October 24, 2009 - the best Photoshop Elements book

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After my success with using Curves in Photoshop Elements, I am totally convinced this is the best book for digital photographers to use for Photoshop Elements. If you don't have version 6, just look the edition that matches your version. Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski do a great job of having an edition out immediately after Adobe releases a new version.

To take this photo, I placed the book on my kitchen table (which has a nice black surface). I stood on a chair to get over the book so I would have more a a head-on view. I used my 50mm f1.8 lens and pumped up the ISO to 800 so I could shoot with natural lighting in the room and not rely on a flash. Finally, in postproduction, I adjusted the color to make everything appear natural.

The only thing I wish I had done differently is pay more attention to the corners. I had clipped the lower right corner of the book while taking the picture. To compensate a little for that, I also clipped the upper left corner when I cropped the photo down to fit on my blog.

And I really do love this book. Can you tell by the roughed up edges to the cover?

October 12, 2009 - A lack of diversity

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I am the Scoutmaster of our church's Boy Scout troop and we went to the Bremen Jewish Heritage and Holocaust Museum today for an eye-opening look at what can happen when a large portion of society decides to be intolerant of people who are different than themselves.

The lighting was pretty bad for photography, with some displays having plenty of light for photos while others were darker. I couldn't use a bounce flash off of the ceiling because the ceiling was high, open, and painted a dark color. And I usually don't like using a direct flash, so I set the camera to f3.5 in aperture priority mode (the big 'A' on the dial) and set the ISO to 1600 and tried to get photos using the natural lighting. By setting it to the widest aperture my lens (the Canon 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 IS) can cover, it insures the widest possible aperture is used throughout the zoom range.

As you can tell from the photo's settings, sometimes my shutter speed was really slow, even for using a image-stabilized lens. I tried to keep the camera steady by holding the camera with both hands and keeping my elbows close to my sides. In areas where I knew there was less light, I usually held the shutter button down and relied on my camera's high frame rate to take multiple shots in succession.

The photo above is from one of those multiple shots. I took three in a row, and the middle one was the best. The first and last had motion blur since my son, Joshua, was swaying slightly as he was looking at the display. This one does have a hint of blur in his face, but you can still see him clearly.

In addition to the light being low, my photos also had a lot of different colors caused by multiple types of light bulbs being used by the museum. It resulted in a photo that looked bad (bad enough so that a viewer might first notice the color instead of the subject). The solution was easy: convert it to black and white. Now that distraction is completely gone, leaving you to think about my 13-year-old son learning about the atrocities the Nazi party — and that's what this photo is all about.

I wish I had gotten a good photo that included more of the troop, but all of those had at least one person moving (and therefore blurry). Remember, IS only helps avoid camera shake by essentially keeping the camera still. Anything under 1/60 of a second will still likely cause motion blur. So in hindsight, I should have set the ISO to 3200 and just lived with the extra graininess that comes with it.

By the way, the Bremen is fantastic. It present a powerful collection of photos and information that cover the Holocaust from just before the rise of the Nazi party to the migration of thousands of Jews to Israel after the war. Plan on being there for at least two hours to soak in all of the information. We were there for an hour and a half and it wasn't enough.

It isn't a place for little kids, however. It doesn't do much to hide the atrocities of the Holocaust. And I am glad it doesn't. It helped my son and I have a candid discussion about the war and the Holocaust.

October 3, 2009 - What are you willing to give up?

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I am so proud of my daughter. Leigh Ann had decided that her beautiful long hair was getting too long and she wanted to get it trimmed to shoulder length. But then my wife asked why stop there? She was only a couple of inches shy of the minimum length required for donations to Locks of Love.

So she agreed. She even went above and beyond and cut off nearly a full foot of hair so she could have the haircut you see in the photo.

I took this using the available light from the same window I use for many of my black and white portraits. Thanks to the image-stabilized lens I used, there wasn't any camera shake in the shot despite the slow 1/30th of a second shutter speed. I also removed a painting from above the couch so there wouldn't be any distractions — just a nice blank wall. This let the viewer's concentration be solely upon Leigh Ann and her hair.

