Tips from Bobby | Aperture & Shutter Speed

Aperture & Shutter Speed:  The World's Greatest Photoshop Effects (without using Photoshop)

It’s time to take your camera off of the automatic setting and even the shutter priority / aperture priority setting and start taking your creative potential to the next level.  Yes, that means you have to use that scary “M” setting on your camera, meaning you manually control it based on what you want your images to look like.  Aperture and shutter speed are God’s gift to realism.  They allow you to present your unique perspective on the world with the utmost creative control.  Knowing how to effectively use both will allow you to accomplish effects in the camera that 99 percent of the world saves until post production.  Cloning people out, blurring the background a little more to eliminate the twigs, brush, a stop sign, etc. and even achieving exaggerated color palettes are all possible if you know how to use aperture and shutter speed to your advantage.  The digital camera is one of the greatest learning tools ever invented in that it allows you to instantly see the effects of your creative choices when shooting.  You instantly get to see what happens with even the slightest tweaks to your camera settings.  Putting your camera on manual mode, and noting what happens when you change your camera settings is the first step in becoming a picture maker, rather than a picture taker.

Aperture | Basically, this allows you to control the amount of the scene that will be in focus (it does other things as well, but for now, we will stick with the basics).  It allows you to eliminate unnecessary background elements by blurring them out.  Large apertures (smaller F numbers) mean a more shallow depth of field (less in focus).  Have you ever seen a shot of a flower where only the grains of pollen are in focus and the rest is a beautiful blurred color palette?  That is aperture working its magic.  It would not have the same effect if all the imperfect green leaves and scraggly details in the background were in focus.  Large apertures f2.8, f3.5, f4, f5.6 give you a shallow depth of field that will turn unnecessary background and foreground elements into a nice dreamy color palette accentuating your subject matter.  Small apertures like f16, f22, and f32 will give you a greater depth of field and more will be in focus.  Broad landscape scenes are usually shot with apertures f16 and smaller (larger numbers mean smaller apertures).  Just think, a little f-number f2.8, f4, f5.6, etc. (larger apertures…I know it’s confusing)=little focus.  Larger f-numbers like f16, f22, etc. (smaller apertures) mean larger depth of field and more in focus.  Practice shooting scenes with a variety of aperture settings and note the subtle differences between each one.  An aperture of f5.6 might have rendered too much detail in the background elements causing you to want to open up the aperture to an f4 or f3.5 to blur out a smidgen more.  You will soon learn exactly which setting you want to achieve your desired result.

Shutter Speed | This is your greatest paintbrush-like tool in that it allows you to paint movement, freeze fast moving objects, erase moving objects, capture streaks of light, and even exaggerate the color palette of a scene without cranking up the saturation in Photoshop.  Longer shutter speeds like 1/15th of a second or more can give your composition a very dramatic and dreamy feel.  Silky ocean tides and waterfalls, streaks of light through a cityscape, and even those Van Gogh “Starry Night” star trails are all the results of using long shutter speeds in which the movement of the subject is captured.  I’ve also used longer shutter speeds to erase people in front of a busy cityscape.  As long as the people aren’t wearing the old school British Knight light up shoes, they will disappear in the composition when using longer shutter speeds.  Longer shutter speeds can also greatly exaggerate the color palette of any given scene due to the extended time that your CCD or film is exposed.  It’s almost as if your film or CCD is a sponge that becomes more saturated the longer it is in contact with the light.  Faster shutter speeds like 1/125 of a second or shorter can freeze moments in time.  Water droplets coming out of a sprinkler, Kevin Durant dunking on just about anyone who gets in his way, and a lion sprinting across the Serengeti can be frozen in time using faster shutter speeds.

As you become more familiar with aperture and shutter speed, you will be able to achieve whatever result you desire, thus turning you into a photo maker rather than a photo taker.  I approach each scene with a desired effect and use the two features to bring my vision to fruition.  Sometimes, I need a longer shutter speed and set my shutter speed to the desired setting and change my aperture accordingly.  Some scenes I approach in a completely opposite fashion knowing that I want a certain amount of the scene in or out of focus; therefore, I set my aperture to the desired setting, and adjust the shutter speed accordingly.  The point is to know your camera well enough that you are making all of the creative decisions and not your automatic camera setting.  Mastering these two aspects of photography will drastically improve your body of work and by extension, increase your credibility and the demand for your work or services.  Uprgrading your gear is always better when you have to do it because your clientele demands it.

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Achieving Better Focus

by Amy Leavitt 

As a beginning photographer, I couldn't take a photo in focus to save my life. I tried many different apertures and f-stops. I set my shutter speed as high as I could. Still nothing. I read about how to hold the camera, and finally concluded that my camera's focus system was broken and needed to be repaired. I actually did a focus test (google it) to see if this was true. It wasn't. My focus system was fine. The problem was simply user error. Once I learned how my camera's focus system worked, I slowly but surely saw better results in my photos. So, please enjoy this simple and straight forward information on focus.

