Sean J Connolly Photography

Photography Tips for Beginners

After being a photographer for a number of years I started to cast my mind back to when I started. How do I take a photo, what on earth are these settings, ISO Aperture and Shutter Speed.

Now that I have a few years under my belt as a photographer I realise when you are starting out its way too easy to stay in Full Auto or rely on Aperture or Shutter Priority. The problem is using these modes means you are hindering your own creativity. So my advice is take the plung and go Manual.

Its Easy When You Know How

So you may be thinking that its easy to say use full Manual after years of experience, and that in essence is true, there is not replacement for good training and experience. However you can be given a helping hand on the way . I have drawn up a very simply chart to guide you with the basics of which setting to use and when.

Beginners Guide to Photography Settings Chart

Whilst the above chart doesn’t cover every possible thing you may ever photograph, it’s designed to give you a good starting point and get you out of Full Auto and into Manual mode on your camera.

If you would like a PDF version of the above Beginners Guide to Photography Settings Chart please feel free to download and share using the links below.

PDF Download

JPeg Download

Whether to take Photo With or Without a Reflector

Although I have spoke of this in another post, loads of people have asked me if they really do need a reflector and why.

The first thing to remember is the most important thing in photography, and that is light. Without light you dont have any shot at all, so getting the right light is crucial. There are several ways of getting the light right, and playing around with it, everything from using the light available to you, known as the ambient light or using flashes and strobes, known as artificial light.

What is a Reflector

A reflectors main purpose is to reflect available light in order fill in any area you are missing light, the actual light you choose to reflect is up to you.

The benefit of a reflector over another light source is in the name it simply reflects available light onto an area you wish to light up on your subject, without being too over bearing.

When to use a Reflector

A basic rule as to whether you need to use a reflector or not is to ask yourself. “is your subject lit up enough for the look you are going for?”, remember although there is such as thing as a technically perfectly lit shot, you know the one the histogram being right in the middle, there is no reason to always aim for this. Remember photography is an art and if you want to shoot different images from perfection and thats your style thats fine.

Using the reflector to just create a bit of a catchlight is fine, you dont always need to use it to completely light up your subject.

Reflector Technique

So you may be thinking now you know what a reflector is for, but when do you use it. The simple rule of thumb is you need to use a reflector when part of your subject are dark, this darkness can be solved by using another light, but this can be over powering on your subject, by using a reflector you are only ever reflecting back available light, and as such it will always be less powerful than the original source.

A quick tip is to remember the further away the reflector is from either your subject or the light you are reflecting the less intense the effect, also remember that by tilting you reflector you can also reduce the effect on your subject.

There is also an added bonus in that is it way cheaper to buy a reflector than it is to buy another light.

Practical Example

Photo Taken with and without reflector

If you look at the shot on the left above you can see that although you can see most of the face, it just looks too dark. Now if I used another light the subject would be too lit up and I would lose the effect of the image, so the solution is to use a reflector.

Now if you look at the image on the right you can clearly see that by using a reflector we can now see the subject more clearly without the light being too over powering on the face.

Big thank you to Jenna for being so patient during this shoot.

Final Thoughts

So I would suggest that even if you are just starting out, go and buy a reflector as they make your job as a photographer a whole lot easier, and remember to buy a 5in1 reflector that way you get the ability to not only reflect white light but also gold and add that something special to your shots.

Durham Editorial Photo Shoot – Emma Wright

Model : Emma Wright
Location : Riverside, Durham
Type : Editorial

This shoot was one that I decided to do to add to more the editorial side of my portfolio, thinking with more of the advertising and editorial theme.

After some emails and discussions with Emma it was decided that Durham was a good location for both of us and the concept for the shoot would be centred around bright clothing, in particular tights. So it was agree that in order to get a few different looks, Emma could bring different outfits that all centred around her figure and bright tights.

This sounded great to me as the good thing about Emma as a model is she has a great figure for fashion modelling, typical tall and slim.

