PHILANTHROTOGRAPHY:
PHOTO 101 EVERYDAY PHOTO SKILLS
REVIEW EXPOSURE TRIANGLE—what are the three points on the exposure triangle? Why do we care? SHUTTER APERTURE ISO
REVIEW COMPOSITION:
the arrangement, inclusion or exclusion of the various elements chosen to fill the photographic frame to make up an image or exposure. "There are innumerable compositional possibilities located within every scene, with the only true limit being the photographer's imagination." Steve Mulligan
COMPOSITIONAL PROCESS/CONSIDERATIONS: • SELECT A VIEWPOINT—camera level, distance from subject, image orientation • CONSIDER HOW DO WE VIEW IMAGES—sharp, bright, center, people, faces, eyes, lips, text • FRAMING THE IMAGE—photos have edges, the world does not. "Photography is about finding out what can happen in the frame. When you put four edges around some facts, you change those facts“ ~Garry Winogrand • SUBJECT PLACEMENT WITHIN THE IMAGE—frame within frame, balance, negative space, rule of thirds • BACKGROUND—look for distractions; drop down low or crop in tight • FOCAL POINT—selective focus, layering, depth
REVIEW ELEMENTS OF COMPOSITION: • LINE: Lines are the most basic elements of any two-dimensional representation of objects or space. Visualize your image or subject reduced to simple lines and consider the position and impact of these lines with respect to placement in the frame and subject matter.
• SHAPE/FORM: Try to detach yourself from looking through your viewfinder at subject matter and consider the shapes of each of the elements in the frame.
• COLOR: Colors are closely associated with human emotions and moods, which can be combined to can evoke different emotions or thoughts with the viewer. Consider the psychological impact of colors or lack of in your images. Try using color as a subject rather than an element in the image.
• PATTERN: The human mind seeks to identify patterns; even when a scene contains essentially random elements, the mind looks for order. Pattern and order in an image can exist in many forms and on multiple levels so look for repeated shapes, lines, or tones in a scene to bring interest.
• CONTRAST: In order for a line to be readily distinguishable, it must contrast with its background. When approaching your subject matter, consider it in context and how it relates to it’s surroundings. How do the colors, shapes, textures and tones of the main focal point compare to that of the surrounding area?
EVERYDAY PHOTO SKILLS The third lesson will focus on how to find beauty and art in the EVERYDAY. In this lecture we will discuss a broad range of topics and situations that create the story of our everyday lives– • Portraiture: people, pets, groups • Sports Photography • Travel & landscapes • Capturing special events & holidays: fireworks, snow & sand, holiday lights, group portraits • Preserving, protecting, and sharing your digital media Portraiture: people, pets, kids, groups travel photography Landscapes sport photography: Learn how to capture the perfect photo at your favorite sporting event with stop motion, panning, and other creative shutter techniques Printing sharing and storing images Ever wonder what it takes to master the perfect photo of fireworks or your moving children (or pets!); do you want to take your own holiday family portraits, take great photos on your vacations
MAKING YOUR SUBJECTS COMFORTABLE • Relax! Have confidence when speaking with your subjects and they will feel more relaxed and comfortable. Just be yourself • Take a tip from public speakers. If you’ve ever taken a public speaking course, you’ve learned not to say words such as, “Uh”, “umm”, “like”, etc). Photographers also have words that we should avoid. When a photographer looks at the LCD and is disappointed with the results, they often say things like, “woops”, or “uh oh”, or “that doesn’t look good”, etc. How do these little habits affect subjects? Badly. It makes them feel uncomfortable and it makes them think that the shoot is not going well. • Give HELPFUL posing directions. Its most helpful when posing people to tell them very clearly what you want them to do while you are mirroring that pose. No one wants to look silly, so be the first one to look silly in the pose and your subject will feel more at ease trying it out. • Show the subject some of the photos. If I am shooting a client instead of a model, I sometimes ask the client if they want me to photograph them in a different way. This is a good opportunity to find out little things that the client doesn’t like about their looks. I often get clients who ask me to photograph the other side of their face, they take their hair down, or make other changes. RARELY do they actually want me to change anything about the photos, but it’s a good way for me to know how to avoid the things they are self-conscious about. • No touching. Touching can make some people feel very uncomfortable. If I need to flick some hair out of the person’s face or lay out the train of a wedding dress, I ask first. ”Do you mind if I…” Some people might not care, but it’s a big deal to some people so be aware and always act professionally and politely. • Be ready for the shoot. Nothing will kill the subject’s confidence in you more than showing up late, not having the gear set up, etc. Be ready and you’ll look like a pro.
