Today being Thanksgiving or "turkey day" in the United States I wanted to take an opportunity to remind photographers to always over-do the main thing. If you are hired to photograph a wedding...don't forget to get LOTS of pictures of just the bride and groom alone. I've heard from people who've told me that their photographer didn't get enough (or, perish the thought, ANY!) formal pictures of the bride and groom alone. I realize that a lot of emphasis has been placed on purely photojournalistic photography at weddings these days...but that doesn't mean your clients want JUST candid pictures! In all likelihood there are going to be parents and grandparents who want, expect, and deserve good quality posed pictures -- at the very least, a wide assortment of candids that show them just the main subjects of the day!
So remember to "keep the main thing the main thing!" It's better to have too much than not enough when it comes to pictures of life events like weddings!
I was shooting a wedding today -- glorious weather, beautiful bride, handsome groom, fun and cooperative wedding party -- what more could anyone ask for? :)
The bride had a number of different places she wanted to go for pictures and we covered most of them. The reality is...whether you are a pro shooting a wedding or an amatuer out in the backyard trying to get your kids to line up for this year's Christmas card picture...you need to give your models / subjects a break from time to time or you'll end up with those tired "I don't want to have my picture taken" shots.
Are you still with me or are you wondering about the overwhelmingly obvious nature of today's tip? Here's the key...when you tell your subjects to take a break...that doesn't necessarily mean you should stop shooting! Sometimes a short break is what your subjects need to get back to their natural state (of not being so stiff with plastic smiles) -- this is a great time to get a few great candid images! :) Yes, you as the photographer need to take a break from time to time as well, but you'll likely get some very nice candid shots of your subjects when they aren't so conscious of having their picture taken. As Dori from "Finding Nemo" might say if she were a photographer..."just keep shooting."
Happy August! Where has the summer gone? My son only has 3 weeks left before school starts.
With each new month I try to set some personal goals -- and some photography goals too! This month I want to concentrate on finding a better sensor cleaning solution for my Canon 5D -- the larger sensor seems to attract larger DUST! I'd also like to schedule some time for myself to shoot some nature / landscape photos. I used to do that almost every Saturday (well, before we had kids, anyway!) -- now I'm lucky if I can get 2 hours a month set aside for just having some fun shooting. So...hold me accountable and I'll post up some of my August "fun stuff!"
And feel free to enter your photography goals in the comments section of this post...we'll revisit the goals a month from now.
Keep it real!
~Dan
I listened to an interview recently with the famous celebrity wedding photographer Joe Buissink. Joe spoke about recognizing perfect instances for taking pictures where he'll just snap his fingers if he sees something that looks like it would make a great photograph. That's a cool way to train yourself to recognize opportunities to take amazing pictures -- too often a photographer is at an event and they are waiting and waiting and waiting for the perfect set-up...and they miss those great spontaneous image capturing opportunities. I've been known to be out for walks or hikes with friends or family and I'll point out great light and what kind of great image could be made at that instant.
So if you want to get better at training your eyes (and your shutter finger and quick dial thumb) to capture superb candid images...just start snapping your fingers when you see something or someone that would make a cool shot. Even if you aren't carrying a camera with you at the moment (who would think of such a thing????), you'll get better at quickly reacting during those times when you do have your camera ready to fire away!
Keep it real :)
~Dan
Most auto-focus cameras come with an audible tone or beep to indicate when a shot is in focus. Wedding photographers will probably tell you that they have the beep function disabled -- with good reason -- you don't want to be the one with the noisy digital device during a quiet wedding ceremony. However, my general rule of thumb for the auto-focus beep is -- use it when you are doing kid photography -- especially when you may need to move out from behind the camera to engage the child you are photographing.
Funny story -- recently I was at a children's photography workshop with over a dozen photographers in attendance. When it came time to shoot, there were so many beeps in the studio it sounded like a family of birds had been let loose inside!
