Tip #101: Sandbagging, Literally

When you work with backdrop stands, light stands, and tripods, you will find that most everything you touch is top heavy. The stands are light but strong but can tip over and damage equipment or, worse, your clients. The answer is simple. Add a sandbag to the base of the stands to provide more stability. I use saddlebag type bags that can hold up to 20 pounds of sand. I found that each side of the bag will hold 2 quart-sized, ziplock, plastic bags filled with sand. The addition of the plastic bag liners keeps the sand in place and off the studio floor.



I bought mine on Amazon. Be sure you get the sand, locally; otherwise, the shipping costs will be heavy!


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Tip #100: Keep It Legal

If you are considering going pro, be sure you keep it legal. I am not talking about your subject matter, rather I'm speaking to the fact that if you sell photos, you will likely have taxes to pay on your sales.

When I looked into the process in Texas, I learned that failure to properly report such earnings comes with stiff fines -- up to $500 per day for each violation. So, I dutifully registered my photography business; I report sales on a quarterly basis; I collect sales taxes from my customers; and I promptly pay sales taxes as required by the state.

There is a bright side to all of this. I avoid the penalities of non-compliance, and I enjoy making tax-free purchases of business-related equipment, used exclusively for the production of photographic images. Note: I still pay sales tax on items for personal use.

Keep it legal; keep it honest; sleep well at night!



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Tip #99: Lights, Camera, Action

Studio lighting and lighting in general comes in many shapes, styles, and sizes. There are flash units, studio strobes, and continuous lighting options.

• Flash units are those that either fit on the hot shoe of your camera or mount on stands for off-camera use.


• Strobes are just fancy named flash units that are larger than the flash units that mount on your camera. Strobes are usually set on stands and have wired or wireless radio units that fire, when the camera shutter is pressed.


• Continuous lighting is just that. Instead of firing a flash of light, the lights stay on continuously, lighting your subject. Continuous lights come in both old-style, hot incandescent and modern, cool fluorescent.

Regardless of the style lights that are used, their purpose is to light the subject so that the best color and detail can be shot with your camera. You have to balance your budget with your lighting needs.

• Flash units are made by a variety of manufacturers for your specific camera type. Some can be triggered by wireless units or can have master-slave set-ups are are triggered optically. Check your camera manufacturer's web sites for recommendations.


• Strobes tend to provide more light than flash units but may be only a bit more expensive than high-end hot-shoe flash units. Elinchrom lights are highly recommended. I have seen them in action and some models, like the BXRi, have built-in wireless triggers.


• Continuous lights take much of the guess-work out of lighting arrangements, since you see the subject lighted, as your camera will see it. I use Westcott Spiderlight TD6's for my studio lights.

I never said the hobby was inexpensive. Purchases can get pricey, especially if you are going pro.



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Tip #98: Vibration Reduction

My telephoto lenses have vibration reduction capabilities, as defined on the Nikon USA website:

Nikon VR II (Vibration Reduction) Image Stabilization Vibration Reduction, engineered specifically for each VR NIKKOR lens, enables handheld shooting at up to 4 shutter speeds slower than would otherwise be possible, assuring dramatically sharper still images and video capture.

I turn VR on and never turn it off, even when using a tripod.


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Tip #97: Lens Protection

On each of my lenses, I have attached essentially permanent lens protection -- I never take it off. When I compare the price of the protection to the price of the lens, the cost becomes insignificant. I don't leave home without it.

I use Promaster HGX clear filters.




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Tip #96: It Belongs in the Bag

Lens covers belong in the bag.

Anytime one of my cameras is out of the bag, I must be shooting or about to shoot. As a result, the lens cover stays in the bag. Whenever a camera goes back in the bag, on goes its lens cover.

I miss fewer shots, using this technique.



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Tip #95: Collaboration, Just Do It!

This morning I met Paula, the artist that asked to paint one of my photographs. Peggy and I had a nice breakfast with Paula, her son, Michael, and his friend, Susan. After breakfast the painting was revealed. I was thrilled to see the finished piece. The result was a very flattering rendition of the bluebonnet shot that I captured, last spring.



Paula, thanks for sharing. I look forward to future collaborations.





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Tip #94: Breathe Deep

For an extra steady hold, maybe worth an additional f-stop, inhale before you compose your shot. Then, exhale about half your breath and press the shutter button. I learned this technique as a kid with a squirrel rifle, and it works just as well with a camera.


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Tip #93: Watch for the Blinkies

Now that I have you reviewing your photos more discretely with less chimping, I wanted to let you know that there is an excellent tool on most camera LCD displays that can be put to good use.

Check your manual for the overexposed view available on the LCD. This view will point out areas of the photo that are blown out by over exposure. The blown out areas will be blinking to point out missing data. To correct the exposure you can adjust your camera settings and retake the shot, or you could use the exposure conpensation button to reduce the exposure by fractions of an f-stop and retake your photo to correct the blinkies. On Nikon cameras the exposure control is marked (+/-) ans sits near the shutter button.



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Tip #92: Oooo, Oooo, Ahhh, Ahhh

Oh, the excited call of a primate. It's called "chimping".

