography.  If such a monster did exist I can assure you I would have already taken it!  Pick up as much as you can and enjoy the experience.  You’ll be back at work in no time, showing off your photos to co-workers and wishing you were somewhere looking out at a gorgeous landscape with several new friends by your side.

Did I leave out anything?  If you’ve got a thought to share I encourage you to leave a comment.  We’re all friendly around here!

I received a really good and quite timely question about soft proofing earlier this week.  I’m in the process of searching for a new printmaker and soft-proofing is a critical step when you’re working remotely with a lab, especially when your prints will be delivered directly to a client without you ever actually laying eyes on them.  I queried the experts and received not one but three awesome answers from Nat Coalson, Guy Tal and Andy Biggs.  All three of these guys offer killer workshops, some of which include comprehensive digital darkroom and printing components.  Thanks for the great Q & A, dudes!

The Question:

I have a question to submit, one that I haven’t found a straightforward answer to online, despite a lot of looking. It regards soft proofing, in my case using downloaded profiles from print labs before ordering prints online. I’m using CS4.

I understand how to use Proof setup>Custom, I even feel like I understand rendering intents pretty well, but I don’t quite understand how to proceed once I’ve activated the proof setup and my image begins to look dull. What is the workflow from here? I assume the next step is editing the image until it looks more acceptable. Any tricks or advice for this stage? And how should the resulting image be saved once it is ready (taking into account that many mail-order labs specify sRGB files)? How do “Assign Profile” and “Convert to Profile” figure in here?

The Experts Respond:

First, Nat Coalson said - Even with a perfectly calibrated display and great profiles your monitor will ever perfectly match any print. The reason is simple: your display is transmissive (emits light) and a print is reflective (reflects light). On your display, pure black is the absence of any light being emitted. On a print, pure black still reflects some light.

In other words, the black on your monitor will ALWAYS be “blacker” and deeper than what you see on a print. At the other end of the scale, the whites will ALWAYS look brighter on the monitor than on a print.

All that being said, you CAN and SHOULD expect to be able to get accurate, predictable color. Especially if you’re willing to soft proof and make adjustments for each print.  This requires training your eye to correlate what you see on the display to how it will look on the print.

In Photoshop, start with your photo in whatever color space it happens to use (and always make sure to Embed profiles when saving).

Make sure you’re using the following settings for your proofing setup (note this is for photographic printing, not prepress proofing):

Choose View > Proof Setup > Custom

In the proof setup dialog box:

• Proof Conditions: choose the profile for your printer/paper combination
• Preserve numbers: NEVER ENABLED
• Rendering Intent: try both Relative and Perceptual (see next section)
• Black Point Compensation: ALWAYS ENABLED
• Display Options (On-Screen): BOTH should be checked – simulate paper color and simulate black ink.

These last settings for “simulating” the printed output is one of the most crucial parts to successful soft-proofing. It’s also one of the hardest parts to master. These buttons are what Jeff Schewe has referred to as the “make my image look like sh*t buttons”. But you’ve gotta use them. I’ll explain more about this in a minute.

Once you’ve got the settings just like this, make sure to save your preset. I would save one using relative and one using perceptual.

Here’s how do the actual soft-proofing and adjustments:

First, with your master working image open, choose Image > Duplicate; using Merged Layers is fine. We’re making a copy of your print file to use as a temporary reference. We’re going to keep the reference visible while we soft proof and make adjustments to the master file.

Now, with two windows open showing the same image, place them side by side or top and bottom, depending on the orientation. You can do this with the commands under Window > Arrange, or just drag the windows into place. You just need to be able to see your photo in both windows. Also, keep track of which is your original master image that will be printed, and which is your reference. I’d recommend arranging your windows in the same way every time to avoid confusion.

Click the window to make sure you’re in the original, master document and enable soft proofing for your desired proof condition. You will notice immediately that it looks different (and worse) than your reference.

VERY IMPORTANT: Don’t enable soft proofing on the reference window!!

Now, with soft proofing enabled, make adjustment layers in your master print file to try to get it to look as close as possible to the reference image. During this process, you can try both the relative and perceptual versions to see which one you like better for each image.  But remember, like explained above, your soft proof and your reference will NEVER look exactly alike if you’re doing this correctly.

What you will see is that the reference file looks bright, vivid, and beautiful – just like your master file did before you enabled soft proofing.  Your master file now looks dull, lifeless and flat. And depending on your paper and profile, some may look worse than others. For example, if you are printing to a photo paper, it will look closer to the reference than if you’re proofing for a canvas (which will look totally washed out!)

