Apologies Readers but the original article that appeared here has been removed at the request of the Author. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

However – don’t fear – there’s plenty of great posts in our archives to read on the topic of portraiture that are not going anywhere.

How to Take Portraits – 19 Portrait Photography Tutorials from Our Archives

1. 10 Tips to Take Stunning Portraits

This post (one of the most popular that we’ve ever published on DPS) gives 10 fairly general tips on how to take portraits with the ‘wow factor’.

It’s all about adding variety to your portraits by doing things like altering your perspective, adding a prop, experimenting with eye contact and getting your subject out of their comfort zone (to name just a few).

It picks up ideas found in many of the following tutorials and would make a great place to start if you’re looking for an introduction to the topic.

2. 10 More Tips for Stunning Portrait Photography

In this followup to the last tutorial we extend the idea of adding variety to your shots.

It explores framing, wide angle lenses, backgrounds and experimenting with focusing.

All in all this post takes this mini series to 20 portrait photography techniques that have been read by hundreds of thousands.

I’d love to hear any thoughts you’d have on other techniques that you use to add variety to portraits in the comments on this post.

3. Give Your Subject Space to Look Into

This technique is basic but can have a real impact upon your shots.

Framing your portraits so that your subject has room to look into gives a shot balance and helps draw the eye of those viewing the image into the image.

Try it for yourself – but don’t forget, sometimes ‘rules’ like this one can be broken with great effect also – so experiment with that too!

4. 4 Quick Tips for Portraits

I Love picking the brains of professional photographers and this is what I did in this post in which a portrait photographer shared with me four parts of his shooting workflow.

The tips are simple yet effective – I particularly like the way that he shoots from slightly under the eye line of your subject – a technique that causes a little interesting debate in the comments of this post.

Drop by and tell us what you think!

5. Photographing Children – Composition

This is a topic we have always been asked a lot about and so it was one of the earliest tutorials that we included on DPS (it’s one that we are planning to update in the coming month). Photographing children can be a lot of fun although is also challenging (if only they’d sit still).

We look at photographing babies and older children – but if you’re looking for more tips on photographing babies you should check out this more extensive photographing babies tutorial. Also on a related note – check out How to Photograph a Children’s birthday party.

6. How to Photograph People When Traveling

Travel photography is something of a passion for me and I find that filling my travel albums with pictures of local people adds a lot of interest to those I show my shots to.

However photographing people in a foreign land can be challenging – there’s language issues, cultural challenges and more.

In this tutorial I share 8 tips that I’ve found helpful in getting great travel portraits.

7. Asking Permission to Photograph People

This tutorial came out of questions people asked in response to the last one on travel portrait photography.

There’s different schools of thought on how to approach photographing strangers – some just take shots of people without asking – but in this tutorial I talk about how I’d much rather get permission first.

I find that in most cases people are willing to pose if you’re polite and friendly.

8. How to Take Environmental Portraits

Environmental Portraits are those where you take the portrait of a subject within the context that they live in (work, rest or play).

I love this type of portrait because it gives you subject context, adds interest to your shot and can give some sort of insight to your subject. I also find subjects tend to relax more when you photograph them there.

Take some environmental portraits and then drop by our forum’s portrait area to share them with us.

9. What the Mona Lisa Can Teach You about Portraits

This post arose out of a visit of mine to Paris where I saw the Mona Lisa.

This little painting by Leonardo Da Vinci is one of the most famous portraits in history – but why is it so famous and can we as portrait photographers today learn something from it?

In this tutorial I’ve pulled out a number of things that I think Leonardo does with the Mona Lisa that could inform our own portrait photography.

10. A Fresh Look at Depth of Field

Depth of Field is something that applies to all types of photography but it’s something that can have quite a profound impact upon a portrait if you know how to us it.

In this tutorial Natalie shares a range of ways that Depth of Field can be used to add variety, create interest (or remove distractions) in your portrait work.

Also on a similar topic – Overcoming Depth of Field Problems in Portraits.

11. Posing Tips – Shoulders

Sometimes it’s the simplest things that have the biggest impact upon a photograph.

When I was compiling this list I almost left this one out as at a first glance it can seem a little trivial – however it is something that I’ve used again and again when posing portraits.

It’s also something that I noticed a pro photographer doing with me when I was sitting for a portrait session recently. If it’s good enough for the Pros – it’s good enough for me!

12. Posing – Waistlines, Thighs and Bustlines

While we’re on the topic of posing for portraits – here’s another group of quick posing tips – this time taken from the posing that we see on the ‘red carpet’ of any event with celebrities.

These tips are all about getting the most flattering looks for different parts of the body (waistlines, thighs and bust lines)

Try them – they really do work!

13. Where is Your Subject Looking Why it Matters

When it comes to where to ask your subject to look there are a number of options open to portrait photographers.

You can have them look directly at you, you can ask them to look at something outside the frame of your shot or you could have them look at something (or someone) within the frame.

Each of these options can work well – but each will have a different impact upon your shots.

14. How to Pose Hands in Portraits

I was chatting with a portrait painter recently and he told me that for many painters ‘hands’ are the most challenging part of the body to paint.

As photographers we might look at hands as something we have little control over – however the way they appear in shots can reveal a lot about our subject (and how they are feeling). As a result it’s worth paying at least a little attention to the hands of our subject when doing portrait work.

This tutorial gives a few hints as to how to work with hands.

15. What Clothes to Wear in Portraits

What Should I wear?

It’s a question that most portrait photographers get asked a lot by clients and in this tutorial I give a number of tips from my own approach (my approach is to keep clothes relatively plain and allow the focus to remain upon the subject themselves) and then invite readers to share theirs.

