Clothing tip for group photos

What your subjects wear can greatly effect the overall quality of an image.  Not everyone is going to listen to you, but strongly encourage your clients to coordinate their clothing for group shots.  It is a pretty simple thing to do and your image WILL look a lot better.  It is also more likely to endure the test of time.  Simple, solid colors are best.  Take a look at some portraits from the 1970's if you don't believe me.  Here is a picture of my wife (second from the right) with her dad and siblings.

They are all wearing the same color shirts, and because the shirts are darker your attention is immediately drawn to their faces... which is what a portrait is all about.  They all wore long sleeves which is another plus.  Your eye is naturally drawn to the brighter parts of the image.  You can see how Kelly's forearms distract a little from the faces.  If everyone was in short sleeves you can imagine how distracting it would be and that the image would lose some of it's quality.

The ground sloped to the right and it might have looked better if I had had them reverse order, so that the taller two were on the downhill side of the frame.  That's something I can place in the "maybe next time" file that I keep stored in my head.  But then again, I kind of like the way the image composition slopes from left to right.  Switching their order may have evened out their heights and made the composition a little boring.

It was a sunny day in Florida.  To get rid of the strong shadows from the sun I had them move into the shade.  Simple... but effective.

Keep shooting!

Ryan

"The Climb"

This is why I keep my Canon 20D around.  When you are trying to take a picture at a place aptly named "Sand Mountain," and the winds are howling, you do not want to use your 1D Mark III. 

I took this picture on the annual Jessie Beck Elementary School field trip to Sand Mountain.  You can see the sand blowing at the top of the mountain.  Those are 4th graders (with a few adult chaperones mixed in) heading into the heart of an amazing (amazing in a bad way) wind storm.  To be honest, it was miserable hike... but I really like this photograph.  It does what any good photograph does... it tells a story.  This story is about peoples ability to overcome obstacles.  The group moving towards the hill convey a sense of scale.  Without them the picture would lose all meaning and interest in my opinion. 

Camera specs: Canon 20D with a 17-85mm lens at 41mm; 1/640 @ f/8.0; ISO 200.  The sky was gray and boring so I used the Graduated Filter in Lightroom to give it a little color.

Keep shooting!

Ryan

That's It... Only One Decent Photo!!

I went to the Reno Air Races this weekend thinking I would take a bunch of great photos.  Unfortunately I was chaperoning a class of 4th graders from Jessie Beck Elementary School.  I figured the principal would frown on me telling her I got a GREAT shot... but lost a kid.  As we were about to leave, however, a skydiver jumped out of a plane with the American flag and it made for a pretty good, quick shot.  One rule of photography... if you need a good shot take a picture of the American flag.  They always seem to turn out pretty good.

The white in the sky is smoke from two planes that were circling the sky diver as he descended.  I darkened the sky a little using "curves" in Photoshop.  I darkened the shadows while maintaining the highlights.  This made the flag "pop" out of the photo.

Camera specs in a nutshell: Canon 1D Mark III with EF 70-200mm lens at 200mm, f/9.0 @ 1/500, ISO 200.

Keep shooting!

Ryan

Heading to the Air Races

It is Friday and I'm heading to the Air Races to take photos.  Sunday I will be at a charity golf tournament taking group pictures.  Next week I will be posting some of the pictures and blogging about them.  I am also going to start working on the first class for the Photog Buzz, "How to choose a Compact Camera."  We will also be adding a class on the history of photography, and another on how to get the most out of your DSLR camera.  Should be some good stuff.  More advanced classes will be coming as well.

For my last image of the week I thought I would post this picture I took from the inside of one of the balloons at last weekends Reno Balloon Race.  Remember... always try to look for a unique view when you are shooting a fairly common subject such as a hot air balloon.

Camera specs in a nutshell: Canon 20D with Canon EF 15mm Fisheye, f/7.1 @ 1/100, ISO 400

Keep shooting, and I'll see you Monday!

Ryan

Gotta Love Those Cloudy Days

Living in Nevada we don't see very many cloudy days.  But when we do, grab your camera and head outside for some great photo opportunities.  I went to the the Reno Air Balloon races last Friday and there was not a cloud in the sky.  I took a picture of the balloons and the moon which I blogged about Monday.  The sky provided a deep blue backdrop for that image.

I went to the balloon races again on Saturday and clouds had rolled in.  I took this picture of the vintage fighter planes flying over during the national anthem.

Look at the drama provided by the clouds. They are dark and ominous. You can just imagine these planes flying on a mission during World War II. I slightly lightened the pockets of sky and the smoke trail using the dodge tool in Photoshop.

Notice that there are five planes (odd numbers make for great composition) and they form a V pattern (again... great for composition).

Camera specs in a nutshell: Canon 1D Mark III with EF 70-200mm lens at 70 mm, f/20 @ 1/250, ISO 800

Keep shooting!

Ryan

Look for Unique Views of Common Subjects

It's already Wednesday and this is my third picture from the Reno Balloon Races. At this point I think I will just go ahead and dedicate the whole week to photos from the balloon race.

With so many people taking pictures I was really trying to find unique ways to get a shot. I was standing near some trees so I decided to take a picture through the leaves. I had to switch to manual mode to stay focused on the balloon. In auto focus the camera kept jumping back and forth between the balloon and the leaves, unable to make up it's mind.

Shooting through the leaves made for an interesting perspective and broke up the monotony of the blue, cloudless sky. Take away the leaves and I venture to say that this would be a very boring photograph.  I set the camera aperture to f/2.8 to throw the leaves out of focus as much as possible. If I didn't tell you they were leaves you might think it is a reflection in a pond.

Camera specs in a nutshell; Canon 1D Mark III with EF 70-200mm lens at 200mm, f/2.8 @ 1/6400, ISO 400

Keep shooting!

Ryan

I Like to Move it Move it - a lesson in composition

When you're taking a photo remember to move in close.  By taking an overall shot of your subject and then moving in close you can get two very different pictures.  Kind of like "two for the price of one."  I took this photo at the Reno Balloon Races this weekend.

Camera specs in a nutshell; Canon 1D Mark III with EF70-200mm lens at 80mm, f/2.8@ 1/800, ISO 400 with a little lens flare added in Photoshop.

Then I moved in closer and took this shot.

Same subject, dramatically different picture.

Camera specs in a nutshell; Canon 1D Mark III with EF70-200mm lens at 173mm, f/8.0 at 1/160, ISO 400.

Keep Shooting!

Ryan