The twin deities of photography are light and composition. Master the management of these two things and you will become an excellent taker of pictures. Both are three dimensional. Light varies in intensity, color and angle. Composition's variables are the more literal ones of height, width and depth. The difference between a good photograph and a bad one is simply taking the time to consider the consequence of each of these variables before you shoot.

      It is important that you develop an established routine for making these considerations and then practice it until it becomes rote. Even the simplest of photo sessions can sometimes become hectic. Distractions from your intended purpose and interruptions in your routine are inevitable. Having an established methodology to follow will go a long way toward relieving the stress and providing the confidence required to carry you through even the most difficult of situations.

      Develop your routine, then write it down in the form of a pre-shot check list and stick it in your bag (mine is typed on a three-by-five card, laminated at the local drugstore). Thirty-five millimeter film and processing are cheap. Practice your routine ad-nauseam until you can recite it in your sleep. Practice your routine, refining it as you go, in low stress situations of no consequence. Practice it on your kids, on your SO, on your mom. Practice it on your cat. Practice indoors and at different times of day out-of-doors.

      A little farther down the page I've written a skeleton check list you can build from in developing your own set-up routine, but allow me to digress a moment to talk about the preparations you need to make prior to leaving for the shooting location.

      Hopefully you will have some idea what you're getting into before you head for the shoot. You'll know whether you are going to be photographing a person, a group of people or an inanimate object. Whether you'll be shooting indoors or out or both. What time of day you'll be shooting, etc..

      This foreknowledge will allow you to decide a number of things before you leave the house. Is all your equipment loaded with fresh batteries? What type and speed film will you want to use? Will you need your tripod? Your reflector? Which filters are you likely to need? Will you have the opportunity to utilize your second flash head? Will you need your hand-held light meter?

      Even more important than these physical considerations, however, is giving some thought to just what kind of image you hope to capture on this shoot. You're a writer. Do you ever write anything without thinking first about who's going to be reading it and in what context it is going to be seen? You need to give those same thoughts to your photography.

      Occasionally, you will simply get lucky. You will be in the right place at the right time and as a consequence you will get a great shot. But infamous photographs like those of the Viet Cong soldier being shot in the head on the streets of Saigon or of the anguished form of the coed kneeling over the body of here fallen friend at Kent State are one-in-a-million. As a semi-pro photographer shooting for pay you cannot rely on circumstance and dumb luck to carry the day.

      It is imperative you have a definite objective in mind when you go out to shoot; some theme or concept to guide you. In the case we are discussing that theme is defined by the story you are going to write. You want to photograph your subject "in context" with their relevance to the story. Don't wait till you get to the location and then try and figure out what might work for your piece. Have your concept thought out in advance and then make the preparations and take along the equipment required to execute it.

      We'll talk more about this when we get into technique. For now lets get back to developing your set-up routine.

Skeleton Check List

      A skeleton pre-shot routine you can build from:

      1. What elements of composition best tell the story I want this photo to relate?

      2. Where do I place my subject, my camera?

      3. In what perspective do I want to record this image?

      4. How much depth-of-field do I want and do I need to stop action?

      5. Should I use auto or manual mode for exposure and/or focus control?

      6. Should I shoot with available light or enhance with flash or reflector?

      7. What film type and speed should I use?

      8. Do I need to use my tripod?

      9. Do I need a filter?

      1a. What composition elements best tell the story I want this photo to relate?

      The last entry is not a typo. This is a circular decision making process. The variables of photography are highly interactive; change one and you usually have to alter others to accommodate that change. Arriving at your ultimate set up sometimes requires several iterations of the loop.

Placing your subject and camera:

      This is where you begin to apply the elements of composition to the theme or concept you developed in advance. For now we'll just assume you do have some concept in mind; at this point it doesn't matter what it is.

      Remember the twin deities of photography, light and composition? Choice of subject placement provides the best opportunity to maximize your influence over each. Place your subject in a setting that is both relevant to the story and conducive to good photography. The first should be based on the concept you developed for the shot beforehand. The second is more a matter of avoiding bad lighting conditions and messy, distracting backgrounds. We'll talk more about chosing a camera position in the section on shooting angles.

Place your subject in context to the story:
(Click image to view photograph and descriptive text. ~25K JPGs)

A country club Director of Golf.

The eventual winner of a golf tournament.

The CEO of a golf equipment manufacturing firm.

Another country club Director of Golf.

Pay attention to your background.

Perspective:

      Most beginners think the purpose of their zoom lens is simply to make distant objects look closer when extending to long focal lengths and to widen the field of vision when retracting to short focal lengths. What they don't realize is that in effecting these differences in field of view and magnification different focal lengths also alter the lens's perspective.

      So what is "perspective" and what difference does it make? In 35mm photography the 50mm lens (a lens with a focal length of 50mm) is considered standard and is said to be "normal." I.e. it produces images that look the most like what the human eye would see if looking at the same scene from the same place. In a picture taken with a normal lens a person who was standing five feet from the camera looks like they were five feet away. If the background was twenty feet behind them it looks like it was twenty feet behind them, etc.. When you vary the focal length either side of 50mm this perception of distance (perspective) begins to change. The further from 50mm you go the more pronounced the change becomes.

      Example: Using a normal 50mm lens, you take an exterior photo of a person six-feet tall and standing ten feet in front of you. Behind them, ten miles away, stands a 5,000-foot-high range of mountains which form the background of the picture. You then zoom out to 100mm on your lens and take the same picture again.

      When you look at the resulting photos you see a marked difference you did not expect. In the picture shot with the 50mm lens everything looks "normal," just as it did as you stood there surveying the scene with your eye: The person looks six-feet tall and appears to be about ten feet away. The mountains look 5,000 feet tall and appear to be about ten miles away.

      But in the photo taken at the 100mm focal length everything is changed. The person looks to be only five feet away, which you expected when you zoomed in, but the perspective of the entire photograph has also been dramatically altered: Although the person still looks to be six-feet tall, but simply standing five feet closer, the 5,000-foot mountains in the background not only look closer, they look much closer than you expected and now appear to tower to 10,000 feet!

