Author: SiobhanKyle

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Live Show Recap: The Right Light

Hey y’all! We had an early show again this week, sorry if you missed it, but we’ll be back at the regular time next week (Thursday 5pm EST) reviewing your spoooooky photos. If you want to see what the next show is each week, check sdp.io/live or subscribe to our YouTube channel to be informed!

This week we covered “the right light” which were photos which capture the perfect light. We got a ton of great submissions and I’ll highlight our favorites in this post.

Only one bit of news this week, Kodak announced the Ektra, a smartphone that is made for photography. Tony is switching back to iPhones! 

Ok, let’s start looking at your photos:

Over to me for some of your questions:

  • will Chelsea sing a lullaby for a fussy baby? Nope.
  • why aren’t you drinking? Because we’re adults with jobs!
  • what cool gear did we see at the expos? Nikon 70-200, Sigma 85 Art Lens, radio triggered studio lights. Chelsea did try to steal some new Olympus gear, but they were just displays.

Ok, time for a portfolio. Add more pups. Great wildlife shots and portraits! But Robert, jeez. Lay off the drama in your artist bio. Add some pricing. “I’m slowly dying inside. Hire me.”

“I want to hear from Siobhan, remember her?”

  • shooting jpeg with the new X-T2? Nah, stick with raw.
  • blindfold your friends and make them try wine

Back to photos:

  • get a fog machine to make god-rays
  • orcas are crafty as hell
  • the hillllls are alive
  • creepy bus light

Back to me for some questions:

  • y’all aren’t funny
  • Profoto ocf flash systems? Yup. But Godox is cheaper.
  • what is the best tripod for self defense? Three-legged thing if you want to damage their ego.
  • favorite location for the perfect light? Ledgelight lighthouse.

Back to photos:

Last minute questions:

Blowing through photos at the end here, lots of good ones.

Ok, that’s our show! Spooky pictures next week, Thursday 5pm EST.

 

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Beginner Photography: The Right Light

Hey folks. This weeks topic is “the right light”, which is pretty open to interpretation. What makes the perfect light is different for every subject. The perfect light for a portrait is different than the perfect light for landscapes which is different than the perfect light for a still life, etc. What I focused on was the perfect light to make a shot worth capturing. The right light can transform everyday subjects into something that captures your attention and draws the eye. Obviously, photography doesn’t exist without light and being able to manipulate light to properly expose an image. But sometimes light itself can be your focal point, be it a well-placed sun or backlighting used to create interesting shadows. I went out shooting yesterday with some ideas in mind, but some of the images below are older shots where the light just made it.

Capturing the perfect light can take planning; setting up lights for a portrait shoot or waiting for the golden hour for landscapes. The Photographer’s Ephemeris is a great resource to plan your shots around natural light. Often times, though, it’s just being in the right place at the right time and paying attention.

I took this shot almost exactly a year ago, and when looking through my photos it caught my eye. Tony is backlit and the light is perfectly illuminating the snow globe, which is reflected in Tony’s glasses.

Peep that “Stay Focused” shirt

This shot was taken at a wedding I was second-shooter for a few weeks back. The wedding dress was hung in front of a window, backlit to illuminate the shape and texture of the dress.

Note that so far, all of these are black and white shots. Black and white helps to focus your gaze, highlighting the shape and texture of your subject and making the light and shadow the focus. 

I took this of the shadows on our front porch. I’d taken shots of it before, but without the right light I could only capture the heart cut-outs and the vines, not the repetitive shadows on the ground. 

 

This I took yesterday when I went out looking. I knew that in our local park there were a few trees with yellow leaves still clinging on. I positioned the sun behind it so that the leaves would light up.

 

And this one I’ve posted before, but it is easily one of my best images. And captured with my cell phone! The light is breaking through the trees, perfectly illuminating a lone trunk and casting it’s shadow off-frame.

Those are my picks for the week, I can’t wait to see all of yours tomorrow. What are your tricks for capturing the best light?

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Beginner Photography: Architecture

Hey folks! This week we’re tackling architectural photography. I have to admit, I wasn’t sure the difference between architectural photography and real estate photography. For our purposes here, there really isn’t much of one. The difference between the two mostly has to do with its purpose and marketability. While real estate photography is meant to be temporary (it is only intended to sell real estate and must be up-to-date,) architectural photography can be timeless. It is meant to capture the essence and aesthetic sensibilities of a structure and show them in it’s best light (often literally.) You can see one of Tony’s videos on shooting architecture here, which I watched before going out shooting.

