The ECCA guide to photography

[Doigal]

Introduction
Here are my musings on photography over the years. In no way is it the be all and end all guide, its just whats worked for me.

Please DO NOT flood the thread with thankyou's, great idea or anything thats not adding to the guide, if you want to say thanks then grab your camera and go shoot something and most it up
That being said if you do have something to add, throw it down the bottom or send it along and it'll get included.

The idea of this is just to help people think about their shots a bit and see what does/dosnt work for them. Its not a designed to be a how to guide, as since photography is so subjective, theres no formula that leads to a great picture, just a mindset.

For the moment it will be mostly place markers, I'll flesh it out over the next few weeks/months.

If you want to share the link to this thread around thats fine, but if you just copy the text and claim it as your own thats not.

[Doigal]

Placemarker.

[Doigal]

Placemarker.

[Doigal]

Placemarker.

[Doigal]

Placemarker.

[Doigal]

Whats in a location?? What style of picture are you after? Whats the lighting like? Hows the security?

A lot of photographers refuse point blank to share their locations in fear that they'll be over ran with people trying to copycat them. Theres some merit to this, but a good photographer should be able to cope with sharing their locations and not lose work. Certainly there are plenty of places in Melbourne that have been 'done to death' by a few groups, but if you were to show someone outside that group they'd love the shot. The other thing is that places that have been 'overused' are always that way because they are good spots that consistantly offer something to the photographer, even if most of it has been done before. There is no shame in heading down to a fav spot that you know about and using it to perfect a style or a technicque, or just to try something new.

When considering a place, theres plenty of practical things to consider too. Hows the ambient lighting going to be? (esp for night) If its dominated by bright streetlights then your going to deal with sodium lighting, which gives off a strong, dull orange cast to all of the photos. Some of this can be corrected with white balence, but not always. Fluros are generally ok as long as you are not super fussy about colour temperature or not getting a lot of them into the shot. The problem with them is as the tubes age they change colour, and you can easily end up with a signifigant difference between two tubes.

More to come

[Doigal]

There are only three kinds of rolling shots, all of them can lead to some stunning photos if done properly - two of the methods, Panning and Tracking, only require practice to get right. Rig shots can require a signifigant investment in equipment to get right.

Being able to control the shutter speed is crucial in all of these methods. Without that control, you can't balence between the sharpness of the subject and the smooth, fluid blurred background.

The only problem with these shots is that the amount of similar shots leads to complacency. With so many of these shots out there, you just have to work harder and harder to get that wow factor into your shot.

Stabilisation
Movement shots need a steady hand or a stable platform more so than static ones. To help, an gyro type stabiliser either in the camera (IS/VR/OS/etc) or an external gyro, whilst not essential, will help to get better shots. Needless to say, these can be very expensive and cutting your coffee intake (ha!) will be a much cheaper solution Some more tips on shooting with gyros can be found here.

Panning

Tracking
Often done from another car, its the easiest way to get a rig like shot without the expense or the hassle of an actual rig. The idea is essentially put the photographer in one car, and use that as your mobile platform. The most common mistake is for the subject car to whizz past you at high speed. The reality is that you actually want the subject car to be motionless relative to you and your camera. The speed of the cars combined with a slower shutter speed will give you the background effect, but if you have to pan the camera, and deal with the bumpyness of the road as well, the shots will be far harder to get than they need to be.

Depending on the angle that your after (and the lens you have), you dont really want the cars to be too far apart. Certainly anything more than 3~4 car lengths will make it harder to get good shots. Good communication between the photographer and the subject car is critical in order to get the cars into position. As far as lenses go I tend to find wider ones work better for this sort of shot, but i know plenty of people that prefer to use a 'normal' length lens.

If you have an image stabilsed camera/lens (IS in canon, VR in Nikon, OS in Sigma, etc) then this will be very helpful. Set the shutter speed to 1/20~1/40 and shoot from there.
For non image stabilised cameras, bump the shutter to around 1/80. As with all motion shots they look better the longer the shutter is open, but you increase the risk of bluring the car too.

