Tag Archives: Shoot from the hip

10 Embarrassing Mistakes I Made as an Intermediate Photographer

These are common mistakes for photographers, and I’m a big believer in learning from other people’s mistakes, rather than your own. That’s what this post is all about.

You may remember last year I wrote an article called 10 Embarrassing Mistakes I Made As An Beginner Photographer, which was all about the silly mistakes I used to make, when I knew no better. This post is an advancement to that, showing you that there’s still plenty to be learned.

I Only Used On-Camera Flash

This might seem like a bit of a weird one to start on, but it’s similar to a mistake I made as a beginner photographer. It used to be that I would never use a flash, but when I finally started using an external flash, another problem arose.

Flash that comes from the same angle as the lens has a very flattening effect on a photo, which would make my photos dull and two dimensional. When I started to take my flash off-camera, I was able to make my photos much more interesting.

Find out how to use your flash off-camera. 10 Embarrassing Mistakes I Made as an Intermediate Photographer

My Focusing Sucked

This may be airing on the side of beginner problems, but it wasn’t included in the last post, so it deserves a mention.

When you buy your first wide aperture lens, such as the 50mm f/1.8, you end up with a lot of photo where there’s a very shallow depth of field. This leads to focus problems.

Here’s a few examples for you.

  1. If you’re taking a photo of a person, always focus on their eyes. We’re drawn to a person’s eyes, so that’s where the focus needs to be.
  2. If you’re taking a photo of a group of people, focus on the person closest to you. This is where you’ll look first, so it’s important that it’s in good focus. The focus will still extend back naturally. If you’re focused on the person at the back of the photo, then you’re going to have a hard time keeping everyone in focus.
  3. When you’re shooting landscapes, focus about a third of the way into the scene. I often just use my center focus point if I’m facing down to the scene. If you focus here, with a narrow enough aperture, this is where you’ll find the greatest depth of field. Even if there’s no apparent foreground subject.

I ‘Invested’ in Cheap Photography Products

Ergh, this one still annoys me.

I was so tempted to buy a good selection of tripods, lighting modifiers, accessories, etc. that I would end up buying the cheapest available. And even though it seems good value, when the gear eventually arrived, it was never really up to scratch. In fact, it tended to break pretty quickly.

I would end up buying the same thing twice. First, the cheap version, and then second, the expensive (and good quality) version which I had put off the first time.

To stop you from making the same mistake as me, I’ve put together a selection of recommended photography gear for you to browse. This probably sounds like a sales pitch, but just trust me on this one.

I Held my Camera Poorly

You never really realise how useful holding your camera correctly can be. Especially when you need to keep still in low light.

Just by learning how to hold my camera correctly, I stopped my fingers from getting in the way of the lens, and I would feel much more secure in holding my camera. This would allow for slower shutter speeds, which can come in really useful. 10 Embarrassing Mistakes I Made as an Intermediate Photographer

My Camera’s Sensor was Dirty

You may not even realise how dirty your camera sensor is, so before you go any further, I want you to test it.

Pick up your camera, and point it at a clean, plain part of the wall. Then turn your ISO up (to allow for more exposure), and narrow your aperture. Take a photo, and because you have a narrow aperture, you will be able to spot any dust lurking around.

I recently had mine cleaned professionally, and it only cost £15 so it’s not bad. Ask other photographers to help you, don’t take it to as shop as it will take a lot longer, and cost more.

In the meantime, buy this blower to help remove sensor dust.Brighton West Pier September 2012 151 10 Embarrassing Mistakes I Made as an Intermediate Photographer

My Workflow was Useless

Here’s how I used to import my photos…

If I went to take photos on Brighton beach, the folder would be called ‘Brighton Beach’ and the file name would be ‘Brighton Beach’, followed by a number.

Not anymore.

The folder name always has a month/year after it now, so if I take a photo on the beach now, the folder is called ‘Brighton Beach 10/12′. But much more importantly than that though, is the file name. Lets have a look at what I do.

Custom Name_Date_Sequence

I also apply my own copyright information onto it too, during the import.

