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Portraits – don’t force it!

Some times I love taking portraits, and some times I hate it! I am a candid type for portraits – but there tends to be one problem! Everyone wants to stop and look at the camera, and generally with a silly look, or his or her best impression of "Blue steel" (you would have to see Zoolander for that reference). This can be both funny and frustrating!

Candid shots are about capturing that look immediately you see on your subjects face, but it tends to be wrecked as soon as they turn to look at the camera. Posed shots are a little different. You can put the people where you want, and hopefully capture the "look" you are going for. This may require taking a lot of shots.

If you want to practice using the rules for taking a good portrait, while thinking fast on our feet – trying taking some pictures of animals (your own dog or cat works fine!). The great thing with practicing on an animal is that you can’t really tell them to look a certain way, or stop and pose them. Well OK, you can try but since I have cats, I know I am not the boss in our particular relationship – so I shoot with what they give me. With practice, you can get some good shots. This helps with people – since the rules are the same. One caveat - the cat or dog you are shooting will not generally be inclined to bother with you while you take their picture, a person may suddenly notice and you may lose the shot. But practicing on animals gets you to think quickly on your foot – which is the first skill you will need for a good candid portrait.

Remember – in close-up portraits the eye should be in one of the pleasing composition spots and in focus! This is the important part here. Your eye is trained to look at someone else’s eye. An eye not in focus, even with good composition, will make the shot look off. There is an explanation about composition in previous posts.

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Creative control – manual mode

I don’t shoot in any other mode than manual. It takes a few seconds longer, and you definitely need to think on your feet. But as soon as I practiced a little, using manual mode, I found the creative control I had was exactly what I had wanted. If you are unsure of what your camera can do, or aren’t comfortable shooting in manual yet – find out your camera’s powers. Or you can just begin experimenting! Some people learn best by doing – others by reading. If you know your style use it to your advantage. But, in the end, you will need to go out there and take as many pictures as you can. Manual mode puts you back in control. The pictures you take are yours. Your camera shouldn’t control the pictures you take. Remember – you are the photographer!

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One, two or three!

Another great tip I learned is take more than one picture of the same subject. For those of you shooting in digital, this is probably second nature. But for those shooting in film, we tend to want to conserve. Hey! We only have a set number of shots on our rolls! But if you have a great landscape picture you want to take, or a great detail you see that caught your eye – take more than one. If it is something you really want to capture because you think it is simply beautiful – the best bet to ensure that it comes out as perfectly as you see it, take one, two or three pics! I suggest trying different angles, horizontal and vertical shots, or different focal points when shooting that photograph. The times I took the chance to snap off of few more pictures than I had thought I needed, the second or third picture ended up being the best one – and sometimes it was a totally different shot than I had at first thought would be pleasing.

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Shooting black and white

A good tip for shooting black and white, that I tend to forget on low light or very bright days, is the fact that your shadows in the picture will be much darker than you see then while you shoot. If your purpose of your picture is to capture the contrast, then in general this should not be a problem. Shooting black and white requires a bit of a learned reflex – shadows are darker than they appear, and bright blue sky will be washed out. On an overcast day where light is more diffuse, your shots should come out great. I have had some pictures I thought would be super turn out scary looking because I forgot the light / dark aspects of shooting in black and white. Once I had found a cool looking little alley while I was in a citadel in Corsica. It was a beautiful day, really sunny. I got the picture back and it was a blown out sky, and a scary, dark, murderous alley. Not what I had wanted at all! If you love shooting black and white as much as I do, I know a few mess-ups won’t stop you. But to maximize your "oopps" pictures, and produce the best photographs you can – remember shadows and a bright sky will be respectively darker, and much lighter than what you had seen through your viewfinder.

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A simple question.

The first question you should ask yourself before you shoot is - what am I taking a picture of? When you slow down at take a moment to get your mind into the shot, it is much easier to compose a good picture, focus properly on the subject and ensure the lighting is good. Mindlessly snapping pictures can be therapeutic, but won’t necessarily guarantee a good photograph. When I started taking pictures, this is the question I forced myself to ask every time. I would see something great, and want to take a picture of it, but before I asked myself this simple question – the prints I got back were lifeless, or out of focus, or obviously rushed. I personally hate rushing to take a picture. True, I can be a right pain on vacation when I am taking super long to take a good picture – buy hey! no one complains when there are super pics when we get home :D This simple question can help slow down the mind, and help you focus on your subject, and fine tune your intent to take a good picture. So, next time you are out taking some pictures, and feel you are rushing – slow down and ask yourself – what is this picture about?

Gentry Magazine September 2007: Focus on Beauty Photo-Essay

The following post was kindly submitted by Marc Silber from his photography blog (go to it here http://www.silberstudios.com/)

Absolutely gorgeous! There photographs are truly about simple beauty. Thanks again to Marc.

Amateur photography: the basics

In this post I will go over the basics for taking a good picture. The basics are lighting, focus and composition.

Lighting.

The first thing I learned about taking a good picture was to use ambient lighting. For those using a SLR (single-lens reflex) you can choose to use the camera in various settings – and you can turn off your flash. That was the first thing I did – turned off the flash and set my camera to manual mode.

