Exploring with a Camera

October 20, 2011 by Kat

Exploring with a Camera: Found Texture

Yay! It’s Exploring with a Camera day! After a week off exploring in Chicago I’m ready to explore with you all here on the blog. Today we’ll be diving into Found Texture in our images. At the end of the post you will find a link up to share your explorations of the topic over the next two weeks. There is a giveaway going along with this too! Keep reading to find out more.

It is no secret that I love texture in my images. I remember when I first started capturing images of texture for texture’s sake in Italy. I didn’t know what was going on, why I was drawn to capture images of peeling paint. It made no sense to me at the time! Now I know… it’s all about the texture.

In this exploration, we will be focusing on Found Texture, texture that is already existing and captured with your camera, not added texture in post-processing. Adding texture layers in post-processing is a popular and very fun way of changing your image, but that’s not the focus of this topic.

Let’s learn more about Found Texture…

What is Texture?

By my definition, a texture is found on the surface of a form. (Form is the representation of a three-dimensional object. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, visit the past Exploring with a Camera: Finding Form post.) Here’s an example to help: Consider an object in the shape of a sphere. The sphere is the form, but the surface of the sphere may be smooth, like the tomato shown below, or rough, like the orange. If you are struggling with the concept of texture vs. form, think of this way: If you can imagine an object to have a different surface texture, but the underlying form of the object stays the same, you are distinguishing texture and form.

The surface holds the texture, and the texture gives an additional dimension to our photographs, making us want to reach out and touch. Even though we can’t physically touch the objects in an image, in our imagination we can. Texture adds a tactile nature to our experience of a photograph. We know what smooth feels like in real life, so the sensory experience of smooth is added to our experience of a photograph. The texture can draw us in as a participant in the image.

Texture is not only on the surface of forms in our images. Something large and flat serving as the background of the image, such as the wall in the lead-in photo, is also a surface that can have texture. In the case of the photo above, from Chicago, you see the texture of the brick.

How many types of texture are there? Let’s see if we can make a list… smooth, rough, gritty, sticky, crumbly, bumpy, velvety, leathery, prickly… add yours to the list in the comments below. We can capture all of this texture and heighten the sensory experience in our images.

Sources of Found Texture

When you start to notice it, texture is everywhere! Nature is a great source for random texture. Since my subjects tend to be in urban environments, I looked for natural texture while camping at the beach a couple of weeks ago. I found everything from the glass-smooth texture of the receding waves, to the rough-yet-soft texture on the trunk of a tree.

Humans have learned from nature, and covered our man-made world with texture. Some of it is purposeful and functional, to hide flaws in a wall joint or increase traction in a floor. Some of the texture comes as part of the process, such as in bricks. Some of the man-made texture in our world is purely for artistic beauty. The texture in the floor tiles below was created to be both artistic and functional.

The one thing I’ve noticed, however, is that man-made texture doesn’t have the same randomness as nature. Humans like patterns and processes, and our created textures usually have some sort of repeating pattern. Sometimes it is obvious, as in the floor image above, and sometimes not so obvious. Consider the texture that may be applied to a wall, there is a limit to the size and depth of the bumps you find. There is some randomness within the texture, but the overall texture is controlled.

When you add nature, in the form of time and weather, acting on the mad-made texture you get more natural randomness. I think that’s why I, along with so many other photographers, like to photograph “urban decay.” The added elements of time, weather and neglect increase the random texture in the images of everyday objects. It adds dimension and interest.

Capturing Texture

Now that you’re seeing texture everywhere, what is the best way to capture it? As in capturing form, texture will appear differently in different light. Bright sunlight will create stronger shadows and light/dark highlight of texture, while shady or diffused light will create more subtle highlights of the texture. This wall below, found in Chicago, is an interesting study of light and texture since it’s both in sun and shade. You can see how the sunlight enhances the texture.

You can see a similar effect in this image from Greece as well, as part of the wall is in sun and part is in shade. There are multiple textures in this image from more than just the light, however, with the texture of the wall, rope and door adding to the tactile nature of the image.

Along with light, color has a great impact on how we perceive texture in an image. Texture can be enhanced or overwhelmed by color. Color is useful to highlight texture when the light is non-directional or the texture is very subtle compared to the overall subject being photographed. In the case of the staircase in Portugal, the light is very diffuse so the texture of the wall is communicated by the color gradation. You can still “see” the texture, through the color variations.

Color can also dominate to the point that texture recedes in terms of visual information. Consider the image of the oranges shown earlier in this post. What do you notice first? Likely, the complementary color is the first thing you notice. The texture of the oranges, basket, vase and table are noticed second. To highlight or study texture, working with monochromatic images can help. The image of the driftwood below, converted to black and white, further enhances the texture of the splintery wood. The range of tones from light to dark are what provide the texture information, since the light is fairly even.

The image below from Burano has color, but it still monochromatic. This allows the form and texture in the image to be the subject. While diffuse, the light is still directional and highlights the texture and form.

Using Texture in Images

Now that you are thinking of what texture is, where to find it and how to capture it, let’s look at a few different ways of using texture in images. One way of using texture is to capture it as the subject. This wall in Bologna was so interesting, I captured it just for the texture. Layers upon layers of different textures are visible.

The same with this wall in Greece, texture is the main subject. In both cases, I’ve included an architectural element to help ground the image in reality, but that is not necessary if you are capturing texture for texture’s sake. Textures create great abstract images.

Often, I find that I use texture as the “backdrop” in the image. The lead-in photo is one example. In the case of this scene in Burano, the texture of the wall is a backdrop for the scene with the chair and pot.

