Author: SiobhanKyle

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Beginner Photography: Self-Portraits

Man, what is more intimidating that taking self-portraits? I love a good selfie, but it really is a delicate balance between narcissism and self-esteem crushing reality. You want to look good, but you also don’t want to look like you know you look good, but then you have to look at a million pictures of yourself vamping and think “I look like an idiot and also I have terrible skin.” Or is that just me?

T&C have a bunch of free portrait tutorials here that are super helpful. Especially this one on using natural light:

Being aware of your light source is probably the most important part of self-portraits. Face the light, understand how it casts shadows.

Anyway, here’s what I did. Put on basic makeup and a black dress, the simpler styling the better. I decided to take my shots in my bedroom as it has good natural light and simple decor. I tried a few different spots in the room and so many different moods. 

I set my Olympus E-M10 up on a tripod and used Olympus’ mobile app to control it from my phone, which is so incredibly useful. I shot in aperture priority with the lowest aperture to blur the background, but that made it pretty hard to nail focus on my eye. I also set my ISO to the lowest I could because my shots always end up noisy, but that wound up making my shutter speeds pretty slow which I didn’t realize until looking at them now. I really need to pay more attention to my settings.

f/4.2, 1/3 sec, ISO 100

 

f/3.5, 1/6th, ISO 100

 

Who would I be if I didn’t go spooky?

f/3.5, 1/6th, ISO 100

 

f/3.5, 1/60th, ISO 100

Real talk: I did quite a bit of post-processing on these. My makeup was a mess and my skin was looking rough, so I did quite a bit of smoothing, you can probably tell. This page of Lightroom tutorials is integral. 

So I don’t know how “creative” these self-portraits are, but they’re mostly non-traditional. I think the last one with the backlighting is my favorite. Whattya think?

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Live Show Recap: Landscapes!

We’re back! This week we reviewed your landscapes, and as always, y’all showed up.

We have a Patreon now, so if you’d like to support us (please) you can do it at patreon.com/northrup. We’ll come up with some higher donation tiers, but none of them will be talking to me on the phone.

Our GH5 review is coming up!

Let’s get right into your pictures:

  • b&w? Infrared?
  • “what are we gonna do? Have rules and loose guidelines?”
  • walkway
  • “I feel like this mountain has a cool name like Armadillerback”
  • here’s the link to that video about ND filters
  • epic battle
  • everyone watch Arrested Development, it’s perfect
  • here’s the video on eliminating fringing
  • fog plan
  • John Mayfield!
  • “this is about Jesus” “and a dog”
  • “if you ever go borg, would you put a histogram in your eyes?”
  • I think they forgot to give picks for a while

Over to me for your questions:

  • how to you make a landscape look original and not boring? Shoot during interesting whether, change your time of day, add an interesting element. Repetition.
  • how long have you been shooting? How long together? Have your styles changed? Yes, their style has changed together, they’ve been shooting together as long as they’ve known each other. Tony’s been shooting for about 20 years, Chelsea has been casually since high school.

Time for a portfolio full of dogs! *Justin does not kick dogs. Dogs are perfect and we don’t deserve them. Fred, your work is lovely, but bump up your exposure a bit. Maybe add a photo of yourself to your “about me” page unless you are, in fact, a dog.

Another portfolio! Tommi, that’s a great lizard. Your photos are great, maybe choose a different layout that doesn’t lose your photos. Tommi, your email address is crazy long.

More questions from me:

  • money comments!
  • we will not give away gear, maybe prints, not music, maybe drawings.
  • has Tony ever integrated a Raspberry Pi into photography? No. Chelsea has integrated real raspberry pie.

Back to pictures:

  • lonely island
  • “my old Erlend is dead to me now”
  • dark waterfall
  • “you did it Brian, everyone loves you now”
  • “sure, it’s off the chain”

Time for chit-chat! The part of the show where you say weird/mean/dumb things and we respond.

  • could you explain what are the things you mentioned? No?
  • do you two always have to skip my pictures? Yes, toadally.
  • was Chelsea screaming for blood during the hockey fight? Probably.
  • Zach from Banana Republic sold Tony a shirt
  • we’re in a live show loop. Bananas. Join our Patreon and vote for topics! “Kyle has like, the most beautiful banana. Please don’t quote me.”

