A rose by any other name
I took this “grab-shot” at the Kodiak Gallery the other day with a Canon 7D and 50mm f/1.4 lens:
Canon 7D, 50mm f/1.4 at f/1.4, 1/250th sec, 800 ISO
This shows that with the right lens, you do not need flash. You also do not need a macro lens every time. You can use what you have, if you keep your eyes open.
Also note:
- The secondary subject blurred in the background
- I used exposure compensation (+) to ensure the white background showed as white, not gray
- I am not afraid to go to 800 ISO or beyond to get the right fast shutter speed.
- I am using off-centre composition, rather than Uncle Fred’s “subject in the middle”
Simple. Just keep your eyes open.
Architecture tip
When you shoot architecture and you want a straight photo, with no distortion, like this:
…then you need to do the following:
- Step back. Way back.
- Use a long telephoto lens.
- Do not aim up or down: keep the lens parallel to the ground.
- Consider using a tripod if the lens length is long.
You will now get an “undistorted” picture where the background is enlarged and drawn in to the subject.
Tilt chair
No, not the chair – what I mean is, I tilted this to get the chair in:
Dutch Angle, they call it. Hollywood term, mispronunciation of “Deutsch” – i.e. German.
As I have mentioned before, I tend to use angles for four different reasons:
- To add dramatic interest
- To add energy, dynamic motion.
- To make diagonals horizontal or vertical.
- To fit it all into the picture.
Don’t discount that last reason. People will assume I was being creative, but often I just want to fit it in. And -depending, of course, on the subject- that suits me fine. I once heard Peter Power, one of Canada’s premier photojournalists, say the same at a workshop I took. I agreed then, and I still agree!
And sometimes you til because you can’t stand up straight:
Just kidding. Really.
Curves
Tip: always look for, and when you see them consider using, curves.
We like curves. While straight lines take us (and in the case of photos, our eyes) like a freeway to our destination, curves are more like a gentle river, or a winding mountain road, where it’s more about the trip than about getting there.
Imagine putting a bride on these stairs: wouldn’t that look good?
A few portrait pointers
Today, a few quick portrait pointers.
Here’s a picture from a very recent portrait shoot:
Why did I shoot this the way I did? What went into the decisions? I thought it might be good to share some of my thoughts.
- I used a standard key/fill light arrangement, with the key light a small softbox aiming straight into the face, and the lower-powered fill light an umbrella-mounted flash on camera right.
- I ensured the positioning of the key light gave me a catch light in the eyes.
- I used a low-powered hair light in a snoot.
- I selected a dark background (grey paper) so that I could emphasise the subject.
- I used a background light with a Honl grid, so get that nice oval shaped light behind the girl.
- I also used a Honl gel from the “Hollywood” and “Autumn” sets. I chose the blue-ish colour for its subtlety and for the way it so nicely contrasts with the girl’s hair and skin colour.
- I took many pictures with the girl in many poses – mainly her own natural poses. Here, I particularly liked the S-curve in the pose and the triangular shapes in her legs. “S”-curves and triangles are good!
- Finally, the bit of the stool that is visible and lit provided balance with the other yellow colours.
Every shoot is different, but here you see some of the decisions that can go into a portrait.
Wide
What lens to put on your camera?
Sometimes it is difficult to decide. But sometimes it’s easy.
Social events are easy. When shooting such events, where there are people socializing, eating, drinking, I recommend a wide angle lens between at least 24 and 35mm “35mm equivalent” (greater range is ok of course).
Meaning that if you have a full frame camera, use a lens in that range. If, as is more likely, you have a crop camera like a Nikon D5000 or Canon Digital Rebel, you use a lens 50-60% smaller to give the same effect, i.e. a lens in the 16-24 range. Like a 17-40.
At yesterday night’s event with Wendel Clark, ex Leafs captain (below) I used a 16-35 wide angle zoom on my 1.3 crop camera (I used the new Canon 1D Mk IV).
I do this a lot, and so can you.
Remember to get close to people.
Another option is to use not a zoom, but a wide angle prime lens. On my full frame camera I use a 35mm f/1.4 lens quite often for these events.
The pictures that the three above are part of will be on Oakville.com in the next few days.
Moi, aujourd’hui.
Even in a snapshot, you want to;
- Avoid direct light (use reflected light instead).
