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Tips for Great Lighting for Pet Photography
Pet photography is both challenging and extremely rewarding. You may really enjoy taking pictures of your own pets but if you apply some of the general rules that apply to all pet photography with studio lighting, you can really help you up your game.

The key to all pet photography is to get what appears to be an emotional connection with the animal being photographed. If you don’t do that, all the photographs will look more like snapshots and less like portraits.

Upping your game.

The Setup

You do not need to be huge space but you do need some room to work. Ideally, a studio setup includes:
- Lighting
- A backdrop
- Flooring
- Elevated furniture or a platform
- Remote triggers
You will need enough space to get in front of the dog or cat such that the backdrop fills the background. You also need to consider that animals move and will not stay still in a very small confined area. Ideally, you need at least about 10 feet wide by about 25 feet depth. You will also need some space between your subject and the backdrop.

This arrangement will accommodate most pets except larger dogs. Large dogs need a lot more space. The larger they are, the more space you need. You also need to think about what they will be stepping on and if their paws are clean. Seamless paper is a great backdrop but is it not a great material for animals to step on as they leave footprints.

Setups for pet photography can be just this simple.

Be Prepared for Accidents

With any pet photography, you have to anticipate accidents. Appropriate cleaning supplies are a must. Be prepared for both #1 (urine) and #2 (feces) accidents. Dogs are much worse than cats. Older dogs tend to have fewer accidents than younger dogs, while puppies frequently have accidents.

If you are dealing with multiple animals (at different times), you need to also consider cross-contamination control measures. Good antiseptic cleaners with some bleach will work well. You will need cleaners with enzymes to break down pet urine for the occasional territory markers. Harder surfaces are easier to clean than soft surfaces.

Backdrops

Backdrops are useful and you can get creative with what you use. Seamless paper is a great option but you will go through it relatively fast and animals that walk on seamless paper will often scare themselves with the noise from the paper moving.

You also need to consider what the animals will stand or sit on. Melamine surfaces are great for flooring options but some animals don’t like being on melamine and the seams may need to be edited out in post-production if they are too visible.

Toys and treats for cats and dogs.

Equip your space with lots of animal-specific toys and treats available and ready to reach. Cats and dogs are not interested in the same types of toys or treats. Always ask if an animal has allergies before giving them any treats or better yet, ask the owner to bring some treats that their pet likes.

Camera Equipment

Most modern digital camera equipment will work for pet photography but you need to think about a few things.

Ideally, your camera needs to focus fast, preferably with a reliable continuous autofocus ability. If you are using strobes, you will be focusing under lower lighting conditions than the eventual shot. Slow focusing or inability to shoot quickly will mean you miss the shot or have lots of images out of focus.

You have limited time, so you need to be cognizant of your animal. In general, you will need a wider lens (you should probably start with a fast zoom lens), particularly if you are using a smaller space but wider lenses can mean your image is wider than your backdrop. Long lenses will compress features but unless you have an assistant to help wrangle the animal, you will likely need to be close enough to reach the animal to do it yourself.

Basic camera gear for pet photography – camera, flash, and triggers.

Lighting is key and unless you are looking at using continuous (LED) lighting, you will also need a reliable way to trigger your lights. In your space, you should be able to control your lighting to get the desired effect. If you are using strobes or speedlights, you need a way to trigger the flashes.

Radio controls (most expensive option) are significantly easier to use than either optical slaves (speedlights) or cables (tripping hazard). Make sure you are familiar with your equipment before the animal to be photographed shows up.

Basic Rules for All Pet Photography

There are a few basic rules for pet photography that apply to all types not just in the studio, but become more important when you have pets in your space. You generally have more control over your environment in the studio. Because you are in your own space, you can plan to address each item for the animal before they arrive and adapt your environment for the particular requirements of each animal.

Be Calm

Calm person = calm dog.

Relax, pets feel your energy. If you are nervous or talk too much, they will feel it and become nervous as well. If you are calm, they will be calmer (NOTE: I did not say they would be calm).

Never assume a dog or cat will be calm, but you don’t want to make it more difficult for you for the pet. They can often be scared or anxious about new surroundings or that machine you keep putting up to your face between you and the animal.

Whatever you do, don’t yell or strike at the animals. They don’t speak languages you easily understand. Make sure you understand the warning signs from animals when they are nervous. With dogs, yawning is often a sign of anxiety and can be a warning just as it is with low growling. With cats, ears back is usually a sign of a cat feeling quite threatened.

Older animals tend to be calmer.

Get to Their Level

It is really important for all pets, no matter what size and shape, that you get down to their level. You can take a few different approaches to this but in the end, you need to find a way to be at the eye level (not below) of the pet you are photographing.

Many beginning photographers take pictures of their pets from a standing position and after looking at their results, they can’t figure out why they are unsatisfied with their images. Getting to eye level is a relatively universal requirement for all animal photographs, not just for pets.

Get down to their level.

Getting to their level can either mean you go down to their eye height or they get up higher, closer to your height. The best thing to do is to get down and dirty at their level, particularly with larger animals.

But with smaller animals, you can also bring them up to a higher level with ottomans, tables, and chairs. With higher surfaces, you then need to worry about wrangling the animal so they don’t fall or jump off the table or chair. Puppies and kittens will often fall off tables.

Get Their Attention and Their Eyes

In order to connect with an animal, you need to be able to see their eyes and in particular the catchlights in their eyes. No eye contact means no connection, but you don’t only need the animal staring at you.

Animal eyes are shaped differently than human eyes so the catchlights will have a slightly different appearance than those in people’s eyes. There are two schools of thought regarding pet eye catchlights (i.e. one versus two catchlights). In human portraiture, typically it is taboo to have two catchlights in the eyes, but some pet photography works well with two catchlights because of the different eyeball shape.

Having two catchlights in some pets eyes, like this little kitty, is okay.

