Ready, Aim, Click

How do you photograph?

2010-03-15T13:29:00.009-06:00

It's not what you photograph that sets you apart from other people with cameras, it's how you photograph it. What are you doing to make your pictures uniquely your own? What could a total stranger learn about you merely by looking at the pictures you take? Is it worth knowing?

The toughest lesson I learned about photography had nothing to do with ISOs, shutter speeds or apertures. It was about the reason I took pictures in the first place and what I was trying to say to the world through my photography.

There's an interesting scene in "Walk the Line," a biopic about the career of country songwriter/singer Johnny Cash. In the scene, Johnny and his band are auditioning for Sam Philips, the head of Sun Records in Memphis. Sam is ready to dismiss the ragtag group, explaining that if you only had one song to sing to the world before you die, would it be something that everyone had heard already, or would it be something that would attempt to help others see things differently than they had before hearing it? Johnny then abandons the old gospel standby and pulls out a little tune he wrote while serving in the U.S. Air Force -- Folsom Prison Blues.

If you only had a chance to make one picture before you pass on, what would you do? How would you do it differently than any picture you've made before? To what lengths would you go to make it?

Now do it.

Photograph © 2010 James Jordan.

Eye in the sky

2009-09-16T08:32:00.005-06:00

So you thought it was cool to shoot pics of yourself and/or your crush at arm's lenghth? Pish. 'Tain't nothin' compared to what you can do with a camera on a stick.

Just use a tripod or better yet, a monopod (they're lighter), extend it to full length and hoist it into the air. There are even instruction on how to convert a paint roller extender into a camera hoist that can reach upwards of 30 feet.

Tips: Use a wide angle lens, preset the focus and use the self-timer.

You'll get a unique view of your surroundings. You can even make pictures from the "squirrel cam."

Concert crowd got you down because they're blocking your view? Rise above them. High fence between you and your sunbathing neighbor? Um, never mind.

At the zoo

2009-08-24T06:23:00.002-06:00

A zoo is not the ideal place for animal photography. Of course, given the cost of a safari to Africa, they're the next best alternative for me.

Most zoos are designed for the living space of the creatures (at least the newer or recently refurbished ones are). The best ones integrate an "up close and personal" viewing experience. But even those don't seem to take into account the needs of photography. Glass with all manner of glare and reflections, wire mesh barriers, and living areas that, while they provide lots of room for the inhabitants, also increase the distance from the camera, making life challenging for a photographer.Here are some tips on how I do things at the zoo.

Zoom, baby. At a minimum, I have a 200mm lens on at all times. I also use a 2x teleconverter to double the zoom. The tradeoff -- an exposure that's slow as molasses. The teleconverter takes away a stop of light from an already sluggish lens. This lion was shot at ISO 800 at an exposure of 1/1250 at a "wide open" effective f-stop of f8. This was OK for animals in the early morning sunlight. Animals in the shadows, not so much. The benefits -- you can get some great "in your face" shots that help disguise the fact that you were shooting in an artificial environment. You also can shoot right through mesh barriers without them registering in your shot. This lion was shot through a series of thin vertical wires separating people from big cats at a viewing station. Just be sure you're shooting through an area of mesh that is not in direct sunlight. You also have a better chance of avoiding reflections when shooting through glass when you use a long lens.

Patience is a virtue. Zoo animals have all the time in the world. You necessarily don't. But spend some time watching the critters. You might pick up a pattern of movement that you can use to your advantage. I watched a pair of lions pacing and positioned myself to catch them as they made their turns. I caught the young male above as he turned his head in advance of his body, making him apear as if he might be roaring or at least belting out his favorite song.

I also observe the rule of shooting early or late in the day. If I have to be there in the middle of the day, I'll try to catch animals in shady areas to avoid harsh shadows and the bluish light of the midday sun. I'll also change my white balance to "flash" or "cloudy" to warm up the tones in my shots.

Got your own zoo tips? Successes? Failures? Let me know.

Crash! Bang! Boom! 8 Tips for better fireworks photography

2009-07-01T06:42:00.007-06:00

The Fourth of July means fireworks here in the U.S. Fireworks means a chance to pack up the family for some visual and audio stimulation. Fireworks also provides an opportunity to capture some truly stunning photographs.

Here are a few tips to elicit “oohs and ahhs” long after the fireworks display is over:

1. Set your camera’s zoom to the widest setting to ensure you capture plenty of colorful bursts. You can always crop your pictures later.

2. If you can, set your focus manually to infinity. On many cameras, the autofocus mechanism will not work properly in the dark, or will work too slowly to capture a fast-moving fireworks display.

3. Fireworks happen in the dark (duh), so you’ll need long exposures to capture the action. Use a tripod to avoid blurred pictures. A small flashlight can help you see to maneuver through your camera’s settings in the dark.

4. If your digital camera has a Fireworks mode, it will take care of the settings for you.

5. If you’re shooting film or don’t have a Fireworks mode, try this – manually set your camera to ISO 200, aperture f/8 and choose a shutter speed of about 4 seconds for starters. In the middle of the fireworks display, this setting will capture two or three bursts. Longer exposures will capture more bursts. A second or two is all you’ll need to catch the action during the finale, when the explosions come fast and furious.

6. As the display begins, adjust your tripod to aim the camera to where most of the action is occurring in the sky. You’ll most likely have to make adjustments throughout the show, so be familiar with your tripod’s controls.

7. Try to include some of the surrounding scenery in your photo. The fireworks will beautifully light up the park, stadium, lakeshore or whatever spot from which you are viewing the display.

8. Shoot often! A hundred shots may yield only a handful of keepers. But those spectacular shots will be picture perfect for sharing with friends and family.

Photographs © 2009 James Jordan.

A few minutes with ...

2009-04-14T09:50:00.006-06:00

I’m going to go all Andy Rooney on you here for a minute and talk about something that bugs me regarding the photo advice I see on the interwebs. People who really should know better use the phrase, “Practice, practice, practice.” I find the phrase wrong, wrong, wrong.

Why? Because the phrase doesn’t tell you what or how to practice. If all you know is how to take pictures that are poorly composed, badly exposed (and that should be disposed), then practicing only cements your bad habits into place, and compounds your frustration. Been there, done that.

Try this instead. Work on just one thing at a time, then practice the heck out of it. For instance, early on in my photography I made up my mind that I was going to master exposure. But not just any exposure, I wanted to own exposure of early morning landscape shots. So I got up early. A lot. I went out and took photos of sunrises and the stuff the sunrise shone on until I could get a good exposure with good details in the highlights and shadows nearly every time (this was in the days of film, so it was a long process. Digital photography allows instant feedback so you can adjust in real time, not days and weeks, as I had to endure).

Then I moved to late afternoon/evening shots and practiced the heck out of those. Then nighttime shots. Then indoor shots. Get the idea? Get good at one thing, then add to it as you go. It makes practice meaningful and you see incremental progress faster.

Want a place to start practicing? Then either click on Basics, Composition or Exposure in the blog tags below to see all posts on Ready, Aim, Click that pertain to those subjects.

Then get practicing.

Photographing water on the move

2009-04-13T12:34:00.004-06:00

Take your shots of creeks, waterfalls and surf to a higher level by slowing down your exposure time. Digicamhelp, a web site for digital photography beginners (and beyond) is featuring an article I wrote that gives tips on how to get that misty, dreamy quality in your water shots. Check it out.

Adding a vignette to photographs

2009-02-17T08:58:00.005-06:00

Digital cameras have greatly advanced even an amateur photographer's ability to capture sharply focused images - sometimes too sharply focused. Back in the days when film photography was the only game in town, there were a lot of camera lenses that couldn't focus across the entire area of the film, leaving photos dark and a bit blurry at the edges and corners. Sometimes a lot dark and blurry.

For those times when you want to subtly age your photos or even emphasize a certain part of the picture, you can simply add a vignette via a photo editing program like Adobe Photoshop Elements, which retails for around $80.

To create a vignette, use the Elliptical Marquee Tool to select nearly the entire photo. Feather the selection (240 pixels on a 10 megapixel image works well, use less feathering for smaller images), then invert the selection. Go to Enhance/Adjust Lighting/Levels and slide the right Output Level slider to the left, which will darken the edges of the photo slightly. You can then add some soft blur (Filter/Blur/Gaussian Blur) to your liking.

