How to shoot succesful landscapes
It’s a lot harder to do than you would think. Many landscape photographic compositions by an amateur end up looking lost and aimless, often lacking a real focal point or something to tie it all together. I am not going to lie to you; landscape shots are not my strong point in photography. I do, however, love a great wide angle perspective and have managed to come up with a few that I was happy with over the years.
What’s your subject
That’s obvious… it’s the scene before you right? What happens when you just set up your camera and shoot that scene? It ends up in the distance, on the horizon, hardly noticed at all. Why? That’s the funny thing about the human brain. We extrapolate the key points of interest and blur the rest out. In real life, this is often the background behind us, the horizon, the scene in the distance. So what we need to do is trick the brain to find the background interesting. So yes, the scene is your subject, but you need to present another point of interest closer to us that helps lead the viewer into that great sprawling landscape.
This is often done with contrasting elements or juxtapositions, like the foreground subject of a delicate flower against a backdrop of rugged, sun soaked mountains. Or you can draw the viewer into the scene with converging lines like a road trailing off until lost in the rolling hills of harvest time wheat. In each case it’s the greater scene that is the subject, but something in the foreground takes you there.
It’s all about focus
One of the trickiest aspects of marrying a foreground point of interest with a landscape subject is focus or maximum depth of field (read this article for more on this). There is no point in including both the foreground and background as key points of interest if they can’t both be in perfect crystal clear focus.
This means stopping down your aperture as much as the surrounding light and wind conditions will allow you. If your fortunate to be shooting on a windless day, a long exposure time is of no concern, but if the wind is a factor, consider shooting static objects not prone to swaying. AND ALWAYS USE A TRIPOD!
The overall picture
It’s hard to tell a story in a landscape shot. You’ll find many viewers asking, “What’s the point of this?” Keep in mind that the viewer wasn’t there at the scene when you shot it so they didn’t see the 360º panoramic that your eyes witnessed before taking a slice of that home with you in your camera. What does and doesn’t get included in your compostition says as much about the picture as the scene itself.
If it’s going to be a busy compostion, make sure that each element in the frame helps support the purpose or theme of the shot. If it’s going to be sparse, ensure your lines compliment the absence of detail.
This way or that
Many people automaticall assume that landscape photography has to be photographed… well… in a landscape orientation. This isn’t true. Typically a wide angle lens is used to convey an exagerated sense of scale which means if you want to illustrate how tall something is, you need to shoot in portrait. If you want to show far a road stretches into the distance, it might show better in portrait. The bottom line is, fill your frame in the orientation that seems to compliment the scene best.
To recap
So the key to succesful landscapes are:
- Subject – include foreground objects that will draw the viewer into the greater, overall sceen
- Focus – get the greatest depth of field possible given your particular circumstances, it is vital to have everything in focus
- Composition – be sure the elements that you include in your image deserve to be there. Make sure to only include objects that help tell the story.
- Layout – determine which layout, landscape or portrait, shows your subject matter best. Lanscapes are often about scale, so choose the layout that conveys the scale of your scene.
The new, the horizon and the passing.
The new
I’ve just written a quick article on composing landscape shots. If you are a fan of landscape photography but don’t seem to get the shot you want, give this article a read.
The horizon
The Whale Tail I ordered showed up last week and I am spending the next few weeks putting it through it’s paces. Once I have compiled enough information I plan to write a review and possibly a few tips and tutorials. It is definitely a tool that all photographers should have in their camera bags.
The passing
News travels fast except when you don’t have your ear to the ground. I had to learn of the passing of one of my hero’s, Monte Zucker, from the cover of a photo mag who was putting on a memorial spread in his honor. What’s worse is his passing was back in March.
I can’t begin to tell you how it saddens me to hear of Monte’s passing. I learned a great deal about portraiture and lighting from studying from Monte’s work. If you haven’t had a chance to see Monte in action and are interested in the very finest portrait photography, stop by the store and pick up a video or two. There is a lifetime of work to study there so it’s well worth the money.
