Fundamentals of digital photography: how to create masterpieces. Fundamentals of Digital Photography What are Digital Photography Techniques

MOSCOW INSTITUTE OF OPEN EDUCATION
DEPARTMENT OF MATERIAL AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES

Distance course materials
"Information Technology and Education"

Polilova Tatyana Alekseevna
[email protected]

digital photo

Digital photography is gaining more and more popularity. Digital technology has become an indispensable working tool for journalists and reporters - a rare magazine or newspaper does without publishing frames made by digital devices. Graphic materials for the Internet are also prepared more often with the help of digital cameras. Professional photographers are increasingly using digital technology - they are attracted by the speed of obtaining results. The ability to see a photo on a computer a few minutes after shooting and the ability to edit the image on a computer make a digital camera an indispensable assistant on a studio set.

The service of digitization of films and slides is widely used. Specialized digital photo labs are now being opened to carry out such orders. An integral part of the service of many photo studios is an instant digital photo with the output of finished prints on a photo printer.

What are the features of digital photography and what are its advantages?

We have already mentioned one advantage - the speed of obtaining images. You can copy the original images to the computer immediately after shooting and immediately view the results of your work. You will leave for subsequent printing only those photos that are clearly successful. Now you can not be afraid of a stack of printed photographs of dubious quality - somewhere a "blurred" picture turned out, somewhere extra objects got into the frame, in some pictures the fashion model closed her eyes or yawned at the wrong time.

Unsuccessful frames do not need to be immediately thrown into the trash - they can most likely be brought to an acceptable quality with the help of graphic editors. Yes, and successful pictures often have to be edited before printing - correctly crop, sharpen, improve the color gamut of the picture, etc.

Having a digital camera and a computer, you are now free from an intermediary - a photo laboratory, in which, after chemical processing of the film, photographs are printed using chemical reagents. You no longer depend on the technology of chemical film processing and the professionalism of the operator. It is precisely the violations of the technology of film development and printing of images that lead to the well-known negative effects - a change in the natural range of images, excessive darkening or overlighting of photographs.

Digital photo technologies

The digital photography industry is growing at a very fast pace. Digital cameras incorporate many of the advances of traditional film cameras, both advances in optics (high quality optical lenses) and a variety of automatic shooting functions.

Digital cameras offered by firms differ noticeably in terms of capabilities and, accordingly, price.

To navigate the wide range of digital cameras, let's first look at the basic elements of digital photography technology.

CCD

The heart of any digital camera is a light-sensitive charge-coupled semiconductor device (CCD). It is she who is the electronic analogue of the usual photographic film, the quality of the image largely depends on its characteristics. Being a direct analogue of photographic film, the CCD matrix borrowed from it a key indicator for the photographer - light sensitivity. The value of this parameter directly depends on the size of the CCD unit cell (a direct analogy with the size of silver halide grains in photographic film). The characteristics of the CCD cell determine the amount of light accumulated by the matrix.

The quality of the image is also determined by the size of the matrix - the larger the matrix, the better the picture can be obtained. This fact is also easy to explain: imagine that a 10x10 matrix is ​​used when photographing an object. In this case, the image is transmitted by 100 dots. With this resolution, the object in the "photo" will probably be difficult to recognize. If you use a matrix of 1000x1000, then the result will be noticeably better.

The first digital devices had a matrix of about 300,000 elements (pixels). This made it possible to get a good picture on a monitor screen measuring 640x480 pixels, but it was too early to talk about the photographic quality of the image when printed on a printer. Modern mid-range digital cameras have a matrix of 3,000,000 elements (such cameras are called three-megapixel cameras). The pictures taken by these cameras can already be viewed on a full screen and printed on a printer with photographic quality in the traditional 10x15 cm format.

Interchangeable memory cards

A digital camera stores pictures on various types of removable memory cards.

Flash memory is a non-volatile semiconductor rewritable memory with random access (Random Access Memory, RAM). Genetically, it came from read-only memory - ROM (Read Only Memory).

The advantages of flash over media such as floppy disks and CDs are compactness, low power consumption, long service life, and mechanical reliability. Flash memory manufacturers now describe their products as a solid-state, non-volatile semiconductor device capable of storing digital data in any format. Energy independence refers to the ability of a device to store information without consuming external energy.

Flash memory includes many different devices. Used as compact media for digital cameras, PDAs, players, etc., it is customary to call memory cards. The most common of them:

• PC Card (ATA Flash);
• CompactFlash type I and II;
• smartmedia;
• memory stick;
• MultiMedia Card;
• Secure Digital (SD) Card.

Flash memory devices differ primarily in size and weight. The speed of reading and writing data, the capacity of the card are also different. Some have a copyright protection mechanism.

Today, such card formats as CompactFlash and IBM Microdrive, SmartMedia, MemoryStick are common. These types of removable cards can store from 128 MB to 1 GB of data. The well-known Sony company suggests using 80 mm CDs with a capacity of 156 MB as a carrier.

Sony has interesting models of digital cameras that use conventional 3.5-inch floppy disks and CD-RW as media. The photo on the right shows a Sony Mavica MVC-CD300 camera with a CD-RW media.

The machine you buy usually contains a small capacity storage medium for storing multiple pictures. But many amateurs buy more capacious interchangeable cards, where they can place several tens or even hundreds of shots.

However, you can refuse to use additional memory cards or microdisks and work with a portable computer (laptop), regularly copying captured frames to disk.

Connecting to a Computer and Printer

Modern digital cameras are connected to a computer via a USB port. The kit with the camera includes a cable, one connector of which is inserted into the camera's connector, the other - into the USB connector of the computer.

Pictures transferred to a computer can be printed on a printer. If the image quality is good, then it is better to use a printer that provides photographic quality printing. You must also use special photo paper to print photos.

There are other options for printing photos - directly from the camera to the printer, bypassing the stage of saving to the computer's memory. For example, the Canon PowerShot G2 camera is equipped with a special interface for direct image printing on the CP-10 photo printer developed by the same company.

Digital "soap dishes"

For novice photographers, a simple inexpensive digital camera is quite suitable - it can be used to take pictures that are not inferior in quality to an ordinary "soap box". Handling such a device is also simple: you do not need to specifically focus, set shutter speed and aperture. It is enough to line up the frame and press the shutter button - the camera will select the necessary parameters for a good image. Even very small modern digital cameras have this capability.

Consider the characteristics of the Che-ez miniature camera! Cubik.

The camera lens allows you to shoot from 1.5 meters to infinity, and can work in photo and video mode.

The camera has a matrix of 1.3 million pixels; it can store up to 50 frames in memory with a size of 1280x1024. With this camera, you can shoot and store a movie for 90 seconds at 18 frames per second for display in a 320x240 pixel window.

Camera dimensions - 56x56x30 mm, weight - 110 g. The device has a USB interface and runs on two AAA batteries.

Camera Che-ez! Cubik can be called a digital "soap box". But with its help, it is quite possible to get interesting pictures - if you understand the scope, the capabilities of the device, and master the shooting technique.

When shooting with a "soap box", defects known to photographers may be found. For example, the sharpness in the frame will be uneven - good sharpness in the center of the frame and blurring at the edges. Color rendition in the center and at the edges of the frame may also differ. When shooting a dark object against a light background, the auto exposure will be set exclusively to the background - when shooting a character, this will lead, for example, to a very dark face against a light background.

How can one adapt to such a device? Firstly, all important elements should be placed in the center of the frame, and only minor details should remain on the sides. It will be good to get shots where the objects being shot have blurred outlines. You do not need to shoot with a "soap" against the light, unless you want to get a contour image. The ideal light direction is from behind or to the side of the photographer.

Minolta Dimage 7 Camera

The Minolta Dimage 7 is one of the best digital cameras available today that even professionals enjoy using.

