How-To
March 29th, 2010 by Allison Gibson Posted in Articles, How-To
How-To: A Primer on Long Exposures
Text and Photos by Lynne Eodice
In contrast to using fast shutter speeds to freeze action, using long exposures is a very creative means to convey motion in a photograph. A blurred image can be a very impressionistic rendition of movement, giving the viewer a sense of sensation. This how-to story will cover blurred motion, panning, zooming your lens during an exposure and capturing streaks of light from traffic at night. Experiment with these simple techniques, and have fun getting dramatic images!
Blurring Motion
How much blurring you allow affects the quality of motion the photo conveys. In this image of a waterfall, I used a one-second exposure to make the water look very soft and silky. I was also in the shade, so I could use a longer exposure than had I been in bright sun. Also, the shutter speed you select will depend on how fast your subject is moving. A speeding car can blur at a faster shutter speed, say 1/60 second. In general, the slower the shutter speed, the more blur you’ll get. Speeds slower than 1/30 second will blur motion dramatically, but you’ll want to use a tripod to keep the rest of your photo in sharp focus.
When planning to shoot, keep in mind that the closer you are to your subjects, the more likely they will be to blur. The same is true of subjects moving across your field of vision rather than those approaching you head-on. The fastest-moving parts of a subject will be the most blurred.
Panning
A relatively sharp subject against a blurred background also conveys the feeling of speed. To achieve this effect, you must follow the subject with your camera during an exposure. As this example of a little girl on her scooter shows, panning focuses attention on the subject, while the background is de-emphasized. Panning is a tricky technique, takes practice, and the results are not always predictable. But it’s fun— and definitely worth the effort.
For best results, start tracking the subject from the moment it appears in your viewfinder. Stand firmly with the camera to your eye and rotate the upper part of your body in the direction your subject is moving. When you have the composition you want, release the shutter and continue following your subject in one smooth movement. Panning requires a somewhat slow shutter speed, but the exact speed will depend on the situation and your subject. I used shutter speeds of 1/15 to 1/30 second to photograph this subject.
Taillights & Traffic Streaks
By using a long exposure at night, your camera can record patterns of moving lights that can’t be seen by the human eye. Cars, trains, busses and other motor vehicles are excellent subjects for this technique. The vehicles often move too fast to be recorded on your camera’s sensor during a long exposure, yet their lights leave ribbons of bright colors across the scene. Busy roadways can become rivers of red and white.
It’s best to set up your tripod at locations where the ambient light (from streetlights and buildings) isn’t too strong, and where you can get a good view of fast-moving traffic. I like to shoot from a city sidewalk or on a bridge over a freeway at dusk. Your time exposures will probably be very long— from several seconds up to a minute— so a tripod is important. Use an ISO setting of 100 to 400, and although you’ll be using your camera on shutter priority, try to use very small apertures like f/16 or f/22 to prevent overexposure.
Zoomed Lens Technique
By adjusting the length of your zoom lens during an exposure, you can get some striking effects. The most common result of this technique, called zooming or racking your lens, is the appearance of strong lines radiating out from the center of interest. This can give your pictures a real sense of motion, even with an inanimate subject. Although you can shoot zoomed lens exposures during the daytime, this technique produces exciting patterns of lights at night.
To create a zoomed photo, you must use a slow shutter speed—no faster than 1/30 second and probably longer. I’ve used this technique with and without a tripod, but you’ll want to use one to ensure getting any additional camera movement during the long exposure. Zoom through the full range of focal lengths for maximum results, or zoom your lens just part way if you prefer—you’ll get interesting effects either way. You can zoom from the shortest focal length to the longest, or vice versa.
In a Nutshell:
Blurred Motion
• Use this technique for getting a blurred subject against a sharp background.
• Shutter speeds of 1/8 or slower will give you the most dramatic blur.
Panning
• Follow a subject with your camera during a somewhat long exposure.
• Use this technique to get a relatively sharp subject against a blurred background.
Traffic Streaks
• Taillights and headlights on vehicles will be rendered as ribbons of light.
• Use a tripod and shutter speeds of several seconds to one minute.
