Many photography tips can be found on the Internet and in various publications. The usefulness of each of them is difficult to assess, but there are still things that all photographers come to. Perhaps for beginners, these will be the most valuable photography tips.
Better not to zoom, but come closer
Limitations create opportunities. By shooting with fixes or simply not using the zoom, you can get sharper and better images. Of course, there are situations when it is impossible to come closer or it is simply dangerous. In such situations, the zoom is the only chance to take a picture.
Drawings of light
There is no bad light. A good shot can be taken in all conditions. The main thing is to learn how to find angles, collect light in the right place and use it for the benefit of the plot.
Close-up
Beginner photographers often leave too much space around what they want to photograph. You need to imagine exactly what you want to shoot and photograph only that. There is no need to clutter up the area of the frame with unnecessary objects and meaningless empty space.
Do not think for a long time
Take pictures on emotions. Follow the rules and break them. Is it absurd? This is creativity. Don't get into deep philosophical thinking. Just shoot what you think is beautiful and interesting.Constant self-improvement
Train whenever you have time. Even if not, practice visualizing your ideas and notice interesting shots around you during your routine work.
Forget flash
The built-in flashes are terrible. Try to take pictures without them and use these volume and shadow killers only in extreme cases. It is better to increase the ISO and get a lot of noise than to puff up the flash and ruin the frame altogether, making faces flat, shadows harsh and losing detail in the background.
Often, interesting things happen offscreen when you focus on a specific area. This is especially true for shooting the sunset. The nature, which is illuminated by the rays of the setting sun, can look much more interesting than the sunset itself.
Shoot with manual settings
For nature photography, manual mode is undoubtedly the best choice... For sequential photography, shutter priority or aperture priority modes may be appropriate. But these are still manual modes. Automation is needed only in order not to lose the frame. If the settings turn out to be incorrect, the report will not be able to redo the snapshot.
Don't carry luggage with you
In photography, it is very important to be mobile and easy to navigate. Large backpacks with equipment impede movement and put a lot of stress. After a couple of hours of shooting, you will get tired so that only one thought will remain in your head. Sit down in a cafe or camp in a clearing and have a good rest.
Shoot the way you like it
If you do not follow a strict order, where your every step is stipulated, take pictures the way you want them to be. Don't try to please others. The main thing is that you like your work. Only self-realization, the embodiment of one's own ideas will make creativity unique and alive. Then the people's love and respect will come.
The biggest problem is like addiction. Many try to please the masses in order to earn approval in in social networks... It is important to get approval from other professionals, otherwise they will not fall for cheap filters and pop stories.
Be a distinctive, creative and unpredictable photographer. There will be dedication - everything will be.
Theory is good, but practice is better
Having received another charge of inspiration from viewing someone's work or from reading a good article on photography, you need not to hold back the impulse to try out the knowledge gained. Many people suffer from procrastination (putting things off for later). It kills creative potential... The desire to create fades over time. Fresh ideas no longer seem so attractive and you simply do not get the desired experience and new wonderful pictures.In a hurry - people ... well, you yourself know
Digital cameras allow you to create countless frames. This breeds laziness. Many people prefer to press the shutter button whenever possible. At the stage of learning about the camera, this is good, as the skills of working with the device are acquired, but when it’s time to think about the plot, composition, would-be photographers continue to mindlessly “shoot” in all directions, hoping that somewhere they will find a normal frame. This approach is fundamentally wrong. The plot must be built, looked for, analyzed the situation, monitor the lighting, the behavior of objects in the frame. Only experience, knowledge and observation will allow you to receive good photos graphy always, not when you're lucky.
Always keep your "weapon" ready for a photo hunt.
It is obvious. Something incredible can happen at any moment. Get ready to own a unique shot.I didn't remove the lid again!
This is the lens cap. Why are there no shutters on high-quality optics like in compacts? Many masterpieces in Malevich's style did not allow capturing a rare and perhaps the most incredible moment. Camera in hand? Keep the lens without cap.
The quality of the photo is directly dependent on the light. You can take a poor shot of a well-lit subject, but you never get a good shot in low light.
During shooting, light passes through the camera's opening shutter and lens, enters the sensor and forms an image. How exactly the light is captured and what the final photo will be depends on three important parameters that make up the so-called exposure triangle.
