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Hardware Review: Rapid R Strap

February 15, 2010 Jason6 Comments

I can’t believe I’ve waited this long to talk about my Rapid R Strap. This is a very cool camera strap developed by the folks over at Black Rapid. I had been wanting one for a while, and made it known to everyone prior to the holidays over a year ago (think pre-Christmas 2008). Thankfully, my wife saw the writing on the wall, and I ended up with one on Christmas Day!

Black Rapid R Strap (RS-5)

So, let me tell you what makes this camera strap unique. First off, it’s unique design has a built in “stop” so that you just let your camera slide down to that point and it just hangs there, conveniently out of the way, but immediately accessible when you want to bring it up for capturing a shot. This strap is the perfect accessory for going on photo walks whether in an urban environment, wildlife, or other setting. The fact that your camera is hanging out of the way makes it much easier to do things like climb rock walls, interact with others (getting signed model releases, passing out business cards, etc.), or anything else that you may need both your hands for.

Another nice feature set on this is that the front of the strap has a Velcro section where you can throw a cell phone in (probably not an iPhone though), and a zipper section where you can store things like spare memory cards, business cards, and other accessory items (I was able to fit a spare battery in there…)

There was an awkward adjustment for just a little bit, getting used to a camera not only dangling from this strap, but also dangling upsidedown! It was a very short adjustment though, and I quickly adapted to the nature of how it works. What was super cool for my setup is that I was able to utilize my quick release place as the “hook” for the clip, so if I wanted to quickly go from shooting on the go, to setting it in a tripod, it was simply a matter of releasing the clip, mounting in the tripod and lining up the shot.

These straps come in a variety of sizes, with one even offering dual straps for a two-camera setup (I know a few guys that do this, with one body holding a long lens and the other holding a wide angle…ready for anything!). The size I ended up getting was the RS-5 (medium), and it fit my 6’1″ just about perfectly. Choose the option that works best for your frame and gear setup, but this is definitely a purchase worth getting, especially if you go on a lot of photo walks.

Got any of your own gear predilections or preferences? Want me to review something you’ve not seen here yet? Do you own a Rapid R Strap? Like it, love it or hate it? Sound off with your own thoughts in the comments. In the meantime, keep on shooting as we have another contest underway for a free 16×20 canvas print of any picture you have in your gallery from the talented Rich Charpentier! Check out his printing services and you’ll be glad you did! The contest page on Flickr is here, and is also linked in the content menus at the top of every page (the theme this month is Height). Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

Composition and the Angle of View

February 10, 2010 Jason1 Comment

We’ve talked a lot about various rules of composition – what they are (Rule of Thirds, Golden Mean, etc) and when to adhere versus eschew them to create dramatic effect. One thing we’ve not talked much about is the idea of changing your angle of view. We have mentioned the concept in the past, suggesting that to get a good perspective to look up, look down, look behind you, and in new directions to get a unique view on things. While this is always a good practice to remind yourself that there are other perspectives, it’s never really been discussed or illustrated in depth.

So, what I did was take a pretty ordinary object – my coffee mug – and take ten different pictures of it. I challenged myself to look at one thing in ten unique ways – at different angles, and to try and find one that showed me something different than what I would usually expect to see. I did get ten different angles, so technically I accomplished the objective. Since some were very close to one another though, I am sharing here six different angles of view to help illustrate the purpose behind the exercise:

I used my 70-200 f4 and a tripod. The white background you see in some pictures is just a piece of foam packing that was used to ship prints to me a while back. I had my flash on the hot shoe, pointing up and to the rear most of the time. Camera settings were 1/250th, at f4, and an ISO of 400.

It was pretty fun actually because I drink coffee every day! So, taking this regular object that I usually don’t even think twice about (although I am a coffee hound so I do have quite a collection of mugs to choose from…), I took 6 distinctly different angles of view. Some are more boring than others, sure! But some are actually kinda cool – in particular I am fond of the one with the mug handle sticking in the air! To keep it in place I simply stuck my lenscap behind the mug as a prop! It’s a fun exercise, and can make you see regular objects and scenes in new ways. This is just one way to force yourself to think creatively.

So now, it’s reader assignment time – go find something regular, anything! Whether it’s a coffee mug, a screwdriver, a telephone or a clock radio…pick something then force yourself to take ten different shots of it. Zoom in close, go super wide. Drop your aperture way open for more blur and selective focus. Use a totally different lens than you normally would. Going with the 70-200 I forced myself to back up. I could have swapped to the 10-22mm and gotten something totally different…and the same goes for the 70mm macro. Whether you live in an apartment, a house, or……an airstream (do you really know anyone that would live in an airstream?), there are tons of ways to think creatively that surround you! Seek them out, and you will find a piece of yourself – share it with the world!

