Dealing With Distractions

Article from: Outdoor Photographer Magazine

There's something about a pure capture that's extremely gratifying

By Russ Burden

Even a small distraction, whether in the foreground or background, can reduce a prize winning picture into a mediocre image. In some situations a photographer has control over eliminating them yet in others, a decision has to be made whether or not to press the shutter. The clone stamp and content aware tools work wonders, but there's something about a pure capture that's extremely gratifying.

As someone who is a firm believer in getting it right the first time, my primary strategy is to eliminate the distraction before I make the image. Depending on its size or whether I have control, I determine my first plan of action. When I photograph people, I have the luxury of communication and ask the subject to move to another location or a bit to the left or right. This makes a huge difference as to whether or not a tree, lamppost or other distraction "grows" out of their head.

In situations where communication is not possible, patience is often necessary. When I photograph wildlife, I find myself waiting until all the elements fall into place. Before I press the shutter, the animal has to be in the right light, strike a good pose, and be in a location where the background and foreground all come together. I often try to "will" this to happen. When it does, it's great. If I'm photographing flowers, I control background distractions with sheets of colored cardboard. I can also control the light using flash, a reflector, or diffuser. Another way to control distractions is to move to the left, right, up, or down. Too often I see photographers "stake a claim" to a location and never move. The better shot may only be a few inches away.

Compare the two images of the bee and note how the background is very distracting in one while in the other, the bee stands out. In the latter photo, I moved no more than a few inches to eliminate the foliage in the background. I used a two flash system for illumination and in that the foliage in the "before" image was close to the head of the coneflower, it was rendered too bright. I scooted over a few inches and shot from a slightly higher position so everything in the background was eliminated. Use your LCD to preview the photo and if there's a distraction, try to get rid of it using one of the above, or any other technique that comes to mind.

Visit www.russburdenphotography.com

Intensify Your Landscape

How to give your scenics extra punch when the situation calls for added intensity

By The Editors of Outdoor Photographer

There's a time for subtle, and there's a time to punch things up. Extra intensity is usually associated with punched-up saturation, but that only works when you have a shot that's strong to begin with. In fact, all of the techniques we discuss here are about bringing a photograph that's a nine up to a solid 10. Taking a weak shot, then leaning on the saturation slider, won't suddenly make it into art. But when you do have something special opening up in front of you, try some of these tips to take the shot to the next level.

Think Wide
1) When faced with wild, vivid sunset skies like this, many photographers pull out telephoto zooms and try to capture a small portion of the horizon, sun and sky. Instead of taking that approach, Steve Perry used a wide-angle lens and composed a shot that brings in a huge expanse of sky. He also got low and found a boulder to add interest in the foreground. The wide-angle perspective makes for a much more intense photograph. Also notice how the water has some motion blur in it. By using a tripod, Perry was able to choose a slower shutter speed, which gave the lapping waves just a hint of motion and a perfect blurred splash on the rock. Telephotos are very useful for many landscape situations, but when you have a sky with a lot of detail, color and drama, go for the wide-angle to intensify the shot. Also, look for a foreground element to add some visual interest and balance to the overall image.
Miners Beach, Lake Superior, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Michigan
Nikon D3X, AF-S Nikkor 14-24mm ƒ/2.8G ED, Gitzo 3-series tripod, Really Right Stuff BH-55 ballhead

Expand The Dynamic Range
2) Rich, colorful fall foliage is always a favorite for nature photographers, but dealing with the vibrant and often contrasty scenes is a challenge. HDR photography has revolutionized the way you can get the most out of a landscape like this one. To get the best results, you need to plan for the HDR capture. Here, Don Biresch made a series of five exposures one stop apart, ranging from two stops under to two stops over normal exposure. In the computer, he applied HDR software to combine the images. The result is an intense image that shows the vibrant autumn hues without looking overdone.
Austinburg Road, Tioga County, Pennsylvania
Nikon D3, Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm ƒ/2.8G ED, Gitzo tripod, Really Right Stuff ballhead