 
1. Know your camera's Focus System

Most DSLR's have 9 – 11 focus points. Some newer models have 50 or more. There are two types of focus points, single plane and cross point. 

Single plane will only work with lines of contrast that are perpendicular (at a 90 degree angle) to their orientation. So if you were shooting a skyscraper, a vertical object, a vertical focus point will not be able to find the edge of the building (the contrast) and it won't be able to focus. A horizontal focus point will be perpendicular to the building and would easily be able to find the contrast in order to focus.

Cross points contain both vertical and horizontal focus points, as shown by the square in the image below. Because a cross point has both vertical and horizontal sensors, they are the most accurate focus point. Some DSLR's only have one cross point in the center (like my Canon 5d), but newer, high-end cameras are now featuring cross points on all focus points.

Most cameras will look something like this:

The autofocus (AF) system in DSLR's works by adjusting the focus to achieve the best contrast between adjacent pixels on the focus sensor. 
 

If you are trying to photograph a subject that has little or no contrast, like a blue sky or even just a piece of white paper, the AF system cannot function because it can't find an "edge" or an area of contrast, and your camera will not focus.

To better understand how the focus points work, choose a vertical focus point and try to focus on the following image. Because the focus sensor can't find an edge, it will not focus.

 

The focus points are looking for contrasting pixels perpendicular to their orientation, not parallel. To illustrate this, go to the above image again. Try to focus on the black line using a horizontal focus point. It will easily find the edge and focus.

2. Use the Correct Focus Mode

Avoid using the "all focus point" mode, where the camera chooses the area of focus. There are sometimes when this is handy, like in fast situations or when you just need to get the shot. But for portrait, wedding or commercial work, you'll likely want total control on the area of focus.

One-Shot or Single Servo (for still subjects) – When you press the shutter button halfway down, the camera locks on your focus point. You can recompose the shot and press the shutter all the way down to take the photo. The focus stays locked until you press the shutter or re-press the shutter to lock on a new point.

AI Servo or Continuous Servo (for moving subjects) – When you press the shutter button halfway down, the camera will focus on the subject continually and refocus if the camera or the subject moves. It will attempt to track your subject and predict the correct focus area when the shutter is pressed. This is useful for sports, action or fast moving subjects, like toddlers, or a child on a swing.

Manual Focus - You adjust the focus manually by turning the focus ring on your lens. I rarely use this mode, but it can be useful in macro photography or low light situations. I've also used this when I purposely want to blur a subject, as in the example below:

 

3.  The Focus and Recompose Method

This can sometimes be a subject of debate in the photography world. So let me qualify this by saying that if it works for you, do it. If it doesn't, don't. 

The focus and recompose method is exactly what it's name says: Focus on what you want sharp in the image, i.e. the eye of the subject, press the shutter halfway to lock focus, then recompose or frame the image according to your artistic taste. I use this 90% of the time when I'm shooting portraits because I only have one cross point in the center of the frame. I don't always want my subject in the center, however. So I will center the middle cross point over my subject's eye, then recompose so that they are not dead center.

The reason why this may be a hot topic is because of the fact that when you recompose, you are moving the focal plane and thus your shot might turn out soft. This can be true, if you're using wide open apertures, where moving the focal plane can make a big difference. However, I consciously use this method when I know a slight adjustment in the focal plane won't lose sharpness on my subject. I don't use this method if I'm up close and/or using a wide open aperture.

4. Focus on What's Important

What should you focus on in the image? For portraits, you should focus on the eyes. Focus on the part of the image that you want to draw the viewers attention to. For groups, choose a subject near the middle and focus on their eye (use a small aperture). For landscapes, where you want everything in focus, choose the smallest aperture and focus on a subject in the foreground and let the depth of field carry the area of focus to the background.

5. Don't Use Photoshop to Try to Fix Focus Errors

If an image is out of focus, sharpening it in Photoshop won't ultimately make it in focus. You'll just have a sharp image that's still out of focus. Unsharp Mask, Smart Sharpen or High-Pass filtering are there to sharpen in-focus photos, not to fix out of focus photos. 

6. Common Reasons for Blurry Photos

Blurry photos can occur for a variety of reasons:

• Camera shake: Every person has a different "safe" shutter speed. Find out the lowest shutter speed where you can handhold the camera without camera shake. You may have steady hands and can hold the camera as low as 1/60 without camera shake. My limit is 1/125.
  
• Slow shutter speed: If your subject is moving, it won't matter how steady your hands are. Use a faster shutter speed if you don't want action blur.
• Improper focusing of the focus points: If you're trying to use the wrong type of focus point, the camera will either not be able to focus, or it will choose the closest area of contrast to focus on, which may not be where you want.
• Improper Exposure: If you have bad lighting or your image is underexposed, it will look out of focus, no matter how hard you try. Be sure your subject is well lit and your exposure is spot on.

