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Pete Souza interview: ‘I have the right to speak out when I see wrong. And I see wrong’

14 Sep

Pete Souza is one of the best-known names in photography. An experienced photojournalist, he has the distinction of having served as White House photographer for two presidents: Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama. Since leaving the White House in 2017, Pete has stepped out from behind the camera, and most recently he has been putting his images to work using Instagram to pointedly highlight the differences in style – and policy – between the last president and the current occupant of the White House.

‘The Way I See It’, a new documentary film based on Pete’s books ‘Obama: An Intimate Portrait’ and ‘Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents’ , opens soon. Ahead of its premier on September 18th, I had the chance to speak to Pete about his work in the White House, what makes a good presidential photographer and why he’s no longer content to let the pictures do the talking.

The following interview has been edited lightly for clarity and flow.

What kind of people make good White House photographers?

It’s helpful to have a background in photojournalism. And I think it’s also helpful to have the ability to disappear, if you will, in terms of going about the job with a small footprint. That’s things like not carrying loud cameras, not using motor-drive, remembering that you’re an observer, not a participant. Learning how to move about in those circumstances.

I think depending on the president, the [desired] qualities may vary a little bit, but that’s my approach anyway. It worked for me.

Do you think that photographs of an administration can help shape the way that history sees it?

For sure. To quote Michelle Obama, someone I respect a lot, she says that the presidency doesn’t change who you are, it reveals who you are. I think the same is true of the photographs. The behind the scenes photographs of a president reveal the character of that person. I think that’s pretty clear, and has been basically since we’ve had that position of White House photographer, since the Kennedy administration. We’ve had a pretty good idea of what presidents are like, and their true character, based on the behind the scenes photographs.

President Barack Obama walks along the West Colonnade of the White House with Chief White House Photographer Pete Souza Feb. 18, 2016. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

Photo by Lawrence Jackson / The White House

You mention LBJ’s photographer Yoichi Okamoto in the film – are there any other photographers who have been a major influence on your work?

Oh probably three or four dozen, from Bill Allard and David Allen Harvey at National Geographic, to Henri Cartier-Bresson, W. Eugene Smith, the old Life Magazine photographers, and tons of the newer-generation photographers, too. I still look at photography every day, and that’s one of the great things about Instagram for me.

I still look at photography every day, and that’s one of the great things about instagram for me

In terms of the White House photographers, David Hume Kennerly under President Ford, and Eric Draper with George W Bush. They both did a great job. One of my great memories of election night in 2008, in Grant Park, was of David Kennerly, in fact. The ultimate professional, he was in tears because he was able to witness that moment. I’ll never forget that.

Were there times in the White House where you put your camera down and opted not to take a photograph?

My job was to document what happened. But especially in family situations you certainly have to learn when you need to give the president some space. You’re trying to capture these family moments, but if he’s having a one-on-one talk with one of his daughters, you might take a few photographs and then back away. It’s just an intuitive sense of when the man needs a little space. And [with Obama] it usually involved his family.

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama wait in the Map Room before the State Arrival ceremony to welcome President Felipe Calderon of Mexico and his wife Mrs. Margarita Zavala on the South Lawn of the White House, May 19, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Photo by Pete Souza / The White House

You say in the film that the job took a lot out of you, mentally. Can you explain how?

Look at it this way – on day one you’re issued with a Blackberry. I kept my Blackberry all eight years. It was either attached to my belt or on my nightstand, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for eight years. That was the way I communicated with people in my office, it was how I communicated with people in the administration, and it was the way that those people communicated with me.

To have that device with you, at all times, is really mentally draining. Just the kind of ‘all-in’ reality of the job, after doing it for eight years it really does take a lot out of you.

Presumably you were also witness to some things that you had to keep confidential?

That’s the nature of the job. And some of that involves national security. There are some things I can never reveal unless they were to be declassified. But one of the things about classified information is that most of it is written down. It’s documents. And I wasn’t privy to those documents, I didn’t get copies of that material. But I was in the room when classified information was being talked about.

President Reagan meeting to receive the report of Special Review Board for the National Security Council, Tower Commission, with John Tower and Edmund Muskie in the Cabinet Room on February 26, 1987.(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Photo by Pete Souza / The White House

A good example would be when we opened relations with Cuba. I probably knew about that a year in advance, because the two main negotiators would report to the president every month or two, and I would be in those meetings. Those are the kinds of things you keep in confidence – negotiations which are going on which aren’t yet public.

From your perspective as someone who has worked under two administrations as White House photographer, who were you serving? Who were you doing it for?

The people of the United States. I made almost two million photographs in the eight years of the Obama administration. And I don’t know if people realize this but every single photograph ends up at the National Archive. There will be time when everything will be made public – every single frame. On the day of the Bin Laden raid I think I made more than a thousand pictures and eventually people will be able to see every single one of them, if they want to.

Right now in fact, because a certain number of years has passed, you can see every single picture I made during the Reagan administration. You can see the proof sheets, they’re all online.

