Ahoj!
This is Zdenka.
One of the mistakes new photographers make is composition, poor framing, not emphasizing
the object in photos enough and not really telling the story.
Yeah... well, it's more like a mixture of mistakes.
Well, I really thought that today I should be talking about how I process my thoughts.
What I am thinking in my head, how I am getting there to take the shot, what my process really
is of getting the shot.
And hopefully, since I really want to help you out, you will open up your mind and your
eyes and start seeing it as well.
And for the new faces, welcome.
My name is Zdenka Darula.
I work as a photographer since 2007.
I make tutorials, tech reviews and creative camera challenges, so if that is something
you are interested in consider hitting the subscribe button.
When I was 15 years old, I was obsessed with photos.
In fashion magazines particularly.
I had to go through all the magazines, flip all those pages, look at all those photos,
never read any article.
I just wanted to see more photos, more and more and more.
And then I was 16 and I started doing modeling and throughout my modeling years I was still
obsessed with photos but I wanted to have them in my portfolio.
I always saw some photo in fashion magazine and I wanted to have that style.
But sometimes it was quite challenging to find the right photographer which could actually
do that for me.
And at the age of 27, 28 I transitioned from modeling to photography.
And that is when I finally was happy because I could capture all those photos I always
wanted to have.
I never went to school, I never studied photography, I literally borrowed the camera from my friend
for the weekend, I did my first shoot with a model and that shoot landed me my first
magazine cover.
Now, I am not saying this to show off whatsoever.
What I am saying is that there is a group of people which have that natural eye in them,
they are born with it, they are very lucky.
They just grab the tool and they go.
Then there is a group of people which they have it in them too but they need that little
push, that little.. just go and start seeing it.
And then there is the third group of people which unfortunately will never see it.
When I am holding a camera, when I am holding any camera and I am standing for example on
the street, I am looking around, I am trying to find an object to take photos of.
If I see people and there is a group of people maybe 3 or 4, there is the one person which
stands out and it can be because it's strange person looking or great person looking or
beautiful, strange, goofy, something like that something that really catches my attention.
There is always something about that one person which stands out.
The same thing happens when I am shooting weddings.
I see a group of people, there is one person which will stand out and that will be the
focus of my images.
If I am taking a portrait of a person, I usually very quickly look at the person and immediately
I see one thing which catches my attention.
Maybe beautiful eyes, full lips or just cheek bones, you know structure of a face.
Something which really catches my attention and stands out on that person.
If there is a scene like a street or city or landscape or anything like that, I always
pick one object as well.
Weather it is window, balcony, doors, building, corner, just a nice street, leading lines.
It's usually the one thing which will catch my eye.
I rarely take photo of a clutter.
If you try to take photo of everything, it will be very messy and it's not gonna be that
eye catching, stand out photo.
Try this.
Grab few objects in your house and put them on a table.
Kind of leave it as a group.
Take photo of it.
Snap it.
Now look at the photo and you will see, it is just you know group of objects together.
Now, take one object which you like the most for whatever reason, pull it much closer to
you, focus on an object, keep the rest kind of in a background, far back, little bit blurred
out, take the photo, now look at the photo and you will see right away that it is much
stronger, much more eye catching photo.
It is the best to try to avoid taking photos of a clutter.
You probably heard about the rule of thirds.
They always say that beginners are placing the object usually in a center of an image
but they should be using rule of thirds kind of moving it little bit more to the side.
Well, not always.
Rules are to be broken and I break them lot of times.
I place the main focus of the image lots in a center.
But I also place the main focus of an image lots on a side.
If I am taking photos of a models, you know fashion, portraits or swimwear, glamour, then
obviously most of the time I place them in a center.
But if I am taking photos on a street or at the weddings, or if I am doing landscape or
something like that and if it is more like an empty large scene and I have the object
in a center, I kind of find I am missing something or it's not interesting or there is something
curve then yes I place it more to the side to make it more interesting for sure.
