Simple Tips to Improve Your Portrait Photography Immediately

By: John McIntire

Getting started with portrait photography can seem like a daunting task. Once you start researching all the techniques, equipment and (so-called) rules, and everything else you have to memorize and acquire, it can all feel a bit overwhelming. Even so, the journey is worth it, and portraiture is a rewarding pursuit. Throughout your time taking portraits, you will meet, talk to and get to know a lot of people, and hopefully take some great photos of them as well. Instead of focusing on what you need to take great portraits (that’s a camera by the way, nothing more), this article outlines eight tips that you can take and start using immediately to help you improve your portrait photography immediately, without spending another penny.

1. Use softer light

Soft light is an incredible tool to get the very most out of your portraits. Using it is not the only way to 

do things, but it’s a great place to start.

If you’ve read anything about portrait lighting before, this is a tip you’ve already heard, but it needs to be repeated over and over again. Hard light, such as that from the midday sun, is usually the quickest way to attain contrasty and harsh portraits with unflattering shadows and highlights. Taking the time to seek out pockets of softer light (or creating it in the studio) is by far the quickest and most effective way to improve your portrait photography without doing anything else.

Outdoors, look for areas of open shade or take advantage of overcast days where the light is diffused by the cloud cover. Of course, golden hour will provide you with amazing light most of the time, but that doesn’t mean you can’t go out and search for pockets of diffused, flattering light at any other time of the day.

For soft light in the studio, big modifiers in close will do the job just great.

In the studio, make sure that you are using as big of a modifier as you have. If the light is still too hard, you can diffuse your light with a diffuser (yes, I know that might require another purchase, and I apologize for that), or you can move the light closer to your subject.

Just remember that the bigger the apparent light source is to your subject, the softer the light is.

Is all this to say that you shouldn’t use hard light for portraits? Absolutely not. Hard light can make for wonderful portraits, but in a lot of cases, and especially as you are starting out, you will find it beneficial to learn how to use and understand soft light first.

2. Light for the eyes

Making your subject’s eyes a priority when you are lighting your images will ensure that the eyes are 

bright and remain the focal point of your images.

Eyes may be the most important part of a portrait. When your viewers look at photos of people, most of the time they engaging with the person’s eyes first. This is because that is how we humans engage with people in face-to-face scenarios. To make sure you get the very best from your subject’s eyes, start making sure that you light for the eyes at the beginning of every portrait session before you even take your first frame.

To do this, watch your subject’s eyes carefully as you arrange the light, whether that be outdoors or in the studio. Direct your subject (or move your light source if you can) so that the catchlight in their eye is near the top of their eye. It also helps if the light is going directly into their eyes. This will help you to get the most detail in your subject’s eyes.

You will also find that making the eyes a priority at the capture stage means that you will rarely have to do anything to them in post-processing.

In short, light from above whenever possible and direct your subject’s pose so that the light is going into their eyes.

If you use a really big light source (i.e. to get softer light), the less bright the eyes will be. This is a

 good thing to keep in mind as you start looking towards big octaboxes and parabolic umbrellas.

As an aside, the softer the light source, the less detail will record in your subject’s eyes and the darker they will appear in your images. The harder the light source, the more detail.

This will only become an issue if you are using really, really big modifiers in the studio, or if there’s particularly heavy cloud cover. You should be fine if you’re using medium (normal) sized modifiers.

If your goal is simply to get the most detail possible out of your subject’s eyes, you might need to go for a harder light source. You could also mix light sources so that your subject’s eyes are lit by a hard light source, but there is still a softer light source evening-out the contrast in your images.

3. Rapport

Having a good rapport and good communication with your subjects is the best way to get the best 

expressions out of them.

It should probably go without saying that if you are serious about undertaking portrait photography, then your people skills are going to be paramount to your success. In order to get the best reactions and poses, and to keep your subjects comfortable and engaged, you should build a rapport with each and every subject. Every person is different and no two techniques or methods will work the same with everyone, so you will need to build a catalog of techniques to help you encourage the best from people.

You can start by always, always being polite. Stay positive and complimentary even if things are going completely wrong. Instead of saying: “this isn’t right,” try something along the lines of “This is cool, let’s move on to something else.”

Also remember that as the focus of your portrait is the person you are photographing, so should your attention be. Talk about your subject, and let them talk about themselves.