Back to your photos:

More questions from youuuu:

  • Tony, FAA blah blah blah? He only thought about himself.
  • lenses for Sony apsc sensors? They need more native lenses. Metabones adapters help.

Back to photos:

Back to me for some last questions:

  • what do you think about borders on photos? It can work.
  • if you had $1000 to get into landscape gear, would you get a camera or a drone first? Camera. A drone can be limiting.
  • how long did it take to get the peanut butter and jelly out from under your nails? 2 days.
  • what do we like on pizza? Depends on where you go! Tony likes a buffalo chicken. I like white pizzas, particularly a barbecue chicken, bacon. Pepe’s pizza in New Haven is the best. Chelsea likes some weird one with pistachio on it. 

Tony and Chelsea had to go to kickball. Amir get’s a shout out for this lovely shot. “That looks like a unicorn frappucino up in there.”

Join us next week for your creative self-portraits! We want to see yer faces.

 

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Beginner Photography: Landscapes

I HATE SHOOTING LANDSCAPES. There, I said it. It’s probably only because I’m bad at it, but I cannot for the life of me capture a compelling landscape. I feel like I did better with cityscapes, but even then I have a really hard time finding a focal point.

This week I went out shooting at a park I’d never been to, and I felt pretty good about it while I was shooting (which is rare) and then when I got them onto my computer I was so disappointed. Just so much green, and not much interest. I even got a shot of an urban cowboy and couldn’t make it compelling! 

I tried to capture some moving water in a stream, but every shot wound up wildly overexposed. I guess I need a neutral density filter :-/

As always, I was using my borrowed Olympus E-M10 with a Lumix 14-42 f/3.5-5.6. I shoot mostly aperture priority and often shot with the highest f/stop to get the whole scene in focus. Unfortunately that meant that I didn’t nail focus when I came across a man riding a horse. They were moving a bit too fast for me to capture, but I recovered it as well as I could in post.

I do all of my editing in Lightroom, mostly adjusting the crop, white and black points, and some luminance.

f/7.1, 1/400th, ISO 200

 

f/3.5, 1/1250th, ISO 200

 

f/22, 1/20th, ISO 100

 

f/20, 1/60th, ISO 250

 

I’m really kicking myself for not adjusting my aperture when that cowboy showed up. It could have been such an incredible capture but I really missed the mark. I’ll have to go back there and hope to see them again, there were quite a few people out riding. I’d also like to go back during the golden hour which would help with the lack of color variation in all the shots.

 

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Live Show Recap: Nature

If you missed the memo, we had our show on Monday this week because T&C will be away on Thursday. We looked at your lovely nature photos, once I get my -ish together.

From cannibals to Schweddy Balls, we’re on an upturn!

Our live show won’t be back until April 27th reviewing your landscape photos.

Starting with Chit-Chat! Where we reply to your mean/weird/funny comments on our videos:

  • take Tony to dinner
  • good joke?
  • Chelsea IS very funny

Now to your photos! Here are our picks:

Over to me for some questions:

  • non-photography gear that’s useful for shooting wildlife? Camoflauge, bug spray, boots, warm clothes, hand warmers, USB gloves, a stadium seat? Snacks. A big sandwich? 

Back to photos:

  • stunning puffin shot
  • “this is like me at a party”
  • leading line
  • “you are having intimate physical contact with 5 or 6 strangers at any time” “what happened to you at Watkins Glen?”
  • “this dog has no fur. This dog is merely a shadow dog.”
  • white tailed eagle

Back to me for cool questions:

  • where do you find inspiration? Lots of Instagram, Easton Chang, Roxy Rodriquez. Classic photographers, TV and film. The Cohen brothers, PT Anderson.
  • what bird would you like to photograph? A kingfisher, a crow for Chelsea.
  • what photographic cliche bugs you the most and why? Spot color for Chelsea, glamour photography for Tony and me, over-processed skin for Justin.