Here’s the part about training your eye and understanding the situation. What you see in the Photoshop soft proof really IS closer to your print than the reference version, because Photoshop is simulating the black ink and paper white as described by your profile.  Which again, will never be exactly like that of the print.

(Sorry it took a while to get to the simple answer

You will need to add adjustment layers to get the soft proof to match the reference as closely as possible. I usually end up with a curve layer to open up shadow detail and brighten the image overall, plus a Hue & Saturation layer with Saturation set at somewhere between +5 for photo paper and +20 for canvas.

When you’re done, group the adjustment layers together and name them for your proof condition.  You don’t need to save the reference file.

To save files for the print vendor or service bureau: After doing all your adjustments and flattening the file you can use Convert to Profile to change the file to a specified color space, such as sRGB, etc. (If you’ve been embedding profiles when you save files, “Assign color space” doesn’t have any use in the workflow.) Or, if the lab specifies it, you can convert to the same printer/paper profile and rendering intent you used for the soft proof. In any case, when you save the file, make sure to embed the profile.

With some practice, I promise that you can get to where you can tell from your soft proof what the printed image will look like. And you will find that what looks like dull, washed out blacks on your display actually comes out as rich, deep blacks on your print. Over time your eye and brain will begin to tie the two results together and doing soft proofing with adjustments will give you just what you expect.

Nat provided some screen shots to give you a visual on his technique.

Next, Guy Tal said - Nat already covered the workflow so I’ll just add a couple of things on a technique I teach at my workshop:

Rather than trying different rendering intents in case one just happens to fit, I always use Relative Colorimetric. In this mode, all in-gamut colors are preserved and I only have to worry about re-mapping the out-of-gamut colors, which I prefer to do manually (Perceptual, on the other hand, remaps all colors to fit into the target space, which usually requires more work to restore the right look later).

In order to reign in those out-of-gamut colors, I turn on Gamut Warnings which will highlight them in grey. I find the most useful control for bringing colors into a small color space is Saturation, so I add a Hue/Saturation layer, and drag the slider left (de-saturate) until the grey warnings are gone. Of course I reduced overall saturation so the image looks pretty dull at this step.

Now comes the fun part:

Click on the Hue/Saturation layer mask, and fill it with black. This essentially eliminates its effect so color is back to normal and the grey areas are back.  While the mask is still selected, use a soft white brush at 50% opacity to paint over the grey areas and watch them magically disappear.

Voila! You only corrected those colors that don’t exist in the target space.  Everything else is just as vibrant as it was in your master file, and it only took one layer.

Finally, Andy Biggs chimed in - I do exactly what Guy does. It is quick and easy, and usually doesn’t need to be done very often. Keep in mind that soft proofing for me usually shows the deficiencies in the media type than anything else. In other words, matte papers do have a reduced gamut from a luster paper, and I usually do small tweaks to make my image look good for that specific media. For example, I may create a new layer in Photoshop to adjust the overall, not local, contrast of the image.

Update: I received an email from Melanie at West Coast Imaging with a link to another fantastic article about soft-proofing.  Thanks, Melanie!

Update – Feb. 3, 2011: Rich Seiling over at West Coast Imaging wrote an excellent blog post titled “The Myth of the Screen to Print Match“.  While not specifically related to soft-proofing, this post will help you understand why it is unlikely you’ll ever get a perfect match between what you see on your computer monitor and what comes out of your printer.  Nothin’ like setting expectations to eliminate disappointments, right?   

Got something to add?  Don’t be shy.  Leave a comment!

I recently had a discussion with a couple other photographers that got me thinking.  Yeah, I know – it’s scary when I start thinking.  It gives me a headache which is why I try not to do it all that often.  At any rate, the gist of our conversation can be summed up with one question, “What makes a great photography workshop instructor?”.  Ponder on that for a moment before reading further.

PONDERING

PONDERING

PONDERING

PONDERING

I’ll assume that you’ve now given some thought to the question. Your reward?  Another question.  Let’s say that you’ve just broken your arm and the bone is sticking out and there is blood everywhere and you’re in mondo pain.  You’re crazy tough so you ride your single speed mountain bike uphill to the ER.  Upon arrival you are greeted by two doctors.  They’re both tall and handsome, or maybe they’re short and fat – your choice, your thing.  One of them introduces himself and says, “I’d really rather be doing anything else and I’m only here because I need the paycheck.  Let’s go inside, photocopy your insurance card and put a cast on your arm.”  The other one says, “I’m here because I’m passionate about helping people.  I can see you’re in a lot of pain so let’s go inside and fix that arm so you can get back to doing whatever it is you love to do.”  Finally, here is the question: which doc would you rather have mending your broken arm?

