From The Intern Corner//The Golden Hour

Welcome to The Intern Corner!

When is the perfect time for an outdoor portrait?

Have you ever wondered how photographers make outdoor photos look so amazing? It’s because they know when the best time is to take a photo.

The Grand River in Brantford, Ontario. Time: 8:45pm

You can’t just go outside at any time and take a photo. You have to wait until what is called the Golden Hour. The Golden Hour refers to the perfect time to take a photo outdoors, which is during or right after sunrise and sunset. These times have the perfect light.

They are the times when the sun is a golden orange colour and there are beautiful colours in the sky like pink and purple.

It’s the summer right now so the sunlight is really nice from 5:00am-7:00am and from 7:00pm-9:00pm. That is when the best photos are taken.

A lot of people think that a good time to take a picture is during the middle of the day at around 11:00am-4:00pm when the sun is at it’s peak (that’s when a lot of people chose to book their outdoor photo shoots), but actually that’s not a very good time to take pictures outside!

The light is at it’s worst at those times. The lighting is very contrasty and harsh because the light is right above you which causes strong highlights and shadows from the sun. For example, if you were taking a picture of a person in the sun there would be a strong shadow right behind them (which can look good if that’s what you’re going for) and unpleasing shadows under their eyes, nose, and chin.

But sometimes you don’t have a choice and you have to shoot during the day, so you can look for ideal weather conditions like cloudy skies which help to keep everything at the same exposure and helps to diffuse the sunlight.

So basically if you want to take an awesome photo outside, use the light from the sun coming up or going down. That’s the best time for photos.

Landscape photos are usually taken in the morning or evening as well.
I went to the Grand River here in Brantford to take some photos in the evening.

Time: 8pm-9pm

Taking pictures in the evening works great for portraits too.

Time: 8pm

So give some thought about what time you want to book your next photo shoot :)

Cheers!

-Orianna

From The Intern Corner//Depth of Field

Welcome to the Intern Corner!

A lot of photographers use depth of field to enhance their photography so here’s a little explanation of what that is and how I use it. 

Depth of Field
Simply, depth of field (DOF) refers to how you use your the focus on your camera. You can choose to focus on one thing or make everything in focus. The DOF is controlled on the camera by the f number or f-stop. You might be thinking, what’s an f-stop? The f-stop controls how large the aperture is.

Large Aperture = Small f-number = Shallow (small) Depth of Field
Small Aperture = Larger f-number = Deeper (larger) Depth of Field

…There’s a lot more of a complicated technical explanation, but you get the picture. So as you can see you can choose to have a shallow depth of field or large depth of field.

Shallow Depth of Field 
My f-stop for a shallow DOF usually ranges from f1.8-f5.6. 

f3.2

f2.8

f2.8

f1.8

f5.6

f3.2

f4.5

f4.5

f5.6

f5

Large Depth of Field
My f-stop for a larger DOF usually ranges from f8-f22.

f11

f8

f11

f11

f11

Comparison
Here’s a comparison between shallow and large DOF and how much of a difference it makes.

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f8

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f2.8

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f8

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f1.8

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f11

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f5

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f11

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f2

When To Use Each
As you can probably tell from the pictures above, there are certain times when it’s better to use one depth of field over the other.

Shallow depth of field is the more popular type that photographers use. It allows your eye to focus on the subject of the image and you can be more creative with it. I use a shallower depth of field to isolate my subject from the background, especially when the background is busy or distracting. I use my 50mm lens or my telephoto lens to get the best shallow depth of field.

f8

f2.8

I also mostly use it for portraits.

f4

You can also use it artistically and put out of focus things in the foreground to frame your subject. I just make sure that the focal point (the red dot) is on the subject and the aperture is bigger (f1.8-f5.6).

f5.6

A larger depth of field is used in most landscape photography because you want to make sure that you get as much in focus as possible. I use my wide angle lens and a small aperture (f8-f22) for landscape photography.

f16

Cheers!

-Orianna