Filling deep shadows with artificial light has been a part of photo technique since the invention of flash powder in the 1880s. Synchronizing a handheld flash with ambient sunlight is a terrific way to soften shadows and create professional looking images. Synchro-sunlight or fill flash, two names by which it is often called, is used by many of the greatest Continue Reading
The post Synchronizing Your Flash with the Sun (Synchro-sunlight) appeared first on Photodoto.
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In 2018, Facebook announced its participation in the Data Transfer Project, a collaboration between tech giants Apple, Google, Microsoft and Twitter designed to make it easier for users of online services to move data securely and easily between those services.
Facebook is now getting the Data Transfer Project moving by announcing an open-source tool that lets you move all your Facebook photos to Google Photos. For now the tool is only available to some users in Ireland but should be available globally in early 2020.
Facebook also says the tool will work with other services which are likely Apple’s iCloud and Microsoft’s OneDrive.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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Sony has overtaken Canon and Nikon to claim the top slot for full-frame camera market share in Japan, according to BCN Ranking. Sony showed growth in the overall full-frame, APS-C and fixed-lens digital camera categories from November 2018 to October 2019, as well.
Ultimately, Sony saw its total full-frame camera market share in Japan increase from 31.6% to 38%, while Canon was bumped down to second place at 36% market share compared to last year’s 37.8%. Nikon came in at 24% of the full-frame market, a decrease from last year’s 29.1%.
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As the figure below shows, Sony dominated both unit sales (dark blue) and total value sales (light blue) across all three camera categories. Canon and Nikon were down across the board with the exception of a slight 6.6% full-frame unit sales increase from Canon over the past year.
Nikon saw the most severe decreases in unit and value sales across the board, experiencing more than a 30% drop in value sales in the APS-C market, among other things. In comparison, Sony experienced a more than 44% increase in value sales in the same category over the past year.
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BCN notes full-frame mirrorless and DSLR sales comprise of just 10% of the overall camera market, which is largely dominated by APS-C mirrorless and DSLR cameras.
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The company also notes that Canon and Nikon’s slow move into the full-frame mirrorless market has given Sony a headstart; only time will tell whether the company manages to hold its lead as competition heats up.
In 2018, Sony stated intentions of becoming the ‘top brand in the overall camera market,’ a goal it has made considerable progress in achieving. As DPReview reported in May, Sony took the #2 spot from Nikon in the interchangeable lens camera market last year with 23% of the market share (based on revenue).
Sony said at the time that it had claimed 24% of the overall global still camera market in its fiscal year 2018, an increase of 4% compared to its global market share in 2017. Meanwhile, Nikon’s struggles were reflected in its most recent quarterly financial report; the company revised down its Imaging Products revenue outlook for the fiscal year ending in March 2020 due to shrinking sales.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
The post Photographing Portraits with Classic Lenses (includes Example Images) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Matt Murray.
From the 1930s onwards, manufacturers around the world produced 35mm film camera systems with a huge array of interchangeable lenses. Some good, some bad, some legendary.
With the rise of digital in the early 21st century, much of this gear fell out of favor, and prices declined rapidly. But things soon turned around.
Classic lenses are now in big demand. This is not only due to the current renaissance in film photography but also due to the fact that many photographers love to shoot with these lenses on digital cameras as well.
In this article, I explain how you can shoot portraits with classic lenses on your digital camera, including how to find one, how to set your camera up, and what to expect from vintage glass. Why limit yourself to the lenses made by your camera manufacturer when there is so much good glass out there?
Three classic M42 mount lenses that can be used in digital photography. [L-R] Pentax Super Takumar 50mm f1.4, Helios 44 58mm f2, Meyer Optic Goerlitz Oreston 50mm f1.8.
This is a key question – why shoot portraits on classic lenses? There are a few reasons why I enjoy it.
Firstly, I love the different look that it gives my photos. They’re not better or worse than images taken with modern autofocus lenses. However, they certainly have a unique charm and character that you just don’t get from today’s ultra-sharp digital lenses.
Secondly, buying a vintage lens is a fantastic way of getting some quality glass in your kit on the cheap. Although prices have risen in recent years, you can still buy many amazing lenses for under $ 100 USD.
Finally, it’s a lot of fun to shoot with an older lens. I love to think about the images the lens has taken over the course of its lifetime, who has used it, and where it’s been. It’s also a point of interest – people often look puzzled and will go out of their way to find out what lens you’re using and where you got it.
Finding a classic lens is relatively straightforward. The first thing you could try is to ask friends and family if they have any old film photography gear. It’s quite possible that an old Pentax or Olympus film camera is lurking in their attic. With some luck, the lens (and camera) will be in a usable condition, and you will be able to shoot portraits with it.
