Photography Contests: The First Pass, or The Final Cut

Photography contest judging is an interesting experience, but not nearly as interesting as trying to explain to an individual why they didn’t win.  Ask anyone who has attended my seminars or classes, and you’ll find that I’m not noted for being the most politically correct person in the world.  So when it comes to educating people about the contest(s) they didn’t win, I’m a bit on the direct side.  That being said, it’s time for a group session on the things you can do to at least get through the First Pass.

The “First Pass” as I’ve referred to it: is the 1^st viewing of the contest entries where we toss out the photos with no chance of winning.  Your entry has to have impact, so it demands at least a second look.  If there’s no impact you’re not going to win, it really is that simple.  Your photo is standing against many others and the judges have to use time wisely so they can get to the winning entries in short order.  In evaluating your own photos for impact it’s imperative that you remember this simple idea: Impact does NOT equal personal attraction to the subject.  Any photo of your child may have special meaning for you but that’s not going to catch the eye of a judge.  Separate yourself from that personal attraction, and be objective about the compositional impact you’ve captured in the photo.  That could mean you need to crop a little more creatively, so the judges will quickly find your subject and be drawn in for the critical second look.

Do not assume that your print quality is “good enough,” unless you’ve compared it to other prints.  When the judges line up the entries that made it through the first pass we start looking for print quality and technique.  If you print the photo at home with an inkjet printer, and it’s being compared to a lab quality print the difference can is sometime vast.  In a recent contest I spotted a photo that was absolutely the best entry in the show and it easily made it through the first pass and even the second pass.  On closer inspection I determined that the print was inferior because of banding caused by the printer being out of calibration. 

Printing photos is an art that requires a lot of skills and experience.  Not every photographer has these skills, and therefore should take advantage of the experience and skills of a professional lab to make the prints. Before you submit your entry, do this simple test: Make a 4 x 6 or 4 x 5 print at home and have the same image printed by a professional lab, in the same size.  Compare the two prints and decide for yourself how well your homemade print stands up to the competition.  That’s exactly the kind of comparison the judges will be seeing.

Clean up your image before you make your final print.  Get rid of background junk and meaningless “extras” that take away from your subject.  No, I’m not saying that you should Photoshop your image and make ridiculous edits.  I am saying that you should crop the image so it best highlights your subject.  You should make sure the color, focus, exposure and sharpness are all in good order.  Details count when you make it to the Final Cut, and you want your entry to make it through.  If the entrants in a contest saw how tough the competition sometimes is during the judging, the quality of all entries would certainly improve. 

Of all the contest entries I’ve seen; none trouble me more than those great photos that don’t make it because of a poor quality print.  Presentation really does count in a photography contest, so makes sure your entry stands out.  If you force the judges to give your photo a second, and even a third consideration, your chances of winning increase.

Lessons for the losers

That header is pretty rough language, but it really is the best way to get to the point: you are not going to win every contest you enter; get over it and learn from it.  If you entered what you thought was your best effort and you didn’t win, you have a great opportunity to learn how to better yourself.  Compare your photo (exactly as entered) to the winner. Even if you need help from somebody else;

• Determine how you might have made a better photo.
• Figure out if you used the wrong paper for the subject of your photo (yes, it really does matter).  If you used metallic paper for a subject that would look better on a matte or luster paper, that could make the difference.
• Consider the possibility that you entered your photo in the wrong category, or maybe even in the wrong contest.  Did you pay attention to the rules of the contest and make sure your subject fit the category it was entered in?
• Depending on the contest; size could matter.  If the winner submitted an 8 x 10 and you only submitted a 4 x 5, that could create a disadvantage for you.
• If possible, talk to the judges (with your photo in hand) and ask for advice.  You might be surprised by how willing they are to teaching you something.  But please; if the judges are trying to get out the door, be respectful of their time, they usually don’t get paid for these gigs. 
• If you really don’t understand the differences; consider taking classes to learn how you can improve your photography, and / or printing.

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© 2010 Jeff Cowell, jeffcowell.com

Photoshop is NOT the answer to all photographic problems.

