Engagement Portraits - tips for great photographs

At the moment I have an engagement portrait as a free promotion with every wedding booking I take. These were taken at the North Wirral Coastal Park.

A number of clients have, with my encouragement, chosen to get this special picture taken on location. People have often chosen a familiar place of significance to them which has meant they have relaxed and enjoyed the shoot even more. O this day the weather was 'interesting' to say the least, but all three of us had great fun trying out different poses and sometimes getting a bit silly!

Getting your subject to relax is very important and it is worth finding ways of doing this even if it leaves a little less time for the photos.

People want quality not quantity, although that does not stop me taking many hundreds of pictures!

Photographing children - tips for great photography

With children your observation skills have to be spot on, you have to be patient and you have to be prepared to enter their world.

Children generally will not be posed so the best thing is to play with them and make the lens part of the fun. If they can forget the camera then you may also get those rare shots to lens too.

Also the best candid are often of children caught unawares and often as a result of the photographer being prepared to spend time on the basis of a hunch that an above average image is just around the corner because the situation is making one likely, weddings are a classic example where children are dressed up and looking for play opportunities in an environment which is not always child friendly.

Of course, there is always the time when it does not come off, but good professionals and amateurs are tenacious and just look harder for the shot next time!

One important point to make is that I also have an enhanced criminal record certificate (UK) to be able to work with children professionally. Always check with parents and children that taking their picture is OK before you start snapping. It has become a much more guarded world which has made it harder for those who would harm children, but it has also made it harder for the sincere photographer trying to capture a perceptions of the world without filters or anxiety. 

Colour and tone? Can you believe your screen? - tips for great photography

Does it matter where you get your pictures printed? Yes it does if you want the same colours and tones as you seen on your computer screen, but here there is a catch. Computer screens, depending on the manufacturer, how they interact with the graphics software on your computer and the ambient light under which you view them do not all generate identical colours and tones. At least in a black and white image it is only the tones that may be off, but this might be vital if mood is important.

Next time you are passing a shop selling desk top, laptop and tablet computers make a point of comparing their screen colours and tones to see how they vary. It is also true of digital TV screens, and for the discerning the variety of colours and tones is quite wide, so often it is a matter of seeking a screen with the colours and tones that you like, which is OK until you want to print the images you might be viewing on your monitor or TV.

This is why as a portrait and wedding photographer I always prefer people to come to the studio and see their images on my screens after the wedding. I have a device called a 'Spyder' which calibrates my screen so that I can match it to printers so that the colours people see on the screen are the colours that they get in their prints, that is part of the professional package that I offer. Of course such a part of the service costs, but it is a quality service and value for money if you are not disappointed when you compare your prints to the screen versions.

So next time you have a professional taking your pictures, try to view the results on a calibrated screen. An after-the-event sit down with your photographer, probably at their studio, should be part of the service at no extra cost because it should be inclusive in any package booked.

Looking up! - tips for good photography

It is always a little more flattering to take people pictures with them looking slightly up at you. It always helps with the chin-line and accentuates the eyes, especially with a shallow depth of field using a wide aperture.

It also helps if people have shorter noses, extending the the bridge of the nose and avoiding the darkess of nostrils.

I have already posted on the importance of a step ladder and the need to search for a higher perspective to add  an edge to your pictures. Experiment!

This young lady is a actor needing some images for her portfolio.

You do not have to be the pro - tips for good photography

When I do a wedding I have absolutely no objection to other people following me around to take pictures. The wedding photographer has the privileged position of being able to stand at the best place and angle most of the time, registrars and priests permitting. Obviously if people get in the way I have to be assertive, but this very rarely happens and a pause, an excuse me, a smile and raised eye brow generally is enough!

However, much can be learned by watching the official photographer not necessarily in terms of equipment, but how they set the subject and themselves. Also you have an advantage of getting that slightly relaxed moment just after the official picture was taken.

So don't be afraid of shadowing the professional, they too were once gifted amateurs and had to learn from someone else. Know of course when your presence is intrusive as sometimes the moments a couple spend with the photographer can be quite private and intimate, adding to the sometimes too brief amount of time the newlyweds have to be more alone on their busy wedding day.

These three images were taken at Tamworth Castle where Oona was playing and I was helping her. The couple were pleased to get the extra pictures I took. I kept a 'professional' distance from the actual hired photographer just to avoid all possible issues!

Vital equipment - a step ladder! - tips for good photography

What would I miss most between my new £1200 lens and my step ladder?

Well, I have other lenses in my bag and could work around not having the 24-70 zoom, not that I would want to as this lens gives me a wide aperture of f2.8 throughout the zoom creating lovely blurred backgrounds. However, for those group shots, and that slightly different angle, I would feel the loss of the step ladder was reducing my options! The ladder allows me to get people to look slightly upwards which not only gives a pleasant pose but stretches that neck a little improving the chin line for many people. I am also rather a short fellow at 5' 7" and for taller people just going up one step on the ladder can improve people posture and face position.

