Bounce Flash for Softer Light

One of the best techniques for using (and reasons for purchasing) an external flash is to bounce its light off the ceiling. This creates softer skin tones and a journalistic look.

 

Photographer Bill Harvey was awarded the lifetime achievement award in 1997 by the Press Photographers Association of Greater Los Angeles. He showed me the setup that I still use with unfailingly excellent results, as everyone always agrees.

 

Bill used a Vivitar 283, still available today, mounted on a pistol grip. With the 283, you just set the ISO, switch the removable sensor to one of several distance settings, and look up the color-coded distance setting on the illuminated dial to find the correct f-stop. But Bill never shot the flash directly at his subject. Instead, he pointed it upward, toward a small plastic reflector like. Sto-Fen makes several accessories for the 283, as well as Canon and Sunpak strobes.

 

The Sto-Fen reflector for bounce-flash photography

 

Bill used Sto-Fen's Twin Panel Bounce. Its compact, clever design eliminates hot spots and covers 24mm lenses and larger. Digicam zooms generally aren't wider than 28mm (speaking in 35mm equivalents). I also like their Omni Bounce, which is a white plastic dome with a black panel on the back that sits right on top of the 283 lens. It gives an even softer shadow than the Twin Panel but doesn't have quite the range. Both bounces come with a black plastic mount that just snaps over the 283? very simple, elegant, portable, and reliable.

 

If the head of your flash pivots upward, you can also bounce the light from your flash with a rubber band and the back of a business card. This disperses the illumination. Some flashes even include a bounce card built into the head.

 

Using bounce flash to produce more natural results

 

The 283's removable light sensor is an important feature. You can mount the removable sensor on the camera's hot shoe but move the light around to other positions and still get good exposures. I've rigged up a Vivitar 283 to a Nikon CoolPix 990. This isn't sophisticated dedicated flash circuitry precision, but it keeps the sensor with the camera; after all, that's where the exposure is made.

Bill would add an external battery pack to power his Vivitar, but I find that today's NiMH AA rechargeables handle the job with power to spare.

I like to move the flash an arm's length away, up high or even to the other side of the camera, depending on the subject. I know the sensor will adjust to whatever I want to do, rather than force me to do something the flash expects. I can comfortably wave the flash around, because it's mounted on a nice, molded Vivitar grip. The grip pops on and off a bracket that attaches to the camera via its tripod mount. It couldn't be simpler.

The whole rig is a bit ostentatious—it makes me look like I actually know what I'm doing—but it's actually easy and natural to use. And it's a lot of fun to be able to paint the picture with the light of the flash.

 

Source: O’Reilley | Online Portfolio | Websites for Photographers

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photography: Outdoor Fill Flash

It might seem crazy at first, but one of the best times to turn on your flash is when you're taking outdoor portraits on a bright, sunny day.

 

Working with your camera's flash can be counterintuitive. Often, you'll capture more compelling indoor pictures when you turn off the flash, and get great shots when you activate it outdoors? Quite the opposite of what you'd expect.

 

In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the one killer tip that will improve your pictures more than any other is to turn on your flash for outdoor portraits. The flash helps balance the lighting of the subjects with the ambient light outdoors.

 

While there's a lot of light available when you're shooting portraits outdoors, it isn't always coming from the angle you want. Here's a little lighting tip to keep in your back pocket: light coming from the side accentuates texture, and light coming from the front flattens it.

So, keeping this in mind, what type of light do you think your mother would like you to use when taking her portrait? Side lighting with lots of texture? Most likely not, How about some front lighting that softens the appearance of wrinkles and pores, please?

 

For outdoor portraits, many photographers take this pearl of wisdom and position the model so that the sun is shining directly in her face. Mom's not going to like that much, is she? So, how do you get around this apparent photographic paradox? The answer is to find a comfortable spot for her to stand in the open shade? Under a tree is lovely? with a complementary background that doesn't include any distracting elements. Now, turn on your flash. With most cameras, you do this by looking for the button with a little lightning bolt on it. As you press the button, you will cycle through all the available flash settings. Use the setting called Fill Flash or Manual On.

