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Archive for July, 2014

Cargo Canvases: 6 Street Artists Paint 22 Stacked Containers

31 Jul

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

cargo container greek gods

Towers constructed from shipping container modules formed the blank basis behind this series of incredible giant-sized, site-specific artworks using spray paint and pole brushes.

cargo shipping container art

cargo container blank canvas

For the North West Walls Street Art Festival in Belgium, curated by Arne Quinze, each contributor was encouraged to compose something on one side of each of three unique and random-seeming stacks.

cargo art under construction

cargo container stacked progress

cargo container art details

cargo shipping art finished

Famous graffiti artists Pichi & Avo added an array of Greek gods to their chosen canvas, framing the brilliantly-rendered figures in contemporary style, using warm-colored graffiti to create a stark contrast around them.

cargo container finished zoo

cargo container upper view

A play on the artist’s name and implicit commentary on creatures in captive zoo conditions, Roa’s Ark features a series of caged and chained animals each contained in one of the cargo units, the effectively black-and-white composition intentionally devoid of bright colors.

cargo container death mask

cargo container lift crane

cargo art strange face

Other contributors included Jen Zie and Martin Ron, adding further colorful and abstract creations to the mix. Together, the finished works represent a wonderful array of approaches, some playing on history, references and culture and others on visual effects, depth and perception.

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[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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How to Improve Your Portrait Photography in Five Minutes

31 Jul

People often ask me for tips on taking better photos of their friends and family.

After much thought on photography tips that can apply to various experience levels and equipment — from DSLRs to smart phones — I present to you a short article with tips you can learn in five minutes to help you improve your portrait photography. If you have more time and would like more specifics, I’ve noted additional articles on each tip that may interest you.

Annie-Tao-Photography-DPS-article-Improve-Portrait-Photography-perspective

Tips that will instantly improve your portraits:

1. Don’t put everyone in the center

That person may be the center of your life, but they don’t always need to be in the center of all the photos.

Aside from corporate headshots, positioning your subjects directly in the center of your frame for every image can be… yawn. And don’t just substitute it with the “rule of thirds” either. Think how boring everything would be if they were always in the same place, whether that is the center of every frame or at a third mark.

Be adventurous once in awhile – mix it up!

Annie-Tao-Photography-DPS-article-Improve-Portrait-Photography-dont-center

Annie-Tao-Photography-DPS-article-Improve-Portrait-Photography-dont-center-2

If you can’t break the rules because you have never heard of the Rule of Thirds, you can read this article.

2. Keep one eye on the background

If your subject is right in front of a lamppost or a tree, reposition yourself or your subject, so it doesn’t look like he is growing a lamppost out of his head.

Another example:  if your subject is wearing a green dress and sitting on the grass, have her move where the background is a different color, so she doesn’t look like a floating face in a sea of green.

Also, be mindful of distracting elements behind your subjects, like a garbage can. The background can turn a good photo into a bad one, so keep one eye on the background.

Annie-Tao-Photography-DPS-article-Improve-Portrait-Photography-background-2

If you want to read more about the impact of backgrounds, check out Improve Your Background, Improve Your Photography.

3. Capture the story, not just a smiling face

Of course we all prefer a photo of someone smiling, but we aren’t always in a constant state of joy. Consider taking shots when someone looks pensive or serious, for example, or engrossed in an activity.

Try to resist the “look at me and smile” routine. I guarantee that photo will tell more of a story than one where people stop what they are doing to flash a fake smile.

Annie-Tao-Photography-DPS-article-Improve-Portrait-Photography-not-smiling

Annie-Tao-Photography-DPS-article-Improve-Portrait-Photography-capture-story-2

Annie-Tao-Photography-DPS-article-Improve-Portrait-Photography-capture-story

For more tips on this, read: Don’t Wait For A Smile.

4. Change your perspective

Did you know you can create the tone or mood of an image by the angle of your camera and your closeness to your subject?

Your perspective when you take the photo influences the viewer’s perception of the image. Taking a shot from the top, looking down can paint a picture that someone is small. A tight shot of a teardrop can provide a sadder tone than a shot that was taken from a distance.

So next time, before you click the shutter button, think about what tone you want to give and what story you want to tell.

