I’m left-eye dominant. Is that bad?

You may not have noticed, but just like you are left-handed or right-handed, you are also left-eye dominant or right-eye dominant.

Most people are right-eye dominant. So they use that eye to look through the viewfinder:

Michael Willems using his camera

Meaning that the other eye looks at you directly – either that, or the photographer has to close that eye.

I, however, am left-eye-dominant:

Michael Willems using his camera

So you will never see my other eye.

This has two drawbacks: I look like I am hiding behind the camera, andthe LCD gets greasy from being in constant close contact with my node.

But at least I do not get confused by seeing two different views, and I do not have to squint with my other eye – the camera naturally blocks it. So I think left-eye dominance is good. Just saying.

(I am also left-ear dominant. You will never see my iPhone on my right ear. Always left.)

So now you have learned another little thing about photography – and quite possibly, about yourself. You are welcome.

(And do you see how I am holding the camera? That is how you hold a camera).

 

 

 

 

Lenses: Brand or third-party?

When buying a lens, you have two options: brand (Canon lenses for a Canon camera, and so on) or third party (“Sigma made for Canon”, and so on).

Third-party lenses are often half the price of brand name lenses. Brands say “that is because ours are better”. Third parties, like Sigma, maker of the 24-70 f/2.8 Nikon-mount lens below, would probably say “this is because you pay for the name with those guys”. Which is it?

A bit of both, I think.

I would certainly consider a third-party lens. If:

  • aperture is large,
  • build quality is good,
  • focus is silent, fast and accurate,
  • the lens is sharp, even at the corners,
  • colour is good,
  • and importantly, the lens feels good to me..

…then I will most certainly consider it. And third-party lenses often have better warranty than Canon and Nikon offer.

But that also brings me to why – perhaps because these warranties are needed. The lens above is the third one that its owner tried in about two weeks: lens number one did not always focus consistently, so it was exchanged in its first week, and lens two suddenly stopped focusing after just a few days – the focus motor stopped working entirely in mid-shoot. Lens three, we hope, will work well.

Now that is from a sample of one (well, three). So you cannot draw any conclusions from it. But still… in the past, reliability and quality control used to the the third-party lens makers’ Achilles’ Heel. There is either a certain irony, or a wise lesson, in the fact that two samples of this lens failed in two weeks.

But the lower price – significantly lower – is hard to pass by. I think whatever you choose, you will be fine, as long as you go through the check list above abnd make sure the warranty is OK.

And remember: lenses make your photos, much more than your camera does. So whatever lenses you invest in – investing in lenses is never bad.

 

Uncle Fred to Uncle Mike

A repeat of a favourite subject – repeated here because it is so important. Namely – avoiding “being Uncle Fred”.

I see a lot of snaps like this, when I look at people’s photos:

Ouch. OK, I took that – but only, I assure you, to demonstrate the point.

What is wrong with that image?

Other than everything, you mean? (Photographically speaking: the kind volunteer student is fine).

  • The subject is in the centre.
  • She is small in the image
  • The image is cluttered
  • I shot down at her
  • I exposed the image badly
  • I have bad “tension points”, where I cut off feet, etc.

So then I did it properly.

I chose a subject and got close. Chose a long lens (the 70-200, a portrait favourite). Then got closer (by zooming in as well as by getting physically closer). Got down to their level instead of shooting down. Avoided clutter. Shot at f/4 to blur backgrounds. Used the rule of thirds – his face is centered one third from the top.

Bingo:

Same light. Same room. Same time.

View the original image (click!), and then view at the original large size, to see how good that is.

You see, sometimes it’s just about composition. “Filling the frame” often dramatically improves images.

 

Simple outdoors portraits recipe

When I do outdoor portraits, I often use big flashes, softboxes, light stands, and umbrellas. But sometimes, like today when I was shooting baseball kid portraits all day, I use just a camera, a lens and a simple on-camera flash.

Unmodified, on-camera flash? Surely that is anathema to what a pro does?

Nope – not necessarily. When conditions are right, you can do this, and get well-lit portraits.

The following example, which shows this, has a less-than-ideal background, but I was just testing my light. Here’s photographer Ray:

To shoot a portrait like this (or rather, to shoot 500-odd of them, as I did today), I do the following if the light is changeable.

First, equipment and setting:

  1. If at all possible, find a spot where your subject is out of direct sunlight. Direct sunlight is harsh and horrible. If sunlight is unavoidable, at least turn your subject away from it.
  2. Find a dark, green background (i.e. like above, but without the fence – which you can be assured I did for today’s real shots!).
  3. Use a camera with a lens in the range of 50-150mm.
  4. Use an on-camera external flash, aimed straight at the subject. Since I am mixing with available light, this is allowed.
  5. Make sure I shoot from the subject’s head’s level (I avoid shooting down or up too much).
  6. I try to ensure the flash light the subject’s face. I avoid shadows (from, say, baseball bats, or from hats). I watch carefully for glasses causing reflections.

