Here’s what Jen wrote earlier: My husband took this picture of our son. He was trying to use the flash to minimize the harsh shadows on the bright, sunny day. I haven’t done anything to tweak the shot. What do you think? Well, Jen, despite what you may think, your husband is not a COMPLETE bonehead. He did the right thing. He knew he was fighting an uphill battle in that bright mid-day sun and he tried to make the shadow side of your son’s face brighter with what is called “fill flash.” (Fill flash is when you use a….

Mary, First of all, I’ve gotta say that you really cracked me up with this photo. I laughed out loud. Then I did what most people probably did when they saw this photo—I asked myself if those dogs are real. When I finally concluded that they are (by close examination of fat rolls, I might add) I was really impressed with you skill as a dog handler. If I were photographing a two-year-old and three dogs I would have to be heavily sedated. So I salute your ambition and skill at pulling off a photograph that most people wouldn’t even….

Cathy’s sleeping man and baby are caught dramatically in a beautiful patch of light. Can’t you just feel what it was like to be in that room? What a lovely mood. (I don’t need to say that a flash would have ruined this, right?) This picture took me back to all of my years in the darkroom and here’s why: Good photographers spent all of those hours (decades) alone in the dark trying to put detail in every portion of the print. We didn’t want the blacks too dark and we didn’t want the light or white areas “blown out”….

Cathy’s got a sweet example of just letting things happen and being smart enough to push the button. She had expressed concern about the picture being too “noisy” (the digital equivalent of grain). It can happen when you turn up the ISO. The amount of noise depends on the camera. I’m all for experimenting with the ISO up—something like 800—and seeing what happens. Let me put it another way. How many or you thought “too noisy” when you first looked at this photograph? I rest my case. In all of my decades of photography, I have never, ever, not once….

Dear All, I’m going to repost Amy’s terrific shot because it caused a lot of conversation and there are some technical things to learn from it. On the original posting I asked Amy what lens she used and it turns out that it’s a Canon 50mm f1.4 lens. That is a “prime lens”—prime simply means it is not a zoom lens—that’s it. It is “fixed focal length. F1.4 means that it has a VERY large aperture and let’s tons of light in. When it’s used at F1.4 it has EXTREMELY shallow depth of field. That means that if you focus….

Today is Teddy’s third birthday, but for Anne and me January second will always be the anniversary of the big, scary day he arrived three months premature. Teddy was a little over two pounds and spent his first three months in the hospital. He’s at least two months old in the picture on the left—I know that because we didn’t see him without tubes in his face for two months. I shot the other picture on Christmas Eve last week. He’s perfect in every regard except that he takes great joy in breaking his older brother’s Lego creations. As you….

I mentioned in the show this morning that shooting a half moon (no pun intended) is actually more fun than a full moon because the light is coming from the side and gives the craters a 3-dimensional effect. Well, the moon is actually half-full today and I just thought I would mention it in case some of you moonies want to go out and give it a try tonight. Some of you should be able to get something pretty close to this. Remember, the moon is being hit by direct sunlight and is MUCH brighter than you would think. It’s….

I went out to shoot a little demo of how a light meter works this morning. I shot a very white scene; a stick on some snow—and a very dark scene; a very wet, dark manhole cover (it was almost black). The top two pictures are how the two subjects looked to me in reality. (I had to use an exposure compensation setting of PLUS one and two-thirds for the snow and MINUS one and two-thirds for the dark manhole cover.) The bottom two are how the light meter saw them with an exposure compensation setting of ZERO—normal exposure. The….

Dear All, We went out to our neighborhood Indian restaurant last night—it seems the cupboards are still bare since coming back from vacation. Anyway, I was sitting there thinking how much the place reminded me of the fish and chips shops in Ireland that I loved so much and in walks this Irish looking guy from central casting to complete the scene. He was waiting for a take-out order and I just had to take a picture. I thought I would share a thought with you about photographing strangers. First of all, I didn’t want to ask him if I….

Sometimes when you put two photographs together—a pairing—you get another effect that reinforces the two individual photos. The ocean photo is by Glorey and the cemetery is by Jolyne. I just appreciate how these two very different photographs are held together by thoughtful and almost similar compositions and the emotions produced by their eternal, peaceful subjects. Just an observation.  

I’m on the road and my client is being kind enough to let me take some time to tell you how saddened my entire family is about the death of Steve Jobs. My oldest son and I have grown up together at our computers with Steve Jobs. He has been a significant force in our relationship for twenty years. When I wrote my little book “How to Be Dad” ten years ago I wrote a short humorous page about asking my son to choose the perfect father from the four men you see here. He had, I said, the perfectly….

