Sony FE 85 / 1.8 is specially designed for the brand’s mirrorless full-frame cameras. FE 85/1.8 is one of the best portrait lenses in the segment in terms of price / quality. Its compact size, low weight, high sharpness, fast and accurate AF and lack of visible aberrations (except in extreme conditions and contrasts) make it a preferred portrait for all shooting situations. It fits especially well with the new Sony models – A7iii, A7Riii, A9, A9ii, A7RIV, as their focus system is much faster and more accurate. In reality, no weaknesses are noticed in the process of work.
Portrait photography is not limited to static portraits. Often emotional portraits on the go are much stronger and more impactful, and that’s where the FE 85 / 1.8 is uncompromising. The lens is dust and moisture resistant, which makes it suitable for adverse conditions. A big advantage is the convenient function button, which can be programmed in different ways – focus lock, eye focus, etc. In this review we will illustrate the operation of this lens with photographs taken entirely in the work environment – sessions, events, weddings, workshops and others, as this type of photography speaks best about the qualities of the lens.

FE 85 / 1.8 is a favorite choice for capturing various details and decorations. The separation of the main object from the background is characterized by a soft and plastic transition.

The lens is also suitable for full-length portraits.

When the distance to the subjects is enough, the 85 / 1.8 is a great reportage lens in complex weather and light conditions. Its speed and accuracy guarantee many prizes in competitions for the captured moment.

Sony 85 / 1.8 is suitable for night portrait sessions. Stabilization of mirrorless cameras helps a lot at low shutter speeds.

Sony 85 / 1.8 is in its power in backlight. The following photos proves it:

The following photo was taken directly in JPEG with a camera, and below it we publish a crop of 100% to get an idea of ​​the sharpness of the lens

More photos of the maximum aperture with defocus in the foreground and background. They were shot during our seminars “The Different Portrait” – model Elina Krusheva

Dynamic and emotional shots in motion at maximum aperture:

One of the most important features and a big advantage when combining a bright high-resolution prime lens and a high-resolution camera is the ability to achieve high magnifications. Sony A7Riii and 85 / 1.8 allow up to three times reduction of the viewing angle (three times increase of magnification) through sections without fatal loss of quality. In reality, the small 85 / 1.8 turns into 85-255 and at least up to double magnification or 170mm matched focal length surpasses many real zoom lenses, as their sharpness is significantly lower and they fail to extract everything from the 42mp sensor of the camera. The following example is a demonstration of this:

In conclusion, we can say that the Sony FE 85 / 1.8 is one of the few lenses that deserves only superlatives and it is really difficult to find any flawless. Undoubtedly, its bigger brother 85 / 1.4G has better optical characteristics and brightness, but the price is significantly higher, and its heavy weight unbalances the mirrorless system with small cameras. In this respect, the 85 / 1.8 fits perfectly on the Sony 7 and 9 series and so with this combination it can be shot even with one hand. At the same time, the lightweight construction makes it much faster and more suitable for capturing casual moments, emotions and situations.

Материалът Sony FE 85/1.8 е публикуван за пръв път на PHOTOGRAPHY BOOK.

Blue hour is the time after sunset, but before complete darkness. This time is very suitable for photos, especially in urban environments. Because the sky is inky and the warm light from the buildings, from the headlights and taillights of the cars, from the street lamps, contrasts wonderfully against this blue-purple background. Unfortunately, this “hour” in our latitudes is not close to an hour – even on the longest summer days is about 15-20 minutes. So we need to be prepared in advance for these minutes.Let’s know when they are – there are applications for android that show in the respective day, in the respective place from how many to how many is the “blue hour”. Due to the low brightness, it is good to shoot from a tripod, but it is also possible at a higher ISO, with stabilized optics by hand. Some of the photos are taken with a drone, and if there is no wind, it stays stable in one place and allows you to take pictures at speeds of the order of 1-2 seconds.
See more in the NIGHT PHOTO section

In this slide you can see photos from evening Sofia, taken in the blue hour.

Материалът ETUDE: Sofia in blue hour е публикуван за пръв път на PHOTOGRAPHY BOOK.

Some examples of reflections in shop windows, building windows and facades:

Материалът ETUDE: Reflections in an Urban Environment е публикуван за пръв път на PHOTOGRAPHY BOOK.

Using the camera menu or a special functional button with the flash sign, you can select some additional flash modes. One such mode which is used quite often is the ‘red-eye reduction’ mode. It is usually designated with an eye symbol and its function is to reduce the red reflection from human eyes when we shoot. In this mode the flash produces one or several smaller bursts before the main one, whose aim is to contract the pupil of the eye and prevent the appearance of this unpleasant effect. You should keep in mind, though, that when using this mode the person you are shooting should be looking straight into the camera. Also, there is a certain lag when using this type of flash because of the need for flash bursts before shooting.

If the flash is an external one and has a tilting or articulating head, it could be pointed at the ceiling or any of the walls of the room so that you could use the reflected light, which is much softer and has a much more appealing effect on the object being shot, because it does not create any sharp shadows or bright highlights. Another method is to place a special light softener (diffuser) blocking the light from the flash. You can make one yourself from race paper or another similar material. The effect from this device is a softer and more uniform light. In nature clouds play the role of natural light diffusers, which is the reason why in cloudy weather we obtain better portraits without the sharp shadows we tend to have when illuminating the face directly.

 Another commonly used operation mode is the so-called ‘Slow motion synchronisation’. In some cameras this method is marked with an ‘S’ (slow) while in others it is marked with a night photography symbol – a moon and a star. It is used when you want the flash to turn on, but you want the shutter speed of the camera to remain adequate to the external light. In this mode you can take interesting night photographs in the city, where the objects in the foreground will be lit by the lighting, while at in the background you can see the natural lights of the urban landscape. In some cameras there is a special option (synchronisation by front or back curtain) where the flash is turned on the moment the shutter is opened or the moment it is closed. This provides you with the opportunity to achieve additional interesting effects for night photography and long shutter speeds.

In this mode you can set the camera at longer speeds and to press the shutter button while drawing circles or any other movement, or play with the length of the zoom lens (if it is an optical zoom lens) while shooting. In this way the light will leave interesting arches and lines, while the object will be still and illuminated with the help form the light from the flash.

Last but not least, it is very important that your camera should support or should have the option for forced flash regardless of light conditions. This is often the case when we shoot outside under unfavourable light. In some camera models you can adjust the power of the flash and increase it later, if that is really necessary, or to decrease it so that it is used as delicately as possible, without it interfering with the magic spell of the natural light. In some cases you cannot tell that a flash has been used.

For the three pictures below we used a small cheap Godox flash with a wireless transmitter in the set. The transmitter is mounted onto the camera, while the flash can change its position based on the object in order to obtain interesting dimensional lighting. Shoot in manual mode ‘M’ in order to have precise balance between the light from the flash and the background.

In conclusion, we can say that the flash is a wonderful assistant in many situations, but if you want truly interesting results, you must be familiar with all of its operating modes and to use them appropriately.

The creative use of external flash and the effects which you can achieve with it will be described in detail as an additional topic.

Материалът Operating the camera flash е публикуван за пръв път на PHOTOGRAPHY BOOK.

Is it possible, then, to take quality photographs with such a camera in this part of the day when light is so scarce? It turns out that it is not only possible, but that sometimes the night is the time when you can take some of your most interesting and colourful photographs. Night in the big city is filled with a colourful spectacle of lights, even if faint, coming from the headlights of hundreds of cars, colourful neon signs, street lamps, the small yellowish rectangles of the windows… All we need to know is how to arrange them and use them to form a colour palette with the help of our friend – the digital camera.

Remember something very important! The lesser the ambient light, the longer the shutter speed of your camera. At night when light is scarce we have to use longer shutter speeds and this is the reason we have certain effects like the blurring of moving objects in the photograph. You have probably seen many night photographs where the still buildings, road signs and trees are clearly and distinctly visible, while instead of cars what you can see on the roads is simply long bright trails of headlights. The explanation is simple and logical. If the shutter of your camera was opened for 10 seconds, for instance, during that time the still objects are projected by the lens without any change of their location, whereas moving objects draw colourful tracks with their headlights and stoplights, because they will travel some distance in those 10 seconds.

