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Overview

Opening Photoshop® for the first time is like cracking open a fantasy novel that opens
up an entirely new world of strange creatures, opposite natural laws and a completely
new language. That new fantasy world is bursting with exciting possibilities yet bogged
down by so many unknowns.

Photography post processing opens up big potential for transforming an image,

whether that's to make it just as vivid as you remember or something that even defies
the laws of gravity. Digging up tutorials on specific photo edits is great but building an
understanding of photography post processing techniques allows even rookies to learn
concepts that can be applied to any image. These fundamental photography post-
processing techniques, from exposure to composting, give photographers the tools to
hone their craft in Photoshop®, Lightroom® and other photo editing programs.

Objectives

At the end of this lesson, the student should be able to:

 Define photography terms and the effect each adjustment has on the
image
 Make basic photo edits and keep image quality
 Learn the workflow of Post Processing

Photography

Photography is an art form like drawing and painting. Photographers use their camera
to make us see life in a different way, feel emotions, and record stories and events.
Greek for “Painting with Light” and can be considered both an art and science.
Photography is a science, because there are basic principles of physics that govern
success and Photography is art because its beauty is subjective.

The world’s first photograph made in a camera was taken in 1826 by Joseph Nicéphore
Niépce. The photograph was taken from the upstair’s windows of Niépce’s estate in the
Burgundy region of France. This image was captured via a process known as
heliography, which used Bitumen of Judea coated onto a piece of glass or metal; the
Bitumen than hardened in proportion to the amount of light that hit it.

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Fig 1. World first Photograph by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826

There are three basic types of Photography:

1. Landscape
2. Portrait
3. Documentary

Landscape Photography

Landscape is a photograph of the environment. It could be the forest, mountains,

oceans, or your backyard. Landscape photography is a photograph of the outdoors. It
could be the land, water, buildings, etc. Ansel Adams is a famous landscape
photographer. Here is one of his images.

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Portrait Photography

A portrait photograph is a picture of a person or animal that shows an emotional

connection.

Holding Virgina - Sally Mann The Dress - Sally Mann

Boy and Car, Ney York City – Jerome Liebling, 1949

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Documentary Photography

Documentary photography tells a story without changing the facts. It can be a portrait
or landscape. Remember that a good documentary photograph makes you wonder
the story behind the picture.

Dante’s View – 1938 Edward Weston

Migrant Mother – Dorthea Lange

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Exposure

An exposure is a measure of how bright a photo is as it saved to your memory card.

Sometimes referred to as finished image. Exposure is affected by four things:

1. Light
2. Shutter speed
3. Aperture
4. ISO

Overexposed vs. Underexposed

The Photographic Triangle

A correct exposure is as simple combination of three important factors: aperture, shutter

speed and ISO.

Aperture

It is the size of the hole in the diaphragm that allows light into the camera. The larger
the hole, the more light that enters the camera in a given time. Aperture comes from
the Latin for ‘opening’. f/stop values : f/1.0 f/1.1 f/1.2 f/1.4 f/1.6 f/1.8 f/2.0 f/2.2 f/2.5 f/2.8
f/3.2 f/3.5 f/4.0 f/4.5 f/5.0 f/5.6 f/6.3 f/7.1 f/8.0 f/9.0 f/10 f/11 f/13 f/14 f/16 f/18 f/20 f/22
f/25 f/29 f/32

Aperture and depth of field

The aperture does more than just control the amount of light that hits the sensor – the
size of the aperture affects the way an image looks well. Specifically, it affects the
depth of field you can achieve. Depth of field is an expression describing how much of
a photo is in focus. If you use a large aperture (a smaller f-number), you get shallow
depth of field, which means that if you take a portrait photo, your subject will be in
focus, but the background will be out of focus. Aperture (Av) are measured using F-
STOPS, shown as f/# (i.e. f/16)

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The image at left shows common F-STOP values and how they appear. A change of 1 F-
STOP doubles or halves the light entering the camera. Smaller F-numbers represent
wider apertures, and larger F-numbers are smaller aperture.

The Av controls the amount of depth of field in an image. The wider the aperture, the
shallower the depth of field, and vice versa.

Av & Tv Together

The wider the aperture used, the less time – i.e. the faster shutter speed – needed to
properly expose the image. Conversely, the slower the shutter speed the smaller the
aperture needs to be.

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For any image, there number of combinations that will make a correct exposure.

Shutter speed

The function of the shutter mechanism is to admit light into the camera, and onto the
digital media or film for a specific length of time.

