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| 1.
Get Out of the Car 2. Use a Tripod 3. Aperture
Priority Mode 4. Correct Aperture 5. Focus on the
Eyes 6. Shoot Verticals 7. Rule of Thirds 8. Animals doing Animal Stuff 9. Fill Flash for People 10. Shoot Fast Lenses 11. Choose a Camera System 12. Quick Release Tripod Heads 13. Set the Correct ISO 14. Shoot in RAW or JPEG 15. Edit Ruthlessly 16. Process Your Images |
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| 1 | Get Out of the Car |
It seems simple enough - doesn't it?
I've come to the conclusion that most people are inherently lazy when it
comes to taking photographs - all they want you to do is just slow down to
shoot out the window. Or worse yet - they just shoot through the glass - the
photography Gods are aghast! When you get out of the car your entire view of the world changes. You see things you never saw from inside the vehicle and can actually take photographs now. Take the time to pull over for the photograph right now - instead of thinking that there is better image just around the corner - so why stop? Don't pass up one image to take another. This is a big mistake since you seldom come back. Also, you get out of your car to FIND images - they are all around you if you are willing to slow down, get out of the car, and go look for them. Don't wait until you are stunned by the beauty of something to take photographs - go out and find the stunning beauty just off the road or out in the meadow. TIP Sometimes you can't get out of your car - maybe at a bird refuge where your car is your best blind or possibly the grizzly bear is uncomfortably close to the car already. In those situations invest in a good bean bag or small pillow to rest your camera on while shooting through the open window - thus giving you a stable platform to shoot from. Window mounted tripods are tricky and cumbersome and difficult to get shooting quickly with. |
| 2 | Use a Tripod |
Using a sturdy tripod whenever possible is the
difference between shooting professional quality images and shooting snapshots.
A tripod will improve your photography because it improves the sharpness of
your images by reducing vibrations during the exposure. If I could
take all my images with a tripod I would. Can they be clumsy at times
- yes, can they take precious seconds to set up - yes, are they heavy - yes,
are they worth it - absolutely. A sturdy Bogen (Monfrotto) or Gitzo tripod, while not cheap, should last through many years of rugged use. Buy a tripod, that when just the legs (not the center support) are fully extended, rises to about your eye level with the camera attached. Bending over to look through a short tripod is aggravating. Also, buy a tripod that allows the legs to flair out so it can be either set up low to the ground, or in uneven terrain. TIP Anytime your shutter-speed drops below the length of your lens (like 1/250 second with a 300mm lens) a tripod is an absolute must. |
| 3 | Aperture Priority Mode | Aperture Priority Mode (A
on the Program Selector Dial) is the most important Program setting you can use
in most photography situations. It means that you set the aperture, or
f-stop - to the appropriate setting and let the shutter-speed be set by the
camera. Why use this setting? By only needing to change the f-stop you minimize the amount of time it takes to change the camera's exposure settings. You decide what the camera should shoot at quickly - without changing any other control. Small F-stops like F16 or F22 mean greater depth-of-field and slower shutter-speeds, while Large F-stops like F2.8 or F4 mean faster shutter-speeds and less depth-of-field. TIP The other Camera Exposure Modes like P or S or the other variations do exactly the same thing - setting combinations of f-stops and shutter-speeds by which mode you select. One control for everything is much easier and quicker. Since a camera lens has only a certain number of F-stops it is easier to let the camera choose the shutter-speed. |
| 4 | Set the Correct Aperture | The Aperture or F-stop is
the opening that lets light through the lens to the camera sensor. A
very large aperture - like F2.8, lets in twice as much light as the next
smallest full aperture - F4. A very small aperture like F22 lets in
half as much light as the next biggest full f-stop - F16.
