Camera technique
In association with
CLICK-STARTYOUR SUMMEROF PHOTOGRAPHY
Now, as we’re easing out of lockdown, we can all broaden our horizons with a range of superb subjects close to home. Here are a few ideas and techniques to get you shooting
For some photographers, shooting scenics can be a box- ticking exercise. They go and get ‘the shot’ and move on to the next well-known location. That can be a thrill, for sure, but the real pleasure of photography is often in finding a great new view of a place that you thought you knew back to front. There are plenty of ways in which you can do this, and of course you don’t need to go far from home to do it. First off, try to change your perspective. Whether you’re shooting in your town or your local countryside, follow some new paths and routes to see if they turn up interesting views that you’ve not seen before. Height is also a way to change your viewpoint. If you can find high buildings or hills as vantage points, great. From these new angles, look for new ways to frame subjects using lead-in lines like roads, rivers and streams, too. Another way to change your view is by shooting with unfamiliar lenses. If you normally wander local beauty spots with a standard zoom, try switching it for an ultra-wide or super telephoto lens. A travel zoom like a 28-200mm or 18-200mm is great for this, and the long end will let you frame distant subjects in a way that’s new. WE’VE ALL TRIED to make the most of shooting at home during lockdown, and if you’re anything like the PN team, you’ve racked up some serious hours on still lifes, self-portraits, back garden star trails and more. See local landmarks in a new light
But, of course we’ve all been itching to get out and shoot with a bit more freedom. There have been many subjects denied to us over the last few months, and while we still need to shoot responsibly and take care, lots of
photo opportunities are now back on the table. So, from outdoor portraits and local landscaping, to wildlife and more, let’s get stuck into this month’s Summer Festival big tent of technique.
Become a true bokeh master ABOVE Strong, smaller pinpoints of light in the backgroundmake for lovely bokeh effects, so position your subject carefully tomake the most of the scene
Shooting portraits with a shallow depth-of-field looks great and it helps your subject stand out from their surroundings, but how do you get the amount of blur that you want? And how can you make that blur look as good as possible? First off, you can increase the size of blur – or bokeh – in several easy ways. Start off shooting in aperture- priority mode, and dial in an f/ number that’s near to or at the widest setting your lens allows – the lower the f/number, the wider the aperture setting and the more blur you’ll get in the picture. One thing to be mindful of is that your focusing needs to be spot on, so take care and make sure the eyes are sharp. The aperture setting available to you depends on the model of lens you’re using, and can also depend on which part of a zoom lens you’re shooting with. On many zoommodels, the aperture get smaller as you zoom
in and magnify the subject, but this doesn’t mean you can’t get some great blur. In fact, as you zoom in, the background will become enlarged compared to the subject, which makes it look more blurred compared to using the same apertures and framing wider. So if you’re struggling to get enough blur, zoom in and get your subject to stand away from the background, too – the further they are from it, the more blurred it’ll look. You can also improve the look of blur by shooting with the light behind your subject.Whether that light is sunshine through leaves, or windows and fairy lights after dark, a wide aperture should turn it into disks and give your portraits some real sparkle. Also, remember that you can blur foregrounds as well as backgrounds in portraits. Shoot your subject through trees or flowers and you can frame them with a neat bokeh border.
ABOVE Capture familiar sights in a newway simply by shooting at a different time, using filters or using a lens that’s hasn’t had an outing for a while. Or maybe you have something different like a fisheye lens or Lensbaby to try
You can also bring filters into play. Places that you thought weren’t special can be ‘pepped up’, so don’t forget your polariser and grad filters. You’ll find the former particularly useful if you’re shooting around water or in town, where it will minimise glare,
reduce reflections on glass and water, and reveal riverbed detail. Finally, no matter where you are, great light will always be your friend, so make sure you time your local shoots for the beginning and end of the day – or even after dark.
Issue 78 | Photography News 11
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