A Tibetan monk smiles and looks on at two dogs baring their teeth at each other. Bodhnath, Nepal.

Short of photographing a war or a riot, we normally don’t think of fear in relation to photography, yet it is something that most photographers find themselves faced with at one time or another. It comes in different forms for different people. It may hold you back creatively or it may hold you back professionally. You may use it as an excuse without knowing you’re doing so. How you deal with it depends firstly on whether you even recognize that it exists and that it’s affecting you. At one extreme, fear may stop you making photographs. At the other, it may drive you to produce some of the best work of your life. I think we’d all prefer the latter over the former but in actuality, the reverse is what we usually get.

To begin to understand how we can move towards producing truly great work, we first need to consider a few situations. You may recognize one or more of these as affecting you now, or having affected you in the past. Chances are, something like these will also affect you in the future. The points in the list that follows are all taken from real life situations and are examples of fear at work.

• Following the same set of photographic rules of composition without ever trying to break them.
• Creating a website and Facebook page to promote yourself professionally, and hoping the buyers come to you instead of vice versa.
• Getting a bit of publicity about your work outside the photographic world and then promptly going and producing mediocre work on your next two jobs.
• Incessantly buying new equipment or software.
• Spending all your time reading photography blogs and posting in photography forums and not actually getting out and shooting yourself.
• Having an idea for something that’s different to what you normally shoot and not following up on it.
• Blaming your failures on the wrong light or wrong lens or some other external factor.
• Becoming bored with your own photography.
• Worrying about the reaction of others to your own creative work.

The above represent just some of the possible manifestations of fear when it comes to photography. There are others. Identifying your own fears and those issues which are affecting you can give you valuable assistance in moving beyond those barriers. Critically and subjectively (as possible) look at your recent work and see whether you are holding yourself back. If you do recognize any of these factors, make note of a few things.

• When does the fear first become obvious?
• Does it exist in some photos but not others?
• Is a little publicity or pressure causing you to rush and make mistakes?
• Are you clinging to the belief that good photography alone is enough to give you a successful business?
• Are you in a rut?
• Do you photograph the same thing over and over again without any real passion?
• Have you been relying on the same techniques for every photo?

Identifying the factor that affects you is the first step to overcoming it. Sometimes it’ll be easy. Sometimes it’ll be hard. Sometimes it’s simply a matter of getting up and doing it. Pick up the phone and call an editor. Shoot black and white environmental portraits instead of frame-filling closeups. Spend a week or two just shooting as much as you can without looking at any photos and let them sit for a few weeks before importing them into Lightroom.

Once you work out how fear is present, you can take steps to overcome it, or to inspire and drive you to produce your best work. Use fear as a motivational tool to push you to new heights. Consider the following reasons for fear and some suggestions for overcoming it.

• Too much pressure? – Shoot some personal work and don’t show anyone.
• No inspiration? – Broaden your horizons and look at other artforms.
• Making novice mistakes? – Slow down while you’re working.
• Worried about failure, either artistically or commercially? – Work with a mentor or photographer’s consultant and identify your strengths and weaknesses.
• Scared of being rejected? – Shoot to please yourself not others.

Schedule some time, whether it’s a few hours or a few days, to consider how fear affects your photographic life. Go where you can be undisturbed and be as objective as you can towards your art. Identify any areas where a change of approach or a change of mindset could make a difference. Very few people are happy to produce work in any artform that is not exciting to them. The true amateur does it because they love it regardless of whether or not it’s a job or hobby. For most of us, something we love doing is also something we want to excel at. Use your fears to help you on the path to excellence.

Just some of the problems with the photo.

There was an excellent response to Tuesday’s post Why Is This Photo Bad?, both here on the blog and on the various social media sites. As one commenter put it, there was a laundry list of problems with the photograph, which was actually the whole point of the exercise. Everything from technical aspects to composition to subject matter to processing was covered. I had originally intended it to be mostly about the editing and processing part of it as composition and subject matter is often a highly subjective element of a photograph. A lot of the “rules” of composition should probably more accurately called suggestion or guidelines. Because so many chose to concentrate on issues of composition, I decided to widen the scope a bit and include those problems as well. I’m going to look at a few problems in particular below.

