Landscape Photography is fun and good to learn. Especially for beginners, it usually starts with Landscape Photography. You don’t need to deal or having contract with clients. If fail, we can come and re-shot again next time. But besides the technical stuff that you already understand, there are non-technical things that are often forgotten or overlooked but crucial. Here I try to describe based on my experiences.

Notice Season
s
It occurs when a friend traveling to Mount Batur to shot star trail and sunrise, All preparations have been made. Only one fatal mistake that he forgot, he is traveling in rainy season. As a result his journey to capture one of the most beautiful sunrise in the world is totally failed. Yes you have to encourage the best season of a location that you want to go. Moreover, it’s quiet far from home.

Research

Apply for remote areas. Do a research earlier. Where the direction of sunrise or sunset. Where is the Milky Way on that season if you want to astrophotography. There are many apps that are very useful for this, my favorite is “Sun Seeker” and “Google Sky Map”. Look up the best angle, find the natural elements of interest for leading lines, foreground, framing and others.

Preparation

Imagine, hunting to an unknown and very remote location but when you get there, you left your memory cards at home, or forget to charge battery. It will hurt you so much. I always make a small note in phone for the smallest detail like memory cards or battery. Don’t forget to pack snacks and drinks in your camera bag.

Wake up Earlier

The best time to get a good landscape photo is at sunrise time. Sometimes, I’ve been on the spot 1 or 2 hours before sunrise and the sky is still dark in order to find the best angle. So that when the ‘golden hours’ arrive, you are standing on the best spot.

Tripod

At first I always thought all tripods are the same. As long as my camera can be perched on top. But I was wrong. Buying cheap tripod ultimately spend even more because it is not durable / perishable and most make me disappointed, crummy stability. Cheap tripod is often unstable, especially on a windy plateau. We can’t work with Long Exposure with this condition. My advice, do not rush. Save more money and do a survey first. Better buy one good quality and durable than spend small money for rubbish again and again.

Respect Nature

Last thing, respect, watch and appreciate the natural environment. Keep clean. Maintain the environment. Do not leave nothing but footprints. Do not take anything except the photographic work.

Pre wedding photo could be starting line towards your wedding day. Lot of things can be told through a series of pre wedding photos that have been taken. Therefore, having nice looks pre wedding photos, has a theme, and a clear concept is very important.

Well, here are some tips to achieve conceptual pre wedding photos.

1. Character
First thing first, you have to know your character and your partner. Here are the themes:

– Natural
Photos with natural theme usually do not require a lot of properties, just go to beautiful place with nice scenery, this certainly not use excessive decoration.

– Casual
Be casual as you can be! You do not need to wear high heels or tuxedos. Shooting with this concept is very convenient and simple.

– Vintage
Back to ancient times is a suitable sentence to illustrate this concept. Standing outside an old car? Wearing 60s dresses? Hairstyle and make-up ala Marilyn Monroe? Let’s go back to the past!

– Glamour
Make-up and costumes are very important for this concept, lot of sparkling things must be exist. A touch of color such as gold and silver is needed.

– Silhouette
The technique of taking angles and lighting has very important role because silhoutte concept has a mysterious and romantic feels.

– Amazing Bokeh
Bokeh will provide a beautiful picture quality, due to the quality of the blur that separates the object with its background perfectly.

– Tell Your Story with Property
Tell your story and your partner through a property, a placard with the date or favourite quotes is certainly interesting to shown in the picture.

– Romantic
A romantic dinner, with decorations that involve flowers and candles, a night atmosphere which already give a romantic impression is suitable for shooting a romantic concept.

– Continuous Scene
Storyline is very important to this concept. Details for each scene should be considered, starting from the time of make-up and retouch to decoration and property.

2. Location
Determining the right place with the theme that you choose is very important. Place and concept are supporting each other. The common place that you usually visit if combined with appropriate dresses can create beautiful and unique photos.

3. Property
Each concept has a different property needs, usually the photographer will tell you some things to be prepared. In order to maximize the photos, prepare every property in great detail. Browsing will greatly help you to get a property that matches the theme.

4. Make-up and Costume
The combination of makeup and costumes is a very important thing in order to get good photo. Do a research and consultation with your makeup artist to get maximum result.