Lose The Horizon
3) In this scene of Yosemite's Bridalveil Fall seen from Tunnel View, the play of shadows and light positively makes the shot. Michael Warwick took the dramatic lighting a step further by choosing a 300mm telephoto lens on his Mamiya film camera and eliminating the horizon and sky from the frame. The result is a dynamic, graphic composition that makes it a photo to frame and hang on the wall. Notice, too, the sharpness in the shot. A sturdy tripod is a necessity for this kind of image. The sharpness down into the trees in the lower-left corner invites the viewer to explore the whole photo.
Bridalveil Fall from Tunnel View, Yosemite National Park, California
Mamiya RZ67, Fujichrome Velvia 50, 300mm lens, Bogen 3021 tripod and 3028 head, dual cable release

Experiment With A Polarizer
4) We always advocate getting things right in the field rather than relying on a "fix it in Photoshop" mentality. Using filters while you're shooting and seeing the effect they have becomes part of the creative process. Ya Zhang employed a combination of a polarizer and a split ND filter to make this shot. The polarizer cut the glare, helped darken the sky and intensified the red color in the sand. The split ND helped Zhang to balance the contrast above and below the horizon. Anytime you shoot with filters, it's a good idea to take at least one shot without the filter.
Monument Valley, Arizona
Canon EOS 5D, Canon EF 17-40mm ƒ/4L USM, Benro C-328 tripod, Arca-Swiss Monoball Z, Hoya HD PL-CIR and Singh-Ray ND 3G filters

Enigmatic Autofocus

Focusing Is For The Birds • The Dark Side Of Long Exposures • Big Images From Small Files • To Tilt Or Not To Tilt

By George D. Lepp With Kathryn Vincent Lepp

This flock of shoveler ducks was taken with a Canon EOS 7D set to ISO 400 and an EF 500mm lens with a 1.4x tele-extender (700mm + 1.6x). The exposure was 1/1000 sec. at ƒ/11. I had preset my focus by setting it on a stationary subject at the distance I expected the birds.

Focusing Is For The Birds
Q When photographing birds with long telephoto lenses set to autofocus, I’m having problems with the lens searching first to the closest point of focus, then out to infinity, before locking onto the subject. Since the birds are usually far away, I want the lens to focus to infinity first. Waiting for the lens to go through most of its focus range while the bird flies away is frustrating! Is this a lens or a camera problem? Can the camera firmware be changed to focus first at infinity?
R. Rockwood
Portland, Oregon

A Autofocus is a cooperative function of the camera and the lens. Even if you could, you wouldn’t want to change your camera’s firmware to always seek focus at infinity first because infinity with long lenses is a long, long way away. You would compromise your autofocus capability for the majority of subjects. There’s a better solution.

Most long telephoto lenses have a limiting switch that gives the choice of enabling either the full range of focus or only a distant range of focus. I hope your lenses have this capability; if not, you might want to consider a new purchase. Anytime I’m photographing birds in flight (or any subject moving quickly at a distance, such as runners, race cars or aircraft), I set the lens to the longer range to prevent exactly the problem you describe. It significantly speeds the lens’ ability to attain the subject quickly because if the lens is focusing first at its closest point, the subject in the distance is so far out of focus as to be undistinguishable to both the photographer and the lens/camera.

A technique I use to narrow the range even further when photographing birds in flight is to find a stationary object at the approximate distance at which I anticipate photographing the birds. I preset the focus on that subject, and then when I activate the autofocus on the birds themselves, the adjustment is small enough from the outset to enable a fast lock.

The Dark Side Of Long Exposures
Q I’ve seen images where water or surf appears very milky and smooth, sometimes even cloudlike. I’ve read that a neutral-density filter makes it possible to get such an effect. However, when I go beyond three stops using a Vari-ND filter, the image appears very dark in the viewfinder of my Canon EOS 7D. How does one use the Vari-ND filter, or any other filter, to achieve that dreamy look with water?
S. Kekre
Marietta, Georgia

A Neutral density (ND) filters limit the amount of light entering the lens, allowing a long exposure even in bright conditions. There are a number of single-density ND filters you can use to achieve the effect you want; they’re generally offered in two-, three- or four-stop increments, meaning that the filter cuts the light by the equivalent of a two-, three- or four-stop reduction in the lens aperture. The Singh-Ray Vari-ND offers a range of two to eight ƒ-stops of neutral density.

Here’s the process. First, set your composition and focus without using any filtration; if using a single ND filter, remove it. If using the Vari-ND, set it to its lightest setting (two stops).

