Yong Sak Photography Portal

PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS AND TECHNIQUES

Wonder why your photos looked dull and unattractive? Wonder what could be done to improve the photographs?

In this session, I will periodically share with you tips and techniques on photography to enhance and improve your photos.

You can also contribute by writing to me and share your experiences and tips.

With your permission, I will upload your views for sharing and we shall make this a fun and learning site for all!

NEW! Tips #20: How To Improve Your Photographs

Have you ever wondered why your photographs fail to attract viewers' eyes and you are not so sure on what to improve? There are 3 simple and basic criteria to help make your photographs more attractive.

1) Proper exposure: It is important that your photographs are properly exposed, so that your viewers' eyes will feel comfortable looking at your photographs (not unless for some creative shots where under or over-exposure is deliberate). To better achieve this, it will be helpful to understand the relationship between ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed. You can read more of this from "Basic Fundamentals".

2) Sharp Image: Unless deliberate, it will be better if your images turn out sharp (especially at the point/area you focus). For example, in portrait shots, it is important that the eyes of the model are sharp and in focus. Camera shake and incorrect focusing technique are the common problems encountered by many beginners. If the shutter speed is too slow, try using a tripod or leaning on something to ensure that the camera is firm and steady. Ensure that you "focus lock" your camera if there is a need to recompose after focusing.

3) Composition: It is worth exploring shooting at different angles to achieve a more attractive photograph. Rule of Third (Tip #9) is a powerful tool and a common technique used by many photographs. Combining Rule of Third with different angles approach can produce very interesting photographs which can stand out from the rest!

I believe you can achieve fantastic results with the 3 basic criteria mentioned above. Photography skills cannot be improved by just reading. Grab your camera now and start shooting!


Tips #19: Avoid Shadow Cast Caused By Lens Hood.

Although lens hood is an essential equipment which helps to minimize glare and lens flare, it can sometime pose some unwanted problem if you are not careful. Believe the example below is not unfamiliar to you.

Notice the shadow casted at the bottom of the photograph? This arises when you are using your camera built in flash together with the lens hood attached. This problem is more prominent when using a wide angle lens. Thus the shadow is actually casted by the lens hood.

To get over this problem, you can either use an external flash gun or remove the lens hood when using built in flash.

Tips #18: How To Avoid Blurry Photographs Caused By Camera Shake.

Have you wonder why some of your favorite photographs blurry and you are sure that the focus point was spot on and locked.

There are many reasons for this and camera shake is the common problem. Camera shake arises when the focal length is equal or more than the denominator of your shutter speed value. For example, if your focal length is 50mm, your shutter speed must be faster than 1/50 sec to avoid camera shake.

Observe the photo on the left, it was taken at focal length 85mm with shutter speed of 1/8 sec. With these settings, you can see that camera shake is obvious.
The photo on the right was taken at focal length 85mm with shutter speed 1/125 sec and thus avoiding camera shake.
 

When you notice that your shutter speed is too slow, you can either use a higher ISO or use a bigger aperture to overcome camera shake problem. You can visit "Basic Photography Fundamentals" to understand the relationship between ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed. Try it out yourself and say goodbye to blurry photographs!

Tip #17: How To Check For Sharpness From Your DSLR LCD.

One of the advantage of using a DSLR is the ability to view your photographs right after taking them.  One of the common problems encountered is the photographs looks fine in the DSLR LCD, but are blur when viewed from the computer monitor.

This is mainly due to the limited resolution and size of the DSLR LCD. One easy way to overcome this problem is to zoom into the photographs to the area of focus when viewing. For example after taking a portrait, zoom into the eyes of the model to ensure that they are sharp. By applying these simple steps, you can check your photographs for sharpness on the spot and retake immediately if required.

Tip #16: Simple Steps to Shoot Panoramas

With today's technology, it is relatively easy to shoot panoramas. Below are some simple steps you could try and have some fun:

Step 1: Use the lowest ISO rating possible for good quality picture.

