Posts Tagged ‘digital photography lessons’
© Tim Pannell Photography
I’ve been looking around at some of the “photo blogs” that are out on the internet lately and there is one thing that has really surprised me. Why do so many of the blogs use the exact same template with almost identical images to other “photo blogs?” Heck…..even some of the verbage is word for word the same as other blogs. The images almost always look like they were shot by the same person as well.
I’m disappointed that so many just go out and copy the work of someone that is basically already copying the work of Anne Geddes. Not only is that plagiarism, but it is as far as one can get from true creativity.
© Tim Pannell Photography
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with getting inspiration from someone’s work or vision and using that as a starting point or jumping off point…….but to do the same shot and then call it your own…..that’s not what photography should be about.
My advice……try harder. If you want to recreate someone else’s work as an assignment to learn a technique…..that’s great…..just don’t promote it as your own work. Any self respecting professional photographer knows there are laws in place to protect against that and would never do this.
There is a big difference between owning a professional digital camera and being a professional photographer. I’m a little taken aback by all of the misrepresentation going on of late. My niece is getting married in August and gave me a list of several “wedding” photographers’ websites to look at.
To my surprise….they were all just bloggers. All of them did something else for a living and did photography because it was their “passion.” Each of these blogs featured ” fully retouched or “edited” images” awash in posteriziation, clipped highlights and clipped shadows. Many of the images were very beautiful. Interesting crops, interesting use of available light (only available light) very limited scenarios because of their inability to do anything other than just point their camera and shoot.
This is a recipe for a wedding disaster. If you’re looking for a wedding photographer….don’t hire a blogger……get a professional that knows what they’re doing….it’s worth the extra money.
They initially wanted me to shoot their wedding, but I declined because even though I’m a professional in the biz for over 25 years….I don’t shoot weddings. It’s not what I’m good at and it wouldn’t be fair to them to misrepresent myself.
If you’re learning photography……admit it. If you’re still struggling with Photoshop……admit it. Don’t promote yourself as a professional baby, teenager, wedding photographer when you are consistently posterizing every one of your images that happens to have red in it. It’s not honest.
That being said……we all start somewhere….just be yourself…..not Anne Geddes, not your next door neighbor, not me.
© Tim Pannell Photography
Learn your craft so that you can try new things and experiment. It’s when you experiment that you come up with images that can look unique. Unique is a lofty goal to aim at since seemingly almost anything worth doing has already been done, but I think you get the point.
I spent a couple of days last week shooting with an art director friend of mine from New York. It was a blast to be working together again. It’s kind of like this intricately intertwined photography dance we have going. She knows me well and I know her well and consequently its a joy to shoot together….she brings out my best.
We spent several hours on a neighbors porch. She had so many wonderful knick knacks all over the place that made for wonderful props for my kids and families to use.
It felt a lot like play time for me as well as the models. We wanted the images to have kind of dreamy whimsical quality to them. We chose specific colors in the wardrobe and props to achieve that.
My personal opinion is…..it worked.
In any case…..don’t copy other people’s work or websites or text……it’s not ethical.
Sorry I got off on a rant there…..ooops…..I’ve just plagiarized Dennis Miller……ahhhh crap!
Just go out and play, have fun……..try something new and different………and most importantly…….be yourself!
digital portrait lighting © Tim Pannell Photography
Where do you start when you want to help people take better photographs of their children?
I remember when I started out taking pictures when I was in High School I knew absolutely nothing. I was a blank slate. I had nothing.
I had friends that had been taking pictures for years, so I relied heavily on them to show me the ropes. Them and whatever crappy photo books I could get my hands on at the time.
I learned your basics about exposure, f stops, shutter speeds, lens choices and that was about it.
I shot scenics and some pictures (lousy ones) of my girlfriend at the time. When I look back I’m completely embarrassed at how bad my stuff
Portrait Lighting Setup
was at the time.
My lens choices were crap, my angles were all wrong and even my exposures could have been tidied up a bit.
I didn’t know anything about cropping, but mostly I didn’t know a thing about light or the quality of light.
I didn’t realize at the time just how important great light is to an image. That’s really what separates the men from the boys. LIGHT!
My friends did the best they could. they taught me everything they knew. They got their info from other friends and other crappy photo books that were available.
I’m gonna skip ahead a few years. Suffice it to say that I really enjoyed photography, but had yet to be exposed to anything that really helped me a lot.
I decided to turn pro when I was in college for Design Engineering and Economics. I was going to go on and get an Architect’s license after that.
I had about a year left and made a huge change in direction when I decided out of the blue that I really just wanted to be a photographer.
I started out shooting weddings and engagement portraits. It was fun for about a week or two and then it started getting really repetitive and boring.
I began pouring through commercial photography books, Communication Arts, Photography Showcase and the Black Book of Photography.
I would spend weeks and even months going over the images in those books one by one, identifying all the images I liked and then trying to understand what it was I liked about them.
This is when I really started to learn about the importance of great light. I would then pick an image that I loved and then I’d go out and do my best to reproduce that image.
This wasn’t for my portfolio, it was just an exercise to learn about lighting. I set about to learn what kind of photography moved me so consequently I would know what avenue of photography to pursue.
So, ask yourself, what kind of photographs have you seen that you really like? Have you actually seen great photography of kids?
Do you like images that look like classic portraiture or do you like images that have more of an editorial feel? Do you prefer images that lean a bit more towards a commercial look?
Maybe you like a little bit of everything and that’s fine too. The more you play with photography, the more you’ll come to recognize your particular vision and way of seeing things. This is the fun part!!
As you learn how to apply different photographic principles to your images, you’ll be able to see photographs and figure out how to go about producing those types of images. That’s at least the ultimate goal.
Seek out great photography, learn all of the child photography tips you can get your hands on, get yourself a target to aim at and let the adventure and fun begin.
