Innehållsförteckning för No. 371 från Photography Week

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There are certain composition tools we are all familiar with. The rule of thirds, the golden ratio, leading lines – these are all ‘rules’ of composition that we learn to adopt from our first attempts at producing advanced-level imagery. While there are dangers associated with taking these ‘laws’ too seriously, most notably a lack of creative freedom, the core ideas play an important role in formulating a composition workflow. They act as a guide to the initial frame arrangement and represent an effective starting point for artistic experimentation. A secondary function is to provide a universal composition solution – a framework for the rapid organisation of any scene and subject that can be applied instinctively. This may standardise our first image attempts on a shoot, but understanding how to interpret…

Portrait photography presents some unique challenges in terms of composition. Most notably, the proportions of the human form are innately recognisable to viewers, and any distortion introduced by the chosen lens or perspective is instantly visible, potentially spoiling the shot from the start. Secondly, the aim of a portrait image is to portray an aspect that is not literal or physical – it’s to capture character or personality. These can prove to be elusive concepts that are difficult to define, and since a photo’s ability to convey character is heavily influenced by context, the importance of intelligent composition is clear. “Being able to capture the mood is the key to a good portrait photograph,” says portrait expert Mercedes Castillo Sánchez (mcs.photography). “It is fundamental to communicate openly with the model…

When faced with a distant subject it can be tempting to switch to a telephoto lens and crop in tightly to fill the frame. This can be effective in a landscape, as telephoto compression is a strong visual device, but there’s a risk of stripping a natural sense of distance. With a distant set of hills, in a magnified image the only clues to this distance may be features such as heat haze or the compression effect. For a natural view, try showing more of the middleground.…

Last issue we brought you the best images from the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition; this week, on a much lighter note, we present the finalists in the 2019 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards. The shortlisted images include the usual line-up of birds and beasts captured with amusing expressions and poses. We’ve picked a few of our favourite images above, and you can click the link to see more at the competition website, where you can also vote for the People’s Choice winner. The contest has its serious side too, as it aims to raise awareness of conservation issues and supports wildlife charity the Born Free Foundation (www.bornfree.org.uk), as well as promoting ‘conservation at home’. The winners will be announced on November 13, and the first prize is certainly…

FIVE THINGS TO LOOK FOR… 1 It’s worth checking that a monopod can extend enough to enable you to use a comfortable shooting position. 2 The option to switch a rubber foot for a spike can be useful when you’e working on softer ground. 3 Flip designs tend to be faster to deploy but bulkier than twist-locks, while the latter keep things tight and tough. 4 Monopods with three legs? Some manufacturers offer optional flip-out feet for added stability. 5 Most monopods aren’t supplied with a head, but allow you to switch between a 1/4-inch and 3/8-inch top mount. Benro Adventure MAD38C Carbon Fiber Monopod £99/$110 www.benroeu.com Made from lightweight carbon fibre, Benro’s Adventure MAD38C is equipped with a 50mm-diameter rubber foot, which offers unrivalled grip on flat surfaces. It…

Olympus has unveiled the OM-D E-M5 Mark III, four years after the launch of the Mark II, and sporting features inherited from the company’s more powerful OM-D E-M1 range to give the enthusiast-level E-M5 lineup a much-needed performance boost. The new camera boasts a 20.4MP sensor, up to 6.5 stops of in-body image stabilisation, 4K video up to 30fps, and a High Res shot mode that delivers 50MP images. Features inherited from the E-M1 line include the celebrated Pro Capture mode, which enables you to capture 14 frames before you depress the shutter, so you never miss an action moment, and a hybrid phase detect autofocus system. The camera offers top-to-bottom improvements over its 2015 predecessor, and notably weighs 51g less despite packing so many upgraded features. Most impressively, however,…

Even in photographs where the subject is stationary or when a fast shutter speed has been used, it’s important for the frame to have energy and a sense of movement. This can be simply implied, but structuring the shot so that object direction can be inferred will help with viewer engagement through added interest and by guiding their eye through the composition. By directing the viewer from one corner of the image to the other you ensure that they notice all of the essential components. Placing the subject near a frame edge or making a feature of their gaze or spatial orientation can point the way for the audience.…

1 START HANDHELD While most landscape images benefit from tripod stability, it’s helpful to start by shooting test images handheld. This allows you to have freedom of movement to find the viewpoint you feel works best for the current scene. Try out multiple shooting positions. 2 SET INITIAL CAMERA LEVEL Once you’ve found the position you feel best represents the scene, set up your camera on a tripod to support the final shot. In many cases beginning just below waist level provides a good balance of foreground and background attention. 3 VARY HEIGHT For a less natural perspective than that of eye level, lower the camera to around knee height. This shows the scene in a less standard way and also emphasises the foreground, while shifting focus from the middle ground.…