In photography, chimping is the practice of looking at the LCD screen after every shot. There are pros and cons to the practice, and I will provide links to articles that discuss chimping in more detail. For me, the LCD screen is a distraction during shooting, especially in a theater or other darkened environment. When the image pops up on the screen, my night vision is destroyed, and I am sure that my brightly illuminated face behind the camera is a distraction to my subject. So, I purposefully turn off the default setting that displays an image immediately after it is taken. My strategy is to trust my camera and my abilities, and I choose to review images more discretely to avoid the distraction.

I have not always followed this practice, and I can be seen chimping from time to time, as I verify settings. The positive side of chimping is that you quickly learn what works and does not. Once you learn the settings that work, you develop confidence in yourself and in your equipment. My advice, use the LCD on your camera to learn, then use it as the tool that it is in a way that makes sense to you. Don't let it be a distraction to the point that you miss an important shot.

On the pro-side of the issue: "Chimping Your Way to Better Photography"

On the con-side of the issue: "10 Reasons Why You Should Never Chimp While Shooting Street Photography"

And the argument drones on like religion or politics, see Greg's article and the follow-up comments: "Stop Chimping - Photography Quick Tip #5"




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Tip #91: Camera Settings

I am a Nikon shooter. I own a D7000 and a D3S. Both cameras are set to preferences that I use on a regular basis.

• Auto means "everything" is auto, including flash (D7000, only; D3S has no auto setting)
• A (aperture priority) -- ISO 200, aperture is adjusted by me, shutter speed is calculated
• S (shutter priority) -- ISO 200, shutter is adjusted by me but defaults to 1/1000 sec, aperture is calculated
• P (program mode) -- ISO 400, shutter 1/250 sec, aperture is adjusted by me
• M (manual) -- I set ISO (default 200), I set shutter speed (default 1/125 sec), I set aperture, based on internal meter readings.

Everything else I do by feeling the light.

Happy Valentine's Day!







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Tip #90: How to Hold Your Camera

How do you hold your camera? Does it make a difference? With point-and-shoots you nearly always see folks holding their cameras at arm's length and squinting to get the right composition with LCD screen on the back of the camera. You see smartphone users trying to wobble and move their camera into just the right position for a less than good shot. Incorrectly holding a DSLR with a long, heavy lens will not create the best of shots. In fact, because DSLR's are heavier, the extended-arm position will create many bad shots.

When I shoot, I look for ways to support both lens and body, and I try to tuck in my elbows to provide additional support. This self-portrait shows what I mean.



The more stable you can be, the better your shots will be. As with most things, these days, here's another article on the topic, http://improvephotography.com/1365/how-to-properly-hold-a-dslr-camera/.


Here's a video that goes into even more detail.




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Tip #89: Browser to Full Screen

In the old days (late 70's, early 80's), I shot a lot of slide film. I would go to the darkroom, develop the negatives, cut the film, and mount the individual slides into slide holders. Unless I was printing, I didn't look at the slides through an enlarger. Instead, I would sort the good from the bad using a back-lit slide viewer. The good ones would go into a slide tray and straight to the projector for enlarged viewing.

These days, digital images can be viewed as thumbnails in image editing software or as full screen images. Using ViewNX, the full screen view is just a double click away.








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Tip #88: Streamlining Your Workflow

Many photo editors allow you to open images with other tools. Lightroom and ViewNX are two that allow this procedure for plug-ins and helper applications. This example is based on ViewNX, the free editor from Nikon.

Open the ViewNX application and choose the folder to view.



Then, right click on an image, and you will be offered several choices, including opening the image with a helper application of your choice.



Choose register, and you will be given the option to add a new helper program.




Having the tools right at your mouse-tip will help streamline your editing workflow.



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Tip #87: Reusing Settings

Suppose you spend several minutes creating just the right effect for a photo, and say that you have other photos from the same shoot. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to apply the same settings to another photo? Capture NX2 allows this (as do other editors). Here are examples, showing how it can be done in NX2.

Get the settings just right:



Save the settings:




Apply settings on a different photo:







This feature is a definite time saver.



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Tip #86: The Golden Ratio

Have you ever had an image appeal to you, and you could not put your finger on the reason? There is some science behind that impression. Check out the article on the Golden Ratio. Whew, was that a tough read or what?

Seeing it is very much easier than reading about it. For example:



If you would like to investigate some of your own images, there's a site for that: dcolegrovephotography.com. Upload some of your shots, you may be surprised at how well your images measure up.



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Tip #85: Image Straightening

When it comes to straightening photos, I think I have seen most of the user interfaces for completing the task. There are dialog boxes for entering a number of degrees; there are grids to align; there are twirly things to click and rotate; there are sliders; and there are lines to draw.

In my opinion, drawing a line on either a crooked horizon or a vertical edge that needs straightening is about the simplest of the user interfaces. In Capture NX2 that is the technique that I use. Here are the before and after images of my editor in action.





Presto change-o! no muss, no fuss.

Note: Just so you know, I exaggerated the angle in the "before" image to make the point clear. My actual adjustment to the horizon in the original photo was less than a degree.


