Understand why YOU take pictures!

Of these, the last is probably the most common.  But, does it aptly describe the reality of photography??  The short answer is you can NEVER show somebody exactly what you saw by taking a photograph of it!  There are LOTS of reasons for this and most reasons revolve around the fact that the technology and physics of optics, film, and light can not represent what our eyes and brains can see.

Don't try to show what was physically in front of the lens (unless you're trying to document something) - your goal in photography should be to show to the viewer what you WANT them to see or how YOU saw it, which is not necessarily how it physically was.   That's why photography is referred to as one of the "arts".

What you see isn't always what you get!

Daylight balanced color film is manufactured to accurately reproduce color from a mid-day sun.  Since dawn and dusk offer radically different color (much more red) than the mid-day sun, film does NOT reproduce this exactly as you see it.  Therefore, dawn and dusk pictures can show a bit more red than your eyes see.  On the other hand, cloudy days will appear much blue-er than your eyes see it.  An 81A Color compensating filter can help this.

Contrast is another area that our eyes exhibit much better adaptability.   Our eyes can accurately see a scene where there is a 2,000 to 1 contrast ratio (equivalent to 11 "F" stops).  In contrast (no pun intended), color film has a brightness range of about 8 to 1 (about 3 "F" stops) - quite a difference!  Some beautiful scenes that you see are not capable of being recorded on film!!  An easy way to get around this (to some degree) is to use a graduated neutral density filter.

Our eyes also compensate in other ways.  You've probably seen optical illusions.  Our brains make these optical illusions possible.  In the example below, the "box" is perfectly square, but our eyes don't see it that way because our brains intercept the image and interpret it the way we "think" it should be..

However our camera lenses don't have compensating brains, and can see things "differently".  In addition, lenses have aberrations:   chromatic aberration can change color/sharpness; coma aberration which affects images at the edge of a frame; Spherical aberration can distort an image, etc.  Our eyes (hopefully) don't have these aberrations.

As you take pictures, try to remember the conditions (lighting, contrast, etc.).   The more pictures you take, the better feel you'll have for how a film reacts to what you saw.  Different films will react slightly differently.   The more you use one film, the better you'll understand what the final print will look like.

Your pictures are better than you think!

For many years I struggled with the fact that my pictures NEVER looked as sharp as those that I saw in magazines. Additionally, colors and contrast were much more pleasing in the magazines. I tried everything (almost), but never was able to understand why I couldn't approach the sharpness, detail and color rendition that submitting professional photographers were able to obtain. I tried tripods, expensive optics, the best films -- but nothing helped.

Well, the answer was simple. My photographs WERE as good as the magazine pictures. I just didn't know it! I was usually taking negative film, the quality of which is dependent upon how well the lab prints the pictures -- and that's usually not very good. When I used positive films, I used a slide projector to view the slides.

The answer I found is that negative film rarely produces the kind of sharp photographs with good color rendition that I want. Positive films will -- BUT viewing with a slide projector virtually destroys the sharpness. Pictures taken using a tripod with a high quality (translated --- slow) film and good optics will produce superb photographs. The trick is to view them with a loupe on a light table/box. A good loupe is essential. Any light table or box can be used, however, the color temperature should be consistent with daylight. Viewing slides with a loupe with a light box will show you all of the sharpness, contrast and color that you really have in a way that you could never see in an ordinary print.

If you've never tried this -- I GUARANTEE you will be amazed at the quality of your pictures!!!

The downside, of course, is how do you satisfy the family with the 4x6 photographs everybody wants? Taking slides is less expensive than prints, but prints from slides are far more expensive. My answer is to take along a point-and-shoot for the prints.

Light is Everything!!

Waiting is the hard part. A lot of photography is being in the right place at the right time. You can either be VERY lucky, or you can use your intelligence to anticipate good light. Anticipation isn't very difficult. If you look at 10 great landscape photographs, I think you'll find one thing in common with all of them -- long shadows and warm colors.

Long shadows come from a low angle of light. The warm color come from the sun's light penetrating more atmosphere when shining at a low angle. The light just after dawn and before dusk provide the best light for just about any kind of outdoor photography. It's a much warmer light. And the low angle provides more shadow areas thus emphasizing form and texture.

Taking pictures at these times can yield your best photographs!

When traveling, I always get up before dawn and go to bed early. Depending upon how far north you are, you can catch both dawn and dusk (if you go far enough north, there may not even be a dawn or dusk, however, even with a 24 hour day, the light is ideal for most of the night!). During the mid portion of the day, I do the tourist thing and take the tourist pictures. But at either end of the day, I leave time for the "good light".

