Through the Gadling Lens: the photoblogs of our Gadling photo pool contributors

by Karen Walrond on

Never let it be said that we don’t have amazing photographers who contribute to our Gadling Flickr pool. One of my favourite things to do is to just scroll through all the striking images — or better still, do searches within the pool for images of any of my upcoming travel destinations. Every time I do, I always learn something: something about a far-off land or culture, or I pick up a new trick for how to shoot a certain subject. The truth is, the Gadling Flickr pool makes me a better photographer.

As I was going through the pool today, I realized that I had a few favourite photographers — and I wondered to myself if these talented shutterbugs might have photoblogs to which I could subscribe, and follow them in my feed reader. Silly me for even doubting that this wouldn’t be the case. So this week, I thought I’d share with you some of the photoblogs my favourite photographers who contribute to the Gadling pool, so you can have a few new daily reads (and eye candy!) as you sip your morning coffee.
1. Ultraclay!

One of the most prolific contributors to our Flickr pool is the inimitable ultraclay!, whose work has been featured heavily both here on Through the Gadling Lens as well as our Photos of the Day. I’ve always loved ultraclay!’s images, since, in addition to being technically sound, are always provocative, from so many places in the world. So needless to say, I was thrilled to learn that ultraclay! also blogs, at ultraclay dot com, where you can see images from his home in Brooklyn, New York, as well as from his travels. This is one blog that’s definitely going into my feed reader.

2. LadyExpat

LadyExpat hasn’t contributed tons of images to our pool, but my heavens, what she has are positively stunning. According to her online journal, Musings from the Other Side, LadyExpat originally hails from Halifax, in Nova Scotia, Canada, but has been living in Asia since the beginning of this century. One look through her images reveals that she has a true eye for striking faces, stunning scenery, and capturing moments of everyday life. I’m thrilled she blogs, and features a “photo of the day,” as well. Be sure to check her site out.


3. Jon Rawlinson

Not surprisingly, the portrait above of a man from Botswana stopped me cold — what an amazing capture by photographer (and producer, and cameraman, and editor – whew!) Jon Rawlinson, and thank heavens he chooses to share his work in our Flickr pool. A quick look through is photostream will tell you that this photographer has an amazing facility with light, and colour and texture — I could spend weeks just studying each of his photographs. And happily, Jon has a website, Jon Rawlinson Productions, where he also blogs, and shares some more of his very favourite photographs. A definite must-see.

4. Pirano

This beautiful shot, full of texture and colour (not to mention an intimate moment between an unsuspecting couple) was beautifully captured by Pirano, one of our pool contributors. Pirano also blogs at piran café, where he chronicles his daily life in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and his travels abroad. I really enjoy his blog because not only does he post his provocative photographs, but he accompanies his images with insightful thoughts and comments of his home and cities beyond. Really beautiful work.


5. Bryn Tassell

The colours of the sunset, the spray of the surf and the texture of the rocks in the foreground make this shot, shared by Bryn Tassell in our pool, absolutely spectacular. What’s even more stunning? You haven’t seen anything yet — Bryn’s photoblog, Techno-Graph (“a smattering of information technology and photography” — get it?) will positively take your breath away. His landscapes are amazing, and in addition to sharing beautiful work, he occasionally shares tips on how to improve your own photography (see: Tips for Winter Photography, for example). Bryn’s RSS feed has been immediately added to my personal feed reader, and has rocketed to one of my favourite photoblogs of all the ones I follow.


6. A Song Under the Sugar Sugar

I can’t tell you how thrilled I was to come across this image from A Song Under the Sugar Sugar in the Gadling pool photostream — I’ve always been drawn to images that were different from the mainstream. A Song Under the Sugar Sugar’s images have a vintage, antiqued look about them, with a sepia tone that underlies all of the colours. And happily, her photoblog (not surprisingly entitled A Song Under the Sugar Sugar), is a true photoblog, and a feast for the eyes: she uploads an image every few days with very little commentary, so that your experience enjoying her photographs is unmarred by words. A truly beautiful site.