This textured wall in Torcello is the backdrop against which the tree, window and architectural fragment are arranged. The wall is not the subject, but the texture enhances the interest in the image and ties the elements together.

Creating contrast with texture is a great way to increase the interest in a photo. In the image below of the sea weed at the beach, the gritty sand contrasts with the smooth, rubbery surface of the sea weed.

The worn walls and steps contrast with the smooth, round pots, both in color and texture, in the image below from Varenna. The color and texture contrast, along with the lines of the steps, draw your eye directly to the pots of pretty flowers.

Summary

It’s time to start exploring Found Texture on your own! Here’s a quick review of the topics covered:

What: Texture is found on the surface of form, and gives a tactile dimension to images.
Sources: Nature, man-made and aged-man-made objects and surfaces are all possible sources of texture.
How: Light along with color (presence or absence) and tone can be used to convey the texture.
Ways to use: Texture can be the subject, a backdrop or used for contrast in an image.

There is so much more to texture, I look forward to learning from you as you share your images! You can link in below, the link up will be open through 3-November. As an added bonus, I am giving away a set of my “Texture” postcards! When you link in your texture image, you will be entered in the drawing to win.

FYI – Links will be moderated. Please use a permalink, ensure that your linked image is on topic, and include a link back to this site in your post through the Exploring with a Camera button (available here) or a text link. Thanks!

September 29, 2011 by Kat

Exploring with a Camera: The Color Wheel, Part 2

I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way–things I had no words for. — Georgia O’Keeffe

It’s time to explore more color! This week in The Color Wheel, Part 2, we’re looking at some of the more dynamic color schemes you can create using the color wheel. When you place colors that are not directly adjacent on the color wheel together in a composition, you get a fantastic burst of contrast and energy.

To review the concept of the color wheel* and the adjacent color harmonies, visit The Color Wheel, Part 1.

Let’s dive right in to these new combinations!

Complementary

When you combine colors that are directly opposite on the color wheel, you have a complementary color scheme. This includes the primary-secondary complementaries (Blue with Orange, Red with Green or Yellow with Violet) as well as the tertiary complementaries (i.e., Green-Yellow with Red-Violet). This color scheme has a lot of visual contrast, and can serve to pull your eye directly to a point in a photo by a pop of complementary color.

The lead in photo of the post, the purple and yellow painted wall I found in Hood River, Oregon last weekend, is an example of a complementary color scheme. Where does your eye go first? Mine goes to the yellow among the purple, then moves through the image to take in the other line and form. The image below, captured in colorful Burano, is another example. The complementary blue is what draws your eye, out of the expanse of orange.

Here’s an opposite… the orange flowers draw your eye immediately in the mostly blue image. Again, this is from Burano, Italy, one of my favorite places to capture color. The people who live here know and use color to great effect! It makes me wonder if they have a class on it in school, or if it’s just lore learn over time in their local culture.

The chromatic contrast from the opposites on the color wheel is one of the easiest ways to give your images a “pop” with color.

Triadic

You can create a color harmony with three colors equally spaced along the color wheel. This is called a triadic color scheme. The most typical would be the primary colors, Red-Yellow-Blue. Often seen is also Green-Orange-Violet (especially around Halloween, in the US). There are two tertiary color triads as well. These equally spaced colors on the wheel can create a wonderful balance.

Again in Burano, this primary triadic color scheme was found. The primary colors play nicely together, the image has both energy and balance.

Another primary triadic image is found in these boats in the marina of Rio Maggiore, Cinque Terre. The jumble of nautical equipment is harmonized by the primary color scheme.

Triadic Variation

When you use two of the three colors from a triad, you have a triadic variation. Think Red-Blue from the primary triad, or Green-Orange from the secondary triad. This color scheme is very common and I found many examples in my images.

A particular favorite of mine is Orange-Green. Just take a look at my blog colors! I love the dynamic contrast these two colors have with each other. I gain a lot of energy from this combination.

An example of a Red-Blue triadic variation is below. Do you see how the red draws your eye immediately, in the sea of blue? There is much to look at on the blue wall – pipes and peeling paint – but you see that after zooming in to the red in the blue.

Tetrad

When you combine four colors from the color wheel, either equally spaced as a square or unequally spaced as a rectangle, you have a tetrad harmony. A square tetrad incorporates two complementary pairs. Surprisingly, these color combinations are balanced and create a lot of depth in an image.

When reviewing color schemes to prepare for this post, I did not think I would have examples for this complex harmony. As I looked closer though, I found they are in my images to great effect. Consider this recent favorite from the Corvallis Farmer’s market. It’s a rectangular tetradic combination: Red, Violet, Green and Yellow (well, yellow-orange). No wonder it works so well! What seemed like a random jumble of color was actually a color harmony.

Here is another color combination I always thought a bit crazy, but I loved how it worked in the image. The Orange-Violet-Blue color scheme is three colors of a square tetrad. Nothing I would have noted at the time of capture, but it helps to understand why these colors work together. In the future I will be better able to see and use these complex schemes in my images.

Proportion of Color

As you get into more complex color schemes with 3 or more colors, it is important to discuss proportion of color. Typically, a pleasing color combination will have unequal amounts of each color. When working with three colors, there is the “gallon-quart-ounce” rule. In non-US language, think of it as 60-30-10. You want a “gallon” (60%) of your image to be the main color, “quart” (30%) to be the supporting color and “ounce” (10%) to be an accent color.

This colorful boat (again, from Burano) is a great example. Mainly blue, with red as a supporting color and just a pop of yellow. I couldn’t have set up a better example if I had tried!

Take a look at the examples in this post with the idea of proportion in mind. Do you see the different proportions in each, and how proportion and color scheme work together with the composition of the image? Considering color along with other factors in your compositions can be a powerful tool for creating interesting images.