If that avenue doesn’t produce any classic beauties for you, turn to eBay, Facebook marketplace, and other online markets to see what’s for sale.
Considering their optical quality, Super Takumar lenses are still a bargain despite rising prices.
Before you do this, do some research about which lenses you’d like to buy, and make sure that you can get an adapter to fit the lens to your digital camera.
Take care when reading the description of lenses online. Ideally, you want a lens that has clear glass, with no fungus or haze. Don’t worry too much about small amounts of dust – all lenses (especially vintage ones) will have dust in the lens, which doesn’t usually affect image quality too much.
Although I’ve said above that you should avoid lenses with fungus and haze, I have used lenses with plenty of fungi in, without having much of a noticeable effect on images. Still, it’s something you’re best to avoid. If you look at the images of the lenses posted in this article, there are plenty of spots of dust and marks on the lenses I’ve used, but with no noticeable effect.
A classic lens will not fit on to your digital camera as it is – you will also need to buy a lens adaptor. There is an adapter for almost every classic lens/digital mount combination.
Don’t just buy the cheapest one you can find; quality does matter here. If you’re not sure which brand to buy, ask around in Facebook groups to see what other people use and recommend.
The adapter I used for images in this article is the K&F Concept M42 to Fujifilm X adapter. I have two K&F Concept adapters – one for M42 mount and one for the smaller M39 mount.
Lens adapters are available for almost all classic lens to digital camera combinations. Pictured are M42 and M39 to Fujifilm X lens adapters.
Once you have your lens and adapter, you now need to set up your camera to shoot with it. The steps I have below are for my Fujifilm X-Series cameras. If you’re using another brand, ask in Facebook groups, or turn to Google to find out how you can do the same for your camera.
Firstly, you need to enable the “shoot without lens” option in the menu. If the camera doesn’t recognize the lens, it may not allow you to take any images at all, so this is a must.
Secondly, set the focal length of the lens you are using in the mount adapter setting. The camera doesn’t know which lens you are using, so it will take the value in here for the metadata for images. If you skip this step, it’s no big deal, but it certainly makes finding images later on a little easier in Lightroom. Also, remember to keyword your images on import, as you may have several classic lenses with the same focal length.
Now you’re all set to manually focus your classic lens on your digital camera.
In the vast majority of circumstances, yes. If you’re adapting a lens from one system to another, you’ll have to focus manually.
It may surprise you to know that in terms of the history of photography, autofocus lenses are relatively new. The first mass-produced autofocus camera was the Konica C35 AF point-and-shoot in 1977, and the first 35mm autofocus SLR, the Pentax ME F, was released in 1981.
Even after the arrival of this new technology, many professional photographers thought of autofocus as a gimmick and didn’t trust it until further advancements in the late 80s and early 90s.
If the thought of manually focussing on a portrait shoot alarms you, don’t worry. Digital cameras have amazing technology inside them that will help you.
I found this classic in a charity shop for $ 15USD.
Focus peaking is a technology that many cameras have to make manually focussing a lens easier. When this is enabled, the camera will highlight objects that are in focus with a color (typically red) as you look through the viewfinder.
As you rotate the lens back and forth, different objects will come in and out of focus. When shooting portraits, you rotate the lens until your subject’s hair and/or eyelashes highlight in red.
This technology helps to focus enormously, especially if, like me, your vision isn’t as good as it used to be. Other options to assist manual focusing in the Fujifilm X-Series line include digital split image and digital microprism.
To illustrate the types of portrait images you can take with vintage glass, I’ve used three different lenses for this article. I’ve used the Meyer Optik Gorlitz Oreston 50mm f1.8, the Pentax Super Takumar 50mm f1.4, and the Helios 44 58mm f2 lens.
All of them have the same M42 mount, a system of attaching a lens to a camera body originally designed by the Carl Zeiss company in the late 1930s.
M42 is a screw mount. To attach the lens to a lens adapter (or an M42 mount vintage camera), you rotate it around in a circle until it stops. Don’t overtighten it. This is quite different from many modern cameras which use a bayonet-style mount. Many legendary camera manufacturers have used M42 at some stage, including Contax, Pentax, Yashica, and Olympus.
I picked up this Meyer Optik Gorlitz Oreston in a bag of camera gear at a charity shop for $ 15 USD. As soon as I saw the zebra stripe pattern around the edge of the lens, I knew I had something special.
The Zebra stripes of the Meyer Optik Gorlitz Oreston 50mm f1.8, mounted with a K&F Concept adapter to my Fujifilm X-T2.
Meyer Optik produced this lens in their East German factory from 1960-1971. After this, the company was absorbed into the Pentacon group, and the name disappeared from lenses entirely.
A feature of this lens is its beautiful color rendition and distinct vintage look. It has a softer, dreamier overall look than other lenses, but it’s still sharp. Shoot wide open with this lens for beautiful, dreamy bokeh. It’s one of my favorite classic lenses.