Read this tutorial on clothing in portraits here.

16. How to bypass the Portrait Mode

Many digital camera owners rarely switch their camera out of one of Auto mode and when they do it’s usually to one of the other semi-automatic modes (like portraits, sports, landscapes etc).

While there’s nothing wrong with these semi-automatic modes – there’s a real satisfaction in venturing into manual mode where YOU call the shots rather than your camera. In this tutorial I share a few starting points if you’re up for the challenge of getting out of Portrait Mode.

17. 4 Tips for Natural Looking Portraits

In this tutorial one of our regular contributors (Natalie, a great portrait photographer) shares some great tips on getting your subjects to relax and look comfortable in their environment.

She talks ‘hands’, ‘stools’, ‘distractions’ and ‘respect’.

I think you’ll agree that the images she shares in the tutorial are pretty special too and show just how well the tips she shares work.

18. An Introduction to Catchlights

A “catchlight” is simply the highlight of a light source reflected off the surface of the eye.

This highlight adds depth and dimension to the eye, and gives the eyes life in a portrait or snapshot.

But how do you get them?

In this tutorial one of our forum members puts together a great tutorial on the topic of catchlights – enjoy.

19. 11 Tips for Better Candid Photography

Sometimes the best portrait is one where your subject has no (or little) idea that you’ve taken the shot at all – because you’re shooting candidly.

The 11 tips for candid photos in this tutorial range from the obvious (long zooms and shooting lots) through to tips on framing images and shooting ‘people with people’.

A quick note – I find that often shooting candidly works well before or after a more formal portrait shoot.

These Tips just scratch the Surface of our Archives

We’re producing new tutorials on portrait photography and other types of shooting every day – the best way to keep up with them all is to subscribe here.

Read more from our Portrait Photography Category

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A Guest Post by Diane May from Learn Photography at Home.

It’s Important to Remember that in a Portrait Session You’re Photographing a Person.

At first, learning how to balance the technical and creative processes along with the person you are photographing can be difficult. You have to find your rhythm while you communicate not only visually but verbally. This is a technique that may take time and experience to develop. It’s important to learn about the craft technically and creatively so you will not be overwhelmed with the people part of photography. One key element or really a requirement is you must like people; otherwise, it would be better for you to become a product or landscape photographer.

I remember a portrait session with a real estate broker. She needed a headshot for her business card. It should have been a simple session with the lighting, posing, camera angle, right? Wrong. I thought to myself, “I’m in college studying photography and this will be a no brainer.” There’s a difference between being overconfident and being just plain confident. You should be sure of yourself, your abilities and talent, but don’t lose sight of the person in front of you. I was so busy focusing on the technical and creative side; I literally forgot to factor in the person. I spoke very little and she just sat tapping her fingers and looking around bored. The images had strong lighting, the pose was good, but the expression was weak. She had lost interest and you could read it on her face, especially in her eyes. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in everything else we forget the person is the most important part of the portrait session. This isn’t just something beginners need to balance but some professionals as well.

If you want to become strong in your portrait skills, communication with the person you are photographing is essential. As your photography skills and knowledge develop, and you start to feel more comfortable in your own skin. You will need to learn how to carry on a conversation with your client, so they feel comfortable and relaxed. The easiest way to start a conversation is to ask a question. After all, you need to know what this portrait is for and how it will be used. Ask them about their family, talk about friends, or what they like to do, tell a joke. Humor can be a very useful tool for relaxing people. It’s important to listen to their responses or what they are communicating and feeling. You have to be sensitive to their needs.

Also, you should move smoothly throughout the session. In other words, your clients should never be aware you are thinking technically, creatively or possibly have an unwelcomed visit from Murphy. The correct exposure and pose are essential to a strong portrait, but the overall portrait will be a failure if the expression is poor. You can unsuccessfully break the rules or mess up the lighting or pose and to a degree save the shot with a good expression.

Remember, portrait photography is more than the creative and technical aspects. You need to be a people person and develop a relationship with them in a short span of time. Hopefully, as you become more experienced in taking portraits, you will move through the session with ease. When people feel comfortable and they like the person taking their portrait, getting a good expression will be simple and almost effortless.

My advice is not to get so wrapped up in the craft that you forget you are taking a portrait of a person. Otherwise, not only will the work inevitably suffer, but if you’re trying to build a business it may prove to be disastrous. Portrait photography is more than cameras and equipment; it’s about people having a memorable experience and enjoying you as a person. Basically, put yourself in their shoes, would you want to be photographed by someone who had the personality of a rock? Develop a personality as a photographer to compliment your photographic style. This is the only photography tool that’s free and is one of the most important. My mom use to say, “God gave us two ears and one mouth, because he wants you to listen twice as much as you talk.” That is excellent advice, so talk to you client but more importantly listen, fulfill their needs and not only see but hear the difference.

About the Author: Diane May has been a professional photographer for over 20 years and has created an Online Course for Beginners-Intermediate Photographers.

Read more from our Portrait Photography Category

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DigitalPhotographySchool/~3/B2jVlKN_UEE/how-to-be-comfortable-taking-portraits-when-your-just-starting-out

A Guest Post by Diane May from Learn Photography at Home.

It’s Important to Remember that in a Portrait Session You’re Photographing a Person.

At first, learning how to balance the technical and creative processes along with the person you are photographing can be difficult. You have to find your rhythm while you communicate not only visually but verbally. This is a technique that may take time and experience to develop. It’s important to learn about the craft technically and creatively so you will not be overwhelmed with the people part of photography. One key element or really a requirement is you must like people; otherwise, it would be better for you to become a product or landscape photographer.

