I actually really don’t like having my photo taken, which sounds pretty bizarre as I’m always snapping other folk – but I can see that, in ten years’ time when I’m looking back at my family photos, it might be a little sad if I’m not in any of them…

So, one of the benefits of getting my new Canon 7D has been that I can teach my wife how to use my old camera, the Canon 500D (T1i). As well as the joy of sharing a passion and hobby, it means I’ve had to bite the bullet and actually appear in some photos for once. And to bite the bullet even further, I’m going to actually show you what I look like – I believe these will be the first ever photos of me that I’ve put on the site, and it’s been going for nearly a year and half now…

Yep, it's me - finally!

There, I’ve done it…

And now I’m on a roll, here’s another!

By the way, that handsome fella above is my parent-in-law’s dog, Alfie. He’s not as shy about having his photo taken.

So, it’s just a small thought to leave you with, as I know how fantastic it is to be behind the lens – but perhaps you should let yourself be snapped now and again so your family will remember you actually existed back then…?

Because it scares me!

'Variation 12' by Phil H on Flickr

I love taking photos of people – that’s the area of photography that really appeals to me, and what I mainly do. And yet all the photos I take are of people I know; people who know that I’m there, and who don’t really mind if I’m snapping away (OK, they may mind a little bit at times, but they normally cheer up when I show them a nice pic of themselves on the LCD).

Taking photos of total strangers? Without prior permission? That’s scary stuff!

So, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject – please leave a comment below. Have you done some street photography? If so, how did you find it? Do you have some tips to share?

Are you interested in trying it, like me, but are a bit nervous?

Or are you dead against it? For instance, if you were just a normal passer by, would you be happy if a random photographer was taking photos of you?

I’m really interested in hearing your thoughts about this, so please do leave a comment below, send me a message via Twitter, or leave a comment on our Facebook page.

A photo I took of a band. 1/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 3200 (Yes, 3200!)

So, without further ado, my 5 top tips:

1. Use a ‘Fast’ Lens

Although outside gigs do exist, they tend to be quite rare – most gigs are inside, and they are always – always! – dark. So, this means that you need to use a ‘fast’ lens – this means a lens that has a wide aperture (low f-number). Lenses with max apertures of f/2.8 or larger are generally considered ‘fast’.

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 - A 'fast', great value lens

By using a lens like this, it will mean that your camera can take in as much light at a time as possible, which is imperative when taking photos in lowlight. Using flash can put off the performers, can be prohibited at more professional level concerts (or at least limited to the ‘first three songs’), and can make your photos look boring and flat, anyway. (By the way, I did a whole tutorial on lowlight photography)

So, if you’re going to be doing a lot of band photography, or even just lots of flashless photos in lowlight, then you should think about getting a fast lens. Canon have a great value 50mm f/1.8, which only costs about £90 from Amazon UK ( around $99 on Amazon US too) – I took the photo below with this lens, which ended up being published in the local newspaper:

f/1.8, 1/100 sec, ISO 1600

2. Use Your Largest Aperture / Smallest f-number

Now that you’ve got a nice, quick lens on your camera, you need to use it at its largest aperture – so the most amount of light as possible is coming in. This may mean f/2.8, or even larger, such as f/1.8 – this will help you to get quick-enough shutter speeds to take sharp images of your chosen performers.

Using a wide aperture/small f-number also has the extra benefit of reducing your depth of field, meaning the background of your photos should be nice and blurry, making the subject of your shots stand out more.

By the way, I did a short post on how to remember f-numbers easily a while ago, too.

3. Dial In A High ISO

OK, you’ve got a fast lens, have chosen a wide aperture – now what? Well, it’s still likely that, because light levels are just so low at most gigs, you’re still going to need to increase the sensitivity of your camera to light – that’s where the ISO comes in.

We want to increase this ISO number to something like 1600 or 3200 so the camera is more sensitive, and so needs less time to capture enough light, and thus we can take photos with faster shutter speeds – the key to getting sharp photos.

It’s true that increasing the ISO also increases the amount of grain, or ‘digital noise’ in our photos, but modern DSLRs are really, really good at taking shots at high ISOs without losing too much quality. Take, for instance, the photo I took recently with my Canon 7D, at ISO 3200. The quality is fantastic:

1/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 3200. A high ISO, but still great quality.

