I often am asked “what is the best shutter speed/aperture for such and such”. I’ve even asked the question myself. But in a way, we’re jumping ahead of the gun when we ask that. Instead, if we ask ourselves “Do I need more light or less light” for this image to work, we will have found the answer ourselves based on the exact circumstance that requires the answer. Because once we’ve determined that answer, we know that by narrowing the aperture and/or increasing the shutter speed we can reduce the light entering the camera. And by opening the aperture or slowing the shutter speed, we can increase it. Understanding Exposure and Stops is a keystone concept that will only help your photography. Whether you shoot in Auto or Manual. The principle does not change!

So, what does all that have to do with capturing contrast in our photography? A lot! Because contrast is affected by how much light we allow in when exposing!

Contrast in photography is the difference between dark and light. But it doesn’t end there It also refers to contrasts created with colour, tones and texture. We “see” these only because of light.

If light is what makes colours visible: What makes colours saturate in-camera (increase in strength)? That would be the amount of light. Remember paint boxes in kindergarten? How did we get stronger, deeper tones? We added Black!

And that is exactly how we get contrast and rich colour in our photography. We add “dark”. But how do we do that?

OK. Enough with the Theory! On to the Practical.

Contrast: The difference between dark and light

High Contrast: An extreme difference between dark and light

Low Contrast: A gradual or lesser difference between dark and light

Colour Contrast: Tonal differences, as well as Saturation levels, of colours

High Key: Mostly light including whites

Low Key: Mostly darks including blacks

No Contrast: Is a Whiteout in the Antarctic and very dangerous. Best advice is return to Base Station.

First, determine the “correct” exposure. All cameras have a light meter built in. It’s that little bar graph on your screen that has -2 on the left side 0 in the middle and 2 on the right. The minus side represents under exposure, the plus represents over, and zero represents what your camera thinks is the correct exposure. Learn how to use it!

Once you’ve achieved the correct exposure, compensate your settings by 1/3 to one Full Stop under. Now you’re adding “dark”: The black in the paint box. If you’re shooting in auto or semi auto (shutter or aperture priority) you can set the compensation in the EV (Exposure Value) Compensation menu and the camera will automatically underexpose by the margin you set. If you’re shooting in Manual, use your aperture setting to make smaller adjustments (aperture settings in most cameras are in increments of 1/3 of a Full Stop) and shutter speeds to make dramatic adjustments (as shutter speed in most cameras are one full stop up or down). Keep an eye on that light meter reading when stopping down manually. You want the needle to nudge over to the left (the minus side) of Zero. Each hash mark being a 1/3 increment of a Full Stop.

The basic guideline for getting the most contrast in a scene is:

Shoot with the narrowest aperture possible for light conditions

Shoot with the fastest shutter speed possible for light conditions

And if you’re already thinking of when the above does NOT apply, you’re further ahead on controlling and creating contrast then you thought ;)

SusanG is the Creator of Camelot Photography Forum, a MySpace™ Photography Site where anyone can find their new level.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

Getting Better Contrast In Your Photography

To celebrate the arrival of 2010 and a whole new decade I thought I’d take a quick look back on the year that was here at DPS and share a list of the most visited tutorials and image collections on the site in the last 365 days. Enjoy!

1. Long Exposure Photography – 15 Stunning Examples
2. Learning about Exposure – The Exposure Triangle
3. 10 Questions to Ask When Taking a Digital Photo
4. 21 Wedding Photography Tips for Amateur Wedding Photographers
5. 21 Great Reader Shots [And how they were Taken]
6. How to Make Digital Photos Look Like Lomo Photography
7. Top 20 Popular Point and Shoot Digital Cameras
8. How to Use Textures to Enhance Your Photographs
9. 9 Nude Photography Tips
10. DIY Lighting Hacks for Digital Photographers
11. 7 Photography Projects to Jumpstart your Creativity
12. Top 10 Popular DSLRs
13. 9 Tips for Getting Backgrounds Right
14. How to Photograph Fireworks Displays
15. 17 Amazing Wide Angle Images
16. 11 Surefire Landscape Photography Tips
17. Lightroom: What is it and When Should You Consider Using it?
18. 23 Popular DSLR Lenses
19. 50 ‘Must Have’ Wedding Photography Shots
20. 21 Settings, Techniques and Rules All new Camera Owners Should Know
21. How to Batch Resize in Photoshop

