Clarity - also called mid tone contrast.

Cascade Falls, Mission.  Left:  low clarity   Right:  high clarity

I drove out to Cascade Falls yesterday with a friend of mine.  It was a wet, soggy day with little promise of blue skies.  Uncertain of what weather lay ahead, but determined to overcome whatever was thrown at us, we proceeded stout-heartedly towards our goal.  The truth is I considered whimping out a couple of times but was persuaded by my sodden-proof friend that such was the life of explorers.  So, we made our journey to the falls' parking lot where we donned what rain resistant gear we had and began our trek.

If you have never been to Cascade falls it is well worth the trip.  The round trip to the site really only takes fifteen minutes or so, and the trail is well established.  No mud and little in the way of foot entanglements.  The area is cordoned off so that anyone attempting to access the river will be thwarted by well maintained chain link fences.  Only those willing to scurry over or under them can make it there; the slope and river itself is very dangerous and staying on the walkway is highly recommended.

I got off a number of shots.  The above one was taken with a Panasonic bridge camera with an ISO of 80, a shutter speed of 1/25th of a second and an aperture of f/2.8.  The wet weather produced a low contrast scene.  I typically use a RAW camera setting and did so here as well.  I post processed in Photoshop CS 6.

If you look carefully at both images you will notice that they are, in fact, one and the same.  The same file was used to produce both images.  The difference between them is that the left one had a clarity setting of around -35 and the right one had a setting of around +18.  Mid-tone contrast, also called clarity, is a setting which alters the contrast of middle-value tones.  There are typically three tone ranges.  Highlights are the brighter values, shadows are darker values, and mid-tone are the values in between.  

Altering mid-tone contrast has a number of benefits.  Lowering it gives the image a decidedly softer feel.  I use low values in portraits and in places where I want to take the harshness off surfaces and edges.  In places where the scene would benefit from better definition and distinctive surfaces I use positive values.  Look at the waterfalls carefully.  You will notice the left one is much softer and the water appears almost misty.  The right one appears more like a thunderous avalanche of water.  I prefer the left one.

Not all editing programs offer the ability to change mid-tone contrast.  Photoshop and Elements both have it.  If this is a feature that is important to you, consider looking to see if what you have, or hope to acquire, does.

Thanks for reading.    www.ericspix.com

Use of a polarizer filter.

Dike at end of 216 St, Maple Ridge.  Left:  no polarizer   Right:  polarizer used

If you are at all like me, winter has not encouraged you to take many photographs.  With spring fully entrenched and summer lurking around the corner, you leave your ensconcement seeking sun and fresh air.  You find yourself outdoors.  Beauty abounds.  The landscape unfolds before you; blue sky meets forest and water.  It is time for the camera to come out.  Before you run out ready for action, you should make sure the battery is charged and you have a memory card in it with lots of room.

Out with camera in hand, you snap a few shots.  They look pretty good, although it seems a little less brilliant than the way you think it should be.  The colours are not as vivacious as they could be though, and they seem to off somehow.  Right beside you, a friend has the exact same camera, and all the settings are exactly the same (amazing); the only difference they are using a polarizer filter (since polarizers are grey in colour they actually reduce the light coming into the camera, so your friend's settings would be a bit different, but close).  You compare images - wow!  Look at the difference between the two shots!

It was, of course, the polarizer which did it.  I have discussed polarizers before (click here), but a brief review is in order.  Polarizers take out light which has been polarized along some plane.  Rotating the filter changes which plane it removes polarized light from.  It turns out light from open sky is very blue; it is also polarized light.  Used correctly, the polarizer will take all that extra blue light out of your image.  The result gives truer colours and better contrast. 

The trick with polarizers is to know when they will help.  They tend to be ineffectual on a cloudy day, although they will still help with reflections off surfaces, including water.  On sunny days they take the blue tint out of shadows and darken blue skies.  They will not darken all skies however; much of that depends on the time of day and the direction you are shooting relative to the sun.  You get the best results when the sun is behind you and not straight overhead. 

If you get a polarizer, try this:  Go out on a bright sunny day, mid-morning is fine.  View the sky and landscape with your camera.  Rotate ring on the the polarizer filter 180 degrees.  Change your position by rotating yourself to get a different part of the scene in the viewfinder and repeat with the polarizer.  Move, rotate, move, etc.  Pay close attention to how the polarizer affects the image.  You will notice that the polarizer makes the most difference when the sun is behind you but off to the side.  Do the same thing at noon and then later in the afternoon. 

I try to be careful with polarizers when using ultra-wide angle lenses, or when doing panoramas.  Since they perform differently depending on your angle to the sun, they will cause your resulting shots to be unbalanced.  I often remove polarizers when doing this type of photo, when using flash, and when shooting in low light.

Have fun, and keep on shooting.  www.ericspix.com