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Take Time to Practice These Three Composition Skills Around Your Home

02 Apr

The post Take Time to Practice These Three Composition Skills Around Your Home appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.

Practice composition skills around your home featured image

Now is a good time to practice composition skills. With many people having to self-isolate, it means you may not be able to enjoy regular life. This will include being able to get out and photograph the subjects you typically take pictures of.

Make good use of the time to practice. This is not something photographers do as much as other artists. You can imagine that to play a song on a guitar or the piano, you must first practice it. It’s easy for a photographer to pick up a camera and get a pretty well-exposed photo without the need to practice. This can make you lazy, and not make time to work on aspects of your photography that need improving.

Take Time to Practice These Three Composition Skills Around Your Home — © Kevin Landwer-Johan Nikon D800, Lens 105mm, 1/400 sec., f/10, ISO 400

In this article, I want to encourage you to think outside the subject. Consider taking photos only to work on improving one aspect of your craft – composition.

Find subject material in your environment. Things you would not normally consider taking pictures of. Aim to make interesting and varied compositions by exploring and experimenting.

Practice composition skills

When you practice anything at all, you will get better at it. When was the last time you engaged in improving your composition skills through practice? Have you ever picked up your camera with the sole aim of getting better at using the rule of thirds or any other aspect of composition?

Focus on using negative space for a day, or a week, and you’ll find you incorporate more of it into your photographs.

By repeating what you are doing, you can learn a skill so well that you don’t have to consciously think about it. It will take time and practice to reach this level, but it is quite natural. Whatever you set yourself to practice, in time, you will be able to use that skill without having to think much about it. This is one great way to build your intuition.

Pick two or three composition rules to work on. I’m writing about the rule of thirds, negative space and filling the frame. But you can work on any you like. The key is to not be so concerned about your subject or creating masterpiece photos, it is to practice and learn.

Consider yourself doing this to be like a musician practicing scales. Their aim is not to go out on stage and play scales, but they know that practicing them will help them play better when they do perform.

Yellow mango against blur glass for practice composition skills — © Kevin Landwer-Johan Nikon D800, Lens 105mm, 1/320 sec., f/7.1, ISO 800

Practice the Rule of Thirds

Let’s start with the most well-known rule of composition in photography, the rule of thirds. This is one many people know and use. To put into practice composition skills, you need to concentrate on the rule, not the subject so much.

Don’t worry if you are not producing great photos. This exercise is designed to help you better understand when to use the rule of thirds.

You might like to use a single subject or various things around you to practice composition skills. For this exercise, I walked around my garden and in my house to create compositions using the rule of thirds.

Experiment with each subject you photograph. Compose it in different ways, but make sure to have it somewhere on one of the ‘thirds’. Don’t only take the first composition you think of. If you place your subject on the left for your first picture, place it on the right hand third for the second one. Then rotate your camera 90 degrees and place your subject on a lower third intersection.

Push yourself to try out compositions you normally wouldn’t. Don’t think about your results as right or wrong. Or even good or bad. The point of practice is to improve, so if you’re taking photos you don’t particularly like, think about them. Why don’t you like them? What can you do to improve?

Practice using the rule of thirds until you feel you’ve made some good progress with it. Do you have a better understanding of how to use it well?

Rose one a plain background for practice composition skills — © Kevin Landwer-Johan Nikon D800, Lens 105mm, 1/400 sec., f/10, ISO 400

Using negative space to practice composition skills

Negative space is not a bad thing – at least not when it’s included in compositions intentionally. Negative space is the area of a photograph that is not the main center of attention.

Often there will be nothing at all in these areas – no shapes, lines, or texture.

At other times there will be some detail, but it will not draw attention away from the main subject at all.

Coffee pot in contrast for practice composition skills. — © Kevin Landwer-Johan Nikon D800, Lens 105mm, 1/320 sec., f/7.1, ISO 800

During our photography workshops, one of the most common mistakes I see people make is to leave too much empty space above a person’s head. This is not usually well-composed negative space. It’s there because the photographer was not paying enough attention to what surrounded their subject.

Practice composition skills by creating photos with strong negative space. Use blank areas to help your main subject stand out. Use a blank wall, a shallow depth of field, or a light subject with a dark background.

There are many ways you can include negative space positively in your pictures.

Again, don’t aim to make masterpieces. Making ‘mistakes’ is healthy when you are practicing.

Experiment and try out various compositions, both horizontal and vertical. Leave space on the left, right, below and above the same subject. Study them together on your computer. Which one do you like the most?

