The Digital Photo Guy

Composition Clarified in Three Hours

In just three short hours, Gloria Hopkins explained the ins and outs of composition in clear, concise, succinct terms that everyone understood. As a confident artist, Gloria used both her award winning photos as well “cutting room floor” dregs to demonstrate photographic composition. It’s a rare artist that allows others to see her failures as well as her winners. The entire webinar was recorded and will be made available for viewing in a few days. Stay tuned for details.

HDR Tools, Tips and Techniques Webinar – May 7

Rob Sheppard is on tap in two weeks to present his HDR Tools, Tips and Techniques webinar. Any photographer who hasn’t been sleeping under a rock knows that HDR (high dynamic range) is the hottest thing in photography. Many have seen works by early HDR pioneers like Ben Wilmore and Rick Sammon. Many have also been waiting for HDR to mature into “real” art that accurately reflects the grandeur of nature without the garish, cartoon-like effects of early HDR tools. 

If your idea of HDR is like the photo of the cars immediately to the left but you’d like to produce HDR like the sunrise in the Eastern Sierras (far left,) then this is the webinar for you.

Rob Sheppard has been working to develop a natural HDR style that complements rather than exaggerates nature’s beauty. Rob will tell us about his favorite tools as well as tools that failed to make the cut. Rob will demonstrate techniques for creating HDR photos that have the look and grace of an Ansel Adams without hauling a 65lbs view camera and glass plates into the wilderness. While demonstrating tips for optimizing these techniques, Rob will explain the process on your screen.

You’ll actually watch Rob develop an image on your monitor. Everything he does will immediately show up on your monitor. If you have a question, he can stop, backup, restart or otherwise redo the step to answer your question. Don’t miss this webinar. It’s not everyday that you can sit with a National Geographic photographer.

Desert Spring Wildflower Season

The desert spring wildflower season was weak this year. To top it off, the wind blew at about 25 mph the whole weekend. Even tiny flowers just 1/4″ off the ground were bent at 90 degrees. I’ve learned over the years that a good flower season doesn’t always mean a good flower season for photography. If you were willing to hike 2-4 miles into the canyons, there were some nice blooms but, there, the venturi effect increased the wind speed even more.

Sometimes, PDL (pure dumb luck) intervenes like this field of desert marigolds along San Felipe Valley Road on the way home. I got down low with my Canon 7D and Sigma 10-20 ultra-wide angle lens at f/22 and 20mm on a Gitzo 1228 tripod. I knew if I focused about 20 feet away (the second fence post,) my depth of field would be from about 2.5 ft to infinity.

At home, using DP-HDR by Mediachance, I confirmed what I suspected. There was too much wind for the usual 3-frame HDR. The flowers were just a mass of yellow. Opening it in Photoshop Elements, I added “pop” to the sky and mountains with Topaz Adjust. Popping the background did funky things to the marigolds in the foreground so I added a layer mask and revealed the original foreground in the layer beneath. Voila, instant fake, single frame HDR. More

Why Composition Matters

…it is seldom indeed that a composition which was poor when the picture was taken can be improved by reshaping it in the dark room. – Henri Cartier-Bresson

I was shocked by a recent poll that found most amateur photographers believe composition is their strong suit. In my experience, composition is everyone’s weakest skill. How many can honestly say their photographs are as impactful and insightful as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Ansel Adams or Galen Rowell? The photos I’ve seen in workshops and online forums tend toward ordinary and uninspired.

Here’s a rejected photo from a recent shoot. Working with two new models in a genre (steampunk) that I had never even heard of, much less photographed, I was shooting fast and trying to keep up with the models’ concepts. This was a good idea (Megan protects the fuel supply a’la Mad Max) but poor execution due to poor composition. Notice how I cut off Megan’s right foot, scabbard and sword tip. With practice, it’s easy to nail the focus and exposure but composition changes with every photo.

In this next photo, the Center of Interest has changed to the intensity in Megan’s eyes. It’s no longer about telling a story but imparting emotion. The composition is about Megan’s eyes. I could have used a shallow depth of field and blurred the background because none of it matters, just the look in her eyes. The square formed by Megan’s right arm and sword work to frame her face and force the viewer to look into her eyes.

These are all compositional decisions I had to make during the shoot. Some worked, many failed and the rest needed Photoshop to guide the viewers’ eyes to the Center of Interest.

Composition is the single most important element in any work of art. To quote Ansel Adams, “There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.” Don’t let your sharp photos fail due to a fuzzy concept. Register today for Gloria Hopkins’ Composition webinar on Wednesday, April 20. Know how and why each and every element in your photographs contribute to the impact of the photograph.

Public Service Announcement

RSS will make you smart, rich and sexy. OK, maybe just smart. RSS will certainly streamline your on-line life and save you time by only showing information you want. For those who don’t know about RSS, here’s a short primer.  Once you set up an RSS reader, the next step is to make it automatic so you don’t have to check e-mail for notification. This article explains how to do that.

I recommend RSS because it makes it easy to keep up with my posts as well as news on other sites. I’m a news hound, I love keeping up with various news outlets to be sure they’re all reporting consistent information. Before RSS, I had to check many news sites each day. With RSS, each time a site is updated, I’m automatically notified. Many sites also allow you to tailor the news you want. You can specify all world news but no drivel about Lindsey Lohan. You can get immediate notices about Japan or healthcare reform but exclude news about Hollywood.

In other words, RSS lets you customize your own news report. In the mix, you can ask to be notified each time I update my website. That assures you never miss anything. Look for the RSS icon on my site and set up a reader today. You’ll save a ton of time and never miss an post.

Old Guyz Rule! (Except When They Don’t)

Did a shoot this past weekend that definitely took me outside my comfort zone. Anyone here ever heard of steampunk? As one of the models explained to me, “It’s how people in the 1800s might have imagined the 21st century.” Yeah, OK, is this a hint that she thinks I was around in the 1800s?

Here, I used a single Canon 550EX on-camera with a Stofen Omnibounce diffuser. The strobe was set to 1/4 power in Manual and bounced off a very low (dingy) white ceiling.

For my newbie readers, this is a good example of why I like to shoot in Manual Mode. In this shoot, I wanted a dark, edgy look with enough depth of field (DoF) to keep everything sharp. Had I relied on the auto exposure (AE) meter, the image would have been brighter, not in keeping with the dark, post-Apocalyptic theme. More

Why Manual Flash is Sometimes Easier

This past weekend, I photographed Celestina, Pinup Model, Makeup Artist (MUA) and Hair Stylist. This was the third time I’ve photographed her and I should have the lighting down pat by now. Yet, I still managed to make rookie errors that ruined many images and will require a reshoot. BTW, notice the cool NBA blouse. That’s Natonal Bowling Association, not basketball.

First, the excuses. We only had two hours so I was rushed. Celestina was delayed getting there so now we only had 90 minutes. I tried two poses which required moving the backdrop and wasted more time. And, the biggie: I took a shortcut and let E-TTL handle the intricacies of a four-flash set-up. This isn’t to say E-TTL couldn’t have handled it but it takes a lot more smarts on my. I would have been better off manually setting each flash instead of letting E-TTL try to figure out what I wanted.

Here’s a finished photo of Celestina striking a pinup pose. I wanted a white background in the tradition of true pinups. The BG isn’t pure white as I wanted but it’s better than the original (after the jump.) My first thought was to mask Celestina and drop in a white BG. I immediately realized that was a dumb idea because of the fine hairs where I was backlighting her beautiful red hair. More