BetterPhoto Instructor Insights

ANOTHER GREAT REASON TO ALWAYS CARRY A CAMERA

A time gone by...or has it?

It pays to always have a camera with you! You just never know what’s around the corner, or inside some tiny store, and if you have a camera with you, you’ll be lucky enough to capture some fun and interesting images. It can happen to you. This story is for real. She is for real. Do not attempt to adjust your monitors...

One afternoon after lunch in a restaurant, my partner and I went for a slow walk along the streets of Old Town in Novato. There, we found this neat retro shop - complete with original juke boxes and some fantastic reproductions, Red Flyer wagons, old-time radios, lunch boxes with every superhero painted on them, Route 66 paraphernalia, and more, and that’s where we found Asia. She was serving up freshly popped corn when we sauntered in, and the smell fit the mood of the place very well. But Asia was priceless. I thought “how wonderful that they’ve paid someone to dress to fit in with the store’s theme.” Amazed, I struck up a conversation, and that’s when it got even more interesting. Asia dresses like this every day, including the hair, which can take more than an hour to pin up the way she has it here. I asked why and was told that she simply loves that period of time when these were the styles. But how does she find the clothes? “I make some of them, but I visit a lot of retro clothing stores and find used outfits and shoes here and there. I’m always on the lookout for purses, jewelry and things that I can’t make that fit the style. And the makeup? That too takes a long time to put on, to achieve the real look of the day (for some). All just to live in a time that has passed by, well, for those that let it pass by, anyway.

Of course I had to have her picture - to which she willingly agreed to serve up more popcorn for the camera. The background had all this cool stuff in it to support the look and I knew it would be a great picture!

This was just one time I was lucky to have a camera with me. It was a digital compact camera, but it was a camera nonetheless. Even though there are times when I can't take the bigger SLR camera and lenses, I take the compact digital with me. Having a camera gives you the chance to share what is funny, sad, laughable, mysterious, serendipitous, poignant, and unbelievable. It allows you to show Life as it happens.

But wait! There’s more. There’s her husband, whom I haven’t met yet, but I have since learned also dresses in the same period, and rumor has it their house is decorated in the style of that day. This I have to see - and capture!

Finding Funny Pictures

Happy! © Donna J. Taff

Hi Everyone,

Capturing humor in your photography isn't an easy task, but some of the finalists and winners in the July contest certainly make it seem like it's a snap!

In an excellent article, BetterPhoto™ founder Jim Miotke offers lots of great tips on how to capture funny pictures. For instance:

Look for differences in size and use wide-angle. Photograph kids, animals, or both. Feel free to set it up. And here's his piece of advice that applies to sooooo many different types of photography: Carry your camera everywhere you go.

Don't miss Jim's BetterPhoto article:
Funny Pictures - How to Capture Humor in Photos

That's it for now ... have a great week!
Kerry Drager

P.S.: Also check out these terrific BP galleries, so filled with fun and inspiration:

• Cute and Funny Animal Pictures
  
• Funny People Pictures
  
• Funny Street Sign Pictures

A Very Cool Filter!

After photographing nature scenics for a while, we develop a need for filters that don't exist! Luckily, I'm affiliated with Singh Ray filters and can just call Dr. Bob Singh and request a special filter be manufactured if the need occurs enough. In the following examples, such a filter was created by Dr. Singh from a request from Daryl Benson.

In the following scene, the horizon area is brighter than the sky, where the clouds are. A normal graduated neutral density filter will darken the top of the frame and graduate down to clear. The first example illustrates the use of this filter in this specific situation. As you can see, the foreground is bright, but the sky is very dark to the point of making the clouds too dark.

This occurs because the horizon is the brightest part of the image and the sky at the top of the frame is already a bit dark. What we need is a filter that is graduated up from the horizon where it's the darkest to the clear part at the top of the frame, where it is naturally dark anyway. This filter is called a Reverse Graduated Neutral Density. I find that I'm using this filter more and more in my work.

Here's an example of the use of reverse grad. Notice how the exposure at the horizon is exactly the same on both images. However, the skies are very different. The brighter image is much more appealing, using the reverse grad.

Making Photographs that Sell

Sunset at Marshall Point Light, Maine.

As a travel and outdoor photographer who sells a lot of stock images, I always need to be keeping stock photography in mind when I’m making pictures - no matter where I am. Although some pictures are made purely as fine art, or for personal projects, many of the images I produce on a trip or photo outing will be sent to the stock agencies that represent my work. These agencies have specific preferences, two of which prefer commercial type images over editorial, as they feel images that fit the more commercial requirements will make everyone more money. What’s the difference between commercial and editorial? It’s a bit of a gray area, if you ask me. Most of what I do is highly editorial by its style. Does this mean that the images will not be as salable? In my experience, the answer is no. Many of my ‘editorial’ style images have been used as pictures in corporate brochures, ads and as backgrounds for ads. The image here of the lighthouse walkway has made me about $15,000 over the past 2 1/2 years, used by a financial investments corporation, over and over and over again. It’s a graphically interesting picture, and it works for their concept, but to me, it’s still mostly an editorial image, and not one that I would have expected to make so much from its commercial use!

