Workflow by Michael Leyba

Workflow is how you manage your files from taking them with your camera, storing them and later retrieving them.

I read a blog by Sherry Meyer on Themes in Your Shooting. It has some very useful information for photographers. Check out the blog by Sherry Meyer on shooting in themes and how they will help you with developing a collection of photographs. Workflow is being able to perhaps tag your images with descriptions that will help you locate them in the future.

I have tried to photograph interesting things in my travels and I often have recurring photographs of certain things. I love doors. I would like to put Sherry’s advice to work and collect photographs I have of doors. My favorite door is one from Spain of a hand as the door knocker and a little old man peering through the window. Here is my problem though. I don’t know where the original or negative is. This is why I love digital photography as it is much easier to file photographs in a way that they can be found. How do you keep track of your photographs? It would be interesting to read other’s comments on this.

Thanks for listening,

Michael

Michael Leyba
Portraits by Michael
http://www.michaelleyba.com

Thanks for Listening,

Michael

Michael Leyba
Portraits by Michael
http://www.michaelleyba.com

Backgrounds in Portrait Photography by Michael Leyba

Backgrounds are something very important to a portrait. Backgrounds have been used in art for a long, long time. Have you ever noticed the background on the Mona Lisa by Leonardo DaVinci. It is the hills of Tuscany. They enhance the portrait by adding depth and color. If it would have been a plain white background would the portrait have been as famous. The background added to the portrait by providing a setting of a young girl in a place of beauty, grace, and simplicity. If Mona would have been in front of a market scene in Florence the portrait might have lost some of its interest on the character of Mona. The focus could have been transferred to the background scene.

A background is a complement to the portrait and generally, not a distraction. A solid white or other color as a background may provide a mood to the portrait, but not much else. If one wants the subject to stand out from the background then the best choice may be black. A black background places the subject alone and the person stands out. The expression will say the most if the subject is also wearing black clothes.

At my studio we have what is called a scene machine. This machine is made by the Virtual Backgrounds company in San Marcos, Texas. The owner is Dr. Henry Oles and he helped develop this machine to provide a virtually unlimited amount of backgrounds using slides that are projected onto a highly reflective background. Dr. Oles has a very good book on backgrounds, called, “Background Power.” The background is more reflective than the human skin or clothing; therefore, the slide that is projected does not show except on the reflective screen. This makes it possible to place the subject in a wide variety of locations that the slide represents. For instance, you can have a person wearing a ski sweater with goggles and place them on a slope of Mount Everest for the scene which is actually being photographed in the desert studio of West Texas. Fall photographs are a year round possibility with the scene machine.

The photograph looks more realistic with foreground props that complement the scene. The potential is really unlimited. These scene machines are used by some of the best photographers in the world, such as; The Simones of Montreal, Canada and the website at http://www.simoneportrait.com/. Louise Simone paints backgrounds that are then turned into slides and used as virtual backgrounds for their subjects. The portraits are lit the same way as a traditional photography studio by using flash strobes. The most important thing is not to project the lights onto the background material so that they will be reflected and captured by the camera.

Another very good photographer using the scene machine is Trevon Baker. His photographs use the backgrounds to add emotion to the portraits he creates.

I hope to be creating some unique images in the future with my scene machine. I have been limited by space up until now by having a small studio in my house. In the near future I will have a larger studio to compose beautiful images. Stop back by and check out images here or on my website.

Thanks for listening,

Michael

Michael Leyba
Portraits by Michael
http://www.michaelleyba.com

The Lens by Michael Leyba

There are many types of lens on the market for cameras. Lens are most commonly for sale to fit amateur and professional 35mm single lens reflex cameras.

Listed below are the various types of lenses.
Zoom: Changing focal length from wider to more restricted view. The lenses are measured in millimeter. The lower the number the wider the angle of view. 10mm for a 35mm or digital Single Lens Reflex (SLR) camera would be considered wide angle and possibly fisheye for the distortion of curvature around the subject in the middle.
There are normal zoom lens that have focal lengths near the normal angle of view from the viewpoint of the human eye. This is normally about 50-55mm lens.
A zoom telephoto is a lens that allows you to have a wider focal length with a longer focal length. They are great for getting up close to wildlife, close to fast action sports that could be dangerous, and capture the distortion of objects that are separated by distances, yet look up close or close together due to this lens.