What does this have to do with instructing photo workshops?  Everything.  You see, there are some photographers who lead workshops only because they can’t make a living in photography any other way.  They don’t enjoy it.  They’d rather be out making photos or hiking or whatever else it is they’d rather be doing.  For the 3 or 4 or 5 days during the workshop they do their best to smile and teach you everything they know about photography.  You will probably learn something.  You might even learn a lot.  Chances are that the instructor will never let on that he’s not enjoying himself.  If you’re asking me, that just freakin’ sucks.

I would much rather take a workshop from an instructor who loves to teach other people about photography.  Someone who gets totally stoked when he or she is working with a workshop participant who all of a sudden says, “Ooooooooooh, now I get it!”  I’m talking about workshop instructors who are passionate about teaching and helping other photographers realize their goals.  These folks enjoy what they do.  They have fun with the experience and engage their participants on a level not possible if they’re just in it for the money.

Let’s be honest here – everybody who leads workshops does so for the money.  What kind of business would we be running if we gave away all of our services for free?  Moreover, how long would we be in business?  I’m thinking probably not very long.  But there is a difference between leading workshops solely for the income and leading them because you genuinely want to help others become better photographers.  Give me a choice between the two and I’ll choose the latter all damn day long.  Wouldn’t you?

Have you taken a workshop from an instructor who you felt was truly passionate about helping you & the other participants become better photographers?  Someone whose energy was contagious and motivated the group to push themselves and do better?  Tell us about it!  Let’s hear about your super positive workshop experiences.  Feel free to include a link to the workshop website, even.  Show ‘em some love so that others can benefit from your testimonial.

Workshop leaders: Don’t even think about posting a link to your own site.  I’ll delete your post and make fun of you in public.  This is for workshop participants to share their own honest experiences and NOT a place for you to market yourself.

All text is provided courtesy of Rich Durnan and are protected under copyright laws.  I invite you to link to this article but please do not repost the content without prior approval from Rich.  Thanks for letting me post this on my blog, Rich!

In this post you will find links to stock photography pricing resources that will assist you in determining fair value for the commercial usage of your photos.

In my seminar, The Business of Photography, I talk a lot about how to place a value on one’s work. It is not an easy thing to do and there are a lot of factors to be considered when placing value on your work. Every photographer has different circumstances, production and overhead costs. All these factors affect your costs, and therefore need to be factored into your pricing scheme. This is why there is not a simple answer to what you should charge for a photo’s use.

In this post I do not intend to try to detail this entire process. My intent here is to provide a list of tools that give you a glimpse at the stock industry’s baseline, and a place to start your own pricing negotiations.

What is your cost of doing business?
If you want to really dial in your production costs, the National Press Photographers Association web site has a Cost of Doing Business Calculator. This is a great place to start in determining what your business costs are so you can determine what you need to be making on your sales.

What are you actually selling?
I can not stress enough that you should not be selling your actual photos. You should not be selling your ownership of photos outright or the copyright you have on them. You should be selling licensing rights or usage rights to your photos.

In short, this means you allow a client to use your photograph and they pay you for that right. This process is a negotiation. You are the creator, the copyright holder, and in power of what happens with your photos. I never outright sell my original photo, digital file, negative, or slide, and always reserve rights to use or sell it again. I may sell exclusive rights to a client prohibiting my use of it in other ways for a specified amount of time, and I charge more to do this, but eventually the rights return to me. I never give or sell my ownership or my copyright of an image I create.

Learn about usage rights and licensing
Understanding usage rights and negotiating can be very complex. You do need to be familiar with it.

ASMP Licensing Guide
The American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) web site’s Licensing Guide is an excellent resource for detailed information usage rights and negotiating.

PLUS Web Site (Picture Licensing Universal System)
The PLUS Coalition is an international non-profit initiative on a mission to simplify and facilitate the communication and management of image rights.

Pricing Resources

My number one tool for pricing is a software program called Photo Quote. Cradoc’s FotoQuote Software costs $139.99 at the time of this post, and is well worth it! It lists usages by category and has an extensive Coach section that helps you sharpen your negotiation skills.

