American Photo Safari - Blog

Creating Compositions in the Garden District

2013-04-21T20:56:21+00:00

APS Instructor Natasha Sanchez gives some insight into the Garden District Photo Safari.

Large plantations once sat on the grounds of what is now known as the Garden District in New Orleans. The neighborhood gets its name from the elaborate gardens that separated the parcels of land acquired by wealthy cotton merchants and businessmen in the 19th century. Today, the Garden District is home to large mansions and hosts a plethora of photographic opportunities.

Through our lens, we have the ability to create an assortment of photographs with even just one subject. In the Garden District, it’s the architecture, with its display of various styles from Greek Revival to Victorian Gingerbread, that takes center stage - and we want to be able to capture it as best we can.

Highlighting the nomenclature of the neighborhood itself can give us a good vantage point for composition, as does shooting from below and getting in close.

Not only are using flowers descriptive of the location, they also give you a chance to work with your macro settings or lenses.

Or, if flowers aren’t your thing, remember we are on a safari - there are plenty of creatures lurking about…

The stately homes of the Garden District don’t have to be photographed straight on. Using the compositional technique of framing, either in the foreground or around the subject, not only emphasizes the subject matter, it also aids in creating mystery and helps to set the mood of the photograph.

Looking for patterns and lines also helps to create dynamic images and creative compositions. Ironwork and painted shutters aren’t only in the French Quarter. These classic New Orleans architectural fixtures lend even more depth and intrigue to your photos.

Opening creative channels and thinking about compositions naturally lends itself to seeing subjects in new and different ways.

A stroll through the Garden District with its rich history and southern uniqueness, provides a perfect setting to capture and compose some truly lasting images.

APS Instructor Natasha Sanchez has been photographing the Garden District for over a decade. She recently published a book of Garden District lumen prints, a vintage alternative photographic process, called “Crescent City Illumenations: Lumen Prints & Insights from New Orleans’ Garden District”.

Only Show Your Best Work

2013-03-05T00:18:08+00:00

by Chris Loomis

“Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop.” - Ansel Adams

Every photographer takes bad photos. Even the pros don’t get every shot perfectly composed, lit and in-focus on the first try. It usually takes a few bad shots to get one good photo. But that’s OK, it’s just part of the process. In other visual arts, we might have several test sketches, color combinations and light studies. The difference between photography and other art forms is that a painter would never dream of showing their sketches and studies to the public.

Photographers today post too much and don’t edit well. We are supposed to be storytellers. Posting 27 pictures of the same flower, with half of them out of focus, is not good storytelling. You are actually insulting your audience. Think about what you are really telling them when you go and dump your entire trip’s worth of photos out on Facebook - “I didn’t feel like taking the time to weed out all of the bad shots I took (because my time is too valuable), yet I expect you to slog through all of them anyway (because your time is not)”.

The sad thing is that several of those shots in that group may be great, but no one will ever really see them, as they are lost amongst all of the other mediocre ones.

Taken to the extreme.

Of course, this is satire. But with all good satire, there is a kernel of truth.

The thing to understand is that part of becoming a great photographer means learning how to pick out your best images.

When I choose which images of mine I want to share online I am very selective and only show photos that I am proud of. I want to focus my viewers’ attention on the photographs that I think are the best, and show them what I am fully capable of creating. For example, I took a 4 month journey around Central and South America and came home with over 4,000 shots. I narrowed them down to 12 for a calendar.

If all that people ever see of your photography is the top 1% of your work, they will think that you are a great photographer. The hard part is that you have to be a good enough editor of your own work to know what the top 1% is.

So how do I select my best images?

Step 1: When you load your photos on to your computer, do a quick scan through them. Using the example above of the 27 pictures of the same flower, pick only one. Move all of the ones that survive the first cut to a separate folder (or tag them). If you are keeping more than 10% - 15%, that is too many. If you keep telling yourself that you can fix bad photos in Photoshop - Stop. You may be able to take a 9/10 photo to a 10/10, but you will never take a 5/10 photo to a 10/10. Garbage in, garbage out.