7. PDPhotography

When you look at the image above by PDPhotography, there’s not a question in your mind that this photographer is a master of Photoshop. And you know what? You’d be right: one look through his Flickr photostream will tell you that PDPhotography has taken his post-camera processing skills to an art form. But here’s the great news: PDPhotography photoblogs, as well, at Lit Pixels, and not only does he share more of his images with you, but he gives you his processing tips and tricks to help you create your own pieces of photographic art. Seriously, you gotta love a guy who’s that generous with his skills.


8. Hijodelafortuna

And last but certainly not least, I love the images shared by hijodelafortuna, whose amazing photostream is a perfect example of how creative photoprocessing and radical visual effects can still convey the story of a travel adventure. As it turns out, Hijodelafortuna is actually T.R. Ryan, who blogs at the equally beautiful From the Faraway, Nearby — a blog, he claims, is “a celebration of travel, nature and poetry of place.” His site is a true traveler’s photoblog, with images from 6 different continents, and filled with his impressions of the lands he visits. Definitely work a good long look.

And with that, I’ll leave you to comb through all of the beautiful sites of the very talented photographers you see above. If you know of any other really talented photobloggers, please leave the links to their sites in the comments section, below — I’d love to check them out. And as always, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to send them directly to me at karenDOTwalrondATweblogsincDOTcom, and I’ll be sure to tackle them in upcoming posts!

Karen is a writer and photographer in Houston, Texas. You can see more of her work at her site, Chookooloonks, and read her own photoblog here.
And for more Through the Gadling Lens, click here.

Through the Gadling Lens: try not to focus

by Karen Walrond on

There can be no doubt that a really lovely, crisp image with a sharp focus can make a shot — and in truth, focus can be one of the easiest technical aspects of a photograph that can be learned and controlled. But just this past week, I was instant-messaging a photographer friend of mine:

Me: Hey, have you ever taken a photograph, and you can’t tell whether the result is really crappy or really cool?

Josh: All the damned time.

Me: I just took one. I can’t tell. There’s no part of this image that is in sharp focus. But I think I like it anyway.

Josh: Meh. Focus is overrated.

I’ve thought about this conversation a lot since then, and I have to say, I agree with him: sometimes, focus is overrated. So this week, I thought I’d share some of the photographs in the Gadling Flickr pool which are great illustrations of how sometimes ignoring focus (or manipulating it, at least) can result in a great shot.

1. Shallow depths of field. One of the most fun ways to play with focus is to manipulate the “depth of field” — the amount of photograph which is actually in focus, as compared to the rest of the photograph. When you look at a photograph with a large depth of field, almost every portion of the photograph will be in focus. Conversely, if you look at a photograph with a shallow or small depth of field, only one portion of the photograph will be in focus, while the rest of it will be in “bokeh,” or fade smoothly out of focus.

Subjects in photographs with very shallow depths of field don’t look like the subject does in real life; however, it does add a lot of interest to the photograph, in that they help direct the viewer to a single point on the image. The easiest way of manipulating the depth of field is to play with a lens’ aperture — the smaller the aperature number, the shallower the depth of field (more on aperture can be found here). Simply set your camera to “aperture priority” (or just put the camera in full-on manual mode, if you wish), and set the aperature to a low number.

Some beautiful examples of shallow depth of field:

This great shot shared by (flicts) in the Gadling Flickr pool is a classic example of shallow depth of field. Notice how just the small barb of the fence is in focus, where the rest of the shot isn’t. You can still tell exactly what the image is — a verdent green field in the country — but the shallow depth of field directs your attention exactly where (flicts) wants it to go, on the tiny detail of the fence. Taking this photograph with a large depth of field would have resulted in a rather ordinary shot; instead, the depth of field makes the shot. Really spectacular.

