Better photo tips

BetterPhoto.com®
THE BETTER WAY TO BETTER YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY

TIP BOOKLET
Use these handy tips from the pros to
create photos with “WOW” impact.

Jim Miotke,
Founder, BetterPhoto.com

www.betterphoto.com

Tips by Kerry Drager
1. Developing a Tripod Workflow
I use a tripod for every landscape scene - to achieve the best in image quality and to fine-tune
my compositions. But that doesn’t mean I break out the tripod immediately upon seeing a
subject I like. After making the effort to expand the tripod legs and lock the camera in place,
it’s verrrrry tempting to stay put, without fully exploring the subject. That’s not the artistic
approach!

Instead, the tripod set-up should come near the end of the creative process, not the beginning!
Let me explain my tripod “workflow”:

When I come across a promising landscape scene, I set the tripod aside (assuming there’s a safe
place). Then, with camera in hand, I’ll wander around in search of the best viewpoint, the right
lens focal length, etc. Only when I’ve lined up the approximate shot do I grab the tripod, attach
the camera, and frame the composition just the way I envisioned it.

2. Composition: Don’t Stop Now ... Keep Shooting
Whenever I find a photogenic (and static) scene that really motivates me, I work it every which
way I can within whatever time constraints I have. This means trying different compositions,
different focal lengths, or different lighting angles. But this process also might mean the
following:
• Try different f/stops ... in order to experiment with the depth of field (the range of
sharpness in a scene that has front-to-back depth).
• Try different shutter speeds ... in order to experiment with subject motion - by freezing
the action or by showing a soft blur of movement.

Kerry’s Photo Courses:

4-Week Course:
Creative Close-ups
8-Week Course:
Creative Light and Composition

www.betterphoto.com

Tip by Ibarionex Perello
1. Great Light for Outdoor Portraits
The kind of light I often favor is open shade. I don’t like the look of direct sunlight in many of
my portraits, because the contrast is often too high and you get some harsh shadows on the
face particularly beneath the brow, the nose and chin. By finding some open shade, I have the
benefit of more diffused and soft light, which produces a more pleasing result. A cloudy or
overcast day is an ideal time to be making portraits because it provides the same kind of soft
light provided by open shade.

I received a great tip from a great photographer and fellow BetterPhoto instructor, Neil
Silverman. While we were walking in San Francisco making photographs, he pointed out that it
was a good idea to look at the light reflected off large white surfaces like a building. The light
reflected off the wall produced an amazing quality of light, which is just beautiful. It’s similar
to the quality of light produced by a giant softbox. It’s taught me to not only pay attention to
where the original light source is coming from, but also what it is reflecting off of.

Ibarrionex’s Photo Courses:

4-Week Courses:
Learning the Canon EOS 40D
Learning the Canon EOS 5D Mark II Camera
Learning the Nikon D60
Learning the Olympus Evolt
Portrait Photography Using Available Light
Posing and Portraiture Techniques
The Pursuit of Light
8-Week Courses:
DSLR Features: When, Why and How to Use Them

www.betterphoto.com

Tips by Brenda Tharp
1. Analyzing a Photograph’s Effectiveness
If you look at your picture in front of you quickly, you can often see what grabs your attention
right away, and where the eyes travels. If you try to do this after you’ve been looking at
something else for a few seconds or minutes, it’s easier. I put my picture up on my computer,
then I look at a magazine or something on my desk, for a moment or two, and when I look
back at the computer, I’m mentally ready to analyze what grabbed my attention first, where
my eye traveled, etc., and what things I found distracting. I have used this in classes, where I
will have everyone look at the projected image, and then I’ll move off it, then move back to it,
and ask them right before I change to quickly ‘read’ the picture when it comes up. That first
impression tells us so much about how well we did with composing our picture.

2. Getting sharper pictures in low light
If you are working in low light conditions, and are hand-holding or using a monopod, here’s an
idea that will help you get sharper pictures.

Put your camera on continuous frame shooting mode, and hold the shutter release down for
three or four frames. The ones in the middle will typically be sharper, as pressing the shutter
can cause camera shake, and releasing it can, too. The ones in the middle will be made with
the button already down. This works for film and digital cameras, although digital compacts are
harder to do this on because of the shutter lag

Brenda’s Photo Courses:

4-Week Courses:
Travel Photography: Capturing the Spirit of a Place
8-Week Courses:
Creating Visual Impact

www.betterphoto.com

Tips by Jim Zuckerman
1. The Visual Power of Ultra Wide Angle Lenses by Jim Zuckerman
One of the ways in which I dramatize subjects, whether I’m shooting architecture, people,
landscapes, or anything else, is to use ultra wide angle lenses. I consider ‘ultra wide’ to be
focal lengths in the 10mm to 16mm range for less-than-full-frame sensor cameras (remember
that for Nikon and Canon cameras you have to multiply the focal length by 1.5x and 1.6x,
respectively, to determine the real focal length of the lens), and for full frame cameras focal
lengths 20mm or less is ultra wide.

