FRAMING AND RULE OF THIRDS: So I thought that I would talk about framing for my next blog. Many times we just line up the center focal dot in our camera and shoot our subject right in the middle of the photo. Ok, it may be fine for a group photo, but it can quickly get boring when shooting one or two subjects. So here is the scoop on the rule of thirds: Your subject (or key areas of focus) should line up in the areas where the thirds of pictures meet. Basically you would want to draw two horizontal lines and two vertical linesthrough your picture dividing the picture into three areas (both horizontally and vertically). The place where the top horizontal line and the right vertical line meet is where the subjects faces are in this picture. The key is to line your subjects up on the line, or where the lines intersect. This trick also works when you have a picture where only one part of the photo is in focus; it is much more pleasing to the eye to have the focus there. The rule of thirds is a classic standard, and helps to make a photo much more appealing to the eye. Next time you are shooting, make sure to try it out. Keep shooting! AdamJames

Pre-Set Modes Lesson 4:

Portrait Mode:

So this is the final lesson on the series of pre-set modes. This lesson is about the portrait pre-set mode. The symbol representing this mode on your dial will probably be a flower, but you can always double check your manual to confirm that.

The portrait mode is great when you are wanting to draw attention to the person or object you are taking a picture of. What the portrait mode does, is it ajusts the apature (how wide open the lens is and how much light is allowed in), causing the background to be out of focus. If your camera has a large range for the apature, you may find that parts of the picture are not in focus that you want. This is where it is important to make sure you aim your focus area, on the area you want to be in focus, such as the eyes. You may also need to make sure that neither you nor your subject move foward or backward as changing the distance from your lens to the object you want in focus could actually make it out of focus because you are now a different distance away than when your camera first set the focus.

For example, if when you set your focus, you were exactly 10 feet away from your subject, this means that once the focus is set and freezes, any object you want to be in focus will have to be 10 feet way. So, if your model is standing next to a pole that is also 10 feet away, if he moves one step forward, he will now be out of focus, but the pole will still be in focus. This is also true if you move forward, say by two feet. Now a pole two feet behind your model will be in focus. This is why it is important not to move your camera or model forward or backward once you set the focus, especially when you are in portrait mode.

This picture is one that I took of my brother when he was home from Hollywood this last winter. As you can see, his face is in focus, but even parts of his hair and coat (at the shoulders) are not. If either him or I had changed the distance from my lens to his face after the focus was set (even just inches), he would have become out of focus.

Keep this in mind, keep shooting, and keep having fun!

Blessings.

AdamJames

PRE-SET MODES Lesson 3:

LANDSCAPE MODE.


Ok, so you are on a trip and you see that sweet landmark that says "I was there" and you want to take a picture of it with you in front so that you can prove to your friends that you were actually there. You pull out your trusty point and shoot camera and take the pic, but the background is all blurry. You try again, now the background is in focus but you are out of focus. "Hurry up dude!" is comming from the little stocky man next in line as his 2 yr old is getting impatient and they want their turn now. What do you do? Do you give up and settle for either you being blurry or the background blurry? Or worse, a picture of the landmark without you in it?

NO WAY! Have no fear, landscape mode is here! That's right! Just flip your trusty pre-set mode nob to the little picture of a mountain, and you will get shots with both the foreground (person in front) in focus and the background in focus. What the camera does is automatically change the aperature of the camera to take out the blurry effect so that they whole picture (or landscape) is in focus. Great for mountains, cities or even groups of people standing a distance away from front to back. So, when you get back from your trip to anytown USA, you can prove that you really were there.

(If anyone sees the irony in this story and picture, let me know.....I am feeling awefully punny tonight) ;-)

Adam

PRE-SET MODES PART 2

SPORTS MODE
Ok, so we all know what the sports mode does right? You know, that little picture of the stick-figure running on your setting dial of your camera? This mode makes the picture clearer when someone is running or moving quickly right? Yes that is correct, but why won't the regular "auto pilot" setting just make it clear as well?

Great question. Notice this picture I took of our local City basball team. As you can see, both the runner and the ball, which are moving at very high speeds, are in focus. What you may not notice is the background is ALSO in focus. In the normal "auto pilot mode", the lens has a smaller opening which lets in less light, but also causes the background to be slightly blurry (this is how portrait mode works, but that will be a different lesson) and most likely the runner and the ball would be blurry as well, because of motion blurr. This blurriness would not be a good thing for sports pictures. So, by opening the lens wider, more light is let into the lens, but the drawback is that the background is not blurry (notice the writing on the wall on the far right upper corner-this is VERY far away and would normally not be readable). Fortunatly when photographing sports, it is more important to catch the image in focus than to have the background blurry, and sometimes this clear background actually adds to the picture, especially when fans and other players are looking on.

