Category Archives: Photography

Success is in the Planning

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When you go on a photo shoot do you just grab your gear and go or do you make extensive plans ahead of time?

I actually enjoying the planning stage. Researching subjects and locations is lots of fun to me. I read magazine articles, books, search the internet, look at other photographer’s galleries, and watch television programs that are pertinent. I also se a spreadsheet to help make sure I don’t forget anything important. I use the spreadsheet to track my checklists and compile my research notes. It works for me!

I am currently preparing to get ready for the baseball season. The local high school has asked me to shoot some of their games and assemble a presentation for their end-of-the-year banquet. So I just sat down with the baseball schedule and marked the games I am free to attend and photograph. Then I entered these games into my PDA calendar. This is just one step in the planning. Previously, I emailed the contact person in the Booster Club and created a “plan of attack” for the season. I also will have more planning to do, and this is important. Closer to the game days, I will follow more detailed checklists for charging batteries, reformatting flash cards, and taking all the gear I need to each game.

Some people look at all this planning as a big chore and a big bore! I do not. I actually enjoy the planning stages because in my mind’s eye I can envision myself at the photo shoot and I know I will have a much better chance of getting the shots I am after thanks to all this planning.

After all, success is found in the planning!

Digital Photograph and Folder Naming

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Do you have a plan in mind when naming photos and folders?

A person with no plan is going to pay sooner or later. And a person who changes file naming schemes often is also in for deep trouble. I am experiencing some of this pain right now. I am nearly finished moving all my photos over to my new Drobo, but it’s been a real chore. It was difficult only because I changed how I named my folders. Now, I wanted everything to be consistent so I had to rename quite a few folder names. It took much more time than if I had just maintained the same naming scheme all along.

Here’s what I do now. When I import a photo shoot into Lightroom, I rename each photo by assigning the date first and then a sequential number starting with 1. The file name looks like this: 20100323-23  This way I will never have a file name with the same name as another one.

I also name the folder with the date of the photo shoot and a descriptive name. Something like: 2010-03-28 Middle School Musical. This makes it easy to find a folder by date or name.

There is no real right or wrong way to name files or folders, but find something that works for you and stick with it!

Update on My Drobo

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My new Drobo has been in active use for over a week now and I am very happy with it. I first heard about the Drobo on TWIP–This Week in Photography, a weekly photo podcast. These guys were raving over the Drobo and I was slowly but surely running out of backup room on my external hard drives. So I saved my money and just purchased my own Drobo.

I spent the past week moving my photographs from the external drives to the Drobo. This would have been an easier chore if I had maintained a consistent folder-naming scheme all along. But alas the end is now clearly in sight and I expect to have the transfers down in a few short hours.

I only have two 1TB hard drives installed in my Drobo and it is already 67% full! I will have to install a third drive into my Drobo in the near future. One nice feature on the DataRobotics website is what they call the Drobulator, which is a virtual calculator which allows you to see how much storage space you will gain with different hard drives. I used this to determine my next cost-effective and best storage space-addition drive will be another 1TB drive.

The Drobo was very easy to set up and install. I just installed the two hard drives into the unit, attached the power cord and the USB cable, and then installed the software. Now the Drobo Dashboard gives me a constant status of space available and other important information from the Drobo. I just watch the lights on the unit, which will turn yellow when it is time to add additional storage. I also receive email messages from Drobo whenever the unit has a message for me. Pretty neat!

I have not always been faithful at backing up my photos so I find the Drobo to be extremely helpful and even vital in my workflow. To maintain proper backups I strongly recommend the Drobo. It works well and is easy to use.

Learning More About Photography from Podcasts

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Do you have an iPod or mp3 device?

If you do, you hold in your hands a great way to learn more about photography. There are a large number of photo podcasts available for free. They are not only enjoyable and entertaining, they are also educational!

Here are a few of my favorite photo podcasts. Check them out on iTunes and/or the internet. There is a ton of information here just waiting to be downloaded and listened to by you!

My favorite photo podcasts:
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
Camera DoJo
DTown TV
Lightroom for Digital Photographers
Nikonians Podcasts
This Week in Photography

Mental Checklists

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When you are on an important photo shoot getting the shot is important. There is little room for mistakes, which is why shooting in RAW is so helpful. We all know that. But there is nothing better than getting the shot from the camera to begin with.