A second resource I always keep at hand is Jim Pickerell’s book Negotiating Stock Photo Prices . The book is available on Amazon. This is also a very trusted book of standards and has great information on the process of selling stock and negotiating licensing fees. Jim is also available for pricing consultation if you have a really unique situation.

Free On-Line Resources:
These are not nearly as comprehensive as Photo Quote or Jim Pickerell’s book, but they are free.

Stock Photo Price Calculator available at the Photographersindex.com website.

Stock Photography Price Calculator available at the
StockPhotographyCalculator.com web site.

Another good free resource is to check some of the major stock sale websites which often have calculators built in to give clients a starting point for usage fees.

Network!
Join and participate in forums of with your peers.

Travel & Outdoor Photographers Alliance (TOPA). I am a member of this free Yahoo News group called TOPA, . It is a focus group for the discussion of business issues pertaining to the licensing of stock and assignment images for the travel, outdoor, and adventure markets – both editorial and commercial. If you have an interest in this field, I recommend you join. It is a great forum where experienced photographers share with the intent of educating less experienced and aspiring photographers.

Editorial Photographers (EP) is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the health and profitability of editorial photography. Their mission is to educate photographers and photography buyers about business issues affecting the photo industry and in the process raise the level of business practices in the profession.

ASMP. American Society of Media Photographers is the premier resource for community, culture, commerce and publications relating to publication photography. ASMP is the authoritative voice of publication photographers worldwide.

I hope the above stock photography pricing resources are helpful. If you know of any other resources that should be listed here please let me know. If you have a photo club or organization that would be interested in my Business of Photography class, I’d be happy to talk to you about presenting.

About Rich:

Rich is an uber-talented adventure and travel photographer who has traveled the world making gorgeous photos every step of the way.  He leads workshops, sells fine art prints and licenses his photos for stock usage.  Check out his website and blog for lots of amazing photography and helpful articles.

How do you price your stock photography?  Share your thoughts and resources in the comments below!

I got a great question on email the other day about hyperfocal focusing.  This is one of those topics that seems to confuse the living crap out of photographers.  That’s a bummer because it’s really critical to know, especially for landscape photographers.  Scott Bacon, a very talented large format photographer who is now mostly a digital dude, wrote an awesome explanation that makes this confusing topic about as easy to understand as it’s gonna get.  Read on…

The Question:

How about explaining how/why hyperfocal distance works, why you should use it, and the easiest way to accomplish hyperfocal focus, without getting too technical. (You know me – I learn on my own and the really technical stuff either goes over my head or puts me to sleep!  Keep it simple, stupid…)   Tim Fitzharris had a pretty easy technique in his Audobon book but I haven’t tried it to see if it actually works.  Yes, I have a chart but honestly – I’m not very good at judging distances by eyeballing it and haven’t had much luck.

Scott Responds:

Hyperfocal focusing is a technique used to maximize the depth of field of an
image. In simpler terms, its just a way to get as much as possible in focus.

Often, we want to compose images with a foreground object (the pretty
flowers at our feet) and a background scene (mountains in the distance), and have both the near and the far in focus. So, how can we use hyperfocal
focusing to do this? Just focus your lens at the hyperfocal distance. Sounds
simple enough, right? Sure, as long as you can determine what the hyperfocal distance is and where that point is in the scene in front of you. This is where many people get lost.

Simply put, hyperfocal distance is the point nearest the camera at which the depth of field extends to infinity. It can be calculated using the focal
length, f-stop and something called the circle of confusion. Uh, oh. This
makes some folk’s eyes glaze over. So just keep in mind what hyperfocal
distance IS and don’t worry so much about how to calculate it.You can find
hyperfocal charts on the web and print them out. I like this one because you can customize it – http://www.dofmaster.com/charts.html In fact, there’s lots of good info and explanations on that website.

Now that we know what the hyperfocal distance is, let’s get practical. Here
are some ways you can use hyperfocal focusing in the field.

Method #1 – Use a Chart:

   1. Compose your image.
   2. Determine your focal length and f-stop.
   3. Find the hyperfocal distance on your chart.
   4. *Manually* focus your lens to the hyperfocal distance.
      1. This can be done easily if you have a distance scale on your lens.
      2. Or… find and focus on an object in your frame that is at the
      hyperfocal distance by estimating. Some are better at this than others.
   5. Check the near/far focus accuracy using the depth of field preview option on your camera. This takes some “getting used to” since the review is often dark.
   6. Press the shutter button.

