Shooting Tips and Tricks

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You will find here some shooting tips and tricks acquired with time. I hope you will come across items of interest! But such rules are made to be transgressed, and non-standard creativity can also produce great shots...


Rule of thirds

Rule of thirds You're generally better off without centering (your subject, the horizon), except to highlight a symmetrical view (like a reflection for instance). It is often recommended to stay approximately aligned with imaginary lines that divide your image in thirds (for the horizon or a wall), and to put the main subject at their intersections.

Roll your mouse over the picture to reveal those lines.



Attracting attention

Attracting attention To improve readability, lines or curves are welcome to lead the onlooker's gaze toward your main subject.

Roll your mouse over the picture to reveal such lines.



Maintaining focus

Maintaining focus It is good practice to leave some space around elements that may lead the onlooker's gaze outside the image. A picture is easily ruined with your subject looking towards the border, or an inappropriate object being cut.

Roll your mouse over the image to remove the half barn.



Suggesting motion

Suggesting motion Movement may be suggested by longer exposures. Here are a few suggestions that you'll need to adjust with your actual subject:
  • at least 1/15 s for running water,
  • 5 s or more for moving car lights,
  • 1/4 s for moving hands (pointing, writing, etc.),
  • 1 s for leaves in the wind.


Manual exposure

Manual exposure In some extreme situations, evaluative metering has a hard time determining correct exposure (strong contrast, large dark areas, etc.). With a digital SLR, it is easy to inspect the histogram, adjust exposure and shoot again. But, let's not forget the good habits... Here are a few orders of magnitude that will help you adjust exposure for partial or spot metering in manual or exposure shift mode. You should aim towards homogenous and well defined areas of your composition and adjust as follows:
  • Very bright +2 EV,
  • Bright +1 EV,
  • Average +0 EV,
  • Dark -1 EV,
  • Very dark -2 EV.

For this image, one can aim towards the foliage and expose at -2/3 EV (relatively dark) or aim towards the snow and expose at a bit more than +1 EV (quite bright) or even aim towards the sky and expose at +2/3 EV as it is slightly veiled (a pure blue sky should be exposed at 0 EV).



RAW vs JPEG

RAW vs JPEG I use RAW mode when precise exposure or white balance is essential, and will probably benefit from Photoshop Camera RAW adjustments: landscapes, architecture, macro-photography, artificial light...

I use JPEG mode (at its highest quality) when capturing the instant is more important than the actual perfection of the image: sports, moving people & animals... In this configuration, the camera buffer can hold longer shooting bursts. Roll your mouse over the image to visualize the best picture selected from a set of 270 taken in 20 minutes.



Midday photography

Midday photography It is well known that the early morning will give you the most beautiful lights. Nevertheless, when the sun is at its highest and the shadows too contrasted, it is still possible to make some good shots:
  • prefer evenly lit semi-detail,
  • fill-in flash can help wash out nearby shadows (portraits for instance),
  • use RAW file format to keep as much dynamic range as possible for post-processing,
  • the polarizing filter can also help reduce bright 90° reflections; in this case, you will need to slightly warm up the color temperature under Photoshop.

This evenly lit semi-detail image was taken around noon. Rolling your mouse over it will reveal a softened version (Camera RAW).



Sunsets

Sunsets When shooting sunsets, Auto White Balance averages the colors. You should select a "daylight" white balance to recover the actual colors. Concerning exposure, a partial metering just besides the sun is usually right on (0 EV).

This image has an auto white balance color temperature, roll your mouse over it for daylight white balance.



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