Some pets may watch you when you photograph them but most don’t. Eye contact can be aggressive to them. In addition, as soon as you put the machine (camera) up to your face, you will no longer be visible to them. As soon as your face disappears, usually so does the animal’s attention. Getting an animal’s attention is usually a function of the type of animal.

For cats, laser pointers, toys, and strings can help focus their attention, treats less so. Some cats also will be focused on treats but this usually shouldn’t be your first choice. For dogs, squeakers, toys, and treats are always a good approach, so is making strange noises. But don’t give them the toy unless you want it in every shot. Again use treats as the last resort but they work well with many, but not all, dogs.

Different animals are motivated by different attention-getting devices. Treats will get them to move and often makes for interesting action shots, although I find treats work better for dogs than for cats. Remember to check for allergies before giving treats. Always use very small sized treats otherwise the animal will fill up on your treats and you will lose their attention.

Editor’s note: An even better idea is to get the owner to bring some treats that their pet likes, and which they approve of giving to their animal.

Move Quickly

All pets have a limited attention span, typically 15 minutes is the maximum time you’ll get from start to finish. It is best to move quickly and try to get your best photographs early in the shoot because as time passes, the attention-getting-object, toy, or treat will wear thin and they will become disinterested.

Planning is the best way to set up and get the shot the way you want. So plan your shoots and think about how to best highlight the animal. Props sometimes work, like baskets for cats (above) or feather boas for dogs (below).

Keep the Speed Up

You need to set your shutter speed to something relatively quick. If you are using strobes or speedlights, you will need to use the best speed that works with your equipment.

With speedlights, you won’t be able to shoot in bursts because of the recharge or recycle time. Even with strobes, you need to ensure your strobes can take multiple shots in quick succession. Typically for studio work and strobes, a shutter speed of 1/160th or slightly faster is the limit of your camera (flash sync speeds vary, check your camera user manual).

Even if you are using continuous lighting you will need to get your shutter speed up just to freeze the image because animals can move quickly.

A fast shutter speed will freeze movement of the animal.

Use Continuous Tracking Focus

Pets move quickly, so focusing is tough, really tough. Single shot focusing regardless of how quick your camera focuses will likely mean that most of your shots will miss. Often after getting a focus lock, pets will move away from your focused location by the time you take the image.

Many modern cameras are now capable of tracking objects and focusing on moving targets. Continuous tracking allows for adjustments as the pets move. If your camera has continuous tracking focus you need to use it. Otherwise, most of your images will be out of focus.

Shoot in Short Quick Bursts

Spray and pray is generally a terrible way to take photographs. It usually implies a photographer didn’t take the time to set up a shot, but in the case of pet photography, it is usually the opposite.

As you are watching for the decisive moment, you take a short burst of images (provided your lighting can keep up) because you will likely have several images in a sequence that are good. However, with pet photography, judicious use of rapid-fire bursts can lead to stunning images. The secret is to anticipate the moment and get a good focus lock. I personally use back button focus specifically to hold the continuous focus independent from the image taking.

Tips and Tails

With pets, if you are taking an image of the entire body, you need to include the tips and tails of that animal. You want the entire animal within the frame. You can intentionally crop for a close up of their face, but you lose something if you are missing the tips of their ears or the end of their tail.

Missing body parts make for incomplete looking images. The best way to approach the images is to remember the catchphrase, “Tips and Tails”. Always try to get the tips of their ears and the end of their tail within the frame. In addition, the same basic rules for human portraiture also apply to pets, specifically for tighter shots where you should never crop an image on the subject’s joints.

Tips and Tails – I just got the end of this puppy’s tail in the shot. Cropping off part of it gives the tail an amputated look you want to avoid.

Also, unlike humans, most pets have longer noses, so it is generally better if you get their entire face in focus. Wider apertures will end up with the nose out of focus which is much more noticeable with pet photography as opposed to human portraits.

Get the whole face sharp. This image doesn’t work because of the cropped of paw and out of focus nose.

Studio Lighting

Lighting in a studio means controlled lighting. Before you start using strobes, you will need to find out if the animal is sensitive to flashes. While strobes are the brightest lights available, that brightness can be a problem if the animals are sensitive and hate them or get easily startled.

The easiest way to see if they react negatively to the strobes is to manually fire the strobe while setting up before the animal is in place. It will be really obvious if the animal reacts to it. You’ll need a backup plan if they are scared of the flash.

Strobes are best.

Shooting in the studio allows you to control the light but you need to assess the best kind of lighting for your needs. There are generally three options, speedlights (the portable ones that go on the hot shoe on your camera), strobes (dedicate studio flashes that usually plug into an outlet), or continuous lights.

Strobes provide the most powerful lighting for the lowest cost but some animals are really sensitive to the flashes from strobes or speedlights. Continuous lighting has been really advancing lately but in order to be able to use them for pets, you need a fair bit of light to keep the shutter speed up. Continuous lights that are really bright are very expensive.

Lighting Setup

Lighting a pet in the studio is different than lighting people. Often you can light a person and get a decent image with only one light. You can create drama with shadows using long and short lighting techniques.

With pets, you are better off lighting them with a key and fill light in reasonably even proportions to one another with a much smaller difference in the intensity of the two lights (light ratio). Pet photography benefits from the super sharpness of being able to see all the details in a pet’s fur. Deep shadows tend to hide those details. Portraiture techniques such as butterfly lighting and Rembrandt lighting just don’t really work for pets.

Basic pet lighting setup.

A great lighting setup uses three medium softboxes: a key light and main light at 45-degrees on either side of the pet, and a hair light coming from above and behind the animal (see lighting diagram above).

Why? This set up works well because you can light the animal relatively evenly. Remember you are lighting an animal that is much shorter than you. Using this setup gives you room to get between the key and the fill light that are quite low to the ground. Generally the key and fill lights are centered about 4-5 feet off the ground.

The hair light provides some separation from the background and is generally not set at a high power. Separation is important, particularly if the animal has a dark coat and you have a dark background. I often use the key light at about 25% more light than the fill light, but the setup works even if the lights are close to the same power.

