A quick tip for new photographers and a reminder for more experienced ones:
When shooting a portrait outdoors, have the sun behind the subject – but light that subject with a flash.
Government Services Minister Harinder S. Takhar
The sun behind them, because sunlight is harsh, and otherwise they would squint. The flash, to stop them from being silhouettes.
Another example:
Government Services Minister Harinder S. Takhar and friends
We like seeing juxtapositions in our images. I.e. differences, often unanticipated. Large versus small. Light versus dark. Modern versus oldfashioned. Alone versus together. Shiny versus dull. You name it.
Like in this recent snap:
Lonely Flower, by Michael Willems
Always look for the juxtapositions.
A recent meeting with a very talented young photographer, Peter McKinnon, prompts me to write about lens choices for a moment.
Peter, who is a student of mine in the Advanced Flash lighting workshops, showed me a wedding album and other wedding shots he recently did. He showed me a wedding he shot on his own, entirely with a 24mm prime lens, and much of it at f/1.4. Never took that lens off. No long shots. No zooming. Just Peter and his wide angle lens. Fantastic work.
The 1D Mark IV makes a lens look 30% longer, so that’s 24 x 1.3 = 31mm. Roughly equivalent, then, to me using my 35mm f/1.4 lens on the full-frame 1Ds Mark III body.
Mmm. That would be liberating: one lens, a wide one, for an entire shoot. And I have mentioned before, for events this is my favourite lens.
Selective focus:
Cat, by Michael Willems (35mm, f/1.4)
Low light ability:
Club, by Michael Willems (35mm, f/1.4)
And both, available light and selective focus:
Couple, by Michael Willems (35mm, f/1.4)
So I checked. The last wedding I shot, I used my 35mm lens for fully 30% of the shots! I too love the shallow depth of field:
Bride and Groom, by Michael Willems
And I like the ability to get it in and to not have to worry about how to zoom.
Groom getting ready, by Michael Willems
So here is my suggestion: that you too spend an entire day shooting with one wide angle lens. This will free your mind from deciding on lens, zoom, and so on, and open your eyes to the photos in front of you. And that is what photography is about: photos, not cameras or lenses.
And you know what: I’ll do the same, on my next event shoot.
…of the recent “rain”-shot Joseph and I put on at our Mono workshop. I asked recently which one you preferred. Here’s mine:
Evanna, photo by Michael Willems
Overall, I slightly prefer this one, because:
But that is my opinion. Yours may differ. Validly! In interpreting art, a lot of it is valid opinion.
Quick Composition Tip: make sure your background is relevant. The foreground subject in your image should be interacting with, supported by, or given meaning by the background. Otherwise it should not be there.
Tip 2 today: Look for opposing colours. Like red versus green; or as in here, yellow versus blue:
Gold and blue
Your pictures will stand out more. As simple as that!
A few more pictures from Las Vegas. For two days, David Honl and I taught, and showed, and guided the students through the making of these types of flash images:
Yasmin Tajik, photographed by Michael Willems
Yasmin Tajik, photographed by Michael Willems
Las Vegas Student, photographed by Michael Willems
Las Vegas Student, photographed by Michael Willems
Las Vegas Student, photographed by Michael Willems
Las Vegas Student, photographed by Michael Willems
Snoots, grids and gels were used for these photos. All were made with simple speedlites.
One aspect of wide versus telephoto lenses is how large the background gets. As in “If you want a large moon, use a long lens”.
Huh? What do you mean, Michael?
I shall illustrate with a couple of shots I took of a student during a “Creative Urban Photography” outing the other day. One with a long lens, and one with a wide angle lens.
Ignore the light (I was using a flash with a warming gel on one camera, and no flash at all on the other), and look instead at the size of the blurred-out car in the background:
Here’s picture one:
Student during recent CUP outing, Oakville
Now look at picture two (where by moving my position I have kept the subject the same size):
Student during recent CUP outing, Oakville
See how that car magically grew much larger in the second picture?
Do I need to explain which picture was taken with a wide angle lens, and which one with a telephoto lens?
So now imagine the person is a tree and the car is the moon at night, or the setting sun. So what lens would I be most likely to use if I want a large moon or a large setting sun?
Remember my recent post about how you need to tell a story with your pictures, but in a way that makes the viewer piece together that story?
One way to do that is by adding a second person in your portrait background, but having that second person blurred out. You sawa variant of this in the wedding cake picture, with dad in the background.
But this technique works especially well when there are two or more people, and especially when there is a relationship between these persons. Like in this nice wide-angle image of the bride and groom:
Groom with bride, by photographer Michael Willems
The centre of attention is the groom (unusually, because of course most of the rest of the wedding photos emphasize the bride, not the groom). And then, a few milliseconds later, you clearly see the bride, and that she is smiling, and she is looking at her new husband.
More technical detail:
Sometimes, not showing things that normally you would, also works. Look at the groom: we have no idea what he is thinking.
Knowing Looks
Well, of course we do, we can guess – and that is what this is about.
Try it yourself now, this type of portrait! Aperture open all the way on a fast lens.
I am going to repeat something I have mentioned many times before, but that never goes out of style: the difference between a wide angle lens and a telephoto lens.
Here is the same car shot recently with a telephoto lens from afar and then with a wide angle from close up:
Telephoto/far away:
A 1958 Dodge in Oakville (70-200)
Wide/close by:
A 1958 Dodge in Oakville (16-35)
You see the difference, yes? If ever the saying “a picture paints 1,000 words” is true, I imagine it is here.
Wide shows enhanced perspective/depth. Telephoto makes it look flat. This is not because of magic in the lens: it is simply because of the vantage point you take using each lens.
In addition,
Wide is better for situational portraits, low light shooting, and architecture, and much travel. Telephoto is better for flattering portraits.
When you shoot people, do not tell them how to pose, or that you are posing them. Tell them you are positioning them, or ask them to position themselves in a certain way.
You get more natural poses that way!
Bat Mitzvah Girl's big Sister and Mom
A family
And if the pose is more traditional, you can rotate, and even show the background, to add some life:
Bat Mitzvah Girl and friends