Digital Photography

Last week I spoke about positive and negative spaces in digital photography. To compliment that article I am going to go further into subject placement in your photos to get the ideal composition.

To start with, one of the things that detract from a beautiful digital picture is distraction. I see it all the time. A vase on the table in the background that had nothing to do with the message the photographer is conveying. Or perhaps something sticking out the top of something that ends up being irrelevant and a visual nuisance.

To avoid this I would like to draw to your attention the importance of story telling in photography. In each individual photo you take, when you are capturing a situation, what you are really doing in photography is telling a story. A big, majestic landscape is the photographers way of saying “see how this scene creates feeling of tranquility and calm”. Another picture might show you the adrenalin of a race and another might show you the depth of emotion at a birthday party.

Now what makes these pictures work so well is that every single thing, or object, in the photo has ideal and relevant placement in relation to the story you are telling in the photo. A relevantly placed object can completely increase the nature and feeling of the story. Just as equally powerful, an irrelevant object can ruin or down-play the intensity of emotion in your images and they won’t be as powerful. And don’t be fooled by thinking the space around the subject doesn’t matter just because its space and not an object.

Take this next example:

Copyright by Petr Kovar

I understand what the photographer is trying to do but the Moon is distracting. Where does the photographer want us to look? Is it a shot of the moon with birds? Or is it a shot of birds with the moon? I’m not sure. You see how one simple additional subject can detract from the essence of the photograph? As a consequence it looses a lot.

Since we are using birds, an example of an additional subject that enhances the feeling and story of a photograph is this next one.

This photo works okay because the chimney and the white bird to the left make sense for each other to be there in the same photo. They are linked and we understand that. We can understand that perhaps the chimney is the birds dwelling place and has relevancy in the bird’s life. It makes sense.

Always remember that no matter how big or how small, other objects will really make or break your photo. And the size doesn’t matter, as you have seen in these two examples. Its not about the size of something in the picture, it’s about relevance.

Happy shooting,

Amy Renfrey

Today I would like to introduce you to something really important. It’s a term used in art and painting but for the purposes of artistic education I’m going to borrow it to teach you something important. Have you ever heard of negative and positive space? If you haven’t you’ll love this article. It will help you three fold in your photography.

In digital photography you’re dealing with aperture, shutter speed, lighting and focus every moment. It’s a lot to manoeuvre. And one thing you are also working with quite precisely, whether you are away of it or not, is ‘space.’ Lets have a look at what this means for you to enhance and develop your skills as a photographer.

Negative space is defined as…”the space around the subject of an image.”

It means the empty space around your main subject. This kind of space seems like unimportant background space but it’s this empty space adds an important aspect to the composition.

Positive space is defined as the focal point of a work of art or shape of the work of art. The primary subject matter in a work of art, as opposed to the background or unoccupied spaces.

Okay so those are the technical definitions. So how do we apply this practically?

To start with, negative space is a huge element in your composition. Your negative space is the space around your focal point and having too much or too little can completely ruin a potentially good digital photograph.

So to improve your photography always look at how much space is around your focal subject. Even the slightest bit too much or too little can completely put your composition out of kilter. Particularly when your subject has a distinct point of focus such as a persons eyes or defining lines coming to a point or even an aspect of sharp colour.

Let’s examine these two photos to show you what I mean.

This picture has a lot of really interesting negative space around it. For starters the negative space is blue, which is quite different to our main focal subject. The dobs of white, which are the colours, seem to glide nicely into the main subject without distraction or hesitation. The clouds do distract our eyes from the branches momentarily but not in an inconvenient way at all. The negative space in this picture works very well to support the positive space.

Look at the picture now without the support of the right amount of negative space. Let’s edit some of this space out of the picture and see what effect we get.

The focal point changes due to a 3cm crop from the right. Removal of the negative space changes everything. Now, the end of the tree trunk is the main focal point. Our eyes don’t follow the branches outward as much as they did before. This change does not make the picture drastically worse, it actually ok. But you see how this negative space alteration changes a lot about the picture artistically?

If you have been taking photos with your digital camera and everything is right technically but you feel something is missing, then it could well be your composition. Pay close attention to what you are taking and the negative space around your main subject. Changing the slightest thing can improve or reduce the quality of your photos.

