AFTER DUSK PHOTOS

This Laurentian village scene was a request by one of my clients, and as many times that I tried to capture it in the daytime (even Golden Hour!), it just didn't seem to work.

Being a big fan of night photography, we set up the tripod when it was almost completely dark, and let the shutter stay open for an extended period of time. The result was a peaceful, calm mountain scene, thanks to the unique quality of late evening light.

Our eyes are not good judges of how a late evening or early morning photo will turn out. It must be learned through trial and error, using long exposures and a steady tripod. Don't forget to use your self-timer to release the shutter!

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SKIN TONE

If you are just starting out using studio strobes, and are having problems getting accurate skin tones, you might be better off using a Kelvin white balance instead of Auto white balance.

Auto white balance is often quite good at judging proper color temperatures, however it has its limitations, especially when there are people in a group with different skin tones. If your camera has the ability to adjust the Kelvin temperature (check your manual), you will do well to set the white balance to approximately 5600 K. Most strobes differ slightly in their own daylight colors, however if you experiment with 5500 K to 5800 K, you will be able to find out the best combination for your camera and studio strobes.

If you are not getting into studio photography, but use a normal on-camera flash, you too can enjoy the accuracy of the Kelvin white balance. Simply set it to 5600 K whenever you are doing flash photography, and your photos will probably turn out better than you expect.

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TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY

When in a different country photographing city-scapes, the first and easiest subjects to photograph are the buildings. Night city photography can be exciting in places like Times Square or Shinjuku Tokyo. However, when you photograph objects that are immovable, such as skycrapers or neon signs, there is a potential for the image to become static (far too still and stationary).

To move your images from static to dynamic, why not add an element of movement? Spend the time to get your tripod out, and include in the foreground moving people or moving cars. Your exposure will be long, so a tripod is essential, and even better is the use of a cable or remote shutter release.

By adding movement to your city photographs you have just increased the value of your images tenfold.

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