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

The 21 Most Popular Photography Posts on DPS in 2009

1. Food Photography

I love to cook, and I’m always sharing new recipes with family and friends, and it’s nice to have a photo to go along with them, but I have a bit to learn when it comes to making my food look as good in photos as it tastes. Now is the perfect time to start learning, though! Not only am I stuck indoors more, but I also make a lot of warm, hearty dinners in the winter that should hopefully make for some good subjects – including holiday dinners, of course! To get me started, a quick search of DPS has shown me an introduction to food photography, some food photography tutorial videos, and food photography techniques and tips.

2. Light Painting

Light painting is something that I’ve played with in the past, and it’s one of those things that seems to be a popular phase that a lot of photographers go through, but I’ve recently got re-inspired to play around some more after a series of posts on DIYPhotography.net on light painting, tools used in light painting, and how to create an orb. And, of course, by the recently posted 25 spectacular light painting images here on DPS.

3. Fun with holiday decorations

Is it sad that it’s not family, friends, or friendly neighborhood competitions that get me excited about decorating for the Holidays? It’s getting fun photos! There are just so many great decorations up around town and in houses that it’s hard to resist. I don’t put up many decorations myself, so I’m sure to take my camera wherever I go this holiday season. For instance, this cute snowman is sitting in front of my parent’s Christmas tree.

4. Learning to use lighting

I don’t have an off-camera flash. To be honest, I’m a bit intimidated trying to figure out what I should look for in a flash and how I would use it once I got it (or them). So I plan on taking some time this winter and reading through Strobist’s Lighting 101. Will some of it be over my head? Definitely. Will it make me wish I had an off-camera flash? Well, I already do, but it will probably make me want one more. Will it help me make an educated purchase of what lighting equipment I actually need? I sure hope so!

5. Snow photos

I’m really excited about this one – and I hate the snow! Once again, I’m starting to appreciate things more now that I have a camera to photograph them with. Last winter I had my DSLR for less than a year, and was unsure of myself in many areas of photography – snow being one of those. I found it’s really hard to get a good photo with snow it. For one, there are footprints in the snow, or dirt in the snow, or various other things that change the snow from soft and beautiful to dirty and gross. Even a bigger issue, though, is that exposing snow can be a difficult thing and I would end up with half my snow photos being a dull gray and the other half being bright white. I was able to get a few photos that I was semi-happy with (like the one you see here), but I’m looking forward to taking the things I’ve read online, and the things I’ve learned with another year of experience under my belt to really start getting some good snow photos. Let it snow! I’m ready!

6. Looking through old photos

If you’re staying inside trying to keep warm, it’s a perfect time to start looking through some of your old photos. There’s a few reasons why I like to do this. When I first transfer a big batch of photos from my memory card to my computer, I’m often overwhelmed by them all and pick out just a few to edit and post online – there might be some other gems in there just waiting to be discovered and edited. Another reason I like to look through them is because I’d like to think that I’m constantly learning and improving, so maybe there’s some photo out there that I could edit better this time around. Finally, looking through my photos often gives me inspiration and new ideas – I can try redoing an old photo that didn’t come out exactly how I wanted it to, for example.

So, what projects are you planning on tackling with these shorter, colder days?

About the Author: Jennifer Jacobs is an amateur photographer who runs iffles.com – a site for photography beginners. She’s also addicted to flickr and you can follow her stream here.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

Winter Photography Projects

The greatest skill any photographer can hope to possess is that of observation.

Observation will define your work. It will give life and breath to the stories you capture and the beauty you create. Observation will be the difference between an average photo and a captivating photo; between an image that is a visual picture, and one that speaks to it’s audience in the most audible ways.

