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7 Tips to Take Better Family Photos

02 Apr

Regardless of the type of photographer you are, family photos are among the most important pictures you’ll ever take. Here are some things to keep in mind.

#1 – Make sure the family is prepared

Even if it’s a few emails, a phone call, or an in person meeting at a coffee shop, have a consultation with the family at some point before the shoot. Address things like what the family will wear (use a service like Pinterest to create a board for the family to look at for suggestions on how they might dress), what time of day would be the best for them, and what they’re looking to get out of the shoot (i.e., candids, headshots, or a holiday card).

Send out an email a day or two before their appointment with the time, date, and place of the session. Provide a checklist reminding them to make sure the kids are fed and they pack any essentials with them. Depending on the season, your checklist will change (e.g., knit hat reminders in winter and sunscreen and water it the summer). A family shoot will never go perfectly, but by making sure the family is prepared, you can maximize the likelihood that things will go as smoothly as possible.

#2 – Become friends with the kids (bribery is underrated)

Young or old, everyone loves little gifts. Stop by the Dollar Store before your next shoot and pick up some bubbles, a baseball, stickers or a tiny stuffed animal. If it’s autumn, stop by a farm market and a grab a small pumpkin. Summer? Grab a bunch of wildflowers. These tiny gestures will take some pressure off the parents, gain you points with the kids, and have the added benefit of making the pictures more fun and interesting. It’s a win – win.

#3 – Let parents play with their kids

This is when the magic happens. If you let the parents be who they are and more importantly, let kids be kids, the pictures will start to fall into your lap. Facial expressions on both the parents and children will be authentic and genuine. Smiles will come more easily, and your job is just to capture the moment.

#4 – Provide direction

Don’t be afraid to move the parents around and tell them where they need to be. Even if you’re just casually photographing your neighbor’s family, you’re the professional and people will listen. If a location isn’t working or the light is poor in a certain area, suggest an alternative in a positive way. Say something like, “Why don’t we try moving into that large open shade area by that tree, it will give us a break from this heavy sun”, rather than, “The light is horrible here, let’s move”.

Relying on the parents to direct their kids can make your job a lot easier too. A little boy will listen to his mom who tells him to hug his sister over a stranger that he just met.

#5 Make everyone feel comfortable

Most people feel awkward having a camera pointed at them. Keep the conversation positive and periodically tell everyone how great the pictures are looking. You can even show them a few shots along the way. Your enthusiasm and excitement for what you’re seeing will put everyone at ease and make your job much easier.

#6 – Improvise

The night before the shoot I’m usually scouring Google for “family photo tips” or pulling the “How to Pose Children” books off my shelf. Preparation is essential. But photographing a family is a mixture of luck and skill, and when you’re in the thick of it and things aren’t going as planned, you’re going to have to improvise. Kids won’t sit still? Pop on a telephoto lens, back off and let them run around a bit. You might be surprised at the photos you get when you’re forced to do what wasn’t planned.

#7 – Embrace the outtakes

As photographers we want every photo to be a masterpiece – perfect light, natural expressions, everyone looking at the camera. But sometimes the best photos that you wind up taking are the most ridiculous — a boy with his hand up his nose, a brother embracing his crying sister, or one sibling looking at the other with a crazy face. Don’t stop shooting just because the kids aren’t cooperating for a moment, or the parents are chasing them around. Sometimes these situations can lend to the funniest and most memorable shots.

We all wear different hats as photographers. One of these days, you’ll be asked to do family photos. Keep these tips in mind and you’ll be one step ahead.

Please share your comments and any other suggestions below.

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The post 7 Tips to Take Better Family Photos by Joe Turic appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Get Surreal With Oil and Water Photos

26 Mar

Have you ever tried to mix oil and water? Fortunately it just doesn’t work.

“Wait,” you say. “Why is this fortunate?”

Well because, otherwise you wouldn’t get such fantastic-looking effects when you try to combine the two!

And once you get close (like macro close) then oil and water’s aversion to mingling will result in some seriously surreal photographs.