Next, determine the shutter speed you need to render the water movement. With an ocean scene such as you describe, I might choose a several-second-long exposure to cover several wave patterns. With a waterfall, I might set the exposure in the area of 1/8 to 1/4 sec. Choose the rest of your camera settings (ƒ-stop and ISO) to support the shutter speed you want. If you’re using a single ND filter, you won’t have a lot of range to work with; only one ƒ-stop and ISO setting will probably support your shutter speed. The advantage of the Vari-ND is significant. With that filter on my lens, I can first set the exposure and shutter speed I want, then dial the filter to the setting that works with my combination.

To check and fine-tune the exposure, take a picture; look at the resulting image on the LCD screen. Then check the histogram to confirm you’ve achieved the correct exposure. Pay particular attention to the white end of the histogram to be sure that the milky water, usually the brightest part of the scene, isn’t blown out. If you have pixels up against that right wall, you’re overexposed.

Big Images From Small Files
Q I came across your note in a previous column (Jan./Feb. 2010) about making large (40x40) prints of images captured with small cameras, such as an iPhone. How can you do that without losing much of the image clarity?
S. Zaiontz
Via the Internet

A Well, it’s not about clarity. It’s about creativity. You can’t maintain the detailed information in a small iPhone capture if you enlarge it very much at all. If you do, the pixels themselves become a prominent part of the final image. The iPhone used for Dewitt Jones’ great images (referred to in the earlier column) has only 2 megapixels, enough for use on the phone’s small screen and to view in small sizes on a computer monitor. (Even if Dewitt has upgraded to the new iPhone, he still has only 5 megapixels.) To create a large-format print from an iPhone file, you need to move far from your original capture by processing and “tweaking” it a number of times. First, add special effects using apps in the iPhone (such as Photogene, Photo fx or CameraBag, to name a few), then interpolate the image to new dimensions and add even more layers of creative manipulation and give a painterly look with software such as the Topaz Clean and Simplify plug-ins for Photoshop. The file becomes a new photograph loosely based upon the basic forms and colors of the original.

Why would you do this? Because you can! No, that’s not the only reason. You probably take your iPhone everywhere you go, and even if you don’t have cell service, you still can use it to take advantage of an unexpected photo opportunity. If you have colors and shapes, you have your starting point. But if you want true, absolute, tack-sharp, high-resolution detail in a big print, you still have to capture it with a professional-level DSLR and high-quality lens, using all the techniques and equipment required to eliminate blur and gather as much detail as possible.

To Tilt Or Not To Tilt
Q I stumbled upon an article on Ansel Adams on the OP website (see “Shoot Like Ansel Adams With 35mm DSLRs,” 6/1/2008). A few of your photos were used as examples, using a tilt/shift lens for landscapes. What’s the advantage of a tilt/shift over shooting at a smaller aperture? Would it be worth investing in a tilt/shift for landscape photography?
N. Reed
Via the Internet

A A tilt/shift lens has front elements that can be tilted, which changes the plane of focus to more efficiently apply depth of field (the range of sharp focus) across a landscape. (If you want to know more about how and why this works, research the Scheimpflug Principle.) Used to maximum advantage, a tilt/shift lens can render a scene sharp from close foreground to distant background, as when photographing a field of flowers in an alpine meadow ringed by high mountain peaks. This apparent increase in depth of field can be achieved even with larger apertures, allowing shutter speeds fast enough to stop the movement of vegetation in a landscape. The use of very small apertures to achieve the same depth of field may compromise sharpness due to diffraction and/or movement of the subject or camera being emphasized by slow shutter speeds.

Tilt/shift lenses from Nikon and Canon come in a wide range of focal lengths, from 135mm to an ultra-wide 17mm. They’re expensive, but very useful for landscape photographers. I carry at least two tilt/shift lenses, the 90mm and 24mm Canons, when concentrating on scenic images.

The tilt/shift lens is useful in other ways, too. The shift aspect of the tilt/shift lens works to overcome vertical distortion (often a problem in architectural photography) and to capture three-image panoramas across the image plane.