I remember a portrait session with a real estate broker. She needed a headshot for her business card. It should have been a simple session with the lighting, posing, camera angle, right? Wrong. I thought to myself, “I’m in college studying photography and this will be a no brainer.” There’s a difference between being overconfident and being just plain confident. You should be sure of yourself, your abilities and talent, but don’t lose sight of the person in front of you. I was so busy focusing on the technical and creative side; I literally forgot to factor in the person. I spoke very little and she just sat tapping her fingers and looking around bored. The images had strong lighting, the pose was good, but the expression was weak. She had lost interest and you could read it on her face, especially in her eyes. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in everything else we forget the person is the most important part of the portrait session. This isn’t just something beginners need to balance but some professionals as well.

If you want to become strong in your portrait skills, communication with the person you are photographing is essential. As your photography skills and knowledge develop, and you start to feel more comfortable in your own skin. You will need to learn how to carry on a conversation with your client, so they feel comfortable and relaxed. The easiest way to start a conversation is to ask a question. After all, you need to know what this portrait is for and how it will be used. Ask them about their family, talk about friends, or what they like to do, tell a joke. Humor can be a very useful tool for relaxing people. It’s important to listen to their responses or what they are communicating and feeling. You have to be sensitive to their needs.

Also, you should move smoothly throughout the session. In other words, your clients should never be aware you are thinking technically, creatively or possibly have an unwelcomed visit from Murphy. The correct exposure and pose are essential to a strong portrait, but the overall portrait will be a failure if the expression is poor. You can unsuccessfully break the rules or mess up the lighting or pose and to a degree save the shot with a good expression.

Remember, portrait photography is more than the creative and technical aspects. You need to be a people person and develop a relationship with them in a short span of time. Hopefully, as you become more experienced in taking portraits, you will move through the session with ease. When people feel comfortable and they like the person taking their portrait, getting a good expression will be simple and almost effortless.

My advice is not to get so wrapped up in the craft that you forget you are taking a portrait of a person. Otherwise, not only will the work inevitably suffer, but if you’re trying to build a business it may prove to be disastrous. Portrait photography is more than cameras and equipment; it’s about people having a memorable experience and enjoying you as a person. Basically, put yourself in their shoes, would you want to be photographed by someone who had the personality of a rock? Develop a personality as a photographer to compliment your photographic style. This is the only photography tool that’s free and is one of the most important. My mom use to say, “God gave us two ears and one mouth, because he wants you to listen twice as much as you talk.” That is excellent advice, so talk to you client but more importantly listen, fulfill their needs and not only see but hear the difference.

About the Author: Diane May has been a professional photographer for over 20 years and has created an Online Course for Beginners-Intermediate Photographers.

Read more from our Portrait Photography Category

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DigitalPhotographySchool/~3/B2jVlKN_UEE/how-to-be-comfortable-taking-portraits-when-your-just-starting-out

The quest for tack sharp photos is something most photographers are on the quest for – but sometimes it is a lack of focus can really make a shot what it is. Here are 12 images that either are completely ‘unfocused’ or which use focus selectively. Learn more about the technique of taking unfocused images here.

Image by Tiago Ribeiro

Image by VictoriaPeckham

Image by Jeff Kubina

Image by Brian Auer

Image by Young Toymaker

Image by dotbenjamin

Image by RobW

Image by Pulpolux

Image by Gabriela Camerotti

Image by abstrato

Image by abstrato

Image by Joe Penniston

Image by nathangibbs

Get more image collections like this by subscribing to DPS.

Read more from our Digital Photography Case Studies Category

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DigitalPhotographySchool/~3/8X76nzuhhb0/out-of-focus-photos

Outdoor Portraits present portrait photographers a variety of challenges and opportunities. Today James Pickett from America the Lost suggests 13 tips to help you with your outdoor portrait work.

Image by riot jane

With my very first digital SLR there was a sigh of relief, everything was going to be so much easier now and I didn’t have to think anymore.

You know the scenario; you pull the camera out, charge the batteries, go for a walk around the house and down the street taking the same pictures you have taken every time a new camera came into your life. “This is great!” you think to yourself, “this is going to make my life so much easier!” I was wrong… In fact, I was dead wrong.

There are three very simple things that improve all photography, including portraits. To this day, there is no trick I have found that replaces the need for proper exposure, white balance, and sharp focus. Today’s digital cameras have less exposure latitude than a roll of Kodak gold film. In-camera metering systems have become much more advanced, but the sensors still lack the seven ƒ-stop exposure latitude that negative film has.

1) Never select all of the focus points for portraits, pick one.

When you pick the autofocus option that allows the camera to select focus points, you are doing your portraits a terrible disservice. This feature of a camera is usually designed to pick whatever is closest to the lens and focus there. In some cases, like with my 1DS Mark III, the camera will choose a cluster of focus points and make a “best guess” based on averaging the distance between all of the chosen points. Using one focus point gives you, the photographer, ultimate control.

2) Always focus on the eyes.

The eyes are the windows to the soul, and should be the focal point of any good portrait. Not only are the eyes the most important part of a good portrait, but they are the sharpest element on the face and should be left that way. When you are shooting with a wide aperture value focused on the eyes, the lens’s bokeh will aid in softening the skin as well.

Image by Geomangio

3) Shoot wide open for shallow depth of field.

There are quite a few reasons to invest in a fast lens capable of wide aperture values; the most common is for shallow depth of field. Now that you can shoot at ƒ2.8 or ƒ4 you should use it. Most fantastic natural light portraits are from wide aperture values and it is all because of the wonderful smooth background blur we call “bokeh”.

4) Never, ever, shoot a portrait at less than 50mm; try to stay at 70mm or higher.

