Category: take better photos

2009-04-07

My Normal Flash Setup Using Optical Slaves

I have been trying lots of different flash setups lately (optical, radio, bounce, etc), but I tend to fall back on optical triggering because it is the most trustworthy and versatile of my options. Of course, I would love to grab a pair of Pocket Wizards, but hey, you donate a pair, and I will certainly put them to use!

If you have a normal flash mount (just found out Sony uses their own “standard”…punks), you can easily buy a little optical trigger for no more than $15. You slide that baby on the bottom of your flash, and then when any other flash goes off, it will trigger that flash. So, the pop up flash will trigger it, or hey, I have even used my point and shoot flash to set off my speedlight!

But that is not the end.

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2009-04-06

How Normal Amateurs Develop Their Shooting Skills

This post is for a friend of mine, who, like many of us, really wants to improve his photographic skills, but cannot seem to find the time to do so. How do we improve our photography when we already have a busy life? Well, I am in the same situation, really: just another amateur who wants to improve. Here was what my friend said:

I took the camera out to Big Lake with us Saturday and saw some really good shots, yet somehow, I took no shots. There is going to have to be a shift for me to do more shooting. I don’t have extra time on the weekends to go out and shoot like I would like to. So, I’m thinking that as I go and do the many things that have to be done I need to set in my mind that I’m going to have to slow down and take some shots. There was a town that we passed through that was like we just stepped out of Texas and into Old Mexico. The building architecture shifted. Would have been some great shots, but alas, I was in too big a hurry to get home.

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2009-04-04

Psyched Out on QingMing Festival

The photo shoot for QingMing Festival (that is, the Chinese grave sweeping festival) did not quite go as well as planned. The only word I can think of is letdown…or maybe that is two words (then it is double the let down, you know). I was so excited about QingMing with my wife’s family, and they were more than happy with someone to help them take photos. It worked out well in theory.

I knew I had expectations of what it would be and I also knew that some of those expectations were likely to be wrong. It is not like Chinese culture is going to look exactly the same in every country and every family around the globe. There are only a couple billion of them or something.

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2009-04-02

Drawing Viewers into the Photo

I simply must start with the oft quoted Robert Capa: “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.” Somehow, I think a lot of us already have a feel for the fundamental problem here, but we fix it the wrong way. We want to get closer to our subjects, but we do it by buying longer lenses.

One thing I love about photographs is that normal viewers can feel how close they are to the subject. And I am talking about everyman kind of viewers, not photography educated folk who talk about lens length and depth of field and all that jibberish. There is something really fundamental going on in people here, and we photographers have a chance to touch that gut level feeling.

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2009-03-31

Psyched up for QingMing Festival

QingMing is just a few days away. I could not tell you why the seemingly official English translation of this festival is the “Chinese grave sweeping festival”. Yes, they clean up the grave sites of their ancestors, but the real core of the holiday is solidly rooted in paying respect to their ancestors. You choose your word: respect, worship, veneration, honor, …you get the picture.

I will be returning to my wife’s hometown tomorrow and the next day heading to her Dad’s hometown for the celebration of QingMing. The whole Chinese side of the family will be there. Yes, it will be nice to finally meet all the family on my wife’s dad’s side, but I have to be totally honest, I am giddy with the thought of the photo opportunities.

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2009-03-30

How to Take Photos of Strangers

I should know: Strange is my…surname. [Awkward pause where nobody laughs.] Anyway, this is an area of photography in which I have been trying to stretch myself the past few months. I had a certain style of doing things for many years, and recently, I thought it wise to extend my tool kit of people photography. How do I approach strangers to take a photo? And honestly, how do I get the photo I want, the photo I picture in my head, and still show respect?

The old stand by for me is to do everything short of actually asking somebody if I could take a photo of them. Sometimes, I did get the tacit “ok” with eye communication, and that is fine, but more often than not, by the time the approval came, I had already shot the shots I really wanted. It all depended on the situation.

I am not trying to take advantage of anybody, but firmly believe that in most cases, the best moments are spontaneous: the best smiles, the most fun, the real person behind that face. Those are the moments I want to capture. There is more to it, though.

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2009-03-25

Shoot Too Dark and Improve Image Quality

Not too long ago, I was reading a great blog entry from a seasoned pro (though somehow I cannot find it again to give him credit and a link), and a little something he mentioned which “they used to do in the old days” sounded just like a trick I use. Evidently, I am not the first person to come up with this idea, but at least it made me feel a little more normal.

Maybe you have the same problem I do. You do not have the Nikon D3 or the Canon 5D or some other full-frame, no-noise wonder, and moving your ISO up just a little turns your image into static. Do you want to keep image quality at its best (or pretty close) and stop sacrificing your pictures to the ISO noise gods? Here is what I do.

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2009-01-15

Loud Shutters Work Against the Photographer

Why should we even care if our camera shutter is loud or not? What is the benefit of a quiet shutter? Well, it all depends on your shooting style as to whether is makes a difference or not. Ok, that is not totally true. Let me say it this way, some people care, some people do not. Here are the issues as I see them, though.

Following a comment on a post of mine a few days ago, I have been thinking about shutter noise. I unashamedly like quiet and I really notice when a camera is not quiet, even though that statement is quite relative. I was all excited to see the Sony a900 (this is the camera that brought up the topic in the first place) in the store and I picked it up to give it a few test shots. Ergonomics, handling, buttons: good. Style: very Sony-ish, but I like it (I like it more than the other Sonys). Then, I pressed the shutter release. KER-PLUNCK! Holy cow! That sound alone would take lots of great features and a very low price for me to actually think about buying one.

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2009-01-05

Event Photography Tips

Do you need to shoot an event? A conference? Meetings? Even if you are not a paid photographer for some event, are you just the one folks turn to for that spur of the moment shot of a guest speaker that nobody guessed would be as good as he was?

Here are some tips, gleaned both from experience and a podcast which inspired me to write this stuff down. It has been so long since I have listened to the show, I cannot remember what from my notes was the guest’s idea and what was mine.

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2008-07-17

Photos and Words

Is a picture really worth a thousand words? Should photos speak for themselves or does the photographer need to guide the interpretation? Should we combine photos with words? Should we even have captions?

Yes. Wait…no. Man, I don’t know.

There are many answers to each of those questions. A photo may be worth a thousand words, but depending on the content of the photograph and the audience viewing it, just which words could be hard to determine. The photographer needs to determine what the message is and communicate that. If words are needed, use them. If not, don’t.

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