Stock Photography - Conclusion and Next Steps

After reviewing all of the stock photography sites, I came to the following conclusions:

1) Using my iPad as a sanity check (as another way to view and critique my pictures) is something I will continue to do.

2) Dreamstime was the best stock photo site for me.

3) I need to go through and catalog/tag the pictures that I want to submit to stock photography sites. Aperture does this fairly well - I just need to go do it.

4) I need to consider taking my pictures with more solid backgrounds, using this as an example:



5) I need to keep getting out and shooting more. As I've learned with my butterfly pictures in particular, my new pictures don't really look like ones I've taken before - even at the same site. That said, I'm overdue for an orchid reshoot.

So, I've set a few deadlines for myself (which I hope I can meet):

1) One photo shoot by the end of the weekend.

2) Submission of at least ten pictures to a stock photography site.

Wish me luck with that! Next time - my adventures with the butterflies.

Hillwood Mansion - Greenhouse

It's no secret that macro photography and flowers are my life. Okay, not my life, but a great source of pleasure, for sure. Last weekend was no exception at all. I was afraid that I would take the same pictures over and over again, but I didn't. I feel as though my work keeps improving in quality and composition. That said, here are my favorites from my first batch of uploads:







A key tip that made a HUGE difference here - go on a cloudy day. NONE of my pictures had issues with harsh lighting, odd shadows, or other problems. Plus, honestly, how nice is it to go to a warm greenhouse on a cold, cloudy winter day? For me, it was awesome. For you, it means one less variable to worry about.

But, back to the pictures:

I loved the simplicity and colors of my first picture. All I did was take a picture of the top half of an orchid. I'll show you the bottom half tomorrow.

The second picture's appeal to me is in the framing. I took numerous variations of the flower itself - the first picture here is an example.

The third picture is an example of one that should not require a macro lens, which is why I included it here. I wanted those of you with point-and-shoot cameras to have some options. I love this one because it's pink. I also like the way the flowers hang, as well as the overall look.

The settings for all of these are attainable - relatively low f-stop settings, ISO of 400, and nothing special with the white balance - Automatic worked here. The next time you go out to a garden, give pictures like these, especially the third one, a try. Just make sure you have a steady hand, a macro setting (whether the lens or the point-and-shoot setting), and willingness to experiment and have fun.

Till tomorrow!

A Series of Color - Implementing my Lessons Learned

Last week's series taught me a lot about my work, its progress, and my habits. The most important themes of the week were:

1) Composition - I've made huge progress in the last few years

2) Lighting - I should always be more conscious of it

3) More yellow pictures

4) Stay low and close

5) Possibilities are infinite

6) Blur

So, here's a preview of where I applied at least some of these:







The first picture applies concepts 4) and 6), for the most part. I took this picture yesterday at the Hillwood Gardens in Washington, DC. When I came across this flower, I made a point of getting low and close, as well as making sure to fill the entire frame with the flower. I really like the abstract, slightly blurry look this has. It reminds me of a watercolor painting.

The second picture - more yellow. Enough said. :) There is also a bit of concepts 1) and 2) in this one.

The third picture is a great example of 1) and 6). I wanted the flower in the front to be the primary focus, to give this more depth. I love the colors, too.

So, in the next few days, I will have pictures for you of:

1) The National Shrine

2) Hillwood Mansion

3) Hilllwood Gardens

It was a very busy weekend, and I took over 800 shots. I can't wait to share my best ones with you. Till tomorrow!

A Celebration of Color, Day 5 - Purple

I have to say that I really missed this blog yesterday. I was at work until midnight, so there was really no time at all to post. But I'm back!

Anyway, purple is very similar to pink in that most of my work (in this color) is macro-centric. Take a look:











The first picture was a great experiment using a small f/stop to create depth.

The second was the opposite - I used a higher f/stop to create more of a mosaic effect. Both pictures were taken on the same day, as an aside.

The third picture was interesting because I used a lower f-stop than I normally would have. This is because the setting was very dark, this flower was swaying (which means motion blur), and I was surrounded by people. I therefore chose a lower f-stop to mitigate all of this, resulting in a picture that reminds me of fingers. It's an interesting effect, though I admit it isn't for everyone. I want to reshoot this with a higher f-stop to see how it looks.

The fourth is nice and simple. It isn't as striking as some of my other flower shots, but it isn't bad. It reminds me that I need to practice my orchid shots.

The last picture was taken from my aunt's balcony. This seems to be the case with several of my favorite shots. I used a low f-stop to create dimension, and I made sure that the background was not (very) distracting. The lesson here is that you can find terrific subjects without having to travel far. Knowing this makes me want to buy flowers for my own balcony - but knowing me, I'd forget to water them. That wouldn't be good. Anyway, with something like this, experiment with taking pictures of a single flower, as well as the group. You can find interesting patterns.

