Improving Your Landscape Images…Part 2

We use filters in photography to bring back an image to the way our eyes have perceived the original scene. Some times it’s not possible for our cameras to record an exact scene - so we have to rely on the manufacturers of camera products. 

If you are only going to buy one filter for your landscape photography a polarizing filter is the one you’ll use most. A polarizing filter can be used with colour or black and white and is probably the most important filter on the market today.

Lets take a quick look at the science behind it. A polarizing filter is made up of two pieces of glass which when rotated cut out all glare on non-metallic surfaces.  Light travels in waves - these waves travel in all directions and at different rates and speeds. The polarizing filter works by limiting the amount of waves that enter your lens.  You decide how many waves pass through your lens by rotating the filter.

The polarizing filter is most effective with side lighting.

For example: if you are taking a picture of a scenic lake area and there is a messy reflection of the clouds in the lake; it will  be too much of a distraction in the final  picture. This can be simply removed by rotating the polarizing filter ‘til the clouds disappear. You can view the filter working in the viewfinder of your camera.

The polarizing filter will also darken the blue sky to give it a strong rich colour. It will make mist stand out and can be also used to give fast flowing water a misty effect. 

You don’t have to rotate the filter the full amount to get the maximum affect you need, sometimes you will only have to rotate it a small amount. You can decide best for yourself by viewing through your viewfinder while you rotate the polarizing filter.

This filter is not just for a landscape photographer.
   
There are many different uses for a polarizing filter, which make it so important for all photographers.  Property photographers would find this filter extremely handy - when taking an image of a shop front, the polarizing filter will remove glare that reflects off the glass.

Take extreme care when calculating exposure. Remember that you will have to add two stops of light when using the polarizing.

People Skills for Portrait Photography

Taking great portraits is as much about people skills as it is about technical ability, or using the latest and greatest photographic equipment.  Sure, refining your technical skills and knowledge may expand the extent of your capabilities, and using superior equipment may indeed boost your edge.  But, unless you can first see through your subject's eyes, and understand her as a unique individual, and then build rapport with her so you can unveil and accentuate her finest qualities, your portraits will remain mediocre at best.  Some lessons learned along my journey as a photographer may help those who choose to follow.

1. If using a tripod, compose your portrait and then take one step just to the side and forward from the camera.  Do not look through the viewfinder as you capture your subject's image.  This allows you to make eye contact initially with your subject, and then direct her in mood, expression, position, and the angle of gaze you are aiming for.  When your subject interacts with your camera, the result can be a cold or lifeless rendering, but when you engage your subject through eye contact, expression, gestures and words, the result can be a warm and candid reflection, charged with mood or emotion.

2. If you are not using a tripod, you really should redouble your effort to maintain constant interaction with your subject.  Many photographers tend to keep their eyes in the viewfinder of the camera, but this leads to your subject interacting more with the front glass in your lens than with you.  Again, you do not want the sterile and lifeless rendering that most often comes when the camera serves to isolate you the photographer from your subject.  Interaction with an inanimate object (your camera) can never be a substitute for interaction with another human being (you), when your goal is to capture the essence of your subject, and reflect the attitude and emotion she was feeling at that moment in time.

3. Allow your subject to be herself.  A little girl dressed up in fairy wings for a special picture is very cute, and I suppose there is a place in this world for cute.  But, contrast this with the little girl who just loves to dance.  You put her in her everyday clothes, stand her in front of a plain backdrop, put on her favorite music and say to her, "can you show me how to dance to this song?"  You should have no difficulty in capturing timeless expressions there.  Now imagine a jeans and t-shirt kind of guy whose true passion in all of life is sailing.  You dress him up in a tailored suit; formally pose him in front of a low key backdrop, seated in a Chippendale chair, and use classic loop lighting.  What would be said of this portrait years later?  "Who was this guy, an executive?"  But just suppose, you photographed this same guy in his favorite t-shirt and blue jeans, at the helm of his beloved sail boat, on a beautiful late afternoon, just as the boat was coming about?  What would be said of this portrait years later?  "This was Charlie, doing what he loved most!  That was such a glorious day."  The point is, "keep it honest".  Fantasy can be cute, but your subject being herself, years later this will be much more meaningful. 

