برچسب: Better

  • Learn How To Capture Better Architectural Photos With These Resources

    Learn How To Capture Better Architectural Photos With These Resources

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    Architectural photography is not about capturing photos of just buildings, but also about capturing meaningful photographs of structures, their stories and sometimes closer photos of cityscapes as well. A lot of photographers consider it to be a boring genre or one that is used for real estate purposes but if you look closely and work with the best light conditions, while also using the right focal length, architectural photographs can be stunning and very interesting subjects for photography. These can also be combined with other genre like portraits, street, documentary, etc.

    When it comes to architectural photography, it almost always involves geometry in it and using geometry in compositions can be a powerful way to capture compelling photographs. Architectural photography can be of both interior and exterior photographs of architecture and if you are new to architectural photography, learn how to capture better architectural photos with the resources listed below.

    Photo by Wolfgang Staudt

    When it comes to architectural photography, there are quite a lot of factors that need to be taken onto account. Depending on what you wish to shoot and the results you are looking to achieve, starting from the focal length used, you will need to take care of the aperture values, iso, shutter speed, stabilisation, the verticals and so on. This article discusses seven tips to capture perfect architectural photographs.

    Photo by Hector Falcon

    Outdoor architecture is one where the photographer captures the exteriors of an architectural structure, be it the entire structure or part of it. When capturing outdoor images of architectural structures, do not just point and shoot what is right in front of you or just capture the entire building and stop with that. Close observations under the right light conditions will reveal the intricate details and colours in architectural structures and this article talks about five things you need to consider when photographing outdoor architecture.

    Old and new, contrast and juxtaposition are good architectural subjects. By Jason Row Photography

    There was a time when photographers thought that architectural photographs could only be captured using a wide angle lens, because most photographers, even when closer to the structure, thought that the structure needs to be completely included in the frame. Architectural structures come with stunning details and colours – the patterns and the geometry can be very compelling and there are many ways in which a photographer can photograph a part of an architectural structure and this article discusses a few.

    Photo by Ashim D’Silva

    Landscape and nature photography are stunning and there are a ton of opportunities to photograph subjects in nature. The same applies for buildings that range from ancient historical structures, ruins, religious structures, cultural architecture to modern architecture. Architectural photography can also help the photographer slow down and learn to use the camera, especially if you are beginner as there are buildings and structures all around us. This article provides eight reasons why you should try architectural photography.

    Photo by Germán Rodríguez

    There are a multitude of religions across the world and they all have places of worship or other religious structures built for various purposes. Religious structures can look complicated both on the inside and the outside, but the intricate details are stunning to photograph, if taken time to observe and compose. This article shares some secrets to capture amazing religious architecture.

    A four minute exposure using 16 stops of ND was enough to create movement in these slow moving clouds. By Jason Row Photography

    Architectural subjects can be great for long exposure photography, where you have a powerful static subject which is your architectural structure, and then you can capture the movements around the structure, be it people, swaying trees in the wind, clouds, water, traffic light trails and so on. Capturing long exposure images of architecture can boost the visual impact of the frame itself and this article is a good guide to long exposure architectural photography.

    Photo by Medhat Ayad

    Whether you are a real estate photographer or someone interested in capturing the interiors of buildings and other structures, interior architectural photography brings out the character of a building, and shows what the great structures really look like on the inside. It can be quite tricky to capture interiors because of the limited light, sometimes also the limited or huge space inside and composition can also be quite tricky. This article provides some tips to capture indoor architecture easily.

    If you are someone who is interested in black and white photography, architectural structures can be great subjects for black and white photography, if done well. Good light, tonal range, patterns or textures, composition, are some important factors to look out when shooting for black and white conversion. This article discusses the art of urban black and white photography.

    Photo by William Warby

    Converging verticals can be a problem in architectural photography and when shooting certain buildings and structures, it can look stunning and artistic for some buildings/structures but quite odd for the others. Architectural photographers most of the time try to get those verticals right, in order to get the best results. If you are looking for ways to get the verticals straight in your architectural images, check out this article that discusses a few tips.

    Further Reading



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  • A Better Edit Makes Better Photographs

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    Take a few minutes to watch the video above or, if you’re more of a written word person, keep reading.

    It’s not uncommon for me to come home from a trip with thousands of photographs. On a wildlife trip I can average 1,000 photographs a day, which is really easy to do when you’re in a moving boat, excited about bears and your cameras are set to shoot 10 frames a second. Even when I’m not photographing wildlife, if I’ve had a good day out with my camera I can come back with hundreds of images. 

    But even on those trips when I’m gone for a month and come home with 30,000 photographs, I still get home with my edits mostly done, and my development mostly finished and ready to print. Often I’ve also got a PDF monograph ready to send out to the photographers in my community.

    In contrast, I have a friend who shoots trips like this and he won’t get around to doing anything with his photographs for years. Until then they will sit there on hard drives begging to be seen, to be printed, learned from, and put into some form of creative output that can be shared with the world. 