Till Monday!

A Celebration of Color, Day 3 - Green

My goal when I began this series earlier in the week was to give me something to look forward to, until I'd have time to shoot additional content. That hasn't changed; rather, it's evolved. I've been able to take a good look at my prior work, understand parts of my portfolio where I'd need to expand, and enjoy myself all around. Not bad!

As it turns out, green is a color I shoot quite often. This isn't a surprise - I love leaves and plants. Here are some examples:











I think my green shots are the best ones that I have.

The first one is a nice, subtle green. I love the texture and the subtlety. Here, I made sure to stay in the shade, but not so much so that there were shadows on the leaf. My macro lens f/stop was relatively high (f/10), so as to capture all the detail. I experimented with the ISO, and 400 worked here. I had to keep very still, but that wasn't too difficult for this shot.

I took the second picture at home, on my glass table on my balcony. Here, I wanted to capture a nice glow. I placed this glass ring and tried different angles. Because I had full control over my environment, I was able to ensure I was on a stable surface, and able to experiment. I moved the ring around the table and tried various angles until I got this shot. So, don't hesitate to experiment in these types of situations. You can do whatever you want!

I did NOT have any of those luxuries with the third shot. I was in a crowded butterfly garden in high humidity, and using a macro lens set to manual focus. I had to move quickly, and I didn't have much time to make decisions. Basically, I worked on composition and technical focus at the same time. What helped was that there was good light, and I didn't need to do much with f/stops, white balance, or shutter speeds - I went with standard settings, and was good to go. The shutter speed was 1/1250, and the ISO was 200. I wish, though, I'd gotten closer - although I'd cropped this picture several times, the butterfly STILL isn't really the focal point.

The next picture is so interesting to me, because it looks like it was taken in the rain and the mist. However, it wasn't - it was taken on my aunt's balcony in the middle of a hot, sunny summer! How did I do it? I got up very close, made sure that the background was "clear", and a relatively low f-stop - 3.5. This way, it ensured everything was slightly blurry, and therefore, misty-looking.

This last picture is an oldie, but a goodie. Again, a low aperture (f/2.8) and a steady hand were important. Here, the reflection of the light helped me, as well as some post-processing (brightening, saturation, etc.). it's a nice simple shot that I think is framed well.

Till tomorrow!

A Celebration of Color - Day One

I'm a summer person, and this winter weather is really driving me crazy. What I miss is sunshine and color. So, what I thought I'd do over the next few days, is pick one color (or two) a day, post some shots, and provide any relevant tips. This way, it will cheer me (and hopefully, you) up, enable me to remember the happier days of warm weather, and give me something to look forward to next weekend, when I can generate new content.

Because not all colors are shot the same way, this will be a good exercise for me. I'll also reach back into my earlier work, and discuss how my perspectives have changed. In the end, I want this to be a good way to share ideas with you for your own purposes. I'll also show you my favorite picture of that color and explain why.

I'll go in the order of the rainbow, so I'll start with reds and pinks today. These are my favorite colors, especially pink. Here are some examples that I'll examine:











I think it's funny that my work has changed so much! The first three pictures are very recent, the third is one year old, and the last is several years old. The other observation I like pink far more than red. :)

Tips for each one:

1) The first picture looks like it would be simple to take, but it wasn't. When I visited this museum a few years ago, NONE of my pictures were true, from a color sense. The reason? Incorrect white balance settings. So, the first tip is to make sure your white balance setting matches the world you're in. In this case, there was soft light, so I used Tungsten. Also, this was taken in low light, so I bumped up the ISO a bit. Finally, I braced the camera to ensure I was very, very still - which is why the details turned out well.

2) The best tip I can provide here is to play with shapes. I took multiple versions of this. I didn't have color fidelity issues here, but that's probably because this is a flatter surface. Move the camera around and see what you like - that's the best advice I can give.

3) This one is terrific. Often, red pictures can look TOO saturated, especially in harsh light. If this happens (over saturation), I suggest you post-process. You can also tweak the white balance to Daylight - make sure it isn't set to shade. On an unrelated note, I like the composition and detail, as well. The only thing I wish I did better was try to position this in front of a neutral background. It's a bit distracting.

4) This picture is an example of an oversaturated red (in my view). This picture also has composition issues. Specifically, what is my subject? It's not pretty enough to be used as fine art. If it were sharper, then maybe. The biggest lesson learned for me is that I should have decided what I was going to shoot before I did it. This looks a little random.

5) This picture would have been much nicer, were it not for the harsh light. I know that now. What I should have done is take my lens hood with me, and position my body so that I could avoid the harsh sun.