Try to avoid talking about your photography and definitely avoid technical jargon. Unless you are photographing a photographer, nobody cares. I know that’s tough to hear as you as a photographer care deeply about that stuff, but nobody else does. The confusion and disinterest that those topics inspire in other people will clearly show in the final photos.

If you remember that it’s not about you or your photography, but the person in the photo, you mostly can’t go wrong.

4. Background

On location, making sure your backgrounds are clean and distraction-free is a vital skill to develop.

This is one of those skills that once you learn, you will start to do it automatically and never have to think about it again. In the beginning, however, it is vital to pay close attention to the backgrounds in your images. Ensure there are no extraneous elements creeping into the frame. Make sure there’s nothing like poles, trees, or cars intersecting your subject. If your background is blurred with a shallow depth of field, make sure there are no blobs of contrasting color or value that take away attention from your subject.

In short, pay as much attention to your backgrounds as you do your subjects and ensure that they are clean and distraction-free.

Background clutter is just as much of a pain in the studio. Lights, cables, reflectors, edges of the 

background all seem to find a way to creep into the frame.

This is easier to do in the studio environment, but there are still things that you can look out for. Avoid using wrinkled backdrops (they never, ever look good). With plain walls, look out for marks and cracks from subsidence or similar. Just taking a moment to pay attention to these small details can help to improve your photos immensely. It’s also a lot easier to spot these things and deal with them in the moment than it is to retouch them out of your photos later.

5. Get close

Filling the frame with your subject will help to emphasize the focal point of your image.

It was Robert Capa who said, “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough.”

Out of all the photography quotes ever quoted, this is the one I find the most useful by far. It applies to all genres of photography in general, but in portraiture, it’s a particularly important concept. Whatever the focus of your photos (people in this case), ensuring that that your subject is the focal point, and the only focal point in the image, is important. Get close and fill the frame. In most cases, you don’t need much background, and in a lot of cases, you don’t need any background at all.

Doing this helps you to make sure there are no distracting elements in your images. It also helps to emphasize that your portrait is a portrait of a person and nothing else. Sure, there are plenty of instances when you want more background in your images.

Environmental portraiture is a fantastic genre that I love to look at, but if you look at some of the best examples of these, you will probably find that the subject still dominates the frame. The background is just ancillary information that is used to complement the focus on the subject rather than detract from it.

All that said, the use of dead space is a valuable and wonderful compositional element.

Another instance you might opt not to get too close is when you want to use dead space as a design element or perhaps for editorial photography. That’s also fine. The key in these situations is to know when to be close and get a tight-framed portrait, and when to step back and let more into the frame. Most of the time with portraits, however, you will be well-served by getting in close and filling the frame.

The beginning

There you have it, that’s a few tips that will help you to improve your portrait photography without spending another penny. Perhaps not all of these tips will suit you and your photography, but I encourage you to try to implement them for the sake of seeing what you can learn from them anyway.

This list is by no means exhaustive, and if you have any tips you feel should be shared with beginners to help improve their portrait photography, please do leave them in the comments.  Share this article.

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Tips for Getting Your Portraits Right In-Camera

 Tags: Photography for Beginners, Photoshop, Cheating

 

By: John McIntire 

Getting your portraits right in-camera is a skill that every portrait photographer should strive to develop. Doing so will save you time and improve your photography across the board.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t post-process your images, and it doesn’t mean that Photoshop is cheating. But by putting in the extra time and effort at the capture stage, there will be less post-processing to do.

It’s also good if you have certain post-production techniques in mind. If you are able to shoot to the requirements of the technique (that is, if you’re able to get it right in-camera), then the whole process will be easier.

Putting extra effort in at the capture stage will help you to get the best results possible straight out of the camera. If you take a lot of portraits, this will wind up saving you hours upon hours of time in the post processing stages.

This article will provide you with a series of tips to help you create better portrait images during the capture stage of the process. It should be noted that the points discussed here fall firmly on the technical side of things. Subjective things like composition, posing, expression, etc., won’t be discussed.

Also, nothing discussed here is a rule. I would hesitate to even call it a guideline. If you try something here that doesn’t get you the results you are after, that just means it’s the wrong tool for the job. By all means, do something else. 

