Texture as a Design Element in Photography

A Post By: Jeff Guyer

While it’s true that photography is a visual medium, I am always fascinated by images that can suggestively invoke my other senses. Have you ever looked at a photo in a cookbook or magazine and commented that the food looked so good you could practically taste it? What really pulls me into the essence of a photograph, though, is texture. Whether I’m feeling colorful autumn leaves crunching under my feet, the delicate edges of flower petals on my fingertips, or the jagged shards of a broken window– when a photo makes me want to touch it you have me hooked. That’s probably why I’m such a sucker for texture and why I strive to include it as a design element in so much of my photography. I want (or is it need?) these images to speak not only to your eyes, but to as many of your other senses as I possibly can. I want them to speak to your heart.

1/80, f/5, ISO 250

One of the first things to consider when photographing texture is that the beauty is in the details. While the deserted hallway of an abandoned building can evoke a strong sensory response, it’s filling the frame with a broken window or rusted pipe from the deserted hallway that’s going to really bring your textures to the forefront. That’s not to say that the deserted hallway doesn’t have its own story to tell, but this is not the time for cramming as many elements as you can into the frame. Keep it simple.

1/250, f/8, ISO 400

As with just about everything we do as photographers, lighting is crucial in accurately and effectively creating a both visual and textural  experience for the viewer. The three characteristics of light– color, quality, and direction– are just as defining when highlighting textural elements as they are when photographing people, landscapes, or any other subject. While it is difficult to separate the three, I find that quality and direction of light tend to have the most impact on photographing textures– accentuating them, rather than overpowering them. Generally speaking, soft, cool lighting will enhance softer, smoother textures like ice or water, while hard side-lighting will not only bring out the detail on that rusty pipe or stone statue, but elevate it as a tactile experience. Ambient light almost always works best, providing a more organic, natural feel.

1/100, f/4.8, ISO 100.

Remember that when you are shooting for texture, your model isn’t going to get bored or tired. Your child is not going to get all fidgety, wondering about the ice cream you promised if they sat still for a nice picture. The only timing issues you have to deal with when shooting texture are your shutter speed and how long your ambient light is going to cooperate.  As result, you usually have the luxury of taking your time. Experiment with your composition. Play with your angles. Adjust your camera settings, then adjust them again.  Your available light may be your primary tool in these scenarios, but you still have to able to make sure that your camera sees the scene the same way you do. Your digital camera is nothing more than a computer with a window on it. It has no opinions or artistic intent. You have to tell it what you are seeing, so play with your shutter speed and aperture. See where they take you.

Taken at an abandoned prison, the broken glass and decades worth of peeling paint not only tell a story, but evoke an almost physical reaction. Both shot at 1/250, f/5.6, ISO 640.

Obviously, a certain amount of personal taste and preference come into play, but I tend to use smaller apertures when shooting textures. Shooting wide open and its resulting depth-of-field, can throw parts of your image out of focus– something I want to avoid when photographing texture, simply because textures will no longer look as they should when out of focus. I will, however, use wider apertures if I am including any background elements. Just as with a portrait, an out-of-focus background will place added emphasis on my subject and foreground– emphasis which will significantly enhance the textures in the frame. Try bracketing your exposures until you get the desired results.

In the examples below, I did go with wider apertures because of the background elements. For the cookbook shot, we needed a clearly defined background in order to really emphasize the texture of the ingredients. Blurring out the background behind the butterfly in the next example gave more definition to the textures of the wings and flowers.

1/80, f/5.6, ISO 400

1/250, f/5, ISO 200

For the sunflower, however, notice that there are multiple textures on the same visual plane. Since I was working with a mostly solid, dark background, I wanted to make sure that every element– as well as all three textures– was in focus, which meant going with a smaller aperture.

1/250, f/5.6, ISO 100

Texture is such an  interesting and effective design element because it provides visual cues that allow the viewer to put your images into their own context. It gives them something they can relate to. If your photo truly speaks to them, this is one of the reasons why. You’ve given them something that helps make it their own. By capturing the texture, you’ve captured at least part of the essence– and it doesn’t get much cooler than that.