      Here is how the difference in perspective occurs. When you double your focal length from 50mm to 100mm you cut your field of vision in half and, more importantly to perspective, you cut the apparent distance to all objects in the picture by the same 50%. The result is that where doubling your focal length only moves the person five feet it moves the mountains five miles and dramatically changes the relationship between the two; it creates a different perspective. Where the moderate mountain range originally looked distant and unforeboding it now towers over your subject in the near background like the menacing crags of the Himalayas.

      If you do the opposite, retract your lens from 50mm to 28mm, you will accomplish the opposite; you will move your subject backwards only slightly but will reduce the mountain range to a set of low, rolling foothills far in the distance.

      To accentuate these effects you change your camera-to-subject distance in conjunction with the changes in focal length. When you zoom out to 100mm you move back to twice the original shooting distance you used when shooting with the normal 50mm lens (in this example, to twenty feet) and when you retract to 28mm you move in to half the original distance (five feet). Adjusting your shooting distance in conjunction with the changes in focal length results in the subject looking identical in all three photos, only the perspective of the background is altered.

      Perspective is fun to play with and its alteration can produce dramatic results; sometimes spectacular, sometimes comical. As you gain experience and begin to develop your "eye" you will find it a handy tool. For now, you just need to remember that using focal lengths greater than 50mm will magnify objects in the background MORE than it does ones closer to the camera. When shooting telephoto a small, colorful object in the background that is barely discernible to the eye may end up looming over your subject and creating an unwanted distraction that ruins your composition. Conversely, using your lens at wide angle can push into distant obscurity that carefully chosen background you were counting on to give your subject context.

      Whenever possible you should shoot with your lens set to 50mm. This is the focal length that renders the most realistic looking pictures with 35mm cameras. It is also the length that will most likely put you at a distance that best utilizes the brightness and beam width of your built-in flash.

Depth-of-Field And Stopping Action:

      We're going to talk about these two together because they are closely interdependent and in direct conflict with one another. Increasing DoF often means lessening aperture (higher f-stop #). Shooting a smaller aperture requires using a slower shutter speed to make up for the smaller amount of light being allowed through the lens. However, using a slower shutter speed lessons your ability to eliminate blurring of moving subjects; a vicious circle.

      Controlling depth-of-field:

      Depth-of-field is the minimum to maximum distance from the camera that objects will be in focus. Example: You are setting up a shot with your zoom lens set to 100mm. Your exposure readings say you can properly expose this image using an aperture of f-8 at a shutter speed of 250. You set those values into your camera and then focus on a subject standing ten feet away. You find everything between nine feet and twelve feet to be in focus. Your DoF is three feet.

      The three variables that control DoF are focus distance, aperture and focal length.

      Increasing focus distance (distance from camera to subject) increases depth-of-field. Moving closer to your subject decreases DoF.

      Using a higher f-stop # (a smaller aperture) increases DoF. Using a larger aperture (a lower f-stop #) decreases depth-of-field.

      Increasing focal length (100mm to 200mm) decreases depth-of-field. Shortening focal length (100mm to 50mm) increases DoF.

      So in the example above what do you do if you need a DoF of five feet; what if you want to stand your subject five feet in front of your background and have both the subject and the background be in focus?

      First you decrease aperture one stop (F-8 to f-11) and decrease shutter speed one step to 125 to compensate for the smaller aperture. You then move one foot closer to your subject (nine feet) and reduce focal length a compensating 10% (100mm to 90mm) to maintain the same perspective. From your new position you now re-focus a little deeper to a point slightly behind your subject (at eleven feet instead of ten). Your DoF is now five feet. Everything between nine feet (your subject) and fourteen feet (your background) is in focus.

      Decreasing aperture increased DoF a little, reducing focal length increased it a bit more and increasing focal distance increased it some more. Problem solved.

      The tricky part here is that although you moved slightly closer to your subject you didn't shorten focus distance by focusing directly on the subject but actually increased focus distance by focusing slightly behind the subject. Focusing behind the subject allows you to utilize the entire depth-of-field rather than wasting the part of it that lies in front of the distance at which you set your focus.

      You can also increase depth-of-field by simply using faster film because a higher ASA rating inherently allows the use of smaller apertures.

      Depth-of-field is very hard to see in a 35mm viewfinder. You're much better off using a set of DoF charts. Since you're probably using a zoom lens you'll need a set covering your camera's entire zoom range (28mm to 200mm, whatever). For zoom settings falling in between your charts (each chart is calculated for a specific focal length) you have to interpolate. Some lenses have DoF scales marked on them. Unfortunately, the course resolutions of these scales provide only a ball-park estimate. Best to use a chart when DoF is an important element of your composition (when "composing-in-depth").

     Stopping Action:

      Stopping action (freezing moving subjects so they don't blurr) is solely a function of shutter speed; the faster the subject is moving horizontally or vertically through the frame the higher a shutter speed you have to use to avoid motion blurring. An alternative is to pan with the subject's motion (track the object with your lens while you shoot) but this technique blurs the background. Another alternative is to change your shooting angle so the subject is moving more toward or away from you and less cross-ways. This effectively reduces the subject's speed across the frame.

      The rub comes when you need to stop action and maintain a deep depth-of-field at the same time. One work-around for this problem is to enhance the available light with flash or reflector allowing you to use a smaller aperture while maintaining the same shutter speed. This solution, however, often proves impractical for moving subjects or at the distances from which they are typically photographed. The best solution is to use significantly faster film. A substantially higher ASA rating will allow you to simultaneously employ both the smaller apertures required to increase DoF and the faster shutter speeds needed to stop the action.

Automatic Mode or Manual Override:

      Even the best auto-exposure and auto-focus systems can be fooled. If you rely on them exclusively you will sometimes be disappointed with the results. There are some general conditions under which auto failure is likely to occur that I can warn you about but only experience with your own camera can teach you under what specific conditions your particular systems are likely to function correctly or fail.

