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Your Weekend Photography Project – Bokeh

Tiffany Joyce — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 17:31:20 +0000

Bokeh refers to the quality of the points of light in the out-of-focus areas of a photo (typically in the background of an image when using a shallow depth of field). Bokeh can be subtle and it can be overt – it can accent a photograph or it can be the subject of a photograph.

A good quality lens will render bokeh as soft-edged circles, where the edge of the circle is not well defined. Of course, there are thousands of examples of how different qualities of bokeh contribute to the overall enjoyment of a photograph.

Do you deliberately compose a photograph to incorporate and achieve bokeh, or do you just appreciate it when it happens to occur? This weekend I challenge you to purposefully produce the bokeh effect in your photographs, from subtle background blurring to eye-catching circles of light. If you have multiple lenses, discover the different qualities of bokeh that they each produce.

Then, as always, share your results on our Facebook Page or Flickr Group.

For more information on bokeh, and the different types that different lenses produce, see this excellent article by Rick Denney.

Photo Credits (in order of appearance):
- “Dancing Bokeh” by Neal Fowler on Flickr Creative Commons.
- “Amaryllis in bokeh” by Bill Harrison on Flickr Creative Commons.

A New Spin on the Obligatory Fall Foliage Article

Tiffany Joyce — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 07:00:08 +0000

The internet seems to become crowded with articles on how to photograph fall foliage at this time of year. We’ve done articles on the subject ourselves, such as Four Tips for Photographing Fall Foliage. The topic is so overdone that Steve decided to go with fall still life photos for his October photo challenge rather than rehash the subject.

In an effort to bring some variety and nuance to this particular topic, I have challenged myself to make sure that this is not going to be just another list of tips explaining how to take pictures of dead leaves.

What is it that we love about fall foliage that prompts us to grab the camera and get outside at this time of year? It’s the colors, and the opportunity to enjoy the cool, fragrant air. It’s the crunch of leaves underfoot, and the stillness of the woods broken by chattering squirrels scolding from branches high above. It’s the lovely light muted and filtered by long twilight. It’s the contemplation of something warm and comforting waiting at home when you’re done – your favorite slippers, a cozy fire, or soups and stews that only appear in the cold weather. We tend to slow down, absorb, pause, observe, and savor our environment at this time of year. Thoughts of all of these sensations are present in our minds as we photograph the vantages of autumn.

I recommend, as you pursue your foliage photos this year, that you create a story out of the experience. Put yourself into the story, with your individual personality incorporated, that turns an ordinary experience into something that is uniquely you. If I lived in an area that HAD fall foliage (there are no leaves in the Arizona desert! I’m most homesick for Maine at this time of year), I might do something like the following, incorporating Steve’s suggestions for still life photos with broader landscape shots:

- Begin a half-hour or so before the “golden hour”, whether that be in the morning or evening. Personally, I would choose the evening. Here is a great calculator to help determine when the golden hour hits for you.

- Photograph a still life of the coat, scarf, hat, and boots that I choose to wear. Maybe even take a self-portrait.

- Take a picture of my front door decorated with harvest wreaths, shafts of dried wheat, and pumpkins.

- As I walk to my destination, take photos of my neighborhood. Perhaps my neighbors are raking leaves – maybe their kids are jumping in the piles and undoing their parents’ hard work. Maybe someone’s yard is blessed with a fantastic oak or maple tree for some great close-ups. Perhaps I am fortunate enough to see a flock of geese flying by overhead, or spot a chipmunk with its cheeks stuffed with seeds.

- Photograph all the vantages of fall foliage available to me – distant hills, individual trees, a single leaf, lay down on the ground and shoot up into the canopy, climb a tree (CAREFULLY!) to get an elevated perspective. Throw some leaves up in the air and catch them in a photo as they fall. Get the golden shafts of light filtering through the trees, or colorful leaves floating on the surface of a pond. Get a photo of the tree’s colors reflected in that pond.

- Try some long exposures as the light gets dimmer and dimmer – I’ve seen some really cool shots of fall foliage that were practically taken in the dark. I would also give some HDR shots a try, if the wind was very calm.

- Take similarly framed photos on the walk home as I did on the way out – the now-quiet neighbor’s yard with tidy piles of leaves, the silhouette of the oak tree in the yard against the glow of the street light, and my front door with the porch light welcoming me.

