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Film Fridays: 9 analog photography ideas for isolation

24 Apr

Introduction

Whether you’re stuck indoors due to the global pandemic, or other reasons, there are plenty of ways to keep busy and to keep your photographic senses sharp. We’ve already covered some general photographic ideas for isolation as well as ways working photographers can keep busy. But what about old school analog shooters?

What follows are nine ways film photography lovers can stay occupied and have fun, all from the comfort and safety of your own home. Activities range from building your own cameras, to making your own strange film stocks, to learning to develop and print at home. Let’s dive in!

Build a pinhole camera

Building a pinhole camera is a classic Photo 101 exercise, but one that truly conveys the beauty and simplicity of “painting with light.” The Internet is filled with tutorials about making pinhole cameras from everyday materials. The most basic generally employ an aluminum can as one’s light-proof container, a piece of photo paper as the light-sensitive material and a small hole in the can as the aperture and lens. A simple piece of gaffer’s tape can function as the shutter, controlling when exposures begin and end.

For a more refined pinhole experience, many brands offer build-your-own kits ranging in their sophistication and complexity. Also a brand called Lensless offers a very cool line of wooden pinholes with different focal lengths, image size formats and made of different wood types. We’re also big fans of the Solarcan (above), a single-use pinhole meant to capture multi-day exposures of the sun’s path in you guessed it, a large can.

Learn to develop B&W film at home

Whether you’re new to developing B&W film or you have some experience, home developing is a fun, easy and reasonably inexpensive hobby. It’s also the kind of activity that’ll likely help you better appreciate the magic of photography and the nuances of chemistry.

We’ve put together a complete guide with everything you need to known to get started, including which supplies and chemicals to buy, how to clean up, how to digitize your negatives and other best practices. Read it below:

Developing film at home: everything you need to know to get started

Set up a home darkroom and make some prints

While we’re on the subject of developing B&W at home, why not make some B&W prints with your freshly-dried negatives while you’re at it? Home printing is almost certainly easier and cheaper than you might think.

Our pals over at the analog blog 35mmc.com have put together a handy guide to home printing on a shoestring budget. They even address concerns like: printing in a small space (such as an apartment) and how to best source equipment on the used market. You’ll also find some very handy tips for improvising darkroom gear with ordinary household items.

Read: How to build a darkroom for cheap

Digitize old negatives / experiment with sandwiching negatives

Whether you’re a former film shooter sitting on a box of aging negatives, or a modern analog maverick with current work in need of digitizing, scanning film can be a very rewarding, though often time-consuming activity. It can also be approached in many different ways. One of the most popular methods involves digitizing using a flatbed scanner and film holders. Epson’s V600 series is one you’ll hear mentioned often by film shooters because it is both affordable and fairly easy to use.

For quicker results, you can try photographing negatives with a macro lens on a digital camera with a diffused light source behind the negative; there are quite a few solutions out there for how to best mount/flatten one’s negatives when using this method. We personally think Nikon’s ES-2 film adapter works fairly well, and we’re also fans of the Pixl-later.

Another way to breathe some fresh creative life into old (or new) negatives is to experiment with sandwiching them together when digitizing. This can lead to some fun and funky results.

Turn your house/apartment into a camera

Photo: Brendan Barry

Sure, can-sized pinhole cameras are fun, but why not turn an entire room in your house or apartment into a giant pinhole? Photographer Brendan Barry is no stranger to turning odd things into picture-making machines and in the tutorial below, he’ll show you how to create a larger than life camera and capture the results, all without leaving the confines of your home.

Considerations like which room to use, what kind of lens to employ and how to create a positive print are all covered at length. We just hope you’ve got some extra cardboard lying around to cover your windows!

Build a 35mm film camera

So we’ve covered making pinhole cameras both from household items as well as turning your house itself into a camera. Both these methods look to capture an image on light sensitive paper. But what if you want to build a camera that can capture images on film instead?

Given the complexities of any working film camera, there aren’t many useful tutorials out there for how to build one from scratch. But worry not. For a hands-on experience that’ll teach you the basic mechanical functions of how a film camera works, look no further than Lomography’s Konstruktor Camera. This affordable kit will take a few hours to put together and the final product is a fully-functional 35mm camera that’s actually pretty fun to shoot. There’s even a flash-compatible model.

For more on the Konstruktor, including samples, check out this review on Popphoto.com from several years back.

Hunt for a new analog companion

Gear acquisition syndrome is real and we in no way are trying to encourage those with enough cameras to add to their collection. However, if you are genuinely in the market for a new analog friend, we’ve put together two guides listing 20 of our absolute favorite film cameras.

