"Having the latest and greatest camera and lens in the world won't help you if you don't have an eye for photography" - Interview with Francis Keating

Recently, I had the chance to interview Francis Keating, a professional photographer from Australia who spent many years in Hungary.

1. Q: Tell us a little about yourself. How did you get involved in the art of photography? Do you remember your first camera?


A: I’m Francis Keating and I was born in Australia. I still remember my first camera, which was a Minolta one with fixed lens I had in high school when I was a member of the photography club there. However, I cannot really recall the name of the exact model I used back then.
As for my journey to photography, it was a long one. The first time I got closer to photography emotionally was when I saw my uncle’s photos and it just started to interest me. After graduating from high school, I started to work and I didn’t really have the time for photography. Then in the 1990s, I travelled through Europe and the States and I found myself involved in photography again. I had a small compact camera, which wasn’t really a flagship model. In Israel in the year of 1992, I met a good friend of mine who gave me his old camera gear which consisted of and old Pentax Spotmatic SLR and many lenses.
As I got more enthusiastic about photography, I took courses in Budapest in 1996-1997. Well, the teacher told me that I was one of the best students in the group and it gave me a boost of confidence concerning this field of art.
After getting my education degree, I realised I wasn’t fond of teaching and I took elective courses at the College of Arts. I liked taking photos –nudes, portraiture- way more than teaching.
I continued my way to Taiwan, where I taught English. Actually, I had my exhibitions there and at that time, I mainly took photos of the Yangtzee and photos for magazine covers. I also took photos of jewellery and other products.

2. Q: Could you explain your philosophy for photography?


A: For me, it’s about going against a lot of rules, for which people tend to look at me in a strange way, but this is how it is. Firstly, I always focus on the composition and the aesthetic side of the photograph; and for me, concept comes later. I usually just take a photo and see if it fits a concept or not. A lot of my photos depict sadness, loneliness, solitude; which is not intentional at all. It may somehow come subconsciously.

3. Q: How much do you think Budapest is inspiring –in terms of photography- compared to Hong Kong or great urban areas of Australia?


A: I have to admit that Budapest is a beautiful place and it has what I miss in Australia. Budapest has this uniqe, distinctive architecture and atmosphere that one can’t find in Australia. For instance, a few weeks ago, I took a photo of the frozen Danube, and I believe I couldn’t have taken a similar photo in Australia. However, my homeland is more than perfect for landscape photography.
As for Hong Kong, I didn’t find it that inspiring, but small villages in China can really blow your mind! It’s important to note that the term “inspiring” highly depends on your style.

4. Q: What are your habits of taking photos in the streets?


A: It highly depends on the mood. When I travel, I usually use wide-angle lenses to get as much content into the photo as possible while getting closer to the subject to be able to separate it from the background and distracting factors. However, sometimes it’s not possible to take close-ups of subjects in the streets. For example, a couple of years ago, I took a photo of some old men playing chess in a park. I took that with a telephoto lens which had a focal length of approximately 200mm. A long lens is good to have if you don’t have the opportunity to get closer to what you’re trying to capture. There’s always a proper time and place for both kind of lenses.

5. Q: If you were to tell an amateur what to do when doing photography, what would you say?


A: Take the time to improve your composition; it’s very important. You should keep things simple and not try to get too much into the frame, because it’s distracting. Also, you should always focus on your subject, as this is one of the most important ingredients of a great photo. Apart from these, it’s also great if you dare to change your perspectives. People tend to take photos from eye level, which can become boring. Capturing images from ground level or waist level may make your photos way more interesting. Another common thing among shutterbugs is that they take the photo perfectly horizontally. Dare to go against the rules and tilt your camera a bit to give your image an unusal look.
Light is just as important as composition, an adequate setup can improve your photo, while bad light conditions can ruin the whole image. If you take photos outdoors, avoid the mid-day time when lights are very harsh. Cloudy days might be a bit better light-wise, since clouds act as light diffusers that filter the light coming from the sun.

