Introduction
My basic philosophy is to keep as much control over the camera before the shutter button is pressed, whilst thereafter the camera should do what it is programmed to do without trying to think for itself. This allows me to produce consistent results, irrespective of whether I'm using my EOS 30D, EOS 1000D or PowerShot A620 camera. Any flops are my own fault.
Thousands of pictures later, I’ve found the following settings and techniques produce consistently great photographs:
- Set the colour space of the camera to sRGB;
- Shoot at ISO 200 as much as possible;
- Use a custom picture style:
- set Picture Style to Standard;
- set Sharpness to 6;
- set Contrast to 1;
- set Saturation to 1;
- set Color tone to 0;
- Set the white balance to Sunny;
- Use centre-weighted average metering;
- Use a Kenko PRO1 D UV(W) filter;
- Use good quality lenses, preferably primes;
- Shoot straight to JPEG;
- Slow down and think.
1. Colour Space
I admit that I do not fully understand colour spaces, although I do understand the logic behind the concept. The purpose of colour management is to ensure that colours look the same, whatever the media on which it is viewed. The catch is therefore if all the equipment is not using the same colour space, then colours will mismatch somewhere along the line.
Basically what happens is that a certain piece of equipment is calibrated for a certain colour space. For example, a printed configured and calibrated to sRGB will know exactly how to mix the various inks to produce colours as near as possible as specified.
Converting between colour spaces is a complex process and does not always produce the desired results. Therefore, since both my screen and the printer at the local 1-hour lab are designed for and set at the sRGB colour space, I also shoot in that with my cameras.
It just simply boils down to sRGB being the common denominator, so why make life more difficult? Besides, nobody has yet proven the superiority of AdobeRGB to me.
2. ISO Setting
The sensor has a specific sensitivity, similar to the old ASA/DIN rating of film. Only now it’s called ISO. Whatever, because the native sensitivity of the sensor is very near equal to ISO 200.
3. Picture Style
Picture styles are akin to film emulsions. Pick the one you like and stick to it. I like Canon’s Standard style, with a tad of added contrast and saturation.
Something to bear in mind with picture styles, is that the techies at Canon go to considerable trouble ensuring that a certain picture style produces the same results across (nearly) all their cameras. This point is very important, as software (i.e. RAW converters) do not compensate nearly as good for the different sensors. This why all those RAW+JPEG comparisons don’t hold water.
4. White Balance
In my not so humble opinion, white balance is the most overrated aspect of digital photography. It is also the single most frustrating aspect of digital photography.
And nearly everybody gets it totally wrong!
White balance does not only determine the hue of whites, but also every other colour in the photograph.
The AWB algorithm in all the Canon cameras I’ve seen is pretty accurate, although maybe tending towards a tad too much blue. The important aspect of AWB is that it is calculated by the little DiG!C processor from the raw sensor data after the picture has been taken. This means that the algorithm is probably optimised for the specific sensor in the camera. It also means that it is not crippled in the same way the low- to mid-range cameras are in terms of focus and metering. You get the full package, same as if you were using a 1D camera! Heck, it’s not everyday Canon gives us consumer-grade users something like this for free.
However, AWB has a tendency to screw-up those critical shots that contain absolutely nothing remotely white. I’ve seen the algorithm turn a green background into off-white!
Back in the days of analog photography we all used “daylight” film and filters to compensate for any real changes in colour composition. The snag with Canon cameras are that they have no equivalent setting for “daylight” film, which is about 5500°K. Nearest is Sunny, at 5200°K, or Cloudy, at 6000°K. On the EOS 30D I used to set the temperature to 5600°K, but since the EOS 1000D lacks this essential feature I’ve had to figure out something else to keep my workflow consistent.
Cloudy — even though recommended by many photographers — is just too orange for my taste. This leaves Sunny as the only viable option.
What is confusing is how Cloudy, at a temperature of 6000°K, produces a more orange tone than Sunny, at a temperature of 5200°K. Should it not be the other way around?
Well, it seems that digital is still very much like analog, in that the sensor has a native white balance — just like film. What this value is, is unknown.
However, the theory is that by setting a specific WB we are telling the camera that the light is that temperature. The sensor records the image in its native WB and then shifts it to the temperature we told the camera to use. The following is therefore true:
- if the native WB is less than the set WB, then the difference is subtracted — causing the image to be more orange, or warmer;
- if the native WB is more than the set WB, then the difference is added — causing the image to be more blue, or colder;
Simple, huh? Only this is where the cow patties strike the windmill. Without knowing the native WB of the sensor, we have absolutely no idea how to compensate for different colour temperatures — both with or without filters.
What I have determined empirically is that both Sunny and Cloudy produce a warmer (i.e. more orange) image than AWB. From the deductions above, it then holds that the native WB of the sensor is less than 5200°K (the temperature of Sunny). However, AWB is also an algorithm that adjusts the native WB. So this deduction might not be quite true.
5. Metering Mode
Don’t misunderstand me, evaluative metering is great. But it is the camera thinking for me using an unknown algorithm. I cannot predict how the camera will react, so I cannot depend on it.
Another gripe about evaluative metering is that the more sensors the more accurate is it. Canon, like every other manufactorer, cripples their (affordable) camera with less sensors. Therefore this metering mode is less accurate with an EOS 1000D than with an EOS 1D.
Centre-weighted average metering is a predictable metering mode and because it is predictable, I know when it will foul up.
