How do you make the perfect photo: Advanced Techniques

How do you make the perfect photo: Advanced Techniques -

Even today professional photographer Laurence Norah find the universe, its five-part series on better travel photos. Photographs are an important part of the travel experience and to be budding photographer with so many of you, is here Series Laurence to improve your photographic skills. We have gone a lot of the basics in this series so, some four, Laurence takes it a notch techniques to give some advanced photography as long exposures, HDR, star shooting and much more!

One of the challenges we face as travelers that we extensively, visiting as many of the places already photographed. In today's post I want to share with you some techniques that you get with your photograph help more creative. These advanced concepts are based on the ideas in the first three articles in this series.

(If this is the first time to read this series, have a look at the other posts before diving in here. In the first, I made certain travel scenes focused on the basics of photography, including the composition. the second contribution was to get the best. And the third contribution went into some detail on the right gear for your travels picking.)

I'm going four themes today to cover the new creative opportunities for open, when you are traveling and over.

Long Exposure Photography

Have you ever seen a picture of a waterfall, where the water looks white and fluffy? Or shot by a street at night, where the cars were replaced by light strips? Here's to give you an idea of ​​an example of a waterfall, what I speak:

This was shot in Glencoe, an impressive part of the Scottish Highlands. As you can see, the surface has a silky, flat look, and the waterfall itself looks more like cotton than water. In addition, the clouds have a sense of movement

Here's another shot of the Dubai Marina can see at night, where you have the car, has been replaced by light strips .:

Both images were obtained with the same technique, long-exposure photography.

I spoke a little about the shutter speed in the post two of these series use, and how to low shutter speed can in blurred images have the result by your gesture. Long exposure photography is taking all of the benefits of this blurred effect, but instead as a result of objects in the scene.

You will need a tripod to make this work, otherwise your images blurred everywhere rather than just where you want them to be.

The secret long ~~ POS = TRUNC photography is to place your camera in two aperture or manual mode, which allows you to set the camera as slow shutter is open. This will be marked as "S", "TV" or "T" mode on the mode dial, if your camera has one. If you have a smartphone, many newer models such as the LG G4 shoot, release manually the shutter speed on the camera app set.

For waterfall shots, you are always slower shutter speed than 1/15 of a second. For traffic it will depend on the speed of traffic, but you will have to shoot slower than one second speeds. Both the long exposures I shared were turned up with a 30-second exposure.

If you shoot during the day, you may have a neutral density filter to compensate for the amount of light available (see photo gear Post, the third in the series, for more information). If you are in manual mode recording, you will need to set the aperture to obtain the correct exposure. Try to avoid openings higher than f / 16, however, as they often result in lower image quality.

Long-exposure photograph you have to look at the world and move in new ways, and it opens up all kinds of creative possibilities. Have fun with it!

Shooting the stars

When I travel, one of my favorite things is always far away to the middle of nowhere, and just in the night sky. Away from the city lights, it is one of the most spectacular views available to us, and looked at it always helps me a sense of perspective to win.

Of course, if I seek it done, I want to try it on as a photo. This is not as hard as you think and could, apart from a tripod, not much more expensive to reach devices. But no more thinking than just require your camera shooting star paths point to the sky and beating "expose" the button.

There are two main types of star photography. First, you can do a long exposure shot, transforming the stars in light strips, as follows:

This was a two-hour exposure I shot while at the campsite Western Australian outback. Yes, two hours! (You need a lot of patience and a decent battery for long exposure star photography.)

You can also buy several permanent long exposures of 30 seconds to one minute, and then stack the photos together with a special software result so what. This reduces the "noise" that super long exposures are known, as well as the risk that your battery would shoot empty middle, but it does require more work afterwards.

However, most cameras are not you can shoot for longer than 30 seconds in manual mode. You need to switch "Bulb" mode, the shutter will remain open as long as you hold the shutter button. Some cameras have this instead of the manual mode, a dedicated BULB setting - manually check camera to find out how does your model of camera

you are going to want to play to to stand. with his finger on the trigger for two hours, but do not worry you some options. The easiest way is to invest in a Fernauslösekabel that for as long as you can "lock" to let down the shutter button, as you want. Alternatively, if you installed a modern camera with Wi-Fi, you may find that there is an app that you control for 30 seconds can be the length of exposure.

is not forgotten composition Next. Just because you have to make is not automatically a great shot in your shot movement of the stars! Think you give about your foreground with your viewers a sense of scale, either by a person or an object in your photo included.

Finally, consider the movement of the stars. The Earth rotates from west to east, so if you want circle star trails, you need to show your camera north or south. If you are in the Northern Hemisphere, the North Star composing (which remains stationary) is a good start.

The other type of star photo is where you capture the night sky without moving. This is likely to require even a long exposure time, but one that is not so long as to result in the stars of motion blur. Around a 30-second exposure is the maximum before the movement of the stars of the earth's rotation is visible. Here's a 30-second exposure of Venus in the Galapagos as by example:

The structure is very similar to track photograph to Stern that you need a tripod and will have Their composition considered. However, only a 30-second exposure, going to have to increase the ISO on the camera, how to get a lot of light in as possible.