One of the benefits of living on the east coast of the United States and traveling to the west coast for photo trips, I keep my internal clock on east coast time when traveling -- getting up at 4:30am (7:30am east coast time) and going to bed at 8pm (11pm east coast time). That usually allows me to photography both dawn (my personal favorite) and (sometimes) dusk.

I read an article a few years ago that asserted that it is impossible to take a good picture during mid-day. I think that's going a bit too far with it, but it does emphasize the point.

Don't settle for just any light -- Make the photograph worthwhile -- wait for the light.

Do your Homework!

Why you NEED a tripod!

Talking about sharpness...  When you shoot with a 300mm lens or longer, it's unlikely you can get a sharp image at shutter speeds between 1/8 and 1/30 unless you use "mirror-lockup". The mirror causes vibration during the exposure.  At exposures longer than 1/8 and shorter than 1/30, it won't impact the image very much.  But between 1/8 and 1/30 mirror vibration can cause significant loss of sharpness.  Even with my Nikon F5, which has a super-quiet mirror, it's still apparent.  Unfortunately, not many cameras have this feature.  So, at least you can be aware of it.

But, that's only the start!  A tripod causes you to THINK about what you're about to take.  When hand-holding a camera, it's all too easy to just "point and shoot".  Almost a brain-less activity.  With a tripod, you'll tend to take your time in taking a picture.  You have time to view the scene and fine-tune the camera's position to get what you want.  The pictures become more important.  And you will be transformed from a "picture taker" to a "photographer".

How to use a Tripod

The more you extend a tripods legs, the less stable the tripod becomes.  The center column of a tripod is the worst.  I almost NEVER extend the center column of my tripod.   However, there are times when you need to, and you're still better off than not using a tripod.  Many tripods come in two flavors:  3 leg tubes and 4.  I'm not talking about how many legs there are, but how many tubes there are in each leg.  The fewer extension tubes per leg the better.  Four tubes are less stable than three.

The head that you choose has a lot to do with how stable the camera is on top of the tripod.  If you have a heavy camera and lens combination, you need a sturdy head.  Using a light-weight head can ruin the purpose of using a tripod as the camera can slowly slip and move during the exposure.

To make the best use of your tripod, there's a simple trick that isn't so obvious.  I often don't use a cable release!  That probably sounds ludicrous, but, here's how I take pictures using my tripod.  If shooting at a reasonably fast shutter speed or a VERY slow shutter (i.e., 2 seconds or longer), I use a cable release and don't touch the camera during exposure.  But most of my pictures are taken at slow shutter speeds - i.e. 1/100 - 1 second.  At these shutter speeds, I press firmly on top of my camera or lens at the position directly above where it's mounted on the tripod during the exposure and make the exposure by gently pressing the shutter button.  My hand dampens any vibration from wind, mirror, shutter, etc.  The results of doing this has been startling when using long lenses (300mm-600mm) and slow shutter speeds.

Some people like to "hang" a heavy weight from the center column of their tripod to help stabilize it.  I find this isn't necessary when pressing on the camera or lens as described above and is a lot simpler.  Some people also like to press their eye against an eye-cup on the camera when making long exposures.  This helps dampen horizontal movement as well, but I've not found this to be necessary.

Exposure

Another interesting aspect of bracketing is that the middle exposure (the one that the camera meter indicated was correct) is usually properly exposed, however often, the underexposed or overexposed shot is significantly better than the correctly exposed picture. There's no way to know this unless you take three pictures of everything -- one underexposed and one overexposed (by 1/2 to 3/4 stop each).

Composition

The "rule of thirds" is a generally accepted guideline for composition. The subject should usually be placed near the intersecting lines when the viewfinder is split both vertically and horizontally in thirds. The black lines on the following picture indicate these positions.

The idea is to keep the subject from being centered in the picture. Horizon lines (such as the sky or water) should generally be placed at either of the two horizontal lines in the above diagram. Again, the idea is to keep from centering the horizon lines.

Also, when photographing a person or animal, the subject should generally be facing into the picture. So, if you photograph a person and their head is at the upper left circle in the above diagram, you may want them to be facing toward the right, or center of the photograph.

The "rule of thirds" is only a guideline and sometimes should be broken to improve a picture, but, when first learning composition, you should try to stick to it. Once you get the feel for composing your pictures, you can start to deviate when you feel it's necessary.

Film is Cheap!

