2MinuteMastery: Photography

23/04/2017

What does it take to achieve excellence? http://www.boredpanda.com/perfect-kingfisher-dive-photo-wildlife-photography-alan-mcfadyen/

Alan McFadyen, who has been an avid wildlife photographer since 2009, just captured a photo that he has spent 6 years trying to get. By his count, it took him 4,200 hours and 720,000 photos to get a perfect shot of a kingfisher diving straight into the water without a single splash.

26/03/2017

The Cost of "Creatives"

In the photo and production world, a "creative" is a self-assigned project. It's a massively important exercise in order to become great at what you do.

In the same way an athlete works out to become better and to maintain their strength and skill; it's incredibly important that we take time as photographers and film makers to work on "creatives."

Creatives do no pay! Again, a bit like an athlete where it seems it would be absurd not to have a gym membership and pay to train in necessary facilities. We, as creatives, pay with our time, our gear, a subject and a great location. Of COURSE - beg, steal and borrow to keep the cost down! But yes, make sure you are prepared to pay for a great opportunity to create and take your skills to the next level.

A good creative may cost you. But like the world of the athlete, an athlete pays to train because they love the sport and a small handful will move on to make money at their profession. A good photographer or film maker becomes a great film maker through training to become a pro and self-assigned creatives are the BEST way to move forward with your skill!

18/01/2017

Capture WAY MORE GREAT SHOTS
Playing the odds with Camera Settings.

Here is a practice that will net you more "spur of the moment" images than ANYONE that leaves their camera in manual:

I don't make a living taking snapshots. I generally work in a studio or on a location shooting advertising. My camera's tend to be tools. That said, when I am finished shooting with my camera and go to put it away, I always reset it to Aperture mode, auto ISO and the lens at f4. These are not settings I will likely ever use in my ad work; but! ...you know those times when an image suddenly "appears" before you and you go to grab your camera, the image you see is fleeting, but if you could just get the camera in time you will have an amazing photo? Well that's the reason for resetting my camera to A, f4, Auto ISO before I turn it off. Those fleeting images are sometimes magic and amazing!

The likely hood is that A, AUTO ISO, F4, will net me a solid keeper image of the fleeting moment, without thinking about settings. A simple 'ON' compose and hit the shutter, moment captured in less than a second.

After the initial capture, if the moment hasn't disappeared, I then have some time to think about creative settings:

Is there a better choice of aperture? i.e. do I want a deeper depth of field or shallower?

Is my meter getting fooled? Switch to Manual, or use Exposure compensation.

Once the fleeting image has been captured and I'm done with the camera, I reset the camera back to Aperture mode, Auto ISO, F4. Ready for that next fleeting moment!

And one more thing: make sure there is room on your card, it is in the slot, and now may be a good time to change batteries if you have extras ;-)

This simple little practice will get you those candids that appear with the kids, your family ... they tend to be the images I treasure, don't miss them fumbling with your camera settings!

If you get something from 2MinuteMastery tutorials, let me know! And please pass them along to other photography enthusiasts that you feel may learn. I am hear to help!
Cheers,
Alec

One of my Favorite Fleeting Images. I took this in Havana, Cuba. I was shooting a music video for fabulously talented, Adonis Puentes, and as we were driving to a different location, I looked out the window grabbed the camera at a stoplight pulled it out and snapped this as the light turned green. I had less than a second to shoot it, this image speaks to me.

11/01/2017

I am kind of excited to shoot slides again. It has been a very long time; I was a teen and not very good. I'd love to see what I can do with this medium today!

Anyone else going to buy ektachrome and take some shots?

http://www.redsharknews.com/production/item/4275-the-rather-magnificent-return-of-kodak-ektachrome-100

By reintroducing a favourite but discountinued film stock, Kodak seems to understand that there's a growing call for something other than clinically c...

08/01/2017

....so why does Facebook shut down copyrighted music, but accept image theft?

A long time friend and photographer, Gavin Evans, had the good fortune to be commissioned to photograph David Bowie in London back in 1995. The shoot laste

07/01/2017

Photography- Moving from Hobby to Career, a true story:

"Don't be the Little Old Lady that plays organ at Church, be the B3 Rockin' Baddass."

Photography and filming, as some of you may know is my second career. Prior to looking at the world through one eye and some glass, I used to listen to the world as a recording engineer and record producer. Having had some success in the music world, a lot of the ideas that were successful there, have worked with my photography career. One of those working things is shooting projects on spec.