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011. Please note: a classified document seen in this photograph has been obscured. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Photo by Pete Souza / The White House

Ultimately, the job is to document the presidency for history. And I took that really seriously. We were talking about Okamoto earlier, and I remember I used to tell people that in fifty years time people will be able to go through all of my photographs and have a good idea of what the presidency was like, and what president Obama was like. And then I saw an old presentation by Okamoto, and he made the exact same point. Except he didn’t say fifty years he said “five hundred years”.

That really threw me, and made me realize how truly important this job is. It really is for history. Can you imagine the pictures that I made during the Obama administration, if we had a set of pictures like that taken during the Lincoln administration?

With America perhaps more divided now than ever before, what gives you hope?

The country is divided, but there have always been two sides. It’s young people that give me hope. It’s the younger generation, primarily, have been the ones out there protesting peacefully. And not just the Black Lives Matter [movement]. The fact that a bunch of high-school kids in Florida really brought the issue of gun safety to a nationwide audience – these are 16, 17-year-old kids – and one of the largest rallies ever – they did it. Young kids. That generation gives me hope. Being out there, speaking out and letting their views be known.

And even some of the congressmen and women who were elected in 2018. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gets a lot of attention, but I’m also thinking of people like Katie Porter (D-Calif) who has used her time in Congress in such an effective way.

President Barack Obama holds a meeting in the Oval Office to prep for a Quad Secure Video Teleconference (SVTC) in the Situation Room of the White House, Feb. 23, 2016. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Photo by Pete Souza / The White House

This may be viewed as quite a political film – how would you respond to people who say they wish you’d focused on the photography and kept the politics out of it?

I don’t think I’m bringing politics into it at all. I am not currently photographing the president of the United States. And I haven’t, other than on inauguration day [in 2017]. I’m just comparing and contrasting the two presidents that I have photographed from the inside, how they upheld the dignity of the office and comparing that to what we have today.

I have the right to speak out when I see wrong. And I see wrong, so I’m speaking out

It’s not a political thing. I wouldn’t be doing this if Jeb Bush, or John Kasich, or John McCain or Mitt Romney was president. I may still disagree with their policies, but they understand what it means to be empathetic and compassionate, and what it means to do the best job you can on behalf of all people – including the ones who didn’t vote for them.

It’s as simple as that. I’m an American citizen, and I have the right to speak out when I see wrong. And I see wrong, so I’m speaking out. I think Trump is damaging the country and its people, and to those who say I shouldn’t be speaking out, well, I think they’re wrong. I’m going to be on the right side of history and I believe in the institution of the presidency, and that the person in that office needs to uphold the dignity of the institution, and that [Trump] isn’t doing it.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Is There a Right and a Wrong Way To Expose Your Photos?

27 Aug

The post Is There a Right and a Wrong Way To Expose Your Photos? appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.

I have never liked the term ‘correct exposure.’ I don’t believe there’s often a single right way to expose your photos. There’s always room for artistic interpretation depending on:

  • Light
  • Subject
  • Camera
  • Lens
  • Exposure setting choices
  • Composition choices
  • Intent

All these will have some influence on the way a photograph will appear. One of the most important aspects of achieving a pleasing exposure is your intent. This cannot be measured by an exposure meter.

Buddha statue for Expose your photos
© Kevin Landwer-Johan. Nikon D800 | 35mm | 1/8000 sec | f/2.8 | ISO 400.

Choose how you expose your photos

How you expose your photos is a key choice when working with your camera. Most photos you take will display variation in tone from the brightest point to the darkest. You won’t often photograph subjects that are the same tone throughout.

The quality of light and how it reflects off the surfaces in your composition will help determine the exposure value for each tone. Sometimes the range of tones in a composition means your camera will not be able to render them all with visible detail.

Young Chinese woman on a white background
© Kevin Landwer-Johan. Nikon D800 | 35mm | 1/200 sec | f/1.4 | ISO 100.

When the level of contrast is beyond what your camera’s sensor can capture in a single exposure, you have to choose how to expose your photos. What is the most important part of the composition you want to expose correctly? Often this will be the middle tones. Other times it will be either the highlights or the darkest parts of your composition.

Particularly with high contrast lighting, you must choose how you want to expose your photograph. This is where the intent you have for how the photo will look comes into play. Do you want a bright, energetic image, or a more somber and moody one? What look will best suit your subject?

With a more monotone subject, the tonal range will not be large, especially when what you are photographing is not highly reflective. It was very easy to make a nice, even exposure of this dusty little dog lying in the dirt. This was because of the limited tonal range, low-contrast light, and overall beige color.

looking down at a dog on the dirt for expose your photos
© Kevin Landwer-Johan. Nikon D800 | 50mm |1/1000 sec | f/4.5 | ISO 400.

Think like a film photographer

The dynamic range of film is far narrower than that of modern camera sensors. Our digital cameras are far more capable of recording a broader tonal range in a single image than any film. When you take photos with film, you need to be more precise about how you expose your photos. This is more vital in high contrast situations.

Because the tonal range of film is much narrower, you’re more likely to lose detail in the shadows and/or highlights than when you work with a digital camera. Imagining that you are using film can help you be more aware of what part of your composition you want to expose well.

