Photographic techniques
Posts which focus more on the techniques used in photography and editing than on the subjects of the photos
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Gallery: seeing Japan in black and white
There’s a restraint, a rejection of what is not necessary, in Japanese art and architecture. What is left out is as important as, if not more important than, what is put in.
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Gallery: perfect patterns around the world
It could be argued that every photograph is a pattern. A flat two-dimensional representation of a scene broken down into shapes, and each shape into pixels. The technology in our cameras stitches the pixels together to reproduce the scene, while we as photographers choose and compose that scene.
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Gallery: Nepal on the diagonal
The presence of diagonals in an image creates a sense of movement. Our eyes naturally follow the line to see where it leads. Often diagonals are used to create leading lines, taking the viewer on a journey through an image to a specific point you want to highlight.
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Gallery: textures of Nepal in monochrome
When I travel I always want not just to capture the big ‘sights’ but also the tiny details. I often photograph something that perhaps could be found anywhere: a leaf, a stone wall, a ripple on the water. But I found it here in THIS place and I want to capture it.
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Gallery: seeing Sofia in black and white
Speaking figuratively, Sofia is not a black and white city. Its history is too complex, its architectural influences too diverse. But like any city it lends itself to black and white photography.
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Gallery: three ways of seeing
Often I observe some with a phone or camera taking a single photo of a sight and moving on, in a hurry to reach the next. In the pre-digital days when every picture taken meant a hit to your wallet, that made some sense. Today it strikes me as strange, but then I am rarely happy with my first shot of anything!
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Gallery: seeing Paris in black and white
Paris, like most cities, is full of colour. Street art, flower markets, shop windows, mellow old stone, green (or autumnal) trees … I could go on. But it is also full of striking details that translate well to monochrome images.
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Gallery: photographing poetry in motion
There may be poetry in motion, but it’s not necessarily easy to capture that poetry in a still photograph. Despite that, we all try from time to time, and there are various techniques we can use.
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Friendly Friday Challenge: all or nothing?
Let’s consider how much of your image is occupied by your main subject. Often the answer to that is, quite a lot of it. But you can take this to extremes, either filling the frame completely or leaving lots of empty space around your subject. Both can be effective, in different ways.
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Lens Artists Challenge: picking favourites
How good are you being self-critical when it comes to your photography? Can you easily pick out the best of your shots and are you comfortable rejecting those that have been less successful? I confess I’m pretty rubbish at it.