- Use an off-centre composition (follow “the rule of thirds”).
- Blur the background, if the picture is a portrait.
- Straighten horizontal/vertical lines.
- Fill the frame.
If you do all that, your pictures will be better than Uncle Fred’s.
Hot stock tip
Nope – not for the stock market. I know little about it, and I suspect hat is because there is little to know (it is mainly randomness). No, I am talking about stock photography. What makes a successful stock picture?
You can define this in many ways, but I like the following way of explaining the needs of a good stock picture that feature a person. You know the type of image: happy business people shaking hands, happy business people smiling, that sort of thing.
Those images consist of four elements:
- Background: the non-distracting, simple, background and its contrast to the subject, its theme, and its colour,
- Person: the person, who is doing something (what?)
- Symbol: An icon, a thing that explains what this is about; tells us “where we are” (e.g. the businessman wielding a fountain pen as he is signing a contract)
- Involvement: the tying-together of the above.
That goes for stock photos, but it also goes for many other photos.
An exercise I recommend: run your recent photos of people by those rules, and ask yourself “how do they measure up? What is my background? What is my person doing? What is the symbol? What is the involvement of the person with the rest of the image? What could I have done differently, even better?” Frameworks like the list above help you do this in a repeatable way.
Juxtapositions
Are always good. And surprises. And reflections. And “filling the frame”.
Or all four, like in this picture from Nov. 2, which although it doesn’t work very well at small size, does illustrate the point. Do you like the CN Tower’s reflection?
Juxtapositions can be opposing colour. Or old/new. Ugly/beautiful.Large/small. Funny/serious. Curved/straight. Liberal/conservative. Traditional/modern. Fast/slow. Soft/hard. You get the picture.
Always carry your camera. This was a snap, taken handheld with the Canon 7D. From the car. Another example, of a similar subject:
Old/new immediately occurred to me.
-13C outside. Not a day for outdoors pictures. Back to watching TV and making an inventory of my memory cards.
See
It is easy enough to think “there is no interest here”, “I need to be in Tahiti to take nice pictures”.
Not so. You can take nice pictures everywhere, even of boring things around the house.
Think long lens, or think Macro (in Nikon terms, “Micro”) lens, perhaps. But open your eyes, get close and fill the frame, and have fun.
Home is where you live and what you do. Twenty years from now you will look at the pictures and remember with a smile.
As a photographer you should always remember that today is tomorrow’s “those were the days”.
Turn baby turn
One thing that snappers often ask me is “when do you turn your images”?
There is no one answer, but it is almost certainly “more often than you do”. I turn my picture diagonally when:
- I think it makes a nice composition
- I want to turn diagonals into horizontals and verticals
- I simply want to fit more in
- I want to introduce a more dynamic feel
Here’s a few recent examples:
So while for the sake of your viewers’ stomachs I would not recommend you turn for every picture, I do think we could all do this a lot more than we do today. For that professional look.. or just to get everything into the picture. Which still gives it that professional look.
Off-centre
When composing a picture, our proverbial Uncle Fred puts every subject in every picture smack bang in the middle.
Sometimes that works. But usually it leads to an unbalanced composition.
Like a scale with a pivot, I like to think as pictures needing the weight balanced. That leads more to this kind of thing (last week in Sedona, AZ):
The “Rule of Thirds” is one example of such a balanced layout. If you do not know this “rule” (which of course is only a guideline) then please look it up now. Or just click here. And you will conclude that of course I am using that rule in the photo above. I am also using colour contrasts and converging lines.
And all that in one hand from the steering seat of a Dodge Ram. You see, the point is that this is not a conscious decision. Good composition becomes second nature, an automatic reflex. With practice.
Here is another sample:
Another important thing is that any activity, motion, pointers, etc point into the middle. Not usually out of the frame.
Have fun shooting!
As you are reading this…
…I may well be on one of these:
A typical case of “fill the frame” composition. Remember Capa: “If your ictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough”.
In any case, I am flying back to Toronto via Calgary today.
Turn
This recent studio portrait I did of Robert the Real Estate Agent (see http://www.lofthunting.ca) neatly illustrates something: the importance of orientation.
Here’s the shot straight up:
And here, tilted slightly to the left:
Much more dynamic! Tilting, even slightly, gives pictures a dynamic feel.
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