“Wiltshire’s Favourite Radio Photographer”!

Now, given that there are no pictures on the radio, it may seem odd to you that I am “Wiltshire’s Favourite Radio Photographer” but please bear with me.  After all, in the days when “the wireless” meant the radio instead of 802.11n or Bluetooth, there was a BBC radio programme called “Educating Archie” that had a ventriloquist.   ”I swear that I heard his lips move…”  

"Christmas Present labels" by Gale Photography

You will recall that the last two blog posts have been all about creative Christmas photography.  Well, you can now listen to those tips on the radio as well as reading them.   They’re called “Cold Snaps” (I didn’t think of the title!), and are being broadcast on BBC Radio Wiltshire.  You can listen to my dulcet tones on Annie Weston’s splendid Sunday afternoon programme on 20th December between 1pm and 4pm.   

"Christmas presents" by Gale Photography

The first set of creative Christmas photography tips was broadcast on Sunday 13th December, so you’ve missed them!   Well actually you haven’t, because you can listen again on the BBC website.  The first Tip starts at 43m 13 secs into the programme.  You’ll have to be quick though as the listen again programme changes every week! 

"Creative camera movement" by Gale Photography

So, you can read the creative photography tips on the blog, listen to them on the radio, and come along to one of our training courses.  So there’s no excuse for your Christmas photographs not being as good as they can be! 

 Have a great Christmas!!!

Creative Christmas Photography: Episode 2

Hello, and welcome to the second and final episode of my “Tips for better Christmas photography”.

Here’s the next tip…

Photography Tip #3. Opening Presents – Shoot in Continuous Mode

There are certain moments during Christmas that give you lots of photographic opportunities and the opening of presents is one of them.  There’s loads of emotions, expressions and excitement – especially if you’ve got kids around. 

"Christmas presents" by Gale Photography

Set your camera on burst/continuous-shooting mode, and take lots of pictures. You’ll find you get a great series of shots that capture everything from anticipation, to the excitement of unwrapping, to pleasure of seeing what’s inside.  Don’t forget to shoot the reactions of those who GIVE the gift as well.  When you are the present giver get someone else to take the pictures!

Photography Tip #4. Capture the preparation stages

The actual Christmas meal or party is obviously the best part of the day, but there are other photographic opportunities, particularly in the preparation stages; putting up decorations, food preparation, wrapping gifts, excited children, Santa outfits hanging on the door, setting the table, lighting the candles, relatives arriving. 

"Christmas tree candle" by Gale Photography

All of these add to the Christmas atmosphere. You could also take a series showing how a room has changed as it’s decorated – or a series showing the different ingredients for the meal – or before and after images of kids in fancy dress.

Photography Tip #5.  I’m dreaming of a grey Christmas

Lastly, if you are lucky and have a white Christmas, you may be disappointed at how grey looking the snow pictures are.  This is because camera exposure meters are set to record scenes with fairly equal areas of dark and light all over the frame.  Scenes with lots of white in them, such as snow, make camera underexpose, which lets in too little light to make the snow properly white. 

"Underexposed snow" by Gale Photography

You can make the snow whiter by setting the exposure compensation on your camera.  (Read your camera manual if you aren’t sure how to do this).   Try a setting of +1 first and see how it looks.  If you need more just dial +1½ or +2 of compensation.  Ideally it will be white but still with some texture; if it’s just plain white then you’ve gone too far.  Remember to reset it once you are away from the snow. 

"Properly exposed snow" by Gale Photography

Tip within a tip: If you’ve got your camera cold by using it outside, don’t take it straight back into your nice, warm, humid house or you risk getting lots of condensation on, or inside it.  Delicate electronics don’t like this!! Leave it in your coat pocket in the hall for ½ an hour or so to let it warm up slowly.

I hope these tips help you get better Christmas photos.  Remember even though it comes round once a year, things change in our lives and it’s important to get the best images we can every year.

Have a great Christmas and a phabulously photographic New Year.

If you’ve enjoyed these tips, do tell your friends about them.  If you would like to enjoy a whole day packed with tips and techniques for great photography, come along to one of our photographic training courses.  Have a look at  www.lifestylephotos.co.uk for details.

Creative Christmas Photography: Episode 1

Ever wondered why your Christmas photographs lack a little pizzazz or atmosphere? 