So if you have never thought of a step ladder as an important piece of photographic equipment try it out. You do not have to go to the top of the ladder, sometimes one step up is all you need.

Critical focus - tips for good photography

On a DSLR when you look through the viewfinder you are actually looking through the main lens. This means you can focus using the resolution of the human eye. I always use the viewfinder and almost never the live view on the LCD screen. In a point and shoot camera you only have the live view on the LCD screen and this is not totally reliable if you are manually focusing. This is partly because the resolution of the LCD screen is not really good enough to ensure sharp focus and getting that focus quickly. Of course, most of the time point and shoot cameras are focusing automatically so even if the screen does not seem sharp the picture probably is.

I also use my DSLR camera in auto-focus mode because, especially when photographing a wedding, it is easier to trust the camera as there is often quite a bit of people movement and I am more interested in controlling the depth of field and the background blur, isolating the main subject. When doing portraits I sometimes use manual focus because it is critical to get those eyes sharp, particularly difficult in low light conditions when auto-focus can struggle to lock on.

So give me a real optical view finder over an LCD screen to ensure critical focus especially when you are in manual focus.

New 24-70mm zoom lens arrived yesterday! - tips for great photography

The glass at the front of your camera is such an important part of taking a high quality picture. It is not of course as important as the lens in your own eye and your ability to 'see the picture' even before you raise the camera to capture the moment.

There are however reasons for all that heavy large glass in front of a professional photographers camera. First a big lens captures more light so is useful when there is not much light around and the need to turn on the flash is reduced. Secondly this lens allows me to have a big aperture, the transparent hole down the centre of the lens that actually lets the light in, which means I can control the depth of field, that part of the picture in sharp focus, useful if you want to isolate the subject from the background as you may do in portraits and wedding photography. This lens does this at wide focal lengths but also when I zoom in. Usually the diameter of the aperture increase and less light gets through so limiting your focus control.

This latest lens is also made to a very high specification including a fantastic build quality and weather proofing, I can now take pictures of weddings in the rain! The lens glass also have a number of special coatings to reduce flare, lines of bright circles created when light sources get into the composition.

Hopefully today I will get to play with this lens and then I can use it at a wedding I am photographing on Friday in Liverpool.

My camera is a DSLR so I can change lenses to meet whatever creative need I have for angle of view and depth of field. Point and shoot cameras usually have one fixed lens with sometimes, a limited amount of zoom.

If you can get a camera with interchangeable lenses I would advise it, but please remember the most important lens is the one in your eye and your creativity, a good photographer can get amazing pictures from even a pin-hole camera, and that has no lens!

Get to know the people you photograph - tips for great photography

Off to photograph a wedding here in Chester. Have really enjoyed the engagement portrait sessions I have done recently. It is a very good opportunity to get to know the couple, they then relax more, at least with me as their photographer, on the wedding day and pictures are always better!

Weather is a little blowy and cool here in Chester, but we should be able to get outside for some shots in the grounds.

Have  a good week!

Do I buy a D800? - tips for great photography

A digital SLR has become for most professional photographers the standard format. Based on the old 35mm cameras they have the advantage that what you see through the viewfinder is what you get in the image. Many compact cameras do not offer a viewfinder anymore, relying on the LCD screen to show you what the sensore will record. I still prefer to look through the viewfinder because it eliminates distraction and makes me focus on composition. Holding the camera closer to the body also reduces camera shake.

My most 'frequently looked at' flickr picture

By the way the letters SLR stand for Single Lens Reflex. That is to say you are looking through the lens which is taking the picture and a mirror that sends the image to the viewfinder lifts up when the shutter is pressed exposing the film or rather, the sensor. Extremely clever, but the amount of glass needed and the mirror makes these cameras heavy and expensive, so generally only professinal used them in the past. The Digital SLR, or DSLR has made the format much more accessible to the enthusiast who can now buy entry level cameras for a few hundred pounds, euros or dollars.

My most 'interesting' flickr picture

Another advantage of the SLR is that the pressing of the shutter means the image is instantly recorded when you want it to be, at that precise moment. On many small compact cameras there is still an annoying timelag, although it is improving all the time, it depends on how much money you are spending.

My most 'favourited' flickr picture

SLR cameras also come with detachable lenses with wonderful optical qualities. Add to this that a camera like the D800 has over 36 million pixels and the amount of detail is expected to be breathtaking. Cameras like the D800 also offer amazing high definition video and online examples of films made show that with this camera a 'professional' image quality is available to the very keen enthusiast prepared to learn how to use such a powerful, if more expensive, camera.