Location

The location was to be Durham City and as I know Durham quite a bit I decided to do the shoot down on the river bank, this is a great location as not only do you get the urban city environment, but you can also get the countryside rural feel.

We arranged to meet on at the pub just at the beginning of the bridge. Its always a bit nerve racking when you meet someone for the first time, I always worry that I will go up to the wrong person, but Emma stood out from the crowd and we made our way down to the riverside.

The weather was not too bad for a shoot, not too hot and not too cold, and with the light being difussed by the cloud at times meant that I could get some great lit shots as well as some sunny shots. We finally decided on the location of the little house thing on the riverside, great location and kinda quiet which I was surprised about.

The Shoot

We started the shoot and the first sets of shots were to be Emma wearing a more formal outfit in a long coat, shots taken in and around the entrance. Emma was an absolute pleasure to work with she took direction well and in most cases was already in the right pose before I even started composing the shot.

The main problem on this shoot was lighting, the area was dark, yet I didn’t want to make it too artificial by using lights. So I decided to use the reflector to throw a bit of extra natural light onto the shots, this worked great. We got some great shots around the steps, and after a quick change into a more casual look we took some more great shots.

Again Emma was great fun to work with and the shots turned out great.

After this very static shooting we decided to step it up a bit and take some moving shots, Emma was game to try these shots. So I climbed up on the wall to get a high view as Emma walked passed, and the first set of these just ended up looking like some peeping tom taking photos.

So we decided a more level approach was better, and although these shots were better the Emma walking towards the camera shot really never worked all that well, but when she got closer the light fell perfectly and we got the money shot. Great over exposed shot that uses the light just right, and with the expression she made for this shot makes the shot just pop.

We then tried more of the walking shots, this time with Emma walking away, and again due to her style and figure these shots just look great, and again she took direction well and looked in the right direction just at the right time to give us the great shot. (although this shot needed alot of post production to it due to the councils lack of upkeep on the path)

We then made our way back to the bridge and decided to try something a bit different and have a little play on the bridge, lets just say the shots are still in the experimental arena and need more work to perfect this style.

Really enjoyed this shoot, and Emma was an absolute pleasure to work with, and she was happy to try anything, even some of my stupid ideas.

I just hope you like these shots.

Sample shots from Durham Photo Shoot

To see some of these shots in full size please visit my gallery on my website http://seanjconnollyphotography.co.uk/photography_gallery.htm

Lighting

As every good photographer will know the word photography actually means “writing with light” and this means that one of the most important things you can get right in order to get a great photograph is the lighting.

For an excellent video guide please check out this great series of tutorials by the Better Photos Academy

Lighting comes from two main sources ambient and artificial, and being able to control your lighting is the key to your photos being great rather than good.

Ambient Light
This is very simple to understand but difficult to master, ambient light is using the light from available light sources that occur naturally in your environment, this can be light from street lighting, light from the sun, the moon or anything else that is around that you do not have direct control over.
The simple fact that your do not have direct control over ambient light means that you have to use otherways to bring some form of control to the lighting.
Reflector

Multi Purpose Reflector

The most common way to control ambient light is with a reflector / diffuser, this small or large piece of kit allows you to reflect the light to exactly where you want to, and some reflectors are multi purpose and have an in built diffuser which allows you to scatter the light more evenly across your subject.

A multi purpose reflector works usually in one of the following ways

Directly reflects the light to where you want it, normally done using the silver side.
Reflects the light but softens its colour, normally done using the white side.
Reflect the slight and adds a gold / yellow tinge to it, normally done with the gold side
Diffuses the light by softening it, normally done by using the internal part
Remove light from your subject by absorbing it, normally done with the black side.

Without / With Reflector

As you can see from the above portrait sample shot the image on the left is dark in the front, whilst the image on the right has a nice even lighting

Now although a reflector is the most common tool used to control ambient lighting, you can pretty much use anything you like to get the desired effect, even closing curtains is a way to control ambient light in fact you can just play around with everday objects to give you the right lighting.

