Keeping the camera still will reduce camera shake and help you to get clear sharp pictures. Most of us like the idea of this, but when it comes to carrying a tripod around the idea goes out the window. It takes longer to set up a shot with a tripod. This means fewer, more considered shots, which encourages you to visualise your shots and you will learn to become more selective in what you shoot.
Iâve put a few tips together to help you get the most out of your tripod and to make it worth lugging around.
1. Use a cable release to trip the shutter. If you donât have one then put the camera on its timer setting.
Any contact with the camera will produce camera shake. You are probably using the camera in low light and will have slow shutter speeds. Depressing the shutter release button manually is enough to create camera shake even when using a tripod.
2. Ensure that the tripod is set up securely. If you are on mud or snow embed the feet points into the ground and check that it is secure and cannot move. Donât set it up anywhere it can slide or be knocked over.
3. If you need extra stability hang your camera bag from the centre pole, some models may have a hook for this purpose. If your tripod doesnât then hang your camera bag over the collar. This will have the same effect.
4. Extending the length of the legs in the right order will increase stability. Always use the thickest sections first. The last thing to extend when you need extra height is the centre column. The centre column is unstable and should only be used a last resort. Try to capture the shot on the rigid triangle below.
5. Use the spirit level to ensure that the tripod is level. If you are serious about taking your pictures – level up.
6. When youâve finished the shoot clean the tripod. Ensure that there is no mud on the legs or in the joints. Wipe down with a damp cloth. This will make set up time faster when the tripod is next used.
Lou Smith is a professional photographer based in London UK. Her photographs can be viewed in the smithnsmith photo gallery at www.smithnsmith.com
smithnsmith are travel photographers and galleries include Black & White, London, Abstract, Architecture and Animals. smithnsmith offer free exhibition space in the Pulse Gallery. If you are serious about your photography then register with the Pulse. Registration and uploading of images is free.
There are very few rules to portrait photography. The few rules there are can be broken and still result in good images. What I have attempted to give you here is some quick tips to hopefully help you to improve your image taking.
1. Make it Personal
When photographing people involve sopmething that makes it more personal and about that individual. One of my favourite images shows a little girl in what is to her a very natural environment. Her grandfather breeds and races pigeons and since she could walk she has helped him in the daily tasks of cleaning and feeding them. The photograph shows her with the pigeopn on her lap as she feeds it peanuts. I always look to try and capture images that tell stories and capture a little bit of the true spirit of the person being photographed making it so much more personal.
2. Have Fun
False smiles are hideous and should be banned. Asking someone to smile or say cheese is a last resort. If you want natural smiles and laughs you need to create things for people to smile or laugh about. Personally I much prefer images with people laughing out loud to a posed straightforward Victorian styled portrait.
3. Always be Ready
I always remember a certain portrait session. I had been photographing a family on the beach. The little girl decided she wanted to climb onto a small pier that led out to sea. Luckily I had my camera out and managed to capture a few frames as she crawled along. Had I attempted to set this image up there are a million things that would have got in the way. As luck had it everything went right and a fantastic image was captured.
4. Get in close
Don?t be afraid to get in close and clip the tip of peoples heads out of the frame. Very often it helps the image, giving it a more dramatic approach.
If your camera doesn?t have a zoom facility then move closer physically.
5. Take Photographs Outside
You will get far far better images of young children if you allow them to play. As long as you pick a safe area you can let them run loose and do as they wish leaving you free to concentrate on capturing some magical moments. In my portrait business I take 98% of my images outside. I know this works as I continually receive more and more referral business from happy clients who recognise the joy and happiness in their childs expressions.
6. Catch people unawares
Very often the best images are when people don’t realise they are having their photograph taken. I recently shot a portrait session in London of a young couple. The girl had large ties to a market and wanted some atmospheric images. However her partner wasn?t keen to be photographed in public. I solved the problem by using a long lens and concentrated on capturing some totally natural images as they were walking around the market.
7. Change the angle you are shooting from
I always have a change of clothes with me when I am on a shoot because I tend to end up covered in mud. Don?t be afraid to lay on the ground. You will be rewarded by the images you take.
8. Capture natural reactions
Encourage people to react normally as they would every day. One of the joys of my job is taking images of new mums and their babies. I know if I ask mum to get in close to the baby nine times out of ten I will get a totally natural reaction as the baby and mother react to each other. All that is needed is for me to them judge the right time and capture the image.
I find if you ask people to get closer than they would normally do it will cause them to laugh. However this is not the case with teenagers as they see it as uncool to like brothers / sisters so with this age group differant approaches are needed.
9. Consider your background very carefully
The background is as important as the subject you are photographing. Ensure it is pleasing to the eye without distracting away from the image. Some colours are worth avoiding. Red for example will trigger the eye to look at it immediately and drag attention away from the main subject. People far cleverer than me have attempted to explain why (something to do with it being nature?s danger colour). The best thing to do when lining up your photograph is to avoid red altogether.