Annie-Tao-Photography-DPS-article-Improve-Portrait-Photography-perspective-4

Annie-Tao-Photography-DPS-article-Improve-Portrait-Photography-perspective-3

To see examples of different perspectives and when you would use them, you must read The Power of Perspective.

There are many things you can do to improve your portrait photography. I narrowed my list to four because these were the ones that came to mind first.

Do you have a good tip to share? Please comment below. We’d love to hear it.

The post How to Improve Your Portrait Photography in Five Minutes by Annie Tao appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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31. Juli 2014

31 Jul

Ein Beitrag von: Stefan Bleihauer

Ein wasserumschlungener Stein, der von Algen überzogen ist. Eine Langzeitbelichtung.


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Martins Equipment für Straße und Alltag

31 Jul

Heute stelle ich vor, mit welchem Equipment ich meine fotografische Arbeit erledige. Wie jeder Schreiner genau weiß, welches Werkzeug er braucht, um einen Schreibtisch zu fertigen, habe ich mein Arbeitsgerät, das ich auf der Straße und im Alltag einsetze.

Ich bin immer wieder dankbar, wenn Fotografen verraten, womit sie fotografieren. Nein, nicht diejenigen, die sagen, dass man jetzt die oder die Kamera braucht. Ich meine Künstler, die ich um ihren kreativen Output beneide; Menschen, die eine fotografische Vorbildfunktion für mich haben.

Und um das ewige „Die Technik ist egal“-Paradigma ein wenig bluten zu lassen: Ohne Kamera geht’s halt auch nicht. Mit einer Lochkamera kann ich fotografieren, klar. Die Frage ist nur, ob ich damit das erreichen kann, was ich will und ob sie zu meiner Arbeitsweise passt.

Und das ist für mich auch das Wichtigste: Wie erreiche ich das, was ich will? Allein dieser Maxime dient die Technik. Deshalb möchte ich gleich voran stellen, dass ich mich mit der Straßenfotografie identifiziere, dieses Genre zu bedienen versuche, jedoch auch meine Zeit mit Freunden und Familie kontinuierlich dokumentiere.

Wo meine Wurzeln sind

Nachdem die „erste“ 2005 ausgedient hatte, war mir nach einer richtigen Kamera. Ja ja, richtig, ich weiß. Jedoch sahen diese schwarzen, klobigen Dinger vielversprechend aus.

So ging ich mit Canon EOS 350D auf Landschaften los und bald darauf folgte die EOS 30D, die irgendwann nicht mehr richtig auslösen wollte und so kaufte ich die Canon EOS 5D Mark II*. Mittleweile fotografierte ich auch Hochzeiten und wollte Paare sowie Ameisendisko in der schwach beleuchteten Kirche festhalten.

Bezogen auf Objektive war ich noch nie ein Telemensch. Landschaften fotografierte ich am liebsten mit einem Superweitwinkel* und Hochzeiten mit der 50 mm f/1.4er Festbrennweite*.

Was ich bis vor Kurzem benutzt habe

Eine Kamera von oben

Nachdem ich meinen Wechsel zur Straßenfotografie vollzogen und mich von Landschaft- und Hochzeitsfotografie langsam verabschiedet hatte, fotografierte ich ein Jahr lang nur mit dem iPhone auf der Straße.

Danach hatte ich Lust auf eine typische Straßenkamera und fing an, mich mit der Fuji X100s* anzufreunden. Sie ist superleicht, hochwertig produziert und so leise, dass ich phasenweise einen elektrischen Ton einstellte, um den Klick mitzubekommen.

Da ich gern im Hintergrund arbeite, war die Fuji also perfekt. Die Bildqualität des Sensors ist so gut, dass sie mir – auch abends – keine Wünsche offen ließ.

Zusätzlich probierte ich mich an diversen Blitzsystemen aus, da der Wunsch nach mehr BÄMM immer größer wurde. Also kaufte ich mir den dazugehörigen Blitz*, ein Blitzkabel (TTL brauchte und wollte ich nicht) und blitzte mal entfesstelt, mal nicht.

