Illuminate the subject by hand — If you know how to shoot in Manual (M) Mode, you can use a flashlight to paint light onto our subjects. Cameras are on tripods for these exposures, which are often 20 seconds long. When done correctly, objects seem to emerge out of darkness, glowing. Light painting is a […]
Explore Your Camera’s Manual Mode
Make images as light or dark as you want Many, perhaps most, professional photographers shoot in Manual Mode. Cameras in automatic and semi-automatic modes cannot guess what you want. If you want the image darker or lighter, or if you want to control the ISO, Shutter Speed, and Aperture all at once, then shoot in […]
Explore Your Camera’s Aperture Settings
Aperture offers some control of focus blur The third homework assignment I give students in my digital photography class at the Delaware Art Museum is to separate subject from background by using small aperture numbers; that is, apertures with little depth of field. The subject is in focus while the background is out of focus, […]
True Posterization Using Photoshop
I worked many years using a copy camera to produce 12×18-inch litho negatives. I especially liked the way that high-contrast medium transformed gradual tones into hard-edged images. I like woodcuts and linoleum cuts for the same reason, especially the work of Cynthia Back, one of my former colleagues at the Washington Printmakers Gallery. Click here […]
Control Motion Blur by Varying Shutter Speed
Changing the shutter speed on your camera allows you to control motion blur — Releasing the shutter lets light into the camera for a fixed amount of time. I encourage you to try various shutter speeds, especially at the extremes of your camera. For most cameras, that is 30 seconds for the longest time (slowest […]
Rule Of Thirds
When you compose an image using the Rule of Thirds, vertical elements in the viewfinder are placed one-third from the left or right edge of the frame, horizontal lines are placed one-third from the top or bottom, and sometimes both. If you do NOT have strong vertical or horizontal objects in the scene in front […]
Explore Your Camera’s ISO Settings
ISO: Varying Your Camera’s Sensitivity To Light, Varying Noise Increasing the ISO makes the camera’s sensor more sensitive to light. That means the camera can capture images in darker places or at faster shutter speeds or smaller apertures. But noise increases as ISO increases. That means quality decreases, sometimes to the point that photos […]
Photo Classes and Workshops, Wilmington, Delaware
I teach photography lessons in Wilmington, Delaware, primarily at the Delaware Art Museum but also privately. Private Lessons Subject matter is up to the student. Usually students just want to know how to operate their cameras, but some are interested in how to take better photos, how to keep track of all their photos, or […]
Focus
Sharp Detail or Beautiful Blur? Sometimes you want all the details sharp and revealing. Other times you want the background to be beautifully blurred, or everything blurred. What you get depends on your aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and the focal length of your lens. Aperture By changing the aperture (the f/stop), you can let less […]
July Images by Danny Schweers
Here are images I have never before shared on-line or exhibited in print form. All the images were taken in July, but the years vary and the days are mixed up. July 29, 2013, Arden, Delaware. “Have A Seat!” I am not sure what I was thinking, but it was not pleasant. This an the […]
Zion National Park, November, 2012
These 68 photographs of Zion National Park in Utah were made over a period of six days in November, 2012. The Zion landscape is often photographed, yet I hope you will find a few images here that are unexpected. Questions? Comments? Please click her to contact me. Click on any thumbnail below to see it […]
Portrait Photography, Delaware Art Museum
On January 11, 2020, Iris McKenney, an experienced artist’s model, posed for the first time for photographers. This was my first time working with a live model and students. Iris made it a delightful experience, putting the students (and me) at ease, striking one pose after another, not rapid-fire but measured, like she was in […]
Rice Spill
Don’t hold jars by the lid! If the lid is loose, the jar will fall. I speak from experience. When the loose lid slipped last week, almost a cup of rice scattered before I caught the jar. “Arrrgghh!” I cried as I stood there barefoot in the kitchen, grain all around my feet. “Stay right […]
Airline Disasters
I confess! Lately I relax by watching episodes of “Airline Disasters” on the Smithsonian Channel. What I enjoy most about this television series is the recurring idea of redemption. Every episode ends on a positive note. Talented and diligent safety inspectors analyze every accident. Often the cause of the accident is mysterious, but our dauntless investigators hunt down […]
Student Photos 2021
Below are thumbnail images of photographs taken by my students in 2021, starting with images taken at two “Rule of Thirds” classes in composition at Mt. Cuba Center, Delaware. Click on any thumbnail to see it larger in a slide show. In the slide show, you can use your keyboard arrow keys to move forward […]
He admitted to himself it had him.
“William Weigland took a hurried look at the sketch map, decided to chance it, and swung left off Route 22 on a narrow macadam road. He drove a few hundred yards and pulled the Buick to the side of the road. He stared at the map and admitted to himself that it had him.” […]
Open Gates: Photo Prayers by Danny Schweers on Exhibit in Delaware
Photographs and Text by Danny Schweers in Wilmington, Delaware in 2020. Scroll down to see images from the show. This exhibit opened on March 6, 2020, at the Buzz Ware Village Center in the Village of Arden, Delaware. Three days later the building was shuttered due to the COVID-19 — ironic for an exhibit called […]
Book of Days Murder of Michael Cahill
The Fox-TV show, America’s Most Wanted, first aired the Book of Days Murder segment in 2007. The television crew came to Arden to interview me and then flew to Texas and California to interview other photographers about the unsolved murder of Mike Cahill that took place in 1979 in Austin, Texas, a murder tied to […]
Pennsylvania Dutch Country
What a pleasure it is to drive among the farms of the Amish and Mennonites in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. On back roads, you can feel like you have stepped back fifty years. Sometimes, if you can forget the gasoline-powered time machine you are driving, it can feel like centuries. That said, my photographs are seldom […]
What do we need? What should we pray for?
Soon to die of an assassin’s bullet, Louisiana Governor Huey Long’s last words were, “God, don’t let me die. I have so much to do.” Foolishly, he thought more time was the answer. It is not. If we were given ten extra years of health, or twenty, it would not be enough to get everything […]
Delmarva Peninsula
Delaware is the lowest of the 50 states; that is, its average elevation — 60 feet — is lower than any other state. Florida’s average elevation is 40 feet higher! Forget mountain majesty. South of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, Delaware and the rest of the Delmarva Peninsula has marshes and tidal rivers, big skies […]
Smoke and Fire near West Grove, Pennsylvania
It is a real pleasure to drive the back roads of Chester County, Pennsylvania. On Sunday, February 23, 2020, I came across what I thought was someone burning brush. I stopped just off the road to photograph the smoke moving through the leafless trees of winter. Another photographer stopped. Like me, he was out shooting […]
Torn Love Stitched in Your Daily Photograph
My image — Torn Love Stitched — was featured on Tuesday, February 4, 2020 in the Your Daily Photograph email blast from the Duncan Miller Gallery in Santa Monica, California. This is my third image to be featured. The last two sold immediately! To see the Your Daily Photograph post of 4 February, 2020, visit: […]
“Florida” Selected for Rehoboth Art League Exhibit
I am delighted that “Florida” — an ominous photograph with contrarian text — has been selected for the 5th Annual Regional Juried Photography Exhibition at the Rehoboth Art League (RAL), 12 Dodds Lane in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Opening reception, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., Friday, January 31, 2020. Juror’s Talk by Gabrielle Tillenburg, Saturday, February […]