Photographers…

too much sky, bank &trunk

1. Include too much in picture

Photographers are to prone add compositional elements to their initial creative vision- more foreground, the trees over there, the sky, that barn, the tree tops- but it is invariably a bad choice to make. The strongest photos are ones that can be described by a phrase; these are simple and obvious compositions. The weakest photos take a paragraph to describe because there is too much included in the composition.

2. Make uncomfortable crops

People have feet, so do wild animals (domestic ones too!) so don’t crop your critters at the ankles.  Either include the feet or crop well above the feet. Don’t crop at a joint. Same for tails and ears- either include all of them or none but don’t show us just a little.

3. Don’t ‘work’ a subject

There are always more than one image to take of any subject and yet most photographers are content to get one and then pronounce “I’ve got it, what’s next?” Try changing your perspective by getting lower or higher or moving left or right. Change lenses, change f-stops, change shutter speeds, change your attitude. Each will lead to better pictures.

4. Shoot everything at their eye level

The most compelling images are those in which you enter the subject’s world. You do this by photographing at the subject’s eye level. This is especially true for wild animals, pets and children. Knees do bend, try it. Here’s a trick: if you can’t get eye level low than shoot the subject at a bit of a distance. The farther away the more the angle looks like an eye level perspective.

dead center and dull

5. Put their subjects dead center in composition

A subject in the dead center is a deadly dull composition. If the subject is moving place it to the side so that it has space to move into. If the subject is looking one direction give more space to that side so the subject has space to look into.  If the subject is an object include other parts of it to make the composition asymmetrical. If the subject is just a blob doing nothing, don’t take its picture. BTW, if your name is Lisa Cueman ignore all of the above.

6. Don’t shoot enough verticals

Many subjects look best in a vertical format rather than in a horizontal format especially ones with strong vertical lines. And don’t confuse cropping a horizontal to make a vertical with shooting a vertical. One is a lazy afterthought and the other a good creative choice.

7. Think they can fix every problem in their computer.

If you fix your composition before you take the picture you won’t have to fool around with it in your computer. It is almost always much easier to fix a picture in the field than it is to do it in the computer so reach in and remove that stick or hide that bright spot or level the horizon before you push your shutter.

8. Don’t pay attention to the quality of the light

It’s all about the light- dull light = dull photo no matter what, no exceptions. but if you get great light, even a dull subject  can look great. So be patient and wait for good light before you push your shutter. And no you can’t create good light in your computer. You may be the best photographer in the world but only god does light. Sorry.

9. Don’t look for the best subjects to photograph

Not every subject is created equal. Some are faded, some are marred, some aren’t yet ready, some are discolored, some are soiled, some have been chewed on, some lie next to foot prints, some have bad backgrounds, some are just plain butt ugly. don’t pick any of these to photograph. God does light but you get to pick which one to photograph- choose wisely!

10. Photograph people in direct sunlight

Unless you like pictures of your friends and family with little squinty eyes and wrinkled up faces don’t photograph them in direct sunlight. Find some open shade and your friends and family will appear human again. And no, a hat doesn’t work- it just throws a really dark shadow across the face. If the picture is worth taking then move the people into a situation worthy of your friendship.

up close and in the shade

11. Avoid interacting with people before photographing them

Yes, you can sneak a picture of that person across the street without them knowing it but really, is that how you would like to be treated? Isn’t it just a wee bit rude and rather unfriendly? The alternative is to actually interact with your potential subject. Yes, this means making eye contact and smiling and taking some time before you take the photo but your results will be much, much better.

12. Don’t check their histograms often enough.

This is one of the biggest advantages of digital photography. Your histogram tells you what your exposure is going to be. It makes your exposures predictable. No more guessing! So why wouldn’t you check your histogram after every shot? Buehler? Buehler? No good reason, sorry. Make it part of your photography routine.

13. Carry too much equipment

I did my last two books with two lenses-  16-35mm and a 28-300mm. I did my farm book with a 12-24mm and a 24-120mm. I went to Bhutan, Antarctica, New Zealand and South Africa with three lenses (I either added a the 24-120 as a back-up or my 200-400mm for wildlife).  In my bag there is one split neutral density filter and one polarizing filter. Oh and I have some lens hoods for photographing when it rains. Less gear makes it easier not harder to take great compositions because you concentrate on the picture not the stuff you are carrying.