Rule of Thirds and Horizon Placement – This was probably the most common response, and equally, could well be the least important problem with the photo. As I said above, issues of composition are highly subjective and what one person loves, another hates. Off the top of my head I can think of photographs by the likes of Ansel Adams and Galen Rowell that don’t follow the rule of thirds and place the horizon dead center or close to, and the photographs are no weaker for it. While a lot of the time, it will be an issue, it’s probably not a deal breaker. Note that I’m not referring to the angle of the horizon here, which is an issue, just the placement.

Cloning – Somebody mentioned that it looked like something was cloned out. Others (jokingly) suggested bikini girls and submarines. In actuality, there wasn’t any cloning at all, as is evident by the spots of sensor dust you can see in the sky.

Contrast – Comments about contrast were common but a little contradictory when taken together. Some said there was too much contrast, others not enough.

Subject – Of all the comments regarding composition, this to me is the biggie. There’s no subject to focus the eye. There’s no real purpose behind it. Nothing may work for Jerry Seinfeld but it doesn’t really work for coastal landscape style photography.

What Nobody Mentioned

There were a couple of things that nobody mentioned in the comments although a couple of people alluded to. These were probably more what I was looking to get when I first posted it as noted in the caption where it says in the caption “badly edited”. Okay, I guess you could say the selection of the photo in its entirety fits that concept but I was referring more to the image processing.

HDR – I’m surprised that there was no mention of HDR in any of the comments. A couple of people suggested composite, someone else said separately processed layers but no one said bad example of HDR. The final image is made up of 3 handheld exposures that were bracketed 2 stops apart and combined in an HDR application. It’s actually the handheld part of this that makes the elements in the distance look soft. On each individual shot there sufficiently focused but there was some minor movement between exposures which has created a ghosting effect on the distant objects.

Posterization – This was the other issue that no one directly mentioned. One of the comments mentioned over-processing which leads to the posterization but no one specifically stated this phenomena. It can be seen mostly in the sky near the left edge but you may have to click on it to view the larger image to see it. If you’re on a calibrated monitor – and if you’re not I hope your comments were only related to composition – it should be quite obvious.

They are just a few of the points that were mentioned (or not) that I wanted to address. There was also comments about the graduated filter in Lightroom (it wasn’t actually used) and excessive sharpening (other than any default sharpening by the HDR program there was none). What this photo was however, is a clear example of a badly created HDR image.

In the original post I said there’d be a surprise in store. The kind folks at Craft and Vision have offered two codes for free eBooks. You can from choose any of their offerings which range from guides to black and white to video to the Print and Process series. As I write this there are 34 comments here on the blog so I’ve put those numbers into the random number generator at random.org and here are the results.

The second comment was left by thefourblackbars and the 22nd by Kenneth Dickson. Congratulations. I’ll send you a code for a free eBook.

Thank you everyone for offering your thoughts and criticism. One thing that was suggested for the future was offering a single photo for people to edit and submit and see what they look like. Would anyone be interested in something like that?

Confucius temple, Tainan.

There are plenty of websites and online resources for people who seek to learn photography. From simple phototips all the way through to more formal education, the web has it all. As the end of this daily phototip series is fast approaching, with a little over fifty tips still to come, now is a good time to take a look around the net and see where else you can look for photography education. Here are five to get you started.

Before we get into it, I want to remind you about Selina Maitreya’s The View From Here. Selina brings 3 decades of portfolio consultancy experience and wisdom to this MP3 series that’s a must-have for anyone either contemplating becoming a working photographer or professionals looking for a little extra inspiration. Normally $199, it’s available at a 50% discount using the code FOSCFI.

Digital Photography School – DPS offers an online learning environment and community dedicated to the craft of photography. It is regularly updated with tips and tutorials from a variety of contributors and covers everything from the very basics of photography through advanced post-production techniques and reviews of different equipment. There’s also an active forum section to the site.

