Shooting with Slow Shutter Speed

With slow shutter speed (otherwise known as long exposure), the elements of time and motion are introduced into your photography. We're going to run down some quick suggestions and examples on some ways to get you started, but before that, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• The tripod is your friend, especially when shooting with slow shutter speeds.
• Long exposures create noise. Set your camera’s ISO to the lowest possible setting.
• Mind the light. You will not always be able to use long shutter speeds, especially if the light is too strong since you will lose detail in the highlights.


TRAFFIC LIGHT TRAILS

This is probably the most common use of extended exposure that you will see all over the place. Just find a busy street and shoot away. Get creative by finding roads that have interesting shapes and including other items like bridges in your composition.

CC Photo by anna pearson f/29 at 30 secs
Some wedding photographers like shooting couples in the middle of the road as traffic zooms past them on both sides. It makes for a dramatic urban shot.


WATER

By using slow shutter speeds, water crashing on the beach will have a mist-like appearance. Look for large rocks or other obstacles that water travels through to get a more pronounced effect. Look at the work of David Burdeny to see a master at work.


CC Photo by roberto shabs f/36 at 13 secs

ZOOM BLUR

When using this technique, the motion blur is caused by the camera’s zoom function rather than the subject’s movement. Select a scene with a lot of colorful lights. Select a shutter speed of about 1 second or longer and set your zoom lens on its widest focal length. After you click on the shutter, zoom in to your lens’ longest focal length. It takes some practice to pull it off smoothly.


CC Photo by Sami Kainanen f/28 at 1 sec

PHOTOGRAPHER IN MOTION

In this style, the motion is caused by the photographer’s motion. Usual instances would be shots taken from inside a moving car.


CC Photo by cbamber85 f/2.6 at 1/15

PORTRAITS

Portraits and motion do not always go together but if done right then it can inject a sense of energy in your shots. Some creative examples in doing this would be taking a shot of your subject surrounded by moving people or a ballerina twirling.


CC Photo by Lili Vieira de Cervalho f/3.2 at 5/8 sec

MOVING CLOUDS

Most photographers focus on movement that is happening on the ground but taking photos of moving clouds can add a lot of emotion to a photo. If you plan on capturing clouds in motion during the day then one thing you will need to do this is a neutral density filter. Neutral density (ND) filters are basically just tinted filters that darken a scene. These are available in different grades depending on how dark they are. This is necessary since clouds are very bright and if you attempt to capture them with slow shutter speeds then you’ll most likely blow them out.


CC Photo by ctd2005 f/2.8 at 15 secs
Moving clouds are best captured just before or after a rain shower when the skies are moody. Places located in higher altitudes are also perfect for these kinds of shots since cloud movements appear much faster.

If you find that your foreground is being affected too much by the filter then try using graduated ND (GND) filter. GND filters are also tinted at the top but the tint slowly fades until the bottom part is clear. These are specifically designed to affect just the sky of a photo. To learn more about filters, watch out for our upcoming filter article coming out by next week.


ABSTRACT PHOTOS

Photography literally means drawing with light. This can be clearly seen when light trails are used to create abstract photos. There are a lot of different ways to achieve abstract effects but two things remain constant: select a long exposure and move the camera while the shot is being recorded.


CC Photo by Gaetan Lee f/3.4 at 10/13 sec
Have fun shooting this weekend!

Related Reading:
Going Manual: Learning Exposure Basics
Starlight Effect: Creative Use of Aperture
Tips on How to Take Tack Sharp Photos
Tripod Heads 101

Understanding Camera Exposure Modes

Shooting in full manual mode will always be the best way to get the most creative shot since you are in control of everything. But there are instances when you just do not have the time to fiddle around with the proper combination of ISO, aperture and shutter speed. On these occasions, you have to rely on your camera’s metering system to get you the correct exposure.

All light meters, including in-camera meters, are designed to give you a reading that will make the subject have the same tone as a 15% gray card. Manufacturers designed meters to give you an average reading on an average or neutral subject. This is very important to keep in mind when relying on your camera’s different metering modes.

There are also different types of exposure modes in modern day DSLRs that are called different names by different brands. For the purpose of this article, we will be concentrating on the three main exposure modes: evaluative/matrix, center-weighted, and spot metering.

EVALUATIVE / MATRIX MODE

Before the advent of digital cameras, pro photographers relied on light meters to get a scene’s proper exposure. What they do is meter for the scene’s highlights, midtones and shadows and get the average of the different readings. That’s a lot of work to get just one shot.

Your camera’s evaluative (Canon) or matrix (Nikon) mode does that same thing. It samples different areas of the scene and arrives at the average reading. The total number of areas or zones that are metered is dependent on how advanced your camera is. The Canon 400D samples 35 zones in a scene while the 1Ds Mark III samples 63 zones. It goes without saying that the more zones sampled, the more accurate the exposure will be.

