Back to Basics/Exposure

I am always interested in finding out what brings our students to the workshops. In the case of our beginners courses it is often a desire to get more from the cameras they own. After all it makes perfect sense that if you own a sophisticated bridge camera or a DSLR; you will want to do more than just shoot in the auto modes.

Some of our students already have a good understanding of the basics; however still feel that they are missing a trick, that there is still something that they need to know which will take their photography to the next level. There are of course several aspects which can affect our picture. In this blog and some to follow I will go over some of the basics. These are all covered in our camera part 1 and 2 courses and I think it is good to be reminded of them so that we do not get out of the habit of using them.

Good exposure is often fundamental is taking an image which resembles what we wish to record. We know that as clever as today’s digital cameras are, they are unable to record the same range of tones that we can identify. Many photographers go away with images that have blown out highlights or fail to record detail in the shadows. Often these photographers feel that these lacklustre images are due to their own lack of ability or understanding of how to take the photograph. This is not usually the case; the reason is simply that our cameras are not capable of recording detail across a high dynamic range, that is to say a scene which has extremes in tonal range from bright to dark areas.

There is no perfect solution to this, certainly not without resorting to editing software and particularly HDR software in this instance. I fully believe in getting the best result strait from camera. That is not to say that I am against using Photo shop or any other editing software out there, however in the first instance when wishing to correct as aspect of exposure I would apply a degree of exposure compensation. This is easily applied, and time and practise will familiarise the user with how much to use. Most cameras will allow applications of up to 2 stops of under or over exposure. Many newer models will allow more. The principle is simple. If wishing to bring back lost detail in the highlights, for instance to washed out skies, then select the underexpose option, go towards the minus. If the desire is to lift details in shadows, lighten darker regions, then go towards the plus, overexpose. What we are doing is overriding the cameras own exposure and doing so without compromising our aperture setting. This easy and effective way of adjusting exposure is a great tool in altering out image towards showing detail that is important to the image.

Balancing highlights and shadows using neutral density grad filter

There are of course other ways of balancing extremes in exposure and apart from tricks in editing software there are certain filters that are available for this purpose. We cover the use of these in our Landscape courses and I will post more blogs in the future with regard to this.



HDR image



 HDR stands for high dynamic range and is a process used in combining several images taken at varying exposures in order to obtain a finished image with contains a greater range of tones .

Studio Lights

My background is in portrait photography. Back towards the end of the last millennium I had a portrait studio in Hove in East Sussex. My main business came from family portraiture. This was in the studio and also in my clients homes. Over time I also built an association with many local people within the arts and music business and shot a good few portfolios for actors and models.

As with all photography, lighting is key in portraiture. Working in a studio environment for most of the time I became increasingly aware of the importance of setting studio lights to capture style,mood and of course give the kind of polished finish to my work which my clients required. I can recall the many times that clients would come in fearful of having pictures taken because of some previous experienced of having photographs taken which were badly lit and unflattering.

 

Back in the 1980's the large and rather cumbersome studio lights were very expensive and usually only found in the professional studio environments. These days it is a completely different matter.

Studio kits are smaller, more affordable and are now often purchased by amateur photographers wishing to turn a spare room, garage or outbuilding into space where they can take some quality portraits.

These days I no longer take many portraits as most of my time is spent running the Going digital photography courses. As part of my work with Going digital I am able to offer one to one tuition, and as my background is in portraiture both in and out of the studio, I am able to share this knowledge with anybody wishing to improve their portrait skills. Whether you wish to improve your general portraiture skills so you can take better shots of your family, or whether you have purchased a set of studio lights and wish to know how to set them up and learn about different lighting techniques, a 1-2-1 session may be of value to you. For more information please email me at south@goingdigital.co.uk or phone Dominic on 07546 231044. Please be aware that 1-2-1 sessions can be tailor made to suit individual learning requirements and can be in several photographic themes from basic beginners photography to editing in Photoshop.