14. Spend too much time reading blogs and product reviews

Go outside, I’m begging you. Get some color. Talk to someone. Figure out what season it is. That warm bright thing in the sky is the sun. You’ll like it.

what you might see when you go outside

Inside a fish tank

In my previous post I wrote all about the technical side of travel (hand-held) photography- low light, high ISO, more open f-stops, faster shutter speeds, smaller depth of field, etc. All good stuff and important to understand and use next time you are out hand holding your camera.

For this post I wanted to tell you about a strategy of professional travel photographers for getting great shots. It is unlike anything you do in any other genre of photography but it is a very successful compositional technique. I call it the ‘wine in hand’ strategy of travel photography.

When we are out taking pictures we spend most of our time looking for things to photograph. It is like we are looking for targets, aiming our lenses at them and then pressing the shutter to shoot them. We then go out and look for more targets. But there is a different way to go out and get your pictures. Instead of looking for targets try looking for backgrounds instead.

What? That doesn’t make sense! I am supposed to look for a background and then what? Wait for a subject to walk by? Really? Are you nuts? Perhaps but not this time.

Most genres of photographers can’t do this because there are not enough subjects wandering around to make this strategy effective. A flower photographer isn’t going to find a nice stream and wait for a flower to grow next to it. A wildlife photographer isn’t going to look for a nice meadow and then wait for a bear to walk through it. And a macro photographer isn’t going to find a nice stalk and wait for a spider to come along and spin a web.

But a travel photographer can find a great background and wait for a great subject to wander past because just about any where you go in this world there are lots of people and one is likely to come on by. My friend Bob Krist, the National Geographic photographer,  tells about waiting at a cafe across the street from his selected background and watching for a subject to wander by. Hence the ‘wine in hand’ name. Nature photographers have a compass in their hand, a travel photographer has a glass of wine.

Old Orchard Beach

I told my class in Santa Fe about this technique the day after they stumbled around mostly unsuccessfully trying to chase targets. They all went out, found a good situation with a great background and then simply hung out until someone came by. They got really nice images by just being patient and not wandering around. Find a background and wait for your subject.

I used this strategy when photographing the pier at Old Orchard Beach on the coast of Maine. The scene was easy to find- anyone would’ve stopped to take that picture but I waited for the girl to come into the scene to make the image more than just a picture of the pier. All it took was a bit of patience.

Red fox

You can use this strategy with wildlife photography if your subject moves in a predictable, repeating pattern. Think about a bird returning to the nest or a mammal returning to a food source. Or…when photographing at Triple D Game Farm…think about one of their animals repeating his movements as he is rewarded with little pieces of meat.

For the red fox picture I saw the tree and the snow on the roots when I first got into the compound where the fox was going to run. I wanted the fox to be next to the tree looking out so I set up that composition based on this background and waited for the fox to be in the right spot. I didn’t follow the fox around with my camera I simply set up the composition, locked it in and waited for the subject to appear. When it did, presto!

So go out and instead of chasing targets, look for great scenes, great backgrounds and then stop, find a wall to lean on or an empty chair and wait. Then wait some more. Eventually just the right person or car or wagon or animal will come by and you’ll get a great shot. Remember, the goal is not to get a lot of good shots but instead get a few great shots.

McLoon's Wharf, Maine

Greece- hand held

I just finished teaching a travel photography workshop in Santa Fe, New Mexico at the Santa Fe workshops. It was a good class, with great participants, perfect weather and lots and lots of things to photograph in and around Santa Fe. I do love that town; it is very art- and food- centric, its got two Whole Foods and the pre-trip scouting took me to wonderful places.

Travel photography is different than nature or landscape or wildlife photography. And not just because of the subject matter. In fact, what you shoot has little to do with defining the travel photography genre. Every where you travel you can see some form of wildlife, landscape or nature so it all fits into the Travel Photography subject category. There are two things that separate travel photography from all other types of photography: the fact that you are telling the story of a place and you are usually doing it hand held. Let me explain.