The Minolta Dimage 7 camera has a high quality optical lens - the quality of the pictures directly depends on it. The lens has a 7x zoom, i.e. the ability to significantly zoom in on the subject with virtually no loss in image quality. Like many other digital devices, the camera's processor can perform a digital 2x magnification of the image - thereby making it possible to capture distant objects more clearly.

The camera allows you to shoot objects at a distance of 0.5 m to infinity. If you have to photograph small objects at a distance of less than half a meter, then you need to switch to a special macro mode. If you decide, for example, to shoot a fluffy butterfly caterpillar, the camera provides excellent macro photography, in which every hair of the caterpillar will be distinguishable in the picture.

The camera is equipped with two liquid crystal display (LCD) screens. The vertical screen on the back of the camera can be used to display the scene you are shooting in place of the viewfinder. On the same screen, you can view the captured pictures of the shooting, use the menu to delete unnecessary frames.

The screen on the top of the camera displays the selected picture options, shooting programs, number of possible shots, and other settings.

The camera is very energy intensive. It is provided with a power supply and special rechargeable batteries, which are located in a separate plastic case and are connected to the camera via a cable.

To transfer frames to a computer, there is an interface cable connected to the computer via a USB connector. The latest versions of the Windows system treat the camera's memory card as a removable device, files from which are transferred as easily and simply as from a regular disk.

The process of photographing with a high quality camera is a huge field of activity that requires constant experimentation with available technology, self-improvement and discipline. It takes years to achieve a certain level of skill here. But the pleasure from the received beautiful photos is great.

Camera controls

The camera is switched to the mode of photographing frames by turning the main control wheel on the top panel (up to the icon with the image of the camera).

On the main control wheel, the icons of the camera and the movie camera are highlighted in red - in the corresponding position, the camera can shoot either individual frames or a video clip.

To transfer the captured frames and videos to a computer, the main control wheel is moved to the position indicated by the lightning icon.

One of the features of high quality cameras is the presence of manual controls. Focusing, shutter speed and aperture settings are the most critical functions of any camera, including a digital one. These settings can be made in two basic operating modes - automatic and manual.

Most often, the automatic method is used, which is indispensable for serial and operational shooting and is especially effective in high-class devices. But when you need to create a color or compositional effect, or shooting takes place in unusual conditions, an experienced photographer will prefer manual settings. Although most of the settings in Minolta Dimage 7 can be done automatically, it also allows manual setting of shooting parameters.

After turning on the camera, the photographer can set the shooting modes he needs, the image quality parameters and the size of the resulting files - the corresponding control wheels are installed on the camera body.

A digital viewfinder and a liquid crystal color display are used to adjust the frame.

If the built-in mobile flash unit is raised, the camera will automatically shoot with the flash.

The shutter button is traditionally installed on the top of the camera.

Frame focus

The camera has several ways to adjust focus. Focus can be set using the "cross" - for precise aiming at a point in the image. Alternatively, you can specify an area enclosed in square brackets to focus on. When shooting, automation will provide the maximum quality of sharpness in a given area.

Due to the fact that objects in the frame are at different distances from the lens, inevitably, part of the image (focus area) is sharper, and the other is blurry. In a traditional photograph, the area of ​​greatest sharpness is located in the center of the frame. However, in artistic photography, another technique is often used - the focus is not located in the center of the frame. The camera also allows you to implement such a focusing mode (the so-called "flexible focus" - Flex Focus): using the "cross" focus can be set and fixed at an arbitrary place in the frame.

This digital camera has two autofocus modes, single and continuous.

Single autofocus is used for general photography and static subjects. When the shutter button is pressed halfway, the autofocus system locks onto the subject in focus and remains in that position until the shutter button is pressed all the way down.

Continuous autofocus is used for moving subjects. By pressing the shutter button half way, the autofocus system will activate and will continue to focus until the actual picture is taken.

Story programs

In addition to the main universal shooting mode, the camera has several scene programs that are optimized for typical scene shooting conditions:

• Portrait - Optimizes the reproduction of warm, soft human skin tones with some background blur.
• Sports - used for shooting fast subjects with very fast shutter speeds and tracking subjects with continuous autofocus.
• Sunset - Optimizes camera settings for shooting sunsets with a rich range of warm evening tones.
• Night portrait - used for shooting night scenes. When using the flash, the reproduction of the subject and the background is balanced.
• Text - Optimizes the crisp reproduction of black text on a white background.
• The subject program remains active until the photographer changes the settings.

The selected scene program is displayed on the camera display.

Setting image dimensions

The camera has a mechanism for setting the desired size of pictures.

The larger the image size in the camera, the better the quality of the printed image you can get. High quality images require more memory space. The size of the image should be set depending on the final purpose of using this image: small images are more suitable for placement on websites, and large images allow you to get high-quality printouts on photo printers. The maximum image size is 2560x1920 and the minimum is 640x480 pixels.

Setting the image quality

The Minolta Dimage 7 has several image quality settings: Super, High, Standard, and Eco.

Image quality controls the amount of compression, but does not affect the number of pixels in the image. The higher the image quality, the lower the compression ratio and the larger the file size. Super mode produces very high quality images and the largest image files. If it is important to use the available space on the CompactFlash card sparingly, then the economy mode should be used. Standard image quality is sufficient for normal use.

File formats

The file formats change when the image quality settings are changed. Super quality images are saved in TIFF format. Selecting high quality, standard quality, or economy mode saves images in JPEG format.

Pictures are saved as 24-bit color or 8-bit black and white image files, depending on the quality. The camera can create a special file format that can only be read by the camera's supplied image viewing software, the DiMAGE Image Viewer Utility.

When you select an image quality, the camera display will show the approximate number of images that can be recorded on the installed CompactFlash card. The same CompactFlash card can contain images at different quality settings.

Exposure modes

Four exposure modes provide a wide range of options when creating an image. Program AE provides automatic shooting, aperture and shutter priority maximize shooting opportunities in a variety of situations, and manual exposure provides complete freedom to control all parameters when creating an image:

• Program mode (autoexposure): The camera controls both shutter speed and aperture.
• Aperture priority: The photographer chooses the aperture and the camera sets the appropriate shutter speed.
• Shutter priority: The photographer selects the shutter speed and the camera sets the appropriate aperture.
• Manual Exposure: The photographer manually sets both shutter speed and aperture.

Aperture (opening shutter in older camera models) regulates the amount of light that enters the photosensitive elements. Shutter (shutter speed) determines the amount of time the light is exposed to the photosensitive elements of the camera. When shooting on a sunny day, you need to open the "curtain" for a short time so that the frame does not turn out to be overexposed. When shooting at dusk, the "curtain" should be opened wider and held a little longer to provide the necessary light output.

The lens aperture controls not only exposure, but also depth of field: the area between the closest object in focus and the furthest object in focus. The larger the aperture value, the greater the depth of field and the slower the shutter speed required for exposure. The smaller the aperture value, the shallower the depth of field and the faster the shutter speed required for exposure.

Usually when shooting landscapes, a large depth of field (large aperture values) is used to focus well on both the foreground and the background. And when shooting portraits, a shallow depth of field (small aperture value) is usually used to highlight the subject in relation to the background.

The depth of field changes as the focal length changes. The shorter the focal length, the greater the depth of field; the longer the focal length, the shallower the depth of field.

The shutter controls not only exposure, but also the ability to "stop" motion. High shutter speeds are used in sports photography to "stop" motion. Slow shutter speeds can be used to emphasize the effect of motion (subject blur), such as when shooting a waterfall. At low shutter speeds, use of a tripod is recommended to avoid unwanted “blurring” caused by accidental camera movement during exposure.

If the shutter speed slows to a point where it is difficult to hold the camera steady while shooting (for example, when shooting at night), a camera-shake warning appears in the lower left corner of the displays.

It is recommended for a beginner photographer to use the auto exposure mode. In this mode, the camera uses information about light and focal length to determine the required exposure, freeing the photographer from having to worry about technical details.