- My final photo would be of my scarf and hat discarded on my kitchen table, with a hot cup of tea steaming next to a plate of cookies.

If you want to find out the foliage conditions for specific areas of the U.S., go to The Foliage Network. The Weather Channel also has a good map of US regions and their foliage conditions. For our Canadian readers, check out The Weather Network for links for each province.

I also found a really neat and extremely scientifically specific twilight calculator which I recommend that you check out. It is applicable across the globe.

As always, we would be delighted if you would share your own fall foliage photographs in our Flickr Group or on our Facebook Page. Happy October!

Photo credits (in order of appearance):
- “Autumn Reflections at Stacy Creek” by InAweOfGodsCreation on Flickr Creative Commons.
- Leaves against night sky by tfkt12 on Flickr Creative Commons.
- “Foliage” by matteo0702 on Flickr Creative Commons.

October Photo Challenge

Steve Russell — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 20:36:04 +0000

We haven’t had a monthly challenge in some time but we’re re-starting the feature and plan to have it every month going forward. The monthly challenge is designed to:

• Add to the fun and enjoyment of photography
• Get you out of your comfort zone a little
• Provide a photography theme or subject that you may not have explored before
• Advance your photography skills through experimentation and practice

October is the first month of autumn or fall in the northern hemisphere. (Yes, I know it starts in September but not until the end of the month.) What do you think of when you hear autumn and photography in the same sentence? You think of the the leaves changing colors and all the awesome yellows, reds and oranges that adorn the hardwood trees, of course. Great, but they’re not part of the challenge. Tiffany lives in Arizona and I live in Florida and the leaves don’t change colors where we live so I decided that the challenge for this month would be Autumn Still Life.

I’ve included a few photos I took last year that may give you some ideas plus you probably see multiple examples of still life photography every day. Think about what you’d like to photograph, be creative, set up the still life and have fun. Try different angles, different arrangements, different lighting, etc. Keep in mind that still life photography is all about composition and lighting so whether you use studio lighting, flash or natural light, work with the light to create the best images.

Everyone is encouraged to post their results in the Beyond Megapixels Photo Pool on Flickr, or the Beyond Megapixels Facebook page. Ensure that you tag your photos with “October Photo Challenge”, and PLEASE KEEP IN MIND that if you wish your photograph to be featured in the mid-month contributor’s post, you will need to ensure your photographs are able to be downloaded from Flickr. Otherwise, I cannot obtain the code required to share your photo on the website. The Attribution-NoDerivs Creative Commons license, or the Attribution-ShareAlike license, gives the most protection to your photo, while still allowing it to be downloaded.

All photos by Steve Russell

Your Weekend Photography Project – Your Neighborhood

Tiffany Joyce — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 07:00:14 +0000

As the co-owner of a website whose readership spans the entire globe (hello to our reader from Vanuatu!), I am always very interested in learning about where our readers come from, and what their daily lives look like. So, in light of the article I wrote yesterday, I offer the following weekend challenge for you all. Pick one, pick two, pick all three, or put your own unique spin on it. These weekend challenges are just designed to spark some inspiration and get you out there with camera in-hand!

1. Go outside and photograph your neighborhood. Host a photo walk of one (or take your family along – this is a GREAT project for kids just starting out in photography), walk around your neighborhood, and take shots of those things that appeal to you. This will be a great prep for those of you who are planning on joining a photo walk. As an added challenge, try to stick to a single theme – things that are round, things that are red, flora, fauna, interesting textures, and the like.

2. Go macro and photograph your back yard. This is also a great one for including your kids! Pretend you’re a giant spying on a tiny little world. Grab your macro lens and get down in the dirt – photograph the industrious ants, the texture of a tree trunk, the details of a fallen feather. Conduct a photo walk in your own back yard, covering every inch of it. You’ll be surprised at all the things you discover!

3. Go inside and photograph your home. If it’s cold or rainy outside, that doesn’t mean you can’t play! Photograph a “day in the life” – of yourself, your child, your significant other, or your roommate. Take some self-portraits. Pretend you’re shooting for an architectural or home decor magazine and create classy still-life and lifestyle shots. Pursue a theme within your home – vases, wall hangings, sentimental possessions, or your pets. Cook a delicious meal and photograph each stage of preparing it. Use your imagination!