Now to the camera settings. I now usually:

  1. Set my white balance to “flash”.
  2. Set my ISO to 200 (as a starting point).
  3. Set my camera to shutter-speed priority mode.
  4. Select 1/200th second
  5. Set my exposure compensation to -1 stop, as a starting point.
  6. Now I aim and focus. I check the aperture chosen by the camera. I want something around f/5.0-f/6.3. If I get too small a number, say below f/4.0, then I lower the shutter speed – all the way to 1/60th second if I have to – and if that is not enough, I increase the ISO. If I get too large a number, say above f/7.0, I increase the shutter to the maximum sync speed (1/200th-1/250th second on most cameras) and then decrease the ISO if I can.

Now take a test shot and see. Adjust as needed. I regularly keep checking my aperture. And if the background gets too bright or dark: well, exposure compensation will adjust the background’s brightness.

Notes:

  • On a Nikon camera, be careful: exposure compensation will also alter your flash brightness (for some odd reason only known to Nikon engineers), so unless you want this, you may need to apply opposite flash compensation (e.g. when using -1 exposure compensation to lower the background’s brightness, you may want+1 flash compensation to keep the flash the same).
  • On a Nikon, also ensure you know whether you have “TTL” or “TTL-BL” selected on the back of your flash.
  • On any camera, since you are using TTL, i.e. the auto flash mode, use flash compensation as needed. Darker subject: you may need to go down. Lighter subject: go up. See yesterday’s post!

Why Shutter-Speed priority (S/Tv)?

Because outdoors light can change drastically from moment to moment. Indeed, I prefer to use manual, if light is consistent. In that case instead of exposure compensation. I use the meter and set my ISO, shutter and aperture such that the meter indicates -1 stop, then test and adjust as needed.

Here’s Ray doing what I am talking about here:

So that’s a lot of stuff to watch!

Yes, it’s a lot of work, and it requires a good understanding of exposure and what regulates it (I know some good courses – just sayin’).

And I see a lot of parents take their children’s snaps. Invariably, they fail to use their flash, which leads to poorly lit photos. Even before you do formal training, you now know better – now go practice.

 

Beginners’ rules of thumb: Exposure

When shooting in auto modes (P, A/Av, S/Tv etc), you will need to adjust exposure often. How? Quick rules of thumb for you today.

What to adjust. If the non-flashed part of your pic (what’s lit by available light) is too light or too dark, use exposure compensation (the plus/minus symbol). If the flashed part of your picture (what’s mainly lit by your flash)  is too light or too dark, use flash exposure compensation (the plus/minus symbol with a lightning symbol next to it, or adjustable via the menu).

How to adjust. If what you see is too dark, use plus. If what you see is too light, use minus.

How to predict. When shooting a very dark subject or scene (coal mine), you will need minus. When shooting a very light subject or scene (snow scene), you will need plus.

 

CQ CQ CQ

Yes, I have hobbies, too. Like this:

Michael Willems VA3MVW (Photo: Michael Willems)

Yup, I am a licensed radio amateur, VA3MVW. That’s me a little while ago this evening, on a QSO (a call) with another amateur or two elsewhere in the world.

I used a wide angle lens (see yesterday’s post), and I lit this self-portrait with a flash. Bounced, using TTL. Wide angle to get those wonderful diagonals. I was holding the camera in my other hand, and had the camera select a focus point – I seldom do that but in this case it makes sense, since no-one is looking through the camera.

But I did not use just one flash. That would give me this:

Station VA3MVW (Photo: Michael Willems)

Nothing wrong with that. But I wanted to give the picture more dimension, more modelling, more of a live feel. Like this – compare the tables’ legs:

Station VA3MVW (Photo: Michael Willems)

Or even more:

Station VA3MVW (Photo: Michael Willems)

I used a 580EX flash on the camera, bounced behind me, and two off-camera  430EX flashes, each equipped with a Honl Gel (one greenish and one yellowish – some of the artistic colours I really like) attached to a Honl Photo speed strap.

I often add a splash of colour. Instead of this:

I happen to like this:

Now look again at the image on the top, and you will see the same orange-like colour (left) and blue-like colour (right) – subtle but it is there.

A little colour adds a lot, methinks. And with small speedlights, a little knowledge, and simple flash modifiers, this takes mere seconds to shoot.

 

Open wide

My friend Peter McKinnon, of himynameispeter.com, visited me tonight.

Peter is a very talented international photographer (and magician, as it happens: a skill that comes in handy during some of the wedding he shoots, I bet).

Peter and I share a love of wide angle lenses. Like the 14mm f/2.8 lens he shoots with – a lens that is on my wish list. Look at Peter here, holding that lens – all that glorious glass:

Peter shoots with this lens very often, even where others would shy from a wide lens – and I do not blame him: it is wonderful, rectilinear, and very, very sharp (especially when stopped down).

So – something to explain. Why do I say “some would shy away”?

Because some people think wide angle lenses distort.

So do they? Depends.

