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How to Master Natural Light Portraiture

07 Dec

I love working with natural light, I always have. Even more so now that our digital cameras have sensors so incredibly capable of making images in extremely low light. Making portraits using natural light only is a good skill to learn so you can make photographs anywhere. Here are some tips to help you mast nature light portraiture.

How to Master Natural Light Portraiture

Be aware of the quality of light

When you want to make a series of portraits using only natural light, you first need to be aware of what the light is like at your chosen location and the style of portrait you want to make. Is the quality of light hard or soft?

If it’s a bright sunny day and the light is harsh (hard), you will get portraits with a much different look and feel, than if the sky is cloudy and overcast. Morning and evening light will give your portraits a different quality (soft light) as will photographing your subject indoors and using light from a window.

Soft side light from a window.

Hard sunlight can be quite challenging to work with, but can produce some good results if you style you portrait well. If you’re working in open sun it can be helpful to have a reflector on hand and a friend to assist you so dark shadows can be reduced.

What kind of photo do you want?

Having a concept in mind for the type of photo you want will give you a better chance of success. If you’re heading out to make some portraits on a sunny day and have an idea of making some soft dreamy romantic photos, this will be difficult. But if you want to make some photos to illustrate the idea of a journey in a hot country the light will be your friend and support your idea.

Bight, harsh sun in the middle of the day.

Cloudy days provide a soft light that’s generally easier to get a more even exposure. The flat light tends to render a softer feeling to portraits.

So if you’re making portraits with natural light on a cloudy day, you will have more success if your concept is for a gentler look. Photos taken under a cloudy sky and later converted to black and white work well as the tone range will be more limited than on a sunny day.

Portraits on a cloudy day.

Use light to your advantage

If the sky is heavily overcast you will find it challenging as the light will be very dull. On days when there’s not such thick cloud you will notice the light is still soft, but brighter and more vibrant (less flat,) so nicer for making portraits. Be careful of your exposure settings if the clouds are moving and the light value is frequently changing.

Finding a shaded space and making use of naturally reflected light will help you achieve a different look on a bright sunny day. This is not the same as the light you have on a cloudy day. Light reflecting off a wall close by or light-toned pavement, (cement rather than asphalt or dark paving,) will fill in shadows on your subject’s face and produce a more even, lively result.

Light reflecting off a nearby white wall provided fill light for this portrait.

Placing your subject so they are slightly inside a shaded area, but close to the bright sun, can allow the reflection of the sunshine to have a very helpful effect in lighting your subject. So long as your subject is not too far away from the bright light you can make use of the reflection to add a more interesting dynamic to your portraits.

The Golden Hours

Of course, making portraits with the rich morning or evening sunshine (often called Golden Hours), or even subdued light can produce very pleasing portraits. Be careful though not to have your subject look directly ahead into the sun as they will typically make an unpleasant face. Backlighting or side lighting your subject at these times can be more effective and more comfortable for your subject. Diffused morning and evening light is lovely to work with as it is soft yet can still be quite rich and warm toned.

Diffused early evening light.

Try new things

I’ve loved making natural light portraits for many years, but I also enjoy developing my technique by trying new ways of working. If you enjoy a particular aspect of photography, stick with it, develop what you do. But don’t just do the same thing every time.

If you like making portraits in natural light on a cloudy day because you find it easier, sometimes try shooting on a sunny day. Stretch yourself to learn some new technique. You may discover something new, a new way ot working that you really enjoy.

How to Master Natural Light Portraiture

Portable natural light studio

I have a portable natural light studio I love to take into the mountain villages here in northern Thailand. We’ve even started including it in some of the workshops we run and our customers love the professional looking results they can achieve. My outdoor studio only requires that we have space to set it up, (just a few square meters is enough,) and a sunny day for the best light, but I do use it on cloudy days too.

The best thing about it is having control over how the sun lights my subjects. I set it up so the sun is behind the backdrop. Above the backdrop is a fine gray nylon screen to filter the sunlight. The light reflects off the ground which is a light colored earth and works well with Asian skin tones, or a large plastic sheet. I have more recently introduced a large reflector too and am achieving some very pleasing results.

The light coming from behind the backdrop is providing great light on these subjects’ hair as a rim light, and on their faces via reflected light.

The portable studio behind the scenes.

Your turn to try it

Next time you head out to make some portraits try something different with the light. If you prefer sunshine, make some in the shade as well. If you prefer a cloudy day challenge yourself to go out in the middle of the day when the sun is shining and find a location where you have some good light. Remember, the only time you cannot make a photo is when there is no light at all.

The post How to Master Natural Light Portraiture by Kevin Landwer-Johan appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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6 Types of Bracketing Your Camera Can Do and How to Use Them

06 Dec

Bracketing is a method of taking multiple images of the same scene at different settings in order to capture more detail in your shot.

You might not be aware that there are actually a number of bracketing techniques besides the most common method which is exposure bracketing.

Exposure bracketing allows you to retain more dynamic range in your final image. However, other bracketing techniques which we’ll discuss in this article can help you capture more detail in different focus planes, different color temperatures, or even detail in the amount of noise or grain that is captured.

Let’s go ahead and begin with the bracketing technique that you’re most likely already familiar with – exposure bracketing.

#1 – Exposure Bracketing

In exposure bracketing, we take the same image several times at different exposure values or (EVs) in order to accommodate for the brightest highlights and the darkest shadows in the shot. The resulting images can be merged together either in camera or by using editing software. This produces an image with superior tonal range than what you’d have gotten if you had taken only a single shot.

Most cameras can do this automatically in HDR mode, however, the majority of them are only able to save the resulting image in a JPEG format. That is a huge limitation if you want to change some parameters in post-production like White Balance, Exposure, Saturation, etc.

Your camera will usually have a number of options for you to choose from, like the total number of shots to be taken, drive mode (continuous or single), and the exposure difference between each image (1EV or 2EV). ). The exposure bracketing settings can be found under the drive mode menu on most cameras.

#2 – Focus Bracketing (Stacking)

This bracketing technique is most useful when you have a limited depth of field giving you a narrow sliver of focus in your image. Several images are taken at different focal planes, from the nearest focus distance or plane to the furthest focus distance.

All the other in-camera settings must be constant, your exposure should remain untouched because none of the three pillars of exposure (shutter, aperture, ISO) are changed. Really all that’s changing is the focus point.

In macro photography, this can be very useful because the images can be stacked in order to produce one where the subject is fully in focus as opposed to just a certain part. You can think of this method as slightly widening the depth of field on your subject without losing any silky smooth bokeh you get at wider apertures.

After merging or focus stacking the three focus bracketed images. It’s not perfect but it has more of the bear in focus than any of the other three images.

Not many cameras will have a focus bracketing function or feature, however, if your camera does, I encourage you to read the manual to learn how it works. For those with cameras that don’t have this feature then it’s really simple to do it manually. You want to have your camera on a tripod and you also want to make sure you’re shooting a static subject.