Excited yet? Good! ‘Cause we’re here to walk you through the five easy steps it takes to create these magical macro shots.

Simple Steps for Oil and Water Magic
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Tips for Creating Landscape Photos during the Golden Hour

26 Mar

The golden hour. Even if you haven’t been involved in photography for very long, you undoubtedly have heard the term thrown around. As photographers we are in the business of capturing light, and there is no better light to have cast on our subjects, than sun light that is low on the horizon.

The golden hour is defined as periods of time; specifically, the hour after sunrise, and the hour before sunset. The length and time of these occurrences depends on your location on our planet, and time of the year.

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Regardless of the type of photography you do, natural light generally falls into two categories; harsh (hard) and soft. Harsh light is what you see when the sun is high in the sky, during the middle of the day (cloudless day).

Because the light is at its most intense during that time, and shining directly down from above, shadows are sharp and well defined. They can also appear in places you don’t want them, such as on a human subject’s face. You can sometimes counter this by using fill flash and reflectors. When you’re shooting landscapes, you see the more unwelcome effects on the sky, with less warmth and higher contrast.

Your subjects are well lit, but generally only from one direction. Images shot during at midday can be rather dull and uninspiring, and it becomes more difficult to capture something spectacular.

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After the sun lowers in the horizon and sunset approaches however, everything changes. Simply put, taking photos during the golden hour give the images atmosphere. These times give the best light for all kinds of photography, but what advantages do you gain by shooting your landscapes during the golden hour?

Reduced Contrast

Light from the golden hour effectively reduces the contrast in your images. A black and white street shot could benefit from harsher light in the middle of the day, because the higher contrast and sharp shadows better define the subject and the environment. For landscape photos however, the world comes alive when the sun is low, and the light is soft and diffused. Shadows become longer and less defined, and the tonal range changes significantly. Clouds are illuminated differently, and their visual transitions against the sky soften.

Colors

The position of the sun during the day creattes varying temperatures of light, as you can see by the different colors as it crosses the sky. When we discuss temperature in photography, we’re discussing tthat of color, instead of heat. Neutral temperatures are what you see during the middle of the day. The main point to take away from this is that neutral temperatures are fairly uninteresting in regards to their aesthetic effect on your photography.

Color ranges become more vibrant and pronounced when the sun is closer to the horizon.

During the golden hour periods, colors tend to bend to the extremes, and give you much more pronounced effects on your images. During the morning golden hour, just after sunrise, the color temperatures are cooler, and give a moody, bluish hue to the shot. In the evening before sunset occurs, the spectrum shifts to warmer colors, providing you with warm oranges and reds.

A photo captured during the golden hour has a wonderful warmth and feel that’s impossible to capture at midday.

Softer Light Through Diffusion

Diffusion can be visualized with the words, scattering and softening. Light that is diffused is soft with less defined edges, and scattered across a greater area than non-diffused light. A good example of that is a diffuser attachment for your DSLR flash unit. The translucency of the diffuser attachment emulates the soft light you get from the sun being in a low position in the sky, and takes away hard shadows.

Diffused light is more evenly and softly applied throughout a scene, and a low-hanging sun or sunlight projecting through clouds becomes a great natural diffuser.

Your landscape photos benefit from this by less pronounced shadows from objects in your shot, and in general the light that falls on your subjects within the landscape scatters in a more even, favorable manner. What does this all give you? Again, the one thing you’re ultimately striving for in landscape shots; atmosphere.

Sun Flare Effects

Another advantage of shooting during the golden hours is the opportunity to introduce sun flare effects and backlighting into your images. Because of the sun’s position in the sky (low and near the horizon), you have the ability to better introduce it as a subject, or as a compliment to the subject in your shot.

Sun flares are easier to capture during the golden hours, and produces a much more dramatic effect on the final image.

Flaring occurs when the sun is either at or near the edge of the frame of your photo, and while in some situations it is unwanted (photographers typically use lens hood attachments to minimize these effects), flares can add mood and drama to a landscape shot.