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Social Media Tips for Photographers

Question & Answer with Kelsey Anderson

You're a photographer. You want to know how to grow a fan base, market yourself and make real connections with potential clients using social media.  How do you start?  Ask someone who's been successful at it! Check out how Kelsey Anderson has grown her fan base to nearly 7000 'likers'.

What are the best tactics you've used to increase your fan base?

Be me. I think that people really feel a connection with me or feel they have a good idea of who I am as a person and photographer because I don't try to business myself up all the time on my page and only post photography and business related topics. My fans read about my daily life as a Mom, Wife and Photographer. Most of my fans know that I am in love with Edward Cullen and have an addiction to reality tv. I believe this is a huge benefit for my business as well because my clients get a good sense of who I am and feel more comfortable in front of my camera because I am not a total stranger :)


How do you measure the effectiveness of your social media efforts?
I don't know if I have ever really sat back and looked at it honestly. I guess if maybe I didn't receive the response I typically do from my posts then I would reevaluate my approach.


For new business pages, where should they start? 
Suggest away to all your friends! Ask them to share with their friends and make sure you are tagging your clients in the images you post as well!

How do you focus your efforts on your target audience? My target audience is quiet large :) I am promoting myself to portraits and wedding clients as well as photographers. So I try to post about topics that all of the above would find interesting. I don't always just try to promote myself. If I come across a product or vendor that I think my clients might find cool I will post as well. I don't want my page to be one dimensional. I want my page to be a resource and a place for people to come and chat about stuff that might have nothing to do with my photography business at all.

How do you convert your social media efforts into tangible results? 

I don't really have to do anything. By doing as I mentioned above clients find me and book. Either they are local clients or people traveling into Vegas. This is another reason why I believe photographers only focusing on clients that live in their area could be a huge disservice to their growing business. Don't limit yourself. Reach out to other photographers and people outside your area. You never know if they have friends and family in your area or might be traveling to your area in the future and want portraits while in town. Living in a tourist area this is huge for me. I get referrals from other photographers outside of my area and clients that found me on Facebook because one of their friends liked my page.

What are your favorite social media tools or strategies? 

Facebook without a doubt. I do have my page linked up to Twitter but Facebook is truly where it is at in my opinion. It is free and really who doesn't have a Facebook account.... well besides my husband :)

Check out Kelsey's photography here - http://www.kelseyandersonphotography.com/
Stop by Kelsey Anderson Photography on Facebook

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Posing for Couples

by: Jamie Y 

Posing for Couples: Engagements & Weddings

One of my favorite ways to pose couples is by not actually posing them at all. I love to just have them do something that forces them to interact in a natural way. Sometimes just talking to the couple and having them tell you about their personal love story or anything about them will get them to loosen up and get you some of those natural smiles and loving glances. You can also do things like have them walk or separate them and have them come back together. Little things like that you can do to help create a moment that will get you some great candid shots. You can also secretly tell one of them the next time I am setting you guys up for a picture, grab the other one’s butt or whisper something dirty in their ear. I guarantee most of the time you are going to get some great laughs and smiles.

There are lots of couples, however, who like to be posed. They like to be told what to do and where to put every part of their bodies. You should be prepared before the session with some poses that you can use. I like to do research and brainstorming a few nights beforehand and write up some notes that I bring with me to the session, because I always go brain dead and forget all my great ideas. You can come up with some great pose ideas by searching online, reading magazines, watching movies, or doing whatever else inspires you. It also helps to always carry a notebook or have somewhere on your phone that you can write down cool ideas as they come to you. 

The two main aspects of posing that I am going to go into a little more depth about are ways to slim people and the importance of watching and using their hands. One of the tricks to slimming people, mainly a bride, is to use things to block parts of her body. Two things that you will most likely have on hand are the groom and the veil. By positioning the bride and groom in certain ways you can use the groom’s body to block parts of the bride. Even something as easy as having the grooms hand on the upper part of the brides arm will help to make her arm look slimmer. Try to pay attention to the bride’s arms and make sure they are not pressed up flat against her body which is not slimming to any female. You can use the veil the same way that you use the groom, by positioning it so it covers parts of her arms or upper body. Having the bride and/or groom push their shoulders back and lean forward a little also helps to slim them. Also, shooting down onto the couple helps slim them as well.

Paying attention to the hands is a very important part of posing that often gets overlooked. No matter how great of a pose or photograph you take, if their hands are stiff and awkward, it makes the whole photograph look awkward. One of the best ways to use the hands is to have the couple create intimacy with them by holding each other or touching each other’s faces. If you give their hands something to do it helps them look more natural and loving. If the pose does not lend itself well to touching, make sure that they relax their hands. For females have them lightly lay their hand on themselves or something. If one of their hands is up, have them tilt the wrist back a little to give a slight curve to their fingers which is more feminine and natural. Typically the male can have at least one hand on the female. With the other hand he can rest it lightly in his pocket, or even rest it on a wall or something. If he has a hand that is just dangling, try and do something with it.