The evaluative mode is best used for scenes that have no single subject or if the lighting in the scene is fairly even. Two examples that come to mind are street scenes and grass fields.

CC Photo by 18 s e c o n d s
CENTER-WEIGHTED

Center-weighted also samples the entire scene but the difference is that it puts more importance to the zones near the center of the scene. On most brands, 75% of the total exposure is taken from the center of the frame and 25% to the outer parts.



This exposure mode is best used for portraits where the face of the subject is occupies a large part of the viewfinder. This is because the average skin tone is pretty close to a 15% gray card which should get you a pretty precise reading.


CC Photo by e3000
SPOT METER

This setting gives you the most precise control among the different exposure modes. In this mode, the camera only meters around 3% of the entire scene. The reading is usually taken at the center focus point but other cameras give you the option to change this.

This mode is best for scenes that have very bright and dark areas which can easily fool your camera. What you do is look for an area that is somewhere in the middle of the brightest and darkest parts and use the spot metering mode to get a reading off that. The spot meter is also useful in shooting silhouettes. You simply meter for the bright background then everything that is darker than that will automatically turn into silhouettes.


CC Photo by kennymatic
Related Reading:
When To Use Exposure Compensation
Going Manual: Learning Exposure Basics

How to Use Lines to Enhace Your Photos

Composition is the not the only thing to consider in creating visually pleasing photographs. When you break down a photograph to its most basic elements, you will find that it is made up of lines, shapes, forms, textures, patterns and colors. These are called the elements of design. These elements are the building blocks of composition.

Among the six elements, the most basic and powerful is the line. Different lines can provoke different feelings from your viewers so mastery over this topic is essential in controlling the emotional impact of your photo.

LEADING LINES

Like we discussed in our previous post, leading lines draw your viewer into the photo. It can help highlight the subject of your photo. When two or more lines head towards a common point in the photo then these become converging lines.

CC Photo by Jasmic

CURVILINEAR LINES

This is the most common type of line you will see in nature. Curvilinear lines are seen to be gentle and relaxing. When including curvilinear lines in your photo, try to frame it in such a way that it creates an “S” curve. The “S” curve is one of the most pleasing shapes in the visual arts.


CC Photo by Jekkyl

HORIZONTAL LINES

Horizontal lines are seen as stable and static. Unbroken horizontal lines tend to give the feeling of dullness. On landscape photography, this is the most dominant line because of the horizon.


CC Photo by Michale

VERTICAL LINES

Vertical lines evoke a feeling of strength, power and dominance. Tall and powerful objects are often photographed in portrait orientation to maximize the vertical lines in photo.


CC Photo by Mugley

DIAGONAL LINES

Diagonal lines give a sense of movement, speed and activity. Some photographers deliberately tilt their cameras to one side to make horizontal or static lines into diagonals to breathe a sense of action in an otherwise boring scene. In the photo below, the photographer tilted the camera to make the horizon into a diagonal. By doing, the sensation of speed was greatly exaggerated.


CC Photo by Jekkyl

Related Post:
5 Ways to Hold Your Viewer's Attention

5 Ways to Hold Your Viewer's Attention

One of the most important things your photo should have is an ability to hold your viewers attention. There are a lot of techniques that can be used to help you compose your shot so that people will spend more than a second looking at it. Besides keeping your viewers focused on your photo, the techniques below can also help emphasis your main subject.

There are many ways to hold your viewer's attention. Here are five that you can easily start off with:

1. VIGNETTE

A vignette is a gradual loss of light and picture quality towards the edge of the photo due to poor lens construction. Although it is considered a lens aberration, a vignette is helpful in drawing the viewer's attention towards the center of the photo. It also adds character to a photo since it makes it look like it was taken with an old camera.

CC Photo by australian overanalyzer
To add a vignette to an existing photo with Adobe Photoshop, refer to our previous article found here.

2. SHOOT THROUGH A FRAME

This is probably one of the oldest tricks in the book. You simply choose an object you can shoot through that frames your main subject.


CC Photo by Jakeliefer
3. LEADING LINES

Lines can also help draw your viewer in since the tendency of the eye is to follow the direction of prominent lines that it sees.


CC Photo by mugley
4. FILL THE FRAME

Don't be afraid to get close. Sometimes a few steps forward is all it takes to make a good picture great. If the subject is interesting then show your viewers why by filling your frame with it.


CC photo by Sukanto Debnath

5. BREAK A PATTERN

The human eye is always drawn to patterns and whatever breaks a pattern will automatically stand out. Place your subject against a pattern and see how much the subject stands out and how the surrounding pattern holds everything together.