Becoming an expert in a field doesn't happen over night, it takes a long time to understand the nuances and a lot of practice. Nuance is often a tough thing to "see." This is where "spec" shooting comes into play. Perhaps a story will help explain:

Back in the late 90's, in that other career of mine, I had worked on my piano playing so much that I would get hired in Nashville as a studio musician to play on demos and the odd record. I remember being on a big session, we'd finished tracking, that's where the whole band plays the track at the same time (me off in another room on a grand piano) and then the producer asked if I could go do a pass of the track on the B3 (organ). This is called an "over-dub." Everyone else on the track is done and heads to the control room, I head over to play another instrument while the band, producer, engineer ... and oh yeah, the head of the label, stand in the control room and watch me morph into the incredible shrinking man ... I mean play the track on organ.

I didn't play organ; it "looks" piano like. How hard could it be? It's not touch sensitive? You just hold down the keys for the chords.....right?

I tried to show that I wasn't shaking inside. I remember it not "feeling" great as the track passed by, but I was playing the right chords - surely they'd be happy - thrilled - with that! The track in my headphones stopped before the end of the song, I looked over to the control room and I saw a room full of laughter erupting. The talk back button came on: Josh the producer through laughter saying: "Come on in Alec."

I was crushed. Apparently if one were to cast a little old lady playing church music on Sunday in an empty church - the part was mine! This my friends is the unsubtle way of learning that you don't understand the NUANCE of a genre. I could play ALL the right chords, on the right instrument! I didn't make a mistake and I played in time just fine! BUT, I completely lacked the ability to get the sound for the people that understood the sound they were after. Obvious! Right?

The same thing happens in photography - A LOT! I have assistants show me photos all the time where they have done a creative and they are ready to go and make money in the genre. Not so fast grass-hopper! I LOVE the enthusiasm - it's important! It's HUGELY important, and I don't want to be a nay sayer to anyone. But do you grasp the nuance? Do you understand what the experts of that genre are looking for? Did you nail it?

Having something well lit and in focus is like playing the right chords. It's where you start! Not only is it important to shoot "creatives" (book non-paying shoots where you try to re-create looks of the masters) It's imperative!!! Once you start getting the right look, how does it feel?

Are you simply playing the right chords for that genre? Are you coming off like a little old lady at church, or are you a rockin' B3 baddass? You want to go from hobby to career? Be the baddass.
When you are the baddass, people won't ask you how much it will cost to get a photo shoot. They will hire you and wonder how they are going to afford it! Being the baddass comes through practice. The ONLY way to grow and practice enough IS to do spec shoots. You aren't shooting for free. You are growing your skill set. It will take some time and energy to "own it" in a genre, but it will pay off!

If you get something from 2MinuteMastery tutorials, let me know! And please pass them along to other photography enthusiasts that you feel may learn. I am hear to help!

Cheers,
Alec

06/01/2017

I'm not that excited about 8 k video.... BUT, it sure would be nice to see what my stills photos ACTUALLY look like!
http://www.redsharknews.com/technology/item/4269-astonishing-dell-8k-monitor-launching-in-march-for-$4999

If CES 2017 has proved anything this year it is that the momentum towards 8K is starting to really build, with Dell’s frankly jaw-dropping Ultra...

04/01/2017

Choosing the Right Aperture to Tell a Visual Story:

Shallow depth of field? Deep Depth of Field? What APERTURE should I choose? How does choosing an Aperture help drive a narrative?

If you are like me with shooting you have a (strong) tendency to want to shoot shallow. Images with tack sharp eyes, with depth of field getting soft by the ears and then a completely washy background are an easy and GREAT go-to on a portrait.

This kind of makes us a one trick pony though and in terms of "telling a story" what story does this tell? ...well it tells a good visual story .... of one kind.

I like to try and keep in my conscious mind, when I am shooting a portrait, that I am a story teller. Wardrobe, body language are obvious parts of telling a story, I like to use my camera's APERTURE setting choice to support this narrative too!

In choosing my aperture, I decide, often before shooting, what kind of "look" I am after. Would a super-shallow depth of field support the story I am trying to tell? Do the textures in the image help tell us something about the story? If they do, do I want more texture with sharp edges? ...or soft texture with rounded edges? These choices show up in the way an image feels and they are an important part of your communication!