     The most common conditions under which auto-exposure systems fail are when shooting with strong backlight and when using flash not to fully illuminate the subject but only to brighten up shadows (shooting flash-fill).

     Auto-focus systems are most susceptible to confusion when shooting subjects in motion and when composing-in-depth (multiple subjects at different distances from the camera).

      You just have to experiment until you develop a feel for your camera's auto capabilities. When you think either of your auto systems may fail under the conditions you are shooting then turn them off and go manual. Once you begin to develop your own photographic "eye" you will also find yourself turning off your auto functions to utilize manual mode for artistic reasons.

When to Utilize a Tripod:

      This one is pretty simple (after discussing depth-of-field aren't you glad?). Use your tripod when shooting slow shutter speeds (below 60) and when using very long focal lengths (<=200mm). A tripod is also handy for shooting self portraits (yes, that was a joke. i figured you could use one right about now).

      If you can't afford to buy a tripod right away, or just get caught out without it, there are a number of substitutes you can employ in an emergency. Any stable vertical or horizontal surface will do. Just jam your camera down on a table or countertop, chair back or on top of a fence post. Or wedge it up against a door-jam, telephone pole, light standard, tree trunk, the corner of a building or onto the hood or roof of your car. Pressing your camera firmly up against any solid object will eliminate most blurring due to camera movement.

      When there is absolutely nothing available to jam the camera against: Spread your feet apart, pull both elbows down tightly against your ribs, tighten up your neck muscles and press the camera firmly against your cheek and forehead, take a deep breath and then pull the trigger as you slowly exhale.

Film Type, Speed and Brand:

     Film Type:

     There are a myriad of different film types available for 35mm photography including specialty varieties for exposure under ultraviolet light and even films for X-ray exposure. There are only four, however, that need concern you; daylight color print film, indoor color print film, color slide film (which is balanced for daylight) and black & white print film (which doesn't care what type of light it is exposed under). Even of these four, only one--daylight color print film--will cover the vast majority of photographic requirements you will be asked to fulfill.

      Sometimes you will have no decision to make at all because the publisher will provide you the film; you just shoot with whatever they give you and turn it in. They process it and then edit the photos themselves. Unless you have access to their editorial process you won't even know which pictures they chose to run until the article appears in print.

      A lot of glossies and semi-glossies want slides. It would be unusual for publications requiring that level of quality to ask the writer to provide the pictures (as opposed to hiring a pro photographer) but it does happen. Travel mags are one of the exceptions that may ask you to use slide film. If required to shoot slides don't be bashful about asking for a few extra bucks to cover slide film's higher purchase and processing costs.

      You will usually know in advance whether your story is going to run in color or black & white but don't worry about this; unless told otherwise shoot in color even when you know it's going to run in black & white. The pub will have no problem converting your color photographs to gray-scale for black & white printing. But editors sometimes change their minds about layouts, and even covers (like if you come back with a really great photo they weren't expecting), and they cannot change a black & white image into color. Also, if you're paying for film and processing yourself, both are cheaper and more readily available for color than for black & white.

      All the above is spoken in generality, of course. When asked or offering to provide your own photos always find out in what format the pub prefers they be submitted.

     Film Speed:

     The decision as to what speed film you should use is purely situational. Rule-of-thumb is to use the lowest ASA that will do the job. This rule is based on the direct trade-off in film between speed and image quality; the lower the ASA the smaller the grain and the sharper and crisper the image, the higher the ASA the more grainy the film and the less well-resolved the image.

      Thirty-five millimeter film is readily available in speeds of ASA 64, 100, 200 and 400. ASA 200 and 400 are the most popular and either will suffice for the majority of applications. Films with ASAs of 800, 1,600 and even 3,200 are also available but are considerably more expensive and usually only available at photo shops.

      Note that film speeds are ordered in steps of 100% just like f-stops and shutter speeds--each one twice as fast as the previous. Each 100% increase in film speed (100 to 200, 200 to 400, etc.) buys you one step in EV just as opening up one f-stop or decreasing shutter speed one step does. I.e.; If you hold shutter speed constant (shutter priority) shooting a photo at f-8 with ASA 100 film will provide the same result as shooting it at f-11 with ASA 200 or shooting it at f-16 with ASA 400. If you hold the f-stop constant (aperture priority) shooting at shutter speeds of 125, 250 and 500 will provide identical exposures with ASAs 100, 200 and 400 respectively.

      I typically shoot ASA 200 outdoors because on a normal day 200 puts me in the middle of the exposure (EV) range for average f-stops and shutter speeds. This allows me maximum latitude in shifting both aperture and shutter speed up and down the scale for whatever effect I may require without running out of adjustment. On cloudy and overcast days I move up to ASA 400.

      My favorite flash head has a guide number of 80 so I normally use ASA 400 indoors for exactly the same reason I use ASA 200 outside. Flexibility. Four hundred puts me in the middle of the EV range indoors with my particular flash head. If I typically used a flash head with a guide number of 110 or 220 I would use ASA 200 indoors. If I had only a guide number 60 flash head I might want to use ASA 800 indoors. I could get by with ASA 400 indoors with a GN 60 flash head but I would lose some flexibility in controlling depth-of-field.

     Film Brands:

      Just a few words about film brands. Well, one word, actually--Kodak.

      Fuji costs about a dollar less per role than Kodak, Afga is about two dollars less per role. BFD! Don't be penny-wise and pound-foolish. Fuji (in my opinion) is too color-saturating for shooting people. It makes ruddy complexioned Caucasians look like they've contracted a nasty sunburn and Asians as if they're jaundiced. Fuji is great for color oriented shots like landscapes, sunsets and still lifes but too color exaggerated for shooting people. Afga is OK when exposed exactly right but (in my opinion) has too narrow a dynamic range. Under expose Afga just one stop and things start turning murky and green.

      *I* use Kodak Gold. *You* should do some comparison experimenting and choose whichever you like best.