Make a statement with texture

2009-02-17T08:33:00.005-06:00

Adding texture to a photograph is easy if you have a photo editing program that supports layers. I added a texture to a photograph of a surveyor's transit to emphasize the antique nature of the piece - it was manufactured circa 1943, according to records of serial numbers from Keuffel and Esser, the company that produced transits for the better part of a century.

I started with a straightforward photo of the transit, part of a friend's large collection of antiques. Daylight from nearby windows lit the piece, and a sheet of black foam board was placed behind the transit to provide a backdrop. The original photo is shown to the right.

The texture was provided courtesy of a 12"x12" piece of faux slate vinyl floor tile, which I picked up for 75 cents at Home Depot. I took a quick photo of the vinyl tile near a window in my garage .

Opening the transit and tile photos in Photoshop Elements 6.0, I copied the tile photo and pasted it over the transit photo, creating a layer. I selected "Multiply" to blend the tile into the transit photo, then adjusted the opacity of the layer to my liking - about 70% in this instance.

I then adjusted the lighting levels, added a vignette and sharpened the photo to finish it off.

Photos © 2009 James Jordan.

Bad photo advice of the day

2009-01-22T07:03:00.005-06:00

I subscribe to a number of Google Blog Alerts on subjects relating to photography. One of those alerts is set to gather blog posts that provide Photography Tips. I've learned some valuable things from a few of those posts. The majority, however, are pure dreck. Here's an example:

A photograph or an image which does not have life - 'the X factor' as they call it - is simply wastage. Efficient commercial photographers know how to put life in the images that they click. And how do they do it? There are simple but fundamental principles that guide the rules to create a good image.

For one thing, I don't call it the "X Factor." I don't know any professional photographer who does. And I also have a fair idea of how to inject "life" into a photo, even though the word "life" is so broad as to be almost meaningless.

Anyway, what are the three vital principles for guaranteeing your pictures don't emerge from your camera DOA? This expert says that every photo needs light, a subject and a background.

Gosh. I never knew. I thought every photo needed a camera, a lens and a clicking finger.

Here's a good rule of thumb to use when perusing photo advice sites: If they don't post sample photos along with their prose, just click your browser's "Back" button. Fast.

Making your own luck

2009-01-14T08:53:00.000-06:00

If you've been following my series on post-processing digital images, you might be interested in a recent blog post by professional children's photographer Kelly Ferreira. She walks through her thought process while photographing her two daughters, and provides plenty of examples and before-and-after shots along the way.

Recapturing lost details in a photo via layers in Photoshop

2009-01-12T09:30:00.003-06:00

I love old barns. It was a photographic treat to have one at my disposal at a local forest preserve.

The two photos above show what a little effort in Photoshop Elements can do for your pictures. The bottom photo is what came out of my camera. The contrast between the stone wall, red barn and white snow resulted in a pretty good picture. But are we satisfied with pretty good when we can have fabulous? No!

For one thing, the details in the foreground snow are lost. To get them back, I copied the photo and pasted it as a layer over the original. I then inverted the layer (Select All/Filter/Adjustments/Invert), which created a negative image. Then I selected Soft Light in the Layers dialog box. Hello, snowy details! I played with the Opacity setting slider until I was satisfied with the look - I wound up at just above 50% opacity.

While that action rescued the snow, it played havoc with the barn and stone wall, so I selected the barn and stone wall with the Polygonal Lasso Tool, added an 8-pixel feather and deleted them from the layer, exposing the barn and fence from the background layer below. I then flattened the image, cranked up the color saturation about 15% and applied an Unsharp Mask at 200%, 1.0 Pixel and 0 Threshold.

I then added a faint vignette - I used the Elliptical Marquee Tool to select nearly the entire photo. Feathered the selection at 240 pixels, then inverted the selection. Went to Enhance/Adjust Lighting/Levels and slid the right Output Level slider to 220, which darkened the edges of the photo slightly. I then added some soft blur (Filter/Blur/Gaussian Blur at 8.0 pixels).

The inverted layer/Soft Light combo is a great way to recapture details that might have gotten lost in the shadows and highlights of your pictures.

A word about Unsharp Mask

2009-01-09T08:40:00.010-06:00

When it comes to digital photo editing, your best friend in the world will be the Unsharp Mask feature. Why? Because the Unsharp Mask will make your pictures sharper.

It sounds oxymoronic, but the term originated back in the early days of darkrooms and film. Someone figured out that if a negative was not quite in focus, it could be fixed to an extent by producing a slightly blurred negative of the original negative then sandwiching it with the original. The unsharp image masked some of the blur in the original negative when a print was made from the pair. This setup added contrast to the edges of the tones of the photo, giving the appearance of increased sharpness. Don’t ask me how it works. It just does. Anyway, the blurred duplicate became known as an unsharp mask. That’s all I’ll say about that.

The Unsharp Mask feature of Photoshop, et al, does basically the same thing as its filmy counterpart. It increases the contrast at the edges of a photo’s tones, giving the appearance of more sharpness. (Note: If your photo editing program only has a Sharpen feature, it's really an Unsharp Mask - it's just pre-set and cannot be adjusted.)

Your Unsharp Mask dialog box comes equipped with three variables, Amount, Radius and Threshold.

Amount is listed as a percentage, and controls how much contrast is added at the edges of tones.

Radius affects the size of the edges to be enhanced. Fine detail needs a smaller Radius. Radius and Amount interact; reducing one allows more of the other.

Threshold controls how far apart adjacent tonal values have to be before the filter does anything. This lack of action is important to prevent smooth areas from becoming speckled. Low values should sharpen more because fewer areas are excluded. Higher threshold values exclude areas of lower contrast. Sliding the Threshold setting all the way to 255 cancels all sharpening.

I nearly always run my photos through an Unsharp Mask. My default setting on Unsharp Mask is Amount 100, Radius 1.0 and Threshold 0. Depending on the photo, I’ve cranked the amount as high as 500. Since most of my photos have some fine detail, I rarely move the Radius setting. I increase the Threshold if I’m sharpening a portrait or a picture with large areas of even tones.

Open a photo and play with the Unsharp Mask settings to find a combination that works for you.

Do some layering to make your pictures pop

2009-01-08T09:05:00.003-06:00

Back in the days when digital photo editing was in its infancy, there were a lot of choices when it came down to which software to use. Each one did pretty much the same things as the others, albeit with different names and menus. Then Adobe did something with its Photoshop software that changed the game. It added the ability to work with layers, and set itself apart from the crowd.

Getting the most out of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements or any photo editing program requires some facility with the programs' Layers options. I've posted a Photoshop Elements tutorial on my photo blog that shows what is possible when using layers and combining them with various effects and filters, using the two photos above as samples. I'll cross post most of those tutorials here, but for today, slide on over to Points of Light to see the first in the series.

Embracing the 'burbs

2008-12-04T07:13:00.003-06:00

I recently read a post on an online photography forum where the poster bemoaned the fact that she lives in a suburban area and therefore, her opportunities for nature shots was drastically limited. I live in a suburban area myself and can understand her frustration to a point. I’ve struggled to maintain my love for nature photos while surrounded by houses and trees that obscure 60% of the sky or more.

But you know what? Nature is everywhere. If you can’t find it, you’re not looking hard enough. If you’re suburb-bound, here are some idea starters to try:

Start in your own backyard. Got plants, trees, flowers and critters? Good. Shoot ‘em. Isolate them from the suburban-ness around them by getting in close, blurring the background by narrowing your depth of field or contriving a background. Shoot upward, as in the example to the right. Shoot downward.

Got parks? Great. Explore them. Only got one or two? Get out to them in different seasons, different times of the day, different types of weather. I return to the same parks in my area on a regular basis.

Make the suburban-ness work for you. Show nature and suburb together. In harmony. Or at odds. Look for drama. Look for tranquility. Look for different moods.