Pathfinder is the only Finder you need
Have you ever been using the Finder in OS X and wished it could do more? I remember when 10.4 came along and being so thrilled with the new finder. It was so advanced, it had a sidebar… The novelty wore off pretty quick when I still wanted tabs, breadcrumbs and more features. For a while I was using Captain FTP as my main file browser since it allowed tabbed browsing but it’s tough to push an app that was design for “here-to-there” file transfers into a common file browser. It was actually a bit cumbersome at it.
Then I came across Pathfinder, “Path Finder is an innovative file browser and manager with powerful tools to make you more productive on Mac OS X.” Indeed it is. I wasn’t sold on first try. The reality is I didn’t give it a fair shake. I had it open for about 2 minutes, convinced myself I didn’t like the GUI and moved on before so much as opening the app.
It wasn’t long before frustration with the Finder was overwhelming again and since a few months had passed, I thought I ought to try out Pathfinder again. This time, being determined to do away with Finder, I forced myself to use Pathfinder for a week. Well this time it didn’t take more than a day and I was completely hooked. This is what the Finder was always meant to be. Pathfinder allows total system control and file management. It’s a dock, a path finder, a breadcrumb, file manager, image browser, image converter, pdf viewer text and document editor, ftp client, terminal interface, console panel and so much more all wrapped into one.
It shares some things in common with Finder, like the sidebar that is capable of showing your volumes and shelving your frequently travelled folders and files for easy access. But that’s not all your sidebar needs to show. Click on the bar that defines what is being displayed below it and you will be presented with options such as shelf, volumes, processes, file history, folder history, selection path, info, permissions, iTunes browser, attributes, subversion, preview, hex terminal and console. With all of those choices, you might think that one sidebar is not enough. Well that’s why you can have three more, one on the right, one on the left and one below for a total of four programable sidebars, each with two programable panels. We’re talking total file management here!
With all of this you can imagine I could go on for ever about what I like to do with Pathfinder, so I’ve decided to limit it to some of my favorite features.
Tabs – no common browser, whether it’s for the internet or file browser, should be without tabs. There is no excuse for it.
Drop Stack – you can easily drag a file or folder from tab to tab, but if you haven’t yet figured out where you want to drop that file or folder, simply drop it into the “Drop Stack” and there it will remain until you find the right place to drop it.
Breadcrumb – need I say more? Breadcrumbs are the single most important part of any navigation, so why limit them to websites?
Convert image – resize, crop, and convert the file type of any image. This is ideal in my blogging workflow where I am constantly working images to fit into a particular page size on various blogs.
Common sense – developers are constantly adding to and digging into their contextual menus. It seems as though Pathfinder has caught on to this. Most of most oft used contextual menus items are right there in the information panel, or the tool bar or in the sidebar, etc… One in particular that saves me a butt load of time is the “open package” button found in the information panel of any app or plugin or proprietary file type. Since the RapidWeaver themes I design are all packages, I find I use this button nearly every minute.
Information – know everything about the selected file without hot-key combos or contextual menu selections. Select a file and, depending on your panel configurations, you can know all it’s information, attributes, and permissions right there in front of you.
You may like your Finder just fine, but it you are looking for more, get Pathfinder. Your productivity will go through the roof.
Turtles turtles everywhere
Turtles, turtles everywhere Turtles, turtles in my hair They’re in my soup, they’re on my bread They’re in my shorts and on my head
Turtles, turtles on the wall Turtles, turtles down the hall They’re in my room, they’re on my bed They’re on my pillow and on my spread
Turtles, turtles in my drawer Turtles, turtles I want no more I’ll make them leave, they won’t I dread I fear those turtles are in my head
What time is it? It's LIVE-O'CLOCK!
Merrifield Photography is live (again) in yet another rendering of what I dreamt a photography site should be all about. Why did I do this, redesign Merrifield Photography again? I have more details here.
Well some galleries are more full than others but I thought to heck with it, I own the site, I can add to it as I go right? Flipping through an absolutely monstrous library of work from the last 15 years has been proving a bit exhaustive, and I am… well… exhausted!
