Are you making this basic mistake when taking photographs?

When I run courses and one to one sessions on Digital Photography I find that most people are making the same fundamental mistake. And don't get me wrong, I don't think they're idiots - in fact they are intelligent individuals who are keen to improve their photography skills. The blame lies with the people who write camera manuals that are laborious to read and full of jargon. I always advise people to put the manual away and  a) come on one of my workshops (of course!) and b) read some of the photography books I recommend. Once you've got some basics on board, then the manual starts to make a bit more sense, but is best used as a reference tool - look things up as you need to but don't try to read it from cover to cover.

If camera manuals were well written they would start with a few simple bits of information that would get you started on the right path, but this stuff is usually hidden deep in the manual and called something technical!

So, here's the "biggie" mistake you may be making with your point and shoot compact camera. When you just point your camera at your subject and press the shutter, the camera always focuses in the middle of the frame and that's what will be in focus. 8 times out of 10 that may well be absolutely fine. But what if you are photographing two people and there's a gap between them? Your camera will focus in between the people, making the background in focus and the people blurred. Go on, be honest, you've done this before haven't you!

Did you know that you can focus on one of the people, press the shutter halfway down until the green light comes on and the camera beeps, telling you that it has focused, then keeping the shutter button pressed halfway, move the camera to frame both people and then fully press the shutter down to take the picture. If you practise this a few times, it's really easy and then eventually becomes second nature.

And once you've got the hang of it, you can start to put people, objects etc to one side of your picture and not in the middle. Radical! An example of this might be if you're photographing someone with a lovely landscape behind them. Try putting the person to one side. This may also have the lovely effect of keeping the person in focus whilst the landscape is softly out of focus. In the example below it is our lovely Daisy sulking as she watches people playing on the beach below (no dogs allowed), with St Michael's Mount in the background.

This technique is called FOCUS LOCK - sounds scary doesn't it? But it's so simple and so important!Look it up in your manual now that you know what it is.You can then start to get creative and take pictures of all sorts of things with the point of focus wherever you want it to be. And practise it - after all you can just delete any that don't work.

And if you're taking close up pictures of people's faces ALWAYS makes sure you focus on the eyes. If the eyes aren't in focus your picture just won't work.


By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

Make hay whilst the sun shines, but don't take close ups of flowers!

Here's a likely scenario. Sunday morning, you wake up, open the curtains and it's a lovely sunny day. There's a high chance that you'll then say, "let's go out somewhere and make the most of the nice weather". You might choose to go and visit a local garden, treat yourself to a cream tea and buy a new plant for your own slice of Eden. If you're more likely to go mountain biking or to the pub there's probably not much point reading on.

If you've opted for the garden then bear with me. Chances are you'll take your camera with you, hoping to get a half decent shot or two to remind you of your visit and perhaps show to some like minded gardeners / appreciators. What I'm about to tell you will significantly increase the odds of your photographs being more than half decent.

Let's discuss the weather first. The sun is beating down, there's not a cloud in the azure blue sky. Perfect conditions for strolling around admiring luscious lawns and beds bursting with flowers of every hue. Out comes the camera and you're clicking away. A close up of a cream rose with petals edged with a delicate pink, a bee burrowing into the centre of a foxglove. Perfect! You can't wait to look at the pictures and you might even use the one of the rose to make a birthday card for someone.

Unfortunately there's a good chance that you'll be somewhat disappointed when you load them onto your computer. The camera doesn't always see what we see. Our eyes are used to evening out the contrasts between light and shade but the camera records faithfully with the result that your picture is likely to have very dark shadows and be lacking lots of the lovely details you remembered seeing.

This happens if the flower is in direct sunlight. Ideally you should find one that is in the shade or use the shade of your own body. I tried a couple of options with the hellebore to demonstrate the difference.

Both the above shots are better than the original one, with less deep shadows and the intensity of the pink petals and green leaves works very well.