It’s not like most of our photos need to be super-uber quality, anyway, as we’ll mostly be viewing them on our computer screens, or doing small prints at home – circumstances where noise/grain isn’t a problem. You can always use something like Adobe Lightroom 3′s fantastic ‘noise reduction’ feature anyway, which is great at making nice, clean images from high ISO photos.

Anyway, if you don’t raise your ISO to something approaching ISO 1600 or 3200, then you’ll find that you won’t be able to get shutter speeds of around 1/100 sec anyway, which is needed to take sharp photos of moving performers. And if you don’t get sharp photos, you might as well not be taking photos at all…. so my advice: Raise your ISO and don’t think twice about it!

4. Shoot in Manual Mode

OK, this sounds kinda scary if you haven’t done it before – but, believe me, it really isn’t! The first time I used my camera’s fully Manual mode was actually at a gig last year – I hadn’t even touched the mode before, but after a few minutes trying to take photos of a local band, I found that I just had to switch to Manual.

Why, you say? Well, because of the changing light conditions. Most gigs have flashy lights, changing colours, spotlights moving around and so on – so, in short, your lighting conditions are changing second to second. If you were to shoot in Aperture Priority mode – which is a tempting initial approach, as we do want to pick a wide aperture, after all – then your camera will choose a different shutter speed from shot to shot because the lighting is changing second to second.

For instance, say you’re lining up a shot of the singer in your viewfinder: there’s a nice spotlight on his head, you’ve chosen a wide aperture of f/2.8, and the camera picks a nice 1/100 sec shutter speed. Great, right? You’ll get a sharp shot. But then, next second, the spotlight moves, and your singer suddenly has a whole less light on him. Now, your camera is still at f/2.8, but because there is suddenly less light, your camera is going to choose a shutter speed of 1/20 sec – not quick enough to get a sharp shot at all! Argh…..

And that could go on all night if you kept the camera in Aperture-priority: you’ll never know if your camera is going to choose a quick enough shutter speed or not!

1/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 3200. Shooting in Manual means you can keep the same shutter speed/aperture setting, no matter what the lighting does!

So, the trick is to turn your camera to ‘M’ for manual, dial in your wide aperture, dial in a quick shutter speed of 1/100 sec (which is about enough to get sharp shots of moving band members) and then take a few shots. Are they coming out light enough? If not, increase your ISO, or choose a larger aperture. Too light? Lower the ISO or choose a smaller aperture. But, the point is, that when you’ve got a combination of ISO and Aperture (remember, we need to keep the shutter speed at 1/100 or faster), then we stick with those settings.

You can then shoot away in Manual mode, knowing that your camera won’t be changing any aperture or shutter speed setting depending on the available light that second. Much better….

5. Use Tracking Focus (‘AI Servo’ on Canon, ‘Continuous’ on Nikon)

People in bands move around. A lot. OK, you may prefer to take shots of a classical guitarist, who may stay pretty still – but for most bands, well, they never stand still! Rock and metal bands are especially mobile… How on earth do we focus on these moving creatures?

The trick, my friend, is to use your DSLR’s fantastic tracking focus system, which means that the camera is constantly focusing on your chosen subject, whether they are moving towards the camera, away from it, or side to side. Perfect!

If you’re a Canon user, choose ‘AI Servo’ as your focusing mode – if you’re a Nikon user, choose ‘Continuous’. Put your chosen focus point on your subject (preferably their eyes/face, if you can), depress the shutter button halfway, and then, even if they move, the camera will be continually focusing, so when you press the shutter fully to take the shot, it should be in focus.

A very handy feature indeed!

1/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 3200. Use tracking focus to take shots of constantly-moving band members!

6. (Extra Bonus Tip!) Shoot in ‘Burst’ Mode

There’s always loads of action at gigs: singers jumping on speakers, guitarists jumping up and down like madmen, and bass players head-banging all over the place. So, in order for us to increase the chance of getting good shots of all of this action, we want to put our cameras in ‘burst’ mode, or ‘continuous shooting’. This means, instead of taking a single photo when we press the shutter, our camera takes a few photos a second instead.

