Shooting Tips
Shooting Tips
Either go out with your SLR to take pictures, or go out with a compact camera to take snaps.
You know what pictures are, we're talking art and stuff. You know what snaps are, they're a record of a holiday, they're what people where up to, I'm not saying they have to be poor quality, but I am saying you don't have time to bother to make sure they are good quality, and anyhow, thats not the point, if your there 'taking pictures' then your not really there... (your absence from the pictures proves this!)
Don't use too many filters.
The only really useful filters to use with colour films are UV ones, and then only to protect the lens from damage. Besides that, you can get blue filters which remove the warm cast from tungsten lit shots indoors, but these do reduce the available light to an extent where a without a tripod you may as well be taking pictures from inside the tumble drier.
For Black and White shots, remove the UV filter and replace with a yellow one. This will correct the film's colour sensitivity, the classical example of the effect of this is, clouds being more detailed in the sky. If you want to achieve a night-time effect in daylight then use a red filter.
Infra Red.
If you are getting bored with your black and white shooting, get a few rolls of IR film, and go off to a castle or graveyard and make ghostly images. (Or alternatively think about taking something which everyone hasn't done before with IR film).
IR film is also very interesting in other ways too. Remember you are shooting via light you cannot see, thus the images you take should contain much of the 'hidden' world. I have seen IR used as a way to pinpoint beams, long since covered up with plaster in old buildings, or more spectacularly, I have seen a picture of a car in a car park, taken, minutes after the car had left... (a long exposure, recording the heat traces left in the air where the car was parked!)
Final IR tip, is remember that a camera lens bends IR light slightly less, and so you will have to compensate with a wide depth of field or by using the IR red spot on your SLR lens... (yeah, that's what its for...)
Avoiding camera shake.
If you haven't got a cable release for your camera and tripod, to avoid any shake introduced by your finger on the shutter release you could try setting the shutter release timer to take the shot for you...
Bored in the Darkroom? Try, Liquid-Emulsion!
Getting bored doing the same old print-run? Go off to the shops and get yourself some liquid emulsion. Great stuff. Paint any object you like with the stuff, and then expose. Then have lots of fun developing the, hopefully strange shaped, object. Once you have the image, I would suggest that it is ripe for toning.
Tee shirts with photographs on them can be produced at home with this method. (however I'd recommend keeping the size down to start with as it is difficult to paint the emulsion on evenly. (especially in the dark!)
Negatives too Dense?
For B+W negs, make up some 'Farmer's Reducer', Potassium Ferrocyanide and hypo. [now, careful!].
For colour you are in trouble I am afraid. Once the dyes in the emulsion are formed all the silver is bleached away so no amount of bleaching is going to help you. Saying that, make sure all the silver has been bleached away, if the images are dark due to the fact that processing has been messed up, it is certainly worth trying to 'finish off' the process by placing the negs into the bleach fix bath for, say 10 minutes...
Got way too much money?
Photography is a perfect choice of hobby for you then. Go ahead, buy and buy, and I guarantee you'll still want to buy more.
Children.
Never lend your kid your camera, give them your old one, (or get a cheapo second hand one). At least that way they'll be breaking their own property.
Astronomy.
Go out and fix your camera to your telescope or even binoculars, and take some pictures at night. You will need a very long exposure to take pictures of the stars, and thus they will have moved causing trails of light, but if you don't want to shell out on a rotation device to track the sky at the stellar rate, then why not turn your attention to the moon? Relatively larger, when lower in the sky, a harvest moon can make some very worthwhile colour shots. Alternatively you could wait for the next lunar eclipse and take that.
Even without special equipment, taking pictures of the night sky will present you will interesting challenges and hopefully reward you with a very 'different' style of pictures. If you don't feel like dropping yourself in at the deep end, then why not start with a few sunsets, and just wait a little longer each time. Sunsets and stars together, make very beautiful pictures.
Taking Lightning!
How do you go about taking lightning? Well, remember the camera is a tool which collects light. What I am trying to say is, don't try to catch the lightning in the act! Set up for long exposures, maybe 10secs etc, and when the actual bolt does come, it will be so bright that it will register on your film.
Thus, a storm at night is a good opportunity to take pictures... preferably from the comfort of an upstairs window! Point the camera in the general direction of the lightning forks and wait to collect them... you might even be able to collect a few on one frame of film, if that is the effect you are looking for.
Subjects and a telephoto lens.
A telephoto lens can be used as an excellent method of isolating a subject from its background. Firstly the lens will force you to set as wide an aperture as possible thus ensuring that the limited depth of field available isolates the subject in terms of focus. However, the lens also causes the objects in the background to blur through appearing to be closer together. Hmmm, not a good description I know, you'd better take a few pictures of the same subject, using 50mm and 80mm+ lenses to see what I mean.
Lengths of Exposure and lens.
The best bit of advice I can remember being given was concerning camera shake and the length of the lens you are using. Always use a shutter speed, faster than the length of your lens. Eg, a 200mm lens will require a shutter speed faster than 1/200th of a second, or a 50mm lens requires a shutter speed of faster than 1/50th of a second. Good advice, and believe me, whenever I have ignored it I have regretted it.
Shooting Animals.
The second best bit of advice I have come across is as follows... When taking pictures of animals, the only important focus is the eyes. If they are not in focus the animal will look lifeless (or in the worst cases actually 'stuffed'!).
[It occurs to me that the above advice is equally applicable if you are shooting 'human' animals, unless you actually are inside Madame Tussard's at the time].
Now, when shooting animals, you often require a fast shutter speed, and so therefore are often forced to have a wide aperture setting. This will of course limit your depth of field quite severely and mean that your focusing is crucial. You will often need to focus quickly too. So, remember, "don't shoot till you can see the whites of their eyes... in focus!"
Taking pictures of Ghosts!
When taking pictures of ghosts it would seem to be a good idea to ask them to keep still otherwise you are sure to produce yet another inconclusive blur... :)
Oh, and don't try taking pictures of poltergeists, they're invisible, silly!
Leave the camera inside.
Who needs a camera anyway? All you need is some film and a lens. Correction, all you need is some film and a pin-hole. If you haven't yet tried to make a pin-hole camera then shame on you! It like the crystal set is to electronics, you've just got to have done it. Its a learning experience...
However, remember the following points... Photographic paper inside the pin-hole camera will give you a longer exposure time, say about a minute in a small 'camera' on a sunny day, but you will end up with a negative image, which may be difficult to reverse. Film is a lot faster, say 7-10 seconds... but is a bit more of a pain to develop in the darkroom.
Also, listen to this... When I first made a pin-hole camera, I decided that long tin would make an excellent body. The lid held the photographic paper, and the seal was good enough to keep out light, (well, with a bit of black tape). Anyhow, all the pictures I made came out with a ghastly star shaped black mark covering most of the shot. It took me a few runs to realise the tin had a shiny metal interior, which was reflecting light onto the paper in all sorts of silly ways... So.. Make sure the inside of your pin-hole camera is painted matte black!
Don't exclude your family...
Don't exclude your family from your hobby. It can be a real drag for them if your always dragging them around the place just to take pictures, not of them, but of the deserted highway etc.
So, why not take some 'glamour' pictures of your wife. (NOT THOSE KIND OF PICTURES) Or the old, take a picture of your children in the same place, or pose once a year till they are grown ups. Take the dog! Take anything! Just don't leave them out!
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