Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

One suggestion from the last time this topic was discussed: set the camera to automatic as a starting point for "the numbers." That way you are not dealing with comparisons to someone else's gear nor the light nor any major manipulation in pp.

If automatic doesn't give the hoped-for result, then your studies of the properties of aperture (depth of field) and shutter speed (motion) help you make the proper adjustment from there. If you're still stuck, you post the photo to UHH for assistance.

Bill_de Loc: US

This site (The Digital Photography School) talks about how to read a PHOTOGRAPH, not how to read EXIF.

"Remember, knowing the exact settings is not important, but knowing how to get an approximate guess is better than not knowing anything at all!"

https://digital-photography-school.com/4-steps-on-how-to-read-images-and-learn-to-replicate-the-results/


"They may assume that by knowing the exact camera settings, and dialling them into the camera, that they will somehow magically achieve the same result."

https://digital-photography-school.com/why-asking-what-camera-settings-were-used-is-not-as-helpful-as-you-think/

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blackest Loc: Ireland

This photo works well in black & white the contrast in tones works very well.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Are you still in the b&w topic?

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

I thought the topic was including EXIF data, no?

Rich1939 Loc: Pike County Penna.

Because we don't know how to add it.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

These are great articles, Bill! I forgive you for poking the bear (multiple times) in my aperture/shutter speed topic

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Yes, that's why I was confused by blackest's comments on my color photo.

IDguy Loc: Idaho

One way is to use “store original”. Then those who know how to access it in the image file can get it by downloading the image. If you do not use “store original” the EXIF info is lost upon upload.

Sometimes it is lost when creating the image for upload, though.

Rich1939 Loc: Pike County Penna.

Yes but how do we get location information into that data?

blackest Loc: Ireland

Sorry for confusing you i'm kind of going my own way. I've also found a nice little program called nocturne which lets you switch between color and black & white. Maybe I should start another topic :)

Your color photo is a good example of a good photograph, if you look at it desaturated you can see that the different areas are well defined. If you put a dark subject on a dark background its hard to distinguish similarly for a light on light. Another technique is to squint which has the effect of separating shapes into light and dark. It's contrast which helps make photo's pop and color just confuses that, even if its the same color e.g skin tones are fairly even its the use of light which gives shape and definition. Flat lighting really doesn't do a lot for your subject.

Exif helps with understanding the camera settings the depth of field the motion blur but mostly thats style, Use of light and shadow tells you much more about what makes for a successful photograph. Viewing in black & white really helps see why a photo is good. Simplify, get in closer really comes down to good tonal contrast. Even the old adage about avoiding trees growing out of peoples heads is down to lack of contrast between the subject and background.

I guess I am saying that while exif can help, its also good to luck at the use of tones within a photo, without enough tonal contrast you get murky photos and thats never going to hold the attention of the viewer. Maybe thats why Photographic schools tend to start with a foundation in black & white.

Even sharpening is pretty much all about increasing contrast...
I hope that makes sense, even if it doesn't have a look at photos without color and i think it will help lead on to making better photographs color or black & white.

IDguy Loc: Idaho

These examples demonstrate that you meed more than the EXIF data to replicate certain features of an image...not that EXIF data is useless. It can be a starting point for those interested. So rather than dissing EXIF data one might request a fuller explanation of how the image was made, including post processing.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

From all the fascinating points you just wrote, please do!

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Simply knowing exif is probably most valuable when viewing a photo shot as jpg and that has minimal or no processing. Starting a dialogue about the entirety of the set-up, conditions, reasons for the choices (for example, because of "wobbling," I now have to use much faster shutter speed than some folks do, and there is that "expose to the right" gang ) - along with whatever post-processing was done...that's where the learning comes!

The vast majority of folks on UHH are going to be happy to answer any and all of those questions about their photos. The few that don't are easily ignored.

blackest Loc: Ireland

if the camera has gps it can be done automatically, if you have a gps tracking app on a phone you carry the phone and the camera the time stamp on the photo you can pair with the gps co ordinates recorded by the phone at that time.

A third way is to find the gps coordinates of where you took the photos and add them in lightroom, how accurate you want the location to be is up to you. You can often get a reverse lookup for gps coordinates e.g if i put in coordinates for kinsale then kinsale county cork ireland will also get filled in automatically.