Capturing God s Creation Through The Lens Session 3 From Snap Shots to Great Shots January 20, 2013 Donald Jin donjin@comcast.net
Course Overview Jan 6 Setting The Foundation Jan 13 Building Your Craft Jan 20 From Snapshots to Great Shots Jan 27 Sharing the Beauty Introduction and overview Understanding light and exposure The mechanics of good exposure Capabilities and limitations of your own camera Building on our understanding of light, we will discuss how to use light to shape our compositions Examine traditional rules of composition so we know when to ignore and break them Using depth of field and bokeh as composition elements Recipe for a good photograph How to avoid common mistakes and pitfalls Simple tricks to instantly improve your photography Photo enhancing software, digital workflow, archiving your photos, and options for sharing your work with friends and family The joy of photography comes from not only in making the photographs but in sharing them, especially with fellow photographers. On this last class, students will be encouraged to bring samples of their own work and share it with the rest of the class.
Beauty can be seen in all things, seeing and composing the beauty is what separates the snapshot from the photograph. Matt Hard
Snapshot vs. Great Shot Snapshot Great Shot Shot spontaneously and quickly Often without artistic or journalistic intent Often lacks single point of interest Commonly considered technically "imperfect" or amateurish: Out of focus Poorly framed or composed Improperly exposed Shot with intent and purpose Has one dominant point of interest Properly Focused Exposed Composed
Let s Get It Sharp all the time Hold your camera steady Use Tripod If no tripod, use any other support available Use two hands! Shoot at highest shutter speed possible while maintaining proper exposure Take control of the AF point Focus at the focal length you plan to shoot Use anti-shake features in your camera Canon: IS (Image Stabilization) Nikon: VR (Vibration Reduction) Rule of Thumb: To determine the slowest shutter speed possible for hand-holding, take the reciprocal of the focal length of the lens. For example, at a focal length of 125 mm, don t go slower than 1/125 second. Others: Steady Shot, Optical Stabilization, Vibration Compensation, etc.
Let s Get It Sharp all the time Causes Your subject is moving Your camera is moving You are moving Your shutter speed is too slow Most likely, the combination of above Quick Fixes Wait for the right moment (anticipate) Choose the right spot and the right moment Hold your camera steady (two hands) Use remote release Timer Lift mirror Steady yourself Use the proper shutter speed
Red Eye Causes Occurs at night when using oncamera flash Low light condition causes the iris to open up Direct flash bounces the light off the retina and back into the camera lens. The red color comes from the blood vessel in the retina Some animals have a reflective layer over their retina causing a bright reflection, not red. Quick Fixes Use Red Eye reduction in camera (available in most P&S) Brighten the surrounding (turn on lights) Turn off the flash and use only ambient light Take flash off the camera
How can we improve the following photos?
Watch the Background Watch For Trees, poles and other foreign objects coming out of the head Horizon cutting across the head or neck Cluttered background Too dark or too bright background Quick Fixes Move your subject Move yourself Change the angle of the camera Use aperture or focal length (telephoto) to blur the background. Remember DOF and bokeh? Place subject in front of open space Get close and Fill the Frame Post process
If you can t move the subject Try getting closer to fill the frame or
If you can t move the subject Try getting closer to fill the frame or Turning your camera
If your pictures aren t good enough, you are not close enough. Robert Capa
Proper usage of Flash
Fill Flash Take camera setting off the Auto mode Use P (Program), Av (Aperture Priority) or Tv (Shutter Priority) to take control of your on-camera flash Use Fill Flash to fill in shadows when shooting outdoors on a sunny day On camera flash is smart enough to fill in just the shadow and not over-expose the areas already lit by the sun If you need more control, try Flash Compensation
Indoor Flash Avoid as much as possible Try other techniques you learned: Wider aperture Slower shutter speed Higher ISO If you must use flash indoors Avoid red eye Avoid placing subject next to a wall Try diffusing or bouncing the flash Flash is only effective to about 9 feet
Direct Flash Diffused Flash
Get Organized Set correct date and time on your camera Avoid spray and pray technique Delete junk immediately Dedicate one folder in your computer for all your photos Use sub-folders to separate photos by subject or date Use image management software to tag and find photos Free Software: Google s Picasa, Flickr, Microsoft s Windows Live Photo Gallery, iphoto (Mac OS) Fee based Software: Aperture, Adobe Elements, Adobe Lightroom, ACDSee Back up your photos Separate HD, or use online services such as Shutterfly, SmugMug, Flickr, or backup services, such as Dropbox and Carbonite
My Workflow Take Photos RAW files Download Lightroom By Capture Date Backup to secondary hard drive Review & Delete Tag Images Rate and Rank 1 to 5 star system Color code for various output Edit Start with 5 stars Photoshop and/or Lightroom Output TIFF and/or JPG files Share and Upload Client delivery Send to Printer Upload to websites Backup To Carbonite
Share Your Photos! Choose up to 3 photos you would like to share with the class Nature, Wildlife, Portraits, Family, Vacations, Travel, Backyard, etc. Email files to me at: donjin@comcast.net Or bring them on CD/DVDs or Thumb drives