- Diaphragm affects the amount of light that enters the lens. It is measured by the ratio of the focal length to the size of the aperture opening and is denoted as f / 2, f / 5, f / 11, and so on. The lower the aperture value, the more light will be in the frame. This parameter also affects the depth of field.
- Excerpt is the time during which the shutter remains open. It is measured in seconds (1/200 s, 1/60 s, 5 s, and so on). The longer the shutter speed, the more light. The shutter speed also affects the clarity when shooting moving objects. At high shutter speeds, they will be blurry, and short shutter speed will allow you to get good photos even of fast moving objects.
- Photosensitivity- as the name implies, this parameter affects the sensitivity of the camera sensor to light. Measured in ISO units (for example, ISO 100, ISO 400, ISO 6400). The higher light sensitivity allows you to shoot in low light conditions, but at the same time it causes the appearance of noise - the characteristic graininess of the image.
The essence of the exposure triangle is understanding these three aspects of shooting and choosing the parameters appropriate to the situation and your vision of the frame.
2. Hold the camera correctly
The next thing for all beginners to learn is to hold the camera to eliminate or minimize hand shake. When shooting, the shutter opens and light hits the camera sensor. If you move while the shutter is open, the beam of light seems to spread over the sensor and the photo is blurry.
The less movement and shaking, the clearer the frame.
It is best to hold professional cameras with one hand in the palm of your hand and resting it with your elbow on the side. With a smartphone, you should do the same: take it firmly with both hands and press them as much as possible to the body. Well, if you are shooting in low light conditions or at long shutter speeds, it is better to use a good tripod.
3. Follow the rule of thirds
One glance at a photo is often enough to understand who took it - a beginner or an experienced photographer. Professionals pay great attention to the frame, and a beginner will immediately be betrayed by her absence.
The simplest principle of composition is to follow the rule of thirds. Its essence lies in the conditional division of the frame by two horizontal and two vertical lines. Along these lines or at their intersection, important elements should be placed on which the eye will stop when viewing a photograph.
photography.media In the photo above, the shore in the distance is along the top line of the grid, and the lone tree is exactly at the crosshairs of the vertical and horizontal lines. If the photographer had placed the tree and the shoreline in the center of the frame, the picture would have been less interesting.
4. Change perspective
Capturing a subject at eye level is the surest way to take a boring photo. From this point, we see the world every day.
To create a really interesting shot, you just need to change your point of view. This will require:
- change the height of the survey - get closer to the ground or move away from it;
- change the angle - shoot strictly straight or from the side;
- change the distance - come closer or, conversely, move away;
The beauty of these tips is that they work great both individually and in any combination.
phonephotographyschool.com A golf ball shot from a height of a man's height would not catch your attention. But the photo from the ground level attracts the eye, forcing to consider every blade of grass.
5. Don't neglect post-processing
Photo manipulation is often considered a radical change to the original image using powerful filters and effects. This misunderstanding has led some photographers to abandon retouching, limiting themselves to “natural” shots. Their good intentions are commendable, but they just don't understand how cameras work.
Like it or not, all cameras do post-processing on the image. The actual data from the sensor is collected in, but what we see on the screen of the camera or smartphone is the interpretation of the RAW data by the device itself. At the same time, the camera does not have the slightest idea about your vision of this or that frame. So why not fix it?
500px.com Not all post-processing is tasteless re-photoshopped images. It is more correct to consider retouching as applying makeup. Some with blush and lipstick, others use cosmetics as a way of expressing themselves, and only a few highlight their best features.
Likewise, post-processing can be redundant, deliberately stylized or sophisticated and emphasizing only what is already present in the frame. Use retouching! By underestimating it, you will face a situation where there will be something missing in all your pictures.
6. Shoot often and everything
It doesn't matter how many YouTube video tutorials you've watched and how many photos you've analyzed. Only practice allows you to improve.
An ounce of practice is worth a pound of theory.
Your first photos will suck. You may have to take thousands of shots before you get the one you like. But each of them - even the most terrible - will be one of the small steps to mastery. will not only help to use theoretical knowledge, but will also allow you to better study your equipment, will give you an understanding of how different shooting parameters affect the final image.
