Tips on...<Underwater Shoots>

Develop basic diving skills

The most important thing is buoyancy control,the ability to hold yourself steady on a floating position

Shoot upward

Photographing from below a subject makes it look large and real,shooting down makes it look smaller, and it can get lost on the background

Shoot close

Twenty four inches is an outside working distance. Water can suck up lighting, flash falloff is much greater underwater

Shoot for small reflection in the eyes

Catchlights are important for any wildlife photography but underwater are more important for dimensionality

Choose a place and subject and work it al ot

It can take many attempts to get a single good shot

Respect your subjects

Tips on...<Birds>

Practice your stand

• Legs parallel to shoulders
• Elbows tucked on the side
• Rotate Upper Body
• Use sequence shooting
• Predictive autofocus
• Study the behavior of the bird if possible
• Give it space to fly into the frame
• Select one AF Dot change it depending on where to frame subject
• Afternoon shots are better
• If against a bright sky increase the exposure level
• Dont be afraid to increasr the ISO
• Dont forget to rotate the polarizer filter to see perspective

Become and observer then a photographer

• Get field guide for your area, learn about bird migrations and season in your area
• Learn their behavior, birds are creatures of habit, you will be able to anticipate their moves after a while

Start with larger, slower moving birds

• Start with sea gulls and herons, master this and then you will capture smaller faster birds

Use the right gear

• Start witth a small lense 400mm 5.6, Get a fast focusing SLR and as you get more into it, spend the money on better lenses
• Dont use a tripod, or get a tripod with a special head specifically design for bird photography (runs around $400.00)
• Shoulder stock can help steady the camera
• Image Stabilization either on camera or lense will go a long way

Get in position

• Spread your feet at least at sholder width to give freedom of movement to follow trough the viewfinder
• Hold the camera firm but relaxed grip
• While panning avoid sudden, erratic movement. Keep it smooth and dont stop even when the shutter releases

Follow the birds flight patter with your eye not the viewfinder.

• Oftem aim slightly ahead of the subject, depending on speed
• Always have the camera turned on and in position, a fly-by can happen any time

Set your exposure

• FOr birds in motion the best is manual expisure
• Meter for the subject and it will be exposed properly. For begginers start with Program mode and bracket until you get the hang of it
• In Manual mode use partial or evaluative metering to get a light reading from the subject.
• Shutter speed is vital, go for 1/1250 or faster with ISO of 320 or 400

Use autofocus wisely

• Most high-end DSLR have a continuos autofocus. With this function you press the shutter half way and the camera continually calculates where the sub ject wull be adjusting the focus as long as the subject sytays in the autofocus area of the viewfinder. This is by far the best way to focus when you are shooting birds in flight
• Use the center AF only this is the fastest and best way to obtain focus on the bird's eye, specially for larger birds. For smaller, faster mioving bird you can use multiple focus pointsm this will allow the camera to choose an AF point from an array covering a wide area of the frame. Multipoint focus works well on solid backgrounds such as blue skies but doesnt work effectively on varied backgrounds like grasses and trees

Consider the sun and wind

• Sunlight is crucial. Later afternoon an early morning are good times to shoot.
• Have the sun behind you at all times with the subject in front of you.

del.icio.us Tags: birds,wildlife,photography

Tips On...<Domesticated Animals>

Horses

• Take advantage of a horse's elegant curves
  
• A focal length of 50mm is ideal to a avoid distortion at close quarters
  
• For a portrait style shot its better to photograph the horse's head in profile rather than head on, as its very hard to keep all of it in focus due to the size
  
• Practice shooting a trotting or galloing horse using a smooth panning technique to blur the background. Remember to leave some space in the frame for your subject to move into

Action

To avoid camera shake you will need a shutter speed faster than 1/250.

Animal Farm

Always make sure that the animal's eye are in focus and allow sufficient DOF to ensure the nose is sharp too

Take advantage that you can take several shots of the same animal due to their confinement, so try different options

Do some research on your animals, investigate the best time to pay a visit. For example, most farm animals are most active close to feeding time, while excessive heat will force them to stay indoors or in the shade

Be prepared

Pets will get bored much faster than you think, dont put them infront of the lense until you are ready

Pick a suitable location with an uncluttered background.

