Statue Photography In 5 Easy Steps

Where To Go

Finding statues is easy. Most churchyards, within walking distance from your home, will have one or two amongst the gravestones. Parks often house statues that iconise mythical figures or historical figures while larger tourist cities will have them scattered all over the place to celebrate famous people who have lived there and politicians. Sculpture parks provide an opportunity to find several interesting objects all in one location and often make a great day out too.

Angles

The first thing to do is look at the angle. In most cases you're going to be shooting from a low viewpoint as the statues often raised on a plinth and way above eye level. To fill the frame you'll often end up shooting from a low angle and the statue will look distorted, big at the bottom and smaller at the top. A better approach is to stand a bit further back and use the longer setting of your zoom lens to crop tighter. This will produce a photo with a more natural angle. Ideally if you can find a position where you can gain height so you are on a level will improve the shot even further. Steps of a nearby building is often a good option or, if you're agile, a nearby wall can improve your height.

 

Shooting Direction

You should also consider the shooting direction. Walk around the statue where possible and check the background and the features on the statue. Not only will you start to discover the best viewpoint to allow arms to be seen along with the face or symbolic features, you'll also find that a background can influence the exposure and overall feel of the image. A cloudy sky may help to create mood in the photo but the bright areas can affect the meter reading.

If you have a shot where the camera captures most of the scene correctly but it results in the statue appearing as a silhouette, you can take a second shot, pointing down at the ground and locking the exposure so the statue is exposed correctly. However, this will most likely result in a sky that's washed out. However, all is not lost as if you use a tripod to ensure the camera doesn't move, you could combine both shots during post production to produce the perfect exposure. Of course, you could also just change your viewpoint to get a better background to work with and sometimes you'll find it gives you a more suitable composition of the statue. If you're not sure, take several photos from different angles and choose the best one later.

Turn Your Flash Off

If you try to photograph a statue in low light with an automatic camera that has a built-in flash, it will automatically fire. As a result, you'll lose shadows which give the object its shape and your image won't have any depth. To avoid this switch the flash off and use your tripod to stop shake spoiling your shot. 

Blur The Background

The background can be thrown out of focus if you select a suitable aperture. Further blur can be added in Photoshop but a similar result can be achieved by using a longer focal length. Just remember to use a tripod as blur caused by shake is exaggerated when you use longer lenses.

Black and White Photography Tips

1. Shoot in RAW: I know many readers of DPS can’t shoot in RAW (because their camera doesn’t offer it) or don’t shoot in RAW (because they either don’t know how or don’t like to) but for the most control in the post production phase of converting your color images into black and white ones – you’ll want to shoot in RAW if your camera does allow it. Of course shooting in JPEG doesn’t stop you shooting in black and white – but if it’s an option, give RAW a go, you might be surprised by what it offers you in post production. More on RAW vs JPEG here.

2. Shoot in Color: If your camera doesn’t allow you to shoot in RAW (or you choose not to) – shoot in color and do your conversion to black and white later on your computer.
While most digital cameras offer you the option to shoot in Black and White (and can produce some reasonable results) you have more control over your end results if you have the color data to work with in your conversion on your computer. (read more on the choice between shooting in black and white or post production conversion).
Update: There is an exception to shooting in Color and it’s when you’re taking note of point 1 above (shooting in RAW). When shooting in RAW and switching to Black and White mode you see your results in the LCD in black and white but the camera actually records all of the information (including color) – the best of both worlds. But if you’re shooting in JPEG – shoot in color and do the conversion later. Thanks to Joost (in comments) for the reminder to include this.

3. Low ISO: Shoot with the lowest possible ISO possible. While this is something that most of us do in color photography it is particularly important when it comes to black and white where noise created by ISO can become even more obvious. If you’re after this ‘noise’ (or grain) you can always add it later in your post production – but it’s harder to go the other way and take noise out.

4. When to Shoot: Many digital photographers actually prefer to shoot images for Black and White in low contrast situations. So an dark or overcast day can be a great time to shoot out door shots.
Ironically these are the days that those who shoot only in color sit at home complaining about the ‘poor light’. So next time you find yourself with a dark and gloomy day – shoot some black and white shots.
5. Composition: Most of the general tips on how to compose or frame a good shot apply just as well to black and white photography as they do when shooting in color – however the main obvious difference is that you’re unable to use color to lead the eye into or around your shot. This means you need to train yourself to look at shapes, tones and textures in your frame as points of interest. Pay particularly attention to shadows and highlights which will become a feature of your shot.

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long exposure photography tips

Daytime long exposure: photography tips for smoothing water and blurring skies

Daytime long exposure photography is the landscape cliche that just won’t quit. Love them or loathe them, long-exposure landscape shots are here to stay, and judging by the amount of slow-motion seascapes in particular that are emailed to us each week, it’s clear that many of you love creating them as much as we do.