Using Strobes Usually Means Manual Mode

While there are TTL strobes available, they are quite pricey. Manually triggered strobes are readily available and can often be purchased used for very reasonable costs. In general, for pet photography, you can shoot entirely in manual mode with manually triggered strobes and get great results.

Because pet photography tends to use a simpler lighting setup, by using manually triggered strobes, once your lighting is set up you can simply focus on wrangling the animal and getting the best shots. The rule of flash or strobe photography is that shutter speed controls the background exposure and aperture controls the flash. In manual mode, you can set the power of the strobes and shoot.

Color cast

When you are shooting with strobes, depending upon how expensive your strobes are, there can be a fair bit of range for color temperature from your lights. You want to ensure the only source of light is your strobes because other lights, including tungsten and fluorescent lights, will create a color cast and your image that is difficult to remove.

It is best to set up and do a gray card test before you start shooting to get your white balance right. You can either use a customized white balance for your camera or if you are shooting in RAW, you can manually adjust the images later in your RAW processing software.

Often letting your camera choose by using Automatic White Balance, with strobes means that the color will vary from image to image. Setting it ahead of time with a custom white balance or a gray card calibration means that you can focus on the image rather than changing white balance in your images. It means less processing work to do later as well.

Be aware of color casts.

Background Color Versus Animal Color

When you take pictures of animals it is always good to consider the dominant color of the animal’s coat relative to the background. It is best not to have the same color for both, although it can work out.

What this means is don’t use seamless white paper as a background for a white dog or a black background for a black cat. You need to be able to adapt on the fly and sometimes you can’t avoid it with animals that are mixed in the color of their coat (e.g. a black and white cat).

It is also good to ensure the color of the material that the animal is sitting on during the session works with the color of their coat and that of the background.

Make sure you have contrast between the color of the animal and that of the background.

Furniture

The last tip is a simple one but one that isn’t too obvious. When animals are stressed out they tend to shed. Animals get stressed when you photograph them. This means that there will be fur coming off them, sometimes in large amounts.

If you are using furniture to elevate an animal, just expect that their fur will get everywhere. Try to keep the furniture clean before you start and you may even want to touch it up as you go because removing the contrasting hairs from the furniture can be a tedious process in post-processing.

Conclusion

Studio shots of pet look awesome. With a bit of preparation, you can get high-quality images that show great drama and connection with the animal. The approach is the same as with any other animal photography but in the studio, you can control the light and the background much more allowing for better results.

If you have any questions for comments, feel free to drop me a comment below. Happy shooting!

The post Tips for Great Lighting for Pet Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
July 9, 2018
REVIEW: LaCie DJI Copilot BOSS External Hard Drive
The LaCie DJI CoPilot BOSS is a portable hard drive with an internal battery and added interfaces. The interfaces include an SD card slot, USB-C and USB-A connectors, and a custom cable for connecting the device to a phone or tablet.

There is an app available for both Apple and Android devices which gives you the ability to perform simple procedures on stored photos.

The device is meant to be simple and easy to use while providing long battery life for extended periods away from a computer or outlet. The idea is to remove the need to take a bulky or brittle laptop into the wilds while shooting. But still, allow for backing up of critical images while on location.

Who is the LaCie DJI Copilot BOSS for?

While the drive is marketed by DJI, a leading drone manufacturer, the drive can be used by any photographer. With its ruggedized covering, it’s meant to travel far and wide. Its interfaces make it device agnostic. If you have an SD card (or micro-SD with the included adapter) or a USB connection, this device will work for you.

It is meant to be easy and straightforward without the extra cost that comes with all kinds of unused bells and whistles.

Some stats

What’s in the box of the LaCie DJI Copilot BOSS External Hard Drive. (Photo courtesy of LaCie/DJI)
- 2 terabyte (TB) capacity
- 5.3″ x 4.3″ x 1.4″ (136mm x 111mm x 36mm)
- 1.2lbs / .53kg
- Compatible with Window 10 or higher and Mac OS X 10.10 or higher via USB-C 3.1, Thunderbolt, 3, USB 2 or 3
- Mobile phones/tablets running iOS 10.3 or higher or Android 4.4 or higher
- Connects to mobile devices via included Lightning, micro USB or USB-C
- Comes with a wall charger with multi-country adapters as well as a micro USB adapter
- For reference sake, the 2TB drive can download 31 x 64GB cards. That’s about 70,000 20MP images (at roughly 28MB each) and hours of 4K video. Storage capacity varies depending on your camera settings.
- Suggested retail price is $ 349USD
The unit can be charged with the included AC adapter (more on that in a minute) or through the USB-C connection, but only when connected to a computer or power pack, not through a wall charger.

The unit does have the ability to charge via its USB-C connection but only when connected to a laptop/desktop or portable external battery. When I asked, LeCie stated a wall charger would not work with the USB-C connection and it was also slower than the AC adapter (taking 12 hours to charge from 0-100% vs. 3 hours with the AC adapter).

How it works

Operation of the CoPilot is pretty simple. There’s only one button and you press it once to get system status (battery level and storage space remaining) or hold it down for three seconds to turn the unit on.

The on/off button.

Next, insert a memory card, USB drive, USB connection for a phone or USB connection to your camera or drone. The screen will ask you, “Copy?” (see image below) and indicate one press of the button for yes or hold down the button for no. Pretty easy!

The unit will scan the drive and start copying, updating status as it runs. It gives updates with a progress bar and the remaining battery level of the unit.

If you press the button, it will also show the number of files copied alongside the total number of photos to be copied. The next screen shows that previous amount as a percentage complete and then is a screen displaying the rate at which your card is being backed up.

Some nice features

The unit also has the ability to queue up different backups, such as plugging in both an SD card and a USB drive for total unattended backup of your devices.

When the copy process is complete, the unit will display “Done” and it will remain on that screen until OK is pressed. I love this feature. In the past, I have used units that never gave a copy confirmation and I’m not one to stare at a device for 5-30 minutes depending on how many photos are being backed up. I never knew if a backup failed or completed.