Photoshop is NOT the answer to every photographic problem.

Many of my columns and much of my teaching focus on the area of getting a proper exposure when you take a photo, and there is good reason for that.  If you underexpose your digital photos, you are not capturing enough data for Photoshop (or any other program) to be able to bring out the details.  You will often see photos that look kind of gray and wonder why.  Most generally, it is because the image was underexposed to begin with, and in printing the photo light enough to be seen, there is no detail to present.

Let me back up just a little bit before I continue on this discussion: In Photoshop, you can perform many great functions, enhance color, sharpen, blur backgrounds, and along with the thousands of other potential edits; you can even tweak your exposure.  That’s right, I said “tweak” your exposure, not “fix” your exposure.  Computers and software programs process data, sometimes spreadsheet data and sometimes image data, but either way there is a requirement for “data” to be present.  If you underexpose an image in the camera, there is a limited amount of data to be processed in a software program like Photoshop. 

Fear not, there are things you can do to avoid this problem.  Primarily; you need to learn to get better exposures in the first place.  For that I recommend reading my columns and attending my seminars and workshops (what else would you expect me to say?). 

Often we find ourselves shooting a photo in less-than-perfect lighting situations, so I always stress that you must identify your subject, and expose for that subject.  In very challenging situations, it’s best to bracket your shots. 

Bracketing is a fairly automatic function on most modern cameras, so read your manual and see what exposure bracketing options are available on your camera.  If the lighting is very dramatic, you might want to bracket by as much as 2 stops.  This means that you will take one shot at proper exposure, then one at 2 stops over-exposed and finally one at 2 stops under-exposed, so you end up with 3 photos.  Most cameras give you the option of bracketing by 1/3^rd stop increments up to 2 full stops, so you will have to pick the range you believe necessary for the lighting situation your subject is in.  Having these bracketed shots increases the odds of having a shot that is exposed to your liking, therefore giving you something you can edit in Photoshop.  Bracketed shots can also be combined with HDR (High Dynamic Range) software programs to give you a better overall exposure for the entire subject and/or scene.  Photoshop can also be used to create HDR images by using the various exposures in different layers and blending them together for your final image. 

Another way to address challenging exposures is to use RAW file formats for capturing your images on your camera (not all cameras offer RAW mode).  The RAW file captures all of the light that was hitting the sensor, unlike the jpg mode that saves only a small portion of that light.  By saving all of the light hitting the sensor, you have more dynamic range available in the image file.  RAW files require handling by software that is capable of RAW image processing and requires some extra learning and practice, but it is valuable knowledge to have.  During RAW image processing it is possible to save the image with multiple exposures (as separate image files), and then blend those images into an HDR image via HDR software or via layers in Photoshop.  RAW images are much larger than jpg images and I recommend that you shoot RAW + JPG so you leave both options available for your needs. 

When I am shooting a photo job for a client, I always shoot RAW + JPG (meaning the camera saves a RAW version of the image and a JPG version).  In most cases I can use the jpg image and not have to go through the RAW image processing.  But in those cases where I need to make a better overall exposure of an image, I have the RAW file available for processing without any need to re-shoot the job.

In summary:

RAW image = more data = good.

JPG image = less data = maybe ok, sometimes; good enough.

But to further that summation:

RAW image = big file = more work = more storage space = more processing time.

JPG image = smaller file = less work = in many cases; good enough.

The decision to use RAW or not, needs to be tempered by the subject matter, ability to re-shoot and required image quality.  In no case should you shoot in less than the largest, finest quality JPG setting available on your camera, unless maybe you are shooting images for an online auction site where you simply do not have any need for such a large file.  The file size should not be an issue that stops you from using the larger files.  Hard drives and data cards are very inexpensive these days and adding storage to your computer is not that difficult.  My desktop computer has 2,250 gigabytes of hard drive space on it today, plus I have another 1,250 gigabytes of external hard drive space.  At today’s prices, all of that amounts to about $400 worth of hard drives.  When I compare that to what a 30 megabyte hard drive cost 15 years ago, I would have to say that it is a good investment.