Often after we try to take such photos we are disappointed with the results, because not only moving objects are blurred, but also the still ones. The only reason behind such disappointing results is the movement of the camera itself while shooting. In this respect one of your most important tasks is to ensure that the camera is still.

You should keep in mind that this type of night photography requires the use of a tripod. When shutter speed is lower than 1/30 sec, the camera must be absolutely still to avoid a blurry image. Models equipped with optical stabilisation give you the opportunity to expand the range of possible shutter speeds while shooting without a tripod to around 1/4 sec for wide-angle positions of the lens. If, however, you need to shoot at slower speeds, a tripod is must. You can find both heavy, expensive and stable tripods for larger cameras and cheap, small and convenient pocket-sized tripods which work great for light-weight amateur class digital cameras and take up virtually no space in your bag.

Here are some tips for this type of photography which you might find useful:

1. Necessary equipment:

• A compact, mirrorless or single-lens reflex camera with manual shutter speed setting capabilities and a diaphragm or an option for long exposure times – 4-5 sec as a minimum. Almost all modern digital cameras have these options but it is still advisable to choose a model which has full manual mode. Some marketing specialists believe that the general consumer is put off if their camera has too many settings and for this reason there are quite a few models without such settings. You can always switch to full manual mode, so keep in mind the following – no matter what the consultants at the shop tell you, the option for manual settings is an advantage and allows you to be more creative, should you wish so.

• Tripod. You may select from a wide range of smaller and larger tripods depending on your camera and your needs.

2. Selecting the right spot for shooting:

• You can take interesting photos of the night lights in the city from a tall building in the centre, from an overpass with car traffic below or at street level. Situate yourself in such a way as to avoid any bright objects around you coming into the field – for instance a bright lamp or a floodlight. If you are at street level, do not shoot cars from the front because their powerful headlights will overexpose the photograph.

3. How to shoot:

• Firmly secure the tripod with the camera. Remember that you can easily break the sensitive equipment because of a poorly secured tripod or an involuntary push of the tripod by you or a random passer-by. Make sure that the tripod is absolutely steady and does not shake due to strong winds. Even a slight shake may be fatal for your shot. Use the timer function, a threaded cable release or a remote control (if you have one) in order to avoid the shake of the camera due to the mechanical force from pressing the shutter button with your finger.

• Set the shutter speed and the aperture depending on the general illumination of the scene so that you can avoid having areas in the photo which are too dark. The best results can be obtained after sunset when there is still some light coming from the sky. You can select shutter speeds from 3-4 sec to 20-30 sec depending on the capabilities of your camera and the desired result. If you close the aperture more, you will have star-shaped light effects from the lights with constant position but you will have to reduce the shutter speed respectively. Other combinations which are suitable for shooting moving lights in the city at dusk are – shutter speed 5 sec and aperture 11, shutter speed 10 sec and aperture 16, shutter speed 20 sec and aperture 22 and so on. Use the lowest sensitivity setting to avoid noise in your photograph.

Of course, night photography is not limited to photographs with long exposure times. You can take really interesting photographs even without a tripod if you shoot with high sensitivity settings of 800, 1600, 3200, 6400 ISO and using optics with good light power and higher shutter speeds. This type of photographs, however, is very hard, if not practically impossible to take with a compact amateur class camera because the truly usable sensitivity range of such cameras is usually limited to 400 ISO. To this end you will need to invest in a digital interchangeable lens camera. To be completely honest, the prices of the low range single-lens reflex and mirrorless cameras has dropped considerably over the last years and are even equal to the prices of some high range compact models.

Night photography with optics stabilisation and high sensitivity

1. Necessary equipment:

• Digital interchangeable lens camera with high sensitivity capabilities (up to 3200 ISO, 6400, 12800 ISO)

• Lenses with good light power. Lenses with stabilisation are an advantage. Some brands and models offer sensor stabilisation which works with all lens types. This is also an advantage for this type of photography.
• The speeds we use in this case usually vary from 1/30 sec to 1/100 sec and the aperture of the lens is fully open. Use lenses of the type 28/1.8, 35/2, 50/1.8, 50/1.4, 85/1.8, 85/1.4 or, if using telephoto lenses, make sure they are stabilised.

2. Selecting the right spot for shooting:

• You can take interesting photographs from night life in the city. Take photos of people and scenes illuminated by the street lamps and the neon signs, silhouettes in front of window shops, building facades with awkward colourful ambient light reflections or even staged portraits. Using this equipment and this method you can shoot a concert in the open or in a hall, a family party, a wedding in a church where light is poor, etc.

The following three shots are part of a family photo session taken in the evening with a mirrorless camera with sensor stabilisation, high sensitivity and a lens with good light power.

3. How to shoot

• As we said before, use the most open aperture setting of your lens and the highest possible sensitivity still guaranteeing a quality image. Often the light meters in cameras can be deceived by some strong lights within the frame and can play a rather unpleasant trick on you as well. If you have a digital camera, switch to full manual mode and take several test shots on the spot to figure out what shutter speed and sensitivity settings produce the best results.

• Be mindful of the autofocus! When the aperture is opened to its widest possible setting, the focus needs to be very precise if you want to have good sharpness. Sometimes manual focus is the better option.

• Hold the camera steadily. The chances that you can blur a photo even at speeds closer to 1/100 sec are not as small as you think!

Материалът Night photography е публикуван за пръв път на PHOTOGRAPHY BOOK.

DOF is an instrument used to draw the attention of the viewer to the important elements in the frame, which is a tool unique to photography. Other means of artistic expression, such as composition and colour, were borrowed from the fine arts, but DOF is not present in either painting or drawing because it is a function of the lens. It is present in cinema and television, which also use lenses.

What does the DOF depend on and how can we take advantage of it?
It depends on three things – the aperture, the focal depth of the lens and the distances between the lens and the object on the one hand and between the object and the background on the other.

The wider the aperture, the narrower the depth of field. Sometimes, with very wide apertures, the focus area is a plane of one-two centimetres and anything before or beyond that plane is blurred.

Being able to accentuate on different objects in the frame is an advantage of lenses with more light power over their dark kit counterparts. Lenses with high light gathering power allow us to shoot at places which are far from photogenic. When the background is blurred, it no longer distracts or offends the eye of the viewer the way it would, had it been more visible or detailed. In the picture with the monks the cars on the right side of the photograph are hardly noticeable because they are in the defocus field.

The millimetres of the lens also affect defocus. The longer the lens, the more it blurs the foreground and the background. It is worth noting that it is a matter of the actual millimetres of the lens and not of focus length equivalents.

Same sensor, same aperture.

When the lens is long enough, it produces good defocus even with less open aperture settings. The next photo was taken at 300mm and aperture 5.6.

The third factor the depth of field depends on is the distance between the object and the camera and between the object and the background. The closer the object is to the camera and the further away from the background, the more blurred the background will be.

The price we have to pay for a good defocus, however, is that the object becomes ever more overpoweringly present within the frame. If the first picture is a full-length portrait of the young couple and they take up a relatively small proportion of the photo, in the last frame they have been cropped nearly to the waistline and take up a much larger segment of the frame.

The reason it is so difficult to produce portraits with a blurred background using compact cameras and phones is that their lenses have very short actual focal lengths. When you have a small-sized sensor, you need a lens with shorter focus length in order to have the same viewing angle and scale you would have with a camera equipped with a larger sensor. For example, if the actual focal length of the lens in your phone with a 4x6mm sensor is 4mm, that corresponds to approximately 24mm for a camera with a 24x36mm sensor (6 times larger sensor sides, 6 times longer lens to achieve the same viewing angle).

In reality the main factor determining the DOF is the actual clear aperture of the lens. The smaller the aperture, the larger the segment of space which is in focus. It is not a coincidence that short-sighted people squint their eyes in an attempt to let in light through a smaller opening and avoid defocus in the fundus due to the displacement of the focal plane of the eye lens.

Light convergence when you have a small aperture is much greater and therefore a larger segment of the space is in focus.

Here is what actually happens when we shoot the same scene from the same viewing angle using a compact camera and a DSLR one with the same aperture.

