Danny T - Wedding photography Bristol

Are your pictures just 1′s and 0′s?

Sun, 12 May 2013 18:20:40 +0000

Digital photography is great and you can always put that photo in a slideshow, but when it’s something you’re really proud of, make sure it takes pride of place in your home as a framed print.

One of my favourite parts of photography is taking a great photo, printing it out and framing it on a wall. Printing’s a really easy process nowadays – it’s all online, you don’t have to leave the house and there are incredible deals out there for any print size.

One of my favourite photo suppliers in the UK is Photobox. They have a huge range of and if you sign up to their newsletter you’ll get massive discounts every week. Just sign up and wait it out until they put a discount on what you’re looking for – you’ll be amazed how cheap it can be. I recently got a huge 45” x 30” print for only £10 with a 70% off discount – amazing! And their standard prices are also great value, so give them a look.

Another great company is Blurb, who specialise in photo albums. They have their own free software for creating albums online, and if you’re a Lightroom user they have a great plugin that makes creating and ordering your photo album a simple drag drop process. You can order anything from hardback presentation albums to softcover magazines for a great price and there’s discounts for ordering in bulk.

If you want the finest quality in the UK, go with Loxley Colour. I use these guys to create wedding albums for my newlyweds. They provide a level of print quality that’s second to none – they’re not cheap, but if you’re looking for pure quality and choice, go with Loxley.

Once you’ve got your photo printed, you’ll need a frame. There’s a lot of pre-made frames out there that are really affordable and Ikea’s a great place to start. Of course if you’re looking for real quality and have other needs such as anti-reflective glass or acid free mounts, you may want to consider getting the frame hand made or order a custom made frame online.

I like to have lots of framed prints around the house and periodically update the photos when a great discount comes through. It keeps them fresh and is really rewarding to see my own photos up in pride of place. So make sure you get your photos printed, and don’t let them get buried at the bottom of your hard drive!

Photographers are just a bunch of monkeys…

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 14:30:27 +0000

There is a phenomenon in photography called chimping, where a photographer will take a photo and immediately look down at the preview that appears at the back of the camera, stick their elbows out and go ‘ooo!’ or ‘ahhh!’. When you group a large amount of photographers together all chimping, you can really see what I mean!

It seems Darwins Theory of Evolution doesn’t apply to photographers and may just be a bunch of monkeys getting excited over large shiny pieces of glass. The irony of course is in the days of film and before digital, there were no previews, so there were no chimps – maybe it’s even worse and we’re devolving as we go along

But chimping is a part of digital photography, so don’t worry, it’s normal. When taking a photo it’s important to to review it to make sure you’ve got the exposure and composition right. You never quite know; all cameras meter slightly differently and getting the exposure perfect is never an exact science. However, I would encourage you to fight your primordial urges and contain your inner chimp – it’ll really help your photography.

I often see photographers undergo a complete morphism as soon as they take a photo – they’ll look down, succumb to the chimp and spend forever looking at the preview. If the inner chimp is powerful enough, you’ll see them showing their shiny reflectly thing with other chimps who all gather round and suddenly everyones converted! Meanwhile their model stands waiting or the moment they’re trying to capture passes them by.

So when you’re taking photos, don’t be a monkey. A camera is just a camera and it’s not your eyes. It can’t see the range of tones that your eyes can, and it has a limited function. Understand when you’ve got the best you can get with what you have and focus on the moment.

Stay engaged with your subject; if that’s a person, make sure you’re talking to them and keep them relaxed and focussed. Keep the intimacy up and you’ll get much better results. If it’s an event, don’t take your eyes off it. Be disciplined and stay on it, you never know what could happen.

Of course, I couldn’t really talk about not chimping without admitting that I do occasionally relapse – here’s one of me caught in the act on a Flickr walk, courtesy of One Eyed Coombs.

Protecting your memories

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 19:36:19 +0000

There are many things in life that are replaceable, but photos of your once in a lifetime moments aren’t. Protecting them is so often overlooked; and the importance is only realised when its too late.

Digital devices are fragile things and known to break without warning – so if you’re storing your photos digitally, it’s absolutely crucial that you back them up. If you haven’t got a backup already, put it at the top of your to-do list. If you’re already backing them up, that’s great – but are you doing it in the right way?

