Photography Tips

At Photography Tips, we are starting a new series where we interview professional photographers to find out how they started off in photography, their interests and their advice to beginners.

We start this series with one of the most accomplished photographers in the Film and Television industry: Matt Dinerstein

Matt Dinerstein

About Matt Dinerstein

In addition to over 400 weddings and 200 events during the past 14 years, Matt Dinerstein has photographed for dozens of publications including Chicago Magazine, The New York Times, and Mother Jones.

He has worked as a unit (movie) photographer for such productions such as E.R, CSI-NY and many others. He has also worked on many films and recently finished working on the film “Peacock” with Ellen Page and Cillian Murphy.

He headed the photo dept at Ray College of Design between 1991-1997.

Excerpts from the interview

Photography Tips: When did you shoot your first photo and what inspired you to take up photography?

Matt:  The first (other than snap shots) photos I made were photos when I was about 9 years old of paper plates covered in tinfoil hanging from some fishing line, I was trying to fake UFO photos!

PT: What is your current gear? Any favorite lens?

M: I’m a Nikon user for the most part. Though I mostly shoot digital, I love film and also shoot with an old twin lens Rolleiflex (medium format), and a Leica M3 single stroke.

My favorite lens is not really my most used lens. I mostly use my Nikon 17 – 55 f 2.8 (25.5 – 85.5 equivalent), but my favorite is my 85 1.4.

PT: Which mode do you mainly shoot in?

M: manual , aperture priority when its bright, shutter priority for sports or when its darker.

PT: “Capturing a great shot requires persistence, perseverance and patience” which beginners don’t really understand when they start off. On that note, can you choose a  photograph taken by you and take us through how you shot it.

Michingan Ave. - Matt Dinerstein

M: I was shooting black and white and walking around the city looking… I spotted these two men walking and noticed  the replication of both with suspenders, while that wasn’t quite enough, continuing to walk we entered an area where there was construction. I loved the graphis-ness of what I was seeing, lines and arrow shapes. When I’m in a situation like this, I usually keep both eyes open so I can see the periphery around me and hopefully see what will be happening.

PT: Your one advice to youngsters starting out in photography

M: [Photography] is NOT about the equipment, its about your ideas. Look at lots of photographs as well as other arts; painting, sculpture, dance, theater. Explore your ideas and don’t be afraid to take (and give) constructive criticism.

Explore Matt Dinestein’s work here

Interviewed by Rahul Prasad

If you have missed the earlier three posts in this series, you can view them here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

In today’s post we will fiddle around with another important yet highly underrated setting in your camera; ISO.

Tip #4: ISO Setting

The ISO settings in the camera relates to the sensitivity of the camera sensor. In other words, higher the ISO number greater the amount of details captured by the sensor.

All cameras come with Auto ISO mode and most people tend to stick with that, and most cameras do a good job of choosing the ISO. However, controlling the ISO has it benefits.

Firstly, changing the ISO settings will impact the aperture and shutter speed needed for a well exposed shot. For e.g. changing the ISO from 100 to 400 allows you to shoot at higher shutter speeds and/or smaller apertures.

Gate - Karthik Bhat

Locked - Rakshith

Secondly, higher ISO settings help you capture low light situations without using Flash. ISO helps you take soft moody shots like blowing-candle-in-dark birthday photos without the glaring flash spoiling the mood. The downside however is that higher ISO tends to increase the digital noise in the image.

Finally, although its best to avoid noise in your image; it can be used creatively to give a grunge, raw feel to your creations.

ISO is an important aspect of digital photography to have an understanding of if you want to gain more control of your digital camera.

Light painting is a fun way of using light as a brush to paint your creations! Its a fairly easy technique which is not just fun to do but can give you some amazing results.

All you need to light paint are:

1. A basic DSLR camera (or mid-level point and shoot capable of long exposures)

2. A Tripod (or a flat surface where you can keep the camera steady)

3. One or more light sources: Torches, LED lights or sparkling sticks. Experiment with different light sources and you would be amazed at the results you get.