The CoPilot will tell you if the copy competed or if there was an error, before letting you move on to another card. Very handy. Also, there is a ring around the outside of the display showing, as a percentage, how much space has been used on the CoPilot.

Copy procedures can be stopped at any time by simply holding down the button for three seconds and then pressing once more to confirm cancelation.

The CoPilot App

The CoPilot App runs on Apple or Android devices. I will be sharing screenshots from an Apple iPad in this article. The unit comes with three cords for connection; Apple Lightning, micro-USB, and USB-C. The cord for connection wraps nicely around the unit, a thoughtful touch.

After the initial setup of the app and device (those instructions are included with the device), it’s pretty easy to browse photos stored on the CoPilot or even on inserted SD cards or connected USB devices. This is helpful as it can turn your phone/tablet into a card reader for other purposes.

On the left side of the screen are the available devices, with the first item being the CoPilot, followed by the device you are using (my iPad is named Spiff, as in Spaceman Spiff) and then the other ports on the CoPilot.

The main screen shows folders on the CoPilot when it is selected. The Backups folder is where everything resides and tapping it brings up a folder for each backup run.

The folders are named by date, the time the backup was started and a unique identifier for each card or device. The date is below each folder if that makes reading easier.

Using the app

Tapping a folder will let you drill down through the typical card structure (depending on your camera manufacturer’s specifications) until you arrive at your photos.

At this point, the image grid can be made fullscreen to cover more real estate if you like.

The LaCie DJI Copilot BOSS External Hard Drive can handle all the major Raw and JPEG file types as well as PDFs and a few others.

One more tap brings up a single image to fill your screen. It’s a 100% version, so you can zoom in just as you would on your desktop. There is not a zoom indicator anywhere, though.

There are a few things you can do with the photo at this point. The Move and Copy options are both straightforward. Images can be copied either to another place on the CoPilot or to an attached USB or SD card. Rename might be helpful to some users as well.

Full EXIF information is also available although DJI/LaCie need to clean up how it is presented.

Exif information display for this image.

I can see why a programmer made it display this way, but it’s not too user-friendly. An exposure time of 0.00200o seconds?

A little handier is the ability to share out the image with normal platform-specific applications. Here you see the standard Apple lineup and I enjoy that “Save Image” is there, making it easy to drop the file onto my iPad for use in a blog post or the like.

Share options.

If installed, the image can be handed off to the likes of Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop Express or Dropbox or any of a number of other apps. Note that these are the RAW (.CR2 in the case of Canon) files, not JPEGs if you are shooting RAW.

The image opened in Photoshop Express.

Previews in the app

One small annoyance with the app is the chronological preview creation. In this case, I had over 800 images in the folder on the CoPilot so it starts at the top creating previews. Before that they all look like this:

And if you want to work with an image shot just moments ago, it’s going to be at the bottom of the folder and you have to wait for the preview to resolve. Not a big thing, but something to note if you have thousands of images in one folder.

Otherwise, the app is pretty slim in features. You can rename folders and delete them if you like, which is handy. I wish I could drag images from the main part of the screen to my iPad folder on the left, but that’s not the case. I’d also like the ability to star or pick my photos as I do in Lightroom. That would make the app a lot more useful.

In the real world

At times I thought I should be able to just plug a card in (without powering on the unit) and start copying. Once I got over that mentality and was patient enough to wait for it to power on, I found the CoPilot easy to use.

I really enjoyed that it could back up all my media, including my phone photos (but not a true backup of my phone as I do on my desktop). With a cable, I can also download directly from my drone, but I often found it easier to use the micro-SD card adapter. After all, that’s what I do now when downloading drone footage.

The unit is a little hefty and all the rubberizing makes it a little bulky. It’s certainly not as small as my Western Digital Passports but also not as large as a standard external drive. I do feel pretty confident with that mass of rubber coating all around the shell and the toughness of a non-touchscreen.

Minor issues

This will seem like a minor gripe and I guess it is, but not owning a newer Android phone, I also do not own a USB-C to USB-A cable. The unit comes with a USB-C to USB-C cable for connecting to your desktop or laptop for final download and workflow, but not the cable I needed. Not a big deal, but it’s one more cable.

My bigger complaint is with the interface cover. It’s not tethered to the unit and I easily see myself losing it within a month of owning a CoPilot. It’s great that there is a cutout on the inside of the cover allowing you to keep SD cards (or the Micro-SD adapter) inserted with the cover on. But when hooked to USB, that cover can go missing.

For portability, I’m not happy that I can only use the somewhat bulky AC adapter that comes with the unit to charge the hard drive. When I am out of the country for 2-3 weeks leading one of my tours, I can’t trust that I’ll have enough battery power. So yet another power adapter has to be packed and accounted for.

It would be great if I could charge the unit with USB power (and that would take away my complaint above). However, if I was only going to be gone 1-2 weeks and thought I would shoot maybe only 4000-6000 images, I think it would be okay. This aspect needs more real-world battery drain testing.

Backing up your files

Unfortunately, there is no ability to perform incremental backups. The good news is you can use the app from your phone or tablet to simply delete the previous, redundant backup.

Such as, if you shoot 400 photos and back those up, then keep using the card for another 600 images. Your second backup will contain all 1000 images and with the app, you can delete the first backup of 400, if you want. It’s also handy that Lightroom and other desktop apps will recognize the duplicates and only import one copy, so you don’t have to delete the redundant backup copies if you don’t want to.

Backup speeds will depend on the type of card you are using. It is handy that the unit will tell you the exact throughput (in MBs) while it is downloading so you can estimate time remaining. In my experience, 40GB of backup from an SD card to the unit used about 6-8% of battery. I would estimate 12-14 32GB cards could be downloaded with each charge.

