Street Photography Tips for the Modern World |  |
- Street Photography Tips for the Modern World
- The Stunning Work of Jeremy Lock: 7 Time Military Photographer of the Year
- Dubai: Stunning Dynamic Timelapse Photography
- Muscle Car Photography Lighting Techniques
| Street Photography Tips for the Modern World Posted: 23 May 2013 04:52 PM PDT Public perception of any person with a camera in their hand in and around public landmarks, was forever changed as a result of Sept 11, 2001. It didn’t help that the paparazzi contributed to Princess Diana’s death.  “back home” captured by zeynep arkok (Click Image to Find Photographer) The hordes of paparazzi through their dogged pursuit of their quarry, contributed to her untimely demise and in the end, they lost a source of income. Still, if you’re a people watcher like I am, those changes in attitudes shouldn’t dissuade you from pursuing street or candid photography of people. Psychology 1011. To ask or not to ask. Most folks in public places don’t mind being photographed if you ask. But sometimes asking first, ruins the moment, especially if that something they’re doing is spur of the moment. Shooting your pictures first and asking for forgiveness afterwards is my advice if that’s the case.  “Farmer, Hoi An, Vietnam” captured by Thomas Jeppesen (Click Image to See More From Thomas Jeppesen) But under no circumstances should you run off when discovered as if you’ve done something wrong. My years as a newspaper photographer has taught me no 2 situations are alike. You probably don’t want to read that, I know. But it’s true. Here’s why. If you ask first and they say no, then you risk tipping them off. Then they’ll either be hamming it intentionally for you, or they’ll stop and growl at you. 2. Be a good sport Just remember if they’re not happy with your presence with the camera, be a good sport and move on. Most times if you remain calm, smile and explain yourself, saying something like , “I took your picture because that looked like such a special moment between your wife/girlfriend and you.”  Photo captured by Christopher Rye (Click Image to Find Photographer) I would have asked before hand but I didn’t want to interrupt your spontaneous display of affection. Place yourself in their shoes for a moment and see if you wouldn’t want a great picture of you and the love of your life smooching against a wonderful setting. Take no for an answer unless you’re a paparazzi-in-training. Never be so insistent on photographing someone to the point they consider you a stalker. Even if the law says no one should expect privacy in a public places, that doesn’t give you any special right to literally point a camera in a person’s face. 3. Be sure to smile and appear friendly. When you’re walking around with your camera and that long lens, acting aloof, distant and avoiding eye contact or sneaking around is bad body language. It suggests you’re hiding what you’re doing, so that is a no-no.  “walking home” captured by andre stoeriko (Click Image to Find Photographer) You are engaging in a fun activity which is not illegal. Do I need to elaborate about your attire as well? So if your wardrobe is just a trenchcoats, sunglasses and large hats because you’re sensitive to the sun, you might consider a different kind of photography. With those caveats out of the way, here’s some suggestions on equipment and technique. EQUIPMENTA telephoto lens and a wide angle. A telephoto lens is a necessity, something in the range of 80 mm to 200 mm works well. The lens even with the lens hood doesn’t look that imposing. Longer focal lengths like a 300 mm or longer are of course better, but you will surely stick out like a sore thumb. Another lens of necessity is a wide angle something like a 15 mm or 16 mm if your camera has a magnification factor and doesn’t have a full-size sensor.  Photo captured by Mike’s Photography (Click Image to Find Photographer) When you’re in a crowd and you can’t possibly move back, the wide angle lens is more versatile and easier to work, especially if it’s a zoom. Wide angles also allow you to shoot from the hip without raising the camera to your eye for true clandestine work. Digital SLRs work better than point and shoot cameras. But if a point and shoot is all you have, shoot at your longest focal length and at a quality to give you the largest file size. Don’t use the digital zoom. You want to use your maximum optical zoom and also your quality or lowest compression giving you the largest file size. TECHNIQUESet your exposure for the lighting conditions beforehand. This is all part of being ready. When shooting in the streets, you have little or no time to be fiddling with aperture and shutter speeds.  “s i n g m e a s a d s o n g” captured by Federico (Click Image to Find Photographer) Most people think you don’t need to do this with today’s cameras because of all the automatic modes and autofocusing. I recommend you set the exposure manually then all your camera needs to do is focus when press the shutter speeding up the process. If you set the camera on automatic, the camera has one more operation, deciding what combination of shutter speed and aperture to set while trying to focus on your subject. And that slows it down. Since you already know you want to emphasize your person and what they’re doing, you’ll be using your widest aperture to blur out the distractions in the background and foreground.  “subway hands” captured by andre stoeriko (Click Image to Find Photographer) Remember not be too pushy when taking pictures of people in public. The law says no one should expect privacy in a public places. But when a worried mother flags down a cop because you’re taking pictures of her and her child in the public park, it is more than likely you’ll be asked to stop or leave. The First Amendment protects free speech, which means that no law enforcement official can prevent the photography or filming on the street or anywhere else that is considered public property. In practice we all know some cops can get overzealous and heavy-handed just because they are the ones with the guns and handcuffs. About the Author For Further Training on Street Photography:Check out this new 141 page eBook that covers everything about the genre even down to specific post processing techniques that can bring the best out of street scenes: It can be found here: Essentials of Street Photography Guide Go to full article: Street Photography Tips for the Modern World |
| The Stunning Work of Jeremy Lock: 7 Time Military Photographer of the Year Posted: 23 May 2013 03:55 PM PDT Whenever Air Force Master Sergeant Jeremy Lock raises his camera to his eye, he becomes a man on a mission. “You look for the moment, that brief second,” he says, neatly summing up the objective of photojournalism. Lock’s exceptional work with the US armed forces, shot on 40 countries across 6 continents and spanning 2 decades, have earned him Military Photographer of the Year honors a record 7 times (for those reading this by email, the videos can be seen here): In the short feature above, Lock talks about what he looks for when he wants to capture war, the sacrifices that come with the profession, and the things that he appreciates about the job. He points out how a military journalist differs from a civilian journalist — in 2006, he earned a Bronze Star for an incident in Iraq where he put down his cameras to pick up a rifle and provide covering fire while others pulled a wounded soldier to safety — while still essentially having the common goal of trying to tell the story as best as they can. He uses Nikon simply because that is what the military issued him, specifically the D700 and D800.
