photo tips

Night Event Photography–Break Out That Speedlight!

Posted by Christine On October 28, 2013

Shooting events at night can be pretty challenging, and frequently I see students shy away from using flash to properly illuminate their subjects. Sometimes, the effect can be fun, such as when you get a graphically interesting silhouette. More frequently, shooting with high ISOs, slow shutter speeds and no flash can result in pretty low technical quality and disappointing imagery.

Next time you are faced with shooting a night event and you want to capture people shots, do NOT leave your flash at home or try to rely on your pop up flash!

Try something similar to what I did here at my daughter’s birthday party. First, get your camera settings straight to properly expose for ambient light (in this shot, that means the candles and the string of lights in the background.) In this case, it means I set my camera at ISO 2000, f5.6 and 1/15 second. But wait, isn’t 1/15 pretty slow for a handheld camera? Won’t you get motion blur or camera shake? Well, perhaps a little bit, but since I am using my external flash as the main light source here, that won’t likely be a problem because the speedlight will “freeze” the action. As many of you know, I am a huge proponent of bouncing flash in order to soften its effects and create a more flattering, professional looking light. But you may also have noticed that there is nothing from which to bounce the flash off of here. Enter the Gary Fong Lightsphere.

With this little gadget, which kind of looks like a Chinese soup takeout cup, I place it on top of my flash head (which is pointing straight up, BTW, and then I fire away. It softens and diffuses the light, still rendering a nice professional look. So break out your flash! You’ll likely be pleased with the results of your next night “people” shoot!

Birmingham Barons + al.com + The Birmingham News | Editorial + Sports Photographer | Birmingham, Alabama

Posted by Christine On September 16, 2013

Congratulations to the Birmingham Barons for winning the 2013 Southern League Championship Series against defending champions the Mobile BayBears in game 5 of the 5 game series! Below are a few highlights from game 5:

These images show that despite being the bread and butter of sports photography, action images aren’t the only ways to visually tell a story. Reaction (celebration and dejection) shots are also pretty powerful. As are active portraits of key players such as this shot of Birmingham Barons 2nd baseman and series MVP Michah Johnson as he rounds the bases after hitting an out of park homer.

Go Barons!

On Location Portraits–Candid and Posed

Posted by Christine On August 15, 2013

Ashley + Bryant August 10, 2013

One thing to think about when shooting portraits of couples or individuals is the approach you are going to take; are you going to pose your sitters or are you going to capture them candidly? One of the great things about having a background as a photojournalist is that I’m comfortable with doing both and always shoot both candid and posed portraits at weddings.

As a photojournalist, I love capturing moments that show true spontenaety and emotion, without posing for the camera–it doesn’t get any better than this! But frequently, demands of the job include client requests, time constraints, location issues and more which require posing and directing the subject in order to pull of the shot.

Frankly, I like it both ways and encourage my photography students to experiment with both methods of capturing storytelling portraiture. Below you see the results of these two different approaches from a recent wedding I shot.

The Ashley and Bryant really wanted a photograph with the cross behind them and so we planned to photograph them in front of it accordingly. A nice shot with a little fill light in the late afternoon speaks to their faith. And yet, the spontaneous moment after they exited the sanctuary was priceless–and it was unplanned and unposed–no direction from the photographer at all–just a lot of hustle.

Take advantage of all such methods of capturing the essence of your subjects and you’ll gather a diverse portfolio that shows that you can capture many looks from the same shoot!

McAdory High School at Parker High School football

7 Tips For Better Night Sports Photos

Posted by Christine On October 27, 2012

I regularly teach photojournalism classes where students propose to shoot night sporting events. And I happen to shoot a fair amount of night sporting events as well. Here are some tips to think about if you want to take your night sport shots to the next level:

1) Go as a photographer, not as a spectator. As fun as it sounds to shoot sports photography (and it is), your photography will suffer if you go as both a fan and a photographer. Focus on the photography. Leave your kids, spouse, friends in the stands.

2) Stay out of the stands. As obvious as this might sound, you’d be surprised at the number of students who attempt to get good shots from the stands. Get access to the field. Before the game. If you are shooting youth sports, this isn’t usually a problem. High school sports might be a different story. Contact the school for questions about getting a field pass.

3) Bring an external flash. Plan to use it. Load it with fresh batteries and bring backup batteries. Set it on full power in TTL (automatic) mode. If you can, get it off camera with a flash bracket. Or take it off camera with a synch cord (my method) and clamp it to your monopod. Taking flash off camera can help you avoid the dreaded “red-eye.” Read More

Framed!

Posted by itsviewtopia On March 11, 2011

Frequently, I like to shoot sports from eye level or lower. It isn’t unusual to see me kneeling or sitting on the sidelines of any game to capture the action. I like the low angle perspective because it gives the viewer the feeling of actually being on the field and part of the action. Of course, this angle isn’t always ideal. For instance, during this Leeds vs Calhoun County prep sports baseball game, I quickly decided that there were too many distractions behind short stop Rie Falleetta and that the higher angle from the press box would eliminate the yellow fence line, the house, and the occasional vehicle that drove through the background. I knew that the clean (almost) green canvas of the field would make a nice background for this baseball player throughout the game.

So, as I trudged up the stairs to the press box to get that higher angle, I was already mentally writing this blog entry about how changing angles can really improve image quality. The only problem is that the shot from the lower angle–one of the first shots of the game–was the best portrait of Rie (go figure; I could have left the freezing cold game an hour earlier than I did had I known THIS would be the shot that I would ultimately send to The Birmingham News).

Instead, I will just mention how framing and selective focus can help an image. The left part of the frame just happens to include the out of focus torso of an umpire. It improves the image by forcing the viewer’s eye to the tack sharp player and by obscuring some of the noisy background. I like when this happens. I certainly didn’t plan on it happening, but when editing, I look for serendipitous framing such as this.