Why I Should Have Taken Physics, or Why It's Not Too Late to Learn

Remember that kid in high school who would always try to challenge the education you were receiving by stating "there's no way I'm going to use this in the real world"? If you were that kid, you should know that although you probably got yelled at for asking it, the rest of us were usually thinking the same thing. Looking back now, this was a critical moment for any teacher as their answer had the ability to make the learning experience more real for that student. If someone had told me in 12th grade, for example, that I needed to understand geometry and physics to become a better photographer, I might have paid more attention in geometry, and I might have actually taken physics. At 26 years old, I'm officially saying "Dad, you were right. I should have taken physics."

Of course, as we saw in a recent post by Dan Antion, 55 is too young to stop learning, so 26 is definitely not too old to start learning about physics. I stumbled into this journey via my Photo365 project. I like to shoot outdoors when I can, but if I can't make it out of the office over lunch, my photo has to come out of an indoor shoot at night. This requires some equipment and some setup - generally a tripod, and lighting. Lighting refers to anything I use to provide enough light for a good exposure, and anything on top of that I choose to make the photo more interesting. So far, I've tried everything from my flash to a flashlight, a simple set of monolights, regular lamps and candles, each with varying levels of success.

In photography, good lighting doesn't always require expensive equipment, but it does require an understanding of light itself. All of the information described by a photograph is reflected light - without light, there could be no photography. When making a photograph, we start with light and use a camera as a means to transcribe that reflected light onto film or digital media. I've said this before, but it bears repeating - don't ever let someone fool you into thinking you need an expensive camera to make good photographs - some of the world's best images have been captured on point-and-shoots, pinhole cameras, and even iPhones. But if you've ever taken a photograph, looked at the resulting image, and thought "hmm...that isn't how I thought that would look", you may want to dig out those high school physics texts and read a little about light.

We're fortunate in that the principles of light don't really change. In ten years, you'll probably be shooting with a different camera, and perhaps a different style, but the light will behave the way it does for all the same reasons it always has. There are three particularly important principles for the photographer to understand:

1. Light travels in straight lines.
   Knowing this helps you determine where to place your light source, or where to stand relative to your light source in order to get a good image.
   
   
2. The angle of incidence is equal to and opposite to the angle of reflection.
   Reflections are never random. Whether you are controlling the light indoors, or shooting outside, the location of your light source as well as the location of the camera will determine how reflections appear in your image. You can be very creative with reflections when you are controlling them, but there is nothing worse than taking what you think will be an amazing photo, only to find that an unexpected reflection stole the show.
   
   
3. Light from a source changes in intensity proportional to the inverse of the square of the relative distance from the source.
   The closer your subject is to its light source, the more illuminated it will be. Balancing the distance and the angles between your subject, the light source, and your camera is all part of the process of creating a photograph.

Those principles are the basis to understanding the physics of light as it applies to photography. Although you probably don't want to return to high school, I assure you that even a quick refresher on some basic physics and geometry will help you improve your photography. There are many great resources out there dedicated to lighting, including blogs like Strobist and books like the one I'm reading now, Light: Science and Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting. Spend some time online or in the art section at your local bookstore (if you can't find it, it's generally the most unorganized one) and you'll find something that speaks to you.

To wrap up this series on photography, I want to thank everyone so far for their feedback, and encourage you to keep shooting, keep learning, and most importantly, have fun.

The Perfect Presentation

I’m filling in today for an ailing Faith. That’s her Photo365 photo-of-the-day over there so I guess she’s not faking. If you follow my other blog, you know that I was privileged to be in the audience last week for an amazing presentation by Admiral James Ellis, CEO of Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO). One problem with great presentations and great speeches is that we sit there in such awe that we don’t pay attention to how they do it. I’ve heard people in my Toastmasters club apologize to good speakers that they were evaluating, they admit getting “too caught up in the speech” to take notes. I didn’t take notes during this speech, but I did write some impressions down shortly afterwards. Here’s a few of the things I will be trying to work into my next presentation:

Join the Audience – The first thing Admiral Ellis did was to step away from the podium. He took the remote control for the presentation and stepped out into the audience and began speaking. The acceptance level in the audience was palpable; it was like he was a guest in our living room.

