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3 Simple Tips to Help You Master Photography Composition [video]

23 Mar

The post 3 Simple Tips to Help You Master Photography Composition appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.

In this video, Nigel Danson shares three simple photography tips to help you master photography composition. He uses seascape photography to illustrate his tips.

Here are the Three simple tips to help you master photography composition that Nigel covers in his video:

1. Tell the story

You are trying to portray the story of the place you are photographing in your image. Look for things that might make a difference to your shot. With seascape photography, look for things like rocks, and waves, and where the light is coming from. Is it windy? How can you show that? Do you want to capture the isolation, or busyness of the location? Is there a significant landmark you want to capture?

2. Be mindful of the foreground

One of the most important things in landscape composition can be getting the foreground right. Something that is really simple, perhaps with repeating patterns can work really well.

Use leading lines to draw the viewer into your image. A beach or seaside location is a great place to do that. Use the shoreline as your leading lines towards rocks or other parts of the landscape that may be significant.

Danson says four things are important in achieving a good photograph: Timing, subject, composition, and light.

Try to include secondary compositions within your main composition to better tell the story.

Shutter speed is also important – do you want soft water and movement in the clouds? Or do you want them sharp and crisp?

3. Try different focal lengths

Explore different focal lengths. Try macro, go super-wide, or use long-lenses to bring backgrounds closer in an image.

You may also want to try intentional camera movement (ICM) for interesting effects.

You may also find the following articles helpful:

Composition Tips for Drawing the Viewer’s Eye Through Your Photographs

4 of the Most Common Composition Mistakes In Photography

Divine Composition With Fibonacci’s Ratio (The Rule of Thirds on Steroids)

Four Rules of Photographic Composition

Composition Checklist for Beginners

The post 3 Simple Tips to Help You Master Photography Composition appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.

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Video: 15 actually useful Photoshop shortcuts to help speed up your workflow

16 Mar

Photoshop Training Channel on YouTube has published a video detailing 15 useful, relatively unknown Photoshop keyboard shortcuts for power users. Unlike many similar videos, this channel’s video digs into actually useful shortcuts that many users are unlikely to know, including how to resize and rotate cloned content using keyboard keys, improving Puppet Warp tool control, and more.

The video is applicable to North American keyboards and includes both Windows and macOS shortcuts. Most tips build upon commonly known tools and shortcuts, offering ways for professionals to reduce the amount of time they spend clicking and sliding. Adobe maintains a large list of Photoshop shortcuts for Windows and Mac users here.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Sony is hiring engineers to help strengthen its image sensor business

24 Feb

Reuters reports that Sony is planning to deploy 40 percent of its new engineer hires in Japan at its chip business which also includes the manufacturing of image sensors. The company is hoping to grow the division with more demand coming from a range of sectors, including mobile and automotive.

Overall Sony is projecting to hire 320 new engineers in Japan in 2019 and the same number again the next year, which is an increase of 70 from 2018. These numbers are Japan-only, so don’t take into account new engineering positions at international locations.

The hiring plans align with Sony’s investment of approximately $ 5.4 billion into its image sensor business over the next three years, which accounts for half of of the group’s planned capital expenditures.

Sony is already the market leader for image sensors by quite some margin, controlling more than half of the imaging sensor market for smartphones. The division is also an important contributor to profit within Sony, despite the company cutting its annual profit outlook for imaging sensors this month to 130 billion yen due to weakening global demand for smartphones. This figure still accounts for 15 percent of the Sony group’s overall profit.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Photographer asks for help finding owners of a destroyed camera found at Zion National Park

21 Feb

Photographer Ben Horne has shared a video on his YouTube channel imploring the photography community to help him find the owner of a Fujifilm point-and-shoot camera that a friend of his found while on a hike in Zion National Park in Southwest Utah.