Später schloss ich auch meine stärkeren Canon Speedlites an, dennoch benötigte ich – durch meine kurze Distanz zu den Leuten – auf der Straße gar nicht so viel Blitzkraft, sondern eher einen breiten Streuradius. Zwischenzeitlich fotografierte ich mit den Yungnuos* auch mit zwei Blitzen, was mir nach zwei Wochen irgendwann auf den Zeiger ging, aber dennoch eine sehr gute Option für selbstgestaltetes Licht auf der Straße war.

Womit ich aktuell arbeite

Eine Canon AE-1 von oben fotografiert.

Anfang Juni fragte Katja im Redaktions-Chat: „Kennt Ihr jemanden, der ’ne Canon AE-1* mit 3 Objektiven sucht und mir abkaufen würde?“

Ich bejahte das und wurde um ein paar Euronen leichter. Der Gedanke gefiel mir und so lief ich erst einmal zum DM und kaufte mir den billigsten Film, den ich finden konnte. Kollegin Wessely hatte mir dies empfohlen.

Nachdem ich zwei Filme geschrottet hatte (ja, verdammt), knipste ich erst einmal drauflos und entdeckte somit die Fotografie von einer ganz anderen Seite. Ich würde nicht sagen, dass ich nie wieder digital fotografiere, aber aktuell bin ich voll im Fieber. Das Umsteigen war leichter als gedacht und ich komme auf der Straße bisweilen sehr gut klar.

Da die meisten Analogkameras sehr günstig sind, habe ich meine Ausrüstung um eine sehr schicke, schwarze Canon A-1 und das FD 28 mm ƒ/2.8* erweitert, da ich mich mit Brennweiten unter 35 mm am wohlsten fühle. Insbesondere auf der Straße mag ich es, nah ran zu gehen und diese Nähe zur Person wird auch auf den Bildern deutlich.

Eine Olympus XA von etwas oben fotografiert.

Desweiteren schaute ich mich etwas um, welche Kamera unter Straßenkollegen gern benutzt wird und stolperte über die Olypmus XA*, die ob ihrer Größe sehr, sehr unscheinbar aussieht und eine präzise Bildleistung hat.

Die XA ist klein, passt in meine Hosentasche und kann (auch mit angeschlossenem Blitz) hervorragend auf der Straße mithalten. Zudem ist sie wesentlich leiser als die Spiegelreflexkameras. Was manche Leute abschreckt, finde ich toll: Ich stelle nur einmal die Filmempfindlichkeit ein und habe dann nur noch die zwei Regler Blende und Schärfe. Das war’s.

So kann ich mich voll und ganz auf’s Fotografieren konzentrieren und bin nicht ständig mit dem Drücken von Knöpfen beschäftigt. Im Sucher bekomme ich die aktive Belichtunszeit mit einer Tacho-ähnlichen Nadel angezeigt.

Entwicklung

Ein Bauarbeiter sägt an einem Rohr.

Meine Filme lasse ich aktuell beim DM entwickeln (Farbfilme selbst zu entwickeln, traue ich mir noch nicht zu). Das dauert zwar meist neun Tage und ich muss Abzüge bestellen, jedoch kosten die günstigsten pro Abzug 5 Cent und somit liege ich pro Film bei 2,75 €, was für mich erschwinglich ist.

Zwischenzeitlich ließ ich beim DM einen Film digitalisieren (DM schickt den Kram zu Cewe) und war von der Qualität der Scans nicht negativ überrascht. Jedoch ist die Auflösung der Scans so niedrig, dass ich nicht damit arbeiten wollte.

Nun habe ich habe das Glück, einen Flachbettscanner mit Durchlichteinheit zu besitzen, nämlich das Modell CanoScan 8800F* der Firma (wer hätte es gedacht) Canon.

Mit der beigelieferten Software kann ich relativ gut arbeiten, wobei die nicht das Gelbe vom Ei ist. Falls ich weiter auf diese Weise verfahren werde, komme ich um einen ordentlichen Negativscanner wie den Epson V700* kaum herum, wobei ich mit größeren Investitionen gern langsam mache. Schließlich ist nicht einmal sicher, ob ich für immer auf analog umsteige.

Die Auswahl der einzuscannenden Bilder läuft bei mir wie folgt: Orientiert an den 9×13-Abzügen vom DM markiere ich die zu scannenden Negative und schneide sie aus. Der Leuchttisch meines Kollegen Marc Böttler hilft mir dabei ungemein.