Method #2 – The 1/3 Rule of Thumb:

   1. Compose your image.
   2. Manually Focus 1/3 of the way into the scene. Seriously! This often
   gets you very close to the hyperfocal distance.
   3. Check the near/far focus accuracy using the depth of field preview
   option on your camera.
   4. Adjust focus as necessary and check again with the Depth of Field
   preview. Repeat as necessary.
   5. Press the shutter button.

Method #3 – Use a Prime Lens:
Some prime, or fixed focal length, lenses have hyperfocal markings on the
lens barrel. Check for f-stop numbers (11, 16, 22) printed on the lens
barrel near the focus scale, or check the lens user manual.

   1. Compose your image.
   2. Determine the f-stop
   3. Manually focus the lens so that the f-stop marking on the barrel of
   the lens lines up with the infinity symbol (looks like a sideways “8″) on
   the focus scale. Done!
   4. Press the shutter button.

Note that it is important to use manual focus while using any of the
hyperfocal focusing techniques. If you don’t turn off auto focus, your
camera will probably adjust the focus as you press the shutter button.

Using hyperfocal focusing techniques in the field takes some practice. But
if you are using a digital camera, you can check your results on your
camera’s LCD, right there in the field. This interactive learning and
practice allows for quick progress. Give it a try!

Thanks for the detailed explanation, Scott!  Got a hyperfocal tip you’d like to share?  Leave a comment and help us all learn from your knowledge and experience.

This has been a hectic week and I haven’t been able to keep up with the blog as much as I’d like.  My son is sick, my wife is getting sick, I’m sick and we leave tomorrow for the Outdoor Retailer show in Salt Lake City.  I know, I’m whining.  What can I say?  I’m a guy and I’m sick.  It’s what we do.

Moving on to the actual tip:

When composing an image get into the habit of studying the edges of your viewfinder before pressing the shutter button.  I start in the upper left hand corner and move around the frame clockwise.  Why?  I’m looking for anything that might be intruding into the frame that isn’t supposed to be there.  Maybe it’s a branch jutting in from the corner.  Or maybe there’s a sliver of sky where there shouldn’t be one.  If you’re using a super wide angle lens you might even find the tip of your tripod leg or your foot visible in the bottom of the frame.  Unless you thoroughly enjoy cloning errant objects out of your photos this is a great way to spend a little less time staring at the computer devleoping a nasty case of carpal tunnel syndrome.

Tomorrow: Hyperfocal focusing for dummies.  Okay, not dummies but for the rest of us who need things explained very simply.

Let’s imagine you’re a commercial interior designer who frequently purchases large quantities of framed images.  Or maybe you’re a photo editor at National Geographic magazine.  Either one, doesn’t matter.  Now let’s imagine that you contact two photographers seeking images for your latest project.  Both photographers submit a CD loaded with stellar images.  Oddly enough, both photographers have priced their work exactly the same.  The images were all photographed with the same camera, same lenses and have been processed the same way.  What I’m trying to say is, the images are identical in every way, shape and form.  There is no difference.

Ah, but there is a difference.  Professional photographer “A” submits images on the disc on the left.  Unprofessional photographer “B” submits images on that gangsta lookin’ disc on the right.  As you slide the CD into the drive you see that the disc on the left is digitally titled “Brenda Trier Design Project” while the disc on the right is titled, well…it doesn’t have a title.  It’s just a CD.

If you were the client, which photographer would you choose to do business with?  The entire point of this post is make you think about how you present yourself to your clients.  What kind of image do you project?  What kind of image do you want to project?  Give it some thought and decide what steps you can take to present a more polished appearance to your clients.

What small things do you do to impress your clients?  Share some ideas and let’s all learn from one another!

Today’s “Ask An Expert” question is an outstanding one.  I’d never given much thought to the difference in sharpening an image using unsharp mask in Photoshop vs. using the sharpening tool in Lightroom.  Apparently Nat Coalson hasn’t only given it a lot of thought, he’s developed some really solid logic behind why you should use Lightroom to sharpen your images.  Nat is an Adobe Certified Expert and the author of Lightroom 2: Streamlining Your Digital Photography Process.  He’s also co-leading our “Wildflowers and Reflections in the Tetons” workshop June 10 – 13, 2010.  Here’s the question I received and Nat’s thorough response.