Now, keep in mind, that a little motion blur (Difinition-subjects in the picture being blurred) is not always a bad thing. Notice this picture I took at a wedding recently. Had the picture been in "sports mode" the rice being thrown at the couple would not be blurred, but rather would look like specs of distracing dust in the picture. The result here, as you can see, has no camera shake (Definition-blurriness caused from movement of the camera) in this picture, but the shutter is not quite open long enough to catch a clear picture of the rice or even the groom (notice his left hand). Now this effect would not work for the baseball picture above, but works great for this type of "photo-journalistic" picture.

So next time you are taking a picture where someone or something is moving fairly quickly, flip your camera to sports mode and have fun!

Good luck and keep shooting!

USING PRE-SET MODES: LESSON 1

NIGHT MODE: "What in the moon is night mode for" you might ask. You know, on the dial where you can flip it to the little simbol of a stickperson and a star next to them? (Trust me, it is there...take a minute to find the little man with the stars). Now, why would you use this? Well, the night mode is a great tool to use WHEN YOU HAVE TO USE THE FLASH, BUT ALSO WANT THE BACKGROUND TO SHOW UP IN THE PICUTRE like a person standing in front of a sunset, a picture at dusk or even at night when you want to see the Statue of Liberty or other well lit monument in the background.
Normally, when you use a flash, it is TOO powerfull (really giving off alot of light) for this type of picture that the background becomes dark. You have probably all experienced this around sunset when there seems to be plenty of light out and you take a pic with the flash, but it ends up looking compeletly dark in the background and you cannot see the background at all. This dark background is due to the camera naturally giving off a large amount of flash so that the picture is sharp and there is no motion blurr (Definition-fuzziness from someone moving during the picture while the lens was being held open), or camera shake ( Definition-blurriness caused from the camera not being held still while the shutter/lens was open). In this same sunset situation, you probably then tried to take the same picture without the flash but it turned out all blurry. If you didn't use the flash, the person/picture would be extremely blurry b/c of motion blurr and camera shake. The camera needs the lens open for a long time to let enough light in for it to be visible. To get the picture to turn out you could tell you model to sit still for about 6 seconds while the shutter (lens) is open and you would also have to have your camera on a tripod to get the picture to work without using the flash, but this is usually not practical. Another option would be to use the regular flash, but this amount of light is really too much for the situation discribed above and would cause the background to be black.

This is where THE NIGHT MODE (that little man with the stars in the backgroung setting on your camera) is usefull. In this sunset/dusk situation, just flip your camera to night mode and pop up the flash. What happens is the flash shoots at a lower percentage (giving less light than the flash NORMALLY would give), helping to keep the background visible in the picture instead of making it look like the middle of the night. This also works if you are trying to catch colors from lights (such as in a concert or even the color from christmas lights on a tree). The flash "overpowers" the natural light, really just washing it out and not getting the colored effect you want. Just use the "NIGHT MODE" and you will hopefully find a little better results.

PICTURE AT TOP:
If this picture was taken at full flash, the background (cross and person) would be completly black (looking like it was takin in the middle of the night) and the colors in the background would not be visible at all.

TIP: The lens will actually be open a bit longer than normal (to allow more light in the lens), so try to have your model (or sucker if you are practicing) hold still, as well as your hand holding the camera...you may even want a tripod, but that may be a bit too much.

UNEXPECTE MOMENTS: Sometimes unexpected circumstances can make for great photos when looking back, which always reminds me to roll with the punches. At this specific location, this was actually the 2nd (completly unrelated) person to "join in for a pic"- you know when a person passing by thinks it would be fun to jump in for a posed picture, knowing full well that they will never see it. So, here it is. Well done mate, and maybe this picture will find its way to you someday!

So I reworked my logo in photoshop. All I really did was adjust the color and take out the unwanted power line. It is amazing what you can find just by noticing your surroundings. This was taken at the park just down from our house....this was the exact path we were taking and the tree looked perfect from this angel. The sun was setting and cast my shadow, so....there we go. What do you think?

REFLECTIONS. I have been wanting to create photo art for quite some time. This is a piece that I call "Reflections". I don't think anything needs to be said about this. Blessings!

PICTURE LAYOUT SHOOT LOCATION. So I am working on my layout and design and this is a 4x6 I just recently produced. There really isn't much to say here about this final product (especially since this is a photography blog), but I will comment about the picture....that is what I do best right?

I was asked to take a picture for Wes's CD last May, and when choosing a location, I decided to try several. I had actually been to most of them before, and I have found that it really helps to plan out your shoot so that when you are there with a "nervous model", things can go much easier. I noticed that this particular spot had amazing light right at sunset...no trees blocking the entire view to the building in the back. So when asked on a time, I was able to schedule the shoot for "prime time" of the location.

Knowing that CD's have many area's for pictures, I decided to keep the left side of the shot open in case text was to be added later. A different shot was used, so I just decided to make this up for good kicks.