Post your creativity exercise shots up on Flickr in the LDP pool – show that creative side and happy shooting! Until tomorrow, keep them shutters clicking, and watch out for a new Audioboo about the new Canon T2 Rebel – gonna be a fun clip on what Canon has been up to! 🙂

5 Tips to Better Landscapes

January 28, 2010 Jason7 Comments

The most common questions I get here on the blog center around the idea of how to take better pictures. Whether those “better pictures” are better landscapes, or portraits, wildlife or events, everyone wants suggestions on how to approach the practice of taking pictures better. Esoteric and creative considerations aside, there are some fundamental “tricks of the trade” that, by and large, will almost always improve your craft in pretty much any genre. So, today, I thought I would take a moment to share 5 “tricks” I’ve learned that always lead to better landscapes: Continue reading “5 Tips to Better Landscapes” →

Against my better judgement…

January 27, 2010 Jason2 Comments

For those of you that have been following the blog for a long time (and let me know who you are, because I want to ask why!), you may recall that I used to put out video tutorials on how to do various things inside of Photoshop. After plodding around with that for a while, I came across the gurus of NAPP and realized that several were already doing it, and doing it much better than I ever could. So, rather than re-inventing the wheel, I abandoned the video tutorials in favor of just sharing my “wisdom” in the form of the written word (blog posts and articles) and audio tips (which are now part of the Learning Digital Photography podcast).

Well, when I recently twittered with excitement over the newly released calendar of some of my favorite images for 2010, someone asked me about the template I used to create those images. I honestly answered that I didn’t really use a template as the website www.lulu.com just let me upload the images and they handled the rest. On realizing that they were talking about the images on my Photography Website, I recalled that a template was used for those images. I could have done a written post about this, but those take a lot of time to put together (lots of screen grabs, lots of writing, and lots of uploading), so I instead decided to put together a new video on how to create a template for your photos inside of Photoshop. The video may take some time to load, so please be patient as this is a self-hosted video production! 🙂

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Keep in mind – this is just one way – in Photoshop there are always many ways to reach similar results, and as the old adage says, there’s more than one way to skin a cat! Anyway, this is for you @mitz! Enjoy, happy shooting, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow! Oh, and lest we forget, there are very few days left in the January giveaway! For your chance to win a free copy of Photomatix Pro from the folks at HDR Soft, get your Circle-themed photos in the Flickr Contest Thread by midnight on Friday (Mountain Time – GMT-7).

P.S. For those that like my videos and want to see the archives, check out the Learning Resource Page from the sidebar for more materials. And as an additional side note, this is post #600. No fuss, no muss, no fanfare, but yet somehow I landed back on video tutorials – which is kind of how it all started! Somehow, ,ind of poetic, eh? 🙂

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Portrait or Landscape

January 22, 2010 Jason3 Comments

One of the more common questions when it comes to composing images is whether to shoot with the camera oriented in the landscape or the portrait position (horizontal or vertical). As always, the answer is usually along the lines of “it depends…”

There are some instances though when a portrait orientation is more conducive and others where a landscape is equally superior. For instance – if you want to have your images published in magazines, portrait mode might work better primarily because that is how magazines are typically laid out. Calendars, on the other hand, because of the opposing orientation, are more inclined toward landscape setups. Your subject matter can also dictate preferred setups too…portrait mode is called portrait mode for a reason – it is particularly well suited to photos of people. Likewise, landscape mode is also named that way because scenes and vistas (landscapes) typically extend from left to right and not top to bottom.

Sure, there are exceptions to the rule, when a landscape orientation may work for a particular portrait, or a vertical orientation make work for a group setting of people. So, which one should you shoot? My easy answer is to shoot both for any particular scene. Often what I will do is if I find a subject that I want to capture to make a picture, I will shoot it four ways:

Portrait
Landscape
Zoomed in
Zoomed out

The latter two is a subject for another post some day, but for today, I thought it’d a be a fun way to cue up the weekend by reminding everyone to try shooting more ways than one – the results may surprise you!

A final reminder for the week too – there are only seven days left in the January circles themed Flickr Giveaway. The winner will enjoy a free copy of Photomatix Pro from the folks at HDR Soft. Is your picture in? Don’t delay, submit today! 🙂 Happy shooting all and we’ll see you here next week!