There are so many aspects to posing, but I hope that what I have shared with you can help in some way. Sometimes little things that you never thought about before can help to bring your photographs up to a new level.

XO-JamieY

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Tips for Great Pet Photography

by Claudine Kosier of Simply Dog

Anyone that knows me, knows I'm completely over the top when it comes to dogs! Any animal really, but especially dogs! I adore those sloppy dog kisses, cute wiggly butts, their silly ridiculous habits that define their personalities and I believe there is even something special and endearing about their "naughty" little habits!

It was only natural when I started photographing again that my main focus would be pets. I love being able to provide a unique experience and capture images that reflect a pets natural essence and individual personality in beautiful natural light and surroundings. Modern simplistic images, yet expressive and playful.

While I can say I've tried many different ways of photographing pets, it has only been in the last year that my own personal style has started to develop. My best suggestion is to try a variety of different things, but in the end define and embrace your own style. If you are willing to be patient and ready for anything, it will be so worth the wait and you will have some incredible images to show for it. These are just a few things I have found that work for me.

 

1. Make sure to have plenty of treats on hand along with squeak toy or other noisemaker. Animals have short attention spans, and get bored easily, therefore I use these sparingly, just to get attention and a great look!

2. Photograph the pet where it is most natural for them. Although I never suggest for pets to be taken off leash, if they are truly well trained to be off leash, take advantage. Visit a nearby park, scenic location or take a hike. I prefer to shoot in natural light whenever possible and with a wide open aperture. Shooting wide open with dogs will take a lot of practice getting sharp focus. 

 

3. If the animal is more comfortable at home, scope out nice a backdrop right in the backyard. As shown in the cover image, a tree in bloom with very shallow depth of field worked perfectly. Compose your shot before you actually start shooting. Just like any portrait, make sure to remove any clutter or anything that will deter from the subject.

4. If indoors, find a nice window to photograph near. Soft window light produces such beautiful catch lights in their eyes. 

 

5. My style is to capture pets in their natural element that show their playful personalities. Not every image has to have the subject looking into the camera in order for it to become a stunning photograph.

6. Try unique compositions or try adding some kind of unexpected element.

7. Don’t forget the owner. I like to shoot some images that will capture the relationship with the pets person but I also like to shoot with the owner in the background, keeping the animal as the main focus.

8. Try shooting from different angles or perspectives. This is one of my favorite images taken from the perspective of the dog overlooking this canyon. I love the serenity of the image along with capturing all of her beautiful markings. 

 

9. Get down on their level and fill the frame. Focus on their eyes and every detail. 

 

10. Most important---have fun with it, dogs have some crazy antics, let them be silly, and then capture it!

What's in my bag--

My camera body is a Nikon D700 and I always prefer to shoot in manual. I keep my lenses minimal and at the moment, my favorite and most used is the 50mm/1.8. My other favorite is the 105mm/2.8 (macro). When I'm shooting environmental portraits, I go for my 35mm/2.0. My post edit is done mainly in Lightroom with a minimal amount in Photoshop.

Simply Dog Photography

http://www.simplydogphotography.com

http://www.facebook.com/simplydogphotography

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Correcting White Balance : Tutorial

by: Amy Leavitt

We've all been there. You come home from a great session to discover that some of the photos have a color cast. You open up Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom and fiddle with the temperature and tint sliders, but it just doesn't look right. Now it looks too green. You fiddle some more and settle for "close" instead of "correct" white balance. You go on to edit the session, to find that your processing makes the photo's color problems even worse...

There is a better solution for those problem photos with color casts. Plus, it's really simple.

Here's my example. My daughter's birthday cake. With an obvious color cast. I get this a lot when shooting indoors. This is SOOC- Straight Out Of Camera.

If you're like me, it's not always easy to see what color the actual cast is. Which is what makes it so difficult to fix. Go ahead and guess what specific color you think this particular cast is.

1. The first thing you'll need to do is duplicate the image. Press CMD J (Mac) or CTRL J (PC).


2. While the duplicate layer is selected, go to the Filter Menu, choose Blur, then Average.

You'll see the actual color of the color cast now. Kind of a pink/orange-y thing.

3. Next, invert the color. This will change the color to the exact opposite of the current color. Press CMD i (Mac) or CTRL i (PC).

As many photographers know, the best way to fix color issues in a photograph is to ADD another color, and this is the basis of this technique.


4. Change the blending mode for the duplicate layer to "Color". (You can also play around with other blending modes, such as Vivid Light).

This is the result:

5. The last thing is to reduce the opacity of the layer until you find the perfect balance. On this photo, I reduced to 30%.