Please share your photos on our Facebook page or our Flickr group. Most importantly, have fun!!!

Photo: A foggy day in the Maine – this is the view from the bedroom window of my childhood home. Copyright Tiffany Joyce.

Your Weekend Photography Project – Manual and SOOC

Tiffany Joyce — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 07:00:58 +0000

This weekend’s project is designed to get you back to basics, and to break you out of your automated settings habits. We can sometimes rely too much on our camera’s auto settings, or on our post-processing skills, rather than concentrating on our photographic abilities to get the shot we’re looking for. Sometimes it’s good to break away from the “features” that bog us down – actions and program modes, gadgets and gizmos. It can be a little intimidating at first, as simple as it sounds to “get back to basics”. As a matter of fact, the very first article that I ever wrote for Beyond Megapixels was Manual Mode – Overcoming the Intimidation. I’m here to encourage you to advance your skills by, of all things, going back to your beginnings.

During this project, I want you guys to shoot in Manual Mode only. Not aperture priority, not program mode, MANUAL. I also want you to shoot in JPEG instead of RAW, so that you won’t be tempted to “touch up” your photos in the process of converting them. Every shot you take and ultimately share should be straight out of the camera, or “SOOC”.

Since it’s the end of the summer here in the US, I’m going to suggest that as a theme (our non-US-seasonal friends can choose whatever topic they want!). Are there any county fairs in your neck of the woods? Back to school activities? A final handful of cookouts before you wheel the grill back into the garage? Are you starting to drag out the Halloween and (yikes) Thanksgiving decorations? Are you soaking up the last few warm rays of sunshine in your backyard this weekend? Share your weekend with us!

Here are some Beyond Megapixels resources to help you out:

- Back to Basics: Exposure Explained
- Three Simple Tips to Instantly Improve Your Photography
- Five SOOC Tips

Please share your photos on our Facebook page or our Flickr group. Most importantly, have fun!!!

Your Weekend Photography Project

Tiffany Joyce — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 07:00:16 +0000

This weekend I challenge you all to capture an unusual point of view. Use a Manfrotto Magic Arm or a Joby Gorillapod to take remote photographs from improbable angles. Get down on the ground and shoot up from under the subject. Climb up on your roof (safely!) and give us a birds-eye view of your neighborhood. Get mobile and flexible with your photography, and be brave enough to look a little foolish in public as you capture your shots!

For inspiration, check out Flickr Groups like The Perspective Pool, Gorillapod Love, Self Portraits, and Point of View. Then, post your favorites to our Flickr Group or Facebook Page.

Above all, grab your camera and go have some fun!

(Oh! And don’t forget to enter to win a copy of “How to Succeed in Commercial Photography” by Selina Maitreya!)

Photo Credit: Tiffany Joyce

How To Photograph Fireworks

Tiffany Joyce — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 07:00:16 +0000

Well, my friends in the U.S., it’s that time of year again! Time for the nearly-obligatory post about how to photograph fireworks for your 4th of July celebration.

1. Location. It’s important to get to your location early so you can scout out a vantage point with uninterrupted views. I personally like to be up above and behind the crowd, so I can get shots of them highlighted in the glow of the fireworks display.

2. Gear. Bring a tripod and a remote shutter release to completely minimize vibration and shakiness. I prefer a wide angle lens to get overall shots, but you may prefer a telephoto lens to completely fill the frame with bursting light.

3. Aperture and ISO. Use an aperture that will bring the entire scene into focus, such as between f/8 and f/16. Resist the urge to crank up the ISO just because it’s dark outside – the light from the fireworks renders a high ISO unnecessary, so keep it around 200.

4. Shutter speed. This requires a bit of trial and error. You want to use a shutter speed that is long enough to catch the trails of light as the fireworks burst, but not so long as to overexpose the light from the fireworks. The “bulb” setting works well for this – simply press the shutter release right as the firework is about to explode, hold it down until it’s finished exploding, then release. This might take a bit of practice to get it right. Alternately, try setting the shutter speed to around five seconds and see if that gets you the level of exposure that you’d like.

5. Turn off auto-focus. Most DSLR’s will have a bit of a hard time focusing in dim light, so use the first few bursts to set the focus manually, then you can leave it alone for the rest of the display (unless you change positions or focal length).