Forget Bullets – There were very few slides in the presentation and even fewer words. Most of the slides had four large pictures in the corners and the pictures accompanied stories. Audiences love to hear stories; stories are verbal comfort food, and the Admiral walked us around the screen telling us a story that was illustrated by each picture. Sometimes, hidden pictures would emerge and overlay as he was speaking but it never looked mechanical. He was totally comfortable with the timing.

Judicious Use of Humor – He began his presentation with a joke that was absolutely perfect. It fit the meeting, it fit him (it was about an admiral) and he told it perfectly. If you have to force a joke into context, or if you’re a doctor and the joke is about an Indian chief, OR if you don’t tell jokes well, skip the attempt. Several other times during the speech, he snuck in very subtle, perfectly placed humorous remarks. These served to keep the mood of the audience from getting too serious even when the subject was very serious.

Get Comfortable With Yourself – The Admiral has had a very successful career and he’s currently the CEO of an impressive organization. We expected him to be an expert, and he was. But, he wasn’t the kind of expert who lectures like a college professor. His expertise was understood, he leaned on his position a few times (well placed times I might add) but he was totally comfortable with himself and he made us comfortable with him. I don’t know how the Admiral does it, but when I give a presentation, I like to remind myself that the audience came to hear me speak. If you can get comfortable with the fact that you’re in the room, that you’re the center of attention, and that these people want to hear what you have to say, you can be yourself.

Contact – In Toastmasters, making eye-contact with your audience is emphasized. Well, the Admiral did more than that. He made eye-contact, and he talked to people. He singled out individuals and bounced jokes off them, bowed to their expertise by reference and borrowed their support by extending his experience to theirs. A comment like: “I know this happens to you all the time…” builds a bridge with the audience instantly.

I don’t know if I can pull off a presentation as well as the Admiral. Fortunately, I have a speech scheduled in Toastmasters in a few weeks that lends itself to some of these techniques. I’m going to try to benefit from what I learned by watching this great speaker. Maybe someday, I’ll be able to rewrite this blog entry in the first person.

Because 55 is Too Young to Stop Learning

There are two great things about a blog series written by others. The first thing is that we reach a broader audience by including experts from other fields. The second thing is that I get to learn something. The title explains why that’s important. That concept is the impetus behind this blog – that we should never want to stop learning. Today, I’m the guest inside Faith’s series, but I’m talking about what I’ve learned from her about photography. Coincidentally, it also ties in with the previous series on how we learn by actually doing work. See, most of what I’ve learned from Faith, I’ve learned by taking pictures with her.






Patience – We’ve all seen photographs and thought how the photographer was lucky to be in the “right place at the right time”, I can tell you, it usually isn’t luck. There’s research involved, knowing the best time of day, the most interesting time of year or the best vantage point, and then you wait. Sometimes you are waiting for the absolute right light, sometimes you wait for people to enter the shot and sometimes you wait until all the people are gone, sometimes you wait for something to make a splash, sometimes you wait for the waters to calm so you can get the perfect reflection.




Composition – I’ve been on photo-shoots with Faith where I have taken a picture of the same thing from roughly the same place but we get radically different results. A friend once said “you take good pictures, she takes photographs (like the one at the right).” This is where I love digital cameras because you can review your composition with someone else, and get immediate feedback, and, if the light and the people are still right, you can retake the shot. I understand some of the “rules” of composition; they are similar to the “rules” for making good furniture. And, just as I like to visit museums to see examples of good furniture, I like to look at galleries (real and online) of good photographs. Of course, I start each day at Faith’s Flickr site, for her Photo365 photo-of-the-day, but I also follow the lead of HDPhotosOnline, who recommends great photo collections every day.


Effort – Photography isn’t a contact sport, but it isn’t always easy. Even us amateurs have a camera bag that gets tiresome when lugging it around a trail or a city. Throw a tripod on top of that and you start wondering why you aren’t just taking pictures with your phone. When you do get to the thing you want to photograph, it seems, there’s always a better place to shoot from. Fortunately I am pretty bold about going "near the water", "near the edge", or figuring out how to get “over there” but the effort often involves thoughts like: “why didn’t I bring boots?”, “Why didn’t I buy that walking stick?”, “What happens if I fall?” Ironically, I think what ultimately keeps photographers safe is their concern about their equipment.