Remember that all photography is based on pretty light. Most of the time this means low light. Low light means slow shutter speeds. This is why nature, landscape and wildlife photographers use tripods.

In travel photography though there is often no tripod and if there is a tripod involved it is usually no more than a mini table top version, not a full sized one like one might normally use. This means that you are typically hand holding your camera. If you are hand holding your camera in pretty (low) light your shutter speed becomes very important- too slow and you are toast. You can’t hand hold your camera at a 15th of a second or slower and get an acceptably sharp image. If you think you can you are either a truly exceptional photographer, a corpse or  you need to refresh your thinking of what a sharp photograph really is. When hand holding, shutter speeds of at least 30th of a second or faster are the minimum necessary to be get sharp focus. This is a much faster shutter speed than is typical with most nature photography with a tripod where I often shoot half second to four second exposures.

Since faster shutter speeds are necessary when hand holding you need to use more wide open f-stops. Nature photographers often shoot at f16 or f22  but travel

Old Orchard beach, Maine

shooters often use f4 and f5.6. Remember, to get faster shutter speeds you need to allow more light into your camera therefore wider open f-stops. But with more wide open f-stops you have much less depth of field. This means instead of looking for compositions that have everything in focus from near to far you must instead look for compositions that are flatter with much less inherent depth of field.

Let me go over that one more time. Lets say that you want a composition with everything in focus. If you are on a tripod you can shoot at very small f-stops (f16 or f22) bring the foreground into just a couple of feet away and blast away confident that you will have enough depth of field to get everything in focus. You don’t care about your shutter speed because you are on a tripod. If you are hand holding instead then you do care about your shutter speed. If you try to set up the same composition hand holding as with the tripod using f16 or f22 you won’t have enough shutter speed. So you open up your f-stop and find that at f5.6 you get a shutter speed of 30th of a second. But now your composition doesn’t work because you no longer have enough depth of field. Assuming you still want a picture with everything in focus you will have to push back your foreground to being no closer than 25 to 30 feet away. On a tripod you can get everything in focus from 2 feet to infinity; handheld at f5.6 or f8 it will be closer to 20 feet to infinity.

Now you can soften the restrictiveness of all this by cranking up your ISO but you can only go so far. Shooting at f16 at 1/4 of a second ISO 200 will give you the same exposure as f16 at 30th of a second at ISO 1600. Whenever I am in low light I will raise my ISO to 1600. If I’m in really low light I will shoot at ISO 2500 or even 3200. I know not all cameras can go up that high and still get high quality images but I bet yours can go higher than you think. Even with a higher ISO your depth of field isn’t going to change much though. This is because when hand holding your camera most people will choose to shoot at a stop or two higher shutter speed than to close down their f-stop.

Did I lose you along this long decision path? I’ll review: travel photography usually means hand holding your camera.

Spruce Head, Maine

This means you need a fairly high shutter speed. You can do this by cranking up your ISO (don’t go too high!) in really low light and opening up your f-stop (to f4, f5.6 or f8). When you open up your f-stop you lose your depth of field. This means you must look for compositions that are flatter (less depth of field needed) and that start farther away (their closest point is 30 to 40 feet away from you).

Basically, you are wearing a different hat when you are shooting travel, a hat you have to remember you are wearing! You can’t hand hold a classic nature, wildlife or landscape photography shot so don’t try. You are not wearing those hats, you are wearing a travel photography hat. If you keep this straight and you follow the thinking I have outlined above your travel shots will soar.

It is workshop season once again for me and I am starting to notice some commonalities amongst my students. In every workshop I have done lately I have found that at least half of the cameras I get my hands on are set up less than optimally. By ‘set up’ I mean that the options selected in the menu are not the best. And no what I am about to mention are not ideas open to debate. These are the right ways for you to set up your camera. If you don’t agree with all this then either you are misinformed, just being stubborn or have some very individual photography needs. These ways are the ways that all the pros I know have their cameras set.

1. Adobe 98 color space. sRGB seems to be the default on most cameras but it is limiting the colors you get. Adobe 98 gives you the most colors. Who would want less colors? Use Adobe 98.