I certainly didn’t have any light set-up while I walked around my neighborhood, and I didn’t have any fancy gear like tilt-shift lenses. But I had the late-day sun and bracketing, so I worked with that. I use an Olympus E-M10 with a Lumix 14-42mm 3.5-5.6 lens, not the ideal set up for architecture, but it’s what I’ve got. I shot with a high f/stop and bracketed my shots. I then merged them in Lightroom (you’ll for sure see some chromatic aberrations in the trees from the process. I’m not that advanced yet!) Tony suggests using Photomatix if you can, it makes the HDR process pretty seamless.

Alright, enough talk, here’s what I wound up with:

Look! HDR doesn’t have to be gaudy!

I used a graduated filter to bring up the exposure on the house but leave the sky untouched

There seems to be a lot of chromatic aberration in this one, unfortunately.

Black and white was the way to go for the beautiful light and shape of these posts

Ah, this one I want to like, but I can’t seem to get the crop right. What would you do?

I’m in love with my neighborhood and had been meaning to photograph it for a while, so I have a feeling I’ll try more architectural photography over time. I want to capture the beauty that I see here every day.

So those are just a few of literal dozens I took this week. What do you think? Where was I successful and where did they fall flat? 

A reminder that this week our show is on Wednesday at 1pm EST! See you there.

 

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Live Show Recap: Wildlife

Wildlife, ya’ll! Regardless of my personal failure at shooting wildlife, you guys really showed up for this show. Great job! There are a ton of great tips throughout the show as T&C edit and critique the submissions. For sure watch through this episode if you need wildlife tips like I do.

This month’s schedule is a little wonky, T&C have been traveling a lot. Next week our show will be at 1pm EST on WEDNESDAY and we’re reviewing architecture photos. Then the whole crew of us will be in NYC for Photoplus! 

Oh hey, it’s my birthday in a few days. Thanks for your well-wishes!

Ok, let’s get into your photos and I’ll highlight our faves below:

  • right off the bat, this mourning dove is beautiful and Chelsea makes great jokes “#dovelive”
  • spidey

Here’s a question from you, the audience:

And back to photos:

  • laying eggs
  • kingfisher
  • “what does he have, a little letter?”
  • “you made Justin laugh, it’s that cute”
  • turtle doing pull-ups
  • pretty bird
  • fox’s day at the beach
  • omg baby boar “I would hug it and keep hugging it and then throw it in the bag and bring it home”
  • “this is one of those wrestling death matches between butterflies”

Back to me for some questions:

  • what will Tony and Chelsea be drinking next week during the show? Water.
  • how do you choose portfolio photos? Crowd source. See what does well on social media, take time to reflect back on your photos.

Now for a portfolio review! Pare down your photos, keep the eye-popping ones on the first page, maybe ditch the staggered layout. Otherwise great job! Keep watching to hear great tips about building a portfolio and looking at your analytics.

Back to your photos!

Back to your questions:

  • crop sensor or full frame for wildlife? Tony likes a crop, Chelsea doesn’t.
  • do you color calibrate your monitor? Nope, but it won’t hurt to.

Back to your photos! Getting speedy now, there’s a lot to get through:

Some last questions from me:

  • Chit-chat?
  • how did studying art effect your photography? Composition, adding meaning to your photos.
  • wildlife baiting? Bird feeders are okay, roadkill for eagles okay, otherwise no.

Chit-chat! What are we doing anymore?

  • POS
  • Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy
  • Does photography have to be complicated? No.
  • more weird-ass flat earthers

Photoshop book is now officially out! Buy it.

Let’s go through one last chunk of pictures:

We did it! Thanks for your great submissions this week. Well done. Join us next WEDNESDAY at 1 for architecture photography. Or spot us in NYC at Photoplus, bring beer.

 

 

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Beginner Photography: Wildlife

Hahahahhaha oh man you guys, wildlife photography is not something you can just take up for a day. This stuff is serious. If you want actual, helpful wildlife tips, please visit this page of our site and learn from a real photographer, because what will follow here is just tomfoolery. 

I do not blame myself for my failure this week. Wildlife photography takes the proper gear, knowledge, and lots of time and patience. I have literally none of those things. Not to mention, it’s Autumn in a city. All we’ve got are squirrels.

To take proper wildlife shots, it helps to have a lens with reach, so you can take close shots without actually getting close. You also need a spot where you can sit still and let animals get acclimated to your presence, camouflage and a bird blind would help you blend in and get closer. If shooting birds, choose a background and wait for them to come to you. Keep shooting the same spot until a bird comes into the space. A flowering tree and direct sunlight makes for a great setting.