Summary

This week we’ve covered some of the more dynamic color schemes you can set up with the color wheel:

Complementary – Two colors, opposite on the color wheel.
Triadic – Three colors, equally spaced apart on the color wheel. Using only two of these three colors is a triadic variation.
Tetrad – Four colors, either equally spaced on the color wheel (square) or unequally but consistently spaced (rectangle).
Proportion – Unequal proportions of color are more pleasing to the eye. Think “gallon-quart-ounce” or 60-30-10 for the relative proportions of color in more complex color schemes.

Are you ready to try it on your own? Go through your archives and go out and look for these color schemes, see what you can find and then share it with us (link in below or share in the Flickr pool). You might even look back at what was linked in last time for Part 1, there were definitely some of these more complex color schemes found in the images shared last time. I’m looking forward to seeing what you find!

September 15, 2011 by Kat

Exploring with a Camera: The Color Wheel, Part 1

I love color in photography. I love the energy and emotion you can convey through color. There is a peaceful beauty in black and white, but there is so much richness and depth in color! For the next month in Exploring with a Camera we are going to look at color. Using the color wheel as a guide, I’m going to take a look at how colors work together and how you can use that to create photographs with beauty and impact.

I was browsing a used bookstore with this topic in mind and came across the Color Workbook by Becky Koenig. What a great find! In the preface she writes:

Color is both a physical and an emotional human phenomenon. We respond to color because of its associations. We each have our personal preferences for particular color combinations. Our experience of the world is in some ways characterized by our observation of color: a green apple, a red sports car, the pink sky of a sunset, the blue of a robin’s egg. These colors evoke not only an outward experience but also form colors in our memory, our inner eye. Color is not simply a decorative element in art, but a part of our inner consciousness. Color is life enhancing.

Yes! Color is life enhancing. How you see, use and portray color in your photographs is part of your eye. We may not understand why certain color combinations work to create the feel they do in our images, but there is a science and study of color that can help explain it. Let’s start with the basic color wheel.*

The idea behind the color wheel is that color is a continuum. You start with the primary colors, Yellow, Red and Blue. These mix to form the secondary colors, Green, Orange and Violet (Purple). There is an intermediate color that comes from mixing a primary and secondary, noted by two letters such as “RV” for Red-Violet. These twelve colors, 3 primary, 3 secondary and 6 tertiary, form the basic color wheel. The remainder of the colors come from mixing these 12 in various ways or with neutral colors – black, white, brown. Using this as a base, we can explore the different color combinations.

Now, I don’t anticipate that in our photography we are going to go around with a color wheel looking for color combinations before we take a photograph most of the time. Looking at the color wheel relative to our photographs or those of others can help us understand how and why certain color combinations works. It can help us identify what we use most often and respond to in our images. That study will inform our images at the time of capture in the future. We may be more in tune with color and how to use it the next time we go to shoot.

To start us off in Part 1 of this study today, we are a going to look at the simpler color schemes or “harmonies” as the Color Workbook calls them.

Monochromatic

The first color harmony is the simplest, monochromatic or one color. You may need to reset your definition of “monochromatic” a bit, because in photography “monochromatic” often refers to black and white or images with a single tone, like sepia. This type of image is certainly monochromatic, but let’s look at monochromatic color.

I use the monochromatic color harmony a lot. It creates a unified and cohesive image. My favorite pink shutter and wall in Burano is a good example of a monochromatic color scheme. All shades of Red-Violet, with accents that are neutral in the shutter holder and the board behind the peeling paint.

Another favorite monochromatic image is this door handle and lock from Greece. You can see in both of these images how framing a small portion of a larger scene can lead to a monochromatic image.

Framing a small portion is not the only way to get a monochromatic image, however. Another favorite from Greece shows an image that is primarily monochromatic, with the blue door, sink and gas can. There is a tiny pop of red in the faucet, but the rest is neutral and the overall color impression you have in this image is “blue.”

This monochromatic image, from Burano, is green. Again, it’s not all green, but the image is primarily shades of green and the remainder is neutral.

Monochromatic color schemes are great in our photographs because they can unify multiple diverse elements, as in the example of the door and the chair above. Monochromatic schemes can also help to convey a third element, like texture, as seen in the shutter and door handle. Just remember – monochromatic doesn’t mean only black and white. There is so much energy and emotion to be added to an image with color!

Analogous

Moving into a slightly more complex color harmony from the color wheel, when you take two or three neighboring colors on the wheel you have an analogous color scheme. Analogous color schemes always have at least one color in common. In the diagram below, the common color is orange.

I see analogous color schemes in my images a lot, mainly in the red-orange-yellow part of the color wheel. This window in Switzerland is a great example. The grey and green serve the purpose of neutral and we see mostly the yellow and orange of the pots and window frame.

Nature is the best at creating analogous color schemes! These flowers, found in the Nice flower market, are a good example. The flowers themselves, highlighted in that beautiful light, create a lovely analogous image.

Designers use color schemes in advertising all the time to catch our eye! The analogous red-orange found in this window display is a good example. The bright, unified color along with the shiny baubles really caught my eye.

You can see how much I use the yellow-orange-red part of the wheel! That just reflects my personal color preferences. The analogous schemes you find might be in a completely different part of the wheel. Here is another analogous image, this time with blue and green. The green you see is more toward blue than yellow, which leads to a harmonious color image.

Chromatic Gradation

Expanding to include more colors on the color wheel leads to a chromatic gradation. This is where you move through a range of several colors in sequence along the color wheel. The diagram below shows a gradation from blue to red on the wheel, encompassing violet.

