photo tips

Private lessons

2006-10-13T05:44:00.000-07:00

Well boys and girls I love teaching but for free is not as much. I'm putting together private lessons. I can do them over IM, Email, see if i can put togther some videos. they will be priced for what you are looking for and how you want it delivered.

andie_smith@mac.com

transparent thoughts

2006-08-26T13:50:00.000-07:00

This a no home work post. Actually this is a post from a request.

Photographing transparent objects.

Sounds hard doesn't it? Rest assured....it is! There are a couple options when you need to do this:

1. Shoot from a slight angle
2. DON'T light directly ) dont use your flash and if you do use a external flash, bounce it of the ceiling)
3. natural lighting I have found works best.
4. if you are wanting to show that it is transparent put something behind it....books, flowers...anything.
5. if you are catching your reflection in the item you can build a tent for your object and leave a hole for your lens.

You will have to play with it. move abound find a good angle to shoot from.

remembering Joe Rosenthal

2006-08-21T13:09:00.000-07:00

you know his work. i promise you do. you know the picture of the soldiers raiseing the flag at Iwo-Jima? that was him. He has died at age of 94.

HOMEWORK: Learn some more about Joe Rosenthal and shoot your landscape. in other word whats going on around you? going back to school? a festival in your 'hood? shoot the life goingon around you.......in b&w

P.S. regular scheduled programing next week! Scouts honor (even though i only last about 6 weeks as a girl scout)

Traditional Classic Portraiture-Part One of Posing Women

2006-08-14T09:12:00.000-07:00

Welcome back all!!! Did you guys catchup at all....wanna hear something horrible...i think I took out my camera twice in the last two weeks! Gasp in horror!!!

I'm going to do another "series" of lessons. Actually these lessons will come from my notes of a entire semester of Portraiture. Don't worry I will do a bit at a time! You know me I try not to overwhelm anyone! Also any questions please post here with your email addy or e-mail me at andie_smith@mac.com

Part One of Posing Women
There is an important distinction between full length, three quarter length, and head and shoulders poses, but the general core stucture is the same.

The Classic Feminine Pose:
1. Body turned SLIGHTLY away from camera
2. Head and body facing opposite directions
3. Head tilt toward HIGH SHOLDER (usually the one closer to the camera)

HOMEWORK:
1. look through magazines and see how even in HIgh End fashion or everyday ads photographers use these "core" elements.
2. take some feminine portraits.

Vacation

2006-07-31T11:50:00.000-07:00

Hi all! I'm super busy this week and won't be able to get a lesson up, and next week I will be in Dallas. So shoot a lot thenext two weeks and I'll be back Mid Aug!

A

Focal Length

2006-07-24T11:31:00.000-07:00

The focal length of a lens is the distance from a point within the lens to the film plane when the lens is focused on infinity. Most of us us this just to say the length at what our lens "sees" its slightly incorrect...but you know what it works, and if it ain't broke dont fix it! The Focal Length of your lens effects the things it sees as well, one of them being your depth of field. The longer your lens the more shallow DOF you will get. cool trick, eh? Here are two pictures i took really quickly (yes i know one is really badly focused...but i said i did it quickly! lol)
See how the DOF is a littl more shallow on the one i took at 220mm?

HOMEWORK: play with your lenses. if you have one and it's a zoom lens shoot the same thing from the same play at diffent focal lengths. if you have more than one lens, do the same with them all. If you have a point and shoot i think you can do this with your zoom.

Q&A session

2006-07-21T05:51:00.000-07:00

We have 1 question this week! one! Hope you guyes have a great weekend and happy shooting! I will be shooting for my portfolio.

Q: Why would one want a fixed lens? I have a 75-300 lens. I also have a kit lens, 18-55 ? How does a fixed lens compare to one of these? Thanks!

A: you know i wondered about that too until I got my 50mm 1.8 lens. I so understand now! Fixed lenses tend to have a lower f/stop. so they are faster lenses and you can get a larger aperture. Also I have founf putting my 50mm lens on my camera forces me to be creative with my shots...i have to move, or take a wider angle shotthat i would if I could zoom. Do I recoment a fixed lens.... you betcha!

