D.I.Y. Photography

I'm terrible!

2010-07-29T12:52:00.000-07:00

I'm so sorry it has been so long since I posted last! There are posts I'm working on and photography things I've been working on, but pretty much everything in my life right now (excluding my amazing husband and beautiful baby) has taken a back-burner as we get ready to list our house and move.

I was blog-hopping this afternoon and I came across this photography blog. I love this woman's photography, and hope to take pictures as nice as hers someday.

It's been a while since I've visited her blog, so I scrolled down a few posts and came across this post. I thought the photos were rather nice, and so I put my thinking cap on, and asked myself, "how can I take photos like that?"

And I realized something.

The original photos were not all that impressive!

Don't get me wrong, the colours were nice and the lighting was great, but I could take any one of those photos. And when you look at a professional photographer's photos and realize you could have taken that, then USUALLY either you're doing really well, or they're just not up to par.

There are exceptions though, and this was one of those, because she didn't just take the photo and throw it up. She did two things that I'd like to draw attention to right now.

1) Put the photos together in a collage

Imagine seeing any one of those photos on their own. It's nice, sure, but kind of meaningless, until you add another photo to it, and another. Then you have a theme, and the pictures all at once bring you to a different place, as the photographer tells a story. Try to make sure the light and white balance settings on your camera are the same throughout, so that the colours work well together in the end. Unless you decide to make it all sepia or black-and-white, that is.

This works mostly if you're doing non-people photography. Try it sometime! Go to a place (any place really, a farm, a zoo, your own house even) and take pictures of the little details that your eye normal passes over when you look around. Usually it's little things. Frame it well, crop it tight, all that good stuff, and then put all of the photos together and you'll have a series of quaint little things that will make just about anyone want to come and see what it's all about.

This is such a nice thing to do if you want to appreciate a place more because, not only do you have to look at the place differently to find the lovable spots, but it also allows you to realize that there is beauty and goodness and a photo to be taken just about anywhere.

Anyway, on to technique #2...

2) Blur the non-essential parts of the photo

Did you notice when you first looked at the photos that the photographer had done this? I need to open up Photoshop Elements and figure out how to do it, but she basically took the subject of the photo, kept it in focus, and then blurred everything else. It looks like some of it was done when she took the picture, but most of it was done after-the-fact with a computer program. Which means you can do it too! You just need to know how. And once I learn how, I'll write about it. ;)

Anyway, look at the photos again, and imagine each one without the blur. Suddenly they're not as impressive, right? Well, I don't think so at least. I think what makes the entire thing impressive is the way they're arranged in a collage, and the way she blurred out everything but the subject.

In fact, she even blurred out parts of the subject now that I look at it. So why would you want to blur out parts of a photo?

It's simple really. If everything is in focus, then everything is competing for your attention, and the subject of the photo loses importance. In short, the background distracts you from what the photographer wanted you to see. And if you think about it, our minds work the same way. You focus on one thing at the a time, and everything else around it is out of focus. And if that's the way your mind works, then it makes sense that we would prefer photos that do that too. They just feel more natural.

So you can do this said blurring technique by using photo-editing software, like photoshop (still need to find out how) or you can do it in-camera, by having a very small depth-of-field. You accomplish this by have a large aperture (f4-f5.6, or larger if you prefer!) and by having your camera close to the subject.

Just a couple examples of blurring out the background in-camera (with a small depth-of-field):

Taken in my house. Notice you can't see the wall behind him, or even the napkin-holder on the table in the bottom left corner?

And here, everything but my little guy to the right is out-of-focus, causing your eye to be drawn to him rather than all the information around him.

So there you have it. One little technique I picked up on the wayside by asking myself, "how can I take photos like that?"

Until next time!

Composition Tips

2010-06-27T12:33:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be honest here, composition is something I struggle with. I think once I know a technique then I can apply it, but my biggest problem is being creative in the moment. I seem to forget everything and revert to my rookie days where I take a photo with 90% background and 10% subject.

The thing that has helped me out the most so far has been my advanced photography class. It has come and gone, but I can see the impact it has had on my photography. I'm not a pro yet (heck I'm not even an amateur really!) but I can see the difference.