Novice Buddhist monk in the dark
© Kevin Landwer-Johan. Nikon D800 | 35mm | 1/125 sec | f/3.2 | ISO 1000.

For example, when I photographed this novice monk (above), he was in a dark space with light coming through a window. The contrast was significant. I knew that if I let my camera decide the exposure, it would mean the light area of the boy’s face would be overexposed. This is because most of the composition was in shadow.

I used my spot meter to take an exposure reading from the light reflecting off the monk’s face and set my exposure accordingly. In my original file, there is some detail visible in the shadows. I have boosted the contrast during post-processing to eliminate it.

The bell-shaped histogram myth

The notion that a correctly exposed image will produce a bell-shaped histogram is nonsense. You can’t rely on a histogram to provide useful information about exposure.

Histograms are a graphical representation of the tones present in a photo. When the photo is mostly middle tones, you’ll see the histogram as a bell shape: high in the middle section and low toward the left and the right.

The tonal range of the scene you are photographing has an influence on what the histogram will look like. This is why you cannot gauge exposure by looking at the histogram. Some people may find it helpful, but it’s not good practice to rely on it to help you choose your exposure settings. Don’t aim to make your histogram a bell shape.

Old Karen woman against a black background for expose your photos
© Kevin Landwer-Johan. Nikon D800 | 85mm | 1/640 sec | f/2.8 | ISO 400.

For example, portraits made against a black background will never display a bell-shaped histogram. The graph will always spike on the left because there are more dark tones in the image than midtones or light tones. Depending on what a person is wearing, such a histogram may be very flat.

For the image above, the grandma’s face is where I wanted the correct exposure. It would not be possible, even if I wanted it, to set my exposure so that detail in both the background and the headscarf was visible.

Expose your photos with intent

Know what you want before you press the shutter release.

Often, you have chosen your subject. You’ve composed carefully. Then you take a photo with no real regard for the lighting or your exposure setting.

Letting the camera take care of the exposure using averaged metering and an automatic setting is the way many people take pictures. The results of such exposures are relatively predictable. This is because of how cameras are designed and calibrated. To obtain the best exposure each time you take a photograph, you must match it to your intent.

How do you want the light on your subject to look? What is the mood you want your photo to convey? Are you capable of achieving this with the current lighting? These things must be considered before you press the shutter release.

Be in control of your exposure settings. Read your meter as a guide. Rather than ensuring that your meter is reading zero for every photo, adjust your settings to where you can capture the photo that matches your intent.

Buddhist nun at a temple for expose your photos
© Kevin Landwer-Johan. Nikon D800 | 35mm | 1/100 sec | f/2.8 | ISO 400.

Conclusion

I do not believe there is a right or wrong exposure choice for any photo. You can take into account all the technical aspects, but while this approach may produce technically correct images, they will often lack expression and feeling of any kind.

Not being intentional when you expose your photos often produces bland results.

The post Is There a Right and a Wrong Way To Expose Your Photos? appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.


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Android smartphones can become soft bricked if you use the wrong photo for a wallpaper

05 Jun

A number of Android smartphones are at risk of suffering a fatal system error if the user sets a specific image as their wallpaper. The discovery was first publicized by popular Twitter account Ice Universe and has since been confirmed by users who tested the warning for themselves. The issue, it turns out, is the image’s color space and Android’s current inability to deal with it.

There’s nothing inherently malicious about the image shared by Ice Universe; it shows an idyllic landscape complete with water, mountains and clouds. The problem, investigators have discovered, is that its color space is incompatible with Android, which currently doesn’t have a method in place to detect this incompatibility and convert the image to color space it supports.

Setting the image as an Android wallpaper will cause the phone to crash; it will reboot, but soon crash again, in most cases doing this too quickly for the user to change their wallpaper to something else. As a result, the user is forced to factory reset the device, losing any images and other data that wasn’t backed up beforehand.

As expected, this issue isn’t limited to only this particular image — any non-sRGB image may potentially cause the same crash. Android Authority recently spoke with a developer who shed light on the problem with a long, technical answer for those who are interested. Put simply: Android can only deal with sRGB images as wallpapers and doesn’t currently know how to handle certain non-sRGB images, triggering an infinite loop of fatal errors that forces the user to factory reset their device.

As noted by multiple Android developers, as well as 9to5Google, not all Android phones are vulnerable to this bug, though many major ones are, including older Google Pixel phones, Samsung smartphones and more. 9to5Google‘s Dylan Roussel reports that the Pixel 4 XL running Android 11 doesn’t not crash from this image while the Pixel 3 XL on Android 10 does.

In Android 11, the system will detect if the wallpaper’s color space isn’t supported and will convert it to something it does support. Though Android 10 doesn’t have this same capability, it seems Google is already working on a fix for this problem, which means older Android phones that don’t update to Android 11 will eventually be protected from the bug, as well.

Until that happens, however, there’s a big problem for Android users: now that the bug has been widely publicized, there will no doubt be some people who deliberately seed these problematic images to mobile wallpaper websites in an effort to crash devices.

Though the bug doesn’t totally brick the device, it does often force a factory reset; many users report being unable to resolve the issue in Safe Mode. This means that many users who aren’t careful may end up losing some of their data.