4. Allow your subject's expression to be honest.  A frown or a grimace that is genuinely felt can be more interesting than a smile that is forced.  I try to never just pose my subject and then say, "Okay, now smile for me."  If you want your subject to smile then tell a joke, put on a face, or perhaps merely smile at her and she will smile back at you.  People generally tend to reflect in their face what they see in yours, but in my experience this is not always so.  Nevertheless, interaction with your subject is the key.  That being said, the next time you have a difficult subject ask him to tell you a joke, to bring out a smile, if that's the expression you are after.  If you are a professional, you know that smiles sell, but if you're an amateur, you are under no pressure to sell, so make your portraits interesting.  Not everything in the world is to smile about.

5. Direct your portraits.  Take control of the composition of your portraits!  Do not be afraid to tell or show your subject what you want.  Sometimes showing is best.  I often find that actually demonstrating a pose I have in mind, works better than trying to direct my subject through words alone.  If you are photographing a group, your life will be easier, if you arrange and pose the adults first.  Then, work your way from oldest (or more mature and settled) to youngest of the children.  The point to remember is, as the photographer, you should take charge of the shot.  The success or failure of the portrait will be your responsibility, so take charge.

Engage your subject to establish and build rapport with her, to take your photos to a higher level.  Make your portraits more meaningful by keeping them honest, and natural.  We all know a fantasy photo can be cute, and a formally posed portrait can be graceful and dignified, if that is your subject's personality.  But, a portrait that is true to the subject is always more meaningful.  Allow your subject to be herself, and never force an expression.  Learn to take charge and direct your portraits and you will move far ahead in your journey as a photographer.  Practice your people skills with each portrait you take.  People skills are the prerequisite to all else, if you want to take great portraits.  Good day and happy clicking!

Improving Our Landscape Images - Part 1

 All the world’s cameras, films and other photographic equipment are no more than tools for making landscape pictures.  Cameras don’t think for themselves.  Whether we use digital or film camera, the same photographic principles apply.

We don’t have to stick to many rules to produce great landscape images, but knowing what they are will make your pictures more successful. There are two salient points in landscape photography: how to compose your image, and how to use available natural light in any given situation.

Lets start off with light: There are three basic qualities of light: intensity, direction and colour.

Intensity: refers to the strength of light. If the sun is high in the sky, light can be harsh and too strong. Cloudy days bring soft and defused light.

Direction: this refers to light placement. There are three categories of light placement: front, back and side-lighting. Side lighting produces more texture between light and shade.

Colour: the colour of sunlight varies depending upon conditions and time of day. If the sun shines at the beginning or the end of the day, the colour of the light will be much warmer, and will lead to a much more dramatic scene.

Understanding natural light will develop your ability to see. You will start to see the beauty of light in a different and exciting way.

In landscape photography it is very important to take care with composition. A normal scene can be transformed by paying close attention to detail. Composition is all about how you arrange the elements in front of you.

Here are a few ideas in which you may find useful.

Lead with lines: To lead with lines into the main part of the scene will draw your viewer into your image. These lines don’t have to be straight. Lines, such as tracks, riverbanks or fences, may work successfully.

Foreground interest: Simple foreground objects can give your landscape a greater sense of depth. Use a small aperture (f/22) to keep the entire scene in focus.

Natural frames: Frame your scene with the elements all around you. This will focus attention on the main part of the picture. Trees make great natural frames.

These are just a few essential guidelines, and combined with a good eye, you have all you need to get the best out of photography - especially landscape photography.  These are just a few rules to get you started, but like all rules, they are there to be broken.

How To Take The Most Clear, Breathtaking, Majestic  

and Powerful Landscape Photos….. Click Here

Top Ten Digital Camera And Photography Tips

Digital cameras have definitely simplified the manual labor of the photographers and do their job at mere a click of button. But, that does not mean you can have perfect shots with just the aid of your camera equipment. You can feel a bit more confident with digital camera in your possession, but the job of “clicking” has become specialized. Some misunderstandings about its functional aspects, and the entire love's labor is lost! The photography of an event is lost for ever...