PHOTOGRAPHING KIDS: TIPS • Stop asking the kids to look at the camera and smile. Please, stop. Take them to the park, put on the longest lens you have, use a low aperture for shallow depth-of-field, and shoot away. No posing required. • Snap the photo as soon as you see some expression. Kids are fun to watch because they react to ordinary things with extreme reactions. Too often photographers and parents wait for the kid to smile before taking a photo, but it’s not all about smiles, folks. Sometimes a look of disgust, fear, silliness, or excitement will make a better expression than a bland smile.
• Always, always shoot a burst of shots. Like shooting sports, one instant to the next will change the photo drastically. Also, shooting in bursts of at least three shots will allow you to put the photos together in a series, which will be great for displaying as a gallery or set. • When shooting inside the house, use window light. Give the little kids a few toys and face them toward the largest window in your house. Sit to the side of the window and shoot away. The beautiful soft light will make for a great portrait even in a common location. • Clean up your backgrounds. Since the best photos you’ll take of kids are likely going to be candids, you will often run into the problem of having distracting backgrounds. If taking photos of the kids inside, clean up the room first. When taking photos of the kids playing at the park, change your angle to get the trash can out of the background. You get the idea. Watch for the backgrounds or your photos will be distracting. • Maybe the most important tip you will ever get for photographing kids: don’t push them. Kids and babies are not the most patient subjects and if you sense a meltdown coming on, one more shot is not going to help you. Put down the camera, play with them for a few minutes then try again later. Know when enough is enough and don’t push them. • HAVE TOYS THAT MAKE NOISE and don’t be afraid to jump around and look like an idiot! Remember they’re staring at a lens, not a person so try to put the camera down every so often and interact with them.
FAMILY PORTRAITS When you’re taking family portraits, you have to STOP thinking so much about the photography and start thinking about smart posing and interacting with the family. Just make sure you get what the MOM wants from the shoot, and allow your desire for technical photographic expertise to go on the back burner sometimes. • Shoot in continuous high and shoot a burst of four or five shots for each pose. This will be a life saver when you have to Photoshop eyes and faces from blinking dads and grumpy-faced toddlers. • Do not expect to get as many poses in as you would like to. Just focus on getting 5 or 6 poses where you KNOW you nailed it. Most clients with kids won’t be able to convince the kids to do too many poses, so keep the number low, but make sure you nail each one. • Find a staggered seating area. The toughest part of posing a small group is to find a way to make their head levels uneven but making them feel like a tight group. If they are all lined up, the head levels can be distracting in a photo. Finding a staircase where the family can sit, or boulders along the beach, or a small hill can be a perfect setting for a small group photo because the people can be staggered in height to create interest in the pose. • Give the kids breaks for candids. After a few poses when I can see that the kids are starting to wear out, I ask the parents to let the kids run free in the park or on the beach. This is usually a relief for the parents so they don’t have to wrangle their kids for a minute, and it gives you the opportunity to shoot candids of the kids for 5- 10 minutes. Once the kids have had a good break, you’ll have smiles for the next few poses. • Don’t make grumpy kids grumpier. Too often when one of the kids starts crying or is grumpy, the photographer (a total stranger to the kid) starts talking to them and pointing at them and doing silly things to make the kid happier. That might be okay for babies, but it makes most kids even grumpier or more shy. The parents will most likely be more successful in talking with the kid. The photographer’s job is to support the parents in making the session happy for the kids so chat with mom ahead of time about bringing a favorite toy or bribing item ☺#
GROUP PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS • Get the heads on different levels: This posing tip is first for a reason. It is probably the easiest way to dramatically improve your compositions for group photography. The idea is that you get the people to be on all different levels so that any pattern of heights does not distract the viewer from seeing the group as being one cohesive unit. In the photo at the right, you can see that the parents are roughly equal in height, and the children are equal in height. Standing this way would be fine for a snapshot, but it does not look like professional posing. Changing this pose up just slightly could make a big impact in the overall photo. • Make sure no one is covered up: Pretty simple, but it can ruin even the best poses if someone’s face is covered and it is so easy to keep rolling through a shoot and not notice a little thing like that...trust me! Just remember to scan the entire group before taking the photo to make sure that everyone can clearly see the camera. I often say to a large group “If you can’t see the camera, I can’t see you.” and people wiggle around so they can see you and be seen. • Use a triangle as a composition technique: Triangles are an underused tool of composition, and yet it is probably the most important rule of composition for shooting group photos. It will be unlikely that you could successfully shoot a group photo following the rule of thirds. Wouldn’t it look strange to have the family squished off into the corner of the photo and then a giant space of nothingness in the rest of the shot? Yes, it would. So the best way to compose group photos is to use triangles to your advantage. Have the group positioned so the bottom of the people is wider and have only one person at the top of the pose. This makes the group look like a single unit and the composition looks complete. • Don’t get too “creative” in your posing: It might seem like a good idea, but seriously… don’t do anything embarrassing like in the photo on the left. Group photos can get awkward fast if you aren’t careful. • Make sure there are no distractions behind or around you. This is a HUGE problem at weddings. If people can be looking at something else, they often will. So snap a burst of images to be sure at least most of your group is looking at the camera and so try to get the distactions away from the scene if possible. • Give them a break! Often between frames I will put my camera down and pretend to fiddle with settings, just so that the group can relax their faces and posture. Its touch work smiling away while you do your job, just give them a break every once in a while and they photos will be better than if you snap away.
