Finding Material: Waiting to Emerge
Waiting to Emerge - click to view larger on Flickr
This morning I went down to the Robertson Tunnel beneath Portland’s west hills to take some long-exposure shots of trains in the tunnels. Since it was Sunday, trains were running with approximately 8 minutes between trains, so I had plenty of time to take shots between trains.
This is one of my favorites. It doesn’t involve a train. It doesn’t involve a level camera. It doesn’t involve color. Sometimes the good photos happen when you don’t follow your plan.
So, What’s New?
Towering Twice - click to view larger on Flickr
What’s new with you?
You are exploring new things with your photography, right?
A good photographer is constantly exploring. New techniques, new equipment usage, even just shooting new subjects will reveal opportunities for creativity and improvement.
I have two things on my photography horizon. As the days get shorter and we move into winter, I’ve made it a goal to spend more time shooting at night. The photo in this post was taken last weekend. My other goal is to simply explore new areas of the city on my lunch breaks. The light sucks, but I can find areas that are worth return visits.
So, what’s new with you?
Server Move Complete
If you’re seeing this post, then the server move is complete and Photoschooled is now up and running at the new location.
Most of Your Photos Suck
Most of your photos suck. Most of my photos suck too.
John Nack on Adobe points out that most of everyone’s photos suck. The reality is that regardless of whether you shoot digital or film, you’ll create a lot more “garbage” photos than ones which are truly outstanding. It’s a reality of photography that needs to be accepted.
Don’t believe me? Upload all of your pictures to Flickr and look at the stats.
We learn from experience. The “garbage” photos are learning tools and shouldn’t necessarily be viewed as wasted shots.
From the fact that most of your photos suck, it should follow that when deciding which work to publish and show off, only publicize your best work. Don’t make folks wade through a bunch of mediocre photos; show them the money shot. I have a friend who routinely goes out and shoots 50-70 photos in a day, then comes home and uploads and shares 50-75% of those. His perceived photography strength would go up if instead of showing 40 average photos, he cut it down and only showed the 5 or 10 best shots (if that many).
Your photos suck. Mine do too. It’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Luck: Duck, Duck, Duckbus!
Duck, Duck, Duckbus! - click to view larger on Flickr
Despite reading photography books, learning how to operate a camera, and spending many hours shooting photos to improve one’s technique, sometimes getting an interesting photo is simply a matter of being in the right place at the right time. This photo was one of those occasions where I caught a couple of ducky things both heading upriver on the Willamette on my lunch hour.
Digital Photo Printing: Home or Commercial?
One issue I often find myself discussing with folks new to photography (and particularly digital photography) is how to obtain prints. When the average “consumer” shot 35mm film, it was easy: drop the roll off at your local photo processing location and wait a week until the prints returned. If one was in a hurry, there was overnight or one-hour processing.
Regardless of whether one prints digital images at home or through a commercial outfit, one of the big changes in printing (vs. traditional rolls of 35mm film) is that printing is now selective. The whole roll doesn’t need to be developed/printed in order to see that one killer shot.
Many folks figure that the switch to digital photography means they need to get a photo-quality printer at their house and print their own images. That’s one option, but it’s not the option I typically recommend. Let’s look at some pros and cons of home printing:
Pros of Home Printing:
- printing can be done at any time
- results are (nearly) instant
- images can be quickly reprinted after adjustments have been made
Cons of Home Printing:
- requires purchasing a quality printer (you generally get what you pay for)
- requires regularly purchasing ink cartridges
- requires purchasing photo paper
- occasionally requires troubleshooting
The other option is to have your photos printed commercially. At first this service was only available at special locations, but now you can find digital photo printing at any of the major drugstore chains as well as retailers such as Costco and Walmart. They’re all using the same equipment, so you should get similar results regardless of your retailer choice. What are the pros and cons of commercial printing?
Pros of Retail Printing:
- no real technical skill needed
- no hardware or ink cartridge purchases
Cons of Retail Printing:
- must either drive to store or wait for shipped photos
- unable to quickly reprint after editing
- unable to control the technical aspects of printing
I find that I don’t print very many images, and the ones I do print are done commercially. I enjoy being able to submit the photos online and then pick them up a few hours or days later, knowing I’ll get a consistent result at an affordable price. Others who want to spend more time on the process may favor printing at home; for them the printing process is part of the hobby.
Either option can produce quality prints depending on how you go about it… and you never know what weird situations you might run into.
