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Balance in Photography

Michael Kitada — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 08:00:04 +0000

I was in downtown Los Angeles today and decided to just take my iPhone and have fun.
One of the images that caught my attention was this painting on an old building and how it balanced itself on the wall and in my photo.
Balance.
Everyone needs it, but it comes to naturally to most of us, we tend to take it for granted.
Balance in photography is the resolution of visual forces or subjects.
In the above image, the eyes balance the frame and hold the viewer’s attention with the resolution being the shadow of the nose and the bar of red at the bottom of the frame which holds everything together.
Without balance, there is only chaos and a visual feeling of incompleteness.
Look visual tension and the resolution of the within the confines of your frames to create visual harmony.
Notice how the eyes draw your attention?
Neither one is stronger than the other, they both seem to have an equal magnetism for your attention.
That’s the balance of this image.
Practice achieving balance in your images with resolution and the ability to hold your viewer’s attention.
Be inspired!

Michael is the author of, “Take Better Photos Now,” and, “Mommie Pics,” ebooks that help everyone become better photographers through tips and secrets that he has learned during his more than 25 years of experience as a professional photographer and photography teacher. He currently is an adjunct professor at Cal Baptist University in Riverside, California. To purchase either ebook, click the links. CLICK HERE FOR “TakeBetterPhotosNow!
CLICK HERE FOR MOMMIE PICS

Lighting Tips

Michael Kitada — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:00:28 +0000

Light is everything.
Especially when it’s used correctly.
Today’s post is about lighting subjects with subtlety rather than with a wide brush every time.
Find light that only lights a portion of your subject and you’ll start to see more interesting images.
The first image shows exactly what I’m talking about.
During one of my classes, the students found this light streaming through a second story window.
They took turns posing and directing each other.
Learning to only let the light strike a portion of each of their subjects.

Here’s another version.
The subject’s eyes are deep set and allow the light to only hit her forehead and cheekbones.
The result is more mysterious and interesting, than blasting the whole scene with flat even lighting.
Be inspired!

Symbolic Photos

Michael Kitada — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 08:00:43 +0000

Finding something that will visually communicate a feeling or an idea is the object of today’s post.
I was driving to another assignment, when I spotted a long chain screen fence with about a million leaves.
I took advantage of the opportunity and stopped.
I decided to focus on just one leaf.
One leaf that was trapped against the fence and it made me think about isolation and being trapped.
I used a long lens and a the smallest f/stop that my lens allowed, f/2.8.
That caused a very shallow depth of field which isolated leaf as much as possible.
I placed the leaf in the upper right area of convergence to add negative space for the viewer.
Training yourself to shoot feelings takes practice.
Take your time and work at it.
Be inspired!!

Seeing Light

Michael Kitada — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 08:00:55 +0000

So I was asked by a friend to critique some photos.
I was reminded that so many photographers get caught up in the moment and forget to really look at the light.
The direction and quality can make or break your images.
I shot an example recently:
The first image is made with window light coming over my back and illuminating the subject from the front.

Notice how the the quality of the light is muddier, in fact, the subject’s face is mostly illuminated by a lamp inside the house.
Look at the first image and check out the skin tones.
Natural and the eyes sparkle with the highlights from the window.
Basically, there aren’t any highlights in the eyes in the backlit image.
Too many times, photographers can get caught up in the moment. Clients peering at you and the subject wondering if you know what you
are doing. That’s pressure.
So it’s easy to just start shooting.
Make sure you add light to your check list.
Direction and quality and your images will start being more consistent.
Be inspired!

