NOTE: This post was prepared and edited from a book I designed, wrote and attempted to publish in 2017. -P
Up until recently and since I began painting “invented” tonalist landscapes, I have always used a camera to collect my reference material for paintings – film based for a great many years (35mm slides only) until I switched to a digital DSLR in 2006.
White Balance
If you choose to shoot using Auto (A) mode, then everything is automatically done for you — just point and shoot. The newer model DSLRs are so sophisticated that its almost impossible to get a bad shot. The Auto setting will get the job done 90% of the time, including the White Balance setting. But I like to experiment with the light before I do lot of shooting, so here’s whats helpful to know about White Balance.
White Balance is the tool to help get the colors in your images as accurate as possible. The ambient light color affects the colors in your photographs. You’re probably not going to notice this with the naked eye because our brains adapt very quickly to perceive the color of the light as neutral, even when it’s not. Your camera is much less forgiving, and records colors exactly as they are. That’s why pictures taken under ordinary incandescent household lighting have an orange color cast, and pictures taken at dawn or dusk appear bluish. If you save your images in the Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) format, any color shifts can easily be corrected and manipulated using the ACR software within Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw (much more on that in another post). So what to do if you save your images in .JPEG format? Fortunately, digital cameras have White Balance controls to correct these color shifts and this adjustment happens automatically when the camera processes and saves your pictures. For example, if you take a picture under fluorescent lighting which produces an overly bluish color shift, the camera can reduce the amount of blue in the colors and boost the orange to produce more neutral colors.
Same image with White Balance adjustments. left: @4000K – too warm; center: (keeper) @5000K; right: @6500K – too cool.
The White Balance setting is based on the ambient light color temperature while shooting. Color temperatures are measured in “K” (Kelvin) scale. A higher temperature means more blue light; a lower temperature means more red lights exists. Any light below 4000K or so starts to appear as red light and any light above 7000K or so starts appearing bluish. Daylight color temperature at noon is around 5600K, but sunlight color temperature can vary widely based on time of day and weather conditions. One of the options on the White Balance settings of higher end digital cameras is K (temperature), where you can dial in any color temperature you want. On my camera the default setting is 5000K, which gives the perception of daylight (bluish white light).
In photography, like painting, you have to understand that warmer light means that all colors will appear red or yellowish and cooler light means that all colors will appear bluer. This is most noticeable in mid-tone shadows on a white surface, which should always appear neutral. That’s why it’s a good idea to judge the environment and lighting conditions where you are shooting and adjust the White Balance accordingly to record the scene as faithfully as possible.
As I mentioned, I have several White Balance presets ready to go should I need them. I made one each for bright sun and overcast mornings, when I do most of my photography, and one for full sun afternoons. The presets are very easy to do. Use a white cloth napkin, handkerchief, t-shirt, or other piece of white material. Avoid glossy paper as it will read as blue and the results will be warmer (more orange). If you use a piece of paper with an orange cast (like a cheap paper napkin), your results will be more blue. I use a small primed panel that has not been used for a painting yet. Whatever you choose be sure its neutral and refrain from using photo-gray cards.
Although it is often overlooked, you can also fine tune the current White Balance setting quite easily. On my camera a simple turn of the front dial will shift the color balance from warm to cool to. Take a look at the image you just made on the LCD. If you like it, you’re done. Is it too cool (blue)? Then hold the WB button and move the front dial a couple of clicks to A3 and try again. The more A (amber) you add, like A5 or higher, makes the image more orange, and the more B (blue) you add, like B4 or higher, makes it bluer. Try it and see for yourself.
You can find out exactly how to manipulate the White Balance settings on your camera by checking out the manual and following the instructions. The internet is also a great source for step-by-step instructions in both text form and videos, for all camera makes and models. Here’s how I do it on my Nikon — your camera should be similar– and its very simple:
- Make sure that your white card, paper or other flat white object is in the same light as your subject and is lying flat on the ground. Changing the angle of the object can affect your result so its important to keep it flat.
- Hold the WB button and turn the rear dial to PRE.
- Release the WB button.
- Press and hold the WB button again for a few seconds — the PRE starts to blink.
- Release the WB button.
- Point your camera at the white card and press the shutter.
- The display will flash “gd” (good) if it accepts the shot.
- If not then the display flashes “ng” (no good) so just repeat from Step 4.
- Use the in-camera controls to label your new White Balance something like “Bright Overcast”, “Full Sun”, etc.
Exposure Bracketing
Another important consideration when shooting is correct exposure in both shadows and highlights. As sophisticated as modern digital camera metering and focus controls are, the camera is only a machine and cannot adjust to differences in light and shadow the way our eyes can. Our eyes are remarkable instruments and can easily discern detail and color in both shadows and highlights even in full sunlight or shade. The camera is not so forgiving and can be easily fooled by the ambient light producing overly dark shadows and overexposed highlights. Although there are many ways to recover the averaged out lighting of a digital image with great potential as a source image for a painting – all of which will be discussed at length in a future blog post – its a good idea to get it right in-camera first.
