Shooting Against the Light

by Ryan Macalandag

Last Friday, we finished the three-day process documentation training we organized for the staff of the Bohol Agricultural Promotions Center. The workshop included documentation writing, basic photography and basic video production.

I discussed about photography and video production basics to more than 20 participants walking them through some basic lessons on camera handling, creative exposures and other essentials. We were informed beforehand that most of the workshop participants were first timers who never knew anything about the subject. They were all ecstatic though and were all eager to learn. I tried very hard to stick to the essentials.


Six Simple Tips to a Better Photograph

I prepared as few tips I can so that they can absorb and understand. I did not want to flood them with technical jargons when all they are using are small digicams.

Maintain proper brightness. One of the pitfalls of newbies is a dark photo. Shooting in AUTO mode, they usually get underexposed pictures which means the photo is leaning towards the darkish side. More often, they just leave it that way since they do not know how to adjust for brightness when it is simply using the exposure compensation dial on the digital camera. This button brightens (plus) or darkens (minus) the photo according to its meter reading.

Straighten your horizon. More often than not, a photograph with a slanting horizon is a poor photo. Before shooting, make sure that the horizon is properly leveled.

Fill the frame. This basically means that the subject has to fill around 70% of the frame to keep focus and maintain a visual balance. Although this is not a hard and fast rule, beginners should start framing their subjects this way.

Rule of thirds. Some people might think this is overrated but for beginners who need to go through the basics, this is a must to master. Do not frame you subjects in the center. An off-centered subject is more visually dynamic and balanced.

Clear the clutter. Visual clutter is a distraction. It steals the focus away from the subject. Things, trees, people or garbage that are not part of the subject should all be cleaned. If you cannot pull them out of the frame, reframe the subject into a cleaner background.

Steady you shot. Sometimes, blurry pictures are a sight to behold. They can be artistic at times. But more of these errors could only mean too much coffee or much too much time alone with yourself (for boys). Buy a cheap tripod. Sit your camera on a table or chair. Practice shooting steady. Most blurry photos are headed for the trash bin I tell you.
Open Forum

During the open forum after my discussion, I was surprised most of them stood up to ask a question. Lots of questions, in fact, I had a great time answering each one of them that made me look like a big photography nerd. I had simplified the topic only to find out that they wanted to learn some more.

This is good, I thought. In all of my workshops, my main objective is to spark some passion about photography into the participants and I guess I was successful with this one. I cannot teach them photography in a day – not even in three, no. I expected them to leave hungry for more learning. That they will go back to their homes and take pictures of their husbands, wives, sons and daughters; their dogs, their cat and everything else of interest.

Shooting Against the Light

This was raised during the workshop and I remembered Jirby asking me about this when we were with Reg, Mago, Warren and Roger at the pier eating kwek-kwek last Sunday while watching a spectacular sunset. This is a valid question since we were raised and taught this way - never shoot against the light.

My retort is the usual. This rule – if there ever was one – is old and obsolete. Shooting against the light (say, the sun setting) might be tricky since the camera can meter the bright background and expose for it leaving the subject in the foreground too dark. Or simply, the difference of brightness between background and subject is too great that the subject will be dark. Quick fix is to use a flash as fill-in. Or expose for the subject which can actually overexpose the background and leave a lovely aura-ish glow around the subject.

More importantly, most compact digital cameras today have already been programmed to see this scene and expose properly by metering the subject (which may result to a bright background) or by metering the background and automatically providing a fill-in flash to compensate for the underexposed subject on the foreground.


Happy shooting!

(For questions and comments regarding this column, please email me at ryanmacalandag@yahoo.com or look me up on Facebook. You may also catch me on these websites: ryanmacalandag.blogspot.com and www.flickr.com/ryanmacalandag. A photography workshop and clinic is planned to happen soon in February. Stay tuned.)