Half & Half

Michael Kitada — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 17:14:35 +0000

Here’s a great example of where to place your horizon and what it can do for your images.
A quick recap of the landscape rule is to place the horizon in the third and never beyond that.
For example, 1/3rd sky and 2/3rd’s land etc.
For more emphasis, make a greater ratio, like 1/8 sky and 7/8th’s land etc. Get it?
Here’s a shot that I made a bit ago that featured the Huntington Beach surf during some surfing lessons.
In the finished image, I’ve cropped so that the horizon is in the say 20% of the image, while the land and people are in about the remaining 80% of the frame.
But, here’s the original image:

It makes a huge difference and takes your images from visually boring to visually interesting.
Notice how your eyes don’t really know where to go in the second image?
Should we look at the clouds or the people and surfboards?
Now back to the cropped image.
The clouds are definitely not the specific area of interest, so we notice them later after the initial viewing.
The people and the surf boards take up most of our interest.
Remember this simple rule and it can take your images to the next level.
Be inspired!

The Shadow Knows…

Michael Kitada — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 08:00:25 +0000

I kept my word and was on the lookout for more shadows.
I was quickly rewarded this morning when I walked into my office and was rewarded with super cool shadows.
I felt the window shadow needed and utilized one of the young men that work for facilities.
The human figure adds humanity and scale to the image and spices up the shadow.
Interestingly the composition of this image is very similar to yesterday’s glass of water image.
I enjoy that type of kismet.
Again, I’m challenging you to be on the lookout for shadows and the awesome images they can make.
Be inspired!

Refreshing Moment

Michael Kitada — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 08:00:18 +0000

I’ve been noticing shadows lately and been looking at them a lot more than ever.
Ever noticed how when you looking to buy a new car, once you have decided on a certain make or model, that is all you seem to see.
I’ve been considering getting a new Scion xB and for weeks now, it seems they are everywhere.
Neighbors have them, they drive by me in packs and park nearby, no matter where I go.
Let’s start doing that with shadows and the images they create.
I’ve been doing this exercise for a bit and here’s an image I came up with.
This is just a glass after I had had a long drink of water.
The sun was just out of reach, as I was sitting under my patio I noticed the shadow that it cast was amazing.
I love the different variations that the light creates after passing through the glass and casting a very unique shadow.
I had to make an image.
I composed the image with the glass in the upper left area of convergence and the strong diagonal created gives great movement and power to the image for the viewer.
Commit to looking for shadows and the role they might have in your photography over the next couple of days or weeks and see how it changes your vision.
Be inspired!

Michael Kitada was a staff photographer for the Orange County Register for 17 years, has served as an adjunct at UCLA and currently is an adjunct teaching beginning, intermediate and advanced photography at Cal Baptist University in southern California. He is also an author, speaker and blogger on photography. He is the owner of Michael Kitada Photography and his clients include, The Irvine Company, Forbes, People magazine, TV Guide, Newsweek, CURE magazine, and newspapers nation-wide. www.michaelkitada.com

Detail Photography

Michael Kitada — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 08:00:08 +0000

I had an assignment at the Brea Fire Station today.
I was able to make some cool images because one of the firefighters was very accommodating and helpful.
Afterwards we were talking and thanking him, when I noticed his belt buckle.
It was a really nice detail that spoke volumes about the department and the men that risk their lives for this community.
I asked the firefighter if I could take a quick photo of him and his belt buckle which he quickly obliged.
Again, the trick is to be aware no matter what is happening on photo shoots.
Keep your eyes open and be looking for anything that could be of help.
Detail shots make the world go round.
They also tell a story that a larger view image can’t always do as well.
For example, a photo at the fire station of any of the firefighters and their fire engine doesn’t always show as much information as this belt buckle.
Keep your eyes open and you’ll be rewarded with images that help to move your visual stories forward with more information from a different perspective.
Be inspired!