All you have to do is take multiple images at the same settings (I advise the use of manual mode or aperture priority), between each image you want to adjust your focus plane manually from the closest to furthest. You can experiment with different distances between focus planes to get the results you want. In post-production, you the have the freedom to make the entire image sharp, or just all the parts of your subject, or even just select areas.

#3 – Flash Bracketing

In flash bracketing, multiple images are taken of the same scene with varying light intensities from your camera flash or speedlight especially a fill flash. The light intensity from the flash is varied in steps from low to high intensity as images are captured.

You then have a number of images all with different flash exposures from which you can pick the best one.

Neutral or normal intensity

This can be very handy in low light situations or in general where you are unsure what flash intensity is going to correctly expose your image.

Flash exposure bracketing (FEB) can be found as a feature on many speedlights, you might want to read through the manual first to figure out how to find and activate it. For some cameras, it is in the camera menu. Once found it’s as simple as picking the number of photos to take, as well as the flash exposure compensation between them.

The final step is taking the images, it’s important to note that FEB can be very slow due to the limitation of the speedlight recycle rate (the time it takes your speed light to be ready to fire again after an actuation). So always keep that in mind when shooting.

Here’s another example which was done outdoors. Notice how the exposure changes on the girl (due to the amount of flash) but the background remained the same.

#4 – White Balance Bracketing

This is one of the more unusual bracketing techniques available in digital photography. As the name suggests, White Balance bracketing allows you to take several images of the same scene at different color temperatures.

This method mostly applies to photographers that only shoot JPEG since the White Balance of an image can always be changed in post-production if it’s recorded in RAW format. Images are taken at blueish color temperatures in stages all the way to reddish temperatures.

This bracketing technique is particularly useful in scenes where there is mixed lighting and it may be difficult for the Auto White Balance mode to correctly pick a color temperature.

You can then pick the image with the most accurate (or pleasing) color temperature afterward. You can manually set the color temperature range within your camera settings in degrees Kelvin.

White balance bracketing can be found in the camera settings, and you should be able to pick the number of photos to take as well as the white balance difference between them in degrees Kelvin. If your camera does not have the feature then you can individually take the photos manually, changing the white balance between them. Just make sure you shoot in RAW + JPEG so you have more creative freedom in post-production. Use the JPEGs for previewing so you can pick the image with the right color temperature, then match that to your RAW file and you can make all your other edits.

#5 – Depth of Field Bracketing

This is a bracketing technique that is very similar to the focus bracketing (stacking) method mentioned earlier. Multiple images are taken of the same scene at different apertures, your exposure must remain constant meaning that your shutter speed and ISO can change (Aperture Priority is recommended).

Just like in focus bracketing, you are able to get a varying depth of field in your shot when you stack the resulting images in post-production, effectively allowing you to get more in focus while not sacrificing any smooth bokeh you got at your widest aperture.

Depth of field bracketing is a technique that won’t be found on many cameras as a function or feature. You will have to do it manually, the good news is that it’s very easy to do. You want to make sure your camera is in Aperture Priority then take images of the same scene while changing your aperture between each image, it might be handy to use a tripod so that the frame is identical. In post-production, you have the freedom to stack your images and get everything in focus or just the subject in its entirety while keeping some satisfying bokeh.

#6 – ISO Bracketing

The final bracketing technique in digital photography is ISO bracketing. As the name suggests, this method involves taking several images of the same scene at different ISO or sensor gain values.

What might come as a surprise to you is that your aperture and shutter speed must stay constant which results in a number of images all with different signal to noise ratios and also different exposures.

ISO bracketing is useful because you get images with different amounts of noise. So you can pick the aesthetic that’s most pleasing to your eyes in that respect.

ISO bracketing can also be used for HDR in situations where your aperture is closed all the way down but you don’t want a shutter speed that’s too slow (in order to correctly expose) such that things in the scene change between images; like water, people or even marine traffic.

ISO bracketing is one of the less common bracketing methods that can be found as a function in your camera. I advise that you check your camera manual to make sure your camera has this feature. If it doesn’t, then you can put your camera in Manual Mode, then select Auto ISO and activate your exposure bracketing, you can also pick your exposure range as well as the number of pictures to take (note: this only works on some camera models).

If your camera isn’t able to do ISO bracketing via the method mentioned above then you can do it the old school way; manually! Put your camera in Manual Mode, make sure you select an aperture, shutter speed, and an ISO between 800 to 1000 that correctly exposes your image. Take your first image as your base at 0EV, the next step involves lowering and raising your ISO while taking images to get your shots at different exposures.

Conclusion

Most of the bracketing techniques mentioned here in this article are not actually available as built-in features or modes in a lot of the cameras that you and I can buy. However, with the power of full manual controls, you can always try them for yourself and see what kind of results you’re getting.

The post 6 Types of Bracketing Your Camera Can Do and How to Use Them by Fadzai Saungweme appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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How to Choose Your First Camera Drone and Skyrocket Your Photography

06 Dec

Maybe you are in love with photography and in the process of turning it into a passion. You might be a professional photographer who’s always searching to improve, or you might just like capturing those beautiful trips like no other. If you’re in any of these categories, you might want to consider buying yourself a drone.

How to pick your first camera drone

This guide is all you need to help you make a choice. I have experimented with most of the drones on the market so you don’t have to.

How useful is a drone for photography?

I think you already imagine how cool it could be to reach those places you always wanted. No more climbing trees for great panoramas. And best of all, you can literally fly your camera wherever you like (within the law, of course).

Drone picture through the wood

Bonus: You’ll be able to take unbelievable videos as well.

Maybe, you always thought taking pictures is where you’ll stop, but don’t tell me you’ve never been fascinated by one of those cool drone videos on YouTube.

The great thing about a drone is that most of the time, it comes with an included gimbal that stabilizes the image perfectly. That feat alone makes both video and photography easy to do and cinematic almost straight away.

Will you be able to afford it?

Drones

Gone are the days where only blockbuster movies had the budget to record and shoot photos from the air. Today, thanks to less expensive technology and increasing popularity of quad-copters, almost everyone can afford a drone. And the results are absolutely fascinating.

These are my general recommendations when it comes to pricing for a good camera drone:

If it’s a drone that comes with a camera, you will need to spend over $ 400 if you want to have image stabilization.
You can also pick a cheaper drone with GPS and stabilization that comes with no camera. That might be a good option if you already have a GoPro or action-camera and a tight budget.
If you want a beginner drone just to learn how to fly, don’t spend more than $ 50.

How to pick your first camera drone

So you decided to get into drones and skyrocket your photography/videography. I have created an infographic explaining the main things you should look for in a camera drone. Now you have two paths you can choose from:

Get a small beginner drone (under $ 50) to learn the basics of piloting it, and only after that buy a more expensive one.
Get a more expensive drone with GPS, which is stable enough when flying and can return to home automatically if you mess up.