Kingston Lacy in Dorset was host to another of our DSLR part 1 photography courses last Saturday 9th July. Once again our eager photography students wandered through the woodland paths, discovered the Japanese gardens and photographed some excellent details from the estates formal gardens. The standard of photographs taken was in many cases exceptional for a part 1 course. It gives me great pleasure in showing some of the images taken.

The following pictures taken by Frances show fantastic control over depth of field from close up. These were taken with a 2.8 lens and show how small depth of field can be when working so close to your subject. This is    used to great effect with the images.

The following few images were taken by Becky, the youngest of our delegates last Saturday. Becky at just 15 years of age shows a good eye for photographic composition and should become an accomplished photographer if she keeps it up.

Chris took the following 3 images and demonstrates good composition and control of depth of field.

Next  a couple of great shots taken by Jayne followed by a few more quirky images from Kingston Lacy taken by Sayma.

Finally Richard shows how to use depth of field in composing images, keeping close up detail sharp and making the background slightly blurred.

Basildon Park Sunday 19th June 2011

Our first  photography workshop  at Basildon park near Reading last Sunday proved a great sucess. This splendid Nation trust Georgian mansion with its glorious gardens and parklands was at its very best.

Our students were able to practise their photography skills shooting the splendid floral displays currently on show in the grounds and gardens and also the wonderful views of the house and surrounding landscapes.

The following photos were taken by Vicky on her Samsung digital SLR.

The following pictures were taken by Tracey. Tracey brought with her a 50mm F1.4lens. This is also what we call a fast lens. Having this lens allows our pictures to be taken with a very small depth of field, this means that we can easily create very blurred backrounds allowing our main subject maximum impact by cutting out background detail which may detract or make our picture too cluttered.

Portraits Using flash

Today our hotshoe mounted flash guns can be used for a wide range of portrait shots From just providing a small amount of fill flash for shooting outdoors to setting up multiple flashgun setups for sophisticated studio style portraits.
Our Portraits using flash courses  can show you how to add spark to your outdoor portraits using fill flash and then how to use your flashgun in both TTL mode and manual mode to control flash output, setup multi flash lighting arrangements and get stunning professional portraits.

The advantage that systems such as the Canon
and Nikon speedlites have is that you can

use them remotely and wirelessley. These

can be set up as a master with up to 3 slaves .

You can set up a small studio in a relatively small space and get great results. We have more of these photogrpahy courses running throughout the year in Windsor,Berks Winchester and Lacock, Wilts

                                                

Portrait workshops in Lacock and Windsor.

We have recently seen a rise in customers booking up to our portrait courses, and of course this makes sense. Everybody wants to take good pictures of family members and friends, and there are some very simple camera techniques which can quickly transform your portraits from snapshots to good portrait photographs.

Lacock Village as seen from our meeting room doorway

Note the Red Lion pub, a very useful spot for refreshments.

In April we had two courses over a weekend in the very picturesque village of  Lacock NR. Chippenham. On the Saturday we worked on taking portraits outdoors in Natural light, and on the Sunday we worked on learning how to take outdoor portraits and studio style portraits using our camera's flashguns.
We are running these very popular Photography courses in Lacock Wiltshire again  in August and December this year

Below are a serious of images taken by some of our students on the recent Portraits Family and friends workshop in Lacock.

Sometimes we can get some event going on as we wonder through the grounds and gardens of some of our venues. On this date there was a female choir performing in the grounds of Lacock Abbey. This provided our students with some good candid portrait photography practice.

A candid shot of a well dressed lady admiring the view.




Female choir

 

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Portraits against a fairly plane background keep our attention on the subject





Forming small groups into shapes gives more visual appeal.


The following photos were taken by our students on our portrait family & friends photography course in Windsor Berkshire. The backdrop here was the magnificent tree lined avenue of the Windsor castle long walk

 

A small depth of field blurs out the castle in the background. 



Once again a small depth of filed helps to focus our attention on the subject.



Sometimes a tight crop will work even if it does mean cutting the top of someones head off.



Putting your subject to one side of your frame often give  a better composition. Remember the rule of thirds.







 









  



  









 

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