Mary Ellen Mark

2006-07-17T11:29:00.000-07:00

We all know Ansel Adams work, we know Anne Geddes...but how many of us know the other Masters and big names in the industry? In school one teacher was known for giving a test on the 1st day of class matching the names of the Masters and either thier work or what they are known for. YIKES! The thinking is you can't learn the art until you know the poeple who have really Mastered it.

Mary Ellen Marks is documentry photographer, but is usally called a "social documentarist". She has a B.F.A in painting and Art History and a M.A in photojournalisim both from the University of Pennislvaniya. ( Many photographers also love and dabble in another fine art (or craft such as scrapbooking?) )

Mark most frequently uses a wide-angles lense and moves in close the be more involved in the shot. She says she likes the sense of place that a 28mm lens provides. For her though it's about here subjects not her equiptment.

To see her work: *some of her work includes people who are not fully dressed*
Mary Ellen Mark
Her books at Amazon

HOMEWORK: look at Mark's work and "fell it" what kind of feelings dows it provoke? Is there something about her work you like? the color? the tones? the emotion? the lighting? Your home work is to imitate...because imitation if the best form of flattery. Create your own "Mary Ellen Mark" work this week by capturing what you like about her in some of your work. No i dont want an exact copy! I dont need you to hijack a circus! Have fun and "document" your life!

special addition Q&A

2006-07-10T10:57:00.000-07:00

I've gotten some posts with questiosn that i cant replay to so i am doing a special edition Q&A:

Q: How do I set my d-reb XL focal length to infinity?
A: This isn't found on the camera...its on the lens. not all lenses have an infinity marker.

Q:I'm wondering how we should go about with our questions? Email them or leave them on the comment sections?
A: feel free t post them if you can wait for a week for an answer i usually do a Q&A post every week. if you need an answer with in 24-48 hours email me andie_smith@mac.com

Q: Does the camera not add any focal length
A: Well yes and no. technically no. But 98% of the digital SLRs out there are not full frame sensors so certian camera add a maginication to your focal length. it ranges depending on the camera but it will range betweem 1.5-2.0 maginification.

Vocab lesson #1 (Wk 6) (A-D)

2006-07-10T05:39:00.000-07:00

(for all)

Some important words to know

Aperture:the size of the lens opening through which light passes

Bulb: A shutter setting marked B at which the shutter remains open as long as long as the shutter release is held. (works great for creative photos and fireworks)

Catchlight: A reflection of a light source in a subjects eye.

Color Management: A means of coordinating the color output of various devices so the colors you see in a digital image on your monitor will be the ones you see in print.

Contrast: The difference in darkness or density between one tone and another.

Contrasty: Describes a scene, negative or print with very great differences in brightness between light and dark. opposite of flat

Depth of Field: The area between the nearest and farthest points from the camera that are accepably sharp in an image.

Q&A week 5

2006-07-07T03:21:00.000-07:00

I'm so glad to hear so many of you got great firework pictures!!! Me? We didnt go...it threated to pour and there is only on way off the island so we passed this year.

we have one question this week:

Q: What is Focal Length?

A: the text book answer (from the text book we used in school) it is defined as the distance from the lens to the focal plane when the lens focused on infinity, the greater the magnification of the image. Even as i typed this all I could hear was Charlie Brown's parents ...wha wha wha wha...
It's basically what your lens sees. for my 50mm fixed lens (omg i love this baby) the focal length is 50mm.

I put a poll up on 2peas and got a much large response than i thought (didnt realize howmany people were reading...love y'all) next week we are going to do a vocab lesson!

