Before Sunrise

I have chased many a sunrise in the past (and I still do). One time, Carlo and I were literally driving like mad just to shoot one before harsh morning light reared its ugly head. Whether you are a photographer or not, witnessing the break of day is awe-inspiring. The only catch is you have to be there pretty early to capture it.

I have mistimed shooting a sunrise many times before. In the tropics, the whole event can be over in under a minute or two. Yeah, it's that quick. If you're just setting up your  tripod, then you'll miss it. If you're still fiddling with your camera settings, then you'll miss it. If you take the time to tell the photographer next to you how wonderful it is, then you'll miss it. With these lessons learned, I make it a point to be at my pre-scouted location (usually selected a day before or earlier even) at least 30 minutes before the sun is scheduled to bathe the world in golden light.

*Thanks to the lovely Susan Locaylocay for shooting this picture.

Okay, so now what do you do while you wait?

Shoot the scene before the sun comes up.

You'll often be surprised with what you get. As I have mentioned in previous posts, the camera and the human eye don't perceive the world the same way, so what may look muted and dark to you may look entirely different to the camera. Plus, you can always manipulate your shooting settings to render the scene in front of you in a different way.

  

 Yeah, it pays to show up early. :-)#

Three Steps to Curing Picture Vomit (Step 3)

Here's what we've done so far:

• Offloaded images from the camera onto the computer (preferably backed up on a separate location as well)
• Weeded out the rejects from the lot (as described in step 1)
• Narrowed down the field of 'contestants' by placing only good images in a pick pile (as illustrated in step 2)

Take note that we haven't uploaded any of our pictures yet. At this stage, they're still residing in a folder in your hard drive awaiting the third and final step. 

Step 3. Create a 'diet' plan and stick to it.

If you've faithfully followed steps 1 and 2, then the last one should be fairly easy. Before you make your final selects for upload, think of a theme to the album that you are about to put out there for perpetual posterity  — a thread that ties all of your images together into one cohesive and beautiful tapestry. It can be as simple as showing the chronology of events as they unfolded or it can be as elaborate as allowing colors and emotions to meld together into one meaningful piece. 

It doesn't even have to be mind-blowingly profound each time; what's important is that you actually made a real effort to tell a tale with your pictures, rather than just splatter them all over a browser page. They deserve more than that. If you understand the need to organize your thoughts before speaking in front of people, then this process should make perfect sense. You want to be concise, comprehensive but brief.

Once more, allow me to illustrate my point further with an example using my own images. These are pictures I made during a family outing to a local beach, which should be an event that most of us (in the tropics) would have experienced at least more than once in our life. 

*The pictures are labelled in pairs to help me present the goal of this exercise. Hover your mouse over each image to view the label.

__________

__________

I imagine you might have a set of images like this in your pick pile. Once you have a theme in mind, choose only one from each picture pair to tell your story. The photo that you choose must be the one that best conveys the message that you want to get across. You want each significant event to be represented, but you also don't want to diminish how special it is by identifying each moment as being memorable.

So, which three photos would you choose?

You can see what I came up with after the jump.

Three Steps to Curing Picture Vomit (Step 2)

Step 2. Rinse and Do Not Repeat

Okay, so now your pictures are off the card and in your computer. You've weeded out the rejects from the pictures you just shot (as detailed in the previous step). Now, it's time to go over them again and pick out the images that you will proceed to put in a passed-the-audition pile. I would suggest working on copies of your pictures (if you're not using photo management software that preserves the originals) in the event that you might unintentionally delete an image.

The objective of this step is to look at images that essentially depict the same scene, person or object; and choose one to two from that series to go into your pick pile. You don't really need to have four pictures of a waterfall from more or less the same angle, right? 

So, how will an image qualify as a pick? 

Well, allow me to share two examples showing how I go about this process using pictures that I shot myself.

Example 1. The Virtual Slide show

Last year, I shot a short horror flick with a talented group of people from our very own department. There was a downpour on one of the nights that we were shooting, and it was in the middle of all that inclement weather that I chanced upon this tree in the rain. I was in charge of shooting production stills, so I had my camera with me. I took a few moments, while we were walking to one of the indoor locations, to quickly change my settings and shoot a few frames of the scene in front of me. The following pictures are three very similar images of what I saw that night.

So, did I really need all three pictures taking up space on my hard drive?

You can read the answer to this question and the second example after the jump.

Pose: A Question

I posted the collage below on my Google+ stream, and asked those in my circles the following questions with regards to the set of images shown:

Which of the following headshots (of Denden*) below appeals to you the most?

What part/s of the picture makes it appealing to you?

I was glad to have received a fair amount of replies to the questions posed, and I was able to acquire new and helpful insights in the process.

The Verdict

• 75% of those who responded picked out the first picture (from the left). No one picked the second image, so the remaining 25% of the vote went to the third picture.
• Those who chose the first picture cited a number of reasons that could be summed up by the following sentence: Denden looks relaxed and natural.
• Those who chose the third picture pointed out that the angle of the pose flattered the shape of the subject's face.

