Setting the Scene Archives - Photo Tips, Creative Photography + Travel Guides - The Wandering Lens

Setting the Scene: Depth of Field + the Foreground

Lisa Michele Burns — Wed, 26 May 2021 07:48:19 +0000

Photography Tips – Depth of Field + the Foreground Composition is one of the most important elements of photography. The way you see a scene is translated by your creative approach to framing a subject and there are a multitude of ways to produce something unique to your own vision, one of the best is using depth of field. What is Depth of Field? In short, it relates to the area of sharpness within your image, specifically the distance between the closest and furthest subjects in a photo that appears sharp and in focus. Aperture (f-stop), your focal length and the distance from your subject working together to create the depth of field. You can have a shallow or deep depth of field, which work almost the same way as aperture does, a shallow depth of field results in more background or foreground blur, separating your subject from the surroundings, whereas a deeper depth of field will see your entire image in focus and sharp. Playing with foreground elements is a fun way to learn about depth of field and change up your images by introducing various tones, shapes and patterns into your shot. It also helps you expand your...

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Setting the Scene: Underwater Photography

Lisa Michele Burns — Thu, 08 Apr 2021 00:00:22 +0000

Getting Started with Underwater Photography Taking your photography below the surface opens up so many creative opportunities. Water is my favourite element to work with and once you’ve got the gear and some technical skills, it’s a canvas that’s hard to ignore. Whether you’re in the ocean, a lake or pool, underwater photography is such a fun way to capture your surroundings both above and below the surface. You can shoot underwater portraits, split-level landscape shots or capture the beauty of the underwater world and marine life. For this month’s Setting the Scene I’m sharing a few quick tips on underwater photography; how to plan, prepare your gear and some settings to get started. Underwater Photography: Planning the time + location Depending on what you’re hoping to photograph, planning is a big part of capturing beautiful underwater images. Not only is location important but the tides, currents, weather conditions and your own ability to swim for an extended period of time need to be taken into account. If you’re shooting underwater, water clarity is one of the main issues you’ll face and researching when the best time for clarity is can help in your images being clearer and more colourful....

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Setting the Scene: How to Use White Balance

Lisa Michele Burns — Sun, 28 Mar 2021 00:24:26 +0000

White Balance Photography – A quick guide to adjusting White Balance Settings White Balance is simple function that will change the way you photograph forever. If you’ve been using automatic settings on your camera and notice that sometimes the colours are a little weird, this is how to fix it. All cameras with basic setting ability, regardless of the brand or model should have the ability to manually adjust the tones via the kelvin scale. Provided you aren’t on the automatic setting, you can change your White Balance to control the colour temperature and create images in any light. What is White Balance? The gem of a camera setting determines how accurate the colours and tones in your photographs are represented. It refers to the balance of the white tone in your image, whether or not it is warm or cool. On a bright sunny day your camera will read the scene one way, whereas in low light or dark conditions, it will read it another way. Being able to control this setting means you can tell the camera what tones to produce, resulting in images that look how you want rather than how the camera wants. Depending on the...

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Setting the Scene – Intentional Camera Movement (ICM)

Lisa Michele Burns — Tue, 20 Oct 2020 02:53:10 +0000

Intentional Camera Movement – ICM Photography: Learn how to create beautiful blurred motion! Blur in photography isn’t usually a good thing. We all want sharp, clear images with plenty of detail to showcase the subjects and scenes we’re photographing. But. What if the blur was intentional!? Sometimes it’s all about letting go of the rules and seeing what happens. Panning is a creative technique that can sometimes be overshadowed by long exposures or traditional landscape compositions. The combination of working with movement, colour and light can really test your abilities as a photographer but once you’ve got the hang of it, you’ll find it’s a fun way to capture a scene and incorporate some blur of the good kind! Rather than locking focus on an individual subject and panning to ensure it stays sharp while the surrounding area blurs, let’s take a look at panning to produce an entire image in motion. Photographing seascapes is a great way to test this technique so if possible, venture down to the beach or an open area to give it a go. Below are some tips on settings, gear, light and composition then you’ll find a collection of sample shots with the settings...