Flowers are wonderful subjects for playing with depth of field, primarily because they generally have so much detail going on, the number of areas you can choose to have in focus are general endless. In this great shot shared by dog blue in the flickr pool, the very tips of the petals are in focus, while the rest of the flower (and its neighbours) rapidly fall into bokeh. Again, this would’ve been an ordinary shot if there was a large depth of field; but it makes for a great image when the depth of field is restricted. Lovely work.

2. Capture movement through blur. Oftentimes, when taking a photograph of a rapidly moving object — a car driving quickly, perhaps, or a child on a swing, for example — the natural tendency is to move the camera along with the moving object, in order to minimize blur. Instead, consider trying to capture the blur itself — forget about trying to get the moving object in focus, and instead, go with the flow: let the object whiz by, and capture the speed of the object

A few tips as you try to capture blur: consider placing an inanimate object (or an immobile person) in the foreground, and focus on that, instead. The stationery object/person will provide great contrast with the moving object, and give some context and contrast in the image.

Some amazing examples of blurry movement:



This shot of a New York City subway shared by ultraclay! is a classic demonstration of capturing blur by juxtaposing a moving object against an immobile one. In this shot, by focusing on the stationary couple in front, the speed of the passing train is beautifully captured — you can almost imagine standing on the platform with them, with the sudden train rushing by taking your breath away.

Nobody nearby for you to use as your stationary focal point? Look up: in this shot, Cazimiro used the interesting ceiling pattern as his stationary object — by focusing on that, the rushing train in this Washington DC subway is just a beautiful blur of light, and the entire shot is from an interesting perspective, rather than just looking straight on at the train. Outstanding job.


Finally, lest you think the “blur” technique only works for public transportation, check out the amazing shot above by Willy Volk, taken on a Florida beach. In this shot, Willy focused on the stationary sand, and let the ocean do its thing. An awesome shot – it makes you totally imagine the rushing waves over your feet, as your toes sink into the grainy sand. Of course, the warped perspective given by using the fisheye lens helps make this shot, as well.

3. For night shots, purposely make the lights out of focus. Lights at nighttime are magical — and sometimes purposely “unfocusing” the lights can make your images even more magical, as they flare against a darker sky. This technique is particularly effective when shooting holiday lights, strings of street lights, or any multitude of city lights against a darkening sky.

Something to keep in mind — this effect tends to work best at dusk, when you can still make out silhouettes against a dark blue sky, rather than at pitch black-darkness. Also, this can be a lovely effect when taking images in intimate restaurants or bars: place an object with a recognizable silhouette in the foregrounds, with the twinkling lights in the background.

Some really stellar examples of blurry lights:

This shot by ultraclay! is a perfect example of capturing an intimate feel in a bar or restaurant. Shot at a sake bar in New York City, by focusing on the candle in the foreground and keeping the other candles in blur in the back, the result is an image that makes you think of low conversations, the clink of sake glasses, and the occasional outburst of laughter. The photograph doesn’t just record an image, but it captures some of the mood around the image as well.


Additionally, this great shot by StrudelMonkey of holiday lights in Florida captures the magic of the season. The light tree in focus in the foreground provides the perspective and the setting; however, the blurred lights in the background let you know that the light tree isn’t just a one-off — the magic of the season goes on into the scene. Lovely piece of work.

4. Finally, just give up on focus altogether.

I’ve shared this photo with you before, but I can’t help it: I love this shot, mostly because it was a complete and total accident — I squeezed the shutter before the camera had time to find focus anywhere. But still — even without the focus, I’ve never had anyone fail to recognize the image above as one of the Houses of Parliament in London — and in fact, it’s the lack of focus that provides the interest.

The reason the shot above works is because (a) it’s an iconic image — one of an internationally-famous landmark; (b) there’s lots of colour and (c) there’s lots of lights. In other words, there’s more than just the shape of the subject, but light and colour keep the eye’s interest.

