It's Not ONLY About the Camera

One of the things that I hear people talk about all the time is the only way to take great photos is to use an expensive camera. Although having a good camera can help with taking good photos, it’s not the only piece that makes for a great image, as a matter of fact, it’s not even the most important part.

“The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it.” – Ansel Adams. This quote is more true than most people realize, the key to making great images is not the camera, it’s the person operating the camera. In this tech intensive world too many times people put the emphasis on the technology and not the person working with it.

You the artist are the most important part of making any great image and the sooner you figure that out, the better off you’ll be. The human eye can see things that the camera cannot and the human imagination can visualize the scene a certain way. What we do with the camera is try to translate what we see and feel into a timeless moment that others can share when they view the finished product.

                                              iPhone 5S shot using 645Pro MKII app

I do have a small arsenal of cameras that I use, anything from a GoPro Hero3+, to my Sony NEX6, to my iPhone 6 Plus, to the Canon 50D, 1D Mark II and my 5D Full frame. All of these are just tools, these are my paint brushes if you will, but they cannot make a great image on their own. I am the one that sees the scene, the image in my mind and what the final product will look like, the cameras can do none of this.

One of the things that Damon Sauer and Ted Fisher talked about this past week on the Photo Live: Get Technical was proper exposure, making sure you have the right pieces of the ‘Holy Trinity’ in photography. The shutter speed, aperture and ISO are how we make the exposure the way it is supposed to be to make the statement we want.

                                      Bumble bee on a flower, shot using NEX6 w EF-S 60mm

As I shared during this Live event, the one thing I do all the time is shoot 2 1/3 ticks below my camera meters ‘perfect’ exposure point. I do this because when I do my post production, I want to manipulate the Highlights and Shadows to bring out more details in my finished image. But again, this is a PERSONAL preference and not something the camera can do on it’s own. My cameras are tool, they do not have a mind of their own, they don’t have an imagination and they cannot visualize the finished product, only I can do that.

In this week’s article I shared two images that I shot earlier this year. The first one I took with my iPhone 5S after a co-worker told me that you cannot take a great photo with a smartphone. The second is one I took of a bumble bee on a flower bush in front of my home. I shot that one with a mis-matched set up. I used my Sony NEX6 with my Canon EF-S 60mm F/2.8 Macro lens. Both of these images help to prove my point, it’s more about you than the camera.

Comments/Questions

Night Portraits

   Since photography is literally “painting with light”, one of the greatest challenges in photography is having enough light to do your work. Many photographers buy cameras especially made for high ISO with low noise like the newer Nikons. Other photographers learn and hone their skills using off camera flash like Canon or Nikon Speedlights and still others just avoid shooting in low light situations all together.

    I am personally the kind of photographer who is not afraid of new challenges and always willing to try something new and leave my comfort zone. Yesterday I went out and shot for my personal project as well as my Professional Portfolio class. In the evening, I met with my new photo club to shoot Christmas lights in Conyers, Ga. I have not done a lot of night shooting other than night time long exposures but wanted to try something new, so in addition to shooting Christmas lights around the city, I played around with some night portraits.

    I used one of the clubs member’s son, who was with us and frequently becomes his mom’s modeling guinea pig and made him my victim as well. I did two portraits of him standing in a partially lit alley with only a street light above him and using my iPhone 6 Plus on “torch” mode with it’s LED flash on continuous as a catch/fill light. I am posting them here in both color and B&W as I think the image works either way. I am not saying they are perfect, but I think they turned out pretty good for a first time trying this.

    The point is, in order to grow as a photographer, we need to be willing to try new things and get out of our comfort zone. I know you’ve heard your professors tell you that a time or three and it’s true. To really grow and perfect your skills as a professional, you have to try, practice and experiment. Now get out there and make some awesome photos!
Comments/Questions

Best Places to Buy Photography Gear on a Budget

Frequently I hear students say that they don’t have much in the way of photography gear due to cost of ownership. It is true that photography gear is not cheap, unless it’s cheap quality and hence gives cheap results. I’ve had quite a few students ask me how I have acquired so much gear in the last 18 months and I tell them all the same thing, you have to know how to find the deals.

1. Craigslist - Craigslist can be one of the best places to get a good deal on most anything, especially camera gear and lenses. I have bought numerous pieces of gear on this site, but you have to watch out for scammers and always meet people in public places like a coffee shop or store parking lot during the day.

2. eBay - eBay is handy for buying items too as you can find more sellers on there since they are world wide. The problem is you also run into more scammers. Also since you are buying on-line, there is no way to check out the item in person and you can get burned.

