Depth of Field | Separate out the background

I was asked this question yesterday:

“If I want to take a picture with a fast shutter speed, but maintain a fairly shallow depth of field, do you know technically how I would do that? If I set the camera to shutter preferred and up the shutter speed won’t the aperature open up and increase depth of field? If I stand further back and zoom in on the subject would that make the depth of field more shallow?”

- The camera is an older Sony Digital dsc-f717 – with that big funny looking lens.

Here is my answer:

“The last part will work – standing further back.  You can still do it
close though.  If you have lots of light work with the ISO as well.  I
can’t remember how to on that camera but if you are shooting at ISO
400 and the aperture wants to be f8 then if you make the ISO 100 then
you have 2 more stops on the aperture.  Should be able to f5.6 or
f4.0.  I think the minimum ISO is 100 on that camera.

If you are shooting further away you will lose detail.  The zoom on
that camera is only 3x optical – the rest is digital.  You can see the
line in the middle of the zoom icon – that’s where the digital starts.”

If you have any other ideas on this please leave it in comments.

Thanks.

Learn One Thing At A Time

Learn One Thing at a Time and learn it well.

About 15 years ago I took a night photography course in Toronto. I wanted to learn something about studio lighting. First thing I did was look for a course that was being taught by someone who actually did photography for a living, someone who would be able to impart practical knowledge learned from experience not just opinion.

I found a course at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in Toronto. Two evenings a week for 6 weeks. It was a great course.

At the end of the course,

Make them Uncomfortable

I’ve taken lots of pictures of people. I love photographing people almost as much as I love people. The challenge though was always getting away from the “standing up straight – stiff as a board” syndrome. We’ve all taken pictures of our family and others at the zoo or the park where everyone is standing beside each other very soberly trying to smile. Pretty boring. Often we take these more to show the location “Here we are in front of the Eiffel Tower!”

I have found it most workable to get the attention of the people that you are trying to photograph from how they are standing and posing onto something else.

I had a family of four some years ago wanting a picture when we were out on a sleigh ride in Ontario. Mom and Dad and two boys. They were all standing side by side and there really was not going to be any energy in the picture. I told them to all crouch down and kind of lean into one another. They had most of their attention on keeping their balance in an unusual position. And they were all giggling and smiling. I also crouched down so that I was at a level with them. Twenty years later the picture is still one of their favourites, still hanging on the wall. Another thing that this crouching down does is to even out any height differences.

You can do this with an individual as well – have them crouch, lean or sit on the edge of that water fountain -maybe the water will distract them. If you can get them to interact with the environment in some way, even better. Experiment.

If you are trying to show more of the surroundings when taking the picture but want to show your subjects in the picture, I suggest that you take more than one type of picture. Take some close up of the people and some back showing more of the location.

If you look at the picture and aren’t happy with it, then try something different.

Enjoy – take lots of pictures.

Botanical Gardens – Niagara Falls, Canada

I went to the Botanical Gardens in Niagara Falls yesterday to take some photos.  By myself.   Do not be worried about going out by yourself to take pictures.  You will likely find out more quickly what you like and dislike and you can take the time to get the shot that you want.   You can go out with others and that is sometimes good for ideas but make a  point of spending time with just you and the camera and whatever subject you choose.

Botanical Gardens Niagara Falls

I don’t know that there is an “off season” here at the Botanical Gardens in Niagara but there were many areas where the flowering was past ‘prime’.  Particularly with many of the roses.  BUT this made me work a little harder for the shots and look at some other attractive plants for some nice shots.

Take your time and look around.  No one is hurrying you…

The Rule of Thirds – Well Not Exactly

If you’ve read any amount of material in magazines or online you may have heard of something called the “rule of thirds”. The concept here is to take the frame of the photo or the area of the photo to be more specific and divide it into thirds vertically and horizontally. Place your points of interest on the lines or at the intersecting points.

Bright Sunlight and People Photos

Here is a quick tip:  If you are taking some pictures of family or friends and it is a particularly bright day try and find some shade.  There are a couple of reasons for this.  One is that if you shoot with the sun behind the photographer you will have your subjects all squinty-eyed.  If you put the sun behind them and you are not using a ‘fill flash’ the faces will be in shadow.  If the sun is directly overhead then you will have odd shadows on the face resulting in a baggy-eye look.  It is very simple to move your subject into shadow or if there is a passing cloud wait a minute.  Try and soften the light somehow.

If you want to get a little more into it – if there is no shadow available you can get someone to stand to the side with something to shadow the faces – a large piece of cardboard will even do the trick placed correctly.  There are professional tools but it is amazing what you can make do with if you use a tiny bit of ingenuity.  For example if there is a short wall that you want to have the person near then have them hunker down to catch the shade of the wall.

Once you start to think with this you will see many ways to soften the light even on bright days.

Photographs in the Rain

Sometimes the Niagara Region is somewhat like Western Oregon: if you wait for the rain to stop to go outside to do

Photo of wet leaves

something, then you may be waiting a while.  Son #3 and I decided to go out in the misty rain last week and we got some amazing shots.  Most of our pictures were later in the day and we hiked down into the Niagara Glen.  It is a great walk and if you are visiting Niagara Falls be sure to take the hike down to the river.  It is a bit of work getting back up but it is free and is worth the effort.

A little up the road from there is the Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens.  We wanted to take some shots but there was still a fine mist coming down but we thought that anyone could take pictures in the sunshine and we would “take the path less traveled” and we did get some very nice pictures as a result.  The photo I have posted is obviously not even of flowers but to show that there can be wonderful images almost anywhere in any climate.

Son #3 took the photo of the leaves.

More about Black and White Photography

Light.  And Dark.  And all the shades in between.  What happens is that your pictures are too ‘dull’ or too contrasty?  Take some photos of light colored flowers against a light background and depending on the colours they don’t stand out.  When the sun is bright and shining on your subjects parts

flower black and white

Brightness and Contrast in your photos

Black and White 40's style glamor

One of the things that I do regularly now that I’m in the digital age is to increase the brightness and contrast on almost all of my photos.  I will open the file, do any touch ups and then increase the brightness and contrast.  This basic function will be in any photo editing software be it PhotoShop, Paint Shop Pro or inexpensive or even free software.  If I have planned to convert the picture to black and white, I will do these steps first.   You will have to play around with the adjustments but once you get a setting you like and you have taken a series of pictures you will probably find that you can use the same settings for that whole series.

Photographing Children

I love to photography children.  They are so alive and interested in their environment.  That also sometimes makes it more difficult to get a good picture as well.  Particularly in the studio.

As a solution, I often take families out for walks in a park or some such which is great for the kids. This way I get a lot of good candid shots.  They will be xploring, I set up the shot, call for their attention and ‘click’ – there’s the shot.  Do this with a family for an hour or so and you will have many memorable pictures.  Make sure that you chat with different members of the family as you are on the walk.  This way they will be more comfortable with you and the pictures will be more natural.