There are some picks that happen during the questions:

And now back to the photos:

Back to me for some questions:

  • the most interesting story you’ve seen told in a landscape photo? That’s hard.
  • did you feel intimidated when you started shooting wildlife? No, it was fun to be outside shooting. National Geographic was about it when Tony started, so he did well online.

Time for a portfolio review. John Doddato Photography. Good simple layout and cover photo. All your work is incredible! Maybe format your about me a bit better and take your name off of the blog link. You may want to set up a store for your prints as well. Otherwise you did everything right!

More questions:

  • any suggestions for doing nature photography at home or from a fixed location? Try different times of day and weather conditions, practice your technique. Set up a bird studio.

Back to your photos:

Some last questions before we end:

  • do y’all have any photos of puffins? Nope.
  • I had chili cheese fries for dinner
  • how to make the most of a cheap, soft lens? You just need to focus on mood and storytelling than something like wildlife that needs detail.

And that’s our show! Chelsea was hungry. So again, no live show until April 27th when we do landscapes.

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Beginner Photography: Nature

Schedule change this week! We’re having the live show tonight since Tony and Chelsea will be traveling on Thursday, so I’m also posting my blog today. Our theme this week is “nature.” While we don’t have a ton of it in the city, all the flowers in our neighborhood have started blooming, so that’s what I went with.

Honestly, nature shots don’t do a whole lot for me, so I don’t have much faith in my skills as a nature photographer. But at the very least I captured some light and color.

Nature certainly encompasses a lot, from landscapes to macro. T&C have a great video on shooting macro here:

I did end up shooting a bee this week, but I didn’t plan for it. I also wish I’d remembered this focus stacking video!

Then again, there are a lot of distractions in the city, and shooting flowers in front of people’s houses, you don’t really want to get much more than a flower or two in focus. So I was shooting with a low aperture. Here’s what I came up with:

f/4.5, 1/160th, ISO 200

 

f/4.6, 1/1600th, ISO 200

 

f/5.6, 1/160th, ISO 200

 

f/5.3, 1/640th, ISO 200

 

So that’s some nature! I dunno, none of these thrilled me. I adjusted the exposure on all of them, bumped the luminance a bit, and cropped of course. Do any of these do it for you? 

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Live Show Recap: Colors

Colors! You guys really showed up for this one. There were so many great examples of color as a focal point. You can read my blog on it here.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: next week’s show is on Monday instead of Thursday as T&C will be traveling. The topic is nature.

We just got 700,000 YouTube subscribers, and that is weird and scary.

We got the GH5 in and did a comparison of it here. Justin thinks it’s great.

Chelsea goes over to me for questions because she loves my face:

  • I’m the bees knees and also, what is the best gimbal stabilizer for the GH5? No idea! But not the Nebula 4000.

Now to your photos, I’ll highlight our picks below:

Over to me for some more questions:

  • how did Justin join the Northrup crew? He is married to Chelsea’s ex-husband’s cousin! 

Time for a portfolio review. Framed Listings real estate photography, beautiful work! Dial back your HDR on some of these, just make sure you’re not losing all the contrast. Put your drone shots on the front page as well, people will love them. Great pricing page and about page. Maybe crop out that picture of you with phallic chips. Otherwise very impressive work!

Submit some non-photography Squarespace portfolios to us so we can review those as well.

Back to me for some comments and questions:

  • first a pick for Philly boy Bill Raymond’s crazy concert shot
  • compliments!
  • why do you think there aren’t photo travel shows, but so many cooking travel shows? No idea! It might be generational.

Diving back into the photos:

  • underwear
  • “look at this guy, his balloons matches his nips“
  • vase
  • “it’s not level, right?” “the world’s not level, it’s a sphere”
  • dramatic
  • blue gate
  • rainbow overlay
  • color block door
  • ahhhh dogs
  • Tony’s afraid of dead air
  • haha Chelsea made a bad lichen pun and Tony didn’t even flinch
  • “I’m gonna warm it up, now you have lifestyle kitty. This is Instakitty.”
  • sunset bridge
  • water droplets

Over to me for some questions:

  • Tony, what are your favorite video games? He couldn’t remember the name, but it’s Horizon. Apparently Chelsea’s mom is real good at killing zombies.