Ice Universe notes that when the image is uploaded to other social media websites, it is converted and becomes safe to use with Android; only the image uploaded to Twitter retains its problematic color space.

To protect one’s self, Android users can avoid publically offered wallpapers until the Android 11 update arrives, they can limit their wallpapers to their own images or official manufacturer theme stores or there’s always the option of manually checking that an image is compatible before setting it as one’s Android wallpaper.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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‘It should cost…’ The three main ways you’re wrong about camera prices

22 Jan

Every time a camera is launched, our comment section is flooded with comments saying ‘it’s too expensive,’ irrespective of what the price is set at. Are all the camera makers utterly out-of-touch with reality, or is there something else going on?

I’m going to explain the three main misunderstandings that I see prompting these comments. I’m not advocating for higher prices, nor trying to suggest that manufacturers never get it wrong, but just trying to highlight why cameras are priced the way they are.

A new model is always going to cost more than the outgoing one

Prices decline with time. No matter what your pricing strategy, an older product (particularly in a fairly fast-moving marking like electronics) cannot demand as high a price at the end of their lifecycle as they can at the beginning.

This may sound obvious, but the consequence is that a new model will always look expensive compared with the model it replaces.

The D780 was launched at the same price as the D750, so is cheaper in real terms. But heavy discounting of the D750 makes the new camera look very pricey.

This is the error we most often see: ‘How can they charge $ 2200, when I can buy the old model for $ 1400?’

To which the response is: ‘How can they not?’ If you offer your new model at the price of the outgoing one, then what does its price look like, at end-of-life? Do you then have to match that price with the next generation model? That approach would end up with you giving cameras away within a couple of product generations, which isn’t exactly a winning strategy in an already contracting industry.

Prices decline with time, so new cameras tend to be released at around the same cost that the old one was launched at. The alternative (launching to match the current market prices) is a pell-mell race to the bottom.

So cameras tend to be released at around the same prices that the preceding model was launched at. After all, camera makers are companies: they exist to make as much profit as they can. Their job is to maximize the amount of money they generate from each product.

The main exception to matching the previous model’s launch price is if the new model has been stripped-down to hit a lower price point or re-positioned to attract a different audience.

Case study: The stripped-down mass-market special

Sony’s a6000 was launched for $ 799 with a kit zoom: around $ 200 lower than the existing NEX-6 model. It gained a couple of additional features and updates but also saw a drop in viewfinder resolution and had less substantial feeling construction: distinct hints that it wasn’t a like-for-like replacement model.

Sony’s insistence on assigning similar names to all its models doesn’t help, but the pricing alone makes it easier to recognize the a6300 as more of an NEX-6 replacement than an a6000 update. Sure enough, both the a6000 and a6300 continued alongside one another for the next few years: one targeting the ‘price conscious’ consumer, the other offering better build, an NEX-6 level viewfinder and 4K video, for people who were comfortable to spend a bit more.

Manufacturers will occasional try to re-position a particular model, making it cheaper or more expensive, perhaps trying to make room for a new model.

Case study: two models in the place of one

Panasonic’s GX8 had a significantly higher spec and was launched for $ 200 more than the preceding GX7. This created the space for a less expensive GX85 to sit underneath. Looking at the launch prices suggests that Panasonic thought there were two different types of customer buying the GX7: some that wanted a small, mid-priced model and some who wanted something more ambitious, and were willing to pay for it.

However, the next model refresh saw the GX9 launched back at the same price as the GX7 (and called the GX7 III in some markets). ‘This isn’t a GX8 replacement at all’ complained some would-be buyers. The pricing indicated that they were probably partly right.

The lesson in all of this is that you can better interpret a manufacturer’s intentions by comparing the price of a new model to the launch price of the outgoing model, not its depressed end-of-life price.

Case study: getting the price wrong

Manufacturers don’t always get their pricing right, of course. Nikon entered the prime-lens APS-C compact market in 2013 with the Coolpix A, an attractive camera with a 28mm equivalent F2.8 lens. Perhaps emboldened by Fujifilm’s success selling its X100 models for $ 1299, Nikon priced its camera at $ 1099.

Around a month later, Ricoh launched an APS-C version of its much-loved GR, also with a 28mm equiv F2.8 lens, for $ 799. The Coolpix A was a pretty good camera (though we preferred the GR), but without the retro appeal, hybrid viewfinder and burgeoning reputation of the Fujifilm, or the establish fan-base of the GR, that $ 1099 price tag looked awkward.

Without access to sales data, we can’t know for certain how many units were sold at full price but by the second half of 2014, the price had collapsed to just $ 580. A lot of people got a bargain at that discounted price, but it’s noticeable that Nikon hasn’t shown any further interest in that niche.

Of course, sometimes manufacturers will keep old models on the market at a newly lowered price (the Sony a7 II and a7R II, for instance). This makes life a little more complex but should really just focus your attention on what really matters: ‘does the new model offer enough compelling improvements to overlook the older model?’

Your country probably isn’t being ripped-off, even if the US launch price seems cheaper

The RX100 VI was launched for $ 1298 in the US and the equivalent of $ 1450 in Europe. But that’s not the whole story.