What are the best inexpensive beginner drones?

Beginner drone

Ways you can go about buying your first beginner drone:

Get two or more VERY cheap drones (at $ 15 each) and simply learn the basics of flying in the house, while having a backup.
Get one cheap beginner drone (around $ 50), that usually comes with a low-quality camera (I don’t recommend this because it’s nothing like the more expensive ones).
Choose a cheap beginner drone and the more expensive one at the same time, if you want to just try it a few times and then jump into the action.

Here are my top beginner drones you can start with:

JJRC H36 – A super resilient drone that works great inside. This is what I would recommend any friend. About $ 18.99 on Amazon
Cheerson CX-10 – A very small drone that’s around $ 20 and can do flips. About $ 18.99 on Amazon.
Hubsan x4 – A very sturdy and well-made drone with a camera. About $ 32 on Amazon.

What are my top choices for a camera drone?

This is my top three list of recommendations I have for different types of consumers, ranging from $ 500 to $ 1500 USD.

Top 3 camera drones

I’ll underline the main features you should look for in each drone, while also spotting the drawbacks of each.

#1 – DJI Mavic Pro Platinum – My overall winner

This quad-copter is one of the most popular right now, for some really good reasons. The DJI Mavic Pro Platinum is the newer version of the Mavic, but it is quieter and has a longer battery life. This is why I would recommend it.

Dji mavic

I’d recommend it to anyone from travel enthusiast to the professional photographer and so on. It has its limitations, but for the price of about $ 1000, here’s why it rocks:

It comes with a stellar gimbal (a motorized system that stabilizes the camera while in the air).
Has a 4K camera with a fixed aperture of f/2.2 – This makes it pretty good even in low light conditions.
You can take amazing photos in 12mp resolution.
It’s foldable – This makes it the most portable high-quality camera on my list, and pretty much on the market. You can simply take it in a small bag and go on your vacation, no problem.
Long range – it can go up to 7 km in perfect conditions, which is more than enough for anyone.
Long battery life – it promises about 30 minutes of flight time, but in real life conditions, 26 minutes is more likely.
Has great GPS and return to home features.
Has front sensors for detecting obstacles and stopping in time.

Dji mavic folded front sensors

Disadvantages: Can’t really think of anything. It’s amazing for the price.

#2 – Xiaomi MI 4K drone – The cheapest, yet still amazing

Xiaomi drone

The Xiaomi MI 4K drone costs about $ 500 and comes with all you need for great photo/video results.

Just as the Mavic before, it comes with an amazing gimbal and camera attached to it, in order to keep the image steady in the air.
Again, you can shoot 4K photos (12.4 mp) and video or go lower in resolution so you can record in more frames, and do slow-motion.
The range is over 3 km, which is absolutely fantastic.
Battery life is said to be 27 minutes, but in real life, I got a maximum of 24.
It comes with very good GPS and returns to home when the battery is low and also when the signal is lost (just like the Mavic)

Xiaomi drone camera

Disadvantages of the Xiaomi 4k drone

It’s not nearly as portable as the Mavic.
It is louder.
It doesn’t have the front facing sensors to stop before impact that the Mavic does.

Consider how much these drawbacks mean to you when you take into account the super cheap price. Don’t get fooled thinking a smaller price means lower quality. Xiaomi, just like DJI, is a Chinese company with a focus on creating high-quality hardware, that’s impressive even by western standards.

#3 – DJI Phantom 4 Professional – the pro choice at a small price

You have probably heard of drones like Phantom 3 or 4 by now, and they were all amazing, but the DJI Phantom 4 Professional is on the next level.

Phantom4pro

If the DJI Mavic Pro Platinum is not enough for you in terms of camera capability and you want more professional freedom in your work, this is the best way to go.

Here’s what this $ 1500 drone comes with:

The 4K camera we’ve been used to has a 1-inch sensor now. This means nighttime photos will be considerably better and less noisy compared to any of the previous drones.
The 20mp sensor also delivers amazing quality photos and video.
It can shoot 4K in 60fps and Full HD in 120FPS and comes with a mechanical shutter (just like your DSLR), so you get a smooth video image and no rolling shutter effect.
It’s super secure with obstacle sensing in 5 directions: 2 front sensing cameras, 2 side infrared detectors, Sonar and cameras on the bottom (to land precisely), And even one in the back!
Just like the Mavic Pro Platinum, it comes with 30-minute flight time, 3-axis gimbal stabilization and 7 km range (but, this time, it’s dual-band transmission, so the signal is more secure).

What are a few disadvantages: It’s bulky and loud. It can’t fold up, so if you want to take it on vacation, it will be harder to carry.

Scenery1

I recommend this drone for the more professional bunch of people, who want to use it more intensely for professional projects and don’t mind the bigger form size. This drone is great for people who want to have more control over their images, and it’s perfect if you want to shoot at high ISO in lower light.

Over to you

I only gave you three choices because I believe these are the best of each price category. So, depending on your budget, you can confidently choose one of these, as there’s simply no competition on the market right now.

Don’t forget to fly safe and check the regulation in your area!

Scenery2

The post How to Choose Your First Camera Drone and Skyrocket Your Photography by Paul Archer appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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How to Make Food Photos Look Tastier with Luminar

05 Dec

When it comes to food photography, photo editing is at least half of the battle. Sure, there’s an art to styling and shooting food so that it looks yummy right out of the camera. But more often than not, it pays to spend a little time sprucing up that photo in post-production. There are lots of popular photo editing tools out there, but lately, I’ve been preferring Luminar by Macphun, soon to be Skylum.

Simple and straightforward to use, you can enhance any food photo in Luminar right out of the box. Here’s how to get started. I should be clear that this is my personal food photography editing workflow. Feel free to make adjustments and edits to your own taste (pun intended) and preferences.

How to Make Food Photos Look Tastier with Luminar

The final image, edited in Luminar.

Get Started

First, open a photo in Luminar. You can open an image three ways; by clicking the blue Open Image button on the welcome screen, by going to File > Open, or by dragging and dropping an image on the welcome screen.After your image is open, take a look around at the software’s interface.

The top bar contains a variety of useful tools such as crop, transform, and undo, plus unique features like clone and stamp, erase, and a handy history menu which lets you scroll back through every edit you’ve made to an image. There’s also a button to give a quick preview of changes made to your image, and even a compare slider showing the image before and after editing.

1. Apply a Luminar Preset

On the bottom row of Luminar, you’ll find a menu of presets, which are essentially filters, with predetermined settings. (Note: if the presets are not showing click the icon third from the right in the top toolbar.) There are dozens of presets to choose from and they’re sorted by category. In the default version of the software, there’s not a specific category for food photos, but the Basic presets will do just fine (and as you go, you can create your own custom presets).

