Jim Miotke - The BetterPhoto Guide to Creative Digital Photography Learn to Master Composition, Color, and Design

Front cover photographs by Jim Miotke (top); Kerry Drager (bottom left and bottom center); Marcie Fowler (bottom right)

Copyright 2011 by James C. Miotke

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Amphoto Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York
www.crownpublishing.com
www.amphotobooks.com

AMPHOTO BOOKS and the Amphoto Books logo are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Miotke, Jim.
The BetterPhoto guide to creative digital photography : learn to master composition, color, and design / Jim Miotke and Kerry Drager.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
eISBN: 978-0-8174-2500-5
1. Composition (Photography) 2. PhotographyDigital techniques. I. Drager, Kerry. II. Title.
TR179.M56 2011
775dc22
2010044809

Front cover and interior design by vest design

v3.1

p. 1 A high camera position and a telephoto view helped fill up the picture frame with these rowers. When photographing motion, freezing the movement is frequently the choice for many photographers. But, at times, a slow shutter speedin this case, 1/8 sec.can convey a nice sense of motion.
Photo Jim Miotke. 1/8 sec. at f/16, ISO 100, 28135mm lens at 135mm

pp. 23 The lights and colors of twilight lit up this Southern California coastal scene in a glorious way. With the extreme lighting contrast range, photographer Donna Pagakis decided to use the HDR (high dynamic range) technique. She says, I had my camera set to autobracket the exposures at 2/3-stop intervals. I blended two exposures in Photoshopone exposed for the sky, one for the foreground. Note: Two exposures, both set at f/7.1 (and 1.3 seconds for the sky exposure and 2 seconds for the foreground exposure), were combined for this image.
Photo Donna Pagakis. ISO 100, 18mm lens

p. 5 This barrel-cactus scene is all about shape and texture. Photographer Leslie McLain used a close composition to fill up the picture frame with just the pattern. In addition, the photographer chose a camera angle that helps emphasize the scenes lines and curves.
Photo Leslie McLain. 1/3 sec. at f/16, 100 ISO, 100mm lens

pp. 67 Colorful subjects always seem to catch my eye, such as this old boat with a fresh coat of red paint. The low-angled, late-day sunhitting the subject from the sidecast a nice shadow, too. For this telephoto close-up, I zeroed in on the graphic design of strong lines and colors.
Photo Kerry Drager. 1/2 sec. at f/22, ISO 100, 105mm lens

pp. 89 (left to right)
Arriving on the scene early one morning in northern England, I saw clouds, light, and color come together perfectly. A wide-angle approach seemed natural. For landscapes, and many other scenes, I always check both formatshorizontal (landscape) and vertical (portrait). For this scene, I felt that a horizontal view best fit my vision.
Photo Jim Miotke. 1/125 sec. at f/5.6, ISO 100, 1635mm lens

Photographer Susana Heide specializes in childrens photography. I find it extremely refreshing to be able to capture so many genuine expressions of a child or baby during a session, she says. For this image, she used a telephoto lens, a tight composition, and a huge hat that colorfully frames the subjects expression.
Photo Susana Heide. 1/250 sec. at f/7.1, ISO 100, 2870mm lens at 70mm

These shadowed garden sculptures stand out against a bright pond background at sunset. I was attracted by the distinctive shapes. I wanted to include the cats outline as a soft-focused secondary subject that I knew would still be interesting and identifiable. Otherwise, the cowboy and frog stand front and center while framing the cat beyond.
Photo Kerry Drager. 1/4 sec. at f/8, ISO 100, 105mm lens

Photographer Katarina Mansson has a passion for shooting architecture in a semi-abstract way. Its not a surprise, then, that this Frank Gehrydesigned building in Germany caught her attention. I played with my wide-angle lens and lots of different compositions. In this one, I was after a good Rule-of-Thirds composition, together with the flowing shapes and the beautiful blue versus white.
Photo Katarina Mansson. 1/250 sec. at f/8, ISO 200, 1022mm lens at 10mm

A steady camera (on a tripod) and a slow shutter speed (to blur the movement of the walkers) combined to record this holiday scene in Boise, Idaho. I had been shooting the city Holiday Tree and turned around to see this couple, says photographer Becky J. Parkinson. I thought the scene looked very festive.
Photo Becky J. Parkinson. 1 second at f/8, ISO 250, 24120mm lens at 55mm

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are very grateful to the many people who have helped us produce this book.

First, we would not be anywhere without Team BetterPhotothank you all for your amazing support.

Next, Jim would like to thank his familywife, business partner, and best friend, Denise; and children Julian, Alex, and Alinafor their loving support. He is also very grateful to Brian and Marti Hauf for their prayerful and practical support.

And Kerry would like to thank his familywife and best friend, Mary, and his stepchildren, Dan and Kristinfor their great love and never-ending support.

A special thanks goes to the great team at AmphotoVictoria Craven, Julie Mazur, Autumn Kindelspire, and Jess Morphew.

We feel deeply honored to work with the amazing photographers who teach at BetterPhoto.com, including Tony Sweet, Jim Zuckerman, Vik Orenstein, Lewis Kemper, George Schaub, Kathleen T. Carr, Susan and Neil Silverman, Deborah Sandidge, Peter K. Burian, William Neill, G. Newman Lowrance, Paul Gero, Rob Sheppard, Jim White, John Siskin, Charlotte Lowrie, Simon Stafford, Jennifer Wu, Ibarionex Perello, Jenni Bidner, Doug Johnson, Kevin Moss, Lynne Eodice, and Doug Steakley. You all rock!

We also would like to thank Art Wolfe, Dewitt Jones, Jack Hollingsworth, Dane Sanders, Rick Sammon, Bob Krist, Jack Warren, Kevin La Rue, and Laurie Shupp at Nik Software; Gabriel Biderman, Tana Thomson, Jonathan Yudin, and Hershel Waldner at B&H Photo; Sam Perdue at Lensbaby; Neal and Chris at Photographers Edge; Gary Farber at Hunts Photo in Boston; Kathleen Davis at Popular Photography; Ben Willmore, Colin Smith, Joe and Casey at Really Right Stuff; the team at Singh-Ray Filters; and the team behind the software: Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.

On , there is a list of the many contributors from BetterPhoto, including those involved in the Masterpiece Membership, who shared their wonderful images. We would like to say to each of you, Thank you and congratulations!

Last, we extend our thanks to all of the dedicated members of BetterPhoto, who have helped make it such an awesome and joyful photographic community. Keep it up!