As explained in the three minute video, Horne’s friend Luke Riding was hiking along the base of Angels Landing — a tall rock formation with a narrow trail at the top where hikers are free to walk along — when he came across a Fujifilm camera that had clearly taken a tumble down the side of the 1,500-foot rock formation.

The camera itself is clearly battered from its treacherous journey down the side of Angels Landing, but the SD card inside remained intact, complete with a collection of date-stamped images captured before the Fujifilm’s free-fall. The images Horne has shared include a number of portraits with two younger females posing in various areas of Zion National Park in September 2015, according to the metadata.

$ (document).ready(function() { SampleGalleryV2({“containerId”:”embeddedSampleGallery_1537654159″,”galleryId”:”1537654159″,”isEmbeddedWidget”:true,”selectedImageIndex”:0,”isMobile”:false}) });

Horne has asked to help spread the word in an effort to return the camera and images back to their rightful owner(s). If you happen to know the individuals in the photos or know of anyone who happened to lose their Fujifilm camera while at the top of Angels Landing, you can contact Horne by email (listed in the YouTube video description) or via Instagram.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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The New York Times’ massive photo archive is being digitized with Google’s help

13 Nov

The New York Times has millions of printed photographs stored in an underground archive nicknamed “the morgue,” and it has begun the arduous task of digitizing this collection. Google is part of the project, according to a post on one of the company’s blogs, where it explains that its machine learning and cloud technologies will help The New York Times store, process, and search its archive.

The morgue houses between 5 and 7 million photographs dating back to the late 19th century, all of them stored in folders within file cabinets. Many of the photos haven’t been viewed in decades and all of them are at risk of damage. In 2015, for example, the morgue experienced minor damage after water leaked in from a broken pipe.

The New York Times‘ CTO Nick Rockwell said in a statement to Google:

The morgue is a treasure trove of perishable documents that are a priceless chronicle of not just The Times’s history, but of nearly more than a century of global events that have shaped our modern world … Staff members across the photo department and on the business side have been exploring possible avenues for digitizing the morgue’s photos for years. But as recently as last year, the idea of a digitized archive still seemed out of reach.

To help preserve this visual history, Google has stepped in to provide The New York Times with its cloud storage product for storing high-resolution digital copies of the photographs. The New York Times has developed a processing pipeline for the digitization project that includes resizing images using Google Kubernetes Engine and storing metadata using PostgreSQL, in addition to the open source command-line software ExifTool and ImageMagick.

Google’s machine learning technology augments the system to offer insights into the digitized content. The company’s Cloud Vision API is used to detect text, logos, objects, and more within photographs, while the Cloud Natural Language API uses the detected text to categorize the images. This data makes it possible to search the digitized collection for specific images that would otherwise be lost in the vast archive.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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The One Skill That Will Help You Become a Better Portrait Photographer

04 Nov

Watch any accomplished people photographer at work and you’ll see deliberate intention. Not so much with their camera, but with their subject. Bruce Gilden takes just moments to photograph New Yorkers in the streets. Nick Knight spends hours with models in his studio or on location. The relationships they have with the people they photograph is calculated and purposeful.

The One Skill That Will Make You A Better Portrait Photographer Monk in a Samlor © Kevin Landwer-Johan

Photographers with less experience approach making a portrait differently. They’ll look at the camera in their hands, make technical decisions, alter and check settings, change lenses, perhaps add filters. All with the intention of making a better photograph.

Meanwhile, the portrait subject is probably feeling a bit lost or ignored. They may become disinterested, or even bored.

Engaging with the person you want to photograph will help you get better photos far more than fiddling with your camera at the last minute.

The One Skill That Will Make You A Better Portrait Photographer Kayaw Girl © Kevin Landwer-Johan

Connect and Relate

Pay attention to your subject. You won’t see an experienced professional focusing on the camera when they are with their subject. They will have already taken care of the exposure and focus options, made conversation, and paid their compliments. The smiles and laughter will come naturally, or a more somber mood established if needed.

