[Photography] Create Powerful Silhouettes by Telling a Story

Create Powerful Silhouettes by Telling a Story

Telling the Story

Silhouettes remove all the distractions and clutter in the scene and distill the image down to its most basic, this is why the story is so important. Just using shapes you must make a photo that is recognizable, and that the viewer can relate to. While this sounds easy in practice, it can be difficult to achieve. You must have the right elements. The light needs to be in the right location, the subject needs to be facing the right way, and they need to be in a pose that makes their action recognizable.

Movement by the subject helps tell a strong story in your silhouettes

Tips for creating good silhouettes that tell a story

Clean outlines

If you have multiple objects that are back-lit you want to make sure there is separation between the objects so that each one is distinct and recognizable.

Profiles or straight on shots work well

For people, profiles or straight on shots work best. For profiles you should be able to clearly make out the shape of the nose and chin on their face. For straight on shots the subject’s arms should be away from their body, and their legs parted so you can see both legs and not just a single blob. Recognizable shapes – this is important for every silhouette.

Capturing action

Movement in your subject can create strong lines and positions that are instantly recognized by the viewer and help convey the story of what the subject is doing.

Props

The added hat and cane help enhance the story in this image

Props can help tell the story, an outline of a flower, a tip of a hat can add meaning to the image.

Interaction between subjects

Having multiple subjects can be challenging because you want to minimize overlap of their shapes so they each maintain their own identity. There is a balance between telling the story and having the subjects interact in a minimal way. For example holding hands or kissing often work well, but a hug results in silhouette that is just a big black blob.

Separation between subjects is important. This image would be stronger if the man’s leg did not merge with the camera and tripod

Lighting for Silhouettes

To light a silhouette you need to light the subject from behind. The type of light is not important; it can be natural or artificial and can be direct or indirect. The important thing is that the lighting is behind the subject, and the subject is not lit. Technically silhouetting occurs when you have a lighting ratio of 16:1 or greater (4 stops), however I will describe how you can create a silhouette in post-production using lower lighting ratios.

Natural Silhouette Lighting

One of the most common types of silhouettes using natural lighting is to place the subject between the camera and the setting sun or moon. Your camera exposure should be set for the background lighting, either the sunset or moon, and this will cause the subject to appear black against the light background. Another common technique is to use the light reflected off of a wall or the side of a building.

This lighted wall in Las Vegas provides great back-lighting for silhouettes

Studio Silhouette Lighting

There are two common techniques for creating silhouettes using studio strobes. The first is to use a white background and bounce the strobes off the background. The second is to point the strobes towards the camera and place the subject between the strobes and the camera. This second technique can also produce a light flare in the image which can give an interesting effect.

Post-processing techniques

If you have a backlit subject, but can still see some detail in the subject you can often make it a pure silhouette in Lightroom, or Camera RAW. Use the develop module in Lightroom and adjust the Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, and Blacks sliders. Use different combinations to darken the subject. Typically you will need to increase Contrast and decrease one, or all of the other three sliders. Either the Shadow or Blacks slider should be set to -100, try both to see which produces the desired effect. Decreasing Highlights is typically only necessary if the edges of the subject are lit and you wish to make them darker.

Conclusion

Silhouettes are a fun and easy to do and by concentrating on the story being told you can create an image that has impact.

Want more silhouettes?

• 5 tips for photography silhouettes (non-human subjects)


• How to photograph silhouettes in 8 easy steps


• 12 stunning silhouettes


• Great B/W silhouette images

The post Create Powerful Silhouettes by Telling a Story by Craig Colvin appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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[Photography] Buy our New Posing eBook and Go in the Draw to Win $2000 worth of Lenses

Last week we launched a brand new dPS eBook – Portraits: Striking the Pose – an eBook to help you take natural looking portraits that bring out the true character in your subjects.

When we launched this eBook we suspected it would do well as it’s a popular topic and written by one of our much loved authors – Gina Milicia – who really knows her stuff.

However we had no idea just how popular it would be. In the first two days of it’s launch we saw more people grab a copy than we usually do in the first two weeks of a launch.

And the response has been so positive from those who got a copy.

Check out this comment from one of our readers – Brad Granger – who bought a copy last week:

I picked up a copy of this eBook last week and have read it through 3 times already.

I can see that what I’m learning is already improving my portraits but what excites me most is that I took a photo of my wife that she’s proud to show her friends! She normally doesn’t like photos of herself but today she uploaded it to Facebook – something I’ve never known her to do before.