7. Don't blame the camera
Good equipment is really important for shooting, but not as much as you think. An experienced photographer will be able to take great shots even with a cheap camera, while bad ones will not work even with the most expensive equipment.
It is much more important to rely on correct exposure, work with perspective, composition and use the tips discussed above. If you learn all this, you can do cool photos to any camera. Even on a smartphone!
Of course, all equipment has its limitations, and over time you will "outgrow" your camera, lens and other accessories, but the bottom line is that buying an expensive camera, you will not become a professional. And the sooner you understand this, the faster you will achieve success.
The success of your website is highly dependent on the quality of the images (the second important factor is choice). Beautiful pictures cause people to be interested, curious and willing to buy something. In general, some solid pluses, apart from the popular opinion that professional photography is very expensive and very difficult.
Good news! We talked with photographers we know and found out that everything is not at all like this: resourcefulness and optional equipment, made from what was at hand, will help you get hold of high-quality and interesting pictures.
DIY filters
Go to your nearest office supply store and buy clear or colored cellophane. Cut a small piece so that you can wrap the lens with it. If the film is transparent, paint it with waterproof markers of different colors. Now attach the resulting "filter" to the lens and start shooting. See how the picture changes depending on the dominant hue and do not forget that the color of the images affects the perception of the entire site.
Ready for an adventure? Instead of cellophane, you can use a soft translucent fabric (an ordinary nylon stocking is ideal). With this "filter" you can easily get a soft, slightly blurry picture.
Black-black tiles
Looking for the perfect backdrop for? Pay attention to the black tiles. She's showy, photogenic, and easy to get hold of. If the tile is glossy, the subject will be reflected in it, but this is good, because the reflection can also become part of the composition. Look for the best angle, shoot from different angles and don't worry about the result: everything will look great on a black background.
Let's go through the looking glass
A mirror is an absolutely indispensable item for shooting at home. It can be used as a backdrop when photographing a team, merchandise, an event, or your daily life. The reflection captured by the camera makes the frame more voluminous and unexpected. It is also a great reflector, suitable for illuminating a subject or an entire scene.
And now - to smithereens!
Why not? Have your courage, smash the mirror and use the shards to create extraordinary frames, such as the one in the photo in this article. Just please, do everything carefully and make sure that no one cuts themselves.
Bokeh effect
You've probably seen photos with lights blurry in the background. This is called "bokeh," and it's easy to replicate at home. You will need a very wide aperture lens (max. F / 2), a sheet of black paper, and scissors. First, cut out a circle with a diameter slightly larger than your lens out of the paper. Now cut out a shape in it. It can be a circle, an asterisk, a triangle, a heart, a herringbone, or something else. The diameter of the mold is approximately 2 centimeters. Now attach the circle directly to the lens and shoot with the widest aperture, that is, the smallest value. If you did everything right, you should get the bokeh!
Lamp instead of a tripod
No tripod? No problem! Take the most ordinary lamp and unscrew the lampshade - under it you will find a bolt exactly the same size as in a real tripod. Attach a camera to it and shoot portraits (including self-portraits), interiors or merchandise. The great thing about tripod photography is that you can take as many shots from one point as you like without worrying about your hands shaking.
Down with the lens
If your camera has a removable lens, you can try to do without it. No, you heard right, we do suggest removing the lens. This technique is suitable for macro photography and portrait photography, you will get a shot with a shallow depth of field and a blurry background. During shooting, the lens should be detached, but very close to the body. Practice is essential, but the results are worth it. We advise you to choose the manual shooting mode, autofocus will not work here. Be careful not to let dust and dirt get inside the lens or camera. First, you can practice on the objects, and then start taking pictures of people. The first is easier - they don't move.
Have you bought a new expensive lens, but you don't have a special suitcase and don't know what to wear? Take an ordinary thermo cover for a jar or bottle! It is durable and soft so your optics are protected. True, now we need to decide what to wear drinks, but these are trifles.
Ready to show your creativity to the world? Make on Wix!