The other complaint we regularly see is that the launch price in country ‘X’ is higher than a direct conversion of the US dollar price. There are two main reasons for this.

The first is that US prices tend to be quoted without sales tax, whereas most other countries tend to include sales tax/VAT/GST in consumer-facing communications. As a results, US prices tend to look less expensive simply because the price quoted isn’t the price most people are legally expected to pay. Your local tax level may be more expensive, but that’s more likely to do with your country’s history, style of government and degree of healthcare provision and social support: none of which can be blamed on camera makers.

The second factor is that price competition varies greatly between countries. US prices tend to stay at or near the Manufacturer’s Recommended Sales Price until the manufacturer chooses to adjust it. Countries with more competition between retailers tend to see prices quickly fall away from the initial asking price: early adopters end up paying full price, but anyone buying a few months (or sometimes weeks) later, will get a much better deal.

Case study: why are cameras more expensive in Europe?

Sony’s RX100 VI had an initial MSRP of $ 1298 in the US and €1299 in Europe. This looks bad: €1299 was worth $ 1450 in July 2019. Outrageous, right?

But, if I went to buy one today, I’d end up paying $ 1429 after tax in the US ($ 1298 plus my 10.1% local sales tax rate). If I lived in Germany and bought the same model from a large internet retailer, I’d have to pay €1180, including VAT, which is equivalent to $ 1315.

So, although the launch price in your country may look outrageous, compared with the US price, that doesn’t mean you’ll get ripped-off. The last two times I’ve looked at buying cameras in the US and UK, I found the year-old model I was shopping for to be less expensive in the UK, even with higher local taxes. I’ll concede that this was before the pound plummeted following the Brexit vote: but again, that’s not really the fault of camera makers.

Some things are supposed to look expensive

Marketers have all manner of theories about how to price their goods, and different strategies for maximizing the amount of profit they can make from a specific product. Very few of these have much to do with the costs involved in developing, manufacturing, distributing and supporting that product. Most strategies set the price high enough to make this money back, but there are exceptions even to that.

So there’s little point looking at a product and saying ‘they’ve removed ‘x,’ so it should be cheaper,’ or expecting the price to relate in any way to your estimation of the costs involved.

For instance, a premium pricing strategy holds that it’s sometimes beneficial to price your goods so highly that you end up selling fewer than you could, but at greater profit: the high price and resulting scarcity in itself contributes to the perceived value of the product.

A premium pricing strategy holds that the high price in itself contributes to the perceived value of the product

‘That’s silly,’ you might think: ‘that wouldn’t work on me.’ But it does. Like it or not, you respond to pricing. Read through the comment section of the launch of any Leica product: you’ll see an audience dramatically polarized between ‘it’s not worth that’ and ‘if you could afford it, you’d understand.’ The same goes for luxury items, whether they be Range Rovers or Rolex watches: if they weren’t expensive, they wouldn’t have the same cachet.

This discussion is almost entirely divorced from whether the products themselves are any good (to the degree that any assessment can be entirely rational and dispassionate), it’s primarily a reflection of differing personal responses to the price.

Perceived value is entirely personal and both responses are equally right and wrong: a premium product isn’t worth its exaggerated price to the person who doesn’t care about prestige, scarcity, brand history and reputation or the degree to which something is hand-built, but it is worth it for someone to whom those factors contribute to the item feeling special, or more meaningful.

Is it worth it?

Which ultimately brings us to the question that’s really at stake: not ‘is it too expensive?’ but ‘does it appear to represent good value to me?‘

Again, manufacturers are for-profit companies. They aren’t aiming to offer the product you want at a price you want to pay: they’re trying to price it at the maximum amount you’re willing to pay.

In other words: it’s always going to be a bit more expensive than you’d like.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Your Camera Strap: Are you Using it Wrong?

03 May

The post Your Camera Strap: Are you Using it Wrong? appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.

In this video by Phil Steele, he shows you the right way to use your camera strap, and you may just find a few little surprises!

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How to attach the strap to your camera

If you are removing the strap from your camera, take a picture of the attachments, so you know exactly how to put it back together.

Also, in case you didn’t know, that little rubber rectangle piece on your camera strap (if you have one), is actually an eyepiece cover for when you do long exposure photography. It prevents light leaks coming through the eyepiece!

Fixing loose ends

Do the end pieces of the strap flapping around annoy you? If so, there is a way to fix that.

If your strap has little slide plastic collars on it, make sure it is towards the end of the strap, below the buckle. Then start by feeding the strap from the outside in through the attachment on the camera.

Then feed the end back through the plastic collar and pull it all the way through.

Now, feed the loose end through the buckle. However, instead of feeding it through the bottom first, feed it through the top first followed by the bottom. That way the leftover strap is hidden away rather than flapping around loose.

Using your strap for better photos

  1. Use the strap as a stabilizer to reduce camera shake – Place your elbows into your body then move your camera away from your body, pulling the strap tight. This tension helps stabilize your camera and works well when shooting video too.
  2. Step on the strap when shooting from a low angle to steady the camera.
  3. If you don’t have a tripod, place your camera on a surface and use your strap under the lens to angle it upwards. If you want the camera facing downwards, place the strap under the body of the camera.

