Outdoor Photography Tutorial

Posted on 09 December 2011 by Sean Farmer
As an amateur photography I had always viewed outdoor photography as a blessing, due to the fact that I didn’t have to worry about setting up complex lighting arrangements, background selections, or any other complicated procedure involved in studio photography. Now as a professional photographer, I have started to loath outdoor photo shoots. I do not necessarily hate doing outdoor photography, but I do not prefer it to a control studio or indoor shoot. What created this disdain for me was as I grew into my own unique style of photography and I learned how I want to set up lights, models, and the like, but in an outdoor shoot you cannot fully control every variable. Granted you can carry reflectors, or bring portable lighting setups (which are not as portable as they sound), but overall you are at the mercy of natural and artificial light, not to mention seasonal changes, in the area you are shooting.

Image By ab.plan.alp photography

Because of this loathing I gained for outdoor shoots, I had to actually sit down and create a list of considerations, rules, and guidelines to broadly consider when doing an outdoor shoot. Here is the basics of the list I had complied for my own shoots.


Timing Consideration
If you’ve ever had to deal with clients, especially as a freelancer, you know or quickly learn that you do not work on your schedule, you work on the clients. This means that you have to create a windowed time frame that works for both you and the client. When considering an outdoor shoot this can be a real nuisance. Say you have a client who works 10:00 am to 6:00 pm, and they ask you to do some outdoor portraits. The only free time this client has is during the morning and afternoon, meaning either you try to finish the shoot before they go to work or before the sun sets. You need to consider the needs of the client and your own abilities. One way to work around this schedule, is to do a shoot in the morning before your client goes to work, review the shoot throughout the day, and then do a second shoot in the afternoon when they are off work.


Daylight Consideration
Just like the time consideration, you need to keep in mind the amount of daylight you have to complete an outdoor shoot. In addition to the amount you need to consider the direction and intensity of the natural light at the time of the shoot. For example if you did a shoot in the morning you will typically have a waxing light source that provides a cooler white balance and a direction source, in the evening it is just the opposite with a waning directional light source and a warmer white balance, but a mid day shoot will typically provide a nearly neutral white balance and a more omnipresent light source as well as a much higher exposure. Again determine what would work best for your particular shoot and aim for that lighting time frame. I personally find an afternoon shoot to work best when no really consideration is needed.

Example of an over exposure caused by shooting in broad daylight. Image by Craige Morsels

Location Consideration
Interesting locations are a crucial aid to an outdoor photographer, but an overly interesting location can be a bane. This is because if the location becomes more interesting than the model, you will potentially loose your subject in the background. This is particularly true for vibrant backgrounds. While you shouldn’t avoid these locations for this reason, you should take steps to prevent losing your subject. You can do this by cropping in on your subject tighter or even by allowing the background to be blurred to a degree.

Example of a way to keep the background from being to distracting. Image by Xelcise

These are the three most basic things to consider when doing outdoor photography.

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The Ins and Outs of ISO Speeds

Posted on 12 December 2011 by MatthewBamberg
In the old film days it used to be that before a shoot, you’d decide what kind of film to use: that is, choose the film’s sensitivity to light. While in those days the choices were ISO 100, 200, 400 and 800, today’s digital cameras have a wider choice in ISO settings with many cameras capable of taking images at ISO 6400 and beyond.

In terms of values, ISO speeds of 100 is considered slow. At ISO 200 the sensor is twice as sensitive, which means that the shutter can open and close faster, giving you less blur from camera shake.

When possible it’s best to shoot at the lowest ISO speed. You’ll obtain brighter, bolder colors and an image that is sharp without any noticeable noise at 100 percent resolution on the computer screen. Images are required to be noise-free and sharp at that resolution in the stock/microstock photography business.
When you use a tripod, go with the lowest ISO speed at which your camera can be set (usually ISO 100). If light conditions are poor shoot at a higher ISO.