Examples: Link 1 Link 2 Link 3

Getting lower down you can get a nice angle, just remember to keep in mind the road

Rig Shots

[Doigal]

A UV filter for every lens. If the shot is so super special that the UV filter is going to ruin it then just take it off. Its not there to do anything for the image, its just there to act as a crumple zone for when you drop it. And if it gets super filthy then you can just get another one as opposed to trying to clean the front element. Also buy the filter thats right for the lens - a cheapo lens isnt going to get the best out of a $200 super-multi-funky-coat lens but if your forking out $4k for a lens then they should be throwing in a top of the line UV filter in it.

Like I said, if the shot is so important that the UV filter is going to stuff it up, then just take it off. Theres only one time I can think of (shooting super low light wide open in a church with candles) that i've done this, otherwise i know that i'm clumsey enough that they are needed.

The only other filter that should be part of everyone's kit is the Circular polariser. Great for basically anything during the day. Pain that they cut the light by two stops.

All the other filters are best used in moderation!

IR is fun but has almost no use for cars and a very specialized filter.
Graduated NDs are good but almost replaced by HDR stuff these days.
Coloured G NDs can give a great top gear effect but again can be recreated in 'shop if you have the time

[Doigal]

Placemarker.

[Doigal]

Placemarker.

[Doigal]

Instructional / Techniques
Strobist Off-Camera lighting Bible
Chris Brasher's Blog Does a lot of photoshoots using flash, usually shows his setup shots too, always good to learn from.
Lighting Essentials Lighting.
Ken Rockwell
Tips From the top floor
DSLR User's guide to panning
These 9 Photoshop Techniques May Result In Great Photos
7 bad habits of digital photographers Well worth a read
16 inspirational portrait photography techniques

Inspiration
Flickr Photohosting site, easy to browse for inspiration.
Video of a Top Gear shoot (down to earth, minimal technical dribble)
Luminous Landscape

Photography Forums
Fred Miranda - A lot of very very talented photographers post here.
Photo.net

Equipment
Digital Photography Review - Massive camera database, reviews and a forum.
Fred Miranda Reviews - A lot of very talented photo'gs, reviewing some very expensive equipment
The Digital Picture - Canon News and Reviews
Nikonians - Nikon News and Reviews
Steve's Digicams

Wacky Photoshop 'fads'
Minature Scale Models

[Doigal]

Questions/comments??

Ok, i've started to pad it out a little, is there anything people would like to see more of?? Or glaring errors the other photo'gs would like to point out?

I know theres guys here with plenty of knowledge in the area

[STALLED]

Originally Posted by Doigal

Questions/comments??

Ok, i've started to pad it out a little, is there anything people would like to see more of?? Or glaring errors the other photo'gs would like to point out?

I know theres guys here with plenty of knowledge in the area

I like it!

I reckon a "settings" for dummies section would be good for some of the people who don't know all too much about cameras. Even the cheapo point and shoots are being loaded with hundreds of features which the average joe will not know how to use eg ISO, exposure, AWB settings, shutter speed - I know its basic stuff but I reckon it could go a long way! Even if its a linkage to another site - it would be good!

Some examples of "what not to do" would be handy as well - eg an example of two shots taken back to back just with different settings showing the difference between the good and the bad - the fine line between what makes a decent shot and a bad one!

Bloody awesome though - It would be good if pics which are posted up would have the specs of the shot taken

Joel

[mrdoof]

another decent photography forum is
www.passionforpixels.com

[Doigal]

Originally Posted by STALLED

I reckon a "settings" for dummies section would be good for some of the people who don't know all too much about cameras. Even the cheapo point and shoots are being loaded with hundreds of features which the average joe will not know how to use eg ISO, exposure, AWB settings, shutter speed - I know its basic stuff but I reckon it could go a long way! Even if its a linkage to another site - it would be good!

I was hoping to go through that in the P/A/S/M section - but i'll have a think of how to do that in an easy to read guide.

Originally Posted by STALLED

Some examples of "what not to do" would be handy as well - eg an example of two shots taken back to back just with different settings showing the difference between the good and the bad - the fine line between what makes a decent shot and a bad one!

Bloody awesome though - It would be good if pics which are posted up would have the specs of the shot taken

I was just thinking that it needed some examples! I'll include them later. The 'what not to do' will take a bit longer.