As was said before, the aperture (the light power of the lens) is a function of the diameter of the actual diaphragm opening diameter and the focal length. With the light power being equal – aperture 2, the actual opening of the telephone will be 4:2 = 2mm, whereas the one of the larger camera will be 24:2=12mm or 6 times greater. That is why portraits taken with telephones look flatter and do not have a clear distinction between foreground and background..

DOF calculator

One should really use the camera as though tomorrow you’d be stricken blind.
Dorothea Lange

Материалът Depth of field (DOF) е публикуван за пръв път на PHOTOGRAPHY BOOK.

Ultra zoom models use the small sensor which is typical of the more compact models, but they are also equipped with high-quality inbuilt optics and a greater focal length range. They are particularly suitable for people who do not want to invest in expensive single-lens reflex models and optics but still appreciate the advantages which come with a greater focal length range and image stabilisation and with the possibility to use some additional accessories typical for the single-lens reflex models.

DSLR cameras with interchangeable optics offer unparalleled range of opportunities, high sensitivity and the possibility to work with a huge number of lenses, flashes, filters and other special accessories. On the other hand, they are heavier and less convenient to carry around and it costs a lot of money to have a full set of good lenses. This type of camera is designed with the more advanced amateur photographers and professionals in mind who may wish to develop their skills or invest in expanding their equipment.

In the last few years we saw the emergence of a new ‘middle option’ – the so called ‘Hybrid’ cameras or mirrorless models. These are cameras with interchangeable optics and a large sensor in a smaller body which may, with a suitable lens, fit comfortably into the pocket of your jacket or a small purse. The new hybrid models are a strong and successful competitor of single-lens reflex cameras and are an increasingly attractive alternative even to professionals.
There is no universal camera. Just like there is no universal car. The different types and classes of cameras have their strengths in one respect and their weaknesses in another. However, the size of the sensor is one of the most important features in a camera.

1. A compact camera or a smart phone

If you have already decided that the sophisticated and expensive systems with interchangeable optics are not for you, that you would like your future camera to fit easily into your pocket and be in the light-weight category, then the best choice for you is a compact digital camera or a smart phone.

• What brand should I choose? This is one of the questions which many people ask before they proceed with buying their future camera. Our advice is that it is a safe bet to select from the products of well-known producers, whose cameras are sold at many locations and which provide warranty service across the country. Avoid unknown or doubtful names, despite their aggressive marketing.
• Sturdiness of the body. This type of cameras typically feature light-weight plastic bodies but some models within this range come with sturdy aluminium or magnesium bodies. In recent years some producers released special water and shock resistant models. If you love extreme or water sports and you want your camera to be with you always, it is logical to consider such models. This type of water resistant cameras and telephones are particularly suitable for family photos on holidays. The emotional experience is guaranteed and it comes without any worry that water may enter into your camera/telephone and without any awkward additional protective cases. The pictures below were taken with small water and weather sealed cameras Olympus and Pentax:

• Sensor size and resolution. Modern phones have almost entirely replaced compact cameras but you should still keep in mind that the camera in your phone most frequently comes with a small sensor – 1/2.3 ” This is the reason for higher noise levels in low light conditions.

It should be noted that sometimes more pixels in a very small sensor does not necessarily mean higher image quality. If, however, you have decided to choose a compact camera, you should look for models with a relatively big sensor – 1”. Such a camera, in combination with a lens with good light power and an option for manual settings, will render much higher quality than a much more expensive phone. If this is definitely your choice, it will be more cost-effective to buy a less expensive smart phone and a small pocket-sized camera with a 1” sensor. If, however, you do not want to carry two devices around, look for a smart phone with the largest possible sensor (1/1.8 ” is a good option) and options for shooting in RAW format with manual settings.

• Lens. It is important for the lens to have greater light power (F1.8 – F2.8) and, where possible, image stabilization; this means that you will be able to take good photos even under unfavourable light conditions. For ultra-compact models a good light power, stabilization and large optical zoom are difficult to achieve, but there are some models, even within this range, which feature a good image stabilization system. The possibility to attach additional accessories to the lens – conversion lenses, filters, lenses, and shades, is an important advantage.
• Display. An articulating display is a good feature to have, as it gives you the opportunity to shoot from different angles and viewpoints.
• The option for full manual setting is not to be lightly overlooked, even in compact models. It gives you the opportunity to be more creative and to experiment and it is in any case an advantage to take into consideration when making your choice. The higher classes of smart phones also have manual settings.

• Sensitivity. You should keep in mind that amateur cameras within this range work best within the 50 to 400 ISO range. However, the availability of higher sensitivity is an advantage and it is practical when printing on 10×15 cm for the family album.
• Flash. All compact cameras have a small inbuilt flash and some have the option to attach an external one. Usually the range of the inbuilt flash is up to 2-3m. In addition to having a more powerful flash, it is equally important to consider how uniformly it illuminates the object and the minimum distance at which it can be used without overexposure of the entire scene.
• Macro mode. Most producers speculate with the macro function advertising the closest distance at which you can shoot. It is much more important to be able to take a good quality macro photo from a greater distance. There are cameras which can achieve greater magnification ratio in macro mode at a distance of 15-20 cm with long focal length compared to others at a 1 cm distance and wide angle lens settings.

• Software Sometimes it is good to be able to edit your photos right on the camera itself and then send them directly to the nearest photo studio for printing. Look into the options which your future model offers in this respect. Most commonly the software of the camera offers some standard options such as rotating, cropping, scaling and for some models – overlaying with certain digital effects. All smart phones now have different types of software for image editing.

• Video mode. Most new models offer very good video with high resolution and with some models you can also use the optical zoom of the lens, which is a considerable advantage over smart phones. While some may try to convince you that a camera is just a camera and that if you want video, it is best to buy a video camera…. the truth is that the video quality which modern digital cameras can offer is good enough for the needs of amateurs and, in recent years, of professionals as well, so there is no point in overlooking this extra feature. That is why we recommend that you buy a camera which can shoot videos at FULL HD or 4K, speeds of 25/50 frames/s, sound recording (if stereo, even better) and the opportunity to use optical zoom while filming.

When you shoot using such equipment it is like wearing your invisibility cloak. People around will pay no attention as you freely take photos at places where pulling out a large black camera with interchangeable lenses could cause a scandal. Museums, churches, concerts and other similar events where it is usually forbidden to take photos allow smart phones and ‘point and shoot’ cameras. It is believed that with such equipment you can only take photos for personal use, which is not always the case. This type of equipment works best when shooting static objects, which are well and relatively uniformly illuminated. It is hardest to shoot moving objects – sports, wildlife, concerts and generally it is practically impossible to take any other type of photographs which require long light optics and quick autofocus.

A more detailed analysis and many more examples of the capabilities of smart phone photography you can read in the section Photography with your phone.

  2. Ultra zoom cameras

If you are intent on buying a camera with inbuilt optics and a great range of your zoom lens, allowing you to easily shoot far away objects, then you should limit your choices to some of the ultra zoom models which most of the big producers have been offering in recent years. Successful models in this category have been brought to the market by the brands Sony, Canon, Nikon, Panasonic, Olympus, Fujifilm and others.

Ultra zoom cameras have a sensor similar to the one of compact models, but before it you have an optical zoom lens with great magnification power. The largest possible sensor for this type of cameras is 1 “ in size. If good quality is important to you, avoid models with smaller sensors.
Ultrazoom Sony RX10mk4 .

What do you need to know when choosing this type of camera?

Everything we said about choosing a compact camera is also completely relevant in this case, but we need to add some specific details related to the particular features of this type of cameras.

• A key parameter is the range of the zoom lens. There are models offering 8, 10, 12 or even 15, 20, 20x optical zoom. Most commonly the lower end of the range varies between 24 and 35 mm, while the higher end varies between 350 – 600 mm and in the last year up to 1000mm 35mm film equivalent focal length.

• Quality of the optics. It is very important in this case, since it is not so easy to create a lens offering such a wide range of focal lengths. You can never go wrong if your lens sports brand names like Leica, Carl-Zeiss, Canon, Nikkor, Fujifilm…
• Do not underestimate the importance of good light-gathering power. When you shoot with long focal lengths, you need higher shutter speeds. At the same time, as we mentioned before, the sensitivity of cameras with small-sized sensors is greatly limited. A good light-gathering power of your lens will allow you to shoot at higher shutter speeds and thus avoid blurry images as a result of a shaky hand and to freeze the motion of the wild animals and birds you shoot. Look for models with light-gathering power from 2.8 to 4 at the longer end of the optical zoom lens. The smaller this number, the better.

