Photography Guide - 6 Tips For Beginners

Photography is a hobby that many not only enjoy, but have adopted as a profession earning money from some of the great photographs produced using acquired photography skills. Becoming a great photographer requires at least three essentials: practice, technical know-how, and an artistic eye.

Below are a few simple guidelines to assist beginners to move in that direction.

1. Choose the right camera

For a photographer, the camera is a significant part of life and separation from it can leave a photographer feeling almost as if physically disabled. Choosing the right camera is critical for taking great pictures. There are a wide variety of cameras available on the market, all within various price ranges. As with just about anything in life, a good quality camera will be more expensive.

The common types of cameras follow:

I. Disposable camera

II. Compact camera

III. Digital camera

IV. Single Lens Reflex camera (SLR)

It is advisable that beginners not spend too much initially on a camera. That advice is because the higher priced ones typically include features that are only useful for experts already familiar with their benefits. Try using a camera like Pentax, Canon, or Minolta. These types of cameras take pictures with almost as good quality as the expensive ones.

2. Select a suitable lens

There are two types of lenses that will meet the needs of a person just beginning in photography. They include 28mm to 80mm and 80mm to 270mm. Within those two broad categories are macro, zoom, and wide-angle lenses.

3. Film types

The type of film selected is also very important. You will want a good quality film both for the beauty of the picture and also for longer-term storage. Of course, you can select between color film or black and white.

4. Consider film speed

Generally, faster films are the ones with the higher ISO number. Typically fast ISO films are used to capture quick movements, such as birds or sports players in action. It is also used to take pictures when the preferred amount of light is not available. If plenty of light is available, then a 100 or 200 ISO film will work great.

5. Color balance

Always consider the type of light under which you plan to shoot. Film is very sensitive to light colors. If the film doesn’t match with the light, then unfortunately the colors in the pictures after development will be a mess.

Photography as a hobby is not limited by age groups. Whether young or old, anyone can find enjoyment in it. To become a great photographer, take the time to learn proper techniques and develop your skills. The guidelines above will assist you to begin producing pictures that over time may amaze even you!

6. Photographing People

The job of a good photographer is to capture their subject’s best moments, such as when they are truly at ease and not actually trying hard to “act natural” in front of a camera - usually a prescription for capturing a horrible pose.

A photographer should also make sure the people in the pictures look as natural as possible. A great picture will bring out the innate personality and beauty of the subject - rather than serving as an attempt to create what isn’t really there.

Taking Manual Control Over Your Digital Camera

I was typing away the other day, putting the finishing touches on a short article, and not being the most careful typist, I accidentally wrote “dital” instead of “digital.” Of course, I was immediately notified of my mistake via a little red underline. A simple right-click of my error provided me with a number of spelling alternatives: detail, dial, tidal, vital, and so forth.

Essentially, my computer software was using the information available to it to make an educated guess as to what the right word should be. In some odd way, I was a bit disappointed that even with all the state-of-the-art technology and software innovations available, computers can still do little more than make an educated guess when performing tasks that have a variety of possible outcomes.

So I got thinking, how do these same limitations affect photography. Now that photography has become completely digital, every camera is installed with a small computer and processor. The computer is in charge of a number of key operations, but for today, we’ll just talk about one; how it controls your camera when in automatic mode.

When a camera is fully automated the computer is asked to control a number of extremely important tasks. It uses a combination of pre-installed data and real-time tests to generate an educated guess as how your photograph ought to be shot. For people who don’t care about learning how to use their camera, they accept these educated guesses as the best the camera can do, and if they want a better quality picture, they have to buy a better quality camera. This belief is, for the most part, untrue. While I do believe that a higher quality camera can produce higher quality results, I believe that any camera is capable of shooting a good picture as long as you can take control over how the photo is taken.

So, I’m going to make a statement that sounds simple, but really is something you need to believe if you want to improve your photographic skills:

You are smarter than your camera.

That’s it. That’s all you need to believe. Unfortunately, you’re going to need to prove it.

So what decisions should you make that your camera’s computer never should? The answer is actually quite simple. You need to control the most fundamental features that are the same now as they were fifty years ago: ISO, white balance (WB), aperture (Av), shutter speed (Tv), and focus. So I’m going to talk a bit about my thought process when setting these features manually. I don’t intend to teach you how to make the adjustments or what they are as there exists countless guides that do that already.

ISO & White Balance

These features derive from the properties of film emulsion. Every roll available has both a inherent white balance and ISO. Just be aware of how lucky you are that you can change these settings on the fly with a digital camera, and not have to buy a variety of film to accommodate every shooting scenario that may arise.

