Street photography has a long and storied history.  Many photographers have made it their primary effort.  They captured little slices of everyday life, making great photos from seemingly mundane settings.

There are many great examples of street photography for you to discover, and I urge you to look at them.  Find the photographs that talk to you, and try to figure out what you like about them.  This is a great way to learn, and the price is right.  Many are presented in black and white.  Since, historically, you had to load film, you made that choice at the beginning of your photo session.  (And, of course, the farther back you go, that was your only choice.)

Today, we have the choice.  There are lots of reasons to stick with traditional black and white.  Colors can distract your viewer’s attention away from your subject.  Maybe you just want to make your images in the style of the old street photographers.  You can hit the topic cloud at the bottom of the current blogs to find black and white topics from our earlier entries.

I usually expand the definition beyond just images of people on a street since I don’t live in a crowded, urban area.  I make my “street” images wherever I happen to be.  It might be in Fairbanks, Alaska, with a street musician (they’re always happy to let you snap some shots).

Street performers are another group that will gladly cooperate with your efforts.  You don’t have to worry about asking them if you’re a shy person.  They are out there to be seen.

But there really is no reason to be shy.  I have rarely been refused when I asked for permission to take a quick photo.  I found the next photo in Alexandria, Virginia.  There we were, in one of the historical parts of our state, with a big flag on the building behind this New Age tea vendor.  How could you pass this one up?  As soon as he saw what I wanted, he happily posed for several shots.

Last weekend, I was up in Boston, walking downtown, and we stopped into the open air market.  The vendors completely ignored my camera.  They were trying to get a few more sales while the weather was nice.

For someone who likes making images of people, it’s just another fun way to practice your craft with spontaneity, shooting without all the reflectors and lights. You get to meet lots of new people and share interesting stories.  While we were out, we ran into Kevin McBride.

You don’t know Kevin?  Well, Kevin is an Irishman who currently resides in Boston.  He was a heavy weight boxer, and, in June 2005, he beat Mike Tyson in a 6th round TKO.  We met Kevin near Harvard Square.  He talked with us for a while and had no problems with me shooting some up-close shots, including this typical boxing pose.

So get out there and make some images of new acquaintances and people just enjoying themselves.  You’ll have fun, too.

Roger and I recommend that everyone shoot in Camera RAW mode all the time.  It just gives you so much more flexibility in post processing.  One of the few drawbacks I’ve heard is that when you download them into your computer, they don’t seem as vibrant as they appeared on the LCD on the camera.  Actually that is true.  In order to display the image on the screen, each camera has to process it first.  Your camera allows you to set your own preferences, usually in one of the set up menus.

When you export the pictures to your post processing software it sends the data exactly as you took it.  Lightroom gives you complete control over processing all the images, but the data is reset to a neutral starting point which probably will not look like the image you thought you captured.  Beginning in LR 2.5, Camera Calibration was a new feature in the Develop module.   LR3 is even more sophisticated and is now the first thing I adjust before I start making other global corrections.   The panel is located near the bottom of the right hand screens. I wish it was up at the top.  The system is very smart, and when you download photos, it knows what kind of camera you are using and loads the profiles for that specific camera.  It will naturally default to Adobe Standard, which is usually a pretty good starting point.  Here is an example taken in the seafood market. In my own eye, the claws were much more vibrant, so I applied the Camera Vivid mode, and the colors just pop.  Here is a side by side which makes it a bit easier to see.

When you are shooting people, you can select Camera Portrait. It helps make the skin tones much more neutral, i.e. a little less ruddy. When you have shot an entire batch you can make this part of your importing preset.  I prefer to just apply it and then synchronize the images, as I tend to shoot a wide variety of subjects.

If you shoot a lot of landscapes, that mode really enhances the greens and adds additional contrast. As with everything else in LR, you can go in and make as many changes as you feel like, either globally or with the adjustment brushes for localized effects.

The edits for every photo have to start somewhere—the Lightroom Camera Calibration panel just helps make it easier to begin.

Besides the wonderful training and seminars at Photoshop World, the exhibitor booths are my favorite things to visit.  They have all the newest gadgets you simply must have to make your photography better.    (Yes, that is a joke.)  The vendors run product-specific training for more in-depth coverage on that new widget or software you’ve been wanting to try.  Their “booth flies” are running around scanning your conference badge, so you won’t run out of spam for your email inbox.  There are giant display images, metal and canvas images, and thousands of books to overwhelm you.

This year, my favorite booth was sponsored by Westcott.  The folks at Westcott sell great lighting products and accessories for photographers who want to have more control over the light that illuminates their subjects, in or out of a studio.  Their representatives were very good salespeople, answering questions and providing demonstrations every day.  They were swamped because they set up four small sets and provided models.  Each day, the models’ themes changed, with new wardrobe and makeup, so you had a reason to stop by again and again.

