Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

13 Fun Self Portrait Mirror [...]]]> 13 Fun Self Portrait Mirror Shots

It’s perhaps a little cliche – but we’ve all done it. A camera, a photographer in front of a mirror. Here’s 10 shots that caught our eye today with photographers, their cameras in front of mirrors (PS: this is the theme of the next weekly photography challenge – so get your thinking caps on and polish up those mirrros).

Post from: Digital Photography School – Photography Tips.

13 Fun Self Portrait Mirror Shots

Photography – Longmont – Boulder – Lafayette - Louisville – Niwot- Frederick – Firestone – Photographer

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

10 Quick and Easy Tips to improve your [...]]]> 10 Quick and Easy Tips to improve your Photography

It’s a new week and I’ve got a new set of tips to improve your photography. This week’s tips focus on planning and decision making while taking your shots…. Eventually it will feel like second nature and you won’t even be aware of the process, until then… keep these tips in mind.

1. Daydream

Yes, that’s right keep dreaming about your shot. Pre-Visualize in your mind what it will look like and walk through the steps you need to take to get it. This is a shot I thought about for several weeks before finally setting it up and taking it. With only one camera, I often feel like I’m constantly juggling lenses!

2. Use wide lens

Try to use wide lenses for landscape shots when you want to create an impact of size. You can use a wide range of lenses to shoot landscapes but the vistas are amazing if you shoot with the widest lens possible because they give you a bigger angle of view.

3. Sharpen Your Subjects

Keep your main subjects sharp. Sharp details in the image truly draw the viewers’ eyes towards the subject. Use your tripod in low light conditions to make sharp pictures. Try to make use of the new sharpening effect in Adobe Camera RAW. It does a great job and has improved from previous versions.

4. Keep it Clean

A background makes or breaks your shot so be sure to think carefully about the how you place your subject. Keep the background clean, simple and clutter free. Think about where the viewer should be focused….

5. You Can’t Have Too Many Clouds

Use fluffy white clouds on a blue sky to produce dramatic skies. Is it overcast with too many clouds to see the sky? The sky is now a giant soft box. This is the time to shoot portraits or waterfalls and streams with a motion blur effect.

6. Behind Every Great Shot is the Sun

Stand with the sun at your back and the light of the sun falling on your subject. Unless you are making artistic pictures always try to keep the sun behind you.

7. Light Trails

Enhance your dawn and night urban shots with light trails. Use vehicles or any other moving lights to add interest, mood, and drama. Light trails almost always makes the shot interesting (learn: how to shoot light trails).

8. Silhouettes

The key is an uncluttered, lit background. Simply place your subject in the foreground so that you have clean, sharp lines and go for it. Play with placement and angles to make awesome silhouettes (learn: how to shoot Silhouettes).

9. Top to Bottom

Look straight up. Look straight down. Now examine everything in between. There are great shots from every vantage point, including an unexpected angle. Sometimes we focus so much on the obvious shot that we miss something special just a heartbeat away.

10. And finally… It’s a Camera not a Machine Gun

Unless you are taking action shots or a time lapse series, try to reduce the number of shots. Don’t just fire away hoping for something good to appear during editing. Think, move, and adjust your framing before you click the shutter. You’ll develop better instincts and save hours of time editing those hundreds of extra images.

Check out these links to follow the whole series

• 10 Quick, Easy and Intuitive Tips to Improve your Photography
• 10 Landscape Composition Tips Illustrated with Pictures from Eastern Washington
• 10 More Quick Composition Tips Illustrated
• 10 Quick Tips for Photographing Antelope Canyons

Amar Ramesh is an emerging photographer from Redmond WA, USA….Photography, to him is a passion with infinite opportunities and he loves to share the lessons and tips that he learned with others….Please visit his Facebook Page for more….He is also in Flickr|Twitter|Portfolio.

Post from: Digital Photography School – Photography Tips.

10 Quick and Easy Tips to improve your Photography

Photography – Longmont – Boulder – Lafayette - Louisville – Niwot- Frederick – Firestone – Photographer

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

How to Photograph Bands in Bars, Part 3 – [...]]]> How to Photograph Bands in Bars, Part 3 – Shooting

A guest post by Music Photographer Rick Bennett.

Bars are challenging shooting environments now matter how you slice it–crappy lighting, drunk crowds, cramped spaces. Add in musicians who like to move around a lot, speakers in photographically inconvenient locations, and microphone stands that tend to bisect heads, and you’ve got an ideal situation for a photographer who likes a challenge. In Part 1, I covered the basics of equipment needed to shoot bands in bars: low-noise-at-high-iso cameras, off-camera flash, and mongo glass. In Part 2 I talked about where I’ve found success with placing my flashes, and the camera settings that have yielded the best results. Finally, in this part, I get to the shooting.

