Global Update

We easily acquire tips to photograph flowers, people, and still life. Yet one subject that often doesn’t have clear cut tips and directions is photographing tattoos. This subject is art in itself, and to effectively shoot this piece requires not only patience and an eye for composition, but also tips from people that have already done it.

Tip one: Do not use a tripod unless you have a specific effect (e.g blur) in mind. It is likely going to limit your moving around and will take extra time to set up for each shot.

Tip two: If possible, shoot outside if you’re new to the game, or use great window light, it’s so much easier. Pay attention to clutter and distractions though. Be aware of what’s in the frame, what’s out of the frame, and make decisions on what to include or chop.

Tip Three:  Easier light to handle might be around sunset time or on a cloudy day with diffused light. A reflector like white cardboard can help if needed.

Tip Four: If you already know how to work with flash and/or are comfortable with your technique, feel free to shoot in a tattoo shop if you get the permission. You’ll likely get cool effects if you try slower shutter speeds on their own and/or mixed with flash.

You can find loads of fine tattoo photography in the gallery at vanishingtatoo.com

Photography podcast #72 discusses how to use exposure compensation. It’s a fairly simple concept that just means deviating away from (or compensating against)  the camera meter’s recommended exposure to make the image brighter or darker. We also talk about which camera modes you’ll want to use exposure compensation with, and I discuss why program mode sucks and should be avoided. Even though exposure compensation in photography is an easy concept, I discuss the reasoning behind it, why I frequently use it and why you should too.

The exposure compensation dial on the Canon G10

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

Original suggestion thread from our forum – Thanks Iggy!
September’s “New Beginnings” assignment on the Photography.ca forum
Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook
My Facebook profile – Feel free to “friend” me
My Twitter page – I will follow you if you follow me (Hey that’s a Gabriel lyric) – Let’s connect

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly Photography forum

Thanks to Nijip, jacklabel, jabber and Tom Restis who posted a blog comment about our last podcast. Thanks as always to everyone that sent comments by email about our last podcast. Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board.

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So you are into your DSLR or SLR, and cannot imagine using another camera… especially a point and shoot camera, right? Well they are often a good thing to have on hand in addition to your DSLR .

Point and shoots (P&S) aren’t ideal for learning photography. In fact they are a bad choice. Why? Because you can’t do many important things on most point and shoots (like change lenses, learn to manually focus a lens, manually meter easily, change shutter speeds easily etc.) that are essential when learning photography.

But – for someone that already knows photography, a point and shoot is very convenient due to its way smaller size. Many photographers want to have a camera with them at all times because there are always photographic possibilities around us.

Would I ever bring a point and shoot to a paying gig?  Maybe as a 3rd emergency backup. The cliche about not bringing a knife to a gunfight holds true for paying gigs and cheap cameras. But when I’m not shooting, I want to relax without all the gear. I still need to carry protection (the P&S ) though, just in case.

Which point and shoot should you get?  There’s way too many out there to list. One that I have my eye on that seems like it may be tasty treat is the Canon PowerShot G11. It’s supposed to be out in October. Buying/ordering through the B&H link above helps support the site. Thx.

Yesterday I went to see the Underdog photography exhibition in Montreal. It’s a gallery specifically opened to sell beautiful prints of shelter dogs AND have dogs there at the gallery (from shelters across Montreal) that are available for adoption. The photographs are by photographer Jaime LeBlanc and they are well done indeed. All the money from the sale of the images goes to shelters. This image was taken at the exhibition yesterday with my cameraphone.

Today was supposed to be the last day until 7pm at 4922 Sherbrooke W. (514) 969 3376
BUT the response has been so amazing that they are continuing the exhibition for a short while.

We’re in the digital age, so why mess with a good thing by setting up an ancient darkroom? Well, setting up a dark room offers so much ‘hands on’ knowledge; it’s far more practical for learning photographic printing than you may think. The principals and tools of Photoshop were partially based on how photographers worked in the darkroom. Curves, levels, cropping, sharpening, multiple exposure printing, dodging and burning are just some of the things photographers have been doing in darkrooms for generations.

Here’s 4 reasons why darkroom printing rocks;

1 – There’s that special ’something’ that comes from doing the majority of the work with your own hands. It is far more satisfying to produce a print in the darkroom than by pressing the print button on your printer. Ask any good darkroom printer that has done both, they’ll tell ya. It’s true that darkroom printing takes longer and its precision is less accurate than digital; and yet it’s still more satisfying.
2 – Since everybody is going digital your work will stand out if you stay traditional.
3-  YOUR work will never be doomed to spending its life on a hard drive or on a few websites, you’ll always have beautiful prints to hold and show off.
4 – I have a sneaking suspicion that darkroom prints printed today will be more valuable than the same image printed digitally. Why? Because every darkroom print is somewhat unique and traditionally, unique items have more value than mass produced ones.

If you decide to set up a darkroom here’s a few things to be aware of. Before you start your darkroom make a floor plan of the room so you can more or less know how to layout the wet side and the dry side.  Will you be processing b&w and/or color? Colour printing is more complex (and requires a different enlarger) than b/w printing so it’s probably best to start with black and white. A good exhaust system is highly recommended as the chemicals you’ll use (unless you buy a processing machine) are toxic.

What’s great to know is that because everybody and their uncle has gone digital, there are amazing deals on used darkroom equipment. Ebay is your friend!So get your feet wet! Enjoy a getaway from the digital everyday…More on darkrooms here in our photography forum