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Setting the Scene: Aerial Photography

Lisa Michele Burns — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 19:41:12 +0000

Aerial Photography Tips, Camera Settings + Gear Advice Capturing an alternate perspective of a scene is always exciting, perhaps never more so than when taking aerial photos. With the world beneath and a never ending canvas of potential shots waiting, aerial photography is a thrilling way to take landscape photos. You can be in a helicopter, seaplane, small plane, hot air balloon…the list goes on, whatever your aircraft of choice is, more often than not, the process of taking a great aerial image is the same. In this months ‘Setting the Scene’, I want to share a little about how I capture aerial photographs and list some of the best lenses, settings and creative tips to use for your next aerial attempt. If you’ve never photographed aerials before it can be a little intimidating at first because you’ve got limited time in the sky, it’s usually a bit of a splurge and with the movement and distance, can be tricky to know what to set your camera at to get optimal results. But fear not, once you land you’ll be wanting to do it over and over again! Aerial Photography – When is the best time? Now obviously this depends...

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Setting the Scene: Golden Hour Photography Tips

Lisa Michele Burns — Tue, 04 Sep 2018 22:00:09 +0000

A Quick Guide to Golden Hour Photography As the afternoon draws to a close sunlight appears warmer, softer and so much more beautiful. This is the golden hour and you don’t want to be staring blankly at your camera not knowing what to do when it happens. So…here is your guide to Golden Hour Photography! Whether you are travelling the world and witnessing magical sunsets over the ocean or exploring a park in the middle of a city, the tips below will help you change the way you capture golden hour. Golden hour is that special time of day photographers go crazy for. When the sun is going down and nears the horizon dispersing a gentle light and creating a magic like quality in your images. It’s roughly an hour of varying colours, warm glow and light conditions blending together to form the perfect canvas for photographers to snap away happily. Keep scrolling for the best camera settings for golden hour, golden hour photography tips and more… Golden Hour Photography Tips – Planning the Location: Because golden hour passes by so quickly, it’s essential to plan where you’re hoping to shoot in order to have the best chance of...

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Food Photography Tips: Photographing the Flavours of Macao

Lisa Michele Burns — Thu, 12 Jul 2018 06:44:57 +0000

Food Photography Tips – The Flavours of Macao There’s a saying all about eating the rainbow but I’m going to add one little word at the start, photograph; THEN you can eat all the rainbows you like. Photographing food is like seeing a cute fluffy puppy dog but not being able to give it a cuddle. It raises the question, do you want a good photo or warm food? If you want both, the trick is to know what you’re doing behind the camera so you can have your cake and eat it too. When travelling you’ll come across atmospheric fresh food markets, outdoor cafes, takeaway treats or even fancy restaurants. Being able to capture an image that showcases the dish, it’s colours and textures will add a whole new experience to sampling flavours around the world. On a recent trip to Macao where they’re celebrating the year of gastronomy, I was lucky enough to see and sample some incredible meals from Portugese cuisine through to Chinese and even Nikkei, a new cuisine that blends Peruvian and Japanese flavours together. From this experience, I wanted to share some tips on photographing food because I’m actually not much of a foodie...

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Setting the Scene: Creating Star Trails with Live Composite

Lisa Michele Burns — Thu, 31 Aug 2017 11:12:36 +0000

How to Take Star Trails The magic that exists once you learn how to capture astrophotography and star trails is immeasurable. Astrophotography is about capturing long exposures that bring out the available light and showcase stars and world above. Star trails go one step further, blending long exposures together to actually capture the movement of the stars in relation to the earth’s rotation. Photographing astrophotography is something that took me a while to get the hang of because it’s so very different from photography during the hours of sunlight. It also requires a lot of patience, research and technical skill in order to capture clear and striking images of the night sky. For this month’s Setting the Scene I’m going to share how to capture star trails using the Live Composite mode found on Olympus OM-D cameras. It’s one of, if not the best feature I’ve discovered since shooting with my OM-D E-M1 Mark II and has changed the way I photograph at night. Long exposures are one thing, but blending these exposures together to form an image that incorporates a series of light trails and movement is SO addictive. Let’s get started… Planning the Shoot One thing that will...

