It's happened to all of us - you get home, load up your con photos, and your reaction is "meh." Fear not! The Otaku no Podcast crew will show you the tips and tricks you need to get those awesome Cosplay.com like shots.
This was the workshop I gave at Anime Expo 2010.
Be sure and check the Otaku no Podcast website for full show notes, including links to the products, books, etc. mentioned.
http://otakunopodcast.com/photo/
FULL NIGHT — 9999894380 Call Girls In Patel Nagar | Delhi
Convention Photography 101
1. Convention Photography
How To Get The Shot (and make it look easy!)
Presented by the Otaku no Podcast Crew
Otaku no Podcast http://otakunopodcast.com/
5. The 3 Convention
Photography Situations
❖ Outdoor cosplay gathering
❖ Indoors
❖ Dealers hall
❖ Panels
❖ Hall cosplay
❖ Theater - Masquerade
6. Outdoor Photography
❖ Lots of light; casts harsh shadows
❖ Solution: Find a shady spot
❖ Under a tree, by a wall in the shade, etc.
❖ Cloudy/overcast is actually better
❖ Minimize the sky
❖ Use a reflector
❖ The back of a (white) cardboard sign works well
❖ Use fill flash
7.
8. Indoors
❖ Bad and varied lighting
❖ Often not the best position
❖ Keep the camera steady
❖ Minimize the background
❖ Minimize your expectations
❖ Don’t be “that guy/gal”
❖ Flash may not work (and may be forbidden)
9. Making Your Subject
Stand Out
❖ Avoid “busy” backgrounds
❖ Use a backdrop
❖ Blur the background
10. Blurring the Background
with a (D)SLR
❖ Relatively easy
❖ Use widest aperture
❖ Stand as close as you can
❖ Make sure background elements are as far away as possible
11. Blurring the Background
with a Point and Shoot
❖ Harder, but not impossible
❖ Especially hard to do in crowds
❖ Helps to have a large zoom range
❖ Stand back as far as you can
❖ Zoom all the way in
19. Theater
❖ Really bad lighting
❖ Bright center spot, dark surroundings
❖ (Usually) poor positioning
❖ Flash is absolutely useless (and often forbidden)
❖ Very hard to do with a point and shoot
❖ Play with exposure and ISO
20. Keep It Steady
❖ Use your surroundings
❖ Posts, railings, seats, people...
❖ “The Death Grip”
❖ Tripods, monopods, etc.
❖ Tripod alternatives
26. The basics of exposure
❖ Shutter speed - Controls motion
❖ Aperture - How much is in focus
❖ ISO - Sensitivity of “film”
27. Shutter Speed
❖ Expressed as fractions of a second
❖ 1/60, 1/250, etc.
❖ Confusingly shown as a non-fraction on most cameras
❖ 60 = 1/60, 250 = 1/250, etc.
❖ Larger is shorter
❖ 1 second or greater, number followed by a mark
28. Shutter Speed
❖ Controls motion
❖ Slow shutter speed (1/60 or longer) blurs motion
❖ Fast shutter speeds (1/250 or shorter) freezes motion
❖ The slower the shutter, the more chance for camera shake
❖ Rule of thumb for eliminating camera shake:
❖ 1/(focal length) (e.g. for 50mm lens, 1/50 or shorter)
29. Aperture
❖ The “hole” that lets light into the camera
❖ Expressed as “ƒ number” (ƒ stop)
❖ Ratio of diameter to focal length
❖ ƒ/2, ƒ/1.8, etc.
❖ Smaller is bigger
30. Aperture
❖ Controls depth of field
❖ How much is blurred vs. sharply in focus
❖ Scary math ahead!
❖ Use a depth of field calculator
❖ Experiment
❖ In general ƒ/8 and above renders most things in focus
31. ISO
❖ How “sensitive” the “film” is
❖ Larger ISO number means more sensitivity
❖ Trade off is digital noise
❖ Most DSLRs can go to at least 800
❖ Latest ones up to 3200 ot 6400
❖ Digital noise can be corrected in software so it’s not a deal
breaker (but requires extra work)
48. Photography Etiquette
❖ At a convention, anything goes
❖ “Expectation of privacy”
❖ If you can see it, you can photograph it
❖ For personal use only - everything changes if you try and
make money with your images
❖ Be polite - ask
❖ Or not...
49. Good ideas in general
❖ RTFM
❖ Practice
❖ Don’t forget your gear
❖ Observe no-photo areas (or be ready to face the
consequences if you intentionally violate them)
❖ When in doubt, ask!
50. Good ideas in general
❖ Don’t be afraid to crop
❖ Take many pictures
❖ “The machine pistol methodology”
❖ Even many cheaper point and shoots have burst mode
❖ Location, location, location...
51.
52. In Summary
❖ Point and shoots work well...
❖ When you’re free to walk up close to your subject
❖ Lighting is good, and you can manage shadows
❖ DSLRs work well...
❖ When lighting is low/poor
❖ The more extreme condition, the better