Should you buy one? It depends on how serious you are about your landscape photography. There are other ways of increasing depth of field with any of your lenses (if there’s no movement occurring within the scene). You can take multiple images with different focus planes by moving through the subject from near to far and capturing slices of overlapping areas of focus. These multiple images can be assembled in either Photoshop CS5 or the stand-alone program Helicon Focus. The multiple-image composite technique enables virtually unlimited sharpness under ideal conditions, whereas the tilt/shift lens may solve depth-of-field problems in windy conditions as well. [Editor’s Note: An article by Willard Clay in this issue of OP describes several techniques for shooting and combining multiple images to achieve deep focus.]

Profile of a student: Lucia Mota

Lucia started taking photography classes at our school in the beginning of 2010.
If I remeber well, her first outing with us was at Flamingo Nursery, at that time she was using an old nikon D40 with a foggy lens.

Lucia gradually evolved, took more classes, including Photoshop and Lightroom and today she is more than ready to submitt her pictures to any contest and compete with ther talented people.

Having joined us last Saturday, she was kind enough to send me two collages with her pictures which I am very proud to present here.

Congratulations Lucia!!!

 

http://www.luciamota.com/p615823797 

http://www.luciamota.com

fb:Lucia Mota Photography

Basic Photo Tips:

	Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO

by Bryan F Peterson

Just as it was 100 years ago and just as it is today, every camera—be it film or digital—is nothing more than a lightproof box with a lens at one end and light sensitive film or a digital sensor at the other end. It is of course light that enters through a ‘hole’ in the lens (the aperture), and after a certain amount of time (determined by shutter speed) an image will be recorded (on film or digital media). This recorded image has been called—since day one—an exposure, and it still is.
Sometimes, the word exposure refers to a finished slide or print: “Wow, that’s a nice exposure!” At other times, it refers to the film or digital card: “I’ve only got a few exposures left.” But more often than not, the word exposure refers to the amount, and act, of light falling on photosensitive material (either the film or digital sensor). And in this context, it comes up most often as part of a question—a question I’ve heard more often than any other: “Hey Bryan, what should my exposure be?” And my answer is always the same: “Your exposure should be correct!”

Bryan F Peterson

Although my answer appears to be flippant, it really is the answer. A correct exposure really is what every amateur and professional alike hopes to accomplish with either his or her camera. Up until about 1975, before many auto exposure cameras arrived on the scene, every photographer had to choose both an aperture and shutter speed that, when correct, would record a correct exposure. The choices in aperture and shutter speed were directly influenced by the film’s ISO (speed or sensitivity to light). Most photographers’ exposures would be based on the available natural light. And when the available light wasn’t enough, they’d resort to using flash or a tripod.

The Do-it-all Setting

Today, most cameras, either film or digital, are equipped with so much automation they promise to do it all for you, allowing photographers to concentrate solely on what they wish to capture. “Just keep this dial here set to P and fire away! The camera will do everything else,” says the enthusiastic salesman at the camera shop. Oh, if that were only true! Chances are that most—if not all—of you who are reading this article have a do-it-all-for-you camera, yet you still find yourself befuddled, confused, and frustrated by exposure. Why is that? It’s because your do-it-all-for-you camera is not living up to that promise, and/or you have finally reached the point at which you want to consistently record creatively correct exposures.
The do-it-all camera often falls short of its promise, yielding disappointing results. Use your camera’s manual settings, or at the very least, know how light and shadow interact on film or digital media so that you can be assured of getting it right even when you are in auto exposure mode

Setting and Using Your Camera on Manual Exposure

Bryan F Peterson

I know of no other way to consistently make correct exposures than to learn how to shoot a fully manual exposure. Once you’ve learned how to shoot in manual exposure mode (it’s really terribly easy), you’ll better understand the outcome of your exposures when you choose to shoot in semi- or full auto exposure mode.
With your camera and lens in front of you, set your camera dial to M for manual. (If you’re unsure on how to set your camera to manual exposure mode, read the camera manual!) Grab your kid or a friend to use as your subject and go to a shady part of your yard or a neighborhood park, or if it’s an overcast day, anywhere in the yard or park will do. Regardless of your camera, and regardless of what lens you’re using, set your camera dial to M Mode and the lens opening to the number 5.6 (f/5.6). Place your subject up against the house or some six- to eight-foot shrubbery. Now, look through the viewfinder and focus on your subject. Adjust your shutter speed until the camera’s light meter indicates a “correct” exposure in your viewfinder and take the photograph. You’ve just made a manual correct exposure!
Operating in manual exposure mode is empowering, so make a note of this memorable day.

