Although photography is one of the most creative of all enterprises it will still come with a few essential “rules”. One that you might already know is the famous “rule of thirds”. This is a compositional rule that helps the digital photographer to mentally visualize the scene before them in the form of a three by three square grid. Within this grid the nine blocks will have a variety of places where lines meet, and naturally this grid is divided into thirds. Photography rules say that the digital photographer should try to use the lines and columns or rows of the grid to layout the ideal photograph.

Interestingly enough, when lines appear in the scene, they can also be put to use in formatting the photograph, but serious caution must be used in order to avoid throwing the entire composition off balance.

Lines can emphasise more structure and better composition in your photography

For example, let’s say that you are miles away from the city and you want to use the arrow-straight lines of the road leading into the horizon as the subject of the photograph to make your photography more dramatic. That will definitely make a very spectacular scene, but only if the lines are balanced and reasonably straight. For this photograph you would have to be completely convinced that the lines running in the middle of the road were actually aligned with the very center of the photograph.

Can lines run in directions other than horizontally or vertically? Absolutely! Consider a photograph of a series of hopscotch lines…the digital photographer could photograph this symmetry “head on” and record a very grid-like photo, but they might also stand off-center and turn their camera at an angle in order to make the grid head angled across the screen. This could create a really exciting dynamic, particularly if the squares were all different sizes.

Look at lines from a different perspective to enhance creativity in your digital photography

Adding to this, the “lines” can be more representative than definite. Consider the front steps of many grand buildings and man-made structures. Many are fronted with massive stone columns similar to ancient temples. A clever digital photographer could position themselves nearest the base of the first column and create a leading line to the main focal point of the photo; the very top of the structure. This photograph would have a series of vertical leading lines that were created by the direction of the structure, but it would also have a diminishing horizontal line due to the perspective created by the digital photographer’s stance.

The key to using lines is clearly to ensure that they are balanced and that they “line up” correctly in the photo to add depth in your photography composition.

The key to using lines is clearly to ensure that they are balanced and that they “line up” correctly in the photograph. A great example of the negative impact of a poorly aligned scene is found in millions of beach photographs in which the horizon is not perfectly straight across the photograph. Such a failure on the part of the digital photographer tends to be impossible to correct and will ruin the shot.

And I have fantastic Nikon gear and was sold on Nikon….until recently….I used the latest Canon 70-200mm f 2.8 IS L series lens on the weekend. I was asked to shoot a wedding and used this lens to do so. And my goodness….the quality!

Incredibly sharp, smooth, easy to use.

One thing I noticed the most about this lens was that it did everything I wanted. I didn’t have to mess around with focusing, or shifting my position to get a better depth of field. it just did it for me. And boy, was I impressed!

I won’t show you the wedding shots just yet because my clients haven’t gone through the images and it’s fair they see them before you do- but I can show you the shots of the second shoot I did.

Here are a few examples…..

The same in colour…

And the same in colour…

So what do I think of the Canon 70-200mm 2.8 L IS USM lens? I think my defection is complete….

If you want to learn how to take photos like the ones above then I can teach you, easily, quickly and super fast.

Just go to my website to find out how. www. Digital Photography Success. com

Happy shooting,

Amy

Not only does this lens perform beautifully in low light, but it’s highly responsive. It’s a very sensitive lens- meaning that when you make a change to the aperture or shutter, it changes significantly. It’s fast and performs beautifully even at an f stop of 1.2.

I thought I’d try the lens out on my cheapo Canon 300D. This camera doesn’t respond very well to highlights or shadows and can’t compute when there are both within the one image. The camera really has no idea what to do!
So I thought I’d put a beautiful lens on a cheapy camera and see what the difference would be in my standard lenses and the gorgeous 50mm prime.

This is what the lens looks like:

And here is what some of the photos look like with this lens:

I love the clarity and sharpness with this lens. I’ll be featuring it in Octobers Ezine which you can find on my website.

www. Digital Photography Success. com

WordPress do not like me placing an active link to my site on my blog, but just copy and paste and remove the spaces and you’ll see what it’s all about!

