Photography Tips

I am starting off the New Year by blogging about some of my favorite tips on how to improve photography. The first several tips for the New Year will be artsy techniques. Creating a work of art with a camera starts with a unique composition. In all of my classes and on blog posts, I talk and write about the rule of thirds, so I will skip that and go right into the positive impact of negative space.

What is negative space?  It is space to the right, left, top or bottom of a subject that surrounds the subject in a photograph.  Placing the negative space is in itself an art.  When correctly placed, it adds balance to the composition. Negative space in a photography prevents the subject from looking too crowded.  Negative space is most effectively used when photographing a subject off-center.  The image above is nicely balanced with the subject on the right and the pond ripples and reflections on the left. An added bonus is that the egret is facing to the negative space.

Exercise – Try this simple and quick exercise to view the impact of negative space on a subject.  Find a subject and draw an imaginary tick-tack-toe pattern over it. Photograph the subject in each of the four quadrants (where the lines intersect). Try this with several subjects and see how each one makes you feel. You will soon discover the power of negative space in your photographic compositions.  Below is an example of a photograph that I took of my dog Jazpur in the fall leaves.  The next photograph is of a hiabiscus flower with the stamen leading to a colorful bouquet of negative space.

I meet many fellow photographers who are the “family photographer” and consequently are never in their family pictures. WHAT!!!!  I hear this all the time.  It is easier now than ever to make sure you are included in every family photo that you take.

I recently visited Wisconsin (my home state) to go to a Badger Football Game and visit with my relatives. My niece invited us all over for brunch and it was a perfect time for the family photo. I arranged everyone and my sister (who is also a photographer) set up the camera on a tripod.  Here are some tips for using a timer so you can be in the photo.

• Set the camera to manual focus and manually focus on the middle row of people
• Set the camera to a low ISO (100 or 200) and aperture priority (around f/11)
• Set the timer to 10 seconds.  (make sure you do not set to 2 sec; that will not be enough time)
• Depress the shutter and run like heck to get in the photo.  Make sure there is a space for you.

Make this a point to include yourself in your family photos. Your kids and the rest of your family will thank you some day.

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For more information on DSLR photography check out the online course.

To view the camera store visit Buck Camera and Photo.

To view my portrait photography site visit Lightscapes Portrait Studio.

To view my fine are photography site visit Message in a Petal.

A Comparison Between Program Mode and Aperture Priority.

This blog is a continuation of the blog post from last week on the five shooting modes on a digital SLR Camera. In the last blog post I compared the auto mode with the program mode. In this blog, I am going to compare shooting in program mode vs. aperture priority.

Aperture priority which is AV on the mode dial for a Canon or A on a Nikon. With this mode the photographer now starts to takes more control of the settings, by choosing an aperture which will create either a shallow depth of field or an extreme depth of field. I kept the same settings for ISO and white balance and chose an aperture to f/32 for an extreme depth of field. The camera chose the shutter to correctly expose the image. The shutter chosen by the light meter was 2.5 seconds. That created the nice silky look of the waterfall by slowing down the motion of the water. The difference is amazing with crispness in the image from front to back. Again, I had to use a tripod and a cable release. Below are the two comparisons and their settings.  Review the previous blog for a comparison of auto vs. program mode.  Please stay tuned for next week’s blog with a comparison between aperture priority and shutter priority.

For more information on DSLR photography check out the online course.

To view the camera store visit Buck Camera and Photo.

To view my portrait photography site visit Lightscapes Portrait Studio.

To view my fine are photography site visit Message in a Petal.

Stop Shooting in Auto

This is first in a series of articles on why why you should not shoot in auto on your Digital SLR camera. Yesterday I shot five photos of a scene using the five modes on a digital SLR camera, starting with auto, then program, aperture priority, shutter priority and ending with manual mode. In this blog I am going to discuss and show you the photos from the auto mode vs. the program mode.

I chose a scene that had a lot going on with foreground and background details surrounding the subject and also some highlights and shadow.  It was a cloudy day so the tonal variations were not as broad as if it were a sunny day. It was a cold day, but a perfect day for photography. I thought it would be interesting to see how each mode captures the scene differently.

I started with auto which is the green rectangle on the mode dial. In auto the camera chooses all the settings including aperture, shutter speed, ISO and white balance and basically does all the thinking for you.  I also noticed that back button focus does not work with the auto mode.  This photo is pictured below.

Next is program mode which is P on the mode dial. In this mode the photographer chooses the ISO and can select a white balance preset while the camera chooses the aperture and shutter speed.   I choose a low ISO of 100 and a white balance preset for cloudy.  This photo is also pictured below. The aperture is the same  as the previous photo, but because the ISO is different, the shutter speed changed. There is also an obvious difference in the white balance. There is already an improvement just changing from auto to program. But wait, it gets better.

To view a comparison of the remainder of the photos, please visit the blog again.

For more information on DSLR photography check out the online course.

To view the camera store visit Buck Camera and Photo.

To view my portrait photography site visit Lightscapes Portrait Studio.

To view my fine are photography site visit Message in a Petal.

Framing a subject

Learning how to compose in digital SLR photography is an important creative skill to master. When you photograph a subject you “paint with light”.  Just a painter creates their subject on a blank canvas, a photographer does the same thing only with a different tool. Learning how to compose in the camera will help you identify who or what the subject is and how to lead the eye toward the main part of the image. Framing the subject is one way to accomplish this. In the photographs pictured above natural elements were used to clearly identify what the subject is. Other techniques were also applied: the rule of thirds and a shallow depth of field.  Composition is a mix of creative and technical skills. It all comes with practice and can be a very rewarding hobby.

If you are interested in portrait photography visit Lightscapes Portrait Studio.

If you are interested in fine art photography visit Message in a Petal

If you are interested in camera equipment visit Buck Camera and Photo.