The Aperture setting not only controls how much light enters the sensor but also the corresponding shutter-speed. They have an inverse relationship: when the f-stop gets bigger (more light) the shutter-speed gets faster (less light) thus keeping the exposure in balance. Also, the larger Apertures have less depth-of-field or the amount of the image that appears in focus. The small f-stops have greater depth-of-field - thus, they are the choices for scenic photographers. TIP Wildlife and Sports photographers shoot, generally, at the largest apertures the lens has. Portrait and People photographers are in the middle apertures. Landscape and Macro photographers use the smallest apertures. |
| 5 | Focus on the Eyes |
Whether you shoot lots of kids photos or love
to shoot animals - what do you look at first in an image: How
Sharp are the Eyes! If the eyes aren't sharp you throw away the image
- its always the first thing I look for in editing my images. If your subjects eyes are in focus the rest of the image will appear in greater focus - even if its not. Our mind overrules what we see and we are left with an impression of greater sharpness - hey, its true. Don't allow yourself to zone focus on whatever is in the middle of the camera. Sometimes it won't matter if you do - but if you are shooting at large f-stops that lack much depth-of-field such as in bad light - bad images result. I don't want the side of the bear sharp - I want his eyes. TIP The life of an animal or bird or any creature is in its EYES. Printable portraits or publishable wildlife images mean sharp eyes - nothing else is as important. |
| 6 | Shoot Verticals |
Too many people get locked into shooting only
horizontal images of every subject in front of them. Let the
subject dictate the horizontal or vertical angle of the camera.
Vertical images are typical in photographing individuals, sports, and some
wildlife and scenic photography. Fill your frame with the subject and
get closer - and shoot verticals. Personally, I look at verticals
being more portrait oriented photographs - no matter what I'm shooting.
Bridal portraits or Elk portraits - it doesn't matter. Horizontal
images are more environmental in their nature, for example: If I'm
photographing a typically vertical subject - like a person - horizontal
images show more of the environment around the person. Its an image of
a person in a certain environment. Turn the camera vertical and get
closer - now your shooting a portrait image of the person, minimizing the
environment.
TIP For those of you budding professional nature photographers - vertical images are Magazine Cover Images. If you want to be published - then try to take the best image offered by a magazine - the COVER Image! The second best images in a magazine are full-page images . . . also verticals. |
| 7 | Rule of Thirds |
The rule of thirds is an easy compositional
rule that can improve the quality of your images. If you take the area
of the film or sensor and equally divide it with two additional lines
vertically and two lines horizontally - you have an area divided up into
thirds - both up and down, and across. Where those lines cross each
other are considered powerful intersection points in composition. For
example, if you are shooting the Grand Canyon from the rim, don't place the
horizon line in the middle - place it at either the top third line (to
emphasize the canyon) or the bottom third line (to emphasize the sky above
the canyon). Simple. When I'm photographing a cow elk, a vertical animal if walking at me, I try and put its head in the intersection of lines in the top left or right - depending on the direction its walking. This compositional rule can add a great deal of impact and balance to a photograph that would otherwise just be a snapshot. Check out the sunset silhouette image in the Bridal Gallery. Their vertical bodies are my two vertical composition lines and the horizon and setting sun are close to the upper horizontal line. TIP Many of the newer digital cameras, and even some of the better, older film cameras - have a compositional grid in the viewfinder. Get used to paying attention to it and use it to improve your compositions. If there is no grid then many times the auto-focusing points in the viewfinder form a grid themselves. |
| 8 | Animals doing Animal Stuff | Nothing is more boring than an animal just walking along - doing nothing -
sauntering across a meadow. We have all taken countless images of this
type of inaction and sometimes you really have no options. But then
sometimes you do.
Learning about the animals you photograph allows you to anticipate their
movements and put yourself in a position to shoot the best images possible.
I was in Yellowstone recently and ran across a typical black bear walking parallel to the road - dozens of photographers shadowing him along the road as he moved. A hundred yards farther up the road a hillside came down and forced the meadow into a narrower bottleneck. I drove down and parked and set up in a position to safely photograph the bear as he walked towards me in the bottleneck. Bears don't want to climb hillsides if they don't have to - just like people - so I figured he would follow the contour of the hillside past the road - which he did. With the other photographers running down the road in pursuit the bear walked right past me, safely next to my car, giving me plenty of time to shoot much better images of him walking and looking in-camera. Other photographers breathlessly arrived - too late to get the shot I did - and continued to photograph him as he walked across the next meadow. Dull. TIP Centers of attention - like den sites or nests, food sources, meadows with mating activity, or other similar locations - can put a photographer in the best position to shoot quality images of Animals doing Animal Stuff. Photography is not a contact sport - so stay safely back and respect the space needed by wildlife - use long telephoto lenses to capture animals doing animal stuff. |
| 9 | Use Fill Flash for People | Nothing looks worse than
shooting people that are squinting into the sun. Not only is an image
like that unprofessional, but it casts the subject with the worst possible
look on their face - contorted eyes and cheeks. It is a simple thing
to put the subjects back to the sun - then use either a built-in flash or a
hot-shoe mounted flash to fill the shadow now on the subjects face.