2. Go to Display in your menu and activate both histogram and highlights. Histogram will show you all the tonalities in your image. Be sure to check it after every different shot. HIghlights will activate the ‘blinkies’ on your LCD display showing you where any blown out whites are in your image. The histogram will show you that you have blown out whites, the highlights will show you where they are. Refer to them both frequently.

3. Auto color temperature. I haven’t used a more specific color temperature (cloudy, incandescent, etc) ever. That’s right, ever. You spend good money on a very sophisticated camera. Trust it to do its job. Select Auto color temperature.

4. RAW. shoot in RAW always. There is no good or legitimate reason to shoot JPEGs. Here’s why: Every time you open a JPEG you lose data. Every time. With RAW you can open and play with it all you want and you won’t lose a thing. Plus there is much more data in a RAW file than in a JPEG. Digital photography is all about data. The more the merrier. You will limit yourself if you shoot only JPEGS. And please, please, please don’t shoot RAW + JPEG. That just makes things worse. You will never need to capture both. Never. If you need a JPEG just export as you need from the RAW file.

5. And finally, I shoot Aperture Priority, Matrix (Evaluative in Canon-speak), usually minus .7 auto-compensation ( to catch sneaky blown out highlights), C  for continuous autofocus, 11 autofocus points (not 51 or more- too distracting) and a ISO of 800 when I am handholding my camera and 400 when it is on the tripod. I will gladly go up to go up to ISO 2500 or even ISO 3200 for low light situations. These last are all are more personal to choices. The first 4 are the right ways to do things.

There you have it. Now goo to your menu and check your settings. You’ll be glad you did.

in rain with polarizer

I am not much of a filter guy- I rely on great subjects in great light. I really try not to create something that isn’t there by using filters, both in my camera and in my computer. It always looks contrived and certainly unnatural. For those of you who are convinced you can create a  photo using multiple filters so that the it looks natural and unmanipulated might I suggest you wait for the natural light and take an unfiltered shot? Silly for me to suggest such heresy, I know, but that is just who I am.

The one filter I do use regularly is my polarizing filter. For those of you who are unfamiliar with a polarizing filter let me describe it and how it is used. A polarizer is a two piece filter- one part screws into the lens like any filter and the other part, with the help of your hand, turns. When you mount the polarizer on your lens and then turn it as you look through it you should see the scene change. Depending on the lighting conditions that change can be profound or very, very subtle.

with polarizer

On a sunny day when the sun is ninety degrees from where you are pointing your camera the polarizer has the strongest effect making blue sky almost navy in color. While dramatic this effect is much too unnatural.

The traditional use of a polarizer is to darken blue skies and to remove glare from water. As with anything though you have to be careful. If you use a polarizer with a wide angle lens you are likely to get a blotch of navy sky 90 degrees to you and then much lighter blue sky to the side. This looks very odd. If you use it to remove glare from water you can actually, in some circumstances, visually remove the water. This is because, to our eyes, glare or sheen off water, in large part defines the presences of water. By mistake, I have over-polarized streams in a forest and made the water disappear completely. Not a good look.

So how do you know when to stop rotating the polarizer when you are looking through your camera? Turn the polarizer until you go “wow”, and the back off the effect just a tad. this will give you a nice natural looking image. If you don’t see any effect when you are turning the polarizer don’t use it. If it doesn’t help your image there is no point of having it on. Also, the polarizer will cut out one to two stops of light- shutter speed you will likely really want to have.

I don’t use polarizers on sunny days. I do use it on cloudy and rainy days all the time. When it is cloudy or rainy any flat surface will reflect the clouds above. When that surface is wet it will reflect even more. We call this reflection glare. Removing this glare (not possible in the computer, by the way) is what a polarizer does and in so doing the true rich colors of your subject come through. Think of glare as whitewash on a colorful mural. Remove that whitewash and the colors come through.

Here are some unusual examples of times where a polarizer can be really handy.