Out I went again with my camera:

Photo copyright by Amy Renfrey

F 16
1/60 Shutter Speed
ISO 800
Focal Length 42mm
WB Auto

Photo copyright by Amy Renfrey

F 22
1/50 Shutter Speed
ISO 800
Focal Length 43mm
WB Auto

Photo copyright by Amy Renfrey

F 20
1/50 Shutter Speed
ISO 800
Focal Length 55mm
WB Auto

Photo Copyright by Amy Renfrey

F 20
1/60 Shutter Speed
ISO 800
Focal Length 55mm
WB Auto

This one above is the same rose, I’ve just played around with taking some red out of it to try and reflect the true colour. It’s much more true to life than the first.

I think I like these ones better than the first ones- the filtered light brought out the colours and softened the light. And the rose IS hot pink….vibrant hot pink, not red.

What do you think?

Now you see what I mean about working with light.

Happy shooting,
Amy

P.S All the photos on this page are copyright to Amy Renfrey.

Can't Do With Out It

This morning, after a night of heavy rain, the sun shone through the scattered clouds and warmed the cool morning air. As I poured my regulation morning coffee, I shot a glance through my kitchen window and noticed how the sunlight seemed subdued, almost filtered. It was almost as if someone had turned down the intensity of the sun to allow for morning people like me, to get their bearings.

Doing photography for the past 8 years has taught me that subdued sunlight doesn’t happen all the time and is considered a fortunate thing. (It also happens to be Winter morning light too, which is why it looks so beautiful.) So I grabbed my camera and headed out to shoot the rose that’s starting to bloom. The one that I’ve been nurturing everyday so it will bloom for me.

When I lived in cold Melbourne, I never used to pray my roses would bloom. They just did, and abundantly I might add. But here in Queensland? Getting roses to grow is like, well, I don’t know what, but it a major pain in the butt.
It’s the climate change. My roses hated it. If they were people, they’d need a therapist to work out their issues. And they ‘d be peed off with me.

The problem with moving from a cold climate to a subtropical one is that the beautifully delicate, English cottage plants you love so much, wither and die in the intense sun. You are left with nothing but a brown stump where your best rose used to be. Amidst the frustration of this I decided I would not be beaten. Dammit, it I was going to have roses in my garden. So off to Bunnings I went.

(For those of you who do not know what Bunnings is, let me delight you. Bunnings is a gardeners paradise! Just think of anything associated with DIY home reno, gardening, planting, growing, mowing, busting your butt doing something around the house and Bunnings will have something to suit you. And the prices are dirt cheap. Righto, no plugs here, on with the story…)

Bear with me, I am getting to the photography part of all this.

I bought this stuff called “Sea Mungas.” Nope, not straight from the sea, but a brilliant “bring you back to life” fertiliser that seems to resurrect plants who are on their death-bed. Don’t ask me why it’s called “Sea Mungas”, I really don’t know.

“Ok, what the heck” I said pouring this stuff into the base of my beloved dead, brown stump of a rose and waited….

Within 4 weeks I was seeing tiny dark pink shoots spring forth from the dry, brown stick like rose plant. And within 4 weeks of that, look what sprung into life:

Beautiful Rose- Photo Copyright To Amy Renfrey

F/16
1/50 shutter speed
ISO 400
Focal Length 55mm
White Balance Auto

Ok so this is not a gardening blog, so how did I take this photo?

Well the first thing I did was examine the light I had to work with, that’s always the first thing you have to do before anything.

Secondly, I grabbed my camera, and thought about what types of shots I wanted. I aimed for nice clear close-ups without too much colour saturation. I can’t do much about the colour saturation because that’s the camera, and fortunately, not me.

Because the light was subdued, (I hope you were taking note of that), I chose a “middle of the road” ISO. Why? Well, simply because the sun was not blaring down and over exposing everything in sight, so I didn’t need to reduce the light sensitivity much. Also, there was sunlight present, so it would have been silly to whack it up to 1600. That would have potentially overexposed the picture.

Thirdly, I wanted detail and clarity so I stood in the way of the sun and shot the flower within my own shadow so the detail would be there. Plus I know how my camera behaves now, and it loves medium close up filtered shots it just likes it that way. Hey, I don’t argue with it, I just work with it.