Now, manual mode it a little trickier to work with than the basic portrait, landscape, sport/ action etc settings that are usually built in to the camera because you will have to find the best shutter speed and aperture value. Imagine this – to take a good picture think of each exposure like a glass of water. Your camera is a pitcher of water – you can have a small or large spout (aperture value) and you can pour the water quickly or really slowly (shutter speed) – but the main point here is the glass must be full to take a good picture.

Shutter speed and aperture value control your lighting requirements. A quick shutter speed is good to capture fast movement – for those stop action type of shots. A slow shutter speed can be used to create blur on the photograph, and is best used with a tripod – you will get camera shake in the photograph otherwise (unless, that is what you want!!). A good tip is any speed under 1/60th of a second will cause camera shake (or 60 shutter speed on your display for your SLR). For the typical SLR you can set shutter speed priority, and your camera will pick the best aperture value (to fill the glass). This is good if you know ahead of time if you want a long exposure (say night shots) or quick exposure to capture someone jumping in the air (obviously great for sports shots).

You can also choose aperture value (the spout size on our water pitcher) priority. Aperture value is used to control depth of field. Depth of field is the distance beyond the subject in focus. For close-ups, a small aperture value will bring the subject in focus, and the background will be blurry. For larger aperture values the foreground and background will be in focus – this is best for scenery or landscape shots.

If you are in a low lighting setting – such as inside a house, it is best to either 1) set your camera to aperture value priority or 2) go manual. If you have a window with some good light, turn of the flash, put your back to the window / light source and shoot! If you still find you don’t have enough light, your trusty tripod (or very stable surface) will do the trick (remember, under shutter speed 60, camera shake will be present in your picture!). You will find that shots without flash are far more flattering for most subjects, especially people. Flash, in general, creates shadows (or not enough shadow) that they brain / eye are not used to seeing, and this makes the harsh, unflattering look most people are used to seeing. So turn off the flash, play with the shutter speed and aperture value – experiment with lighting!! This is the first step to taking better pictures.

The picture below breaks the rules of focus, but has proper composition. This is what I call my "artistic" pictures. I used a large aperture value, and the corresponding shutter speed (which was a slower shutter speed) - this shot needed a tripod.

Focus and composition.

The next step to taking a good picture is about focus and composition. For those that are used to working in the “point and shoot” mode of their camera probably don’t have a problem keeping their subjects in focus. But using this mode is very difficult to have true creative control over the look and feel of your pictures. For those who are starting out experimenting in other modes, like manual, shutter speed priority, or aperture value priority – the difference between a good picture and a great picture is focus and composition.

Focus.

Put the one detail, or interesting element of your picture in focus. Seriously – take your time to do this, especially in manual. I hate getting my prints back, and seeing a shot that could have been great turn out so-so because the subject was just off with the focus. In this photo, I wanted to focus on the broken chair – and just happened to get that cute look on her face when I snapped the shot. This would have been a significantly better shot had she been in focus – the eye would have been drawn to the background to see the broken chair, and the pic would have told a story. So this shot is cute, not perfect – with some room for improvement.

Composition.

Composition is the make or break element of a good picture. I have gone over the basic elements of composition in a past post, but here I want to go over the finer details. The photograph below shows the 3x3 grid. The yellow circles are the best places to put your subject (in focus!). Along on the red lines is also a good place to place your subject, especially if it follows the lines (in general). For portraits, putting your subjects eye (in focus!) at one of the yellow circles generally leads to better composition. The square dead center of the grid is not the best place to put your subject – the picture may come out feeling flat, without movement and that it doesn’t really tell a story. Composition will take a little more work than picking a shutter speed, and keeping your subject in focus. This is where your unique style will come out, and what types of shots, and how you place them will soon become evident to you. This is the area where you should experiment – your creative spirit is there, use it!!!

My last tip for the amateur photographer is…

Take a chance!!

Here is the time to get creative. Take unusual shots. Take shots using the “rules” then take shots breaking all of them! Your creativity will flow once you give it a chance. And speaking of taking a chance, once you have mastered some of these skills, and you have produced some shots you like – why not go to a local art store and show the owner your prints?? You could be the next local artist with your photographs displayed in his window! But if that is not your style, and your work is, well, for you – then take the time to enjoy it. Someone very wise once told me – if you like your work, then who cares if someone else doesn’t? If you have a passion for photography, and you produce something you like and are proud of – put your prints on your walls, and enjoy it. Someone who is truly passionate will take pictures just for the sake of taking pictures – go ahead and put your heart into your work, in the end, it is for you to enjoy! The best part of being an amateur photographer is the fact that you don’t need to rely on your work to bring you income, and can love photography for your own reasons. You can take your time with your shots, experiment, and be as creative as you would like. If you can sell some of your work to a small art dealer that is icing on the cake to the amateur photographer, since there is no real pressure to make money off your favourite hobby.

To recap:

Try different shutter speeds and aperture values to control the lighting effects in your pictures. A slow shutter speed will require a stable surface! Aperture value will change the depth of field – is your shot a landscape or close-up? Remember, these elements are the pitcher of water – in the end the glass (your pic) must be full!! Keep your subject in focus, and use the focal points for a pleasing picture. And finally – experiment and take a chance on your work! If you really like your work, I bet there is someone else out there that will too :D

Have fun!