23 Beautiful Dawn Images

A Post By: Darren Rowse

Dawn is such a wonderful time to photograph life. Sun breaking the horizon, dew on grass, mist hovering over landscapes… of course, that’s only if you’re awake to see it.

Here are some dawn images to give you a little inspiration to set that alarm clock one day this week and head out with your camera before day break. Looking for some tips on how to do it? Check out our 12 Tips for Photographing Stunning Sunsets and Sunrises.

PS: want to know more about a photo in this series? Click it to be taken to the photographers flickr page to see more of their work.

23 Beautiful Dawn Images

We hope you enjoyed these beautiful Dawn Images. If you have some of your own shots taken at dawn we’d love to see them – please share your dawn images in comments below.

How to Photograph Dramatic Clouds at Sunset

A Post By: Anne McKinnell

The difference between a nice sunset and a dramatic sunset is all about the clouds.

Of course, the difference between a dramatic sunset and no sunset is all about the clouds too!

A clear sky at sunset might turn a shade of pale blue or pink, which is beautiful and calming, but with just the right amount of clouds the sky becomes alive with fire and drama as the day’s last rays reflect off the clouds making them red, orange, purple and pink.

Not all clouds are created equal though. They come in many shapes, sizes, densities, and altitudes, and they all refract or absorb the light in different ways that can drastically change the quality of your photographs.

Types of Clouds

Clouds that hang low in the sky and form a band on the horizon or appear like a thick blanket covering the sky will block the sun’s high-flying rays and make the sunset pretty anti-climactic, if you can see it at all.

Sometimes large and lumpy clouds that are brighter on the top and dark on the bottom can create a lot of contrast, making for a very moody atmosphere. Rain, snow, and hail clouds fall under this category, as the weight of the excess moisture weighs them down.

The most radiant displays of colour emerge when the clouds are very high in the sky. They are usually smaller, whiter, and thinner than the low-lying clouds, and they are able to catch the sunlight from beneath, allowing us to view those fiery colours from the ground.

These are more likely to occur when the weather is hot and dry, which is why desert landscapes are famous for their magnificent sunsets. When you want to create a dazzling sunset photo, these are the clouds you want to look out for.

Predicting the Weather

Sunsets don’t last very long, so it takes a little planning and a lot of luck to have nature set up the perfect sky for you. You never know when the ideal conditions are going to present themselves, but if you tune your senses to the weather and its patterns, you will start to get an idea of when you can expect to see the right amount of clouds in a sunset sky.

Watch the sky over the course of the day to see what kinds of clouds are forming and how fast they’re drifting overhead. Check your local weather forecast to find out when the sun will go down, and try to judge if they’ll be sticking around based on the time of day and the speed of their movement. Keep informed about any storms coming in that will bring low-hanging clouds along with them.

If you have a great view from your back yard, all you have to do is keep your camera at hand so you can dart out when you see a great sky. On the other hand, if your aim is to travel to a more distant location to get your shot, you’ll have to be a little more precise in your calculations to avoid hauling all your gear up a mountain only to have the clouds dissipate. Your best bet is to choose a location that will be beautiful with or without clouds – that way, if nature doesn’t cooperate, you haven’t wasted the trip.

The Perfect Exposure

The most effective way of bringing out the natural saturation of coloured light is to underexpose very slightly – between a half-stop and a full stop. This darkens the rest of the image, making the colour pop in comparison. Use your exposure compensation to adjust this.

To make sure you get the best possible exposure, bracket your shots. This means taking several images at different exposures, so you can analyze them on your computer at home in order to determine which is the most successful. This can be done manually using your exposure compensation setting – take one image using the camera’s default settings, then take one that is underexposed by half a stop and one that is overexposed by half a stop. Some cameras will have an automatic bracketing option that you can utilize to change these settings for you.

Another option is to create a high-dynamic range (HDR) image by combining multiple exposures as I did in this photo of a Joshua Tree. I made one exposure for the sky, another for the mid-tones, and another for the shadows and combined them in post-processing.

If you want to soften the appearance of moving clouds, use a long shutter speed to blur them slightly. If they are drifting slowly you’ll need a longer exposure to achieve this than if they’re gliding swiftly across the sky.