Step 2: Go do something else for a few days. Come back and look through the first round of winners with fresh eyes. Many times, shots that you previously agonized over are now a simple decision whether to keep or kill.

Step 3: What story does each of the remaining photos tell? Does it evoke an emotion? Does it convey a message? Remember, this isn’t about your story as a photographer taking the photograph, but the photograph itself. If it doesn’t really tell a story, off to the junk folder it goes. Spend some time looking at the work of well-respected photographers to get a sense of what makes a great photograph great.

Step 4: There are people in our lives who tell us what we want to hear and those that tell us what we need to hear. Find one of the latter and get their opinion on your remaining photos.

Step 5: The final cut. You are a ruthless dictator that rules with an iron fist. Whatever survives is your top 1%. These are the ones we clean up in our photo-editing software.

Now, you may release your amazing shots into the world, confident that these are your very best!

3 Tips for Photographing Mardi Gras from APS instructor Natasha Sanchez

2013-02-10T22:03:53+00:00

Carnival Season has arrived!

The city is adorned in purple, green & gold in anticipation of the biggest celebration of the year:

The possibilites for photographing are, of course, endless. From the decorations to the floats, to the costumed revelers and everything in between, here are a few tips to creating interesting Fat Tuesday images.

1.) Costume. Hahaha. A common mistake among many photographers is thinking you have to be outside the action to capture the action.
This is New Orleans - rules don’t apply! Grab your camera & a costume, a simple boa will suffice, and get in on the fun! You might even become a subject yourself!

2.) Apply all those fun compositional techniques you learned about during one of our workshops…

- Leading Lines - Mardi Gras finds all kinds of opportunites to explore this technique.

- Get In Close -

- Add details in the foreground to further illustrate the story of your image -

- Don’t rule out shadows! -

- Use Color. Look for matching colors or interesting contrasts -

- Shoot in Black and White - It adds a “documentary style” to your photographs, and helps tell the ‘real’ story behind all those costumes you see - like last minute eyelash additions..

3.) The Most Important Tip in Photographing Mardi Gras - HAVE FUN!
(oh, and bring an umbrella..)

Photography In The Age of Instagram

2012-10-26T19:28:08+00:00

By Peter Timko

The democratization and socialization of photography has brought about one of the most fascinating changes in visual communication since man started smearing crude inks on the walls of caves. To really understand the full impact we have to go back a few years.

In the early days of photography cameras were huge, heavy boxes and photographic negatives were made of glass, which were heavy and difficult to transport. Taking a photograph of something was no small effort. Because of the time, effort and expense, photographers were pretty selective about the photos they took. When families decided to get their picture taken it cost a lot of money, at least in relative terms, and people dressed up for the occasion.

Over the years the cost of photography came down and the camera lens captured more of our ordinary lives and selves. By the time film started coming out in rolls mistakes were less costly in terms of effort and expense. Photographers discovered they could shoot first and check the results later. No more did people need to sit in wide-eyed immobility lest they blink during the shot. Now photographers could shoot dozens of frames from different angles, looking for just one unique view.

In the transition to digital even the meager expense of getting the film processed at a lab was no longer necessary. There was no technical art to worry about; taking pictures became as easy as pushing a button.

And did we ever start pushing that button. We took so many pictures people didn’t even want to bother carrying a camera, we wanted that camera to be part of our phone. Pretty soon the camera was part of every moment of everyone’s lives. The cave walls were replaced by the Facebook wall and the entire world could see a photo of what we had for lunch. We became bombarded with visual stimuli and at the same time how we as viewers valued that stimuli changed as well.

Now there has been a subtle but profound shift in photography. The question is no longer whether you can take compelling images, but whether you can make your images rise above a living visual flood.

Today eyes equal money and those with the ability to attract eyes to their images are the ones who can reap profits. Whether that attraction is through technical excellence and sophisticated photography skill or pure, dumb luck is no longer relevant, although one could argue that having the photographic skill raises your chances of getting that magnificent shot. Luck has a tendency to favor the skillful and prepared.