FYI

2006-07-05T05:08:00.000-07:00

i feel rude doing this but talking it over witha few friends I decided maybe it wasn't as rude as I thought. I've added a donation button to the side bar. Please don't feel you HAVE to donate. I am offering this service for free, but if you would like to...fell free. I really hope I am helping you understand photography. I am teaching you what I learned in school ($1100 per class...ouch!) because I enjoy photography and hope to share the love!

a day walking in my shoes

2006-07-03T05:33:00.000-07:00

(for all cameras)

don't worry I will not make you all come here and walk around in my shoes, in the hot FL sun. (unless you want to and then we can hit the beach and you cna wear a pair of my flip flops) . but this is another lesson is seeing. We can all see the object we want to shoot but can we see it at other angles, and heights.

How does you kids see the world? you dog? your shoes? the tree in your front yard.

HOMEWORK: pick one focal length (I would choose between 17-50mm) take shots through out the week not snading up...see how your kid sees the world through thier eyes at thier height. what if you your dogs height? how would you see things if you were your shoes? NO STANDING UP on this assignment!

my example:

Fireworks

2006-06-28T05:08:00.000-07:00

these buggers are a little tricky! make sure to have a small flash light with you. i carry a mini mag in my camera bag.

SLR cameras:
- use a slow film speed. I will be using ISO 100
- Use a tripod
- use a long shutter speed 1 sec to bulb usually works the best. any of these work
-set your focal length to infinity
- aperture should be around f/8-f/16 this allows for better color

Point and Shoots:
- ISO 50-200
- USE LANDSCAPE MODE
-no flash

not that many directions are there? not so hard! Play, have fun and happy Canada day and 4th of July!

Q &A week 4

2006-06-28T04:50:00.000-07:00

Q: "Would you give me your opinion on lenses? I know this is not related to your post on color, but I'd love to know how you like your Canon 75-300mm lens. I really need more zoom, and I'm wondering if this is a good lens. Is it sharp at 300?"

A: I like my 70-300 lens...but i will be honest and I hated it at 1st. Why? It is HEAVY, and that requires a very steady hand and/tripod when using it. There have been days i wished I had the IS model. but i have learned to control it and use a faster shutter speed with it. (less time for it the shake) Is it sharp at 300mm? for the most part, all my South Beach pictures were taken with it (see 2peas gallery) except for the life guard stand. At most were taken at 300. the trick of this lens is control.

Q:what are your thoughts on non-Canon lenses? Are there other brands that you like?

A: I am a lens snob. I went with Canon camera's bc of thier lenses. I have one non canon lens (see the side) and I HATE IT. I can see the diffrence of quality in my pictures. I am in the process of replacing it at the moment (as soon as I have $). I have heard Sigma's are good...I would like to know how you think of these if you own one.

Q: What settings should I use to photograph a fireworks display and can you explain the histogram in layman's terms?

A: Ina few short mins I will be posting an entire post on fireworks. the histogram....ignore it. I have, well until i get to photoshop and then in levels I make sure there is a black and a white (or very close to it) in my pictures. There is no "perfect" histogram.

Q: I usually shoot in AV. Can you tell me the difference between P and AV/TV?

A: Okay I had to pull the manual out for this one. It looks liek P is a combo of AV/TV. I guess the only reason to switch to P is not ever having to switch to TV when you want control of the Shutter Speed.

HUGE favor

2006-06-28T04:47:00.000-07:00

if you are asking a question, please leave you e-mail addy, or e-mail me. i am getting a lot of posts that i can't reply back to by e-mail and I hate top leave you hanging! I dont mind e-mails at all!!
e-mail: andie_smith@mac.com

I posted the equpitment i use right now on the blog too. I have gotten a lot of questions about that. Some people were surprised I use a rebel and not a higher end camera....its not the camera but the photographer....no one told monet 'oh you must use good paint"

Color

2006-06-26T05:58:00.000-07:00

(for all cameras)

I started art school as a graphic design student before transfering to the photogrpahy department. From day one of school I was thrown into a world of color. I was given a color wheel and told to memorize it. why? the world is better in technicolor! (ask Dorothy and Toto). I know you are asking,"how does this appply to photography?". Easy, you shoot in color right? (well a good majority of us do) Use that color wheel to make photos pop.

