go for a different angle...
13/07/09 21:43
for those of you who are not “studio” photographers [and i am guessing that not that many of you shoot in a studio] you have all probably experienced the dreaded change in the weather issue! for example, say you are all excited to go out and shoot an event up in the mountains and you are thinking oh this will be great with the event starting at about 7pm the dusky sun will be beaming a golden light on my subjects and maybe i can get the mountain sunset as a backdrop and doesn’t it all just sound like a picture perfect opportunity! but as you are driving out to your location it starts .. the rain i mean. uh oooh, not good!
well it actually may not be bad either. as a photographer - and most certainly as an “outdoor” photographer you have got to learn how to exploit any element that you can in an effort to create a successful image from a not so great surrounding. because trust me, when you shoot events, it’s going to happen! that is bad weather i mean. so don’t get discouraged if you show up and the blue sky disappears. use that to your advantage to take shots in any kind of conditions. it will force you to get out of your comfort zone (and if you read my june 26th post...i know that i encourage you to get into the comfort zone ..but come on ..you can’t stay there forever!) and to get creative.
so next time it rains on your parade get ready to exploit some of the other elements that can make up a great image. if you wanted to capture that beautiful mountain range and blue sky in your image to provide that wonderful backdrop, but it is about to rain and the sky looks flat and dead and the mountains are all blending together in the flat light ... then forget that angle go for a different one. perhaps you could switch out your lens and go close up. or perhaps you can you can move your self to a different shooting spot and capture some other interesting background as a backdrop for you subject.
whatever you can do to change your preconceived notion about how that image should look, do it and play around with some different angles; because you might just end of with some great shots!
well it actually may not be bad either. as a photographer - and most certainly as an “outdoor” photographer you have got to learn how to exploit any element that you can in an effort to create a successful image from a not so great surrounding. because trust me, when you shoot events, it’s going to happen! that is bad weather i mean. so don’t get discouraged if you show up and the blue sky disappears. use that to your advantage to take shots in any kind of conditions. it will force you to get out of your comfort zone (and if you read my june 26th post...i know that i encourage you to get into the comfort zone ..but come on ..you can’t stay there forever!) and to get creative.
so next time it rains on your parade get ready to exploit some of the other elements that can make up a great image. if you wanted to capture that beautiful mountain range and blue sky in your image to provide that wonderful backdrop, but it is about to rain and the sky looks flat and dead and the mountains are all blending together in the flat light ... then forget that angle go for a different one. perhaps you could switch out your lens and go close up. or perhaps you can you can move your self to a different shooting spot and capture some other interesting background as a backdrop for you subject.
whatever you can do to change your preconceived notion about how that image should look, do it and play around with some different angles; because you might just end of with some great shots!
to crop ...or not to crop ...
02/07/09 07:36
the beauty of digital imaging is that there is so much that you can do to improve your photos while in the post production process; in a relatively short time without messing with nasty chemicals. now i recall quite a few years back when digital cameras were becoming more widely used and many pro photographers were transitioning from the traditional film format to the use of DSLR cameras. along with that trend came two things. first came the commercial use of digital image manipulation software (i say the commercial use because the professional print industry had used adobe photoshop for years to make photos more sellable in magazines and elsewhere in the market). and secondly, the pro photography industry splintered into two sects ... the film purist (who argue that digital image manipulation in post production is cheating); and then the new digital frontier’s (who argue that it’s not cheating ...it’s about leveraging all of the tools that you have at your disposal to make great images!)
well anyway that was somewhat unnecessary to go into all of that detail but i want you to think about many of my topics in relation to your own thoughts about digital photography; and to go beyond the shooting of images.
on to cropping ... so you have an image that you think is good ...then what? well you download it and open that image up in a photo editing program (photoshop or whatnot - personally i use a mac program called aperture) and you look at every pixel of that image and analyze the color, the composition, the highlights, the shadows, and so on. most of the time you will find that cropping your image will greatly enhance the overall composition of your photo. its one of the quickest and easiest things that you can do if you are just learning to use photo editing software. so try to get a little closer to pull the viewer right into your subject, or offset your subject a little bit off center to create a specific artistic type of image. or there may be a light post of mailbox peeking up in the corner of your photo that you did not see when you were shooting ... simply get rid of it - unless its part of your scene.
there are so many reasons to crop an image. it can be a great tool to help you to clean up your images and get focused in on the really important part of your photo ... the subject. and overall its just a great way to really enhance your image after the shutter has been released!
so yes .. i say crop away!!!
well anyway that was somewhat unnecessary to go into all of that detail but i want you to think about many of my topics in relation to your own thoughts about digital photography; and to go beyond the shooting of images.
on to cropping ... so you have an image that you think is good ...then what? well you download it and open that image up in a photo editing program (photoshop or whatnot - personally i use a mac program called aperture) and you look at every pixel of that image and analyze the color, the composition, the highlights, the shadows, and so on. most of the time you will find that cropping your image will greatly enhance the overall composition of your photo. its one of the quickest and easiest things that you can do if you are just learning to use photo editing software. so try to get a little closer to pull the viewer right into your subject, or offset your subject a little bit off center to create a specific artistic type of image. or there may be a light post of mailbox peeking up in the corner of your photo that you did not see when you were shooting ... simply get rid of it - unless its part of your scene.
there are so many reasons to crop an image. it can be a great tool to help you to clean up your images and get focused in on the really important part of your photo ... the subject. and overall its just a great way to really enhance your image after the shutter has been released!
so yes .. i say crop away!!!