Padlock on a grill — © Kevin Landwer-Johan Nikon D800, Lens 105mm, 1/200 sec., f/4.5, ISO 800

Aim to fill the frame

Filling the frame is something I aim to do every time I take a photo. Sometimes this can mean much of my frame is filled with negative space. So long as it’s intentional and adds to the photo, that’s fine.

To fill the frame well it’s as much about what you leave out as to what you include. Most important is to be aware of what’s within the four edges of your composition and make sure that it’s relevant to the photo you’re taking.

Sometimes filling the frame can mean coming in ultra-close to your subject so you don’t include all of it. Other times you may choose to move back or zoom out to include some of the surroundings because they are relevant.

Always look around the edges of your frame. What’s in the corners? Are the background elements supporting your main subject? If not, move it, move yourself, or use another technique to eliminate the unwanted element.

Moving even a little can alter the perspective of how elements within your frame relate to each other. As an example of this, I photographed the same objects on my table. The plastic bottle behind my main setting is distracting.

To eliminate it from my composition, I moved lower and to the right a little. In this situation, I could have also moved the bottle.

coffee set up for practicing composition skills — © Kevin Landwer-Johan Nikon D800, Lens 105mm, 1/80 sec., f/5, ISO 800

coffee set up — © Kevin Landwer-Johan Nikon D800, Lens 105mm, 1/80 sec., f/5, ISO 800

Conclusion

Taking time to practice composition skills may sound a bit boring – just as someone learning the piano might get bored practicing scales.

Try it and see. You may find you enjoy it after a while. Like anything, it takes time for the practice to pay off, so don’t give up easily.

Do you have any other tips you’d like to add? Please share them with us in the comments.

The post Take Time to Practice These Three Composition Skills Around Your Home appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.

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Create Light Beams in GIMP that Glow Without Any Plug-ins

01 Apr

The post Create Light Beams in GIMP that Glow Without Any Plug-ins appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Ana Mireles.

Do you want to create light beams with GIMP? While previous versions of GIMP used a process called Alpha to Logo, it’s not available in the latest version. Not to worry, you don’t have to download any plug-in or script-fu, as I’ll show you a step-by-step example to do them manually.

GIMP’s open-source nature can be the most attractive thing for some people and the most off-putting for others. Create light beams used to be a one-click operation, but the script-fu was removed since version 2.10.4. There’s a way to get it back and install it separately, but you can also create them using GIMP’s basic functions.

How to Create Light Beams in GIMP

1. Design the shape

Open the image or canvas where you want to create light beams.

Now create a new layer, I strongly recommend you to name them as you go because you will need a few of them.

Do this in the designated space on the top. Then choose Fill With Transparency and click OK.

In this new layer, draw the shape of your light beam using the Path Tool. Make sure the Edit Mode is set to Design and start drawing.

If you want to create curves, just hold the mouse button and drag the anchor point.

Once you have the shape you want, choose the color by clicking in the patches you find on the left panel.

Then right-click in any anchor point of your shape and choose Edit > Stroke Path from the menu.

This will open a pop-up window.

Select Paintbrush and Emulate Paintbrush.

This will apply the effect using the settings you have in your Paintbrush tool as if you had painted the shape.

2. Create the beam

Now, the stroke needs to start looking like a light beam. For this, you need to draw a lighter outline to it. The easiest way is to right-click on the layer and choose Alpha to Selection.

Go back to the color swatches and choose a lighter hue, or even white.

Create another transparency layer, then go to Edit > Stroke Selection. In the pop-up window choose Stroke Line and set the value that will determine how thick you want it.

Create light beams outlines — Here I disabled the visibility of the first stroke. You don’t have to do this, it was only to show you how the second stroke does an outline.

Deselect everything and click on the Layer Mask button.

Set it to black (full transparency). This will cover the entire outline you created before, but that’s OK, you’ll make it visible in the next step.

Pick the Paint Brush tool and set the color to white.

Then lower the opacity of the brush and paint over your light beam to slowly make the outline visible. After that, with full opacity, paint over some parts to create highlights.

add some highlights — I used full opacity only in the curves because that’s where I want the highlights to be.

3. Make it glow

Duplicate this layer and delete the mask. Lower its opacity and then go to Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur. The value is up to you, I started with 22. Repeat this process a second time, this time changing the values in the Opacity and the Blur filter.

This is how you can create light beams that appear to glow. If you feel like adding a neon effect, keep on reading to learn how.

4. Add some color for a neon effect

With the top layer selected, add a new transparency layer.

