Make a Good Shot Even Better with a Model

When you look at this shot what do you see?
The rustic fence's strong lines draw the viewer naturally down the path. The bright patch in the clearing serves as a destination for the eye that makes this photo somewhat pleasing. Overall its not a bad journey. It evokes a calm and peaceful feeling as well.

Now, What would make this a better shot?
Placing a model at the end of the road would certainly help, but there are a few considerations first.

1. What she's wearing can either make her stand out or loose her to the background. A tan coat would be a poor choice with the colors in the clearing.
   
2. Stance goes a long way in creating a feeling. Should she be coming to greet you or walking away? Should she stand stable and confident, or a bit tentative and unsure?
   
3. Using a prop can help tell the story. In this example, a brightly colored umbrella would serve to attract the viewers attention. The way in which the umbrella can say a great deal as well. If she holds it askew it evokes a tentative feel. Imagine a tightrope walker with an umbrella in one hand and an out stretched arm to keep balance.

With these in mind, have a good look at the image below:



You can see...
In this simple example how adding a model adds so much more to an image. It tells a story for the viewer and evokes feelings not present in the original image.

So...
The next time you raise the camera to your eye, think of how adding the human element could tell yet another story.

Enjoy!

The TWiP Two Model Shoot

One event,
two stunning models, three wardrobe changes, six professional lights and... 100 Bay Area photographers... made for a great way to spend a Monday evening!

The event was sponsored by SmugMug, Peachpit publishing, BorrowLenses.com, and Eye-Fi, each donating time, personnel, and products that made for a successful shoot.

Arriving early,
gave me a chance to meet the sponsors, greet the models and make-up artist, and help set up some of the lighting. Little by little the group began trickling in and, when it reached "critical mass", our TWiP (This Week in Photography Podcast) host Frederick Van Johnson, began the introductions.

Each model took her place and started taking direction from photographers one by one. One of the studio sets used a Pro-photo lighting trigger similar to the pocket wizard, but with the ability to adjust the intensity from the hot-shoe mounted transmitter. Pretty convenient and so easy to dial it in. The only way to go with all the various camera brands in the room!

Continuous tungsten lighting
on the other set made for an excellent way to see how the lighting would look on each model without firing test shots. True WYSIWYG at its best. The soft boxes did a good job at keeping the talent cool.

Overall, the participants were cordial
and respectful of the subjects. Few took the time to actually direct: "Turn away slightly, chin forward, half smile, look up okay...". Later on the models stated they liked being directed. It gave them a chance to see what the photographer was after.


It must have been daunting
for the models: posing for two hours in front of a hundred photographers. (I wished they would have played "Paparazzi" by Lady GaGa.) One commented that her cheeks began to hurt from smiling so much. Poor thing!

The mood was electrifying:
Flashes popping every second, hundreds of cameras, and really good talent in the room made for some exquisite imagery. Passers-by asked what all the commotion was. One even thought that there were movie stars in the room!


It all ended too soon. Before I knew it, we switched off the lights, folded up the backdrops, and said goodbye to our new friends. Not bad for a Monday night!

Wow, what a surprise!

See 11/19/2009 update below...


Many of my friends
and family members know me as a computer geek. I've built PC's for years, constantly upgrading and tweaking, overclocking, etc... I know my way around the PC world pretty well. I've even dabbled in Linux and have built up servers for all my music.

Lately, since photography has "captured" my interest,
I've been noticing the limitations of PC monitors. I can really tell the difference now that I sell licenses on iStock. I spend hours tweaking things on the photo to increase the chances of having it accepted for sale. Now I notice the corners of the screen are a bit darker than the center. The upper left has a green tinge, while the lower right has a purple one. You can imagine how difficult it is to edit on something like this.

So...I decided to get a Mac,
The Macintosh screens are known for their quality and precision. Most photographers I know use macs exclusively. This would be my first one. The new iMacs just came out and I fell in love with the 27" version: the quad-core. I agonized for weeks over the decision and finally made it two nights ago.