What (accidentally) taking this image taught me is that perhaps when taking pictures of iconic subjects — say, like the Statue of Liberty in an upcoming trip to New York, or the Great Wall of China (one of my future photography goals) — perhaps it make sense to grab a few shots with the subject out of focus — instead, let the colours and the contrast and the light of the surrounding area tell the story.

Hopefully all of these examples will inspire you to play with your focus a little bit — because, as my friend Josh says, sometimes focus is overrated. Keep taking your amazing shots, and keep sharing them in the Gadling Flickr pool. And as always, if you have any photography-related questions, don’t hesitate to send them to me at karen.walrondATweblogsincDOTcom – I’m happy to tackle them here on Through the Gadling Lens.

Karen is a writer and photographer in Houston, Texas. You can see more of her work at her site, Chookooloonks.
And for more Through the Gadling Lens, click here.

Through the Gadling Lens: 7 photography exercises for the brand-new photographer

by Karen Walrond on

I bought my very first SLR camera about 15 years ago. I knew nothing about photography at the time, so I enlisted the aid of a professional-photographer-friend to come with me to help me choose my camera, and, since I had his attention, teach me a few pointers about photography as well. “You’ll be buying second-hand,” he informed me, “and you will pay nothing less than $500.”

Gulp.

A few days later (and exactly $501 poorer), my friend and I walked out of my local camera store, a 10-year-old Nikon SLR in my shaking hands. “Now what?” I asked.

“Now,” he responded, “we shoot.”

For the next week or so, my friend took me to various sites in and around Houston, and had me burn roll after roll of film. In addition to teaching me the technical basics, he also gave me some exercises so I could learn about form, composition, contrast and colour. What he taught me was invaluable, and I’ve never felt the need to take a photography course as a result.

Recently, I’ve met a lot of people who have just bought their first digital SLR (or received one as a gift), and really don’t know where to begin. So if you happen to be in that boat, I thought I’d share some of my favourite exercises for a bit of inspiration, and practice. Since these days, most people aren’t putting rolls of film in their cameras, instead, I would suggest that you shoot 20 photographs for each exercise — and then, if you like the results, please share them with us in the comments section below.

And so, without further ado, the exercises:
1. Set your camera to black and white, and shoot away.

My photographer friend was adamant that the first roll of film I ran through my camera be black and white film. “That’s the way you’ll really become a photographer,” he said. “Colour can hide a multitude of sins. Once you’re comfortable in black and white, then you can move to colour.”

In many ways, he was right: shooting in black and white can teach your about form and texture and contrast in a way that colour photography really can’t. For example, in the second shot above, you don’t notice the sunset, but you do notice the “texture” of the rippling water, and the shadow created on the ocean’s surface as the sun sets. When you first take your camera out, go ahead and take several shots in black and white mode, and really study the results. You may never shoot in black and white again, but the lessons that you learn will be ones you’ll take with you when composing all of your shots in the future.

2. Once you’ve got black and white down, start focusing on colour.

Once you’re comfortable with shooting in black and white, go ahead and start shooting in colour. But what I would suggest is to choose a colour, and then go out on a photo shoot and try to capture that specific colour in all your shots. For example, if your chosen colour is yellow, shoot as much yellow in as many locations as you can — and notice the different tonal changes, how light can change the hues and how the colour “handles” translucence, or opacity. This exercise can help you to train your eye to really search out colour as the focal point of composition.

3. The 100 paces exercise

This exercise is one I actually read recently online (and for the life of me I can’t find the link, sorry!), but I think it’s a great exercise to inspire creativity when you don’t have a lot of time to travel somewhere fabulous to practice your photography. The premise is as follows: grab your camera, walk 100 paces in any direction, then stop. Take 20 shots of whatever you find at that spot.

