Cyber Space Play

Absorption means the taking up of one thing by another; photographers employ the concept in both the chemical and the optical sense.

Certain chemicals like Calcium chloride and magnesium perchlorate absorb and retain atmospheric moisture. The sensitive emulsions of plates and films can absorb small amounts of dyestuffs that allow us to colour them as in the old-fashioned way of hand colouring. Hint - save those little packages that come with medications and other items that are used to absorb moisture, because they have the above-mentioned chemicals in them and these packets can be put in your camera cases and with your batteries to keep them from being ruined by moisture.

However, the term “absorption” is most often used in an optical sense. Partial or total elimination of light rays can occur when they pass through a medium. For example, when we put a red filter on our background flash, it will absorb all of the other colours except the red ones. I often use a variety of plastic report covers and cut small patterns in them and place them on my background flash to create a variety of unique effects. This method is a very inexpensive and fast way to change the look of an image.

On the other hand, an article, which absorbs all of the light rays that fall upon it, appears black, since it reflects no light at all. This is a very important principal to understand. So often I have been asked by photographers why they have colour shifts, colour casts, or colour cross-overs in their pictures? I tell them that 90% of the time the reason is that their darkroom, studio space, computer room, or display area have heavy colour saturation which competes with the colours in their images.

For example, if you are working in your computer room and it has a slight pink tone to the walls and you print an image or have your lab print your image, often you will be disappointed with it. Chances are that you were correcting for the pink cast being reflected on your screen and the resulting hue your print will show will be a bit greenish. Likewise, if your studio has blue walls, these will be reflected on your subject and the lab will automatically try to correct for the cast, but you will get a cross over-effect and end up with greenish prints. It is amazing how sensitive computer screens are.

The best way to combat this problem is to have the walls in your darkroom, computer room, and studio painted 18% grey. This way you will have no colour casts on your images and low reflection to affect your light readings. This may seem over the top, but with today’s highly sensitive films and digital cameras, reducing the amount of variables is the best way to go.

© Chuck Groot writer, teacher, lecturer, photographer, consultant.
Email chuckgroot@shaw.ca http://www.chuckgroot.com, http://www.successfulphotography.com

Chuck Groot’s credentials as a professional photographer, teacher and entrepreneur are noteworthy. His work demonstrates both artistic composition and rapport with people.

Chuck guarantees the help needed to access individual potential so that students will appreciably increase their understanding of the profession and their own businesses. As an entrepreneur, his enthusiasm and innovative approach have garnered him both professional success and the recognition of his peers.
Chuck’s greatest delight is being able to share these skills with others.

One of the most common places for people to use their digital camera is while they are away on vacation, and no wonder, because we all want to preserve those special events and memories as much as we can. But digital cameras require their own advance preparation for the trip. So here are the top five tips for taking your digital camera along with you on vacation.

1. More so than any other camera, digital cameras rely on a good solid power source, usually its batteries. If you haven’t used your digital camera in a while, the batteries you have may not be sufficiently charged for your entire trip. And even if your current batteries are sufficiently charged, it’s a very good idea to have extras along with you on the trip because you just don’t know how much use your camera will get and you don’t want to be caught short at the wrong time. Sometimes, batteries for certain digital cameras can be very specialized too. So it’s always a good idea to buy batteries before you leave to have them handy with you on the trip.

2. You’ll want to give attention to your storage cards before you leave as well, and be sure that you have enough for the trip. Remember, storage media is sort of like film in that if you have no way to upload the photos each day, it will eventually get full and you will need a replacement to continue shooting. Also before you leave check the storage card that you have in the camera to see what images are currently stored there. If there are photos on the card that you wish to keep, now is the time to upload them while you are still at home and then wipe the card clean for use on the vacation.

3. Taking a camera on any vacation or trip can subject it to a lot of use and getting banged around if you are not careful. So having a good camera bag to put your digital camera in while on vacation will be very important. If you have a digital SLR camera, then you may even want to take extra lenses along with you on the trip. If so, be sure that the camera bag can handle all the equipment that you need to take with you, and that it is comfortable to carry along with you each day. It’s good to have storage capacity in your camera bag for extra media cards, lens cleaner, and any other accessories that you find useful too.

4. A very useful accessory for both film and digital cameras that many people forget is a tripod or mini tripod. Handholding a camera is one of the largest reasons for blurry unfocused photos. This is a common problem with many people, and it can all be solved with the use of a tripod. Obviously, you can take a large tripod with you on some excursions as it would just be too heavy to carry, but here’s where a mini tripod can come in very handy. Many times they can fit right in your camera bag with you and be set up quickly and easily on a flat surface. The use of a good tripod is guaranteed to help you take sharper, better photos.

5. If you plan on bringing your laptop computer with you on the trip, don’t forget to bring along the necessary USB cables to connect to your camera and upload your photographs at the end of the day.

If you take just a few minutes before you leave to organize your digital camera and accessories, you can assure that you will be able to have plenty of opportunities to record the fun and good times that you will enjoy while in vacation.

Thad Pickering writes on many consumer related topics including digital photography. You can find a digital photography tutorial and the digital photography basics by visiting our Digital Photography website.