So is the D800 my next upgrade along with a Nikkor 24-70mm lens? Any views?

Examples of portrait work

I thought people might like to see some examples of my recent studio work using studio flash equipment.

Please follow this link to My Facebook page to see more images.

Red eye! - tips for good photographs

Red eye is the reflection of light directly from the blood rich retina (the normally black back of the eye with the light sensitive cells) from the flash being so bright and too close to the lens.

There are a number of ways this can be dealt with.

The most useful advice for the compact camera use is to check the camera manual to see if it sends out a bright 'pre-flash' to cause the pupils of the eyes to close in reflex. This reduces the amount of retina exposed to the 'real flash', but the small pupil size may not look natural.

Another alternative, but does require you to know how to set your camera up, is to increase the sensitivity of the cameras sensor, what is called the ISO. With an increased sensitivity you may not need to use the flash. If you can also increase the amount of natural light by opening curtains, or increase the amount of artificial light, this will all help the camera. Normally cameras are set up for an ISO of 200, but increasing this to 400, or 800, or greater may mean you don't use the flash. It is of course now a trade off between no red eye and what is called 'noise' in the image - bright pixels, and a kind haziness, which begins to affect the very dark and light areas of the image when the sensitivity is too high. The quality of the image will depend on the quality of the sensor.

If possible move the flash away from the axis of the lens. Impossible of course on a compact camera with a fixed flash and that is why camera companies have spent a lot of research and development money and time in reducing the effect in other ways. Worth pointing out that professionals rarely use the built in flashes and enjoy the power of a larger 'off camera' flashgun. Mind you, they do not come cheap, there is always a cost benefit trade-off when we are budgeting for a camera. I also almost always angle the head of my flashgun or 'bounce' the light of the ceiling or walls, again this requires a powerful flash as a lot of the light is lost with the extra distance it has to travel. It also helps to reduce the sharp flash shadow around the people in the picture.

If you have images with red eye all is not lost. Most software, including that which is free on the web, will have a facility to de-saturate the red in the eyes. Before I used Photoshop I used a program called 'GIMP' which my son put me onto. It is a free and very powerful downloadable photo editing program worth looking at if you are serious about making your images 'pop' from the screen at no extra cost except for time.

Using your flash - tips for great photography

I have some great flash equipment that I use with my DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) Nikon camera. Most smaller cameras have a built in flash, but these usually lack power so stick to using them close to your subject for best results, usually two to three metres, but not so close the image is over exposed. Most will have a 'red eye reduction' system either engaged at the time the picture is taken or in the software that came with the camera. The great thing about digital cameras is that you can review the image and try again, assuming your subject is prepared to try again too! As a professional photographer I not only have the advantage of some great and very powerful technology, but I still take lots of pictures and perhaps people are more prepared for it to take a little more time because, after all, they are paying for the service and want value for money.

The alternative to using flash is to increase the sensitivity or ISO on your images. The drawback here is that picture quality in terms of colour and graininess, although this can be seen as 'arty' especially if the image is turned into a black and white picture. This picture of Oona playing at Knowsley Hall is a case in point, I was there helping Oona with her harp and taking pictures of Oona playing. I was a long way away from the subjects and not using the flash because I did not want to be intrusive. Blur may also be  a problem with moving subjects like this bride.

Recently I photographed a christening and use the portable flash but off-camera on tripods and using reflective umbrellas. This is one of the big advantage of buying a DSLR because it gives you that expandable system of high quality and power flashes and lenses. Such system do come at a price but it is amazing how the entry level cameras are improving, taking on the attributes of the higher end professional cameras.

The bigger the flash the greater the reach and on a number of occasions having the extra power has made the difference. At a recent Charity Masquerade Ball in aid of the St Kentigern Hospice I was able to set up powerful studio flashes which gave almost total light control.

Next posts will look closer at 'red eye' and how to avoid it or deal with it afterwards, and then more about DSLRs an whether it is worth upgrading and the extra cost.

Great places to show off you images - tips for great photography

There are so many places to publish your pictures on the web.

I use a number myself starting with my own website. Being a professional photographer means I need to show case my work and have a way for people to contact me. At www.richardlinnett.com you will see examples of my paid images, although I regard myself as very fortunate that I have a job I love to do and earning a living from photographing people and places is a bonus!

Other places include Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardlinnett/ which has in the past been a great source of encouragement from a community of contacts interested in exchanging comments about images, seeking to help people as they improve their techniques. It is always good when someone comments positively especially if they add your picture to one of their galleries.

Within a social context I have also been building a fan page on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/RichardLinnett.photography. This has been particularly useful after photographing events like charity ball when people can quickly find me and make a contact to talk about images I have taken of them.

