AdvancedPhotography.Net » Concepts

Considerations when Choosing a Carreer in Photography

Shivanand Sharma — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:35:16 +0000

This article is written by Kathy Wilson, who writes on the subject of Photography College . She can be reached at her email id: kathywilson1983@gmail.com.

My husband holds a degree in visual communications, and although he’s a skilled photographer, that’s not how he earns a living. Instead, he chose to follow in his father’s footsteps and joined the family law firm soon after he graduated. Of his classmates, one is a well established and renowned fashion photographer today, who is sought after by the cream of the industry and makes a ton of money on each assignment (he was lucky enough to intern with a world class photographer who himself had no formal training in the subject, and from there, branched out on his own after a few years). And while most of the others are still in the photography business, their levels of success vary from low to mediocre.

This scenario should give you a general idea on the photography industry, and if you’re unable to draw your own conclusions, read on for all that you need to know before you choose a career in photography:

A formal degree is not necessary to make it big or even earn enough money in the field of photography.
In this business, you need a whole lot of luck to make money on a regular basis or find a well-paying job that is not temporary.
To make it as a photographer, you must be willing to follow your heart even though there may not be too many opportunities in the beginning. Be patient yet persistent as you wait for a break to make your entry into the world of photography.
Not everyone who has a degree in photography continues to work in this field or finds the success they hoped for.
While you do stand a chance of making it to the elite list of photographers or even earning a better than decent living, there are many drawbacks to being a photographer too, especially if you live from assignment to assignment.
Your continued success depends on your reputation, so you must make sure that your work speaks for itself and that people come back to you for their photography needs and also recommend you to their friends.
If you’re going into business for yourself, you must be prepared to bear the overhead costs even when you’re not getting regular work. Besides, you must also know how to manage money, find clients on a regular basis, manage your schedule, and follow up with customers. There’s more to running a photography business than just shooting great pictures.
And finally, you must know enough about photo editing so that you’re able to make the necessary adjustments to the pictures that you shoot. If you need to take a course for this, go ahead, but most people pick up the technique as they go or learn from tips and tutorials on the Internet.

Photography has been rated among the top 200 jobs for 2010 by Careercast with a starting salary of $17,000, midlevel salary of $29,000 and top level earnings of $62,000, so if you think it’s your cup of tea, go ahead and choose a career in this field.

This article is written by Kathy Wilson, who writes on the subject of Photography College . She can be reached at her email id: kathywilson1983@gmail.com.

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Should you digitally manipulate your photography?

Shivanand Sharma — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 18:53:31 +0000

Dariia Goncharenko 01 studio.es by Vincent Boiteau

This is a highly debatable question. The purists swear by originality and look down upon manipulated work. But in the digital age when most of the photographs don’t even take form on paper and just are passed from screen to screen, sure quite a lot has changed. It’s easy to use Photoshop to cover up the blemishes or may be only enhance the exposure. So while one photographer showcases the original, others have retouched images in their portfolio. Which way should you go?

Find your art

With new factors coming into the world of art, every field of art is growing. You have to decide your medium of expression. After all that’s what art is – it is a medium of expression. How do you want to express? You’ll find DeviantArt to be such a resource of artistic expressions. There’s no stopping, no-holds-barred. People share what they create in whichever ways. So basically you have to decide which way to go.
Photography manipulation is nothing new

Before digital was born, in the times of black-and-white, photographers employed custom film development to get the right exposure and results. They used the filters of their choice to bring out what they envisioned. So strictly speaking they did alter the original. But that’s about classical photography. Today the medium has gone digital. So why shy away from using Photoshop?
Retouching kills the technique

One thing that goes against retouching is that enthusiasts tend to be careless in technique and try to fix things later during post-processing. Basically here’s how I interpret it: if you falter at technique but achieve the desired results in the post-processing phase – you are more of a retouching artist. If you get the result right in-camera you are more of a purist and a classical photographer.
You don’t have to choose

Every professional photographer gets his work retouched before their photographs take form on media be it in advertisements or news. Things have to be polished to look surreal and marketable. In fact the job of a professional photographer demands that the results be polished and be marketable. But for something that doesn’t need marketing and is a pure specimen of artwork, the right employment is critical. This is the case with photography competitions etc.
A blend of both

Trick photography is another field that comes into play. The original can be retouched. To extend that idea trick photography fakes the result. So basically it all is a blend of everything. Employ the method that you feel like best expresses your expression.