3. Pawn Shops - Pawn Shops are a great place to buy used gear and they often have no clue what they have. A person goes into a Pawn Shop to pawn their gear and the shop looks at what the gear sells for on eBay and then offers the seller like 25% of the actual value. If the person forfeits and the Pawn Shop can then sell the item, it is usually months later and the shop doesn’t really keep track of the value, they just price it to make a profit.

4. Local photography clubs - Often times you can find local photography clubs and there will be members selling gear from time to time.

5. Warehouse stores - Another good place are warehouse stores like Sam’s or Costco. Here you are buying new and getting a warranty and you get the better pricing offered by someone that can leverage volume pricing.

6. Amazon - Amazon is another great place to get camera gear and anything else. They have a wide selection of lenses from Canon’s FD to EF and Nikon, Sony and others as well.

                                          70-200mm F/4 L USM and 70-300mm IS USM

    The big thing to remember buying used gear is that you can get burned if not careful. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is but sometimes you do get lucky and the person has no idea what they are selling. I personally bought a Canon EF 70-300mm IS USM lens at a local pawn store for $200 in mint condition. This lens new retails for $900. I also bought a Manfrotto tripod at the same store for $50 and it was missing the release plate that attaches to the camera. I bought a  new plate for $7 on Amazon, the tripod with the fluid movement head turned out to be worth $500. Just remember, if you buy used, test it good before you part with your hard earned money. Meet them somewhere public for safety and test the lens or whatever it is on your own camera body to make sure it is fully operational, NEVER take the seller’s word for it.

    Good luck with buying more gear and get out there and make some awesome images!

Comments/Questions

Backup Workflow for Photographers.

Backup, backup, backup. I know that we all know these words and think about them from time to time, but how many of us really have a solid backup solution for our digital files. The honest truth is that a drive will go bad, they are not designed to last forever and if you are just editing and storing your images on one drive you are asking for trouble. You should always be looking for ways to safeguard clients important images. After all you are getting paid to produce them so you certainly don’t want to loose any of them.

            So the best practice is for you to keep 3 copies of your files. This way you have 2 copies onsite and one copy offsite. It is very important to have the offsite copy in case of fire floods or theft. And when referring to a offsite location it should be 50+ miles from your location because if you flood out most likely everything near by will be doing the same. For some it might not be feasible to keep a drive 50miles from their location so in this case I would recommend using cloud based services though they do cost yearly to have and use.

            My Workflow is to upload my files directly onto my external drive, from there I copy them to a second external drive. I don’t really have a place to keep an offsite external drive so I use a cloud based service for my third copy. By having 3 copies of all your RAW files you can be assured that you will not loose your customers flies and that can be extremely important.

            I personally use Seagate drives but you may find one that you like better. I don’t really think that there is a wrong solution just as long as you have one in place. When looking into the cloud based services I would make sure that you shop around on them because some are unlimited files including RAWs and some are jpg only. They also charge different fees depending how much space you need. When you first start up a cloud service be ready to spend hours if not days awaiting all your files to upload to the cloud. When buying external drives I wouldn’t buy them any larger then what you think you will shoot in a year. This way though you have to keep buying new ones each year they are always fresh and shouldn’t break down.

Backup Work Flow:

Example 1 Main Drive  --  Backup Drive1 – Backup drive 2A  -- Backup Drive 2B

Example 2 Main Drive – Backup Drive  -- Cloud

Seagate Drive 2014

My Time to Bid Farewell

It has been a long journey, full of triumphs and frustrations, but well worth my time and energy.  I have told the story many times that before I began the Photography program knowing next to nothing about the field only that I loved taking photographs and my dream job was to one day be a National Geographic photographer.  I may not be a published photographer yet but it is certainly in my future because I know that I have the determination, ambition, and talent to achieve my dreams.  It's going to take a lot of hard work and time, but over these last two and a half years I have understood all-the-more that hard work pays off.  

A lot has changed since I started school.  For the longest time I was decidedly a Nature photographer but through the experiences that each class and each assignment had presented me with I was able to explore my strengths and weaknesses as a photographer--not something you can easily do by learning to be a photographer by watching YouTube videos.  I still love Nature photography but I now call myself an Editorial photographer.  My goal is still to one day work for National Geographic but in the meantime I plan on working for smaller publications to get more experience, continue building my portfolio, and also build a reputation and credibility as an established professional.   

These things took two and a half years to cultivate.  My plans may change tomorrow but that's ok because in photography we never stop learning.  I had no idea what it took to be a successful professional.  Now I know that it is a lot harder than it looks and I have a more profound respect for those who have achieved success in the field.  Here are some of the best personal tid-bits that I picked up while attending the Art Institute of Pittsburgh - Online Division:

My historic photographer counterpart is Eugene Atget.  