Dirt issues

Lastly, this is a minor thing, but the rubberized coating of the CoPilot attracts dirt and lint. I placed the unit in a planter for the introductory photo of this post and it came away with dirt stuck fairly well to the housing. It’s meant to take a beating, but my unit was not sparkling new for long.

See all the dust and stuff stuck to it?

(Photo courtesy of LaCie/DJI)

Downloading from the CoPilot

When matched with the likes of Lightroom and its ability to ignore duplicates, the CoPilot is a breeze when it’s time to download images at home or the office. Plug into the USB-C connector and start your import. No need to browse folder to folder.

Yet, if you only want to download a particular day’s worth of images, the CoPilot’s structure of naming folders first by the date shot is a big help in finding just the right images. The USB-C is fast at a rate of about 5Gbps.

Otherwise, the drive works like any other external hard drive and can be read directly. It can also be used as a card reader while plugged in.

(Photo courtesy of LaCie/DJI)

Is it worth it?

The LaCie 2TB DJI Copilot BOSS External Hard Drive lists for $ 349. That’s a hefty price and not a cheap purchase. If you travel occasionally, this might not be the right device for you, given that price point. But if you find yourself lugging your laptop around only to be used as a conduit for backing up photos, the CoPilot will pay for itself soon enough.

Personally, when I lead photo tours I carry enough gear for the group that I don’t want to bring a laptop. I intend to purchase a CoPilot BOSS before my next trip abroad in order to lighten my load while ensuring I all my precious photos return with me.

The post REVIEW: LaCie DJI Copilot BOSS External Hard Drive appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
July 9, 2018
Guide to Choosing Subjects and Compositions for Flower Photography

How does the budding flower photographer go about selecting subjects and choosing compositions? In this article, I will give a detailed answer to this question. First, I will discuss the different types of flower photography subjects. Then I will give guidelines for creating stunning compositions.

All throughout this article, I will emphasize producing clean, dynamic images.

Subjects

Choosing a subject in flower photography may seem easy – flower photographers shoot flowers, right?

While this is true, it’s important to consider several factors about any particular flower. Among these is the color of the flower, the condition of the flower (is it dying and/or dirty?), and the shape of the flower.

Color

Considering color is simple. The more colorful the flower, the more interesting the image is going to be (generally speaking, of course). I like to use bright colors, placed before a brightly colored background.

It can also be useful to think in terms of complementary colors. These are the red/green, blue/orange, and yellow/purple combinations. When they are placed together in the same frame, the results can be powerful.

Condition

Another important consideration is the condition of the flower. Before taking your photograph, you should inspect your potential subject carefully.

Ideal flowers are at peak bloom: petals spread wide, edges crisp and unblemished. I try to avoid photographing flowers that are on their way out because more often than not I’m disappointed with the resulting images.

The best flowers are also free of dirt. I often wipe dirt off carefully with my finger. If there are insects, I gently blow them away from the flower center. Another tactic is to obscure the blemishes or dirt by shooting soft-focus images or silhouettes.

This flower wasn’t in peak condition, so I chose to shoot a silhouette, emphasizing the shape over the condition.

Shape

This final aspect of flower photography is more difficult to explain, but it is important, so I’m going to give it a shot. Certain flower shapes are better than others for flower photography.

More specifically, the flowers that will get you the most pleasing images are often those with clear patterns and bold, dynamic shapes.

Consider the rose. It is one of my favorite flowers to photograph. Why? The petals are dynamic, flowing and changing. They also have a clear pattern, and therefore imbue your images with a sense of organization.

Another flower that I love to photograph is the tulip. Its structure is simple but bold, and it has large petals that curve slightly. It isn’t chaotic or messy. The viewer’s eye can easily trace its shape without getting lost.

The rose and tulip sit in contrast to flowers such as zinnias, which are rather chaotic and therefore difficult to pin down in an image. Which is not to say that a good zinnia image is impossible; it’s just a lot more difficult.

Compositions

When composing flower photographs, it is a good idea to keep a checklist in the back of your mind. In every flower photography image, try to incorporate at least a few of the guidelines provided below.

Simplify

My first tip is the most important – simplify!

Figure out what it is about the flower that you like, and focus on that, removing any extraneous elements, be they extra flowers, stems, petals, etc. Make sure that any distracting elements are not present.

Use Symmetry

While you shouldn’t always strive to use symmetry in your flower images, it can be a good starting point. Flower centers are often symmetrical or nearly symmetrical. This is something that you can use, composing with the flower smack-dab in the center of your image, anchored by its center point.

I used this flower’s symmetrical center to create a bold composition.

Have a Clear Point of Focus

Without a clear point of focus in your images, the viewer will be lost. Their eyes will wander from place to place without really being drawn into the image.

How do you create a point of focus? You ensure that at least one part of your image is sharper than the rest. You also compose with this point of focus in mind, making sure that the rest of your image merely complements this point of focus (rather than dominating it or detracting from it).

Here, the eye is drawn straight to the in-focus petals of this flower.

Use a Clean, Pleasing Background

Above, I discussed the importance of colorful subjects. But the subject isn’t the only thing that should be colorful. It’s also important to have a colorful background, or at least a pleasing one.

This can be a bit of a balancing act because you don’t want the background to overpower the subject. White and black backgrounds can work well, as can backgrounds that are a colorful but uniform wash.

I aimed for a uniform, calming background when taking this trout lily photograph.

Tilt the Camera

One last tip for creating dynamic compositions is to try tilting the camera.

Rather than having the flower sitting statically within the frame, by tilting the camera, you communicate a sense of movement. The flower seems to be emerging from the frame in a very pleasing way.

Notice how tilting the camera to shoot this Black-Eyed Susan resulted in a more energetic image.

Conclusion

When doing flower photography, it is important to carefully consider both the subject and your composition. By keeping your subjects colorful and clean, and by aiming for simple, clean compositions, your flower photography will instantly improve.

