Photo Tips
1. Be Yourself
Out of all of the photographers in your area, out of all of your competition, it is you that the couple have contacted, it is you that they want to meet and talk to. Therefore, don’t put on a front; don’t pretend to be something you are not. You just have to be yourself, which is why it’s important that your brand and website reflect who you are as well. How you shoot and edit, is all based around your personality and approach, making you and your work unique. So don’t be afraid. Just be unashamedly, and honestly the brilliant you.
2. Be Prepared
Make sure that you can confidently and fully answer any questions or queries the couple will have. Make sure you know your stuff. They care about what you will be doing and saying on the day to make sure you can deliver on what you promise, ie: amazing images. Scour bridal magazines and blogs for articles like “100 things to ask your wedding photographer” and think about how to best answer any question you might get asked. What happens if you are ill on the day? What if it rains? Do you have insurance? You need to know your stuff through and through, so that you can put the clients mind at ease. And make sure that you know every single word in your contract, as you will probably have to go through and explain each section to the clients and what it means. Finally, don’t forget the common sense things like turning up on time, dressing smartly (but not too smart) and bring lots of business cards and sample albums.
3. Be Interested
You’re photographing the happiest day in someone’s life. It’s exciting. It’s amazing. It’s a privilege that the clients have considered you above anyone else, so make sure your behaviour reflects this.…
Everything I know about photography I have learnt from the Internet for free. I have never had any formal training, I never studied it at school, or have a single qualification in anything even remotely artistic or useful.
My photography has got where it has by continuously finding, learning and practicing photography at every single opportunity I can.
My collective photography knowledge and experience; from Photoshop to posing, from light to lenses, has come entirely from other photographers and bloggers who were kind enough to share their own knowledge with the rest of the world. Those guys seriously rock.
When it comes to Photography, I think an inquisitive and hard working nature matters far more than innate artistic talent or fancy qualifications.
It’s this hard work and passion to learn that has allowed me go from buying my first DSLR to shooting my first wedding in less than 18 months.
If you have that passion to learn and to grow as a person, you’ll easily find the skills and knowledge you’ll need out there to be successful. And who doesn’t want to be as good as they possibly can be?
I really annoys me when people say “Oh, I wish I had the time to learn photography“. Or play the guitar. Or cross stitch. Or whatever. Time has got nothing to do with it, especially if you stop watching TV and spend that time googling your ass off to find out how to do what you want to do.
You should never have to say the words “I don’t know how?” more than once. All you have todo is find the answer, and practice the solution, so that next time you can say “Yes! I so got this!”
Mistakes are fine. In fact mistakes are a really really good thing!…
1. Preparation. Preparation. Preparation.
You don’t just turn up and wedding and start shooting. No matter how much talent you have, if you don’t know what is going to happen, and when, then you will miss a lot of important moments of the story. I asked my Bride and Groom so many questions, everything from the schedule of the day, to VIP guest’s names and who the suppliers were. Then I took the time to memorise it all.
With all that information stored in my head, I could direct members of the bridal party by name, and advise guests on what bit was happening next when they asked me. I was like a walking wedding encyclopaedia on the day. And that meant I was in the right place, at the right time to capture the images I wanted.
2. Pack Your Bags
As well as the obvious stuff like cameras and lenses, you’ve got to make sure you over pack with batteries and memory cards. Better to have too many, than not enough. Also remember the other things that you need to keep going. Bottles of water, energy bars and mints etc are little things that will make a big difference on how you feel on the day. And the better you feel, the better you will shoot.
3. Don’t Stop Shooting
Don’t stop to look at what you’ve just taken, or fiddle with camera settings. Don’t put your camera down, or start changing lenses. Spend as little time as possible away from the action. And for capturing the key shots, like the first kiss, don’t hold back, take as many photos as you can, to make sure you have it covered. There’s no way to do it again if you miss it.
