The Path, one life experience

- CAMERA HISTOGRAMS: LUMINOSITY & COLOR -

2010-11-12T10:56:00.001+07:00

- CAMERA HISTOGRAMS: LUMINOSITY & COLOR -

This section is designed to help you develop a better understanding of how luminosity and color both vary within an image, and how this translates into the relevant histogram. Although RGB histograms are the most commonly used histogram, other types are more useful for specific purposes.

The image below is shown alongside several of the other histogram types which you are likely to encounter. Move your mouse over the labels at the bottom to toggle which type of color histogram is displayed. When you change to one of the color histograms a different image will be shown. This new image is a grayscale representation of how that color's intensity is distributed throughout the image. Pay particular attention to how each color changes the brightness distribution within the image, and how the colors within each region influence this brightness.



Choose:	RED	GREEN	BLUE	ALL

LUMINANCE HISTOGRAMS

Luminance* histograms are more accurate than RGB histograms at describing the perceived brightness distribution or "luminosity" within an image. Luminosity takes into account the fact that the human eye is more sensitive to green light than red or blue light. View the above example again for each color and you will see that the green intensity levels within the image are most representative of the brightness distribution for the full color image. This also reflected by the fact that the luminance histogram also matches the green histogram more than any other color. Luminosity correctly predicts that the following stepped gradient gradually increases in lightness, whereas a simple addition of each RGB value would give the same intensity at each rectangle.

darkest

lightest

How is a luminance histogram produced? First, each pixel is converted so that it represents a luminosity based on a weighted average of the three colors at that pixel. This weighting assumes that green represents 59% of the perceived luminosity, while the red and blue channels account for just 30% and 11%, respectively. Move your mouse over "convert to luminosity" below the example image to see what this calculation looks like when performed for for each pixel. Once all pixels have been converted into luminosity, a luminance histogram is produced by counting how many pixels are at each brightness — identical to how a histogram is produced for a single color.

*Technical Note: Strictly speaking, these should really be called "luminosity histograms." Unfortunately, the terms "luminance" and "luminosity" are often used interchangeably, including by Photoshop, even though each describes a different aspect of light intensity. Luminance refers to the absolute amount of light emitted by an object per unit area, whereas luminosity refers to the perceived brightness of that object by a human observer.

An important difference to take away from the above calculation is that while luminance histograms keep track of the location of each color pixel, RGB histograms discard this information. An RGB histogram produces three independent histograms and then adds them together, irrespective of whether or not each color came from the same pixel. To illustrate this point we will use an image which the two types of histograms interpret quite differently.

The above image contains many patches of pure color. At the interior of each color patch the intensity reaches a maximum of 255, so all patches have significant color clipping and only in that color. Even though this image contains no pure white pixels, the RGB histogram shows strong clipping—so much that if this were a photograph the image would appear significantly overexposed. This is because the RGB histogram does not take into account the fact that all three colors never clip in the same place.

The luminance histogram tells an entirely different story by showing no pixels anywhere near full brightness. It also shows three distinct peaks—one for each color that has become significantly clipped. Since this image contains primarily blue, then red, then least of all green, the relative heights clearly show which color belongs where. Also note that the relative horizontal position of each peak is in accordance with the percentages used in the weighted average for calculating luminance: 59%, 30%, and 11%.

So which one is better? If we cared about color clipping, then the RGB histogram clearly warns us while the luminance histogram provides no red flags. On the other hand, the luminance histogram accurately tells us that no pixel is anywhere near full black or white. Each has its own use and should be used as a collective tool. Since most digital cameras show only a RGB histogram, just be aware of its shortcomings. As a rule of thumb, the more intense and pure the colors are in your image, the more a luminance and RGB histogram will differ. Pay careful attention when your subject contains strong shades of blue since you will rarely be able to see blue channel clipping with luminance histograms.

COLOR HISTOGRAMS

Whereas RGB and luminance histograms use all three color channels, a color histogram describes the brightness distribution for any of these colors individually. This can be more helpful when trying to assess whether or not individual colors have been clipped.

View Channel:

RED

GREEN

BLUE

ALL

LUMINOSITY


View Histogram:	RGB	LUMINOSITY

The petals of the red flowers caught direct sunlight, so their red color became clipped, even though the rest of the image remained within the histogram. Regions where individual color channels are clipped lose all texture caused by that particular color. However, these clipped regions may still retain some luminance texture if the other two colors have not also been clipped. Individual color clipping is often not as objectionable as when all three colors clip, although this all depends upon what you wish to convey.

RGB histograms can show if an individual color channel clips, however they do not tell you if this is due to an individual color or all three. Color histograms amplify this effect and clearly show the type of clipping. Move your mouse over the labels above to compare the luminance and RGB histograms, to view the image in terms of only a single color channel, and to view the image luminance. Notice how the intensity distribution for each color channel varies drastically in regions of nearly pure color. The strength and purity of colors within this image cause the RGB and luminance histograms to differ significantly.

CAMERA HISTOGRAMS: TONES & CONTRAST

2010-11-12T10:51:00.002+07:00

- CAMERA HISTOGRAMS: TONES & CONTRAST -

Understanding image histograms is probably the single most important concept to become familiar with when working with pictures from a digital camera. A histogram can tell you whether or not your image has been properly exposed, whether the lighting is harsh or flat, and what adjustments will work best. It will not only improve your skills on the computer, but as a photographer as well.

Each pixel in an image has a color which has been produced by some combination of the primary colors red, green, and blue (RGB). Each of these colors can have a brightness value ranging from 0 to 255 for a digital image with a bit depth of 8-bits. A RGB histogram results when the computer scans through each of these RGB brightness values and counts how many are at each level from 0 through 255. Other types of histograms exist, although all will have the same basic layout as the histogram example shown below.

TONES

The region where most of the brightness values are present is called the "tonal range." Tonal range can vary drastically from image to image, so developing an intuition for how numbers map to actual brightness values is often critical—both before and after the photo has been taken. There is no one "ideal histogram" which all images should try to mimic; histograms should merely be representative of the tonal range in the scene and what the photographer wishes to convey.

The above image is an example which contains a very broad tonal range, with markers to illustrate where regions in the scene map to brightness levels on the histogram. This coastal scene contains very few midtones, but does have plentiful shadow and highlight regions in the lower left and upper right of the image, respectively. This translates into a histogram which has a high pixel count on both the far left and right-hand sides.

Lighting is often not as extreme as the last example. Conditions of ordinary and even lighting, when combined with a properly exposed subject, will usually produce a histogram which peaks in the centre, gradually tapering off into the shadows and highlights. With the exception of the direct sunlight reflecting off the top of the building and off some windows, the boat scene to the right is quite evenly lit. Most cameras will have no trouble automatically reproducing an image which has a histogram similar to the one shown below.

HIGH AND LOW KEY IMAGES

Although most cameras will produce midtone-centric histograms when in an automatic exposure mode, the distribution of peaks within a histogram also depends on the tonal range of the subject matter. Images where most of the tones occur in the shadows are called "low key," whereas with "high key" images most of the tones are in the highlights.

Before the photo has been taken, it is useful to assess whether or not your subject matter qualifies as high or low key. Since cameras measure reflected as opposed to incident light, they are unable to assess the absolute brightness of their subject. As a result, many cameras contain sophisticated algorithms which try to circumvent this limitation, and estimate how bright an image should be. These estimates frequently result in an image whose average brightness is placed in the midtones. This is usually acceptable, however high and low key scenes frequently require the photographer to manually adjust the exposure, relative to what the camera would do automatically. A good rule of thumb is that you will need to manually adjust the exposure whenever you want the average brightness in your image to appear brighter or darker than the midtones.

The following set of images would have resulted if I had used my camera's auto exposure setting. Note how the average pixel count is brought closer to the midtones.

Most digital cameras are better at reproducing low key scenes since they prevent any region from becoming so bright that it turns into solid white, regardless of how dark the rest of the image might become as a result. High key scenes, on the other hand, often produce images which are significantly underexposed. Fortunately, underexposure is usually more forgiving than overexposure (although this compromises your signal to noise ratio). Detail can never be recovered when a region becomes so overexposed that it becomes solid white. When this occurs the highlights are said to be "clipped" or "blown."

The histogram is a good tool for knowing whether clipping has occurred since you can readily see when the highlights are pushed to the edge of the chart. Some clipping is usually ok in regions such as specular reflections on water or metal, when the sun is included in the frame or when other bright sources of light are present. Ultimately, the amount of clipping present is up to the photographer and what they wish to convey.

CONTRAST

A histogram can also describe the amount of contrast. Contrast is a measure of the difference in brightness between light and dark areas in a scene. Broad histograms reflect a scene with significant contrast, whereas narrow histograms reflect less contrast and may appear flat or dull. This can be caused by any combination of subject matter and lighting conditions. Photos taken in the fog will have low contrast, while those taken under strong daylight will have higher contrast.

Contrast can have a significant visual impact on an image by emphasizing texture, as shown in the image above. The high contrast water has deeper shadows and more pronounced highlights, creating texture which "pops" out at the viewer.

Contrast can also vary for different regions within the same image due to both subject matter and lighting. We can partition the previous image of a boat into three separate regions—each with its own distinct histogram.

The upper region contains the most contrast of all three because the image is created from light which does not first reflect off the surface of water. This produces deeper shadows underneath the boat and its ledges, and stronger highlights in the upward-facing and directly exposed areas. The middle and bottom regions are produced entirely from diffuse, reflected light and thus have lower contrast; similar to if one were taking photographs in the fog. The bottom region has more contrast than the middle—despite the smooth and monotonic blue sky—because it contains a combination of shade and more intense sunlight. Conditions in the bottom region create more pronounced highlights, but it still lacks the deep shadows of the top region. The sum of the histograms in all three regions creates the overall histogram shown before.

Why Do You Make Photographs?

2010-11-12T10:43:00.000+07:00

Why do you make photographs?

Simple question, really.

But have you ever thought about what it is that makes you do it and love it so? (I am making an assumption that you love to make photographs because you are reading this blog and this blog is all about loving to make photographs.)

I have a simple answer when it is asked of me; “Because I have to.” I need to make photographs like I need to breathe. I carry an iPhone camera without being hooked up to AT&T, just for the camera. I have film cameras and I have medium format and large format cameras. I have cheap digital cameras and point and shoots… I love them all.

Because they make photographs. Still images. Prints.

I tried the movie route for a while back in the early 80′s. Thought that directing would be a really fun thing to do. Then I got a chance to do it and got a taste of the incredibly different world that is the film industry. There was simply no way I could force myself to deal with the unions and the whining and the bitchiness and the attitudes. It may be some people’s thing, but I found it totally not compatible with my way of seeing the world.

And I wasn’t that committed to it anyway. I don’t really see movies in my head. I see still images. There are a few movies that I can watch over and over, but they are few. But I can still pull out an old Mapplethorpe book or a Weston or an Adams or a Ritts and be totally entertained. I see things I didn’t see last time.

I think that as your world changes and the things you are interested change, what you see in the images change as well. When I was learning technique, I tended to look for images that reinforced the challenges I was having in technique. When posing subjects was new to me, there were images that I would study to learn. To see. To do.

Then, when those things were no longer the big challenges they once were, I can look at those images and see even more. Stuff that I didn’t see the first or second time because I was looking to be taught. I was looking for answers instead of letting the image supply the questions.

And to me, that is one of the great things that surround the best still images. A sense of contextual alteration… questions of reality… seem to flow from images that attract me. I want images that challenge me to feel or do or see. Images that kind of creep up and take you by surprise, with a new and challenging view of something so obvious or so known to me that it makes me take pause.

Dan Winter’s pictures do that for me. And the surfers of Joni Sternbach. And the landscapes of Nadav Kander (Try Wilderness). And a whole host of photographers who move beyond the encounter photograph to make a photograph that intrigues. At least to me.

My fascination for the still photograph goes back to when I was a kid. I believe it was 1954 when Life Magazine printed the images that were taken at Auschwitz and the other concentration camps. They horrified me, and as a kid of about 5 or 6 years old they gave me nightmares. They were some of the most powerful pictures I had ever seen, and they made me have a physical reaction. They still do.

Because they were moments taken and captured and delivered in a medium that was not of reality. Black and white – ink on paper – two dimensional. As far away from the real world as possible and yet… they were as real as one gets when confronted with terror.

I knew later that I wanted to be a photographer (after brief stints as a drummer in a soul band “Salt and Pepper”, a jazz drummer and arranger, an art director and various other crazy stuff that I had the wonderful opportunity to do.) But it is the capture of a still image – something that will last a lifetime or two – taken of a split moment in time – that still captures my imagination. That moment in time will never be repeated. Ever. But I got a chance to hold it forever. I can relive that moment in my mind… the way I remember it. Movies don’t do that… they live it for you. I like it my way more.

I take a lot of pictures. A lot. I throw a lot of pictures away. A lot. I am very aware of where I fit in the grand scheme of things and at this point in my life, I couldn’t care less about criticisms or artistic differences. Being the best I can be is the goal of what I do, and I have little desire to copy or mimic anyone, or try to ‘fit in’ to some faddish or temporary direction. I make pictures now to impress me. Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don’t… but I work at it. Every time.

Garry Winogrand once said “I photograph to see what the world looks like in photographs.”

Yeah… like Garry said.

And I like to put a little twist in if I can. Sometimes reality can be so damn real… ya know.

I got to thinking about this after reading Zack Arias’s post on negativity. I know where he is coming from there, and there have been times when I had either thought about quitting or committing homicide (justifiable in my mind of course) against some folks who lied and stole from me. But that never seemed like a good plan, so I kept on making photographs.

I do know that being in photography as a career is really hard. It is. There are missed anniversaries, late late nights, red-eye flights to places with no rental cars, dead-beat clients, book-keeping nightmares, overhead and insurance and on and on and on. And somewhere in that mess of reality you have to be able to turn it all off, and flip the “I’m gonna make a knock-out shot now…” switch to on.

And that has to happen all the time. Clients don’t care about all the crap you have to do to be in business. They simply don’t. And that is OK… think about it. Do you really care about all the crap they have to do to stay in business? Really? Hell no. I would never trade my puny, mundane, seemingly terrible problems with anybody else. There are more to our lives than what we see. And I have no wish to have someone else’s hidden problems.

If you are starting out in photography you must understand something I learned a long time ago… painfully. Photography is a harsh mistress. She demands your concentration when you may be needed elsewhere. She demands your attention – ripping you away from loved ones and family and things you would maybe be better off doing. You can fight it, but she will usually win with those of us who love her so.