The Photographic Triangle

This does not mean that I want you to forever leave your camera’s aperture at f/5.6 and simply adjust your shutter speed for the light falling on your subject until the viewfinder indicates a correct exposure. Before you forge ahead with your newfound ease in setting a manual exposure, you need to learn some basic concepts about exposure.
A correct exposure is a simple combination of three important factors: aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. Since the beginning of photography, these same three factors have always been at the heart of every exposure, whether that exposure was correct or not, and they still are today—even if you’re using a digital camera. I refer to them as the photographic triangle.

Bryan F Peterson

Locate the button, wheel, or dial on your camera or lens that controls the aperture. If you’re using an older camera and lens, the aperture control is a ring that you turn on the lens itself. Whether you push buttons, turn a wheel, or rotate a ring on the lens, you’ll see a series of numbers coming up in the viewfinder or on the lens itself. Of all of the numbers you’ll see, take note of 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, and maybe even a 22. (If you’re shooting with a fixed-zoom-lens digital camera, you may find that your apertures don’t go past 8 or maybe 11). Each one of these numbers corresponds to a specific opening in your lens and these openings are called f-stops. In photographic terms, the 4 is called f/4, the 5.6 is f/5.6, and so on. The primary function of these lens openings is to control the volume of light that reaches the film or digital media during an exposure. The smaller the f-stop number, the larger the lens opening; the larger the f-stop, the smaller the lens opening.
For the technical minded out there, an f-stop is a fraction that indicates the diameter of the aperture. The f stands for the focal length of the lens, the slash (/) means divided by, and the number represents the stop in use. For example, if you were shooting with a 50mm lens set at an aperture of f/1.4, the diameter of the actual lens opening would be 35.7mm. Here, 50 (lens focal length) divided by 1.4 (stop) equals 35.7 (diameter of lens opening). Whew! It makes my head spin just thinking about all that. Thank goodness this has very little, if anything, to do with achieving a correct exposure.

Aperture

Interestingly enough, each time you descend from one aperture opening to the next, or stop down, such as from f/4 to f/5.6, the amount of light passing through the lens is cut in half. Likewise, if you change from an aperture opening of f/11 to f/8, the volume of light entering the lens doubles. Each halving or doubling of light is referred to as a full stop. This is important to note since many cameras today offer not only full stops, but also the ability to set the aperture to one-third stops, i.e. f/4, f/4.5, f/5, f/5.6, f/6.3, f/7.1, f/8, f/9, f/10, f/11, and so on. (The underlined numbers represent the original, basic stops while the others are the newer one-third options sometimes available).

Shutter Speed

Now let’s turn to shutter speed. Depending on the make and model, your camera may offer shutter speeds from a blazingly fast 1/8000s all the way down to 30 seconds. The shutter speed controls the amount of time that the volume of light coming through the lens (determined by the aperture) is allowed to stay on the film or digital media in the camera. The same halving and doubling principle that applies to aperture also applies to shutter speed.

Bryan F Peterson

Let me explain. Set the shutter speed control on your camera to 500. This number denotes a fraction—500 represents 1/500 second. Now change from 500 to 250; again, this represents 1/250s. From 1/250s you go to 1/125, 1/60, 1/30, 1/15, and so on. Whether you change from 1/30s to 1/60s (decreasing the time the light stays on the film/digital media) or from 1/60s to 1/30s (increasing the time the light stays on the film/digital media), you’ve shifted a full stop. Again this is important to note since many cameras today also offer the ability to set the shutter speed to one-third stops: 1/500s, 1/400s, 1/320s, 1/250s, 1/200s, 1/160s, 1/125s, 1/100s, 1/80s, 1/60s, and so on. (Again, the underlined numbers represent the original, basic stops while the others are the newer one-third options sometimes available). Cameras that offer one-third stops reflect the camera industry’s attempts to make it easier for you to achieve “perfect” exposures. But as you’ll learn later on, it’s rare that one always wants a perfect exposure.