Identical Images shot using the Bracketing option on my camera in conjunction with the Continuous Shooting option. According to the options I set, one image is at normal exposure (center), one image is overexposed by 1 f-stop (left), and one image is underexposed by 1 f-stop (right). In Photoshop all three images can be combined in layers and masked as necessary to produce a suitable image.
Over time with practice and trial & error you will learn how to attain the proper exposure with nearly all of your shots. Another method worth discussing is what’s known as Exposure Bracketing. This is when you make a series of shots, usually three, when photographing your source material. The way you bracket your shot is to program your camera to automatically take three shots of your subject in a continuous burst. This will produce one “normal” exposure, one underexposed and one overexposed version. Most full-frame cameras have a Bracket button on the camera body, on my D750 its to the left front of the lens. When I press it the Bracket icon shows up on the top info screen where I can dial in using the two thumb wheels how many brackets and the f-stop increment. I then set the shooting mode to Continuous High (Ch) using the main Command Dial so that I can shoot a rapid burst of three images. Bracketing may not be a practical shooting option all the time, and quite honestly, I rarely use it any more. If you wish to pursue bracketing your exposures there is plenty to read up on available online.
In-camera composition and cropping
Now that you’ve properly set up your camera to get the best possible exposures during your shooting session you need to address the single most important aspect of the creative process – composition. A structured approach to painting means that all of your design problems and considerations are taken care of BEFORE your brush ever touches your painting surface. All of the technical competence in the world will matter little if your composition is weak and does not engage the viewer. It is a strong composition that separates a fine art image from a snapshot. I am not going to discuss in this post what makes a good design or how to create a compelling composition. There are a great many books, and online resources that discuss design and composition in great depth and with supporting illustrations, examples, diagrams and guides. Although I believe that all aspects of drawing and painting can be learned, design hence composition, is the gift – the true “talent” – that all successful artists are born with. I call it the “artists eye”, a natural ability or aptitude to instantly and clearly see the design possibilities of a subject and present it in a compelling way with little or no thought, rationalizing, or wavering. The elements and principles of art and design are the foundation of the language we use to talk about and create art. That said, both the principles and elements of design, however overwhelming they might seem, can be learned. Along with books about design and composition, nothing beats going to museums and galleries and seeing master artworks up close and personal. That’s how I strengthened my natural design aptitude and continue to do so. Over time, you’ll begin to understand and find your way around design and composition and it will all become second nature.
“Landscape Composition with Clouds No. 9” with two different composition grids superimposed. On the left is traditional Rule of Thirds grid; right is the Dynamic Symmetry grid. Although I understand and appreciate the value of composition grids I personally find them not to be of any value in my own work. But I often check completed paintings after I have photographed them, applying the grid overlays in Adobe Photoshop.
What it really comes down to is this: how do we arrange and present in a compelling way on a two-dimensional surface what we see with our eyes and process with our brain in three dimensions? Our brain is really just one big organ for making sense of the world, and it does that almost entirely through vision. We have an innate ability to respond positively to certain aspects of what we see, smell, taste, touch, hear but seeing is by far, our primary sense. As designers we need to be able to see (not look at), understand, and use color, movement, contrast, scale & proportion (and many other key principles and elements) to construct pleasing and harmonious compositions that will instantly engage viewers at an almost a primitive level, producing an appropriate emotional response. There are many devices artists can use, and rules to observe, to help construct pleasing compositions such as the “Rule of Thirds”, “Fibonacci Sequence, “Golden Section”, use of diagonals, atmospheric perspective, and many others. Acceptance and use of these age-old “rules” of composition helps emphasize just how much good design can do to improve the effectiveness of your compositions, hence viewer engagement. The human brain has limited resources, and is easily distracted. Eliminating distractions can keep viewers more engaged and more interested in how you do what you do as an artist and how you do it.
Since you’re using a camera to record source material, you can compose once using the viewfinder or the rear display and then again after you’ve reviewed and chosen your images to edit digitally using digital image editing software, like Photoshop. How you choose to crop your subject in-camera is very important. There should be enough image and background information to allow additional cropping when you edit your images, but not so much extraneous clutter that you compromise resolution, image and print quality due to severe over cropping during the editing process. The stronger your composition pre-processing the easier your job will be once you begin to edit your source material to create a compelling composition that will form the basis for your painting.
That’s pretty much all you really need to know to get the most out of your digital camera when shooting source material for paintings. Of course, its easy to just set the dial to AUTO and shoot away – there’s nothing wrong with that and you will still get lots of keepers. But it’s also a worthwhile to play around with shooting modes, white balance adjustments, and bracketing often so that it becomes familiar and second nature. And, I know that time well spent up front in the field guarantees me more options when I preview the days shoot back in the studio and begin the creative process of developing and editing my composition in Photoshop. That and more, I will attempt to discuss in a future Blog post.