CC Photo by stephcarter

Going Manual: Learning Exposure Basics

Exposure is probably the most dreaded subject in photography. We know a lot of photographers who have been shooting for years but still rely on their camera’s metering system to dictate a scene’s exposure. Cameras are getting more and more advanced which is why it works, but it will not work all the time. This is why even the most advanced DSLRs still have exposure compensation features.

With a few simple guidelines, you can start shooting in full manual and stop relying on your camera to meter for you. The most important rule I learned when I first started shooting in manual mode was the Sunny f/16 rule. However, we first have to start with what we mean by exposure.

At its most basic level, exposure is how much light you allow to reach your sensor. The amount of light is the result of the interaction of three factors: ISO, aperture opening and shutter speed.

ISO

ISO (International Standards Organization) also known as ASA (American Standards Association) is the rating scale used to determine how sensitive a film is in recording light. The same scale is used when referring to the sensitivity of a digital camera’s sensor. Depending on your camera, you can change your ISO setting between 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200 and 6400. You can see that each number is double the preceding number and each step also represents a doubling of the film or sensor’s sensitivity to light.

A lower ISO number means that the film or sensor is less sensitive to light. This is the reason why most people bump up their ISO setting when shooting in low light since they need less time to expose for a shot. The problem is that your camera’s sensor loses its ability to record detail the higher the ISO is. This means that your photos will be less sharp and have more noise which is never a good thing.

APERTURE

Aperture refers to the opening inside the lens where light passes through. The size of the opening is measured in f-stops expressed as f/1, f/1.4, f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, f22 and f/32. Starting from f/1 each step in the series represents a doubling of the amount of light reaching the camera’s sensor or what is called a full stop. Most DSLRs now give you the ability to select ½ or 1/3 stops so you might see more aperture values than those listed above but for the purpose of this article we will only focus on full stops.

CC Photo by Martini Captures ISO 200, 1/1250

SHUTTER SPEED

Shutter speeds represent how long the camera’s sensor is exposed to light and is measured in seconds. Shutter speeds run from 30, 15, 8, 4, 2, 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, 1/2000, 1/4000, 1/8000. Again, each number is double than the preceding value and also represents double the amount of light reaching the sensor.

CC Photo by Martini Captures ISO 100, 1/1000

Here are some rules of thumb regarding shutter speed. To take sharp photos, your shutter speed must be equal to or more than the reciprocal of your focal length for non moving subjects. So if you’re shooting at 50mm, your shutter speed must be at least 1/60. To freeze movement in your photos, you must be shooting at least at 1/500.

THE SUNNY F/16 RULE

The Sunny f/16 rule is a method developed to correctly expose a photo without using a light meter. It states that in a clear sunny day, you can set your aperture to f/16 and your shutter speed as the reciprocal of your ISO.

Let’s say you’re in a park in a clear day and you want to take a photo using this rule. The first thing you have to do is to set your aperture to f/16. You then need to check your ISO setting. If you are on ISO 100 then your shutter speed should be set to 1/125. If you’re at ISO 200 then your shutter speed should be at 1/250. Note that not all ISO settings will correspond to an exact reciprocal when selecting your shutter speed so just select the nearest one.

If the scene is slightly overcast then open up your aperture one stop to f/11. If it’s overcast, open up two stops to f/8. If it’s deeply overcast, open up three stops to f/5.6. I know that the terms sunny and overcast are very relative so how do you know what aperture setting to use? The first thing you should check is the shadow detail in the scene. If the shadows are very distinct then it’s considered sunny. If the edges of the shadows are soft then it’s slightly overcast. If the shadows are barely visible then it’s overcast. If there are no shadows then it’s deeply overcast. You can also refer to the chart below.

USING THE SUNNY F/16 RULE CREATIVELY

Now that you’re familiar with the basics of the rule you can start getting creative with it. Let’s say you want to take a photo of a bee in a slightly overcast setting using ISO 100 but you want to use an aperture setting of f/4.5 to eliminate the messy background. Using the basic rule, you start at f/11 with a shutter speed of 1/100. Since f/4.5 is approximately three stops lower than f/11, you have to compensate for the increase of light reaching your sensor using your shutter speed or you will get an over exposed shot.

Opening the aperture by three stops is equal to increasing the shutter speed by three stops since going from one level to the next in the aperture and shutter speed scales correspond to the same amount of light being lost or gained. On a slightly overcast day using f/4.5 you can set your shutter speed to 1/800 at ISO 100 to get a properly exposed shot.


CC Photo by Beyond Megapixels 105mm at ISO 100, f/4.5, 1/800
You can also start your computations with the shutter speed. Let’s say you want to take a photo of a dog on the beach and you want to freeze all movement in the scene. You check the light conditions and decide that it’s sunny and you are at ISO 80. Again, starting with the basic rule, you set your aperture to f/16 with a shutter speed of 1/60. Since you want to eliminate any motion blur you decide to use a shutter speed of 1/1250. Since 1/1250 is about four stops higher than 1/60, you need to compensate for the loss of light by setting your aperture to f/4.5.