B=Bulb

Note: Faster shutter speeds mean less light on the image sensor. Slower shutter speeds
mean more light.

Shutter Speed and motion capture

Control the amount of time the shutter or curtain is open. Shutter speed is measured in
fractions of seconds. Depending on the camera, it may show the shutter speed without
the numerator, i.e. 250 instead of 1/250. A doubling or halving of the time value (Tv)
represents one stop of EV. Like with aperture, shutter speed affects more than just the
amount of light. It also affects motion in photo, which makes sense, when you think
about it. Your camera chip is measuring light as long as the shutter is open. If the shutter
is open for a second and if scene changes in the duration of that second, the light
reflecting off your subject will also move across the frame

Fast Shutter Speed

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Slow Shutter Speed

Film Speed / ISO

It is the measure of the sensitivity of the film sensor in a camera. It measured in values
using ISO numbers. ISO simply stands for International Organization of Standardization.
With both analog and digital cameras, ISO refers to the same thing: the light sensitivity
of either the film or imaging sensor. ISO numbers are linear in their relationship. The
higher the ISO number, the more sensitive the film/sensor and also the more noise or
grain in the image.

ISO: 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400, 12800

Shutter speed: B 1” 0”8 0”6 0”5 0”4 0”3 1/4 1/5 1/6 1/8 1/10 1/13 1/ 15 1/20 1/25 1/30
1/40 1/50 1/60 1/80 1/100 1/125 1/160 1/200 1/250 1/320 1/400 1/500 1/640 1/800 1/1000
1/1250 1/1600 1/2000 1/2500 1/ 3200 1/4000 1/5000 1/6400 1/8000

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Stops

The amount of light that strikes the film/chip is measured in stop and is also known as
exposure value (Ev). A difference of 1 stop is a doubling or halving of the light making
the image. It is used to measure differences in Ev of apertures, shutter speed and film
speeds. “Fast” means the camera expose a photo too quickly.

Lighting

Light is the essential ingredient of photos. One of the skills that separates photographers
from snap shooters is the ability to solve lighting problems. There are two primary factors
to consider for light: Direction and Colour.

Lighting – Direction

The direction the light comes from can make the image seem flat or 3-Dimensional.
Front lighting is easy to photograph, but images are generally flat. Top lighting, such as
from the sun overhead, also makes image flat and shadows are short and dark. Side
lighting will emphasize texture and contours and create long shadows.

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Front Lighting Side Lighting

Top Lighting Bottom Lighting

Lighting – Colour

The colour of light is measured by temperature in Kelvin (° K). Natural light changes
through the day and humans respond psychologically to different colours, therefore the
colour of a photo will affect emotional responses. Light that is in the reds, oranges and
yellows is said to be “Warm”, conversely, “Cool” light is blue in tone.

Warm Lighting

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Cool Lighting

Lighting – Colour

When taking a photo with digital camera, the while balance setting of a camera will
affect the colour cast of the image, balancing the lighting of the subject. Typical while
balance settings of a camera include tungsten, florescent, shade sunny, cloudy, flash,
auto and manual. Filters can also be used to affect the colour of light in the image

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Top Ten Tips in Taking Great Pictures

1. Get down on their level.

Hold your camera at the subject eye level to capture the power of those
magnetic gazes & mesmerizing smiles.

2. Use a plain background.

Before taking the picture, check the area behind your subject.

Lookout for trees or poles sprouting from your subject head

A cluttered background will be distracting while a plain background will

emphasize your subject.

3. Use flash outdoors.

Even the outdoors use the fill flash setting on the camera to improve your
pictures.

Use it in bright sunlight to lighten dark shadows under the eyes and nose,
especially when the sun is directly overhead or behind your subject.

Use it on cloudy days, to brighten up faces and make them stand out from the
background

4. Move in close.

To create impactful pictures, move in close and fill your picture with the subject
Move a few steps closer or use the zoom until the subject fills the viewfinder. You
will eliminate background, distractions, and show off the details in your subject.

For small object, use the camera’s macro or ‘flower’ mode to get sharp close-
ups

5. Take some vertical pictures.

Many subjects look better in a vertical picture from the Eifel Tower portraits of
your friends.

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Make a conscious effort to turn your camera sideways and take some vertical
pictures. (Sample Water Falls)

6. Lock the focus.

Lock the focus to create a sharp picture of off-center subjects

1. Center the subject

2. Press the shutter button halfway down

3. Re-frame your picture (while still holding the shutter button)

4. Finish by pressing the shutter button all the way

7. Move it from the middle. (rule of thirds)

• Bring your picture to life simply by placing your subject off-center

• Imagine a tic-tac-toe grid in your viewfinder. Now place your subject at one
of the intersections of lines.
• Since most cameras focus on whatever’s in the middle remember to lock the
focus on your subject before re-framing the shot.

