Untitled by Rob_Wood, on Flickr

Where Do Monkeys Gather? – One of the big challenges of photographing any wild animal is actually getting to a position where it’s possible to photograph them. Now, many types of monkey are not shy, but if you’ve made the decision to photograph these animals, then you might like to take a while to research where large numbers of them live. The monkeys in this article were shot at Batu Caves in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where they are everywhere!

Untitled by Rob_Wood, on Flickr

What Gear is Best for Photographing Monkeys? – A medium to long focal length lens is almost a necessity due to the fact that you don’t want to get too close to any wild animal for safety’s sake. These images were all taken on a Nikon 70-200mm f2.8, but there are several cheaper options including the Nikon 70-300mm f4-5.6 which retails for under $200. It’s slower, but still capable of great photographs. The other major lens makers all make cheap options at similar focal lengths. A mid range kit lens is also perfectly serviceable for shooting monkeys as they won’t be shy about getting closer to humans than most other wild animals.

You might also want to consider a circular polarising filter (CPL). A lot of the time with monkeys, you are looking up to shoot and it is very easy to get parts of the sky showing through the trees and branches and giving you small areas that are blown out. A CPL will help minimise this distraction in your shots.

What You Need to Know About The Animals – Monkeys have a well-deserved reputation for being cheeky, aggressive and a little insane. While they are a great subject for photography, there are a few things you should keep in mind while there are monkeys around.

Untitled by Rob_Wood, on Flickr

Monkeys Are Thieves! If you leave anything just lying around, then expect it to be stolen. That goes from food to bags and even camera gear – these little creatures don’t really discriminate and it can lead to an expensive time if they take something from you. Keep everything securely fastened to your body or expect to lose it.

Monkeys Can Be Aggressive! While they are very cute, any wild animal deserves respect for the small fact that it is physically capable of ripping your face off. It’s a good habit to stay well clear of monkeys that are not tamed for human contact. Spend a few minutes watching how the locals interact with the monkeys and you will get a feel for each group. If the locals are staying clear, then you would be well advised to do the same thing.

Anecdote – As I was wandering around Batu Caves taking photographs of monkeys, I innocently sat down on the stairs to take a break. Little did I know that the railing a foot from my face was a common thoroughfare for the monkey population. I was lucky enough to discover this when I looked up to discover an alpha male, a foot from my face, hissing at me and baring his rather large fangs. Luckily one of the local shop-keepers saw this, happened to be passing by and also happened to have a very large stick in his hand that he used the scare the monkey away from me. Luck saved the day for me.

What Camera Settings Should You Use? – While there are no particular set rules for photographing monkeys, I was trying to minimise depth of field to isolate interest on the animals while freezing motion. That meant a wide aperture (around f 2.8 to 5.6) and fast shutter speed (while I sometimes took advantage of the Vibration Reduction of my lens, usually you will want to match your shutter speed to your focal length at a minimum to minimise camera shake).

Untitled by Rob_Wood, on Flickr

Monkeying About With Composition – Backgrounds are going to be one of the most challenging parts of shooting monkeys. The animals themselves do enough interesting things and strike enough cool poses that you won’t have to worry about the main subject, but what is behind them can often break an otherwise great photograph. Be careful of the sky showing through the trees and adding blowouts to your shot.

One trick is to observe where the monkeys actually spend time (often they will have common thoroughfares or places to gather) and then look at how you can get to a position to photograph that particular spot with a good background. In these images (below), I noticed that the monkeys often climbed along a certain fence and I was able to position myself so that the fence was between me and a giant golden Hindu statue.

I also like to give the subject a little space to look into. In these shots you will notice that the animals usually look towards the center of the frame or area with the greatest amount of space.

Untitled by Rob_Wood, on Flickr

Untitled by Rob_Wood, on Flickr

And in the image below I found a rock face with lots of moss, lichen and overgrowth that gave a pleasant effect in a limited depth of field photograph.

Untitled by Rob_Wood, on Flickr

Don’t Forget to Have Fun – It’s almost impossible not to have a ball while you’re around these hilarious animals. They are always doing something funny and are a heap of fun to shoot. With a few of the tips above, hopefully you should be able to come away with a few good photographs too!

