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.

Related posts:

1. Your Weekend Photography Project – Your Neighborhood
2. Your Weekend Photography Project
3. Your Weekend Photography Project – Get Low

This is one of the first of my own photos that I really liked.

This is the first in a three-part series on improving your photography at every level of ability. This “beginner” article will be followed by “intermediate” and “advanced” articles over the next couple of weeks.

———-

Congratulations! You’ve purchased your first digital camera and are ready to jump right in. Maybe you’re a little intimidated by all of the modes, menus and buttons on your camera. It’s possible that you are dissatisfied with your first few (hundred!) photos. Perhaps you’ve looked through Flickr or 500px and have wondered how on earth the photographers captured the shots, and if you could ever possibly be that good.

The answer is, YES YOU CAN! And here are some tips on how to go about doing just that. I’m hearkening back to the days when I was first getting started, and these were the items that I recall were most important for my own learning experience.

One - First thing’s first, read your camera’s manual. It may seem like a pretty darned obvious tip, but you’d be surprised at how many people just leave the manual in the box and try to figure things out for themselves. Then they get frustrated with the camera, annoyed at themselves, and take some of the joy out of new camera ownership. So, sit there on the couch with the camera in your lap and follow the directions for the various capabilities of your particular model. Become familiar with all of the buttons, dials, and menus and practice getting to them quickly and easily. If you don’t understand the concept that is being explained – say, exposure compensation, or bracketing – pull out your laptop and do a little research. Knowing what your camera can do, and knowing what those capabilities mean, should be your first step. Then when you’re ready to try out those concepts for the first time, you’ll know how to make your camera do what you want. Also, if you find your camera’s manual lacking (as I did with my Canon 7D), buy a book about it. I picked up David Busch’s Canon EOS 7D Guide to Digital SLR Photography and learned a TON more than I would have by just reading the manual that came with the camera.

I used to center my shots all the time.

Two - Pay attention to composition. Nine times out of ten, when you look at a photo that you took and don’t understand why it doesn’t resonate with you when someone else’s photo of a similar subject did, it’s probably because of the composition. Composition means the difference between art and banality. It can create interest and differentiate between a snapshot and a photograph. There are a lot of composition “rules” – some of which can be broken with wonderful results. Some of the most basic are to avoid centering your subject within the shot (that creates the “snapshot” look), strive for simplicity and avoid photographs that are too “busy”, and keep your horizons (and other lines that are meant to be exactly horizontal or vertical) straight! If you’re looking for a book on the subject, The Photographer’s Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos comes highly recommended and has very positive reviews.

Three - Make shooting easy on yourself at first. Shoot in JPEG so that you don’t have to master post processing on top of everything else. Use Program Mode or another automatic mode while you are getting used to your camera or are concentrating on composition. Use your camera’s auto-focus capabilities to their fullest extent until you get the hang of positioning specific points of focus. You’re not going to know how to do everything immediately, so concentrate on acquiring your knowledge gradually but consistently. Then, as your confidence grows, give Aperture Priority a try. Many photographers find themselves shooting in Aperture Priority most of the time (myself included) when outside of the studio, because depth of field is usually what we want to control.

I used vignetting WAAAAAAY too much.

Four – Your wish list of gear is going to grow quickly. Prioritizing that wish list might seem an impossible task. My recommendation is to FIRST buy an external hard drive to back up all of your photographs. I just got a Western Digital WD Elements 3 TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive, and I’m thinking three TERABYTES is enough to get me by for a while. Then of course you’re going to want a couple of extra batteries and memory cards, and a memory card reader so you’re not pulling files off using your camera’s USB cable (which is hard on the camera and the card). Get a couple of good, quality microfiber cloths and a dust blower to keep your gear clean. Finally, get a good sturdy camera bag to keep your investment safe.