The last thing you want to hear from a client is “Why does my head look swelled?” Any focal length below 70mm can distort your subject, however it doesn’t become very noticeable until you are below 50 MM. The compression effect of a telephoto lens will also increase the blur of bokeh. Most of my portraits are done between 120mm and 200mm.

5) Always shoot in RAW.

A thousand times these words have bellowed from my mouth, and it will surely come out a million more. Raw is an unmodified compilation of your sensors data during the time of exposure. It is your digital negative. When you shoot in JPG format, everything but what the image processor needs to make a shell representation of the image you intended to capture is stripped away. For every edit you make to a JPG, you lose more data. With RAW, you can make a vast range of edits before creating the JPG. How can this make you portrait better? Think about the last time your white balance was set incorrectly, and you tried for hours to remove the color cast only to destroy the image with every attempt. RAW would have saved you by allowing you to fix the color before opening the image for retouching.

6) Always bring a gray card or a piece of a gray card for white balance.

You got me, gray cards aren’t free. However, $5.95 US for a cardboard Kodak gray card is darn close. To avoid confusion, I am going to explain this backwards. When opening Adobe Camera Raw or any other RAW image editing application there is always a way to select a custom white balance. Usually it is an eyedropper of some kind that you can use to click on what you think is neutral gray in your image. Imagine a world where your photo shoot involved 4 locations and a total of 800 images, and all day the camera was set to Auto White Balance. That is 800 different white balance values, a post production nightmare. If, at each location, you have your subject hold the gray card on the first shot, you will save hours of work. When you open location one (200 images) in your favorite post production application, all you have to do is click the eye dropper on the gray card, select all and synchronize the rest. Precious hours have been saved. (If you plan on taking your time, it may be wise to do this once every 30 minutes or so to compensate for the changing light of day.)

7) Shoot in the shade (Avoid direct sunlight)

Direct sunlight is harsh, makes your subject squint, and creates hard directional shadows and unpredictable white balance conditions. When shooting in the shade, there are no more harsh shadows, only smooth milky shadows created by your subject’s natural features. With proper exposure and white balance, you can make these shots look amazing.

Shooting carefully on an overcast day.

Natures softbox is a giant blanket of clouds. A good heavy blanket of cloud cover can help you enrich your colors, and make some very smooth and pleasing shadows.

9) If you must use hot, hard, bright light…

Always try to control the direction, use some kind of reflector, and try to mimic a studio light. Putting the sun directly behind your subject isn’t a good idea, unless you are trying to make a silhouette. When the sun is at my back, I have the subject look off camera (away from the sun) and get very nice results. Another great trick is to wait for a cloud to move in front of the sun, this usually creates a very bright yet contrasted look.

Image by Meredith Farmer

10) Use an existing reflector.

For example, my guess is that about 75% of the delivery trucks on the planet are white. These big white delivery trucks can make amazing fill light reflectors as long as they weren’t painted with an off white. (A yellow tint can change the white balance in your shadows.) Picture framing outlets and craft stores always have medium to large sized pieces of foam core lying around that have been left for scrap. They are usually more than happy to part with these scraps, and if not, chances are there are pieces by the dumpster.

11) Learn the sunny ƒ16 rule.

Why? So you have a baseline for proper exposure in your mind to work with if no other tools are present. The sunny ƒ16 rule states that on a sunny day, with your aperture value set to ƒ16, your shutter speed will be the inverse of the current ISO speed. For example, if your camera is set to ISO 100, and your aperture value is ƒ16, your shutter speed will be 1/100th of a second. On a cloudy day (or when in the shade) you simply use ƒ8 instead. If you own either an incident light meter, or gray card use either for the most accurate exposure instead. (Note: the procedure for metering exposure with a gray card is not the same as a custom white balance.)

12) Bring a sheet and a few spring clamps from home.

Leave the expensive 200 thread count sheets on the bed. You already got them? Well go put them back. You know that cheap old sheet you stuck in the corner of a closet to use as a drop cloth the next time you paint? Go get it. (Another option is to buy the cheapest, lowest thread count, white top sheet you can find.) A queen size sheet is an amazing, cheap, diffuser. Sort of a sever foot soft box for the sun. Wrap an edge of the sheet around a branch or clothes line and clamp for a side light. (Anchor the bottom corners with rocks to keep it from blowing into your image.) Clamp all for corners to anything you can above your subject for an overhead light.

13) Keep the power-lines and signs out!

We have already discussed keeping your camera focused on the eyes; keep your mind focused on the image as a whole. Power lines, signs, long single blades of grass, single pieces of garbage, sometimes even trees can be serious distractions from the overall focus of the image… The person you are photographing.

Last, and most important, have a great time shooting, enjoy what you’re doing and it will show in your work, and the expression of your subject.

A few Bonus Tips on Shooting on Cloudy Days

Clouds are wonderful. They create a giant blanket of natural sunlight diffusion to make your images rich and powerful. The clouds can fool your mind in ways you can’t imagine, much like your mind corrects for the natural white balance throughout the day.

When you are shooting on an overcast day, custom white balance is especially important. Every day is completely different for color, and that color depends on two things. First, the time of day, as most people understand white balance and how it changes throughout the day. Second, you have to account for all of the wonderful things that light has to pass through before it hits your subject.

Pollution changes the color of the light from minute to minute even if your eyes don’t see it, your camera does. On a cloudy day, pollution particles are being carried around in the sky by little tiny prisms; water droplets. Now your sunlight is passing through nature’s prism and reflecting off of pollution particles in infinite directions.

Don’t forget to white balance with that custom, tricked out, six dollar piece of cardboard, your Kodak gray card.

