Get Your Feet Wet

Get your feet wet with Dale Neill at the University of Western Australia Extension's Summer School of Photography.

Check out the link below for course details. Some of my workshops also include lunch at the University Club.

Click HERE for details.

Photography Tip - Using light in travel photography

George Eastman, founder of Kodak said:

'Light makes photography. Embrace light. Admire light. Love it. But above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography.'

Many travellers mistakenly think that owning an expensive DSLR camera automatically makes them a great travel photographer. If that were true, Australia would have 14,000,000 great photographers. Unfortunately, that's a long way from the truth.

Bar de Cao, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Fuji X100 compact.

Quality travel images, including travel portraits come from an understanding of the way light works. Part observation, part camera knowledge and part one's ability to engage the subject are the key elements.

Dale Neill is running another On The Move photography workshop (Travel and Street Photography), over three days, commencing on 15 November 2014.

For the young at heart and adventurous travel photographer Wild Heart's photographic and cultural tour of Budapest, Croatia and the Dalmatian Coast sets sail in April 2015. 

Two new workshops at UWA Extension

UWA Extension are hosting two new Dale Neill photography workshops in August 2014.  

Photographing Faces on Sun 10 August combines theory/practical and provides you with critical  tips on lens choice, how to make a $150 lens perform like a $2000 lens, Rembrandt and Butterfly lighting and six simple poses to relax your subject.

For those with a bent on vintage cameras and film photography Exploring Film Cameras on Sat 9 August examines the six best second-hand film cameras to buy, handling film, how and where to buy, manual exposure, precision focusing and archiving negatives. The workshop includes a critique of your prints approximately two weeks later.

Positive film is like a truth serum. Its an acid test of your ability as a photographer. You get just one chance to get the exposure, colour and sharpness exactly right. There's no second chance.  Dale Neill

The wrap-up night from your recent UWA extension course was an absolute highlight - especially looking at everyone's results and your comments on them. Thanks again for an inspiring course.

Mark Jackson

The best lens for portrait photography

Which camera sensors produce the best skin tones? 
What are the three best lenses for portrait photography?
What are five simple tips for relaxing and posing people?
Where do you focus in a portrait - the near side eye or the dominant eye?

Master Photographer Dale Neill* answers these questions and more in a new UWA Extension workshop on August 10 and 14. Follow the link Photographing Faces for details and booking. 

The workshop includes a morning of theory and practice in the classic old limestone building at UWA Extension (previously Claremont Teachers College. )

In the afternoon we transfer to the corridors and arches of the University of Western Australia Nedlands for a full practical portrait shoot. Four days later we meet in the evening for a display and critique of your best images.

oOo

Thanks a million for presenting such a wonderfully informative & enjoyable workshop on the W/E. You were able to answer so many questions that have been going around, unanswered, in my head....such a relief! Denise Williams, Graphic designer

Dale – thank you for your generous sharing of encyclopedic photographic knowledge and the empathic way you impart it.  (Dr) Peter Randell

*Dale Neill's portrait images have won more than twenty awards in the Australian Professional photography Awards. He was a  finalist in the 2012 National Portrait Prize in Canberra and his image 'Farewell my Son' was hung in the National Portrait Gallery.

Real people, real beauty

Mona Ashfar in FACEZ Studio

At an AIPP photography workshop yesterday at the Moores Building in Fremantle, Tony Hewitt suggested that I took real photographs of real people. Thanks Tony!

Click the link below -yes, its an advertisement made by Dove. Its one of the most watched advertisements in history but parts of it give us an insight into that hugely complicated and problematic area of self-image and perceptions.

Your self image

And if you would like to learn a lot more about making real portraits join my Portraits - Memories Forever workshop at UWA on 6, 7 and 11 July.

You will come away taking some of the best portraits of your life and may just end up with a real portrait of yourself!

Tip - How to achieve Remrandt Lighting in Portraiture

Rembrandt lighting is achieved using light coming from the side of the face and body. The angle is usually somewhere between 6o and 90 degrees.

The effect is one side of the face is fully lit and the shadow side partly lit, ideally with a small triangular patch of light under the eye on the shadow side.

If the photographer positions himself and camera so that the lit side is towards the camera it makes the face look broader and plumper. This is called Rembrandt Broad lighting.

With exactly the same lighting, if the camera is now re-positioned to point at the shadow side of the face, the emphasis is on the dark side with the small triangle of light. This produces a far more theatrical, dramatic lighting effect and makes the face and body look narrower and slimmer. This is referred to as Rembrandt Short lighting.

The Fremantle Portrait Prize offer more than AU$10,000 in prizes including a AU$5000 cash First Prize for the best portrait. Entries are $15 each and close on 8 July 2013. All proceeds to the Arthritis and Osteoporosis Foundation of Western Australia. Click HERE for details.

To learn more about Portrait Lighting and Techniques join Master Photographer Dale Neill in his next UWA Extension Portrait Workshop on 6/7/11 July 2013. Click HERE for details.

The Perfect Portrait Lens

The great French photographer Jeanloup Sieff shot many of his portraits using just the one lens - an 85mm prime. You might ask why?

There are two things I look for in choosing the ideal portrait lens. First of all it needs to be a prime lens and not a zoom lens. 

Prime lenses provide me with a big aperture and control of background blur and Bokeh. Most prime lenses are able to pass between four and eight times more light than a zoom lens. This means prime lenses can be used in low light situations and still maintain a fast shutter speed, resulting in increased sharpness.

Because of a prime's superior light gathering properties the photographer can also choose a lower ISO which reduces the risk of visual noise. This results in superior print quality.

The second major factor is the actual focal length of the lens. A photographer needs to be sufficiently close  to their subject to communicate without shouting but not so close that hey encroach on the subject’s personal space.  Of equal importance is subject-lens distance.  if you get too close to your subject you will steepen perspective and distort facial features. Few subjects, other than circus clowns would appreciate this!

An 85mm f1.4 prime lens addresses those two requirements, providing sharp images, flattened perspective and superb bokeh.

To learn more about lenses, cameras and portrait techniques join me on my next UWA Portraits - Memories Forever workshop.

Reflectors & Diffusers

Shooting at Blackwall Reach on the Swan River on a sunny, summer's afternoon the light was the typical mottled, splotchy mixture that makes portrait photography near impossible.
We unwrapped the diffuser part of the reflector and my assistant Martin stood in waist deep water to protect the subject. Its really the simplest thing ever. All you need is a tall, strong helper who doesn't mind getting a bit wet.
The image is a colour bleed through my sepia formula. Client is Cygnet bay Pearls; Model Phynia
You can learn techniques like these at UWA Extension's 'Portraits - Memories Forever' on Feb 11, 12 & 16 2012. $225
http://www.extension.uwa.edu.au/course/cc214