Tips From Professional UK Photographer Doug Breakwell
Tips From A Professional UK Photographer: Doug Breakwell.
As you requested I have had a look at your two websites and offer my observations,suggestions, and opinions as follows, hopefully you will not find them too negative, as I have tried to be constructive.
First , http://www.NatureAndWildlifePhotographySite.com
.
Your insect shots are really excellent. You could probably teach me about macro work. I only have two comments to make, first is to be careful with your depth of field,in a couple of shots you have lost a little detail on the insect.
The second is shot 51 is a little dark and may have benefited from a little fill in flash.
.
Again, excellent work. My only thoughts here are the shots appear to be underexposed. They seam a bit dark and the colours are flat. Try boasting the exposure, saturation and vibrancy in post processing.
.
I’m not quite sure what you where aiming for in shot 2, but that crop does not work for me,and in shot 16 you really need to crop closer.
.
Same comments as for the swans about the exposure. However shots 3 and 4 really don’t work, for an abstract, if that is what they are supposed to be, you need to crop in a lot closer. They also need to be a lot brighter.
.
Numbers 5 and 8,you need to look at the crop as you have cut off part of the duck.
.
Number 10 is a good close up, however if you had cropped closer you would have got rid of the distracting black triangle in the lower right hand corner.
.
Number 11, again crop closer to remove the area around the duck to focus on the texture of the wet feathers.
.
For shot 9, the composition does not work for me,it looks totally unbalanced. (See notes below).
.
Second website.
.
As you requested I have concentrated on the words.
.
I would add that you should know the functions of your camera and be able to change them without resorting to the manual, like driving a car it should be second nature and your camera should be an extension of you.
.
Seeing as the camera “Sees” is a skill that requires practice and there are a number of exercises that can be found in various books to assist this process. Also understand how different lenses and apertures affect depth of field, how shutter speeds can freeze or blur motion, the relationship between aperture and shutter.
.
A better way of putting this is research the behaviour of your subjects. So you can anticipate what your subject id going to do and be prepared and ready, for example, most birds defecate just before take off (but not always).
.
Know when your to close, if and animal changes its behaviour, stops what it’s doing or runs away….your to close!
.
Studying animal behaviour can prevent you from being injured or even killed. A good example here is the American Bison,they appear docile but are extremely dangerous and kill more people in Yellowstone each year than the bears. If a Bison looks straight at you and its tail goes up straight in the air, its about to charge.
.
When planning an assignment a method I use I took from the film “The day of the Jackal”
.
Subject? Where? When? How? Behaviour?
.
I would make a very strong point, Do your research!
The time spent with the books and on the Internet will cut down on the odds of not getting the shots you want.
.
Behaviour, is another very good point to make.
.
You always hear the experts like Chris Packham banging on about it and it is a very good way to improve your wildlife shots.
.
Shooting at the highest possible ISO is not necessary or good practice, because at the extreme ISO settings you will lose quality in the dark areas and risk burning out the highlights.
.
Shutter speed is the main requirement here,along with sufficient depth of field. Before going to the ISO setting, open the aperture by one stop or slow down the shutter speed by one stop. These adjustments should give you a correct exposure without losing shutter speed. If you are still getting under exposure, then increase your ISO by a stop.
.
A good way to find out what shutter speeds you need is to study photographic books and note the shutter speeds, ISO settings and aperture settings. This will give an approximate base to work from and as your experience builds, you will no longer need to look at the list.
.
The highest ISO I’ve had to use was ISO 800 for a Humming bird in a very dark rain forest in Tobago.
.
Image stabilization is not much use under these circumstances, Steve and Ann Toon advise that you turn it off as this will aid faster focusing. Image stabilization is great for hand holding at slower shutter speeds.
.
For action shots you can also pan with the subject. This will freeze the subject and give a sense of motion by blurring the background.
.
Tip 1.
I would change the advice about tripods. Inexpensive ones tend to be flimsy and tend to wobble and are therefore next to useless. Get a sturdy tripod that can take the weight of your camera and lens. When I bought my tripod I was going for the Manfrotto 190PROBX which seemed like a good choice. However as soon as I saw it I knew it couldn’t carry the weight of my camera and would wobble in a slight breeze.
.
Therefore I had to go for the more expensive 55PROB.
.
I would also advise anybody starting out to first buy into a system, Canon and Nikon have the best range and back up at the moment, although camera choice tends to be personal. The pixel count is not a good bench mark for comparing cameras either, example you can have 10 mega pixel in some compact cameras, the same as my Canon 1D but the resolution I can get is much higher, due to the larger sensor in my camera.
.
