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8 Tips for Photographing Fast Action and Sports

03 May

In this article, we’ll give you 8 quick tips for photographing fast action and sports.

8 Tips for Photographing Fast Action and Sports

But what if you don’t shoot sports?

There is a lot of value in learning how to make images that work across different genres. You might avoid sports or wildlife images. Perhaps you find landscapes boring. However, each genre requires a unique skill set that needs to be practiced in order to make images that work. When you practice photographic “cross-training” your work in your primary genre will benefit. In other words, get out of your comfort zone once in a while.

Regardless of what you like to shoot for personal projects or commercially (i.e. portraits, landscape, social documentary, wedding, wildlife, etc.) your reflexes and hand-eye coordination needs to be sharp and fast. When your observation skills are finely tuned, you can anticipate moments before they happen.

8 Tips for Photographing Fast Action and Sports

How can you learn to anticipate action and synchronize your eyes with your right index finger?

A great way to practice this is to shoot sports. Live theatre or dance performances are also useful activities to shoot for this purpose, but sports (especially motorsports) is the fastest of fast. Moments come and go in rapid succession so you get more opportunities to respond than in other types of photography, relatively speaking. Consider that a vehicle traveling at 60 miles an hour is moving at 88 feet per second!

8 Tips for photographing fast action

In the eight points below, I aim to share technical settings that are useful when shooting action or sports. Follow these, and not only will you be closer to making images of action and sports that work but your overall technical capability as a photographer should improve as well.

8 Tips for Photographing Fast Action and Sports

Granted, making images of this type is not easy but anything worth doing should never be easy.

1 – Use a long lens

Use a long telephoto lens such as the common 85-200mm focal length and try to get close to the action.

A telephoto lens will give you the flexibility to quickly adapt to the changing situation. Sports move quickly and so must you. On a football pitch, the action may go from one end of the field to the other within seconds.
Depending on where you are standing you need to move quickly as well. A twist of the wrist will get you there with a good telephoto zoom lens.

2 – Don’t go too long

You can go bigger such as 300-600mm focal length, but super long lenses are not necessary. They are also bulky, heavy, and expensive.

Super telephoto lens can be useful especially when shooting motorsports. A race car or motorcycle on a track moves way faster than a ballplayer on a field. Depending on how much you expect to shoot sports,
you might want to wait on the purchase of a super telephoto.

3 – Minimum shutter speed

The shutter speed should be inversely proportional to your focal length to avoid camera shake. For example, a 200mm focal length lens should be shot at around 1/200 or 1/250 of a second while a 400mm lens should be shot at 1/400 of a second, handheld.

A tripod will basically negate this rule. However, some places forbid tripods or it may be unsafe to use one so be prepared to shoot without a tripod.

4 – Practice panning

Panning is when you place a moving subject in your viewfinder and them by moving the camera from left to right or right to left, following the subject’s direction and speed.

The benefit of the technique is that you are afforded more time in which to compose the image. It is generally advisable to place your moving subject off to one side of the frame, and moving into the negative space on the other side of the frame. This gives your subject room to breathe and a place to go, so to speak.

Panning takes practice but it is one of the basic techniques in which all photographers should be proficient. It usually works around 1/60 of a second or faster for faster-moving subjects. Experiment until you feel proficient and happy with the results.

Go to the nearest street and shoot the cars until you get the car in the frame and mostly or entirely sharp.

8 Tips for Photographing Fast Action and Sports

5 – Use a teleconverter

A teleconverter is a small device that fits in-between your camera body and your actual lens that increases the focal length by some factor. Increases of 1.4x or 2.0x are common. A 200mm lens can quickly become a 400mm using a teleconverter.

Teleconverters have the benefit of being small, compact, and relatively inexpensive (especially compared to 400mm or longer glass). Additionally, the teleconverter will normally communicate with your digital camera and retain metering, autofocus, EXIF data, and more.

Be sure to get the same brand for all your equipment so that it all works together. There are exceptions to this rule but you will need to do a bit of research to sort that out.

8 Tips for Photographing Fast Action and Sports

The downside of using the teleconverter is that you will lose at least one stop of light. During broad daylight, you can probably afford to do that but at night, you need all of the light than you can get without having to sacrifice ISO. Teleconverters are great little devices, however, you will need to consider trading sharpness for that extra reach.

6 – Blur the motion

Consider if you want motion blur (and how much) or want to completely freeze motion. Some amount of motion blur can be desirable in your images so that the viewer can get a sense of the speed and action of the subject.

Alternatively, you might want to freeze motion and keep things tack sharp. It’s really a matter of taste, and how you intend to tell your story through your images and techniques.

7 – Freeze the motion

To freeze motion you will need around 1/500th of a second, 1/1000th, or even faster depending on the speed of the subject.

My old Nikon FE SLR shoots at 1/4000th of a second and there are DSLRs that will shoot at 1/8000th. Dial in a number, test, and adjust as needed. When you shoot sports, It’s advantageous to use “S” Mode or Shutter Priority mode for best results.

8 Tips for Photographing Fast Action and Sports

8 – Use low ISO

Set your maximum ISO to about 100, 200, or 400. You can go to 800 (or higher) and get usable images but the odds fall considerably against you at this “end” of the ISO dial. Less is more ISO, especially with action and sports.

Using the lowest ISO possible will give you the sharpest images given the shutter speed that you are using. Sports and sporting events are usually colorful activities with lots of details in the frame. Therefore, when shooting sports, you ought to aim to use the lowest ISO possible.

If you are shooting with a really fast shutter speed such as 1/1000th or higher, given the amount of available light, you may need to use a higher ISO such as 800 or 1600 to compensate for the reduction in light hitting your camera’s sensor. You get to make this decision before pressing the shutter on every image. Do you want sharp or do you want to freeze motion or do you want both?

There are limits and you need to be mindful of these especially when shooting fast moving objects.

Conclusion

I hope you’ve found this tips helpful. Are their any others you’d added to this? Please share in the comments area below.

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Tips for Photographing Patterns in Nature

24 Apr

Photographing natural patterns is a fantastic project to work on as a outdoor photographer. The process of exploring patterns not only gives a wealth of photographic opportunities, but also provides a perfect opportunity to concentrate your mind on composition, shape, line and form aiding your development as an all-round photographer.

Reed patterns in nature

Gear

One of the best things about photographing patterns in nature is that it doesn’t require any specialist equipment to get started. Any camera from a smartphone to a top-of-the-line DSLR will give you options for capturing wonderful images of natural patterns.

Standard DLSR lenses such as an 18-55mm often have a decent close-up facility to help you fill the frame with larger patterns. While the macro feature on a compact camera can be a great benefit for those wanting to travel light in their photographic pursuits.

Macro lens and camera - patterns

To take things a step further, however, investing in a macro lens is a great way to explore some of the smaller and more obscure natural designs. That will allow you to focus in close on small bark, leaves, and shell designs to explore the natural work in miniature.

Often it’s recommended to pick up a macro lens with a focal length of 100mm or above in order to allow a greater working distance. That will help you to stay out of your lighting as well as give you room to compose. If you are on a tighter budget, shorter length options can still be a great alternative such as a 40mm or 60mm macro.

Alternatively, you can even look into purchasing extension tubes to reduce the close focusing distance of your current lenses. These are affordable ways to get into macro and close-up photography.

Feather patterns

Outside of macro, long lenses can also be put to great use to pick out patterns within a landscape. Working with a long telephoto such as a 70-200mm can help you pinpoint and explore repeating elements within a larger frame. This will help you to extract patterns and textures from wider landscapes, something that can be highly effective for making creative images.

Aside from the camera and lens, tripods are especially handy for slow shutter speed work as well as ensuring maximum sharpness when working with higher magnifications. Alternatively, working with flash can be liberating, allowing you to be more flexible in your approach and light subjects as you see fit for added impact and interest.

Subjects with patterns

Bark details - patterns in nature

When out in the field look for subjects that have repeating shapes or tones. Obvious choices are tree bark, leaves or rocks as they often contain repeating forms and shapes, as well as strong lines to aid composition. Extending from this, look at the wider field of view, repeating trees, sand, and reeds also make for great images.

When looking into your chosen subject, stare at it for a decent amount of time and don’t rush to bring your camera to your eye. What areas strike you as interesting, are there any lines you catch yourself following? These are all important characteristics that make a great pattern picture.

Picking your area of focus, working with standard composition rules can be highly effective. A line or break in the rule of thirds, or a repeating design with a contrast or stop point on one of the intersecting locations can make a simple and highly pleasing image.

Bird nest pattern - Tips for Photographing Patterns in Nature

One of the great things about photographing patterns is often the subjects don’t move hastily, so feel free to really spend some time fine-tuning your composition for utter perfection.

Within subjects, also look for other pictorial qualities that can manifest as patterns. Pay careful attention to the light and shadows. Often the contrast of harsh shadows can make less interesting subjects take on a whole new form, making unique patterns for intriguing images.

Reflections can also offer good opportunities for pattern shots. Ripples in the water reflecting light and color for some pleasing effects can make some stunning abstract compositions.

Rock details - Tips for Photographing Patterns in Nature

Technique

In terms of shooting technique, often you’ll want to maximize your depth of field to ensure the greatest level of detail within your images. This can be done in a number of ways depending on your subject.

