Findingviews
Picture sales and an open notebook of thoughts from Orginal Robart
Over the last few years there has been a trend towards the sale of orchids as house plants. It struck me that the beauty of the orchid is a classic photography target, that has now entered a great many homes. No need for hot houses, or treks to out of the way areas to see the fragile beauty of British orchids. They are here in our living rooms.
Time to take some photographs.
I too have orchids in the home. However photos in the home can often have rotten backgrounds. What looks good to use when we set up house rarely looks good in the background of a photograph. To get around this I set up a white reflector and some really bright pink lilies behind the orchids. This way I could fill up my viewfinder with colour or reflected light. No naff background – just something I could work with to create the right picture. If you don’t have a reflector don’t worry any bright or white cloth as a background will create an interesting effect. Try to get a colour that matches or contrasts well to your orchids. This will give the picture better balance.
Now that I had a set-up it was time to take photographs. I set up the camera for a close up, then varied low F numbers and a variety of flash angles and strengths. The important point here is that after each photograph I reviewed the picture and used to create a setting for the next. If I found it blurred I tried to steady things out with a gorillapod. I also could not help but noticing that I was getting good results by moving the camera position considerably. So a tip for taking this kind of photograph is to use a small tripod so that it can steady you when necessary but not restrict mobility so that those good angles can emerge. On saying that my 3 favourite pictures were taken at a similar angle. That though is the difference between the fun of the shoot and reflection on the finished article.
Here are 3 of the finished photographs. I hope you enjoy them and remember that some sterling photographic subjects can be found around the home.
I was recently looking for a good list of tips for a short landscape photography session for a course I was teaching and as a result came up with these. The tips are specifically not about camera functions, the members of my course owned a wide range of cameras and I needed tips that were specific to any level of camera technology.
1) Take advantage of foreground detail – something close to you can really help if you have objects of interest in it. A foreground object can lead the eye into the picture of assist in giving an idea of depth and scale.
2) Play with perspective. Lines that flow and carry your eyes through a photograph can be a big help in giving a sense of both perspective and emotional depth.
3) Generally avoid the sun, however a sun low on the horizon can help fill the sky and add emotion to a picture. This helps explain why there are so many sunset pictures.
4) Don’t worry if the light is dull when you take a photograph. This can always be improved in Photoshop providing the rest of the composition is good.
5) Using a tripod with a slow shutter speed can help you freeze a subject in your landscape whilst softening elements like clouds and moving water.
6) Watch out for the shadows of clouds. Shadows in the right place can add atmosphere. In the wrong place – they can just dull out or ‘smudge’ an image – by making it look dark or taking the emphasis off your main subject.
7) Experiment with low and high viewpoints. You can often get a better effect by looking along, up or down rather than restricting yourself to eye level.
Watch the skies – birds in the right place can really add to the atmosphere of a photograph.
9) Play with the focus when looking at a landscape. By putting different parts of the landscape in or out of focus you can gain some interesting effects.
10) Use details or features in the landscape to emphasise your main subject.
In the UK as a general rule we don’t see a great deal of snow. True there are some northerly areas where snow is pretty much guaranteed. However over the last couple of days pretty much all of the UK has been covered in snow. As per normal schools have been closed, roads have been closed and people are enjoying the joys of being at home during the day (also called I can’t believe what they putting on daytime TV these days).
Of course its also a chance to get some pictures in and of the snow.
Except that none of us actually now how to take pictures in the snow.
So here are some top tips for taking pictures in the snow.
- If you’re camera has a snow setting – use it. Snow is bright and contrasting environment. Having your camera set for this will help. If you don’t have a snow setting, then try a beach setting. Beaches and snowfields are oddly similar places. If your camera doesn’t support these scenes try reducing exposure compensation a little. This should help
- Use a flash to photograph falling snowflakes. You’ll need plenty of light to help fix the position of the snowflakes.
- Snow is very monochrome. Find something that has a bright colour to it and include this in your photograph. This will help create an interesting looking photograph. Red works well in the snow.
- Snow presents a rare and changing environment. Keep a camera handy. If you see something that looks interesting take the picture then and there. You don’t know how long the scene will last.
- Snow also means fewer people around. This means quieter looking streets and roads and this may lend itself to some interesting atmospheres for your photographs. Remember this if you thing you photograph seems ordinary. It may not look so mundane when you come to print the
photograph. - Beware of shadows! Snow is very good at picking up shadows and suddenly your pristine white piece of snow can have a dirty great shadow on it. Keep your eyes open to avoid this.
- Check your white balance. Use auto white balance or manually set the white balance by taking a picture of some snow. Whatever you do do not use a white balance set for artificial light this will put an unsightly colour cast on your images.
- Wrap up warm, snow is cold. Your hands will get cold when handling the camera so make sure you can keep warm.
Of course the most important thing – enjoy yourself.
I’ve recently been thinking about how to take better photographs of products – i.e. things that you want to sell. I’m suggesting that these suggestions are a bible – but I find bearing these points in mind does lead to better results.
- Keep the Camera Steady – use a tripod or a rest
- Keep lighting soft. avoid the build in flash on the camera and angle lights so that the product is well lit with getting any glare. Sunlight coming in from a window is useful but avoid a bright sun as this will increase the contrast and make a harsh image.
- Make use of post processing software (free examples include Google Picasa or Microsoft live gallery, pricier options include Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop) to enhance the photograph
- Make sure that background your product is resting is plain and is a neutral or complimentary colour to the product
- White or black make good backgrounds colours. Remember to use opposing colours. a dark object should be shot against black. a bright object is best shot against a black background.
- Use a colour scheme generator to work out the complimentary colours for the main colour in the product. a good colour scheme designer is : http://colorschemedesigner.com/
- Use a fill light. what this means have the main (soft) lights on the product. use another light to illuminate to the side or behind the product to give an even or fill light.
- Shoot from as straight onto the product as possible and zoom in close to the product. Zooming in close however does not apply when trying to place the product in context. What is important then is the composition of the whole scene
- Make sure the products best feature is shown off as much as possible in the photograph
- As there will be plenty of light set the ISO number low on the camera
- Adjust the f stop (f-number) to give as much or as little depth as needed – a low number is a high depth of field. higher numbers give medium to little depth of field. I tend to get good results with a low F number
- Remove shadows – adjust the position of the camera, product and lights to remove as much shadow as possible. If shadows to occur – remove later in post processing.
If you have other ideas or suggestions I’d love to hear from you.