These two lists include both medium format and 35mm cameras. It’s also worth noting we’ve tried our best to only recommend cameras that have a reputation for reliability and that are fairly priced on the secondhand market. So get ready to hunt through Ebay, here are the 20 best film cameras worth buying right now…

Analog gems part 1: 10 excellent, affordable film cameras

Analog gems part 2: 10 additional film cameras worth buying right now

Track down some unusual film or make your own

It may seem somewhat counterintuitive, but in many respects, we’re living in a golden age of film experimentation. For starters, the second-hand market is awash with tons of expired film to shoot with, often for very cheap. And brands like Lomography offer an impressive catalog of strange film stocks (we personally enjoy the Lomochrom Purple). There are also plenty of smaller, boutique brands making fun and whacky films.

For those of you already with a freezer full of film, try soaking a few rolls in everyday household liquids. For instance, the image above was from a roll soaked in pickle juice. Just be sure to give said roll a thorough soaking in fresh water and dry it before running it through your camera (and keep those processes light-tight). It’s also a good idea to give your film handler a heads-up about how you’ve treated the film, or better yet, develop the rolls yourself.

Give your well-used gear some TLC

It’s important to keep your analog cameras in tip-top working order. And while there are many repairs we would never suggest you try, like anything involving wiring or disassembly, there are plenty of smaller repairs and bits of maintenance you can do to increase the life span of your cameras.

One of the simplest repairs involves replacing the light seals and bits of foam inside the film door. You can pick up a generic pack of light seals / foam off places like Ebay for very little money. Another simple repair involves using rubbing alcohol to de-corrode electronic contacts and/or remove stuck-on grime from the camera body. And for those who are a bit more confident, cleaning or replacing a film SLR’s focus screen can go a long way towards improving usability.

The wrap

And there you have it, nine fun ways analog shooters can continue to keep busy in these strange times. Think of these activities as forms of self care, because for many of us, photography and photography-adjacent projects help us tap into a sense of calm and peace. Sure, shooting film won’t end the global pandemic. But at least nurturing your love of analog can help distract you while you remain safely at home.

Got any more fun film photography ideas for isolation? Drop them in the comments below and we’ll consider adding them to this list.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Nine things working photographers can do for their business during isolation

14 Apr

Things photographers can do for their business during isolation

The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on a lot of creative industries, including professional photography. For the past 7 years, I’ve been a self-employed photographer shooting mainly corporate events and restaurants. Just a month ago, my business was starting to pick up, and I was excited for a packed year of photography gigs. But COVID-19 started to spread and in less than 2 weeks, all of my photoshoots for the year were canceled or postponed indefinitely. It was a blow that I genuinely did not see coming.

Today, I have been self-quarantining at home for nearly a month, looking for any excuse to flex my creative muscles. In doing so, I’ve come up with 9 things that professional photographers can do while in isolation at home.

Evaluate your camera gear

Use this time to take inventory of your camera gear and accessories. Thoroughly clean your camera sensor and lenses (if you don’t know how now’s a good time to learn). If you find any gear that needs to be repaired, make a note of it, but don’t send it in to the manufacturer as many servicing facilities have closed down recently.

Make a list of all of your gear with details such as serial numbers for your own records and for insurance purposes. There are mobile apps for this, such as MyGearVault or Zither (iOS only) but a Google Docs spreadsheet will also work just fine. Speaking of insurance, make sure all of your gear is properly insured to give you peace of mind if you happen to damage or lose your gear.

Finally, take note of your camera inventory and evaluate what you really need. If you’re low on funds and really need the money, selling camera gear is one way to help make ends meet.

Rework your photography contracts

Before you perform any photography service in exchange for money, it is wise to have your client sign a photography contract. There are a number of reasons why photography contracts are important, but there’s one reason in particular that stands out right now. A good photography contract will have a section detailing what happens if a photoshoot needs to be canceled. This is important during times of economic prosperity (ie. what happens if you, the photographer, gets sick and can’t shoot?). But it is more important than ever now that nearly every type of photoshoot has been put on hold or canceled.

I am not a legal professional and cannot provide specific guidance, but here are a few things to consider spelling out in your photography contracts:

If a deposit is paid to secure your services, under what terms (if any) is that deposit refundable?
What happens if the client needs to postpone or cancel the photoshoot?