Recently I have also been putting together simple slide shows of my work for clients and publishing them, with permission, on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/GreenLinnett31/videos. It is handy for clients to be able to quickly see the imagery and point friends and family to the relevant video on my channel. These slide show videos do not have to be complicated or over-elaborate, and I often think that 'less is more', allowing the pictures and the music to speak for themselves.

None of the sites mentioned above require more than an intuitive understanding of how to use a website and most are free to use for someone just starting. Try one of the sites out and see what response your work gets. Leave me a message and I will have a look at your work.

Print big! - tips for great photography

New printer has arrived but which picture to enlarge to A3? A lot of people print their images even as small as 4 by 6 inches. I would suggest you only print the very best of your images and when you do, print at least 7 by 5 inches, bigger is even better. You will be amazed at how good your picture looks 10 by 8 inches in size.

Eagle

It is always a joy to see images printed large! I can often say it almost takes my breath away when I see my images on display. Oona and I are going to sit down and choose some images for the house. It could be that we have ideas for wall space but no absolutely right picture for it. This could be an opportunity to get out

37,000 feet

Putting images up  in the studio is a little easier to decide upon although leaving enough blank space to show them off well will be the challenge. I recently bought some signing boards for weddings which take a 10 by 8 inch image with a very broad border. These look great and and links to another post about giving your pictures 'breathing space'. We also want to put some images up as canvases. I had a canvas order recently and the image looked so good we thought we should have some of our own.

Medina - Malta

Happy printing!

Prints look fantastic! - tips for great photography

Did a lot of printing recently, images do look so much better off the screen especially if printed large. I am about to invest in an A3+ printer so that I can print more on demand. I will still use the lab for large orders and wedding album pictures to make the most of economies of scale.

When buying a printer always go for multiple inks as they will give your a greater range of colours. If you are serious about getting the colours 'right' then you need to calibrate your screen to the printer. Computer screens, depending on how they are set up, can generate many more colours than a printer so it is important to match the screen to the printer to avoid disappointment. I have a special device called a 'spyder' which sits over my monitor to help assess accurately the colours. This is important because as a wedding and portrait photographer I need to ensure that clients get accurate prints of what they see on my screen. When I send prints to the lab I used a printer profile they have sent me so that I know colours and tones will come back true.

The spyder does the same job with tones. What I have noticed in the past is that blacks on screen sometimes come out a 'bit thin' so I tend to boost the bottom end of the output range of tones to redress the problem. Some programs allow you to increas the 'dark' in a picture which is the same thing. This must not be overdone though, as the picture might then appear under exposed.

All too technical?

Just enjoy printing some of your favourite pictures as large as you can afford and have wall space for!

Make the most of special occasions - tips for great photography

I was recently commissioned to take photographs at a Masquerade Ball in aid of a Charity, the St Kentigern Hospice in North East Wales. If you attend such an event think hard about the best photographs to take of those attending with you, and then offer your pictures to the organizers free of charge for promotional use.

At such an event the key shots to get are of course ball gowns and masks. If you ask permission, especially if there is no official photographer, to take pictures of the speakers and special guests you will get some shots to remember and much thanks from the charities promotional team. The secret here is to not be too 'in the face', if you have a reasonable zoom lens use it, but to keep the quality don't push it to extremes.

Charities are perhaps finding it necessary to work on tight budgets for promotion so a volunteer is always welcome and it is great practice for your portrait skills.

The Ball took place at Chester Racecourse.

'It's the wrong settings Gromit!' - tips for great photography

Leaving your camera on automatic settings is a very safe way to make sure you get a picture but it will almost never get you the shot that 'pops' from the page or screen.

Automatic settings are great if it is the recording of events that is important above all else. If you want art you will have to move away from that setting and experiment more. However, you do need to occasional check that the setting you have changed are still the correct ones for the light and situation. You also need to check that they have not been accidentally altered by a knock or bump. Some settings on professional cameras can be locked into place, but not all.

Before each photographic shoot I have to be pretty meticulous that the settings are how I want them for this particular subject, situation and light and not just how they were the last time I used the camera. Simply being careful and professional. Some settings I hardly ever change - I always shoot in 'raw' and at the highest resolution possible. ISO I set as low as light will allow assuming I am looking to capture as much detail as I can and I'm not looking for 'atmospheric effects'.

Shutter speeds and aperture settings can be changed all the time and shooting in manual means I have to keep an eye on the light meter readings from the camera to avoid under and over exposure. I often want the largest aperture I can get to reduce the depth of field, blurring background and foreground for effect. This can mean pushing the shutter speed up outside and using fill in flash. Indoors we are relying on powerful flash guns that reach every corner of the room!

Modern cameras also have beautiful preview screens on the back and histograms which are even more useful. However, I try to avoid looking at every shot and try to trust I have set up the camera correctly.

So, always check your setting before shooting and then check them again occasionally especially if there is a change in the light or if they may have been knocked for some reason.