Photography Tutorials, Case Studies and Discounts - LightStalking Photography Newsletter.

At first glance many will probably have tongue firmly in cheek and I might well be stating the obvious, however, it’s the little things make big differences in this photography lark, changing the whole dynamic of a photograph just by using the simplest of techniques is hands down the best way to take better images.

Generally, when shooting a scene, you hold a camera in front of your face just as the manufacturer intended, unless it’s a person, then you rotate it 90 degrees. I am going to let you into a little secret; the opposite works for either, both formats are a really effective way of capturing your subject.

When to Landscape a Portrait

“If your pictures aren’t good enough, your not close enough” –Robert Cappa.

This is a good time to screw on your wide-angle lens, a wide-angle gives you the option to move in close to your subject and maintain a wide field of view in the viewfinder. I recommend a 24-28mm on full frame or 18-20mm on a cropped sensor, much wider and it will lead to an unnatural distortion, unless that’s what you were after in the first place.

Shooting a portrait in landscape is at it’s best when up close and personal, head and shoulders – then try off centering your main subject in the frame, and my favorite; include a few graphic elements, lead in lines or interesting parts of the background. If you are telling a story it is a good way to include the surroundings and environment. The aim here is to imagine the image entirely made of arrows all pointing towards the subject. Visual interest is the key.

… And When to Portrait a Landscape

This is probably a bit less common photographically and I would say 9 times out of 10 you will still want to ‘landscape a landscape’, however, you can still use it along with a strong sweeping lead line to create a solid composition and successful image.

For example hiking along a mountain trail, use the path moving your eye from bottom to what should be the main subject, the mountains (not forgetting you can also chuck in a person for a bit of scale).

It’s quite an effective method to un-clutter a scene, going for a nice tall dynamic sky instead of that annoying parked car that pulled up into the right hand side of the frame. You might want to watch out for perspective though, try to keep the camera parallel to the subject otherwise you get the converging effect (like when photographing buildings and they appear to lean backwards).

Sunset and sunrise are good for this too; portrait format produces an image of just ground and sky (or sea and sky if you’re at the beach) – the image comes alive with colour and dynamics.

Its always worth experimenting to see what works best, when next out photographing either a portrait or a landscape, do a few of the opposite, and you may surprise yourself with the result.

Photography Tutorials, Case Studies and Discounts - LightStalking Photography Newsletter.

I was going through my archive the other day, organizing some latest images for my homepage. There were a lot of silhouettes in there, especially ‘blokes on beaches’. Those ‘golden hours’ of the day are not just the best times of the day for the fun of it. When it comes to composition one of the easiest ways to create a strong graphic image is to reduce the subject into a series of shapes. Simplifying all the elements can be much more pleasing to the eye.

During sunrise and sunset it can be most effective where the result is a combination of fantastic light, shapes and colour. It can also be a useful way to utilize harsh mid-day sun, putting the subject between you and the light source.

How to Shoot a Silhouette

Take your exposure from the brightest part of the image – that should be the background – and turn off any automatic flash that could illuminate the subject from the front.

Make sure that the frame remains clutter free. If there is too much going on you will end up with a huge black blob that makes no sense to anyone, success will depend on knowing what the main focus of the image is.

People are an obvious choice to be silhouetted, especially in action. The black outlines of a person are instantly recognizable and can be a powerful portrait image. I have shot quite a few silhouettes on beaches; in most cases the big open space is perfect for framing your subject.

Let the light do the talking. The difference between your average snapper and a pro is how they use light – silhouettes don’t have to be black and white, use that sunset/rise and let the colour dominate the scene.

If you have manual mode, use it. What you are trying to accomplish with this technique is underexposing part of the image, your camera on auto has a nasty habit of wanting to light up the scene as a whole which is not ideal. Manual will give you complete control of the image you are exposing.

Use a tripod. If you are going to be around in the evening and the early morning you may want to reach for your tripod. You will want a small aperture and low ISO which will in turn slow your shutter speed down. Hand holding below 1/60^th of a second, in my opinion, will result in noticeable shake.