Drive modes

Drive modes control the speed and methods of shooting. These features, listed below, are often used by photographers.

• Single-frame "advance": each time the shutter button is pressed, one frame is taken.
• Continuous "advance": the shutter button is pressed and held to take several frames in a row.
• Self-timer: for self-portraits, there is a delay in the shutter release.
• Bracketing: Used to take a series of shots with varying exposure, contrast, and color saturation.
• Interval shooting: used to capture a series of frames over a specified period of time.

Single drive is the main operating mode of the camera, in which individual frames are shot.

The continuous "advance" mode allows you to take a series of pictures while pressing and holding the shutter button. The continuous "advance" mode operates in the same way as the motor drive on film cameras. A number of images can be recorded at one time, and the recording speed depends on the image quality and image size settings.

When the shutter button is pressed and held, the camera starts recording images until the maximum number of images have been recorded or the shutter button is released. The built-in flash can be used when shooting, but the recording speed will be slower as the flash must recharge between shots.

If continuous autofocus mode is set, the lens will continuously focus during the shooting of a series of shots.

Video recording

The camera can record up to 60 seconds of digital video. The clip is recorded in motion JPEG format 320x240 pixels (QVGA). Shooting digital video is not difficult. To do this, use the main control wheel to switch the camera to the video recording mode (up to the icon with the image of a movie camera). Next, you need to select the subject, compose the frame and press the shutter button to start recording.

The camera will continue recording until the end of the available recording time or until the shutter button is pressed again. During recording, the data panel and displays will show a countdown counter of the time available for video recording in seconds.

After turning on the camera, the electronic viewfinder or liquid crystal display will turn on - it will display the image falling into the lens. The display will show some of the parameters set by the camera (eg image size and quality, scene program).

First of all, you need to remember to install the plot program. If the scene is not predetermined or does not match the program scenes, you need to set the universal mode.

Make sure your subject is at least half a meter away, otherwise you will need to set your camera to macro mode.

Use the viewfinder or LCD to frame the frame. Here you need to pay attention to the overall layout of the frame - it is desirable to place important objects in the center of the frame. If you need to enlarge an object in the frame, use the zoom (turn the ring on the lens).

The frame must be sufficiently filled. For example, when photographing a person, you do not need to include vast skies and endless distances in the frame. The main part of the frame should be occupied by the subject - a person. Look on the display to see if an important part of the object has been cut off (for example, you should not "cut off" a part of a person's leg, arm or shoulder for no particular reason).

Pay attention to how the light falls - it should not fall into the camera lens. If the illumination is insufficient, then use an automatic flash or additional light sources. If the subject is far enough away, then the flash is not needed, it will not provide the desired illumination.

Use a tripod when shooting in high resolution mode or in low light. In difficult shooting conditions, the camera spends a significant amount of time selecting the optimal shooting parameters, and during this time it is necessary to ensure that the camera is completely still. Holding the camera still for a few seconds can be difficult, and camera movement or shaking can result in blurry footage.

Shooting in scene modes:

• "Portrait" - Most portraits look best at longer focal lengths. Small details are not overemphasized, and the background is reproduced softly thanks to the shallow depth of field. Use the built-in flash in bright direct sunlight or backlit conditions (light source behind the subject) to soften harsh shadows.
• "Sport" - when using the flash, make sure that the subject is within the range of the flash: 0.5 - 3.0 m (telephoto).
• Sunset - When the sun is still above the horizon, do not point the camera directly at the sun for an extended period of time. Intense sunlight may damage the CCD. Turn the camera off or replace the lens cap between shots.
• "Night portrait" - when shooting night landscapes, use a tripod to avoid the effect of "blurring" when the camera is moved when shooting at slow shutter speeds. The flash can only be used to illuminate subjects close to the lens, such as portraits or full-length people. When shooting like this, ask people in the frame not to move even after the flash fires, as the shutter will still be open for a while to expose the background.
• "Text" - when photographing text on a sheet of paper, you can use the macro mode. To avoid camera movement when shooting, use a tripod to get a clear image.

When you shoot with a high-precision camera, you must strictly observe the technique of starting the shutter button: first you need to lightly press the shutter button to execute the settings programs, and only then press the shutter button completely to take the picture.

When the shutter button is lightly pressed, the camera will begin to select the optimal focus and exposure settings. The focus signals on the displays will confirm that the subject is in focus. The shutter speed and aperture value indicators will change color to indicate that the selected exposure settings are locked.

To take a picture, you need to fully press the shutter button. The access lamp will turn off, indicating that the image is being written to the flash card.

It should also be borne in mind that after the shutter button is pressed completely and the moment the picture is actually taken, a certain time may elapse - fractions of a second or even a second. For example, if you turn on the red-eye protection mode, then there is a small pre-flash first, and only then the final picture is taken. There is no need to rush to change the position of the camera after starting the shutter button, it is better to keep the camera fixed for a couple more seconds so as not to get a blurry frame.

The captured image can be viewed on the camera display by switching to the image playback mode. If you don’t like the frame in terms of composition or content, then it’s better to delete the unsuccessful frame and repeat the shooting.

Louis Jacques Daguerre is considered the discoverer of conventional photography using the first light-sensitive photographic materials, who found a practical way to obtain a light-painted image and fix it on a polished silver plate in 1839.

There is no exact date of birth for digital photography. With some convention, 1969 can be attributed to it, when the British William Boyle and George Smith invented light-sensitive semiconductor devices with a charge-coupled CCD (Charge Coupled Device). Thus, if film cameras have existed for more than 100 years, then digital shooting technologies became available to the average user only 5-10 years ago. However, most experts say that digital photography will become in a very short time as commonplace as a TV or a cell phone. According to your capabilities digital camera now significantly outperforms its film counterpart. Within minutes of shooting, the photographer can print finished images or post them online.

Digital cameras, like film cameras, use a lens, but instead of focusing the image on the film, the light hits the light-sensitive cells of a semiconductor chip called a sensor. A plurality of sensors form a photosensitive matrix. The camera's microprocessor analyzes the information received from the matrix and determines the required shutter speed and aperture values, adjusts autofocus and other camera characteristics. Then the matrix captures the image and transmits it to analog to digital converter, which analyzes analog electrical impulses and converts them into digital form (a stream of zeros and ones). Actually, this array of zeros and ones creates a digital image with which the photographer will have to work in the future.

Features of digital photography

If you decide to get into digital photography, the first step is to buy a digital camera.

Digital photography has a number of advantages over film photography:

• Momentality. An important advantage of "digital" is that during shooting you can immediately see the result and reshoot or delete the failed frame. Just a few seconds after shooting, your photos can be printed on a color printer or sent to the Web.
• New opportunities. In addition to the traditional printing of your photos and then placing them in your home photo album, you now have more new options, such as editing photos in bitmap graphic editors, creating electronic galleries on laser CDs, and sending photos by e-mail.

Disadvantages of numbers:

• Price is the main thing that loses modern digital camera similar in characteristics to film. The cost of a professional camera starts from $1000 and ends beyond the clouds. As a result, we have the cost of a professional film camera, and even a few excellent interchangeable lenses will remain.
• Long release time. Most modern digital cameras do not take a picture immediately after pressing the shutter button, but after some delay. Due to autofocus, the delay time fluctuates between 0.3-2 seconds. When shooting a landscape, this disadvantage does not interfere, but when photographing moving objects (animals, vehicles, sports), this creates certain inconveniences.

Camera selection

Firstly, the more megapixels are indicated in the marking of the camera, the better the photo can be taken. For amateur purposes and printing small format pictures (10 by 15 or 13 by 18 cm), a 3-megapixel camera is enough. Five megapixels will allow you to print high-quality photos 30 by 40 cm, for example, for photo exhibitions.

