BALANCING INTERIOR LIGHT

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Interior photography can be very challenging, as you are often forced to photograph during the worst possible times. The ideal scenario is low, warm, directional sunlight flooding the interior of the location with soft pleasing light. Yet this may only happen 3 days out of the week, and only for a brief 1 hour window! That is why interior photographers need to learn how to work proficiently even in the worst conditions, such as rain, fog, unflattering sunlight, and harsh interior lights.

The sample photo is an image that I took at a boutique hotel in the Laurentian mountains. The day was overcast and dreary, and somewhat uninspiring. The challenge was to get the interior lamp-light to match the intensity of the exterior light. Often you will have either an interior light that is not nearly bright enough compared to the outside natural light, or you will have an evening photo shoot where the interior lamp illumination is far too bright relative the the exterior evening light. If the latter is your challenge, you can either switch light bulbs to a lower watt bulb, or you can simply purchase a very simple tool called a cord dimmer switch. This useful addition to your gear collection is very inexpensive and highly useful. The cord is about $15, and works as an intermediate extension cord between the wall socket and the lamp's own power cord. This extension cord has a dimmer switch built in, so you can adjust the light bulb's illumination to balance with the exterior light. You can purchase these dimmers at most hardware stores, and I just recently saw some on Ikea's website. Do a product search for "Cord dimmer switch".

Conclusion: Keep a few high wattage household bulbs with your gear, in case you need more light power when you are photographing at your location. If you find the high wattage bulb is too strong compared to external light levels, simply lower the light intensity with the dimmer switch. (Note - I haven't tried this technique with the newer household fluorescent bulbs).

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Mark can be hired as a photographer or filmmaker via www.hemmingshouse.com

THE 50mm PRIME LENS

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.

For readers who have been with me from the start, please forgive me for revisiting the 50mm prime lens. I believe the lens is great enough to warrant an additional posting.

Prime (or fixed) lenses do not have any zoom; they are locked into a viewing angle that forces you to physically move back or forth to get the right composition. While many people would find this inconvenient, the advantages to prime lenses far outweigh the few drawbacks.

Canon and Nikon both make excellent 50mm lenses with f-stop setting of f1.2, f1.4, f1.8. 50mm prime lenses are great in low-light situations, they are very small and portable, they are extremely sharp and relatively inexpensive, and they are light weight compared to many zoom lenses. One could also argue that they will last much longer than zoom lenses, as there are fewer movable parts within the lens construction.

This particular image was taken at a hotel spa with poor lighting. The interior was dark and dreary, with fluorescent lights and only a small window to the outside. I was confronted with the challenge of lighting the model in the cramped space, and after a few unsuccessful attempts at using studio lights, I pulled out the 50mm lens.

If you are in a similar situation with less than ideal lighting, yet there is at least one window, try the following:

1. Place the camera on a steady tripod, and use a remote shutter release to avoid camera shake. If you do not have a remote shutter release, use your camera's self timer (also called a 10 second timer on some models).

2. Place the model so that the window is on the side and slightly behind him or her. The reason the window should be behind the model is to illuminate the background for a soft, pleasing look.

3. Place a large reflector on the other side of the model, closer to you camera. The reflector should be bouncing window light onto the darker side of the model.

4. Set your camera to Aperture Priority, and the lens to it's lowest f-stop number. If you have a 50mm lens, set it to f1.4 or f1.8, depending on the model that you have.

5. Turn off all the lights in the room. This is essential, as you do not want to mix different color temperatures. Window light is normal daylight, whereas interior light bulbs are either tungsten or fluorescent, which are yellowish and greenish respectively.

6. Your camera's white balance can be set to "cloudy", which will warm up the potentially cool daylight coming in from the window(s).

7. If the room is particularly dark, the shutter speed will be very slow. For this photo, the shutter stayed open for 3 seconds just to get enough light to fill the room. That is why it is essential to trip the shutter without touching the camera. Remember to ask the models to remain perfectly still.

After you take the photo, you should get a pleasing image similar to my sample photograph, with a low depth of field appearance, and soft, warm backlighting. Other great prime lenses that are similar to the 50mm lens is the 105mm, 85mm, 35mm, 28mm, and 20mm. Lenses that are wider than 20mm tend to be quite expensive, but equally proficient. If you are on a tight budget, do not discount the idea of purchasing used prime lenses. I would only encourage used lens purchases from professional camera stores however, as you will have at least a few weeks of warranty if something goes wrong with the lens.