Relating to your subject, giving them your attention and engaging them will help them relax. When the subject enjoys the process and feels good about it you’ll get much better portraits.

The One Skill That Will Make You A Better Portrait Photographer Pretty Dancer © Kevin Landwer-Johan

For this photo made during a street parade, I wanted to eliminate the background. This was a challenge as there were people and activity everywhere. I had to move her until there was nothing distracting behind her. As I did, I chatted with her and mimicked how I wanted her to hold her hands. She was fascinated that I was being so precise and enjoying the interaction.

Even if you have only a short time to make a portrait, learning to connect is the best thing you can do to improve your craft. For me, it was extremely difficult as I’m a naturally shy person.

The One Skill That Will Make You A Better Portrait Photographer Laughing Lady © Kevin Landwer-Johan

Purposefully Build Your Confidence

My career started in the photography department of a daily newspaper. I quickly realized that to be successful I needed to overcome my insecurities. Most photos in newspapers include at least one person in the composition, so if I didn’t overcome these securities, I wouldn’t have a job for long.

You probably won’t have the same pressure to perform and come up with publishable pictures. But if you aren’t accustomed to connecting with people, you’ll need to change if you want to make engaging portraits.

Shy photographers often think, ‘I don’t want to impose on people, or cause them any bother.’ This is the first aspect of portraiture you need to work on.

The One Skill That Will Make You A Better Portrait Photographer Grandpa © Kevin Landwer-Johan

Instead of thinking you’ll be a nuisance, think that you might just make someone’s day by photographing them. People often like attention. If you approach them with a smile and a friendly manner, you’ll be surprised at the responses.

Revisit the Same Locations

Building relationships with people over time will allow you to photograph them more easily. We run photography workshops in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The people at the markets and villages are now quite familiar with us. We know many people who enjoy being photographed. We’ve been purposely building relationships.

You may have a local farmers market or your kid’s football club you can go to regularly with your camera. Return to the same locations and photograph the same circumstances. Doing so will help build relationships – and your confidence.

The One Skill That Will Make You A Better Portrait Photographer Lemon Grass © Kevin Landwer-Johan

I’d never photographed this man before. But he’d seen me around taking photos and was keen to have his picture taken. This makes life easy for a photographer. Him being so open and willing meant I could easily engage with him and get a very natural environmental portrait, even though he was posing. I showed some interest in him. I asked about the produce he was selling and he responded warmly.

Take Control of Your Camera

Know your camera. Plan ahead and set your gear before you’re with your subject. Choose the right lens. Guess what the light will be like and whether you want a soft or sharply focused background. If you’re unsure about using manual controls, choose aperture priority so you can get the depth of field you want.

When you know your camera well and are in control of it, you’ll be free to engage your subject. Talking with your subject before taking their photo will be far more beneficial than messing around with your camera settings.

The One Skill That Will Make You A Better Portrait Photographer Porter © Kevin Landwer-Johan

I’d seen this porter at the market a number of times, and sensed he was a little shy. But I wanted to photograph him. He has an interesting face and traditional tattoos on his forearms.

When I saw him resting on his push cart I set my exposure manually and made a test frame from across the street without him being aware. I guessed my focus distance and then approached him. I anticipated him being shy, and that some of the vendors might start teasing him and encouraging him to smile.

He agreed to me photographing him. But as he did, he put his hands by his side. I asked him to put them back where he had them, explaining that I wanted to photograph his tattoos as well.

In this short moment, two or three people did start to tease him. He got embarrassed and pushed his handcart off down the street. This frame is the only clear one I got.

If I’d been ill-prepared with my camera and not engaged him, I doubt the picture would be as interesting.

The next time I saw him I gave him a print of his portrait. He always says “Hi” to me now and gives me a big smile when we visit the markets.

The One Skill That Will Make You A Better Portrait Photographer Model and Mask © Kevin Landwer-Johan

Learn From the Masters

When I was learning there were no YouTube or other internet resources to help me. These days there are dozens of documentaries and programs showing photographers at work. Find some you admire and wish to emulate, and learn how they do it.