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Tip #84: Crop Tool

In Tips 14 and 23 I discussed cropping. This article will describe how the crop tool in Capture NX2 can be used to your advantage. The tool has two modes Free and Fixed Aspect ratio.



In Free, anything goes. You choose the shape of the rectangular crop.



In Fixed Aspect mode, the proportions of the sides are kept constant. You can choose popular ratios or set your own.



You can set the sides the same and create a square crop.



You can create a cinematic aspect by setting the sides to a 16x9 ratio.



Cropping should no longer be a mystery.


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Tip #83: Shooting Sports

So you wanna shoot sports. Sports photography, done well, is an expensive proposition. You need a high frame rate camera $$$$; you need fast lenses $$$$; you need long glass to get to the action $$$$; and you need to understand the sport you are shooting, so you can get the $money$ shot. Here are the basics:

1. Because sports include fast moving participants, you need a camera that can take several frames per second, while auto-focusing. I would recommend 6-12 frames per second. Faster is always better in this case. Nikon and Canon seem to be the winners for professional sports photographers.


2. Fast lenses are those that work in low light and have fast, auto-focus capabilities. I would not consider a lens in this category without an aperture setting of at least f/2.8.


3. Long glass is 200mm or longer. I think 300 to 400mm may even be better. Wikipedia agrees.


4. Understanding the sport -- well, that's just common sense.


5. Your camera settings should be set to shutter priority with the shutter speed set to 1/1000 of a second to freeze the action. ISO may be set on AUTO but be aware that more noise is introduced as ISO values go up. The sweet spot for ISO differs for each camera, so check your manual.


6. You will need the fastest memory cards you can buy.


7. If you shoot for a service, you will probably want to shoot jpeg versus raw, so you can get your shots uploaded quickly.


8. Shoot in burst mode and select your favorite shots from the string of shots.


9. Pan with the action.


10. Be prepared to be in the middle of the action for fast moving, full contact sports.


11. Remember, good shots sell; bad shots just show up on the web.

In my opinion, Scott Kelby is one of the best at shooting sports. See his work at ScottKelby.com


Photo -- Scott Kelby



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Tip #82: Sharpening

I was going to write a long article, explaining the in's and out's of photo sharpening, and how to use the Unsharp Mask. Thanks to the Internet, I found an excellent explanation that I happen to like. Check out Photojojo.com. If you are partial to Wikipedia, they have an article on the topic, too.



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Tip #81: It's Noisy, Now What

It is rare that you take a photo and not have some noise present. There are all kinds of noise or speckles in photos. Removing noise is usually the first step in my editing workflow. Here's how I remove some of the noise, using the Capture NX2 editor.

1. Load the image and zoom-in to 100% (CTRL-ALT-0 is the keyboard short-cut).
2. Choose the Noise Reduction tool.
3. Choose Better Quality method and Edge Noise Reduction.
4. Leave the sharpness slider set on 5.
5. Adjust the Intensity slider to the right just until the image noise is reduced.
6. View the entire image (click on the hand icon).
7. Continue with additional edits or save the image.

Before noise reduction:


After noise reduction:




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Tip #80: It's a Small World

On Saturday, I posted the following image -- a panorama on a sphere:



Yesterday, someone asked me how I did it. So, here goes.

1. I shot a nine-frame panorama, overlapping each frame by about 20%. Any camera will work, but in this case I used one of my DSLR's. I took the images handheld, but a tripod might have been better. A full circle panorama might have been better for the spherical projection, but it is not a requirement.



2. I stitched the 9 frames together with Microsoft ICE (Tip #34) and saved the new image.



3. I loaded the panorama into GIMP. Photoshop would also have worked.



4. I re-scaled the image proportions to a square (5000 pixels x 5000 pixels) with Image->Scale Image.



5. I transformed the image with Filter->Distorts->Polar Coordinates



6. I cleaned up my planet with a healing brush.



7. I left the corners untouched for a dramatic round presentation on my black backgrounded blog.
   
   
8. I saved the new image, naming it "Austeroid."

Text not enough? Here's a Youtube video that shows the Photoshop version of the transformation.

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Tip #79: Break the Rules

Remember the tip that suggested the "Rule of Thirds?" Well, I am here to tell you that by knowing the rule, you are now free to break it. What? That's right, rules in photography are not really rules, rather they are guidelines to help you develop your skills.

Freedom is a powerful thing. Be creative with your art but be responsible!



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Tip #78: Moving Pictures

No photographer's repertoire is complete without knowing a little about video. Why? Well, your customers are going to expect it, plus the technology is almost universal. I have it on my phone; I have it on a video camera; I have it in my DSLR's; I have it on the web -- video is everywhere.

There are free video editors on both PC's and Mac's; there are shareware video editors; and there are packages to buy. The price range is almost as varied as the sources of video, themselves. I use a consumer suite from Pinnacle software. It handles many input formats and can create output in most of the popular formats, including full HD.

Be prepared for a fairly steep learning curve. Fortunately, the duration of the curve is not too long. The effort will be worth it.



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