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© 2010 Jeff Cowell, jeffcowell.com

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To learn the things you can do with Photoshop, check out the seminars listed on my website.

Learn the Business of Photography

The Business of Photography School By Jeff Cowell – wichitaphotographers.com January 5 to March 23, 2009 12 Tuesdays from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. A 12-week, hard-hitting course about the Business of Photography         This School will be 24 hours of serious business. We will be covering a vast array of topics that you must be on top of if you’re planning to get into a photography business. This is a business school that’s been custom tailored to more specifically address the concerns of photographers. Your tuition includes a nearly 100-page book covering all of these topics:       Pricing my services How do I price my services? What is your time worth? Time before the job Time on the job Time after the job Time when there is no job So, how much per hour is all that? Considering the costs Consider the costs – all of them! The costs of shooting film The costs of shooting digital Additional expenses Advertising Rent or mortgage How many hours will you have to work? And the rest of the costs So, I’m charging how much? The products we sell What are my products? Pricing prints Making your own prints Lab closings Digital image sales Price your competition Equipment budgets On-site shooting What equipment do I need? Safety In-studio shooting What equipment do I need? Optional “stuff” Taxes, accounting and professional consultants Sales tax Understanding sales tax laws as they relate to your business Income taxes Self-employment tax Your personal tax burden Your tax burden as an employer Common deductions Mileage Other expenditures Depreciation and amortization Attorneys and contract building Consultants Accountants Retouching and post-production Printing, mounting and framing Revenues The home office Write-offs Bookkeeping Expense ledgers Chart of accounts Profit centers Job cost accounting Profit and profit margin Financial statements Delivering the product Proofs Contact sheets Online proofing The post-production process Image handling Raw verses jpg The editing process Getting the order Digital proofing Copyright Packaging and advertising Business cards Portfolio Letterhead, bags and folders Proof books Mass mailing Telephone directories, newspapers and billboards Television and radio advertising Targeting your advertising Website Email Newsletters Conclusions Photography is an art form Get involved with other photographers Go places Shop your local camera shops Adding fuel to the fire Your best advertising: hands-down Enjoy the journey           Register Early – Space is limited. This School is offered only once per year. So if you’re on the fence about it, just beware that you may have to stay on that fence for at least another year. Please come prepared to take lots of notes in addition to the textbook you’ll receive. I will lecture for an hour and a half each class and the last 30 minutes will be question and answers. We’ll do our classroom lessons for 2 hours each day in the lovely and well-appointed conference rooms at Office This on East Harry St in the old Wichita Mall complex. Please be prepared to be in the classroom and ready to go at 6:00 each Tuesday. We’ve got a lot of material to cover and we’ll need every minute we can get in the classroom.

REGISTER HERE

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©2009 Jeff Cowell, jeffcowell.com