If you want to be a professional photographer, a big part of that job is figuring out how to separate your work from an ocean of images. To understand how you’re going to attract the eyes that lead to the money. It’s no longer enough to have a great camera and an eye for a great photo, now you also have to be an expert on promoting your images.

You’ll learn even more with Proud Photography - one of the best online photography courses available today.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Peter_Timko

Photography Depth of Field Explained

2012-07-08T18:48:42+00:00

by Michael McCarthy

Over my nearly twenty years of teaching university photography classes, I’ve come to discover that one area that students often have the hardest time mastering is depth of field. Whereas beginning students usually manage pretty well to work with their cameras in manual mode which forces them to make their own selections of apertures and shutter speeds, they often seem to overlook creating images with a limited area of focus as the valuable tool it is for creating striking images.

Actually, I think one explanation for why this approach isn’t explored more by many students is that they aren’t active enough when they’re out shooting. They see something in the distance that interests them and I fear too often they just take the shot from that point and don’t investigate much further.

What, then, is “depth of field” (or DoF, for short)? Basically, it’s the term we use to describe the area in the photograph which is in acceptable focus from the point nearest to the camera to the point furthest from the camera. What’s interesting about this concept is precisely that this distance can change radically according to different settings and choices made by the photographer.

What Creates Different Ranges of Focus?

1. Aperture size. Large aperture openings like f 2, f 2.8 will have among the shortest or shallowest of range of focus. Smaller openings like f 11, f 16 and f 22 will have a progressively bigger depth of field as the opening is smaller (bigger numbers = smaller openings)

2. Lens type. Wide angle lenses will tend to have a greater range of focus than will longer telephoto lenses. The same will be true even with zoom lenses-when you’re set to a more wide angle setting such as 35 mm or smaller, you’ll have a bigger depth of field than if the lens is set at 100 mm or higher.

3. Focal distance. This may actually be the most important setting to impact whether you have a very narrow or very wide range of focus. If the absolute focus point is set on a point less than a meter (a few feet) from the camera you will have a much shallower depth of field than if your focal point is 10 meters or more from the camera.

Consequently, although an f 2.8 setting where you focus on a subject less than a meter from the camera will have a shallower range of focus than if you take the same picture with a smaller aperture (f 8, 11, 16, etc.), they will all be relatively shallow DoF precisely because the camera is focused very close.

Therefore, one is likely to find that the DoF will become narrower as one moves into tighter quarters which prevent focusing on objects at a greater distance. Now, why is all this important? Clearly, when something is in focus it draws the attention of the viewer more than something which is out of focus. In this way, a shallow range of focus can help direct the viewer toward parts of the picture which seem more important. Likewise, to take a portrait against a background that is a bit distracting, a shallow DoF which limits the area in focus primarily to the subject would allow the background to become softer and therefore less distracting.

Michael McCarthy writes art/photo exhibit reviews and articles about issues in the arts for the Atelier Vagabond blog while also offering short photo tours, workshops and classes in these areas in the Paris, France region. Visit the Atelier vagabond site to learn more about class offerings: http://www.ateliervagabond.com. To see samples of Michael’s work in photography, visit his personal site: http://www.michael-mccarthy.com.

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The Ugly Duckling: Defining Your Photography Style

2012-05-18T19:20:29+00:00

I spend a lot of my free time on the web exploring the work of professional and amateur photographers for ideas and inspiration. What I have discovered is that there is a lot of mediocrity out there and most of this is due to what I call a “lack of style.” Now, before you get your knickers in a knot (you other photographers) I place myself firmly and squarely in that category of having a lot of mediocrity circulating out there for public consumption. This got me thinking, how can I improve on my photos? My conclusion - image style!

