I have been interested in photography since I was a teenager. However, as so often happens to all of us, life gets in the way of our interests and passions sometimes. Jobs, mortgages, kids, and family responsibilities become our priority in what I have come to call the “First Act” of our lives. Having successfully raised two children into adulthood and recently retired from our jobs, my wife and I have now entered what I refer to as the “Second Act” of our lives.
From street to landscape, from portrait to travel – the 35mm is an all-around lens, and it can be used for shooting basically anything. But what about concert photography, where a zoom lens is the norm? Is it any good there as well? This article covers some practical suggestions for photographing concerts with a 35mm lens, along with broader concert photography tips in general.
When you think of backlight, you often think of beautiful settings outside.
But is outdoors the only option for backlighting your images?
Absolutely not! This is how I use backlight indoors…
So first thing’s first, just like when you use backlight outdoors, you have to find the right spot for backlight indoors. That means locating a window that will give you the backlight you want.
I prefer to use bright sunlight when backlighting indoors but soft, cloudy light works, too. I’ll get back to that.
So take a look around your house. What do your windows look like? When does the sun shine through them and how does it look? What time of the day during what time of the year is the sun low enough to shine in the right place?
Our house has lots of good sized windows but only one where the sun shines the right way so I can use it for backlight. It’s an east facing window. This is important because the direction of the window will give you a clue where the sun will be.
Also, it’s only during early spring and early fall the the light will fall into this window low enough to use it for backlight! So in July, when the sun basically never sets here, it’s way too high to use for backlight at this window.
So, both seasons and time of day matter. This is my child hanging out in my favorite window on a glorious but freezing winter day. Perfect for indoor backlight!
This kind of direct light is also fun to play with and you can get really creative with it.
I always make my daughter do hair flips because it looks ah-mazing in backlight. She has gotten so used to me asking, that she just does it anyway now.
This is not the best light for portraits so it’s fun use your imagination. Sometimes light is your main subject and this is the perfect time for that.
One thing to consider is underexposing your backlit images so you don’t lose too much detail in the highlights. Then you can easily recover your shadows when editing.
If you live in a country where the sun doesn’t shine for most of the year like I do, you can still backlight with softer light.
One thing to think about is what is outside the window because that will be much more visible with soft light. In this shot I had to clone out a few bits and pieces of my neighbours red tiles to get the clean look I wanted.
With this kind of light you have to be careful not to underexpose as you will end up with a silhouette. It’s so different from a sunny day but still so dreamy!
Different fabrics or curtains are a great way of enhancing a backlit indoor photo. It can also take away from distractions in the background.
In the following photo, the distractions of the windows on the building in the background are a bit obscured by the curtains. They also add some texture and lines.
Texture and lines are usually interesting to look at. I intentionally underexposed this shot because I like drama and it makes the backlight pop.
So I realise that windows like the ones above can be hard to come by. They are certainly not in your everyday home. But when you do come across them, the result can be magical.
I took this next shot at the POLIN Museum in Warsaw. We ended up here by chance and I never would’ve imagined that I would run into a window with this magical light.
Luckily, I bring my camera everywhere. And you should, too!
Go to your local library or museum. It’s also be an excuse to get out with your family. It doesn’t have to be a grand museum in a big city, these places are everywhere. My point is that you need to look for light and opportunity and you need to be prepared when you find it.
On a final note, when shooting backlight, just taking a step to the side can change the image completely.
If I had taken a step to the left at the POLIN Museum, I would have had an image that was full of direct sunlight. It would’ve been a very different image.
This is the beauty of backlight, it’s so versatile. So find a good window and work some magic!
The post Can you backlight your indoor photos? Yes you can! appeared first on Clickin Moms blog: Helping you take better pictures one day at a time.
Clickin Moms blog: Helping you take better pictures one day at a time
As photographers, it is important for us to establish a consistent and accurate editing environment, which means that ideally, we should be looking at an accurate representation of colors in photographs in order to properly post-process them. Because of this, our output devices such as monitors and printers should always be properly calibrated to reproduce accurate colors consistently. With Apple being a key player in the photography industry with its iMac, MacBook and Mac Pro hardware, specifically tailoring products for enthusiast and professional needs, there seems to be a great deal of misunderstanding and confusion about these products, their factory calibration / out-of-the-box accuracy and the proper process of calibrating them. Unfortunately, many photographers seem to think that they don’t need to worry about calibration at all with Apple products, which is certainly not the case. In this article, we will go over the process of calibrating Apple iMac and iMac Pro displays using an X-Rite i1Display Pro colorimeter along with DisplayCAL software, and demonstrate why properly calibrating such hardware is extremely important.
In an era when everyone has a sophisticated camera on their mobile phone, and we all share our travel experiences on social media, it is easy to start thinking, everything was photographed already, and I have nothing to contribute. The challenge for travel photographers today is to succeed in creating new and refreshing representations of our world. Is it possible? Probably so, but you will need to put in some effort. This article covers a few of the most important tips you need to know in order to capture great travel pictures and tell visual stories during your trips.
