Yes, even the hues and shades of a photograph can make it either complex or simple. Try to make sure that your compositions don't have too many colours. Very often, a photograph can be sufficiently varied, yet simple, by simply having various shades of the same colour.
Labels: AF Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6G, Nikon D50, People, Photography, Portrait
Style comes with time and is a difficult thing to force. The tendency at first is to copy a well-known photographer (witness how many young photographers are trying to shoot like Eugene Richards or Mary Ellen Mark), but you must move beyond emulation and develop your own strengths. Be aware of the literal nature of your images and strive to go beyond them in an aesthetic sense, but avoid mere self-indulgence.
Labels: AF-S Zoom-Nikkor ED 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G DX, Night, Nikon D50, Philosophy of Photography
Labels: AF-S Zoom-Nikkor ED 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G DX, Night, Nikon D50, Photography
Desire and drive count, but professional photography is a competitive business, and for every successful photographer there are dozens looking for work. Training can only help to fine-tune a natural “eye,” and although a prospective photographer may have a true passion for the art and craft, if he lacks that eye no amount of training or desire can compensate. Many people must be content to be advanced amateurs rather than professionals.
Labels: AF-S Zoom-Nikkor ED 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G DX, Nikon D50, Philosophy of Photography, Photography
Labels: AF Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6G, Night, Nikon D50, Photography
When talking about composition, we often hear people say you must follow the golden rule or you must follow the rule of the thirds or the rule of the quadrant or your image must have a foreground - middleground - background and that you cannot use the center of the frame and thats reserved for somebody else other than you and thats a bad composition to bull's eye.
No! If you do that what occur is that you risk of falling into your Einstein theory for definition of lunacy which is doing the same things over and over and expecting results to change. So what winds up happening is you get images that starts to look the same because you have defined "you must do this". So, is it important to understand the rules of composition? Yes, but you have to understand them completely so you could break them correctly. There are great shots where the image is bulls eye but its using pattern. There are more things to a composition than simply those so-called golden rules. Theres light gesture color shape geometry all those things come into play... time for instance.
What I think is most important is to first understand that you are responsible for each millimeter of the frame as you shoot it. And to make the image look cool that it has to move you first. Well, how do you practice that well you practice at "Alright, I'm going to use the rules of thirds but I'm not going to be governed by them. Whats most important is whats most frustrating to people that take pictures is that they see something, they feel something whats more importantly is that they feel it but they cannot manifest that feeling because they are limited by these "rules that they have to follow".
My point is that the more you understand what you're looking at the better-off that you will be when you are taking the picture. Because the better understanding of how light works, how glass works, how focus works becomes the static choices that you can make at the point of capture. And if you did good enough at it you can do them in such a way that you do them without having to stop to think about them. That they are so automatic that you're making these choices as you shoot consciously because you spend so much time practicing up to point the where you break the rules sub-consciously.
Labels: AF Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6G, Night, Nikon D50, Philosophy of Photography, Photography
Strive for a blend of style and content. Professional photographers from my observations are experienced journalists with singular, well-developed photographic styles who use both color and composition in a unique manner.
Labels: AF-S Zoom-Nikkor ED 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G DX, Night, Nikon D50, Philosophy of Photography, Photography
Taken with a Nikon D50 and Nikon AF-S Zoom-Nikkor ED 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G DX (kit-lens)
While you should always try to take digital photos at nighttime that avoid the blurred results of 'camera-shake' due to long exposures with an unstable digital camera, realize that blur is not always undesirable. Some blurring can be used creatively, such as that created by cars driving on an interstate at nighttime.
This effect is best performed if the roadway is next to a lit skyscraper or cityscape. Frame a photo containing the cityscape and roadway, and take an exposure of half a second or longer as necessary (use a tripod!). The skyscrapers should look clear and crisp, and the roadways will turn into streams of light.
Labels: AF-S Zoom-Nikkor ED 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G DX, Night, Nikon D50, Photography
... Who looks outside dreams, who looks inside wakes. - C.G.Jung
Labels: AF-S Zoom-Nikkor ED 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G DX, Landscape, Nikon D50, Philosophy of Photography
Quoting a famous photographer James Balog:
About a week ago, I was in Connecticut photographing the largest oak tree in New England on this farm. The elderly man who was the farmer who had lived on this ground for his entire life--he was 80 years old--was very interested in tagging along with me because he was in a camera club and he wanted to talk camera talk.
He started talking about how they had this rule in the camera club that you couldn't show the presence of humans in the pictures, that you couldn't show anything. There couldn't be a wire or a phone pole, let alone any overt thing like a pasture or something.
And I said to him, "The whole story about this tree is the fact that this 400-year-old tree is standing here surrounded by forest that's been mowed down and the only thing that exists now is a pasture." That's the story. That's what's interesting--not hiding from the fact that that happens.
Labels: AF Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6G, Animal, Nikon D50, Philosophy of Photography, Photography
A digital camera's self-timer mode can reduce some camera shake when taking night photos.
While most digital camera manuals describe the self-timer mode, where the camera takes a picture several seconds after the shutter speed is pressed, as "good for portraits", the self-timer mode can be very useful for night photos as well.
Most night photos, especially in situations where you cannot reliably use flash, require a shutter speed of half a second or longer else the subject will be too dark. This is to compensate for the lack of available light. Unfortunately, these situations, especially when you don't use a tripod, can result in camera shake.
However, if you use the self-timer mode, you might be able to get some acceptable shots just holding your camera very steady. Any shake caused by pressing the shutter button will be eliminated, as the camera will not take photos until several seconds after the button has been pressed.
Labels: AF-S Zoom-Nikkor ED 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G DX, Night, Nikon D50, Photography