Thanks DPS and Gina!

Win $2000 USD to Put Towards Camera Gear

We launched Striking the Pose with a bonus set of 7 posing printables with 67 poses that you can put in your camera bag to help you on your next launch. This is an early bird offer only but before we end that discount we thought we’d add one more sweetener for those who pick up the eBook before our launch ends.

Everyone who buys a copy of Portraits: Striking the Pose before midnight on Friday 28 February US eastern time (including those who already have bought one) will go into the draw to win $2000 to go toward camera gear.

The Prize

The winner (chosen randomly) can choose a combination of gear to suit their needs. So Canon owners can choose Canon gear. Nikon owners can choose Nikon accessories or a new body. Micro 4/3 camera owners can choose lenses to suit their cameras.

The winner can choose to spend their $2000 USD on one single camera or lens or might choose to buy a bundle of things (as long as they total up to $2000).

FAQ

Based upon previous competitions I know we’ll get a number of questions on this so here’s some FAQs:

• what if I already purchased Portraits: Striking the Pose? – you’re in the draw and don’t need to do anything else. This is also the case if you bought it as part of a bundle of Gina’s other eBooks.


• is this open to all international readers – yes, everyone. We’ll ship the lenses to you anywhere at our cost. Our preference is to use B&H Photo and Video but if you live outside of their delivery area we’ll work with a local supplier to you to get you your lenses.


• can I enter more than once? – no, there is one entry per person. Multiple purchases of the eBook only get you one entry


• are there any conditions of entry? – yes, just one. The only condition of entry is that you allow us to publish your name on the blog when you’re drawn as a winner (we’ll keep any other details private). This way everyone will know who has won (we’ve previously had winners ask not to be named which has been difficult to be transparent about winner announcements).

Here’s the deal in a Nutshell

Buy Portraits: Striking the pose before midnight on Friday 28 February (US eastern time) and you get:

• 7 Bonus Posing Printable Guides (worth $9.95)


• an entry into the $2000 gear giveaway


• Plus (and most importantly) you’ll come away from reading the eBook with some inspiration and knowledge to go away and take beautiful portrait images – this eBook has the potential to transform your photography!

To enter simply buy Portraits: Striking the Pose before midnight on Friday 28 February (Eastern US time). We’ll draw the winner that evening and notify them of their win and then publish their name here on the dPS blog in the coming days. If the winner doesn’t respond within 7 days we’ll draw another winner and publish their name on the blog.

As this post goes up you have just a few weeks to take advantage of this offer – so don’t hesitate and pick up your copy of Portraits: Striking the Pose here today!

The post Buy our New Posing eBook and Go in the Draw to Win $2000 worth of Lenses by Darren Rowse appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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[Photography] Top 5 Shortcuts for Better Photos

Having taught photography for several years I’ve noticed most students find the following 5 tips provide the biggest ‘aha!’ moments. These are the quickest and easiest techniques for improving your photography.

Top five shortcuts for better photos

1. Switch to aperture priority

The main dial on top of your camera will have an option called ‘Av’ or ‘A’, depending on the make of your camera. It’s known as ‘aperture priority’. This mode gives you the perfect combination of a decent exposure (in most situations) and creative control. The only time this setting doesn’t give the right exposure is when a scene is particularly bright (like a snow scene), or dark (like a black Labrador).

If you’re not happy with the exposure you can use your camera’s exposure compensation setting to make it brighter or darker. This is usually controlled using a +/- button or a large rotary wheel, but check your manual for instructions on how to do this for your make and model of camera. Cameras tend to make very bright scenes too dark and dark scenes too bright.

A large part of the creativity in photography is adjusting the aperture to ensure more or less of the photo is in focus. The beauty of aperture priority is that you can select the aperture you want, and the camera will select the appropriate shutter speed to get the right exposure. Even if the light changes while you’re composing the photo the aperture won’t change, only the shutter speed will. This means your creative vision won’t change either.

All you need to remember is the lower the aperture number (f/4 for example), the less of the image that will be in focus. Cameras can be overwhelming and even have different ways of doing the same thing. When you’re starting out in photography it’s important to keep things simple. This means understanding what you don’t need to worry about yet. Sticking with aperture priority means you have one less knob to worry about, which always comes as a huge relief to my students.

