Photo 101 for the Newbies (revisited)

[Anton]

I thought it about time to revisit some basic photography tips seeing we have a lot of newbies who weren't members when I last posted 12 months or so ago.

These are basic tips to help you get better images for your collection, but also for when you enter in the Monthly Photo Contest, AND YOU ALL DO THAT, DON'T YOU ???!!!!

#1 and most important....... BACKGROUND !!!
Make sure you are able to photograph your flowers in front of a solid color, neutral background. Nothing worse than trying to work out what a flower / plant looks like when it is in front of a cluttered backyard, kitchen full of utensils, on a window ledge with distracting elements behind it.

Buy some black, royal blue, and white cloth at least a yard wide (allows for camera over shoot) to put behind your plants. Look at Fred's Wilsonara in the June photo contest, great shot, and it is easy to make the plant and flowers out and to see the colors in the flowers.

People with tall flowers say to me, "I can't move it, how am I going to put a background behind it?" EASY, get someone to hold it up for you, you don't need to see the whole plant, just a small section of flowers is all you need, OR, hang it from the cross members of your green house as I did when photographing Willowbanks' orchids.

If you can't get someone to hold it, buy some cheap timber (pine) and make a stand to hold it, all you need is a base, 2 lengths of 1" dowelling for the sides, and another to go across the top to support the cloth. Drill a hole in both ends of the cross piece, and hammer a round head nail in one end of the 2 uprights to slip the cross section on.....voile' One Backdrop Holder.

#2 don't shoot down on your plants/flowers.
Squat down, or if your knees are old and worn out like mine, sit on a stool, or easier still, place the plant on a higher surface so that you can shoot in a straight line directly at it, this rule applies for animals and kids too.

#3 Buy a tripod, doesn't have to be pro grade.
There's a lot of lightweight digital camera tripods around these days designed for point n shoot cameras. This saves you wasting time trying to get sharp images due to your hand shake or pushing the shutter too hard.

It is easier to set your tripod up and just move your plant, rather than putting the camera down, adjusting the plant, picking up the camera and trying desperately to get the same angle again when you pick the camera up.

#4 Look in the camera manual for SELF TIMER
While the camera is on the tripod, compose your shot, and when ready to take the shot, activate the Self Timer, do a final check of composition and focus (you generally have 10 seconds before the camera goes off) and let the camera take the shot this way there is no shake from your hands, heavy breathing or pushing the shutter too hard. Voile' sharp images.

#5 Look in in the manual for the Exposure Compenstaion ( +/-) symbol
Using this, in conjunction with the camera on the tripod, and self timer, you can adjust every exposure from +2.0 down to -2.0 in whatever increments you particular camera allows you to use. This way you look through the 10 or so different exposures to find the one that best captures your flower's color.

#6 Look in manual for how to manually adjust flash
This setting enables you to over ride the camera and turn the flash on so that it always takes flash shots whether in sun or shade (fill in flash); turn it off, so that it never takes a flash shot (used in conjunction with Tip #5) so that you can get good shots of highly reflective flowers,or pure white flowers as flash will "wash" the colors out. You can forget about the Red Eye and Auto for photographing flowers.

With these tips, I am teaching YOU to have CONTROL OVER your camera, NOT the other way around.

[solay]

Thanks Anton. I need to get some fabric.

[CharliesAngel51]

All good points . I always try to locate my orchids against a wall for pics but the cloth is a good idea. The tripod is especially good for those of us that are in our "golden years" and a little shaky.

I'm glad you revisited this thread for those of us that weren't around to see it before. Thanks.

[syndywindy]

Great tips! Thanks Anton.

[orchidlover55]

Thanks anton!!

[fred]

I agree fully with Anton
you can look at my early days of photography the pics are awful compared to what I can take now yeah the camera helps but knowing the setting of your camera is vital.
I have been Anton's student for a while now and he is an Expert
Anton will help anyone that wants to learn how to improve your photography
Anton's advice is free and he knows what he is talking about so the rule of the three L's apply Look, Listen and Learn when you seek his advice.
you may even say to yourself "no thats not right" but just listen to what Anton has to say because he is right.