Visual Story Telling

Michael Kitada — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 08:00:14 +0000

I was hired to photograph a 5k fun run last weekend.
Visual story telling is the answer to informing our friends where, who and what we did recently.
Here’s a few tips.
1. Think like a reporter.
The 5 W’s of reporting will help you to frame your photos. The Who, What, Where, When and Why, will tell you what to communicate for your story.
In the first photo, we have the What. Looks like a race and that’s exactly what it was, a 5k charity race.
You can photograph a sign or the runner’s numbers or as I have here, a human interest story.
The winner of the race ran back to find his sister and finish the race with her holding hands.
Some of that information is needed in a caption, but there’s lots of clues in this image. The boy already has a medal and their numbers are in sequence and they are running around a track.

2. Did something interesting happen at the event?
It rained like cats and dogs!
These friends gathered under an umbrella to have their photo taken. I focused with my long lens and made an image as they were being photographed.
3. Interesting or humorous event?

These boys gave up running early in the event and popped up their umbrellas and kept walking.
It tells the story quickly, but also gives us more information about the event, too.
Like it was raining hard!
4. Establishing shots help ground the viewer.

I always try to make a quick shot that tells where we are or what’s going on to include in the story to help the viewer.
In this set of images the beginning of the race shows the mayhem that occurred and also establishes that there was a race with quite a few people involved.
I’ve always wondered why more children aren’t trampled during these starts?
5. Details! They move the story along.Detail shots give information that is quick and concise. Visually it helps to move the story, without taking too much space.
Each of the racers were given snacks at the end of the race. Bananas!

Grab a hold of these quick tips and try them out at your next event that you want to share with friends.
In only a few images you can tell an entire story without being redundant or more importantly boring.
Be effective and concise.
Be inspired!

Silhouette Photography

Michael Kitada — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 08:00:01 +0000

Today we will look at silhouette photography and one way to overcome the effect to create a portrait.
This technique is for those times when you don’t want to add flash, which would reflect off the window.
Also with flash the background would be more distracting, being correctly exposed, rather than being so overexposed it doesn’t distract at all.

Let’s take a look:
The first image shows the last photo with the correct exposure for the face of the subject and an overexposed or bright background which overcomes our silhouette photo.
I’ve placed my subject in the left vertical of the grid and her head near the convergence of the left vertical and top horizontal.
The frame of the window also adds to my composition by it’s placement.

I placed a subject in front of a large window and made an exposure on Av which is aperture priority.
Which simply means that the exposure was based on the f stop of my lens. The computer on the camera made the exposure by adjusting the shutter speed.

Notice how the everything outside the window is correctly exposed?
The viewer doesn’t know where to look and that can be very distracting.
I can alter my exposure two ways.
First I can adjust my shutter speed which determines how long
light is allowed to pass through the lens.
Or I can adjust the f/stop which determines how much light is allowed to pass through the lens.
How long or how much, basically explains how the sensor in your camera is exposed to light to create the digital image.
There’s another way which is to ask the camera to under or over expose the image by a slider that is usually determined in 1/3rd increments.

Now you can see more of the subject’s face and the background is getting brighter as I’ve adjusted the shutter speed to allow less light to enter by leaving the shutter open less time.
But it’s not quite enough, so I speed up my shutter speed a bit more and bam!
I achieve the correct exposure by the third frame.

Here’s two ways to accomplish this tip.
1) As I last referenced you can ask the camera to over exposer the background by the slider window(check your manual). Or…
2) You can push the info button and see the shutter speed and f/stop on your image after pushing the arrow button.
For example, Let’s say you want to overexpose your silhouette and you push the arrow button while viewing the image and you get a reading of 1/1000 f5.6 for the silhouette image. You can then go to M which is manual and adjust your shutter speed to let’s say 2 stops over exposure. That means you need to keep the shutter open 2 stops longer.
Each stop is a doubling of the speed, so 1/125 to 1/250 is one stop and so on.
For our example, we need to go down from 1/1000 to 1/250. That equals two f/stops. 1/1000, 1/500 that’s one stop and then 1/500 to 1/250 that’s another stop.
Easy right?
Well, it takes practice and some math(that’s why they require it in high school).
Try this technique and be inspired!