The ultimate secret to shooting on a cloudy day is a compass. (You either tipped your head like a confused Chihuahua or just had an epiphany.) I am an experienced, internationally published photographer, and rarely can I see where the sun is coming from on an overcast day. The light isn’t omnipresent; it’s just diffused, softened and scattered. Sunlight on a cloudy day is still directional, and your subject still has a dark side. Use a compass to find out where the sun is, put it at your back and shoot like mad. Never again will you look at an image after and wonder why the sky is blown out when it was so cloudy, or why the clouds look great but your subject is dark.

Check out more work of James Pickett at his site America the Lost

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DigitalPhotographySchool/~3/R8KaqRxGs8A/13-tips-for-improving-outdoor-portraits

For those in the northern hemisphere, it’s mid-summer, and Leisure seems to be on everyone’s mind. So, as we bring our Leisure assignment to a close, we picked out three photos that we thought really exemplified leisure.

Our winner this week was bigrobo89’s “Tumble Dryer” a.k.a. wet dog. No matter who you are, this photo is bound to make you smile. bigrobo89 caught this movement at just the right time and the look on the golden retriever’s face is just pure happiness. The water drops flying around really give a good feeling of movement. Well done!

Our first runner up was Irn72’s “Cold Beer After Work”. With this shot, the way the subject fills the frame really works well to show what was focus. The post processing was also good, and as one judge said, “it looks yummy!”

And last, but not least was lensonsim’s “Leisure by Sunset”. This shot just exudes quite, peaceful, serenity. The colours are great, and the silhouette works really well.

Nicely done everyone!

Unusual Viewpoints is out most recent assignment. Do you remember your first early shots with a camera? The ones you took standing straight up and shooting what was right in front of you? Then you learned that bending to face a child was better than just looking down at them. Pretty soon you were shooting from all sorts of strange heights. So for this assignment we want you to take a shot of a subject of your choice, but from an unusual angle. As always, a quick reminder of the rules. First, your photo must have been taken between 20 July – 3 August 2011. Second, your post must include the words “Unusual Viewpoints” and the date the photo was taken. Finally, your EXIF should be intact, and it’s useful if you can include some of the main points such as camera, lens, aperture, ISO, etc.

Our next assignment will be Zoom While Shooting. You’ll need a zoom lens for this one in order to create the effect right in your camera. No editing should be used to create it afterwards on your computer, though other editing is allowed.

Best of luck everyone!

Read more from our From the Forums Category

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This week your challenge is to photograph and share an image on the theme of ‘Reflections’.

Image by Spreng Ben

The topic was suggested by Carol Fraser on our Facebook page.

The theme opens up all kinds of possibilities – you might like to incorporate reflections off water (landscapes), mirrors, glass, metal…. or some other shiny object. Or perhaps you have a photo that is ‘reflective’ in some other more metaphorical way. It’s totally up to you.

However you interpret it – use this challenge is a motivation to get out with your camera this weekend!

Once you’ve taken your ‘Reflections’ Images – choose your best 1-2, upload them to your favourite photo sharing site and either share a link to them or – embed them in the comments using the our new tool to do so.

If you tag your photos on Flickr, Instagram, Twitter or other sites with Tagging tag them as #DPSREFLECTIONS to help others find them. Linking back to this page might also help others know what you’re doing so that they can share in the fun.

Also – don’t forget to check out some of the great shots posted in last weeks Things that Are Broken challenge where there were some great shots submitted.

Read more from our Reader Questions Category

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DigitalPhotographySchool/~3/OUvrVtAueQo/reflections-weekly-photography-challenge

A Guest Post by James Maher

So you want to be a great street photographer. You want to be able to strap your camera around your wrist and boldly walk down the streets, eagle-eyed and aware of everything around you, yet still in tune with your camera settings and its F-stops, its strengths and limitations. You want to visualize a moment happening and then capture it exactly as you saw it, to be preserved forever as a moment of history.

I’m not going to sugarcoat things; this is downright hard to do. I’ve been doing street photography for almost 10 years and I struggle with it every single day. There are just so many competing and unanticipated aspects that all need to come together in unison for a great street photograph to work.

• You need to know your camera and its settings extremely well in different lighting situations and be able to switch between them constantly and quickly.
• You need to have catlike reflexes to frame and catch that split second moment.
• You need to be able to see that split second moment happening before it does.
• You often need to have the patience to park yourself in the right place, knowing that a special moment will eventually come.
• You need to be able to visualize yet still react.
• You need to tell stories and capture emotions.
• You need to be simultaneously creative and technical.

You will have to be persistent and learn to be hardheaded to get good. Sometimes you will see a moment and miss it. Other times your camera will be ready but you won’t see the moment until it is too late. Sometimes you will be too afraid to shoot quickly enough and will miss the moment by a split second. You will want to tear your hair out afterwards. It happens to all of us.

Street photography is a genre where you have to accept so many failures before you get that one success, where the captures can count in the thousands, while the great successes can be counted on your fingers and toes.

So let’s get down to it. What is the best way to start out? How do you take that first step into the vast pool of street photography and then set upon a path to improve and grow?

Start Slowly with a Medium/Long Zoom Lens

If you are a beginner, I think that the best way to start is to take your time, to be patient and to really think about what you are doing.

You don’t need to run out the door and take a thousand photos of everything that moves. You shouldn’t click the shutter constantly because you are afraid of missing the shot. The photographers that take the most shots of a subject are usually the ones that miss THE moment.

Try to anticipate when a moment will happen and capture the photo with a shot or two at the right point. Don’t be afraid to miss. You will miss sometimes, but the ones you hit will be way better than the hundreds of photos you will have otherwise taken that are almost there but not quite. Only worry about taking lots of photos if the scene starts to further develop.