And of course, a dark or a semi dark place to shoot the painting. If you have a dark drape in handy use it as a backdrop.

Now for the steps:

Step 1: Set the camera on the tripod and increase the shutter speed to 1/10 or so. If your camera supports even slower shutter speeds try going lower. (A 1 sec. or a 2 sec. SS gives ample time for you to draw to your hearts content!)

Step 2: I recommend using the “Self Timer” option to reduce the shake while manually clicking the photo. It also allows you to get into position with your torch.

Interestingness - Aditya Rao

Love the earth - Louis Rossou

Step 3: Use the torch like a brush and paint in mid air. You can switch on and switch off to get dots, or “paint” with the torch on to get lines. You can also try suspending the torch and setting it in motion to get elliptical patterns. Use your creativity here

These steps are just a starting point for you to start exploring the possibilities of light painting. Do share with us your experiences and upload your creations on lifeblob.

In the last two posts in this series, we discussed two technical terms which every photographer should know! Aperture and Depth of Field.

Term #3: Shutter Speed

Shutter Speed Explained - Wikipedia

Shutter speed determines the amount of time the shutter is open. As mentioned in the previous post, this along with the aperture size determines the amount of light that gets captured by the image sensor.

Shutter speed is determined in seconds (in fact, in fractions of a second). For e.g. a shutter speed of 1/60 means the shutter is open only for 1 by 60th of a second. As a thumb rule; a higher denominator generally means faster shutter speed and conversely, a lower denominator means slower shutter.

“Enough of technical mombo jumbo! What can I do with this?” you ask.

Freezing Motion

Faster shutter speeds helps us get a sharp image of a subject in motion. This could be a moving car, a hyper active baby or animals and birds around us.
Blurring Motion

A slow shutter speed allows more light to enter the sensor and hence generally gives a blurred image. However, this can be used creatively to get some artistic shots. For e.g. a waterfall shot with a slow shutter speed gives a silky smooth milk-like effect to water.

Kambala (Cattle Race) - Vinod Gowda

Flow - sicknessclown

Low Light Scenes

In low light situations it helps to have a slow shutter speed as it allows more information to be captured by the sensor. The hindsight however is that images tend to get blurred if held by hand. In such cases, use a tripod and shoot the scene with a timer to reduce the camera shake.

Hope these terms will help you understand your camera and photography in general. I would like to know how you feel about this series. If you have any tips or want clarifications on those mentioned above, do let me know! Keep Clicking!

We discussed about how to use the flash and the macro mode on your compact camera to get the best out of your compact camera. You can read about Tip #1: Control the Flash here and Tip #2: Macro Mode here

Tip #3: Compose your shots

You would have heard professional photographers talking about composition. What to they mean by composing a shot? Technically, it is the arrangement of elements in your frame. Does it require a diploma in design to compose well? NO. The truth is, by following a set of simple techniques you can shoot amazing compositions which will make your friends and family go “WOW”!

Here are those:

Rule of Thirds
This is one of the oldest techniques, which was shamelessly borrowed from the painters. Imagine a tic-tac-toe grid. Place this across your image and where the lines intersect are your points where you should place your subjects. Most of the cameras now a days come with a grid to help you with this.

Jesus - Rakshith Prasad

Triangles - Rakshith Prasad

Chromophilic - Rakshith

Lines
Lines play a very important element of composition. It draws the attention of the viewer to the main subject. Horizontal lines help divide the scene while vertical lines give a sense of strength and height. Try shooting an image with the diagonal line passing from the bottom left to the top right and see for yourself the power of lines!

Perspectives
Photography is a two dimensional medium while the subjects are in 3D. Perspectives help us add the third dimension by creating a sense of scale and depth. You can try keeping with one subject in the foreground and another a bit farther away in the background or try different positions while taking portraits.

You can also try with interesting backgrounds to make your photos come alive.

These techniques will help you get acquainted with the aesthetic aspect of photography. But don’t get constrained by these rules. Learn them and break them is the mantra. Keep clicking!

