Collins Complete Photography Projects

Collins Complete Photography Projects John Garrett Harris Harris The book all amateur digital photographers need – learn how to take the perfect photograph every time, from the authors of the bestselling Collins Complete Photography Course.In this book, John and Graeme apply their years of experience as professional photographers and instructors to teaching you the techniques and tips for capturing your friends and family, children and pets, holidays, sports days, celebrations, parties, festivals, weddings, births and birthdays. This book will show you the best way to photograph them all – every important person, place and memory you’ll want to treasure.Using the same practical, project based course structure that helped so many amateur photographers get to grips with their cameras in their bestselling Collins Complete Photography Course, John and Graeme will give you the confidence to get out your camera and start taking photos. Includes tips and advice on how to get the best out of your iphone and other mobile and point-and-shoots cameras as well as your digital SLR.John and Graeme’s warm and encouraging style will build your confidence, inspire your creativity and get you experimenting with your photos. With specially shot case studies and projects, step-by-steps, troubleshooting and project reviews you’ll be learning as you shoot right from the get go.Collins Complete Photography Projects is the natural follow-up to the Collins Complete Photography Course, benefiting those who have worked their way through the first one, but it will stand alone with a concise technical section that will bring new readers up to speed. A must have photography book for anyone with a digital camera and a little imagination. I dedicate my part of this book to my Laurence and thank her for all the support and inspiration. She was with me when I made many of the pictures. She was my muse. John I dedicate the book to my wife Margaret for being a long-time helpful companion. She is the main inspiration for most of my photo projects – without her I would be wanting. Graeme contents Cover (#u189adfbe-ec61-55d8-a6f5-3c0ca764a181) Title Page (#u6d7af426-c358-5639-824c-4d741a636f49) Dedication (#u001d7c01-a5c8-5331-a0b3-3d12600e89d2) Introduction (#ulink_28b2a380-2975-5168-ba43-eb946ab010a6) 1 Photography Basics (#ulink_972c3abf-54ac-5f39-ae75-93243c8776de) 2 The Great Outdoors (#ulink_d5a461d7-562f-533a-ab76-bf5d2cb03ba1) 3 Sightseeing and Cities (#ulink_2ab64e45-b6b1-5e97-9133-de0ed0263311) 4 Out and About (#litres_trial_promo) 5 Capturing Action (#litres_trial_promo) 6 Still Life (#litres_trial_promo) 7 Portraits (#litres_trial_promo) 8 Body Beautiful (#litres_trial_promo) 9 Celebrations (#litres_trial_promo) 10 Children (#litres_trial_promo) 11 Animals (#litres_trial_promo) 12 Patterns (#litres_trial_promo) 13 After Dark (#litres_trial_promo) 14 Perfecting Your Images (#litres_trial_promo) Conclusion (#litres_trial_promo) Resources (#litres_trial_promo) List of Searchable Terms (#litres_trial_promo) Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo) Copyright (#litres_trial_promo) About the Publisher INTRODUCTION (#ulink_1b0b0b79-a0fd-59e1-8aa1-3115cde34b41) In our first book together, Collins Complete Photography Course, we tackled the complexities of modern digital and film cameras, taking an in-depth look at their controls and the techniques needed in order to start producing great pictures. The next logical step, it seemed to us, was to apply the knowledge learned in the first book to the great themes of photography in this second book. While it would benefit you to study our earlier book if you’re a novice, Complete Photography Projects stands alone, with a concise technical section to bring you up to speed. For those of you still using film, this book is equally valid, showing you how to deal with the many subjects you may want to shoot. Each chapter is devoted to a different genre, with most of the photographs shot especially for the book. The book is written with a view to the facts of real life. We know that you may have to pack much of your photography into the odd weekend and annual holiday. We have travelled the world with small children and know how frustrating it can be to miss a great shot because the kids are hungry or tired, but we are also grateful that we did have that wonderful photographic subject on hand – the children. Finding ourselves in the right place at the wrong time has always been a dilemma too, perhaps bedevilled by awful weather or scaffolding on the great cathedral we’d been waiting a long time to shoot, and so on. We could probably make a list of problems that would fill a page. However, our aim is to help you to turn those negatives into positives. The first section of the book will help you get to grips with that amazingly sophisticated machine that you bought. It’s basically a computer, so anyone familiar with those will not have much of a problem navigating around its menus. The job of this section is to make you become master of your machine rather than, as is often the case, the camera intimidating the photographer and blocking the creative process. This book is not for equipment geeks, but we must all get to know our cameras so well that we can just concentrate on the subject rather than struggling with our equipment. We discuss technique as related to creativity, for there is not a single technical decision that is not in fact a creative one. When one starts out in photography the problem is not just how to take pictures, but what pictures to take. This issue delays the learning process for many novices, because to progress you need to shoot, shoot, shoot. We offer lots of themes to help you find inspiration and our photographs will show the process involved in the making of an image. So, with your new-found confidence, we hope you’ll soon be raring to get up and go under your own steam. GABRIELLA You don’t need a lot of equipment to take a professional-looking shot. I just used the available back light and a gold reflector to create this publicity portrait of singer Gabriella Cilmi. 1/1000 second at f5.6, 150mm, 200 ISO. JG (#ulink_596628a2-9668-5cb6-a40c-10c9b7836419) LOBSTER I found this lobster outside a restaurant in Copenhagen, where the bright overcast light really made the red zing out against the cool blue ice. I stopped the aperture down to f11 to make sure the lobster was sharp from front to back and placed him right in the centre of the viewfinder to make a symmetrical composition. 1/125 second at f11, 30mm, 400 ISO. JG PHOTOGRAPHY BASICS Whether your camera is old or new, you will only take really good photographs if you know how to create strong images – the saying ‘cameras don’t take photographs, photographers do’ is right. You should certainly not get hung up on needing the latest camera on the market, especially in these digital days, when there will be an even newer one out next week. We feel that the push for more megapixels and ever-bigger sensors is largely driven by the industry’s need to sell us more gear. All this technology is not going to make your pictures any more creative; many of our favourite pictures – those that inspired us to take up photography ourselves – were made on far less sophisticated cameras than even the average point and shoot camera that you can buy today. To quote the American photographer Chase Jarvis, ‘The best camera is the one you have with you.’ You will no doubt have read through your camera manual; if you had trouble understanding it, this chapter will help to make it clearer. If you still feel in need of more detail, you will find it in our first book, Collins Complete Photography Course (HarperCollins, 2008). Although this book is more about pictures than equipment, it is essential that we photographers get to know our cameras like a best friend. Our aim is to show you how to take better pictures no matter what your camera may be, just using it as a tool with which to transform your creative ideas into exciting images. QUICK TIP Your camera manual is vital if you are to understand the controls and functions of your camera. Don’t be embarrassed about carrying it around with you – today’s cameras are so complicated that few people can remember everything they do. HOW JOHN CHOSE HIS NEW CAMERA Just before writing this book I bought a new camera because I was feeling the need to simplify my travel photography and lighten my load. I wrote a priority list of features that I regarded as essential in a new all-round camera and spent a great deal of time finding exactly the right camera for me. This list might be helpful to you when you are choosing your next camera. Size and weight: small enough to fit in a coat pocket, light enough to carry all day without causing fatigue. Instant focus without shutter delay, for people and action. A viewfinder – I don’t like trying to compose pictures on the LCD screen as I often can’t see the image when the light is bright. Improved performance at high ISO speeds. An articulated screen – I find it very useful for shooting above my head or from ground level, or for shooting people surreptitiously. Interchangeable lenses to give me more choices, with the addition of an adaptor ring so that I can use my beautiful analogue Nikon lenses, which are creatively interesting. The feel and balance of the camera – I need to regard it as a part of me and I want to enjoy shooting with it. A menu system that makes sense to me. CAMERA After weighing up all the pros and cons I decided on this interchangeable-lens lightweight mirrorless camera. It has a large APS-C sensor and an electronic viewfinder, making it easier to use than trying to compose on the screen. It will fit comfortably in my coat pocket and accompany me wherever I go. JG DIGITAL CAPTURE In digital cameras, the sensor and memory card have replaced the film we used to shoot our images on. It is the pixels on the sensor that record the image gathered by the lens. Via the camera’s computer, the sensor then conveys the image as electronic signals to the memory card for short-time storage. FILE FORMATS Digital cameras have two different means of writing and storing image information onto the memory card, each with their own advantages. JPEG format This type of file contains all the settings that you have selected via the camera’s menu, such