Q&A #23 | PPN | How to deal with mixed light situations and the impact of lens diffraction on image quality

PPN.fm - Photo Podcast Network

How can you deal with mixed lighting situations in a location and avoid different color casts in your images? What is lens diffraction, when does it occur, and should you even worry about it? And an alternative to Photomechanics for quickly sorting through your images.

This episode is sponsored by:

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Here are the questions that Marco answers in this episode:

1. Hi Marco, I have been shooting my first events and weddings this year. I shoot in color and often with a flash. Most of the time the color and white balance on the subject is pretty spot on, but the background with artificial room light is sometimes completely off and looks distracting. How can I get more consistent results throughout the frame?

Question from: Helen, Portland, Oregon

Gear discussed in this question:

Rogue Gels Filter Kit (Set of 20):

B&H: https://bhpho.to/2ZuHmnv

Amazon Germany: https://amzn.to/2T5A5bs

MagMod Professional Flash Kit:

B&H: https://bhpho.to/2ZISYUd

Amazon Germany: https://amzn.to/2MF2unx

App with info for Gel Color Filters:

Lee Swatch for iPhone: http://itunes.apple.com/app/id882232668

Lee Swatch for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.leefilters.com

2. Hi Marco, when shooting landscapes in bright conditions, I usually step down my wide-angle lenses really far for a maximum depth of field. For example, the Fujifilm wide-angle lenses go down to f/22. However, I've heard of a quality impairing effect called diffraction which sets in at small apertures. What is this? Should I use f/22 at all? If not, what is your recommendation for landscapes and what is the purpose of f/22 on a lens?

Question from: Peter, near Koblenz, Germany

Links for this question:

Lens Diffraction & Photography explained by Cambridge Color: https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/diffraction-photography.htm

What is Lens Diffraction by Expert Photography: https://expertphotography.com/lens-diffraction/

Update regarding PPN Q&A #14 - Topic: Photomechanic

Hi Marco. I very much enjoyed this episode, which was full of good, real-life advice on interesting topics. I have an additional suggestion for the question on workflow from Victor, in Dayton, Ohio. I do a lot of amateur wildlife and sports event photography, and even a full day’s street shooting can generate hundreds of images to review. I have tried Photo Mechanic on a month’s free offer, but I also tried the Faststone Image Viewer, which is free for amateur or educational use.

Photo Mechanic does a range of extra things as you described in the show, but Faststone works in the same way by showing just the embedded jpeg extremely quickly and letting you move or copy the good images for later ingestion by your raw processor, and for my purposes this meant I could save the £170 cost of Photo Mechanic. One tip common to both programs: the embedded jpegs aren’t very large files, so although they are both great for a quick scan to weed out poorly composed and exposed shots, I find critical sharpness needs checking in the full raw file, so only use them to chuck out obviously unsharp images. I hope that’s useful, especially for non-professional listeners.

Update from: Mark, UK

Link to Faststone Image Viewer (only for Windows): https://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm

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