Taking Pictures
I know that Four Starters is not a photo-log. On the other hand, all the other writers are sometimes involved in photography. Most of the pictures that accompany the articles are self-made. As a matter of fact, I see so many digital camera’s around nowadays, everybody seems involved in photography.
The most important thing in making a good photo is the person behind the camera, is an often heard cliché. But it’s true.
Hitchcock was able to make great movies, that are still exciting today, although he only had two colors available: black and white, but he mastered the technique of storytelling and suspension. In this perspective I’ve got a few tips, how everybody can make impressive pictures, with any camera, no matter what size your lens is.
Tip # 1
Get as close to your subject as your camera allows you, maybe even closer. Zooming in on a person like a paparazzi is safe, but even though the viewer might not understand a thing about wide angles and depth of field, he will experience a zoom-shot as distant and unpersonal anyway. Secondly, getting closer allows less clutter of distracting objects in the photo, which brings me to the next tip:
Tip # 2
When I decide on composition I often choose to eliminate as many objects in a shot as possible, so that only the necessary remain. Even sometimes afterwards I choose to crop the photo’s to exclude even more. ‘Less is More’ is very true in photography.
Tip # 3
To achieve the previous tips, you need one more thing. You need your objects to allow you to get near. This might be stirring in the beginning, but I can assure you it gives a real kick, and it is much more fun to have interaction with the person that you shoot, than to just be a hidden observer. Off course there are ways to make it easier:
You could have a business-card with the web address, where people can review the picture, Sometimes just kindly nodding, and showing your camera in the air, can be enough. I’ve done this a lot, and nobody ever objected.
Finally you just have to get out there and experiment. On the site hocus-focus.com, I’m publishing weekly simple exercises, so you have a little kick in the butt, to get out and focus.
Cristiano Betta http://cristianobetta.com/
December 7th, 2007Although I agree with point 1, it has some repercussions.
First off, if you get close to someone and shoot at 18mm, you are boudn to get very distorted photos (epending on the price of your lens). This will give people very fish-like and blown up faces. So, get close but not too close. On a digital camera, don’t zoom back further than about 33mm.
Secondly, unless you have a lens with a very nice wide aperture (which are expensive), using zoom from a long distance will often give you a nice clean low depth of field, therefore making the photo often more clean and more ambient. I often use this to take photos of people in their working habbit on 200mm, giving a real sense of a natural shot. If you get close, people are bound to behave less natural.
Cristiano Betta http://cristianobetta.com/
December 7th, 2007BTW: Was that Hocus-Focus site your idea? I didn’t realize when I signed up for the Flickr group.
Eelke Dekker http://eelkedekker.nl
December 8th, 2007Well, theoretically you are right about the lenses and so on. (although I like the fisheye effect on faces, you ever tried the lomo-fishey-cam?
But I still think that photo’s where people intereact with the camera or with the viewer are much more interesting. Everybody can shoot a paparazzi picture from across the room. But when you are able to get your objects to be so comfortable, that they behave naturally, then you are on the right track. Take a look at the pictures of stoneth
Eelke Dekker http://eelkedekker.nl
December 8th, 2007Btw, it was. you didn’t receive my invite on flickr?
Cristiano Betta http://cristianobetta.com/
December 9th, 2007Yeah, I did, but didn’t quite get yet that it was your site/idea.