Here's a couple of images that help illustrate how depth of field can help drive your image's narrative in different ways:

Picture 1: Thought Leader Robin Sharma

We were in Toronto and had a few minutes to shoot a sunset series atop the Riztz Carlton downtown. Some people see the dirty windows and say:"...ah too bad they hadn't cleaned the windows." ....I see it differently....
I see Robin as a leader that has developed a strong ability to see through the things that so many don't see past. His strength is to see past what is right in front of him AND beyond and communicate what he sees. For me, these windows are perfect for that narrative. I could have shoot with a much deeper depth of field and the "noise" of the windows would have blended into the city scape and only added texture to the sky. By shallowing up my depth of field, and making the city blurry, it emphasizes the dirty windows. This was my choice; it tells the story about how he sees past what is right in front of him to see the beauty afar. ...we both love sunsets. This image was shot at f 2 with a 50mm Zeiss 1.4

Picture 2: Obviously the background is VERY close to my subject in this image. ...if I shot really shallow, I could have softened up the background a smidge, but not much; what one would notice more is that the jacket and his hair wouldn't have been so tack sharp. I could have focused on that close eye - it's such an intense look and body language. For me, the story here is supported by the textures he is wearing: sharp, detailed, very fine attention to detail. The attention to detail of his look IS a huge part of the story, so even though the shot is shallow as far as distance from the subject to the background, I still chose a small aperture. This image was shot at f11 on a Sony/Zeiss 24-70mm 2.8

Picture 3: The roller derby team. For lens choice on this shot, I went with a wide lens. A wider lens sends the background further away and makes a room look bigger - (more on this on a lens choice tutorial), when shooting wide, choice of aperture makes very little difference to depth of field. Wide lenses shoot with a deep depth of field even fairly wide open. The choice on this shot was to get as much contrast and sharpness as I could in the shot. I want everyone in tack sharp focus across the frame and I want lots of contrast to pull them off the background. The sweet spot for sharpness and aperture on a Canon 17-35mm 2.8 zoom is around f8. Contrast and sharpness support this story - in this case it was an optical choice to optimize the image.

Picture 4: This is a portrait of my best-friend, my life partner and fiancee, Sarah Gilks. For me Sarah's smile and joy are the story here. Her eyes are in focus and so is her smile. In fact, her eyes are tack sharp in this image, the rest is VERY soft. The Sony A7RII is AWESOME for SUPER shallow shots like this. It has weaknesses at other shots, but for this kind of image, there isn't a better camera out there at the moment.
I even shot the photo through chandelier crystals to soften things further! The softness of her hair, her vest, help tell me about her personality, her heart. This happy image was shot at f1.6 with a Sony/Zeiss 85mm 1.4.

Picture 5: This is a portrait of my good friend, Singer/Songwriter/Publisher/Producer, Steven McClintock. I wanted to pull him off the background, but I didn't want a really super-shallow depth of field as I wanted Steven ALL in focus to go along with the body language. I didn't want to make him too soft - that wouldn't support this image. The happy place for balance on this was f4 on a Canon 85mm 1.2 lens.

I hope this helps in considering Aperture choice for supporting your story. I choose Aperture ahead of shooting with my workflow WAMSI. I have a great easy online course on it - you can find it up by the "watch video" button on the top right.

If you got something from this tutorial, let me know! And please pass it along to other photography enthusiasts that you feel may learn. I am hear to help!

Cheers,
Alec

31/12/2016

A Career taking photos? What makes you so special? Everyone takes photos!
OF COURSE YOU CAN HAVE A CAREER TAKING PHOTOS!
READ ON:

First Steps in Becoming a Pro:

It's true, NEVER has there been a time when SO many people take photos! Are there still careers to be had? YES - ABSOLUTELY!
NEVER has there been a time when SO many images are consumed daily.

Let's chat about what separates a pro from the fray... well that's easy: a pro gets paid - period. That's the difference; same as with athletics, amateurs don't get paid, pros get paid. Being a pro doesn't necessarily mean they're great, it necessarily means they get paid.

There a many similarities between sports and photography. Amateur athletes can be outstanding! They work incredibly hard at their sport. Like-wise, there are TRULY excellent non-pro photographers. There are outstanding amateur photographers that can run circles around me - I look at their work and think- WOW! There are lots of reasons not to be a pro at something. Making a living at something can take away a little of the joy; it can also be incredibly rewarding!

So this IS lesson one!

Become excellent - you DO know what that means. Approach photography like a craft, become excellent at your craft. And while you are doing this - UNDERSTAND- that excellence and being a PRO are different things.

There are pro's (believe me) that don't produce excellence. They understand business and have managed to make a paying photo career out of mediocrity! DON'T BE THEM! BEAT THEM!

Become excellent AND treat your craft like a business.