During Photo History we were presented with the notion that we are all inspired by someone from history but at the time I had actually never even heard of Ansel Adams.  I thought this was ridiculous because I didn't have any knowledge of photographers whom I might be imitating.  Through more research and study I found a photographer that struck me as so familiar in style and aesthetic and it was Atget.

You cannot teach passion or curiosity.

It has to come from within.  Instructors cannot instill these attributes.  If you do not have the passion for photography you will not learn how to be passionate about it.  The same goes with curiosity.  If you do not have natural wonder you cannot be taught how to derive a deeper inquisition.

Your demonstrated time management says a lot about your personal character.

I was only ever late ONCE.  It was a response to one of my peers almost two years ago but I have never forgotten.  It is disrespectful and negligent to wait until the last minute to post assignments and/or responses.  If, and inevitably when, something goes wrong you suddenly have excuses for your late post but ultimately you cannot blame anyone or anything but yourself for being a procrastinator.  Stop waiting until the last minute because it's not just instructors who notice and classmates like me, it's your employers, clients, and future clientele who are going to see how you not only manage your time but their time and yourself as a professional.

I am going to miss school but I am looking forward to stepping out on my own with the knowledge I have gained and show the world what a great photographer I am and will be.  Its been a pleasure meeting and working with you all.  Best wishes in your futures!

Works Cited

Atget, Eugène. "(1856-1927), Stubborn horse, 1898, France." Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest. Web. 1 Dec 2014. 

<http://quest.eb.com/#/search/170_2983546/1/170_2983546/cite>

Atget, Eugene. "Chatillon, glycine, 1919." Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest. Web. 1 Dec 2014. 

<http://quest.eb.com/#/search/109_165072/1/109_165072/cite>

Atget, Eugene. "Saint-Cloud, 1924." Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest. Web. 1 Dec 2014. 

<http://quest.eb.com/#/search/109_165412/1/109_165412/cite>

Atget, Eugene. "Verrieres, coin...1922." Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest. Web. 1 Dec 2014. 

<http://quest.eb.com/#/search/109_165097/1/109_165097/cite>

The End is Near but it's Far from Over

As I approach the final week of school I am realizing how important some elements of these classes are in preparing us to be released into the wild, to make the transition from student to professional.

In the early stages of school I wanted to be a "well-rounded photographer" who was capable of photographing anything and everything so that I could appeal to more clients.  There are classes that force us to choose one specific area of interest and however frustrating it may seem to settle into one niche, it does make putting together your portfolio as well as learning how to talk about yourself as a professional easier.  Having more work and experience in a certain area of photography still allows you creative freedom while you build a larger collection of images.  

My newly-developed area of interest, Editorial photography, was actually a lot easier to put together into a portfolio than it was when I called myself a Nature photographer because the Photography program allowed me to explore other areas of the field that I would otherwise not get to try in the real world.  I found comfort in nature but found my calling doing environmental portraits and photo stories from the assignments I shot for class as well as for myself.

You may be taking classes that you have no interest in but you will also have classes that inspire you.  I had my fair share of snooze-worthy classes but I also had a handful that really opened my eyes to my own skills and talents as well as one special instructor who inspired me to pursue the editorial genre.  Accept challenges as opportunities to grow, ask questions for better comprehension, and never stop shooting what you are passionate about.  

I recently had an assignment where I was required to use my strobes--I haven't used those in months so I was both dreading and looking forward to packing up my studio and doing an on-location shoot.  I was anxious because I had no idea what the location was going to look like but I definitely knew how to use my lights.  I actually felt confident going in to the shoot--something I had never really felt before when I did any portraiture.  At the end of the program it feels good to finally have confidence, but it feels even better knowing I worked hard to get where I am.  None of it came easy, not even this last class where I felt more frustrated and misunderstood than I ever have before, but I am proud that I never gave up.  I didn't have the extra time to work on my projects as I have in the past, but every time I do a photo shoot I find myself saying, "I love my job!"

Next week will be my goodbye post, but in the meantime you can check out my Web portfolio here.  

What classes have inspired you?  Tell me in the comments or share a story about how you have developed as a photographer since you started school!

(All photos in this post are my own.)

Personal Projects

   As photographers, we must always strive to find ways to keep from falling into a rut, creatively. We have to always be creative and imaginative in our work in order to make our clients happy. Over time you may find that you have lost that “spark” and photography is starting to feel too much like a job rather than someone you loved that you went to school to get paid for.

                                              old phone booth in Lincoln County, Ga

    A good way to stay “fresh” as a photographer and artist and keep your passion alive is with personal projects. Personal projects are photography projects that you come up with that are mostly for fun and to keep the spark ignited, but can also serve a purpose such as raising social awareness. I personally recommend and I know many of our professors so as well, that you always have one or two “pet” projects on the back burner, that you work on when you have time.