The text of the article was updated: 1.02.2019
Take any photography site and you will find that most of it is devoted to technical discussion. Topics related to learning how to photograph beautifully are usually not covered in so much detail. And my blog is no exception: just look at the bottom of the page for a list of the most commented articles. Today I will try to compensate for this shortcoming a little: I bring to your attention 52 exercises for amateur photographers who want to learn how to photograph beautifully.
- How you need to develop the skills to see a beautiful frame.
- List of tasks for practical training.
- Examples of exercises performed by the master of street photography Alexander Petrosyan.
How to improve your photography skills
We have already discussed this in several photo tutorials in the "Photography" section. There is no other way to learn how to shoot beautifully other than following the following learning algorithm:
- Buy any textbook on photography and read it carefully.
- Take the camera and the instruction, without letting go of it, study the Talmud, immediately checking in practice how this or that setting works.
- Go outside and take pictures as much as possible.
- Analyze the weak and strengths the resulting pictures.
- Shoot new shots, taking into account the identified errors.
- See as many more photographs and paintings of the masters. Trying to understand why their photographs are catchy. Shoot the same way.
Posted in Sony A6000 mirrorless review with sample images captured with different lenses. These are tips for points 4 and 5 of the self-learning algorithm described above. And today we will cover the topic “What to photograph in order to learn how to shoot professionally”. It's no secret that sometimes we find ourselves in a situation where we would like to practice taking beautiful photos, but we have no idea what to shoot.
Photography Exercises for Beginners
Before we begin to get acquainted with the tasks, I want to tell you how the photos presented in today's photo lesson were taken. They were sent to me by a longtime reader of the site, Pavel Chertalev from St. Petersburg, who has long become my friend. In the section "Photography" you can see with a variety of optics and cropped, to which he switched about a year ago.
In the intervals between owning these professional cameras, he bought an ancient used Nikon D40 DSLR that was launched on the market in November 2006, that is, 12 years ago. I hope that after watching today's lesson, no one will have any doubts that learning to photograph like a professional can be done not only with an expensive camera, but also with an old, very cheap set. To date average price for the "Avito" Nikon D40 model is 4-5 thousand rubles (67-83 USD).
All sample shots were taken without flash on a Nikon 35mm f / 1.8G prime lens.
All photos in this photo tutorial were taken in RAW format, processed in the editor "Capture NX 2", corrected in "Photoshop" and reduced to the size of the site (1400 px on the long side) by the plug-in "C3C Image Size", which I talked about in the article about how I process my pictures.
Pavel called the series of photographs that we will see “IKEA Beauty”, but in the context of today's lesson on tasks for training photography skills, I would call it “Parallel rows. Rhythm in photography ”.
I note that the exercises presented below were not invented by me - I collected them on English-language photographic sites. I wouldn't be surprised if some of you find them familiar. Hopefully they will help someone learn how to photograph beautifully.
A collection of exercises for performing practical exercises throughout the year is calculated: one week for one task. Although, of course, no one bothers to pass the "crash course".
All exercises are divided into three categories:
- Photo story. As the pros say: “A good photographer can take a beautiful photo of something. A great photographer can take a photograph that tells a story! " The exercises in this section make the amateur photographer not only look for something beautiful, but also try to find a way to tell someone's story.
- We hone technical skills. The ability to set up the camera, correctly process the pictures allows you to remove the restrictions on the creativity of the amateur photographer.
- Artistic expression. Having developed the skills to photograph and mastered the camera, in contrast to the first two categories, the tasks of this section can be understood not literally, but figuratively. There is a lot of room for creativity. You need to express your "I" in your own way.
Pavel's photographs are not in line with the text (in a sense, they are just an example of one exercise: "rhythms"). I place them so that it is not boring to read the bare text.
Exercise 1.
We tell a story.
Rule of thirds.
The rule of thirds (or "golden ratio") is one of the first rules of composition that most photographers are familiar with. But they do not always understand why they need it. The Rule of Thirds is great for telling a photo story in a shot. Tell a story using the rule of thirds.
Task 2.
Technical lesson.
We shoot in a chamber Jpeg .
We photograph, getting good photos straight from the camera. We don't use Lightroom or Photoshop. We shoot a gorgeous photo, and it should turn out to be of high quality without any processing in an external editor.
Exercise 3.
Artistic lesson.
Earth.
Our inspiration this time is earth. It can be a landscape or a photograph depicting, in some way, the earth.