So, some standing instructions, some important workable tips need to be followed by the man holding a digital camera. Experience combined with technical expertise is what makes you a perfect photographer.

1. Look your subject in the eye, don't spray your attention all over. Sometimes, you get a fraction of a second to click an important event. There are occasions, you have to vie with hundreds of other photographers. You need to develop the meditative concentration, to 'hunt' your object.

2. Use a plain background. If the background is a hotchpotch, it will have a direct bearing on the main photograph.

3. Use flash outdoors.

4. Move in close. Adjustments from the close range can be done easily. They will be more effective.

5. Move it from the middle. That is always the safest way. If you move from one side, there is every chance of missing the activity on the other side.

6. Lock the focus. That is very important as it is your main job.

7. Know your flash's range. This is a very important technical aspect, that is mastered by experience. A bad flash can spoil, beyond repair an important shot.

8. Watch the light. It constantly change.

9. Take some vertical pictures. This adds variety to the total number of pictures that you have shot.

10. Be a picture director. A sense of involvement is necessary. You need to be in a position to anticipate the results, just as a movie director directs his actors for getting a perfect shot.

Don't credit those magnetic eyes and bewitching smiles to the account of digital camera alone. It is the skill and the sense of timing of the photographer that matters most. You need to know when to tell your photo-audience to “say cheese”, and those fraction of seconds before their response to the cheese. Have an eye contact of a sharp shooter, with his shooting object.

Get The Most Out Of Your Camera - Part 2

In part 1 of: Get the most out of your camera, we looked at how to use the aperture and the creative uses of depth-of-field. In this part we’ll look at how to use the shutter button on your camera and how both the shutter and the aperture control exposure.

The shutter is a mechanical device that controls the length of time that light is allowed to act on the film.

 
Most standard cameras allow us to use a range between 16 second and 1/1000 second. You might be wondering, why anyone would use a long shutter time of 16 seconds: I’ve used this and even longer shutter times when taken low-light landscape images. I would always advise the use of a tripod with these long exposures time to avoid blur images.

Using a shutter speed of 1/125 second should safely avoid overall blur due to camera movement if you hold the camera by hand. Any longer shutter time should require a tripod.

Each time you open the shutter by one, we double the light, when we close down the light by one we half the light.  Open the shutter at 1 second allows twice the light as that of a ½ second.

The shutter can also be used creatively when taking landscape images or sport images. If you want to add motion to your image a slow shutter speed can give an image an extra bit of sway. No more so than taking images of streams. Using a slow shutter speed when photographing water will cause the water to blur, resulting with the image expressing motion.

By contrast, a fast shutter speed of 1/250 would be used in shooting wildlife or where the subject that you’re shooting needs to be still and sharp.  Most wildlife photographers would use a fast shutter speed.

By using the shutter and aperture together we control exposure. Both allow light to enter the camera: the shutter by time and the aperture by the size of the hole in the lens.

For example: you’re shooting a landscape scene;  you get an exposure reading at f/11 at ¼ second. You know that by using f/11 that the entire image wont be sharp. You want to shoot at f/22, which is four times less light than f/11. You need to quadruple the light through time; each time you open the shutter by one you double the light, so open it by two stops and your exposure time will be 1 second. Your final exposure should read f/22  at 1 second.

At the best of times, calculating the correct exposure can be a difficult task, but with a few simple tips our images can produce eye-catching colours that we see all around us every day.

Wedding Photography Secrets: Tips For Taking The Best Wedding Day Photos Possible

It’s your wedding…one of the most beautiful days in your life. How else can you make the perfect occasion last? Capture the momentous event with great wedding photographs. Read this guide to make sure you choose the right wedding photography service for your big day.

The first thing to do is to give the most opportunities for the photographer when scheduling activities during the wedding day. When planning the time of the wedding ceremony and of the reception, couples should incorporate the time that the photographer requires to capture all of the couple’s special moments. There should be a gap between the end of the ceremony and beginning of the reception, to allow for more photographs for the bride, groom and wedding entourage, especially if they are in two different locations. The photographers and subjects will have a more relaxed shoot and will enjoy all the parts of the wedding if the events are well spaced out.