This documentary about some of New York’s well-known street photographers will give you a good insight into how different people achieve their results.

One of my favorite Instagram feeds is that of Lee Jefferies’ portraits. In this video, he tells a little of his story, and how he creates his incredibly intimate portraits of homeless people.

Many of the best portrait photographers are naturally more reserved. This comes through in their photography. Their portraits speak more about the subject than the photographer.

Engage Intentionally

Next time you make a portrait, converse and connect with your subject more than with your camera.

And if you’ve had a fun conversation with someone while making a portrait, share your story with us in the comments.

The post The One Skill That Will Help You Become a Better Portrait Photographer appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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8 Tips to Help Find the Subject for Your Composition

29 Aug

Do you find it difficult to take photos which hold people’s attention? In our digital societies where image sharing is prolific, it is challenging to have people really take time to look at your prized photos. Image composition is key here.

So I want to give you eight tips on how to create pictures that will grab hold your viewer’s attention. People will want to stop and look rather than keep scrolling past your images.

Mask at a Chiang Mai Market - 8 Tips to Help Find the Subject for Your Composition

A good composition should have a clear main subject. It might be as plain as a landscape or a person’s face, or it might be something very small in the frame. If the composition is good the main subject will stand out like a sore thumb.

We all have a unique view of the world. Each of us takes in the world around us in different ways. If you have ever been on a group photo walk and taken part in a shared image review afterward, you will know this. Each photographer will have walked the same street, and the number of photographers that participated, there will be that same variety of pictures.

girl with Kayan Neck Rings - 8 Tips to Help Find the Subject for Your Composition

1. Choose a subject you can relate to

What catches your eye? Why does it appeal to you? You should be asking yourself these things when you are taking pictures. If you choose subjects that you feel a connection with you will create more interesting photos. This is simply because you are interested in the subject yourself.

So your initial choice of subject should be something that you can connect with. My subject of the portrait below is a woman my wife and I chat with at the local market. We connect with her. I wrote about her and her late husband in a recent article.

Because I have this lovely friendship with her it is easier for me to make lovely pictures of her. I know she will happily pose for me. I also know I will get a more interesting photo of her when she is that bit more relaxed and not looking directly at me. In this photo, she was chatting with my wife who was standing beside me.

Sticky Rice Vendor - 8 Tips to Help Find the Subject for Your Composition

2. Isolate the subject

About the most obvious way to have your main subject stand out in your photos is to isolate it.

My favorite two ways to isolate my subject is to use a narrow depth of field or a dark background. By using either of these techniques your main subject will be unmistakable.

Choosing a wide enough aperture and having your subject far enough from the background will allow you to have your background blurred and your subject sharp. If you are using a camera with a small sensor or a smartphone with only one lens, this may not be possible.

When you have a dark background your subject will stand out, especially when there is more light on the subject than the background. To achieve this look find a spot where the background is in the shade and your subject has more light on it/them.

Kayaw portrait - composition

3. Choose your lens carefully

Your choice of lens can affect how you compose the image and how your main subject will be seen. Sometimes a wide-angle lens is better than a telephoto. Other times you will need a longer lens.

Getting close to your subject with a wide lens has a different effect than if you use a long lens and position yourself further away. If you are not sure about how this works the best way to learn is to experiment.

Try taking a series of photos of the same subject with various lenses or zoom settings and see in which photos your main subject looks the best.

Chaing Mai Fresh Market Vendor - composition

4. Frame your subject

Set up your subject how you want to see them. Move around your subject and study them from different angles. Watch closely how the background changes in relation to what’s behind them. Find an angle where your subject looks best.

Limit what you include in your frame. Fill your frame only with what is relevant to the photo you are making. If you can see anything in the frame which does not balance with or enhance your subject keep making changes until you can no longer see those things.