Aperture

One of the easiest things you can do in the pursuit of getting your portraits right in-camera is to prioritize sharpness. One of the easiest ways to do this is to choose the right aperture.

Shooting wide-open can be great in low-light conditions, and it can also provide a nice shallow depth of field for aesthetic purposes. The trade-off comes in terms of getting the focus right. The focal plane of a wide aperture lens (f/1.8, f/1.4, etc.) is very, very narrow, making it very easy to miss the focus on your subject’s eyes.

Left: Shot at f/4, this image has a shallow depth of field. Canon 5D Mark III | Canon EF 50mm f/2.5 Macro | 50mm | 1/125 sec | f/4 | ISO 100

Right: Shot at f/14, this image is sharp from front to back. Canon 5D Mark III | Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM | 35mm | 1/125 sec | f/14 | ISO 100

A good way to combat this is to choose a smaller aperture. By selecting an aperture around f/5.6 or f/8, ensuring the focus is where you want it to be becomes much easier. When you’re starting out, this can be the difference between a couple of sharp images (or even no sharp images) gained out of luck and a memory card full of them. 

Again, this is not a rule, and shooting wide open is fun and has plenty of its own merits. But that doesn’t mean you should always shoot wide open. 

Taking control of the light

You’ve probably heard the phrase “Photography is light.” It’s everywhere, but it cannot be repeated enough. If you want to take better photos, you need to learn to take control of the light. This is especially important for portraits. 

Natural light

With natural light, you will want to learn how to find the light with the qualities best-suited to the portrait you want to create.

For the most part, you will want to avoid shooting in midday sun. Instead, learn to find patches of soft light. This can be an area of open shade, it can be window light, or it can be garage door lighting. 

Looking for situations like this overcast day, where the light is more flattering for portraits, is a key skill to develop. Canon 5D Mark III | Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 | 85mm | 1/320 sec | f/1.8 | ISO 200

Studio lighting

In the studio, you will have a somewhat easier time of things.

After all, a studio should be designed from the ground up for you to alter the light at will. Use the right modifiers, learn some of the basic lighting patterns, and use modeling lights whenever possible. All of these will make it easier for you to take control of the lighting in your portraits. 

Studio lighting is a lot easier to control as you are in charge of everything, but there are a lot of options to sort through. Canon 5D Mark III | Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM | 35mm | 1/125 sec | f/14 | ISO 100

Flattering light

Another thing about light that is important when getting your portraits right in-camera is whether or not the light is flattering. While this is quite a subjective topic, there are a few things for you to keep in mind that will help you to get more flattering light. 

Light from above

In most natural circumstances, we humans are lit from above. This is how we generally see other people. Lighting your subject from other angles will result in oddly-placed shadows that won’t feel right to your viewer.

By placing the main light source above your subject, you are working to ensure that you are presenting your subjects in a way that people will recognize. 

Lighting from above will help to ensure that your studio lighting looks more natural. Also, bringing the light source in close softens the light, making it more flattering.

Soft light

As mentioned, using a soft light source will help you get more flattering results. This will reduce the overall contrast in your images, and help to reduce the appearance of skin textures in your portraits. It will also help to make the transitions from shadows to highlights smoother. 

Using as soft a light source as possible reduces contrast and provides more flattering light for your subjects. Canon 5D Mark III | Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM | 35mm | 1/125 sec | f/5.6 | ISO 100

Lens choice

Selecting a focal length suitable for portraiture is another important thing that will help you get your portraits right in camera.

The focal length you choose will dictate how your images are distorted. At the extreme ends, wide-angle and long telephoto lenses cause significant distortion in your images. In order to avoid this, you will find that most portraits are taken at a focal length somewhere between 50mm and 135mm. As a general guide, you can’t go wrong by selecting a focal length in that range. 

Left: With a focal length of 35mm (taken up close), you should be able to see the distortion on the subject’s face caused by the wider angle lens. Canon 5D Mark III | Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM | 35mm | 1/125 sec | f/8 | ISO 200

Right: A 50mm focal length is a safer choice for portraits and is close to how the human eye sees. Canon 5D Mark III | Canon EF 50mm f/2.5 Macro | 50mm | 1/125 sec | f/5.6 | ISO 100

Now, that is, once again, not a rule. There are some amazing examples of portraits taken at extremely wide focal lengths, just as there are plenty of portrait examples taken with much longer focal lengths. If you think an extreme focal length is right for your portrait, go ahead and try it. 