Five - The first, middle, and last word in improving your photography is practice, practice, practice. Don’t get so bogged down in the “rules” and technical aspects of photography that you miss out on enjoying yourself. Take your camera everywhere and just shoot. Don’t worry about post-processing, don’t worry about showing anyone the shots, and cast aside any urge to judge your own efforts. Get used to the feel of the camera in your hand, so that your responses to photographic opportunities are automatic. If you only use your camera during special occasions or vacations, you won’t shoot often enough or consistently enough to develop your skills. Soon you will find yourself keeping more photos than you discard, and you’ll have some shots that you’re proud of. Over the course of a few months, you can see for yourself in the examples of your work how much your photographic skills have grown. There is so much value in keeping a visual record of your growth, so don’t delete the photos of your first attempts!

We have a section of this website specifically geared toward beginners, called Getting Started With Photography. This page is updated on a regular basis, so be sure to check it out occasionally for new information! I also HIGHLY recommend Scott Kelby’s Digital Photography Boxed Set, Volumes 1, 2, and 3 – I own them myself and have given them as gifts to several aspiring photographer friends.

Are you a beginner photographer who would like to share your experiences? Are you more knowledgeable about photography and wish to share your own experiences about what would have helped you when you first started? Please share with us in the comments or on our Facebook page.

All photos copyright Tiffany Joyce. Each one of them is from the first six months of owning my first DSLR camera. I love to look back and see how much I have learned and how much I have grown.

Related posts:

1. Three Simple Tips to INSTANTLY Improve Your Photography
2. Understanding Light in Photography – Beginner Level
3. Intermediate Tips for Better Photography

• 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

Related posts:

1. October Photo Challenge
2. December Photo Challenge
3. Your October Photo Challenge Contributions

One - Turn on your viewfinder composition grid. If you’re having a hard time keeping your horizons straight, if you tend to misalign your subjects, or if you’d like a reminder that not EVERYTHING has to be centered, this tool will help you immensely. The grid is displayed according to the rule of thirds and is visible over the view you see through your viewfinder. I’ve found that it doesn’t take very long at all before this stops being distracting and starts being useful. You will find this setting in your camera’s menu – in my Canon 7D I access it by going to the fourth menu function tab, then choose Grid Display and select Grid Display #1. You should be able to find this option’s instructions quickly in your camera model’s user guide.

Two - Get the focus right. There’s nothing more frustrating than incorrectly focused photos, so in order to get the focus right you need to stop relying on your camera’s handy dandy auto-focus function to choose the focus point for you – because it’s going to get it wrong. A lot. Auto-focus tends to want to focus on the object or part of the scene that is closest to the camera, and sometimes we just don’t want that! Learn how to manually select the AF focal points or focal zones on your camera. The ability to move the focal point around is extremely useful when you’re trying to focus on a specific point that is not centered in the frame.

Three - Ask yourself questions. This will force you to slow down and really consider your photograph’s composition. What is my subject? How does the light fall? Are my lines/horizons straight? Can I pre-focus this shot to prepare for action and movement? Where will the viewer’s eyes automatically be drawn? How can I fill the frame? Will a change in perspective benefit this shot? You don’t have to ask yourself ALL of these questions before you take your photograph, but get into the habit of doing a little self-check. It’s even useful to ask yourself these questions after you’ve take the shot and are previewing it on the camera. It will give you the opportunity to take the photo again and improve upon it.

Do you have more tips to share? Let us know in the comments!

Photo credits (in order of appearance):
- “Rose Bud” by Abhijit Tembhekar on Flickr Creative Commons.
- “Focus…” by Kenny Louie on Flickr Creative Commons.
- “Glowing Tracks” by Tiffany Joyce

Related posts:

1. Auto Focus Microadjustments
2. Beginner Tips for Better Photography
3. Five SOOC Tips

Still, there are times where your surroundings will “fool” your camera into an incorrect exposure. This can be especially true at the beach, especially during the day. I know, if you want great outdoors shots take them during the “Golden Hour” but sometimes you have to take the photo when the opportunity presents itself.