5. Exploit the foreground

Make use of something in the foreground of your composition to draw the viewer’s eye to your subject. This technique will add depth to your composition.

Use an object which is in front of your main subject, either in focus or out of focus. This can help bring the viewer’s eye to concentrate more on your subject.

Kayaw Ethnic Minority Girl by Kevin Landwer-Johan

6. Use leading lines and diagonals

Composing your photo so there are strong lines leading to your main subject will enhance it. The viewer’s eye will be lead along the lines to rest on your chosen subject. This is a very simple, very effective technique.

Diagonal lines used well in a composition can also be used to draw the viewer’s eye to the main subject.

7. Time it well

Choosing the right time to take your photo can help to bring attention to your main subject. When you are photographing in a busy location good timing is imperative. Having someone walk in front or behind your main subject just as you take your photo would detract from your main subject.

Watch carefully. When I am in a busy place I usually have both eyes open, rather than closing one. This way I can see more of what is happening around me and my subject and it helps me time my photos better.

Bust Chiang Mai Market by Kevin Landwer-Johan

8. Crop imaginatively

Don’t always stick to the rules of composition. Stepping outside the box can help highlight your main subject in unusual ways.

In this photo of the gold elephant statue against the gold wall of the chedi, everything tended to blend together. The harsh light was not helpful. Cropping tight to the elephant and only including half of it draws your attention there. The negative space balances the composition.

Temple Gold Elephant by Kevin Landwer-Johan

Conclusion

Try these tips sometimes. Be mindful of your main subject and whatever else is in your frame. If there are distractions, use one or more of these techniques to draw attention to your main subject and have it tell the story you want.

Having your primary subject stand out will make your photo easy for people to look at and relate to. But more than just having your subject stand out, you need to frame it so that it lets viewers see the subject and scene how you see it.

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6 Tips To Help You Improve Your Documentary Photos

06 Aug

Documentary photos can have a powerful impact on viewers. They can notify people of an issue that they wouldn’t otherwise know about. Documentary images can help focus attention on different cultures that are rarely seen by other people. They can inspire, tell stories, and above all they can take the viewer on a journey that they may not go on themselves.

It’s important to remember that documentary photos differ to the conventional travel photographs. Yes they can overlap sometimes but documentary photos need to tell a story first and foremost. Here are 6 tips to help you improve your documentary photos.

woman burning leaves - Documentary Photos

1. Tell a Story

Before even a single photo has been taken, you need to decide on the story that you want to tell.

Are you trying to capture a specific event or ritual? Do you want to shed light on an environmental issue? Or do you want to document a different aspect of an already well-photographed location by focusing on say the grittier side of it away from the glitz and glamour?

Whatever the story is, your first action should be to write it down in a sentence. That will become your brief and with every photo you take, you should be looking to ensure it meets that requirement.

Not only will this help you to begin to build a shot list of potential things to photograph, but it will also ensure that you are always focused on the subjects you are photographing.

man cooking over a fire - Documentary Photos

2. Brainstorm Shots

Once you have an idea of what your story is about, you can begin to create a shot list based on that headline. So for example, if you want to photograph a traditional festival, some of the things that might be on your shot list could be things like:

The performers getting ready
Close up of the costumes
Head and shoulder portraits of the performers and audience
Action shots of the festival in action (for example dancing, singing, etc.)
Wide-angle shots capturing the entire event (for example to show the scale)
The venue (if it is in a place of special interest)
Any traditional foods or drinks served

This will help you plan your shoot and make sure that you cover different aspects of the story you are trying to tell.

Clearly, while you are there you may find that this list changes and other things get added or crossed off. The key is to make sure you capture a variety of shots based on your initial brief.

two men in red costumes - Documentary Photos

3. Planning and Setting Up

It’s not by accident that documentary photographers seem to be in the right place at the right time to capture stunning shots. This is not by accident or luck. There has likely been a lot of planning and research that’s gone into the shoot to ensure that they can maximize their time and capture the best photos. So, do your research before you start shooting.

