Photography Workshop Online

Like painting, photography as an art form, also has a type that deals with abstract ideas. This one is called Conceptual Photography. Here, the artist’s thoughts and feelings are expressed in a photograph using real and tangible objects.

The original artistic idea is much more important than the physical image that portrays it. Obviously it’s important for the photograph to portray that idea in an interesting and understandable way. But it’s still the idea that comes first.

The ideas themselves do not have to be about the mysteries of the universe. They can be smaller and much more personal than that. But they must have been thought up prior to an image being created to express them.

Here are some examples of Conceptual Photography:

sources:
deviantart.com
ppsop.com

The range of distance within the subject that is acceptably sharp is called the depth of field. This technique often depends on the camera. The factors that usually affect the outcome of a depth of field technique are focal length of the lens, distance of the camera to the subject, and aperture size.

Focal length of the lens. The focal length of the lens is inversely proportional to the depth of field, meaning, the greater you want the depth of field, the smaller your focal length number (number of the lens) should be. An example us using a 28mm lens that has the ability to capture more of the picture in sharp focus than a 100mm lens.

Distance of the camera to the subject. This time, you should take note that the depth of field is directly proportional to distance, meaning, a subject with a greater distance to the camera, the greater depth of field you’ll have (than an extremely close-up or close-up subject) Hence, a depth of field shot has distant subjects that are out of focus.

Aperture size. Adjust the aperture setting if you want to have a foreground or background while having the subject in focus. The wider the aperture, the shallower is the depth of field.

Noise is a fact of life in the electronic world; there is no escaping it. Remember audio cassette tapes? Remember those noise charts printed on their labels? Noise is something engineers have wrestled with. Noise is built into all electronic circuits; it’s a physical limitation. The objective is to make the medium (audio tape or imaging sensor) able to capture stronger signal (sound and light) in order to overwhelm the noise in circuits.

Let’s state that in human terms, our imaging sensors have inherent noise, some more than others. In bright light, the signal (light photons) is stronger than the noise, effectively wiping out all visible traces of noise. Noise is still there, but we can’t see it. In low light, the signal is weaker than the noise, effectively wiping out all visible traces of noise. When the signal is weaker, it is not enough to overcome noise, whish is why we see more noise that exposed pixels when shooting in very low light.

Source:

I-Mag Photography

From Lee Llamas

Shoot in bursts.
Lee always shoots in short bursts during a wedding, never single shots. He figured that if the subject blinks in one frame, chances are he didn’t blink in the other frames. Constantly chimping the LCD screen is a waste of time, which Lee never does during a shoot anyway. Burst shooting is the way he stacks the odds in his favor.

Don’t compromise your rates.
Lee has stopped participating in bridal fairs, because most of them are nothing more than flea markets, where potential clients tend to compare his rates with the cutthroat competition. Instead of dropping your rates, educate your potential clients on the quality of your services and end products. Clients who can’t tell the difference aren’t worth the anxiety.

Be your own photographer, not the client’s.
Some clients insist on telling you to shoot in a particular style, or to copy a look they saw on the internet, or in a book. This reduces you to nothing more than mindless camera operator, all your training and experience gone to waste. You get paid, but it won’t be the kind of work you’ll proudly show around. Lee makes sure his clients understand why they’re hiring him by including a clause in his contract to the effect that “the photographer’s style in coverage is the basis for this agreement.”

Study with the masters.
Lee considers himself lucky to have trained under photographers who were as generous with their wisdom as they were knowledgeable. He paid his dues working backbreaking hours (literally) with no commensurate recognition for his labors. Many new photographers today think they need a fancy new DSLR and a few lessons.

Don’t delete anything in camera; reformat.
Lee has memory cards and microdrives from old cameras still in excellent read/write condition. He credits this to his preferred routine of never deleting any frame during or after a shoot, not event he bad exposures. He transfers all shots to a computer for sitting and sorting then reformats the memory card in the camera.

Watch out for the emotion-laden moments.
Not even the best-composed formal bridal portrait can beat the power and memorability of a shot showing a mother or father trying-often unsuccessfully-to hold back tears, or a bride in the arms of her father during her first dance of the reception. Don’t just shoot nice pictures to hang on walls; shoot pictures that tug at heartstrings.

Make a east two copies on different media.
This piece of advice works not only for wedding photographers, but for everyone who shoots digital. Make a set of copies on external drives and optical discs. The first set is the unedited, unsifted files, like storing all negatives from a shoot. The second set is the sifted files, the unusable shots removed. The third set is the working files, for inclusion in the wedding albums and for printing.

source: i-mag photography

The Rule of Thirds
Basis for well-balanced and interesting shots

The Rule of Thirds is perhaps one of the first things a budding photographer should know (aside from camera parts and principles). It serves as the foundation of knowledge of every photographer, novice and experts alike.

The Rule of Thirds in photography is about creating imaginary lines, drawn to divide the composition equally into thirds, 2 lines run horizontally and 2 lines run vertically. The grid would end up with a 3 by 3 or 9 blocks.

How is the Rule of Thirds applied in Photography?

Photographers use the Rule of Thirds to emphasize an image or put the most important element of a composition in its strongest position.

With this grid in mind the ‘rule of thirds’ now identifies four important parts of the image that you should consider placing points of interest in as you frame your image.

Not only this - but it also gives you four ‘lines’ that are also useful positions for elements in your photo.

Studies have shown that when viewing images that people’s eyes usually go to one of the intersection points most naturally rather than the center of the shot - using the rule of thirds works with this natural way of viewing an image rather than working against it.

In the above photo, the subject is placed at the center of the composition. This made the subject weak, and  the photo uninteresting. That’s why in the theory, placing the most important element of your composition in the intersecting lines or along the lines makes a photo well-balanced and interesting, creating impact to the viewers.

Technique used: Stitching

Photographers put multiple images together to create panoramic panels to come up with an extremely wide field of view. This method is often called stitching.

Here are the steps on how to create panorama images through stitching:

1. Keep ‘em leveled. Mount your camera on a tripod. Place them on a leveled and strong surface.
2. A Consistent manual mode. Here, it is always important to set the camera to manual mode, shutting off its autoexposure feature. To obtain a shutter speed and aperture, meter several portions of the entire panorama. Keep the setting consistent throughout the frames.
3. No to a polarizer. Make sure not to use polarizer for it will only produce inconsistent and uneven levels, contrast and brightness of images.
4. Shoot vertically. You may think that although it’s panorama, everything needs to be horizontal. However, shooting vertically is a trick you should consider since you’ll end up with more frames to stitch and less perspective distortion.
5. Now shoot! Start on the left side of the scene and take the shots across it.
6. Overlap images. When capturing each successive frame, overlap images by about ¼ or 25 percent. The margins will help you when lining up the frames in an image editor software.
7. Scanning. If you are going to be scanning film set the scanner’s parameters for the first scan and then scan the remaining frames with the same settings. All of the scanner’s auto functions should be turned off.
8. Stich ‘em up. Use a panorama stitcher to combine the shots. Image editors such as Adobe Photoshop or Windows Live Photo Gallery have features to support image stitching.