Photographing shadows

Narrative and mystery – by including just the shadows of the two people, viewer are encouraged to interpret the picture in their own way. What are the two people saying? What is going on? It looks as though the larger figure is giving the smaller one a dressing down – and that the horse is joining in the conversation. All nonsense, of course, but an expample of the sort of ‘storyline’ that that be introduced when using shadows

Include shadows in your photographs and can show graphically, or express more subtly, anything from lead-in lines, texture, atmosphere, angular or curvaceous shapes, narrative or mystery.

All these things are possible when you use shadows. It is the combinations of shadow and light that produces the illusion of texture and form within the two-dimensional images we produce. Shadows can be subtle and diffused in soft, high quality light, or, if the light source is small and intense, they can have crisp, sharp outlines totally devoid of detail. A typical example of this might be the sun in an empty blue sky, or perhaps the light from an undifused flash.

Shadows can be used as subjects by themselves, or as devices to add interest and leading lines within your composition. Take a look at the picture of the door knocker (below) for example; the shadow forms a major part of the composition. Without it the picture would be very ordinary; a simple record of an object. But the shadow of the brass knocker extends across a large part of the left side of the picture – it has been used not only to accentuate the shape of the knocker and the door nails, but as a compositional device.

Mystery? Well, yes, include only the shadows of people and this can inject a powerful feeling of something or someone unseen; a suggestion of what the person might look like, but without the whole subject revealed plainly. That in itself makes the viewer of your picture look again and try to see more. People are always curious about people so if they cannot see the full features of the subject they are left with their curiosity unsatisfied. This can create a visual puzzle without the answer – and that becomes intriguing.

So what about the practicalities of including shadows in your photographs? How do you arrive at the correct exposure, for instance? Well, I’ve never believed in making difficulties where there are none, and taking pictures of shadows is no exception. As a rough and ready guide, just remember that if you want your shadows to be darker, you should expose for the brighter areas in your picture. It’s as simple as that. But don’t overdo this or your pictures will be underexposed and have a lifeless appearance. The other thing to be aware of is that shadows can register as very high colour temperature – they appear blue – when they are cast by a bright sun in a clear blue sky. So you may want to try the ‘Cloudy’ White Balance (WB) setting to counteract this. But this will depend on the effect you are trying to achieve.

For those of you who are a bit nervous about taking pictures of people, photographing other people’s shadows can come as quite a relief. You will no longer need to point your camera directly at your subject, who is likely to remain quite unaware of what you are doing. Pictures that include the shadows of people – without actually showing the people themselves, encourage the viewer of the photograph to interpret a story or narrative into the image. They must ask themselves what the people are doing, what they might be saying or discussing – and that’s when a sense of mystery can be intoduced into your photographs (see photograph at top).

How to see more photographs - video

Here is a very short video which I have produced as a bit of an experiment. If there is a positive response to this lively way of getting across information, I will maybe do some more. But we'll see how things go for now.

The idea is to show you what and how I am seeing things from behind the camera and how I think pictures through from the time I spot their potential to the time I press the button. So bear in mind that to do this, the movie camera is on the move and not stationery on a tripod - you are seeing what I am seeing. The aim is to help you see more photographs everywhere.

Of course this could have great potential for the way I post on the blog. Let's see.

Just click the arrow in the middle of the frame below to see this 3 minute clip.

Photography on the beach - part 1

Do you find sunbathing a bore? Well, why not use your time on the beach to gather lots of pictures during your summer holidays this year?

People on the beach are usually there to enjoy themselves – and it’s always easier, and more fun, to photograph people when they are relaxed. But it’s not just people that should be catching your eye – what about all that wonderfully tacky stuff outside the gift shops. Kitsch is everywhere in these seaside shops and everything is deliberately colourful: naughty postcards, silly hats and sun specs; its all there for close-up pictures. Sea walls, beach huts – and the people who use them - promenades and piers have lots of visual possibilities to offer.

