Getting the Most from a Built-in Flash
These days, cameras have built-in flash but not the so-called Pro models, even though having a small flash available with the click of a button can make the difference between a good photograph and a not-too-good one. If you’re photographing a static subject sometimes the best way to get a properly exposed photograph is not to use flash at all and instead place your camera on a tripod and use available light. If you don’t own a tripod...
Using a Handheld Meter for Portraits
All modern cameras have some kind of built-in light meters and some even have spot meters but I still occasionally use a hand-held meter, especially when photographing people outdoors. My current hand-held meter is an old Gossen Luna Star F2. Yes it’s old but it’s also small, lightweight and takes reflected or the incident readings I like to use when making portraits. (Incident metering reads the intensity of light falling on...
Getting Started with Photographing Models
You may be interested in trying to photograph models but think that it’s difficult, you need lots of expensive equipment, or that models are hard to find. As Señor Wences once famously said, “Is difficult for me, is easy for you.” This could apply to model photography too if you don’t know an f-stop from a shortstop but it’s going to much less difficult if you’ve been shooting with an SLR or mirrorless camera for a while and are...
Available Light Tips for Travel Photography
It doesn’t matter what you call it—available light, unavailable light, available darkness, or low light photography—often the most rewarding photographs are produced when working under challenging lighting conditions. Why? First, there’s the thrill of overcoming the ever-present technical obstacles that prevent you from producing a well-exposed image under challenging lighting conditions. Second, photographs made under lighting...
Low Light & Fast lenses
Dick Stolley who many consider to be Time-Life’s best Managing Editor once told People magazine’s photographers that a successful image elicited a “Gasp Factor” from the viewer. Stolley said if the image stopped the reader, forced them to take a second look at it, read the story’s headline, and then perhaps the rest of the story, the photograph passed his test. Often the best photographs—those “Gasp Factor” ones—are made under less...
Working with Backlighting for Outdoor Portraits
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...
Photographing Models on the Runway
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...
