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Posts Tagged ‘PERSONALITY’

Photo Finishing – Challenge Yourself to Reveal the Personality in Every Image You Capture

21 Feb

The post Photo Finishing – Challenge Yourself to Reveal the Personality in Every Image You Capture appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Herb Paynter.

Many folks think that photography takes place in the camera, but that’s not the whole truth. Photography is a two-part process that involves 1) capturing the light from a scene, and 2) shaping that captured light into a form that matches what your mind saw when you took the picture. The capture process does happen inside the camera, but the shaping part happens on your computer.

The Capture, or Photo Process

We give the camera credit for things that it doesn’t actually do. Don’t get me wrong, capturing all the light in a scene is a monumental undertaking. Keeping track of millions of points of light is a very critical and specialized responsibility. However, the camera is not so much an artistic tool as it is a capture device with a single purpose – to accurately record the light from the surfaces of objects in a scene. While that purpose can get complicated with lighting challenges, the camera is still just box with a round glass eye and a single function: to record light.

When the light of a scene enters the camera lens, it gets dispersed over the surface of the camera’s image sensor, a postage-size electrical circuit containing millions of individual light receptors. Each receptor measures the strength of the light striking it in a metric called “lumens.” Each receptor on this sensor records its light value as a color pixel.

The camera’s image processor reads the color and intensity of the light striking each photoreceptor and maps each image from those initial values, producing a reasonable facsimile of the original scene. When this bitmap of pixels gets viewed from a distance, the eye perceives the composite as a digital image.

The real magic happens after the storing of light on the memory card. The image that first appears when you open the file is the image processor’s initial attempt at interpreting the data recorded by the camera’s image processor. Most times, the initial (JPEG) image interpretation of this data is an acceptable record of the original scene, though not always.

Presets

Your camera provides several pre-set programs that adjust the three settings in the camera that affect exposure: aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.

Three main controls determine your exposure: the shutter speed, the aperture, and the ISO. The camera presets (A, S, and M) allow you to determine the depth of field and/or speed with which the camera captures the light.

The A (aperture priority) mode allows you to set the size of the lens opening (f-stop) while the camera automatically sets the shutter speed. The S (shutter priority) mode lets you set the duration of the lens opening (shutter speed) while the camera adjusts the size of the lens opening. The letter P (program mode) allows you to determine the best mix of aperture and shutter speed while your camera retains the correct balance of light for the exposure. The letter M (manual mode) gives you complete control over all settings but requires to balance the overall exposure.

Your camera’s variable ISO (International Standards Organization) setting adjusts the light sensitivity of the camera’s image sensor, allowing you to capture scenes in dim or bright light; the higher the number, the more sensitive the light receptors become, allowing you to capture images in lower levels of light.

The Histogram

Your camera provides a small graph that roughly indicates how well the camera is set to correctly capture the light in the current scene.

This graph displays the range of light coming through the lens and approximates the current light distribution that captured under the current settings. By adjusting the three settings mentioned above, you can shift and somewhat distribute this range of light to best record the full range of light.

Color balancing the light

Every scene’s color cast is influenced by the temperature of the light illuminating that scene. When the scene is captured outside, the Sun’s position in the sky and the influence of cloud cover alters the color of the light. Your camera offers at least two ways to compensate for the differences in color temperature (Auto White Balance and Pre-set Color Balance).

Auto White Balance

The Auto White Balance (AWB) sensor in your camera seeks any prominent white or neutral subject in the scene and shifts the entire color balance of the scene in an effort to neutralize that element. But there is an assumption with AWB that you desire the current lighting to be perfectly neutral in color.

Any clouds interfering with the sunlight will have a slight influence on the neutrality of 6500° (natural sunlight) lighting. AWB takes that slight shift out of the equation. Most of the time, this is a great idea. However, to record early morning or late afternoon (golden hour) lighting accurately, AWB will neutralize those warm colors and completely lose that “warm” mood.

Pre-Set White Balance Settings

Your camera offers several pre-sets to offset any known color casts caused by specific lighting situations. These settings appear in every digital camera “Settings” display and may appear in a slightly different order or wording. Daylight sets the camera to record scenes under typical mid-day outdoor lighting. Cloudy/Overcast shifts the colors toward orange to compensate for the bluish cast caused by light filtering through nominal cloud cover.

Shade offers a stronger orange shift to compensate for completely overcast (stormy) skies. Flash provides a very similar color temperature lighting as Daylight and is intended to prepare the image sensor for artificial daylight or “Speed light” type flash devices.