4. Expect The Unexpected
The best moments are the ones that you don’t expect, so you need to be ready to capture them at any time.…
My very first DSLR was a Sony A200. It was actually the cheapest camera you could buy at the time. It wasn’t until nearly a year after buying the camera that I started to see an improvement in my images.
It took me all of that time to realise the problem wasn’t the camera…it was the lens. Almost ready to pack in photography for good, I put the last of my hope into a cheap, 50mm f1.8. Luckily, it saved the day and reignited my passion for taking pictures.
It was a revelation. It’s at this point that I actually began to learn and grow, to be a photographer and capture images I was truley proud of.
If I could go back in time, and tell myself one thing before getting disappointed with myself and my abilities it would be this:
Ditch the kit lens. Buy a cheap, fast prime and buy nothing else until you learn what photography is about.
That’s it. I’ve spoken before about the downside of kit lenses and the great things about cheap prime lenses. But here’s an overview.
Kit Lenses are named so because they come included with the camera when you buy it. You can spend up to £1000 on a camera, and it will probably come with a kit lens. Depending on the make or model, the kit lens may differ slightly, but they all have a few things in common.
- CHEAP: These lenses are mass produced on a huge scale. All the way from design, to manufacturing, they are made to be as cheap as possible, even if this means compromising on build quality and optics. A kit lens will be almost entirely constructed of plastic, and will be more prone to failure and breakdown. Other cutbacks such as no lens hood, no focus scale and slow autofocus, just make them not a lot of fun to use.
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Regular readers to this blog will know that some of the stuff I blog about can be a bit…eclectic.
From camera buying advice to photography tips, I always try to share information that I find useful, that I would have really liked to have known when I was just starting out with photography.
The thing is, it’s often hard to guess what sort of questions people will have, and I would hate to think someone visited this site, and eventually left without having their question answered.
Which is why, I am now appealing to you, out there, anyone who stumbles across this blog, that if you have a question about photography, no matter how silly or basic you think it is; I really want to hear from you.
If the answer needs to go into some detail, I will do a blog post about it, so that everyone will be able to benefit from your curiosity.
Everything I know about photography, and so much of my inspiration has come from others, especially those who were willing to share their experience with the world.
Now I want to continue that idea and help others develop as photographers. I want to help you develop as a photographer.
You can tweet me, email me or Facebook message me.
So please, go on. Ask Me Anything.
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This post is about a few cool tips and tricks I have picked up for doing realistic and convincing vignette effects in Adobe Lightroom.
Vignetting (also know as light fall-off) is often caused by the camera’s lens, either in it’s optical design, or in the design of the aperture mechanism. Basically, it means the corners of the image, will be a varying degree darker than the centre of the image. A bit like looking down a tunnel.
Almost all lenses made have some amount of vignetting, but generally, the more you pay for a lens, the less vignetting you get.
This is kinda stupid though, because most photographers actually want some vignetting in their images, as it can be a benefit.
The dark edges are perfect for leading the viewers eye towards the centre of frame, usually where your subject would be.
Vignetting, when done right, can work wonders for portraits and street photography. But when it does go wrong, it just looks fake and awful, and actually detracts from the image.
In Adobe Lightroom, there are 2 ways to apply a vignette. You can use the vignette controls in the “Effects” tab, or you can use the slightly more hidden Vignette controls in the “Lens Correction” tab. (See Below)
The difference between the two is pretty straight forward. The Effects Vignette Control gives you quite few more options and sliders to customise how the Vignette is applied. The effects is then applied to your image, but it sits on top of all of your other adjustments. Using these sliders you should be able to get the look you want, but be warned; less is defiantly more.
For me personally, I always use the second option. The Lens Correction sliders provide a lot less control in terms of shape and strength, but what these controls do is even better; they alter the amount of automatic corrections applied to the lens.…
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“The best camera in the world, is the one you have with you”
Luckily, I’m mad enough (or sad enough) to carry my Nikon D700 with me pretty much everywhere I go. But sometimes it’s just not convenient to whip out my huge big DSLR to take a quick snapshot. Which is why more and more, I rely on my iPhone to be my “emergency” camera. I say emergency, because you just never know when you might come across something worth photographing.