6. Try light painting! There’s usually plenty of sparklers around, so to put a different spin on the images of the celebration, try your hand at light painting. With your camera on the tripod (in a dark area), set your shutter speed to between 10 and 30 seconds, ISO around 200, aperture between f/8 and f/16. Focus manually on the backdrop. Press the shutter, hop in front of the camera (or use a timer delay to give you a chance to get into position), and use the sparkler to “paint” words, designs, and shapes. The long exposure will translate the painting as uninterrupted streams of light in the image. Use trial and error to set the shutter speed correctly for your intended image.

Have fun, be safe, and show us some of your images in the Flickr Group or Facebook page!

Photo credit: Bayasaa on Flickr Creative Commons.

Photography Challenge: Personal Expressions

Tiffany Joyce — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 18:50:38 +0000

This week I would like you all to participate in a personal challenge.

Before photography is anything else, it is an expression of your inner personality. Whatever your reasons are for taking photographs – a professional obligation, a school assignment, capturing vacation memories, recording an important event – your personality and sense of creativity are captured within the image.

It is because of this that it is important to take the time, among these other obligations, to create for ourselves. Remove duty from the joy of framing and clicking the shutter. Take a photograph of something simply because you want to, because it speaks to you in some way. Remember how to play with your camera, get creative, get loose from the structure and just have fun. Break out of your comfort zone and try something new.

Become your own audience and shoot for the pleasure of it.

Sometimes I find myself experiencing an extended period of time in which I’m photographing more often for others than for myself (as I have of late, with many positive opportunities that still have put personal creative expression on the back-burner). When that happens I try to carve out a day, a week, or even just a few hours in which I can get back to rediscovering the joy of photography.

I would like you all to do this for yourselves this week. Reacquaint yourselves with your creative sides, share and discuss your experiences, and lend positive feedback to your fellow photographers.

Here’s what I’d like you all to do:

Choose one, several, or all of the following suggestions. Or, choose a creative avenue of your own inspiration. Post your photographs on our Facebook site, or in our Flickr Group (I’ve added this Discussion Topic for the challenge), or here in the comments. Don’t forget to tag your photos (something like “Personal Expressions Challenge” is good). Tell us about your creative process, how taking the photo made you feel, and what you do to inspire yourself. Post as many as you’d like, as often as you’d like. And please give your fellow contributors the positive feedback that they so richly deserve.

- Use a photo effects or enhancement tool such as Picnik, Big Huge Labs, textures, or the like to do something fun and unique with your photos.

– Get creative with the use of light. Use reflective surfaces, capture reflections themselves, angle a single light source in a dramatic way, use filtered sunlight, etc.

- Photograph the views that you see every day. Take shots looking out your back door, your front door, a window of your home, your office, or your car (safely!).

– Write your favorite inspirational phrase on a piece of paper, and photograph it in a setting that lends support to that phrase. Create it to look upon as your source of inspiration when you need a little boost.

– Create a self portrait, as simple or as fancy as you want. We photographers spend so much time behind the camera that we never end up in any photographs, and we deserve to be chronicled as much as anything or anyone else. When you post your contribution, tell us a little about yourself.

The challenge runs from right this very moment, until Saturday June 11th. We will choose from among the contributions those which delighted us, inspired us, and spoke to the true heart of this challenge. Those contributions will be featured in an entry of their own, next week.

It’s time to start sharing again. It’s time to get creative again. It’s time to have fun again!

Enjoy yourselves!

(All photos copyright Tiffany Joyce.)

Reacquaint Yourself With Our Features!

Tiffany Joyce — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 07:00:12 +0000

By now you may have noticed that we’ve been doing some modifications to the website. Additional features, specialized content, and a new look are in the works, but for now we hope that the changes that we’ve made have improved your experience while visiting Beyond Megapixels. Here are some areas that we’d like to call your attention to in particular:

On the Main Page you will see the icons for Top Cameras, Best Books, Top Lenses, and Getting Started With Photography. Each page is updated on a frequent basis, so be sure to drop in periodically to check out the new content!

Top Cameras: This page consolidates all of the camera reviews that have been featured on Beyond Megapixels, as well as a list of the camera models that we recommend.
Best Books: On this page you will find an archive of book, magazine, and DVD reviews, as well as links to the books that we recommend for photographers.
Top Lenses: You will find a list of featured lens reviews on the Top Lenses page, as well as links to the lenses that we highly recommend.
Getting Started With Photography: The Getting Started with Photography page is a valuable resource for beginning photographers, as well as experienced photographers who wish to brush up on their skills. This page is continually updated each time we publish an article that particularly suits this topic.

