I am pleased to say that I won the Digital Photographic Image of the year competition at Basingstoke Camera club last night (16th September 2010) with the image shown below. DI of the year is always the first competition of the new club year and to enter you must have been a member of the club in the previous year and entered the images in at least one competition in the previous year. Up to 2 images can be entered in the competition of the year and the judge chooses 1st, 2nd and 3rd and a few highly commended images. There are usually 2 photographic competitions one for the digial images and one for prints. I only enetered the DI competition as I did not enter any print competitions last year. And my photograph called spray won 1st prize.

photogaph of horse cantering through water

Nothing in the photograph is sharp (deliberatly) in order to give a sense of movement and show the amount of spray created. Not everyones taste but the judge last night obviously liked it!

One of the major problems with taking photographs inside is that you usually need a flash to illuminate the subject and if that subject is a person wearing glasses and you use an on board (the camera) flash then you often end up with reflections of the flash in the glasses which can obliterate the eyes of the subject. There are a couple of things you can do to reduce the affect:

1/ get the person to lift the arms of their glasses so that the lens are no longer parrallel to the camera, so reflected light goes in another direction rather than directly back to the camera.

2/ take the picture from a slightly different angle so that you are not firing the flash directly at the lens.

3/ tweak it in photoshop afterwards (last resort)

Number 3 really is the last resort but if you are careful and have a little bit of eye that you can clone from you can clone out the flash and then smooth it over with the healing brush. The 2 pictures below show the sort of nasty reflection you can get and how some of it can be removed in photoshop afterwards.

photograph of 2 people with flash reflections in their glasses

Then after a little work in photoshop they look like this:

Some of you are probably thinking you can get a friend or relative to take your boudoir or maternity photographs, yes you can, but I have heard many stories from people who are disappointed by the end result.  So why do we do it so much better than your friends or relatives?

1/We have all the right equipment for the job, including dark backdrop, studio lights and spares in the event of a problem.

2/ We make sure each photograph is correctly exposed, so we do not waste your time with unnecessary photographs.

3/ We are fully trained in how to take superb wedding photographs, I know how to you and get the best out of the lighting and you.

4/ We make sure that all the images when printed are colour corrected, i.e. make sure the skin tones are correct and that black and white prints are BLACK and WHITE and not with a hint of green or magenta as we see so often in home printed images.

5/ We have a vast array of poses that we can use to make for more interesting photographs, not just stand you in a line. We know how to use differential focus to make things more artistic and when to use a fast shutter speed to capture that moment in motion.

6/ We can supply the end result as a beautiful album or a CD/DVD with your picture printed on the front, to treasure for ever, that you will want to view time and time again, not just pass on a pile of 6×4 inch prints that end up curled up in a box for ever more, unloved and un-viewed.

7/ We are fully insured for public liability (in the event someone falls over  the equipment ) and we am fully covered for professional indemnity.

Whilst in Bristol the other day I was wandering along the harbour area (now beautifuly renovated and rejuvenated for tourists) and watched the BMX cyclists practicing their moves, and some of them were pretty flashy as seen below. Here is a photograph of one of the guys doing his thing.

At the weekend we went to Bristol Internalional Balloon Festival, the weather was fantastic as were the balloons. On the Saturday morning over 96 balloons took off, and as there was very little wind they tended to hang around the launch site so there were always lots to see in the air. Below is a shot of the launch site early Saturday morning.

As some of you may know the album manufacturer Spicer Hallfield has liqudated. I am therefore looking for new album provider, there are thousands of them to choose from (which is half the problem too much choice). I have chosen Mario Acreboni for the wedding albums, still need to find something suitable for the portrait albums. When I have choosen the supplier and have the albums I will put some photographs of them on the website.

When taking portraits make sure that the person you are photographing has their head tilted very slightly to one side so that the eyes are not level. This helps to make them look more friendly and less austere. So below:

portrait with head tilted

Panning is a technique used to give the idea of movment and to capture a fast moving object. It works best when the object to be photographed moves across in front of you from left to right or right to left. You focus on the object and follow it movement and at the appropriate point press the shutter to capture the object as sharp as you can whilst at the same time keeping the background blurred to give the idea of movement. It is very important that you follow the motion even after pressing the shutter button as with all sports the follow through is important. Getting the speed right is the hard part particularly with fast moving objects like sports cars. (also if you have Image Stabalisation on the lend with 2 types remember to turn off the horizontal stabilisation).

Below is a picture where the speed was just right the carriage driver is just sharp and the background is completely blurred.

correct panning

Below is a photograph with the speed too fast so nothing is sharp.

photograph too blurred

Below is a photograph where the panning motion was too slow (probably due to too fast a shutter speed) so the image is too sharp.

The above photographs were all taken at Farliegh House near Basingstoke during the carriage driving trials, the driver is Karen Bassett who was warming up before the cones part of the competition.

Rule of thirds, make your photographs look more dynamic by placing the important or focal point of the image appear on a line that cuts either horizontally or vertically through the image at a point 1/3 the width or height of the image either from the left or the right, or top or bottom.

Diagram of the rule of thirds

Look at the next 2 photos and compare them for impact.

Photograph of Basingstoke Gate

The 1st photograph cuts the image into 2 so looks like it is 2 seperate pictures.

Photograph of Basingstoke Gate showing rule of 1/3

Here the image has been cropped so that the edge of the gate is closer to one edge of the picture, it looks less like 2 photographs stuck together and more like a shot of the gate with some of the background in view, a more pleasing shot to look at.

Of course not all images need to be taken in this way i.e. portraits and close ups can be taken such that the subject is in the middle of the photograph, but even here it is worth considering putting the eyes on the top horizontal 1/3 line or other parts of the body on other 1/3 lines, try it and see. I will add other composition improvements to this blog later this month.

Calling all ladies! Do you and some friends want to have a day to remember with some beautiful reminders to remember it by. Then look no further, experience a day of being pampered, excellent food and a photographic session as raucous as you like with some photographs at the end of it all to remember it all by. click  here for details.