Gear_002 /  by Allen Chan

Shot with all the gear mentioned in this post.

When you're new to photography, one of the first things you do is check out some popular photographers to see how they shoot. Learning how they use their camera and gear. What settings they use. But, the only thing you take away from the whole lesson is what gear they use and it makes you want to buy it. This is evil. There are quite a few photographers that come to mind when it comes to selling you certain products without making it an obvious advertisement. I was a sucker for this for a while. It's evil. It's evil because most of the time, you go and spend hundreds of dollars on whatever equipment you saw your favorite photographer use and you get it, bring it home, and sometimes you have no idea what to do with it. Some people try and then give up, toss it in the corner, let it collect dust for months or years. Maybe even forever.

If you ever find yourself falling into that trap, please... dig up that gear from the ashes and learn how to use it. Get obsessed in making it work. Keep at it. Get creative. If you don't quite get how to use it like that photographer, then use your imagination on how you can use it in a different way. Ask someone who may know how to use it. Heck, ask me if you want!

One of the first things I've bought because of a photographer was an Elinchrome black velvet background, Elinchrome 24" softbox along with a Nikon SB-900 and a fancy Manfrotto lightstand. Expensive stuff. Why did I buy Elinchrome and Manfrotto when there were many cheaper alternatives? Because that's what that pro photographer used and I needed the best gear. Did anyone show me how to use it? No. Did I watch anyone show me how to use it other than watch the photographer in a video use it? Yes. Did it really help? Nope. When I first tried it, all my photos looked like crap. Overexposed. Underexposed. Repeat. It was bad. But, I kept at it, and before I knew it, my photos were looking like the pros! (almost. sorta.) My wife's photo from the Eyes. post was one of the first photos I shot with that gear. It only took lots of keeping at it, and my wife's patience.

What I've learned is: you don't always need the best gear. Most of these brands are all the same. Umbrellas, softboxes, backdrops. Mostly the same thing. One brand's softbox is not gonna give you better results than a cheaper softbox. The build quality may be better. But, your photos from the $25 softbox won't look any different from a $100 one. 

Don't give up. Your gear needs you.

 

 

Gear_001 /  by Allen Chan

Shot with a Nikon 24-70mm at 24mm f/2.8. To some people, that would be a big no-no to shoot fully wide angle and wide aperture. Whatever.

Once you pick up a DSLR and seen with it after a while, your friends and/or family will ask you: "Hey, what lens should I buy for <insert situation>?" and at first you're either saying "I don't know." or "well, if you're shooting this, then get that." because you either have that lens or you just saw or heard other pro photographers using them or saying to use a particular type of lens for a particular type of situation. Well, after years of my own experience, I do not believe in any other that. Most would tell you not to use a short prime lens like a 50mm for portraits (which I have done. See my wife's photo which was shot with a 50mm) and that you should use a long lens. Some say to use a 35-50mm for street photographer or else it's not street photography. I've been listening to these people for a while. Now, I think that's all total crap. You use what you have and you make it work for you. I've use anything from wide angle to 50mm for portraits. Using a wide will distort but you can get creative with that. But, I will agree it is not ideal for professional headshots. As for street photography, I just feel if you're shooting in the street, then it's street photography no matter what lens you use. Now, I may get some flak for saying that, but, whatever. Why box yourself in these rules? Photography is freedom. Photography is art. Art is subjective.

Don't be a photo purist. Be a photo artist.

 

Inspired. /  by Allen Chan

Inspiration can come from anywhere. Whether you're observing people or from things you see in everyday life, and the most obvious is from photos from other photographers. But, if you want to be a little more creative, you can take ideas from other forms of media. Like, music or TV. Maybe even other things like sports. Two football players colliding can be translated to taking a photo of two hard shell eggs colliding. Use the music you listen to. Even bad music.Anything. Just think: "How can i make a photoshoot out of this?"

Keep your mind and your senses open.

Rules. /  by Allen Chan

I taught myself how to use a DSLR. Ok, maybe that's a lie. A friend of mine taught me how to get proper exposure using the aperture and shutter speed dials and I was good to go. Never used auto features. The only thing thing that was set to auto was the focusing. I love the flexibility from shooting manual from underexposing to overexposing whenever I felt like I needed to. For me, there were no real rules because I never learned them. I've never even heard of the Rule Of Thirds.  I just felt if it looks good to me, then it's ok. But, as I did more research and looked at what the pros were doing, I learned that what I was doing has been such a big no-no. Too overexposed? Bad! Too underexposed? Bad! Not following the Rule of Thirds??? Really bad! I have a natural tendency to rebel against rules. At the same time, I understood why these things are bad and why people want to follow these rules. To rebel takes a lot of understanding of the rules and bold judgement on why you feel they don't apply to your image.

Following the rules can also get really stale and boring as hell because "they" do it. Me? I've been looking at many amazing photos on 500px and following the works of my favorite photographers like, Jeremy Cowart, Joe McNally, and Zack Arias. I've learned a ton of techniques from them and I highly encourage everyone else to also. But, I still do not follow the rules because I do not want to emulate their style or anyone else's style or the standards. Look at what everyone else is doing and ask "How can I do that differently?"

I do my own style. Create your own.

Eyes. /  by Allen Chan

One of the most important parts of the body that make an interesting photo are the eyes. From Clint Eastwood's ice cold stare to Tyra Banks' "smizing". For those who don't know, smizing is smiling with your eyes. Got it? It's also known as "the squinch" as coined by famous headshot photographer, Peter Hurley. He has studied all the best modern celebrities of this century and has learned that what makes their photos so interesting is because of the way they squint their eyes very slightly. You should look in the mirror right now and try it. Just raise your lower eyelid up just a tiny bit and BOOM! Instant Hollywood star!

Luckily for me, my wife is a natural at smizing.

This was one of my very first attempts at using a speedlight, softbox, and black background.

Man-smizing. This was from an actual job utilizing all three of my Nikon SB-900 speedlights and a white background.

Day 1 /  by Allen Chan

Hi everyone! This is my very first post on the blog and it's been a long time coming, thanks to some encouragement from friends and family (you know who you are). But, I've also been planning this for a while also. I started photo blogging a while ago when I started shooting with my first DSLR (Nikon D80 at the time) and thought my photos were good. Looking back now, it was embarrassingly horrible. I was over-saturating everything, super high clarity, basically I cranked up all the sliders to 100% like the true amateur I was. And yes, even did some selective coloring. I want this new photo blog to show how I am growing now as a photographer, as well as just show my photos from the studio, my travels, and the stories behind them. I might even throw in some lessons that I have learned along the way,

Let's start with this little gem of a turd. It's one of the first photos from my first blog in 2008 and showcases how bad it was.

Craptastic.

Now, this is something I see a lot of amateurs do. See that glow around the bridge? That is from cranking the Clarity up WAY too high. The whole thing is oversaturated and overall, it's too dark. Oh, and vignetting is also overdone. I basically wanted to do a moody and dark look and just went nuts on every slider that can make it as dark as possible. What I have learned over the years (as someone with no formal training in photography) is to ease back on these sliders. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. So, if you are doing one or all of these things, do everyone and yourself a favor: ease up.

Maybe someday, I will revisit the Brooklyn Bridge and re-shoot it.