CC Photo by Gungnir 76mm at ISO 80, f/4.5, 1/1250
There is an ongoing debate today on how use the Sunny f/16 rule. Some say that the subject must be facing the light for it to work. Some say that you can still get a properly exposed shot even if the subject is lit from the side. What I think is that like all the rules in photography, the Sunny f/16 is just a starting point to studying light and how to properly judge the exposure of a scene without being dependent on your camera. With enough practice, you’ll be able to judge a scene’s proper exposure before you even raise the camera to your eye.

Related Posts:
Starlight Effect: Creative Use of Aperture
When to Use Exposure Compensation

How to Make a Light Box and Macro Studio for Under $20

Ever wondered how pros take photos of random objects and make them look crisp and clean? The answer to that is a light box or what is sometimes referred to as a light tent. A light box is just simply a cube which is made out of a white translucent material. The object that is being photographed is placed inside and lighting is added to either the sides or the top of box. The walls of the light box acts as a diffuser which softens the intensity of the light and at the same time scatters it which greatly lessens glare.

Light boxes are commercially available for about $40 to $90 depending on the size. But here at Beyond Megapixels, we're all about saving money because A.) we don't have any, and B.) you're better off spending your money on something that you cannot build yourself like say, a 70-200mm f2.8, but we digress. We made our own. All in all, we spent less than $20 for the entire set up, INCLUDING the lights.

Things We Used:
1. Large cardboard box - $2.00
2. Tape
3. Tracing Paper - $1.00 or less
We used Japanese Paper. I'm not sure of the availability in your location or if it's called the same thing, but if you don't know what that is, you can always use tracing paper. You can even use tissue, if all else fails.
4. 500 watts halogen work light - $9.00
5. 300 watts halogen work light - $6.00
Most people who use halogen for their light boxes use this.
6. White poster board - $1.00 or less

PUTTING IT TOGETHER

1. Draw a square on three sides of the box. The margin should be about an inch or two away from the sides of the box.

2. Cut out the what you drew with a cutter. These windows are where your light is going to enter the box.

3. Cover the windows with tracing paper which will act as your diffuser.

4. Attach the poster board at the bottom of the box. Make sure you only tape it at the top part of your box so the paper will curve downwards towards the bottom. This will be your seamless white backdrop.

5. Put your work lights on both sides of the box. One can act as your main light and the other as your fill light.

We decided to use halogen because it is the cheapest work light that is strong enough to imitate strobes. Don't get anything less than 500 watts for your main light. It's better to have a light source that is too strong than one that is too weak. If you find that your lights are to strong then simply move the lamp farther from the box.

Halogen light is very yellow so you need to do a custom white balance reading inside the light box to eliminate any color casts. If you do not have an 18% gray card to do a white balance reading then you can shoot RAW and fix your WB during the conversion process or simply remove the color cast in Photoshop if you're shooting JPG. You can find instructions for doing that here.

Our gray card inside the light box

Below is a comparison of a photo taken with a 400D's auto white balance and a custom white balance setting using a gray card.

Camera set on Auto White Balance

Camera using custom white balance from a gray card

HOW A LIGHT BOX WORKS

The light box's main purpose is to wrap your subject in diffused light. Since all the sides are white, everything around the subject acts as a reflector. Since the light is completely in your control, you can dictate which part of the subject is lit, where the shadows will be, and how distinct or soft your shadows are. You will also get more detail, better depth, more defined textures and better color saturation. You can see this with the series of photos below.

Shot inside the light box using our living room's fluorescent light. The light is already pretty good because of the the light box.
50mm at ISO 100, f/13, 13secs

Shot with fluorescent light and fill-flash
50mm at ISO 100, f/13, 6secs

Shot using the two halogen work lamps. The elephants are lit from front to back and the texture of the wood really comes out. It also shows better contrast and the subject just leaps out of the background.
50mm at ISO 100, f/13, 1/15

Lisa's Notes:
1. Halogen gets very hot easily so don't let it touch the sides of your light box. I hear tracing paper is highly flammable. Be mindful of the heat and try your best not to burn the house down.
2. Use a tripod so you can shoot at ISO 100 and not worry about camera shake.
3. Save on electricity by composing your shot before turning on the lights.
4. With a little ingenuity and enough will, you should be able to build a similar setup for the same amount, or even less. Share your light box stories with us on the comments section, or shoot us an email. We'd love to hear from you.
5. On an unrelated note, there's a new poll up on the sidebar that's closing in a couple of days. Do pop in and join. Cheers!

Related Reading:
Removing Color Casts

Starlight Effect: Creative Use of Aperture

Ever wondered how photographers make sources of light in photos appear like they’re twinkling? What most pros do is attach a starlight filter which automatically makes points of light flare. You can even twist the filter to adjust the effect much like a polarizer.