The Goddess of Light:

      Mastery of light is the most important factor in good photography. Using brightness, shadow, color, angle and diffusion of light to specific effect are all essential elements of composition. Hundreds of books have been written on this subject and I'm not going to try and compete with what they have to offer here. For one, that would be more than you need to know for our specified purposes, for another, the authors of those many books are considerably better qualified to guide you than I. So I am going to limit myself to first addressing the basics of simply getting a correct exposure and then generalize a bit on the effects some different lighting techniques have on a photograph's esthetics.

     Exposure Control:

      Photographic exposure control is based on increasing or decreasing the level of light entering the camera in steps of 100%. The two variables of aperture and shutter speed work in concert, one off-setting the other. i.e.; any change in one requires an equal but opposite change in the other to maintain correct exposure. Opening the aperture one f-stop (f-11 to f-8) doubles the amount of light falling on the film. Closing aperture down one stop (f-11 to f-16) cuts the amount of light in half. Increasing shutter speed one step (125 to 250) cuts the exposure in half. Decreasing it one step (125 to 60) doubles the exposure.

      These 100% changes in the amount of light being allowed to strike the film by each step in aperture or shutter speed are referred to as "Exposure Values" (EV). The entire EV range upon which photography is based includes only about ten steps from maximum to minimum. The human eye can easily discern ten times that many 100% steps of brightness. The fact that you can see your subject's shadowed eyes peeking out from under the brim of her hat doesn't mean those eyes are going to be discernible in your photograph.

      Even more limiting is the reality that most lenses don't even cover the entire EV range. If your camera's maximum and minimum aperture settings run from f-2.4 to f-22 you only have seven EV steps available to you at any given shutter speed. But the real limit on available EV range is in the film, itself. Modern film only has a dynamic (useable) range of about four EV over which one can get a reasonable exposure with any given amount of light. In practical terms this means you can under-expose by one EV and still get a pretty decent picture and you can over-expose about two EV and still get a decent picture. Under-exposing two EV, however, will usually result in a flat, murky, too-dark image while over-exposing three EV will burn-out all but the darkest parts of the image.

      The reason your camera provides an EV range of seven or eight steps is so you can shift up and down the scale as required to accommodate just where in the overall range the amount of light available causes the film's useable four step range to fall.

Available Light vs. Enhancing With Flash or Reflector:

     Available light, be it indoor or out, looks the most natural to us because it is what our eye is accustomed to. As noted earlier, however, film is no match for the human eye. Sometimes you have to enhance the ambient lighting to get the effect you're after or even just to get a decent exposure. So how do you decide when to enhance?

      1. When there is simply not enough light to get the correct EV even with max. aperture and slowest usable shutter speed.

      2. When decreasing aperture to get the required depth-of-field takes you below the correct EV even with the slowest usable shutter speed.

      3. When increasing shutter speed to stop action takes you below the correct EV even at the largest aperture.

      4. When the difference in brightness between significant elements of your composition exceeds three EV.

      5. When you wish change the esthetic qualities of light.

      Numbers one through three are, I hope, self-explanatory. Numbers four and five, however, deserve exploration in a bit more detail.

      Balancing out a brightness spread exceeding three EV:

      Assuming there is enough light available to shoot at all, the range of brightness of your composition is the primary technical consideration in deciding whether to enhance. The dynamic range of photographic film (the maximum *difference* in the intensity of light it can discern) does not even approach that of the human eye. When it comes to contrast (the difference between the brightest and darkest areas of the scene) what you see is not what your get. It is in determining the correct exposure for scenes of high contrast that a hand-held light meter is most valuable.

      Excessive range in contrast is a common problem when shooting outdoors because on a clear day the difference in brightness between objects in direct sunlight and those in deep shade can be as much as four or five EV. The eye can easily discern detail in the shaded areas under these conditions but film cannot. If you expose for the sunlit areas the shaded ones will be too dark. If you expose for the shaded areas the sunlit ones will burn. One solution is use an EV in between the two. The dynamic range of modern film is more forgiving of over exposure than under exposure so don't just split the difference. Rather, favor the shaded areas slightly. Exposing at one stop above the shaded areas can sometimes give reasonable results. Sunlit areas may still be slightly burned but less so than if you had exposed at the shaded EV.

      The better solution, however, is to eliminate the unbalance and bring the entire scene--or at least the elements of the scene that are critical to your composition--to within three EV of one other.

      A typical example of the problem is a face that is not turned directly into the sun. The side shadowed by the subject's own head is going to come out too dark if the difference between it and the sunlit side is greater than three EV. Throw in a hat shading the upper half of the face from the general sky light as well as from the direct sunlight and you now have three different EV levels to worry about having a difference of up to five EV.

      The obvious solution is to simply turn your subject into the sun and ask them to remove the hat; problem solved. The likely fact, though, is that you placed them on that spot and faced them in that direction because doing so provides the composition and background you want and the hat may be an essential part of your composition relating the subject to your story (context).

      Situations like these are where you will come to love your reflector. Even large reflectors capable of illuminating the entire body are really cheap. A four-by-eight piece of white foamcore costs less than twenty bucks. A two-foot square or round reflector is adequate for "bringing up" the shaded side of the face of a single subject and costs less than ten bucks to purchase or about a dollar to make.

      Reflectors are easy to use because their effect is readily seen and measured. If you have a reflector stand, and wind allowing, you don't even need any help. You just put it where you want it and start shooting. I don't have a stand. I just grab the nearest passer-by or subject's standing-around-watching friend or relative and say, "Hey you, hold this right here like this." I've never had the person say no.

      You're recruited "assistant" is going to be totally clueless as to your intentions but training them takes only about thirty seconds. You do this by simply showing them what you want them to do. Stand two to three feet to the shaded side of your subject and then take one step towards your camera position. Hold the reflector in front of your chest so you can just peak over its top edge, point it at the sun, and then wobble it around until it throws the brightest amount of light onto the shaded side of your subjects face. The reflected light is readily seen so aligning the reflector is really quite easy. Now have your new assistant take your place holding the reflector (give them a few seconds to play with it because they always will) and then take another set of exposure readings; one from the sunlit side of your subject's face and one from the reflector-lit side.