Foreground

When you’re going after sunset-specific shots, there’s a good chance that your foreground is going to be silhouetted against the sky. When this happens, it’s easy to forget about the foreground all together. This is a mistake. Remember that every part of your frame is important. The darkened foreground is simply negative space, and should be composed just like the rest of the image. Look for interesting shapes or objects to place in the frame to create a focal point that enhances the picture. If you want your foreground to be more visible, use fill flash (flash with the brightness turned down) to lighten the subject slightly without overexposing.

Post-Processing

When you bring your photos into an image editing program, you might have the urge to crank up the saturation and make the colours really bold. Resist the urge to go overboard on this feature; a 5% increase is all right, but much more than that can cause your image to take on a cartoonish look that could make it appear inauthentic. If your software allows you to, change the “vibrance” instead. This option is similar to saturation, but it focuses its effects on the pixels with lower colour intensity, preventing over saturation. Be ginger with your adjustments, and when in doubt dial them back a little bit to ensure the alterations are subtle and the final image looks natural.

Composition Exercise: Frame Within a Frame

A Post By: Jeff Guyer

I teach a kids photography class (ages 11-15), and this week we started talking about composition. I don’t require a specific type or level of camera, so I have students shooting with DSLRs, as well as students with simple point-&-shoot models. Because of the wide range of cameras, I make this class a little less about the technical and a little more about how they see the world around them. I strive to make sure they understand the elements of exposure, the principles of lighting, and all of the other aspects of the craft that come into play when they push the button and capture a moment in time. Regardless of make and model, though, the one thing they all share is a viewfinder– a frame in which to compose and arrange those moments in time. The way that each of these young photographers grasps the concepts and applies them to their own world view is incredibly enlightening and fun to watch.

So, in class this week I explained that composition guides the viewer through the frame and answers the question, “What are you trying to say?” Put another way– “This is why I stopped and took this photo.”  Now that they are armed with another set of photographic fundamentals, I’m giving them a week or two to get comfortable with photographing the same subject different ways before giving them one of my favorite assignments of the semester– “A Frame Within a Frame.”

If the frame is your window on the world, composition is where you point it. The FWAF exercise basically pushes them to find boundaries within boundaries. On the one hand, that sounds pretty restrictive, and I suppose it can be. The flip-side, however, is that pushing them to compose within certain confines now will help unleash vast waves of creativity later. I tell them every chance I get that the rules of photography were made to be broken, but first they have to know what they are. Speaking of rules, the FWAF challenge has only one– no actual frames. That’s right– no posing your subject in the middle of a wheat field, along the railroad tracks, or any other overly cliche setting, while holding a big empty frame in front of them. I try, whenever possible, to shoot the assignments I give my students, and just about all of the images in this article were part of Frame Within a Frame exercises.

One of my favorite FWAF shots was one of those happy accidents where you don’t even realize what you’ve got until it’s off the camera and up on a bigger screen. I knew that mama lion had been pretty close, keeping a watchful eye over one of her growing cubs, but it wasn’t until I’d downloaded the images that I realized that I’d caught her attentive gaze perfectly framed between Junior’s two front legs.

See where I’m going with this? No literal frames were harmed in the creation of these photos. Anything that creates additional boundaries within the images effectively creates an additional frame, which then directs the viewer’s attention much more precisely where you want it to go.

This next image is a great example, not only of a frame within a frame, but of repetition as an interesting compositional element. A tighter crop of the artist at work would have been okay, I guess. We’d be able to make certain assumptions about what’s not in the photo– namely, the subject of her piece. By including it in my background, however, I not only created the additional frame, but also lead the viewer through the image from right to left, taking in the artist, her canvas, and her inspiration.

Once you get in the habit of looking for these extra frames you’ll start noticing them in all sorts of places. These boxers, for instance, are framed perfectly within the ropes of the ring. As a compositional tool, the added frame not only directs the viewer’s attention, but it also helps to minimize any distracting or non-essential elements from the photo.

Obviously, the frame within a frame is much more interpretive than literal. Doorways, windows, and mirrors– elements with clearly defined lines– can create great effects, but I enjoy seeing what my students do with the assignment when they are comfortable enough to ignore the obvious and go for something much more organic.