In Camera
Althought this may sound obvious the best way to play around with ambient or available light is to change the camera setting, this may mean using a smaller or larger aperture or changing the shutter speed, by adjusting in camera setting you can also control directly the ambient light entering the camera to get the desired effect.
The simple rule of thumb is

Slower shutter speed will let more light in / Faster shutter speed will let less light in
Smaller aperture number = wider aperture which lets more light in
Higher aperture number = smaller aperture which lets less light in
Hgher ISO number will give lighter photos, but also add noise to your shots.

Note when shooting at slow shutter speeds remember to put your camera on a stable platform or tripod

Changing Shutter Speed – Long Exposure

As you can see in the example above by using a slower shutter speed the ambient light can be made to look really cool. So remember that the only limit is your imagination so go nuts.

Artificial Light

When time calls for it and the ambient or available light is insufficient for your needs there are two main choices when it comes to lighting your subject, flash / strobes and continuous lighting.

Flash / Strobes
A flash / strobes is the common term for a portable unit that provides light directly in connection with your camera shutter, these come in all shapes and sizes but have common features and functions which I am going to talk about here.

Ok I will start by giving you an over view of the most common function on modern flash units, I will start at the bottom left of the diagram and work clockwise.
On / Off Switch
This switch is used to turn on or off the flash unit, when switch on the flash will normally make a high pitched sound until it is ready to fire.
Flash Ready / Test
This button has two purposes the first is it will light up when the flash unit is ready for use, the second is that when it is lit up it can be pressed in order to test fire the flash.
Flash Zoom (optional)
This button is used when the flash in in manual mode to zoom or move the flash head inside the flash, this allows the flash to cover either a narrower area or a wider area.

Note Not all flash units are zoom units and have this function, also this option will be controlled by the flash when not in manual mode.
Mode
This is used to switch the flash mode, normally used to select between ETTL (auto) and manual modes.
F/Stop
This button is sometime labelled power and allows you to control the output level of the flash when in manual mode, most units support anything from full power to 1/16 of full power, someother units can step down a bit further to reduce the power up to 1/32 of full power.
Note – the measurement is a percentage of the full output, 1/1 being full power.
ISO (optional)
This allow the light sensitivity of the flash to be change as needed
Alert (optional)
This allows the noise and alerts on the flash to be alerted.
Back light
This turns on and off the flash back light, this is only available on flash units with an LCD screen.
ETTL – Evaluatitive Through The Lens

This indicates that the flash is operating is full auto mode and directly in sync with the camera, this mode is only supported by the flash being connected as follows.

On the camera Hot Shoe connector
Tethered to the Hot Shoe connector via a cord
Connected to the camera via a wireless trigger that supports ETTL.

Note – ETTL simply means that any adjustments made to the camera will be automatically done tot he flash, such as focal length, etc.
Slave / Master Switch (optional)

This changes the flash from being either the main flash unit in the set to the slave unit, simply put if your flash has this option it can be remotely fired by other flash units, there will be a infrared sensor on yoru flash either the side or front that must be in the line of sight of other units. When the other flash unit fires this unit will also fire.
The above is only a guide to the flash units, most work in the same way, but will be laid out differently, but in essence the principles are the same for all.

Ok that concludes the basic workings of your flash, the other things to look for in your flash and to know about is as follows.

Guide Number – this is the effect distance your flash can cover when your camera ISO is set to 100, normally expressed in feet ie 48 feet.

Gels – these are attached to give the flash a colour light rather than the typical white light, if you look at reflector photo above you can see it is back lit in blue, this is done using a gel.

Flash Gels

Continuous Lighting

This is the form of lighting that is always on, it can come from a variety of sources, it is something to play around with and use what ever you have around to light your subject, some of the more common continuous light sources are