A bit of detail never hurt anyone. Try experimenting by bracketing the shot to include even the tiniest bits of detail on the subject, it could just make or break the image.

Silhouettes are a great way to shoot pictures forgetting everything about tone, texture and detail – instead purely concentrating on graphic light, shape and composition, and great photography.

Experimenting is probably the most important; find out what works best for you. Time of day, equipment and subject are all factors that can affect the outcome of the image. Have fun with it, then you will get the most out of it.

Photography Tutorials, Case Studies and Discounts - LightStalking Photography Newsletter.

The filter that I have come to appreciate more as time passes is the neutral density filter, or, more specifically, the variable neutral density filter.  This puppy can do things for you that will add a completely new dimension to your photography, from landscape to portrait work, which is a pretty broad range.  It is why I refer to it as the Super Filter, and I think it is one filter that should be in every photographer’s bag.

 Variable Neutral Density Filter

The variable neutral density filter  (VND), or sometimes called a Fader ND Filter, is a flexible version of the neutral density filter that allows for the relative density or f stop of the filter to be dialed in variably between 1 and 8  or more stops.  It operates much like a polarizing filter, where the front element of the VND filter is simply turned to reduce the amount of light entering the lens.  The term “Neutral” refers to the fact that the colour of the light is not affected by the filter, only the amount entering the lens.

Variable neutral density filters are not cheap, by any means, but they are well worth the expense.  Prices can range from $30 for a cheaply made one to over $600 for the top of the line model.  The one I purchased has good quality Hoya glass and cost $120.

Using VND filters

Use of neutral density filters is well documented in landscape photography.  They are most frequently used to slow down time exposures, allowing for flowing water to become blurred, or waving grasses to become more etherial.

Use of the neutral density filter in portrait photography, however, is a bit less obvious, until one considers the interplay between flash and ambient lighting.  It is best to illustrate with a simple example:

Portrait use of VND filters

To use this filter effectively in portrait work, we want it to control all of the ambient light in the scene.  In other words we want to ensure that our background does not blow out. Often we want to even underexpose the background while properly exposing our subject with flash.  The most straight forward way to do this is to underexpose the background by either shutting down the aperture or increasing the shutter speed.  Both of these options can work, but will make our flash work a lot harder.  If we want to blur the underexposed background while properly lighting our subject, the process becomes a bit more difficult.

 Sync Speed

Every camera/flash combination has what is termed as the sync speed.  This is the shutter speed that allows the flash to use its maximum output. When using flash you want to generally avoid increasing the shutter speed above its sync speed (usually around 1/250 unless your camera/flash sync speed is higher).  Many modern cameras permit high speed sync with flash, allowing shutter speeds up to 1/8000 s.  While this can sound good in theory, the problem is that once your shutter speed slips into the high-sync flash world, your flash will be putting out less light than at the normal sync speed and working a lot harder.  You may need to use more than one light and/or bring in the light a lot closer than your original plan called for.  At 1/8000s you may well find that you are planting your light beside or up your subject’s right nostril.  In terms of energy efficiency, staying at or below the sync speed is the way to go.

 First Control the Ambient Light

This is where a VND filter can be very handy.  By cutting down on the amount of light entering the camera, we can effectively give ourselves a break on the required lighting power and aperture size we need to expose our subject relative to the background.  Through a bit of experimentation you can adjust the interplay between the camera, filter, and flash settings to get the effect you are looking for.

My youngest son agreed to interrupt his breakfast long enough to pose as my test victim.  In this initial photo I have set the VND filter so that the background is quite dark (about 2 stops down).  The shot is taken with a shutter speed of 1/250 f/22 and my flash is set at iTTL with a +3ev on the flash so that it puts out enough energy to properly expose my subject.

 Get the F Stop You Want

It isn’t a very good attempt.  The small f stop gives me too much depth of field, showing some of the reflections off of the wall in the window.  The flash is really working hard as well at +3ev.  What I really want to do is increase the exposure of the ambient a little bit and blur out the background by reducing the depth of field.  That should also get rid of the pesky reflections in the background.  Fortunately both of these can be accomplished by opening up the aperture to f4.5.