My friend Ken says that the worst day of photography he ever had was still better than the best day he ever had at a “real” job. I don’t just say “yeah” to that, but “hell yeah.”

So I would say to Zack, and anyone who was dealing with how damn hard it is to do what we love… stay the course. Manage expectations. As fickle as photography is, be true to her. Photography will thrill you and she will break your heart. Sometimes on the same day. Sometimes within the same moment. And know that she will not be true to you… she will desert you with her BFF ‘talent’ and go to Vegas, spend a ton on your credit card, meet some young hotshot whippersnapper and run off for a few days, trashing the Mustang and shootin’ up a casino, gettin’ drunk and quite possibly arrested.

But she will come back – unrepentant for sure, without apology and with a bit of an attitude… but back indeed. And you get to start the whole damn passionate thing over again.

It is passion that fires it all in the first place.

The passion of the still image.

Ways To Control The Wedding – A Photographers Guide To Becoming A Wedding Planner

2010-11-12T10:38:00.000+07:00

Ways To Control The Wedding – A Photographers Guide To Becoming A Wedding Planner

by Virtual Photography

Over the years, we’ve photographed hundreds of weddings. And when it comes to planning the wedding, there are two kinds of brides.

Cinderella – the type who takes control over every detail, planning day and night until the big event.

The Queen – She’s busy and relies on others to plan for her. She puts in her requests and lets a planner narrow down the choices. Then she makes final decisions.

Cinderella

Because Cinderella brides don’t rely on a planner, they go into their wedding day with high expectations and little direction. Because they’ve never put on a wedding before, they don’t have any idea how long an event should last, or how to structure the individual pieces of the day to make it run smoothly. In essence, they are lost the entire day, letting people control them as they move along.

With a Cinderella bride, you have to step in immediately, or risk being at the event many hours that day.

The easiest way to control a Cinderella bride is to gently make suggestions. Explain that you have photographed dozens or hundreds of brides, and know how to keep guests happy. Never put it back on her – tell her you know how to keep the party moving and exciting for each of her guests. She’ll quickly rely on you as the planner.

Then make suggestions.

“Do you want formal portraits before or after the ceremony? Portraits typically take 20 to 30 minutes, so if you want more time with your guests, before is probably better.”

“Shall we cut the cake right after dinner? Then your guests can be served while you enjoy your first dance.”

The key is good communication. Never force a situation; make the bride feel like she made the choices.
Another key way to keep control is to work with the other vendors. Talk with the caterer – when will they be ready to cut the cake for the guests? Talk with the DJ or band – what order are the songs in for important dances?

If you know the order and can work together with the other vendors, you’ll all have a smoother event, and watch out for each other along the way.

The Queen

In most cases, the Queen will rely on a wedding planner. The wedding planner does this every day, and has her own agenda planned out.

Because a wedding planner uses vendors she refers, chances are you’ll see the same vendors again and again. It’s important to build a strong relationship from the start. Chat with the planner before the event, and start building the relationship. See if she can email you a schedule so you know her timetables. Always go up to the planner at the beginning, and check in with her about switches and changes. She will be the most important person at the wedding – keep her happy and you’ll ensure a future of referrals.

Okay, from a working standpoint, the planner is the most important person. But in reality, it’s always about the bride. The Queen will be confident in the way she moves and what she does. Queens are used to big parties, nights on the town, and a great event that she can enjoy. She relies on the planner to set the order of things, but she won’t take direction. She does what she wants within the parameters set up by the planner.

While it’s easy to sneak a Cinderella out for photo shoots – she loves being the center of attention, Queens enjoy the party. They don’t want it to be all about them, and they enjoy being with their guests. They acknowledge and respect you – just don’t waste their time.

While catering to both Cinderellas and Queens can be a lucrative business model, you’ll probably be more comfortable working for one or the other. We loved the Queens, and loved photojournalism that came along with this type of clientele. We’ve also known photographers that moved up into the Queen environment, hated it, and went back to working with Cinderellas. Cinderellas need more hand holding, and need more interaction from you. If you like posing, customer contact and hand holding, Cinderellas are perfect for you.

Because photographers are the one vendor that spends the entire day with a client, we automatically fall into the role of wedding planner (if the client doesn’t hire one). Realizing this and taking on the role gracefully will help you become a great photographer – one who is referred again and again.

The Five Basic Portrait-Lighting Setups

2010-11-12T10:22:00.000+07:00

The Five Basic Portrait-Lighting Setups

By Bill Hurter
Published by Amherst Media

Paramount. Loop. Rembrandt. Split. Rim. Bill Hurter provides light-by-light instructions and diagrams to show you how to create these essential portrait setups.

As you progress through the following lighting setups, from Paramount to split lighting, keep in mind that each pattern progressively makes the face slimmer. Each also progressively brings out more texture in the face because the light is moved father and farther to the side. As you read through the lighting styles, you’ll also notice that the key light mimics the course of the sun across the sky; at first it is high, then it gradually grows lower in relation to the subject. It is important that the key light never dip below the subject’s head height. In traditional portraiture, this does not occur—primarily because it does not occur in nature.

The setups described presume the use of parabolic lights. However, most contemporary portrait photographers prefer diffused light sources, which are very forgiving and which do not create sharp-edged shadows. If you choose to create the five lighting patterns described here using diffused sources, very little changes—with the exception that the key light is usually placed closer to the subject in order to capitalize on the softest light.

In such soft-light setups, the background, hair, and kicker lights may be diffused as well. For instance, strip lights and similar devices can be used to produce soft, long highlights in hair, on the edge of clothes, and on the background.

The overall aesthetic of using soft light is not only seen as more contemporary, emulating the images seen in the fashion world, it is also a lot easier to master. Big soft light sources are inherently forgiving, and since the subject is basically wrapped in soft light, retouching is minimized. Also, the transfer edge, where shadow and highlight areas meet, is much more gradual than with undiffused lights.

The diagrams below show the five basic portrait lighting setups. The fundamental difference between them is the placement of the key light. Lighting patterns change as the key light is moved from close to and high above the subject to the side of the subject and lower. The key light should not be positioned below eye level, as lighting from beneath does not occur in nature. You will notice that when the key and fill lights are on the same side of the camera, a reflector is used on the opposite side of the subject to fill in the shadows.

Paramount Lighting

Paramount lighting, sometimes called butterfly lighting or glamour lighting, is a traditionally feminine lighting pattern that produces a symmetrical, butterfly-like shadow beneath the subject’s nose. It tends to emphasize high cheekbones and good skin. It is less commonly used on men because it tends to hollow out cheeks and eye sockets too much.

Paramount lighting

Key Light. For this lighting setup, the key light is placed high and directly in front of the subject’s face, parallel to the vertical line of the subject’s nose (see diagram above). Since the light must be high and close to the subject to produce the desired butterfly shadow, it should not be used on women with deep eye sockets, or no light will illuminate the eyes.

Fill Light. The fill light is placed at the subject’s head height directly under the key light. Since both the key and fill lights are on the same side of the camera, a reflector must be used opposite these lights and in close to the subject to fill in the deep shadows on the neck and shaded cheek.

Hair Light. The hair light, which is always used opposite the key light, should light the hair only and not skim onto the face of the subject.

Background Light. The background light, used low and behind the subject, should form a semicircle of illumination on the seamless background (if using one) so that the tone of the background grows gradually darker the farther out from the subject you look.

Loop Lighting

Loop lighting is a minor variation of Paramount lighting. This is one of the more commonly used lighting setups and is ideal for people with average, oval-shaped faces.

Loop lighting

Key Light. To create this setup, the key light is lowered and moved more to the side of the subject so that the shadow under the nose becomes a small loop on the shadow side of the face.

Fill Light. The fill light is also moved, being placed on the opposite side of the camera from the key light and close to the camera–subject axis. It is important that the fill light not cast a shadow of its own in order to maintain the one-light character of the portrait. The only position from which you can really observe whether the fill light is doing its job is at the camera. Check carefully to see if the fill light is casting a shadow of its own by looking through the viewfinder.

Hair and Background Lights. The hair and background lights are used in the same way as they are in Paramount lighting.

Bill McIntosh created this homage to Hollywood lighting using a 31-inch umbrella as a key light and a weak umbrella fill light, about three stops less than the key-light intensity. You can see the Paramount lighting pattern on the man produced a small butterfly-like shadow under the nose. The woman’s face, because her head was turned slightly toward the light, has more of a loop lighting pattern. A characteristic of the Hollywood style was the weak fill light, which enhanced not only the lighting contrast, but the dramatic nature of the lighting.

Rembrandt Lighting

Rembrandt lighting (also called 45-degree lighting) is characterized by a small, triangular highlight on the shadowed cheek of the subject. The lighting takes its name from the famous Dutch painter who used skylights to illuminate his subjects. This type of lighting is dramatic. It is most often used with male subjects, and is commonly paired with a weak fill light to accentuate the shadow-side highlight.

Rembrandt lighting

Key Light. The key light is moved lower and farther to the side than in loop and Paramount lighting. In fact, the key light almost comes from the subject’s side, depending on how far his head is turned from the camera.

Fill and Hair Lights. The fill light is used in the same manner as it is for loop lighting. The hair light, however, is often used a little closer to the subject for more brilliant highlights in the hair.

Background and Kicker Lights. The background light is in the standard position described above. With Rembrandt lighting, however, kickers are often used to delineate the sides of the face (particularly the shadow side) and to add brilliant highlights to the face and shoulders. When setting such lights, be careful not to allow them to shine directly into the camera lens. The best way to check this is to place your hand between the subject and the camera on the axis of the kicker. If your hand casts a shadow when it is placed in front of the lens, then the kicker is shining directly into the lens and should be adjusted.

Allegro Haynes is a talented violinist who plays with the Virginia Symphony and the Harbor String Quartet. She is frequently featured as a solo violinist. Bill McIntosh wanted this portrait to look as if could be a movie set in the eighteenth or nineteenth century. He used a 31-inch umbrella as the key light and a weak umbrella fill set at about three stops less than the key. Two small kickers from the right and left rear of the subject lit her hair, and a small background light illuminated the painted background. The lighting pattern falls between the Rembrandt and loop lighting patterns.

Split Lighting

Split lighting occurs when the key light illuminates only half the face. It is an ideal slimming light. It can be used to narrow a wide face or nose. It can also be used with a weak fill to hide facial irregularities. For a highly dramatic effect, split lighting can be used with no fill.

Split lighting

Key Light. In split lighting, the key light is moved farther to the side of the subject and lower than in other setups. In some cases, the key light is actually slightly behind the subject, depending on how far the subject is turned from the camera.

Other Lights. The fill light, hair light, and background light are used normally for split lighting.

Split lighting divides the face into halves—one side highlighted, one side in shadow. Vicki Taufer used large softboxes to produce a wraparound light on the highlight side of the face and a silver reflector on the shadow side to produce a moderate lighting ratio and good facial modeling.

Profile Lighting

Profile lighting (also called rim lighting) is used when the subject’s head is turned 90 degrees from the camera lens. It is a dramatic style of lighting used to accent elegant features. It is used less frequently now than in the past, but it still produces a stylish portrait.

Rim lighting

Key Light. In rim lighting, the key light is placed behind the subject so that it illuminates the profile of the subject and leaves a polished highlight along the edge of the face. The key light will also highlight the hair and neck of the subject. Care should be taken so that the accent of the light is centered on the face and not so much on the hair or neck.

Fill Light. The fill light is moved to the same side of the camera as the key light and a reflector is used to fill in the shadows (see the rim-lighting diagram above).

Hair and Background Lights. An optional hair light can be used on the opposite side of the key light for better tonal separation of the subject’s hair from the background. The background light is used normally.

Category:
Lighting

Featured photographer: Bill Hurter

Featured gear:
strobes

How to Reduce Your Depth of Field in Photoshop

2010-11-12T10:13:00.000+07:00

How to Reduce Your Depth of Field in Photoshop

By Christopher O'Donnell on 10 Nov 2010 in Guides, Post Production

If you’re looking to isolate your subject from its environment to create some depth and drama, then reducing your depth of field is an ideal way redirect the focus. While you can accomplish this by using a wide aperture, limitations with your lens and/or environment may not always give you the opportunity to do so.

You’ll need an image with an identifiable (in-focus) subject and some distance between it and your background. In short, it needs to appear logical that the depth of field could be shallow, so an image of a model flat against a wall won’t be too convincing.

Your depth of field should be edited in two parts: first your environment (everything but your subject), and then just for the subject itself.

I tend to use a shallow depth of field for most of my images so it’s a bit difficult to find an example image that’s entirely in focus. Instead, I decided to choose one that I can add more lens blur to (below).

Photo by Christopher O’Donnell

1. Duplicate your base layer and click Filter > Blur > Lens Blur. We’re going to apply a lens blur to your top layer and then mask it so that the original (sharp) version underneath can selectively show through.

2. Adjust your Lens Blur settings as desired, most notably the radius as this determines the strength (Figure 1). Typically I like to blur too much rather than too little since you can always reduce the opacity of your blur layer if you’ve gone too far. Click OK to apply and return to your image.

3. Add a layer mask to your image and select your Gradient Tool, making sure the settings you have reflect what is shown below:

The gradient tool will help you create an even transition between out of focus areas and in-focus areas. Once you have decided on a focal point (typically your subject), you’ll want to make all the areas in front and behind blurry with a gradual transition.

In my example below (Figure 2), I want the seagull to remain in perfect focus, with the environment surrounding it (the grass and the building) to be blurred more.

With your gradient tool selected, click and drag (on your layer mask) the area surrounding your subject. This will punch a hole in your blur layer so that the original (sharp) photo beneath will be visible, with a smooth transition between your blur layer and the original image – this will recreate the gradual blurring you see when using a shallow depth of field. Your layer mask should look something similar to the one in Figure 2.

As you can see, the grass in the foreground and background is now a bit more blurry. The seagull is also a bit blurred itself – an unwanted side effect of the gradient tool that we will fix in our next step. This will probably happen with your image – where your subject will adopt the blur – but remember, we’re focusing on blurring our environment first and THEN the subject, so as long as you have a gradual and pleasing blur to your surroundings, your editing is successful so far.

4. Select your brush tool with the foreground set to black and background set to white. We’ll be using this tool to customize our layer mask so that the hole we just made hugs the contour of our subject – the seagull.
With a brush size suitable for your subject, an opacity set to 100%, and a hardness level of around 50% to start, begin to brush over your subject. You can adjust your hardness as needed if the transition between the blurry background and the edge of your subject is too soft/sharp.

