Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Memo from the fourth meeting at 19.12.2011
Topic: Portraits and person photography (and person in environment)
- Different and difficult than other type of photography technique because it involves people.
- needs to know people
- know your camera/equipment
- people are afraid of camera, they pose, freeze when shooting
- kids and pets are most challenging
Type of Portraits: there are four basic types of portraits:
- head and shoulders,
- 3 quarters length and
- full length
- environmental
- close-ups or facial shots: Close-up portraits usually have the subject’s shoulders and head or less. They are basically framed around the face. These are the best to capture expressions and glamour shots. With the view the subject's head is turned to the left or right so one of the ears is not visible and the corner of the farthest eye is touching the borderline of the face. (eg: )
- Full View - the subject looks straight ahead and both ears are clearly visible. It is rarely the best way to make a portrait, because this position is very static and usually used in passports or other documents. Upper body shots or midrange portraits are a little less personal than close-ups. subject is probably more relaxed and can include a little of the background.
- Profile View - in this position the subject's head is turned 90 degrees from the camera and only one eye and one ear are visible. This view creates a bit dramatic image and requires good facial traits of the subject, especially nose and chin.
- Environmental portraiture are portraits that let us into the life of the subject. These usually include the whole subject in a scenario or partaking in some hobby that they enjoy. These are best for telling a story to the viewer about the subject in the pictures.
Lighting:
- proper lights are very important for portraits
- natural lights are good, but its not possible all the time
- light can be bounced from wall with flash that can turn their direction of pop-up, but also remember not to bounce from walls with very hard color.
- make sure that shadows are not harsh in the face unless that is what you are trying to do
- In sun, put person in shadows and put soft flash. If there are direct light, you can use some cloth or paper sheets
- Between person and sun, use sheet to soften the lights
- You can also use reflector if necessary, its not very expensive and could be used in different situations as most of them also contain refractors in them. This is important when the portrait is being taken in sunrise / sunset where you want both warm color background and also portraits look natural
- To know more about different lighting techniques
- Rembrant lighting,
- split-portrait lighting,
- butterfly portrait lighting, refer to:
Based on these category, there are other types as we ll:
Tips:
- eyes are important in portraits, focus in eyes
- talk to person , take 5 more minute before you start taking pictures
- it is important that you understand how/what they do
- understand what characteristics of person (what they like, hobby) and look for perspective while you are doing that
- it is important that people are comfortable, so respect the way they are, don’t comment negative way (“that’s great”, “you look nice”, “your boot color suits perfectly” and so on)
- advice now and then, “could you please do…”, “maybe if you…”
-
People are more comfortable in their own location, whatever the location is (work, home) because they know the place and does not get nervous in new place with new people. Goto persons place in their own environment, something in background should be important for them
- if person is not sure about their pose, give them something in their hand (eg, a ball, apple) so that they can do something with it
- act like as if you know what you are doing (even if you don’t know) to make person feel comfortable that you are not doing something wrong to their picture.
- Say something nice, guide the person (stand here, look that side!!)
- Look out for
- frame, side lights, background (should be darker to make persons face stand out)
- to pack more stuffs, use telephoto lens and make person stand out from the frame
- depending on lens you have or type of photo you are taking, f-value cane be between 1.4 to 5
- use panning, servo-mode focusing on certain subject and background is moving
Links:
Note, if you don’t understand certain term or concept, google it and try to see the “images”, that gives more clearer picture of what those thing means
HOMEWORK:
Take 2 pictures:
- First picture with one of the first 3 style of portraits described above
- Second picture of a person doing something or in situation (Environmental portraiture)
Send it to joemul.photo@gmail.com before our next meeting on 9.1. at 17-19.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Memo from the third meeting at 12.12.2011
Topic : Aperture and Focal length
Aperture
To balance amount of light that your camera is taking for the picture, you can use mainly two things: speed (as we talked last meeting) and aperture.
In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture of an optical system is the opening that determines the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. (wikipedia)
[ See this here: http://www.whatsoever.hk/my.photo.album/aperture.gif ]
If you will open your aperture, you will get more light, so you can use higher speed. This can help in taking not moved pictures. From the other side, if you will close the aperture, you will get less light, so you should use lower speed.
[Focal-length differs : http://cdn-7.nikon-cdn.com/en_US/IMG/Images/Learn-And-Explore/2009/Photography-Techniques/Focal-Length/
Also aperture is “responsible” for the focus on your pictures. If you will open a lot your aperture, you will get more or less same sharpness in whole picture area. This is good for example for landscape pictures. Opposite, if you will close your aperture, you will have sharp just part of your picture. This is good for the portraits- you can let the eyes sharp and focused and the background blur.
You can express aperture in 'f' number. The higher f number, the smaller the aperture (small hole, less light). And of course, the lower f number, the bigger aperture (big hole and a lot of light)
[ See it here: http://cdn-7.nikon-cdn.com/en_US/IMG/Images/Learn-And-Explore/2009/Photography-Techniques/Focal-Length/
You can think that f around 1 is usually same amount of light that our eyes are getting. So the best lenses should be able to reach f number around (or even less than) 1. Extreme values of f number can give a bit worst quality, for example with f around 30 or more, you can see light diffraction (less sharp pictures).