The value of a sunset (or sunrise)…

January 14, 2010 Jason5 Comments

We all see them every day – the sun rises and the sun sets. Most of the time, it’s nothing too spectacular, perhaps some pretty colors are cast with various hues of orange and blue, or red and purple hazes…it’s all well and good. We may even see some spectacular ones…a crimson or scarlett red, or fire-y orange ones. They may also have an added impact if they are reflected in a lake, the ocean, or dramatized by their surroundings – palm trees, mountains, boats, or whatever happens to be there.

The spectacular ones are typically the ones we see in print, on calendars, and in magazines. Yet every day, we find our eyes gazing toward that first and last light…knowing that we could see something magical. Does this make the ones with more vibrant colors more magical? The ones with fewer colors less magical? Perhaps, but consider this – we are always looking for it. Consider this project: take a picture of the sunrise and/or sunset every day for a week, month, or even a few months. Take it from the same spot every day. Find yourself some nice vantage point with some nice accents to the main subject (that being the sunset). Then, after your specified time period is up, peruse the results and see how many “great” sunsets (or sunrises) you saw.

It could be a fun project not only to help you gauge when the sky will be well suited to sunrises and sunsets, but also to exercise some discipline in taking the same shot from the same vantage point, if only to understand when conditions are ideal. This could be termed “scouting” in a sense, because you’ve found a nice place, set things up, planned, and then you just wait for the right light. So many photographers talk about the light, and we hear terms bandied about like “seeing the light”, or “painting with light”. I’ve heard a few mention the idea of “waiting for the right light”, and it mostly has come from landscape photographers. This is what they do…they take the same scene over and over and over.

With practice, they can anticipate when the conditions will be favorable. Their sense are more attuned to things like clouds, weather, and distractions. Rather than relying on luck and serendipity, they plan, research, and study the scene for long periods of time before they find “the right light”. Sure, you can manufacture it, and we’ve all seen the wonder shots in the galleries of others – but if you think about the time and energy that goes into capturing that perfect sunrise or sunset, imagine all the “almost” shots, and the time and energy that went into them, I would suspect that many landscape photographers would say there is value in every sunrise or sunset. Because, even if they didn’t get the light just right in their location, someone – somewhere – when the sun set, nailed it perfectly!

Have you captured your perfect sunrise or sunset yet? Was it planned or by accident? Sound off in the comments and let me know if you think there is still value in sunrises and sunsets. If you’ve got a shot you would like to share, feel free to post that via the upload link too (also in the comments). Happy shooting, and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow.

Oh yeah, did anyone in Colorado see the sunset today? 🙂 Nothing spectacular to write home about, but it was kind of cool colors, and worthy of showing here to indicate that just because it’s not a portfolio shot, sunset shots (in my mind) have value! What do you think?

P.S. Don’t forget, the January Flickr Giveaway is in progress…submit your photos for a chance to win a free copy of Photomatix Pro from the folks at HDR Soft.

How To Make Your Pictures Sing!

December 24, 2009 Jason2 Comments

While recently listening to This Week in Tech (a great podcast, and I highly recommend it), the show host, Leo Laporte, made an interesting observation about the advancement of technology. He was musing about the changes that have happened in audio consumption. We listen to much of our music in iPods and portable music players, when not too long ago, we were confined to a certain space. To that end, he noted that the technology of audio in those days revolved around things like the number of amps, tweeters and woofers, quadraphonics, decibels, and much of that technical information. We jam-packed our houses with stereo components, our cars with subwoofers, and on and on. To get truly high quality audio you needed to have resources (a.k.a. money), and the producers of that audio content was restrictive because of the costs.

Not today – these days you can plug a $5 microphone into a USB port on a $400 computer, say or sing anything you want, and almost instantly have beautiful high quality digital recordings of whatever you like. This is a good thing though – because even though more people are recording audio, what matters is what the message of that audio is saying. I can’t just go on the podcast and talk about nothing because no one would listen…although sometimes it feels like I am blathering on and on! 🙂 As the old saying goes, “content is king“! Leo’s observation was that in the audio world, it’s a wonderful thing because anyone can produce audio, and there are now more voices for creativity. With the lower cost of entry to producing high end audio, two questions came about. The first is “What does that content say (what is the point, or message)?” The second is “How do you want to consume that media?” (With the options being whether you want it on a CD in your car, on your iPod at the gym, on your computer as you work, or where ever.)

