Making Your Photography Better by Going Back to Basics

The last few weeks have been murder on me. I had to send my camera body back to the shop. I can't stand it. I feel like a crack junkie looking for his next score in an Amish community. But it has given me a lot of time to think about the essentials of photography and why it is so important to occasionally go back to the basics.

A few months ago, someone approached me about how to get bette

r as a photographer. I was flattered and after the initial shock of wondering why they were asking me, I thought about how I

had started with a basic point and shoot camera. I handed her a $10 compact point and shoot 1 MP key chain camera from Walgreens. I said, "Here, work on your composition and get to know the camera." I think that went over like a lead balloon.

The point I was trying to make was that it is not about the settings I could show you on her camera, rather, it was about getting to know how a camera functions and then seeing how to frame your subject. I keep going back to these two points over and over in my own work. I constantly am asking my self, "How did you frame that, did you get the depth of field and focus you wanted, what IS the subject of this photo?"

Let's start with composition, because you don't even have to have a camera to compose a photo, just a subject and something to record the image. For some odd reason our eyes are drawn to certain areas of a work of art. Usually, the upper right 3rd of anything. That's the rule of thirds.

There is something spiritual about it. And I don't say that all hippie-ish. God is made up of the holy trinity (3 pieces), 3 is a number of balance, etc. The rule of thirds splits an image into 3 sections vertically and horizontally with the intersections being the "sweet spots" of an image. It's a big tic-tac-toe board. The intersection in the upper right is the most pleasing. I've rarely gone wrong placing the closest eye of my subject in that intersection. Sometimes it is not possible, but when it is, it looks great.

This also has to do with pe

rspective, or the angle you take a picture. Children should have their image taken at their height. It looks better. Perspective adds drama. It gives a sense of falling or looking up or the expanse of the sky.

So far, we haven't even talked about technical settings for a camera. We've talked about composition. From a technical perspective, a camera takes light through a lens or opening and focuses it on a plane for recording.

A lot of people like to talk about depth of field or DOF. DOF is the blur you get in a background and a good portion of it is controlled by the aperture of your camera. What a lot of people don't understand is that's only half the story. You can get good depth of field with a larger aperture. What, how is that possible?

Here's the other half they aren't telling you. The closer you get to a subject and focus the more blurry the background will become. Take any point and shoot or snapshot camera and get really close to your subject. Click. What happens to the background? Blurred ... huh, how did that happen. Optics. Point and shoot cameras are about one step up from a pinhole camera. They don't have an aperture per se. But when you understand that the closer you get to a subject, the blurrier the background will get, it opens up a huge door.

I took this this morning with my very limited point and shoot camera. My cat allowed me to get close and the tree blurred. One or two steps back and the tree would have been in focus. My cat was kind enough to let me get about a foot from her.

My camera's lens is 36mm-108mm and f2.8-4.8. Not stellar by any stretch. Rather common. But using the settings that it comes with gives me options.

Using what you have is also essential. As I stated, the point and shoot doesn't offer me the ability to change lenses. Or does it?

We got to go to Galveston this summer. Usually, it's a trip my wife, mother in law and nieces and daughter take. I was pressed into service. I wasn't going to take an expensive camera to the beach. I took an old point and shoot.

I had been reading about being able to take a door peep hole and hold it in front of the camera and get a fish-eye effect. I bought a $5 peephole at Home Depot and instantly doubled my choice of lenses. I figured I needed a good polarizing filter as well, so I found an old pair of plastic sunglasses from Marshall for $6 and I had a polarizing filter.

It turned out what I was doing was using my resources to get an effect you have to pay high dollar for in camera shops. For less than $15 I had 2 lenses (peephole and the built in lens) and a filter. It wasn't so much that I was a super genius as it was knowing how a camera functions and what makes a good picture.

Enjoy the holidays.

Photography Essentials

Some Myths About Photography

I'm finding there are people who believe a few myths about photography.

1. The best light can only be found during the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset.

Although the light at this time can be amazing, it's no reason to totally rule out shooting any time of day. Shoot, just shoot! With the right training and a few tricks you can turn the day to night and the night to day. Simply knowing that Shutter speed controls ambient (read, daylight if outside) and the aperture controls the light from your flash, you can adjust the settings on your camera to get some amazing results.


2. There's no good place to shoot besides indoors in the winter.

Nothing could be further from the truth in my opinion. So the trees aren't green, big deal. Move to a more urban setting/ Bricks don't ever fall off buildings. Well, they do, but don't shoot where they do.

Urban settings are great for winter photography. Shooting at night is also an option. I'm lucky enough to get some fairly decent days even in the dead of winter. It's cold in other parts of the country, but that shouldn't stop you.

I believe if you are good, and I'm working on it, you can really control the light in an image just by knowing and controlling your camera.