Then set the color you want in the swatches.

Since you’re going for a neon effect, I recommend you choose something ‘electric’.

Use the Paint Brush tool to add some colored splats on your design.

Change this layer to Soft Light blending mode at the top of the Layers panel.

Then create another one and do the same with another color. Change this one to HSL Color.

That’s it! Your neon glowing light beam is ready.

Feel free to skip any step or add some more to make it your own.

Remember, the good thing about doing them manually is that you have full control over the outcome.

Extra tip:

If you want it to swirl around something, like mine, just erase or cover with a layer mask the parts that should go behind the subject.

Incorporate light beams in your photography

Conclusion

Scripts and plug-ins can save some time, but they aren’t necessarily available or easy to install. Granted, you don’t always know the individual commands that were automated and that makes it difficult.

This process, however, is meant as a starting point to make it less daunting and allow you to get creative. I hope you liked this technique to create light beams in GIMP without any plug-ins.

Want to learn more GIMP Tutorials? You may like:

A Brief introduction to GIMP Software
Creative Uses for the GIMP Jigsaw Pattern
How to Use Gimp for Basic Photo Re-Touching
Make your Photos Sparkle with GIMP
5 Top Tips for Working with Gimp

The post Create Light Beams in GIMP that Glow Without Any Plug-ins appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Ana Mireles.

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5 Affordable Canon Lenses For Photographing Babies And Newborns

01 Apr

It can be daunting trying to decide which lenses to buy for photographing babies and newborns, especially when you’re on a budget. Award-winning family photographer Louise Downham shares her straightforward advice on which affordable lenses are best, as well as which lenses to consider upgrading to when your budget allows: Assuming you have a full-frame sensor, the key lenses you’ll Continue Reading

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Are Photography Classes Worth It? (It Depends)

01 Apr

So, you want to improve your photography, learn how to use that fancy new camera of yours and learn to take better shots? The kind that others will be amazed at. You’ve even noticed that there’s a photography class not too far away from where you live and its starts soon. But is it worth it? Couldn’t you just get Continue Reading

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What is the Sony a6400 Crop Factor?

31 Mar

Sony introduced the a6400 model of digital cameras in early 2019. The a6400 rapidly became a best-seller among both professional and amateur photographers. The camera is smaller than standard digital single reflex cameras but still uses Sony’s extensive line of lenses. Sony has achieved all this using an APS-C sensor system in a mirrorless body. What is Sony a6400 crop Continue Reading

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10 Things You Can Photograph in Your Home

31 Mar

The post 10 Things You Can Photograph in Your Home appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Matt Murray.

10 Things You Can Photograph in Your Home Featured image

There’s nothing I love more than grabbing a camera and setting off on the weekend to find a new place to photograph. But what happens if you’re confined to the house for an extended period and can’t get out? Fear not, there are still hundreds of things you can photograph in your home.

I have listed ten ideas for things to photograph below. I spent no more than 15 minutes photographing each item or idea. In some cases, it was closer to five minutes. For most images, I used either my Fujifilm XF 35mm f1.4 R lens or my Fujifilm XF 60mm f2.4 R Macro lens.

1. Family

The good news is that if you live with family or friends, you will always have subjects for your photography. The only trick is being a bit selective. Don’t take photos of them all the time and wear out your welcome!

For the image below, I sat my son on the trampoline with the afternoon sun lighting up the netting behind him. I took a series of shots with him looking into the camera. However, this one I like the best, with him looking away. I must admit, I did have to bribe him to pose for me, but it was worth a bowl of ice cream.

Boy on a trampoline — When did you last take photos of your family at home?

2. Pets

Another ready-made subject for you at home is your family pet. There can be both pros and cons for photographing animals. An advantage is that they can’t complain about being photographed like family or friends. A disadvantage is that they don’t want to sit still very often!

I tend to take images of our dalmatian Marshall when he’s doing something funny, yet rarely do I take a portrait. I love this photo of him; I took it as he was having a rest on the sofa.

Thing you can photograph in your home — There’s nowhere to hide from the camera, pooch!

3. Jewelry

If you have a macro lens, or a lens capable of getting close to small objects, why not photograph your jewelry? This could include items given to you by your loved ones or family heirlooms passed down from your relatives.

I chose to photograph my Nixon Star Wars watch. There are lots of cool details on the watch that I forgot about, including the second hand is a light saber!

If you have a lot more patience than me, you could take a series of images and focus stack them in an image editing program to create an image sharp across the frame.

