Using a mirror to frame a subject can be a bit tricky and difficult when you use strobes and/or speedlights because these additional light sources can create reflections in a mirror and light spots. Therefore, you should be careful when using lights for these kind of shots – a quick tip: first get your model or subject in a right position and take a test pictures to see what is visible in a mirror, then position your lights so that they are not visible in a mirror and are out of the mirror’s frame.

Another thing is that any lines (within mirror’s frame or any other lines) can be used to define a picture or a subject. Lines or even patterns can be very helpful in drawing the attention of a viewer to the subject in the picture or separate the subject from the rest of what is in a frame. Next time you’ll be taking pictures, take a close look at any patterns or lines either in the foreground or in the background, try to change your position or reposition your subject to use these lines.

Before I share with you what I have found out when taking my very first intentional abstract photographs, let’s reflect shortly on what is abstract photography because I was wondering (and you might as well) what abstract photography is? My research on abstract photography started with Google quite obviously and surprisingly there is little information on what abstract photography is and on its definition (I always like to know a definition of a thing when possible).

I have found a couple of what seem to be good and interesting definitions of what abstract photography is. It seems that the most comprehensive and detailed is the one found on Bright Hub (click here) (just to prove you my point above that there is little on abstract photography, the first sentence of the definition says “abstract photography is a field that leaves many puzzled as to what exactly it includes”). The second place where I have found some information on abstract photography was on answers.com (click here). Both website seems to present relatively well written explanations and definitions of abstract photography, which I don’t want to copy & paste here but I encourage you to visit the links above.

Now let’s get back to my short walk and my abstract pictures (at least I like to think of them in this way). What I discovered when taking these abstract pictures was mind-blowing for me: you need to know a lot about photography, the role of patterns and lines, light and colors if you want to take good abstract photographs (and of course you need to gain some experience in it as well). If you don’t believe me, try to take abstract pictures yourself and you’ll see how hard it is.

But seriously, the whole fuzz around taking a camera everywhere you go is really about 2 things:

1) you don’t know when & where to expect a great opportunity for a picture and having a camera with you (almost) all the time makes you ready for taking that great and unexpected shot;

2) practice makes perfect – it’s a no brainer; the more pictures you take, the better photographer you become.

I went bowling in Brussels with a group of friends a couple of weeks ago and I took a camera with me (surprise, surprise!). To be honest with you, I didn’t expect to take any pictures but I ended up taking few shots with my trusty Nikkor 35mm F1.8 DX, which is a great lens for low-light situations. Even though Nikkor 35mm F1.8 DX is a very bright lens, I still had to crank up ISO to get more or less sharp shots but I also spent some time on getting blurry & motion-like pictures.

You can’t be prepared for these unexpected circumstances (quite obviously they’re unexpected) and you have to be ready to improvise – being able and ready to improvise during a photo shoot is a must and actually it’s the only thing you can be sure of and control before a photo shoot. Just to make it clear: you can’t go for a photo shoot completely unprepared thinking that you can improvise everything but you need to be ready to improvise when needed, let your creativity unleash and just ‘expect unexpected‘ as I say.

I had a photo shoot, during which I had to improvise, a couple of weeks ago in February 2011. I met with Knight Wise and Niejana of KnightWise.com – I refer to both of them as THE Belgian Geeks . Knight Wise and Niejana are a really awesome couple from Belgium who are not only into technology but also into Starwars, podcasting, videocasting and all the geeky stuff (honestly, I’m not sure what I’m talking here about because I’m not a typical geek… I’m just a photography geek). Anyway, going back to the topic, I met with them in Tongeren (Belgium) (which was also my first time in Tongeren) and I had no idea what to expect – we didn’t have a fixed photo shoot location and their house turned out a bit too small for a photo shoot.

The only option was to improvise, especially when I decided to start off with a photo shoot outside at a countryside. Knight Wise and Niejana took me to a nearby popular park, just outside of a city and I immediately started to look around for interesting places, foregrounds, backgrounds and patterns… anything that would be interesting and supplementary for portrait photography. I don’t think I have to mention that I tried to take the pictures of Knight Wise and Niejana around the theme of the ‘Belgian Geeks’. They mentioned to me during the photo shoot that they even didn’t have their engagement photo shoot before they had the wedding few years ago. So I decided to use this opportunity to shoot few engagement / couple / love pictures. At some point, I just asked them to sit on the ground and I let them interact with each other – it turned out great and I learned one important thing: Geek love is tough love (look at the picture where Niejana hits Knight Wise with a very robust and expensive laptop)

Strobist info for some of the pictures: I used a combination of Nikon’s SB-900 Speedlight on a shoot-through umbrella and sometimes I also used a light-reflector for pictures taken outside (but I also tried to use as much natural light as possible, something just modifying it slightly with a light-reflector. For indoor pictures, I used 2 Lastolite Lumen F400 lamps with shoo-through umbrellas as well.