5. References
Look for some photos or poses you want through magazines, internet or a collection of your photographer.

See some samples here: bali pre wedding photographer

From 2007 to 2015, I get a lot of developments in my photography world. Here are 7 main things that I think quiet important to improve ourselves and in the end, our work.

Learning theory of photography in advance will save a lot of time
Learning photography should begin by studying the theory before practice. Although it is often less fun and boring for some people, but knowing theory will accelerate learning process and improve the photo quality. The main advantage of mastering theory is that we can “make” photos we wanted and could make similar result whenever we want (consistent result). Learning theory can be obtained in various ways such as by reading books, watching videos, blogs, and so on.

Sophisticated gear is good, but good vision is better
I used to assume that expensive gears can make good photos all the time. It’s true the gears such as camera and lenses contribute to the sharpness of the image, the beauty of color and detail. But using the best gears is not enough to produce good photos. The composition, the ability to see and manipulate light, and other sciences are still very important to be learned. Though our gears are simple, but we can create a good work if we focus on improving our creative vision.

Science of photography can be learned and mastered by everyone
Photographer managed to make great photos by hard work and many years of learning, not just talent. According to Thomas Alva Edition, success comes from 1% inspiration and 99% hard work. So don’t worry if we tend to be slow in learning or not really talented in photography. If we have willingness to learn and work hard we can achieve even more than a famous photographer.

Develop your photography style
Everyone has their own preferences on type of photography. There are probably like photojournalism/candid, black and white photography and so on. If what we like does not fit current trends, sometime we get pressure because our photos are not so appreciated by public. Rather than changing our photographic style and follow the trends, better to develop the quality and style of our photo. In addition to more fun, we will also grow faster and more focus.

Photography as a hobby and career are different
Hobby and career are very different things. If we think photography as a hobby, then don’t push yourself to get money from photography. As a hobbyist, we also don’t need to take care of client because purely for our own satisfaction only. There is no demand of ROI (return on investment). On the other hand as a professional, we have to consider many things. And as a pro, our main job is often not photography anymore, but more to the management and marketing. Therefore, please consider carefully if you want to change your hobby into a career.

Lighting is complicated, but really important to learn
Lighting is important to learn, both natural and artificial. When I was a beginner, I underestimate the lighting, just rely on sophisticated camera and expensive lens. But apparently those two things can not solve my problem. All of my photos are mediocre and not as sharp as what supposed to be. After learn lighting, I can get sharper photos and can control the color saturation also light properties.

Find a nice subject
Although an expert photographer able to create a unique photo in a bad environment or common tourist site that is often in the photo, the best results occur when we are in a unique and photogenic environment. Similarly, if we photograph a model/fashion. Beautiful and photogenic model will facilitate our work and make all photos looks much better than ordinary people. This is also occur in still life photography, food and so on.

Off-camera flash refers to the technique of placing an external flash out of the camera. The important question is “Why separated from the camera?”

So that we can put the flash anywhere we want. Be able to control the direction of light is something that is very valuable for photographer.
We can install light-shaper (forming light) such as umbrella, softbox, snoot and others to soften or adjust the spread of lights. If the flash is on camera, it will difficult to attach accessories. Controlling the quality of light is really meaningful for photographer.
Can use more than one flash to illuminate many things, for example it could illuminate the face, hair, and other specific area on portrait photography. Creativity will be infinite!

Well, I would like to explain you a little about how to fire off-camera flash.

Firstly, you have to know that to fire a flash which is separated with your camera, you need a trigger. Here are some kind of flash trigger.

1. Cable (off shoe cord)
   Pros: Usually quite affordable and dependable.
   Weakness: distance between camera and flash is limited about 60cm away.
2. Optic / flash trigger (built-in flash, flash, infrared transmitter)
   Pros: Practical.
   Weakness: If the light is blocked or too far (over 10 meters) flash may fail.
3. Radio trigger
   Pros: can reach tens to 100 meters distance.
   Weakness: usually quite expensive, especially that supports automatic (TTL) and high-speed sync.

Nowadays many types of cameras that have built-in flash which can be used to trigger off-camera flash, for example various Canon’s DSLR cameras such as 600D, 650D, 700D to sophisticated such as 60D, 70D and 7D.