10 Things You Can Photograph in Your Home — My Star Wars watch

4. Figurines

When my Grandma visited London in 1983, she brought me back lots of little gifts, including these three metal soldiers. They’ve sat on my bookshelf next to my travel guide books for years. When I was looking for things you can photograph in your home, they commanded my attention immediately.

I photographed the metal soldiers in my front doorway on a table, with a booklet about London in the background. You can make out the double-decker bus in the background, which gives the image an added British feel.

Try experimenting with any small figures you have at home: lego people, dolls, small toys. Imagine what it’s like to be that tiny.

5. Vintage cameras

Many photographers have vintage cameras in their house, either because they still shoot film with them or because they make fantastic decorations. When it comes to things you can photograph in your home, vintage cameras are my favorite!

I have so many cameras dotted around my home office it was difficult to choose just one to photograph. However, in the end, I went with my classic 1960s Japanese half-frame film camera, the Olympus Pen FT.

The Pen FT is a beautifully designed camera, even down to the lens cap, which I lay on the table next to the camera.

If you don’t have any vintage cameras in your home, you could always photograph your favorite lens or another vintage item in your house.

Olympus Pen FT half frame camera — Precision Japanese engineering – the Olympus Pen FT.

6. Flowers

I wandered outside to my much-neglected garden and found some flowers we hadn’t managed to kill off yet. Gardening is not my superpower, that’s for sure!

I shot this image handheld, with the stamen in focus, and most of the background is a wonderful blur. As with the jewelry shots, you could set up a tripod and take a series of images to focus stack.

If you don’t have a garden, any kind of plant or flower – real or artificial – will do. If you have some cacti or succulents, you could even combine this idea with the figurines idea. Try posing some lego figures in your cactus garden!

7. Coffee

One advantage of being cooped up in the house is that I can make a coffee anytime I like. However, this can be a danger – I need to keep track of how many I’m having!

I took a series of images of coffee and milk frothing. This one of espresso coming out of my home coffee machine into a metal jug is my favorite.

Espresso pouring into a metal jug — Coffee pouring into a metal jug

8. Food

Hopefully during your stay at home, you have access to some nice food, or maybe you are still able to order some amazing takeaway from nearby restaurants.

Set up an area where you can shoot a flat lay of your meal. Try to make it as colorful and cool-looking as possible, with lots of different colors and props.

9. Sweet treats

Unless you’ve gone full minimalist, you’ll probably find things in your house and wonder where they came from. I have no idea why we had these brightly-colored candy canes in a vase in our kitchen, but I decided to photograph them nonetheless.

I put a white sheet over the table and photographed them with natural light streaming in the front doorway. Look for any brightly-colored candy or sweets in your house. I also took some shots of colorful easter eggs in a basket.

10. Home photoshoot

Another idea for something you can photograph in your home is a styled photoshoot. Christmas in July, teddy bears’ picnic, fashion shoots: the only limit is your imagination.

Pick a theme and run with it. Turn a corner of your house into your studio and go wild!

Conclusion

Being confined to the house can be challenging for many people. Rest assured, though, there are literally hundreds of things you can photograph in your home.

The first port of call for many will be family and pets, but there are also lots of other opportunities. You can also photograph personal items with sentimental value, such as jewelry, to vintage items that usually sit on the shelf, like toy soldiers, or vintage cameras. Bright colored items such as pencils and sweets make good subjects, as do flowers and plants.

Getting more creative with photographic opportunities at home is one way to fill time, work on your photography, and discover a new perspective. Are you up for the challenge?

What items do you like to photograph in your home? Tell us in the comments below.

The post 10 Things You Can Photograph in Your Home appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Matt Murray.

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6 Causes of Pixelated Text in Photoshop and Their Fixes

31 Mar

You’re working on some text in Photoshop for your photo. Things are going along great…until you realize that your text is horribly pixelated! Why? You may have even created this exact type of file before and not had this problem. Why is the text pixelated now? There are a few things that can cause pixelated text in Photoshop. The good Continue Reading

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How to Create a Budget Tabletop Photography Setup for Shooting Food and Products

31 Mar

The post How to Create a Budget Tabletop Photography Setup for Shooting Food and Products appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jackie Lamas.

It can feel like photography is a money vortex and unless you have an unlimited amount, many types and styles of photography may seem out of reach. We’re here to tell you that you can create your own tabletop photography setup on a budget and still create some amazing food and product photography.

All you need is a trip to your local dollar store and craft store, and you’ll have a set up ready to go that won’t break the bank. It will also let you create the images your clients will love.