PET PHOTOGRAPHY • View at pet-level: Shooting images at their level brings you into their world. Too many people take pictures of their pets from a standing position. Get down and show them at their best. • The eyes tell the story: Make sure to capture the eyes of your pet in your images, and make sure they are tack sharp. Shoot a lot of images, because every second can be a different look. This is true when photographing people, too. It is amazing how two images taken a split second apart can show a totally different expression. • Endless energy makes for great photography: One of the great advantages of digital photography is that you can take hundreds of pictures at almost no cost. I can keep throwing a toy for the puppy and then shoot his run back to me. Just play with them ☺ • Capture your pet’s personality: Both kids and pets have a lot of personality, and your job is to capture that personality in a photo. Regardless of the subject, I would rather let them be themselves and capture images of who they really are, than pose them. If you want to catch your pet’s true personality, let them go about their normal routine and follow them with your camera. Don’t direct the action, just let it happen in front of you. • When all else fails, bribery is your best friend. A little treat goes a long way with pets (and people) so be sure to have a back up treat in your pocket or near by.
ACTION PHOTOGRAPHY • Plan ahead! Carefully plan where you will set up. I can’t tell you how many parents I see on the sidelines shooting their son’s soccer game from the middle of the field. Since the action will mostly occur near the goal, that is a much better place to set up. No matter what action you are going to shoot, you need to predict where you can be to capture the face of the subject. • Pre-focus. Focus on a spot where you know action will take place and snap the shot as soon as you get someone in your range. This will take practice so be patient, but try to anticipate where action will take place • Shoot in short bursts. Don’t shoot to many shots at once, which will fill up your buffer & could cost you the shot. Make sure you have a fast memory card, which will slow down that buffering time as well. • Shoot JPEG. Action photography is one of the only times that I switch over to JPEG. Since JPEG files are much smaller than RAW files, most DSLRs can capture a few more frames per second on JPEG than RAW. • Give the subject space to move. For fast-moving subjects, the best composition is usually to allow some negative space on the side of the photo where they are traveling. • Don’t miss the face. Capturing the expression of the subject will add much more drama to a photo. • Get down low. One of the most important–and lesser-known–composition tips is that shooting from down low will make your subject look powerful and dramatic. Excellent for portraits of athletes as well. • Shoot with two eyes open. Closing one eye lessens your ability to determine depth and hinders your eye’s ability to track movement. It takes some practice.
POSING • Don’t shoot shoulders square on. Shoulders are the widest part of a body and as a photographer it is our job to flatter the least flattering parts of our bodies. Shooting straight on is not flattering. Angle the shoulders slightly to lead the viewer into the photo. • If it bends, then bend it. Don’t let your clients have straight joints. It looks stiff and unrelaxed. Asking your client instead to slightly bend an arm or walk as they have their photo taken will help your client look relaxed and naturally posed. This rule also applies to the neck. If the neck looks stiff, ask your client to tilt their head slightly. • Shoot at eye level, or better from above. Shooting from below a person makes even the most gorgeous subject look awkward. Shooting from above can make someone appear slimmer, eliminates double chins, and can provide a beautiful look into your subjects eyes. Shooting from below can make someone’s hips appear wider than they are or any other body part and this is generally unflattering. • Put weight on the back leg. Have clients angle their shoulders so they’re not square to your camera and put their weight on their back leg. This automatically makes them relax. • Give your clients lots of direction. Most people are uncomfortable in front of the camera and you have to direct them. Giving them direction will help them feel confident and that confidence will show up in the photos. • Let one pose become many. You can move your own feet, or zoom in or zoom out or move slightly to the side and take photos from different angles. Shooting with a fixed lens will force you to move around to recompose, so try it! • Talk to your subjects and give them encouragement. When they’re in front of the camera they can’t see what they look like and they need to know if they look good. When they hit a good pose or you’re taking photos that you know have hit the mark, let them know how good they look. Talk to your subjects before you start shooting to get to know them a little. Talk while you walk around between shots. Just keep communicating with your subjects and they will be more relaxed throughout because they will trust you