• Image stabilisation I would say that it is an absolute must when it comes to ultra zoom models and it is an indispensable aid when taking photos with your optics in ‘telephoto’ position.
• AF speed At the longer end of the optical zoom lens the autofocus is not stable. A quick and precise AF is a huge advantage when we want to seize the moment.
• RAW format The option to extract the raw data from the sensor of the camera is an indisputable advantage, especially under more complex light conditions, as this is the only way to extract the full information captured by the sensor.
• Quality of the electronic viewfinder In addition to the display, ultra zoom models have an electronic viewfinder which is invaluable when shooting under a bright sun. It also helps to a great extent with stabilising the camera while shooting, as it provides additional support when we press our eye against it. Look for a model with a large and bright electronic viewfinder with high resolution.
•  Manual focus Manual focus is not very popular in models in inbuilt optics as the sharpness of the image is judged only through the electronic display / viewfinder. Still, there are some models on the market which offer good manual focus which is adjusted using a ring on the lens. It can come in particularly handy in some cases, such as when taking macro photographs or when there is an extensive and complex web of objects or branches around the main object.

Ultra zoom cameras are an excellent choice for tourism. The three photographs below were taken from one and the same place using Sony RX10mk4 at equivalent focal lengths of 24, 150 and 600mm. The full manual settings, a quick AF and RAW format option, combined with a 1” sensor make this camera an efficient tool to be used for different tasks.

The following three photographs are at 24mm, 600mm and crop after x2 magnification (crop 2) from the second frame, equivalent to 1200mm. The photographs were taken from one and the same place. In fact this type of ultra zoom cameras can also be used as a powerful digital binocular, giving you the chance to recognise the faces of the people sitting in the boat under that faraway bridge. .

3. Selecting an interchangeable lens camera (ILC)

This type of camera can be single-lens reflex cameras (DSLR) or mirrorless. DSLR cameras are the direct successors of film single-lens reflex cameras. In the DSLR design the film has been replaced by an electronic sensor, hardware and software. Mirrorless models have gradually entered the market over the last 10 years. The pioneers in the field were Olympus and Panasonic with their Pen and G/GF models, followed by Sony, Pentax, Nikon, Fuji and Canon. These models have large sensors similarly to DSLR cameras and therefore offer the same image quality, but unlike DSLRs, they have much smaller body size. This is due to the fact that there are no mirrors, prisms and respective cavities where the whole of this mechanical optical unit is located. At the same time, the focal distance is considerably reduced from 42 mm for DSLRs to 16-20mm for mirrorless models. This decreased focal distance facilitates the development of more compact inexpensive quality wide-angle lenses. The disadvantages of this system lay until recently mainly in the speed of the AF, but the latest models already offer very fast and precise autofocus, tracking auto focus, eye detection auto focus, and selection of auto focus areas with the help of a touch display, which has gradually turned them into the preferred choice when compared to DSLR cameras, both among amateurs and professionals. Sony was the first producer to release a full-frame 24x36mm sensor model, leading the remarkable progress of mirrorless cameras.

Choosing the right interchangeable lens camera (ILC) is not an easy task. Usually the consumers who are considering such type of camera tend to have greater requirements. It is worth knowing that buying such a camera will not make you a better photographer. This system has its indisputable advantages when compared to the compact cameras category in terms of image quality, dynamics, noise, speed and efficient performance under poor light conditions. At the same time it has its disadvantages related to the high price of good lenses, which will be needed to make the utmost of the high quality sensor, as well as to the considerable weight, bulk, etc. At the moment there are nine big companies offering interchangeable lens cameras – Canon, Nikon, Sony, Pentax, Olympus, Sigma, Leica, Panasonic and Fuji.

The first thing you need to know when buying an ILC is that you will most certainly need additional resources for lenses. The so-called kit lenses cameras are usually sold together with normally do not have particularly good characteristics and pretty soon you will want to change them. For this reason it is important to look into what lenses can be found on the market for the model you have selected and what their respective price is. It is also worth noting that all of the above-mentioned brands have lenses developed for them also by other major manufacturers specialising mainly in that field. Such manufacturers are Sigma, Tamron, Tokina and others. The majority of their lenses have very goof optical characteristics and are at much lower prices, which makes them an attractive alternative for people with a limited budget. For example, if Sony is your camera of choice, you can by a Tamron lens, but it must be compatible with Sony. When buying, make sure that the lens can operate with your camera. With the help of special adapters you can achieve compatibility even if a lens is not compatible by design, but sometimes there may be problems with autofocus precision, speed, etc.

Mirrorless models do not have an optical viewfinder. The latest generation electronic viewfinders generally offer high quality, but in some situations, particularly when shooting moving objects or in series, they are not an adequate substitute for optical viewfinders. At the same time, an electronic viewfinder has certain advantages – a quick AF in video mode, a ‘peaking’ system for a precise manual focus and most importantly – you see what the photo will look like before you press the shutter button and you can easily make adjustments.

The size of the sensor is also important The larger physical dimensions of the sensor and of the photocells respectively ensure lower noise levels at high sensitivity settings, better dynamics and last but not least – greater plasticity of the image. The higher class of ILC cameras have sensor dimensions of 24x36mm, while the lower class have 1.5 or 2 times smaller sides respectively.

The speed and precision of the autofocus is extremely important for ILC cameras. For some models in the lower price range there are often problems with autofocus precision when shooting at maximum aperture settings. It is a good idea to test your future camera with a lens featuring apertures ranging somewhere between 1.4, 1.8 or 2.0 and to make sure that it focuses exactly as desired.

Most contemporary DSLR cameras, as well as some mirrorless models, shoot good quality HD and 4K videos with a plastic cinematic look, when you use lenses with high light power. There is no reason why you should deprive yourself of this extra, so check the capacities of your future camera in this respect.

Some additional extras can also be useful. Recently a great number of manufacturers offer protection against moisture, self-cleaning sensors, options for attaching an additional battery grip for a vertical shutter button, options for remote control, inbuilt RAW converter and others. A particularly useful innovation is the sensor stabilisation system which is a feature the mirrorless models of many brands and some DSLR models offer. With the help of this system all lenses for the camera (even including old models for M42 lens mount) are now stabilised, which can save you a considerable amount of money.

Last but not least – you should keep in mind that buying an ILC camera is a serious investment. You should look into the question of warranty and post-warranty service in your country, as well as general availability of lenses, batteries and other accessories for the selected model. This is crucially important as digital ILC cameras are not just a camera, but a sophisticated system comprised of a multitude of interconnected elements. Before you make your final choice on what camera model to buy, you should search the internet for full-sized photographs taken with that camera and read reviews by users and specialists. When the time for buying comes, ask to test and compare several cameras and then look at the photos you made on a computer in the shop or at home. It is always good to have a camera which suits and appeals to you in terms of ergonomy,,design, viewfinder, shutter sound and all the rest.

Материалът Selecting the right digital camera е публикуван за пръв път на PHOTOGRAPHY BOOK.

We will look at the main parameters which we can use to control light.

• The light-gathering capacity of the lens (in the German and Bulgarian photography jargon the term is ‘blende’). In English-speaking countries the term is ‘Aperture’ – f stop. The lens is one of the most important components in the camera. The lens is responsible for objectively projecting reality onto the light-sensitive material of the camera. Different lenses have different capacity to let the surrounding light in. Naturally, this capacity depends on the quality of the optical lenses being used, but in modern lenses the light-gathering capacity is determined by two main factors – maximum entrance pupil (diaphragm opening diameter) and focal length of the lens. The bigger the opening, the more light the lens lets in, similarly to how a large window lets more light into a room compared to a small one. We can therefore say that the light-gathering power of a lens is directly proportional to the diameter of the maximum opening. What will happen if we move away from the window? Because light is ultra high-frequency electromagnetic radiation, it follows some well-known laws of physics – doubling the distance leads to a fourfold drop in intensity. That means that the further away we are from the window, the poorer the illumination will be. When it comes to lenses, this distance is measured from the main optical surface to the point of projection and it is called ‘focal length’.

