The Photo Scout

Soft Insect Shots

Macro photographs render bugs sympathetic

Normally when photographers strap on the macro lens and go after some of nature's creepiest crawlies, they're doing so in order to portray them as huge, fearsome, almost otherworldly beasts. Amplifying the small but strange shapes of bugs assigns the viewer to a frighteningly small level where we could be snatched up in mandibles at any moment. I usually feel as though I'm looking at a still from Aliens whenever I check out insect macros, but one photographer from Malaysia has taken a different route with her bug shots.

Lee Peiling shoots insects in Tanzania, where she lives and works. She's only been behind the lens for all of three years, but already she's cultivated a distinctive style. Her insect shots use soft focus and saturated colors to create a tone that's so pretty it's almost romantic. Suddenly, these invertebrate creatures aren't monsters. They're sympathetic characters in a sparkling world. Mantises appear to be bright, curious beings gazing at the world around them with huge eyes. Two ants engaged in antenna dialogue could almost be kissing. Butterflies float like glowing shades around softly blurred flowers. Even the bees with their bright yellow warning signals across their backs appear to be a little friendlier than they've ever looked before.

The focus technique that Peiling uses is known as "bokeh". She creates an almost impossibly shallow depth of field, in some cases softening everything but the very head of her insect subject itself. The effect not only romanticizes the shots, it also helps to put the viewer behind the eyes of the insects, making their small worlds seem excitingly huge.

Check out the full series of shots over at Colossal.

Beginner Tips for Avoiding Blue & Grey Snow

Your camera may be top of the line, but it's still not as sophisticated as the human eye. This is especially evident on snowy days when you snap away at the bright white wonderland, then end up with stacks of photos of dark gray or blue snow.

Off-color snow happens because all that beautiful white reflects extra light back at your camera. That extra light does two things: 1. it causes your camera to meter the light incorrectly, leading to an underexposed photo (dark, grey snow) and 2. it confuses the sensors which adjust for tones, causing them to misinterpret the actual range of colors in your scene (blue snow).

If you have a fairly new camera, and you want to stick with manual setting, correcting this is as simple as activating the "snow" setting. If you don't have a snow setting, but you have a "shade" setting, or a “low light” setting, choose that. Take a few sample photos with your camera's different settings, then flip through the images to find the setting that produces the most accurate snow.

If your camera has manual settings, or if none of the automatic settings do the job, you can tweak a few settings to correct your images. First, try opening up your aperture a stop or two and match it with a slower shuter speed. Doing so will slightly overexpose your image to correct for dark images with grey snow. Experiment for a few shots, checking only for exposure.

Once you get your exposure right, tweak your white balance settings to take out the blue. Reset your white balance by selecting the camera’s white balance setting and then pointing your camera at a bright white patch of snow. Once you do this, your camera will be able to better interpret all the white overload.

What Makes a Great Photo, Great?

Photography is subjective, much as any form of art is, but there are some rules to follow to help you take a winning photograph.

I have had my a few winning photographs in my time as a photographer. However, why each was a winner, I cannot really say for sure.

Photography is a subjective medium. If you have 100 people looking at the same photograph you will likely get 100 different interpretations of it. Some will love it, some will be bored, some will be indifferent and still others will detest it.

I follow one very simple rule when I take photographs; if the picture moves me and speaks to me then the chances are good it will do the same for others. If the picture tells a story and reaches beyond the superficiality and it is something I love, that is THE picture.

The amount of pictures I have taken in my life numbers in the tens of thousands, but not every one of them tells me that all-important story. Some pictures are nice, some are ho-hum, and some are downright embarrassing to me as a photographer. However, when I find that take that just-right picture, there is no denying it. It can be the right look in someone’s eye, a subtle turn of the head or body or the color of a leaf against the starkness of the asphalt.

A photographer should look for a picture that is technically correct. The subject is in focus, the lighting is perfect and the composition is well defined. However, even technical points can leave room for adjustment. For instance the picture above technically is not well done. The lens flare is very obvious, but for me, the lens flare adds to the story. The day I took that photo, it was 108 degrees outside. It was taken in one of the most barren places on earth and I think the lens flare captured that raw, barren heat. It tells the story of an intolerable environment, of a sunbaked landscape with windswept dunes. The picture speaks to me.

If your goal is to set out to take a winning photograph, you will be chasing that dream forever with many disappointments. If, however, you set out to tell a story with your photo a story that is relatable to others you will be very satisfied with your work

Trust your heart, intuition and your eyes; be true to yourself and who you are as a photographer. Never try to “fake it” through the lens of a camera, you will be caught every time.

Let the Lines Lead the Way

Keeping with the theme of photography rules, leading lines is the next logical step.

Have you ever looked at a photograph or a painting of some sort of scenery or landscape and felt your eyes being drawn into a particular part of the artwork? If you have, more than likely you have experienced something called leading lines.

Leading lines are just what you might imagine them to be, lines within the photo that lead your eye through the picture and in many cases to a subject within the photo that you want your viewers to notice.