    Over time, becoming established as a professional photographer, you may even be commissioned by a client to do a photography project, such as the one Time Magazine sent Ed Kashi on, photographing the incoming Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey with nothing but an iPhone.

                                            from Ed Kashi's project on Super Storm Sandy

    For me personally, I am working on a personal project right now I call Forgotten Pieces of Georgia. For my project, I am traveling the back roads of Georgia, shooting old buildings, rusted old vehicles and the like and talking to people as I go to get more information about their area and the way it’s  been devastated by the poor economy. The project will take considerable time and effort as I am shooting in all 159 counties of Georgia, but yours doesn’t have to be as massive an undertaking. I am including a couple of shot from my project for inspiration as well as one of Ed’s from the Super Storm Sandy project he did for Time.

                                            abandoned Citgo station in Lincoln County, Ga

    So, think of a personal project that you would love to do, and just do it. You may not be able to devote all your time and energy to it as other things get in the way, but you can at least set some time aside every month to make some progress. Now get out there and shoot!


Source:
6 Famous Photographers Working on Epic Projects, Photoventure. Web. visited Nov 23, 2014 http://www.photoventure.com/2013/03/01/6-famous-photographers-working-on-epic-photo-projects/



Comments/Questions

Which Lenses are Better, Primes or Zooms?

    Another question I have frequently asked by other students and even members of my photography club is which lens is better, Primes or Zooms?

    This is an interesting question and can stir some debate. Primes are lenses with a fixed focal length, such as the Canon 40mm STM Pancake lens or the Canon or Nikon 50mm lenses, known as the “Nifty Fifty”. These lenses are not able to zoom in and out but they are extremely power lenses to have.

    Advantages of the Primes is they will be of a wider aperture than the zooms. My 40mm lens is F/2.8 and my 50mm is F/1.4, with the wider aperture, I can use these lenses in much lower light levels than I can say my 28-135mm F/3.5-5.6 lens, which covers the same two focal lengths. There are today zooms than can do F/2.8 but they are very expensive and I don’t want to get off track here.

    The other difference with Primes is, since they have a fixed focal length you have to get closer when shooting something. A lot of photographers like to use the “Nifty Fifty” for portraits, but you cannot shoot a portrait of someone from 10-12 feet with a 50mm as you will pick up too much background. Move in to around 3-6 feet and you will get a great portrait, depending on the style you are shooting for. The Prime lens will generally have a sharper focus to it, even at the wide end of it’s aperture and will cost a lot less money than a zoom.

                                    My mailbox shot with the 40mm STM from around 2-3 feet

    Zooms do have their places, however, such as shooting at an outdoor event like a concert or fair where you cannot always get close to your subject and really need or want to get the shot. In these situations, yes it’s great to have that handy telephoto zoom lens to get in nice and tight to the subject without risking yourself or interfering with anyone else, say law enforcement at an accident scene. Zooms have come a long way and like a said, a nice 70-200mm F/2.8 is one of the most popular lens from both Canon and Nikon, but it’s also got a hefty price of up to $2,500 where you can get a good prime generally for $140-$700.

                           My mailbox shot with the Canon 70-200mm F/4 L USM from around 20 feet

    So, do both lenses have a place in your camera bag, absolutely, and as a general rule, my Primes and Zooms will usually sit in the bag peacefully without fighting too much. I do challenge you to use your primes more, many photographers tend to get lazy or they are shy and don’t want to get close to their subjects. I encourage you to break out of this mode of thinking and get close to your subjects, as long as you can do so without getting hurt or killed in the process. I’m not telling you to walk up to the lion at the zoo and get in his face with your 50mm, but next time you are shooting people, say on the street, use that 50mm and get up close and personal.


Comments/Questions

5 Ways to Honor Veterans with Your Photography

There are special times of the year in which we can challenge ourselves to go out and do some good with our photography; this Veteran's Day is a great opportunity to shoot with some extra purpose.  With over 23 million veterans in the United States, there is a very good chance that you might know a veteran, have one living on your street, or have a Veteran's Day celebration of some sort in your town.  Below are five ways to give back to the brave men and women who served, fought, and sacrificed for our freedoms.

1.  Document a Veteran's Ceremony.

Documentary-style photography doesn't have to be your niche to take good photos for a good cause.  Towns big and small will have concerts, flag ceremonies, speeches, and parades from veterans that beg to be documented.  Consider attending an event with your camera and capturing those special moments, then offer the photos to the organizations or people you meet as a way of showing your support and/or appreciation.