 

Make sure you're standing within eight feet of Mom. That distance is the range for those convenient, yet somewhat wimpy built-in camera flashes. If you stand too far away, the light will peter out before it ever reaches your beloved, and you won't reap the benefits of this technique.

 

Your camera will balance the background lighting with that of the flash, rendering a perfectly exposed portrait. And what direction is the main light coming from? You got it: the front. Dear Mom will immediately designate you as her favorite child (but please don't tell the others).

 

If you want to fiddle with this technique, here are a few more hot tips:

· Extend the range of your built-in camera flash another few feet by increasing your ISO setting from 100 to 200.

 

Source: O’Reilley | Online Portfolio | Website for Photographers

 

Photography : Colorful Star Trails

For most people, stars are decorative points of light that decorate the night sky. But for you, they can also be fascinating streaks of light that add dazzle to your compositions.

 

Stars might appear as twinkling points of light to the naked eye, but when you point a camera at them and leave the shutter open for a while, they transform into colorful streaks across the sky. Photographing star trails is not only an artistic endeavor; it can also provide insight into the nature of stars themselves.

 

Stars are basically composed of hydrogen and helium, and they burn intensely. The hotter the star is, the more bluish its color, and cooler stars tend to be reddish orange. Based on this information, scientists have formed theories about the age of the stars we observe. A bright blue star, for example, is considered at the peak of its life. A duller red star, on the other hand, is much older.

 

Thinking about the age of a particular star on a chilly night probably demands more commitment than the average person cares to allocate to such matters. But if you point your digital camera upward and let it record trails of those stars, their colors are much easier to distinguish in the comfort of your home, gazing at your computer screen, than they are when you gaze upward into the frigid night.

 

Take a look at the picture of Orion's belt and sword (the constellation Orion the Hunter dominates the winter sky in the Northern Hemisphere). This image is a four-second exposure (f-1.8 at ISO 800, taken with a Canon 10D) and is an enlargement of what you'd observe with your eyes in the sky. You can see some differences in star colors, but they are subtle.

Stars without trailing effect

Stars with trails

 

Capturing fireworks, evening landscapes, colorful night scenes and star trails can produce awe-inspiring photographs. However, to properly expose for these low-light pictures, it is necessary to keep the shutter open from a few seconds to many minutes or hours. The bulb shutter speed setting on the Canon XSi camera allows for long exposure times under the direct control of the photographer. With this setting, you can decide how long the shutter stays open and capture as little or as much light as you need.

Press and hold the "Aperture/Exposure compensation" button and turn the main dial left or right to set the desired aperture. The "Aperture/Exposure compensation" button, denoted as "AV +/-", is located at the top right corner of the LCD monitor. Press the "shutter" button halfway to activate automatic focusing and exposure metering. Press the "shutter" button completely and hold down for as long as you want to keep the shutter open. The elapsed exposure time will appear in the lower right corner of the LCD monitor. Release the "shutter" button when you want to close the shutter and end the exposure.

 

Source: Portfolio Website for Photographers | Online Portfolio

Starlight Effects for Candles and Lights

Add extra sparkle to your candle and chandelier images by using an inexpensive starlight filter. You can even make your own, if you don't mind scratching a little glass.

 

Candlelit rooms convey a romantic or sentimental mood for your images. All you have to do is steady the camera, trip the shutter, and play from there.The thing with candles, however, is that the light they cast on your subject is often more interesting than the candles themselves. After all, how compelling is a little flame of light? You can add a little oomph to these images by using a star-effect filter, which takes a normal candle flame and turns it into a blazing star.