So at last it all depends on the situation. If you are shooting a product for marketing you’d need everything you can get hands on to suppress the reflections on the product body or to create them when needed. When you are out their on the country-side streets capturing some the raw scenes you may prefer to perform the role of a purist. But just in case your rainbows feel unsaturated I find it ok to tweak them in Photoshop. The basic guideline is if your work sells commercially it has potent to be retouched. If your work sells to connoisseurs of art you keep it pure. Just be honest about your artwork. Retouching is by no means a way to say that you are a better photographer. But if you don’t tweak the curves or white-balance in Photoshop or tune your camera settings you are overlooking the limitations of the camera and as Ken Rockwell says “You cannot let the camera drive itself“. Do you digitally manipulate your photography work?

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All you need to know and use filters

Shivanand Sharma — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 13:23:20 +0000

Filters are glass fittings that are used in combination with the camera lens to alter the image being captured. Filters come in various sizes which decide their compatibility. Depending on the type of camera you have your camera may or may not accept filters – all SLRs and some prosumers do.

Depending on the type of filter you are using the filter will have a certain effect on the scene being captured. Filters are used to equalize areas of extreme highlights, reduce haze, reduce the light in the scene or even just to protect the lens.

Filters are of various types and sizes. Here are some of the more prominent types.

UV/Skylight Filter

These are colorless filters mostly used to protect the front element of the camera lens – better to loose a filter than scratch a lens. However these filters are also used to cut through the haze and ultra-violet radiation thereby improving the contrast of the scene.
Grey graduated filter/ Graduated Neutral Density Filter (GND)

This filter has a slight tint at one end and is clear at the other. This forms a gradient across the filter. The grey graduated filter is used to darken a part of the scene which contains extreme highlights. A good example is a scene where the presence of the sun causes vignetting or alters the metering of the DSLR resulting in a loss of details in the underexposed areas. A graduated filter (simply called ‘grad’) will reduce the intensity of the sun showing through the tinted part while the rest of the image shows through the clear part. This will equalize the light in the overall image thereby allowing better metering and exposure.
Neutral Density Filter

Simply referred to as ND, a neutral density filter is uniformly grayish all over and reduces incoming light. It finds use in overly lit scenes where a big aperture is warranted (because of DOF considerations) or where long exposure is warranted to induce motion blur.
Polarizing Filter

Polarizers have the most dramatic effect on the scene. Polarizers are used to reduce reflections, cut through haze and increase color saturation in an image. These filters are quite complicated as is their use, so we’ll cover the polarizers in a dedicated article.

While the necessity of using a filter depends on the application it is recommended that you invest in a good quality UV/Skylight filter. As mentioned above, it serves as a lens protection element and is easy and economical to replace than a damaged lens. Which filter do you use the most?

Photo by Nadar

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Photographic Composition: Framing

Shivanand Sharma — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:14:38 +0000

There are so many compositions, and then so many styles of composition. How do you like your photographs in print, framed or unframed? It is interesting to see that a simple photograph when framed within a white margin on all sides generally appears more elegant and pleasing than its original. A frame helps draws the viewers’ attention to the subject. One style of photographic composition is natural framing.

Framing is a lesser known and practiced technique because of its very nature. Framing your subject in a natural frame not only draws viewer’s attention to the photograph, it also makes it more interesting while inviting different reaction from the viewer. It adds depth to the picture and places the subject in perspective of the foreground frame. Framing increases the interest while adding the missing dimension to the two dimensional image – the depth.

Framing is tricky is more than one ways. First it needs to be used judiciously, not every foreground element frames the subject. Second not every subject is complemented by a frame. However implemented correctly framing brings out some very interesting pictures. Try it out and tell us about it.

