I ran across this post on LifeHacker. Well, I saw it on LifeHacker’s RSS feed into my reader. It’s from another site. The post outlines some techniques to reduce camera shake when you’re hand-holding. I’ll add a few of my own.

• Lean into a doorway threshold. Propping your body on something immobile is a huge help. Lots of times the shake you get when hand-holding is not necessarily due to arm/hand movement, but general body movement. Lean against a wall, doorway, the groom’s cake, chandeliers, napping children, or basically anything that makes you look slouchy. If someone looks at you scornfully as if you are a vagrant, just sneer back at them, and know you’re doing your job DOT-style.
• Prop your bows on a table. The demonstration in the link above showed the photog in the middle of an open area. You rarely are. Find something to prop your elbows on. You might even try piling 13 or so dinner rolls atop one another as a substitute for a tabletop monopod. Of course, building a 2-foot high pyramid out of the rolls (it’ll take about 60) would make for an even steadier brace. You’ll probably want to practice building one at home, so that you can do it quickly and discreetly at a reception.
• Prop the flash on your shoulder. When I say flash, I mean an attached hot-shoe flash with a swivel head. This probably warrants a demonstration picture, but I don’t have time this week. This is for a vertical shot. Hold the camera horizontally. Turn the flash-head 90 degrees so that it is facing over your left shoulder. Now turn the camera vertically and prop the flash-head on your shoulder. I recommend turning the flash off unless you want to melt the skin off your shoulder.
• Prop on a tripod. You don’t have to have the camera attached to the tripod to take advantage of it’s stabilizing effect. Just prop your big honkin’ lens on the tripod, then toss your 3-legged friend out of the way when you’re done. Don’t hit the flower girl with the disposed tripod.

Alrighty. Hope that was useful.


QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Life is a long lesson in humility.” - James M. Barrie

Don’t curse that flash recharge time!



Manual Mode; ISO 1600; Shutter 1/60; F-stop 2.8; Focal Length 108mm. Flash on, but not recharged, did not fire.




Manual Mode; ISO 1600; Shutter 1/60; F-stop 2.8; Focal Length 108mm. Bounce Flash.



When you bounce flash your flash normally has to fire at full or near-full output. It depends on several factors, but bounce has to travel farther and work harder than direct flash. The result is a slower recharge time. Use fresh batteries and an external pack if you can to minimize this, but don’t call it a blankety-blank-blank under your breath when it doesn’t recharge fast enough.


The settings on both shots above are the same. The only difference is that the flash was recharging from a previous frame in the first shot and did not fire, and it did fire in the second. This was a traditional Indian dance at a wedding in West Virginia on Saturday. The room was light enough that I was getting a lot of ambient at 1600, 1/60, 2.8. I used a bounce flash because I knew I could pull off quite a few with the flash firing to freeze the motion and quite a few in-between flashes with some blur. Win-win. I look like a genius by getting two completely different looks without changing a single thing.


One of the great things about bounce flash off a wall behind you is that it dramatically increases the distance from light source to subject and background which dramatically decreases the light fall-off from subject to background. Let that sink in. The sun lights your house and the one down the street pretty much the same because the relative distance between the sun and your house and the sun and the neighbor’s is essentially equal even though their house is 100 yards farther from the sun (at sunrise, or at midday if you live on a mountain). The farther the light source is from two subjects, the less the relative lighting difference between the two subjects.


Let’s do the math. The subject was probably 20 feet away from me in the second image. The background on-lookers were probably 40 feet from me. Draw a line from me to the subject to the background. The background is twice the distance from me as the subject. The relative difference in the distance from source to subject and source to background if I had used direct flash would have been 100%.


Now let’s compare the math of bounce flash. The wall I bounced off of was probably 80 feet from the subject and 100 feet from the background. Now the relative difference in the distance from source to subject and source to background is not 100% as it would have been with direct flash, but merely 20% with bounce.


Look at the videographer and guests in the second shot. They are pretty well lit (a little better than the background guests in the first shot) and some of that is due to the bounce flash hitting them as well as the subject. As a Photographic Observer, you need to light up and tell the story of the on-lookers, not have them groveling in a black cave.


So set that sleek machine in your hands to high speed firing (the Canon 1D line can fire at 8 frames per second), smile when that bounce flash fires and doesn’t fire, and find the beauty in-between flashes.


OK, I should have split this post up into two different tips, one singing the praises of in-between shots and one extolling the relative lighting virtues of bounce flash, but I just got carried away.


BTW, I met with a couple on Friday about shooting their wedding next summer. The groom-to-be looks at a tent shot at dusk and says “You call that Sweet Light, right?” The blog works! The blog works! Thanks for reading, Johnathan!


QUOTE OF THE DAY
“It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.” - Sir Winston Churchill

Note: This post will have a permanent link at the top of the sidebar.


What is Photographic Observation? Let’s put it in basketball terms. Most wedding photographers are head coaches who call timeouts, orchestrate plays, and give the players near-constant instruction. Photographic Observers are sideline reporters who quietly and attentively record the game.


