Archive for Shooting
Controlling Efficiency in Photo Processing: by William Petruzzo
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In today’s competitive photography world, it’s a must that the professional photographer carefully select the best images to give to the client and to process each of those photos to their very best. But for many photographers, especially photographers new to the market, or even just the hobby, dealing with a huge number of images can be, well, daunting. Many underestimate the importance of developing and adhering to a workflow that will help them remain efficient with their time and energy. After all, if you charge $300 for a 1 hour portrait session, but take 6 hours to sort and edit the photos, you’ve severely diminished the value of your time. If you’ve read Angelo Stavrow’s outstanding article, “Three Reasons You’re Not Ready to Shoot a Wedding”, this article aims to help you get past number 2.
When I first started my business in 2003, scheduling was difficult because it was hard to estimate how much time I’d have free for shoots and processing of the resulting images. It also added significant challenge to forecasting profits and establishing reasonable pricing structures that made the money worth my time and energy. Over time, we have developed a mature and consistent workflow which all photographers we work with adhere to. It helps to keep us consistent and timely in our delivery of images. As well as helping to ensure that those images are safe in the event of a disaster.
So, in the interest of helping newcomers work out their own strategies and start working on the important stuff as soon as possible, here are some of the things we’ve learned and you might want to keep in mind. At the end, I have also included a quick sample of a workflow using Adobe Lightroom. It’s fairly basic, but a good place to start if you find yourself stranded in a sea of awesome photos you don’t know what to do with.
Think More, Shoot Less: by William Petruzzo
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I think that photography as an art has taken a pretty big hit since the widespread acceptance of digital cameras. Hipstematic takes an arbitrary picture of a coffee cup taken with an iPhone and turns it into “art”. Bigger memory cards mean there is less and less risk in pressing that shutter button. Like never before, “art” in photography is largely an accident. But is it art at all? I think not.
I define art, not by what is produced, but by what the artist’s mind was doing when it was produced. By that definition, art must be intentional. You cannot simply fire off 10,000 pictures to find those 2 works of “art”. What you found wouldn’t be art at all, it would be a series interesting coincidences. Think about it this way—imagine that you could record everything your eye sees in brilliant high definition and at any point, pull out a single frame and publish it to Flickr. You probably wouldn’t consider that art. Yet this is often what digital photographers do. They point their camera in a thousand directions and find a few images that are interesting enough to share. Anyone can do that.
So, as digital photographers, how do we find our status as an artist? I submit that we find that status by learning to be intentional; by making calculated decisions about the things we photograph; by refusing to press the shutter down before we’re sure that what we’re about it capture is what we intend to capture.
Now, before I move on, let me interject briefly. Photography has a great history of accidentally capturing incredible moments. In fact, some of history’s iconic photos were total accidents. And that’s okay. Because at that time in history, skilled photographers routinely and intentionally captured beautiful images. And sometimes, they caught beautiful accidents. But it was the exception, not the rule. And that’s part of what made those photos so remarkable. Today, it’s often the other way around. So, while there is a place for incredible coincidences in photography, as photographers we should once again aim to make them the exception, not the rule.
So, in the interest of learning to become true artists, here are six techniques to stretch our intentionality in the creation of our images and heighten the artistic integrity of our work. It’s all about thinking more, and shooting less. Read More→
Droidography – Shooting tips with Droid Phones, Part Deux
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If you read last week’s post you saw some tips (hopefully helpful ones!) I plan on continuing that this week and at least next week also. I have a Droid and I use to it take a lot of my photos, but these tips can help you with improving your photos with any cell phone based camera. We got to be Zombie extras in a feature film shooting locally in Pittsburg TX called Humans vs. Zombies and will be using some shots from today as our examples.
5. Keep it Clean – If you are like me and have a cell phone with an abnormally large case, it gets stuffed in a pants pocket, backpack, or purse on a regular basis. In doing so you can gather a lot of FUNK, for lack of a better word, on your camera lens. Therefore it is very important to clean it with a regular camera lens cleaner, cleaning cloth, or some other approved method. Be careful as many cell phone lenses are plastic and can scratch easily. Blow lightly first to remove any surface FUNK. Just removing the buildup of dirt, hairballs, and other assorted FUNK can go a long way toward improving your photos. Also if you have any cases on your phone that will remove easily, do so often to remove any FUNK buildup between the case and the phone. WARNING: Do not use water or any harsh cleaners to remove the FUNK from your phone. This can kill it! Trust me on that.
Keeping it clean!
Motion Blur Photography: by Erik Kerstenbeck
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Using a fast shutter speed will freeze motion in its tracks, and using a slow shutter speed with moving objects will spread the image over time. This creates a sense of motion. There are many methods to achieve this motion blur, such as panning on a moving object, shooting from a moving platform (train, car etc), using the zoom feature while the shutter is open, moving the camera on a still subject, or keeping the camera fixed while the subject is moving. Here we will focus on the latter.
Review: Holga HL-N Lens for Nikon DSLR Cameras
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I am a sucker when it comes to darn near anything retro. Old cars, older video games, bad sci-fi movies from the 80s, and vintage photos are all on that list of things that will stop me in my tracks too take a moment and enjoy. For this article, I’m focusing on my love of old photos. There is something about a grainy, scratched, vignetted, and overall imperfect photo from the past that really floats my boat. Perhaps this is why so many of my photos are trying to replicate aspects of this retro look.