That's it, you're done! Once you do this technique a few times, it will become second nature.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

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BABY STEPS TO MANUAL MODE THE WILLETTE WAY

by Kelly Willette

[image by Kelly Willette]

Let’s take some baby steps to REALLY use your digital SLR....and I realize that I’m throwing a ton of info your way with this...so read it several times if you have NEVER attempted to shoot in manual mode.

(this is for digital slr owners/users, but if you have a point and shoot, you should read along as well!)

• First of all, read in your manual how to turn the camera to FULL MANUAL mode (this is NOT the same as full manual focus mode on your lens).  Your camera may have a few different shooting modes: program, Auto, Aperture, Manual, Sports, etc. (totally depends on your camera model as to what they are called/what modes you have).
• Now, look through your view finder.  Hold the shutter down half way, and keep looking through the view finder.
• You will see something similar to this:

+|..|..|..0..|..|..|..-
             ||||||||||||
This is called the in-camera light meter.

• This is what will help you figure out if your combination of settings (shutter speed, aperture and ISO) is working towards perfect exposure.
• If you see tick marks to the left of the center 0, then your image is overexposed (or, too bright)
• If you see tick marks to the right of the center 0, then your image is underexposed (or, too dark)
• If the tick mark is right at the center 0, then you should have perfect exposure.I, personally, shoot just a tick above the 0 to the LEFT to make my photos a bit on the bright side).
• Your goal, is to figure out what the winning combination of aperture, shutter speed and ISO is to get a photo perfectly exposed.
• It is kinda like algebra….once you “get” it, then you’ll always understand it.
• Now, read in your camera manual HOW to adjust your shutter speed, your ISO AND your aperture.
• Practice changing all three items, taking shots in between and seeing how each affects your light meter’s reading.
• I usually keep my aperture between f/2.2 and f/2.8 (unless I’m photographing a ton of people together….in which case I use a larger f/stop number).  So my aperture is usually my constant with my camera.  That is the factor that I usually just keep at my magic f/2.5 number and I worry about the other two factors (ISO and shutter speed)
• How I go about getting my tick mark in the center….

o   If my image is OVER exposed, then I have TOO much light coming in….I first start by decreasing my ISO, then I check my shutter speed and INCREASE my shutter speed.  If I’m still over, THEN I use a larger aperture (f/stop) number (I rarely have to get to this point since I’m primarily an indoor photographer)

o   If my image is UNDER exposed, then I don’t have enough light….I first start by increasing my ISO, then I make sure that my shutter speed is at a low enough number (but not too low…I rarely go below 1/200^th of a second shutter speed if I’m hand holding….just to ensure crispness with the image), and I make sure my aperture is a low number/low f/stop (since this opens up to allow more light in).

       

Soooo….I know this is a lot to swallow, so just keep plugging away.  I will try to post a video of me messing around with my camera this week so you can see how I work.

·       

You may have some limitations with your camera….

o   If you have an entry level dslr, you may not be able to use the high ISOs due to massive grain

o   If you have a kit lens (the lens that came with your camera), you may not be able to get the lower aperture/f-stop numbers due to the lens’ inability to “open up” that wide.  Most kit lenses only allow you to go as low as f/3.5.

·      

I recommend an inexpensive prime lens to start exploring being able to use the lower numbered apertures (such as the 50 mm 1.8 lens, which is only about $100, or my personal favorite, the 35mm 2.0 for tighter spaces).  Both give you the option of using the lower aperture numbers.  Smaller fstop/aperture numbers = creamier backgrounds.  So once you have a lens that has the lower aperture capabilities, your photos will start having those creamy backgrounds.

And, I HIGHLY recommend purchasing and reading Bryan Peterson’s book Understanding Exposure for more info on how shutter speed, aperture, and ISO work together for perfect exposure.

Once you master exposure, your photos will be even more amazing!

Kelly Mcmahon Willette is a life-long resident of Norfolk, Virginia where she lives with her husband, two kids, "wild as hell" dog and senior citizen cat.  She affectionately refers to her home as the Willette “Gong Show.”  She runs Willette Designs, which is a photography business that offers on-line photography classes for parents and photographers.  She also makes a mean beef stew, still knows all the words to the Beastie Boy’s song “Paul Revere,” and has gotten used to being the master of multi-tasking.  You can find her at www.willettedesigns.com or on facebook at www.facebook.com/willettedesigns.  She’s also been known to be found at her local starbucks. 

{Pssst} Kelly is featuring a FREE online course for February!  You can sign up HERE.   Everyone is welcome, and you don't have to be a professional photographer to take advantage of this awesome class!  Did I mention that it's FREE??

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10 Tips For Better Portraits

By Yasmin Tajik of Shalimar Studios

Here are some of my favorite tips to share with clients for stunning portraits, whether it be a portrait session, or your wedding.  Read through these ten tips and use them as a guideline and starting point when you contact us for your consultation.  We want to learn as much as possible about you and your style so that we can make this a fabulous experience for you!