I would also advise people to invest their money in glass i.e buy the best lenses you can afford. Its an investment that will not be wasted. You can upgrade to a higher performance camera latter, which is even easier if you have already bought into a system.
.
I would add the following tip, have your camera turned on and set to a default setting you are comfortable with that can handle most situations,(mine is AV mode at the widest aperture,the camera can sort out the shutter speed).
.
I have put below some composition tricks that are worth noting.
1) Light or bright coloured objects draw more attention than dark.
- Large objects draw more attention than small.
- Warmer colours (red,orange, yellow) are more eye catching than than cool ones (blue,green,violet).
- Sharp or in focus elements stand out more than blurred ones.
- Difference stands out more than similarity or conformity.
- Diagonal lines are stronger than horizontal or vertical lines.
- Rough draws more attention than smooth.
- Jagged lines draw more attention than curved ones.
- Asymmetry is more pleasing to the human eye than symmetry.
- Show scale by showing a person or object next to a much larger object. i.e a small boat next to a glacier.
- Undermine a object, i.e a beggar outside a restaurant.
- Create humour, contrasting strange objects or showing some ones reaction or surprise.
- Explain or qualify the meaning or purpose of an object by illustrating its nature.
- Impart a sense of place by photographing an object or person with something associated with that location.
.
The eyes have it.
The rule of thirds is a good compositional rule as is the golden mean.
.
Use lead in lines to draw the viewers eye through the picture,a river or pathway for example. I did read somewhere that the viewers eye travels from bottom left to top right, but I can’t find or remember where I saw it. Again have a look a some other photographers work in photographic books to get the idea.
.
I hope you find all the above useful and constructive.
Kind Regards
Doug Breakwell
————————————————-
.
PS.
.
I have couple of tips to add.
Choosing Your Photographs, The Selection Process.
1) Do your first run through of images and delete the really poor ones i.e out of focus poor composition etc. (experience will tell you what is a good one and what’s not worth keeping )when your in the field, this will save on memory.
Wait until you get home to do the second cut, when you are comfortable and relaxed and have the images on a large screen and decide what is not worth saving. Then do a third cut. Then start the work on post processing, you may still find that a shot is not up to standard.
.
2) Set your standards high.
.
3) Be ruthless in your shot selection. If it’s not up to standard, correctly exposed, pin sharp then bin it.
4) A word here about BLUR. Be sure this is what you want to achieve for artistic purposes and go for it. For example a waterfall shot a 2 seconds blurs the water to milky white or a running hare blurred to emphasise movement ( See the Ghost Hare of the wildlife photographer of the year from about 2 years ago).
.
5)Practice your field craft, example if you feel the wind on the back of your neck, your in the wrong place. Wear muted clothing,no bright colours,greens and browns work best.
Kind Regards
Doug Breakwell
Thanks again Doug.
Our reply to Professional UK Photographer Doug’s comments.
I’m delighted and well pleased that you took the time and effort to review our work so thoroughly.
It is very much appreciated as I understand your busy schedule.
Thank you.
I’m delighted and well pleased that you took the time and effort to review our work so thoroughly.
It is very much appreciated as I understand your busy schedule.
Thank you.
The constructive comments are very useful; to see your work through someone else’s eyes for a fresh perspective.
When you are trying to improve your photography and striving to do better, what better way than to get someone with experience to help.
Some of the problems on cropping that you point out, are not my doing. During the uploaded to the website,
a few of the photos get cropped for some reason or other.
I do have a problem with the sites presentation.
The website is hosted on Clikpic.com. Before uploading, the photos need to be reduced to 700 pixels at 72 dpi
so a lot of the detail is lost. I am looking for some way to rectify this?
so a lot of the detail is lost. I am looking for some way to rectify this?
————————————
Doug’s Response.
.
“Hi Christina and Rod.
.
I know what you mean about clikpic.com, my site is on there too and have problems with the site cutting off my images, usually the most important bit. However I have found a solution and have some of my work on Flikr.com, the resolution is far better and they take full size files.”
————————————
This information that you’ve shared with me is extremely useful and I was wondering if I could publish it on my sites.
Could I have your permission to post it on both of my sites “as is”, with all your details and website link back?
I’m sure any reader interested in photography would be appreciative of your advice.
Could I have your permission to post it on both of my sites “as is”, with all your details and website link back?
I’m sure any reader interested in photography would be appreciative of your advice.
Kind regards,
Christina Saunders
Back To Home Page Of Nature Photography UK
[...] SLR cameras allow for a greater range of applications such as a macro or telephoto lens. A greater range of possibilities are possible to capture truly wonderful pictures while exploring the outdoors. Doug Breakwell a professional photographer offers some more tips in his article Nature Photography Tips [...]