As in, “Keep It Simple, Stupid!”
One of the most important things about an image is to keep it simple. Simple means “everything in a photo is meant to be in it, or it’s not there”.
You can do this while shooting or afterward, by cropping.
A few shots from Montréal, yesterday:
Wheel
Ship, Montreal
And one more:
Ship, Montreal
What do you think? Simple good?
In Montréal. Last night!
Montreal, 8 Oct 2010
Taken at 800 ISO, 1/30th sec, f/1.7.
Because of the fast (f/1.7) 20mm lens on the Lunix camera I was able to shoot at 800 ISO. Had I had a regular point and shoot, I would have had to shoot at a higher ISO speed, much higher.
Here’s another one:
Montreal at night, 8 Oct 2010
So the tips for today are:
And above all: bring the camera. And have fun.
You have heard me say it before: go wide, get close, open up.
24mm f/2.8:
Microphone
16mm (on a full frame camera, meaning 10mm for most SLRs):
Buffet
24mm:
Bartender
None of these pictures are to be seen by them selves: they support the story. And they do it by showing detail and by maing the viewwer think.
So: Wide angle, Lens open to maximum aperture. Get close.
Just a quick note today, since I am travelling to Montreal and Quebec City.
White balance is the process your camera uses to make white white.
But you can also use it to distort an image’s colours to your liking.
To turn white yellow, for instance. This shot is Tungsten light, but shot with the camera’s white balance set to flash:
White or orange?
You can, and should, experiment with white balance! Turn images blue or orange. Play a little!
Of course if you are only using one light source and you shoot RAW, this makes no actual difference, but it is still worth setting, if only (as I have pointed out here before) because you save timelater – and becasue you get to see an idea of what the image will look like in the end.
After last Sunday’s Creative Lighting workshop, and working up to next week’s Henry’s Digital Imaging show, at which I will be presenting for three days, I am thinking about light. As I always do.
Look at this shot from last weekend: model and friend:
Model and horse
Lit by natural light?
Not on your life.
Here is what they look like in available light:
Horse and model - available light
Now you see why we use softboxes, kicker lights, and so on.
Used in the first shot:
Simple, innit?
Well, maybe not that simple, until you are shown. Come take a full-day lighting workshop and I will teach you this, and come see me at the upcoming Henry’s show also, where I will do tethered portrait shooting to demonstrate all this.
One more from Sunday’s course.
This time, a portrait of model Tara that I made to help explain multiple flash TTL. Straight out of the camera it is:
Multiple-flash TTL lighting
How was this made?
With a small Traveller 8 softbox on the main light, a gridded gelled flash for the background, a snooted flash for the fill light, and a gridded gelled flash for the edge light.
Four speedlights, and all using TTL.
A few things to remember in such portraits:
Keep those in mind and your portraits will be well lit.
…for the Henrys Digital Imaging show! It will be held 15-17 October at the International Centre right by Toronto’s Pearson airport.
See the show web site (scroll down and you’ll see my name). I shall be presenting short versions of workshops throughout all three days.
This show is great: just about the entire imaging industry turns up and you get to hear interesting speakers, see new releases, try out all the cameras and lenses you might be interested in, and I am sure there will be deals also. Also – there are so many experts that any question can be answered.
If you are interested in photography, this is a must-see. Worth spending an entire day: I hope to see those of you who can get there, there. Come say hello!
At the Mono “Creative Light” workshop, we do different portfolio shots every time.
So imagine our delighted on Sunday when a student turned up in a Hummer. This was immediately put to use by model Tara:
Tara Elizabeth and Hummer
That was lit how?
This is how: with a softbox, to our left. And a small speedlight to our left aimed straight at the car – with a blue Honl gel. Both were fired using pocketwizards (the speedlite using a Flashzebra cable). Metered using a light meter, of course.
Here is an alternate take:
Angry Tara, with Hummer
That was taken just a few minutes before. Can you see how every minute counts when shooting in beautiful late day light?
Okay, one more. Just to show that lens flare – which should normally be avoided – can sometimes be OK:
Angry with tire iron
You avoid flare by:
Have fun!
Today, I have a quick starting point for food photography for you.
Food Photography
And do not forget to eat the food, afterward.
Indian Food Photography
(Although you would be surprised how many food shoots use fake food. Ouch!)
One more, for good measure (I shot these for West of the City magazine early this year).
Indian Food Photography
When you photograph someone with glasses, especially in a studio, watch out for a couple of things.
By observing these simple precautions, you can get good photos of someone wearing glasses. Not complicated: as so often it is in the “paying attention”.