Secondly, the better the optics, the better, other things being equal, the photographs are obtained. When choosing a digital camera, pay attention to the focal length of the lens: what is the maximum and minimum distance at which shooting is possible.

Thirdly, when choosing a device, do not neglect the function that allows you to turn off the fully automated shooting mode and set the parameters manually (exposure time, aperture size). Remember that automation can be wrong.

Pay attention to the fact that there is some subtlety with the Zoom parameter. (Zoom) - a function that implements the approach of the photographer to the subject in software ( digital zoom ) or hardware ( optical zoom ). The quality of a photo with digital zoom (software) is always lower than with optical zoom (hardware).

We will talk about other aspects of choosing a digital device in more detail later.

The main stages of creating a digital photo

Shooting

Professional photography begins with a rough script or plan. Such a plan may contain a list of planned scenes and incidental notes on shooting conditions. An important event should always be filmed from different vantage points. Later, when editing, it will be possible to select the best shooting points or connect them.

For any shooting, it is desirable to stabilize the camera. You can get a stable picture without using a tripod. To do this, you need to properly hold the camera while driving. Hold it with both hands. This will reduce shaking, as opposed to holding with one hand. Use your legs to absorb vibrations. Bend your knees a little more than usual and lower your center of gravity.

One of the biggest shooting mistakes is using the zoom too often. For a close-up, it's better to just get closer to the subject. The second common mistake is not using the LCD when shooting. A digital camera is a WYSIWYG device (what you see on screen is what you get on film). If you see the right subject on the LCD or viewfinder, then it will be on the film.

Transferring data to a computer

After shooting, you need to download your pictures to a computer to edit them. To do this, you can use the USB interface and the software capabilities of Windows. Connect your camera and computer with a USB cable - the operating system will detect your storage device and allow you to transfer data from the camera to the PC in the same way as from a regular disk. It will take a little time for all the graphic material to be transferred to your hard drive.

Editing

The next step in your work is photo editing. Editing involves the skillful correction of defects in your footage. Marriage is removed, and successful shots are brought to perfection.

In addition to viewing, rotating and cropping your photos, the software for editing your footage allows you to add frames, special effects and text to your shots. The best digital photo editing program is Adobe Photoshop. You can also try a few different programs, such as Paint Shop Pro or CorelPHOTO-PAINT, and then choose the one that suits you best.

Mounting

While editing pictures, you can make a photo montage (collage) of them. For example, you can change your photo from a bad fishing trip by adding a huge pike taken from the Internet to your picture.

effects

In the process of editing photos, you can add various computer effects to them that change your image according to a special algorithm (smoke, flashes, stylizations, water drops, etc.).

inscriptions

Applying text to photos can be done using any graphic editor, for example, Adobe Photoshop. If you need something special, such as three-dimensional fonts or letters burning with fire, then you can use special plugins (plugins) or special programs, for example, Xara 3D. The inscriptions must be aesthetic, justified in a semantic way and arouse the interest of the person looking at them.

Sound

When creating slideshows from photos, as well as galleries, you can add sound to them. The sound must match the photographic material. Choose the right music - the right music will add quality to your slide film and reinforce its message.

Output and storage of photographic images

You can bring your finished work to CD by creating a photo slideshow (VCD). About how to create a VideoCD with Nero

The beginning of autumn is the time to sort out summer photos, and at the same time organize the family photo archive. Over the years, millions of users have used the free Picasa program to do this. But this year, you may have to reconsider your habits - starting May 1, Picasa is no longer available for download. The popular program suffered the same fate as previously Google Reader, and now its support has been discontinued. You can only work with Picasa if you have downloaded it before, but keep in mind that no updates will be released for it anymore.

It would seem that there is something, but there are enough programs for organizing photos on the market, both paid and free. But despite the huge selection of applications for working with images, finding a full-fledged replacement for Picasa is not so easy. Mainly because, for all its simplicity, this program was multifunctional: with its help it was possible to organize photos into albums, and select pictures according to various criteria, and perform basic editing operations, and quickly upload albums to the cloud.

Let's not forget that Picasa was a free solution, which means that commercial programs should not be considered as an alternative. We also deliberately do not include in this review programs whose main function is to view images. Our goal is to find solutions that allow you to organize large collections of pictures and upload photos to the Internet.

⇡ "Google Photos" - successor to Picasa

For backing up your photo archive to the cloud, there's hardly a better solution than Picasa's successor, Google Photos.

First, all web albums downloaded using Picasa are automatically transferred to the new service from Google. Secondly, as in the case of Picasa, users of the new service receive unlimited space for storing photos, the size of which does not exceed 16 megapixels. For most people who use their smartphones to take pictures, this means that the entire photo archive can be downloaded for free, because the number of smartphones with better cameras is not so large (even the iPhone 6s has a 12-megapixel camera, and the Samsung Galaxy S6 has a 16-megapixel one).

To upload photos to the cloud from a computer, you need to use the Google Photo Backup application. Like Picasa, it allows you to automatically download all photos from memory cards, from the desktop, and from standard Windows folders for storing pictures. In addition, you can add any number of additional folders in which photos are stored.

When automatically copying photos to the cloud from memory cards, you can also select the folder where a local copy of the images will be saved. Google Photos Backup can download images at their original resolution or automatically compress them. RAW files are supported, but their loading is disabled by default (this can be changed in the settings).

If everything is more or less clear with uploading images online, then many other Picasa functions in Google Photos have not migrated. The online service has rather modest image editing capabilities (and, frankly, the editor's interface leaves much to be desired), there are no tags, captions and comments to photos familiar to Picasa users. Therefore, if you have used Picasa not only as a tool for uploading photos online, but also as a cataloger and editor, in addition to Google Photos, you should look for a desktop application with the desired functionality.

⇡ BonAView 1.9.0

• Developer: High Motion Software
• Operating system: Windows
• Distribution: Free
• Russian interface: yes

BonAView is not the most famous program for working with photo archives, but it is undeservedly overlooked. In terms of functionality, it is close to Picasa, and in some ways even surpasses the recently closed program.

Viewing images is possible by catalogs, by albums, or in the Timeline mode, so beloved by Picasa users, when photos are automatically sorted by the program by the time they were taken.

Ratings can be used to sort images, and custom albums can also be created. BonAView is suitable for working with photo collections of any size, as it supports an unlimited number of albums (including any number of nested albums). The number of photos in each album is also not limited.

You can use filters to sort images. They help to display only photos related to a particular album, having a certain name or a given rating.

Viewing photos is possible in two modes: in the form of thumbnails, the size of which can be easily controlled using a special slider, and in 3D view. The second mode allows you to work with the "carousel" of pictures, rotating and even editing them in the course of viewing.

By the way, about editing. There are a lot of functions for enhancing photos in BonAView. There are options for adjusting color reproduction, correcting levels and removing red eyes, tools for automatic adjustment, tools for sharpening and blurring, about a dozen effects (sepia, negative, shadow, etc.), a good set of frames for different occasions. It is interesting that, as in "large" photo editors, there is an opportunity to apply editing tools not to the entire image, but to its part, having previously selected the required fragment.

It is also worth paying attention to an interesting feature for creating visual annotations. Using it, you can add various graphic elements and text to the picture.

We also mention the excellent built-in search engine. BonAView can search for photos by specified folders, by user albums, by certain properties (size, resolution or file type, last modified date, rating).

To quickly select photos stored in different folders and albums, it is convenient to use the ImageBoard tool (analogue of Photo Tray in Picasa). Once photos are placed on the ImageBoard, they can be added to albums and other operations as a group. But there are no full-fledged tools for batch processing in BonAView - for this, the same developer offers a separate ImBatch program.

Unfortunately, BonAView does not contain any means for sharing photos with other people. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the latest version of the program is dated 2013, when social functions were not as in demand as they are now. However, BonAView can be used in conjunction with Google Photo Backup.