It was a very astute observation, and that description applies to other media as well. I am, of course, thinking about photography. Think about the analogy for a minute. For the longest time we had the film world, and as ASA speeds got better, grain got finer, the size and quality of image development improved as technology permitted. With the movement to the digital world, and the subsequent “Megapixel Wars”, capturing high quality detail in your photography was no longer such an arduous process. I believe we are at a crossroad now in digital photography, where the technology has expanded to a quality level that anyone is able to produce excellent quality images, in terms of technical details. The portability factor for audiophiles doesn’t really apply as much to photography though as the medium is more portable by definition. You are also looking at the image rather than listening to it.

The advances in the technology of photography has also introduced a creative outlet for many where it previously did not exist. The decreasing costs of production have allowed many to find their “photography voice”. With the holidays upon us, many are likely to get a shiny new camera with lots of bells and whistles, and for some out there, this will be an opportunity to “sing”! It’s an exciting time to be a part of the chorus because with so many voices, there are lots of melodies and harmonies to be heard and enjoyed.

This will undoubtedly lead many to ask “So, how do I make my pictures sing?” It’s a great question, and one that I have been tackling in some way, shape, or form for some time now from various points of view, including technical, compositional, and subtle intangibles that are all part of this larger question of how to better express yourself photographically. There’s more to come on that, and I’ll be sharing more thoughts on this in the weeks to come. But it is a good exercise, so I would like to throw it to the reading and listening audiences. As we take a blogging break over the holidays, ask yourself (and post your thoughts here in the blog) the following two questions:

Can pictures really “sing”? Why, or why not?
If so, what does it take to make your pictures sing?

Share your thoughts in the comments below! As a reminder, you can also now embed photos in your comments by using the link to attach a URL. Happy shooting, Merry Christmas, and we’ll see you back here next week!

P.S. Don’t forget – next week is the last week to add your “Giving” themed photos to the December Giveaway! Should be lots of opportunities to capture some photos with that theme over the weekend! There’s over $400 in prizes will go to one lucky person, so post your best photo to the Flickr thread here. The guidelines are posted there, so be sure to check those to make sure your entry is counted…Happy Shooting and good luck to all!

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The Beauty of Bokeh Revisited

December 7, 2009April 23, 2019 Jason3 Comments

I know – the blog has not gotten much attention lately. My apologies – but after the job loss, and pounding the pavement, my schedule has tightened up considerably, so the “planned posts” have pretty much been exhausted as I let myself get behind. The good news is that with several opportunities on the horizon, I am a little less stressed about “real world” economics, and can dedicate some time back to the blog. A few items of note:

#1 – The Year End Blowout Bash is underway – and LDP/Canon Blogger is giving away a ton of goodies. I posted details about this last week, but in the interests of giving it a little more “face time”, I would encourage everyone to start thinking about their “giving” themed photos – could mean some seriously cool prizes coming your way to start the new year off right! More details on the prize package and such here:

#2 – The 3rd edition of the LDP Newsletter is forthcoming – with some little known tidbits about the guests on most recent podcasts, including nuggets from David DuChemin and Andie Smith, as well as the monthly roundup, great quotes and christmas/holiday ideas for the photo buff in all of us.

#3 – With many things under way both professionally and personally for this time of year – the posting schedule that I had been adhering to for most of the year (hardware, software review, composition, podcast, etc.) is likely not going to be followed as strictly as things will be done more on a “catch as catch can” sort of thing. If you like tuning in for one thing or another – keep on reading because the stuff you like will be there, just maybe not on the schedule you are accustomed to.

#4 – Last up, I’d like to point out that the donations tab is still active, and all are welcome to contribute via that conduit – but in the interests of getting some tangible things back to the reader and listeners that have been so encouraging, I am going to be coming out with some short eBooks (5-10 pages max) and there is a new link for the website to bookmark for that content: https://canonblogger.com/store While I am getting a fairly good idea of things readers and listeners would like to see/hear, feel free to send in questions, comments, suggestions and the like for store content as I am open to input.