I started as a Novice in the comp I won that three times and now I am in the Intermediate Class all because I listen to what Anton has to say when teaching me about improving the quality of my photos.
I have made mistakes and Anton has not told me how to improve he had guided me with the problems even giving directions 101

Anton is very approachable if you are not sure with instructions he has given ask again Anton is more than willing to help.

am I sticking up for Anton because he is a good teacher well yes partly but remember two things, one he knows what he is talking about
two one needs to L L L look, lean and listen

[cariosity]

Thank you for the tips. I will keep this in mind as my collection expands!

[dounoharm]

thanks for the tips anton, i appreciate you taking the time to help all us newbies.....i will try to take your advise whenever i can! thanks again!!

[Dendian]

Thank you so much for this thread.

Could you please sticky it, Fred?
It is so helpful and it really sums up much of what I have read in other threads.

I have set up an area to take pictures and used your advise. I found an old tripod from my 35mm (which does fit the digital ) and used a black curtain a friend gave me tucked in the doors of a cabinet. An old chair completed the setup. Here is a picture of my first phal (which is still blooming ) using the new setup. I think it is much better than my first pictures. Also, a pic of the setup.
I think I will now go read all the threads in this section to see if I can pick up some more hints....
Dian

[fred]

yep that is done for you Dian
'Sticky' it is

[Anton]

A little tip Dendian and others, don't place the plant so close to the background because you see detail in the cloth, you just need a solid color without fabric weave showing.

The way to do it, is to bring your plant 2 to 3 feet in front of the background, bring your camera back further and use the zoom to go in closer and compose your subject.

What this does is to fore shorten a thing called depth of field (simply put, the area that stays in focus) so then you will only have a narrow field of your subject that stays in focus, everything in front of it and behind it blurs.

Therefore, your background wont be in focus, resulting in the weave of the fabric not showing.

[orchidlover55]

I am guilty ..... Thanks for the advice Anton it is some real good tips

[Anton]

I have noticed in some of the contests nice flowers on an influorescence, but that the flower which is the primary subject is out of focus because the camera has focussed itself on a point behind the primary subject. Namely one of the flowers pointing the other way.

This is a trap for the unwary. YOU need to tell the camera what YOU WANT ! NOT what it thinks you need.

To eliminate this problem, set up and compose your subject the way you want, now move the camera to set the focus center of the camera (usually has 2 brackets "[ ]" in the center of the monitor / eyepiece) onto the flower closest to you if that is the main part of the subject.

Push the shutter button gently, half way so that the focus locks onto the lip of the flower, then, while still holding it down, reposition the camera to get the composition you originally wanted, then, and only then squeeze the shutter button the rest of the way to take the picture.

This results in the intended flower being in focus, and everything else slightly out of focus. This draws the viewer's eye to the sharp flower which is what you originally wanted.

Hope this makes sense, if not let me know and I'll mock one up to demonstrate this technique.

[fred]

great advice Sir

maybe a demonstration would be of an advantage for some to see

[Ron]

Push the shutter button gently, half way so that the focus locks onto the lip of the flower, then, while still holding it down, reposition the camera to get the composition you originally wanted, then, and only then squeeze the shutter button the rest of the way to take the picture.

Best tip to give ever Anton.

Many time have professional photograpers made this point and one most people ignore.
The way to do it, is to bring your plant 2 to 3 feet in front of the background, bring your camera back further and use the zoom to go in closer and compose your subject.

What this does is to fore shorten a thing called depth of field (simply put, the area that stays in focus) so then you will only have a narrow field of your subject that stays in focus, everything in front of it and behind it blurs.

Top tip, gives great results.

Thanks for refreshing the brain.
Cheerio
Ron

[kmarch]

What's the term/abbreviation for that depth-of-focus thing you were talking about above? I'd like to adjust my camera's settings so the back ground is blurry while the flower is in focus but I dont' know what I'm looking for. My camera manual soesn't seem to mention it. It may be that my camera doesn't have that feature but I'm not sure as I dont' know what that charasteristic/perrameter/whachamacallit is called.

?? help.... ??

[Anton]

Depth of Field or D of F is something that can be set on an SLR where you can control apertures, the higher the f No. the higher the Depth of Field eg f22 ,f32, f64 put the image in focus from close to the camera to infinity.

Low f Nos. eg f1.4, f2.8, f5.6 have a narrow Depth of Field so that you only end up with shallow focussing. This is used in portraiture and flower photography to put the background out of focus. You may only end up with a few inches to maybe a foot in focus as opposed to the higher fNos. mentioned above.

