ROI And Photography

We've heard the term: Return On Investment, an economic term that has direct 
application to photography. The investment is in time, dedication, commitment, and 
tenacity. The return is in the quality of images we come home with. I look for places 
that have great potential for those images that are absolute "keepers." I will revisit 
certain places, either on a periodic or annual basis, depending on when I am most 
likely to get the highest ROI.

One of those places is Mapleton Avenue in Boulder, Colorado, in October. I have 
had such success there that I go back annually, like clock work. It's like going on an
Easter egg hunt. I look high and low until I find the right combination of compositions,
shapes, texture, and colors. My favorite timing is right after a snowfall. This is what 
I found this  past October.

I got several shots of leaves against snow, which I liked. But, it was this particular
grouping really got my attention. The combination of color, texture, melting snow, and
nature's arrangement was just too good to resist. My job was to create order out of 
chaos. There were so many of these leaves, covering a large area, most covered by
snow and ice. It took me a few minutes to carefully scan the area, ensuring that I did
not disturb the leaves. What I was looking for was the best composition that would 
give me the strongest impact, interest, and design. 

 

After getting several good images on the ground, I decided it was time to see what was above me as well. I saw this great combination of yellows, reds, and greens against the

blue sky. I liked the diagonal lines created by the thin branches, which I knew would 

come out dark (I know how that built-in meter works!). As luck would have it, I saw the

sun peaking behind some leaves. I knew instinctively that I just had to include a sun 

burst as part of my composition. I also knew that if I hid it behind some leaves, it would

not be overpowering. In order to get the sunburst, I chose a small aperture (f/22). I've

used this technique in similar situations with great success. Careful with your your exposures though--these situations can give you ugly, dark results because of the bright  light. You will need to overexpose as needed.   

So, next time you visit a place and go home with a collection of "keepers," revisit 

that area again. You might get a good return on your investment.

www.elivega.net

 

NOT EVERYTHING HAS TO BE "SHARP" IN PHOTOGRAPHY

Based on a lot of photography I see today, there seems to be an obsession with everything having to be absolutely, totally sharp. For a lot of images, doing just the opposite can produce some of the best, most intriguing images--especially when they're done intentionally. Here is but one example.

I was in the middle of a festive, colorful, and fun-filled Mexican celebration in Boulder, Colorado.There was a lot of dancing. This particular event was an Aztec dance. There was a lot of color and movement. I could have tried to freeze the action, in order to photograph the dancers. But, I decided to do just the opposite--to depict, not the dancers, but their dancing, and the movement of their dancing. 

You'll need a relatively slow shutter speed to get the blurred interpretation of any scene. 
The exact shutter speed depends on how fast the action or movements are, regardless of the subject. With my photo art, I don't ask, "What shutter speed should I use?" I ask, "What do I want this to look like?" In this case, I wanted it to be blurred, to reflect the movement of the event, not the event itself. My shutter speed for this image was around 1/60th of a second-- slow enough to give me that nice blur, but fast enough to give me some detail.

I call this piece, "Cara En Sueño," or "Face In A Dream."

So, go out and experiment photographing movement at different shutter speeds. 

For more samples of my photo art visit me at www.elivega.net 

THE ROLE OF IMAGINATION IN PHOTOGRAPHY

I will be expanding on this theme in my upcoming book, RIGHT BRAIN PHOTOGRAPHY

(Be an artist first). Students who have taken my right brain photography classes and workshops know me by this mantra: I don't see with my eyes; I see with my imagination.

Here is but one example of how I use my imagination to "see" the end result. I can imagine, or visualize, what my images will look like way before I depress the shutter button. Sometimes I create my image, i.e., get my shot, several hours after I see the subject with my eyes. I often see a subject with my eyes, but can "see" what it could look like with my imagination. Such was the case with the following image.
 

I was in a little town in Arkansas when I "saw something" early in the morning. I didn't like the direction of the shadows--the part of the scene that grabbed my attention in the first place. I figured that if I walked around town and did some more shooting for a couple of hours or so, the shadows would be where I envisioned them to be. So, I did just that. About two hours later, I went back to create my image. It was perfect timing--the shadows were exactly where I wanted them to be.

Now for the question. What is it? If you guessed light fixtures and shadows, you're right.

If you guessed light fixtures on the side of a Taco Bell, you are reading my mind. If you are like one of my students in my recent Rocky Mountain National Park workshop, you see three dogs, and your imagination is more surrealistic than mine!

 

THE #1 KILLER IN PHOTOGRAPHY

I have talked about this before, but it is worth repeating. 