For Nikon DSLR camera, semi-pro like Nikon D90, D7000, D7100, D300s, D600, D610, D700, D750, D800, D810. For Sony SLT cameras, the flash can be used as trigger, but its mirrorless like Sony Nex or Sony A6000 are not be able.

Flash which has function of Master / Commander / Controller can trigger and send instructions to flash that is set as a slave to fire with flash light. The advantages of this setting is not needed additional trigger anymore. Example: Canon 580EX II, 600RT, Nikon SB900, 910, Sony HVL 60, 43, Shanny SN600SC, YN568

Another simple alternative trigger is a pair of wireless radio trigger. The transmitters mounted on the camera and receiver units installed under the flash. This kind of wireless trigger has quite a lot of variations. Essentially there are manual, auto / TTL to HSS. The good thing of this kind of trigger is its distance that can reach 100 meters.

Infrared / Radio triggers are also quite popular as a trigger, especially because there are some flash that already has a built-in receiver such as Canon 600RT. Flash which has a receiver in the flash unit makes everything more symple. We also don’t need to worry to forget some extra batteries for the receiver trigger.

Typically, such a sophisticated transmitter such as E3-RT allows us to harness the power of the flash light and divide some flash into groups. Example: Canon E3-RT, Phottix Odin, Shanny SN E3-RT.

To get some nice family or group photos, here are some tips and techniques:

Don’t put the camera too close to the subject
Because when it get too close, then we will be forced to zoom out or use an ultrawide lens because if too wide, then the shape of the face who are on the edge of the frame will be distorted (changing form). If possible, use the minimum focal lens 30-50mm.

Organize people in the group so that adjacent
The purpose is to get a better composition and there are no cracks between people. This is also to get the light evenly when using flash. But also do not too close to prevent any unwanted shadow.

Triangle Composition
Composition in group photo is one important factor that makes that photo looks better. One that I think a solid composition, is triangle. The trick, we set the tallest people in the middle then the shortest at the edges.

Balancing ambient light with flash
When indoors rather dark, and we are forced to use a flash, don’t forget to balance the flash with the room light. If not balanced, the background will be too dark and the atmosphere will be lost. The trick is not difficult, slow down the shutter speed so that the light environment can be recorded. When using a relatively slow shutter speed, hold the camera steady or use a tripod.

Reflecting Flash Light
When using an external flash, we could possibly use reflective techniques. If the ceiling is white and not too high, we can reflect light so that the light falling on your subject quiet smooth.

Different Flash Light Angle
It will be better if we could separate the flash with camera. By separating the flash with the camera, we can direct the light so that the face looks dimensionless. When we feel the light falling too hard, we can use an umbrella or reflect the light to the white wall.

Outdoor
When we are outdoors, please look for a shady place for everyone so that the light falling to everyone’s face is the same/not mottled. Also make sure no direct sunlight shining on the face because it can be blinding. When the sunlight behind, we often need a flash.

In photography, vision is more important than gear (cameras equipment). Vision determines whether a work looks outstanding or not. Photography vision means a “personal viewpoint” of the photographer itself that can not be seen by other photographers. For example, in a photo hunting event that followed by some photographers, a lot of photos looks similar to each other. But sometimes there is a participant who make some photos that completely different from the others. Apparently, that photographer have a different vision with others, and able to express his vision in a good photograph.

Actually, vision is to see what is not seen by other people. If you see a landscape photo or a place you’ve visited and it has a very different impression to what you see with your own eyes, it means you’re looking at the vision of the photographer, not photo documentation of that place. Thus, vision training is very important especially for landscape and travel photography since anyone can go there and take a picture freely.

Vision is born from inside, influenced by the historical background of ourselves and what we love. In other words, Vision is a reflection of ourselves. We can not get the vision of someone else. Thus, actually vision can not be derived directly just like a science.

Back to the photo hunting event: Why there are some photographers that produce very different photos than the others? Or in other words, why everyone does not have the same viewpoint? The reason is the vision itself. Vision herding everyone view and focus on different things. Some photographers at one location may be interested in “Grand Vista” or whole/panoramic scenery. But the other photographers might be interested to shoot the detail of trees, fruit or insects, and some other photographers may be more attracted to the human interest such as farmers or ranchers who are working.