ISO : I love pure, bold color so I always aim for the lowest ISO possible. ISO is the first thing I set when entering into a shoot. I base my ISO on the shadows and dark areas of the scene, rather then the the ones that are heavily lit. All ISOs can expose well-lit subjects, but only high ISOs can expose dark areas. The second thing I look at is the speed of my lens. If I have a fast lens (i.e. f2.8) then I know I can push my ISO down a touch. I will also consider my subject. If my subject is static and I can shoot long exposures without risking motion blur then I’ll push my ISO lower, whereas fast-moving subjects require fast shutter speeds and often high ISOs.

WB : I ask myself: how many types of light are present? Which color of light is best to balance to? For instance, if I’m shooting outside then I’ll set my white balance to daylight (6000 degrees kelvin). If I’m shooting a home interior lit with daylight through open windows, and tungsten light from the interior fixtures, then I opt daylight and often use my flash to counteract the tungsten light. Sometimes I try to adjust all lighting so it’s the same color by using gels, swapping bulbs, etc. Other times it works nicely just to let all the different colors of light bee seen - like at crazy rock shows.

Aperture and Shutter Speed

Like a fine balance, each must compliment the other. You cannot change one without affecting the other. These are the yin and the yang of photography. The symbols Av and Tv are often used which stand for Aperture Value and Time Value.

Av : I start by looking at my available light and get an idea of what aperture range I’m looking at. Lots of light means a broader range of choice. Second, I’ll think about the shot itself and what depth of field I want. If I want lots of detail at all depths, then I’ll drop it down as low as f22. If I want a soft background, with a refined range of focus, then I’ll open it up to f2.8 or larger. Sometimes you don’t have a lot of choice, so the wider (lower number) the better. That’s why lenses with apertures like a fixed f2.8 are so expensive - because they’ll benefit you in low light. It’s also important to consider your subject - fast moving subjects will require lower apertures, so you can achieve faster shutter speeds.

Tv : The length of the exposure has huge bearing on the outcome of a shot. I start by looking at my subject and whether or not I want them sharp or blurred. Some subjects like city traffic benefit from long exposures, while others suffer. I try to stay at 1/60 of a second or faster when I’m shooting handheld, and use a tripod for slower exposures. Stillness varies from person to person, and image stabilizers will help. Fast subjects require fast shutter speeds.

Manual Focus

Auto focus is very fast and often quite reliable. That being said, sometimes you just have to take matters into your own hands. Be prepared to make adjustments at a moment notice.

MF : If my lens is struggling to find contrast in a shot, or focuses on the wrong thing, then it goes straight to manual. Most digital SLRs will even give you a audible or visual cue when you’re manually focused correctly. I try to avoid focusing on my subject center frame, and often try to manually keep my focus while reframing in accordance with the rule of thirds. Trusting my auto focus has ruined more shots than I can count. If you eyesight is a tad out, then make sure to set your diopter accordingly. Learn to trust your eyes.

Photography is a subjective medium. Your personal tastes should influence your shots, and there’s no better way to achieve this than by taking control of your camera. Learn how to use your camera quickly and effectively, but also learn how to study the world around you using a photographer’s eye. Soon, you’ll be able to walk into a room and say “if I were shooting in here, I’d be shooting at 400 ISO, tungsten white balance, f4, at 1/60 of a second.” When that day comes, you might also notice that people start finding you strange. Don’t worry, there will always be another photography-loving soul nearby who will understand.

by Bryan Larson

Reflections on Product Photography

I’ve been a fan of photographer Joachim “Kim” Guanzon for sometime. He’s one of those photographers that has a bag of tricks that is as deep as a canyon, always leaving me with the “how did he do that” feeling.

I recently saw some of his product photography work and decided to get the answers straight from the source. The technique in question this time around is “How do you shoot highly reflective objects?” For those experienced with studio lighting, you know this is not an easy thing to do. If you do it wrong it’s like holding up a magnifying glass to an acne-ridden teen’s face. Ok that’s a bit graphic. But, if you get it right, it can be as smooth as… something really smooth.

To start us off lets show an example. Here is a shot of stainless steel he did for a client:

Ok, did you really LOOK at the photograph? See if you can break down the lighting before he gives it away. Hint: Where is the light coming from, where does the light go, and what is the quality of the light he is using. Let’s pick his brain and see if we can get some straight answers.

Q: What got you into product photography?

