Saving the World One Pixel at a Time

Exposure in Shutter Priority mode was 1/160 sec at f4/7 and ISO 400

caption: This photograph of these two pals and their dog was made on one of the girl’s front lawn and the photographer was lying on her stomach to get the shot. This puts the camera on their level and helps minimize background clutter. Shot with Olympus E-420 and FL-50R flash  (with diffuser in place.) ©2011 Mary Farace

Some digital point and shoot cameras even have a “kids” mode some of which boils down to the same advice I’m gonna give you:

• Keep shutter speeds approaching or matching the highest flash synch mode your camera offers. Your small subjects are not going to stay still all that long and a fast shutter speed will freeze those few moments of repose or capture action.
• Use flash. That’s the second reason for keeping the shutter speed at or near the camera’s synch speed. Flash adds some additional sparkle and illumination to have the kids “pop” out from the background and fill in shadows because you won’t always be in the most perfect position to catch that special moment The small pop-up flash built into digital SLRs is a good place to start, but don’t be afraid to use a larger speedlight that’s part of your camera system.
• Pick a modest aperture. Select one that’s closer to wide open to minimize depth-of-field and soften the background. I always say that “if you take care of the background, the foreground will take care of itself,”
•  Select an ISO that’s a bit higher than you might otherwise for the conditions. An ISO of 400 is going to give you more flexibility with choosing shutter speed and aperture as well as squeeze a little more output from a pop-up flash.
• Choose Shutter Priority or Aperture Priority mode. Program mode, while tempting to use, might not be a good choice since it tends to favor increased shutter speed over aperture and by selecting either Shutter Priority or Aperture Priority mode you will be able to manage which of these two controls seems more appropriate for a given lighting and shooting situation.
•  Get down on you subject’s level to shoot at them not down on them. You’ll get better pictures and your small subjects will relate better to you if you get down on their level. That’s means you might have to sit on the grass or get down on the ground so be sure to wear your grungies.
• Don’t pose your subjects. Let them be themselves. They’ll put themselves in this position, often for only for the briefest moments so you’re gonna have to work fast and capture the image the microsecond you see it. Sometime you will only be able to get two frames and sometime just one. Don’t wait! Snap the shutter now.

A day does not go buy without me receiving an e-mail, Tweet or Facebook post asking what camera the writer should buy? That can be a tough question to answer because for openers there’s the budget aspect that’s part of any purchasing decision and then there’s whole “what kind of pictures do you (want to) make question too. It’s similar to asking what kind of car someone should buy? For some the answer might be a Jaguar or a Corvette and for me it’s a MINI Cooper but my friend Paul is 6’-6” tall so that’s not a good choice for him!

So what the best camera? That turns out to be a much easier question to answer because I’ll quote my friend, photojournalist Barry Staver, “It’s the one you have with you.” For many people, that’s a smart phone, like an iPhone, since few of us go anywhere without one these days. And people, like movie still photographer Ralph Nelson have used this tool to create real art in his new book Botanica which contains beautiful macro pictures of flowers all made with his iPhone. I’ve shoot a few photos with my iPhone but they are mostly as a record but will confess to being mildly addicted (who knows why) to Instagram.

If you’re serious about photography, I believe you should keep some kind of camera handy at all times, even if it’s a point-and-shoot like the 10-megapixel Olympus XZ-1 with f/1.8 lens I currently use and love. But the best camera remains the ones you have with you. Case in point: The above image. I was washing my hands in my kitchen when I looked out the windows and saw this young buck in my next-door neighbor’s yard. I just finished a portrait session in my studio while I was testing monolights for an upcoming story in Shutterbug magazine and grabbed my Canon EOS 50D, which had an EF 135mm f/2.8 lens attached, and made a few shots though the window. Then I opened the patio door and shot a few more of him lying down. When I stepped outside and shot a few more, he got up and looked at me and I made the above (uncropped) shot. Then I made a few more walking toward him but he decided it was time to go and slowly walked away.

So what’s the best camera? On that day and time it was a Canon EOS 50D, tomorrow it might be something else.

No car tip today, instead I want to introduce you to another of my favorite photographic subjects: Barns. I was introduced to the idea about 15 years ago by my my old friend, fine arts photogapher Bill Craig. Now whenever I see a barn, I start looking for my camera—Joe Farace

I like to photograph barns—the older the better and as the Colorado landscape has become ever more urbanized, I’ve been forced out onto the eastern prairie in search of old farm structures to capture using film and digital cameras. The above structure was photographed in digital infrared and, in the exception that proves the rule,  is located near my old home. Today that barn is surrounded by fences and all of it’s outbuilding have been demolished. When shooting my series of barn photographs I keep a few internal rules that keep me put of trouble. All images ©2011 Joe Farace

Rule number 1 is to always ask permission and don’t walk onto someone’s land as if you own it. Look around for “No Trespassing” signs and honor them if found. You can make shots like the above from the shoulder of the road, as I did in the above photograph.

Rule number two is follow the press photographers adage of “f/8 and be there” and use the smallest possible lens aperture to get the greatest depth of focus. In photographing landscapes, I like to shoot at the smallest possible apertures, preferring f/11 or smaller. I also like to use a polarizing filter for color photographs or an (in-camera) red filter in direct monochrome capture for black snappy, contrasty images. Remember that the total area of acceptable focus is one-third in front of the (focused on) object and two-thirds behind it. Keeping this rule in mind will help you capture all of the important details in the scene in clear detail.

Rule Number 3. I prefer to use the slowest possible ISO setting and when used with a polarizing filter this combination produces slow shutter speeds so I always keep a tripod in my trunk. Even a car as small as my MINI Cooper has room for a tripod. (OK, it’s a Clubman so I have nine-inches more space than a standard MINI.) Using a tripod also slows the pace of photography and I use the extra time to make sure that the composition is exactly the way I want. One of my oldest compositional tricks is to look at each corner of frame before snapping the shutter. This eliminates unpleasant surprises—stuff that seemed to come of out nowhere to ruin an image—when I finally look at the image files on my 23-inch monitor.

Rule Number 4. If someone challenges me or wants to talk, I used to bring prints along to show them what I do. Now the photos are stored on an iPad and I let the person flip through the images while they hold the iPad. Most times when they see that I’m trying to make pictures that they can appreciate, they become friendly and let me make pictures I might not otherwise be able to make. With photography under fire in so many areas, take the time to make a friend.