Yes, pen tablets can be quite expensive but you’ll start to value their functionality very quickly. The time I spend on post-processing has dramatically decreased with a pen table by at least 50% and it’s not an exaggeration by any means. Editing pictures with a pen tablet is not only much faster but it also feels much more natural than using a mouse and it’s much better for your arm and joints than sitting with your hand grabbing that unergonomic mouse all the time (which can also be painful and cause Repetitive Strain Injury [RSI]). If you already have started considering getting a pen tablet, you don’t have to buy a very expensive one, high-end from the top of a shelf. Wacom produces very good pen tablets and even their cheapest and simplest tablets are great to start off with.

My preference is to overexpose when I have to, instead of underexposing pictures. The reason is quite simple and it has to do with the amount of data DSLR can gather and save in RAW files these days (and I just realized that I should have mentioned at the beginning that we talk here about pictures shoot in RAW, which retain much more data and information than JPG files – this is really helpful in post-processing). So why do I overexpose when I have to? If you underexpose and you want to brighten a picture or a part of it in the post-processing, you might find yourself having noise in the underexposed area. Overexposing doesn’t create that noise effect and even thought a picture may seem really blown out if you overexpose, a camera captures much more detail in those overexposed areas than you think – this is the magic of RAW files. Therefore, when you darken a picture or parts of it, you will still see much details in the previously overexposed areas.

We photographers often get excited with the releases of new equipment, not to mention buying new gear – we are like kids who just got the most awesome and the most awaited Christmas gift – getting excited, sometimes even screaming or jumping up and down (having said that, our wives, girlfriends, husbands and boyfriends should be all given Nobel Peace Prizes for accepting our behavior but that’s a completely different story). This enthusiasm can often lead to focusing too much on the equipment  and not enough on the subject during a photo shoot. Don’t get me wrong, being able to use the equipment, the tools and the light sources during a photo shoot is important but it is a client, a person and a subject who should we focus on. Gear and equipment are just tools that help us in capturing the subject.

This topic is much broader and deeper than I actually thought it was when I started writing this article. Another important aspect about focusing on a subject (we are talking all the time about a person) and not gear is the significance of establishing certain relationship with a person, of course on the level photographer-subject/customer. Don’t forget that quite often, the photographed person is nervous and doesn’t know what to expect from a photo shoot. It is in your best interest to establish and create a friendly atmosphere and make the person feel comfortable. It helps in capturing great portraits or similar type of pictures, which otherwise could come out really bad, especially when the person is nervous, tense and doesn’t show his/her true face and behavior.

Another point is that it’s also in your best interest to focus on the subject and see it as a customer, a returning customer in the future as well as a ‘live’ walking advertisement of your services, who could refer their friends to you. I think it goes without saying that all your efforts should concentrate on making this person welcomed and special during a photo session but if you don’t know what I’m saying…. treat him/her like a new lens, a new lighting setup or a new camera

When you focus your attention on the gear and not your subject and customer, then you might create an unfriendly environment, which will not only prohibit you from taking great shots but also might cause you to lose that customer in the future and his/her recommendation of your services. I’m not saying that equipment is not important, it’s a tool (just like your camera) that helps you in getting great shots but it’s your subject that should be the main focus. It’s up to you to find that right balance between the two.

Pictures: This was my first photo shoot in 2011, where I tried to unleash my creativity. A friend visiting Brussels was very kind to model for me and it was actually her idea to do a bit of a retro photo session. Strobist info: I used one speedlight SB-900 from Nikon in the manual mode triggered with Cactus Wireless Flash Trigger Set V4 mounted to a big shoot through umbrella (110cm/43”).

Therefore, networking is much more effective for having new customers, especially when we already made happy previous customers with delivering photographs and products in line with their expectations. Satisfied customers who remember you well and have good memories from working with you are much more effective and efficient ‘living advertisers’ than anything else. They will definitely mention you and their experience on working with you to their friends, families and co-workers. They will even refer anyone looking for a photographer to you if they are happy not only with your final results but also with the way you work, communicate and approach your clients. Therefore, a photographer should also be a good communicator, a friendly and engaging person with excellent customer relations.

[fancy_box]The pictures accompanying this blog article were taken when testing new shoot-through umbrellas (110cm) together with Nikon’s Speedlight SB-900. The light source was positioned as close to the subject as possible in order to make the light as soft as possible.[/fancy_box]

In order to invert colors in Mac OS X press Ctrl+Option(Alt)+Cmd+8 and your colors are inverted. To return to the normal color scheme, press the same keys again.

Article Picture: I went to the China Town when visiting Antwerp in 2010. This red Chinese lamp really stood out of the background and the environment.

Remember, everyone is welcomed to join a photo walk – you don’t need a fancy camera or photography knowledge. As long as you enjoy photography, you’re more than welcomed to join and have fun with us!

Remember to join our Facebook Group and the Flickr Group (links below) to stay up-to-date!

Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=290912725588&ref=ts

Flickr Group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/brusselsphotowalks/

By the way, despite the rumors going around, I’m still alive I haven’t been much active online lately (on the blog, Facebook or Twitter) but I hope that this period of limited online social activity will disappear soon. I have lined-up few new and exciting photography projects for the end of 2010 and for the beginning of 2011 so these new assignments will keep me busy for sure.