PHOTOGRAPHING GROUPS

Get People Together

Erin Manning

hether you’re gathering for a family holiday, celebrating a birthday, or capturing your favorite sports team, a group photo is often a good idea. Yet, even the most experienced photographers face challenges in taking a group photograph - from impatient subjects, to closed eyes, bored expressions, bad light, and blurry images. What’s a photographer to do? Don’t worry, with a few tips and a little practice you’ll feel confident about getting a group together and your pictures will look fabulous.

Choose a Location

Are you shooting a large group or a small one? A large group requires more space and you or the people you’re photographing need to be elevated in order to include everyone in the scene.

Consider the Light

An easy way to capture beautiful photos outside is to shoot very late in the afternoon when the sun is low in the sky. Just face the entire group towards the setting sun, make sure you’re not casting a shadow, and snap away. The soft light casts a beautiful, even glow upon everyone.

Direct the Group

Patience is fleeting when people are waiting for you to take the picture. Whether it’s a casual or posed group photo, you need to provide some direction. You’re the one behind the camera, so nicely take control of the situation - tell them what you’d like them to do and suggest some poses. Along with thoughtful positioning and careful poses, I often ask families to give a group hug, or to jump up in the air for an energetic, fun photo.

Take a Lot of Pictures

The odds are against you when trying to photograph a large group because people blink, talk and glance in other directions besides the camera. It’s important to take as many pictures as possible because you increase the odds of capturing everyone looking good at the same time. Set the proper expectation and tell everyone that you’re going to take a lot of photographs once they are in position. I like to give the group a time limit in order to prevent them from walking away once the first few shots are taken. For example, “hey everyone, this is going to take about 10 minutes, stay with me here.”

Capture the Real Moments

Posing works for some photos, but if you want authentic expressions in your images, you need to be observant and technically ready to capture the interaction and relationships between people in your images. This is what makes an image compelling, powerful, and memorable.

Have Fun

Both formal and casual portraits offer opportunities for candid images. It could be the emotion shared between people before or after a formal pose is struck, or the natural reaction to something funny that occurred during the casual pose. Whatever happens you need to be fully present in the moment, keenly aware of what is happening with your subjects, and capable of anticipating and recognizing an important moment.

Quick Tip:

Give People Something to Do

Capturing a candid moment is easy when you place your subjects within the context of objects or activities. When your subject is doing something your image tells a story and becomes much more interesting.

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MACRO PHOTOGRAPHY

It’s The Little Things That Count

Erin Manning

he art of photographing things extremely close-up is called macro photography. From flowers and insects, baby’s fingers and toes, to coins and collectables and everyday household items—macro photography uncovers a whole new world of photo possibilities.

Whether you’re shooting with a compact camera or a DSLR, there are settings, lenses, and other accessories to consider when capturing a close-up/macro image.

Compact Cameras

In the world of compact cameras, the term “macro” refers to the camera's ability to focus very closely on an object.

The Macro Mode exposure setting is denoted by a flower icon and is located either on the back of the camera, on the Mode Dial, or in the Scene settings.

Once selected, the flower icon appears on your LCD viewfinder. This allows you to focus and shoot closer to your subject than normal. For example, most compact camera’s minimum focusing distance is 30cm or 1 foot. The possible shooting range in Macro Mode is approximately 3cm, which translates to about one inch. That’s pretty close!

Quick Tip:

Getting close-up magnifies more than your subject, it also increases the potential of image blur due to camera shake. To decrease the blur in your photos, stabilize your camera on a table or use a mini-tripod. To further ensure that your camera doesn’t move, use your camera’s self-timer feature and set it to 2 seconds.

Digital SLR Cameras

Some DSLR camera models have a Mode Dial with a Macro Mode pre-set.

This setting attempts to optimize your camera’s exposure parameters for a “macro” shot, but your ability to capture a close-up image is actually controlled by your lens choice. For example, if a Canon EF-S 18-55mm lens is attached to your DSLR, the minimum focusing distance to your subject is limited to 9.8" (25 cm) and close-up/macro images will not be possible. If a dedicated macro lens is attached to your DSLR, like the Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 macro lens you can use any exposure setting you desire and you can get closer to your subject with a minimum focusing distance of 7.8" (20cm).

Technically Speaking

What’s so special about a macro lens? Can’t you just use an 18-55mm lens and move it to within inches of whatever you’re shooting? Well, no. The problem is that a regular “non-macro” lens cannot focus at such a short distance (unless you use one of the accessories I mention below.)

True macro lenses allow a short focusing distance and can capture an object on the camera's sensor at the same size as the actual object. This is called a 1:1 magnification ratio or reproduction ratio. To confuse matters somewhat, the term "macro" is also used loosely to describe close-up photography, which could include other magnification ratios. Check your lens to see if it says MACRO then consult your lens manual or check out online information for the magnification/reproduction ratio specs.

If you don’t have the budget for a macro lens, there are quite a few quick-fix options for achieving a higher magnification. Following are two of those options:

Diopters or Close-up Lenses

A bit like reading glasses, these lenses attach to the front of your lens just like a filter and allow a shorter focusing distance to your subject. They are easily attached and removed, and very portable. The optical power of the lens is measured in diopter, with +2 being weak and +10 being strong.

Extension Tubes

Extension tubes fit between the camera lens and body and contain no optical elements. The idea is to move the lens away from the sensor or film resulting in a closer focusing distance and greater magnification ratio. Take a look at the images of the lemons to see the difference an extension tube can make, even with a regular “kit” lens.

