I believe that only taking pictures in order to learn photography is not enough. The same apply when talking about theory – let’s face it, you can’t be a photographer without taking pictures. But both theory and practice are required to be a photographer, add passion and creativity and you won’t only be a photographer but you will have pretty good chances in becoming a good photographer.

So where should be the balance between the theory and practice? In general, I think there is no definite answer to this question. However, I would say that every person who wants to do photography either as a hobby or make living out of it, needs to know at least the minimum of theoretical knowledge. I believe that practice and practical knowledge without the theoretical knowledge can limit an aspiring photographer because for me theory helps you in understanding how various things work, what can be different connections and relations between settings, etc. Such knowledge helps in boosting creativity for sure.

Therefore, I think that everyone should find his and her own balance between the theory: don’t let lack of theory limit your photography and don’t let practice forget about the theory.

]]> http://www.photo-folio.net/2010/08/finding-the-balance-between-the-theory-and-practice/feed/ 0 http://www.photo-folio.net/2010/07/thinking-outside-the-box-in-photography/ http://www.photo-folio.net/2010/07/thinking-outside-the-box-in-photography/#comments Sun, 04 Jul 2010 22:07:18 +0000 konrad http://www.photo-folio.net/?p=796 Being a photographer is not only about knowing the rules of photography and applying them. It’s also about being able to break them and to think outside the box. I think that the latter is particularly important for those who try or want to be creative – without the ability of thinking outside the box will make it very hard to stand out in the crowd!

So what does thinking outside the box mean for me as a photographer? Ohh it can mean so many different things. I think it comes all together to a combination of various things: the ability to break the rules of photography, creativity and the potential to see the world around in a unique way.

How can you learn to think outside the box? Well, I really can’t give a definite answer to that. I can definitely tell you that you don’t have to be born with it (although it can be helpful to a certain extent) but you can learn it as well. i can tell you how I try to think outside the box: I look around at the world around me from different angles and various perspectives. I keep trying to see it in a way others don’t. It sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t. It’s important to train yourself, your brain and your eyes and not to give up. The more you try to see the world around you from different perspectives, the easier it becomes.

Having a break from taking pictures can be a form of re-gaining inspiration and I do it often myself: I put away my camera for a week or two just to be able to grab it again soon with new ideas and inspiration. However, I think it might be dangerous for some of us – we might forget to take the camera again and this can result in months of no photo activity at all. It applies especially for those who don’t have photography as their main source of income. But how come we can give up on photography and art? We can’t! But we tend to forget about it and only later we realize how many great opportunities for great shots we missed and how much joy it brings us to take and make pictures!

Well, as I mentioned before, May 2010 (last month) was a horrible month for me when it come to photography – I had no inspiration, no motivation, almost nothing. I was looking at my camera and thinking, thinking and doing more thinking: how? what? when? and even ‘why?’. Yep, it was definitely too much of ‘thinking’ and not enough of ‘doing’! The lesson I learned is that taking a short break from photography is as important as grabbing your camera again and just go shooting, even when you’re still not inspired and you’re not motivated (or even lazy). In some cases, motivation and inspiration won’t come to you, but you have to reach out for it!

It took me awhile (being so deep in digital cameras nowadays) to realize that film cameras limited me by certain number of pictures a photographic film roll could contain (not like digital cameras, which can take from few hundred to few thousand RAW pictures, depending on the capacity of a memory card). The limitation of a number of ‘exposures’ (in photographic jargon of course) in film cameras forced me to spend some time and think about a composition of a picture, how to frame a subject, inspect closely foreground, background, double check the lighting and any other details that could improve a picture so that no film and frames would be wasted. This limitation of a film camera was (and for someone who uses a film camera still is) a very important step in the learning process of the art of photography and I personally believe that it still should be a part of the learning process of photography.

I think that digital cameras with their huge memory cards give us the freedom that actually does more harm than good for those who want to learn photography – we don’t take that extra time and effort on checking composition of a picture like in a film camera because we know that we can re-take a picture countless number of time and delete easily ‘bad’ pictures without any financial costs (as it wasn’t the case in the photographic film roll era).

I think I have found a solution for those who own only digital cameras and who want to learn composition in a way it was done before. The solution is quite simple: next time you will go for a photo walk, do an assignment for yourself or just take pictures, leave your 8 or 16 GB memory card at home and take with you only one memory card of 1GB or even less (the less capacity, the better; I just checked that 1GB for shooting 12.1 MP RAW will give you about 68 exposures). Depending if you shoot RAW or JPEG and how many megapixels your camera has, you should find a memory card that enables you to take not more than 30 exposures. And remember to leave all other memory cards at home! This way you will limit your gear but you will definitely expand your knowledge and experience in composition!

