Portrait Special for the Holidays

Portrait Tips for the Holidays

With the holidays in full force, most of you will have your camera out and will be taking endless photographs of family and friends.  In most situations, you should make the person/people your focus.  Here are 10 quick tips for successful photographs:

1.     Always focus on the eyes.  Too often, stunning photos are diminished because people’s eyes we’re not the sharpest point.  Try to make eye contact!

2.     Choose a simple background.  You want to avoid backgrounds that are too busy or have details that might take away from the people in your shot.

3.     When composing your photo don’t cut people off at the ankles, wrists, or neck. It’s okay to frame your image at people’s knees, waist, or mid-torso.

4.     Avoid shooting into bright light.  This is a common problem where the bright background will cause the people to come out as a silhouette.

5.     Take advantage of an overcast sky - it serves as a natural diffuser and will create softer shadows.  Perfect for outdoor portraits.

6.     Don’t make a person look like you are taking a mug shot or passport photo. Turn the person’s shoulders slightly to give them a more engaging pose.

7.     Avoid tree branches, sign/telephone/lamp poles, and power lines in your background.  Nothing is worse than having a photo where it looks like a tree branch is growing out of someone’s head.

8.     Change your perspective.   Most people take photos from the eye level of the photographer.  Try getting below or above the subject to create a different point of view.

9.     All your subjects do not need to look into the camera.  If your photo is of a mother and child, try having them look at each other.

10.  Candid!  Take pictures of people when they don’t know they are being photographed.  Catch people in those natural moments.  You will be surprised how wonderful these shots will be.

 

San Francisco Workshop - Dec. 18th

Iconic bridges, elegant and diverse neighborhoods, and streets that dramatically make San Francisco a particularly photogenic city. We will spend one full day shooting the breathtaking natural and urban landscapes and famous landmarks throughout San Francisco and surrounding area. You will get hands-on instruction learning how to use your camera and improve your composition and workflow. This is the perfect opportunity for the serious photographer looking to expand your portfolio, or for the beginner wanting to learn more about your camera and shooting techniques.

Go to www.donovanphotography.net/workshops.htm for complete information.

Interview with Bill Henderson of Hold The Eye Images

My Podcast interview with Bill Henderson of Hold The Eye Images. We discussed CS5, Workflow, and upcoming workshops.

http://media.libsyn.com/media/whenderson7742/Hold_The_Eye_Images.mp3

f-Stop Q&A - Travel Photography - Part 1

Question: With many of us taking vacations and traveling over the next three months, I thought it was time to review some helpful photography tips for your travels.

Answer:

Know where you’re going - Read up as much as you can on where you're going. Having a little knowledge on the culture, customs, shooting locations, etc. will go a long way.

Batteries - Be sure to have charged batteries, spare batteries, and your battery charger. If your camera and any accessories use disposable batteries, have a number of spare sets to last you on your trip.

How much memory to bring - If you are not bringing a laptop to offload your photos, bring extra memory cards to cover your trip. The most common mistake people make is to lower the image quality on their camera so their memory card can hold more photos. Always shoot at your camera's highest quality, you paid for a good camera, use it at its best.

Polarizing Filter - A polarizing filter does a great job reducing reflections and darkening the sky. This is a great accessory when shooting water or improving the sky when shooting in the middle of the day.

X-ray machines and metal detectors - In my film days this was always a concern when I used high speed/ISO film. In the world of digital, we don't need to worry about our memory cards being corrupted, your photos are safe.

Can you use a flash? - Many museums allow photography but have a no flash rule. Before you start packing up extra equipment to carry around, know the rules of what you can and can't use before you go.

Concerts - Traditionally, all venues have a "No Photography" policy. With everyone using cell phone cameras, many venues have changed their policies to "No Professional" or "No SLR" cameras. This is a great application for a quality point-and-shoot.
Backing up your photography - While traveling, try to have laptop or media drive to backup your memory cards. If you won't be traveling with any backup device, look to see if there is a photo center nearby that can backup your memory card on to a DVD.

Checking your camera equipment with an airline - I always carry on my camera bodies and lenses. There are good cases out there that can stand up to the luggage handlers, buy why take the chance. I usually check my tripod, spare batteries, and other accessories with my clothes.

Put down your camera and enjoy your trip - It's easy for us to get preoccupied with our camera, stop shooting once and a while and enjoy the other things your trip has to offer!

Happy Travels!

f-Stop Q&A - High Pass Sharpening & Bluring

Question: I’ve heard that there is an alternative way to sharpen photos using a filter called “High Pass” in place of the typical “Unsharp Mask” or “Sharpen” filters in Photoshop. What is “High Pass” and how do you apply the sharpening?