Tree patterns - Tips for Photographing Patterns in Nature

Getting sharp images

The simplest method of gaining a large depth of field is to use a small aperture. Shooting above f/8 to ensure a large amount of your frame is kept in focus will help bring out the details of your chosen subjects. If you are working handheld, you might need to use flash or increase your ISO so as to not fall into slow shutter speeds that will see you encounter sharpness issues.

If you are working at an even closer scale, often stopping down won’t be enough to get the depth of field needed to showcase an entire pattern (especially with macro photography). So another method that can be deployed is focus stacking.

This is the process of shooting multiple images, each one in the sequence focused incrementally apart, then brought together in software to maximize the depth of field. This is a more advanced technique, that due to its precision requires a tripod to ensure critical sharpness. If the ultra-close perspective is something you find intriguing, focus stacking is certainly worth exploring.

Web Patterns - Tips for Photographing Patterns in Nature

Finally, sharpness isn’t always a necessity for photographing patterns in nature. Using slower shutter speeds offers fantastic ways to explore shapes and form, rendering obvious structures into abstraction for intriguing images.

One classic example is panning with trees to create a smooth line effect. Simply working with a slower shutter speed of a 1/2 a second and then by panning up and down the tree trunks you can render them into strong and simple abstract line compositions that can be fascinating.

Additionally, anything that moves in the wind can also be worked with slower shutter speeds. The effects of the elements have a marvelous impact for creating stunning patterns in nature pictures.

Tree lines - Tips for Photographing Patterns in Nature

Conclusion

Photographing natural patterns is great fun. Once you’ve started to train your brain to see the variety of striking repeating and abstract patterns in nature, they will soon become visible everywhere.

Exploring them can make the basis of a photographic project or a great way to create images when things just aren’t going to plan with your other subjects. It’s a great way to make the most of any day out with the camera and return home with some striking and interesting frames to boot.

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Tips for Photographing Real Estate Interiors

17 Apr

In this article, we’ll address the challenges you may face when photographing real estate interiors and a few ways to combat the issues. Shooting bracketed images is the most common and effective way to handle high contrast interiors. Read on below for tips on how to shoot and process interiors.

The problem

Most real estate photographers have entered a room at some stage in their career and thought, “Ah… a dark room with a bright window. Just what I do NOT need!”

Using straightforward post-production techniques to fix either over or underexposed parts of a photograph is practically impossible. So walking into this kind of scene can make your heart sink. The good news is that it’s not so hard to get around the problem posed by these scenes once you are equipped with the right techniques.

Achieving a well-exposed photograph of a dark room with a bright window initially seems impossible. Expose for the interior and the windows are blown out. Expose for the windows and the darker parts of the room are plunged into shadow.

Photo exposed for the interior (1/4 second at f/8), notice the windows are overly bright.

The difference between the brightest and darkest areas, known as dynamic range, is just too great. This is a High Dynamic Range scene, or HDR for short.

Photo exposed for the windows (1/125th at f/8), now you can see the inside is almost completely black.

Our eyes cope with HDR scenes by adjusting the size of our pupils, letting in more or less light as we encounter darker or brighter areas. The brain balances it all out and everything seems well lit.

Unfortunately, when it comes to a dark interior with a bright view, even the best DSLR cameras can’t capture the entire brightness range with a single exposure.

Photo at normal exposure (1/30th at f/8), here you can see some areas are too dark, and the windows are too bright. The camera cannot hold detail in the entire scene, the contrast is too great.

There are two ways you can resolve this issue

You can add light to brighten the room and reduce the dynamic range.
You can take multiple exposures and combine them using software to emulate what our eyes and brain do.

Adding light

To brighten the room, you’ll generally need to supply extra lighting. Just turning on all the available lights is unlikely to solve the problem.

One option is to bring along portable lighting. However, this is another skill to master, another thing to carry, and even though the cost of lighting is falling it’s still another expense. You may also need to bring an extension cable, and hope that the property has power.

You could also use professional flash units, mounted off-camera and triggered remotely. The term professional is important here because less powerful flash units rarely deliver enough light to solve this particular problem.

Effective use of flash units also requires skill. You’ll probably need several flashguns, and the knowledge of which units to use and where to put them. Again, it’s more expense and a lot more kit to carry, especially when you include stands for the units too.

Taking multiple exposures

So what about multiple exposure approaches? One method is the Photoshop approach where you take only two photographs, one correctly exposed for the room and one for the windows, and open them in separate layers in Photoshop.

Once you have manually aligned the two layers (using the Difference blending mode to guide you, zooming in may help as well), with the darker image on the bottom, you then select the blown-out windows on the top layer (the image exposed for the inside of the room). Using a layer mask, make the window areas transparent, and the properly exposed windows in the second shot will show through from underneath.

Unfortunately, this approach rarely results in a convincing and realistic looking image, as two exposures are not enough to cover the entire range of brightness that our eyes perceive. Additionally, the photo exposed for the window will underexpose the window frame and any ornaments on the windowsill, making them look darker than they should be.

A more effective approach involves taking multiple exposures to capture different lighting levels (bracketed photographs) and using HDR software to merge them into an image that’s well-exposed throughout. Shadows are corrected without additional lighting, and bright areas are pulled back without appearing artificial.

Bracketing is very popular with real estate photographers because it overcomes the problems associated with the alternative approaches. All without the cost and inconvenience of more equipment on location – except for one good quality tripod!

Bracketing exposures

Correctly capturing the exposures is key to obtaining the best results with this approach. So let’s look more closely at how professionals do this when photographing real estate interiors so that you can master it yourself.

Essentially, you take a series of identical shots at the same aperture – but using different shutter speeds. A constant aperture keeps the depth of field the same while changing the exposure allows you to capture well-exposed images for all the different lighting levels in the scene.

It is called exposure bracketing because the varying exposure settings are “bracketed” between the slowest and fastest shutter speeds needed.

The Automatic Exposure Bracketing (AEB) function, built into most DSLR and mirrorless cameras, greatly simplifies the process, allowing you to take three or more bracketed exposures with just one shutter release.

In many situations, especially outdoors, it will also save you having to use a tripod. Any camera movements during shooting (inevitable in hand-held shots) are small enough that software with robust alignment features can automatically correct them.

Camera settings

You start the AEB setup by selecting Aperture Priority (Av) mode.

The rest varies between camera models, but typically involves three steps: selecting AEB and continuous shooting mode, choosing the number of bracketed frames, and choosing the number of EV steps between each shot.

Your camera’s user manual will cover the steps needed for your model.

Exposure bracketing techniques for interiors

Lighting differences in an interior scene with views through the windows are so great, that taking bracketed exposures may involve more than just setting up AEB and taking the shots, especially when you want the highest quality results.

The main problem comes from the camera’s choice of shutter speed for the baseline or “normal” exposure (0 EV). Bright light through a window can influence a camera’s automatic exposure, resulting in a photo set that is skewed towards underexposure.

Another problem is that capturing the scene could demand more exposures than your camera’s AEB provides. Also, since a low ISO is best to minimize noise in the shadows, you may need quite long exposures. Without a tripod, that will result in blurred images that could ruin the shot.

Quick technique

Even though exposure bracketing is more involved when photographing interiors with window views, you can use a relatively quick technique when the lighting differences aren’t too great and your camera offers a broad AEB exposure range. This is how it works.

After selecting Aperture Priority (Av) mode, point the camera at an area of the room that is neither too dark nor too bright, just ‘average’, and well away from the windows.

Note that the shutter speed when the camera is pointed at the sofa is 1/10th.

Take note of the shutter speed your camera displays for that area. Then switch to Manual mode, make sure the shutter speed is the one you noted, activate the AEB function and take the photos.

While this will certainly be better than a single exposure, you lack control with this technique and you can’t always select the right number of photographs to be taken.

Advanced bracketing technique

When you want to maximize output quality, use this advanced bracketing exposure technique to ensure that you take all the exposures needed to cover the entire lighting range. This gives you far more control, although it takes a little longer and the process is slightly more complex.

This video steps you through the technique, from camera setup to determining what exposures to use, through to taking the photos themselves.

One of the main advantages of this technique is that it establishes precise shutter speeds that match the maximum levels of darkness and brightness in the room. It does this by determining the shutter speeds for both extremes of the lighting range.

This is important because misjudging the correct exposure for the darkest areas can result in an image where the interior isn’t bright enough. While failing to capture the brightest areas results in washed-out looking windows.

How to find the shutter speed for both extremes

You can choose between two methods to find the shutter speeds for the darkest and brightest parts of the scene:

Spot Metering method.
Histogram check method.

Spot metering method

This is the quickest way to find your needed shutter speeds. Start by selecting Aperture priority, or Av mode, then choose the Spot Metering option from the camera menu.

Spot Metering mode.

Find the longest shutter speed by focusing on the darkest part of the room. While watching the exposure meter in the camera’s viewfinder, adjust the shutter speed until the camera shows it to be the best exposure for that part of the room. Make a note of the recommended shutter speed.

Find the shortest shutter speed by focusing on the brightest part of the room, and repeat the process to find the best shutter speed. Again, note the recommended speed.