      What you want is a difference of about one EV (one f-stop). If the difference is still too large (more than 1 & 1/2 EV) have your assistant move six inches closer and take another set of readings. If the difference is too small (less than one stop) move your assistant six inches further away and take another set of readings. Repeat until you get the desired one EV difference, set your exposure to the *SUNLIT* side EV, and start shooting.

      Your third alternative is to use flash to fill in the shadows. This is a bit more tricky. A lot of things can go wrong shooting flash-fill outdoors so use a reflector whenever possible. The basic premise of flash-fill is to take an exposure reading off the shaded side of the face (with your flash enabled) and then set your exposure value one step higher. E.g.; If the shaded side of the face reads f-4 at 125 set your exposure to f-8 at 125 or f-4 at 250. In theory, this will give you the desired one EV difference between the sunny and shady side of the subject. In reality, your little built-in strobe may not be powerful enough to actually bring the shady side up to within the desired one stop of the sunny side. The sun may simply be too bright for your flash to compete with it.

      To figure out whether using flash-fill is even feasible you have to take a set of readings off the sunlit and shaded sides of the subject, calculate the difference, and then figure out whether making up that difference is within your strobe's capability. You take your first reading off the sunlit side with your strobe turned off, as you would if shooting with available light and no flash. You then enable your flash and take your second reading off the shaded side. If the difference between these two readings is three EV or less you can proceed as described above and expect decent results. If the difference exceeds three EV you've got problems but all is not lost; there is a way out of this situation that works with measured differences of up to five or even six EV *if your camera has a fast enough maximum flash-sync speed* (in case you've forgotten, flash-sync speed is the fastest shutter speed at which your camera can shoot flash).

      This is where it gets tricky so pay attention.

      Exposure values are determined by the combination of aperture and shutter speed. Lets say your shady side EV, measured with your strobe enabled, reads f-3.56 at 60, but because it's a very bright day your sunny side EV, measured with your flash turned off, reads f-16 at 250. That's a five EV spread; three in aperture and two more in shutter speed. The dynamic range of your film is only about four EV so no matter where you set your exposure, even with flash-fill, you are going to either blacken the shady side or burn-out the sunny side.

      So how can you get this difference down to a workable three or four EV that won't exceed your film's dynamic range? Well there's something I've so far neglected to tell you; when shooting flash your film doesn't really care what your shutter speed is, but only what your aperture is. This is because the flash of light from your strobe is of very short duration compared to even the fastest of shutter speeds; shutter speeds are measured in parts of a second, flash duration's are measured in parts of a millisecond. All the flash requires is that the shutter be open when it fires. It is not the shutter speed but the duration of the pulse of light that really determines the length of your exposure when shooting flash--at least for the portions of your composition being lit by the flash. This allows you to cheat on the shutter speed for your shady side EV reading. For our example you can set aperture to f-4, one stop down from your shady side reading, and then set shutter speed to your fastest flash-sync speed! F-4 is still three stops to large for your sunny side reading but if your maximum sync-speed is 500 you get one EV back by shortening shutter speed for the parts of your composition that are lit only by sunlight. Your shady side is now under exposed one stop and your sunny side is over exposed three stops, a spread your film's four EV dynamic range can just handle. Your sunny side is still going to be brighter than you'd like but it won't be burned out. If your sync-speed is 1000 you're now down to being only two EV over exposed on the sunny side and your photograph, shot outdoors with a five EV spread, is actually going to look pretty good!

      This reduction of the sunny side vs. shady side EV spread occurs because the faster shutter speed darken the sunlit areas but has no effect on the shady side exposure. That is because the flash turns on and then back off much faster than the shutter opens and closes so the part of the film recording the shady side of the image doesn't care what the shutter speed is. (Now go back and read all this again three more times--or until your head stops spinning.)

      By-the-way, this entire little trick of magic must be performed with your auto-exposure system turned off. When you start increasing the shutter speed to darken the sunlit areas that system is going to think you're crazy, and your flash, if in auto-mode, is quite likely to turn off too soon because of the bright sunlight. You are not only going to have to shoot manually but you are also going to have to control your flash intensity by adjusting your camera-to-subject distance in accordance with the flash's guide number. Hopefully, your camera's instruction book will explain how to do this.

      Cameras costing three to four hundred dollar are going to have flash sync-speeds only in the 125-250 range but I've seen ones costing four to five hundred that will sync at up to 1000. There are even some that have no sync limit at all and are capable of shooting flash at their maximum shutter speeds of up to 2000 or even 5000! A camera like this would allow you to get perfect flash-fill exposures with any shady side vs. dark side spread you would ever encounter.

      When you wish change the esthetic qualities of light.

      Besides changing the intensity of light, flash and reflector can also be used to change the direction from which the light illuminates the subject, change its color, or to diffuse or harden the light thereby softening or sharpening shadows.

      All on-camera flash photos look the same. Flat, harsh light with almost no shadows. This kind of light is called pin-point, single-source or "hard" light. Making matters worse is that this light is coming from the same angle the camera is using to record the image. Boorrriinng! This is the kind of light the DMV uses for your drivers licenses photo and the police for your. . . I mean a criminals, mug shot!

      Direct sunlight is single-point light. It differs from on-camera flash only in the angle from which it falls on the subject. This difference alone offers a considerable improvement in making a photo appear more natural but direct sunlight is also quite harsh (because it all comes from a single point) and results in the creation of deep, sharp-edged shadows.

      General skylight is just the opposite; it is non-directional. It comes from all over the sky and is referred to as diffuse, large-source or "soft" light. It creates ill-defined, soft-edged shadows in which detail can still be seen as opposed to the nearly black shadows of a single-point (hard) light source.

      Hard light is not very flattering of people. It makes them look haggard and older than their years. It changes the viewer's impression of their personalities making them appear menacing or mean-spirited. Hard light casts shadows into even the mildest of wrinkles and age lines making them stand out like road maps and hard-light shadows from the brow make eyes look dark, intense and brooding.