So, without further adieu, here are some pointers I picked up in the class.

1) French tilt

At least, that's what I was told it was called. Why? I don't know. Basically, you tilt the camera a little bit. It fills in some corners and somehow makes the shot more compelling.

2) Don't crop the picture at the joints, leaving you wondering where that limb has gone.

Like in the above photo. Here is a better crop line (if I'm not concerned with if it's 8X10, or whatever size):

Which also goes along with the one tip of...

3) Crop it tighter

This one is all according to style and preference, but generally, the closer you crop it, the better the shot, because you're not being distracted by all of the extra in the photo. Here are a couple more examples:

(notice how both of these are on an angle? It's easier to crop things tighter if you're willing to tilt the camera a bit, as per the good old "French Tilt" technique)

4) Look to the left

Okay, so only I call it "Look to the Left" but the idea is that, because we read left-to-right, you generally want the eye to read left-to-right in a photo. That means leaving the blank space at the left side of the photo, and having the content at the right-hand side, if you plan on doing the photo off-centre. Like so:

5) Rule of Thirds

Rather than centering a photo, try lining up the most eye-catching things 1/3 or 2/3 of the way across the photo. It also works vertically as well. In fact, take a clear piece of paper or plastic, and cut it out into the shape of a 4X6 photo. Then measure it out and draw 4 lines so you have 9 equal-sized rectangles, with two vertical and two horizontal ruler-lines. Then you can set it over top of a photo and see if your composition fell on the "rule of thirds" lines. You'll be surprised how often photos you just like for no particular reason follow this "Rule of Thirds" rule....er...guideline...whatever it is!

Here are some examples:

(notice the "Look to the Left" on this one?)

6) Over-expose...just a teeny bit!

From what I've seen, most people photographers tend to over-expose theirs photos a little. Some go a little too far with it, in my opinion, so that when you see that gorgeous wedding dress you can't see ANY of the detail, but a little over-exposed never hurt anyone! It's great though because it also serves the purpose of making the subject's skin more clear and vibrant.

So this is an example of too over-exposed, because there are parts of the skin that are going white. Still though, check out how smooth and luminous my not-so-clear skin looks!

(Okay, so you've already seen this one! Sorry. I don't have a good example on hand, and I don't have time at this moment to look for one! You get the picture, though, right?)

And there you have it. Apart from the last tip, all of these tips can be applied to non-people photography as well. So next time you're out, give it a try! And if you can think of any techniques you like to use that I haven't mentioned in this post, leave them in the comments, as I'm always looking for new ways to take pictures!

What I did today

2010-05-14T18:30:00.000-07:00

This evening I've been fiddling around in photoshop. I'm getting a pretty good handle on some of the functions, though I'm by no means an expert on any of them. I am, however, starting to gain some level of confidence. Kind of like how I feel about Microsoft Word. I can get around and mostly do what I want, even if I'm not using the program to near its full potential.

So here's what I did, in steps:

Step 1 - pick an image that I'd want to photoshop

Easier said than done. Some images are beyond photoshopping, and others I wouldn't know what to do with in photoshop, I like them so much as they are. So here's the image I settled on:

It's not a bad picture, apart from how the little girl is too dark for the background. The two don't really fit together. Now, if we were really thinking, and if we had known how to use it at the time, we'd have pulled out our fancy flash. We'd use it as fill-flash, which is basically where you fill in the missing light on her face, instead of using the flash as the main source of light. But alas, no fancy fill-flash, so I'm left photoshopping it, one year later.

Step 2 - Lasso that girl!

Photoshop has this cool tool called the magnetic lasso. I clicked on that, and then went around the outside of the girl. All you do is run the cursor around what you want to select (or "lasso.") The tool looks for what lines you seem to be following, and assumes the shape you need, although sometimes you have to correct the tool, like when it tried to cut off her thumb.

Here's what she looks like lassoed:

Click on the picture to see it better.

You might be wondering why I needed to lasso her at all. See, if I made the adjustments on the whole picture, then when I tried to brighten it, I'd brighten EVERYthing, but seeing as I just have the girl lassoed, then whatever I need to do next will only apply to what I have selected.