When it comes to enforcing the contract terms, it depends on your relationship with the client, but it doesn’t hurt to have some flexibility, especially since everyone is suffering right now. I’ve had a number of relatively positive outcomes including clients who credit the deposit toward a future photoshoot, some who decided not to collect the deposit back even though they had every right to, and many who have promised to rehire me for the photoshoot when they are able to reschedule it.

Back up your photos

If you don’t already have a solid backup system for your photography content, now is a great time to start one. There are a lot of backup options out there including NAS and RAID systems, cloud storage, and simply using physical hard drives. According to the 3-21- backup strategy, you should have at least 3 copies of your data, 2 copies that are on different devices (think 2 different hard drives), and 1 copy offsite (think cloud storage).

The great news about backups is that the cost of physical hard drives has dropped dramatically. Western Digital 10TB hard drives are under $ 200 right now, and Costco likely has not sold out of hard drives yet. My backup strategy uses a combination of physical hard drives, and cloud backups to both Backblaze and SmugMug.

Update your portfolio

While you’re backing up your photo archives, take time to comb through your library of images for work that can be used to update your photography portfolio. Add new work to existing albums, and consider making new categories. A section for Personal Projects is always great for showcasing creativity.

If you don’t have a photography portfolio or are considering switching platforms, now is a great time to look into different website options. Today, photographers are using everything from WordPress, Squarespace, SmugMug, and Instagram to showcase their work. Some sites are free and others are paid; many paid sites are offering discounts or extended trials right now, so consider taking advantage of them.

Also, don’t forget to update your LinkedIn profile. Although photography resumes are rarely needed, LinkedIn is a great place to keep a digital resume and professional presence. It can also help you generate new photography leads if you use the platform regularly.

Experiment with different photography techniques

It takes about 10,000 hours to master a skill, and it’s still possible to keep taking photos even if you’re stuck inside. Play with different photography concepts such as natural lighting and artificial lighting, macro photography – you get the picture. Explore these concepts in-depth and consider participating in or setting up a daily photography challenge for motivation. You may end up new skills that you can use in the future, or a new section in your portfolio.

One particular photography genre worth exploring is product photography. Online sales everywhere are up even during this pandemic which means that product photography is more important than ever before. Product photography requires proficiency in lighting and composition, and many of these skills are transferable to other types of photography including headshots and stock photography. You can also make a makeshift product photography “studio” in your home without buying expensive gear.

Consider selling stock photos

Stock photography doesn’t always have a positive reputation because payouts can be small and you typically have to upload a large number of photos over a long period of time to see results. However, this is a good time to consider stock photography because 1) we have a lot of time on our hands, and 2) any long-term passive income payment is better than nothing.

If you’re curious about stock photography, there are a number of websites out there where you can sign up and start uploading almost immediately. Shutterstock is my favorite since it is relatively quick and easy to upload and keyword content, and I have consistently made sales there since I started uploading two years ago. Just sign up for an account, read the fine print that details what quality standards they require and start learning about how to keyword your images since keywording is ultimately what will help you sell more images.

But before you start uploading, make sure that the images you want to sell are not prohibited for re-sale if you shot them for a client (refer to your contract), or a unique image that you might want to sell for yourself at a higher value down the road.

Diversify your income

This point may be hard to act on right now as many industries are not hiring, but start thinking of ways to diversify your income outside of taking photos. The reality is that outside of a pandemic, there are many reasons why you may not be able to perform your job (ie. prolonged illness, personal situations). In times like this, it’s important to have other streams of income or jobs that you can do that don’t require you physically picking up a camera.

Think editing photos for other photographers, being an image quality reviewer for stock photography websites, teaching photography classes, etc.

Prioritize your spending

This is probably a no-brainer if your business has ground to a halt as mine has, but it bears repeating. Now is the time to save your money as much as possible. We don’t know how long this pandemic will be around or how long it will be before business is back up and running. Realistically, not all of our clients’ businesses may make it, and budgets for photography may shrink or dry up after all of this is over. So count your pennies now and do what you can to make your money stretch.

And if you don’t already have one, consider starting an emergency saving account that you chip in to on a regular basis. This may not be possible to start right now, but this pandemic is a good reminder of why it is essential to have emergency savings on hand in the future.

Take up a new hobby

Even though it’s important to keep practicing photography right now, it’s also worth taking a break from it. Taking some time away from photography is great for inspiring different types of creativity. We have so much time on our hands right now, that you can make the most out of it by learning a new skill or taking up new hobbies. Is there a language you always wanted to learn? Or a recipe you want to perfect? Think of a time when you’ve said, “If only I had more time, I would do ___” and start doing it.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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How to Keep Your Photographic Muscles Flexing During the Times of Isolation

05 Apr

The post How to Keep Your Photographic Muscles Flexing During the Times of Isolation appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Ana Mireles.