These flowers from Barcelona use a chromatic gradation. From red to yellow on the color wheel, also covering oranges and pinks. It is still a unified color scheme, but a bit more dynamic than a monochromatic or analogous.

The lead-in image of the post, from the Corvallis Saturday Market, uses a progression from red to yellow as well. Another market scene, from Padua below, has a color progression from red all the way to yellow-green on the the color wheel.

Do you see how much I like the yellow-orange-red part of the color wheel? It shows up again and again in my images! I will have to look for some other examples this week to see what I can find.

The Color Wheel, Part 1 Summary

The color schemes we’re looking at for this exploration are harmonious and peaceful. They are easy on the eye, because of the way they relate to the other colors on the color wheel. Just a quick recap:

Monochromatic – Images have one dominant color from the color wheel. You may see variations in the shades of that color, have neutrals or even small amounts of other colors, but the overall impression is of one color in the image.
Analogous – Images have two to three colors adjacent colors on the color wheel. There is one color in common, and the other colors used have some small amount of that color.
Chromatic Gradation – Images have a number of colors that can be found in sequence on the color wheel.

For the next two weeks, take a look through your archives or keep an eye out as you photograph for these three color schemes. You can link your images below or share in the Flickr pool for a chance to be featured on the blog. Visit the links shared by your fellow participants to see more color schemes. Since we all have different color preferences, it will be interesting and fun to see how we all view the world in color!

*The basic color wheel image is by Eyoungsmc and is used here by creative commons license. All notations added to the color wheel image are mine.

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September 1, 2011 by Kat

Exploring with a Camera: Process of Elimination

Welcome to Exploring with a Camera! I’m so excited to share something new with you today. For the next couple of weeks we are going to focus on the Process of Elimination. There is a link-up at the end of this message that will remain open through September 13. You can also put your photos in the Flickr pool if you would like to be featured here on The Kat Eye View of the World blog.

Funnily enough, this topic idea came to me several weeks ago, well before our container from Italy arrived last weekend. For the last few days, we have been pursuing a physical process of elimination in our home. We have so much stuff, now that our Italian belongings have been delivered. Trying to figure out what to keep and what to eliminate has been overwhelming at times, but the end result of elimination is always so much better. I can breathe and focus.

There is a great parallel with photography here! I started noticing in the last few months that many of my images and compositions are based on eliminating the elements that shouldn’t be in the image, as much as deciding what should be there. This is one reason I struggle a bit with composition in painting. With a painting, I get to add whatever I want to the composition, which is not how I normally operate. In my photography, much of the image is formed as I take away elements that don’t belong in the picture. The choice of what to take away will depend on what I am trying to convey with my image. What caught my eye? What is of interest here?

Let’s look at some ways to pursue the process of elimination…

Framing

For this exercise, I am going to distinguish framing from cropping. Framing is how you frame the composition in the camera at the time of taking the photo, as compared to cropping which is done in post-processing. Framing is the best way to work through the process of elimination, because you can take multiple shots. You can study angles and changes to what is in your frame real time, making adjustments as you go.

The lead in image I took in Carbondale, Colorado is a good example. The focus is on the bike, and the color/texture of the wall behind it. Blue and white bike, textured blue wall. Those are the elements that caught my eye in this scene. Before getting to that shot, however, I started with this one:

Blah, isn’t it? Bike is in the center, and there is nothing that grabs you about the image. The shadows from the tree just out of the frame on the left are strong and distracting. I consider this a “warm-up” shot, helping me to work toward what I wanted to convey. First step, capture the bike and the wall. Then, use this to help me see where I want to go. For the final image at the top of the post, I worked to eliminate the strong shadows and focus just on the bike and the wall. Magic!

Here is another scene from Colorado, this time Old Colorado City, where I used the process of elimination. This is never how I would present the scene, I took this to set the stage for what comes next.

The contrasting bright colors of the purple flowers and the blue architectural detail caught my eye. This shows the scene I was working with. As framed above, I would get the color, but would the image would not be interesting. So I work to eliminate. I find an angle that focuses on the contrast between the purple and the blue.

Better, but there are still too many distracting elements. The pole and signs as you look down the wall and street on the right are distracting. The water spout in the bottom right is a distraction also. The white details from the door frame in the upper left aren’t helping anything. So, focus in further, change the angle slightly and…

We’ve got all purple and blue contrast, a pleasing composition that keeps the focus on what I saw and wanted to convey, and nothing to distract.

Let’s look at one more framing example. On my last trip to Florence, Italy, I came upon this scene walking the backstreets. Shown below is the angle I originally saw it from.

Look at that fantastic bike, being used as a store display. If you can see the bike in all of the distractions, that is. Between the street signs, graffiti, store door and shaft of sunlight you might not even notice the cool bike. So I moved, I changed my angle on the scene to the other side of the street.

Better. Quite a few distracting elements were gone, but then the new element of the door in the background was added. How to use it became the issue – crop it out or keep it wholly in the frame? What about the entry on the right, and what is that yellow thing, a handle of some cart? This image is still too busy. It was time to try again, really thinking about what I wanted to focus on. It was the bike that caught my eye, and the fact that it was being used as part of the store display. So, changing angles again, and focusing in on the store display aspect, I created one of my all time favorite photos…

Isn’t that a huge difference? From random snapshot to interesting piece of art, by the process of elimination.

Cropping

Let’s face it, we don’t always get the best possible framing in the camera. We may be moving too quickly to study the scene, or might not notice a distracting element. Cropping in post-processing is a fantastic tool for the process of elimination.