Step 2: Set White Balance adapting to the lighting condition/situation. Avoid using Auto White Balance for consistency.

Step 3: Set your camera to Manual mode and do your metering for a correct exposure.

Step 4: Look through your viewfinder and compose your sence (at the middle section of the panorama). With that, focus on the sence using AF and switch to Manual focus. This would render a consistent focal plane in your panorama picture.

Step 5: Once ready, start shooting before light condition changes with efficient overlapping between each shots. Else stitching the shots together using softwares would be difficult.

It is important that the lens is pivoted at the same point between shots to avoid perspective distortion when stitching. Would recommend you to shift only your body leaving the front of the lens pvioted at the same point.

With the pictures taken, you can easily perform stitching using PhotoShop or other softwares you are familiar with!

Tip #15: Making Use of Long Exposure At Night

It is very easy to capture the nice and beautiful light trails as shown in the photographs below! You will need a sturdy tripod and a cable release (see "Essential Equipment') to attain a sharp image. Moving vehicles with headlights on, could be your target subject of interest.

1) Once subject of interest is located, mount your camera to the tripod and attach the cable release.
2) Select the lowest ISO your camera could offer.
3) Focus on a prominent point, example a building, bridge, etc. (The selected aperture under this condition would be small, thus need not worry too much on acquiring a shallow depth of field which would blur the surroundings)
4) You could set your camera to Manual, Aperture Priorty/Av mode or Shutter Priority/Tv mode. As long as you could obtain a shutter speed of around 20 to 30 seconds.
5) Start shooting and keep practising!

Tip #14: Taking From Different Angles

Many begineers will normally start off with taking photographys at their eye level. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but a change in perpective may garner a more favourable outcome. Thus when you are out there taking photographys, try getting low by kneeling down or get on top of a buildings to take your subject of interest from different angles and perspective!
 

Tip #13: The Auto-Focus(AF) System

Have you ever wonder why sometimes your AF System does not seems to work? The problem is AF system uses the difference in contrast to work. Thus the AF system is unable to focus on uniform tone such as clear blue sky or a wall with only white background, unless there is a point or subject for AF system to focus on.

Now that you know why this problem arises, wouldn't it will be easier for you to work around it?


Tip #12: Tips For Night Photography

There are alot of nice scenes to capture especially if you are living in a city where there are many cars, street lamps, lightings on buildings, etc. In general rule of thumb, below are a few things to take note in order to capture a satisfied night photograph.

a) A firm tripod is a MUST!
b) Use the lowest available ISO setting to maintain superior image quality
c) Use small aperture (at least f/9)

With above settings, it is not surprising that you have garner a slow shutter speed for a proper exposure. Take this chance to include light trails to make your photographs more interesting.


Tip #11: Framing

Framing is a good technique (which myself is in favour of) to make your photographs more interesting. It is like adding a photo frame around your subject of interest. In this way, viewers can easily identify which part of the photograph you which to emphaize on. It is up to your creativity to locate the possible frames available around your subject of interest. Thus, do keep your eyes wide open during your next outdoor shooting trip!

Tip #10: Restore Color Saturation During A Bright And Sunny Day.

During a bright sunny day, you may observed that the details, as well as color saturation and intensity of the subjects of interest will be greatly washed out due to glare.

This is when a polarizing filter will come in handy where polarised light would be block, restoring the subject's color intensity.

Do note that the use of polarizing filter will reduce light entering the lens by 1 to 2 stops. Thus, do take note of the resultant shutter speed to avoid blurring due to camera shake.


Tip #9: Applying Rule Of Thirds

When taking a picture, composition is the next important thing to bring out the picture and attracts viewers' eyes. Meaning how to place the subjects in the picture to make it looks more interesting and attractive. Believe you always heard Rule of Thirds, and what that means? Please see the picture below for illustration.

You will choose to place your subjects along the red lines in the picture. Try avoid placing the subject of interest in the center, as that will make the photo less attract and dull. Below are a few pictures showing you example of Rule of Thirds. Although is this a common and powerful tool used by many photographers, it does not mean you have to apply it 100%. It is all up to your creativity and needs.
 