Tungsten/Incandescent shifts the colors toward the blue end of the color range to compensate for the warmer shift of incandescent lights. Fluorescent attempts to compensate for the greenish cast of gas-charged fluorescent lights.

Kelvin/Custom permits the user to set a custom color balance setting, essentially teaching the camera what “neutral” gray color looks like. All of these pre-sets attempt to correct non-neutral lighting conditions.

The Sculpting, or Finishing Process

While the camera does capture the full range of reflected light in a scene, it has no way of knowing the best tonal curve to apply to each image. Many times the five tonal ranges (highlight, quarter, middle, three-quarter, and shadow) need to be reshaped to best interpret the light captured at the scene. This tonal contouring process is the magic of sculpting the light into a meaningful visual image.

This little fella perched outside my front door and caught me off guard. I didn’t have time to fiddle with the controls to optimize the lighting situation. My first click got his attention and the second got this expression. Fortunately, I capture my images in both jpg and RAW formats simultaneously. Doing so allowed me to post-process the tones and display to you what I actually saw that morning.

I use the term “sculpting” when talking about image editing because it best describes the rearranging of tones in a digital image. Only ideal lighting balance looks great when rendered as a “stock” JPEG camera image.

This sculpting or finishing process amounts to the clarification of tones and colors in a digital image; making the image appear in final form the way the human mind perceived it in the original scene. While the color balancing aspect of this process is a bit more obvious, the tonal recovery is actually more critical to the final presentation.

The digital camera cannot capture all of the dynamics of the visible spectrum on a sunny day, nor can it determine the best balance of those tones. The camera’s image sensor simply captures all the light possible and presents the data to the camera’s image processor to sort out. Under perfectly balanced lighting, this works out just fine, but occasionally detail hides in the shadows and gets lost in the highlights, requiring help from the photographer/editor to balance out the tones.

This is where the individual tone-zones come into play, and the sliders available in RAW processing software (Camera Raw, Lightroom, On1 Camera Raw, Exposure X4) are invaluable. The internal contrast of every image (Whites, Highlights, Middle tones, Shadows, Blacks) can be pushed around and adjusted in a very non-linear manner (in no particular order) to reveal detail that otherwise remains hidden.

Conclusion

Photo finishing isn’t complete until both color and tones are correctly adjusted for maximum effect, matching the emotion of the original scene. Only then is your image ready for viewing. Challenge yourself to squeeze the detail and reveal the potential personality out of every image you capture. It’s well worth the extra effort.

The post Photo Finishing – Challenge Yourself to Reveal the Personality in Every Image You Capture appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Herb Paynter.


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How to Take the Pain Out and Put Personality Into Assembly-Line Photos

04 Dec

Taking the Pain Out and Putting the Personality Into Assembly-Line Photos

Assembly-line photos are a whirlwind of craziness and fun. These can include school dance photos, team sports, drill team, preschool, business headshots, and anything else that involves a whole lot of people that you have to photograph the same way in a short period of time.

These sessions can be a nightmare if you aren’t prepared, and can be boring if you aren’t creative. I’m going to share some of my secrets for making these sessions some of your favorites and delivering photos that will please moms, coaches, teachers, and kids alike.

Taking the Pain Out and Putting the Personality Into Assembly-Line Photos

1. Make a List

Before the day of your big assembly-line session, write out a list of exactly what you need to capture that day. Do not deviate from this list, especially if you have a large group. If you are working with teens especially, you’ll get requests for “just one more” picture, or requests to see what they look like in their photo. You might get requests to take photos not on your list, like best friends, or for a clothing change. If you want to keep your sanity, you have to smile, express how sorry you are, but give them a firm, “No”.

Taking the Pain Out and Putting the Personality Into Assembly-Line Photos

My lists might look something like the following. You can use this list as a starting point, and adapt it to your needs.