That’s why a mental checklist can help us capture the shot we are after. Your mental checklist might include things like White Balance, ISO setting, Aperture, and Shutter Speed. This morning I was shooting in very difficult stage lighting. I couldn’t figure out at first why I kept getting blurry shots. Then I realized that I had not set my aperture properly. Obviously, I did not cover my mental checklist.

What is on  your mental checklist? Do you have a standard operating procedure to use this checklist? Plan ahead, create a mental checklist and use it!

Get Out and Shoot!

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I have a confession to make–I am a huge gear junkie!

I love to research and eventually purchase camera equipment of all kinds. B&H Photo and Nikon are two of my most favorite websites to frequent. In fact, they are typically in one of my many browser tabs. I also enjoy reading about equipment, comparing technical specifications, and reading user reviews on camera equipment. I have a long equipment “want list,” too.

But with all this research and dreaming, there is nothing better than getting outdoors to actually shot our cameras. The weather here in the Poconos of northeast Pennsylvania is finally starting to feel like spring. So instead of thinking about camera equipment it is time for me to get out and actually use the camera equipment I have currently!

We learn a lot by reading, but we can learn a whole more from experimenting and actually using our cameras and camera equipment in the field. Give it a try. Get out and shoot your camera!

Portrait Lighting

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Getting your flash off the camera makes a huge difference. It is even better to diffuse the light.

I use a Lastolite Soft Box and have enjoyed very nice results. Even with just one off-camera flash the difference is incredible. Learn how to set up the light to create a variety of looks with your subject. Experiment by taking some photos, move the off-camera flash, and take some more photos.

David Ziser communicates this very well in his new book, “Captured by the Light.” I just received my copy yesterday and after just reading the way to change the studio lighting is most excellent! I am sure I will enjoy this book and learn a lot in the process. Oh, and don’t worry if you are not a wedding photographer–this book will still apply to some of your photography nevertheless.

Portrait lighting is intimidating to some photographers but it doesn’t need to be this way. With just a few simple tips and suggestions you can use portrait lighting to make awesome photos. Give it a try!

Photography Books

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Have you read any good photography books lately?

Scott Kelby’s 3-book series on Digital Photography is definitely worth a read. I gleaned many photo tips and tricks from these books and I refer back to them quite often. They are a valuable resource. I also like Lennie Rue, III’s books on wildlife photography. He not only talks about photo techniques, but also how to find the animals and what to look for to help find them. His books are so informative that I keep them close at hand and take them on extended photo trips so I can consult them. John Shaw’s books are also very good. They are instructive and allow the reader to see what this photographer sees even before he clicks the shutter. Technical advice is also in great abundance with any of his books.

So, what good photo books have you read lately? Any worth recommending?

Print Quality Prints

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This might sound like nothing more than common sense, but I see it happen way too often and I just shake my head. Be sure to print quality prints. This is vital whether you are printing your own prints at home or if you send them out to be printed. Do not settle for low quality, high volume prints.

To see what I am talking about, take the same five photographs to a variety of printers and check the results. Like many things, you usually get what you pay for these days. Spend a few pennies for a 4″ x 6″ print and you will get a photo worth just a few pennies. Go to a quality printer, print that same print, and you will be amazed at the difference!

One of the drawbacks to digital photography is that now many photos are stored safely away on hard drives but rarely if ever see the light of day. Print some prints! Make some enlargements and display some of your photographs. But remember–print quality prints!

My Drobo & Organizing Photographs

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My new desktop computer is up and running with my Drobo attached and running properly to store and backup my photographs. My first step in the process is to back up my photographs by copying them from two external drives to the Drobo. This would not be a hard task if I had adequately managed my photos in the first place. Different folder-naming schemes was the main problem and this is taking time to resolve.

I now see the advantage of sticking to one naming convention!

How do you organize your photographs? What folder naming scheme do you put into practice? Can you find photos from a specific shoot just by the way your folders are organized?

These questions and more are important to answer. I am forced to answer them now and find specific ways to maintain my consistency in naming my folders because I want things well-organized on my Drobo. It will take some more time, but in the end I believe the effort will be well worth it. And next time this should all be much easier!