Let's look now at flowers photographed in shade - ones you might have overlooked at the time because they didn't seem as attractive as the ones lit by the sun. The light is much more even and the colours are more saturated and intense. Petal and stamen details are not hidden in shadow. Of course it's sods law that the most photogenic flowers in the whole garden were the ones in bright sunlight!

But I hope I've made my point. Direct sunlight is not great for photographing flowers in close up. But you'll be pleased it hear that it is good for photographing garden scenes - just make sure the sun is off to one side or behind you - not directly in front!

All these pictures were taken at Bluebell Cottage Gardens, which opens 30th March 2011.

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

Is AUTO only for beginners (and what the heck is"P")?

“Oh, I never take my camera off AUTO”. A very frequent comment when I talk to people about their photography. Usually said with an air of slight embarrassment as if it’s something to be ashamed about. They would be pleasantly surprised and reassured to hear that I often have my camera on an AUTO mode (although I use the P automatic mode – more on that later). I have lots of gadgets and machines in my home that offer a variety of settings and I only use one all the time – the dishwasher springs to mind. If I choose the ECO setting it does what I want it to and I feel good that I’ve done something slightly environmentally friendly. I know there are faster and hotter settings, salt rinses etc but I’ve never bothered to work out how to use them and I don’t really care as long as my dishes are sparkling. It’s like that with a camera – as long as AUTO allows you to take a good photo and get the result you want, you don’t need to go off piste and try the other settings. So it’s fine to set your camera to AUTO, but it's better that it’s a conscious decision rather than the only option.

Regular readers of my blogs (I fool myself into thinking there are a few!) will be familiar with my views on technological knowhow versus the role of opportunity and having a natural eye. You could know how to use every setting on your camera but still be unable to spot a good shot or perhaps not even have the camera with you when a great shot presents itself. Taking a good picture relies primarily on being in the right place at the right time, an ability to see that something before you has the making of a good image and having your camera at the ready. In many instances these elements will be sufficient and so will having the camera set to AUTO. However, there are situations where the automatic setting cannot get the best results and if you haven’t got other options then you won’t get the optimum shot. You may have already experienced the frustration of spotting a great photo opportunity, only to find that the shot is blurred or wrongly exposed, despite the fact that your camera has previously delivered great results for you.

LIGHT – or not enough of it may be the cause of the majority of your problems when using the camera on AUTO. The camera automatically sets the shutter speed to suit the available light. On a dull day or in deep shade it will use a slower shutter speed to let more light in. This can mean that although the resulting photograph will be correctly exposed any movement may be blurred or the whole picture may suffer from camera shake. Your camera is quite clever and knows this and will decide to fire the flash to provide some extra light. This might not give you the effect you were looking for as flash can be quite harsh or unflattering. If you take the camera off the AUTO setting you would have a number of options available to you, to stop the flash firing and increase the amount of light coming into the camera without slowing down the shutter speed too much. Setting a larger aperture (lower F number) with the AV (aperture value) setting or increasing the ISO would probably work.

You might be thinking that this is not particularly relevant for you but there are lots of circumstances where you could come across dull light conditions during the day. I have done several shoots in woodland areas and have found that the canopy of leaves reduces the light to such an extent that my subjects are blurred if they are moving e.g. running, waving, even just walking. Flash can just kill the atmosphere and make the background appear unnaturally dark. Using other camera settings has enabled me to still get the shot I was looking for.

Another common instance when you might benefit from moving off AUTO is when you are photographing something or someone against a cluttered background. If you are zooming in on the subject then the background will start to blur but you can control how much it blurs and how much your subject stands out by using the AV setting and using a larger aperture (lower F number).

Taking the camera off AUTO and knowing what setting to use instead puts you in control rather than the camera. When I use an automatic setting I make a conscious choice rather than using it because I don’t know what else to try.