Allow me to share my answers and thoughts on the matter after the jump.

*I wrote about the portrait session I did with this notable young lady here.

Three Steps to Curing Picture Vomit

Social networking has permanently changed the way that most of today's society interact. Where I still marvel at how two people on opposite sides of the planet can meaningfully share their thoughts with each other in as little time as it takes to type up the content of the emails being exchanged, today's youngsters youth is gifted (or cursed) with what is essentially a real-time bombardment update of the current emotion, position, meal or beverage, companion, and unfinished sentence from nearly everyone in their contact list (which roughly averages in the hundreds per individual).

Most of a social networking site's resources and their subscribers' time is spent on hosting and viewing pictures respectively. Nothing quite proves that you're about to watch The Avengers in 3D than actual pictures of you (with your 3D glasses on) inside the theater. And with most people heavily favoring sight and sound over their other senses, one can see why this is so. I appreciate how family and friends can share their treasured moments with each other at the click of a button. What I despise find alarming is the prevalence of picture vomit, which is what happens when a full memory card 'explodes' all of its contents onto your album page, and results in something that resembles the image below.

Fortunately, this ailment can easily be remedied. If you are a chronic sufferer, don't worry, as a cure is just three steps away.

Grown-up Christmas List

I shot this with my old Canon 350D. It has defied both time and shutter count as it is still pretty much truckin' clickin'. Truth be told, unless I closely scrutinize the images in my catalog, I could never immediately distinguish between the images that were shot with the aforementioned antique and the ones that were shot with the newer body.

I mention this because all too often people replace perfectly working gear for newer models just because they have the means to do so. It's their money, so why should I tell them how to spend it, right? I'm not really telling people how to spend their money. I'm just making a case for spending it wisely. I stick to this rule of thumb of sorts when upgrading my gear —

If your skill becomes limited by the equipment that you have, then it is time to seriously consider an upgrade. If not, then upgrade your skill.

Trust me, you don't want to be the guy with really expensive basketball shoes sitting on the bench the whole game.

Keep On Shooting

From USC PE Festival 2011

These three words that call for perseverance and practice seem to come up a lot in my recent conversations about photography. However, I've also come to realize that they can also be a call to focus amidst the chaos and the demands of every day. A message that I believe should reverberate throughout our lives.

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*I may have mentioned in a previous post that the pictures that I shoot during events will be hosted on my Picasa page (hence the watermark). The link on the lower right corner of the above image can be clicked to view the pictures in the album.

Half-press to Impress

As I write this post, I am singing its title to the tune of Roxette’s ‘Dressed for Success’. With that being said, I am inviting you to sing along with me as you go through this tip for making better pictures with the camera you already have. Once again, I’m not claiming to be the expert here. I am just imparting to you what I have learned from my meager experience in photography. These techniques have worked for me, so I hope they will work for you as well.

If there’s one thing that most people will readily recognize that’s off about a picture is when the supposed subject of the picture is out of focus. This could be a result of the camera not being able to obtain focus (because it was too dark or the subject is a ghost in a fog) or the camera focused (through no fault of its own) on an area of higher contrast behind the subject (like the rims of the umbrella in the shot below).

 

To avoid ‘artsy’ (yet blurry) pictures, click on the link below to read more after the jump. 

A Hole

I’ve decided to extend my series of articles entitled ‘Five Tips for Making Better Pictures with the Camera You Already Have’ onto what will hopefully be regular posts on road-tested photography tips. These tips like the ones before them will feature information that I believe will improve the quality of pictures that you make by maximizing the best piece of gear you already have — your brain. :-)#

No, I’m not trying to be a smart-ass about the title. Well, okay maybe just a little bit. This isn’t going to be a treatise on holes, but rather the shape these usually come in. And before your mind wanders, allow me to make the argument for including circles in your pictures.

Yes, circles. What were you thinking of anyway?

• Circles are strong compositional elements, whether they are found (such as the hole in the floor in the picture above) or implied (as shown in the cluster of flowers in the picture below). Their strength lies in the fact that they tend to enclose the objects found within them, which leads the viewer’s eye inward and effectively establishes the focal point of your image.
• The round shape of a circle creates tension with the straight edges of the frame. And also has the potential for creating a picture within a picture, which makes for a layered and far more interesting composition.

Well, whaddya know? There are earthly rewards to being holey after all.

More to come…

Five Tips for Making Better Pictures with the Camera You Already Have

Tip # 5 – Seeing the Big Picture: Shooting the Details

You could have gone on a vacation or attended an event (wedding, birthday, school exhibit, etc.), and you just got home with your memory cards bursting at the… err, seams (for the lack of a better word) with photos. You transfer the images from your card (or camera) to the computer in excited anticipation. You plop down on a comfy chair and start browsing through them only to notice that your images are a little too… banal generic. You could’ve very well gone to the corner sari-sari (the Filipino analog of sorts to a convenience store), snapped a few photos of you and the shopkeeper, and told your office mates you went to an obscure and ‘exotic’ Southeast Asian country.

