DAVID MIDDLETON

Writer & Photographer

Month: March 2011

Thinking Like a Pro

Thinking Like a Pro   For a few years now I have been doing a program that I call “Thinking Like a Pro.” Setting aside the obvious jokes about pro photographers and thinking it is a program that encapsulates how I have gone about the business of photography for many years. I think it is one of the best programs I do and perhaps one of the most valuable because it is practical and all about you the photographer. I’ll share the highlights with you here. So how does a professional photographer go about taking a picture? Does the process start before he or she even gets to the location? What does he or she think about getting ready to take the photograph? What are the overarching principles that he or she follows? Is this any different from how amateurs approach a shot? Curious yet? Here goes. First, pros only shoot in the best light. If you think about it why would you shoot in any other kind of light? And, no, you can’t create great light in the computer. And, yes, I know what you are thinking- what happens if the light isn’t the best? Pros don’t photograph when the light is bad. Why? Because there is very little we can do with an image of something in average light when there are dozens of pictures of the same subject in great light. If I need it for a specific project I might use a mediocre shot if I am desperate but I will do so hesitantly. I will never share such a shot and I will never send it out for other publications. Pros choose subjects to photograph based on the quality of the light at the time. In other words, choose your subject based on what is best in the light you have. Amateurs typically decide on the subject to photograph before they even get to a location and then try to force it into whatever the light is at the time they are ready to shoot. This is how you get pretty subjects in less than pretty light. This is how you get less than pretty pictures. I may really want to do a portrait or a landscape but if the light is strong and direct I won’t. I’ll look for backlit subjects or do reflections both of which are perfect in strong, direct light. If I have a specific shot in mind I won’t bother to go out unless the light is right. Of course, pros also often have the luxury to wait for the light to be the best while amateurs, being contributing members of society, often do not. Secondly, pros only use the best capture. I use my best technique for every shot I take. I set my camera for the best capture possible. I only photograph the best subjects and I spend a lot of time making sure that there are not any better subjects or situations nearby. When I do find the best subject and situation I choose the best angle, the best tripod placement and the best depth of field to get the shot I want. All of this is deliberate; I have thought every part of this out to maximize my results, to get the best picture I can possibly get. Try this next time you are our photographing. Imagine me interrupting you just before you are about to push your shutter and asking you these questions-  “Why is your tripod that high, in that position?” “Why are you taking the picture at that angle?” “Are you sure your background is going to be okay? Is it the best background you can find?” “Why are you using that f-stop, that shutter speed, that ISO?” I know, scary, huh? The point to these questions is that you should have a very specific answer to each of these questions- “My tripod is this high because any lower I was getting sky and any higher I was missing the front of the subject.” “I am using this f-stop because any smaller made the background stand out too much and any bigger didn’t get enough of my subject in focus.” Everything is deliberate. When it is deliberate it becomes your best (why would you deliberately not do your best?). Shoot your best. Okay, you have shot your best in the best light now keep only your best. This is one of the hardest things for amateur photographers to do. Amateurs have this amazing ability to justify keeping just about any picture they take- “Ooh, I like the splashing water, I’ll keep it (I cut off the ears and I missed the focus but the splash is great!).” “It’s close to being in focus (I only missed it by a foot or so).” Here is the test. If you consistently show only one or two of the 20 or 40 or 400 similar images you have of one subject get rid of the rest. Don’t keep images you wouldn’t show anyone. Why? There is a reason you won’t show them to other people- there is something wrong with them!!! Why keep images that you know are flawed? Don’t keep your second best. If you give your best images 5 stars why are you keeping the ones with 3 stars? If you have a folder of favorites, why are you keeping all those images you haven’t looked at in 2 years? Don’t try to answer these questions you’ll just get yourself into more trouble. Pros are ruthless editors. I go through and delete every image that is technically flawed or artistically lacking- every last one. Then I identify my best ones and delete all the rest. I will shoot 1200 images in a morning out on a lobster boat but I will keep 15 and that is a good day. If I get better ones the next time I go out then those that I have bested are gone. Bye-bye, see you later. No

