In my two previous posts I discussed eleven reasons why you would ever want to use manual focus, and six ways to help you get a good sharp manually-focused picture.
As I said, it takes some practice to get sharp results, and in this wrap up post I'll discuss practice. One type of practice it easy and can be done a home. The benefit of this practice is that it is very technical and needs little preparation.
Here is how it's done:
In my previous manual focus post I discussed nine reasons to use manual focus. But wait, isn't manual focus slow and inaccurate? Not if you do it correctly.
In this post I will describe six ways to get the perfect (and fastest) manual focus. As will all things photography, practice makes perfect - You may not have your first manual focus pictures right, but as you keep practicing, you'll get better and better, until manual focus becomes a second nature to you. [image CC by parl]
Back in the take a shot and see the print three days later good old happy days of film we all knew what is our human limitation when it came to shutter speed. The golden thumb rule said that if you shoot slower than 1 / (your focal length) you will end up with an unusable artistic blurry image.
Just to give an example or two it means that at shooting safari animals at 300mm meant you can not go below 1/400. And when shooting portraits at 80mm, you should not go below 1/75 or 1/100.
Jake O'Connell posted a comment, sharing his Ringlight in the CD Spindle Ringflash post. When doing this he also reminded me of a great macro tip. This photography tip is extremely useful when photographing flowers, but also when photographing "cold" drinks. It can also be applied when photographing some surfaces.
If you are a seasoned macro photographer, you can skip this tip, otherwise, keep reading. Click to continue ›
Over the last few weeks I got a few emails asking me what is the drive behind DIYP. That sent me to my deep observations state where I had some discussions with myself on the reasons I keep DIYP. When trying to understand my reasons, I also understood that the reasons for sharing your photographic know how are universal (pardon for the cheesiness). So here are (my) Seven Reasons to Share Photographic Know How Online. [Image by JennyHuang]
I've never went to art school. In fact I've never even took a photography class. All that I know (and it is not much) came to me from reading photography books, asking around, participating in online forums, and reading blogs. Making an online blog gives me the privilege of sharing some of this knowledge back with the great community of photographers out there.
In the beginning there were only few online photography blogs, but look where we are now, Strobist, Chase Jarvis, Jim Talkington, Lighting Mods, Digital Photography School, Lighting Essentials - All out to share what they know. The more sites site are joining the sharing festival - the better the online photographic scene is.
So, you finally have the time to shoot but lacking inspiration? Need a fresh flow of new Ideas? Here are 25 ways to get your photography creativity going.
Movies are great inspiration. Before you go, prepare yourself mentally. You can
find inspiration in the story of the movie, in the photography, in the
morals, in one of the characters and in the dialogs.
One of flickr's most interesting features is the explore page. In this page you'll see some of the images that flickr ranks as "interesting". 99 out of 100 times those are great photos. Take a look at these photos to get inspiration. Do not try to copy them but ask, "What do I like about it?"; "How can I make it better" or "What twist can I add on top of this picture?" (Of course, a nice bonus is to get your image in Flick's explore)
Sometimes you can get inspiration not by focusing on the what (the subject), but by focusing on the how. even if you shoot a boring neutral subject in an interesting way, you can get a great picture. The Strobist is a great place to learn about lighting, and you can get some lighting ideas here as well.
Almost every town has a club that you can join and go out for a have-fun-together session. Your benefit is threefold: 1. You will be forced to get out of that couch. 2. You'll interact with other photographers. 3. You'll get some shooting ideas. Rich is having a group in Utah, flickr is running a bunch, and there is a photo walking site - really, they are all around - you just have to get another photog and go out the door to have one. (This is how I started, long, long ago).
Getting ideas from other photographers can be very inspirational. When you look at a fellow photographer blog or gallery you expose yourself to new ideas, photography styles and techniques. You can later employ those ideas on your photography. If you see anything you like, ask: how I would have taken this image, or how can I use this technique to make a say of my own. This is my list of sites. Chase has one great list as well and Brian held a good list too. Now go surfin'.