Strap mistakes to avoid

  1. When placing your camera on a table, place the camera on top of the strap as though it is sitting in a little nest. That way, no one can accidentally pull your camera off the table by knocking the strap. Also, if someone spills water on the table, your camera is slightly elevated so that it won’t get wet.
  2. When using your camera on a tripod, the strap can cause motion blur on your images if there is any wind. Hold the strap while taking photos, or remove it altogether when on a tripod. Another solution is to get a strap that easily clips on and off.

Comfortable straps

Consider buying a more comfortable strap. Some have extra padding and stretch (Neoprene) and can be a little wider. They sit more comfortably around your neck and can ease the pressure when carrying a heavier rig.

Phil’s favorite strap for event photography

Phil uses a Sling Strap (black rapid) for event photography. It easily hangs over your shoulder and allows you to have free hands when you aren’t shooting. The camera easily slides up and down the strap when you need to use it.

One caution when using the sling strap, however, is the way it mounts to your camera. It screws into the tripod hole on the bottom of your camera. That can be a point of failure because if your screw comes loose, your camera can fall to the ground.

There are two things you can do to guard against that. First, when initially attaching it, wet the little rubber washer that goes between the mounting hardware and your camera. That seems to help. Secondly, periodically check the screw tightness, and tighten if need be.

Have you ever had a mishap with your camera strap? Share with us in the comments below.

 

You may also find the following helpful:

  • Review: Peak Design Anchor Links System for Camera Straps
  • Overview and Field Test of HoldFast Gear’s Money Maker Leather Camera Strap
  • Review of the Nitz Custom Handmade Camera Strap
  • Custom SLR Dual Camera Strap – Product Review

The post Your Camera Strap: Are you Using it Wrong? appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.


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Photoshoots that Go Wrong – the Challenges and Beauty of Working in Photography

28 Mar

The post Photoshoots that Go Wrong – the Challenges and Beauty of Working in Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Erin Fitzgibbon.

The illusion of perfect experiences

I haven’t used any images from the anecdotes I discuss. I don’t want to create targets. Instead, the images in this article are from successful photoshoots but also some very challenging shoots.

It’s time to talk about the photoshoots that go wrong.

Most people write about the tricks and tips that guarantee success. That’s an illusion. I won’t say the word “lie” – it’s too harsh. Those articles promise success where none can be assured.

Don’t get me wrong – the advice is useful and good to know. It does help the shoot go smoothly; however, life has this funny way of throwing a wrench into even the best-laid plans. Sometimes no matter what you do or how prepared you are things can and do go wrong.

It’s okay! It doesn’t mean you’re a bad photographer. It’s just a part of the daily grind. It is real life and you cannot escape this reality.

Sometimes photography, just like every other endeavor, hands you a bag of hammers. The important thing is to handle the situation. You need to come out of the proverbial lion’s den with all your faculties intact.

Hopefully, the following stories will lift your spirits. I also hope they will give you some inspiration and some courage to continue when all you see before you are roadblocks and negativity. Knowing you’re not the only one may make it easier to get out bed tomorrow and to keep working hard.

Note: As I mentioned in the photo caption above, I haven’t used any images from the anecdotes I discuss here. I don’t want to create targets. Instead, the images in this article are from successful photoshoots but also some very challenging shoots.

The family that hates each other

The oldest boy was being rather grumpy in this session. Allowing him to poke and pester his brothers actually made for a great image. This is the family that loves each other. The total opposite of the family in the anecdote below.

When you shoot family portraits you witness some interesting family dynamics. Most of the time scenarios are pretty average. Perhaps there’s a bossy mom or a grumpy. You might run into the moody teenager or difficult children. All of these issues are relatively easy to manage. Bossy moms need a little encouragement to focus on being relaxed. Grumpy dads are easy to appease with a few jokes and a promise that the session will be over quickly if he can try to have fun. Teenagers are usually easy to bribe if you take a few photos and then promise to give them their favorite for social media.

However, what happens when you meet the family from hell? What do you do when the situation is far more complicated than you expected? Imagine trying to get images that portray love and caring in a family when there is none present. Imagine a situation in which family members are staring each other down across a picnic table. I never imagined that I would meet one of those families until I did – and it shocked me.

The family members were making thinly veiled insults towards each other. When I asked them to pose, they began to throw a few snide comments my way.  I was not impressed. When clients don’t treat you with respect, it’s really difficult to create images that are appealing and unique.

It seemed like a situation in which nothing was going right. Truthfully, nothing was. The shoot became far worse the moment the grandmother pulled out her point and shoot camera. She proceeded to stand behind me and shoot over my shoulder.  Normally, I would have stopped the shoot and walked away. The clients would have received a refund when I returned home, and that would have been the end of the whole event.

I should have followed my instincts and walked away, but I didn’t. Knowing when to get out of or turn down a job is as important as taking amazing photographs. The only thing that stopped me was the woman who booked the shoot. I’d known her for a long time and felt wrong about lumping her in with her mother in law. That was my mistake. The advice is simple. Never let personal relationships affect your professional nature. The client was being rude and overstepping her boundaries. That was reason enough to walk away.

