Don’t be an April Fool! We thought we’d help you save yourself a lot of frustration by debunking some common photography myths.
Al Espinosa is a photographer who often shares his photo knowledge at Adorama in-store workshops and events. His specialties include long exposure and experimental photography as well as landscapes. Here he shares – and debunks – some of the biggest photography myths he’s encountered over the years.
Tripods are needed for long exposure photography
So I am admittedly a big time fan of long exposures. I like capturing scenes that can never be seen by the human eye. And yes, I do currently own about 4 or 5 tripods. I carry one with me wherever I go. And yet, whenever I hear people say you NEED a tripod for long exposures, I grit my teeth a little. Obviously, tripods make shooting long exposures aLOT easier, but they are not necessary.
Yes, I have written an article about long exposures and one of the statements I have made is that a tripod is not needed thanks to the numerous structures that you can rest your camera on. However, this is not the point I am trying to make at this moment. Panning is a difficult, but really rewarding technique where you set your camera to shoot a long exposure and you MOVE your camera to follow the subject. The result: a sharp subject and a background that has motion blur.
Guess what else? A tripod is not needed. You would be amazed at how many people automatically assumed I shot this photo with a fast shutter speed and then edited the photo in Photoshop to create the effect of motion. Not at all! I took my camera off of my tripod, set my camera to expose with a 1-second shutter speed and took pictures of about 10 or 11 cars. This is the one that came out the best. So the next time you hear someone say that a tripod is needed for long exposures, ask them if they have ever heard of panning.
Small Aperture is Needed for a Large Depth of Field
On a photo walk with a small group, one photographer was having trouble with her exposure. She explained that the picture was coming out very dark. I explained that it was dark because she was shooting at F22. Her response was that she was shooting with that aperture so she could get a lot of depth of field. She didn’t understand why I looked puzzled, but the answer was because she was shooting with an ultra-wide angle zoom and I knew it wouldn’t be difficult for her to get a large depth of field.
So apparently, someone with a lot of time on their hands came up with a mathematical formula (actually, there’s more than one) that will determine how to maximize your depth of field. This formula determines your Hyperfocal Distance. I dare you to look at the Wikipedia page for Hyperfocal Distance and act like you completely get it, but at least look at the factors that determine what your Hyperfocal Distance is:
- F-Stop
- Circle of Confusion Limit (that’s a whole other story)
And last but not least
- FOCAL LENGTH!
Now, I know I pretty much said that there’s no way to understand that mathematical gibberish, but at least understand this: your depth of field increases as your focal length get shorter. That means the woman with 11-16 mm zoom lens (which is a range of very short focal lengths) had a large depth of field, just by choosing that lens. Now you’re probably asking you are supposed to figure this out when you can’t understand that horrific mathematical formula. Easy…there’s an app for that! I use an app called “Set My Camera” which has lots of features, but one in particular labeled DoF. This app allows you to enter you focal length, aperture and the distance of how far away you are focusing. Let’s take my trusty old Nikon 50mm F1.4 and take a picture of someone about 15 feet away. Once I enter the information….
…the app tells me my Near Focus (the distance closest to me that will be acceptably sharp) is 11.8 feet and my Far Focus (the distance furthest from me that will be acceptably sharp) is 20.5 feet. I have a depth of field with a distance of 8.7 feet. Also notice that there is a number (54.8ft) labeled “Hyperfocal”. That is how far away you should focus to maximize your depth of field. Now back to the point at hand, let’s see what happens when I change nothing except for my focal length:
Look at that! No settings changed except for the focal length, but the Near Focus is 4.4 feet and the Far Focus is infinity. Now I don’t yet know how to enter infinity in my calculator, but I’m going to wager that the depth of field is far greater with the shorter focal length even with an f-stop of 1.4, because even the depth of field is calculated as “infinity”. So instead of causing light diffraction by shooting at F22, trying widening that shot with a shorter focal length.
Center Composition is Boring
So this one is a bit of an opinion, but hear me out. For the life of me, I cannot tell you how many times I have been talking about composition, and someone blurts out, “Rule of thirds!” as if that is the only good way to compose photos. This comes from a lot of blogposts and regurgitated opinions that a center composition is boring. While many agree because it has been repeated so many times, many also forget that centering your subject can help you achieve symmetry. Nature itself bases beauty on symmetry. Don’t believe me? Check out this Google search that’s full of articles about how in nature and human perception, symmetry is perceived as beauty.
Symmetry is not the only way to make a centered subject look more appealing. As with all types of photography, there are several other factors that can make an image look beautiful. Take this image for instance …
The flower is centered; but the contrast in texture, color and shape make it appealing. Also, people seem to forget that content is king! That means that if you have a picture of something awesome, some people may overlook the composition. Marketing campaigns have used centered subjects in their movie posters for huge movies and the posters have been great. Don’t believe me? (Oh, ye of little faith.) Try another Google search for the poster of the first Star Trek movie reboot.
Remember that? There were a whole set of center composed portraits as movie posters for the first Start Trek reboot, and they were awesome! Why? Lots of contrast in exposure, contrast in texture and content. They knew the photographs were solid and knew you would get excited when you saw the new Captain Kirk. So if you are always using the “rule of thirds” to try and make a great shot, there’s a lot more you need to remember.