To make this more difficult, different beaches have markedly different colors of sand so there aren’t any hard and fast exposure rules that will apply to every beach. For example, if you find yourself on Panaluu Beach on the big island of Hawaii the sand is black, very black. In places like Destin and Ft. Walton Beach, Florida, or the Seychelles, the beaches look like they’re covered with granulated sugar. Both situations may require some exposure manipulation.

If you’re shooting photographs at a beach where the sand is very white, depending on how you have your camera set for exposures, the camera will want to expose the sand as medium gray and your photo will be underexposed. There isn’t anything wrong with the image being underexposed and that may be exactly what you’re trying to achieve, but if you want the beach to look white, you’ll need to increase the exposure, either by opening the aperture or slowing shutter speed. Just as with snow, the general adjustment is to “open up” two stops as pure white is two stops “brighter” than medium (or 18%) gray. However, I find that sometimes has a tendency to “blow out” the sand and I want the sand to have some detail so I usually open up 1 1/3 stops or 1 2/3 stops.

To be truthful, I will usually take a number of different exposures just to make sure but once I have it the way I want it, I adjust the “exposure compensation” by whatever amount I’m increasing the exposure and that usually solves the problem. Then I get white sand like you see in this image.

Of course, all that fancy stuff goes out the window when you’re capturing an image like this one of the man, the dog, the beach and the fog. In some parts of the world, like the Pacific Coast of the U.S. and Canada, the light can go from bright sunlight to dense fog in a matter of minutes.

While the beach can present some interesting exposure challenges, there are also a tremendous number of opportunities to capture some great images.

Take your camera to the beach and experiment. Once you become comfortable working with some difficult lighting situations, you’ll be glad you gave it a try. In addition to shutter speed and aperture to adjust your exposure, don’t forget to experiment with Neutral Density and Circular Polarizing filters if you have them.

Photo Credits:
Beach Chairs at Weiße Düne by palestrina55 on Flickr Commons
Cuban Beach by phunko82 on Flickr Commons
Beach, Dog and Fog by colin.jagoe on Flickr Commons
Beach by tricky on Flickr Commons
Beached Out by Weng on Flickr Commons

Related posts:

1. Photography 101 – Exposure Compensation
2. Photography 101 – Exposure Bracketing
3. Back to Basics: Exposure Explained

The May 2011 issue of National Geographic magazine, on newsstands April 26th.

(Click on all photographs to enlarge and enjoy.)

There was a time, in the not-too-distant past, when photography seemed like magic. Given what we know now, with concepts taught to us by our high-school science teachers, we understand the photographic process much better than our historical compatriots. That understanding has in no way removed the wonder of the process, and the sheer amazement that we feel for those inventors of the past who, through experimentation and imagination, created the fledgling tools that evolved into the photographic technology of today.

Duplicating the real thing, a ghostly upside-down image of a lightbulb appears inside a wine box converted to a pinhole camera. In his classic photograph, Morell demonstrates how a camera obscura (dark chamber) image forms.

In this excerpt of “Rooms With A View”, an article in the May 2011 issue of National Geographic, writer Tom O’Neill discusses the ancient phenomenon of “camera obscura” and the modern-day talents of photographer Abelardo Morell:

Something strange and wonderful happens when light enters a dark space through a tiny opening. Aristotle described the phenomenon back in the fourth century B.C. Leonardo in Renaissance Italy sketched the process. In Coney Island and other 19th-century seaside resorts, tourists lined up to see the magical results. Shift to a Boston classroom, the year 1988. Cuban-born Abelardo Morell, teaching an introductory photography course at an art college, was curious to step back in time. On a sunny day, he covered the classroom windows with black plastic, making the space as dark as a cave, cut a dime-size hole in the material, and told his students to watch. Almost instantly the back wall came alive like a movie screen, its surface covered with a fuzzy image of people and cars moving along Huntington Avenue outside. Then the double take: The image was upside down, sky on floor, ground on ceiling, the laws of gravity seemingly gone haywire.

