Quote:
Originally Posted by txpaulranger
Those pics were taken when they were shown crystal clear see-through in naked eyes, but somehow picture didn't come out as clear as I saw. Why is that?
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There are various reasons that see through does not look very see through on a digital camera. The key here is to get used to the fact that the camera is not as good as your eyes, and not waste time on girls who aren't wearing ridiculously transparent clothing. Look for the very most awesome, and only raise the camera & press the shutter button if there is genuine potential.
1) Some of you may remember a big scandal back in the 90's when Sony released video cameras with a feature called "night-shot". Essentially, the camera switched to an infrared mode, allowing the owner to take videos in near darkness, although the resulting video was just in shades of green. It didn't take long for people to discover that if you activated that feature in the daytime, it made certain combinations of clothing colors nearly transparent. Sony quickly rectified this situation by changing the wavelength of the IR filter so that future cameras could still take low light videos, but daytime videos no longer made people's clothing see through.
Today, all digital cameras (except those specifically designed for astro-photography, such as the Canon 20Da, or Nikon's D810a) have an IR reduction filter bonded over the sensor during manufacture, it's generally preferred to get rid of those wavelengths of light in digital image processors, although not specifically to prevent clothing from becoming see-through... clothing being less see-through in pictures than in real life is merely a byproduct. I suppose if you were really wild about see-through, you could buy one of these specific camera models, then place the appropriate IR pass filter over the lens and go shooting. It should be noted that the IR pass filters in question appear completely black to the naked eye, so people will helpfully tell you to take your lens cap off if they see you shooting a camera like this. And best you not tell them it's an IR filter, because various US states have passed laws against using IR filters to shoot candid or voyeuristic see-through or "x-ray" images of people.
2) Cameras don't "see" colors. With the sole exception of the Foveon sensor used in a handful of virtually unknown Sigma cameras, all digital sensors are black & white, and colors are approximated using something called a "Bayer filter" bonded over the sensor during the manufacturing process. There is no specific data indicating that this reduces the see through effect, but it certainly can't help.
3) Colors - the human eye can discern about 10 million different shades of color, and is particularly good at discerning different shades of the same color... when all those shades are presented at the same time (eg woman wearing white lace bra under thin white shirt), although we generally suck at discerning particular shades at different times & locations (eg matching a paint color chip in a store to the color of the wall you need to touch up at home). Cameras generally have a limited number of bits used to represent a particular shade of color, so they generally suck at seeing through "same colors". Pick your battles wisely, as you can see in my examples, a medium blue outfit with white underwear produces exceptional levels of see-through.
4) Lighting, and light levels. Have you every been in a very professional office environment, and noticed a woman who seems to be wearing something inappropriately see through? Don't think for a second that that she woke up one morning and decided to dress like a skank (as some people on the forums seem to believe). Getting dressed in the early morning at home with dim household lighting levels, it's a sure bet that everything was perfectly opaque. Bright office lighting, or outside on lunch break on a sunny summer afternoon... poof, suddenly things are a whole lot more see through. But she's not looking in a mirror now, is she, so she has no idea. And most co-workers would be mortified to say anything in this age of political correctness. The point here is that different lighting conditions cause differing levels of see-through of the exact same clothing. Also, as you and your subject change positions relative to the sun, every shot is going to be different. There is no recipe for shooting this.
5) Exposure levels - when you are trying to take "see-through shots", it's always better to under-expose a bit. If you over-expose, there is pretty much no hope of manipulating the image in software to get more see through effect.
I chose one of your shots that was a little underexposed to show you what can be done in software. I think OCC actually has a rule against doing this, but hopefully one image for educational purposes won't raise the ire of the mods.
Basically, you need to take an image manipulation program, almost anything will work, and play with several key adjustments - "levels", "contrast", "shadows", "blacks", "dodge & burn", "clarity", "haze reduction". Please note that the names of these tools vary from program to program, these are what Adobe refers to them as. There is no particular "recipe" here, every image is different, and will require different amounts of some or all of these adjustments to improve the "see-through-ness" of the image.
The final version of your image is converted to black & white with Adobe's infrared filter applied. Surprisingly, it does a passable simulation of what you would get if you used real IR hardware on an appropriate camera... !!! However, if you are expecting miracles, you are doomed to disappointment...
(it is possible to push all these adjustments much further, but then the image really starts looking strange / bad. It is also possible to "mask" just the areas of bra and panty, and hit those areas only with a lot more adjustment - this is quite a bit of work & only worth doing on the most spectacular of women in my opinion)
I've included a few examples of see-through that illustrate how important it is to look for women wearing something spectacularly sheer, preferably with some difference in the color of the under verses outer wear.
In conclusion: Don't waste time on this. Only shoot if the situation and the woman is TRULY SPECTACULAR!!!