The Question:

How does the sharpening in Adobe Lightroom compare to unsharp mask sharpening in PhotoShop. I have heard several people claim it is good to use for capture sharpening for images submitted to agencies that will be licensed by clients who will then resize and do additional output sharpening.

What is the difference in Lightroom sharpening and Unsharp mask??

Nat Coalson Responds:

The sharpening on Lightroom’s detail panel is very different from Photoshop’s Unsharp Mask.

Unsharp Mask was developed many years ago in the early days of digital imaging. Though it has been the de facto standard on which many other methods of sharpening are based, it’s crude in comparison to newer algorithms, and can produce destructive artifacts relatively easily.

On the other hand, Lightroom’s sharpening is designed to be “gentler” in it’s application, and will produce fewer haloes and other artifacts if used properly.

Modern sharpening workflows involve several steps of sharpening, unlike older techniques of the past, when it was believed that the optimal amount of sharpening could (and should) be done in a single pass.  These days, sharpening is broken down into three stages: capture, creative and output.

Capture sharpening overcomes the loss of sharpness resulting from the pixel grid itself. Every digital image capture suffers from some amount of softening as a result of the real, organic world being mapped to a discrete grid of pixels. The sharpening on the Detail panel is intended to be capture sharpening only and to simply overcome this inherent loss of sharpness.

Creative sharpening is used to enhance specific areas of the image.  Lightroom’s local adjustment brush provides the ability to “paint” on sharpening in localized areas.

Finally, output sharpening is applied when the file is Exported or printed. Output sharpening is applied using the appropriate method and strength for the inteded output destination. For example, if you’re printing to a matte fine art paper, you would apply more sharpening than if printing to a glossy coated paper.

My default settings for sharpening on the Detail panel:

Amount 60 > The strength of the sharpening to be applied.

Radius 1.1 > The width of the sharpening along the “edges” of contrast. For images with lots of fine detail, I might go down to .8 pixel radius, and increase the Amount. Images that don’t have lots of fine detail might go up to 2.0 radius, but never more than that.

Detail 50 > Similar to radius, if the photo has lots of fine detail, use higher levels of Detail.

Masking 15 > Masking restricts the application of sharpening from being applied to areas of smooth, solid color and limited contrast. For example, blue sky or the skin in a portrait usually should not be sharpened; masking keeps the sharpening from being applied to these areas.

For all the controls, holding the option or alt key while moving the slider will show you a grayscale preview of the effect being applied.

To see the sharpening previews on the image itself, you need to be zoomed in to 1:1 or greater.

I usually fine tune these settings on an image by image basis, but these settings will give me close to the ideal amount of sharpening to begin my processing, on the majority of images.

I often apply standard or high levels of output sharpening, too.  Though there’s not a lot of direct control over this in Lightroom, the levels of output sharpening they’ve included work pretty well, and are very simple to apply.

All of this is based on raw capture; if you shoot JPG then some sharpening is already applied in the camera, and the settings would be different. (But in the Lightroom workflow, there is no reason to ever shoot JPG!)

If you do as much of your work as possible in Lightroom, you may find that you never need to go into Photoshop, especially for sharpening.  Though there will be special cases and images that need the pixel-level editing that Photoshop provides, using Lightroom’s sharpening options properly may be all you need.

Share your techniques for sharpening in Lightroom and/or Photoshop in the comments below.  Someone just might learn something and that’ll send good karma your way.  We can all use a little extra good karma!

I’ve been an active member of online photography forums for about 7 years.  In that time I’ve learned a few things.  I’ve made a few friends.  I may have even made an enemy or two but I blame that on the fact that I lack a filter between my thoughts and my mouth.  One thing I know for certain is that being an active participant has, without a doubt, made me a better photographer.  I decided to write this article to help photographers, whether new or ancient, find what I consider to be the best forums and learn how best to utilize the forum resources.

What Is A Photography Forum?

Photography forums are sort of like a virtual photo club.  A group of like-minded people (photographers) gather in one virtual spot (the forum) to post and critique images, learn technique, exchange ideas, ask questions, provide answers and collectively drive their spouses crazy by spending entirely too much time interacting with all their digital friends.  Some forums even contain regional forums that are sub-groups of the main forum and are comprised of people in a given geographic region, i.e. Rocky Mountains.  These sub-groups occasionally even meet in person to photograph, learn from one another and/or just hang out.

Does It Cost Anything To Join These Photography Forums?