Studio Lighting Workshop – December 19

Studio Lighting Workshop for Photographers

This workshop is an introduction to Photography Studio Lighting Equipment and Techniques. You don’t need any knowledge of studio lighting to attend and benefit from this workshop. There’s a wealth of knowledge available about lighting, everything from photo floods to the most elaborate studio strobes. You can find plenty of information on technical specifications, accessories and techniques, but it’s difficult to get this boiled down to the basic knowledge you need to get started in studio photography. In this workshop we’ll make an end-run to the information you need to get started as a studio photographer, or to simply gain a better understanding of working with flash. Because lighting is the most important factor in any photography that’s what we’ll concentrate on, but not just the equipment, the implementation too. We’ll spend time discussing the use of various equipment independently and in conjunction with other systems. You’ll learn ways to use studio lighting in almost any environment and achieve professional looking results. You’ll come away from this workshop with the confidence to go home or back to your studio and start shooting professional portraiture. Another critical part of this workshop will be the discussion about equipment budgets. I’ve found that much of the information you find in publications has no regard for your budget.  Learning from my experience selling studio lighting, I know first-hand that this is not a realistic way to teach on the subject. Because of this we’ll discuss methods of lighting as they pertain to a wide range of budgets too. We’ll talk about ways that you can start on a shoe-string budget and yet, have equipment that you’ll continue to use for years to come. I’ll show you ways to add to your lighting equipment while preserving your current investment.    Digital and Film Camera Users – you will learn how to use studio lighting with your camera. We’ll talk about various systems that work seamlessly with digital and/or film cameras, and ways of adapting to existing systems. We will likely be working with a model all day and lunch is included in your registration.  In this workshop we are going to go straight to work in the studio, so there will be NO classroom theory included.  We are going hands-on immediately and all day long. So bring your camera and the manual in case we need to lookup settings to get you working with the lights.  If you have lights, bring them if you want to and if we can, we’ll set them up and work with them too.  My plan is to have no more than 15 people in this session, so the note below about limited seating is very serious.  Many of you receiving this as an invitation have requested this workshop, and because of my tight schedule, this is the last time I offer it in 2009.  If this one fills up I’ll try offering it again, but if there are less than 6 people registered I will cancel.  If you know people who need to get with the program and attend you should get after them. Seating is very limited, so sign up early. We will be meeting in Studio C which is accessible through the Spruce Street side door of Douglas Photographic Imaging and the door will be locked as soon as the class starts.  So be there on time and be ready to get to work.

Here’s what the students are saying! I’m so glad I had the opportunity to attend your Studio Lighting Workshop. I learned so much and had a really great time. Thanks for all your help! ~Clare  Had a great time …, I learned a lot.  Michelle was a wonderful model and a pleasure to work with who made the day go by so quickly.  I attached what I think are my best shots from the day.  Almost everything there, including the editing, I have learned from your seminars. ~Matt Good workshop! I feel like my time was well spent! ~Marie

REGISTER HERE

 

Exposure – The absolute basics of photography.

Exposure – The Absolute Basics of Photography.

I often talk about specific areas of photography in this blog, but sometimes, I forget to cover the basics.  This post it is time to get back to the basics and make sure you remember the elements essential to good photography.  The most important thing to understand in photography is exposure.  It is essential that we capture the right amount of light to create a good photograph.  This is true in both film and digital photography; the rules apply equally to both.

Several components come together to create a proper exposure.  Although our cameras today can do terrific things with exposure in automatic mode, we’re here to help you understand how to do that on your own.  By learning to control your camera manually you’ll be able to be far more creative with your photography than running in auto mode will ever allow. 

For digital photographers it’s more important for you to get a good understanding of exposure than it is for a film photographer.  In digital you do have the ability to edit your photos before they’re printed, but it’s critical that you have good data in the image you capture.  That’s where it becomes essential to understand exposure and apply that knowledge to record a good quality image in the first place.

One rule above all others can help you learn to adjust exposure readily while you’re out shooting, the Sunny 16 Rule.  The Sunny 16 Rule: with your subject in full sunlight, use an aperture of f/16, at a shutter speed of 1/ISO.  By using this rule as a starting place for setting your camera, you can be very flexible in making well-exposed images, while maintaining your control over creativity.  This takes practice, so don’t get discouraged if you don’t learn it right away.

The elements that we must consider for creating a proper exposure are: 

• Amount of light on our subject. -  Sometimes we can control how much light is on our subject, and others, we’re going to deal with whatever light is available.
• F/stop (Aperture) – How much light we allow to come through the lens is controlled by our f/stop.  The f/stop is simply a method of controlling the size of the aperture (opening) the light is passing through as it comes through the lens.
• Shutter Speed – How long we allow the light to come through the lens.  We want to control the length of time we expose a shot to capture the right amount of movement, or to stop the action.
• ISO Speed – The speed at which our camera is recording the image.  ISO is directly tied to the quality of our images and we want to keep it as low as possible (i.e. 100) to maintain the best possible quality.  If we have very little light available and need a fast shutter speed, we may need to increase the ISO.  Just keep in mind that this will have a negative affect on the quality of the image.

I talked previously about using the correct f/stop for your subject (to control depth-of-field) and the correct shutter speed (to deal with motion), so this column is intended to help you bring it all together. 