While you can use extreme focal lengths (such as 16mm, used in the photo above) if you want to, you will find that it’s usually best to stick to more traditional focal lengths for most purposes. Canon 5D Mark III | Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM | 16mm | 1/125 sec | f/5.6 | ISO 100

Perspective and viewpoint

Your viewpoint as the photographer has a huge impact on your portrait images, and there are a few things you can do and avoid to help you get better portraits. 

Viewing angle

For the most part, try to keep your lens at the same level or below the level of your subject’s eyes. Shooting above and downward toward your subject has the effect of making your subject appear vulnerable and weak.  

(This is my bias speaking. I really don’t like taking photos from above, but it is still not a rule.)

For stronger portraits, try to avoid that.

Left: Here, the camera was on a level with the floor. You can see the mild distortion this viewpoint has caused; the subject appears to be falling backward. Canon 5D Mark III | Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 | 85mm | 1/160 sec | f/9 | ISO 100

Right: Bringing the camera up to navel-height has removed the distortion. Canon 5D Mark III | Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 | 85mm | 1/160 sec | f/9 | ISO 100

Distortion

Just like when you are photographing buildings, having your camera not level to the ground can cause distortion in your images.

Converging verticals on a human subject look even weirder than they do on buildings. If you are shooting from above your subject, this can lead to distorted facial features. If you are shooting from below, it can cause distortions of the legs, arms, and torso that just won’t look right to your viewer.

Some of this can be mitigated by selecting a longer focal length or stepping further away from your subject, but this won’t completely prevent distortion. To avoid any of this distortion in close-up portraits, shoot from eye-level or just below eye-level. To avoid it in half-length to full-length portraits, shoot from the level of your subject’s navel. 

Exposure

For the most part, exposure is another subjective topic. There is often no right or wrong exposure, but if you’re starting out with portraits, there are a few things that will help you along the way. 

To ensure that you are retaining all of the details in your images, take test shots and watch the histogram as you are building your scene. Here, the spike on the left is the background, and the rest of the tones fall well within the two sides of the histogram, denoting relatively low contrast.

Portraits can have a lot of contrast in them. Just imagine a subject with light-colored hair who’s wearing a black shirt. For the best outcome, you will want to ensure that the exposure retains details in both extremes. 

If you have access to them, tools like the light meter and the ColorChecker Passport shown above will help to give you accurate exposures and colors just about every time.

To ensure that you have retained all the details in your images, you can refer to the histogram on the back of your camera. A simple way to use this is to make sure that the information depicted by the histogram does not go past either the left-hand or the right-hand sides of the graph.

If the histogram goes off the right-hand side, your image will be overexposed and you will be missing details in the highlights of your image. If the histogram goes off the left-hand side, your image will be underexposed and you will be missing details in the shadows. 

Manipulate the exposure

Sometimes, you won’t be able to retain all the detail in a given scene, as the contrast will be too high. In order to keep your shadows and highlights from clipping, you will want to manipulate the scene. There are a lot of ways you can do this.

You can use a reflector to bounce light into areas of the scene that are too dark, thus reducing the overall contrast of the scene. You could do the same with flash as fill light. 

Using a reflector is a great way to help control the contrast in your images. Here, a piece of polystyrene (styrofoam) board from a package did the job and didn’t cost anything.

You could also use a diffuser in front of your main light source to soften the light and reduce the overall contrast in the frame. This works with both natural light and studio strobes. 

Of course, in a studio, you could always opt to use a bigger modifier, or move your light source closer to your subject. Both of these have the effect of softening the light and reducing the overall contrast in your scene. 

To soften your light, use bigger modifiers or bring them in close. Alternatively, as shown in the image above, do both and add a reflector for good measure.

If you are new to portraits but familiar with other aspects of photography, you can think of this as similar to using graduated neutral density filters in landscapes.

By placing a graduated neutral density filter in front of the lens, you are (usually) increasing the exposure time needed for one part of the image (usually the sky) so that it falls at a value closer to the foreground, reducing the contrast in the image by however many stops the filter represents.

