Photo Tutorial: Back to Basics/Improving Our Photos

[SM1992]

Here are a couple that contrast the addition of people in the image.

In my early days of taking photos, I used to wait until there was no one around to take my shot.
I'm still like that! I still want to have my "postcard" image ... especially of an iconic subject.

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But I've come to appreciate that when something or someone is in a shot, be it a loved one or a stranger, there is added perspective to the image.

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These days, I do try and include loved ones to my images.
But that means I rarely (never) share those shots on social.

I am also a "no one in my pictures" kind of person. But I must say I really like the shot with the group on the side.
It adds visual interest to the photo!

 

[klmall]

A few years back we were touring the Biltmore House in Asheville, NC and my first shot from a big stairway leading down to the huge courtyard in front of the house seemed so plain without focus.

And I didn't like the wall on the right and the lack of detail of the beautiful fence and gates so I walked down and tried again. I zoomed in a bit and tried to focus on the detailed gateway area and fence.

Though not quite my perfect shot for this I do find it interesting.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

A few years back we were touring the Biltmore House in Asheville, NC and my first shot from a big stairway leading down to the huge courtyard in front of the house seemed so plain without focus.

And I didn't like the wall on the right and the lack of detail of the beautiful fence and gates so I walked down and tried again. I zoomed in a bit and tried to focus on the detailed gateway area and fence.

Though not quite my perfect shot for this I do find it interesting.

It’s funny because your subject in the first picture is so clear, and the eye is drawn over to the left so well, that I didn’t even notice the wall on the right until you mentioned it! I take it you were on a balcony or something - no sense falling off trying to get the shot without the wall in it, lol. I like the fencing detail in your second shot, as well - clearly it’s what you were trying to show. (I have some similar ones if I can find them.)

 

[Pea-n-Me]

This is an interesting one. Clearly my subject is the drink. But then you have this sprig of something and a little glowing Mickey head in there, too, which, I think in this particular picture, becomes more of the focus/subject than the drink itself.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Let’s see some more examples from those reading along!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Found them.

Here I was playing around with my subject by focusing on different things in the same shot.

Here, my subject is the fence itself. You can see all the years of wear on it which really brings out its character.



Exact same shot but focus is on the church behind the fence instead.



Nice examples, to me, of having fun while out there shooting and trying out different things

Standing in same location but focusing more on the building’s detail.







Again, standing in the same location but going for the iconic buildings.

ETA these were shot with a phone camera and had minimal editing.

Not sure how successful I was, but I do love the view of the city buildings in the distance. I had a little fun shooting there for a few minutes after breakfast one morning.



Maybe better here (?) but I don’t like that lightpost in the middle. Thoughts?

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Next up: Composition

Composition is a big subject to tackle, so we’re going to start slow, and break it up a bit.

But first, what is photo composition?

Definition: Photo composition is simply how a photographer arranges visual elements within the frame of their photo.

Why do we need to think about composition?

Well, if we strive to take good photos, composing them well helps us create effective, really enjoyable photos.

Here are some resources to look at before proceeding.

This is a nice tutorial that reviews things like color, texture, light, shapes, tone, patterns, balance, simplicity and other principles.

https://photographylife.com/composition-in-photography

This video includes rule of thirds, center elements, leading lines, frame within a frame, repositioning the camera, the rule of space, filling the frame,

It will be helpful to look these over, and then we can look at examples using our own pictures.

We can also look at individual things like light or rule of thirds, etc.

Remember that all of these things are guidelines, and that creative autonomy always sits with the photographer. A popular saying in photography is that “rules are made to be broken” BUT it’s good to understand these components of composition so that we can take a variety of interesting photos.

I remember when I was young and got my first camera I was told to just “keep the sun behind you, put your subject right in the middle, and shoot”. So I spent years doing just that. Until I realized how much more fun it was to take better photos than that.

What are some of the early things you learned about photography? How did you learn? Stories welcome.

So let’s get started on Composition.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Why not start with Rule of Thirds.