By focus on an idea, concept or subject, then the chance to make a good photo will be higher, due to the concentration and mental energy focus into the concept. But everything is need patience and perseverance. Search within yourself what is the draws on that objects or locations. What is perceived and how is the photo/editing technique that can communicate that feeling.

Vision is the view that we see in our mind’s eye. To be able to realize our vision, we need an imagination and creativity. Selection of the right tools and some editing process are also needed to realize a good photo work. Without technical ability, vision will not be realized perfectly. Vision is also strongly associated with the style of photography (personal style). If we consistently develop our vision, the personal style will be created and people will more easily recognize our work.

Just like a life, vision and style will also change as time goes on. Maybe once we like a photo with high color saturation, but after a few years maybe black and white. Maybe now we prefer to use large aperture lens and make blurred background (bokeh). But in the future may be we love sharp detail from the background until the foreground. Everything gonna be changed, our photo quality will also changed to be better and better.

Well, How to train your Vision?
– Master the basic techniques of photography and make a commitment to learn continuously and follow the evolving imaging technologies.
– Focus to see and pay attention to one or few preferred subjects, don’t push photographing variety of subjects of photos at once.
– Select the right equipment (cameras, lenses, accessories) according to your budget, it will save the time and optimizing your photo quality.
– Training and continuous practice will produce good work, it’s not just talent and luck. The most important practice is not only photographing activities, but how do we see the subject.
– Learning by seeing, take a look at the pictures of other photographers and other visual arts such as painting, movies, and so on.
– Create a personal photography project, for example, a collection of old trees photos, vehicles, portrait, culture etc.

As a professional or enthusiasts of photography, we certainly often shooting for an event. Whether it’s a wedding, birthday party, company gala dinner, or maybe documenting a “contract signing” in a company. Well, one element that should not be forgotten when photographing an event is the ‘details’.

‘Details’ means a technique of taking photo by close up to be able to describe one of the important parts of an event. So, which parts should be taken in ‘Details’? Just one key, you have to know what the event is. That’s it!

Each event should have some symbols in the form of objects or special ceremonial as a hallmark of the event. For example:

Wedding:special objects such as rings (all tribes and religions must be wear it) and also the main blessing ceremony whether it’s a blessing in church, mosque or other place of worship in accordance with the religious affiliation of the bride and groom.
Birthday:the cupcakes, tarts, as well as the goody bag.
Seminar:Notebook/ballpoint which usually identifies the event venue.
Gala Dinner:Invitation card which are usually tailored to the theme and accompanied by a special symbol.

These items must always be exist when we photographing such events. Well, how important is it in a series of documentation photos? Yes, that’s really important in order to produce ‘telling story’ pictures and have a strong background story when compiled/assembled into a photo album.

Here are the benefits of element ‘Details’ in a photo documentation.

As a form of affirmation and depth of story
When we are looking at a wedding album we would see pictures which are based on processions in 1 page. For example when exchanging the ring, then 1 page in the album will include a procession of mounting rings. That page may be showing photos which taken in medium close-up or the face of bride and groom as a whole.


As a symbol of the event
As a photographer of an event, of course we have to well understand about that event. For example, the element of ‘Details’ in this photo is the ‘Lembu’ (statue of a cow) as the symbol of a ‘Ngaben’ ceremony in Bali.



As the venue identity
The element of ‘Details’ in this photo shown the identity of venue where the event was held. In this case is a seminar/meeting hold in Mamaison hotel.



For a description of the atmosphere
Sometimes an object can represent the atmosphere of an event. This photo shows cheerful atmosphere in a birthday party. Colorful Cup cakes reinforce that atmosphere.

Well, just by entering a few elements of ‘Details’ in our event photography, inadvertently we’ve made ​​a series of photos which can telling the story of that event. As the photographer, we are not only required to be able to photograph all the things from the beginning to the end. But like a director, we have to make ‘telling story’ photos just like a movie. In which part should be inserted an affirmation and a different image variations.

A good event photography is not only a photo that good in technically. But a photograph that be able to speak emotionally with varying image semiotics.