Back to photos:

  • they talked about animal surgery while Tony edited this picture
  • little girl in red
  • Tony’s brain is totally weird
  • gorgeous unconventional shot
  • Volkswagen
  • lava lamps?
  • London

Back to me for questions:

  • monitor calibration? We haven’t found anything. Just the free Windows tool.

Here’s another portfolio! Simplify your layout. White background, black text. Pare down your photos, only your best ones should be there.

Why would you do this to Chelsea?

Chit-Chat! You say things we say things back.

  • not fair!
  • really real
  • why does everyone think they’re siblings?
  • Stanley Q-Bert is back
  • Chelsea’s totally original composition

A few last photos:

  • roof tiles
  • man in front of a teal wall
  • “yeah, kids are always drinking things that should be eaten”
  • headphones

And one last question from me:

  • how should you price prints? That’s hard. Online prints don’t sell high at all. Prints bought in art galleries can be sold for much more, but it really depends on where you’re selling and your skill level.
  • And how should you price post-processing? Tony and Chelsea disagree! Chelsea says post-processing should be an add-on, Tony thinks it should be default.
  • someone needs to make a gif of Chelsea’s extended side-eye here

Sarah Bowman! Lovely work as always.

And that’s a show! We’ll see you on Monday the 10th for your nature photos. 

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What Camera or Drone Should I Buy?

The list below is updated more frequently than the video above.

Starter Cameras: 

 Basic Starter Camera ($280 used): Canon T3

 

Better Starter Camera ($500): Nikon D5300 

 

Better Travel Camera ($500): Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II

 

Landscape Cameras:

Good ($550): Sony a6000

 

Better ($1,400): Nikon D5500 & Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8

 

 Great ($2,000): Nikon D800E & Tamron 24-70 f/2.8 VC

 Best ($3,150): Pentax K-1 & Pentax 24-70 f/2.8

  

Sports Cameras:

Usable ($850): Canon Rebel T6i

  

Good ($1,850): Canon 7D Mark II

 

Better ($3,000):  Canon 7D Mark II & Tamron 70-200 f/2.8

 

Little Better ($3,300): Nikon D500 & Tamron 70-200 f/2.8


 

  Best ($9,900): Nikon D5 & Sigma 120-300 f/2.8

 

Portrait Cameras:

Beginner ($950): Canon T6i & Canon 50mm f/1.8

 

Better ($3,000): Nikon D610 & Tamron 70-200 f/2.8

 

Best ($5,300): Nikon D810 & Nikon 70-200 f/2.8E

 

Wildlife Camera:

 Starter ($1,100): Canon 7D & Canon 400mm f/5.6

 

Better ($2,650): Canon 7D Mark II & Canon 400mm f/5.6

 

Great ($3,200): Nikon D500 & Nikon 200-500 f/5.6

  

Best ($14,100): Nikon D500 & Nikon 600mm f/4


 

Video Camera:

Beginner ($500): Panasonic FZ300

 

Better ($500): Panasonic G7 & Panasonic 14-42mm

 

Even Better ($1,400): Panasonic GH4 & Panasonic 14-140 f/3.5-5.6

 

Best ($4,300): Panasonic GH5 & Metabones Speed Booster XL & Sigma 18-35 f/1.8 & Sigma 50-100 f/1.8

 

 

Video & Still Camera

Great ($3,000): Fuji X-T2 & Fuji 16-55mm f/2.8 

 

Better ($5,100): Sony a7R II & Sony 24-70 f/2.8GM

Pro ($5,200): Sony a99 II & Sony 24-70 f/2.8 

Drone Camera

Beginner ($400): DJI Phantom 3

 

Travel ($1,000): DJI Mavic Pro

 

Better Image Quality ($1,500): DJI Phantom 4 Pro

Best ($3,000 + Camera + Lens): DJI Inspire 2

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Beginner Photography: Color

Color! The possibilities for this topic are endless. I had grand ideas of what I wanted to do, but limited resources. I had visions of bold lipstick, bold nails and a white background. Unfortunately I don’t have a studio to work with and I was my own model, so that limited my ideas a bit. But I was reminded of a shot I took for my food project of a clementine on a teal plate. 