The closer you place the foreground to a wide angle lens, the more distortion you’ll get.
Sometimes this isn’t what you want; in other instances, it produces amazing images that you’ll
love. In the extreme, you can create outrageous pictures that will crack people up, especially
if the subjects happen to be funny anyway - like cows (I don’t know what it is about cows, but
they make people laugh).

Using a lens like this is a way to design your images in a dramatic way. It does not duplicate
what you see with your eyes at all, but it’s a valid and intriguing way to photograph many
subjects. When tripods are allowed (like here), you have the luxury of being able to close the
lens down for maximum depth of field. Even though ultra wide angle lenses have tremendous
depth of field, when foreground objects are placed very close to the camera position, the
distant background won’t be as sharp as you’d like if you use a large aperture like f/2.8 or f/4.

2. Hold Your Breath, Low-vs.-High ISO
Here are thoughts on ensuring that your photos are just as sharp as you want them to be:

• When you are forced to shoot in a low-light situation without a tripod, hold your breath as
you very gently push the shutter button. Don’t pounce on the shutter with enthusiasm and
end up with a blurred image. Lean against a wall or brace yourself against a rock -- anything
you can find - for stability. That will help you get sharp images.

• Don’t use an ISO that is inappropriately reduced for low lighting situations. We all should
be shooting at 100 ISO or thereabouts to minimize digital noise. But ... there is no point
in going this low if your pictures won’t be sharp. If you are not using a tripod, you have to
adjust your ISO until your shutter speed is fast enough to hand hold the camera. Making
your pictures noise-free is irrelevant if they will be blurred.

www.betterphoto.com

Jim’s Photo Courses:

4-Week Courses:
Making Masterpieces with Corel Painter
Stock Photography
Taking the Mystery Out of Flash Photography
Techniques of Natural Light Photography
Wildlife Photography
8-Week Courses:
Developing Your Creative Artistic Vision
Eight Steps to More Dramatic Photography
Fundamentals of Photography Made Easy
Making Money with Your Photography
Perfect Digital Exposure
Photoshop: Advanced Creative Techniques
Photoshop: Creative Techniques
Photoshop: Thinking Outside the Box
Self-Discovery in Photography: Where Does Your Passion Lie?

www.betterphoto.com

Tips by Tony Sweet
1. A Key to Flower Photography Success: Background!
Watch out for busy backgrounds, hot spots, black holes, and extraneous elements entering
the frame. In fact, the background is at least as important as the subject. Nothing can kill an
image quicker than a busy background. There may be as little as an inch or less of camera
repositioning to go from a distracting background to a pleasing, detail-less, muted background.

2. Have Your Toothbrush?
Dust and small particles can get into dials and other nooks and crannys on camera equipment,
digital and film based cameras and all lenses. This is quite prevalent if one shoots on beaches,
dunes, or just out in the wind. Also, if your stuff is just sitting around for a while, it can
accumulate dust.

I always keep an old toothbrush in each of my camera bags and have often found it the “right
tool for the right job” to get sand and dust out of tight areas on cameras and lenses!

Tony’s Photo Courses:

4-Week Courses:
Creative Nature/Outdoor Photos with Lensbabies
High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photography
Mastering the Nikon D200 and D2X/D2Xs
Mastering the Nikon D3 and D700
Mastering the Nikon D300
8-Week Courses:
Fine Art Flower Photography
Image Design: Revealing Your Personal Vision

www.betterphoto.com

Tips by Susan and Neil Silverman
1. Finding Lost Images
If you have ever mistakenly deleted your images from your compact flash card, all may not
be lost. Most of the card makers provide a software program that you can download and it
will help to retrieve almost all of your images, even if your camera may tell you that there are
no photos on that card. When you purchase a card, check the manufacturer’s Web site for
downloadable retrieval software. And if you are traveling with your laptop, keep it on your
computer. Hopefully, it will be one program that you do not need!