I’ve published about 2,000 photos online on my photo blog and at Flickr and I would guess that as many as 80 percent of my photos were taken in suburban Chicago. Yes, I love vast unspoiled vistas and exotic locales, but the reality is that I am where I am and to pursue my hobby of photography, I must make the best of the situation.

Simple silhouette setup

2008-11-16T05:41:00.001-06:00

Here's a simple setup that will yield some impressive silhouette portraits. All you need is a window, a sheet of black foam board (available for a couple of dollars at a craft or office store), a subject and your camera.

Place the black foam board next to a window in your home - you don't need direct sunlight; in fact a north window works very well for this. Place your subject a 3-4 feet in front of the board, then frame the subject against the backdrop.

You'll probably need to drop your exposure value down one or two stops to keep the camera from overexposing the picture (the black background will make it want to give it more light than it needs). Once you get the setting, you're in business. Focus on the subject's eye and have fun!

Photographing kids

2008-10-30T06:57:00.006-06:00

As I look at some of my favorite photos of children, I've noticed some similarities among the images. I nearly always try to get up close to the subject and just sit and watch with a camera in hand until the child no longer cares that I'm around, then I'll begin taking pictures. I almost never use a flash, and when I do, I bounce it off the ceiling. If you don't have a flash unit that can adjust direction, tape a piece of wax paper over the front - it will soften the light and reduce harsh shadows.

I try to take advantage of soft natural light. Either outdoors in the shade or inside near a window. Backlight works beautifully on children. You'll need to adjust your exposure compensation by +1 or +2 to make sure the strong light behind the subject doesn't fool the camera into making a darker exposure.

I usually shoot on aperture priority with the lens open to its larget possible setting (the lowest f-number). This creates the shallowest depth of field, which helps ensure the child is the center of attention in the picture.

Oh, and try to focus on the child's eyes. And pay attention to composition.

And if you have the wherewithal to do some Orton processing on your pictures, kids pictures are a natural for some softening.

Wanna see some amazing pictures?

2008-10-29T06:55:00.001-06:00

And learn a little bit about how they're done? I'm a contributing editor to the photo site Innovative Digital Photographers. My current post there reviews the work of Lucie Debelkova, who produces some phenomenal travel photography. Lucie travels the world making images that capture the viewer with vivid colors and light. Take a look and prepare to be amazed.

Everything that I know about photography I learned from post cards

2008-10-28T07:42:00.002-06:00

OK, maybe not, but racks full of postcards draw me like a magnet when I'm out traveling. When my wife notices that I'm no longer walking with her through a store, she knows the first place to look for me. Postcards are a good reference source to see how different photographers approach subjects that have been photographed a million times already.

So, here are some of the things I've learned from postcards about photographing landmarks:

1. Photograph at a time of day when the fewest people are likely to photograph. This is usually around sunrise. Your photo will have a look that relatively few other photos will have.

2. Show the landmark in its surroundings.

3. Isolate the landmark from its surroundings.

4. Photograph the landmark at a time of year when relatively few other people will photograph it. Early spring, peak color in autumn and mid-winter are good choices.

5. If the sky is doing something dramatic ... bonus!

6. Stick to the rules of composition. Or not.

The above photograph of the Eagle Bluff Lighthouse in Door County, Wisconsin is a bit too typical of a "postcard" shot, but it was begging to be taken. Mid-morning on a fall day when the colors had reached their peak. Sun illuminating the lighthouse through a clearing in the surrounding trees. Blue sky creating a contrast of color to the gold and orange leaves. A spot of sunlight hitting the juncture of the split rail fence. I was there with a camera. What else could I do?

A tip for close up shots - back off!

2008-10-10T09:18:00.002-06:00

The natural inclination is to shoot a closeup of an object from, well ... close up. For this shot, I stepped back several yards and used a telephoto lens to bring the object to me. This changes the viewing perspective ever so slightly and can result in a shot that is a bit different than what we may be used to seeing and may compel a viewer to stick with it a bit longer than they would have otherwise. It may not work every time, but it's worth playing with as you're out shooting.

Photograph © 2008 James Jordan.

Pseudo-HDR

2008-10-07T07:11:00.003-06:00

HDR, or high dynamic range photography, is a process that combines several exposures of a scene into one image. It allows a photographer to capture a wider range of tones than would have been possible with just a single exposure. It also requires software that I don't have. I do have Photoshop Elements 6, which retails from $80-100, which is more suited to my budget. I conducted a little experiment to see if it was possible to create a pseudo-HDR with the software and wound up quite pleased with the results.

As many times as I’ve visited the Toft Point natural area in Door County, Wisconsin, I have never quite gotten a photograph that I thought adequately depicted the rugged, wild nature of the place. I arrived there one more time last month on a day of clouds and spotty sunshine. I noticed an interesting cloud formation to the north and decided to try to capture it against the rocky shore. I camped on a rock surrounded by water, set my tripod low and set my zoom lens to its widest angle. From that position, I took two shots – one of the sky and one of the lakeshore, setting an ideal exposure for each and intending to merge them together later.

I was disappointed with the initial result, which I have bravely posted here. I let it sit for a couple of weeks, then decided to throw everything I had at it to see if I could spice up the image.

In Photoshop Elements 6, I selected the lakeshore and applied an Orton effect – I lightened the image selection by about half, copied it and pasted it over itself on a layer. I put a slight Gaussian blur on the layer, then blended it with the layer beneath using “multiply.” This boosted the color saturation of the rocks and water. I did a similar adjustment to the sky, except this time I converted the adjustment layer to grayscale and cranked the contrast wayyyyy up. I added a slight Gaussian blur then blended the layers using “Soft Light.” The action popped the clouds but added a bit of noise to the sky, which I corrected with Elements’ noise filter. I added a slight vignette to the overall image to finish things up.

Images © 2008 James Jordan.

Happy autumn!

2007-09-16T07:19:00.000-06:00

In honor of the autumn equinox this week, I'm posting an "Autumn is ..." image available on my other blog, Points of Light. You can have your own fall leaf to pass along. Just click on the image above to get yours!

The twilight zone

2007-06-12T06:10:00.000-06:00

Just because the sun’s gone down doesn’t necessarily mean it’s time to put the camera away. Some of the most remarkable shots you’ll ever take will be captured in the fading light of day. The above shot of the Wind Point Lighthouse near Racine, Wisconsin and the planet Venus was taken about 45 minutes after sunset. The small beach shot was taken about a half hour after sunset.

Here are a few things to keep in mind should you decide to catch the last light of the day:

The sky slowly takes on a deeper blue cast as night approaches. From about 20 to 40 minutes past sunset is the ideal time to catch the deep indigo color of the sky.

You’ll need a tripod or some other device to keep the camera stock-still during the exposure, which will be quite long.

The rule of thumb I use in positioning the camera – set up low. I usually stay within 14 inches of the ground when shooting night and twilight scenes. The low angle adds to the drama.

If you have a camera with manual settings, I use a one-second exposure at f5.6 using 100 ISO. If you’re using a digital point and shoot, set the exposure to about -1.5 to -2. Autoexposure will want to lighten the photo. Don’t let it.

Embrace the blur. If you can, stop down your lens and increase exposure time. Moving clouds will be rendered as streaks of light in the sky. Waves on the beach will become a ghostly mist.

It takes a fair bit of experimenting to become adept at twilight shooting and many mistakes will be made. But learn from them and over time, catching low-light photos will become second nature.

Be there

2007-06-06T13:22:00.000-06:00

Woody Allen once said that “80 percent of being a success is just showing up.” I’m finding that to be the case with my photography. For some crazy reason, I don’t get any good shots when I’m sitting at home with my camera packed in its case. But the odds increase dramatically when I’m out and about with a camera in my hands.

Want to take better pictures? Take pictures. Lots of them. And to stack the deck even more in your favor, follow these hints:

Shoot within a half hour either side of sunrise or sunset. The light is low, warm and soft. Pro photographers don’t call these times the “magic hours” for nothing.

Look for drama. Creatures (human or otherwise) interacting with each other or their environment. Stormy weather. Moving water.

Can’t find drama? Create it. Change your point of view. Shoot from ground level. Find a high place. Tilt the camera. Overexpose. Underexpose. Get closer to your subject. Move farther away.