So now that you’re aware of the wonderful effects of photographing during the golden hour, how do you go about shooting our landscape images during these times?

Settings

Your camera settings for shooting during the early mornings or late evenings are going to depend on your exact subject, but in general, since less light is getting to your sensor, a larger aperture is usually required.

You may also need to bump up your ISO setting to compensate for the lower amount of light. This will increase noise, but usually not to a noticeable point, and even then, there are steps in post-processing that can easily remove it.

Again, this all depends on what type of shot you are doing. If you’re looking at a long exposure capture, you would set your camera for a smaller aperture and lower ISO.

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Use a Tripod

As a landscape photographer you are always encouraged to use a tripod. Since generally you will be shooting in one static location for each set of shots, the tripod will allow you a wider range of apertures to work with. You always want your landscapes crisp!

Prepare

By definition, you have two hours each day to shoot for the best light, so your preparation for those times are even more critical than usual (you’re always prepared for any shoot, right?). If you’re planning on just taking your gear and spending time to set everything up on location, you run the risk of missing the shots you’re looking to get in the first place.

Either prepare before you leave, or allow extra time well before the golden hour to get everything settled. Scout the location ahead of time. Have your settings ready for the appropriate shots, and pack anything extra that you might need, including food, drinks or something warm to cover up with.

Keep Shooting!

While the scope of this article has been the golden hour, don’t forget that the magic doesn’t stop after the sun dips below the horizon. After this point, the blue hour begins, when colors and tones change even more rapidly and dramatically. Keep adjusting your settings, and shoot until there’s no light left to capture. You’ll be surprised at what you have when you finally get those images unloaded on your computer.

White Balance

While white balance is a setting on your camera, because of its overall effect on the atmosphere of your images, it warrants a little extra attention when shooting landscapes during golden hour. My recommendation is to take your camera off of AWB (automatic white balance) because the camera will attempt to neutralize the warmth of the image on this setting. Most DSLR’s have a cloudy or shade setting that will retain that color tone.

If you’re shooting RAW images, this is a step that can be adjusted in post-production.

Helpful Apps

Thankfully, there are several Smartphone apps that can also help your planning process. A search on the Apple app store and Google Play shop will provide no shortage of this kind of apps, although there a few that I’ve used that seem a bit more robust, and worth the price you’ll pay. These apps provide calculators that will let you see when the golden and blue hours occur in any location in the world, and also include calculations for exposure, depth of field, time lapse, and more.

PhotoPills – iPhone/iPad, $ 9.99
Golden Hour – iPhone/iPad, £1.49
The Photographer’s Ephemeris – iPhone/iPad, $ 8.99, Android, $ 4.99

Enjoy the Light!

Shooting at optimal times of the day is one of the easiest things you can do to improve your photography. Nothing else adds character, atmosphere, and dimension to your work so dramatically.

What other golden hour tips do you have to share? How do you apply these guidelines to your own photography? Be sure to join in the conversation below, and keep churning out those golden shots!

The post Tips for Creating Landscape Photos during the Golden Hour by Tim Gilbreath appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Where Did I Put That? Tips for Organizing Your Photos

21 Mar

In the interest of full disclosure, I must admit something. My photos are unorganized. By that, I mean terribly unorganized. Over the years, I’ve taken thousands and thousands of photos, all the while dumping them in folders automatically created and named by my computer’s default importing program. As such, I’d be hard-pressed to quickly find photos from a specific shoot Continue Reading

The post Where Did I Put That? Tips for Organizing Your Photos appeared first on Photodoto.

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4 Reasons Shooting at Sunrise and Sunset Will Help You Take Better Photos

10 Mar

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Perhaps the most important change you can make to improve your photography is to change the time of day you are shooting. It is as simple as that. Photos taken in the middle of the day all have problems that can be avoided if you photograph near sunrise or sunset. Photographers agree on very little, but they all seem to agree that the times around sunrise and sunset are the best for photography. In fact, many photographers go so far as to put their cameras away during the hours between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Getting up at dawn, or hanging around after sunset, is generally not convenient. It is no fun to get up well before sunrise, especially in the summer when sunrise comes early. But if you want to elevate your photography, that is how to do it.

