photography tips Archives - Page 9 of 13

Travel Photography Tips

busy airport photo — Picture yourself trudging down this concourse loaded with camera gear - by Brian Robert Marshall

Tis the season when families consider making the trek through wild weather and brave crowded airports to spend the holidays with family and friends. Travel photography presents its own set of challenges and a shortened equipment list. Here are my tips to get great pictures while not losing the feel of being on vacation.

Pack Light

Hauling a full-size DSLR on vacation travel is a non-starter for many people, even some photographers. These days you don’t have to with cameras like the Nikon J1 and the Sony NEX-5 (compare).

With these new compact, mirrorless cameras sporting large sensors in a small frame camera, there’s little reason to drag your full size DSLR along on vacation or family get togethers, unless you’re really a glutton for neck strain.

Modern Zoom Lenses Mean Fewer To Pack

The zoom range of some modern lenses means fewer you need to carry. With lenses like Tamron’s new 18-270mm zoom lens you don’t need to bring the bag. That is a crazy long zoom range. Criticized for having a slightly louder focus motor than the Canon lenses, I’ll put up with a little noise if it means I don’t have to carry a lens bag through a gate change in Atlanta.

Speaking of Bags, Get a Good One

A well-constructed padded bag is a necessity for your camera gear. Look for names like Lowepro, Canon, Think Tank and Domke. Don’t forget about the new sling-style bags that look like bike messenger bags. Those are super easy on your neck and leave both hands free for carrying your other luggage.

Take a Spare Data Card

Nothing can spoil the holiday mood like a data card going bad. I’ve had two SanDisk cards fail on me, one in the middle of a once-in-a-lifetime event. Now I always have an emergency spare data card taped to my camera strap, besides the spare card. If it’s in a bag, it can get lost. If it’s in a pocket it can fall out. Taped to my camera strap is the only place I know it will be with me where ever I happen to be shooting.

Spare Batteries

I carry a pack of AA batteries with me all the time and always have a spare camera battery charged and ready. There’s an unwritten rule in nature that camera batteries must always run out at the most inconvenient moment. I pretty much use the same rule for my camera battery as I do for the gas tank in the car: Never below one quarter. Newer batteries don’t develop charge memory like the old NiCads, so there’s less incentive to push it. When my camera battery gets below half, I swap it out and put the other one on the charger.

Plan ahead and make a minimal investment in some decent gear and you’ll have much easier travel experience and enjoyable holiday.

Studio Lighting Basics – Three Point Lighting

This is the first installment of a long series of articles shot and composed with the help of professional photographer Karl Leopold at ImagesForever.net in Melbourne Beach, Florida. Karl is one of the top photographers in the area and president of the Atlantic Professional Photographers Association and graciously opened his studio up and lent his expertise to us for this series.

the basic three point lighting setup — The basic three-point lighting setup

While we’re going to start with an overview of basic three point studio lighting, this series may jump around a bit as basic lighting touches on several peripheral topics that are key to understanding how good portraits are composed along with studio lighting.

First, the equipment we had to work with:

key and fill spacing — The Key is the black Fomex on the right and the fill is the Octodome on the left. Please note that flower leis are not stock equipment on Alien Bees

Our key light is an Alien Bees 800 in a Fomex rectangular soft box

Our fill is an Alien Bees 800 in a 48 inch Octodome

The hair light is an Ultra 1800 fitted with a grid screen on a boom

Throughout the shoot we used only a single modeling light on the Fomex soft box.

We maintained a consistent distance to the subject the old-fashioned way, with a string to the center of the key soft box.

Start off with a meter check to make sure we're in the ballpark

All the lights are on PocketWizard Plus remotes and the transmitter on my Canon 7D was a PocketWizard MiniTTL. The lens was a stock Canon 28-135mm zoom set to my closest eyeball approximation to 85mm.

All camera settings were manual unless otherwise stated, we used 1/125 of second for a shutter speed through the entire series. The f stop varied as I’ll explain in the article.

check distance — Karl checking distance the old fashioned way - So we didn't have to do meter checks constantly

I did minimal post processing adjustments on the pictures so you can see the difference in the lighting. Standard color correction and cropping is all that was done.