When dealing in Macro (extreme close ups) this D of F is foreshortened dramatically to fractions of millimetres.

So the long and short of D of F is that you have minimal control of it on point n shoot cameras, but it is something you have to be aware of and try and make it work in your favor, eg wide angle shots = great depth D of F ; Macro = limited D of F.

This is why I suggest using the zoom facility to get close ups ( not macro) as you retain some D of F which allows for a little camera movement to still keep most of the image in focus. Another reason to use a tripod for macro so that you keep focus, because, just the act of breathing can throw your focus out due to limited D of F.

Hope this is not too confusing.

[PhalNewbie89]

Thanks for all of the advice, I am actually going to get a nice Nikon D40 next Tuesday and I am sure this info will help out some. My boyfriends little walmart digital just doesnt cut it for me.

[kmarch]

No it actually wasn't confusing at all Anton. I'm going to go look for D of F or F# or that sort fo thing on my camera now. Thanks!!!

[benetay]

Basically i think Anton covers it very well!

It makes perfect sense to me & i do agree these are all that is required to shoot a great picture. Lazy me have started using flash photography to substitute the usage of background. I do not use any background per se, anything goes. All i do is to cut off the light using high speed sync flash, resulting in a perfectly black background. (external flash is required & triggered by speedlight transmitter). I shall not dwell too much as it may eventually confuse people even more.

All in all, well done Anton, those guides you posted is certainly great.

Cheers!

[PhalNewbie89]

Well, I didn't end up with the D40 but I got a Nikon CoolPix p90 and it works amazing. It definately tries to tell me what to focus on then I tell it what it better do for me or I will beat it up lol...

[leeflea]

But what is the sequence of retrieving them from my photo album and posting them? Do I pull up my pics first, decided on the photo, then hit browse or what. I'm no Einstein.

[Anton]

Depends on where they are stored, Mac or PC ?

Then we can guide you to the next step.

[Ron]

Hi Anton, re read the whole article.
Thanks.

[leeflea]

Thank you Anton,
I have just a little kodak easy share as it suits my purposes. and I have them stored on a pc on the kodak gallery.
I don't consider myself a fool but this is difficult for me to understand. '
I'd appreciate any help you or anyone has to offer.
I just don't know if I first choose the pic then hit browse or some other way.
Thank you, Lee

[qiuyinffy]

decided on the photo, then hit browse or what. I'm no Einstein.

[Anton]

Being a Mac man, I am not sure of what is available for PCs.

Photoshop Elements is a good program to have, and is a cut down version of Photoshop.
In this program you can size images easily for Emailing, printing or putting up on web sites.

Maybe other PC users can help out with cheap imaging programs.

[GardenGroomer]

Thanks sooooooooo much Anton! I feel fully prepared to play around now w/ my camera and get some great pics! I have a little Onc. x Tolumnia that should be a good practice subject. I really appreciate your taking the time to post this thread and help us all share the TRUE beauty of our passions! Btw, I will definitely have to change my avatar when I get some better pics!

[terra_australis]

Originally Posted by Anton

Being a Mac man, I am not sure of what is available for PCs.

Photoshop Elements is a good program to have, and is a cut down version of Photoshop.
In this program you can size images easily for Emailing, printing or putting up on web sites.

Maybe other PC users can help out with cheap imaging programs.

Photoshop Elements is available on he PC too. I tend to use Corel's Paint Shop Photo Pro only because it cost less. Functionality is similar if not better than Photoshop Elements (Elements is a cut-down edition of the Flagship Adobe product). These would be the 2 most common editing applications although not the only ones. Some people use Gimp which is an open-source editor and is offered under public license (free for non-commercial use).

Another good product is Adobe lightroom. It isn't an editor exactly but is a great tool for converting RAW format images to JPG. A digital darkroom if you will.

On that point, I recommend shooting in RAW format. This is essentially a digital negative and is the most versatile format to capture with. I can't count the number of images I have "rescued" from over-exposure simply because they were captured as RAW. Unfortunately RAW is the most space-consuming format but these days disk storage is cheap so it isn't a big issue.

[Anton]

Dan, I tend to keep away from mentioning LightRoom and Apple's Aperture on this forum as the majority of photographers here are fairly inexperienced, and those who are more experienced already know about these programs anyway.

RAW is OK if you have the storage space to store the images due to the size of each image, the main reason I have not purchased Aperture.