Happy shooting,

Amy Renfrey

Photo copyright by Manu M

It’s quite an extraordinary thing, colour. It can enhance or diminish emotion in a digital photo. It’s really that powerful. Yet working with colour, it can assist the photographer to emphasise, dramatise or detract from a certain feeling in a digital photograph. Its funny that colour can impact our senses to such a degree. When there is the absence or presence of certain colours we can feel a certain level and depth of emotion.

So how can we add drama to photos by using colour? Well the first thing to understand about colour is what it does to our senses as I have just briefly mentioned. To understand what impact colour has on us think of a digital photo that has we must look at what colours mean. For example think of a color that has lots of yellow in it. A photo with a colour like this reflects energy, a sense of optimism, extroversion.

The same goes for red, which is a quite intense colour if used as the main subjects colour. Red can have an impact especially if its against a contrasting colour, which we’ll get into in a moment. These warm colours such as yellows, oranges, reds, etc have a strong photographic presence. In other words it’s kind of hard to ignore them.

Now let’s take a look at the other side of the scale; the cooler, more introverted colours. Colours that are emotionally quieter are blues, purples and greens. These colours tend to be a little less energetic but don’t be fooled into thinking they are any less passionate as the bold reds. These introverted colours tend to offer us a depth, visually, that we would not get from the warmer colours.

So that’s all very nice you say, but how can you bring this altogether to create dynamic color in a digital photo? Well first of all you can improve your colour skills by having a look at a colour chart to tell you what colours work together really well and what clashes. In my book “Digital Photography Success” I’ve explained about the magic of bringing colour together and what a dynamic impact that creating that colours, united well, can have.

Lets take for example your blues and yellows. Completely opposite but they work together beautifully. Here’s a quick snap I took at Stradbroke Island (Queensland, Australia) last year. The photo is really average, but its all I had at the time and I wanted to capture the enticing contrasts of blue and yellow on a natural background.

So lets look closer what colours work together well so you can improve your digital photography.

You’ll notice that all the basic colours are here. And what works really well are the opposing colours. Take for example the blue and yellow. They are not sitting close together on the wheel, they’re almost opposite. In fact, visually, they are opposite. Colours that have this opposing nature tend to work together so well that we can’t help but be captivated by the contrast.

So as a big hint from me, look for these opposing values in colour and you’ll find you have a lot of brilliance in your colours in your digital photography.

Now with portrait photography this is going to change again. Peoples “colours” vary according to skin tones. For example, someone with blonde hair, very fair skin and green eyes is a “Spring”. This means that people with this colouring look best in earthy colours, pinks, greens, browns etc. And someone who has blue eyes and dark brown hair and a medium skin tone is a “winter.” So what’s this got to do with photography? Everything! If you are taking some ones picture, try to encourage them to wear something that compliments their skin tone. Once again, colour can play a huge part in your photography.

So look at colour wheels, look at skin tones and charts and really examine colour what can work well and what doesn’t

Amy Renfrey

Picture of color wheel courtesy of www.flooringdirect.co.nz

In digital photography you’ll find that the 3 main components that make up the success of your images hinge on each other. What I mean by this is that 1. Light 2. Technical knowledge 3. Composition all depend on each other closely to make up a beautiful digital photograph.

It sounds easy doesn’t it? Well it is when you have practiced. But when you are starting out learning how to get better shots with more depth and clarity you can start focusing on the technical but perhaps start forgetting about the artistic side and visa versa.

Its common problem when we first start learning digital photography. We realise that we must drill the technical stuff into our heads so we can improve, and what tends to happen is that we get caught up for a bit. We can forget that photography is artistic. And the artistic side of your digital photo needs perfect composition. So here’s a handy technique that I discovered for myself to getting that perfect structure in my composition that I now want to share with you.

A great way, no a fabulous way to get perfect composition in your digital photos is to practice with your zoom. Start by picking your subject and focusing on it.

Let’s say it’s an apple on a bench. Usually what happens is that people take the angle too far away, getting the distracting background objects in the picture. This takes away the beautiful and freshness of the subject leaving us rather cold as far as an emotional response for the photo.