Before you start shooting, take care of your ears so that you can do this more than a couple of times–buy some ear plugs at your local hardware store (near the goggles and other protective gear) or pharmacy (near the sleep aids). I find I spend a significant amount of time standing right in front of the speakers, and my ears are ringing pretty badly by the end of a performance if I don’t use ear plugs. Even with the plugs in, you’ll be able to hear every part of the performance.

While shooting, you must be polite. Most people are accommodating if you step in front of them for a moment to make a shot, but do that too frequently or for too long, and you’ll start to irritate the fans of the band. Remember that the band is there to perform for their fans. The pictures you make are secondary to that purpose. I’ve only been in one situation where I felt like my presence as a photographer was not appreciated by one fan–I finished the shot and stepped off the dance floor. The huge majority of the time, people are very forgiving of me moving in and out of the crowd in order to get the shot I want. But I’m very careful to not obstruct any one person’s view for more than a few seconds–no more than any other fan would obstruct their view.

The easiest way to stay out of the fans’ view is to crouch down for the low angle. Most big bands perform on a stage that is raised several feet above the heads of the crowd so that everyone can see. Bands who play in bars don’t generally have this advantage, but you can create that look by taking pictures from low angles. The shots look cool, and the fans will appreciate not having to look around your f/2.8 lens to see their favorite guitar solo.

I find the most challenging aspect of shooting musicians is composing shots without microphone shadows or severe instrument shadows. This isn’t a problem for guitars, but any instrument that is close to the face can be problematic, e.g. saxophone, trumpet, violin/fiddle. The shadows are easy to see if you’re shooting with ambient stage lighting and no flash. But with remote flash, it means you have to be on the same side of the instrument or microphone as your flash is. In this lighting diagram, if the left flash fires, the microphone will cast a nasty shadow across the singer’s face. If the right hand flash fires, no shadow problem. So you have to stay close to the flash, but not so close that it looks like on-camera flash.

The other major compositional challenge is getting pictures framed so that microphones and stands don’t detract from, or steal attention in, the photo. Microphones and stands are part of a performance, but I don’t like them to dominate a picture. For example, if I’m framing two musicians in the shot and the microphone from one musician is covering the face of the other, I won’t take the shot (or I’ll delete it later). I’ll change my position, or wait until the musicians change theirs if I can.

I also don’t particularly care for shots from dead-center on a signer. It will look like they’re eating their microphone, or worse, have it shoved up their nose. That’s why I tend to take pictures from the side–I get great shots when the singer pulls back from the microphone a little bit so that you can see their whole face.

If I’m shooting the gig for the band, or in the hopes that the band will hire me in the future, I’ll work through the following shot list during their performance:

• a couple of shots of every member of the band. If some play and sing, I’ll capture them doing both.
• detail shots, generally closeups of instruments during a set break. Not all of them, just those that strike me as interesting photographically.
• detail shots of instruments being played. Again, not all of them, but whatever strikes me as interesting at the time. I love shots of accordions!
• motion blur of fingers on instruments, usually a guitar or bass. No flash here, just a 1/15 to 1/60s shutter, and up close with a f/1.8 lens. The challenge here is to capture a moment where the instrument isn’t moving very much, but the fingers are.
• any time the band interacts with the fans or fans enjoying the show, e.g. clapping, dancing, rock hands, etc, with band and fans in the frame
• a group shot where a) all the band members are visible in the frame, and b) everyone is playing, and c) a little bit of audience

Finally, be sure to give the drummer some lovin’. Drummers are usually in the back, with no stage lighting whatsoever, and as such, they rarely have pictures taken of them. I’ll even change the angle and power of remote flashes if I need to in order to capture a drummer. I make it my mission to capture at least one killer image of the drummer before I go home for the evening. If the drummer has any ambient lighting hitting them at all, a slow shutter will create some great motion blur.

When taking all of these pictures, I’m looking for “music faces”–points where the musicians are clearly enjoying themselves, and “music moments” where two (or more) musicians are jamming together. These are the images I really like to see. When I look at my images in post processing, I can tell who captured my attention photographically because I’ve got a lot more images of them. And I’ve walked away from shooting some gigs (not paid, or pre-arranged by the band) because the musicians weren’t performing–they just stood there playing their instruments. Meh, that’s no fun. I could have taken five shots and have faithfully captured their performance.