I strongly encourage you to try it out few times and I guarantee that you will see improvement in your photography soon.

Happy Shooting!!!

Exposure is NOT the same as shutter speed!

I won’t go in detail but I will just give a quick summary to those of you who are still confused a little: exposure is the total amount of light that passes on a film (or a digital sensor). That total amount of light depends on the aperture and on the shutter speed.

Note: Some photographers use ‘exposure time’ as a ‘shutter speed’. Although this is correct (shutter speed defines for how long a film or a sensor are exposed, therefore ‘exposure time’), I personally don’t use ‘exposure time’ because it’s very much different from ‘exposure’ itself but can create much confusion.

- lighting conditions (how much there is natural and directional light from sun and how much equally distributed artificial light);
- your position in relation to the subject(s);
- type of sports;
- your preference on the subject and the focus of photography.

Indoor and Outdoor Sports Photography Tips:
- Burst Mode – because there are lots of fast movements and action in sports, it’s good sometimes to shoot in the burst mode to capture the most interesting and thrilling moments. In order to increase the rate of frames per second (FPS), do the following: shoot in JPG, turn off VR (Nikon) or IS (Canon); turn off in-camera noise-reduction; get a fast memory-card; having a battery-grip attached to your camera with AA batteries also increases FPS (but you need to change settings in your camera, the best is to refer to the camera manual);
- Focusing – set up focusing mode to continuous (Nikon) or AI Servo (Canon); also activate to automatic all the focusing points in the camera and subject-tracking if available. Extra tip: make sure you’re in the AutoFocus Mode;
- ISO – set up ISO to Auto (so the camera can determine the best ISO based on your shutter speed and aperture, especially if you shoot in one of those priority modes). Remember that in poor lighting situations, your camera will likely use higher ISO. ISO above 800 tend to have higher noise and visible noise than ISO below 800. If you want to keep noise minimum, you can also specify the ISO range your camera will use in the Auto ISO mode.
- Shutter Speed – fast shutter speed is essential when shooting indoor or outdoor sports in order to freeze action. To freeze action and motion, shoot in Shutter Priority Mode and set it up to 1/1000sec. However, don’t be afraid to play with it as it might depend on sports you shoot and especially when you want to achieve the optimal results for combining shutter speed, ISO and aperture according to your needs;
- Perspective – get low on you knees to get more interesting and unique perspective of your photography. If possible, lay even on your stomach. Remember that this tip might not apply to some sports and it also depends when you want to have a subject and focus in your photos.
- Use Fast Lens – a fast lens is crucial, especially in poor indoor lighting situations and when you want to freeze motion with high shutter speed, while avoiding high and noisy ISO. F/4 or lower f (higher aperture) is recommended;
- Long Focal Length Lens – long focal length lens is also crucial because it allows you to nicely zoom to a subject and ‘get closer’ to it so to speak. It depends on the type of sports you shoot and your location on the field but I would say that -200mm- lens is a minimum;
- Both Eyes Open – when shooting and looking through the viewfinder, keep your other eye open (so keep both eyes open). This way you don’t limit your view-angle to what happens in the viewfinder and you also see what happens around and where the action is as sometimes fights break somewhere in the field, coaches go crazy, etc. and it’s a pity to miss such great and unique shots;
- Expect Unexpected – this actually applies to many things: your main camera or lens breaks, your run out of space on a memory card or it starts raining during an outdoor sports game. Always have a backup, especially when you’re shooting for a customer;
- Protect Your Gear – be careful with your gear when it comes to weather and other circumstances – there is lots of action during games: players concentrate on the game and fans drink beer and alcohol. Neither of these people worry about your expensive camera and gear when they bump into you or hit your gear – be extra careful with it and position yourself in a spot that looks the safest for you. Also watch for your gear or ask a friend / an assistant to come with you to watch it for you because pickpockets love crowded places.
- Monopod – not mandatory but often useful because holding a camera and pointing it towards the field during the whole game can make your arm feel really tired. However, if you don’t point the camera towards the field all the time, you might miss some very good and interesting shots. Therefore, putting a camera on a monopod allows you to point the camera towards the field all the time and manipulate camera, move it, etc very easily because monopods are much better than tripods when shooting sports when it comes to portability and maneuverability. In addition, there is not always space to set up the legs of the tripod, people are walking around and can bump into your tripod with a camera on it and believe me: you don’t want to be in a situation where camera hits the floor. If you don’t have a monopod and you can’t afford to buy one, you can use your tripod but don’t set-up the legs. Extra tip: having a camera on a monopod, instead of holding it, also speeds up focusing.

Feel free to leave any additional tips in the comments below.