Knowledge – That sounds obvious, but there are features on my camera I don’t really understand. I know what the results are, having fiddled with settings and compared shots, but I need to learn more about how all these things work together. I know I can change ISO, aperture or shutter speed to compensate for lighting conditions, but when do I want to turn what dial? When do I want to combine them, and how do they work together? Those are things I still have to learn. The photo at the top is one of my favorites and not just because of the subject. I have 25 versions of that photo, most with swatches of glaring snow and a dark silhouette of Faith. As I was taking and complaining about each one, she offered suggestions from her perch below. She explained how I was going to have to “over expose the snow” and how I should “try not to get a lot of bright snow in the picture”. She asked “what ISO are you using?” and looked woeful when I said “Auto”. She corrected that and then suggested specific speed and aperture settings to further my command over my camera; I think you’ll agree, it was worth the effort.


If you have the opportunity to take photographs with an expert, or to do anything you enjoy with an expert in that field, take advantage of that opportunity, you won’t be sorry.

Learning to See, Part 2

Several readers of last week's post indicated that they would like to know more about the training I received that led to my passion for photography. In life, and especially in training, feedback is a gift, so I will try to honor that request today.

As I stated last week, I studied photography at the Hartford Art School, during four of the most challenging and rewarding years of my life. I've reflected quite a bit on this time since, and realized that the most valuable training I received there focused more on the creative mindset than on technical ability.

First, let me say that if you are interested in photography or would like to sharpen your skills, bravo to you. That is a truly wonderful place to be in, and there have never been more resources available to help you in your journey. You do need an understanding of the basics: composition, exposure, light, and processing technique. Any photograph, even a snapshot, is the product of a series of decisions you'll arrive at by asking questions. My inner monologue often goes something like this: "How would I describe this light? Will this make a better color image than black and white? What's the most interesting angle to see this from? Do I have enough light to shoot this without a flash?..." and so on, and so on.

Of course, you don't always have time to ask those questions. Sometimes you have react to the photograph that appears before you, and you've got to trust your gut instinct that you're making the right decisions. People who have to react, people in the military, in law enforcement, in sports, etc. train to the point that their reactions are reliable. The same applies to photography.

I began to learn these lessons in school, and I am still learning them, with every photo I take. The most valuable training tool I've found along the way has been feedback. In school, every project would end with a critique, a formal review of your work amidst professors and peers. At first, this was frankly terrifying. Having foregone food, sleep, friends, and sanity in the process of producing a series of work, sometimes all I wanted was for someone to say "That's clearly the best thing you've ever done. Take the night off". I still crave that sometimes, and have yet to hear it. What I learned was that the critiques were there for a positive reason - not so you could hear what you did wrong, but so you could learn from people with far more experience and varied backgrounds, what you might have done better. The most valuable thing you could do was listen to the advice, learn from your mistakes, and apply a new perspective to your next project.

You don't need to go to art school to do this. I've been out of school for almost four years, and I still crave that dialogue. Social networking communities are great for achieving this. Post your work on Flickr or another photo community and I guarantee people will talk to you about your work. More importantly, I learn more from looking at other people's photos, asking them questions, and seeing through their eyes, and their lenses, than I ever will from looking at my own. Blogs are another great way to engage in continual learning. The mission of Strobist, "Learn How to Light", is one example of a really valuable learning tool. There are easy-to-understand tutorials for everyone, no matter what your experience level is, no matter what camera you use or what kind of gear you have (or don't have yet, but lust over, in my case). Nikon's new Learn and Explore site is also marvelous. Spend a few hours here and you'll be getting training from today's top commercial photographers.

There are more resources, far more than I could ever describe here. All you have to do is look, and you'll find something that works for you. The trick is to push yourself to keep looking, keep learning, keep seeing. It's a wonderfully rewarding process, so don't wait to start - get out there with whatever camera you have on you, and happy photographing!

"I have often thought that if photography were difficult in the true sense of the term -- meaning that the creation of a simple photograph would entail as much time and effort as the production of a good watercolor or etching -- there would be a vast improvement in total output. The sheer ease with which we can produce a superficial image often leads to creative disaster." Ansel Adams (1902 - 1984)