Coffee Table Books for Gifts

One of the best personal gifts people can give is a photograph. The reason for this is that photos have the power to keep all our precious moments alive. And giving the gift of an especially well-chosen photo is a way to preserve a fond memory with someone you treasure.

The gift of a photograph today has many ways for presentation. One way many use now is a greeting card. This photo however is typically an individual or family sharing one of their personal memories with their family and friends.

If you give a photo to an individual the photo of something that you shared can not just show your friendship with them, but help remind them of a memory that the two of you share.

Besides giving a print of the photo, you can have the photo put on just about anything. Here is just a sample of the items you could put the photograph on for that special gift:

• Coffee cup
• Candy Tin
• Blanket
• T-Shirts
• Aprons
• Coasters
• Calendars
• Neck Tie
• Ornament
• Porcelain Plate
• Puzzle
• Digital Photo Frame
• Coffee Table Book

If you have the time and enough variety of photos the photo book is one of my favorite things to come along. You can produce a very nice coffee table book for your friend for as low as $20 for a 20 page soft cover book.

If you choose to make a book, my favorite book publisher is www.Blurb.com.

Go online to www.MyPhotoPipe.com where you can not only get prints, holiday cards, but have canvas prints made.

For items listed above here is one place to lookhttp://discountphotogifts.com/.

Have Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Ten Steps To The Family Christmas Photo

Our family photo this year for Christmas cards.

Every year I take our family photo and, like many of you, send it out as a Christmas card. Here’s what works for our family photo, try it with yours.

First we do it outside. Everyone is more relaxed out there than in a studio environment. It’s an informal setting so casual, comfortable clothing look good and comfortable cloths make for comfortable subjects. It is easier to make good family portraits with a relaxed family. 

Maybe one year, for a really great photo, we can have on our pajamas! That’s probably not a good idea.

Second it is easier outside. There is plenty of light and we can control it by where we place the family. We can use open shade, or backlighting or, for soft light, we can do it on a slightly overcast day.

Third I look for a good background. I love our backyard with all the trees. While looking for a good place to do the portrait I take a few test shot to make sure what I see is what I’ll get.

Fourth I use a tripod and a radio remote control to fire the camera. This way I can be in the photo and make the shot when we’re ready, not when the timer fires the camera. The remote also allows me to make several shots without running back to the camera to re-set the timer.

Fifth with three children plus my wife and I all in the photo and me not behind the camera watching for expressions it’s a real challenge to come up with good expressions on everyone at the same time. Usually the problem is with only one person and it is usually me.

Just FYI: Back in the good ol’ days of film Kodak did some research and found that each person added to a photo required seven times more shots to get a great expression of everyone at once.

No Flash

Meanwhile, back to present day and the digital image… So everyone, except me of course, has a good expression in one of the photos. It would be great if I could remove my head in that shot and replace it with the one image where I actually have a decent expression. (Now is when we fall in love with our tripod.) By having the camera on a tripod and with software like PhotoShop you CAN take my head, or yours, from one photo and put it into another. The latest version of PhotoShop has a menu item that makes this so much easier.

If you don’t move your camera during the photos and everyone stays pretty still you can combine the best expressions of each person into one photo.

Sixth I compose the photo, figure out where I need to be and take a couple of test shots of my family minus one. If the light looks good on everyone I join the group and fire away.

Catchlight

Seventh If your family looks lifeless hopefully it is only because of a lack of catchlights in their eye. A catchlight is a photographic term used to describe light reflected in the subject’s eyes. The lack of a catchlight, even in an animal’s picture, can make the subject seem comatose.

You can use a white sheet to bounce light into the subject’s eyes or use a flash. This year I used a flash.

If the subject is backlit your flash or sheet becomes more than just a way to create a catchlight—it becomes the main light.

When using flash balance it to the available light. Start with a medium f/stop, like f/8, to ensure the group is all in focus. (We’re talking about depth-of-field or how much is in focus in front of and behind the point on which the lens is focused. But that’s another whole newsletter.) Make some test shots at different f/stops and see what you like the best.

Once the light looks good on the family we can explore a few ways to control how the flash balances with the outdoor light. With everything on program mode you can adjust the ISO from 100 up to 400 or higher. The higher the ISO the lighter the background will be provided the f/stop remains the same. The lower the ISO the darker the background provided the f/stop remains the same.

It is easier to do darker backgrounds later in the day or early evening. For lighter backgrounds do the session earlier in the day.

Eighth Have everyone dress in the same or compatible colors. Earth tones like browns, greens and tans work well outdoors. Just be sure on one is dressed so differently that they look like the lead singer with a backup group on a Motown group CD cover.