For this shot I turned off the flash to show the effect of opening up the aperture on the exposure, leaving the VND alone.  We can see that our background is at a pleasant, understated exposure and nicely blurred.  We just need to light the boy up.

 Fine Tune Your Flash

Now we have turned the flash back on, but it is still set on a iTTL + 3ev, basically nuking the subject and completely overexposing his cute little face.  Also note that our background has not been affected at all, as we would expect.

Because there are so many moving parts in this type of photography, it is best to work with one variable at a time and adjust the others as we move along.  Now that our shutter speed is set, our ambient lighting is right, and our aperture is giving us the kind of limited depth of field we are looking for, we can begin to pay attention to the final lighting of our subject.

This final test photo was made while “Fabio” here was finishing his breakfast.  The flash compensation was dropped to iTTL 0ev so he no longer glows in the dark and will probably avoid being irradiated enough that he can give me grandchildren someday.

 Conclusion

The use of the VND has given a great deal of flexible options in terms of how to integrate the background  with the subject and the chosen lighting.  It is the Super Filter of photography in my opinion and, for that very reason, will not be far from my side on future shoots, both landscape and portrait.

Doug Pruden is a Calgary portrait photographer and founder of Prairie Light Images. He has had a 43 year passion for photography since he was a lad of 10.  His current emphasis is on portrait and travel photography, both of which he addresses on his blog at his website.  You can find him @prairielight on Twitter or at +Doug Pruden on Google+ .  Please drop in and say hello!

Photography Tutorials, Case Studies and Discounts - LightStalking Photography Newsletter.

Note: Don’t forget to download our Guide to Depth of Field for Photographers to get up to speed. It’s free!

Untitled by Rob_Wood, on Flickr

Wide Apertures: How Spherical Aberration Can Ruin Your Photographs

In many types of photography, shooting with a wide aperture is the standard and usually the best solution. For example, shooting portraits or food is usually done with apertures between f1.4 and f5.6 in order to limit depth of field and focus the eye of the viewer directly on the subject. And usually that is the best way to do it.

The problem here is that the quality of the image when using a lens set to a wide aperture is that “spherical aberration” can cause the image to blur – a phenomenon that will be most noticeable towards the edges of the photograph. Spherical aberration occurs when a perfect focal point cannot be realised due to the rays of light not focussing precisely upon passing through the lens. The light passing through the edges of the spherical shaped lens is the problem – you can read more about it here.

While this has been accounted for in many lenses (especially the more expensive ones) it is difficult to eliminate completely.

Diffracting Light Also Doesn’t Help

At the other end of the puzzle, many photographic situations such as landscapes call for closed apertured resulting in a deep depth of field where almost everything is in focus. And once again, that is the optimal setting for that type of photography.

DSC_0059 by Rob_Wood, on Flickr

However, once again, not everything is peachy. Light diffracts as it passes through an opening – a phenomenon that can be quite noticeable in many lenses with closed aperture settings. It is the result of light waves hitting an obstacle (the lens aperture rings).

Again, this can result in a less than ideal image in terms of sharpness. Read more about diffraction here if you want the details.

So What About that Sweet Spot?

Now in many situations (portraits, landscape, food as already mentioned), the benefits of a very closed or very opened aperture easily outweigh the down sides. However, not every situation requires you to make the choice.

In fact, if you aren’t in a situation where you need to limit or extend the depth of field by using really narrow or wide apertures, then don’t.

Every lens has a sweet spot in terms of getting optimum sharpness in an image and it is usually around the mid-range apertures – f8 or f11. At these aperture settings, the images will usually be at their sharpest.

How Do You Find the Sweet Spot?

Due to the wonders of the internet, usually it’s as easy as typing in the model of your lens and “sweet spot” into Google – many reviews of lenses will mention where they found the sweet spot of your lens.

If you like to go old school, then set up your camera and lens on a tripod and take a shot at each different aperture. Blow up the images on your computer to 100% and pay special attention to the detail around the edges of the shot. The sweet spot will be the aperture where the edge detail is at its best.