Developing observation – specifically in your photography – takes deliberate and practical efforts. It takes time and effort, and an unwillingness to take what is at face value.

Practice with some of the following techniques, adapted specifically for photographers:

1. Analyze

Take one inanimate object and place in on a table in front of you. Look at it for five minutes and take note of everything You notice about it. If it is an apple, notice the shape; is it round, is it bumpy, does it have many grooves? Notice the size; is it large, small, medium – and in comparison to what? Notice texture, color, shine and polish. Does it look old? Why? Does it look freshly picked? Why? Is it mouthwatering? Then what makes it so? Ask every question you can about your object until you can think of absolutely nothing else. What kind of stories were you making up in your head about this object? Why?

2. Exhaust Perspective

Take another inanimate object and set it in a window. Take your camera, and with one lens, take as many pictures with as many different perspectives and focal distances as you can over 15 minutes. What are you trying to communicate? What makes different angles express different moods or feelings? Use the light in as many ways possible. Does the overall look and feeling of your communication change based on the way you use your techniques and combine your options? This stretching exercise will challenge your capacity and cause you to begin looking outside your box for perspectives you have never seen before.

3. Evaluate your Locations

When you go on a shoot, take a few minutes prior to evaluate the location. Ask yourself which location communicates different feelings and emotions. Then, ask yourself why. Is the lighting streaming through the trees above, creating soft and diffused sun rays that give warmth and drama. Is the placement of the flowers asymmetrical, creating a feeling of artistic dynamic? Don’t take anything you see at face value.

4. Take pictures in Your Mind

The first few months of dedicating photography often cause individuals to “see” frames everywhere – even when there is no camera in hand. This joy and wonder in photography causes a heightened sense of observation. Force yourself to create images in your mind before they happen; notice the pieces of images all around you and develop your mental sharpness for visual elements.

The skills of observation will enable you to combine all elements that are at your disposal, and arrange them to reinforce the storytelling strength of your image. And that is a powerful thing.

About the Photo Above: I noticed this young married Indian girl walking in the middle of the others. She looked up at me with a shy wonder, and her eyes were filled with expectation. As she walked, I noticed that she didn’t assert herself as many of the others did. She rather hung back. The rough texture of her skin, the cut on her lip, the dirtiness of her hair all spoke to me – that her life had not been easy. And yet her eyes spoke something else entirely. Her eyes spoke with a soft and quiet confidence, almost as though she didn’t have to have the easiest life to know that she was beautiful. When I asked if I could take her picture, I discovered my intuitions were correct. For a brief moment she didn’t meet my eyes, but when she looked up, she nodded a permission and met the gaze of the camera unflinchingly.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

4 Practice Techniques to Develop Photographic Observation

As all photographers know, there are two times of day when the light is most ideal for capturing breathtaking images, sunrise and sunset. The reason being is because at these times the angle between the sun and the earth’s surface is small which allows for the sunlight to flow over the landscape in a way that intensifies the colours of nature and also creates spectacular shadows. All in all, it is a photographers dream land!

Planning For Your Early Morning Shoot:

Below are a couple of pointers that will help you effectively plan for your upcoming sunrise shoot so that you don’t miss that perfect shot. (NB: these steps should all be done the day before you plan on shooting the sunrise)

• Check your local weather forecast so you know what to expect, and also be sure to know what time the sunrise is expected to be.
• Make sure your camera batteries are fully charged, and I also suggest you have a spare fully charged battery in your bag as well.
• Go through your camera bag and ensure that you have all the equipment you need. Camera body, lenses, tripod, lens hoods, filters etc…
• Ensure you know how you are going to get to your shooting location; by car, bicycle, on foot, by boat, hot air balloon; and make sure they are fired up and ready to go.
• Set your alarm so that you have sufficient time to get to your shooting location.

But the most important tip of all is to WAKE UP when your alarm goes off!

