A little bit ago @Sylvia asked if I could post a photo of the infamous snoot that I have been using lately on some of my freelance jobs.

The first image shows a piece of black foam paper that I bought at Wal-Mart for I believe 69 cents(maybe 99). I added velcro strips, both the loops and the hooks and stretched it to fit my Canon 580 EXII. I made this one to be about 7 inches long. Just smush it down into the shape you want it and modify your light!

With the snoot, I can add light into a scene without overlighting the entire photo. This photo needed just a bit of light on the subject’s face, but not anywhere else. So as not to overexpose the light from the snoot, I dialed it to about 1 1/2 stops over the existing ambient exposure. I believe the ambient exposure was around f5.6 at 1/200 at ISO 200, thus the snooted light was set to f 8.5 to achieve just a bit of additional lighting on our subject’s face. There is some spill onto the paddle, jacket and the piling behind our subject, but it still works for me.

I hope that helps and thanks for your patience. Enjoy!

Today I would like to share more about photographic composition and how it affects our viewers.

Our subject is Victor Pang a Pacific Islander who speaks out about cancer to his fellow islanders. Support groups and helping those who are currently battling cancer or those who might be survivors is one of his many passions. I was asked to photograph Mr. Pang for CURE magazine. I decided a portrait near the water would make sense and put him in an environment that he loves.

He brought his paddle, authentic hat and a flowered shirt and the rest was up to me. Let’s talk about the composition of this photo.

I wanted to show Victor near the water, so we walked right under the pier as close to water without getting wet. The pier acted like a giant screen blocking out the light, but not the ambient light that was nicely diffused due to the clouds.

I decided to place my subject’s head in the upper right area of convergence of the top horizontal and the right vertical thirds of the image. The paddle, I carefully made sure that it didn’t blend into the darkeness of the underside of the pier. So, I had it surrounded by the clouds, that way it was sure to stand out in the frame. The horizon is on a standard 1/3rd sky and 2/3rds land ration. I wanted to emphasize the water and the land, thus, the 2/3rds devoted to that.

Finally, I wanted to show the vanishing point of the pier, I placed that in the convergence of the upper left corner. The lighting was achieved with one off-camera Canon 580EXII at 1/2 power which gave me a ratio of about 1 1/2 stops over the ambient, or so. That’s another post in the future. All in all, I was very pleased that a simple portrait could be so visually effective.

You can see some of my other poses that were part of my creative process, but in the end, the first frame is the one that I like the best.

Simple composition can lead your viewer’s eyes exactly to the places that you desire to highlight. Thanks for looking and enjoy!

The past few days I’ve had the pleasure to take a few senior portraits. Senior portrait photography is a special genre that requires a flair for fashion and an ability to push the envelope. Here’s a couple of examples from two recent shoots. One is for a high school senior and the other if for a college senior.

Good composition and lighting are a must. Each image was carefully crafted to lead the viewer’s eye to the main subject. But, I also tried to make the subject’s feel like supermodels on their very own fashion shoot.

Even Heidi Klum, one of the most beautiful women in the world and one of the highest paid supermodels, complains about her “trouble” spots. So, I always work to highlight every subject’s best features and to minimize any “flaws” or less favorite attributes.

It’s a fine line but every photographer should try to make their subjects feel like your care and are doing your best to show them in the best possible way.

Layering a photograph is a great digital photography technique. It creates visual complexity and when combined with effective composition, it helps to lead your viewers eye to your main subject while maintaining visual interest.

Here’s a few techniques:

Look to place items such as plants, other people even parts of your main subjects body like their hands.

In the photo with the boy holding his hand, his hand leads you straight to the subject’s eyes. This is a great example of how the technique helps to lead the viewer’s eyes to the subject.

The photo of the boy looking through the bars at a playground helps to illustrate utilizing whatever is in the environment to create visual complexity. The pattern of the red bars leads the viewers eye right to the boy’s face.

Our image of the little girl smelling the flower uses a plant in a backyard to create multiple layers for the viewers. Because of the use of shallow depth of field, that also creates more visual layers that leads to the in focus area where our main subject is. Enjoy!

This post is about one of the photography techniques that you can use the take great photos of people.

