howto

London, Paris, Rome, New York. City trips offer you a unique opportunity to explore the culture and culinary delicacies of a country. In addition to the magnificent sights, the parks and cafés, it is the charm and the characteristics of a city that make a trip like this so interesting. Of course, the camera cannot be missing to capture and share the flair and vibrancy of the city. Here are our tips to make your pictures stand out from all the others.

The ‘Blue Hour’

After a stunning sunset, the sky will appear in a deep blue color and enters the ‘Blue Hour’. Historic monuments which are diffusely illuminated, buildings or the city in general will be lit up with all different kinds of lights with different color temperatures, creating a magical scenery. Unfortunately, due to different seasons, the Blue Hour can differ from season to season. Therefore, planning is key! Find out about suitable sights in advance and put yourself in a good place to get the most out of the Blue Hour.

Change Perspectives

The Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Tower Bridge in London or the TV Tower in Berlin there are hundreds of images from all three sights. All look basically the same because they are usually captured from similar angles. Now it is time to mix it up a bit. Have a more detailed look at known monuments and think about interesting details you may see or objects surrounding the main motif which might support the visual appearance. Having a look at pictures online and getting inspired to develop these photographic ideas further can help to explore new perspectives as well.

Skillfully Avoid Mistakes

Taking a picture of a tower which looks like falling behind on the actual image or similar. So called ‘falling lines’ is the unpleasant effect when the camera is not aligned parallelly with the motif and the object has parallel edges. The slight inclination causes ‘falling lines’ which can be bothersome. Consequently, it is important to choose the angle carefully to avoid this mistake. If that is not possible, finding a suitable location and then using the falling lines creatively is essential. For example, photographing a skyscraper steep from below, which will emphasize the high of the building. This makes your photo more dynamic and transforms it into an eye-catcher.

Blur People

Visiting sights in different cities always leads to crowds of people standing in front of one building or statue, which makes taking great shots almost impossible. In order to still have the motif playing the main role, there are two options to do so. Either visiting a sight early in the morning or late at night, or reach into the bag of tricks. With an exposure time of 1/15s or longer, motion blurs are created. This blurs the masses of tourists and puts the building back in the foreground. Very important: Use a tripod.

Capture The Skyline

Let’s be real. We all LOVE it. A city’s skyline can be magical for most of us. From an elevated viewing point, it is possible to experience a breathtaking sea of lights, which account for a photo that is rich in contrast. Depending on the location, there are some things to think about. When photographing the skyline through a window, it is important to stand as close as possible to the window to avoid mirroring reflections. Using the flash in that occasion can cause a white dot on the window and should be turned off. Making use of a tripod helps to take sharp photos.

Now you are prepared for the next city trip and awesome memories captured through your camera.

Header Image © Daniel Malikyar

Raw Format without Loss

Nowadays most cameras, especially professional ones, include a RAW-function which allows saving images in a raw data format. This setup is perfect in order to rework pictures without a loss thanks to its large dynamic range. Unfortunately, there is no standard of RAW data yet, causing differences between camera manufacturers and models. Nonetheless, the internet offers a wide range of converter tools, helping to easily edit raw image data. For example, the Adobe-DNG-Converter transforms your data in a uniform format. Afterwards, the pictures can be adjusted with common photo editing tools. All RAW data not only have marginal differences, they also share two substantial characteristics. Firstly, the original image quality remains, including all details captured by the image sensor. Subsequently, the pictures always need to be edited. Secondly, the storage requirement increases.

Lightroom to edit image raw material

Not all shots are always 100% perfect. Honestly, they probably are never immaculate at first. Consequently, many photographers rework their data with editing tools such as the professional image editing software Adobe Lightroom. Lightroom was designed specifically for RAW formats. Beneficial is that this tool does not work destructive, meaning it is always possible to undo all changes made. The finished results can be synchronized with the original images on the user’s own computer. This gives Apple users an advantage for the time being, but an APP for Android devices is already planned.

LightZone 4.0 as free RAW converter

A free substitute for Lightroom is LightZone which is an open source project since its 4th version. Thus, it is a freeware under BSD licence for Windows, macOS, and Linux. LightZone is not only suitable for converting and processing RAW files, but also for JPEG or TIFF. Additionally, it offers similar tools for editing individual image areas as Photoshop.

JPEG decreases Image Quality

Joint Photographic Expert Group (JPEG), representing a cooperation of experts who developed this format. It is the most common used imaging formation, but has one major downside, the loss of picture information. Even though most camera models enable to choose the compression ratio, but it does not prevent a loss of details on photographic prints. In addition, there are some limits occurring while editing JPEG photos because the internal software of the camera already performs some editing processes. Especially, once changes have been made, they can only be edited afterwards to a limited extent. Overall, JPEG uses less storage capacity, but therefore provides fewer possibilities to enhance and edit the image professionally.

Image Optimization through FUJIFILM Ordering Software

The automatic image enhancement of myFUJIFILM is perfect for everyone who has not the possibility to optimize an image template for photo prints themselves. This is particularly suitable for unprocessed image files that need to be brightened. Please deactivate the automatic image enhancement in the ordering software or on our Internet platform for all images that have already been edited.

Why is image resolution so important?

Digital images are converted into small dots when printed (so-called dots per inch – dpi). The more dots per inch there are, the less individual dots the human eye can perceive. This means that the dots blur into an overall image and the photo looks razor sharp. Therefore, it is important that the image has a resolution of 300dpi. Moreover, it is decisive to consider the fact that the subject might look perfect on the computer, but the print can still be blurred later.

The reason: most monitors have a resolution of 72 or 96 dpi. This corresponds to about one third of the image format. To ensure a flawless print resolution, you should therefore rather determine the actual dpi number with the following formula: dpi = (horizontal pixel count of the photo x 2.54) / width of the photo

For example, a picture width of 15 cm and a horizontal pixel count of 1600 will have 271 dpi. Of course, calculating the value for each photo is not necessary at this point. Our software (ordering software / internet platform) shows via a warning triangle if the image quality is sufficient or insufficient for the selected format. If the image does not meet the requirements for a photo print in the desired size, there is the option of selecting a smaller image format via the selection menu. The formula is still very practical, as it helps to check shots at random. This makes it easy to calculate the right image format in advance.

Once the image processing and a quality check is completed, the next step is to order the prints. Fujifilm’s photo labs expose digital images on smudge-proof FUJIFILM photo papers. The images that are developed in this way are always of high quality. Digital photos that are printed out on your PC at home will therefore never meet this standard.

Header Image © Jerred Zegelis