You can think of these tools for portraits in the same way, except that they manipulate the actual light in the scene in front of you, rather than fitting onto the lens and manipulating the final exposure. 

End

I feel the need to reemphasize that this article is in no way anti-post processing. Doing what you can at the capture stage is simply about better camera craft and obtaining a better starting point. Canon 5D Mark III | Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM | 35mm | 1/125 sec | f/5.6 | ISO 100

While this article is definitely not a complete and exhaustive guide to portrait techniques, these few basic tips should help you get your portraits right in camera. If you take your time to be mindful of your choices regarding camera settings, lighting, and exposure, you will start to find that you need to spend much less time in post-production. 

Of course, if there are any tips that you use to get your portraits right in-camera, please feel free to leave them in a comment. Share this article.

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Sunrise Portraits Part II – The Techniques

 Tags: Photography for Beginners, Portraits 

 

By: Christina N Dickson

In the previous article Beginners Tips for Sunrise Portraits : Part I, we discussed a number of tips and tricks that will guarantee a fantastic Sunrise Portrait-Shoot. Experiment with those tips and tricks before taking on these techniques.

Every photographer in love with a good portrait session wants to push the envelop with new techniques to improve results. We love capturing personality and creating something truly beautiful with our photographs. Personally, I’ve found sunrise shoots give me a thrill unlike any other time I could photograph. Sunrise shoots have captivated me with stunning images, enticed me with fond memories, and given me a new found love for portraits.

While sunrise shoots aren’t particularly complicated, I have found a few techniques that radically improve my results, and give my portraits a unique look. Before moving forward with these techniques, I’d recommend you start by watching for light – all the time and everywhere. After all, using this breathtaking light is the entire point of getting up before dawn for a photo-shoot. It’s soft. The shadows are long. Make the most of this “magic hour” by paying close attention to light all around you.

Photograph on Manual

So long as you are facing your subject into the light, Aperture Priority is sufficient for a perfectly exposed portrait. However, with Sunrise light you have so many options for more complicated exposures, so manually exposing will be your friend.

Experiment with Under-Exposing and adding Fill Flash

Under-exposing the background will keep beautifully vivid color in the sky backdrop. Sunrises can vary from deep reds and oranges, with splashes of bright purples and blues. Including this gorgeous landscape will make dynamic portraits! Avoid a silhouette in this kind of scenario by adding a fill that will light up your subject. Furthermore, your subject will stand out by golden rim lighting.

• Have your subject stand with their back to the light.
• Under-expose your shot by 1 – 2 full stops so that the background [the sunrise itself] is an even exposure.
• Add a fill to light your subject with fill flash or reflector.

Over-Expose the Portrait for Variety

It’s easy to use over-exposure too much, but with a bit of creativity, you can use the light in this way for a splash of variety. Want your subject to be evenly exposed and the background to be washed out? Try the following:

• Position your subject in front of the light. [the sun]
• Meter for your subject’s face.
• Increase your exposure by 1/3 to 2/3 a stop to wash out the background without loosing too much detail in in your subjects skin.

One thing to consider, as in the image below, if you photograph entirely into the sun, you may need to shoot on manual. This look is very unique with over exposed images.

Capture Lens Flare

I love lens flare! Think of it as a dash of salt in a portrait shoot – something that adds flavor but should not be the key component in your entire dish. Lens flare is all about the angle of light and how it comes through the lens. You can capture some awesome artistry with lens flare.

• Position your subject in front of the light.
• Get down low OR turn your lens at an angle into the light.
• Overexpose by 1/3 to 2/3 a stop to brighten your subject without loosing the flare.

Put your Sunrise Portrait Shoot on the calendar! It may require getting up earlier than normal, but you will find the results to be far worth it! Remember, maturing your eye for seeing light and capturing it effectively will take both time and practice. Evaluate your shots with a critical eye and learn from mistakes. You will make rapid progress with a bit of time and energy!  Share this article.

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Beginners Tips for Sunrise Portraits : Part I

Tags: Photography for Beginners, Portraits 

 

By: Christina N Dickson

The last year I’ve embarked on a new adventure to create a series of stunning portraits. My quest: Perfect the Sunrise Portrait shoot.