Histogram method

The second method to determine the two shutter speeds is more precise and works like this:

Set the camera’s LCD screen or image preview to display the brightness histogram.
Take a test shot of the darkest area of the room, then examine the histogram.
If the left side of the histogram shows a vertical line at the start of the graph, then there are dark areas you’ve not yet captured.
Take another shot with a longer shutter speed and repeat the process until the histogram trails off to a flat line on the left. When you see that, you’ve identified the slowest shutter speed needed.

Now take a test shot of the brightest part of the room, and again examine the histogram.
This time look for a vertical line on the right of the histogram. If you see one, then you’ve not yet captured the brightest parts of the scene.
Keep taking shorter exposures, checking the histogram after each one until it shows a flat line to the right of the graph. When you see that, you know the shortest shutter needed.

Many DSLR cameras have a feature that shows overexposed parts of an image. When activated, the highlight warning system makes overexposed areas blink or flash when viewed on the LCD screen. If you see this, increase the shutter speed until the blinking areas stop flashing.

How to bracket your exposures

Once you know these two shutter speeds you can use them in two different ways – one that uses the camera’s built-in Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) option, and one that does not.

The full manual method

Switch the camera to Manual mode
Set the shutter speed to the shortest of your measured shutter speeds and take a photograph.
Decrease the shutter speed by one stop (EV) and take the next photograph.
Keep reducing the shutter speed by one (EV) stop for each photograph until you reach the longest of the two shutter speeds you measured.

The semi-automated method

Open the HDR Exposures Calculator app from HDRsoft.
Enter the shortest and longest shutter speeds into the app.
Select the maximum number of bracketed frame your camera supports.
Select an EV Spacing of 2 if your camera supports it, otherwise go with the highest EV spacing it offers, then click “Get Exposures”.
Follow the instructions given by the HDR Exposures Calculator, making sure you have set the camera to AEB mode and selected Continuous Shooting mode before taking a bracketed set.

Additional tips to take the photos

You now know how to measure the longest and shortest exposures you will need, and how to set up your camera to take all exposures between them. Correct technique is important too, so here are some steps to follow to make sure you get good results.

Securely mount the camera on a tripod, and ensure the camera is level.
If the camera is mounted on a tripod, switch off Auto Image Stabilization.
Set the built-in flash to Off if your camera has one.
Attach a remote shutter release to reduce the risk of blur.
Select Manual mode and set an aperture suitable for the lighting and depth of field required.
Set the ISO value, 100 is ideal. Digital noise (the electronic equivalent of grain) increases as the ISO value increases, so keep it as low as possible. Try not to go beyond ISO 400.
Determine the shutter speed required to best expose the darkest part of the room and the shutter speed to best expose the brightest part. See the section above on finding the shutter speeds for both extremes.
Take the exposure bracketed photos as detailed in the previous section.

Once you’ve returned from the shoot, process the images in HDR software. There are various photo applications that can merge multiple exposures to HDR. Photomatix Pro is the first choice among many real estate photographers because it offers presets optimized for interiors, achieving the natural look they strive for.

Using Photomatix Pro with real estate interiors

Photomatix Pro is designed to be easy to use, so you should get comfortable using it pretty quickly. Here are a few tips to help you get the best out of it for your interior photographs.

Check the Align Source Images option with On Tripod selected (even when you use a tripod, there can be some small camera movement between shots).

Don’t activate the option to remove ghosts. This is important in real estate images as adjusting for ghosting when there isn’t any reduces image quality. If you absolutely must use de-ghosting, for example, because something moved outside a window, be sure to use the selective de-ghosting option, so it can be applied to just the affected window.

When you adjust the merged HDR image, use the drop-down list above the preset thumbnails to show just those related to the Architecture style (or “Real-estate” depending on your Photomatix version).

Lastly, you can use the Finishing Touch panel’s straightening tool to correct sloping floors or walls that aren’t upright. Finally, use the cropping tool to remove edge areas of the photo affected by wide-angle lens distortion or chromatic aberration.

Conclusion

Although getting good photographs of real estate interiors can seem daunting, particularly when bright windows are involved, the right techniques and software make it is achievable without bulky, expensive equipment.

The main points to remember are:

Exposure bracketing is the key technique.
For simple scenarios, you can bracket based on an average exposure.
For other situations, work out the brightest and darkest exposure along with the shots in between.
Spot metering or the histogram can help you determine these exposures.
You can take the exposures manually, or using AEB and the HDR Exposures Calculator app.

Do you have any questions you’d like to ask about the tips in the article and taking bracketed exposures of interiors? If you do, please let us know in the comments below. If you have any tips of your own, you’re welcome to share them too.

Disclaimer: HDRsoft is a paid partner of dPS

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Photographing Toddlers – 5 Tips for Keeping Your Sanity

15 Apr

“Having a two-year-old is like having a blender that you don’t have the top for.” – Jerry Seinfeld

No doubt, you’ve experienced the frustration of photographing your own toddler or a family with toddlers. Frustration and anxiety come from not knowing how to relate to toddlers and get them to cooperate for photos. But there is a way to have a great experience photographing toddlers even if they are grumpy, unruly, shy or scared.

I’ve developed five strategies based on my own career as a portrait photographer and insights from childhood psychology.

If you struggle when photographing toddlers, these five tips will transform your experience and theirs too!

This is often how a sibling photo with toddlers goes! There are times when you need to forget about the perfect photo and go for comical instead.

1. Meet the toddler where they are

“The fundamental job of a toddler is to rule the universe.” – Lawrence Kutner

Most toddlers are not interested in sitting for a picture. For them, life is all about exploration. They don’t understand the picture taking process. Photography is about cherishing their childhood and marveling at their growth.

Toddlers love to explore. They were born for picking up sticks and wandering off.

Begin by realizing that a toddler does not know what a photography session is about. They may even be confused or scared during this new experience.

I was photographing a family and the mom and dad told me that their little guy was terrified of the camera. When he saw my camera he burst into tears and ran away. It seemed like an impossible situation.

Never fear when a toddler runs away from a photo. Turn it into a fun game of chase.

2. Promise to be patient

“You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance.” – Franklin P. Jones

If you’re planning to photograph your own toddler or another family, you must begin by promising to be patient.

This should happen long before you pick up your camera. Patience must be built into your photo session. Make the decision in advance that nothing will cause you to become upset.

Photographers only feel impatient with toddlers because they’ve lost control and don’t know what to do. When you promise to be patient, your mind will be clear to think of solutions.

Embrace a variety of emotions. Sometimes a grumpy look adds an interesting mood to the photo, especially in black and white.

When that little boy ran away from the camera, I had to be clear in my thinking and figure out what to do next.

Promise to be patient no matter what happens and then begin to create an environment in which toddlers will thrive.

Photographing toddlers 5

3. Develop a friendship

“My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me.”– Henry Ford

Kids love to make new friends. During photo sessions with toddlers (or older kids), you must make time to befriend them. A fun grown-up is like a superhero leading them into adventures.

When a toddler is shy, give them time to warm up. They’ll let you know when they’re ready to be friends.

Go ahead and provoke a great expression by being a comedian, toddlers will love it.

You can even make friends with misbehaving toddlers. Give them time to run free and pretty soon they’ll pull you by the hand to go play. This will give you great opportunities for candid photos.

The terrified little boy took about 20 minutes to calm down. In a few more minutes we were friends and my camera was no longer a threat to him.

This was actually a grumpy moment, but nobody can resist a funny photographer!

4. Give the child high fives

“Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Toddlers love to show off and make you laugh, and they love to receive praise from grown-ups.

When they do something well, give them a pat on the head or a high five. Simple gestures like this bring them to life.

Note: Be aware of cultural differences. Touching an Asian (or more specifically, Buddhist) person on the head is an insult.

If they give you rocks, leaves, or sticks as gifts, receive them with excitement!

Allow time for true joy to emerge.

Now that you’ve established an encouraging friendship, you can ask them to sit or pose. Get your pictures quickly, give the child a high five, and move on.

I didn’t force the terrified little guy to sit and smile properly. There was nothing but friendship, encouragement, and high fives. He would gladly sit for a moment or two. I was quick with my camera and captured many candid photos too.

When you focus less on telling the toddler what to do, and more on drawing out genuine happiness and laughter, you’ll get the photos you want without the stress.

You won’t even need patience if you create a toddler-friendly experience.

5. Don’t force the moment

“The quickest way for a parent to get a child’s attention is to sit down and look comfortable.” – Lane Olinghouse

One of the toughest problems you’ll face is toddlers not wanting to be in group photos. The more you try to force the toddler to sit for a photo, the harder it often becomes.

All sorts of fun can happen between the poses. Look around your environment to see what fun elements can be used in your photos.

Just moments later came a perfect pose and a smile.

Allow for a contrast of sitting for a photo and then time to explore.

When toddlers refuse to join in the family photo, I don’t force them. Every parent knows that toddlers love to interrupt what adults are doing. As soon as I start photographing Mom and Dad together, the toddler wants to be picked up. It’s a perfect moment for group cuddles, bringing out beautiful smiles from everyone.

That terrified little boy did not want to be in photos, but he did want to be comforted by mom and dad.

