MONOCHROME PHOTOS

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.

A few tips for creating black and white, or monochrome images:

1. Use Black and White film!
2. If option #1 is not available, set your camera to maximum contrast.
3. Choose a scene that has as few visual elements as possible. The simpler the scene, the more power will be transmitted to the viewer.
4. Keep your photo in color, and create your black and white later within your editing program. You will have many more tonal options within your software, and possibly better quality, than using the "Black and White" option within your camera itself.
5. Turn off Auto ISO in your camera. Because of excessive digital grain (noise) inherent in black and white conversions, it is very important to keep your camera ISO setting at its lowest number (ISO 100 or 200).
6. Shoot in RAW mode if possible. This goes for all types of photography. RAW files allow for maximum flexibility, and if mistakes are made by you in processing, you can always return to the master digital negative.

Email this Blog to a friend!

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

NIKON D300

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 don't usually mention specific brands on this blog, but one noteworthy product deserves special mention: the Nikon D300.

I bought one just a few days ago to use as a back-up camera body. I didn't expect anything great, just normal Nikon dependability.

My family and friends went to a picnic yesterday, and I took the camera to photograph the kids. I wanted to see how well the camera dealt with skin tones using the on-camera flash. I don't ever use such flashes in studio, but for travel photography situations I often wished my pro camera body had a pop-up flash to capture fleeting, low light opportunities (Geisha in Kyoto come to mind). The D300 is amazing! I have no idea how they were able to do it, but the small pop-up flash creates fill light better than workhorses such as the D2Xs with a Nikon SB800 speedlight. I was very impressed with how well the camera judges exposure.

Usual problem areas with flash photography are blown-out foreheads, noses, and chins. This has always been a problem for editorial or event photographers, as they are almost always using a flash unit attached to the camera. Each flash photo that I took with the D300 was perfectly exposed; no bright foreheads or noses, and the background was always well balanced with the foreground subject matter. When I got home and checked all the images, my first thought was that (among many others), this was a great camera for travel, news, and event photographers. It is light-weight, fast, and exposes intelligently in full AUTO mode.

One of the secrets to creating such a well-balanced photograph is the optional Active D-Lighting. When this is enabled the camera underexposes the photo slightly, to avoid over-exposed highlights on a person's face. It then immediately overexposes the darker areas to create an evenly lit scene.

Some could argue that this is replicable in Photoshop. It is, to an extent. I found however that the D300 does a better job of boosting the shadow area than Photoshop's tools, such as the Shadow/Highlight slider. One could also say that the results of the D300's Active D-Lighting are the same as setting other cameras on Low Contrast. Not so . . . the D300's Active D-Lighting still maintains an acceptable amount of contrast, whereas the Low Contrast setting on other cameras yields a bland, washed-out photograph.

As I am only three days into the camera, I still have much to discover. At this point, at $1800 I believe that for digital SLR's, it is the best value for the dollar.

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

INEXPENSIVE INTERIOR PICS

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 do a lot of interior & architecture photography for various clients, and the large bags of equipment that I use require many people to lug around. It is very rare that when asked to do interiors that I don't have supporting equipment such as strobes, flood lights, reflectors, diffusers, etc.

My mom asked me to take some photos of her kitchen last night, and the only equipment I had in my trunk was a camera, wide angle lens, and tripod. I initially felt that I should drive to my studio and pack up some gear, but decided otherwise. I photographed the kitchen without any extra equipment, and thought I would pass on some tips for you, if you are required to shoot interiors but don't have extra lighting equipment.

1. For relatively even light, and consistent color balance, photograph the room at night.
2. Turn on all the lights in the room, and any other adjacent rooms.
3. When you set your tripod up, place the camera height half-way between the floor and ceiling.
4. Make sure your composition is straight.
5. Place your Contrast setting on "low contrast". See your manual if necessary.
6. Place the white balance on Incandescent, which is pictured by a little light bulb.
7. Place your camera in Aperture Priority mode. Set the f-stop to f8.
8. Use a remote shutter trigger, or a self-timer. This will keep camera shake to a minimum.
9. Take a test photo. If the image is too dark or too light, use the exposure compensation.
10. If the photo has a green-ish look, adjust your in-camera Hue adjustment.
11. Take the photo!
12. In Photoshop, use the lens correction filter if needed: Filter>Distort>Lens Correction
13. To fine-tune your color balance, use something white (such as a stove or fridge) to judge the color cast. The INFO palette, top right of your screen, will give you RGB values. The Red, Green, and Blue numbers should be as close as possible to each other.