Instead of creating the best possible images I made the bare minimum effort and didn’t try to add in any of my usual fun creativity. The shoot ended with the client receiving some pretty basic images.

The behavior of a client affected my ability to produce the best possible portraits. That’s not good. Never allow that to happen. If you can’t produce great images in the situation, then don’t take them. Don’t deliver sub-par work. It will only affect you later on. Those who view your work won’t know that the client was impossible; they’d see the photo online and assume your talent is limited.

In this session the challenge was lighting. It was rather harsh in the end.

The client who wants you to “Photoshop” them until they look 20 again

We’ve all run into this situation. We end up with clients who want you to turn them into something they are not. They show you pictures of themselves from 20 years earlier and 30 pounds lighter. They expect you to create the fountain of youth for them. This becomes the challenge. You have to convince your clients that they are beautiful just the way they are. That’s probably more than you can accomplish in 90 minutes.

The advice is simple – be gentle, be kind. Do your best to put the client in poses that show off their best features but at the same time be firm. If you create portraits that address the insecurities of your client, and the images are photoshopped and look fake, it will once again reflect badly on you.

Instead, work with the client to achieve the look while still holding to your vision. The work must reflect your skills and aesthetic as well as satisfy the client.

In this case, I asked the client to show the photos to her friends. I knew the images were great, but the client couldn’t accept her own body. The comments and praise from friends helped. She purchased the images, but I’m pretty sure she did so to be polite.

A few months later, I saw her new real estate signs around town, and in the end, she had used a different photographer. The images were highly photoshopped and looked nothing like her. There’s nothing you can do when a client wants a certain look. You either have to deliver or hold to your vision.

Part of me wishes I had caved and given her what she wanted. Perhaps I would have landed more jobs from her if I had, but it just didn’t feel right. I didn’t want to create an image that wasn’t true to the beautiful person I saw before me. The lesson in this situation is that photography cannot repair someones damaged self-image. Be prepared for the client who dislikes your work.

I find photographing animals quite challenging. I’m able to connect with humans much more easily.

The day the hurricane blew through town

This final scenario presents a situation in which no matter how much you prepare, you cannot prevent mother nature from wreaking havoc on your photoshoot. The family requesting the portraits had just the one day available. Family members were visiting from the west coast of Canada, and it was a do-or-die type of scenario. There was no option to reschedule, and just our luck, the remnants of a hurricane decided to blow through the Toronto area making the option for shooting outdoors impossible.

The challenge here was to create a warm family atmosphere despite the raging wind and rain outside. The family was understanding, but they were adamant they needed their photographs completed then. The hurricane forced us to have to improvise a setting and deal with bad lighting.

We moved some furniture and tried to create a nice setting with a large couch. I moved the couch to face the large window to add natural light to go with my flash. My strength as a photographer is in shooting solely with natural light and in outdoor settings. I don’t do well inside in confined spaces without the opportunity to improvise and add some physical activity. However, we had no choice.

In this case, the resulting photographs were not up to my usual standards, and I was unsatisfied with the work. While the client seemed satisfied with the product, there was the issue of personal pride in the work. This experience resulted in a personal decision to improve my studio photography skills so that in the rare circumstance when I cannot shoot outdoors, I can still create work with which I’m satisfied. The lesson here is knowing your limits and then working to improve your skills.

The skies opened up suddenly and we had to rush to finish the shoot in the pouring rain.

In Conclusion

Photography can be unpredictable. That very factor makes it exciting.

For those of us who crave some variety and challenge within our work, we embrace this fact about the photography world. It can cause frustration and anger, and sometimes you might wish you had a different career or hobby.

Then in the next moment, the truth hits you, and you know the unpredictable challenges keep you going. You’d be bored otherwise. The idea of knowing how each day begins and the end makes you cringe. So take a deep breath and dive into the business. You can handle all the challenges life throws your way.

The challenge here was pure exhaustion. We had been working for 6 hours without a break.

The post Photoshoots that Go Wrong – the Challenges and Beauty of Working in Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Erin Fitzgibbon.


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Are You Using Your Camera Wrong? 7 Errors You Need to Avoid

13 Jul

Are you making these 7 mistakes with your camera? Let’s find out.

7 Ways You’re Using Your Camera Wrong

Here’s a recap and links to some dPS articles to help you avoid making these mistakes with your camera.

  1. Holding your camera the wrong way – Cheat Sheet: How to Hold a Camera
  2. Not cleaning your lens – Step by Step How to Clean Camera Gear so it Stays in Good Shape
  3. Not having enough batteries or memory cards – Packing your Bags for a Photo Shoot and How to Select the Right Camera Memory Card
  4.  Not adjusting your focus point – Understanding the Focus and Recompose Technique and Getting Sharper Images – an Understanding of Focus Modes
  5. Shooting in full Automatic or the wrong mode – Getting off Auto – Manual, Aperture, and Shutter Priority modes explained
  6. Don’t use Auto White Balance – How Auto White Balance Can Hinder Your Photography
  7. Not shooting in RAW – Tips for Choosing Between RAW Versus JPEG File Format and Is Shooting RAW+JPEG the Best of Both Worlds? and finally, RAW Versus JPG – Why You Might Want to Shoot in RAW Format

Are you guilty of making any of those camera errors?

