All posts by Mike Turner

Food Photography

Hazel's Cooking Corner, Learn Photography

food photographyWell this article is combining two of my great passions, Photography and Food. My dear wife Hazel is probably the best cook in the world (as far as I’m concerned anyway) and my waist line can prove it. She is forever making great meals and photographing them to show her friends on Facebook. So I told her to improve her photography of food by following a few tips from our portrait business. I don’t photograph food in a professional capacity, but the basic ingredients of good photography apply to whatever you’re photographing whether that be people, pets, landscape or food.

  • Good lighting – making the food look tasty is the aim of the game
  • Good composition – making the photo look interesting

Good Lighting

Avoid lighting your food under artificial lighting conditions, such as light bulbs or florescent lights, as these cause the food to look ugly due to their colour cast. Light bulbs will make the food look a yellowy colour and florescent lighting will make it look greenish (which is not particularly flattering if it happens to be meat).

You can, depending on your camera, set the colour balance to counteract these lighting effects if you have no other option, but it is much easier to photograph your food using natural light from a window. Not just because it takes away the colour balance problem, but also because the light will be coming from a more suitable direction, rather than coming from above (in the instance of artificial lighting from the middle of your ceiling) it will be coming from a side direction (assuming your windows are embedded in your walls).

Check out the examples below a see how the light is coming either from the side or from behind. Avoid lighting from your camera position as this provides a flat lighting effect. You want to add a sense of three dimension to your photos by adding light and shadow to your food, this makes it look more natural and interesting.

Good Composition

Make the food look interesting, have it in a real world situation, such as a table, not too distracting background, although something in the background can sometimes add to the interest, shallow depth of field, to blur the background so that the attention is directed to the food.

All the images below are taken by Hazel and all the food is cooked by her

 

food photography examples by Mike Turner Photography
food photography examples by Mike Turner Photography
food photography examples by Mike Turner Photography
food photography examples by Mike Turner Photography
food photography examples by Mike Turner Photography
food photography examples by Mike Turner Photography
food photography examples by Mike Turner Photography
food photography examples by Mike Turner Photography
food photography examples by Mike Turner Photography
food photography examples by Mike Turner Photography
food photography examples by Mike Turner Photography
food photography examples by Mike Turner Photography

Photo Editing

Having fun with photos, Learn Photography

Don’t fall into the trap of chasing more and more expensive camera equipment, instead spend time and money improving your camera skills and editing skills

learn photo editing screenshot

“Most people think that upgrading their entry level DSLR and spending sometimes as much as $3000 for a new camera will bring their photography to “the next level”. Or they think that a $2000 pro lens will be the difference between amateur and professional looking photos.

The truth is…this is mostly a myth. Let’s take for example a Canon T4i(entry level DSLR) and a Canon 5D Mark III(Pro Level), put them on the same tripod and take the same photo (using 2 capable lenses with equivalent focal lengths) and in most situations, the majority of people you show the photo to won’t be able to see a noticeable difference. However (!), show people an expertly edited/color corrected/color graded photo and then the same photo that either came straight out of the camera or was poorly edited and people will IMMEDIATELY see a HUGE difference. If you don’t know already, most great photos you see out there have been skillfully post-processed and edited in softwares like Photoshop, Lightroom and Photomatix(HDR photos).

To me, it makes NO sense to buy more and more camera gear in the hope of taking better photos while neglecting what in the end will make the biggest difference – your photo editing know-how and skills!” www.learnphotoediting.net

There are many photo editing tutorials online, some are better explained than others, learnphotoediting.net allowed me to review their advanced photo editing tutorials. There are currently 9 tutorials to go through:

  1. Combine the power of RAW photography, Tone Mapping and Color Grading!
  2. Learn How To Create An Alien With Photo Manipulation Techniques!
  3. Turn Your Photos Into Magazine Covers!
  4. Extreme Color Grading
  5. Retouch Your Portraits Like The Pros
  6. Learn How To Create Vintage Photos!
  7. Combine Photo Manipulation & Compositing To Create A Post-Apocalyptic Scene!
  8. Combine HDR Photography & Color Grading And Get Stunning Results!
  9. Color Grading For Wedding Photography!

