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 […]
How To Take Better Photos: Posts by Danny N. Schweers
Danny Schweers is a studio instructor at the Delaware Art Museum and Mt. Cuba Center. Occasionally, he posts here what he teaches. Occasionally, when he is making his own photos, he remembers to do what he has taught.
Photo Classes and Workshops, Wilmington, Delaware
I teach photography lessons in Wilmington, Delaware, primarily at the Delaware Art Museum but also privately. COVID-19 UPDATE: Fully-vaccinated, I am once again teaching in-person classes at the Delaware Art Museum and privately. I also offer Zoom classes via video and in-person tutorials. Contact me to learn more! For details and to register for classes […]
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 […]
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 […]
Portrait Photography Workshop, Delaware Art Museum, January, 2020
This was Iris McKenney’s first time to model for photographers and 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 a slow-motion slide show dance. Students were encouraged […]
Explore Your Camera’s Manual Mode
Homework Assignment No. 4 — Manual Mode. The fourth homework assignment I give students in my digital photography class at the Delaware Art Museum is to explore shooting in Manual Mode. Why Manual Mode? Many, perhaps most, professional photographers shoot in Manual Mode. While cameras in automatic and semi-automatic modes get better all the time, […]
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, […]
Explore Your Camera’s Shutter Speeds
Homework Assignment No. 2: Shutter Speeds, Lines to Corners My second homework assignment is to send me 2-5 photos in Shutter Priority Mode (“Tv” on Canon and Ricoh cameras, and “S” on Nikon and Sony cameras) and to include a line to a corner. Vary Shutter Speed Motion blur is controlled by changing the time […]
Explore Your Camera’s ISO Settings
Homework Assignment No. 1: Rule of Thirds and ISO Settings The first homework assignment I give students is to take the same image taken at two different ISO settings — the lowest and highest ISO settings. Also, I ask them to use the Rule of Thirds. Rule Of Thirds If you compose your image using […]
Explore Light Painting
In-Class Exercise No. 6: Light Painting Having learned to shoot in Manual Mode (M) in my digital photography course at the Delaware Art Museum, we darken the room and use flashlights to paint light onto our subjects. Cameras are on tripods for these exposures, which are often 20 seconds long. When done correctly, objects seem […]
Explore Focal Lengths of Lenses!
Homework Assignment No. 4: Focal Lengths of Lenses, Pay Attention to Backgrounds. In my fourth class, we look at the focal lengths of lenses. Some have fixed focal lengths. Other lenses have variable focal lengths and are called zoom lenses because you can zoom in and zoom out: zoom in to photograph a narrow area, […]
Student Photos, 2012 on …
My students at the Delaware Art Museum have produced some wonderful images since I began teaching there. Here I have limited myself to 10 images from each class. Click here to see images from my January 2020 portrait photography workshop. Below are thumbnails of my student’s work from 2012 on, ten images from each class. […]
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 […]