Towards the end, he speaks about how it will be tough to hang his cameras when the time comes to leave the military (Via The Washington Times & Petapixel). Still, he says will always be thankful for being given the chance to leave a photographic legacy, his mark on this world.
When Lock received his 6th MPOY award last year (Q&A at Imaging Resource), CBS made this video about him. When CBS’s Bill Plante asked him to show his favorite photo, he said: “I haven’t taken it yet. Still waiting for that one.” (for those of you reading this by email, the news segment can be seen here) Go to full article: The Stunning Work of Jeremy Lock: 7 Time Military Photographer of the Year |
| Dubai: Stunning Dynamic Timelapse Photography Posted: 23 May 2013 03:14 PM PDT Dubai is a truly incredible city. It contains some of the most glorious skyscrapers, including the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world which is shown multiple times throughout the video, but most predominantly at 1:32. The piercing blue waters and myriad of colorful lights contribute to the breathtaking scenery that rivals that of any major U.S. city (for those of you reading this by email, the timelapse video can be seen here): In this timelapse, Duabi almost looks like an unreal place. The skyscrapers look like something described in a sci-fi book, and the colors have a punch that you typically only see in comics. The railway rides in particular make you feel like this is something out of the future. But Dubai is no fairy tale city. It’s simply an amazing feat of human engineering, a feature which this timelapse does an amazing job of capturing. It shows the power and grace of the city, and also how small we are in the grand scale of things, even though it is us who create cities in the first place. This is an example of a great timelapse. When you stop thinking about the technical aspects of how it was captured and get absorbed into the subject matter, when it makes you think about or feel something, that’s when you know you’ve captured something amazing.  Burj Khalifa: Tallest building in the world Equipment Used for These Sequences:
 At first glance you might think this was an artist’s rendering rather than a real place For Further Training on Time-lapse Photography:Check out this new COMPLETE guide (146 pages) to shooting, processing and rendering time-lapses using a dslr camera. It can be found here: Time-lapse Photography Guide Go to full article: Dubai: Stunning Dynamic Timelapse Photography |
| Muscle Car Photography Lighting Techniques Posted: 23 May 2013 02:03 PM PDT If you’ve ever tried to photograph a shiny object, you know how reflections can throw a wrench into your shoot. Likewise, if you’ve ever shot anything larger than a small group of people, you’re probably familiar with the challenges of illuminating wide, often multi-faceted areas. If you combine these two situations, you might start to get an idea of the challenges behind lighting and photographing an automobile. In this video, photographer Tim Wallace explains in great detail how to “shape” light around a vehicle – specifically, a high-end muscle car (for those of you reading this by email, the video can be seen here): Because the surfaces most cars are polished to a high gloss, it’s important to pay close attention to where the lights are showing in the finish. You should use clean, simple lighting accessories (soft boxes and strip lights) that can blend nicely and create attractive reflections, as opposed to barn doors, grids, or snoots which will create odd, awkward shapes. Carefully position your lights where their reflection will be minimized. In order to set this up effectively, you must compose your frame before setting up the strobes; leave it stationary on a tripod, and reference your lighting through the viewfinder (or live view). Because of the nature of reflections, they will look very different depending on what angle you view them from, so keep that angle invariable.
Be patient and experiment with an ideal placement of your lights that obscures the shapes of the sources, while also lighting the vehicle broadly, evenly, and with attention to the fine detailing that gives the car its unique personality. Most sedans or coupes will require three or four different lights to cover it; trucks and vans may require five or more. Strip lights are your friend (He uses a couple of Profoto 1′x6′) for these types of shoots – they cover a wide (or tall) area, while concentrating the flash and not spilling rays in every direction (they will light the car’s length, rather than the floor below it).
Once you get those principles down, automobile photography is just like any other product, except on a much larger scale. Ask yourself what it is about this vehicle that makes it more special than any other, and emphasize that strength with your lighting, composition, and choice of setting. Go to full article: Muscle Car Photography Lighting Techniques |
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