 

Candle flame without and with a star filter       

This little bit of photographic trickery is accomplished by tiny etches in the glass that distort the light. If your camera accepts filters, you can pony up US$25 and start to play right away. One brand of creative filters you might want to take a look at is the Cokin System, which has star effects, gradual density, and special-effect filters  Cokin has adapters for every type of camera and lens, and it even has a special mount for cameras that don't even have filter rings, such as your digital point and shoot. I've played with the Cokin Star Effect, A Version, and have had good success, even on a Canon Digital Elph S400, which doesn't have a filter ring.

Cokin filter attached to a Canon S400

 

Shooting Technique

I tend to like the effect of these filters when the light source is smaller, such as the Christmas lights. I've noticed quite an improvement after I trim the candle wick, thereby reducing the size of the flame. Points of light produce sharp rays of light, emanating from the source. Larger light sources, such as a light bulb or untrimmed candle wick, produce softer, less detailed effects. Chandeliers can be quite impressive too.

I've had the best luck mounting the camera on a tripod and using the self-timer to trip the shutter. This helps me avoid the blurring effects of camera shake. Usually, I find that if I use -1 or -2 on the Exposure Compensation dial for close-up shots, I get better rays of light. Experiment until you get the effect you want. Rows of candles shot with a star filter can be impressive. The room is transformed into a magical place, part of some other reality? Not bad for an old UV filter with a few etched scratches in it!

Source: O’Reiley | Portfolio Website | Websites for Photographers

 

Street Photography Shooting at Night

Because of their compact size, pocket digicams are excellent street-shooters, enabling you to capture the grit and the glory of urban life at night? that is, if you know how.

 

When you sit back and look at your travel shots, do you ever feel like you're shooting the same thing over and over, and only the locations change (same boring group shots, blurry bus scenes through the window, and yet another statue)? One of the best ways to inject life into your photography is to grab your camera and hit the streets...on foot.

Now, I'm not talking about raw photojournalism or anything dangerous. Every major city in the civilized world has a good part of town and a bad one. Lace up your sneakers and go to the friendly part of town.

My favorite time to shoot on the streets is from about an hour before twilight until darkness.Generally speaking, there's lots of activity at this time, and the building lights come on when there is still some color left in the sky. It's a magical setting that's perfect for night photography.

 

But if you want to capture that magic, you have to turn off your flash. This is rule number one for interesting street photography. Not only does the flash draw way too much attention to your shooting, but it also kills the shots. The possible exception is using Nighttime Flash mode, but for most of your street shooting, leave the flash off.

 

The best time for "night" photography is actually twilight. Most city lights come on before complete darkness. Your shots will be much more colorful and compelling with the deep blue twilight sky rather than the blackness of night, as shown in the two pictures of the Chrysler Building. The first picture was shot late at night, when the sky was completely dark. I went back the next day at dusk and captured the second shot with more color in the sky. Which do you like best?       

As the light goes down, however, your exposures will get longer, which means you have to look out for camera shake. Here are a few ways to combat shake so you get crisp images, even in low light:

 

· Increase your ISO setting from 100 to 200

You can go up to 400 if you need to, but you will have more noise in your shots at the higher rating. Often, this isn't a big problem for street shooting, because the gritty look seems to work with this type of subject material. Generally speaking, though, don't increase your ISO setting any more than you have to.

 

Source: O’Reiley | Portfolio Website for Photographers

 

Create Soft Background Portraits

Do professional portrait photographers use special lenses and accessories to soften the backgrounds in their portraits? No, they don't. They manipulate the depth of field, and this hack will show you how.

 

The previous hack showed how to create tremendous depth of field for landscape compositions. But when you're shooting portraits outdoors, this is usually the last thing you want. For these types of assignments, you want your viewer's attention locked in on the subject, not the background. The best way to accomplish this is to narrow your depth of field and focus your camera directly on the subject's eyes.

 

Why Soft Backgrounds?

