PHOTOGRAPHING SEASONAL CHANGES

While these two photographs are not perfectly "registered" with each other, it is always interesting to take images of the same subject in various seasons. The above two photographs were taken from my old house on Douglas Avenue, Saint John, New Brunswick Canada. Our city has a diverse collection of architectural styles, which makes it a haven for all types of visual artists.

I did not plan out the above photographs to work in tandem with each other, however if I did, this is what I would do:

1. Buy a used tripod that is solid and not wobbly, with a quick-release camera attachment plate.
2. Attach it to your house in a solid fashion.
3. Make sure the tripod head is locked tightly so that it will not move during the year.
4. At the first of every month place the same camera on the tripod, and take your monthly photo.
5. Make sure that all of your 12 images have the same "F-stop" number, preferably f/8.
6. When the year is finished, place the 12 photos into a slide show with a dissolve, and you will have a nice short film to send to your friends!

For more detailed information on any of these steps, or if you have any questions about this process or any other photography question, call me anytime at www.clarity.fm/markhemmings

These two photos are ready for your wall as large fine art prints! Check them out here: www.markhemmings/prints www.markhemmings.com/prints
Mark is available for hire as a photographer or filmmaker at www.hemmingshouse.com

EXTERIOR ARCHITECTURE

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.

Most photographers know that one of the best times to get exteriors is after sunset when the sky has the same luminosity as the interior artificial light. In the winter months this is easy, because the sun sets early in the Northern hemisphere. I would also like to recommend photographing in the same manner with pre-dawn light. This method is harder because it means getting up very early, but the results can be excellent.

Morning pre-dawn light looks quite different than evening views. If the exterior job that you are doing is worth the time, why not do the same scene late evening, and early the next morning? Both scenes will have great light, but the two photos will have significantly different hues and tones.

I took this photo a few weeks ago for friends at the architectural firm Murdock & Boyd, of the E. & P. Senechal Centre in New Brunswick.

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

WARM/COOL TONES

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.

Yellow and Blue are opposites on the photographer's color wheel. I often try to locate images that have a mix of these two colors, similar to the attached sample image of Buda Castle. While not specifically Yellow and Blue, warm tones (yellow cast) are displayed by the interior castle lights, and the cool tones (blue cast) are displayed by the immediate frontal exterior. When the sun has set, building exteriors become cool-toned, while interiors usually maintain a warm toned, incandescent look.

Architectural photographers make use of this light color mixture frequently. You can do it too, by using a tripod with a cable or remote release. Take the photo after sunset, when the ambient sky light illuminating the building's exterior is roughly the same brightness as the interior light bulbs.

Thanks to Sue Furlong who clicked the shutter for me on this picture. Being a photographer there are very few pictures of myself, so I decided to get a photo taken in Budapest at this wonderful castle cafe. The view in the background is of the Parliament Building on the Pest side of the river.

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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

EMPTY SPACE

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.

While it is often not advisable to take photographs like the attached sample image, in certain circumstances strange compositions can be quite valuable as art photography. I took this photo in Amsterdam, during a time when people from every house would open their windows and play a musical instrument. The melody was prearranged by a central conductor on a tall crane. The sound was haunting and beautiful.

I felt that the surreal aspects of the musical endeavor required an equally surreal composition. Giving more weight to the clouds encourages the viewer to ask more questions of the artist, which is always a good thing (regardless of a negative or positive response).

Experiment with different compositions, and don't feel bad when your photography club or association judges you harshly. A lot of the time the judges wish that they too could express such freedom in their work!

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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

SKIN TONE

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 are just starting out using studio strobes, and are having problems getting accurate skin tones, you might be better off using a Kelvin white balance instead of Auto white balance.

Auto white balance is often quite good at judging proper color temperatures, however it has its limitations, especially when there are people in a group with different skin tones. If your camera has the ability to adjust the Kelvin temperature (check your manual), you will do well to set the white balance to approximately 5600 K. Most strobes differ slightly in their own daylight colors, however if you experiment with 5500 K to 5800 K, you will be able to find out the best combination for your camera and studio strobes.