Step 3 - Make an adjustment layer

So next I went to Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Levels... and hit okay. Then I pulled the little gray arrow over towards the left-hand side, which brightens it. Actually, if you want a bit more of an explanation than that, if you pull the white towards the black arrow, then each colour above the white arrow in the spectrum is made white, instead of a shade close to white. Likewise, if you use the black arrow, then each colour beneath the black arrow, but not quite black, is made black instead. It's a good way to get some more contrast in your photo.

I used the grey one, however, and I'm not 100% sure how to explain what it does. All I know is that it lightens it without making the actual pixels white. Maybe they make them grey? I don't know. But it works! So here's the girl made brighter:

Better already, huh? But I'm not done yet.

Step 4 - Saturate the colours a little more

First I hit Select -> Reselect (proof that I'm new at this. There's a quick function that I just discovered while typing this post, which is Shift+Ctrl+D. Who knew?) so that the girl is selected again. Then I went back to Layer -> New Adjustment Layer, except this time I chose "Hue/Saturation..." instead. Then I saturated it a little bit, to make the pinks more pink and that red hat a little more red. Because I'm fake like that, and am not picky as to what the original hat actually looked like. I'm definitely NOT a photo-naturalist. Just so you know!

Here's the screen-shot of the Hue/Saturation layer:

Step 5 - Brighten it up just a touch more, for the fun of it

Okay, so I didn't need to do this, I was just messing around (I'm a learner here, remember?) but I liked the way it looked, so I'm adding it here.

Same as before. Reselect the girl, Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Brightness/Contrast this time.

Aaaaand the screen shot:

So that pretty much does it! And the comparison? I know I'm no pro (if only!) but I think it looks a lot better than the original. This one is actually printable!

Before:

After:

And I could stop there, but there is one more optional step that I'll add below.

Step 6 - Crop it tighter

How you crop your photos is your own choice, but what I learned in my Advanced Photography class is that, usually, the closer you crop comething the better. Just don't (DON'T!!!) cut off someone's limb at the joint. It looks weird to have an entire leg, ankle and all, and no foot. It'd be much better in that case to crop at the calf or thigh.

So, the photo. I cropped it vertically using the rectangular marquee tool with the fixed ratio style. That way I could say, "hey, make this photo 6" high and 4" wide!" and then when I print it it won't get cropped further. So here is the cropped version:

And you know what? While we're at it, let's try something different for the cropping. Amateur photographers always try to centre everything. I know I still do! It takes mental effort to try to make something look artistic, and to force myself away from the middle. Thank goodness for post-production cropping! Here is the other way I cropped the photo, and it looks much more compelling and...and...photographer-y:

Isn't there something magical about an off-centered picture? There's more I could say about cropping it like this, like "rule of thirds", or why it's important that she's on the right side of the photo and not the left, but I'll save it for another day.

But anyway, I think that if that were my little girl, I wouldn't mind that photo on my dresser or in her album. And that thought gives me warm fuzzies inside!

So that's pretty much the extent of what I know how to do in photoshop, apart from using actions (which, I've got to admit, are PRETTY fun! Here's a before and after of one of the actions I like to use:

vs.

(btw, that's me in the middle. 'Cause I don't have a profile photo yet.))

but I feel like I'm really coming along. Everything I know how to do I learned in a few hours from the tutorial that is inside of the program's help menu. I'm hoping that I'll have a head start, and then when I take the photoshop course I want to take in September, then I'll be ahead, and be solidifying my skills. Especially because the class calls for Photoshop Elements, and I'm using CS2.

That's all for now. Until next time!

What I Know So Far - Part One

2010-05-10T10:35:00.000-07:00

This is the post where I begin filling you in on what I already know about photography.

Today's lesson is on the basics, which are aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.

The first and most important things I learned were the concepts of aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. What you need to understand is that there are three ways you can manipulate the settings on your camera, and those three ways involve setting the aperture, shutter speed and ISO.

So what do these elementary terms mean?

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure! I don't know what the inside of a camera looks like, and when someone tries to explain precisely how an aperture works I get really confused. But that doesn't mean I can't figure out how to use it.