Zoomed Lens
• Zoom your lens during a fairly long exposure to get exciting effects.
• Use shutter speeds from at least 1/30 second, and probably longer.
Tags: aperture, blurred motion, exposure, How-To, light, light streaks, long exposure, motion, panning, shutter speed, zoomed lens | 2 Comments »
February 9th, 2010 by Allison Gibson Posted in Articles, How-To
How-To: Shooting in Existing Light
Text and Photos by Lynne Eodice
Some of the best photo opportunities present themselves in situations that would appear to pose lighting challenges, such as outdoors at dusk or dawn, or indoors with window light or artificial illumination. This how-to story provides tips on meeting these challenges without using flash.
Dusk and Dawn
For a half-hour to an hour before the sun rises and after it sets, the sky is filled with soft, beautiful light that has inspired the term magic hour among photographers. Beginning with the first faint light of daybreak, colors in the sky brighten quickly—from cool blue tones to soft pastel shades, and finally, the warm tones preceding sunrise. After sunset, this process takes place again in reverse.
Because you have such a slim window of time in which to shoot, it’s best to scout out a scene that you want to photograph ahead of time. During the shoot, you’ll want to use a tripod (or plan to use a fast ISO setting like 800 or greater if a tripod is not available). You should also use a small aperture like f/8 or f/11 for great depth of field. Check your exposure readings frequently. The darker the scene, the more important it is to bracket your exposures. Long time exposures of several seconds are very likely once the sun goes down.
Dusk is a great time to photograph city skylines. You’ll still have some exciting color in the sky, and the lights from street lamps and buildings will also contribute to creating a truly dramatic photograph. An extra bonus is that if you’re using a very small aperture, like f/11, f/13, or f/16, small points of light in the scene (like street lights) may resemble multi-pointed stars.
Natural Light Indoors
Occasions may arise in which you’ll want to shoot indoors, but aren’t permitted to use flash because of certain restrictions; i.e., weddings in chapels, art galleries, and other public buildings. When shooting indoors with natural light that comes in from outside, use windows or doors that get reflected light from the sky. This light will be directional, but softer and not as intense. Diffused window light may provide flattering illumination when photographing people. If you’re not using flash, you’ll probably need to use a higher ISO reading like 800 or 1600.
If there is a lot of bright light coming in through a window or doorway, you can reduce this contrast by using a secondary source of light, like some sort of reflective material. You can use white poster board, Fome-Cor board (both are available at art supply stores), or a commercial reflector (from your local camera store) to bounce light back into shadowy areas of a person’s face. Whenever possible, you can open a door or curtains to let light in from another direction to fill in shadows.
Your camera’s meter is often fooled by bright areas of direct light from a window, so you may want to switch to your camera’s spot metering mode to get a more accurate reading. Take your spot meter reading from an important part of the scene—like a person’s face or mid-tone object. Use your camera’s exposure-lock feature to hold that reading.
Artificial Indoor Light
Taking pictures with ambient indoor light can be challenging. First of all, you may want to change your Auto White Balance (AWB) setting to match the main light source. Some indoor artificial lighting requires that you switch your White Balance setting to a tungsten setting to correct for incandescent lighting. (But if you like the warm cast created by this light source, use your camera’s AWB setting.)
To photograph a person in a public place, try to position him/her in a place with even indoor lighting, or surround the individual with bright, reflective surfaces. If you’re photographing a subject next to candlelight, the person may appear warmer than he/she would with tungsten lighting. When photographing performers on a stage, you’ll have the challenge of bright lighting on the person or group against a dark background. Use a telephoto lens to bring the performer in closer and switch to your camera’s spot-metering mode to get a reading from the person’s face or clothing.
