Anna Saverimuttu's Photography Blog

A bus ride with Lord Mandelson

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to photograph Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson when he visited Guildford, along with Energy & Climate Change Secretary, Ed Miliband and transport minister, Sadiq Khan.

After being met at Guildford Station, the three were then taken by a special bus to the Alexander Dennis factory, which was launching its fleet of new environmentally friendly vehicles. 

This was the second time that I have taken photographs on a moving bus and despite a few unsteady moments going round corners, I secured the shots I needed!

Following a quick tour round some key areas of the factory, and a chat with staff, the visitors completed a series of media interviews and posed for photographs, before boarding the bus again and heading back to London.

The available light in the factory was quite dim in some areas, so it was a case of dragging the shutter slightly for some of the shots.

Nearer to the entrance, I was able to use available light only.

I wasn't going to miss this one!

How to Photograph Groups

Whether it be the family group at a wedding, the local football team, a school party or a corporate team picture, photographing large groups of people presents its own particular challenges.

Top Tips for Successfully Photographing Groups

1. Do your preparation - find out at least roughly how many people will be in the group; that way, at least you can plan your shot in advance and decide on what (if any) lighting you are going to use.
2. Make sure people know who's in charge right from the start.  A large gathering of people with no one to direct them will descend surprisingly quickly into chaos.  Your job on the day is really one of chief entertainer, so while you're working out how best to arrange them and all the other boring technical details, don't forget to keep talking to people; personally, I find that I'm generally talking a lot of nonsense, and can never remember afterwards exactly what I've said.  But if I've kept people amused, then that's all that concerns me.
3. If you're having to arrange people in rows (not my favourite arrangement, but sometimes a necessary one), with a mixture of some sitting and some standing, I find that it's better to have the taller ones sitting down. Having a row of tall people standing and shorter ones sitting in front increases the gap between the two rows of heads too much.
4. Rows of people often look better if the rows are curved in slightly at both ends to create a semi-circular arrangement.
5. Try and photograph them from slightly above.  This can really help ensure that everyone's faces will be seen, particularly with larger groups;  it also provides a more interesting angle.
6. This should go without saying, but take lots of pictures - the more people there are in your shot, the more pictures you should take, since the more likely it is that a) someone will blink or b) someone won't be looking in the right direction: and if you're really unlucky, it could be both! Obviously, there is a limit to how much you can shoot of the same set-up, since people's expressions will quickly start to glaze over if you just put the camera on 6 frames-per-second mode and fire away.  You need to direct them between shots, so that as well as always looking at you, their expressions are engaged and interested.
   
7. Try to avoid placing everyone's eyes on the same level.  It's probably the least exciting option as the viewer's eye will travel in a straight line across the picture and the arrangement lacks any kind of dynamism.
8. Again, with family groups, show the relationship between different members of the family and have them move closer together so there are no awkward gaps.

What Makes a Professional Photographer?

I came across this quote the other day, and its relevance to the practice of professional photography really struck me.

"Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives." William A Foster

This post is linked to several categories in my blog - Photographic Equipment is not one of them :)

The Inverse Square Law & Why it Matters

The Inverse Square Law is one of those things you learn about at college and then promptly forget - it doesn't after all have a terribly exciting ring to it.

If you use any kind of artificial lighting in your photography though, knowing how the inverse square law works is important.

So, what is it?  The Inverse Square Law states that the intensity of a light source falling on a given subject is inversely proportional to the square of its distance from that subject.  Or, in other words, if you double the distance of your light source from your subject, it will decrease by two stops; halve the distance and it will increase by two stops.  Basically, as light travels away from its source, it starts to spread; as it spreads, it has to illuminate a larger and larger surface area, which means that its intensity decreases the further it has to travel. 

Therefore, if your light source is positioned 1 metre away from your subject and gives a light reading of f11, and you then move it 2 metres away, the reading will now only be f5.6; by the time the light strikes the subject, it has spread out and has to illuminate four times the surface area that it would have to at its original "correct" distance of 1 metre - this equates to a loss of two stops of light.  If, on the other hand, you halve the distance of the light from the subject by moving it half a metre away, the effect will be to increase its intensity by 2 full stops, from f11 to f 22.

This is the reason why if you use flash photography at say a party, and are photographing a group of people, whilst they will be correctly lit, the background will look much darker; by the time the light has travelled beyond the group, it has spread over a wider area and is therefore much weaker.

Similarly, imagine that you're photographing a large family group in a studio.  If you position your light too far to the side, those people nearest to it will be lit more brightly than those who are furthest away. 