Task 4.
Photo story.
Mirrors.
Tell a story using a mirror or reflection.
Exercise 5.
10 frames.
You need to photograph the same object in ten different ways. Each shot must be shot at a different angle from a different distance or focal length.
Task 6.
Artistic exercises.
Sweets.
Show pictures of sweets, cakes, and other sweet foods that make you want to eat them.
Exercise 7.
Photo story.
Forgotten.
You need to tell the story of something forgotten in the frame.
Exercise 8.
Technical training.
One shot.
You have to imagine that in our cell there is only room for one photo. And therefore, in this exercise, we can only shoot one frame. You cannot delete the damaged ones, you cannot take a second photo. The most important thing is to carefully examine the scene, think and shoot a masterpiece from one shot.
Task 9.
Artistic exercise.
Still life.
We are training to photograph a still life of several objects.
Exercise 10.
Photo story.
We work with perspective.
Perspective is the interaction between objects in a scene. If we want to show perspective, one of the ways is or a telephoto lens.
Exercise 11.
Development of technical skills.
Separate toning.
Separate toning is a way of processing a photo in the editor, when shadows and highlights are tinted with different colors. Shadows are tinted one color and highlights are tinted another. Split toning is often used in conjunction with tonal perspective to give a scene the look and feel it needs.
Exercise 12.
Artistic.
Orange mood.
This week we photograph either something orange, or an orange (since it is orange), or both.
Exercise 13.
Photo story.
"Golden hour" of photography.
Golden Hour is the time before sunset or after sunrise, when the sun illuminates the earth with a pleasant soft golden color. We need to find a way to use the golden hour to tell the story.
Task 14.
Technical training.
Shooting with wiring.
Panning is used to convey motion when shooting moving subjects. When wiring, we must use a slow shutter speed, while simultaneously tracking the lens behind the subject.
Exercise 15.
Artistic skills.
Solid.
Something solid needs to be photographed this week.
Task 16.
Photo story.
Leading lines.
Leading lines are a very important compositional element for every photographer who wants to become a master. We use leading lines to tell the story.
Exercise 17.
Technical training.
The spot of attraction.
Using a vignette or bright spot to draw the viewer's eye. Plots where a bright spot attracts attention.
Exercise 18.
Artistic.
Lilac color.
This time we are photographing everything related to the lilac color.
Task 19.
Photo story.
Back yard.
We are trying to tell a photo story about our environment. This could be a look at our daily life.
Task 20.
Technical training.
Heaven.
In this workout, we will be photographing the sky. You need to train in Photoshop to replace the sky, if it turns out to be uninteresting for another image of the sky.
Exercise 21.
Artistic skills.
Soft.
We used to photograph something hard, now it's soft. Can be interpreted as desired.
Task 22.
Photo story.
Geometric figures.
We photograph everything that represents triangles, squares and circles. All of them are strict compositional elements in the image. We need to find a way to use geometric shapes for our photography story.
Exercise 23.
Technical skills. f / 8.0
Portrait.
Shooting a portrait using an aperture of f / 8. Since we have a narrowed aperture, we need to keep in mind that we need to isolate the subject in some other way than by blurring the background.
Task 24.
Artistic.
Green color.
Green is the color of nature, the color of life and hope.
Exercise 25.
Photo story.
The history of the toy.
You need to tell a story about toys or about toys.
Exercise 26.
Technical skills.
Painting with light.
We put the camera on a tripod at night, open the shutter for 30 seconds and draw our object with a flashlight. You can use flashlights, diode lights and even laser pointers.
Exercise 27.
Artistic skills.
Communication.
We live in the 21st century, when communication technologies greatly influence our lives. In this exercise, you need to show the presence of communication or the lack of communication between people.
Task 28.
Photo story.
Portrait as a landscape.
We shoot a portrait against the background of a landscape, that is, we must see the environment of our subject.
Exercise 29.
Technical.
Water drops.
Taking pictures of water droplets. It's a mixture of lighting, macro photography and patience. There are many ways to enjoy shooting.
Exercise 30.
Artistic skills.
Family.
Taking pictures of a family portrait. In order to complicate the task, we photograph a family portrait without people in the frame.