This way, whenever I need to search for a photo, I can find what I’m looking for, and if someone sends me a photo back, I know where it’s come from. It’s good practice for your file management.

I Waited For the Weather

This is such nonsense. It’s just an excuse to not get up and take photos.

Waiting for the weather is when you want your scene to have very specific conditions before you take a photo. And then when it comes, and you’re busy, you just think, oh well, this weather will be back in a few weeks. What nonsense.

In reality, you can’t rely on weather, and you would do much better if you learned to adapt to the weather you have. I went to take a photo of the sunset on the beach the other day, but it was cloudy, so I adapted.

In the photo below, it would have been great to have the sun glowing through the sky, but it wasn’t, so I worked with the what I had, and it looks great in black and white. Stop waiting for the weather. 10 Embarrassing Mistakes I Made as an Intermediate Photographer

Only Ever Shot From Eye-Level

I’m tall.

I’m 6 foot 3, and I tower over a lot of people when I take photos. This can have a pretty negative effect on my photos, if they’re always looking down, from the same perspective

When you can start to consider different angles that you can take photos from, you’re going to produce far superior results, because there will be a mix of perspectives.

I personally love shooting from the hip now. 10 Embarrassing Mistakes I Made as an Intermediate Photographer

I Only Shot in Manual

But Josh, professional photographers only ever shoot in manual?

Rubbish. Completely not true. Some may, but the majority don’t.

It’s great (and essential) to learn manual mode, but the truth of the matter is that I probably only use it about a third of the time. The rest of the time I’m on aperture priority mode, or shutter speed priority mode.

  • Manual is great when you want to take full control over your photos, and has loads of uses.
  • Aperture priority mode is used when you know that the most important factor is the aperture (perhaps because you want a certain DoF or sharpness), and the shutter speed isn’t so important.
  • Shutter speed priority is for when you know your shutter has to be a certain speed, such as when you’re shooting in low light, or a fast moving object.

A lot of the time when you’re shooting in manual mode, you’re doing something that a priority mode would have easily done more for you. Read more about it here and here.

I Would Reach a Creative Road Block

When you take photos often, it’s not uncommon to reach a creativity road block, where you’re mind stops coming up with new ideas, and you find the idea of taking photos quite boring.

You may even start to hate your own photos.

This is no good, it’s poison and it can start to spread.

Whenever I get stuck, you know what I do? I look at my photos. I share my photos. I enjoy my photos. That usually stops me from hating them again, because you start to see why you like them.

When I want to find inspiration, I go for a walk. Only I leave my camera at home. I’m pretty well trained by now to look for photographic potential in everything, and for some reason, that feeling is even stronger when I don’t have my camera. It’s like an itch where your missing finger should be – you notice it more.

Don’t run your inspiration into the ground, you want to make photography fun for yourself, not to suck the life out of it. If you’re looking for inspiration in particular, I find it’s great to browse Pinterest too. 10 Embarrassing Mistakes I Made as an Intermediate Photographer10 Embarrassing Mistakes I Made as an Intermediate Photographer1 10 Embarrassing Mistakes I Made as an Intermediate Photographer

How to Shoot From The Hip

I was challenged by another photographer/blogger the other week, when he saw that I was shooting from the hip (so to speak), saying that it wasn’t good photography, because I didn’t know what I was taking. I didn’t challenge him on this, but I do happen to disagree, and here’s why.

Firstly, with a bit of experience and practice, the problem of now knowing what you’re going to get starts to clear itself up a bit. When I first started shooting from the hip, I came up with some pretty horrible photos, but as I started to learn what I was doing, and learned from my mistakes when pointing my camera, I came out with some much better better photos.

Part of the reason that I like shooting from the hip so much is because I’m a big fan of candid photography, and shooting from the hip is a great way to go unnoticed. I’m also really starting to enjoy street photography which is influced greatly by where you hold your camera and how you use it.

