Unless you have specific reasons to shoot particular

scenes or subjects, the best photo opportunities for

you are those things that you enjoy. If you enjoy

gardening and appreciate the thousands of different

variations of iris, shoot irises. Or if you are a

birdwatcher and find pleasure in watching wildlife,

choose places where you can find birds and other

wildlife in settings that make great photographs.

When planning a trip, give yourself plenty of time to

stay and take photographs. Allow yourself some time

for bad weather or other shooting conditions that

prevent you from photographing. You can spend an

entire day or more at a site and not have good

enough light to shoot. Do not fall into the trap of

trying to see too much too quickly. You may miss

the kinds of shots that you had hoped to capture

because you saw everything and shot little.

Photography takes time, and time is often the most

important factor in getting truly great photographs.

It took several hours of waiting to

get a shadow on this otherwise

overly bright photograph of the

White House ruins in Canyon de

Chelly in Arizona.

If you are willing to hike, you

may be rewarded with photos

that are well worth the effort that

it took to get there.

by

digital photography

top 100 simplifies

by Gregory Georges

Your camera’s shutter and iris controls allow you to change exposure to control the

brightness or darkness of your image, and the depth of field and motion-stopping

power. Whereas film cameras have mechanical irises and shutters—actual metal,

cloth, or plastic mechanisms that open and close—digital cameras often use different

methods, such as electronic shutters, for exposing the image sensor. Rather than

having a mechanism that opens and closes in front of the, a camera with an

electronic shutter simply turns its image sensor on and off for the appropriate length

of time. One shutter mechanism is not necessarily better than another, as long as the

camera offers the shutter-speed control you need to take the kind of shots you want.

All digital cameras offer an automatic exposure feature, which will automatically

calculate the appropriate shutter speed and aperture at the time you take a picture.

Some cameras, though, also offer manual controls for shutter speed and aperture.

When you are assessing a camera’s manual overrides, make sure the camera offers a

good range of shutter speeds—ideally ranging from a few seconds to at least 1/500th

of a second. It’s also nice to have a bulb mode, which makes the camera leave its

shutter open for as long as you hold down the shutter release button. On many

cameras, bulb mode is only accessible through a remote, either wired or wireless.

As in a film camera, the aperture in a digital camera is controlled by an iris, an

interlocking set of metal blades whose opening can expand or contract to make a

bigger or smaller aperture. Many small point-and-shoot digital cameras have only

two apertures, usually f2.8 and f5.6 or f8 and f11. These cameras make up for their

lack of aperture options by varying shutter speed. Although this configuration doesn’t

limit the conditions under which you can shoot, it does possibly hobble your creative

possibilities. Ideally, you want a camera with more aperture options.

Alternately, some small cameras use their iris as a shutter, simply snapping it

open and closed to make an exposure. The downside to this scheme is that at higher

shutter speeds, the camera might require you to use smaller apertures, because a

wider aperture would take too long to close and would prevent the camera from

achieving the desired shutter speed. Again, if you want maximum creative flexibility,

this type of mechanism might be too limiting.

Also, some cameras limit their minimum aperture to f8 in an effort to avoid certain

diffraction artifacts caused by the camera’s lens. The automatic meters in these cameras,

therefore, tend to favor wide-open apertures. These factors can limit your creative flexibility,

so you might want to do a little investigation when evaluating a camera.

On an SLR, you won’t need to worry about any of these issues. SLRs have real

shutters and apertures and offer a much larger range of shutter speeds and apertures.

In general, most SLRs will offer far more shutter speed range than you’ll need

for most shooting situations. If you know you need a fast shutter speed for the type

of shooting you do, you’ll want to weigh that into your decision. Many SLRs offer

shutter speeds up to 1/8000th of a second.

Similarly, if you like doing long exposure work—for low-light shooting, infrared,

or astrophotography, for example—you’ll want to choose a camera with a

bulb mode. You might also want to check into the camera’s remote control options.

For long exposure work, a remote control that offers a shutter lock can be essential.

Ever wonder why certain film is labeled as daylight film? This designation is used

to differentiate between films created for daylight lighting, Tungsten (studio)

lighting, or infrared lighting. Film comes with various light ratings because

different types of light have different color casts that can affect the quality of

your photos. A classic example is the heavy green cast film prints suffer from

when pictures are taken under florescent lighting.

Just because photography has gone digital, it doesn’t mean that problems from

different types of light have been solved. It just means that the digital

photographer has more control over these lighting situations than his film

counterpart.