If you are like most people who take pictures...sometimes you have a hard time asking someone if you can take their (non-candid) picture at an event that you have been hired or asked to photograph. One of the easiest ways to lower that fear of being rejected (as if you are paparazzi or something)...is to first compliment the subject/s. Tell them you love their hat, shoes, smile, etc., and they immediately will show an interest in you since you have shown an interest in them. Another tips is to simply introduce yourself..."Hi, I'm Dan, can I take your picture?"
Recently I went out to shoot some collegiate baseball pictures. I had a picture in mind where I would focus just on the ball being pitched -- the ideal shot would freeze the motion of the ball with only the ball in focus. Here is one of the shots I got that day...
Many people ask how this shot is done. Well, it's kinda like what the character Edna Mode from the movie The Incredibles says..."Luck favors the prepared."
Luck is basically being able to time a shot that involves timing the placement of an object to arrive at a fixed focal length in less than a half second.
Preparation is -- manually prefocusing on a spot approximately two-thirds of the distance between the pitcher and home plate, use the infield grass. Also, shoot in manual exposure mode -- the fewer decisions the camera has to make, the better. To freeze the action of the ball you'll need the fastest shutter speed your camera will allow -- and don't try this at night! ;)
The above image was captured at ISO 400, 1/6400th shutter speed, f2.8.
I positioned myself directly behind home plate and shot through the backstop netting. You'll have to just keep practicing to get the timing of the pitched ball delivery to coincide with the arrival of the ball at your pre-focused distance. Yes, it will take some practice. But that's the beauty of digital photography -- it's not costing you any more to keep shooting!
Great photo opporunities! I *love* taking pictures of cool shadows and any kind of light that is blocked in distinct or fun patterns. You can find great images lurking in and around shadows. You have to be careful -- your eye sees twice as much tonal range as your camera does -- so the camera will tend to polarize the light and darks into ranges lighter and darker than your eye sees. In other words, your best bet is to find soft shadows or areas where the light falls on medium toned surfaces. Here are some cool shots I took of shadows at a professional baseball game.
Photojournalistic or candid style photography has grown in popularity over the last several years. As a photographer there are ways to develop (sorry, photo-pun) or improve your photojournalistic shooting.
One easy way to help train your eye for shooting the details of story-telling photographs is to start speaking the things that you see. Say for instance you are going for a nature walk in a botanical garden. What does your eye see? If you see purple flowers, verbalize that -- "I see purple flowers." And then start to think in terms of just photographing what you see on your walk. You'll start to notice more things as you train yourself to speak out what you see in your story. If it's a soccer game -- you'll notice some things that are less obvious...sweat, divets in the grass, a coach or parent yelling at a player. :)
To take it to the next level...you need to start noticing whether what you are photographing are nouns (a bumble bee, soccer cleats, a bride's veil), verbs (bumble bee flying, soccer cleat kicking the ball, bride peaking out of her vail), or adjectives (painful bee sting, jubilant soccer players, crying mother of the bride when seeing the bride's face after her veil is lifted).
The more adjectives you shoot, the greater the likelihood that your photographs will be story-telling photojournalistic images.
Even if you aren't specifically shooting images -- just try naming the things you would photograph (wherever it is you are) and pay attention to whether you are shooting the nouns, the verbs, or the adjectives (bonus points if you shoot the adverbs! LOL)
Regular readers of Daily Photo Tips know that I love to challenge photographers to shoot outside of their comfort zone. Today, I really did that. I shot film for the first time in a LONG time. Yes, I was cleaning out some of my gear bags when, on a whim, I thought it would be fun to shoot some film of the spring colors. What a challenge! (And...how quickly we forget!) I wasn't able to chimp, change ISO values from shot-to-shot, and I kept wanting to change my white balance to compensate for sunny vs. shade shots!
