Month: May 2019

These lessons will focus on taking great cell phone photos, so good that you can create one of a kind photos. Please read all our lessons as they are short and cover: FOCUSING, CAMERA POSITIONING, BACKGROUND, LIGHTING, FRAMING and more topics!

Lesson 4: LIGHTING

While the effect of lighting on a photo’s meaning might at first not seem obvious, imagine this. A cupcake sitting on a picnic bench with bright sunshine shining down on it. Now imagine the same picnic bench with a cupcake on it in semi-darkness. The first photograph might suggest a gathering or a picnic is about to happen. The second might suggest a picnic that is already over. What we do with light, in other words, can have a HUGE impact on the photo’s meaning.

Lighting is used for a variety of purposes to produce a variety of effects. Most photographers are aware of natural lighting, and have experimented with light of different intensities: the soft warm golden light of sunrise on various objects vs the harder bluer light of the midday sun overhead vs the softer purple light of twilight. Light changes throughout the day, so we have to keep this in mind when creating one of a kind photos. Compare these two photos below and the effect time of day has on the color of the garden.   The first is taken around 5 o’clock in the evening.  

Now compare the same picture taken later on in the day.

 

What do you notice about the harshness of the shadows?  The hues of twilight on the color of the yellow irises and on the color of the brick? 

Natural light is important. If we are to harness light’s full potential to enhance our photographs, however, we have to become aware of other types of lighting than simply that which comes to us naturally. That means relying on certain lighting techniques. Most people use front lighting when they take pictures outside or inside. That is to say, the light source (the sun, the light) is in front of the object (or behind the photographer’s head). Front lighting is usually flat, evenly lighting up your subject. 

Yet, if we were to put the light source behind the object, we could create other effects. You might want to film someone on the beach with the sun directly behind them to give them an angelic glow.     See how  this sparrow’s silhouette almost glows with a watery sun right behind it.    

 

Darker more dramatic silhouettes can be taken with artificial lighting.  Examine the striking effect the dark shadow the person makes with the back lighting of the Christmas lights on this photo.

 

Still another way to create different photographic effects is to use diffuse lighting. Diffuse light is a softer light that is less glaring than direct light.  It tends to cut down on shadows and contrasts giving the picture a less harsh and more even look. In the photo below of Valentine’s flowers, you will see that the light has been diffused through window blinds, giving the décor a softened, almost cinematic feel.  

 

Because diffuse lighting is simply lighting that has been partially blocked out or softened, you can use this same concept in various contexts (e.g. You can take portraits of people in the diffused light of a forest,  take photos at twilight or obscured by cloud cover).  So the next time you are trying to take a one of kind photo, take a moment to see what kind of lighting is at your disposal to enhance the effect of your picture. 

 

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In the mean time, have fun taking your one of a kind photos!

These lessons will focus on taking great cell phone photos, so good that you can create one of a kind photos. Please read all our lessons as they are short and cover: FOCUSING, CAMERA POSITIONING, BACKGROUND, LIGHTING, FRAMING and more topics!

Lesson 3: BACKGROUND.

Now that we have learned about how to hone in on an object to make it the focus of your photo, we are now going to discuss what is of equal importance: the background. The background to a composition can make a huge difference to the overall effect of a picture. Imagine the man we saw in lesson two, instead of being in a garden, was in front of a large wall of graffiti. How would this change our perception of him and what he is doing?  Look at the same man in the photo below, encountering a mannequin on a swing for example.  How does this affect our perception of him?

Backgrounds can be natural, and often involve flowers, blossoms, grass, water, or forests. But backdrops can also involve structures such as walls, buildings, cell towers, or art exhibits.  Often some of the most effective one of a kind photos involve objects which are “out of place” or out of a scale. A salamander riding in a man’s pocket. A woman standing over top of the Eiffel tower.

So the next time, instead of just picking a backdrop that’s handy, try to think about the backdrop in terms of your photo’s overall composition. How does it help convey the mood of the picture? How do the colors harmonize or clash with the object in question? Do you want a static background or do you want movement such as wind or water?

Really think about the story you want to tell and what would be the best elements in order to tell it.

In the mean time, have fun taking your one of a kind photos!

These lessons will focus on taking great cell phone photos, so good that you can create one of a kind photos. Please read all our lessons as they are short and cover: FOCUSING, CAMERA POSITIONING, BACKGROUND, LIGHTING, FRAMING and more topics!

Lesson 2: CAMERA POSITIONING.

Get closer

Okay, in lesson one, we learned how we can affect the “story” we want to tell with camera focusing. Camera positioning is another way to change the story we want to tell. We have already stated in lesson one that simply by moving closer to an object, we make it the focus of the picture. 

Take this picture below of a man reading in a garden.  Notice how much space the man takes up in comparison to the garden.   He seems fully surrounded by the garden, happy to be enclosed in that space, yet the central story seems to be more about the garden and the plants in it  than the actual man himself. 

Now compare this to the second photo below. 

 

How does moving closer toward the man change your perspective on what is going on?  It’s the same man in the garden, but notice how your focus changes from the location of the shot to the man himself.  Now instead of staring at the man and his surroundings, we are primarily looking at details about the man, what he wearing, what he is reading and his expression/reaction to his situation.  The man and what he is doing becomes foregrounded, with the garden being demoted to secondary importance to the overall meaning of the photo. 

There are many ways to tell different stories with camera positioning, which dramatically change not only the overall picture composition, but how one comes to think about the object and its surroundings.  We could decide to take an even closer photo of the man or the flowers.  We might, for example, take an even closer photo of the man, perhaps focusing on one half of his face, or maybe even focusing in on a bug on his ear.     

Another way to use camera positioning is by using angles. Examine the picture of the woman below taken from a standing position. 

 

Now compare it to a photo of the woman wearing the same dress taken from a crouching position.

Notice how in the second photo there is less background and more sky.  Since her legs are closer to the photographer in the second picture, they look disproportionately larger, giving her a “leggier” look.     Had we photographed the woman from the tree, we would have had a different photo again with her body shape changing once more.  You can use this same technique with any object, person, building, etc, to produce entirely different looking objects.  You can take photos crouching, flat on the ground or underneath something. So the next time you are photographing something, trying shooting it from different angle, and compare the results. You might be surprised by what you find!

In the mean time, have fun taking your one of a kind photos!

During these lessons,  we will not cover the type of camera to buy as that would involve a ton of blog posts on is own. These lessons will focus on taking great pictures with your cell phone, so good that you can create one of a kind photos even if you are not an experienced photographer.  Please read all our lessons as they are short and cover: FOCUSING, CAMERA POSITIONING, BACKGROUND, LIGHTING, FRAMING and more topics!

Lesson 1: FOCUSING.

You might take a photo out of focus by mistake at times, but we will assume you can use a camera tripod or keep a steady hand and take a photos that are not blurry.  Now let’s think about the main thing you want to show in a new photo called the primary object.

The problem with most people taking photos is they want to take a photo of everything they see. Unfortunately, your camera is not like your eye. It can’t capture everything. Therefore, choose one thing you want to focus in on (the primary object).

One way to do this is to zoom in on or move closer to the object to make it appear larger. As you do so, other objects will be of lesser importance. Another way to do this is to sharpen the image of some of the photo and make the rest of the image out of focus.  

In this picture, it is clear that the flowers are the primary object of focus.  While the girl in the background is important to the picture’s meaning (as she is included in the scene), it is the flowers which take center stage in that interpretation of what’s going on.  

We will talk more on this topic on CAMERA POSITIONING on that lesson.

In the mean time, have fun taking your one of a kind photos!