Exercise 31.
Photo story.
Frame.
Another classic composition tool is to frame an object. We use this technique to tell our story.
Task 32.
Technical training.
HDR .
HDR is a technique that combines multiple pictures taken at different exposures. As a result, we get one shot with a wide dynamic range.
Task 33.
Artistic skills.
High Key.
Photographing a portrait in the "High Key" style.
Exercise 34.
Photo story.
Stranger.
Tell the story of a stranger. Trying to use the environment to show the viewer its story.
Exercise 35.
We train technical skills.
Sew the panorama.
We photograph several vertical shots and stitch a panorama from them in Photoshop or another editor.
Exercise 36.
Artistic skills.
Low key.
Low Key is the opposite of High Key. Take pictures where most of the tonal range lies on the left side of the histogram.
Exercise 37.
Photo story.
Balance.
Balance is a compositional technique in which each part of the scene is balanced with weight. Balance can be achieved by color, tone or arrangement of objects.
Exercise 38.
We train technical skills.
50 mm.
We shoot for a whole week using only a focal length of 50 mm. You can shoot either with a prime, or by fixing our zoom lens at a focal length of 50mm with molar tape.
Exercise 39.
Artistic lesson.
Water.
All week we have been photographing everything related to water.
Task 40.
Photo story.
Color black and white photograph.
You need to tell the story of the color scene. Flowers cannot be shown in the frame. And you need to photograph in black and white.
Exercise 41.
Technical training.
Levitation.
Levitation is a trick that is done partly with a camera and partly with photoshop. We are trying to levitate this time.
Task 42.
Artistic training.
Music.
During the week we photograph music or musicians using a wide-angle lens.
Exercise 43.
Photo story.
Movement.
Capturing motion in a frozen shot is a daunting task for every photographer. Using this week's movements to tell a photo story.
Exercise 44.
Technical training.
Magical ND -filter.
Use an ND filter along with a slow shutter speed of 30 seconds or longer for still photography. We try to photograph waterfalls or even streets in order to take a mysterious picture.
Exercise 45.
Artistic shooting.
Cold.
It is necessary to show a photo story in which you can feel the cold coming from the frame.
Exercise 46.
Photo story.
The foreground of the landscape.
Many stories revolve around portraits, but landscapes can tell a story too. Tell the story of the landscape, using the foreground as the subject and the background as the scene.
Exercise 47.
Technical training.
Curly bokeh.
Read on to learn how to make hearts, stars in bokeh, and get an interesting shot within a week.
Task 48.
Artistic training.
Bodyscape .
It is necessary to shoot landscapes from human bodies. See examples by Karl Warner.
Exercise 49.
Photo story.
"Blue Hour".
Blue Hour is one hour after sunset and one hour before sunrise, when the sky is dominated by a blue or purple hue. Use it to tell your photo story this week.
Task 50.
Technical training.
Full editing.
Take the photo you took in the first exercise and edit it in Photoshop.
Task 51.
Artistic skills.
Fear.
Find a way to show fear in a way that the viewer can feel.
Exercise 52.
Photo story.
Your photo story.
Tell your photo story.
38. Photography. Training for beginner amateur photographers. Backs for skill improvement. 1/40, 1.8, 400, 35.
Before starting the exercises listed above, I advise you to familiarize yourself with the works of street photographers Dmitry Zverev (on Facebook - DimaZverev) and Alexander Petrosyan (on Facebook - YanPetros). In their photo reports, you will see sample pictures that could have been obtained while completing assignments. Moreover, to give emotions that catch the viewer, both professionals use, among other things, the schemes that we have listed in today's photo lesson, and which should be intensively trained:
- Context in snapshots.
- The interaction of objects in photographs.
- "Copying" the background.
- Shock is the person in the background.
What does context mean, and why does it affect the perception of the image so much? Imagine the following story: a man with a happy face leaves the apartment, closing the door behind him. There is a smile, a pensive, dreamy face - emotions, the picture does not leave you indifferent. Now - the same plot, but in the half-open door behind the man is visible a girl in a translucent peignoir, looking after him ... Agree that immediately in your head there is an unambiguous cartoon about what happened before the photographer shot this scene! We understand why the uncle came out happy ... Even more chic - in the doorway only women's clothes are visible, scattered on the floor, and a trace of lipstick flaunts on the Don Juan's cheek ... This is the context. Both Alexander Petrosyan and Dmitry Zverev actively use it.