Sobald der Scanvorgang abgeschlossen ist, importiere ich alle Fotos in Lightroom und korrigiere Farben, Lichter und Kontraste (nein, das ist kein Mogeln).

Arbeitsrechner und Software

Seit Anfang 2009 arbeite ich an einem Mac Pro*, den ich damals mit 16 GB Ram bestückt hatte. Dieser ist sehr schnell, leise und zuverlässig. Bisher war er noch nicht einmal in Reparatur.

Wie schon erwähnt, arbeite ich mit Lightroom (5)*, egal, ob die Bilder nun digital oder analog entstehen – wobei die Arbeitszeit an analogen Bildern gefühlt nur 1/10 von dem beansprucht, was ich an digitalen Bildern an Zeit investieren muss.

Ein Kind turnt an einer Stange.

Ich kann dabei nicht genau erklären, warum, aber Filmfotos kommen nach dem Scan schon meist so gut heraus, dass nur noch minimale Eingriffe vonnöten sind. Ich denke, aus diesem Artikel geht gut hervor, ich welcher Phase ich mich aktuell befinde. Ich bin im Umbruch und das nicht nur bezogen auf die Mittel.

Ich denke täglich darüber nach, wie und was ich fotografieren möchte. Die Straßenfotografie bietet mir so viel Raum für unterschiedliche Ansätze, die ich jedoch nicht alle gleichzeitig verfolgen kann, ohne mich im Detail zu verlieren.

So plane ich ein paar Projektarbeiten, die mich nicht nur thematisch fordern, sondern auch meine Kenntnisse der analogen Fotografie vertiefen werden. Ich bin gespannt.

Abschließend hoffe ich, dass mein Artikel dem einen oder anderen Einblick in meine fotografische Welt bieten konnte. Solltet Ihr Fragen haben, einfach per Kommentar stellen. Ich beiße nicht.

* Das ist ein Affiliate-Link zu Amazon. Wenn Ihr darüber etwas bestellt, erhält kwerfeldein eine kleine Provision, Ihr zahlt aber keinen Cent mehr.


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4 Steps to Less Stressful and Easier Photo Editing

31 Jul

Have you ever returned to your computer with a memory card full of photos and become overwhelmed at the idea of going through all of them?

Tree starburst

The thought of sorting and analyzing so many pictures can seem so daunting it’s sometimes hard to even know where to start! Often we find ourselves copying the contents of our cameras to our computers and letting our precious memories collect digital dust, though we promise ourselves we will get around to organizing them – someday. Modern technology has made this task easier, with various software and cloud-based services even promising to find your best photos for you. And while these digital assistants certainly have merit, I like to take a different approach to dealing with all the images I capture.

The following tips will help you streamline your photography workflow and make the task of sifting through your images not only easier, but a lot more enjoyable too. While I work mostly in Adobe Lightroom, these general practices will apply no matter which photo editing software you use.

Step 1: Get rid of bad photos

This is the first thing I do when sorting through pictures, and it’s a tough hurdle to overcome because I have a tendency to want to save everything. But this step will make all the difference in managing your growing photo library, especially if you have never done it before.

Let’s say you went on a summer family trip to a national park, and you returned home with thousands of pictures to deal with. It might be tough, but as you look through them, try to think about what images will matter the most to you a year from now. You might have had a wonderful time at the Grand Canyon during your vacation, but will you really want 50 pictures of your child looking down at the great abyss? What about the ones where he is blinking, out of focus, or looking the other way? It is likely that two or three good pictures are all you need. In this first step, it’s up to you to find the ones that best encapsulate your experience as a whole, and ditch the rest.

Unicycling

I captured close to 100 photos on my brother’s recent visit, but this is one of just a handful I really need to remember the day, and all the things we did.

This approach might seem coldhearted and cruel, but it’s a necessary step in taming the photo-management beast. When you revisit the pictures from your summer trip a couple years from now, you won’t need a thousand of them to help you remember the experience. A tenth of that will probably be perfectly appropriate. If you hang on to every last one you might find that they become an albatross around your neck, weighing you down so much that you don’t even want to look back at your pictures because there are just so many of them.