Morell had turned his classroom into a camera obscura, a dark chamber, the Latin name for perhaps the earliest known imaging device and the ancestor of the photographic camera.

Colors, shapes, and perspectives run amok in a playful mind-bender devised by Morell in a Venice sitting room. "I want people to wonder, What belongs to what?" says Morell, who projected a view of the Grand Canal onto a wall painted in a jungle motif. The shadow of a chandelier adds to the image's hypnotic mayhem.

Camera obscura is one of the earliest imaging methods known to man. What was initially a teaching tool for Morell’s introductory photography course became a passion, and his pursuit of perfecting this method created some of the most visually-stunning contemporary photographs of the modern era. Morell went from using simple household materials to create the effect, to engineering the technique which allowed him to manipulate brightness, focus, and the use of digital sensors.

As vivid as a dream, a hyper-sharp image of the Brooklyn Bridge and lower Manhattan materializes above tousled sheets. To make the surreal picture, Morell essentially put his camera inside a room serving as a camera and kept his shutter open for five hours to expose on film the incoming image. He used a prism to flip the projection right-side up.

Morell’s fascinating combination of ancient technique and modern composition have created an incredibly unique body of work. His exhibitions have been featured in galleries and museums in New York, San Francisco, and Boston. Read Tom O’Neill’s excellent article in National Geographic’s May Issue, and click on the link to the left of the article to watch a fascinating video of the camera obscura process.

All photographs provided by National Geographic, copyright Abelardo Morell/National Geographic.

Related posts:

1. YOUR Photo Challenge Contributions
2. Happy Animals! Smile for the camera!
3. Gems – Black and White

Recently I read, on another photography blog, an article entitled “10 Reasons Why I Hate Photography.” I’m pretty sure that the writer had his tongue firmly planted in his cheek when he wrote and posted the article but he did make a few good points. His article prompted me to list eight of the reasons I love photography.

When you’ve finished reading the article, please use the comments section to share what you love about photography.

You have the opportunity to capture some really awesome images

As a photographer you not only have the opportunity to see some incredible sights as you move through your life, you also are able to chronicle the sight by capturing an image of it. In addition to being able to visit this beautiful lake in the Italian Alps, the photographer captured an image that he can visit whenever he wants. He can also share the image with others to show them what he saw. A picture truely can be worth a thousand words.

Photography is a great way to meet new people

Go someplace where there are a lot of people around and where you won’t be hassled by that segment of society that is convinced that unless you’re taking a photo of someone you know, photography in public is somehow illegal. I’m sure you know the kind I’m talking about. National and state parks, wildlife refuges, city parks, sporting events, etc., come to mind. The image above is the crowd waiting for Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park. Set up your tripod with your camera and the longest lens you have mounted on it and start taking photos. I’ve had some great conversations with total strangers by doing this. If you haven’t before, try it. You might be amazed at how much fun it is.

Photography is full of surprises

I’ve written before that if you see a great shot in your viewfinder, you just missed a great shot. The corollary is also true – sometimes you get a great shot you never saw in the view finder. Last Saturday I was at the Merritt Island NWR near Titusville, FL, and just for fun about 45 minutes after sunrise I was shooting directly toward the sun to capture silhouettes of this reddish egret. In truth I wasn’t very interested in capturing silhouettes and was shooting from the car instead of getting out and setting up with my tripod. After snapping off 5 images I put my camera down and drove away. Image my surprise when I downloaded the images of the day onto my computer and found this one of the egret, beak open, fish suspended between the top and bottom parts of the beak. What happened was at the moment I pressed the shutter release the egret tossed the fish to orient the head towards the egret’s throat so the fish could be swallowed. Look closely and you’ll see two water droplets also suspended between the top and bottom part of the beak. Had I seen that through the viewfinder, I would have missed it completely. Lucky, yes, but what a nice surprise.