6) This picture is nice, and the details are good, and it's not too bright. However, I should have made this picture more interesting by getting in closer. I don't like the green background. The lesson here is to think about composition. I'm guessing I was shooting randomly. I would also consider brightening up the picture a little in Aperture - it's a little dull for my liking.

My favorite pink picture of all time? You've seen it before ...



Best picture ever. Great framing, great patterns, terrific details, and the saturated pink make for one of my best shots ever. I was very proud of this one.

Till Monday! Have a great weekend!

Mystery, Solved

I started a new job, as some of you know, and I have a nice shiny new laptop to go with it. Naturally, the first thing I wanted to do was change the desktop picture to one of my pictures. This is the one I chose:



This is one of my favorites. Unfortunately, on my work laptop, the red doesn't look as vibrant. It's simply not as pretty (though it isn't bad). So, I went and tweaked the color settings. It helped a little, but not too much. I decided to do some research and get to the bottom of this.

It's the laptop display. Apparently it (along with quite a few others in its class, so it's not my company's fault) is just not geared towards color calibration and coverage. This makes me wonder, yikes - are all of you seeing my pictures in a less than favorable light? Good Lord, I hope not.

Anyway, I'm going to replace my desktop photo with this one - hopefully, it will look better (but I won't know until tomorrow):



I'm therefore trying to think of ways to show my work to an audience who might not be able to see its full potential electronically. Till tomorrow (when I elaborate)!

My Camera's Back!

A few weeks ago, I told the sad story of how I accidentally messed up my camera. I had assumed I wouldn't see it again until at least mid-January. Well, guess what? Penn Camera called me yesterday and let me know it was ready. And it's perfect! They cleaned it, and made adjustments, too!

I can't tell you how excited I am to have my camera back. Over the last few weeks, I discussed my backup plan, my adventures with my newly acquired point-and-shoot, and various other musings. Now that my beloved camera is back at home, here are my plans:

1) I really missed being able to take artistic shots, especially macro shots. I'm planning to head down to some exhibits in the next few days to take more pictures like these:



My skills have improved dramatically, so I'm hopeful I'll be able to take new and original pretty pictures. :)

2) My winter landscape photo shoot went better than I'd expected. I need to find other dark, depressing landscapes to photograph.

3) The sunsets this time of year are GORGEOUS. I need to capitalize on that, somehow. I'm not sure how or when I'll be able to do that, but I plan to, for sure. :)

I'm hoping to get started on these initiatives tomorrow. Till then!

ISO - not the Classified Ads

The past few days, I've covered various technical basics. My goal is to explain how they can be useful for any camera, for any photographer. Today's topic is ISO.

A technical definition for ISO is "ISO sensitivity expresses the speed of photographic negative materials". I don't know about you, but I'd prefer the English explanation, which is:

Higher ISO -> better pictures in low light (because the image sensor is more sensitive)

Lower ISO -> higher image quality, but only in optimal light situations

ISO that is too high -> pictures with high amounts of noise, which may render them unusable

Examples:

Higher ISO speeds:



The first one was taken at ISO 800. I was using a macro lens, so this enabled me to take clean, precise pictures without worrying about camera shake. The second one, however, was taken with a wide-angle lens. The ISO was set at a very high 1600. The quality of this image is lower, but it's for effect - I wanted to show the drama of the storm that day.

Medium ISO speeds:

  

These were taken at ISO 400, with a wide-angle lens. In both cases, it was fairly dark inside, so I experimented with 800 and 400. I preferred these. I didn't want them to look artificially bright.

Low ISO speeds:



In both cases, I had good amounts of light and wanted the best pictures possible. They were taken at 100 and 200.

My advice:

1) Try different ISO settings so you can see the impact yourself

2) Do not go above 800, unless you're doing so for special effects

3) My default for a bright and sunny day is 100

I hope this helps! Till tomorrow!

Aperture - it's not just a Product

I was watching GMA in bed this morning (I've been sick), and a photographer came on. He talked about holiday photos and getting great shots. One key point he mentioned was "know your camera".

I struggled with this initially (years ago) - I'm not technical, and those details aren't really all that interesting to me. However, for the sake of my photography, I really did need to understand several key concepts. Therefore, I will be discussing the following over the next few days:

1) Aperture

2) Shutter speed

3) ISO

4) White balance

If you know how to adjust these on your camera (whether it be point-and-shoot, or otherwise), then you'll be in good shape.

I'll start with Aperture. A technical definition for it is "the diameter of the lens opening. The larger the diameter of the aperture, the more light reaches the film / image sensor. Aperture is expressed as F-stop, e.g. F2.8 or f/2.8. The smaller the F-stop number (or f/value), the larger the lens opening (aperture)."