We’re currently facing challenges that most of us haven’t faced before. How do you keep photographing when you can’t visit interesting locations or meet your models? Here are some ideas for you to exercise your photographic muscles during this time of isolation.

Keep Photographing without leaving the house — 1/13 sec. f/8; ISO 800

According to where you live, you may be more or less constrained regarding your travel distances. Maybe the problem is not even reaching an adventurous place but you can’t even get to your studio. Whichever is your case, these ideas are meant for you to keep photographing with minimum resources.

Get smart

If you happen to be in insolation and unable to reach your equipment, maybe it’s time for you to go into mobile phone photography, if you haven’t done so already. Smartphones today have multiple cameras, a wide range of focal lengths and super-high resolution. This is not to say that you can’t do great things with lower-range devices.

The device itself is only one part of the equation, then you can go into the huge variety of apps you’ll find on the market. There’s one for every need and budget. Firstly, you can use a camera app to control the settings of the camera, and then other ones for post-production.

Mobile Photography examples — I took this image with a Sony Xperia Z3 using the default camera app.

In this example, you see the original photo on the left made with a very basic (and old) device.

The middle image is a version processed for Instagram. I used ‘A Color Story’; an app that has some basic retouching tools, sets of filters constantly updating according to the trends, and a grid to schedule your feed.

In the image on the right, I used the Photoshop app for normal post-production as I would have done on my computer. I cropped and fixed the perspective, and also did some fine-tuning of the exposure. You can sync it up with your Adobe CC account or you can use a lighter version for free if you are not subscribed.

Self-portrait

If you’re housebound and you live alone, you can use yourself as a subject.

If you’re a portrait photographer, this can keep you going while gaining insight into what it feels like to be on the other side of the lens. However, if you’re not used to doing portraits, this is your chance to experiment with new types of photography. If you’re shy, you can go abstract or conceptual; so no excuses – keep photographing!

I decided to go with a creative collage.

Keep photographing by doing a self-portrait

You don’t have a problem getting models? Still, these times are giving everybody the extra push into boosting their online presence. A self-portrait may be just the thing you need to build your brand identity.

Look back

Photography is not just about the shooting, it starts with the idea and planning. Then it continues during development and post-production.

So, to keep photographing, you can also work on the other steps in the process. If you have your hard drive with you, or have your work in the cloud, use this time to dive into your old photographs to do any of these exercises:

Catch up with all the editing, cleaning and back-ups that you just haven’t had the time to do until now.
Do a self-reflection exercise by reviewing your work. There’s a lot that you can learn and improve while looking at the evolution of your projects and techniques. Find your style and what drives you. If it helps, start writing down your thoughts.
Save an old photo. We all have one (or more) photos that didn’t really come together in-camera, but we couldn’t bring ourselves to delete. Maybe you have some new skills that can improve it? Perhaps you just have a new take on it that you didn’t see before? Maybe it still won’t be great, but it will surely serve as practice.

Post production is another way to keep photographing — 1/1600 sec; f/5,0; ISO 400

Post-processing

Use this time to improve and experiment with your digital darkroom skills by processing old files.

Another choice is to download images from the web and practice on them. If you’re not buying them from a stock photo website, then remember to keep an eye on the copyright so that you’re not breaking any laws. Some good free stock sites are Unsplash and Pexels.

Try new techniques on old photos — 1/50 sec. f/8; ISO 1250 Processed with the wet-plate filter from the NIK Collection

For inspiration, you can check out many of the DPS tutorials on basic and creative post-processing.

DIY

I’ve always been a fan of DIY even when I’m not facing any specific limitations. I think that doing things yourself can make you fully understand how they work. Anyway, regardless of one’s philosophy, now we’re facing some difficulties in mobility, availability, and maybe even budget.

If you haven’t done it yet, it’s time for you to try some DIY. Luckily here at DPS, you can find many tutorials on the subject.

If you’re limited in lightning you can try:
Creating Effective DIY Studio Lighting with Household Items.
DIY Flash and Lighting Hacks for Digital Photographers.

If you’re missing your accessories:
How to Use Ordinary Items to Make DIY Photo Filters.
How to Make a DIY Lens Hood to Eliminate Lens Flare.

If you’re lacking props and backgrounds:
DIY Food Photography Props on a Budget.
DIY Lighting and Background Accessories for the Budget Conscious Photographer.