Photographic Observers watch silently. Other wedding photographers command and direct.


Photographic Observation is what the originators of the phrase “wedding photojournalism” intended when the term was coined in the 1980s. The phrase has been so widely and loosely used, muddied, and misused (even by photographers claiming to be photojournalists) since that time that it has ceased to carry significant meaning.


Photographic Observation is the new term I’m using to describe a genre of artistic event coverage in which the photographer plays a reserved and unassuming role in the events of the day. It is not a new approach. It is simply the rephrasing of a description that has been too often misused.


The vast majority of wedding photographers today wear an “observer hat” for part of the day, but put on a “coach hat” or “fashion photographer hat” for a significant amount of time. This is a blended style. Photographic Observers, on the other hand, take charge of the participants and command their attention for a very small portion of the day - often only 15-20 minutes. This is a formal portrait session of a limited number of people—the wedding party and immediate families of the bride and groom.


Why is Photographic Observation better than other approaches? It has to do with the genuineness of not only the actions and reactions of the participants involved as the day transpires, but the authenticity of the photographic result.


The more the photographer speaks, directs, and meddles the more the participants are aware of the camera’s presence. Every step, smile, and emotion becomes checked by that consciousness. The result is not only distracted participants, but a less genuine end-product (the finished album).


Why is Photographic Observation difficult? Photographic Observation is a demanding expertise because the photographer is not in control of the proceedings. He must instantly recognize the qualities of ever-changing lighting and inter-personal scenarios and know how to manipulate the controls at his disposal (his position and camera) and not the events themselves to render stunning imagery. She must anticipate things that might happen, yet be ever-ready to capture the unplanned.


Photographic Observation means the photographer packs light (in terms of the amount of equipment) and moves quickly. The Photographic Observer must be ubiquitous yet invisible; everywhere and nowhere.


Why rename an existing genre? There comes a point when it becomes easier to define a brand new term than to attempt to redefine one that is often misunderstood.

Architectural photographers call it “sweet light” . . .



Aperture Priority Mode; ISO 320; Shutter 1 second; F-stop 2.8; Focal Length 20mm. No Flash. 8:29 p.m.




Aperture Priority Mode; ISO 800; Shutter 1/5 second; F-stop 2.8; Focal Length 20mm. No Flash. 8:09 p.m.



There’s a big difference between the first and second “sweet light” shots. It’s the direction. The top shot was taken facing the sunset - due west. The bottom shot was taken with my back to the sunset - due east. Same tent. Same night. Much different results.


You always get more dynamic sweet light shots facing west. By dynamic I mean a more electric, cobalt blue and more vignetting around the edges.


So here’s how I shoot sweet light . . .

• Wait til the sky light is roughly the same as the light INSIDE the tent/reception area. You can tell by squinting (or shooting).
• Tripod the camera.
• Drop the ISO. Assuming you’ve been at a high ISO shooting action shots.
• Set the camera to Aperture or Shutter Priority mode. The point is the light is going to be changing quickly during sunset. Let the camera do the figgerin’.
• Set your camera to a 2-second delay before firing. Your finger depressing the shutter makes the camera shake. No need to fight that battle. The two second delay between shutter depression and the beginning of the exposure gives the camera time to settle.
• Shoot one shot about every minute. The light will change quickly in those magical 5 minutes. It’ll surprise you. (Did I state this already? )
• Keep an eye on your shutter speed. If your shutter gets slower than 1 second or so, moving subjects will disappear. I’ve said before that I like my moving subjects to be ghosted, but not invisible.

I put the times in under each shot so you would notice the difference between the two. The easterly shot was exactly 20 minutes prior to the westerly. Think about it. The sky gets dark in the east first. If you have the option of shooting in a westerly direction, use that angle. I shot this one from the easterly direction first because I had no idea if something would be happening in those 5 incredible minutes when westerly sweet light would be occurring. Sure enough, the first dances were taking off about that time. Phillip actually shot the top one for me while I was shooting some dancing.


You don’t always have the option to shoot both directions. Your venue may dictate the direction of the shot courtesy of trees, sundry obstructions, or 26 lanes of interstate traffic between you and the westerly sunset shot. (The sweet light shot on the contact page of my feature site was not taken toward the west. It still turns out pretty cool.) If you have the option, shoot the easterly first, because you might be called away on an important task when the second one happens.


Here’s another example . . .


Aperture Priority Mode; ISO 160; Shutter 1.3 second; F-stop 2.8; Focal Length 20mm. No Flash.



If the front of the edifice is lit, it’s even better.


These sweet light shots are really Scene Setters. Check out the post on those here. The fourth shot down is from inside the reception and you get some sweet light through the clear tent.


In case you’re wondering, these images have not been touched-up in the least. That’s sweet.


QUOTE OF THE DAY
“A designer knows he has reached perfection not when there is nothing left to add but when there is nothing left to take away.” - Antione de Sainte-Exupery