High Five Photo Tips for March-April 2012

1.Small pupils can create fascinating portraits. To create this effect, move your subject from a very bright area to a dimmer one immediately before making a photo     2. Most of the time we only think of portraits as being of the face, but other parts of the body, especially the hands, can tell more of a story. Experiment with just shooting a part of a person to tell the whole story, such as part of a wranglers outfit: just chaps or the boots with spurs. Western Boots with Spurs   Western Chaps

3. Keep your subject busy while you are composing and shooting, by giving them something to do like using props, which can include another person, such as a child, or you could have them work on a hobby project, such as their garden. These types of props can also offer other things you will need to make a good shot, like a good background, and plenty of room to work in.     4. During the golden hours, the sun is at an angle where it will illuminate mist, fog or dust, giving you a great golden glow when the weather conditions permit it. Morning Stampede 5. In travel photography, try to capture or slow down action to make your images less static. With dances, shoot at a slower shutter speed to blur the movement. At night, with your camera on a tripod, these slow shutter speeds will allow car headlights and taillights to blur, creating wonderful compositions. Pow wow Indian Dancers

High Five Photo Tips for OCTOBER

High Five Photo Tips for OCTOBER:

1.One of the most popular angles to shoot is from the photographer's standing point of view. While this is fine with landscape and other general purpose photography, it does not create high impact visually arresting images.

Most of the professional photographers produce stunning and engaging photographs that have been taken from a low angle. In landscape photography, the foreground can be captured in detail when the photographer is really low and almost lying on the ground. Try to experiment with this style of photography by going low on the floor and take more engaging photographs.

The bottom angle allows the viewer a fresh and different perspective of the same scene or situation. A useful accessory is a small sturdy tabletop tripod. 

2. Try using a Light Reflectors for your outdoor photography. A 5 in 1 set is very handy to have.  A Translucent Diffuser allows you to diffuse direct sunlight to create softer light without harsh shadows. this is important for flower and people portraits in direct closer to mid day sunlight. The white, gold or silver reflector allows you to redirect light to the desired areas and the option of providing a cool or warmer tone (with gold or silver respectively). Reflectors can also become a quick white or black backdrop.

3. The Rule of Thirds is an essential guide for composition that helps balance your images.  Basically you divide your viewfinder into thirds, vertically and horizontally, which will give you 9 equal boxes.  Compose your image so that the center of interest is at one of the crossing points, rather than dead center. 

4. Another rule is to have your subject position so that it is entering and not leaving the frame, with space to give it breathing room. This varies in Eastern vs Western Cultures depending on the direction of writing!  You should master these rules to learn when they can be broken.

5. Next time you are shooting a portrait, particularly if a man, consider lighting a profile with split lighting.  This will often bring out the subject's true personality and "create" not just take a portrait.  A large soft box or window can be used, bringing the subject nearer to the front edge of the light source (closer to the camera) with the body at a 45 degree angle to the camera (try in both directions - towards or away from the light) while the face is facing the light source.

 

High Five Photo Tips for JUNE

High Five Photo Tips for JUNE: 1. Try Different Perspectives. A Simple photo taken at eye level can be turned into something truly unique by lowering your perspective. Tulips from Above  Tulips from Ground level with wide open aperture

2, Use a Wide Angle Lens - Especially in an environment where it is difficult to capture all the elements in your field of view, such as an entire beach.Some think this is the top secret of the Landscape Professional Photographer-Artist! Windmills of the Netherlands

3. Scout your locations and Follow the Light. Look all around you. The sunset may not make the best picture. It may be the glow on the trees behind you that excites the eye. When photographing into the sun, a wide aperture (less than F11) will soften while a small aperture (above F11 - often best at F22) will allow star-shaped rays to appear. 4. Try Long Exposures. Water is a great subject. Start with one to 3 second exposures, best as the tide goes in, With ND, polarizing or Variable Neutral Density filters you can try even longer exposures - up to 400 seconds and beyond! 5. Shoot the Waves, especially during or after a Storm. Start shooting before the wave crashes and shoot continuously throughout.

High Five Photo Tips for April:

High Five Photo Tips for April:

1. Play with Motion.  By varying the shutter speed, you can create more creative imagery.  Slow shutter speeds can add interesting effects but may require polarizing or neutral density filters to enable slow enough shutter speeds.  I prefer the Singh-Ray variable Neutral Density Filter.  More about using motion creatively on my Rick Sammon Guest Blog Post.
2. Try Split Tones and Duotones to create more interesting B&W's. Images with pattern and texture create wonderful toned images.

Sugar Cane Factory Road

3. Embrace Change.  Look for new projects to excite you and entice you to go beyond your comfort zone.
4. Shooting wildlife - flora or fauna - get low for a unique look - get on the ground!  Use a frisbee for support and protection - to keep the dirt out of your equipment. If on a beach or dune using a tripod or monopod, always extend the lowest tripod leg to its maximum to prevent sand and water getting into the joints.
5. When shooting people, keep the eyes in the top third. Look for catch-lights and sharp focus.  Eyes are the key and the window to the soul.

Dog and Child Portrait

High Five Photo Tips for MAY

High Five Photo Tips for MAY

1.  Go take a walk with a prime lens and force yourself to see with that lens.  It will help you understand that focal length.  Do this until you feel comfortable and then creative.  If you do not own a prime lens use your zoom, but restrict your range to short, mid or long zoom.  

2,  Start a Project or Theme.  Anything that gets you thinking and out shooting.  Reflections, colors, shapes, location or meaning.  Let your imagination flow.

3. Try a polarizing filter. This filter increases contrast, takes haze out of the atmosphere, and takes reflections off water surfaces. It is most effective when used at 90 degrees from the sun The filter needs to be turned while you look through the camera to see the effects. Yes, it takes away almost two stops of light, but you can always turn up the ISO to compensate.

4. Light Illuminates, Shadows Define.  A favorite saying of Rick Sammon.  Lots of good photography ideas on the Rick Sammon BLOG  

5. Get Close to your subject.  The most common mistake made by photographers is that they are not physically close enough to their subjects. In some cases this means that the center of interest-the subject-is just a speck, too small to have any impact.   

42nd Street Welcome

Mayor of Arthur Avenue, Bronx, NY

Don't be shy. If you approach people in the right way, they'll usually be happy to have their picture made. It's up to you to break the ice and get them to cooperate. Joke around with them and share the fun. "If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough" as per Robert Capa.   

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,267730,00.html#ixzz1KaBz4y9f

High Five Photo Tips_#!_February 2011

High Five Photo Tips JMP Top Five Monthly tips for February are: Yosemite Waterfall 1.  Shoot more verticals.  Snapshots are usually horizontal but verticals will often help you redirect the eye to what you want the viewer to see. 2. Convert to B&W or sepia if depth, shape and textures play a bigger role in a scene than color. You can make a virtual copy in Lightroom to explore LR variation or use Nik Silver Efex Pro for another great way to convert to B&W. An update, version 2, to be released soon. 3. If unable to get sharp images due to movement, such as wind or water that you cannot control, go with it and use the motion creatively. Fish in Motion - Maui Aquarium 4. Try shooting silhouettes in the sunset on Aperture Priority using minus 1 to minus 2 exposure compensation to allow the silhouetted object to go to black while preserving your sunset. 5. Look at your histogram to learn to feel where highlights and shadows fall in your image and what you can accept - then adjust your exposure from there. Generally, you want a curve shifted more to the right (with digital vs film) while avoiding the blinkies except for acceptable specular highlights. Photo montage with silhouette of bird with rannunculus