If you just want to have fun and try something new:
DIY: How to Create a Coffee-Stained Texture for Aging Images in Photoshop.
DIY Photography: How to Make Your Own DIY Lightstick for Cool Photos.

Conclusion

Being isolated doesn’t mean that you have to stop doing the things you love. Keep in mind that you’re not alone. Share in the comments section, your exercises and ideas so we can support each other as a community of photographers. And, also share any of your images as a result of trying any of these exercises. We’d love to see them.

The post How to Keep Your Photographic Muscles Flexing During the Times of Isolation appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Ana Mireles.

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Brooklyn photographer captures neighborhood portraits of hope, unity amidst ‘unprecedented’ isolation

03 Apr

As many artists around the world have had to do amidst the Coronavirus pandemic, photographer Stephen Lovekin decided to make the most of these more isolated times to document families and their messages to the world as shared through the windows of Lovekin’s Brooklyn neighborhood of Ditmas Park.

Lovekin, who’s a Shutterstock editorial photographer, came up with the idea for the project after looking for ways to help people feel more connected despite being separated from one another.

‘As a photographer I have always loved and been drawn to shooting portraits – a process that allows a connection to be made between photographer, subject, and viewer,’ Lovekin says about the project. ‘So, when this Coronavirus began to rapidly spread and people were ordered into ‘self-isolation’ and ‘social distancing’, I began to feel compelled to document this unprecedented time in our history by starting locally by reaching out to people in my Brooklyn neighborhood of Ditmas Park to see how they were feeling and to see what message, if any, they would like to share with the world, whether they be personal, political, or spiritual.’

View this post on Instagram

The latest installment of my ‘Words At The Window: Self Isolation And The Coronavirus’ project shot in the neighborhood of Ditmas Park, Brooklyn NYC. #shutterstocknow #wordsatthewindow #selfisolation #quarantine #coronavirus #covid19 #washyourhands #wegotthis #alonetogether #socialdistancing #ditmaspark #brooklyn #nyc #blackandwhite #portrait #nikon

A post shared by Stephen Lovekin (@slovekinpics) on Mar 31, 2020 at 6:04pm PDT

As for how the portraits became a series of shots framed within windows, Lovekin says that wasn’t the original plan. ‘When beginning the project I hadn’t completely settled on the idea of photographing everyone behind a window. Some people would come on their porches or stoops, but that just didn’t feel right to me for some reason,’ says Lovekin. ‘As the project began to evolve the idea of the window started to make more sense. The window being something that we look out on the world from. Something that literally frames how people can look in on us and how we look out at the world. Something that we normally do not enter or exit from.’

The project has only been going on for a week, but it’s already gained a following across social media. Lovekin says the ‘plan is to have it be an ongoing project for as long as I can safely make it possible.’

Shutterstock also caught wind of the project and teamed up with Lovekin to offer the ongoing series as a collection available to purchase, with 10% of all sales going to GiveDirectly, Inc., an organization that ‘allows donors to send money directly to the poor with no strings attached,’ according to its website. Charity Navigator, a third-party charity auditor of sorts, rates GiveDirectly, Inc. four out of four stars, the highest rating it gives to organizations that offer accountability and transparency in their operations.

Below are a few images from the series Lovekin shared with us:

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Lovekin offers this parting message to viewers of the project:

‘I hope that in this time of chaos and uncertainty this project will help people feel more connected to the outside world even though we are all literally separated from one another for an unknown amount of time. If we continue to communicate and connect with those around us in a direct, honest, and positive way can get through this together. It will not be easy, but nothing worthwhile ever really is. Stay safe and stay at home! And as my own children’s sign said, “Soon we will be together”.’

You can find the full series on Shutterstock’s website and keep up with the latest portraits on Lovekin’s Instagram profile.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Get something out of staying in: Ideas for isolation

25 Mar

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has caught more than a few of us off-guard, and its impact is likely to roll on for months to come.

Advice in many countries is to stay at home and minimize your contact with other people. This isn’t an easy thing to do, and for a lot of people it’ll mean having to find additional ways to stay occupied.

Photography can provide plenty of ways of keeping yourself entertained and committing yourself to a project now might be a chance to emerge with new skills and new ambition when things start to get back to, well, whatever future normal looks like.

This is the first part of a series where we’ll put forward ideas for things to do. But we want your input, too. Throughout this article will be links to forum threads where we look to hear your suggestions.