So here it is, live for all to see, read, look at (damn sexy site isn’t it?)… don’t be shy, let me know what you think. Be hard on me or butter me up, either way I can take it. Anyhow, enjoy your romp around and let me know if you need anything.
Auto levels and other things to do first.
I get asked a lot about color correction and color balancing in photography, when they just aren’t sure if the tones look quite right when the open it in Photoshop. One of the first things people tend to do is try adjusting the color balance (Image ~ Adjustments ~ Color Balance). Granted this will certainly do something, and it might be what you need, but chances are you don’t actually know which colors you have too much of or too little of.
Here is the reality; if your pictures seem a bit off, whether film or digital, they will lack one or both of two things: 1) contrast, 2) white balance. For this reason, most pictures can be corrected by addressing these two areas before mucking about with any other settings. Here is why. Both film and digital camera sensors are engineered to react to light in a very predictable manner. If you are shooting in a color range of 5500K, then whites run at one frequency, reds at another, greens at another and so on… In theory then, all you have to do is find your white and the rest mathematically fall into place. And the contrast? That’ll just make the first job easier when it comes time to find white.
So before mucking about with any other settings here is what I suggest you do first. Run an auto adjust on all levels (Images ~ Adjustments ~ Auto Levels or shift+command+L). The results might seem extreme at first but hit command+z back and forth a few time to really get a feel for what’s changing. Chances are you will like what you see and leave it at that. If this is what you had hoped for, then undo this first step and try just adjusting the contrast. Again, the quick and dirty method, Image ~ Adjustments ~ Auto Contrast (Shift+Alt+Command+L). This at a minimum will be a good starting place, but with any luck your done.
Not done? Ok, here is step number 3. What is it about the picture that is putting you off? Here are a few typical scenarios that both film and digital sensors tend to have trouble with. You shoot a couple sitting in the grass on a sunny day… their faces are an unhealthy shade of green. You shoot a bride and groom against a blue sky, late afternoon with a low sun and you have them facing directly into the sun so you can that popular, shadowless, flat light, healthy glow effect… and their faces come out orange. If you can recognize what color throwing you off the most, all you been to is go into the hue and saturation panel (Images ~ Adjustments ~ Hue and Saturation or Command+u) and lighten it up a bit, perhaps drop it’s saturation a smidgen.
Here’s a few examples:
In this example we see the unaltered image, scanned film, FUJICOLOR PRO 160S which is designed for warm, natural skin tones and a softer contrast. Not typically well suited to nature shots with lots of green.
With a quick auto contrast adjustment (Shift+Alt+Command+L) you can already see a great deal of improvement in the definition of the stem against the background and greater detail in the petals of the tulip. The background foliage also pops with life without detracting from the composition in the foreground.
For this final frame I simply applied an auto level adjustment (Shift+Command+L) which increases the contrast for greater definition but also cools off the hues considerably to give a more natural look to the vegetation,closer to the tone you would expect on the overcast day this was shot on. More impotantly, the whites are white, the pinks are pink, and the greens are green!
All in a matter of seconds I was able to fine tune the colors and tones without once opening the color balance pane.
* { In actual fact to make life easier we look for middle grey, otherwise known as 18% grey, but you get the idea. }
New flash, next stop Gary Fong
It hurts me to spend money. My wife call me cheap, I say I’m practical. She puts up with it to a certain point but enough was enough when it came to our recent flash troubles.
I have been shooting on Minolta gear for the better part of 15 years, and if it weren’t for the gross investment in lenses, I would have switched to Cannon or Nikon years ago (the the cheap in me I guess). Since it’s really the glass (the lens) that does the bulk of the picture taking, I have gotten by with whatever camera body Minolta would throw at me as the years went on. I started to get a tad worried when Minolta started to fold (during the Konica merger and inevitable sale to Sony), especially since it was about time I switched to digital.
Thankfully Sony is carrying that torch high and my migration to digital was a relatively painless one, save for the flash compatibility. Some years ago I had invested a considerable sum of money on a pair of, then state of the art, Minolta 5200i’s. I still have them, and sadly for me, they don’t talk well with the new digital platform. It wasn’t a huge deal for me since I could still use them manually with the camera, but my wife… well let’s just say she preferred if I get a new flash.