After all, if you’re shooting constantly then you can’t actually see what’s happening.

Now I’m sure that you’ve already read (and I have personally written) about many different specific techniques, such as only using wide-angle primes, getting in close, shooting from the hip, using a long zoom or maybe even about popping up suddenly in front of someone’s face with a blinding flash (ala Bruce Gilden). Every street photographer shoots a little differently and there is no correct way to do it. You should eventually try out each technique.

I switch up my techniques constantly. It’s like that candy-bar commercial: “Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t.” I may always feel like a nut, but some days I wake up as a wide-angle prime lens man and others I feel like using a zoom. Often I use both.

But let’s get back to you. To start out, I think that you should use a zoom that has a little distance to it. You can try a 28-300, a 24-105, or even a 70-200.

Keep some distance from your subject. This will give you more time to see a moment happening, more time to anticipate a moment happening, more room to frame correctly and it will keep people from noticing you as much.

In this photo I watched the box float all the way down the street in the direction of the cube during a huge snowstorm. It hit the bicycle stand and floated up into the same shape as the cube for a second and then was blown down the street. There was only a split second where this photo worked.

Think about what you are shooting and why. Train your eyeballs. Is there a strong emotion or idea present, does a person have a unique face, outfit or expression, are there powerful colors, patterns or angles in the scene? Then focus in and frame what is important.

Don’t run around the streets quickly searching out people. Instead, go to an area with some foot traffic and good lighting or an interesting background, set your camera to manual and pick the correct F-stop, shutter speed and ISO, and wait for the subjects to come into your scene. Search out the background and create the scene.

Get used to figuring out where to focus and on how to change your focus quickly. Pay attention and study the correct camera settings. This will come in very handy later when you switch to wide-angle primes.

Then, once you get your shot, try someplace new.

I can’t stress enough to take your time and get used to searching out what’s around you. Survey buildings, lighting, people, color and angles. Don’t just photograph everyone that you get close to. A great day is when you come back with a single epic photo, not twenty good ones.

Edit your photos. Really spend a lot of time editing. So much of street photography is about the editing. Learn from your successes and mistakes by looking at them, over and over. Figure out your strengths and weaknesses. Spend a lot of time going over what you shot. It will help train your eye for when you are out photographing.

Eventually you will start to notice themes popping up in your work that you didn’t notice while you were out photographing.

Street photography with a tripod? Blasphemy! It took hours of waiting to get this shot right.

Go Fast with a Wide-Angle Prime

Once you get comfortable with the previous method then you should switch it up.

Attach a wide-angle prime lens (anywhere from 20-35mm), strap your camera to your wrist, put an extra battery, card and a lens wipe in your pocket and carry nothing else. Travel as light as possible.

If you can, go someplace crowded or touristy, where you won’t be noticed as much and where there will be a lot of people to shoot and practice on.

This time get in close to people. Fight your fears and move an inch closer each day. Try shooting from the hip sometimes so people won’t notice. Shoot faster. Use your instincts that you developed in the zoom phase.

It will feel completely different and if you are like me then your first photos will be terrible. This is such a hard way to shoot and that’s why I think it is important to take your time at first with a zoom and some distance before moving onto this step.

Thing happen so quickly this way, and otherwise you would spend so much time worrying about the focus, framing, settings and trying to catch every single person that passes you by that you would forget to really see what was happening and to visualize the moment before it comes.

Here you can shoot faster and take more photos than you would in the zoom phase, but still try hard to get a moment with one shot.

Shoot with a fast shutter speed setting and make sure you are fully stopped before taking a photo. Many people say that 1/160th is the minimum you should be shooting, but I try to use 1/320th as my minimum as long as it’s possible.

Try unique angles and perspectives. Shoot diagonally. Focus in on faces. Make yourself nervous and get your heart beating. Adventure out and have fun.

Take your camera everywhere like this, whether to the market or the train station. Travel light and keep yourself aware as often as possible. I have terrible ADD, so constantly paying attention is not my strong suit.

Don’t worry if you can’t capture anything of value at first. It takes time. With some practice you will get good.

Developing a personal style

Once you get good at using a wide-angle prime lens then you should go back to switching it up between a prime and a zoom. After awhile, you will begin to notice a technique that works for you and a style within your work. Pay attention to this when editing. It’s important and will help you ‘see’ when you are out in the field. Often you will have tendencies that you won’t notice until you edit.

You can stick to one lens or not, but developing a personal style certainly doesn’t mean that you have to pigeonhole yourself this way. A style is primarily developed through the content that you photograph and how you choose to edit.

And also, keep in mind that a large zoom lens will miss shots that a light, fast wide-angle will get, while a light, fast wide-angle lens will miss shots that a heavier, larger zoom will get. It’s a fact of life and something not to get frustrated about.

As street photographers we will miss a thousand percent more shots than we make, but when we get that truly amazing moment, the one that we never would have been able to capture without taking all of those crappy photographs and trying out all of those different techniques, then this is what will make everything worth it.

Another street photograph on a tripod? The horror!

James Maher is a studio and fine art photographer based in New York City. His website is focused on all things related to New York Street Photography. You can follow him on facebook here.

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One thing that photographers can always benefit from is inspiration, and what better way to find inspiration than to see what other photographers are doing. In the not so distant past I used to find inspiration looking in the photography section of local bookstores or magazine racks, but now the work of tens of thousands of photographers are with in reach to see with a simple mouse click.

Google+ has proven to be an incredible fountain of inspiration as photographers from around the world have been making good use of the service. Google+ not only makes finding photographers easy through recommendations of others,  it makes for a great photography viewing experience. Compiled in this list are professional and amateurs photographers alike, many of which were brought to my attention by the thriving community of photographers on Google+.