2. How to avoid blurred photos

One of the most common problems suffered by new photographers is blurry photos caused by having a slow shutter speed. There’s a simple rule to help.

Your shutter speed needs to be faster than the focal length of your lens. So, if you’re using a 17-70mm lens and you set your lens to 70mm, then you need a shutter speed of at least 1/70th second. If you zoom out to 17mm then you’d need a shutter speed of 1/17th second. Note that this is the absolute slowest shutter speed you could use and the rule assumes that you and your subject are both still.

Obviously your shutter speed can be as long as you like if you use a tripod, unless your subject is moving. You can create lovely effects by using a tripod for landscape photos where part of the landscape is moving. For example: flowing water, trees in the wind, car headlights, clouds etc.

If your shutter speed is too slow then you can make the aperture larger to let more light into the camera. Select a smaller ‘f number’ (f/4 instead of f/8 for example). If you’re already on the smallest f number you can get, or you don’t want to lower it because less of your photo will be in focus, then you have another option. Choose a higher ISO number and keep the same aperture as before. Again, aperture priority will ensure the exposure remains correct unless the scene is overall very dark or very bright.

3. Get closer and remove clutter

Almost every photographer starts out photographing things from too far away. They’ll create portraits where the person has a big area of nothingness around them. Maybe this is because most people are uncomfortable being photographed, and most new photographers are nervous about standing near them to take their picture. A longer lens can really help. 100mm or more allows you to stand outside someone’s personal space and still get a tightly composed image.

Just before you press the shutter button remember to check for unwanted items and consider whether your main subject is nice and bold in the frame. Our brain often deceives us because when it’s excited by something, it makes it seem bigger than it really is. Look at the background and consider whether it could be less cluttered. If you’re unable to move yourself or your subject to create a cleaner background then use a lower F stop (f/5 or lower, for example) to blur it out.

4. Look for geometric shapes

If you look at your favourite photos you’ll notice the composition is often made up of quite defined shapes. Triangles, diamonds, circles, squares, parallelograms and trapezoids all slot together to create a pleasing jigsaw. Our brains like things to be ordered. Think about the calming effect of a nicely appointed hotel room. It’s made up of uncluttered geometric shapes, from the neatly stacked towels to the folded triangle of toilet paper and the round mint on the fold of your bed sheet.

5. Get in touch with your feelings

Whenever you have the urge to create a photo, think about why you’re picking your camera up in the first place. What was it that inspired you to grab your camera in this instant? If you’re photographing a person, then what are their physical and personality traits that you’d like your photo to convey?

Imagine looking over a rocky coastal bay as the sun sets to your right. There’s a lighthouse straight ahead on the far side of the cove and storm clouds are rolling in behind it. Frothy waves are pummelling the rocks below. Most people would get out their wide angle lens and try and capture the whole scene in one go. The trouble is, the sunset would be distant, and the waves, rocks and lighthouse would be almost imperceptible.

In this situation I’d recommend you create more than one photo. First you could walk to the rocky shore and get down low so the spray of the waves would be majestically backlit against the sunset. Then you could create a stark, bold silhouette of the lighthouse against the inky storm clouds. By creating two photos your message is much clearer.

So, before you press that shutter button consider if you’ve composed your photo in a way that makes your message clear.

Do you disagree with any of these tips, or have some better ones? Leave a comment below so we can see who has the best ninja photography techniques.

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[Photography] 10 Most Common Mistakes in Landscape Photography – and How to Overcome Them

If you’re serious about landscape photography, it won’t take you very long to realize the fundamental problem of the craft: not every landscape that catches your eye will easily translate into a compelling photograph.

When we experience a place, the smells, sounds, the warmth or chill in the air, and our own emotions combine to give us an overall impression. Our job as photographers is translate that overall impression into a photograph.

Every landscape photo needs to be carefully crafted with the final image in mind.

There are many problems we run into along the way that can prevent our overall impression of a scene from shining through in the final image. The following are the most common traps to expect, and how you can avoid them.

1. Crooked Horizons

Most landscape photos will feature the horizon – a dead giveaway to the picture’s overall perspective. That means that if the line dividing land and sky is not perfectly straight across, the whole picture looks totally out of whack. There are a few ways to make sure your horizon squares up right:

• Grid Overlay
  
  On most DSLRs (and some compact cameras), you can overlay a grid on either your viewfinder, your live view screen, or both. Align your horizon with one of these lines.