One of the ways to get your inspiration going is to tap to other great creators and their creations. By browsing your CDs (does anybody still has CDs? or have everyone gone to iPods??!!!) you get a double kick. You get to watch the work of great photographers who shot the covers. You also get to find some great lost music that can get you inspired. Shooting a new cover to an "old" CD is a great project. (And you can always alphabetize the collection as you promised to yourself on new years eve)
While you are going through the covers, find one artist that really inspires you and put it in the player. Try to think what image can describe best one of the songs; The first verse; A single line; the mood of the entire CD.
Sometimes what you need to get your inspiration going is a little push. A great push is a photo-a-day project. In such project you commit to take one picture each day. Such projects has various themes and lengths. Some of the projects are portrait oriented (or self portrait); some are generic; some have a general theme. Some are a month long, some are a year long and some are a picture a week. No matter which one you choose, the need to create something new on a deadline can give your creativity that little push it needs.
Actually you can read n Art / Fashion / Fun magazine. Magazines like wired can trigger new ideas just cuz they are so packed and full of inspirational stuff. Fashion magazines like Elle or Vogue often has lots of great photos that one can try and analyze both for technique and composition. (Heck, even the advertisements are shot in a great way).
Sporting events are everywhere. At your local school, College or down
at the park where your little (or big) brother is playing football. It is a great opportunity to take action shots as well as portraits. It is also a great opportunity to practice action shooting if you ever want to make a career at sports shooting.
When you walk, you are always looking forward, right? As a photographer
you should get used to looking sideways, up and down. You'll be amazed
at the amount of photo opportunities you can find on ceilings, second
floors, looking down the escalator. Reflections in puddles, car windows, shopping windows. Shadows on the floor, walls. You get the point.
You got a holiday coming? Great! Shoot something in the holiday spirit. An item related to the holiday: snow-slide; Cross; Menora; Shoot a scene from the Bible, New testimony; Koran - give it a twist.
As David says, all the old masters are not called masters for nothing. They had it when it came to lighting, composition and posing. Trying to make an image like the old masters did it, is not an easy task. You can learn allot by trying to produce a very similar image. You can also learn
allot from trying to homage art made by one of the great ones. The image on the left is a great example of such reproduction of Rene Magritte - The Lovers by Mister Rad.
Long while ago I published the Create Your Own Bokeh article which was one of the most fun articles this site has seen. I then followed up with some of the uses of this technique and DIYP Flickr pool had a fine hour with great and creative images that used this trick.
One of the questions that keeps popping us is "can you give some more details instructions on the process of making this this filter?"
Well, your prayers have been answered. Shannon Beauford created a complete guide on behind the scene of Creating Your Own Bokeh.
This post is all about not getting the wrong images? What are wrong images? Wrong images are images that could be great images, but were trashed for not paying attention to one small detail or another.
Before you hit the road, make sure you are not falling in one of the 5 Most Common Digital Photography Mistakes. Or practice on of the 7 Bad Habits of Digital Photographers. Those two posts inspired me to share my pitfalls. As a matter of fact, I've fallen so many times, that I now recheck the five steps every time that I take a shot or push the on knob of my camera.
I would like to share five simple steps that taken before you click the shutter, will transform your images from good to great.
Results from the Shadows Assignment, in which you were asked to include shadows in your photographs.
We had 9 flickr submissions (two by Carlos - waytogo!) as well as 10 comments submissions - coming to a total of 19 submissions.
All images submitted were great and I had a hard time choosing the top four. I got those four as they each reflect a different technique of using shadows.
Did you know that shadows can work for you? In my recent article I described eight ways that you can use to enhance your photo. In that article I described 8 situations where you as a photographer can gain from the presence of shadows.
Now, it's time to pay the debt I left at the end of the article and talk a bit about where you can find shadows. (A Valentine for my Wife by Ella's Dad)
The shadow assignment pictures are starting to pour in - you are doing a great job. If you want your image to appear on the search tag it with DIYP and shadow. You can see the great work already coming in on this link.
Before we talk about where to find shadows, it is important that we discuss about the nature of shadows and where they are coming from.
Shadows are not an "is" but an "is not". They are not light, but lack there of. If a light source is projecting light onto a surface you will get a nice lighted surface. If for some reason this light is obstructed - TADAM! Shadow it is. So far for kinder garden stuff. And now, on with photography and lighting stuff. Click to continue ›