Selecting a preset automatically applies the edits intended by the designer of the preset. In the sandwich image below, the Fix Dark Photos preset has been applied. Directly over the preset is a slider that allows you to adjust the intensity of that preset. On the right side, a panel opens up showing what aspects of the photo have been edited. You can go in and fine-tune the adjustments to taste using the sliders.

Luminar Apply Preset - How to Make Food Photos Look Tastier with Luminar

2. Open up the Filters Catalog

Applying a preset will get your photo off to a great start, but you’ll often need to make a few micro adjustments to your image.

To do this, click on the Add Filters button in the right-hand corner. This will open up the Filters Catalog, offering you tons more editing tools. Hovering your mouse over a filter will result in a pop-up window that explains the filter’s effect and shows an example thumbnail image (as seen below).

Luminar Add Filters - How to Make Food Photos Look Tastier with Luminar

Here I’m adding the Dodge & Burn Filter.

Finding and Sorting Filters

There several tools in the catalog that will help you find the filters you need. First is the search bar where you can type in a filter name. Below that is a drop-down menu that lets you see filters according to their usage, such as Issue Fixers, Essential, and Creative. Finally, you can star or favorite your most-used filters to make them easier to find. For food photos, I stick to pretty basic filters that add minor adjustments.

Below, I’ve applied a Dodge and Burn filter to darken (burn) some of the sandwich bread. I also added a Denoise filter to reduce some of the grain in the black background.

Luminar Dodge and Burn - How to Make Food Photos Look Tastier with Luminar

3. Crop the Image

After applying a preset and fine-tuning with filters, I’m feeling pretty good about the color and lighting of my image. All that remains is cropping the image. To do this, click on the Tools menu in the top bar and select Crop. This will reveal a cropping interface with guidelines, a collection of crop preset,s and the ability to rotate the image if you like.

In this case, I cropped in just a bit to put more emphasis on the sandwich and remove the bit of food on the right.

Luminar Crop - How to Make Food Photos Look Tastier with Luminar

The Crop tool in Luminar.

4. Clone and Stamp

Almost there! Now that I’ve cropped the image to my liking, there are a few messy spots that I want to erase. Time to clone and stamp! This feature is also in the Tools drop-down menu where you found Crop.

In this workspace, Clone & Stamp works very similarly to other image editors such as Photoshop and Lightroom. Simply hold down the Option key and click on an area you want to copy pixels from. Then click (paint) over the object you want to remove or replace. In the photo below, a few messy spots on the bread have been clone stamped, as well as part of the black shirt background.

Luminar Clone Stamp food editing - How to Make Food Photos Look Tastier with Luminar

Clone tool for fixing a few messy bits.

5. Save, Export, Share, or Open Image in another platform

When you’re done editing your food photos in Luminar, you have several options for saving and sharing images.

One option is to go to File –> Save As. Just note that this will save your image in a Luminar 2018 native format (.lmnr) so that you can continue to fully edit and adjust the same image later. If you choose you can save all the layers and the history for this image in the .lmnr file.

Luminar Save As - How to Make Food Photos Look Tastier with Luminar

Saving as a .lmnr file.

If you want to save in another file format such as a JPG, you’ll have to Export. This brings up a dialogue box where you can specify file size, format, quality, and the location of the saved image.

Luminar Save - How to Make Food Photos Look Tastier with Luminar

Your final option for saving images is to share them directly to online platforms such as Facebook or 500px. It’s necessary to sign into your individual accounts to connect them to Luminar, but once you do so, sharing them directly to other websites is a snap.

You can also open the image in another image editing platform such as one of Macphun’s many other programs (i.e. Aurora HDR).

In Conclusion

Whether you’re trying to fix or spruce up a food photo, Luminar by Macphun, soon to be Skylum, is a great photo editing platform. Not only does it have a wide range of adjustable presets, but it also has basic and advanced tools that both amateur and pro photographers will appreciate.

Download a free trial of Luminar and give it a go! Post your food photo results in the comments below.

Final, edited photo.

Disclaimer: Macphun, soon to be Skylum, is a dPS advertising partner.

The post How to Make Food Photos Look Tastier with Luminar by Suzi Pratt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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10 Tips for Photographing Moms and Their Kids

05 Dec

Creating gorgeous photographs of moms with their kids can be a daunting task. But with a little planning, responding well to the family dynamic, and paying attention to whether or not you’re selecting flattering angles you can create lovely portraits that they’ll treasure for years.

Women can be harsh critics of themselves, so it’s well worth spending some time thinking about how to make moms happy with their portraits. Both in terms of helping moms relax beforehand and on the day, and paying attention to choosing flattering angles as you photograph them. I’ve learned lots through my experience over the years – here are 10 tips to help you photograph moms.

Clothing

Suggest avoiding sleeveless tops so underarms aren’t exposed, as well as avoiding graphics on clothing so that the focus is on faces and not on clothing. For new moms, a loose t-shirt or a shirt is more flattering than tightly fitted breastfeeding tops.

Clothing 10 Tips for Photographing moms and Their Kids

Makeup

Here you can suggest using a face powder to minimize shine, an under eye concealer to minimize shadows, and a pale eye shadow to brighten the face.

Relaxing Mom

Spend some time chatting to Mom before you meet her, and before you start photographing. The more relaxed she feels, the better your photographs of her will be.

Find flattering angles

If you’re providing any posing guidance, suggest Mom leans her weight on her back foot for the most flattering angle. Suggest she thinks about bringing her forehead in space to minimize any double chins – Peter Hurley has a great video demonstrating this technique (see below). The best place to hold a toddler is generally on Mom’s hip, rather than holding them squashed across or into her body.

Angles for new moms

Be careful that the weight of their baby isn’t creating bulges, as new moms are often sensitive about remaining baby weight and won’t want it emphasized. Holding the baby in the crook of their arm works well to minimize this. Or if Mom is very conscious of baby weight, have Dad hold the baby and encourage Mom to snuggle in from behind, bringing her arm round Dad’s so everyone’s involved.

Another good option is to have Mom lie on her side, near her baby. This brings her head nice and close to the baby for an intimate portrait, and is also a flattering angle for those conscious of baby weight.

New mums - 10 Tips for Photographing moms and Their Kids

Games and laughter

Find out which games the children are particularly enjoying at the Moment, and have Mom instigate those games. Peek-a-boo, spinning on the spot, aeroplanes, lifting babies up in the air (safely!) and tickles are surefire hits for some lovely giggles.

Games - 10 Tips for Photographing moms and Their Kids

Games air - 10 Tips for Photographing moms and Their Kids

Cuddles and kisses

This is one of the most highly prized photographs for moms, so encourage the children to give Mom a lovely cuddle. If they’re not feeling like dispensing kisses on demand, ask them if they know how to kiss Mom’s nose. Often the challenge of proving they can will get the kids to oblige!