Of course, there are technical limitations to the iPhone’s camera, but these are nothing compared to the unique benefits of iPhone photography. No other camera, compact or professional DSLR, will let you take, edit and share a photo within a matter of seconds. It’s this genre of quick, dirty and social photography that I love, and no app does it better than Instagram.
Instagram is a completely free app available for the iPhone, which allows you take, edit and share photos with other users. The unique selling point of Instagram is the range of quick and effective filters available to add to your photos straight after taking them. The filters are fantastic, and characterful, and are made to emulate the low-fi classical rustic film look, that actually works really well with the images the iPhone captures. The app also gives you precise control over a tilt shift effect, making for some unique retro images. And finally, Instagram offers some of the best social features ever, allowing you instantly share your photos with friends on twitter, facebook and other services in flash.
If you have an iPhone, check out Instagram. It’s a lot of fun. You don’t even have to be into photography to like it; my girlfriend uses it all of the time to post random photos of well, anything!…
I’m not afraid to admit….I suck at Photoshop!
For the last 2 years, I knew one of my weak spots in my photography was my photoshop skills. I mean they’re okay, but not at the level they should be, and I think sometimes my images are held back by them. I depend too heavily on just Adobe Lightroom, which is great software, but Photoshop just offers up so much more control.
So, in keeping with my goals for November, I have spent the last 48 hours, reading, watching and learning Photoshop. I can even see keyboard shortcuts in my dreams.
It might sound a little weird, but honestly why? When was the last time you learnt something new?
Knowledge is power, as they say.
I can think of no reason not to pick out your weak areas, and learn how to improve them.
I mean, what do you have to lose? Nothing. You can only gain from learning and developing your skills.
So I’m setting aside the next few weekends, to read, learn and practice, practice, practice.
Ok, so I’m not going to become a photoshop guru in a fortnight, but I will have a better understanding of what it can do, and how it can improve my photography.
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PS: My 30 Day Self Portrait is still going! Check it out here!
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Photography can be a very expensive hobby. Cameras, lenses and all of the never-ending associated things required for photography can become a real money sucker.
The good news is that with a bit of creativity, there are also a lot of things that you make or build for next to nothing, and will do as good a job as one you can buy. And let’s face it; I’d rather spend my money on the fun, cool stuff like cameras and lenses, instead of the boring, practical stuff. Wouldn’t you?
So today’s blog post is about how to make a light table for under £10.00!
This DIY product photography table is so simple, but probably one of my most used setups in my studio. I use it for all of my still life and object shots, as well a lot of my food photography too. It works great.
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Using Photoshop, also known as Post Processing (PP) has historically been a bit of a sore spot for some photographers. For some, there is a belief that a photo can, and should only be the product of what was captured by the camera, and that any type of manipulation of colour or perspective is somehow altering how real the photograph is. Some photographers would put across that “back in the film days” there was no photoshopping, it was just straight out of the camera and all down to the skill of the photographer.
This subject can be a bit of a sticking point between photographers, and so I don’t want to go and upset anyone with blanket statement about what is right or wrong…..
…but they are completely wrong.
Post processing is as essential to a photograph as the buttons on the camera or glass in the lens. Even when using film, the developing process was a crucial part of what made the final image, and digital photography is absolutely no different.
A camera is a machine, and will be able to capture what you point it at, but that photo may not always represent what you saw with your eyes at the time, that original unedited photo may not represent how the photographer sees the scene in their mind. Therefore, it is the purpose of programs like Photoshop to allow the photographer full reign over the image, and to make it into what they truly intended.
Of course there is a fine line between processing an image to match the original idea, and photo manipulation beyond recognition. Sometimes you can save an otherwise boring or poor image it to something good with a lot of Photoshop, but honestly why bother? Post processing can enhance what’s good in a photo, not hide what’s bad in it.…