Fixed Focal Length: This lens can not change it’s appearance of angle of view. A 50mm normal lens is an example of a fixed focal length lens. To increase the angle of view you actually have to back up or to decrease the angle of view you have to move closer with the camera and lens. Advantages for the fixed focal length lens is that it can be sharper than a zoom lens and also have a wider aperture.

Telephoto: This is a narrow field of view. It allows the user to get closer to the scene to be photographed without getting physically closer.

Wide Angle: This is a wide field of view. It allows the user to move away from the scene to be photographed without getting physically away.

Normal: This is the angle of view that is closest to the human eye. We things without distortion.

Fast: Amount of light the lens lets into the camera. This is usually a very low f-stop or aperture for the lens. For instance, a telephoto with an aperture of f2.8 is faster than the next f-stop up of f4. Very fast lenses are f1.2, f1.4, f1.8, f2, f2.8. It depends too on the focal length of the lens as to how fast it is. For instance a 50mm f2.8 lens would be considered slow versus a 500mm f2.8 would be very fast.

The most common type of lens used today is the zoom lens. There are several types of zoom lens. One type is a wide-angle zoom lens that is useful for taking photographs of interiors or indoor settings. This lens ranges from about 20mm to 80mm. The smaller the number in millimeters the greater the angle is. If we had perfect peripheral vision we could see to the left, right, up, and down perfectly. A wide angle lens generally is not the choice for portraiture.
The middle range zoom lens is well suited for portraits. The focal length on these lenses generally is between 70mm to 150mm. These limit the distortion in portraits, yet do not make exaggerations of a person’s form.

The long range or telephoto range of zoom lens is for getting closer to distant objects like wildlife, sports action, or to narrow the depth of field of a subject. The focal length is usually 150mm-600mm.

Some lenses have the ability to move left and right. These are called shift lens and they work similar to view cameras in their ability to move left and right so part of image will be in focus if it is on the plane of the lens. They are expensive lens and require experience in their use; therefore, not generally for the consumer.

Close-up lens or macro lens allows the photographer to photograph things that are very small or that they want to get large photographs of small details on the object. These lens can sometimes be referred to as filters as they might screw into the end of the lens and magnify what is seen by using diopters or scales of magnification. Some lens have macro features that allow them to be used normally as lens, but allow them also to photograph up close. This is referred to as the minimum focusing distance.

There are two types of lens showing the light coming from the direction of going into in general convex ) is where light would be like a windshield that bounced light off it and concave ( where the light is collected like a satellite dish. The convex lens is thicker in the middle then the edges. The concave lens is thicker on the edges than in the center. The light bends outward or inward depending on the type of lens. These lens are curved glass that due to the curve can have magnifying or the opposite of magnifying of making things seem smaller. There are several of these lenses in a camera lens. The quality of them makes the image clear and distortion free. The amount of distortion around the edge of the lens is a guide to the quality of the lens. All lens have some distortion around the edge of the lens and image created. This is called aberration. Some of the types of aberration are distortion, curvature of field, spherical aberration, chromatic aberration, oblique aberration and coma. Lens use refraction of light as they bend light from the source to the sensor. Our eyes also use refraction to see.

Most camera lenses are made of glass, but some are made of plastic. The quality of the glass or plastic will determine the quality of the lens. One of the first lenses was a pinhole. The tiny hole acted as a lens and due to the small aperture the image projected was in focus. The light must be very intense or the time that the pinhole lets in light very long for an image to result. There is a new lens that has been on the market a few years called,”Lensbaby.” It is a movable lens. It can rock back and forth since it is on a rubber neck. It has certain areas in focus and others that can be distorted.

The lens is the eye to the camera and therefore one of the most important parts of a camera. If the lens is dirty than the image will be dirty. It is the first thing and the last thing to look at for photography quality.

Thanks for listening,

Michael

Michael Leyba
Portrait by Michael
http://www.michaelleyba.com

Types of Cameras by Michael Leyba

Have you ever thought about all the different types of cameras that have been invented. Here are a few of them:

1. Miniature or Spy cameras in all sorts of shapes and sizes. From cameras inside pens, shoes, tie tacks, briefcases, and to under the wings of reconnaissance planes. Whereever someone wanted to take a photo of something these cameras have been devised to take them. Minox was a maker of these types of cameras which were very silent in order not to tip anyone off that the person was taking a photograph.