With newborns, encourage Mom to place a gentle kiss on the newborn’s face – you may need to point to the spot that you’ll be able to see in shot.

Newborn kiss - 10 Tips for Photographing moms and Their Kids

On the move

moms will want to remember the feeling of holding a little hand in theirs. So remember to photograph moms walking with their children, hand in hand. Having Mom run towards the camera with her children can also be a great way of helping more camera shy mothers to relax and have fun.

On the move - 10 Tips for Photographing moms and Their Kids

Quiet moments

Keep an eye out for the tender moments between moms and their children – these are very emotive and can be very powerful photographs for mothers. Capturing the strength of that bond is such a privilege, and the gentle oments of calming a baby or young child can be a great opportunity to do just that.

Quiet moments - 10 Tips for Photographing moms and Their Kids

Shy moms

For shy moms, try to incorporate details such as their arms holding the baby – you don’t need a face-on portrait if it makes her feel uncomfortable. Having these kind of details will mean a lot to the baby when he/she is grown up, to see themselves lying in their mother’s arms.

And if their mom is camera shy, all the more reason to make sure the child gets some photographs with Mom in shot!

Arms - 10 Tips for Photographing moms and Their Kids

Conclusion

For one reason or another, it so often ends up being the mother who takes snaps at home and on holidays – with the unfortunate result that moms are often absent from most home photographs.

Making sure to incorporate beautiful photographs of Mom with her kids is a lovely gift to level the playing field here and make sure that Mom features in their photo albums too!

Do you have any other tips for photos of moms with their kids? Please share them and your images of moms and kids below.

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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

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Review of the Lensbaby Velvet 85

04 Dec

Lensbaby has been producing lenses that create interesting effects since 2004. During that time people have been experimenting and trying out different ways of using them. In the spring of 2015, they introduced the Velvet 56 to the joy of many photographers, especially those doing macro. This year, their newest lens in the line-up was released, the Lensbaby Velvet 85.

The Lensbaby Velvet 85

The Velvet 85 promises to be a great lens for portraiture creating impressionist-like portraits of people. It does indeed do that, but you can use it for so much more. It is a great lens for photographers who like images with mood and which concentrate more on the subject with a lot of bokeh.

First Impressions

The lens is very well made and when you hold it in your hand you can feel the coolness of the metal it is made from. It is not an overly heavy lens, but it’s also not light. It is bigger than the Velvet 56, which is to be expected, though not a lot heavier. They are both very well made, high-quality lenses.

Using the Lensbaby Velvet 85

Like most lenses that are available on the market today, the Velvet 85 can be used for many different types of photography. I use it mainly for macro photography and find it really good. However, you can also use it for portraiture, city photography, and landscapes. It doesn’t work the same as other lenses as you get a really soft-focus effect with it, but for most people, that is exactly why they buy it.

A macro image that was taken with the Lensbaby Velvet 85.

Manual Lens

The lens is completely manual and you cannot use your camera to control it, as you can with other lenses. You need to change the aperture and focus it yourself. You will not be able to see what aperture you used when you download the images to your computer either.

Manual Focus

Focusing is also manual and you need to adjust it as you take your photos. It does turn a long way and you have to twist the focusing ring a lot. Some cameras can tell you when the image is in focus, for example, Nikon does. When you are at that spot of good clarification, then the round dot in the viewfinder appears. However, as you get used to the lens you will need to rely on that less.

Opening up the aperture gives you images with a lot of soft-focus.

For macro photography, most people tend to use manual focus anyway and it is easier with this lens. You can focus where you want and then move yourself and the camera to a spot where the image will be in focus.

For landscape photography, you can set it to infinity and you should get images that are sharp, depending on your aperture. For objects in between macro and infinity, you will have to practice and see it goes. That is probably the area I found the hardest, though as I did it more, it became easier.

Controlling the Lens

With many lenses now you can change the aperture with the camera, however, the Velvet 85 is more like a vintage lens from older style cameras. It does not communicate with your camera and you need to control the aperture yourself. To change it there is an aperture ring on the lens which you turn to adjust it to the setting you want.

Aperture

Unlike other sorts of dedicated macro lenses, the Velvet 85 doesn’t use aperture in the same way. You can take photos of flowers at f/2.8 and get a fairly decent image. If you tried doing that with, say a Nikon macro lens, you will find the photo would almost be an abstract version of the flower with very little in focus.

The aperture starts at f/1.8 on the Velvet 85 and goes up to f/16. At the latter, you will get the greatest depth of field and if using the lens for landscape photography it is a good one to choose. If you are taking macro images of flowers then the wider end is much better.

Using a smaller aperture such as f/11 gives less soft-focus and you get more of a natural looking image.

One thing the lens is really good for is the soft-focus effect that is possible. You can control how much of it you want by using different apertures. The wider it is the more of the effect appears, and the opposite happens as you close it down.

Interesting effects

If you like to get different effects with your lens then the Velvet 85 will be fantastic for you. You can get interesting results for portraits, though I don’t do them if you go to the Lensbaby website you can see some good examples. If you want to give your clients images that are not the same as what others are doing then you should consider adding this lens to your kit. Click here for images.

Bokeh Effect

Without a doubt one of the most special and addictive aspects of the Velvet lenses, and perhaps more so with the 85, is the blurring you can do with it. You won’t find any other lenses available that will give you the same effects. You can play around with the aperture to change how much blur you achieve in your images.

Creating a bokeh effect with a poppy flower and bee.

Whether you are photographing a landscape or a macro image you can use the aperture and blurring effect to highlight your subject. The Velvet 85 is fantastic for this. You can change the aperture to different widths and that will determine how much blur you will get. From that, you can decide what level of blurring you want in your image.

Tilt-Shift Effect

This was a popular effect a few years ago, though, there is no reason it can’t be again. This is where you use blurring effects to make objects in your image look like they are miniature or toy-like. By controlling the aperture and giving the images a lot more of the blur you can get images that look as though your subject is miniature. The lens does not do it all, but it gives you a good starting point.

The soft-focus is a good start to creating tilt-shift images.

Moody Images

Using blurring effects is a great tool for giving your images a moody feel. You can apply it to most types of photography and get those sorts of images that people love. You can use it for most types of photography, try it out if you can.

Playing with the aperture you can create a mood in your image.

Comparing the Velvet 85 with the Velvet 56

There is an obvious difference between the size of the two lenses, which you can see in the image below. However, you will find the same with most fixed or prime lenses.

The Lensbaby Velvet 85 next to the Velvet 56.

If you change the focus to point so that you can get as close as you can to what you are photographing, they both seem to capture the same image.

How close you can get with each lens, the Velvet 85 on the left and the Velvet 56 on the right.

However, if you are trying to photograph something from a fixed point, then the Velvet 85 will allow you to get closer images. This is great if you are taking photos in a location like a garden, you can photograph those flowers that are at the back and harder to get to.