And that’s what I did. The Sony HVL-F56AM to be exact. Now these are expensive little suckers so I wasn’t about to invest in a pair of them like I had before. No, I needed a better solution and in my research, found the WhaleTail which I promptly ordered. Once that’s in, I’ll write a post with a few comparative shots for your review. So until then…
Compulsive Blogging Part 4
So why the FARG to part 4 take so long? I said it would boil down to the tools I use, therefore, I had to make sure I gave all the options a fair shake and really come up with an objective list of lean, mean, blogging productivity tools. You wouldn’t think that would be so hard right? I mean aren’t all blogs accessed via a web browser? Umm… er… uh… well… editing a post in a browser sucks! It’s slow, counter intuitive, inherently unstable (if your connection is lost, so too is your post), and on and on and on… In a pinch, or for casual blogging this is the way to go, but it you are in any way serious, you need to consider some desktop alternatives:
TextEdit – if you have nothing else at hand on your local computer then at least consider using TextEdit to compose and safely save your work in progress.
MarsEdit – I played with this one a bit. It’s well put together, easy to use, and doesn’t go over board with the features. It’s an editor, manager, publisher all in one, so if need be, you wouldn’t need any other tool.
Ecto – This one is a bit spotty. It’s powerful, has a cult following, it’s extensible, but it always seems as though the developer has his priorities elsewhere. I will use this over MarsEdit simply because of it’s ability to have most aspects of it’s templates and snippets edited to suit your own preferences. It earns points for it’s geekery.
RapidWeaver – You might think this recommendation is a bit much… a complete web development platform for the single purpose of posting to a blog? Well, on it’s own there is merit for such an argument; host a blog anywhere you like, have it look any way you want with the hundreds of available free and commercial theme designs, host as many blogs as you want without having to know sql, myphp, or go through any convoluted server-side installation process each time. RapidWeaver isn’t just a blogging client that integrates into one of the available blogging platforms… it IS the platform. If RapidWeaver on it’s own is not enough, add to it the amazing plugin from Loghound, RapidBlog, and you have a do anything, go anywhere blogging system with unprecedented control that can be both edited from the comfort of your desktop or from any remote location you happened to find yourself in.
TextMate – Are you are the ultimate geek who needs the ultimate power with the fastest, most productive editing tool known to man kind? You need to be blogging with TextMate! You need to be doing everything with TextMate, your coding, developing, editing, your laundry, picking up the groceries, etc… The only app on my machine that gets more time in use is Safari, but TextMate runs a close second. Name the A – Z of coding, markup or scripting languages and TextMate does it and then some. Right, so what has this got to do with blogging. Right out of the preverbal box, TextMate has some pretty cool blogging features that allow you to post to one or many blogs, but add a nifty little plugin called BlogMate from Todd Ditchendorf, and TextMate becomes my number one choice for blogging clients. Here is why; I can type any word, hit some hot-keys and TextMate will find the most relevant URL and title for that word and create a link in whatever language I happen to be writing in, like HTML or Markdown. I can also post to nearly any blogging platform I want, which is good for me since I use WordPress, Blogger, Jaiku, Twitter and have been known to use a host of other platforms in the past. If you are serious about blogging from a mac, you want to consider my number one choice for blogging… TextMate!
I hope you have found this little series on blogging helpful. Hopefully you can take what you have learned here and apply it to your own blog.
Tips for Photographing Your Baby
by Ann Scaling Tucker (from www.theclassicbabystore.com)
More pictures are probably taken of babies than any other subject is; however, most of them aren’t worth showing to the neighbors. We’ve collected some hints that may help make your pictures better:
- Always move close to the baby – don’t shoot from across the room!! That is unless you want a long-range photo.
- Don’t place the baby in the midst of a bunch of objects.
- Make the baby the object of the photo.
- >Don’t think that the baby is going to hold still for very long. Don’t expect the baby to do something cute when you’re ready. You need to be ready when they do happen to do something.
