Beginner's Outdoor Portrait Photography Hints and Tips

Everyone wants to capture beautiful photographs of their family and friends, but often the shots come out with harsh shadows across the face, blown out with flash or the kids won't keep still and the pictures are all blurred.  What can you do to maximise the chances of good results?

Luckily, there are a few quick wins that will help you get better shots more consistently.

1 Get the light right


We've all heard how photography is all about light, right?  Well, it is.  If you shoot in the midday sun, the light is directly hitting the top of the head, so you get big dark shadows under the eyes, the nose, the chin and the neck.  Shoot with your subject facing directly into the sun and you'll get them squinting, shoot with their back to the sun and you get a silhouette.  Seems impossible??

The best outdoor portrait results are obtained either early morning or late afternoon when the light is soft.  Aim to shoot in flat shade (CAUTION: dappled light from trees etc causes real inconsistencies in lighting which are best avoided) , better the shade of a building or rocks if shooting at the beach.  This will give you consistent light, but if there is some sunlight nearby, it will reflect up and your subject will be nicely lit.

Aim to have the sun at a 45 degree angle to your subject, so they are not directly facing it, but so that it still puts that little catchlight in their eye.


2 Focus on the eye nearest to you


As a viewer, we work our way front to back through an image, so if the person at the front is out of focus, we have already written it off as a bad image, even if someone behind is in focus.

Getting your focus right is paramount with portrait photography, and ensuring your auto-focus dot is lit on the front eye in the image is the best way to ensure a winning shot every time.


3 Shoot on continuous focus mode or AI Focus (Canon)

As a beginner, there is nothing more frustrating than your subjects moving, and the pictures being blurred - hence why many of us start with landscapes and nature!

One trick that I use with my students is to take advantage of the improvements in Auto-Focus SLR functionality.  Most SLRs and hybrid cameras now have continuous focus modes in the Auto-Focus menus (AF-C in Nikon, AI Focus (slight movement) or AI Servo (significant movement) in Canon), which means getting your subject in focus much more of the time!

4 Shoot on A or AV and set your dial to its lowest F number - often F4 or 5.6


For those a touch more advanced, you can think about blurring your background slightly by using the aperture priority settings.  If you use a low number, this reduces the depth of field and gives you the nice softness to your background.  Getting closer to your subject also helps.  Practice makes perfect here!

5 Think about your composition

Finally think about how you put your subjects into the frame.  If you have a group, a pyramid structure works well, with a few people standing behind in the middle.  It is also important to ensure you leave plenty of space above the heads, and some space in front of your subjects to look into.

I hope this gives you some starting points to improve on your shots.  Remember that I offer some portrait workshops if you'd like a bit of one-on-one advice with your camera.  

All the best, and happy shooting!

A New Start

A New Start... 

Re-establishing your life and business in a new country is never going to be easy.  We were in Australia for seven years, so our decision to return to the UK was not taken lightly.  Having said that, however, we have been overwhelmed with how easy it has been to slot back into life in the UK and re-adjust.  I guess it has been helped somewhat by the recent hot weather!  Not so sure I'll be saying this come February...

This blog post is really just a taster to re-introduce myself, introduce you to my daughter, Evie (above), whose photos are likely to feature fairly prominently in this blog and basically to re-connect officially.

My blog is where I have the freedom to share snippets of portrait shoots, weddings and events I have been lucky enough to shoot, give you all some photography advice to get the most out of your cameras, whatever the level, and generally share my journey as it unfolds.

I look forward to you joining me on that journey.  Please share if you can... I would like to improve on 2 followers (from my family at that!) 

Best wishes,

Nic xxxx

my website 

Rear-Sync Flash Photography

I have just been investigating my Canon 430EX Speedlite's functionality, as I only ever use the flash for quite basic lighting techniques.  I decided to work on my rear-sync flash technique, so thought I'd share with you what I now know!

What is rear-sync flash?


Your camera shutter is actually made up of two curtains - a front curtain and a rear curtain.  When you take a photograph, the front curtain reveals your sensor and then the rear curtain comes across to cover your sensor again.

Your flash will normally go off when the first curtain goes up.  This lights the scene immediately and will freeze the action at that moment.

With rear-sync flash - you've guessed it - the flash fires at the end of the shot, just before the rear curtain closes.  It is often also known as rear-curtain flash.

What happens in practice is that your camera shutter will open and begin to record the movement of you scene on the sensor, quite  blurry.  Then, when the flash fires, a sharp image is recorded over the blurred information of any subject that is within the flashes firing range.

How do I do it?


Firstly you usually need an on-camera flash, although some camera models may have a rear sync flash option.  In small point and shoot cameras, this is effectively what Night Portrait or Party mode is doing.