Surf the web today and you will find a plethora of photographers at all levels whose portfolios are nothing but a schizophrenic journey through colour, B&W, HDR, IR and God knows what else. Most of which is pure rubbish simply due to a lack of style. At this point you are probably thinking, “What is this style thingy this nut bag is talking about?” Think of it as your signature. there are many great photographers out there who possess what are easily recognizable signatures to their photos. Adams, Beckerman, Gruen are a few for whom I can easily identify their work by looking at their photos simply because they possess a certain look uniquely their own - their signature, their style.

So why is this important? In my constant search to define myself and my photography I have laboured long and hard to figure out who, and more importantly, what is my focus in photography. You hear photographers talk about their genre with terms such as “Landscape Photographer”, “Wildlife Photographer”, “Street Photographer”, etc. I think it is important to specialize, to focus on a particular field of photography. Nevertheless, many photographers, such as myself, take a wide variety of photographs many of which are outside their chosen specialty either for fun or for necessity (such as here on Ecuador Unplugged). In the end though, I firmly believe if you specialize then at least 90 to 95% of your photography time should be focused on that area.

Specialization is important but it does not go far enough, most photographers stop at this point in terms of defining their work and leave out the most important aspect - creating a distinctive image style all their own. Sure, the images are cleaned up, the colour adjusted, and over Photoshopped etc. In the end each photo is completely different from the next leaving the viewers with little to no sense of a present or emerging style from the photographer.

Your Style Defines Your Images

Creating an individualistic style for your work is an evolutionary process in photography. You must experiment and dabble for some time before you can truly determine how your images will look. Rarely will you be fortunate enough to stumble upon your own unique signature immediately. There are many aspects to defining your own style for your work and I have narrowed this down to three key components to help you along the way.

Medium

What is your medium of choice? Is it colour, black and white, HDR, etc? Find a medium and stick to it, let it define you. There is nothing more distracting than looking at a portfolio that is all over the map, some B&W, some HDR, some IR, some colour. It tells me that the photographer does not know what he/she likes and really is either appealing to the masses or has not settled on, or cares about, their style. Similar to my specialization rule at least 95% of my focused work will be in the medium of choice, in my case B&W. Yes there are always exceptions, but do not let those exceptions overshadow the rule.

Look & Feel - aka Signature

Probably the most difficult and time-consuming component of determining your individual style of photography and the most fun. Trial and error and countless processing experiments in what ever photo processing tool you use will help you refine the look and feel of your style. Keep in mind the mood, and subject of your genre and through a lot of fine tuning you will eventually create the processing tools necessary to give your images that unique style that will tell the viewer this is YOUR photograph. Establishing presets, and formulas will help you to pump out your styled photos faster once you have established the correct tuning of your images. Don’t be afraid to use the programs at your disposal and don’t be discouraged when most of your images do not turn out the way you envision. After all this is a marathon not a sprint, but when you get the right formula you can move on to the third element.

Consistency

Ok, so you have your genre, you have your primary medium and you have refined your look and feel to the point you now have a signature style that you will apply to your images. Now the most important and perhaps the most difficult component to implement, consistency. It is tempting for anyone to continually tweak and change things, but in this case you need to let go of this. Minor adjustments and tweaks will always be part of the process as long as it does not radically alter your look and feel - otherwise you will have a completely different signature. Consistently apply your signature to your images. Think of this as “branding” from a marketing perspective - if you are continually changing your brand, brand message and brand image you will confuse and lose your customer base (whether paying customers or simply fans). This is why consistent application of your signature style is important to not only your images but your brand.

Conclusion

Some observations to consider in developing your signature style and a lasting portfolio. Processing software is a great boon and a horrible curse to photography. Avoid at all cost “gimmicky” tricks to your photography, while fun to play with things like selective colouring, horses jumping out of colour frames into B&W back grounds and over Photoshopped images, these really do not stand the test of time. Read what most of the great photographers of our era, and bygone eras, say regarding processing photos - if it can’t be done in less than five minutes don’t do it. Then look at their work and you will see that most are simple, without bells and whistles and flashing lights but they have a unique signature all their own.