Because I spent so many yeas shooting everything right down the middle, I was fascinated when I first learned about this. I also learned that cameras have built in grids you can use if you want to try to learn how to use the lines to your advantage.

Here is an example from one of my own photos.



With the grid in place, you can see that the bird lines up 1/3 of the way from the right in the photo.



Accessing the grid might also be something to discuss if anyone wants to show examples how.

This one I just added from my phone’s built in editing program to demonstrate here.

Look at your own camera to see if you know how to turn the grid on. (It comes up automatically on my iPhone, but many probably don’t even notice it.) Something to be aware of.

An assignment here might be to use your grid and try shooting using the rule of thirds. Then share here.

 

[SM1992]

Kind of a tough one for me - a lot of my photos don't really have a "subject". I like abstract sort of images, so the entire picture is the subject. But here's one where I used rule of thirds- an interesting house on Block Island, R.I.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Kind of a tough one for me - a lot of my photos don't really have a "subject". I like abstract sort of images, so the entire picture is the subject. But here's one where I used rule of thirds- an interesting house on Block Island, R.I.

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Abstract images can have a subject. To me, the subject isn't necessarily an object or a thing. It is the answer to the question "what is this a picture of?" If that answer is that it is a picture of a pattern or colors or something abstract, that's still a subject because that's the answer to the question. Pictures without subjects are ones where you look at it wondering why the photographer took the picture. What was their purpose?

For example, what is the subject of this picture? My intent was to show a seemingly endless pattern of strollers. No particular stroller is the subject.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Great example, Mark.

Kind of a tough one for me - a lot of my photos don't really have a "subject". I like abstract sort of images, so the entire picture is the subject. But here's one where I used rule of thirds- an interesting house on Block Island, R.I.

View attachment 751307

Thants for posting this. The light is 1/3 over from the left. There is also a strong contrast in colors. Then you see the patterns of the house, and those are almost in thirds, too, vertically. As I look at the picture, I wonder what the subject is - is it the light, or is it the interesting shingles and woodwork? What was the photographer trying to show? Since you said you like abstracts, I‘m now thinking the subject was probably the wood patterns. They are nice! Was there a way to highlight them more? These are things we can think about as we go along.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

In light of Mark’s picture, we can move on to some other concepts while still keeping anything else we’ve discussed previously here in mind.

I have a similar one. We probably all know where it’s from - Wilderness Lodge gift shop. They always have those there as you first walk in and they always catch my eye. I actually bought one and it sits on my mantel, lol.

But how to take a picture of them? And what do I want to show? Well I want to show detail of at least one, but I also want to show that there are lots of them. There are vertical lines, and a pattern. Of course, I also love the colors, too.



This picture could’ve been taken from farther away, but filling the frame has a visual impact.

I had to move down to almost eye level to get the best shot.

Who’s got similar pictures? Let’s see them!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

How about some more examples of composition to share?

We can move along to color, texture, lines or any of the principals mentioned in the links above.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Texture in Photography might be fun to look at today. I love it.

Definition: Texture is how a picture would feel if you could reach out and touch your subject. It can convey emotion and mood using light. There are different textures all around us and it can be fun to capture them in photography.

https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/photography/discover/texture-in-photography.html















Let’s see some of your examples of texture!

ETA These are minimally edited, maybe just a little cropping, if that. (You can do it, too!)

 

[SM1992]

 

[mom2rtk]

OOOOH I like this idea! So I'll go first. One of my favorite rides in my favorite park. I wasn't happy with the 1st picture, and remembering something I was taught -crop in camera- I moved around, recomposed and waited for people to move and got the 2nd shot.
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Very nice example. This is also known as "zooming with your feet".

 

[Pea-n-Me]

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Very nice example of texture. I can almost smell the scent of those beautiful flowers!

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Here are some of my pictures that I think show a sense of texture.