When we look at my somewhat hurried layer mask (Figure 3), you can gather a better idea of what we’re trying to accomplish. The areas in black are hiding the blur layer and allowing your original image to poke through, and the white areas indicate that your blur layer is completely visible. The varying grey tones you see represent the gradual transition between layers that we applied with the gradient tool.

Actually, the gradient mask I added should be a bit lower – at the seagull’s feet to be precise as that is where we want the focal point to be – but you get the point.

Ultimately, the best way to get a natural lens blur with authentic bokeh is to do it in-camera, much like many editing techniques we recreate in post process. However, this is a great way to reduce your depth of field and help eliminate a distracting background – especially with portraits – when using a wide aperture wasn’t an option. Try out different brush sizes and layer opacity levels, and don’t be afraid to tweak the settings detailed here to get the results you want. Remember: Photoshop tutorials are guides at best, not rules!

Read more great articles by Christopher O’Donnell at his blog or follow him on Facebook.

Top 5 Business Mistakes Every New Photographer Makes

2010-11-09T09:45:00.000+07:00

Top 5 Business Mistakes Every New Photographer Makes

by Virtual Photography

Thinking of opening up a photography studio? Or maybe you have a studio, yet it isn’t bringing in much business. What can you do about it? What should you do to move forward, and what can you avoid?
Here are the top 5 business mistakes that I see every new photographer make.

1. Staying in the scared zone too long.

You want a client or two to build up your portfolio. You want some experience before you raise your prices. You test the waters of a business before you actually tell people you have a business. In other words, you leave it as a hobby for a long time because you’re too scared of what will happen if you make it a true business.

Starting a business can be scary. What if it grows too fast? What if it doesn’t? But living in the scared zone for too long simply cuts off your momentum. If you’re going to do it, just do it. The rest will fall into place.

2. Ignore the marketing.

You may need a business card to hand out, so you print up a free set on your computer. Outside of that you let everything else slide. You may think you don’t need fancy postcards or brochures, or a great website to build up your portfolio – that will come down the road. But if you don’t start out at the beginning with a great professional look to your business, when will it come?

Think marketing first. How do you want to look to your customers? How do you want them to perceive your business? And more importantly, how would you like them to refer you? There’s a huge difference between someone saying, “I found a really cheap photographer that’s just starting out and she’ll give you a deal” and “I found a very professional studio that takes amazing portraits – I would highly recommend her, check out her site.”

3. Buy for the future.

If you are a professional, you have to have what the professionals use. Don’t skimp and buy a Canon Rebel instead of a Canon EOS. Don’t by a consumer grade package of lenses. Don’t choose Elements instead of Photoshop or Lightroom to save money. Save and invest in the best equipment upfront – it will last you a lot longer over time. And allow you to do a ton more.

4. Work on the business.

Photography is fun – that’s why you’ve decided to go into business. But opening up a studio isn’t all photography – its business too. You have to wear every hat, especially if you are a solo business owner. You’ll have to invoice your clients, and pay the bills. You’ll have to do the production, and do the filing. You’ll have to handle all the sales meetings. And then you’ll also get to do the fun stuff – photographing.
If you aren’t sure how to build a business, find someone who can. Hire a coach. Buy a coaching program. Visit your local SBA office. And start reading books and magazines on the business side as well.

5. Jump quickly.

What if you had five new clients come into your studio this week? What if you had 10? How about 25?

What’s the worst that could happen? You may get completely overwhelmed at first, but I’m willing to bet you would come up with a system pretty quickly. Instead of sitting around Photoshopping one client’s files for 10 hours, you would probably find a way to get it done in 1. Or hire it out.

In other words, it would make you very efficient very quickly. Because you would have no choice.

So don’t worry about what may happen, or how something might affect you. Just do it. You’ll be amazed at the results.

Starting a Photography Business

2010-11-08T06:37:00.000+07:00

Starting a Photography Business

Photographers: I am more than happy for you to share this page with anyone you wish, and you are also welcome to link to it and share its content on your websites. In doing so, I ask that you include the link back to this page with credit to Shannon Holden Photography as the author. Thank you very much.

I get several emails and phone calls each month from aspiring photographers looking for advice. Maybe they are just launching out on their own, or perhaps they are looking for employment as an assistant or intern with an established photographer. I am honored by their requests and inquiries, and I am flattered that anyone would look to me as a mentor in business or art. At this point in time, I am simply unable to devote as much time as I’d like to such requests, so I thought it might be helpful to share some information here to answer some of the questions. Most of the information here will apply to business as a Children and Family Portrait Photographer, as opposed to Weddings or Commercial endeavors.

A photography career can be truly fulfilling. It is a joy to work with new families, capturing lifelong memories with them, and looking forward to new ones as their babies and children grow. But as you launch into the professional realm, it is incredibly important to be thoughtful and realistic about the road ahead. Your favorite photographer may make her job look easy, but trust me … it’s not. A successful photographer devotes long hours and a tremendous amount of energy to her craft, and the journey to success is not a short, lighthearted trip.

There are a few things that I think are critical for any photographer hoping to build a business around their passion. Some of these things can be a little sensitive to talk about, but you asked!

Technical Skill

The first is simple and obvious … know your craft and your tools. I do not believe in the “Fake it til you make it” approach. I believe you should be honest with yourself and your potential clients as you grow and learn, and have faith that one day you will be where you want to be. Especially with location photography, you are going to find yourself in a huge variety of settings and situations. You might end up shooting in a house with no light to be found. Or maybe you will be shooting 4 year old triplets with dirty clothes and a sugar high. You might be standing in the rain racing to get that one last shot before the downpour really starts. (Yes, I’ve done all three of these.) The variables in this business can really cause some stress during a session. The elements you can control in the midst of chaos – your mastery of your camera, your ability to find and manipulate light properly, and your own creative vision – will be the keys to your success. That’s not to say every session will be stressful. But there will be a few, and you will want to come through those smiling just like the non-stressful ones.

Know your camera, your light modifiers, your lenses, and your photo editing software. Know them like the back of your hand. Know what Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO means, and how they work together. Know which lens and f/stop to use to achieve that beautiful background blur, and know what f/stop is best to keep multiple subjects in focus at the same time. Know how the focal length of your lens relates to your shutter speed. Most professional photographers shoot fully manual with their cameras, except perhaps auto-focus. I strongly recommend manual shooting. You must know how to set your camera to capture a scene, and how to reach those settings very, very quickly, before your adorable little subject toddles off to the next adventure.

Business Knowledge

The second is probably the most critical … be a business person. Any successful photographer (not the starving artist, but the photographer who can actually afford to pay their bills and still pay themselves, too) will tell you that success in this industry is 20% talent and 80% business skills. You absolutely must understand what it takes to run a business and do so legally. Be prepared for the money and time required. Even if you are planning your business to be a small, secondary job, you will probably be surprised at the amount of time you will pour into it. Your cost of doing business is not just your camera and your prints. Your business time is not just your time behind the camera. Consider all these additional and important expenses (and more that I haven’t even listed here):

* Back up cameras and lenses. Ideally, you should have at least two of everything you might need during a shoot. And plan on upgrades yearly. I typically replace my cameras once per year. I have invested close to $40,000 in equipment in the first few years of my business. You’ll probably need twice that if you plan to shoot weddings. And that doesn’t even include studio lighting and equipment, since I don’t shoot with those things. Add another $20-30K if you plan to shoot in a studio environment. And that is also not including money to be spent on props.

* Business registrations, city occupational taxes, sales tax, etc. You must understand how to file all of these, how to stay up to date, and budget to pay them.

* Professional services. Budget for consultations with legal and accounting professionals, especially as you are getting your business and policies established. You’ll want to work with a professional accountant at least once or twice per year in addition to tax time, to keep yourself on track.

* Insurance. You MUST protect yourself and your clients, not to mention your equipment. Plan on about $500-$2000 annually for property, liability, and other business insurance. I also carry a short-term disability policy in case I am unable to work for more than 3 months.

* Computer expenses. Like cameras, I upgrade my computers annually. I have two computers, two monitors, and a bunch of other little gadgets that help me run my business. Time is money, and a slow, unreliable computer will eat up your profits quicker than you can imagine. Losing a client’s images to a faulty computer will be your worst nightmare.

* Education. Unless you are Ansel Adams or Anne Geddes, you will probably have a wealth to learn about photography even after your business is well off the ground. I know I do! Attending workshops and conventions, joining professional organizations and forums, taking classes, buying books, subscribing to magazines … these are all business expenses and time investments you should plan for.

* Marketing. You need a way to help people find out about you. Maybe it is print advertisements, maybe it is direct mail, maybe web marketing. Even word of mouth marketing costs money and time.
Along with all these and other expenses, you need to get paid! How much is your time worth? And not just your shooting time … your driving time, your editing time, your ordering and packaging time, your bookkeeping time, etc. After my first year in business, when I was charging $25 for an 8×10 and a $75 session fee, I thought I was doing pretty well. Then with a trusted business adviser, I did a little math. In that first year, I made, on average, $4 to $6 per hour for my time. BEFORE taxes! With some sessions, I actually lost money. OUCH!! I was paying my babysitter more than I made for myself! And so, while it was hard to raise my prices after that first year, and hard to lose some of the clients who could no longer afford my work, clients whom I liked very much personally, it was necessary. I had to either price myself so I could earn a decent salary or I had to shut down my business.

Respect your Fellow Photographer

This business will offer a lot of competition, some of it friendly, some of it not. Some colleagues you meet may have been burned by a competitor, so don’t be surprised if they seem a bit guarded. Most photographers I know would love to offer insight and knowledge to an aspiring artist, but it can be very challenging to do so. Many, like me, are working parents, working very hard to maintain a delicate balance between career and family. As a business owner, our free time is so precious, and we usually want to save it for our spouses and kids. So while we would love to answer a question or two when we can, often the questions we get require a lot of time to address, time we simply don’t have to spare. For this reason, I highly recommend finding an online community, where most of the answers you seek are often being discussed at length, and you can find multiple perspectives on your topic.

Operate with Integrity. Realize in a business like this, your prices and policies affect the market as a whole. Research your competition in an honest way. Don’t call them pretending to be a potential client just so they will send you their rate sheet, and don’t hire them for a session just so you can learn their posing and location ideas. Most of the information you need is out there on the web. Gather it, analyze it, and learn from it.
As a custom photographer, you are not competing with the inexpensive chain studios, so don’t price like them. You are offering a much more refined service, with 500% more time involved. Factor that into your rates. If your market’s average price for a session is $200, and an 8×10 print is $60, don’t price yours at $75 and $20 to build your business, or even because you are “just starting out.” Doing so undercuts established photographers and hurts the industry … it makes it harder for all photographers to earn a living. One day, perhaps soon, you will be among the photographers priced at the average rate, and you’ll understand how frustrating it is to the see the quality of the market declining. And what is sad for the clients, is that the quality of the art declines with it.

If you feel you aren’t ready to charge the average market price, either take more time to develop your skill, or consider offering an “introductory rate.” Set your rate at the average, and offer a “50% Portfolio Building Discount” for a limited time, with a defined end date. You are doing yourself a favor in this point, but not cutting your future earning potential. Your clients will know that you are in a stage of career development (and again, I believe in honesty on this point), and they will understand when the special pricing ends later. You can then avoid the painful process of doubling your prices one day when you realize you can’t meet your business’ budget needs.

If you choose to seek a photography mentor, look outside your area. If you live 6 miles from your favorite photographer, they probably aren’t going to feel comfortable training you to be their future direct competition. Know that this isn’t personal, it’s just wise business on their part. Instead, talk to photographers in nearby markets, perhaps 30-40 miles away, or even pair with someone online who works in another city. Once you are established, building networks and friendships with other local photographers can be great. By then you are on an even playing field, so the doors to relationship will be much easier to open, and chances are that your colleagues will welcome your acquaintance.

Artistic Development

Lastly, be YOU. Find out who you are as a person, as a wife or a friend or a mother or a child of God. That will be one of the first steps to finding your voice as an artist. And in doing so, make sure it is YOUR voice, and not a copy of another artist you admire. Inspiration is a wonderful thing … let it be the launching pad for YOUR art, not the foundation for art you lay as a thin veneer over it. Let new ideas from other artists feed your creativity, but don’t let them bog you down in trying to keep up with all the latest trends.

Plan time into your schedule, a LOT of time in the early days, to just shoot. This goes along with Technical Knowledge as well. Make hundreds or even thousands of photographs. Analyze them to find ways you can improve them. Join that Photography club or online forum where you can share your work for constructive criticism and feedback. Keep up this habit through the years to keep your skills honed and your perspective fresh.

Be honest, be bold, be genuine, be loving, and be humble. Your clients will appreciate you more for it.

Resources

This is just a short list of some resources that I and others have found helpful, and I hope you do, too.

Better Photo – an excellent site for online classes, inspiration, and learning
Photo.net – another internet community for amateur and advanced photographers
Flickr – an enormous international community of photographers, and a wealth of inspiration
Professional Photographers of America
Wedding and Portrait Photographers International
National Association of Photoshop Professionals
Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson – a fantastic book for learning the technical side of photography
Digital Photography Review – a website for equipment reviews and technical discussion
The Luminous Landscape – a website devoted to Nature and Landscape photography, which offers some great insight on artistic and technical development
Adobe Forums – a Photoshop community
B&H Photo and Video – one of the most trusted equipment stores in the country.

Photography 101: Creating The Silhouetted Shot

2010-11-08T06:33:00.000+07:00

Photography 101: Creating The Silhouetted Shot

You've probably seen photos of an object that appears to be in a white room surrounded by light. Because it's such a clean look, it's easy to use in a variety of print and Web projects. Here's how to create a natural-looking silhouetted shot using simple, inexpensive lighting tools and a little digital editing.

Written by Photoflex Lighting School

In commercial photography, there is a particular type of shot that lends itself to Web and print layouts, which is called the "silhouetted shot." If produced correctly, the object will appear to be sitting in a white room surrounded by light. It is a very clean style because it looks natural on a white page and is not confined to a square or rectangular frame:

Much of the success of a silhouetted shot is dependent on lighting, which to many might seem complicated and expensive. As you'll discover in this lesson, however, this does not necessarily have to be the case.
This lesson demonstrates how to create a natural-looking silhouetted shot with very simple and inexpensive lighting tools and a little digital editing.
Topics Covered:

The Window-lit Shot
Built-in Flash Lighting
Shooting with Hard Lights
Diffusing Light with a LiteIgloo
Backlighting for a Natural Look

Lighting Equipment:

FirstStudio® Product Kit

The Window-lit Shot

To demonstrate the silhouetted technique, we photographed a strainer full of peppers. For comparison sake, we started with taking pictures of the peppers the way most people would tackle such a shot.
After arranging the peppers in the strainer, we placed the strainer on a dining room table, mounted a digital camera to a tripod and framed up the shot (Figure 1). In this situation, the light from the windows would serve to illuminate the shot.