Rule of Thirds

I believe in sharing information about photography to my customers and those friends who read. Last time we looked at Depth of Field and how it relates to better pictures. This time, I want to focus on something that will make your pictures look much more artistic - the rule of thirds.

I have no clue why it's called a "rule" but it seems that we like a certain balance or imbalance in our images. We'll start by looking at a couple of images shot the way a good majority of people shoot images. ( thanks to my assistant and co-worker Lynn for helping me with these shots. )

You'll notice in this first shot that Lynn is centered in the image and fills the frame. Not bad. It's your typical, "Hey, let me take you picture for my scrapbook shot."

At this wider angle we see Lynn again centered in the frame. Not bad if you want to get the wall. ( We'll cover shooting the subject in another lesson.)

This is what a bazillion of your images look like in your photo albums I bet. Nothing wrong with them, but it's always the same shot with the subject in the middle.

The rule of thirds says ( from Wikipedia )

The rule of thirds is a compositional rule of thumb in visual arts such as painting, photography anddesign.^[1] The rule states that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections.^[2] Proponents of the technique claim that aligning a subject with these points creates more tension, energy and interest in the composition than simply centering the subject would.

This tension ads interest although I probably wouldn't call it tension. I'd rather call it interest from unbalance. Take a look at the shots below and see if you can notice a difference in interest.

Granted these aren't the most intersting portraits in the world, but they are more visually appealing.

How does this work?

What we are trying to do first is divide the potential image up into 9 equal size boxes like in the image above. Then we try to place the subject - our subject is WHY we're taking the picture - on those lines. We can frame the image portrait or landscape.

When we line up a shot, we mentally have been programmed to put the subject in the middle of the shot. Our thought is, "Get the subject at all cost."

However, if you look at a good many portraits you will notice many of them the subject is on this rule of thirds. Below are some images from the internet with the lines in them to give you an idea of where the subject falls in the rule of thirds.

Depth of Field Tutorial

I'm not only hoping that you will look at this blog and gain a greater appreciation for my work, but that I'll also be able to share some secrets of the trade with you. On the surface that may seem counter productive. Giving trade secrets away, but I'm not giving you ALL my secrets.

For starters, we'll do a short series on making your everyday pictures better.

Ever wonder why a paid photographer's pictures look .... uhhh good? It's because they have a grasp on a lot of simple concepts and they put them together.

One of those techniqus is depth of field.

Last night I got the chance to shoot two images of the same person at the same time. The only difference between the two pictures was that I changed the depth of field (DOF) or "F-Stop", on my camera. Well, that and my subject is 6 and she moved between shots!

In this first image, you will notice that this picture looks a lot like many of the pictures you take at home. It was shot at an f-stop of 22, which means the little diaphragm in the camera was about the size of a pin hole. It let in very little light, BUT, it captured tons of detail BEHIND my subject. The DOF ( of view ) is very deep.

As a result my subject is competing with the objects behind her - the curb, the shrubs, the flag poles and buildings behind her.


Now, take a look at this image. It was shot with an f-stop of f4. A much lower f-stop, which means the little diaphragm thingy is wide open letting in as much light as it can on this camera with this lens. As a result, my subject is sharp, but my background is blurry. I've effectively isolated my subject, but given you an idea of where she is, but they are not competing for attention.


The result is an image focused on the subject and not the surrounding.

The trade offs ...

If I was wanting to shoot a landscape I would not want a shallow DOF. Also, if I have multiple subjects at differing distances from each other I would not want a shallow DOF. Also, because we are letting so much light in with the f-stop thingy, we have to let the shutter open on our camera a longer amount of time. If we leave the shutter open longer we are more prone to what I call "shake" which is nothing more than a blurry image.

This makes sports at night REALLY hard to shoot because you want to get the football player ( stop his action ) catching the pass 20 yards from the sideline ( deeper DOF ), BUT you don't want to have the visiting fans in focus ( shallow DOF ). Plus it's dark and you have to slow the shutter speed down to let in light, AND they are moving ... I'm getting a headache. But those guys are good at what they do.

So how do I get a shallow DOF with my little point and shoot?

A typical point and shoot camera will have something called a "portrait" mode and on the little selection wheel you will probably see something like a lady with a hat. That seems to be the universal symbol for portrait.

To set a shot up with a simple digital camera, set to portrait

• Give yourself as much room behind the subject as possible ( if there is a wall behind the subject it will be in focus, things farther away will be blurry).
• Get your subjects as close together as possible and fill the view finder with the subject.
  
• Try to shoot with light that is not too harsh, but not too dark that it fires your flash. If possible shoot in the shade if its the middle of the day. A flash requires the camera fire at certain parameters which could change your DOF.
  

See? Easy