When everything works right, the result is a dreamy, soft backdrop that makes your model pop forward, attracting all attention to her presence. Generally speaking, the first thing viewers look at in a portrait is the subject's eyes. The easier you make it for them to get to that spot, the happier they will be, at least subconsciously. Once they've viewed the eyes, they examine other aspects of the person until they're satisfied and move on. To get a soft portrait background, try to get some distance between the subject and the backdrop. Then, open your aperture to limit the depth of field.

 

 

Distracting background elements, such as a tree growing out of the top of the subject's head, is unsettling to the viewer. That's why you often want to eliminate or at least soften these elements.

 

Now remember, this is not a technique that you'll use every time you shoot a portrait. If, for example, you're shooting a baseball owner standing in his stadium, you might want the background elements distinguishable, because that tells a better story. So, soft-background portraiture is a technique to use only when appropriate for the assignment.

 

Here’s a tip for creating a soft background for your portrait: Use a telephoto lens

 

Source: O’Reiley | Portfolio Website for Photographers

Painless Infrared Photography

What kind of eerie world makes the sky go dark and trees turn white? It's the stunningly beautiful realm of infrared photography.

If you've ever tried shooting and processing infrared film, you know what a pain in the aperture it is to deal with. You have to load the camera in complete darkness, guess wildly about the exposure settings, process the film, and then cross your fingers that at least one or two shots turned out the way you had hoped. The results could be stunning, but they came at a painful price.

 

Digital photography has changed all that. Not only is persnickety film handling a thing of the past, but you also now get to preview your infrared images on the LCD monitor before taking the shot. And the best part; they will look every bit as beautiful as their film counterparts, as you can see in image which was shot with a Canon G1 digital camera. This barn shot was taken at 1 p.m. Most photographers are diving for cover at this time of day? That is, unless they're shooting infrared.

 

Infrared photography deals with the spectrum of light that you can't see but that your digital camera can. If you buy a filter to eliminate the normal light rays and capture only the infrared rays, you can add this look to your photographic bag of tricks.

 

The first thing you'll notice in infrared photography is that the blue sky goes dark and that most trees turn very light. Glare is minimized, giving your pictures an eerie clarity. A popular filter for digi-cam infrared photography is the Hoya R72. If your camera accepts filters, then go get an R72 at the camera store, attach it to your camera, and look at a brightly lit scene in the LCD viewfinder. You'll know right away if your camera is suitable for this kind of shooting. You can test the "infraredness" of your camera by pointing a remote control toward the lens and seeing if the beam registers the camera's LCD monitor. 

 

Source: O’Reiley | Portfolio Website for Photographers

Photography: Make Your Own Passport Photo

Don't spend money for a terrible passport picture that you'll be embarrassed to show to strangers all over the world. You can take your own shot, and make great first impressions instead.

 

 

Why is it that whenever you have an official photograph taken, you're made to look like a  criminal or terrorist? Sometimes, you don't have a choice in the matter, such as for your  

driver's license (or booking at the county jail). But when it comes to passport photos, you 

can submit your own picture, and I recommend you do.

There are general requirements for an acceptable photo:

· Photographs must be identical and recent (within six months), with a clear full-face  and front-view image. They may be in color or     black       and white.

· The photographs must be at least 2" 2" (5cm 5cm), exclusive of any white borders. The image size, from the bottom of the chin to the top of    the    head (including hair), should measure between one inch and one and three-eighth's inches. There should be at least one half inch    between the      top of the head and the photograph's border.

· There must be a clear contrast between the background and the image of the subject. The background of the photographs must be white.      Grainy   photographs cannot be accepted.

Easy enough, right? Now let's talk about actually taking the picture, because that's the important part. Here is the equipment you'll need:

· Digital camera with a self-timer or remote release

· Tripod or alternative way to position the camera

· Two pieces of white foamcore, cardboard, or some other sturdy, reflective surface

· A stool or something else to sit on

· Inkjet printer with photo paper, preferably with matte surface

You want to avoid that stark, deer-in-the-headlights appearance that's usually caused by using a single flash in darkened room. You might still use a flash for your shot, but if so, it should be a fill flash and not the sole source of illumination. 