So here’s what I attempted (and failed) to do:

  • lure wildlife into my backyard with bread (my dog ate most of it)
  • go to a park and stalk squirrels
  • walk around my neighborhood hitting up all the best gardens hoping to catch birds

So birds, smartly, avoid my yard. I have a big dumb dog. If I go out back and let him out, he scares everything away. If I don’t let him out, he whines and barks at the door, scaring everything away. So my baiting was a bust.

Next I went to the closest park. There were plenty of squirrels running around, but the adjective “squirrelly” exists for a reason. I generally shoot in aperture priority, but that seemed like a bad call with this fast of a target, so I switched over to shutter priority. That… didn’t work either. I wound up with VERY dark pictures of squirrels in trees. So then I just shot in automatic. Here’s the result:

Sigh. A blurry head and a sharp tail.

You guys. That is actually the best photo I got out of, I dunno, 50? I went home dejected, scanning gardens on the way. 

Right by the steps up to our porch we have a butterfly bush, which two weeks ago might have gotten me shots of a monarch butterfly or two before they migrated. As it was, though, I was left with some bees.

Not great, it’s not facing me so I didn’t get the eye in focus

Once again. Got that butt though.

I like that I got it cleaning it’s antenna, but I seem to have focused on the back leg

So all in all, the bees were my most successful attempt, and those probably count as macro. I certainly don’t have the equipment for that either, but they made a far better subject than the squirrels. I also had a great backdrop in the butterfly bush and direct overhead lighting.

Bonus: here’s a picture of my cat, indoor wildlife.

Hi Frank!

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Beginner Photography: Street

Hey y’all. Here’s the second of my two-parter of my trip to San Francisco. I went knowing that the topic of street photography would be covered a few weeks later, so I made it a point to take some shots I wouldn’t normally. I’ve been shooting with the Olympus E-M10 and a Lumix 14-42mm 3.5-5.6 which is a good, discreet little set up for street shots. The screen in the back flips out, so you can take shots without looking like you are.

Street photography is a very loose concept. All it needs to entail is a person and the space they exist in. It is often candid, but street portraits are also a subset of street photography. (Street portraits take a boldness I don’t quite have yet, but maybe I’ll tackle that another time.) Now, the fact that street photography is vague doesn’t mean it’s easy. It takes a lot of consideration to bring a photo of people from a snapshot to an image of interest. Here are a few ways to do that.

First: Backdrop

I found that scouting out a good backdrop and sitting at an outdoor cafe was a good way to stealthily get shots of passers-by, like this one:

I had a hard time getting people’s faces in focus. I was more concerned about not getting spotted when I started out, but got more bold as I went.

You can take photos of your backdrop before a person walks into frame, and then just keep shooting once they walk past. Most of the time they won’t notice you’re shooting at all, or if they do and pause to not walk into their shot, you can just wave them through. 

Second: Interaction 

One thing that makes people an interesting subject is their interactions with each other. Try to capture a moment between people, be it a simple conversation or a touch.

My next spot was at the beach. Everyone takes pictures at the beach! And I was so obviously a tourist, wearing a leather jacket and jeans, carrying a camera. This time I took a ton of shots, and did better with my focusing.

So many great looking surfers

That can also mean interaction with you, the photographer. If your subject notices you shooting and you still feel comfortable doing so, keep shooting! That connection can make your photo.

I wanted a picture of the van, but got these guys instead

This was shot with my phone, but I loved her expression and the fact that the man she’s interacting with doesn’t seem to notice.

Third: Light, Shadow, Shape

These are what make compelling images in any genre. Interesting light, the play of shadows and leading lines draw the eye where you want it to go in the frame.

It wasn’t until going through my photos afterwards that I realized how many were facing the sun, which means I got a lot of silhouettes and shadows

I loved the line in the sand bringing you to the fisherman and his fishing rod leading off frame

 

I feel pretty good about this. Some feel a bit more landscape than street, because I took a lot of distance shots instead of getting in their space, but I think I’ll do better with that the more I practice. I had a lot of fun shooting street shots, I wasn’t sure I would. I need to practice on nailing focus and getting in closer, but I think this is a good start. 

What other tips do you have for shooting street shots? What makes a street shot compelling to you?

Our live show this week will be with street photographer Andy Shields, whose work I love. He does amazing things with street photography. You can read his beginner blog post here and make sure to tune into the show on Thursday at sdp.io/live.