Complementary colors are any two colors which are directly opposite each other, blue and orange, green and red. This color cobination is the most impactful to the eye.

I know this lesson was short but it's an important one! Later this week I will post on how to shoot fireworks!

HOMEWORK: look through books and magazines for pictures that are using complemetry colors and go shoot some of your own.

Q & A Week 3

2006-06-23T04:00:00.000-07:00

there are no questions this week.....are you guys still playing??? or are you understanding (that would rock!)

Exposure part 3 of 3

2006-06-19T05:46:00.000-07:00

(slr cameras)

Did we learn how shutter speed and aperture effects your pictures? Did you notice how it has the same effect. less light your pictures were darker, more light they were overexposed? Using shutter speed and aperture together will help you get a perfectly exposured picture.

Shutter speed and aperture work together, like a bucket you are filling with water (but think of water as light). if you have a gallon bucket you want to fill up with water you open the water spout all the way open (f/2) it will take the bucket 2 sec (shutter speed) to fill up. Now take the same bucket and close it a little (to f/4) and it will take 4 sec to fill up the bucket. You camera works the same way. the smaller the aperature, the longer the shutter speed you will need. The wider the aperture a quicker shutter speed you will need. This is called equivalent exposures. 1/8s @ f/16 = 1/500s @ f/2.

Another way to remember this is picturing the see saws we played on as kids. when one goes up the other has to go down.

So how do you choose the the right exposure? you will need to decide what is important to you. shutter speed and aperture BOTH effect sharpness, but in diffrent ways. Shutter speed affects the sharpness of moving objects, aperture affects depth of field (sharpness from near to far.

these two pictures show the diffrence in shutter speed. i choose the shutter speed 1st because of the moving water.

Now these two pictures, I choose the aperture 1st. Notice the very shallow depth of field in the picture that I shot with a wider apeture? notice how most of the crayons are sharp in the picture i shot with a very narrow aperture?

HOMEWORK: set your camera to P. (P is automatic on steriods) P will give you an exposure like automatic, but you can control equivalent exposures. now go shoot a moving object and shoot at the fastest and slowest shutter speed. (since you are on P the camera will give you the equivalent f/stop). Then shoot a still life with the widest and smallest aperture (the camera will give you the equivalent shutter speed).
Remeber dont be afraid to post questions or email me at andie_smith@mac.com

Q&A wk 2

2006-06-18T16:17:00.000-07:00

There weren't a lot of questions this week. The ones I have had are about camera themselves.
That brings me to a HUGE point. I am going to right this in HUGE LARGE letters, i don't want this come across rude, just it's REALLY REALLY IMPORTANT!

READ YOUR CAMERA MANUAL

I know they are confusing and boring. but you need to read it know what your camera does. do me a favor, take your camera and send it to me if you are not going to read the manual. lol...jk. take your camera and your manual and read 5 pages a day on it. (its not so confusing if you have your camera on hand).

Lesson #3 is coming tommorow. We will be seeing how shutter speed and aperture work together.

Exposure part 2 of 3 (aperture)

2006-06-12T06:02:00.000-07:00

(for SLR cameras)
Aperture is the size of the opening in the lens (see picture). It works like the pupil of an eye, enlarging or contracting admitting more or less light in.

The size of an aperture is indeicated by it's f-number or f-stop. (how many of you are sawing in your heads "oh! that's what an f-stop is!"?). F/1.4 is wide open and F/32 is very small. I know this gets confusing, because logically you think 1.4 is smaller that 32. Here is the one phrase that made me understand. F/STOPS ARE A FRACTION. there for 1/1.4 is larger than 1/32. Get it? If Mr. Gatz (my principals of photography teacher) would have tlod me that week 2 of class it would have saved me about 5 weeks of confusion!

F/stops work like shutter speed when it comes to "stops". F/2 is half the amount of light than F/1.4, were f/1.4 of twice the amount of light of f/2. Each time you double or half the amount of light is a stop.

