THE THINGS I DO…

I just gave a workshop about digital photography and there’s still some confusion out there about image file formats available in-camera. I hope this will help clear things up.

First, RAW format is simply the uncompressed (or very slightly compressed) 1s and 0s coming off your sensor chip. Nothing is modified and you have the greatest amount of post-shoot image control when you start with a RAW file.

The TIFF file can be uncompressed or compressed with a “lossless” (LZW) algorithm. A TIFF is smaller in file size than a RAW file of the same subject but still larger than a JPEG of the same subject.

A JPEG file can be saved lightly or heavily compressed. It is the format most commonly used on the Internet and is often the format used to deliver final images to clients. It can be opened by a wide variety of programs, including Internet browsers.

The one important thing to keep in mind about JPEG files is that, until they are opened and re-saved, their quality will NOT degrade. Image degradation in a JPEG only happens if you open a file and then save it during closing. No save, no image resampling. No image resampling, no quality degradation. A lot of people think that the simple process of opening the file causes a lowering of quality. That is not so — that happens during the process of saving/resampling.

Please share this info with your friends. The more you know about image file formats, the better. Incidentally, I didn’t know the info I just shared about JPEG files till about a year ago…and I had been working with JPEGs for years! Live and learn.

The answer is quite simple: it’s the camera you have with you when you need to capture that memorable moment!
That’s right, the answer isn’t necessarily Canon, Nikon, Olympus or even your cellphone camera. If you don’t have a camera with you when you see that shot of a lifetime, you’ll only be able to describe the photo you almost made.
No camera, no pictures, it’s that simple. It doesn’t matter what brand…as long as it has a lens and can record an image.

Think about that fact the next time  someone wants to engage in a little “my camera’s better than yours” banter with you.

Water. That’s right, a bottle of the wet, clear stuff has saved my bacon on more occasions than I care to mention. Most recently, a well-chilled bottle of water revitalized me in the middle of a marathon wedding shoot on a sweltering, 90-degree Virginia summer day.

Too many shooters get caught up with packing all the photo gear needed for a shoot and completely forget about bringing along the supplies needed to maintain themselves during the event. Weddings have a tendency to last a long time. That means you’ll be working hard without a break for most of your day (at least, if you’re giving the sort of event coverage I’m known for) and that’s a recipe for failure unless you’ve planned ahead. Toss a couple energy/granola bars in your bag and a couple bottles of water into a waterproof bag (and I don’t need to explain WHY a waterproof bag, do I?) for a quick snack and hydration throughout the day.  It’s amazing how invigorating a bite of granola bar and a slug of water can be during a long afternoon of runnin’ and gunnin’…. a refreshing pause that’ll help you to maintain your focus and energy till the bridal party, like Elvis, leaves the building.

Here’s the link to my Delicious list. My Delicious list is  filled with links to websites I’ve found interesting and worthy of holding onto for future use. It’s a mixed bag of photo and journalism-related stuff. Check it out, I think you’ll enjoy browsing!

As for the something new, I’m going to add a new feature to my blog. I’ll choose a reader-submitted question every week and answer it here. I get a lot of interesting questions every week and decided that it would be a good thing to start sharing the answers with everyone. Feel free to submit your questions to me at dt@dennistennant.com 

I’ll give you the benefit of my 30-plus years of experience as a photographer and photo editor. It’ll be fun and, I hope, informative. Be looking for this new “what do I do?” feature every weekend!

Many digital photographers have fallen in love with the tones and “retro” feel of black-and-white photographs. Wedding photographers often charge extra for the “’60s B&W look” and photojournalists frequently enter B&W versions of their work to help focus a judge’s attention on the “moment” captured.

Regardless of why you choose to make B&W photos, be sure to do the conversion AFTER you shoot. Do it in your computer with Photoshop and not in camera. Many cameras offer the option to capture in B&W. You should resist that temptation. Why? Because you’ll gain a lot more control over the conversion process.  

You see, the camera’s conversion follows a set formula. Conversions of trees will have the same algorithm applied to them as a wedding portrait and I hope you see why that’s not a good thing.  So, choose the process that relies on input from a human eye, not an inhuman table of numbers, to be successful. It’s all about control and you want to control as much of the photographic process as possible.