Craft and Vision – Created by world humanitarian photography David du Chemin, Craft and Vision has expanded into a site where a variety of photographers in a range of styles offer regular eBooks designed to enhance your photographic vision. Covering everything from black and white to reflections to the thought process of working photogrpahers, Craft and Vision is a resource worth bookmarking.

National Geographic Phototips – National Geographic needs no introduction as they are probably the magazine most associated with great photography. They have a photo tips section that offers lessons in macro, camera phones, DSLR video, HDR techniques and more.

Kelby Training – Scott Kelby is the world’s best selling photography book author and him and his team of experts have an extensive series of training videos covering all aspects of photography. With instruction from the likes of Jay Maisel, Joe McNally and Vincent Versace, these video courses offer great viewing. There’s a little bit of free content but not requires a subscription that is available at a single yearly price or month by month.

Photoshelter – As well as offering fantastic photo archive storage and websites, Photoshelter has a substantial learning section. With regular webinars and downloadable reports, Photoshelter provides everything the professional or aspiring pro needs to build their photography business. Even if you don’t have any desire for a career in photography, you can still learn about photographing sports or digital asset management or SEO techniques.

That was the 313th Daily PhotoTip. If this post was useful to you, why don’t you subscribe to my feed, leave a comment and share it with your friends. You can also get access to exclusive content and special offers by subscribing to my newsletter. Sign up today. Thank you.

New Year Fireworks at Taipei 101.

With the new year fast approaching, one thing you can count on seeing over the next couple of weeks is fireworks. So how do you go about photographing fireworks?

Well, the good news is that it’s quite easy but there are a few things you’ll need. First, make sure that you have a camera that can be operated manually. Look for a “B” or bulb setting. You’ll also want to be able to focus manually. If you leave autofocus on and try to take photos like that, it’ll just hunt for something to lock onto in the black sky and you won’t get anything. Once you have the camera, you’ll need a sturdy tripod. This is a must as we are going to have exposure times of a few seconds and any camera shake will ruin the picture. Some kind of remote release is required as well. It doesn’t matter if it’s wired or wireless, as long as it’ll let you trip the shutter without needing to touch the camera.

t doesn’t matter how many auto modes your camera has. All those little icons of flowers and mountains are useless for fireworks. With your lens set to MF, focus on something in the distance. Once you are happy, recompose so that the camera is pointing to the area of sky where the fireworks will be but make sure you don’t change the focus. You may not need to do this if you are in an area with buildings, bridges etc. For the above photo, I focused on the red bridge.

With your ISO set to 100, shutter set to B, aperture between f8 and f16 and remote release in hand you are ready. Selecting an aperture between f8 and f16 gives you plenty of depth-of-field, and the shutter at B allows you to leave the shutter open for as long as you like. Press and hold the release button once to start the exposure and let go to stop it. A little trial and error may be required, so take as many shots as you can, with differing shutter times. If you can see the place where the fireworks are being launched from, you could try opening the shutter when you see the launch and closing it when the firework goes out. Or, you could leave it open and catch a few bursts of fireworks on the same exposure – hold a black card in front of the lens between bursts to cut down on any stray light.

New Year Fireworks in Taipei

Good luck and remember to stay safe and warm when you’re out photographing fireworks on these cold winter nights.

This was originally posted prior to 2009 Chinese Lunar New Year.

The other day the UPS guy arrived at my door with a copy of David duChemin’s excellent new book “Within The Frame”. In it, he talks about “the journey of photographic vision”. It got me thinking about how we see as artists, how our vision enables us to create great photography (or poetry, music, painting etc). I’ve only read the introduction and first chapter of “Within The Frame” so far, although I’ve flicked through the book, looked at all the pictures and read the captions, and have been a fan of the author’s blog Pixelated Image for some time. I decided to write this now, before I get too deep into the book, so that the ideas I’m about to discuss don’t end up overly influenced by it. Read on after the jump for some musings about the way we can see outside the box.