Photo by jzakariya

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How to make a mark with your photographs

Shivanand Sharma — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 15:52:12 +0000

I‘ve been asked this question many times. What differentiates a masterpiece from the rest? There are underexposed and overexposed photographs which are showcased while some of the technically perfect ones left out. I’d better try to answer this through a post.

Photography is an art. And just like any form of art photography is medium for expression. How well your photographs make an expression depends on how well the expression is communicated. While you may still be using a compact camera, it is still important to understand that there’s nothing too difficult about it and that you have already been practicing this art all this while – after all you’ve clicked children smiling and flowers and the sunsets. They all express something. Here are a few tips on refining the artist in you.

Understand how photographs are interpreted

At an abstract level , photographs and images are symbolic – an open door, the horizon, a tree all convey something. It is therefore important to know what the scene conveys and how to get the best shot.
It’s all about reaction

People react in various ways when they look at a picture. It depends on how they interpret the massage, their background, the culture they belong to. Thus different people will have different reaction and understanding of your work. Believe in yourself and be open to feedback. Understand that not everyone has the ability to critically analyze a photograph.
Personal expressions

Once you know how photographs are interpreted it’s time to develop your own expression and practice the art. Like every painter’s or musician’s work has their signature your photography will bear the hallmark of your personality. Groom your expression and individuality.
Draw inspiration

Study the work of great photographers and see what their work speaks. This will inspire the creative and the artist in you.
Don’t lose heart

I don’t know of a photographer whose every shot is an art master piece. In the film days the learning process was long and a steep curve. In the days of the digital it’s easy – shoot and delete. Every professional shoots thousands of photographs only a few of which are really usable. The ratio of good shots versus the rest will be an indicator of your progress; so don’t lose heart – it’s just a matter of time and even professionals aren’t perfect. Soon you’ll see that most of your photos are coming out great and only a few are off the mark.

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Lighting and it’s features: Know these to become a pro

Shivanand Sharma — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 15:08:58 +0000

Photography is all about light. Photography means capturing light. Lighting is one of the most important aspects of the art and a good understanding of light and it’s nature is essential for getting the pictures that you want. We will begin by understanding the features of light and later the various lighting techniques in a following post. Let’s begin.

Temperature: The white light that you see always has a color cast. Our eyes are good at adjusting to the neutral color that they neglect any color cast in the light and see it as white. The color temperature affects the picture in various ways sometimes bringing an overall reddish tinge to the picture and greenish or bluish at other times. Good cameras thus features a White-Balance control to compensate for the unwanted color cast to bring out the original colors for accurate rendition. White-balance has been covered in another post and you can read more about white-balancing here.
Quality: There’s nothing as good and bad. It’s the nature of the light that you employ to get a desired effect. We have this in two flavors hard-light and soft-light. Hard light is more focused and harsh in nature wherein the shadows come out with defined and sharp edges. A soft light is a diffused or more evenly spread light that renders shadows as soft shades bringing a glow to the subject. Depending on the requirement and the mood you want to bring to the picture you can use hard or soft light. Portraits especially fashion and glamor photos call for soft lighting wherein the models are bathed in a soft glow. At other times you may want to bring a special mood to the subject by intelligent use of hard light for a particular purpose. The resulting image will have defined shadows depending on the direction of the light.
Quantity: Again nothing good or bad here too. But I always favor more light than less. Light is just the playground for the camera and your imaginations. The more you have (and depending on your equipment) the more you can control to bring in the desired effect. More light is mandatory for shooting sports because you want to have enough of it to allow high shutter speed and freeze the action. Less of it shows very well and comes out beautiful when you have a tripod and you are shooting city streets at night. A low ISO with a long exposure is just what you need to see the beauty of city lighting at night (see the picture at the top right).
Direction: Very important. You can throw the light from down under the chin to get a horror effect.
Type: This pertains to the equipment you employ to get the type of light you want. The ambient light or flash or a combination of both is used to get a desired effect. Using a flash on back-lit scenes wherein the subject is generally underexposed is just one example of using the type of light to achieve a desired effect.

