How to Greatly Improve your Photography Skills

D700

Many have asked me about what are the most basic things one needs to consider when taking a photograph that will greatly enhance its quality and content.  Most of the newer digital cameras give you great opportunity to learn the basics of photography as well as unbelievable capability for taking breathtaking shots.  The difference between a professional image and a novice is first to find an interesting image you can compose properly, then being there at the right time and adjust your camera properly rather than just put it on program mode.  Exposure is very important, but its more than just letting your camera's metering system do everything.  If you take an image and at first blush its too light or too dark, you can make an immediate adjustment with exposure compensation and re-shoot until you get what you like.  If the colors aren't right then you can adjust the white balance and shoot it again until you get what you like.  If it still doesn't look right then you can adjust the picture controls such as contrast, saturation or other finer points.  Even if you make all these adjustments if you are not at the right place and the Perfect Tyme, then you will still end up with an ordinary looking image.

Sony Point & Shoot

D700

The two most important settings are exposure and color.  Your camera can meter exposure based upon your inputs. I use either shutter or aperture priority.  Taking sharp images is one of the most important technical factors of photography, as sharpness plays an important role in the quality of the image.  The most prevalent cause of blurred or out of focus images is camera movement during the exposure.  The best way to ensure sharp photos is to use a fast shutter speed.  As a guideline I use is if you are using a 100 mm lens, the shutter speed should be at least 1/200th of a second or 1/250, or in essence doubling the focal length of the lens being used as a proxy for the minimum shutter speed.  If I use aperture priority because I want to control the aperture such as when I want to blur the background as with portraitures, so I might use an f/2 to obtain that effect.  Then I need to adjust the ISO to give me a faster shutter speed to avoid camera movement and maintain very sharp images.  So after I take the images after I have used the metering system to get the right exposure with the settings I want to use, then I use exposure compensation to make final adjustments for it being too light or too dark.

D700

Sony Point & Shoot

I adjust color by the white balance settings.  I start with a WB setting on auto with an A3 or the equivalent of shade setting for most of the images I take because I like a warmer looking image.  Sometimes with just auto WB, I get images that are too bluish looking for my taste.  You can greatly enhance your outdoor daytime and sunset images by using custom WB settings by pointing the camera at a blue sky to give more warm colors to your image, and the picture controls set to Vivid +3 to pump the colors up dramatically.  You can always adjust the exposure compensation to lighten or darken the effect.  This alone will dramatically change how your images come out!!!!!

D700

Sony Point & Shoot

I always set my camera on matrix metering and matrix focus for most everything and use spot focus for individuals where I want the eyes in a portrait to be very sharp.  On outdoor images of individuals or portraits I always use a flash for fill light.  With the Nikon metering/flash system the camera will attempt to balance the background and foreground and use the flash to fill in the foreground or faces in a portrait or group of individuals.  With this system you will get proper exposure for both foreground and background so everything is properly exposed.  Canon and other manufacturers also have similar systems, but I am just a committed Nikon user and have invested so much in lenses that it would be a major cost for me to even try or switch to another system.

D700

Sony Point & Shoot

In the days of using film, it required multiple trips back and forth to the developing lab just to find out you didn't like about what you did, so it required taking notes and a lot of expense to learn what you now can learn with a digital camera each and every time you go take pictures for almost no cost.  At any of our workshops we go through all of these functions and when you leave just one workshop you will be very comfortable making all of this your everyday thought process.  The images shown herein in this blog were some I took of a friend of mine Laura for her senior pictures.  One set was taken with my wife's Sony Cyber-shot 13.6 mp, point and shoot camera and the final images I gave Laura were the ones I shot with my Nikon D700 with all the adjustments discussed herein.  In just one workshop your work will reflect this same difference.

We have upcoming workshops in Alaska in June, at Bryce Canyon in October, and in Hawaii in January of next year.  We will also repeat the Alaska trip in June of 2012 for anyone that can't make it work timing wise for the one coming up in a few months.  I try and pick great vacation spots where you can take a week of vacation combined with 3-4 days of a workshop and the rest of the week for you and your family to enjoy however you wish.  When you bring a spouse while they can't come to the workshop classes without paying for the workshop, they can come with us when we go out to all the shooting locations and enjoy everywhere we go, if they are willing to get up before sunrise and stay late for sunset everyday of the workshop.  At the end of the workshop we will conclude with a presentation of everything all the students have done and spouses, friends and family are all welcome to attend that.  They will be amazed at the quality of work you have generated yourself.  Come join us on one of our next adventures.

Thanks Laura for letting me use your pictures in this blog.  You are very beautiful and easy to photograph!

As always keeping looking for The Perfect Tyme to capture that killer image!