Posts Tagged ‘professional photography’

How To Photograph Waterfalls Like A Professional

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

In the modern days digital photography has become an easy task the use of digital SLR cameras will allow to take shots whenever you need so that wonderful photographs be taken with great quality.

Equipment Needed to Photograph Waterfalls

Normally you will need nothing other than a digital SLR camera for shooting some of the amazing views of waterfalls but accessories like camera lens, filters, tripods and other essential accessories can help you to focus more clearly.

Much like architecture photography, a sturdy tripod is the backbone of any slow-shutter landscape image. There are some inexpensive point and shoot camera available now but they are often light weight so have to be careful while focusing meanwhile good quality DSLR camera can be bit costly but will help you to hold your camera steady. Using a shutter release cable will also increase camera stability by limiting the photographer’s contact with the camera.

Next, a simple polarizing filter will help produce vivid colors while decreasing shutter speeds dramatically. Photographers are more likely to use a circular polarizer even then the filter should be used in the correct position relative to the sun. There are certain photographers who like to use a neutral density filter and the main purpose of such filters is to reduce the shutter speed.

When to shoot Images of Waterfalls

{Waterfalls images must be created before the sunrise or after sunset. As with all other types of photography the best time for shooting a waterfall is either in the morning or during the dusk.} Unless located in a well-shaded area, images created throughout the day will either have too high of shutter speed or blown out detail in the background of the image.

The light required for shooting the waterfall without compensating the details of the shots is ideal during the dawn and dusk. During this period the sunlight will be even throughout out the frame, the shadows will not creep in unnecessarily leading the problems like white balance. All digital sensors react differently in this situation, but the camera may need the white balance set to shade.

Quality Photos of Waterfall by Setting the Camera Correctly

The three components like light setup, accurate composition and sturdy tripod should be arranged before looking into the camera settings. There are a variety of different shooting modes a photographer can use; however, the general rule is a small aperture with a long shutter speed.

The lowest end of the ISO settings is required while selecting the options like shutter speed and aperture priority. Aperture settings are normally at f/11 and f/22 which will ensure that a stutter speed of 1” is maintained. The slow shutter speed will create the desired silky water texture, while the small aperture will create sharp detail throughout a large depth of field.

Use the LCD screen to verify results, and adjust the aperture and shutter speed combination to obtain the desired image.

 

 

The dSLR cameras have become the most used and demanded in the market among the users, people use it for  waterfall photography, still photography, pet photography, ametur photography or even wedding potography magazines.

 

 

The Basics of Learning Photography

Sunday, June 28th, 2009

If you like watching sporting events, you know what it means when a team goes into a “rebuilding year”.  It is just when the owners or coaches decide its time to train new members and correct bad habits in others.  And invariably, what team leadership says when they go into such a time is that they are going “back to basics.”

Most times it’s best for you and I as professional photographers to go back to basics.  And, of course, if you are just getting started in the world of photography and want to learn “the ropes”, the basics are a natural start.  Instead you want to know what the seasoned professional photographers know.

Anybody can take a picture.  I attended a wedding reception where the wedding party left a disposable digital camera on each table at the reception for guests to snap photos.  Before all was said and done, it was all those youngsters that were walking about taking pictures from the dirty dishes to their own underwear. These were not photographers and while those pictures will no doubt get a few chuckles, these are not the kind of professional pictures people want for their long-term memories.

Now don’t get too upset about confusing technical terms.  Aperture is just a term for how wide your camera lens is open to let in light.  And shutter speed is just how long you let the light come in to affect the picture.  For getting a shot of a fast moving event, let the lens opening real wide but a short shutter speed so you capture the event quickly and close the window so the picture is caught before more light hurts the quality.

Photography is about being able to see light and light situations.  You can and will get learn a lot about lenses and flash photography and other ways to turn the control over the lighting of a shot to you.  So add to your core skills of photography a willingness to never stop learning.  The better and more sophisticated you get in your ability to work with the equipment, the more you will learn and the more you will want to learn. 

You can get a greater control over these basic controls of the camera such as aperture and shutter speed by learning how to switch from automatic settings to manual settings.  The automatic settings of any camera are just there for the general public who are not interested in learning the basics.  So they give you some basic settings like landscape, portrait and sports settings.  By switching to manual, you can learn what settings work best in different situations.

And that takes us to the most important basic about becoming a great photographer and that is practice.  Take a few minutes with your photography equipment and study it.  Take it to situations and take photos with different aperture and shutter speed settings, in outdoor and indoor settings and different orientations to light.  Don’t be alarmed when some of your images don’t come out correctly.  That’s part of the learning curve.

By learning by doing, you will build your confidence in your work and eventually become a great photographer.  Please don’t get over confident, there is always more to learn.  And that is one of the ammusing things about cameras and photography, isn’t it?

Photography in San Antonio by Richard’s Photography- 2010 Senior Portraits

Choosing Photography as Your Career

Thursday, June 4th, 2009

When you are a kid and thinking about the many ways you can make a living when you grow up, what is the advice your elders always gave you? It was, “Do what you love to do and you will always be happy.” And that has to be true because if you can spend your work week doing what you love the most, it really won’t be work as much as it will be play that people pay you to do.

If your desire is a photography career, it makes sense to start your own photography business. But how to go about it? You see so many small photography shops that seem to spring up from out of no where. What is the best way for you to go about starting your own business like this?

The things to think about when you’re about to take on a photography career is how to do it in a legitimate way. You want a business that will last a lifetime so you want to start it out right. So don’t fall for the “get rich quick” internet schemes or books that claim they will spill the insider secrets of other successful photography business. There are no insider secrets to this business other than what you need to know to run any business. To succeed you have to…

* Pay your dues
* Get some schooling
* Get ideas and tips from experienced photographers
* Have knowledge of your craft
* Network
* Value your customers.

You can accomplish the first five of these practices by attending photography classes in somebody else’s photography shop. You may despair at the idea of more school. But your photography business will be about more than just cameras, photo shoots and dark rooms. You have accounting principles to comprehend and execute, taxes to be paid, a facility to rent, employees to pay, insurance to worry about, contracts to sign and all of that other “stuff” that goes with running a business. So start early and get some basic business classes under your belt such as accounting and economics. It will do you and your business a lot of justice

Many trades have an apprentice system where you tutor under a master of the craft. But it might be a good thing for you to take this matter into your own hands. Think about becoming a part time assistant on the weekends long enough to learn the ins and outs of running a small business and of running a photography business. This gives you the chance to build your knowledge and exposure to equipment, learn technique and how to work with your subjects.

In fact, it might be a good idea to deliberately apprentice at a number of different types of photography studios before launching out on your own. So you can learn the ins and outs of wedding photography, baby photography, fashion photography and others from specialists all before you spend a dime of your own money to start your own enterprise. In this way, you build skills, you build knowledge, you build experience and you can watch and take notes of the great things others do and the mistakes to avoid.

Your employers will be thrilled to share their real world knowledge with you if you are open to them that you want to learn from the masters how to do this with the goal of becoming their competition in the future. Above all, you can build a client base from the many customers you work with before you start your own business. Buy taking care of someone else’s customers, they can become your customers when you hang out your shingle. And that is good business.

Richard’s Photography in San Antonio specializes in Studio Portraits