Stuck in Paradise

It is hard to complain about being in Florida in March when the alternative is Vermont in March. Here it is 82 and bright sun and at home it is 42 and cloudy. And yet here I am just a wee bit grumpy that there is so little to do (I am not a lay-around beach person) and even less to photograph (I am definitely not a palm tree/beach sunset person). So what am I doing to amuse myself? You guessed it- taking pictures of palm tree/beach sunsets. The other part of my particular situation is that I am not in a very photogenic place- its pretty just not photogenic. So why am I here and not at some other place in Florida where there is lots to photograph? Because sometimes family responsibilities take you to places that you wouldn’t otherwise go and you have to make the best of it. Doesn’t mean you can’t be just a wee bit grumpy, it just means you have no other options. Yesterday I remembered that my sister wanted me to photograph sunsets and sunrises for a project she is working on so like the good brother that I am I dutifully went out late afternoon and this morning looking for pictures. With any landscape but particularly with sunsets and sunrises you need something other than a big orange ball in your picture. Some foreground would be nice, some pretty foreground would be even better. So last night I went searching for foreground and found nothing. There was beach, water, orange sun and fading blue water and by the time I got to the beach (family responsibilities again) the sun was mostly gone. What did I do? I did what any desperate photographer would do – I played. Playing means doing things just for the fun of it. It helps to have very low expectations. I find the lower your expectations the easier they are to achieve. So there I was sitting on the beach, sun almost gone trying to get something, anything.  Getting nothing, it I struck me- shoot as slow as you can and zoom while you are shooting. This, by the way, is not something I have ever thought before but with family over my shoulder and some very nice New Zealand sauvignon blanc lubricating what was left  of my brain (nothing was right) I tried it. 87 shots later I got one I liked. If you find the picture less than ideal I would suggest a very tall glass of properly chilled New Zealand sauvignon blanc, 2010. I suppose the lesson is: Why not? With digital there is no penalty for trying something, even if it is something that you are relatively sure is a strong sign of severe head trauma. And this is pretty close to how the picture came out, I didn’t screw around with it in my computer, I had screwed around with it enough in my camera. So the next time you are desperate or you want to get away from your family or you desperately want to get away from your family grab your camera and just start playing. Don’t think, don’t analyze just play, be random. 87 shots later you might get something.     This morning I went out looking for someplace to try sunrise. As you can see I didn’t find a very good spot. I did find a spot I think might be better so we’ll have to see about that one tomorrow. If you find the picture less than ideal I would suggest a very tall properly chilled glass filled to the brim with a mimosa. Just to terrorize you all, I will keep posting my disappointing efforts. If I’m going to be a wee bit grumpy, you might as well be too!    

My Camera Settings

Since we are talking about questions I am often asked here is another popular one- “What settings do use on your camera?”   These are the settings I use for a vast majority of the time. Under specific circumstances I do use other setting but I have to have a specific reason to do so.   I use matrix metering (Canon calls it evaluative metering)- the metering mode that reads the entire viewfinder. I do this because the computers in cameras are so sophisticated that they are better at figuring out exposures than I am. And with digital, I can always check the histogram and make any adjustment I need to. I will use spot metering for extremely contrasty situations or when I am doing wildlife and I can easily meter on the animal.   I check my histogram every time the light changes. Mine comes up with just one push of a button so it is easy to find.   I use single point autofocus with 28 points (I think that it is 28) so I can move the focus point to exactly where I want it. Anymore than 28 gets annoying and distracting. Sometimes I will use 13 points, it is not a big deal to me. If there is something moving fast that I want to photograph I will use a cluster of autofocus brackets- Nikon calls this dynamic autofocus. I will choose where to place the cluster of brackets depending on the composition.   I still use the shutter to trigger the autofocus rather than the button on the back of the camera. I know there are strong feelings about this but again it is not a big deal to me. The problem I have using the back button sometimes is when I am photographing moving subjects and I need to move the autofocus point constantly. Then I have to keep my thumb on the toggle in back to move the autofocus bracket so it is difficult to also use my thumb to trigger the autofocus. I know, you disagree; do it however you are comfortable.   I typically use single on the motor drive (one shot at a time) unless I am shooting wildlife or something where gesture or expression is important. When I am shooting at high-speed autofocus (4-6 frames/second) I will fire off short bursts when my subject is doing what I want it to do. I do short burst for people or animal portraits because subtleties of pose or expression can make all the difference.  With a burst I can choose just the image I want for all the similar but still different shots.   I keep my ISO generally in the middle of my useable range. For my Nikon D300s I use ISO 400 as a start and then vary from there. For my Nikon D3s I use ISO 640 or even 800. For landscapes I will bump it down to ISO 200, for moving subjects or very low light I will often shoot at ISO 1250 or even 1600 on my D3s.   I always shoot Aperture Priority because the depth of field of my image is always more important than my shutter speed. I used to shoot in manual metering but that was when camera metering wasn’t very sophisticated. It got better so I adapted. I also generally have my auto-compensation set at -.7. This means I am telling my camera to slightly underexpose the images. I am just fudging here in case I don’t notice an important highlight that I don’t want to blow out. If, when I check my histogram, I notice that it is too far to the left (too dark) then I will bring the auto-compensation up to 0. By the way, if I have to move my auto-compensation past -1.0 to get a good exposure I always stop and ask myself if the light is really something in which I want to photograph. If I have to go to -1.3 or even -1.7 the light is awful and I know better to shoot. I have never shot at a plus auto-compensation number.   And since you asked here are the settings I never use: I never use single servo and I don’t know why I ever would. I am always on continuous servo. I don’t think I have ever used center-weighted metering. Matrix or spot metering does it all for me. I have never shot in either program mode (I don’t want the camera making both f-stop and shutter speed decisions) or shutter priority. I have handed my camera to someone who didn’t know anything about photography and had it on Program just so they could get a shot but that is all.   I only shoot in RAW and never RAW plus JPEG. Again don’t know why I ever would. I also reformat my memory cards every time I put a new one in- I do this religiously.   There you have it- the way I have my camera set to photograph. Nothing says that this is the only way to do it but you better have a pretty darn good reason to stray from any of these settings. Or you just may want to. Either way works.        