Fourth and last point, because I was standing over the rose within 30 centimeters of it, without a tripod (because I was being a bit lazy) I knew that focus would be paramount. For this reason I made sure I had a relatively good shutter speed without diminishing the sharpness that a small aperture brings.

Photography is really about compromise sometimes. You gotta work with what you have got- especially outdoors. You can get the best lenses and camera gear in the world that make you look like you know what you are doing, but if you can’t work with light and be intelligent about it, then you are better off buying a point and shoot.

Sorry if you didn’t want to hear that, but it’s the truth. People hang a lot of expectation on the camera to do the performance for them, without being smart about working with light first. So do yourself a favour and be smart- work with light first, then get the gear.

This photo is copyrighted to Amy Renfrey

F/25
1/100 shutter speed
ISO 400
Focal Length 55mm
White Balance “Sunny”

Oh what the heck, I might as well put this one in too:

Maiden Hair- Picture copyright by Amy Renfrey

F/11
1/60 shutter speed
ISO 1600
Focal Length 55mm
White Balance “Sunny”.

And if anyone can tell me what this plant is, I’d be mighty grateful:

Photo Copyright By Amy Renfrey

F/20
1/60 shutter speed
ISO 1600
Focal Length 55mm
White Balance “Sunny”.

Let’s use a simple example – the everyday street scene. If you were handed a camera and told to take a compelling image of a street scene you might be drawn to the colors of signs or banners, the general looks of the buildings, and the many people on the street. Now, remove all of the color and convert it (in your mind’s eye) into the monochromatic world of black and white.

While there will be all kinds of midtones and grey hues running throughout the image, it is a good exercise to consider the different challenges to good composition when color isn’t a factor. Most photographers quickly learn that they begin paying much more attention to light and shadow, tonal range, and, brightness and contrast.

Let’s consider how to enhance a black and white photographic session in which people are the main focus, and one of the primary approaches to be used to boost the richness and tonal quality of the black and white image will be complimentary clothing.

How will this work? Generally, when subjects are wearing monochromatic clothing they are going to have a very strong impact upon the tonal values of the photograph. Just consider the first image below. This photograph is extreme and unique. The photographer is holding the camera and pointing it back at himself. The background is brightly illuminated and devoid of shadows or many darker hues and colors. The dark color of the photographer’s jacket serves as a balancing element in the scene.

Don’t think so? Okay, convert this sweater to a pale grey color in your mind and consider the results. It would be a ‘tonally valueless’ image. Now, try something like a light green. It would be darker, but would still not give the weight of the black sweater with its strikingly light zipper running down the middle.

Picture copyright Diego Medrano

If we reverse the situation and put our subject in pale colors we can see the effects of this as well. Consider the image below…here we have a woman with a fair complexion, dressed in white, and standing against a backdrop of solid black. This color configuration really illuminates the subject and pulls her out of the image. Her clothing and complexion have also allowed the tonal qualities of the image to be balanced out as well. If we could pop open the histogram for this particular photograph it would show the appropriate levels of contrast thanks to the even amounts of dark and light. When I shot this image I was aware of a couple of hotspots in the image but it wasn’t a great concern at the time as the singer wanted me to shoot this way. It can be difficult to avoid some hot spots in general, when shooting white clothing in black and white,plus using the flash. However you can tone this down in photoshop later if you choose to.

Picture copyright Amy Renfrey

In the final image, we have the culmination of the various qualities of black and white photography. We see the pure white and black, the reflective surfaces of the main instruments. While the composition of the shot is based around the single trombone player in the foreground, it is the skin tone of the hands of the musician and the pale hair of the player in the background along with the face of the other musicians that add the sort of mid-tones needed for balance.