PRESCHOOL FALL

  • Close-up face, horizontal
  • Reading a book, vertical
  • Holding an apple, vertical
  • Entire class – with teachers and without

PRESCHOOL SPRING

  • Close-up face, horizontal
  • Name o a chalkboard, vertical
  • Graduation gown, vertical
  • Entire class with teachers and without

Taking the Pain Out and Putting the Personality Into Assembly-Line Photos

PROM

  • Individual couples; up close, full length, something fun (they choose)
  • Group photos; smiles, serious, silly
  • All girls together, all boys together

Taking the Pain Out and Putting the Personality Into Assembly-Line Photos

SWIM TEAM

  • An individual photo in team jacket on the “blocks”
  • Entire team smiling, hugging, serious, silly
  • Each class (seniors, juniors, etc.) smiling, silly
  • All girls together, all boys together
  • Coaches together and individually
  • Individual fun photo (off the diving board, in pool, they choose ONE)

Taking the Pain Out and Putting the Personality Into Assembly-Line Photos

DRILL TEAM

  • Individual horizontal, vertical, and something fun (they choose)
  • Shots of “big sister” and “little sister” together
  • Entire team smiling, hugging, “model pose” with coaches and without
  • Each class (seniors, juniors, etc.) smiling, one more their choice

Taking the Pain Out and Putting the Personality Into Assembly-Line Photos

2. Stay Professional and Organized

Let everyone know right at the beginning how things will go, and keep everyone moving through quickly. It’s always good to have an assistant helping you line everyone up, and get the next in line prepared before they get in front of your camera. I usually use one of the coaches or teachers to help guide their kids, but you could bring a friend along too.

Taking the Pain Out and Putting the Personality Into Assembly-Line Photos

Things can become chaotic quickly, especially with kids and teens. Be firm, decisive, and even a little bit loud if necessary. Let everyone know what is coming up next, and have them line up and wait for their turn so you aren’t trying to gather people every time you need to do the next photo.

If there’s something they need to decide (like what their class “silly” pose will be) warn them ahead of time, so they have time to prepare and think of something before it’s their turn.

Taking the Pain Out and Putting the Personality Into Assembly-Line Photos

3. Give them a Chance to Show their Personality

Whether I am photographing the entire class, a team, a group together, or photographing each individual, I like to give them a chance to show a little bit of who they are.

If it’s a younger group, like preschool, the teacher and I collaborate to have something fun for at least one of the photos. We’ve done holding apples, writing their name on a chalkboard, graduation caps and gowns, reading a cute children’s book, sitting on a stack of books, etc.

Taking the Pain Out and Putting the Personality Into Assembly-Line Photos

For organized team photos, I let them know that after we do all of the basic photos, I will let them each do one fun photo. For example, for the swim team, I give them two location options, either jumping off the diving board or in the water at the end of the pool.

Everyone who wants the diving board option lines up there, and everyone who wants in the pool lines up at that location. I don’t let them do both because if you start that, they all want to do both, and there’s just no time for it. Once they are at their location I let them do whatever they’d like to do, but they only have one chance, and only a few seconds to set it up.

Taking the Pain Out and Putting the Personality Into Assembly-Line Photos

When school dance couples start to arrive, I let them know that they will be doing one “fun” pose together, and to start thinking of what to do. Many of them are “regulars”, and know that’s what I’ll be doing, so they come ready with ideas. If they can’t think of something, I give them a few ideas. They might go back-to-back, or make serious faces. Maybe one wants to pick the other one up. They could dance together, or make silly faces.

When I do the group silly pose, I don’t give them time to plan. There are too many kids, and they’d be there all day trying to agree on something. Instead, I take the regular smiling photo first, then a serious face photo, then I say, okay, on the count of three, something crazy! Then, I count to three as they hurry and do their thing, and then I snap about 10 photos or so and choose the best one later.

Taking the Pain Out and Putting the Personality Into Assembly-Line Photos

4. Relax and Have Fun

It’s easy to forget to breathe, let alone remember to have fun when you are photographing 60 kids at the same time. However, it’s important that you don’t get too robotic with your assembly-line photos. If you can have a little bit of fun interaction with each person, you’ll get much better photos.

Help them relax, and you’ll get some genuine smiles that will be much better than those old school photos we used to get, where half of the time you were mid-blink, looking away, or not smiling. Assembly-line photos are a great way to get to know a whole bunch of wonderful people at once. Smile at them, and forget about the cheese.

Taking the Pain Out and Putting the Personality Into Assembly-Line Photos

The post How to Take the Pain Out and Put Personality Into Assembly-Line Photos by Melinda Smith appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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6 Tips for Capturing Character and Personality in Wildlife Photography

18 Jul

If you want to take your wildlife photography to the next level, then you need to look at capturing the character and personality of an animal. This makes for a much more appealing image, rather than simply a bird on a stick. A photo always needs to tell a story, but I think many photographers don’t realize that this applies to wildlife photography too.