⇡ JetPhoto Studio 4.15

• Developer: Atomix Technologies Limited
• Operating system: Windows/Mac
• Distribution: Free for non-commercial use (pro version available)
• Russian interface: no

JetPhoto Studio combines the capabilities of a cataloger, viewer, graphic editor, and also contains tools for publishing photo albums on the Internet.

To start working with the program, you need to create an album. Then photos are added to the album from various sources (from a memory card, from local folders, from a webcam, etc.). By sorting the images in the album, the user can mark them with an asterisk, add keywords and notes (that is, a text description of the photo). It is also possible to edit information in EXIF. All this data can be used when searching for the desired pictures. And pictures marked with an asterisk can be quickly highlighted. It is convenient to use the calendar to search for photos. Just click on the desired date and only pictures taken on that day will be shown.

In addition to the thumbnail view of photos, which is common for such applications, JetPhoto Studio offers an interesting feature for displaying images on a map. The program perfectly understands geotags and makes it possible to assign them both manually and on the basis of a loaded GPS track. It also provides integration with Google Earth, the creation of files KML and KMZ. If data about where the photo was taken is not automatically available, it can be easily added by simply entering the location on the map. This can also be done for a group of photographs, having previously selected them.

JetPhoto Studio offers many different ways to conveniently view images. For example, based on the selected photos, you can create a wallpaper, flash gallery, screensaver, slideshow, web gallery in one of several formats.

But the image editing capabilities are more than modest. There are only a couple of the most basic effects, tools for basic image correction and cropping.

Like Picasa, this program allows you to not only work with photos locally, but also publish them on the Internet. There are two main ways to do this: using the Flickr service and the JetPhoto Server. The second way involves creating your own website with web albums based on the templates provided. The user needs to purchase hosting, deploy JetPhoto Server on it, and then upload web albums from the program to the site. Agree that for the majority this is too complicated and expensive (especially since we are looking for an alternative to Picasa, which means free solutions).

But integration with Flickr is very interesting, because on this photo hosting you can store photos with a total volume of up to 1 terabyte. In order to be able to upload your photos to Flickr, you need to authorize JetPhoto Studio to access your account. After that, you can upload both entire albums and selected photos. At the same time, you can upload originals or compress images to a specified size, manage privacy settings, add geotags. Keywords and notes added to photos in JetPhoto Studio will also be transferred to Flickr. For the convenience of users, the amount of available free space is shown before each download.

Among the shortcomings of JetPhoto Studio, it is worth noting a not very responsive interface. The program often "thinks" when performing some operations, and importing photos with default settings generally paralyzes the computer. True, if you switch to import in the background, you can work with other applications. In an age when even many web applications can simultaneously load data and respond perfectly to any user action, this looks like archaism. However, JetPhoto Studio is in a sense a relic of the past, because the latest version of the program is dated 2013.

⇡ WindowsphotoGallery ("Photo Album") 2012

• Developer: Microsoft
• Operating system: Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1
• Distribution: Free
• Russian interface: yes

Perhaps someone will consider the Microsoft application not the best alternative to the Google product, but Windows Photo Gallery is very close to Picasa in terms of functionality. The application can be downloaded for free as part of the Windows Essentials package ("Windows Essentials"). In addition to the component we are interested in, the package also includes a blog editor, a mail application, OneDrive, and a program for working with video files. During installation, you can select only those applications that should be installed.

Immediately after launch, Photo Gallery picks up all the photos stored in the image library (by default, these are the My Pictures and Public Pictures folders). To add other images, you just need to show the program where they are stored by changing the library settings.

If you need to overwrite photos from a memory card, just connect the drive - the program will immediately offer to import pictures.

In the Photo Gallery window, photos are sorted by the time they were taken. At the same time, as in Picasa, photos stored in different folders can be nearby. Their location on the disks does not matter. If you wish, you can choose one of the many other sorting options: by folders, by rating, by drive types, by people shown in photos, by name, by geotags. The appearance of the application workspace is highly customizable: you can enable the display of additional information about the file, rating, signatures, quickly change the sort order, etc.

A variety of means are offered for organizing images: rating, flags, captions, text tags, geotags, information about the people present in the photos. It is convenient to use the sidebar to add tags of different types. In the course of work in the program, the user compiles a database of tags, and later you can quickly find photos tagged with a certain keyword, or those in which the right people are present. Interestingly, Photo Gallery can help with the identification of people: the program itself finds the heroes of the photographs and offers to indicate who they are.

All photo information added to Photo Gallery can later be used in searches. For example, you can search for pictures taken in certain months and tagged with a particular tag. The AND and OR operators are used to define search criteria. The search criteria can also be the file type (video, photo, raw file) and whether it has been published on the Web.

Photo Gallery allows you to send photos and videos by mail, as well as upload to various online services: Flickr, OneDrive, Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo. Images can be compressed to the desired size before uploading. In addition to sending to the Internet, photos can be used to create panoramas, collages, videos (in the Movie Maker application).

You can also find some image editing tools in the Photo Gallery. There are several filters with a handy preview function, tools for color correction and noise removal, exposure adjustment and photo alignment. In addition, directly from the program, you can rename files, change the resolution, edit information about the shooting date. It is convenient that all the changes made can be canceled by pressing one button.

Unfortunately, support for Photo Gallery for Windows 7 will soon be discontinued. This is because Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 have a built-in Photos app for viewing, organizing, and sharing photos online. This application allows you to view photos in different modes: by albums, by folders or by date. Photos is integrated with OneDrive, and all the photos that the user interacts with in the application can be uploaded to the cloud. Albums are created automatically based on the best images or manually by the user. However, in terms of functionality, Photos is inferior to Photo Gallery (as well as Google Photos is inferior to Picasa - simplification is now in vogue).

⇡ Zoner Photo Studio Free 18

• Developer: Zoner, Inc.
• Operating system: Windows
• Distribution: Free
• Russian interface: yes

We deliberately placed Zoner Photo Studio at the end of the review, leaving this app for dessert. Despite the fact that the program is the little brother of the professional version of Zoner Photo Studio, it has all the modern important functions for organizing your photo archive, as well as free uploading to your own photo hosting. It differs from the paid version of Zoner Photo Studio Free in that it lacks advanced image editing tools: masks, filters, gradients, selection tools, noise removal, adding frames, perspective correction, working with HDR, and screen capture tools. , batch processing, creating video slideshows. However, the list of what the program has is much longer than the list of missing options.

Zoner Photo Studio Free can work both as a simple tool for viewing photos stored on disk or on any media, and as a cataloger. In order to create a database of photos, you need to import them into the program from any folder, from a memory card, etc. Photos stored in the database can be displayed as a calendar, by folders or by keywords. There are a lot of viewing modes: from one in which the main part of the window is occupied by one image, to “tiles” (with the ability to flexibly adjust the size of thumbnails). In addition, you can display multiple photos side by side, and view geotagged photos on the map.

Image sorting is also great: photos can be sorted by title, rating, date created or last modified. There are also a huge number of advanced criteria that use all EXIF ​​data. In addition, the program can display RAW and JPEG images separately, giving preference to either the first or the second.

To the right of the viewing area, there is an information panel where you can easily edit all the information about a photo. So, it is possible to set a color label, add a rating, title, description, keywords, change EXIF ​​information.

Zoner Photo Studio Free does not work with third-party cloud services, but offers unlimited photo storage space on Zonerama's own photo hosting. After creating an account and a gallery, a Zonerama item appears in the navigation bar with two folders: Shared Albums and Hidden Albums. It is easy to guess that all photos sent to the first one become public, and pictures uploaded to the second folder can only be viewed by the owner. To upload photos, simply select them and move them to the desired album with the mouse.

Although the editing options are limited compared to the professional version of Zoner Photo Studio, for a free program, their range is quite impressive. You can not only change the image resolution and canvas size, but also add text, place one image on top of another, add some effects, perform color correction, improve sharpness, work with shutter speed and white balance.