There are a couple of things you can do. You can remove the annoying background clutter and take the apple as a singular subject against a look of “nothingness”. This can be quite an effective shot. Or you can zoom in a little bit at a time and see what composition works well. This is what I can zooming in increments.

Zooming in on a subject in increments can be a very effective way to practice getting your composition just perfect. You can take several pictures of your apple using different “zoom lengths” to get the right angle.

Be aware that this may impact the light in your photo. Generally how it works is that the closer you zoom in the less light you have to work with because you’re closing in on your subject and reducing the physical space that light falls on an area. This really applies if the subject has no luminance of its own.

In order to compensate for this decrease in light you can change your aperture. This means altering the F stop on your camera if possible. You may start out from 1 meter away from your apple at F 16 for example. Then, the closer you get the more light loss you experience and you might just find that changing your F stop to F8 works well when you reduce the distance between you and the apple, ie instead of taking the photo from 1 meter away, you take it from 10 cm away.

Try this out and see what I mean. Playing around with the zoom can really help you kick start your mind into feeling where the best composition is. And soon enough, you won’t even have to think about it consciously because you’ll just know what works.

Happy shooting!

Amy Renfrey

I’m sure you know that one of the most important key elements to getting beautifully clear and artistic photos is firstly knowing and having a sense of the artistic. This is a very important aspect you need in order to refine your digital photography. The secret really is, combining your natural artistic flare with some precise technical knowledge…explained in layman’s terms. So I’m going to start you off with some good, solid tips about shutter speed, aperture, exposure, how blur can work well (not the accidental type!) and what camera you can use to get goods results in your digital photography.

Shutter speed is one of the first things in digital photography that you must know if you want to excel your skills and get beautiful digital photos. Your shutter speed controls the amount of light coming in to the digital sensor. The speed at with you get your light exposure can really make or break your digital photography.

In basic terms, to help you understand, shutter speed controls light exposure. Think of it like a door opening and closing fast or slow. How fast or slow it opens and shuts has impact on your light exposure onto the digital sensor. The shutter controls the amount of light coming in to the camera via its speed. The shutter can then make your pictures brighter or darker. Shutter speed can also impact the clarity of a moving object for example. You can create shutter speeds that are fast, giving a ‘suspended in mid air’ kind of look. Think of the motion of a fast moving object that’s been suspended in “mid-air” such as a water droplet for example. Shots like this have a fast shutter speed.

So what sort of shutter speeds do you need for a look like this? A good “freeze motion” shot where something looks suspended in time, may be at a shutter speed of 1/2000 just as an example. That means the shutter has opened and closed so fast that you can’t replicate it in sound or description. The shutter has clicked in 2000^th of a second. That’s how a lot of sports photography is done. Many subjects that move very fast can look really good with a fast shutter speed.

Shutter speeds of babies and kids for example have to be taken pretty fast….unless they’re asleep of course. You need a pretty high shutter speed of babies and kids because in photographic terms they move around so fast! I’ve never been more tired after a day of shooting photos of kids and babies. You have to be on your toes because a potentially great photo is gone in an instant of a second, so you have to watch them like a hawk.

On the other hand you can get blurry images using shutter speed effects manipulation. Shutter speeds and artistic blur can work quite nicely together. For example if you want to create that artistic blurred look, (not the accidental smudge look) then some gentle blur in your photos can look beautiful. This involves some adjusting of the shutter speed to get the right look for your shot. I would call it a smudging effect if you want to get technical. You may take the same photo of the kids running, but set the shutter speed exposure to something around the 1/250 or less for example. This range of f stops may create a really nice, soft blur with these shutter speed effects.

Aperture on the other hand is described as F stops. The higher the number f stop, the smaller the opening of the lens and the less light falls on the image. For example, you may find that a dusk sunset shot is rather beautiful and you want to capture the colours as you see them. You may decide to manually change the aperture, or f stop, and open up the lens and let more light in. You may find that on auto your camera has chosen an f stop of F8. You look at the scene on the viewfinder and you find it’s just a little dark for your liking. You then switch the camera to a manual mode and change it to F4, which you find lets more light in and gives you the shot you want. Remember, the higher the F stop number, the less light comes in. The lower the number, the more light comes in.