No matter if the beach is crowded or nearly deserted, often the best way to start is with a general picture showing the whole beach. If the beach is packed with sunbathers, try using a long telephoto lens to foreshorten and squash up the perspective. This will make the beach appear even more crowded by giving the illusion that the distance between each sunbather is much less than it really is.

Try to find one particular person who will make a good focal point and ensure that he or she is nicely in focus. Then wait for them to do something interesting – throwing a ball for their dog, or setting up their deckchair, for instance. This will help bring vitality to your composition. If you are photographing on a sunny day there will be plenty of light and you will be able to use a fast shutter speed; so freezing the action and avoiding shake with that long lens should not be a problem.


Top photograph
This picture, taken in Bermuda, was very easy to capture, it was just a matter of anticipation. There was no need to disturb the man; he could not see me behind him. Neither could he see the little bird running across the sand. I simply pre-focused on the man and waited for the bird to dart across behind his chair

Middle photograph
Don’t be nervous about moving in close to photograph people. If these two sunbathers had opened their eyes and spotted me taking their picture I would first have pressed the button again to capture their expressions then given them a great big smile and told them what a wonderful photograph they had helped to make

Bottom photograph
There’s no reason why a photograph of the general scene should be just a straight, boring view. Pick out a particular subject, focus on them and wait until they do something interesting before pressing the button. In this case, it was very easy because the lady was throwing sticks into the surf for her dogs

More about beach photograph next…

Guiding the eye

Here are a couple of photographs taken by one of my students, Phil Hallam. Phil came to me for just a one day a couple of weeks ago. I saw this lovely shot as I was looking through some of his photographs – something I always like to do before I start working with a new client so that I know where to start the tuition and coaching. Phil obviously has a good eye for a picture, but he was fairly new to photography and needed guidance. I think this lovely shot shows that he can see a good picture when it presents itself.

I have posted Phil’s original picture as he sent it to me above. But I have just tweaked and cropped a little for the picture below. I just felt that the blank whiteness of all that sky was leading my eye into nothing at the top of the picture, so I have cut it down and darkened some areas a little using the ‘burn’ tool in Photoshop.

The human eye acts very much like a moth – it tends to seek out the light and go to the lighter areas of a composition. This can be very useful once you know how to use it because you can at least try to train your viewer’s eye to explore the areas of the composition you feel are most valuable and relevant to the message you want to convey.

Photograph by Phil Hallam

Wildlife photography

Photograph by Kirsty Kimberley



Before I start a day of tuition with my 'students' I like to take a look at some of their previous photographs. This helps me see exactly what level people are at with their photography and also gives me a chance to get to know them and discuss the way we can best arrange the day.

I've had a couple here from London today - Kirstie and Paul. Both are relatively new to photography, but they are lucky to share a real interest in the subject, especially where landscape and wildlife photography is concerned. In fact I arranged for them to spend their second day (tomorrow) with Keith Kirk, the local wildlife ranger here in Galloway. Anyway, when going though Kirstie and Paul's photographs I spotted the picture I have posted here. I thought it was so good that I asked Kirsty if I could share it with you on the blog.

It was taken on their recent safari holiday in the Masai Mara, Kenya. Several aspects of this shot make it special...

The soft sidelight is just beautiful and helps create a lovely sense of texture, form and depth within the picture. In an ideal world, the light would have been better from the right to the left in order to light the lion's face, but come on, it's still pretty damned good as it is.

I also like the perfect simplicity of the composition. That tree is almost iconic and because it leans one way and the lion is looking in the opposite direction, I feeling of balance is achieved. The dark, threatening clouds and the rich colous of the grass just add to the 'feel' of Africa. I think it is a great picture.

The other picture shows Kirsty and Paul at work earlier today.

Cropping for more impact

In my last post I mentioned that I took a student who was with me for one-to-one tuition, down to my favourite cove on the seashore near my home - I posted a photograph of him down on the beach. Well, this morning I got a lovely email from Phil Hallam, who has put up some of the pictures he took on a webpage... it's worth taking a look..

www.picasaweb.google.com/hallamphoto

Phil started taking photographs only ten months ago, so I think the results he produced during his day with me are all the more remarkable.