After the storm by bibendum84, on Flickr

Final Thoughts

Not every photographic opportunity has to be thought of in terms of maximising or minimising the depth of field. In situations where this doesn’t have to be a concern then don’t be shy about a mid-range aperture shot. Shooting on that sweet spot can give you great shots and maximise the sharpness of your photographs.

Photography Tutorials, Case Studies and Discounts - LightStalking Photography Newsletter.

Move the Camera – This is the easy one. In fact, a good habit to get into when you’re starting in photography is to look for different framing options when you’re composing your shots. The easiest way to do that is to simply tilt the camera up and then down so you can judge what to include in your shot. Often an uninspiring shot can be made remarkable in different ways such as changing it to a negative space composition or removing distracting background elements. Your skill at composition is the only thing holding you back with this simple tactic!

wham:a different corner by visualpanic, on Flickr

Move Your Feet – Similar to the tip above, walking around a subject offers an infinite amount of differing angles so check them out! Often with great zoom lenses and technology it can be easy to forget that the tools we were born with are actually our greatest assets in creating great images. In moving around, we have absolute control over the background of almost any image as well as the angle of light. These elements have a massive effect on the outcome of an image so use them to your advantage!

Angles, lines, light, and shadows by kevin dooley, on Flickr

Change the Light – Crafting light is what we do as photographers and there are a lot of different ways to control it. Bouncing light off walls, using a reflector, improvising a reflector, using a strobe – there are so many ways to do this, so with a little preparation it is possible to get very different effects on a single photographic subject.

toronto city hall by paul (dex), on Flickr

Wait for the Light to Change – While it’s not always possible, simply coming back to a place at a different time of day will result in vastly different photographic images due to the changed quality of light. Photographers favour the golden hour in outdoor photography, but as you can see from Tom Dinning’s series on shooting at different times of day, there are great effects to be had whenever you shoot. (What’s Your Time of Day Part 1, 2, 3, 4)

almost may by paul (dex), on Flickr

Change the Texture – Now the standard photographic example for this is changing the texture of water from sharp to blurry by going from a fast shutter speed to a slow one (and that is a great example of a fun effect). But there are a lot of other ways to change a scene by altering the textures within it and a multitude of scenarios in which you can do this. The length of grass on a field will change the texture of the image. The type of fabric worn by a model. Even limiting depth of field can add certain textured looks to the background of an image depending on what the background actually is. And of course, texture can be affected by ISO settings with the higher settings leading to a grainier look.

* Shells * by pareeerica, on Flickr

Now this is by no means an exhaustive list of ways to explore a subject. The real list is almost endless. These are just a few ways to get you thinking of different ways to approach a subject. Feel free to list more ways in the comments!

Photography Tutorials, Case Studies and Discounts - LightStalking Photography Newsletter.

When a person looks at a two-dimensional image, they unconsciously look for clues in the image to render it as three dimensional in their brain. By knowing what clues the brain is looking for, the photographer can take control of those elements of the image. The more of those elements there are, or the more obvious an element is, then the better the sense of depth to the image will likely be.

Foreground – Most photographers know that a good foreground can really make an image pop. To take it a step further, ensuring there is a foreground, mid-ground and background to your images is a common way (especially in outdoor photography) that you can take control of the sense of depth in an image.

Army Photography Contest – 2007 – FMWRC – Arts and Crafts – Death Valley by familymwr, on Flickr

Frame With the Foreground – A variation on the above tip is to use elements of the foreground to frame the scene in your photograph. A very common way that photographers do this is by using the trunk and branches of a tree, though there are an infinite amount of other ways you can do it. The only limit is your imagination and what is in front of you when you shoot!

Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve by alantankenghoe, on Flickr

Aerial Perspective – Landscape photographers will be familiar with the fact that when photographing distant scenes, often the further the distance, the hazier the area. This is an excellent way to give depth to a landscape scene in those circumstances.

2008 08 15 – 2358-2363 – View from Hoverla by thisisbossi, on Flickr

Overlapping Forms – If one shape in a photograph is blocking the view of another shape, then obviously that first shape is closer to the viewer. That is the basic explanation of overlapping forms and it is used widely by photographers to add depth to a scene.