You may have heard all this before, but in this article I will explain why, and show you some of the reasons why sunrise and sunset can help you take better photos.

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Reason #1: Avoid harsh contrast

The bright light of the midday sun creates harsh shadows in your photography. Nearly every object within your view will create harsh shadows. Obviously large objects like trees and buildings create such shadows, but it goes at lot further. When photographing a person, for example, you will likely encounter harsh shadows on their faces. Even something as small as grass or leaves will leave unsightly black shadows in your pictures.

Photographing near sunrise or sunset fixes this problem. At those times, the sun’s rays are coming from a more horizontal angle, which means that the rays have to pass through a lot more of the earth’s atmosphere before reaching you. That makes the light more diffused.

In addition, the times just before sunrise and after sunset don’t involve any direct rays at all. At those times you are dealing only with indirect rays of the sun. You will not have a problem with harsh shadows.

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Reason #2: Maintain tones within your camera’s dynamic range

In all outdoor photography you have to cope with the problem that the sky is invariably brighter than the foreground. Sometimes it is much, much, brighter. If you meter light based on the brightest part of your camera’s view, which is inevitably the sky, the shadows in your picture will end up as pure black. Conversely, if you meter light based on the foreground or shadows in your camera’s view, the brighter portions of your picture will be overexposed or even blown out (pure white).

For pictures taken during the middle of the day, this problem can be exacerbated. That is when the sky is at its brightest. If your foreground is not as bright, you are will have a problem where the scene is beyond the dynamic range of your camera.

When photographing around sunrise or sunset the sky is not quite as bright as it is when the sun is high in the sky. This cuts down the dynamic range your camera has to capture, so it is possible to capture the entire scene in full detail.

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Reason #3: Avoid the commonplace

You simply cannot take a unique picture by photographing the same places, at the same time, from the same angles as everyone else. If you want your pictures to stand out from the crowd, you need to do something different. Photographing at sunrise and sunset goes part of the way in giving you that something different.

Most people are used to seeing the world as it exists in the middle of the day, they are not used to seeing it at sunrise and sunset. A typical day will have 10 hours of midday lighting, but the sunrise and sunset last only a little while. Further, people often miss them entirely. People are usually sleeping at dawn, or if not, are getting ready for work and not focused on the sky.

By photographing at sunrise and sunset, you are showing your viewers something they don’t see all the time. It avoids the commonplace. It will make your pictures more interesting to your viewers.

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Reason #4: Capture the sky at its most vibrant

People often go to scenic locations to watch the sunrise or the sunset. There is a reason for that: because those are the times when the sky is at its most dramatic. As a photographer, that is the sky that you want to capture.

Skies at sunrise and sunset are full of color. The orange of the sun combines with the blue of the sky and creates interesting colors. When there are clouds in the picture as well, there can be a variety of different colors. Conversely, in the middle of the day, the sky is blue (if you are lucky, otherwise it is grey). By photographing at sunrise and sunset, you can capture those colors in your pictures. To make sure you are capturing the colors at their most vibrant, set your camera to meter off the sky and then underexpose a little bit.

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Conclusion

I hope this article explains the advantages of photographing around sunrise and sunset. It is one thing – and perhaps the only thing – that I can guarantee will improve your photography. But one final note to help you maximize the benefit, is that you should not arrive at your location at sunrise and/or leave at sunset. Rather, arrive about 45 minutes before sunrise and hang around at least that long after sunset. These periods when the sky is bright, but the sun is beyond the horizon, sometimes result in more dramatic images than the sunrise/sunset itself. I have often seen people pack up when the sun dips over the horizon, only to miss the most dramatic colors of the day.

I would also encourage you to check out the importance of photographing at these times for yourself. The next time you are on your favorite photo sharing website, look at your most-liked photos. Make a quick note of how many of them were taken at sunrise or sunset. My bet is that it will be a lot of them.