When photographing a tide pool, a polarizer will allow your camera to peer clearly down to the critters in the pool. You may have to move around the tide pool to find the best angle but it will be worth it. The cloud reflection (glare) ruins the photo.

without polarizer

with polarizer

In a forest there are many plants with broad, flat leaves. Every one of these leaves, every one of these little flat surfaces captures glare. A polarizer removes that glare and lets the rich greens of the forest come through. You don’t normally think about using a polarizer in a forest on a cloudy day but it is really effective.

without polarizer

with polarizer

without polarizer

with polarizer

So go out and try your polarizer. Try it in all conditions and be aware of the changes you see as you spin it around. Then decide if you like what you see. If you say “wow” you can thank me later.

I was recently interviewed by a local accomplished photographer, Chris Mazzarella. He has a very nice website that is forestcentric: http://forestforward.com/2012/03/13/an-interview-with-david-middleton-2/

Take a look around on the website and read my short interview- there are pearls  to be found, not big ones but some nice small ones. Next month Chris is interview a very well known writer and environmental activist. No I’m not going to tell you, you are going to have to check in to find out.

young barred owl

I am going to keep this short and sweet (unlike my recent posts): Here are the things you must do when you are out taking pictures. No arguing, no excuses, no being lazy. Just sit there and listen and then go out and do it.

1. Check your histogram for every shot you take. This is why we use digital technology- we can see what the exposure is going to be. No more guessing. Look at your histogram and you will know what your exposure is going to be. Looking at your LCD on the back of y0ur camera is not good enough. Check your histogram. Every pro does it, shouldn’t you?

2. Use your depth of field preview for landscapes and close-ups. Yes it gets dark when you push the button. It’s okay. Take a breath, wait a moment and your eyes will accommodate to the dim light. Slow down and let your craftmanship come through. What’s the rush. Take a moment and do it right.

3. Think about your background. Bad background = bad picture. No ifs, and or ugly butts. Pick a subject with a background that is supportive of your image. Not distracting, not glaring, not butt ugly. Background is everything- give it the time and effort it deserves.

4. It’s the light, baby, only the light!!! Not the subject, not your ego, not your desires, not your camera. The light is really the only thing that matters in photography. Without good light you won’t get good photos. Without great light you won’t get great photos. Without spectacular light you won’t get spectacular photos. see the pattern? Wait for the light, there is no other way.

5. Do most of your processing in the field. Do all of it if you can. Remove sticks, fix your background, reconsider your framing, adjust your exposure, check your edges, figure out your depth of field all in the field before you push the shutter. If you do you won’t waste your time staring at your computer. Remember, you can’t focus what is blurry and you can’t alter what is way over exposed. And you can’t fix ugly. If you spend more time working on an image than taking it you’ve got things backward. Work on your field technique.

6. Get out and shoot and stop reading blogs! It’s spring! Get outside!!!

Your indulgence, please.

A couple of years ago I had the pleasure of getting to know a wonderful man named John on one of my workshops. He was an older man with a quiet sense of humor, a gentleman in every sense of the word and I really enjoyed my times photographing with him. At the time John was also going through some pretty hard cancer treatments and I admired how he moved through life with a sense of grace and charm- his antidote to  what couldn’t have been easy.

I asked him once what he had learned in his life. He replied without hesitation, “You never lose the need to be touched.” It hit me like a punch in the gut- a simple yet profound life truth that had eluded me for 55 years. “You never lose the need to be touched.”

And now I sit in yet another hospital room. In July I was the patient but of late I have been the son, the son-in-law, the comforter for dear ones who can’t be comforted. I have the early shift, arriving when the world is dark and still and life lies somnolent and hushed. At this time of the day the hospital floor where I sit quietly hums from monitors and machines but there is little movement otherwise, in the halls, in the rooms, or on the bed where I stare.

Visitors will come shortly- family, family friends, friends of the family- and the hall and rooms will quiver with activity even as the beds remain still. People will come in and news will be exchanged, updates provided, outlooks hopefully given and then they will sit and watch and wonder and pray. Sometimes small conversations will be exchanged with the patient and sometimes a gentle squeeze will be given but most times that is all. Discomfort is catching in hospitals.