as image size and quality, colour balance, contrast and noise reduction. The camera applies these settings to the image and compresses them onto the memory card. The most popular format, JPEG produces images processed by the camera, ready to show on the computer or to print. The JPEG file can be reprocessed with image-editing software such as Adobe Photoshop at a later date, but the settings applied by the camera cannot be completely reversed. Always work on a copy of the original JPEG, as repeated opening and saving will degrade the image. RAW format This format stores all the information from the sensor in an unprocessed and uncompressed form. It is the pure information of the picture and can be likened to a film negative. Once downloaded to the computer it has to be processed, with the photographer applying settings of brightness, contrast, colour balance and so on. After the interpretation has been made it is saved as a separate TIFF or JPEG file, leaving the original RAW file untouched and available for a new interpretation at a later date. TIFF files are not compressed like a JPEG file and provide better quality, so they are the option to choose if you plan to do extensive retouching. Raw files are large and take up a lot of space on the memory card, but this has become less of a problem now as the price of memory has dropped considerably in recent years. MEMORY CARDS These are available in different sizes to suit the system your camera uses. Many of the DSLR cameras use large CF cards, but in order to make cameras more compact, recent models accommodate the smaller SD cards. Some cameras are able to use two cards, usually two SD cards on the newer models. You can buy cards in a variety of memory capacities and they also have different image transfer speeds, affecting how fast you can shoot. Memory cards are quite fragile and should be protected from moisture and extreme temperatures; take care not to drop them, too. The images on the card should be copied to a computer as soon as possible, since many people have lost their pictures as a result of card failure or loss of the camera. Use the format feature in the camera to erase the card and set it up for shooting again. Once it is reformatted the previous images on the card will be lost. Memory cards are quite stable and don’t give many problems, though it’s good practice to buy the best quality. While it has been recommended that they be replaced after about two years, we have been using the same cards for many years without problems – so far. CARD Memory cards hold all your precious images. Buy good-quality cards and treat them with care. FORMAT Once your pictures have been transferred to your computer and/or other safe storage places, reformat the card in the camera, which will set it up properly to be used again on your next shoot. RAW Use RAW if you intend to do extensive retouching on your pictures. If using JPEG, make sure you set the image size and quality to maximum, since you may want to make large prints from the pictures at some time in the future. EXPOSURE MODE DIAL Most cameras have an exposure mode dial on top of the camera, though it’s becoming more common to set the exposure modes from the menu instead. Today’s cameras offer a wide choice of modes. AUTO (Automatic mode) This is the camera in complete control, making all the exposure decisions, including whether flash is necessary. It is the mode that is recommended for first-time users. P (Program mode) The camera is still in automatic but you can override it using exposure compensation and flash. Some cameras will allow flexible program and auto exposure bracketing. This mode is intended for snapshot shooting. S or Tv – TIME VALUE (Shutter priority mode) Shutter priority is a semi-automatic setting; you set the shutter speed and the camera sets the aperture for the correct exposure. Use it when the choice of shutter speed is most important for your photograph. A or AV – APERTURE VALUE (Aperture priority mode) Aperture priority is also a semi-automatic setting, but this time you set the aperture and the camera sets the shutter speed for the correct exposure. This is the mode to set when the choice of aperture is most important for your photograph. M (Manual mode) Here you are completely in control of both shutter and aperture. You need to use this mode if you want to make long exposures on Bulb setting or shoot with studio flash, where shutter speed and aperture are set independently. PRESET SCENES The preset programs are the result of an enormous amount of information that has been programmed into your camera. They set up the camera functions to match the subject you have selected, choosing combinations of shutter speed, aperture, flash, colour balance and focus that the camera decides is ideal. These programs are useful when you are starting out, but you will probably want to move on to take your own decisions as your knowledge increases. Cameras vary in the style of the graphics and menu for the presets, and in the presets that are available – some offer a wider choice than others. The following are among the most common. Portrait mode On the assumption that you want the face to stand out from the background by making the background soft, the portrait mode sets the camera to the largest aperture possible in the lighting circumstances. Landscape mode This sets the camera to the smallest possible aperture that the lighting conditions will allow in order to get as great a depth of field as possible. Close up For close up, the camera sets a medium aperture of around f8, depending on available light, to ensure some depth of field to the subject with the background slightly out of focus. It also sets centre focus area. It is advisable to use a tripod, since this preset may give slow shutter speeds. Sports In order to freeze motion, this mode sets the highest shutter speed that the lighting allows. Focus is set to continuous while the shutter release button is pressed halfway. The built-in flash is turned off. Night landscape The camera selects slow shutter speeds for night shots. For speeds slower than 1 second, set noise reduction if your camera has it. When using this mode you will probably need to put the camera on a tripod to avoid blur from camera movement. Night portrait Here the camera balances the flash on the subject with the existing light in the background. You have two choices here: keep the camera and subject still to render everything sharp, or move the camera slightly during the exposure if you want a blurred background. The high speed of the flash will freeze the subject, while the slower shutter speed will allow the background to blur. THE ISO SETTING Before you start shooting pictures with your camera you must select the ISO setting, either from a button on the camera body or via the menu. The ISO (International Standards Organization) index is a system for calibrating the sensitivity to light of film emulsions and digital sensors; the higher the ISO number, the greater the sensitivity. On most cameras the ISO settings go from 100 to approximately 3,200, though the latest digital sensors allow settings of up to ISO 25,000. The lower the ISO number, the finer the quality of the image, whether film or digital. As the ISO number rises so does the amount of noise in a digital image and grain in a film negative, breaking up the image and reducing sharpness and detail. Noise reduction can be turned on when shooting at higher ISOs, but it tends to soften the image somewhat. It has no benefit at low ISOs. Grain and noise are not necessarily a bad thing – they can be another creative tool, used to enhance subjects such as misty mornings and night shots, for example, and often most effective in black and white shots. QUICK TIP Try to get into the habit of checking the ISO setting each time before you start shooting or you may end up with a lot of pictures on a setting that does not suit the subject. Remember you can change your ISO at any time during a shoot – for instance, if the light drops suddenly and you find the shutter speed has become too slow for a hand-held camera, just turn up the ISO and retain your higher shutter speed. LOW ISO This is a small section taken out of a portrait to demonstrate the quality of image that is possible on a digital camera with a low ISO setting. HIGH ISO The section here is proportionally the same size in an image as the eye from the portrait, but the shot has been taken with a high ISO setting. While great effort is made by manufacturers to reduce grain and noise, it can be really attractive on some images. EXPOSURE For most of our careers, correct exposure was the most important technical decision that we had to make because most of our work was on colour transparency film, and the quality of the image was greatly affected if it was overexposed by even +? stop. It was safer to be –? stop underexposed to give a rich, saturated transparency for reproduction. Today, photographic technique is equally divided between the camera and the computer, so if you find your pictures are under- or overexposed you can usually correct that later with image-editing software. However, you do still have to be very careful not to overexpose a subject that has inherent bright highlights. As with transparency film, those highlights ‘blow out’ and lose all detail, and you will never retrieve any detail no matter how much you darken the area on the computer. Underexposure of a subject with dark areas is not such a problem, as it is possible to retrieve an image underexposed by as much as –2 stops without adding much noise to the shadows. UNDEREXPOSURE This picture is underexposed by –2 stops. However, underexposure can often be used for effect – this exposure, for instance, could be used for an evening effect. If it is a mistake, this amount of underexposure can be corrected to almost normal. CORRECT EXPOSURE Here the correct exposure for this subject has provided detail from the darkest tones to the lightest highlights. Correct exposure is the ideal starting point to either use as it is or to add your own interpretation to on the computer. OVEREXPOSURE This picture is overexposed by +2 stops. Although it can be partially corrected later, the highlights, where they are pure white, will retain no detail as they are totally blown out and cannot be corrected. HIGH KEY The high-key effect is traditionally a black and white technique used for babies, children and glamorous women, giving a romantic interpretation of the subject. The lighting is as close to shadowless as possible. It is a good idea to have some small dark areas in the picture to contrast with the overall white tones. This baby picture is lit with soft overhead daylight that has eliminated most of the shadows, giving a soft, dreamy quality. It was overexposed by +1 stop to keep the highlights bright, using exposure compensation. 