So if you want to take more dramatic and interesting photos, take them at sunrise or sunset. The good news is that it doesn’t cost you anything. You don’t have to buy any special gear. Yet this one change will make more difference than any new camera or lens.

The post 4 Reasons Shooting at Sunrise and Sunset Will Help You Take Better Photos by Jim Hamel appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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National Media Museum to display three of the world’s oldest photos

08 Mar

Three photographs taken by Joseph Nicephore Niépce, a Frenchman born in 1765, will soon be exhibited by the National Media Museum. These particular images, which their creator called ‘heliographs’, were taken during the 1820s, and are part of a set of 16 image located throughout the world. All three images are said to be amongst the earliest of photographs ever taken. Read more

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Yum! Ideas for Fun,Flavorful Food Photos

05 Mar

Taking photos of food is a tasty endeavor (especially if you get to stuff your belly afterwards).

But because food photos are so popular, it can sometimes be hard to get a shot that is not only appetizing but original.

So we’ve put together some unique food photo ideas with tips ranging from backdrops to dainty dishware. Whether you’re a foodie-photo pro or a nom-nom-photo novice, the results will be both yum and fun. Bon appétit!

5 Delish Ideas for Food Photography

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The Best Way to Delete Photos From Your Memory Card

01 Mar

When it comes to photography, we spend most of our time thinking about taking photos – lighting, composition, exposure, and posing. Then, once the photo is taken, we may start to think about post-processing, gently nudging the photo along until it becomes exactly what we’ve pictured in our mind’s eye. Once that’s accomplished, we do it all over again.

Back in high school and college, I shot film. I can vividly remember running out of film, and sometimes having to wait weeks until I was able to buy more. Our public high school relied heavily on donations of film, and sometimes when there wasn’t any left, our teacher would have us walk around campus with our pointer fingers and thumbs shaped into a rectangle, pretending to take photographs. Now that digital cameras are on the scene and we’re using memory cards in lieu of film, with the capability to erase images and write over them again, the number of photographs that we can take in any given week or month is nearly endless.

You may have noticed that I said, “nearly” endless, and that’s because memory cards do have a lifespan, and will not last indefinitely. That said, there are a few things that we can do to maximize the lifespan of our memory cards, including making sure that we are deleting our photos off the memory card in the most efficient manner possible. This isn’t something that’s talked about all that often, but when it comes down to it, it is really simple:

Less Desirable Ways to Delete

Deleting each photo individually through the camera by using the “Delete” or Trashcan Button

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Deleting all photos through the camera by using the “Delete All” option

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Plugging the camera into the computer, and dragging photos into the computer’s recycle bin and/or allowing your import software to delete the files from the card once they’re uploaded.

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Most Desirable Way to Delete

Using your camera’s Format function

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In the end, all of the above methods work toward the same end, in that they remove the images from your card. However, the first three ways to delete are actually more taxing to the memory card than using the card’s Format function. I’ve heard it explained like this:

Let’s pretend for a moment that your memory card has a shelf-life of 1,000 uses. Let’s say that you go out and take 500 photos, that’s 500 uses on your memory card. You then upload the photos to your computer, and then individually delete each photo using the delete button on your camera. Deleting each photo individually counts as another 500 uses on your card. So in all, you’ve just spent 1,000 uses of your memory card, leaving you with no uses left on that card.

Now, let’s pretend that you’ve uploaded your 500 photos, but instead of deleting them with your delete button, you use your camera’s Format function. Formatting works in a different way than deleting, and only deletes the directory files rather than the images themselves. This then allows the images to be overwritten the next time you take a picture. Because of this, formatting only counts as ONE use of your memory card, regardless of how many photos you’re deleting. So, in the scenario above, you’d have used only 501 of your memory card’s uses, as opposed to 1,000 with deleting manually. Certainly, memory cards available today will be able to handle far more than 1,000 uses, but the illustration still rings true – formatting your card causes less wear and tear on your memory card than other ways of deleting images.