The easy way to handle various lighting situations is to make sure your camera’s

white balance (WB) setting is on auto, and just forget about it. Most digital

camera’s auto white balance features do a good enough job of choosing the right

setting.

Sometimes though, the right setting isn’t the best setting. There’s no rule that

says that just because it’s sunny out, your white balance has to be set for

sunlight. You can experiment with white balance settings to create different

colorcasts that may be more in tune with the image you want to create. When in

doubt, take two pictures: one at the indicated setting and one with the

experimental one.

Here’s one example. Because heavy shade has a lot of blue light, digital camera

white balance settings for shade will add some red to neutralize that blue light.

Setting your white balance to shade for a picture taken under direct sun will

produce a “warmer” image because of that red.

n order to be able to talk about the different
graphic elements in composition, and to
look at the way they interact, the first thing we
must do is to isolate them, choosing the most
basic situations for composing pictures. A little
caution is needed here, because in practice there
is usually a multitude of possibilities, and a single,
isolated subject is something of a special case. The
examples here may seem a little obvious, but at
this stage we need clear, uncluttered examples.
The most basic of all photographic situations
is one single, obvious subject in front of the
camera, but even this presents two options. We
have an immediate choice: whether to close
right in so that it fills up the picture frame, or
to pull back so that we can see something of its
surroundings. What would influence the choice?
One consideration is the information content of
the picture. Obviously, the larger the subject is
in the photograph, the more detail of it can be
shown. If it is something unusual and interesting,
this may be paramount; if very familiar, perhaps
not. For example, if a wildlife photographer has
tracked down a rare animal, we would reasonably
expect to see as much of it as possible.
Another consideration is the relationship
between the subject and its setting. Are the
surroundings important, either to the content of
the shot or to its design? In the studio, subjects
are often set against neutral backgrounds; then
the setting has nothing to tell the viewer, and
its only value is for composition. Outside the
studio, however, settings nearly always have some
relevance. They can show scale (a climber on a
rock-face) or something about the activity of
the subject.
A third factor is the subjective relationship
that the photographer wants to create between
the viewer and the subject. If presence is
important, and the subject needs to be imposing,
then taking the viewer right up to it by filling
the frame is a reasonable option. There are
some mechanical matters involved, such as the
ultimate size of the picture when displayed, the
focal length of lens, and the scale of the subject
to begin with. Nevertheless, a big subject filling
the frame of a big picture usually acquires force
and impact. Moreover, as the examples here show,
there can also be a satisfying precision in just
matching subject to frame—particularly if the
image has to be composed rapidly.
The shape of the subject in relation to the
format of the frame clearly has an effect. In the
sequence of the Hong Kong ferry on the right,
the main picture shows a very satisfactory fit:
the boat from this angle just reaches the edges all
round. In the majority of single-subject pictures,
however, the focus of attention does not fill the
frame. The shape may not coincide with the
format of the picture (cropping is always possible,
but it is not necessarily elegant, and it may not
suit the intended display method). Another
possible risk with running the edges of the subject
right up to the borders of the picture is that the
eye may feel uncomfortable concentrating on
points falling very near the edges of the picture.
It often needs—or at least benefits from—a little
free area around a subject to be able to move
without feeling constricted.

The Photographer’s Eye Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos

As much as you may prefer a horizontal shot over a vertical, or vice versa, shoot a subject both ways.
By doing so, you off er a client—or a book or magazine publisher—an important choice.
In the case of publishing, your photograph may fi t into available space on a page one way. Limiting
your format options may limit the use of your images. What’s more, you may change your mind aft er
the shoot on which generates the better composition.
And who knows? An art director may want to use your photograph for a horizontal or vertical
poster. How cool! Here, too, you don’t want to miss out on a sale because your image does not fi t
the client’s specifi cations.
By the way, if you only have a horizontal and the client wants a vertical, don’t panic. With the
resolution of today’s cameras, it’s easy to crop a horizontal image vertically; but you may not have
exactly the same ratio that a vertical image off ers.
As long as we are talking about clients, check out the open space in these two photographs; this is
the space around the faces. Art directors like open space in a photograph because they oft en need
to place type on a photograph. And as much as you may not like anyone messing with your
photographs, you gotta go with the fl ow if you want to make it in the highly competitive world
of professional studio photography.

” Studio and Location Lighting Secrets for Digital Photographers ”

Rick Sammon