Fish

If shooting gold fish on a pond, bringa polarizer to avoid reflections

Mount your camera on a tripod and bring some ND filters and try to capture some abstract images with long exposures

In aquariums bring a macro lense to focus on fish close to the glass using a rubber lens hood to shield from abient light

In AV mode set a wide aperture to allow your lense to gather as much light as possible, aiming to generate a fast shutter speed (1//250) A higher ISO sensitivity might be required to achieve sharp shots

Dim the lights in the room and turn off flash

Dogs

For shooting dogs or wolfs wait until its ears picked up and eyes open to catch it looking its best.

Tips on... <Fire>

del.icio.us Tags: assignment,fire,ideas,light,sparks

Basic Settings

Focus can be very tricky, one trick is to use an item close to the flame and focus on that

Use a small aperture to widen DOF and capture as much detail as possible

You can get away doing that hand holding the camera, but is much easier using a tripod

Keep it simple

In terms of composition its best to keep things uncluttered. The shadows cast by flames ca be a little difficult to counteract., and more objects in your shot will create more shadoes

The glow from candles and log fires can be invitating, so enhance this with a few props.

Including candles on a shot convey warmth, home feelings.Make sure to enhance this feeling with eartly materials like fruits, colors,etc

A good setting for this type of environment is f 5.6 and a shutter of 1./200 to begin with

Reflectors

Look for natuarally relflective materials in your surrounding environment. For example if you are taking a portrait of somebody on a table with a candle, adding a white tablecloth will increase the light that bounces back, difussing the hard shadows that can sometimes happen

Temperature

When shooting photos by candleliht be aware of the color temperatyre of the light they yield, so you can end up with the most accurate WB. A match flame burns at 1,700 degrees Kelvin, candlelight at 1,850.

Include night skies

If you are shooting outside using a wide angle lense to include some sky can yield interesting results. If you are workign 1hr before sunset you will see a good contrast of the deep blue sky and the orange of the flame. If you are doing late at night, this can cause an interesting red fiery sky.

Adding more light

If your setup looks a little bit dim, introduce artifical light, but try to avoud flash as it could ruin the warmth feeling of yout fire source. Try adding a small lamp that can be dimmed or a torch lioght that can be focused to certain areas of the exposure

Fire placement

Unless you want to create silhouttes you will need to place your source close to your camera, but putting it below the eye line it will create a spooky scene. Moving the light source close to the face at eye level will create a more smooth soften even light on the face

Occupational fire photos

A good opportunity to take advantage of fire, are jobs that work wih fire, such s a blacksmith or welder.

If you want to get shots of welding , setup the shoot before the welding commences, prefocusing on the work area, use a tripod.

Tips on...<Classic Cars>

What to take

• Camera and a 70-200 telephoto lense (or close to that range)
• Walking boots and hat
• Food and Water
• Sun block
• Get a program to assess the circuit

Tips

• Approach static classic car as you would human portraits. Use a zoom lens and an aperture of around 5.6 or 8 to throw the background out of focus and keep the car the focal point
• Shooting from a low angle adds impact
• Soft clouds make give smoother shadows and texture to the metal shapes and curves while early lighting is much more flattering than the light of midday
• The small details on a classic car are often exquisite. Bonnet mascots, dashboards, lights and bodywork curves are all great reasons to bring a macro lense. Use an aperture of f/8 at close quarters to give a smooth out-of-focus background, while keeping the main subject sharp.
• Be aware of people wondering in the shot, unwanted reflections can ruin a great composition
• If there are some racing involved, get early to the pits to get shots of mechanics these make for great B&W shots,
• Also on racing, get to the circuit early and keep an eye on the sun direction (be prepared to move around as the sun does)
• Pack enough memory cards to really practice that panning technique and vary shutter speeds between 1/1250 secs and 1/500 secs depending on the speed of the car.
• For dealing with crowds a good trick is to work with them, bring a tripod with a shutter speed of 2 secs and at f/22 will make the car stand out from the blur of the crowd
• Ensure you take pictures of clean cars, they are much more photogenic that even the midly dirty ones.
• Shoot details early in the day before dust and fingerprints appear
• Get to know the owner they might be open to the idea of a separate photo shoot later, outside of the event
• Understand what you are shooting, do your homework and get to know the famous or historically important cars seek out rare cars as your pictures can make it part of historical records
• Work with available light, early morning light is very flattering for the metal on the car.
• A cloudy day with a touch of fill-in flash is preferable to direct sunshine.
• Fill in the frame with color and detail. Simple frame filling shots are often the most striking. Concentrate on one detail, color or shape, with classic cars most details are exquisite and well worth a shot)
• Take care when shooting reflections -look for shapes and textures reflected in shiny paintwork and mirrors

Be aware of reflections

Focus on the details