Dave Hodgkinson Photography

Good photography tips

While you lot were asleep, my RSS feeds threw up some nice links which, whilst I’ve facebooked them, I’ve also linked here so I can comment on the more fully.

You might have noticed that I’m running my techie-focused photography class here in Taipei. It’s designed to help folks with the physical basics to thy can more reliably get the shot they want, and then cover some of the fundamentals of the art.

It’s always nice when I read an article that has a good crossover with the topics I’m going to cover so I can point my students there as well as a reminder. So this article on portrait photography has some nice bullet points such as “using props”, “experiment with lighting”, “play with the eyes” and so on. All things I like to do although with the eyes, I rather like a direct look at the camera, makes getting a nice catchlight easier!

A second article from that site covers 10 general tips for photography such as “get in close” and “don’t place the subject in the middle”. A good checklist we should keep in our heads when we take pictures.

We then have a nice article that should get the gearheads’ panties in a bunch: “This Lens Is Soft And Other Facts“. Put simply, the manufacturing tolerances of everything other than the glass are such that on current sensors, misalignment of a few microns in the barrel or camera mount will matter. Sure there are a few duff lenses out there, and indeed batches of the same lens, but most of the time, focus errors can be adjusted for. You camera now has the smarts to do that and they will only get smarter in time. To be honest, this isn’t something I’ve ever worried about: either I’ve been shooting in shocking conditions anyhow at gigs, low light and aperture wide open, or taking snapshots on the hoof.

Next up, a very thoughtful article on how to give and take criticism. This is a subject close to my heart. A certain photographer’s group I used to go to in London would have a critique spot at one point. This used to wind me up no end. People would look at a snatched street shot and mither about the composition or perhaps the clutter. Duh, people, you can’t stage a street shot. This article boils it down to the basics: what was the photographer’s intent? Only then should we critique. Most of mine are just “scenes that took my fancy”. Nothing more, no great art. Now in Taipei, I’ve been taking a series whose intent is to capture the Taipei streets. Now by all means critique away: the composition, the timing of the decisive moment, whether the colours are representative. Anyhow, good article and I now know why I was getting wound up.

And lastly, some cute animal pictures.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 at 10:32 am. It is filed under Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.