Photography Blog » Master

Why Winter Photography is so Hard to Master

Wed, 18 May 2011 12:30:06 +0000

Winter photography is probably one of the hardest photography you can master. This is usually caused by the fact that we set our cameras on automatic as a way of ensuring the camera does its own tricks. However the camera apparently does not like the snow because white is always too bright unless it is at night.

You have probably tried taking photos during winter time, which probably gives some of the best scenes you would ever wish to get on camera. Like people skiing, snow fights and many more. Well I bet you have tried to capture all this beautiful scenery but when you look at your photographs they are either overexposed or underexposed.

Well I have winter photography story that came to me luckily. I was in my backyard taking a family photo of the twins as they played on the snow. I got lucky as they were tired of snow fighting and were practically covered in snow, I told them to stand together so I would take a shot, after, I moved them to the backyard door where there was little or no snow and by one snap of my finger I got a great shot. You could still see the snow on them but the one on the ground I made sure I removed it. So I guess you could say take less of the snow and more higher shots this way even if it reflects it won’t affect. I forgot to say that I was in semi manual at the time and had set the aperture settings for less light.

Being a Photo Editing Master in a Flash

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 22:07:07 +0000

Although photo editing programs nowadays seem to have all the basic (and advance!) editing tools a man needs, you have to keep in mind that not all the tools you see on the interface are beneficial. One of which is the cropping tool.
Before you start cropping all your images, you have to ask yourself, “Will the photo look better if I crop it?” If you answered no, then don’t. Sometimes, cropping results to a “cramped” photo. You have to keep in mind the nature of the photo’s subject. Sports photographers, for example, seldom use this tool because they feel the need of their photos to “breathe”. The action is not focused on the ball (in basketball for example) only but all the players surrounding the offensive player are vital.
Perfection is almost impossible. There are always some flaws, destructions, and obstacles along the way. Development, being manifested almost everywhere, whether it is economical or technological, signifies changes. These innovations can either be advantageous or disadvantageous. They can either aggravate or resolve problems.
One field that can be said to be experiencing fantastic developments is digital photography. It can be said that it is more convenient than the traditional photography that uses analogue apparatus. Today, everything can be done. Initially, it can be perceived to be very useful but as people becomes more informed about digital photography, we have the tendency to abuse this knowledge. Today, your face can now be cropped and can serve as a dog’s face. How “advanced” can things be?
Do think analogue photography also has advantages compared to digital photography? No? Then perhaps you should be enlightened about the pros and cons of both kinds of photography.
Digital photography allows the user to transfer files immediately after the shot was taken. No more films to develop, no more hassle of taking the films to the developer, no more fears of exposing your precious shots and no more unnecessary expenditures (like finishing the whole film before you can see the result). You can even edit the photo after!
Analogue photography however is much different than digital in a number of ways. Analogue photography requires your expertise in the shooting pictures since you cannot edit it after. From lighting to other background and foreground blurring, everything must be done manually.
If you are a new in photo editing and ask any professional what program to use, perhaps he or she will recommend you to use Ulead. Ulead is a very powerful tool, minus the complexity of the interface. Its latest program is the Ulead PhotoImpact and has received a lot of praises from photo editing gurus. The program has two editing modes: ExpressFix and Full Edit. ExpressFix is the tool for starters. With just a few clicks, you can edit a photo to your desired outcome. The Full Edit feature has three categories, namely enhancements, portrait touch-ups and effects. Ulead PhotoImpact interface is so easy to follow that you can edit like a pro in just a few minutes of familiarizing with the buttons.

How to Master the Art of Portrait Photography

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:58:36 +0000

Portrait photography, if you have the knack for it, is a very satisfying type of photography. I say you have to have a knack for portrait photography simply because it’s true. If you can’t put your subject at ease and get them comfortable sitting in front of a camera then as a portrait photographer you have a problem on your hands.

Your subject will turn out stiff and unwilling and it will come through in the photograph as well, and it won’t matter how good a photographer you are, or how much wizardry you can do with editing software.

If the original photograph you take is flawed then there’s not much you can do about it except go back to the drawing board. And by the drawing board here I don’t mean your portrait photography skills but the need for you to brush up on your people skills. And don’t worry if the first ever portrait photograph you take is of the person looking stiff and unnatural, you just need to keep trying until you get it right. Besides, most first attempts at anything invariably come out looking wrong so don’t get discouraged.

It’s only when things are still looking decidedly dicey after about two years of almost dedicated portrait photography that you might want to think about brushing off those people skills you knew you had but which you haven’t been able to find.

For my very first portrait photography session, I hijacked my sister into being my willing victim – oops, I meant to say guinea pig – and I can tell you that the end results were disastrous to say the least.

After that I just forgot all about it and left my desire for portrait photography behind me. Again at this point it was the whole film and processing thing, I didn’t feel like wasting my time and money on something that I clearly wasn’t good at. I also knew that no matter how much I tried to brush up my people skills that that was really as good as it got. So there I was, and there was portrait photography, a seemingly unobtainable goal in my photographic life, until that is of course, I bought my digital camera.

And I have to say that after that, whole new worlds opened up to me and I even went so far as to dream about doing some portrait photography as well. Luckily for me as the years had passed my people skills had also loosened up a little bit and I wasn’t so stiff-necked when I went it to this time. My photographs were still stiff necked, in the beginning at least, but they did improve with time and I can now take a decent portrait photograph without too much of a problem.

The moral of the story then? The digital camera is good for experimenting with photography. And portrait photography is good if you can easily interact with your fellow human being. But overall, don’t give up on portrait photography just because your very first shots were far from perfect. Give it a few more tries and don’t lose hope that you’ll eventually get something more than halfway decent.

Before I forget, I’d also like to point out that portrait photography need not only be about the traditional portraiture. You have many options open to you and which one you take depends to a large amount on your subject, basically which type of portrait would display them best, and your own inclinations. This was just to give you an idea of what type of portrait photography you can look forward to.