1 USE CLOSEST FOCUSSING DISTANCE By moving your lens as close to the subject as possible and using the longest focal length, it’s possible to more effectively reduce depth of field. This is an important step where there’s little subject-background separation that could introduce potentially distracting background detail. 2 LOOK FOR CONTRASTS Compose your subject so that it contrasts with a background feature in either tonality or colour. Align the objects so that they compliment each other in the frame to create balance, lead the viewer’s eye into the frame or produce a recognisable colour theme in the image. 3 CREATE SEAMLESS BACKGROUNDS Move your camera so that the subject is placed against a white sky, or alternatively underexpose the background to create a seamless black. If you’re unable to…

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1 HOUR Setting the focus distance of a lens to the hyperfocal distance will give you the optimum sharpness from infinity to the closest possible point in a scene. This makes it a popular option with landscape photographers, who will often want to retain sharpness in everything from foreground areas to the distant horizon. Two principal factors of hyperfocal distance are the focal length of the lens and its aperture setting. With shorter focal lengths or zoom settings, the hyperfocal distance becomes shorter. You’ll therefore be able to get more foreground sharpness when using a wide-angle lens. The hyperfocal distance also decreases with narrower aperture settings, thanks to the larger depth of field. Another factor that affects hyperfocal distance is the size of the image sensor. For any given focal…

Regardless of your choice of exposure, the camera you use or the lighting in your image, the composition of a photograph is the most influential aspect on its success. Looking back at some of photography’s most iconic shots, there are those that are clearly lacking in absolute sharpness, a balanced exposure and ideal lighting, yet they leave a lasting impression on the viewer – despite being far from technically perfect. This is due to the photographer’s inspired choice of framing, which presents the subject in an engaging way and conveys a clear and captivating story. Composition controls what the viewer sees – it defines the parameters within which visual information is disseminated in the frame by clearly telling your audience what they should be looking at. The image’s composition has…

Most cameras feature built-in framing guides that can be activated to help the user compose their images. These are often activated in the camera menu and are displayed on the rear LCD screen. On mirrorless cameras that feature electronic viewfinders (EVF), there’s usually an option to overlay a guide on the EVF, the main LCD screen or both. Common choices are a rule of thirds grid and a golden ratio frame, though these options vary between brand and model. By keeping these active it’s possible to perfect your composition without having to crop the image later in software.…

Landscape photography is sometimes seen as an over-shot genre with a very standardised composition strategy. Many composition tutorials will use a landscape scene to demonstrate the key techniques, due to its popularity and the availability of scenic subjects, but many photographers’ attempts at landscape imagery fail due to a lack of attention to both perspective and the dominance of each area of the scene – foreground, middle ground and background. Imprecise placement of each component will produce a lack of balance in the distribution of important detail, leaving some areas with the majority of the interest and others devoid of meaningful features. This can be caused by something as simple as using the ‘wrong’ lens, but it’s often influenced by a lack of expertise in using the visible space to…

Close-up and macro imagery is another genre that’s frequently treated uncreatively, with many photographers wrongly approaching subjects with a standardised composition formula. This can strip away motivation to try something original, and so begins a cycle that yields little more than record shots of potentially stunning subject matter. Part of the difficulty of macro as a field of imaging is the environments in which the subjects are found. Cluttered backgrounds, invasive peripheral details like leaves from neighbouring plants, and little room for the photographer to manoeuvre equipment are all conditions commonly found on location. While depth of field is limited when working close up, the minimal distance from a flower to another specimen directly behind or beside it, for example, makes it challenging to control where the viewer looks when…

As photographers it’s easy to become so preoccupied with our own artistic intentions that we forget about the impacts each composition choice has on the viewer. Since this is the entire reason we spend so much time constructing an image, it makes sense to strive to fully understand how different perspectives influence audience reaction. This in turn allows us to begin experimenting with angles and focal lengths to vary the narratives of our images – a moderate change can have significant effects, unlocking exciting potential for alternative stories. Presenting familiar subjects in novel ways is reason enough to adopt some of the following advanced framing techniques. Many of these composition strategies enable a photographer to make the most of any subject. “I think the best way to be creative with…

Stretch an exposure to several seconds or more and the movement of clouds is captured as a beautiful silky blur. It’s one of the landscape photographer’s most potent visual devices, but you’ll need a tripod and a neutral-density filter to achieve this look in camera. If you don’t have this gear, or if you’d like to try out the effect on a photo you’ve already taken, you can easily recreate the look in Photoshop, and we’ll show you how in this video tutorial. We’ll begin by converting a colour image to mono, using the HSL/Grayscale Panel and Targeted Adjustment Tool in Camera Raw. We’ll then enhance contrast with Camera Raw’s local adjustment tools before opening the image in Photoshop, where we’ll isolate the sky and apply a simple blur filter…