Step 1

The bare minimum to protect your data is to make a backup on a separate hard disk / storage device. This can be done manually via drag and drop, or if you’re more technically savvy, you can mirror your main hard drive onto another, creating an identical copy of your hard drive as it changes.

How to mirror your hard drive

This will protect you in case one of your hard disk fails and you’re unable to recover all of your data.

Step 2

Once you have your second hard drive, you can decide on where to put it. You can keep it in the same place as your computer – but what would happen if (god forbid), there was a fire or someone broke into your house? Both of those hard drives could be damaged / stolen. So if your second hard drive is portable, it’s generally a good idea to keep it separate from the first, perhaps in a safe or even better, at another location completely.

However, this does make updating your library somewhat more difficult as you’d have to be ferrying your hard drive back and forward.

So what else can you do?

Step 3

The third option is to copy of all of your photos to a secure online location. There are many places that offer ‘cloud storage’ services for incredibly low amounts, so don’t be fooled by Apple’s extremely high priced offerings.

For under £40 per year, you can hire a service called ‘Carbonite’ to backup all your data to their cloud as soon as you load it to your computer. That’s under £40 a year for UNLIMITED online storage and piece of mind for any eventuality.

So what now?

If you don’t have a backup of your photos now, get to the shops, get yourself another hard drive and make a copy of them. It’s crucial you’re at least covered against hard disk failure.

Next, look into online storage – if you’re able to use it, create another copy online and update it and your second hard drive regularly. That’s the safest option – three versions of your photos; the originals on your computer, a backup on a hard drive, and an online backup.

Everything else is insured against but photos so often aren’t. Make sure your precious memories aren’t at risk and keep them safely backed up.

Manual perfection

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 22:10:05 +0000

Just the mention of the word manual mode sparks utter panic and terror! But there is a simple system that you can use to get the perfect exposure each time.

When people talk about manual mode, it’s always with trepidation. I guess it’s a combination of taking the first step into really considering your photos (which is scary) and facing up to the technical challenges of manual.

But there are simple systems you can use to get the perfect exposure. This is a system that i’ve developed over years of shooting, and it works well for me. The important things to understand are some key concepts behind exposure, then going with it in the right way without getting too bogged down in the numbers.

So here’s where I start:

Step 1

Switch your camera to manual mode. If you’re camera doesn’t blow up, you’ve done it right.

Step 2

Once you’re in manual, start by selecting your aperture. Your aperture controls your depth of field, that is, how much or how little you want in focus both in front of and behind your focal point. For more information about aperture and depth of field, watch my video
Aperture in action.

Choosing a wide or a narrow aperture will allow different levels of light into your camera and affect your final exposure and in general, is a good place to start for most photography.

So you’ve chosen your depth of field by choosing your aperture. The second thing to look at is your shutter speed. Look at your subject through your viewfinder / on your LCD and you’ll see an exposure meter along the bottom.

This will show whether your camera thinks you’re above, below or at the correct exposure. Changing your shutter speed up and down will move your exposure meter up and down. Don’t worry about trying to calculate the number in your head – just scroll your shutter speed until that exposure meter gets to 0. Now, the subject that you have metered against should be properly exposed. Now take a look at your shutter speed. What is it? Is it too fast or too slow for what you’re trying to do? If it’s very slow, e.g. 1/40 of a second, you may experience some blur as a result of camera shake if you’re hand holding – in which case you may need to increase your shutter speed. If you can sacrifice a little light and speed up your shutter speed then do, if you can’t, you can either widen you’re aperture by lowering its number (e.g. f8 to f4), which will sacrifice some depth of field, or use ISO.

Note: for sports photography, you may want to swap step 1 and 2 round, deciding on the shutter speed step before the aperture step, as you may need a specific shutter speed to freeze your subject.

Step 3

So now you have your aperture and you have your shutter speed. But let’s say the shutter speed you need is faster than what’s showing on your camera, for example, you’ve set your aperture at f4 which is giving you a shutter speed of 1/40th. Enter ISO.

ISO is the sensitivity of your camera’s sensor – the higher the number, the more sensitive it is. Increasing your ISO increases your exposure and allows you to speed up your shutter speed to avoid camera shake. So hold down that ISO button, turn the dial up, and you’ll see on your meter that your exposure reading will start moving towards the plus sign. Speed up your shutter speed and it’ll come down again.