About the only thing I wish I had done differently is to lower my angle of view just a little more to completely get rid of the couch. And it would have also been nice to get Leigh Ann to part her lips a little on her smile. When she shows just a little bit of teeth, her smile really shines.

And as you can tell, she just loves her new hairstyle. Not only that, but she is ecstatic that the hair she cut off is not going to waste!

September 25, 2009 - Tannah and Spot

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Tannah had the privilege of bringing home the class pet for the weekend. She had so much fun with Spot today that I just had to get a photo of the two of them together.

Just like many of my other black and white photos, I had her sit down by the large living room window and used the natural ambient lighting to illuminate her. I used the higher ISO setting to create some graininess in the photo, and the wide f2.5 aperture to blur out the background.

I don't have any regrets with this photo. I had taken about a dozen different ones with her and Spot, and this was the best. I think it does a great job of capturing her happiness and contentment. What do you guys think?

September 18, 2009 - Joshua's black and white

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I finally got my oldest, Joshua, to pose for me at the same window, so this completes the set I wanted to do of all my children. And just like the others, everything I said about the first photo applies here, too.

I'm going to break with my traditionally explanation and talk about what I don't like first — that finger resting on his upper lip! I really like the pose, but the finger is very distracting. He was moving around as I was taking the photos (almost like he was modeling for me) and I tried to get him back into the same pose but with his fingers resting on his chin instead, but I was unsuccessful.

Having said all that, I like this photo. The lighting for this portrait is probably the best of the bunch. One thing I did differently is I put my 52-inch round white reflector just out of the picture to his right. This bounced a little bit of the window light back into the darker side of his face, which really helped lighten up his eye.

Now that all five are done, Rachel and I aren't sure we like all of them. There are a couple we feel really capture the kids' personalities (like Leigh Ann and Tannah), but we worried some of the poses are too similar (Rachel wants variety in each kid's pose). We will probably take some of these again until we feel we have what we want.

September 11, 2009 - Studio 1A at HowStuffWorks

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There's a good chance some of you have heard of HowStuffWorks.com, which is where I work (especially since I know some of my co-workers are following my 365 project). We have several outstanding podcasts, including one by Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant called "Stuff You Should Know."

(If you haven't heard it, you should check them out. They are available in the podcast section of iTunes. You'll probably find them in the Top 10 list.)

Anyway, yesterday Chuck asked me to get a photo of the recording studio. It seems some of the listeners wanted to see where they recorded their show. He also had received a wooden sign from a fan that depicted the name of the studio, and he wanted a shot so he could put it on his blog post. This way he could accomplish two things at once.

Today's photo is the result. After seeing how dark the studio is, I kinda wished I had brought my tripod to work. So I pulled out my image stabilized lens (which also happens to be my widest lens), set the ISO to 800, and played around with the aperture until I got a shutter speed I knew I could shoot with while hand-holding the camera.

I noticed the lights seemed to be all florescent bulbs, so I waited a few minutes until they all got as bright as possible (sometimes the CFL bulbs take a few minutes to reach full capacity). I shot it as RAW so if there were any problems with the coloring (even after putting the white balance to florescent) that I could have maximum control in correcting it.

While the photo may make the studio look fairly nice and orderly, it is quite the opposite. To the left of the table (by about three feet) is the sound engineer's work desk, complete with all of her controls, computers, screens, and everything else she uses (Jeri, you do a great job!). To the right of the table (and behind the thick woven fabric hanging over the wall) is the green screen portion of the studio where they shoot their video podcasts. It is a mess of cords, lights, stands, and other studio gear.

Because I was selective in what I excluded from the photo, the resulting shot is much stronger. I always try to keep that in mind when I shoot. Sometimes you can't help but have distracting backgound elements, but when you can minimize or eliminate them, your photographer will be much stronger.