The aperture can be close or open with different number of plates you have in lens. The good lenses have more petals, so while closing they create better circle (which is the perfect shape). This also effects the Flare and ghosts in your picture.
Tip:
If you want to get nice star's shaped lights during night pictures, you need to have in account the number of petals and f number that you are using. Your start will have as many arms as many petals your lens has. (You can check this effect in some pictures from our last week homework).
Focal length
Is a measure of how strongly the system converges (focuses) or diverges (defocuses) light. (wikipedia) Camera lens focal lengths are usually specified in millimeters for example lenses 50 mm or 150 mm and so on.
Focal length is the distance between the center of the lens and focused image produced on the sensor. Is telling you which angle you can see with your lens (the wide or narrow).
See the table here: http://static.photo.net/attachments/bboard/00K/00KpA6-36104884.jpg
Effect here: http://www.warehouseexpress.com/webcontent/images/guides/exposure-guide/f-stop-chart.jpg
For example:
You will keep same amount of light in your picture using the values of each row of the shutter speed combined with corresponding column of the f number. (like with f=1,4 and speed 250 you will have same light amount as with f= 2,8 and speed 60).
See the difference here: http://media.the-digital-picture.com/Images/Other/Focal-Length-Background-Blur.jpg
If you are interested, you can also try making your own bokeh :http://www.diyphotography.net/diy_create_your_own_bokeh
Homework:
Take two interesting pictures:
- First picture which has the highest 'f' value from your camera(ie, focus is not specific to any object in picture but everywhere in the picture, more things are sharp)
- second picture which has very small 'f' value (very focused, trying to get blur background)
(How does this going to work: http://www.abc.net.au/science/askanexpert/img/aperture.jpg )
It really does not matter what kind of objectives or camera you have, the point is to learn how to set those things in your camera. [ You can read these values in your camera like in this picture:
Send it to us at joemul.photo@gmail.com before next Monday and we will look at your pictures and give talk about it in next meeting.
Information:
- We are going to have probably 2 exhibitions. The main theme of the exhibition is 'Life in Joensuu/ Finland”. Please keep it in your mind while doing your homeworks. Also try to take picture with higher resolution, since we would need printed pictures in size of A3. (Resolution as big as possible, more than 12 Mpx)
- In one of the mails you got the list of subjects that we probably will discuss during our meetings. If you are interested in preparing some information please, send us the e-mail. For now Heikki will prepare HDR photography, Lai- Microphotography and Victor (??)- Night and Bulb pictures. We can think about the dates, and you can also prepare in groups :)
- If you are not getting the news from us in your email (or if you know someone who is not getting the news from us) please send us mail, so we can add it to the mailing list.
- Here is a link to our public albums, where you can see previously published homework and also you can check the album later if you cannot come.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Memo from the second meeting at 4.12.2011
Memo from the second meeting at 4.12.2011
- List of things which we would like to hear/ learn at our meetings (list is still open, so please feel free to add more)
- HDR
- Bulb pictures
- Night photography
- Studio photography (low/high key)
- Portraits
- Macro/micro photography
- Landscapes and Nature
- Black and white photography
- Composition
- Basic camera information
- Equipment (lenses, flashes)
- Event photography
- Reportage
- What we can find in our cameras part I- different programs
Cameras usually have some special programs (like landscape or portrait or macro). Of course you can use them as much as you want (remember to change them for different subjects). But it is good to know that they are work differently.
For example landscape program maybe is not the best for making portrait pictures since it may improve green colors (for trees) and blue (for the sky).
Programs are usually written on basis of many tries done before by scientists working in Nikon, Canon and so on- the camera will assume that there might be this kind of condition and probably you would like to have your sky blue in the landscape and your skin nice and soft in your portraits. They make an average from many pictures taken in different conditions and assumed as good.
- Speed:
You can keep very general rule: As many mm of zoom you have as many parts of seconds you can use and your picture should not be moved or shacked. For example- if your camera has zoom 200, your minimum value for speed and not moved picture is 1/200. If you have lenses 16 mm- speed around 1/20.Nowadays is also common to have special systems that are supporting- stabilizing picture. But it works only a bit.
- Some general guidelines:
-for sport (running, jumping)- use speed 1/500 (if you are inside and is darker, you can try with 1/400 or 1/320 but then you will already able to notice movement in the picture) If you would like to “freeze” the movement, and you don't have enough light, try to use 1/200 and flash. Of course if the action is close enough.
-birds: 1/1000 or even more. It will allow you to completely freeze the movement. The light can be a bit problematic here, because you will “catch the light” really fast, so you need really good light to make proper picture. The best is strong full daylight. Other way with this speed your pictures will be too dark.
-Movement: 1/20. This values will let you show the movement. For example how person is walking or dancing. You can see the mark of the movement. Interesting effect you can get using flash in some point of this 1/20. Then background would be moved, but for example face of the person will be with good light and quite sharp.
