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OUTDOOR COLUMN: HERO PHOTOS -- Jim Matthews-ONS -- 19jul06
A few tips on taking decent outdoor photos
By JIM MATTHEWS Outdoor News Service
The Internet and digital cameras have made it incredibly easy for hunters and fishermen to share photos with friends without finding negatives, getting extra copies of prints, addressing envelopes, and licking stamps. Gone is the era of throw-away film cameras that take blurry photos. Most of today's digital cameras have built-in flashes. They auto focus. They set exposures automatically.
Fool-proof photography is finally here, right? Not even close.
On any given week, I'll get 20 to 30 digital photos from friends and readers wanting to brag about big fish, trophy hogs, kids with braces or diplomas, whatever. Like in the dark days of film, most of the photos are bad. Maybe not horrible, but there are too many simple errors that we all make.
SUNGLASSES AND HATS: This is the number one cause of crummy photos. Sunglasses and hats are such fixtures for everyone who spends time in the outdoors, we often forget how much they obscure who's in a photo. For photos of people, remember to have them take off the sunglasses so you can see their eyes. The eyes are worth at least a couple hundred words in those 1,000-word photos of people with big fish or a limit of geese. This is easy, if we'd just remember to do it.
The problem of hats shading a person's face to the point where it can't be recognized is chronic in outdoor photos. This might be fine if you're on the lam, but most people want to be identifiable as the guy or gal holding that six-pound largemouth. If the camera has a fill-flash, make sure the camera is turned to the mode that has the flash fire regardless of lighting conditions -- and even then make sure the bill or brim of the hat it tipped back to let light in on the face. And get as close as possible so that flash gets into the shade on the face. If the camera doesn't have a fill flash, make sure the cap or hat comes off (ideally) or gets tipped way up. You should also always face the person so the day's brightest light is falling on the front or forward side of the face. Putting the sun or a sunset behind your subject, can make a pretty picture if you then use a flash, but make sure you also get some photos where the subject is facing the sun so you have something that is usable in case the pretty stuff backfires on you. Hey, it's digital. Shoot a bunch of pictures.
TINY SUBJECTS: Just about all digital cameras come with a zoom lenses today, but I still get dozens of photos a week where the subject with the big fish or trophy deer takes up just a small part of the image. I really don't want to see that you have a big, green lawn when you send me the photo of your 25-pound halibut. Make your subject fill the whole image area of your photograph and the photos will be better.
BAD BACKGROUNDS: Try to position you subject so the background doesn't detract from the photo. Most backgrounds are cluttered and photos of people holding their fish or mugging with a long-time hunting buddy end up ruined because there are poles growing out of their heads or cars driving into their ears. Telephoto lens help blur backgrounds, but it's still best to be aware of what's behind your subject.
Backgrounds darker than your subject lend themselves to more dramatic photos. They tend to focus those viewing the photos on the people in the picture. Water makes a good background. Sky is OK but can fool your camera's exposure meter. Deep shade is really good if the subject is in the sun or open shade in front of this dark background. But avoid backgrounds that are busy with lots of shapes, colors or reflected light.
EXPOSURE/FOCUS PROBLEMS: Even with auto-focus cameras, you can get blurry photos. The most common problem comes when you shoot photos in low light and shutter speeds are slow -- and "slow" is below a 60th of a second with normal lenses and below 1/500th of a second with telephotos. If your heart beats during a slow exposure, the picture won't be sharp. The other problem comes when the auto-focus is looking at a different part of the image area than you. A picture of your buddy with his trophy Colorado mule deer can end up with the tip of the deer's nose in focus, but your buddy behind the deer is fuzzy. Most digital cameras have multiple focus modes and allow you to freeze the focus and reframe an image. They also allow you to set the exposure so you can get a greater depth of field so both deer and hunter are in focus. Learn your camera's settings and practice.
ONE SHOT SYNDROME: I can pack over 600 high resolution 5.4 megapixel images on a one gigabyte compact flash card in my Nikon digital. My little waterproof/underwater Pentax shoots six megapixel images, which is still over 500 photos on a one gig card. But a lot of us still shoot just one or two shots and put the camera away. Why would you only shoot one image? What if your subject blinked? Keep the camera clicking, changing angles and flash modes, and you will be sure to have at least one or two photos you like. You can dump the rest. Unlike the bad-old-days of film, there's no extra cost to shooting a lot of digital images.
I recently nearly filled up a one gig card, shooting over 650 images over a weekend. In the days of film, all those images would have been whittled down to a couple of 36-exposure rolls. The difference was that I shot six to 10 shots for each one I took in the past. Even better, I was able to check for exposure and focus problems in the field and retake them if they were bad. The number of just plain throw-away images using digital is less than for film. With digital, you should have more selection and better images. If not, it's operator error.