8. Know your flash range.

• Pictures taken beyond the maximum flash range will be to dark

• For many cameras, that’s only ten feet – about four steps away. Check your
manual to be sure.
• If the subject is further than ten feet from the camera, the picture may be too
dark.

9. Watch the light.

• Great light makes great pictures. Study the effects of light in your pictures
• For people pictures, choose the soft lighting of cloudy days. Avoid overhead
sunlight that casts harsh shadows across faces
• For scenic pictures, use the long shadows and color of early and late daylight

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10. Be a picture director.

 Take an extra minute and become a picture director, not just a passive
picturetaker
 Add some props, rearrange your subjects, or try a different viewpoint

Post Processing

Post processing is process of editing the data captured by camera while taking the
photo to enhance the image. Better the data captured during clicking of photo better
is the enhancement possibility. There is more and more camera which have come into
market which can capture RAW files. Raw files have much more data at pixel level
which and help in post processing and enhancing the image.

Post processing can surely help in enhancing the image but might not be able to
convert a really bad exposure to excellent one. There are various stages of post
processing based on what is the result that one wants to achieve.

1. Fine tuning of RAW file.

2. Converting RAW file to easily readable formats like jpg/png/tiff.
3. Editing of jpg to remove unwanted features.
4. Mixing of various files to achieve creative result.

Post Processing Software

There are basically two things that are done in post processing:

1. An algorithm is run on all existing data of pixel and minor changes are
applied to pixel data.
2. Manually selecting and Replacing the pixel data with total new data.

There is software by camera manufacturers, specialist software vendors and there are
also freeware and free software available for taking care of post processing needs.
RAW file handling and conversion is possible in RawTherapee, UFRAW, darktable,
Adobe Lightroom, Adobe camera RAW, FSViewer and many more.Jpg file editing is
generally done in image editors that have various features such as grain and red-eye
removal, for example, the Gimp(free), or Adobe Photoshop, or Photoshop Elements.

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Workflow of Post Processing

There are lot of changes possible during post processing. Sequence of these changes is
important as change made at one stage can affect the effectiveness of next stage.
Most of the software are also organized in a fashion to guide the users through a
smooth work flow.Few actions can achieve great results when applied in RAW file.
These can also yield result in jpg files in case you do not have RAW file.

Some of actions that may be preferred while editing RAW file are

1. Exposure Value adjustment

2. White balance adjustment

3. Hue and tone adjustment

4. Highlight and shadow recovery

5. Vibrance and saturation adjustment

6. Cropping & Rotation

Some of the actions that can be done at RAW or jpg stage are

1. Noise reduction

2. Sharpening

Some of the actions that are preferred after conversion to jpg files are

1. Red-eye removal

2. Local touch up of cloning to erase unwanted object in frame

3. Adding of frame

4. Mixing with other jpg files like changing the background.

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Online Resources

Post processing Tutorial

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Rvrabef8gFwDV36uD7Kt62iBpObRSv9A/view?fb
clid=IwAR2T6_s2-Bq2JallxL-hy8v6egaiAM3w5tnIbn4aLzb0_g3vsnrsmjL47No

References

 Post processing retrieved from

 https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Digital_Photography/Post_Processing
 Introduction to Photography retrieved from
 https://carleton.ca/healthy-workplace/wp-content/uploads/Intro-to-Photo-
presention20112.pdf
 Photography guide retrieved from
 https://www.creativelive.com/photography-guides/post-processing
 What is photography?
 http://163.14.73.3/~chiang/course/CG/ClassNotes/photography.ppt
 History of Photography
 https://petapixel.com/2015/05/23/20-first-photos-from-the-history-of-
photography/
 Top ten tip in photography
 http://www.kodak.com

Assessment/Exercises

1. Define photography in your own words.

2. What are the three basic types of Photography?
3. Explain the photographic triangle.
4. Explain the difference between Underexposure and Overexposure.
5. Take a picture of any style of photography you want and explain the meaning of
that picture.
6. Define and explain Aperture.
7. Define and explain Shutter Speed.
8. Define and explain ISO/Film Speed.
9. Take a portrait photo of yourself and perform simple post processing using that
picture. (Note: Take a screenshot on the step by step process of your post processing)

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