There are times where cropping completely saves the image. Consider this example, from Pavia, Italy. I was intrigued by this vintage Fiat on the street, but I didn’t stop to study it. One click and I moved on.

It might be interesting to show my friends the cool Fiat I saw in Italy, but it is nothing exciting. I would never show this here on the blog. I had to focus in on the interesting parts… the vintage license plate, the cobblestone street, and the cool reflection of the Italian architecture.

And there it is! An image that says “Classic Italian Transport” and not “I was wandering around in Italy and I randomly snapped this photo.” The process of elimination worked for me here.

This image from Germany is one I’ve shared before of how dramatic cropping can save a shot. I loved the architecture and the vineyard on the hill behind the building:

There was just too much building and not enough interest, however. Where are you supposed to look? Cropping to focus in on the architectural detail but keep the vineyard behind yields this image:

So much more interesting. Now you know where to look! You can see the details of the bottle-glass window, the timber framing, and the painting under the eaves along with the context of the vineyard behind. A great image to show the classic German architecture of the Rhine River Valley.

Now, cropping dramatically has its consequences. You can lose significant resolution in the image. The final cropped image will not be able to be printed as large as it could have been. You might be surprised, however, just how much cropping an image from a modern digital camera can withstand before you have problems with printing resolution. Since I’m primarily sharing online, I don’t have to worry about it too much, but it’s good to keep in mind.

It is interesting to note that both of these cropping examples are from 2009, very early during my Italian assignment. As I took more photos and improved in my photography, I’ve gotten so much better at seeing and framing my images at the time of capture. All of the examples in the framing section are from the last few months. The practice of cropping in my post-processing over the last two years has helped me learn the process of elimination at the time of framing that I use today.

To be honest, I still crop most of my photos just a tiny bit. While I do most of my framing at the time of capture, what I see through the viewfinder and what the camera sensor captures is slightly different. Distractions may creep in there on the edges. That’s ok with me, I know I will pull the photo in my editing software anyway to make any final adjustments. Cropping is just one of those final adjustments.

Cleaning

One last, rarely-used tool in the process of elimination is cleaning. Cleaning is where I use the clone-stamp tool in Photoshop Elements to copy over a distracting element with pixels from another area in the image. I consider cleaning a last resort, because it will not always work. I get the best image at the time of capture with as little distraction as possible, and I know if the distractions can be cropped or cleaned later.

In this example from Burano, I was going for the line of colorful houses and already envisioned some fun processing for color. No matter how I framed it though, I couldn’t get the line of houses where I wanted without that last bit of pole on the right in the image.

Clone-stamp to the rescue! I removed the pole by copying other parts of the pavement onto the area with the pole. Can you see any evidence of it? Not so much at this resolution. You will also notice a slight crop, which removed some of the pole too, making my job easier.

Much better, I think. The focus is on the blue house, and the pole is no longer there to distract on the right.

I captured this great building from the top of the tourist bus, in Barcelona. I liked the repetition of the shapes, light and shadow of the windows. I was at a good angle to building, being high up on the bus, but I couldn’t move from my seat to eliminate the streetlight in the image.

Because of the repetitive nature of the light and shadows, it was easy to clone the shapes and shadows of the balcony and remove the distracting streetlight. This final image was also straightened and then cropped for composition, which also helped to remove some of the streetlight. With a conversion to black and white, it’s all about the repeating pattern now.

It’s important to note that every image cannot be saved this way. Cleaning only works if you have the “raw material” elsewhere in the image to copy over the distracting element. That is not always the case. This is a technique to learn and practice, so that you have a better feel what can and can’t be fixed later in your post-processing.

Keep in mind, cleaning takes a lot of time. It is much quicker to capture a distraction-free image than to clean it in post-processing. If you love the post-processing part of digital photography, that may be fine for you. That’s not where I prefer to spend my time.

The Process Works

I hope these examples help you to see how the process of elimination works to create interesting images. Often a great image is hiding inside a so-so image, if you can remove the distracting elements. There was something in the scene that captured your eye to begin with, so focusing in while eliminating other elements will help you tell your story.

Keep these ideas in mind as you practice the process of elimination:

Think about what you are trying to convey in your photograph. What was it about the scene that caught your eye or made you want to point your camera at it? What story do you want to tell? That is what you need to focus on. Eliminate all elements that distract from your intended message.
Move yourself to change your perspective. Will the distractions be eliminated if you move higher? Lower? Left? Right?
Zoom in, with your feet or your lens, to focus on the subject. Or, zoom out to keep the context in the image. If you can’t decide, go back to Step 1. When you are clear on what you want to convey in the image, the decision of subject/context is easier.
Watch and wait if needed. Sometimes the distractions are mobile, and if you wait to click you can create a stronger image.
Crop in post-processing. This is a great tool to eliminate unwanted distractions and learn more about how framing your image makes a difference.
Clean out distracting elements in post-processing. It may be possible to remove a small distraction in post-processing by “cleaning.”

Now, it’s your turn! Share the images where you used the process of elimination. If you can, share an image that shows the “before” too, so that we can see how you eliminated the distractions to create a stronger image. We will all learn more this way. Both new and archive shots are welcome! Link in below and share in the Flickr pool too. Thanks so much for your participation in Exploring with a Camera.

August 18, 2011 by Kat

Exploring with a Camera: Night Photography (2nd Edition)

[Author’s Note: This post finishes up the “Second Edition” Exploring with a Camera posts I’ve been doing this summer. In addition to the link up at the end of this post and the sharing in the Flickr pool, for this topic I am creating a special “Night Photography” camera companion that will come in Sunday’s email newsletter. Don’t miss it! You can sign up for the newsletter here.]