The point of this exercise is to force you to look closely at your surroundings, consider various angles and find something unusual about your specific location. I’ve actually done this exercise (two results of which are shown above), and it was a great way to clear away the creativity cobwebs, and look at familiar places in a whole new way.

4. Play with the rule of thirds.

To refresh: the rule of thirds is a general rule of design and photography that states that if you were to divide each dimension of the frame, or viewfinder, into thirds, then to increase visual interest, your subject should line up along one of the lines or axes that you’ve drawn.

So to do this exercise, when you go out for a photoshoot, instead of placing your subject directly in the middle of the frame, offset it slightly, so that the subject roughly lines up along an axes drawn at a third of the frame. Note that this “rule” doesn’t mean that every shot should be taken on thirds (some shots just work better perfectly symmetrically), but it does force you to think about different angles and ways to shoot.

And also, when doing this exercise, don’t forget that you have axes both vertically and horizontally — for example, in the shot of my daughter above, her eyes and mouth line up pretty perfectly on the horizontal axes; conversely, in the bottom image, the tree lines up pretty well on a vertical axes.

5. Tap into your inner photojournalist.

This is a great exercise to do at local festivals or fairs in your town: grab your camera and head out to the site, and start snapping away. But instead of just taking photographs of your travel companions, or your travel companions next to some landmark or a particular street performer, actually compose shots using what you see around you. Notice things like forms and patterns — for example, in the shot of the artist suspended in silks, above, notice how the position of her body mimics the shape of the tree in the background. In the second photo, notice the angry message juxtaposed with the woman flashing the beautiful smile and the peace sign with her fingers. Really look for the story you can capture within the shot.

6. Get close.

In this case, the distance to your subject will be somewhat limited by the focal length of your lens (in both shots, above, I used a macro lens, which lets me get really, really close to the subject), but in my opinion, one of the biggest mistakes that new photographers make is failing to fill the frame with their subject. So I would suggest that a new photographer take her camera out, and for at least 20 shots, fill the entire frame with her subject. Get used to getting close, and really testing how close you can get to your subject without losing the ability to focus. Once you’ve developed that comfort, then you can start backing up, and playing with shots from farther away.

7. Schedule a photoshoot.

Who says photoshoots are just for professional photographers? One of the funnest, most educational things I did when I first started shooting was invite two friends of mine to drive down to the beach with me, so I could practice using my camera — and I was very careful to ensure that they understood that in addition to shooting the beach, I would be taking their photographs as well. We picked a beautiful day, drove down early, and made a day of it — we shot all morning on the beach, grabbed a bite to eat at a local restaurant, and drove back. The result was a beautiful day filled with great memories, coupled with some great shots that they cherish to this day.

Of course, one of the best ways to make sure that you get great shots is for your subjects to feel comfortable with you — and that’s what spending a morning shooting can do — your friends will eventually forget about the camera. But the other, biggest trick about taking a great portrait?

Don’t stop shooting.

Don’t just shoot the posed shots — shoot when one of your friends wanders off to feel the water on her bare feet (as shown in the first shot above). Don’t just shoot the image of your friends holding each other and smiling into the camera — capture the moment when they think the shot is over, and the pull back to smile at each other (as in the second shot). Just shoot, and shoot and shoot — I guarantee you you’ll be thrilled with one of the resulting shots.

With that, grab your cameras, go out there, and practice, practice, practice — and feel free to use the exercises above for inspiration. And please, if you love some of the results, don’t hesitate to upload your images onto the web (Flickr‘s great for that sort of thing), and then, please, share the links in the comments below. I’d love to see what you capture, and read any insights you may have discovered along the way.

Karen is a writer and photographer in Houston, Texas. You can see more of her work at her site, Chookooloonks.
Through the Gadling Lens can be found every Thursday right here, at 11 a.m. To read more, Through the Gadling Lens, click here.