Since I love doing people shots, and models are rarely free, Westcott reeled me in every day.  The sets were surrounded with photographers, two and three deep, shoulder to shoulder, jostling for position.  It was challenging because, when you set up lighting for a particular shot, you want to control how the light falls on the subject.  Your setup can be critical; minor movements by the model can change the look.  The poor models were completely surrounded and didn’t know which way to look or to which photographer to direct their attention.  They looked like they were surrounded by Paparazzi.

Why would anyone jump into this mess? Did I mention there were free models, and we were using great Westcott light products?  Really, there isn’t a good reason to do this, other than to have a good time doing something you enjoy.  The models did their best to accommodate as many photographers as possible and had a super attitude towards the chaos in front of them.  I enjoyed being able to move from set to set.  I even managed to get a couple of nice shots.

One day, they had some storybook characters, so I had to shoot Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel for the granddaughters.

This model went through a long make-up session for his war-painted look.  He was a big hit with the lady photographers; they had him going through lots of poses.  I tried to catch him in a more dignified pose than most of them requested.

I was in the right position to direct this model when she came out, so I didn’t have to jostle around to get the eyes looking right into the lens.

There were several other models, but you get the picture.  The sets and make up were opportunities for a little diversion in between the seminars.  Westcott sold many of their fine products.  Start saving your pennies now and join us next year for the fun of Photoshop World.

These sessions are more stressful than a wedding.  At least, with a wedding, I have a second shooter and a whole ceremony to take the photos.  Here, your beloved, little tykes get about two minutes with Cinderella in a big room (no flash bounce), and you can only carry so much gear since you’re going to breakfast immediately afterwards (no reflectors or umbrellas).  That means a single flash, softened with a light modifier.  I had my wide-angle zoom ready, so I could get close.  I dialed down the flash a bit to keep it from completely blowing out the scene.

Since I’d never seen the Cinderella set, I had to work through the problem before we got into the park.  As soon as we got into the castle, and while standing in line, I was plotting out my strategy.  The Disney photographer was also using just a single flash, so I had guessed correctly there.  She moved to the side to let me in when the girls were first in line (very polite).  I had time for about six shots each, and we were out moved out for the next girls.  It was very fast and there were no do-overs. 

Grace and Cinderella

Rebecca and Cinderella

  During breakfast, there were other Disney characters visiting the tables, so I took a few more of the kids in the cluttered restaurant.  The 16-35mm zoom was great – have I mentioned enough how much I love this lens?  Again, the Disney folks were very accommodating.     

The girls with Ariel

Jasmine stopped by, too

The pictures pleased the granddaughters and, way more importantly, their mother and grandmother.  Whew! 

The lighting is still a little flat, but the photos are about as good as you’re going to get without moving other diners or moving the characters around the resaurant.  That wasn’t going to happen anyway, so I’m satisfied.  And, as we’ve said before, the most important audience is your subjects.

I had lots of other photo experiences during the trip, as we careened through four different parks in four days.  I’ll save those for another day.  Here’s hoping your new year in photography is both productive and fun!

Self-portraits are nothing new and have been done throughout antiquity by artists in painting and sculpture.  The artists would often incorporate their own images in major works that were not specifically about themselves.  Michelangelo, Leonard da Vinci, Rembrandt, and many others have created many self-portraits.  Of course, photographers through the years have continued to use their cameras to shoot themselves.  So, it’s an old tradition, and I figured it made for a fun little self-assignment. 

The funny thing is – and this may be why I never did it years ago – when you start thinking about how you want to be depicted, it gets more complicated.  What kind of pose will you choose?  You may want to highlight your various skills or possessions; you may want to portray a mood or emotion. You are doing a self-assignment, so you don’t want to just shoot something silly like this.

You can make your own choice without the discussion of all the psychological rabbit holes that surround your personal decision.  I chose to show some of my musical instruments because the music room gave me control and had the space to move around. 

I put my camera on a tripod and made sure the field of view allow plenty of room.  I bounced a flash into the ceiling and used a reflector to bounce light back from the front window.  I wanted to reduce the shadows because I was going to be standing in different locations in the final composite.  Four different shadows would have caused more post processing.  I shot four different photos in manual mode to keep the aperture and focal point constant.  If you tried to shoot something like this in one of the automated modes, you would have had obvious photographic inconsistencies. Since everything, except my position, was consistent from photo to photo, I didn’t have too much work to do in Photoshop.  Mostly, I added masks to allow only the appropriate part of the four layers to show through.  Here are a couple of the original shots and the final composite.

The entire process only took a couple of hours.  It provided practice in several techniques: planning the shot; working through the photography set-up; and working through the post-processing.  Give your self-portrait a chance to help you learn and have fun.