Note that I said “an automatic setting” not the AUTO setting. You may not be aware of it but your camera is likely to offer a semi-automatic mode called P or “Program Mode”. In this mode you can make some of the decisions for yourself and make some corrections. For example you decide when to use the flash – it doesn’t fire automatically. You also have the option to make the picture lighter or darker using something called Exposure Compensation. And you would also be able to change a number of other settings whilst still letting the camera automatically set the shutter speed and aperture size.

It can be quite scary when you go off piste (off AUTO) for the first time, but what have you got to lose? If you make a mistake you can delete it and try again. I experimented with the AV setting by propping my foot up on a stool one day and taking pictures of my big toe with different apertures! Needless to say you won’t find those shots on my web site! And try the TV (time value) setting to increase and decrease the shutter speed with a moving subject – I have lots of photos of blurred running dog progressively becoming in focus running dog!

Not sure about apertures and shutter speeds? Forget your manual, it’s unlikely to help you and sadly neither will many of the magazines and books which claim to be guides to digital photography. In my experience they all assume a certain level of knowledge and tend to jump in at quite a technical level. The best quick introduction I’ve found is in Annabel William’s book “99 portrait Photo Ideas” where she tells you just enough to go out and have a go. Then once you’ve had a play around and grasped the basics that’s the time to start looking at the books and delving in a little deeper.

It’s easier to practise these settings outside in daylight, so do a bit of reading in the evening, use the Quick Set Up Guide, which hopefully came with your camera, to learn how to change the AV and TV settings and then get out with your camera during the day. And don’t forget that AUTO is there for a reason – it will give you a good shot in many circumstances – but go on, be a devil, try the P setting sometimes too! You’ll soon find that you’ll be using that in preference to AUTO and before you know it you’ll be flicking onto AV and TV too.

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

The 3 "P"s of photographing toddlers

In 2010 I took Katie and Alice's portrait in their home and within a very short time had some picture perfect images of them sitting side by side in party dresses. Dad received a framed picture for his birthday and was, by all accounts, thrilled to bits. One year on and Mum, Tina, wants to mark his birthday again with a more up to date picture of their twin girls. Now, there's one major difference between last year and this - those girls are now toddling! When I arrived they were prettily dressed in matching tops, posh trousers and bows in their hair. Now I had more than a sneaking suspicion that things weren't going to progress as smoothly as last year - after all I've photographed a few hundred toddlers and have begun to understand the species quite well. I was under no illusion about the challenges I faced in trying to capture that perfect moment when two toddlers beamed at me, at the same time, whilst standing or sitting closely together. Once in a blue moon it does happen, usually when I'm changing lenses or catching my breath!

But let's come back to some sort of reality (and normality - I don't want mum to think that her girls are out of the norm!) when dealing with toddlers. They truly define the expression "a law unto themselves" in every sense. Whatever you think they're going to do, you can bet it will be the opposite. They cannot be directed, positioned or posed. Reasoning, begging and pleading fall on deaf ears. Distraction can work but you have to be prepared to work like greased lightening.  I usually enlist the help of mum, dad, nanna and older siblings to act like complete lunatics in order to get a toddler's attention and to earn their smiles and laughter. But remember that we're talking double trouble here and you can guarantee that whilst one child is beaming beautifully at the camera, the other has got closed eyes, hand in mouth or finger up nose! I sometimes use bubbles to get them to look upwards but that usually ends in complete chaos as you can't expect any self respecting toddler to sit quietly and admire the bubbles - where's the fun in that?!

Many of my clients want that dream shot of their beautiful children, smiling together with scrubbed, shiny faces and best party outfits. And if you're lucky and the wind is blowing in the right direction and the gods are smiling down on you then you just might get it. And as kids get older and respond better to bribery and cajoling it becomes much easier. However,I try to persuade parents of babies and very young children that it's better to forget trying to stage manage the shoot, forget Pears Soap portraits and concentrate on photographing toddlers being toddlers. They are absolutely wonderful creatures, fascinated by and engrossed in the world around them. Walking and running is a novelty - they don't care where they're going just as long as they can do go there without being stopped. Toys are great but they'd pick puddles, mud and sand any time.