ISO

The final leg of the triangle is ISO. Whether you shoot with film or use a digital camera, your choice of ISO has a direct impact on the combination of apertures and shutter speeds you can use.. To better understand the effect of ISO on exposure, think of the ISO as a worker bee. If my camera is set for ISO 100, I have, in effect, 100 worker bees; and if your camera is set for ISO 200, you have 200 worker bees. The job of these worker bees is to gather the light that comes through the lens and make an image. If both of us set our lenses at the same aperture of f/5.6—meaning that the same volume of light will be coming through our lenses—who will record the image the quickest, you or me? You will, since you have twice as many worker bees at ISO 200 than I do at ISO 100.

ISO and Shutter Speed

How does this relate to shutter speed? Let’s assume the photo in question is of a lone flower taken on an overcast day. Remember that your camera is set to ISO 200 and mine to ISO 100, both with an aperture of f/5.6. So, when you adjust your shutter speed for a correct exposure, 1/250s is indicated as “correct,” but when I adjust my shutter speed for a correct exposure, 1/125s—a longer exposure—is indicated. This is because your 200 worker bees need only half as much time as my 100 worker bees to make the image.

Understanding Exposure

Bryan F Peterson

Since this is such an important part of understanding exposure, I want you to pause in your reading for a moment and get out your camera, as well as a pen and paper. Set the film speed dial to ISO 200; (If you are a film shooter, do this even if you have a roll of film in your film camera that is not ISO 200, but don’t forget to set the ISO back to the correct number when we’re done here.) Now, set your aperture opening to f/8, and with the camera pointed at something that’s well illuminated, adjust your shutter speed until a correct exposure is indicated in the viewfinder. (If you want, you can leave the camera in the automatic aperture-priority mode for this exercise, too). Write down that shutter speed. Then, change your film speed again, this time to ISO 400, leaving the aperture at f/8, and once again point the camera at the same subject. Whether you’re in manual mode or auto-aperture-priority mode, you’ll see that your light meter is indicating a different shutter speed for a correct exposure. Once again, write down this shutter speed. And finally, change the ISO to 800, and repeat the steps above.
What have you noticed? When you change from ISO 100 to ISO 200 your shutter speed changed: from 1/125s to 1/250s or perhaps something like from 1/160s to 1/320s. These shutter speeds are examples, of course, and not knowing what your subject was, it’s difficult at best to determine your actual shutter speeds, but one thing is certain: each shutter speed is close to if not exactly half as much as the one before it.
When you increase the number of worker bees (the ISO) from 100 to 200, you cut the time necessary to get the job done in half. (If only the real world worked like that!) This is what your shutter speed was telling you: Going from 1/125s to 1/250s is half as long an exposure time. When you set the ISO to 400, you went from 1/125s—passing by 1/250s—and ended up at 1/500s. Just as each halving of the shutter speed is called 1 stop, each change from ISO 100 to ISO 200 to ISO 400 is considered a 1-stop increase (an increase of worker bees).
You can do this same exercise just as easily by leaving the shutter speed constant, for instance at 1/125s, and adjusting the aperture until a correct exposure is indicated in the viewfinder; or, if you choose to stay in auto exposure mode, select shutter-priority, set a shutter speed of 1/125s, and the camera will set the correct aperture for you.
Now that you are armed with this simple yet invaluable information, let’s put it towards some truly creative uses! The next article from Bryan will explain in detail how to correctly expose your photographs.

Food Photography

Food Photography: Tips and Tricks the Pros Use

by  Karen Schuld

Karen Schuld is an NYIP Instructor and began her career as a still-life and food photographer in New York City. Her approach is to rely on instinct plus the photographic skills she has developed throughout her career. Major corporations, such as Colgate-Palmolive Company, Revlon, and Procter & Gamble commissioned her to create looks unique to their products. She gives every shot a natural, not contrived, look. 

One thing I have learned over the years is that it is easy for a photographer to make food look bland and tasteless. But, of course, the goal of a food photographer is to make the viewer desire the subject of your shot. Making food look appetizing requires a knack for styling, a careful eye for detail, and an ability to use light in a way that will bring romance and drama to your subject. Here are some tips and suggestions that can enable you to achieve a photograph that will whet the imagination — and the appetite — of the viewer.
While some photographers approach food shots in a static way by carefully contriving the shot, I prefer a more free-flowing, spontaneous approach to styling. As I shoot, I rearrange the food as often as it takes to get the right look. I view the plate as my canvas, and the food as my medium. Just as with any photograph, I try to achieve a design that draws the viewer's attention to my subject — in this case, the food. But, in shooting food, my goal is also to create a whimsical, playful design that juxtaposes unexpected colors and textures. For example, I toss herbs onto an entrée to add zest or include colorful fruit to achieve a more vibrant shot. The way I position myself and my camera also enhances the flow of the shot. While I sometimes shoot food large format with a tripod, I prefer shooting with my DSLR. It leaves me freer to move around my canvas and experiment with different camera positions and angles.