2. 35mm cameras come from the size of the film, 35 millimeter. It has been a popular film type for decades and the cameras are still in common use today. Popular manufacturers were Canon, Nikon, Minolta, Pentax, Konica and many others. Leica was one of the first makers of the 35mm camera.

3. 110 cameras started in the late sixties as a film type that allowed for miniature cameras with flashes attached to them. They had very tiny film cartridges that easily were put in the camera. These were sometimes called, cartridge cameras. Kodak sold many of this type of cameras. A fancy model was sold by Pentax.

4. 120 camera use roll film in either 120 or 220 sizes. This is the same as medium format cameras. Some examples are Hasselblad, Bronica, Mamiya, Pentax and others.

5. Box camera was an old type of camera that looked like a box. Brownie was a popular brand. Kodak started making this type of cameras in the late 1880s where the customer could take 100 photographs and then turn the entire box into Kodak to be printed and reloaded with new film.

6. Disc cameras have been in use for over a decade and use discs with small negatives on them.

7. Instant cameras started in the 1940s with Polaroid making them. Edwin Land invented the process. His business was great until the digital area with digital photos also being instant. The term instant was almost synonomous with Polaroid. Kodak began making instant cameras, but they never reached the popularity of the Polaroid. The SX-70 was a famous model of instant camera.

8. SLR or Single Lens Reflex is a type of 35mm and now digital camera. Sometimes these cameras are referred to as TTL or Through The Lens. The user views a scene through the actual lens that takes the exposure by using a mirror and prism on top of the camera. The prism reverses the image and allows the photographer to focus on the subject. At the exposure, the mirror lifts up to expose the film or digital sensor. Famous camera makers include Canon, Nikon, Minolta, Pentax, Leica, Olympus, Contax, and many others. These days there are big makers still around such as Canon and Nikon that are joined by Sony, Olympus, Fuji and a few others.

9. Rangefinder or Viewfinder cameras. These cameras were different than the SLR type in that the shutter was usually between the lens. They could not see the actual photograph that would be taken, but something close since the viewfinder was not through the lens. It was off to the side somewhat. It wouldn’t make too much difference if the subject was far away, but could make a big difference for subjects that were very close. There is a difference called the parallax effect. These cameras had the advantage of being very quiet compared to the single lens reflex due to the mirror that had to swing out of the way when taking the photograph with a SLR camera. The Leica was one of the most popular viewfinder cameras until the SLR became popular.

10. View camera. These cameras are the big ones. They come in sizes like 4×5 meaning 4inches by 5 inches size negative that results from an exposure. A 4×5 camera produces one film image at a time that is taken on a plate with film loaded in it. A slide is in place of the film in the holder until the photographer is ready to make an image. At that time the photographer removes the slide (usually metal,) takes the exposure, and replaces the metal slide and removes it off the back of the camera. Focusing with a 4×5 view camera is done under a dark cloth that is placed over the back of the camera and the photographer’s head. One has to use a viewing loupe that magnifies the ground glass at the back of the camera. Also an important feature of this camera is the movements it has for creating depth of field on objects. The movements are known as shifts (left to right) and tilts (up and down.) These movements are for perspective and for depth of field. For instance if one photographs a building up close the lines on the outside of the building converge near the top due to the distortion from the lens. A view c Hereamera can use the tilt movements to limit these distortions. Other sizes of view cameras are generally 5×7 and 8×10 each measured in inches as well as a big 20×24 )Polaroid camera that is the largest view camera currently in the world.

Those are the types of cameras I am most familiar with. Do you know of some other types that do not fall under the above categories. Here are a few; underwater, pinhole, and stereo. I would love to hear your comments on your love of any of the above cameras. Thanks for listening.

Michael

Michael Leyba
Portraits by Michael
http://www.michaelleyba.com

What do you know about digital? by Michael Leyba

I love digital. I love analog. Ever thought of the difference. Analog is approximate. Take a watch. An analog watch has a minute and hour hand. Perhaps even a second hand. When you tell the time you are approximating the time. If you tell someone I will meet you at 1:43pm it may be 1:43 pm or it could be 1:42 or 1:44 if you don’t have a second hand or you don’t have minute markings on the watch. With a digital watch you will know exactly what time it is. If your watch is synchronized with Ft Collins Atomic Clock then you know your watch is accurate to a few seconds. Why is that important?

