General Tips

  • All photographs must be securely mounted on A4 size board (210mm x 297mm).
  • You can either spray mount your photograph directly onto the mount board or buy pre-cut mounts with or without windows, from ‘The Cabin’ shop in The Trinity WR1 2PN Worcester City Centre or Midland Fine Arts near Kidderminster DY11 7RA. Alternatively you can buy mounting board from various art shops and cut your own to size.
  • To print your photographs there are many online companies, alternatively London Camera Exchange 8 Pump St WR1 2QT and most Boots outlets can print your photographs.

A crowd shot

This type of shot is about story telling.

  • Choose your focal point. It could be one person or a group of people that interests you.Use selective focus.
  • Reduce the depth of field to avoid a cluttered background.
  • Try shooting at eye level. You may need to sit down for this.
  • Change angles.
  • Look for a pattern, for example, colour, uniforms, way crowd is moving. There are a large number of websites and YouTube videos to give you more help.

Try the following:-­‐
eyeq.photos
newschoolers.com

An action shot

  • Could be a static subject with a moving background e.g. a man standing next to a moving train.
  • Pan shot could be used, make sure the camera is set to a relevant shutter speed whilst the photographer is tracking the movement of the subject, creating a sharp subject on a blurred background.

Macro

  • Don’t necessarily need a macro lens, most digital cameras have a macro facility.
  • Make sure the subject is sharp throughout
  • REMEMBER LIGHTING Lighting is important in all genres of photography!

A black and white photograph

  • This is a black and white only category, no sepia or ‘colour popping’ images will be accepted.
  • Consider the use of different tones of black and white. A good range of midtones will make a good photograph.

‘Wildlife’: A photograph of flora or fauna in the natural environment

  • Particular care needs to be paid to the accuracy of the reproduction of the colours of the subject matter in your print.  Demonstrating your grasp of ‘depth of field’ to emphasise important elements of your picture should greatly enhance it.

Into the Distance – a landscape shot.

A good landscape photograph has the following elements:-­‐

  • The horizon is straight.
  • Leading line or lines pulling the viewer into the image.
  • The image is in focus. Use a tripod and a remote cable release to avoid camera shake. To maximise depth of field for front to back sharpness set a small aperture of around f/16 and use a low ISO setting of 100 or 200 for the best image quality.
  • An obvious focal point. The focal point is the strongest element in the picture. A tree or a building that stands out. It could be a colour like red or yellow. Or a play of light and shadows on the landscape.
  • It has a simple background in your composition. It shouldn’t dominate the main focal point. Too much sky for example will overwhelm that focal point.
  • Light has been considered. Try shooting during the Golden hours of sunrise and sunset.
    Story telling has been thought about. In a landscape shot, you tell a story using the elements you see and how they interact. For example, “water flowing over the river rocks, light dispersing through the fog,… frost collecting on blades of grass, waves crashing over rocks covered in green moss.” (naturettl.com)

There are a huge number of websites and YouTube videos on landscape photography. Try the following two for starters:-­‐
explorelandscapephotography.com
naturettl.com

An Unusual Perspective

This type of shot is capturing another way of seeing an everyday subject. It involves having fun with your camera.

  • Try different angles to capture this shot. Crouch down, kneel, stand up on a chair, get down on the ground, look up, shoot through an object to frame the subject, twist the camera, etc, etc.
  • The main focal point is in focus and obvious.
  • Avoid distracting backgrounds.
  • Lighting has been considered. There are a large number of websites and YouTube videos to give you more help.

Try the following two for a start:-­‐
techradar.com
photography-­‐school.com

A photograph using differential focus

  • Differential focus (also known as selective focus) is where the photographer deliberate chooses which area of an image will be sharp and which area will be soft and out of focus. This directs a viewer’s eyes to the area the photographer wants to emphasise.
  • Differential focus is achieved by careful selection of the focus point and by using a large aperture. The longer the lens and the wider the aperture, the greater the effect. Wide angle lenses are not suited to this.
  • The out of focus areas should not be too out of focus as these areas must still contribute to the viewer’s understanding of an image. Thus don’t blur the background too much.

A digitally manipulated photograph

  • Manipulation of an image uses any of the editing software now available. Lightroom, Photoshop, Affinity are a few examples.
  • Photo editing enhances the information already present in the image; from adjusting the exposure and tone to resizing and cropping.
  • Photo manipulation involves changing what’s in the image – adding or subtracting elements, substantially changing colour or tone, airbrushing, double exposure, etc etc.