1/250 second at f5.6, 50mm, 400 ISO. GH THE TECHNIQUE The term ‘stop’ is used for referring to exposure. If you step up one stop you will halve the exposure, while if you step down you will double it. For instance, by moving the shutter speed up from 1/125 second to 1/250 second the exposure has halved (–1 stop). Moving down from 1/125 second to 1/60 second doubles the exposure (+1 stop). The same also applies to the aperture and ISO settings. Your camera gives you the option of moving between stops in fractions of ? or ? of a stop. You will probably find that setting the camera to ? step between the stops makes it a bit less confusing when using the shutter, aperture and ISO dials since it relates more easily to the doubling or halving effect of a whole stop. LOW KEY Traditionally used for masculine subjects to make a dark, moody interpretation, the low-key effect can be applied to many subjects. In this case the backlight encouraged me to underexpose the picture to get a dark, romantic feel, letting the backlight be used only to separate the lovers from the background. I used a 500mm mirror lens, which has made ‘doughnut rings’ out of the background highlights. I exposed for the highlights here, letting the shadows underexpose by –2 stops. 1/1000 second at f8, 500mm, 400 ISO. JG UNDERSTANDING APERTURE The aperture is one half of the exposure partnership. Together with the shutter, it controls how much light is exposed onto the sensor to form the image. If you are new to using aperture and shutter speed controls, it’s a good idea to start with aperture priority (A or Av) mode. This will let you choose different apertures and you can watch the camera automatically select the shutter speed to produce a normal exposure. Find a subject with an object close to you in the foreground, one further away and another in the background. First shoot a picture of it with your widest aperture – f4.5, for instance – then stop down the aperture progressively to f16 for your next pictures. This will give you an illustration of how the aperture controls the depth of field – the amount of the subject that is in focus. Aperture is not only an exposure tool; the aperture we choose greatly affects our creative interpretation of the subject. WIDE APERTURE Here you can see a lens at its widest aperture – in this case f2.8. NARROW APERTURE Stopped down to f16, the aperture through which light passes is now greatly reduced. SHALLOW DEPTH OF FIELD To demonstrate the shallow depth of field that a standard lens will give when set at f2.8, I focused on the zebra. The animals in the foreground and background are out of focus, which has the effect of keeping our attention on the zebra. WIDE DEPTH OF FIELD This is exactly the same subject, photographed from the same distance, but stopping the aperture down to f16 has made everything sharp, from the cheetah in the foreground to the background tree. Every element in the picture is now vying for attention. THE SHUTTER The speed of the shutter is the other half of the exposure partnership, acting in tandem with the size of the aperture to control how much light reaches the sensor or film to form the image. To get to grips with the function of the shutter, set your camera to shutter priority (S or Tv). The available shutter speeds will go from about 30 seconds to 1/4000 second. There is one more shutter setting, called Bulb (B), which can only be used when you are in manual mode (M). Here the shutter will stay open as long as the shutter release is kept pressed – a facility generally used for long night exposures. Practise shooting at different shutter speeds, focusing on moving objects so that you can observe whether they are frozen in action or blurred. With speeds slower than about 1/60 second any camera movement will start to show as blur in the overall picture, so if you want sharp pictures at slow shutter speeds you will need to support the camera on a tripod or some object such as a wall or table. For hand-held telephoto lenses, assign a shutter speed that is at least as fast as the telephoto setting you are using – for example, a 200mm lens needs a speed of at least 1/200 second to avoid blur from camera movement. If you are using an APS-C sensor camera, you need to increase that to 1/300 second. When you look at the photographs carefully afterwards, you will see that there is a considerable graphic difference between a picture in which a fast shutter speed has held hard-edged colour and shapes and one shot on a slow shutter speed, where the colour and shapes have become soft-edged. FAST SHUTTER SPEED The cyclist rode past the stationary camera, which was on a tripod. Exposure at 1/1000 second has frozen his movement. SLOW SHUTTER SPEED Here the exposure was 1/30 second as the cyclist rode past the stationary camera; the slow exposure has blurred the subject. PANNING Again the cyclist rode past and again the exposure was 1/30 second. This time the camera moved to follow his action, a technique known as panning. The result is that the cyclist is sharp and the background is blurred. LENSES The primary function of a lens is to focus the image onto the film or sensor. It also controls the angle of view and houses the aperture diaphragm. You have a choice of using fixed focal length (prime) lenses or zoom lenses. The latter are designed to provide a range of focal lengths in one lens, with wide-angle zooms providing the shorter lengths and telephoto zooms covering the longer ones. Zoom lenses are almost universally used now because they reduce the amount of equipment you have to carry around. The advantage of prime lenses is that they have larger apertures and are the ultimate in optical sharpness. However, most of us would not be able to tell the difference in general application. The decision as to what focal length you select for a photograph should not just be about encompassing more of the subject with a wide angle lens or getting closer with a telephoto. It is a creative decision based on the fact that lenses control perspective and also, linked with the aperture, dictate how much is in focus in front of and behind the point of focus – the depth of field. The majority of the pictures in this book have been taken on DSLR cameras with APS-C sensors and the focal length stated in the captions applies to those, except where it is stated that the picture has been shot on film. To find the equivalent APS-C digital angle of view for the film images, divide the focal length by 1.5. WIDE-ANGLE LENS This is an example of a wide-angle lens at work. It has enabled me to get very close and look right into the ears of wheat in the foreground while still showing that this is a vast field of grain. Stopping down the aperture to f16 has kept the picture sharp from the foreground back to infinity. 1/250 second at f16, 24mm, 100 ISO film. JG TELEPHOTO LENS This is an example of a telephoto lens helping me to interpret the hunting scene the way I felt it looked. The long focal length has compressed the perspective, making the rear riders appear closer to those in the foreground than was the case. Shooting with a wide aperture has made the leading rider and dogs sharp, separating them from the out-of-focus background. 1/350 second at f3.5, 400mm, 400 ISO film. JG CLOSE-UP PHOTOGRAPHY This is a genre that some photographers get hooked on and it particularly attracts people with a scientific bent, because it is all about making discoveries. Most new-generation cameras will enable you to see your object at a ratio of 1:1 – that is, the object at its real size. If your lens won’t focus this close, you can buy either a macro lens or a close-up filter to attach to your existing lens. AUTUMN LEAF Close ups focus our attention on something that we don’t usually notice, in this case the beautiful structure of this leaf. Many modern cameras are able to get this close without a macro lens. 1/15 second at f11, 55mm macro, 200 ISO. GH THE MACRO LENS This is a demonstration of how I photographed the autumn leaf, using a 55mm macro lens. The selected portion of the leaf is life size, and it is backlit by a lightbox – a great method of shooting translucent objects. GH POCKET WATCH I shot this pocket watch using backlight from a window and my 55mm macro lens, with the camera on a tripod to prevent any camera movement. As we get closer to a subject we have an increasingly shallow depth of field, which means that on a picture such as this the lens must be stopped right down to a small aperture to maintain sharp detail over the area of interest. That requires a slow shutter speed to achieve a normal exposure, hence the tripod. 