Additionally, because formatting only deletes the directory file instead of the images themselves, images on a card that has been formatted are typically much easier to recover (if needed) than those that are deleted manually, assuming that you did not overwrite them by taking more photos. Not a bad trick to have up your sleeve in case of emergencies, am I right?

I’d also like to add that I have personally seen a difference in both buffering time of the card, and also a decrease in the amount of corrupted images/cards that I’ve come across since I’ve been formatting cards rather than deleting in some other way. I’m not sure whether there’s an actual scientific basis there, but it definitely seems related in my book, and it is now pretty rare that I delete even a single image in any way other than formatting.

So, how often should you format? Some people like to wait until their card is totally full, and then format. Personally, I like to format my card before each new photo session. It just makes sense to me to start fresh each time, and be able to upload everything on the card to one location. This is really a matter of personal preference as far as I’m concerned. The one hard and fast suggestion that I do have when it comes to formatting cards is simply to be sure to format the card in whichever camera body you plan to use it in next.

How do you typically delete images, and why?

The post The Best Way to Delete Photos From Your Memory Card by Meredith Clark appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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7 Uncommon Tips for Winter Sunrise Photos Near Water

26 Feb

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There are few things in photography that people love more than dreamy sunrise shots full of bold oranges, big suns, washing waters, and burnt horizons. The dawn of a new day is a spiritually significant event as our past misdeeds of yesterday are forgotten under the promise of fresh beginnings. Sunrise also affords us some of the best light to work with in photography.

However, if you live near the coast and you plan to get up early to take some sunrise shots that involve you being in or around rocks on the water’s edge, there are some key things you must remember, especially in the cold, winter months.

1. Set the alarm earlier than you think.

This is stage one. You’ve calculated that the sun rises at 6:00 a.m., you want to get there by 5:30 to set up, it takes you 10 minutes to get there, so you set the alarm for 5:10. But be honest, it never works like this does it? The alarm goes off at 5:10, it’s cold, you’re snug in bed, it’s dark outside, you were in the midst of a dream, and you roll back over. Missed sunrise. How often do you ever jump straight out of bed at 5:10 to take photos, in the midst of winter? By learning this mistake, I set the alarm for 4:40 then give myself three hits on the snooze button to take me to 5:10. It never fails (unless it’s cloudy!!)

2. Make sure you have shoes with spikes on the bottom.

Think about it – you’re an avid photographer who has set up a kit to your liking with lenses, filters, batteries and your camera. You put it in your bag, put your shoes on, head to the wet, rocky location then bammo, you fall over on the freezing, slippery moss. Either you or your bag gets wet, and neither is a desired result. There’s nothing scarier than trying to keep your bag on your back and out of the water as you slip around the rocks on ill-equipped shoes.

I have fisherman’s boots that cost $ 40. They have small metal spikes on the sole, perfect for getting across the rocks, and for scurrying to new locations quickly. They’re waterproof too. Alternatively, you could try the little clamp-ons that hikers use in icy conditions. They work well too, but your shoes will get cold and wet.

3. Use a head torch (headlamp).

The first time I brought mine I felt utterly ridiculous, like I was a miner heading down into the pits. Now, I wouldn’t dream of not having one. The convenience of having both hands free to see where you’re going, to open and close your bag, and set your camera up in the dark is without comparison. Especially if you are trying to get filters and holders attached to the ends of lenses.

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4. Have at least two lens cloths and other lens cleaners or pens.

Imagine this scenario: you are changing your lens out on the rocks and you put your cleaning cloth down to free your hands. There is a little bit of residue on the rocks so when you pick up your cloth and started wiping the lens, it gets coated in a film of goo. You may be able to clean the lens with different parts of the cloth (depending on the type of rock goo!) but it will likely leave most of the cloth dirty. Therefore, you will be unable to clean other lenses later on when they inevitably get hit by sea-spray.