As I am never loathe to print a favourable comment, this is what Phil said about his day here in Galloway...

"Just a quick word to say thank you for an amazing day. I learnt more in one day with you than I have reading books or instruction manuals over the last 10 months."

Anyway, I introduced Phil to the idea of Photoshop and explained that many of the adjustments that can be made to a photograph after it has been taken are perfectly legitimate - cropping and darkening a foreground or sky, for instance. This is not 'cheating' in any way and it's not new. It's just a matter of using the old skills and modern tools that are available - the Victorian photographers were masters of re-touching and adjustment of an image in the darkroom, so Photoshop - or post processing with any imaging programme- is only a modern way of doing what is really very old hat.

When I was working full time using black and white film, I knew exactly what I was going to do to a photograph when I put the negative in the enlarger. I knew this at the time of taking the photograph - when the button was pressed. Now, when I work with digital cameras, I have a fair idea of what I am going to do to a photograph when I get it onto the computer. This 'post processing' is, to me, all part of the normal way of producing the picture as I envisage it in the real world.

Above I have posted one of Phil's super shots he took during his time on the coast with me. This is the way Phil saw it and took it and posted it on his web page. It has not been cropped, or changed it in any way.

Below is the same photograph. However - hope you don't mind, Phil - this time I have cropped it a little and used the burning in tool and dodging tool to emphasize the dark storm clouds and waves. I would have done exactly the same sort of cropping, darkening and lightening if I had had this photograph in the darkroom. The idea is to maximise the impact of the photograph and to attempt to guide the viewer's eye to the most important elements of the composition. Notice that I have cropped a lot off the right hand side of the composition, but very little off the left hand side. This has put the waves more to the right so that the eye follows their movement to the left and brightest side of the picture. I agree that my crop has put the horizon pretty near the centre of the frame, but I think this is a price worth paying to get more visual impact from the movement of the waves.

Maybe you prefer this version, well that's fine, but I think you will have to agree that the cropped version does have more impact.

Hope to see you again soon, Phil.

How to photograph moving water - part 2

These two picture show just how easily you can allow your viewer’s eye to drop off the bottom of your composition. There are no hard and fast rules here, but generally, white or light areas in your picture will attract the eye – like a moth to light. So if you leave a bright white area at the edge of your frame – at the sides, top or bottom - your viewer’s eye will be attracted to it. Often it will not come back into the picture and the viewer will lose interest. The eye has a tendency to do this in the top photograph which has an intense white area at the bottom edge.

In the lower photograph I have moved the camera back a little to take the white area back into the frame and away from the lower edge of the composition. This darker foreground ensures that the viewer’s interest does not drop away. However, I do find the rock at the bottom of the shot just a tad distracting.

WHITE BALANCE
A word about white balance here when photographing this type of subject. In this situation the waterfall was in the shade of a deep ravine. That meant high temperature blue light. By all means experiment with your White Balance (WB) settings, but I tend to avoid Auto White Balance (AWB) in these situations because it can be difficult to achieve consistency between each shot due to the fluid ‘self-adjusting’ nature of the AWB mode - it can change the colour of your picture by very small degrees each time you adjust your composition. I found that setting the camera on the ‘cloudy’ white balance icon gave exactly the tones I wanted without making the water look too yellow. Using these WB icons, or indeed setting a Custom White Balance, locks the white balance on that particular setting, so the colours should not change between frames.

RECTANGLES

Once again I have explored the subject by breaking it down into a series of simple rectangles, and the two bottom photographs show just how different the framing can be of the same subject – if you think in rectangles. In this case, one horizontal and the other vertical. Remember, explore your subject – look for those rectangles. Your output of good photographs will multiply and you will come away from every location knowing that you have gathered every good picture that could be taken.

Photographing people in the street - eye contact

This picture was taken in China – one of the few places in the world to which I have no desire to return. As you can see, the street performing sword swallower is the main subject. He has his eye glued on me and is trying to draw me into his act. Maybe he wanted me to try swallowing a sword. Whatever it was he failed. Simply because I kept my eye to the viewfinder and just kept on taking photographs. Eventually, he gave up on me and got on with trying to impress his audience by stuffing an assortment of swords and knives down his throat. I just carried on taking photographs.

