Cropping for Effect

Cropping an image can take it from ho hum to “eye catching”. Don’t be afraid to trim the fat to get to the meat of an image.

Here is the same image.  Uncropped, Cropped, Distraction Removed

Uncropped

Uncropped isn’t bad.  Think of an image as a story.   The question is what is the main point of the the story and who is the main character.  Is there a supporting cast and what importance do they play in the story.

I’m choosing the flower in bloom as the main character and the buds yet to open as the support cast.  I want to emphasize them, and not the pots below or on the wall behind.

Cropped for emphasis of main character

Since this story doesn’t move and there is no sound I’m left with a couple things I can do to help tell my story.

Lighting is important, I want the main characters to be lite well and to keep the eye focused on them.

I can darken down the background to help being out the flower and buds.

Remove distractions.  Distractions are the Hecklers in the audience.  You don’t need them diverting attention from the story.

Do you see that heckler in the background.  It is that white line in the big pot right over top the flower.  My eye keeps being drawn to it and away from the main character.  Time to get rid of the heckler.

Remove the Hecklers

I’ve toned down the background lighting and removed the line from the pot.  There is a lot more I could do to this image to enhance the main characters, but this is a short story.

When I crop the image I also make it bigger on screen.  This is one of the advantages of shooting with a high megapixel camera.  You can crop a lot of image away and still have good resolution and size.

I can crop even further and tell yet a more detailed story with my image.

Just the Main Character

More lighting Control for Effect

Singing a Solo

One final thought. The more you contrast the foreground to the background the harder the subject’s surfaces become. Notice the difference in the flower to the background in these final two images. The flower looks more delicate in the first. The second with the background darker, makes the contrast of the color in the flower harder. Again, it depends on the story you are telling.

For my story I want the main character to have that softer side. I would chose the first. But if my story were about the beautiful wicked witch. It would be the harder image at the bottom.

What’s the story you are telling? Crop & Light for effect.

Tags: crop for effect, tell a story

Shooting with an Ultra Wide Angle for FUN

Hey,

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

You popped for this high dollar piece of glass now why not take it out of the bag and use it more often. The reason I hear most often for keeping it put away.

• Geez, this thing is heavy
• I can’t seem to get close enough
• I loose a lot of good shots when I have this thing on the camera
• Geez, it is so heavy

It is heavy, it is also an amazing piece of glass.  Learn to use it and you will turn heads and garner comments on your photos when using an Ultra Wide Angle.

Depth Of Field  Not an Issue

One of the things I love about shooting with an Ultra Wide is the depth of field.  You can get in really close and still have everything in the image in focus.  I’ll sometimes throw this lens on and crank it clear up to the 24mm so I can get in close and keep everything in the shot in focus.  Check out any of these images in the Ultra Wide Gallery to the right.  It will be hard to find anything that is out of focus.  I don’t have any close up shots of flowers or other subjects in this gallery, but from what is here you can see the incredible depth of field this lens provides.

However, if you want to get a tight focus with the background out of focus, this isn’t the lens to use.

Knowing When and Where to Use it

This lens is special and requires special circumstance in a shoot to bring out the power and value it has to offer.  Here are some circumstance when I pull out this big gun of glass.

Create the Perspective of Length and Depth

There was no way I could shoot this firetruck and get the entire truck in the shot without the ultra wide.  The truck is parked in a small yard beside a Fraternity house that used to be a firehouse in downtown Tucson.  By grabbing the Ultra Wide and shooting low to the ground I was able to capture a mood that otherwise would have been impossible.  Getting low to profile a subject really takes a normal image and turns it into a unique one.

Go Wide, Go Really Wide

Long Lines, Highways, Trains, Train Tracks, Airplanes, all of these can be captured in close quarters with an Ultra wide.  Don’t be afraid to keep getting closer and closer and closer till you can see both ends of the object.  If there will be converging vertical leave plenty of room on each end of the object.  In Post you can remove the converging verticals, but you will need that extra room on both ends for the cropping necessary when fixing converging verticals.

When Having Fun – Warp is Good

This is where we can have a lot of fun with this lens.  If you don’t have a lot of straight lines in the view finder you can push clear out to 12mm and take accentuate the positive flow of a subject.  The close up of  “The Photographer” wouldn’t have been possible without an ultra wide.  I was able to get right up under the statue and get the full extension of the arms to elbows.  The subject is in focus and you can’t even see that the arms are bowed compared to the real thing.  Here shooting at 12mm adds a life like curve to the arms.

