I’m hoping winter is finally over, after the “light sleet” today. I’ve never heard sleet described as light. I can’t wait for the flowering trees to get going and for color to reappear.
The Metropolitan Waterworks Museum
I recently gave a presentation at Newton Camera Club and in my networking group, PRANG, of photos I shot at the Metropolitan Waterworks Museum in Chestnut Hill. If you haven’t been, I recommend it. The museum is open Wednesdays through Sundays. It is amazing to see the huge steam engines that were once used for pumping fresh water into the city of Boston. The station was built in 1887 and used until the 1970s when Boston’s water supply was switched to the Quabbin Reservoir.
Taking photos of machinery is something I love to do – especially the way machines were built in the 19th century, with great attention to design. It is a challenge to find shots in a busy environment – simplifying so that each shot makes visual sense to the viewer. I spent hours at the museum (as part of a workshop with other photographers), looking from many different angles to find combinations of shapes and colors that worked.
The shot below is one where I took the interesting parts of multiple pipes and junctions and stacked them visually to make a harmonious composition.
One thing I like about machinery is the challenge of making beautiful shots from such large, imposing, utilitarian landscapes. Finding the delicacy among the heavy-duty parts. To me, doing such a photo shoot is like meditation – spending a lot of time looking and not speaking, getting the best angles and finding all the shapes and lines. I try to bring that same feeling into my commercial work, looking at how a space flows, how the shapes stack up vertically and horizontally when translating a three-dimensional space into two dimensions in a flattering way, while also making the space comprehensible to the viewer.
Elisif Photography provides high quality architectural photography to companies in the building industry, including architects, builders, developers, commercial and residential real estate brokers, interior designers, interior decorators, remodelers, and more.
One of my residential remodeling clients, GreenEdge, has a fun tradition. When we take photos of new kitchens, bathrooms, or additions, we put a wooden hippo sculpture in each shot (or at least most of them). Then on their website, it is fun to try to find the hippo in each shot! The hippo didn’t make it to every shoot, but many of them. Find the hippos in this beautiful white home.
Photo Tip of the Month: TOP THREE THINGS FOR IMPROVING ANY PHOTO
The top three things to adjust to make a photo come out its best are exposure, sharpness, and cropping or framing.
1. Exposure
Getting the exposure right is critical to making a good photo. These days with digital photography and cell phones, it is simple to edit the photo and make it brighter or dimmer as needed to make the exposure right. What is the best way to tell if the exposure is right? Look at the brightest objects in your photo, particularly things that are white. Is it a true white, or are they coming out gray? Look people's faces - are they easy to see? Are the shadows too dark and murky? Lots of software is available for correcting exposure. I use Adobe's Lightroom, but most photo apps will work fine, including those on cell phones where you can edit photos in just a few clicks.
2. Sharpness
It is so important to get your subject sharp (except in those cases where you are making an artistic choice for your image or subject to be blurry). If you do not get it sharp in the camera, there is not a lot you can do to correct it afterwards. There are lots of sharpening tools in photo editing apps, but they won't really help if your subject isn't sharp to begin with - they can really only be used to enhance the sharpness that is already there. The only real exception is blur from moving the camera during the shot - Photoshop has some ways to correct that blur. But it is best to get it right in the camera. When you are selecting an image to use for social media, printing, etc., always look for sharpness first.
3. Cropping
Framing your subject well can really increase the impact of your image. If you are photographing an animal or people moving in the frame, leave extra space in front of them, space the viewer imagines they are moving into. If you take a portrait of someone, don't leave too much space above their head. Fill the frame with your subject - get close. It is fine to leave space when you take the photograph, but afterwards, look at all the edges of the frame - are there parts of the image that just don't add anything? Too much sky or too much foreground? Can you crop out distracting elements? If so, it can really add to the power of your photos.