The Setup

While the layout of a basic three point setup is fairly straightforward, it’s actually a little tricky to get everything working together properly.

First we moved the key 10 degrees off the camera axis and shot a key only test. That’s actually not bad, if a little flat.

front key only — This is the key only, about 10 degrees off the camera axis - A little flat but not bad

Next we added in the fill and you can see that gave us much more natural looking lighting and skin tones, but our subject’s hair looks a little flat. That’s where the hair light comes in.

As you can see the hair light really helps separate the subject from the background. It highlights her hair, but also her back shoulder, which changes the entire character of the photo and makes the background more distant.

fill plus key — This is adding the fill - As you can see it yields a much more natural looking light

key, fill, plus hair light — What a difference the hair light makes! See how it separates the subject from the background

Tips For Better Golden Hour Shooting

golden hour photo — Golden hour is officially 6 degrees above the horizon to 6 degrees below - By Phil Sangwell

The term “golden hour” is somewhat of a misnomer as the actual time may be somewhat less or more than an hour, depending on where you live. When you’re in the middle of shooting and trying to find the perfect moment, it sometimes seems to fly by in just a few minutes. One thing is for sure, when you really need the shot it will never be long enough.

Golden hour is another one of those areas where video and photography intersect. If you’ve ever been on a movie set late in the day, there will be one person obsessing, “We’re losing the light!” every time shooting stops. That would be the DP, or DOP in the U.K., the person responsible for the videography and camera work and they would be in a hurry to capture as much footage as possible before losing that wonderfully warm late day lighting.

The technical definition of “golden hour” are the times from when the sun is 6 degrees above the horizon, until it is 6 degrees below the horizon. That wonderful reddish gold color comes from sunlight passing through more atmosphere before striking the ground and more of the light in the blue spectrum being scattered, leaving behind reds and gold. Aside from the color temperature, there’s also a difference in the quality of the light. Shadows are less distinct, the lines between colors less obvious.

These days there are some wonderful web sites that will take the guesswork out of golden hour, where ever you happen to live. iPhone and iPad users can also find apps that will pinpoint morning and late day golden hour times where you are. A few minutes research will save a lot of time standing around waiting for the light.

Tips For Golden Hour Shooting

You can maximize your shooting time at the end of the day with a few simple tips.

1) Bring a monopod or tripod – You’re working with fading light and your exposure times will get progressively longer as the light fades. The shutter speed jumps can sneak up on you in rapidly changing lighting conditions.

2) Turn off AWB – Turn off your camera’s Automatic White Balance. As the color temperature of the light around you changes, your camera may be tempted think you’re in a place with incandescent lights and try to color correct the results.

3) Bring an external flash – If you have one, bring it. There are many situations where foreground subjects will be underexposed, or you’ll lose the quality of the background light with a long exposure. Don’t hesitate to try a shorter exposure and fill in with an external flash as appropriate.

4) Consider gels for your flash – If you want to try and match your fill flash to the warmer late day lighting, consider covering the fill flash with a warm up gel.

5) Look for silhouette opportunities – Take advantage of underexposed foreground another way by exposing for the ambient light and silhouette your subject.

There are lots of neat experiments you can try with late day lighting. Plan ahead, shoot fast, and enjoy those golden rays!

In The Digital Age Prints Still Rule

Your prints may not appear in an art gallery, but you still want them to look good - by Spiritia

Even in the digital age there is a lot of demand for prints. As far as digital picture frames have come in form and function, there’s something uniquely personal and appealing about a quality print. Probably one of the reasons you won’t find many galleries using digital displays.

The good news is you have a bewildering array of really chic display options on a variety of new papers and print materials. The same care you put into taking pictures should be put into the printing and display, after all that’s how the world will see your work. Most of these suggestions are offered by more than one lab, so shop competitively.

Floating Gallery Blocks

These come in a bewildering number of options and arrangements. I’d spend some time comparing the possible design and layout options.

I also count Splits and Clusters in this group, which gives you even more options and price points. You can get everything from desk size splits up to full-size room hangings. They can be made from a single print or multiple photos.