Through the Gadling Lens: the best vacation photos from our Gadling pool

by Karen Walrond on

A few months ago, I wrote a post describing the types of shots that I always try to take when I’m traveling — the kinds of shots which will make a complete album capturing all of the memories and images around my trip. Well, this week, I’ve culled through the Gadling flickr pool to pick some of my favourite images from some of the wonderful photographers out there, and I thought I’d describe what makes these images pretty terrific … in my opinion. Obviously, beauty is subjective, so I’d love to hear your thoughts about the images in the comments — nothing like some great debate to spark some inspiration.
1. Landscapes

I love this amazing shot of Machu Picchu in Peru, taken by magnusvk. Now granted, in a setting like this, it’s probably pretty hard to take a bad shot; still, the balance of colours is amazing, and in particular, I love that it wasn’t taken on a picture-perfect day — the clouds add such interest. In fact, magnusvk described the process he used to capture such a great image:

“Go in the rainy season, get up as early as you can, take the first bus up and just ignore the rain. That’s the only way to have Machu Picchu more or less for yourself for a couple of minutes. The morning mood, as you can see, is beautiful and really does reward all hardship.”

Really great advice, and it’s actually something to keep in mind no matter where you are — early morning shots are often a beautiful way to watch an area waking up to the day.

Above is another stunning scenery example, taken by arex in Yosemite national park. What makes this image so stellar is the contrast: if you notice, the whites at the tops of the snow-capped mountains in the distance are completely white, and the blacks from the shadows of the trees in the still water are totally black. Having these tonal shades throughout the image make the photograph completely striking to the eye — you can almost image the total stillness and quiet that must have been there at the time the photograph was taken. Really breathtaking shot.

2. Iconic images.

Oh, how I love this photo, captured by jrodmanjr — I mean, do I even have to tell you where this image was taken? It is truly the quintessential image of San Francisco. But what I love about it is how it was taken — it’s not just a quick snapshot of a passing cable car. It’s shot from right on the tracks, in silhouette. It’s in black and white, which makes the image so timeless. But, of course, what makes this image so incredibly striking is the way it has been framed and cropped — the long, tall image draws your eyes immediately to the shape of the cable car, and the passengers hanging out of the side. Can’t you just imagine this image blown up to an enormous size — 5 feet by 10 feet, maybe — and hanging in an industrial loft home in San Francisco? Such a great shot.

3. Portraits

As you know, I love a good portrait. But the only thing I love more than a portrait is a portrait with a sense of humour. The happy photo captured by gypsysoul73 above is one such photo — I love the laughter and life of the people in the image juxtaposed with the inanimate statue on the bench they share.

Even more brilliantly, however, is the shot below, taken by PDPhotography:

Fantastic.

The point is, obviously, that some really great portraits can be inspired from the words, art, graffiti, or whatever happens to be around you at the time. About 5 years ago, my husband and I did a whole series of portraits of ourselves imitating each item of art we saw on exhibit in the Art Institute of Chicago — one of my favourite vacation albums to date. I mean, I don’t have any idea of the image above was staged or not, but really, does it matter? It’s a great shot, and thanks to the image I suspect PDPhotography is never going to forget where he was or what was going on at the time he took that photograph. Well done.

And finally, as an idea for a great portrait of the travel companion who is reticent about being photographed, take a look at this fantastic image captured by StrudelMonkey while traveling in Bali:

Isn’t this great? Nothing like an image of sandy feet to really capture the spirit of relaxation on a beach holiday. And I love how you can just make out the word “Bali” on the book being read in this shot. A truly unusual portrait that communicates exactly how restorative a seaside vacation can be.

4. Nighttime

Finally (although we haven’t talked about this in the past), it’s also a great idea to capture a few nighttime shots while you’re traveling. It can be very tempting to reserve all your your photo-taking to the times of day when you’ve got wonderful bright sunshine, but remember of course that many memories occur after the sun goes down.