Here are 50 photographers to inspire you and if you’d like connect with me on Google+ here (editors note: connect with dPS founder, Darren Rowse here). Enjoy!

1. Seung Kye Lee (fine art nature)
2. Léon Leijdekkers (fine art BW)
3. Guy Tal (fine art landscape)
4. John Paul Caponigro (fine art)
5. Tony Rath (underwater)
6. Ryan Doco Connors (portraiture)
7. William Burrard-Lucas (wildlife)
8. Olivier Du Tré (fine art nature)
9. Aaron Feinberg (fine art)
10. Ed Leveckis (fine art portraiture)
11. Philippe Sainte-Laudy (fine art nature)
12. David Sanger (travel)
13. Ron Niebrugge (wildlife travel)
14. Michael McAreavy (landscape)
15. Craig Ferguson (travel environment)
16. Gary Crabbe (travel)
17. QT Luong (nature travel)
18. Jim Patterson (underwater nature)
19. Jessy Eykendorp (nature)
20. G Dan Mitchell (landscape nature)
21. Mike Cavaroc (nature wildlife)
22. Dan Heller (travel)
23. Patrick Di Fruscia (fine art landscape)
24. Trey Ratcliff (travel hdr)
25. Patrick Smith
26. Brian Matiash (urban street)
27. Manuel Guerzoni (street)
28. Neil McShane (Fine Art BW)
29. Jay Patel (landscape)
30. Varina Patel (landscape)
31. Peter West Carey (travel)
32. Matt Suess (fine art hdr)
33. Marsel van Oosten (wildlife)
34. Ben Locke (fine art)
35. Rebecca Jackrel (wildlife)
36. Michael Kern (wildlife)
37. Inge Fernau (nature)
38. Dixon Hamby (iphoneography)
39. Richard Wong (travel landscape)
40. Matt Weber (street)
41. Agustin Rafael Reyes (travel)
42. Helen Sotiriadis (various)
43. Pierre Beteille (photo art)
44. Ryan Brenizer (wedding)
45. Sarah R. Bloom (fine art)
46. Daniel Sroka (fine art)
47. Greg Schmigel (street)
48. Star Rush (iphoneography)
49. Chun Tong Chung (street)
50. Mike Moats (macro)
51. Ben Fullerton (adventure)
52. David La Spina (travel)
53. Vincent Favre (nature)
54. Mihailo Radi?evi? (street)
55. J A Mortram (environment social documentary)
56. David English (street)
57. Laura C. Williams (wildlife)
58. Victor Lacken (HDR)
59. Patricia Gil Mayoral (landscape BW)
60. Kalle Björklid (music)

Bonus: For more great photography insights to other great talent follow…

1. Miki Johnson
2. Andy Adams

Lastly you can fine me Jim Goldstein on Google+ as well as Darren Rowse of course.

This is but the tip of the iceberg there were numerous other photographers worthy of note, but they’ve not yet added many photos to their albums. Stay tuned there will no doubt be more photographers to recommend as Google+ opens to more people in the coming weeks.

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A Guest Post by Andrew S Gibson.

With the release of Mitchell Kanashkevich’s eBook ‘Getting Published in Photography Magazines’ as part of the ‘Going Pro: How to Make Money From Your Photography‘ kit I thought it worthwhile to look at the process from the point of view of the photography magazine itself. What do photography magazines look for and what goes through the mind of their staff when they’re considering your submission? As Technical Editor of EOS magazine, I’m in a unique position to give you some insight into those questions.

Photo submissions

Your first step when considering a submission is to get hold of several copies of the magazine that you’re interested in and take a good look at the photos it uses. What’s the purpose of the photos in the magazine? Do they illustrate specific photographic techniques? Are they stand-alone images or are they part of an article? Do you recognise any of the names in the photo credits – are they professional photographers or magazine readers? How much post-processing have the images gone through? All of these points help you get a feel for the types of photos used in the magazine.

It helps to be a regular reader – if you’ve read every copy of a magazine published for the last year you’ve probably got a pretty good understanding of their requirements. If it’s the first time you’ve seen this particular magazine, it will take you a bit longer.

Our photo requirements at EOS magazine are quite specific. To start, all the images in the magazine must be taken on a Canon EOS camera. We use photos to illustrate very specific photography techniques. Some of the topics we’ve covered in recent issues are hyperfocal distance, mirror lockup, astrophotography and Picture Styles.

If you read our magazine you’ll notice that we use a lot of comparison photos. As an example, in the Picture Styles article we showed the same photo processed with several Picture Styles so readers could see the differences between them.

What’s the best way to get published in EOS magazine? In the first instance you should read our photo library submission guidelines, available online at www.eos-magazine.com/photolibrary. The information about the types of photos we need, and how to send them to us, all are there.

Once you’ve sent us some photos, we’ll add them to our library and they may get used in the future to illustrate an article. Admittedly, this is bit hit and miss as we have thousands of images on file, and our requirements depend on the articles that we’re writing. But you can increase your chances of publication massively by sending in high quality images that illustrate specific photographic techniques and include comparison photos. If your photos are good enough, they will get noticed.

The second approach is to send some lo-res images by email to our editor (you’ll find her email address in the guidelines). I don’t want to encourage general submissions that way – you should only email images if you have strong set that illustrate a specific technique. So, for example, if you have a set of photos that illustrate the use of Speedlites, then send them in. If the photos are good enough, and we haven’t published anything similar in recent issues (that’s where your market research comes in) we may use them – we may even write an article about the techniques you used if the photos are interesting enough.

We also look for newsworthy photos – such as a set of photos with an interesting story or technique behind them, or a project (such as 365 project). This is the sort of thing that may appear in the news section of our magazine.