If you want to make a portrait, you want to have very little depth-of-field, so you’ll want to use a wide open aperture, like maybe f/4.0.  So if you set your camera to Aperture Priority mode and set the f/stop to f/4.0, you can use the camera to take a meter reading on your subject.  Get near enough to your subject to NOT cause a shadow, point the camera and push the shutter release half-way down.  This will display the shutter speed in the viewfinder for you, so make a note of that display (yes, you need to read your manual to understand everything in that display).  Then switch your camera to manual mode, set the f/stop to f/4.0 and the shutter speed to whatever the meter reading provided on the display.  If your meter reading showed a shutter speed of 1/100^th of a second, then set the shutter speed to 1/100^th of a second.  Step back to where you want to shoot from and start shooting.  This will make your shots far more consistent than using an auto, or semi-auto mode.  Do the same thing with Shutter Priority mode if you want to use a particular shutter speed.  Once you’ve practiced this technique for a while you’ll learn to make adjustments on the fly fairly quickly, and you will be more comfortable over time.

The illustration I’ve included here might help you understand what you’re seeing inside your viewfinder.  Although this is a typical Canon display, it should be easy to translate to whatever appears in your particular display.

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© 2009 Jeff Cowell, jeffcowell.com

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The Business of Photography – an annual class

The Business of Photography School By Jeff Cowell – wichitaphotographers.com January 5 to March 23, 2009 12 Tuesdays from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. A 12-week, hard-hitting course about the Business of Photography         This School will be 24 hours of serious business. We will be covering a vast array of topics that you must be on top of if you’re planning to get into a photography business. This is a business school that’s been custom tailored to more specifically address the concerns of photographers. Your tuition includes a nearly 100-page book covering all of these topics:       Pricing my services How do I price my services? What is your time worth? Time before the job Time on the job Time after the job Time when there is no job So, how much per hour is all that? Considering the costs Consider the costs – all of them! The costs of shooting film The costs of shooting digital Additional expenses Advertising Rent or mortgage How many hours will you have to work? And the rest of the costs So, I’m charging how much? The products we sell What are my products? Pricing prints Making your own prints Lab closings Digital image sales Price your competition Equipment budgets On-site shooting What equipment do I need? Safety In-studio shooting What equipment do I need? Optional “stuff” Taxes, accounting and professional consultants Sales tax Understanding sales tax laws as they relate to your business Income taxes Self-employment tax Your personal tax burden Your tax burden as an employer Common deductions Mileage Other expenditures Depreciation and amortization Attorneys and contract building Consultants Accountants Retouching and post-production Printing, mounting and framing Revenues The home office Write-offs Bookkeeping Expense ledgers Chart of accounts Profit centers Job cost accounting Profit and profit margin Financial statements Delivering the product Proofs Contact sheets Online proofing The post-production process Image handling Raw verses jpg The editing process Getting the order Digital proofing Copyright Packaging and advertising Business cards Portfolio Letterhead, bags and folders Proof books Mass mailing Telephone directories, newspapers and billboards Television and radio advertising Targeting your advertising Website Email Newsletters Conclusions Photography is an art form Get involved with other photographers Go places Shop your local camera shops Adding fuel to the fire Your best advertising: hands-down Enjoy the journey   Register Early – Space is limited. This School is offered only once per year. So if you’re on the fence about it, just beware that you may have to stay on that fence for at least another year. Please come prepared to take lots of notes in addition to the textbook you’ll receive. I will lecture for an hour and a half each class and the last 30 minutes will be question and answers. We’ll do our classroom lessons for 2 hours each day in the lovely and well-appointed conference rooms at Office This on East Harry St in the old Wichita Mall complex. Please be prepared to be in the classroom and ready to go at 6:00 each Tuesday. We’ve got a lot of material to cover and we’ll need every minute we can get in the classroom.

Register Here Use the discount code “Matt” to save 10%

©2009 Jeff Cowell, jeffcowell.com

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2-Day Express Photo Boot Camp – Sept 19-20, 2009

Only a few days left to register for the 2-day Express Photography Boot Camp, Saturday and Sunday, September 19-20, 2009.  Don’t miss out, register now.