I’d heard stories of photographers who exclusively work with sunrise light for their portrait sessions – even those who require wedding portraits to be conducted during that time. My skepticism ran deep: who in their right mind would subject themselves to several hours of lost sleep and the early morning cold for a photo-shoot? Could the end-product differences be that significant?

After a series of more than half a dozen sunrise shoots in consecutive weeks, I have determined that no other time will produce such stunning results. Scheduling sunrise Photo-shoots is without a doubt an almost guaranteed way for gorgeous portraits. To be entirely honest, I am now thrilled when I have the opportunity to schedule a Sunrise Portrait session.

For best results, I’ve created somewhat of a routine for my Sunrise Portrait Shoot prep work to include the following:

• Research the precise time of the sunrise
• Take note of hour-by-hour weather for the morning of your shoot [this will drastically effect your results].
• Know my preferred shooting spots within my location, so I capture exactly what I want, despite the rapidly changing light.
• Prepare equipment and cards the previous day so nothing is left home on accident by early morning head fog.
• Have all my equipment by the door [ready to grab and go in the morning]
• Leave 15 minutes early to pick up coffee for myself and my subjects, to guarantee we are all awake and energetic to the max!

While a Sunrise Portrait shoot isn’t overly complicated, there are a few tips I’ve learned that will help guarantee anyone a stunning capture:

1. Work with Post-Dawn Light

If you start photographing your portraits before the sun comes up, the light will have blue midtowns and highlights. While you can create some sweet artistic shots during this time, you have to be careful that your subject’s skin doesn’t look lifeless. One other issue you may have if you start photographing when the sun is just rising above the horizon, is intense highlights and mid-tones of red and orange. This may warm up your subjects skin too much. 

If you use the light just a few minutes after sunrise, the highlights and mid-tones will create a lovely combination of both warms and cools. This is the most flattering light for skin tones and textures.

2. Take Advantage of the Light

Breathtaking light is the entire point of getting up before dawn for a photos-hoot. The light is soft and golden to create lovely skin tones. The contrast of highlights and shadows is minimized from the sidelight. Additionally, colors are deep and rich, accentuated by the soft light. Shoot on Aperture priority and use these qualities to the max!

3. Face your Subject Into the Light

Facing your subject into the light will accomplish several things:

• Give a soft glow to your subject skin.
• Create lovely catchlights in the eyes.
• Provide for perfect exposure of both your subject and the background.

4. Be Specific with the Scenery

Wide and open spaces typically work as the best locations for a sunrise shoot. Fields, vineyards, or streets without tall buildings that will block the light. You will want to take special note of Eastward facing backdrops for perfectly lit locations, so scouting out before hand may be an additional step to take.

The best way to become proficient with Sunrise Photo-shoots is to go out and practice! Setting up these shoots consistently week by week will greatly aid your proficiency. I can guarantee with almost complete certainty that you will enjoy what you create – even despite a few hours of lost snooze time. Share this article.

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Summer Portraiture: Practical Technique

 Tags: Photography for Beginners, Portrait, Technique

 

 

 

By: Darren Rowse 

Just because the weather outside is frightfully bright (for those in the Northern Hemisphere) doesn’t mean that you have to cancel all of your portrait photography. But taking advantage of the clear skies doesn’t mean that you have to shoot in broad daylight either.

If you want the best light for summer portraits, arrange your shoots within the “golden hour”. Typically, this is during the hour right after dawn, or the hour right before dusk. At this time, the quality of light will be diffused and the angle of light will give definition to long shadows.

Realistically though, it’ll be a hard sell to convince your client to meet you, fully dressed and picture perfect by 6:00am. Where does that leave you?

Aside from the standard “shoot behind a building” or “underneath trees”, this technique will provide you with the ability to shoot portraits at anytime of day in the brightest of open sunshine.

All you need is a). An assistant; b) A 32″ diffusion gobo and; c). A 22″ reflector.

1. Have your assistant hold the gobo above your subject’s head (or wherever the sunlight is most direct) to block the light. This will provide a small shaded area in which your subject will stand (keep in mind that the larger the gobo, the larger the shaded area, and vice-verse).

2. Place your reflector in direct sunlight to best “reflect” the light onto your subject (use either the soft gold or white sides).

3. If you want a head shot, your assistant can hold the reflector directly beneath your subjects face, or close to the side. Otherwise for a full body shot, you will have to stand the reflector against a tripod further away.