Now that we have defined that talent, expertise at your craft and being a professional are ALL different things, let's talk about the first big step in becoming a pro:

Step 1: get paid.
Step 2: pay taxes, you are a pro, repeat step 1

It's KIND-OF that simple. As a business, stop confusing photo business and photo talent, there is cross-over - FOR SURE - but what you are doing in business is supplying a service. SO MANY photographers miss this.

DO - great work
DON'T - get paid for great work! ... your great work is priceless!!!
DO - get paid for YOUR SERVICE.

This is just a mindset shift, and it may be subtle, but it is an important one. A SUPER important one. It means that you don't have to attach a price to the quality of your images - yet. You are providing a service. You put a price on the service. How will you serve better? How will you serve with excellence? How will you exceed your clients expectations? When a business does this for you, look at how they did it? Did they do it with incredible talent, or did they serve well and observe fine details?

Taking AMAZING images is your gift. Your client may not be able to afford your gift, they are rather, paying for a service. At the end of your service you get to give them a gift - and THAT feels GREAT! When you start out, you may not get paid as much as you want to, but it is not a reflection on your talent, or your gift. It is a reflection of your service and your client base. If you provide EXCELLENT service, your client will return and you will quickly find new clients. It's a cycle that rather quickly turns into a career.

Next week - FINDING CLIENTS and SERVICES TO PROVIDE.

If you know someone that is looking to turn their passion into a career, please share this page with them and get them to like it, I promise to provide them with excellent service! And if you or someone you know is looking for photography lessons to take that craft to the next level, please check out www.2minutemastery.com

Now go work on your craft! I would love to see the amazing results!

28/12/2016

You got a new Camera for Christmas!!! Now What? How do you turn art and passion into income? How do you make better art?

Over the next month I am going to post a series on my personal work-flow: WAMSI and fill you in on the process of how my career launched.

I literally one day said: "I'm going to be a photographer" I didn't make 6 figures that first year, but I did the year after and have made a wonderful career out of traveling the world, taking photos and filming. I might be the luckiest man in the world - I am certainly grateful!

I was a successful record producer and engineer when I one day decided I wanted to take photos for a living and came up with a workflow that I think is a lot different to other photographers approach to taking photos. I call it:

WAMSI

White Balance
Aperture
Metering
Shutter Speed
ISO

I work in that order when I set up my camera. In stressful situations - a celebrity shoot, or a president - I've got minute(s) (maybe) to get the shot. EVERY shot counts and I'm not going to look at the back of my camera to see how it looks and make adjustments - I need to know before I hit the button! It needs to be great AND it needs to look like art.

I could get LOST in TECH and think:

Shallow depth of field - blurry background or go SAFE - get it all in focus! Use ambient light? Fill with light? Completely light it?
Focal length? Am I shooting wide, am I shooting tight?
How much shutter speed do I need to freeze this............

I DON'T THINK THAT WAY!!! That would get in the way of me being an artist!

INSTEAD:

I "see" the shot. I see with my minds eye what I want it to look like? How I want it to feel?

I then say to myself: WAMSI

I start with White Balance. In my minds eye, is the shot I want to go with warm? Is it cool? Is it color accurate? Is it punchy? Is it muted?

I have my camera set to RAW, and it is true that I could set the color temperature afterwards, but the number of times I have a client ask to see what the image looks like, I want it to look like my "intent" when they see the image. I want it to "feel" how I intend.

My advice for you is to play around with color temperature this week. Shoot in RAW so you don't mess up your images. But within camera, shoot at different color temperatures - WRONG ONES!

Take the camera off of AWB - Auto White Balance. Shoot with the light bulb (tungsten balanced) when you are outside in the sun for a cool blue look. Change to the icon of a house (terrible icon btw) to create really warm tones in your images in sunlight or inside. How do these settings change the way your image feels?

You will find that you instantly change the way you perceive an image based on it's color temperature. It's powerful stuff!

It surprising how when you dial up something that "feels" good in camera, how it will take your shoot in a new direction. You'll also be surprised when you put the images in the computer and make them "accurate" how much they might loose ... or gain in feel.

How the image "feels" is SO much more important than accuracy 99 times out of 100! ...at least in the world I shoot in.

Check Back Next week for thoughts on "Aperture" and Check in on Saturday for a Primer on making money out of this passion of yours!

If you want to fast track learning WAMSI - I have an online video course. WAMSI - click the Watch Video button up top!

Enjoy taking photos this week and please feel free to share with me!

28/12/2016

You got a new Camera for Christmas!!! Now What? How do you turn art and passion into income? How do you make better art?

