This week, Andrew Ford kicked things off by talking about using artificial intelligence to save time, while Julie Powell reviewed the Rode smartLav+ mic — perfect for smartphones.
Ken Lee gave us some great tips for night photographers during COVID-19. Then, Joy Celine Asto showed us the amazing Iceland aerial photography from Jan Erik Waider. Finally, Sara Kempner brought the fall colors into full view with some tips on how to best capture the colorful season.
Six tips to capture autumn colors - With the autumn season upon us, now is the perfect time to go out and photograph the abundance of colors that signify the changing of the seasons. Whether you’re in the city or out in the county, creatively capturing the essence of fall should definitely be on your shot list for this month. Below are some ideas to help you get creative while out in the field! 1. Set the scene While the purists of the world may disagree, don’t be afraid to alter the scene in front of you to get the optimal composition. Find perfect leaves and place them right where you want them to add fall flair to your images. Scatter leaves to make it look as natural as possible, or perfectly place a single leaf right where you want it to create your composition. It’s your image — build it how you want it. This can also mean removing any distractions like sticks or ugly dead leaves that you don’t want in your shot. 2. Use a polarizer You’ve probably used polarizing filters to help get your skies bluer, but they can also come in handy when photographing fall colors. Photographing leaves that are wet or have fallen into the water, whether it be in a river or a puddle, can lead to some interesting compositions. Morning dew or leftover droplets from rain can also create interesting images. Using a polarizer will help to cut down on any reflections or glare from the water while also helping to saturate the colors of the leaves. 3. Don’t forget the autumn details Often we will automatically think of wide, sweeping landscapes to show off the colors of fall. However, don’t forget that detail shots can pack just as much of a punch when displaying those bright autumn colors. Get your macro lens out, or try using your zoom lens to get some cropped sections of fall foliage. Look for leaves that have partially started to change color, or take time to inspect their intricate veins. Search for interesting textures or shapes as well as colors. And while we often look up at all the bright colored leaves, remember also to look low and find other seasonal flora, like the mushrooms pictured below. 4. Get artsy While a tack-sharp, well-composed landscape image is always nice, don’t be afraid to get creative and play around with your artistic side as well. Finding colorful reflections in water can be a fun way to create dreamy, painter-like images. Introducing intentional camera movement into your shots is another way to create artistic photos. Panning vertically or horizontally with a slower shutter speed (1/15s or slower) is a great way to capture a scene in a unique way. Or, If you have a breezy day, use your tripod and play with different shutter speeds to capture the motion of the leaves while leaving the fixed components of the image tack sharp. 5. Dark and light While we all know that shooting in the golden hours is optimal, playing around with your exposure compensation is another way you can get creative while shooting fall colors. Look for leaves that are back or side-lit and try underexposing the image to make the shadows darken while leaving your subject isolated and popping out of the image. This works well if you want to create moody or minimalist photos. Alternatively, if you want a more light and airy image, play around with the brightness of your photos and create a more high-key photo. Knowing how to properly expose an image is important, but don’t be afraid to experiment with your light levels to create unique imagery that tells a story and catches your viewers’ eyes. 6. Long exposures during autumn If you’re around water, experiment with long exposures to get creative with your scene. Scattered leaves on the side of a river can add a seasonal element to your landscape scene. A single, bright leaf on a rock surrounded by running water can also be a great subject. Study the water patterns and look for swirls or eddies where leaves or pine needles could create interesting patterns in a long exposure. The autumn season is a great time to shoot because the abundance of colors can transform the simplest of scenes into a photographer’s dream. Keep an eye out for the leaves starting to turn color in your area so that you don’t miss your window to capture the season before it changes again. Overcast skies can create perfect diffused light to help showcase the vibrant colors around you, so don’t be afraid to bundle up and get out there and see what you can capture!