Interaction in the frame - such pros have a lot of shots in their portfolio, where the foreground and background objects are somehow interconnected with each other. They do not exist separately.
"Copy background". I don’t know how to put it right. It is about scenes where something in the background resembles an object in the foreground. For example, there is a man with a lush hair, and behind - a huge dog with the same luxurious mane ...
"Shock" or "absurd" in the background. Let's say two grandmothers cleaning the street in the morning in front of a huge advertising poster, which shows a girl-fashion model in a bikini, advertising bras. Or the same Alexander Petrosyan has a picture where there is a funny snowman in front, and cleaning grannies behind ...
Here is a selection of the best pictures of Alexander Petrosyan in the blog of the traveler Sergei Dolya.
Is it possible to learn how to photograph beautifully if the photographer has no talent? I have said many times that it will probably not be possible to win international competitions, but it is very, very significant to raise the level of my work, if you purposefully perform tasks, analyze mistakes and try to correct them, it is quite possible to become a respected person.
By the way, watch how Alexander Petrosyan takes his street photos on the street. In my opinion, he does nothing extraordinary.
Video. Tips for photographers on how to do exercises to improve their skills on the example of the work of Alexander Petrosyan.
Another video with a story about how a gorgeous photo of the evening city was taken. Alexander Petrosyan shows in practice how inconvenient it can be if the camera does not have a flip-up screen.
Video. The story of one shot. Self-study exercise guide for amateur photographers.
Well, I hope I wasted your time. Now there is something to do, and you know how to train a professional photographer in a year, who knows how to tell a photo story in the frame, who knows his photographic technique, who owns editors for processing images and is able to apply his skills to create masterpieces. Maybe I will inadvertently educate myself after this lesson.
It's not easy to shoot indoors. Especially if you are a beginner. In this type of shooting, a lot depends on the technique. There is usually not enough light in the room. If it gets through a window or is emitted by lamps, then it falls at the wrong angle on the objects of shooting, so you have to redirect it with reflectors or compensate with flashes. Without a good, bright lens, there’s nothing to do in a room. Technique alone is not enough to start taking good photographs. You need to be able to use it and be able to use the environment.
How not to shoot indoors
Due to the small amount of light, you will have to use a flash. In order not to get a lot of noise in the picture, ISO is usually set to a minimum. What comes out of this. Most often, the photo looks like a white face against a dark background. The flash just doesn't light up the whole room.
Remember the background
The background in photography is just as important as the subject itself. The background may be blurred or out of focus. but it must be present. It doesn't have to be black. You need to fit the foreground in the photo, middle plan and background. While training, you don't have to build an interesting background. First of all, you need to achieve a technically correct rendering of the background, and only then you can engage in artistic activities.
In a dark room, the first thing to do is to increase the shutter speed to the value at which no shake appears yet. There is a rule of thumb that in order to prevent blurry pictures when shooting handheld, the shutter speed should not exceed 1 / the focal length of the lens. For example, if you shoot at a focal length of 28mm, then the shutter speed should not exceed 1/25 sec. If the focal length is 80mm, then the shutter speed should be 1/80 sec, etc.
The aperture will help to brighten the scene a little, but if it is not enough, then only the ISO is left to increase the brightness. By increasing the photosensitivity by 2 times, a gain in illumination is obtained by one stage. This means that by increasing the ISO, you can slow down the shutter speed or close the aperture. Modern cameras allow you to take pictures with virtually no noise up to ISO 1600. This threshold is higher for full-frame models. With old cameras, you can work with ISO 800-1000 without much loss of quality.
A small amount of noise doesn't really hurt the picture. It may not be visible to the naked eye. Also, a small amount of noise can be hidden in Lightroom. You just need to shoot in RAW. In Lightroom, the noise and light sliders are responsible for adjusting noise.
Use flash wisely
Indoors, the flash should not be the primary light source. It should only highlight the shadows, act as a fill light source, or add a little foreground highlight. Aiming the flash at the ceiling or walls is not the best the best option... The interior decoration of the room can be multi-colored, and the light reflected from green, blue, red, etc. the walls take on the appropriate shade. All the photos will turn out in different colors, and the white balance correction will be excruciatingly long.