⇡ Conclusion

In general, as our little research has shown, most of the free programs that can be considered as a worthy alternative to Picasa have one common drawback: they are quite old. Therefore, we still need to think about whether it is worth switching to an unfamiliar solution or staying on the abandoned, but still working Picasa for a while. The only program that stands out from the rest in that it is actively developed and looks modern is Zoner Photo Studio Free. She, apparently, can be recommended as the best replacement for Picasa.

I have a shelf full of developer recipe books; although digital photography is much younger, today it also has many alternative processing methods. There is no need to use all developers or programs at once, you need to use those that are better suited to a given task, or those that you are more familiar with. Below I will consider the organization of the technological process using the above programs in several typical cases.

Let's take a closer look at cases where Photoshop alone is powerless :-) For example, pictures taken in RAW with a Canon 650 camera with a homemade attachment made from domestic lenses. Photoshop does not know about the existence of RAW in this camera, nor about similar attachments, and, despite its comprehensiveness, it will not be able to cope with the task on its own.

First, let's remember how it happened with the film. Preliminary operations: film selection, loading it into the camera. Next up is the actual shooting. After that, you need to remove the film from the device and load it into the tank without illuminating it. This completes the preliminary operations and you can proceed to the actual processing. You can use the standard developer number 2, or you can get creative with the process. Then work out the optimal development time on a piece of film. From the received negatives, make control prints using the contact method and sign them, so that later you don’t forget what, where, when and who was taken. Select images to work with later. Perhaps some of them will have to be weakened or strengthened, for that there was a Farmer's weakener, you can try to reduce the grain by replacing silver bromide with chloride; this will not add details to the picture, but the grain will not be evident. Reshoot the film and make duplicates, this may be necessary if retouching is necessary, and also if we plan to combine the positive with the negative to get a picture resembling an engraving. After that comes the long chore of printing large prints for the album, and then perhaps also printing exhibition prints of large size. Or the printing of positives, with which further work is supposed to be done already at the stage of photo paper processing. This can be, for example, virirovanie (coloring of prints), exposure to obtain the effect of solarization, hardening of the emulsion for subsequent coating with oil paint and obtaining a photograph in the style of bromoil. I described the process of film processing at such a length that those who started taking photographs in the era of minilabs would not have the feeling that a lot of superfluous things were invented in this digital photography, and all this is very complicated. Almost all of the above procedures can be found corresponding in digital photography.

Analogous to film selection is the choice of the format in which the camera saves files. There are several levels here. The simplest is to use the public camera menu. More complicated - use the service menu and use it to activate access to raw information recorded by the camera. And finally, you can use your own menu. This opportunity gives for Canon cameras -.

The operation of removing the film from the device can also be found analogous: copying photos from memory cards to a computer. There are potential pitfalls here. For example, your card reader cannot read SDHC cards. A card larger than 4 GB is formatted in FAT-16 with a custom cluster size. You don't have a card reader and you connected your camera directly to your computer via USB. However, the manufacturers of the device do not provide a mode in which the computer will see it as an external drive, they need special software.

I prefer to transfer frames from the camera to the computer by reading the cards, rather than connecting the camera. However, if such a need arises, then in many cases the gPhoto2 program or programs using it will handle it. For example, the program DigiKam. The latter, however, imposes another limitation, it needs not just Linux, but Linux with KDE. When working with Windows, the OS tools or camera manufacturer's programs are usually sufficient.

Let's assume that we coped with the transfer process in one way or another. Digital photography makes it possible, unlike film, to sort the “negatives” and, if possible, sign them before developing. So that later it does not turn out that the same photo has different captions, it would be better to sign the original file, but this is not always possible. For files brought to life by CHDK, you can use the . The resulting DNG digital negatives can be processed using any converter and edit the data in the file headers. If the coordinates were recorded simultaneously with the shooting, then it is necessary to synchronize the images with the GPS records in time and write the coordinates to the exif file header. There are many programs for this purpose (I have already written about some of them), but not all of them can work with raw images. And the coordinates are often more informative than the captions, especially in landscape photography, so the operation should not be postponed until the final result is obtained. This can be done using the Geotag program. It also allows you to see the contents of RAW files. However, this is not the most convenient program for viewing and sorting; it is better to use specialized ones. Moreover, unlike the coordinates, all other comments are difficult to make without seeing the photo. Most of them can do a lot more, but at this stage we only want to remove obviously bad shots and sign the ones that remain in the archive.

View

The Windows program does a good job of viewing raw images, including undocumented formats. It is very handy for comparing multiple shots and choosing the best one. (You can read more about one of the previous versions.) But there is no perfection in the world, and if you need to edit IPTC headers, then you should use the program in place with it

By clicking on the thumbnail, you can view the image 1:1

Provides an almost perfect end-to-end solution. The program is intended for viewing and creating thumbnails, including for undocumented raw files. Correction of brightness and balance, viewing EXIF ​​and IPTC with the ability to edit the latter. There is a function to compare multiple shots. Under Linux, there is no modern stable version, you must either run the experimental or Windows version through wine. At this stage, the latter will still work faster and have more editing options.

A library written by Andrey Zabolotny that can be used by other programs to correct chromatic aberration, distortion, and vignetting. A database of lens and camera specifications in XML format is supported. To date, the most comprehensive and promising development. How widespread it will be, only time will tell. So far, her work can only be seen with UFRaw.

Lensfun works only with Raw, but it provides the richest aberration correction options, can correct chromatic aberration, vignetting and distortion. When correcting distortion, it is possible to use several models. Works with base for cameras and lenses. Can recalculate an image from one projection to another. The stable version on the site at the time I started writing this article was UFRaw 0.13, based on DC RAW 8.80, published on November 12, 2007. In other words, pictures taken by devices manufactured after this date cannot be processed by this program. Such an old version of the program does not mean that they do not work on it. On CVS, you can see that the work is in full swing, but when it takes shape in a stable version, no one knows. However, if the functionality of the current version suits us, and only support for new cameras is needed, then there are no problems: we download the freely distributed source codes of the UFRaw program and the source code of the latest dcraw program from David Coffin's site. Combine, compile, et voila. When I was finishing work on this article, UFRaw-0.14.1 dated October 19, 2008 was published. Ready-made packages differ from the previous version almost only in support for new cameras, but if you compile them from source codes, you can include the module (./configure --with-lensfun) aberration fixes. The UFRaw program allows you to either burn the converted photos in 8-bit or 16-bit format, or send them directly to a graphics editor.

Chromatic aberration	Optical vignetting
Lens distortion (distortion)	Lens geometry (projection)

Contrary to the name, it can work with both Raw and JPEG, but in terms of aberration correction it is poorer than UFRaw with lensfun.

GIMP plugin for correcting chromatic aberrations. Allows you to edit not only magnification chromatic aberrations (in the English literature “lateral chromatic aberration”), but also linearly shift channels relative to each other, which allows you to work with fragments of a full frame. GIMP also has an Optical Distortion Correction plugin for correcting distortion and vignetting.

It has an optical distortion correction module that allows you to slightly correct distortion and vignetting (identical modules in the ShowFoto program). Chromatic aberrations can be corrected through the Raw converter settings, but there is no graphical interface, and you need to know the numerical values ​​​​of the corrections.

distortion	Vignetting
Raw Conversion and Chromatic Aberration Correction

To one degree or another, many programs have the ability to correct distortion, but their capabilities are weaker than those of the above, and in serious cases, you should turn to them.

Graphic editor

If the photos require more careful processing, they will have to be uploaded to a graphics editor. There are two options, and each of them has its pros and cons. The first option is to load raw files into the graphic editor, the second is to correct as much as possible with other programs and leave to the graphic editor only those operations that cannot be performed otherwise.