Organize your images

You keep promising yourself you’ll do this. Whether it’s going through and trying to tag things in a coherent way, honing your catalogue by deleting the images you know you’ll never use, or importing and arranging those memory cards and old hard drives of images that aren’t stored in a systematic manner, there’s always an organizational project that you’ve been putting off.

Are you ever going to get a better time than now? Even as someone working from home, I’ve gained all the time I’d usually spend commuting, so there’s no excuse for me to put off getting my images organized.

It might sound dull, but an organized set of images makes it easier to do the more fun suggestions we’re just about to get to…

Revisit your existing shots

Coming at it with a fresh pair of eyes, is there something you could do differently with a favorite image?

I’ve found myself wondering whether some of the shots I’ve taken in the past might benefit from split toning, which isn’t a technique I’ve often used in the past. But it may simply be a case of starting again and seeing whether there’s a different crop or a different ‘look’ that might work better for images you’ve not looked at for a while.

Find new favorites

The other option is to look for new favorites in your back-catalogue. What about those shots that didn’t make the cut, first time ’round? Are there some hidden gems that, re-appraised, turn out to be more interesting than you thought?

Curate a photo book

Mpix is a great option if you’re looking to make prints or a photo book.

Even if you don’t get it printed right away, now might be a great time to organize a set of images into book form.

It’s easy to think of shoeboxes full of prints and negatives as wasted or lost, but they have a certain permanence that a well-organized hard drive or database probably doesn’t. Photo books can be the best of both worlds: gaining the visibility and (comparative) permanence of prints but in a more accessible, curated format.

Use your photos to stay engaged with loved ones

Instagram is a great way to curate and share photos with friends and loved ones.

Find old photos of friends and family in your archive and share them on social media. This could be a nostalgic way to stay engaged with loved ones while you’re all isolated from one another.

Maybe consider putting together a selection of your favorite photos from the last year. Keep the selection tight: you don’t want to stray into ‘making everyone view your holiday slides’ territory, but think about a highlights reel. Maybe try to weave a narrative together or add some anecdotes, to try to capture the experiences you perhaps weren’t able to share at the time.

Look through photo books by some of the greats

A great way to gain inspiration and to learn something is to take a close look at the work of established photographers.

Perhaps choose a single image: take your time thinking about what make it stand out to you. Analyzing great photos is, along with learning to select your own best work, one of the best ways to help you ‘see’ the best photo in a situation, next time you’re out shooting.

William Eggleston – Chromes
Sebastião Salgado – Migrations
Elliott Erwitt – Personal Best
Yousuf Karsh – Stern Portfolio
Galen Rowell – Mountain Light
Alex Webb – Istanbul: City of a Hundred Names
Robert Frank – The Americans
Dorothea Lang – Photographs of a lifetime
Vivian Maier – Finding Vivian Maier
Joel Meyerowitz – Where I find myself
Ansel Adams – Yosemite
Ansel Adams – Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs
Magnum – Contact Sheets
Annie Leibovitz – Portraits 2005-2016
Nan Goldin – The Ballad of Sexual Dependency

If there are any you’ve found particularly inspirational, let us know in this forum thread.

Learn a new photography application

Now’s the perfect time to try out new software, like Alien Skin Exposure X4, shown above.

Teach yourself to use a photo-related application you’ve been meaning to learn for a while. e.g. Have you been wanting to move from Lightroom to Capture One for a while? Now may be a good time to do it.

Alien Skin Exposure
Topaz Labs (including its AI-powered up-res and denoise apps)
On1 Raw
Capture One Pro
DxO Photolab
Affinity Photo
FastStone Image Viewer
Skylum Luminar

Again, if there are any pieces of software you’re particularly enjoying, let us know in this thread and we’ll build up the list.

Do an online photography course

Creative Live is an excellent resource for photo education.

The internet is full of advice and courses to help you improve your photography.

It’s impossible for us to be exhaustive, so we’ve created a forum thread, if there’s an online course that you’ve found useful enough to want to share. We’ll update this list with popular suggestions.

strobist.blogspot.com – is a great place to start learning about lighting
Lynda.com has lots of photo courses (access to which may be available with your local library card, depending on where you live)
Masterclass offers photography courses from Annie Leibovitz and Jimmy Chin
Creative Live
Udemy
KelbyOne

Listen to photography podcasts

The Candid Frame is one of our favorite photography podcasts.

Podcasts are another great way to learn, gain new perspectives, spark new ideas or simply keep yourself entertained.

Here are a few that we’ve enjoyed. Let us know in this forum thread if there are any you think deserve a mention.

