The Photographers Eye! How to See the world like a Photographer!
People often say you take good pictures or where do you go to get good Photos? The real answer is that good photographs are all around you everywhere you go, you just don't see them. You need a photographer's eye. What is a Photographer's Eye? Its looking at scenes and things like a photographer. That's kind of a intangible or teachable thing if you think about it. Photography is an art and we should look at scenes like an artist not as a technical problem like most of us usually do thinking of aperture , shutter speed ,what lens to use. When we should think about composition, Point of View (POV) or most importantly STORY! So how do we get that untouchable thing that "X" factor? Well this is how I do it. I look at a lot of photographs! Is that simple. If you look at good or great photographs, lots of them , before long you will start looking at situations , scenes like a Photographer would with a Photographers Eye. So where do we get great photographs to look at? Well long time ago it was in editorial magazines like Life, Look, National Geographic. But now we have the internet! There are many photographic sites that you can go to and just explore photographs upon photographs that are just amazing! A the end of this blog I'll leave links to all the sites that I use. The site that I use the most and post most of my photo's in is "Flickr". Flickr is a social media outlet for Photographs. You can like and choose photo's as your favorite. Flicker has all sorts of groups that you can explore and they have an "Explore" Tab where they post the top 500 photographs each day from all over the world and you will be amazed at some of these photo's. You can search by almost any topic and Flickr can find all of the photo's that are related or tagged as for example landscape, seascape , dogs, cats ect... Another site that I use is "500 PX" This site is much like Flickr and like Flickr it is a world wide site. You can search various photo's from all over the globe in various categories. This site has what they call "Popular" photo's and they are rated on how many views and likes and Favorites and selects the best photo's in each categorie every day. With these sites you can truly see some fantastic photographs and figure out how and maybe why the photographer chose the point of view or how they looked at the scene and in time you will start looking at everything different. Better! With the Photographers Eye! Keep Shooting! Link to Flickr: https://www.flickr.com Link to 500 PX: https://500px.com/login?r=%2Fflow The photographers eye by Lucas Vipieski Three Legged Monsters! "Tripods"
Tripods come in all sorts and sizes. They are made of all kinds of materials from aluminum , plastic, carbon fiber, even wood if you can find one old enough. Aluminum is the industry standard and there are many really good aluminum tripods. Carbon Fiber is the new kid on the block and they are lighter in weight with the same strength as their aluminum counterparts. I have many tripods most are aluminum and one is of carbon fiber. Aluminum is cheaper and for my money it is the best choice for most people. Unless you are carrying your tripod for long distances aluminum is the best choice in my opinion. As the saying goes "Size Matters". I personally have tripods that can reach as high as 7 feet and as small as 6 inches high. But not only size should be considered, the weight that the tripod can support. No matter what tripod you pick you must be able to support your most heavy camera combination. So if you just have a small point and shoot or mirrorless camera system a small tripod will do. But if you have a big boy combination with heavy lenses then you must go big. How your camera connects to your tripod is another thing you must think about when getting a tripod. We've talked about size, material, of the legs what about the tripod head that sit atop the legs of the tripod. There are many types of heads but the two basic design are Pan and Tilt and Ball Head. The pan and tilt head does exactly as it says it pans back and forth and tilts up and down. The ball head has a more versatile system where everything sits on a ball and can be moved in any direction and angle. I use the ball head for all of my tripods. Atop of the tripod head is the part that hooks up the tripod to the camera. Long time ago you just screwed the camera onto the mounting plate of the tripod head but that was a pain. Now they have quick disconnecting mounting hardware that a plate hooks to your camera and stays on and a mounting bracket hooks to your tripod head and with a quick move of a lever the camera is secure and with another move its off. There are a few styles of quick disconnects the industry standard is Arca Swiss but there are others like Manfrotto quick disconnects. I use a Arca Swiss type of bracket that is called an "L" bracket on all of my cameras. As the name suggest it is a bracket that is shaped like an "L" and fits your camera. The beauty of this bracket is that I can be taking a photo in Landscape and with a flip of a lever I can turn my camera to Portrait mode with out changing my tripod position. Believe it or not I have just skimmed the surface of the "Three Legged Monster" There are many things that we could talk about. For me the main thing I want to convey is that if you have a tripod and don't use it you should give it a try. Using a tripod can slow down your process and have you taking and thinking more about what your photographing instead of just the point and shoot mentality that we have gotten use to. Here are some photo's of different tripods and "L" Brackets. Video Link to Tripod Legs:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDAYV4sqx2A Video Link on Tripod Heads:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih_okFNx5sM
Keep Shooting!