Modern cameras are able to shoot ISOs of 30 and 6400 without much noise introduced into the image. In addition, you should use the aperture to open as much as possible - depth is not really a consideration when the shoot endless! Open it as wide as it'll go, preferably in manual mode.

In a way, these shots are easier because you will be able to see the results much faster. Here is a picture of the stars over France:

The Milky Way is an excellent topic for static star photography - it is a natural leading line as the top of the receiving can see . This was a 30-second exposure at ISO 6400 and f / 4, shot on a Canon 6D in manual mode.

Once you get the hang of basic star photography, you can be a little creative, start. In these shots, even a little light can make a big difference, so you can try "painting" with light objects, by a flashlight and shining it on objects near you.

Alternatively find lighting sources such as a fire and compose those as this recording is made to - during a fruitless hunt for the Northern Lights 35 degrees in Finland. The possibilities are endless!

High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photography

Have you ever noticed that sometimes the camera to capture an image as spectacular eye fails to see them? For example, the sky is too bright, or the shadow areas are too dark?

This is because our eyes have a much greater "dynamic range", as a camera. The dynamic range is the difference between the lightest and darkest parts of a scene that can be observed, and our eyes are capable of a much wider range in the darkness and brightness than one camera solve.

This why you might end looks with a shot, as follows:

Or like this:

... when in fact - to your eyes - saw the scene as follows:

the problem is that the cameras struggle the entire range of exposure to capture from the dark shadows to bright lights. Either the sky will be a white leaching, or the landscape will be dark and unrecognizable.

The solution is a technique known as high dynamic range photography, or HDR. This requires easy to take multiple photos with different exposures of the same scene, and then moving them together. This is also known as Exposure Blending.

If you have a relatively modern smartphone or camera, it is likely to have built an HDR mode. The iPhone in particular has an excellent HDR mode. You can access this from the Settings menu in the camera or smartphone menu. On a Canon camera, for example, the menu is as follows:

in HDR mode your device is very simple, and it will do everything for you. Your device is to make the necessary number of photos, set them if necessary, and then mix together to give you a photo that looks more representative of the scene could be seen.

The disadvantage of this method is that you leave the camera to take all the decisions, and you will not usually have the source images - you will be presented only with the final HDR image, and the camera is the intermediate files discard

If more. Control over the final image, then you need to help you set up your camera to "clip" the claims. This allows you to take a series of photos of different exposures just hold the shutter button. To find this mode in the camera, take a look in the menu for the Auto Exposure Bracketing or AEB.

Then you will have to use computer software to merge the images into a single image. There are a variety of software tools available to merge your photos. I use Lightroom, Photoshop and Photomatix Pro, but there are many others of

to multiple photos recording means either need a very steady hand, or -. You guessed it- a tripod. If your hand is moved between shots, then the images need to be aligned likely that do not always work perfectly. In addition, notice of moving objects, can produce as this strange ghosting tries to combine as the software image.

HDR works best in largely static, high-contrast scenes, especially landscapes where it is not very much movement and the brightness difference between the lightest and darkest parts of the scene.

scenes with high contrast

Speaking of high-contrast scenes, do not forget that you can use this to your advantage. You must not use HDR; Instead, you can use all of the light to create wonderful silhouettes of your motives.

This is a good way to get a different view on a topic, and is used, creative give you some outstanding pictures.

, the shot above is a silhouette of a boat against two islands in the Seychelles. Shooting directly into the sun as this means that you have to decide to which area of ​​the shot you want to expose properly. If I had put the shot, so the boat was properly exposed, the sky would have been a giant white chaos as a result of light from the sun.

course, I could have shot an HDR image, but in this case is a silhouette of the boat and two islands was a more attractive composition.

Other major themes for silhouetting are people, trees ... really, any object with a distinctive contour.

[1945001DieseArtdesSchießens] will require a little practice, because the camera does not know what kind of exposure you want. The joy of digital is that you check a shot and try again - especially in a scene like this, where to get a little time to shot right in front of the sun. Note that your light meter could indicates that on or underexposure scene.

The easiest way to get good results is to shoot in manual mode and starting from scratch. Keep the ISO value will be as low as possible and adjust your shutter speed and aperture according to the composition reach you if you try considering depth and all long-exposure effects that might be reached.

I use all the techniques mentioned above on a regular basis, when I put on the road in the world, in search a new perspective on a familiar scene. Admittedly, these are to be addressed individually complex issues, and it will take some time each of them to master, but the rewards are worth a lot.

Be sure to check the rest of Laurence Photography tips in this series:

• Part 1 - How to Make Professional travel photos
• part 2 - as you shoot the perfect travel Photography
• part 3 - camera equipment: as at the end not with the wrong equipment
• part 4 - as the perfect photo make: Advanced techniques

If you look really into photography to get part to improve 5 to 7 post-processing tips for your trip photos and want your master camera and take amazing photos, when you are traveling, Laurence and I have developed a comprehensive photography course that will get you from car and let your friends go "Wow! This is really stunning!" In a very short time. Click here to learn more about it.

Laurence began its journey in June 09 after the corporate life leave and looking for a change of scenery. to find your own blog, the universe, cataloged his experiences and is a wonderful resource for photography advice! You can find it also on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Flickr.

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