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Beginner Photography: Travel

Hey friends! This weekend I got to do a whirlwind weekend in San Francisco for my friends wedding. This will essentially be a two-part post, since next week’s topic is street photography and I did quite a bit of that while I was there (get ready to see some surfers)!

This was my first time on the west coast, so there was a lot to capture. We stayed by the beach in a great, diverse little neighborhood. I also got to go out to the Muir Woods and hike among the redwoods. I hope I can do them some justice! I pulled a total rookie move and forgot to bring my Olympus battery charger. My camera made it through to the last day, halfway through my hike. Luckily I had my phone with me still, and wound up getting some of my better pictures with that.

I wish I’d taken some more time to just go out and shoot, but it was an action-packed weekend and I wasn’t about to take time away from friends and events to take pictures. I hope I can go back and spend some more time in the future, there’s a lot more I wanted to capture.

There was a lot of great street art and signage in the neighborhood

 

There’s that distant SF fog

 

This needs some editing, the exposure on her doesn’t seem right

The water was so cold, these men are insane

 

I got this shot with my phone after my camera died

So those are some of my faves! I did minimal editing to them all to adjust exposure and make sure I had black and white points in each photo, as well as some cropping and straightening. I hope I captured the feel of the area (let me know, Kyle Wolfe)!

Help me out here, how’d I do? What would you change/add/leave out from these shots?

 

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Beginner Photography- Dogs!

Hello friends! As you know we don’t have a live show this week since T&C will be in Germany for Photokina! So I spent the week getting used to my little Olympus E-M10. I’m really enjoying this thing. I just shot whatever caught my eye around the house and tried to get used to all the buttons and dials. 

Yesterday was hazy and grey, but it made for some good light, so I followed my dog into the back yard to get some shots. He is not the most patient model. I did my best with a fast shutter speed and a liberal sprinkling of dog treats and “sit” commands to get what I could. And most of all, I took lots of shots. Here’s what I came up with.

f/3.5, 1/80th of a second, ISO 200

Meet Hungry! Shot at 1/80th of a second, f/3.5, ISO 200.

 

Same settings, handsomest boy.

 

Can you spot all my sloppy cloning and patching? 

 

I’m pretty proud of these, but I might be biased. He’s definitely a one-note model, we really need to work on his expression. 

Black dogs are hard to photography because they just seem to swallow light, luckily he has some brown mixed in, so I think I was able to show some detail in his fur. The yard is a bit distracting, so I had to clone out some random things, and went black and white on a few of my edits to simplify. I did basic edits in Lightroom, adjusting the exposure based on my histogram to make sure I had some white points and black points. Then I brought them into Photoshop and used the content-aware-fill tool to get rid of some distracting twigs and backyard clutter. 

We did a live show on dog photography with our wonderfully talented friend Erkki Alvenmod a few months back that I found helpful, you might too! Have you photographed pets? What are your tips? 

 

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Live Show Recap: Car Photography with Easton Chang

Killer show this week! Easton Chang Skyped in from Australia and he was an absolute delight. Great info, great photos, all around great show.

We connected with Easton when he submitted an incredible photo for our live show on light painting where he painted a car with a rope on fire as his light source! Turns out he’s an incredibly talented and successful photographer who happens to like us for some reason.

Quick reminder at the top of the show: NO SHOW FOR THE NEXT TWO WEEKS. Tony and Chelsea will be at Photokina in Germany! You can meet up with them and Matt Granger if you’re around, sdp.io/meetup. But two weeks from now the live show topic is Street Photography, so join us for that.

Tony gets the boring question out of the way first: What camera do you use, Easton? The answer is the Canon 5DS-R at home. Though he says most car photographers use Sony! His favorite lens is the 24-70.

T&C got the Fuji X-T2 and they love it! So much better than the initial X-T1.

Now over to Chit-Chat, the part of the show where we highlight mean/dumb/funny things you say to us in YouTube comments.

  • Turns out Tony really is chill, he laughs at terrible things people say about him. “Fake-looking James Bond villain reject.”
  • Chelsea and Tony are as perfect of a couple as Corey and Topanga.
  • Justin gave some guy a “broner.”
  • Justin made a video! People loved it and were weirdly supportive for being on the internet.
  • Guys, don’t bring presents to T&C! Maybe chocolate though.
  • Some guy has a weird fetish.
  • Fire Jason!

Chelsea asks Easton his favorite settings for car shoots, he loves shooting in the Outback and he tells an awesome story about it, so go listen! Seriously, just watch this show again and listen to his insane stories.