In a Nutshell:
Dusk or Dawn
• Scout out your scene ahead of time
• Use a tripod for best results
• Photograph the lights of the city balanced with the color of the sky
Natural Light Indoors
• Shoot with reflected light coming in from outdoors
• Use a reflective material to fill in shadows
• Use your camera’s spot-metering feature
Artificial Light Indoors
• Adjust your White Balance setting to match the light source
• Photograph a person in a place that’s evenly lit
• Use a telephoto lens to bring stage performers in close
December 11th, 2008 by digital photographer Posted in Articles, How-To
by Joe Farace
Before you think about retouching any digital image file there are a few simple and basic steps you should consider before you snap the shutter that will minimize the amount of retouching your portraits might need. Good make-up artists are worth whatever they cost and make a big difference in the final portrait. With the right make-up artist and subject you may not need any retouching! Another way to minimize retouching is to slightly overexpose the portrait, making it just a little lighter and brighter than what your meter or camera says is “correct.” This will add a little radiant glow and minimize any minor facial imperfections.
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December 10th, 2008 by digital photographer Posted in Articles, How-To
by John Holbrook
Macro product photography can be extremely challenging, but also very rewarding. Commercial opportunities for high quality product close ups are strong and growing, both in print and online. In the following pages, I’m going to illustrate the techniques I’ve learned over the past several years doing commercial macro photography of wrist watches. Once you’ve mastered the challenges of photographing a wrist watch, you’ll be well prepared to do all manner of macro product photography.
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December 8th, 2008 by digital photographer Posted in Articles, How-To
by John Holbrook
I’ve done a considerable amount of freelance photo graphy for the last several years. Most of the work that I’ve done has been related to the luxury wrist watch industry – though I’ve done a fair amount of work outside the watch industry, watches are my first love. I’ve done everything from catalog and ad photography for watch companies, as well as online watch dealers for their Web stores. Since watch companies tend to sponsor high profile sports and events, I’ve gotten the opportunity to do quite a lot of sports photography too – car races, motorcycle races, yacht races, and air races, among others. If it can be raced, I’ve shot it. I’ve done a couple of celebrity photo shoots here and there. And while it isn’t my strongest suite, I’ve even done a few weddings along the way. It’s all been very satisfying work and also very financially rewarding.
Clearly one doesn’t get as much work as I’ve gotten by not having a degree of talent. But I don’t attribute my success to being a great photographer. The truth is (and I’m not the least bit afraid to admit this), there are much better photographers out there. Unfortunately, it takes much more than talent to make money as a photographer. To be successful, you have to be able to effectively sell yourself. It doesn’t matter if you want to do wedding photography, sports photography, product photography or simply work for the local newspaper – you have to market and sell yourself and your talent. Here are some tips on finding and closing more paid work:
Identify Your Target Market
It’s pretty tough to market yourself if you don’t know whom you are marketing yourself to. So spend some time thinking about the kind work you want to capture. Some people find it easier to be successful by defining a very narrow, specific niche for themselves. Some folks make a darn fine living doing not just sports photography, not just auto racing photography, but specifically, Indy Car racing photography. For others, putting all their eggs in one basket, so to speak, just doesn’t make good sense. For me, I like the variety of one day doing product photography on a $200,000 mechanical wrist watch and the next day standing on the corkscrew of Laguna Seca capturing shots of a MotoGP race. Either approach can work, but the point is, spend some real time thinking about what you want to do, what you really want to do and then write it down. Once I figured out that I wanted to shoot luxury mechanical wrist watches, then my potential client list was much simpler to put together.
Identify Target Clients Within Your Market
Once you’ve figured out the type of photography you want to do, it’s time to put together a list of potential paying clients with the intention of calling them for work. For me, once I decided that I wanted to work in the luxury wrist watch industry, the list of potential customers practically wrote it self – watch manufacturers, ad agencies, watch retailers, trade journals covering the industry – I just kept writing names of places that I could think of that pay for the type of photography I wanted to do. The clearer you can be about your chosen area, the more obvious the target client list becomes.
The next step is to identify the users of your service within your target clients; having a great and long list of potential client companies won’t help if you don’t know who to talk to inside the company. This part is often challenging because sometimes people you really need to talk to are not only tough to identify, but are also well shielded from “outside contact.”