1 second at f16, 55mm macro, 200 ISO. GH WHITE BALANCE The white balance (WB) technology in digital cameras was developed to make every colour picture you shoot look as if it has been taken in neutral white light without a colour cast. If you set the WB to Auto that’s exactly what the camera will do. However, this means that you will lose the golden cast of sunset light and the blue glow of dawn, and that’s certainly not desirable. Today, we consider white balance adjustment in the camera as not particularly important, because it is so easy to adjust the colours in the camera or on the computer. We generally leave the WB set on Daylight and fine tune on the computer later. However, if you wish to match your WB to the light as you go along, here are your options. Incandescent Your normal household tungsten light is classed as incandescent. It is much warmer (yellow/orange) than daylight and requires the camera to add blue to balance it back to neutral. This gives a more neutral colour balance than Auto, which often tends to be too warm. Incandescent bulbs are being phased out, replaced by low-energy bulbs. The light from these bulbs is in a variety of tones of white, so you need to do a test shot to check the colour balance. One of the fluorescent settings may work best. Fluorescent When you are shooting in fluorescent light, one of the fluorescent settings will possibly give a better colour rendition than the Auto WB. Fluorescent tubes and low-energy bulbs come in a variety of colour temperatures. The Fluorescent WB setting usually gives you two or three choices; do a test shot with each and choose the best one for the light you are shooting in. Direct sunlight Like daylight-balanced colour film, this setting gives a neutral colour balance in direct sunlight in the middle of the day. Flash The light from a flash tends to be slightly cooler than daylight, so this WB setting warms up the light a little. Cloudy On overcast days the light is cooler. This setting warms it up slightly to match direct sunlight. Shade Light in the shade is much cooler than bright sunlight, because shade light is mainly indirect blue sky light. This setting warms the light to that of direct sunlight. QUICK TIP It’s worth playing around with each of the WB presets to see the effect they have on a single light source. Choose a subject and take a picture of it with each WB setting, then repeat with another subject in a different light source. Note which setting gives the most neutral balance and which one could be used for an effect. THE WHITE BALANCE MENU Choose the appropriate setting to match the light you are shooting in, or use Daylight and correct any colour cast with image-editing software. DAYLIGHT WB The musicians were shot in a subway lit by incandescent light, with the WB set on Daylight. As you can see, the light has photographed with an orange cast. 1/20 second at f5.6, 38mm, 400 ISO. GH INCANDESCENT WB Using the Incandescent WB setting has neutralized the orange cast, making the light look realistic. DAYLIGHT WB This portrait was taken in the shade, with the sky providing the blue cast. With the WB set to Daylight, the picture is far too blue. 1/125 second at f5, 24mm, 400 ISO. JG SHADE WB Here the Shade WB setting has added some warmth to neutralize the blue colour cast. FILTERS In the pre-digital days of shooting on colour transparency film, professional photographers carried around a large selection of light-balancing filters to correct the colour casts in single and mixed light sources. With the technological advances in digital cameras, those filters attached to the front of the lens have largely become obsolete; most cameras now have built-in digital filters to simulate the effects they gave. Generally, these can only be applied via the retouch menu after the picture has been taken. Post-processing on the computer also provides the ability to adjust colour casts. The two on-the-lens filters we still recommend you carry are the graduated neutral-density filter and the polarizing filter, especially when you are shooting landscapes. The ‘grad’ filter, which is available in varying densities and colours, will allow you to retain detail or exaggerate the sky tone in a landscape where the sky would be overexposed. This effect can also be done in the computer using Photoshop, but it requires some skill. Using a grad filter on the lens will give you an instant result. A 2-stop neutral density (grey) graduated filter is a good one for general use. The polarizing filter is often used to darken blue skies and thus make the cloud formations more prominent. While that can also be achieved in Photoshop, where the polarizer comes into its own is in reducing or eliminating unwanted reflections from water, glass and non-metallic surfaces, which cannot be done on the computer. QUICK TIP Adding a diffusion or softening filter on the lens can be flattering for portraits, giving them a glow and smoothing detail. A similar effect can be added later in Photoshop or in Lightroom using the Clarity tool. Also try breathing on the lens to mist it up before you shoot – it can produce a very soft effect. FILTERS Shown here are a polarizing filter (bottom left), graduated filters (top left and right), and the lens mount (bottom right). UNFILTERED In this unfiltered landscape shot, the sky has been overexposed because the landscape, which occupies most of the picture, is darker than the sky. The camera is unable to handle the major difference in exposure. 1/250 second at f11, 75mm, 400 ISO. GH NEUTRAL DENSITY FILTER Here, the neutral density filter has been slid over the sky area, slightly cutting into the horizon line. This has enabled the capture of detail in the sky that was visible to the human eye. 1/250 second at f11, 75mm, 400 ISO. GH UNFILTERED In this photograph taken without a polarizing filter, the sky is reflecting in the water. The water is impenetrable, resembling opaque glass. 1/250 second at f6.3, 29mm, 400 ISO. GH POLARIZING FILTER Here a polarizing filter attached to the front of the lens was rotated to a position where it cut out the reflections of the sky, allowing us to see below the surface of the water. 1/30 second at f6.3, 29mm, 400 ISO. GH USING FLASH While the newer digital cameras with high ISO speeds enable photographs to be taken in low light conditions that would previously have required flash, it can still be used as a creative light source even where it’s not essential. However, it should be employed with care to avoid ruining the beauty of natural light. Most cameras have their own built-in flash, and all manufacturers also make dedicated flash guns for their cameras. These have more power than built-in flashes and because they have their own battery power they don’t drain the camera’s batteries. They fit onto the camera’s hot shoe and, unlike built-in flashes, they have a swivel head so they can bounce light off the wall or ceiling, which can produce a softer effect than direct flash. You can also hand-hold them or use a separate support; the new flash guns can be used off-camera remotely, while older models require a cable to synchronize with the camera. AVAILABLE LIGHT The available light version of this young gardener is charming, but his face can’t be seen as clearly as a mother would like. 1/60 second at f9.5, 26mm, 400 ISO. GH FILL-IN FLASH Here the camera has balanced the built-in flash with the available light, giving a ‘fill’ light so his face is no longer lost in shadow. 1/100 second at f9.5, with fill-in flash, 26mm, 400 ISO. GH BUILT-IN FLASH This is a portrait made with the built-in flash. It is important to underexpose direct flash pictures such as this by about –? stop to eliminate that bleached-out, pasty look that you see on many direct flash portraits. 1/60 second at f2.8, 6.1mm compact camera, 400 ISO. JG DIRECT FLASH This portrait of Jen was taken with the flash gun on the camera pointed directly at her. The direct front light has flattened her face and the highlights are bright. Because the background is further from the light than her face, it is underexposed. 1/180 second at f8, 46mm, 200 ISO. GH BOUNCE FLASH With the flash gun still on the camera, I tilted the flash up to bounce the light off the ceiling. I pulled up the white bounce card in the flash head, which has added a little front light to fill in the shadows and put a sparkle in her eyes. This gives a more natural look and the bounce light has lightened the background, too. 1/180 second at f8, 46mm, 200 ISO. GH OFF-CAMERA FLASH I removed the flash gun from the camera and held it to the left, giving more modelling to her face. I set the flash to remote mode to synchronize it to the camera, but an off-camera cable would also have done the job. The background and shadows are very dark. 1/180 second at f11, 46mm, 200 ISO. GH OFF-CAMERA FLASH AND DOME With the flash still off-camera, I added the diffusing dome to the flash head. The diffuser has spread some light around the room, which has filled in the shadow on Jen’s face and lightened the background. 1/180 second at f8, 46mm, 200 ISO. GH TURNING DAY INTO NIGHT This cat portrait was taken with built-in flash. It was afternoon, but I wanted to create a surrealistic feeling of night. Using aperture priority mode, I set the aperture to f10, knowing that I was close enough to adequately light the cat with the flash. To get the dark background I needed to underexpose, which I did by setting the exposure compensation to –3. 1/250 second at f10, 19mm, 500 ISO. JG USING RED EYE FOR EFFECT The ‘red eye’ that we all normally try to eliminate can be used as a fun effect. This shot of my little dog makes her look like a devil dog running out of the darkness. Flash also freezes action and can be used solely for that reason, but in this shot I combined the built-in flash with a slow shutter speed to add some movement. 1/60 second at f6.3, 95mm, 400 ISO. JG COMPOSITION The basics of photography aren’t just a matter of getting to grips with your equipment; you also need to understand the aesthetic values that will turn your photographs into something much more than everyday snaps. When you admire a photograph or painting you may at first believe that it is the subject matter that is appealing to you. In fact, once you understand the dynamics of the picture’s composition, you will know that you are being influenced just as much by that. The early photographers were mostly painters experimenting with this new technology, so they continued to use painterly laws of composition such as dividing the picture plane into thirds and placing focal points where the thirds intersect (see here (#ulink_25c13c58-0fee-5541-a01f-8bd8125b051a)). However, the development of wide-angle and telephoto lenses changed photographic composition forever. Although classic composition still formed the basics, photographers could now play with perspective and manipulate colours optically. The basic compositional possibilities shown here will be demonstrated time and again throughout the book. Composition is the way that photographers look at the world. It is our style. It is how we recognize a photograph by one of our favourite photographers – we know how he or she sees the world. RECORD SHOT This picture, taken at an art fair, is what I saw when I first walked by. It’s taken as a record of the place without thinking of the content at all. 1/180 second at f4.1, 6.5mm compact camera, 400 ISO. GH CHANGING THE FORMAT Taking a closer viewpoint and using a vertical format has allowed me to exclude most of the unwanted detail. However, the picture still looks distant and unconnected with the subject. 