So, with the vegetables out of the way, I’d like to delve into the “meat and ‘taters” segment of today’s post and that lies in the title: bokeh

For those of you that may not be aware, bokeh refers to the blurred portions that are out of focus behind your subject matter. The quality and nature of that out of focus portion can really enhance a photo, and can even become the subject matter itself when looked at creatively. Now, I‘ve talked here on the blog about bokeh in the past, but in the spirit of the holidays, I thought it would be fun to share some samples of images where I actually forced the entire scene out of focus, to basically make the bokeh the subject:

As the samples show, you can make some pretty fun use of blur and bokeh. Shapes lend themselves well, and varieties in colors, as well as monochromes too. Another thing – when getting bokeh and blur – don’t worry too much about noise and crank the ISO if need be – it’s all about your creative mind. You can remove noise if you must, but the idea is to capture something in a new way and getting bokeh this time of year specifically can be a lot of fun. A few suggestions though:

1. Look for shapes, as suggesting what the subject might really be can catch visual interest by teasing the eye – you know what it is by the shape…
2. Look for light, because without much variation in light or bright spots, the bokeh will end up looking like just some smudges of a limited tonal range
3. Use your best lens(es) as these produce softer bokeh – less angular edges, and more rounded or smooth textures, which is usually better for bokeh (“better for bokeh”, did I just say that?)

Shoot wide open, then switch to manual focus and intentionally blur – push the lens further out of focus for variations on your bokeh elements. Watch what happens and adjust to taste.

So, there’s a few ideas for you – there could be an eBook coming out on this later with more samples and suggestions so let me know if this whets your appetite. Do you like the idea? Want to see more? Get more tips on shooting for the abstract? Do the photos above help or hurt the idea? Do you like them or think there are better samples? Got any of your own? Feel free to post links to your own libraries of bokeh and blur for everyone to enjoy – there might even be a newsletter mention in it for ya! 🙂

That’s gonna do it for today – coming up later this week, the aforementioned newsletter, another podcast, and much more, so keep on shooting, until then, may your batteries be charged and your memory cards filled with lots of photos this holiday season. Now get out there and shoot ya some! 🙂

Software Review: Apple iPhoto

November 17, 2009 Jason3 Comments

As much as we glow and sing the praises of Photoshop and Lightroom, native photo editors that are included in Operating Systems are often overlooked as alternatives for photo editing and management. This is primarily because… well, let’s face it, because they are not very good at photo editing…or management. But think about what we are comparing them to…comparing Windows Picture and Fax viewer to Photoshop Lightroom? Is that really fair? What about comparing Photoshop Creative Suite 4 to iPhoto? Is that a good apples to apples comparison? If you think about it – not really. We’re talking full-fledged dedicated programs that have years of programming and design and development put into them versus an add-on component for an operating system. It’s really an apples to oranges comparison, and as a result, the programs themsevles suffer a bad beat.

So, I decided to take a look at the native photo editors for Windows and Macintosh – those being the Windows Picture and Fax viewer and iPhoto. Well, because Apple computers were really designed with the designer and graphics guy/gal in mind, it’s no surprise that iPhoto is more robust than its Windows counterpart. This is not to bash the Windows Picture and Fax viewer, because it does serve a need, especially when I need to preview an image in a pinch and make some very very minor edit like a teensy crop or something. It’s not great, but it’ll do.

For that reason, today the focus (if you’ll pardon the pun) is more on iPhoto. Now, keep in mind, I am operating off Snow Leopard with the ’08 version of iLife here, so my iPhoto is not the latest and greatest, but the nuts and bolts are pretty much the same from what I can gather, so this review while not complete, can give a good synopsis of what works and doesn’t in iPhoto. Let’s begin:

File Management: B+ Let’s face it, we are making more and more images these days and applications need to be able to keep up. If you don’t have some sort of back end database that can quickly render previews, without copying photos over as duplicates in low res formats that waste drive space, it’s gonna get ugly quickly. iPhoto has the unfortunate option of copying files over on import. While this may seem to be good for redundancy sake, since we’re all aware of the need for backups these days, but I would not recommend copying everything into iPhoto. First off, the “copy” of your image is embedded in the iPhoto library and can only be opened in iPhoto. If the library crashes for any reason, then those copies are gone. I would rather have two copies accessible from any application. Second, as your library expands, the longer it will take to load iPhoto and the more susceptible it will be to crashing. Since this is, by design, supposed to be a “light” photo editor, you want to avoid making the footprint of the application larger than necessary. For these reasons (and others) I would advise against copying your images into iPhoto. To avoid this, when creating your first (or a new) library, simple click on the Preferences, then Advanced Menu options, where you can de-select the option to copy images over.

When it comes to managing your photos though, iPhoto rocks. Much like Lightroom, you can build the equivalent of collections (as albums), and create slideshows from those albums. You can also export slideshows with music which until Lightroom beta 3 was unavailable in any advanced photo editor – you needed a separate application! Score one for the folks at Apple here!

