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At its simplest, photography is all about capturing light. Whether the light is direct sun, studio strobes, speedlights or candles, the key to great photography is light. Natural light such as the sun requires no great explanation - it’s softer and warmer (hue) during “golden hour” around sunrise and sunset, it’s diffuse during a bright, overcast day, and it’s hard on a clear day at noon when the sun is directly overhead. Okay, that’s simplifying things a bit, but all you have to do is look outside during the various times of day mentioned and you’ll find that you already have an intuitive knowledge of this.

Soft, warm light at Danshui, Taiwan during Golden Hour.

What about artificial light? Pick up any business magazine and look at a few of the pictures of CEOs in the features. What do they all have in common? They’re all perfectly lit. Think about this for a second. Business leaders (and politicians, celebrities etc) are busy people. They’re hardly likely to have the time to wait around until there’s a nice, bright overcast day for some soft light. In most cases, the photographer is penciled in for a ten minute time slot and has to get the shot in that time. So how do they do it? A lot of the time, they have to create the light themselves.

I’m sure that everyone has taken a photo using the built in flash on a camera, and probably seen the dreaded “red eye effect”. This occurs when the flash is on the same optical axis as the camera’s lens. The light from the flash comes too quickly for the pupil to close, and is thus reflected from the back of the eyeball. The camera records this reflection, the red color coming from melanin, a pigment in the retina. Modern cameras usually have a series of pre-flashes that cause the iris to contract, lessening the red eye effect. There are also a number of software applications that can remove red eye after the fact. However, the simplest and easiest way to avoid red eye is to separate the flash and the camera. And this takes us a few steps towards creating the kind of perfect light we see in magazines.

Off-camera flash. One light for the face, and a second low-powered light for the graffiti.

This has been the introductory article in the Learning series that is new for 2009. It will contain various tips, tricks, tutorials and explanations designed to help you become a better photographer.

Happy New Year.

2009 is shaping up to be a great year here at Craig Ferguson Images. Lots of cool stuff in the works, more giveaways, more competitions, more fun. So stay tuned and check back often.

As a special thank you to all of you who regularly cruise by here and spend some time looking around, I’m making available the photo calendar below available as a free download for you to use as your desktop wallpaper. The zip file contains a number of different sized versions - I think I’ve covered all the common screen sizes but if I’ve missed any drop me a note in the comments and I’ll take care of it. To download simply click on the zip file icon below. Let me know what you think of it - if the response is good, I’ll make other photos available for free in future months. Enjoy and Happy New Year.

This photo is from Guandu wetland in Taipei county, Taiwan.

  Calendar

After one month of images and lots of good attempts from you to guess the theme, it’s time to announce the winners and tell you what the theme actually was. I’ve actually decided to award two prizes to two winners. They will each win the photo of their choice in a size that’ll look good hanging on a wall.

So onto the results. The first winner was Ashish. Back on December 3rd he made a guess that was correct in the details, but slightly off in the overall name. But it’s the details that count, so congratulations Ashish. Let me know which photo you’d like.

And the second winner was Dalbanese who made his guess a week later and followed on from Ashish’s reasoning to make a formal guess that was correct in name as well. Congratulations Dalbanese, a photo will be coming your way. Just let me know which one you want.

So the actual theme this past month was “The English Alphabet”. Here’s how they fit each letter.

Airplane / Airport / Arrival

Beach / Board

Construction

Deep Fryer

Engineer

Fantasy / Fiction

Gate

Heron

Intoxication

Jump

KMT / Kuomintang

Looking

Maritime / Marina

Never Again

Owl

Protest / Polar bear

Quick

Red shirt army

Swimming

Taiwanese identity (if you’re green) / Thief (if you’re blue)

Umbrella

Victory

Wind / Windpower

Ximending

Yellow

Zoo

So this is it. The final image in the month long theme competition. All you have to do to correctly win a limited edition photo is guess the theme that’s been running. The first correct guess (or guesses) will be the winning one. I will be announcing the results in a couple of days - look for the post on Christmas Eve, so that’ll give everyone a couple more days to think. Good luck.

A flamingo dips its beak at Taipei Zoo.

Today is a Sunday special - the penultimate photo in the theme competition. Don’t forget to make your guess for a chance to win a limited edition photo. The results will be posted in a few days.

Fortunately, these vehicles are rarely seen in Taiwan. Driving anywhere is chaotic and in the city, completely unnecessary.

Coming to the end of the theme competition. Just a couple of days to go.

Bustling Ximending, Taipei at night.

Counting down the last few days of the theme competition. Only 4 photos to go. Here’s one of them.

Growing awareness of environmental problems associated with fossil fuel usage, coupled with fears of a dwindling oil supply, had led to a massive increase in the use of alternative, renewable energy sources. As of 2007, wind energy capacity globally was 94.1 gigawatts, representing 1% of total global energy use, a fivefold increase on 2000 figures. Here in Taiwan, the government has set a target of 10% of the energy supply being derived from renewable sources by 2010, wind power is forecast to be 80% of that (8% of total usage). Currently, Taiwan is 23rd globally in windpower capacity with 282 megawatts, making it the third ranked country in Asia, surpassed only by India and China, a phenomenal achievement when relative population is considered.

Just 5 posts left in the theme competition. Here’s today’s photo.

American cyclist John Murphy of Health Net Pro presented by Maxxis cycling team won both the yellow and green jerseys in the 2008 Tour de Taiwan, an eight stage UCI event.

Coming to the last few days of the theme competition now. Don’t forget to make your guess.

Meinong, a rural township in Kaohsiung county, Taiwan, is primarily populated by Hakka people. Once the center of a thriving tobacco industry, Meinong has reinvented itself as a rural retreat. One of the key products made now are oil paper umbrellas.