For example, if you are photographing a parade get to that location a day before and work out the best place to be. Ask the locals if they know anything that might help you. Or if you are planning to photograph a remote tribe, contact local guides that can help you get there and also translate if needed.

Preparation is a huge part of documentary photography and you should spend time making sure you are fully prepared before you start.

parade with a religious float - Documentary Photos

4. Be Ready to Shoot

Once your research is done and you have planned everything, it’s time to execute and capture the photos. There is no magic formula for choosing your camera settings when taking documentary photos, as every scenario is different.

But you can prepare for it in advance by understanding your camera and predicting the scenario that you might face. For example, if you are photographing locals in their home where you are likely to encounter low light conditions, you can safely assume that you will need to raise your ISO level to be able to capture the shot. So, practice at home so that not only can work quickly but also you know your camera’s capabilities at high ISO settings.

Or if you are going to be photographing a dance festival where there will be fast movement practice being able to focus accurately and capture sharp photos. Trying to predict the scenario you are working in will often help ensure that you don’t panic when you are actually there and taking photos for real.

demonstration by doctors and nurses - Documentary Photos

5. Story Over Aesthetics

Arguably this is where documentary photography and travel photography differ.

While often in travel photography you want to try and tell a story, you also need to convey that in a beautiful and aspiring way that will make people want to travel to that destination. But documentary photography is about telling the story first and foremost and if the aesthetics have to suffer to capture it, then so be it.

So, don’t be afraid to break away from convention if it means you will capture the shot that will help tell that story.

protestors in the park - Documentary Photos

6. Edit Ruthlessly

Once you have captured all of the images that you wanted to get, then arguably the really hard work starts.

You need to edit and select the best of those images with which to showcase and tell the entire story. Flick through magazines and you will see that generally, a photo essay is anywhere between 6-10 photos maximum. You need to be ruthless in your culling and only feature photos that contribute to the overall story.

Try to detach yourself and think like a photo editor, not a photographer. The end result should be a collection of photos that are strong enough individually but also work as a collective.

Lightroom browser of images - Documentary Photos

Conclusion

Well done documentary photos can be mesmerizing to view and they tell an incredibly powerful story. It could be argued that they are often more powerful than the words that go along with them. Even the simplest stories can be phenomenal in a series of photos.

But capturing a set of photos that are different and yet can work together as a series and also tell a story is incredibly difficult. Follow these six simple tips and you will be on your way to capturing amazing documentary photos.

Now it’s your turn. Share your amazing documentary photos below.

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5 Tips to Help You Do Better Nighttime Photography

15 Jul

Nighttime photography offers the opportunity to observe and photograph some great astronomical subjects including the moon (as a whole or during different phases), stars, the Milky Way and even celestial events such as the Northern Lights. If you are new to night photography or want to improve your shots, here are 5 tips to help you on your way:

1. Decide on a subject

Nighttime photography 01 - northern lights over mountains and a lake

Capturing beautiful images at night is not as easy as you might think and camera techniques and settings differ greatly to photographing during the day. Turning up to a location in darkness and hoping to shoot as you would in the daytime can lead to disappointment. You won’t be able to see much by nightfall and finding a scene to shoot will be extremely challenging.

Whether your dream night shoot is to photograph the stars, the moon, meteors or the Milky Way, for example, decide on a subject first and then where you would like to shoot it.

It may seem obvious, but if you want to photograph the moon, there are different phases of the moon to consider.

Nighttime photography 02 - full moon landscape at night

You also need to be aware of the changes in light that can occur with a full moon or a new moon. Photographing under a full moon will make the sky and landscapes brighter. This means that you won’t be able to photograph as many stars as you would with a new moon but you will see a beautifully lit landscape with fewer dark shadows.

