News & Tips -> Photo Tips

Our previous Photo Tips

July 2011

This months tip is on how to photograph fireworks.  Todd and Brad recommend getting a sturdy tripod, and starting out with your settings as follows: 100 or 200 ISO (whichever is the lowest your camera will go), F8 for your aperture, and 15 seconds (which will look like 15" on your camera) for the shutter speed.  These setting will probably get you in the ball park in terms of overall exposure if it is dark outside. Todd made this new fireworks shot in Ludington over Harbor View Marina on the 4th of July.

His setting were as follows: 100 ISO, F5 at 15 seconds.

March 2010

The photo tip of the month for March 2010 is to really learn how each of your lenses renders the world.  Every lens has a sweet spot where it is the sharpest. They also have an F stop that is the sharpest.  You could have two identical lenses from the same manufacturer and they may render the world differently. You can really get to know your lenses by shooting with the same lens for a month.  Force yourself to make pictures with just one lens.  Put the camera on a tripod and bracket your exposures and shoot the same scene at lots of different F stops and shutter speeds.  You will be shocked at how different the photos look. Good luck and have fun.

October 2009

Our photo tip of the month for October 2009 is about photographing the "little person or object in the big world".  Many times in a photograph a very small object can carry a lot of "weight" or importance to the composition.  For instance, in the black and white photo below of da Vinci's Horse at Meijer Gardens that Brad took ten years ago with his film camera, the young boy grabbing the statue's leg and looking up in wonder is what "makes" the photograph.  Just before Brad took the photo of the horse, the boy ran out of nowhere and just happened to stand in the perfect spot, make the perfect gesture, and look up in wonder.  The young boy is the "little person in the big world".  The small object doesn't always have to be a person.  In Todd's photo below of "Calm Before the Storm", the small sailboat carries as much "weight" or importance as the huge storm clouds.  The sailboat is maybe 3 percent of the entire scene, but it balances the power of the clouds and gives a stormy scene a sense of calmness.  Always keep your eyes open to photographing small things that have huge impact.

September 2009

The photo tip of the month for September 2009 comes from the late, great Galen Rowell.  Galen is considered one of the best outdoor photographers of all time.  He was a professional mountain climber turned photographer.  He believed that photography is an action sport.  We try to live and shoot by that same motto.  We can often be seen running to chase the light before it disappears.  We are up, down, and rolling around on a daily basis while trying to get the unique compositions for our photographs.  To see more of Galen Rowell's inspiring work, check out his website at http://www.mountainlight.com

August 2009

Our photo tip of the month for August 2009 has to do with the concept of immediacy.  One of the most important tools we use in building our compositions is making sure there is something immediate or close to the camera.  In both of our photos of the month that are attached to this email below, we purposely composed the photographs with either the water or trees very close to the camera.  Brad was actually in the water as the wave was breaking almost underneath his camera.  Todd got as close to the pine trees in the foreground as he could while still being able to have the top of the mountain and some sky at the top of his photograph.  By putting something immediate to the camera, the viewer of the photograph is sucked into the piece of art  and is more likely to become emotionally attached to the composition.  Compositions that have immediacy also appear much more three dimensional.  The viewer will feel like they are really "there" and not just looking at a picture.  Don't get lazy and assume you can crop later to get immediacy. It won't work.  Whether you are shooting people or landscapes, you need to try and engage the viewer by putting something close to the end of your lens!

July 2009

Our photo tip of the month is about looking for photos within photos.  We often first shoot a scene with a wide angle lens on and make photos that show a great expanse of land.  Then we carefully study that wide scene and look for photographs inside of that scene.  We then move twice as close and zero in on a much smaller area of the scene.  We keep doing this until we can't get any closer.  By working your way into a photograph, you end up with is a series of photographs that are all exciting in different ways and evoke different emotions in viewers of your work.

June 2009

The June photo tip of the month is to remember that if you are shooting into the sun, or have the sun somewhere in your composition, you are going to have to shoot to the plus side of your meter (you are going to have to overexpose your photo).  If you are shooting on full manual, then you can adjust either your aperture or your shutter speed to let more light or time into your exposure.  If you are shooting on auto, then you will want to trick your meter by aiming your camera in the general direction of the photo you want to shoot, while making sure the sun is NOT in the photo.  Now you will want to lock your exposure.  This is usually done by pushing your shutter button half way down.  Some point and shoot cameras and digital SLRs have an exposure lock button that you can press and hold.  Now, recompose your photo with the sun in the composition and press the shutter all the way down.  You will find that your sunset photos will now turn out brighter and more realistic to what your eye saw.  Good luck and have fun shooting.

May 2009

With a digital camera, you don’t even need a light meter!  Here is the proof.

You may need to get out your camera manual for this : )

 1- Set your ISO to the lowest setting it has.  Our camera goes down to 100 ISO, but some only go down to 200.  Set it at the lowest and then leave it there for this exercise.  Make sure it is NOT on Auto ISO!

2- Put your camera in the full manual mode.  This will only work correctly in full manual mode.  Don't use Av or Tv for this exercise.  Use FULL MANUAL mode!

3- Pick any lens and put it on your camera.