CONTRAST-

This is a picture I took of some of our friends son when we were in Nashville visiting them a few weeks ago. My wife had been talking up my skills, and of course I agreed, so I figgured that I better try to get some decent shots for them of their son. I was following him around, and being a normal 2 1/2 yr old, he refused to look at me or even face my way for the camera; every time I tried to shoot, all I could see was his back, that is until he went into this "crawl tube". I really only had about 5 seconds to get this shot before he went on to something else, so here are a few tips on what to look for on this kind of shot; specifically the contrast. What is contrast? Contrast is the extreme difference from a lighted area to a dark area. Possibly even from light to dark, such as a white wedding dress and a black suit but we are going to focus on the lighting issue....our eyes are amazing as they just naturally adjust to the diffences in harsh lighting contrast places, but film (and digital) picutures do not. This picture for example, has harsh contrast as there is a very limited amount of light in the tube that the boy was playing in, but there was natural sunlight in the background (it was actually a cloudy day, I can only imagine how bad it would have been if it was sunny). The main idea is to make sure you can recognize/predict the contrast, so that you can "create" your image purposefully, such as seen here. The most common mistake made with point and shoot cameras is that the camera exposes the background or another object instead of the face/primary focus of the shot. I made sure that the camera exposed the boy properly, as opposed to the background where he would have become a silloette (which is another option) and the result is pleasing to the eye, even though the background is completely washed out, actually helping to create a focus on the boy. On your point and shoot, you may have a couple of opstions for exposure, the most common being that you can set your shutter speed to how fast or slow you want it......that will be a later topic. Well have fun with contrast, and let me see some of your pics!

CORRECTING COLOR IN SHADY SITUATIONS- Watch out for blue light. Believe it or not, but very heavy shade gives off a blue tint. Our eyes normally adjust in high contrast areas, such as going from a bright sunny day, to walking under a large shade tree, but a blue tint does exist in shade. I remember actually noticing the blue tint produced from the shade this summer as we were walking through the park. The brighter the day, the darker the tree, and the more contrast between the two, the more noticable the blue tint. To avoid the blue tint added to the natural skin tones, you have 2 main options. First, many cameras have built in "filters". These "mock filters" come from the days of film when you would actually place a color tinted glass filter on your camera to correct the tint. Now, shade does not produce a large amount of blue just enough to be noticable, so your camera adds a bit of red to counter the blue produced by the shade. Some cameras do a better job than others. If you camera does not have a "mock filter" shade setting or you do not like the results produced, do not fear as you can always add a bit of red to your picture in any editing program. If you look closely, you can see the slight blue tint on the skin tones in the second picture here, I think that I corrected it a bit, but it could use another pass.

"CHEAP TRICKS"
Portraits- Using Natural Light.


If you are wanting a portrait of a family member or friend like the one here, try a few "cheap tricks" to get great results. First of all, sit your model in front of a large window in your house and use the natural sunlight that comes in indirectly through the window. Make sure all the other lights are off in the room so that you don't mix lighting types. Now, you don't want to have direct light from the sun, but the indirect light that comes through the window will be plenty and help keep natural skin tones. After taking a few shots you will see that having the model face the widow straight on and to an angle will get different lighting results. Now to take the picture, it may get a bit tricky. You will want to back up against the window and shoot from a slightly upper angle. It gets tricky because this shot will most likely be low light for the cameras you are using, so the shutter will automaticaly stay open long enough for proper exposure, which means you may get a blurry image from camera shake. Because of this, you will most likely need a tripod ($10 at walmart I think), or shelf to set your camera on (with books to help angle it), and don't forget to tell your model to hold still during the shot. The only other thing to remember is to watch your background for "noise". Hanging a black or dark sheet can help to fix this as well. This "cheap trick" should hopefully help to get some sweet, cheap shots! Good luck and let me see some samples!

CONTROL THE SHOT


Ok, so you cannot control kids and the way they smile, when they smile, or even if they do. I am sure that you have found this to be true in all situation as well. So what can you control? The lighting for one. Try to move into shade and and get your camera settings set so that every shot you take is going to turn out the same each time so that when the child does what you want, you get it right. Many times I take "practice pictures" while the kids aren't looking at me to get the proper ISO and exposure. Many times I even use the parent to practice on, because kids will only give you so many shots until their attention is lost, so why try to use their "attention time" while you are getting your shots ready? Another factor you can control, such as in this pic, is the parent. It works best if two parents are present, one to be in the pic and one to get the attention of the child. That way the parent can look great in all the shots, even the ones the child is not cooperating on, so when they do cooperate, the parent is ready as in this shot. -adam-

GOTTA LOVE WEDDINGS!

This was one of the first weddings I took about a year ago. I was not the main photographer, but it gave me a great chance to get some "side shots" and candids that the main photographer could not have gotten. This one for example should be cherished forever (the bride was not there for the pic :-)

USING SHADE

Today was a perfect day out at the park. I saw at least 4 other photographers out taking pictures of families, seniors and models. The only problem was the sun. Not a cloud in the sky, and when trying to take portraits, a perfect day out is not always a perfect setting for a picture. This shot was taken in a shaded area with the sun actualy to the back behind the backdrop seen here. Taking a picture in shade with a shaded backdrop helps to control the shot. Also, watch out for "sunspots" comming through the trees, such as the small on on the mothers right arm here. Also, a diffused flash or umbrella off the the side never hurts. -blessings-