This technique sound too simple? Trust me. It’s the perfect way to keep your portraits up and running all throughout the beautiful summer season.  Share this article.

 

How to do Extreme Close-Up Photography with a Macro Bellows

 Tags: Photography for Beginners, Macro Lens, Macro Photography, Ratio

 

By: Ivo Guimaraes 

 Macro photography is technically designated as the ability to photograph subjects at magnifications equal to or greater than life size. This means that if the subject’s projection size on the camera’s sensor is the same size as the subject itself, then you have life-size magnification, also known as a 1:1 ratio.

Even though many lenses state they have macro functions, a true macro lens must be able to do 1:1 or greater ratio magnification. These specialized lenses allow for a closer focus distance and have great image quality, but they tend to be expensive.

There are cheaper ways to create macro images though. Reverse rings, extension tubes and close up lenses are good options, but my very favorite one is the macro bellows. In this article, I will show you how to use macro bellows to achieve great extreme macro images the easy way.

The Gear

I am very proud to be the lucky owner of one of the very rare Spiratone Kenlock tilt-shift macro bellows sold by Hama in the 80s.

This is probably the rarest and the fullest featured bellows out there, designed originally for 35mm SLR cameras.
In fact, it looks like a scaled down monorail camera with the ability to be adapted to an SLR body.

This is an amazing piece of gear, despite the fact it was built in the 80s for film cameras, that remains perfectly actual and can be used with modern digital cameras.

It has removable adapters for different brands of lenses and camera bodies.
In this particular setup, I’m using an M42 mount 50mm Tessar Carl Zeiss Jena DDR 2.8 lens and full frame sensor Canon 5D MKIII.

Because this equipment was made for old cameras with flat fronts without a hand grip like the modern digital ones, I am also using a Canon 25mm Extension Tube between the camera body and the bellows to give me some space for the mount.

This is obviously an expensive setup, but you can find many inexpensive simple function macro bellows that can be used with your existing camera and lenses.

Magnification

The magnification ratio is simply the relationship between the size of the (in-focus) subject’s projection on the imaging sensor and the subject’s size in reality.

Imagine a subject like a bug that is 1cm long in real life;

• If its projection on the camera’s sensor is also 1cm then you have a 1:1 ratio.
• You have a 2:1 ration if its projection on the camera’s sensor is 2cm.
• And so forth…

This magnification is achieved by the extension of the bellows operated by two knobs that allow you to move the front and rear elements.

Extended, the macro bellows makes a greater magnification.

There is some really complex optics math behind this magnification process that I am not able to calculate myself. So I used an online calculator to try to understand what I could achieve with this setup and these are the results I got.

I was able to find out that the combination of this particular lens with this macro bellows allows me to get a magnification of 3:1 with the bellows at its minimum extension and 5:1 at its maximum extension.

Focusing

The process of focusing is done by moving the whole set constituted by the lens, macro bellows and camera body along a rail, making it closer or further to the subject.

Although it might sound simple, it is, in fact, a very hard process due to the scale of the image we are composing. Any minimal movement throws everything out of focus. So the use of a sturdy tripod and making sure the subject doesn’t move are critical factors to minimize error and allow precise control.

The focusing process is usually done with the lens at its widest aperture to allow enough light in and then it is changed to the chosen aperture for the image capture.

This aperture open/close process is done automatically in modern cameras and lenses, but with most bellows, it is not possible to have the communication between the camera and the lens due to the lack of electronic contacts, so it has to be done manually.

Sometimes this simple act of changing the lens aperture is enough to change the focus plane, making it a really hard process to control.

Depth of Field

This is for sure the toughest factor to control in macro photography. The depth of field is extremely reduced at this magnification even when photographing with the lens’s narrowest aperture.

A tilt and shift bellows like the one I am using helps to minimize the depth of field issues with some focal plane movements. But many macro photographers choose to use a much more complex technique called focus stacking. The process consists of digitally merging multiple images taken at different focus distances, resulting in a greater depth of field in the final image.

Getting the Picture

Now we’ve gone through the basic technicalities it is time to put everything in action.

For this setup, I will be photographing a dead house fly I found near my living room window. The fact that is not moving makes it a perfect case study to use in a macro stage.