Compose yourself. Well, actually, compose your pictures. Rule of thirds is a good place to start. I personally try to place my subjects in the vicinity of either of the diagonal lines than run from the top left to lower right corners of the frame and vice versa. But don’t forget to try to go symmetrical every so often. Mix it up.

Build depth. Use diagonal lines in your photos to draw in your viewers. Try to establish three zones – foreground, middle ground and background.

Look for contrasts. Big and small. Near and far. High and low. Colorful and drab.

Then try to do as many of these in one shot as possible.

After you’re done shooting, evaluate what you’ve shot. What worked? What didn’t work? What would you have done differently?

Then go out and “be there” again.

Let me know how it goes.

Photographs © James Jordan.

Basic post-processing

2007-04-19T19:51:00.000-06:00

A camera’s exposure system is designed to calculate all of the light levels coming into the camera and set an exposure that averages all the light to match a neutral gray tone. The result of all that averaging is usually a photo that looks, well – average. And we all know the people and pets in your life are anything but average.

The photo above, on the left, is what a Kodak Easyshare C633 presented of my adopted stray cat, Poly. (You can find out how she came upon her name with one “L” here). The photo is kind of gray and murky. Average.

A little work in a photo editing program (in this case, PhotoShop) brings the photo back to life and gets closer to what my eyes saw as I pressed the shutter button. I started by increasing the overall contrast. In PhotoShop this is accomplished in the Adjust/Levels dialog box by sliding the left and right sliders toward the center, then sliding the midtones to the left, brightening the photo. A similar effect can be achieved by increasing the contrast and brightness settings if your photo editing program is a simple one.

I then increased the color saturation, then selected everything except the cat’s face (in PhotoShop, I used the elliptical selector, lasso’d the face, then inverted the selection). I feathered the edges of the selection, decreased the levels of the background, then applied a blur. The resulting effect (photo on the right) really brought out the cat’s eyes, which I wanted to be the focal point of the picture. In fact, when taking photos of people or animals, focus on the eyes.

I then used the clone tool to make some adjustments to the catch lights in her eyes (raised and moved out of the irises), and I was finished.

Using a photo editing program after you’ve created a picture is not cheating. It’s unlocking the information that’s inherent in your photo, but has just been rendered as “average.”

Look for contrasts: Patterns

2007-04-17T10:10:00.001-06:00

Into the woods
Originally uploaded by James Jordan.

Contrasting elements tend to make for interesting photos. I was driving along looking for photo subjects late on an overcast day when I passed a wooded lot with lush green grass and a meandering creek. The contrast between the curving creek bed and the ramrod-straight tree trunks immediately caught my eye.

I took a u-turn and set up for several shots. This was taken just off the roadbed and approximates what I saw from the car as I passed it. I used a slight telephoto setting (70mm on a 35-70 zoom lens) to help compress the space between the curves of the creek.

I wanted the curved lines of the creek to dominate the shot, so I composed it to make the creek fill up the photo frame making the trees a secondary element.

Shoot the moon

2007-04-04T12:38:00.000-06:00

Earth’s companion in the night sky has inspired dreamers and poets since time immemorial. It also makes for great photos. Here are a few tips for shooting the moon.

The correct exposure for the moon high in the sky follows the “Sunny 16” rule – Shoot at f16 and use a shutter speed closest to the inverse of the ISO of your film or camera setting. If using 100 ISO, then your shutter speed should be as close as possible to 1/100 of a second – in most cases, 1/125. Follow the same scenario for 200 ISO, 400 ISO, etc.

When the moon is visible during daylight hours, Sunny 16 works like a charm. Both the moon and earthly foreground objects will be in harmony as far as exposure is concerned. It gets trickier when shooting in twilight or darkness and you wish to also capture some foreground detail. Properly exposing the foreground will blow out the moon. Conversely, properly exposing the moon will make your foreground too dark.

Some options:

A. Pick a foreground object that offers an interesting silhouette and forget about capturing details (top image). Use the Sunny 16 rule to determine your exposure, then bracket one stop up and down for safety. Try to shoot within a half hour or forty five minutes after sunset when the sky is a deep indigo color.

B. Concentrate on the foreground and forget about details in the moon (second image). This exposure was 180 seconds at f5.6. It blew out the moon, but given the interest in the rest of the photo, is not that a big deal.

C. Shoot the full moon as soon as it comes up as possible. It will not yet have reached full light power and you can get away with a longer exposure. You have about 10 to 15 minutes after the moon appears above the horizon before it becomes too bright to capture this way. Use a graduated neutral density filter to darken the moon and sky while keeping the foreground light enough to register (third image). A two-stop grad ND filter kept the detail in the moon while allowing for a long enough exposure (about 20 seconds) to catch the motion of waves among the rotted pilings. Keep in mind that the moon is a moving object. Too long of an exposure (more than 30 seconds) will render it as an elongated object, not round.

D. Make a blended image using two or more exposures and combine them in Photoshop. The lighthouse photo (fourth image) was comprised of three exposures – one for the moon (using Sunny 16), one for the lighthouse tower (20 seconds) and one for the light in the lantern room (5 seconds). Sometimes there is just no other way to capture an image.

Of course, you need a sturdy tripod, camera with a bulb exposure setting and a locking cable release.

Take the Nike approach to shooting moon photos – just do it. Note the results, then make adjustments and learn as you go. Have fun!

Click on photos to enlarge. Photographs © 2007 James Jordan.

A flower for you!

2007-03-18T15:35:00.000-06:00

I'm giving away virtual flowers at my photo blog, Points of Light. Just click on the picture for more information how you can get yours and spread this meme throughout the blogosphere!

Happy Spring!

Dominant elements

2007-03-17T07:19:00.001-06:00

St. Mary's Cemetery, Dekalb, IL
Originally uploaded by James Jordan.

I studied art in college under a gentleman named Harry Worst, a landscape painter who created his compositions in the studio, then would go into the field to find references for the details in his paintings. Harry preached two ideas to the fledgling artists in his flock. One was to build three distinct zones - foreground, middle ground and background - to establish depth. The other was to create a dominant element - one that commanded attention - with all other elements subordinate to it.

Your photographic compositions will benefit from the same advice. I've previously posted about building depth in your photos. Think of the dominant element as the "star" of your photograph and look for ways to make your star grab the attention of your viewer.

One way is to make your star physically larger than all other elements, as I've done with this tree in a cemetery. Another way is to set it apart is by framing it with other elements, as I've done with the lighthouse in the second photo. The monochrome of the woods and foreground shadows frame the sunlit area in which the lighthouse sits, drawing the viewer's eye. the lighthouse also sits on a diagonal line from top right to bottom left - placing your subject on either of the diagonals of a photo will naturally draw the eye of the viewer.

Click on pictures to enlarge. Photos © 2007 James Jordan.

What light through yonder window shines

2007-03-04T20:17:00.000-06:00

Here’s a quick setup for taking some very impressive photos indoors. I set up a table near a window (make sure it’s not getting direct sunlight) and create a background of colored paper purchased from a craft/hobby store. I then use a piece of white poster board or foam board to reflect some light into the shadow side of the subject. The top photo shows the setup with an antique camera given to me by my wife’s father. The lower photo shows the finished image taken with a digital point-and-shoot camera (a Kodak Easy Share C633).

The result is soft light in a low-key ratio that even the point-and-shoot’s autoexposure catches well.

Hints for using this setup with a digital point-and-shoot: Use a tripod. Depending on the brightness of the day, the exposures will be fairly long. A tripod will make sure the camera is held steady throughout the exposure. Use the self timer. I set the timer for ten seconds. This gave me enough time to press the shutter button, then position the posterboard reflector before the shutter opened. I found I got sharper results when using the center-weighted autofocus function. I also set the ISO to 80, but you should play around and note the results that changes of ISO settings create.

This setup also works well for portraits consisting of one or two people. For a head-and-shoulders shot, seat the subject(s) near the window and prop the poster board (or have an assistant hold the board) to cast reflected light into the shadow side of the face(s).

And did I mention you should use a tripod?

Troubleshooting: From Okay to 'Oh, wow!'

2007-02-24T19:34:00.001-06:00

Portland Head Light 2
Originally uploaded by zen granny.