To put things in another perspective, think about a time when one of your friends wanted to show you photos from his or her family trip. How long did it take you to grow tired of looking at the same types of images over and over? You could have easily gotten the point with just a few pictures, and then spent time visiting with your friends about the events surrounding the photos.

Moth

Of all the photos I took during this nature walk, this was one of only a few that I decided to keep. And in the years since, I haven’t missed the others at all.

One nice advantage of using a photo management program is that you can remove unwanted photos without actually deleting them from your hard drive. In Lightroom, pressing the “X” key on a photo will mark it as rejected, so it will no longer show up in your photo library but will still exist on your computer. This helps soften the initial blow, and then you can go back later and actually delete the rejected photos if you so desire. Alternatively, you can press the “P” key to flag a photo as one of your favorites, or assign star ratings to the images you like best. Then you can instantly sort out your best shots later down the line, and delete the rest when you are ready.

Step 2: Basic Editing

After culling your pictures to find the ones you like most, the next step is to perform basic edits and save the real heavy lifting for later. After removing the duds from my most recent camera import, I typically go through each of the remaining images and apply the simplest of edits such as crop, straighten, and exposure. Not much else is needed at this stage, as you are essentially preparing your photos for any real edits that might need to be done later. These basic adjustments are very quick, and you can churn through your recent batch of vacation, birthday, or hiking photos in a manner of minutes or hours instead of days or weeks.

You can also copy and paste adjustments, so if you have a dozen similar photos you can edit one and then apply those adjustments to the rest with a simple keystroke. This is also a good time to do apply some rudimentary organization to your photos as well, using tools like keywords, flags, categories, or star ratings. Be careful not to get caught up in editing any single photo in depth at this stage. The goal of Step 2 is to dig a little deeper into the photos you like, which will help you decide where to concentrate your efforts if you do need to do more intensive edits afterwards.

Husky

I had to crop this photo in order to draw the viewer’s attention to the dog’s eyes.

Step 3: Advanced Editing

By this point you should now have a curated set of photos that you really like, with some mild corrections applied to help them look a little more pleasing. Now it’s time to perform the types of more detailed edits that will help your images truly shine. Advanced adjustments to a photo’s white balance, color saturation, contrast, and other parameters, while also applying localized improvements like dodging and burning can take a long time, but the results are well worth it.

It’s important to do this step last, or else you can easily wind up spending a great deal of time editing a single picture early in the process only to realize there are plenty of better ones that should have had your attention instead.

Family

This family photo turned out fine, but I had to do some color corrections and other enhancements to get it to look how I really wanted. By doing this step last I was able to devote more time to the editing process and not worry about processing hundreds of additional images.

Step 4: Walk Away

This might sound silly, but often the most useful activity you can do when editing your photos is nothing at all. Take a break, get a coffee, head out for a walk, or just go to bed and come back to your pictures the next day with a fresh set of eyes. I’m amazed at how often I stare at a photo performing detailed adjustments trying to get things just right, only to leave my computer and return after a short hiatus and realize the solution was much easier than I realized at first.

As a case study in how all this works, let me share the following example. My brother and I recently I spent an afternoon at the beach trying to get pictures of a rock hitting the water. When I got back to my computer I found that we had over 50 of images to go through, and following the aforementioned workflow strategies helped make things much easier. After importing the images into Lightroom I went through and rejected about 35 right off the bat. That left me with a much more manageable set, so I cropped and applied some basic adjustments to the remainder. This helped me realize that I needed to reject more of them, now that I was looking at the cream of the crop in greater detail, and I ended up with three photos to edit more extensively. When I was finished, I ended up with exactly one photo from the afternoon that I really liked.

Water splash

Not only is this the best photo out of the many I shot that day, but looking at it allows me to remember many other things about the afternoon as well. I don’t need a hundred poorly-composed, out-of-focus pictures to remember a fun afternoon at the beach. Instead I have this one and just a couple others that all serve to bring back some amazing memories.

Following this simple process, and adjusting it to suit your individual needs, can transform photo sorting from a tedious chore into an activity that is enjoyable, relaxing, and fun.