Sarah in a field. This image shows the dreamy bokeh of the Meyer Optik Goerlitz Oreston 50mm f1.8 lens.
This is one of my favorite shots of my daughter, taken with the Oreston 50mm f1.8 lens.
This lens has a few dents but keeps on rocking! Super Takumar 50mm f1.4 mounted with a K&F Concept adapter to my Fujifilm X-T2.
In the 1960s, Pentax wanted to come up with a lens that would rival – or even outperform – Carl Zeiss glass. The result was the first version of the Super Takumar 50mm f1.4 lens with eight elements.
It’s been said that in the early days of its release, Pentax lost money each time they sold one. Perhaps this is why they soon switched to a cheaper seven-element version of the lens.
Manufacturing differences can make identification tricky, but I understand the lens that I have (pictured above) is a later version of the seven-element Super Tak. This version of the lens uses a radioactive element – Thorium – in its rear element. Despite their radioactivity, lenses with Thorium are not considered dangerous. Unless you grind one up and eat it, but that would be a terrible waste of a good lens.
Over many years, Thorium can cause yellowing in the glass. You will see from the images below – especially the first – that it has quite a warm look to it because of this issue.
The Super Tak (any version you can get your hands on) is a gem of a lens. Faster than other lenses in this review, it’s sharp, has pleasing bokeh and fabulous color rendition. If you don’t like the warm cast some of them have, due to the yellowing of the lens, you can always correct it in post.
At the beach. Shot wide open at f1.4 on the Pentax Super Takumar 50mm lens. Note the very warm look to the image caused by a yellowing of the lens over time.
Alyssa in Brisbane. Shot on the Fujifilm X-T2 with Super Takumar 50mm f1.4 Lens.
Helios 44 lenses are among the best-known vintage lenses that photographers have bought in recent years to use with digital cameras. Like many post-war Russian lenses, it’s a copy of an earlier German design, the Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 58mm f2.
An odd-looking combination – a silver Helios 44 58mm f2 lens mounted on my Fujifilm X-T2.
Helios 44 lenses were produced in several different factories in the former Soviet Union. My lens features a full chrome metal construction, but others are black anodized lenses that come in a variety of styles. It’s been said that no two Helios lenses are the same – each has its own unique character.
Take the photos below – the Helios lenses are most associated with swirly bokeh, but in one of the images below, my lens has quite a bit of soap bubble bokeh.
The Helios is sharp, fun to use, and has the most unique bokeh in the lenses I’ve featured in this article. When you use the lens for portraits, though, beware of the bokeh trap.
Bokeh is the name for the aesthetic quality of the out-of-focus parts of an image. Vintage lenses are known to generally have much more unique bokeh than modern lenses. Be careful not to fall into the bokeh trap though – remember that you’re shooting portraits, you’re not producing images just to show off the bokeh.
This image shows some of the swirly bokeh that the Helios 44 line of lenses is known for.
In the right circumstances, the Helios 44 lenses can exhibit incredible looking bokeh. Pictured above is the soap bubble bokeh due to the backlit foliage behind the subject.
I took the photos above at different locations, so to demonstrate what the lenses look like on the same shoot, I took them to the beach with my Fujifilm X-T2.
On this shoot, there are noticeable differences between the three, and I believe that I could pick each one if I hadn’t taken the images myself. However, the differences were not as big as I had imagined. All images were shot wide open (using the smallest f-number the lens has) with focus peaking turned on.
No prizes for guessing which lens this is! The Super Takumar has a warm cast to it.
Next up is the Oreston, the sea did not produce a very distinctive bokeh in this instance compared to other images I’ve taken with foliage in the background.
Almost surprisingly, this image taken by the Helios was my favorite all-around image in this test.
The Helios RAW image with some edits applied in Lightroom.
Using a vintage lens with your digital camera is something every photographer should try. It’s an easy way to give your images a very unique and characteristic look, including bokeh, which you just don’t get on modern lenses.
It’s also a fantastic way of adding some high-quality glass to your kit for a fraction of the price of modern equivalents.
An added bonus is that it can help you grow as a photographer – especially if you’ve only used autofocus lenses before. Using a classic lens will force you to manually focus and discover more about the incredible features of modern cameras, like focus peaking.
Has this article, Photographing Portraits with Classic Lenses inspired you to try classic lenses with your digital camera? If you’ve already used classic lenses in your photography, which ones were your favorites? Tell us in the comments below.
The post Photographing Portraits with Classic Lenses (includes Example Images) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Matt Murray.
The post Why You Should Photograph Like a Movie Director When You Travel appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.
Part of the movie director’s job is to visualize the screenplay. They must imagine how the story will be told visually. The fulfillment of this task depends entirely on the director’s creative expression.
