Blog Posts

Using unusual lighting conditions to create interest and impress your audience

Posted on by SteveH
Estimated Reading Time: < 1 minute

Take any item and photograph it in unusual lighting conditions or from a different, maybe unexpected, angle. Using unusual lighting conditions to create interest is an easy technique. This makes for interesting shots that can also surprise the audience. Maybe keep them guessing on the actual nature of the object. Here I take a common food item. There are other examples of how lighting can be used here.

Let’s look at the golden image. It could be flames, maybe the sun, or a precious stone. It is a thin slice of a button mushroom on a backlit sheet of glass. Using unusual lighting conditions create interest.

Own my images

I have made some photographs available for purchase on my Adobe Stock store, and directly below or the link in the menu.


Good things come in threes

Posted on by SteveH
Estimated Reading Time: < 1 minute

Composing a nice balanced picture is critical. There is a well-known rule of thirds. This divides the picture into 3 horizontally and vertically. Like the # sign, but straight. When applying the rule the main subject of the photo should fall on the intersection of the lines. I discuss this in relation to landscape photos on this page. So why Good things come in threes? Because there is another rule of 3.

I also think that when taking a photo of a group of things, there are other rules of 3. For example trying to organise the subjects into triangles is often a good idea. I also find that 3 inanimate objects is the minimum for a group photo if it is to look interesting. And to choose short depth of focus. In these shots I took some simple items in groups of 3. With 1 or 2 there’s not as much interesting depth, focus, lighting etc. Good things come in threes.

I have made these photos available for purchase on my Adobe Stock store.

Here you can see the photos all have shadows and reflections on the shiny surface. All adding more to the image without adding more items.

Other photos of mine are available for purchase on my Adobe Stock store or directly below.


Stacked logs make an interesting shot

Posted on by SteveH
Estimated Reading Time: < 1 minute

It seemed that when I was looking for a photo of stacked logs the majority I found were all very similar. No surprise there as they were all in fact pictures of logs. But all nicely beige and circular seemed too good to be true. When I went to look at my stacks of wood for this winter they were not like that. Dare I say, more interesting with a variety of shapes and sizes with a nice selection of greys. In the end irregular stacked logs make an interesting shot.
Some are available for purchase on my Adobe Stock store.

Other photos of mine are available for purchase on my Adobe Stock store or directly below.


Shooting Sun Flares and Starbursts

Posted on by SteveH
Estimated Reading Time: < 1 minute

Sun flares and starbursts bring sparkle to any photo, and fortunately are not difficult to create.  They are created by the light passing through the aperture of the lens.  The aperture is formed by a small number of overlapping blades which reduce the hole as we increase the f-stops.  When the whole is small, for the sake of argument f/11 and above, the light is diffracted, or bent a little as its passes through the aperture.  This creates the starburst on the captured image.  The number of  points on the star is defined by the number of blades,  and the number of blades tends to increase with the price of the objective. Shooting sun flares and starbursts can be achieved in few simple steps.

Sunburst and flare at the Paris Metro
Sun flare through a tree in the woods

In these 2 photographs the light source is the sun, but it doesn’t have to be.  The first is taken at 1/125s f/11, the second 1/60 at f/16, both with a 50mm objective.

I have chosen to have a small sun flare in these two photos. You can adjust your settings and position to make them bigger.

Equipment:

  1. light source
  2. for example 18mm to 50mm focal length objective
  3. small aperture
  4. tripod

Steps:

Time needed: 10 minutes

Shooting Sun Flares and Starbursts

  1. Assess the lighting

    If pointing at the very bright sun, consider fixing a filter to the objective, if at night use a tripod

  2. Set to Aperture priority

  3. Set ISO to 100

  4. select F/22 to start

  5. Shoot without looking directly at the sun and adjust as needed

Some of my photos are available for purchase on my Adobe Stock store or directly below.


Adding bokeh patterns to your photos

Posted on by SteveH
Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes

With your DSLR camera you can add some fun effects to your photos.  No need to spend hours on post-production, nor expensive equipment.  This simple technique adds custom shaped bokeh to your photos giving them new interest and originality.

In case you haven’t used the term bokeh, it refers to the blurred patches of the photo.  And here we hope to give these patches a shape. Let’s go though the simple steps you need to add bokeh patterns to your photos.

laurel bush with flower bokeh
Laurel bush with star bokeh

Equipment:

  1. Dark card or plastic
  2. Scissors or sharp knife
  3. Tape
  4. An objective with a wide aperture (f2.8 or wider if possible)

Steps:

Time needed: 45 minutes

Adding custom bokeh patterns to your photos

  1. Cut the card

    Cut the card into a disk the same size as the objective

  2. Design the custom pattern

    In the centre cut out the desired pattern, up to 2 cm across.

  3. Tape it to the objective

    with black electricians tape, fix the card to the objective leaving no gaps

  4. Set the apperture

    Set aperture to f2.8 or wider, and manual focus if you prefer

  5. Shoot

    Take a few shots and verify the effect. Move yourself and the camera to experiment taking the shot from different angles, elevations and positions.

When you take a photo you don’t control where the bokeh appear and the same is true here.  So experiment by moving in relation to the light source.  You may find that you need greater distance than you think between the light source and the object, especially if you are using a 50mm lens.

These 2 were taken using a 100mm macro lens at f2.8.  It’s a laurel bush in the sun.

Using 2 caches:  58mm diameter with 18mm and 22mm shapes.  They were made from the base of 2 black plastic plant pots. More details from an external website.

Other photos of mine are available for purchase on my Adobe Stock store or directly below.


Create unique desktop wallpaper

Posted on by SteveH
Estimated Reading Time: < 1 minute

An interesting idea to create some bright and unique desktop wallpaper.

Equipment:

  1. A large glass vase or dish
  2. Small blocks, for example lego, cotton reels
  3. Water
  4. Cooking oil
  5. Washing up liquid
  6. Colourful image

Steps:

Time needed: 1 hour

Colourful oil on water for bright wallpaper

  1. Put the blocks on the colourful paper

    If possible out of shot

  2. Put the dish on the small blocks

    Making sure it’s level

  3. Fill the dish with water

    carefully as splashing will spoil the paper, also not too full as could get you in trouble spilling the water when you have to empty the dish

  4. Add a few drops of washing up liquid

    start with 5; you can always add more

  5. Add oil to the water until the surface is covered with droplets

    a gentle stir can help

  6. Take the shot and experiment

    enjoy!

The results will vary depending on the lighting, the background,  the movement, if any, of the water. The result is guaranteed to be a unique desktop wallpaper.

In the above photo I went crazy and laid some garden flowers on the surface. More tips on this subject are available on the web, for example, here.

Some of my photos are available for purchase on my Adobe Stock store, via the link in the menu or directly below.