Tip #8: Shoot With A Photography Buddy

It is recommendable to go outdoor shooting with a buddy. There are many advantage to it, example, your buddy could help to give feedbacks on your photographys, keep you accompany and motivates you along the way and  many more.

Have you ever thought of asking your buddy to be the main subject in your photographs? Have you ever come across a nice scenery with beautiful sunset and when you take the picture, you felt something is amiss? This is where your buddy can help to enhance and make your photographs more eye-catching by becoming part of the composition! Try it!

Tip #7: Let Colors Work For You

To make a photo eye-catching, you can make use of colors to work for you! Contrasting colors compliments and works well if applied correctly. For exmaple, you can have red with green, yellow with blue, etc. So keep your eyes open to look out for contrasting and saturated colors!

Tip #6: How To Achieve A Silhouette

A silhouette simply means the subject of interest in dark, giving only the outline and shadow. Such technique could add a special touch to your photographs and make them more interesting, having a sense of mystery in it. :)

To achieve this, just ensure that the light source is behind the subject of interest and you are metering at the environment or light source behind the main subject. Avoid having the sun or metering at the sun behind the main subject, as you may not only end up over-exposing your photograph and more importantly, damage the sensor of your camera!

Tip #5: How To Achieve A Deep Blue Sky

Have you ever wonder how to some photos from postcard, travel images, etc produce very nice, deep blue sky? How do photographers cut down unwanted reflections from the subjects?

Well, this can be easily achieve by using a polarizing filter. With this filter, you are able to cut down reflections which in turn produce a more saturated image which adds a special touch to your photographs.

When attached to your lens, you can rotate the outer ring of the filter and observe different results depending on how much you rotate. Generally, the polarizing filter is most effective when the sun is 90° angle to your subject. The filter will have minimal or no effect when the sun is directly behind your main subject.
 

 Tip #4: Taking Waterfall With "Silky" Effect

To achieve "silky" effect when taking waterfall is simple. The only additional accessories you need is a tripod and the most a ND (Neutral Density) filter.

Firstly, mount your camera to your tripod. A tripod is required as the shutter speed got to be long. Select the lowest possible ISO. Set your camera to Aperture Priority and adjust the aperture until you get a shutter speed of around 1 second. If your shutter speed is too short, you may not achieve the "silky" effect. If shutter speed is too long, very likely you will risk overexposure and blurring due to movement in surrounding.

ND filter is used when the light condition is too strong and unable to achieve shutter speed of about 1 second even with the smallest aperture. I will not recommend using Shutter Priority, select shutter speed of 1 seconds and let the camera decide on the aperture. This is because due to lens limitations, you may not be able to get the desire aperture to achieve the correct exposure.
 

Tip #3: Panning

Ensure that the shutter speed is less then the focal length to achieve "camera shake". I will recommend using Shutter Priority/Tv mode with shutter speed set to 1/15sec. Of course, you need the subject of interest to be moving from your left to right or vice versa, and not directly towards or away from you. Aim the camera at the subject of interest. Ensure the main subject is at the center of your view finder and follow its movement while pressing the "shoot" button. Ensure that your camera shooting mode is set to Continuous. You will get the subject of interest sharp and the surrounding blur. This technique needs alot of practice and luck!. Enjoy!

Using this technique can help to produce very nice and interesting pictures. Be on alert to look out for puddle of still water and calm river.

Tip #1: Differential Focusing

For this technique, the subject of interest is sharp, leaving others (usually another subject behind or in front of the subject of interest) blur. In this way, viewer's attention will be caught by the subject of interest with lesser distraction from the back and foreground.

You ought to have a large aperture to achieve this and focus only on the subject of interest. Normally this technique can be easily achieve with longer focal length.
 

Want to build up your photography fundamentals?
Please visit "Basic Fundamentals" and find out what I have for you!