I have to admit that this one really made me laugh. It’s a fine example of how using a flash can give you a little more detail than you need or may want. Another time when a flash can really back fire (pun intended) is looking up at someone and photographing them with a flash. You end up with the inside of their nostrils perfectly exposed (pun intended). Enough said, I think. I really got a belly laugh here. Nick

Here’s a picture I took this weekend of our good friend, Sarah, at her big birthday party. I wanted to get a shot that said how much all of her friends adore her and my moment happened when people got up to give some toasts and little speeches. This is really a shot of people reacting to something you can’t see—speakers. When great things are happening there are almost always good photographs to be had of people by turning your camera away from the action and capturing the reactions that tell the story. It didn’t hurt that Sarah was wearing….

  Kelsh Family Parenting Tip #87 / What could possibly go wrong? Always leave an old board laying around (lower left) so the kids can ramp up and expand their world view.    

It’s almost October and depending where in the world you live this may come in handy. Shannon posted a nice snow portrait the other day that reminded me to remind you about photographing falling snow. Imagine you wake up one morning and the most glorious snowfall is coming down. There are big flakes and it’s a complete Hollywood winter wonderland. You grab your camera and throw on your warmest bathrobe and your kid’s baseball hat and go outside to knock off a bunch of award winners. The neighbors shoot you some weird looks but you don’t care, they’ve seen you….

I IMMEDIATELY KNEW THIS WAS SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARYwhen I saw Kassi’s photo. I didn’t want to distract from the photograph with words then, but a few days have passed— I’ve looked at this picture so many times since then and marveled at it. I’d like to share my thoughts about the visual reasons this picture is so successful. 1. IT’S A PRIVATE MOMENT TREATED LIKE A PRIVATE MOMENT A man is meeting his daughter; we’ve been allowed to enter a sacred space and yet we don’t feel like we’re being disrespectful or invasive. How did the photographer do that? We’re looking….

I’m such a push over for black and white. I think it’s an important and basic question to ask yourself often—should this picture be in color or BW? If you ever feel guilty about converting too many of your pictures to BW consider that the two photographers many people would name as the greatest photographers ever shot exclusively in BW—Ansel Adams and Henri Cartier-Bresson. You’re in good company. For me, converting Melanie’s brother and his son to BW was a slam dunk.There just isn’t much to be gained by showing the viewer what color everything was. And by converting it—for….

I was driving home from Boston to Philadelphia yesterday and I picked up my oldest son who’s going to school in Providence, RI., so he could come home for the weekend. A picture in front of his apartment was a great opportunity for me to demonstrate how to photograph a person in front of a building. The picture on the left is what many amateurs do and the picture on the right is what, well, non-amateurs do. Here’s the basic formula: The building is not moving—you’re pretty much stuck with where it is. The human being is a little more….

Every once in a while a picture comes along and I just can’t stop myself from slapping on the dreaded Nick-Kelsh-Your-Subject-is-Smack-Dab-in-the-Middle-of-the-Frame! target. First of all, I want you to know that I asked Crystal’s permission to put her up for public ridicule and she said something like, “Hey, why not, every one else is doing it?” So I have no big problem just piling on. (In fact, join the fun! Send Crystal a really negative comment! You’ve had a bad day so just vent!) This award is reserved for only the most blatant examples of why we should not put….

If you’re related to my wife, please do not read this. Ok, so every year we go to the farm for the county fair and every year I do a portrait of the grandkids on the fence and every year I make a big print for Grandpa and Grandma. It’s always a hit and I’ve got one Christmas gift in the can and it’s only September—it’s great. (There are ten grandkids now. This is just the Gang of Five.) But every year it’s torture to shoot the picture and here’s why: Their crazy parents always stand behind me and make….

As some of you know my father recently took himself off of dialysis. The doctors gave him two to fourteen days to live. He died this morning peacefully with my mother in a hospital room in my hometown of Fargo, North Dakota. It was day thirty-four. He was eighty-seven. It really couldn’t have been better. He was never in pain. One doctor’s explanation for my dad’s ability to mystify modern science was “what we doctors say when we don’t know what we’re talking about and we try to explain why someone is still alive.” “Your father was of hearty stock,”….

    Jennifer, Your picture has a little background problem. I did the best I could with what you gave me. I couldn’t stop myself. Nick          

DeeDee, Before I begin, I just want to say that’s it’s extremely important to me that I do not become known as the professional photographer who suggests to amateurs that you can cut a person out of one photo and glue her into another and some how that’s not a lie. There are all kinds of moral and ethical questions rearing their ugly heads here. Hey, whatever. But now to DeeDee’s photo. Over the years I have written several books and magazine articles for amateur photographers and often discussed good and bad backgrounds. I have actually TRIED to shoot photographs….