The post 4 Steps to Less Stressful and Easier Photo Editing by Simon Ringsmuth appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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Guerrilla Lace: Prettied-Up Urban Surfaces in Poland

31 Jul

[ By Steph in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

Urban Lace 1

Urban sidewalks, sewer grates and dingy underpasses aren’t exactly the most likely places to find beautiful large-scale ornamental lace, but for artist NeSpoon Polska, that’s exactly where it belongs. The Polish artist creates both spray-painted street art and crocheted installations for interactive displays in all sorts of public spaces, from street lamps to abandoned houses.

Urban Lace 3

Urban Lace 7

Urban Lace 2

Urban Lace 4

Urban Lace 6

Calling it ‘illegal city decor’ and ‘public jewelry,’ Polska wanders around Warsaw, swiftly painting parking meters, utility boxes, blank signs and other blank (and often ugly) urban surfaces. Some, like a giant mural taking up almost the entire side of a three-story building, are created with permission.

Urban Lace 8

Urban Lace 9

Urban Lace 5

Urban Lace 10

“Jewelry makes people look pretty, my public jewelry has the same goal, make public places look better. I would like people who discover, here and there, my small applications, to smile and just simply feel better,” says the artist.

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Hollywood studios strike deal to keep Kodak movie film in production

31 Jul

A group of big name Hollywood directors has nudged studio executives into talks with Kodak, negotiating a deal that would keep the company’s movie film in production. With support from the likes of Quentin Tarantino, Christopher Nolan, and J.J. Abrams, the deal would see studios commit to buying a certain amount of film from Kodak for the next few years. Read more

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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30. Juli 2014

31 Jul

Ein Beitrag von: Manfred G. G. Schröder

© Manfred G. G. Schröder


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With greater clarity: Nikon D810 Shooting Experience

31 Jul

The Nikon D810 represents a consolidation of its two predecessors, the D800 and D800E. The 36MP full frame DSLR lacks an anti-aliasing filter to make the absolute most of its high resolution sensor and provides a number of meaningful updates over the previous generation. After some extensive shooting in the field we’ve updated our First Impressions Review with a shooting experience. Read more

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Tips for Photographing in Different Weather Conditions

31 Jul

You’ve figured out that photography is awesome. You have your equipment. You’ve got the basics down. You know all about the “triangle” of ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. Now, you’re ready to put them to use. You’re ready to go outside and experiment. But wait. You haven’t yet considered the weather. This is a little side note to photography that we often forget about. If you’re not shooting in a studio, then the weather will definitely be a factor to consider when going out on a shoot.

MDWeather 01

There are a few basic weather scenarios that you will surely encounter as a photographer: cloudy or overcast, rain, bright sun, high temperatures, and snow to name a few. Each of these conditions has its benefits and limits. I’ll cover a few of those here as well as tips for photographing in different weather conditions.

Cloudy or overcast

These are some of my favorite conditions to shoot in for portraits. An overcast day brings about an amazing amount of diffused light. You can shoot in the middle of the day with little worry about harsh lighting or unwanted shadows. You do want to pay close attention to lighting the face. It’s great to have a reflector to bounce light into the face of your subject(s). Make sure you’re taking a look at the images, as this will help you know if you’re underexposing or overexposing. You’ll also be able to tell if you need to reflect more light on them. See portrait above.

Shooting landscapes in overcast conditions can also be challenging. Overcast skies are gray and don’t usually add a lot of interest to that mountainscape, or field of cows you want to photograph. Look for stormy weather clouds, that add a sense of place and dimension. You can also crop your shot so that you don’t get those unwanted gray skies, but still get great lighting.

Benefit: beautifully diffused lighting
Limit: ugly gray skies

MDWeather 02

Rain

So what happens when your cloudy day turns into a rainy shoot? Well, you make the most of it. A little rain never hurt anybody. One of the best ways to work with rain is to bring an umbrella. Try to keep a nice umbrella in your arsenal of supplies for shoots. Look for one of those clear umbrellas that comes down over your head. It looks amazing in photos. You can also get one that has a nice little pop of color. Try polka dots even. Make the umbrella part of the shoot. You don’t have to use it in every photo but don’t be afraid to incorporate it.

