Photography Tips

I've put together a list of tips that I bring with me on each shoot. They serve as reminders so I don't make any dumb mistakes. I still do but maybe fewer than before?

If you have comments, please let me know. It is a work in progress and will be updated.


Horizontal of Vertical?
Shoot both and look for distractions such as trees growing out of heads…..

Angle of View: Tall or Crawl?
Evaluate different angles, look for interesting viewpoints. Shoot a variety of angles if not sure. Lower angles let the view participate in the action especially when photographing small animals, objects.

RULE OF THIRDS
Use it, it works.

Take Safety Shots
Take a portrait, then landscape shot. Take one with high sky and then low sky. Vary the depth of field. Ensure you have adequate shutter speed and check you settings (iso etc)

Strategic Placement?
Unless you are taking an animal portrait, try to leave some space. Put the animal off center so it has someplace to “look”.

Horizon?
Decide what’s more interesting, the foreground or the background/sky. If neither is, tighten up to crop out the sky or foreground.

Diagonal Lines
Diagonal lines or asymmetry often presents a stronger image.

Watch your Edges
Don’t get in too tight. Leave some room for the image to “breathe”. Watch for edges being cut off.

What to Focus on?
Aim for the eye of an animal. Ensure the body is parallel to you to ensure that a portion is not out of focus (OOF). Move physically to get a side shot.

Multiple Subjects
Focus on the closest subject if you cannot get a long depth of field (DOF).

Catch lights
Use a flash if the sun is not shining in the eyes.

Backgrounds
Watch for distractions such as poles, trees, and “busy” backgrounds. Use DOF to minimize background focus. Does the image stand out from the background (i.e. black bird against black rocks)?

Water
Use a polarizing filter and wait for the wind to stop.

Front Lighting
Enhances color variety and tones but kills texture

Side Lighting
Gives good texture, 3 dimensional look, and shadows. Really good for highlighting a bumpy terrain.

Backlighting
Direct sun, shows forms and shapes/silhouette

Hard Lights
Shows off vivid color

Soft Light
Overcast days, shows off soft shadows

Light Temperature
Mid-day = neutral
Sunrise = cool to blue side
Sunset = red to warm side
Overcast/shade = cool

NOTE: if you are using digital and want to see the warm or cool colors, set your white balance to daylight

Visualization
Squint your eyes to see the contrast

To add light to shadows
Use fill flash or a reflector or other sources of light (headlights, flashlight…)

To subtract light
Use a towel, backpack, and body to shade the object.

Filters
Polarizing
ND Grad

Light Metering
Spot meter
Palm of hand is +1 from neutral
Bright white snow needs +2
Dark images need –2

NOTE: Pick the highlight, is it darker or lighter than neutral (get a gray card if you are not sure) and adjust the meter for that exposure.

Portraits
100mm is most flattering

Perspective
Short lens: foreground is big and impressive while background is very distant
Long lens: Background is huge and looming

Framing
Use the rule of 3rds. Remember, your eyes will look at the brightest part of the picture first. Try vertical, then horizontal. Look for “dead” spots in the image.

Tripod
Use one, no matter what. No, you can’t hand hold a camera so forget it.

What sells?
New, interesting, tell a story, POV.


Waterfalls
1/4 - 1/15 for smooth silky look
1/60 or faster for natural
1/250 to catch the drops
the lower the volume, the lower the shutter for that silky look, 1 second may be necessary for low volume and slow water
Watch your depth of field
Watch composition

if sky and water are different brightness, you may have to frame out the sky or it will be blown out
meter the water and add a half to one stop to ensure it is exposed properly (meter may want to expose it as neutral grey)
take portrait and landscape shots, isolate waterfall in both, include surrounding elements in both GET SAFETY SHOTS OF ALL POSSIBLE FRAMES
Use ND filter to get enough shutter speed, a polarizer will take out two stops and will due in a pinch
Try keeping foreground in focus and use DOF to blur water flowing in background


Ariel photography
remove hood, the wind will tear it off
fast lens, try IS, it may or may not help
wear long sleeved black shirt (no logos) to minimize reflections
wear jacket, if doors off, it will be windy and cool
17-40/24-70 lens on one body
70-200 on second body
Aim for 1/1000 shutter
f-stop will not matter so much from a height
no polarizer's, you will lose shutter speed and it will interact with the Plexiglas
do not change lens
no loose batteries, lens caps, anything
use strap for camera
aperture priority, all AF points active, -1/3 for digital, iso 200, max aperture, keep above 1/1000
front lit and side lit, don't shoot backlit

Night Sky Photography
Focus on infinity if you cannot get a lock
set iso to lowest to reduce noise, use higher if you can reduce the noise
use max aperture if really dark, use f8 or f11 to reduce noise pollution
set exposure to 10 to 20 seconds, any longer and you will get star trails
use in-camera noise reduction if you have it (shoot RAW, only wieners shoot jpg)
Use a very wide-angle lens -- the wider the better. At 28mm (35mm film equivalent) focal length, you can expose for about 20 seconds without significant trailing. At 50mm, you can only expose for about 10 seconds, which is only long enough to record the very brightest stars. At 14mm, you can shoot for 30 to 40 seconds, which should show more lower magnitude stars.


Fireworks
manual focus, get there early, focus on background id there is one so you have it in sharp focus
• Sturdy support
• Remote release
• Manual settings (f8-16)
• Lowest ISO
• BULB or several second shutter speeds
• Noise reduction
• Loose framing
• Infinity focus
• Something in the frame to add scale/anchor the shot
• Open shutter when mortar first leaves ground
• Close shutter after several bursts (or a few seconds, when the burst if over)
• Don't be afraid to reframe




Volcano
fast lens to catch volcano and stars at night
Lava flow night, f5.6, 2 seconds, watch burn out
Lava flow day 1/60, 5.6
Strombolian, night, f8, up to 15 min
Strombolian day, f8, shutter at max
Explosive, fastest shutter


Panoramas
take horizontal AND vertical shots for panorama
use manual setting so exposure is the same for all shots (do not change after first setting)
use level on tripod and camera
use focal lengths > 35mm to avoid distortion
use 20 - 25% overlap
Do not use polarizer