Press Printed Books

Few things can highlight your work like a well-designed press printed book. Select both the pictures and background with custom colors and binding options.

Again, a product that is going to take a bit of research when it comes to selecting the photos, paper, and binding options. I’d suggest springing the extra money for the lay-flat page binding.

Textured Prints

You can choose from textured paper, canvas, linen hand-tinted canvas, and a world of different types of paper finishes.

This category also includes the new metallic papers, which can make your colors pop. Really good prints on metallic paper can look like they’re back lit.

Metal Prints

These are really popular right now. Choose from printing on standard aluminum sheets, or get the type that are shaped to stand on their own.

The advantage to metal prints is, under the right conditions, they’ll last a lifetime. Beyond that it’s just neat, a photo print on a piece of metal. Seriously, how cool is it they can do that?

Glass Prints

For something different you might want to try printing on glass. I stumbled upon this company a few weeks back, there process really makes the pictures come to life.

You can also have your own pictures printed on almost anything you can imagine: Calendars, coffee mugs, t-shirts, blankets, greeting cards, just about anything.

When Do I Need a Model Release?

One question I get frequently is, “When do I need a model release?” First, This is not intended to be legal advice, that’s what your lawyer gets paid to dispense. This is my understanding of when you need a release.

Also understand that the answer will sometimes vary depending on who you’re asking. If you’re asking a stock photo agency that you want to list your images, then the answer is what they tell you. Every company is different and some require that you use their forms. Be sure and understand the agency-specific requirements before you start shooting for stock photography.

You Do Not Need a Release To Take Someones Picture

A common myth in some circles is that you need a release to take a picture of someone you don’t know. You do not need a release or even permission to photograph someone, provided that person is in a public place and not anywhere they might have a reasonable expectation of privacy (i.e. the bathroom, a changing room, etc.).

You Do Not Need a Release For Artistic or Journalistic Expression

You generally do not need a release to use your own photos in a gallery display or other artistic expression, even though those activities might also involve you selling your pictures.

In addition, you can still sell those photos to newspapers, magazines, trade journals, and educational publications. Few of the newspaper photographers I know ever bother with releases, unless they think the shot might be used for something other than news reporting.

If this were not the case, paparazzi and sports photographers would be out of business overnight. This is also referred to as “editorial use” in some circles.

You Positively Will Need a Release For Any Type of Commercial Use

Any image of identifiable subjects that might imply commercial use or endorsement, such as commercial web sites, brochures, print advertisements, billboards and magazine ads (different than images used in a story), will require a model release.

This is how the whole concept of celebrity endorsement works. You can take a picture of Lindsay Lohan ducking into a nightclub and sell it to the tabloids, but the club owner cannot use the image in an ad that implies endorsement without Ms. Lohan’s signature on a release.

Since stock photo agencies are in business specifically to sell images for web sites, brochures, billboards and other commercial uses, you will need a signed model release for any photo containing identifiable people.

Minors

Minors cannot legally enter into a valid contract, period. Anyone under 18 will need a release signed by their parent or guardian.

Property Releases

Property releases apply to pets and identifiable property and buildings. In most cases, you will need a signed property release to sell images of a particular building or animals.

Public buildings and landmarks are exempt, though you can get into trouble photographing government buildings these days due to security concerns. There are also some exemptions for skylines, where a particular building is part of the landscape. Those exceptions are not always clear.

Some Gray Areas

Even though the rules are fairly simple, there are some gray areas that I’ll mention in passing.

Political Endorsements – This is one of those areas that can go either way, depending on the circumstances. Just to be on the safe side, I try to get a release for anything that might imply endorsement of a particular candidate or position.

Events – Most venues have language on the ticket stubs that if you’re there, you consent to be photographed for the purposes of endorsement. This is kind of a gray area, so it’s one of those times you actually might need to talk to your lawyer.

No matter how careful you are, you can still get sued. You’re going to be better protected in cases when you have a signed model release.

Needless to say, save those releases forever.

Book Reference: A Digital Photographers Guide To Model Releases by Dan Heller

Video: Ignore the hammy dialog until the lawyer talks.

Model Releases Sample
Getty Images

BetterPhoto.com