Probably we have all had the experience of playing with a magnifying glass as children, trying to burn a hole through a piece of paper by focusing sunlight. There is one specific position of the lens which causes a small bright dot to appear on the sheet of paper – this is the projection of the sun. A magnifying glass is a simple lens similar to a monocle and if you measure the distance between the magnifying glass and the projection of the sun, you will find the exact focal length of this lens. And so – the greater the focal length of the lens, the lower its light power, which is inversely proportional to focal length. To put it simply, the light power (aperture) is the ratio between the maximum diaphragm opening and the focal length of the lens. If you have a lens with a 50mm maximum opening and focal length of 100mm, its light gathering power will be 50/100 or 1:2 . For such a lens we say that it has aperture f/2. If a 50mm maximum opening corresponds to focal length of 200mm, its respective light-gathering power will be 1:4 or aperture f/4. A lens with aperture f/2 lets in 4 times more light than one with aperture f/4. Often beginners find it hard to understand why a higher aperture value means less light. Why a lens with aperture 4 lets in less light that one with aperture 2. The explanation is simple – these are denominators.in a fraction. 1:2 is a greater number than 1:4 the same way half a pizza is more than a quarter.

Inside the tubus of the lens there is a special diaphragm made from metal blades which can be used to alter the diameter of the entrance pupil and adjust the amount of light which is let in. Thus, if the focal length of the lens is a constant, we change its light power (aperture – f stop). If there is strong ambient light we can limit it by closing the diaphragm (bright sun on the beach or a combination of sun and snow in the mountains), or if the light is too little, we can open the diaphragm to let in as much as possible (cloudy gloomy weather, deep shade, etc.). Attention! Lenses with greater light power (aperture below f/2) are more valuable because they allow us to shoot under poor light conditions.

As you might have already guessed, this parameter is not the only one. Well, you guessed right! These symbols were only applicable for fixed exposure times of 1/100 sec and 100 ISO. And so we made it to the second parameter.

• Exposure time (shutter speed)

In eighth grade students are often required to solve math problems where a pool is slowly being filled by means of one or more pipes over a certain period of time. In fact, if the pipe is only one, the amount of water in the pool will depend on the diameter of the pipe and filling times (provided that pressure is constant). The photographic sensor gets ‘filled’ with light following an identical principle. In addition to the light-gathering power of the lens, it is important to take into consideration the period of time over which it is exposed to the radiation of a stream of photons. The longer the period of time, the more photons reach the light sensitive sensor. This process is called ‘exposure time’ and is controlled by a precise mechanism, called a shutter. A shutter is usually an opaque blind made from hard metal leafs which allow light to pass through only for a pre-set specific amount of time. If time is too short, our ‘pool’ will not be filled in, and if time is longer, it will overflow. In photography jargon, exposure time is often called ‘shutter speed’. In English you can also hear it called ‘time value’ – Tv or ‘shutter speed’ – S. Shutter speed and aperture are connected like communicating vessels. The more open the aperture is, the more light is let in, and thus – faster shutter speed and vice versa..

In the chapters dedicated to motion we will analyse in detail the importance of exposure time in capturing motion, but it is worth noting at this point that at longer exposure times moving objects travel a certain distance and their projection onto a single frame will be a blurred image. If we want to freeze a moment and get a sharp image, we need to use shorter exposure times (higher shutter speeds). The graph below gives you a visual representation of this relation:

Keep in mind that at low shutter speeds even a still object can be blurred because of a slight shake of your hand. Follow this simple rule: shutter speed should be one over the millimetres of the lens – for a 100mm lens – 1/100 sec, for a 50mm lens – 1/50 sec. Naturally, it all depends on how stable your hand is, but it is still a useful guideline.

• Sensitivity (ISO)

This is the third important parameter which determines correct image exposure. It is directly related to the other two. If the sensitivity to light is low, this means that exposure time should be longer. As we have already said, this was a major issue when photography was in its infancy. Emulsion sensitivity was so low that exposure had to last for hours. At the time there was no need for a shutter and ‘shutter speed’ as a term did not exist. Time was measured using a clock or a watch and the cap of the lens acted as a barrier to light. The development of the shutter is closely linked to the increase in sensitivity and the need to freeze the moment in time with exposure times shorter than a second. There is no way, however, you could measure 1/100 sec using a clock nor do human reflexes allow for the reaction times needed to take the lens cap off and then put it back on within such short time frames. The first mechanical shutters able to measure fractions of the second were designed by well-established companies producing clocks.

Sensitivity is also related to the amount of light which is let through the lens and controlled with the help of the aperture. Higher sensitivity requires less light and vice versa – when sensitivity is low, we need to use maximum aperture and/or reduce shutter speed. Over the years there have been several sensitivity standards. Well-known standards are the Russian standard ГОСТ, the German standard DIN and the American standard ASA. The universal standard ISO was established at the end of the 20th century. The biggest advantage of digital cameras is that the sensitivity of the sensor can be changed within certain limits by increasing the strength of the signal. Sensitivities with practical application in film photography include between 50 and 800ISO, rarely reaching up to 1600 or 3200, though at the expense of quality. For digital amateur class compact cameras and smart phones very good results can be achieved with sensitivity at 50-400 ISO, 800 ISO is a compromise while at 1600 ISO noise levels are so high that the image is usually unprintable. Producers usually resort to aggressive noise reduction algorithms. The effect of their application is considerable reduction of visible noise, although always at the expense of less detail and new additional artefacts. In the case of modern cameras with a large sensor practically usable sensitivities are within the 100-6400 ISO range, sometimes reaching as high as 12800 ISO. This is only possible due to the larger size of the sensor and the larger area with light sensitive photocells.

In the example below you can see a full-sized photo followed by 100% crops at sensitivity of 800, 6400 and 25600 ISO, respectively. High sensitivity makes the image look coarser and leads to high levels of noise.

When it comes to low-range compact cameras and smart phones, which are used by beginner amateurs who copy their images without any further edit, the use of noise reduction software may be justified, but when it comes to expensive models within the high price range, you should be able to turn this option off using the menu. It is always better to have an image with high resolution, even at the expense of more noise, because noise can be removed more successfully with the help of a special software programme later and not with the inbuilt software in the camera. We can also do this when shooting in RAW format. Unfortunately most amateur class cameras do not support RAW format. Another reason for the differences in noise levels observed even with camera noise reduction turned off and after edit in the RAW converter of Photoshop, is the rather frivolous interpretation of the term ISO some producers have. At equal signal amplification levels and identical sensors, noise should also be the same. Unfortunately, alleged sensitivity of 100 ISO of one model corresponds to 160 or 80 ISO in other models. This has largely contributed to some misunderstanding concerning noise. The truth is that we should not look at the ISO value given by the producer, but at the exact rate of signal amplification.

In the graph below you can see a number of sensitivity values. Do not forget the increasing sensitivity leads to a corresponding decrease in image quality – noise levels go up and resolution goes down.

As we said earlier, sensitivity is closely related to aperture and shutter speed. Let us assume that at settings of 100 ISO we have aperture 4 and shutter speed of 1/50 sec but we would like to shoot a moving object. 1/50 sec will be insufficient and the moving object will be blurred. In this case we can increase shutter speed (decrease exposure time) 4 times to not more than 1/200 sec. We can do this by opening aperture to 2 and letting in 4 times more light, but if our lens cannot support this option, we can raise sensitivity four times from 100 to 400 ISO. If we want to freeze the motion even more effectively, we can shoot at 1/500 sec or 10 times higher shutter speed. In this case, if we want to have correct image exposure, ISO should be set at 1000.

So, now that we have discussed what aperture, shutter speed and sensitivity mean, let us take a look at how these settings can be adjusted on our cameras.

The upper part of any modern digital camera with an option for manual settings features a round selector dial with some basic symbols.

• A green/red square or an Auto sign – the camera automatically chooses speed, aperture and sensitivity and you only press the shutter.

• ‘P’ symbol – Programme mode. The camera automatically chooses speed and aperture, but you can adjust sensitivity (ISO) and make general exposure adjustments with the use of the additional +/- symbol; by pressing on + you let in more light (using a combination of opening aperture and reducing speed), and by pressing on – you let in less light and the image becomes darker.