It stays with you

Photography is like riding a bicycle, once you learn the basics of photography, they stay with you. In the early 90’s I became disenchanted with photography for a number of reasons which could be an article by themselves. From then until January of last year I used various point & shoot cameras to capture the moments I wanted. In January 2010 I purchased my first DSLR. The learning curve was about the camera, digital photography, Photoshop, Lightroom, etc. I already knew, and remembered, composition, lighting, reciprocity and all the other skills and techniques that haven’t change in a hundred years. There are still things to learn about photography but what I know has stayed with me over the years.

It’s a great way to spend free time

If you’re reading this article then you’re a photographer on some level and if you’re a photographer it’s because you want to be. Which is a better way to spend a Saturday, watching the 47th baseball game of a 162 game season on TV or using your photography equipment taking photos and improving your skills? Yes, I do watch a baseball game from time to time and there are some football games I wouldn’t miss for the world, but on more than one occasion I’ve recorded the game to watch later and used the daylight hours with my camera.

Toys and more toys

My wife likes to say that the difference between men and boys is the price of their toys. The old adage fits for women and girls as well. Yes, photography is expensive if you want it to be. I keep a wish list that will always have equipment on it and not everything on the list costs over $1,000. However, there is a certain thrill with opening a box of new equipment whether it’s a new memory card or a new camera body. Remember, whoever has the most toys when they die, wins.

You get to bask in the praise of others

When you take a really good shot you get to show it to all your friends and acquaintances if you choose. I’ve never failed to receive positive reinforcement in return. Yes, they will sometimes respond with a question like, “Wow, that’s really good. What kind of camera do you have?” as if the camera was the only reason the image is really good. I’ve found that if you simply answer the question they will usually respond with a compliment about the photo. Besides, you know that they know that it’s an image they can’t capture.

You can easily change the way the photo looks

Back in the old slide film days if the image wasn’t quite right of if the colors or exposure was incorrect the slide went into the trash. Today, it’s amazing what you can do with an image in Photoshop and Lightroom. I’ve rescued more than one image that would have gone to the landfill had it been a 35mm slide. In fact, I’ve even rescued some old slides that weren’t quite right and I kept anyway – scan the slide, manipulate the image and voila.

These are only eight reasons. I know there are more. Now it’s your turn. Use the comments below to tell us reasons why you love photography.

Photo Credits:
Blue Lake by Wagman_30 on Flickr Commons
Waiting for Old Faithful by nicholasngkw on Flickr Commons
Egret with Fish by Steve Russell9 on Flickr
Small DSLR by jónr on Flickr Commons
Elephant Rocks State Park by fotobydave on Flickr Commons
Uncertain by Brian Auer on Flickr Commons
Camera Bag and Equipment by Steve Russell9 on Flickr
Great Spangled by Property#1 on Flickr Commons
Tree in Snow – Underexposed by Steve Russell9 on Flickr
Tree in Snow-Exposure Corrected by Steve Russell9 on Flickr

Related posts:

1. The 5 P’s of Photography
2. John Shaw Nature and Digital Photography Seminars
3. What Makes Black & White So Special

The quote above has been said many different ways and attributed to many different people. I like the version above. It’s one of life’s truths, and because photography is a piece of life, it’s true in photography. I strongly believe that to become a better photographer it’s necessary to spend as much time learning about photography as you spend capturing and processing images. If you’re not learning then you’re taking the same quality of images over and over. Because I’m such a strong believer in doing everything possible to increase my knowledge of photography, I take night classes and go to seminars and meetings as often as I can. I talk to other photographers and listen to their viewpoint on various subjects. Learning equals improved photography. Not learning equals…well, you get the picture.

John Shaw

Recently I attended a weekend seminar sponsored by Joseph Van Os Photo Safaris featuring acclaimed nature photographer, John Shaw as presenter. Now before you say you’re not interested in nature photography let me point out that the majority of what John talked about is applicable in almost any kind of photography. In fact, to make a particular point John even used a photograph he had taken of the U.S. Air Force precision flying team, Thunderbirds.