We like to goof around for some of our photos.

Ninth If you want to have a lot of fun let everyone change outfits for different looks. If your family is like our family we like to take some goofy ones too.

Tenth Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday.

Learning to See Light

Black Star Rising - Learning to see light from Stanley Leary on Vimeo.

Use a Secondary Light Source

Using Colored Gels on Backgrounds

Using Colored Gels on Backgrounds from Stanley Leary on Vimeo.

"Windows to the Soul"

Reynaldo Cifuentes Velazquez, president of Café Justo - a coffee cooperative. He lives in Salvador Urbina, Mexico.

According to Dr. Martin Seligman, author of Authentic Happiness, there are two kinds of smiles, the "Duchenne smile" and the "Pan American" smile. Here is how Seligman describes the two smiles, "The first called Duchenne smile (after its discoverer Guillaume Duchenne) is genuine. The corners of the mouth turn up and the skin around the corners of your eyes crinkles (the crow's feet). …The other smile, called the Pan American smile (after the flight attendants in television ads for now-defunct airline), is inauthentic."

A Genuine Smile Goes a "Long Way," was published by Vijai P. Sharma, Ph.D in Mind Publication in 2002. Studying a high school year book researcher's divided the class photos into the Duchenne and Pan American smiles, which by the way was almost 50/50. Then they followed up with the two groups at age 27, 43 and 52 and asked about their marriage and life satisfaction.

Father Flor Maria Rigoni is a missionary with the San Carlos Scalabrini and works in the town of Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico. The pastoral mission of the Scalabrinians is the care of migrants.

The results showed that those with Duchenne smiles were more likely to be married and stay married. The finding was that a habit of genuine smiling may contribute to happiness and better adjustment in life. The researchers considered good looks and found this had no bearing, but genuine Duchenne smile did effect ones happiness in life.

Few people are more beautiful than those with a warm and natural (Duchenne) smile.

As a photographer I have learned how to recognize a natural smile and know how to get it most of the time out of subjects most of the time. Personally I cannot produce a genuine smile on command - yet.

Olga Sánchez Martínez runs an amputee shelter in Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico.

A trick models use to learn how to control their face expressions and to get the eyes to be expressive is to look in the mirror and use a handkerchief to cover everything below the eyes. Before this can be effective you must know what you are looking for in expressions of the eyes.

Tyra Banks, the famous model and TV producer of America's Next Top Model tell how to learn to smile with your eyes. She did a video for the NY Times Magazine on fame, her career and what every model needs to know. She talks about seven types of smiles in the video.

Tyra says a big mistake people make is smiling with your mouth and not your eyes.

The muscles used to smile with the eyes are involuntary and normally only become engage in an authentic smile.

Photographer can help people to smile for the camera, but only about 50% of the folks will present that genuine Duchenne smile on command. So what do you do for the rest of the folks?

Luis "Pelayo" Manuel Diaz Perez, enjoys the hammick during an afternoon rain in Salvador Urbina, Chiapas, Mexico. Pelayo is a coffee grower and part of www.justcoffee.org a cooperative making it possible for the members to stay in Mexico with their families rather than migrating north.

A real smile arises from your own personal joy. A photographer must get the subject to think about subjects that make them happy. That's why a pre-session consultation is important. During a consultation it's easy to discover the makes them smile naturally. Perhaps it is their families or their hobbies. You'll spot the genuine smile while talking with them. Just make notes and use the subjects when you photograph them. A trick I use is to ask them to tell me the name of the person they have just been talking about; invariably it brings a smile not only to their mouth, but the eyes smile, also.

Remember what Tyra Banks demonstrated where the eyes were smiling and not necessarily was it a big teeth smile to be a real smile.

After a while you will be able to get more than just the Duchenne smile but maybe all the 275 smiles that Tyra eluded to. Most research shows more than 50 types of smiles.

Tommy Bassett, tri-founder of www.justcoffee.org enjoying visit to El Aguila, Mexico to meet with the coffee growers.

Aaron Sorkin, "The West Wing" had Leo say to Bartlett "Act as if ye have faith, and faith shall be given to you. To put it another way, fake it till you make it." It might just be a biblical principle. The writer of Hebrews 13:7 says, "Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith."

The windows to your soul are your eyes so learn to smile with them and not just your mouth, because people are drawn to people who exude happiness.

To many people a smile in a photograph is like location in real estate – it is the most important part of the deal.

Writing With Light

Available light with no flashes at night.