Image Editing: A- Most of the basic functions are there, cropping, red-eye, image rotation, and even horizon correction. Not much to improve upon here without entering the realm of serious photo editors, which I wouldn’t hold an OS program to…at least for now.

Support: B If your Apple product (your Macbook, iMac, or MacPro is under warranty, no problems – they got you covered. It can include long wait times occasionally, but that’s to be expected from a company of Apple’s size. (I know, I’ve vented about this before, but in this case, it has nothing to to with the program, because the support is there…when you can get through.) What happens when your computer warranty ends? So does support – it’s the nature of the beast, and support has to end eventually. For the time being though, there is enough documentation out there on iPhoto to the point that most of us can get by with asking questions in various forums and Google research. So, while support is not the best – it’s about an industry average, nothing to write home about, but also nothing that really garners complaints either.

There you have it, my take on the iPhoto editor. I don’t really use it for major edits, or much more than occasional snapshots that I share on Twitter, forums, and other such venues. Having offered up my two cents, it’s time to serve things up for the listening and reading audience. What’s your collective take on iPhoto? Do you like it, love it, or hate it? Anyone using iPhoto ’08 or ’09 for managing and/or editing their photos? What are your thoughts? Sound off in the comments, or let me know via email.

In the meantime, that’s it for today…make sure you take a moment to get your photos into the November contest giveaway thread – there’s now less than two weeks left and the prize package is pretty cool! The link is in the header, but here it is again for convenience: Flickr Contest Thread Happy shooting all, and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

Creating Compelling Captures

November 4, 2009 Jason4 Comments

We always are striving to make our images more compelling – to bring the viewer in closer, and to connect better wit our audience. I have had people ask me pretty much the same thing, but in may different ways and it basically comes down to the something like this: “I get the technical, but it’s the creative side of making compelling images that gets me stuck – what can you suggest?”

It’s the age-old question, and if I had all the answers, well, I’d be filthy rich! The reason this is the case is because what is compelling or inspiring for one person will be different for another, and yet another, and even a fourth or fifth person. The truth of the matter is that there is no magical silver bullet of what to do to create compelling images…but there are some things that we, as photographers, can rely on as starting points in our search for compelling captures. Here’s 5 compelling capture tips that I’ve come up with:

Color – striking colors are always noticeable. We see the world in shades, tones and nuances of color, so seek out those types of images where color is powerful. D0 this, and your chances of creating compelling captures increases exponentially!
Light – Surprise surprise! I’ve talked about light before, and it’s influence in photography (it’s all about light in photography, even the word itself translates partially as light). Find powerfully lit scenes and you’ve found a compelling moment.
Emotion – Photo journalism relies on this more than any other genre, but if you want to tell a story with your images, one way to do so is to evoke a sense of emotional connection. Bringing out the emotion in the viewer by presenting scenes that are filled with emotionally charged elements – whether it’s a controversial image of a war zone, or the passion of a mother and her unborn child, these types of scenes stay wit us for a reason, because of the emotion tied to it.
Action – In the words of Joe McNally, “action trumps everything.” Action shots also connect with the viewer because it speaks to a particular moment in time more than anything else. That moment a soccer player connects their foot wit a ball, or the moment a bullet shatters a wine glass – it’s something that sparks interest in the viewer, and cannot be ignored as a source of compelling interest.
Eyes – Spoken from the rulebook of a true portraitist, when you have the faces of people or animals in an image – make sure you can see their eyes. Remember, like the old saying goes, “The eyes are the windows to the soul”, and if you want viewers to connect with an image, one of the most compelling ways to connect with a portrait is to give a hint of what’s inside, and that is almost always done through the eyes of the subject.

So, there you have it – 5 ways to create compelling images. These are, of course, adages, and there will be exceptions to these rules at times, but as a general rule of thumb, these tips can help you create compelling captures. There’s also more to it than these 5 ideas, because you know that no single person can completely encompass the ideas behind what creates compelling captures. So, I would invite you to share your own ideas for what you look to in creating those decisive moments? Is it something here? Is there something else you look to for inspiration or to capture something compelling? What captures your interest when you look at pictures? Sound off in the comments!

Don’t forget, the November contest has started and a literal bundle of prizes is at stake for some lucky participant so get your creative caps on and throw an image (or two or three) in the Flickr thread. If you don’t play, you can’t win! 🙂 Until tomorrow then, keep on shooting those compelling images. Thanks for stopping in and we’ll see you then!