Clear Photos

When you go to take a picture, remember these 3 points to get optimum clarity in each picture.

1. Make sure your subject is in focus. If the subject has a face, focus on the eyes.

2. Use a shutter speed that is fast enough for your lens. If your lens length is 50mm than shoot for no less than 1/100 sec. If 75 mm, than no less than 1/150 sec. If 100 mm, than minimum shutter should be 1/200 sec. Get the idea?

2. If a slower shutter speed is required than allowed, place the camera on a solid surface, preferably a tri-pod. If you have the option I also recommend using a cable release.

I will be spending more time on this blog as the weather gets colder. I tend to take lots of photos in the warm months, while I share them and coach you in the cooler months. I look forward to continuing this helps page in the near future.

Apologies

I know there are still several of you that submitted photos for the last photo assignment that has not been posted yet. I just wanted to let you know that you are not forgotten, I have been extremely busy. I will get your photos uploaded and give you some coaching, just as soon as I am able.

Michael

Constructive Criticism

I find one of the most discouraging things that I have to deal with, is when I am told something of mine is not as good as I thought it was. As a professional photographer, it is in my best interest to display and market only my best photos. Sometimes after a while, I make corrections myself. Other times, a more experienced photographer may critique my work (usually because I ask them) and I feel they just ripped my picture apart. Initially I feel like I am not a good photographer and I should quit. I have to keep my focus, stay on track, and remind myself that this criticism only serves to strengthen my work. I tell you this so you will be encouraged.

When I coach you with your photography, my goal is to tell you what is good about your picture.
When I point out a weak area, I try to show you how to make it better rather than tell you its wrong. Keep up the great work

Photo Assignment 2 (part III)

This is an excellent expression you captured! Yes you are correct, this is front lighting. Typically, this type of lighting washes out details, like you can see here in her face. You are also correct when with the shadows in the face not being flattering. I would have her turn to one side or the other for more of a 45 degree angle to show a little more detail in her face. don't forget to shift with her. For the shadows, see part I of this assignment for use of a reflector. I like how she appears to be interacting with the viewer. Strive to have perfect focus with every picture you take. When shooting portraits, the number one thing you want to be in focus is the eyes. The first thing in a person's face your sight is drawn to is to their eyes, and crisp focus is key.

Photographer's Comment: "The only challenge I had was trying to capture the true spirit of this kid. He is from New Orleans and his family lost everything, yet he still smiles and enjoys life."

The lighting here is good. His expression is great. In his eyes you can see reflections of light, these are great! They are called catchlights. Catchlights give a portrait "life". Have you ever noticed that animated characters have these? I see you used the rule of thirds, but my recommendation is that you put more space in front of the subject rather behind him. Doing so will also remove a bit of the post behind him, which is also a distraction. If you could get an angle without the post, that would be even better. The background is great though. Keep it up!

Photographer's Comment: "I like that I captured her as she put that hat on and the way it made her feel."

You captured a great shot. I like this cute little girl's face with the hat. She is looking right at the camera and the catchlights show up. The sepia tone adds some flavor as well. The thing I can suggest fo this is to reduce the exposure a little so her cheek and hair is not washed out in the highlights. If you are using an on-camera flash, try taping a piece of white copy paper over the flash to diffuse it some.

You were able to capture a lot of great techniques in your pictures, my guess is without even realizing it. Great job!

Showing Off Your Photos

In this digital age, we often take lots (and lots) of pictures. When we sit down in post, it is easy to write off some of our pictures as horrible and useless. The hardest part is choosing which ones to share with others.

When you start going through your pictures, after you download them to your computer, it best to take it in stages. Start by deleting the pictures that turned out under/overexposed that you can't see much detail in as well as the ones really out of focus. Next, remove the pictures that the background or foreground is in focus but the subject is not.

Now, assuming you have pictures with the subject in perfect focus (which should be a goal every time you press the shutter button) remove the pictures that are even a little bit fuzzy. For now, just separate these from the rest of the pictures; you can delete these later if necessary.

At this time you should have only the best focused pictures immediately available. Now, you want to choose the best of the best to display for your viewers. When you put together your photo album/portfolio, whether paper or digital, avoid "overwhelming" your viewers by too many pictures of the same subject.

You may have difficulty choosing the best one out of a handful of similar pictures because you really like something about each of them. Get past your own bias and get nit-picky. criticize your own work and pick the one that is best exposed, focused, posed, framed, and with the least number of distractions.

Once you get passed that phase, you now have the "Best of the Best" to share as part of your display. You know how entertainers always leave their audience "wanting more"? That is the mind set you want to have when showing off or promoting your photos. Leave 'em wanting more!

Have fun with your shooting! ~ Michael

Photo Assignment Results #2 (part II)

This part two of photo assignment two.

Tractor Boy:
-Photographer's challenge: getting ahead of oncoming tractor and taking photo without getting run over by 5-year old driver!