On Left :From Left to right, Trail Pix Tripod Clamp, Arca Swiss Mounting Bracket and Plate, Table top Tripod with iPhone Adapter and iPhone, Nikon D7000 and Really Right Stuff "L" Bracket Below: Camera on Tripod in Landscape mode using "L" Bracket Below Left: Camera on Tripod in Portrait Mode using "L" Bracket
Groupies! Photography Clubs / Organizations
One day I was looking up friends from the past on Facebook and found one of my former Air Force friends and found that he lived in my town and by stalking his profile I found that he was one of the officers of a local photography club. Before that time I had not even thought of a photography club. I immediately contacted him to find out when the next meeting was. When I got to the meeting and started listening to the members talk and interact I was in heaven. These people are talking my talk , they were enthusiastic like I am. I was so pumped up after that first meeting that I'm writing about it now 3 years later. Photography Clubs/Organizations give you a place where you can learn and grow. Before I joined my club most of my growing in photography came from books or the web and trying to copy some technique or image that someone else had done. Most of my photographs were taken at or around my house but after joining I started venturing out more. My club has monthly workshops where we learn a new technique or go to a place to explore and photograph. We learn different types of photography from Portraits, Macro, Wildlife, Landscape. We learn about post processing and HDR (High Dynamic Range). So in short you can expand your photography horizons just by being an active member. The people you meet in a club are from all walks of life and different photographic levels of experience and you can learn something from all of them no matter if they are a beginner or a professional photographer. The photography club gets you out of your comfort zone "photography wise" and puts you into a uncomfortable place where you can grow. My first year in the club during a "Help Portrait" event they let me shoot portraits with studio lights. I was very nervous and had not shot many portraits especially with lights. I really didn't know what I was doing but I kind of faked it and found that I really liked doing portraits and since then I have done everything from family portraits to head shots to a bridal shoot. Everyone in the club is very helpful and is more than willing to show you how or explain something to you. Most of the time they can't wait to tell you how they got the shot or the story behind the shot. And then there is the people you meet! Its great to go shooting with like minded people from all walks of life and the friendships that you make can make are priceless. As a "photography nut" equipment is another part of the process that can be confusing. Like most photographers i have GAS! No not that kind! GAS is (Gear Acquisition Syndrome). The act of trying to have the next best and greatest thing hoping it will give you that great award winning shot. In a club you can try out new lenses or flashes without having to buy them to find out later that you don't like and your stuck with something that you didn't want. So its a great place to learn about new and different equipment. Products like books, prints, Frames are another plus. You learn where the deals are and maybe see things that you haven't even thought of like canvas or metal prints. You may be able to get discounts by being a member of the club at local camera shop. So go out and join your local Photography or Camera Club and expand your Photography horizons! These are examples of the different kinds of photo's that I've taken in or because of workshops that my photography club held. Keep Shooting !
Tools of the Trade "Camera's"
The first system that I use is what I call my “Big Boy Camera” Is a DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) Camera System. This type of system is the “Industry Standard” for modern professional photography. My main camera is the Nikon D800 a 36mp full frame sensor professional camera body. My backup “Big Boy Camera” is Nikon D7000 a 16mp cropped sensor camera body. Both Camera body’s are awesome cameras and I love to use them. I have good “glass” or lenses that I can interchange between both body’s. My favorite all around lens is the Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 lens. It falls mostly in the focal range that I shoot in and is on my camera 99.9 % of the time. I have a Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 which is a great lens for portraits and all around photography. Its a big heavy lens so toting it around for long peroids of time is a chore but a fantastic lens. I have a Nikon 18-35mm f3.5-4.5 lens that I don’t use a lot but is a fairly good lens and is inexpensive. I have a Rokinon 14mm f2.8 for fisheye shots nightscapes etc… This is a very sharp lens its manual focus and inexpensive. For macro photography I have a Nikon 60mm f2.8 macro lens that was inexpensive but very good lens.
This “Big Boy Camera” System is the system that I take to Portrait photo shoots, Landscapes that I’m going directly to like waterfalls , sunrises , sunsets. I also use this to do shoot events like birthday parties, retirement parties and the such. I use it for studio work when I do product or still life work.