The purchase experience was awesome; Whoever designed that should get a big pat on the back. No registers, staff handling the transaction form anywhere in the store are nice touches. I was in and out in no time; albeit a few thousand bucks poorer. Carrying the heavy box to the car was a bit of a chore. The box was pretty...pretty heavy!

Once I got home,
one of my daughters helped with the ceremonial "un-boxing" It was a hoot setting it all up. I plugged in the power, turned on the wireless keyboard and the "magic mouse". I reached behind the smooth round rear of this gorgeous piece of hardware, found the subtle power button and pressed it ever so gently. I felt giddy with excitement! I heard the drive whir and the glorious chime that macs make when they start up. My daughter and I jumped back and rubbed our hands together.....

Then????
Nothing... I heard the start-up routing asking me to choose a language, but no lights, no signs video at all??? Bbbut this is a Mac! this isn't supposed to happen, ever!

I saw John Hodgeman smirking at me.

A quick call
to the Apple Store and I was invited to bring it back for a quick exchange. "Has this ever happened before?" I asked. "Not to the quad-core's the salesman answered" Hmmm Some of the Mac forums say otherwise. Maybe this is a first production run quality issue. I just hope they have a replacement in stock, one that works!

So tomorrow,
I'll schlep the pretty and heavy box back to get an exchange from the cheerful folks at the Apple store. I'll post again with the experience and hopefully it will be a *nice* surprise this time!

Update 11/19/2009
On my lunch hour today, I paid a visit to the apple store. I met a lovely sales associate there who brought a cart out to my car to gingerly transport my DOA mac into the store. After verifying that the screen was in-fact dead, she returned with a brand new machine. I was in and out in about 30 minutes. I'm writing this post from the replacement machine now. The whole experience was pretty nice. I'll give Apple credit for their customer service!

Macro Shots -- On the Cheap

Lately
I've been inspired by some of the macro photography seen on Flickr. Years ago I had a Minolta X700 SLR. Being a college student at the time, I had little money for gear. One thing I did have that was relatively cheap was something called a "Reversing Ring"

This little gem threaded onto the front of my 50 mm lens (my *only* lens) and allowed it to be mounted backwards. Flipping the lens around moves the focal point further in front of the film plane of camera which does two things:

1. It increases the magnification
2. It decreases the minimum focal distance (allowing you to get really close to your subject)

Essentially, using a reversing ring converts your 50 mm "portrait lens" into a really nice "macro lens" and it does so for less that 20 bucks! There are no additional optics involved. There are some drawbacks to the reversing ring however, is that neither the aperture or the auto-focus works.

Getting a bonafide macro lens will set you back about 500 dollars, but you get full aperture and auto-focus control. Still, the limited utility make this route hard to fathom for the average hobbyist. I mean, with a macro lens, you can only shoot macros, right?

There is another low-cost solution.
Something called an "extension tube" can accomplish the same task as the spendy macro prime lens, but only costs about 90 bucks. Kenko offers a set of three for about $170. An extension tube mounts onto the back of your lens and then onto the front of your camera. They have electrical and mechanical pass-through connections that operate both the aperture and the auto-focus system on some cameras. Tubes come in various lengths (measured in mm) the longer the length, the higher the magnification.


In use,
these tubes expose a whole new world of wonder. In the lead photo at the top, for example, a simple chrome handle becomes something magical, reflecting the entire room. If you look closely, you can see the blades of lens's aperture showing that it was stopped way down to get the maximum depth of field.

So consider
getting a reversing ring or an extension tube to get a new perspective on everyday objects. You'll be glad you did!

Further Reading:

Flickr Group "Closer and Closer"

Reversing Rings

Extension Tubes

Frames Within Frames

As a photographer,
I've learned a great deal about composition. Making an image that captures the viewers interest is something we all strive for in this crowded world. Its a way we can stand out among thousands of others.