The first day was focused on nature photography and John talked a lot about taking photos in nature and shared a number of images that he had captured over time. Some of them were breathtaking and all of them were ones that most of us wish we could have captured. But it was the more technical aspect of photography was the biggest value of the first day.

Separating auto focus (AF) from your shutter release button. Are you one of those photographers that sometimes gets frustrated because your lens keeps focusing on everything except what you want it to focus on? John advocates, as do many other highly respected photographers I’ve talked to or read, disabling the AF on the shutter release button. If your camera has an AF-On button on the back of the camera you can manipulate the settings in your camera so that the AF is only activated by pressing the AF On button and not activated when you press the shutter release button and setting your focus operation to AI Focus on Canon cameras or Continuous Focus on Nikon cameras. This allows you to activate the AF by pressing the AF-On button with your thumb to focus where you want it. When you release your thumb the focus is locked and you can take as many photos as you want and the focus won’t change until you press the AF-On button again. If you’re photographing moving objects like birds in flight or a football player running down the field, all you have to do is take the photograph without releasing your thumb from the AF On button.

I have both of my camera bodies set this way and use this method of activating the AF exclusively. A word of caution is in order. If you haven’t been using this method and want to try it out, I recommend you work with it a lot until you’re used to the process and the feel of the AF-On button. It will seem awkward at first but once you get used to it, you’ll probably ask yourself why you haven’t been doing it that way all the time.

Pay attention to the gaps. This is the composition “rule” that John demonstrated with the image of the Thunderbirds. It’s also a “rule” we’ve all broken or forgotten at one time or another – think of the tree or sign growing out of your spouse’s head. John’s point was that unless there was a reason for objects to be touching in the image, there should be some separation. He photographed the Thunderbirds in a diamond formation and there was blue sky space between each of the aircraft. Airplanes are not supposed to touch each other in flight, so he made sure to capture the image with some space between each of the planes. The same can be said about an image of a duck next to a limb from a tree. Ducks don’t have tree limbs growing out of their bodies, so make sure there is some separation between the duck and the tree limb. It’s really common sense when we stop and think about it, but all too often we become so excited about capturing the image of the duck that we forget the rest of the composition.

John Shaw’s view on photo manipulation. It’s always great when you hear an expert agree with your beliefs on any topic. This is a topic that seems to create great passion on both sides of the aisle. There are strong advocates of never manipulating photos and that straight out of the camera (SOOC) is the only way to go. Their argument tends to be that if you manipulate a photograph it isn’t realistic. As John pointed out, when you take a photo you just captured a two dimensional image of a three dimensional subject. Sorry, but that isn’t realistic. In the film days, the minute you processed an image in the dark room, you were manipulating the photo. Ansel Adams, one of the best known and highly regarded names in photography, captured his images with the thought of what he was going to do to it in the dark room. Realism in photography is a myth that just doesn’t hold water. However, there is a point where photo manipulation can go over the top. John showed an image of two penguins and a polar bear on the same ice floe to demonstrate the “manipulated way too much” point. John believes that if you take photo manipulation to this level, then you shouldn’t try to represent it as non-manipulated. Of course, having a polar bear and penguins on the same ice floe is pretty obvious and not because the bear would have eaten the penguins.

Here is an example of some of my photo manipulation.

This is SOOC. If I didn’t manipulate it I would probably discard the image. However…

With some cropping, exposure adjustment and a little sharpening I have an image I’ll keep. Which one is more realistic?