Often it will require creativity to figure out the name of the person you need to contact as well as polite persistence in reaching that person. It will also require a degree of discipline – the discipline to pull away from playing with the newest update to Photoshop and make the actual calls and send the e-mails it takes to win the business you’re seeking. This is the part of the process which, in my experience, is least compatible with they typical photographer’s personality. It’s the main reason why I’m more successful than others at winning paying work, leaving far more talented folks relegated to the annals of anonymity, with their only paying work requiring them to say “Would you like fries with that?”
Using some good contact management software can go a long way to building in some what I like to call “automatic discipline.” I like to use Microsoft Outlook (just about everyone has this on their computer) to create a database of contacts, note any efforts I’ve made to market to them, note any conversations we’ve had, and most importantly, when I should follow up and contact them again. Once done, I don’t have to think about calling or e-mailing that person again – Outlook just pops up and tells me who I need to contact and why when its time to do so. If you don’t know how to use this functionality within Outlook, there are plenty of inexpensive books and free online resources to help tune up your skills in this regard. Of course, there are 1,000 other contact management tools out there that you can use – just make sure you use something.
Think Like A Business Person
I don’t care who you are or what type of photography you do – the only reason someone will buy your photos or use your services is because they think they will make money doing it. So if you’re trying to present yourself and your portfolio to a contact at a potential client, put some thought into the business questions they’ll be asking as they evaluate you and your work: What is the value of these photos/services to my business? Will this help me maintain and grow my clients? What’s going to be my return on investment (MBA types call this ROI) for this expenditure? What is the value of this expenditure relative to other choices in the marketplace? If you can satisfactorily answer some of these questions in your initial proposal to whomever your end client is, you’ll be head and shoulders above your competition and well on your way to winning the business.
Learn How To Live With Rejection
You’ve probably heard this before, but the point bears repeating: You’ll hear many, many more “no’s” than you will ever hear “yes.” For many photographers, it’s really, really tough to hear things like “we’re not hiring” or “we don’t need you right now” or “you’re not what we’re looking for” or any other of a thousand forms of the word “no.” Worse yet, in many cases you don’t hear anything at all – you leave several voicemails, send several e-mails, and never to even get a courtesy response acknowledging your efforts to make contact. It’s frustrating – believe me, I know. For every job I get, there are at least 10 others I tried for and didn’t get. And for every job I do get, it’s only after being politely persistent over time.
Try not to get too frustrated with the person you’re leaving e-mails and messages with – a little compassion will go a long way. In most cases, they aren’t intentionally ignoring you. It’s just that they have far more demands on their time than hours in the day. It may take a consistent stream of phone calls, voicemails and e-mails to try to catch your target at the right time. At the same time, don’t be apprehensive about making multiple attempts to contact someone. Remember, it’s their job to talk to you – to listen to proposals like yours which could be of tremendous value to whatever organization your target contact represents.
In closing, the reason why you’re reading this article is because I was politely persistent with the editors of this magazine. I came up with a concept which is of core concern to their subscriber base (i.e. their clients), presented my concept in a professional manner and regularly followed up with my target contact until I was given the green light to produce this article. It wasn’t rocket science and neither are any of the tips and techniques I illustrate. But successful sales executives use these same fundamental principles every day. To be a successful photographer, you have to sell yourself like a pro.
December 1st, 2008 by digital photographer Posted in Articles, How-To
by Theano Nikitas
What you’ll need: Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 ($99.99). For more information, go to www.adobe.com.
Black and white photography has been rapidly gaining popularity in the digital world in part because inkjet printers and papers can now produce excellent monochrome prints. At the same time, software manufacturers like Adobe are implementing improved black and white conversion features providing photographers with the tools to more easily create beautiful fine art prints, elegant portraits and stunning landscapes.
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August 1st, 2008 by Digital Photographer Posted in Articles, How-To
by Clive Branson
What’s so difficult about making a portrait? Just aim a camera and click. Simple, right? But how do you accomplish a great portrait? An image that breathes life. As a photographer, all our problems would be solved if we could simply ask, “Please move into a wonderful light and do something beautiful, meaningful and original,” but things just don’t work that way. In order to deal with real-life scenarios, I have listed below some tips that I believe will help making your portraiture a much easier task.
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