Next, think of important factors when selecting a wedding photographer. The photographer should be able to show more than one complete set of wedding photos. Couples should not accept someone who shows only selected prints of their best photographs from different weddings. Ideally, all photographs from 3 to 4 complete wedding sets that are at least satisfactory should be a criterion of a professional wedding photographer.

It is also good to have a photographer that gives a package with unlimited coverage for the whole day. Again, this way, photography will not be rushed.

Next, try to be aware of photography companies or individuals that contract out jobs to a pool of wedding photographers or even freelancers. Salespersons often pose as actual photographers and try to woo customers. Make sure companies deal openly, and ask them to show 3 to 4 complete weddings from each of the photographers they offer you, so you can choose. Make sure the one chosen is the one that will cover your wedding. Otherwise, it is better to find a photographer that personally shoots weddings. A two-person team is an even better package because two points of view of the wedding can be taken.

Some photographers only offer the traditional wedding photography style, or strictly a photo-journalistic style. It is best to find a versatile photographer that can do both.

Lastly, couples should take note of some important questions to ask a prospective wedding photographer:

· Are colored and black and whites included, or would he charge extra for B/W? Dramatic effects can be made with black and white photographs, so ask if this is a premium.

· Are hand and digital coloring or digital color separation included in the package or would he charge extra for these? Better pictures are developed when the photograph colors are separated first, improved, and then printed.

· What kinds of cameras does he use? Does he use medium format equipment and have a back up? Does have a "leaf" shutter or "focal plane"?

· What lenses does he use? Does he use only one, or will he change lenses? Make him show you photo effects that he is able to achieve with different lenses and choose the ones which you like to appear with your photographs.

· Is he willing to customize a package that is within your budget?

Asking intelligent questions will encourage photographers to deal openly with customers. Remember, it’s your special day, and you should make sure that the wedding photography is something that will help you and your loved ones relive those wonderful memories.

Get The Most Out Of Your Camera - Part 1

Did you ever see an image where only a small part of it is sharp? Using the aperture ring correctly can maximize the artistic look of your image.

Not only does it determine the depth-of-field, it also has the power to direct the human eye.

The human eye is instinctively drawn towards noticeable points of an image.  These are usually the sharpest and most important parts of an image. Using a wide aperture to limit the area of sharp focus can direct attention to the most important elements of your image and blur out any off-putting backgrounds.

This isn’t that hard to accomplish, and can be blissful if done correctly.

Lets start off with understanding depth-of-field, aperture and f/stops.

Depth-of -field:  The distance from the front to back that is in reasonable sharp focus is called the depth-of-field. There are two ways of controlling depth-of-field: Use a small aperture or focus on a point farther away from your camera.

Aperture and f/stops: The aperture is an opening in the center of the lens through which light passes. The amount of light, which passes through an aperture, is indicated by f/stops. The lower the f/stop the more light that passes through the aperture. Opening up one full f/stop doubles the amount of light entering the camera.  F/4 admits twice the light of f5.6. 

By selecting a small or narrow aperture (f/16 or up), all or most of the scene will be reasonably sharp. This is ideal for landscape photography. By using a small aperture you increase the depth-of-field.

By selecting a large or wide aperture (f/5.6 or below) you decide which part of your image is sharp. This is ideal for taking pictures of wildlife, portraits, sport and small objects. By using a large aperture you decrease the depth-of-field

The smaller the f/number, the wider the aperture.

There is about twice the depth-of-field behind the point of focus as there is in front of it, using any aperture.

Now you know how to isolate your subject, so it’s time to put it to use. Set your camera to aperture-priority (AV) mode, and then select a large aperture (f/2 - f/5.6). By doing this the camera will select the shutter speed automatically. If you are shooting wildlife choose a low viewpoint to maximize the image, try putting the camera lens at eye-level with the subject.

While the above will help to isolate you subject, it’s only a start. Know your subject, especially when shooting wildlife. Don’t be fooled into thinking all elements of an image must be sharp to be considered a good photo.