• This works best at night.  Try taking a friend/model out into a fairly busy area where there is a lot of motion or if, like me, you head out alone, look for a still subject in front of a moving scene.
• Take a tripod, although this is not essential.
• Set your flash to rear sync mode.  In Canon cameras, this is done by pressing the H button on your flash until three fast forward triangles are revealed. In Nikon, press the flash symbol button on your camera body, and your LCD will cycle between various modes until it reads REAR.  Refer to your manual for rear-sync if in doubt.
• Set your camera to TV or S mode and select a slow shutter speed, I found that anything from 0.5" works. 
• Place camera on tripod.
• Focus on your subject and take the shot when motion is detected behind - e.g. car passes, crowd passes.
• Play with different shutter speeds for different effects.
• Take the camera off the tripod and try shooting whilst you are moving for more creative effects.

Why would I use it?


This technique gets you away from the boring shots where your flash exposes your subject but the  background is in darkness.  It allows ambient light into the background that is filled with motion.

It is often used to great effect at weddings to get the bride and groom sharp but an active background.   I've also seen some great shots where it is used to accentuate the idea of motion, e.g. the blur of an arm frozen at the last minute, e.g. in a chopping or violin action.

Go on, be adventurous and give it a go, it's easier than it seems and the unpredictability of the shots is quite exciting!

Happy snapping,

Nic

Shooting in the Midday Sun (AKA 'High Noon'!)

 Ok, so you've heard all the rules - always take photographs an hour before or after sunrise or sunset, as you get that lovely golden light that just makes everything look gorgeous, right?

But let's take a reality check here.  Firstly, who get's up an hour before sunrise and is compus mentus enough to get out with all of their photography gear and find a great place to shoot?  And secondly, when can we ever get out at just the right time in the afternoon?

So, it's 11.30 am on a Saturday morning and you have a precious two hours to spare.  Is it a waste of time to pop outside with your camera?  The short answer is no.

It is true, however that sunlight between 10am and 3pm is pretty harsh light.  It has a tendancy to wash out colours (desaturate) and cast very harsh black shadows (think portraits with black shadows under the eyes, nose and chin).  So what can you do to combat this?

1.  Shoot in the shade

You are always best to aim for a shady spot on a sunny day - in fact, overcast days are actually best if your shooting in the middle of the day.  If you can shoot with your entire scene in the shade, your results will be a lot more even and better saturated.  Beware dappled shade (from tree branches etc).  This will put dark and light dappling across your shot which simply looks ugly and unprofessional.

If you can't find any shade, it's always handy to have an umbrella.  This can be held (preferably by a kind supportive friend) between the subject and the sun to give you the shady, diffused light you need.

2.  Get in close


Work with closer subjects rather than broad landscapes for better results.  Landscapes are notoriously hard to get correctly exposed in bright sunny conditions, as you usually have a very bright sky and a darker foreground.  The camera will try to meter the scene and will fail miserably, leaving you with either a black, under-exposed foreground or a burnt-out white sky.  If you are skilful you can bracket your shots and HDR layer them in Photoshop later for the perfect shot (the subject of a later blog!) but otherwise, save it for a different time of day.

3. Under-expose your shot

A great trick if you are shooting in bright conditions is to use exposure compensation (a later blog will deal with this in detail).  Under-expose your shots by around 2/3rds to 1 stop.  This will allow less light into your camera and so your images will look more saturated and more similar to what we see with our naked eye.


[QUICK TIP:  Most camera models have a +/_ back and white square button which takes you to the meter reading    -2 . . -1 . . 0 . . 1 . . 2     Each dot is a third of a stop.  Minus under exposes, plus over-exposes.]

4. Lower your ISO 

If you leave your ISO too high from shooting in dark conditions previously, chances are your shots won't come out to the best quality and your camera may even blink at you to tell you it can't take the shot.  This means your sensor is far too sensitive for the bright light.  You need to reduce the sensitivity by bringing down the ISO to 100.

5.  Shoot away from the sun

Finally, the old adage of shooting with your back to the sun is still true in most situations.  If you have the sun behind you for architecture and detail shots, the sun will light your scene, rather than creating  glare and flare in your image.  If you're shooting portraits, however, you will simply get people squinting - not their best look.  Again, try and take them into the shade, but if not, a 90 degree angle to the sun can give some nice side light, or if you have a flash, putting the sun behind them and filling in the shadow on the face with flash works nicely.

Remember too that rules are there to be broken and the best results often come from experimentation.  So shooting into the sun to get strong silhouettes or vintage look lens flare can often be very effective.

Happy snapping!

Nic

Shooting Modes Explained

Port Willunga, Adelaide

When you first start out in photography, the top dial of your SLR is just a complicated bunch of letters; it feels much safer to stay on that AUTOMATIC green square.

This short post is to help demystify what each of the letters stand for.