4- Put your camera on a tripod and focus it at one scene that is constant and is in a lighting situation that cannot change (Inside, away from window light would be the best place to start to practice this).  It shouldn't matter if you are on auto focus or manual focus for this exercise, as long as what you are focused on is not moving or blowing in the wind.

5- Set your aperture to F8.

6- Take a shot and look at the image on the back of your camera.

 If it is black, or very dark, that means your are underexposed (not enough light hitting the sensor).  Without changing your aperture from F8, you need to add light by making a longer (slower) shutter speed.  For example, you may need to go from 1/500 of a second to 1/30 of a second.  The longer time will add more light.

 If the first photo you took is white, or very washed out, that means you are overexposed (too much light hitting the sensor).  Without changing your aperture from F8, you need to subtract light by making a shorter (faster) shutter speed.  For example, you may need to go from 1/10 of a second to 1/125 of a second.

 7- After adjusting your shutter speed, take a second shot and look at the back of your camera.  Remember to leave your camera at F8.

 If it is still black, or very dark, that means your are underexposed (not enough light hitting the sensor).  Without changing your aperture from F8, you need to add light by making a longer (slower) shutter speed.

If the first photo you took is still white, or very washed out, that means you are overexposed (too much light hitting the sensor).  Without changing your aperture from F8, you need to subtract light by making a shorter (faster) shutter speed.

 8- Repeat number 7 until the photo on the back of your camera looks good.

 9- YOU DID It! Way to go.  Depending on the size of your lens, your photo probably has a medium, to shallow depth of field or focus because you shot them at F8.

 10- Move your aperture to F22. If the light is low, you may need a tripod or high ISO setting to avoid unsharp shots due to camera movement at slow shutter speeds.

 11- Repeat steps 6 and 7 until the photo on the back of the camera looks good.  This photo now has a very large depth of field or focus.  It is sharp from front to back.  It may be hard to tell the difference if you were shooting at a flat surface or wall, but out in the real 3-dimensional world, the two photos would look different.

 12- Move your aperture to the largest opening on your particular lens (probably somewhere between F2.8 and F4.5).  This photo in the real 3-dimensional world would have a shallow depth of field. With these large lens openings,  usually little will be sharp in front of and behind the spot you focused on.

 13- This excercise will get you on target.  Once you are close to the correct overall exposure, you can tweak it just they way you want.

March 2009

Our photo tip of the month for March 2009 is about sizing and watermarking your images for use on the web.  Once we have toned and spotted the high res version of an image as a tiff or photo shop document (psd), we do a "save as" and make a small web sized file using photoshop.  The final dimensions of our files are 400 pixels by 600 pixels at 72 pixels per inch.  We save those files as jpegs.  Next, we open those jpegs again in photoshop and use the text tool to put the watermark on the image.  We flatten the text layer and save it again as a jpeg.  We usually change the file name and put the word "web" on the end of the file before the extension.  A typical web file name for us looks like this: Todd Reed_Eye In The Sky_3412_Web.jpeg

When people email us their photos for viewing, we prefer to receive photos that are roughly 400x600 @ 72ppi so they don't fill up our inbox and they download quickly.  We love seeing all of your work, so send us one or two web sized files a month!

February 2009

Our photo tip of the month has to do with what sizes to print or order your photographs.  A 35mm film camera or 35mm digital camera (which is what most new cameras are formatted as) produces a final image that is in the proportion of 2 by 3.  That means that when you make or order your prints, you are probably going to want to have the prints made in the proportion of 2 by 3.  For example, a 4 by 6 inch print is in the same proportion as 2 by 3.  To test the proportions you can divide 2 by 3 and you get .6666 and if you divide 4 by 6 you also get .6666.

However, a 5 by 7 inch print is not proportional to 2 by 3.  We know this because if you divide 5 by 7 you get .7142, which is not the same as .6666.  If you order your prints as a 5 by 7 inch, you are actually cutting off part of your original composition.  The same is true for an 8 by 10 inch print. If you divide 8 by 10 you get .80, not .6666.  So an 8 by 10 inch print has actually had 2 inches cropped off of the long side.  “Full frame” would actually be 8 by 12 inches, not 8 by 10.

We teach our workshop students to try and fill the frame with everything you want and nothing you don’t want.  That means you need to get rid of the junk in the viewfinder before you snap the shutter.  When you have worked so hard to compose the perfect shot, you don’t want the computer or print lab to cut off 2 inches from your print.  That would ruin your beautiful composition.

The bottom line is that we recommend getting your prints made as 4 by 6, 8 by 12, 12 by 18, 16 by 24, 20 by 30, and so on if you want to keep the original proportion of how you composed the photograph in your viewfinder.  Many labs or big stores often will print you an 8 by 12 for the same price as an 8 by 10.  Good luck and keep shooting!

January 2009

Our photo tip of the month will help you to have more fun with your camera.  If you look closely at the third photo attached to this email you will see the Ludington North Breakwater Light on a beautiful August night.  You will also see a "ghost" of one of our summer workshop participants.  This camera trick is pretty easy to pull off at night or in a low light situation.  First, put your camera on a sturdy tripod and compose your photograph, leaving room for the "ghosts".  Next, set your camera to a 30 second exposure.