1/125 second at f4.3, 15.6mm compact camera, 400 ISO. GH LOW-ANGLE CLOSE-UP By moving closer still and coming down to a low angle I have isolated the potter and I can see his technique. The relationship of the round pot and his head holds the picture together. 1/125 second at f4.3, 15.6mm compact camera, 400 ISO. GH RULE OF THIRDS A classic rule of composition is that for a strong visual impact, the focal point of a picture should be near an imaginary intersection of two lines that divide the picture into thirds horizontally and vertically. FINDING A FOCAL POINT Most landscapes are greatly improved by the inclusion of a focal point. Here I found a white farmhouse to give the viewer a point to fix on and to form a story about the farmer and his land. 1/500 second at f6.7, 200mm, 400 ISO. GH HIGH VIEWPOINT Most pictures are shot at eye level – the photographer just stands there and takes the picture. Varying the camera height gives a different view of the world. In this case I was able to walk up some stairs and join the man reading his newspaper. 1/500 second at f5.6, 200mm, 200 ISO. GH USING PERSPECTIVE Perspective is one of the most important compositional tools for the photographer, and our huge range of focal lengths allows us to play with this for graphic effect. In this picture of sailors calling home the wide-angle 24mm lens has exaggerated the perspective, making a nice graphic shape. 1/30 second at f8, 24mm, 100 ISO film. JG LOW VIEWPOINT I dropped down to a low camera angle so that I could look up at the heavy metal fans, separating them from the rest of the crowd and making the sky their background. With the help of an 18mm wide-angle lens I was also able to really emphasize the rock and roll gesture. 1/1000 second at f8, 18mm, 400 ISO. JG BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY Photographs were basically monochrome for about one hundred years, though alternative printing processes and handpainting could inject some colour for the dedicated photographer. In 1935, Kodachrome was born and really took off. For a comparatively low price, everybody could now record their colourful world on colour slides. From there, the production of colour films grew rapidly and before long colour negative films meant that instant prints were available from every chemist in the high street. Yet black and white photography remains a very popular medium. Black and white prints are a major art form and digital cameras plus computer software have made them so much more accessible than traditional analogue black and white. The quality of the papers, inks and printers is now incredible, making digital black and white photography an exciting alternative to really go for. However, traditional black and white technology has been making a comeback. The craft of the darkroom and the magic of the image coming to life in the developing tray continue to fascinate, and if you wish to learn how to pursue this form of photography you should be able to find a course near you on which darkroom technique is taught. The decision as to whether to go for colour or black and white used to mean being able to visualize how a subject would look in tones of grey before choosing which film to put in the camera. With digital, we can switch from colour to black and white in a second to check whether the colour is converting to black and white successfully. We also have the added possibility of being able to shoot in colour and then convert to black and white later. We highly recommend that you explore monochrome; you will be looking purely at light, tone and texture, and you may find meaning in your photographs that you might have missed, distracted by the presence of colour. It’s good practice to look at the same pictures in both colour and black and white, assessing which works best and analysing why; you will soon develop a feeling for the look that will be most suitable for the image. SHOP WINDOW This picture is all about colour – it is of course what attracted me to take the picture in the first place. 1/200 second at f5.6, 20mm, 400 ISO. GH ASSESSING MONOCHROME There are colour subjects that don’t work in black and white and this is one of them. If I had been walking around taking black and white pictures I wouldn’t have given the shop window a second look. As your experience increases with monochrome you will learn to recognize the colours and light that will translate into strong black and white images. SUMMER AT THE COAST In colour, this seascape is like a pleasant watercolour painting. The boats and clouds have merged into the blue, giving a soft, summery look. 1/750 second at f6.7, 85mm, 400 ISO. GH CHANGING THE MOOD Translated into black and white, the picture has gained a dramatic atmosphere. The boats and sky now become the subject, which in the colour picture was the wall. (#ulink_da4f193a-6298-5487-8eba-c1d86c11667c) THE OUTBACK Late afternoon in the Australian outback, and a huge storm was gathering. A shaft of light burst through the black clouds and lit the ghost gum trees; five minutes later I was running for the car in torrential rain. Many great landscapes have been taken just before a storm, so it’s worth getting wet. I underexposed by –2 stops to make sure that the picture was not too bright. 1/500 second at f11, 100mm, 400 ISO. JG THE GREAT OUTDOORS Landscape is a huge subject, and although it’s one of the most popular areas for photographers you may find it the most difficult in the book – partly because you have no control over the weather and the elements in the landscape, but also because of that popularity. In these days of easy-to-use digital cameras, photo-sharing websites and microstock agencies that accept work from amateurs, the proliferation of photographic images has been staggering. The result is that most people now look at pictures with a more sophisticated eye, and a pleasant landscape shot among thousands competing for attention isn’t enough to satisfy a photographer who wants to be truly creative. So this chapter is about learning ways to make your pictures stand out from the everyday shots. We shall demonstrate how landscapes are dramatically affected by changes in the light, and how you can use depth of field and filters to make your images powerful. Most importantly, we shall teach you how to isolate beautiful pictures from the great outdoors. When we first start out on our landscape journey, the majority of us take wide scenic views; it’s only when we learn to focus on sections of those views that our images start to become meaningful. As with anything you want to shoot, understanding how to make the most of what’s in front of your lens will improve your pictures by leaps and bounds. This chapter will help you to make that big step up from just taking nice pictures of nice scenes to creating genuine photographic landscapes. FINDING INTEREST IN FLAT LIGHT The day was overcast and misty, so the light was flat – not at all my usual landscape light, but I decided to try out a roll of Ilford infra-red film I had with me. This cut through the haze and gave an almost etched look that amazed me, given that the situation had looked so unpromising. I added a sepia tone in Lightroom to give an antique feel. For a similar look, try infra-red film, the IR setting in the menu of your camera or the infra-red preset in the Lightroom Develop module. 1/125 second at f16, 35mm, 125 ISO film. JG USING A FILTER TO ADD PUNCH This crazy little atomic-looking cloud drifted past when I was sitting on a beach in Brittany. I had my camera with me, wrapped in a freezer bag to keep it sand-free, and thought the cloud so cute I had to photograph it. I used a polarizing filter to darken the blue sky and make the cloud stand out. Keeping your camera with you at all times means you don’t have that awful ‘if only’ feeling when something picture-worthy crops up. 1/1000 second at f11, 180mm, 200 ISO. JG PROJECT 1: FINDING A FOCAL POINT Unless a landscape has a dominant feature or a very strong pattern that can hold the eye in the picture it will tend to be just an ordinary scene that doesn’t detain the viewer for long. Most landscape photographs benefit from a focal point such as a white farmhouse, a lone tree or, as shown here, a small boat – in this case added with Photoshop, in the absence of a focal point in the landscape itself. For a landscape with a natural focal point, check out the opening spread for this chapter – your eye goes straight to the white ghost gums because they are so much brighter than the surrounding landscape. For this assignment we want you to go out and find a landscape with a prominent focal point. You don’t need a magnificent sweep of mountain or moorland – part of the business of being a photographer is finding visual interest in subjects that a casual observer might pass without a glance. The viewer’s eye is always drawn to signs of human activity, so a deserted tractor in a field, a barn or a house will usually work well, but you might choose to use a natural feature instead. SEARCHING FOR THE LIGHT Think about the possibilities of the angle of light in relation to your focal point, and whether you could make it more important in the picture at a different time of day. If the answer to that is yes, plan to come back rather than just settling for second-best. A compass is invaluable to a landscape photographer – they are not expensive, and you may even have one on a smartphone. On a sunny day, it’s not hard to work out that if your focal point is lit from the front in the morning sun and you want it backlit you need to come back in the evening, for example, but if the weather is dull you’ll be glad of a compass to tell you which way the light will fall when the sun is out. Once you have begun to think about focal points you will soon look for one as second nature. However, while you should always search for the perfect photograph, a little digital help can be the answer where you have a lovely scene but the crucial point of focus is missing. So, for the second part of this project, shoot a landscape that needs a focal point, then find one in your archive and put it in; you’ll find details on how to do this in Combining Images (#litres_trial_promo). Again, remember the light – if your photograph is taken on a sunny day with strong shadows, a house, boat or tree with the light coming from