Then, we made the following adjustments to the camera settings:

White Balance: Daylight, or 5000K
Flash: Disabled
Shooting Mode: Manual exposure (allows aperture and shutter speed to be configured manually)
ISO: 100
Focus: Manual Focus

Once the shot was framed up, we set the aperture to f/18 to ensure adequate depth of field and adjusted the shutter speed to render a good exposure, which in this case was half a second (Figure 2).

The result is a fairly natural looking, although there is quite a bit of contrast to the shot, even though it is lit with indirect window light. Notice how bright (and over-exposed) the strainer is on the left-hand side, while the peppers on the right-hand side are hidden in shadow.

Built-in Flash Lighting

Next, we decided to use the flash of the camera to show how this lighting would affect the shot. After enabling the flash, we set the Exposure Mode to Auto and took an exposure (Figures 3 and 4).

As expected, this type of lighting has produced a flat, unnatural look to the peppers. Because the light from the flash is traveling in the same direction as the lens, it tends to flatten out any sense of dimension. While everything is illuminated adequately, the quality of light is that of headlights in the dark -- not exactly the look that makes the mouth water.

Shooting With Hard Lights

Next, we decided to bring in some simple Tungsten lights in order to better control the lighting of the shot.
We used the Photoflex First Studio Product Kit, which comes with two lights, two light stands, and a medium LiteIgloo shooting enclosure (which you'll see later in this lesson). We first brought one light from this kit to the right of the peppers and angled it to illuminate them from the side (Figure 5).

When the light was where we wanted it, we disabled the flash on the camera, set the White Balance to Tungsten, or 3000K, to color-balance the camera for Tungsten lights, set the Exposure Mode back to Manual Exposure, adjusted the shutter speed for exposure and took another shot (Figure 6).

This result is similar to the first window light shot in that the contrast is very high. With the small light source to the side, its "hard light" rakes across the peppers to create both bright and dark areas of the shot. Also notice the reflections in the peppers: small and bright. Had we been using a larger light source, like a large soft box, these reflections would be larger and softer and the light would "wrap around" the peppers in a smooth, gradual way.

In an attempt to reduce the contrast somewhat here, we decided to bring in the second light to the other side of the set. This light would fill in the shadows cast from the first light. Once this was in position, we took another shot at the same exposure settings (Figures 7 and 8).

As you can see, these two lights together help to illuminate every area of the peppers. And because these lights are both placed 90-degrees to the camera, they do a much better job at creating dimension to the shot, as compared to the built-in flash example, where the light is traveling at the same angle as the lens.

But even though the peppers are illuminated well in this shot, the quality of the light is not representative of light that would be flooding a room. And because we wanted to create a shot that feels like it's in a soft white room, we needed to modify the light to further develop the shot.

Diffusing Light With A LiteIgloo

What do you do when you don't have a room illuminated with light? You bring the room to the set! For photographers who don't have a lot of money to spend on multiple lighting fixtures and large soft boxes, Photoflex has created the LiteIgloo, which is included in the First Studio Product Kit. The LiteIgloo is a foldable shooting enclosure that has walls made from a translucent diffusion fabric. This is the same fabric used in soft boxes, and works to diffuse "hard light" in the same way.

To illustrate, we first placed the peppers into the LiteIgloo (Figure 9).

For the first shot with the LiteIgloo, we turned on only the left-hand light, adjusted the shutter speed for exposure and took a shot (Figure 10).

Notice the difference in the quality of light in the result. Because the light has illuminated a good portion of the LiteIgloo and diffused the light source, the quality of light is now soft and gradual. Notice the light transition at the base of the strainer and the broad, even reflections in the peppers.

Next, we turned on the other light and took a shot at the same exposure (Figure 11).

As you can see from the result, the peppers are now beautifully illuminated on all sides while still maintaining a nice sense of dimension. You could stop here and have a great shot to drop out the background and place on a white page.

Backlighting For A Natural Look

However, in this case we wanted to finesse the light a little further. Some of the most convincing silhouetted shots are the ones in which the subject matter is backlit. This type of lighting lends itself better to these types of shots as it tends to look more natural and not "cut out."
So here, we simply moved the lights toward the rear of the LiteIgloo and pivoted each one so that they both faced the LiteIgloo directly (Figures 12 and 13).

The other nice thing about these Tungsten lights is that they are continuous (no flash to contend with), so what you see is what you get.

After we repositioned the lights, we came around to the front and peered into the LiteIgloo to see how the light was looking on the peppers. After doing so, we repositioned one of the lights slightly, found the lighting we wanted and took another shot (Figure 14).

The result shows a beautifully backlit shot that is even more dimensional than the previous result.

Finishing Touches

Once we had the lighting where we wanted it, we decided to enhance the shot even further by adding fresh mist, then dropping out the background digitally with an image editing program (Figure 15).

To see an extended version of this lesson, click here.

Copyright © Photoflex, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

10 Photography Tips for Better Outdoor Portraits

2010-11-08T05:47:00.000+07:00

10 Photography Tips for Better Outdoor Portraits

by Virtual Photography

I’ve been a professional photographer for over 20 years. Even though I have a ton of ideas and styles, sometimes I find going back to the basics creates portraits that clients truly love. Here are some simple solutions that everyone can benefit from when capturing your next outdoor portrait session.

Select a location

Locations are very important and should be thought out in advance. Look for locations that bring interest and enhance your session. Parks, lakes and other open spaces offer natural scenery and tend to be the first places people think of. But don’t forget about architecture. Buildings and other structures bring warm elements into a portrait. Doors, windows, walls, a staircase or pillars will bring wonderful life to a portrait.
Choose a location that is not busy and bustling with activity. A quiet area will allow a client to be more focused, and allow them to be able to listen to your posing instructions without distractions or loud noises that would otherwise interfere.

Repeating lines

A great way to add depth is to find a location with repeating lines. Columns, pillars or other structures add interest to a portrait and create a portrait that stands apart from others.

Use a longer lens

By selecting a longer lens, you can put the focus on your subject, leaving your background soft and out of focus. This adds to the drama of the portrait, and can give you a unique look and style. One of my favorite lens to use is a 70-200mm F2.8. Use your longer focal length (150mm – 200mm) to separate your subject from the background.

Clothing selection

To ensure optimal results, consult with your client about clothing selections prior to your portrait. Stay away from busy patterns (ie plaids, polka dots or flowery prints) and use darker to medium tones.

If you have more than one person in the portrait, teach your clients about matching. If one is in jeans, they all should be. Black turtlenecks always work well. Long sleeves work better than short sleeves or tank tops. Put the emphasis on the face, and you will really increase your sales.

Pose by example

Show your subject how you want them to pose, what to lean on or how to sit. I always find that it’s easier to pose by example, so each person can see the pose you’re looking for. It saves a lot of time and frustration on both parts, and makes the whole experience more enjoyable. It’s easier to make minor moves when they are 90 percent there.

Groups -start with the smallest and grow

Once you have a setting selected, start with the smallest groups and build up. When one person is posed and comfortable, its much easier bringing in the second to them. Try and build in triangle formation within your groups (two people on the ground as a base and one behind and between)

Use a tripod

A tripod gives you stability and the ability to move quickly. Your camera will remain focused on a particular area while you move the subjects in and out in different group formations. A tripod will also ensure a crisp image, no matter what size lens you are using.

Ensure that the eyes are in focus

When the eyes are in focus, you have a guaranteed seller. The client will not be happy if the eyes are not sharp.

Perfect time of day

With a wedding or event, you have no control over the timing. Not so with a portrait. Always work around the sweet light – early morning or late evening. By having the sun in the lower hemisphere of the sky, you can work in a variety of situations without dramatic shadows, squinting eyes, and harsh lines.

Use a reflector

I have never been a fan of adding flash outside during a portrait session. With beautiful, natural light, why bring in “fake” light? A reflector can be an invaluable tool for a portrait session. You can easily direct light right where you want it – the face and eyes.

Softboxes

While reflectors are great if you have directional light you can bounce into place, sometimes you are working with much softer light, and a reflector won’t work. Try a softbox. A softbox separates harsh sunlight spots from beautiful natural, light. Softboxes can easily be made with pvc pipe for a frame and stretch white material, rip-stop nylon or a cotton bed sheet, to fill the frame. I use elastic corners to keep mine snug on the frame. You can make a variety of sizes to easily tuck in your bags for travel.

Capture in RAW

Unlike the larger exposure range that film has, digital cameras have a smaller exposure range. Shooting in jpg mode where the camera processes each image into a final processed image limits the ability to adjust in post processing. If your exposure is incorrect, the image will be underexposed (loss of detail in the shadows) or overexposed (loss of detail in the highlights) and could be a complete loss. Another issue associated with jpg format is loss of information every time the file is saved causing a degradation of image quality. RAW is an unprocessed format, which allows adjustments to color, contrast and exposure. Once adjusted, the RAW format can be processed into a final jpg image without image quality loss.

How Using Strong ND Filters Can Create Awesome Results

2010-11-08T05:43:00.000+07:00

How Using Strong ND Filters Can Create Awesome Results

By Chris Gin

As a landscape photographer I rely heavily on filters. The ones I use most often are my graduated neutral density (GND) filters which help balance the intensity between the sky and foreground. However another favourite of mine, and one which I don’t use nearly as often as I should, is my B+W ND110 netural density (ND) filter.

B+W ND110 Filter

This is much like regular ND filters (which are used to reduce the amount of light hitting the camera’s sensor) except it’s a much stronger version. The strength of typical ND filters range from 1-stop to 3-stops, meaning they reduce the amount of light by 2 to 8 times. The B+W ND110 filter is a massive 10-stops which means it reduces the amount of light by about 1000 times!

Why Use ND Filters

The main reason for using an ND filter is to allow you to use a longer shutter speed than you would normally be able to achieve in any given light. For example, if the exposure without a filter was ISO 100, f/11, 1/40 sec then the same shot using a 3-stop ND filter would be ISO 100, f/11, 1/5 sec. Longer exposures allow you to blur moving objects, such as clouds or water, giving an effect that a lot of photographers desire. When the light is relatively low to start with, the common lower-strength ND filters are usually strong enough to achieve the desired result.

A 3-stop ND filter in low light can achieve long exposures

Reasons For Using Stronger Filters

There are times when you may want to use shutter speeds much longer than the light will allow, and the only way to achieve this is by using a strong ND filter such as the B+W 10-stop. The below photo was taken just after sunrise, when the sun was already well above the horizon. Under these conditions, a 3-stop ND filter would barely slow the shutter speed enough to capture the movement of the water.

A 35 second exposure after sunrise

Another major benefit of such a strong filter is that it allows you to shoot long exposures during the day. Normally landscape photographers wait until the golden hours to take photos as that is when the light is at its best, however a strong ND filter offers creative opportunities outside of those hours. I find this filter especially useful when there are fast-moving clouds.

A long exposure in bright daylight

Moving clouds above Lake Hayes, Queenstown

A side-effect of my particular filter is that sometimes it produces a magenta cast on the image. Usually this can be removed during post-processing, however at other times the effect is quite pleasing and adds colour to an otherwise flat image.

Another option is to convert to black and white which often suits these types of shots.

Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown

Usage

These filters are often compared to welding masks because they are so strong you can barely see anything through them. This provides a bit of a challenge when taking a photo because the filter is too dark for the camera to automatically focus or take a meter reading. To get around these problems, these are the steps I take when using the 10-stop filter:

Compose the shot as normal.
Focus in auto-focus mode, then switch the lens to manual focus. This will prevent the camera from trying to auto-focus once the filter is on.
If using a GND filter, position it as per normal.
Take a meter reading and/or test shot. Take note of the shutter speed, and multiple by 1000. Remember this value.
Screw on the 10-stop filter. (If using a GND filter, take this off first, then put it back on after)
Switch the camera to Manual mode and set it to the shutter speed from step 4. If more than 30 seconds, use Bulb mode.
Take the shot.

As you can see it takes a bit of effort to use the filter, but the results can be worth it.

Other Brands

The other major brand of 10-stop ND filters is Lee who have their Big Stopper . The main difference between the B+W and Lee version is that the B+W ones are screw-on while the Lee is a slot-in. A slot-in filter requires an adapter and holder, however the benefit is that it is much more convenient to use, especially when stacking other filters on top of the ND. When I use a GND filter in conjunction with the B+W ND110, it can be a bit cumbersome to set up and would be much less hassle with the Lee filter.

I’m not aware of any other manufacturers that produce 10-stop filters, however both Hoya and Singh-Ray produce reasonably strong ones. Singh-Ray’s Vari-ND and Light Craft’s Fader ND also produce variable strength ND filters, which I have not tried personally.

Summary

A strong ND filter is another tool to consider adding to your kit. It’s not something you’ll use every time, but it can give you some creative options when you may not otherwise be shooting.

Check out more photos from Chris Gin at his Website, Flickr and Facebook.

10 TIPS FOR TAKING GREAT CITYSCAPE PHOTOS

2010-11-05T15:13:00.000+07:00

by Rueben Hird

"Cat Street" captured by AlwynL

Cities are not only home to many people’s homes, businesses and offices but they also full of energy, power and vitality. There are many things that make a city great and capturing the true essence of a city in one single photograph is a very hard thing to do.

The main thing that encapsulates and defines a city can actually differ depending on the time of the day and even the season. During the morning cities can look peaceful and calm, whilst during the evening or nighttime they can come alive with activity and purpose.

Most of the people that call the a particular city home don’t take the time to stop and marvel at the magnificent landmarks and sights that make their own home city such a wonderful place to be a part of. A really good city photograph not only shows off the majestic buildings in the heart of the city centre, but should also showcase some of the more enthralling aspects and delights that day to day city life has to offer.

1. Choose an Interesting Subject – Make sure you have an interesting subject for the photo, either in the middle section of the photo or in the foreground.

2. Have a Mix of Foreground & Background – Ensure that you have a good mix of interesting foreground and background areas in the entire photo.

3. Leave Room to Crop – When you are framing up the photo in the viewfinder make sure that there is some room around the edge of the photo to crop the final image.

4. Use a Level Tripod – Before taking the photo make sure that you use a level tripod so that the horizon is straight. Even though you can fix this up later in photoshop it is easier to do it right in the first place to save yourself the hassle.