Let's consider operations for which a graphic editor is really needed. This is retouching and selective processing of different parts of the frame. For its successful and comfortable implementation, a graphic editor must be able to work with layers, have a convenient selection and masking tool, and support tablet-type input devices with pen pressure sensitivity.

I am considering 4 editors. , . To one degree or another, they can all cope with the above tasks, but at the same time they are so different that they are hardly competitors. All four use dcraw to decrypt raw data, but have different graphical interfaces. GIMP and CinePaint can use several graphical interfaces to this program, but UFRaw has become the de facto standard for loading Raw files for them. Outwardly similar GIMP and CinePaint today are very different in target audience. They branched out during the first version, and today they are completely different programs both functionally and in code. If 8 bits per channel is enough, then, in my opinion, GIMP is more convenient and has more features. If you need to work with an increased dynamic range, then you need to use CinePaint. Here you get support for 16-bit Unsigned innteger, 16-bit OpenEXR Half Float, 32-bit IEEE Float, 16-bit Fixed Point 0-2.0. As we can see, there are no restrictions on color depth in CinePaint, although it is built on the old GTK-1 (CVS has an experimental version 0.25 on GTK2). The stable version of GIMP is built on GTK-2, however, there is only support for 8-bit color, and 16-bit color support is promised only after switching to GEGL. As the site says, once the GEGL integration is complete, GIMP will eventually have support for greater color depths, larger color spaces, and non-destructive editing. But that's all in the future. Version 2.6, released on October 1, 2008, already has it, but it will not be possible to open a file with a color depth of 16 bits, although operations with 8 bit images can already be done using GEGL. So, if we need 16 bits per channel, then today we can use the CinePaint program, the working versions of which exist for all operating systems except Windows, the Krita 1.6.3 graphical bitmap editor, which is included in koffice and, accordingly, requires KDE . In addition, you can use the ImageJ graphical editor, written in Java, and, accordingly, not dependent on the operating system at all. The editor is very curious. Some familiar functions in it are implemented quite primitively. But there are some that you will not find in other programs, and they are implemented very well. The editor is primarily intended for image analysis and scientific processing of photographs. Many plug-ins have been written for this program, applications designed to work with stacks of images, and, in particular, those taken under a microscope, in order to obtain images from images taken with a conventional microscope that resemble the results of a confocal microscope. There is a dcraw-based plugin for this image editor that allows you to directly load RAW files. However, its interface is quite primitive, it may be worth using more advanced graphical shells for the dcraw program.

In summary, I would say that UFRaw with lensfun + GIMP is a powerful and convenient tool, all correction operations can be done in UFRaw, and GIMP is needed for working with layers and retouching. If desired, you can enhance the color by decomposing the image into layers corresponding to the Lab channels. GIMP + guteprint allows you to easily print on photorealistic printers from under Linux. If you need to work with HDRI or combine layers with 16-bit color into a panorama, then you need CinePaint or Krita. In favor of Krita, only the ability to visually work with Lab. Minus the speed and weak built-in RAW converter. All three of the above editors support full work with the Wacom graphics tablet. True, in GIMP under Windows, support is activated only if it is launched with a pen, while CinePaint with GTK2 has support, potentially, but I could not start it. The 17-degree rotation time of a 12MP 16bpc image in CinePaint 0.22-1 and Krita 1.6.3 is almost the same, but the latter has a slower interface, and when corrected in 16bpc mode, the response to changes in brightness parameters is soft shall we say unusual. The picture is discolored. Any program takes some getting used to, and at this stage I am more comfortable working with a 16-bit image in CinePaint. ImageJ is preferred when analyzing images and merging stacks of shots with different focus points. Surprisingly, this editor rotates the fastest, perhaps because this operation has no rollback option. Correcting in the program is not very convenient, since you always have to work with each channel separately.

HDRI

In nature, the range of brightness changes can be so large that the bit depth of digitization does not solve the problem. You need to either have sensors of different areas at each point, which is implemented in Fuji cameras, or shoot several frames with different exposures. Exposure can be changed by shutter speed, aperture, or ND filter. As a result, we get a stack of shots, some of which clearly show the details in colors, and others in the shadows. There is a need to merge these images into a single image, taking into account the possible shift of the camera during the time elapsed between images. For this purpose, a program is used to increase the photographic latitude (HDR imaging) by combining several images. The Qtpfsgui program is a GUI using Qt4 over the pfs library. When combining several sequentially taken pictures with different exposures, the program for exact alignment uses different algorithms, in particular, for especially accurate, the above-mentioned hugin program. Given the gigantic file size, the program allows you to select a processing strategy for thumbnails and only then run the resulting script for a large file. The program can work with raw files supported by DCRaw.

In conclusion, I will mention the program as having something to do with HDRI. The program does not allow you to view or process RAW files. But if your files were recorded by a camera in JPEG format, then Fotoxx will allow you to fine-tune the brightness in highlights and shadows separately, rotate the photo to an arbitrary angle, remove the red pupils that arose from the flash, crop the image, resize it, remove noise, smooth or sharpen, transform an image, change color saturation, and create a panorama or combine multiple shots taken at different exposures. You can apply a brightness correction operation to the merged image and write the result to a JPEG file. The program combines pictures well.

P.S.

Working with images, of course, implies a certain graphical environment. In some cases, it depends more on it than on the platform on which this or that program is launched. To perform calculations, the text mode is often sufficient, which provides the necessary comfort, and possibly even greater speed than the graphical mode. However, even when processing the results, the lack of a graphical representation, for example, in the form of graphs or diagrams, can significantly slow down the process. I am writing this here in order to emphasize that the puritanical approach of terminal mode lovers is unacceptable for everyday work with graphics, when in the course of work it is necessary to make a decision on the processing strategy. And at the same time, it is perfect for batch processing a large number of photos, when the operator does not bother to look at the image in the processed file. I first encountered the graphical environment in the late 1980s. At that time, the Ventura Publisher program, released in 1986, was used for layout, which was a DOS graphical application that required the GEM graphical shell to be loaded.

This and most other graphical interfaces trace their history back to the Xerox Alto computer, developed at the Xerox PARC research center in 1973. Continuity, by the way, was primarily determined by the transfer of employees involved in the development from one company to another, and not rights from one company to another.

So, while I've been favoring Linux lately, it's not exactly accurate, because without the X Window System I wouldn't be able to work with graphics in bare Linux. The X Window System was developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1984 The current version of the protocol - X11 - appeared in September 1987. The history of graphical shells is older than both Linux and Microsoft creations.In the 1990s, the rapid development of Windows and especially the mass adoption created an opinion that UNIX systems were not suitable for working with graphics.Today There is no significant difference for the photographer on the machine with which operating system he processes photos.In addition, many of the above programs are multiplatform.However, the almost monopoly position of Microsoft still created certain problems, and not in the field of programming, but in a related field of work with computer components and peripherals.Drivers for Windows are always available, and drivers for Linux, or even the ability to write one's own is often missing. Branded drivers for video cards for Windows and Linux differ in functionality like earth and sky. I don’t know if there is collusion, but companies not only don’t spend their own money on developing drivers for alternative Windows operating systems, but also interfere in every possible way with the creation of independent ones, although, it would seem, in this case, they do the work for them for free and expand the market of potential consumers. The main problem for today is calibration. The results of the calibrators can be used under any OS, but to work with them, you will have to run Windows. By the way, with today's disk volumes and the availability of convenient OS loaders, I do not consider it a problem to keep several operating systems on one computer, even if some of them will be used only to run one program :-)

Even more serious monopoly than Microsoft is Adobe. At the time of this writing, the firm announced its Photoshop CS4 at Photokina 2008. It's certainly the #1 great product in the graphics editor industry, but whether it will help the industry grow or stagnate is not at all clear. The reason for the problem, in my opinion, is that Photoshop can do everything. At the same time, few people have enough energy to study this program entirely at the level of Dan Margulis, and even more so, it is hard to believe that someone will be able to profitably use all its capabilities. A professional photographer uses it by ten percent, and different photographers, depending on the genre in which they work, use different functions of this program. Photoshop is the best overall, not the best in isolation. Most operations can be performed with other programs with equal success. Today it becomes meaningless to say who is better, since many operations have already been brought to practical perfection. Therefore, the difference will only be in the interface, and not in the final result. The convenience of the interface is a matter of taste. In addition, reliability is a limiting factor, and if you want to use the latest developments, then they probably won't be in a stable product. Who does not take risks does not drink champagne, you can study a stable product in detail and get a better result than competitors, you can take a risk and rely on the latest developments and get ahead of competitors or miss an order because the program freezes. Photoshop experts improve their skills daily, you will only become a better Photoshop specialist when the previous generation dies out or retires; By relying on experimental in-house developments, you risk because the result is not guaranteed. And then there is the freedom to choose the operating system. Product number one + Windows in terms of characteristics can lose for certain tasks to product number 10 installed on another OS.