Neither of the phases is more photogenic than the other, they simply offer different opportunities and variations in lighting. Research the moon’s phase and plan where you would like it to appear in your image by using an app like PhotoPills or The Photographer’s Ephemeris.

Nighttime photography - stars and tree at night

2. Choose your shooting location during the day

Exposing yourself to a location and its surroundings during the day will help you decide what you want to shoot later at night.

Find a location before dark to avoid the frustration of seeing blind at night and a likely lack of decent images from the shoot. Give yourself time to find your spot and come up with a composition during the day to help you capture better images by nightfall.

Nighttime photography - star trails over a mountain valley

3. Include other elements

Once you have chosen a subject and found a decent location to shoot, your next task is to find a composition you like and that will work well combined with a beautiful night sky. Look for other interesting elements to add to your shots. Other subjects you can include with the moon and stars might include architecture, trees, the landscape or an interesting water source.

Nighttime photography - northern lights over mountains and waterfalls

4. Use a tripod

To stabilize the camera and capture sharper images, always use a tripod. You will need to operate your camera in near darkness and allow for longer shutter speeds in order to record a brighter image than the blackness you will initially see with your naked eye.

A tripod will help you to get the best image quality and a sharper shot. If you don’t have a tripod with you, you could improvise by finding a spot to put the camera down such as on a wall or ledge to keep it from moving when taking the photo.

Any image blur and camera movement can ruin nighttime photography. Even if your hands are as steady as a surgeon’s in the operating theatre, you will move the camera slightly while pressing the shutter button. So in addition to using a tripod, a remote trigger to fire the camera is another good idea.

Nighttime photography - crescent moon and clouds

5. Raise the ISO

You will find that if you want to shoot striking photos after dusk, you may need to use slow shutter speeds (long exposures). In order to maintain the quality of a photo that you can capture during the day when using a low rating of say ISO 100-200, this is necessary.

Sometimes a long exposure may not suit the subject you are photographing so to help you shoot faster (in other words, use a faster shutter speed) during low light, you will need to increase the ISO setting to accommodate.

Nighttime photography - stars and waterfall

The advantages of increasing the ISO to 3200 or 6400 include more detail in the image and a brighter exposure with a shorter shutter speed. However, this comes at a price as the higher the ISO you choose, the more noise will be evident in your image, impacting the overall quality.

I would recommend going for a balance between a slightly slower shutter speed from 1 to 30 seconds and a medium ISO setting of around 1000 or 3200 to get the best image possible without compromising too much on quality. Note: This will depend on your subject though as star trails or the Milky Way may require it higher.

Nighttime photography 08

Conclusion

Once you have experimented with these tips you will soon discover that photographing in the dark can be just as enjoyable and easy as shooting during the day. So what’s stopping you from getting out there and capturing your best ever night shots?

Do you have any nighttime photography tips you would like to share?

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Pros and Cons of Chimping – What is it and how it can hurt or help you?

15 Jul

Whether you are an amateur taking photos with your smartphone or a pro using a DSLR, if you make digital photographs, you do chimping. It doesn’t matter if you’ve heard the term or not it could be hurting your photographic practice so keep reading to learn about the pros and cons of chimping and how to use it (or stop using it) to your advantage.

Chimping Tutorial Intro - Pros and Cons of Chimping - photo of a DSLR camera screen

What is chimping?

There’s no doubt that digital photography has many advantages. One of them is being able to see the result of your shot immediately instead of having to wait until you got your film developed. This practice is commonly known as chimping, since Bryan Peterson coined the term and it became popular.

However, it’s not all good. If used without much thought you may not be taking full advantage of it or even worse, it could be working against you.

So, chimping is simply the act of checking your images on your camera’s LCD screen. It doesn’t necessarily imply what you do after that. You may delete some photos, you may do some adjustments to your settings for the following shots or you may even stop taking any more photos because you’re satisfied with what you’ve got. That’s where it gets tricky.

Pros and Cons of Chimping

Pro #1

If you change the conditions dramatically and need to readjust your settings it’s very helpful to find out immediately if you got the shot right. Here is an example.

