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Gary Thompson's Photo
Tips
In
the Tip of the Month Gary Thompson, President of
ICPG,
shares his special tips to help all of us take better pictures.
Check back each month for more examples.
All photographs copyright Gary Thompson.
Bubbles |
August 2008
How to deal with Photo Block
Occasionally photographers experience
"photo block" like writer's develop "writer's block".
On those hopefully rare occasions I like to
dramatically change my photographic strategy.
If working a landscape with fairly normal lenses and
little success I might try an extreme wide angle lens (~ 15
mm) and make the foreground about 75 percent of the image.
Another approach might be to take a 400 mm lens and
isolate on only one small but interesting portion of the
landscape.
Sometimes I will try in camera multiple exposures.
When shooting my example image I was leading a group of
photographers on Rialto Beach in Olympic National Park on a
rainy and dreary day.
Nothing seemed to have interest to me.
As the leader of the group I needed to put up a good
front and to be enthusiastic.
I
happened to notice some interesting sea foam bubbles along
the water's edge.
Quickly I replaced my normal zoom lens with a macro lens and
went in very close to the sea bubbles.
In the macro mode I was able to see colors and
reflections that I had not initially seen.
I first noticed the strong triangular lines reflected
from my tripod. A huge
rather ugly blob in the center of the triangle turned out to
be my body's reflection.
In order to break up the blob I threw my arms over my
head into a "touchdown" signal and took several bracketed
images using my two second shutter delay.
I shot almost a roll of film with about 50 percent of
the images being quite good.
Amazingly, this has been a good selling image.
Two of the images were independently purchased by
women whose boy friends were sky divers.
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Schooner and the Rowboat
|
July 2008
Be alert for the Magic Moment
When taking photographs be alert for
the "magic moment".
If time and light allows, I try
to patiently work an image to determine the best
composition.
During that time I take a few
shots in case the light or part of the composition changes.
While working the scene try to
anticipate changes before they occur.
Scan the sky to see if light
changes are likely to happen and be aware of movement within
the composition.
In the case of my example image,
"Schooner and the Rowboat", I had taken several
images of the schooner using the rocks as foreground.
Suddenly I noticed two men in a
dinghy rowing out towards the schooner.
Hoping that they would actually
approach the schooner, I waited until they reached a
complementary position before taking the image.
My images of the "schooner" with
foreground rocks were actually quite good, but the image
with the addition of the men in the dinghy has been one of
my all time best selling prints.
|
Mossy Forest
|
July 2008
"Blah Day" Photography
On "blah" lighting days I love to go to
forested areas.
The soft, diffused, subtle,
lighting of cloudy overcast days is wonderful for leveling
the light intensities of shadows and highlights. When using
evaluative or matrix metering on these kinds of days, the
camera's recommended reading for a "right on exposure"
is usually quite good.
The accompanying image of a
forested area on
Deer Island,
Maine
was taken on one of those dreary "blah" lighting days.
On a bright sunny day this scene
might be quite beautiful to the human eye, however the
resulting print would probably have much too much contrast.
|
Texas Falls
|
June 2008
Bad Weather Means Good Photography
David Muench has a saying that,
"Bad Weather means Good Photography".
I have found this to be very true. Some
of the best sunrises and sunsets occur when strong storms
begin to clear.
This image of Texas Falls in
Vermont was taken during a heavy rainstorm which was part of
the fall-out of a July hurricane. I used 400 ISO print film
in my Pentax 6x7 camera with a polarizing filter to capture
this scene.
At F/16 my shutter speed was
four seconds.
I call this a "Two Umbrella
Shot"
- one over my camera & tripod
and the other over my camera bag.
I wore a waterproof parka, rain
pants, and hiking boots. In these kinds of severe conditions
you can get great images if you are prepared, stay calm,
take your time and work carefully.
I always bring rain gear and two
umbrellas on my photo journeys.
"Rain can be beautiful"!
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Early Morning at Big Sur
|
May 2008
Fog and Haze can Create Mood
Just as foreground can be used to create the impression
of 3D character, fog and haze can also be used to produce
this perception. By creating the feeling of depth the viewer
identifies with the landscape and remembers past experiences
associated with similar scenes. These experiences trigger
feelings and mood is communicated. |
Autumn Leaves at Beaver Meadow
Creek
|
April 2008
Foreground Creates Mood
Arguably the most important compositional factor in dramatic
landscapes is the use of foreground. By including strong
foregrounds, the impression of 3D
character can be created.
When the viewer perceives depth they feel like they
can step into the image.
This triggers subconscious memories of things like:
the fragrance of foreground flowers,
the granular texture of foreground rocks, the fresh
cool moisture of dew, or the warm feeling of sunlight
scintillating across rocks.
These triggered remembrances cause emotional
responses and communicate mood. |
|
Wave of Zion
|
March 2008
Watch for Interesting Patterns
In composing images, look for repeating patterns and/or
shapes. This repetition is called "echoing" and can be
very pleasant to the viewer. In the image, "Wave of
Zion", there are three areas of echoing: foreground,
middle ground, and sky. Notice that the curved lines
within each area are not only parallel but also have
radiating character.
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Winter at the Hogback
|
February 2008
Winter Snow Photography
Most of us
as photographers, when using exposures recommended by our
camera's meter, have taken disappointing images of
picturesque snow-filled, winter scenes. These images are
generally too dark and sometimes appear bluish or grayish.
To capture the pristine whites of a beautiful snow scene
when using matrix, evaluative, or overall metering,
overexpose the image by one full stop and bracket your
images by a half stop over and above that exposure. In other
words, expose images containing significant amounts of snow
by +0.5, +1.0, and +1.5 stops above your
camera's recommended settings. Photographers shooting
digitally should also check their histograms to insure that
the exposure is well balanced and that you have not
overexposed too much so that highlight details have been
lost.
|
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Fall Cascade at Stony Brook |
January 2008
Keep it Simple
This
is sometimes referred to as the KISS concept. After you
finish taking a photograph, but before you move your camera,
ask yourself what first attracted you to shoot this image.
Then move in physically or zoom in tight on that component
of the image that first attracted you. Chances are that the
resulting image which isolates the attraction will be more
powerful and communicative than the original image that
contained more information. Most photographers try to
include too much information. Remember in photography more
is generally less. |
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