Make sure the band knows how to get in touch with you by the end of the performance. They’ll definitely have noticed you (especially if you have that 70-200 f/2.8 lens) and are probably interested in seeing your work.

What you do with the images and how you processes them will depend on your purpose in taking them. If you wanted to get the band’s attention and hopefully have them hire you, then pick a handful of the best and get them on-line in a hurry. That will help solidify in their memory that you were the one taking pictures, and, holy cow, you took some great ones! If the band had already hired you, then I assume you’ve already worked out a method of payment and delivery.

As you’re going through the images from the night, don’t sweat the deletes. I typically keep only 1/4 to 1/3 of the images from a night of shooting. And the band doesn’t see those out-of-focus poorly framed shots.

Don’t wait for the band to contact you–reach out to them through whatever means possible: Facebook, Twitter, their website. Let them know where to see your work and how to contact you for more.

Good luck! And share your work in the forums.

Rick Bennett has been shooting bands in bars, at festivals, and on big stages for about a year. You can see more of his work on his blog, portfolio, or Flickr stream.

Post from: Digital Photography School – Photography Tips.

How to Photograph Bands in Bars, Part 3 – Shooting

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

Photographing Bands in Bars, Part 2 – Set [...]]]> Photographing Bands in Bars, Part 2 – Set Up

A guest post by Music Photographer Rick Bennett.

Band photography in bars can be very challenging, but with a little bit of knowledge and planning you can make images that blow away the standard fan photo. In Part 1, I discussed equipment choices: cameras, lenses and flashes. In this article, I’ll describe how to set up just before the performance to get the best shots.

First and foremost, you need to attempt to assess the security of your gear before you pull anything out. No band photographs are worth losing a camera or lens or flash over. The bands I’ve tended to shoot have played in nice neighborhoods in well established bars with well behaved clientele. But I’m constantly on the alert because the clientele could change in a heartbeat. In some situations, I’ll leave flashes and camera bags unattended, but I’ll never walk away from my camera. A VAL (voice activated light stand) can certainly help keep an eye on your gear, but the best place for the bag with extra gear is with the band’s gear, usually close to the stage. Having it close to their things means they’re more likely to help keep an eye on it as well. That being said, I’ve never had a problem with gear walking off, but that is something you’ll have to assess at every gig.

I generally try to find a seat (if they have seats) near to the front of the audience, left of center from the audience’s perspective. If there is an obvious front-row of fans, I’ll put my “home base” behind them since a) those fans would be the most irritated by a blocked view, and b) their excitement can make great framing devices. I choose left-of center because most guitar players are right handed, and I prefer pictures where the body of the guitar is closer to the camera. I want to be off-center because it generally results in better images of singers if the microphone doesn’t cover the lower half of their face. But this is just a “home base” where I’ll come back to in order to change lenses or enjoy some of the music. This is not where you’ll park your camera the whole performance. More on that in Part 3. After you’ve determined your home base, try to introduce yourself to the band, if this wasn’t arranged ahead of time. Get their permission to shoot their performance–I can’t imagine they would be upset by it, but it helps to build rapport by asking.

If you’re going to use off-camera flash, you’ll need to determine placement based on the layout of the bar. My standard layout is to work with two flashes, one at the extreme left of the stage, and the other at the extreme right. See this light diagram as an example. But again, it all depends on what you’ve got available to you for clamping/securing/mounting a flash. If I’m going to clamp a flash to something that the bar owns (and isn’t as simple as a chair or table or steel pole) I’ll check with a bartender or sound-guy first. I’ll let them know I’m there to shoot the band, and ask permission to mount a flash on their light-bar, for example. No one has ever given me grief, but its good to get permission first–asking forgiveness is not a good way to build your reputation. After I’ve placed the flash, I point the flash at the far side of the stage–this way the closest performer is in the “feathered” light, where the furthest performer gets the most direct blast, but at a much greater distance.

When shooting with two flashes, I generally set their triggers to different transmitter channels for the first set, and to the same channel for the second set. This gives me a wide variety of pictures–some with dramatic hard lighting, some with more balanced cross light.