If you are not getting into studio photography, but use a normal on-camera flash, you too can enjoy the accuracy of the Kelvin white balance. Simply set it to 5600 K whenever you are doing flash photography, and your photos will probably turn out better than you expect.

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

EXTERIORS

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.

Have you ever wanted to take a photo of a building, or maybe your own house, but when you got the photo back the sky was pure white instead of blue? The reason for this exposure problem is that the sun is not shining on the side of the building that is being photographed.

If the sun is shining behind the building, the camera needs to increase the exposure in order to take the building "out of the shadows". By increasing the exposure, the blue sky becomes white, or over-exposed.

The most natural looking solution to this problem is to photograph the building when the sun is illuminating the the side that you are photographing (often morning or evening light). Because the house will be bright and well lit, the camera will not need to increase the exposure. This will result in a nice deep blue sky, and a well exposed building.

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

HAPPY ACCIDENTS

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There have been many times when during a photo shoot, it is the test shots that turn out the best. Most often it is because the models aren't conscious of the need to start performing. In this case, the woman in this photo was my assistant, and we were getting the studio ready for a photo shoot. Prior to any photo sessions, I always get my assistants to stand in so I can test my lights. When I saw the results of the test photo, and the mystery that it conveyed, I immediately knew that this test image would be far better than the results of the real photo shoot, and I could probably not duplicate the results anyway. So during the real photo session we worked with other studio set-ups.

What I learned from this experience is that it is wise to avoid deleting photos in-camera, at least until after they are all loaded into your computer. There could be many jems that may not look good on your tiny 3 inch screen, but may be great on your much larger computer monitor.

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

HOW TO FOCUS

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 are photographing any type of room or interior, and would like to get as much of the room in focus as possible, try this:

Set your camera on a tripod, and compose your picture. Now, walk away from the camera into the room and divide up the room into "thirds". Between the camera and the far end of the room you should be able to estimate where to mentally divide up the space into 1/3 distances. For example, if your interior space from the camera to the far wall is 30 feet deep, find the location on the floor (or a piece of furniture) that is 10 feet away from the camera. This section is "one third" of the total depth of the room.

Go back to your camera, and now manually focus the lens to that place on the floor, or that piece of furniture that is (as in our example) 10 feet away from you. Now re-compose you picture, set your lens aperture number to f8 or f11 (Aperture Priority setting), and take the shot. Your resulting image should have the most even amount of foreground and background sharpness.

Other tips: f8 and f11 are usually the sharpest lens apertures. If you need the maximum depth of field possible, go to f22 or the highest aperture number that your lens is capable of. The trade-off is that the final image may not be as sharp as the same image taken at f8.

When doing interiors, always use your self-timer. The shake of your finger on the shutter button will compromise image sharpness. Instead of waiting the full 10 seconds for the shutter to be released, see if your camera allows for a 2 or 5 second self timer.

Finally, make sure your camera is set to Manual Focus. After you have focused on your "1/3" location, you don't want the camera to focus on some other location as soon as you take the photo (which it will do, if the camera remains on Auto Focus).

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

SINGLE LIGHT SOURCES

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If you don't have access to a photo studio with strobe lights, but you do have an external flash with a long sync chord, try the following set-up:

1. Hang a piece of black velvet fabric on a wall, in a fairly dark room. Pin a flower onto the fabric. Roses work well.
2. Place your camera on a tripod, and focus on the flower.
3. You will need to find a way to hang a white bed sheet directly behind you.
4. Attached to a flash synch chord (available at camera stores) to your external flash, and place the flash about 2 or 3 feet behind the white bed sheet. The easiest way to have the flash unit secure is to place it on a second tripod, or get a friend to hold it.

To summarize the set-up:
Black velvet hanging on a wall with flower pinned to it
Camera
Photographer
White bed sheet behind photographer
Flash unit a few feet behind bed sheet

The flash unit should be directed so that the light is hitting the back of the photographer (albeit through the bed sheet). The goal is to only allow perimeter light to hit the subject. Your own body acts as a light blocker, keeping the strongest light away from the subject. Place the flash unit on its fullest output setting, and take some test shots. You should end up with a nice softly-lit image, as it is only the softer light that comes from around your upper body that will illuminate the flower.