Look for a well-lit area that has a white or light background. You might use a brightly lit room in the house (with lots of light coming through one or more windows) or an outdoor setting, where you can use the side of the house for the background. But you don't want the sun shining right in your eyes. Diffused light is better.

Position your sitting stool at least five feet away from the background. You don't want to record much background detail. Instead, you want the background a little out of focus, and distance is the best way to create that effect.

Put the camera on the tripod and point it at the sitting stool. A trick I like to do is to put a lamp on the stool to act as my model while I'm aligning the camera. If you have a helper for this project, that person can serve as your stand-in. Position the camera slightly above eye level of the subject. By doing so, the picture will be more flattering and, if you do use a fill light, the shadows will be cast downward and out of the picture.

For your first test shot, turn off the flash. Let's see how it looks with natural light only. Turn on the self-timer, have a seat, smile slightly, and hold still until the camera has recorded the image. How does it look? If one side of your face is too shadowy, then position one of the pieces of white foamcore so it reflects light onto the dark side of your face.

Source: O'Reiley | Portfolio Website for Photographers

 

 

 

Smart Photography : Capture Kids Without Going Crazy

Sure, kids are cute in real life. But when it comes to capturing them with your digital point-and-shoot camera, they can be as elusive as leprechauns.

 

Digital point and shoots are great general-use cameras. But most of them are plagued by a phenomenon called shutter lag: the response time from the moment you push the shutter button to when the picture is actually captured is too long, sometimes as long as a second. In kid photography, a second might as well be a week.

 

Choosing a DSLR Camera

This next section of this hack provides ways to increase your odds of success with point and shoots. But first, if you want to cut right over to the fast lane, consider getting a digital SLR (DSLR), which has a much faster response time and performs better overall. DSLRs look and behave just like your favorite 35mm single lens reflex (SLR) cameras of years past, but they have a sophisticated image sensor instead of film.

 

Not long ago, this wouldn't be practical advice for parents, because DSLRs were just too darned expensive. But you no longer have to choose between a camera and a college fund.

Both Canon and Nikon have introduced quality DSLRs for under US$1,000, and more are sure to be on the way. The Canon Digital Rebel and the Nikon D70 are two examples of DSLRs that will help you keep up with your kids without maxing out your credit card.

 

DSLRs have minimal shutter lag times, allow for generous sequential shooting, accept a variety of lenses, and enable you to use external flash. In other words, they are perfect for action, kid photography.

 

Hacking the Point-and-Shoot Camera

Now that you know what your next camera should be, how do you get the most out of the one in your hand? OK, here are some tips to increase your odds of success.

First, get everyone outdoors, where there's more light, better backgrounds, and lots of things for kids to do. Then, make these three adjustments on your camera:

 

Set for the highest resolution your camera allows: This enables you to later crop out part of the picture, yet still has enough pixel information to make a good-sized print. It's like adding a powerful telephoto lens to your little point and shoots.

 

Find Infinity Focus mode and activate it: Essentially, this disables the autofocus (which is slow as mud on most consumer digicams) and lets you capture perfectly focused images from about eight feet to infinity. By doing so, you've just shortened the length of time from when you push the shutter button to when the image is recorded. This also allows you to hang back a few feet, so you're not spending all your energy chasing kids around instead of Photographing them.

 

Enable Continuous shooting mode: Instead of taking a bunch of single shots and missing the action, Continuous Shooting mode lets you hold down the shutter button and fire a series of frames. The knack to this is starting the sequence right before the decisive moment and shooting through it. Then, review your pictures on the LCD screen, remove the obvious misses, and keep the winners.

 

Source: O’Riley | Portfolio Website for Photographers

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