Untitled by Joost J. Bakker IJmuiden, on Flickr

Converging Lines – This is especially easy to do in landscape photography, but lines that converge to a distant point give the viewer a sense of distance and therefore add depth to an image. Crop rows and roads are common subject matter with which this is done in landscapes, but once again there is no real limit to how a skilled photographer can do this.

Toil. Dust Bowl Corn Field, ca1937 by erjkprunczyk, on Flickr

Now, these are by no means an exhaustive list of ways to add depth to a photograph, but they should give you a few things to think about for your next shoot. Use each as a short photography project and you will be seeing these opportunities as second nature whenever you go out shooting!

Photography Tutorials, Case Studies and Discounts - LightStalking Photography Newsletter.

Because you’re working with a still medium, often the ways you use to get motion into the photo are crucial in setting your photos apart from the rest.

Most parties end late, so the dancing doesn’t happen until way after dinner, and it’s usually dark. If you use a very high ISO to get some shutter speed, it may not be enough to render your subject sharp, like in the photo below.

At a high ISO and no flash, dance photos tend to be blurry.

How do you capture great dance photos in the dark? Here are some techniques you can start using this holiday season.

If you’ve got a flash unit, you can use some techniques that freeze the motion of the dancer but leave an impression of motion in the background or foreground.

A technique I find very useful is the rear curtain flash sync. This is not as complicated as it sounds!

The first thing you need to do is to set your flash to TTL, or through the lens metering. That means the flash unit senses the amount of ambient light around your subject and calculates how much light it should pop out to light the picture.

You can use TTL to ‘stop the motion’ and freeze the dancer in the photo.

Using a flash and a synching technique can freeze the dancer and add motion blur.

But here’s where it could get pretty interesting. What if you had dance floor lights that were moving? How could you use the technique to create an interesting photo?

If you’re using a zoom lens, you can start the lens at the longest focal length. Mine was 70mm. Then while depressing the shutter to focus, quickly move the lens to the widest aperture (in my case 24mm), and at the end of the motion, click.

Zooming the lens before pressing the shutter all the way creates cool light trails.

What this technique does is to freeze the focus on the subject, tell the flash to light the subject, but blur the ambient light around the subject.

If you’re using the zoom technique, your photo will look like there’s Star Wars light beams coming straight from the foreground to the background. Very cool.

A variation of this technique is the spin-the-lens method. You perform the same technical actions, but instead of zooming, you tilt your camera left and right or move it up and down. The result will be light trails ‘drawing’ the motion into the captured image.

Move the camera up and down while taking the shot to create different light trails that suggest motion.

Your photos of people dancing don’t have to look like frozen images of people in strange poses! With one flash and a simple technique, you can start making dance photos that capture the excitement and motion of a good night out.

Aloha Lavina is an editorial fashion and travel photographer whose photographs and writing have appeared in books and magazines including CNNGo and Readers Digest PhotoYou. Her most recent publication is in Readers Digest’s PhotoYou Magazine Winter 2011. You can see her work at her website, read her articles on her blog or follow her on Twitter.

Photography Tutorials, Case Studies and Discounts - LightStalking Photography Newsletter.

What to my wondering eyes should appear … by James Jordan, on Flickr

In very general terms, with portraiture you’re going to be shooting with the intent of getting the focal point on the person’s face and more specifically the eyes. Other popular techniques in shooting portraits include limiting the depth of field in order to get that focus on the face at the same time as creating a nice (but not distracting) bokeh effect for the background. That’s by no means a suggestion for what you should do (shoot however you like), but simply an observation of the predominant way that photographers like to shoot portraits. For the purposes of this limited guide, we’ll assume you’d like to follow these general tactics with your own portraits.

Note: Sometimes, such as in travel portraits, you will want the background (or at least some of the surroundings) to be in focus so you can tell where you are. This guide does not cover a scenario like this and is aimed at people who want the main center of interest to be the person in the portrait and not the place.

Summer love by josemanuelerre, on Flickr

Focus on Eyes (Nearest Eye if Necessary) – In portrait photography, conventional wisdom always says to place sharp focus on the eyes. The eyes are the window to the soul and all that! That means getting them in sharp focus. Now, if your subject is at an angle and you are shooting with a wide open aperture, then you may only be able to get one of the eyes in focus, so make that’s the nearest one to the camera. However, as you’re shooting with a kit lens and the aperture is probably not too wide, then this probably won’t be a problem (both eyes will probably be in focus at f/3.5 or f/5.6 depending on the circumstances).