• Electronic Horizon
  
  Newer, higher-end cameras often have a built-in electronic level. When turned on, it will gauge the camera’s position in space and tell you when it is evenly aligned.


• Bubble Levels
  
  Some cameras have a bubble level attached and some tripods will have one as well. If you don’t have one built into your gear, you can purchase one that affixes onto the camera’s hot shoe. Just like a spirit level in construction, this will help you straighten your camera out.


• Post-Processing
  
  If all else fails, every major photo editing software will feature a “straighten” tool which allows you to draw a line tracing the horizon. Using this, the program will automatically crop the image on an angle to make sure that the line is perfectly horizontal.

2. Eye-level Perspective

Most people photograph from an eye-level standing position producing photos that look as you would expect to see things if you were there. For a more interesting composition, try climbing on top of something, or getting close to the ground to achieve a different point of view.

3. Empty Skies

Without clouds, birds, or some other interesting feature, empty skies can turn out pretty flat and boring in a photo. Try to compose your picture with something interesting in the sky. If there is nothing interesting to show, raise your horizon line to the top third of the image to minimize how much space the sky occupies in the frame.

4. Hand Shake Blur

A blurry photograph loses almost all of its impact. Either use a tripod or use a fast shutter speed combined with image stabilization.

When it comes to landscapes, securing your camera onto a sturdy tripod will always yield better results. Even if you’re using short exposures, a tripod will allow you to compose your shot more precisely and lock its position into place while you shoot.

5. No Focal Point

Skies and mountains are lovely, but a picture can’t be all background. Your photo needs a focal point to hold the viewer’s interest. This can be anything – an interesting tree, a boat, a pier, a log – but no landscape photo is complete without a main subject.

6. Cluttered Backgrounds

The opposite also applies – be careful not to focus too much on the subject and forget about how the background comes together. Pay attention to what is behind your main subject. If the background elements don’t add to the composition remove them if possible. Be careful that you have separation between each element, and don’t let them visually blend together (ie. two or more trees merging into a greenish blob). This is especially problematic when the objects are backlit or silhouetted.

7. Poor Lighting

When you rely on the sun to light your shots, you’ll find that some days the weather just doesn’t cooperate. Grey, cloudy days will give you muted, washed-out colours and not much in the way of shadows or contrast. Extremely sunny days might do just the opposite. Carefully consider the lighting conditions on your scene before you decide how to approach it.

• If the sun is out, position it to one side of the camera to take advantage of the shadows and textures created by sidelight.


• If the sun is in front of the lens, your scene will be backlit and you can make some dramatic silhouettes.


• If the sun is behind you photographing the scene will be more difficult because the direct light will make the scene appear flat. Consider changing direction.


• If there is no sun and the sky is white, use the soft lighting conditions to make close-ups.

8. Underexposing

If the sky is overly bright (say, in the middle of the day), it can confuse the camera’s light meter, which will try to compensate by underexposing the rest of the image, resulting in a dark foreground. If this happens, use the exposure compensation to turn up the brightness, but not so much that the sky becomes blown out (turns white).

If you’re having this problem, try re-composing your image to include a darker area of the sky. This type of scene is a good time to use a graduated neutral density filter. These filters are dark on the top and clear on the bottom. You place it in front of your lens to darken the top half of the image and even out the exposure.

9. Hot Spots and Blown Out Highlights

It’s not just the sky that can blow out, though – a hot sun can cause glare on many surfaces. Watch your scene for bright spots caused by reflections or excess sunlight. Most cameras have a “highlight warning” viewing mode on the image preview which will show any pixels that have turned pure white. If you have blown out highlights, use the exposure compensation to reduce the exposure slightly until they are gone.

10. Lack of Dimension

Even though a photo is a two-dimensional image, a strong landscape composition gives the illusion of depth. When you’re setting up your shot, make sure to populate the frame in the foreground, mid-ground, and background.

When you are learning photography it can be hard to critique your own work and understand how to improve. After your next photo shoot, examine your images for these problems so you can avoid them next time. Looking at each of your images with a critical eye and considering how they could be improved will quickly improve your artistic eye and make you a better photographer.

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[Photography] Essential Gear for the Landscape Photographer

A great landscape photo can capture the imagination and inspire the soul. It brings a static scene to life and reminds us why we’re drawn to nature’s cathedrals. And while you can clearly envision the kind of picture you’d like to make of your favorite vista, what may not be as clear is the gear that is essential to taking a great landscape photograph. So, let’s talk about that.