2.  Shoot family photos for a veteran's family.

If you know a veteran or someone who is currently serving in any branch of the military, ask if you can shoot a free family session as a promo for Veterans Day.  Family photos are precious items for most people, especially those who are far from home, who may be deploying soon, or perhaps those with a long lineage of military service.  You don't have to schedule the shoot for November 11th, but you can introduce the promo and schedule a shoot when it is convenient for all parties.

3. Visit an army hospital, convalescent home or homeless shelter.

There’s a good chance you’ll meet at least one veteran in a recovery home with a military buildup around WWII and the Korean war.  Arrange to visit one of these places that take care of veterans and take your camera.  Listen to veteran’s stories and take their portraits to remember their stories.  It is unfortunate that many of our veterans end up in places like this without family and your company and attentive ear has the power to make a huge difference in their day of celebration.











4. Take photos of your hometown.

Take landscape photos of notable spots in your hometown and make them into cards to send to a veteran serving from your area.  There’s a good chance that with so many people currently in the military, some of them are bound to be from your hometown and having a photo of home could hold a lot of sentimental value to someone who is serving far away from home.  If you don't know of anyone to send these to you find an organization that pairs up service members with people who want to send encouraging notes such as USO's, VFW's, American Legions, and MWR's.

5. Volunteer with an organization.

Many non-profit organizations serve veterans and their families and often these organizations often need or could greatly benefit from photography to help further their mission and raise awareness for the people that they are serving.  Consider reaching out to an organization in your area to volunteer your services for a good cause.  It doesn't even have to be photography-related but will look good as a donation of your time that you can promote on your business site.


Do you have any other suggestions for honoring our veterans with photography?  Post a comment below or if you get the chance to try out one of these five suggestions I would love to see the resulting images!  Here is one of my own:

Works Cited

Donner, Nicholas. "5 Ways to Honor Veterans with Your Photography." craftsy. Craftsy and Sympoz Inc., 10 Nov. 2014. Web. 10 Nov. 2014. <http://www.craftsy.com/blog/?p=126291&ext=FB_PC_PP_Registrations_20141108_blog_26&utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social%20Engagement&utm_campaign=Photography%20Club-Registrations&initialPage=true>

"Flags and Tombstones." Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest. Web. 10 Nov 2014.
<http://quest.eb.com/#/search/139_1992968/1/139_1992968/cite>

"Florida, Miami, Biscayne Boulevard, Bayfront Park, Veterans Day PARADE." Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest. Web. 10 Nov 2014.
<http://quest.eb.com/#/search/300_1821366/1/300_1821366/cite>

"Memorial Day Ceremony In Coconut Grove, Florida." Photographer. Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest. Web. 10 Nov 2014.
<http://quest.eb.com/#/search/115_2720589/1/115_2720589/cite>

Keeping Your DSLR Sensor Clean

    One of the biggest problems we face as photographers is keeping that DSLR sensor clean when shooting, especially when shooting outdoors. Your sensor is the primary component inside your camera for capturing and preserving those moments to the memory card and needs to always be in the best possible condition and clean to take great photos. Dirt, dust, oils and general grime on the sensor will show up on your images and make them look badly such as the example below from The Digital picture.com

    Those two spots you see are from sensor dust and they are imbedded in your image. Now you can remove them using Photoshop, Lightroom and some other editing programs, but why not prevent them all together? I am going to give you some tips for keeping the dust and dirt out of your sensor.

Never touch the inside of your DSLR, especially with you fingers. The internal workings behind your lens are not meant for your fingers so, keep them out!
Only change your lens in a semi controlled environment. What I mean by this is don’t change your lenses outdoors in 35mph winds as you are just asking for sensor dirt.
Keep your camera pointed down when changing lenses. I am not sure why so many people don’t get this one. Holding the camera with the opening facing forward or up just invites the dirt in, holding it down makes it harder for it to get in.
Never change the lens with the camera powered on. Will it ruin your camera to do so, no but it will keep a static charge inside the shutter area and allow dust to be drawn to your sensor like a magnet.
   
    I have found, one of the easiest ways to keep my sensor clean is just limit how often I change lenses. I never change them outdoors if I can help it. I carry 2-3 bodies when I am shooting outdoors and I equip one body with a wide angle lens for landscapes, the second one will have a portrait lens of some sort for capturing people and my third will have a nice telephoto zoom for anything else I might need to shoot. Now I know you are thinking “I’m not rich enough to afford 2-3 camera bodies.” You’d be surprised the deals you can find at local pawn shops or yard sales, often people don’t realize what they have and will sell the bodies cheap. Also, who says you need the latest, most expensive body out there. Instead of buying one $1,000-$3,000 body, use that money to buy 2-3 bodies that are cheaper because they are the older model, like getting a Canon 1Ds full frame for $500 that was made in 2004 but still shoots great, instead of the Canon 1Dx which runs $7,000. Too many people don’t seem to realize that it is not the camera that takes the great images, it’s the person behind it.
    Until next Sunday, this is the Sunday Ambassador saying get out there and make some great images!