5. Keep the Sun Behind You – Try and keep the sun behind you so that you get the most amount of light on your the city and the sky has a brilliant blue look to it.

6. Choose the Right Time of Day – Try to take photos as early or as late as possible in the day, as these times generally give the best light and produce more shadows and detail on your photos.

7. Use the Correct Exposure – When setting the exposure for a photo make your reading based on the brightest part of the photo so that there is no overexposure.

"paris" captured by abeer (Click Image to See More From abeer)

8. Use a Timer or Remote – Always use a timer or remote control to take the photo so that there is not any camera shake caused by you when you depress the photo button.

9. Use a Polarizing Filter – On your SLR camera use a polarizing filter to remove the light reflections that bounce of building windows and metal objects.

10. Buy in a Good Lens – In order to get the best from your SLR camera invest in a good quality lens. They may be expensive but it will be well worth the money.

By using all of the above tips you are sure to see a noticeable improvement in any photos that you take of city building or skylines. Not only will your city photos will clearer and more well defined, but they will also has a wide spectrum of color, which is the sign of a great photo.

"shtil" captured by Raluca Mateescu (Click Image to See More From Raluca Mateescu)

About the Author
Landscape Photography has a range of city photography pictures on show, which showcases what it is possible to achieve if you follow the above techniques.

8 Secrets To Running A Photography Business As A Husband and Wife Team

2010-11-05T14:48:00.000+07:00

8 Secrets To Running A Photography Business As A Husband and Wife Team

by Virtual Photography

When a person decides to start his or her own photography business, rarely do think of how it will impact the other person in his or her life. They love photography. They have a desire to turn it into their business. And they move forward with it.

Yet owning and operating your own business is a 24 hour commitment. Even though you set your own hours, do the type of business you desire, and operate you photography studio any way you choose, the businesses is always there. It’s a completely different thought process than working a 9 to 5 job.

We learned this early on in our career. Andrew and I both worked 9 to 5. Andrew photographed a few weddings and portraits on the side, and eventually made it his full time career after losing three jobs in three years to corporate downsizing. I helped out with weddings on the weekends, and soon made it my passion too after I “saw” the perfect image with a bride, set it up for Andrew, and he took the image from the wrong angle. The very next wedding he put a camera in my hand and said, “you do it”. The rest as they say is history.

But working together day in and day out with your significant other can be trying times. Even today, we work out of our home, have desks in the same office 10 feet from each other, and pretty much spend most of our hours together.

Here are 8 secrets we’ve found that help us run a photography business as a husband and wife team.

1. Set up job descriptions. Even though you’ll probably both be involved in most of the business tasks, it still helps to define each other’s roles. There will invariably be things one of you enjoys more than the other. Split out the roles so you each enjoy what you are doing.

2. Set up systems. As two separate people, you’ll each have your own idea on priorities, and how to handle different situations. Discuss each item in the business, and establish a system for how to handle it. A notebook with checklists can keep you both on track for everything from meeting with clients, to production work.

3. Accept each other for your differences. I’ll admit it – I’m the clean freak. If you move the stapler on my desk, I know it. Andrew, however, lives by the pile method. We each have our desks, and we respect our separate workspaces. You can’t change the way someone lives and works, especially when you’re together 24 hours a day. Give each person their own territory, and accept what they do with it.

4. Have separate, outside interests. Make sure you each have something you enjoy alone or with your own set of friends. Andrew sails and races sailboats from April through October each year with a group of friends. I do a variety of things from taking classes to book clubs with friends. Being able to get away for a few hours here and there can put a new perspective on what you do.

5. Do things together outside of work. Living together and working together can quickly become monotonous, especially if your studio is in your home. Make sure you plan things away from your home, even if it’s just an hour or two. Go out for lunch one day a week. Head out on the weekend for “date night” to dinner and a jazz band. Or just head to the movies on an afternoon. It’s important to get out and talk about things other than business.

6. Recognize each other’s strengths. While everyone likes to hear they are doing a good job, it’s even more important when you’re working together and are married too. Compliment each other regularly on the jobs you do. When you’re out networking, give your partner compliments to prospective clients. You are a team, yet you each have your strengths. Give praise where praise is due.

7. Be supportive. Some days your partner may be working 15 hour days. Other days it might be you. You each have a position in the company, and shouldn’t be upset when you have more to do than your partner.

8. Renegotiate and test all the time. Don’t get caught up in the business, and have it burn you out. Take time away from the business periodically to reevaluate direction. Are you both still happy with the business? Are there other interests you want to explore? It’s easier when you work a 9 to 5 to explore other careers. When you’re together, it may start to feel like you’re pulling away from each other. Separate business from your marriage, and realize that to stay healthy you have to grow and explore.

3 Tips To Having Your Family And Your Photography Business Survive At Home

2010-11-05T14:41:00.000+07:00

3 Tips To Having Your Family And Your Photography Business Survive At Home

by Virtual Photography

If you’ve worked in the corporate environment for years, you know one of the prime reasons people decide to start their own business is for more freedom, and more time with family.

Yet if you’ve actually made the transition, and work from home, you know balancing your work life and family life can raise its own set of unique challenges. How do you teach your family separation between your personal and work time? And how do you avoid becoming a workaholic, literally thinking and acting on your ideas 24 hours every day?

In a previous post, I wrote about working together as a husband and wife team. Working together has its own set of unique challenges. But when you throw kids in to the mix, you have an entirely different set of issues.

How do you manage it all? And stay sane in the process?

Look At Your Day As A Block Of Time

Every single one of us gets a full 24 hours in the day. What you choose to do with that time is up to you. You can subdivide it any way you choose, and use your time wisely – or foolishly. Bill Gates gets the same amount of time as Jane Doe. Yet they each use their blocks of time in entirely different ways.

The key to great home office management is to set up your blocks of time in an efficient way. Customer contact has to be done during normal business hours – or whatever hours work best for your clientele. Production work can be done any time, day or night. So you can structure your day around your family.

I have always been an early riser, and get up between 5:30 and 6:00. I use the first hour of my day to check in get ideas down on paper, make plans for the day, and set up my goals. I look at social accounts, and answer any burning questions. Then I spend time with my family and have breakfast. School is my jamming time – I get a ton done every day while my daughter is at school. Then I squeeze things in based on her schedule. Do I have to run her to a club or activity? I may get reading done or work a little computer work done on my iPad.

Babies and toddlers require different amounts of time compared with an elementary student, or with a high school student. The important thing is to set priorities for spending quality time with them, and establishing quality time on your business. Family needs to depend on you during their block of time, just like your business will thrive by spending time on it during its own block of time.

Is It An Interruption, or An Opportunity?

Every day brings its own unique challenges. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a goal for the week completely flop because of interruptions. And its not that interruptions are a bad thing. If a new client wants to meet you, and you spend several hours that week with them, is that really an interruption?

If you’ve already blocked your daily schedule out, you know the importance of working at full speed during key times of your day. And when you have to take time out for a child that comes in with a homework question, or you have to pick up a sick child from school, you’ll know how to change your blocks of time, and work them out a bit differently.

Many people end up going back to an office environment because the interruptions become overwhelming. Instead of reaching that point, learn to manage them. What times of the day are best for working, and have the least possibility of having your family around? For me, its early morning. For you it may be late at night. I know I can easily have an hour or two of productive time – and there is no way my 15 year old daughter will jump out of bed before 9am unless it’s a school day. And if you find a way to get your own productive time in, you’ll feel less threatened when you do face those daily interruptions we all face.

Set Up A Family Calendar

I’m a firm believer in over-communication. In other words, you can never talk too much with your family. If you know their schedules, understand what’s important to them, and what is expected of you, you’ll never run a risk of double booking your life.

For instance, if your daughter has a huge project due on Friday, and you know she’ll need time at the library, and possible running to the store two or three times picking up supplies, you’ll be prepared for the questions and help sessions. Book those into your calendar. Know that this will be a busy week for both of you, so don’t agree to the 4 pm client meeting on Thursday afternoon.

Likewise, you can also explain to your spouse and kids important meetings to you. When I teach, I usually spend a day in heavy preparation, and add in the actual class time itself. It’s on the calendar, so everyone knows I’m coming up to a busy time. They know to give me extra space those few days, and allow me to time crunch to get everything done.

I also like doing it this way because it sets a precedent for my daughter. She sees how to balance work and family life, and how it’s possible to work at home and function as a family. She’s learned respect for work and life balance, and knows what is truly important.

What About You?

While everyone approaches working a bit different, the important thing is to keep working on building strong, healthy relationships with those you love and support. There is an opportunity with everything you do.
If you work at home, either with your spouse or without, with kids or without, what have you found that works for you? I’d love to hear your thoughts as well.

2010-11-05T14:20:00.002+07:00

How To: Shoot Compelling Images of Your Loved Ones

We talked to eight top photojournalist for advice on how they capture great images of friends and family.

By Peter Kolonia

Enlarge

Ron Wurzer

As photographers, we know that the best people pictures convey personality, character, mood, design, and a sense of place, all with a minimum of “say cheese” artificiality. To help you make such pictures of friends and relatives, we asked eight photojournalists who professionally shoot people in family and social situations how they do it.

Candids vs. Posed

Everyone we interviewed agreed: The best family photos are candid and unposed. Posed portraits can be stiff, strained, and artificial, lacking in spontaneity and life. Unposed candids, on the other hand, can move your viewers with colorful action, facial expressions that reveal mood and personality, and interaction suggesting relationships, subtexts, even hints of a narrative angle or story line.

Joshua Drake, a photojournalist living in Charleston, SC, sums it up: “The pleasure in candid photography is capturing those fleeting, honest moments that happen in everyday life. Candid photography is about observing and anticipating, not stopping and posing.”

The downside to candids? You have to shoot a lot more frames to find a keeper compared with posed portraits. But what’s wrong with that? Usually, the more you shoot, the more relaxed and natural friends and family will become, and the more likely you will capture expressive moments.

Where and when to photograph candids? “Parties and social events,” suggests pro photographer Jonathan Hanson of Baltimore, MD. “Your friends are engaged and distracted, making it easier for you to work unnoticed. People expect photographers at weddings, concerts, and parties, so they’re more relaxed in the presence of cameras. The more activity there is, the easier it is to blend in.”

And blending in is important. “Settling into a situation can be the best thing for candids,” says Carmel Zucker, a Boulder, CO, freelancer whose work has appeared in Marie Claire, Country Living, and the New York Times. “I never shoot and run,” she says. “I wait until people relax around me, then shoot only when the moment is right.”

Adds Brent Clark, an award-winning photojournalist from Carrboro, NC, “Your own home is a great place for candids. Since family and friends are already at ease around you, it’s much easier to capture intimate moments.”

Home is probably where you’re most relaxed. And when you’re comfortable, your subjects will be, too. You’ve scoped out the best lighting and backgrounds in and around your home, right?

We talked to eight top photojournalist for advice on how they capture great images of friends and family.

Choose Your Gear

The right equipment can make a difference. Almost any DSLR can be used for people pictures, but the best will excel in low light, and those with live view—especially with a tilting screen—will help with high or low camera angles.

The right lens is even more important. “I like fast primes for candid photography because of the depth-of-field possibilities they offer,” says Joshua Drake. “I shoot wide open—or close to it—so the people in my photos are sharp, while fore- and background elements are defocused to subtly suggest mood or color.”

Prime lenses, because they’re usually smaller than high-speed zooms, are less intimidating (especially to young kids). They also allow you to shoot discreetly. Primes are usually fast, too, which can often rule out the need for a flash and tripod. You may think you can’t afford fast glass, but a 50mm f/1.8 lens can be as effective as it is inexpensive.

As for focal lengths, think wide. “My favorite lens for people candids is 35mm or wider,” says Jonathan Hanson. “For my subjects to dominate the frame, I have to get physically close with a wide-angle lens, and this communicates as intimacy, which I like.” Wide-angles also let you layer fore-, middle-, and background elements in interesting ways, and, with ultrawides, you don’t have to obsess about framing and composition, but can shoot from the hip and crop later. If you’re lucky, people won’t know you’re shooting.

Shooting Strategies
Composing? “I like to show the space around my subjects,” says Dan Chung, who shoots for Washingtonian magazine and operates a photo gallery in the metro DC area. “It reveals something of their character and what they value.”

Don’t lose your uncle or aunt in visual clutter, though. To prevent that, Chung is constantly in motion. “I compose with my feet and my back—tiptoeing, stooping, bending, and reaching,” he says. “I ask what’s important in a scene and what’s not, and then start walking, bobbing, and weaving to showcase my subject, and hide everything that distracts from it.”

As shooting starts, Chung likes to gain his subjects’ confidence. “I show them a good shot on the camera’s LCD,” he explains. “People are self-conscious when being photographed. If you can prove that you can take a flattering picture, they’ll loosen up.”

As for lighting, most pros prefer available over flash. Flash not only introduces a potentially unnatural color temperature, but it can flatten a scene, while reminding everyone within eyeshot that you’re taking pictures.

“I really love the variety of colors and moods that available light can offer,” says Joshua Drake. “Late afternoon sun, incandescent lights in a home, or fluorescents in a bar, all translate beautifully in photographs.”
Such expressive lighting can really set the mood for great pictures of the people that mean the most to you.

Create Amazing Sparkles Car Light Paintings

2010-11-05T14:17:00.000+07:00

Create Amazing Sparkles Car Light Paintings

"As long as you hit that wire with the connecting hook at precisely 88mph the instant the lightning strikes the tower... everything will be fine"...

This is just what came into my mind when I saw James kozicka's sparkles lightpainting. James was king enough to share his method of making this image. James, the floor is yours:

In this tutorial I will be discussing how I light painted the following image, the steps I took in planning it as well as execution and post processing.

Since seeing some amazing light painting photos on line I've been practicing with long exposures. I've seen a few peoples takes on using sparklers to create interesting effects in images. Sparklers are great to use for light painting as they are quite bright and give a unique "electrical" effect when you paint with them.

The Stuff

To start with obviously you will need some sparklers, I bought 4 packs of 5 sparklers from my local fireworks shop, at around £1.50 a pack. I used 2 packs (10 sticks) over 2 nights, including some attempts to get lines and exposures correct. While we are at it, Get the bit sparkles, the ones that burn long - about two minutes.

A tripod is fairly essential as we will be exposing at very low speeds. (you could probably get by with resting the camera on something, although this will limit your composition choices).