Even though we can’t directly relate to most wild animals, it is still possible to document a story through a single image, or a sequence of images.

Tufted Capuchin

Tufted Capuchin

Without anthropomorphising animals, many do have their own personalities. I am doubtful this applies to something like an ant, but mammals in particular can be observed to have particular traits and habits. Some may be bold and investigate new things, whereas others may retreat and shy away from disturbances. This can be seen as the animal’s personality, and it is up to us as wildlife photographers to capture this on camera.

It’s definitely not easy though, as stills photography captures one moment in time and freezes it forever. Working with video makes it far easier to convey character, but it’s not impossible to do it in a single frame. Here are some tips to help you get character in your wildlife photography.

#1 – Behaviour

As a zoologist, I am fascinated by animal behaviour. Some behaviours we see as normal and predictable, whereas others shock and surprise us. Did you know that fish swallow small stones to aid digestion?

It’s capturing these interesting behaviours on camera that properly conveys the essence of a particular species. When you’re behind the camera, it’s easy to stare through the viewfinder and get tunnel vision. But if you step back and study an animal, reading up about it beforehand, you’ll learn what you need to look out for. Many animals have giveaway moves that warn you of an impending display – which is the case with great skuas, a seabird found in the northern hemisphere.

great skua

Great Skua, photographed in Scotland (Stercorarius skua)

In this particular case, the skua was preening its feathers continuously. This is a typical thing for birds to do before flapping their wings or displaying. It’s almost like a big stretch and yawn. I waited patiently for 15 minutes while the bird preened, knowing that I would probably be rewarded with such a display afterwards (image above).

Confrontations between two animals are commonplace. If you see one animal, even if it’s of a different species, approaching another, then chances are you’ll see some sort of interaction. Take these white-tailed eagles, for example. I was pretty sure that they’d both have a disagreement over who had rights to the tasty fish laying on the ice. With my focus nailed, I kept the shutter half-pressed and fired as soon as they lifted their wings.

white tailed eagles

White-tailed Eagles, photographed in Hungary.

#2 – Humour

While animals won’t inherently try to be funny, they often do things that make us chuckle. These are usually opportunistic photos that you can’t prepare for, but being poised and ready at all moments is key to capturing them.

When I lead workshops, one of the main things I try to get my clients to realize is that as soon as you drop your camera down, you’re risking missing the shot. If your subject is in front of you, then you’ve done the hard bit of waiting for an appearance – keep your eye to the viewfinder and remain at the ready, almost like a sniper training his eye on a target.

red squirrel

Eurasian red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris), photographed in England.

A quick scratch from a squirrel lasting just a couple of seconds was possible to catch on camera, because I was already following its progress along the branch through the viewfinder.

Red deer

A red deer stag in the Scottish Highlands.

I had been looking to capture a stag peering through the trees, and while this wasn’t my intended outcome, I couldn’t help but click away when this stag stuck its tongue out round the tree. It’s little things like this that bring a smile to the viewer, and bring in personality and character to your wildlife photos. Although they make some chuckle more than others…

atlantic seals

#3 – Tight in the Frame

All the images I’ve shared so far in this article are fairly tight in the frame. This is a particularly useful composition technique you can use to bring the focus solely to the animal. The bokeh also helps, isolating the subject against the background – this is done using a wide aperture (and subsequently a shallow depth of field), most often successfully with a telephoto lens.

red squirrel

Eurasian red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris).

When the attention of the viewer is trained on the animal alone, without distracting background elements to tear the eye away, then they feel more interacted with the animal in the image. It perhaps sounds a little cliché, but it is true. In this image of a squirrel, you can see that eye contact, along with a catchlight in the eye, really makes the photo pop.

When doing tight compositions like this, be careful not to chop limbs off half way down their length. It’s all or nothing, I always say!

#4 – Family Ties

If there’s anything humans can relate to with animals, it’s the bond between parents and offspring. Not all animals care for their young, of course, but those that do can be seen to care and work endlessly to raise their young. Take these two gannets – a male and a female – courting to reaffirm their bond each time the other returns to the nest from gathering fish.

gannet

Northern gannets (Morris bassanus).

If you can capture the parents feeding their young, even better. It doesn’t have to be a feeding behaviour though, and in particular playful shots between a family will give your shots the aww factor. Obviously, you have to be in the right place at the right time, and these particular kinds of shots require a lot of dedication and time to achieve, due to their rare nature.

barn swallow

Barn swallows feeding fledglings in British countryside.