I’ll summarize the information that you take back from this article and repeat that knowing the light is very important. Start by keeping it simple. There are five things – temperature, quality, quantity, direction and type. Temperature induces the color, white-balance corrects it; quality is hard and soft, quantity is the playground of the camera, direction gives the mood and type pertains to the equipment you employ to get the light. And now your comments

Photo by from eye to pixel

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White Balance: Correct the color temperature of your pictures

Sudhanshu Chaturvedi — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:13:01 +0000

During the time of film cameras, filters were used to correct for white balance or lighting errors. Most people just wonder why their indoors pictures show the white color as with a yellow, orange, or blue shade. That’s because the white color that looks white to the eyes does have a color tinge. The reason that pictures turn out with a yellow/orange cast in incandescent (tungsten) lighting and bluish in fluorescent lighting is because light has a Color Temperature. Different light sources emit light at different color temperatures, and thus the color cast. The following are the approx temperatures these different light sources emit:

Daylight – 5200 Kelvin
Flash – 5400 Kelvin
Cloudy – 6000 Kelvin
Shade – 7000 Kelvin
Tungsten Light – 3200 Kelvin
Bulb Light – 2700 Kelvin
Candle – 2000 Kelvin

A low color temperature shifts light towards the red while a high color temperature shifts light towards the blue. By using a filter, we absorb that particular color light to correct for the “imbalance”. The result is called a Shift in the color temperature.

In digital photography, we can simply tell the image sensor to do that color shift for us. This is where the concept of “White Balance” comes in. If we can tell the camera which object in the room is white and supposed to come out white in the picture, the camera can calculate the difference between the current color temperature of that object and the correct color temperature of a white object. And then shift all colors by that difference.

Auto White Balance: Most of the DSLRs now come with an Auto White Balance (AWB) function. AWB works very well in sunny and cloudy outdoors, and fine for most indoors situations. You will experience a light color effect in some of the indoor pics while using this mode. Try for your self. Set your digital camera to AWB and take pictures under tungsten, fluorescent, and mixed lighting (i.e. tungsten or fluorescent, plus natural light coming through the window), and see if the results are OK. If they are, you can just use AWB.

Preset White Balance: To help us from complete automatic white balance problems some cameras do come with different preset variations such as, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Cloudy, Sunny, etc. Using preset WB can improve on a picture, especially under indoors lighting. Usually just selecting a preset WB setting appropriate for the lighting situation is enough.

Manual White Balance: Most advanced digital cameras therefore provide the feature to manually set the white balance. By pointing the camera at a white light source as a neutral reference, filling the screen completely with it, then pressing the White Balance button (or set it in the menu), the camera does its WB calculation.

From then on, any picture taken will have its color temperature shifted appropriately. It’s quite simple, really, and you should not be afraid to try it out and see your indoors pictures improve considerably (assuming there is enough light for correct exposure).

Just beware of mixing artificial lights, if any, and also beware of fluorescent light: since fluorescent light does not contain all the spectrum of light, you may obtain unexpected results.

Photo by lucias_clay

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The secrets of getting the right exposure

Shivanand Sharma — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:34:39 +0000

The exposure in the photographic sense means exposure of the film or the image sensor to the light. Exposure is a critical and single most important fundamental of photography. Exposure rests on the three pillars of the aperture, shutter speed – the time the aperture remains open during the shot and the ISO which is the sensitivity of the film or image sensor. The correct graps of these concepts enables you to get the right exposure in challenging circumstances. Let’s get to it.

