It’’s important you use a fairly large room that is pitch black because on a 30 second shutter speed any light sources (even tiny led lights) will show in your images. You can use glow sticks to draw with but I find small LED torches work best. This is the one I used: key torch.

Set your tripod up at around head height and with the lights on get your friend to stand around 5-6 meters away. Place markers on the floor so you both know where the photo frame starts and ends, it will also help to make sure she/he doesn”t move out of frame or focus when drawing. You want to focus the camera on them and then set it to manual so you don’t lose that focus when the lights go off. Set your camera to around a 30 second shutter speed and ISO at 100. I have a remote for my camera which is really useful in this situation but if you don’t set the camera to use a 10-15 second timer. Now you’re ready to hit the lights.

With the lights off, press the shutter and carefully move behind your friend when the camera fires begin to slowly trace your friend with the torch, keeping your body behind the light. The camera will capture all the movements you make with the light during the 30 seconds. Some other light trace ideas:

*Light tracing/drawing ideas from Flickr

That’s pretty much all there is to it. If the light is not showing try increasing the ISO or make slower/quicker movement with the torch or it maybe that the torch you are using just isn’t bright enough. Here is a quick step by step recap:

1. Position camera on tripod, set your floor markers and focus the camera
2. Use a 30 second shutter speed and ISO 100
3. Set the camera to 10-15 second timer, hit the lights and take the photo
4. With the shutter down draw/trace with the torch/glow stick

It can take a bit of time to master but keep playing and have some fun, maybe try tracing outdoors or using multiple shots of the same location to draw in more detail. Don’t forget to share your results in the discussion section!

For this photo I was lucky enough to get an opportunity to use a local colleges studio for a couple of hours, they had a decent lighting rig set up consisting of a remote slave and three soft boxes. The wall had a large white paper ream spun down and across the floor. I suggest contacting local studios, universities or colleges as students will often be looking for photographers to take photos of them or their work, its a great way to gain experience, use expensive equipment and both parties get what they want for free!

The first challenge is position your lighting; in my case the soft boxes. I placed two of the larger thin boxes down each side and the two square boxes high and in front of the model. The boxes are heavily diffused - giving good all round light, not direct enough to cause harsh shadows which is perfect, I found them much easier to manage than umbrellas. Here is the set up I used:

*lighting positions and general studio set up

The slave is connected to your camera and fires as the main flash triggering the other three soft boxes to fire. The camera needs to be on BULB mode to trigger the external flash. I tried a variety of settings playing with a range of F Stops and exposure times, as well as playing with the white balance.

Eventually I settled on f/14 and a 1/125 sec shutter speed setting the white balance to auto, I purposefully over exposed by two stops as it gave soft edges and a perfect white in the backdrop, although this could have been corrected later using software such as Adobe Lightroom.

Here are a few pointers from my experiences:

• Try to get the perfect white balance and your camera settings sorted first. Playing around with your camera and the lighting while the model is waiting is not ideal. I recommend f/14 and 1/125 sec but play around with these, the white balence and exposure
• Turn off any other light sources; the studio may have standard lighting or a window, try to cover or turn these off as additional light may cast unwanted shadows on the model
• Try as many different poses and positions as your model feels comfortable with. A different or unusual perspective can often create a more appealing image.
• Take a lot of images - they can always be deleted after the shoot…

It would be great to hear other people’s thoughts and suggestions as I am also keen to learn more

Bokeh is basically out of focus areas on an image, usually this would be in a circular or hexagon shape as that is the shape of the blades that make the aperture inside the camera. By covering the lens with black card and cutting a shaped hole in the front we can manipulate the appearance of this bokeh in our images.

A good place to start is by creating a few circular pieces of card the same diameter as your lens. In the centre of these cut out simple shapes around 10-20 mm in size, try hearts, fish, stars, etc.