#5 Try Something Different

Experimenting is something you’ve probably been told to do again and again – but it works. I am a particular fan of the high-key style of photography for wildlife, isolating the subject against the background by blowing out the highlights in an image. This mountain hare was grooming its fur, but as it bowed its head it looked rather solemn. The white background makes it almost look like a painting, and personally I think this is a rather intimate portrait.

Mountain Hare

Be prepared to step outside your comfort zone. That is where the photos are, that set you apart from the endless bird on a stick shots we see day to day. At first it’ll probably all go wrong, but that’s okay! You know all those rules you’ve been told? Rule of thirds, golden triangle, etc., break them, and see what happens.

#6 – Light

Ooh, it’s that scary unknown again. Light. It’s a maker or breaker for photography, and that doesn’t change when you step into nature photography either. Backlighting is particularly effective for conveying mystery and magic in an image. I used this to my advantage when photographing Peruvian spider monkeys – a primate that is unfortunately on the endangered list. Even so, the backlighting breaking through the rainforest canopy makes this image appear magical.

A backlit Peruvian spider monkey in the Amazon Rainforest in Manu, Peru.

A backlit Peruvian spider monkey in the Amazon Rainforest in Manu, Peru.

If you see interesting light like this, then be careful about your exposure. It’s important not to blow the highlights rim-lighting the animal, while at the same time keeping the individual exposed properly too. But when it works, it really works.

I feel that to end an article about character and personality, it is only right to use primates as an example. We can really relate to them, more than any other animal, due to our close relations. They’re curious, intelligent, and a clear example of an animal capable of emotions.

A male and female black-faced spider monkey stick together in the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest. These two individuals are displaying courting behaviour.

A male and female black-faced spider monkey stick together in the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest. These two individuals are displaying courting behaviour.

So keep clicking the shutter each time something of interest happens. Don’t wait and savour space on your memory card, because you might just miss something amazing.

This week we are doing a series of articles to help you do better nature photography. See previous articles here:

  • 3 Habits Every Outdoor Photographer Should Develop to Avoid Missing Shots
  • 5 Tips for Better Nature Photography
  • 27 Serene Images of the Natural World
  • Weekly Photography Challenge – Nature
  • 10 Ideas for Photographing Nature in your Backyard

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Split Personality: Chaos vs Calm in Half-Painted Hotel Room

04 Jun

[ By Steph in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

half painted hotel room 1

This hotel room is a little bit minimalist, a little bit rock n’ roll, and if you’re too much of the former persuasion, the chaos of the latter half might irritate your less-is-more sensibilities. Seen straight-on, the installation by Kiev artist Pavel Vetrov looks like a Photoshopped illusion, or perhaps a split view of a before-and-after design project. Which side is the before and which the after depends on your aesthetic preferences.

half painted hotel room 2

half painted hotel room 3

A razor-sharp line divides the two halves of the room, beginning at the top of the back wall, traveling right through the center of the bed and across the floor to the other wall. Everything from the duvet and TV cabinet to the books and a canvas propped against the brick gets the half-painted treatment.

half painted hotel room 3

half painted hotel room 4

half painted hotel room 5

On the minimalist side, nearly everything is colorless, save for a few pops of vibrancy in the wall art. The other side is a creative explosion of paint and prints, with designs scrawled all over nearly every surface.

half painted hotel room tilt

The installation is inspired by a 2012 project called ‘Panic Room’ by French graffiti artist TILT, who took one half of a monochromatic hotel room and completely obliterated every hint of white. The original state of the room reflects a feeling of calmness, while the other half is utterly chaotic, hence the project’s name.

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[ By Steph in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

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7 Pet Photography Tips to Capture Your Furry Friends’ Personality

08 Aug

For millions of people worldwide, no family is truly complete without a furry friend. Cats, dogs and all the critters in between are quick to crawl their way into your heart, and it’s no wonder why people want to capture their personality – forever. One of the best ways to do this is through snapshots. Like children, though, pets can Continue Reading

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Putting Personality Into Your Pictures: A How-to Guide

05 May

What makes a great photograph? There a hundreds of fundamentals – from lighting to image structure, depth, color, personality and composition. Mastering the art of photography is what evokes emotions and makes people’s jaws drop when they see that image. Art is not what you see, but what you can make others see – Edgar Degas. Adding, revealing and capturing Continue Reading

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THE PERSONALITY BEHIND THE LENS: Brian Schiele aka Holga Master

18 Oct

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