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Setting the Scene: Street Photography in Paris

Lisa Michele Burns — Sat, 22 Jul 2017 08:00:36 +0000

Photographing Paris with a 50mm lens! Where bicycles pedal past boulangeries, buildings exude elegance and your camera will be snap happy all day long. This month it’s a special ‘Setting the Scene’ post because rather than focusing on a certain environment, I’m sharing tips about street photography from Le Marais in Paris. Known as a hip, historic and generally laid back quartier of Paris, Le Marais is the perfect place to wander with your camera capturing daily life in this fascinating city. Street photography has a broad definition but I like to bring it back to something simple, photography in a street. Too simple? Basically any photography taken in a street, of a street, in a city where a street is visible…I consider street photography. It can be of buildings, people, moving scenes, whatever you want! So let’s get started on some tips for setting the scene to capture street photography with Paris as our example. Planning the Location + Time Le Marais is photogenic regardless of the time you visit however to capture a series of unique images it’s best to time your shoot. I love the mornings, when people are riding their bike to work, picking up a...

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Setting the Scene: Making Water Dance

Lisa Michele Burns — Sat, 17 Jun 2017 15:02:55 +0000

Long Exposure Photography – How to Take Long Exposures of Moving Water + Create Beautiful Blur Long exposure photography relates to creating soft flowing water and making it blur, dance and glide through your image is one of the most rewarding effects you can do with with your camera. Whether you’re out photographing waterfalls, the sea, rivers or a fountain, making water dance is a simple technique using basic settings that most cameras have available. It’s very similar to long exposure photography however the tips I’m going to share below are possible without fancy gadgets or tools like filters, sometimes you don’t even need a tripod. So…here is your guide to making water blur beautifully with long exposure photography! Planning the Time + Location: The best time to attempt a slow shutter shot without filters is in low light, so essentially in the early hours of the morning or around sunset and dusk when there’s no overpowering sunlight. If the weather is overcast, cloudy and moody it will work really well also. Look for areas where the water is moving fast, places like waterfalls and beaches with a never ending subject matter to capture and test out various settings. I...

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Snow Photography: How To Take Photos in Snow

Lisa Michele Burns — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 21:05:34 +0000

Photographing in the Snow Your Quick Guide to Taking Snow Photos Photographing in the snow should be pretty easy because typically you’re just working with one colour tone, white. Right? While white landscapes might sound simple, it’s actually quite tricky and it’s important to have the correct settings to ensure the tones are correct and your image doesn’t end up washed out and grey. White means bright even on a dull day so you won’t need to worry too much about low light settings or shooting with a tripod unless you’re shooting long exposures or in the evening. Most of the time the landscape will be lit up by the snow, allowing you to focus more on composition once you’ve got your settings spot on. Keep scrolling to read about – – Camera Settings for Snowy Scenes – Snow Composition Tips – Gear you need for snowy conditions and tips on planning the location and also how to focus on a subject that’s lacking contrast. Snow Photography – Planning the Location Photographing snow doesn’t require as much location planning as sunrise or sunset however you will find you get shadows so keep an eye out for the position of the...

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Sunrise Photography – Setting the Scene

Lisa Michele Burns — Mon, 13 Mar 2017 01:30:04 +0000

How to Photograph Sunrise – Sunrise Photography Tips Photographing the warm glow of a sunrise is perhaps the most relaxing scene to capture…or is that because I’m usually still half asleep at the time? Asleep or not, as the sun hovers below the horizon then slowly peeks above, revealing more and more of the landscape with increased light, it’s pretty damn wonderful and sunrise photography can quickly become your new favourite thing! Knowing the right sunrise photography settings is essential to capturing the sunlight as it progressively changes, enabling you to operate effectively despite the early rise. Sunrise photography is about being in the right place at the right time, too late and you’ll miss the colours. You need to also research which direction the sun rises in your location, if you’re after that beautiful burst of sunshine check which way faces east and try to find a location where you can compose a number of shots before and after the sun appears. Beaches and coastal locations are a popular choice for sunrise mainly because you can work with both the water and sunlight, two elements that blend together beautifully. If you’re not near the coast, head for somewhere with...

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