There are some considerations with ISO – as you increase the number of your ISO you can bring in noise, which can be pixelation or artifacts on your picture. If you’re ISO is very high and will bring in a lot of noise (e.g. ISO 1000), you may want to consider using aperture of shutter speed to let more light in. Whether that is / isn’t an issue is up to you, but don’t forget there’s lot of noise reduction techniques you can use afterwards to counteract it.

For me, ISO isn’t a big deal. If I need a higher ISO to get the shot then i take it. You may well find that you are as wide open on your aperture as possible (i.e. you are on as low a number as possible), you have as slow a shutter speed as you can afford without camera shake, so really all you have left to achieve a correct exposure is your ISO. If that’s the case, don’t be afraid to use it. It’s always better to get the shot with a higher ISO, than miss it because you’re worried about noise.

So, follow these steps and you’ll be well on your way to taking perfect manual exposures. Metering is always a consideration, for more information, read my post on metering in your camera.

Have fun all, and as always I’d love to see your shots, you can show them to me by hashtagging them on flickr or twitter with hashtag #dannytphotography.

Aperture in action

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 20:49:02 +0000

Learn about aperture and depth of field in a groundbreaking tutorial where you can watch the effect of aperture live and in camera.

Digital SLR Camera Basics – Depth of field

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 21:34:45 +0000

In this post I’d like to talk about depth of field, one of the cornerstones of great composition in photography and the key to great photo prints.

Depth of field is the area of an image that is in focus. Depth of field is affected by aperture, the distance from the subject and the focal length of your lens.

As the aperture gets smaller, your digital SLR camera will let in less light and the depth of field will increase. Moving away from a subject increases the depth of field and moving closer to a subject decreases the depth of field. That’s why macro photography requires a very small aperture to boost the depth of field, as it can be as shallow as just a few millimeters.

When taking macro (close up) photos for art posters I like to use depth of field to isolate the subject and have lots of blur behind it to really focus the viewers attention. In landscape photos and photo prints I generally try and get as much in focus as possible so it is possible to work with small apertures. It is tempting to think ‘why not just use the smallest aperture possible all the time?’ here, but do bear in mind that apertures past f16 can make images less sharp.

Measuring depth of field

There are some great depth of field calculators online to help you calculate the depth of field you’re working with. For more information, visit DOFMaster and Outsight.

Controlling aperture to control depth of field

To control aperture and depth of field, try moving out of ‘P’ mode on your camera, which allows very little control. If you are shooting in automatic, try using the aperture or shutter priority (‘A’ or ‘S’ on your camera) modes. Many photographers find that shooting in aperture priority and selecting a high enough ISO to ensure a fast enough shutter speed actually gives them the most control.

Digital SLR Camera Basics – Aperture

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 21:34:02 +0000

Understanding aperture is fundamental to taking great photographs to develop as a canvas print or photo prints – but what is aperture?

Aperture explained

Aperture is the diameter of the lens opening on your digital SLR camera when a picture is taken. The aperture works very much like the pupil of an eye – as the light decreases, the aperture opens wider, to let more light into the camera and onto the digital SLR camera sensor. Of course, the opposite is true too – as light increases, the aperture becomes smaller to reduce the amount of light hitting the sensor.

How is aperture measured?

Aperture is measured in F-stops or ‘focal ratio’s’. The smaller the F-stop, the larger the lens opening and vice versa.

A typical F-stop scale would be: 1, 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16. Each stop along the scale halves the amount of light entering the camera – i.e. an F-stop of 5.6 would let in half the amount of light than an F-stop of 4.

Aperture in composition

Aperture settings are used to control the depth of field in a photo, i.e. how much of the subject is in focus in front of and behind the focal point. The effect of aperture is particularly distinct in macro photography, where subjects are very small and often the only part of the image in focus.

Aperture priority

Many digital SLR cameras feature an aperture priority mode, often denoted by an ‘A’.

Aperture priority allows the user to select the aperture manually and the camera to automatically detect the shutter speed. If your camera features aperture priority, why not try using it for our flowers challenge this month, develop it as a canvas print and show it off in your home.