Picture copyright Amy Renfrey

If you are planning to conduct a few black and white experimental shots of your own, you will want your subjects to wear complimentary clothing appropriate to the setting. For example, if you know that the setting will have a background prone to darker shades and hues you must dress the subject in pale or white clothing to create the necessary contrast.
Additionally, if you are dressing a portrait subject in a monochromatic palette most photographers would recommend that the darker garments be worn towards the face, like deep red, violet or indigo. This is because a darker top in a black and white image will usually allow the face of the person wearing the garment to “pop” from the image. If the background is dark then this is going to create a lot of drama. If it is too much it is always possible to tone down the effect with a pale shirt or a lighter colored scarf such as pink or green. The point is to balance the contrast and tones for the strongest effect.
Be aware, however, that the complexion of the subject might cause a bit of difficulty with using clothing in the ways mentioned. Although we did see a person with a pale complexion wearing white garments, sometimes a person’s natural coloring is not conducive to the sort of tones needed for black and white balance. These are moments which require a bit of clever composition to make a success. Need an example? Let’s say you want to take a portrait of a pale, blonde person against a dark background. The recommendations above would have you dressing them in a dark top, but this might be too much of a contrast. The solution? Find a mid-tone collar or scarf to position near their face to help reduce the dramatic impact of the transition from dark to light.
Some cameras allow live veiw to be seen in black and white. This function is a handy tool for learning how to train your minds eye to “see” in black and white. If you have not shot black and white portraits before I recommend taking a series of shots of very different colours. For example you may want to try coloured paper such as red, yellow, blue, green, brown and pink. Place these cards in the same image and you will be able to begin to see how colours are interpreted as a black and white photo.
You can also ask a friend or family member to stand against a wall, and, in each photo, wear a different coloured top to help you learn how colours and skin tone work in black and white photography.
Different skin tones will react differently when placed against certain colours in black and white photography, just as they do in full colour photography. By participating in this simple exercise, you will quickly see what works and what doesn’t.

Someone with fair hair and fair skin may appear to have no depth or tone in their face when a pure black garment is worn. In colour, they would appear to look “washed out”. However when a red garment is worn, then you may find a totally different look altogether, even in black and white.

The pictures off this website may not be used in anyway, without my permission. Don’t be mean and rip them off, just ask me first.

On my way to the supermarket the other day I drove past the most colourful tree I had seen in a long time. The amazing thing about this tree is that most of the year its green, and, in the winter it is completely bare. But right now, in autumn, it is as colourful as a rainbow.

I thought I would upload a couple of photos for you to see. Although the next time I must remember to be careful. For a grumpy old woman lives at the end of the property and if you are not careful she will come out running with a big stick screaming few to get off her property. Even though you only photographing her tree and not actually on her property. Hey, but photography is worth it right? I believe so!

All these photos are copyrighted to Amy Renfrey and may not be taken, copied or reproduced in anyway from this website or otherwise. Thank you.

Isn’t the prime lens the one that comes with the camera? No, not usually. Many photographers invest in a prime lens because they want a very high-quality lens and are not all that worried about a range of focal lengths. For instance, a prime lens might only offer a 50mm focal length, but it will be manufactured in such a way as to deliver flawless, crisp, and clear images without fail.

So, a zoom lens is not going to be as well made? Not necessarily. A zoom lens is one with a range of focal lengths, such as 14 to 85mm, and there are many versions that are made just as well  (if not more so) than prime lenses.

Why is there even a discussion about them? Firstly, many photographers like to have a lot of manual control over their photographic pursuits. Usually a prime lens is going to give them more options as far as the speed of the lens – which is not related to shutter speed but to the ability to work in lower light conditions due to aperture controls – and the weight of the camera too. Some photographers will go so far as to argue that zoom lenses make photographers lazy because they don’t have to find a way to make low light and difficult angles “work” for their cameras.

While it is true that the ability to zoom in clearly on a subject from a distance can allow the photographer to enjoy some freedom and effortlessness, the zoom lenses have more to offer than that alone. For example, as stated a bit earlier, the zooms will allow the photographer a handful of focal lengths. This means that they can use the camera in the same way that they might have used a 50mm prime lens, but they could also use it as an 85mm or even a 14mm lens too. This translates to convenience and efficiency, and it also means that the photographer could be saving a ton of money on additional equipment. Instead of purchasing two or three different lenses, the savvy photographer could research the most appropriate lenses for the work they hope to do and then find most of them in a single zoom.