Slides vs. Negatives

This depends upon a lot of things.  Most "pros" shoot slides.  The reason for this is two-fold.  Most editors want slides and you can see exactly what you get with slides using a light box and loupe. 

What YOU should shoot depends upon several factors.  First of all, if "prints" are a prerequisite, and you don't do your own printing using a computer and photo-quality printer, then you want to shoot negatives.  The downside to this is although it's easy to get relatively high-quality prints inexpensively, the "machine" that prints your negatives will decide how it should look.  That's one reason why you get washed out skies, poor color, etc, etc.  Machines can't see what a human can see and rarely creates prints that represent what you saw or what you want.

Unless you print your own, there is no way to get high quality prints from slides without spending a lot more than you would if you shoot negative film.  If you DO print your own, you need to have your slides or negatives scanned (send to Kodak, to a local lab or do it yourself) and then you can print it yourself.  There are several relatively inexpensive photo printers available - I highly recommend the Epson 1270 or 1280.  These printers aren't perfect, but can make amazing photo-quality prints with a reasonably long life (many inkjet printers create prints that fade in a short period of time).

Another consideration is "latitude".  Negative film has more latitude than slide film.  This means that if your exposure is off by 1 "f" stop, you can still get a decent (not great, but decent) print from a negative where you would have no hope of getting a decent print from the slide.  When shooting with slides, your exposures must be accurate - that's why I bracket most pictures I take.

And the last, and most important to me, is that with slides, I can see EXACTLY what I took; exactly what's in the image - not what a machine "thought" I'd want to see.

The Myth of the Polarizing Filter

The second filter most people get is a Polarizing Filter (the first is typically a skylight or 1A filter).  Why should you or shouldn't you you use a polarizing filter??  Primarily, a polarizing filter can reduce or eliminate  reflections.  You don't consciously see most reflections.  For example, imagine looking at two red leaves - one is wet and the other is dry.  If the sun is shining from behind both leaves, you will see glare from the water on the wet leaf and won't see the red color as well as you do the dry leaf.  By eliminating the "glare" of the reflection, you can see the true color of the object.  Even on the dry leaf, there will be some reflection.  If you could eliminate all of the reflection from both leaves, they would look equally saturated.

Why can a polarizing filter make a blue sky "blue-er"?  It's because there are very small particles in the atmosphere that light reflects off of.  If you can reduce the reflection from these particles you can see the sky as a deeper blue.

Take a look at both of these two pictures - one taken with a polarizer and the other taken with no filtration - both taken seconds apart in the same light, film, camera and lens:

This picture was taken without any filter. You can see the reflection of the sky and clouds in the water.  The colors are a bit more muted than the picture below as you are seeing glare from light reflecting off of most everything in the scene.
This picture was taken with a polarizing filter.  You can see INTO the water and see the plants growing in the water, but you lose the reflection of the sky and clouds.  All of the colors are more saturated.  This is primarily caused by the reduction of reflection from the surface of most objects in the scene.

Each picture is very different.  Which picture do you like better?? 

The color saturating effect can be UN-NATURAL and can make a scene look somewhat "fake".  Of course, you may want this effect. 

If you're only using it to intensify a blue sky, you will usually create a VERY un-natural scene and a polarizer is not being used to it's best advantage. One big advantage of the Polarizing filter is that it can be used to cut reflection just a little or a lot - depending upon how much you turn the filter.

Polarizing filters work best when the sun is at a 90 degree angle to your view.  So DON'T use polarizers with very wide lenses (i.e., 24mm or wider) as some of the scene may be 90 degrees to the sun while other parts may be 20 degrees or less to the sun resulting in widely varying reflection cutting results making the picture look very inconsistent.

If you use a good quality film with good color saturation, you probably won't need to use a polarizing filter very often. 

The lesson is: Don't automatically reach for the polarizer for every picture.  Understand what it will do for a scene and use it as a tool for accomplishing something specific.

Film vs. Digital?

Digital is much more convenient than film as well.  I shoot very slow films with film (i.e., ISO 50) but with digital, I can vary my effective ISO speed from 200 to 400 without very much quality difference - and each exposure can be a different ISO.  Digital doesn't require color conversion filters as the white balance can be adjusted in the camera, or better yet, on the computer.  Now that's convenience. 

Also direct digital images now result in MUCH better images after the scanning process of 35mm film.  

So, which is better??  Depends on YOUR needs. 

Focus!

Hyperfocal distance is the distance that you focus in order to get the most depth of field. 

Try my Hyperfocal Distance and Depth of Field calculator to better understand these concepts.