Learning to “See the Light”
“There are darknesses in life and there are lights, and you are one of the lights, the light of all lights.” ― Bram Stoker Light has four major qualities including color, quality, quantity and direction. As photographers seeking to master the art of exposure, seeing that light is the key to mastering the art of proper exposure. Notice I said art. Chiaro-scuro, as Italian Renai-ssance painters called it, is the use of effects...
Shooting Available Light Travel Photography
My favorite lenses for indoor available light photography are fast prime focus lenses but I still use zoom lenses when traveling because you rarely have the kind of choices for camera locations and positions you have under more controlled conditions. If you care about image quality, forget the digital zoom feature found on some cameras. It simply crops and saves a small portion of the sensor’s data, then interpolates this new,...
Proper Exposure & ‘The Sunny 16’ Rule
“So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.”—T. S. Eliot If you agree that lighting is one of the key elements that differentiate a good photograph from a snapshot, then it’s necessary to 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...
A Finding Glamour Models Trifecta
Where do I find my glamour photography models? That’s a question I get asked lot. Finding glamour models is as easy or difficult as you want to make it. If you work at it methodically and consistently, you’ll discover really good models will find you. Today’s Model Monday post is the next in the series that offers some real-world suggestions on some of the best ways to find glamour models. Secret Number 3: Let everybody know you’re...
Photographers Block
Today’s Post by Todd Abbotts If you pursue any creative process long enough you’ll most inevitably experience a “block”. Writers, painters, graphic designers, photographers; all creatives can fall prey to this swirling black hole that eats your fresh ideas and new material. Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick, likely quit writing novels altogether from a prolonged bout of the malady. On a personal note, I’ve just emerged from my own...
(Not So) Secrets of Available Light Portraiture
The best way to improve your portrait photography is practice. Make sure that you shoot anything each week so you get to the point where you don’t have to think about how to operate your gear. The following suggestions are hardly secrets and may be what you already know but may be tucked into the back of your mind, languishing and waiting to be jogged. Here’s that jog: Search for interesting locations. New things inspire me. It can...
Tips for Photographing Fireworks
“We’re going to live on; we’re going to survive. Today we celebrate our Independence day.”—“President Bradford” in the (original) film Independence Day Some photographic subjects, such as fireworks or lightening, can’t easily—at least for me—be captured using any of the standard exposure metering systems but some cameras, including some from Olympus, offer a Fireworks Mode that slows the shutter speed and sets the focusing point to...
