15: 22-Feb-2016

Now, are you ready for some reading?

Firstly, you need to have a look at the World Press Photographer of the Year . This time it’s an Australian photographer – Warren Richardson– and the photo tells a story so powerfully of a man passing his baby through the barbed wire at the Hungarian-Serbian border.

Here is the photo:

Warren Richardson – 2016 World Press Photo of the Year

If you want more photos from the World Press Photographer organisation (on many topics), have a look at their web page.

Got your attention then?

So let’s step back a little and learn a little about the tools we use.

You may have heard the term bokeh. It means “is the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in the out-of-focus parts of an image produced by a lens” (source: Wikipaedia). A good lens will give you great out of focus parts and add to your image (warning – some lenses have very bad bokeh!). Have a look at these 40 images for inspiration.
How about some soft lighting. You don’t need an expensive studio – you have a light source in your own home – windows! But using them effectively is the art. The Photoargus has a nice little article to help you get started.
Now I know that a lot of you travel. And often you need to get rid of those pesky tourists and traffic in the scene. Well it’s not that hard. Did you know that Louis Daguerre’s photo below (the first photo candid photo of a person BTW) has lots of people and traffic in it you can’t see? That’s because the exposure is over 10 minutes!
I read about long exposure as a method for removing unwanted objects many times and this article in Photofocus discusses one method. However, in the digital age you can also use multiple exposures and Photoshop layers – I first read this in a book by Michael Freeman but there are lots of articles on the web like this one and this one too. Give it a go – but you’ll need a tripod!
And finally, continuing on my street photography journey – why shoot street photography? Read the article and get one photographers view – it builds your confidence!