Every camera has a maximum burst speed, but most have at least 3 frames a second. Shooting in bursts like this means you’ll have a better chance of taking a shot of the singer in mid-vocal-scream, or of a guitarist swinging his instrument around his body. You’ll get more photos to choose from at the end of the day, which is always a good thing.

Also, as the lighting is often changing second to second, as mentioned earlier, shooting in burst mode means one of your photos may be a little bit dark, but the next one may have a great spotlight catching the action. For instance, the shot before this next photo had a really different light quality to it – but because I shot in a burst, I managed to get this great silhouette-style shot as well:

1/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 3200

And two little extra small bits of advice: 1. Don’t chimp too much (‘chimping’ means to look at your photos on your camera’s LCD screen), as you’re bound to miss lots of photo opportunites while your ‘ooh-ing’ over your photos, and 2. Get as close as you can, as photos always look better when you’re close to the action, and if you’re far away from the band, that’ll mean you may get audience member’s heads in the shots, and you’ll have to use a longer lens – probably meaning a smaller aperture (as most lower-priced long lenses have smaller apertures), which in turn means too slow shutter speeds to get sharp shots…

Phew, that was quite a lengthy guide! I hope it’s been of some help. Remember, these are only my own little tips; things that have worked for me. If you have any other advice, or do things differently, please don’t hesitate to let me know in a comment below!

The 7D really is a big upgrade from my existing 500D (T1i), and my very first impression was “Woah, this new camera feels the business!” – it just feels so much more durable and strong. The 17 – 55 f/2.8 is also my first foray into a top-quality lens, so, as you could imagine, I am pretty excited about the new arrivals to my photography family!

Anyway, I didn’t have much time to play with the camera before I was due to head out to a friend’s poker night, but I thought I’d share some of the very first photos I took with the camera and lens. Bear in mind that these are all taken in a dimly lit room, without any flash – so I used a high ISO of 1600 to 3200. By using a wide aperture of f/2.8 for most of the shots (some at f/4), the 17 – 55 mm managed to give me some great, sharp photos, even in this lowlight – the lens’ Image Stabilisation feature enabling me to get away with such slow shutter speeds of 1/15th of a second and still get a sharp shot!

I did a whole guide on how to take sharp photos in lowlight without using a flash, by the way, which you may find useful.

I’ll be going into a lot more depth about the camera and lens in future posts, but, for now, here are some of my shots from the Poker night:

And, yes, I did manage to take a lot of photos because I lost in the poker very early on – I definitely need some Poker practise! But at least it meant I could snap away with my lovely new toy….!

I downloaded these free lightroom presets, and then, by choosing a preset (‘B&W Beach’) with a simple click, Lightroom turned this photo:

Before Lightroom did its magic...

…into this:

After Lightroom strutted its stuff!

How much better is that? And it literally took one little click! Presets are a fantastic way of applying lots of different edits instantly – in this case, converting to black and white, sharpening, changing the exposure, brightness, contrast, and even applying a vignette! All done within less than a second. You can also view the before and after image merged into one, like this:

Another thing that impressed me was how easy – and great – its ‘noise reduction’ feature was. By using a simple slider, I was able to reduce the noise on this below table shot quickly and effectively – handy when you take shots at ISO 3200 or above! The shot below is a zoomed-in before and after – see how much smoother the ‘after’ part is:

Lightroom's Noise Reduction is fantastic

Of course, you won’t always want to use other people’s presets (or the built-in ones that Lightroom comes with), and you are free to make any edits – large or small – to you heart’s content, all safe in the knowledge that you won’t be harming the original photo in any way: Lightroom’s edits are non-destructive, meaning you can always go back to the original photo’s settings at any time.

I played around with the various sliders for only about 5 mins, and managed to change the below shot of my wife:

From this...

...to this

The things I changed – with a few simple clicks, or sliders – were the White Balance, sharpening, noise reduction (as this was again taken at ISO 3200), contrast, and applied a vignette. You can see the before and after combined image below:

Needless to say, I’ll be writing about Lightroom more in the future as I get to grips with it – but I’m mightily impressed so far, and I know it would help transform anyone’s photos easily.