The easiest to begin with is:

Program (P): Camera sets shutter speed and aperture for you depending on the light.  You can still adjust certain controls in Program mode, such as ISO, White Balance, 

BEST FOR: Shooting when you are short of time, just beginning or if you want to ensure you shoot a particular moment with reasonable accuracy.

Aperture Priority (AV) You choose the aperture and the camera chooses the correct shutter speed to get the right amount of light for accurate exposure.

BEST FOR: Where you want to control the depth of field (amount of the scene in focus) – e.g.  landscapes and portraits.  

Landscapes (choose a larger aperture number for more depth of field).   Portraits and close ups (choose a smaller aperture to get a blurred background).

Shutter Priority (TV or S) You choose the shutter speed and the camera chooses the correct size of aperture to allow the correct amount of light to hit the sensor.

BEST FOR: When you want to control motion in a scene.  If you have a fast moving subject like sports or cars and want to freeze the action, use a fast shutter speed.  If you want to blur motion for effect, eg waterfalls, use a slow shutter speed (tripod needed under 1/60^th of a second).

Manual (M) You choose both aperture and shutter speed.

BEST FOR: Maximum creativity when you have lots of time to experiment. 

Bulb (B) This permits the shutter to be open from when the shutter is pressed until it is released, usually with a cable release.  It is used for extended exposures.

ONLY FOR: extra long exposures, such as night shots, star trails.

Have fun experimenting!

Until next time,

Nicola 

Top 5 Night Photography Tips

If you are a beginner photographer, night photography is often one of the most appealing, yet most daunting new adventures you can undertake.  This shot was taken at this year's Vivid light festival in Sydney, showing what you can achieve with a slow shutter speed and a tripod.

In this article are some tips to get you started, break the fear barrier and go out and have some fun! All you will need are some warm clothes (at this time of year in the Southern Hemisphere at least), an SLR camera, a charged battery, a tripod and heaps of enthusiasm.  I usually take some coffee and snacks too... erm, pretty much everywhere I go actually!

1.  Invest in a good quality tripod

Many camera shops offer all-in packages these days which include a tripod - beware!  These are often poor quality aluminium tripods that will blow over in a slight gust of wind!  I am a huge Manfrotto fan, and if you can afford it, invest in Manfrotto every time.  They do a great dual head which combines a ball and socket motion with a joystick panning motion, which means you can shoot any angle as well as panoramas.  Perfect.  I am still saving up to replace mine!!

2.  Shoot on time delay or with a cable release

When shooting at night you will inevitably be shooting at a slow shutter speed.  You will get all excited about taking long exposures, only to find that when you press the shutter release button, you are causing the camera to shake slightly, and all of your shots will be blurred.  Use the time delay option (the one you use when you try and get pictures of yourself with your family on holidays, where you set it and run in front of the camera like a madwoman, only to discover you have 9 and a half seconds left to pose...).  This will enable the camera to stabilize after you've pressed the shutter, before it takes the shot.  If you're feeling fancy, get a cable release.  Buy a branded one.  I got one from Ebay and it was rubbish.

3.  Turn off your flash

Flash photography won't help you too much shooting scenic photography at night.  The flash only travels a few metres, and so will often light random objects in the foreground, leaving your beautiful scene utterly black.  The only time to use it is if you want to highlight some people or an object in the foreground.  Even then, use sparingly - In a later article I will explain how you can reduce the amount of flash you use so you just add a touch of light to the scene...

4.  Set your camera to AV or A mode

AV mode allows you to choose the Aperture, or size of the opening through which the light enters your camera, whilst the camera selects the shutter speed.  As a beginner, you don't really know what shutter speed you want to use to capture your shots - this way, the camera does all the work for you - fabberlus!

Options:

a) If you want to ensure you get everything in the scene nicely in focus - Use an aperture of 22 or F22 and focus on an object about one third of the way into your shot.

b) If you want a nice sharp shot, aim for an aperture in the middle of your zoom lens range - around f8 or F11 - on most lenses this is a sweet spot, and usually generates the sharpest images.  It obviously varies from lens to lens, so I recommend you try and Google sweet spot and your particular lens brand and discover what people say is the best aperture to shoot at for your lens model.

c) If you want only part of your image in focus and other parts soft to draw attention to a particular subject, use a small aperture number - around F2.5 - F5.6.  This will give you what is known as a shallow depth of field, i.e. only part of your image is in focus (This will be discussed further in future articles).

Remember, your camera will do all the work with the shutter speed, so you can just relax.

5.  Experiment with exposure times

Once you have taken one shot with your chosen aperture, vary it up and down the range, you should have a range of around F4 to F22 to play with.  This will speed up and slow down your shutter speed and give you varied effects, especially if your subject is moving. (The title image is the streaking lights of the ferry passing the harbour bridge).

Ok, have fun and please post some images, how you got on and your own tips!!!

Until next time folks,
Nicola