Raw Converter Basics
skip to min 2 HERE

CS3 raw
a little dry HERE
and HERE

MULTIMEDIA SHOOTER IS BACK ON FEED YOUR BRAIN!!!!!!!!!


BRIAN STORM WILL BE ON CAMPUS ON THURSDAY MAKE SURE YOU SEE HIM SPEAK AND CHECK OUT NEW STUFF ON MEDIASTORM


in case you did not get this email from David:

Brian Storm, president of Mediastorm and MU alum, will be on campus this
Thursday. He will be making a presentation to the Reynolds Journalism
Institute at noon - but we, the photojournalism community, will also have an
opportunity to work with him directly. That will be Thursday from 10 a.m. -
11:30 a.m. In Tucker Forum.

Probably in an ideal world we would have longer with Brian. In an ideal
world we might see his presentation before having our Q&A session with him -
but this is still an incredible opportunity to have a discussion with a
(THE) leading producer of multimedia storytelling.

So, I ask that you put this on your calendar. I ask also that you spend some
time on http://www.mediastorm.org to acquaint yourself with some of the
projects there. As you will see, he has a wide repertoire of approaches to
online storytelling; he's taking some chances; he has clearly thought deeply
about what is effective use of still photography, audio, video.

So, let's come up with some good questions for Brian. See you then.

David R.

Just some ideas to become a better photographer even outside the studio you should be thinking about these things all the time
You should be able to deconstruct the light used by others.
Reverse Engineering Other Shooters'Light
heres a list of questions to start with
Keep a "Lighting File" great idea

FLASH IT!!!!!!!!
ONE MORE TIME..............STROBIST

RAW
Unlike JPEG and TIFF, RAW is not an abbreviation but literally means "raw" as in "unprocessed". A RAW file contains the original image information as it comes off the sensor before in-camera processing so you can do that processing afterwards.In addition, many of the camera settings which were applied to the raw data can be undone when using the RAW processing software. For instance, sharpening, white balance, levels and color adjustments can be undone and recalculated based on the raw data. Also, because RAW has 12 bits of available data, you are able to extract shadow and highlight detail which would have been lost in the 8 bits/channel JPEG or TIFF format. Raw isn’t one single thing. Rather, it’s a general term for a variety of proprietary file formats—such as Canon’s .CRW and .CR2, Minolta’s .MRW, Olympus’ .ORF, and the various flavors of Nikon’s .NEF, for example—that share important common features. To understand the nature of digital raw captures, you first need to know a bit about how those cameras that shoot raw actually capture images.


WHITE BALANCE:
GLOBAL CORRECTION TO SPECIFIC





It is best to correct for white balance problems at your first.Exposure adjusts the overall image brightness, with a greater effect in the high values. Decrease Exposure to darken the image; increase Exposure to brighten the image. The values are in increments equivalent to f‑stops. An adjustment of +1.50 is similar to widening the aperture 1‑1/2 stops. Similarly, an adjustment of ‑1.50 is similar to reducing the aperture 1‑1/2 stops. (Use Recovery to bring highlight values down.)

Recovery
Attempts to recover details from highlights. Camera Raw can reconstruct some details from areas in which one or two color channels are clipped to white.
Fill Light
Attempts to recover details from shadows, without brightening blacks. Camera Raw can reconstruct some details from areas in which one or two color channels are clipped to black. Using Fill Light is similar to using the shadows portion of the Photoshop Shadow/Highlight filter or the After Effects Shadow/Highlight effect.
Blacks
Specifies which input levels are mapped to black in the final image. Increasing Blacks expands the areas that are mapped to black. This sometimes creates the impression of increased contrast in the image. The greatest change is in the shadows, with much less change in the midtones and highlights. Using the Blacks slider is similar to using the black point slider for input levels when using the Photoshop Levels command or the After Effects Levels effect.
Brightness
Adjusts the brightness or darkness of the image, much as the Exposure property does. However, instead of clipping the image in the highlights or shadows, Brightness compresses the highlights and expands the shadows when you move the slider to the right. Often, the best way to use this control is to set the overall tonal scale by first setting Exposure, Recovery, and Blacks; then set Brightness. Large Brightness adjustments can affect shadow or highlight clipping, so you may want to readjust the Exposure, Recovery, or Blacks property after adjusting Brightness.
Contrast
Increases or decreases image contrast, mainly affecting midtones. When you increase contrast, the middle-to-dark image areas become darker, and the middle-to-light image areas become lighter. Generally, you use the Contrast property to adjust the contrast of the midtones after setting the Exposure, Blacks, and Brightness values.
Source: Adobe Resource Center

It's important at this point to understand how gels work. Gels are optical filters that act by absorbing certain wavelengths (colors) and transmitting others freely. A CTB gel transmits blue frequencies but absorbs red, orange, and yellow frequencies. A gel works by removing certain colors. It's a common misconception that gels add color to the light. Gels can't add color. If the desired frequency isn't present in the light in the first place, or is present in low amplitude, a gel won't add more of the color. The sodium vapor lights used in parking lots, for example, emit only a narrow frequency of orangish light. Placing a CTB gel over one of these will not produce blue light; it will absorb the orange and pass almost no light.