As he sat with them, I did things that would make him smile and laugh. I made a teddy bear dance on my camera. He smiled at Teddy which was as good as smiling at the camera.

Photographing toddlers 12 rec

Photographing toddlers 13

Bring in the background as part of the photo. Let the little one wander off and then call their name when you’re ready with the camera.

Bonus: Dealing with the toddler’s parents

“We spend the first 12 months of our children’s lives teaching them to walk and talk and the next 12 months teaching them to sit down and shut up.” – Phyllis Diller

Sometimes the hard part is dealing with a toddler’s parents. Some parents will be easy-going and let you run the photo session the way it seems best to you. Other parents will not. They have a deep need for things to be orderly and go as they planned.

During the session, keep reassuring parents that everything is going well, even if it doesn’t feel like it to them. Assure and show them that you know how to handle toddlers and that you will make beautiful photos.

This moment took a lot of work. It was a tiny moment of stillness in the midst of chaos.

Remind them how much their child has accomplished in these early years of life. Inspire parents to see the fun of the moment. Remember, you promised to have patience with the toddler, and his/her parents!

Let them be toddlers

“There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Photographing toddlers 17

Remember what it’s like to be a two-year-old. They don’t care about pictures like we do (but they will one day).

Promise to be patient and then create an environment for toddlers to thrive. Even when they start out cranky, angry, shy or scared, you’ll let them be themselves and experience friendship and encouragement. This is what leads to wonderful photos of toddlers.

I’d love to hear about your experiences photographing toddlers in the comments below. Please share your thoughts and images of toddlers.

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10 Tips for Photographing Street Markets

13 Apr

There are very few places in the world that provide the kind of visual stimulation, human interactions, and heightened sensory excitement like as street markets. No matter the size or what the market is about, there is bound to be some interesting things to photograph and experience.

I love going to street markets and farmers markets for several reasons – it seems to be the place where most locals hang out, food and shopping are quite fun and unique and it is a great place to taste local foods.

Tips for photographing street markets

Here are some tips to make the most out of photographing street markets or farmers markets.

#1 Redefine interesting

Gorgeous flowers and yummy fruit are always interesting subjects to photograph but if these are not available, don’t walk away. People interactions, fishmongers and other nicknacks are just as interesting.

Tips for photographing street markets - mushrooms

#2 Include human elements

I’ve encountered some really interesting people every time I have visited a street market – artists, artisans, creatives, as well as small-time bakers. It always helps to be friendly and ask permission before snapping a photo. Most people are really nice and willing but be respectful and ask first. And respect a “No” when you hear it and move on.

Tips for photographing street markets - shop stall

#3 Variety in your shots

Add variety to your photos to give them a sense of place, people, and activity. Remember wide angle photos can help you set the scene, but you might miss some details.

Zooming in on your subjects will give a chance to focus on the details – color, shape, and texture. To effectively tell a story make sure you have a good variety of both in your photo portfolio.

Tips for photographing street markets - street market in India

Tips for photographing street markets - fruit in cups for sale

#4 Explore and plan

Just like any photo excursion or trip, take the time to research and explore the areas prior to visiting them. Look at guidebooks, online forums or even ask your friends or people on the street – chances are that markets which the locals frequent aren’t going to be that obvious.

The best resource might actually be the people on the street. If the market is really huge, do some preliminary research to find the most interesting stalls and map out your route so you can make the most of your time there.

Tips for photographing street markets - man selling noodles

#5 Master your tools

Notice that I did not say, “master your craft”. Instead, I said, “master your tools”. In a fast paced environment like a street market, something interesting is constantly happening. Now is not the time to muddle with your camera, adjusting settings and experimenting.

Learn where all the buttons and knobs are and how to use them for what you want to create. Markets can present real challenges with lighting. You might be shooting outdoors, indoors or both within a span of a few minutes.

Tips for photographing street markets - man painting

#6 Buy something

A small purchase goes a long way toward making friends with vendors. Buy something first if possible. Establish rapport and then ask permission to take a picture. You will find your subjects more relaxed and they will to pose for you rather than doing it with an attitude of entitlement.

Tips for photographing street markets - market vendors

#7 Choose the right gear

Considering that most street markets are out on the street and typically span a few blocks, chances are that you will be walking around a fair bit. So you don’t want to be carrying around a ton of gear because it is slowly going to get heavy and cumbersome.

Additionally, if you end up buying things, you will add more to the weight factor. Personally, I prefer using a zoom lens in situations like this. Or a couple of standard prime lens like the versatile 50mm or the wide 35mm. There might not be too much opportunity to switch lenses on the fly so be deliberate with what you bring along.

Tips for photographing street markets

#8 Gear settings

When arriving at a market, one of the first things you’ll notice is that they’re usually covered or indoors. This means that you will likely be photographing in low light situations. Don’t be afraid to increase your ISO here. Photographing street markets often times is best done from a documentary approach so a little grain/noise in terms of high ISO is not going to be the end of the world.

Another thing to keep in mind is lighting. Chances are you are going to be dealing with a variety of lighting situations – sunlight, tungsten, and low light. Perhaps to make life a little easier, switch to Auto White Balance mode on your camera. That way you have one less thing to worry about and can always adjust the White Balance in post-production.

NOTE: You can also try Auto ISO. Read more about that here.

Tips for photographing street markets - fruit stalls

#9 Composition

Try to photograph either wide-angle or close-ups. The reason behind this is because you want your images to look intentional and without many distractions.

Also try and get shots from different angles – high up, low down or even photographing from the hip. Changing your perspective is an easy way to really create variety in your pictures.

Tips for photographing street markets - carts

Tips for photographing street markets

#10 Be aware of your surroundings and stay safe

Street markets tend to be crowded places. A photographer with some expensive gear and a fancy backpack stands out like a sore thumb. Make sure to keep an eye on your gear at all times. Keep valuables close to your person. Wallets, smartphones, etc., should be securely packed away and not at all conspicuous.

I hope these ten tips for photographing street markets were helpful for you. If you have other tips that have worked really well for you, do share with us in the comments section below.

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3 Techniques and Tips for Photographing the Moon in the Landscape

08 Apr

It’s been almost 180 years since the first photograph of the full moon was made by an English scientist, chemist, and historian, John William Draper. Since then, the moon has been a subject that has captivated the attention of photographers around the world. Photographing the moon by itself is one thing, but when you want to include the moon in a landscape photo, you have some challenges to overcome.

Moonrise over Shack Island - 3 Techniques and Tips for Photographing the Moon in the Landscape

The first problem is that the moon is exceptionally bright in the night sky. The second problem is that you want both the landscape and the moon detailed and in sharp focus.

To make a dramatic photo of the moon in a landscape, we’ll be using two techniques in the field and one in post-processing to make the final image.

Moonrise over the ocean in Sidney, British Columbia - 3 Techniques and Tips for Photographing the Moon in the Landscape

1. Exposure bracketing

To make your job a bit easier, photograph the moon when it is close to the horizon. At this time the light from the moon goes through more atmosphere before it reaches our eyes, so it is not as bright as when the moon is high in the sky.

But, under normal circumstances, you’ll still need to bracket your exposures to capture detail in both the landscape and the moon.

Plan to make one exposure for the landscape and another exposure for the moon. You can either use spot metering in both cases, or you can use exposure compensation after your first image to darken the next shot by four or five stops until the moon is properly exposed.

Here is an example of two photos with different exposures: one exposed for the landscape and one exposed for the moon.

3 Techniques and Tips for Photographing the Moon in the Landscape - two exposures for the moon

2. Focus stacking

If you are working with a landscape composition where some elements in the frame are relatively close to the camera, you’ll find that your moon is not sharp if you’ve focussed your camera on the landscape. The only way your landscape and the moon will both be in focus at the same time is if everything in the frame is far way away from the camera.

But the solution is simple. Make your first exposure in the normal way, exposing and focussing on the landscape. Then make your second exposure to not only expose for the brightness of the moon, but also focus on the moon to make sure it’s sharp.

In the two brackets shown in the image above, I not only changed the exposure to expose properly for the moon, but I also changed the focus point so that the moon would be sharp.

Sometimes you may need to use focus stacking without changing the exposure settings. For example, when I made the image below I didn’t need to bracket my exposures because the moon was a dark red color due to the eclipse. However, I still needed to use focus stacking to make both the cactus and the moon appear sharp.

Blue, blood, super moon in Ajo, Arizona, 3 Techniques and Tips for Photographing the Moon in the Landscape

3. Exposure Blending

In post-processing, you can combine your two exposures to make an image with a properly exposed and sharp foreground landscape and moon.

But it’s not quite as simple as just doing a copy and paste if you want it to look natural.

Photo 1: Clone out the moon

In the first photo, notice how the brightness of the moon has caused a strong glow in the sky beyond the moon itself. So if you just paste your properly exposed moon on top of that, the glow will look strange. My first step in post-processing is to clone out the original moon and make the color of the sky look even.

Photo 2: Select the moon

In the second photo, use the Quick Selection Tool to make a selection of the moon. You can then improve your selection by using “Refine Edge” in Photoshop Elements or “Select and Mask” in Photoshop CC. Other post-processing programs have similar tools.

