Photography Tips by Wallace Photography!   

by Houson-Area photographer Clayton Wallace

Improving your photography falls into four categories: Subject Choice, Composition, the Technical Stuff, and Workflow & General Advice.

SUBJECT CHOICE - why should I shoot that?

What you choose to photograph is your subject choice. Why are you taking that photo? This can be a very personal choice and can have a variety of legitimate reasons that can be right for one person and wrong for another. For example, if you are taking photos of your family, even a relatively poor photo (from an exposure or composition perspective) can be a cherished and valuable image because of the emotions associated with the event, person, or both. But why should the emotions have to carry the burden by themselves? A little skill in the area of subject choice can go a long way. Here are a few tips to avoid subject choice mistakes:

1. Think About It! With digital photography being so common now, the cost per picture has dropped significantly. This has led to a dramatic increase in the number of photos taken. This can be good practice at first when you are getting to know your camera. Once you are over that honeymoon, it is important to realize the intended audience of your photos. Are you going to print all 267 images from your new 2 gigabyte card? Publish them on a web site? Find the one or two shots that really tell the story.

2. Find the beauty. Beauty can often be seen in some uncommon places. Often when I'm out shooting, I'm drawn to a scene for one reason, and end up photographing it for another all together. For example, I now generally shoot around Sugar Land and the Houston area and this fall I was out shooting with my brother down in Galveston. We made our way to the docks of some seriously derelict fishing boats and while the overall scene was unremarkable, by pursuing the subject for a bit longer I discovered some wonderfully textured subjects among the castoffs and debris that made the trip worthwhile and really helped tell the story of the aging vessels. These are subjects (algae on tires, dried paint) that sound exceptionally boring, but in this case contained a beauty worth preserving.

3. Find mass appeal. Appeal depends on audience and can be very, very specific (your racing buddies might find a photo of your new tires interesting), but generally people are looking take good images of a variety of subject that have mass appeal. In other words, lot of people generally want to see most of what you have to show. One can view this from commercial viewpoint (what sells) or from a personal one (what interests or excites). People like what moves them and what they can relate to. For most nature images people want to be able to see themselves in the scene - "I wish I was there". Without that connection, your images risk the worst of all consequences...being ignored.

 

COMPOSITION - how should I arrange that?

Composition is probably the single most important aspect of improving your photos. A modern camera on Auto can get proper exposure 65% of the time and with a little thought an interesting subject can be found. Composition does everything to tell you ABOUT a subject and can in some cases actually be more important than your choice of subject.

1. Fill the frame. One of the biggest mistakes people make when taking photos is simply not getting close enough to the subject. If you are using a zoom lens, zoom in. Generally, fill the window of the viewfinder (or LCD screen on the back of your digital point and shoot) with the subject. You may think your are close because of reasons not related to physics (you feel close to a person). The camera can only see what is in the viewfinder. Generally faces are the most important aspect of a portrait so get close! Nothing screams 'amateur' faster than large amounts of unnecessary space.

2. Rule the thirds. A good recipe for a boring photo is to put your subject smack dab in the middle of the photo. Use the 'rule of thirds' to add a dynamic feel to your image. The rule of thirds is based on some techniques that are really more psychological than physical and were 'discovered' way back in the Renaissance Period. The really short summary of the rule of thirds would be: divide your viewfinder into an imaginary grid with three horizontal and three vertical lines equally spaced. Put the main part of your subject anywhere but that middle rectangle. Viola, you have mastered the rule of thirds. While there is a bit more to it that that, this 'rule' is really just a guideline to get you started. As soon as you learn the rules, learn to break them effectively! If you'd like to read a bit more about the rule of thirds, answers.com is a good place to start.

3. See differently. A terrific way to spice up your images is to view your subject from a different perspective than 'normal'. For example, when photographing children, get down on their eye level (or lower) to show things from their perspective. If you are taking a photo of a flower, get super close if your camera/lens will focus close. Or shoot from directly above the flower, or even from underneath. Show something differently - your subjects and your viewers will appreciate it!