a different direction will be an obvious fake. EVENING SEASCAPE I shot this seascape very late in the evening in the Highlands of Scotland. I like the warm light and the composition and I underexposed it by –1 stop to make it more dramatic. At the time I was thinking, ‘A little boat would be great,’ but none was to be seen. For your own photograph, find a landscape with a broad view that pleases you, but no specific focal point; estuaries, forests and agricultural land are good places to look. 1/350 second at f11, 120mm, 400 ISO. JG A FOCAL POINT FROM THE LIBRARY This boat picture is a perfect match because it was shot in very similar light conditions to John’s seascape. It’s a good idea to collect pictures such as moons, boats, clouds, cottages and so forth for inserting into landscapes that just lack that little something. GH RETOUCHING THE SHOT The colour of the boat has been changed using Hue/Saturation in Photoshop to match the colour in the original shot; this made the retouching easier because we didn’t have to cut out the boat too accurately. I think it has improved the seascape, and it’s fun to see your picture transformed like this. If you take care to match the colour, light and tone, your own added focal point should sit comfortably in the landscape. JG PROJECT 2: WOODLAND AND WEATHER There’s a tendency to think that bright sunlight and strong colours are the ideal conditions in which to take attention-grabbing landscape photographs, but this is far from the truth. One apparently fine spring morning I set out to photograph some bluebells – but luckily I had packed wet-weather gear, for after I had been walking and shooting for half an hour the weather turned bad. Rather than race back to the car, I covered the camera with a plastic bag and hid under the small umbrella I had with me. I also had a large plastic bin bag so that I didn’t have to kneel on the wet ground. I kept shooting, the rain smudged the details in the woods and it looked great. I had to mop the camera often with tissues, but it survived the session. It was a poor season as far as bluebells were concerned, but a photographer who has travelled to a certain spot in search of a picture has to make the best of what he or she can find. This was where a telephoto lens and a low angle could help – the flattened perspective that the lens gave meant that I was able to compress the bluebells and make them look more dense than they actually were. The first picture for this assignment is a rainy-day landscape such as some woodland. Put on your wet-weather gear, cover your camera and use the rain to capture the atmosphere – here you are looking for misty effects rather than angles of light. For the second task, shoot with both front and rear focus using a wide aperture such as f4 or f5.6, then focus in the middle of the subject, stop the aperture down to about f16 and get the whole scene in focus. There’s no better way of gaining an almost instinctive grasp of the aperture that will give you what you want. If you have a telephoto lens, use it for this project as it will emphasize the shallow-focus effect. By focusing on the flowers in the foreground I have created a descriptive shot which has the emphasis on the bluebells, showing that they are in a woodland setting. The long telephoto setting on the zoom at widest aperture has enabled me to isolate the flowers in the foreground and throw the rest out of focus. You may not find flowers in your woodland, but leaves, mushrooms, pine cones and so on will perform the same function of giving your own shot something of interest in the foreground. Camera on tripod, 1/80 second at f5.6, 200mm, 400 ISO. GH Changing the focus to the trees in the background has altered the mood of the picture completely. Now we have a woodland scene with a blush of flower colour in the foreground leading the eye to the trees beyond. Once again the telephoto lens has done its job, this time throwing the bluebells out of focus and emphasizing the background. As the foreground is now out of focus and is no longer the main point of the shot it should not occupy too much of the picture, so tilt the camera upwards slightly to place it lower in the frame. Camera on tripod, 1/80 second at f5.6, 200mm, 400 ISO. GH SHOOTING IN THE RAIN Weather conditions can greatly affect the way our pictures look. This photograph was taken in the pouring rain, giving it a soft, dreamy quality, very atmospheric and quite like an Impressionist painting. Use a slower speed to prevent the raindrops being sharply caught, turning them into a mist instead. 1/8 second at f8, 40mm, ISO 400. GH SUNLIT WOODLAND Later in the afternoon the weather improved and the sun came out. This is remarkably different from the rainy picture; it’s just a nice shot of the woodland that doesn’t evoke any atmosphere, whereas the other is more a work of art, with a much greater degree of interest to be found in it. Although good weather may be more comfortable to work in it doesn’t necessarily produce the most eye-catching shots, so be prepared to get a bit wet and cold sometimes. 1/200 second at f8, 46mm, ISO 400. GH PROJECT 3: THE MAGIC OF LIGHT Throughout the book, we talk about light as that magic ingredient. Staying with friends in Provence, I was lucky enough to have a bedroom that looked over the hills to the Mediterranean Sea. This view provided a perfect demonstration of how light transforms a landscape. This is a good project to do on holiday when your time is your own and the chances are you will have some beautiful countryside or seaside to shoot. Find a landscape you like near where you are staying and photograph it in different light conditions. The most interesting light will probably prove to be in early morning or late afternoon, or during stormy weather conditions. On a fine day, it’s a good idea to start at dawn, taking shots periodically as the light gets stronger and the sun rises. The light will be clear, and there will be long shadows because of the low angle of the sun. Around midday, when the sun is directly overhead, shadows will be minimal, the light will be harsher and generally speaking there is less of interest for the photographer until the shadows of late afternoon lengthen, giving graphic shapes. As the day moves into evening, the reddening of the sky caused by atmospheric conditions creates a warm, mellow light quite different from that of early morning. You can manipulate the colour balance either in the camera using WB or with the computer, but the highlights and shadows in the picture may make it obvious that the picture was not shot at the time the colour implies. It is better to let the natural time of day provide the colour balance. Stormy weather will give you the drama of strong tonal contrasts, with heavy cloud and gleams of sun lighting up parts of the landscape. Where the clouds are scudding fast, you’ll be able to get a range of shots showing different light in a very short space of time. Don’t forget to take some sky shots – they may be useful for Photoshopping into another scene where the sky isn’t so interesting. THE BASIC SHOT This is the view from my room on an overcast day. It’s flat and grey, lacking in interest, and I only shot the picture to use as an example here. While extra shots don’t cost anything on a digital camera, it’s still worth exercising some discipline as you would be more inclined to do if you were paying for film and processing: they still have to be sorted through and thrown away, and it’s far better to just keep your finger off the shutter release button and wait for a more interesting shot. 1/500 second at f8, 105mm, 400 ISO. JG THE LANDSCAPE AT DAWN This is a dawn view out of the window. The light is now quite romantic and worth a picture, but this doesn’t make the grade as a really strong landscape shot; the composition lacks interest and there’s nothing in particular to catch the viewer’s eye. Given a broad view like this, look for interesting areas within it rather than just letting it fill your frame. 1/20 second at f5.3, 105mm, 800 ISO. JG LIGHT AND COMPOSITION COME TOGETHER The next night was stormy with dark cloud cover; the sun was piercing through the clouds and the sea looked as though it had been lit from on high with huge spotlights. The magic of light had transformed that view into a spectacular landscape. I used a neutral density graduated filter to keep the clouds dark and underexposed by –1? stops to help the highlights stand out from the darker water. This is also an example of how to pick out one small area to make a beautiful picture; I used my longest telephoto setting to find the most interesting part of the landscape and discovered a rhythm in the contours of the hills. Using a wide angle to get everything in is tempting when you have a lovely scene occupying your vision, but it just reproduces a view rather than making a strong image. 1/3200 second at f8, 200mm, 400 ISO. JG PROJECT 4: GARDENS The great outdoors can be closer than you think, so don’t feel you have to go traipsing over the countryside to find some satisfying pictures – they may be right around the corner. Keep your eyes peeled when you are out and about, since there will be images to be had close by; familiarity often blinds us to possibilities. You may have a garden of your own that you find quite mundane, but a set of three pictures taken at different times of day and framed together may give a more interesting look than you could easily obtain from a single shot; alternatively, try a single plant photographed at three stages from bud to full bloom and then skeletal seedhead. For this project, see how many different approaches you can take to a single planting of flowers, trying close ups and more straightforward views. Secondly, shoot a garden in the evening and try to capture that magic time when the flowers glow in the dusk. Take a series as the light falls, using a stable surface such as a table on which to rest your camera if you don’t have a tripod. Choose the best, and if it lacks the colour and glow you are looking for, make some digital adjustments (see Hue and Saturation (#litres_trial_promo)). FINDING THE SUBJECT Walking in my neighbourhood, I found myself in an unfamiliar street and passed this beautiful display of poppies. Here was a neat suburban house, but when I looked into the garden I was able to find pictures that could have been made in the countryside. A portrait of the owner leaning out of the window would have looked great, but unfortunately there was no one at home. Keeping your eyes peeled for a shot always brings rewards, even if you are in apparently unpromising surroundings. 