If you don’t want to spend money on something that you won’t end up using everyday, then you can emulate this effect just by adjusting your aperture to a very small opening like f/22 and you’ll get the same effect.



The first photo above was taken at F/4 while the second was taken at F/22. You can see the difference in the sun’s reflection in the upper right hand side. The effect will be more pronounced if the background was darker.

Related Posts:
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Tips on How to Take Better Portraits

Although portraiture is probably the most popular field in photography, it is still one of the trickiest to do well. The difficulty lies in that a lot of factors have to come together to make a great portrait such as lighting, location and the how well you can capture the personality of the subject. This post will not instantly turn you to a great portrait photographer but instead, it will focus on the basic principles to help you on your way.

What is the best lens to use for portraits?
Pros often use lenses that have a focal length between 85mm to 100mm. There are two main reasons why 85mm to 100mm are often called portrait lenses.

1. Using a short telephoto lens lets you stand around 10 feet away from your subject and still be able to fill the frame with their face. If you use a wider angle lens, you’ll end up having to stand very near your subject and no one feels comfortable with a camera lenses inches away from their face. On the other hand, using a focal length longer than 100mm will take you to far away from your subject that you’ll have a hard time interacting with them.



2. Using a wide angle lens will distort your subject’s facial features. If you take a close-up shot with a wide angle lens, your subject’s nose will look larger and their ears will look smaller. This is what we call the clown effect.

Are prime lenses better than zoom lenses for portraits?
There are both pros and cons for using either of the two types of lenses so it will be up to you to decide. Prime lenses will always be sharper than zoom lenses which is especially important in portraiture but you will need to move around a lot if you want to frame your shot differently and you can end up missing some great shots.

(Lisa's note: I'd recommend a 50mm lens. It's prime, cheap, and a must-have if you can't spring for an 85mm or 100mm lens.)

What aperture is best suited for portraits?
If you are shooting against a plain background then the rule of thumb is to use f/11 which will give you great sharpness and depth of field. You can use your lowest aperture setting such as f/2.8 to throw everything but your subject out of focus.

What should you focus on?
Unless you are trying to emphasis a specific feature on your subject, always focus on their eyes. Even if the rest of the photo is slightly blurry, as long as the eyes are tack sharp, the photo will still look great.

What is the best light to use?
Some people will disagree but we prefer working with available light when taking portraits. It just looks better. Position your subject beside a window that is not exposed to direct sunlight to get soft and diffused light. If the light is too strong then you can try using sheer window curtains to act as a diffuser.

If you’re outside and light is too harsh then you can move your subject under a shade to avoid getting unpleasant shadows on their face. You can tell if the light is just right when your subject doesn’t have to squint to look at you or in your general direction.

Aside from the basics that we’ve discussed, the most important thing in portraiture is your connection with the subject. Your subject has to be comfortable enough with you so that the expressions you get are natural and not posed. You need to be able to talk to people, and connect. You have to be observant enough to notice their little quirks that make them unique and find a way to include it in your photo. These are some of the things that separate a portrait from a regular snapshot.

That, and shooting from a higher vantage point every now and then. Shooting from above is flattering for most people. It makes subjects look thinner, and hey, who doesn't love that.

Related Posts:
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When to Use Exposure Compensation

Exposure compensation is the deliberate lightening or darkening of a photograph. Most DSLRs can adjust a photo's exposure within the range of -2EV to +2EV. For example, if you set the camera's exposure compensation to -1EV then you, in effect, are underexposing the shot by 1 stop and vice versa. Depending on your camera, you can set the exposure value (EV) by 1/2 or 1/3 increments.

The Purpose of Exposure Compensation
Most of the time, when you take a picture and the subject is predominantly bright, the camera will tend to underexpose it. The reason for this is that the camera will try to make whatever subject it meters, whether it's predominantly bright or dark, a middle shade of gray. To do this, the camera will make the scene either too dark if the subject is bright or too light if the subject is dark.

This is where exposure compensation comes in. Let's say you are taking a tightly cropped photo of a bride and her wedding dress. Since the photo will be predominantly bright with the bride's white dress, the end result will be a photo that is slightly underexposed. In order for you to properly show the bride's dress to be white, you will need to set your exposure compensation to overexpose by selecting a positive EV. It's also the same when taking photos of subjects that are primarily dark colored. The camera will be fooled into making the whole scene lighter so a negative EV will have to be added to render the scene more accurately.

The photo below was taken in RAW format so the EV could be changed during post processing. During the shoot, the little girl's face was the area where the camera metered the exposure. Since she has fair skin, the camera rendered it a little darker than it actually was.



This was the result when an exposure compensation of +1 was added. The tone of the skin was rendered more accurately by overexposing the photo.