Filters for digital photography. John carries three filters – a circular polarizing filter and two neutral density filters. Why those three and why only those three? A polarizing filter reduces glare. The reason the sky looks bluer with a polarizing filter is because the filter reduces the glare of the water droplets in the atmosphere. It will also reduce glare reflecting off the ocean, a lake or pond, wet leaves on trees, etc. The neutral density filters reduces the amount of light that reaches the sensor. This means that when using a neutral density filter in a given lighting condition, you either have to open-up the aperture or use a slower shutter speed than you would without the filter. One of the uses of neutral density filters is so you can use a long enough exposure to capture that wispy blurred effect when photographing streams and waterfalls. Any other filter effect can be created in Photoshop. If you can create the effect with software you already own, why spend money on more filters?

JPEG or RAW? There were over 100 attendees at the Saturday session of the seminar. That 100 may have been more like 200 but because I was sitting close to the front I couldn’t make a good estimate. With a crowd of that size and with questions encouraged, you would expect about any question you could imagine. One question I heard asked multiple times in multiple ways is should I shoot in JPEG or RAW and should I shoot in JPEG and RAW at the same time? After the third or fourth time the question was asked John pointed out that all cameras shoot in RAW. Some cameras, however, convert the image to JPEG and that’s the only output you can get from the camera – point & shoot cameras for example. John answered the question essentially the way I would, just with different words. Here are mine. If you shoot in JPEG what you have is a JPEG image, period. If you shoot in RAW you have a RAW file that you can convert to PSD/PDD, JPEG or up to 19 other file formats and you still have the RAW file. So why would you take a $1,000+ camera with a $600+ lens and shoot in JPEG and only capture about a tenth of the data you would capture in RAW. As for shooting in both formats at the same time – why? Unless you’re immediately forwarding images electronically to a publisher as you take them, why do it? If I have RAW, I can easily create JPEG, I don’t need both. John, of course, was much nicer about it.

I was going to write about the weekend seminar in one article but this article is long enough already and I haven’t even started with Day 2 which I’ll write about in the next article.

There is one thing I want to say about the seminar. When I walked out of the room at the end of the first day, I realized that the second day was going to be free. What I had gained in knowledge and understanding on Saturday was well worth the cost of the entire weekend. In the next article I’ll talk about where to find information about these seminars.

Related posts:

1. John Shaw Nature and Digital Photography Seminars (cont.)
2. The 5 P’s of Photography
3. Book Review – Photography by John Freeman

Hello friends! I was just e-mailing with Steve Russell, our regularly featured guest writer, about his weekend photography shoot. He was lamenting the fact that he had over 500 shots to post-process after a photo-heavy day. I, too, find it sometimes wearying to conceive of hours of post-processing after a long day of shooting. I mentioned that during the last few photo-heavy weekends I’ve experienced, I tried to focus my intent on using the shots straight out of the camera, or SOOC. The purpose being to spend as little time in front of the computer as possible, which is the last thing you want to do after a long day of shooting! I’ve had some mixed results shooting in that manner, which just means that I require more practice and more patience (that last one being the hardest for me to manage). After being possessed of the mindset that I can just “fix” things in Photoshop if the shot didn’t turn out quite right (a mindset that just kind of crept up on me), it’s quite a challenge to remember to further rely on my skills as a photographer, rather than on my skills as a Photoshopper.

After my e-mail with Steve, I thought I would share some of the SOOC tips that I’ve found to be helpful.