Here’s how to shoot from the hip.HP5 2012 02 23 at 12 42 04 17 How to Shoot From The Hip

Go Wide-Angle

This is probably the most important rule when it comes to shooting from the hip because it has so many influences on how your images come out. Firstly, it gives you a much wider field of view, so you can capture a lot more into your camera, and be more accurate. You might be tempted to use your 50mm f/1.8, but the chances are that would result in photos which were far too zoomed, where even slight movement at your hip will result in inaccurate photos.

Shooting from the hip is often used to replicate our field of view, so it makes sense to make the photos wide-angle, as it’s similar to how we see. By using a wide angle, you place the viewer in the scene, making them feel like they’re a part of it, which is part of the beauty of shooting from the hip.

Shooting with a wide angle also gives you the ability to shoot at slower speeds if you have to, without having to worry about motion blur. It’s typically said that if you change your focal length to your shutter speed (i.e. 35mm to 1/35 of a second), you can take an blur-free photo, while holding your camera (add an extra 50% to the speed if you’re shooting on a crop sensor). Using this logic, if you’re zoomed in, the slightest movement in your camera will by magnified in the distance, which means that you need a faster shutter speed to produce a blur-free photo.

Part of the fun of using a wide angle lens is that you can change how movement is captured in your camera. When something is close to the side of your frame, it appears to be moving faster than something in the center. Think of it like driving in your car and comparing what you see through your windscreen, to what you see through your side window. Don’t believe me? check out the photo below.HP5 2012 02 23 at 12 41 53 21 How to Shoot From The Hip

Use a Fast Shutter Speed

Some of the points I made above are summed up in here, because we need faster shutter speed to compensate for motion blur that we capture in our cameras. I typically shoot between 1/250 – 1/500 of a second depending on the conditions I’m in, and how much blur I would like to allow into the photo.

If you’re shooting from the hip, chances are that you’re moving when you’re taking the photo, or the subject is moving at least. When you combine this with improperly holding the camera, the chances for motion blur are high, so you need to crank up your speed to freeze this.Portfolio Export Print 5 How to Shoot From The Hip

Use a Narrow Aperture & Manually Focus

A narrow aperture allows you to have  a much deeper depth of field, which is important when you’re moving and taking photos, as it’s hard to keep the lens in focus. It allows for less light into the lens, but you can always turn up the ISO or use a fast speed film. An aperture of f/8 is really the maximum that you would want to go for, but try to aim for more towards f/11-f/16.

Another handy trick is to manually focus and get into the habit of taking photo at the same point each time. If you set your camera to focus four feet infront of you, and keep practicing taking photos of people four feet infront of you, then you will find that you’ll soon start to learn where you should be pointing your camera at that distance. Failing that, put your camera in autofocus, and set your focus mode to AI Servo/AF-C.

Shoot During the Day

It doesn’t take a genius to work out that if you’re shooting at a fast shutter speed, and a narrow aperture, then you’re going to need a lot of light to work with. If you’re shooting in dimly lit conditions, or at night, then you’re going to have to worry about your exposure more. Shooting at night just isn’t suitable when you’re shooting from the hip, unless of course you’re using a flash, but that’s another story altogether.Vegas 3 6049 How to Shoot From The Hip

Hold the Camera by the Lens & Don’t look at it

Holding the camera by the lens and not just the grip made a big difference to my photos because it helped me to understand where I was pointing the camera. Holding the lens in your hand makes pointing it much more accurate as you have a better sense of the direction.

Secondly, you’re going to want to avoid looking at the camera, because you will more than likely want to go unnoticed when taking the photo. People follow eye-lines, so if you’re looking down at your camera, then people are going to notice. On the flip-side, if you’re looking off into the distance, but clicking the camera, people are unlikely to notice that you’re taking a photo of them.

010 10 How to Shoot From The Hip

Don’t just shoot from your hip

But the article is called shoot from the hip? I know, but I’m not suggesting that you bring the camera up to your eyes either. Bring the camera up to your chest, or rotate it portrait and hang it by your side. Try kneeling down and snapping from close to the ground level.HP5 2012 02 23 at 12 42 16 13 How to Shoot From The HipHow to Shoot From The Hip1 How to Shoot From The Hip

10 Ways to Take Better Candid Photos

Why you should be taking candid photos.