The post Guide to Choosing Subjects and Compositions for Flower Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

July 9, 2018
DPReview TV: where to place a microphone to record great audio

There’s an old axiom in filmmaking which states that an audience will forgive a poor quality picture, but not poor quality sound. This week, Chris and Jordan bring in an audio pro to discuss different types of microphones, how to position them, and to demonstrate how a cheap microphone positioned correctly will outperform an expensive model placed incorrectly.

Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get new episodes of DPReview TV every week.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

July 8, 2018
How to Survive Portrait Sessions with Difficult Children

In this article, you’ll get some tips on how to survive photo sessions with difficult children.

When you imagine photographing your client’s family session, you envision taking beautiful photographs in a pretty location and getting all of those great photos that will make your clients happy. However, you never imagine walking into a session only to find that the child, or children, are protesting, throwing tantrums, or simply not willing to cooperate.

Don’t freeze up and don’t give up, these helpful tips will keep you moving along during the session so that you can get those beautiful expressions and give your clients the best experience.

This little boy kept saying no the entire session. After exhausting all of my tips, I started playing hide and seek and exploring looking for treasure. He was all smiles afterward!

Set client expectations

Preparing your client for what to expect and giving them tips on how to help can make all the difference during their session.

One of the main tips you can give your clients to plan the session to coincide with the time of the day when their children are in the best mood. This means, if their child is the best right after a nap, schedule their session then. Children get tired quickly and you don’t want to have a sleepy cranky child at your session, which will be nearly impossible to bring back to the side of contentment.

Bringing toys and snacks can really help the children take a break and reset for a little bit. I photographed this little one playing with her favorite toys.

Have your client bring snacks for their children that can be used to help get the smiles and good behavior during the session. I would caution you not to bring candy unless you have already spoken to the parents ahead of time and they’ve approved it. Best to have them bring appropriate snacks their kids love.

Water or juice is also recommended. Even if you schedule the session after a mealtime, those snacks always come in handy.

Letting kids play keeps them busy and happy.

A very important tip that is also helpful is telling your client that the word “no” is off limits during the session. In other words, parents cannot say “no” to the children during the session.

Letting children play and explore is part of the fun and giving children a little bit of time to get a feel for their surroundings can make all the difference in their participation. The word “no” usually makes children shut down or protest, both behaviors you want to avoid.

Having mom or dad tickle and play with the children helps the kids to focus on them and not so much on the photographer.

Play, explore, and enjoy

Part of the session should allow for some playtime and exploration. Children are incredibly curious and playing to that curiosity is going to help you get those in-between moments. This is especially helpful when the child is protesting or doesn’t want to cooperate but just do their own thing. Go along with it.

Tell your clients to play and draw their child’s attention to a particular tree or place where you’d like to photograph them. Ask them to walk together hand in hand. Have your clients make silly faces or tell jokes, and singing their favorite nursery rhymes or songs also helps to relax the children.

Walking around and exploring the location can help smaller children to enjoy the session and find it interesting.

Their experience during the session is what they’ll remember. Make sure it is fun and that they enjoy themselves. With that, have your clients bring extra clothing for the children as well.

Playtime is very important during sessions and helps children to enjoy the process!

Crying and shutting down

Sometimes, you’ll come across children that are simply not willing to cooperate and participate. You’ve tried exploring, you’ve sung their favorite songs and nothing is working.

Sometimes giving them a break from the session and focusing your camera on the parents can make the kids come around. Focusing on the parents can often lead the children to want to get their attention and they usually end up walking into the frame. When that happens, tell your clients to go ahead and interact with their child.

We focused attention on the parents during this session and the boy ended up wanting to walk with his mom and dad and we were able to get these photographs.

Interactions between children and parents make for the most intimate and meaningful photographs of the entire session. Letting the children and the parents be themselves without too much direction helps to relieve some nerves. It also helps you to build rapport with the children as you explore and play with them as well.

Playing with the children during a session can lead to real emotions and interactions between all family members.

Be aware that children under the age of 10 are usually willing participants for about 45 minutes. After that, they either get bored, want to play, or are hungry.

Try and anticipate this time frame and get the full family portraits done quickly and early on if you can. Afterward, you can choose to take individual portraits or just capture the family being a family.

Acting out and being overly silly

This silly boy had so much fun jumping and making silly faces and playing along helped to get the portrait on the left. The right makes for a nice memory of his personality as well!

There will be times when one or more of the children are acting overly silly and makes it difficult to get a portrait of them where they are smiling nicely for the camera. When this occurs, don’t allow the parents to try and wrangle their children into doing what is expected. Instead, turn it into a game.

For example, tell the child(ren) that you love their silly faces and they are very good at making them. So you’re going to take two silly photos and one serious one. Change up the faces they are supposed to make and mix in the one you want by saying, “Okay, now I want you to smile like mommy wants and then we can make a funny face, deal?”

Once they agree, which they usually do, be quick to take the good photo and then continue with the game for a couple more photos. Then move on.

Being silly helps to let the children be children.

This helps the children enjoy the session and display their playful personalities while still getting the photos that mom and dad will want. It also helps to not force the children to do anything which can lead to crying or shutting down, both of which you want to avoid.

Tweens and teens

Tweens and teens are also important during a session and usually, because of their age, can be the least cooperative. Here, I would suggest asking the parents for a little information on what they like or what school they go to before the session. This can help start conversations and get them to open up and relax a little.

These brothers had a completely different vibe than my usual style but I went with it in order to get who they were at this stage in their lives.

Taking the individual portraits in a part of the location where the parents are not too close by helps teens to relax. Tweens and teens are very aware of themselves, often more than adults, especially now with social media, therefore, taking their portraits should be done quickly.

Showing them the photographs can also spark more interest and help to boost their confidence during the session.

Sometimes the awkward sibling hug can bring out real smiles. Let tweens and teens be themselves.

Tweens and teens are notorious for not wanting to smile. Ask another sibling to say something funny or ask their parents to remind them of an inside joke. If they aren’t willing to smile despite all of your attempts, it’s okay. Take some photos of them with serious expressions.