6. Q: When teaching photography, what’s the first thing you tell your students they must always bear in mind?


A: Photography is a mixture of art and science; it’s about creativity. There are two basic groups of people. There are those who know everything about the technical side of photography and understand every single term, such as choosing the proper shutter speed, setting up lights etc.; but they don’t have the eye to creat a good image. And there are those who have a great eye and creativity, but don’t know the technical aspect. The most important thing is to have both; have a proper camera with fairly good technical knowledge, but also have the eye to use your equipment to capture great moments in a creative way. Having the latest and greatest camera and lens in the world won't help you if you don't have an eye for photography.

Francis is now running photography courses in Budapest for beginners and intermediate photography enthusiasts! You can contact him at admin@dejavuphotographic.com

3 steps to make your photo more interesting

It's never easy to get rid of the clichés we encounter on a daily basis on the internet. The Eiffel Tower, the view of a city, doors, and the list could go on for decades. However, there is always a way to make photos more exciting.

1. Look for something unusual
   
   
   
   One may not be attentive and observant enough to notice the beauty of the street. There are everyday objects that aren't considered to be of great importance. However, it might be its odd shape, colour that could make it stand out of the mass.
   The following photo depicts a door without being special, yet the vivid and bright colours around it really makes it different and a great subject to take a photo of.
   
   
   
   








2. Add some dramatic look
   
   Being creative when taking photos of city landscapes is not the easiest task. It's really difficult to make your photo different from others that you can see. One way to make it interesting is to apply some colour grading to your photo, thus making it special in some way.
   
   
   
   

   

   Without colour grading

   
   
   
   

   

   Colour gradding added

   
   
   
   
3. Look for the perfect angle
   
   Why compose our photos in a perfectly horizontal way when there's a great potential in changing the usual composition? Dare to tilt your camera before capturing the moment!
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

An alternative use of a camera

Mercedes Benz came up with the idea of making a car "invisible" in order to promote the importance of hydrogen-fueled cars. The company covered one side of a car with LEDs displaying what the camera on its other side sees.

Flying to Paris

I have great news for you; I'm flying to Paris this Wednesday, so you'll have the chance to peek into what it's like to shoot photos "dans les rues de Paris." Let's see if I can avoid taking those well-known clichés.

Getting into street photography

As the weather is getting warmer, it makes the phographer's job easier when it comes to shoot in the streets of our precious capital, Budapest. Your hands are not freezing; what's more, it's better not to expose your camera to extreme cold weather.
As news travel fast, you might know the company that runs the public transportation of Budapest is in a critical financial state. On a sunny Saturday afternoon, I decided to go out and take a photo that implicitly shows the "sunset of the company."

This is what I managed to come up with:

In the foreground, the metro with the empty cockpit shows how empty the company is; while the setting sun communicates the message that time is passing quickly and darkness is quite close.

Understanding Photography

In this entry, I'm going to give you an explanation of those technical terms that already appeared in the previous one.

1,DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) cameras - These cameras have a moving mechanical element inside that helps the light coming through the lens reach the optical viewfinder that is on the back of these cameras. Fast autofocus, short shutter lag, and way larger sensor are those elements that are usually typical of them.

2, Image sensor - It is a small part behind the mirror mechanism inside the camera. As the mirror flips up, light coming through the camera lens reaches the image sensor. This is actually the most important part of cameras; it determines mainly the depth of field and the overall noise level.

3, Depth of field (DOF) - DOF determines how much the subject can be separated from the background. It depends on two main factors that are as follows: focal length and aperture. The following image is a great example of shallow DOF:

4, Aperture - A camera lens is very much similar to human eye. There is an iris inside the camera (lens diaphragm) that regulates how much light can enter the lens. The larger the aperture is, the more light enters the lens making the depth of field shallower. Larger aperture can also result in less contrasty images. Stopping down the lens itself can increases contrast and sharpness, but significantly reduces the DOF, which may look like less professional.