Want to do it better? 

I’ve got some tips to help you, but firstly here’s some very important advice. 

If you are going away for Christmas then ensure that you’ve packed your digital camera.  Sounds simple, but it’s easy to forget.  Make sure your digital camera battery is fully charged – and take your spare battery and the charger.  Delete or transfer all of the files from your memory cards, and take spare cards – they’re really cheap these days.   You don’t want to miss the best shot because your card is full! 

Here’s the first tip… 

Photography Tip #1.  Get in close and fill the frame 

It’s very tempting to try and get everything about Christmas in just one photograph.  The classic image is the whole family round the Christmas lunch table, or round the tree.  By all means take that image, (in fact take three or four to avoid “blinks”), but also try and get lots of those magic little details that make up the whole; single tree decorations, the pile of presents, a nativity scene, mistletoe, sweets/chocolates, Christmas candles, holly berries, the wreath on the door, crackers, tinsel, the remains of the turkey, the flame on the Christmas pudding, in fact anything that says “Christmas”.  For the really small things you may need to set your camera to close-up or macro mode.  

"Christmas tree decoration" by Gale Photography

Make sure when you are getting these details that you fill the frame with what you want to record.  Look at the subject, decide what the most important thing to record is, and record just that.  These simple compositions can work really well, and having unrelated objects in images can make them less successful. 

"Christmas wreath" by Gale Photography

When you put your Christmas photographs together on a page, or show them on your digital media, they’ll tell a great story about your Christmas. 

Photography Tip #2. Christmas Tree Lights 

Photographing Christmas tree lights at home is something that can be tricky to do. The secret is to balance the lighting in the room and the tree lights.  You don’t need to use flash, so switch it off; the lights are already illuminated!  Put the camera on a tripod or table, and use the self-timer (to reduce vibration) and a long exposure so that you get some light from the room lights well as properly recording the tree lights.   Then try turning the room lights off and photographing the lights by themselves, and seeing how different it looks.  You may need to experiment with the White Balance setting (check your camera’s manual to see how to change this) to give the right colours. 

"Christmas tree lights" by Gale Photography

 Lights also make great images if they are very out of focus.  Try focussing on a close object so the lights go out of focus, and then reframe to make the lights your subject.  

"Christmas Tree lights bokeh" by Gale Photography

Tip within a tip:  If you want to photograph displays of Christmas lights on the outside of a house, then your car makes a great “tripod”.  It’s great for getting sharper images without camera shake.  Turn off the engine, to reduce vibrations, and rest the camera on the car’s roof.  Again, you don’t need the camera’s flash turned on. The best time to photograph lights outside is at twilight after the sun has set, so there will still be a bit of light in the sky. 

So, there’s the first couple of tips for better Christmas photography.  Check again next week (or subscribe to our blog feed) for the next set of tips… 

…and have a great Christmas!!! 

www.lifestylephotos.co.uk

A healthy crop.

Is the world made up of rectangles?   Of course it isn’t, but our digital cameras make us look at the world as if it was, because most digital camera sensors are rectangular.  

The sensor may be in the classic 35mm film format proportions of 1×1.5, or in the somewhat squarer 4×3 proportions of most compact digital cameras.  Whichever shape they are, it’s important to remember that you don’t have to leave your images in the shape that they come out of the camera.  You can often improve them by changing their proportions.  It’s called “cropping” and simply means that you take off some of the top/bottom or the side/sides. 

In this landscape photograph of the Corbiere lighthouse on the Channel Island of Jersey, I’ve left it as it came out of the camera.  I think it’s a good image, with the waves splashing, the light reflecting from the sea, and the feel of a black and white photograph.

"Jersey seascape 1" by Gale Photography

With the next version of the image I’ve cropped off some of the top and bottom to make it longer and thinner.  It certainly helps, by taking away some of the grey sky at the top, and the grey sea at the bottom.

"Jersey seascape 2" by Gale Photography

In this final version I’ve cropped off even more of the top and bottom.  This helps you concentrate on the really interesting central parts of the image, and fits with the horizontal elements of the rocks and the waves.

"Jersey seascape 3" by Gale Photography

To me this is the most successful crop, but you may prefer it uncropped, or partly cropped.  That’s one of the great things about photography; it’s down to your individual preferences.