This brings us to the last point in the debate over a prime or zoom lens – the type of photography. Clearly, most photographers don’t do just one variety of work. They might be a portrait photographer who also enjoys some landscape work. This would mean that the zoom could be handy in the studio, but would not give them the range they require in the field. This is the reason that it is so essential to understand the needs of the photographic endeavors in order to select the right equipment and lenses.

For decades there have been little pocket cameras that made it easy for anyone to take a relatively good photograph under a wide range of conditions. Technology, however, has made the pocket camera, or the compact camera, more high-tech than ever imagined.

Consider that a well-made modern compact will come with everything from optical and digital zooms, dozens of presets and modes, and even the option for taking video clips. The main question for many is – are they suitable for use for an enthusiastic photographer to start getting some good shots? The answer is “yes”.

Just like DSLRs, however, no two compacts are identical, and it pays to understand how they can be used to best effect. For one thing, they are a great way to scout out locations and make photographic notes about the types of settings and equipment that a photo session might require.

For example, let’s say that an enthusiast photographer has been invited to a wedding, but there are some serious limitations about the use of flash in the church. With their compact camera in hand, the photographer can go to the location and use it to capture images of the areas in which they will photograph the couple and the event, and to also take all kinds of metering from the various sites as well.

Of course, a compact isn’t just a tool for weddings or Sunday family BBQ shots; they can take some good images on their own. This is enhanced by the availability of manual settings that allow a skilled photographer to control the camera’s behaviors, but most also make some very interesting presets available too. Consider that many have upwards of twenty preset modes that can allow someone excellent photographic results within candlelight, nighttime, sporting events, and a host of other scenarios. These are especially benefited from the photographer’s pre-existing knowledge about the needs of different settings too.

Where zoom and wide-angle photography are concerned, the modern compact has a nice array of lenses built into their little frames as well. Some go as low as 10mm to allow for a nearly “fisheye” wide angle image to be recorded, and others have a digital zoom of up to 12X as well. While the digital zooms are usually considered somewhat inferior to optical zooms due to their massive amounts of blur and noise, they can still be exceedingly helpful to a photographer out in the field.

It may be helpful to have a compact camera in a modern photographer’s store of tools and equipment.

Regardless of the season or the location, a digital photographer may find the opportunity for photographing fireworks. This can be a somewhat tricky scenario to record with a camera, but with a basic understanding of the right settings (and a few extra techniques) some remarkable results are guaranteed.

So, the first step is to use your tripod. If this is not possible, then use a firm window ledge or any other solid base that will allow you to hold the shutter open for a lengthier period of time without the risk of camera shake or blur. The most assured approach to an entirely blur-free experience, however, comes from the perfect combination of tripod and remote release. This is a hands free way to trigger the shutter and ensures that nothing will ruin the shot.

Now that you have the camera set up and ready to click away, what sort of settings do you use? Well, that first requires you to frame the shot, and this means you have to assess the setting and your position in it. For example, if you are in a skyscraper overlooking the New York Harbor you will want to frame the water and the entire setting in the viewfinder. If, however, you are at a random display in your hometown and simply seated on a hillside beneath the display, you may want to choose a wide focal length that will take in as much of each explosion overhead as possible.

Now, about those explosions; they are brilliant bursts of light and this means that you are going to have to consider how much of that light enters the lens while the shutter is open. This is done via your aperture setting, and since you are using a wider focal length and desire crisp clarity you will need to keep the aperture relatively small or somewhere in the area of f/8 to f/16 for the sharpest and most successful results.

Along with the amount of light entering the lens, you will have to determine how long that light is allowed to enter the lens and remain on the camera sensor. This is called your shutter speed, as you are probably well aware, and you will have to decide if you want to freeze the fireworks in motion, or if you will permit a tiny bit of trailing to make the image more abstract. Either way, most photographers will do one of two things – use the “bulb” setting and manually trigger their remote release just as the fireworks “pop” and then close the shutter the second that the firework fades. While others use a range of long shutter speeds to test results.

A few final pointers include keeping your ISO around the 100 – 200 range to prevent “noise” in the printed images. Also remember the human element of the display and aim your camera at the crowd watching the fireworks for some great candid portrait photography too.

Article by Amy Renfrey