If a surface of an object(s) is lit by sunlight, I shoot at ISO 100. On cloudy days and in shady spots, I shoot at ISO 200-400 and at the break of dawn, the last of dusk and anywhere indoors, I shoot at ISO 800.

Mandalay puppet show shot at ISO 1600.

Image by Matthew Bamberg

Setting any digital camera to a film speed greater than ISO 800 or shooting with film that’s over 400 ISO and scanning the prints or negatives/positives sometimes results in noise (referred to as pixilation in the digital world).
When I was in Mandalay, Myanmar, I went to the main attraction, the Mandalay Puppet Show. The theater is dark but there is enough light on the stage to get a decent image for the web, but not for print.

At 100 percent resolution, images shot at high ISO speeds can be soft and noisy.

Image by Matthew Bamberg

The image was shot at ISO 1600 with a Digital Rebel. At 100 percent resolution there is noise and some softness, which disqualifies the photo for any large magazine spread or for stock/microstock purposes.
Images
On the other hand, an image of a modern house I shot at 100 ISO is free of noise and remained sharp at 100 percent resolution. This is because I used a tripod.

Image at 100 percent resolution shot with a tripod.

Image by Matthew Bamberg

Another thing to keep in mind regarding ISO speed is the size of the camera’s sensor. The small sensors of most point-and-shoot cameras are more susceptible to noise at high ISO speeds because the pixels are smaller and can’t receive as much light as those that are bigger, like in the mirroless cameras and the dSLRs.

Finally, you can consider the make of the camera. For example, even though the Canon 5D Mark II has a 21 MP sensor, the images it takes at high ISO speeds are inferior to those taken with the 12 MP Nikon D 700 I’ve found that images taken above ISO 800 For the most part, Nikon has more advanced sensor sensitivity technology than Canon has.
Cameras are constantly being upgraded to shoot at high ISO speeds, but no matter how good they get, they’ll never beat the sharpness and clarity of a photo that is shot with a tripod.

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Photographing the Law–Your Rights

Posted on 16 December 2011 by MatthewBamberg
On my usual surfing jaunts on the Internet, I was looking at dpreview site and an article caught my eye. The site announced that the American Civil Liberties Union published a set of rights in which photographers are entitled.
I hadn’t been aware that photographers are free to photograph the police. I have a folder with some police shots that I’m working on as part of my photojournalism collection. The folder is filled with compelling shots.
A few years ago, I lifted my camera to photograph a policeman and he put his hand up and told me that I couldn’t. According to the newly published photographers’ rights, he was wrong.

Image by Matthew Bamberg

Of course, this is debatable. If a person—any person—doesn’t want his photo taken, proper photo etiquette is to abide by their command. One thing is for sure, if you go ahead and take a picture when a person doesn’t want to, you risk infuriating your subject, causing him/her to react violently. That is never a pleasant scene.

Image by Matthew Bamberg

An officer isn’t likely to get violent with you. There’s not much he can do. If he detains you, he’s working outside the law. He/she can only do that if they suspect you of a crime, and it is not a crime to photograph publically.
Here’s what the ACLU has to say about photographing police: “When in public spaces where you are lawfully present you have the right to photograph anything that is in plain view.” The guidelines state that this includes images of police and that such photography offers an oversight of the government.
While the police might demand to see the photos and/or that you dump them, they are also acting outside the law. Without a warrant they are not permitted to do that.
There is an aesthetic end to photographing police. Their uniforms are a great color—usually navy blue, and they all wear the same ones, making the shot a great example of repetition if you catch a few of them in one place.
In addition, police often ride bikes and even patrol on horseback in some places (like New York City), photo ops that photographers of all levels don’t want to miss.

Image by Matthew Bamberg

When you photograph a moving policeman or policewoman, make your shutter open and close as fast as it can. To do this, shoot at a high ISO speed (about 800) with you camera set to a wide aperture (about f/4) in Aperture Priority mode.
Finally, every photographer has his/her own limits. Some get a thrill out of taking chances. Others are more conservative, opting to do nothing that may get them into trouble.
Whatever you do, it’s best to not get in the way if someone is getting arrested or being restrained. Let common sense guide you.