Try cropping your images!  You can use simple programs like Google Picasa, or more complex ones like Adobe Photoshop.  Whatever program you use, it’s best to save your cropped image with a different name to the original file so you can revisit the original later if you need to, or if you want to write a blog post about cropping images!

Image enhancement by cropping is part of creative photography, and is covered in our “The  Creative Eye” course.  Check it out at www.lifestylephotos.co.uk

Space is ace.

I love filling the frame in my portrait images.  I reckon that as I’ve paid for all those pixels I might as well use them all.  However, there are times when you get a better image by leaving empty space in the frame. 

Take this studio portrait of a child for example.  I really liked the expression on his face, and the tilt of his head to the right, and thought that placing him in the left-hand side of the frame made for an interesting composition. 

"Portrait looking left" by Gale Photography

With this environmental portrait, the child’s head is in a similar place, with a similar amount of empty space, but the different expression and close-up treatment makes for a completely different effect.  The dark area of background is balanced by the light area of his face.

"Portrait looking out" by Gale Photography

Finally, with this outdoor portrait lit by studio flash, the relationship between the child in the foreground and the darker plants in the background was important.  I placed him well down in the frame to allow us to see past him to the mysterious background.

"Portrait looking straight out" by Gale Photography

This use of off-centre composition, and creative use of space, is covered in our photographic training course “The Creative Eye”.  You can find details at www.lifestylephotos.co.uk

Always carry a camera!

One of the things we suggest to people on our photographic training courses is that they should always carry a camera.  It’s much easier nowadays, as there are some very high quality compact digital cameras around, that hardly weigh anything. 

I’m often asked what the best camera is and my answer is, “The one you have with you.”   Here’s a series of images that illustrate why you should always carry a camera…

We were out walking at Rhossili, on the Gower Peninsular near Swansea, and we saw this female wheatear on top of a drystone wall.  It was very confident and wasn’t bothered about having its portrait taken with my Panasonic Lumix Fz-50 camera.

"Female wheatear" by Gale Photography

You could even say that it had posed for me!   It was a very different story when a kestrel flew over.

"Kestrel" by Gale Photography

The wheatear saw the characteristic falcon wing shape and pushed itself into the drystone wall in order to hide.

"Wheatear hiding" by Gale Photography

Once the bird of prey had passed, the wheatear resumed its confident perching on the wall.  If I hadn’t had my camera with me then I would still have seen this all happen, but wouldn’t have been able to capture a lovely little sequence of images.

It was obviously a day for interesting flying things.  A bit further round the coast we saw this plane flying very low, and as my camera was out and ready I took a shot as it flew over us.

"C-130J" by Gale Photography

It was a Lockheed C130-J ”Super Hercules” transport, operated by the Royal Air Force, and probably based just up the road from us at RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire. 

So, these images sum up how important it is to always carry your camera (at the ready), know how to use it, and that you should try and get a series of images, so you can put them together to tell a story.

You can learn more on one of our training courses, or Photo Treks.  Check www.lifestylephotos.co.uk for details.

I’m so shallow.

While I was becoming a more serious SLR photographer, I was obsessive about getting everything in focus.  I think this came from having used box cameras that had small maximum apertures, and compact 35mm cameras that had wide-angle lenses.  Small lens apertures and wide-angle lenses lead to what’s called a “large depth of field”.  This means that everything from the foreground to the far background is in focus.  As I improved, I realised that you can get much more creative images if you control the focus point carefully, and limit what’s in focus to a small area.  It’s called a shallow depth of field.  Here’s an example:

"The Poppy" by Gale Photography

I’ve focussed on the foreground poppy, used a telephoto lens and a wide lens aperture, to throw the background wire fence out of focus.  It makes for a much more evocative image, with a relevance to Remembrance Day. 

You can also use control of the focus area to make images that are ambiguous, and open to many interpretations.

"Sequins & lights" by Gale Photography

The warm-toned out-of-focus circles in the background mimic the patterns of the in-focus sequins in the foreground, but we’re not sure what their spatial relationship is, or even their sizes.

With portraits you need to focus on the subject’s eyes.  If you let the rest of the image go soft, it allows the viewer to really concentrate on the “windows to the soul”, and gives great communication.  Here I’ve taken it to another level by only focusing on the nearer eye, which gives even more impact to the image.

