Saving the World One Pixel at a Time

The ingredients for making great portraits are easy to find: You need a subject, a camera, and some light but like any good chef it’s how they’re prepared that goes into cooking up a delicious portrait. When talking about portraiture with amateur or aspiring pro photographers, they often tell me they want to do a better job but don’t have studios or expensive lighting equipment. Let’s not worry about where to make portraits because we all have access to the great outdoors and a better-than-average chance at creating great indoor portraits if we take the time to look.

One of my favorite techniques for outdoor portraiture is backlighting that can produce beautiful highlights on the subject’s hair. The next time you plan to photograph somebody outdoors, place them in a position that you might normally use with the sun on his or her face and then turn him or her around! Right away the subject is more relaxed because the sun is behind her and she won’t have to squint! Next turn on your flash. Be sure to use it, otherwise the subject will appear to be a silhouette.

In order to get a final image that you can live with, you may have to open the lens a few stops over the metered exposure just as you might with any backlit subject. If you plan to shoot full length portraits instead of close-up, a more powerful speedlight will be more effective than the weaker pop-up flashes found on entry-level digital SLRs.

The above portrait was created using an Olympus E-1 with 14-54mm f/3.5 and an Olympus FL-50 speedlight used as fill and an exposure of 1/160 sec at f/8 at ISO 200.

If you agree with me that light is one of the key elements that differentiate a good photograph from a snapshot, then it’s necessary to learn and understand proper exposure. Believe it or not, there was a time when cameras did not have built in light meters, let alone automatic exposure. In those days, photographers either used a hand-held exposure meter or relied on the data sheet that was packaged with each roll of film, providing basic exposure guidelines for taking photographs in bright sun, hazy sun, or cloudy conditions.

The other widely used exposure method was based on the film’s ISO rating and the aperture f/16 aka the “Sunny 16” rule that is just as valid today as it was back then. Here’s how it works: To take a photograph in bright sunlight, the camera’s aperture was set to f/16 and the shutter speed is whatever comes closest to the ISO number. For instance, if you were using ISO 125, a sunlight exposure would be 1/125th of a second at f/16. The correct exposure for ISO 400 would be 1/400th of a second at f/16 but since most cameras don’t have a 1/400th shutter speed, the closest speed of 1/500th was used.

The ability to tweak the exposure, even with today’s sophisticated cameras, can make or break your image quality and content. I’m always surprised at the number of people who don’t care about correct exposure, using the worn-out cliche, “I’ll fix it later in Photoshop.” When exposure is concerned there’s only a partial truth to this statement. Adobe Photoshop can become a crutch for sloppy camera work but you still need to be careful in the arena of proper exposure. A digital image that is too far over or underexposed cannot be completely saved with image editing software. Please re-read the last sentence.

You can make minor adjustments to the automatic exposure settings while shooting, including using the any of the different metering patterns that are available within the camera and maybe even pull out a hand-held meter from time to time. My favorite tool for tweaking exposure while using one of the camera’s automatic modes is exposure compensation. No matter what camera mode, you can shift exposure to satisfy your creative needs to slightly over or underexpose the image by using the camera’s exposure compensation button that’s usually indicated by with plus and minus signs. It’s adjusted in positive or negative directions by some kind of wheel or control. I hate to be the one to break it to you you’re going to have to read your camera’s manual to find out how your particular camera accomplishes this function. Take a look at the Histogram from time to time. It’s not a perfect way to determine exposure but it’ll get you in the right ballpark.

There are as many ways of achieving a “proper exposure” as there are camera models so give one of these methods a try the next time you’re out shooting. Don’t just accept the camera’s automatic exposure (and then complain about it later) use exposure compensation to make it more than just another snapshot.

Image made with EF 135 f/2.5 SF lens at f/3.5 with 1/200th and ISO 200 using natural light using no reflectors.

Models Don’t Have to Look at the Camera: To show a model how I want her to stand, I put myself in the pose but let her give me her interpretation, which is always much better. 

I occasionally get calls and e-mails from models and aspiring models requesting tests shoots but there’s only so much time available. To streamline the process, I e-mail them a Model Data form before an interview or shoot. The form asks their name, address, and what hours and days she’s available for photography sessions. I also ask what kind of modeling styles she’s available for during the test shoot—not later. The following styles are listed on the form: Maxim-style, Fashion, Lingerie, Swimwear, Business, Artistic Nude, Casual, and Glamour. Potential models are requested to check all that apply

I have found the Model Data form to be indispensable but it’s not perfect. If you need a swimsuit model and she isn’t interested in posing for those kinds of images or her availability and your schedule aren’t compatible, you save time and effort by not scheduling an interview or test shoot. It’s a good idea to look for inconsistencies in the answers. One model I interviewed checked Maxim-style but not Lingerie and when I asked her why, she said the magazine she saw didn’t have lingerie shots in it. Maybe she though I meant Popular Mechanics. One model checked ”nude” but during the interview when I asked her how comfortable she was posing for these kinds of images, she said “not today!” I never did find out what day, so it’s important you ask that models answer all questions honestly. Yet only about 60% of the models who call or e-mail ever return the Model Data form.

You can’t rely on forms to do all the work and during an interview I’ll spend time with the model talking with her about the kind of photographs I like to make but more importantly what she kind that she in interested in. When you find an overlap in these interests is when you’ll have the possibility of creating great images together.

Joe is the author of “Joe Farace’s Glamour Photography.”

