WHAT TO PACK FOR A PHOTO TRIP

Whether going out for a one day excursion around town, or traveling overseas for an extended photo expedition, the key is making sure you have the right gear so you can capture those great images.

Let's start with the photo equipment itself. This pertains to 35mm gear. Lens choices in larger formats would be different.

Camera
Camera manual
Wide angle zoom lens (minimum 24-70, possibly 14-35 as well)
Telephoto lens 70-200mm
Lens extender 1.4X
Polarizing filter
Graduated neutral density filter
Filter holder
Lens cleaning solutions (bulb brush, lens cleaning tissue or microfiber cloth, and fluid)
Tripod and cable release (optional)
Portable flash (some cameras have these built in)

SPECIFIC TO DIGITAL CAMERAS
Charger and an extra battery
Memory cards
Card reader
Laptop with DVD burner, back up hard drive or photo storage solution

SPECIFIC TO FILM CAMERAS
Film of various ISO ratings
Color compensation filters and filter holder
Extra batteries

GRIP EQUIPMENT AND MISCELLANEOUS
Gaffers tape
Rain protection
Chamois or soft cloth to dry off camera gear
GPS for noting locations (some cameras are coming with this built in)
Notepad or voice recorder to help with cataloging images later (some cameras have microphones built in)
Guidebooks, maps or other research material for the location
Food and water
Good shoes that can support the extra weight, and keep you comfortable

TAKE GREAT PICTURES IN CLOUDY WEATHER

More often that we might like, we end up at a location where the opportunities for photographs are quite good, but the weather is not. An overcast sky that is uniformly grey can be a big damper in creating beautiful scenics, so what do you do?

One possibility, of course, is the shoot the scene and add a sky later in post production. Although this can be successful in some situations, you have to be careful that the sky you add looks believable.

The other option is to look for photographs that do not include the sky, thus eliminating the lackluster quality it brings to the image making process. The first thing I would suggest is to look for a composition that shows as much of the landscape as possible without including the sky.

This is also great time to hone your observation skills, and zoom in on details. Start looking for parts of the landscape that are interesting, things like streams, rock formations, flowers. All can be great subjects in the soft light the overcast sky provides. For example, the lower light level means you can shoot with slower shutter speeds to get motion blur in a stream. And the same soft light allows you to see patterns in rock formations without the harsh contrast (and shadows) created by a sunny sky.

Using Open Shade to Make Better Photographs

Often, we have an opportunity to take a spontaneous photograph of a friend outdoors, on a bright sunny day. If the sun is high up in the sky, it's easy to end up with a picture where the person's eyes are in deep shadow, and they are squinting.

When a situation like that arises, it's time to look around for open shade. Maybe there is a tree close by that you can put the person under, or a doorway they can stand in (as in the example above).

Or maybe there is an overhang on a building. In the situation below, I put the subject just behind where the sun would have hit her face directly under the roofline of the shed. That way, the exposure was still at a high enough shutter speed that I could hand hold the camera, but I could get the benefit of the soft light provided by the overhang.

Whatever the options, look for opportunities to get your subject out of the harsh, overhead light, and into open shade. The results will certainly be worth the extra effort.

Depth of Field

One of the most important concepts to understand is depth of field, which is the distance in front of, and behind the subject that will be sharp in relation to where you focus. The general rule of thumb is that the greater the ƒ-stop number, the more depth of field you will have. So, for example, at ƒ22 you will have a lot more in focus in front of, and behind your subject than you will at ƒ4.

The benefit of understanding this, is that different subjects benefit from using more or less depth of field. Landscapes, for example, benefit from greater depth of field because you can keep the foreground and background sharp. So you can keep a rock in the foreground in focus, as well as the mountains in the background.

But for portraits, the reverse is generally true. Although in environmental portraits there may be an interest in keeping the surroundings sharp, for the most part, we want to separate our subject from the background as much as possible. So shooting with a shallow depth of field is the way to go.

Just look at this portrait, taken on a basketball court. The important thing here is the personality and expression of the person, so allowing the background to go soft is a great solution.

But what if even shooting wide open (in this case, ƒ4) leaves some areas sharp because they are in the same plane of focus as the subject?

In this case, I duplicated the background layer, used guassian blur on the duplicate layer, then added a mask and protected the person’s face.

Look at the difference in this detail snapshot.

The result is that I’ve added more separation between the person, and the distracting pattern of the fence.

Add Some Romance

Digital imaging can be powerful ally in many cases for rendering fine detail. But sometimes, it’s just too clinical.

I was shooting a video with a dancer, and between takes, she sat down to adjust her shoes. My eye immediately saw the wonderful play of light on her form, and I asked her to wait for a moment while I grabbed a still camera. We shot just five frames, and then we went back to shooting video.

When I brought the image I liked best into Photoshop, I felt like I had captured the light and composition the way I wanted. But it seemed to me that there was too much detail information in the floor that in the end distracted from the feeling I wanted to convey.

The quick solution was to use the Vignette Blur filter in NIK Color Efex 3.0 to soften the background and keep the focus on the dancer.

Just compare the original image below to the one above. I think you’ll agree that adding a little romance helped make a more pleasing image.