 10 Tips for Better Portraits

1.  Cut/color your hair at least 2 weeks before your portrait session or wedding.  This allows for more of a natural look with a little regrowth, rather than a freshly cut look in your images.  Remember, we still want the images to look like you naturally, not as if you just got up from your stylist's chair.

2.  Drink a lot of water the entire week before your session for flawless skin.  This is a Red Carpet secret in Hollywood, as you'll often see starlets downing bottles of water in the week prior to any appearance.  Utilize this tip by keeping your skin hydrated for a beautiful glow for your portrait session.  Trust me, even your MAC makeup will look better and stay on longer.

3.  Get plenty of sleep the night before.  Nine hours is ideal.

4.  Have your hair and makeup professionally done the day of your session or wedding.  This is one way to let the experts play up your best features while making you still look like yourself.  Trust expert hair and makeup stylists such as Your Beauty Call or Hera Beauty who know what will make you look your best and who also know what photographs the best.

5.  Dress head to toe.  Full length images will show everything, and shoes speak volumes of you and your style, so don't forget to bring those fabulous Christian Louboutins or Jimmy Choo heels!

6. Have a theme in mind that represents you through your clothing style.  We work with a few select stylists and they have wonderful ideas on how to create the perfect outfit to showcase your personal style through accessories, props, or anything that may be of importance to you and your fiance or family.  Ask yourself, is your style modern, chic, bohemian, glamorous, sporty or edgy?

7.  After choosing the theme that reflects your personal style, schedule your consultation with us so that we can choose the perfect location for you.  If you're bohemian, we may suggest shooting in a field of tall grass. If you're modern, we may suggest shooting amongst contemporary buildings or offices.  And if your edgy, we might suggest shooting in the Arts District.  Together we'll pick the perfect backdrop for your personalized and unique session.

8.  Look through magazines for inspiration and brings clippings with you to your consultation.  Knowing ahead of time what style, poses and overall feeling you are attracted to, helps us better understand how to capture similar moments for you.

9.  Choose the time of day very carefully.  The time of day is crucial when shooting on location.  The golden hour is 1 hour after sunrise or 1 hour prior to sunset.  That is the best light of the day and will only enhance your portraits with soft, beautiful lighting.  Shooting midday usually is very harsh lighting with high contrast between highlights and shadows, thus producing unpleasant images.  Make a commitment to schedule your session during these key periods of the day.

10.  Have fun!  The most important aspect is to walk way from the session energized and excited to see the end result.  I want you to have a wonderful experience knowing you just had images captured of artwork you will cherish for generations.

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Shooting Food On Location– With a Twist

by Don Giannatti
All images by Don Giannatti

My client called and needed a job turned around right away. Her client needed their entire menu shot for some collateral and web materials and the previous shooter had not been able to do what they needed.

The images had to be attractive enough for menu use, arty enough for the web and collateral and still stay within budget. Well, yeah… there’s always that budget thing. The twist was that we had to do two shots of each dish… one for the menu and one for a more ‘artistic’ collateral piece.

Because of the nature of the food, it was best to do it at one of their locations and luckily enough it was near where I live. I took an afternoon and scouted the store. I wanted to check surfaces since they insisted on using their table surfaces for the shoot. In this case there were several tables that were nearly pristine.

There was also a huge window near a corner of the restaurant that faced east. This window was under a walking area that was covered. At 9 pm the light would stop flowing into the restaurant and we would have soft window light for most of the day.

I decided that we would do the two setups at the restaurant. One for the ‘menu’ type shots and one for the more ‘artsy’ shots as they were described to me.
Gear:
Norman Pack
2 heads
Boom
3 stands
Small softbox
Assorted reflectors
Assorted mirrors
Small sheets of shiny white paper (for cutting into small reflectors)
Gaffer’s tape
Camera Bag
Lighting Bag
Tripod

We began by setting up the small softbox on the boom and positioning it above and slightly behind the table where the food would be setup. I made sure it was close enough to the kitchen area so we could be quick in getting those shots styled. (You can see a diagram of the light setups farther down the page.

I added a medium sized white fill card to the immediate left of the shot. I let the right side go without any fill so there would be some direction to the light. Even if it was a small amount of fall off, it would let the ingredients have a dimension to them as well as keeping the bowl with a slightly darker side.

Below is a shot we did for the “menu” part of the shoot. It is a dish with some of the ingredients surrounding it for a still life look.

The softbox gives a soft, slightly back light. In front of the set I placed a small white reflector to keep the shadows at bay. It is about 10 inches in front of the set and below camera. Without that reflector, the shadows would be extremely contrasty toward the front.

By keeping the light on a boom, it was also easy for two people to style the images. We had to do the whole menu in one and a half days, so there wasn’t a lot of time.

We placed the bowl in position and then brought the ingredients all around it. I had a staging area for the ingredients and would have the manager get the things needed for each dish ready before it came out. We then were able to move that small amount of things on to the set. I styled it with a classical approach of ‘hero’ and supporters.