1/500 second at f5.6, 22mm, 400 ISO. GH ISOLATING A FLOWER Here I zoomed to telephoto and placed a flower in the centre of the frame. I used a wide aperture to isolate it, with the flowers in the foreground and background thrown out of focus. When you focus on a particular flower in this way, make sure it’s an undamaged one – it’s surprising how the eye can overlook signs of caterpillar damage, for example, which will be the first thing the viewer sees in the photograph. 1/250 second at f5.3, 95mm, 400 ISO. GH POST-PRODUCTION ADJUSTMENT This is my interpretation of the poppies – as you can see from the other pictures, they were actually bright red. A botanist would probably hate this, but I was after an artistic impression rather than reality. I cropped the photograph into a square then played about with the Hue and Saturation sliders in the Lightroom Develop module, decreasing the red, green and yellow to make a more muted picture. If you’re photographing flowers for identification they obviously have to look like they do in reality, but for your own creative purposes you can choose to influence their colour. 1/160 second at f6.7, 65mm, 400 ISO. GH MIDDAY GARDEN This picture shows how my garden looks in the middle of the day, with soft, cloudy light, normal colour and tones as you would expect in the middle of the summer. 1/125 second at f8, 5.2mm compact camera, 200 ISO. GH THE GARDEN AT DUSK As the daylight faded and was replaced by the soft light just before dark, everything seemed to have a bluish-purple glow. I set my camera on the tripod to try to capture that. The pictures certainly look different to the daylight one – they are darker, with more contrast, and look like an evening shot, but they don’t have that magic glow. 1 second at f6.7, 5.2mm compact camera, 400 ISO. GH PROJECT 5: FINDING THE COMPOSITION Establishing a strong composition can be a progressive thing; I often take several pictures where the elements are present but they are just not working together to make a really good landscape. I know it is there somewhere and I just keep moving and looking until it all comes together for me. This takes perseverance and concentration, and often that last special element to complete the composition has to be waited for as it might be a cloud or a shaft of light. Sometimes you just have to be very patient. For this assignment, take a black and white photograph. Find a landscape that has one strong feature, such as a great sky, then move around looking for a strong shape to put in the foreground to balance the composition. Conversely, find a beautiful foreground subject then explore different angles until you find a background that is sympathetic to it. THE START POINT I first spotted this mountain with the summit framed in a circular-shaped cloud – very promising, but not really enough. For your own project, you can choose any feature that appeals to you and then build on that. JG FINDING A SECOND ELEMENT About 100m (110yd) to my left I found the church spire, also an interesting element. I then tried to get myself into a position where the two elements came together. You may strike lucky and find a suitable element in just the right place, but it’s more likely you’ll have to move your position and rethink the angle from which you will shoot your main feature. JG THE FINAL COMPOSITION I was anxious to get the shot before the light and the cloud changed, but I was aware that I was looking at a series of triangles and shifted my position until they all made a pattern that I found pleasing. My final decision was to wait for the white cloud to move behind the church spire to isolate the cross. I set the camera to black and white and used a polarizing filter to darken the blue sky. This composition is perfect for me – in fact it’s one of my favourite landscapes. The cloud looks as if it has been painted in, rather like the backdrop in some old movie. Even in a beautiful place like Chamonix in the French Alps you have to put the work in, so keep on looking for strong patterns and juxtapositions of shapes until you are satisfied that you have made the photograph as interesting as you can. 1/1500 second at f8, 100mm, 400 ISO. JG WEATHERED BARN I love the old barns in Pennsylvania, and here the angle of the light brought out the texture in the weathered walls. At first I tried to avoid placing the telegraph pole in front of the building, but that meant leaving out the corn silo which is so much a part of buildings such as this. I shot in colour but checked it out in monochrome as I went along, keeping the colour and the black and white options open. If the colours in reality aren’t particularly exciting, bear the possibility of black and white in mind – but remember that you will need graduations of tone to make an interesting photograph. While you may still have the mental image of, say, a grey roof and mid-brown wooden walls when you look at the shot in black and white, that may look tonally very flat rendered in monochrome. Try to banish colour from your mind while you judge the potential for black and white. JG TRYING A DIFFERENT ANGLE I moved to my left to show the silo, which meant the pole was now in front of the building. I knew that I could remove it later, but decided that in fact the pole and the wires worked in the composition and were an important part of the character of the building. Elements that might easily be judged unsightly sometimes speak volumes about the history and purpose of a building. 1/1000 second at f8, 30mm, 320 ISO. JG THE FINAL SHOT In the end I preferred the black and white version as it looks more in keeping with the period of the barn. The slightly wide-angle lens had converged the verticals slightly so I corrected that in Lightroom. Don’t just settle for your first visualization but check out the situation and look for a different angle; the character of a building will reveal itself to you if you search for it. JG PROJECT 6: SEASONAL LANDSCAPES In most parts of the world the countryside looks very different in each of the four seasons, bringing a range of light, weather and landscape possibilities. We feel that dividing our landscape projects into summer, autumn, winter and spring helps to focus the mind when we’re trying to decide where to travel and what to photograph next. We may choose to go for the pretty pictures in spring, the high-contrast light and warm colours in summer, the spectacular leaf colours in autumn and the stark storminess in winter, for example. You will learn a lot about landscape photography by following the seasons. This assignment is a long-term project; we want you to make four landscape pictures, each one in a different season. In each picture, it should be obvious which season you are depicting. Landscapes make great images to put on your wall and there are many online companies that will make good-quality large prints at a very reasonable price. You could also make a calendar of images from your seasonal landscape project – again something that can be done inexpensively online. MIDDAY IN SUMMER I cropped this photograph to a panoramic shape, which suits the long, wide landscape. There was marvellous bright summer light at midday; it’s often said that each end of the day has the best light, but it depends on the day and you will often find that while there are no interesting cast shadows from trees and so on when the sun is overhead, clouds will provide shadows on the landscape to contrast with the bright highlights. I set the camera on a tripod, composed the picture and waited for a beautiful cloud formation and for the sun to strike the yellow field. I darkened the foreground with the Burn tool to emphasize that yellow. 1/1000 second at f11, 48mm, 200 ISO. GH BIRDS IN WINTER This very simple winter landscape is a favourite of mine. It has a very melancholy mood with little saturation, unusual in these days of poster-colour pictures. The flock of birds flying across the highlight adds that special touch. It’s a picture that demonstrates that you don’t need striking colours and imposing features to make a successful landscape photograph. 1/350 second at f8, 85mm, 400 ISO. GH WINTER IN THE HIGHLANDS The Scottish Highlands are one of the great places for landscape photograph enthusiasts. This winter sunrise is in Glen Coe. The sun has lit the cloud spiral and backlit the foreground snow. I shot this on a Hasselblad medium format camera with a wide-angle lens, using black and white film. Putting a red filter over the lens to darken the blue sky works well in snow scenes, and I did that here. Because the colour blue is associated with cold, I scanned the negative and added the wintery blue tone in Photoshop with the Colorize button in Hue/Saturation. 1/250 second at f8, 40mm, ISO 400 film. JG SPRING IN SCOTLAND All the elements that a landscape photograph is supposed to include are present in this shot of Scotland in spring. The eye enters along the road, there is a middle ground of rolling hills lit by late afternoon light and the white farmhouse provides the focal point. I used a long lens to isolate this landscape out of the huge view in front of me and also to compress the perspective, bringing the mountains and farmhouse closer to the foreground than they were in reality. It’s not dramatic but it’s pretty, in the classic calendar style. I used a neutral density graduated filter to darken the sky and mountains. Later I saturated the colour a bit in Photoshop and also lightened the farmhouse to make it more prominent. 1/500 second at f11, 130mm, 400 ISO. JG AUTUMN IN PENNSYLVANIA In this simple autumnal picture of Pennsylvania the colours glowed in the late afternoon light. However, when we checked it out on the computer we saw a bare patch in the centre of the middle tree and the colour didn’t have quite the saturation that my eye had seen – so we decided to enhance it. JG AUTUMN IN PENNSYLVANIA ENHANCED To fill up the gap, we cloned some clumps of leaves from the tree on the right. We brightened the picture and increased the contrast, then added more saturation. We darkened some of the bright tree trunks with the Burn tool and finally, using the Dodge tool, lightened the leaves on the middle tree to make it the focal point of the picture. Sometimes the camera doesn’t do the scene justice and you’ll want to do some digital retouching to give the picture a final boost. 