Get Down Get Way Down

It is the view of the world that an ant might see from its perspective.  Things look real big real fast from down low.  When shooting with an Ultra Wide you can get very close and still get amazing height captured in an image.  Use this to your advantage.

Pulling out the Ultra Wide for Fun can get you some amazing shots when you go for the angles and get in really, really, close.

Tags: ultra wide angle lens

Change the Light Create A Story

Change the Lighting

Take an ordinary shot and change the lighting and it can become something totally different than you had imagined.

When I was shooting this sculpture it looked like the this fellow with the ball in his hand could have been a boy back in Roman times.  The headband and the long hair flowing off his shoulders left this impression.

Create a Story with Your Image

Change the Light

It is a sculpture about Pizza.  Pizza takes ones mind to Rome.  It does doesn’t it?

Not that Peter Piper Pizza (which is where this statue is located) bring to mind a great pizza dynasty. . .   From this angle I saw something different.  I saw a young boy coming home from a game of something with a ball on the day of the great volcano, the day Pompeii was buried under lava and ash.

I know the architecture doesn’t remind you of Rome.  I would need to brush the buildings out of the scene like I did the lunch posters in the windows behind him.  But the sky with those heavy clouds looked almost volcanic.

Tweaking the color balance a little at a time and trying a few different things with the histogram and it wasn’t long I had the look I was after for the background.

If I wanted to spend even more time with it, I would put the one image over the other and keep the boy looking like a metal head and put the volcanic sky and background in around him.

There are lots of ways I could change this image and create a totally new look and feel.

But back to the beginning.  It all is possible by changing the angle of the shot.  Nothing creative is gained or expressed by simply walking up to and around the subject while shooting from the standing position.

Get some rhythm going, move at your waist, bend your knees, don’t be afraid to get the seat of your pants dirty.  It isn’t about being clean and neat, it is about using the amazing camera support you have in your body to GET THE SHOT.

Tags: Change the Light, Create a Story

A $10,000 Tripod for Your Camera

Change the Perspective Get the Shot

Change the Angle

I’m going to get right to the point here.  You can take some amazing photos if you learn to bend your knees and turn at the waist.  If you will simply approach the subject from anything other than a standing, sitting, or kneeling position.

By presenting the subject from an angle that most people will never see you capture the subject in a new way.  This is true of historic or often photographed locations or iconic buildings.

You have this amazing ability to bend, stoop, squat, or lie on the ground and get a perspective that unless the viewer has done the same have never seen.

These unique captures don’t require a $1000 tripod with extension tubes.  They do require you the photographer, the one in charge of directing the shot to be creative.  You might have a point and shoot camera, but you don’t have to photograph like a point and shoot photographer.

Change the angle, you will be amazed at the comments your work will get.

Tags: Change Light, Change Perspective, Create a Story

Shooting With An Ultra Wide Angle For Real Estate

Cropped with slightly converging verticals

Not Shooting for Real Estate?  I’ll cover using an Ultra Wide Angle for Fun later this week.

I bought my 12 -24mm Nikor lens back when they were just at $1000.  The response at the time was “FOR A LENS?  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?“  I wasn’t.

It was time to take our real estate photos where they needed to be.  This could only be accomplished with a super wide angle.

Shooting Ultra Wide and Converging Verticals

You can get in amazingly close with an ultra wide angle and get the room that otherwise wouldn’t be worth trying to capture.  Why?  It would look to narrow and small. We all know you don’t sell a house by making it look narrow and small, even if you describe it as “cozy”.

There are always to sides to everything.  The thing you have to watch with an ultra wide are converging verticals.  This is one lens that DEMANDS to be level.  If it isn’t the walls won’t be straight.  Not only does it need to be level it should be shot straight as possible in a room.  “But the room looks bigger from the corner”.  Yes it does, and you won’t find a straight line in your shot making the room look like it was built by a blind carpenter without a level.

Maybe all those horrible virtual tours with the bowed walls and ceiling lines have desensitized all to the effects of things looking surreal.  But if you want to have your photos even considered as acceptable among the real estate photographers you have to learn to control converging verticals.