Since I’m using manual flashes, I set my shutter speed to one click down from my max sync speed, which means I’m set to 1/160s. For the most part, this usually eliminates the stage lights, if any. I can always slow that down if I decide I want to let in more ambient or motion blur, but I start with 1/160s. Then I go to each of the positions of the band members, and if needed, place my hand about where their face would be, take a shot, chimp, repeat, until I determine the proper aperture for that performer. This ends up being pretty straight forward in a one-flash setting: the performer closest to the flash might be f/11, the next one might be f/8, then f/5.6 then f/4.8. I might write this down in a note pad, but usually I just get a feel for how “hot” the closest performer is, and knock the aperture down from there. If I can’t get enough light on the performer most distant from the flash, I’ll either increase the power on the flash or increase my ISO. I prefer to keep my flash power at 1/4 for fast recycle times, but that isn’t always possible because of the layout of the bar.

If you’re not using off-camera flash, I recommend setting your ISO to the highest setting you can tolerate based on the noise it produces, probably in the 800 to 3200 range. With my D60, I never went higher than 800 if I could help it. With my D5000, I can go all the way to 3200 with impunity. Next I’ll set the camera to spot metering, servo-continuous focusing, and aperture priority at the lowest setting for the lens. The D5000 (and other cameras I’m sure) can also enable “Auto ISO” where you specify the range of ISO that are acceptable (I’ll allow 200-3200) and the minimum shutter speed. The camera will then automatically boost your ISO as needed to match your given shutter speed. I’m still getting used to this feature, but I think it has the potential to really help in these kinds of situations. I’ll also set the camera to capture RAW+Basic JPEG. I save RAW and JPEG because the RAW files allow me to manipulate color balance better than JPEG, and the camera applies the best noise reduction to the JPEG.

To summarize, my camera settings generally look like this:

• Off Camera Flash: Manual mode, 1/160s, aperture depends on performer distance to flash, ISO 200-800 if possible to get flash power set to 1/4. Metering mode doesn’t matter since I’m in manual mode.
• Ambient Only: Aperture priority, smallest f-stop for lens, ISO high enough to get to 1/120s shutter speed, spot metering for close up shots, matrix metering for wide angle.

In part 3, I’ll cover shooting

Rick Bennett has been shooting bands in bars, at festivals, and on big stages for about a year. You can see more of his work on his blog, portfolio, or Flickr stream.

Post from: Digital Photography School – Photography Tips.

Photographing Bands in Bars, Part 2 – Set Up

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

6 Tips for Budding Live Concert [...]]]> 6 Tips for Budding Live Concert Photographers

A Guest Post by Viennese Concert Photographer Matthias Hombauer

Being a concert photographer can be very exciting. Imagine yourself standing 6 feet away in front of your beloved idol and taking portraits of them. Not only do you have the ability to shoot one image but can take hundreds of pictures that you can carry home. As a passionate music lover this seems to be heaven and indeed this is a close description how it can feel.

• But how do you start to become a concert photographer?
• What equipment do you need?
• How do you get the shot?

In this short tutorial I will write about my experience of being a concert photographer – I hope it will improve your skills in this exciting field of photography.

1. Getting started! Prepare yourself to become a concert photographer

What is the best way to start? The easiest way to build your career is to begin in small clubs. In these venues it’s more likely that you can enter with your camera equipment without any special press accreditation. Therefore this is the perfect playground for you to change your camera settings and getting used to be in front of a stage. Why not ask some friends who play in a band and offer them your skills next time? For sure they would be more than happy to have pictures of their next concert.

But all beginnings are difficult and so is concert photography.

The problem in these small venues is in the lack of stage light! Most of the concerts I was starting with had only a blue and a red spotlight on stage. Beside the fact that the musicians look like creatures from another galaxy the light is so low that you hardly get sharp pictures when not using proper equipment.

What is the solution for this dilemma?

2. Buy a fast cheap prime lens, now!

Talking about lenses for concert photography always ends up with the same conclusion: use fast lenses! Most of the time the stage light is very low so your only chance to get sharp images is to use a fast lens.

As a beginner I would recommend the cheap 50mm 1.8, because of its ability to shoot in low light at its lowest aperture setting. This lens saved me a couple of times when the light technician seemed to sleep and the stage was almost pitch black. For small stages a 50mm lens is a good compromise to get a head shot of the lead singer and a full length shot of the drummer (depending how big the stage actually is).

How to get rid of the red creature from another galaxy-look? Convert your pictures into black and white and the musicians will look way more natural again.

3. What was this noise all about?

One important setting on your camera is the ISO value. A good setting for your camera’s ISO value is crucial for concert photography. Most of the time you’ll find yourself dialing your ISO setting up to 1600 or higher to get a decent shutter speed.

You may be thinking: “What?! I am using a lens with an aperture of 1.8 and an ISO setting of 1600 and I still not get the shot I want?”