Lastly, a camera that will allow you some control of exposure settings. Personally I used my Nikon D90 with Tokina 12-24mm f/4 lens, the reasons behind this were that it is my widest lens and has a distance scale for manual focusing, which in low light is much easier to use. If you don't have a distance scale, you can use a torch to light up your subject and pre-focus then lock that focus by switching to manual.

Photographing Cars

My choice of photograph was going to involve my car and the sparklers. It is important to shoot away from as much ambient and manmade light as possible so the sparklers are the only source of light in the image, so I set up in a park next to my house. (An abandoned parking lot will work great too).

My tip for shooting light painting in general and sparklers is choosing your angles carefully. Using my car as an example, if I shot straight head or side on I would run the risk of the light trails across the car bunching up and just becoming a blob of light rather than individual trails, you can see this in the image below.

With this is mind I felt a head high 3/4 side on shot with the focus on the front left wing, wheel and bonnet would work the best, this would allow me to paint across the car and get as many parts individually covered.
For camera settings I used a remote shutter cable release to allow me to overcome the 30 seconds barrier and shoot for as long as the sparkle was burning. While you can probably stack a few 30 seconds images in photoshop, dealing with sparks will take lots and lots of work.

For the exposure settings I used ISO 200 to minimize noise. Sparklers are quite bright so you should be able to stop down to around f/8 whilst still getting a touch of overexposure in the center of the sparkler. You still get good sparkles at f/11, however the detail on the car was lost at f/11 as you can see in the image below. Lastly, for the Tokina that I was using f/8@12mm give a hyperfocal distance of 1 meter, so everything beyond that would be in focus.

Before I used any of the sparklers I did some test runs with my LED key ring light to practice where I was going to draw with the sparklers, this also gives you approximate timings you will need for using the sparklers.

A few of my early attempts with the sparklers failed because I missed sections of the car out or went over the same section twice. Key to a successful shot is planning in your head where you are painting and try to see in your mind how the camera is going to interpret your painting, less is actually more with sparklers, trying to cover too much of the car results in a wall of light and nothing of any real interest. I’ve included an example where I felt the sparklers were too much. Of course, this is entirely an artistic choice.

On my shots I really like how you have this big contrast between the sparklers and their reflections on the paintwork and the duller, darker parts where I didn't cover it. I chose to outline the whole car to give more depth to the image, this meant painting all around the vehicle where I felt the camera would see the light, this meant from the far side of the car through the windows as well to give some rear lighting. Finally I picked out sections of interest like the wing mirrors or badges and tried to highlight them. This gave me my raw shot below, you can see in this image that although I was wearing black I’ve created a ghosting effect of myself, also the white balance is not to my taste but this is where I will be editing later.

With editing the image I decided that the composition I chose where I thought the moving clouds may bring something to the image didn’t really work well, it would have added a bit of depth to the image but it wasn’t interesting so detracted from the image as a whole. Therefore I decided to get rid of it. I also went over the interior of the car to give some detail to the seats and dashboard that hadn’t received as much light as other areas.

As for white balance, this is subjective, the sparklers give a warm colour but I think looked too orange, I decided that I would increase the colour temperature slightly which gave the car back its silvery colour as well as make the sparkler lights whiter and more electric. This is up to you and may not work as well with other subjects where the colours are different. I then finally chose a tighter crop to get rid of the black space in the frame and focus on the car. All of this editing should leave you with something like my final image below.

As always, your final image is subjective and a personal choice. As well as the final editing, the great thing about these types of images is that each one will be unique and they are great fun to try either alone or with a friend or two. I really look forward to seeing some of your shots.

Some Random, Yet Important Notes

The downside to using sparkles is that they give off a bit of smoke and high light output - you will need to wear dark clothes when working with them.

it’s a good idea to turn VR (or IS for canonistas) off for long exposures as it can try and compensate for movement where there is none leading to image degradation.

if you are going to be shooting something reflective like a mirror or car etc take then make sure it's clean to maximize reflections and save a ton of work in post.

As For safely, don't be stupid, keep both you and your surroundings safe. I would recommend you wear gloves and something to cover your eyes.

Be aware that sparklers can throw out sparks so please don't use them near to anything combustible or in dry grass, as always please use common sense. Have some water or fire extinguisher at reach should anything go wrong.

I hope you enjoyed this quick tutorial and if you have any questions please feel free to ask.

About the Author: James Kozicka an amateur photographer based in the UK. He mainly shoot outdoor scenes and landscapes. Give him a shout on his Flickr stream.

Add the Model Look to Your Portraits with These Photoshop Tips

2010-11-05T14:10:00.000+07:00

Add the Model Look to Your Portraits with These Photoshop Tips

By Christopher O'Donnell on 4 Nov 2010 in Post Production

Having a “model look” to your portraits is a bit more than just great lighting and using a sharp lens – while you can create stunning, magazine-quality photos with just your camera, you can bring out the true beauty in your images using a few simple Photoshop techniques.

1. Soften the Skin

Having professional-grade camera equipment is certainly a benefit, but not all of your clients can share your enthusiasm. Typically, a DSLR will show far too much detail for the discerning portrait client, meaning your photos will require some skin softening to even out the complexion. My skin-softening tutorial here will help you smooth out any imperfections without drastically changing your model’s face or appearance.

Photo by orangeacid

2. Add a Catch Light

A “catch light” is the reflection in your model’s eye from a light source – typically it’s studio lighting but can also be natural sources (such as sunlight filtered through a window). You’ll often find that most glamour portraits have some kind of catch light reflection which provides a certain level of interest – thankfully, you can add this in Photoshop if the eyes of your model are looking particularly flat with this video tutorial.

Photo by creativesam

3. Exposure Blending

Typically, a model’s portrait will have the skin exposure set to just under the blown highlights mark – or rather, when the histogram is almost all the way to the right (for just the skin tones). However, when you make this adjustment, it may drastically over or under expose the rest of your image.
You can rectify this easily with RAW in Photoshop – import one photo exposed for your model with the exposure just below the blown highlight point, and another exposed properly for the background. Using layer masks, blend these two layers together to create a properly exposed portrait with model-like clarity. This should be done before any other editing to your portrait.

4. Adjust Your White Balance

Taking the time to do a custom white balance with your camera is usually better than doing it in post process, but it may not always be possible depending on how fast-paced your work environment is. When you bring your image into editing, make sure you adjust it for the skin tone above all else. The key to a successful model-like portrait is accurate skin tones!

Here’s our tutorial for Lightroom, but a great Photoshop technique is described here in a video tutorial.

5. Burn Your Edges

At the end of your editing workflow, try burning around your subject to redirect attention onto your model. This will help eliminate distracting elements such as a bright or busy background, which will make your portrait stand out more. This of it as a custom lens vignette that hugs the shape of your model.

Click here for our dodging and burning tutorial for Photoshop.

Photo by Stephen Poff

While editing can improve a great glamour portrait, it can’t create one for you. A stunning photo starts with your camera and environment, so put some time and effort into creating the right lighting and setting for your model.

If you need some help with studio lighting and angles, make sure to check out this lighting cheat sheet to create the optimal setup for your main light, which you can then use alone or add some fill lights to soften the shadows.

We also have a helpful portrait tutorial on studio portraits, as well as one on outdoor portraits.

Read more great articles by Christopher O’Donnell at his blog or follow him on Facebook.

Food Photography Setup - Post One

2010-10-29T11:09:00.000+07:00

Food Photography Setup - Post One

Just recently I have got a few emails from people asking about the food photography setup that I use. I honestly find those some of the most flattering emails I have ever received, because honestly, I am a big time hack. BIG TIME. I don’t do photography as a job, and really have very little time to shoot the food I cook, before I eat it.

I don’t like eating hot food cold.. even if it means a good photo, and I generally (there are exceptions..) don’t like to piss guests off either by making them wait for theirs..

Because of this, I have my little system which really limits the time it takes to shoot after the food has been cooked and plated. I think most food photographers have their own methods for this too. A lot of food can start looking pretty dodgy if it has been sitting out for even just a few minutes, especially what I cook a lot of - seafood.

To make all this digestible and manageable I am going to split the topic of food photography into two posts. This first post will concentrate on more physical elements - cameras, lighting, bounces, scrims and plating. The second post in a few weeks will deal with what happens after you get the image onto your computer - so post-production editing: exposure adjustment, levels, tone, cropping, color adjustment and so on.

TOPICS:

Cameras, lenses and tripods

JPEG vs RAW

Shooting Tethered

Lighting, Bounces and scrims

White Balance

Controlling Reflections and highlights

My approach to composition and styling

My approach to getting a shot fast

CAMERAS:

You have two options here really. No, I don’t mean Nikon or Canon.. Rather a compact (point and shoot) camera, or a digital SLR. The compact camera’s main positive is price. A decent one is almost half the price of a base/mid level digitalSLR, and it comes with a lens built in. The downsides here are somewhat many though. The lens is small, so too is the image sensor. This is going to limit image quality somewhat, and also the camera’s ability to pick up subtle light and textures. Typically most point and shoot cameras don’t have a lot of photographic control either. It is rather useful to be able to manually adjust more technical camera settings like F-Stop (aperature size), ISO, shutter speed and so forth. Especially F-Stop since this controls the range of what is going to be in focus in your shot. Some compact cameras have the option to adjust some of these settings - they are more expensive however. I have noticed that with my compact camera (which has a full manual mode to adjust most photographic settings) it still really lacks the exposure range of a digitalSLR, but you can still certainly take good pictures with it, you just have to be rather careful with lighting setup (which isn’t a bad thing)

DigitalSLRs are sexy. There is no doubt about that. A big pro looking camera.. megapixels up the wazoo… They can be expensive though, especially when you start talking about getting a good lens as well. The bonus of the digitalSLR however is great. You are able to take complete control over exposure, white balance, F-stop, shutter speed, ISO - and all that good stuff. This obviously gives you much more creative control. You are able to get some extremely good quality lenses, that really have a huge impact on the quality of your shot. DigitalSLRs also are able to shoot in RAW format - which is a wonderful uncompressed image format that allows for a lot of control once you get the image off your camera and onto your computer.
I started shooting using a compact camera, and quickly outgrew it. I got my first entry level digitalSLR maybe 6 years ago now, and bought a cheap lens for it. Since then I have upgraded the lens, and just also upgraded the camera to a newer digitalSLR.

My suggestion here is to buy the best camera you can afford (well duh..). A decent compact camera is going to be fine for some blog photography. If you think you are going to be doing this for a long time, get an entry level digitalSLR, and a decent quality lens for it and you will be very happy.

LENSES:

It is possible to prattle on about lenses all day. Here is some bullet points that might come in handy:

* Professional photographers agree: “it is all about the glass” - the camera is somewhat secondary. You want to make sure if you are using a dSLR that you are using a good quality lens, otherwise that sexy camera is somewhat pointless

* Good quality doesn’t have to mean really expensive. Canon has a great lens (50mm 1.4F) for $350. That is pretty cheap for a good quality lens. They also have a nearly as good lens (50mm 1.8F, but plastic construction) for just under $100

* On a crop frame digital SLR (most entry to mid level DigitalSLRs) I find 50mm to be a great focal length

* I prefer to shoot with prime (no zoom) lenses over zoom when shooting plates of food. Unless you are spending a lot of cash on a lens, you will typically get better image quality from a prime lens (mainly sharper). Sure you can’t zoom, but that can acutally help you with composition a bit. If you are out and about, shooting market food or restaurants, a zoom can certainly be handy

* I use Canon cameras, and shoot almost all my photography on this blog with a 5omm F1.4 lens. I can’t afford to spend a bunch of cash on different lenses, and I find this is a great lens for what I do. My next lens? Most likely a 100mm macro

TRIPODS:

Not much to say here, apart from use one, and make it a good one! Even if you think the light is fine for handheld shooting, it is always best to pop your camera on a tripod. You want to make sure it is a sturdy, well built solid tripod, even if you are using a compact camera.

My personal preference is for the brand Manfrotto, which I have always found to be well built. I like a 3axis head (the head is the bit the camera sits onto). The 3 axis head lets you adjust each rotation independently, which gives great control. Some tripods for only a few extra bucks offer a “quick release” head. This means that with just the swish of a lever your camera is either locked or released from the tripod. In my book this in money well spent, since I am always taking my camera on and off.

If you are using a compact camera for your shots, you should absolutely always shoot with a tripod no matter what.

JPEG vs RAW:

JPEG and RAW are the two main image formats that cameras shoot in. Compact cameras shoot in JPEG (I don’t know of any that shoot RAW, but could be mistaken). Most digitalSLRs have the option of shooting either RAW or JPEG.

JPEG is a very common format of image. Most images you see on the web are JPEG. JPEG is great because it gives pretty decent image quality, with low file sizes. The problem however is that the image is compressed in a way that image data is lost. You may have seen an image online that looks blocky, especially in areas of low contrast. This is caused by JPEG artifacts - to make the image small, JPEG removes some data from an image, which leads to slightly lower image quality. When used properly these effects are barely noticable however.

The problem comes when trying to do a lot of post production on a JPEG image. The more you work the colors/contrast and so on, the more these effects can be noticable.

RAW format however is different. This format isn’t compressed, and is in fact the raw data from the camera. Since it isn’t compressed you don’t get any artifacts at all, which makes for much cleaner images - especially if they are being used for print. The biggest bonus of RAW is that when the shot is taken, extra information to do with the exposure, white balance and tone is saved with the image. Inside your photo editing software you are then able to very accurately adjust the exposure, white balance and so forth after the image is taken!
This gives much more control to developing your digital images, and is fantastic for fixing any exposure problems an image might have. RAW files are big however, and love to fill up hard drives very fast. I tend to delete ones that I know I am never going to want (out of focus, over exposed etc).

SHOOTING TETHERED:

Most digitalSLRs have the option to hook up your camera via USB to your computer. Through this hookup you can control the camera via computer, take a shoot, and almost instantly see it on your computer screen. Some cameras even have a “live view” mode, where what you see on the laptop is updated realtime, as you adjust exposure, F-stop, and move the composition and lighting.

Whilst this takes a couple of extra minutes to setup, it is something well worth doing. Just being able to see your image composition on a big screen is huge, and really helps you work the look of your image andfix any lighting or composition problems.

Do I shoot tethered all the time? NO. Sometimes I just don’t have time to pull my laptop out, get it all setup and so forth. I should, it can make a big difference to a shot. All too often when I don’t, I get the image onto my computer after shooting, and have a “OH BUGGER” moment, as I see something I would really want to fix, that wasn’t noticeable through the camera viewfinder or LCD screen.

