Getting Started

Whenever I present or discuss photography, something that often comes up is panoramic photography. This is a subject that, when I was starting out, was intimidating. From the swathe of tools and accessories to executing the images properly, the whole subject can be inundating for the novice.

A few disclaimers first: Panoramic photography requires a great deal of patience and a sufficient budget to purchase the right tools the first time.

I highly recommend the equipment from Really Right Stuff (RRS) here. Their gear is top-notch, works flawlessly, and holds up to the harshest treatment. You can find more about RRS gear and their pano setup guides here.

Inspiration and Ideas

My recent trip to Washington D.C. gave me time to play with ultra-low light and late night exposures, and to make things a bit more challenging, I shot a number of vantages in panoramas. “Why?” you might ask, when a similar shot could be captured with a single exposure and without all the extraneous gear? The answer is two fold.

Resolution.
By capturing a scene with multiple shots, and stitching them together, there are more pixels to play with. Instead of a single shot out of the camera that might be 8MP or 12MP, I have a 40MP or even larger image to work with. This provides for better noise reduction, crisper images during downsampling, and smoother tonality in large swatches of color (i.e. the sky in both images of this post).

Distortion
Both of the images shown could easily have been captured with a wide-angle lens–in the whereabouts of a 16mm or 20mm lens. However, by increasing the distance from the subject, and using a much longer focal length (200mm in both cases), paralax and wide-angle lens distortion is not even a concern in post production.

As promised, here’s a followup post to my original entry about my Ireland trip and a few quick tips.

1. Timing is everything, patience is essential

Whether you’re shooting a single exposure or an HDR set, timing is ultimately the deciding factor in an amazing photo. However, patience is of even greater value, as it was in the shot shown. When I arrived on location, the cloud cover resulted in all the features of the scene falling flat and lacking depth. The clouds were moving quickly, so before giving up on the shot for the day, I setup, composed the shot, ensured my settings were correct, and waited.

For just a few moments, the clouds opened up, let a shaft of light down exactly where I had hoped, and viola, I had the image.

This shot could have easily been pulled off in a single exposure, but given my tendencies for always wanting higher bit depth, I went for an HDR shot and was able to grab three brackets at one stop separation each before the lighting changed.

Perspective

The Poulnabrone Dolmen (tomb) is a tourist hot-spot, and photographing it amongst the gorgeous Burren landscape without people would seem impossible. Not so!

At the time of this shot, there were likely thirty or more people standing around, but by simply changing perspective of the subject, and at the same time strengthening the composition, no one is visible.

Those of you wondering if there is some Photoshop work involved editing persons out of the photo will be surprised to know that there is not a single bit of manipulation.

So the secret for the shot? Getting down low. Really low. I was lying entirely flat on the ground, the camera on a tripod no more than six inches high. By accentuation the height of the hill with the low perspective, anyone even on the far side of the Dolmen were obscured, leading to a fantastic tourist-free shot.

Rarely do I come across a book that really grabs my attention, and with so many photography books out there, it’s sometimes difficult to come across one that really approaches a topic that hasn’t already been covered. Dan Margulis’ “Photoshop LAB Color” is one of those attention-grabbers.

From the first chapter of no-thinking-required effort to make an image pop to advanced color correction and masking, this is the book to read for any advanced amateur or professional photographer.

Although Photoshop CS5 is just  around the corner, even this text, which was published in 2005, has a serious place on my bookshelf with tricks and techniques that apply through just about any recent version of Adobe Photoshop.

Photoshop LAB Color available from Amazon.com

What is it that makes kitchens such an alluring subject in real estate photography? For one thing, it’s the fun interaction of textures that are more abundant than in other parts of a property: The stone counters, the wood surfaces, and shimmering brushed metal appliances.

Another aspect that makes kitchens such a fun photographic subject is the importance of this room and region of the home. When shooting the interior, the kitchen is the entry-point and central area that will likely garner the most attention–whether its a potential buyer looking how it will fit their family’s needs or flexibility in cooking while entertaining.

Whether you’re looking to hire a professional real estate photographer, or snapping your own pictures if you’re a listing agent, be sure the kitchen shows off pristinely.

When I was first starting out in photography, I read everything I could about lighting and illuminating a subject–studio lighting, fancy light setups, light ratios, and such. Those are all important aspects of photography and something everyone should read, study, and fully understand. However, there’s an element to portraiture and subject illumination that I certainly wished I’d grasped earlier in my career. And that is the reason I’ve written up this post.

Recently I’ve been working on more children’s portraiture, and kids are unique to the realm of studio-lit photographs. For one, kids’ personalities and cheer-factor will show best when their in the most comfortable environment–most of the time that’s in their home. Setting up strobes and hoping to keep the subject within the “zone” of the lighting setup is sometimes just not going to happen–the running about, the jumping on the sofa, etc.

For the best success at capturing natural, but fleeting, expressions, it comes down to relying on available light and having an eye for where what will work best. If you’re photographing kids in a house, have a look around and visually judge the quality of light room to room. Is there a window light that just has that perfect glow? Maybe there’s a lamp that sufficiently illuminates a sofa and wall. All these are element to take into consideration and determine which available light is going to make for great photos.

The photo to the above is one of those circumstances. This was shot with available light from a ceiling-mounted chandelier. The wall behind her was beige, and the surfaces to either side were dark. The dark surfaces on either side served as gobos to suck up light and increase shadow definition–ensuring better separations of the face and cheeks from the ears and light colored wall. Best of all, the overhead chandelier was just above and behind the camera, allowing for some reflection in the eyes and getting the specular highlights that add that extra sparkle to the portrait.

So always keep an eye out for unexpected uses of available light. Sometimes the best light is unplanned, but the photographer always has to keep both the eyes and the mind open to exploit it to the best of creative uses.