• ‘A’ or ‘Av’ symbol Aperture Priority mode – you select he aperture and ISO, the camera selects the speed. Often used in portrait, landscape, and interior photography for better control over the depth of sharp focus or depth of field (DOF). Aperture, in addition to being a tool to control the amount of incoming light, can be used as a tool to regulate the depth of field /DOF/ or the ratio between focus and defocus areas in the image. The more open the aperture (more open apertures have lower numbers), the more defocus in the background.

• ‘S’ or ‘Tv’ symbol. Speed Priority mode. We select the speed, and the camera selects the aperture and ISO (unless selected in advance). This mode is often used when taking photos of moving objects in order to freeze the motion or to achieve a blurred motion effect.

• ‘M’ symbol. Manual mode. You select speed, aperture and ISO settings manually. This mode is especially suitable for work under controlled steady light, such as in a studio. By setting in advance all parameters correctly, you take images with the same exposure.

We will discuss all these settings further in the other chapters of the book and we will describe them in detail below many of the photographs.

Материалът Camera settings е публикуван за пръв път на PHOTOGRAPHY BOOK.

A wedding is a happy and emotional event which only happens once in a lifetime… Well, sometimes twice, not more than three times. Of course, there are some record holders such as the actress Elizabeth Taylor who married 8 times.

Wedding photography is an extremely popular genre across the world. Perhaps the term ‘genre’ is hardly appropriate in this case because it includes many different photography genres – portrait, still life, reportage and even landscape photography. The role of the wedding photographer is a very delicate and responsible one, especially when the bride and groom rely on high-quality photography and professional attitude. Being a time machine on such a day is not an easy task. When you shoot at a studio or for a family session, you can make mistakes which can be corrected later. When you are taking reportage photographs of a public event, any mistakes will only be your loss, because there will be plenty of other photographers there as well. If you are shooting a production process, you could have several repeats of the shoot on different days. Even birthdays happen regularly once a year in more or less the same company. But the wedding between two people is only one day. The bride has been dreaming about this day, sometimes for years, often the atmosphere is tense, people are nervous, you are always short of time and you are the one who should manage to control it, keep it on a tight rein and stop it right when it is needed, as many times as it is needed. This is why a wedding photographer needs to be confident about his skills and his technique, to be a good photographer in all genres, sometimes an animator and quite often a psychologist.

‘Photographing people is 90% psychology and 10% technique’ said one of the most prominent figures in contemporary wedding photography – Annabel Williams, and for a good reason. Photography is 90% psychology, indeed, but let us begin with the other 10%.

1. Equipment necessary to shoot a wedding reception:бено тържество : 

Although in reality there is an enormous variety of equipment on the market and you can shoot with anything, even your phone, for wedding photography it is a good idea to select more reliable and trust-worthy equipment.

Think security to begin with. There is nothing more important than preserving the memories of the people who trusted you. You must have two cameras and several lenses. Every professional wedding photographer has had the bad luck of having their camera defect right in the middle of a shoot. Do not risk it and never leave it all to chance. As a second aspect of security – your cameras should have two memory card slots and record on both at the same time so that in case of a failure of one of the cards you will have the photos recorded on the other. Almost all modern cameras in the middle and high ranges offer this option. Of course your cameras must have interchangeable lenses – i.e. DSLR or mirrorless models. Over the last 2-3 years wedding photographers have gradually been moving on to mirrorless models for several reasons:

• They are lighter and take up less space. This is especially important when you have 12 hours of active shooting in a day. 

• They are less conspicuous and you can be a first person story teller mixing and mingling with the guests at the reception.

• Shooting with a mirrorless camera saves you the trouble of editing later, because you have precise focus across the entire field of the frame and there is no need to reframe in the editing programme. Do not underestimate the eye detection auto focus and the tracking auto focus. They are flawless in the new mirrorless models. You have precise metering with options for quick adjustment using the electronic viewfinder. In this way there will be no need to make exposure adjustments later on.

• A tilt display with a touch focus is an excellent tool which helps you obtain a different vision and point of view.

• Mirrorless cameras are less noisy, the shutter is lighter and has no mechanism for flipping a mirror up and down. Furthermore, they offer the opportunity to work using only the electronic shutter where the camera makes no sound when shooting. This is especially important during the church ritual. You must agree that it is not pleasant to hear the constant clucking of the shutter and the mirror during such a ritual. In most churches the acoustics is excellent and this sound becomes really irritating if heard once too often. There have been cases when priests have started a conflict with photographers shooting with noisy cameras.

• All mirrorless models have inbuilt stabilisation which works with the whole set of lenses, including lenses with good light power and aperture 1.4 or even 1.2. This allows shooting in very poor light conditions, at low shutter speeds and without a flash. Again, a church is a place where the use of flash is not welcome because it disturbs the people.

• The last generation electronic viewfinders are so sensitive that through them you can see scenes and objects in the dark which are invisible to the naked eye.

Single-lens reflex cameras are becoming better and better suited for sports photography, wildlife photography and other situations involving rapid movement, because the optical viewfinder gives you direct contact with the object and there is no element of delay – what you are seeing is happening at the moment you are seeing it. With the electronic viewfinder there is a tiny delay owing to the time it takes to process the image from the sensor and visualise it. In most cases this time lag is negligible, but in some cases, when the movement is very rapid, it could be decisive. Of course, many photographers prefer them for wedding photography as well, also because of the direct visualisation through the lens.

What are the most suitable lenses for wedding photography? You can use absolutely any type of lens – from the ones with the widest angles and fish eye lenses to telephoto ones. Of course, it is not practical to carry around such a set of optics. Realistically speaking, you can cover the entire event with two cameras and two lenses – place a universal zoom lens 24-70/2.8 with good light-gathering power and a portrait lens 85/1.8 or 85/1.4. If the second camera has high resolution – for example 42mp, using a crop button X1.5 your 85/1.4 will easily be made longer up to 130/2 with enough room left for 18mp. You can obtain more interesting results using only prime lenses with good light power. My favourite combination is 24/1.4, 55/1.8, 85/1.4 and a fish-eye 16mm lens. Fish eye lenses are interesting but do not overuse them. You should be well aware when it is appropriate to use them and when not.

2. Psychology of wedding photography 

This is a particularly lengthy topic of discussion involving many and varied aspects. Here I will take a look at the main ones while in later chapters I will develop some of the arguments in more detail.

I will start by saying that regardless of what it is that you do for a living, it should bring you pleasure. Money is not a means to an end, it is the result of your growth, attitude and manner of work. Any compromises that you make will be like streams branching off and away from the river of your life. Make too many and sooner or later that river will dry out. As I said earlier, a wedding photographer is not just the man who takes pictures during the wedding. With the help of modern technology, anyone can take photographs with good quality. However, not everyone can be a good story teller. The profession of the ‘scribe’ has long disappeared into oblivion while the profession of the ‘writer’ lives on. In order to survive in this field, you need to be a writer. In order to be a good writer, you should have good general knowledge and be interested in a variety of fields, you should read books, watch movies and visit art galleries… Ansel Adams said that ‘You don’t make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.’

In recent years the people who appreciate photography as an art form are the well-educated and intelligent people. Only they would appreciate your skills as a story teller. To be one, you must tell the story from first person singular, to dive into the atmosphere of the event and establish close relations with the people around you and on top of all this to manage to capture all the decisive moments which tell the story in a unique way. The biggest advantage of photography over video is that it can tell stories in less than a second. In a video you need at least 3-4 seconds, sometimes more, in order to show an emotional scene. Viewers will not manage to notice any shorter fragments. Photography freezes 1/100 of the second and in this way it sometimes catches what is impossible to catch. After that viewers can watch that 1/100 sec for hours. ‘Then to the moment I’d dare say: Stay a while! You are so lovely!’ as Goethe’s Faust cried out. You are the wizard who can stop time in the appropriate moment.

Constructing a wedding story is a psychological process with a lot of aspects, similar to the way you construct a literary work – different plot lines, main and supporting characters, symbols and metaphors, action, emotions, plot twists, sad and comic situations… In literature all of the above are the result of the writer’s imagination. When we are talking about an actual event, though, they are real and they need to be found, captured and then presented in an interesting way. Let me illustrate that with some examples:

• Look for symbols and metaphors. Sometimes they are not part of the main action but they are the spice without which the dish simply does not taste right.