Know Your Shooting Location:

This is a very important point and is one that many people often overlook. Knowing the location that you will be shooting in is just as important as bringing your camera on a shoot. You don’t want to find yourself in a situation (I admit, I have fallen victim to this myself) where you are frantically running around trying to find the best location to start shooting.
All you need to do is just spend about 20 minutes to half an hour a day or two before you plan on shooting the sunrise, have a look around the location so that you can get a good idea of the prime spots to photograph which will save you the pain of missing that ideal photo.

Enjoy Yourself:

You may be a professional photographer, or someone working their way up to that level, or maybe even just a hobbyist photographer, but no matter what level you’re at or what kind of photography you are doing I truly believe that the most important thing is that you enjoy yourself because at the end of the day that is most likely one of the reasons you took up photography in the first place.

So make sure to plan your shoot in advance, know the location you’ll be shooting and ENJOY IT!

Photographing at sunrise requires a little bit of planning and the ability to wake up to your alarm clock at 5:00am… In this video you will get an inside look at a sunrise shoot which takes place on the Knysna Lagoon in Southern Africa.

See more of Simon Davidson’s Photography at www.simondavo.com.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

Tips on Early Morning Photography

As a way to tell you just how much we love you, we’ve coupled with photographer extraordinaire Mike Colón to give a MEGA gift to one lucky DPS reader. 

Just comment for your chance to win (see our simple rules below) an educational DVD set including the following popular resources from Colón (retail value of $1,000 usd)!

1.  The Colón Experience: 4-day Intensive
(7 hour educational DVD set including information on lighting techniques, digital workflow and more!)

2.  Reaching the High End Bride

3.  On Location With Mike Colón
(Shadow Mike on location at a real wedding!)

About the instructor:  Mike Colón is a highly successful, high demand celebrity wedding photographer who specializes in celebrity portraiture and high profile weddings (celebrities who have commissioned him for their weddings are Usher, Timbaland and Kenny Wayne Shepard to name a few). Mike was named a “Nikon Legend Behind The Lens” and he is a spokesperson (and sits on advisory panels) for several of the photo industries top corporations including Apple Inc., Pictage Inc., Epson America Inc., Lexar Media Inc. Perhaps more impressive is the fact he still finds time for so much philanthropic work with NGO’s such as Thirst Relief International and NILMDTS.  Mike Colón has become nothing short of a household name in the photography world, known not only for his business acumen but perhaps more importantly for his success in obtaining national recognition as a celebrated artist in such a highly competitive industry.

The Rules are Simple

To Enter for a chance to win this prize – simply leave a comment in the comments below that does these two things:

1. Contains the word DVD (this will help us moderate comments and make sure we don’t miss any).

2. Tells us in 30 words or less why you want to win (while it’s a random draw it’ll be fun to see your reasons).

The prize will be a random draw from the comments left – we’ll randomly choose the winner in a week on 4 January at midday (Melbourne time).

Please note:

• there is only one entry per person.
• The winner will be contacted immediately after the drawing of the winner.
• This competition is open to all readers from all countries.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

WIN an Educational DVD Set from DPS and Celebrity Photographer Mike Colón!

With the festive season (whatever that may be to you) upon us – this weeks assignment was “Holiday Memories” So it was only fair that we had Santa come in and judge it for us, right? Well, we couldn’t get hold of him, so our awesome moderators have chosen for you and have come up with this weeks top three entries!

We’ve given First place to BryanC with his set-up shot of “Milk & Cookies” that you can see to your left. Well done BryanC! It was a tough choice with so many entries! Second place goes to KidAtHeart with (what we called) “Don’t Open ’till Christmas” I think my vote tipped this one into second spot – well, my little 5 week old boy’s vote did (Unwrap your gift carefully!) So, KidAtHeart, Congratulations on your photo. and Third (There are no losers on dPS, only winners!) goes to PhotoBoothGuy with his “Snow Ball Fight!” – A great concept, thanks and well done to all of you!