    Why? It’s not some kind of strategy, and he’s not giving them time to get objective about his edits. He just gets overwhelmed by it all. And he doesn’t have a system. He looks at all those images and gets paralyzed. So while I’m excitedly making prints and sequencing monographs or updating my web galleries, he and so many like him are doing…nothing with their images. No bodies of work created, no beautiful prints, no learning from their mistakes or experiencing the joy of seeing—and sharing—their finished work.

    I know so many photographers who walk in the door after making a bunch of photographs and say, “Well, that was fun. Now what?”

    The edit—choosing your keepers—can be so intimidating that it gets reduced to an ad hoc effort at picking a few good shots,  pushing some sliders around in Lightroom, and throwing them onto Instagram before moving on to the next thing. I’ve been there. 

    Before I started doing assignment work, my editing was scattershot and intimidating and took forever. But client work forced me to get intentional about how I imported and organized my images, to be clear about my criteria for selecting the best of that work, and more systematic about the output.

    Knowing I would be shooting for something, that my work would be used in certain ways made a big difference to me. It still does. In my personal work I know I will be making something—a book, a web gallery, a collection of prints—and that helps me make better choices about which images I shoot and how I select the best of that work. 

    This email is the first in a series in which I want to explore what you do with your images after the camera goes back in the bag and the ways that can make you an even stronger, more intentional, and more creative photographer when you take it out again.

    The first question I want to ask (on your behalf) is this:

    “How can I make the edit easier, less intimidating, or overwhelming?” 

    I’ve got three simple initial ideas that I think can be really helpful, and they’re a big part of how I am able to regularly come home with up to 30,000 images already mostly edited and the best of that work ready for output rather than dreading the pile of images I had yet to go through. Here are those ideas. I hope they help.

    Just Look for the Best of the Best

    We all photograph for different reasons and we all do things differently, but I think edits (especially the first edits done relatively soon after shooting) should be selections, not ratings. Pick them or don’t pick them, but don’t rate them. at least not at first.

    My own edit process goes much more quickly because I’m not looking for every single image that meets some basic minimal technical standard. I’m looking for the ones that make me lean in. The ones that make my heart sing. The ones that grab me and won’t let me not select them.

    You might have a great reason for rating images, but I think trying to decide whether an image deserves 2, 3, or 4 stars slows the process. Because I’m looking for a few frames that are a decisive “Yes!”, I’ve found rating them makes me look for the wrong thing.

    For me, a 3-star image isn’t a Yes! It’s a yawn.

    Consider being more binary. Yes! Or no. After all, how many images do you really need? Wouldn’t it be easier just to look for the best 12 or 24? It is for me.

    Do Smaller Edits

    Break it down. Make it easy on yourself. You don’t have to edit thousands of images all at once.

    I do daily field edits and come home with main selections already made. This makes it manageable, but it’s more than that. Doing daily edits means things don’t get away from you. And—as a bonus—it gives you a chance to spot things that aren’t working. For example, you’re more likely to notice that you accidentally shot small JPGs all day when you thought you had been shooting RAW. Or you discover your lens isn’t focusing quite right. Or your sensor needs cleaning. It’s better to discover that after one day of shooting and be able to fix it, rather than much later on when it’s just too late.

    Maybe you don’t do big multi-day projects, breaking your edits down into bite-sized pieces, perhaps into sequences or using Lightroom’s Stacking feature, can still make the process much more manageable and keep you excited, rather than doing one big exhausting edit later on. You don’t have to do it all at once and you probably should consider doing it all more than once. I have found multiple smaller edit sessions make the best of my limited resources of time and attention, which wane after a few thousand images, let me tell you!

    Consider Your Output

    Don’t just make photographs; make something with the photographs.

    I’ve found that knowing what I’m going to do with my images has made me a much better photographer and a much better editor because I now know what I’m choosing images for. 

    If you know you’re going to be making a book, you’ll make different choices. If you know you want a dozen horizontal prints, again, you’ll make different choices. If you know you want a body of work that explores a theme, what you shoot and how you edit will be affected by that. 

    When we edit we’re asking which are the best images, but first we need to ask “best for what?” And that is entirely your choice. Just don’t let it only be best for a couple Instagram posts or a handful of random images that never leave your hard drives. 

    These three ideas alone will make your editing simpler:

    1. Look only for the best and don’t worry about the others.
    2. Do smaller bite-sized edit sessions, and
    3. Consider—or make intentional choices about—what you want to do with your pictures so you can think not only about which images are best, but best for what.

    I’d love to hear from you on this. Where do you find your greatest challenges when it comes to choosing your best work and doing something with them, staying organized, and doing all the work that happens beyond the shutter? If you feel like talking about it, drop me a note in the comments below.

    For the Love of the Photograph,
    David



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