Don’t shoot below 14mm

Yes the lens goes to 12, but anything below 14mm will distort the walls and make the room look even bigger than it is.  “But that’s what I want”!  You might think that is what you want, but it isn’t.  You want an “Accurate” representation of the home.

Do you ever shoot at 12mm?  Yes I do.  Sometimes, usually outdoors, I will get in as close as I can and shoot at 12mm to get the entire front or back of a house.  Outdoors, the distortion isn’t as noticeable.  Not as many lines from all four directions.  Also, I will use post processing to remove lens distortion from the final image.

Be Prepared to Crop

Most of the time when shooting with an Ultra Wide you will get a lot more sky and foreground than you want in the image.  Cropping either top, bottom, or both parts of an image will greatly enhance it’s appearance.

check out this thumbnail image which is the original image before cropping.  A lot of sky and a lot of parking lot, neither of which were necessary.

An Ultra Wide Angle lens will produce great interior shot results.  Is it expensive?  You know it is?  Is it worth the expense?  Yes, it is.  You will get more listings with great photos, you will get great photos with an Ultra Wide Angle.

Tags: converging verticals, ultra wide angle lens

Read The Manual

Read The Manual & Capture Better Images

Oh, wow, what an original idea for a post. While this might be one of the shortest photo tips I’ll ever write it is the one you ought to take most serious.

Reading the manual will help you take better pictures than you ever imagined. I’ve been shooting for over 50 years. I’ve read a lot of books and taken thousands and thousands of images. This one tip will do more for your photography than anything else I can say. Read the manual.

Tags: read the manual

Traveling Without a Tripod

Flying these days for the casual photographer has become a nightmare. Since we don’t travel all the time with our photo equipment we aren’t up on the latest requirements for things like Tripods.

Most of the time you can slip a mono pod into your carry on and be fine. But if you don’t want to take along a mono pod there is still a creative way you can stabilize your camera for some of those long exposure shots you want. And it won’t cost you a fortune. Yes, you can easily get it through security.

Bean Bag Wrist Rest

Camera Stabilizer for the Beans

I’ve used this little bean bag on multiple occasions while traveling. It works like a charm even for long exposure night shots.

Shooting Tip: I know some wear a vest or carry a backpack when shooting. I don’t like all that much to do. However, I do wear cargo pant or shorts when I go for a shoot. It is so easy to put lenses and gear in those pockets. Yes, I have certain pocket for each piece of gear. It is quick and easy access and the bean bag easily fits in a pocket.

Tags: monopod, Tripod, wrist rest

Control that Flash

Without Flash

We have all been there, it is after dark and we have to turn on the flash on our point and shoot. But we know it is going to blow out the people or subject we are shooting.

It’s a point and shot, there are no setting to decrease the power of the flash, for that matter you can’t increase it either. Or can you?

There is more than one way to keep those laugh lines from turning into craters. Here is a trick. Use the exposure compensation feature to control the flash.

Regular Flash

If I’m taking a picture after dark or where the back light is over powering the subject and I need the flash I’ll take one shot normal; take a look at it in the viewer and check the histogram. Rarely have I gotten what I want. Most of the time the subject is blown out.

I then hit the menu and crank down the exposure compensation. Often I’ll go as low as -2 stops darker. This often means I can’t even see in the viewfinder what I’m shooting if after dark. I look at where the focus assist lamp is going and snap the shot.

Exposure -2 Compensation

Film is cheap. I’ve saved more than one shot this way.

Subject so far away the light of your flash is falling on the ground before it reaches the subject. And you can’t get closer? Grrrr. You just might boost that capability by a few feet if you reverse the exposure compensation and kick it up one or two F-stops.

This is a creative way you can boost the functionality of your point and shoot camera using the built in functions in a creative manner.

Tags: exposure compensation, fill flash, flash

The Photo Lab in Your Camera

You didn’t know there was one? Well there is one in every digital cameras, let me explain.