It was a bright sunny day so I was photographing outside with an ISO of 100, f-stop of f/5.6 and a shutter speed of 1/250th. When I walked inside a room it was obviously much darker. But because I was looking at the beauty of the walls and the play of the elements and design I just snapped a photo without thinking about the change of lighting. Needless to say, it came out extremely dark.

Fortunately, however, I did some chimping, realized the issue and adjusted the ISO to 400.

Chimping Tutorial Outside Inside - Pros and Cons of Chimping - comparison of two photos

Con #1

Things look very different on your camera’s small screen as compared to the big screen of your computer. You might think the photo you just took is perfect but that’s not always the case. For example, this image looked good when I was chimping on the camera when I shot it, but once I downloaded it back home I realized the focus was not really sharp.

Chimping Tutorial Soft Focus - Pros and Cons of Chimping

When zoomed in on the computer this image is clearly out of focus, but it looked sharp on the camera.

Pro #2

If you are looking for a really concrete shot or effect you can immediately know if you are achieving it or what you need to adjust in order to get it by chimping and reviewing the image on the camera.

For example, I wanted to capture the movement of these ice skaters. This is always a tricky effect because you need to set the right shutter speed so it doesn’t freeze the subject or leave just a smudge if it’s too slow. If you are interested in learning how to do this I invite you to check out my tutorial, “How to Have Fun with Shutter Speed and Added Motion Blur”.

You also need to move the camera (panning) at the same speed of the subject so this is an exercise where you need to try many times and definitely do some chimping.

Chimping Tutorial Slow ShutterSpeed Blur Movement - Pros and Cons of Chimping - skaters

Con #2

Another con of chimping is you can miss out on the perfect moment, that once-in-a-lifetime shot because you were looking at your screen instead of paying attention to the scene.

Here, for example, I wanted to capture the elephant throwing the dirt with its trunk. But I looked at my screen (and snapped) a second too late and all I got was the dirt cloud and the trunk almost all the way down.

Chimping Tutorial the Decisive Moment - elephant

Fortunately, elephants do this a lot, so I just had to wait a little bit longer (without taking my eyes off them this time) and got the photo.

Chimping Tutorial the Decisive Moment2 - elephant spraying dirt

Tips

If you have some time to review your photos and you’re sure you’re not going to be missing a once in a lifetime opportunity, then go ahead check, but do it well. Zoom into your image especially on any risky parts, like the shadows and highlights, to see they still have detail as well as your focus point to see that it’s sharp.

Chimping Tutorial Critical Points Zoom Review

Use the Histogram

When you are chimping, check your image but don’t forget to review the histogram as well. It should have a good range from black to white with many grey tones (unless you purposely went towards one end of the spectrum).

Most DSLR cameras have this feature integrated. On mine (a Canon 70D), for example, you access the histogram by playing the image, then clicking on the info button and it gives you the histogram by color channel and the general histogram.

Chimping Tutorial Histogram In Camera Review

Even after reviewing your photos and deciding you have what you need, do some extra shots. For example, I went to photograph a temple so it was mostly about architecture photos. After walking around it and shooting every angle on the outside, I went inside and did some shooting there as well.

I figured I had all I needed to head back to the city. Fortunately, I never put away the camera when I’m out for a shoot, especially in a new place. So when I was walking down the stairs I found this little girl in a traditional costume just resting from all the tourist attention she was getting. Never close the door to possibilities!

Chimping Tutorial Extra Shot

Finally

One last thing, reviewing and deleting the photos you don’t want can save you space on your memory card but having the screen on consumes a lot of battery so make sure you keep a good balance. No use in having lots of battery life if you don’t have space for more photos and equally useless to have an empty card but no battery to shoot!

So chimping is not a good or bad thing in itself, it’s more about how you use it. Let us know in the comments what are your chimping habits and share some of your tips!

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