I hope mum and dad like the photos - we did manage to get a few of the girls smiling side by side (albeit fastened down in their high chairs!), but I will always prefer the portraits of Katie and Alice as they raced around the farm yard, splashing (and sitting) in puddles and bouncing around in glee on the trampoline!

Oh and the 3 "P"s of photographing toddlers - Patience, Perseverance but above all Play.

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

Bloomin' gorgeous Winter

The landscape can seem pretty barren and drab at this time of year - everything can appear tired and faded, with barren fields and bare branches. At least this is what I used to think, but I've come to appreciate and love this time of year. Clearly it lacks the lushness and colourfulness of the other three
 seasons but look for beauty in the landscape and you will find it. I particularly like the contrast of faded, almost yellow fields and burgundy brown bare hedges - Mother Nature never puts colours together that don't work and these two shades are stunning together. When everything else is stripped back the most simple details - bark on branches and single leaves for example - are often striking in their simplicity. The light is wonderful at this time of year as the sun is lower in the sky, making it softer and lighting everything from the side rather than directly above. You get lovely soft shadows modelling and contouring your subjects. The teasels in the first shot are light from behind by the diffused winter sun making the spikes stand out from the background. Focusing on them has thrown the reeds in the background out of focus and created the perfect back drop.

The solitary leaf in the second picture caught my eye. It almost looks like an insect's cocoon and along with the new buds on the twigs hints of Spring.  The leaf stands out nicely against the background of diagonal twigs.

The first snowdrops and hellebores should be making an appearance sometime over the coming weeks. I've visited Rode Hall a few times to enjoy and photograph their snowdrop walk, but just google "snowdrop walks" at this time of year and you'll be spoilt for choice. Last year we had a lot of snow in February and I rushed out to capture snowdrops in snow but was disappointed to find that they looked less spectacular than when they are against a contrasting background of brown earth and green grass. My favourite images in the grouping below are the two bottom left, where leaves, mulch and pine cones provide interest, with just a hint of snow to suggest Winter.

When photographing anything at ground level at this time of year I always wear waterproof trousers or carry a bin liner, as you really need to get down at their level. Hellebores hide their beauty under their bonnet of petals and snowdrops are just so delicate that you need to get down low. To get a shot of a drift of snowdrops covering the woodland floor, you can stand up and avoid wet, muddy knees. But be aware of harsh, contrasting light if the sun is out and if it's a dull day be careful to avoid camera shake as the canopy of trees can make it quite dark. But NEVER use your flash unless you are looking for a very flat, stylised look. The best advice is to experiment - one of the benefits of digital photography!

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

I have around 55,000 images in my picture library. If I assume that around 50% are work related that leaves 22,500 personal images taken since I got my first digital camera back in 2002. Forgive my shaky mental arithmetic but that works out at about 2,500 per year, or just over 200 per month on average... that actually feels quite reasonable, especially when I consider that I took 360 pictures on our recent holiday in Cape Verde. However, it would be an exhorbitant and quite impossible number if I was still using a film camera - imagine the cost in films, developing, postage or bus fare.

I guess that I could be considered a hard core user when it comes to my photography habit. Strangely enough I am often the only person with a camera at many social occasions, although increasingly less so these days. I feel bereft if I leave the house without at least one camera and am convinced that I will miss a golden opportunity - that once in a lifetime shot. Indeed it is a mantra and firm belief of mine that good photography is as much about opportunity as it is about knowing your way around a camera. Quite simply, it's often about being in the right place at the right time WITH YOUR CAMERA AT THE READY. But I'll save that lecture for another blog and endeavour to keep on topic, which, in case it's not yet apparent, is why do we take so many photographs (some of us admittedly more than others)? I'm excluding professional photographers, myself included and have my personal hat on.