Standing in the same place, the difference can be seen with the Velvet 85 on the left, and the Velvet 56 on the right.

If I had to choose between the two lenses, I think I would want the Velvet 85. The longer reach is appealing, and the soft-focus effect is really interesting. There isn’t a great deal of difference in the price, so it would be my choice.

Adding the lens to your kit

It is not an overly expensive lens, Lensbaby sells the Velvet 85 for $ 499. It is available for most cameras on the market today. You can get a full list on the website.

If you are looking for a lens that is capable of macro photography, then this is a good alternative to the more expensive macro lenses that many companies make. It would also suit a portrait photographer, however, don’t forget street photography and landscape. It is a versatile lens which you will enjoy, but don’t expect to get the same results that you’d achieve with normal lenses.

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How to Avoid Being Overwhelmed When Learning Photography

03 Dec

Likely, you are working hard to improve your photography. You are trying to master all the settings on your camera, trying to control things like depth of field while trying to improve your focus and the sharpness of your photos. And then there are all those rules of composition to think about as well. That is a lot to remember, and it can be overwhelming. Frankly, it is enough to make you nostalgic for the good old days when you put your camera in Auto mode and fired off snapshots.

How to Avoid Being Overwhelmed When Learning Photography

Before you revert to that, however, let’s take a look at a few ways you can avoid that feeling of overwhelm, and continue to grow as a photographer.

#1 – Use Swing Keys

First, you can take a page from other areas of life that subject people to being overwhelmed. Perhaps no activity involves a feeling of overwhelm for the beginner more so than golf. When you are learning a golf swing, it is not uncommon for there to be 12 to 15 different thoughts going through your mind. If you try to do them all at once, the result is inevitably a disaster.

Therefore it is common to hear golfers talk about “swing keys.” This is about limiting your thoughts to one thing that you want to do in that particular swing. The physical nature of the swing key will vary from golfer to golfer. For one it might be to keep the wrist straight, for another, it might be to follow through. It just depends on their swing and weaknesses. It just gives the golfer something to think about to improve their swings and also keeps them from being overwhelmed.

Works for photography as well

I find this a useful analogy for photographers as well. When you are out in the field getting ready to shoot, you may have a thousand different thoughts going through your head. You might be worried about the overall exposure level, setting the right depth of field, avoiding digital noise, watching the focus point, keeping the picture sharp, placing the subject in the right part of the frame, creating an interesting foreground, looking for leading lines, trying to create some emotion, and so on. All this can lead to overload. Having one or two swing keys in your mind can help add some clarity.

How to Avoid Being Overwhelmed When Learning Photography

Personally, I am always thinking about the foreground. Doing so helps me keep my thoughts together. It also specifically addresses issues of focus, depth of field, subject, and overall composition. For you, it might be something different. It doesn’t matter what it is – and it can evolve over time – just try to simplify things. Remember that often the best photos are the simplest. Further, as we’ll see in a moment, you can add more things later.

Create a Checklist

Another way to keep from worrying about all the things you want to accomplish is to create a checklist. When I was starting out, I found that I would get home from a shoot and kick myself for all the things I forgot to do. I would look at a series of shots I took and wonder why I didn’t bracket some of them, or zoom in on something, or add a neutral density filter in a certain spot, and so on.

Having a checklist will keep you from forgetting these things. At the same time, it will allow you to relax and not worry about missing anything when you are in the field. The checklist can be as simple or elaborate as you want. It can be a folded up sheet of paper or a laminated page – it doesn’t matter. Once you have gotten the shots you want, just consult your checklist and make sure you didn’t overlook anything.

How to Avoid Being Overwhelmed When Learning Photography

Having a checklist can remind you to do things like adding a shot using a neutral density filter.

Use a Building Process

Another way to keep from being overwhelmed is to avoid attempting to do too much at once. Instead, use a building process to create your pictures step-by-step. You’ll be amazed at how simple photography can be when you use this process.

What do I mean by that? Let’s start with an example of a dramatically lit portrait. Trying to create the whole thing in one shot could result in failure and frustration. Therefore, break the final picture down into steps. You might start with a few shots that get the background lighting correct. Once you have that right, then add your flash or strobe, but even then don’t try to control or shape the light yet. Spend a few shots getting the quantity of light the way you want it, and only then move the light off to the side and start working on shape and directions.

In this way, you’ll find that what seems overwhelming at first, actually becomes pretty simple. I have been to enough photography workshops and seminars to confidently state that many masters of photography work this way.

In night sky photos, I find it works best to start by just getting the sky right and then worrying about the foreground elements later.

Build a landscape the same way

It works in other contexts as well. A landscaper photographer might find a great background and work on setting that part of their shot up before they start looking for a foreground. Once they have built that part of the picture they might look for additional aspects to use as a subject or center of interest. After that, they might wait for something to happen to add interest to the picture. As a result, the final picture looks very complicated, but it was built step-by-step.

In fact, the famous street photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson worked this way. You may know him as the master of the “decisive moment,” but he was always building to that moment. He would find a great spot to use as a background, set everything up, and then wait for something to happen. That way when the decisive moment happened he was ready for it and created an overall wonderful picture. It didn’t just come together in an instant as it might otherwise appear.

The point of all this is to show you that if you start simple, you can avoid being overwhelmed. Once you have established one building block of your picture, add another one. This will not only improve your pictures but will result in you having more fun – and certainly fewer feelings of being overwhelmed – while you are doing it.

Ideas for How to Avoid Overwhelm When Doing Photography

This started as a simple shot of a barn. We added lights as we went. The white streamers were ultimately lit by a person with a flashlight.

Take Advantage of Digital Technology

Finally, as you take your photos, keep one thing in your mind. Remember the magic of digital photography is that you get to take as many exposures as you want and it costs nothing. There should not be any pressure!

Not only that, but you are getting instant feedback on what you just did via your LCD screen. You can just delete the bad ones (and we all have bad ones) and move on. No one is going to look at your SD card and judge you on the pictures that don’t work out. They’ll only see the ones you show them.

Ideas for How to Avoid Overwhelm When Doing Photography

Similarly, don’t worry about any sort of “hit rate.” Frankly, if you end up with a high hit rate, that probably just means you need to take additional pictures and experiment more.

A Never Ending Quest

Done correctly, photography always involves learning and experimentation. Therefore, while I have aimed these comments at those just starting out, these things really apply to everybody. The feeling of overwhelm never really goes away.

Once you master the controls on your camera you will add other elements to your pictures. Ultimately, you have to find your own way to relax and keep everything fun. Hopefully, these tips will help a little in that regard though.

