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 to emerge out of […]
Danny N. Schweers: All The Posts
Class 1, Danny Schweers Photography
Introductions, Housekeeping We begin with handouts, making sure everyone is registered. We check that people have the correct date and time, are shooting at the highest quality settings, and are using image stabilization, if that is available. ISO Settings to Control Light Sensitivity, Noise We learn to adjust the camera’s ISO setting, which varies the […]
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 […]
Photo Classes and Workshops, Wilmington, Delaware
I teach photography lessons in Wilmington, Delaware, primarily at the Delaware Art Museum but also privately. My Spring 2022 photography class is full at the Delaware Art Museum. For details and to register for classes at the Delaware Art Museum, visit the museum’s website or call the museum at 302 571-9590. Samples of my students’ […]
Class 2: Control Noise with ISO Settings
ISO Settings to Control Light Sensitivity, Noise We learn to adjust the camera’s ISO setting, which varies the sensitivity of the camera sensor. Camera sensor sensitivity is like that of your own eyes. If you step from sunny outdoors into a dim house, it takes a few minutes for your eyes to adjust, to become […]
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 have cameras that have the ability to easily set ISO, Shutter Speed, and Aperture. Typically, these are digital single-lens reflex cameras (DSLR) or mirrorless […]
Explore Your Camera’s 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, the camera 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 […]
Class 3: Explore Your Camera’s Shutter Speeds.
Shutter Speeds 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 shutter speed) and 1/4000 of a second for […]
Composition: Lines to Corners
The idea behind “Lines to Corners” is a simple one: frame scenes so that diagonals come from one or more corners; that is, so items line up to diagonals going to corners. Sometimes what goes to corners is not lines but things in a line. Below are some images of mine using “Lines to Corners”. […]
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 […]
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 […]
Black-Eyed Susan Room Divider
My latest project is a room divider with fifteen 8×10 photos of black-eyed susans. What do you think? Click on the photo and you can see it larger. The hardwood divider itself is made of three panels, each 68-inches tall and 11-inches wide. The photos are 8×10-inches, printed on Hahnemühle Fineart Baryta Satin 310gms archival […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
My Episodic History As A Writer
An acquaintance recently invited me to join a writing group, a very organized group, with agendas and roles. I like the sound of it! New members are asked to share their writing backgrounds. Here is mine. Photo Prayers Every week since 2007 (well, most weeks), I write a prayer and pair it with a photograph. […]
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 […]
Seven Comments on Change
As part of its exhibit “Sea Change”, the Washington Printmakers Gallery in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. asked me to say something about change. Click here to see my “Seven Comments on Change” — words and photos taken from my Photo Prayer project over the past ten years. The photo is me as a […]
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 […]
Ideas and Enthusiasm
Why do ideas, so brilliant when they first inspire us, appear deadly dull when we return to them? Ideas of things to do are like fireworks when they first come to mind. As each one appears, I can hardly wait to pursue it. I quickly jot it down, looking forward to taking it up when […]
Second Chances Farm, Wilmington, Delaware
On Monday, July 20, 2020, some one hundred of us were treated to a tour of the vertical hydroponic farm rooms, a box lunch, and speeches. A recurring theme was the idea that, having served one’s sentence in jail or prison, one should be welcomed back to full citizenship, not branded for life as an […]
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 6
- Next Page »