One of my favorite photography quotes comes from National Geographic photographer Jim Richardson, who says that “If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff.” One of the things that fascinates me about composition and exercises like this is how we push ourselves to not only stand in front of more interesting stuff, but to also photograph more interesting stuff in a more interesting way.

how to control multiple flashes wirelessly with a canon 7d

Among the features listed on our recent review of the new powerhouse Canon EOS 7D is wireless flash control. Sought after by many photographers, this version 1.0 feature has some useful capabilities thanks to the addition of a popup flash to Canons X D line. Controlling flash ratios, as well as exposure, from the camera can make shoots with multiple flashes far easier. Flashes can further be controlled as individual groups or treated as one large flash.

The system works by using the camera’s pop-up flash as the master, while other Canon EX-Series flashes are set as slaves. In the demonstration below, all remote flashes are set to channel 1 (three channels are possible to prevent misfiring when working around other photographers) and then each flash is assigned group A, B or C. For this simple demonstration, A will be to the left of the model (in this case, the fabulous Groovy Girls car borrowed from my daughter), B will be to the right and C will be behind the car, lighting the background.  Let’s take a look at how the controls work.

First, pop up the built in flash by pressing the button located on the front of the camera housing.  Here’s the first shot of the Groovy Girls enjoying a ride in their Groovy Car, lit by only the pop-up flash (All images Canon7D, Canon 28-300mm L lens, 1/200sec, f/16, ISO 100). Click on images for a larger version.

Because the lens is a bit longer than standard there is a slight shadow at the bottom of the image.

Next, press the Menu button and then navigate to the first grouping, scrolling down until you reach “Flash Control”.  Press the Set button (center of the rear control wheel)

On the next screen, select Built-in flash func. setting

Now, scroll down to Wireless func. and enable it if it is not already.  Select just the center option (while not covered in this article, the other modes allow for inclusion of the pop-up flash’s light either as a ratio or as part of the overall metering)

The menu will return to the previous screen, where additional options will be unlocked.  Only functions that may be used with your current setting will be selectable from this point on.  Select firing group and Choose the (A:B) option.  This selection allows the flashes in group A to be set as a ration to group B, or the other way around.

Notice two items below the Firing Group is A:B fire ratio.  Here is what the image looks like when that ratio is set to 1:1 with two flashes spaced equal distances from the subject and slightly in front (with included diffusers and flash bounces utilized).

There’s a little more dimension added to the photo.

Here’s the same scene with a 4:1 A:B ratio (use the rear control wheel to make your ratio selection)

And again, the same scene adjusted to 1:8 A:B ratio

All this is done from the camera with no need to fiddle with the flashes themselves.

Now let’s include a third flash behind the car to light up the background and reduce some shadows (NOTE: this photo is shot inside a light tent so a rear flash on the curved backdrop will cause some added reflection from the top).  Go back to the Firing group option and first, selecting (A+B+C), here’s what we get.

In this mode, the camera will attempt to balance the entire scene while using all the flashes.  This leaves scenes with a bit too much light on the backdrop.  This can be adjusted by reducing the exposure setting for group C, but a better idea is to not include C in the over all ratio.  Switching to (A+B C) mode in the Firing group setting means C will not be included in the calculation for A and B lighting the main subject.  It is generally understood in this situation that group C will be used to erase shadow from backdrops, although there can be many creative uses for it.

Now let’s adjust the lighting so it’s coming from in front of the car, from flash A.

Lastly, let’s bring down the group C light by 2 stops to lessen the glare,  This is done by scrolling down to the Grp C exp. comp.

And the tweaking can go on and on and on.  By no means a finished photo, the image could still use some adjustment.  My goal with this article was to show how easy it is to adjust remote flashes from the Canon 7D camera body.  At the same time it must also be said that going back into the menu selection each time to adjust the ratios can be annoying.  Canon could do with adding a shortcut directly to the adjustments.

For a first attempt at this wireless flash control feature, I’d say Canon has done a decent job.  They have made it useful for a photographer to use the creativity multiple flashes can bring to a shoot.  On top of that, multiple flashes may be used within a group.  Add in some color gels to the flashes and your own inventiveness starts to become your only limit.

- See more at: http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-control-multiple-flashes-wirelessly-with-a-canon-7d#sthash.5HUq8H14.dpuf