Category: take better photos

2007-08-29

What Angle is Best?

I had someone ask me how to choose the right angle from which they should take their photo. Well, that was not exactly a question out of the blue. We were talking about angles, trying new angles, and using new angles as a means to adding a new dimension of interest to our images.

Absolutely, we should try different angles, but there is no answer to the question of which angle is best. There are pointers, to be sure, but I even hesitate to mention those, for fear that we will find the key to making our photographs look just like everybody elses or possibly never attempt to excercise our creativity in the first place. Forbid!

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2007-07-06

Control the Shape of Your Aperture

Stars and Branches Forever

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2007-06-30

Taking Photographs for a Cafe

A friend just wrote and asked for a little advice on a cafe photo shoot. I thought this topic would be helpful for a wider audience:

A friend of mine is doing an intern sort of thing at a new cafe here. She called me up the other day and said the cafe wanted some pictures taken and asked if I could do it. So I said yes. It was just a quick call to see if I could do it, and she said she would call back later with more specifics. So, I’m assuming it’s photos of the food and/or the cafe itself.

Do you have any tips for doing a better job on this kind of photography? I’m already planning to take a backup (a Canon film SLR) just in case for some random reason they want a large print of something, or in case my Nikon D40 encounters troubles. Better safe than sorry, I always said. Anyways, just wanted to ask for tips, as I really want to do a great job on this!

It all depends on what they want and expect. Let’s look at it a minute.

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2007-06-28

Depth of Field Comparison

Adjusting your camera’s f/stop (aka aperture, f-stop) not only controls the amount of light entering the camera by opening and closing the hole through which the light. The choice of aperture also has another side effect: control of the depth of field, or the depth of the photograph that will be in focus.

I was taking a few photos while friends of mine worked on a project and realized later that I had accidentally taken excellent comparison examples of two different depths of field. So, I will put them up as a way to see more clearly how altering the f/stop changes photographs.

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2007-06-22

Night Motion Shots

I received another photo from a friend to evaluate here. Here are his comments on his photo:

This was a 9 second exposure using my tripod. I was originally intending to get the cars on the outside road shooting from inside my complex, but when I saw a car coming down the driveway from inside our complex I quickly hit the shutter release. I was using a wider aperture so as to get stuff in the background more in focus, and in that sense it worked although do you think it would have been better if I had left it out of focus? Anyways, I really liked the way the taillights have a sweeping fiery pattern.

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2007-06-20

Are Cameras Too Automated?

I enjoy reading the musings of Herbert Keppler on his “Speaking Frankly” blog on the Popular Photography website. He often posts his notes and writings from days gone past, and it is interesting to see his perspective today and yesterday, comparing photography now and then. In some ways, we feel everything has changed, yet in other ways, it is just the same discipline with new tools.

He dug out one such comment from his 1969 “Keppler Files” which speaks about the automation of cameras:

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2007-05-28

Getting the Most out of Built In Flash

I will readily admit that I am quite new to the world of flash. Simply because I could not afford one many years ago when I started taking photos, I just got used to doing without. In the mean time, I fell in love with natural light photography and the tones available without that awful flash.

Then, I saw good flash photography. I saw the light. Ha ha. And wow, what amazing things can be done with flash! So, though I still prefer natural light photography, I think it would be silly to ignore the development of my skills in using the flash. So, I am starting small, using what I have, and trying to be creative.

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2007-05-24

How Do We Shoot Basic Sports Photos?

A budding photographer friend of mine sent me this photo he took during a high school “field day”. At first glance, I just have to smile. Not only is it a good action shot, but since it is a sack race, it gains some bonus points for abnormal content.

How could he make it better, though?

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2007-05-14

Hip Shot in the Market

I have really gone through a rebirth in my photography, especially in the last month or so. I have heard folks say, “Well, of course I cannot carry around the big, clunky SLR camera everywhere, so I just take the compact camera.” Once I had heard that enough times, I started believing that the SLR is not worth taking out for everyday shots.

Sometime earlier this month, I finally said “fooey!” to those thoughts and actually started carrying the camera around with me, pretty much everywhere I go. I have gotten some funny looks, but I have also gotten some great photographs. Here is a photograph that never would have happened had I not just had the camera on hand while waiting for my wife in the market.

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2007-05-09

Boys Playing Around the Fire

My budding photographer friend sent another photo my way for a bit of critique. Here are his original comments on the photo:

The school slaughtered a pig for us, and some of us roasted the meat over bonfires. Several kids set sticks on fire and began swinging them around, so the slower shutter speed was cool for the shot. For some reason it doesn’t look as sharp on the computer as it did on the camera’s LCD, but I still like it. I wish I could have got one of the kids in the picture clearer, but oh well.

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