Whether you agree or not, defining your style is an important feature of your work. I look forward to taking this journey with you, and I have lots of work ahead in refining and defining my own signature style but I know it will be an exciting adventure.

I spend a lot of my free time on the web exploring the work of professional and amateur photographers for ideas and inspiration. What I have discovered is that there is a lot of mediocrity out there and most of this is due to what I call a “lack of style.” Now, before you get your knickers in a knot (you other photographers) I place myself firmly and squarely in that category of having a lot of mediocrity circulating out there for public consumption. This got me thinking, how can I improve on my photos? My conclusion - image style!

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The Inner Workings of a Camera

2012-04-17T04:42:54+00:00

by Travis Silver

When I first started out in photography school, I thought I was already ahead of the game, as I’d been doing photography for a long time. My photographs were good, solid, and to some degree, I’d already begun developing my own style. Though I soon concluded that there was still much to be learned via photography schools, one thing that I hadn’t really considered, and that proved utterly vital to my advancement as a photographer, was getting a core understanding of how the camera works.

Prior to mastering the camera’s technical aspects, I pretty much got by on my instincts as a photographer, and of course I knew the basics-setting lens speeds, focusing my lens, sometimes adding a filter, and then clicking away. And it’s true that I got some pretty good shots, but it wasn’t until I really started discovering the ins and outs of the camera’s technical aspects at photography school that I really began to have much more control as in my own photography.

Here are some things that you’ll no doubt learn at one of the good photography schools, but also if you’re early on in your photography career, these are good and helpful things to keep in mind regarding how a camera actually works.

Though the word “photography” is actually a French word, it’s based on the Greek one, which when translated means “drawing with light”. An interesting and poetic way to think about it, isn’t it? The truth is, that’s really what photography is about-seeing and balancing with light. And at its core, it’s quite simple, because if you don’t have any light, you also don’t have a photograph.

When you’re taking photographs, the source of the light comes from your object; it then passes through the camera’s lens, through the aperture and shutter and onto the camera’s sensor.

The Lens. A camera’s lens is made up of a series of differently shaped pieces of glass. It’s the point where the light enters, and if your picture is in focus, the light will then meet on the sensor.

The Aperture. Understanding how the aperture works is one of the most vital parts of photography. The aperture itself is an opening, placed inside the lens that controls the amount of light that hits the sensor. Prior to attending photography school, I of course had a basic understanding of what the aperture did, but learning more about it, I came to realize what an important component the aperture really is.

A large aperture will let in much more light than a smaller one. In addition to controlling the amount of light, the aperture also affects the speed, the depth of field, the sharpness and other vital aspects of the photograph.

F-numbers or f-stops point to the diameter of the aperture. For each full stop that you decrease the f-number by, the amount of light doubles (and then lowers when increasing the f-stop). So a higher f-number equals a smaller aperture, which equals less light. A lower f-number equals a larger aperture, which equals more light. Photographers refer to f-stops in the following format (note that the numbers here are also referred to as full-stop f-numbers): f/1.4, f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, f/22, and f/32.

The Shutter. The shutter is another important aspect of the camera/photography, as it controls how long the sensor is exposed to light. When the shutter is open longer, it’s able to capture more light. A quicker shutter speed will freeze a moving object, whereas a slower one will capture the motion of the object.

Like the aperture, the shutter also has full-stops, which are referred to most commonly as 1/1000 s 1/500 s 1/250 s 1/125 s 1/60 s 1/30 s 1/15 s 1/8 s 1/4 s 1/2 s 1 s.

ISO. ISO measures the film speed, or its sensitivity to light. Since digital cameras don’t use film, in a digital camera the ISO will actually affect the shutter, but the principal outcome of how it all works is the same for both types of cameras.

ISO speeds are commonly seen as: ISO 50 100 200 400 800 1600 3200. A higher ISO requires less time to give the same amount of exposure as a lower ISO.