Flickr has a number of groups where people can post their photos to get advice and ratings on a scale from one to five or one to ten. I found this photo of the lighthouse at Portland Head, Maine, posted in one of those groups.

This photo has a number of things going for it. It is nicely composed, with the lighthouse sitting on a diagonal line from the top left to bottom right of the photo. The photographer timed the shot just as a large wave broke against the foreground rocks, adding drama to the scene, and the sky is very interesting with the receding clouds providing a feeling of depth.

But it also has some problems. The photo is underexposed, muting all of the colors that I know are present in the scene, having photographed at that very location myself. The dramatic clouds are nearly lost in a blue-gray mush of sky. Plus, the horizon line is noticeably crooked.

Looks like a job for PhotoShop!

There are those who feel that editing a photo on a computer is somehow cheating, but I don’t hold that view. In this case, the limitations of digital cameras had locked the scene within the confines of an okay photo. But I wanted to liberate the photo into an “Oh, wow!” image. The image information is there in the digital file, it just needed some adjustments to bring it out.

The first thing to do was to correct the horizon. In “Image/Rotate Canvas” I rotated the image 1.5 degrees counter clockwise, then cropped the photo.

Next, I compressed the high and low tones of the photo. This was done in the “Adjust levels” dialog box. I simply slid the left and right sliders toward the middle of the histogram. That brought the contrast back to an acceptable level and made the white tower snap out from the background. A good start. Next, I adjusted the Color balance by adding some red and a slight bit of yellow to warm up the photo, which appeared to be taken around mid morning in bright sunlight. I pumped up the color saturation by about 15 percent to bring out the colors of the outbuildings and sky.

I then selected the sky and foreground water with the rectangular lasso and polygon selector respectively, feathered the edges about 12 pixels, then adjusted the color balance of those areas toward blue. I then selected the darker foreground rocks with the polygon tool, feathered the edges slightly, the adjusted the levels on the selected area to brighten the rocks a tad. Some unsharp masking rounded out the session, which took me all of about ten minutes.

Get to know a photo editing program and play around a bit with some of your photos. As you can see, just a few simple adjustments can make a photo go from so-so to stunning.

An introduction to Orton

2007-02-15T21:41:00.000-06:00

The Orton method is a way to produce soft-focus photos with saturated colors. The two photos at the right show a normal photo and the same photo with the Orton effect applied.

In the days before computers, the effect was achieved photographically by sandwiching two slide transparencies – one that was overexposed by two stops, and one of the identical scene overexposed by two shops and with the focus thrown off. The same effect can be achieved in a photo editing program that supports layers, such as PhotoShop.

Here’s how to do it:

*Open your image in PhotoShop.
*Go to "Image", then click "Apply Image".
*Set the blending to "Screen", and your opacity to 100%. Click OK.
*Go again to "Image", down to "Duplicate".
*With the image you have just duplicated, go to "Filter", down to "Blur-Gaussian Blur".
*Set the blur anywhere from 20 to 50. Click OK.
*Grab the blurred image with the “Move” tool, hold down the Shift key and drag it on top of your first image.
*Go to "Windows", then down to "Layers".
*Set the blending mode from "Normal" to "Multiply".

You can now adjust the opacity of the top layer and make adjustments to lightness levels and color saturation on either of the two layers. When you are satisfied with the results, select “Flatten image” in the Layers dialog box, then Save your image (or “Save As” if you’d like to retain your original).

Not all photos take well to the Orton method, so experiment and see what happens.

Today's tip: Browse

2007-02-09T11:26:00.000-06:00

One of the best things a fledgling photog can do (even a longtime hack like me for that matter) is to browse the photos of some really good picture makers. EarthShots is one of those sites. Visitors can submit photos and every day, the best of the best is featured as photo of the day on their home page. I've been fortunate enough to have a photo selected for today's Photo of the Day.

Browse the archives and prepare to be amazed and inspired.

Don't forget textures

2007-02-07T08:33:00.001-06:00

Hogar, dulce hogar
Originally uploaded by Any Manetta.

Very interesting shots can be made of objects or scenes that visualize textures. So be on the lookout for weathered wood, stone, sand - anything that conveys a rough or weathered look.

The photographer here captured the texture of the wood as well as the fabric in the window, and as a bonus included a knick-knack in the window to throw a spot of color into an otherwise monochrome composition. You'll also notice that the small porcelain house is placed on the diagonal line from botton left to top right of the photo. A very careful and well done composition.

Cool composition techniques

2007-02-06T11:43:00.001-06:00

Kewaunee mist
Originally uploaded by James Jordan.

I shot this picture this past weekend while strolling along a beach in -25 degree windchills. What looks like a simple photo has a number of compositional techniques going on. You can use any one of these techniques alone, or combine them as I have to improve your pictures.

First, I established depth by capturing details throughout the foreground, middle ground and background of this photo. Next, I placed the lighthouse on a diagonal line from the top left to bottom right of the picture. Placing the subject of your photo on either of the diagonals of your picture will usually result in a pleasing composition.

I placed the lighthouse higher in the photo so that the diagonal line on which it sat met the diagonal of the foreground ice (more or less) near the lower right corner. The icy outcroppings in the middle ground forms a line that intersects the diagonal to create some visual tension, which was good, since there was nothing I could do about its placement.

So try establishing three zones of depth, placing your subject on a diagonal of the picture, then play around with converging diagonals and intersecting lines. You may just surprise yourself.

Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph copyright 2007, James Jordan.

Digital point and shoot cameras: Seriously good

2007-01-30T07:58:00.000-06:00

When I was a young man back in the days when people listened to disco music and wore polyester and wide lapels, I worked as a sales clerk in a camera shop. My assigned territory included a case of point and shoot pocket cameras. If you remember those, they were slim, sleek and took a small cartridge of 110 size film. They also took lousy pictures. They had plastic lenses and offered no stability when you pushed the shutter button, all but guaranteeing blurry, discolored photos. It was my job to make those cameras seem like a viable alternative to someone who was not willing to shell out the money for a decent 35mm camera. I sneered at those cameras while taking sharp, colorful pictures with my trusty Canon 35mm SLR.

Fast forward to the present. Until recently, I regarded today’s point and shoot digital cameras with the same disdain that I held for the old 110 cameras. That is, until I used my son’s Nikon Coolpix L6 this past Christmas holiday to take our annual family portrait. I applied the things I’d learned over the last eight years shooting with a 35mm Nikon SLR, fiddled with the L6’s settings and took what turned out to be a very nice portrait.

The photo at the top of this post was taken this past weekend with my daughter’s Kodak Easy Share C633 point and shoot. The level of detail is great and as you can see, the colors are fantastic, capturing the red sunset glow of the trees reflected in the water of the icy creek.

Here are my new overall impressions of point and shoot digital cameras:

1. Use a tripod whenever it’s feasible. Point and shoots are subject to shake like the old Instamatics. A tripod ensures a sharp photo. In the above photo, I even used the 2 second self timer so that not even the movement created by my finger on the shutter button would register. You don't know in advance how long the exposure time will be. Don't take chances.

2. Take it off automatic exposure and turn off the flash. Take a test picture. If it’s too dark, increase the exposure value (EV) by +1 and try it again. Still too dark? Bump it up some more. Too light? Decrease the EV until you’re satisfied, then shoot away.

The Kodak Easy Share C633 has a fixed f-stop, as I presume do most cameras in its price range. Not a big deal, but something to keep in mind and occasionally work around.

3. The pause between the time you push the shutter button and the time the picture is actually taken is maddening. Not much you can do about it. That’s another reason to use a tripod and the self-timer, at least if you’re shooting a subject that’s not moving.

4. Those things eat batteries. My daughter’s camera died before I was finished taking pictures. In contrast, I placed a battery in my Nikon film SLR when I got it home after purchasing it in 1998. I’ve never replaced it since, although I’m sure I’ll have to one of these days.

5. You’ll need to load the pictures to a computer and tweak them in a photo editing program to fully bring out colors and details, but it's worth it. That little LCD screen on the back of the camera really tells you nothing other than you’ve taken a picture. You can check composition and maybe focus and general exposure, but that’s about it. To fully evaluate the picture, get it on a computer.