Whichever program you use, the objective is the same. You want to smooth out the edge of your selection so the moon looks natural when pasted onto the first image. If the edges are abrupt, it won’t look natural.

To do this, contract your selection by about 3 pixels and then feather it by 2 pixels. When you are done, save your selection on a new layer.

Paste the moon from Photo 2 on to Photo 1

Finally, you can copy your new layer, go to the first photo and paste it in place.

Super Moon in Ajo, Arizona by Anne McKinnell

If the moon doesn’t look natural, you may need to experiment with blend modes and opacity. Try using the overlay blend mode and reducing the opacity of the layer until you get the look you are after.

Conclusion

Using these techniques will help you create dramatic images of the moon in the landscape – images that more closely match what you are able to see with your own eyes.

To see exactly how I created my moon composite image using Photoshop Elements, watch the video below.

If you have any other tips for photographing the moon in the landscape, please share in the comments below.

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The dPS Ultimate Guide to Taking Portraits and Photographing People

02 Apr

Have you ever wished that you could take better photographs of your friends and family? Do you love looking at portraits taken by professional photographers, but just aren’t sure how to replicate similar results for yourself? Have you ever felt totally overwhelmed by all the options for photography gear and need someone to help you understand what’s essential for photographing people and what isn’t?

If you found yourself nodding along to any of those questions, this guide is for you! In this dPS Ultimate Guide, we’ll walk through everything from equipment to post-processing, and give you the tools you need to photograph people with confidence!

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Equipment

When it comes to photography, the best camera to use is the one you already have. Whether you’re using your cell phone, a point-and-shoot camera, a mirrorless camera, a cropped sensor camera, a full-frame camera, or an old film camera, you can take beautiful photographs of your friends and family. Essentially, don’t let the lack of “ideal equipment” get in your way. In almost every circumstance, you can combine the equipment that you already have with this guide to improve your people photography and portraits.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, in addition to your camera body and basic photography essentials like memory cards, there are a few key pieces of equipment that make photographing people much easier.

If you’re using a DSLR camera, lenses can make a huge difference in the quality of your photos. Most photographers prefer prime lenses for people photography. Although you do have to zoom with your feet, they tend to produce images that are sharper and more vibrant overall.

That said, whether you’re at a wedding or a soccer game, there are times when your subject’s distance from the camera is going to change frequently and quickly. In those instances, a zoom lens may be the best choice for photographing the special people in your life. Here are a few of the most frequently used lenses for portrait and people photography.

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Prime Lenses

35 mm lens: This focal length is not great for traditional head-and-shoulders portraits, but it really shines when it comes to capturing people in the context of their surroundings.

The 35mm lens (on a crop or APS-C size sensor) is most similar to the angle of view of human eyes. So it’s a great lens to use when you want to capture what’s happening around you just as you see it. For this reason, the 35mm lens is an especially great choice for street photography as well.

50mm lens: For many photographers, the first lens they purchase after their kit lens is some variety of a 50mm lens. The price and versatility of a 50mm lens just can’t be beaten, and for a lot of photographers, having the ability to shoot at f/1.8 (or f/1.4, or f/1.2) is a huge upgrade from their kit lens.

If you’re shooting with a full-frame camera body, the 50mm lens is great for photographing families and sibling groups. If you’re shooting with a 50mm lens on a cropped sensor camera, it’s a focal length that’s great for portraits and photographing couples.

85mm lens: Most 85mm lenses are extremely versatile, allowing you to fill the entire frame with the subject’s face or backup to include their entire body without distortion. In fact, 85-105mm is known as being the ideal focal length range for portraiture because images captured within those focal lengths tend to be more flattering and have less distortion than images of people captured at other focal lengths.

Additionally, the lens compression with an 85mm lens makes it appear that the background is being pulled closer to your subject, which results in beautiful and dramatic portrait images.

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Zoom Lenses

Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 Art Lens: Designed for cropped sensor cameras, this lens has a range that includes many of the most popular focal lengths for photographing people. In addition, the ability to shoot at f/1.8 across all focal lengths makes this lens a powerhouse for both portraits and people photography.

70-200mm: This lens is considered to be one of the standards when it comes to wedding and event photography because of its versatility in capturing people across a variety of focal lengths. The 70-200mm focal range is especially helpful in situations where you’d like to be able to capture genuine emotion without being physically close to the people you’re photographing.

As you’re looking at different lenses for portrait and people photography, keep in mind that to achieve a nice blurred background in your portraits, you’ll often want a lens that’s capable of shooting somewhere between f/1.2 and f/2.8. You’ll notice that lenses capable of shooting at those apertures are more expensive, but this is one instance when the payoff is worth the increase in cost.

If you’re shooting on a cropped sensor camera, remember that you need to multiply the focal length of the lens you’re using by the crop factor (this number is often something like 1.5 or 1.6) to discover the functioning focal length of your lens. So, if you put a 35mm lens on a cropped sensor camera, it actually functions more like a 50mm lens.

Other Helpful Tools

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Reflectors: A 5-in-1 reflector kit will help you tackle a huge variety of lighting situations that you might encounter when photographing people. Not only is it helpful for bouncing warm or cool light on your subject, it also gives you the ability to absorb light and to fix dappled light issues when photographing one to three people.

Alternate light source: Even if you think you’ll only be photographing people outdoors in natural light, it’s a good idea to have some form of an alternative light source at your disposal, whether it’s a speedlight, ring light, or studio lights. We’ll talk more about when and how you might want to utilize different lighting sources a bit later in this guide. For now, just know that having some form of a light source will dramatically improve your versatility as a photographer.

Lighting

Photography is often described as “painting with light”. As such, it’s very important to have a good understanding of the different light sources that you may experience as a photographer and how to best use them to your advantage.

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Natural Light

The most basic of all lighting types is natural light. This is as simple as it sounds – all of the light in your photograph is coming from the sun. No additional light source (like a flash) is used.

Photographing using natural light (sometimes also called available light) can mean that you’re shooting outdoors, or it can also mean that you’re shooting indoors near a large window. It can mean that you’re shooting when the sun is high in the sky, or that you’re shooting backlit portraits near sunset.

If you’re new to photography and are struggling with lighting even in natural light situations, grab a friend and try the circle trick, which is a quick and easy way to help teach yourself how to see different natural lighting situations.

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Studio Lighting

Another option when it comes to lighting is to utilize studio lighting. This sounds more intimidating than it really is—studio lighting just means that you’re using a flash, stand lighting, and other artificial light sources as your primary source of light for your image.

Professional headshots are often photographed with studio lighting, as are many newborn photography sessions. The major benefit of studio lighting is that you can easily control what the light looks like and ensure consistent lighting regardless of external factors like weather. Studio lighting can also be helpful in creating high-key images with dynamic lighting and lots of contrast.

Using studio lighting does involve a different learning curve than natural light photography, and many photographers feel intimidated by it. However, learning studio lighting is a great way to achieve a solid understanding of a variety of lighting situations, and it’s absolutely worth taking a class or workshop to learn more about it.

Even if you don’t ultimately end up using studio lighting very often, it’s a valuable tool to have in your arsenal.

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Combination Lighting

Many photographers utilize a combination of natural light and studio lighting—using available light when possible, and sometimes supplementing with another light source. The most common light source for beginning and intermediate photographers is probably the speedlight.

Using a speedlight in combination with a diffuser is a great way to photograph people indoors in situations where you may not always be able to pose them near a window (think birthday parties, wedding receptions, holiday gatherings, etc.). Another way to use combination lighting is to take your speedlight outdoors and use it as a fill flash for outdoor portraits.

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Finding Locations and Backgrounds

When it comes to photographing people, the location and the background that is behind your subject are extremely important. Your backdrop will either enhance your final image or detract from it, so here are a few tips to help you find and choose the best possible locations to compliment your photography.

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Color is King

When I’m shooting portraits, I’m most often using a 50mm or 85mm lens, and shooting with a fairly wide aperture (usually somewhere between f/1.8 and f/2.5). Typically, I’m looking for the person that I’m photographing to be in focus, with a nice creamy bokeh background behind them. Because the background is softly blurred, sometimes the color of the background can be more important than what it actually looks like to the naked eye.

A parking garage can look like a less than inspired backdrop through a 35mm lens. But if you transition to an 85mm lens, suddenly the details of the background disappear, and you’re left with a backdrop that appears to be a nice neutral gray tone in portraits. Similarly, a field of weeds can look terrible in person but translates as a creamy golden yellow background in a photograph.

As such, training yourself to consider color in addition to content when looking for potential photography locations is a great trick to have up your sleeve as a photographer.

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Memories Matter

One of my favorite ways to choose a photography location is to ask the person you’re photographing to share a location that’s particularly meaningful to them.

Is there a park that their family walks to on Friday nights in the summer? Go there. Does the high school senior you’re photographing have fun memories of picking peaches at a local farm with her parents every summer? Check out that orchard. Is a family bringing home their first baby? Consider shooting at their home instead of a studio.

Choosing locations that have special meaning to the people you’re photographing is a great way to ensure that they’ll be as comfortable in front of the camera as possible, and it’s also a great way to invoke genuine positive emotion. Hearing a song on the radio can take you right back to a specific memory in your life, and so can revisiting locations that have happy memories associated with them!