Even though I had a tripod for the shoot, I ended up shooting hand held. It was very important to end up with the bowls at about the same perspective and size and that meant moving quickly. After the first couple of shots, I put the tripod away.

For the more artistic of the shots we moved the set over to a table by the window. The tables here had rounded ends, so that gave me some added tonality. Below is the same dish in the second location.

Here I used an 80-200MM L lens at wide open (and long) to shorten the depth of field and make the image more ‘fresh.’ I was using the ambient light from the window and the shutter speed was a little low for my taste. I broke out the tripod for these shots. I had enough room to move the camera around quickly on the tripod so it worked out pretty well. We eventually did some considerable work in post on these… adding text and such.

Coming from a low angle I could get some back light and sculpt the food. I also tilted the horizon and and added fill cards for the contrast. Opening the shadows was important, but it couldn’t be so bright as to diminish the back light thing I had going on. I tried a speedlight for fill, but even at a low power and bounced, it looked too bright.
We settled on two 2×2 white fome core boards held by clamps. One on each side of the dish. You can see them on the lime as it is reflecting the light sources. The boards were easy to whisk away as we moved into each shot.

Here is a lighting diagram for the shoot:

I kept the shoot running smoothly because of the pre-planning that went into it. Scouting and making sure that we could have the run of that part of the restaurant for a couple of days let the manager know that we were cognizant of his need to keep the restaurant open and doing business.

Having the ingredients for each shot one shoot ahead made the styling go quickly as we weren’t waiting for some special ingredient… it was already there.

Here is another shot from the series:

You can see how different the two shots look. One is very traditional, sort of a menu or recipe look to it. And the other has a more fresh, magazine or editorial feel to it. The heavy back light and angled horizon give it a bit of whimsy.

It is important that the food look appetizing at all times. Letting pasta sit for too long makes it look rubbery, and we were constantly rotating the veggies and other items into the fridge so they would not look old and spoiled. In the end a lot of food was prepared and we gave it to customers or ate it ourselves… not wanting to waste it.

I shot a few shots tethered to get the exposures correct and nail them down. After that initial testing, I went to shooting on the cards. I didn’t want the AD to start picking apart every shot and slowing us down. I knew we had what we needed and would of course ‘chimp’ it to make sure.

Shooting food is a lot of fun. It is demanding and can be crazy fast, but it can also be very rewarding when the images make the chef smile and people want to buy the product.

**More on Don Giannatti's Lighting Essentials workshops below.

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Work Flow and Processing

by Amy Leavitt

I always love to hear about how other photographers process their images. I enjoy hearing different ways of doing things - so I thought I'd share my workflow from beginning to end.

**a few notes** I use Photoshop CS4, Adobe Camera Raw, and Adobe Bridge, and I shoot in RAW.

Cull the images. I use Bridge to sort through the whole gallery. Anything I love gets 1 star. I go through it several times to weed out those "just ok" and find the best images from each pose.

I then go through the starred images using Bridge, and color correct in ACR if necessary. The images are then processed using Image Processor in Bridge. It converts the images to JPG and also applies my skin softening action (which uses the Portraiture plug-in). They are then placed in a separate folder within the main gallery folder.  I then edit the images in batches of 6 -10.  Then I crop them to a 5x7 ratio. I try to edit all the images from one sitting or pose for continuity. With three kids, I rarely have time to edit a whole gallery in one sitting, so once a batch of photos are edited, those photos get 3 stars so I know they're done. Here's how I process 90% of my images:

1. I fix any skin issues such as acne, or under eye circles. The best way I have found to fix under eye circles is to use the patch tool, select the dark circle and drag it to a patch of clear skin. Then go to Edit--> Fade Patch Selection, and slide it to around 50-60%. You do NOT want to completely remove the circle because it will look weird. Just soften it a little.

2. Channel Mixer. I LOVE how channel mixer evens out skin tones and seems to fix minor color issues. Image -->Adjustments-->Channel Mixer. Click on the "monochrome" checkbox and set the blending mode to screen, reduce opacity to about 35%. You can play with the adjustment sliders, but I usually go with somewhere around +35 for red, +70 for green and +5 for blue.

3. Soft light layer. Duplicate the background layer by selecting the background layer and hitting Ctrl J (PC) or Command J (Mac). Set the blending mode to soft light and reduce opacity to around 30%.

4. Solid color fill: This seems weird but I love the subtle effect. The blue set at a low opacity gives the photo a subtle haze that I love. At the bottom of the layers panel is a little circle that's half black/half white. Click on it and choose "solid color" at the very top. Pick a muted dark blue. Just trust me on this :) Change the blending mode to "exclusion" and set the opacity to around 20-25%. Exclusion mode basically lowers the contrast slightly and provides a smoothness to the image.

5. Another solid color fill. This one is for warmth in the image. Choose a warm gold color, set the blending mode to "overlay" and reduce opacity to around 20%.