The ideal reflector color is white. Therefore, it is worth striving to use this particular color on reflective surfaces. The most common indoor flash mode is rear-curtain flash. This is easy to explain. If the flash is fired at the front curtain, blur will be visible in some situations. The flash fumes at the first moment, and then the frame is exposed, in which a wiggle may occur, and it will be superimposed on top of our subject. If you use the flash on the rear curtain, then the exposure will occur first, in which a wiggle may appear, and then the flash will puff, which will fix a clear and bright object on top of the wiggler.
Quite often indoors, you can do without a flash. Many wedding photographers in the registry office shoot this way.
When shooting, you should also think about the temperature of the light. Only the flash provides neutral light, close to natural daylight. All other lighting fixtures produce bluish, reddish, yellowish light. This will inevitably affect the result.
If different light sources are used in the same room, they will mix and create an incredible cocktail. A flash in such a situation can only do harm. If the ambient light is greenish, and you flash the foreground with a flash, everything in the background will be greenish, and objects a few meters from the lens will receive natural white lighting.
Fixing lighting in Photoshop is a thankless task, especially if you have several hundred photos, so it's easier to take care of the light sources beforehand. In order to keep different types of lighting from mixing, you need to have a set of color filters with you. After taking a test shot, you need to evaluate the color of the frame in natural light. Then you need to select a color filter for the flash with the same tint and set it. After that, the color temperature of the flash will not argue with the temperature of the light from the lighting fixtures in the room.
Choose adequate remedies
"Indoor photography" Is a broad concept that includes many different shooting styles and techniques. You can be a reportage photographer at various events. If you are going to sell your images to various publications, then the photos should be of the highest quality. Otherwise, no one will buy them from you. Such work requires an expensive camera and optics. It is permissible for wedding photographers to have less expensive equipment, since the pictures will only be collected in the family album, but if you want to gain the respect of your clients. then the photos must also be of the highest quality. You must be able to draw all its capabilities from your technique. If you shoot on friendly parties and feasts, then special requirements photographs are usually not presented. For such shooting, the most important thing is to betray the atmosphere, to capture some events. No one will peer into the naturalness of the color rendering of sandwiches and salads on the table. For such shooting, the simplest DSLR or even an ordinary, but high-quality compact is suitable.
To make it easier to decide which camera to buy, you should read the recommendations for choosing a camera in the article How to choose a digital camera.
Professional cameras, which start at $ 3,000, are not only accurate and fast. They have full-frame sensors that allow you to get several times less noise compared to crops. This means that the permissible (working) ISO values can be an order of magnitude higher than when working with crop cameras. Therefore, it makes it possible to get better pictures in low light conditions, which is exactly what professional reportage photographers need.
Flash usually gives a gain of about ½ or ⅓ of a stop. This is not much, but often this is what is missing. In addition, shadows can be softened with flash. The quality and functionality of a flash is directly proportional to its cost. It is worth choosing a flash based on the tasks that you are going to assign to it. We can talk about the outbreak for a very long time, so it is better to refer to our articles on this topic:
- Basic principles of working with flash
- On the advisability of using an external flash
- Flash Errors
- Flash Photography: ISO Management Tips
- Fill flash
Professional lenses start at $ 1000. Expensive optics differ from cheap ones in higher sharpness and aperture. These are very important parameters that affect the quality of the resulting photos. High-aperture optics not only allow you to get good pictures thanks to a flawlessly built lens system, but also use lower ISO values, which also has a positive effect on the quality of photos. To determine the choice of lens, you can read our article on this topic: "Choosing a Lens".
Professional equipment makes it possible to obtain better results in any conditions. But the price of such equipment can upset many, therefore, when choosing a camera and accessories for it, you need to deal with the tasks that it will perform and, based on the available budget, select exactly what you will need.
Experiments
Everything you read in this article is just the basic principles of indoor photography. Each type of shooting has its own rules and nuances. If you are overcome by a spirit of rebellion and do not want to obey the rules, then you should still read them to be aware of what exactly you are breaking.