Aperture is also one of the ways to control depth of field (this will be another lesson down the road) but the larger the f/stop (f/1.4) the more shallow your depth of field (more of it fuzy). the smaller the F/stop more of your picture is going to be sharp.

Apeture is written as f/x. x=aperture.

Remember don't be afraid to ask questions, comment or anything!!! If you dont want to post it here fell free to e-mail me at andie_smith@mac.com

HOMEWORK: (a lot like last weeks) GO OUTSIDE. Set your camera to manual, your ISO to 100. Your shutter speed to 1/250 s. now change your aperture (f/stops) to see what happens when you let more or less light in. You will only need to use the "full f/stops"; f/1.14, f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8. f/11. f/16, f/22, f/32, f/45, f/64, f/90, f/ 128 . I know your lens won't have all of these but do the ones that you can. (shoot the same thing for these shots)

Q & A week 1

2006-06-09T03:26:00.000-07:00

Girls I have gotten so many nice comments and e-mails. Thank you!! I am glad to do this for you!!!
You have probably seen the post change though out the week a little...I'm doing this from suggestion from you. I sometimes forget not everyone uses an SLR camera. I'm sorry. So for the next three weeks we will be going over expsoure and this will require a camera you have control over the shutter speed and aperture. I promise the 4th lesson won't require an SLR. but I will post when it does.

Oh and one last thing...If you post your homewrok..please link me...I WANNA SEE...bc I'm nosey! lol

Q & A

Q:What exactly is a full stop?

A: A stop is the change in illumination either from shutter speed or the aperture. doubling the amount of time the shutter is left open is one step up, halving it is one stop down. If you start at 1/250 s and you changed you shutter speed to 1/125, that is a full stop up.

Q: What is aperture?

A: We will be going over aperture next week, but aperture is the size of your les opening. it works liek the pupil of your eye. When its darn it opens up more...bright smaller. More next week on this!

Q: question about week's one homework... do we take the same exact picture with the same ISO and just change the F stops? or different pictures?

A: Same picture. BUT... We aren't changeing f/stops this week. WE ARE CHANGING SHUTTER SPEED. Set your ISO to 100 and your f/stop to 16 go out side and shoot the same picture while changing your shutter speed.

Exposure part 1 of 3 (Shutter Speed)

2006-06-06T06:45:00.000-07:00

(for SLR cameras)

Exposure is a hard concept to understand...but when you do start to understand it, it is like a light buld moment..and after that it seems pretty easy. You should have seen my light buld moment. It came in the middle of class. it was pretty comical since I'm pretty animated.

The Combination of shutter speed and aperture is exposure. We are going to focus on shutter speed today.

The shutter controls the amount of light that reaches the film (or digtal sensor) by the time it remains open. doubling the amount of time it is open give one stop more exposure...or twice the amount of light. Halving the amount of time is one less stop.. Each full stop shutter setting is half/double amount of time as the last setting. for example 1/8s is half of 1/4s, but double 1/15 s.

Shutter Speeds are written as 1/x s(seconds).

Questions? please post any questions. I will have a Q&A post in a couple days beofre we go over aperture.

HOMEWORK: SHOOT OUT SIDE IN THE SUN. Set your ISO to 100. Set your camera to manual. Your F/stop (more about f/stops next lesson) to f/16. now change your shutter speeds to see what happens when you let more or less light in.

hello!!

2006-06-06T05:33:00.000-07:00

HI! I've decided to start a blog full of photgraphy information...because it is my passion, job, and well my life. I have had a few friends ask for lessons and I would love to give lessons...just some of them are in CO and I am in FL...that can be hard! lol!

Every week I will post a tip, lesson, a tequnique, or even a short bio ona photographer. My photo teachers used to say you can't know your art unless you know the masters...and this is so true!

I am not sure if I will have a set day to put lessons up. I will be putting one up either today or tomrrow. It will cover something basic.... and for my readers who are more advance, don't worry not every week will be basic.

I love hearing feel back...Please comment or e-mail if you have any ideas or suggestions!