As we close out the year, for our last assignment, I want you to go through all of your shots you took this year and choose your very best. Give a brief explanation of why you feel it is your best of the year. You need to have taken it during 2009. Please remember to include your EXIF info and “My Best Shot of 2009“ if you want to be in the mini-contest. Lowepro Toploader Pro 70 AW.

Hot Threads

• Free Image Hosting for dPS Members with Snapixel!: When you sign up with Snapixel using the special dPS link, you get a free upgrade to Snapixel PRO for a whole year!
• Twas the Night Before Christmas… DPS Style: They call it the silly season for a reason, but I doubt this is it. One of our forum members has re-written The Night Before Christmas, DPS style. It’s a must read!
• Exposing Properly for Snow: If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s probably gotten a lot colder and you may even be seeing snow. And if you have kids who are about to be on Christmas break, you may be even more interested in how to get great winter pictures. Come check out this thread to learn about how to expose properly for snow.
• umm… portfolio for magazine?: “I want to submit my portfolio to a magazine, but I’m not sure what format and presenation I should use” – can you help?
• What Would You Do: Our weekly post-processing thread is continuing, but it’s in need of photos. So if you enjoy learning how to post-process photos and want a challenge, stop on by the What Would You Do thread in the forums and see how you can help out.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

This Week in the Digital Photography School Forums (9-23 Dec ‘09)

Image by garlaandcannon

I suspect that over the past 24 hours that many of us have taken more photos than we normally would in a whole month.

It seems like a shame not to see some of them – so I invite you to share your very best 2-3 in comments below.

Once you’ve taken your photos – choose your best ones, upload them to your favourite photo sharing site either share a link to them even better – embed them in the comments using the our new tool to do so.

Looking forward to seeing how people around the world are celebrating (and recording) the holiday period this week!

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

Share Your Best Holiday Shots Here

Image by duane.schoon

On behalf of the team here at DPS Virtual HQ I’d like to wish you and yours a very happy Christmas (it’s just ticked over to Christmas day here in Australia).

It’s been an amazing year here at DPS and we’re incredibly grateful to you for reading, commenting, submitting posts, sharing us with your friends, subscribing and more.

This year saw DPS grow to a readership over over 3 million people a month and a over 350,000 subscribers. Our forum is coming up on 80,000 members, on Twitter we have over 20,000 followers, on Facebook there’s a loyal group of 5000+ fans and we’ve seen a lot of new features added to the site since our redesign.

Also a big development for us this year was the release of our very first product – our Portrait E-book – which is selling well and will help us to grow the site further in the year ahead. Expect another E-book in the new year with more on a variety of photography topics to follow later in the year.

It’s been a big year so over the next week we’ll have a slightly quieter than normal pace in terms of new tutorials – scaling it back to just a single new tutorial a week to give our writing team a break – but the forums will continue to crank as normal so stop by to share your holiday shots and tell us about your new photography gear!

Thanks to everyone for making DPS what it is – especially our writers, moderators and administrative team!

Happy Christmas!

PS: Sime (our Community Manager) sends his Christmas greetings here in the forum.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

Happy Christmas from DPS

If you’re still searching for a great photography gift for that special photographer in your life (or perhaps a treat for yourself) we’re happy to provide you with a solution here at DPS – our Essential Guide to Portrait Photogrpahy.

While an e-book is a little hard to wrap I’ve had a lot of readers email me today to tell me that they’ve just bought copies as gifts for family and friends. It’s particularly good because you don’t have to leave your house to get it and there’s no delivery fee – just pay for it and download.

Some are being quite creative in how they give them too with many burning the PDF onto CDs/DVDs so that they’re able to wrap it up. Others are buying them and then forwarding the download link onto the receiver of the gift via an email.

Learn more about what the E-book covers and grab your copy here.

We’re open to either approach – all we ask is that you help us out by buying a copy for each person you give them to.

PS: also check out these 10 great photography E-books which might make a nice bundle with ours!

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

Looking for a Last Minute Photography Gift For Christmas?