The post How to Avoid Being Overwhelmed When Learning Photography by Jim Hamel appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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How to Create a Minimal Desktop Background Using Photoshop

03 Dec

Ever seen those flowy, innocuous desktop backgrounds that to show up on default computer screens? That’s the exact image I thought of when I messing around with Photoshop for this tutorial. Though they aren’t exact, these simple gradients and shapes come together to spur on a little nostalgia.

This project is pretty straightforward – but it introduced me to a couple techniques I had never come across before. Photoshop has opened up worlds of image-making technology. But when you boil it all down, the culmination of a photographer’s work is in shades of light dispersed within shapes.

I had a good time putting together this tutorial – I even tried out a few on my own desktop. It’s a great way to get familiar with Photoshop operations. But it’s just as fun for a pro, with a bit of photographic downtime on their hands. So let’s dig in.

Getting Started

First, open a new document in Photoshop. Change the dimensions of the canvas to the average desktop background size – 1920 pixels by 1080 pixels, as shown below. How to Create Minimal Desktop Background Using Photoshop

Add a Gradient

Select Layer via the Layers tab on the top toolbar and click on New Fill Layer and then Gradient.

How to Create Minimal Desktop Background Using Photoshop

In the pop-up Gradient panel, click on the drop-down arrow and select Simple Gradients.

How to Create Minimal Desktop Background Using Photoshop

Select a color from the swatches in the Simple tab.

Choose a color that appeals to you most – whichever one you like best!

Click directly on the panel for the gradient color and a new panel will pop up. This will allow you to further customize your color scheme. Click on the white node below the gradient bar. A color picker will pop up, allowing you to change the white parts of our original gradient to another shade.

At this stage, I would recommend a color similar in shade to your original color. I’m a big fan of pink, so I went with subtle, light shade of pink to complement my overall color scheme. But It’s totally up to you!

How to Create Minimal Desktop Background Using Photoshop

Accept the color of the gradient. Select Radial as the style and the scale as 150.

How to Create Minimal Desktop Background Using Photoshop

Clicking the Radial setting makes the lighter shade emanate from the center of your image.

Add Another Layer

Next, create a new layer via the layers tab at the top of the screen. Select New in the drop-down menu and select Layer… Click OK at the prompt.

How to Create Minimal Desktop Background Using Photoshop

Add a Shape

Click on the Elliptical Marquee Tool. This may be obscured by the Rectangular Marquee Tool, so click and hold the mouse over the tool for a moment to reveal the other options.

How to Create Minimal Desktop Background Using Photoshop

With the Elliptical Marquee Tool selected, draw a circle that intersects with the top corner of your image. To keep the elliptical tool even on all sides (in other words, a circle), hold down the Shift key as you drag part of the shape over the top corner.

How to Create Minimal Desktop Background Using Photoshop

Open the paintbrush tool and select a nice, soft-edged brush. Set the brush size between 200 to 400 pixels and the hardness level to zero. Select a color in a slightly darker shade. I selected a peachy color.

With the Elliptical Tool still selected, brush around the very outer rim of the quarter-circle with the paintbrush, relying on the softness of the brush to dust the inner rim.

paintbrush - How to Create Minimal Desktop Background Using Photoshop

Use a slightly different shade to emphasize the edge of the circle you created.

Duplicate the shape layer as many times as you would like to create an interesting pattern.

Add Dimension

Next, we’ll add a new dimension to the image by using the Rectangular Marquee Tool rather than the Ellipse Tool.

How to Create Minimal Desktop Background Using Photoshop

Create a New Layer and then select the Rectangular Marquee tool from the panel. Stretch the Rectangular Marquee Tool across your image so that about half of it is selected, as shown below.

Rectangular selection.

With the same technique and color you used on the ellipse, brush along the perimeter of the shape, leaving only the slightest shadow.

How to Create Minimal Desktop Background Using Photoshop

With the rectangle still selected, click on Edit > Transform > Warp. Slowly drag the different points of the rectangular selection to adjust the whole shape of the layer. Try to make gradual edits at first, to keep the line free of sharp angles.

Transform the rectangle.

How to Create Minimal Desktop Background Using Photoshop

How to Create Minimal Desktop Backgrounds Using Photoshop

The edge of the rectangle after transforming.

Blend Modes

Now to add a little more depth to the image, you can apply blending modes to bring out highlights in the background. Select a layer and click on Blending Modes usually located above the Layers panel. Select a setting from the list of Blending Modes available. I usually use the Color Burn option, but feel free to experiment!

Blend modes.

How to Create Minimal Desktop Backgrounds Using Photoshop

And there you have it! Not bad huh? Amazing what you can do with a few circles and shadows.

Liquify

If you like, try experimenting with the Liquefy tool. It’s found in the Filter tab on the top tools panel.

How to Create Minimal Desktop Backgrounds Using Photoshop

Before using the liquify tool on an image I constructed using the steps above.

After using the Liquefy tool. You can see that the shapes are now a little more organic.

Over to you!

Here are a few more of my creations. I’d love you see how your desktop background has turned out, please share in the comments below.

How to Create Minimal Desktop Backgrounds Using Photoshop

A minimalist approach created by twisting a rectangular edge with the Warp Tool.

Now it’s your turn! Show me how it went in the comments.

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How to Use an On-Camera Speedlight as Fill Flash for Portraits

03 Dec

Using a flash or speedlight on-camera can be daunting at first. This was certainly how I felt when I first purchased my Nikon speedlight. My biggest worry was calculating all the light ratios involved to get a proper exposure as you cannot take into account the actual flash output when metering in-camera. I was also nervous about using a light meter – all that trial and error and faffing, the thought of it all used to make me quake in my boots and swear I’d forever be a natural light photographer. But that was not to be, thankfully.

My main reservation about using flash is the harshness of the light. I hate the “flashed” look on people’s faces, the shadows under the jaws, the bright circular catchlights right in the middle of the iris. As well, the flatness of the face with the direct flash obliterating all possibility of sculpting shadows on the face.

But I live in London where it rains quite a bit, it’s hardly sunny at all, and half the year is cold. All these factors affect natural light and I felt I just had to put aside my reservations and take the leap. And I’m so glad I did.

How to Use an On-Camera Speedlight as Fill-Flash for Portraits

Let me share with you how I use flash to help me achieve the look I am after and without having to do the mental calculations of light ratios!

#1 Put a diffuser on the flash

It may only be a little plastic thing that goes on top the flash head but I find it makes a difference. The light is less harsh – I know many will disagree about whether it softens the light or not as that is mainly due to the size of light and distance to subject – but I notice a softness from a diffused flash head compared to a bare one.

Left: without a diffuser. Right: with a diffuser.

I only use a flash bare and pointed towards the camera when I am using it as a kicker light and want starburst effects coming from it.

#2 Control the flash manually

Set your flash to manual and choose the power. I’m usually at 1/32 or 1/16 and leave it there. Adjust the flash power only when absolutely necessary. Instead, make the frequent necessary adjustments to your camera settings.