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INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE

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.

When you are asked to do interior photos of a large room or building, one of the most important technical elements of the final picture are straight lines. A sure sign that an interior photo was taken by an amateur photographer are curved or angled walls. The unnatural curve that you experience when taking the photo is not your fault; your camera lenses are not nearly as advanced as your eyes, which have the ability to optically correct the curving perspective.

So how do you correct the image so that all lines in the photograph will be straight? Here are a few suggestions for in-camera perspective control, without using software:
1. Learn how to use a view camera. This is a very expensive, time consuming, and technically challenging endeavor. To learn more about view cameras, do an internet search.
2. Purchase or rent a perspective control lens made by Canon or Nikon. These expensive lenses can move in many directions, and will allow you to get straight lines by experimenting with the amount of Tilt and Shift that you apply (these lenses are also called Tilt/Shift lenses). Currently, Canon has the best version of this lens, as their 24mm wide angle will be adequate for most interior spaces.

If you don't have the cash for the above options, the second-best choice is using software such as Photoshop. Software still requires the very best image however, so you need to supply it with a photo that is as straight as you can possibly get. To do the most for the photo, follow these guidelines:
1. Always use a tripod.
2. Compose the photo so that you are exactly in the middle of the room.
3. If possible make sure your camera is positioned at the same distance between the ground and the ceiling (half-way up the room). You may need a ladder to do this, and a measuring tape.
4. Step away from the camera and make sure that the lens is pointing exactly 90 degrees away from the floor. In other words, the lens direction has to be completely parallel to the floor.
5. Set the lens aperture of f8 or f11.
6. Use a cable shutter release or 10 second timer so you aren't touching the camera while the shutter is released.
7. Take the photo!

If you are able to import your final image into Photoshop or other software, you can now make fine-tune adjustments to create straight lines throughout the photo. Each software is different, so you will have to read the instructions or ask someone to help you with this. Some key words to look out for are "barrel distortion", "pincushion distortion", "perspective", and "lens distortion correction".

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

EXTERIOR ARCHITECTURE

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.

Photographing building exteriors is both easy and difficult. The easy part is finding subject matter . . . the difficult part is composing in a way that is both dynamic and original.

The above image is a nice mixture of old and new architecture, and the vertical lines of both structures compliment each other. As the old west-facing architecture is more aesthetically pleasing than the newer building, this photo was meant to be taken with warm, evening light. A morning shot would have illuminated the newer building at the expense of the great sandstone detail.

Architecture is a classical subject, and because of its permanence, a traditional rule of thirds composition may be the best choice. In this photo, the older building takes up 1/3 of the picture space, while the background texture (newer building) takes up the remaining 2/3rds. One could argue that the older building should be more prominent, but if altered, I believe that it would lose its visual strength.

These building were taken in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.
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

BALANCING THE LIGHT

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.

Today's photo blog entry is more of a tip than a technical lesson. The example photo is of exterior architecture, but the same principles can be used for many different styles of environmental photography.

Have you ever taken a photo of a building and the formerly blue sky turned out completely white? Or, the sky was a proper exposure, but the backlit building came out shadowy and dark? The problem is the great difference in light levels between the dark shadow of the building and the very bright light of the sky. The easiest way to correct this problem (if you have the time) is to wait for the sun to go down. Approximately 1/2 hour after sundown, depending on your location, the light in the sky will be about the same brightness as the artificial light emanating from the buildings.

The window for getting balanced light is very short, sometimes only 20-30 minutes. As an experiment, place your camera on a tripod, and take the same photo every 5 minutes. When it is too dark to see any sky, you can pack up and review your photos at home. You will find that maybe 3 or 4 photos look excellent, and they will probably be the ones taken in the middle of your session.

This technique is very popular with photographers who specialize in house exterior photography. They simply turn on all the lights in the house, wait until the outdoor sky is the same brightness level as the indoor house lights, and the result is a beautiful warm interior with a cool dark blue sky. Try it out on your own house!

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