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CES 2012: Take a close look at Samsung's high-end compacts

Samsung's WB850F and WB150F are compact cameras with longer than average zoom ranges making them an ideal choice for use when traveling on holiday.
The more advanced WB850F features a 21x zoom lens and GPS technology, while the WB150F has an 18x zoom and is a little smaller and lighter.
Both cameras are wifi enabled and can be controlled and triggered using the Remote Viewfinder app available for Android smart phones like Samsung's Galaxy SII.

WB150F

Like the WB850F, the WB150F has a Schneider Kreuznach lens, but its an 18x zoom rather than a 21x zoom.

Both cameras have a 3in AMOLED screen that provides a nice clear view of the scene.

A mode dial allows the user to select the shooting mode.

WB850F

The metal body of the Samsung WB850F has a high quality feel and the camera is heavier than the WB150F.

A small pop-up flash is useful for low light and fill-in.

As on the WB150F, a mode dial allows the user to select the shooting mode and a control around the shutter release is used to zoom the lens in and out.

The controls on the rear of the camera feel well made and responsive.

When the dial is rotated to ASM, the navigation controls are used to select the desired advanced shooting mode.

There's a collection of creative shooting options.

The WiFi connectivity allows images to be shared in variety of ways including via social media sites and email. Images can also be viewed on compatible TV's and smartphones.

The menu provides all the usual settings options.
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Nikon’s Mirrorless Dynamic Duo

Posted on 21 December 2011 by MatthewBamberg
Finally! Nikon, the first company of the Nikon-Canon dynamic duo to came out with its own version of mirrorless cameras. Two models–the J1 and V1 are small and powerful.
Nikon’s ploy of coming out with two new mirrorless cameras (called the 1 series) to compete against those put out by Panasonic, Olympus, Sony and Samsung puts it at the helm of abiding by Apple’s old slogan: “Think Different.”

The two cameras are different than the others—they have much smaller sensors, a kind-of-inbetween size that has many people puzzled as to why they would do that.
Nikon supposedly markets this camera not to professionals, but to “those who like to take pictures.”
The Nikon pair both have a sensor size of 13.2X8.8 mm, while the other mirrorless cameras are larger (Sony NEX which is 24X16 mm).
Four lenses are on tap for those who opt to shoot both landscapes and portraits: 10 mm f/2.8 (27mm equivalent), 10-30mm (27-81mm 35mm equivalent) f/3.5-5.6, 30-110mm (27-81mm 35mm equivalent) f/3.8-f/5, and 10-100mm(27-270mm equivalent) f/4.5-5.5 “power zoom” lens.

The cameras are also inferior to their big brothers (Panasonic, Olympus, Sony and Samsung) in that their resolution is much smaller 10 MP compared to, say, 24 MP for Sony’s new NEX 7.
No all the professional characteristics are lost, though—both models shoot in Raw format. Both cameras also have a pop-up flash and three-inch LCD display, which has a higher resolution than the other mirrorless cameras.
Just as intriguing in their comparison with other mirrorless models, is the comparison between the J1 and V1.
The V1 is bigger and a little better than the J1. The V1 has an electronic viewfinder and the J1 does not, the V1 has an external flash port for a small flash unit and the J1 has an external flash.
At $900 for the V1 and $650 for the J1, The cameras are not cheap, though cheaper than Sony’s Nex 7 ($1,350)

New options such as the Smart Photo Selector, which takes a series of 20 photos, choosing the 5 best, having you pick the best one; EXSPEED, what Nikon says is the fastest shooting speed in the world—60 frames per second; and you can record a full resolution still shot while the video recording keeps going.
Did someone say video? Yes, the cameras also have video. Both can shoot 20 minutes of 1080p video.
Nikon may be on to something here, but then again it might not.

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