My list of essential gear for the landscape photographer . . .

What is the must-have equipment for capturing awesome landscape photos?

Camera body

We’ll begin with your camera body. Any camera will do for making a shot to share on Facebook. But to elevate your landscape game to the next level, it is essential to use a camera body that allows you to get off Auto and start shooting in Aperture Priority.

One of the keys to a great landscape photo is having tack sharp focus throughout your depth of field. In other words, everything from the leaf in the foreground to the distant mountain range should be in clear focus. To achieve this, you need to shoot at a focal ratio offering great depth of field. Shooting in aperture priority allows you to choose the right focal ratio for the scene. Something in the range of f/8 to f/16 should produce images with good depth of field and crisp focus throughout.

Another setting you’ll be able to select in Aperture Priority is ISO. This is the sensitivity of your camera’s sensor to light. Shooting with a low ISO delivers cleaner images having less noise or graininess. For better landscapes, try to shoot as close to your camera’s base ISO (100 or 200) as possible.

The combination of a large focal ratio (f/8 or higher) and a low ISO (100 or 200) means longer exposures will be needed to make a good image. If you shoot landscapes at midday when the sun is high in the sky, there is more than enough ambient light to make a good image with very short exposures. But truly dramatic landscapes, the kind you’re after, are typically captured in very different lighting conditions.

Many great landscape photos are taken during the golden hour; that all-too-brief window of time at sunrise or sunset when dramatic lighting paints the scene. Cloudy skies also add an element of drama which can transform a so-so view into a stunning image. Under such conditions, the available light is much lower and this creates the need for our next piece of essential kit: a photographic tripod.

Tripod

A tripod provides a stable platform for your digital camera. It allows you to take the time to carefully compose a shot and then lock down your camera in that position. Since you’ll be shooting in low light conditions, using a large focal ratio and low ISO, the length of the exposure needed to capture the scene will be fairly long. Too long to steadily handhold the camera. Mounting your camera on a tripod will keep it steady during very long exposures that record amazing detail.

Lenses

Of course, one of the most important pieces of equipment for a photographer is the lens through which a scene is captured. For landscape photography, your most versatile lens will be a wide angle. These are short focal length lenses that deliver wide, true fields of view. That wide field of view allows greater flexibility in composing a shot encompassing the full grandeur of a landscape. I recommend a minimum focal length of 12mm for APS-C bodies (cropped sensor) and 18mm for full-frame cameras.

Fortunately for your wallet, this does not need to be a fast lens which are designed to have focal ratios of f/2.8 or faster. They are consider fast because their large apertures collect enough light to keep exposures brief, even in low light conditions. Large apertures demand a large front lens element, which comes at a steep price. And while the performance can be well worth the investment, many photographers simply don’t have room in their budgets for such a purchase. Since you’ll be shooting at f/8 or greater, a lens with a maximum focal ratio of f/4 should more than meet your needs.

Filters

Let’s talk briefly about filters. They can be a great tool for the landscape photographer. Among the most useful are graduated neutral density (GND) filters and variable polarizing filters. However, as useful as filters can be, I don’t consider them essential gear. In the right lighting, filters are unnecessary. In situations where a GND filter would be of use, it’s often possible to compensate for significant differences in brightness in your photo editing software of choice. In short, filters are useful but not absolutely necessary.

Yourself

The last piece of essential gear we’ll discuss is, you. Your eye for composition is the most important asset in your photographer’s tool kit. Your ability to recognize good light is essential. If you look at a scene and your inner voice is saying, “Ooh, that’s cool,” that’s a good sign the lighting is outstanding. Listen to that inner voice, stop and compose a shot.

Walk around the scene. Look for a foreground element to include in the composition. One of the biggest challenges of landscape photography is conveying a sense of scale. Including a foreground element helps immensely. A bush, leaf, rock or person provides a sense of scale for the rest of the image. It also helps simplify the scene, making the resulting image more approachable to the viewer.

Summary

With a keen eye for composition, a camera body allowing you to shoot in Aperture Priority, a solid tripod and a sharp wide angle lens, you can take your landscape photography to the next level. Your images will convey the magic you felt while standing amidst a grand scene. The resulting “oohs” and “aahs” will be the reward feeding your satisfaction as a landscape photographer.

Now, get out there and shoot some great landscapes!

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