In writing we use italics, bold, quote marks and other techniques to emphasize parts of the composition. In photography we use light to do the same thing.

Theater and movie directors many times use light to draw our attention to the main subject in a scene. This may be as dramatic as turning a spotlight on a character while everything else goes completely black. More often it is much more subtle. Without the light to guide us we might lose the lead actor on stage amidst all the other actors and scenery.

During a concert a spotlight is constantly on the main performer. So rarely are they not in that spotlight that the famous clown Emit Kelly did a comedy act where he tried to stay in the spotlight only to give up in the end and sweep the light up off the floor.

 

Using fill flash to capture it in the camera.

Another way to lead the viewer’s attention to a person or part of a scene in video photography is zooming in on that subject. In TV and film they use multiple cameras to help direct the audience. The director will cut from a camera with a wide view to one showing a close-up of the subject.
Still photographers don’t have the luxury of simultaneous shots zoomed in or out cutting from a wide to a close shot. The still photographer can do all of this, of course, but he or she ends up needing to tell the whole story in a single shot. Print advertising does this all the time.

The still shooter should do all that is reasonable and feasible to capture the image in as high a quality as the situation will allow. (More about that in a minute.)

There are two ways that you can help direct the attention to the main subject using light in photography. One is done in the camera and the other is done in post processing.

Getting it in the camera

Students are taking a test, so I used available light.

Available Light

With today’s digital cameras it is relatively easy to work with the available light in almost any location.

If people are sitting at a table with poor light move them to a table in better light. After a few moments they’ll pick up on the conversation where they left off and you now have them in light that will work for the photos. In a photojournalistic coverage this is inappropriate, but for advertising or a corporate shoot it is perfectly fine to do.

Use a reflector to help improve the light. It is much less intrusive than flash and can work just as well. Have an assistant hold a reflector just out of the view of the camera and bounce the light back into the subjects face. This helps to draw attention to the main subject.

Adding Light

Used a flash to light his face inside of a furnace/air conditioner blower. No other lights in the room.

You can use either a constant light source or flash to light the subject. Use spotlight effect as much as possible rather than floodlight where everything is lit equally.

Another trick of the trade is to place a colored gel over a light used on the background. This will simplify a junky background by making it all one color. The orange extension cords and red tools hanging on the wall in the background no longer vie for attention with you subject. At least two lights are needed one on the subject and one on the background. The light on the subject should be brighter than the background light.

Postproduction lighting

Using fill flash to capture it in the camera.

This is done so much today that a photo being “PhotoShopped” is now a verb and not just a noun. Before the days of PhotoShop, photographers would “burn” and “dodge” in the darkroom. A face could be lightened and the background darkened.

With digital today you can do even more than we did in the darkroom and with more precision. You can select only the subject, just a single color or anything one part of a photo and alter it in many ways. You can remove, change or add color. You can make objects lighter or darker. Parts of the photo can soften or blurred.

If all this can be done in post processing… why use lights?

Using colored gels to help the background and create a science look and feel.

The need for post processing disappears if you capture it in camera saving time and money.

A properly exposed subject contains information at its fullest value.

When should auxiliary lights be used and not used?

(Here’s the “more on” reasonable and feasible.)
In Hollywood everyone is being paid to produce a professional product people will be willing to pay to see. (Pardon the alteration; I got carried away as always – oops.)

In news coverage the only ones being paid are the news crew or maybe just a single photographer and they are being paid to get the story regardless of the quality. Sure, it should be as high a quality as is practical, but the story is the thing.

The colored carpet and chair colors distracted you now they don't with the gels.

When a photographer comes to do a job, particularly an event, what determines the approach? Can it be with all the lighting using multiple flashes (Hollywood) or will it need to be photographed using the available light (News coverage)?

What is the deciding factor? You need to consider the friction you may cause while capturing the moment.

Perhaps the subject or event can be moved to a more photogenic area that would not require much, if any, additional lighting. Perhaps reflectors can be used instead of flash thus reducing the interference with an event.
You need to explain to the client the choices (and the resulting photos) and together find a solution. (HINT: Whoever is paying for the project needs to decide or this maybe your last job with them.)

Final thought

Use light to direct attention; it can improve the communication of the composition.

Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit.

Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit.
By Leonardo Inghilleri and Micah Solomon, with an introduction by Horst Schulze, Founding President and COO of The Ritz-Carlton, is being published domestically by AMACOM Books, the wonderful publishing imprint of the American Management Association, and distributed internationally by McGraw-Hill.