Travel photographers often seek to tell a story with their pictures. Doing this can enhance the documentation of their journeys. This can be helped by using some techniques movie directors use to achieve their goals. One of the most effective methods of clear visual storytelling is to incorporate three different types of photograph:
I often encourage photographers who take part in our photography workshops to imagine they are a location scout for a movie. Alternatively, think like a reportage photographer working for a magazine editor.
Task yourself with capturing a range of images. Aim to portray each different travel location you visit clearly. One of the best ways to do this is including wide, medium, and close-up photos. You want people who have never been where you are to form a clear picture of the location. What it looked like and what the atmosphere there felt like.
Including only wide-angle photos gives an overall impression, but misses the details. Close-ups could be taken anywhere and will lack a sense of location. Medium photos can show some action and some amount of detail. Often they will not provide a broader awareness of the place.
© Kevin Landwer-Johan
Seek to include as much relevant detail about the location as you can. In movies, this is known as an establishing view.
Pick places to stand where you can see a lot of what interests you about the place. Think about what is unique or iconic in this area. Include these elements in your pictures.
© Kevin Landwer-Johan
In the photo above, I wanted to include some of the hand carts the porters at Muang Mai Markets in Chiang Mai use. They are very recognizable as part of daily life there. By incorporating a few of them in this wide photo, I have helped emphasize the location. People who’ve visited this market will more easily recognize it.
People who haven’t been there will get a clear impression these wire baskets on wheels are very much part of the place.
© Kevin Landwer-Johan
Capturing an effective wide photo when there’s limited space to work in can be challenging. Sometimes you’ll need to put on your widest lens and back yourself into a corner.
You don’t always need to capture the entire scene. When you can, try and include a feature in your photo. In the picture above, I composed it focusing on the vendor in red and included the street in front of her stall.
© Kevin Landwer-Johan
Looking for an overhead vantage point you can stand on is often helpful, if you can find one. Getting up above the location provides an interesting alternative perspective.
Medium photos will show more general action, but not necessarily give an idea of the broader location. Typically, these compositions will feature one main element and some surroundings.
© Kevin Landwer-Johan
This could be the entrance of a building and some of the frontage, but not the whole structure. It might be a car parked in the street, filling most of the frame and giving little clue as to where it is. It may be a vendor selling something at a market, but it could be a market anywhere.
This type of photo helps build a narrative. To make photos with the most meaning, concentrate on what appeals to you. Think about why, and capture that aspect as best you can in your photos.
© Kevin Landwer-Johan
Depending on the location you are covering in your travel story, you may want to include more medium photos than wide or close-ups. Medium compositions include enough detail and one central focus. They are a balance between wide photos with lots of general information and close-ups which include plenty of detail.
© Kevin Landwer-Johan
People often omit or take too few close-up photos when they travel. Close-up compositions can provide so much information that can be glossed over in wide and medium photos.
Again, look for what you find most attractive and photograph those things. This way, your pictures will contain more meaning and feeling.
During the workshop sessions we have at the local markets in Chiang Mai, many people love to get close-ups of chilis. I think it might have something to do with them being such a major ingredient in Thai cuisine as well as their lovely shape and color.
© Kevin Landwer-Johan
Getting in tight to your subject, you can often find wonderful patterns. You can also isolate color and make your entire composition a single hue.
© Kevin Landwer-Johan
Does focal length matter when you photograph like a movie director when traveling? Not so much. I often use my beloved 35mm f/1.4 lens for wide, medium and close-up photos. I don’t often carry a lens longer than my 105mm. It’s all a matter of where you stand and how close you get.
Both of the close-up photos above I took with my 35mm lens, as were a number of others I’ve used to illustrate this article. Don’t be constrained by the norms. You can use a long lens to capture a wide scene. Sometimes this works particularly well because a longer lens compresses perspective more. This can create a sense of place in a different way than a wide-angle lens will.
If you’re in a tight spot where’s there’s not much space to back up, you will often need a wide lens. You can also use a wide lens for medium photos. Just get in closer. This will produce more intimate photos than you’ll capture using a longer lens. It also adds character to your image selection.
Next time you’re taking a journey, or even photographing your kid’s birthday party or soccer game, photograph like a movie director by thinking about these three types of photos. Cover the event or location as best you can by incorporating a good mix of them into your final selection. Doing this, you’ll be narrating your visual story in a clear and interesting manner.
Do you photograph like a movie director when you travel or do any type of photography? Do you have any tips or stories you’d like to share? Please do so in the comments.
The post Why You Should Photograph Like a Movie Director When You Travel appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.
The post Photoshop Adjustment Layers Explained and How to Use Them (Part 1) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Nisha Ramroop.
