STROBES OUTDOORS

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.

I shot this iPhone pic of my assistant Jon as we were setting up for an exterior portrait shoot. I didn't realize until later how funny the picture turned out, as it appears that Jon unwittingly became a conductor of electricity.

When using strobes outside in full sunlight you can run into problems. The prominent issue is the fast shutter speed and high "f" number required to make a decent exposure. It is best to use manual exposure mode for shoots like this, with your shutter speed set to 1/200. This number is a safe average of most camera shutter sync speeds. If you have a faster shutter speed than what your camera is made to handle, the strobe or flash will have no effect.

Next, your aperture, or "f" number will probably be quite high because of the locked shutter speed of 1/200 and the bright daylight. You may find that the proper exposure is f8, or f14. This can be a problem because when the aperture number increases, less light is available from the flash/strobe to the subject. It is not that the flash or strobe becomes weaker, rather it takes a more powerful flash to counteract the smaller lens opening.

If you find that you need more flash power even though it is broad daylight, but you are at max power on your flash or strobe, then try these techniques:

Use a polarizing filter on your lens. This will drop your aperture f-number down approximately two stops (depending on the type of polarizer). When you use a lower f-number there will be more effective light power traveling from the source to the subject.

Another option is to simply place the lights closer to the subject. This instruction may seem laughable due to its obvious nature, but many new photographers do not realize that effective light power increases when the distance between light source and subject decreases.

Mark's photographic prints for your wall can be purchased at www.markhemmings.com
Mark can be hired as a photographer or filmmaker via www.hemmingshouse.com

EMOTION AND GEOMETRY

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.

I rarely have success with silhouettes, but I do enjoy this (almost silhouette) photograph of a young boy in the Magdalen Islands. There is enough exposure to see the boy without blowing out the background, and the low sun supplies the image's warmth.

In most of my images I try to combine two major elements; emotion and geometry. My favorite images emote a sense of mystery or contemplation, set in a composition of rectangles, circles, and/or triangles.

When learning how to craft good photographs, ask yourself what emotion is presented to the viewer, and what compositional design elements are supporting the subject matter. In this case, the boy presents the viewer with a contemplative scene, set within a triangular composition.

Mark's photographic prints for your wall can be purchased at www.markhemmings.com
Mark can be hired as a photographer or filmmaker via www.hemmingshouse.com

MID-CENTURY MODERNISM

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.

I was staying at a hotel in Caracas, Venezuela a few months ago, and when I looked out across the street I was taken by a tile design on the side of an apartment block. I immediately thought "late fifties" era Modern, and as I got closer I read the inscription, "E. Tamiazzo, Hecho En Caracas, Oct. 1955".

No doubt most of the city dwellers walk by that piece everyday without noticing it. It often takes fresh eyes from outsiders to appreciate the qualities of particular cities. I did a search for Tamiazzo, but nothing came up under English Google results. Maybe a Spanish speaking person can help me out with a bit of information. The remarkable thing about this mural is that the individual tiles were only a few inches square. It must have taken a long time to create the wall art.

When photographing artwork on buildings, a good way to present the artwork is to make the structure darker than the mural. The structure is necessary, to show the viewer the context of the artwork, but it should remain secondary in importance. Place your camera on high contrast, and if needed, increase the contrast afterward in an image editing program. Most of the time you are looking for a gritty, high contrast scene, especially if you are shooting in a city environment. If you are a RAW shooter, you can also try the "clarity" tool in Photoshop Raw converter. This tool will keep light levels relatively stable, but will increase the graphic appearance of the image. As in my above sample photo, try to arrange the composition in such a way that the building also acts as a design element with vertical or horizontal lines.

Mark's photographic prints for your wall can be purchased at www.markhemmings.com
Mark can be hired as a photographer or filmmaker via www.hemmingshouse.com

JAPAN & NIKON D90

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.

With regards to talking about D-SLR filmmaking, I am a bit outdated dealing with the D90, especially with the recent introduction of the Nikon D300s. However, it takes awhile to put short films together, and this one that I did in Japan was shot entirely on the D90. The future looks bright for creating films on these new and relatively inexpensive cameras, considering each new model will benefit from the shortcomings of the last model. Hope you enjoy the film, and to see it larger on Vimeo, click on the "JAPAN" link below the film.

JAPAN from Hemmings House Pictures on Vimeo.

Mark's photographic prints for your wall can be purchased at www.markhemmings.com
Mark can be hired as a photographer or filmmaker via www.hemmingshouse.com