This sale, along with many others like it, has made me much more aware of making images that will work for stock. While I still make a picture that I want to make, and crop it and compose it the way I want, I am also making variations on that composition that give art directors “wiggle room” to crop, position, etc. the way they need. That means putting a barn on the left, then on the right, vertically composing, then horizontally, etc., whenever it’s possible. It also means that I think COVERS! The cover of any magazine, or guide book, or travel brochure, is a much-coveted position. They pay more than inside uses, as they are the advertisement of what’s inside. So covers are very important.

I was deliberately thinking cover potential when I made this picture of a Gila Woodpecker - without the text overlaying the empty space, the picture is unbalanced, but with the text, it works perfectly, and it meets an art directors' needs without ruining a good picture!

This was running through my mind when I stood atop the Rialto Bridge in Venice last spring. My partner and I had just finished leading a 12 day tour of Tuscany and were taking a break in Venice for 5 days. HA - so much for the break! We discovered one morning that there was a huge regatta that would start around 9 AM, and immediately starting planning for where we wanted to be to capture some of the action. After working at water level for a while, I moved up onto the bridge, jostling into the crowds, until a space opened up at the bridge edge - and there I held my ground while I waited for just the right boats to come along in my composition. I had given this serious thought - leaving room in the sky for a title, leaving blank space for text to overlay the picture in the lower area for the inside highlights, and now all I had to do was wait for the right boat, and the right moment! Here’s what it looked like before...

and here’s what it might look like as a magazine cover, compliments of Photoshop!

So when you are out there creating photographs for stock, THINK COVERS! Think vertically, think about leaving space for text, yet still make the picture interesting!

Beautiful Pictures Around San Francisco

Out of the Mist © Anton Falcon

Hi Everyone,

My favorite West Coast city is San Francisco - for a lot of reasons, mostly involving the area's great photo opportunities.

With any city that features world-class icons like the Golden Gate, however, it's not always easy to bring back fresh and innovative images. But check the winners and finalists of the free BetterPhoto.com™ online contest and you'll see some great renditions of the famed bridge.

Capturing beautiful pictures around San Francisco - whether the Golden Gate or other Bay Area subjects - requires great attention to light and composition. This means looking for unique perspectives and shooting at beautiful times of the day. And when the fog rolls in, be ready to head out with your camera.

Golden Gate Bridge at Sunset © Sandy Steinman

There are no creative limits to photographing the Golden Gate - as proven by BP shooters - but this "rule" also applies to other popular photo stops. For example:

In his latest On Landscape column in Outdoor Photographer magazine (September issue), BetterPhoto instructor William Neill discusses the subject of "Overcoming Icons". William points out that some pros have disparaged the prospects of producing fresh landscape imagery at his home base: Yosemite National Park. But, says William, who teaches the excellent Portfolio Development course at BetterPhoto:

"Even while surrounded by Yosemite icons, I've relished the visual exploration of Yosemite's intimate details that depict the essence of this place as well or better than the classic landmarks."

Check out BetterPhoto's excellent gallery:
Beautiful Pictures Around San Francisco

That's it for now ... have a great week!
Kerry Drager

Water reflections at 35,000 feet

Water reflections at 35,000 feet
Jim Zuckerman

On a flight last week I flew over the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri in the late afternoon, and I was intrigued by the sun’s reflection on the water. The angle of the sun was such that I could see the maximum intensity of the golden light, and the myriad fingers of the lake and the river system feeding it were defined in extreme contrast. It was a dazzling site. The graphic designs were fascinating, and they were constantly changing as the plane flew north. We were actually circumventing a storm system, so had the weather been good on our route I never would have seen this beautiful site. I grabbed my camera from the overhead bin and started shooting.

I hate photographing through the double panes of acrylic that make up airplane windows, but there was obviously no choice. To get the sharpest image, it’s necessary to shoot straight out of the window. If the lens is angled to even a small degree, the image quality is degraded significantly. I used a 200mm for this shot, which didn’t show any detail in the scratched surface of the window, but the double panes softened the image a bit just by virtue of the fact that this isn’t optically superior material. In Photoshop, I was able to sharpen it to compensate for this degradation and this worked quite well. In CS2 I used ‘smart sharpen’ which brought back the crispness of the image that would have been seen had I been able to open the window.

Rainy Day Photography Can be Fun!

It’s raining, it’s pouring, the old man is snoring...for some reason lately, I’ve been remembering the words to old songs, nursery rhymes, and the like when I’m photographing - or writing about photography! Don’t know why.

I just finished teaching a very exciting but busy week in Maine - and was ready to jump out there and make my own pictures at the end of the workshop. But Saturday afternoon was extremely hazy, and the sun went down without much fanfare and no sweet light on the land. I accepted that, and still managed to make a decent image of two dinghies moored in a cove. I had hoped to great reflections off the sky but it wasn’t to be. With the colors so flat, I decided to play with Photoshop and converted everything but the green boat and its reflection to black and white. That made me feel better on Saturday night.