Sometimes, we get caught up in getting the big picture that we neglect to notice the small details that make the whole.

Five Tips for Making Better Pictures with the Camera You Already Have

Tip # 4 – Holding It Steady: Using a Tripod

Artsy or blurry?

It doesn’t take a professional photographer to spot if a photo is out of focus. Most people scanning through a bunch of photos can easily tell if one is blurry (or not sharp). It can be attributed to many things, but ultimately it can be a product of the any of these three possible scenarios: the subject moved, the photographer (specifically, his hands) moved, or both of them moved (like during an earthquake).

Five Tips for Making Better Pictures with the Camera You Already Have

Tip # 3 – Ready? 1, 2… : When to Press the Shutter

This is probably one of the most trying ordeals when shooting portraits. You have your exposure, focus and composition locked down. Your subject (or in the case of this photo, my family) is positioned and posed. You exhale and gingerly press the shutter.

Click!


Upon checking your LCD, your subject is blinking (or unintentionally making a face). So, you shoot a couple more frames and like Christmas lights you get a series of blinks and funny faces. It’s as if your subject is sending you a message in code — S.T.P. (Save This Photo).

How?

Five Tips for Making Better Pictures with the Camera You Already Have

Tip # 2 – Pictures within Pictures:  
Frame Your Shot

A picture frame does not necessarily confine the photo it encases. I believe it prevents your attention from straying from the image it is exhibiting.

In an everyday scenario, there are elements that can be used to frame an image as it is shot, such as windows, doorways, and other visual borders. You can effectively use these elements to give emphasis to the subject of your photos and make the image as a whole more interesting.

Five Tips for Making Better Pictures with the Camera You Already Have

Digital imaging has come a long way. A digital SLR (single lens reflex) camera used to be only available to professionals or to those who abhorred the idea of keeping money in their pockets. Now, there are a number of dSLR models available to eager dabblers and serious enthusiasts alike. Even current compact digital cameras have inherited a few of the features of their more advanced counterparts and are more than capable of suiting your shooting needs.

In light of these new advancements, it's definitely a great time to cultivate an interest in photography.

The apparent runaway growth of new and improved imaging technology has resulted in a glut of new camera models entering the market even before you've taken your 'new' camera out of its box. This reminds me of a similar situation with mobile phones a few years back, where one just had to have the latest model because the one you have doesn't have those cool new LED backlights. Only now, some people are thinking that buying the more expensive (hence better) camera will result in getting better photos out of the box. And when these very people, point their spanking new camera (on auto) at their pet and get a picture that's none too different from the one that a family member took with their mobile phone; they think that they'll need to get the more 'professional' camera to get a sharper image of their cat's whiskers. And a vicious cycle ensues.

In light of this unchecked consumerism, it's definitely a great time to be manufacturing and selling cameras.

Okay, less rants and more tips after the jump.

Making Better Pictures: Walking the Walk

Giving directions. 

It’s probably not only one of the quickest ways to cause confusion, but is also the fuel that stokes the fire of most  arguments. No two people will probably give the same set of directions to that all blue house that’s just one block over. This very dilemma is the same in photography as it is in life.

You’ve set the date and time for the shoot. You’re at the location. Your equipment’s all set up. Your subject takes her place in front of the camera. And then you realize that you don’t exactly know how to tell her what it is you would like her to do. Sure you’ve got a mental picture, but she can’t exactly read your mind. She stands there, growing uneasy with each passing second as you fiddle with your camera in the guise of appearing to do something productive.

If this has happened to you at some point, then take solace in the fact that you are (definitely) not alone.

Making Better Pictures: Using the Sea as a Reflector

Most of us when faced with an awful photo will tend to blame the equipment and/or the conditions (like that ‘malicious’ cloud that suddenly wandered overhead). Making Better Pictures is a short segment on how a few tweaks can instantly improve the quality of one’s photos.  Once again, as mentioned in the introduction to the site, I am simply passing on what I know. I am not an expert in either photography or lighting. If I have one strength, it is my drive to learn new things and take them for a spin. If anything, I am just showing you empirical proof of what can be achieved with some theory and a LOT of experimentation.

With summer coming to a close (well, for us in the tropics at least), you can still make good use of the last few days to shoot a few portraits at the beach. When the sun sets, its coveted golden light can not only add drama to your shot, but give skin a warm glow as well. 

However, the golden light fairy will not grant you great shots just because you wished for them. You have to take the following factors in consideration before making the picture:

1. Late afternoon light (at around 5 pm) comes streaming in from the side, so there’s a good chance that a portion of your subject’s face will fall into shadow.
2. Or if you don’t meter your exposure correctly, you could end up with a silhouette. Not that getting a silhouette is bad, if that was the effect that you were trying to achieve.

Daunted? No need to be.