Finally, I regret not being able to talk Josh and Chuck into sitting at their chairs for the photo. Both of them love what they do (after all, who doesn't like to just sit down with a great friend and just shoot the breeze about current events?), but they don't always like the publicity and fame they are getting. Ever the humble journalists, they turned down my request.

September 9, 2009 - Morgan in black and white

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Here is my fourth child, Morgan. She was excited when I told her it was her turn for a portrait by the window. Just like the others, everything I said about the first photo applies here, too.

While I like the photo, I am not sure if does a good enough job of capturing her personality. But it was the best of the bunch. Morgan likes it, however, and so does Rachel.

I do like how the lighting turned out on this one. The light seems to wrap around her face better than the other three, and I think I did a better job on the black and white effect this time.

Having said that, you may be seeing another photo of her coming soon. And then we'll pick which one is better.

September 2, 2009 – Capturing facial expressions

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I had so much success with yesterday's post that I went back and did the same thing with another daughter (in case you don't know, I have five kids &mdash one boy and four girls). And just like the previous post, everything I said about the first photo applies here, too.

Emma remings me so much about myself when I was her age &mdash reserved and quiet at times. But she had seen the photos I had gotten of her sisters and wanted a good one of herself, too. So she really worked with me and made it easier.

While I don't think her expression is quite as precocious as Tannah's, I love it anyway. I feel like she is exchanging a knowing smile with me, like she knows what I am thinking and she agrees.

If you can capture expressions in your subjects that convey a feeling to the viewer, then you are doing a great job with your photography. It's something hard to do, and there will be times that you start to feel like you're doing it, and then you go for a long time without any luck (it's what makes quality photography such a joy to acheive).

If this happens to you, don't despair. Just keep clicking away.

As for what I wish I could change, I shot this too loose and had to crop this in quite a bit to get the composition you see. As you know, my wife wants an 8x10 of each child, and I worry that I had to crop in too much to get a good 8x10 out of this.

September 1, 2009 – Mischievous!

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Same time &mdash same place, and the result is the next black and white photo of my kids. Everything I said in the previous post applies here, too.

This is my youngest child (only 4-years-old), and she really moved around. I kept shooting through it all, hoping that I would get a good one. And get a good one I did. I just love her expression! When you look at this, don't you wonder what she is thinking?

One thing I did while shooting her photo is I kept talking with her. I asked her questions about the doll she was playing with, how pre-school went for her that day, and what she wanted to eat for dinner. It helped her to keep looking back at the camera.

The only thing I wish would have been better was the focus point. Because of her constant movement, the focus point wasn't her closest eye, but instead seemed to be somewhere closer to her leading shoulder. In a web shot like this, it is not so noticeable. But we want to make an 8x10 of this for the wall and the soft-focus might be too much for a print that size.

August 30, 2009 – Window light portrait

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I felt like I was getting into a little bit of a rut (especially since it seems that many of my photos were of buildings, flowers, or bugs), so with today's submission I am going back to two things that will make my wife happy — one of my kids and black and white photography.

My kids were sitting at a little white table by our front window, doing a little bit of crafting. I was helping them out, and it suddenly struck me this would be a great location to get some good black and white portraiture. The window faces north, so it never gets any sunlight shining directly through it. Therefore, all of the light is this beautiful, soft, ambient light.

Notice the pleasing effect this indirect light has — it softly wraps around her face. And while part of her face is in shadow, it isn't a harsh shadow. This lighting also does wonders to make the photo look more three dimensional. The soft shadows do a great job of showing the contours of her face without creating something harsh and unflattering.

Because I already had black and white in my mind, I did three things. First, I set my ISO to 1600, which will produce a grainier photo than normal. Second, I wanted to create a narrow depth of field, so I pulled out my 50mm f1.8 prime lens and set it to f2.2. This gave enough focus to grab my daughter's face, but it still threw everything in the background out of focus. And third, by turning all of the lights off in the room I created a dark background that will not only help focus attention on my subject but also give me a chance for a deep, rich black.