      Soft light appears to come from all around and is open and revealing, endearing and beautifying. It reduces wrinkles and allows the color and twinkle of the eye to show through. It is also the kind of light the eye and mind are most used to so creates a more natural appearing photograph.

      When using flash indoors you should limit the difference in EV between your flash and the ambient light to two or three stops (the flash being the brighter of the two). This will give you enough flash power to override the color problems of the interior lighting but still leave some shadowing under the brow and from the nose to partially alleviate the flat look of on-camera flash. Restricting the difference to only two or three EV will also prevent having your background fade into blackness.

      When using a reflector or shooting flash-fill outdoors don't add so much light as to completely eliminate the shadows. Just bring them up to a level that will soften their edges and record detail in the darker areas (one, or a maximum of two stops below the sunlight EV).

      Employing an off-camera strobe as the primary (key) light source and an on-camera strobe as the secondary (fill) light source is one of the most effective techniques I've ever discovered for taking the flat look out of indoor flash shots. The technique itself is quite simple but does require your camera have manual override capability of its auto-exposure system.

     You place the second head on a stand at a forty-five degree angle to your subject, a foot or two above head-high, and at a distance of five to ten feet. You set the power of the off-camera flash head one or two EV higher than that of the on-camera unit (depending on how strong a key/fill effect you want) and manually expose for the *off-camera* unit's EV.

      The off-camera head needs to either have a built-in "slave" triggering photocell or (much cheaper) be mounted on a head-to-stand adapter having the same. This will cause the off-camera head to be set off by the light from the on-camera unit; you don't even need to run a cable. If you don't have a slave capable second head or an adapter with a photocell trigger you can accomplish the same thing by using a trigger cable plugged into your camera's strobe-sync jack (assuming it has one). I am quite fond of this technique and use it for almost all my indoor photography. It's easy to do, requires carrying around only a second head and small stand (as opposed to hiring a lighting truck and gaffer to do three-point or portrait lighting) and adds a three dimensional element to my compositions that, in my opinion, greatly enhances the look of flash photos.

      Daylight is extremely harsh at mid-day (10 am to three pm). Using a reflector to soften this harsh light is a good idea even when not required to get the scene within the four EV dynamic range of your film. This softening effect is accomplished by placing your reflector a little further away, more in front of, and slightly lower than described in the section on compensating for extreme differences in overall scene brightness.

      Reflectors are also often used to alter the color of the lighting. Most store-bought reflectors are silver on one side and gold on the other. In the harsh, mid-day light described above using the golden side will not only soften the light but will "warm" it (reduce the blue, enhance the red). This warming is every bit as beautifying and endearing as the softening the reflector provides; especially for women and children.

      If, like me, you are using cheap, home-made, foamcore reflectors placing a sheet of yellow, gold, orange, pink or red plastic film over your reflector will accomplish the same thing. And using these plastic films (available from photo shops and theatrical supply houses) gives you a lot more options than just the silver or gold of a purchased reflector. These films, called jells, can also be placed in front of your flash if your camera's auto exposure system can accommodate filtering of the built-in strobe. Too much color change looks un-natural, though, so unless you're going for a dramatic effect be subtle, don't overdo it.

      When to Filter:

     Not all light is created equally. Different sources emit light of different colors. Any given film type will record colors accurately only when exposed under the kind of light for which it is designed. Filters must be employed whenever the color of the source light is incompatible with the film type being used. Indoors you will often need to correct for the green cast of fluorescent tubes and/or red cast of incandescent light bulbs. Outdoors you are always dealing with two different light sources of different color; direct sunlight, which is basically white, and sky light, which has an inherent blue cast. Further complicating things outdoors is the fact that atmospheric conditions can dramatically alter the color of both sun and sky light.

      Indoors:

      Indoors under fluorescent or incandescent light you have two choices. Use an incandescent or fluorescent filter or simply overpower the ambient light with flash. To overpower the interior lighting your flash needs to be at least two stops (two EV) brighter than the ambient light level--three is better. Take an exposure reading with your flash turned off and another with it enabled. If the recommended exposure with flash allows you to decrease aperture or increase shutter speed by at least two steps you can probably get away with using flash without a filter. If you can't get at least two EV above the ambient light with your flash then you'll have to use the appropriate color-correcting filter.

      Overpowering with flash is preferable to filtering because without very expensive color metering equipment you don't really know just how green or red the fluorescent or incandescent light actually is. This leaves you guessing at what level of filtration to use so overpower with flash whenever you can. Remember, however, that your flash can't light up a whole room. Overpowering with flash only works on subjects shot at close range--that range depending on the power of your flash head. Objects in the background will still be discolored by the fluorescent or incandescent ambient light.

      Worst case occurs when forced to work in mixed light. Many buildings have green-casting fluorescents embedded in the ceiling and red-casting incandescent fixtures or chandeliers hanging below. Add a window spilling sunlight into the mix and the lighting becomes color chaos.

      If there is no sunlight in the mix, only fluorescent and incandescent, then you still have your same two options; filter or overpower. The difference is that if you choose to filter you will have to use both filters. That's OK because they are designed to screw one into the other (it makes no difference which you put on first).

      If the mix includes sunlight then it depends on which is brighter, the sunlight or the fluorescence and incandescents.

      If the sunlight is equal to or brighter than the interior light then boost the sunlight with your flash and don't filter.

      If the interior light is brighter than the sunlight but still two EV down from your strobe power also use flash and no filters.

      If, however, the mixed interior light is stronger than the sunlight and too bright to get the necessary two EV difference with your flash then use both your fluorescent and your incandescent filters and no flash.

      Outdoors:

      Outdoor film is color balanced for the slightly blue combination of direct sunlight and general skylight encountered on clear days. This normal daylight becomes increasingly blue as the sky thickens from clear to hazy to mostly cloudy to heavy overcast. Unless you are fortunate enough to live in a place having exceptionally clear skies you will seldom encounter the normal daylight your film is balanced to so some level of filtering is almost always required when shooting outdoors. You will typically be filtering to eliminate the excess blue due to hazy or overcast conditions. However, if you live in a densely populated urban area that sometimes suffers significant air pollution you may occasionally find yourself having to filter in the opposite direction (to eliminate excess red) on smoggy days.