Alright, let’s look at your car photos! You guys really stepped up this week, there were some great shots. I’ll highlight our picks below:

  • right off the bat, great advice from Easton: shoot headlights as a separate exposure, pay attention to tire position. So much awesome behind-the-scene tips and techniques of the pros.
  • Ron Wolfe!
  • ok really, they hardly give any picks this show. Easton gives great advice for pretty much every picture. Just watch them all.

Over to me for some of your questions:

  • what’s the most dangerous shoot you’ve done, Easton? Harness mistake on the back of a truck! 
  • he can’t tell us his favorite car
  • what market is there for professional car photography before you hit the pro market? Car dealerships, car accessories, editorial photography, PR and social media.

Let’s look at a portfolio! This guy is really talented. He told us in the chat during the show that he’s only been shooting for 5 months! Lovely portraits, beef up your miscellaneous category, add some contact info and a close-up self portrait. And pricing! You can go pro.

Okay, back to your photos:

  • this guy was in the comments and wasn’t happy about the fact that Tony always says his shots are HDR, because they aren’t
  • Aston One-77
  • light painting truck!
  • spot color, but it works?
  • what is this car?

Ok more questions from the viewers:

  • polarizing filters, yay or nay? Sometimes! You don’t want to eliminate reflections, just make them clean and smooth.
  • how did you start shooting cars? Started with IT, got a car he loved and wanted to do a better job photographing it! Got a job shooting for car magazines a year later.
  • they talk cars for a while, this is all Greek to me
  • Chelsea Ferris Bueller’s cars at her family’s dealerships

Back to photos:

  • nice light
  • this insane car in front of a Globemaster
  • BMW M3
  • good light painting, just needs some cleanup
  • oh hi, it’s me! Shameless self-promotion.
  • guys, no. What? Why.
  • “maybe you can’t own a Ferrari, but you can make a Ferrari”
  • good way to shoot at a car show
  • look at this fake-ass Delorian, taking Chelsea’s advice from 2 minutes ago

Back to me for some questions:

  • keep on the license plate or blank it out? It’s a personal choice or based on the job.
  • question from Tony about balancing the color balance and exposure when shooting from inside a car. No quick fix, apparently. Reflectors, interior light, or just blow out the outside.

Back into photos:

A few more questions for Easton before we head out:

  • how to shoot car interiors? Shooting mixed material is hard to light, getting lights and proper camera angles inside a car is also difficult.
  • what % of making great car shots is the car and what percent is the photographer? Technically, the photographer matters more. As far as social media likes and attention, it’s all about the car.

And that’s our show! Easton gave us incredible tips and info on shooting cars. 

We’ll see you in two weeks for street photography! Thanks folks.

 

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Beginner Photography: Cars

Hey guys! I don’t know anything about cars, but I know that my Honda Accord wouldn’t cut it for a compelling photo. So I did what every socially anxious lady in a city wants to do, walked around my neighborhood looking for aesthetically pleasing cars and hoping no one thought I was a stalker.

Oh! And I have a real camera to use. T&C sent me an Olympus E-M10 with a little Lumix 14-42mm lens. It is such a cute, manageable little camera, I look forward to shooting with it more.

Thankfully T&C have a video on shooting at a car show, which was helpful for shooting in the busy environment of a city street. You can watch that tutorial here. I used a low aperture to focus close and blur my background, focused on interesting shapes and forms, and went black and white when I needed to declutter the background. Here’s what I came up with!

p9110009final

I did some basic edits to adjust the exposure and converted it to B&W to keep focus on the car and not on the background

 

Something about this shot doesn’t quite do it for me. The shapes are nice, I like the shadows on the hood, but it’s not quite compelling enough.

 

This one strikes me a little better, but maybe I just don’t like cars?

 

I missed focus on the Mustang logo, but I liked this license plate repping my neighborhood

 

I wish I had a bit more subject matter to work with, I would have loved to find a car with interesting colors, or to be able to shoot an interior. I think I did okay with what I had though. Next time I’ll have to try out some HDR or bone up on my post processing skills to really make these pop.

I could try to shoot in harder light to get more shine off the cars, I went out at the golden hour, which is good for most things, but not cars! You want that gleam. I could have also taken a bit more risk, getting lower and closer to shoot at better angles, and from the street to get different backgrounds. I was a little tentative about looking like a weirdo in my neighborhood. But do what you can to get the best shot!

I’m going to watch the tutorial for my camera again to master my settings. I used touch to focus on the live view screen, but I wish I’d been able to focus more accurately.

How’d I do? What could I have done differently? Let me know in the comments below. See you for the live show on cars this week!