With music you learn to combine notes into chords and chords into a song.

NOTES – CHORDS – SONG

Beautiful music is created by different combinations of notes and chords.

1. Pressing one key on a piano creates a note.
2. Pressing 3 keys at the same time creates a chord.
3. Combining chords creates a song.

Many popular songs are combinations of just 4 chords.

CREATIVE CHOICES – CREATIVE FUNDAMENTALS – PHOTOGRAPH

Beautiful photographs are created by different combinations of creative choices and creative fundamentals.

1. A single creative choice changes your view of the subject.
2. Three creative choices combine to create a creative fundamental.
3. Combining creative fundamentals creates a photograph.

Learning how to see creatively and combine the different creative choices together is the secret to taking great photographs.

4 CREATIVE FUNDAMENTALS

In our LEARN TO SEE CREATIVELY workshop you learn the four creative fundamentals that create a photograph.

1. COMPOSITION
2. ANGLE
3. LIGHTING
4. LENS

3 CREATIVE CHOICES

Each creative fundamental has 3 individual creative choices within it. (Example below)

1. COMPOSITION

• Framing
• Cropping
• Placement

LEARN HOW TO CREATE BEAUTIFUL COMBINATIONS

If you want create beautiful music you will learn notes and how to combine them into chords and combine the chords into a song.

If you want to create beautiful photographs you will learn your creative choices and how to combine them together into creative fundamentals and combine those into beautiful photographs.

When your digital camera’s image sensor is set to 100 ISO it needs a lot of light.

100 ISO works in bright sunlight but can cause blurry photos on cloudy days, in the shade or indoors if you are hand holding your camera.

CAMERA MOTION

The more light your image sensor needs the longer the exposure. Camera motion is caused by a shutter speed that is too slow to hand hold.

• Direct sunlight is harsh lighting. Shooting in the shade or on a cloudy day will have softer light.
• Zooming your lens out to telephoto your largest lens opening will be 5.6 on most zoom lenses.
• Indoor photographs taken at 100 ISO will be very blurry.

100 vs. 800 ISO

Here is a chart of the difference in shutter speed between 100 and 800 ISO in the shade.

100 ISO at 5.6 = Shutter Speed 1/15^th of a second

200 ISO at 5.6 = Shutter Speed 1/30^th of a second

400 ISO at 5.6 = Shutter Speed 1/60^th of a second

800 ISO at 5.6 = Shutter Speed 1/125^th of a second

Try taking a photo in the shade hand holding your camera at 100 and 800 ISO and zoom in on them on your computer to see which is the sharpest.

THE GOOD RANGE ON A CHEAP SET OF SPEAKERS

If you ever owned a cheap set of speakers you know they have a good range before the sound starts to break up when you turn the volume higher.

Both 100 and 800 ISO are in the good range. You may see more difference between 100 and 800 on a point and shoot camera which has a smaller image sensor than with a digital SLR with a larger image sensor.

• Make an 8×12 print of each and see if you can tell the difference in image noise.
• I took a photo of a tea cup and a rose using a tripod in the shade at 100 and 800 ISO to test the image noise difference.
• When I hand the images around in my workshops people can’t tell the difference.
• With a digital SLR camera which has a larger image sensor even 6400 looks great.

SUBJECT MOTION

If your subject is moving using a lower ISO which needs a slower shutter speed may result in a blurred subject.

• There are many people online that say to only use low ISO settings. To them image noise is everything.
• They don’t understand the connection between ISO and shutter speed.
• I would rather have a higher ISO with more image noise than a blurred photo caused by a low ISO that needed a slow shutter speed.

I had a mother in one of my workshops that asked me if I had any advice for stopping action when photographing her kids. She was getting a lot of blur in the photographs of her 3 and 5 year old girl and boy, which is an active age.

I suggest she try using 800 ISO. She kind of freaked out. She said, No, I won’t do that, No, No.

I wondered why the reaction and asked her. She said she had read online an article by a guy who seemed very nice and said you should never set your camera above 200 ISO.