There is no exact science of how much exposure compensation to use for any particular scene. It will always depend on the quality of light and of course, personal preference. Just check your camera's histogram to make sure that you're not blowing the highlights or making everything too dark when modifying a scene's exposure.

Shoot from the Hip

If you've been taking pictures for a long time then you've probably experienced burnout - you keep taking pictures of the same things and framing it the same way and basically feel like your creative tank is running on fumes. When this sort of thing happens, I've found the best way to see things differently is shooting from the hip. Just press the shutter without looking through the viewfinder or the LCD.



Leave the camera at aperture mode with the widest aperture selected. Make sure that the audible tone of the auto-focus feature is turned on so you know once the camera has focused properly. Then just walk around and point your camera in the general direction of an interesting subject and shoot away. You'll be surprised at how many good photographs you'll produce.



One of our favorites on Flickr is davydubbit who started a whole series on shooting from the hip. He started experimenting when he got interested in Lomo cameras. He used this technique to find alternative ways of framing his shots.



Give it a go and share your work with us if you like. Have fun!

How to Create Bokeh in Your Photos

Bokeh is a photographic term used to describe a lens effect wherein the background of the photo is out of focus. This effect is used to blur out distracting backgrounds and give emphasis to the the primary subject of the photo.

There are two ways to get bokeh when taking pictures. The first is by using a very large aperture to get a shallow depth of field. You can set your camera's aperture to f/5 or below. This will effectively throw everything behind your subject out of focus. The photo below was taken with an aperture setting of f/2.5.

You can also blur out the background of your photo by using a long telephoto lens. There is no hard rule on how long your lens should be but the longer its reach, the more pronounced the bokeh is going to be.

Below are two pictures wherein you can see the effect of using a telephoto lens. Both shots where taken with an aperture setting of f/22 so we can isolate the effect of the focal length on the photos' bokeh. The first shot was taken at 55mm and the second at 250mm. You can see that at 55mm, the background still retains a lot of detail while at 250mm the leaves in the background were completely blurred out.

Combining the two techniques of using a wide aperture setting and long focal length will give you a more intense bokeh effect.

There are many ways in which you can use Photoshop to blur out the background of your photos. Here's one way to do it using Layer Masks.

First, open your photo and right-click on the Background Layer in the Layers Pallete. Select Duplicate Layer from the pop-up menu and click on OK.Once you have a duplicate of your background layer, you need to click on Add Layer Mask at the bottom of the Layers Pallete.Still on the Layers Pallete, you need to click on the thumbnail of your photo in the Background Copy layer.After that, select Filter from the menu. Go to Blur then click on Gaussian Blur.The slide at the bottom of the Gaussian Blur menu controls the intensity of the blur you are applying to the photo. You will see that it will blur the entire photo including the main subject but this will be corrected this later. In the example, we selected a Radius of 1.9. Click on OK. You now need to select the mask from your Background Copy layer. You can do this by clicking on the white rectangle on the right of the Background Copy thumbnail in the Layers Pallete.Now select the Paint Bucket Tool from the tool bar. Press "X" on your keyboard to make the foreground color black and click on any part of your photo. You will see that the blur you added a while ago will disappear. You then need to select the Brush Tool from the tool bar and press "X" again on your keyboard to make the foreground color white.What you will now do is to paint on the parts of the photo you want blurred. You can adjust the size of the brush by pressing on "[" key to make it smaller or "]" key to make it bigger.Let me know how it works for you.

How to Get Soft Diffused Light from Your Flash

The biggest drawback from using a flash is that it gives hard flat light. More often than not, it causes unflattering shadows, unnatural skin tones and makes your subject look like deer caught in the headlights. Most cameras now will let you adjust the intensity of your flash by playing around with the flash exposure control or by using Flash Fill Mode. You can get softer light by doing this but it will still be flat. Here are some tips in getting better results with using your flash.

Built-In Flash Unit Diffusers
Entry-level to semi-pro DSLRs have built-in pop up flashes on them. You can purchase a soft screen diffuser for these that attaches to the top of the camera. Most just cost less than $20.00.External Flash Unit Diffusers
Diffusers are also available for external flash units. Depending on how you intend to use it or your budget, you can get something as simple as Lumiquest's Ultrabounce which goes for about $14.95 or the Lumiquest MiniSoftbox for $19.95. For professional use, you can get Gary Fong's Lightsphere which does a great job of evenly spreading flash light.Other Tips for External Flash
The biggest advantage of using an external flash units like the Canon 580EX or the Nikon SB800 is the ability to aim the flash independent of the camera. By angling your flash head 45 degrees vertically, you can bounce the light for the ceiling which can also give it that diffused effect. You can even aim your flash to the side and use the walls to bounce off light.
If the ceiling is too high then you can use your flash's catchlight panel which acts as a mini reflector on your flash head.
If you rarely use your flash and can't justify the additional expense for the items mentioned then you can make do with items found in your home. You can wrap your flash head with tissue paper or wax paper to scatter the light. You can also make a home made bounce card by attaching a calling card to the top of your external flash head with a rubber band.