In an effort to further tailor our content to your specific needs, each week we will feature a new poll on the left hand side of the main page. The results of the polls will directly effect the type of information we provide you, so please be sure to participate so we can better suit your needs!

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter by following these links or clicking on the badges on the right hand side of the main page. We have a fun and engaging group of friends at both networks who will be sure to entertain you as well as provide you with enlightened and timely information about the latest updates in the world of photography. Also, you can subscribe to our site in your feed reader by clicking one of the buttons provided on the main page, or by simply adding our URL (http://beyondmegapixels.com) to your feed reader’s “Add A Subscription” or “New Subscription” field.

The Beyond Megapixels Flickr Group is over 800 members strong and growing. Share your photographs and receive encouragement and feedback from Beyond Megapixels staff as well as other group members. The latest photographs submitted to the group appear on the photo badge at the top right hand corner of the website. Everyone is welcome to join!

Did you know that we have nearly 100 article categories to choose from, and archives that go back as far as November of 2007? That’s a LOT of photographic knowledge to peruse, so if you’re looking for help on something specific, try finding it the archive and category search functions on the left hand side of the page. You can also search the entire website via keywords by using the search box at the top right-hand corner of the page.

Finally, as always, we encourage you to provide us with feedback so that we can continue to improve our website and our relationship with our readers. Feel free to leave a (kind and constructive!) comment on any article, and e-mail us at info (at) beyondmegapixels (dot) com.

December Photo Challenge

Tiffany Joyce — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 07:00:20 +0000

Hello, friends! Before we get to the monthly challenge, I have a quick request. We’re fast approaching the new year, and I’d like to give you all the opportunity to suggest some article topics to be featured here on Beyond Megapixels. So, what kinds of articles would you like to see in the new year? Any specific product reviews, a technique you’ve been wanting to learn, suggestions for community challenges? Do you have an idea for a guest entry that you’d like to write for us? I’d love to hear your thoughts, so please feel free to leave suggestions in the comments, or drop me an e-mail. Thanks!

We’ve been doing these monthly photo challenges for an entire year now, can you believe it? In celebration of that fact, this month’s photo challenge is to revisit any and all of the prior challenges that you enjoyed, and post your new contributions to the Flickr group. Here’s a recap of past challenges:

January – Theme: “Beginnings”; Technique: “Bokeh”
February – Theme: “Motion”; Technique: “Long Exposure”
March – Theme: “Simplicity”; Technique: “Macro”
April – Theme: “Home”; Technique: “Still Life”
May – Theme: “Portrait”; Technique: “Black and White”
June – Theme: “City”; Technique: “HDR”
July – Theme: “Color”; Technique: “SOOC”
August – Theme and Technique: “Landscape”
September – Theme: “Angles”; Technique: “Black and White”
October – Theme: “Autumn”; Technique: “Flash”
November – Theme: “Open Subject”; Technique: “Soft Focus”

And a new for December: Theme: “Winter”; Technique: “Natural Light”.

As always, contributors can either combine the theme and the technique in a single photograph, or in individual photographs that demonstrate one or the other. Everyone is encouraged to post their results in the Beyond Megapixels Photo Pool on Flickr, or the Beyond Megapixels Facebook page. Ensure that you tag your photos with “December Photo Challenge”, and PLEASE KEEP IN MIND that if you wish your photograph to be featured in the mid-month contributor’s post, you will need to ensure your photographs are able to be downloaded from Flickr. Otherwise, I cannot obtain the code required to share your photo on the website. The Attribution-NoDerivs Creative Commons license, or the Attribution-ShareAlike license, gives the most protection to your photo, while still allowing it to be downloaded.

We also post a group discussion thread in the Flickr Group at the beginning of each month, for contributors to share their experiences about the challenge. Or, if you’d like, you can also post a link to your contribution in the comments of this article. Have fun, and we look forward to seeing your results!

Photo credits (in order of appearance):
- “Winter’s Dream” by Simon Hua on Flickr Creative Commons.
- “Winter Etchings” by Lina Smith on Flickr Creative Commons.