How can I picture such a scenario? Sadly, I have lived it, and there is nothing worse than getting up early to a prime location, only to have your single cleaning cloth ruined before your shooting appetite has been satisfied, leaving you unable to do anything with other lenses that need cleaning. Now I always carry at least three cleaning implements in my bag.

5. Study the tides.

Ideally, you should know exactly what you want to shoot, so you can frame the shot before you go and know where the water will be. This is not always possible, but at least you should know what the tide will be at sunrise. You might go somewhere the day before and see a perfect shot in your head, only to return at dawn the next day and find those beautiful rocks covered in two metres of water. There’s no point setting the alarm for 4:40am if the subject you want in your shot is submerged like a sunken ship.

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6. Know where the sun rises. This may seem ridiculous – east you say! Well yeah, the sun rises in the east, but exactly where on the horizon will it rise for you? The angle changes every day. I once woke at 4:00 a.m. to get a shot in at sunrise only to realize after setting up that even my Sigma 10-20mm couldn’t get the sun and subject in my frame. East isn’t just east. Know exactly where the sun rises on the horizon in order to frame the shot you want.

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7. Mittens not gloves.

In the wintertime, near the coast, you need something to cover your hands. But not gloves. Mittens are those cute, little gloves that have all the tops of the fingers cut off. The very reason you need mittens is to keep the tips of your fingers free to play with the camera and to get everything set up. This is very difficult with padded, woolly gloves on. Also, don’t make the mistake of buying woollen gloves, then cutting the tops off yourself. This leaves threads hanging that get longer and longer every day, and more and more annoying.

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The joy of getting those early morning shots makes a perfect start to the day. Follow these tips and all you’ll have to worry about is framing that perfect shot.

The post 7 Uncommon Tips for Winter Sunrise Photos Near Water by Iain Stanley appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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How to Take Better Action Photos

25 Feb

141005 Semper Paratus 4022 There are many sports photographers. We generally hear about those who specialize in a specific genre of sports photography like motorsport, tennis, golf, or surfing.

If you are just starting out and want to gain some experience and build a portfolio, what can you do to take better action shots?

What separates a true sports photographer from an amateur?

A sports photographer will get the shot they want as they see it, of the action they need to report on, every time. Their ability to pick the correct exposure, composition, focus, and amount of blur in the background comes down to their knowledge and understanding of the elements covered below.

Know your equipment

Your camera, whether it is an entry level or top of the line DLSR, has the ability to take amazing action shots.

You need to take control of your camera so that you get the results that you want from it when you push the button. You will need to adjust the way your camera focuses, allow continuous focus tracking, set the focus point on your camera to be focusing on the right spot, and set your camera to take multiple frames per second. Controlling the shutter speed and aperture so that you can blur the background or freeze action, allowing you to get the shot you envisage.

Understand your sport

Before you even pick up your camera, you really need to understand the sport that you want to capture. You need to know where the action is happening, and when it’s likely to happen. You will also need to know what will make your pictures amazing in the eye of the competitor, or their sponsor, (your customers).

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With motorsports, for example, it may be a spot on the track where accidents happen or a corner that will show the skill level of the driver. You need to know which part of the racetrack the drivers use, and which angle would suit that section of track.

In understanding drag racing, I know that the moment the driver puts his foot down on the green light, the car will lurch forward and the front wheels will lift like this by using a fast shutter speed I have been able to freeze this action.

With surfing, it may be which wave in a set will deliver the best surfing and allow the rider to get the most out of the wave. You must be able to pick out which are the good surfers and which are the amazing surfers, just by seeing how they interact with the waves, how long they will stay up, and if they are doing tricks.

In short, you need to be aware of what is going on where the action is. This allows you to plan your photo so that you can adjust the composition to suit.

Compelling composition

I personally prefer an action shot where the athlete has space to travel into, making sure that he/she is the main focus of the image. With this in mind, picking the correct focus point so that objective is achieved may mean not using the centre focus point. By using a different length lens you can change your composition without having to move to another location. Longer lenses can get you too close to the action, which sometimes means you may miss what is happening around the athlete – so experiment with a few different focal lengths.