If you ever want to kill the mood of a photo, just shout “say cheese!”, that ought to do it. Candid photos are much more natural, people are relaxed, and they add context to a photo. This post will provide you with the knowledge to take relaxed, fun and natural photos of people without them even knowing about it.

1 –  Lose the Flash

Using a flash is a dead giveaway, if you want to go unseen, widen your aperture and raise your ISO. This will allow you to take well exposed photos in low light conditions, such as indoors. I recommend an ISO of about 400, and you can widen the aperture as much as you want; it’ll give your photos a nice shallow depth of field which means the focus will be on the subject rather then the surroundings.

2 – Carry your Camera Everywhere

If you want to get good photos, you have to actually take your camera out of the house, especially when it comes to shooting candid photos. You’ll start to feel more comfortable with it, rather then not, and the process of taking photos of strangers will become second nature and not something you fear anymore. When I first started carrying my camera everywhere, I ended up with a lot of photos of the pub, but my photos improved dramatically.Portfolio 15 10 Ways to Take Better Candid Photos

3 – Be Patient

Waiting is an important part of getting a good photo; wait for that perfect smile, or for your subject to turn to you. In the photo below, I was working on a corporate job and had my camera on the man on the right for about 10 seconds while he was looking away. As soon as he turned his head, I snapped the shot and got one of my best photos of the weekend.LCS Saturday 3520 10 Ways to Take Better Candid Photos

4- Use a Telephoto Lens

If you’ve got one, then this is a great way to go unnoticed. You can stand really far away and still capture the subject as if you were up close. Telephoto lenses also force the perspective onto your subject, which makes it less about the scene and more about the person, which is why they’re often used for portraits.

5 – Add Context

Without context, photos lack depth. I like to position my subjects to the left of right of the frame to show some of where they are or what they’re doing. Another great way to add context is to shoot through the environment that they’re in, like trees or people. Have a look at the photo below, it gives you a really good idea as to what they’re doing,

and the mood of the day.CNV00009 10 Ways to Take Better Candid Photos

6 – Shoot from the Hip

If you're worried about being seen taking photos of someone who may not what to have their photo taken, try shooting with your camera at hip hight. This gives a new, different perspective on a situation that you won't be used to and adds to the 'candid' feel of the photo. Try using live view to compose a shot at first if you're ending up with a lot of bad photos.

7 – Keep Quiet and Blend in

This is especially important if you're working on a corporate job as it's best to go unnoticed so that you don't distract from the main event. Move slowly and quietly, and blend in by wearing similar clothes to the people you will be taking photos of. Another good tip is to use live view on your camera where possible; this lifts the shutter up before the photo is taken so the sound of the exposure is a lot quieter.

8 – Catch People in the Moment

In this photo below, a friend walked into a festival office, sat down on a box of t-shirts exhausted, put his hands on his head and rocked his head back. I brought up my film camera, composed the shot and took it as soon as he looked back at me. The result is a photo which captures the emotion of just how tired he was, while the people holding stuff up on the left and right add the context of how busy it was there. Capturing people in the moment provide the best results and details of what's going on in a photo.CNV00004 10 Ways to Take Better Candid Photos

9 – Move Around you Subjects

If you're taking a photo of someone candidly, you can't exactly ask them move to create a better composition. It's also pointless asking them to look natural, as that creates the most awkward shots of all. Get up and walk around your subjects until you have them positioned how you'd like and then take the photo. A set of photos all taken from the same seat can be pretty boring and predictable so movement helps to change things up.

10 – Shoot in Burst Mode

People are unpredictable, and you only get one chance when taking a candid photo so shoot lots; you'll be surprised at what you'll find. I often end up with something fun and spontaneous and shooting in burst mode will increase your chances of getting that perfect shot.10 Ways to Take Better Candid Photos 10 Ways to Take Better Candid Photos

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