2. Close Up Lenses-An Alternative
We like the macro and micro lenses the best BUT a great inexpensive way to get wonderful
effects is to purchase the Nikon diopters even if you shoot with a different model camera than
Nikon. They come in a 52-mm filter thread size and in a 62-mm thread size. We recommend
that you get either the 3t, 4t set or the 5t, 6t set (this is the 62-mm ones) and then purchase
a set of stacking rings to hold them securely when you are not using them. If you have a set
of 3t and 4t, then you can use just one of them or you can stack them and use them both
together. We usually use these on a zoom lens such as a 80 to 200 zoom or thereabouts. Or
they can be used on a macro or micro lens as well. If your lens does not have a thread size that
corresponds to 52-mm or 62-mm, then you will need to purchase a step-up ring or a step-
down ring - whichever is appropriate for your lens/diopter combination, and then screw that
on the lens and screw the diopter into the other side of the ring. This will allow you to focus
much closer to the subject or object and therefore get more magnification.

Susan and Neil’s Photo Courses:

8-Week Course:
Out and About with Your Camera
Understanding Digital Photography
Understanding Digital Photography: Beyond the Basics

www.betterphoto.com

Tips by Rob Sheppard
1. Impact of Black-and-White
Black-and-white photography has gained a resurgence of interest that is well-deserved. But
it has to be good. The simple conversion of color to black-and-white through any program
using one option such as Grayscale or Desaturate is often disappointing. The key to a good
conversion is to think of it as a translation of color to specific shades of gray. The wrong shades
of gray will make a photo look bad, yet the right shades of gray will make it look great.

The latest versions of Photoshop and Photoshop Elements have good black-and-white
conversion features that can be helpful if you really play with the controls rather than simply
accepting the first look you see. This can definitely mean some playing around with those
adjustments, seeing bad black-and-white and good. I like the controls in Lightroom 2, which are
similar to those in Photoshop CS4 in that you can create an ‘activated cursor’ where you click
the cursor on something in the photo, the program finds the right color for you, and you drag
the cursor up and down (Lightroom) or left and right (CS4) to get the color the right shade of
gray.

I also think very highly of Nik Software Silver Efex if you are really serious about black-and-
white. This is a plug-in for Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and Lightroom. It has a lot of
presets that can quickly get you a look you like, plus it has a lot of control over how colors are
changed to gray as well as quickly giving you overall control of the tonality and contrast of the
image.

2. Going ‘Auto’ with Aperture Priority ... by Rob Sheppard
Aperture priority is a fine way to use auto exposure. Many pros do exactly that (including
me). I know some photographers would have you always do manual exposure. I used to feel
that way years ago, but having worked with so many great camera models over my years at
Outdoor Photographer magazine, I don’t feel that way at all.

You can use auto exposure just as effectively as manual exposure if you pay attention to such
things as highlight warnings and histograms.You can be just as accurate as manual exposure and
faster in many cases. This is not a case for quitting using manual exposure if that works for you,
but for feeling guilt-free if you don’t use manual exposure.

www.betterphoto.com

Rob’s Photo Courses:

4-Week Course:
Composition Boot Camp
Creating Storytelling Photos
Creative Flash Photography
Guaranteed Better Photography
Successful Publication Photography
The Magic of F-stops: Choosing the Right Aperture
8-Week Course:
Impact in Your Photographs: The Wow Factor

www.betterphoto.com

Tips by Charlotte K. Lowrie
1. How to Photograph Fireworks
For those of you who are in the United States or elsewhere where fireworks will be a feature
of summer activity, I thought I’d share my tips on exposing for fireworks. This technique works
for fireworks at a good distance away, not for close-up shooting.

1. Mount the camera on a tripod and point the lens toward the area where the fireworks will
explode.
2. Use a telephoto lens or set the lens you have to the longest telephoto zoom setting.
3. Focus the lens on infinity - the farthest point at which the lens will focus. For setup, focus
on a distant tree or rock or star.
4. Set the camera to M (Manual) mode. Then set the exposure thusly:
• ISO: 200
• Aperture: f/11
• Shutter Speed: 1/3rd sec.

Now it’s a matter of timing to catch the explosions at their peak before the smoke begins to
form. Take some practice shots, and you’ll soon get the hang of it. Then you can take a seat next
to the camera, pressing the shutter button once in awhile as you enjoy the show!

You can also capture multiple bursts on the same frame by setting the camera to Bulb and
using a black card to cover the lens between bursts. When a burst happens that you want to
capture, remove the black card from the lens for a few seconds, and then replace the black
card until another burst happens. This takes some practice, but can result in great shots! It’s
also advisable to use a cable release instead of pressing the shutter button with your finger.

2. It’s all about the picture
Despite all the technology involved with digital photography, photography is still “all about
the picture.” With every image, evaluate all of the elements in the frame; do they support the
“story” you’re telling or distract from it? Does the lighting set the mood for the story you
want to tell? What aperture or shutter speed best reinforces the story? And, finally, evaluate
what image editing techniques that will further emphasize the message. This is a lot to think
about, but it pays big dividends in making strong, polished, memorable images.