Referred to as “setting”.  Some of the settings are for how your camera will take the image.  These would include

• F-stop
• ISO
• Shutter speed
• Flash (auto/red eye/off)
• Exposure Compensation
• Focal Area
• Light Metering

There are a host of other settings which determine how that image is going to be processed.  Most digital cameras will let you set:

• B/W  Vivid Color, Sepia
• Bracket Exposure
• Image Resolution
• Backlight Compensation
• White Balance
• Aspect Ratio

Most of these settings can be somewhat Tweaked in post.  (Post on this blog will always refer to Post Processing and not the writing of a post unless otherwise indicated).

I like shooting in RAW, but my Panasonic Lumix TZ5 doesn’t have a raw mode.  Therefore I set it up to give me the maximum ability to alter the images in Post.

Choosing your Settings

Setting Up The Photo Lab

Most point and shoot digital cameras have a variety of “Scene” settings.  These are mini lab settings pre-programmed for your camera based on the sensor it has for capturing images.  If you want to know what these do, then it will require some time to practice.

I know, you never heard of such a thing.  It is true, take your camera out and under the situations for those scenes try them and see what you get compared to what your own settings would be.  Maybe those scene settings are great, maybe they aren’t so great.  The more you know about your camera the better images you will take.

Setting the Camera for Maximum Post Processing

Most digital cameras have a dial setting which allows you the user to customize some of the settings.  This is where my point and shot is all the time.  I know what I want the camera to capture so I have maximum flexibility to tweak that image in Post.  I’ll talk about those settings sometime this week.

For now, take a few minutes when you can and learn the most you can about your camera.  There isn’t any reason to miss great shots.  Being in the moment, with your camera in hand is only an advantage to you if you know how to set it for the shot.  Believe me, “Getting the Shot” is so much better than getting home and knowing you didn’t get a single decent picture.  Those moments in time are gone forever.  You can’t get them back.

Take control of the photo lab in your camera.

Tags: camera photo lab, default settings, take control

Night Shooting

Night shots are one thing that can be very difficult to try and save.  Lots of people like shooting at night.  When I ask for friends to submit photos to be processed to see how it works more than half of them have a night shot they want to try and save.  Many can be improved, but they could be a lot better if the camera was setup for doing some night shooting.

Setting up for a Night Shoots

(Handheld)

There are all levels of camera.  Some have special settings which can be turned on or activated for low light night shooting.

1. Set the ISO to 1000 to 2000.  This will increase the noise but get the subject matter
2. NEVER HAVE THE CAMERA IN AUTO ISO
3. Set High Noise Reduction to “ON” if you have that setting
4. Don’t go for sharp details.  You will need to remove noise post process, details won’t survive.

(Tripod/Monopod)

This is the way to go if you really want to get good clear, detailed night shots.

1. ISO 200 should provide good clear detail and a minimum of noise.
2. Use a remote to trigger the shutter
3. Set the F-stop between 5.6 and 8.

If you don’t have a remote use the self timer.  This will give the camera time to stop moving from your pushing the shutter before it opens.

If you have a camera with a “mirror up” setting which will let you put the mirror up before taking the image use that as well.  It is called mirror slap which can also add slight movement to the camera.  It might not be noticable at all but taking every step to remove vibration and movement from the camera will get you sharper images.

Long Exposures

The longer the exposure the more noise.  Finding the best exposure time might take some trial and error.  What looks good in the small image view might look terrible once you get the image on a computer screen.  This is why you want to take more than one exposure and change up the shutter speed to let in enough light to capture the image you desire and keep the noise to a minimum.

Go for the Butter

Even in a night shot you can go for the butter.  I call this the creamy pastel watercolor look.  Lines are soft and areas blend together.  You won’t get this look in camera.  In post you can use high noise reduction to get rid of the grain and purple spots and create a smooth watercolor look to your image.

In this example you won’t see a huge difference.  There was quite a bit of noise in the original image.  Using noise reduction the softer look becomes evident.

Some Noise

The Butter Look

Display Small Images

Have you ever been browsing a flickr photo stream and your eye is caught by a picture you really like, but when you go to view it larger it is out of focus, full of noise and in general not a very good photo. But if all you need is a small photo. . .

Knowing what your final product will be helps a great deal.  If all you need is a small photo for the web or on an MLS listing, don’t worry about the noise or how sharp it looks.  The butter look will convey the idea, even a sharper noise filled image small will do the job in many cases.

Setting up the camera before shooting night shots can go a long way in getting the results you need.

Tags: high noise, night shooting