Keep Your Eyes Open

It's only natural to keep one eye closed when looking through the viewfinder. It easier to see the subject if your only focused with what you see through your camera. Why then do most professionals keep both eyes open when they take pictures?

By keeping both your eyes open, you get a wider field of view. This is particularly important if you are covering an event and there are a lot of things happening at the same time. By being able to see not just through your lens, you are more aware of what is happening around you and not just fixated on one subject at a time.

This technique is also useful for portrait photography, to make your subject more at ease. Most people are intimidated if they can't see both your eyes and your only connection with them is through your lens. Some professionals actually prefer using a cable release when doing studio work for the sole purpose of keeping eye contact with their clients.

Keeping both eyes open also helps your telephoto work, specially if your subject is moving. It can be disorienting trying to frame a picture from a distance since the slightest movement can throw your subject out of your viewfinder. By keeping the other eye open, you can have a frame of reference on where your subject went and you'll be able to easily re-frame your shot.

Lastly, keeping both eyes open doesn't cause your eyes undue stress. A photographer's most precious equipment isn't his camera or his L lenses - they're his eyes. Protect these.

Child Photography 101

Things you should know about child photography:

+ Children make for better portrait subjects than adults. Why? Not only are they completely adorable, they don't pose. I've met enough adults that just won't relax and stop posing.

+ Children can smell insincerity. They can smell fear. I used to teach kindergarten, so believe me, that's true. I would say a prerequisite to taking good photos of children is actually liking them.

+ Choose your fastest lens, if possible. These little people hardly ever sit still. I prefer using my 50mm 1.8. I'm still saving up for an 85mm. My 40D burned a hole right through my pocket.

+ A good way to break the ice is to play with them first. Smile. Talk to them; ask them their name and how old they are. Make them guess how old you are. Laugh. You could show them your camera and tell them what you're going to do with it, but make sure their hands are clean and your lens cap is on. I hope you never know how it feels to watch a little boy's chocolate-covered paws heading straight for your lens.

+ Once you've established a rapport and gained their trust, the rest should be easy, really. I prefer leaving them alone, and quietly taking pictures of them as they do whatever it is they do.

+ Children will either look at you curiously or ignore you completely. Either works, so work it. Unless they're throwing tantrums. Don't flinch and run away when they do though. Take pictures of them crying. Those rock, too.

+ Laugh. Seriously. They respond to laughter. Although I have to say it does help that I'm a girl. Sorry, guys. It's seldom as easy for you, unless you're shooting your own children.

+ Fill the frame! I've seen too many shots that could have been so much better, if only the photographer had zoomed in or walked just a few steps forward. If all else fails, experiment with tighter cropping on Photoshop.

+ Get on your knee and shoot at eye level.

+ BUT know when to shoot wide and/or shoot down. When the context is just as important or more important than the child herself, shoot wide. When you're trying to tell the story from an adult's perspective, or want to emphasize how small they are, shoot down.

+ Have them tie their shoelaces. It makes for an excellent photograph. Let them try on an adult's sunglasses, play the piano (you can focus on the hands), have a little girl put her bare feet on dad's shoes and have them dance around, have the child hug mom or dad's pant leg... you'll never run out of picture-perfect moments if you just look.

Feel free to add anything I may have missed.

Related Posts:
Portraits: The Other Use of Macro Lenses
Portraits: The December Challenge

Tips on How to Take Tack Sharp Photos

Here are some tips you can use to get the sharpest images possible from your gear.

Tripod
Yeah, yeah, we all know this but admit it, you don't use it often. I'm guilty of the same thing. It's hell lugging it around, but it still remains as the most basic tool you can use in getting sharper photos. Tripods eliminate the biggest source of camera shake which is, of course, you.

Different types of tripods and tripod heads are available on the market and it's always best to pick one that you are comfortable using but there are several things you need to keep in mind:
-Heavier tripods are generally more stable.
-If weight is a consideration, get a carbon fiber tripod which is lighter than conventional metal tripods and doesn't resonate vibrations. It's a lot more expensive though.
-Make sure that the tripod's maximum load is much more than the weight of your camera.

If you're stuck without a tripod, try to find something in your environment that can help stabilize your shot. You can try leaning on a door frame while you shoot or placing your camera on a table. You can also manipulate your shutter speed to reduce camera shake. The rule is to choose a shutter speed that is equal to or more than your focal length. So if you have a 100mm lens then your shutter speed should be at least 1/100. If it's a 200mm lens then shutter speed should be at 1/200 or less.


