Creative use of shadows in photography – Photography podcast #26

August 31, 2007 on 10:57 am | In Photographs, Photography podcasts, podcasting | 2 Comments

This photography podcast focuses on creative shadow use and incorporating actual shadows into your photography using the sun and other light sources. Thanks so much to Cindy and Al for their superkind comments (posted in our last photography podcast #25) about our podcasting efforts. We LOVE comments and suggestions so please send more.

Links mentioned in this photography podcast:
 - Ed Gordon and Peter Gordon’s work
 - daronJ’s work on Flickr
 - Bald Monk’s work on Flickr
 - Photography.ca’s work (Marko Kulik – that’s me) on Flickr
 - Flickr – Photo sharing website
 - Google reader (great for organizing podcasts and blogs)

You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player below this set of images.

 
Beach Kiss – Marko Kulik

Beach Walk – Marko Kulik

Holding My Own – Ed Gordon

Heart Shadow by daronj – Technique – Less complicated than I suggested in the podcast – Thanks for sharing daronj! – “I ended up using a simple small hand held flash light at about a 45 degree angle from directly behind. That’s it.”

Russia in the Spotlight – by Bald Monk

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Basic photography tips

August 28, 2007 on 9:48 am | In Photography blog entries | 2 Comments

I met with longtime friend Mitch Joel this week and gave him a few basic photography tips. It was such a pleasure to finally share some of my knowledge with him. He’s been sharing his knowledge about digital marketing and the World Wide Web with me for YEARS. Although I share my knowledge freely with many people, with Mitch it’s been all take. Feels good to give (just a wee bit in comparison) back. By the way Mitch Joel has an AMAZING podcast and blog on digital marketing and I highly recommend it. He has a huge fan base and absolutely has the skinny on social media and digital marketing.

Below are a few very basic photography tips. Others may well be just starting off in photography and these really brief and basic photography tips might be helpful.

Exposure
——–
All cameras determine exposure (the combination of shutter speed and Aperture (size of the hole) ) by averaging out the light in the scene. If it’s a scene with average tones as most scenes are, the exposure should be correct. If there is a predominance of EITHER dark or light tones, the camera meter will probably fail and the photographer must OVERRIDE the camera’s settings. The classic example is the dude in front of the sunset. The camera sees all that bright sky and cuts the exposure to average out the scene and leaves the main subject in near complete darkness. On the opposite end, a black car against a black wall – this will fool the camera as well, because the camera will try to average out that scene and make the black car and black wall lighter. Rather than teach how to correct for this (which is simply to manually increase or decrease exposure) just be aware that scenes that have either too much dark or too much light in them are harder to deal with.

Composition
———–
Most people taking a picture of person will always place them in the dead center of the image. Take 1 shot, sure. Then place them off center and see how much more interesting the shot can become. This scenario works with everything. Art/photo historians suggest that if you look at the scene through the viewfinder and divide it like a tic tac toe board, the most interesting place to place the main subject is on the 4 CORNERS (top right, top left, center right, center left) of the center square BUT NOT IN THE CENTER OF THE CENTER SQUARE.

Red eye
——-
Red eye sucks and is sometimes hard to get rid of with point and shoot cameras. WHENEVER possible, meaning when there is a choice) don’t use flash. So if there is good ( good is diffused indirect and softer – bad is harsh direct shards of light) window light, shut off the flash and use it.

Background
———-
This one is simple and makes a huge difference. Be aware of what is going on in the background. Is it dirty, is there a coat-rack right behind the subject’s head? Move either your subject, or you yourself move (when you can) to eliminate distracting backgrounds.

Hand holding the camera
———————-
Most humans CAN NOT hand hold the camera at shutter speeds slower than 1/60th of a second (i.e. 1/30, 1/15 the of a second etc.) If you try to take a picture and the result is blurry, it can easily be a shutter speed issue.

Auto focus
———
Many point and shoot cameras have poor auto focus. The camera can’t know exactly what element in the scene you want to focus on. In this case, override the camera and choose manual focus. If you are shooting a portrait, try to ALWAYS focus on the eyes.

Depth of field
————–
A huge topic but you should know something about it. In a lens you can change the size of the hole or aperture to suit your needs. When the hole is large (measured in F-stops F2.0, F 2.8, F4 etc) there is less sharp focus from foreground to background. Great for portraits where the main subject stays sharp and the background goes into soft focus.

When the hole is small (F16, F22, F32)  there is MORE sharpness from foreground to background. Great for  landscapes. The key is always to play. Take shots at different settings and compare.

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Shutter Speed in photography – Photography podcast #25

August 10, 2007 on 8:59 am | In Photographs, Photography podcasts, podcasting | 6 Comments

This photography podcast talks about using shutter speed in photography for creative effects. When you want to photograph something that is moving, you the photographer should decide on the shutter speed. Don’t let the camera decide for you.

The digital photographs below were taken at Red Rock Crossing in Sedona Arizona (ya gotta go – it’s amazing!). You can see that the long shutter speed (1 second) has a blurring paintery effect in the water, where the fast shutter speed (1/500) practically freezes the water. You can click the photos to enlarge them.

Links mentioned in this photography podcast:
- Nice comment from Andre from Brazil

You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player.

 
Shutter speed  – 1/500 of a second

Shutter speed – 1/30 of a second

Shutter speed – 1 second

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Underexposure in digital photography – Photography podcast #24

August 3, 2007 on 12:19 pm | In Photographs, Photography podcasts, podcasting | 6 Comments

This photography podcast talks about DELIBERATE underexposure in digital photography. Many new digital cameras have a tendency to blow out the highlights when the scene is too bright. Through judicious use of deliberate underexposure you can get back some of those blown out highlights.

The digital photographs below were taken at the Grand Canyon in Arizona. You can see that even though the 2 stop underexposed image is way too dark when uncorrected, I was able to pull out quite a nice photograph with excellent highlight detail. You can click the photos to enlarge them.

You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player.


Meter reading – uncorrected
1 stop underexposed – uncorrected

2 stops underexposed – uncorrected		 Final photo from the 2 stop underexposed image – color corrected with local dodging and burning

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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