The Candid Frame (Ibarionex Perello)
Photo Geek Weekly (Don Komarechka)
This week in Photo
Photo Active podcast (Jeff Carlson and friends)
Classic Lenses Podcast
Film Photography Podcast
A Small Voice – Conversations with Photographers

Build / rework your photography site

Format, shown above, is just one of many Website-building platforms we love.

Whether you’re using it to attract clients or just maintaining a stream to show off your work, how about showing your website a little love?

Whether it’s a question of replacing an over-familiar lead image or making sure all the best of your most recent work is included, there’s always something you can do to make your site look better.

Or, if you’ve not created one, why not now?

Learn to shoot /edit video

Chances are your camera can shoot pretty good video. Have you ever tried doing more than shooting a few clips?

Some of the skills of videography are directly transferable from photography, which means you don’t have to start from zero. But video there are also a lot of aspects of video that will be new and challenging (personally I’m finding the process of learning to shoot video to be one of the most creatively satisfying things I’ve done in many years).

So why not try setting yourself a little project? Think about what you need to shoot, how you need to shoot it and how you’re going to pull it all together.

There’s a free version of Blackmagic’s Davinci Resolve software that includes pro-level color grading and audio editing tools as well as non-linear editing capabilities. It’s not, perhaps, as immediately approachable as Apple’s Final Cut Pro X, but now’s a great time to familiarize yourself with the software.

Plan a photo trip for some time in the future

It’s too early to start booking flights or making hotel reservations, but a day will come when we can look forward to heading somewhere more ambitious than out front doors.

Why not give yourself something to look forward to by planning-out your next big photo expedition?

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Finding Your Strength in Isolation – 3 Methods to Make Your Subject Pop!

15 Jan

The post Finding Your Strength in Isolation – 3 Methods to Make Your Subject Pop! appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.

Including extraneous details in your photographs dilutes attention. Or they distract the viewer’s attention away from your main subject.

Fill the frame! This was the only composition rule I had drummed into me when I started work in the newspaper photography department. Do not include anything that does not help tell the story better. If it’s irrelevant, remove it.

In this article, I share three of my favorite methods for isolating subjects.

Masu Finding Your Strength In Isolation - 3 Methods To Make Your Subject Pop!

The balance of light

Finding a dark background is always pleasing. When your subject has more light on them than the background, you can often expose carefully so the background is very dark or even black. This was a great technique for newspaper photos when we were publishing in black and white. It often works particularly well for portraits.

Train your eye to look for the right situations where you can use this technique. Once you are aware of what to look for you will do it instinctively.

Fish Lady Finding Your Strength In Isolation - 3 Methods To Make Your Subject Pop!

Look for large areas of shade where no light is turned on, and no sunlight affects the area directly. In this portrait of the fish vendor at the market, her open storefront is perfect. The room behind her has no windows and only one or two low-powered lights. The light on her is sunshine reflecting off the building opposite her shop. It is diffused and soft and does not affect the interior of her room.

Setting my camera to expose her face correctly means the interior of the room behind her is underexposed. Use a spot meter setting to only read the light from your main subject and not the darker background. If your camera’s meter is set to take a reading from the whole frame and average it, you won’t get a satisfactory result.

The key to this method is the balance of light and shade. If you take your exposure reading from the whole scene, the camera includes all the dark area and wants that to be exposed well too. The resulting image will have an overexposed subject and visible detail in the shadows.

Pretty Chinese Woman Finding Your Strength In Isolation - 3 Methods To Make Your Subject Pop!

You can also use this same method with a background brighter than your subject. Doing this is often more complicated if the light is too strong or coming directly into your lens. The same principle applies when you have more light in the background than you do on your main subject. Make your exposure reading from your subject only, excluding light from the background. Your subject will be well exposed, and your background will be overexposed.

Black Background Finding Your Strength In Isolation - 3 Methods To Make Your Subject Pop!

I have developed an outdoor daylight portrait studio which incorporates this technique. In this studio, I have good control of the light and the background. Here, I use black and white fabric backdrops which mean I have an even exposure on the background creating a great contrast to my subject.

White Background Finding Your Strength In Isolation - 3 Methods To Make Your Subject Pop!

The control of Focus and Depth-of-Field

The most popular methods used to isolate subjects is carefully controlled focus and a shallow depth-of-field. My very first lens was a 50mm f/1.4. So, naturally, I grew to love using the wide aperture capability to help me knock my backgrounds out of focus.

Using a wide aperture setting is central to this method. However, there is more to it than choosing your lowest f-stop number.