Lightroom is available from Amazon US and UK.

Have you used Lightroom? Have any tips you’d like to share? Let me know in the comments below!

I’d like to thank everyone for taking the time to wonder around the site, reading the guides, tips and random photographic warblings of mine; leaving comments, asking questions, re-tweeting and facebook ‘Liking‘ – it’s all massively appreciated, and makes me really love writing the blog.

Personally, I’ve come quite a way over the past year when it comes to my photography – learning loads along the way, and hopefully imparting some of this new-found knowledge to you all as well. As an example, here is a photo of my parents that I took before I started to learn about photography, back in 2009:

Over a year later, using my new photography knowledge (and new camera, of course – a 500D / T1i), here are a couple of portraits of them that I think are quite a lot better:

f/2.8, 1/500 sec, ISO 100

f/2.8, 1/640 sec, ISO 100

Another example, this time a shot of my dog, taken with a compact a couple of years ago:

My dog, looking a bit lost in the middle of the frame...

Compared to a shot I took within the first few weeks of owning my new DSLR, and my ‘photographic learning journey’ (Oh it sounds so grand…!):

f/5, 1/250 sec, ISO 100

None of my ‘new’ shots are going to win any awards, but I think you’ll agree just how far I’ve come. With a little understanding and knowledge, it really is easy to make your photos ‘shine’ – and the quality leap from the days of my compact, to what I’m shooting now, has really made every penny going into my DSLR totally worth it.

Here’s to another year of learning, and passing on what I find useful to you…!

A candid shot I took at a wedding reception. Studying other wedding photographers' work helped me get this shot.

Think about it: In what other area of photography do we get to see so many different styles and subjects all at once? Wedding photography encompasses all this:

• Portraiture, both posed and candid.
• Landscape photography – think wide angle shots of the church outside, for instance.
• Candid photography – shots of the bride and groom just being natural, photos of the wedding party.
• Lowlight work – lots of churches are very dimly lit, so wedding photographers have to know how to take sharp photos in lowlight without using a flash (which I did a tutorial on over here).
• Group photography – getting a group of 10 or more people to all look good in a shot is an art in itself!
• Action photography – think of freezing an energetic dance reception; or the technique to imply a sense of motion within the bride and groom’s first dance.
• Off-camera flash work – a lot of modern wedding photographers are experts at creative flash work.
• Expert compositional skills – notice how the skilled wedding photographer places their subjects within the ‘rule of thirds’, or uses other compositional skills such as vanishing points or repeating patterns to enhance their photos.
• And more… and all of this within one day’s work!

So, if you’re looking to increase your skills as a photographer, I heartily recommend checking out the various wedding photography websites on the ‘net (just search on Google for something like ‘wedding photography Texas’, or ‘wedding photographer Cornwall‘ – you’ll find hundreds of sites easily), looking through their portfolios, galleries and blogs, and seeing just how they manage to pull off such fantastic examples of portraiture, candid, lowlight, action photography and more…

Some fantastic wedding photography websites include:

* Jasmine Star Photography

* Kevin Smith Photography

* Jeff Ascough

* David Ziser’s Digital Pro Talk (I’m currently reading his book, Captured By The Light, which I’ll review soon)

Those are just a few of my faves to start you off – but, honestly, you can find lots of fantastic photos to learn from by just searching for wedding photography websites. Try it for yourself; I challenge you not to learn something by studying wedding photography!

Merry Christmas everyone, and thanks for frequenting LearningTheLight.com over the past year, leaving comments, following me on twitter and facebook, and just taking the time to read my warblings…

Our Christmas Tree. Ahh...

Enjoy your Christmas, and don’t forget to take lots of photos (thought I’m sure you don’t really need reminding of that…!)

The quality of their posters are absolutely superb – it’s pretty amazing to see some of your own photos so large!

Until 30th November 2010 they are offering 2 for 1 on all posters, which makes a huge A3 poster only £5.50 – bargain. Use the discount code ‘POSTERS241′ to get that price. More details can be found here.

If you’d been thinking of getting some large prints made, I’d take the plunge and get them while this offer is still on – I wish I’d ordered more now!