Comments/Questions

Looking for and going to a Photo Expo near you.

Last week I went to the PhotoPlus Expo in NYC. It was a great experience getting to see all the different new products and even some of the old. It a good place to run into people you know or even make new friends. While you don't always have to spend money at the photo expo it is usually a good place to look for a deal. You can also bring your questions that you might have for the different products. When I went I had the intentions of buying a book bag to put my camera in because I have out grown the shoulder strap bag that came with the camera. I was able to walk around and look at all the different ones each company had and see what one had the best price.
          While the companies where offering a good price on some of them I was still able to purchase the bad cheaper with my student discount. It was nice because there was no shipping or tax and I took the bag home that day. I know I can't fit everything I have in this bag but it will work for most shoots. I will have to only take what I think is most important. I also sat in a couple of classes at the show. While some of them where very basic and gave information I already knew it was a good refresher as well as a place to get some new ideas. Of coarse they show off the gear you only dream to own, but not all of it was expensive.
           The one product that they showed was called a Eye Lighter by Westcott, it was great. It was used to bounce light back up into your subjects face and fill the shadows. While you probably would only use the for head shots I can see it paying for its self very quickly if that was your main business. I would have never know about this product if I didn't goto the show and sign up for some classes.
            There are photo expo type shows all across the country so take a look in your area and see what's available. I know they gave a big one in TN and Vegas. For more information on the Eye Lighter take a look at this link.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search/mode/edu?Ntt=Eye+lighter&N=0&InitialSearch=yes&sts=ma&Top+Nav-Search=


TBT

Thursday Ambassador

Night Time Long Expsoure

 So this week I thought I’d write about night time long exposure as it’s one of my favorite photographic styles. This type of photography can be lots of fun but you need to be careful, especially shooting along roads at night and police will often stop to see what you are doing late at night along a highway.

    I have had a lot of students ask me how to do night time long exposure and it’s really pretty easy and some trial and error. You will need the following equipment:

1. DSLR camera with a charged battery and memory card installed
2. Good, sturdy tripod
3. Remote shutter for your camera, I recommend a cable release or Triggertrap
4. A good, sharp lens, aperture doesn’t really matter but I prefer something like the Canon 40mm STM Pancake lens with F/2.8

    Now, just find a good location at night, I prefer to shoot after 11pm myself but your mileage may vary. Set your camera up on your tripod and hook up the cable release. You will need BULB mode on your camera as your shutter setting. Now, set your lens to as wide as possible and set your focus to manual mode and your ISO to 100.

    They way I do it, I wait until a nice stream of vehicles are coming and then press the cable and hold it for 20-30 seconds and you can get some pretty cool warp speed effects that makes the cars look like they are streaking by. The image below is one I shot I call Wall of Light. This image was actually chosen by AI to be in a school publication last year.

    Night time long exposure is not limited to shooting traffic along the road, you can use the exact same settings to shoot landscapes as well, say a nice home in your area or just about anything. I am also including one I did of a local lake at night I call this one Twilight Lake. This image was chosen by an independent judge to be in AI’s Veteran’s show last year in the Second Life gallery. As you can see, you can make some fantastic images at night, so don't think daytime is the only time you can shoot.

    Go on out there and try it for yourself!


Comments/Questions

Shooting in Low Light

Last Sunday I wrote about how to get yourself out of Auto mode on your DSLR. This week I am going to touch on shooting in low light situations where you cannot use flash.

Shooting in low light can be a challenge for any photographer and many of you will be asked to do it at some point in your photography career, such as shooting bands in bars or night clubs and everyone knows how poor the lighting is in these places and generally you cannot use your flash here at it is too distracting. You also cannot use Auto mode on your camera due to all the variances in the room, your camera will constantly be confused when trying to set the exposure due to stage lights and other things going on in the back ground.

Low light photography such as this is tricky but not impossible and it’s a matter of having the right gear to get the good shots. The following information will help you accomplish your mission.

Use the fastest/widest lens Aperture-wise that you can afford. A lens such as a 50mm F/1.8 to F/1.2 will go a long way in shooting in this situation, plus they are great for group shots of the band and portraits if you move close.

Use a camera with a higher ISO range. I know last week I told you to keep your ISO as low as possible but in this case, you WILL need a higher ISO like 1600 or 3200 to get the images to come out. The thing to remember here is newer cameras are better at high ISO and although I am a Canon shooter, Nikon's dominate here, check any review on Youtube.