What is a tabletop photography setup?

A tabletop photography setup is generally used to photograph products and food for commercial or marketing services.

In recent years, tabletop photography setups have moved away from the Lightbox and toward more authentic setups thanks to social media.

The basic tabletop photography setup is a table, backgrounds, tabletop backgrounds, and nice light source that you can use to light your products and food.

What you need for a basic setup

A tabletop photography setup doesn’t have to be complex or involve a lot of materials. You can have a simple setup that offers you a variety of backgrounds, looks, and setups all in the same spot, at the same table.

tabletop photography setups — There is a big window to camera left and here we can see the basic setup with kraft paper and white paper taped to the wall.

You’ll need:

a table or any stable surface to place items onto of
a few backgrounds like a white paper, kraft paper, black paper, foam boards, different types of fabric and textures
depending on your products/food you’ll need some stands, dishes, and plates, or other styling items
tape
a large window for window light
clips or clamps to hold things down
a tripod for max aperture and depth of field to avoid camera shake.

This basic setup will help you to create your tabletop photography setup without the need to be in a big space or rent a studio. It will also keep costs down.

Get creative with backgrounds

While a table, solid plain wall and a good light source are the basic set up, it can often get boring. As you get more clients, you’ll want to have different setups to help you get more interesting photos.

A quick trip to the dollar store can help keep costs down. You can get items that can give your tabletop the right look and style for the product that you’re photographing.

How to Create a Budget Tabletop Photography Setup for Shooting Food and Products — 1/15 sec; f/11; ISO 400 using a 50mm lens. You can see the window in the reflection of the watch.

Choose different patterns for backgrounds, like this shower curtain I used to give the tabletop photography setup more of a marble texture and style. The watch stands out against the colors and pattern and creates a more interesting effect.

Different placemats work really well as backgrounds and tabletops for food photography as well as product photography. Letting you change the tabletop photography setup without having to directly paint or change your table.

Posterboard can be really useful in creating a faux cyclorama wall for products giving the illusion of a seamless background. Taping fabric to the wall also works to help keep the backgrounds in place and creates seamless backgrounds.

Placemats of various textures and prints can also be perfect for food photography and work in many different settings for products as well.

Kitchen towels can also serve as props for your food styling as well as backgrounds.

Find the light

The biggest concern is getting enough light and that is what a big window is for.

If you don’t get lots of light in your home, go outside! Take your tabletop setup out onto your patio or yard. Find some good indirect shaded light to work in.

The idea is to create an evenly-lit tabletop setup so that you’re able to set your camera to the correct settings and get the look you want.

Having enough light to work with, lets you take away light with flags or create shadows with different items. You’re also able to get different exposures to your products or food.

Different times of day can give different types of lighting for your tabletop photography setup too. Take advantage of the lighting changes and experiment to see what light is best for the items you’re photographing.

Using available ambient light can really help keep costs down while doing tabletop photography and can offer lots of different types of lighting.

Don’t limit yourself to a table

With a lifestyle component, you can take your tabletop photography setup on the go. Take your backgrounds, fabrics, and styling items to different locations to get different types of photographs.

You can photograph in a park, trail, cafe, or in front of an interesting wall in your neighborhood.

Using your creative eye, you can photograph food and product photography just about anywhere that will save you money, while also giving you amazing results.

In conclusion

As you can see, creating a tabletop photography setup doesn’t have to mean spending loads on lighting, space, styling equipment or backgrounds. With a trip to your local dollar store and craft store, you can create stunning product and food photography for a fraction of the price.

Your clients will love their photos and you will have a setup that you can use anywhere!

Do you have any other tips for creating a tabletop photography setup? Share with us in the comments section.

The post How to Create a Budget Tabletop Photography Setup for Shooting Food and Products appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jackie Lamas.

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Can you Point a Mirrorless Camera at the Sun?

31 Mar

A mirrorless camera’s sensor is always exposed to the image you’re trying to capture, which has its advantages and disadvantages. A major disadvantage is the risk of sensor damage when changing lenses, or when capturing extremely bright environments. Which begs the question, can you point a mirrorless camera at the sun? The quick and simple answer to the question—No, you Continue Reading

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9 Best Laptops for Photography

31 Mar

You enjoy photographing in the field, whether its landscapes or events. When it comes to viewing your captured images, polishing them up and showing to people, you need a laptop to make this possible, especially when you are far from home or office. But you are not a techie and Cores make your head spin! How do you decide on Continue Reading

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