Unfortunately the answer is: Yes, at least most of the time.

Using such high ISO settings at a digital SLRs with a crop sensor will generate a lot of noise. Therefore I recommend to use noise reduction software in your post processing workflow. Or, even better (but more expensive): Buy a full frame camera.

4. Which Mode and Settings Should I shoot with?

In my opinion this is an individual preference and you should try what fits to your style. I always shoot in Aperture priority mode and at my lowest aperture setting (e.g 1.8; 2.8, depending on the lens you are using).

Some people also use manual mode, but I feel rather comfortable that my camera sets the right exposure and I don’t have to think about it.

I always use spot metering, because the stage lights are changing rapidly and you’ll never know if the lights will hit the artists face in the next second or not.

Use multi shot mode. Do not only shoot 1 picture but 3 or 4 to have a higher yield of pictures that you can use.

Finally: Always shoot in RAW format. Sure, you’ll need more storage space, but it is absolutely worth it to have the ability to change all the parameter like white balance and exposure afterwards in post processing.

5. What about Shooting in Big venues?

Welcome to the world of rock stardom! Are you ready to get close to your idols? Thousands of screaming people, squeezed in between the trench and the people behind, create a sheer unsurmountable barrier whereas you enter easily from the side of the stage, sipping coke and walk to the stage in front of the security guards.

You realize all the fancy equipment on the stage that you just used to know from videowalls – and then, suddenly the lights go dark. The band enters the stage, some people scream, others faint but you are just anxious and think: “am i dreaming or is this real” Then it hits you again, damn, it’s real and I am better back to reality again and take some great pics!

This is how it feels like standing in front of a big stage (at least this is the case for me).

You’ll think now: “Great, sounds good, I would like to do this, but how? Tell me, tell me, tell me!!!” The answer: You need a press accreditation. “Oh my gosh, what’s this?”

Don’t be afraid, it’s easier than you think. I started to work for a small internet magazine for students. These small magazines and online platforms will give you the opportunity to get to bigger concerts. Maybe you won’t get tickets for Woodstock 2011, but it should be possible for smaller festivals.

Try to get in touch with people, ask other photographers, talk to other students, maybe one of them is running a magazine. Try your luck at a local newspaper.

I am sure, if you really want to become a concert photographer, there are many ways to achieve your goal.

Once you got your press accreditation, the fun begins. You have to go to the press/VIP ticket counter to get your press ticket.

Most likely, depending on the artist, you are allowed to take pictures of the first 3 songs without flash. Not more. These are the rules and everybody has to stick to it. Leonard Cohen allowed just 1 song. Fortunately it was a long one, 6min time, 300 pictures! Exhausted and happy to get a good one for the newspaper!

Face the truth: you’ll delete most of your pictures and end up with just a few really good ones. As Chase Jarvis is saying just take more pictures to get THE shot you are waiting for.

6. I am standing in front of the stage with my 50mm lens. Why do the others have all this big ones (do they try to compensate for anything)?

Ok, this is the deal. Bigger Venues need bigger lenses and mostly high ISO too!

If you are looking around professional concert photographers they most likely have a full format sensor camera (yep, because of the high ISO capability) and a 24-70 2.8 or 70-200 2.8 or both – or even an ultrawide angle/fisheye lens.

Sure, you can also try your luck with your 50mm but on big stages you definitely need a telephoto lens. The zoom ability is also crucial in my opinion, because you can not move forward, so you have to compose from your point of view.

Sometimes the artist will permanently move so it’s easier to follow him/her with your lens. For instance, Jamiroquai was jumping around for 10 minutes. The other advantage of this back-breaking lenses is that other photographers will take you more seriously and get afraid that you might take better pictures than them.

I hope I could convince you that being a concert photographer is much fun even though you have to spend a lot of time and money for it. But believe me, if you see your pics after the concert of your favourite band on your LCD display on the back of your camera, the efforts it took are forgotten in a second.

Summary:

• start in small venues
• use a lens with a small aperture (e.g. 50mm 1.8)
• use high ISO settings
• try to get in contact with magazines and internet platforms to get your press accreditation
• save your money for a full frame camera and fast zoom lenses: 24-70mm 2.8, 70-200mm 2.8, ultrawide/fisheye lens
• Enjoy your new life as a concert photographer

Check out more of Matthias Hmobauer’s photography at his blog.

Post from: Digital Photography School – Photography Tips.

6 Tips for Budding Live Concert Photographers

Photography – Longmont – Boulder – Lafayette - Louisville – Niwot- Frederick – Firestone – Photographer