In this image I have used the right most focus point and given the rider room to “ride into” by panning and blurring the background. Thus, I have been able to make the rider stand apart from the crowd.

Make what’s important stand out

By setting your composition, you can then decide if you need to blur the background or make it part of the drama in the shot. You can do this by controlling the shutter speed; slowing it down to blur, speeding it up to freeze, panning with your subject, or by using a large aperture lens and shallow depth of field to blur the background.

Why blur the background at all?

Generally, you need to blur the background to separate the athlete or the subject from the background; ideally, they are the main focus of the shot. With spectator sports, the spectators in the photo may distract the viewer of the photo. By making them out of focus or blurring them with a panning motion, you make the athlete stand out.

By using a small number aperture I have been able to separate the rider from the crowd.

If you are going to use panning to blur the background, make sure that you have a focal point in the shot that is sharp. That spot needs to be the pivotal place in the photo. If it is an athlete for example, you usually need to make sure their face is sharp. With motorsports it could be one of the sponsor’s logos or the racing number, but could easily be the driver’s helmet. This is important as without one thing in sharp focis, it tends to be more of an abstract art piece than an action shot. As artistic as these blurry pans are, if the sponsors can’t see their logos or the competitors can’t see their faces, you may have a tough time selling the pictures.

Aperture priority versus shutter priority mode

With this in mind, you need to make a decision to either use aperture priority and a large aperture to blur the background, or shutter priority mode and slow down the shutter speed and pan to blur the background. If you are looking to do slow shutter speed panning, make sure you have taken enough sharp frozen images of the event before you practice this. At least that way you will have some images for your portfolio.

Now that you have your camera settings sorted, you need to anticipate when the action is going to happen. This would also include following the path of the athletes as they pass you. If you have set the shutter speed and picked your composition, you lastly need to use tracking focus.

Using continuous focus

Start focusing on your subject BEFORE they are in the right spot for the composition, and continue to keep tracking them after the shot. More unexpected action may happen after, so it’s best to be prepared to photograph it. Knowing how your camera will act, and react, when you push the button with shutter lag (the time between pushing the button and the picture being taken) and multiple frames per second, you can start to follow your subject well before you intend to take the picture. But be ready to shoot at any moment’s notice as the action happens.

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By continuing to shoot after “the shot” I caught the car hitting the ground and the sparks flying even though this was happening quite fast I didn’t use burst mode, instead I took every frame.

Burst mode

If you have the luxury of multiple frames per second, and lots of memory cards to fill, you could follow and just continuously shoot, then cull the images you don’t like. Memory cards are cheap, but is it the best use of your time? Both while at the event and after the event?

Photograph the whole event, not just one aspect

When you are going to an event to take pictures, plan it. Make sure you are aware of where you can stand and how that will affect your pictures. Change your locations to get a mixture of angles. Change your focal length to get a mixture of wide and long shots. Change your shutter speeds to get a mixture of freezing action and blurring the background.

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By using a mixture of vantage spots, you can get some very different angles of the same event.

Step by step checklist:

Make sure the camera is set to: Multiple frames per second (as high as it can be), continuous focus, the correct shutter speed or aperture setting
Set up your shot compositionally by using different focus points
Track your target for as long as you can before you take the picture
Keep tracking your subject after you have taken the shot, as there may be more action
Use the multiple burst modes sparingly – be decisive about what you want and take one or two shots either side

So what are you waiting for? Get out your manual, make the changes to your settings and take a few risks (with the settings of course) and push yourself to take better action photos.

‘s photography journey started in the late 1990’s when he bought a film camera and started motor sport in the mid 2000’s, published in various car magazines. He enjoyed capturing a mixture of the cars, and people. Contracting to an event company doing school formals, he worked on posing and getting people on side quickly. Building on the above he started No Green Square, teaching you how to get the best out of your camera.

The post How to Take Better Action Photos by Michael Coppola appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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