If you are unsure of how to fine tune color balance in Photoshop, or any other image editor, do an internet search for "adjusting color balance in Photoshop".

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

FULL FRAME DIGITAL SENSORS

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 people are using Digital SLR's these days, and it has just been recently that full frame sensors are being offered on both Nikon and Canon cameras.

There are numerous pros and cons regarding smaller sensor sizes vs. full frame, 35mm sizes. The main advantage that I enjoy with full frame coverage is the appearance of a "thinner slice" of depth-of-field.

I won't get into the physics of why this happens, however the short answer is that you are able to get closer to a subject with a full frame camera as opposed to a sub-full frame camera. When you are able to get closer to a subject, backgrounds always get more blurry (providing the aperture stays the same while you are moving forward).

When doing travel photography, such as my sample South Korean photograph, it is often aesthetically advantageous to have the smallest depth of field possible, as long as the subject's eyes are in focus.
A master of this technique is Steve McCurry. His travel portraits usually have the subject's eyes in focus, but everything else becomes a dreamy blur.

Email this Blog to a friend!

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

UNDEREXPOSE!

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 doing street photography, quick reaction is the key. I will often have my camera set to Aperture Priority, f-2.8, and auto white balance. This set-up works very well for 80% of the photos one would normally encounter, however the other 20% require some quick exposure adjustments. The attached photo of Kyoto Station is a good example of how auto-exposure does not always work; the background steps were significantly darker than the brightly dressed person with the umbrella. If I let the camera decide the shutter speed within Aperture Priority mode, the camera would perceive a vast expanse of darkness (the steps) and consequently give more exposure to the photo. The result would be evenly exposed steps, but a completely white and "blown-out" subject.

When confronted with a dark background, and a smaller, bright human subject, train your mind to quickly underexpose the camera. The amount of underexposure is dependent on the deepness of the darks, and brightness of the subject. Try underexposing the photograph by 1 or 2 stops. The easiest and quickest way to accomplish this while doing street photography is to:
1. Put your camera in Aperture Priority mode.
2. As a default, keep your aperture at its lowest f-number (you can adjust this at will)
3. Become familiar with your Exposure Compensation button or dial.
4. Learn to adjust this variable quickly and intuitively; if you are confronted with a scene like the above attached photo, underexpose by going to the minus sign.
5. Quickly check your screen, and to make the photo even darker (if necessary), move the exposure dial or button to the minus side even more.

This exposure technique works equally well in an inverted fashion. If you have a darker toned subject in front of a bright background (person skiing wearing a dark ski suit), simply adjust your exposure compensation towards the Plus sign. This will make the snow clean and bright, and will give appropriate exposure to the subject.

Email this Blog to a friend!

 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

INTENTIONAL CAMERA SHAKE

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.

Intentional camera shake as an artistic technique has been very helpful to many photographers over the decades. Many photographic scenes suffer for a lack of drama and color, so photographers learned long ago how to create pre-digital camera techniques, enabling a photo to go from 'documentary' status to 'impressionistic' or 'abstract'.

While computer filters can mimic almost any old school in-camera technique, there is something satisfying about doing everything that needs to be done at the click of a shutter. I took this picture today of Tokyo's frenetic street scenes using a long lens with no tripod. I believe I got just the right amount of camera shake . . .

Email this Blog to a friend!

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

HYPERFOCAL DISTANCE

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 want to get everything in your photograph focused perfectly sharp, try the following:

Set your camera on a tripod, and with Aperture Priority, put your aperture to the highest 'f' number possible (usually f-22 or f-32).

Compose your photograph and lock the tripod head so the camera can't move. Set your camera lens to focus manually.

Now, look at the scene in front of you, and locate the object that is closest to you, and the object that is farthest in the distance. In my example photo, the closest object is the dark green cactus with thick leaves, and the furthest object is the green plant with long thin leaves.

At this point, you will need to mentally divide up the distance into 'thirds'. Locate the object that is one-third distance away from the camera (round prickly cactus in the middle of the frame), and manually focus your lens on that object.

You are now ready to take your photograph, and the image will have the maximum possible sharpness throughout the frame.

Extra hint: wide-angle lenses will always offer more depth-of-field than telephoto zoom lenses.

Email this Blog to a friend!

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