Some times.  The two forums I am most active on both charge a nominal annual membership fee.  I can say with complete confidence it is the best money you will spend on your photography addiction, er habit, I mean…hobby.  Better than an $8,000 camera, better than a workshop, better than a new book.  Better, better and better.  Actually, you can participate in both forums for free but to enjoy all the benefits you do need to pay the membership fee.  Rest easy, I’m not trying to sell you anything.  I am not an owner of nor do I receive any kickbacks from the forums I’ll link to later in the post.

What Kind Of Benefits Will I Receive?

This is where things get tricky.  Becoming a paying member of a photography forum isn’t like buying a new lens.  You don’t sit around at home for 3 days checking the UPS tracking number every hour to see if maybe, just maybe your lens has arrived early.  What?  Oh come on I know I’m not the only one who does that!  When you sign up nothing comes packaged in a box, all nice and shiny.  You pay your membership fee and in return you get…an email.  And a password.  You might even receive the ability to upload a few photos to your very own photo gallery.

But that isn’t where the value lies in becoming a member of a photography forum.  The value is more intrinsic.  It’s more Zen.  More Buddhist.  Are you ready for this?  The more you put into a photo forum the more you get out of it.  I know, that’s mighty vague.  Allow me to elaborate.

Those who post photos, offer critiques, answer questions and just generally participate in a forum are going to get the most benefit from it.  Sure, you will pick up a few things here and there if you’re a lurker.  But to really benefit, you need to get your hands dirty.  I can not overstate the important of growing a thick skin and accepting constructive criticism on your images!

Equally important – critique other photographer’s work.  Doing so forces you to dissect an image with a critical eye.  What makes an image successful?  The answer will vary from person to person but in evaluating images you are training your eye to look for elements that create a successful image.

But what if you’re a new photographer?  Surely you can’t have anything to contribute, right?  Wrong!  Everyone, regardless of their experience level, can add value to a forum.  Maybe it doesn’t come in the form of a critique.  Perhaps you’ve been a website designer since Al Gore delivered this beautiful technology to us.  Or maybe you’re a marketing whiz.  You never know when another forum member is going to ask a question about web design or marketing that you can answer better than anyone.  Even your image critiques can be valuable as we all see images from a different perspective.  Your new-ness to photography might just be a good thing.  It means you haven’t been exposed to all the ”rules” we’re supposed to abide by and your fresh view on things could be just the ticket to drive home a point.

How Do I Know If I’ve Stumbled Upon A Good Forum?

What constitutes a good forum is much a matter of personal taste.  I prefer a forum with real people who offer real critiques in an open and supportive environment.  Keeping the forum civil requires a lot of behind-the-scenes work by forum moderators and it’s critical that they quickly identify and evict problem children.  Not doing so can have a permanent, negative effect on the forum community.

If you’re looking for a forum where everyone pats eachother on the back and leaves comments on your images that amount to, “Great job”, you can forget about the forums I’m going to recommend.  If you’re looking for a forum where you can receive honest critiques from a pool of wildly talented photographers, keep reading.

Good forums are filled with people who share their knowledge with others because they genuinely like to help.  Good forums are active and responsive.  If you visit a forum and nothing new has been posted in a 3 or 4 days you probably didn’t find a good forum.  You shouldn’t have to clear away cobwebs to get to the good stuff.  Good forums don’t cost a fortune to join, they don’t promise to make you a better photographer in 6 easy steps and they don’t contain post after post after post of some dude shilling workshops or linking to a shady online camera store.  The occasional sales pitch is acceptable if it comes from a respected member of the community.  A good forum won’t spam you after you sign up.  Monthly newsletter = okay.  Daily emails = probably not okay.  If you register for a forum and you see names you recognize from the pages of major photography magazines you may have just stumbled into a legitimate forum.  Finally, scan through the image critique forums.  Look at the comments.  Are they constructive or do you see a whole bunch of “Great shot” crap?  If you’re seeing the latter, go ahead and click right on outta that site.

Finally, What Forums Do I Recommend?

If you’ve read this far, bravo!  You truly are not a quitter.  You’ve raked through all the fluff up above and finally arrived at the part you’ve been dying to read.  Without any further hesitation, here is my short list of forums I consider worth their weight in expensive Canon “L” lenses:

Nature Photographers Network (aka NPN)

NPN was one of the first photography forums I found and joined, way back in 2002 (I think).  In the first year I saw a dramatic improvement in the quality of my photography.  I met lots of photographers on NPN who have since become friends.  Not online friends.  Real friends.  We’ve met up in real life, taken trips together and photographed together and had tons of fun together.  They have taught me more about photography than all other resources combined.  And through it all, they’ve asked for nothing in return.  NPN publishes killer articles every month on every topic you can imagine pertinent to nature photography.  The forums are very active and are filled with crazy talented photographers, many of whom you see in the pages of Outdoor Photography and Popular Photography on a regular basis.  NPN flat out rocks.