• Bracket your shots. Exposure is one of the trickiest things to get right when we’re shooting, which is why we tend to rely on Camera Raw to have the opportunity to fix exposure issues. In bracketed shooting mode, the camera will take a succession of shots with the first shot being the baseline point that the camera reads for correct exposure (or that you manually set). The second shot will stop down from that exposure point according to how you set it up (for example, bracketing with a half-stop, 3/4 of a stop, or a full stop) and the third shot will stop up from that baselined exposure point. In this manner you can capture three exposure samples and use the one that is the most successful. It is important to note that in some cameras (like my Canon 7D), bracketing turns “off” and the normal shooting default is restored if the camera itself is turned off.
• Shoot in continuous mode. Following the first point, if you have set up your camera for bracketing, you are required to press the shutter button three times in order to get the three bracketed shots. If you shoot in continuous mode, you can capture the trio in a short burst and single shutter press. It takes a bit of practice to listen for the three shutter releases and time the button release, else you may find yourself composing your next shot at a stop high or a stop low. Shooting in continuous mode also helps ensure that you’ve captured at least one properly focused shot.
• Shoot in aperture priority mode. In this way you can choose the depth of field appropriate for your shot, while the camera handles the shutter speed to capture the correct exposure. This mode works well to baseline the shot when used in tandem with bracketing. I personally prefer it over shooting in complete manual mode so that I’m not constantly fiddling with my camera’s settings in order to adapt to changing light levels.
• Take a lot of shots. The more shots you’ve taken, the more likely you are to have captured one that you really like. It does mean that your memory card fills up faster and that you have more photos to scroll through at the end of the day, but that amount of time doesn’t compare to the amount of time typically spent in post-processing every shot!
• Take your time when composing your shot. Check your horizons, depth of field, and balance. Follow the rule of thirds. Or break the rule of thirds with intent. Sometimes it is helpful to set up your camera so that composition grid-lines are displayed when you look through the viewfinder. Slow down, take a deep breath, and have patience with the moment that you are trying to capture.

Do you have any SOOC tips to share? Please feel free to leave them in the comments!

Photo credits (in order of appearance):
- “sooc! Please view large” by Callee on Flickr Creative Commons.
- “Fiery Sky” by Ashley Campbell on Flickr Creative Commons.

Related posts:

1. SOOC Challenge
2. Your Weekend Photography Project – Manual and SOOC
3. Back to Basics: Five Tips to Freeze Action and Motion

The buzz and excitement surrounding the discovery of Vivian Maier’s vast collection of photographs has generated a renewed interest in, and curiosity about, street photography.

Street photography reveals a candid look at a city’s population, architecture, and events. It can also be used to deliver a personal, social, political, or environmental message. Photographs are taken on city streets, in parks, along sidewalks, in shops, and from buildings. It becomes a no-holds-barred documentary into the life and times of a specific locale during a specific time-frame, and can be incredibly revealing with respect to the “feel” or “personality” of a particular place. It can generate within the viewer a sense of happiness, outrage, sympathy, and awe. Moments are caught in time – for better or for worse, flattering or condemning. A good street photographer will shoot their chosen subject with a non-judgemental eye, searching for accuracy in representation. The result is a photograph that draws the viewer directly into that place, directly towards that person, or directly into that moment in time.

To become a good street photographer, you must be willing to shoot every day. Shoot often, shoot a lot. Shoot at all times of the day and night, in all kinds of weather. The best shots come from those fleeting moments that occur randomly and without warning, so walk the streets and view your surroundings with a long eye. Observe details and colors, movement and patterns. Look for emotion and the interaction between people. Find a story within the shot and be aware of that story as you are composing the photograph.

The chosen photographic format is a very personal decision for the photographer. Some swear by wide angle lenses that capture an overall scene, whereas others choose a telephoto lens which allows them to get into a person’s space without them even knowing they are being photographed. Many choose a black and white format to portray a sense of drama or isolation, where others treat the color of a city as its own subject.

Whatever your chosen format, the flexibility of street photography makes it one of the most popular genres throughout photographic history. To learn to become an excellent street photographer, observe other people’s work to gain inspiration (I encourage you to view Vivian Maier’s extraordinary work, linked above), and practice as much as you can to gain experience. You will soon find your own rhythm; one that flows with the city as you explore, and reveals a vibrancy unique to your own vision.

Photo credits (in order of appearance):
- “Street Photography in NYC” by Flickr 4 Jazz on Flickr Creative Commons.
- “Another street photography” by Regel Zamora on Flickr Creative Commons.
- “Street Photography Glasgow” by Maria Bowskill on Flickr Creative Commons.

Related posts:

1. 10 Tips for a Great Photo Walk
2. Curing Photographer’s Block
3. Food Photography