6. With a little care and planning, a digital point and shoot can take some very decent pictures.

If you have one, take heart – you have a good photographic instrument on your hands, and this site will teach you how to get the most out of it. If you don’t and you’re a 35mm snob like I was, try one and see what it can do. Push its capabilities as far as you can. If you’re thinking of getting one, try to get one that can also go fully manual – those currently start in the $200 price range. If you want to get into some serious photography, you’re going to need it.

Photograph © 2007 James Jordan. Kodak Easy Share C633. EV set to -.5, ISO 80, flash off and self timer set to 2 seconds. Post-processed in Photoshop – increased color saturation and sharpened overall. Click on picture to enlarge.

Embrace the V

2007-01-27T14:58:00.001-06:00

Robinson crusoe dream place!!
Originally uploaded by nicolas valentin.

In yesterday’s post I talked about a theory of composition that I’m forming. If you draw an imaginary line from any corner of your photo to its opposite corner, placing your subject or main item of focus anywhere on that diagonal line will result in a good composition. Go to a photo web site like Flickr, look around and you’ll be surprised at how often you see this in use.

I’m also seeing a lot of compositions that takes advantage of the “V” formed by intersecting the diagonal lines. A lot of photographs, like the one above, nestle their subjects into the crook of one of the “Vs,” again resulting in pleasing compositions. (See smaller diagram.)

With these two practices in mind, along with the good old rule of thirds, you have three weapons in your compositional arsenal. Now get out there and fire away!

Photo: Robinson Crusoe dream place uploaded by Nicolas Valentin to Flickr. Click on pictures to enlarge.

Bonus shot: The subject of this photo occupies a different "V." Check it out.

Keeping it simple: Composition

2007-01-26T12:25:00.000-06:00

A photographer with whom I had the privilege of working when I was a photo buyer had a slogan, “Simple pictures are best.” His pictures were indeed simple and among some of the best I’ve ever seen. I’ve tried to put his philosophy into practice since seriously taking up the hobby of photography eight years ago.

There are two sides to photographic simplicity. There’s the simplicity (or lack of it) in the final image that’s created. Then there’s the simplicity of thought that goes on behind the lens as the picture is being created. I believe the two are related. I’ve studied some complex photographic theories and tried to boil them down to a few simple basics that I regularly use in making pictures, and those are the things I share here at Ready, Aim, Click.

So here’s a simplification of some complex theories of composition. I’ll admit that this is brand new thinking on my part, and I have not had a chance to fully field test it, but count on it that I will.

The rules of composition are based on the golden mean, a classic school of thought based on mathematically-based subdivisions of space that create visually appealing patterns and designs. That’s the complex part. Here’s my simplification: If you draw a diagonal line from any corner of a photograph to its opposite corner, placing your main subject anywhere on that diagonal line will result in a pleasing composition. This assumes that your background is fairly simple and that it’s quite obvious what your subject is.

The large photo at the top has our subject floating on a diagonal line from the top left to bottom right of the frame. The smaller photos are crops that place our subject on various spots on the diagonal lines. The third introduces additional subjects on the opposing diagonal, which opens up other possibilities. Each change in placement creates subtle shifts in meaning for each photo; try framing up several possibilities the next time you're shooting, then decide which one works best for you.

Like I said, I plan to play with this idea and will post some results here in the near future. And I’m not declaring the rule of thirds null and void.

Yet.

Three reasons why you should invest in a tripod

2007-01-22T21:54:00.001-06:00

High Falls
Originally uploaded by James Jordan.

You’ll get sharper pictures. No one can hold a camera steady in every condition. Telephoto shots and close up macro work especially demand a tripod.

You’ll open up a world of photographic possibilities: Long exposures of flowing water, special-effects shots, low light and night pictures come to mind.

The act of setting up a tripod forces a photographer to think about the scene before him or her and take care in composing the shot while twiddling the knobs and cranks. Many times, good pictures became great pictures when I spotted something amiss or noticed an opportunity for a better location while trying to set up a shot. Taking up the camera and setting it up in a better position made all the difference.

Side benefits: With a tripod, you’ll look like you know what you’re doing and impress the socks off of the people around you.

Get the best tripod you can afford and put it to use immediately.

Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2007 James Jordan.

Shooting into the sun

2007-01-21T13:31:00.000-06:00

After I had reviewed one of Roger’s photos and fixed it in a prior post here, he mentioned that he imagined that it would be possible to get some interesting photos by shooting into the sun and not sticking to the maxim of shooting with the sun over one’s shoulder all the time.

The answer is a qualified yes. You can get some very interesting photos while shooting into the sun, but you have to keep several things in mind when you do so:

Shooting into the sun will mess up your automatic exposure big time, and you must compensate. Don’t shoot into the sun unless you have an extremely interesting shape to silhouette against the sky. If you want any detail at all in the object against the sun, you either need a flash or a special filter.

Compensating your exposure When the sun is going to be a major part of one of my photos, I’ll take a meter reading of the sky above the sun with the sun just out of the frame. This generally gives an accurate portrayal of the sky and will create a solid silhouette of whatever else is in the frame. The exception is when shooting flowers and foliage, which are translucent and glow beautifully when backlit. (Top photo) Any time you are using the sun to backlight a photo, whether it's in the photo or not, an exposure value (EV) of +2 is called for.

Interesting silhouette If you're going for a silhouette, it has to be very recognizable and interesting. It needs to be just as obvious to the viewer of your photo as it was to you. Keep it as simple as possible. (Second photo) Try positioning your subject directly over the orb of the sun for interesting effects (Top and bottom photos).

Want detail? If you’re close enough to the silhouetted object to use your flash, do so. But remember, too much flash will give your photo a “faked” look and too little flash will leave your subject in the dark. Improve your odds by using the portrait setting of your digital camera if it has one. Bracket your shots (shoot a picture each at one f-stop above and below your metered setting) if you are using a manual flash. (Third photo) You can also use a sheet of white poster board or foam board to reflect light back onto the subject.

If your subject is too far for flash, another option is the use of a graduated neutral density filter, if your camera is able to accept filters. A grad ND filter is dark on about a third of the filter’s surface and gradually fades to clear at about the halfway point. Positioning the dark side of the filter over the sky allows you to open your f-stop by up to four stops (depending on the strength of the filter) to give more exposure to objects on the ground. (Second and bottom photos were shot using graduated neutral density filters)

Most of all, experiment and have fun.

A word about Digital Zoom

2007-01-21T12:07:00.000-06:00

For those of you who own a digital point-and-shoot camera: Digital zoom is a marketing gimmick and nothing remotely useful for photographic purposes. Do. Not. Ever. Use. It.

Stick with optical zoom. Optical zoom records everything that can be captured by the lens itself. Once you go beyond the optical range into digital zoom, the camera begins to split pixels in an effort to digitally enlarge the largest image afforded by the lens. The farther you go into the digital zoom range, the lower the quality of the image.

If you’re trying to capture a picture of Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, a flying saucer or Elvis, I can perhaps see a use for digital zoom. Otherwise, stick to digital zoom.

You'll thank me later. That is, unless you run into Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, a flying saucer or Elvis.

So, what is your camera good for?

2007-01-18T15:24:00.000-06:00

Feeling a little camera envy because you don’t have the latest and greatest or a boatload of accessories? Not confident your camera is able to take great pictures? Try this for a little inspiration (this only works for digital cameras – sorry, filmies):

Head over to Flickr.com. In the lower right corner of the home page, click on “Camera Finder.” Click through the various camera model lists to locate your camera and click the link. Then scroll to the bottom of the page that pops up.

You’ll see some amazing pictures that have been taken with YOUR model of camera and posted to Flickr. A drop-down menu lists various categories of photos that you can explore. Click on the thumbnails to enlarge the pictures or click on the photographers’ names to see even more good stuff.

Then come back here and ask me how you can take pictures like that.

7 ways to improve your pictures!

2007-01-18T14:48:00.000-06:00

Pro photographer Bruce Giffen offers seven pointers for improving the pictures you take. And in true Ready, Aim, Click fashion, these suggestions work no matter what type of camera you own:

1. Use a tripod for every picture for a year! (I’ll explain in a future post why shooting from a tripod is a must-do for every, and I mean EVERY photographer!)