Sometimes, the serious photos are more striking than smiling ones. Reassure them that they don’t have to smile if they don’t want to. Letting them know that they have an option makes them active participants in the session and gives them the green light to also make suggestions.

Don’t be afraid to reschedule

If you feel like you are trying everything in your power to turn the session into a positive experience but it just isn’t happening, there is always the option of rescheduling the session. This can give both your clients and yourself a break so that you can attempt the session at a different location and perhaps at a different time when the children are feeling more awake and energized.

The left photo is at the beginning of the session and the younger girl didn’t want to participate. The right is at the end when I connected with her talking about her favorite show and she smiled.

It is very important during the session, however difficult, to keep calm and reassure the parents that their children are doing great. This helps to keep the stress levels down and even if you offer to reschedule, do it in a positive tone.

For example, “We got some great shots and everyone looks great, however, I think if we reschedule for a different time, we can get better photos.”

Sometimes grouping the older siblings first can help the younger children to go along with the photo session.

Always keep the photos from the original session, you might have taken some really great photos before a meltdown. Sending a preview to the family will keep their confidence up and not leave them feeling like they didn’t do a great job. Instead, they’ll be eager for the rescheduled session to get even more great photos.

Conclusion

Exploring and letting children get a little dirty or messy can help them stay in the moment of the session.

When you specialize in portraiture, having non-cooperative children at the sessions is inevitable. However, these tips will help you to smooth out tantrums and give your clients the best experience. That is what will keep them coming back to you.

Remember, you don’t have to force it and a quick reschedule can sometimes do the trick. Let me know if you’ve tried any of these tips or have found them useful.

The post How to Survive Portrait Sessions with Difficult Children appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

July 8, 2018
Quick Beginner’s Guide to Processing RAW Files in Photoshop Adobe Camera Raw

Do you shoot RAW but then open it without processing? When you take a photo in RAW format, regardless of the name each brand gives to it, what you’re doing is saving a bunch of data without processing it inside your camera. This way you have more information to work with during your post-production stage.

But having too much of something can sometimes seem daunting when you don’t know how to approach it and as a result be a limiting factor instead of opening up your possibilities.

Adobe Camera Raw – Processing Raw Files in Photoshop

This quick introduction guide explores the basic tools of Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) so that you can step into post-processing this digital “negative” and understand its possibilities but also its limitations, as not all can be fixed.

Whenever you open a RAW file in Photoshop it won’t open in the interface that would normally go to when opening a JPG or a TIF file. It will open it in a window known as Above Camera Raw (ACR). Here you’ll see a lot of options that can look intimidating and give you the impulse to just click open and work directly on Photoshop.

However, if you do so then you’re missing out on a lot of opportunities, most importantly its non-destructive qualities. Please note, that I’m not going to explain the tools in the order you’ll find them in the ACR panel because some of them are related to each other and therefore it’s clearer to explain them together regardless of their position.

EXPOSURE

The first slider you will see is Exposure. This would be the equivalent of changing your shutter speed or f-stop settings up to five steps up or down. What this does influence the brightness of your entire image. Look at the example below to see how far you can push it in either direction.

CONTRAST AND CLARITY

The next slider you’ll find is Contrast, this refers to the relationship between the lighter and darkest areas of your photo. If you slide it to the right you will increase the contrast which is why a plus sign (+) will appear next to the amount. Moving it to the left will decrease contrast, therefore a minus (-) sign appears. This will flatten the image as there will be less tonal range in between dark and light tones in your image.

A few sliders below Contrast you’ll find Clarity. This is a tool I really like because it gives a nice punch to your photos but it’s easy to overdo it and having them look unnatural, so just be careful. I am mentioning it here because it also adds contrast but this is only to the mid-tones (technically it finds and enhances edges in the image), plus it gives a sharp/unsharp effect to the image.

Note: Clarity is not an actual sharpening tool.

Here’s an example pushing both tools to the limit in either direction so you can see that even if they are related, the result is not the same.

HIGHLIGHTS AND WHITES

Then there is the Highlights slider which I’ll explain together with another one, Whites. I’m doing this because they are closely related. The names are actually quite accurate but somehow their use is still difficult to grasp. Having said that, I’ll try to make it more clear.

The Highlights slider controls the tonal range from the lighter parts of your image, like this:

The Whites slider should have its name in the singular to make it more clear because what it does is set the white point of your image, in other words, the brightest pixels.

So if you move the white point of the image, it will have an effect on the range of the highlights. Let’s see them work together.

SHADOWS AND BLACKS

In between those sliders you’ll find one called Shadows which together with Blacks works the same way as Highlights and Whites, but in the other side of the light scale.

Therefore, the Blacks slider sets the black point of the image and affects a wider tonal range than the one affected by shadows that refers to the darkest parts. Check the example below to have an illustration of how they work.

SATURATION AND VIBRANCE

Saturation is the next slider on the list. It has an impact on all the colors of your image so keep an eye on the entire image while you are applying it and not just on a detail or a zoomed-in portion. If dragged completely to the left you’ll lose all color and leave your image black and white. Dragged all the way to the right, Saturation can reach very intense colors.

However, if you only want to affect the colors that are dull, to begin with instead of the entire image, then you should use the Vibrance slider. This one can also have a big effect, to the point of reaching unnatural colors so be careful. Look at the difference:

When you’re happy with your image, you can just save the changes and leave it as is or you can open the image in Photoshop to continue working on it.

However, if you’re choosing the latter I suggest that instead of just clicking Open Image, press the shift key so that the button changes to Open Object. This way you’ll open your image on Photoshop as a Smart Object and you can come back to these ACR options and make some more adjustments later if you need to.

To learn more about it I invite you to check my tutorial How to Create with a Good Workflow Using Smart Objects in Photoshop.

Conclusion

I hope this makes it more clear for you. Remember that ACR offers other menu possibilities and there are various menus and tools that were too much to cover in this quick, beginner’s guide. So use this as a base and then keep exploring!