But then Sunday morning dawned very gray. I went to a garden to work on macro photography, and no sooner got there and it began to rain hard enough that the flowers were being hit by drops and there was too much movement. Darn! I packed up my stuff, headed for breakfast, and a coffee to cry in. Not fair that this was my time, my chance to get some great photos, and the weather was so poor. After a great cappuccino at Boynton and McKay’s in Camden, I felt better and decided to go down to Rockport Harbor just to have a look. The flat light would be good for shots of dinghies tied up to the dock, if the water surface were quiet and smooth. But on the way, it began to shower, and I pulled in and turned the engine off to wait it out. All of the sudden my eyes began to see the possibilities through the rain spattered window. I got out, ran to the back of the car, and grabbed my Canon 1 DS with a 24-70mm lens. By focusing between the window and the scene out there, I was able to create the effect I wanted. I didn’t want the window sharp, or the droplets and bits of stuff on the window would be too strong. I did want the scene sharp, however, so it would show well through the wet and rippled glass. In the comfort of the car, I made about 16 different frames, varying the aperture, varying the focus, and waiting for the right moment when the flag atop the mast was in a good position. I was really having fun now, and the effect was just like a watercolor to me - without using the watercolor filter in the computer!

The rains never really stopped that day, and although I didn’t get all the images that I was thinking I was going to get, I made a few good ones and that sometimes is all we can hope for when we’re dealing with the environment!

United States National Parks and Regions: How to Avoid the Crowds

Sunset, Lassen Volcanic N.P. © Kerry Drager

Hi Everyone,

Over the years, I've written many articles on how to escape the masses of tourists that flock to popular parks and places. That has been one of my favorite topics of article writing - a topic, by the way, that I will speak on at one of the most exciting photographic events around: the upcoming BetterPhoto Summit.

There are many excellent tips for avoiding the crowds at United States national parks and regions. For instance: Go in the off-season, if possible. Get out in less-active times - very early in the day and stay out very late (great advice for the photographers, of course, for catching the best light).

Visit out-of-the-way areas of the park ... not sure where? Ask a ranger or stop by the visitors center. Misty conditions? Bundle up and head out.

Detail, Yosemite Nat. Park © Kerry DRager

But here are two other pieces of advice that I pursue whenever possible:

1) Go to one of the often-overlooked, but equally splendid parks. In my home state of California, that might mean Lassen Volcanic National Park.

2) Zero in on details and close-ups. Even in a park as busy as that other California showplace - Yosemite - you can really get caught up in your own little world as you spend time looking, and photographing, the things that the grand-landscape shooters often overlook.

Check out my BetterPhoto article on the subject:
Avoid the Crowds at United States National Parks and Regions

That's it for now ... have a great week!
Kerry Drager

Action Abstracts

Action photography
Jim Zuckerman

Last weekend I went to a bike race where dozens of riders were competing in an 80 mile ride. I knew they would be bunched at the starting line, and that’s where I positioned myself. I wanted frame filling images of color rather than individual shots. My other agenda was to create motion blurs of the pack using shutter speeds in the 1/4 to 1/8 range. I took some preliminary shots of cyclists riding by at various speeds and determined that 1/6th was the speed I liked most. My technique was panning, or following the riders with my camera, as they rode by. It’s impossible to plan or even compose these kinds of shots, so when quite a few turned out very well I was very happy. I’ve attached three of my favorites. I used several lenses, but the best ones were taken with a 50mm lens and a 70-200mm telephoto. I didn’t use a tripod because I needed to be mobile and very flexible.

The Easy Way to Ebay Your Gear

In the basement of my parents house when I was growing up, I would often find tools that, even then, seemed very old to me. Most of those tools belonged to my mother's father and they were fascinating because they had a soulful patina to them that, I can see now, spoke of the long years of use that the tools had seen and the fine care they had received. The hammer handles were smoothed to a near glass finish, not from sanding or polishing, but from decades of use.

I used to ask my father why my grandfather hadn't just bought new tools and he explained that my mother's father had an affection for tools that worked well and he kept most of them his entire life. Unfortunately, neither my father nor I had such an affection for tools and usually we discovered one of my grandfather's beautifully made old hand-crafted hammers while we were looking for a Sear's screwdriver.

Remembering those conversations and those beautiful old tools came to mind when I made the switch to digital about three years ago and I realized I would have to decide whether or not to sell my film gear. I had several bodies and lenses that I knew I could sell for a substantial amount of money so that I could afford new gear, but part of me wanted to hold onto the old stuff out of some demented sentimental connection to "old tools." Thankfully I came to my senses and sold almost all of the film equipment (and my unused film!) on Ebay. And I have never regretted it!

As it turns out, I got a lot more for that equipment on Ebay than I would have ever guessed. Over the course of a year or so I learned a lot about what makes photo gear sell and how to get premium prices for it. So if you're in that position now and thinking of selling your old stuff to buy new stuff, here are some tips that will help you get the most for your efforts.