And Another Thing…

I am just about fed up with the out of control egos so common with bird photographers. So here are some new rules: If you have to announce that you are the best bird photographer- you aren’t, you are a jerk. If you tell everyone how much money you made  on a shot, you didn’t and you are a jerk. If you step in front of other photographers because you are more important, you are not and you are a jerk. If you brag to everyone where a photo is about to be published, it isn’t,  it won’t be and you are a jerk. If you have to tell everyone who you are so they understand how famous you are, you’re not and you are a jerk. And finally, if you think you’re not a jerk but you act, look and  sound like one, we all think you are. In other words, don’t be a jerk. Remember, if you have to blow your own horn it ain’t worth blowing. Period! Do you want to know who I think is a great bird photographer? Glad you asked! Take a look at some of these photos by my good friend and fellow workshop teacher, Jeff Wendorff. Notice the tight compositions, the beautiful natural light (no flash here!), the magnificent background, the perfect poses, thecompelling perspectives. This is how I think birds should be photographed- straight up, no nonsense, little processing, beautifully, simply. Go to Jeff’s website to see more of his spectacular photography- www.jeffwendorff.com. He does mammals as well. So why did I bring up Jeff here and Brenda in my last post and Lisa before that? Because I know that there are photographers out there that photograph some things far better than I do and if I want to get better I should pay attention when they are taking pictures. I can’t always do as well as they are doing (okay, I have never done as well as they do) but I can still try. That’s how I get better. Imitation and persistence are  great ways to learn. And if I get frustrated (okay, I get frustrated all the time), I just remind each one of them that I am the best! That always seem to make me feel better.

Pacific Rim National Park workshop

I wanted to let everyone know that there are just a couple of spots left on my Pacific Rim National Park workshop in Tofino, Vancouver Island. It is a great workshop in perhaps the prettiest, most wild spot I have ever done a workshop. Some of the things we are going to see are magnificent tide pools, old-growth cedar trees 15′ across and black bears turning over shoreside rocks from less than 50′ away! The other big attraction to this workshop is my co-leader, Brenda Berry. Brenda is the nice, energetic, enthusiastic, fun version of me and she takes great shots as well. She is particularly adept at finding the ordinary scene and taking the extraordinary photo- for instance abstracts in harbors. I can’t do it and I have followed her around and watched what she shot and still have gotten nothing. I included some of her shots from years  past for you to see what she likes to photograph. So for all of you that have learned to tolerate me, come to the Pacific Rim with us and hang out with Brenda. You’ll learn something, take some terrific photos and have a great time. I’ll try to stay out of the way as best I can. Go to my website and check under the workshop/schedule tab for more on the workshop and info to reserve your spot.

Shooting Like a Pro class

My class on professional photography- Shooting Like a Pro- is officially being offered for June 19-25 this year.The workshop is my favorite class that I teach because there is a lot of student participation and involvement and it is great, supportive creative environment where each student gets lots of help developing their own path to follow.