How to avoid unwanted reflections in your photos

How do you avoid getting unwanted reflections in your shots?  Let's imagine a worst-case scenario where you are photographing someone who is standing in front of a flat, shiny surface such as a mirror or a window, and the light you are using is a hard light source such as a flash unit.  And just for good measure, the flash is positioned on top of your camera.

When you take the picture, the light from the flash will (unless it's hidden by the person) hit the window and bounce straight back at you, causing a horrible hotspot on your picture.

This is because the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection. 

What does this mean?  Basically, the angle at which light strikes a flat surface is equal to the angle at which it bounces off that surface.  Hence, if you are trying to photograph someone who is standing in front of a window and you are using a flash unit on the top of your camera, and furthermore you are standing directly in line with the angle at which the light hits the window, you will see a direct, specular reflection of the flash in your pictures.

How can you avoid this?  If you place your light source in a different position relative to yourself and your subject so that you are not aligned with the light's angle of reflection, then your camera will not be able to see that reflection.

Here, the camera is in a direct line with the both the angle of incidence and the angle of reflection.

In this set-up, only camera (b) sees the reflection.  Camera (a) is not in line with the angle of reflection.

In the first shot below, the sign was lit by diffuse frontal light, but because it has a slightly shiny surface this has created a distracting reflection.  By moving myself away from the angles of incidence and reflection, I took a much more pleasing photograph which reveals the depth of the colours.

Large apertures and shallow depth-of-field.

Using a wide aperture to create a shallow depth-of-field is a great technique for isolating a single detail in your shot.  Don't forget though that the shallower your depth-of-field, the more accurately you'll need to focus; as these were all shot handheld at f2.8, there was a lot of breath-holding and supporting myself against walls! (See "How to hold an SLR camera properly" for advice).  Of course, a tripod is always a handy accessory to have too.

 

 

 

Dragging the shutter - how to avoid dark backgrounds with flash

If you take photographs indoors at an event such as a wedding or a party, you'll probably notice that when you use flash, although the subject is properly lit, the background appears very dark.  The reason why this happens is that the light coming from the flash, although fairly powerful, starts to fall off very abruptly after it hits the main subject; it doesn't have the "throw" necessary to light up a large area such as your background, once it has illuminated the subject.  And of course, the less light there is, the worse the problem becomes, since there is such a huge discrepancy between the main light coming from your flash, and the ambient light. 

The solution to the problem is simple - it's all to do with balancing the light.  Since your flash can't possibly light up the background too, you must make what ambient light there is work for you.  The way to do this is to use a slower shutter speed.  By "dragging the shutter", you are not affecting the flash exposure, since this is of a fixed, and very short duration.  However, once the main subject has been exposed by the flash, because the shutter remains open for longer (1/60 instead of 1/125, for instance), there is more time for the available light to record on your camera's sensor.

There is a proviso to add though if you are using this technique - make sure your subject is not moving too much, otherwise they will be blurred in your shot; while the flash will freeze some movement, because the shutter remains open after it has fired, if the subject is still moving some blur will be visible in the form of "ghosting". The key is anticipation - time your shots for when your subject is not moving too much and if possible, take a selection of shots. 

Of course, using flash and blur together can be a handy creative technique, but should be used judiciously, so that the style is appropriate to the subject.  So whilst it may be okay to use if you're photographing a band, for event photography, when the subject needs to be clearly visible, it's possibly not such a good idea.

 

If I hadn't set the shutter to 1/40, the background would have appeared much darker in this shot.  However, the subject has been lit correctly with flash, whilst the light provided by the image in the background has been recorded properly too.

Flash sync speed - what is it?

There are two types of camera shutter:

1. Focal plane, where the shutter consists of two shutter curtains which travel across the camera's sensor during an exposure.  The difference in the length of the exposure depends on how soon after the first shutter curtain begins to travel across the sensor, the second one follows behind.
2. Inter-lens shutter.  This type of shutter is located in the lens rather than the camera, and is composed of a number of blades which overlap one another and are arranged in a circular fashion.  When an exposure is made, the blades all open outwards simultaneously, so there is no moment at which the sensor is partially covered.

To understand why flash sync speeds are important though, we only need to understand how a focal plane shutter works.

Previously, I've explained how your camera's shutter works when shooting in available light.  When you use your camera with a flash, however, there will be a maximum shutter speed (usually about 1/250 of a second) above which you won't be able to go - the flash sync speed.   This is because the burst of flash is of a uniform and very short duration, and so in order for your camera's sensor to be fully exposed to the light during this short period of time, the two shutter curtains must have opened fully at the moment when the exposure is being made.  So if the shutter speed is too fast, the two shutter curtains will still be in the process of moving across the sensor at the moment when the flash is fired; which means that only a part of the image will be recorded, and the rest will be black.