I decided to work with the same color palette and more fruit. I painted my nails teal and found the most aesthetically pleasing clementine and lemon in our fruit bowl and took them into my back yard for the natural light. Harsh light is good for fruit because you want the specular highlights, not the flat light that you may want for portraits.

I shot in aperture priority with a low aperture to blur the background as well as I could, and took a bunch of shots of my hand holding the fruit. Some in front of the wood decking and some in front of the ivy. 

f/3.6, 1/3200th, ISO 200

 

f/3.6, 1/3200th, ISO 200

 

Next I wanted to shoot my lips in a bright color with the green background and teal nails. This was a bit more challenging, but I finally downloaded the Olympus app for my phone so that I could control my camera from in front of it. Compared to Canon and Nikon’s apps, this one is great. I was able to focus and shoot myself from my phone while my camera was on the tripod in front of me.

f/4.5, 1/800th, ISO 200

 

f/4.5, 1/640th, ISO 200

 

f/4.5, 1/800th, ISO 200

 

For all of these images I tweaked the colors so that they were more saturated and complementary to each other. I edit my skin a ton because it looked terrible, and lightened it a bit so the colors would pop more.

Chelsea has a great tutorial on changing colors in Photoshop here that might help you out, although I did all my edits in Lightroom:

Do these work for you to convey color? I think the fruit shots do for sure, but I’m not sure about the self portraits. This was a really fun project for me, and I’m feeling more inspired than I have in a while. 

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Live Show Recap: Abstract

This was one of the most fun shows in a while, and that’s saying a lot cause we’ve had some great ones lately. Chelsea was on fire. Your photos were pretty good too.

I killed an ant. I have no regrets.

Here’s my blog post on shooting abstract. It was a fun project! Next week’s topic is colors, which means that color needs to be an important element of the photo. No spot color.

Ok, here’s some stuff about stuff:

  • we got a Gnarbox 
  • Tamron 70-200 f/2.8
  • Paperboyo on Instagram
  • no, we’re not getting this insanely expensive 8k monitor from Dell

Let’s get into your abstract photos and I’ll highlight our faves:

  • dogs > cats, fight me
  • street shot
  • rope
  • “how come I’m boozing and you’re losing?”
  • “this is where a super villain was born”
  • orange fusion
  • “finally, we found something to do with all those AOL CDs“
  • “what’s this, that Dance Dance Revolution game?”
  • whisk
  • dang, the most Tony joke ever
  • shooting stars
  • sand
  • Jim! This is your show.

Over to me for some viewer questions:

  • is there a way to eliminate glare in car photography other than a polarizing filter? Just use one. Or make a comp. Or roll the windows down?
  • how to start pricing for portraits or wedding photography? It depends on the market in your area, do some research and see what the going rates are.
  • would you still consider the D810 to be the best overall camera? That’s hard to say, different tools for different things, sdp.io/whichcamera. We’re loving the new Sony a99 II.

Now to look at a portfolio from our friend Jim Setzer. Great, eye-catching landing page! Well done with the layout, great image pairing. Maybe get that boudoir away from that family.

Chit-Chat! You know how we do.

  • we made Kyle cry
  • loners are real pissed at us, “I have learned tons from your books… DUMB!”
  • bad advice watch videos while you’re driving #nohomo
  • Q*Bert, Stanley Q-Bert
  • 8th mistake: a spot colored user photo, my dude
  • MisterTwister, why are obsessed with Tony looking wet? #lockherup
  • “just look up your comments, if it’s a constant stream of annoying, change your life”
  • Jim Bandy, what a good kid.

Ok, back to photos:

  • “we’re well hydrated”
  • “this is balls“
  • succulent
  • “Aardvark, is that really your name?”
  • “do you ever get tired of people asking if we’re brother and sister?”
  • I liked this one but they kept going
  • light trails
  • cell planets?
  • “Tony’s from Texas, he just knows about trucks”
  • paint
  • Fyn!
  • umbrellas
  • “I like it, it makes me feel lonely” “I would kill for lonely right now”
  • abstract bokeh
  • well done, James!