If you use Photoshop, you probably already know that layers are a great non-destructive way to edit. Within the realm of layers, there exists a group of very useful editing tools called Adjustment Layers that allows for easy editing of your images. As with most Photoshop tools, there are several ways to achieve the same result. When you use Photoshop adjustment layers (as with other layer types), you can make changes, save it as a Photoshop file (PSD) and undo/change it many years later. Since no pixels are destroyed or changed, your original image stays intact. Let’s take a look at the basics of using Photoshop Adjustment Layers.
There are two ways to access Photoshop Adjustment Layers.
1. To access via the Layers Menu; choose Layer->New Adjustment Layer, and choose one of the many adjustment types (which are expanded upon below).
2. To access via the Layers Panel; click on the half black/half white circle at the bottom of the Layers Panel, and choose the adjustment type you want to work with.
Brightness and Contrast allow you to make simple adjustments to the brightness and contrast levels within your photo. When you adjust brightness, the overall lightness (or darkness) of each pixel in your frame is changed. To increase a photo’s tonal values and increase the highlights, slide the Brightness to the right. To decrease a photo’s tonal values and increase the shadows, slide the Brightness to the left.
Contrast, however, adjusts the difference between the brightness of the elements in your image. Thus, if you increase brightness you make every pixel lighter, whereas if you increase contrast you make the light areas lighter and the dark areas darker.
The levels tool adjusts the tonal range and color balance of your image. It does this by adjusting the intensity levels of the shadows, mid-tones, and highlights in your image. Levels Presets can be saved and then easily applied to further images.
Of note, if you use the Image menu to open the levels tool (Image->Adjustments->Levels) a separate layer will not be created and the changes will be committed directly (destructively) to your image layer. Thus, I recommend using the Adjustment Layers menu (as shown above) to access this very useful tool.
While the Levels adjustment allows you to adjust all the tones proportionally in your image, the Curves adjustment lets you choose the section of the tonal scale you want to change. On the Levels graph, the upper-right area represents the highlights, while the lower-left area represents the shadows.
Use either of these adjustments (levels or curves) to correct your tone when your image’s contrast is off (either too low or high).
The Levels Adjustment works well if you need to apply a global adjustment to your tone. To apply more selective adjustments, you are better off using Curves. This includes adjustments to just a small section of the tonal range or if you only want to adjust light or dark tones.
When you think of exposing an image properly, you are concerned with capturing the ideal brightness, which will give you details in both the highlights and shadows. In Photoshop Adjustment Layers, the Exposure Adjustment has three sliders that adjust Exposure, Offset and Gamma.
Use the Exposure slider to adjust the highlights of the image, the Offset slider for the mid-tones and the Gamma to target the dark tones only.
Use the Vibrance Adjustment Layer to boost the duller colors in your image. The great thing about increasing vibrance is that it focuses on the less-saturated areas and does not affect colors that are already saturated.
Vibrance adjusts only the duller colors in an image
Look at the difference in the greens between this image and the one above. Saturation adjusts all the colors (and tonal range) in an image.
Hue and Saturation, allows you to change the overall color hue of your image, as well as how saturated the color is.
You can change the hue (color) of your entire image by keeping “Master” selected in the dropdown (this is set by default). Alternatively, you can pinpoint the color you would like to change the hue of. You can choose from Reds, Yellows, Greens, Cyan, Blues or Magentas.
In addition to adjusting the obvious hue and color saturation of your image, this Photoshop Adjustment Layer allows you to adjust the lightness of your entire image as well as work with specified colors. Keep in mind that changing the overall saturation of an image affects your tonal range.
Use the Hue Adjustment to get creative
The Color Balance Adjustment layer is used to change the overall mixture of colors in an image and works well for color correction.
Color Balance adjusted for the mid-tones to include more red
You first need to select either Shadows, Midtones or Highlights, to choose the tonal range you want to change.
Check the Preserve Luminosity box to preserve your luminosity values (brightness or darkness) and maintain the tonal balance as you change the color in your image. Move your slider toward the color you want to increase and away from the color you wish to decrease.
As the name implies, the Black and White adjustment layer allows you to easily take your images to a grayscale version or apply a color tint entirely.
There are many ways to achieve black and white image processing. The Black and White Photoshop Adjustment Layer is one of the better ones. It allows you to lighten or darken specific color ranges to enhance your black and white conversion. Example: If you want the blues of your color image to stand out more when converted to black and white, simply toggle that slider. You can add more or less contrast by making particular colors lighter or darker.
1. When you choose the Black & White Adjustment Layer, you get a default black & white conversion 2. You can tweak the image based on selective colors. In this example, the blues and yellows were adjusted 3. You can apply a tint (of any color) over the entire image by ticking the Tint box and selecting the color you wish to overlay.