I discovered night photography about a year ago, in October 2009, on a trip to Florence and Tuscany. I’d taken the odd night photo here and there before this, and some even came out great, but it wasn’t until we began traveling in the winter months that year that I really fell in love with it. When you travel in the summer, you have these long days to run around and see everything. By the time the evening comes along, everyone is worn out and you head back to the hotel room as the light fades, especially if you have kids. In the winter, however, the days end early and you find yourself out and about in the darkness, seeing the world in a totally different light. Amazing, beautiful, atmospheric light that is like no other. And just like the quality of light in the daytime, which changes from place to place, the quality of light and atmosphere of places at night changes too. You can see this in the photos I shared as part of my Six Days of Night series last year. The photo above is one of my first attempts at night photography, in Florence.

My definition of “night photography” covers a broad range of light. As soon as the sun goes down and the lights start coming on, to me that begins the night. This is the time that the flash would start automatically coming on in your camera or you might just put it away, if you are used to using natural light.

Let’s look at how light progresses from day to evening. This image of London is from very early evening. You can see that the sky is still quite light, but the phone booth is lit, the streetlights are on and the windows are starting to glow with light. There is still a lot of light at this time for your photos, but you start to get the warm glow that makes night photos something special.

The transition from day to night is called twilight or also the “blue hour” because you see the sky transition through a wonderful range of blue. The contrast of this blue sky with the warm yellow of artificial lights is especially pleasing, as in this photo from early evening in Split, Croatia.

Toward the end of the “blue hour,” the skies are an amazing deep blue, as in the photo below taken the same evening in Split, just later. The blue also changes as you look toward the west, where the sun just went down, versus toward the east. You can see the variation in blue in the sky of this image below, from bottom right to top left. I can’t image a prettier blue color! No color adjustments done to this at all.

After a while, you will find yourself in full night, where the background skies are black. This has a completely different feel in the photo, all illumination is from the artifical lights around, as in this photo of Piazza San Marco in Venice.

Guess what? The blue hour happens twice a day, before dawn and after sunset. There is a great website, bluehoursite.com, that gives you the times of the blue hour for anywhere in the world on any day, so you can plan ahead!

Now that we’ve talked about light, let’s talk about how to use it creatively at night. There are so many ways to photograph the night! Looking through my photos last week I came up with lots of ideas. To start off, you know that reflections are one of my favorite things, whether the smooth as glass reflection of my favorite Venice photo (I had to slip this one in!), or the ripples of the bay in Split.

Reflections don’t only come from a large body of water at night as I’ve shown above. The pavement of the sidewalk, streets, rain… at night there are unending sources of light reflections. Not only are they cool to capture, but they increase the light available for taking photographs. Keep your eye out for them! We had a rainy night during our visit to Bath, and the reflections were so interesting. The really highlight the stone walkways and streets.

You might also note how yellow the light looks in the above photo, I did not do any adjustments to white balance to change how it came out in the camera. In my night shots I like the yellow glow of the lights, because that is part of the feel of night for me, although sometimes I do tone it down just a bit. You have to be careful when you adjust white balance on a night shot, because you can make the image look weird. The image below is an example. Left is out of the camera (quite yellow), Center is the color correction I like (still slightly yellow), and Right is over-corrected (no yellow left at all). While the flowers are white in the right one, that adjustment ends up creating an overall blue cast to the photo, and it no longer looks quite like night.

Night is a time for wonderful light bokeh. Since you often need to shoot with a wide open aperture to keep shutter speed down, you can capture the bokeh of lights in the background. This photo of the Chapel Bridge and the Lucerne water front is a good example. Since I’ve focused close to me, on the bridge, the waterfront behind is out of focus with nice bokeh. I’ve decided that I don’t use this effect enough, I need to play with it more in my night shots.

Watch for light pools or effects. Some of the paned windows in York provided wonderful shapes of light on the ground. I would love to go back and focus some shots just on those!

Night is also a wonderful time for silhouettes. Either from the fading light of twilight, or an artificial light source. The silhouette of the person walking by the bookstore in Padua, in the shot below, gives interest to the colorful background. And the strong light coming out the store front made this easy to get.

Strong light can also create shadows, sometimes in multiple directions at once if there are multiple light sources, like in this photo of my son’s legs and feet. Pretty cool! You don’t see this in the day, since we only have one sun. 🙂

Another great thing to capture at night is motion – in the form of blur. Because of the longer exposures you need, moving things will be blurred in your frame if the camera is still. You can also try to capture a moving object as still, with the background blurred to show motion, if you pan along with the moving object. This takes a lot of practice and trial and error. I don’t have any great examples of this, although I’ve tried, but the photo below from Venice shows the idea. I was on a moving boat, trying to get the bridge over the canal still while the rest of the photo was blurred. More practice is obviously needed, but hopefully you get the idea.

Sometimes, when you have just gone beyond the limits of any clear, in focus shot, just play. The photo below is from that same Vaporetto ride in Venice. Since I was moving on the boat, I played around with longer shutter speeds and intentionally moved the camera to get some cool effects. Kind of neat how the background buildings are still clear and “still” while the bright lights are moving – completely unplanned.

And finally, don’t be afraid of the dark. This is night, you can have large areas of your photo completely black and still have an amazing photo. Throw away the idea of the the entire frame being expo class=”separator” style=”clear: both; text-align: center;”>

My main mode of operation is to handhold my camera for night shots. I just am not willing to haul a tripod around with me all day so that I can have it handy at night, so big and cumbersome. So I’ve learned quite a bit along with way that I can share with you for optimizing your ability to get good “Handheld” night shots. (By the way, these will work in any low light situation, such as indoors, not just as night.) The tips below will be incorporated into the Night Photography camera companion that will be sent on Sunday to newsletter subscribers, so you can have them in your camera bag wherever you go!