Photo Techniques

Our eyes are drawn to the sharp areas of an image. When you’re very close to your subject Macro Mode creates a very shallow depth of field (that’s what’s in focus within a certain area) so you’ll need to decide what area you want to focus on. Otherwise, you’ll find that a lot is out of focus. Experiment with tilting your camera back and forth, and move the camera closer and farther away from your subject. Keep your camera and the object you’re photographing parallel for the most detail. You’ll need to do this while pressing your finger halfway down on the shutter button to check the focus in your viewfinder.

More Photo Tips

Capture water droplets on your flower images by spraying water on the petals right before the shot.

Brighten up your scene with a professional reflector or use household items such as tin foil wrapped around a cookie sheet or a car dashboard reflector to reflect light into the shadows.

Now it’s time to grab your camera. Look around your kitchen, your backyard, and your garage for interesting things to capture. Explore and get creative! Once you see things close-up, you’ll be hooked on macro photography.

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A Look at Lenses

Erin Manning

ould you like your soccer-match images of the kids to look more like Sports Illustrated as opposed to a regular snapshot? How about capturing wide-angle shots of a monument or landscape? Or perhaps you’re wondering how professional photographers blur out the background in a portrait while keeping the subject in sharp focus? If you answered “yes” to any of the above, you’ll need to know a little more about lenses.

One of the major benefits of using a dSLR (digital single lens reflex) camera is the creative option to interchange your lenses. Professional photographers use various types of lenses to achieve different effects in their images and you can certainly do the same. All you need to start with is the knowledge of the fundamentals and a game plan. You can build your lens collection to include the basics and perhaps add other lenses over time for a completely unique effect in your images.

Zoom Versus Prime Lenses

Zoom lenses have a range of focal lengths (for example, 24-105mm) and allow you to quickly increase or decrease your lens focal length, including more or less of your scene, in seconds, without changing your physical distance to your subject.

Here’s an example of two very different images I captured while standing in the same spot, using a zoom lens:

Prime Lens

Prime lenses have a single focal length (for example, 50mm), are generally less expensive than zoom lenses, and can produce sharper images in some instances. The only drawback is that you miss the convenience of quickly changing your focal length with one lens.

One lens that I recommend everyone have in their collection is the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 lens, also known as the “nifty fifty”. Not only does it allow you to use a wide aperture setting on your camera, giving you a shallow depth of field for that “blurry” background look, but it’s very light and extremely affordable.

Lens Speed

What makes a lens “fast?” A lens with a constant, wide maximum aperture (for example, f/2.8) is considered a fast lens because more light passes through the lens, enabling you to use a faster shutter speed setting on your camera. A fast shutter speed helps you capture the action in a photograph, while a wide aperture gives you a shallow depth of field – rendering that sought-after blurry background that is so popular in portrait photographs. A fast lens is typically expensive and contains more glass so it’s heavier than lenses with a smaller maximum aperture.

A lens with a smaller maximum aperture (for example, f/3.5 - 5.6) allows less light to pass through the lens and therefore a slower shutter speed is required. Most basic inexpensive zoom lenses have a varying lens speed of approximately f/3.5 - f/5.6. The “varying” lens speed changes as you zoom closer or farther away from your subject with the wide or telephoto capability of your lens. These lenses are fine for beginning your photographic journey. They produce good images, but they do have limitations. For example, you can’t shoot handheld in most low-light situations, you can only capture the action in bright light or by using a flash, and rendering a very shallow depth of field is often not attainable. They are however, very light and very affordable compared to most of the fast lenses.

Focal Length

Lenses are available in a multitude of focal lengths with varying degrees of quality. Technically, the focal length of a lens is defined as the distance from the middle of the lens element to the digital camera’s imaging sensor, and it’s measured in millimeters (for example, 17-55mm).

Different focal lengths produce different perspectives, or “angles of view” in your images. Here is an example of how I created three very different photographs, just by changing my lenses:

Now that you know some of the basics about lenses, it’s time to think about all the creative possibilities. You might visit a local camera store and try out a lens or two, then strategize and begin to build your lens collection. It doesn’t have to happen all at once. Just remember to explore, experiment, and have fun!

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Finding Good Light

Erin Manning

f you love the great outdoors and enjoy taking pictures in natural light, you’ve probably encountered those unattractive under-eye shadows in your portraits or the disappointing, dull landscape shot. Am I right? If so, keep reading because I have some quick tips to help you remedy those problems and capture beautiful images.

When and Where Do You Find The Best Light for Taking Pictures?

Open Shade

Shade can be found almost anywhere on a sunny day. The shaded area beneath a tree, under the porch of a house, in a doorway, under an umbrella or the shade of a building – any shady location where the sunlight is not directly falling upon your the subject. This is one of my favorite light sources for shooting pictures of people. It produces beautiful soft light, often mimicking studio lighting and it’s one of the easiest light sources to shoot with.

Window Light

Window light has been a source of inspiration for traditional artists for centuries, from portraits of people, still life images, and the interiors of magnificent works of architecture.

The quality of window light I prefer is the soft, indirect light that comes in through a window during the middle of the day. This is different from the hard, direct light that can also come through a window. Similar to open shade, window light can be a very convenient light to shoot in, especially when the weather outdoors is not comfortable and perhaps your subject wants to stay inside.

Here’s how I took a beautiful picture of my Mom using window light, a black piece of fabric and a blue scarf.