TITLE • Give them something to do with their hands. They can touch their cheek, run their hands through their hair, put their hands on a nearby object…something. • Show them what you mean. Instead of trying to tell your client how to pose, get in the pose to show them how you want it to look. You’re a photographer right? You are visual and probably learn visually and it’s likely that your clients are visual learners too! • Get close. One of the biggest newbie mistakes is to shoot from far away and get lots of the background or landscape in the photo. This happens a lot when we’re not confident with posing. If you force yourself to get close the photo becomes more about the clients and their interactions with each other or with you than about the background. • Limbs. If you are cropping out anyone’s body ensure that your crop lines do not fall at the joints (wrists, knees, elbows, etc.). When this happens it gives the appearance that the subject’s body does not continue past the frame of the photo. Instead if you have to crop, do it where there isn’t a join and this will give the impression that the rest of their arm, leg, etc. continues beyond the photo. • Watch for shadows and light. There’s a reason a lot of photographers like to shoot in that ‘golden hour’ either in the wee hours in the morning or just before sunset. The light is even and not harsh and it prevents you from having strange shadows on your clients faces. Shadows below the nose or below the eyes can give your client the appearance of not being as good looking as they truly are. Whatever time of day you are shooting aim to ensure that your clients faces are in perfectly even light where there are no harsh shadows. If you have to shoot in the middle of the day, shoot in the shade. • Sometimes people’s faces get stiff. Ask your clients to take a deep breath and breath out with their lips slightly open. The few moments after this your clients face will be relaxed and natural – so snap a few. If that doesn’t work, ask them to do the “pufferfish” face where they blow up their cheeks and then let it all out. That helps their face to relax too. If you do it with them, they won’t feel as silly.
TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY • Pack lightly. Lugging around a long list of photography equipment can be exhausting and impractical where airline weight and baggage restrictions are concerned. Do you have a favourite go to lens? Bring it and maybe one other with you and make them work for you. You'll be more apt to bring your camera along wherever you go the easier it is to carry. • Capture details about the place you're visiting that make it unique. Create a collection of photos that contrast the differences between the place you're visiting and where you call home. Differences in plant life, local crops, foods, climate, architecture, etc. Turn your camera away from the easy to spot characteristics of a place and look for more obscure details to photograph. Road signs in different languages, the local people and what they like to do, stores in the area, what a typical street looks like. • Capture a variety of different kinds of photos from close ups to landscapes. Pay close attention to the background of your photos and include information that gives your photos context. Where you were, what the surroundings were like, how the weather was. Closeups are great, but including some of the background scenery tells a story. • Hand the camera over to someone else and get in a shot or two or even give them the job of playing photographer for the day. Capturing the trip from a travel companions perspective can be fun and provides a totally different vantage point. • When travelling, space is always a concern. No room to bring home much in the way of souvenirs or memorabilia? Why not snap a quick picture of those items you wish you could bring home instead. • Think of yourself as the storyteller of your trip. Capture the details of your journey from start to finish. From packing, arriving at your destination, the fun you had while there and your return home. • While capturing a plethora of beautiful photos from your trip is great, don't forget to put the camera away sometimes and soak it all in. Enjoy the details with all of your senses and create memories to attach to your photographs. Taking photos is great but knowing when to put the camera away is great too.
TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY MISTAKES • Common Mistake: Trying to squeeze a sweeping landscape into one measly frame. For Best Results: “STITCH” the landscape together with multiple frames by using a tripod or a ledge for support while panning across the horizon and clicking away. • Common Mistake: Overlooking the intricate details. For Best Results: Seek out the building's most notable elements and snap those—and only those. • Common Mistake: Pulling back to snap both an object and its double. For Best Results: If you zero in on just the reflection, you'll walk away with a far more surprising photo. • Common Mistake: Just, you know, standing there. For Best Results: Don't fight the temptation to ham it up—after all, you're on vacation. If you give every person in the group a pose to strike (however hokey), you'll ensure everyone is engaged and alert. • Common Mistake: Shooting down on a plate from directly above. For Best Results: Hold your camera at a slight angle to the food and tweak the place setting to play up atmospheric details. • Common Mistake: Relying on lamps for illumination. For Best Results: Go natural. Identify when your room gets the best sunlight-mornings and late afternoons are often the most flattering-then throw back the curtains and turn off your camera's flash.
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