- Take lots of shots and you should get one or two out of the roll that are really worth showing around the office.
- Use soft light. Soft light compliments a child and prevents squinting. Always use soft light when taking a photo of a sleeping baby.
- Take into account the age of the child. A newborn will lie there looking angelic unless it decides to have a good cry. Then you’ll just have to wait and wait and possibly wait. The older baby will move around more, putting whatever is near in its mouth, which is usually the fist or the fingers or both. If the baby has become a toddler you’re on your own as the toddler does what toddlers do – get into everything or tries to leave the country as fast as their legs will take them.
- It is probably best to have your spouse or a sibling help keep the baby’s attention and possibly make them laugh. Also they can be prepared for unexpected things like a sudden roll over or a fast get away.
- Be sure to take your pictures after the baby has napped, eaten and had a diaper change. The baby’s playtime is a good time if you want a wide-awake, possibly smiling child in your pictures.
- Other pictures taken a naptime, eating or even when the baby is crying can make cute pictures also so don’t take only planned set ups.
- Always have your equipment ready for those candid and informal shots. Make sure your batteries are good and you have plenty of film handy. There is nothing more frustrating than to be on the next to last picture of your last roll and the baby or child is in a really great posing mood.
- Babies at play, with props and toys, provide a great selection of photos. Good informal portraits can be made if the baby’s attention is focused on something that moves or makes a noise. You can also hold attention by rolling a strip of tape with sticky side out and placing it where the child can play with it. Just be sure to grab it if it starts going to the mouth. Giving toddlers a new item they haven’t seen before can keep them occupied.
- When doing portraits always focus on the eyes. Don’t make your background too busy or cluttered. Make the baby or child the main object in the frame. Formal portraits are a little harder and are usually done in a studio or if outside, with more sophisticated equipment. The new parent who is an amateur photographer is discouraged from trying the formal portrait. Let the pros (like Merrifield Photography) get those special shots meant for the fancy frame over the fireplace.
- For better shots – turn off the flash and move near a window. Faster speed film will help. Get eye level with your baby. You don’t have to dress the baby in the fanciest outfit since you’re after the baby’s picture – not the clothes.
- Don’t get all bent out of shape if you miss that “first” step or roll over. Just get lots of those shots; it just doesn’t have to be the “first” one. When you want that special shot – a favorite toy is a must. Candy or a treat is not a good idea. Sticky fingers and chocolate all over the face is not a great idea.
- Remember that the baby or the baby and family members should fill three-fourths of the image. Soft light from a window or a lamp is best for indoors. Place the baby where the light shines from the side. Take close up photos and let the family get relaxed before snapping the picture. Photos can be even better if the subject(s) is slightly off center.
- Another great look can be obtained with mother and child are dressed in the same color. Great baby shots make cute birth announcements. Punch two holes in the picture and a blank card and run a thin ribbon through the holes to secure the picture to the card.
- A unique look for a photo is using the Sepia tone setting and making the photo look like it was taken in the 1800’s. An example of this coloring is the photo of our baby on the heading of the home page.
Don’t be afraid to experiment but always remember to take off the lens cap and keep your fingers away from the lens. Have fun taking pictures of your baby and don’t forget to send lots of photos to the grandparents!!! I hope you enjoy learning to use this technique, and I hope you become a better photographer for it. Happy shooting to you, and be sure to stay tuned for more helpful hints from www.merrifield-photography.com.
Pet projects and responsibility
It’s funny how being grown up gets in the way sometimes. Owning my own web design business, running an e-commerce store, having clients to answer to, having a family to provide for and take care of… It really doesn’t leave much time for me to work on this site. What’s tough is I have really been enjoying looking through my 15 years of work and have become obsessed with making this new, definitive, on-line portfolio. I am loving it’s looks, it’s function, the way it informally showcases everything my wife and I have shot over the past decade and a half.
So what I am getting at here is that I don’t intend to rush things just to get this site out there. I want it done right. I want to be proud of every little corner of the site no matter how obscure. If that takes six weeks, six months, ten months, a year, so be it. It is going to be well worth the wait.