Now I know there are many big fans of ETTL / TTL mode out there. I have tried it too. However, I have gone back to Manual as I find the TTL does not give me the look I want. Essentially, I only want my flash to be a fill light, not the main light and never too strong so that you can see a huge difference between the light coming from the flash and the ambient light. The ETTL / TTL mode is too smart for my needs and increases the output to a pretty high level if it senses that the ambient light is too weak, and vice versa. I felt I’d get an inconsistent output of light for the look I am after although that output may be “correct” in terms of the calculations.

For portraits, I find that the greater the contrast between the dark background and the illumination of the subject with a flash gun, the more I dislike the image. For dancing shots (like at a wedding), however, where I want to illuminate the subject well and freeze the action, I DO point my flash directly at the subject, stop down my aperture to between f/5.6 and f/8 and lower my shutter speed between 1/20th and 1/60th in order to capture ambient light and light trails or background blurring to give the effect of movement.

This image was created using a bare bulb flash (no diffuser) located behind and pointing directly at the couple (off-camera flash). I also had a second flash on-camera with a diffuser, and the flash aimed upward.

This image was created with a diffused flash pointed directly at the couple (camera in front of the couple, flash on-camera) while they were dancing. The motion blur was created by using a slow shutter speed and “dragging the shutter” after the flash has fired.

What I’m after is always a natural look, which, depending on where the main light is coming from, may not be achieved well without some kind of fill or reflected light to illuminate areas that are too dark for my intentions. This is the reason why I always bounce or angle my flash gun for most scenarios other than dancing as explained above.

#3 Bounce it

On some newer models, there is also a little white pull-out bounce card that is extremely useful if your ceilings are too high for the light to bounce off or you just want to point reflected light in a particular direction. When I shoot weddings where the rooms have very high ceilings or dark beams and ceilings. So I pull out the bounce card and use it to deflect the light coming from the flash. The handy swivel action helps me direct the reflected light wherever I want it to go.

My speedlight with the white bounce card extended.

As an aside, I use this setup for off-camera flash too. When I’m putting two speedlights opposite each other in a room to provide directional light during speeches, I point the flash heads upwards and pull out the diffuser so that all the reflected light is pointed inwards towards the center of the room.

#4 Angle it

The head of most speedlights can swivel right and left up to 90 degrees each way and forward and upward to 90 degrees in incremental angles. It is an awesome functionality that you should take advantage of especially for fill flash.

In the photos below, bright sunlight was coming from camera right at 45 degrees on a bright day. All I wanted was a bit of fill flash on their shadowed faces, just enough to lift the shadows a tad. What I really wanted to avoid was for the image to look like there was another light source other than that from the sun. To achieve this, I angled my speedlight upwards towards the back by one increment.

How to Use an On-Camera Speedlight as Fill Flash for Portraits

Flash as a fill light

As you can see, these photos below have very strong sunlight coming directly at the subjects and towards the camera, a very strong backlit light. It is extremely difficult to overpower this type of light without using a strong flash. What I did was angle myself slightly to one side and pointed my flash directly at the subjects’ faces to try and counteract the sunlight.

This is when I adjust my flash power and increase it accordingly. The result is not as clean and sharp as if I had a big softbox firing at 70% ratio to the sun’s power but it still shows the faces clearly enough with some diffused hazy light in the background, which was also my intention for these shots.

How to Use an On-Camera Speedlight as Fill Flash for Portraits

Compare the two images below. The one on the left was taken in a big open space with a dense foliage background which blocked the light. There was enough light here to illuminate their faces that I could have done away with the flash altogether, but I pointed the flash backward to add just a tiny bit of light over my head. I don’t think it made a huge difference but it made me feel better and consistent!

The image on the right was taken in a shaded open area surrounded by tall trees which diffused the light coming from the background. Without the trees, it would have had the unfiltered effect as above, but despite the trees, this is still very much a backlit position as the background was very bright still. More fill light was needed there so I pointed the speedlight slightly upwards, with one increment down towards the subjects but not directly at their faces.

How to Use an On-Camera Speedlight as Fill Flash for Portraits

You can see the same flash angle as above on these close-up portraits below.

How to Use an On-Camera Speedlight as Fill Flash for Portraits

Make it moody

In the same spot as above, I wanted a look that was a little moodier than those close-ups so I pointed the speedlight directly upwards this time. So although their faces are still amply lit up, the image to feels like they are being enveloped by the diffused light behind them.

How to Use an On-Camera Speedlight as Fill Flash for Portraits

Tricky situations

The couple wanted a shot showing the lake and the trees in the far distance. The distance was too great to get the couple and the background sharp enough without using a really small aperture and a lot of artificial light (flash). Note that we were also in the shaded part of the lake which made it more difficult. I decided therefore that I would take a cozy shot that focused mainly on the background. The couple looking towards the trees, although they are not the lit focal point, they are still clearly visible and sharp. I pointed the speedlight slightly forwards to give them just a hint of light and shot with a small aperture.

Contrast the top image below to the photo directly underneath it where the depth of field has changed massively – the background now is blurry and the couple is in focus. This had the same angle of flash, slightly forwards, but of course, my camera settings changed to a wider aperture and lower ISO to balance the exposure. Now with the couple still in the same shaded spot, the angled flash was clearly essential here. Had I pointed the flash directly to their faces, it would have been too obvious and would kill the natural light ambiance that I was aiming for.

How to Use an On-Camera Speedlight as Fill Flash for Portraits

For this ring shot below, we sat on a bench with the sunlight coming from camera left. I put the ring on my phone to get a dark background and a nice reflection. With ring shots, I always stop down to at least f/7 with a macro lens. Therefore I need to make sure there is plenty of light for the shot as macro lenses tend to suck light.

I also always use a speedlight pointed directly opposite the main light. So in this case where the light is at camera left at 8 o’clock (if you’re looking at a clock face with the diamond at 6 o’clock), I swiveled my flash head to the opposite at around 4 o’clock to give off a bit of reflected light on the right side of the ring.

How to Use an On-Camera Speedlight as Fill Flash for Portraits

Likewise, on the photo below, you can clearly see where the sunlight is coming from so I pointed my speedlight slightly upwards to camera left, opposite the sunlight. This angle helped me achieve a gradual decrease of light from right to left as opposed to a dramatic one where you can see a clear cut-off from light to dark.

How to Use an On-Camera Speedlight as Fill Flash for Portraits

Your turn to try doing fill flash

If you haven’t tried using flash like this before, I encourage you to do so. Experiment and see how it could work for you. You don’t need to learn the lighting ratios and calculations off by heart to be able to get images you are after, although that could be handy.

Sometimes all you need is confidence, common sense, and a willingness to try. I hope you found this little tutorial useful. If you have more tips, share them in the comments below.

The post How to Use an On-Camera Speedlight as Fill Flash for Portraits by Lily Sawyer appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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