When you do take your nighttime shots, try taking a few without the flash — it really can help capture the mood of the evening in a way that flash really can’t. Of course, in darkened spaces, you’re probably going to want to hold your image very steady, so be sure you have your portable tripod with you (for some discussion on how to take photographs in dark places, check out the Through the Gadling Lens post of a couple of weeks ago, on how to shoot in caves — the philosophy is the same). And for some inspiration, check out the following:

Remember that sunsets don’t just happen on the beach: ultraclay!, above, shows that you can get some equally stunning sunset shots in the city, as well. A word of caution, however — as much as I love a good photograph shot into the sun, the truth is that shooting into the sunlight can cause some wear on the light sensor in your camera, so shoot this way sparingly.

Cities often come alive at night, and a few images of the streetlights, cars, and illuminated skyscrapers like the one captured by CaptBrando, above, will bring back memories of those times you tripped the light fantastic on your vacation. Just remember to keep your camera very steady as you take your shot.

And finally, of course, be sure to get pictures of the places where you have memorable meals or drinks. The one captured by Geir Halvorsen, above, is particularly great, because of the bartender’s illuminated face — and again, notice that no flash was used in the image. The result is that you feel like you’re actually sitting right next to the photographer as he enjoys his evening.

Fantastic images, and kudos to all the photographers featured in this post — hopefully you received some inspiration from their great images.

Incidentally, please note that Through the Gadling Lens will be moving to Thursday mornings at 11 a.m. EST, starting next Thursday — so this should give you some extra time to come up with any questions you might have that you’d like me to address. As always, send them to karen.walrond@weblogsinc.com, and I’ll do my best to answer them in future posts!

Karen is a writer and photographer in Houston, Texas. You can see more of her work at her site, Chookooloonks.
And for more Through the Gadling Lens, click here.

Through the Gadling Lens: learning photog lingo

by Karen Walrond on

One of the pieces of advice that I seem to find myself giving over and over again to those who are new to photography is about looking at as many photoblogs or Flickr pools as possible — if only to get some inspiration on different angles to try, different processing techniques, or even just want to expect when you finally embark on that long-awaited trip to that faraway land. If you’ve been doing this, you’ll find two things: (a) looking at beautiful images is addictive, and (b) photographers sometimes use some strange words, phrases, abbreviations or lingo to describe what’s going on with a picture, or how they took the shot. So this week, I thought I’d take a moment to define some of the more popular terminology that seems to be showing up on the internet these days — that way, when you upload and describe your own travel photographs, you’ll sound oh-so-in-the-know.

And so, on with the show:

Bokeh. One of the most common comments you’ll often read on Flickr has to do with bokeh. “Nice bokeh,” you’ll read. “How did you get that bokeh?” a viewer will say. I will admit to you that a year ago, I had no idea what people were talking about.

The term bokeh refers to a relatively shallow depth of field — in other words, bokeh appears when a part of an image is in sharp focus, and the rest of the image fades away to a smooth, buttery, out-of-focus blur (see the image above). According to Wikipedia, the term is derived from the Japanese word boke, which means “blurry.” You would be forgiven for not having ever heard the term before, as it’s relatively new — Wikipedia says the term was first published only as recently as 2000. And while, obviously, not every photograph has or requires bokeh, it obviously makes for an interesting shot. To add bokeh to your images, try setting your aperture to a low number — 1.4, say or 2.8 (and if the term “aperture” is a bit foreign to you, click here for a previous post on what aperture is all about).

There are some, however, who use the term bokeh to simply mean “out of focus” — for example, I got some kind and complimentary bokeh comments when I uploaded this shot into my flickr stream:


But I would argue that the above shot doesn’t actually have any bokeh, since there’s no part of that image that is in focus — it’s just a blurry (albeit kind of interesting) image. Greater minds, obviously, might differ.