Photographing Fireworks: Lights, Motion, Science, and Art
In just a couple days, across the United States folks will turn out for huge public fireworks displays. My hometown of Vancouver, Washington boasts the largest fireworks display west of the Mississippi. Fireworks can make interesting photography subjects, and it is possible to take some great fireworks photos without too much difficulty if you spend a few minutes thinking about the elements involved.
First, you’ll need stability. Because you’ll be taking photos at night, using slow shutter speeds, the camera will need to be absolutely motionless. The only way to get the needed stability is a tripod or other fixed camera mount. Another piece of equipment which can contribute to the stability is a remote shutter release cable, so that the pressure of a finger on the shutter button won’t cause unwanted movement.
The key technical aspect to good fireworks photos is shutter speed. You’ll be using relatively slow shutter speeds in order to let in the light from the fireworks, and potentially to capture the motion of the fireworks as the lights move in the sky. Put your camera in shutter priority mode (often indicated as Tv) and choose a slow shutter speed to capture the light and motion. How long is the “right” length for the shutter? There is no single right answer. The photo shown here was captured with a 30 second exposure. Many fireworks photos are taken with shutter speeds in the 5-15 second range. The best thing to do is experiment. With a digital camera you can use the preview feature and histogram to check out your results and make adjustments in the field.
Use a low ISO to minimize noise and grain in the sky of your photos. Either use a low ISO film, or if you have a digital camera, set it to the lowest ISO possible.
Don’t forget about photography basics when you’re shooting fireworks. You’ll still want to think about composition. Choose a viewing location free of obstacles. Make sure the folks in front of you aren’t going to put up a big umbrella at the last minute. Sometimes you can use a landmark to provide some context for the fireworks. Make sure you have plenty of memory cards or film. It’s amazing how many photos you can snap in a fireworks display, and you don’t want to miss the grand finale because you ran out of storage.
Overall, have fun. Experiment with different shutter speeds and see the results. In the end, you should end up with some colorful photos of an American tradition.
*photo by bobtravis on Flickr, used under a Creative Commons license
The Tripod: More Than Just Image Stabilization
One of the tools in any professional photographer’s arsenal is a good-quality tripod. It’s definitely something you should consider from the standpoint of minimizing any camera shake while shooting. But there’s another reason to use a tripod and it’s arguably of equal importance (especially for the beginning and intermediate photographer):
Using a tripod forces you to plan your shot.
The use of a tripod takes time. Even if you’re fast, it will take you several seconds to setup the tripod, attach the camera, and make some quick head adjustments. In an ideal situation, you have at least a few minutes to get things set up. During this time, you can look at various things such as what is around you or any obstacles which might interfere with your shot. As you put the camera onto the tripod, you can experiment with different compositions to see which one works best.
Perhaps the most important issue is that the use of a tripod to create a well-composed image prevents you from making hasty last-minute changes. When the tripod is planted firmly on the ground, your camera is locked into the head, and you’ve adjusted things so they’re “just right”, you can’t quickly change things at the last minute. Over the past several years I’ve found that generally when I change things just before the shot, I end up disappointed with the results and wishing I’d gone with the original plan.
Use a tripod. Plan your shot. Go with your plan.
*photo by [martin] on Flickr
Composition: Lemons Into Lemonade
Burnside over KOIN - click to view larger on Flickr
Last night I went out for a couple hours and walked along the Willamette River in Portland to take some night photos. Once I got there I noticed one arm of the Burnside Bridge was lifted and I remembered they were performing maintenance this weekend.
At first I was disappointed. A good bridge photo should be symmetrical, right? Either a lowered bridge, or with both arms raised? I walked back and forth a bit along the river looking for some sort of composition that would make me happy.
Eventually I settled on this… looking at the raised bridge arm, with the KOIN tower visible directly underneath the raised leaf. When you’re presented with a situation that wasn’t as you’d hoped, spend a few minutes looking at things and you will likely find something worthy of a shot.
Doing it Just Like Doug
One of the photography blogs I read regularly is Doug Plummer. Yesterday he posted a piece titled How to make photos just like me in response to a reader’s inquiry about what camera settings he uses to capture some images. Doug correctly points out that the technical aspects of photography are but one piece of the bigger picture [pun intended].
Creating a good photograph is a combination of many factors including technical aspects (such as shutter speed and lighting), photography knowledge (such as composition techniques), and sometimes a bit of luck.
A photographer who wishes to grow will work on mastery of not just the technical knowledge, but the art as well. The technical knowledge is a foundation… you can’t take excellent photos without having at least some understanding of the science, but likewise you won’t consistently take excellent photos without also studying the art and learning about those aspects.