1/400 second at f8, 95mm, 400 ISO. JG (#ulink_770d9133-41a9-5758-b2b9-75b869b55d3d) MOSCOW Early in the morning the low autumnal light was clean and sharp, illuminating this incredible building. The reflection off the gold was spectacular, and all I needed to do was frame the picture and shoot. There was a unavoidable post in the foreground that I removed in Photoshop. 1/1000 second at f8, 95mm, 200 ISO. JG SIGHTSEEING AND CITIES The majority of your city shots are probably taken when you are on holiday – and given that your time is limited you’ll often be in the right place at the wrong time, when the weather is rainy or dull or a particular building is in shadow. In this chapter we shall concentrate on showing you how to capture your response to a city no matter what conditions you find and take pictures that aren’t just like the standard postcards you could buy from the hotel shop. Every city has its own personality and it’s your job to portray that, illustrating what makes it different from any other city in the world. Sightseeing and city photography starts at home. Good research is invaluable, and there are great guide books available to most of the world’s interesting cities. With some forward planning, you will be able to make the most of a good-value city weekend break as you will be able to hit the ground running, knowing exactly where you want to go and when. Yet even with planning and the benefit of a longer holiday, most of us have the problem of not having enough time in a city to really take full advantage of its photographic potential. There is often a travelling companion who is not really into photography or children who will become very bored and restless while you linger to get the right angle on a building – so let’s not forget about our own towns and cities where we have the luxury of having plenty of time and local knowledge. Unfortunately we often become so used to what’s around us that we don’t see the photographic potential any more, so we would like to encourage you to take a fresh look at your ‘hood’ too. QUICK TIP If you are about to make a long trip and have a new camera in mind, consider getting one with a GPS system so that you can pinpoint the location of the subjects you want to shoot. PITTSBURGH SKYSCRAPER This was taken with the strong late morning sun hitting the glass office block front-on. The sky was a deep blue and the glass was reflecting that blue sky, perfect for a black and white picture with a red filter to darken the sky. The result was more spectacular than I had visualized; the blues have all transposed into dark grey and the steel structure is glowing, giving the effect of a night shot. I was shooting on film, but you could achieve a similar result with a digital camera, converting the image to black and white then darkening the sky (see Red Filter Effect (#litres_trial_promo)). 1/125 second at f8, 24mm, 400 ISO film. JG COLUMNS Architectural details can be very interesting. In this case the diagonal slant helps to give the impression of the great weight the columns are supporting – a frontal view didn’t give the same effect, and zooming closer didn’t work either. The picture needs the verticals to tell the story. Take a range of shots from different angles, as it is often difficult to decide which one is best on the spot. 1/160 second at f11, 75mm, 400 ISO. GH PROJECT 1: ONE BUILDING, ONE DAY I have photographed St Paul’s Cathedral many times during the decades I have lived in London. This time I set out to capture it from dawn to dusk, watching how the light changed the appearance of the building over the course of a day. I decided to shoot the cathedral from the south side of the Thames looking over the Millennium bridge – it’s not the front of the building, but it’s the view you see while walking along the river and it would allow me to get the sunrise and sunset on either side of the dome. These pictures were all shot with the white balance on the camera set to daylight. This is an interesting project to get you thinking about the direction of light at different times of day and in varying weather conditions. Try to use an iconic building that has been much photographed for books, magazines and postcards and see if you can come up with shots that are different from the rest. You also need a large building, since one that is considerably smaller than its surrounding architecture will probably spend quite a large part of the day in deep shade. QUICK TIP If you won’t have time to spend a whole day, choose a building that is within easy reach and plan to do several return visits. Select the best view and if the light isn’t very inspiring, take a few shots so that your journey isn’t wasted – studying those will give you further ideas for photographs taken in better conditions next time. MIDDAY CLOUD The weather gradually got worse as the morning progressed. When a rainstorm set in I took a couple of shots and went off to do some other things under cover. Sometimes bad weather can provide a dramatic shot, other times it is just dull and there is nothing to do but give up for a while and wait. 1/320 second at f5.6, 105mm, 400 ISO. GH SUNRISE This can be tricky – getting up early isn’t easy for many people. Then you have to decide if the weather is suitable and by the time you get there it may have changed anyway. It took me three visits to get this shot – perseverance usually pays off for a photographer. 1/160 second at f6.7, 65mm, 200 ISO. GH AFTERNOON SUN I returned just in time to catch the sun shining through a gap in the clouds, the sidelight increasing the contrast and bringing out the detail in the building. I exposed to retain detail, causing the cloudy sky to underexpose. 1/1000 second at f8, 105mm, 200 ISO. GH SUNSET By sunset the sky was almost cloudless. I could have corrected the blue skylight on the foreground with the WB Shade setting but decided to leave it, as the blue made a good contrast with the warm sunset shining on the dome. 1/60 second at f5.6, 80mm, 400 ISO. GH EVENING At twilight there was still a little light on the scene and that rich blue sky you get when you shoot before complete darkness. The floodlights on the cathedral and the lights of the city have now taken over from the fading daylight. The bridge lights lead the eye to the centre of interest in the picture. 1/3 second at f4.8, 52mm, 400 ISO. GH NIGHT Nightfall created much more drama, the floodlights pushing the building forward from the black sky. The bridge lights started changing from blue to red to green; I took the shot when they were blue, giving a cool night feel and contrasting with the warmer colours behind. 1 second at f6.7, 62mm, 800 ISO. GH PROJECT 2: MEMORIALS AND SCULPTURES When it comes to visiting cities, great memorials dedicated to political or military figures and public sculptures are high on the must-see list for most of us. They are often places that we have seen many times in pictures, but as photographers we want to make our interpretation rather than reproducing a postcard. Aim for some advance planning – the local tourist office will probably be helpful enough to tell you where the sun rises and sets in relation to your subject so you can decide when you should go there for the light you want. It is a big challenge to go after something different – your personal postcard as it were. Your project is to find a memorial or sculpture that you identify with, emotionally, politically or aesthetically, and bring that quality out in your shots. When you are visualizing your pictures, be they memorials or any other subject, be aware that the photograph may be your stage one and the computer stage two. THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL I had seen the Lincoln Memorial hundreds of times in books and movies, so I was very familiar with it before I got there in reality. There is actually very little colour in the memorial, and it is rather mottled and stained. I was fairly sure that black and white was going to give a more emotional result than colour and that proved correct, as the black and white lent the memorial a dignity that was intended. The building is similar to the Parthenon in Athens, so I shot it from below looking up, much as one sees the Parthenon. This is a very simple picture, but that is all that I wanted. 1/500 second at f11, 38mm, 400 ISO. JG ABRAHAM LINCOLN After taking shots from every angle, I chose this one because it is different from other images that I have seen and I also think it is a powerful shot. It is always important for a photographer to try to interpret a subject in his or her own way. 1/125 second at f8, 44mm, 400 ISO. JG PORTRAIT SHOT The Memorial is a place of almost sacred pilgrimage to Americans, and in this portrait I tried to convey Lincoln’s status with his countrymen. The camera shot was stage one of the portrait. In stage two, I took the colour image into Lightroom and darkened it with the Exposure tool, then played with tones and contrasts until I reached this interpretation. I used the Split Tone Preset in Lightroom – the colour is really a matter of personal taste, and I felt that Lincoln looks powerful and dignified like this. I vignetted the edges to bring out Lincoln’s face against a darker background. 1/200 second at f5.6, 200mm, 400 ISO. JG THE AMERICAN FAMILY This picture is the one that sums up the Lincoln Memorial for me. I asked a Korean-American family to pose in front of Lincoln, making a symbolic image of the father of the nation looking down on his very patriotic children of different ethnicity. It was shot in colour, as were all the pictures here, but I felt that the monochrome image was more timeless. Using Antique grey in Lightroom for the final image strengthens that impression. 1/100 second at f8, 24mm, 400 ISO. JG Конец ознакомительного фрагмента. Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес». Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию (https://www.litres.ru/harris-17799073/collins-complete-photography-projects/?lfrom=688855901) на ЛитРес. Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.