Don’t be afraid to ask the person you’re photographing if there’s somewhere particularly meaningful to them that could act as the backdrop of your photo session. From the public library to grandma’s famous dahlia garden, to a family friend’s lake house, you might be surprised at what they come up with!

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Utilize Geotagging

Several popular websites for photography allow you to search images that have been geotagged by zip code, city, and other identifying factors. Flickr Map is one such resource, and although it can be a real mixed bag in terms of the quantity and quality of images to sort through, it’s a great tool for visualizing what different parts of your area look like at different times of the day and different times of the year.

I wouldn’t recommend choosing a location sight unseen, but it’s a great tool for narrowing down areas that you might want to check out in person. Another option that’s just beginning to gain in popularity is Shootipedia, a location scouting website, and app that allows photographers to post images and share details about their favorite locations to shoot. Some parts of the world have lots of locations cataloged while others have very few. That said, it’s always worth a look!

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Go Explore

One of the best ways to discover photography locations near you is simply to get out and explore your area. Go for a hike. Hop in the car and drive around. Print off a listing of all the local public parks, and swing by at different times of the day.

Don’t discount familiar locations either. Chances are that as you begin to look through the lens of photography, you’ll find that there are countless appropriate locations and backdrops right in your own neighborhood.

Clothing Tips and Ideas

Most people can benefit from some sort of direction regarding what to wear when being photographed. However, whether or not you (as the photographer) will be able to offer direction in terms of what to wear will vary based on lots of different factors including the type of people photography you’re doing.

For example, if you’re photographing the attendees at a birthday party or doing street photography, you won’t have as much input into clothing choices as you would if you are shooting portraits.

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography
In situations where you do have some influence over what the people you’re photographing are wearing, that level of “direction” can range from you purchasing specific pieces of clothing to be worn to simply giving general advice regarding colors and patterns that are flattering on most people.

The level of your direction as a photographer will also be dependent on your personal photography style and whether you offer styled sessions or not. However, regardless of your personal style, there are a few rules of thumb that generally hold true in most instances when photographing people:

Neutral colored clothing (black, white, tan, or gray) is always a good choice.
Jewel tones are flattering to most complexions.
Avoid logos or text on clothing.
When incorporating patterns, stick to very classic patterns like plaid or polka dots.
When photographing families, it’s better to work with one color family (warm colors, cool colors, jewel tones, neutrals, etc.) than to have everyone wearing exactly the same thing.

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Adding or removing jackets and/or cardigans is a great way to add some versatility to a session.
If you’re photographing more than one person together, make sure they’re not wearing exactly the same color on top, or it can be difficult to see where one person ends and another begins.
If the person being photographed isn’t comfortable in what they’re wearing, it will usually be evident in the photograph.

Most people genuinely appreciate tips and/or feedback from their photographer about what to wear. It helps them relax and feel confident in front of the camera.

All that said, sometimes you just have to roll with the punches. If you’re photographing a toddler that desperately wants to leave her fairy wings on for the photos, you might want to consider giving it a try, even if it goes against your “vision” for the photo. Clothing choice can help enhance a photo, but in most cases, genuine expression in a photo will trump clothing choice any day.

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Setting Up Your Camera

This section is especially for beginning photographers. If you have been using your camera’s auto mode, and aren’t even sure where to begin in terms of photographing people it’s designed to give you some ideas to help you start taking more control over your photography and to elevate your photos of people from mere snapshots to intentionally crafted images.

Two of the most frequently used camera modes for photographing people are Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority.

Aperture Priority

When selecting the Aperture Priority mode on your camera, essentially you select the camera’s aperture, and you’re asking your camera to select the rest of your settings. You can still select your ISO if you wish, or leave it set to auto if you’d prefer that your camera choose that too.

When you select a small aperture number (f/1.8), less of your image will be in focus. When you select a large aperture number (f/8), more of your image will be in focus. If you’re wondering how to create a portrait with a nice blurry background, shooting with a very wide aperture (f/1.8) is one way to achieve that effect.

However, as you add additional people to the image, it becomes trickier to nail the focus on everyone. So one good rule of thumb when photographing small groups is to set your aperture no smaller than the number of people you’re photographing – if you’re photographing two siblings, set your aperture at f/2.0 (or higher). If you’re photographing a family of three, you may want to consider setting your aperture at f/3.0 (or higher), especially if not everyone is on the same plane.

Aperture Priority mode is a great choice for shooting portraits or small groups, wherein the people you’re photographing are not moving too much.

aperture priority portrait - The dPS Ultimate Guide to Taking Portraits and Photographing People

Shutter Priority

Where Aperture Priority mode is great for photographing people who are largely stationary, Shutter Priority mode is great for photographing people that are on the go.

Whether you’re photographing a soccer game and want to freeze the action, capturing a family mid-tickle, or practicing street photography and want to show the blur of people bustling about, Shutter Priority is a great way to either stop action or emphasize movement in people photography!

Working with People

Photographer, aul Caponigro once said, “It’s one thing to make a picture of what a person looks like, it’s another thing to make a portrait of who they are.”

Indeed, there’s a difference between taking a snapshot of a person and creating a portrait that captures the essence of who they are and what they’re about. Often, the difference comes down to the interaction between the photographer and the person being photographed.

We’ve already talked about how location and clothing are two factors that can help the people you’re photographing relax in front of the camera. In addition to those two factors, coupling gentle posing with prompts and questions designed to help the person you’re photographing relax and evoke emotion during the session can be very helpful in capturing images that look and feel genuine.

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Posing

If the idea of gently posing the person that you’re photographing feels overwhelming, you may be interested in purchasing the Posing App. This particular app includes over 300 illustrations of various photography poses for men, women, children, and groups, and can be a great starting point when trying to describe to the people you’re photographing what you’d like them to do.

Keep in mind that resources like Posing App are just starting places. Don’t be afraid to modify poses, changing them slightly for variety or to better flatter the person you’re photographing.

Also look here for more posing help:

Portraits: Striking the Pose – a dPS ebook.
67 Portrait Poses (Printable) by dPS.

Prompting

Once you’ve got the person you’re photographing situated in terms of posing, the next technique in evoking emotion is to prompt them with questions or statements.

When photographing a child, this might be saying, “Show me your best lion roar!” As the photographer, you’re less interested in the roar itself and more interested in the fits of giggles that usually follow, so be ready with your camera to capture the moment!

If you’re photographing a high school senior, this might mean asking them about their plans following graduation and what they’re excited about. If you’re photographing a newly engaged couple, this might mean asking them to tell you the proposal story. When you’re photographing a wedding, this might mean asking them to practice their first dance for you.

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Prompts can be sentimental, but they can also be silly. Ask a groom to whisper his favorite vegetable into his bride’s ear, and watch them both laugh hysterically. These prompting techniques allow you to connect with the person you’re photographing on a deeper level and also help evoke genuine emotion that translates to a stronger photograph.

Culling and Post-Processing

After you’ve snapped the actual photographs, you’ll want to weed out the best images and apply some sort of post-processing to them, even if only sharpening to print. If you shoot in RAW format, you’ll need some sort of software (such as Lightroom or Adobe Bridge) that can recognize RAW file types before you’ll be ready to start culling or editing your images.

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Culling

Regardless of the software, most photographers use a process that either amounts to “Editing Out” or “Editing In” for culling images. If following an “Editing Out” process, you go through and deletes all the images that you do not want to edit, and processes the rest. If following an “Editing In” process, you go through and flag all the photos that you’re most interested in editing, and edit only those. This is largely a matter of preference, and neither method is better than the other.

When culling, keep in mind that no one needs 10 images with exactly the same expression, focal length, and camera angle. However, do be aware of micro-expressions, or particular mannerisms that the person you’re photographing may display, and consider including some of those images into your final cut as well. Sometimes, those are the images that capture the essence of a person, even if their eyes are squinty or their nose is a little scrunched.

Post-Processing

Whether or not to post-process images in digital photography is always the subject of much debate. Personally, as someone who started with black and white film photography, I find the debate to be a bit silly. There was little controversy about dodging and burning in the black and white darkroom to enhance a portrait, so I see little problem with doing the same in the digital medium.

There are many options available for post-processing, but the most common still seems to be Adobe’s Creative Cloud Photography package, which includes Lightroom, Photoshop, and a whole collection of mobile apps to download.

Many photographers batch edit their images, using either a preset in Lightroom or an action in Photoshop. If you’re brand new to post-processing, there are a whole host of actions and presets available to purchase, including several great sets from Digital Photography School.

Keep in mind that most actions and presets are not designed to be one-click wonders. They do require tweaks and adjustments for best success, which means that having a basic understanding of Photoshop and/or Lightroom is definitely necessary when it comes to post-processing. This is one area where it’s absolutely worthwhile to check out an online course or eBook in order to understand the basics of post-processing so that you know what the actions and presets are doing, how to tweak them to your advantage, and how to eventually make your own to help you stand out from the crowd.

Marketing Yourself and Getting Paid Gigs (If You Want Them)

So, you’ve photographed a bunch of friends and family, and now people are starting to tell you that you should start your own photography business! If that’s something you’re interested in pursuing on a full-time or semi-professional basis, we’ll walk through a couple of things that can help make that happen.