It is important if you want to replicate something. If you had a chemistry darkroom and you wanted your water temperature to be 79 degrees fahrenheit and you have a hot and cold water valve and you have an analog thermometer you are going to go nuts getting the temperature just right; however if you have a digital temperature controlled system you put the system at 79 degrees and it adjusts everything once a minute to keep it 79 degrees.

In the darkroom when we used to enlarge and print photographs you had a timer, but it might not have been that accurate. You might have your temperatures off some. You might have color dials for Yellow, Magenta, and Cyan colors dialed in using analog dials. You might have an aperture on the lens that did not have clicks for different apertures, but had approximates instead. What would have been worse is the old fashioned camera with the lens cap as the shutter speed. They left it open for about one thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three, etc. It would be very hard to replicate a scene especially without a light meter and changing lighting conditions. Argh!

With that advent of digital it has made our lives easier. Or has it. There are still many variables in photography. What do you like about analog and digital?

My wife gave me a great present a few years ago. It is an analog watch with digital insides. It has an atomic clock receiver and keeps super accurate time, but doesn’t look nerdy like all my other watches of past. It is nerdy, but doesn’t look nerdy. Eat your heart out Bill Gates.

Thanks for listening,

Michael

Michael Leyba
Portraits by Michael
http://www.michaelleyba.com

New Studio by Michael Leyba

I am in the process of opening my photography studio within a few weeks. I’m nervous and excited about the possibilities. My wife, Karen will be decorating it and I will be doing work to get it going. We will be opening our business,
The Tea Party at the same time.

Any comments of support would be greatly appreciated by folks in Midland or elsewhere around the world. Thanks in advance.

Thanks for listening,

Michael

Michael Leyba
Portraits by Michael
http://www.michaelleyba.com

Publish Your Book by Michael Leyba

I’m going to write and publish a book shortly. It has been a goal of mine
for a while now. It will be on the Beauty of Big Bend National Park.
I am researching now how to go about it. When I am successful
I will help other authors publish their books too. I believe that the
world of publishing has come a long ways since Gutenberg invented
his press with movable type.

Up to that time books were hand printed and took a long time to
make. They were beautiful books, but they took so long that
there were not many books published worldwide each year.

The Gutenberg printing press made it possible to print over 10
times the number of books produced each year. The quantity
of the books printed were much greater.

With the advent of computers and printers it is now possible for
people to make even more books. Here is the problem; most
people don’t know how to write a book. We are taught the
basics in school of how to write, but we were not taught how
to write a book.

The simplest book to write would be the autobiography. We
know the subject and we have all the information at our
disposal in our wonderful brains.

Have you ever thought about writing an autobiography?
Where would you start? How many chapters would it
have? Think about what a wonderful legacy for other family members.

Perhaps the best place to start is by reading other
autobiographies to get an idea of how they did it.

I think one of the biggest things that kept people from
publishing before was having a publisher to produce the
books and the quantity one had to have to sell the books
to pay for the publishing process.

The advent of Print on Demand (POD) publishers
and E-Books has helped the aspiring author to think
again about publishing books. My mother, Dorothy, wrote
many short stories on paper, but never typed in all the stories.
She never approached a book publisher about her stories.

Now with the tools available we can publish our own books.
We can type the manuscript, format it, edit it, and print it.
We can even get them bound and have a finished book.
The thing that complicates it at this point is getting the
ISBN number and Library of Congress copyright. This is the
part I am working on currently.

Once I publish my own book I will be in a position to help
others publish their books. Stay tuned for more information.
What do you think about this information? I’d love to hear
your comments.

Thanks for listening,

Michael

Portraits by Michael
Michael Leyba
http://www.michaelleyba.com

A Great Portrait by Michael Leyba

What makes a great portrait? There are many things that contribute, but here are some important indicators.