200 ISO might be great for a mountain photographed using a tripod but it is a bad ISO for active children.

TAKE THE ISO TEST

If you want to prove this for yourself take our ISO test to see how your digital cameras images look taken at different ISO settings. You will be surprised. Please let me know your experience and share this post with friends. Thank You.

Have you ever taken a photo that you loved but the image was too dark?

PHOTO SOFTWARE IS AMAZING

If you take a photo with your digital camera and it is too dark you can recover it using photo software.

• You might use the photo software at a photo lab to make a print or photo software on your computer or cell phone to recover the image.
• There is free photo software online or you can buy photo software.

FILM vs. DIGITAL IMAGE

With film if you had an underexposed photograph all the silver washed off the film in processing and you had nothing left to work with.

With digital your image is electronic and you can still recover it using photo software of even the software at a photo lab.

SHOOTING IN AUTO

Photographing in the Manual shooting mode to get a perfect exposure was more important with film, especially slide film where your exposure had to be nearly perfect. With digital your exposure can be off and you can still get a great image.

Photographing in Auto shooting mode gives you an exposure that is generally good and if it is off it is still close enough to recover with photo software. Digital is a lot more forgiving with exposure than film was.

MORE NOISE – ADD FILTERS OR MAKE B&W

As you make an image lighter it may become noisier as you lighten it because you are going to a higher ISO but you can adjust the noise and sharpness with photo software as well. I like noise sometimes, it gives a more real look to a photograph.

If the color is off you can convert it to a black and white image or sepia.

If you get an image that you like but the exposure is off try recovering it with photo software. You might be surprised with how good it looks.

If you like to use filters to make images look cool, exposure may not matter that much after the filter is applied. There are many apps that work on tablets and cell phones that can add cool filters to your images as well.

I have heard many tales of camera straps coming loose and cameras and lenses being broken when they do.

I was in the strap aisle at a local camera store and met a woman who was there with her husband and two year old son. Their camera strap had come loose and dropped their camera to the cement. A $600. lens was shattered.

INCH OR ¼ INCH?

Check the strap on your camera and see if it has at least an inch of extra strap coming out from the connector. If it has less than an inch I would adjust it so it has more.

Using the strap that comes with the camera is okay but they generally are not padded and have rough edges that can bite into your neck after a while. There are many great straps you can buy as well as camera connection systems.

If you buy your camera at a camera store I would suggest buying a good strap along with it and having the person at the store install the strap for you.

Check you strap and see if it is good or needs adjusting.

Get great photographs and a healthier brain at the same time.

Just like dark chocolate tastes great and is good for you. Exploring the creative side of photography helps you get great photographs and exercise your brain at the same time. A win, win.

HELP YOUR BRAIN 3 WAYS

Creative photography helps you get a healthier brain 3 ways by increasing brain activity, physical activity and social activity.

1. INCREASE BRAIN ACTIVITY

For the brain to exercise it needs unique challenges. Looking at different creative choices and combinations of creative choices when photographing gives your brain a great workout.

2. INCREASE PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

Increased physical activity is good for your health but also sends more blood to the brain which is good for it. Getting up and moving around to photograph different subjects from different angles increases your physical activity. You can do it indoors, outdoors and even take a road trip.

3. INCREASE SOCIAL ACTIVITY

Social activity is very important for your brain. Going out and taking photos gets you out of the house and you have more of a chance to meet people. You can also do it as an activity with family members or friends.

Sharing Photos Online: You can share your photographs on your Facebook page with family and friends around the world. You can also share your photos on photo sharing websites. Telling the story of how you took the photograph is great for social interaction as well.

NO CHOICES vs. CREATIVE CHOICES

Just walking around taking photos is not challenging for the brain. Learning how to create photographs by combining different creative choices gives your brain a unique challenge and great workout.

If you would like to learn how to see creatively and give your brain a great workout at the same time, check out our LEARNING TO SEE CREATIVELY photography workshop.