Pro Techniques

It starts with the website, which is a key element in wedding photographer John Solano's business. John's goal is to be pre-sold before the client even meets him. "The ideal is that I don't have to show them a picture," John says. "I do that, of course, but the work kind of sells itself, and if they've seen it already, the selling is...

Big. Everything about digital imaging with medium format film boils down to the joys and delights of working with large image files. A frame of medium format film dwarfs a 35mm negative or slide and while this bigness produces more image quality, it also...

Being a photographer for 30 years has helped me to become more acutely aware of my surroundings. I find myself at all times watching how light pours over faces, how compositions just jump out at me, and how micro landscapes abound everywhere in daily life. So, it was with great surprise one day that I noticed just how blissfully unaware I was of my surroundings, and that maybe my...

Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), the world-renowned center of imaging tech, research, and photographic education, and Leica Camera, acclaimed for its legendary cameras and outstanding optics, proclaimed May 6, 2008 as Leica Day. The daylong event, hosted by RIT at its impressively large modern campus, was celebrated with speeches, lectures, tours, slide shows, seminars...

A. T. (Tom) Willett and Jeff Smith are commercial photographers whose clients include Humana (insurance), Getty Assignments, Tucson Guide, More Magazine, the Arizona Public Service (APS), and the University of Arizona. The duo met more than 20 years ago while attending Pima Community College in Tucson.

Both moved to the small city when they were young (Willett from...

I could hear the predawn call to prayer broadcast from minarets across the city as I climbed the stairs to my hotel’s rooftop. From there I enjoyed a magnificent view of the ancient city of Istanbul. Immediately below me, roughly facing north, was Sultanahmet Square, the city’s historic center, flanked by the Blue Mosque to the left and the Hagia Sophia to the right. Behind and to my right I could see the Sea of Marmara and Asia, while in the distance to the northeast I could see the Strait of Bosphorus. As I stood alone on the rooftop in this city of 14 million people, admiring the view all around, it occurred to me I should get out my camera and take some pictures.

When photographing animals on an African safari, sharp photos are a gift to bring home and it all centers on proper technique. Use the “sweet spot” on the lens; with both of my shorter lenses it was around f/5.6 or f/8. On the longer zoom, I found f/5 or f/5.6 gave me needle-sharp and distortion-free images. With the animal at rest, always put that focusing spot on the eye. On longer distances or perhaps with the animal moving, place that spot on the shoulder or flank to keep a decent depth of field throughout their length.