Food that looks fresh is appealing to a viewer; so it is important make your food look natural and not too staged. You should constantly check that your food stays fresh. Greens tend to wilt quickly. Meat can start to look exceedingly dry if you're not careful. A little water spritz can add moisture to your food, while steam can give it a "hot out of the oven" look. If you are a beginner, it can be beneficial to work with an experienced food stylist. A stylist can prepare your food so it is photo-ready and can bring another set of eyes to the set.
A good photographer always pays attention to detail. For any photograph to be successful, the photographer must select the right props and surfaces. Food photography is no exception. Choosing a special location or creating a staged environment for your subject can greatly enhance your shot. Choosing the right plate, bowl, glass or cutlery can also significantly improve the look of your shot. When you shoot food, it is important to choose a color scheme that that will complement the color or character of the food. A black background can intensify the color of a dish, while shooting on a white background will always create a clean look. Also, be aware that cuisine and culture go hand in hand, so document food by covering a region's people, markets, restaurants, and special dishes. Consider shooting a series of both close-up, medium, and wide shots that begins with the ingredients and ends with final food presentation.

Lighting is key to setting the mood for your photograph. Whether your concept requires drama or mystery, excitement or stability, you must carefully consider the lighting that will work for the situation. Use lighting you feel comfortable with. Natural light can work well with food but artificial light gives you more control over the look of the shot. A backlight with a little fill can make your food look luscious, while a sidelight can show texture and depth. It is very helpful to use a "stand in" entrée while you set up your lights, to get just the right atmosphere.
In conclusion, it is important that you spend adequate time preparing to ensure that you have the right foods, props, surfaces, lighting setup and personnel to make the shoot successful. It is essential to focus on styling and attend to all the details involved in the shot. Although there is no one right way to plan, style, light, and shoot food, always keep in mind that the end goal is to make your food look fresh, colorful, dramatic and, hence, appealing to the appetite. Your final shot should be one that stimulates the senses.

How experimentation can pay big creative dividends

Think Differently About Your DSLR

Text & Photography By Mark Lissick

Outdoor Photographer Magazine 

Copyright ©2011 Werner Publishing Corp.

Whether you enjoy creating by pencil, brush or camera, the challenge of keeping your creative level at its peak can be daunting. Over the two decades that I’ve been behind the lens, I’ve had to face this issue daily. If we’re not careful, it’s easy to fall into a creativity rut where we tend to approach familiar subjects in the same way, use the same lenses and rarely alter our perspective. It’s not immediately apparent when this begins to happen, but a sure sign of it is when you notice that all of your images have started to take on the same look and feel. While achieving a certain creative style or look in your work is important, it’s also necessary to let it continue to evolve in order to avoid stagnation.

Buying a new lens or trying the latest image-manipulation application can certainly help change your images. I’ve found that if I make some fundamental changes in the way that I think and perceive at the beginning of the creative processes, however, the impact for change is much greater. One of the most fundamental underpinnings of the creative process has to do with how we’ve chosen to define not only ourselves and our craft, but also the tools we use. These definitions, while vital as a basis for communication, also can greatly inhibit our creative abilities. New tools are a critical part of the evolution of image-making, but they’re not the only part.

Unlike painting or sculpting, photography is a relatively modern invention originally intended to be another tool for the creative artist. Charles Baudelaire, an early critic of the medium, unfortunately forever changed our perception of photography by stating that it was merely an exact reproduction of nature and, therefore, it could never be considered on the level of art because it relied on technology rather than imagination. To be fair, in Baudelaire’s time, “realism” as an art form was in vogue, and the success of one’s creation (whether with brush or camera) was measured by how close the results matched the real world. That dogma is still with us today and is reflected in the fact that with billions of pic-tures created each year, photography has mainly been reduced to its most basic usage—either a snapshot intended as a memento or an image used for documentation purposes.