So, we begin.

APERTURE

Take out your dSLR and turn it around so that you're looking the wrong way through the camera. Look closely into the lens, and you'll see a circle. Now, zoom in and out with the lens, still looking the wrong way through it, and you'll notice that circle get bigger and smaller.

This, my friends, is the aperture.

As you can see, it is the opening in your lens that lets in light. Common sense tells us that the bigger the opening is, the more light can get in in a smaller period of time.

The aperture allows light to get through that little circle and reach the sensor where the image is 'copied,' so to speak.

Apertures are measured in "f-stops", and will show up on your screen as f4.5, f11, f22 and so on.

Now, here's one of the most confusing things you will have to wrap your mind around. The largest apertures are the ones with the smallest numbers, and the smallest apertures are the ones with the biggest numbers. I don't know the calculation (remember, I said I get confused where apertures are concerned!) but I do know that the reason for this is that they are all fractions. So when I say f2.8 for one aperture, and f11 for another, in truth, that is f/2.8 and f/11. So just like how 1/2 is bigger than 1/10, so f/4 bigger than f/29. I don't know how else to put it.

Another confusing thing is the wording of said apertures. If I say you need a wide open aperture, then you need a large aperture. Remember, large aperture, small number. It means opening that aperture as much as you can.

I know, it's a lot to take in. Trust me though, once you've got it down, it'll never leave you. It's kind of like learning the multiplication table in elementary school. The task seemed so daunting at first, with so much to memorize, but once you grasped the concept and memorized each one, it was hard to forget because you used it over and over throughout the rest of your education. And you really will use this for the rest of your photography career.

Moving on.

SHUTTER SPEED

The sensor I mentioned earlier is always covered unless a picture is being taken. When you hit the shutter-release button (the trigger button, or the one that tells the camera to take the picture) the shutter opens and closes, letting light through the aperture for a short period of time. It would follow that, the longer the shutter is open, the more light can get through the aperture onto the sensor.

If you want an analogy to help it make sense, look at something around you and then close your eyes. Then open and shut your eyelids very quickly. You were only able to see a flash of what you were looking at, weren't you? Now try it again, except keep your eyes open for 3 seconds before closing them. You were able to take in a lot more this time, right? Well, that's sort of the way the shutter speed works, except with light. The longer the shutter is open, the more light the sensor is able to take in.

The shutter speeds on your camera are all in seconds or fractions of a second. For instance, 1/4 is 0.25 seconds, or a quarter of a second, whereas 1/500 is one five-hundredth of a second. So, much much faster. 1" is one full second, 2" two full seconds, and so on.

So, combine the aperture and shutter speed. If your aperture is very small (little opening, big number!) and your shutter speed is too fast, then you'll go to take a picture, but barely any light will get in, so your image will look all black (also called under-exposed), like so:

Conversely, If your aperture is really large (big opening, small number!) and your shutter speed is really slow, you'll let too much light in, and your image will look all white and washed-out (also called over-exposed), like so:

Photography is all about manipulating the settings to achieve the look you were going for. Sometimes you might actually want a really dark or a really washed-out photo, but usually if you're going for this look, you can achieve it through photo-editing, rather than with the settings on your camera. That way you don't lose information in the photo.

What does "losing information" mean? Well, take a look at that last photo. Everywhere you see white where there should have been colour means there was information lost. The camera took in so much light that it thinks everything is angelically white, and has not saved any information like, "green grass, blue water," and so on. That means, when you are editing this photo, you won't be able to make up the missing information.

ISO

ISO (sometimes referred to as ASA) refers to how sensitive the sensor is to light. The smaller the number, the less the sensitive the sensor. So an ISO of 100 is less sensitive than an ISO of 800.

There's more to the ISO definition than that, but in my opinion, it isn't important to know all of it. What you DO want to know, is how to use the ISO.