Leading lines can be obvious features such as sidewalks, fences or roads and they can be just as unobvious and even unintentional; that is you notice them only after you took your picture. Leading lines can lead you just about anywhere in the picture. You can find them diagonally from a lower corner to the upper, or it can be a straight on view leading your viewers up and out of the picture. They can be curved straight or zigzag.

When you compose your picture with the thought of using leading lines, it is important not to use them in an obvious or intrusive way. Leading lines should almost be an afterthought of a picture and be just one part of a total compositional creation.

In the above picture, which I took at a wedding I was hired to commemorate, you could say that the leading lines are either the bridesmaids heads or their bouquets which lead to the alter and the minister performing the ceremony. This leading line is not obvious, in fact I picked up on it long after I took the picture. This is the way of most leading lines.

As with all rules, they are sometimes there to be bent or broken so experimenting with leading lines is the best way to understand them and find your own unique twist on them.

One of the Most Challenging and Electrifying Photos

Photographing lightening is something that many photographers strive to acheive, but it can be a dangerous situation

When I took up photography years ago, I remember scouring books, magazines and later, the Internet to find photographs that I wanted to try to recreate and learn how to achieve. Repeatedly my eye was always drawn to the incredible images captured by photographers of lightning.

Lightning is an elusive and yes, a dangerous subject. In order to get the best picture, you must be in close proximity of a storm. Even telephoto lenses have their limits and you still must be in the “strike zone” in order to achieve the beauty and power of this amazing phenomenon.

The photo that I took above was during a very powerful evening desert storm. I was approximately 3 miles from the lightning itself. At times when the strikes would come, I could feel the hair on my arms raise. It was scary and exciting.

To photograph lightning takes a specific set of camera settings and equipment, patience and a little bit of the dare devil mindset.

Equipment and settings

Just about any camera that can be set to what is known as “B” or “Bulb” setting can be used. Bulb setting refers to leaving your shutter open indefinitely. It is beyond human capabilities to manually trip the shutter of a camera at the precise time that the lightning strikes, but with your shutter open catching lighting as it strikes is a piece of cake. Here is a list of equipment you will need:

Camera with a B or Bulb setting.
Camera with the ability to film with slow speed; this would be in the range of 100 ISO. (if you are using and older SLR with film, buy the slower speed films)
Sturdy tripod
Lens equipped with 28mm to 135mm range at the minimum. F-stop should range from f2.8 to f22.
Remote shutter trigger (optional)

The camera focus should be set to infinity. After a few lighting strikes, you can close your shutter, and if you are operating a digital camera you can immediately view your work. The key is to experiment; use different settings on your camera. If you are lucky, the storm won’t blow out before you get the right picture.

Location

The best place to photograph lightning is somewhere that will keep you and your equipment dry. I remember my very first shot of lightning happened in an upper floor hotel room. The above picture was taken on a small mesa overlooking a valley where the storm was located.

Best Situations

The best situation for shooting lighting is a storm that is producing lightning strikes in a frequent time span. I find that lightning strikes occurring at least one every 30 seconds to a minute is ideal. For an even more dramatic effect look for cloud to ground as well as cloud to cloud lightning.

Here is my EXIF data on the above picture:

Taken with a Nikon D50
F-stop was f4
Iso 100
7 second exposure
-1 step exposure
Spot metering
Focal length was 70mm
Shot with shutter priority (to keep the shutter open indefinitely)
This was shot in RAW so I could adjust the white balance in post processing.

Rule of Thirds: A good rule to live by and a good rule to break

One of my favorite rules in photography is something called the “Rule of Thirds.”

Looking back at my education and work in photography, the “Rule of Thirds” was most likely the first compositional rule that I learned – and ever since, it has been my favorite.

The rule of thirds is a way to adjust a subject or a landscape into a pleasing balance. It also makes for some very interesting shots.

The rule of thirds basic principle calls for the photographer to imagine a tick, tack, toe grid on the image that you are about to shoot. This imagined grid will now identify four very important parts of your image – the points at which the lines intersect. Place the main subject of your shot at one of these four intersections. You can also consider the four independent lines as a good guide to accomplish a pleasing and well-balanced composition.

Why are these intersections important? It has to do with the human eye and our nature as human beings. Studies show that when an image is placed in front of someone for the first time, the human eye naturally locates these four focal points of a picture. This includes paintings as well as photos. Using the rule of thirds is a natural way to create interest in your photo and draws the viewer’s eye to the area of the picture, or subject that you feel is the most important part.

Human nature being what it is, using the rule of thirds usually comes very naturally to beginning photogs and therefore is easily teachable.

The above picture was taken more for the dramatic effect that the green field causes when I used depth of focus, but it also illustrates the use of the rule of thirds.

There are only two things you need to remember when employing the rule of thirds:

Where are the four intersections in the shot?
What subject do I want to draw interest to?

Just remember that rules are meant to be broken. The key is to experiment, break the rule of thirds occasionally and see what happens.