April 2013

Your photo journey starts here “In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true ex-pertise: ten thousand hours.”

― Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success

Photography has been a more than a passion of mine since 1977 (cough). It is hard to say that without choking just a bit. Since 1977 I have put in my 10,000 hours. Some of those hours I was mentored and many others through days and days of loitering in the photography section in local book stores. (Back then we didn’t have

coffee shops and dessert bars inside them) I used to refer to myself as ‘self-taught’ as I had no con-ventional schooling but later realized I am not giving credit to the authors whose books I have read and photos I have mimicked. My goal with this intended monthly collection is to take on the role in guiding as-piring photographers with technique, concept and other ways to move you to the next level. For those of you who don’t know me let me share some of my credentials with you. First, I am currently a Canon

user but that doesn’t matter. Nikon is great, Sony is close to great as are others. It is all about the user, right? Weddings were a big part

of my weekend work and income when I started work-ing professionally in the early

See INTRO page 4

I love my iPhone for a num-ber of reasons very few relate to the device actually being used as a phone. As good as the camera func-tion is on the phone it should never replace a ‘real’ camera for anyone more than a nov-ice that just wants to collect snapshots. Let me share the downside before I share the excellent. First, the sensor is very small. This limits the amount of cropping you can do and limits how large of a print you can make. Next, even though it has a ‘flash’ the small beacon of light offers such little range

indoors and doesn’t seem to cover the same angle of the lens leaving you with dark, unlit edges. Now for the fun part of the marriage between the iPhone and photography. There are Apps that will enhance your images, organize your im-ages, make them look retro without having to leave them in a sunny window for twenty years. I just looked at my iPhone and counted 32 apps just for taking photos and another 16 or so for editing and tweak-ing. So many choices. Each has its own purpose but the own I use most is Pro

HDR (http://ow.ly/jPxIL ). It is also available for Android devices. Let me give you a quick run down of what HDR is before I get into the app. HDR stands for High Dynam-ic Range. The camera is not as

HDR in your mobile device

See HDR page 4

As you get more comfort-able in the Photoshop platform and work with layers it would be best to get in the habit of naming each layer by double click-ing it and then typing in a one or two word descrip-tion. Trust me, when you have your first 24-layer document you will be glad you did.

When photographing an subject (live or inanimate), shoot it from multiple angles and make about 15-20 different images. You will be surprised when you see them on thebig screen when editing.

Baseball is my favorite sport to watch but my least favorite to shoot (It’s actually a tie with bowling). Shooting sports is one of my favorite events to shoot. There is action and expres-sion. It is relatively unpredict-able. When asked what advice I would give to an aspiring sports photographer my response was to know the sport. Sure, it sounds simple. Most of us know four quarters in basketball, three outs to an inning in baseball etc. etc. I know football, baseball, basketball, surfing, swim-ming, diving, track just from having a youth of my own. Recently our area high

schools added lacrosse to the mix. I know nothing of lacrosse. Before heading to the first match I have ever shot I spent about three hours online the night before cramming some rules, terminol-ogy and play strategy. It helped but it was a few die hard parents on the sidelines that set me straight and showed me what to look for. Ironically, each tip involved their child. Know the game you are at-tending. If it is baseball then

know who has the ability to steal a base. If it is basketball watch the practice before the game. That will allow a little insight how they pass and

execute. It is the nuances of

the game that will make the best

images. There is a game within a game and if you can capture that

then you have your perfect

shot. Once you have

taken the image you now have to work on it in Adobe Photoshop to make it perfect. Look for where the activ-ity of the image is. Find the

visual verb. Look around that area and see what else is use-less to that action. Is there a parent on a cell phone in the background? Is there a player just standing there because he is not involved at that mo-ment? Is there any annoying signage that may be distract-ing? Any of those should be cropped out best possible. I am all about getting it right ‘in-camera’ as much as possible but with sports you don’t always have that luxury. I may just be able to offer a better piece of advice about shooting sports. If you see me on the east side of the field then you should shoot on the west side. NOTHING good ever happens near me.

The image on the left is how it was taken and the final image for publication is on the right. The only way I could have gotten closer would be in a boat and that wasn’t happening. I cropped just to the area where the surfer in the back was removed. I increased contrast to the color of the water and the red shirt in addition to adding a little sharpening filter to give some pop.

The best way to be a great sports photographer is to learn from the established photogra-phers. Remember, when looking at their images think where they were positioned. Were they in the rafters? Were they laying on the ground? If there are 30 (or even 5) photographers all clumped together break from the herd. You want your images to stand apart from others. Here are a few resources that

can get you there. You can’t ever go wrong with the artists that work for Sports Illustrated (and I don’t only refer to the swimsuit issue). Each week they post ‘Recent Galleries’ at http://ow.ly/jPDDV to showcase a bunch of event including many images that there wasn’t room for in the print edition. Nikon has a comprehensive gallery and when you type ‘sports’ into the search you will

get a great array of images to scope through.http://ow.ly/jPDLC 500PX is the sweetest site for some amazing amateurs and pros. See what shows up at this sports link. http://ow.ly/jPE5D. I look forward to hearing how well you do at your next sports event. You can always email me your images to mitch@mitchpix.com

1980s.I calculated that I have shot over 3,500 of them. Event photography has been another avenue I have notched a bunch of hours in my photo belt followed by portraits, fam-ily, sports, advertising, travel, and of course where I lay my hat now with community pho-tojournalism. Each month I will offer up

tips, tutorials, advice on pho-tography and the workflow that follows. I am also looking to answer specific questions so please feel free to email them to me for next edition. Click on the subscribe link on the ISSUU page and tell every-one you know that. I look forward to sharing some mind blowing photo tips with you!

INTRO from page 2

complex as the human eye. When we look at a scene, let’s say Bryce Canyon at 2pm, we can see the sunlit areas and still see detail in the shaded areas blocked from sun. The camera will make an at-tempt at balancing that varying contrast and either washout the lit areas to make the shaded areas viewable or to-tally darken the shaded areas to properly expose the well-lit part of the scene. When you take the photo

with the app you have to remain as still as possible and have no people moving (unless you want the effect of ghosts in your images). The app will make two im-ages. One of the darker part of the scene and the other of the lightest areas. Next, the two images will be merged to form one amazing image. As long as you use the app that will best show off your high contrast subject area you will love the results.

HDR from page 2

I want to hear from you!Send me a question.

Send me a tip.Send me a photo asking

why it came out a certain way.

mitch@mitchpix.com

I look forward to yourinput!

Did you ever look at a photo you had taken and wished the subject wore a different color dress or tie?

No worries. It is an easy fix once you know how. Take my subject here, Mark Rodgers with a very

nice purple tie. Later we decided blue would have worked better for where the image was go-ing to be used. Start by make a selection of the item that needs the color change whether it be a tie, dress, top…whatever. When you have the ‘marching ants’ around it hit CTRL-J (CMD on Mac)

to copy it to another layer. Making sure the new layer is highlighted in the layer palette go to Image Adjustments Hue/Saturation from the drop down menu at the top. Move the Hue slider in both directions until you see the color you would like the object to be. Slide the saturation slider just below it to adjust its intensity. When you have what you want merge all of your lay-ers (CTRL-SHIFT-E) and now

save your new with a different name including the new color so you can differentiate it in your list of images. Now go TA_DAAAH!