NatureScapes.net (aka NSN)

At some point during the life of NPN, some members/moderators got into a scuffle and split off to start NSN.  I don’t know what it was all about nor do I care.  In the last year or so I have become a much more active participant at NSN.  I’m finding the environment there to be just as open, supportive and helpful as what I’ve found at NPN.  There is some cross-pollination between NSN & NPN as you’ll recognize a few names active in both forums.  NSN also publishes lots of great articles every month and is staffed by even more well-known photographers.  Their critique forums are active and you won’t find the “pat me on the back” attitude here.  People post photos because they desire an honest critique and you know what, they get ‘em.  NSN is a great place to hang out and learn.

The Luminous Landscape

The Luminous Landscape is owned and run by Michael Reichmann.  Michael buys and tests an inordinate amount of camera gear and posts his comprehensive reviews on the site.  He has also provided a forum for photographers to interact with one another online.  It’s very active and is different in many ways from NPN & NSN.  I don’t find the photo critique forums useful here.  What I do find useful are the forums on digital image processing, locations and general talk about landscape photography.  I also dig the Raw Converter forums dedicated to each of the main conversion software programs, i.e. Lightroom, Aperture, etc.

A Forum I Don’t Recommend

Photosig.  Some good work posted there but it’s too busy and your images simply don’t receive solid critiques.  I’m sure the people are lovely but I’m just not a fan.  Also, it is NOT a nature photography forum unless you consider images of wild & wooly nether-regions to be “nature”.

Other Forums For You To Consider

Photo.net, Fred Miranda and for you big film evangelists, the not so creatively titled Large Format Photography Forum.  I no longer participate on Photo.net or Fred Miranda.  That’s simply because I found NPN, NSN and the Luminous Landscape to be the most useful given the small amount of time I have to spend on such sites.  You may find the opposite to be true.  There’s only one way to find out – take ‘em for a test drive.

In Summary

Find a forum or forums you like, sign up and get active.  Read the articles.  Post your own questions.  Offer answers when you can.  Grow a thick skin and put up your photos for others to critique.  Offer your opinion on posted images.  Keep an open mind and you’ll start to pick up tips and techniques that will make you a better photographer.  You might even make a few friends online.  And when your spouse complains that you’re spending too much time in the forums just tell them it’s my fault.

Here’s where I ask for your comments.  Got a forum you like, or one you don’t like?  Got a tip to help someone get the most out of being a member of a photography forum?  Share your comments!

I try not to pimp stuff I’m selling too often on my blog.  Mostly, this blog is to help us all learn and share and have fun.  But occasionally I will use it to let you all know when something I’m doing or selling might interest you.  I hope that’s coolio with you.  Moving on…

Yes, the title is totally lame!  Sorry ’bout that, but it is marginally better than “iFotoGuide: Yosemite Launched”.  At any rate, after almost two months of work Dan Baumbach and I are thrilled to announce that iFotoGuide: Yosemite has been approved and is now available in the Apple iTunes App Store.

iFotoGuide: Yosemite provides photographers with everything needed to plan a trip to and make stellar images while on-location in Yosemite National Park.  Find a hotel, locate a rental car and discover the closest airport.  Check out the gallery full of gorgeous Yosemite photos while you’re on the plane.  Once you arrive in Yosemite, use the guide to find the best locations to photograph at sunrise, sunset or mid-day as well as what gear you’ll need to make the best images.  iFotoGuide: Yosemite is chock full of all the information you will need during your photography trip to Yosemite.  All the information is stored directly on your iPhone or iPod Touch.  No need for a cell signal.  Once you download the app you’ll have all the critical information you need at all times.

Check out iFotoGuide: Yosemite at the Apple iTunes App Store, tell all your friends about it and spread the word about this amazing iPhone/iPod Touch application!  At $4.99 it’s at least half the price of comparable photo guidebooks.  Updates are free so you’ll never again have to shell out more cash for the latest revision of a hard-copy photography guide.

For you lovers of the southwest, don’t forget to check out iFotoGuide: Arches.