Huh? I'm sure my engineering-educated customers could jump in and help us, but for the rest of us:

The smaller the aperture, the higher the F-stop. In English, this means that your picture will have more elements that are sharp and clear. Example:



This is a relatively high F-stop - around 10 and 11, respectively. I chose this picture to 1) Keep my mind off of this cold weather and 2) Because of the leaves. You'll notice that all of the elements are in equal focus, regardless of the distance. Compare this with other equally colorful pictures:



Notice that the butterfly and its surrounding flowers are in sharp focus. Everything else (especially the leaves) is strategically blurred. This is a relatively low F-stop of 2.8. The same points are valid for the second picture - the left side is in focus, to draw attention to the colorful details. The right side is blurred.

Some of your point-and-shoots give you the ability to adjust your aperture settings. You might not be able to by much, but even the smallest bit can make a difference for you. If you can, you'll want to take the same picture using different settings. This way, YOU can see the difference - and you won't have to just take my word for it. :)

So, to summarize - the higher the F-stop number on your camera, the more focused objects in your pictures.

Till tomorrow!

Commercial vs Editorial - Releases

As you know, I was in New York last weekend, and I took pictures of my sister, niece, and brother-in-law. Remember this?



Also, I have taken numerous pictures of private and public property, including ...

Hotels:



Gardens:



and places of worship:



So, this begs the question: if I want to sell these pictures, what is my obligation? First, answer this question: Is the subject recognizable? In other words, can you identify the person or the piece of property easily? If so, read on.

Let's start with the first and simplest - my niece. I'd already obtained permission from both her parents to post her pictures on Flickr and my blog. I would simply need to formalize that agreement by obtaining a release a writing. This would be needed for commercial use, which is in conjunction with selling goods, services, etc. (like a billboard or a magazine ad), but not for editorial use, which is used in conjunction with a story or piece of text (like a magazine article). I say better safe than sorry - I obtain model releases (or the promise thereof) for everything.

What about the gardens? In this case, this was public property (the US Botanical Gardens), so according to most sources, I don't (technicall) need one. However, I'm a cautious person and would likely only sell these for editorial use. I feel the same way about the church.

The hotel is a different story. Technically, it's private property. For non-editorial use, I would obtain a property release. Whether that is easy or difficult is another issue, obviously.

In the case of both types of releases, compensation is typically involved.

So why do I care? Well, aside from the fact that I want to sell my pictures without breaking the law, I have to think about:

1) Taking a mix of recognizable and unrecognizable pictures of property, so that I have at least something to sell.

2) Making sure NOT to take pictures of strangers unless they are silouhettes, unless I'm paid to do so.

3) Understanding that I'm limited to editorial use if a release is required, because I'm frankly not a fan of paperwork.

This is a very confusing topic to some, and I hope I've shed some light on it. For most of you, this doesn't matter very much. However, you never know what could happen - someone could want to buy your work. Make sure you don't limit yourself!

Till tomorrow!

Macro Lite

Most of you know that I love macro photography. Here are some of my classic shots that I've always loved:



And my favorite of all time (at least for this week):



But what if you don't have a macro lens, or even an SLR? After all, this equipment is really expensive. Can you take nice pictures with just a point-and-shoot?

The answer is yes. I started taking pictures of flowers and plants back in 2004. All I had was a 3 MP Canon camera. Here are some examples:





These aren't as nice as my more recent examples, but that's not because of the camera - it's because of the relative lack of experience. What do I mean? Well ...

Picture 1 has too many reflections. I could have taken this picture from a different angle.

Picture 2 is cute, but the subject of the picture isn't clear. Is it the leaves or the buds? Had I zeroed in on one or the other, this picture would have had more meaning.

Picture 3 has WAY too much going on. It's interesting and pretty, but not much more than that.

All three of these could have improved upon with the same simple camera, had I thought about it at the time. Also, there is one clear benefit of using a camera like this - the chance of blurry pictures is almost zero. When you focus (tightly) on a subject, the camera becomes very sensitive to camera movements, which produces fuzzy/blurry pictures. Here, it's not as common.

Some other tips for you:

1) As always, take multiple pictures from different angles

2) Make sure to know what you are shooting before you shoot it. Do you want to focus on colors? Texture? Patterns? Angles? Curves? Knowing this in advance helps you set up a good shot.

3) You won't be able to post-process much since you aren't shooting in RAW, so avoid harsh sunlight and other environmental factors that you won't be able to fix.

4) Most newer point-and-shoots are 7 MP and higher. You'll be able to crop liberally, if needed. Cropping can help you change the focus of your picture.

Till tomorrow!