Move around. You are not going to get the shots you need unless you are willing to move around. Remember, you are shooting a band so you will have to get around the fans or people dancing so don’t be afraid to move up close to the stage to get the good shots.

Get the candid shots. Don’t be afraid to stick around and get shots of the band after the show or during an intermission. Some of the greatest musician or band photos are of the artists just relaxing after the show either backstage or on their bus. The shot of the bassist holding their bass and relaxing or even practicing their chords before the show can be some really great images.
Get some good group shots. Many times when a band hires you to shoot a show they are going to want to use the images on their web site or even as the cover of their new album. Make sure you get a few good shots of the band together before or after the show.

Shooting in low light can be very challenging but can also be very rewarding. Once you master this type of photography, you are well on your way to becoming an accomplished professional. I want to thank my good friend Jessi James for donating these images showing what can go right and what can go wrong. Jessi shoots band quite frequently, so she has mastered shooting in this low light situation. Jessi is a classmate here at the Art Institute working on her Bachelor's in photography.

 Now get out there and shoot some fantastic images. Give low light photography a try and feel free to post your comment or questions and post your images here or on the Google + Page.


Comments/Questions

Get out of Auto Mode

Happy Sunday Everyone, my name is Bill and I am the new Sunday Ambassador. I am a Senior at AIOP and will be here with you at least until I graduate in January. If you have any questions or need to reach me you can email sundayambassador@gmail.com. Now, let's get into my first Blog post!

One of the challenges when starting out as a photographer is getting yourself out of your comfort zone. Many students find themselves using their Auto mode on their cameras because they are intimidated by the Manual mode.

    When using Manual mode, you have to know how to use all of the settings on the camera, what is known as the “Holy trinity” of photography. What I mean by this is ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed. Once you have the hang of these three settings on your camera and how to use them to create the proper exposure, you are well on your way to becoming an accomplished photography professional.

    Now it doesn’t matter if you shoot with Canon, Nikon, Sony or another manufacturer’s camera, they all have these three basic settings and balancing them is how to create the proper exposure. Additionally, all of these cameras have whats known as an exposure meter and it is usually visible on the LCD screen on the back of the camera, as well as in the viewfinder.

The exposure meter in the camera is the set of tick marks toward the top of the screen with the numbers from left to right starting with -3 and moving to +3 on the right. “Perfect” exposure is the point in the dead center with the 0 and each tick mark is 1/3 of an F-stop. When your exposure meter is to the left of the 0, your shot will be under exposed and when it’s to the right of the 0, your shot will be over exposed. The next thing you are probably asking is “ok, how do I move my indicator to the 0 when I am taking a photo, is there a proper sequence?” Yes there is and I am going to share that with you now.

    One of the things that throws new photographers off is figuring out how to adjust their settings under Manual mode so that they get a nice, clean shot with “perfect” exposure. I will share the formula that I use. The first thing you want to do is set your shutter speed and the best shutter speed to use is one that is proportional to the focal length of your lens, especially if your
lens doesn’t have IS (Canon’s Image Stabilization) VR (Nikon’s Vibration Reduction) to compensate for the shake of your hand as you hold your camera. Many students don’t realize that if you set your shutter speed too low it will actually emphasize hand shake and their images turn out blurry. So, let’s say you are using a 70-300mm lens and you are shooting at the 300mm end of your focal length, you want to set your shutter speed to 320 or 400 as it will compensate for the camera shake and your photos should turn out nice and clear and not blurry.

    The next piece of the formula is the Aperture of your camera/lens combination. You want to start with your lens at it’s widest Aperture, or lowest number if it’s easier to remember that way, so on your 70-300mm lens, let’s say the Aperture is F/4-5.6. This means that when you are shooting at 70mm your widest Aperture is F/4 and as you zoom in with the lens the widest is F/5.6 at 300mm. So on your 70-300mm lens at 300mm you start at F/5.6 and you can narrow the Aperture from there to reduce the amount of light that enters your lens. Now I don’t like to go too small on my Aperture, so I will usually top at around F/8-10. At this point you are probably wondering what ISO you should use. Well if you ask most professional photographers they will tell you that you want to use the lowest ISO you can to get the shot. Most pros won’t use anything higher than ISO 800 and the reason is as you raise your ISO you introduce more noise into your photos. What is noise you ask, noise is the little speckles you see in your images when the ISO is too high as in the example photo below, which I took in my office with low light at night time.

If you look you will see the little speckles of noise in this shot because I used ISO 3200, which on my older Canon 5D causes noise as it does not have the newer electronics of the Canon 5D Mark III, which can use ISO 3200 with less noise in the final image. But in order to prevent noise entirely, I recommend starting with your ISO at 100 or 50 if you have a Pro body that can do ISO 50, most consumer cameras like the Canon T3i you can get through AI has ISO 100 as it’s bottom end.

