Following the Rules
The best part of the rules of photography is the idea that we could break them at any time. However first you need to understand what the rules of photography are. Too often I see photos of great grand views but the subject is directly in the center of the photo, so I don't really get the scene that they're trying to show me. Following the rule of thirds gives us the opportunity to help our audience feel what we feel. There is nothing wrong with centering your subject if that is what you feel as the photographer best shows your subject. If you always center your subject, it tells me you pointed the camera in the vicinity of the subject and pushed the button. The difference can be "did you take the photo or did you MAKE the photo"?
Here is a picture looking down into a valley with big puffy clouds and rich green fields. Notice the valley is in the bottom third of the photograph and the top two thirds is filled with sky. I was trying to give my audience a sense of expansion. I feeling of looking on forever.
The next time you are taking a photo, try moving the camera or the subject around to give a sense of where you are, what you are feeling, or simply a different perspective. Using the rules, Find your look for the photograph...
I am in Love
I am in love...with my 50mm f/1.8
I am in love...with my 50mm f/1.8 lens. I have lenses for any kind of photography I want. I have lenses for portraits, lenses for landscapes, and lenses for macro/micro photography but had forgotten how much I appreciate my 50mm lenses. 25 years ago when I was in school we were told to always have a camera with a 50mm lens on it. It was a great lens for all kinds of photography and especially for street. When I looked through the view finder the world looked similar to what my eye saw and that made it easy to understand composition. If i needed to zoom or out I had my feet. If I wanted my subject to stand out I would open the aperture all the way and the world around would soften and only show my subject. If I wanted the world to be in focus I simply close down the aperture and everyone and everything was in focus.
As I have gotten older and have cameras and lenses for every kind of photography imaginable I forgot about my 50mm lenses. A few weeks ago I decided to get back to the kid photographer in me and I committed to having the 50mm on a camera almost all the time in the new year. Since then I have shot countless images with a 50mm. I had forgotten how great that lens can be. I especially like it for around the house and on the street. It is a small non-threatening lens and I can really get up close to people with it and not make them too uncomfortable.
Don't get me wrong I still have a wide angle lens when I shoot architecture, and an 85 or 105mm when I am shooting portraits, and I love my Macro lenses for food photography but if you stopped me on the street and asked what I had with me, it will probably be a 50mm f/1.8 lens. If you have been a photographer for a long time and are trying to get inspiration for the new year or rekindle your love of photography, try putting a 50mm on your camera and head out into the world and see what happens. if you are new to photography, I always say you should have a 50mm or a 35mm with a wide aperture. Pick one up and see how your world looks through one of these. I think you will be surprised.
I would love to see your 50mm photos. Please feel free to post them here or on my flickr page at DavePopephoto.
Christmas is Coming
I have done a little HDR but haven't spent a lot of time really thinking about it, so I decided to enter a contest this year and focus on making a decent HDR photo. I know that I am not Trey Ratcliff but I enjoy his work and I wanted to see what I would end up with. I tried this image 2 ways. The first one is with a 2 EV difference over 3 exposures and the second one is 1 EV over 3 exposures. Ironically I used to do this with film back in the 80s and 90s but they never looked this cool.
Which do you like better and why? Also I want to see your HDR images.
HDR EV -2, 0, +2
HDR EV -1, 0, +1