So if you are looking for a challenge and you still have an old film SLR or two...go out and shoot some film just to see how much your life has changed since digital has taken over! :)
I've worked well over 120 weddings since 1985 -- and I always seem to learn a new lesson each time I shoot a wedding. Yesterday was no exception! :)
I use Lowepro lens cases to carry my lenses on my belt when I'm shooting a wedding. (see picture below for image of a Lowepro case from B&H)
The wedding I shot yesterday was in a fairly small church but I shot it without an assistant so I had to move around quite a bit during the ceremony to capture the shots I wanted / needed to get. Notice the zippers on the case? Those zippers make noise when attached to a fast-moving photographer in a quiet church. Solution? Duct-tape? Nah...too sticky!! Electrical tape!! Of course! A small piece of electrical tape wrapped around the zipper pull will deaden the noise of the zipper! :)
Another tip that was discussed at the Open Source Photo seminar in Indianapolis earlier this week was capturing the eyes of a subject while they are looking up. This is a particularly appealing composition tip when photographing the innocence of a child. Either shoot from above or climb higher than the subject (small step-ladder, chair, whatever works!) and ask them to look up toward the camera.
I'm in Indianapolis today attending an Opensource Photo conference. Uber-amazing Indy photographer Jessica Strickland spoke at this morning's session about "car light" -- it was something that really struck me as brilliant in it's simplicity (yes, this happens to me regularly now that you mention it!).
Jess asked the attendees to think about how good they look when looking in car vanity or rear view mirrors...and then she pointed out that the magic of car light comes from being surrounded by indirect light of the car windows while the roof of the car acts as a natural gobo (or light blocker) of the harshness of direct light. I thought that was a great analogy to help photographers search for nice indirect light sources that flatter the subject without creating harsh shadows (or cause the subject to squint and create unflattering wrinkles).
Thanks for the great tip Jess! :)
Not long ago I posted about shooting an engagement session with j-peg and all manual settings. I got "outside the box" again recently. My wife is a former figure skater so we rarely miss professional or competitive figure skating events when they come to town. Last weekend we went to the Stars On Ice show and I had the fun of doing a shootout with myself. I shot the first act with aperature priority and auto-focus, and the second act with manual shutter / aperature and manual focus (5d w/ 85mm 1.8).
Shooting manual was tough in such a dark environment...especially with the constantly changing theatrical lighting and the fast movement of the athletes. I took around 1250 shots and had a very, very small % of keepers. The light being reflected off of the white paint under the ice can really fool a camera meter...even in spot mode depending on the width of the spot light and the costumes of the skaters.
What I like about doing this type of exercise is that it forces you to learn when to trust yourself over your camera's meter. You ask...how could shooting figure skating shows relate to other types of photography? Well...think of constantly changing lighting conditions...as you whirl around an event shooting (esp. if you are shooting natural light) -- these are the typical types of situations where you need to learn to trust yourself more than your camera's meter.
Most of the following images were shot at ISO 1250, f2.0, and in the 1/400 to 1/800 shutter speed range (even at that range, most of the really fast action shots were blurry...and I wasn't out to practice motion blur that night!). I really only changed the shutter speed with the changing light as well as the focus ring. As lights got dimmer or brighter it was like I was bracketing in 1/3 stop increments over a 5 - 7 frame sequence (even though I wasn't intending to bracket the exposures). Here are some of the keepers...
Typically on Friday's I like to post a photography quote. Today, in keeping with the ice skater theme of this post, I'd like to share a quote that is totally not related to photography -- but it can have a big influence on your photography.
"The only disability in life is a bad attitude."
--Scott Hamilton (U.S., Olympic and World Champion figure skater, and cancer survivor)
One way to fast-track your photo skills is to try shooting in situations that force you out of your comfort zone. My comfort zone is, or seems to be, shooting in raw format, using white balance presets, auto-focus, and aperature priority. Quite often I use natural light or diffused on-camera flash. Recently I wanted to challenge myself to sharpen my skills in shooting situations.
One way to do this is to shoot manually. I took it a bit further and decided to shoot manual focus, jpeg format, off-camera undiffused flash. I was shooting an engagement session and was able to convince the subjects (a really fun bride named Kathleen and her fiance Michael) to let me play a bit. (A friend of mine pointed out that most people would be better off to experiment with practice clients instead of real ones...what can I say?...I live on the edge!)
Here are some of the results...I was happy with them and the bride was extremely happy with them. :)