Every photography magazine is different and you should study your chosen magazine carefully to see how your photos may be used. Some magazines have a section where they invite readers’ submissions and this can be a good place to get started. I got my first photos published this way. A word of warning – not all photography magazines pay for photos published in these sections. It usually says in the submission guidelines (you did read those didn’t you?) – the magazine may pick an image to receive a prize or you may just get the glory. It’s up to you whether you think this is worthwhile.

What photography magazine staff look for

At EOS magazine I view a number of submissions sent to the magazine. So, what do I look for? There are two important things. First, the quality of the photos has to be excellent. You really need to ask yourself if your photos match up to the quality of the photos already published in the magazine. It’s always difficult to be objective about your own photos, so don’t be afraid to ask for someone else’s opinion. If your photos aren’t up to the required standard then take the time to work on your technique and creative vision until they are.

A little while ago we had a submission from a photographer who had some great images but they were covered with dust spots. That’s not cool. It looks unprofessional and we had to ask him to fix them.

Second, the photos must be relevant to the content of the magazine. They must illustrate a certain technique and do it well.

Photo buying

As well as dealing with images that are submitted to the magazine, I sometimes need to hunt for images that we need. For example, I wrote an article about reverse lens macro photography for the current issue of the magazine. It was surprisingly hard to find good images to illustrate it. Normally I search on Google, or on photo sharing sites like Flickr, 500px or 1x.com.

How can you increase the chances of me or another photo buyer finding your photos? A blog helps immensely. I always search Google to see what I can find when I’m researching articles. If you’ve got some good photos, then write an article about them on your blog. It greatly increases your chances of being found. For example, if you have some great reverse lens macro photos, post them on your blog and explain how you took the photos. The next time that a photography magazine writes an article about this topic, they may find your blog.

You can also post them to the above mentioned photo sharing sites. It’s a good idea to post a detailed description with the images. If I’m looking for photos, I normally have very specific requirements. If your caption mentions the camera, lens, relevant camera settings and explains the technique you used I can see right away whether it fits our needs.

It doesn’t bother me whether you’ve been published before or not. I don’t care whether you’re a professional photographer. All I need to know is whether your photos are good enough for the magazine. Having said that, if you act in a professional manner it makes a good impression and lets me know that you may be a good person to work with in the future too.

How to be professional

If you say you’re going to do something – do it (and do it well). Add a signature to your email account with a link to your website. Don’t have a website? You should – anyone can go to wordpress.com and start their own free website. Don’t think you have to have a professionally designed website, while it would be nice the important thing is to have a professional looking showcase for your images and stories and that’s easy to do at wordpress.com (it’s good enough for Steve McCurry).

Edit your photos. You should only have your best ones on your website. The same goes for photo sharing sites as well, especially Flickr. It makes a much better impression if all the photos you’ve uploaded are high quality – and a poor one if I have to wade through all the rubbish to get to the good stuff.

Play to your strengths. If you’re a Photoshop expert, make sure I get that when I look at your website. If, on the other hand, your specialty is low light photos, make sure that visitors to your site can’t miss that fact (Brent Pearson is good at both).

Long term relationships

Never be afraid to ask about money. It’s OK to ask a magazine what their publication rates are, and it’s always best to double check in case they don’t intend to pay you. It’s rare, I’m sure, but it does happen. I got told once by the editor of a UK photography magazine that they ‘have no budget for photography’.

Photography magazine usually have fixed rates for photos and won’t go beyond that. They may make an exception for a ‘name’ or professional photographer, but generally speaking you’ll have to accept what they tell you. It won’t make you rich, but it could be the start of a long term business relationship.

Photography magazines like EOS magazine have an insatiable need for relevant, high quality imagery. We have a problem to solve each issue – how to fill it with inspirational images that illustrate the techniques we write about. Can you help us solve that problem? If your images will help the magazine fill its pages, you’re on your way to getting published and building a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship.

For example, we have a photographer who supplies us with most of our requirements for photos taken with portable Speedlite flash units. He’s been working for us for years. He’s great at what he does, his photos are creative, the quality is excellent, and if we ask him to do something he always does it on time and delights us with the quality of his photos. If you want to build a long-term relationship with a publisher, that’s the sort of thing you need to do.

One thing leads to another and long-term relationships bring long-term benefits. For example, one of my first published photos appeared in Practical Photography magazine. They asked me to write an article about the story behind the photo, which led to several more photos and articles being published. If I hadn’t ended up working at EOS magazine, that relationship would probably have developed further.

Your photos, our needs

If your photos are good enough, they’ll get published. It may take time – not only do your photos have to be of the highest standard, but they also have to meet the needs of the magazine you’ve sent them to. If you send me some reverse lens macro photos next week, it doesn’t matter how good they are, they won’t get used because we’ve just written an article on that topic and won’t revisit it for another two years at least.

However, if you’d sent them a month or two ago they may have been published. Timing, and luck, are everything. You can increase your chances by asking if the magazine has any current picture requirements. If you have persistence, and the understanding that this is a long-term game, combined with sound photographic technique and a collection of high quality images, sooner or later you’ll get published.

It’s always a pleasure to publish someone’s work for the first time. While I was researching the reverse lens macro article I mentioned earlier, I came across the work of Roni Delmonico and we used some of her images to illustrate the article. She was delighted and wrote about it on her blog. If you act on the advice in this article, next time it could be you.

Andrew S Gibson is a freelance writer based in Auckland, New Zealand. He is the Technical Editor of EOS magazine and writes photography eBooks for Craft And Vision. including The Evocative Image. Follow Andrew on Facebook here.

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