• Funny scenes and anecdotes provide a relief within the story and make it more interesting and effective. Children are usually the most common generators of such situations.

Imitating the grown-ups is one thing – interesting and fun. Being pushed and dropping your bottle is another. And it is a story of tragic proportions. These captured moments were awarded at the international wedding photography competition organised by WPJA.

• Do not use the flash during the church ritual. Look for a different point of view, close-ups and wide shots, try to capture the atmosphere, take portraits of the guests but be careful not to miss the main moments of the ritual – the exchange of rings, crowns, sipping from the wine, going around the altar, etc.

Here again children can be at the centre of some interesting stories so keep an eye on them. They also bring life to the story. в разказа :

Sometimes a viewing point from the pulpit is not possible because the priest may object to your presence there. Kindly ask to what extent and where he is willing to let you in, but never be too pertinent. If possible, a viewing point from the pulpit would be interesting.

• The photo session is an almost inevitable part of shooting a wedding. Usually it is the bride who insists more on the staged photography session and wants it to be as long as possible, while the groom often gets bored and wants this ‘torture’ to end quickly so that he could head for the restaurant, the friends and the party. The role of the wedding photographer in this case is to make shooting the session a fun and interesting experience for the couple. The photographer should carefully assess the expectations of the couple and act as a balancing force if there is a disagreement brewing Often the bride wants to include her bridesmaids, the best man, the maid of honour and sometimes even the parents in the photo session. Usually a session lasts not more than an hour and it would be a mistake if you have to pay attention to 10-20 people all the time. Instead, suggest that everyone should participate in the first 15-20 minutes for several shots, while the rest of the time should be reserved for the bride and groom, the best man and the maid of honour. It is a good idea to know the area where the session will take place. Improvisation is fantastic, as long as it is based on prior research. You can take note of a couple of key places – interesting architecture, a place with different reflections, unusual backgrounds, unusual defocus, etc. Do not forget that there is always the chance of a sudden change in the weather – a storm, rain, wind. You should be able to suggest a suitable place for the session under such circumstances. It could be a gallery with free access, a colonnade of a large public building, a subway, an old house, etc. Of course, you should know if shooting is allowed in these places and if yes – under what circumstances. During the preliminary conversation with the bride and groom you must ask them how willing they are to experiment under less favourable weather conditions.

• Decisive moments True reportage photography at a wedding is a challenge. It requires fast reactions, a good eye for detail and a sense of what a decisive moment is. Intelligent people today appreciate more and more a captured candid moment. This type of photography is the true time machine which can later bring you back to the day of the wedding. Candid portraits, situations, actions and fragments of the day together create a unique one-of-a-kind story. A staged session will often include a lot of clichés and will not always be associated with the actual day of the wedding. It can be done at a later time. Only quality reportage photography and a well-told story will evoke genuine emotions in the viewer.

The preparation of the bride is the perfect time to capture interesting emotions, situations, reflections and angles. It is your introduction to the main story and often you have plenty of moments worth freezing.

Key important moments are the emotions and situations related to certain rituals – kicking a pot of water to tell the future, breaking the first bread, releasing wedding doves, etc. For some it is best to shoot in series because the action takes place really fast.

Do not miss the details. Sometimes they are everywhere around us – gifts, small signs, decoration for the ritual, decoration for the restaurant, etc. You should keep in mind that the bride insisted on those details and paid good money to have them produced. If you have to, speak with the wedding decorator or the wedding agent to find out everything you need to know about the decoration and any peculiar details associated with it.

The wedding day ends with a reception in a restaurant or in the open. It is important to have as much information as possible about the place beforehand. If the reception will be indoors, you need to know what the room looks like, how big it is, what the lighting is, if there will be additional stage lighting, etc. All this will help you select your equipment. If there will be some interesting effective light it is possible to shoot without flash in order to capture the spirit and atmosphere of the place. If, however, the lighting is bad with pointed lights from the ceiling which cast unpleasant shadows, it is a good idea to use additional sources of light – a flash. You can limit your equipment to only one flash if you use additional diffusers and modifiers or if there is a white ceiling which you can direct the flash to. A better option is to place 2 or more flashes in the room in order to have a more three-dimensional lighting.

When shooting in the open you cannot use the reflective surfaces of a wall or a ceiling so when the light is very poor, you can shoot with direct flash or several flashes located around the dancing. Modern cameras have high sensitivity and low noise levels which allows you to shoot under very poor light conditions and even garden lamps will do the work in the open.

In the 4 photographs below you see the typical garden/beach party both outdoors and indoors with light coming from the electric garland lights. I shot without flash with lenses with good light power and at high ISO settings – 8000 – 16000.

And now, some final words of wisdom. If you want to work in the field of wedding photography, you must first become a good photographer in all the other various different genres. Do not be tempted to take on such work unless you are expertly familiar with the other photography genres, unless you are confident in your equipment, unless you can communicate with people freely and unless you are a good story teller. The time of the scribes is over. Anyone can write. You must be writers!

Wedding photography, like many other commercial genres of photography, requires a lot of marketing and advertising. This is an extensive topic which we will discuss in additional articles on the site later.

In the video below you can see some educational photographs and thoughts on the topic of wedding photography, backstage footage from the shooting process and more. Enjoy!

Материалът Wedding photography е публикуван за пръв път на PHOTOGRAPHY BOOK.

‘Being is movement.’ Plutarch

We spend our whole life in motion and everything around us is in motion. Rest is a relative term, often the result of an illusion, a mirage depending on the point of view. We think that the stone next to us is still, but it is part of the earth and the Earth goes around the Sun… Movement and change make us feel alive and trigger our emotions and aspirations, feeding our desire for growth. The faster water moves down the stream, the clearer it is. When it stops, it turns into a swamp.

Movement and change have been the subject of philosophical thought since antiquity to this very day, the main problem being that we are tormented by our inability to freeze a moment. ‘Then to the Moment I’d dare say: Stay a while! You are so lovely!’ cried Goethe’s Faust. Or, quoting a Pink Floyd song… ‘Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day Fritter and waste the hours in an offland way’. We have all dreamed of freezing a moment, but unfortunately no one ever has. The only way, perhaps, is to capture an image on the light-sensitive material of our cameras. Capturing moving objects in a static frame is a challenge similar to the one of trying to convey the feeling of three-dimensional space onto the two-dimensional sheet of paper. We must use some form of optical illusion or psychological suggestion. In this chapter we will look into three different methods of shooting motion.

Part one: Shooting motion at low shutter speeds using the panning technique

When using this popular method, our goal is to achieve a combination of both moving and still static objects within the frame in order to create a sense of motion. The moving object should be sharp and well-defined, while the background should be blurred. In this way the viewer can ‘feel’ the speed because of the resulting powerful illusion of motion. This technique can be used only if the object is moving parallel to the camera. You cannot use this method when the direction of the movement is towards you. It is also a good idea to have a distinct contrasting background filled with different objects – trees, buildings, etc. A blue sky or a solid one-colour wall are not a good background for this type of photography.

To achieve this effect we need to shoot at relatively low shutter speeds – for slow motion (a walking person, a slowly moving bike or car) shutter speed can be set at 1/15 – 1/20 sec. You need to take a stable position and move the camera parallel to the moving object. When using such low shutter speeds, it is important to keep the camera steady in order to avoid vertical shakes; it is also important not to move too quickly or slowly relative to the main object. Otherwise, the whole scene will be blurred and we will lose the contrast between the sharply defined moving object and the background. For higher speeds – a car, a train, etc., shutter speed can also be set higher (shorter exposure time) 1/40 – 1/50 or even at 1/100 sec. You should know that the term ‘shutter speed’ is professional jargon. The correct term would be ‘exposure time’. 1/40 sec is a measure of time. The higher the shutter speed, the shorter the exposure time and a less defined motion as the background will not be as blurred. Low shutter speeds (longer exposure times) enhance this motion effect, but also increase the number of failed shots. Therefore, it is a good idea to take several shots in a series in order to select the best one.

