Understanding the image Histogram

In this episode of the 5 Minute Photographer, Helen Bradley explains how to analyse your image histogram and to understand what it is telling you about your image’s exposure. She shows you how to use the Curves tool in Photoshop to adjust the image based on the data that the histogram provides. She also explains how to avoid having to make fixes to an image’s exposure in your photo editing software by harnessing the power of your camera to show you a histogram at capture time. If the histogram shows you are having problems she offers a couple of solutions to compensate for these.

This video shows you how you how to select the best image from a sequence of images. Photographer Helen Bradley explains how to evaluate a series in a sequence and how to successively eliminate images until you find the best of the sequence.
 
Helen steps you through her thought processes in assessing each image from looking at what the subject is doing to determining if there are problems in the background and whether these are easily fixed or not.
 
By following this approach with your images you can quickly determine the best image in a sequence so you spend time working on only the best of your images.

Whether you’re a professional photographer, semi-professional or a keen amateur you’ll be showing your images to others. You might be trying to sell images to a client, attract new clients or share your work with family and friends. Whatever the situation, you need to choose the right images to show and you need to assemble them into a cohesive collection and then do the job of selling your work to your audience – whoever they are.

In this video you’ll see how to pick images from your collection – which to include and which to omit. You’ll learn different methods of showing your images and you’ll hear how to talk about your work so your clients and your audiences love it.

We have just uploaded a new video - Working the subject

This video shows you how you how to work a subject to explore the photographic possibilities it offers. Photographer Helen Bradley explains how to set your camera to shoot fast, how to get in the right place to ensure you’re ready when something happens, and how to make your own luck when capturing images. She also explains the importance of being patient and anticipating how someone will behave.

Before Five Minute Photographer founders Shelton Muller and John Pospisil started the Five Minute Photgrapher website, they published a free photography magazine for many years (here’s a sample) that provided free photography tutorials to shoppers at retail outlets.  Of course, our video tutorials now supercede our printed work, but for those who are interested, we’ve starting  to publish some of our Total Image magazine tutorials on the Total Image website. Some highlights include:

How to take photos in harsh sunlight

How to take wedding photos

How to take pet photos

How to take baby photos

How to pose a subject

We hope you enjoy the tutorials!

We’ve just uploaded a new video to the 5MP members area.

This is the second video by our newest team member Helen Bradley.

One of the quickest ways to jumpstart your photography is to undertake short self-assigned photo projects or self-assignments.

Self-assignments are quick and easy to do and shouldn’t require you to buy anything special or go anywhere special to do.

In this video, Helen Bradley explains the requirements of a self-assignment, how to prepare for one and she gives you some idea as to topics that you might consider shooting.

If there’s a piece of your kit that you don’t often use, then Helen has some ideas for incorporating exercises using unused pieces of kit into your self-assignment projects.

To help you crystalize what you’ve learned throughout your self-assignment there are some ideas for assessing the image you have captured.

So if you have a camera handy and ten minutes – spend the first five watching this video and the next five working on your first self-assignment.

Shelton Muller’s new video “Playing with Time” looks at how to use aperture, shutter speed, and  flash to “play with time” when taking photographs. Understanding your shutter is your key to understanding how time can be altered in a single frame.

A new view video on simple posing techniques has been uploaded to the Five Minute Photographer members’ section by Shelton Muller. This tutorial discusses some basic guidelines to help pose people in your portraits.

Here is some non-prompted feedback form the members’ forum to the video:

“Wow Shelton…i think that has to be my favourite video thus far!! Its exactly what i needed at the moment and i learnt so much from it.”

“YES!!! This has to be my Favourite thus far. I know I will be re visiting this one often!”

“Simply Brilliant Shelton…
Simple, tips that will really enable many of us who don’t get to work with models on a day to day basis…
My annual subscription has already paid for its-self.
Another new happy 5mp’er”

As you know i’m with everyone else! LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT!!!

That was great!! More tips on this would be awesome!

Hey THE Shelton Muller, this one is REALLY good. I’m sure we all find posing one of the most difficult situations. So, yes please, more! More! More!
Please sir, can we have more?

Excellent post Shelton, got a lot out of it, more on this topic greatly appreciated.

And Shelton’s response:

Ok!
You want it.
You got it.
More on the subject coming up!

There was a time when photography was difficult. Those were the days when cameras required that you knew what you were doing, that you understood metering - both incident and reflected and knew how to set the camera to match. They were the times when you needed to count the cost of film and processing and thus each image was a financial investment and needed to be worth the materials, let alone the effort.

However, digital has changed everything about that. Cameras are designed with such automation that nowadays you can’t even capture your subject with so much as a grimace. The smile technology makes sure of that. Exposure is automated in more ways than we ever thought possible and if you still don’t get it right, you can delete the image and take it again without it costing a single cent. So far, so good.

From my perspective, this also has its distinct disadvantages. The foremost among these in my mind is the lack of understanding that is perceived by the masses as no longer being required. I mean, after all, if the camera is going to do everything for you, why learn anything? However, it is that kind of thinking that not only prevents many gifted photographers from improving and reaching their full potential but also deprives them at core level of the absolute joy of having created the image and controlled its creation at as many levels as possible. That part of the joy of photography should never be overstated.

Conversely, my mum has just become the proud owner of a new Nikon D60. Once upon a time a Nikon SLR camera would have frightened her beyond thinking. But you see, its all different now. The camera is a point and shoot DSLR with the ability to remove all the confusion of exposure and focus and simply allow her the fun of taking photographs. She is allowed to see and to shoot without any problems of cost or the frustrations of not completely understanding the technology. In fact the technology exists for the sole reason that she doesn’t have to understand it.

Will my Mum ever get past using the camera on the ‘little green camera on the dial’ setting? I doubt it. And if she does, it will be slowly and with limitations. This is not to say that my Mum is unintelligent. In fact the opposite is true. But there are some things you perhaps don’t want to learn at her age. In the meantime though, she is enjoying her new found love of photography immensely.

And that is good enough for me.

Happy Photography!

Shelton.