Shutter speed and aperture in your digital photography must work together closely to create the right blend of effect in your photo. So just try it. Play around with moving objects on different shutter speeds and you’ll see what I mean about the different types of effects you can get.

So what digital cameras can you have complete shutter speed and aperture control over?

Digital Slr’s are by far better as far as controlling the amount of light that comes onto your sensor. It’s a little hard to get this control with an ordinary point-and shoot- digital camera because you can’t control the shutter speed or aperture independently. On a pro-sumer camera it’s bit better because you can change the exposure value, but still, you can’t change the shutter speed alone.

Although on a pro-sumer, you may have a reading called “e/v” which stands for “exposure value”. An “e/v number” is really a measurement of the cameras combination between aperture and shutter speed. I don’t have time to go into great explanation now but if you can change the exposure value or “e/v” you have a little more scope than the point and shoot digital camera. You can still experiment pretty well if you have one of these digital cameras. However a single lens reflex digital camera is the ideal. It allows you to control the shutter speed alone, independently, without affecting the adjustment of the aperture.

To summarise, you can get beautifully artistic shots by having a sense of what works intuitively, then couple that with a good sense of photographic technical knowledge and you are well on your way! So start with trying out different shutter speeds first and then move on to aperture, then try both.

Happy shooting!

Amy Renfrey

An example of fast shutter speed. Picture by Charlie Lawrence.

An example of slow shutter speed.

Picture courtesy of http://www.geocities.com/COKINFILTERSYSTEM/graduated_filters.htm

This week one of my loyal customers asked me a brilliant question about Neutral Density filters. It was so good I just had to answer it via this article. You’ll most likely appreciate this digital photography tip as much as he will.

“A question, I want to get a graduated filter, however, all the one’s I see are graduated grey, are they still ND and will not affect the colour? Very best regards, Pete.”

What Pete’s digital photography question is all about is the common confusion of photography equipment looking like something different to what we first expect.

When choosing a filter for our digital photography its best to first look at them as tools. Firstly in order to maintain clarity about ND filters, firstly think about what you need then work your way from there. Pete’s a fantastic photographer and is ready to move to the next level with his digital photography equipment choices, which is where I come in.

The answer to Petes digital photography question is yes, they are still ND, but like all filters, the colour will be affected. I’ll explain.

ND filters are predominately used to darken a bright sky so that both the sky and subject can be properly exposed. Graduated ND filters have varying degrees of “graduated grey.” The Graduated ND filter comes in a few different types, but can really be broken down into two main categories. They are; hard edge and soft edge.

As the name suggested a Hard Edge is mainly applied when there is a sudden difference in the luminance of the digital photo, such as an overexposed sky over a landscape. The soft edge filter is mainly applied to a digital photo that has less distinct over and under exposed areas such as the same landscape but perhaps taken at approaching dusk when the light is not do hard. A soft filter just gently tones down harder areas of light. It’s less dramatic and can often be used very well in black and white photography to give the digital photo a “boost” of the dramatic.

You can have a variety of ND filters that go from a weak graduated grey to quite a strong graduated grey. The “intensity” of graduated grey is described by numbers. So for example a weak graduated grey ND filter is known as “ND2X”. And the strongest is “ND8X”.

All filters affect digital photography colour whether subtly or dramatically. You can have an ND filter that’s quite soft but still darkens an area of the digital photography image. Even though it’s subtle, anything you put onto that lense will be affected. But it depends what we mean by “affected.”

If we mean the colours disappear and change completely…well a lot depends on that such as the intensity of grey, the colour at the time of day, the seasons etc. If you are using a Full graduation from top to bottom then your colours will most definitely change. They will become darker. However if you are using a less intense ND filter, then you’ll notice the change in colour is not as apparent. You‘ll notice that the lighter ND filters will have more of a polarizing affect, the darker areas being at the top and not so much shading at the bottom.

Graduated ND filters are brilliant in times of excessive brightness coming from the top of the sky for example. You can use an ND filter to darken an overly bright sky and keep the main subject’s luminance the same. It has a terrific influence over evening up unbalanced light. It can effectively tone down over exposed areas in your digital photography.

Happy Shooting,

Amy Renfrey