The aperture

The camera lens has a diaphragm which has an opening through which the light comes into the camera. This opening in the called the aperture or the lens aperture. Again, Lens > diaphragm > opening=aperture. In most mid to high-end cameras this aperture can be adjusted to vary to control the amount of light that comes in through it. The aperture of the camera is measured in f-stops or f/number. A higher f-stop means a smaller opening and thus less light entering the camera. You can do a lot by varying aperture alone. See my previous post on An introduction to Aperture Magic.
The shutter speed

The shutter speed determines the length of time the aperture remains open to allow light into the camera. This adds another dimension to the process, the aperture opens to a certain f-stop and the shutter speed determines how long it remains open before closing the aperture. Thus a higher(faster) shutter speed means less light entering the camera.
The ISO

The ISO traditionally is the sensitivity of the film being used in the camera. When the cameras went digital, there was no ISO. To fill the gap they implemented ISO as a level of amplification of light received on the image sensor. An image shot at ISO-200 will be twice as bright at the one shot at ISO-100 given the rest of the factors remain constant.

The concept of exposure rests on these three pillars. However there’s a fourth to be considered. This is the lens itself. The lens has certain properties you cannot change and some are better suited for one application while the others for their own. So photographers tend to have multiple lenses in their kit and use them as the situation demands. Different lens have varying apertures amongst other specs. A brighter lens will have a larger aperture (smaller f-number) than that of a less brighter lens. A brighter lens thus is a popular choice for new photographers. It allows more light and you can leverage this in by being able to shoot at higher shutter speeds. Also there are other things like the quality of material, the diffraction etc. are a big consideration before buying a lens.

Let’s review and also learn some of the effects of varying the aperture, shutter speed and ISO on the shot. A higher ISO means more sensitivity. You will want to use a higher ISO when shooting in dim environments. A slower shutter speed means allowing the light to enter for a longer time. What if the subject moves while the shutter is open? You will see that the image comes out to be blurred as the camera tried to capture the image throughout the action. However lower shutter speeds are ideal when you are shooting a still subject like composing a portrait etc. A higher shutter is warranted when you want to shoot a moving subject. A good example of this is a sport or action photography where you want to freeze the moment into a perfect picture.

While the aperture is also another element to control the amount of light, its effect on the image are complex. A detailed article covering the aperture is An introduction to Aperture Magic.

Photo by brentbat

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An introduction to Aperture Magic

Shivanand Sharma — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:49:17 +0000

The aperture is the small opening inside the lens that controls the amount of light falling on the film or the digital sensor. Its diameter is denoted in f-numbers or f-stop. Remember that this value is relative as it is the ratio of the aperture to the focal length. So an f/3.5 on a 80 mm lens will be smaller than an f/3.5 on a 200 mm lens.

Every professional camera equipment has an aperture scale and may have f- stops like f/3.5, f/4, f/4.8, f/5.6…. f/19, f/22. The smaller the member, the wider is the aperture the greater is the amount of light that comes in. Every successive f-stop halves the amount of light coming in for example, f/4 will allow half the amount of light than f/3.5.

While the greater the amount of light you have, the larger your playground becomes. On a bright and sunny day you can even shoot at f/22 where as in a dim light (like indoors) you may need to open up your aperture at the way to maximum so that the camera can make use of whatever light is available. But that’s not the only application the aperture has.

The aperture works in tandem with other controls like shutter speed. The choice of aperture has a huge effect on how the subject appears against the background. A wide aperture produces a shallow depth of focus while a small aperture produces a deep focus in the composition. This depth of focus is called depth of field. A shallow depth of field will focus on the subject and render everything behind and in front of the subject blurred. This is a great trick to separate your subject from the background and comes in handy when you want a close-up on a crowded beach or similar.

On the other hand, a high depth of field puts everything into sharp focus. This is useful when you are shooting natural scenery or landscapes or want to put the subject in perspective of their surroundings.

Exercise:

In this exercise you will learn how to adjust the aperture to separate the subject from the background for macro or closeup shots. Also you will learn how to keep the entire composition in focus for landscape photography.

Get hold of any small object – a cup or a paper weight will do fine.
Place your camera on a tripod. Use a stable surface or a table in absence of a tripod.
Place the subject about two meters from the camera. Setup this up in daylight so that you have ample playground for small aperture.
Place a pen or a small object about one meter behind the subject.
Take two shots. If you have a DLSR set it to aperture priority mode and set the aperture to the maximum (the smallest f-stop). In the second shot set the aperture to the minimum (the max f-stop). If you are on a consumer camera, set the camera on a macro mode in the first shot and in the landscape in the second shot.
Copy the two shots to your laptop or computer and view them full size.
The first shot should have only the subject in focus. The second shot should have the second objects in good focus too.