One of the ways
to compose an interesting image is to look for frames within frames. Our eyes are naturally drawn into the frame. Is it because we humans are natural-born explorers? Perhaps its because there is symmetry: the photo frame mimicks the subject frame.

Whatever it is,
composing an image like this is pretty easy to do and the results can make your image really pop. The next time your out with your camera, look for ways to frame your shot within a frame; you'll be surprised at how it turns out!

Eliminating Distractions

One of the most important aspects of good composition is how the subject relates to the background. This can be important in conveying a feeling.


In this picture
we see two snow egrets flying low across the glassy water. The background is completely void of any distractions. Your eye is drawn to the subject and then down to the reflection. If I did my job right, you feel the serenity and quietness of the scene. Maybe you even feel a bit lonely.

Half the battle of being a photographer is knowing how to post process the image. This can be as simple as fixing a blemish on an otherwise perfect portrait, dodging (lightening) the subject to draw attention, or as drastic as compositing (combining multiple images) to create a something that never actually happened. It all depends on what you, the artist, are trying to convey.

If your goal is
to be as realistic as possible, as in photojournalism, then post processing has to be light. Maybe only adjusting the contrast, reducing the digital noise, or tweaking the brightness is all that's allowed.

For this image, I cropped vertical, and used Photoshop to clone out the background leaving only the two birds. The original image below shows quite a different scene. Shot by the side of the busy road, these two birds were not alone at all.

When I first looked at the image, I almost threw it out. There was so much going on, and my low ISO/slow shutter speed made for some motion blur. But, in post, I was able to clean it up quite a bit.

We, as photographers,
should always try to get it right in the camera, but sometimes things happen way too fast for us to think. These "grab shots" don't often turn out well, but, before you press that "delete button", ask yourself, could I fix this in Photoshop? Many times the answer is Yes!

Contests and Critiques

Sometimes
I look at a published photo and say to myself: "I could shoot that!" We have all said that from time to time, but could you really? How do you know how your work would stack up?

There are two ways that I know of to find out: Contests and Critiques

Entering photo contests can be a bit scary, but rewarding if you can keep at it. The other day I was talking to one of my photographer friends who'd won a photography contest for his school. He was excited at receiving the notoriety and earning the respect of others. We are all a bit insecure on the inside, especially as artists, so winning a contest is like a validation.

As we spoke,
I remembered a contest I'd won back when digital images were far less known. In 2000, our local paper, the San Jose Mercury News was running a digital photo contest.

Entrants were asked to email their best shot to be judged among others. I'd taken this photo four years prior on a Winter's day with my SLR and Kodak ASA 200 film. I have to credit my wife, Lilia, for suggesting the shot after my daughter fell asleep on the baby scale. The image came out a little too blue for my taste; the kitchen skylight was the culprit, so I scanned the print and adjusted the color balance to warm things up a bit.

I remember finding out that I'd won a week or so before the story ran. One of the editors requested the file in TIFF format for printing. The image barely fit on a floppy disk.

The day the paper came out was pretty cool. Phone calls from local family members and a few kind-hearted strangers made that day very special to me. I was published!

Another way is through critiques.
Its so easy for us to share our images these days. Sites like Flickr and Picassa make it simple to expose your art to the public eye. Anyone can comment on your image, but if you are trying to improve, these comments are generally only positive.

What's missing is the critique. There are groups within Flickr that will provide feedback on your images; Try searching for "critique" and join. Keep in mind that you'll get many differing opinions and be ready to get slammed once in a while. Remember, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger!

So enter a contest the next time you see one. Be wary of those with an entry fee. (See the link below for further reading.) Join Flickr and then a "critique" group. Remember only upload your best work, and don't be afraid of the negative comments Each one adds a little clarity to your vision!

Further reading:

Scott Bourne's take on contest legitimacy.
Flicker critique groups