Situations in which you are most likely to encounter your camera's flash sync speed are when you are using it to fill in the existing light when shooting outdoors.  (See previous post about fill-in flash.)  For instance, if you're photographing someone on a bright sunny day and want to reduce the contrast on their face by introducing a little flash, when you take a meter reading for the background, it is likely that the indicated shutter speed will be faster than your camera's sync speed.

If you're using an automatic camera or have your flash-gun positioned on the hotshoe, the camera will prevent you from accidentally setting a shutter speed that is too high.

With inter-lens shutters, flash sync speeds can of course be much higher, since all the shutter blades are fully open at the same moment and the sensor is fully exposed for the complete duration of the flash.

What is fill-in flash?

Using flash outdoors may seem like rather a strange idea.  After all, why would you need even more light when you're already shooting outside? In certain circumstances, however, when taking portraits outdoors for instance, it's helpful to be able to introduce a little additional light into the shot.  For instance, if you're faced with shooting in bright sunlight which is causing harsh shadows to fall on your subject's face, then the results are going to be far from flattering.  Adding a little flash to the shot, however, will help to lift the shadows, thereby reducing the contrast; it will also introduce some catchlights into the subject's eyes, giving them an extra sparkle and bringing your shot to life. 

Alternatively, you may want to backlight your subject, by positioning them against the sun - we've all seen photos taken against a bright background, where the person's face is so under-exposed that they're reduced to a dark and featureless shape. You can, of course, use exposure compensation in this instance to ensure that their face isn't under-exposed because of the sunlight fooling your camera's internal meter, or again, you can balance out the light by using fill-in flash.

Even on an overcast day, a small amount of flash can help stop your portraits from looking dull.

So how do you do it?  There are several different methods for using fill-in flash, and the one you employ will depend on the type of camera and flash unit you are using.  

The whole idea of fill-in flash is not to overpower the existing light, but to create the right balance between it and the flash. So you want the flash to be weaker in intensity than the ambient light and thus not compete directly with it. Too much, and your pictures will have that "over-flashed" appearance which will just result in bleached out highlight areas lacking in any detail.

Ideally, you are aiming to set the flash to give between 1 and 2 stops less light than the reading that your camera's meter is indicating as correct for the background.

Method 1

If you're using an automatic camera, check your manual to see whether there is a fill-in flash option and use this in any tricky lighting conditions.

Method 2

If you own a separate flash-gun, take a meter reading for the background and set the appropriate shutter speed into your camera, making sure that it is not faster than your camera's flash sync speed (confused about sync speed?  I'll be covering this in another post soon!) Then adjust the ISO setting on your flash unit, so that it is faster than that set on your camera - for instance, if you're using ISO 100 on your camera, then set the flash-gun to ISO 200 or 400. This means that you are in effect fooling the flash into sending out a less intense burst of light.

Method 3

Dial a larger aperture setting into your flash unit.  For instance, if you want to shoot at f8, set your camera to f8 and your flash to between one and two stops less, i.e. f5.6 or f4.  Again, you are fooling the flash into thinking that you are shooting at a larger aperture, and so it doesn't need to provide as much light.

Method 4

If your flash unit has EV (Exposure Value) settings, turn these down to a minus setting (anything from, say, -1 to -3) to ensure that the flash doesn't overpower the existing light.

In order to ensure the right ratio of flash to existing light, remember that the brighter the overall lighting conditions, the more powerful the flash will need to be in order to help fill in the shadows, and the less intense the ambient light, the less flash power you'll need to balance things out.

How to create a photographic silhouette

In this post, I talked about deliberately underexposing your shots in order to preserve detail in the subject and avoid the problem of blown-out highlights.  However, by taking things a step further, we can lose all the subject detail, thereby rendering them as a silhouette against a light background.

The key to creating a silhouette is to place your subject in front of a brightly-lit, plain background.  If you're outdoors, get the sun behind your subject with maybe a bright expanse of sky forming the background.   In this example taken indoors, the light is coming from the projector screen behind the speaker.  In either case, what you are looking to do is to trick your camera into exposing for the background rather than the main subject.

So instead of pointing your camera at the subject, point it at the background; now take a meter reading from the background.  If your camera has an exposure-hold button, you can keep this depressed and then recompose your shot and take the picture.  Alternatively, you can switch the camera to Manual mode and set the meter reading into your camera, and take the shot. Having exposed for the background, your main subject will now be massively underexposed, in effect blocking up all the shadows and reducing them to a silhouette.