I like to take lots of simple, plain photos of an object but then to develop the set of
more interesting shots to have it like a full interesting set, I like to look for natural
framing of the photos.
And I am not talking about digital framing or the artificial framing of the photos.
I am talking about natural framing.
It can be from one side, both sides, all sides from the top, the bottom.
If I am taking photo for example of a person in a group of people, one person talking.
How about including maybe the shot of blurred shoulders of those other people?
Those shoulders are creating a frame to the main object.
Window can be a frame, door can be a frame, building can be a frame, lot of trees in a
background can be a frame.
The frame can be in a foreground and background as well.
I love to shoot through stuff.
So I love to shoot through branches, through leaves and at the wedding I like to shoot
through glasses.
Just make it more interesting.
The blurry stuff in a front can frame the object very nicely in the back.
If you are taking photos of a lake, sea or nature, but landscape, make sure the horizon
is really nice and straight.
Don't have it like this or like this.
It is very difficult to fix it in post.
I love to use zoom lens on my camera.
I love to zoom in and out and I love to frame and crop the object the photo right away in
my camera because I am simply too lazy to spend all that time editing on a computer.
Yeah, I am too lazy.
So weather you have a zoom lens or you have a prime lens, try to frame it right away in
your camera.
I've seen many photos where the main focus of the image the main object is way too far,
or way too close.
Frame that correctly.
Fill out the space.
Have it balanced and symmetrical.
If I am taking photo of a person I don't cut off the top of the head.
I leave little bit space on the top, little bit space at the bottom, make it very nice
and symmetrical, well balanced.
If you have zoom lens, then zoom in or zoom out.
If you have a prime lens, then you know get up on your feet and move, get closer or back
up.
If I am taking photo of a family, they all need to be nice and sharp.
If I am taking photo of a landscape, city or just large scene then it would be nicer
if everything would be sharp.
If I am taking photo of a person in a crowd and I want the person to stand out, I am going
to use lower aperture or lower Fstop.
So the person is nice and sharp and everything else is blurry.
It would be much stronger image especially if I am trying to capture an emotion.
I always try to to think about the aperture first before I move on to setting up the shutter
speed.
I usually don't settle just for one angle.
I take the photo from the front and then I start moving.
I go little bit to the right and little bit to the left, little bit to the top, then little
bit to the bottom.
And then I move even more.
And I just follow the object and I walk around and I see if there is something more interesting
I can see in a photo.
Usually there is definitely better angle.
So don't settle for just one angle.
Move around.
I usually do that lots during the weddings.
You'll see me moving all the time but not during the ceremony.
There is always better angle from different side.
Even slight tiny move can make a huge difference.
When I was starting out in photography, I used to get very obsessed taking that one
photo, I was taking the photo all the time, I was just, I just wanted to capture it whatever
was in my head.
I used to get so frustrated when it didn't go the way I wanted.
I was wasting so much time.
I learned not to plan the specific photo.
I learned to go with flow, let the scene to evolve on its own.
If I am working with a new model, I will let her pose for about 10 minutes on their own.
See how they are moving, what their body structure is before I start steering them the way I
want.
If you are stuck on one thing, don't waste your time.
Move on.
There were so many times when I was taking photos of a model and just and just something
was missing.
It was not it.
I was not getting that top notch photo.
So I changed few things.
Sometimes I changed the whole wardrobe or even the whole scene.
I changed everything.
I am finding that the best result I ever got, most of the best results I ever got were actually
the unplanned, very spontaneous shoots.Those are always the best.
I really hope you grabbed some info here and there from today's video.
Hit the thumbs up button if you liked today's video, subscribe to all videos like these
or future videos on this channel.
If you have any questions, comments or simply want to say hello, or share your creative
process, please do so in a comment section below.
You know that I always read it all and I always respond.
And I will see you my friends in the next video.
Cau...
Ahoj...