Keeping it at 400 is a pretty good rule of thumb. If you're shooting in broad daylight, it's a good idea to turn the ISO down to 100 or 200, and if you're shooting in low-light conditions, turning up the ISO may be a good idea. However, the higher the ISO, the more noise you get. You might not know what noise is by name, but I'm sure you've encountered it before. Here is an example of a photo with lots of noise:

Click on the photo, and you'll notice that the dark areas look a little fuzzy and speckled. Fortunately for you, noise isn't too big a deal on dSLRs, but regular point-and-shoots are always plagued with it. So don't listen to anyone who tries to tout a camera that can go up to 3200 ISO, because, honey, it just ain't worth it. It'll be the noisiest photo you've ever taken.

So there, those are the three essential terms where it concerns manipulating your camera. And with that knowledge, you'll be able to learn the next step, which involves finding the balance between the three components to have a well-exposed photo! If you have any questions or need clarification, post your comment in the comments section and I'll be happy to respond. :D

Until next time!

Introduction

2010-05-06T20:17:00.000-07:00

I have so many ideas floating around in my head right now, that I don't even know where to begin on this blog. I guess I'll just start with an introduction for now.

My name is Holly, and I'm a budding photographer (self-proclaimed, of course!) I could say that I've wanted to be a photographer forever, but I haven't (in fact, for the longest time I wanted to be a pediatric doctor, but that's neither here nor there.) However, I do remember feeling completely gypped in highschool when I wasn't allowed to take the grade 11 photography class simply because I hadn't taken grade 10 art. I mean, what does pointillism, sculpting, and really bad drawings have to do with taking pictures? I ask you.

So I didn't take the course, and I was a little jealous of my friend's pictures that she took because they were so nice and remain, to this day, some of my favourite photos of myself from highschool.

I HAVE always liked cameras, probably because they are shiny and do cool things, and because I'm an accessory girl. So, naturally, when my husband went to go buy a nice camera for his business, I went with him and completely fell in love with digital SLR's. I picked up that camera in the store, pushed the button, and was hooked, just like that.

Why was I hooked? Ohhh, it probably had something to do with the "wch-chunk" sound the shutter made as I took the picture, how well a photo of plastic Hallowe'en spiders turned out, or how fancy I felt holding a big camera in my hands. And I KNOW part of it had to do with how my simple photo looked all artsy without my even trying. I was taking photos like...like a photographer! Imagine that.

We got the camera, borrowed it for a few family functions, and I was devastated to learn that I couldn't take photos outside of the store where we purchased the camera, given that the impressive lighting and perfectly programmed camera were gone.

Sulking ensued, and I almost gave up hope (I'm really not a very good autodidact) but my good, kind husband had an idea. Sure, this idea involved schooling (bleh!) but it also involved buying me my own camera, so I was onboard. It was all I could do to not write my name all over my new toy, just to make sure he didn't make off with my newer (albeit exactly the same as his business camera) camera.

Since last May I have taken 3 courses on photography at my local college. The first was an introductory course where I learned a lot of technical aspects such as exposure compensation and how to manipulate my camera. That course was *ESSENTIAL.* So essential, in fact, that I'm going to take a few blog posts to write down the basics of what I learned in that course, because it's information everyone needs to know about photography.

The other two courses I took were "Advanced Photography" (learned a lot about cropping and composition) and some other course that had to do with some introductory to digital images (not going to lie, most boring course ever. I only took it because it was a pre-req for the photoshop course, and all along the teacher was talking to us as if we'd already taken the said photoshop course. What a joke.)

So there. My credentials are nothing much to speak of, but hey, that's point of this blog! I figure that if I can learn to do it, YOU can learn to do it (I think there's a song about that in Anastasia,) and why not learn it together? It's a pretty nice trade-off for you, as I'm the one who will be sitting through more and more courses and then summarizing the information in free little tidbits that will help you (and me) use your camera.

And just because a post is not complete without a photo or two, here are a couple for the road. A then and now, so to speak.

What I thought was good then

What I think is good now

What I thought was good then

What I think is good now

Some more goodness

And one more for good measure.

There you have it! Keep checking in and I'll begin posting the basics on how to use your dSLR. And please, if you're reading, comment! It helps me a lot to know that I'm not talking (typing) to thin air (thin...cyberspace? Whatev.) Also, if you have questions, ask away! I may not know the answer, but I'll sure as heckfire find it for you. Promise.

Until next time!