To allow me full control of the equipment, I prepared a tethered setup with the camera connected to a computer, being operated by its native capture software. This way I can avoid touching the camera to release the shutter.

For lighting, I will use two speedlights controlled by a transmitter connected to the camera’s hotshoe that also allows power control through software.

The intention was to create some light and shadow volume on the fly and separate it from the dark background. Here is the result:

Illuminating such a small subject is a very difficult task as the smallest changes produce totally different results. Such is the case in this next image with softer light where I used only one flash and one reflector, instead of two speedlights.

To me, it is really fascinating to see a fly at this magnification with all the small details. It is a creepy experience for sure.

This was just with the macro bellows retracted. For the full magnification experience, I will now extend the bellows all the way and experiment greater magnification.

This time I will focus on the fly’s head and the lighting will be done with an LED panel and a small reflector.

It is amazing how an old lens and macro bellows can produce such a high-quality image.

Give this technique a try, I’m sure you will have a lot of fun and make some great images along the way! Please share your macro images with a bellows in the comment area below.  Share this article.

 

How to take Great Flower Photos without a Macro Lens

 Tags: Photography for Beginners, flower photography, flower photos

 

By: Ana Mireles 

Are you interested to try some flower photography but you get discouraged by guides telling you to get a macro lens? I was too at first, but macro is not the only way to get some amazing pictures. Keep reading for some tips on how to take great flower photos without a macro lens or buying any new equipment or accessory.

Flower Photography Detail Close Up

Detail and depth of field

One of the reasons photographers recommend a macro lens is to capture small details with shallow depth of field. Some offer alternatives like extension tubes or reverse rings that allow you to focus while being very close to your subject. This is, in fact, a nice look for flower photography, but if you’re not ready to invest in new gear, there are other ways to get it.

Focal Distance: 55mm, f/13, 1/400th, ISO 640

I shot this image using a 55mm lens with f/13, 1/400th shutter speed and 640 ISO. As you can see, I managed to get reasonably close, so never let the lack of equipment prevent you from practicing.

You can start by using a wide aperture and the longest focal distance you have to experiment from there. In order to make the best out of the equipment you have, check out the article How to Control Depth of Field in Your Photography.

Draw inspiration from nature

Now that we’ve covered the macro effect, let’s broaden the horizon and think big. There’s much more to flower photography than just the details. Flowers come in all shapes and colors, so include all those natural elements and use them to your advantage.

Composition

There are many rules that you can use as guidelines to create interesting images. To learn more about them I recommend the article How to Apply Compositional Theory to Still Life Photography.

In this photo below, I lowered my point of view so I could create three different segments following the rule of thirds: flowers, trees, and the sky.

The Rule of Thirds and point of view help your composition.

Color contrast

Using color as a compositional element is very easy to do when photographing flowers. Because they are so vibrant, you’ll always find one that stands out. You can put contrasting colors next to each other to make elements stand out while still being in harmony. You can start by isolating a subject against the background and work your way up to include more elements.

Tones or patterns

Another way to use color in your images is to use only one to dominate the image. It may sound easy and perhaps dull, but in reality, if you incorporate different tones of the same color or a pattern, it can become a subject in itself. Megan Kennedy wrote a number of articles here on DPS called Master Colors Series covering the psychology and evolution of each color. Check them all out for inspiration!

The cultural aspect

Now that we’ve passed aesthetics and are into content let’s say that flowers are much more than just pretty subjects. They speak their own language as we have given them all sorts of cultural meanings. The color, the season, and even the presentation change our perception. We use them in joyous celebrations and on the occasion of grief, passing through all other kinds of events. When you incorporate this matter on top of the visual aspect, things can become really interesting.

Still life

Defining the line between photography genres is always a tricky subject. Are all flower photography images a still life? No. Are all still life images flower photography? Also, no. But the two genres often intersect, so play within that field to stage your images. You can use different elements, adjust the lighting and even some post-production. To get you started here are some Simple Methods for Creating Better Still Life Images.

Still life is great for flower photography

I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t buy a macro lens or any other gear and accessories, especially if you are planning on becoming a professional. However, there’s much versatility in flower photography so you can do without them. Of course, you can also look into many creative techniques like double exposure, light painting, or dynamic zoom.

Do you have other ideas to take flower photos without a macro lens? Share in the comment section!