How artificial intelligence helps to fix a photographer’s most precious commodity - When you think of artificial intelligence, you may think of a robotic dystopian future or the exceedingly long movie from 2001. But to me, artificial intelligence brings plenty of hope to the world, if for no other reason than to make human lives easier. Our lives are busy and full of opportunity. With AI in our corner, couldn’t we accomplish so much more? The most valuable asset impacted by AI What does this mean exactly? To me, it means that algorithms will perform common actions to provide great outcomes. It means that I won’t have to perform mundane manual tasks. In short, I’m going to save time, and time is arguably the most valuable asset. I can turn extra time into creating a better story, getting inspired or exploring other creative possibilities. In the end, I feel I’ll get better results and become better at what I do. Retaining human control It is time we start thinking of artificial intelligence as our helpful but not overbearing friend. AI will simplify the complexities of photo editing, but still leave us in control. AI may recommend creative choices for photo editing, but my choice is final. I’ll still be able to rely upon my eye, my composition, my approach… all the things that make me the photographer that I am. But, I’ll now be even more efficient and able to focus on higher levels of detail. How AI can help Imagine a world where you could instantly remove skin blemishes while preserving textures and fine details. How about automatically improving facial features such as eyes, lips and teeth? Perhaps enhancing bokeh and natural lighting without manually applying numerous filters and tediously adjusting a plethora of sliders? What about the scene? Wouldn’t it be great to create landscape and alter the atmosphere? AI can help create haze or drizzle, manipulate the sky, or provide mood and contrast. Just think of the applications! What if you’re a wedding photographer? Why spend hours touching up a few of your hundreds of photos, or creating actions to apply to your entire batch of photos, when AI could get you two-thirds of the way there instantly? What if the client doesn’t like your direction and your hours of editing are wasted? Now, it’s less of a problem. And while AI can save time for the professional, just think of what it can do for the novice. Why play around with the vibrance sliders when AI can harmonize your colors instantly? If your shot isn’t perfect, AI can add the clarity and depth the scenes needs. AI can even crop your composition like an expert. In today’s world, I don’t believe that enhancing your skills, honing your craft and being efficient need to be mutually exclusive endeavors. Learn while doing with the power of AI. I’m excited for the possibilities that AI can bring to my workflow, allowing me to focus on the more exciting and creative parts of photo editing. Innovation has driven our profession and AI is the next step in the journey. And it should provide us with more of life’s most precious commodity — time.
Photographing safely during COVID-19: A night photographer’s perspective - A lot of my photographer friends have been stuck at home, not getting out as much to practice their photography. For sure, it’s a frightening time for many. Restaurants and bars are closed. We need to keep a safe distance from people and wear a mask. Many of us know people who have caught COVID-19. “Every time I took a breath, it felt like I was swallowing toothpicks,” one friend has described. But I have been doing night photography, and hopefully without being reckless. Here’s what I’ve been doing so far, and how I’m staying safe. Rooms I’ve stayed in Airbnbs and motels so far. I especially like Airbnbs because I don’t come in contact with anyone. When I get to the location, I take Clorox Wipes and immediately swab down the entire place. Is this excessive? I don’t know. Does it make me feel better? Absolutely. Although COVID-19 does not appear to be transmitted primarily through surfaces, why take chances? Staying away from people I like people. I don’t want to stay away from them. But stay away I should. I travel with my wife or sometimes alone. I gas up at night when there’s no one around. I don’t eat in restaurants. I bring my own food as much as is possible. I go on much shorter trips. Bending the rules of staying away from people I have “bent the rules” a little bit by sort of traveling with other people once. I traveled to an exceedingly remote area of the Mojave Desert with two other night photographers. We drove in separate cars and then hiked to the location. Outdoors is much safer, and we generally kept our distance. We slept outdoors at least 50 feet away from each other … although that may have been because two of the three of us were prolific snorers. Uncrowded locations Night photographers might have an advantage here. Night photography generally involves getting away from people and going to darker areas, with the exception of night street photography and fireworks. But even during the day, it’s still relatively easy to avoid people by going into the wilderness. Should we do this? We all have our own levels of concern. I feel that I’ve been cautious. I avoid public places as much as possible. I bring a mask with a PM2.5 filter when I walk around my neighborhood, which I do every day to get out of the house, putting it on if people get within 25 feet of me. I wipe down my car if I go in a grocery store or business. The few times I have guests at my house, we hang out outside, keeping our distance. But creating night photos or recording weird music is like breathing to me. I want to create. My feeling is that if I can get outside while taking proper precautions, I can stay reasonably sane. And that’s a good thing for not only me but everyone who needs to deal with me. Should everyone do this? Probably not. We all have our own health issues and responsibilities. But for now, this is how I have been doing it. And hopefully I can stay safe, and keep the few people I see safe as well.