5, Focal length - It is marked on lenses as "XX mm." The length decides the field of view. The smaller the focal length is, the more field of view is available. The longer it is, the more the subject is separated from the background. If you use a wide angle lens, it is unlikely that you'll be able to reach shallow DOF. While these wide angle lenses are suitable for landscape photography, longer lenses are used for portrait, sport, and astro photography.

6, Night photography - Taking great photos in low light conditions requires a fairly great technical background. If you're considering doing night photography without a tripod, the best you can do is get a stunning low light performer, most preferably a portrait lens that has a big aperture (f1.4, f1.8). It enables you to take handheld photos without blurring the images.

Wide angle lenses can also be used for this sort of photography. All you need is a stable tripod and patience. Taking a photo at night with a lens that has a smaller aperture can be a pain in the neck; however, it's really not that difficult. The shutter speed should be as long as possible and the lens should be stopped down in order to get bright, sharp images.

Image taken with a wide angle lens at small aperture:

7, Bokeh - It originates from Japanese and it means intentional blurring. Bokeh is the out-of-focus are on a photo. Numerous photographers include bokeh lights in photos, making them look like more professional.
Here's an example of what bokeh light means:

Disclaimer: All rights are reserved. You may not use these photos on any web page, commercial or non-commercial, for profit or non-profit, without written permission from the photographer (Emil Chalhoub).

How to get started?

Doing street photography doesn't consist of taking photos of literally everything you see in the streets. Communicating a message and telling a story through your photos is what street photography means. Photographers should hunt for the decisive moment and capture it.

1, Choosing the camera

Missing that decisive moment is the biggest mistake one could ever make. In order to capture unique moments, a proper photography equipment is a must. Although it's said that it's not the camera that counts, but the photographer; however, the limitations of cheapo point-and-shoot cameras can indeed set you back from getting the best out of your own imagination and creativity. One of the most well-known disadvantages of point-and-shoot cameras is their slow autofocus system that may let you down in many situations. Consequently, choosing a DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) would actually be a much more viable idea if you decide to do street photography, since DSLR cameras have extremely fast autofocus system that won't disappoint you for sure. Let's not mention now rangefinder cameras that are meant to be used for specifically for this purpose, for street use. They usually have price tags of $4k-5k, which is quite expensive for most people.

Another tremendous difference between compact cameras and dslrs is that image sensors in compacts are pretty tiny and this small size highly reduces their overall image quality and low-light noise performance making these small cameras quite unusable in most situations after dark.

2, Deciding on what lens to get

Once you got the camera, choosing the suitable lens is the next step. It is good to know that fix focal length lenses perform way better in most situations than their zoom counterparts, since fix (a.k.a. normal lens) have fewer lens elements inside the lens barrel, thus reducing the chance to get flare, chromatic abberation, and other failures concerning image quality.

What's more, fix lens have better sharpness, contrast, colour rendering, and bigger aperture which enables you to reach shallower depth of field and get the most out of your night photos. Another great advantage of using a fix lens is that it stimulates your creativity and makes you think about how to frame a photo and how to compose it.

The most popular focal lengths that are suitable for street photography are as follows: 35mm, 50mm, 85mm. These are usually great low-light performers and portrait lens with minimal amount of distortion.

3, How to carry around all these stuff?

Well, avoid being vivid and noticeable in order to be part of the moment you're to capture. Obviously, choosing a pink or magenta bag for your stuff and a fancy strassed camera strap for your camera is the worst idea to come up with when considering getting involved in street photography. A black camera bag that doesn't look like a camera bag would certainly do. Be sure that it protects your gear properly and has plenty of space inside.

These are the first 3 steps towards street photography. Bearing all these things in mind might be a great help for you all before becoming a huge enthusiast in this field of art. In my next post, I'll explain all the technical terms that appeared in this entry.