Tips for “Handheld” night shots:

First off, turn off your flash! Turn your camera to a mode that won’t allow the flash to come on.
Camera shake is your biggest enemy here – just the movement of you holding the camera while the shutter is open. A rule of thumb to avoid camera shake is that the shutter speed should be no slower than 1/[Your zoom setting]. So if you are at 50mm zoom, your shutter speed shouldn’t go below 1/50. At 35mm, shutter speed of 1/30.
Increase your stability by taking a wide stance with your feet, tucking your elbows tight into your sides, and hold your breath while you take the shot. I can sometimes get good shots down to 1/20 or 1/15 with this method. You can also lean against a pole or the side of a building for increased stability.
You can also increase your stability with an “assisted handhold” – use anything stable around, like a railing or bench or fence, and use that to help hold your camera. I put my hand under the lens, spreading my fingers and moving them around, to support the camera with the right angle. I also have to plan for more straightening and cropping in these shots, because you don’t have as much control. Most of my Venice canal shots were done with the assitance of a bridge railing for stability. Another option that is less cumbersome than a tripod but provides more stability is a monopod.
Set your camera on Aperture Priority, with the setting as wide open as it will go. This will help keep your shutter speeds as fast as possible.
Or, set your camera on Shutter Priority, to a reasonable shutter speed. I often do this to set it at 1/50 when we are just walking around a town. I’ve found that this setting works consistently well for avoiding camera shake on the go, and it forces the camera to choose the best aperture for the exposure. This works when my camera is choosing slower shutter speeds but not using the full aperture range of my lens.
My last resort is to bump up my ISO setting. This is one of the most wonderful things about digital, that we can adjust our ISO setting, instead of being stuck with whatever is set for the film that is loaded. When you’re wide open on aperture and your shutter speed is still too low, then increase the ISO setting. I kind of think of ISO increase as a last resort, because with every increase to ISO you also increase the noise. I purchased my current camera (Canon Rebel T1i) partially because of the increased ISO range, 3200 and beyond, but the more I’ve gotten into night photography the more I realize that I would rather not use the ISO settings higher than 800 if I can avoid it. But – when faced with either not getting the shot or having a noisier shot – I’ll always choose to get the shot, even with the noise.
If all else fails, underexpose. By underexposing, you can drive your camera to shorter shutter speeds. As long as you don’t underexpose so much that you lose the vital pixel information of your focal point, you can compensate exposure in the computer using software. I’ve learned that I can easily underexpose 2/3 to 1 full stop on night photos and recover them in post processing.
Constantly check your settings, especially shutter speed, if your camera is in an auto mode for exposure. You have to be aware of them as you shoot at night, even more so than you might normally, because the lighting conditions change so much from place to place.
Always take multiple shots, because with several you might get one that one perfect one. There is a lot more room for error with night photography. And happy accidents too! Review in camera using the zoom feature, because sometimes a shot might look perfect on your tiny screen only to have some camera shake when you view it larger on your computer.
Finally, if you just reach the limits of your equipment and don’t want to go the tripod route, there is nothing that can help your handheld night photography more than upgrading your equipment for a lens with a wide aperture. Night photography is one area where your equipment really does come into play a bit more, so you will have to experiment and find the limits of your camera/lens combo.When night comes, I switch to my 35mm f/1.4 lens. This has given me an extended range of light I can work with at night. Consider trying out a 50mm f/1.8 lens as an inexpensive first step into this arena, if you have a dSLR. And if you have a point-and-shoot, well… you might want to think about a dSLR or use a tripod.

As I’ve progressed further with night photography, and especially after my photo lesson in Paris, I can see the benefit of the tripod. You can decrease your ISO and increase your shutter speeds significantly and take your camera limitations mostly out of the equation. The cost of it is carrying the tripod, so for me, I see this as an option when I am intentionally traveling to photograph rather than when I photograph as I travel (the latter is my normal mode of operation).

Tips for “Tripod” shots:

You need a good stable tripod that will not move with normal winds and can hold your camera. My 24-70mm lens is a big one and so most of those little, compact tripods you can buy won’t work for my camera. Also recommended with a tripod are a quick release feature (where you don’t actually screw the camera into the tripod, but into a piece that you can easily connect and disconnect from the tripod) and a level that can help you keep your camera straight (something I need!). There are multiple types of adjustments available, but you want to make sure that you can do both horizontal and vertical orientation easily. There are so many types of tripods out there, if you can visit a store and try them out with your camera before you buy, that is recommended. I have a simple tripod that is strong enough to hold my camera stably, has quick release, but is as light as I could manage.
Ensure flash is off.
Set your ISO lower, to reduce noise. Try as low as the camera will allow you to set it, and work up from there as needed.
You have more flexibility in your aperture and shutter speed settings, so play around here. You might still want to set your aperture wide open, to reduce the shutter speed, just to avoid really long exposures you will need for a low ISO setting. You are still subject to camera shake with a tripod, just less so. The longer the shutter is open, the more likely you are to have an issue.
Use a remote shutter release. You can still shake the camera on a tripod just by pressing the shutter. Remote shutter releases (cable or wireless) are available inexpensively for many cameras. This removes you completely as the source of the camera shake.
Use your camera self timer. Another option, if you don’t have a remote shutter release, is to use the self timer feature that most cameras have these days. This doesn’t work so well, however, if you are trying to time the shot with movement in or out of the frame. For example, in many of my Paris shots, I had to be ready to shoot as soon as my frame was clear of people. If I used the self timer, I could never have been able to hit the shutter such that 10 seconds later the frame was clear.
Again, review, check your settings and take multiple shots. Once you get everything set up perfectly, you don’t want to be disappointed if you discover on the computer that it was slightly out of focus. It’s hard to use manual focus at night, so I use auto focus as much as possible but that isn’t always fool proof either.