.
Anyone can pick up a camera, point it at something and press the shutter button. Result. A snapshot. Going a little further, one can learn about the various settings, optimum exposures, right light, rules of composition and so forth, then pick up the camera, point it at something and press the shutter. Result. A picture. You can learn how to do this from any number of teachers, books, websites, videos and blogs (including this one). The technical aspects of photography, while numerous, are easy enough to learn, and indeed, doing so will make you a better photographer.

.
But what if you want to be a great photographer? What if you want to produce works of art that take people’s breath away. For that, you really need to be able to see. You need some kind of vision. The bad news is that there are no real rules you can follow that will teach you how to see. There are, however, principles that you can use that can help you see. These principles aren’t set in stone due to the subjective nature of creativity, but they can at least set you off on the road to seeing. Before I go on, I’ll just make a note that the pictures accompanying this article are not meant to be examples of the correct way of doing things. They are simply my impressions of the scene at the time I shot them and how it fit in with my mood at the time. If I re-shot them today, I may well use a different composition or different equipment to convey my mood.

.
Creativity can be described as a mixture of perception, imagination, inspiration, persistence and inventiveness. Henri Cartier-Bresson called it “the decisive moment”. That point in time when everything comes together in such a way as to bring the artist’s vision to life. As technologically advanced as cameras are these days, there’s still not a camera in existence that can recognize when this moment occurs, or even know what this moment is and should look like. That can only come through the photographers eye, the way he/she approaches the shot and how it’s presented afterwards. “Moonrise”, Ansel Adams most famous photograph, is a prime example. Adams was returning to Santa Fe after a days photography when he glanced out of the car and saw the scene. He later said “I had a clear visualization of the image I wanted to make”. (Examples – The Making of 40 Photographs by Ansel Adams, pp 41-43 ) Taken with an 8 X 10 view camera on ASA 64 film, he had to guess the exposure (1 sec @ f32) based on the moon’s luminance due to a lost light meter. Once back in the darkroom, to translate the pre-visualized image to print took a number of different methods, different chemicals and different papers before he was able to settle on a method that worked. All of these small adjustments, done according to his artistic vision, lead Adams to say “it is safe to say that no two prints are precisely the same”. (Examples – The Making of 40 Photographs by Ansel Adams, pp 41-43 ). I guess he could simply have made a quick print using a basic formula and been done with it. It would have still been technically good but it probably would have lacked vision.

.
So how does one develop this “eye”? Firstly, take a look at the camera and lens you have. In all probability, you have a standard zoom lens that covers focal lengths from about 24mm to 105mm full frame / film (17-70mm on a non-pro DSLR). Your lens might differ slightly, but it’ll be similar. If you’re like most people, you zoom in and zoom out as needed. I know I do.

This brings us to exercise one. One quick way to stimulate your eye is to shoot everything at one focal length on your zoom. If you have a prime lens (and every photographer really should at least have a 50mm f1.8 lens) even better. Choose a focal length. Doesn’t matter if it’s 28mm or 35mm or 50mm. Just pick one, zoom to that and stick to it. Now go out and shoot with that lens. Shoot hundreds of frames, thousands; use only that focal length for a week or a month. If you need to bring something in closer, move towards it. If you need it wider, move back. Don’t zoom. If it’s still too close or too far, then look for another angle or vantage point. Maybe you can’t move back far enough to capture all of a wide scene. Try moving closer and shooting the details. Can’t get closer to isolate a subject. Move back and include the surrounding environment in the frame. You’ll find by doing this that the creative areas of your brain get kicked into action. By forcing yourself to think differently and look for different images, you’ll begin the process of learning how to see differently.

.
This has been a pretty long post so we’ll leave it there. And with that said, one of the hottest creative photographs around today, Chase Jarvis, recently posted the video of an hour long talk he recently gave called “The Consequences of Creativity”. I urge you to watch it.

I’ll have the follow-up to this sometime in the next week. It’s already written but I’ll give you a few days to absorb the information here and get you thinking about how you create before I continue. Feel free to leave comments, ideas, suggestions and the like, and don’t forget to share.