Mobile Mondays: Get better audio from your phone with the Rode smartLav+ mic - The Rode smartLav+ is an omnidirectional lapel mic designed specifically for smartphones. It might not be the very latest and greatest, but it certainly offers great quality for the price. I wanted a lapel microphone for my smartphone, as I record a lot of video with it these days. But I also didn’t want to spend a huge amount of money on a high-end mic. I was more interested in something fast, easy for setup and usability, while still getting substantially better sound quality than with the built-in mic. With the smartLav+, you plug it in and go — there’s no apps or anything else to fuss with. It’s best used for single person usage and that is pretty much all I wanted. Uses Being an omnidirectional mic means it should less susceptible to ambient noise and being moved or knocked, as long as you have it fairly close to your mouth. It is a lapel mic, so attaching to a collar with the supplied clip is a good place to start. Rode is a big name in the microphone market and this mic really is quite good, considering it is at the budget end of the price range. It is simple to use and offer crisp audio with minimal noise. Limitations I really don’t think you could use this as a two-person or interview mic, but it was never designed for that. The other issue is that it has a rather short cord. It’s great if you have your smartphone on you, but not great if you have your smartphone on a tripod at a distance — which is why I wanted it in the first place. There is an optional 20-foot extension cord, which I purchased after reading reviews. It plugs directly into the 3.5mm headphone jack on virtually any smartphone. Just after I purchased this product I switched from the Samsung S9 to the new S20, which does NOT have a 3.5mm jack. However, Samsung offers an adapter that allows you to plug the mic into the USB charge port. All in all, the Rode smartLav+ is a great mic for the price. It’s small, lightweight and offers good sound … what more could you ask for? For the latest pricing on the Rode smartLav+, visit B&H Photo.
Impermanence: Abstract beauty of ice caves in Iceland - Iceland is home to some of the most breathtaking natural wonders that are just begging to be photographed. So, it’s not surprising to see many photographers finding inspiration everywhere and coming up with different ways to capture it. The unique landscape, for one, lends itself easily to beautiful abstract photography, as we have previously seen in the aerial photography of Jan Erik Waider. The view from the ground also opens up other visual elements that are perfect for abstract style, as Sydney-based photographer and motion designer Chris Harkin shows us in his “Impermanence” series. As a creative, among his sources of inspiration and fascination is the natural world. His series featuring the surreal ice caves of Vatnajökull, Iceland is a testament to this. If you still have the island nation on your bucket list of places to shoot and get lost in, I’m sure these photos will inspire you even more. A portrait of a changing world Chris notes that he took the series inside one of the ice caves of Vatnajökull, which is actually a 2,500-year-old glacier. Spanning approximately 3205 square miles (8,300 square kilometers) and measuring 1 km thick at its deepest point, it’s also the largest and most massive ice cap in the country. These details alone make the ancient glacier one of the most fascinating places on Earth to visit and of course, to immortalize in photographs. He described the sights he captured as “frozen forms of an ever-changing world sculpted by the constant flow of water and wind.” I find this a beautiful and accurate summary of all the details showcased in the series: The cool blue hues, the hypnotic curves and slopes of the ice, and the bubbles and ripples seemingly suspended in time. It makes me see the photos as a portrait of Iceland shaped by thousands of years of constant change, and is still changing. Finding beauty in impermanence “Impermanence,” without a doubt, is a message of caution about the state of the world we live in. What I find most compelling about it is how the series shows us the scale of what we’re currently losing. “Due to rising temperatures and a decrease in snowfall, the glacier is estimated to be receding at a rate of about 1 meter per year,” Chris stressed in his project statement. This series shows that Vatnajökull, as with most of Iceland itself, is filled with natural wonders that will one day disappear. There’s something poetic about documenting beauty that is bound to slip from our grasp. But there’s also a sense of urgency in that, which I find effectively represented by the idea of glacial ice standing for impermanence. Don’t forget to visit Chris Harkin’s website and Behance portfolio to see more of his work. All photos by Chris Harkin. Used with Creative Commons permission.What you missed on Flipboard this week
Each week, we publish a variety of curated storyboards with some of our best content! Here’s what was on the docket for this week. Be sure to follow us!