Whether it’s milk-smooth seas or cloud-smeared skies, leaving your camera’s shutter open for anything from several seconds to a couple of minutes, and allowing the world to pass by in a blur, is an addictive technique with potentially awesome results.

The time of day has a big impact on the look of your pictures, not just in terms of the quality of the light but also its quantity, and shooting at dawn or dusk near the coast enables you to capture lots of colour and detail in the soft light while using long exposures to blur the movement of waves.

You’ll need to use low ISOs and fairly narrow apertures in order to get shutter speeds that are slow enough to soften the motion of waves and clouds.

However, if conditions are too bright this may not be possible without the use of a neutral density, or ND, filter.

Not to be confused with an ‘ND grad’ (although one of those can be useful too – more on that later), a standard ND filter is simply a piece of dark grey glass or resin that’s placed in front of the lens to restrict the amount of light entering it, enabling you to use a slower shutter speed without ending up with overexposed shots. ND filters are available in a range of strengths or densities, which are measured in stops.

Each stop halves the amount of light, and the darker the filter, the stronger the effect. If, for instance, your DSLR suggested a shutter speed of 1/80 sec for a scene, attaching a 3-stop ND filter would enable you to reduce the shutter speed to 1/10 sec.

The ND effect
In this before and after example, you can see how a fairly dull scene can take on a more mysterious quality with the addition of a neutral density filter. Although the unfiltered shot is perfectly acceptable, the overcast, early morning light leaves it lacking a little ‘oomph’.

The ND filter extends the exposure from 1/8 sec to more than two minutes, smoothing out the waves and creating an effect akin to a sheet of ice.

As well as looking very cool, this creates contrast that helps to separate the rocks from the water. The filtered shot also shows the typical side-effects of using a strong ND: a colour cast (cool in this case), and slight vignetting on the wide-angle lens used here; both of these effects can be fixed in software.

Choosing an ND filter
In addition to various strengths of ND filter, there are also two different formats: screw-in or square slot-in.

The screw-in type have the advantage of enabling you to use a lens hood as normal, so you can shield the filter from the sun and the effects of glare and flare; the downside is that they take longer to fit to and remove from the lens, which can be frustrating when you want to try different strengths of filter.

Square filters are quicker to use once you’ve added the filter holder to the lens, and they also make it easier to add ND grads to balance the exposure in a picture.

Unless you opt for the additional expense of a compatible lens hood for the system you’re using, though, there’s a danger of light hitting the filter when you shoot towards the sun.

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How to Photograph Children..????

Get to know your subject and learn how to interact and connect with the child

If you have time, try to get to know the child before the photo session. Try to determine what the child likes, find a common ground, be their friend. Do not be another adult to dictate them what to do. Stick to their level of innocence, playfulness, adopt their energy and make them laugh by being silly. There is absolutely no need to ask the child to smile for the camera. Aside from having dull and fake images, you will not obtain anything extraordinary. Let the child play and enjoy himself/herself, while you get ready for the shot. Ask the parents to stand right behind you, then when you are all set, either call the child yourself or ask the parents to do it for you. As soon as the child looks, focus instantly on the closest eye and take a picture. Remember, even without a smile or a giggle you can have some emotional, sensitive and touching images. It is important to build a bond with a child to obtain the best results.

Get creative, imaginative and be fun to spend time with

Storyboards – To really capture the child’s personality, keep photographing the child while he/she is in motion and playing around. You will have at least 3-4 great images just from those 15 minutes to create a series of images in one frame. These action-packed series of images tell a bigger story than a single image. It also adds a variety to your final product. Parents love these types of shots!

 Have the props to entertain the child or to set the mood for the photo shoot

Just like adults, children tend to get nervous after seeing a room full of equipment or a foreign person in the family. While we already know that bonding with the child is essential, it is also useful to help them to get relaxed. Give them something to play with. One can have countless options to entertain children. The first step is to consult parents and find out what their children like doing. Make sure it is you who brings the stuff for bonding purposes. Have some toys, bubble makers, balloons, fruits, candies handy. While you can absolutely use these props in your pictures, the main purpose is to have the child relaxed and distract his/her mind from unnecessary activities.

Get down to their level and figure out your angles

While it is a common rule to get down to the child’s level in order to obtain killer images, you can also try a couple of things against common rules. Snap some pictures standing up, snap another laying down and snap some more sitting on child’s level. Remember, creativity is your friend. Work with it. Try different angels, shoot the details of child’s clothing and favorite toys. After-all, you are creating memories for years to come. Sensitivity is a big part of child photography.