"One eye in focus" by Gale Photography

If you are inspired to try and take these sort of images, the best way is to use a telephoto lens,  or zoom your compact camera’s lens out to its maximum, and use a wide lens aperture.

Have fun!

Saatchi Gallery!

As from today I now have my own Fine Art Photography page on the Saatchi Gallery website!  Yes, THAT Saatchi Gallery.  You can find it at http://bit.ly/3oa4ov

It’s on “THE WORLD’S INTERACTIVE ART GALLERY” according to them.  It would also appear from looking at other artists’ sites, that I’m a “lens-based artist” rather than being a photographer.  Does sound rather more “artspeak” doesn’t it?

To celebrate, here’s a shot of a flying shoe.   It’s in homage to an image I saw several years ago, where someone had thrown 4 balls in the air trying to get them into a perfect square in the sky.  They didn’t succeed, and the image shown was the best of loads of attempts.  This shoe shot was the best of one…

"Flying shoe" by Gale Photography

Anyway, it’s all good stuff, and I’m looking forward to the results of my increased exposure to the Fine Art world.

Only connect

One of the best things about being a social photographer is that you are working with people.  Landscapes may be beautiful to photograph, but people are really interesting.  It’s been our pleasure to work with some families more than once, and we’ve become the “photographers of choice” for their family events.

Here’s an example.  We photographed Claire and Chris’s wedding a few years ago at Newtown Church, and Elcot Park near Newbury.  They had a fabulous wedding day, and so did we.  They were great fun to work with, and the croquet match will live in my memory for ever…

Claire & Chris by Gale Photography

Also at their wedding, with his fiance Stephanie, was Claire’s brother Iain.  He was one of the ushers. 

Stephanie & Iain by Gale Photography

They loved Claire & Chris’s wedding images, and we were delighted when they chose us to photograph their wedding as well.  Fast forward to 2009 and it’s their turn.  Their wedding at Sonning Church, and The Berystede Hotel at Ascot, was delightful, and it was great to meet everyone again.

Stephanie & Iain by Gale Photography

To  make it all nicely symmetrical, Claire & Chris were at Stephanie & Iain’s wedding.  Claire was a bridesmaid, Chris was an usher, and they had their young son with them.

Claire & Chris & son by Gale Photography

It’s always special to be asked to photograph someone’s wedding.  It is after all one of the most important days of their life, and they’re putting their trust in you to do a great job.   If you know the people from a previous event, it gives everything an extra edge, and of course, you’re under even more pressure to deliver.   That’s what makes it such great fun!!

Tripping the light fantastic

Working in the studio I try and keep my lighting simple.  It’s easier, and helps me concentrate on getting the best images for our portrait photography clients.  It’s very interesting how you can change the feel of an image by some simple lighting changes.  I’ll illustrate this with some recent portraits.

In this first image there’s a main light (a softbox) to his right, and what’s called a fill light to his left.  This lighting gives nice modelling to the face whilst filling in any shadow areas.  It’s a classic style of portrait photography lighting.

"Classic Portrait" - by Gale Photography

Here a simple change to the lighting direction relative to the subject’s face makes for a much more dramatic image.  He’s now looking straight at the main light, and the fill light has become a light for his hair.  He’s closer to the light, which means an exposure change, so the background has become much darker.  I’ve added to this photographic mood change by slightly changing the colours of the image in Photoshop.  It’s now a much more creative image.

"Dramatic Portrait" - by Gale Photography

Next, I’ve used a large window to light the subject.  This light is strongly directional, and gives her face some lovely modelling.  I’ve asked her to turn her head sufficiently towards the light so that both of her eyes were lit, and so that her hair on the left of the frame got enough light to show its shape.

"Window Portrait" - by Gale Photography

In this final image, lit with a studio flash in a softbox, the lighting on her face is more diffuse, but I’ve balanced the ambient light outside and the flash to separate her from the background.  This gives a slightly surreal feel to the image.

"Balanced Portrait" - by Gale Photography

To see more of our portrait images, have a look at the Portrait Gallery on our website www.lifestylephotos.co.uk    If you would like to see images of yourself, why not book a Portrait Experience with us?