2. TURN OFF THE ON-CAMERA FLASH, especially with digital cameras. It ruins the mood of most pictures. The exception would be the occasional fill flash image outdoors.

3. Break the rules! All of them. Forget the “Rule of Thirds”! Stop centering every picture. Slant the horizons. Distort with a wide angle lens. Shake the camera! Experiment!

4. Stop using gimmicks. Simple, straight photographs don’t need any gimmicks!

5. Break Rule 4!

6. Other peoples’ opinions of your work are not valid. Yes, a comment about a technical item may be appropriate, but YOUR composition isn’t negotiable! They are only telling you how THEY would have taken the photo if they were there, which they weren’t. Trust your own heart … Remember - Picasso would probably have flunked art class!

7. You can just document a subject or you can attempt to photograph the way it makes you feel. Take for example the Eiffel Tower. I doubt that there are any ways left to document it. But there are millions of ways to express the way it makes one feel. Go with your heart! Always!

Troubleshooting: Lost lighthouse

2007-01-17T22:46:00.000-06:00

A friend submitted this photo for a critique and to see if anything could be done to improve it. This is the Crisp Point Lighthouse near Paradise, Michigan on the south shore of Lake Superior. Judging from the shadows, this was probably taken in the early afternoon. The sunlight is quite harsh at midday, and it is always better to try to take outdoor photos in early morning or late afternoon. The light is softer and warmer at those times of day. I know it’s difficult when traveling to make accommodations for early morning or late afternoon shooting, but it’s always worth the effort as far as photos go (this particular lighthouse is way off the beaten path, so you have you take what you get, conditions-wise). My family has come to the understanding that when we’re traveling, dad is going to be out early in the morning and late in the afternoon into early evening taking pictures. The rest of the day is for accompanying the family to shopping or other activities.

But back to the picture at hand. My friend knows enough about composition to put the main subject, the lighthouse, in one of the outer third corners of the picture, but he still came away with the feeling that something may be off. To me, the biggest problem is that the lighthouse seems to be lost in the trees. While my friend established a foreground, middle ground and background in his picture, the trees in the middle ground, through the visual magic of perspective, seem to be as tall as the lighthouse and compete for attention with the tower. So the first order of business is to explore some cropping options to try to isolate the tower and minimize the distraction of the trees.

I explored both a horizontal and vertical crop. I focused on getting the large tree at the left of the picture just out of the frame, keeping as much of the horizon of the lake as possible and minimizing the tall thin pine tree to the right of the tower. I then moved the vertical crop up and down to see if I liked it better with more sky or more foreground foliage. Personally, I prefer the crop with the foliage on the dune, but you can go either way.

A little darkening of the middle tones and a slight boost in color saturation in PhotoShop rounded out my adjustments of the picture. The lighthouse now stands as the undisputed focal point of the photo. By the way, my friend has more photos and some thought-provoking posts at his blog. Check it out.

Do you have a picture you would like critiqued or fixed? Send me an email at jjrdns6[at]aol[dot]com and write "Troubleshooting" in the subject line.

Click on pictures to enlarge.

Add depth to your thinking

2007-01-17T08:39:00.001-06:00

Tranquility
Originally uploaded by James Jordan.

I took a landscape watercolor painting class while studying art in college. The instructor was the stereotypical artist – white hair, goatee, elegant dresser. As we developed our compositions in class, he walked from easel to easel repeating his mantra, “Foreground, middle ground, background … foreground, middle ground, background.”

It was his way of drilling into us the discipline of creating depth by including details from near to far. Too often, beginning landscape photographers focus on the beautiful background in their pictures. If any middle ground detail makes it into their pictures, it’s a happy accident, and foreground is rarely given any thought. The results are rather flat-looking pictures.

The next time you are composing a picture, try to highlight all three zones – foreground, middle ground and background. And this isn't just for landscapes. When I take snapshots of family, I still pay attention to the three zones - it helps establish a sense of place while adding depth to the picture. I shoot the largest percentage of my photos at a wide angle setting, which helps accentuate depth.

Establishing three distinct zones in a photo is tougher than it sounds, and it takes some practice to become consistent at it, but it makes for more interesting photos.

Click on pictures to enlarge. Photographs © 2007 James Jordan.

Going deeper: The power of diagonal lines

2007-01-16T15:44:00.001-06:00

Dusk at South Haven pier
Originally uploaded by James Jordan.

Photographs are two-dimensional images (or at least they will be until they come up with a way to make cheap holograms!). As such, a challenge for photographers is instilling a 3-dimensional quality to their pictures. There are several ways to build depth into a photo. One of the easiest ways is to look for diagonal lines. The eye is trained to interpret diagonal lines as receding into the distance (think railroad tracks or a line of light poles by the side of the road). Any time you can work diagonal lines into a photo, do so. Even better is making the diagonal lines lead to the focal point of the picture.

In the examples here, the converging diagonal lines of the pier and catwalk give the impression of depth (a bonus is the two fishermen framed in the support of the catwalk – a third fisherman is framed further down the pier). In the second photo, the alternating diagonals of the winding walkway emphasize depth.

Now, go out there and get crooked!

Photos © 2006 James Jordan. Click on pictures to enlarge.

Murphy must have been a photographer!

2007-01-16T07:34:00.000-06:00

Some of Murphy’s laws pertaining to photography. I’ve experienced many of these myself!

Automatic cameras aren't

Auto focus won't

If it's stupid but it works, it isn't stupid

Success occurs when no one is looking, failure occurs when everyone is watching

The one item (batteries, film, etc.) you need is always in short supply

Interchangeable parts aren't

Long life batteries only last for a couple of rolls

Weather never cooperates

Everything always works in your home, everything always fails on location

For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism

There is always a way, and it usually doesn't work

Stunning nature shots invariably happen on two occasions: 1)When animals or the weather are ready. 2) When you're not.

Same rule just substitute children

The important things are always simple

The simple things are always hard

A clean (and dry) camera is a magnet for dust, mud and moisture

Photo experience is something you never get until just after you need it

Lenses are attracted back to their source - hard rocks. Corollary: The more expensive the lens, the greater the attraction.

The greater a photographer's excitement, the greater the chance of fogging film, scratching prints, and deleting files.

As posted in the forums at fredmiranda.com. Hat tip to Denver Photo on Flickr.

Troubleshooting: Underexposed portrait

2007-01-13T22:34:00.001-06:00

Turning teenager
Originally uploaded by Phil Widewood.

There are a number of groups on Flickr where beginning photographers post their pictures for others to critique and offer advice. Some of them ask others to “fix” their pictures for them in a computer photo editing program. Ready, Aim, Click will feature some of those photographs from time to time to pass along some tips to help you make better pictures.

This is a candid photo of a gentleman’s 13-year-old daughter. She’s making the transition from childhood to adulthood and anyone who has raised teenagers knows *that* look. This photo is quite nicely done; the framing is good, as is the focus. It successfully captures a spontaneous moment in the life of a young adolescent. The photographer did well in using a zoom setting. Facial features are portrayed better with moderate zooms than with wide-angle or extreme zoom (professional portrait photographers use a moderate telephoto lens).

There is a problem with the exposure, however. The bright background behind the girl tricked the camera into thinking the subject was brighter than it really was and rendered the photo too dark overall. The photographer should have used an exposure value (EV) of +1 to compensate. The girl’s creamy complexion and gorgeous green eyes are lost. The second photo shows the portrait with the exposure corrected in PhotoShop. There are the eyes!

The third photo shows a tighter crop on the face and a softer focus on the girl’s ear. For some reason, having it in sharp focus was a distraction from the main part of the picture – her eyes.

Do you have a photo that you'd like critiqued? Fixed? Send an email to jjrdns6[at]aol.com and write "Troubleshooting" in the subject line.

Top photo: Turning Thirteen posted by Phil Widewood on Flickr. Click on pictures to enlarge. Ready, Aim, Click © 2007 James Jordan.