LIGHTING:

Lighting has the biggest impact on your shot. No doubt. You can have the best camera, the best plates/food/props/styling, but if your lighting is bad than your picture is going to be bad. Thankfully it isn’t crazy hard to get a lighting setup that is going to work pretty well for most food shots.

NATURAL LIGHT: I think most modern food photographers agree - natural light really is the best to photograph food in. It is also one of the faster to setup and get going with. Here are my tips for working with natural light:

* Shoot in the middle of the day, or early afternoon when the light is at its best

* Position your food close to a window or large opening, one that is preferably south or west facing. Some people shoot in a garage, and just roll up the garage door to shoot - my garage in Seattle is far to dingy for that however!

* Pay close attention to the strength of your light. Bright early afternoon sun is lovely, but it can also be extremely strong - and lead to very large strong highlights, and very harsh shadows.

Not all of us however have the ability to shoot in natural light all the time. I know I don’t. Here in Seattle through the winter I am certainly unable to shoot in natural light, since I do a lot of my photography late afternoon when I get back from work. This is when we have to start looking into artificial light setups.

TIP: Identify areas in your house that would work for food photography at different times of the day. For instance - my dining room works well around lunchtime, my kids playroom works great in the afternoon.

ARTIFICIAL LIGHT: For a little bit of cash (or hardly any cash and some handy DIY skills) you can put together an artifical light setup that is controllable, and give decent quality results. In fact, some of the shots on this blog that I have been most happy with have been shot under artifical light conditions: Beef/Noodle Salad, Eccles Cakes, YellowFin Tuna, Bresaola.

What you want is a light that is as white as possible (halogen is good here), and also as diffuse (soft) as possible. Just using an incandesant bare lightbulb would be a really bad idea! You get strong shadows, overblown highlights, and a bad yellow cast to your light - not to mention making your food look rather greasy.

For my artificial light shots I use a Lowel Tota Umbrella light. This is a bright halogen light that is on a stand. In front of this is an umbrella which softens light right off, and bounces it around a room. This makes for much softer highlights and shadows, and far sexier looking food than when shot with a basic lightbulb.

Another option is to use a “soft box”. This is a light that is surrounded by a box. One end of the box is open, and has a sheet of translucent vellum over it. This vellum does the same thing as the umbrella - softens the light right off, giving smoother highlights and soft, diffuse shadows. The Lowel EGO light is a great option for food photography. My good friend Jaden over at Steamy Kitchen has a great article on using them.

NEVER use an on camera flash.

BOUNCES:

Here comes one of the cheapest impacts you can have on your shots. A big ole piece of white card. Or foam board if you want to get extra fancy.

You can use this card to “bounce” light back into your scene, helping to gently illuminate the darker areas of your scene. As a rough starting point, it is a good idea to position this board on the other side of the food to which the light is - so: if you are lighting from behind, put the board in front (just under the camera). Main light from the left? But the card on the right of your food.

Now all that is needed is a little fine tuning of placement to get the fill light exactly where you want it.
All I normally do is hold this card with one hand, and hit the shutter release button with the other. This can be tricky with some shots, so I might use a chair, or one of Drake’s toys to prop up the card just so. Taking a toy away from Drake for too long however is sure to lead to a toddler fit…

Here is an example of before and after with a bounce card. The shot is lit by natural light on the left of the food. In the first shot there is no bounce card, in the second the bounce is on the right of the food.

As you can see, the second image has some light now in its most dark areas. You could even knock this back a little bit just by moving the board a little further away from the food.

TIP: Most art supply stores will have a range of sizes of white card or foam board. My preference is for the later - it is thicker, and a little more sturdy. I am a complete clutz, so sturdy is better for me. I have two large sheets (5ftx3ft), and a smaller one (3ft x 3ft). The larger ones are great to use since they have a large impact. The small one is good for just bouncing light into a smaller area.

SCRIMS:

A scrim is just a sheet of something that will soften and diffuse any light passing through it. Scrims are extremely useful in both natural and artifical light setups. You want to place the scrim between your light source and your scene. This will soften and harsh strong light. It also has the added bonus of making highlights smoother, making objects look more rounded, making your food not look greasy, and also making reflections look cleaner.

A scrim can really be anything that is translucent. I personally use artists vellum, which can be picked up in rolls at just about any art supply store. If I am shooting next to a window, I just tape up a sheet of it onto the window, and voila, the light through the window is instantly softened.

I also built a large frame (much like a frame for an artists canvas), which I have taped some vellum to as well. This gives me a large moveable scrim, which is pretty handy for when I shoot a little way away from a window, or when shooting something outdoors. You can see the frame in the back of the picture at the start of the blog post.

TIP: If you have direct sunlight coming onto your scene, use a scrim to soften it. If the light isn’t to harsh, try a shoot with and without the scrim, and see which you prefer. If you have really strong light coming in you can even use a relatively thin bed sheet as a scrim.

Below are two shots that demonstrate a scrim. Both shots are in the same location - a light filled area that is strongly lit by direct sunlight. The first shot is without the scrim, the second is with.

As you can see, the lighting is much softer. The really harsh shadows are removed, as too are those strong highlights that were washing the image out.

WHITE BALANCE:

As we look around, we are able to tell what color is white, white is cream, and what is light blue, even under different lighting conditions. Things get more complicated as all lights have different colors to them - the sun is yellow, daylight is a wee blue, lightbulbs are pretty darn yellow, hallogen bulbs are more neutral.
In order to get the correct color, and whites be white on a camera, we have to tell it what color is actually white. Most cameras have controls for adjusting this - and its called “white balance”. All cameras have the option to go auto with it. The camera will take a stab at guessing what lighting conditions are, and what color is actually white. Some cameras also let you set the white balance by telling it what type of lighting you are taking the shot in.

You can also get extra fancy by even specifying the Kelvin (light temperature, and thus color) of the lighting conditions you are in. If that doesn’t make you feel like a geek, I don’t know what would.
On most digitalSLRs it is also possible to take a picture of something white (or even more preferably light neutral gray), and tell the camera that this shot color should be neutral - or white. To do this, just place a white board or something in your shot, take the shot, and set your camera to use that shot as the white balance.

White balance can also be adjusted inside most of the common photo editing packages - more on that in the second post on food photography. It is however best to try and get the white balance as close as possible on the camera. Post production editing is fine, but getting it right when you take the shot is certainly the best approach.

So why do we need to set this? Well, we want to make sure that in our food shots white plates show up as white, and the colors of the food you are shooting are shown accurately. Back when I did that post on the beet salad a few weeks ago I didn’t set the white balance correctly, and when I viewed the shot inside Lightroom (my photo editing package of choice) the beets were a rather shocking purple color, instead of that intense red/purple color they should be. If I left the shot as is, the colors would be off and the food wouldn’t look right, or even appetizing.

Below are two shots of the same scene. The first shot has no white balance correction. It was shot in artifical light, and you can see there is a strong yellow cast to the image. The second image shows the same picture but with the correct white balance set.

CONTROLLING REFLECTIONS AND HIGHLIGHTS:

One thing that I try and pay attention to when shooting is the quality of any reflections or highlights. It is a good idea to look at other objects (especially those either light, or brightly colored) in your room, and make sure they aren’t showing up in any reflections you might have.

If you shoot next to a window, your are most likely going to see anything outside the window in a reflection in your plate or bowl, since the light outside is so bright. The good thing here is that a scrim cuts this out! The scrim not only softens light, but because it is generally placed between the window and your food, those nasty outside reflections are cut out, and you get a wonderful, white smooth reflection going on.

The white bounce boards help grately too. I will often place one in front of a bright object I cannot move too easily (a bright red picture, or one of Drakes heavy toys).. again this cuts out unwanted brightly colored reflections.

This is a small detail, but one I think that really helps keep images clean and simple.

MY APPROACH TO COMPOSITION AND STYLING:

* I like to keep images very simple, and often without too many props. Keep food the star.
*To me, white plates and dishes always show food very well, and I tend to like white-on-white presentations, when I can get good enough lighting to differentiate the white objects in the scene.
*To add a splash of color when needed, I often through in a richly colored napkin or coaster.
*To pick a plate of food out from the background (if it is blending too much), I might just put a prop behind a corner of the food, to break up the blend a bit (does that make sense?)
*I like a rustic style to my shots, but with somewhat more elegantly plated food.
*Always plate WAY less food than you actually eat. Sure I am skinny, but I do eat a lot more than you might see plated in a shot on my blog. Typically I cut it back by 2/3rds. I find it easier to make a small amount of food look pretty, and visually it doesn’t fill a plate, which is a far nicer composition than a big plate of food.
*I typically back light my shot - so behind the food is the main light source. Side lighting is also great. Avoid having the main light in the same direction as the camera - you are going to get very flat lighting (like on camera flash lighting) and bad looking food.
*Never use an on camera flash

MY APPROACH TO GETTING A SHOT FAST:

I don’t have a lot of time to shoot food photography. I wish I did. I have come up with a little method that really helps me get a shot as fast as possible, without letting food get cold, pissing off a 2 year old waiting for his dinner, or making guests wait..

*Identify areas in your house that have good lighting at the times of day you are most likely to shoot a picture. When it comes time to setup, you know exactly where has good light.
*Have all your photography tools together - keep your scrim and bounces together, and drag em out together. You are most likely going to use them together.
*Before you cook, think up a setup you might want to use with your dish. Work through plating and prop ideas in your head, thinking what would work with your dish.
*Get a couple of large sheets of MDF or particle board. Use these as a stage for your shot. Even earlier that day setup the board with a tablecloth or covering, arrange plates and so forth on it to get a decent setup. When it comes time to shoot, drag the board out (with dishes still on it!), position in the light, and get ready to shoot.
*Have the set ready to go before you plate your food. The visual appeal of hot food starts to decline rather quickly as it gets cold. Have the setup ready (props, scrims, bounces, camera on tripod and setup to shoot tethered if are going to do that). Then just pop the plate of food down, make final adjustments and shoot
*If you aren’t shooting tethered, take a few shots from different angles. Also take a few shots with different F-Stop (aperture size) values. F-Stop controls the size of the lens aperture, which in turn controls how much of your shot is in focus. Make sure the focus point is on the food, but take some with varying F stops. Later when you look at your images on your computer, pick one that has the food in focus, but the background slightly blurred out - this pulls focus to the food, and adds depth and visual interest to your shot.

I guess the final thing to say is just have fun with it. Experiment, do things differently every time until you find a setup and style that works for you. Screw up a lot, and don’t worry about it. I screw up a ton, and post the screw ups on my blog!!
(http://mattikaarts.com/blog/)

30 Amazing Conceptual Photographs

2010-10-29T10:48:00.000+07:00

30 Amazing Conceptual Photographs

October 27th, 2010 Posted in Inspiration by Eric Shafer

Photography is always about capturing the meaning, significance and essence of a moment in time, however, conceptual photography takes this idea to the extreme, by capturing a thought, idea, or message to the viewer and communicating it in a clever and interesting method.
We’ve gathered up 30 awe-inspiring conceptual photographs that will make you take a moment to look a little bit closer and try to decipher the message of each photograph.
If you love these photography roundups, check out our other posts:

Thanks!

As always, if you enjoy these posts, please help share them with your friends via your favorite social network. Your support helps us continue to grow and provide the best articles and tutorials on our network.

Have an inspired day!

1 by Avi Abrams

Love by Jorge Gazzanno

Black Sheep by Spin360

Kiss by Nicmaos

It’s just a Game by Ibrahim AlRabeh

Bienvenido al Paraiso by Xabier M.

What’s All The Eggcietment About by Ariel Bo Bariel

Anorexia by Santy Ago

Reborn by A Madestra

Suicide Teddy

Abduction by Luis da Cuhna

Thibaud Cartigny

A Creative Mess by highverbalfan

32-P1 by Zephyrance Lou

Hot Dog by Nikko Myers

Mr. Finger Plays Dead by Olivia House

Color Addict by Ridera Celive

The Time Burier by Igor Svibilisky

Keys by Overflowing

1882 by gwichin

Shyness by Alin Petrus

I Can’t Explain and I Won’t Even Try by Stefan Bruggeman

Listen to Wisdom by Ben Heine

Living for the Moment by Joey Lawrence

Great Idea

Dreams of Flying by Jan von Holleben

I Lean Against the Wind by Radu Voinea

Flying on the Rooftops by Jennifer

Roll the Dice by Abel Tonkens

Up Cute Find by Odd Cloth Buzz

Eric Shafer

Eric Shafer is a creative media enthusiast from Chicago, IL. He works frequently in the fields of graphic design, web design, web development, programming, audio, music and computer graphics. He is one of the founders of Presidia, an entrepreneurial team designed at empowering the creative media community. He is also one of the administration team members here at CreativeFan.

Visit Authors Website | All articles from this authour

Which Photography Post Processing Software is Right for You?

2010-10-29T10:40:00.000+07:00

Which Photography Post Processing Software is Right for You?

By Christopher O'Donnell on 27 Oct 2010 in Post Production

Depending on what area of photography you’re pursuing, there are several mainstream programs you can use to edit your images. Your post process workflow is the most important factor to consider when making your choice - such as the volume of images and the extent of your editing. Whether you batch edit your images lightly or do intensive editing sessions on a select few, there is a program for your specific style.

Lightroom

Lightroom was developed with the photographer in mind. Whie you can certainly do many wonderful things in Photoshop, the workflow is not always as friendly to photographers as Lightroom can be.

Essentially, Lightroom provides you with many tools and processes that streamlines your editing (such as Modules and the film strip). This is fantastic for photographers who have a large volume of work (think wedding or sports photographers) and would like to apply relatively simple edits to many images at once. Techniques such as black and white conversions, white balance changes, simple blemish removal and skin softening, etc. can be performed easily.

You can also apply similar edits to several images in Photoshop as an action, but Lightroom does it in a more simple, straightforward, and easily reversible manner.

Also, the interface is a bit more user-friendly than Photoshop since the more advanced tools have been omitted to focus more on streamlining your work. Unless you know your way around Photoshop, it may take you a while to figure out where your tools are and how to perform certain techniques. So not only can you perform edits easier and to multiple images in Lightroom, but you can also access your tools more efficiently for the ultimate streamlining of your work.

Aperture

If you have a Mac, then you also have the option of using Aperture, which is much like Lightroom. Comparing these two programs is much like comparing Nikons and Canons, so I’ll try to not get too technical.

Aperture has many great organizational features like Lightroom, although the interface is a bit different. For example, Lightroom has the Develop Module while Aperture has Adjustments. Some users say that Aperture is a bit more streamlined in organizing your images (mainly due to the Books feature), while Lightroom is considered to be better for printing your work.