SOOC. “SOOC” is a commonly-used acronym for “straight out of camera” — in other words, the image you’re looking at (in this case, the woman with the pinkish-purple wig, above) hasn’t been post-camera processed at all — this is how it looked exactly as I downloaded it out of the camera. It is a perfectly acceptable image.

What I think is interesting, however, is that the term “SOOC” is not usually used as a point of comparison between the pre-processed work and the post-processed work. Instead, it’s primarily used to illustrate how perfect an image is without processing at all. And while, certainly, it is possible to take a photograph which, really, is better left unprocessed, please remember that there is no real shame in processing images digitally after downloading: as I mentioned before, all photographers pre-digital-era processed their images, they just did it with chemicals rather than computers.

In other words, don’t let a term like “SOOC” make you afraid to process your image. There’s nothing dishonest about it, if you use post-camera processing to help communicate what you’d like the viewer to notice and receive from your image. For example, in the image above, I was struck by the woman’s bright hair colour, her funky glasses, and the message on her shirt. So with a bit of post-camera processing …

… I help draw the viewer’s eye to those items — but the photograph is no less honest than the original. And if your original really can’t be improved by post-camera processing, then more’s the better.

Rule of Thirds. This refers to a general rule of design and photography that says that the eye tends to find images which are slightly off-kilter more interesting than one that is perfectly symmetrical. For example, in the shot above, I could have taken the picture of my daughter so that she was exactly in the middle of the frame, but theoretically, it’s a more interesting picture because she isn’t. See? It’s pretty much that simple.

Oh, you want the technical explanation?

Okay, then.

The Rule of Thirds, speaking more technically, says that if you were to divide each dimension of the frame, or viewfinder, into thirds, by drawing lines like so:


then to increase visual interest, your subject should line up along one of the lines or axes that you’ve drawn.

Now, obviously, it’s sort of impossible to actually draw lines on your viewfinder; however, the idea is to just ballpark it. And this technique works for more than just portraits. For example, in the following image of a street in St. Ives, what struck me was the little old man walking quietly up the road:

So, you’ll notice that the little old man lies directly along one of the Rule of Thirds axes:

Make sense?

Again, this “Rule of Thirds” doesn’t mean that you have to take every image with your camera in this manner — it’s just something to keep in mind while you’re shooting, to add a little variety to the images you capture.

Through the Viewfinder (or “TtV”). This actually refers to a cool little technique that is currently gaining popularity online — the use of a vintage camera to help capture images that look retro and grainy, and therefore somewhat timeless. Here’s how it works:

The photographer gets her hands on a duaflex, or twin-lens reflex camera — one of those cool box cameras that were popular starting from about the 1960’s — you know the ones, where the photographer holds the camera about waist-high, and looks down into the top of the camera through the viewfinder? They’re lovely little cameras, and can often be purchased on eBay for as little as US$ 25. Once purch
ased (or borrowed), the photographer often creates a tube that fits over the viewfinder, to help block out light and glare. Then, though the open end of the tube, the photographer inserts her digital SLR camera lens into the tube and focuses through the vintage viewfinder — the result is a square format image, which can then be manipulated within Photoshop or other post-camera processing software. The final image often shows the imperfections of the vintage lens, giving a soft, retro feel to the shot (as shown above, or in the Through the Viewfinder pool on Flickr).

Twin-lens reflex camera purists would argue that these cameras are being wasted — that the photographer should just buy the appropriate film and run it through the vintage camera. Still, it’s hard to argue the convenience of digital media, and the ease by which the resulting image can be manipulated. Either way, the result is sort of a fun twist on the type of photography and images you can capture on your travels.

Obviously, there are many more terms which are used by photographers: the traditional terms, as well as the more trendy ones, as shown here. But hopefully this sheds a bit of light on what all those online photographers are talking about — and helps gives you some ideas for how to add a bit of variety to your own travel images going forward.

Karen is a writer and photographer in Houston, Texas. You can see more of her work at her site, Chookooloonks.
And for more Through the Gadling Lens, click here.