Centre-weighted average metering works best if only the centre AF-point is active and if you set the function of the shutter button to the default of AF/AE lock. Also always mentally check the meter reading with the Sunny-16, Cloudy-11, etc. rules of thumb.
6. Filters
Climb on any photographic forum and nearly everyone will tell you that the white balance algorithm negates the effect of filters. What these people do not realise is that the purpose of the filter is not only to change the colour of the light, but also to filter it.
A UV filter, well, filters out the ultra-violet. Again, the forum experts will tell you that a digital sensor is not sensitive to UV. Wrong. The sensor is very slightly sensitive. Not much, but still some. Also, the UV filter lessens the amount of “useless” light bouncing around inside the lens and, since light is a wave (as well as a particle), the UV waves do not affect the other waves of red, green and blue light.
I have tried many different types of filters and many different brands of filters. The Kenko PRO1 D UV(W) series is ever so slightly yellow, which imparts a small but perceivable warming effect on images. It has very much the same effect as a 1A (or skylight) filter did with colour film and is akin to Y1 and Y2 filters for black and white film.
7. Use Good Quality Lenses
Back in the film days, the camera was just regarded as a light-tight box to house the film and the lens was what determined quality of the photograph. This still holds true.
Problem is that people have been condition into believing that software can fix the shortcomings of cheap lenses, like CA and low contrast. Take my word for it, it can’t.
Sell that kit lens and get yourself one of the “Ugly Duckling” primes — like the EF 35mm f/2. Or switch to MF lenses.
8. RAW vs JPEG
Upfront, let me say that it would be great if cameras also offered 16-bit per channel TIFF or PNG as an option. But they don't, so -
RAW is touted as the digital negative. I’d like to tell you a little story, about mindset. Many years ago I went to the founding meeting of the local photography club. The (self-proclaimed) experts made the statement that real photographers shot with slide film and got things right at the moment of pressing the shutter release button and that only amateurs used colour negative film. Now these very same people say that RAW is the only real filetype and only amateurs snap straight to JPEG.
Let us start with comparing slide film with colour negative film. Slide film has a tighter exposure latitude than negative film. Slide film also has less dynamic range. The big difference, however, is with slide film the image is created when the shutter button is pressed, whereas with negative film the printing process can fix heaps of problems, like under- and over-exposure.
Now when we compare RAW with JPEG, we see that the latter has a tighter exposure latitude than the former. JPEG, especially the 8-bit per channel format, has less dynamic range than RAW. And finally, due to the 8-bit per channel nature of JPEG’s, with it the image a to a certain extent created at the moment the shutter button is pressed, whereas with RAW post-processing can fix heaps of problems.
Do you see the similarity? RAW equals colour negative film, and JPEG equals slide film.
What bugs me is that when we used film, I was told only amateurs snapped with colour negative film and real photographers used slide film. Now I am told that only amateurs shoot straight to JPEG and real photographers post-process RAW images. I was (apparently) wrong then because I “post-processed”, but now I am (still) wrong because I don’t? Silly.
What I am trying to say that a big aspect of the RAW vs JPEG issue is about mindset and following the flock. Truth be told, real photographers back then used colour negative films like Fuji Reala; and real photographers today shoot straight to JPEG.
On the technical side, a RAW file is (supposedly) just the sensor data from the camera. To make any sense out of it, it must be converted using software. Huge question: converted to what? And that’s the first gotcha of RAW. It gets converted to either a 16-bit or an 8-bit per channel image.
My EOS 30D and EOS 1000D both record in 12-bit per channel. Neither records 16-bit per channel natively, meaning that the RAW data must be upscaled if I should choose to work in that colour depth. What happens when we upscale an image? Gaps appear and these gaps are then filled with interpolated data. Even if you use a very good algorithm, upscaling just doesn’t work as good as on American TV.
On the other end of the street, downscaling from 12-bit to 8-bit per channel results in much better images.
The second gotcha of RAW is, as mentioned under “White Balance”, that the camera is programmed and optimised for its specific sensor, but is the software? With Canon playing nearly everything about their cameras so close to the vest, I sincerely doubt it. In fact, when using the using the RAW+JPEG option, the in-camera JPEG differs from the JPEG created from the same RAW in Canon’s own DPP programme.
So why not also let the camera do what it is designed to do? Shoot straight to JPEG.
Postscript
I am currently testing a workflow as follows:
- shoot in RAW;
- convert RAW image to 8-bit TIFF with dcraw;
- edit TIFF image with Paint Shop Pro 8.10.
So far the results are mixed, although slightly more in favour of actually doing it. The images are definitely better than what I can get out of DPP.
What appeals to me about this workflow is that I get an image out of dcraw without all the baggage, like white balance and picture styles. Basically it removes Canon’s engineers from the equation and allows me to micro-adjust my cameras (and lenses).
The negative is that I must manually remove the slight to heavy colour casts; and I must actually sit and process each photograph individually, when I have so many other things to do.
9. Slow Down and Think
I’ve seen guys “machine gun” a bird with their EOS 7D and Sigma 50~500mm F4~6·3 EX DG HSM, and then have maybe two or three so-so pictures to show for it.
I’ve also seen guys walk around the locomotive depot at Voorbaai and take just ten or so pictures — each one a winner.
Just because digital files are cheap, doesn’t mean it can be wasted. Think, explore, evaluate.