All cameras have what's called a built-in light (or exposure) meter. The good news is that 
they usually do exactly what they are engineered to do. The bad news is that what they 
were engineered to do is often not what we want in our photographs. To keep it simple, 
if we photograph something dark or black, the meter will try to lighten it up as close as 
possible to gray. If we photograph something bright or white, it will try to darken it as 
close as possible to gray. That doesn't sound good, huh?

The good news is that there is a simple way to override your built-in meter. It's called the exposure compensation dial on your camera. Look for it in your camera manual. It will 
either show you something like -.3, -.6, -1 or +.3, +.6, +1, etc. On some cameras, you'll 
see a scale that looks like this: -3. . .-2. . .-1...0...+1. . .+2. . .+3, etc. All these numbers 
mean is that if you move your exposure compensation dial toward the minus side (from
zero, or 0), your are underexposing your picture, or darkening it. If you move it toward 
the plus side (from zero, or 0), you are overexposing your picture, or lightening it. 

Now, here is where this really becomes meaningful and useful, even to the most amateur 
or beginning enthusiast. Let's say you are photographing rows and rows of beautiful white aspens.The meter cannot think; it does not know that you want to photograph white 
aspens. It is engineered to give you "gray" aspens. And, trust me, It will give you gray 
aspens, as in this photo.

Psychologically, we are programmed to "see" aspens as white. These Aspens, 
therefore, may not look gray.......until, you compare them to these....

The very simple solution, to bring these Aspens back to white, is to move your 
exposure compensation dial toward the plus side, anywhere from a +1 to a +2, 
until it looks right to you. This image was shot at approximately a +1.3. 

Think of it this way: minus means less; less means less light; less light means 
darker. Conversely: plus means more; more means more light; more light means 
lighter.

Experiment and have fun with it. You will need to use this in 2-3 months when you 
photograph snow, skiers in the snow, people in the snow, etc.

WHY ACCEPT WHAT THE CAMERA GIVES YOU?

Why buy an expensive camera, then use it like a point & shoot? Don't listen to the salesperson who says, "All you have to do is shoot; the camera does the rest." If you believe that, ask yourself how many bad photos you came back with during your last vacation. The camera takes pictures; we create images.

A lot of photo enthusiasts come to me for 1-on-1 in-the field lessons. Many of them want to get better before their next vacation or out of town trip. Whether they're leaving for a trip, or just want to improve their photos, I help them raise the bar for themselves. 

Such was the case when I recently met one of my students at the Denver Botanic Gardens. Among the different tips I shared with her, one of them was how to go from "taking pictures" to creating images. I taught her how to make one key in-camera adjustment to enhance her photographs. She was so excited when, after a couple of hours of connecting the dots, she could see the difference in her camera monitor.

I was so proud of her achievements that day. See for yourself. 

We came across this nice scene at the Gardens. She "took" a picture based on what her nice DSLR camera thought she needed for a "correct" exposure. This is what she got.

I then showed her how to make an adjustment to her camera to get the "desired" exposure. 

I was teaching her how to create an image, rather than just taking a picture. The result was dramatic. This is what she created!

Big, big difference, right?

The "before" photograph is a good example of what I believe is the #1 killer when all we do is "take pictures." This happens so often during our vacations, day trips, family outings, trips to the zoo, etc. 

If you are in the Boulder/Denver, Colorado area, contact me to learn more about getting the best results from your camera. Visit me at www.elivega.net

 

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July

THE MYTH ABOUT ISO

 I have read this a lot lately: ISO is part of the exposure equation. Not so. What determines exposure is the built-in meter. First, a basic overview of the term "exposure." We hear about a photograph being "under exposed" or "over exposed." Basically, we are saying that the film or sensor received, respectively, not enough light or too much light. When dark, light, and medium tones look good, we have a properly exposed photograph. It is the built-in light meter, not the ISO, that determines what f/stop or shutter speed it thinks it needs to produce the "correct" exposure. The problem is that it does not know what we want.

Here are three images that show that ISO does not affect exposure; it is not part of the exposure equation. All images were shot at f/20, with the lens set at 50mm. The only difference between the three images is the ISO setting. Bottom line: The exposure for all three is the same, as you can see. The only photographic variable that changed when the ISO was changed was the shutter speed--camera was set on Aperture Priority. As expected, every change in ISO (example from 200 to 400) increased the shutter speed by a factor of 2x.

E-mail me if you would like more detailed information about this photographic principle. www.elivega.net

ISO 200 (shutter speed: 1 second) 

 ISO 400 (shutter speed: 1/2 second)

ISO 800 (shutter speed: 1/4 second)