The camera that tends to be the culprit of growing retro style photo popularity is the Holga film cameras. These are cheap plastic cameras that take some great photos with vignettes, light leaks, multiple exposures, and so much more. The issue is that you always had to buy these “toy” camera bodies and film to enjoy the Holga effect. That is until recently!
Holga has released two lenses that are specifically made to fit the Nikon and Cannon DSLRs. The HL-N is, obviously, for the Nikon while the HL-C fits a Cannon. These lenses promise great Holga effects with the convenience of your digital camera. When I heard about this, I immediately jumped all over the opportunity to snag the HL-N and take it for a spin.
When I received the box with my HL-N, the first thing I noticed was how extremely light the box was. I have ordered small Lego sets that weighed more than this. The reason for this lightness is due to the Holga lens being made out of plastic with the exception of the small front piece of glass. There are a few holes drilled out on the back to send the image to the sensor, but that is it. Even the part that mounts to your cameral is plastic. This truly brings the toy camera feel right to the DSLR world. Read More→
3 Ways of Connecting with Your Subject
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We just returned from our 2011 senior portrait conference (spa) in Palm Springs California. We had our 3rd model winner in a row from across the country and she won the Top Model award! We are so proud of Kristen!
2011 Senior, Kristen
There were some great images out at spa but this year I “observed” a lot more than I have in the past. We followed Kristen and her mom around on day #3 of spa where she has session with other photographers to see them work and teach.
One of the things that spa celebrates is the best of the best in high school senior photography. And the best of the best senior photographers are all there. A consistent theme that I saw with these photographers was the “connection” they made with the subject, the speed at which they connected with them, and the ease in which they did so. This, of course, translated to a an incredible experience for all the seniors chosen to attend, the photographers, and allowed for some gorgeous images to be created. Read More→
The Myth of the Non-Manipulated Image
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Surfing through various internet forums recently, I have noticed an argument that has resurfaced. This argument revolves around what people consider a manipulated image. We have all seen bad manipulations done for magazine covers, news articles, and even the odd internet article. Yet, this debate goes even further than simply removing a stray hair or masking out an unwanted building.
If we look at two of the extreme ends of this debate, there is the camp that wants photos right out of the camera with no post processing what so ever. The other end are those folks who don’t mind using tools like Photoshop, Nik Software, Photomatix, or even Picasa to modify their images in some form or another. Regardless where you fall in this spectrum, I would argue that we are all manipulating the image the moment we click the shutter button.
Why do I believe this? The simple fact is that no camera, no matter how technologically advanced, have the capabilities to capture what our eyes see and our minds interpret. We may try our hardest to reproduce what we are seeing with out eyes, but the fact is we are merely creating an interpretation. So where does the manipulation come in with the shutter click? It comes from the settings, extra lighting, and even filters we use to manipulate what the camera catches.
Here’s a simple example. You are shooting a beautiful tree at sunset. Your eyes are quickly adjusting between the lights and darks of the scene. You must carefully choose how you will expose this scene for your camera. So you dial in a specific shutter speed, aperture setting, and ISO level. You may add a graduated neutral density filter to help keep the sky in correct exposure with the ground. There might even be a polarizer filter added to help bring out more colors. All of these items may help you get the desired end result of a gorgeous image, but it is all stuff you are using to manipulate what appears on the memory card/film. Even specific films can be used to modify how a scene turns out. Read More→
Creating Abstract Impressions: by Anne McKinnell
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Impressionist painters were more concerned with colour than line. Their goal was to leave the viewer with an impression of the scene rather than a literal depiction and their works often included a sense of movement.
Photographers can also create emotional abstracts that leave only an impression of the original subject by using a slow shutter speed, from 1/50 of a second to 1/2 second, and moving the camera while the shutter is open or allowing a moving subject to pass in front of the camera.
This technique is fun because every frame turns out different. An afternoon can easily slip by as if moving on the waves of colour. There are 3 ways of approaching this technique:
1. Pan with a moving subject
When you move the camera while the shutter is open, it is called panning. With a moving subject, you want to pan at the right speed to keep the subject in the frame. Panning on a moving subject with a very slow shutter speed has a drastically different result than panning with a faster shutter speed. A faster shutter will have more sharpness in the subject and show some blur in the background. A very slow shutter speed is more abstract and allows you to really feel the movement while retaining just enough detail in the subject that you can still tell what it is.
1/50 Second, f/18, ISO 100
Two Methods for Approaching High Contrast Scenes: by Anne McKinnell
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One challenge photographers continually face is dealing with high contrast scenes.
Typically there are a couple of choices: you can expose for the highlights and let the shadows go black, or you can expose for the shadows and let the highlights blow out. Neither of these options give great results.
I was faced with an extreme version of this challenge during a recent trip to Yosemite Park in California. Going out at sunrise and sunset to catch the sweet light, I found the valley floor in complete darkness unless the sun was high in the sky.
Here is an example of the type of photo you might come home with in these conditions. The sun was setting on Half Dome lighting up the top of the dome and leaving the valley in darkness.
Breaking Photography Rules: by Scott Wyden Kivowitz
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Photography rules exist to follow, and then break. There is no reason to stick with them 100% of the time but they make for a great guideline. Rule of thirds, Horizons, Diagonals, Leading are just some of the types of rules. Read them study them and then don’t be afraid to break them. It is as simple as that.
After you understand light and composition it is time to break some rules. Read More→