Important Note: While most of these adjustments are available under the Image menu (Image->Adjustments), using them from there does not work the same. The main difference is that these are applied directly to the image (destructively) as opposed to when done under Adjustment Layers. When done under Adjustment Layers, you can turn the adjustment on and off by selecting and deselecting the “eye” in the layers panel.
Photoshop Adjustment Layers are a great group of tools that allow you to smartly edit your image in a non-destructive way. Your original pixels are preserved, so you are able to come back and change your edits years later. Thus, they give you the power to undo easier and work more efficiently.
Photoshop Adjustment Layers group together the most common editing tasks, along with a few others to help you bring your images to life.
In Part 2, we will explore some other tools in the Adjustment suite.
Share with us in the comments your favorite adjustment tool and how you use them.
The post Photoshop Adjustment Layers Explained and How to Use Them (Part 1) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Nisha Ramroop.
The post 6 Ideas for Creative Funfair and Amusement Park Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Charlie Moss.
When the nights draw in its time for funfair and amusement park photography. When a fair comes to town, it’s an opportunity to photograph something new and vibrant for your portfolio. The bright lights, constant movement, and enthusiastic crowds provide endless photographic opportunities throughout the evening.
My favorite time to photograph the funfair is during the blue hour – that hour or so before night truly falls. It creates an incredibly dramatic backdrop for the lights and colors that you’re going to photograph.
It’s a good idea to get on location an hour or more before the scheduled blue hour so that you can plan your route through the attractions, work out what looks interesting to shoot, and even start to plan some compositions.
But what about the actual process of taking the photos? How do you decide what to shoot and how you’re going to take the images?
There’s a real risk when shooting funfair rides that they’re going to look static and very unimpressive. This usually happens because your shutter speed is too short, and so the action is frozen without any sense of movement.
Lengthening your shutter speed up to half a second or more can lend a real feeling of action and excitement to your funfair and amusement park photography. But don’t forget that you’ll want to ideally put your camera on a tripod so that the rest of your shot stays clear and in focus!
It’s my preference to use shutter priority mode for this kind of image. Each ride will be traveling at a different speed, so you’ll need to adjust as you move from shot to shot in order to get the most dynamic images.
The story doesn’t stop at the rides – it’s going on all around you! Take a step back from focussing on the thrill-seeking action to see what the people on the ground are doing.
Almost everyone at the funfair will make a great subject, and they’ll be bathed in gorgeous, atmospheric light from the rides and stalls. Take some time to watch the action and see where people naturally stop and do interesting things.
Look for great compositions and stand yourself in the perfect place to capture people enjoying their environment. Be ready to capture fleeting emotions and interesting behavior.
You might want to use a shallow depth of field to make your background less distracting. Getting everything in focus means there is more competing for your viewer’s attention.
At any funfair you go to, there will be at least a dozen other photographers who are also looking for a great shot. You’re not in competition with them, of course, but it’s always nice to come home with a unique photograph.
Once you’ve got a ‘safe’ shot (you know, the kind of image you often see posted online after the funfair), challenge yourself to see the same scene from a unique angle.
Here are some ideas to get you thinking:
The bright lights of the funfair provide an opportunity to try out techniques that you wouldn’t traditionally associate with this kind of photography. It’s a great time to experiment and see what works for an alternative take on funfair and amusement park photography.
The shot above was taken using ICM (intentional camera movement) techniques. A long exposure combined with moving the camera can create an abstract image with a painterly feel.
You could also perhaps try zoom bursts for a different kind of dynamic action. Or have a go at making custom bokeh shapes to convey different messages in your photographs. Never stop experimenting – you don’t have to show anyone the shots if they don’t work!
Funfairs are a fabulous riot of color, but sometimes that’s not what we want in our photography. If a shot just seems too intense and busy, it’s always worth seeing if a black and white conversion works.
When you’re deciding if a photograph is a good candidate for black and white conversion, there are a few things that you want to keep in mind. Your shot should have good contrast between light and dark areas so that the image doesn’t end up flat and lifeless.
Black and white images also often rely heavily on composition for their impact, so make sure that your subject is both interesting and well-placed in the frame.
Make sure that you experiment with different color temperatures during the black and white conversion too. The nature of the colorful and changeable lights at the funfair means that some ‘recipes’ for post-processing will work better than others.
The funfair doesn’t disappear during the day. Instead, it looks completely different. Taking your camera to the funfair during the day can open up a whole different set of possibilities to shoot.
Instead of photographing the movement and excitement of the rides, try to capture the time when the fair workers are setting up ready for the day. Look around at the colors too – they’re very different from the colors you see at night once the sun has gone down!
This would be a great time to think about approaching some of the attraction holders and asking if you can shoot their portraits. And if you do this during the day, they’ll remember you when you go back in the evening, perhaps even posing for you again during a quiet moment. (Remember to get their details so that you can send them the picture.)