Check Your Local Laws

Laws regarding small businesses vary drastically from location to location. Some places require you to have a business license and insurance before getting started. Some require you to register your business name. Others only require that you declare any income received so that you can pay appropriate taxes on it.

Because dPS has readers all over the world, the best suggestion I can give is to contact your local Small Business Association regarding what you need to do to keep your budding business on the up and up. Even if you aren’t ready to officially start your business quite yet, it’s still important to research the requirements (and whether your prospective business name is actually available) before you begin any of these other steps!

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Build Your Portfolio

If you haven’t already done so, you need to build a portfolio of your work that you can show to prospective clients to demonstrate your skill as a photographer. Many times, photographers initially build their portfolio by offering to take photos of their family and friends for free in exchange for permission to use them as part of their portfolio.

Another option for building your portfolio is to participate in workshops or photo walks that grant you permission to use the images that you take during the event as part of your portfolio. If you’re interested in photographing weddings, many photographers partner with vendors to photograph several styled sessions before they ever actually photograph a real wedding.

Build Your Brand

Once you have a portfolio that you’re ready to market, you need to have a brand! This step includes coming up with your business name, logo, watermark, a headshot of you, and often a color scheme that you’ll use throughout your online and print materials.

Build Your Web Presence

One of the next key steps to developing any level of a photography business is to build a web presence so that people can actually find you! This may include many different avenues, such as creating a website, a photography blog, a Facebook business page, and an Instagram account for your brand.

Expand Your Audience

For lots of photographers, their business starts with friends and family and gradually expands out from there as those people recommend you to their friends and family. If you can encourage your friends and family to tag your photography pages on social media as they share your images online, this can be a really great way to expand your audience and reach. Some other easy ways to expand your audience include:

Offer a rewards or incentives program for past clients who refer their friends to you.
Host a model call on Facebook.
Consider running ads on social media targeted to “friends of friends”.
Donate your photography services to a cause you care about.

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Conclusion

Whew! That was a whole lot of information about photographing people! Although it’s easy to get overwhelmed with all the dos and don’ts of people photography, you don’t have to master everything at once!

Use the camera and the equipment you have, pick one tip from this guide, and try it out. At the end of the day, the most important part of photographing people is just to get out there and do it, as often as you can!

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The dPS Ultimate Guide to Taking Portraits and Photographing People

29 Mar

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Equipment

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Prime Lenses

35 mm lens: This focal length is not great for traditional head-and-shoulders portraits, but it really shines when it comes to capturing people in the context of their surroundings.

Additionally, the lens compression with an 85mm lens makes it appear that the background is being pulled closer to your subject, which results in beautiful and dramatic portrait images.

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Zoom Lenses

Other Helpful Tools

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Lighting

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Natural Light

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Studio Lighting

Even if you don’t ultimately end up using studio lighting very often, it’s a valuable tool to have in your arsenal.

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Combination Lighting

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Finding Locations and Backgrounds

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Color is King

As such, training yourself to consider color in addition to content when looking for potential photography locations is a great trick to have up your sleeve as a photographer.

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Memories Matter

One of my favorite ways to choose a photography location is to ask the person you’re photographing to share a location that’s particularly meaningful to them.

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Utilize Geotagging

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Go Explore

Clothing Tips and Ideas

For example, if you’re photographing the attendees at a birthday party or doing street photography, you won’t have as much input into clothing choices as you would if you are shooting portraits.

Neutral colored clothing (black, white, tan, or gray) is always a good choice.
Jewel tones are flattering to most complexions.
Avoid logos or text on clothing.
When incorporating patterns, stick to very classic patterns like plaid or polka dots.
When photographing families, it’s better to work with one color family (warm colors, cool colors, jewel tones, neutrals, etc.) than to have everyone wearing exactly the same thing.

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Adding or removing jackets and/or cardigans is a great way to add some versatility to a session.
If you’re photographing more than one person together, make sure they’re not wearing exactly the same color on top, or it can be difficult to see where one person ends and another begins.
If the person being photographed isn’t comfortable in what they’re wearing, it will usually be evident in the photograph.

Most people genuinely appreciate tips and/or feedback from their photographer about what to wear. It helps them relax and feel confident in front of the camera.

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Setting Up Your Camera

Two of the most frequently used camera modes for photographing people are Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority.

Aperture Priority

Aperture Priority mode is a great choice for shooting portraits or small groups, wherein the people you’re photographing are not moving too much.

aperture priority portrait - The dPS Ultimate Guide to Taking Portraits and Photographing People

Shutter Priority

Where Aperture Priority mode is great for photographing people who are largely stationary, Shutter Priority mode is great for photographing people that are on the go.

Working with People

Photographer, aul Caponigro once said, “It’s one thing to make a picture of what a person looks like, it’s another thing to make a portrait of who they are.”

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Posing

Keep in mind that resources like Posing App are just starting places. Don’t be afraid to modify poses, changing them slightly for variety or to better flatter the person you’re photographing.

Also look here for more posing help:

Portraits: Striking the Pose – a dPS ebook.
67 Portrait Poses (Printable) by dPS.

Prompting

Once you’ve got the person you’re photographing situated in terms of posing, the next technique in evoking emotion is to prompt them with questions or statements.

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Culling and Post-Processing

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Culling

Post-Processing

Marketing Yourself and Getting Paid Gigs (If You Want Them)

Check Your Local Laws

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Build Your Portfolio

Build Your Brand

Build Your Web Presence

Expand Your Audience

Offer a rewards or incentives program for past clients who refer their friends to you.
Host a model call on Facebook.
Consider running ads on social media targeted to “friends of friends”.
Donate your photography services to a cause you care about.

The dPS Ultimate Guide to People and Portrait Photography

Conclusion

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Focus on Photographing a Different Color Each Day to Practice the Art of Seeing

22 Mar

Color is all around us. As beautiful as black and white can be, color gives us variety and sometimes, unpredictability. But funnily enough, it’s also easy to take it for granted.

Over time, I’ve come up with a few exercises to keep color at the forefront of my mind. One of these exercises is to focus on photographing a different color each day. It’s great for keeping your photography fresh and training your eyes to look out for new photographic opportunities.

Getting started

Color may make up the majority of our world, but photographing it might not be as easy as you think. Sometimes the abundance of color can be overwhelming, and sometimes it’s hard to find the color you’re looking for at all! Before taking up the challenge, grab a pen and paper. Write down a heading for each color and list as many different things you can think of under each. Sometimes it’s even worth Googling specific color schemes, just to give you some ideas of what to look for.

Next, designate a day for each color you would like to photograph. And it doesn’t have to be the generic gamut of colors either. Why not try looking out for a more pastel pallet? Soft pinks, greys, and blues make wonderful, atmospheric photographs. More earthy colors like oranges, browns and dark greens are great colors to keep a look out for in Autumn.

Look for bold colors…

Humans have evolved to seek out bold coloration. Deep, saturated colors catch the eye and pull the viewer in for a closer look. A bold color scheme emphasizes texture and shape, especially within a limited color pallete.

Focus on Photographing a Different Color Each Day to Practice the Art of Seeing

Deep, saturated colors catch the eye and pull the viewer in for a closer look.

And a softer color pallete…

Color photography doesn’t always have to be about a bold color scheme. Subtle or almost monochrome color schemes emphasize detail and lend a softer atmosphere to a photograph.

Pastel photographs are best taken during cloudy or low-light days to minimize shadows for a more even-toned image.

Softer pastels like pink and purple can add color without overpowering the image.

Why not both?

The foreground of this image is made up of bold, contrasting colors while the background is predominantly made up of a soft pink pallet. The bold and soft colors emphasize each other and create a more dynamic image. The negative space around the top half of the image is important too, it maintains balance, making sure the full extent of the color palette isn’t too overwhelming.

The opportunity to combine both soft and bold colors doesn’t happen frequently, but you’ll know when it does. Combining the two color schemes creates a dynamic image where bolder and softer colors reinforce each other and bring the image together.

Using movement

Color can accentuate camera movement, and movement can accentuate color. It’s a well-loved dichotomy that is great for abstracted imagery.

Try taking photographs out a moving car window or bus. A slow shutter speed in the late afternoon will allow enough light to create a softness of color.

This image was taken with a slow shutter speed while traveling through the outback. The afternoon light mingles with the light of traveling cars to make a soft, atmospheric abstracted photograph.

Detail

Colour has the power to illuminate detail, adding to the depth of a photograph overall. In a good image, color is the cherry on top – the final pop of color to resolve your photograph.

The subtle yellow road sign and red symbols add detail to an image and invite the viewer in for a closer look.

Look for color in unusual spots

Like I mentioned before, finding your selected color of the day may prove surprisingly tricky. Focusing on red one day will take you on a completely different journey than if you were looking for blue subjects.

Try looking in less frequented locations for unusual colors and patterns. Or take a drive and explore a new location altogether. Changing your perspective or focusing on compositional techniques like leading lines and texture can help get those creative juices flowing.

A red pallete for Monday. Trying to look for unusual perspectives often yields unexpected results, revealing your color of the day in new and interesting ways.

Wednesday’s color pallete, green and blue tiles adorn an urban walkway.

