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.

Photo Hint: Printing Your Own Pictures (Archive)

When printing your own pictures use the same paper brand and quality as well as toner each time for consistent results. Also make sure you are using products that are compatible with your printer.

Also find yourself some thin cotton glove liners. Use these when handling your paper and prints to avoid leaving fingerprints. Especially with high gloss paper and fresh prints that the ink has not completely dried yet.

Photo Hint: Focus Points (Archive)

When taking a picture of people, the best place to focus the camera is on the eyes. When looking at a portrait, your eyes are naturally drawn to the eyes of the subject. The closer you are, the greater the importance of good focus.

When shooting close-up pictures, you want your main subject to be in perfect focus. For example, you are trying to capture a butterfly on a blossom up close. Make sure to focus on the butterfly rather than the blossom. If the flower is crisp but the insect is not, it loses it's eye appeal.

Photo Assignment #2! (Archive)

Hello There! Photo Assignment Number Two is officially open!

The topic for this assignment is People. You can submit portraits or candid, whatever you prefer. Feel free to use any of the hints or techniques you have learned about in my blog lessons.

What I would like for you to do with this one is to provide me some info about the picture(s). I would like for you to tell me what techniques you used to achieve the outcome, and also what you like and dislike about your picture. Tell me whether you shot outdoors, indoors, natural light, artificial light, etc. And also what kind of challenges you had in taking the picture.

Please email your entries to bestoftimephoto@alaska.net. I will keep this assignment open till Sunday, May 17. For this assignment only, I feel like being nice. I will let you submit up to 3 photos this time.

I look forward to seeing your people pics real soon! Happy shooting!

LIGHTS, Camera, Action! (Archive)

This topic comes at the request of Laura.

Light is a necessity to making photographs, and it comes in many types, colors and angles. We will discuss the features of different types and colors later on in another lesson. I want to talk to you today about lighting angles and how to use them creatively.

First off, there are 4 basic angles to use in your work: Front-, 90 degree side-, 45 degree side-, and back- lighting. To demonstrate the concepts, I will use the following abbreviations P=Photographer, S=Subject, L=Light.

Front Lighting is what most people are familiar with. Basically Some of your first photo advice was probably "shoot with the sun behind you". This angle creates a flat, 2D image with little detail or fluctuation in color tones. This type of lighting also adds unattractive and deep shadows in the eyes and under the nose. Not very flattering. This is also the type of light you get from your basic on camera flash. This nothing more then S-P-L.

The next type of lighting is Backlighting. This can create a simple but dramatic effect. The set up is L-S-P. The bright light coming from behind your subject will usually cause your subject to become a dark silhouette. If you are shooting something not very dense, you can use the sun's backlighting to "enhance" the color of items like Aspen trees in their Autumn colors.

Now we cover 45 Degree Sidelighting. This is often called "natural lighting". As you are facing your subject, you position yourself so the light source is coming from behind you, of to one side or the other at 45 degree angle, hence the name. This angle provides nice transitions between shadows and highlights giving it a more soft and natural appearance. This is the lighting of choice for most portraits.

Finally we have 90 Degree Sidelighting. Yep, you guessed it, the light source is perpendicular to the "line" between you and the subject. You pretty much want the light to "come over" your subject's shoulder to illuminate them. This is also called "texture lighting". This provides an extremely dramatic effect as one side is bathed in light while the other side is in dark shadows. This can be used if you are interested in showing texture in, say a loaf of bread that just came of the oven as it casts a shadow for every little bump. This not the type of lighting you would want to use if your goal is to portray a "soft" image.

You can use any of these techniques solo or you can combine them with one or more. when you combine them, you will want to decide what you want to be your strongest effect and have the light strongest/brightest in that angle. Be creative, make adjustments, observe different effects with different angles, find your favorites, and practice. Some variations you might try is shifting the light up or down, or even sideways. Do small increments to your adjustments, even shifting a few inches can make big differences. Even try changing the distance of the light(s) from your subject.

As always, I am open to comments regarding this topic and suggestions for future topics. Happy shooting and my you see God's beauty as you shoot!