Relative distances have a significant impact on how much your background blurs. The closer you are to your subject, with any lens, the more the background will blur. Likewise, the further your subject is from the background, the softer the background appears.

Lens choice influences depth-of-field too. Using a telephoto lens, you can blur a background more with any aperture setting than if you use a wide-angle-lens.

Tricycle Taxi in Chiang Mai Finding Your Strength In Isolation - 3 Methods To Make Your Subject Pop!

Learn to control what you focus on, as well as the other settings that affect depth-of-field. Doing this well means you can include sufficient detail without compromising attention on your main subject. In this portrait of the tricycle taxi rider, I focused on him. I chose to have enough detail in the background, without it being sharp, because the background is relevant to this photo.

Compositional choices to isolate your subject

Point-of-view (the angle you choose to take your photo from), affects what you include and exclude from your frame. Often even just a small change in your camera position can have a significant impact on what’s in your frame and what’s left out.

Move around your subject and watch what happens with the background. Having a tree looking like it’s growing out of someone’s head is going to be distracting. Changing your angle of view a little your left or right eliminates this distraction. Selecting a higher or lower position helps if there’s a strong horizontal line in the background which dissects your subject.

Buddhist Nun Finding Your Strength In Isolation - 3 Methods To Make Your Subject Pop!

Take your time. Pay attention to the background, not just your subject, when you are making your composition. After taking your initial photo, review it on your monitor. Study what’s in the background. Often this reveals distractions. Move around a little. One side or the other, up and down. Concentrate on the relationship between your subject and elements in the background.

Conclusion

Other methods of isolating your subject are many and varied. You can use contrasting colors, interrupted patterns, selective cropping and other techniques to help your chosen subject stand out.

Pink and Blue Finding Your Strength In Isolation - 3 Methods To Make Your Subject Pop!

Photographs are often stronger when your subject is clearly defined over everything else in the frame.

Experimenting with the methods I have outlined helps you build stronger compositions. Try them out. Try others. Find a few you like and this will help build up your individual photographic style as you begin to use them consistently.

The post Finding Your Strength in Isolation – 3 Methods to Make Your Subject Pop! appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.

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Stille und Isolation

19 Aug

Ein Beitrag von: Rupert Vantervell

Natürlich klingt es wie ein Klischee, aber die Fotografie ist für mich – wie für viele andere – eine Art des Ausdrucks. Sie führt sowohl die emotionale als auch die kreative Seite meines Charakters zusammen und erfüllt mich. Andere Menschen schreiben, zeichnen, musizieren, gestalten; das ist ihre Art. Aber für mich ist das die Fotografie. Sie ist das beste Medium für meine Persönlichkeit.

Obwohl durch meine Arbeit viele unterschiedliche Kameras involviert waren, bin ich nicht besonders interessiert an ihrer Technologie. Sie sind ganz einfach ein Mittel zum Zweck. Sie erlauben mir, auf die Straße zu gehen und die Welt da draußen zu fotografieren. Aber sie sind nicht die treibende Kraft meiner Kreativität.

Die Qualität des Lichts ist natürlich der wichtigste Faktor und zwischen Licht und Schatten die richtige Balance zu finden, ist die große Herausforderung in meinen Bildern. An feineren Details bin ich nicht so sehr interessiert, sondern was in den Schatten versteckt sein könnte, das fesselt mich. Das ist das Mysterium, dort liegt die Geschichte.

Meine aktuelle Serie „Man On Earth“ unterstreicht den dramatischen Kontrast zwischen urbanem Hintergrund und der kleinen, aber wichtigen Präsenz des menschlichen Lebens und der einzigartigen visuellen Charakteristika.

Dabei ist es mir wichtig, die menschliche Form in ihrer alltäglichen Welt auf eine Weise festzuhalten, die normales menschliches Benehmen darstellt. Genau das definiert, wer wir sind.

Beim Arbeiten begann ich zu sehen, dass sogar in der Geschäftigkeit einer übervollen Stadt Stille und Isolation zu finden sind. Eine bestimmte Art Einsamkeit. Diese Momente, in denen wir getrennt von anderen und vielleicht zu einem bestimmten Maß verletzlich sind.

Distanziert bleiben, jedoch ein bisschen in diese Vertrautheit dringen und zeigen, wie faszinierend wir in unserer Umgebung sind, eingeschlossen in der großen Stadt: Für mich ist das essentiell. In unserer Welt mit immer weiter wachsenden Bevölkerungszahlen werden stille Momente wie diese immer schwerer vorstellbar.

kwerfeldein – Fotografie Magazin

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