Pink Tulip

Spring has officially sprung and with it flower beds around Long Island are beginning to show signs of color.  It’s early yet, but soon beautiful flowers will be in bloom everywhere.  Flowers make great subjects and are highly sought after as fine art.  Want to get that winning shot? Here’s how.

A Bug's Life

First thing you need to do is get your equipment together.  Gather the lenses that you want to use, your tripod and have your flash unit and diffuser nearby if fill light becomes necessary.  Most photographers tend to ditch the tripod, but if you are looking for that really sharp image you may want to adjust your thinking.  If your shooting anything less than a 125th of a second or you catch a breezy day you are going to get blur without a tripod.  A tripod can assure that at whatever speed or condition you are shooting, your image will be sharp as a tack!

How will you frame your subject?  Consider this question before you start shooting away.  Are you looking to fill the frame with the flower or will just part of the flower fill the frame?  What is the most interesting part of the flower?  The petals?  The stem?  An insect?  Choose your angle too.  It is much more interesting to photograph a flower from an angle that is unusual.  You might have to get down low or get up real high.  Either way, think outside the box when choosing your angle.  Consider your background and foreground.  Make sure you don’t have distracting or competing objects that will take away from the focal point of your subject.

Aperture.  This is critical in photographing flowers.  Understand that a wider aperture decreases the depth of field (the smaller the numbers, the wider the depth of field).

Most cameras have a macro setting which allows you to get a little closer to the flower while blurring out the foreground and background.

Macro Mode Icon

If you have a macro lens, this is the time to use it.  If a macro lens is one of your desires, shop through Long Island Photo Gallery photography equipment pages.

~ Joanne

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White Iris

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If you’re  looking for something new to do with your photos, here’s a great idea! Try converting some of your favorite images into fine art posters.  It is amazing fun to turn an ordinary photo into a stunning piece of wall decor by adding a simple white border around the image and a caption along the bottom edge.  Here’s how to do make a 24″ x 36″  poster in Photoshop.

First, choose a beautiful image.  I’ve chosen an image of a red boat that was resting along the shore of Davis Park on Fire Island.Second, open the image in Photoshop.  Since we are looking to create a final overall size of 24″ x 36″ we need to CROP the image so that it fits inside a 24″ x 36″ canvas.  Grab your crop tool and crop the image to 19″ x 34″.  This will allow the canvas to hang over the image by 1″ on the top, right and left side and 3″ along the bottom.

Next, build your canvas out one side at a time.  1.- Choose ‘Image’, ‘Canvas Size’, Change the height to 20″, click the bottom / middle anchor, choose the canvas color that you want and hit OK.  2.- Choose ‘Image’, ‘Canvas Size’, Change the width to 35″, click the left / middle anchor, choose the canvas color that you want and hit OK. 3.- Choose ‘Image’, ‘Canvas Size’, Change the width to 36″, click the right / middle anchor, choose the canvas color that you want and hit OK.  4.- Finally, Choose ‘Image’, ‘Canvas Size’, Change the height to 24″, click the top / middle anchor, choose the canvas color that you want and hit OK.

Time to add a caption along the bottom edge.  First, create a new layer.  Next, select your Type Tool, choose your font and size and type your caption inside the wide border along the bottom edge.  Center our text.  To add your name, create a new layer, select the Type Tool, choose your font and size and type your name under the caption.  Center your name under the caption.

Finally, flatten your image and ‘Save As’ to add it to your image library without losing your original image.  Here is my result.

Posters make great wall art and even better gifts!

View more Fine Art Posters at Long Island Photo Gallery.

Because I love photography, I am always looking for new ways to kick start my photographic creativity juices.  It is easy for me to get stuck in a rut with my personal photography style or subject matter.

Here I am at the end of a remarkable summer.  I’ve expanded my personal photographic knowledge and my artistic reach, yet I am yearning for something new to do with my camera.

When I get like this I like to challenge myself.  Did I mention that I hate to work alone?  Here’s my creativity challenge to myself and to all of you. Pick a task below.  Follow the directions.  Get out the camera and start shooting.

1.) Choose an inert object (wood, glass, metal, fabric …). For the next 30 days, take 30 macro pictures of 30 different inert objects from your chosen category .  Answer this question: How did your creativity grow?

2.) Most photographers like to be behind the lens.  This task involves flipping the camera around. For the next 30 days take 30 different self portraits of yourself.  Answer this question: Have you gained a new prospective about being in front of the lens?

3.) Choose a busy setting or spot in your yard. For the next 30 days take 30 pictures of that busy setting or spot at the same time each day.  Answer this question: Were the trees really that green 30 days ago?

4.) Choose your favorite 30 images that you have taken over the past 30 days. Convert them to black and white using your favorite editing software.  Answer this question: How did your conversion skills improve from image 1 to image 30?

And finally,

5.) From your home, jump in your car each day and drive 5 minutes in any direction once a day for 30 days. Take a picture of anything.  Answer this question: Do your neighbors think your nuts?

I hope you choose one of these creativity challenges.  In fact, choose one of each of the challenges over the next 5 months and you should see your artistic production improve by leaps and bounds.  These challenges are the stepping stones to turn a picture into fine art, from ordinary to extraordinary.

By, Joanne Henig

LongIslandPhotoGallery.com

“Community With Opportunity”

The best way to keep your camera lenses clean is to, first and foremost, keep your lens caps on when your lens is not in use.  When changing lenses, be sure to immediately cap the lens after you remove them from the camera body.