No matter your level of experience, there’s something for everyone when it comes to funfair and amusement park photography. If you’re a beginner photographer, then taking a tripod and shooting long exposures is a great way to try night and long exposure photography for the first time.
If you’re more experienced as a photographer, then a whole world opens up with candid shots, portraits, and experimenting with creative angles and techniques.
Have you done any funfair and amusement park photography recently? Show us your pictures in the comments!
The post 6 Ideas for Creative Funfair and Amusement Park Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Charlie Moss.
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Whether you’re photographing wildlife at Yellowstone or your kids sledding at the neighborhood park, winter presents a lot of great photo opportunities. However, winter also has its own challenges due to the short days, cold weather and – in places like Seattle – a fair bit of rain. On the next few slides, we’ll take a look at some important gear to consider as you head out for your winter photography adventures.
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This one should be pretty obvious. If you’re shooting in very cold weather – especially when handing metal lenses or other gear – you’ll want to keep your hands warm. Otherwise, your camera will be about as useful as a brick in your numb, unresponsive fingers. Typical gloves are usually a poor match for photography as they limit dexterity, but there are some good options for photographers.
Look for gloves or mittens that fold back to expose your fingertips. These facilitate short periods of exposure to the cold without having to remove your gloves completely, and you can uncover just one or two fingers while keeping the rest of your hands insulated. Great options include gloves from Vallerret (pictured), Freehands and The Heat Company.
Sometimes, a pair of lightweight or liner gloves are all you’ll need, but not all liners are created equal. Look for gloves designed to work with a capacitive touchscreen, which will allow you to use your camera’s touch controls as well as other electronic devices like a smartphone. We like RucPac’s professional tech gloves, but there are probably lots of options at your local outdoor store as well.
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Hand warmers are obviously designed to do a good job of warming your hands, but they’re good for other things as well. For example, I find them effective at keeping the non-photographer who’s stuck outside with me a bit more patient while I get that one last shot before heading inside (yeah, right…). Of course, hot chocolate liberally spiked with Bailey’s Irish cream seems to help as well, but your mileage may vary.
One of my favorite tricks is to gaff tape a hand warmer to the barrel of a lens. This can be useful when shooting in an environment where you’re at risk of dew or frost forming on the front lens element as the temperature drops. I’ve used this technique when photographing time-lapse sequences of the night sky or the aurora borealis. Sometimes, just a bit of warmth is all you need to avoid a ruined sequence.
Chemical hand warmers like those from HotHands (pictured) can be found everywhere from your favorite online outlet to the local hardware store. If you cringe at using disposable hand warmers, check out HotSnapZ reusable hand warmers, the EnergyFlux Enduro rechargeable warmer from Human Creations or the Zippo Hand Warmer which heats catalytically to produce flame-free heat.
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Many cameras today include weather sealing to keep out the elements. However, the fact that you’ve got weather sealed equipment that doesn’t necessarily mean you want to get your camera soaking wet, despite all those manufacturer videos showing cameras getting sprayed by a garden hose.
Camera rain covers have been around for a long time, and while they may not be quite as necessary as they used to be, it’s still nice to have one when shooting in a complete downpour. You can find a variety of commercial models from companies like Think Tank Photo and Ruggard (pictured). There are lot of great DIY hacks as well – a hotel shower cap or plastic shopping bag with a few rubber bands can work miracles. It’s good to have one of these stashed somewhere if you’re shooting in a rainy place. You know, like Seattle.
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Other than a camera and lens, one of the largest, coldest objects many of us carry around in the winter is a tripod. If you’ve ever used a tripod with bare hands in really cold weather, particularly and aluminum model, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Of course, one solution is to use gloves. But there’s another solution as well: leg wraps. (For your tripod’s legs – not yours. That said, I make no judgements about fashion.)
Some tripods come factory equipped with leg wraps. However, if your tripod arrived, ummm… naked, a set of LegCoats (pictured) from LensCoat.com will run you about $ 50. Your hands will appreciate them.
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Cameras operate pretty well in cold weather, but even the best can be susceptible to power loss from cold batteries. In fact, with more photographers moving to mirrorless cameras our dependence on batteries is arguably greater than it was with DSLRs.
To keep shooting in the coldest conditions, consider some cold weather best practices for your batteries. Keep reserve batteries in your pocket so they stay warm rather than going into a deep freeze in your bag. When removing a battery that’s been in the camera for a while, consider putting it back in your pocket (a different one) for a few minutes to warm it up a bit. You may discover it has a fair amount of power left once it’s back to a normal temperature.
Finally, if you’ve recently switched from a DSLR to a mirrorless camera, consider picking up a couple extra batteries before a big winter trip. Some newer models get impressive battery life, but they still require more power than most DSLRs.