While there are many “pros and cons” articles comparing these two programs, the reality is that both perform with little difference. The best way to decide on the best program is to download the trial version and give both a test run. One interface will eventually seem more natural to your workflow and style than the other, which is the most important step in choosing the right program (at least when your choices are either Aperture or Lightroom).

Photoshop

While Lightroom/Aperture is perfect for the casual editor who has many images, Photoshop is where the advanced post processing takes place. Exposure blending, panoramic stitching, cloning and other detailed work is done in Photoshop as the previous two programs are not equipped to handle that kind of intricacy.

The biggest benefit of Photoshop is layers – more importantly, the ability to mask and blend layers to create a mosaic of edits in just the right combination. The learning curve is rather steep, but the reward is most certainly worth it.

Photoshop is for sophisticated photo editing, much more suitable for those who spend a few hours on an image but only produce one or two at a time (such as fine art photographers), or for those rogue images from a wedding that need special attention.

As you can see, photographers have several editing options for their images. The best part about these programs is that they all have free trials allowing you to use the program before making an investment. Many photographers will employ Lightroom/Aperture AND Photoshop to get a full spectrum of editing capabilities. For example, a photographer may use Lightroom to go through simple editing and preparing images for the web, but will switch to Photoshop for the more serious edits.

Read more great articles by Christopher O’Donnell at his blog or follow him on Facebook.

Photography 101 – How to Read a Histogram

2010-10-29T10:33:00.000+07:00

Photography 101 – How to Read a Histogram

Monday, 28th June 2010

Written by: Tiffany Joyce

I happened to be driving through the “fashionable” part of Arizona a while back (Scottsdale, for those of you familiar with the state), and saw a professional photographer arranging a wedding party in front of a fountain. The photographer was holding up an external, hand-held light meter to judge the exposure settings to be used. My first thought was, “Huh! So there are folks out there who still use a light meter!” I thought about that as I drove, and thought about how light meters(*) have been rather displaced in the world of photography by the use of modern digital SLR cameras and their light metering capabilities.

In the past, a light meter was vital to set the correct aperture and shutter speed to get the right exposure the first time. Film cameras didn’t have the sensory capabilities to “suggest” the settings that should be used, nor did they have the capability to review a shot after it was taken. There was a high risk of wasting film and having a pile of too-dark or too-light snaps returned from the developer.
Where we would have used an external light meter before, to get the right aperture and shutter speed to correctly expose the shot, we now use the camera’s internal light meter and automated functions to guide us. We will shoot “test shots”, which we can then review and make adjustments as necessary. In my own work, I will take several test shots of a venue in order to ensure that I am getting the correct exposure, then adjust the ISO, aperture, and shutter speed until I am happy (more often than not I just shoot in Aperture Priority mode and let the camera dictate the shutter speed in accordance to the ISO I’ve chosen and the available light).

If you know how to read a histogram, it comes in very handy to assess the quality of the photograph that might not be apparent in the small display screen available on your camera. A histogram is a visual representation of the light and dark elements in your photograph, displayed in a graph form. Today’s D-SLR cameras have the ability to display the histogram right on the LCD for each photo taken. For Canon cameras, during playback simply press the display (“disp”) button to toggle between different viewing modes until you see the histogram. For Nikon cameras, during playback tap the four-way directional selector to the left or right.

What you’re striving for, in a correctly exposed photograph, is for the histogram to look something like a bell curve. Dark pixels (underexposure) show up to the left of the graph, and light pixels (overexposure) show up toward the right hand side. So, if your shot is neither predominantly dark, nor predominantly light, the pixels will register in the middle of the graph. Take, for instance, this photo of my daughter and her new puppy, Maddie:

This is straight out of the camera, with no adjustments made in post-processing. Using Photoshop CS3, I can see this picture’s histogram, which looks like this:

As you can see, this photo is pretty well exposed, with most of the pixels registering toward the center of the graph. However, the graph is trending toward the left, or underexposed, side of the histogram, with some dark elements registering on the extreme left hand side. So I would probably adjust accordingly by reducing the shutter speed just a little bit.

To show you an extreme example, take a look at this photo, one of the bracketed images used in my entry about HDR Learnings:

As you can tell, this shot is very overexposed. This is reflected in the photo’s histogram:

All of the pixels are jammed up on the right hand side of the graph, indicating that the photograph is overexposed.

I hope you’ve found this information to be useful! Let me know if you have any questions, and feel free to leave feedback in the comments.

(*The use of flash meters in a studio setting is a different, and interesting, subject – check out this excellent video from The Flash Centre.)

Photo credits (all): Tiffany Joyce.

2010-10-27T11:03:00.000+07:00

7 Tips To Use Natural Light In Your Photography

by Virtual Photography

We’ve always preferred natural light. You don’t have to carry around a ton of equipment – just your camera bodies and lenses. And for the most part, what you see is what you get – you will never be surprised by the way a flash hits your subject matter.

1. Control when you shoot.

Concentrate on using the sweet light for all of your photographs. Sweet light is the light at daybreak and at dusk – the beautiful light that highlights the detail, yet doesn’t overwhelm you with harshness.

2. Avoid mid-day sun whenever possible.

Mid-Day sunshine gives you your harshest shadows, and provides glare on both your subject and the background around you. If you will be shooting mid-day for something unavoidable – a wedding or event – scope out the area before hand to find your best areas. Look for trees and buildings that you can use in your background, and will block out the majority of the sun’s glare.

3. Be flexible in your posing.

In outside locations, it’s easy to have a favorite place to photograph. But depending on the time of day, you may be facing harsh sunlight and lots of shadows. Be flexible and have other areas that meet your needs. Move your subjects until you get them into the best position.

4. Use gobos and reflectors.

Always make sure you have a variety of gobos and reflectors ready to use to block, reflect and manipulate the sunlight. Reflectors are made from a variety of materials, and can help you do everything from blocking out the heavy sun rays, to adding a soft, warm glow to the skin.

5. Always focus on the face.

Even if you’re creating an environmental image, and the subject is just a part of the final scene, make sure your subject has a natural look. If you place them directly in the sun, they may be squinting and have a distorted face.

6. Use buildings and trees as natural gobos and reflectors.

A white building can make a great reflector, and brighten up a subjects face, or give highlights to the overall scene. Or tuck your subject back into a group of trees to soften the look, and provide nice highlights for the portrait.

7. Don’t reschedule on cloudy and rainy days.

Clouds can create natural light boxes, and give you soft filtered light anywhere you go. Though you do need to be careful not to get your camera wet on rainy days, the rain can enhance a portrait, and give you a totally new perspective with your subject matter. Learn to play with what you have, and be creative with the opportunities given.

Photographers – The Secret To Closing More Sales

2010-10-27T09:39:00.000+07:00

Photographers – The Secret To Closing More Sales

by Virtual Photography

Have you ever tried to buy a product or service from someone who has his or her own agenda?

I recently walked into a store to buy a new printer. I had a basic idea of what I wanted, I just had a few questions about one particular model. But when I asked for help, the salesperson spent minute after minute talking about different models with different options – none of which I was interested in. I repeated my question several times; he never answered one of them directly. So I eventually left without purchasing anything, and did my research elsewhere.

I see this all the time in sales. As a salesperson, you get so focused on your message, what you need to say about your products or services, that you forget one important thing.

To listen.

Here are five lessons in listening that will help you increase your sales potential.

Never pre-judge.

We all do it. You see the way someone is dressed, or the car they drive up in, and you determine they aren’t your ideal client before you’ve even spoken with them. Put all of your judgments aside, and listen instead. Start out with a question: Why is photography important to you? Then listen to the answer. Use their thoughts in your sales presentation. One of our biggest wedding clients every got married in a local park and played volleyball at the reception. Yet they loved and cherished photographs, and made us pretty much their entire budget.

Skip the routine.

You probably have a variety of things you say during your sales presentation. Maybe show a presentation to music. Go over your packages. Tour your studio. Whatever is “normal” for you. Always remember what is normal for you is not necessarily what is normal for your clients. They may have seen your work before through friends and family, and be sold on you before they enter the studio. Don’t make it mandatory they listen to your whole speech before signing. If they are ready to sign after 15 minutes, do it.

Don’t interrupt.

Sometimes you hear one thing, and shut down to the true message. When people come in to meet with you, they may have generic questions because they don’t know what else to ask. The standard “How much is an 8×10?” isn’t always about price. You have to listen beyond what that question means. You may discover they ultimately want great value for their dollar, and want to make sure you can deliver.

Don’t fake listening.

If you go into your presentation knowing exactly what you want to say, you may miss an opportunity. Don’t wait for a client to pause so you can cram in your next comment or response. Wait for them to get everything out. And use their comments and concerns to support the direction you take them. If you have three packages, the top isn’t for everyone. Give them honesty about what’s best for them, and support it with details you’ve heard about their lifestyle.

Be present.

Have you ever been in a sales meeting where the presenter has their phone nearby? They glance at it every minute or two, and even pick it up and text on occasion? Or maybe they have an earpiece in throughout the whole meeting, and you wonder where their attention really lies? Avoid all distractions, and make your center of attention on your potential client. Just by clearing your mind, and putting your focus on your client, your listening skills will increase tenfold.

How To Dress The Part Of A Photographer

2010-10-27T09:31:00.000+07:00

How To Dress The Part Of A Photographer

by Virtual Photography

Ever heard the saying “Image is everything”?

In the case of a small business owner, your entire business rides on your image. Not just the image you portray with your photography or with your marketing materials; literally the way you look, dress and act.

I once visited a photographer who wanted help with his business. As I walked through the front door of his home, I had to set over a few boxes that were waiting to go to the post office. The photographer had to move a few stacks of paper from a chair so I could sit down. And as he showed me some things on his computer monitor, I couldn’t help but notice bills and accounting documents all over the desk in front of me.

I visited another photographer who had a great studio, props everywhere, a clean background area for posing. The sales room was well decorated, was laid out to watch a presentation of the final images, and had a full array of framing and mounting options to select from. But when he met me at the studio door, he had on a t-shirt and an old ratty pair of jeans – he looked like he had just finished painting and cleaning out a back room.

In both cases, image wasn’t maintained from beginning to end.

1. Dress to impress your clients.

Who is your target audience? How can you dress the part to impress from the moment you meet? Living here in Denver, I’m a jeans fanatic, and rarely have anything else on. But I always have my designer jeans, a great looking sweater, and shoes and accessories to match when I show up for client meetings. If you are meeting a corporate client, you may need to switch to a dressier outfit or even a suit. While clothes generally aren’t a deal killer, they do make a very big first impression. You never want your first impression to be negative or a let down. When in doubt, overdress.

2. Dress Appropriately.

Should you wear a tux to a wedding? Not if everyone else is in casual or semiformal attire. Likewise, you should never stand out at any event you are at – you are there to photograph, not to be noticed. At every wedding we photographed, Andrew and I both showed up in a black suit. I quickly learned a colorful dress showed up in the photographs. And a dress was too difficult to work in – try going up and down fixing the bride’s dress, and not stepping on the back of your hem. I ripped more than one dress before I figured pants are the best option. Pants also allow you to lie on the floor, jump onto a stage or chair, and not worry about how you look.

3. What About The Shoes?

A great outfit can quickly be ruined by an old pair of shoes. You’ll be working hard in them, so invest a little extra and buy a fashionable pair that allows you to comfortable.

4. Accessorize.

While your camera bags are simply there to hold your equipment, they do symbolize who you are. If you have a hodgepodge of colors and styles, some completely worn out, they will create an image on their own. Bags don’t have to cost a ton, but they should be both functional and supportive of your look and your brand.

5. Meeting Space.

You have ultimate control over how your clients enter your meeting space. If they come to your home, make sure they have a positive experience from the front door to your meeting room and back again. Pick up extra books, equipment, and stacks of paper, and put them out of site. Make it homey and charming. Would you want to book with someone that has a space like yours? Always look at it through your clients’ eyes, and you’ll see things in an entirely different way.

Less Is More: 50+ Examples of Minimalist Photography

2010-10-27T09:17:00.000+07:00

Less Is More: 50+ Examples of Minimalist Photography

Prakash Ghodke on Sep 28th 2010

Minimalism is indeed the art of less. As a life philosophy, minimalists focus on a few essential elements of life and cast unnecessary things aside. In today’s showcase, we have collected 50 examples of minimalist photography, where the focus is one one small key element and the rest of the composition is completely clutter free. You’ll be surprised at how powerful these images can be!

Mimimilist

Minimalist Photography

CinemaWorker

Minimalist Photography

Orange View

Minimalist Photography

Minimalist street lamp

Suburban Minimalism

Jetty

Simply..

Minimalist Photography

Kafka

France minimal.

Minimalist Photography

The trail….

Minimalist Photography

alex_shadow

Minimalist

Icy blow in White sands

"tomorrow’s clouds"

Minimal

Yellow

Nothing Can Happen to Us

No One Else

Horizon

Autumn

Into the void

Cavernous

Minimalist Manzaralar

A tale of 5 trees

Car park in snow

Straw bales on the horizon line

"It’s the Real Thing"

Deco Wall

Last One Chosen

Green | Yellow | Red

Luzerne

Simple & Blue

Red Hydrant

landmark II

flight to Europe…

Fisherman’s Dream

Lonely finshing snow

I Am

chairs

ShoppingCart

dust storm

What time is love?

Across the Field

Salt Flats

Simply, Quiet Life

Minimalism

speedboat

Why Should You Try This?

Touting the benefits of minimalism is all well and good, but why is this a technique that you should try at home? Here are three persuasive reasons to give it a go:

It draws the viewer’s attention – If you’d like to emphasise one small part of an image, this is a fantastic way to do it. Although a very shallow depth of field can work well, there’s no substitute for eliminating every other distraction from the frame.
These photos are commercial gold – If you have any interest in selling your photography work – either through a stock image site, or elsewhere – this type of minimal image is in very high demand. One of the main things that publishers look for is a place to add their own advertising copy (text). Minimal photography lends itself well to this, providing plenty of space for publishers to work around the main focal point of the photo.
It’s more of a challenge – Anyone can grab a camera and start snapping away. Approaching a scene with the intention of taking a minimal-style photo is far more difficult. It requires the right location, extra planning, and – often – perfect timing to ensure your focal point is positioned just right. It’s a challenge for even the most seasoned photographer!

Share Your Images!

Have you shot any photos that follow this style and pattern? Be sure to share a link in the comments so we can all take a look!