I literally one day said: "I'm going to be a photographer" I didn't make 6 figures that first year, but I did the year after and have made a wonderful career out of traveling the world, taking photos and filming for international campaigns. I might be the luckiest man in the world - I am certainly grateful!

I was a successful record producer and engineer when I one day decided to make the change to my first love: photography. My training was very different to that of a photographers; I came up with a workflow that I think is a lot different and I believe it helped my career, I call it:

WAMSI

White Balance
Aperture
Metering
Shutter Speed
ISO

I work in that order when I set up my camera. In stressful situations - a celebrity shoot, or a president - I've got minutes (maybe) to get the shot. EVERY shot counts and I'm not going to look at the back of my camera to see how it looks and make adjustments - I need to know before I hit the button! It needs to be great AND it needs to look like art.

I could get LOST in TECH and think:

FEEL FREE TO IGNORE THIS PARAGRAPH - I DO:
Shallow depth of field - blurry background or go SAFE - get it all in focus! Use ambient light? Fill with light? Completely light it?
Focal length? Am I shooting wide, am I shooting tight?
How much shutter speed do I need to freeze this............i

I DON'T THINK THAT WAY!!! That would get in the way of me being an artist!

INSTEAD:

I "see" the shot. I see with my minds eye what I want it to look like? How I want it to feel?

I then say to myself: WAMSI

I start with White Balance. In my minds eye: is the shot I want to go with warm? Is it cool? Is it color accurate? Is it punchy? Is it muted?

I have my camera set to RAW. It is true that I could set the color temperature afterwards, but the number of times I have a client ask to see what the image looks like, I want it to look like my "intent" when they see the image. I want it to "feel" how I intend.

My advice for you is to play around with color temperature this week. Shoot in RAW so you don't mess up your images (you can correct them later in computer without damaging the image). But within camera, shoot at different color temperatures - WRONG ONES! PURPOSEFULLY! HAVE FUN!

Take the camera off of AWB - Auto White Balance. Shoot with the light bulb (tungsten balanced) when you are outside in the sun for a cool blue look. Change to the icon of a house (terrible icon btw) to create really warm tones in your images in sunlight or inside. How do these settings change the way your image feels?

You will find that you instantly change the way you perceive an image based on it's color temperature. It's powerful stuff!

It surprising how when you dial up something that "feels" good in camera, how it will take your shoot in a new direction. You'll also be surprised when you put the images in the computer and make them "accurate" how much they might lose ... or gain in feel.

How the image "feels" is SO much more important than accuracy 99 times out of 100! ...at least in the world I shoot in.

Check Back Next week for thoughts on "Aperture" and Check in on Saturday for a Primer on making money out of this passion of yours!

If you want to fast track learning WAMSI - I have an online video course. WAMSI - click the Watch Video button up top!

Enjoy taking photos this week and please feel free to share with me!

26/12/2016

As a Professional Photographer, I use my iPhone to record family events, here's why:

Arriving at a wonderful Christmas dinner yesterday, I showed up with my iPhone rather than DSLR.

I was asked whether showing up with my "camera" makes something feel like work... it occurs to me today that I didn't for a second think I hadn't shown up with a camera! My iPhone, feels to me in every way a legitimate camera. That's kind of amazing. Not long ago, I had a smart phone that could take pictures ... the iPhone, for me, has morphed without me even realizing.

Yes, my DSLR's have better, faster lenses, they can shoot in lower light, and I can get a better picture of 1 or 2 people - no doubt at all!

I find though, at events like Christmas, that my photos tend to fall into 2 categories: completely unposed candids and long table shots. When it comes to that LOOOOONG table shot, there is NO competition! My iPhone 7 will beat the DSLR every time! Why you ask? Chip size.

Yes, I could carry more than one camera... but ...

The one thing my DSLR is truly great at is shallow depth of field, and that's because of good glass and big chip. It is a fantastic look that until recently you could only get from a DSLR. The one thing that my DSLR is NOT great at is deep depth of field - getting a whole table of people in focus! In fact, it is quite miserable at this! Deep focus is where an iPhone shines! A small sensitive chip and small lens give such a large depth, everyone is in focus! I want to see everyone in focus! Smart phones that shoot well in low-light have a huge advantage over DSLR's at this type of shot.

The iPhone is also TOTALLY not intimidating in size and doesn't create the phobic response one sometimes gets hauling out the big gear.

For great candids at family events, a new iPhone or equivalant android with quick lens and sensitive chip will beat my DSLR ...most of the time ;-).