Ah, but what about the rooms that have florescent overheads, tungsten lamps and big, daylight windows?


What you have to do is to choose your dominant light color and go with it. keep in mind that tungsten and daylight mix much better than do florescent and everything else.

Each fluorescent tube transmits a different range of colors depending on the age and composition of the tube. Generally, it transmits light in the yellowish green range.

Furthermore, it's a pulsating light source. It's regulated by alternating current (60 cycles per second in the U.S.). This means any shutter exposure faster than 1/50th is still unpredictable after all other variables are removed.

TTL

Can TTL Metering be Fooled?
You bet, even with the new flash matrix technology!But be aware that the camera's meters are still looking for 18% gray even in flash exposure. White or black subjects can throw the metering off and cause bad exposures. Size of the subject and placement in the frame can likewise cause exposure problems. The drawbacks with each flash unit and camera body when it comes to exposure will be covered under the appropriate sections. Just be aware that you, the photographer, still must be in charge and that all this technology is still only a tool and not the final word on exposure perfection

FLASH

DIRECT FLASH:

Direct flash is when the flash is on-camera and is pointed directly at the subject. Direct flash casts a harsh shadow behind the subject.

funny video

BOUNCE FLASH:

used to avoid the look of direct flash use bounce flash. This will help to create softer light and softer shadows. The flash is on the camera or off the camera and pointed toward a surface to bounce off.

Remember light falls off ( ****also inverse square law) so you will lose light once it hits the surface and comes back down. So the amount of light needed for a direct flash is much less than one that bounces of a surface and travels to the subject . Depending on where you bounce it, shadows are shown below or to the side.

the color of the wall, ceiling or surface you bounce off of will be reflected in your photo. So if you reflect off of a yellow wall, there will be a yellow cast to your photos.

FLASH

A great resource for tutorials check out strobist
great video 1
great video 2

GELS

***Remember fluorescent light creates a greenish tint
***Remember tungsten light creates an orange tint.

Flash light is going to be white just like the studio light flash. SO to balance , you will use gels that match the white balance colors.

*** for a fluorescent light, use a green gel.
***for tungsten light, use an orange gel.

You do this so that the colors match each other and your camera balances only one color.






You can attach the gels with velcro, tape or rubber bands to your flash.

DONT FORGET!!!!

Hot Shoe:
A hot shoe is a mounting point on the top of a camera to attach a flash unit or a hot shoe adapter for off camera flash use. The matching adapter on the bottom of the flash unit slides in from the back of the camera and is sometimes secured by a clamping screw on the flash.



Hot Shoe Cord:
You will need this to pull the flash off camera.

WHITE BALANCE

White balance (WB) is the process of removing unrealistic color casts, so that objects which appear white in person are rendered white in your photo. Proper camera white balance has to take into account the "color temperature" of a light source, which refers to the relative warmth or coolness of white light. Our eyes are very good at judging what is white under different light sources, however digital cameras often have great difficulty with auto white balance (AWB). An incorrect WB can create unsightly blue, orange, or even green color casts, which are unrealistic and particularly damaging to portraits. Performing WB in traditional film photography requires attaching a different cast-removing filter for each lighting condition, whereas with digital this is no longer required.


Color Temperature Light Source
1000-2000 K Candlelight
2500-3500 K Tungsten Bulb (household variety)
3000-4000 K Sunrise/Sunset (clear sky)
4000-5000 K Fluorescent Lamps
5000-5500 K Electronic Flash
5000-6500 K Daylight with Clear Sky (sun overhead)
6500-8000 K Moderately Overcast Sky
9000-10000 K Shade or Heavily Overcast Sky

METERING MODE

Metering modes:

Matrix/Evaluative

The sensor takes readings from several points in the scene and compares it to different scenarios stored in memory. From this reading the camera tries to guess the meter reading. Here the camera measures the light intensity in several points in the scene, and then combines the results to find the settings for the best exposure. Matrix metering is ok for most situations.

Center Weighted
The camera takes readings from the center of the scene only. The center of the viewfinder has to be pointed at the area you want to meter. An advantage of this method is that it is less influenced by small areas that vary in brightness at the edges of the viewfinder.

Spot or semi-spot

Similar to center weighted only a much smaller area. You have to be accurate using this mode as it’s easy to aim off and get the incorrect reading. This mode is useful for metering really difficult scenes. Spot metering is not affected by other areas in the frame and commonly used to shoot very high contrast scenes. For more accurate manual metering use center weighted or spot. But as noted before you have to be careful with spot metering to get it just right