I only have a laptop at present without an exgternal drive (soon to change) and don't want to risk losing too many RAW images in the event of a crash.

I am dying to do some RAW photography on my newly purchased Canon PowerShot G12 but, not until I have the extra storage.

[Elanora]

For Windows and Linux users, GIMP is a great option. It has the capacities of Photoshop, but it's entirely free. Also, there are tons of tutorials available online.

[Dendian]

I tried to find Gimp but couldn't - but I found this image editor here on another post - and downloaded it and am using it now... its free!

Its called Paint.net - and its available here :Paint.NET - Free Software for Digital Photo Editing

Its a glorified Paint program, that's what it was designed as, but it really helps for editing pictures and making them bigger and smaller.....and you can get really fancy and mess with it too...

[terra_australis]

Originally Posted by Anton

Dan, I tend to keep away from mentioning LightRoom and Apple's Aperture on this forum as the majority of photographers here are fairly inexperienced, and those who are more experienced already know about these programs anyway.

RAW is OK if you have the storage space to store the images due to the size of each image, the main reason I have not purchased Aperture.

I only have a laptop at present without an exgternal drive (soon to change) and don't want to risk losing too many RAW images in the event of a crash.

I am dying to do some RAW photography on my newly purchased Canon PowerShot G12 but, not until I have the extra storage.

Based on cost I'm going to agree with your first point. Personally I feel the average person will not use 90% of PhotoShop's functionality because the majority of editing will involve croppping, resizing and adjusting colours/levels which is where LightRoom comes into its element.

I have added a 2Tb disk to my PC purely for photos and I've also invested in a NAS device so that I can back them up. I was shooting in JPG for ages and when I finally tried RAW I was kicking myself for not doing it sooner.

[Anton]

I will be doing the same shortly myself.

As I mentioned earlier, I have just recently purchased a Canon Powershot G12 and dying to try the RAW on it, BUT, NOT until I have the "insurance" sitting next to my computer.

[terra_australis]

Friends of mine learned that lesson the hard way. They had all the pictures of their kids sitting on a laptop with no backup and the hard disk failed. They had to send it off for forensic recovery. Cost a bomb but worth it considering the content. To think it could have been avoided with a $20 flash drive...

[Anton]

I had the HD on my work iMac decide to goes bye byes, so I sent it in for forensic recovery as it had a lot of patient images on it.

I asked them to back up to my recovered files to my RAID 1 external drive............. THEN came the sealer THAT TOO had shat itself, and one of the drives had died !!!!!!

LESSON LEARNT ............. ONE back up drive is NOT enough. Now I have 2 WD drives on my work computer, one for Time Machine backup of the iMac HD and a second for file backup, so NOW covering ALL bases.

When you are dealing with medical files, you can't take chances, and I don't want to go through that agony again, thank you very much ........... !!!!

At home, I am actually contemplating getting a 2 Gig HD partitioned and connected to the AirPort Extreme Base Station for my wife and I to wirelessly back up our computers via Time Machine, and a small portable HD to hook up to my MacBook Pro as a second backup for files.

This is a lesson for all on this forum....BACK UP, BACK UP BACK UP !!!!

One thing to remember is that Hard Drives are mechanical beasts, and after a while moving parts get worn, or are prone to failure, so it is advisable after 3 or 4 years to upgrade and transfer the files to the newer drive.

Better than losing valuable files.

THUS ENDETH THE SERMON.
I have been there, done that on more than one occasion, and lost valuable files and this last one was the final straw, hence the 2 back up drives.

[brianb]

Anton,

As you know I have just purchased the G12, thanks to your recommendation. Have read your 101 which refreshes a lot of my old camera knowledge. Read through all the posts also which are very interesting too. What is the monthly competition all about?

With Thanks,

Brianb

[Anton]

This is what it is about:
http://www.orchidgeeks.com/forum/pho...est-rules.html

[brianb]

Ok read the rules. When does it happen?

[Anton]

Beginning of every month.

[mothorchid]

Anton,

Any suggestion for a light, not too expensive camera basically for flowers? Thanks.

[Anton]

Mothorchid, YOU have to tell me what you are prepared to spend, and we work from there, send me a Private Message and I'll see what your budget is and what would suit it.

There's just too many camera options on the market these days without having a specific price range to work with.

[mothorchid]

PM sent. Thanks.