10. Practise
You can read a million books and visit every website on the planet but I believe there is no substitute to actually doing something and learning by experience. I personally run training days for people who like yourself just want to have a go at a new style of image making. The people who attend have various skill levels but as I place the emphasis on being as low tech as possible they are of use for everybody from the amateur through to the seasoned professional.
11 Be different
Try and do something out of the ordinary. Use your imagination to create images that stand out. If everyone else does a top ten do a top eleven, it will bring more interest guaranteed because it is out of the ordinary.
I wish you luck on your future image making and hope we can talk at some stage in the future.
Have Fun
Martin W.
All images and words are subject to copyright and cannot be reproduced in any way without written permission from Martin Wilmott Photography.
Martin Wilmott is a highly successful lifestyle photographer based in the UK who undertakes work all over the world. People with an interest in portrait photography can sign up for his free online course at <a href="http://www.martinwilmottphotography.com" title="http://www.martinwilmottphotography.com" target="_blank">http://www.martinwilmottphotography.com</a>. Martin also runs regular portrait classes for people with an interest in his style of work.
Yellow daisy, oh yellow daisy – please tell me about fills and flags! How does one use them effectively?
Good question sighs my daisy. An answer or two…
One can shoot anything straight without flash in good daylight and get okay results. I’ve read a load of articles in the last few months saying that bright sunshine is bad, bad, really bad, for color saturation when shooting flowers or anything for that matter – true often, but not always so.
One needs to consider all sorts of things – purpose, time of day, result required, etc! Dawn and dusk produce warm, shadowy light and if one wants to take a landscape photograph of note, this would be the ideal time to do it…using a tripod of course! Shutter speeds slow down in order to get the depth of field required, f16 or even f22, so one is often shooting at ¼ or ½ a second. I’ve met a few people who can handhold shutter speeds that slow but most of us…never in a million years! In the landscape world tripods rule okay!
I know, I know, ironic considering that I spent a bit of Mild Obsession #2 justifying my desire to shoot unfettered by a three legged monster. I did say in my defence, though, be consistent. Part of that consistency is recognition of the tools needed in each particular situation. Life is a balancing act, no more so than in the world of photography.
Another natural lighting situation to consider is sunlight mid-morning to mid-afternoon (harsh front light, but often awesome backlight), tricky at the best of times but even this light can be used well and effectively if one knows how to control it.
A really good way to learn lighting in controlled circumstances is to use angle poise lamps and a small subject on a plain background. For my subject I chose a yellow daisy…not the same one plucked from a faraway field, no, a yellow painted tin daisy, beautiful nonetheless, which I stood up on a piece of white A3 card!
What about color balance you cry? At the risk of being boringly repetitive…digital technology…white balance (WB)… All hail the little tiny green men inside one’s camera, running around changing the color gels so that we can shoot color corrected images no matter what the light source. Incredible stuff!
Try this…
Grab a plain backdrop, a cotton sheet, piece of white card or anything that detracts as little from the subject as possible. Take your subject, place it on your backdrop not too close to the background, set up an angle poise lamp to the left side of the subject and point the light directly at the subject (preferably slightly above). You should be producing huge, harsh shadows. Interrogation time!
Now grab a piece of white card and line it up side on to your subject on the other side from the lamp and move it around until the shadows on the subject are softened to some degree .i.e. fill…The more one can soften the light on subject the better, so next step is to soften the source.
Turn the angle poise around pointing away from the subject angled 45 degrees up, then place a piece of white card in front of it reflecting the light back toward the subject – hey presto softer light -much softer. Soften things even more by playing with more fills on the other side of the subject too. A good soft result, not so dramatic perhaps, but eminently flattering.
I hasten to add at this point that I have done fashion shoots in the past using just harsh direct light, emulating movie-lighting of the 30’s, and achieved gorgeous results. It all comes down to control i.e. positive decision making rather than negative.
Play with this studio lighting setup in miniature until you get a feel for it. There are so many possibilities…
Try this too…
Shine two lamps at the center of your background, one each side, angled at 45 degrees to the plane of the background. Make sure that your subject is flagged to stop any light falling directly onto it. How? Place black card (flags) on each side of the subject (slightly back of the subject) showing the background clearly but not allowing light from the lamps to spill onto the sides of the subject. Now place two pieces of white card in front of the subject facing the background. Leave a small gap to shoot through.
Result?
A subject only lit by backlight and reflected light from the card in front. It’s a really good way to produce a backlit daylight feel. I use it all the time with studio shots of people. It can be fantastically flattering, if done well.
Play! Play lots. Light control is very satisfying when you get the hang of it.
To learn how to translate this lighting control to daylight conditions and to find out more about flags, scrims and other goodies, keep a lookout for Flower Pictures – A Mild Obsession #4.
Remember always – good lighting is good lighting period. Sounds obvious, I know, but real easy to forget.
See the beauty!
Copyright 2005 Patrick Heathcock
Sometime commercial photographer London, fulltime flower art photographer and web designer living in the southern semisphere, soaking up the sun. Visit <a href="http://www.aflowergallery.com">A Flower Gallery</a> to view the yellow daisy and more!
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