You could also use a reflector or a flash mounted on a bracket. By
doing this your subjects eyes are wide open and they have a normal look on
their face. While some people don't care for the harsher effects of a flash - sometimes it gives flash highlights on the forehead or cheeks - most flash units now can be controlled. When my subject is less than ten feet away I turn down the power of the flash, from -1/3 to -2/3 of a stop - rendering a much more natural effect to lighting the subjects face. TIP Fill Flash can be used in wildlife photography to light small subjects or those hidden in the shade. It is a must piece of equipment in insect macro photography as well - such as butterflies. |
| 10 | Shoot Fast Lenses |
What is a fast lens and why should I buy them?
It is a lens with a large Aperture - such as F2.8 or F4 given the focal
length of the lens. For example, I shoot a Nikon 500mm F4 Silent Wave
Motor Telephoto lens - this is a very FAST lens for its
length. I shoot a Nikon 80-200 F2.8 Zoom lens - another fast lens.
If my 80-200 Zoom lens was F4 or F5.6 - it would be considered a SLOW
lens. Fast lenses let in a lot of light and are crucial for two
reasons: 1. Fast lenses allow you to shoot earlier in the morning and later in the evening at a given shutter-speed. Slow lenses don't allow you to shoot at that crucial shutter-speed because they don't let in enough light except during the brightest part of the day. Blurry images are the result of slow lenses. 2. Fast lenses give you a brighter viewfinder to compose in and to focus on your subject with. An F2.8 lens lets twice as much light in as a F4 lens - this brightens an otherwise dimmer viewfinder and doubles your shutter-speed. TIP Slow lenses are junk. They aren't made to the same quality as faster, more expensive lenses. Don't buy them, sell them on E-bay, or give them away and buy only fast - OEM lenses. (Original Equipment Manufacturer) An F5.6 Zoom lens should be tossed - then spend the money on a fast lens and watch the quality of your images increase. |
| 11 | Choose a Camera System |
When you buy a camera body - you are really buying
a camera system. You are buying into a system that will either provide
all the types of equipment you might want as your abilities increase, or one
that will force you to go to off-brand equipment makers to fill the gaps. There are two main camera makers today that offer full systems to their photographers - Nikon and Canon. They offer camera bodies, lenses, flashes, and accessories that fit into any photographers needs. Also, they are at the front of the technology curve in photography and can be counted on to incorporate that technology into new camera equipment. Both systems offer wide resources to help photographers - from websites and forums to touring equipment displays and repair facilities. I prefer not to go outside a system for the equipment I need. Two other makers are what I like to call "Lite Systems" - they are Olympus and Minolta, they don't offer full systems but they do offer a substantial array of lens and accessories - but these systems also mean wondering if the non OEM equipment you have to buy is truly as functional and integrated as original equipment. TIP Nikon lenses are black - Canon are white. So, your choices are as clear as black and white. Personally, I shoot Nikon. I think they are the most rugged cameras incorporating the best technology in the world. |
| 12 | Quick-release Tripod Head |
The best way to buy a tripod is without a
tripod head. More important than the tripod itself - is the tripod
ball head with a snap-in plate quick-release system. A quick release
plate attaches to the bottom of either your camera body or your telephoto
lens. The plate can be quickly snapped and locked onto the
quick-release ball head without the cumbersome screwing in to the camera
body to the tripod. Way to slow and tedious. By moving a lever
the camera/lens and its attached plate quickly snap off the tripod - leaving
it open and ready to be snapped back on quickly. There are some important do's and don'ts to buying a useful head. I learned by sad experience that the more levers a tripod head has the more problems it causes for me. While there are many good ball heads and some expensive alternative heads - I use ball heads with just one lever to tighten or loosen. This minimizes the number of movements I have to make in order to get shooting photographs quickly. Keeping your moving subject in frame and correcting composition quickly are just two important assets of a good ball head. TIP The bigger your prime lens the bigger your ball head and release plate should be. I'd spend more money on the ball head than the tripod itself. |