Charlotte’s Photo Courses:

4-Week Courses:
Camera Raw: From Capture to Finished Photo
Learning the Canon Digital Rebel Camera
Learning the Canon EOS 50D
www.betterphoto.com

Tip by Lynne Eodice
1. Utilizing Effective Framing Elements
Using a foreground element to create a frame within the photo’s frame can be a very effective
compositional tool. The framing element not only isolates and emphasizes a subject, but also
gives the picture a feeling of depth. It can also serve to obscure distracting details or to create
an interesting foreground where none exists. Some frames, like an overhanging tree branch,
seem so natural that we’re not always conscious of their presence, just the pleasing effects.
Framing devices work best when they’re somehow thematically related to the subject, such as
a tree branch framing an interesting rock formation in the background—both are objects found
in nature.

Lynne’s Photo Courses:

4-Week Course:
Learning to Shoot Inspiring Images

www.betterphoto.com

Tip by Deborah Sandidge
1. Compositional Choices
Finding a great subject is essential in photography. How to compose for a great subject is the
next challenge.Your first instincts about composition are good to follow; but also push yourself
to additionally compose your subject in different ways.You might surprise yourself with what
choice you like best.

Here are a few ideas… If your first inclination is to photograph in landscape orientation,
let portrait orientation be your next choice. Try tilting your camera to the left or right to
compose diagonally. This simple step often creates a more dynamic image. What happens if
you use a LensBaby? Go for selective focus and softly blur all elements except your subject.
Use a wide-angle lens for a composition that tells the whole story. Try isolating a section of
your subject using a zoom lens. Compose for the rule of thirds, and then break the rules.
Move around your subject, find light that is different, and photograph the shadows. Change
your perspective by moving to your left, right, up or down. Photograph your subject in
HDR, infrared, use multiple exposures, pan your subject, or consider a panorama. These
compositional choices and techniques will expand the creative opportunities you have in
photographing a great subject.

Deborah’s Photo Courses:

4-Week Course:
Digital Infrared Photography
Enhancing Images and Creating Works of Art

www.betterphoto.com

Tips by Sean Arbabi
1. It’s all About the Angles
Photography really is all about finding the best point of view. Sometimes creating a quality
image means getting out of our five-to-six foot eye level - dropping down low or finding a
higher perspective to take a photo. Both, on occasion, can provide cleaner backgrounds, a
unique perspective that most don’t see everyday, and often give you a better composition.

2. Photographing People: Soft Light
A common blunder that occurs when people photograph their family or friends is they
position themselves between the sun and their subject, with the sun at their back, providing
the most light on their subject’s face (imagine the sun behind you as you take a portrait of your
family in front of you with full sunlight on their faces). This often causes the subject to squint
heavily, since they are forced to stare directly into the sun, and the light now created on the
subject and surroundings is flat and boring. Instead, try photographing them in soft ambient
light - that is, non-directional light where it is equally intense everywhere, such as shade or the
diffused light from an overcast sky. This offers little or no shadows on a face, providing beautiful
soft light complimentary for most people.

Sean’s Photo Courses:

4-Week Course:
Better Exposure: How to Meter Light

www.betterphoto.com

Tips by Jim Miotke
Masterpiece Membership Shooting Checklist
Inspired by Leland Saunders; Adapted by Jim Miotke and the Masterpiece Members

Before I go out As I shoot - Light & Exposure
• Batteries charged? • What’s the light like?
• Got a spare? • What made me shoot this? What’s the main
• Images backed up? subject?
• Memory cards cleared? • What’s more important - aperture/DOF or
• Memory card in camera? shutter speed?
• Got extra memory? • Exposure mode and setting?
• What will I likely shoot? (Got “shot” list?) • ND filter / position
• Bringing the best lenses? • Bracketing exposures or trying alternate
• Got the tripod, remote, filters, etc.? versions?
• Model releases and notepad?
As I shoot - Composition
Before I shoot • Fill the frame?
• Exposure Compensation off (or set • Perspective / point of view?
correctly) • Vertical as well as horizontal?
• Self-timer turned off? • Rule of thirds?
• Got the right lens? • Leading lines?
• Best white balance? • Patterns or shape or texture?
• ISO where I want it? • Framing?
• Focus turned on? • Foreground interest?
• Tripod secure? • Background interest?
• Two second delay or remote? • Any outstanding color?
• Distractions? Simple and complementary
background?
• Am I having fun yet?

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