It is now available at amazon.com

CBS News - The CW
Micah's Interview on Customer Service with CBS

Real Connections

Students getting a tour of Clayton State University Campus.

Giving the Subconscious Time to React

The Chick-fil-A Cows having been helping people cool off from their new "Spicy Chicken" sandwich.

Back in the day, film photographers who shot for publications like Life Magazine and National Geographic Magazine shot primarily 36 frames of 35mm film. The labs would develop the film and make contact sheets of the negatives or mount the transparencies (slides).

When I saw a professional photographer’s contact sheets and slides on a light table for the first time, I was blown away by how consistent the exposures were. As I looked at the contact sheets I discovered that almost every roll was of one subject, and there was very little movement from frame to frame of that subject. Then, I became aware of the checks on certain photos.

When editing their work, many photographers used a rating system of 0—5. A “0” or no rating meant not to use the photo for anything. A rating from 0 to 5 rated the shots from “OK” to “WOW.”

4th of July Celebration in Roswell, GA this year.

If you were really observant, you would notice that the photo ratings typically would slowly improve through the roll and then quickly tapper off after the best-rated photo of a subject. The progression can almost be graphed on paper starting out at the bottom of the graph, then suddenly beginning to climb upward as the photographer explores a subject. The graph peaks out and levels off for a very short time and then plunges back to the bottom of the graph with the exploration of a new subject.

It is said that Cartier-Bresson’s contact sheets would almost all have “OK” photos and then one photo would just jump right off the page and be far superior to those around it.

I was lucky enough to work with film and go through this process, which helped refine my eye. A good photographer (editor) can look at your photos and not only help you rate your photos, but also tell you an amazing amount about yourself just from looking at the full coverage you have done on an assignment.

Today’s digital cameras are far superior to our film cameras. If you just shoot and ingest your card into your computer, you can bring up all your images in a browser like Adobe PhotoShop’s Bridge, Lightroom or PhotoMechanic and have a very similar experience.

Overlooking Shem Creek in the Old Village of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.

Unfortunately, it is so easy to delete images that most folks show only their best pictures. We lose the critique by someone who can see everything we shot and understand where we went wrong or what we could have done to improve the shoot.

When a skilled photographer (editor) looks through all your photos of a shoot, including what you thought sucked, and points out a hidden jewel in your work, you discover how powerful your gut can be in many situations.

Malcolm Gladwell’s book Blink is about the power of thinking without thinking. Throughout the book he gives examples about how everyone’s gut reaction often is much more accurate than when we take time to think about something. He tells how an expert can thin-slice a moment and explain why a gut reaction is correct. He gives examples showing how most of us are unable to explain our gut reactions.

I would say Gladwell could easily be talking about photography. Most everyone is moved by a powerful photograph — thus a gut reaction is similar for most folks. The general population may not know why that photograph is powerful while photography experts can analyze that photo and explain how all the elements work together to create the impact.

Isle of Palms Beach, in South Carolina.

Slowly my mentor, Don Rutledge, helped me develop an understanding of body language and how to read it. Today my work better captures moments than when I first started because I am attuned to not just composition, lighting and which lens to use, but also anticipating human interaction before it happens so I can click the moment as it happens.

Tips for better photography:

1. Make more than one photo of subject. Shoot A LOT of pictures. We used to say that film was the cheapest part of photo coverage; now, with digital there is NO reason not to make lots and lots of exposures. Taking lots of photos is NOT depending on the law-of-averages to get a good shot. Not at all. It is giving the subconscious time to react with the subject. Good photos come from an emotional connection with what is being photographed and that connection comes from the subconscious and takes exploration.
2. Explore the subject. The odds are that your first view is not the best angle. Move around it. Find a really cool composition you like and then shoot a lot of photos. Try to capture as many different aspects of it that you can. Watch what the light does to your subject as you move around.
3. If the subject is alive, watch for expression. Learn to notice body language. Study body language. Read books on the subject.
4. Show the ENTIRE take from a photo shoot to an expert photo editor/photographer. Don’t cut any shots out before you do this.
5. Listen to the feedback, and then think about it (you don’t have to agree with all of it). If possible, go back and shoot it again.

Chick-fil-A cows are all excited about their new "Spicy Chicken" Sandwich.

A good editor/mentor/coach knows you must advance in stages. When you edit your own work and your resident expert agrees with you, congratulate yourself for your progress. However, now is the time to get another expert to critique your work.

The great photographers do not look at their work and say, “I’ve got it!” They may say, “I came close.” Usually they wish they’d made a few more shots. The really good photographers always see something that could be polished just a bit.