ISO can be your best friend when you’re shooting indoors and the lighting is poor. And when you have bad lighting, you’ll definitely want to use a higher ISO. But if you’re outdoors and you have good lighting, you should always use a low ISO.

Photography school can be a great asset when learning these aspects of the trade, but even if photography schools aren’t on your immediate agenda, learning the ins and outs of how a camera works will, I guarantee, improve your photography immensely.

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Top 10 Do’s and Don’ts When Buying a Camera

2012-01-30T23:33:02+00:00

By Michelle Bowden

Recently several of my friends have asked me what I look for when choosing a new digital camera, so I decided to put together my top 10 do’s and don’ts. This isn’t meant to be an exhaustive guide, but should certainly help you prepare for shopping!

1) DO know the difference between cameras - find out what compact, bridge and SLR cameras are & don’t let a salesman tell you a bridge camera is an SLR - it’s not! Decide which type you need (not everyone needs an SLR).

2) DON’T overpay! Research before you hand over your money - know how much cameras cost and where you can get them cheaper.

3) DO get to know your camera before buying it. Get the feel of several different cameras and see how they feel in your hands. Make a note of the weight, the strap, the buttons and how easy it is to grip.

4) DON’T forget your warranty. Check the manufacturer’s warranty and consider purchasing an extended one - accidents happen to the best of us!

5) DO know your budget and don’t go over it! A good camera needn’t cost the earth - it’s how you use it that matters.

6) DON’T always necessarily buy the highest megapixel you can find. 10 to 12 megapixels is enough for printing large photos.

7) DO be very careful when buying on eBay - remember to check the seller’s history, get an accurate description of the camera and find out their returns policy.

8) DON’T forget to check out the kit lens specification - if it’s not what you were after, consider buying a camera body and lens separately. Many photographers have several lenses for different types of shots, so don’t be afraid to get a couple when you first start out.

9) DO get yourself booked into a photography course, there’s no point in having a camera that doesn’t get used to its maximum potential. A good quality tutor/teacher will help you get the best from any camera kit.

10) DON’T forget spares! A spare battery and memory card will always be handy!

I hope this has given you some insight into the things you should be bearing in mind when in the market for a new digital camera, and I hope you enjoy your shopping trip!

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Photography: How to Stay Inspired

2011-12-05T21:41:52+00:00

Photography is the art of capturing the original scene that you see in front of your eyes through an electronic device called Camera. The art not only illustrates the originality of the images but also give large scope for changing or manipulating the very nature of them.

The required changes or illustrations can be done effectively through amazing software known as “Photoshop”. You need not rely on Photoshop for every alteration that you prefer instead your camera settings and some of its functions can help you in bringing out the feel.

Photography might bore you down when you come around same venues and do the same type of shooting every time you pick up the camera. To maintain the professionalism in photography one has to stay inspired and stay in line with the latest technology.

When you do not have that inspiration, your work will definitely show your disinterest. Today people who want your service can very well estimate your inspiration towards photography. You must know the tactic of pleasing the clients with your photography skills. You have to prove them that you offer unique services and excite them with captivating images.

To stay inspired with Photography, here are the few suggested methods that will sculpt you to be an eminent photographer.

View Movies - By watching movies that are skillfully shot you can enhance your technical skills. Here you are observing the movements with your own eyes and the visual interpretations are always well registered in the human minds. You have to look for the lighting and ideas that the cinematographers used to make the movie appreciable.

Visit Cities - Visit the nearest cities and capture the monuments, architecture, lifestyle and nightlife of people living there.

Visit Zoos - Taking pictures in a zoo is not an easy task, as you have to hide all the barricades that obstruct your views. This is the place where you can capture the close movements of animals that are comparatively difficult in an open forest. Try to show that you have shot the animals from a close distance.

Time of Shooting - Do not stick always to the daytime shooting. Show some variations by shooting images somewhere in the dusk or early morning. This will give you enough knowledge about the light variations and the filters that you can conveniently use to capture a good image.