      Unless you can afford a color attachment for your light meter you are going to have to guess at which filter to use based on the condition of the sky. Even on clear days I always use a 1A "sky" filter. Under hazy skies I use an 81A. Under skies more than half covered by clouds I use an 81B, and under solid overcast an 81C. When conditions are border-line and you're not sure which filter to use then employ a technique called "filter bracketing." I.e.; shoot the photo twice, once with each possibly correct filter.

      Deep shade is also quite blue, like a heavy sky. When shooting a subject in deep shade on a clear day use an 81A. On hazy or partly cloudy days use the stronger 81B or 81C for deep shade, or else enhance with flash. When shooting in shade on solid overcast days use flash even if your auto-exposure system says you don't need it.

      Daylight also changes color with the time of day. Early morning and late afternoon daylight is considerably warmer (less blue) than mid-day daylight. Daylight right around both sunrise and sunset is down right amber. This early/late daylight is also very soft (highly diffused) and devoid of harsh shadows. I find it quite flattering to women and highly endearing to children. These qualities should be taken advantage of whenever appropriate. However, if you find yourself shooting at these times of day and wishing to retain a natural look and more accurate color reproduction an 82 "morning/evening" filter (or the stronger 82A) can be used to filter out this warmth.

      When I lived in the San Fernando Valley (a section of Los Angeles) I occasionally found it necessary to use an 82 morning/evening filter to take the extra warmth (red) out of very smoggy daylight. The tip-off for when to use a filter for smog is when the air is so polluted it turns the sun orange hours before sunset.

     

Composition:

      Composition is a matter of esthetics and, therefore, highly subjective. If I were to lay down a set of "rules" on how to compose your shots I'm sure every other photographer on the planet would argue with at least some of them. There are, however, a few basic concepts one can use as guidelines and a number of classic mistakes that need to be avoided.

      Focal point:

      A well composed photograph always has a main point of focus; a center of attention to which you wish to draw the viewers eye. When shooting people this point of focus is usually the face; in tightly framed close-ups it is the eyes.

      The viewer's eye is drawn to bright areas more readily than dark ones so unless you are intentionally tying to create a sense of mystery about your subject their face needs to be well lit. Your first exposure reading should be taken directly on the subject's face and you shouldn't settle on a final exposure setting more than one EV below the face reading regardless of the brightness of the rest of the scene.

      Avoid juxtaposition of the face with other bright objects in the scene. If shooting in strong backlight use a reflector or flash-fill to bring the face up to no more than one EV below the background. If this is not practical then expose for the facial reading and let the background burn out. (i've had a lot of problems, however, with automated processing equipment "correcting" for burned out backgrounds by balancing the entire photo for brightness during printing; leaving my subject's face in darkness even when I deliberately exposed for it!)

      I currently live and work in the Southern California desert. Hats, sunglasses and white and brightly colored clothing are very popular here. Ask subjects to remove their hats and/or sunglasses. If they choose not to comply then use a reflector or flash to fill in under the hat brim.

      Don't allow your auto-exposure system to be fooled by bright clothing. Make sure you are getting your metering off of the face and not the apparel. Your camera's instruction manual should tell you the angular width of the area the system measures. Get your camera close enough to the face to insure that is what it is reading, lock in the setting, and then step back to your chosen shooting position.

      Avoid messy, distracting backgrounds. If this is not practical then de-emphasize the background by adjusting depth-of-field to throw it out of focus or use flash or reflector to brighten the subject, thereby darkening the background; or do both.

      Avoid vertical objects directly behind the subject, even ones at a considerable distance. There are a lot of palm trees here in the desert. I have way too many photos of people who appear to have one of these trees growing out of the top of their head. The same holds true for backgrounds with strong horizontal elements. Avoid having a row of buildings, a fence line or a roadway running behind the head. Adjust your composition to place these things above or below the face. Strong lines in any plane should draw the eye along the line *to* your subject rather than leading it away from them.

      Head & nose room:

      We've all seen snapshots cutting off the top of the subject's head. However, too much head-room (empty space above the head) isn't all that much better. How much head-room to allow is dependent on the amount of body included in the shot. For full length, standing body shots (typically shot in the vertical frame alignment) about one foot above the head and below the feet is pretty good. As you move in to tighter compositions showing less and less of the body the amount of head-room needs to get progressively smaller. By the time you get in to the close-up of only the face and part of the neck head-room should be down to about an inch.

      In deciding where to cut people off when not shooting the whole body (which will be most of the time) don't cut them off at the joints. If shooting a tight close-up place the bottom of the frame at the Adams-apple, not at the top or bottom of the neck. For a tight head-and-shoulders shot cut them off at the armpits; for a loose head-and-shoulders shot cut them off between the breast and the waist, not at the waist. A waist-up shot should really be cut off just above mid-thigh, not at the waist; a knees-up shot should be cut just above mid-calf, not at the knees.

      Avoid placing the head in the middle of the frame if the subject is not looking directly into the camera. Leave a little extra nose-room in the direction they are looking. This gives the viewer a sense of there being something "over there" in the direction they are looking without having to shoot so wide as to show what that something is. I use a ratio of two-to-one; twice as much room on the side they are looking toward as on the other. The same holds true for subjects who are in motion across the frame; there should be twice as much empty space in front of them as there is behind them. This gives a sense of "where they're going" without having to show it.

Symmetry & balance:

      Artistic photographers will probably shoot me for saying this, but I believe, in a picture taken for the purposes of photojournalism, the subject(s) of the photo should take center stage. Unbalanced composition depicting vast amounts of empty space for the subject to relate to or to define context are fine for artistic photography, and even portraits, but not for journalism. A journalistic photo should get directly to the point and that point should be self-evident. The photograph should tell its story as succinctly and directly as do the words of the article it supports. Unless you have damn good reason to do otherwise put your subject(s) in the center of the frame. Considerations such as providing nose-room for subjects not looking into the camera and directional reference for subjects in motion should be understated, not exaggerated.