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Winter brings with it short days and long nights. Why not take advantage of it by doing some night sky photography? When planning night shots, it helps to know things such as in what direction the Milky Way will rise, what time it will be visible, or even just the phase of the moon. There are a lot of apps to help you with this; I recommend Sky Guide for iOS (pictured) or Star Walk 2 for Android.
If you live far enough north to see the aurora borealis (the northern lights), consider downloading an app like Aurora Forecast Pro (iOS, Android) which can alert you when conditions are such that you might be able to see the aurora from your location. All it takes is a burst of solar activity for the aurora to be visible at lower than usual latitudes, including northern areas of the continental US.
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Zip-lock bags are a great all-around utility. If it’s wet outside, they keep gear dry. If your gear gets wet you can put it inside a bag with a desiccant to dry it out. A large zip-lock can even be adapted to serve as a rain cover for your camera.
However, one of the best winter uses for zip-lock bags is transferring equipment between cold and warm environments. If you’ve been out shooting in frosty temperatures and walk into a warm building with any humidity, you may find water vapor condensing on your equipment. Instead, seal your gear inside a zip-lock bag before going inside and let it equilibrate to room temperature for at least 30 minutes. This makes it less likely that you’ll need the next item on our list.
Oh, right. Don’t use the same bag that you used for pasta sauce. I always forget that part.
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When camera gear gets wet on the outside we usually dry it off and keep going. However, if you make the mistake of getting moisture inside your gear, as may happen when you walk from a cold to a warm environment, you’ll need something other than a towel or microfiber cloth to get rid of the moisture.
When that happens – assuming you didn’t actually drop your whole camera into an ice-covered pond – silica gel beads, which acts as a desiccant, come to the rescue. Put the gear, along with a bunch of beads, into a zip-lock bag and seal it up. It may take some time, but eventually your gear will dry out. Silica beads can be purchased in bulk or in packets. In a pinch and don’t have silica beads? Use instant white rice instead.
Silica gel beads can often be found at hardware stores, but if you have trouble finding them locally there are lots of options on Amazon.
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While not – strictly speaking – photography equipment, a headlamp can be one of the most useful accessories when the short winter days get dark. Since most cameras don’t have illuminated buttons a headlamp is a great way to see them, along with your other gear, without giving up one hand to hold a flashlight. Consider a model that includes a red light to better preserve your night vision while working.
A headlamp should probably be part of your winter kit anyway, just in case you get stuck somewhere after dark; I keep one in my pack at all times. If you’re not sure where to start check out options from companies like Petzl, Black Diamond, Princeton Tec or NiteCore (a company that, oddly enough, recently announced plans to manufacture full frame cinema lenses).
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This one applies to people whose winter photography takes them into the backcountry, away from roads, or anywhere else that might be inaccessible or cut off from mobile phone service. If you’re that kind of person and you don’t want to become the next Aron Ralston, it’s a good idea to carry a personal locator beacon (PLB) like the SPOT Satellite Messenger or Garmin InReach. With many PLBs it’s now possible to communicate with someone remotely, and in a real emergency they can be used to set off a search and rescue by local authorities. It’s like insurance – you hope you don’t need it, but if you do you’re glad to have it.
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Finally, it’s not frozen everywhere in winter. In some places – Seattle comes to mind – it basically means a lot of rain, which is why our sample galleries often look grey enough to be mistaken for Log video footage this time of year. One simple technique to keeping rain off your camera and lens is to go old school and use an umbrella. “But, wait!” I hear you say, “I need both hands to use my camera.” I like to secure an umbrella to my pack so it just hovers above me. I’m sure it works better with some packs than others, so your mileage may vary on this one.
Hopefully, I don’t need to tell you where to buy an umbrella, but before you do that let me suggest acquiring a used umbrella instead. Go to the Lost and Found desk at just about any large venue or destination and tell them you lost a black umbrella. Chances are good they’ll bring out a box with a couple dozen to choose from. As you drive away in your 8-passenger SUV you’ll have the joy of knowing that in some small way you’re helping to save the planet.
Alternatively, you could just get the Nubrella (pictured).
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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Sony APS-C shooters received some good news this summer in the form of two new E-mount lenses: the 16-55mm F2.8 and 70-350mm F4.5-6.3. Covering a 105-525mm equiv. range, the latter offers powerful reach for crop-sensor Sony cameras. We took to the high seas (okay, we rode a public ferry) to test it out on the mainland and beyond.
See our Sony 70-350mm F4.5-6.3
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Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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Bright, colorful and entirely unpredictable – shooting with UV lights and fluorescent materials makes for some incredible imagery. Take a look at sample images from this week’s DPReview TV episode. Maybe you’ll be inspired to set up a science experiment like this on your own!
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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