Web Sites - To stay connected with the current market need you have to go through a few stock sites that offer competitive images. You can collect some ideas as well as know the commercial needs.

Sports - This gives you the opportunity of capturing the speed. Capturing images of objects that are in motion requires specific talent. It is highly regarded as a photography skill as you bring out the clarity in motion. Your interest in the sports also brings out your real skill.

Get Into The Crowd - Clicking images in the crowd is a special talent. This only develops when you start clicking images from your living street and extend further. Street photography offers you many good things to capture and is popular in the photography world.

Go Underwater - You are getting into a different world. You need not be a diver for this purpose and it is enough that you protect the camera with proper waterproof materials. More captivating images can be got on the surface of the water where you get ample light.

View Packaging Materials - An example for this is a CD packaging material, which always try to bear an eye catchy image. The photography skill involved in this also highly contributes to the sales volume.

Different Lenses - Try shooting images with different lenses. Best landscape photographs are derived through using various lenses.

Participate in Competitions - It is not enough that you concentrate only on accumulating skills. Your skills have to be examined to stay in the market. The only way to identify where you stand lies in participating in various photography competitions.

Use Different Cameras - When you generally work with digital camera try using film and vice versa.

Help Society - Your photography skill will provide you more solace when you help the society with it. You can teach others or contribute to society by offering free services.

Photoshop - You can give new touches to your images using Photoshop. Photoshop offer wonderful tools that can bring colours in your images. As a photographer, an excellent knowledge in Photoshop is a must.

Portrait Photography - Taking photographs of models requires high skills and is an ever-rewarding job as the fashion is ever changing.

Photography Organizations - Always aspire to become a member in Photography organization and participate in discussions. This will yield you more photography friends and support for your profession.

Blogging - This gives you an opportunity to write your experiences in the field of photography. This might help other struggling photographers to develop their skills and also provide you some fresh inputs.

Read Blogs - Reading blogs created by other photographers will inspire you in many ways. This is where you get new ideas for developing your photography skills in various dimensions. You will also get some tips for selling your work.

Read Books - This is something like a dictionary that you will refer at the time of need. Owning excellent books on photography is also one way of developing your skill. You can come across lots of techniques that great people have adopted.

New Cameras - This is one great way of staying inspired with photography. New equipment will generally carry new features, which everybody likes to try. You also tend to get new ideas when you start working with new equipment.

Generally all images come with a spark of inspiration. Inspiration differs in each photographer. It is often difficult to stay with the same inspiration throughout the career. By adopting the above-suggested tips, a photographer can positively stay inspired throughout his/her career.

Rhommel Bernardino is the creator and webmaster of http://photographyarticles.net. He is a freelance photographer based in Toronto, Canada and has been shooting weddings, events, portraits, fashion, glamour and nudes for the last 5 years. He is also organizes photographic events like photo shootouts and occasionally hosts photography workshops in and around Toronto.

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Mastering The Art Of Sports Photography With Your Digital Camera

2011-11-09T00:45:52+00:00

For sports enthusiasts, there’s nothing more exciting than sports people playing their favorite game. The sight of the field, rink or golf course initiates the thrill and anticipation. This, combined with digital photography, can provide some amazing photographic opportunities. However, it’s not a matter of pointing the camera at the person diving for the ball or puck and snapping away. It’s a lot more complicated than that.

In digital photography, sports can be quite challenging. The sports people do not present an easy task of being photographed because of the high amount of movement. However, you can indeed achieve great sports digital photography. Most excellent sports digital photography requires good planning and execution.

Here are some exclusive tips for gaining fantastic sports shots in your digital photography:

First things first; know your digital camera. I recommend taking note and practicing first all the settings that sports photography needs. You may find yourself going for the faster shutter speed, increased ISO and burst mode. Let’s take a look at all these things on your digital camera and see how they can be applied to give you sensational sports photos.