Runway photography is more like shooting sports that studio fashion. Leggy supermodels move fast and like a wedding shooter capturing a bride coming down the aisle with her father, you only get one chance. Some fashion shows permit flash but many others do not. On the upside, some runways are  brightly lit with tungsten lighting for TV, not still cameras. Local venues vary greatly in configuration, where you can stand, and many  allow flash. I arrive early and make tests shots with a stand-in to determine how I;m going to handle lighting.

At this local fashion show all of the dresses were made of paper! A Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN with EF 28-105mm lens (at 28mm) was used with a Shutter Priority exposure of 1/30 sec at f/5 and ISO 640 with fill from an EX 550 speedlite. © 2011 Joe Farace

For available light shots, I place the camera in Shutter Priority mode and there’s no time for bracketing? As soon as a show starts take a quick look one of the images on the camera’s LCD preview screen to make sure the exposure is good, then shoot in short bursts in Continuous mode. When there’s  a tiny break during the show, I check exposure on the LCD screen and made adjustments ranging from two-thirds stop underexposure to 1/3 stop overexposure.

At New York’s Fashion Week, runway lighting was bright enough to shoot this at 1/160 sec at f/8 and ISO 400. Camera was an Olympus E-1 with 50-200mm f/3.5 lens at 200mm. © 2011 Joe Farace

When  you know the runway is lit for TV, you can set the camera’s white balance control on Tungsten or shoot in RAW format. At Fashion week, I asked another shooter, who told me the color temperature was 3600 degrees Kelvin and that’s where I set the white balance. Not all digital SLRs let you set an exact color temperature but if not I would have gone with the tungsten setting. When the first person walked down the runway, I made a photo and saw color balance was right on.

Here I used my Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN and EX 550 flash with Sto-Fen Omni Bounce attached. An EF 28-105mm lens (at 28mm) was used along with an exposure of 1/30 sec at f/6.3 and ISO 640. ©2011 Joe Farace

Most fashion shooters work with long focal length lenses and I prefer zoom lenses rather than fixed focus lenses because they enable me to create differently cropped images from full-length to headshots from the same spot on the floor or riser. A photographer for Italian Vogue photographer once told me he had to get three shots of each model as they walk down the runway: A headshot to show make-up, a ¾ length to show accessories and jewelry and a full length shot to show the dress. Whew!

Joe Farace is co-author of Better Available Light Digital Photography published by Focal Press.

Most photographers dream of accomplishing two things in publishing: The first is being featured in National Geographic or maybe Playboy and the second is showcasing their photography in a book. I can’t help you with that first goal but can with the second.

So why do people write photo books? They do it to become famous, to help people, and become rich and the proportion for aspect depends on the writer. Unless you are very, very lucky—notice I didn’t say talented—you won’t get rich writing a photo book. On the other hand you don’t need an agent to publish a how-to book and believe me finding an agent to accept you as a client is harder than finding a publisher for your first book.

Except for photographs made on the outer rings of Saturn, everybody has been almost everywhere and photographed just about everything. To publishers this means that who is making the photographs is more important than where. The chance of a publisher seriously looking at a unknown landscape photographer’s book featuring classic locations such as Arches National Park or Yosemite are slim and none but you’ll have a better shot of having your work showcased in a How-To book.

The steps involved in getting a How-To book published are simple and straightforward:

1. Find the publisher’s Acquisitions Editor. That’s easier than you think. Often it’s on the publisher’s website but don’t forget the old stand-by Writer’s Market that sells for less than $20 on Amazon.com () The book lists publishers by category and provides contact information, including how they prefer to be contacted. Writer’s Market includes smaller publishers who you might not be familiar with and who may be more open to unpublished writers and photographers.
2. Write a query letter or e-mail, whichever the publisher prefers. A query is a concise description of who you are, what the proposed book is about, and why you’re the ideal person to write it. That’s all. At this point, no photographs may be required but if you can direct them to an on-line portfolio they might look at it.
3. Be patient. If they didn’t like your idea you may never hear from them or get a polite form rejection letter. Don’t be discouraged. Twelve publishers rejected J.K. Rowling’s original Harry Potter book so how much do they know. If you’re idea is rejected, send the proposal/query to another publisher, then another. I sent dozens of queries to a one publisher who rejected them all. One day, the Acquisitions Editor phoned and asked why I stopped sending book proposals and I explained that they rejected everything I sent so why should I bother. She wanted more ideas and when I tossed an off-the-cuff idea and she said, “I’ll send you a contract tomorrow.” She did, I signed it, and ended up writing three books for them.
4. Be persistent. If the publisher likes your idea then they will ask for more information, photos, and may have a whole series of hoops for you to jump through mainly of a CYA nature for them. If you can meet with the publisher face-to-face at a trade show, it might close the deal. I put images from my proposed book “Joe Farace’s Glamour Photography” on an iPod Touch and showed them to a publisher’s representatives at Imaging USA and closed the deal there.
5. Follow through. When you sign the contact honor the terms. If they give you a deadline, make sure you meet it. That means you’ll have to work on the book every day in order to meet that deadline. If they give you technical specifications on how they want the image files and what form the text should be, follow them to the letter. Not everyone does, so if you make the publisher’s job easy they’ll want to work with you again in the future.

Working through a traditional publisher has its advantages, mostly being that you deliver the raw material; they turn it into a book, distribute it, and market it for you.