Dragonfly in a Southeast Texas Swamp

Canon 5D Mark III, 600mm, f/11, 1/125s, ISO 1600 - I like the detail on the wings and legs. The legs look "prickly" to me and the wings look delicate. Incidentally, I've used this as an illustration that DOF and aperture are related, but when you focus on something relatively close (I think I had an extension tube between the camera and the lens to let me get closer), use a long lens, and shot with a background that is relatively far from the subject, even f/11 can give you an extremely blurred out background.

Firedrake at the Houston Zoo

Canon 5D Mark III, 200mm, f/16, 1/5s, ISO 800.

I like the feel of reptilian skin I get from this picture. When taking pictures of critters in glass cages, I like to press my lens cover directly on the glass. That does several things. First, it stabilize the camera (notice the 1/5 second shutter speed for a 200mm shot). It also forces you to shoot straight through the glass, which reduces optical distortions. Finally, it blocks most of the light reflected from the glass. The downside is that you can't really "aim" your camera aside from moving it up/down/left/right. Also notice that I'm shooting at f/16 and the background is still blurred. I'm pretty sure that I was using an extension tube for this shot as well.

Lake Michigan Sunset

Canon 5D Mark III, 24mm, f/8, 30s, ISO 100

I love long exposures of water. They convert the motion of the water into more of a soft, misty look. To get a 30 second shutter speed, I used an 8 stop ND filter.

Side of a zebra

Canon 7D Mark II, 300mm, f/2.8, 1/800s, ISO 400

I like both the abstract pattern of the zebra fur and the fuzzy texture of the fur. I find that the "texture" slider in Lightroom is really good for enhancing or taming the fuzziness of animal fur. And the clarity slider is useful for enhancing the sense of detail (like in the dragonfly picture above).

 

[mom2rtk]

I took this with my phone while out on a walk last night. I loved the contrast of the white flowers with the blue sky. I love this composition but I also wish I had tried to get in a little closer. I'll have to check next time I'm out to see if that's possible or if that's as close as I could get from the ground with my 2x zoom. Not interested in carrying my DSLR on my walks, but am happy to have a phone in my pocket that can fill in if needed.

 

[mom2rtk]

Here are some of my pictures that I think show a sense of texture.

Dragonfly in a Southeast Texas Swamp

Canon 5D Mark III, 600mm, f/11, 1/125s, ISO 1600 - I like the detail on the wings and legs. The legs look "prickly" to me and the wings look delicate. Incidentally, I've used this as an illustration that DOF and aperture are related, but when you focus on something relatively close (I think I had an extension tube between the camera and the lens to let me get closer), use a long lens, and shot with a background that is relatively far from the subject, even f/11 can give you an extremely blurred out background.

Firedrake at the Houston Zoo

Canon 5D Mark III, 200mm, f/16, 1/5s, ISO 800.

I like the feel of reptilian skin I get from this picture. When taking pictures of critters in glass cages, I like to press my lens cover directly on the glass. That does several things. First, it stabilize the camera (notice the 1/5 second shutter speed for a 200mm shot). It also forces you to shoot straight through the glass, which reduces optical distortions. Finally, it blocks most of the light reflected from the glass. The downside is that you can't really "aim" your camera aside from moving it up/down/left/right. Also notice that I'm shooting at f/16 and the background is still blurred. I'm pretty sure that I was using an extension tube for this shot as well.

Lake Michigan Sunset

Canon 5D Mark III, 24mm, f/8, 30s, ISO 100

I love long exposures of water. They convert the motion of the water into more of a soft, misty look. To get a 30 second shutter speed, I used an 8 stop ND filter.

Side of a zebra

Canon 7D Mark II, 300mm, f/2.8, 1/800s, ISO 400

I like both the abstract pattern of the zebra fur and the fuzzy texture of the fur. I find that the "texture" slider in Lightroom is really good for enhancing or taming the fuzziness of animal fur. And the clarity slider is useful for enhancing the sense of detail (like in the dragonfly picture above).

Amazing photos as always, Mark. Especially that dragonfly. Wow.