High shutter speeds:

As with all moving objects, in order to capture the “frozen in time” look in digital photography a fast shutter speed is required. The faster the movement, the faster the shutter speed will need to be. In digital photography the general consensus is that the shutter speed needs to be faster than that of the subject. For example if you have a sliding puck across ice and there is a someone about to take a dive for it then its necessary to quickly mentally assess how fast that person might be traveling at. If they are traveling at approximately 50 kilometers (approx 32 miles) per hour then you may find a very fast shutter speed is needed for this digital photo.

A very fast shutter speed in digital photography may be anything from 1/500th of a second or higher. For high speed movement you may want to consider an even faster shutter speed of 1/1000th of a second or something in that range.

Keep in mind that in digital photography a fast shutter speed works to reduce some of the light which is why a higher ISO is often necessary. (I’ll talk about that in a minute.) Usually, with a ball, such as a baseball going at around 145 kilometers an hour (90.09 miles per hour), a shutter speed of around 1/4000 will get you that “suspended ball in mid air” type of photo. For physical movement, such as someone leaping to catch a football, a shutter speed of 1/500 or over is a good place to start.

Now this is all very well if your scene if well lit. But what if you are taking your digital photography shots indoors at night and the light is not quite enough to provide enough light? In most instances, an indoor stadium at night time will be well lit, but that doesn’t always ensure good digital photos. In sports photography we need to understand that we can only control the artistic value and input of our digital photo and the control of the camera. We can’t control the lighting on the scene of a public event. In digital photography sports photos, we must realize that it’s going to be a challenge to begin with. So here are some things you can do in your digital sports photography to increase the amount of light.

If you have a light tool on your digital camera such as a histogram you can get a good idea of what the light levels are like on your sensor. With this handy tool you can adjust the ISO at the time of your picture taking.

Increase your ISO:

ISO in digital photography simply means the sensitivity to light that your digital camera has. In a nutshell, the higher the ISO, the less light the sensor needs. In sports photography an ISO of 400 or higher can work really well. The downside to this is that it does increase noise. To combat this you can use noise reduction software in the post editing process such as Noise Ninja or increase the LAB mode in the post editing process. Don’t be afraid to try a few shots at 400, 800 and even as high as 1600.

Burst mode:

In most sports digital photography this will be one of the settings you will turn to. Burst mode is also known as ‘continuous shooting’. This ‘continuous’ shooting mode allows you to get a sequence of shoots in succession. You can increase your chances of getting that ideal “split second perfect shot” that you might not be able to get by pre-emption or in normal shooting. This also works if your digital camera has a painfully long lag time. Some cameras have 3 frames per second and some go up to 12 frames per second. You simply select this mode and hold your finger on the shutter button and it will fire off as many shots in 1 second as it can.

Okay so I’ve been talking about your digital camera and the settings used for ideal sports digital photography, so what about any external equipment? You can take as much time as you like with your settings but there’s not much point if you can’t get close to the action. There’s no point having a picture with perfect lighting and perfect action if the players are like dots on a sheet of paper. You need a good telephoto lens if you can’t get close. It will get you closer to the action but will need a faster shutter speed.

Many fantastic sports digital photos are taken with an emphasis on a very fast shutter speed, an f stop of around the 2.8 mark to blur the background and focus in on the subject. You may find that if your sportsperson is visually separated from the background and you take the digital photograph with a telephoto lens you’ll have a more shallow depth of field which can give you a more powerful feeling in your digital photo. You can get away with a good optical zoom lens, but you’ll get far better digital sports shots with a proper telephoto.

Happy shooting,

Amy Renfrey

Amy Renfrey is the author of two major successful ebooks: Digital Photography Success and Advanced Digital Photography. She is a photographer and also teaches digital photography. Her educational ebooks take the most complex photography terms and turn them into easy to understand language so that anyone, at any level of photography, can easily move to a semi-professional level of skill in just a very short time. She’s photographed many things from famous musicians (Drummers for Prince and Anastasia) to weddings and portraits of babies. Amy also teaches photography online to her students which can be found at http://www.DigitalPhotographySuccess.com

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