Answer: The “High Pass” filter has been a popular alternative for sharpening in Photoshop for many years. “High Pass” and other sharpening techniques simply increases the contrast between pixels. Too much sharpening can lead to a halo effect, so using a sharpening method that has detailed control will give you better results. The “High Pass” method gives you quality variable control over your sharpening. Though it requires a few extra steps that aren’t too intuitive to most people, this is one of my favorite methods for sharpening.

High Pass Sharpening

1. Open the file you want to sharpen.

2. Duplicate the background layer (Ctrl/Cmd J).

3. Rename you new layer “Sharpen”.

4. While on the “Sharpen” layer, click on Filter>Other>High Pass from the pull-down menu.

5. In the High Pass dialog box, set the Radius to 10 and click OK.

6. Change the Blending Mode of the “Sharpen” layer to “Soft Light” (you can also try the Blending Modes “Overlay” or “Hard Light” for a more intense look).

7. Adjust the Opacity of the sharpened layer to increase or decrease the intensity of the sharpening.

Sharpening is destructive to the image and should be the last step in your editing process, especially after doing any enlarging. Be sure to keep a backup copy of your original image before you save your sharpened image so you have something to revert back to.

High Pass Burring? What if you wanted to blur your image? Just add one more step by Inverting your “Sharpen” layer by clicking Image>Adjustments>Invert from the pull-down menu.

Happy Sharpening & Blurring!

f-Stop Q&A - Lightroom Exporting Simplified

Question: When using Lightroom I frequently export photos for online use with Facebook and Picasa. Using different export settings each time, I frequently have to adjust them with each export. Is there a way to simplify and possibly automate all my common exporting steps?

Answer: I love Lightroom’s exporting capabilities. Like you, I export for Facebook and Picasa, but also export for 17 other different scenarios that include various online print services, iPhone/iPod, emailing, and web pages.

When exporting in Lightroom you have a variety of options that you need to select. Export location, File Settings, and Image Sizing are just some of the options that can change with each type of export. Having to memorize and change these settings on every export slows down your workflow and can increase your chances for user error, certainly happens to me. Lightroom allows you to save these settings as a Preset in the Export dialog window. Change all your export settings to what you need them for, then click on the “Add” button at the bottom of the Preset list. Give your preset a logical name for what the export is used for; for example, name the Preset “Flickr” if the settings are used to export files to be uploaded to your Flickr account. Each time you need to export for Flickr, click on the Flickr preset and all of your settings will be read to go. Once you have exported your files to a folder on your computer, they are ready for uploading to what ever online service you use.

For some online services including Facebook, Smugmug, Flickr, Zenfolio, Picasa, Expono, and Photobucket, Jeffery Fridl’s Blog at regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies provides great plugins for Lightroom that will let you export directly to the online service. Just follow his simple directions and you will be exporting and uploading in no time.

Happy Exporting!

f-Stop Q&A - Beginning RAW

Question: Recently I started shooting in RAW format on my camera, NOW WHAT?! Whenever I try to open a RAW file from Bridge it opens into a different program first and then lets me open into Photoshop. This program has many of the same adjustments that I normally use in Photoshop. What’s this program, and should I use its adjustments or Photoshop’s?

Answer: WOW! Great question. The program that is opening your RAW files is called ACR (Adobe Camera RAW) and is Adobe’s utility that processes RAW files. Remember, a RAW file is the digital equivalent to a negative and it needs to be processed in order for Photoshop to use it. ACR does have many of the same adjustments that you find in Photoshop and is considered lossless editing so there isn’t the potential of quality loss in your image. In my simple RAW workflow I make all of my preliminary adjustments to contrast, brightness, and hue/saturation in ACR then make any other adjustments that I want in Photoshop. Typically, those adjustments require selecting, layers, and masking.

Many of the adjustments in ACR have different names than the ones in Photoshop, but they act much the same. The following are some of the Photoshop adjustments that correspond with ACR.

Levels or Contrast/Brightness – In ACR use Brightness, Exposure, and Blacks to adjust your whites, mid-tones, and blacks.

Hue/Saturation – ACR’s HSL/Grayscale tab has adjustments for the hue, saturation, and luminance for eight different colors. In addition, try the Vibrance adjustment which concentrates on areas of your image that aren’t all that colorful and lets you make them more, or less, saturated.

Shadow/Highlights – In ACR use the Recovery and Fill Light adjustments. This will let you bring out the shadows and calm down the highlights all in one simple step.

Black & White – For CS3/4, in ACR under the HSL/Grayscale tab you check the “Convert to Grayscale” tab. This will then bring up the Grayscale Mixer to make your adjustments.

ACR doesn’t replace all of Photoshop’s adjustment features, but as you explore ACR’s adjustments further, you will find replacements for Curves, Lens Corrections, and a few others.

Remember, at any point you want to reset the changes you made in ACR, just hold down the Alt key (Option key on Mac) and the Cancel button turns into a Reset button.

Happy RAW!