Can you think of any other common camera mistakes that beginners need to avoid? If so, please join in the discussion and post them in the comments area below.

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The Yashica digiFilm Y35 exemplifies everything wrong with retro styling

14 Oct

Allen Murabayashi is the Chairman and Co-Founder of PhotoShelter. He’s an avid photographer and frequently speaks on how photographers can use online marketing to grow their businesses. This article was originally published on PhotoShelter, and is reproduced here with permission.

At the turn of the millennium, Chrysler introduced the PT Cruiser, a retro-styled automobile that echoed design elements from the 1930s.

People went gaga for it because it was retro cool while retaining modern utility. Turning on the car didn’t require the driver to manually crank the engine. The car had air conditioning, power windows, and all the modern accoutrement that said retro cool need not be inconvenient to be successful.

In photography, a resurgence of interest in film isn’t a self-flagellating exercise. Film possesses a quality that can only be simulated in digital. Large format digital simply doesn’t exist, and many alternative processes have no digital equivalent.

Companies like Fujifilm have succeeded in incorporating rangefinder-style design, which feels nostalgic while incorporating incredible technology that place their cameras on par with other top-of-the-line offerings from other manufacturers.

Then, there is Yashica. A few weeks ago, the company teased their “Coming Chapter” featuring an attractive Chinese model in jumpcut vignette that seemed to take styling cues from Blade Runner (PSA: smoking is bad for your health). Although Yashica never scaled the heights of its contemporaries, Nikon and Canon, it still had a fairly storied history with its SLRs and TLRs before Kyocera sold the trademark rights to a Hong Kong-based firm in 2008.

An initial announcement about a smartphone lens system brought about a collective yawn, but photographers were still waiting to be delighted with a more substantive announcement of their “unprecedented” return to the camera world. And here is.

The Yashica digiFilm Y35 is a digital camera with a 1/3.2inch 14-megapixel sensor that uses pretend film—each with different ISO ratings, aspect ratio, and color. They’ve launched a Kickstarter to give you an opportunity to purchase the $ 125 camera. Over 5,100 fools people have backed this project to the tune of nearly $ 1m.

As I wrote in 2013, the camera of the future isn’t from the past. The Yashica Y35 reminds me of those old DigitalRev videos where Kai and crew would purposely handicap themselves using inferior cameras like the Barbiecam for, well, no purpose at all.

You can plausibly make an argument that vinyl records have an acoustic advantage over low resolution streamed audio, that a handmade knife is more balanced and sharper than a factory manufactured version, but you can’t convince me that the Y35 yields any advantage in any aspect of photography whatsoever.

The only unprecedented aspect of this comeback is how unprecedentedly disappointing it is. In the pursuit of brash consumerism, this newly branded Yashica has forgotten a large part of why we take photos in the first place: joy.

Here’s a suggestion, save your $ 125 to donate to Hurricane Relief in Puerto Rico and use your smartphone instead. You’ll feel better and your photos will look better too.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Panorama selfie goes horribly wrong, leads to viral photo

18 Jul

Need a bit of comic relief this Monday? How about nightmare fuel? This panorama selfie gone-wrong provides a little bit of both. The photo was captured by Mitchell Flann, who was using his Samsung Galaxy S7 to take a selfie of himself and girlfriend Erika Gomos.

They were using the phone’s Wide Selfie mode, which requires that you stand still while the camera is panned up to 120° to capture more of the scene. According to Samsung’s website, Wide Selfie “puts an end to getting cropped out.” While that’s technically correct, it did a bit more than that for Flann when Erika sneezed halfway through the selfie.

The nightmarish shot they captured has gone ‘viral’ as they say, earning an insane 150K upvotes on Reddit.

“We’re on vacation in Budapest and I couldn’t even enjoy the scenery at parliament because of the tears,” Flann said on Reddit. Apparently they’ve been taking photos like this across Europe, with some pretty fun malfunctions along the way, but nothing else has turned out quite like this.

Photo © Mitchell Flann, used with permission.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Film artist explains what’s wrong with new ‘Spiderman: Homecoming’ poster

27 May

There’s a new Spiderman movie coming out (yes, really – another one) and the most recent poster been generating a lot of comments. Mostly they’re comments about how it looks like the creation of a fevered teenager that just discovered Photoshop.

While the film itself looks like it might not be terrible, the poster is a technicolor mishmash of disparate elements from the movie, thrown together with gleeful disregard for scaling or uniform lighting:

In an interview with The Verge, veteran illustrator Tommy Lee Edwards explains what probably went through the designer’s mind: “Here’s a bunch of references I got from the movie. Let’s put it all together and see how it looks.’ From there, you might be inspired to do a real poster. Instead, they just stopped at that point”.

Well, to be fair, nobody ever said graphic design was easy.

Read more at The Verge

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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