Photo Assignment #1: Results

For our first photo assignment we had several entries. The only criteria for this assignment was the pictures had to be a scenic of some sort. I have posted all the entries here for all to see and to learn from. I suggest that you open up the picture and compare what you see with what I say and see how they mesh. Feel free to add a comment or email me if you have any questions about my photo comments or have suggestions for future postings and/or assignments.














The thing I see when I look at the picture above is the bright color of the cloud; color and contrast is good. As I look deeper, their are two things that catch my attention as more of a distraction. First of all, the lighter bank of clouds puts a line right through the middle of the image, doesn't do good cosmetics to a picture. And second, the line of trees seems to lead your eyes away from the theme of the picture. I like how the trees have some fog/blowing snow or sand in front of them; it gives a feel of "depth" or distance.

My recommendations to improve this picture would be to crop down the left side with the bottom, and bring the bottom of the photo to the base of the tree line. That will remove the "leading line" taking your gaze away from what's important. It will also lower the top of the cloud bank so it sits about 1/3 from the bottom of the scene rather that the 1/2 mark. Overall, this is a great picture, just minor adjustments. Good job!














I like this picture. The colors are bright and the detail is crisp. If I did anything to this picture to make it better, I would shift the large tree, from the middle, to the side, probably to the right; just enough to take it away from the center line. This is great!












The grays and the detail in this photo are really good. The layout brings your eyes near and far and back again. This photo could also be turned into a black and white and still be in good taste. As with the previous pictures, the rule-of-thirds does not come into play very well. The only thing definite I would do, is to shift the far tree line down just a hair (yep, you guessed it) to about the 1/3 "line", and give it a hint more sky in the process. don't go too far, the detail in the foreground is essential to the composition.

Something else that could be done, but not critical, is some color adjustment. Color adjustment is more of personal taste or preference than of necessity. NOTE: I am not going explain the process here, there is too much involved and I don't want to overwhelm you. Simply put, for film, you have the option of "warming filters". For digital, you have the option using a color calibration or "gray" card, or you can adjust it in your editing software. We'll eventually cover these in a lesson down the road.
















This is a picture that reminds me of home in Birkenfeld (Oregon). Down at the Nehalem River at Spring time... Enough about my memories. Reflections are always so tricky for me. Part of me wants to use the rule of thirds; but most of my pictures end up losing the reflection if I do that. I have to ask myself "what is it I want my picture to portray?" I look at this riverscape and I think this picture uses the rule of thirds fairly well. On the left side, look for the top of the river bank. Then look at the reflection. You see how the bank and reflection each put a "line" in the picture? That is what I have been talking about with rule of thirds. Color is good, contrast is good, and exposure is good. The only thing I can think of to make it better, is to zoom out and include a little more of the scene. Expand it so the reflections aren't cut off and as crowded. When you exand, keep an eye on your "thirds" and reposition slightly as needed. Good picture.















The clouds here have some good texture and contrast. The color is good as well. As it is, I think this would make a good computer background. Obviously your subject is the clouds, but it doesn't really draw our attention to it; it doesn't quite tell a story. What do we do to fix it, to make it better? I say we can expand our frame to include something else that can compliment it. Some possible suggestions could be taken "through" a window (preferably without glass or screen), maybe a bit of horizon or tree-line in the bottom, perhaps a sillouette of a bird or plane in the picture. Be creative, the only limits are when you cease to use your imagination.















This is a beautiful sunset. Sunsets like this are not uncommon here in central Alaska. There is alot of color in this sunset with lots of red. Warm colors, such as red, orange and, yellow almost always draw peoples attention. The balance of color is good. You also "framed" the clouds in with the trees; that is also a good technique. I think with this your goal was to show folks the sunset, you do it well. But one thing that will help folks see more of the colorful clouds in the picture, is to zoom in (or crop) so that the trees are still there on three sides but not as pronouced. You also might raise the camera to include a bit more of the sky. Having this much dark on the edges subdues the sunset a bit. Reducing the trees will help to you colors some additional punch. This is a good picture as well.

Well ladies, Thank you for your wonderful submissions! I hope I wasn't too harsh on your pictures. I hope to have been an encouragement and a help to you that your photo skills will improve. Keep up the good work and I hope to see more of your pictures with the next assignment! God Bless and happy shooting!
Michael Huntington