Bringing interest to the obligatory “we were there” pictures

2007-01-10T21:37:00.000-06:00

You know the ones. You visit the mountains or the rocky beach or the untamed wilderness and you line up everyone to stand in a group to look straight into the camera with whatever gorgeous scenery you can still squeeze into the frame behind them. The result is usually a little too much of each (loved ones and scenery) and not enough of either.

When traveling, I’ll usually take one of the above-mentioned shots just to make those who insist on that type of thing happy. Then I’ll go to work creating an environmental portrait of each person who came along. We didn’t come to the place to stand in front of it; we came to see it, to experience it, to interact with it. So that’s the way I want to depict us. I will take candid or loosely posed pictures of people interacting with the environment, not standing stock-still in front of it.

I’ll take photos that show more environment than person, then switch to show more person than environment, leaving just enough clues as to where we were. I also follow some of the other tips I've mentioned on this blog (change your altitude, get out of the center, etc.). What I’ll wind up with is a good variety of interesting shots that then become excellent fodder for scrapbooking (for my wife), or in my case, photo blogging.

These are some photos of the ladies in my life (wife and daughters) along the Lake Michigan shoreline in northern Wisconsin. They give a good sense of the places we visited as well as the special people in my life who visited there. And they're a lot more interesting than if they had stood stock-still in front of the camera.

Rule of thumb: Red rule

2007-01-07T11:05:00.000-06:00

I learned the Red Rule from a newspaper photographer. He simply told me, "If you see red, shoot it!" Since then, I've taken note of all the red that shows up in photos that appear in newspapers and news magazines. There's even a group at Flickr dedicated to following the Red Rule, to which I've submitted a few scarlet scatterings of my own.

Red commands attention. These photos show a frame full of red and just a spot of red in a scene, and that both can be effective in drawing attention. So get out there and shoot some pictures that will have your viewers seeing red.

Photographs © 2007 James Jordan. Click on pictures to enlarge.

Seeing the way a camera sees, Part 2

2007-01-05T15:24:00.000-06:00

The camera sees less than half of what you can see

Where the camera has the human eye beat as far as the detail it can “notice,” the human eye humiliates the camera when it comes to the amount of light it can detect.

If the human eye were a camera, it would be able to adjust from an ISO range of 1 to 800. That gives us the ability to distinguish about 10,000 levels of light from total black to total white (about 10 and a half stops). The camera (or rather, film or a digital sensor) can at best record about 5 stops of light at any given ISO rating.

So, on average, your camera will not even be able to record half of the tonal range of what you see in a given scene. This will explain why what you could clearly see in the shadows of a brightly lit scene come out as a totally black blob in your photo. Or why those details in the snow are lost in a glare of white on your computer screen or print.

To give yourself an idea what your camera will record in a given scene, squint your eyes until they are a little less than halfway open. If you don't like what you see, you probably won't like a photograph taken of it either.

The best way to help the camera out is to avoid as much as possible taking pictures in very contrasty lighting, such as that found at midday. The light found a half-hour either side of sunrise and sunset (referred to by photographers as the “golden hours”) is less intense and more ideally suited to the limitations of the camera.

If you find yourself having to shoot in bright, contrasty light, the use of a flash unit to “fill in” shadow areas can improve your results.

Seeing the way a camera sees, Part 1:

2007-01-03T21:47:00.000-06:00

For better or (usually) worse, it sees everything

How many times have you stumbled across what seemed to be a picture-perfect scene, raised your camera and clicked away, only to be disappointed in the results? Where did those huge black areas come from? Why are the highlights blown out, and how did that lovely grove of trees become a big jangle of haphazard branches? Why are the faces so dark? They looked just fine in the viewfinder!

The simple explanation is that the camera does not “see” a scene the same way the human eye does. It captures the scene on its own terms, not necessarily yours. Once you learn the limitations of the camera, you can begin to use those characteristics to your advantage, and you’ll find yourself becoming victimized less and less.

Cameras differ from human vision in two main ways (there are others, but for the beginner, overcoming these two will keep one plenty busy). The first way is that the camera sees absolutely everything that is placed before it, where humans have a tendency toward selective vision – seeing what we want to see and disregarding the rest. You see your lovely children posed on the beach. The camera sees the distant post growing out of your child’s head, the tangle of kelp in the corner of the picture and the seagull flying at the odd angle in the background as if to attack your subject.

When setting up your shot, purposely take a few seconds to scan the entire frame and force yourself to look for potential distractions, then remove them or reposition yourself to eliminate them. The handler of the great horned owl at the right was quite patient as I spent a couple of minutes shifting myself around in an effort to eliminate as many distracting background elements as I could. I moved in closer, zoomed in with my lens and used aperture priority with a low f-stop to throw the background out of focus – three things you can do to help defeat the camera’s tendency to be brutally honest. (And by the way, when shooting closeups of people or animals, try to focus on the eyes.)

Tip: Avoid the middle of the frame

2007-01-01T18:47:00.000-06:00

A sure giveaway of a newbie photographer is a picture that neatly centers the subject smack dab in the middle of the frame. Here’s a tip: Avoid the middle as much as you can.

Classic rules of composition divide the viewing area into thirds: Two lines divide the vertical and horizontal dimensions of your photograph. Where the vertical and horizontal lines cross are where the subject tends to look best. While this rule is not always hard and fast, you’ll find that most photos taken by competent photographers place the subject in the vicinity of these intersections.

There will be times when a symmetrical composition is called for with a subject centered either vertically or horizontally in the frame, but for now, concentrate on getting your subjects out of the center.

Searching for Mr. Good Light

2007-01-01T18:13:00.000-06:00

Early morning and late afternoon offer the best light of the day. The sun is low in the sky, harsh shadows are minimized and the light is warmer. Try to avoid taking pictures outdoors at midday, when the light is harsher, cooler and casts nearly vertical shadows.

Overcast days provide soft, even light that allow you to capture a full range of detail in your photos. Overcast skies can be quite dull, so try to minimize the amount of sky in your photos on these days.

In the absence of advanced lighting equipment, pleasing portraits can be made outdoors on overcast days. Moving the subject into a shaded area on a sunny day also works well. Be careful, however, to minimize bright sunny areas in the background behind your subject.

Tip: Look for leading lines

2006-12-30T16:03:00.000-06:00

One of the first things I do when looking for a location to set up my camera for a shot is to search for anything which will create a strong line leading to the subject. It can be a fencerow, a shoreline, road or fence – anything that can help lead the viewer’s eye to the area of the picture in which the main subject resides.

The sunrise photo at the right employs a fence and roadway to lead the eye to the rising morning sun, while the shadows of the cows themselves in the photo below serve to act as leading lines.

Take some time to look through my photos on my photo blog, Points of Light, or at my photo site on Flickr and try to identify the photos where leading lines were used. Some are very obvious, while others are more subtle.

Tip: Find a frame

2006-12-30T15:38:00.000-06:00

You can add interest to a photograph by framing your subject on two or more sides of the picture. Trees, rocks, fences or other natural or man-made objects can offer a number of possibilities.

For example, while photographing the Cape Hatteras lighthouse on North Carolina’s outer banks, I squeezed myself into a wooded thicket at the edge of the clearing where the lighthouse stands and used the brush to frame the lighthouse.

In the case of the lower photograph, taken at the south rim of the Grand Canyon at twilight, two trees and an old fortress provide a frame for the deepening sky, the moon and the figure standing at the edge of the canyon.

Sometimes, finding a frame is a happy accident, so be on the lookout while scouting an area in which you are taking pictures. Other times will take some ingenuity and perseverance to create a framing effect.

Tip: Change your altitude

2006-12-22T18:46:00.000-06:00

We go through the bulk of our days looking at everything from eye level – for most of us, about five feet above the ground. We’re just used to it. And most of the photographs people shoot are shot from the same altitude – five feet above ground.

Moving your camera out of the five-foot rut draws interest simply because your photo will offer a vantage point that most of us don’t experience all that often. So an easy way to add interest to your pictures is to change your altitude. Get up or get down – take pictures from up above your subject, or lower yourself (and your camera) as much as possible.

Try different levels when photographing a subject, then take note of those which you like, and more importantly, those that garner approving comments from people who view your photos.