The affordability and accessibility of digital photography has completely changed the way we take photographs and enjoy them. Photography is no longer confined to special occasions and holidays but is a part of our everyday life - a picture snapped on a mobile phone is uploaded onto Facebook in seconds for thousands to view and enjoy. When did someone last show you a dog eared photo of their beloved child or pet from a wallet? I'll bet it was displayed on a phone or IPOD. 

The digital age has changed our relationship with photography but I don't believe that the underlying emotional need has altered. We just do more of it for the same reason - and for me that is to freeze a moment in time, capture it and make it into something more tangible than a fleeting memory. Equally as important is the need to then share that moment with others. And as time goes by, those images of moments that were important enough to us to photograph become increasingly more treasured and special, because the memories fade and cannot possibly retain all the details.

The collection of photographs shown here are all taken from my childhood and represent just about all the pictures of me upto the age of about twelve. Baby photographs are conspicuous in their absence - my mother died when I was around 9 weeks old and photography probably wasn't top of mind for my poor dad. Despite that I am still struck by how few images there are, but this is probably not that unusual for the era (1965-1977). After this period I know there are many more photographs still in my dad's possession - he was a bit of  a gadget fiend and was (and still is) a keen photographer. But this handful of pictures is extremely valuable to me - I see things I couldn't possibly remember and without photography those details would be lost forever. The picture of my mum is one of only 3 that I have, sadly there are none of her with me. What I also find interesting is how much the line blurs between what we think we remember and what we are actually remembering from photographs. Our memories of smells and how things felt are often more accurate than of things we saw. I can remember how the big old sofa in the living room felt both velvety and rough and had soft gold fringes around the cushions but I can't remember sitting on it with my brothers and a ball bigger than me!

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!

Christmas is all over and done with for another year - half built lego models lie abandoned on the living room floor, the tree is looking a bit tired and the wine rack is somewhat depleted. I want to restore some order to my rather chaotic house and get out of this weird limbo created by all the bank holidays. I've had my fill of long lie ins and watching schmaltzy movies in the afternoon and now I want to charge forward into 2011, spring clean the house, attack my business with renewed vigour and get fit and healthy. But we're not off to a good start as I've spent the last few days crawling from bed to sofa and back again, with this flu bug that seems to have attacked the nation. This is the first time my aching eyes and sore head have been able to cope with a computer screen. I've been looking at all the pictures I've taken since the children broke up from school and its hard to believe it was less than two weeks ago. Everywhere looked so completely different - a crisp, white winter wonderland - absolutely perfect for that final run up to Christmas. What better way to start the holidays than with some sledging albeit on rubber garden trugs!

I even managed to escape for a morning to Tatton Park and found that I just about had the gardens to myself. It was quite special to roam around the snowy paths, with only the sounds of birds calling, squirrels (I hope) rustling in the bushes and the occasional soft thump of snow falling from overladen branches. I enjoyed a sneaky cup of coffee overlooking the Japanese Garden - the aroma of good  coffee steaming in the cold air and a beautiful view all to myself - perfect!

By some amazing stroke of look we all were fit and well over Christmas and enjoyed Christmas lunch and presents at Gran's. Baby Joe provided great entertainment for us all, but especially kept our kids occupied. with burying him under all the wrapping paper. It was lovely to have Boxing Day at home for a change - the calm before the storm that was my brother and his family arriving for two days. The panto at Crewe Lyceum was surprisingly good - although Sam was mortified that Nic and I were such enthusiastic audience members! A visit to Legoland (Trafford Centre) rounded it off perfectly for the children - the male adults seemed to enjoy that  a lot too!

New Year's Eve was spent at a James Bond themed party - I turned up later as one of Dr No's dead victims - determined not to miss the midnight celebrations.

Now all there is to do is kick this flu bug into touch and leap into action ... but I think I need a snooze on the sofa now after all this hard work...

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!