    So now that we have talked about ISO if you start at ISO 100 and you are shooting outdoors in good daylight, then you want to only adjust your shutter speed and Aperture to get your shot to “perfect” exposure. Now, let’s say you are shooting in low light and want to get to perfect exposure and you are using say the Canon 85mm F/1.8 USM portrait lens. In this case, again start with ISO 100 and your shutter speed at 100 and then open your Aperture wider to introduce more light, so instead of using F/5.6, open those blades and get your Aperture down to F/2 or F/1.8 and see if that will get you to the 0 on your exposure meter. If Aperture does not do the trick, then start adjusting your ISO higher but I would recommend capping it as ISO 800. If at ISO 800 you are still too under exposed then it’s time to introduce a flash to your shot. The flash will help raise the amount of light in the room, but I do not recommend using your camera’s built in flash, I would recommend an external flash preferably one that has bounce and zoom and turn the flash to point behind you at the ceiling or a wall so that the light will not be too harsh. Equipped with the flash, you can now set your ISO much lower and reduce the possibility of noise in your images.

    Now you know the formula for using your camera in Manual mode, so get out there make some awesome images! Please feel free to comment and ask any questions you might have.

 

Comments/Questions

You've Got Paying Clients - Now What?

It's such a great feeling when your work is truly valued, and especially when it starts paying the bills! There is so much more to running a photography business than just finding clients and taking pictures, of course. Following are a few steps that will take your business to the next level.

1. Surround yourself with people who are strong in ways you are not. Find a great lawyer, accountant, and insurance agent who understand the photography industry and will be able to guide you when you have questions. There are so many details that they can bring to your attention to help you save money and keep your business going in the right direction. Having a lawyer look over your contracts (remember to ALWAYS have a contract!) will save you from issues down the line.

2. Talk to your accountant/banker/lawyer about incorporation. Becoming an LLC was such a great decision for me, and it shows my clients that I take my business seriously.

3. Find client management software that suits your needs and can grow with your business. Keeping track of clients, to-do lists, and payments is vital to having happy clients and clear records. Being able to do that all in one place really helped ease some of the anxiety that was always gnawing at me. My program of choice is the recently launched 17 Hats, which lets me accept credit card payments, track projects from quote and contract to completion, and sync with Google Calendar (among other things). While this is exactly the type of program I have been waiting for, there are tons of options out there that may be perfect for you such as Pixifi or Simply Studio. Have a favorite already? Leave a comment with your experience!

Happy Friday!

-Friday Ambassador

It’s raining and I have to shoot, now what?

It’s raining and I have to shoot, now what?

We have all been there, needing to get assignments done and the weather isn't it's best so what can we do? We still have a deadline that we have to make, but we don't want to get our cameras wet. For me I shoot OCR races professionally so sometimes I don't have a choice but to work in the rain. While my semi pro body is weather resistant and so is the glass that doesn't mean I should let it get wet. So what are the available options? Between myself and some of my peers we have tried several different options. I have used in the past a inexpensive bag that is made to protect your gear from the elements. The company is called Op Tech and the bags are available at most camera retailers. They cost about $8 for 2 bags. The bag is pretty simple to use and it very convenient because they fold up small and will fit in your bag.

             There are other options that are more expensive solution but It doesn't mean it's better.  One of my peers have purchased a few of the more expensive ones and they each had something about them he didn't like. The one system that he using covered the equipment very nicely but the area to look through to view the screen kept fogging up on him. That could make it difficult to get the shots if you can't seem what you are shooting. It always best to do you research before you purchase anything because you don't want to have to keep buying different ones before you find what fits your needs. 

             Weather really isn't the best reason to not meet your deadline. There are many available options for us to prepare for the nasty days as well as the nice once. It's always best to make sure you are prepared for whatever Mother Nature throws at you. Sometimes you will find that you have taken your best shot yet and the weather wasn't that favorable. One of the photographers that AI have gone out and shot with never cancels for Inclement weather. The one time I went to shoot in NYC on top of “The Rock” the weather wasn't that nice and they claimed the visibility was very low. I decided to go up anyway since I was there and the view was much better then I thought,  my shots turned out great anyway. You don't want to miss out on opportunities by not being prepared or thinking you just don't want to shoot in the rain.

For more information take a look at these options, each camera will have a different sized cover but the cheaper plastic bag ones are universal.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/469774-REG/OP_TECH_USA_9001132_18_Rainsleeve_Set_of.html

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/815182-REG/LensCoat_LCRCPM4_RainCoat_Pro_Realtree_Max4.html

 

TBT 

Thursday Ambassador