Tone of the photograph. What is the mood? Is it easily determined by looking at the subject. Does it enhance the subject? For instance, if the subject is dark, does it bring up interesting questions like what is going on here. If the subject is light, does it still bring up questions on why the subject is there and what is happening or happened. Think about the Mona Lisa. It is the most famous portrait of all time. There is a mystery to Mona’s slight smile. People do not know her or understand why she was posing. There are hills in the back probably near Florence, Italy, but people don’t know why she was there other than to have her portrait painted.
Focus of the photograph. What is the primary focus? Are you led to the subject? Does the subject hold your attention. Going back to the Mona Lisa. Our focus is the subject, Mona and she can keep our attention if we look at the details of the painting.
Depth of the photograph. Is there a foreground, middle ground, and background? There doesn’t have to be all three, but does the portrait have a three dimensional quality? The depth of field represented by the portrait helps keep our eye on the most important part; usually, the middle ground. The foreground leads into the middle ground and the background frames the subject.
Lighting in the photograph. What lighting is there in the portrait? Is there a background light, hair light, accent lights, main light and fill light? All these lights add dimension and interest to the portrait. Skillfully placed these light shape the contours of the face with highlights and shadows. Rembrandt skillfully used lighting in his portraits. One characteristic of his lighting was to place the subject at a 45 degree angle from the light source with the light source being higher than the subject. The light hit’s the subject so that there is a shadow on the opposite side of the nose that touches the lip. Another characteristic may be a triangle hightlight on the cheek opposite the light.
Color in the portrait. There should be color that adds to the portrait. Even in the case of black and white. Sometimes there are tones added to portraits to give different effects. What is the color, hue, and saturation of the photograph. Andy Warhol painted portraits with vibrant colors as did Peter Max. Part of what makes their portraits special is the use of color. Warhol did this often in series using the same subject, but with different color.
Contrast in the portrait. Artists use contrast to give attention or take it away from highlights and shadows. Contrast adds dimension to the portrait. Sometimes mood will be enhanced by taking away the contrast and this works with subjects surrounded by fog or dark areas. Gertrude Kasebier photographs seem to display this lack of contrast that makes her work obvious to the viewer.
Composition in the portrait. How balanced does the subject look? Are they in the center of the frame or do they follow the rule of thirds? Do they have balance with other objects in the photograph?
Viewpoint in the portrait. Where is the subject looking? The more intimate portraits will show the subject looking into the artist’s eye or lens. A subject may look away from the artist or lens, but it makes the portrait seem more distant in relationship.

These are some of the things I think makes a great portrait. What do you think? Please reply to this blog. Thanks for listening,

Michael

Michael Leyba
Portraits by Michael
http://www.michaelleyba.com

Appreciation by Michael Leyba

I finally broke down and bought a Lensbaby. Lensbabies are attachments to the camera that act as a lens that we can distort by pulling and pushing them to get things in focus and out of focus for special effects.
When we look at life through our eyes we tend to see as our eyes see. As we get older we lose some of our near vision and far vision. For some their eyes started getting worse and they have cataracts or glaucoma. As a photographer this would be very bad indeed. In fact, it is a terrible thing for anyone. Distortion and blurriness are things that we don’t want to happen unless we are using the lens baby.

As I look out the window this morning I see gloomy clouds, but there is one hint of a blue sky there. How much blue sky do you see each day? In other words are you a pessimist or an optimist. I sometimes quiver between both of them. It would be glorious to be an optimist 24/7. Always to see the bright, sunny side of things. Always to expect the best. I’ve heard we are a product of our outlook. If we see gloomy day-to-day we will experience gloomy. It seems like this is true since that would be our perspective.

How then do we change our outlook toward more positive things? One way is to appreciate what we have in this world. Do you appreciate everything you have? The air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat. Do you appreciate where you live and the warmth of your living environment? Many do not have it so good in this world and sometimes they can be more grateful than we are.

If we appreciate what we have do we take care of it. Do we appreciate our vehicles we drive each day and take proper care of them? I have to admit I may be lax in this at times. It is all in the eyes of the beholder. I hope you can appreciate what I’ve said here.

Thanks for listening.

Michael

Michael Leyba
Portraits by Michael
http://www.michaelleyba.com

Portraits by Michael by Michael Leyba

Our business is taking photographs of families and businesses. We help our clients tell their story through sights, sounds and motion. Do you have a story to tell? We think everyone has a story to tell. It may be of the love you have for your fiance, spouse, child, or parent.

When was the last time you had a portrait made of the people you love? I heard a story about a photographer recently who was planning on taking a family portrait. Should be fairly easy, right? Well, she put it off more than a few times. She went to Florida to see her family and her husband planned on driving later in the evening. She was talking to him on the cellphone when the phone must have dropped and she heard a terrible noise. She never was able to take that photograph of their family. Circumstances occur in our life as we are reminded in the Bible at Ecclesiastes 9:11. Take the time now to appreciate your family and friends and record a memory that is meaningful for you. Tell your story!