  • If you mean “make straight lines into curves” – a good lens is rectilinear. Meaning straight lines remain straight. So in that sense: no distortion.
  • Very wide lenses are, however, not entirely sharp at the very edge – in that sense, yes, some distortion, if you will.
  • What they do do is show perspective from the point of view. And if I get close to something, the scene will look dramatic in the corners and at the edges This is not, strictly speaking, distortion. It is showing me basic geometry. If I am one inch away from your nose, your nose will look extra big – that is not distortion, it is reality.

Regardless, for the last two reasons above you should avoid putting important objects at edges and in corners:

But provided you avoid that, a wide lens will work great:

That sense of space, of the subject being surrounded by his environment, is typical of extra wide angle lenses.

Another note. Prime lenses enforce discipline. Instead of zooming, you must move or turn.

And you have to get close. When people are reluctant to use wide lenses, it is because they are reluctant to get close to people. A wide lens forces you to get close – which is a good thing. Photographers need to interact with their subjects.

So I encourage you to go wide. Meaning as wide as 8-20 on a crop camera (equivalent to 14-35mm on a full-frame camera) – that sort of range.

And have fun!

 

Keepin’ it fresh

During a recent event shoot, which I greatly enjoyed doing, I thought a little about how to stay fresh.

Event shoots do not naturally lend themselves to setting up creative lighting. But you can still do things like this:

How? Using a wide angle lens, close to the cake.

Or like this:

How? By setting shutter speed to 1/15th second, and zooming while shooting.

Or even this:

How? Essentially like before, but without flash.

The point: when you are shooting a routine thing, try to step outside the box a little. I do this by thinking “what would I normally do”, and then varying lens, aperture, shutter, composition, and so on, and just seeing what happens.

That way your shoot is more fun, and you might stumble upon new ideas or develop new techniques.

 

Practice makes perfect.

In photography, like in so many other endeavours, practice makes perfect.

Just like in, say, drumming.

Don’t worry, the owner of those drums (you know who you are, Dan) is a very talented professional drummer who in fact practices several hours every single day. Just not on those practice pads.

He practices with his drums, just as I hope you do with your camera.  Whether you are a pro or a beginner, you need to practice.

As a beginner, you do this to make the theory, which you kind of understand after a good course, into something you feel. “Make it into your DNA”, we say. And we mean this – things like the aperture-shutter-ISO triangle should come to you naturally. And practice makes that happen. Shoot in manual mode all day tomorrow, then shoot in aperture mode all day the next day, and shoot in shutter priority mode the day after that.  That’s how you learn.  That is also why the photo walks I do are so good.

As a pro, you practice for different reasons:

  • In order to remember things. After you have not done something for a while, you forget how you did it last – even as a pro.
  • To keep up your muscular memory. Knowing things by feel is a valuable skill. I tend to work like that – hand me a camera and I do stuff without even thinking about how. Practice is key.
  • To ensure all your gear is working properly, batteries are charged, etc.
  • To see if you can do it differently; i.e. to develop new techniques and thus to stay fresh.

So whoever you are: if you have not touched your camera today, go take some pictures of your home today, or of your place of work. If  you are a beginner, go take some pictures in manual mode. If you are learning flash, then go take some pictures indoors by bright windows, using a flash to fill. You will have fun, learn new techniques, and strengthen existing skills.

 

Sports portrait tips

I shot baseball kids yesterday.

When I do this, I see a lot of parents photograph their own kids, and with some exceptions, most get, well, basically, um, everything wrong. Sufficient reason for me to write this post with tips.

I want to get pictures like this – photogapher Mel standing in for a softball kid (see how she is swinging the camera like a bat)  while I get my settings and light right:

And you might do this as follows.

  • Position the subject in indirect light.
  • Find a background with vegetation – green, in other words, if at all possible.
  • Use an SLR camera with longer lens – in the range of, say, 50-100mm.
  • Use a flash on the camera, without modifier.
  • Shoot at person level, with the camera parallel with the horizon- avoid shooting up or down much.
  • Focus on the eyes – the closest eye.
  • Leave sufficient margin for later cropping to various aspect ratios
  • Ensure the kid looks good: shirt tucked in, no watch, hat on but slightly up so you can see the eyes!

My camera settings starting point:

  • Shutter speed priority, 1/200th second, at 200 ISO.
  • Exposure compensation -1 stop (on Canon. On Nikon, you may not need any, or even slightly +).
  • Flash on, aimed straight at the subject.
  • White balance set to “flash”.
  • Flash compensation 0 stops (on Canon. On Nikon, you may well need compensation, perhaps -1 stop).

Now I aim for an aperture of f/5.6. If I do not get close to that, I change ISO or shutter speed (the latter must stay within the camera’s flash sync range, i.e. usually 1/200 or 1/250th second). Watch this regularly!

I shoot TTL in these shoots, so when the player wears white, I need to increase flash compensation. When a player wears black, I need to decrease it.

These techniques will get you started. Of course you can, and perhaps should, consider hiring a pro!