SHALLOW DEPTH OF FIELD

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Most lenses that come with a camera are consumer lenses, meaning that they are priced to be competitive and affordable. These lenses can have perfectly fine optics, but they suffer from a lack of shallow depth of field. Your lens has "f" numbers that relate to the changeable size of the circular aperture blades. A wide circle allows a lot of light into the camera, and a small circle reduces the amount of light entering the camera.

A "fast" lens refers to lenses that have small f-numbers, such as f1.4, f1.8, or f2.8. These lenses, although often more expensive than your normal lenses, have the benefit of offering the photo a very shallow depth of field. The above example photo was taken with a 50mm f1.4 lens. Part of its pleasant nature is the fact that the background is out of focus. If your lens has f4.5 as its smallest f-number, the background may remain somewhat in-focus, thus reducing the photos visual impact.

Not everyone can afford 'fast' lenses, as they are professional models and can be more than $1000. However, why not start out with a used 50mm f1.4, or a 85mm f1.8 lens? These prime lenses will increase the value of your photos in two ways: they will be sharper than your consumer zoom lenses, and they will offer a much shallower depth of field (which means more background blur).

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EVENING LIGHT

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If you have access to a field or meadow, wait until just before sunset to get a nice soft wash of golden light. The process is very easy; just place the lens slightly lower than the direct sun. In other words, if you raised the camera a little bit, the sun would be shining directly into the lens. The soft, golden look comes partly from lens flare, which in this case is actually desirable.

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SCENIC BACKLIGHTING

Backlighting is when the light source is pointing toward the camera, and the main subject is in shadow because the light source is hitting the subject's back. You can create very dramatic landscape photos in early evening if the landscape includes water. Set your digital camera to High Contrast, or use slide film, and make sure the sun is illuminating the rear of the subject, in this case, the island.

Exposure probably won't be too difficult, as the extreme highlights of the reflective water and the dark shadows of the land will often give an accurate average exposure meter reading. Still, it is always best to take a few photos of the same scene, at different exposures. This image was taken in the South Shore of Nova Scotia, an area rich in photographic subject matter.

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GRAPHIC IMAGES

Dear reader, if this entry or my other blog entries don't answer your specific photography questions, you can call me on the phone anytime for advice by clicking here.

If you have ever heard of the term "graphic image" applied to a photograph, you are probably looking at an image that is bold, minimal, possibly abstract, and strong in its compositional framing. This type of image usually doesn't tell a story as it is more for attention grabbing; because of these photos are often well suited for advertising photography.

When deciding on a certain subject matter and crop, look for bold colors, or high contrast if the image is black and white. Often symmetrical compositions work well, or the utilization of geometric shapes such as triangles, squares, and circles.

To make your image more marketable, allow for a lot of empty space for the addition of text. My example above of a Lunenburg building has plenty of empty space, thus making it a good choice for a magazine cover shot. Speaking off magazines, remember that vertical compositions are sometimes preferred . . . make sure you take two photos of everything, one horizontal and one vertical. You will then have the choice if an editor needs a few different options.

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LOOK FOR NARRATIVES

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When doing street photography, it is not good enough to just capture people within their environment . . . anyone can do that. Continually look for interaction between people, or a situation that suggests some form of narrative between the subjects. If you look at the history of street and editorial photography, you will see that the classic images all have the above mentioned elements.

In the example photo, the merchant has a pleading look on his face, hoping that the passing man and boy will stop to make a purchase. If the viewer senses tension in the photo, then the photographer has done his or her job. Viewers of street photography want to see emotion and tension. Resolution is rarely present, as a photograph is only one still frame; it is the job of the filmmaker to allow a street narrative to have a conclusion. Indeed, many of the best films seem to be extensions (in both directions) of a single photograph.

I took this photo in the famous Market district of Ueno, Tokyo, using my favorite film, Kodak T-Max 3200. Email this Blog to a friend! To see more photographs by Mark Hemmings, click here