The most important part of the lens is the rear part of the lens, the part that is closest to the camera’s sensors.  If any dust accumulates on the back part of the lens, it is more likely to cause problems with the way the sensors capture your image.  It is important, of course, to keep the front of the lens clean too.  But the cleanliness of the back of the lens is much more critical.

Now, before you start rubbing your lenses clean with a micro-fiber cloth, stop!  If there is anything on the lens that is abrasive and you begin to use a micro-fiber cloth to rub it off, you could actually be doing more harm than good.  You could be scratching the lens!

Experts recommend using two simple tools.  A blower and a lens pen.  Both are inexpensive and available online or at your local camera supply shop.

Step one is to use the blower.  The blower, like the Giotto’s Rocket Air Blaster gently removes any dust or particles from the surface of your lens.  It is simple to use and takes about 3.5 seconds of your time to manually blast air over the surface of your lens, blowing dust and other particles away.

Step two and three is to use the lens pen.  A lens pen has two functions.  One side of a lens pen is a small, gentle brush and the other side is a small, carbon coated felt pad.  Use the brush side first to remove any larger particles from the lens that perhaps were to difficult for the blower could not remove.  Then, use the padded side to rub the glass of the lens to a crystal clear finish.  These two steps takes about 10 seconds of your time.

Step four is to use the blower one more time to remove any residual that the carbon coated felt pad may leave behind.  Your done!  Put the cap back on your lens.

Reserve those micro-fiber clothes for emergency use only.  The micro-fiber cloth is a quick way to solve an emergency, but you should finish the job when you get back to your studio using the 1-2-3-4 steps outlined above.

Happy cleaning!

It may look easy, but portrait photography requires more than a point and click approach.  The photographer wants to capture the physical features of the subject or subjects and inject the mood of the moment into the photograph.  So how do you get the subject to give you a natural look and how do you capture the mood of the moment?

You may want to try to meet with your subject once before the photo shoot.  As you meet your subject or subjects take a moment to get to know each other.  Ask yourself, ‘What are the features or traits that capture the individuality of this person?’  Is it the hair, they eyes, the smile or an athletic frame?

Don’t begin photographing your subject until he or she is comfortable.  A good sense of humor may be useful to relax your subject or even a general Q & A conversation to get the subject comfy with you and the whole idea of having their picture taken.  Keep the conversation going even as you are clicking away.  And reinforce how beautiful they look, and how great things look from your point of view.  Let’s face it, there are lots of people who hate to have their picture taken.

But don’t you get too relaxed!  Remember to continually check the background, foreground, lighting, exposure and the subject’s appearance.  You must be in control of the session.  Don’t let a bad background ruin a pretty face.

Make sure you are prepared with backup batteries, flash, tripod, memory cards and lighting reflectors if necessary.  Of course, the best light for photographing individuals is natural lighting.  Natural lighting easily helps bring out the natural features of the subject.

In some instances, get adventurous.  Especially with small children or families.  What I mean is, don’t hesitate to use props such as hats or a beach ball in your photo.  Matching clothing can also be quite appealing, say white shirts and denim bottoms for the entire family or the newly engaged couple.  Nice.

Keep composition a part of your image.  Try not to shoot the subjects dead center of your frame.  Use your background and natural surroundings to help compose a beautiful picture.

Now that you know some of the basics, go ahead and find a willing subject.  Have some fun with the camera, props, nature and your subject.

It’s that exciting time of year again, Fourth of July.  Time to get some great photos of fireworks.  Here are a few tips from a recent article from Digital Photography School.

1.) Use a Tripod:  A tripod is critical when shooting fireworks because you will be using longer shutter speeds to capture the movement of the fireworks.  But you must keep the camera still so that you do not capture the movement of the camera.

2.) Remote Shutter Release: Having a remote shutter release helps to eliminate any movement of the camera.  Do some research online to find the right accessory for your camera.  If you do not have a remote shutter release, try using the camera’s self-timer.  This is a tricky way to go, but if the fireworks are going off fast and furious, you should be able to capture a few good shots.

3.) Frame Your Shot: Sounds so basic, but how do you frame a shot when you haven’t seen the subject yet?  Do some planning.  Get to the firework location early so that you can find a good, unobstructed view point to setup your camera and tripod.  Have your lenses, background and foreground picked out before the fireworks start going off.  Have your desired focal lengths planned out.  It’s harder to take zoomed in / tight shots, but if you have your lens trained on the right part of the sky, you just might catch a great burst of color up close.

4.) Aperture: Fireworks emit a whole lot of light.  So you don’t need a fast lens.  Digital Photography School recommends shooting between an f/8 to f/16.

5.) Shutter Speed: If you have a ‘bulb’ setting on your camera you may want to use that.  This setting allows you to manually hold the shutter open (with a remote shutter release) from the moment the firework is launched until it bursts in the sky.  Usually a few seconds of open shutter speed.  If you don’t have a remote shutter release or the ‘bulb’ setting then you can set the shutter speed to be open between 1 and 6 seconds, depending on the height of the burst.  Fireworks are bright, so be careful not to over expose.

6.) ISO: Set the ISO to 10o and things should go beautifully.

7.) No Flash Required: Let the fireworks light up your foreground, background and night sky.

8.) Manual Mode:  This is the best way to control your shot because you have complete control of you are doing all the thinking for your camera.  Manual exposure and manual focus.

9.) The Early Bird Catches The Best Shots:  Fireworks emit a lot of smoke and haze.  So get your shots in early to avoid obstruction from this unavoidable side effect.

Happy shooting and have a safe and happy Fourth of July everyone!