     A journalistic photo typically consists of two elements: Its subject and some object or setting designed to provide a context tying that subject to the story. The subject should be predominate, the context-providing elements obvious but secondary.

Camera angle:

      The angle from which you choose to shoot your subject has a significant impact on how that subject will be perceived. The perception created should support the relationship between the subject and your story and help put the person in context.

      Shooting down on your subject (camera above the top of their head) diminishes them, making them appear less than they really are. Shooting up at them (camera at or below their waist) enhances them, making them appear larger-than-life. Camera heights between chest and eye level are neutral in this regard.

      Shooting a person square-on with head and chest both facing directly into the camera is more formal and authoritarian than shooting from a slight angle to one side or the other. Shooting the body at a greater angle but with the head turned directly into the camera is a casual angle. Shooting with both head and body at an angle but with the eyes turned back into the camera is even more so. In all of these examples the more acute the angle the more pronounced the effect.

      Shooting a person with body, head and eyes all at an angle to the camera moves you away from posed photography and into the realm of candid photography. Many "candid" shots are indeed posed but the line between posed and candid is crossed when the subject appears to be unaware of the camera. Whether they really are or not is irrelevant to the effect.

      Lets apply these variations in angle to the composition of photographs for two different stories featuring the same subject, a corporate executive. The first story is about the great success he has brought to the company. The second is about his participation in a charity event to which his company is a major contributor.

      For the first story you would probably want a very formal composition. You would shoot him in his corporate offices and business attire employing a nearly square-on angle and from a camera height slightly below neutral. For the second story you would most likely shoot him at the event in casual attire and employing a less formal composition; shooting him a bit from the side and at a completely neutral camera height.

      Posed photographs shot from apparently candid angles are terrific for establishing context. You might shoot him simply doing whatever it is he does at the event, relating to the people around him while seemingly unaware of (not looking into) the camera. The key here is to insure he is the focal point of the composition. The classic example of this would be to have him standing, center frame but at a slight angle, looking down at one of the "context subjects" with them all seated and looking up at him. In this composition the subject would dominate the entire top half of the frame. The viewer's eyes would also be drawn to the principal subject by the mutual gaze of all the lesser subjects.

      You could also isolate the subject doing something related to the event. Lets say it's a pancake breakfast. Shoot him at the griddle in his cook's apron and funny hat flipping a pancake. Use an angle of about thirty degrees and a neutral camera height. Catch him with his eyes on the cake as it tumbles in the air.

      The point is your photograph should tell as much of your story as possible. The compositional elements you employ are how you tell the story and camera angle determines how those elements are viewed. If the story is about the Acme Corp. charity breakfast for the disabled you want a photo that causes viewers to say, "Oh look, there's the president of Acme Corp. flipping pancakes at the breakfast for crippled kids. Isn't that nice."

Scope & scale:

      Print publications vary widely in graphic design. Newspapers typically emphasize text while mags tend to emphasize photographs. The physical size in which your photos will ultimately appear must be given significant consideration in deciding how "big" to shoot. The scale in which your photographs are published is typically determined by the photo's place in the pub (cover story, featured article, back-of-the-book secondary story, etc.) and the pub's inclinations in layout and graphic design. Ask the editor how much space they intend to give your photograph. Look at back copies of the pub to get a feel for how much space photos for stories like yours usually get.

      The amount of detail a photo can present to its viewer is a squared function. A three-by-three photo has nine square inches of area in which to tell its story. A two-by-two image, although only one inch smaller per side, has less than half that amount; only four square inches. A six-by-six picture covers 36 square inches and provides almost a full order of magnitude above a two-by-two image in which to show detail.

      Photos that are going to run in a small size must be shot tight and kept simple in composition. Photos that will run in a larger size can be more expansive in scope and include more compositional elements and detail. As a semi-pro photojournalist you are primarily going to be shooting people. With people, the face is the thing. In a photo shot from the waist up and printed in a five-by-five space, that knowing smile and glint in the eye may reveal a great deal of the subject's personality. That same smile and glint, however, will be utterly lost if the same picture is run two-by-two. In the latter case the face would have to be shot in a tight close-up to reveal those characteristics.

      Browse through a few papers and mags paying attention to the relative scope of various sized photographs. This will help you develop an eye for how big or small to shoot your pictures for the space you think they are going to get. BR>

      Well, that's pretty much it. It's probably more than you need to know to get you started and it is certainly far more than I intended. When I began this project my aim was to write a 5,000 word short story length introduction to photography. I've ended up with a novella length 25,000 word non-fiction work which I may be forced to submit to St. Martin's.

      I'll leave you with two closing thoughts:

      First, practice:

      Just as learning to write requires that you put your butt in the chair and write, write, write, learning photography requires that you shoot, shoot, shoot. Analyze each of your pictures with the same critical eye you apply to your writing. When you take a photo you like try and figure out what it is about it that pleases you. When you take a bad photo (and you will take far more bad than good, even after you become accomplished) try and figure out what went wrong. Is the problem in the lighting, in the composition or is there a technical error?

      Secondly, learn from others:

      Pick up every magazine you run across and look at the photos. Apply the same analytical process to these you do to your own pictures. Which ones do you like--and why? Which ones fail to move you and why? Do you like movies? Film cinematographers are some of the best photographers in the world. Go to the video store and rent The Bear, Avalon, Cinema Paradisio and Under The Sheltering Sky (btw; that last is NOT appropriate for children). Watch them with a critical eye toward the lighting, composition and camera angle of each scene. Go to the library and check out Masters of Light. This is a book of conversations with a dozen of the best cinematographers in the business. In it, they discuss in detail how they composed and lit specific scenes in their films and why they shot them just that way.

      You should be able to assemble all the equipment you'll need for 700 to 800 dollars (60% to 65% for the camera, 35% to 40% for accessories). From there it's up to you; practice, practice, practice.

Hope you've found your time spent here worthwhile,

Gary