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 […]
How To Take Better Photos: Posts by Danny N. Schweers
Danny Schweers is a studio instructor at the Delaware Art Museum. Occasionally, he posts here what he teaches. Occasionally, when he is making his own photos, he remembers to do what he has taught.
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 […]
Composition: Lines to Corners
The idea behind “Lines to Corners” is a simple one: frame scenes so that lines point to one or more corners. Sometimes what goes to corners is not lines but things in a line. Below are some images using “Lines to Corners”. Eric Kim has an interesting discussion of diagonals. He favors images with one […]
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 […]
Student Photos from Delaware Art Museum
My students at the Delaware Art Museum have produced some wonderful images since I began teaching in 2010. Here I have limited myself to ten images from each of my classes, usually only one photo from each student. I wish I had images from my earliest classes. Click on any thumbnail image to see it […]
Light Painting with Camera and Flashlight
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 […]
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 […]
Outdoor Night Photography
Night is seldom really dark, especially near urban centers that glow with street lights, traffic lights, vehicle headlights, porch lights, and security lights. These lights make the sky glow (and make seeing the stars difficult). This means we can often take photographs outdoors at night. Also, camera manufacturers have made stunning advances in recent years […]
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 […]
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 […]
Camera Variables
Photographic Variables on Cameras with Interchangeable Lenses This is a list I hand out first thing to my students at the Delaware Art Museum. Many variables are at the photographer’s command before a picture is taken. Here a list. Of course, many more changes can be made to an image in post-processing, after the image […]
Good SLR and Mirrorless Cameras
Looking for a good, inexpensive camera? Because I teach students in my photo class at the Delaware Art Museum to shoot in Shutter-Priority, Aperture Priority, and Manual Mode, they need to easily set ISO, Shutter Speed, and Aperture. Typically, these are digital single-lens reflex cameras (DSLR) or mirrorless cameras with interchangeable lenses. Looking at what […]
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 […]
Separate Subject From Background
You can take better photographs if you learn to separate subject from background. There are many, many ways of doing this. Here are a few rules, and there are exceptions to all of them. 1. Fascinating subject and boring background. 2. Subject is whole and background is cut off. 3. Subject is larger than […]
Lines to Corners, Rule of Thirds, and the Letter “K”
A friend recently wrote: “I’ve been composing in my head a letter to you re the wall art at this hospital, you having mentioned that some photos of yours were chosen for display in a hospital. The ones on view in this hospital are ocean/beach scenes for the most part. Nothing obviously dramatic or particularly […]
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 […]
Explore Your Camera’s Aperture Settings
Homework Assignment No. 3: Aperture, Out-of-Focus Backgrounds 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, […]
Recommended: Nikon ES-2 Film Digitizing Adapter
So far, I am happy with my new Nikon ES-2 Film Digitizing Adapter. Above is the third scan attempted and below are details of that scan. Click on the images to see them at 100%. I did not overthink this. I screwed the adapter onto the front of a Nikon AF Micro Nikkor 55mm f/2.8 […]
Best Focal Length For Portraits
One of the most frequent questions I am asked is, “What focal length should I use for portraits?” I usually answer “50mm for Crop Sensor cameras, 75mm for Full-Frame Sensor cameras.” This is for a typical head shot. The homework assignment I give my students at the Delaware Art Museum is to take portraits at […]
Choosing More Lenses
In February, 2017, students asked me about buying Canon and Nikon fixed focal-length lenses and telephoto lenses. Canon Lenses I am thinking of getting the Canon 50mm f/1.8 STM lens and was wondering your opinion. I am also interested in getting a telephoto lens, but have no clue as to which one for my Canon […]
Ten Steps to Better Photographs
Here are ten ways you can make your photos better. Because I first presented these at a Parish Life Day workshop in the Episcopal Diocese of Delaware, each starts with a quote from scripture. I have taken some liberties with the translations into English. 1 – Let your light shine that all may see good […]
What Is Best Lens?
What focal length lens is your favorite for your camera – digital SLR? Fix-Length Lenses Are Best. I like any fixed lens for four reasons. (1) In general, fixed (a.k.a. prime) lenses have much simpler optics than zoom lenses. That means that images are generally sharper, with better contrast and fewer aberrations. (2) Simpler optics […]
Making Photos, Reading Poetry
People make photos and read poetry. That was my immediate conclusion the other evening in Barnes & Noble, as I went back and forth between the poetry and the digital photography sections. Such a difference in titles! The photo section was all about how to take better photos but there was very little in the […]