A wedding is a perfect place  to experiment with your photographic skills! Where else would you find a large group of people who are all dressed to their best, where you probably know a lot of them so they can’t refuse being captured and where you find opportunities for taking both group photos as well as portrait shots.

Here are some simple tips that will allow you to take stunning photos at weddings:

1.  Shoot the Bride!

The easiest way to take a great photo is to capture the most well dressed person in the gathering – who else but the bride. This is the most special time in her life and you will never get another opportunity to capture an entire spectrum of emotions as she goes through the ceremony.

When shooting the bride, make sure that there are no stalkers ( people lurking in the background ) in the photo. The most beautiful shots of the bride you will ever get will be portrait photos, so try your best to be around when the bride is not surrounded by other people.

Compose your shots to get a mix of photos directly from the front, photos from the side and photos from a slight angle. Make sure that you do all this without distracting the bride otherwise you will lose out on the sweet expressions and candid photos.

Bride in a jolly mood by Rodentruskel

2. Involve friends and relatives

Weddings are memorable because all the friends and relatives are around and great group photos can freeze these memories for a lifetime!

Walk around the wedding hall and find people who are standing in groups – just walk up to them and ask them to pose for a photo. More often than not, they will strike a special pose for you or do something mischievous that will make the photo special. Make sure that you take 2-3 shots of each photo and use flash for at least one of these – most photos taken in this setting go bad because of motion blur caused by low light.

Wedding group photo by Melanieavita

The perfect time to take group photos with the bride is after everyone has met her and the groom. Get a couple of close friends to stand around them and pose for the photos. One way to ensure that the photo comes out sharp and professional is to focus on the eyes of people in front row, while taking a large group photo with many rows of people. You can also make them all close their eyes and at a count of 3, open their eyes and smile. This brings a glow like effect on all their faces.

3. Small things make a big difference!

A wedding is all about rituals and photos can be used to capture and present them in a very dramatic manner. Small things like the wedding ring, the bride and groom holding their hands, the wedding cake, the mehandi on the bride’s hand are all representations of the ritual and can be used very creatively for photos.

We’ll leave you with some shots of these to spur your imagination.

Flowers in a bride's hand by Melanieavita

Coorg Wedding by Anita Bora

Wedding cake by Phillip Guyton

4. Always Shoot Twice

And the final bit of advice – always shoot twice. You never know when people moving around causes your photo to blur or when a lovely photo that you took ends up with people having their eyes closed. Keep a spare memory card around if you are worried about running out of space, but that is certainly worth it when you don’t want to miss out on any beautiful moment.

Most of these tips are also applicable to other group events, so do try these and let us know how they worked for you!

Last week I covered one of the most important elements in photography – Aperture. Read about it here.

In this post, I am going to talk about another important lingo you need to know; Depth of Field.

Tip #2: Depth of Field (DOF)

DoF is basically the area that is in focus. It determines how much of the photo is sharp and how much is soft.

A “shallow” DOF means the subject is in focus, but everything behind and before it is really out of focus.  This essentially isolates the subject from the background (this kind of photography is also called bokeh). On a compact camera, the easiest way to get these bokeh effects is to zoom in on the subject.

By Contrast, a “deep” DOF is when everything is more-or-less in focus; which as you may have guessed it is achieved by zooming out (The Landscape mode available in most cameras can also be used to achieve a deep DOF).

In the coming posts, I will continue to cover the various technical jargon in a easy to understand way. Until then, keep clicking!

Last week I discussed how to use the flash in your camera to get great shots. Read it here.

In this post we discuss another important setting in your compact camera that can be used to get amazing shots.

Tip #2: Macro mode

When I started shooting photos as a hobby, the first thing that came to my mind were flowers. That is because, photographing flowers was the easiest and the most non-intrusive way to take good snaps.

The best way to take these photos is by using the Macro mode in your camera (usually depicted by a “flower” icon). However, this feature has its limitations which need to be adhered to, to take sharp, in-focus snaps.