| 13 | Set the Correct ISO | The ISO or ASA Speed is simply an indication of
how sensitive the camera meter will be to light. Low settings - like
50 to 200 - will produce fine, nearly grainless images which are great for
enlargements. This will give you slower shutter-speeds. Use an ISO setting that is
appropriate for the intended subject. Groups of people, portraits,
macro, and
landscape photography are perfect for this ISO range. Also, if the
light is good - some wildlife photography could be done. Higher settings - like 200 to 800 - provide higher shutter speeds to capture action photography or images in poor light conditions. These settings will still produce excellent images - but add "grain" or "artifacts" to enlargements. The higher the ISO setting - the more the grain. I use these higher settings for sports, action, wildlife, and indoor photography without a flash. I also use the higher settings when light conditions are poor. TIP The higher the ISO setting the more the digital camera meter tends to overexpose the image (too much light). This can be corrected somewhat by dialing in -1/3 or a -1/2 stop using the compensation dial or control. |
| 14 | Shooting in JPEG or RAW |
You might want to get more thoughts on this than just mine. Better
yet, try both and see which offers you the highest level of functionality in
the photography you do. Many professional photographers, especially
those sponsored by camera makers - push RAW imaging. RAW - Shooting in RAW retains the maximum amount of information that the image contains. Images aren't compressed or processed in-camera. They do require you to process them with some type of plug-in or stand-alone program before taking them into an image processing program - like Photoshop. They are large files and eat up loads of space on not only hard-drives, but more particularly on compact flash cards. Suddenly, a 2 gig Card isn't what it used to be. JPG - Shooting in high-quality JPG format means the camera processes the image - to some degree set by the photographer - and compresses the image. The image can then be taken directly into a processing program, e-mailed, even printed without any further work. Because they are compressed they take up less room on hard-drives and shooting cards. I shoot thousands of images per week and don't have the time to process images twice. The bottom line is I can't tell the difference in printed output between the two when both are done properly. TIP I shoot the highest quality jpg's - simple as that. I print images weekly up to 40 inches and tons of standard size enlargements, like 8x10's and 11x14's - and the results are excellent. |
| 15 | Edit Ruthlessly | Photographs tend to be like children - we protect and save the good as well
as the bad. What this creates over the years is thousands of
unprintable, unpublishable, really unwanted images that clog our hard drives
and back-up files. They make it difficult to find the gems amid the
rubble of poorly executed photographs. Delete them, delete them,
delete them. When I get back from a shoot I usually go through three edits
before I feel like I have a grip on what I really have. |
| 16 | Process your Images |
When you shoot a digital image you have just begun
the process of creating a printable or publishable image. Whether you
shot in RAW or JPG you need to process those images on your computer.
Without delving into the intricate relationship between monitor calibration
and color management - lets go through some simple digital processing steps
everyone should do. A. Use Levels to balance the light. In whatever program you use, select Levels and slide the light and dark controls in to where the light shows in the histogram. B. Use the Curves control to further balance the light - understanding that the curve at the bottom controls the dark areas, and as the curve moves up it affects the lighter areas. C. Use the Color Mixer to increase color saturation to how you remember the scene. I've seen this called Digital Velvia before and the term is appropriate. Digital images look more saturated - like Fuji Velvia film. In photoshop create an action to do this for you. Go into the Color Mixer and select each color individually. Increase its color to 120%, decrease the other two by -10%, thus keeping the balance at 100%. Then go to the next color and do the same. Check out the results when all three channels are done. D. Sharpen the image once and Save. TIP I've created an action in Photoshop that does the Digital Velvia then sharpens the image to shorten the image processing workflow. See my September Newsletter for more info on Digital Velvia. |
| If you have your own TIPS or TRICKS - send them to me and I will include them here. | ||
