The following tutorial on capturing movement in dance photography was submitted by Bryant Gover.
This is a lesion on capturing movement. I have been doing dance photography for 6 years now. I specialize in lindy hop photography for those of you who don’t know what style that is I will just say you have to be very fast to capture people when they are flying through the air.. So how do I capture this movement without getting too much blur.. well I will explain how in two different camera choices.. First I use a Canon 20D with a 580EX flash I have used the on camera flash sometimes but I use a white piece of paper taped over it as a diffuser.
There are three things all cameras do (SLR or point and shoot) when you take a photo. First, it focuses then reads the light and then chooses the settings. Now if you start cutting those down the camera will shoot faster.
I shoot at ISO 800 to 1600 (depending on how many photos I will take in a night and how much battery life I have) I shoot on manual setting also that way I tell the camera what to think. f/5.0 1/125. Next, I set the focus so I have the subject filling the middle of my frame and then I set it to manual so that I don’t have to wait for the camera to focus (as most cameras are not good at focusing in low light this is a very big advantage.)
Using the 580EX is also a big advantage, as I will often point it at the ceiling or a mirror. I also set the flash exposure compensation to -1 or -2 depending on the amount of ambient light I have available. This is to make sure I don’t blow out the subject.
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Over in ‘How I took it‘ section of the forums Michael Brown (from Macro Art In Nature) shares this image and gives a description of how he took it. The shot caught my attention when I first saw it due to it’s subtle colors so I thought it might be worth sharing here on the blog.
This is a image created with the older Canon 300D & the Canon 75-300mm lens.
I was on the edge of the pond early one morning and wanted to get some of the various grasses with the sun coming up over the pond.
It was quite foggy that morning, with the fog hanging about 3ft above the water.
I opened the lens up at 5.6, mounted the camera on the tripod, and started shooting.
This image is fairly close to being accurate.
I selectively enhanced the colors at about 25% in photoshop, and defined the sun a bit more than what was initially recorded. (Give it more of a edge)
The suns color was changed slightly from a red/gold color to a more rose/pink color, hoping to help give it a bit more of a oriental feel.
See more of Michael’s work at his photoblog. If you’ve got an image that you’d like to tell us about we’d love to see it and hear how you took it in the DPS how I took it area of our forums.
This week’s Assignment in Forums is on a topic that most of us should have access to fairly easily in order to set up some shots - it’s on Water.
Whether it’s a shot of water flowing from a tap, droplets resting on a spider’s web, a rushing waterfall or a shot of waves rushing over rocks at the beach - water photography presents us with some wonderful opportunities.
So this week - set yourself the challenge of getting as many ‘water’ shots as you can and head over to the forums to share them.
PS: The above photo was submitted to the assignment by Jenn. See more of her work at her flickr account.
One of the wonderful things about digital photography is the creativity that you can engage in once you’ve got your image on your computer and in photoshop. All kinds of effects can be achieved to make your shots look any number of ways.
But what about in-camera techniques for more creative and artistic shots?
Here are twelve fun in-camera hacks to experiment with to get more abstract and artistic shots - the results are only limited by your imagination!
But before we start - if you’d like to improve your digital photography you can get more free tips like this from our weekly email newsletter
Move your Camera
Every good photography course drums into it’s participants the importance of keeping your camera absolutely still while shooting to ensure fantastically sharp images.
Of course sharp isn’t always what you’re after and one way to add motion into your shots is to experiment with moving your camera while shooting. Here are a few ways to experiment with:
- panning - a technique often used in sports photography.
- rotate - ever whirled a child around you? why not do it with your camera and take a shot mid whirl.
- camera throwing - not for the faint hearted - this technique involves a long shutter speed, setting the self timer, throwing your camera in the air just before the shutter is released and a safe pair of hands. It’s ‘extreme photography’ and can result in stunning shots - as well as the need for a new camera.
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Interested in learning about Food Photography? Read on for some introductory tips.
Visit any bookshop and head for the cook book section and you’ll be overwhelmed by the array of books filled with scrumptious recipes accompanied by wonderful photography of the meals being written about.
Colorful stacks of vegetables drizzled with rich sauces on a clean white plate with glistening table settings - you know the shots. Sometimes the photography is almost the true focus of the book with the recipes taking a secondary role.
But how do you photograph food and get such great results?
1. Lighting
Treat the food you’re photographing as you would any other still life subject and ensure that it is well lit. Many of the poor examples of food photography that I’ve come across in the research for this article could have been drastically improved with adequate lighting. One of the best places to photograph food is by a window where there is plenty of natural light - perhaps supported with flash bounced off a ceiling or wall to give more balanced lighting that cuts out the shadows. This daylight helps to keep the food looking much more natural.
2. Props
Pay attention not only to the arrangement of the food itself but to the context that you put it in including the plate or bowel and any table settings around it. Don’t clutter the photo with a full table setting but consider one or two extra elements such as a glass, fork, flower or napkin. These elements can often be placed in secondary positions in the foreground or background of your shot.
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One compositional ‘rule’ (principle) that we’ve not talked much about since starting DPS is ‘balance’.
While it’s a difficult thing to be specific about (it’s not like the Rule of Thirds where you can identify key spots on an image by imagining lines through it) it is a compositional factor worth considering when framing shots.
Perhaps the most effective way of learning about balance is by looking at photos that don’t have it.
We’ve all taken them - shots with strong points of interest on one side of an image and ‘emptiness’ in another area.
I’m not talking about symmetry - images don’t need to be the same on each side - but sometimes images can be improved greatly by having a secondary point of interest counter balancing the main focal point of an image and providing those ‘empty’ spots with a little weight.
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