Over to me for your questions:

  • what files do you keep after a shoot? All the raw files. Tony rates them all and deletes all the 1-star photos. Chelsea doesn’t delete photos because people die.
  • We couldn’t break Kyle’s heart again, so here’s his photo. “I’d like to see a shark or a… a drowning person.”
  • have you used a tobacco filter? Nope. Blackmilk Pro filter? Nope.
  • how do you train your eye to see the spectacular in the mundane? That’s deep. Just practice. Pay attention to the feeling in you that sees something eye catching and then dissect what it was that drew you. 
  • shout out to Frankie
  • favorite travel camera? XT-2 or the D810.
  • Tony looks like a yoga instructor who only takes small classes into the mountains. “You look like a doctor who only prescribes boner pills.”
  • should the rule of thirds or the golden ratio be used in abstract photography? Not necessarily. And the golden ratio can peace out.
  • what are the best ideas to keep in mind while shooting and editing wildlife? Get the eye in focus, shoot action or unusual behaviors. Crop in tight. Capture a knife fight.
  • have we ever Photoshopped Tony with black hair and will we? 

Back to photos:

Back to me for some reason:

  • why is wide angle bad for portraits? Wide angle tends to exaggerate features that aren’t considered traditionally beautiful. Facial proportions being off makes most people feel uneasy. But experiment with it!
  • will you do another big lens shootout? Sure! We have a 70-200 shootout coming up. We need a Nikon wildlife one as well.
  • what’s Tony’s final form? Bald. Robot? Drunk robot? Chelsea would be AI who ruins everyone’s picnic.
  • switch to Sony? Depends what you shoot. Not great for sports or wildlife, but good for all-around shooting. Not as good lenses though.

Back to photos:

And that’s our show! Join us next week for colors.

Tony peels off a label for all you weirdos like us out there. Justin is a monster and leaves his on. Byyyyyye.

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Beginner Photography: Abstract

Man, this project was a roller coaster. I decided to try out Tony and Chelsea’s abstract impressionist concept that they teach here:

Unfortunately I don’t live near a beach or any expanse of land, really, so I attempted it on a much smaller scale. I literally just walked around my tiny yard and through my neighborhood looking for anything I could shoot with a long exposure while moving my camera. And I was certain that I got nothing usable. They all looked either too recognizable to call abstract or just so bland. But that’s why we have post-processing, right? 

First, the shooting process. I shot manual so I could set a low ISO, a high f/stop and adjust my shutter speed to taste. I made sure that the shutter was open enough to gather light but not over expose the images too bad, but still gave me enough time to move the camera while it was open. Since I wasn’t shooting a vast landscape though, it was much harder to move the camera and keep even horizontals and not have them curve. So after a while I just went with that, moving the camera in different ways to find good shapes. It really just took a whole lot of shooting crappy images and trying repeatedly.

So once I brought my shots into Lightroom I picked out a few that I thought might have potential. I looked for interesting shapes and color. Once I found that, I adjusted my exposure and contrast and then just experimented with color. I used split toning to adjust the color of shadow and highlights. Since the project was abstract, there was no reason to worry about the colors looking realistic, they just needed to be pleasing! It wound up being a really fun experiment.

 

f/22, 1/2 sec, ISO 200

 

f/22, 1/2 sec, ISO 200

 

f/22, 1/2 sec, ISO 200

 

f/22, 0.8 sec, ISO 200

 

While there are recognizable shapes in each image, they are moved to the point of being surreal. The third shot is my favorite, the motion wound up looking like waves. The last shot of the fence turned out looking very sinister to me which I liked, so I leaned the colors towards red and black to add to the mood.

I think as a whole these were more successful than my first attempt at abstract last year.

What do you think? Are these visually appealing or do they just look accidental? I had a lot of fun with these in post, even though while I was shooting I felt like it was all a loss. I can’t wait to see what everyone else comes up with for the live show this week.