The post Quick Beginner’s Guide to Processing RAW Files in Photoshop Adobe Camera Raw appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

July 7, 2018
PinBox is a DIY 120 format pinhole camera made from cardboard and an acid-etched aperture

Not all Kickstarters need to be overly-ambitious projects with goals reaching six figures. Sometimes, they can be humble, affordable, and downright fun. Case in point is PinBox, a DIY pinhole camera from the Hamm Camera Company.

The PinBox is a do-it-yourself 120 format 6×6 pinhole camera designed specifically to teach you how to make your own.

This is the second crowdfunding effort from Hamm Camera Company. The first was a Kickstarter for NuBox 1, a modular box camera that blew away its funding goal and started shipping out March 2018.

The PinBox kit, which is still available as a ‘super early bird’ special for $ 20, comes with pre-cut sections of cardboard for the frame of the camera, four film winding keys (two flat and two raised) and a precision-made acid etched aperture disk.

PinBox has a focal length of 30mm and a variable aperture, depending on the disk you choose from. Hamm Camera Company suggests going with the F120 or F200 aperture disks, but says it’ll have ‘a whole range of apertures to choose form in the backer survey’ for ‘about’ $ 6 a piece and available in sets at a discount.

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Similar to the NuBox 1, the PinBox is meant to be tinkered with and altered. In Hamm Camera Company’s own words:

Our unique design changes the playing field of conventional cardboard pinhole camera. Our approach is to create a camera from cardboard that you can rapidly iterate. Want to double your focal length? Go for it.

Each kit comes with a digital PDF with layout and instructions so you can tweak and adjust your PinBox as you see fit. All photographs currently show the PinBox camera as plain cardboard, but the Kickstarter notes the team is still working on various finishes, including color options such as red, blue, yellow, grey and maybe more.

PinBox is set to ship ‘around the end of August 2018.’ Once the early bird specials are gone, it’ll cost you $ 27 for a complete PinBox kit, as well as an additional $ 7 for shipping in the United States and $ 14 for international shipping.

To find out more details and to pre-order your PinBOx, head on over to the Kickstarter campaign.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

July 7, 2018
Sony Cyber-shot RX100 VI sample gallery updated

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With enough reach to land itself in ‘travel zoom’ territory, the Sony RX100 VI is well suited for a wide range of shooting situations. We’ve tested the 1″ compact with a 24-200mm equiv. zoom both in the office and out on summertime excursions, and our full review is imminent. In the meantime, take a look at our expanded gallery – now with converted Raw files.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

July 7, 2018
Weekly Photography Challenge – Peaceful

This week your photography challenge is one that can be difficult to find in today’s busy and hectic world – peace! Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to photograph something that represents what it means to be peaceful to you.

The perfect mirror image in the water says peaceful to me!

Does this look peaceful to you? Sure does to me.

First of all, think about what means to you to be peaceful, at rest. This could involve another human, or it could be a solitary scene in nature. Whatever it is for you, photograph that and share your image with us.

Weekly Photography Challenge – Peaceful

Simply upload your shot into the comment field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see or if you’d prefer, upload them to your favorite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them. Show me your best images in this week’s challenge. Sometimes it takes a while for an image to appear so be patient and try not to post the same image twice.

Share in the dPS Facebook Group

You can also share your images in the dPS Facebook group as the challenge is posted there each week as well.

The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Peaceful appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

July 7, 2018
US Postal Service ordered to pay $3.5m after using photo of Statue of Liberty replica

Robert Davidson’s replica Statue of Liberty sculpture in Las Vegas, Nevada. Photo by ADTeasdale, used under CC license 2.0.

The US Postal Service has been ordered to pay $ 3.5 million to sculptor Robert Davidson after a mixup resulted in the issuance of a Forever Stamp featuring the wrong Statue of Liberty. According to the lawsuit, USPS issued a new Forever Stamp design in December 2010 that features the Liberty Statue replica in Las Vegas created by Davidson rather than the original statue in New York.

The lawsuit explains that an official with the Postal Service began work on creating a new Forever Stamp design by acquiring stock images of the Liberty Statue. Options were narrowed down to three images, two featuring the original statue and one featuring the replica, though officials were unaware of the difference.

PhotoAssist was utilized to acquire digital files of the three final images, and the image of the replica statue was ultimately selected for the stamp design. USPS acquired a license to use the image from Getty Images for $ 1,500. Unaware that it was an image of the replica, the Postal Service failed to get Davidson’s permission or to attribute the work to him.

Davidson became aware of the issue after his wife purchased a book of stamps featuring the new design

Another stock photo agency informed USPS in March 2011 that its Forever Stamp featured an image of the replica statue rather than the original work. According to the lawsuit, the revelation started an internal evaluation at USPS as it determined how to respond. The Forever Stamp design remained in use until it was phased out in 2014.

Davidson became aware of the issue after his wife purchased a book of stamps featuring the new design. A copyright application for the replica statue was filed in January 2012 and issued in November 2013. That same month, Davidson sued USPS for its use of the image.

Though the government argued that the replica was too similar to the original to warrant protection, the court sided with Davidson, finding his statue was sufficiently original enough for copyright protections. The court stated:

We are satisfied that plaintiff succeeded in making the statue his own creation, particularly the face. A comparison of the two faces unmistakably shows that they are different. Although the record does not contain many pictures of the original, the magazine cover provided by plaintiff which bears a picture of the original Statue of Liberty’s face is sufficient. The differences are plainly visually observable, can be articulated, and are not merely “ideas.” … Mr. Davidson’s statue, although invoking an existing world-famous statue, is an original, creative work, and as such is the subject of a valid copyright registration.

The Postal Service sold 4.9 billion stamps, bringing in $ 2.1 billion in revenue and more than $ 70 million in profits. In its ruling, the court determined that Davidson is owed $ 3,554,946.95 in actual damages for the unauthorized use. USPS has not issued a statement on the ruling.

Via: NPR

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

July 7, 2018