Let’s Talk About Bokeh

The remainder of this article will focus on how to achieve the most pleasing bokeh effect with a kit lens for your portraits. This requires a combination of techniques as kit lenses are generally not as suitable as more expensive prime lenses or tele lenses at achieving this pleasing effect.

Open the Aperture – Kit lenses usually have a limited aperture range meaning you cannot open them up as much as more expensive lenses. You are going to want to use the widest aperture you can set your kit lens to (usually in the range of f/3.5 to f/5.6). This will help you achieve the bokeh effect with your background and keep the center of focus firmly on your subject.

A thought for a reason! by green umbrella, on Flickr

Extend Kit Lens to Longest Tele – Most popular kit lenses are somewhere in the 18mm to 70mm range (Nikon’s 18-70mm or Canon’s 18-55mm for example) and you’re usually going to want to extend it out as far as it goes. This will eliminate the distortion you sometimes get shooting portraits at a wide angle as well as help you get that bokeh effect in your background (in combination with the other tactics listed here).

Get Close – Tightly cropped is usually how you will want to shoot your portraits so get as close as you can with your extended lens if that’s the effect that you want. Getting close to your subject while your lens is extended and the aperture is wide open will also help with the bokeh effect for the background.

drag by mangpages, on Flickr

Keep Background Far Away – If possible, try to make sure the background to your subject is at a reasonably far distance. This will allow your kit lens to really give you a good bokeh effect for your background and keep the center of interest on your subject’s face. It will also help eliminate distracting elements of the background.

Keep Background Plain – Again, if you want the main subject of your portrait photograph to be the person in it, then you are going to want to keep the background as plain as possible. While it’s not always possible, if you can remove those distracting elements, then you can keep the focus squarely on the person in your portrait.

In general, these techniques will help you render a reasonable portrait with a kit lens. Even with their limitations, they are perfectly capable of giving good results for portraits if you simply follow a few basic principles.

Photography Tutorials, Case Studies and Discounts - LightStalking Photography Newsletter.

Movement – It’s a well established convention in photography that blur can be used to convey a sense of movement – “motion blur.” And in a lot of photographic images, it is easy to see why. Using techniques such as panning or even leaving the camera stationary, but using a longer shutter speed can be a very effective way to convey this sense of movement.

The photograph below was intended to convey the sense of chaos and excitement when a cattle dog got a little carried away when rounding up some cattle. Not a single part of the scene is in focus due to the panning and the motion of the animals that were running at full speed, but the overall effect of the image works quite nicely.

Cloudy the Border Collie Herding Cattle by Rob_Wood, on Flickr

Abstract – in this category of photography, your imagination is king and the effects you can go for are limitless. While blurring your abstract shots is one tool to get that abstract effect, it is only one tool in an almost infinite toolkit. But used well, it can be a very effective tool for this type of photography as it allows the photographer the ability to remove the viewers ability to positively identify recognisable objects within the image.

Arguably it is one of the simpler techniques for achieving this. At the same time it is an effective one.

tulips in the wind by josef.stuefer, on Flickr

Aesthetically Interpretive – This can be a difficult category of images to nail down and there is certainly no requirement for your interpretation of a scene to include even an element of blurring (though it certainly is a good tool). It is more concerned with how one interprets the emotion or feeling of a scene and conveys that through the image without paying much heed to “reality.” In one way, it’s the opposite of the intentions of the famous F/64 Club of 20th Century American photographers who were concerned with absolute reality with no reference to the traditional conventions of art.

You can see in the example below that the entire scene is out of focus, but that it adds to the ethereal feel of the image – in fact, it’s difficult to think that this could be a better image by being in focus.

Bubble Catcher by Jeff Kubina, on Flickr

What other types of photographs do you think work well being out of focus? Post some of your own in the comments!

Photography Tutorials, Case Studies and Discounts - LightStalking Photography Newsletter.