Digital SLR Camera Basics – Shutter Speed

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 21:33:31 +0000

Getting the shutter speed right is vital to keeping moving subjects in focus or emphasizing movement – but what is shutter speed?

Shutter speed explained

Shutter speed is the amount of time your digital SLR camera shutter remains open and therefore how much light reaches the sensor – longer times allow more light, and shorter times less light.

How is shutter speed measured?

Shutter speed is measured in fractions of seconds. A typical shutter speed range would be: 1/2000, 1/500, 1/250, 1/125, 1/60, 1/30, 1/15, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2 and 1 second.

Shutter speed in composition

Faster shutter speeds allow you to ‘freeze’ subjects in motion, such as wildlife or racing cars. Slower shutter speeds are used to emphasise movement or deliberately blur images.

Camera shake

Images taken at slow shutter speeds will be particularly sensitive to camera shake, amplifying any camera movement as the shutter remains open, which will be particularaly noticeable on art posters or a canvas print. At high shutter speeds, camera shake from hand holding may not be noticeable, but typically any use of shutter speeds slower than 1/60 will require the use of a camera support, such as a tripod or monopod.

Shutter priority

Many digital cameras feature a shutter priority mode, often denoted by an ‘S’.

Shutter priority allows the user to select the shutter speed manually and the digital SLR camera to automatically detect the aperture. If your camera features shutter priority, why not try taking some pictures of subjects in motion – try and freeze the subject at a specific point and really capture that perfect moment in time.

Adobe Photoshop CS4 Online Training – Welcome to Photoshop

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 21:31:36 +0000

Over the coming months I’ll be looking at a wide range of free essential online training for Adobe Photoshop CS4 to help you understand digital manipulation and create the perfect image.

Adobe Photoshop CS4 is a complete solution for modifying and managing digital images, and contains three main elements – Photoshop itself, Camera RAW and Bridge. In this post I’d like to start by introducing these three elements, starting with Adobe Photoshop.

Adobe Photoshop is an incredibly versatile piece of software used for editing and manipulating digital images, as well as creating them from scratch. It’s widely regarded as the industry standard in digital editing and used by a range of professional including photographers, printers, web designers, video editors, law enforcement agencies and even hospitals.

Photoshop includes tools for masking and compositing and allows you to create images that are difficult or impossible to create otherwise. It also includes a range of filters, allowing you to enhance images, reduce camera noise and create dramatic alterations.

Adobe Bridge is an organisational tool that makes it easy to manage your digital files. Bridge allows files to be rated, ranked, batch renamed and keepers isolated. Images can also be put onto contact sheets and easily shared with online galleries and albums.

Camera RAW provides a non-destructive, streamlined and structured workflow with a user friendly interface. Simple sliders allow you to make a wide range of adjustments including exposure, shadow, eliminating noise, cropping, black and white conversation and optimal colour tone.

While Adobe Photoshop CS4 is expensive, it the best digital manipulation tool on the market and well worth the investment. By following our upcoming online training tutorials you can learn this fantastic program and manipulate your photos for the perfect result every time.

Adobe Photoshop CS4 Online Training – Previews and clipping highlights

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 21:29:40 +0000

So now you’ve been introduced to Camera RAW it’s time to start looking at some of its great functions in more details, starting with the preview and clipping warnings.

Preview

The great thing about Camera RAW is it shows you a live preview of all your chosen settings as and when you make them. Sliding the sliders left and right will change your image right before your eyes and you can easily see what settings will work for you.

At the top of the screen you’ll see a ‘Preview’ check box. This is checked by default, but by unchecking this box Camera RAW will show you your original settings, allowing you to quickly compare your new settings against the original.

As with most controls in Photoshop, you can also move your mouse over the tool to find the shortcut button – in this case just pressing ‘P’ will toggle the preview on/off.

Clipping warnings

At the top right of the screen you’ll see the histogram for your images, and at the top corners of the histogram you see at couple of widget arrows. Clicking the top right hand arrow will shade red over the areas of the image that have been overexposed (clipped) white, giving you an indication of the areas that may need recovery or adjustment.

Clicking the top left hand arrow will shade blue over all the areas of image that are very deep in shadow and may need lightening. You can also toggle these functions by pressing O or U on your keyboard.

The red / blue areas will expand / contract as you make your changes, so you can keep playing with your settings until you get the perfect balance for your shot.