I found the tutorials to be in-depth and easy to follow. All the images and effects are available to use for yourself and reproduce.

When you consider the price of magazines and the rather vague tutorials contained in some of them, then learnphotoediting.net’s offering is pretty good value for money, check out their sales page  to see what you get for your money. It doesn’t cost anything to have a look at their sales page for more info. My communication with the site owner was very possible and very prompt. I only recommend sites that I feel have a good offering. See if the tutorials are of interest to you before you go ahead and purchase. Feel free to ask me any questions if you have any.

The links to learnphotoediting.net are affiliate links, if you buy the product I get a affiliate commission, although this is not why I have featured this product in this article, I have genuinely done so because I believe it adds value for my readers. Checking out the sales page on the end of these links will not incur a charge unless you go through the sites shopping cart. If you do click on the links and decide to purchase the product I would like to thank you for your support of this site via it’s affiliate sale commission, it helps us keep supplying free valuable information for you, many thanks

Learn Photography Menu

Learn Photography

Learn all aspects of photography

If you’re keen to learn photography and get more pleasure from knowing more about the subject then you’re at the right place. We have some great articles about photography and some of the key princples that will allow you to take control of your camera and get creative. Like anything worth learning it is important to understand the basic principles first and build on those as you become more knowledgeable and better practiced. Below is our index to the basic knowledge you will need to get started. Once you have a clear understanding of these you will be on your way to becoming a better photographer.

 

Having fun with your photos

Having fun with photos

having fun with photography

Having fun with your photographs has never been easier. Many of the effects we use in professional photography are done manually or with the use of plugins using photoshop. But more and more websites offer free photo editing effects, and we have had abit of a play with some of them, and to be honest they are quite fun.

PHO.TO

pho.to screen view

Above are 3 effects taken from a site called http://funny.pho.to/, which has hundreds of options, many of them are alittle bit corny if I’m being honest but it’s all about having fun so I’m putting my professionalism to one side for a few hours. I thought the three effects used above on an image of Hazel looked pretty cool, and were the pick from this particular website. There are apps available for iphone and ipad and for Android smart phones, although I haven’t used them myself, I did the above effects from a laptop without any fuss at all. You can also send e-cards, fix photos, and put your face on animals, and different figures, well worth checking out if your into that kind of thing.

PIXLR

pixlr website screenshot

http://pixlr.com/o-matic/

is another site I really like, it allows you to upload much bigger file sizes but offers less choice of photo effects then funny.pho.to, there are also some cool framing effects you can use, which I really like. It is less gimicky then the previous recommendation, which is why I probably like it more.

I will keep checking out sites I come across and add them to this post, so please keep checking back on the latest reviews. What kind of effects do you like to use on your photos?

TRICK PHOTOGRAPHY BOOK.COM 

trick photography

Trick Photography
One I did earlier, taken from one of the tutorials.. Great fun and really easy to do

Check out Evan Sharboneau’s trick photography tutorials regarding a vast amount of cool photography effects and tricks, well worth a further look. It doesn’t cost anything to have a look at the website which shows loads of possible effects, although the course that it is promoting is chargeable.

‘Please note in an attempt to remain as transparent as possible, I would like to disclose the trick photography links here are affiliate links, meaning that I get a commission if you purchase the product, but this is not why I have put the link here, I have done so, because I genuinely believe it provides valuable information for my readers interested in the subject matter and is one of the best resources available for the subject of trick photography. If you do click through and purchase, I would like to thank you for your support of this site via it’s sponsors links, it helps us to provide valuable information for our readers for free’.

PHOTOSHOP

Adobe offers a free, online version of Photoshop with scaled down features that include those needed for basic photo editing. You can crop and re-size, apply basic touch ups, work with color, or edit the photo by adjusting the sharpness, focus and more.