Conclusion

While color is all around us, it’s easy to take for granted. Simple exercises like focusing on photographing a particular color each day help keep your practice fresh and unique.

Keep your eyes peeled and don’t be afraid to explore, color often reveals itself in unexpected and fascinating ways!

The post Focus on Photographing a Different Color Each Day to Practice the Art of Seeing by Megan Kennedy appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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The Introverts Guide to Photographing People

08 Mar

Being an introverted photographer is a challenge, especially if you actually enjoy photographing people. As introverts, we tend to be happiest on our own, with family or with close friends. We avoid large groups and people that we don’t know well. We’re likely the last to speak up in a group setting.

Unfortunately, not “getting out there” holds us back from achieving some of our goals as photographers. But when we do get out there, we get tired or burn out from people quickly. But it is possible for introverts to actually thrive among people and even run a successful people oriented photography business.

Families cherish their home. I love making newborn photos for families in their own home. It’s so much easier for them than packing up their baby and venturing off for photos. The experience is all the more enjoyable for the family if they also happen to be introverted!

Let’s go through both the strengths and challenges of being an introverted photographer so that you can enjoy photographing people to your full potential.

Let’s Begin With the Challenges

It’s well known among photographers that constraints and challenges can actually help you become more creative. When you’re limited in some way, it forces you to find new ways around obstacles to achieve your goals.

So don’t worry that introversion can be a challenge to photographing people or becoming better known as a photographer. Finding ways to overcome these challenges will make you better than you would have been without them!

Relationships flourish in smaller groups.

1) The Challenge of Being Around People

As an introvert, you likely keep to yourself outside of school or work. Evenings and weekends are spent on your own or with family. You avoid crowds and would prefer to get together with close friends and have deeper conversations.

Of course, none of this is a problem on its own. But as a photographer, you may not be as ambitious as you would like to be when it comes to photographing people. Whether you’re an amateur or professional photographer, or even running a business, sticking to yourself instead of being out among people means you’re missing opportunities.

You’re missing out on learning from other photographers or collaborating on a project together. Running a successful photography business will be difficult without the connections you’ll make among families, photographers, and fellow entrepreneurs.

The scene suggests a neglectful mom, but that’s not quite what was going on. I often strive for a little humor in my photos!

A danger of not getting out there is that you might end up spending too much time on social media. But social media can present us with an illusion of how great other people’s lives are.

You’ll see the exciting lives being lived by everyone else and think that you’re boring and have nothing to share. You might get the impression that everyone else’s photography business is booming. Their mini sessions are booked solid, their summer is filled with weddings, and they’re a great success compared to you. But social media is much different than the real world of people.

How to Overcome the Challenge of Being Around People

If you love photographing people, you’ll need to focus on making yourself get out there more. A little practice will get you in the habit of spending more time with people. Think of it as exercising your social muscles.

Stop missing out on opportunities. Exercise those social muscles by finding a camera club or local Facebook group for photographers. Start now, and make it your goal to track down a group of photographers in your area in which to participate.

Once you’ve found a group, especially if it’s quite large, find one photographer to connect with. Maybe even another introvert. Start a project with them. Maybe you can assist each other in a project you’ve been wanting do.

If you’re extremely introverted, look around at what the extroverts are doing and pretend to be one. Listen to how easily they talk with new people and how the conversation just seems to flow. Begin to imitate them. You should also have some leading questions ready for new people you meet.

Little guys want to grow up to be as strong as their daddy.

2) The Challenge of Being “Out There” Too Much

Getting out there and among people will transform you as an introverted photographer. You’ll begin to get some of those portrait photography projects started, connect with interesting photographers, and maybe make a good new friend. However, after all this increased social interaction, you may find yourself tired out.

My first job in photography was a school photographer. I was taking traditional school portraits for up to 200 students per day. I had to greet them, make them feel comfortable, pose them, coax a great smile from them and wish them, “good day!” At the rate of 1000 students per week, I was exhausted! Not physically exhausted but, socially exhausted. The part of me that interacts with people was tired out.

The danger of becoming socially exhausted for long periods of time is that you’ll risk resenting people for stealing your time, you’ll become too exhausted to give your subjects the attention they deserve, and you’ll eventually burn out.

Rest is one of the most important parts of life. It comes naturally to cats and some babies, but not always for busy grown-ups.

No doubt, many introverts running a photography business burn out from being socially exhausted. If only they had overcome this challenge, they would still be enjoying their photography business.

How to Overcome Being “Out There” Too Much

I learned an important lesson from my first portrait photography job. After a lot of social interaction, I need to rest from people. It’s similar to resting from intense workouts at the gym. Give your muscles a rest and you’ll be ready to go again in the morning.

Introverts need to take a rest from being social. After resting, you’ll be energized and strong again. Resting doesn’t necessarily mean sleeping. As an introvert, it means spending time on your own. You can spend this time reading, writing, editing photos or enjoying a movie. It’s just a rest from social interaction.

Don’t resist rest. It’ll bring back your energy and joy for life.

Look for signs of being socially tired or exhausted. When your social energy is drained, take a break. It could be for a couple hours or a couple days. But as soon as you’re ready, get back out there.

If you run a photography business then you should take part of the week to rest from social interaction too. You could spend that part of the week editing your photos. That way you’re still working on projects that need to get finished but you’re resting at the same time.

3) The Challenge of Making Sales

We’ve covered “getting out there” and recovering from social interaction. But what about something like sales? If you want to convince people to be involved in your photography projects, sell your prints, or run a photography business, you need to be able to sell.

The key is to find a way to “sell” that works for you as an introvert. Don’t try to be somebody you’re not. Instead, work with your nature, overcome your challenges, and develop a method that works for you.

When you talk with other photographers or see them on social media, does it seem like they’re getting more work than you? Maybe it’s because they’re getting out there more, they’re talking, they’re enthusiastic, they know how to sell naturally.

How to Overcome Weaknesses in Sales

Selling doesn’t just mean making money. It means convincing people you’ve got something worthwhile to offer. Maybe it means persuading someone to be part of your project.

You already know that the first step is getting out there more. The more you’re around other people, the more opportunities you’ll have to sell. You’ve got ideas for doing that now. But there are other ways to sell yourself that will work comfortably with your introverted nature.

First, focus your efforts on being an incredible photographer. When people experience your photography services they will naturally refer you to other customers. That means they’re doing the selling for you.

Second, the extroverts that you have been getting connected with will sell for you. I constantly get referrals from extroverts who tell people about me. Extroverts are well connected with lots of people and will love to discuss your photography work if it’s good.

Remember, when your work is good, other people will sell it for you.

Finally, turn your website into a salesperson. Your website should have a good sales message on it. Everything that you would say in person should be on your website. But because it’s on your website, you write it once and then it does the talking for you.

People will find you as they search for the services you offer. If they like what they read on your website, they’ll want to hire you. You don’t have to go out there and sell yourself, let people come to you instead.

Your Strengths as an Introvert

By now, hopefully, you can see how to overcome the challenges of being an introvert. You can exercise your social muscles, get all the rest you need, and let your friends and website sell for you.

But there are advantages to being an introvert, so let’s look at your strengths.

Sometimes one-on-one time is the best.

1) You Work Well on Your Own

Because you do so well on your own, you’re especially suited to landscape and nature photography. You can pursue these projects on your own and then share them with the group later.

Street photography is ideal for you as well. You don’t have to interact with people to do street photography. Candid photography is perfect for capturing street or travel scenes. You can stand back and enjoy watching people while pursuing a candid or photojournalistic style.

Since you can work well on your own, you can spend a lot of time studying photography in books and online. Taking lots of time to learn, think and reflect will allow you to go much deeper with photography. Remember, the better you get, the more word will travel about you.

Running a photography business takes a lot of lonely work behind the scenes (learning, planning, editing, marketing). Since you’re perfectly happy to work on your own, there will be fewer distractions while getting your work done. Extroverts really struggle to spend long hours on their own, but this is where you excel.

Don’t forget to combine your rest periods with study or work periods. When you’re resting from social interaction, use that time to do important business tasks on your own.

2) You Will Become a Better Communicator

As you interact with more groups of people and work hard to communicate your ideas in person or on your website, your ability to articulate yourself will improve. As I work on my family photography website, I make little adjustments to my sales message. Over time, my message has become very strong and families love working with me.

Remember to watch how extroverts interact, and you can begin to imitate them so that your social skills will improve.

3) You Excel in One-on-One Conversation

As an introvert, you’re likely really good with one person at a time. This is good news because there are many other introverts out there that feel the same way. They may be drawn to you as a portrait photographer.

Consider working on your sales message with another photographer. The two of you can help each other flesh out your thoughts and find the perfect wording. It’s a lot more fun to craft a sales message with a like-minded photographer when there is no pressure of actually selling. Remember, that message is going to do the talking for you later.

Over to You

As an introvert, you can thrive among people and run a successful photography business photographing people.

Exercise your social muscles and recover by resting from social interaction. Without that rest, you risk burning out and resenting people.

Let’s continue the conversation. Leave a comment below letting me know how you struggle with photographing people. Together, we can overcome our challenges and grow as people and photographers.

The post The Introverts Guide to Photographing People by Mat Coker appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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