Why not come and see me at this event

Hi, I will be at the above event Saturday and Sunday thi weekend. It would be great to see you there. If you have a person or event to photograph I would be happy to capture the look and the moment. Feel free to contact me any time.

To see more about the event follow this link:

http://www.metquarter.com/Events/LIVERPOOLS_FINEST_WEDDING_FAIR_AT_METQUARTER.aspx

Night time photography - tips for good Photography

Photography is all about light. I have been fascinated by night time photography and the way modern cameras can  measuring low light very accurate. I was recently in Liverpool taking photographs of the Albert Dock. The following picture took a 30 second exposure. That is to say the shutter doors inside the camera which protect the pixels from the light until you are ready to take a picture were open for half a minute. I had to stand the camera on a tripod to avoid camera shake blurring the picture.

I also like the effect such long exposures have on the street lights, spraying the light out, and the orange glow they give everything.

Why not look at your camera manual and see if their is a night setting or long exposure control and take some unusual night images of familiar or famous places.

Ideally you need a camera with manual setting so that you can control the aperture and the shutter and in a future post I will talk about these.

If you have followed any of these tips and taken a photograph I would love to see them, just tell me where I can view them onthe web, or email me them. Perhaps if I get enough I will create a gallery of all the images.

Getting in close - tips for good Valentine's Photography

Most modern cameras will allow you to get in pretty close, you may even want to use the close-up settings usually symbolised by a little flower which is kind of appropriate on Valentine's Day! Getting close also seemed an appropriate theme for the blog. None of the following were shot using the close-up functions and I might post more on this later.

The following pictures use a telephoto or zoom lens to do the jobof getting close. The advantage of a zoom or telephoto lens is that you do not have to be close to get a sense of the intimate. This does two things: makes it easier to get candid pictures, and it foreshortens perspective giving an apparently shorter depth of field which helps to isolate the subject.

The first picture is of Lucky the Cat, so called because he was picked up as a small kitten dying on the Dublin Cork Road  and nursed back to health by my inlaws before coming to live with us. He is a fat cat now who lies around in the grass in the summer, so was easy to photograph!

The next one was taken at a recent Christening I had the priveledge of attending and being the official photographer. By being close I eliminated the background detail and focused on the most important thing - the drops of water tumbling onto the baby, a picture of an importat moment in the child's and families life which they will want to relive through the picture.

The final image was taken in the winter when you get those bright blue frozen days. There were a mass of bullrushes but this one stood out as the best example of the lot, especially the way the wind had blown the downy seeds onto one side. A little bit of backlighting also caught my eye and the off-centre composition made it for me a good picture.

Please feel free to comment on the blog or go to my website http://www.richardlinnett.com/ and leave a message- all feedback welcome and I promise to respond.

Odd numbers are best? - tips for good Photography

Sorry I have not posted recently -been rushed off my feet with work.

A trick many professionals use is the 'rule' of odd numbers. Compositions are generally more pleasing when there is either one, three or other odd number elements. These make good compositions and we perceive a greater sense of balanced tension in the photographs.

That is not to say you cannot photograph pairs, etc. but the composition has to be thought through much more to make it work.

Here are a couple of examples:

Notice the balance even thought the solitary tree is not in the middle. This off-centre composition gives the image tension and interest. I call the picture 'nearly perfect' because of that solitary, partially leafless branch in the top right which to my eye spoils the wonderful shape of this tree. I could have removed it with photoshop software and the composition might have been even stronger, but something stopped me, perhaps the branch adds to the uniqueness of this tree. You might recognise it by the way as the tree Darcy rides away beneath in the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice, and can be found in Lyme Park.

Also notice what happens when a second tree is introduced:

It was much more difficult to compose a pleasing image, not that this image was the best, and no matter how I cropped it, it never caugth my eye the way the first image did.

In th following picture the three ascending stems also make for a better balance than if I had only included two in the final crop.

Hope this has been food for thought, and as always I would encourage you to try it out and see what you think.

Find someone who wants to have their picture taken - tips for good Photography

Last weekend I had the great pleasure of photographing a beautiful young woman to help me develop my wedding portfolio. It is so much easier when people are prepared to spend some time with you getting a good photograph. Candid shots are excellent of course, capturing the moment. However, there is also something profound about a well taken portrait that shows off a loved one in literally the best light.

Here is a project for you - ask someone close if you can take a photograph of them where taking the photograph is the most important thing. Perhaps it can be taken with their favourite belonging, a book, musical instrument, etc. Make the photograph the important thing and take the image just a little more seriously than you do normally when at a family occasion or event.

Make the next one more than a snap shot.

Best wishes,

Richard

Finding a high or low viewpoint - tips for good Photography

Standard full length or head and shoulder shots from eye level is how most 'snap' photography works. However, to put a bit of flare into your pictures why not deliberately take shots from bended knee or from the top of the stairs, or even, risk assessment allowing, by standing on a chair or step ladder!

Photographing children really does require you to get down to their eye level. See the world as they see it as in this picture.

By getting down low there is added atmosphere as in this wet street scene in Chester. Getting low accentuates the texture of the cobbles and gives a very different perspective.

Oona asked me to take some shots of her for a 'day in the life' article. She was setting up in the hotel readying to play at the drinks reception when I noticed a stair and balcony behind her. Looking over the balcony gave me an interesting and fresh angle on the harp.

Feel free to email me examples of where you have used an idea in this blog and I will include it in a future blog, full credit given.

Best wishes,

Richard

PS Sorry the blog is late, too much work and when I have had the chance too tired to do it justice!

Turn some of your images into black and white - tips for good Photography

When I first started taking and developing pictures it was in black and white. Only required three chemicals and a red lit dark room. Absolutely loved the magic of seeing the latent image appear on the paper. Digital cameras and software make it so easy to get a reasonable black and white image today. The following picture which I call 'The Awakening' is an extreme example of what can be done with an originally not very promising image taken with a rather slow lens, if you want to know what a slow lens is please leave a comment. As you can see I think it made rather a good conversion to black and white.

What is it about black and white that still makes it attractive? I feel it is the simplicity and a clearer sense of depth and separation that you get with just the dark and light tones.

The following landscapes illustrate how this works in situations when the light is bright and with a subject where the colour was not the most important thing.

Architecture can also lend itself to a simplification in black and white. This is the Radisson Hotel lobby in Liverpool which I call 'Black and White Balconies'. The simple geometry accentuated in the pattern, repetition and perspective adds a great deal of interest.

Portraits in black and white certainly have an atmosphere that one could argue is not always there when in colour. I took this last picture at a christening and the purity of the black and white image seemed to reflect better the strength of the mother-daughter relationship.

If more moody is what you are trying to achieve in your photography, then have a go at using the black

and white setting on your cameras controls, or have a go in the software that came with the camera. There are also programmes on the internet that will do it for you very quickly and easily.

Happy shuttering!