- What to check in the camera:
Menu: flash guidelines or flash synchronization. You can set your flash in two moments: first when the mirror is going up. And this is usually default setting. Try to change it to the point, when mirror is going down. (second curtain/ rear flash) Check in manual of your camera if you don't know if you have this option or where to find it.
- ISO
When you want to take night pictures, try to not put to high ISO. It is better to have lower ISO and a bit longer time of exposure- it will minimize the noises. The higher ISO you are using, the softer pictures you will have. Some cameras also have functions of noise reduction, but this function may cause loose of some pictures' information. For sharp pictures of the stars you can try with 25 seconds. With this time, they should not be moved.
- Speed of flash
remember that flash also have limited speed, so if you will select higher speed for your picture it may happen, that your flash won't be enough fast. Flash usually has speed 1/500 s. You can manipulate flash speed with external flashes.
- Programs A and S
Semi- automatic programs. In those, you are changing just one value and camera is preparing other values according to it. So for example you can set speed whichever you want and camera will automatically put 'learned' settings to make your picture look good.
- Aperture- f number
-If you would like to make a portrait (especially for 1 person) or if you would like to have bokeh effect try to use f- 3-3,5. You can achieve soft background but the person should be sharp.
-If you want to take picture of some action that is happening, try to use f 8-11. Especially if the main accent is on the persons. This setting should create this accent but also background should be nicely visible.
- for landscapes try to use f 18/20/32. It should make all things sharp. Like with many things the most extreme values might affect your pictures. Usually the lowest value of f number that should keep your picture ok is 4 and maximum around 20.
- M- Manual settings
The best option to practice this mode is with controlled light conditions or during the bright day.
- Jarno's “to do before taking picture” list
1. Value: Do you have idea for the picture? What do you want to tell through it? Which history it will tell, where are the people, who are they?
2. Cropping: Crop reality- What will be and what will be not on the picture. How would you like to show the persons, where will be the environment. Remember that in western culture we are “reading pictures” from left to right side and following the natural paths of eyes. It is also sometimes good to stop the eyes- to attract attention.
3. Framing: Check the borders of your camera's frame and frames of your lenses if you will cut something important from the picture or not. Check also how is the perspective and if you are not creating strange compositions. Horizon line is also important. It should be in proper level and straight. Every change (even couple of degrees) will make picture different.
4. Depth / Lights: Check the lights and shadows. Check the light balance. Eg, It is better to show dark background and bright person. It is making picture more 3D. Other way you can get “flat picture”.
5. Try focusing and balance. Focusing should by on the eyes of the persons. Check what else will be sharp from the background.
Links:
1. Wikipedia :) There are some nice examples of pictures if you will type “f number”. Try also other key words.
2. http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/camera-exposure.htm (check also other connected subjects)
Homework 2: Shutter speed!
- Take 2 pictures: One of “frozen movement” (high shutter speed)and the second one with some movement on it(low-shutter speed)- movement of walking person, cars, dance and so on(be creative!!).
- Send your pictures (not more than 1 mb each) it to joemul.photo@gmail.com before Monday meeting.
JMPC meeting and topics
Here is the plan forour topic of each date and meeting until end of this year and for next year. The Club meetings are normally at Suvantokatu 1, Mondays from 17 to 19 . We will also have excursions but they are not dated yet. Also the first photo exhibition is not dated yet.
Please note that changes are possible or even likely due visitors and exhibition times and places can change. Also local happenings can change the plan.
Plan for the Photo club meetings:
2011-Ending
12.12. at 18-20: aperture + ISO
WS: f 1,2 - 4 and f 18+ photos
19.12. at 17-19 Portraits and person photography
WS: portrait and person in environment (place?, not possible in Suvantokatu 1)
2012
9.1. at 17-19 Perspective of photos. Crop the relevant.
WS: lower and higher from eye level
16.1. Visitor photographer Sakari Lindell. Black and white.
WS: B/W
23.1. Document photography, story in 1 photo / reportage
Organizing photoshow of Joensuu & Finland
30.1. Visit + photoshow presentation in Kontioniemi (?)
WS: everyday life in Joensuu
6.2. Bulb and night photos
WS: stars and x -something else
13.2. Flash and lightning
WS: flash + ambient light, flash stops the motion
20.2. Visitor Kimmo Kirves,travel photos.
WS: Snow activity
27.2. Panorama
WS ladscape and persons in panorama
5.3. 1st. exhibition arranging, planning the exhidition + printing (media visits?).
12.3. Visitor: Henna Middeke: ART photography.
WS: artistic impressions.
19.3. HDR (High Dynamic Range) photos
WS: HDR
26.3. High and low key photos.
WS: both high and low key shot
2.4. Photographers: how to guide your models
WS: life and living in Joensuu
9.4. Easter
16.4. Visitor Jussi Ratilainen: Concerts,Events, bands photography
WS: music in photo
23.4. Landscape photography
WS: landsape with and without human impact
30.4. Micro photography
WS: close ups to a new world
7.5. Planning exhibition, voting photos, arranging wed exhibition. (media visit?)
12.5. Exhibition and New Finnishness day
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