Pro Techniques

We were going over the photos for this story when photographer Lucas Gilman said something I didn’t entirely agree with. He was talking about making an image in which a bird came into the frame just as a surfer was making his move on a wave. “Cameras are so good now, anybody can take the exact same pictures I can,” he said, “so what I do is look for and take advantage of subtleties that others overlook. That way I separate myself from everyone else who can buy a new camera and make great pictures.”

Exposure systems in digital cameras are highly sophisticated components that can analyze light, contrast, color and all the aspects of a photo instantly. Yet with all the automation and computerization there’s still the need to understand how to get the most from all the available options, to know when to choose a particular mode or metering pattern, when you can rely on automation and when you need to step in to get the best exposure possible. This set of tips deals with the creative use of the various Exposure modes, metering patterns, bracketing features and more.

Jim Karageorge has been an eyewitness to the changing face of corporate photography over the years. “Today, the stories that corporate clients want to tell are different from those we told in the past,” Karageorge, a corporate/industrial photographer, observes. “They are geared more toward the human factor than the technologies.”

There are many kinds of white light. At first this statement seems like it doesn’t make sense, but if you look closely at a typical light bulb in your living room (the old kind, not the new florescent type of bulbs) and compare it with, say, a daylight florescent fixture, the light bulb is much more yellow than the florescent light. Similarly, if you compare sunrise and sunset lighting to the light from an overcast sky at noon, the lighting from low angled sunlight is very yellow—it looks golden, in fact—and the cloudy sky produces a white light that is more bluish.

“I usually try to make the scene look and feel as natural as possible while still augmenting the available light,” Canadian-born photographer Peter Leverman observes. “I want the viewer to see the image and get what I’m trying to put across without the technique getting in the way.” By extension, Leverman knows when to leave well enough alone and simply use the existing lighting, in contrast to some photographers who prefer to noticeably overwhelm the scene with their lights.

Are you someone who appreciates the richtones, colors and textures of 19th and 20th century alternative photo processes? With onOne Software’s Perfect B&W (www.ononesoftware.com), you can imbue your own images with these classic looks, and you won’t have to spend days in the darkroom to do it. Options include Platinum and Palladium, the warm beige tones and mottled surface of Calotype, the blue hues of Cyanotype, the buff tones of an Albumen print, the velvety reds of a warm Carbon print, even the look of a Tintype and many more.

When it comes to subjects that combine color and light in creative and interesting ways, few things are as eye-catching or as fun to encounter as an artfully designed neon sign. If I’m out driving on a summer’s night and see a particularly interesting bit of neon, it’s hard not to pull the car over just to admire the sign maker’s skill and take a few pictures to add to my collection.