Also look for areas that are shielded from the rain. Overhangs, alleys, even coffee shops can provide you with great areas for your photos. The rain can help you tell a story if you let it. At the end of the shoot, ask your subject if they’re okay getting wet. Work with that and see what you get. Try out different things as you’re learning to work in this condition.

Of course the rain can work against you. You’ll want to make sure your equipment is protected. You don’t have to get fancy coverings if they’re not in the budget. Get a grocery bag and some tape and protect the main body of your camera. If the weather is horribly bad, reschedule your shoot for a less harsh day. Again, safety is key here.

MDWeather 03

Rainy landscapes tell an amazing story. Make sure you’re careful with setting focal points. Your camera will often try to focus on the rain drops and will blur out your landscape. This can be nice if it’s what you intended, if not, you’ll end up with a bunch of blurry photos.

Benefit: added dimension and sense of story and place
Limit: harsh on equipment and uncomfortable for subjects

Bright sun

Many people think that bright sun is the photographer’s worst nightmare for portraits. I beg to differ. Bright sun can create beautiful light and you can play with shadows if you wish. (Read Dispelling the Myth of Good Light and Bad Light for more on this topic.)

When shooting in bright sun, you will find that your camera meter will want to expose for the super bright background or the subject that’s in front of you. This causes your subject to be super dark or your background to be blown out. Try shooting in “open shade”. This means that you’ll place your subject in the shady part close to the light, and bounce light with a reflector back at them. You can also use a flash to make sure your subject is lit without blowing out the background. A flash in the sun? I know it sounds weird but it works. Use your flash to light your subject while exposing for the background. You can also look for natural reflectors around you. Look for a white building or even a white sandy beach. These help reflect light on your subject without blowing out the background too much.

Landscapes in bright sun are absolutely beautiful. Try shooting the beach in the full sun of the day. Practice exposing for the beautiful blue skies as well as the sand.

Benefit: tons of light and the ability to play with shadows
Limit: can create harsh lighting on your subject

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High temperatures

A lot of us shoot in the summer months. This can be beautiful for the late sunsets and beautiful skies, but the temperature can be brutal. It’s great to shed the coats and heavy clothing but the heat isn’t always fun. You want to make sure that you and your subjects will be comfortable and safe. The most important thing is safety. I like to limit my shoots to when the temperature or heat index is below 90f (32c). This may vary depending on where you are shooting. In Puerto Rico, 90 on the beach feels great. In Boston, 90 in the city feels miserable.

Take note of how your subject is feeling on the shoot. If you notice that they’re becoming uncomfortable, ask them and schedule a reshoot if necessary.

Benefit: you and your subjects can come out of limiting coats and clothing
Limit: high temperatures can be draining and uncomfortable

Snow

Shooting in the snow is magical. It’s beautiful and the white stuff reflects light amazingly! Shooting in a blizzard, not so much. Shooting in 10f (-12c) degree weather, even worse. When shooting in the snow, pay special attention to ice and hazards under the fluffy stuff.

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You can shoot while it’s snowing or once the snow has stopped falling. If you shoot while it’s snowing, treat your camera as if it is raining. The snow melts and water can get into the inner workings of your camera body and lens.

Don’t be afraid to ask your subject to shed that coat. If you’re in an area that gets a lot snow then you know that snow doesn’t necessarily mean unbearable cold. Have your subject shed the coat and shoot for a few frames and then warm up a bit.

Also, play around with capturing the falling snow. When it’s snowing, the sky is generally overcast. The white snow acts as a bit of a reflector so you’ll most likely be able to forgo that. Just go out and practice shooting and see what you’ll need. You probably don’t want to venture into a blizzard though.

If the snow has stopped you’ll need to watch out for ice and hazards under the snow. It doesn’t hurt to protect your camera just in case you take a little tumble. Again, the snow reflects beautifully. Make sure you’re metering for your subject and paying special attention to not blow out the white snow.

Benefit: it’s beautiful and shows a sense of time
Limit: it’s cold and damaging to your equipment

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Remember, take special care to insure safety at all times. Safety of you, your subjects, and your equipment are all important. Use the weather to your advantage and work with the lighting you have. Don’t be afraid to bring in flash or reflectors. Finally, just have fun with whatever condition you’re shooting in.

The post Tips for Photographing in Different Weather Conditions by Monica Day appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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