Suitable camera settings: Shutter speed priority mode with auto ISO (S – speed in Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Fuji and Sony models, Tv – time value in Canon, Pentax and other models). You select the shutter speed, the camera automatically choses the aperture and the ISO.

The next series of photos was taken during an evening walk in Genoa. Camera Sony A7Rmk3, lens Sony 28/2. Shutter speed priority 1/20-1/30 sec with Auto ISO. My purpose was to recreate the typical Italian atmosphere with the small and fast mopeds whizzing by every second of the day.

The method described above is used for photographing sports competitions, shooting cars in motion, etc. This approach is applicable for objects moving in parallel to create a sense of motion. Here the accent is on the main object which needs to be sharp and clearly defined, evoking both artistic and reportage photography.

Part two: Shooting motion at low shutter speeds and a static camera:

Another way of shooting moving objects at slow shutter speed (long exposure time) is using a camera which is as stationary as possible. In that way you achieve the opposite effect – all still objects are sharply defined while the moving objects are blurred. It is logical – if the camera is still and the exposure time is for example 1/10, 1/5, 1 sec, all moving objects will travel a certain distance over that time and the light which they reflected will produce a blurred contour onto the photo-sensitive material in your camera. In this case, the longer the exposure time and the higher the speed of the object, the less clear and more blurred its photographed image will be. This was in fact the main problem at the dawn of photography nearly 200 years ago. The first photography emulsions had very low sensitivity towards light. For this reason they required very long exposure times, sometimes up to several hours. This made photographing moving objects an impossible task. There was no way you could ‘freeze the moment’ if your exposure time was several minutes or even hours. The streets in the first urban photographs were empty. All moving objects – people, animals, carts, etc. could not reflect enough light to appear on the photo-sensitive plate. Nowadays we have sufficient sensitivity, and shooting at low shutter speeds is a sought-after effect aimed at achieving artistic expression.

With this method of shooting we also use the shutter speed priority mode – S (Tv), selecting the desired speed, while the camera automatically sets the aperture. Unlike panning, though, in this case the camera needs to be static. To make sure it remains stable, it is best to use a tripod. This is absolutely necessary if you shoot at speeds below 1/10 sec or if the camera has no stabilisation system, at speeds below 120 sec with a wide-angle lens. Tripods are the only possibility when using exposure times longer than 1 second. This topic has been discussed in detail in another chapter related to night photography, urban landscapes, etc. Here I will only look at situations where we shoot without a tripod, often in situations and under conditions where you have no time to carry and set up one.

Probably some of you may ask if it is really necessary to photograph that way, when for such a long time people have been striving to freeze the moment – perfecting photographic emulsions, increasing sensitivity, increasing shutter speed, etc. There is no single answer to that question, but if I am certain about one thing, it is that people will never cease to pursue a different vision, a better way to capture the spirit, inspire the imagination and provoke thoughts on everything left unspoken. The same thing happened to painting when photography was invented. In 1839, when he saw the daguerreotype for the first time, the French artist Paul Delaroche exclaimed ‘A partir d’aujourd’hui la peinture est morte’ (‘From today, painting is dead.’). In reality, this prophecy never came to be, quite the opposite. With photography taking over the task of literally and directly documenting reality, the art of painting was finally free and it saw a true revival after the middle of the 19th century. Modernism appeared in its different forms (abstractionism, expressionism, surrealism, cubism, futurism) which oppose realism and rely on the mysterious, the subtle and the mystic.

At that time, however, photography also started to develop as an art and seek its own means of escape from literalism and reality. At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century pictorialism in photography became very popular. The goal was to have greater artistic impact and approximate the modernistic trends in fine arts. Different approaches were used – selective defocus, blurring of the image, using special lenses and even causing deliberate damage to the lenses to achieve an unusual image. Playing with speed, aperture, filters, etc. When copying and developing the film, photographers manipulated the image, changed its tone or added other effects or overlaid different images. Many of these approaches are still being used today in digital photography. In particular, nearly 100 years after the first wave of popularity abated, pictorialism is again gaining popularity, especially in social media..

Part three: Shooting motion at high shutter speeds

One of the biggest mistakes which beginners typically make (though sometimes, quite a few advanced photographers do so as well) is selecting the wrong shutter speed for the specific situation. Quite often the objects in the photo end up being blurred and people think that the reason is that ‘the camera failed to focus’. In my experience, this is a mistake that even photographers who shoot commercially make, which should not be the case. In fact, often this unpleasant blurring of the image is due to a combination of low shutter speed, a moving object and an unstable camera.

Capturing the moment is one of the main goals of any reportage photographer. Freezing a fraction of time as short as 1/1000 sec can be a powerful means of artistic expression. The viewer can see a virtual time dissection of reality which they do not have the chance to see in real life. At the same time, it could also be a manipulation, because out of the entire time line we take only discrete values with low discretization rates, which do not necessarily give an accurate account of what is happening. Recently a client of mine from Austria said “How come I see a lot of happy faces in the photos from the church ceremony, but I don’t in the video?’ I explained to her that as a photographer it is my job to catch even the fleeting smiles on the faces of the people, while as a viewer, it is her job to simply look at the smiling faces for a long time. That is why she may be under the wrong impression that they were smiling the whole time, which is actually simply not the truth. During the ceremony people have generally straight faces and these fleeting smiles are invisible in the video. In order to convey the same emotion, the video camera needs to linger on a smiling face for several seconds as a minimum, while the camera can achieve that in only 1/100 of the second.

‘Capturing the decisive moment’, as defined by Henri Cartier-Bresson, is a term which best summarises the essence of modern reportage photography. Personally, what I have always found challenging in photography is creating a short story in a single frame without any need for further clarifications or explanations. Freezing emotional moments in motion is one of my main shooting techniques to achieve that.

However, not all moving objects can be presented convincingly in this way. If we freeze the motion of a passing car with speeds of 1/1000 sec, the viewer has no way of knowing if it is moving or parked by the pavement, because it is standing firmly on its four wheels. In this case it is better to use the panning technique. The same does not go for motorbikes, because we subconsciously feel the motion because we know that it is impossible for the motorbike to stand still on two wheels.

In order to freeze motion with good quality it is necessary to have short exposure times. The shorter the exposure time, the sharper and clearer the image will be. At shutter speeds of 1/50sec, a fast-moving object will travel some distance and when magnified its contours will be blurred. If shutter times are reduced to 1/500 sec, that distance will be 10 times less, i.e. the image will be much sharper and more detailed. Exposure time (shutter speed) depends on several factors:

The intensity of the ambient light. If we have more light, we can afford to let it through the aperture for shorter periods of time in order to produce a correctly exposed image. If the light is not sufficient, we can use an additional source of light or a photographic flash with very short impulse.

The light power of the lens. If a lens has greater light power, it lets more light through and we can afford to use shorter exposure times. The light power of the lens (the so-called aperture) depends on the entrance pupil (directly proportional) and on the focal length of the lens (inversely proportional). This means that a light lens allows you to freeze motion with better quality, especially when the ambient light is not enough.

The sensitivity (ISO) of the camera. In the past photographic materials had very low sensitivity and there was no way motion could be ‘frozen’. Modern cameras have very high sensitivity and allow you to shoot with short exposure times even in poor light.

What settings should we use? We can shoot in all modes provided that the shutter speed is high. Some cameras can set the so-called ‘Minimum shutter speed at automatic ISO’ mode. This is a useful function. We set a minimum value for the shutter speed and the camera software sets the sensitivity based on all the other parameters in order to keep to this lower limit. If you are shooting a sport event, you could set the limit as high as 1/1000 sec, and if you are shooting a portrait – to 1/100 sec. We often use this function in combination with aperture priority ‘A’. Of course, we could use full manual mode ‘M’ or shutter speed priority ‘S’ (Tv) setting exact shutter speed values.

In conclusion: Carefully study all settings and opportunities your camera provides. This will help you improvise in complex situations and find the right solution without much thought. Exposure time is an extremely useful instrument and, as the Rolling Stones once said, time can be on your side.

Photography is an immediate reaction, drawing is a meditation. Henri Cartier-Bresson

Материалът Shooting motion е публикуван за пръв път на PHOTOGRAPHY BOOK.