One of the strengths of this photograph is a composition that gives a strong sense of depth – this is partially due to the use of a wide-angle lens, but mostly because of the differing scale of the figures from foreground to background.

Another forceful aspect of this photograph is the eye contact of the main subject, and, if you look to the left, the eye contact of the man who is watching for my reactions. Eye contact is a powerful device and can give the viewer of your photographs a feeling of involvement with the scene and the subject. It confirms that the subject is aware of the camera’s presence – in this case the subject is actually responding to the camera – there is a shared interaction.

How to photograph people -simple portraits 3

I've been enjoying showing you some of these black and white images of mine. This time I’ve chosen a photograph to demonstrate the importance of good composition within a simple portrait.

The picture itself is pretty simple. A telephoto lens was used, and this has foreshortened the perspective and pressed the farmers together from front to back. This in itself has had a powerful effect on the composition by making all three heads the same size. It has flattened the perspective into three layers.

Lines of composition do not need to be obvious. The horizontal line created by the top of the metal gate, which runs along the bottom third of the picture, is a pretty obvious line of composition. So, too, is the diagonal line made by the man’s forearm. This line is extended upwards across the lighted side of his face. The area of the hand and face has become the focal point. Diagonal lines of composition can be very effective and appealing.

The less-obvious line of composition is the eye line of all three farmers. This follows the line of the arm towards the bottom right of the picture. There is little to satisfy the eye down there and it is drawn back into the top third of the picture by the light on the man’s hand and face. Then the whole process starts again – the eye is being drawn around the picture in a cycle, gathering information as it goes, but always coming back to the focal point.

Using compact cameras

Following on from my comments about the amount of heavy kit photographers lug about with them these days, I thought I’d show you a couple of pictures taken during one of the recent photography holidays I ran in Menorca.

When I have students with me, my priority is always to offer them guidance and tuition – their pictures not mine. So I carry the absolute minimum kit. Of course, I need a camera to demonstrate how composition can be changed and how pictures can be made to happen, but you do not need fancy kit to do that.

One of the places we photograph in Menorca is a fish market. The photographers are always made welcome and they have a great time taking close-ups; the ladies who serve the fish; the customers, you name it.

The pictures shown here were taken to demonstrate to my group that you sometimes have to arrange things a little – in this case by moving the subjects into the right positions. They were taken in a matter of seconds with no fuss.

And the camera that captured these detailed close-up shots?

A little Canon Ixus 700.

Any photographer worth his or her salt will very quickly find the limitations of a compact digital. But within those limitations, they can produce excellent and striking images. Remember – it’s not the camera that makes the pictures. It’s the photographer.

How to photograph snow

Winter is well and truly upon us here in Scotland, with hard frosts and the threat of snow. When town and countryside is blanketed by snow, the world is transformed and pictures abound. So wrap up warmly and make full use of the opportunity.

The greatest problem presented by snow - apart from getting about and keeping both you and your camera warm - is exposure. Automatic metering systems want to average out all the tones, and this causes under exposure and dull, grey snow. Just as I explained when talking about photographing the coast where there is lots of reflected light.

The answer, once again, is to deliberately over expose. Maybe by anything from +0.5 to +2 times. Either by using the Exposure Compensation control, or literally setting a manual exposure that over exposes by this amount.

If you are photographing snow on a cloudy day, try to include something in your composition that adds contrast to all that white - see the picture above of the man walking past the railings on a snowy day. The black railings have added contrast and given an impression of depth within the image.

Keep you eyes open for contrasting colours that can catch the viewer’s attention. Red always works well against white snow – see the picture of the snow-covered boat. To add depth this time, I have included the snow laden branches of the tree.

Just in case you are thinking you need expensive SLRs to take pictures of snow, forget it. These pictures were taken on a Canon Ixus 700. Exhibition prints as large as 20"x16" have been printed.