Adobe is by no means the author of all progressive improvements in the field of graphics. RAW processing and aberration correction programs originated and successfully developed outside its walls. If tomorrow prices for Photoshop fall from sky-high heights, then even enthusiasts will lose their desire to work on alternative projects. In addition, Photoshop really works very efficiently with both processors and video cards. Perhaps there is no collusion with the manufacturers, and Adobe does not receive additional information, but even empty suspicions do not contribute to the fruitful work of independent programmers. It's not hard for the only one to be the best, and once the others leave the field, the laws of economics will have their say, and the managers of the firm, if they can count, will stop investing in the development of new ideas. At one time, there was quite real competition among commercial graphic editors. for MS-DOS - this is before the birth of Adobe for Macintosh. Aldus (developed by Ulead) PhotoStyler, Micrografx Picture Publisher, Jasc Software Paint Shop Pro are real competitors to Photoshop for Windows. At one time, I liked all these programs more than Photoshop. However, Aldus was bought by Adobe, and immediately after that, PhotoStyler ceased to exist. Corel took over Micrografx and JASC Software, and as a result, of the two programs, only Corel Paint Shop Pro continues to evolve. In any case, there is no commercial competition anymore, since the #2 graphics editor is GIMP. It is developing very well, and it is likely that the upcoming version 2.8 will be quite competitive with Photoshop CS, and maybe CS3. But Adobe already released CS4 today, and stable GIMP today is just 2.6. a good solid program, but in terms of price and ambition, it is no longer a competitor to Photoshop CS4.

For a successful photographer momentary Photoshop is a boon - the acquisition of it will save you time and nerves when solving many problems. For its detailed development, it will take time comparable to the time required for the development of freely distributed programs. As Vladimir Popov noted: “for the world of open source, a “pure user” is an insignificant being”, i.e. the only user whose interests are taken into account is the author of the program. In one case, we will try to guess by the method of scientific poke what they forgot to tell us, in the other case, we were told everything, but only in the language of the program code :-). As a result, it's likely to take a close amount of time to study in detail, and as a result, Photoshop won't necessarily produce the best result. An indirect confirmation of this idea is the fact that even with a million-dollar budget, the creators of Harry Potter preferred CinePaint.

However, CinePaint is a really professional editor, but not a competitor to Photoshop ". It is designed for mass execution, albeit complex, but routine operations. These operations always exist and will be for a long time to come. To be competitive, it does not need to be continuously updated. The same applies to the processing of scientific photographs, an area that Adobe has now decided to take over as well.In art photography, as soon as the reception becomes a routine, it ceases to bring in money.And there will be no new tools. So let's hope for exorbitant prices for Photoshop, otherwise there is a risk that prosperity will end.

At the last Photokina exhibition there was another announcement that is directly related to the topic of this article. Metadata Working Group Introduces First Specification for Interoperability and Preservation of Metadata in Digital Photography. There are more and more photographs, and the question of their systematization is becoming paramount. Perhaps the introduction of the new standard will finally allow us to correctly understand the comments and technical parameters, regardless of which company's device and in what language they are written to the file. It is recommended to use UTF-8. However, the list of signatories: Adobe, Apple, Canon, Microsoft, Nokia and Sony makes us remember that we owe the abundance of Russian language encodings to Microsoft and that comments on photos in Windows were recorded in Unicode. But then there was a step back. In general, wait and see. However, the fact that the Open Source world is not represented at all among the developers of this document makes one wonder if they are pursuing their own interests and whether we will have to buy a license from them after a while in order to read their old comments. The presence of hardware developers among the signatories is certainly important. But as we've only moved away from open standards in photography over the past 50 years, and the interchangeability of accessories and lenses has become more and more problematic, it seems to me that this document, if based on open standards, could put positive pressure on manufacturers and force them to make cameras at least as unified as computers.

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As is often the case in digital photography: the perfect camera is perfectly set up, the subject seems interesting to you, but the audience yawns. One of the reasons why technically flawless digital photos don't inspire viewers at all is lack of composition. In this article, you will learn a few simple rules on how to create something interesting in any situation.

Rule of thirds

This is the easiest yet most powerful rule for creating interesting photos: the rule of thirds. If you take a photo of a tree against a sunset, and the tree is positioned right in the center of the frame, then later you will see with disappointment that such a photograph only causes boredom. According to the rule of thirds, you need to mentally divide the frame into nine equal sections, conditionally drawing two vertical and two horizontal lines that will create a grid. With most cameras, you can activate a grid in the viewfinder that divides the frame according to the rule of thirds. The main subject of the photo should be located on one of the resulting four intersection points, and you will see the photo become much more attractive. Thus, the elements of the picture will be arranged according to the golden ratio, which creates an aesthetic effect for the eyes. This rule also applies to portraits: the eyes of the model should be located at the level of one of the lines dividing the frame into segments - this will help create an interesting composition.

Leave enough free space in your photo

The rule of thirds can be used to achieve another artistic effect. To do this, you need to properly leave free space in the photo. If the picture shows where the eyes of people or animals are directed, then in the overall composition it is best to leave free space in the direction where your models are looking. Do not crop the image to the subject's face in the direction it is facing. The same rule applies to shooting moving subjects: leave space in front of the moving subject. The image of the rider galloping on the right seems more interesting if you place him on the right in the photo so that the viewer understands where he is going. A shepherd at sunset looks more impressive if you show his future path, leaving empty space correctly.

Quantity Matters

A funny rule also works with product photography: psychologically, people like things more, especially food, when there are an odd number of them in the photo. Flower photography is especially attractive when the main subject, such as a rose, is shown with at least two, four, or six tulips, so the total number of subjects remains odd. The reason for this is that it is a difficult task for the human brain to find pairings and symmetry in such photographs, and therefore the image is perceived as interesting. You can also use this trick when shooting group portraits, landscapes and architecture.

Learn from animals

Is there anything special about your photo again? Try changing the shooting point. For example, an object taken from the so-called "bird's eye view" or "frog perspective", that is, from above or below, looks much more interesting. Raise the camera with a tripod up and take a photo with a wide-angle lens. Or try the opposite: position the camera at the bottom, so even familiar works of architecture and tall buildings will look unexpectedly interesting thanks to an unusual perspective.

Experience, Experience, Experience

Once you master the principles of digital photography outlined here, you will eventually find that they can be violated. Someday it will even have to be done to give your photos a touch of personality, so to speak, to create your signature as a photographer on the photo. All it takes to achieve this is to simply take pictures and take pictures with the equipment you have. In front of a computer screen, more than one photographer has not become a master. Get inspired by new ideas from the internet and our tips, and don't be afraid to try new things. Everything can be learned.

Chip Article Series: Fundamentals of Digital Photography

Digital photography sounds more complicated than it actually is. We will explain to you the basic techniques, such as composition of the shot, as well as some tricks of the pros. Thanks to our tips, you will master digital photography, and your pictures will become even better.

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