Photo by lattiboy

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Does your camera really have the quoted resolution?

Shivanand Sharma — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:26:59 +0000

What if someone told you that your 10 megapixel camera only has the effective resolution of 1 megapixels? Sounds like a scam – only that this is technical in nature. And at the end only those with a keen eye for details realize the difference. I’m over-simplifying but the topic warrants it. Resolution is measured by the number of pixels on the screen. This can be the screen of a TV or a computer monitor or the camera sensor. Every pixel contains three sub-pixel components meant to handle three primary colors red, blue and green. So if you use a magnifier to see the detail on your computer’s LCD monitor, you’ll notice the three sections red, green and blue. The resultant color at the pixel is determined by the combined intensity of these three components. So for example when the red and green components are illuminated the resultant color is yellow. When all three are illuminated you get white.

However camera manufacturers play it smart. They simply quote the total resolution taking into count these sub-component pixels. So whereas it is supposed to be one pixel (with the three sub-components red, green and blue) they quote three pixels. In effect this means that your actual camera resolution has been blown up by a multiple of three in one dimension (9 overall) and quoted on the specs. However only 1/9th of this quoted resolution is the actual effective resolution.

How then do you still get the images at the quoted resolution? Here the Bayer Interpolation comes into play. Using an algorithm the missing pixels are artificially recreated to result in the quoted resolution. This is one reason why images resized and shrunk by a factor of three look more pleasing and natural to the human eye.

Bayer Interpolation is something that digital cameras can’t do without till the manufacturers stop quoting the multiplied resolution and quote the actual resolution like the computer LCD manufacturers. So we are down to the moral of the story – shoot at the cameras maximum resolution. When you are done, reduce your image to a smaller size. This results in the loss of the artifacts and the synthetic pixels while raising the overall density of the picture. But this is all when you have it at the back of your mind that there’s something called Bayer Interpolation happening and that you are loosing on the quality of the image. That said the algorithm is still smart to trick the naked human eye of course unless you are viewing the picture at 100%.

Photo by danorbit.

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Panning: The art of motion photography!

Sudhanshu Chaturvedi — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 18:40:09 +0000

Panning is an interesting art of photography. It has been there since ages but it still excites many photographers. It gives the right feel of motion to your pictures. Best for sports and motion photography.

Panning basically means you click the picture of a moving subject while you move your camera with the subject. You get the subject clear but the background is blurred. Allow me to tell you how.

Set your camera on a slow shutter speed like 1/40 or 1/30. You need the slow shutter speed as you need the blurred background.
Stand on the side of the road (best place to practice with the moving traffic). Decide on a point in the middle of the road, in front of you, where you adjust your focus.
Select a motorist or a car and keeping it in your view you move with it. The moment you reach the point where you have set the focus, shoot your picture but keep moving with the subject.

This needs a lot of practice, but it gets more exciting as you get better and better.

Keep clicking and post your comments about the experience. I’m sure this is a first for many.

Photo by wvs

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AdvancedPhotography.Net » Concepts

Considerations when Choosing a Carreer in Photography

Should you digitally manipulate your photography?

Find your art

Photography manipulation is nothing new

Retouching kills the technique

You don’t have to choose

A blend of both

All you need to know and use filters

UV/Skylight Filter

Grey graduated filter/ Graduated Neutral Density Filter (GND)

Neutral Density Filter

Polarizing Filter

Photographic Composition: Framing

How to make a mark with your photographs

Understand how photographs are interpreted

It’s all about reaction

Personal expressions

Draw inspiration

Don’t lose heart

Lighting and it’s features: Know these to become a pro

White Balance: Correct the color temperature of your pictures

The secrets of getting the right exposure

The aperture

The shutter speed

The ISO

An introduction to Aperture Magic

Does your camera really have the quoted resolution?

Panning: The art of motion photography!