A few tips on taking decent outdoor photos
By JIM MATTHEWS Outdoor News Service
The Internet and digital cameras have made it incredibly easy for hunters and fishermen to share photos with friends without finding negatives, getting extra copies of prints, addressing envelopes, and licking stamps. Gone is the era of throw-away film cameras that take blurry photos. Most of today's digital cameras have built-in flashes. They auto focus. They set exposures automatically.
Fool-proof photography is finally here, right? Not even close.
On any given week, I'll get 20 to 30 digital photos from friends and readers wanting to brag about big fish, trophy hogs, kids with braces or diplomas, whatever. Like in the dark days of film, most of the photos are bad. Maybe not horrible, but there are too many simple errors that we all make.
SUNGLASSES AND HATS: This is the number one cause of crummy photos. Sunglasses and hats are such fixtures for everyone who spends time in the outdoors, we often forget how much they obscure who's in a photo. For photos of people, remember to have them take off the sunglasses so you can see their eyes. The eyes are worth at least a couple hundred words in those 1,000-word photos of people with big fish or a limit of geese. This is easy, if we'd just remember to do it.
The problem of hats shading a person's face to the point where it can't be recognized is chronic in outdoor photos. This might be fine if you're on the lam, but most people want to be identifiable as the guy or gal holding that six-pound largemouth. If the camera has a fill-flash, make sure the camera is turned to the mode that has the flash fire regardless of lighting conditions -- and even then make sure the bill or brim of the hat it tipped back to let light in on the face. And get as close as possible so that flash gets into the shade on the face. If the camera doesn't have a fill flash, make sure the cap or hat comes off (ideally) or gets tipped way up. You should also always face the person so the day's brightest light is falling on the front or forward side of the face. Putting the sun or a sunset behind your subject, can make a pretty picture if you then use a flash, but make sure you also get some photos where the subject is facing the sun so you have something that is usable in case the pretty stuff backfires on you. Hey, it's digital. Shoot a bunch of pictures.
TINY SUBJECTS: Just about all digital cameras come with a zoom lenses today, but I still get dozens of photos a week where the subject with the big fish or trophy deer takes up just a small part of the image. I really don't want to see that you have a big, green lawn when you send me the photo of your 25-pound halibut. Make your subject fill the whole image area of your photograph and the photos will be better.
BAD BACKGROUNDS: Try to position you subject so the background doesn't detract from the photo. Most backgrounds are cluttered and photos of people holding their fish or mugging with a long-time hunting buddy end up ruined because there are poles growing out of their heads or cars driving into their ears. Telephoto lens help blur backgrounds, but it's still best to be aware of what's behind your subject.
Backgrounds darker than your subject lend themselves to more dramatic photos. They tend to focus those viewing the photos on the people in the picture. Water makes a good background. Sky is OK but can fool your camera's exposure meter. Deep shade is really good if the subject is in the sun or open shade in front of this dark background. But avoid backgrounds that are busy with lots of shapes, colors or reflected light.
EXPOSURE/FOCUS PROBLEMS: Even with auto-focus cameras, you can get blurry photos. The most common problem comes when you shoot photos in low light and shutter speeds are slow -- and "slow" is below a 60th of a second with normal lenses and below 1/500th of a second with telephotos. If your heart beats during a slow exposure, the picture won't be sharp. The other problem comes when the auto-focus is looking at a different part of the image area than you. A picture of your buddy with his trophy Colorado mule deer can end up with the tip of the deer's nose in focus, but your buddy behind the deer is fuzzy. Most digital cameras have multiple focus modes and allow you to freeze the focus and reframe an image. They also allow you to set the exposure so you can get a greater depth of field so both deer and hunter are in focus. Learn your camera's settings and practice.
ONE SHOT SYNDROME: I can pack over 600 high resolution 5.4 megapixel images on a one gigabyte compact flash card in my Nikon digital. My little waterproof/underwater Pentax shoots six megapixel images, which is still over 500 photos on a one gig card. But a lot of us still shoot just one or two shots and put the camera away. Why would you only shoot one image? What if your subject blinked? Keep the camera clicking, changing angles and flash modes, and you will be sure to have at least one or two photos you like. You can dump the rest. Unlike the bad-old-days of film, there's no extra cost to shooting a lot of digital images.
I recently nearly filled up a one gig card, shooting over 650 images over a weekend. In the days of film, all those images would have been whittled down to a couple of 36-exposure rolls. The difference was that I shot six to 10 shots for each one I took in the past. Even better, I was able to check for exposure and focus problems in the field and retake them if they were bad. The number of just plain throw-away images using digital is less than for film. With digital, you should have more selection and better images. If not, it's operator error.
