Articles by Tedric Garrison22 articles

Studio Lighting can be very overwhelming when you first start getting into it. Some photographers out there have thousands of dollars of accessories associated with their studio setup. The good news is, you don’t have to be rich to enter into the world of studio portraits. It is astounding how much you can do with one main light and one or two fill lights. For those of you thinking three lights doesn’t sound simple to me, let me clarify. In this article what I am describing is one light and one or two reflective surfaces to help bounce that light or to fill in the shadows. With one light and one or more reflectors, you can make amazing photographs.

There is no one way that is right or wrong to capture motion. Sometimes we see motion using stop action; sometimes we do it with a deliberate blur. Blur can be fractions of a second, or they can be several minutes long. If you have ever seen waterfall shots with the white dreamy flowing water, that was exposed for several minutes with a tripod. The choice of how you shoot movement determines how you view movement. Next time you automatically think “stop action” try a few blur shots as well; you might be surprised at the results.

Intent, skill, and consistency are the same three factors that will determine your own greatness. Study the masters like Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Imogene Cunningham, and Diana Arbus and you will see these three factors again and again. But the question remains, how do you get from where you are now to that level? To that end here is a strength and weakness checklist for you to use when reviewing your own photographs.

I define dominant space as the environment that most compliments your subject. Taking a picture of a young lady in a string bikini sitting on your couch just doesn’t have the same impact as her coming out of the crashing waves with the sun reflecting off her golden hair and water glistening off her big beautiful . . . well, you get the idea. Dominant space means that there is no such thing as “just a background”. While the image you take may or may not fill the entire viewfinder, whatever is not the subject must support the subject.

When you hear the phrase Depth of Field (also called DOF) you may wonder why you should care as long as your pictures are in focus. Well since DOF is generally referred to as the range of a pictures over all sharpness; and most people are instinctively drawn to the sharpest part of the picture first, I would say that it is indeed a major player in the game of creative control.

The root word of repetition is “repeat”. When you repeat a certain size, or shape or color you add strength to the overall image. Repetition is a basic concept in the world of art. If you want to make a statement, you repeat certain elements again and again. If you repeat something once or twice it becomes more interesting. If you repeat something many times it becomes a pattern and takes on a life of its own. Patterns give us order in an otherwise chaotic world.

At one point or another; all of us have probably heard something to the effect that using a tripod is the best way of getting clear sharp photos. While this may be true, many of us get intimidated by the idea of dragging a 10 pound accessory along with us. This is especially true if you are talking about nature photography and you may be hiking 3 to 5 miles to get to the destination you want to take photos at.

It is human nature when taking a photo of someone’s face to look them in the eye. Most built in flashes are only about 1 inch or so above the viewfinder that you look into; so if you are looking them in the eye AND they are looking you in the eye it stands to reason the flash is only about 1 inch above their eye level (even if it is further away). What causes red eye is simple enough; the light from your flash is reflecting off the back of your subject’s eye.

In the Zone System developed by Ansel Adams there are 10 zones or shades from pure white to pure black. If you take a close look at most exposure compensation settings; regardless if your camera is digital or 35mm, most of them only give you a plus or minus range of two f-stops. If the original setting that your camera uses (18% gray) is zone 5 and you can only expose at plus or minus two stops, that only gives you a visual range of five f-stops.

There are four main types of weather, that often discourage photographers from even attempting what might be some of their greatest work. These four obstacles would be: a) extreme cold, b) extreme heat, c) extreme moisture and d) extreme wind. While each of these has probably at one time or another discouraged even the best of us from going out to shoot, they also present unique photo opportunities simply because so few of us want to take the effort.