Wednesday 30 June 2010

THE IMPORTANCE OF TRAINING


When you first purchase your DSLR and walk out of the shop with it. You do not purchase the skills or knowledge to make you a professional photographer. Your camera is just a tool.

These days you can hardly turn around without someone offering you training. You can go and find out about some new aspect of photography or simply brush up on your skills. There is so much choice

How do you decide whether you need training, what the right course might be for you and whether the course comes up to scratch or is a complete waste of money..

You need to be honest with yourself about where you are on a personal level, and what areas of your skills or business may need bolstering. It’s worth pointing out straight away that training is in no way an admission of weakness. The best photographers even those that have been big names for years take on training.

Be honest with yourself and take on the type of training you need. It maybe to further your business skills, or marketing skills

You may have just bought your first DSLR and want to get the most out of it Nikon

Training courses start from the very basic right through to one to one training

Speak to any photographer and almost all have had some aspect of training

So where do you start? That really depends on your skills.
You could do an on line course with the Open university T189

I highly recommend joining a camera/photographic club as these offer members many free workshops. Also most camera clubs have a few experts in different genres such as portrait, Landscape

If your seriously considering making your hobby a business.
Then a course in business and marketing is a crucial fist step. Many people do not realise that actually photography is about 10% of a pros work.
Marketing skills is one of the most important aspects of running a photography business.

Next would be understanding photo shop and creating a workflow. Understanding how to design albums and source products, How to create slideshows and on line galleries maybe build your own website.

Next would come hands on experience courses mainly done in small groups.
These can involve one day workshops working on lighting, wedding poses,portraits and many many more.

Training isn’t just for the professional you may just want to take better images of your family or have been asked to capture a friends wedding. Maybe you would  like to produce better landscapes to hang on your wall or give to friends or abstract arty images to sell locally.

Some training course are run as photographic holidays

I have undertaken a fair amount of training myself in Lifestyle portraits, Wedding photography, business and marketing as well as training in photoshop and other digital media. This helps me give my clients the very best up to date products 








Friday 25 June 2010

USING FLASH ON A SUNNY DAY

The sun is out the sky is blue and you have your camera ready to take pictures, maybe you want to get some pictures of your children having fun on the beach.

What a wonderful bright sunny day for you to be out on. What a nightmare for your camera.
Lots of friends ask me why when the sun is shinning do their photos come out so bad why are my children all dark?

Simple answer is your camera does not see the child or object you’re taking it reads the light and there is nothing much brighter then sunlight.

To expose people correctly in your pictures you need to use a flashgun, yes a flashgun on a sunny day

The term used is FILL FLASH you set your camera exposure for the light reading it takes then place your flashgun at 2/3 of its power and take your picture. Wow no harsh shadows on your subject.

You can also purchase a small 3 in 1 reflector to add a warming tone to a person skin or to deflect light from a flower.

If your on the beach remember sand and water to reflect light making the work for your camera even harder, At all times keep your camera free of sand and avoid salt water.

You may be down the beach when the sunsets how ever tempted you are DO NOT point your camera directly at the sun not only can it harm your eyes it also harms your lens. Focus your pictures slightly away from the sun to prevent lens damage. The digital camera lens is just like and eye and too much direct light will damage the lens.

If you have been asked to take a friends wedding pictures on a sunny day. Be warned sunshine is great for the bride, but not great for taking photos if you lack understanding of how your camera reads light.

If you do not understand fully your camera and lens you will end up with images that have over highlighted and lost detail in the dress, harsh shadows on the skin, over highlighted skin tones on the foreheads of people, unfortunately even with the best Photoshop equipment burnt out highlights can not be bought back.


It’s a one off day that you can’t retake if you get it wrong. This is why people pay the extra money for a professional