Photography and Writing | Don't be scared

Couch in a Room at Garden City Hotel. © Ronda Birtha

Imagine the scene:

You purchase your first Point & Shoot (P&S) digital camera and media card, and begin taking photos of everything that you never bothered looking at with interest before: the light cutting across a couch in a hotel room, the camouflage pattern in tree bark, the ice vine hanging at Frank’s Creek in Robbinsville.

With even a limited budget, many people can purchase a modest digital “point & shoot” (P & S) camera, load the media card with images and have the images printed at the neighborhood drug store with decent results.

Despite the ease of use, or flexibility afforded by digital photography, photography is still a field in which a quality product is made, not by a chance occurrence when conditions were favorable (and you don’t even know what favorable conditions are); but with consistent practice, progressive knowledge, and a desire to deepen and broaden your understanding of basic photography concepts.

Camouflage. © Ronda Birtha

Oftentimes I am asked questions on how to improve image quality, and oftentimes people want “photography penicillin”: a quick cure to fix the problem. Sometimes such penicillin can be prescribed, but often we need more.

For example, “red-eye” is a common problem that occurs when light from the flash reflects on the back of the eyeball onto a thin membrane called the retina. On P&S cameras, and even on those 35mm SLRs with on-board flash units, it is a problem that may be difficult to resolve because the flash is very near the angle of the lens, and therefore is pointing in the same direction as the person you are aiming at. The software that accompanies digital cameras often has a “red-eye” removal component so that these problems can be corrected in post-production (that is, after the image has been downloaded to your computer and you begin the image-editing process).

Cameras that support external flash units with swivel and rotating heads can be used to rotate and angle the light away from the subject to avoid red-eye, and other harsh lighting side effects. Furthermore, affordable flash accessories, such as bounces and shadow boxes, can be purchased to soften and spread the light, and produce pleasing images.

Questions that cannot be answered so simply include, ‘why are my pictures so dark?’ or ‘why are my pictures so blurry?’ The answer may be a lack of light, the flash didn’t fire, the shutter speed is too fast, the aperture setting that is too narrow. Rather than an answer here, what is needed to progressively develop an understanding of how and why things work, and how and why things under many diverse circumstances.

With knowledge and understanding, we can better predict outcomes before we start shooting, or understand why things did not turn out so great after the shot and then correct it next time.

Ice Vine. © Ronda Birtha

This column will explore technical as well as non-technical topics related to digital photography and image-editing for hobbyists and amateurs alike. Feel free to send comments, and questions to rbirtha[AT]rondabirtha[DOT]com.

From the Rust Collection

As mentioned on the Digital Photography FYI page, this category will be dedicated to Digital Photography issues. The sub-categories will include the following topics:

• Digital Capture (Basic photography principles, camera settings, Automatic vs. Manual settings)
• Digital Data (What’s a JPEG? What’s a TIFF? How many MPs do I need anyway?)
• Digital Asset Management (Saving and cataloging your images, software options)
• Image Editing and Compositing (The fun stuff)

Photography can be complicated by itself. Adding the digital component just makes it all the more dynamic. I promise to keep this light and engaging. Don’t be scared.

Conducive to Creative Meditation - The porch at the CDS

This award is sponsored through the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) at Duke University in Durham, NC. A prize of $20,000 is awarded to a writer-photographer team each year. Again, I apologize for the short notice. Deadline is January 31.

Go to the CDS website for more information. This application process is involved so if you’re  going to shoot for it, you need to get moving.