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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

TONED PHOTOGRAPHS

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Today's lesson is very simple and short; if you want to photograph an object that has great design characteristics, but is bland in color and tone, try adding a bluish color cast to the photo. This technique is especially useful for metallic objects that have lost their shine.

Simply turn your white balance setting to the "lightbulb" icon, which is also called Incandescent or Tungsten. This will give your photograph new life, and give you a new avenue of expression!

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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

INTRODUCTION TO LAYERS

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.

For those of you who are already well versed in Layers, you may find this information of little value. However, if you are just now starting to learn the value of Layers in Photoshop or other programs, I would encourage you to keep learning!

I created this sample photo to give you an idea of what is possible utilizing layers:

#1. This is the base exposure, which also included the cobblestone road. At the time, there were no people walking on the street.

#2. As my camera was firmly fixed on my tripod, I took photo #2 of the person walking down the sidewalk. The camera exposure remained the same as the first photo, which is essential (manual exposure for this process is very helpful).

#3. I waiting a little longer for this next group of people to walk into frame. Again, they were exposed with the same amount of light as #1 and #2.

#4. This fourth photo was of a horse and carriage that went by. That part of the photo seemed empty, so the addition of the wagon was very much welcomed.

#5. This part of the photo was incredibly overexposed. It was too bright and too harsh, so I underexposed the photograph to even things out.

In Photoshop, I now had 5 separate photographs available to cut and paste. The final image is a well-exposed, relatively dynamic travel image. There are many great on-line resources on how to actually create Layers in Photoshop, so do a search and start opening up your horizons! I have found that the greatest advantage of Layers (for me) is the ability to get even exposure throughout the whole photograph, and add people to the photograph in a very natural way.

Finally, for those of you who are valiantly protesting in your mind regarding the ethics of this type of photo manipulation, it is time for you to realize that almost every advertising image you see in the entire world is manipulated to some degree. If you don't don't ascribe truth to advertising photographs to begin with, you won't have those ethical questions to deal with.

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Mark can be hired as a photographer or filmmaker via www.hemmingshouse.com

COLOR HUE PERCEPTION

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In the past, a great frustration of mine when dealing with yellow subjects was the color's propensity to shift toward a greenish color cast. This was not necessarily the fault of the subject, or the color itself; mainly it was a result of different devices (monitors, printers, scanners, cameras) interpreting colors in different ways. I find that often, but not always, subjects that appear true yellow on Mac screens have a slight greenish tinge when the same image is viewed on PC screens.

There is an entire industry centered around the quest for color consistency. If you do not have the means to purchase color calibrating tools for your monitors, you may have to do it the old fashioned way; check your image on as many different platforms, screens, and browsers as possible.

I work on Mac computers, but I also have a PC which I use to view my images for color correction purposes. For images that will be viewed on the web, I will often see what the pictures look like on Firefox, Safari, Explorer, and maybe other lesser used browsers.

Even though this may seem like a laborious process, after a few tries you will intuitively know how your own screen's colors match with your viewers around the world, and you will be able to color correct your images accordingly. For example, if your yellows appear slightly greenish, add a bit of magenta to counter the green.

It may be wise for you to memorize the color wheel, as it will speed up your editing time. You will, for example, know immediately that if your photo is too reddish, you will need to add cyan. For a quick overview of the color wheel that photographer use (different for painters!), see below:

Red is opposite to Cyan
Green is opposite to Magenta
Blue is opposite to Yellow

Thanks to Adrienn Nagy for showing me this 1960's modern cottage located on the Maros river, in Hungary.

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Mark can be hired as a photographer or filmmaker via www.hemmingshouse.com

WIDE ANGLE PERSPECTIVE

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If you desire to create a graphic, or metaphor-laden image, try using a very wide angle lens. The perspective distortion on wide angle lenses removes the subject from reality, and may take your image from documentary to illustration.

This technique is especially evident and useful when the lens focus is on a part of the subject that protrudes, or is extended radically toward the camera lens (see attached photo). That which is closest to the wide angle lens will appear accentuated and large, in relation to the background.

This illustrative photo was a group project by Sue Furlong, Lauchlan Ough, and myself, commissioned by the International Youth Media Summit, in Belgrade, Serbia.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

BLUE COLOR CAST

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.

This may be obvious to most readers, but if you have subject matter that is inherently depressing, choose a blue color cast. This image of a bullet ridden building (kept un-repaired as a monument I believe) has a haunting and sad feel. I chose an incandescent or tungsten white balance setting, which on most cameras is signified by a little light bulb icon.

Give this color balance option a try, and you may find that it adds more mood and atmosphere to many of your photos.

The building is in the castle district in Budapest, Hungary.

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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