Cable Release
Another source of camera shake is your finger pressing the shutter button. You can eliminate this by getting a cable release if you're camera is on a tripod. A cable release is just a remote shutter button connected to your camera that allows you to take your shot without having to touch your camera.

If for some reason you forget to bring your cable release to a shoot, or do not want to buy one, then you can use your camera's self timer. Just set the time duration and wait for your camera to take the shot. This is only useful for inanimate subjects.

Use the Your Camera's Mirror Lock-Up
You can eliminate one more source of camera shake when you're using a tripod by using your camera's mirror lock-up. When you take a picture using a DSLR, the first thing that happens is your camera raises the mirror that you are using to look through your lens before the image is exposed to the sensor. The mirror flipping up can be a source of camera shake. It is also what makes that distinctive clicking sound you hear from DSLRs. When you engage the mirror lock-up, you need to press the shutter twice. Once to raise the mirror then another to take the shot. This way, the mirror is already up when the image is exposed to your sensor.

You will need to fiddle around with your camera's menus to find this option since it's usually buried under a lot of sub-menus.

Use Your LCD
One of the biggest advantage in using digital cameras is being able to check your shots using the LCD. Although viewing your pictures on it is not really that accurate, you can still get a fair idea if you need to re-shoot a scene. The best way to check for sharpness is to use the zoom function while viewing you pictures to look at the smallest details of your shot.

If you're using the Canon 40D, you can actually use this method when you shoot in Live Mode. Simply frame your shot then have the camera focus for you. After that, select a portion of the object you're shooting by zooming in and then manually adjust the focus to make even the smallest details sharp.

Use the Lowest ISO Possible
Whether you're shooting in a bright or dark location, you will need to use the lowest ISO possible. Higher ISO will increase the level of noise present on your photos.

Use Stabilized Lenses
If you absolutely have to shoot handheld then it is advisable to get lenses that are stabilized. These types of lenses have built in mechanisms to counteract camera shake so you can still get sharp photos without a tripod. We use a Canon IS lens that's able to capture sharp handheld images even at a shutter speed as slow as 1/6 of a second at a focal length of 55mm.

You may be wondering why these lenses have the option to be turned off if they're so useful. It's because you will need to turn off your lenses' stabilizing capability when using a tripod. This is because anti-shake mechanisms are built in such a way that it is always looking for camera shake to correct even if there is none. This act of correcting absent movement then causes slight vibrations.

Find Your Lenses' Sweet Spot
Not all lenses' are built the same way, but most pros will tell you that there is always that one or two aperture settings that will provide you with the sharpest image. The rule of thumb most follow is that the 'sweet spot' is about two full stops smaller than your maximum aperture. So if your maximum aperture is f/2.8 then your sharpest setting would be at around f/5.6. If you want to be more exact then the only way to go is to shoot the same scene multiple times keeping everything else constant and see for yourself which aperture setting gives your the sharpest image.

Of course you can't always use your sharpest aperture since different subjects or shots might require a specific aperture setting. Knowing your sharpest aperture is good to know when the f-stop setting is not your biggest concern.

Get the Best Lens
Get the best lens that you can afford. We cannot stress this enough. Your lens has a great impact on image quality since it's the one responsible for relaying the image to your camera's sensor. It doesn't matter if you're using the biggest and baddest DSLR - if your lenses suck, the point is moot.
Did we miss out on anything? If you have additional tips and tricks, we'd love to hear from you.

~Written by Jeff

Flower Photography Tips

I'm more into child and infant photography than anything, but I do enjoy taking pictures of flowers (and random unknown greenery, apparently) every now and then. I've picked up a few things over the years.

The best time to shoot flowers is when it's overcast, after a rain shower, or the usual early morning/late afternoon. You don't need to wait for rain though. You can easily imitate rain drops with an atomizer.

The flower photographer's worst enemy is the wind. Block it. If you're focusing on one flower in particular, make sure your background isn't distracting.

Use a tripod whenever possible. Get as much detail as you can. This applies to everything else, actually.

For point-and-shoot photographers, know your camera's macro capabilities and maximize it. The Canon PowerShot S series, for example, has 0cm macro, which basically means you can stick your lens up to the petal, and will still be able to take good pictures. That yellow photo to the left? I took that with my old s2 IS from a few centimeters away.

For DSLR users like me who are still too broke from purchasing their cameras, get a close-up lens. It screws onto your lens just like any old filter, only it turns your zoom lens into a macro zoom. Next to macro lenses, they're ridiculously cheap.

Pick the freshest flowers you can find. Looking for fresh flowers takes less time than editing out every single blasted spot on Photoshop.

Get down and dirty. Kneel. Roll around in the dirt. Well, not really roll around because we wouldn't want to wreck your gear, but you get what I mean. Just like you wouldn't shoot down on children, don't shoot down on flowers.

If all else fails, get flowers from the market. Seriously.