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Flower Photography and good lighting

Students often ask “what is the best way to light flowers?”  That question is a little difficult to answer, but it can also be extremely easy to answer at the same time.  First of all, you need to have plenty of light so you can maintain a small aperture, thereby keeping sufficient depth-of-field. 

The easy answer is, only shoot flowers on an overcast day.  The photo shown at the left was taken on an overcast day at The Hollow in Sedan, KS.  The details of the flower are very clear and easy to see because of the highly diffused light.  When the sun is diffused by the overcast sky it creates a very nice uniform light.  This light doesn’t create heavy shadows or sharp contrasty edges.  Light like this is great when you are trying to show a lot of soft details on a subject like this flower.

Although it is not always possible to shoot in overcast conditions, it is fairly easy to mimic this affect by using a diffuser.  Diffusers are available in many sizes from Camera Stores and Photographic Suppliers, and they are quite portable.  The trick with shooting in overcast conditions or with a diffuser, is that you will probably want to use a tripod for your camera.  You will also need to shoot at relatively slow shutter speeds, so wind will be a concern.  Using the tripod for the camera, while you hold the diffuser overhead, can be made easier by using a cable release to fire the camera.  If you don’t have a cable release you could also use the self-timer function on the camera.

There are times when you may want to have a little more dramatic light on your subject, like the flower shown here on the right.  In this shot, the details of the flower are not nearly as soft and gentle as the first example, so the higher contrast helps to accentuate these features.  You can see from the clouds in the background, that this was shot when there was a good deal more direct sunlight.  This could have also been shot using a diffuser to soften the details.

The bottom line is that you generally want to have plenty of light and might want the light to be as natural as possible.  Using an overcast day can be ideal for a lot of close-up and flower photography, but a diffuser can be a good substitute.  You can also use a flash on a cloudy day to add light and create more contrast when that is desired.  Consider your subject and watch the weather, you might be pleasantly surprised by the results you’ll get on a nice rainy day too.  On a rainy day the colors sometimes seem to pop better than ever for flowers.

Don’t forget to set the White Balance on your camera appropriate to the lighting conditions under which you are shooting.  Using the Cloudy setting for an overcast day will give you much better results than Auto White Balance.   If you are shooting on a bright sunny day, use the Daylight setting to maintain the best color.  If however you add a diffuser, use the Cloudy or Shade setting, since you are in fact creating a shady situation.

Your best bet is to join me for the 2-day Express Photo Boot Camp, where you can learn a lot of these tricks.

 

©2009 Jeff Cowell, jeffcowell.com

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Covered Bridge Photo Excursion

Bridgeton Bridge, Indiana

Many of you have seen plenty of my photos of the Covered Bridges of Parke County, Indiana and Madison County, Iowa: and now I’ve created a Photo Excursion for you to get out and shoot them yourself. 

This excursion has 2 options available, so you can shoot just Madison County bridges, or you can stay on and spend several more days shooting in Parke County, Indiana too.  We will also make a couple of other stops on this 7-day excursion including Pella, IA and Branson, MO.

This is going to be a great trip for photographic content, and is just as good as a straight sight-seeing tour for folks who aren’t necessarily into the photo aspect.  Check out all the details here.

©2009 Jeff Cowell, jeffcowell.com

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Kansas City Renaissance Festival – Photo Excursion

Each year I take a group of people to Bonner Springs, KS for a day at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival.  This event is chock full of photographic opportunities, and all of the actors who participate are more than willing to stop and pose for you.

We leave my studio in Wichita at 6:30 in the morning and stop for breakfast along the way.  We will be at the Festival from around 10 or 11 till 4 when we will head back to Wichita, stopping for dinner along the way.  It’s always a good time and everyone who has come has enjoyed the trip.  If you’ve never been to this festival it’s high time you got up here to experience all the fun and excitement.

Come and join us for a great day of fun and photography.

©2009 Jeff Cowell, jrcowell.com

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