BEFUNKY

be funky image

BeFunky includes 147 effects that can be done with one click. In addition to the one-click effects you can perform basic tasks like cropping and re-sizing. A premium account is available for $9.95 per month that allows for priority processing, photo storage and more. Befunky can be used via mobile using it’s app which is available on Google Play. You can easily access via your Facebook account and edit photos from your account to edit with ease.

CANVA

While the other platforms reviewed on this page are great fun to use, Canva is more professional orientated. Now I don’t mean you have to be a professional to use it, but the end results are designed to look more professional. Canva is ideal if you have a blog where you want to use professional quality graphics or are doing a presentation at work, college or school. Many of the templates are free to use while others have a small charge of $1. You can use your own images within designs as well as the 1 million stock images on the platform. The interface is as easy as dragging and dropping elements into place, and you can try it without having to enter any personal details.

canva

Tips for getting better photos of your children

Learn Photography

how to take photographs of your children

Everybody enjoys taking photos of their children. They are great to look back on in years to come, and are a lasting memory of your child at different ages, passing through different phases of their lives.

While we would recommend you come to our studio to enjoy a professional photo shoot, we feel we should give you a few pointers so you can get better quality images yourselves.

Obviously the better your photography equipment, the better the quality of images you will be able to capture. A camera that allows you to manually set some of the camera controls is a big advantage, but with many parents relying on mobile phone cameras we will progress by helping you get the best with what you have.

Getting better indoor photos

window light photography

Capturing great photographs is about using light to your advantage. If you’re photographing inside, try to utilise the natural sunlight coming in through a window. Turn the lights off in the room and sit your child close to a window, with the light falling onto their face. Net curtains may not be as fashionable these days as a window decoration but they are perfect for diffusing the light coming in from outside.

Getting better outdoor photos

outdoor photography of children

If the weather permits, photographing outside can provide a variety of backgrounds. Try to avoid direct sunlight, it isn’t particularly flattering if falling onto the face, leaving high contrasting light and shadows under the nose and around the eyes. Try to photograph your child with their backs to the sun, this will give a nice hair light and provide much more flattering light on the face. If you can get your child to play in shadow areas where the sunshine is more diffused, such as under trees or in the shade of a building this will make things much easier for you.

Photographing on an overcast day provides the easiest shooting conditions, giving a nice soft diffused light all around with very little contrast. This will also stop  your camera being fooled by the variety of lighting brightness found on sunny days.

Getting down

photographing children outside

A quick and easy improvement to your photographs comes from just getting down to your Childs level. Photographing on an equal level will give your photos a more professional look. Try lying down or sitting on the ground to see things from your child’s vantage point.

Zoom in close

Zoom your camera into your child, getting in close and getting intimate shots of your child at play can improve your photos no end. Framing can be more problematic, especially with the shooting delay experienced on phones and point and shoot camera, but practice will help improve this. Try to get a close up of your child’s face removing any distractions from the background. Great photos are about great expressions.

Blurry Backgrounds

blurry background illustrating shallow depth of field

If you get in close, you may find blurring backgrounds possible, although this won’t be as effective without the use of more expensive camera equipment. Blurry backgrounds are an effective way of drawing the viewer’s eye to the focused part of the image, which hopefully will by your child.

Photos at playtime

photographing children at play

Children are at their most adorable while at play, with natural expressions of joy. Shooting them playing on a swing or in a sandpit, or on their favourite tricycle can provide endless opportunities to nail a playful action shot. With more expensive manually cameras, a fast shutter speed will help freeze the action.

Capture your child’s phases

Try to capture images that are typical of your child at that age. It may be a certain look that they use, a gesture, a particular toy that they play with. When you look back on your photos in years to come, you want to have images where you say, “Aww I remember him/her doing that at that age”.

Hope you find something useful from this article, we would love for you to send us some of your images, before and after implementing some of these tips, if you would like to get some one to one tuition, please check out my photography tutorial page for more information. If you think someone your know would like the tips contained in this article please share it with them, thanks for dropping by…