Flower and Bee - Pranav Bhasin

Given below are some tips to get the most out of Macro mode:

• The macro mode works within a particular part of the zoom range. By trial and error, check the cameras optimal range. Better still, leave the camera “unzoomed” and try to get as close to the subject as possible.
• Increase the ISO of your camera to 400 or above. Make sure that this doesn’t increase the visible noise in your photo.
• In Macro mode, the camera takes longer to focus on the subject and hence you need to hold the camera steady for a longer duration. If your camera has an aperture-priority mode you can switch to that and select a smaller aperture to get around it. Otherwise shoot with a tripod (which is described next).
• Tripods are one of the essential items in a macro photography kit bag. But, what if we don’t have one? Keep your camera on a flat dry surface such as a stone, or a bench near the subject. If you can’t find such a surface, its better to switch off macro, and try shooting the subject in your normal mode.

Macro photography is a very interesting field in which a lot of professional photographers spend their entire careers. If you are serious about it, you should plan to buy a DSLR camera with a special macro lens.

Do share with us any interesting tips or questions on macro photography and also share your macro photos with us.

Note: Technically ‘macro photography’ involves capturing subjects at life size (or bigger) with a 1:1 ratio. Most of the compact cameras don’t achieve this. However, for the purpose of keeping it simple we have used this in the article.

Candid Photography is all about taking un-posed, unplanned photos of people in normal everyday situations. Usually this is used to capture real emotions of people. Here are a few tips on how to capture those tender happy moments.

Blend into the crowd
People generally get conscious when they notice a photographer with large lenses and gleaming flash lights. Don’t be a “fly in the wall” sniper looking for an instant kill! Blend into the crowd, socialize, take some “posed” snaps of people and let them feel comfortable around you. You will be surprised how much of a difference this makes.

Keep your camera compact and at arms reach
Compact cameras sometimes work better than a DSLR when it comes to candid photography. Alternatively, you can use your DSLR with prime lens on auto focus with multiple shots turned on.

A couple caught sharing a light moment

Street Kids enjoying the marvels of digital photography

Patience is your best friend
The single most important mantra to get great candid photos; Patience. Patience and more Patience. Don’t be disappointed if you can’t get great shots at first go. Observe how people behave. The more you learn about the person, the more likely you will be able to preempt *the* moment.

Keep your camera ready and keep an eye out for special moments while using good composition techniques and you’ll find yourself taking some amazing unique photographs of people. If you have more tips on how to get good candid photos, do let us know.

One thing that separates the pro photographers from the hobbyists is the use of technical terminology which most often baffles the uninitiated!

In this series, we help you understand these terms and give you tips on how you can take great photos.

Tip #1: Aperture

In a camera, the aperture is the opening through which the light passes before it gets captured by the image sensor. This along with shutter speed (will be discussed at a later date) determine the amount of light that gets into the camera.

Aperture is measured in stops. The size of the stop determines the depth of field (DoF). We will get into DoF in greater detail later. What it means is that it determines what should the camera focus on. In other words, when taking photos of people/animals the subject is to be in focus while the rest of the background has to be out of focus or while shooting a landscape all the elements in the frame are to be in focus.

“Enough of theory! How can we put this into practice?” you ask.

All the DSLR cameras and most of the high end “point and shoot” cameras come with a “Aperture Priority” or Av mode (Refer your manual if you have difficulty finding the exact mode). This mode allows you to modify the f-stops for the shot. A general rule of thumb is to use lower f-stop numbers (f/1.8, f/2.5) for portraits and a greater number (f/8 – f/11) for landscapes.

Portraits - low f-stop gives the blurred effect - Isha Shukla

Landscape - high f-stops helps keep the entire frame in focus - Saud Faisal

Experiment with various f-stop numbers and compare the results. This will help you not only understand Aperture but also show a major improvement in your photos.

Believe me, this small thing can make your holiday photos look professional!

Images Courtesy – Isha Shukla & Saud Faisal