In this photo, the eyes are the most important, so I focused on them to make sure they looked the best. Everything else blends nicely into an out-of-focus backgroud (this blurry effect is called bokeh). Finally, I cropped the photo to put her eyes in the upper-right third of the photo to follow the rule of thirds. I also cropped out the large rainbow hanging from her necklace. It was distracting, and took away from the photo.

The one thing that I wish I had done for this is remove the darned ironing board from behind her, which created the fuzzy bar that you see in the background.

Brian, I thought about burning out the board, but honestly didn't want to make the effort getting rid of the board but not getting rid of the strands of her hair. So instead, I removed the string that was hanging conspicuously from the end. Thanks for giving me the challenge to do so in my previous black and white photo.

Photo Tip: Window Light Portraits

I know it's been a long time since my last post, and I apologize. I hope the simpleness and impact of this tip will make up for it.

Please take a look at my wonderful daughter below:


What a wonderful photo! But if it is simple to do, then what's the secret? All I did was find a window in the house that faces north and place a dark backdrop away from it.

During this time of the year the sunlight will never shine through a north-facing window. But the light sure does, and it creates a wonderful ambient lighting effect.

To maximize this effect, I took a dark quilt and draped it several feet behind her. Here's a shot showing how the window and black backdrop relate spatially to each other:


Because the light hitting my daughter's face is several stops brighter (or, in other words, several times brighter) than the backdrop, the backdrop becomes completely black. And because of the ambient lighting coming through the window, it creates soft shadows as it wraps around her face.

You can do this shot with any kind of camera that has a zoom lens. Just stand several feet from your subject and zoom in. This will isolate him or her against the backdrop and you won't see anything else in the background.

Try it yourself and you will see how easy it is!

Basic Photo Tip: Using light to your advantage

Now that we have a better understanding of exposure, let’s go back and visit the topic of light again. Not all types of light are the same, and certain kinds of light are better than others.

For many subjects, direct sunlight can be very flattering. This is especially true for landscapes, architectural, and sports. Take, for instance, this photo of Main Hall at Southern Virginia University. It was taken in the middle of the afternoon with the sun shining directly on the face of building. It looks great!


For other subjects, however, direct sunlight can be harsh and unflattering. Many portraits are this way.

When taking photos of people, you usually don’t want the sunlight to be shining directly in their faces. It can cause people to squint and wrinkle up their faces. In fact, the only time I like to use direct sunlight in portraits is late in the day, during the last hour before the sun sets. This light is diffused greatly through the layers of the atmosphere at this time of the day, which results in a softer, warmer light than what you have during midday.

Ambient light is much better for portraits and general people photos. There are several things that can be the source of your ambient light – the open sky above, reflecting from off a wall, or filtering through curtains.

What’s even better is when you can use ambient light that is coming primarily from one direction. If you can have the light coming slightly from the side and the front at the same time, then that is ideal. It will create slight shading across the face, which will help create a three dimensional effect.

Take a look at this photo of my daughter. It was taken at a swim meet, and she was waiting for her event. She was sitting in the shade, but the ambient light was coming from above her and to her right. The soft ambient light created faint, soft shadows on her face which allows you easily see how it is shaped.


Since it is coming straight from your camera, light from your flash can cause all of the shadows to disappear and effectively flatten the details of your subjects face. There are some tricks you can use with your flash, though, that will enhance a photo.

For instance, if you have a dedicated flash attached to your camera you can point the flash into the ceiling above or an adjacent wall. This is called bouncing your flash, and it works best when you use a white wall. In this photo, I captured my niece licking the spatula from mixing a cake. I bounced the flash off of the ceiling, creating a much better photo than if I aimed it right at her face.


Notice the light of the bounced flash is reflecting in her eyes. This kind of light reflection really helps your subject seem alive, whether you are shooting a person or an animal. Look for ways to capture that and your photos will improve dramatically.

You can also use the flash to fill in where the dominant light source is directly behind the subject, as in these two photos.


Because of the bright background, the camera was fooled into thinking it didn't need to use the flash. For the second shot, the flash was used to fill in the dark foreground.