4. Minimize distractions - Try to eliminate backgrounds that distract from your subject. Obvious things like power poles that seem to grow from a person's head can be eliminated by changing the angle between you and your subject or zooming in tight. Other distracting backgrounds can be a very bright light like the sky or color (especially reds and yellows).

Background clutter has been made worse by using digital cameras. Most digital cameras tend to have more of an area in focus (depth of field) and when something is in focus our eyes are drawn to it. This makes it all the more important to move in close (fill the frame, see #1 above) and to always pay attention to the background. Remember, anything that doesn't add to your subject takes away from it, so eliminate those distracting backgrounds!

 

THAT PESKY TECHNICAL STUFF - beyond 'auto' mode

Many people dread the technical aspect of photography. But the most important parts to know aren't that hard and a solid understanding of the nature of light, a dash of physics, and a some hands-on, real world experience with your equipment can go a long, long way towards consistently getting the best image in any circumstance. I should mention that the extent of your technical know-how will likely vary according to your particular area of photo interest. For this "tips" article, I'm going to keep it pretty general.

1. Light it up! Photography is all about the interaction of light with our subjects. It has a profound effect on mankind and our perception of ourselves and our world. The amount, type, angle, and quality of light that illuminates your subject is the single biggest factor in determining an images success.

Amount: There is light nearly everywhere and unless you are photographing in caves or 20,000 leagues under the sea, you have the possibility of using natural light from the sun to illuminate your subject. Most subjects look best with natural light and in fact we are usually trying to emulate some version of sun's light when we light with anything else. The amount of light a subject receives varies considerably with the time of day, the weather, the seasons and so on. A good photo of many subjects can be taken in most any of these combinations. However, the amount of light a subject actually needs to look best on film (or the digital sensor) is called exposure. Exposure is the amount of light that reaches the camera after it reflects off of your subject and is controlled by two factors: time the film/sensor is exposed to light (shutter speed) and the size of the hole the light passed through (aperture) on the way to the sensor. By adjusting these two variables (shutter speed and aperture), we can control the amount of light recorded on the sensor and thus the exposure of the subject.

It is easiest to take them one at a time. The simplest and earliest cameras only had one very small hole (pinhole cameras). In order to increase the amount of light recorded on the film, the only variable that could be changed was the shutter speed, or time the light-sensitive film was exposed to the light. If the subject came out too dark in the first photo, more time was used in the next photo. If the subject was too light, less time was used. Pretty simple, right?

Aperture in the pinhole camera was at first fixed. But pretty soon we figured out how to change the size of the hole too. Because more light can pass through a large hole than a small hole (imagine your faucet allowing water through the spigot when you open it all the way) this adds another way to control the amount of light coming to the camera. Why do you care? And why would they want to make it more complicated? Well, when the size of the hole increases, the amount of time needed to take the picture decreases. It works kind of like a seesaw. When one goes up, the other goes down. By changing the aperture, you get more choices in the amount time you use to take the picture. Taken a blurry picture lately? The blur usually happens when the shutter speed is too slow and either the subject moved or you did (called camera shake). To avoid this type of blur you either need to increase the amount of light on your subject (like by using a flash) or increase the aperture size so that shutter doesn't have to stay open as long.

Good Light/Bad Light - Light is easily one of the most taken for granted aspects of our existence. We really only think about it when we don't have it and we very easily adapt to a variety of lighting conditions. So it takes some effort to notice the type of light in any given situation.

WORKFLOW & GENERAL ADVICE

More on this later...if you'd like to schedule a private photography tutorial, lessons are $65/hr and available by appointment only. Shoot me an email!

 

Email:

           clayton@claytonwallace.com

Phone:

           (c) 832-693-4762

Mailing:

•    Wallace Photography
•    16322 Flint Run Way
•    Sugar Land, TX 77478