On the back end of the creative process, our understanding of our art and the work produced has grown since then. We know by the way each of us responds to images that they’re not simply a reproduction or recording of a momentary reality. Images have their start as a blending of the photographer’s understanding of his or her world, life experiences and chosen tools, which is the same creative process of expression used by a painter or sculptor.

We also know that the visual message in an image is subject to the interpretation of both the photographer and the viewer. An image is more than simply the sum of its parts. An image of a bald eagle soaring in the morning fog is an example of this. The image is more than a recording of a bald eagle, fog, sunrise and a bush. When combined with choice of exposure, the effect transcends the sum of the components, bringing with it new levels of interpretation that are different for each viewer.

At the front end of the creative process, our perception of photography hasn’t evolved to the same degree unfortunately. This can be seen in how we define the tools of our craft. In my workshops, if I ask for a definition of a camera, the answers generally will fall into one of two main categories: It’s a device that records an image, and it’s an object that captures light. The ghost of Baudelaire is still with us today. It’s important to note that the defining two words in both descriptions are “records” and “captures.” Both words, by the way we conceive their associated actions, can set limits to our creativity.

Likening a camera to a blank canvas and redefining your perception of a subject can rejuvenate your artistic approach to photography. Rather than looking at a rose simply as a rose, try redefining the flower based on its color, tone and shape to create a composition where your imagination acts as the main influence, not the subject itself. This can sometimes lead to more conceptual images like the flower abstract above or the zebra shot lower left. Changing your creative process often results in finding new ways of expressing familiar subjects.

It becomes necessary, then, to start fresh, throwing out what we’ve learned and seeking new meanings. When confronted with the responses from my workshop students about what a camera is, I asked myself if it can be perceived in a different way. Can it be more than just a camera? Ultimately, the answer, while simple in its concept, resulted in a major paradigm shift for me. Rather than a device to capture light or record a scene, I came to realize that I could consider the camera to be nothing more than a blank canvas (specifically, the sensor or film) onto which I could “paint” anything that my imagination could conjure up. This was a key perceptual shift as a different mind frame comes into play with the word “paint” than the one associated with the word “record.” I wasn’t holding a device to trap light; I was hanging on to the back end of a blank canvas!

All I needed was something to paint with. Almost immediately on the heels of the first paradigm shift, the second one came about in the form of redefining the concept of “subject.” Thanks to our desire to define things—a flower being just a flower—we tend not to look any deeper than the definition. That action in itself is a barrier to creativity. Rarely do we abstract a subject down to its essence which, when we do, can significantly influence our imagination and the type of images that we can make. Instead, we simply put the subject in our shot and let it go at that. Staying with the “paint” theme while working with a vase of flowers on my dining room table during one Minnesota winter, my subjects weren’t roses or tulips. Instead, I redefined them as sources of color, tone and shape that I could use to create compositions based on whatever my imagination could conjure. As soon as I embraced these two new paradigms, whole new pathways of creativity began to open up. Tripods? I experimented without one. As the flowers (my new paintbrushes) were already fixed in position, all I needed to do was move the canvas to paint!

The result of these two paradigm shifts was a journey into abstractionism and, lately, impressionism photography, which has blurred the boundary between photography and art. Over the last five years, I’ve put these paradigms to the test, letting my journey into abstractionism run its course while photographing in the creative environment of the estate gardens of Claude Monet, where I now teach a workshop using the creative tools that I developed. Being in such a garden, I feel a bit like Monet (well, at least like an artist), who has just opened a box of pastels or a case of paints. I’ve come to interpret it not as a garden, but as a fascinating space filled with color, luminosity and tone that ignites my imagination to create images that are based on the essence of the flowers. I aim for a result where the work transcends the natural definitions, leaving the viewer with the challenge of adopting new levels of perceptions to arrive at their own interpretations.

These paradigm shifts in both definitions and perceptions not only opened new pathways of expression, but have created ripple effects that have impacted the way that I approach my landscape and wildlife photography, as well. Familiar subjects have taken on new visual interpretations, and old perspectives fade into the distances as new possibilities beckon me to come and give them a try. All that from a simple change made in our definitions.