Then we create a reusable hood to hold these shapes. I tried a few methods but found a Pringles tube wrapped in duct tape provided a durable hood and I got a tight fit over my Canon 50mm lens. It also meant I could use the Pringles lid to keep the circular pieces of card in place. It made swapping shapes really easy and a tight fit ensured the only light getting in was coming through the shape on the front.

shape cut in circular card -> Pringles tube padded with tape -> lens -> hood on camera

Next comes the fun part…

• Place the fairy lights either on your Xmas tree or just hang them from the wall if your tree is no longer up
• Place camera on a tripod with your homemade hood over the lens and place the card over the front with a shape cut in the centre
• Fully open the apeture by using a the lowest F stop available to you
• Set your camera to manual focus and blur the image, if you look through the view finder you should see the lights begin to take the shape that you have cut; the more out of focus you go the more clear this shape should become
• Take some shots! Play around with different amount of lights and the distance you are stood from the lights. If your cut shape is nice and neat and there is no other light leaking into the lens the result should be crisp and clear!

Here are a few more bokeh shots from around flickr:

Try a variety of shapes and get creative with them.

The idea is to capture commonly photographed scenes in a new/different way and the vari-zoom effect is one way to achieve this. It’s not often you see vari-zoom images and this is surprising as it is a fairly simple method that can create interesting results. Here is a basic step by step guide to achieving this result:

• Set the camera to full manual.
• Use a relatively slow shutter speed, try around 1/3 sec - 1 sec to begin with and an F Stop of f/22.
• Focus using the low end of your lens’s focal range and looking at the centre of the subject.
• As the shutter is down quickly increase that focal distance.

I found dusk/night the best time to try this type of shot as in daylight a slow shutter speed will let too much light in and will give you bright white images. Try experiment with different focal distances, shutter speeds and different subject, maybe fair grounds at night?

I’d be interested to see peoples results so give it a try and post back below =]

A room that is perfectly dark when the lights are off will be needed because on a 30 second shutter speed any light sources (even tiny led lights) will show. I used thick black card behind the toys and on the floor, matt black card worked well because it didn’t reflect too much light from the toys but maybe try experiment with the reflections and different surfaces.

Here is a step by step:

1. Set up camera on a tripod. ISO: 100 and 30 sec shutter speed.
2. Mark the left and right sides of the view so you know where the photo will start and end.
3. Set the camera on a timer, turn the toy onto colour transform mode and position on the right side of the photo area.
4. When the shutter goes down slowly nudge the toy from right to left moving on every colour change. Try to keep equal distance between the nudges and use the full photo area.

Don’t worry about your hand or arm getting in the photo, just keep it moving and behind the toy.

Here are a few more I took while experimenting with the mood beams:

Try some other shots and have fun.

The great thing about the zoo is that it enables you to get much closer to the animals than you ever could in the wild. The worst thing is that between you and the animals lies either a huge fence or a glass wall. Animals in the open are perfect but we can still work with animals behind a cage.

I find a focal distance of 200mm+ enough to fully blur out any metal cage in the forground but any less than 200mm and the cage will be visible. Try to take note of the feeding times, although there will be more people around at these times it also ensures the animals are out and active. Often you will have to spend a lot of time waiting, following the animals and looking for the perfect photo opportunity; so be patient, it will come.

Take a wide variety of shots from different angles, perspectives and positions. A lens with a large focal range really helps bring the animals closer and allows for more experimentation with crops and frames. Don’t be afraid to colour correct and touch up images after your visit - this image has been slightly cropped and had the levels adjusted in Adobe Lightroom, it is very rare that I am 100% happy with an image straight from the camera, I always touch up after a day shooting.

I try to capture the character or emotion of the subject; I think one way to do this is to get eye contact with the animal, this can be tricky but if your patient you should get a chance. Here are two examples of good/bad zoo portraits:

1. Natural environment, looking at camera, 2. Cadged environment lacking character

Things to avoid:

• Shooting through glass - its dirty and I find it difficult to stop light reflecting from it.
• Shooting animals indoors - as the lack light creates real problems when shooting from a large focal distance; especially with a slow lens, moving creature and without a tripod!
• Un-natural habitats - try to make sure the background environment is as natural as possible. This can often be hard at some zoos, but try different angles and positions around the cage to make the most of any natural surroundings.

Things to remember:

• Use a large focal distance (200mm +) to blur out any foreground fences or cadges.
• Be patient, take your time and follow the animals waiting for that perfect opportunity
• Try a variety of positions and angles, avoiding any un-natural environments in your photos
• Keep an eye on the feeding times
• But most importantly, have fun!

Feel free to ask any questions; sure I have missed a few pointers so please share your thoughts in the discussion section!