The need to expect the unexpected can’t be stressed enough. Especially when photographing kids.

Anything can happen… and probably will!

In this photo, I was taking a portrait of my three children. The oldest two, decided to kiss the youngest to see what kind of a reaction they could get out of him. They didn’t tell me first, the just did it.

I didn’t expect the reaction that he gave, but I was ready to capture it!

You can’t set something like this up. Life happens and you need to be ready. How?

One way to be ready is to continue to look through the viewfinder and leave your finger on the shutter. Anticipate the extra ordinary and you will likely capture more unexpected moments.

Also, you need to place your subjects in flattering light. In this image, I’ve placed the subjects in ambient light and in the heat of the moment, the oldest subject on the right moved into the direct light. Still the moment was so strong, it overides the slight problem of the lighting. Sometimes you need to compromise.

People photography is what cameras were made for. I know that there are photographers out there who only shoot landscapes but most folks love to photograph people. Here are a few simple tips to make better photos. First some categories:

1.  Kids – Usually, there’s no problem documenting any child, anywhere and anytime. Even if they are shy, wait a few minutes and the shy child will be begging you to take another picture. Kids have the, “watch me,” gene. Watch me do this, watch me do that. So, capturing them is hardly ever a problem. Just have a tiny bit of patience and they will come around.

2.  Teenagers – Again with a little patience and smarts you can wear down the most petulant teen. Talk to them and tell them what you are trying to do. Sometimes they are just looking for a sympathetic ear and then you can snap away. So, be smart, wait and listen and you will probably be rewarded.

3.  Adults – These folks still have the, “watch me gene,” going strong. It might be disguised so you need to give them a good reason for the shoot. Like, “It’s for the birthday boy,” etc. Then they probably grumble a bit and then you can’t stop them.

4.  Adults – Shy. This is a bad category for photographers. This consists of adult women who will hunt you down and rip your SD card right out of your camera if you dare to take even one photo of them. This category also consists of those with a sixth sense right before you trip the shutter they will turn or hide their face. You cannot win with this group. Offer money, threaten them or even offer PhotoShop work, nothing will sway their will. Move on!

5.  Adults – Protestors. This is a group of people that you can work to move into the goood category. They can be outsmarted by waiting them out just like small children, they will forget about you and start acting normally. Don’t believe me? Check out any reality show on television. They forget about the cameras and start doing crazy, real-life wacky things. Use this to your advantage and you will start getting great images.

Now a few tips:

1.  Look for soft and complimentary lighting. Nothing makes a person madder than an unflattering photo. Ambient lighting or Open shade makes the best portrait lights. Look under an overhang or in front of a window.

2.  Try to use a shallow depth of field. On a DSLR use the smallest number on your lens possible (2.8 – 4.5). This will cause your viewers eyes to stay on your subject and not the background.

3.  Focus on the nearest eye. Yes it does matter. We are subconsciously looking at the eyes of a person (the window of the soul). So, focus on the nearest one to your lens and you will grab and keep the attention of your viewer.

4.  Lastly, concentrate on your background. Aunt Mabel will not look kindly on a tree branch sprouting from the back of her head like a moose’s antler. After composing your fantastic portrait, look around the border of your viewfinder/LCD before tripping the shutter. Your portraits will be cleaner and less cluttered by just being aware of the entire frame and not just the subject.

Educate yourself and your people photography will be taken to the next level.

Here’s a portrait photography tip, get closer!

Getting closer is something that most photographers can do to better their images. Usually, most photographers want to include all of their subject in the frame.

Unfortunately, this keeps us from getting close-up and personal. It’s okay to crop off the top of your subject’s head. We all know it is there, so all lot of the time we don’t need to show it!

One more of our portrait photography tips, shoot your subject through something for visual complexity. It makes your photos a lot more interesting and it gives the viewer something to look at.

In the photo above, there were some beautiful wysteria plants that were blooming and I wanted to somehow include them in the frame. I asked my subject to stand behind them and voila, an interesting portrait is born.

Here’s the photographic composition thinking as I made the pic.

I placed her eyes near the top right area of convergence so the eyes of the viewer would be drawn to them and the blooms of the flowers are in different areas of focus to create visual complexity. Enjoy!