I think this picture is better than you give yourself credit for! The little bit of tractor that is in the picture helps to tell the story of a happy farm boy. This type of photography is called photojournalism. If you were crop it down to just show Wyatt, with not much more than the steering wheel, you would take away the context of the picture. The lighting on his face is really good and the patches of light you mention on his face really are not very visible. His hat is in the sunlight and and that is a bit washed out, but otherwise, not bad at all. The only other thing that I can suggest to make this photo better is to expand the picture to include the full roll bar of the tractor, placing it with just a little bit of space between the edges; the left side is about right.


Big Eyes
- Photogtapher says, "It looks like you can reach out and kiss him; big eyes"

Good job stepping out of your comfort zone and trying new settings!
I like the spontaneous and candid expression in Wyatt's face. The chin resting on his arm adds to the charm. The eyes are in focus and the detail in the face is good. I like this picture. I'll let you do the reaching out and kissing though. :D

I suggest stepping back just a little. When you are up close like this, you get a little bit of size distortion in the closest objects, in this case his nose. I would also zoom out just a hair so that his ears and fingers are not cut off. Taking those couple steps back would probably correct it as well. About the blue tint, change your White Balance (WB) to cloudy. That will compensate for the bluish tint by adding a bit of orange tint to warm it up and make it look more natural,

Mom

You mention the tree is more in focus than you mom's face. I can't quite tell due to the low resolution of the photo. I don't know if you shooting low res or if the photo size was reduced when you sent the email. Assuming that the tree is more in focus than the face, try this. Change your focus point of your camera to the 12 O'clock position (if the camera is upright) so it will automatically focus on the subject. Another option is to press the shutter button halfway (with the center as the focus point) onto your subjects face and, while continuing to hold, shift the camera so your subject is framed the way you want and press down the rest of the way.

The lighting is good in this picture. I agree with you that the highlights in the hair are a little on the bright side. To fix that, make note of the ISO, f/stop, and exposure time embedded into the picture. Next, change the camera to manual mode and make sure the settings match the details you just noted, and make your shutter one or two settings faster. This should help darken the highlights with out making the picture too dark.

I would also adjust the placement of the subject within the frame. In this position shift the camera over to the right so she is standing on the right 3rd line and her arm is not cut off or touching the edge. Since she is off to one side of the picture I would also have her look to her right (your left) just a little bit.

I have also added a cropped version of this picture below to help give you an idea of a good cropping point. If you need some extra instruction on the specific details for the tasks mentioned above, just let me know.

Photo Assignment #2 Results (Part I)

This picture's lighting is in between backlighting and sidelighting. In the process of exposing for the shadows in the face the light on the side of her head and shoulder is overexposed. This is what is called "High-Dynamic Range". The picture is offset with the subject looking off towards the other side of the picture. This gives the picture an air of mystery, and the viewer can't help but wonder what captures the subject's attention outside of the frame. This picture demonstrates good depth of field with the subject in good focus while the background is blurred. This separation of subject from background helps to further focus attention on the subject. Good effort in capturing this image. This image seems to tell a story of curiosity.

I like the lighting of the this picture a little better than the previous image. Notice how the lighting is more even across her face. The overall color of her blouse and face are show more of the true color. We still have loss of detail in the highlights on her head and shoulder. In this picture, her shoulder stands out from the background better and does blend in so much. She is looking toward the camera here, so having her centered in the frame is good. I would suggest you crop out a little of the top of the picture until the subject's head sits about on the "line" dividing the top and middle thirds of the frame. The background is closer as well here which adds a nice touch to this scene. One thing might also be done is to shift her over a bit so the tree does not appear to be coming out of her back; maybe position the tree more the right, near the edge of the picture, but still behind her arm somewhat. This is a really good picture and I like this one the best of your three pictures submitted for this
assignment. Keep up the good work! Your effort shows.

This is a good angle but I find the large white tree to be too prominent and distracting. I like how the tree is used to help frame the subject but the tree needs to be moved off the picture a good amount. Also the the branch the is covering part of her face is very distracting. Notice how the front lighting hides some of blemishes in her face. Because the light is high, it casts some shadows on her face. Some of the shadows adds some detail and texture to her face emphasizing the curves in her cheeks. There is also to much shadow on the right side of her face. The way to lighten up the shadows on her face and reduce the contrast between shadows and highlights would be to use a reflector of some sort. You can get professional folding reflectors of varying sizes for $50-200 new. Or you can use a full piece of white foam board that you can get at most craft stores for no more than a couple bucks.

Your pictures are quite well. Continue to practice what you learn and your skills (and pictures) can't help but improve.

To demonstrate the effectiveness of a reflector, here are couple of pictures to show the difference. Both of these pictures were taken with the exact same camera settins. The only difference was the use of a reflector to diffuse some of the shadows. Notice the difference.

This posting is only one of several postings of the photo assignment submissions. I have chosen to break results down into several smaller postings rather than one large one for easier reading.