Salvage Bad Pictures
Use filters to turn bad photos into good ones; plus, a zoom problem cleared up.Dave Johnson
I want your feedback! Send your comments, questions, and suggestions about the newsletter itself to comments@bydavejohnson.com. If you have a question that you'd like to see answered in the weekly Q&A, send it to question@bydavejohnson.com. And be sure to sign up to have the Digital Focus Newsletter e-mailed to you each week.
Feature: Salvage Bad Pictures With Filters
One of the nice things about photography is that it's something you can get better at through simple practice and perseverance. When you start out, you might have just one "keeper" in a batch of throwaways. After a year or two, though, you might find that your camera's memory card has a lot more roses and far fewer thorns in each batch. And when you master composition, lighting, and exposure, most of your photos will routinely survive your pruning process.
But don't be so quick to discard your clippings--even the really bad ones. In the digital world, even some pretty awful pictures can be salvaged with a little effort. In past newsletters I've told you about how to fix marginal pictures with sharpening, color correction, cropping, and other editing tricks. This week, my advice is that if you can't fix your photos any other way, just disguise their flaws with a judicious use of image filters.
Faking It
Sure, it's a cheat. But we're already used to manipulating digital images to the extent that they no longer reflect the original scene. We change the sky, blur the background, and erase eyesores.
For example, not long ago I saw a magical scene of mother and child. I tried to capture it, but my digital camera was set to Shutter Priority mode, and the shutter speed was a lethargic 1/30 second. I switched to Programmed Exposure mode after taking the first shot, but two dozen pictures later, I had never recaptured the magic of that first photo. That took me back to square one: The problem with the first photo was that it was terribly blurred and seemingly beyond hope. No amount of Unsharp Mask will ever make that photo look acceptable.
Trying on Some Filters
But maybe an alternative approach might pay off. I decided to see if some filter action would give me an artistic effect.
Most image editors come with a small assortment of creative filters that you can use to dress up your images. In Paint Shop Pro, you can find an assortment of filters in the Effects menu. In Photoshop Elements, look in the Filter menu. And many image editors are fully compatible with add-on filters, called plug-ins. Plug-ins are designed to work with Adobe Photoshop and are also compatible with programs like Photoshop Elements, Jasc Paint Shop Pro, and Ulead PhotoImpact.
Out of the box, Paint Shop Pro comes with some interesting filters. Try using the Pencil filter, for instance (choose Effects, Art Media Effects, Pencil, then click OK). Or try a layer of hot wax (Effects, Artistic Effects, Hot Wax Coating).
If you have Jasc's Virtual Painter package, you can experiment with a wide assortment of impressionistic plug-ins--including Oil Painting, Watercolor, and Pointillism, just to name a few. I got a nice effect with the Pastel filter.
Many companies sell plug-ins. If you're interested in exploring this aspect of image editing--and perhaps disguising the flaws in some of your less successful photos--then check out these Web sites:
Dave's Favorites: Create Animated Presentations With TalkingSlide
If you're looking for a clever new way to show off your digital images, you can pay to have them pasted onto a local highway billboard. Or you can download TalkingSlide from Reallusion.
With this unique tool, you use a simple, template-based interface to display images in a Web-based presentation. But instead of a silent slide show, TalkingSlide incorporates your own narration and lip-syncs it to a talking head in the corner of the screen.
It all works pretty well. It's easy to assemble a slide show, add narration, and pick from among the various spokespersons. Reallusion includes about two dozen choices, including people, animals, and cartoon characters. The lip movement syncs to the audio pretty nicely, and it's all pretty subtle--you won't see huge, exaggerated mouth movements like you see on the Conan O'Brien show.
The $40 program is fun (there's a free download available that you can fiddle with), but I'm not sure it will stand the test of time. After making a few slide shows with talking dogs narrating your slides, you might start to feel the whole thing is kind of goofy.
Q&A: Better Shots With an Extreme Zoom
I have an Olympus C-730, which I bought primarily because of the 10X zoom. However, I have found that it is nearly impossible to take a picture without blurring the image when I zoom all the way in. Can I change any settings to get better zoom shots with out having to use a tripod?
--Bill Lyon, Wilmington, Delaware
Unfortunately, Bill, digital photography is governed by the same laws of physics as traditional film photography. That 10X zoom is giving you the equivalent of a 380mm lens, which is pretty powerful. It's the kind of lens that wildlife photographers use to capture distant animals from the safety of a blind. It's also similar to the focal length of a spotting telescope. In other words, it has a huge magnification that virtually demands a tripod.
Yes, there are some tricks you can use to freeze the action a little better. You should strive to shoot your max-zoom images with the camera's shutter speed set as high it'll go, for instance. Your camera has a top shutter speed of 1/1000 second, and I'd use that whenever possible. Unfortunately, you'll only be able to shoot that fast under ideal midday conditions, since zooming in to 10X will cut out a lot of light and force the camera to shoot at a slower shutter speed. To work around that problem, you might also want to increase the camera's ISO level, which will make the image sensor more sensitive to light.
Those suggestions will help, but I highly recommend that you carry a small tripod or even a monopod for situations in which you find yourself zooming all the way to the camera's limit.
Hot Pic of the Week
Get published, get famous! Each week, we select our favorite reader-submitted photo based on creativity, originality and technique. Every month, the best of the weekly winners gets a prize valued at between $15 and $50.
Here's how to enter: Send us your photograph in JPEG format, at a resolution no higher than 640 by 480 pixels. Entries at higher resolutions will be immediately disqualified. If necessary, use an image editing program to reduce the file size of your image before e-mailing it to us. Include the title of your photo along with a short description and how you photographed it. Don't forget to send your name, e-mail address, and postal address. Before entering, please read the full description of the contest rules and regulations.
This week's Hot Pic: "Summer Dreams," by Mark Crable, Oakhurst, California
Mark says: "I took this photo this past summer on the Central Coast of California where I grew up. I was watching my son, who seemed to be drifting in thought watching the waves, and took a few pictures with my Canon A60. Because it was getting dark, I wasn't sure how well the picture would turn out. I was pleased with the silhouette effect after I printed it."