Touching is not. Human to human, skin to skin, hand in hand; contact, stroking, the embrace of arms, the shelter of two hearts- the true medicine  of wellness and care- absent or fleeting from where I sit. I was once this way. I was once standoffish, uncomfortable with illness, emotionally overwhelmed, barely present. No more. I now dive right in, touching as long as I can, staying in contact as long as I can, being present with a prolonged squeeze, a long rub, a gentle stroke, a soft touch. It is usually inconvenient, often hard and often emotionally trying but it is always magical, always, always magical.

Thank you, John. Thank you for your wisdom, for your courage, for your encouragement, your grace.

I hope you never have to sit in a hospital room and wait for the rising dawn to bring light into the darkness. But if you do please push the darkness and sadness away with your touch. You too will feel the magic.

Indian Paintbrush with good background

Those of you who have suffered through one of my insufferable workshops will remember me going on and on about background. Usually its during a critique I bellow “background, background, background,” making my point by pointing out bright spots or other distracting things behind the subject. “If the brightest thing in your picture is not the subject, it is a big distraction and your picture suffers.” That is what I say. What I think is “What were you thinking? Were you thinking? Pay attention!!”

The background of an image is a very important part of a photograph. It is so important that if the background is bad the photo is automatically bad. There are no exceptions. Bad background, bad image. This means that the background must be a deliberate choice you make. It is not something you just happen to get. You look for a subject and then confirm that the background is good. If the background is not good, no matter how good the subject is- you lose! Bad background that can’t be fixed means you don’t take the picture. (And if you do be very sure you do’t show it to me in a workshop!)

Here are some examples of pairs of pictures with the subject basically the same but with the background dramatically better.

There are two easy ways to control the background- moving the camera to get a better viewing angle or changing the f-stop to lessen the depth of field and soften the background.

Examples of small position change in camera to improve the background:

Bad background

Good background

Bad background- notice antenna and windmill in behind

Great background- no distractions

Examples of reducing the depth of field to make the background less distracting. The first pair shows the background I chose for the Texas Bluebonnet and then the final image. I spent a lot of time looking for a flower with just the right background and then some time figuring out which the best f-stop would be to give me the flower in focus and the background out of focus. These are deliberate decisions.

Background behind subject

Subject with good background out of focus

Distracting background- shot at f22

Better background- shot at f8

With these examples it is plain to see how some easy adjustments make a big difference in the appearance and the impact of the photo. All it takes is paying attention to the area behind your subject and making the necessary changes.

Lobsterman

One of the things I most enjoy when teaching a workshop is helping people when they are out taking pictures. Because I don’t take pictures during workshops I spend my time wandering around looking through cameras, making suggestions and answering questions. Doing this is the most effective way to teach photography because the experience is real and the effect immediate. I can show them all kinds of pictures in the classroom but none of it will have the impact of seeing the same effect through their camera.

When I am wandering around one of the first things I ask a person is “why are you standing here and not over there or there or there?” The answer I want to hear is it is because if the camera were anywhere else the picture would suffer. The answers I often hear are less compelling- “My camera bag was here.” “It  was by the bench.” “It didn’t seem to matter.” “This is where I stopped to rest.” Sorry, not good enough.

Where you take a picture is vitally important and will always have an effect on the final image. I’ll go even further and say that for any one picture there is only one best place to stand or set up your tripod. And that one best place is not a very big area. How big is it? It is less than one step in size. One step. Not two steps. Not several steps. One step.  Anything larger than one step will have a  noticeable effect on your composition. If you find the best place to take your picture, a step to either side will make the picture worse. Here are some examples.

The courtyard was visually chaotic when I first looked through my camera but with one step to the right I was able to hide the distant middle post behind the close one and the entire composition simplified.

chaotic composition

simplified composition

The background of the short-eared owl shot was really contrasty at first but with one step to the right I was able to put the owl in front of the dark shadow behind it and simplify the composition.

contrasty background

simplified background

The indian paintbrush was nicely composed at first but when I took one step to the right the diagonal lines were much more interesting and the composition improved dramatically.

dull composition

dynamic composition

(I don’t always step to the right. In fact, since I have moved to Vermont I have been moving to the left more and more. Seems to work better up here.)

So be mindful of what you are doing and where you are setting up to take a picture. One step can make a big difference. Let it work in your favor.