[2011 Update: After using my tripod several times on photo excursions since this original post, I find I don’t enjoy photography using my tripod very much. In some way it disconnects me from my subject, and while I can get technically great images, I don’t love these images or the process of capturing them as much as I do when the camera is in my hand. For that reason, I mainly do handheld night photography. The lead in shot is a handheld image from Venice taken in June.]

If you stuck with me here to the end you must be ready to start exploring night photography! Be sure to sign up for the newsletter to receive your portable camera companion on Night Photography this Sunday. You can link your recent or archive images in below, and put them in the Flickr pool for the opportunity to have me feature them here on the blog. I can’t wait to see your view!

August 4, 2011 by Kat

Exploring with a Camera: Frame within a Frame (2nd Edition)

[Author’s Note: Through the summer months Exploring with a Camera will be “Second Edition” postings of previous explorations with some new images. You will find a new link up at the end of this post to share your photos, and your photos are also welcome in the Flickr pool for the opportunity to be featured here on the blog. I hope that you will join in!]

“Frame within a Frame” is a compositional technique that I’ve had on my mind to share here, but was waiting for the perfect “frame” shot to lead off with. I found it in this shot from Bologna, looking through a bridge window into the buildings and canal beyond. Now that I’m writing this post and reviewing my archives, however, I am seeing that I use this technique more than I thought!

Frame within a Frame works for a couple of reasons:

First, it serves to focus the eye of the viewer on a specific subject. When you look at a frame within a frame photograph, you are usually drawn directly to the frame and what is inside of it. Then you kind of visually take a step back and take in the whole of the image. In the photo above, you are immediately drawn to the jumble of windows and walls and the distant bridge within the frame. Then you back out and see that you are looking through a wall with graffiti.
Second, it provides context for the image. You are looking through one thing – the frame – into something else. You have a better feel for where you are, as the viewer. It places the viewer of the photograph into a slightly different role. Instead of just looking at the photograph, they are looking through the photograph, from the frame into what is beyond. They are immersed in the image more completely.

The “frames” that are within photo don’t have to be windows, although these are used to good effect. Basically you are looking for anything that serves to contain or frame the subject. The nice thing about a frame within a frame is that it doesn’t have to be a straight line! The edges of our photographs are typically straight lines, with rectangular or square shape. Compositional frames we can use within our photographs can be any shape, from natural or man made.

In this image the eye is immediately drawn to the subject framed in the “white” of the overexposed window, and from there you move into the room to get the context of the boy (my son) standing at this very large window.

In this image from Padova, the subject is the bookstore, but the context is provided by the frame of the store window at night. The person walking by serves to punctuate the fact that we are looking into the store from outside.

I find that I use arches all of the time in my photography to frame a subject. It helps that they are almost everywhere in Europe! An arch is a nice contrast to the rectangular shape of the photo, as shown in this image from Brescia.

And here is one from Marksburg Castle, in the Rhine River Valley of Germany. This arch frames both a near and far vista, looking down the Rhine. It shows the strategic view the castle had of the surrounding area.

Yet another, this time an arch internal to the building, at Casa Battlo, in Barcelona. This arch frames the beautiful lines of the staircase curving upward.

Don’t ignore the good old, square doorway though! This doorway serves as a frame, giving more depth to the alley beyond and leading your eye right to the window at the end.

Natural elements make great frames. I think you can probably conjure up images you’ve seen or captured looking through trees at a distant object or vista – the trees are the frame. The palm tree in the image below from Split, Croatia serves to frame the subject of the lighted building while also giving the context of where the photo was taken from, the waterfront promenade. I have photos of this building without the palm tree, and they are not as interesting as this one.

This may be a familiar photo to you, as I’ve used it in Exploring with a Camera before. The branches of the trees arching over and hanging down to the water, along with the reflections completing the the arch below, serve to frame the path and draw your eye right along it to the water beyond.

Finally, here is a more literally frame within a frame from Bologna. Instead of looking through the frame, you are looking at what is inside the frame. It takes the random jumble of advertising, ties it together and gives it context. It becomes street art on it’s own.

So, now that you’ve seen a few examples of frame within a frame, how can you use this compositional technique?

The easiest place to start is to look for the obvious in our everyday lives – windows and doors. Look at these as frames. What do you see when you look through them? What do you see reflected in them? Consider the point of view from both sides of the frame – looking out and looking in.
Expand beyond the obvious to look for other opportunities for frames in our everyday spaces – hallways, mirrors and furniture are a few places to start. What other ideas can you come up with?
Look for frames in architecture. As with arches, architectural elements can make great frames for something beyond, as well as provide the context of where you are at when you take the picture.
Look for frames in nature. Trees make great frames, what other natural elements can you use to highlight your subject?
Try changing your focus point and exposure – focus on the frame as the subject, focus on the image beyond the frame as the subject. What works best? Why? For many of my Frame within a Frame images, I have done both and then picked the one that had the best feel.

Chances are you are already using this compositional principle without thought, as I was. The lead in photo, found in a back alley of Burano on my last trip to Venice, is a great example.

Take a look at your photos, and see where you have used frame within a frame and what effect it had. Keep an eye out, notice how it is used in the images you see around you everyday on the web, in print, in TV and movies. See where you’ve used it or go out and try it, and then link up below and share your photo in the Flickr pool. I’m sure we’ll have lots of creative frames!