Kim: I started photography back in 2003 when I read about Lomography (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lomography) at boingboing.com. At this point I was just shooting casually (mostly with my camera phone) and publishing stuff to flickr. When I moved to Utah my curiosity with Lomography peaked when I happened stumble upon an open box Lomo LCA kit from a used furniture store (yeah, of all the places!). So with my first vintage camera I began playing around with film photography while the rest of the world was going digital. I found myself going back in time, collecting vintage cameras from TLR’s to German “Robot” spy cameras. Eventually I got tired of scanning film, cleaning up dust from scans. I bit the bullet and got a Canon 20D, and from there I gradually accumulated professional camera gear and studio equipment.

I got my big break into product photography back in 2007 when I was asked to take some product shots for XanGo. Since then I have been building my portfolio which includes work doing food photography, product photography, editorial, executive and even the occasional wedding photography.

Q: What are the most challenging products to shoot?

Kim: One difficult subject to shoot we all deal with everyday is stainless steel (or pretty much anything similarly reflective). My solution is always to think up of ways to get the right reflections back from the subject and avoid any undesirable reflections (this includes seeing the camera & photographer in the reflections).

Q: Is your technique something you learned from others, or one you arrived at through trial and error?

Kim: My technique has mostly been countless hours of trial and error as well as reading a lot of lighting cookbooks, lighting blogs and product packaging blogs like The Dieline. I look at a lot of product photography online and try to decipher what tools were used to create the final shot. Most of the time you can see through the reflections what light modifiers were used to create the shot.

For example, let’s take a look at a shot that I tried to dissect from The Dieline website.

I can tell that they used a long vertical diffusion panel camera left lit by a very large stripbox with eggcrates. There is also a large white card coming from camera right to add fill.

Q: Impressive. What are stripboxes? Sounds kinky.

Kim: Stripboxes are long softboxes that create a strip of light. I use them quite a lot with bottle shots. Here’s a similar shot that I took with the same technique and a couple stripboxes:

If you notice the thin reflections running along the edges of the bottles, that’s coming from a stripbox. I placed the stripboxes behind the subject and a little of the stripbox goes below the plexiglass to create a seamless catchlight. Check the diagram below to get an overview of the setup:

Q: Ok, walk us through the studio setup. Sounds like lighting is the most important consideration. Where do you set up your lights and what kind of lights do we need?

Kim: My gear consists of an assortment of monoblock strobes, varying sizes of softboxes, beautydishes, century stands, regular lightstands, booms, grips, diffusion panels, white formica for nonreflected shots, colored plexiglass for reflected shots, sawhorses, etc. I know it sounds intimidating, but that being said, all those are just tools to manipulate light. Once you understand the basic science behind how light works, you can use that understanding and apply it to your shots. I highly recommend reading the book “Light: Science & Magic” by Fil Hunter and Paul Fuqua. That book is pretty much my lighting handbook. You can learn everything from “the family of angles” to dark/bright field lighting.

Q: Do you have a particular preference in how you trigger your off camera strobes?

Kim: I use a combination of Pocket Wizards and optical slaves (only in the studio). Pocket Wizards have been the industry standard and I have never had a misfire since I started using them.

Q: Looking at the sample shots, how did you get the light to fill the inside of the steel cups?

Kim: It’s crazy that you mentioned that. Honestly I didn’t even think about lighting the insides of the cups because they were too small to make a problem. Basically, these cups were shot individually and then I composited them to create the group shot that I submitted to the client. I lit each cup with the exact same lighting shown in the diagram below:

Q: Is getting started with product photography going to break the bank? What are the bare essentials?

Kim: A barebones setup would be a cheap light tent big enough to fit your products, a couple strobes, and materials to control the spread and spill of the lights (flags, gridspots, gobo’s). I’ve seen a lot of these modifiers built using DIY methods and are documented at different websites online. Fortunately time is not as expensive as camera gear so be creative and you’ll be surprised at the results you can get.

Q: Ok, last question. How many hours of Photoshopping does it require to arrive at the final image?

Kim: Most of my clients request photos in white backgrounds. Luckily for me this makes editing easier and only takes me a few minutes to clean up and deliver the final files. More complicated files that require compositing can take up to 4 hours to edit.

Hopefully this article helps you better understand all the work that goes into seemingly simple photographs you see when flipping through your favorite catalogue. It’s inspiring to see he started with limited photographic skills and was able to excel a relatively short time. If you’d like to see more of his work, his site is www.kimguanzon.com and his flicker photos are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/jowchie.

by Chas Elliott