The other system that I use is a Mirrorless system. One of the major advantage of this type of system is that its smaller , lighter but still has great quality. It has more bells and whistles than my “Big Boy Camera” and is a real fun camera to shoot with. The system I use is a Sony A6000 a 24mp Crop sensor camera body. I have a Sony18-105mm F4 Lens this is a great walk around lens. I also have the Sony 10-18mm f4 wide angel lens. This is a super lens sharp and gives a great wide perspective and great for Landscapes. I have a kit lens that came with the camera a 16-55mm which is a 35mm equivalent to 25-75mm in my favorite focal range. Another cool thing about this camera is that I can use some of my old film camera lenses and some of my nikon lenses like the macro on this body. When I use these lenses the camera is in full manual mode for some this might be a big deal but I grew up on fully manual cameras so this is really kind of fun.
The mirrorless Camera system is what I use when I do my backpacking because it is lightweight and so versatile . My “Big Boy Camera” with the 24-70mm lens weighs 7 lbs. My Mirrorless camera with the 10-18mm and the 18-105mm Filters and Bag wight 5 lbs. So Hiking I get more bang for my buck. This is a fun camera and fits well in my hand and is my carry around with me everywhere camera. Maybe in a later blog I’ll go over the pro’s and cons between DSLR and Mirrorless systems. Well that about covers my camera systems of course I didn’t talk about strobes or lighting at all and Tripods ! You know I can do a whole blog on just tripods. Maybe later.
I have a couple of other camera’s that I use from time to time. The first one is a point and shoot camera (Lumix) that was converted into a infra-red camera. Infra-red gives a new perspective or should I say look. I’ve but an example of what this little camera can do in this post. Notice how all the greens turn white giving a snowy look. I don’t use this much but when I do Its a real stunning change to a dull scene.
The last camera that I use mainly when Im backpacking is a waterproof point and shoot camera (Fugi XP) that can give a real cool perspective of a waterfall from underwater or very close to the water surface without worrying about the camera getting wet. Well thats about it maybe Ill do some blogs on these unique camera’s.
Keep Shooting!
Tools of the Trade " Filters"Filters are becoming a thing of the past. But for a landscape photographer they are one of his best tools. I am a photographer who started in the film era where there was no "Chimping" or "Photoshop" where things could be corrected after the fact. You had to get it as right as you could "in camera." Most filters nowadays can be duplicated in some sort of editing program like Photoshop or Lightroom. The problem here is the more that you do in post- production, the more the image is damaged. My goal is to get it as good as I can "in camera" and then take it to Photoshop or Lightroom to do final touch up. I consider this to be the best way to get good photographs.
There are all shapes and sizes of filters. They come in round, square, screw mount, and filter holder systems. Filters help the photographer let you see what he sees. When I have unwanted light, like in a sunrise or sunset, I use a graduated neutral density filter to tone down the brighter part of the frame so I can pick up some detail in the foreground. Without the filter you get the foreground under exposed and the background over exposed. So we use filters to trick the camera. There are all types of filters. I mentioned a neutral density filter, but there are many others from polarizers, UV filters, and colored filters. The main filters I use are neutral density filters that darken all or parts of the photo without changing the color. There are different types of neutral density filters -- plain, graduated, soft graduated, and hard graduated. These filters help you take photos when the light is very difficult to get the correct exposure, like with sunrises and sunsets. They can also bring out detail in flat light. The sunset below was taken with a graduated neutral density filter attached to tone down the bright sky and bring out detail in the foreground. Polarizers are the other type of filters I use. Polarizers are like sunglasses for your lens. When you put on a pair of sunglasses, notice how the grass, sky, and things just pop? The same thing happens with this filter. It will take the glare off of water and shiny things. It will also enhance the sky, making it bluer that you normally see it. The polarizer is the only filter that cannot be duplicated in post-production.
I use two different styles of filters -- screw-on filters and ones that require filter holders. My main filter system is made by Lee Filters. I use their filter holders and filters. This type of filter can be very expensive, but it's because they are handmade. Here is a link to a YouTube video of the Lee Filter Factory -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMu_m203YaY It's very cool to see how they are made. Filters can enhance your photos if you give them a chance.
Keep shooting!!!
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