6. High Pass Sharpen. Duplicate the background layer, and choose Filter-->Other-->High Pass. Set the slider so that you just begin to see the edges of the image. I usually set it around 5 or so. Set the blending mode to Overlay and reduce opacity to around 50%.

7. Optional: Select all of the adjustment layers and go to Layers-- >Group Layers. This gives you the control to reduce the opacity of the whole set of steps at once. Some examples of these techniques in action:

Seem like too many steps to do for each image?? No worries! It's easy to create an action that does everything and all you need to do is adjust the sliders of each step to customize each image. That's what I did! The entire effect of my workflow gives my images creamy, smooth skin tones, almost vintage detail of clothing (check out what it does to jeans!), dreamy, hazy backgrounds and an overall pleasing warmth. If I want a hazier feel, I'll lower the opacity of the Soft Light layer and the High Pass layer. If I want stronger contrast, increase those layers. Give it a try! Leave a comment below if you'd like the action and I'll make it available to download on my blog :). Happy editing!

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Learning From A Pro

What is O.C.F. and What Do I Need to Get Started by Ali Hohn

O.C.F:  "What is it? It's using some sort of external light source (speedlite/studio light) outside with you and the sun. You can shoot at pretty much anytime of the day whereas with natural light it's more limiting. I typically use an Alien Bee 1600 light powered by Alien Bees Vagabond and my beauty dish. It took me a while to actually understand how to do Off Camera Flash but you can almost use those same techniques in the studio as well. There are a few more things you change when you are outside. But....Off Camera Flash has changed my life and also my editing time. I don't do very much to my photos anymore. They look incredible straight out of the camera.  Once you get your exposures correctly with O.C.F. it will become a breeze to shoot (other than lugging gear around), but personally, I absolutely love shooting this way!"

Would you like to take your photography to the next level? Don't miss out on Ali's Workshops!More information on O.C.F. photography can be found on her website [http://www.rockthatocf.com/]. She also has an O.C.F. Field Guide and an Online Book to help get you started!

"Just 2 days after buying Ali Hohn's Book on OFF CAMERA FLASH I can see the value in my purchase!" ~Leaha Bourgeois

Ali's One Day Workshop Schedule:

Salt Lake City, Utah September 23-24

Peoria, Illinois October 1-3

California October 22-24

Austin, Texas November 5-7

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Making Your Own Watermark

As some of you know I use a different program other than Photo Shop as my editing software of choice.  However, I am slowly converting to Photo Shop because it has alot of great features to offer, and is universally used throughout the photography industry as the professional standard.  If you find yourself wanting to switch to Photo Shop, or you are just now making your watermark as a new photographer, I recommend this tutorial.  It's very easy to follow, and mine turned out fabulous!  Thanks Amy!  Watermark Brush Tutorial by Amy Leavitt

For a free 30 day trial of Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended go here.

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How To Apply Textures

A Quick and Easy Guide for Beginners by Rachel Krech and Cindy Larkin

Photo's by Cindergirl Photography; texture by Dog Ma

Before you start: Choose a photo and a texture to work with in Photoshop. I chose to work with a portrait as the photo I am applying the texture to. It is best if the texture is the same or larger than the photo. The photo should not be too much larger than the texture.

What is a texture? A texture is a photo that has structures of interwoven elements is in it, especially with respect to the size, shape, and arrangement of its parts.

Step 1) Open up the canvas with the texture on it. Select the entire picture by right clicking on the picture with the lasso tool or the rectangular marquee tool (both located on the main vertical menu). The "moving ants" all the way around the picture indicate the picture is selected.

Step 2) On the top horizontal menu, click Edit and then Copy on the drop-down menu.

Step 3) Now open up the canvas with the photo you’re going to applying the texture to. Again, go to Edit on the top menu, but this time select Paste. This should put the texture on top of the photo you’re applying the texture to. At this time you should not be able to see the photo, only the texture on top.

Step 4) Open up the layers menu on the right side. If you can’t find it, go to Windows and then down at the bottom select Layers. If the box is already checked, uncheck it, and then go back to recheck it again (this will open the windows box automatically to Layers).

Step 5) In the layers box you need to right click on the layer with the texture. (There should be only 2 or 3 layers here). Next, select Blending Options.

Step 6) You will now be at a large menu. Highlighted in blue on the left side should be Blending Options: Default. We are going to use both the Opacity and Blend Mode under General Blending at the top. Click the drop-down menu under Blend Mode and select Overlay (towards the middle of the menu). This will now make the texture over the photo more transparent. The default Opacity should be 100%.

Step 7) If you feel the texture is too strong over the image, scroll the Opacity level down as far down as you like until you get the affect you want.

Hints: Use the erase tool to get rid of an area of the texture that you don't need (such as areas over skin etc.) Also, using the "color burn" tool in the drop down menu on "Filters" under "Effects", will give your photo a more vivid color.  Adjust the opacity as needed.

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