We have a guest blogger today!

Danny Santos II is a fresh talent from the Philippines who's currently residing in Singapore. His street portraits have taken the online photo sharing community by storm, and we have the priviledge of his insights on how to shoot street photography as well as an interview! Enjoy!

What subjects and genre are you specializing in?
My subjects are strangers I find in the streets, and the genre I'm try to specialize in is both street photography and portraiture.

How do you define your photography style and signature?
I'm not sure if I have a style... I think I'm still in the process of developing it. I always like to experiment with sunlight, but then I also like shooting in the rain. And when the wheather is in between sun and rain, I like shooting portraits because of the overcast sky. I'm not sure if I'll ever stick to justs one particular style.. maybe just for a while, then I'm looking for other styles again.

Which one photographic piece of equipment would you say is the most critical to you?
I'd say it's my 85mm lens. I have a love-hate relationship with this lens. When I first bought it, I was kinda disappointed. I found the focal length awkward to use in the streets.. it's wasn't long enough, but also not wide enough. I couldn't come up with keepers with it, so it stayed in my cabinet gathering dust. After a couple of months, I decided to give it another try and be very patient with it... eventually, I started to figure out how to use it and got one keeper after another. Now it almost never leaves my camera.

Do you have a favorite lens?
The 85mm f1.4, as described above.

Can you briefly describe your walk-through from capture to display?
I always shoot in RAW. From there, I import all the shots to Adobe Lightroom to screen the keepers, and whenever necessary, adjust the exposure, add vignette, and crop the shot. After this, I export to Photoshop to adjust the contrast, and whenever necessary, apply selective highlights and shadows using channel selections (this is equivalent to dodge & burn), enhance sharpness, and convert to black & white. That's about it.

What inspires you most?
I guess it's the thought of creating a photograph that's worth looking at and smiling about... that beautiful everyday moment which would have otherwise gone unnoticed. I'm reminded by a quote I read from the famous street shooter Robert Doisneau: "The marvels of daily life are exciting; no movie director can arrange the unexpected that you find in the street."

How do you decide on location or subject?
For the location, I always look for good people traffic, good potential background, and good light. I think having these things in a location increases your chances of getting a good photograph. For the subject, on the other hand, I always look for someone you wouldn't mind looking at. They don't necessarily have to be aesthetically beautiful (although that helps a lot), they should at least have character, you know. As long as they don't look normal, and as long as I feel that their look will translate well in a photograph, I start shooting.

Which ONE photograph that you've created that you'll consider as your favorite and why?

I think it will have to be the two girls running barefoot in the rain.

I think I really got lucky with that... not only were they barefoot, they were running in synch! That for me is the exact definition of being at the right place at the right time.

What's your current project?
I'm currently working on my "Portraits of Strangers" set where I roam around Orchard Road every weekend and take close-up head shots of strangers with their permission. I've always wanted to kind of transition from shooting street to shooting portraits, and this project is my personal effort to do that.

The project has been going on for quite a while now, and I'm almost done since I now have about 82 out of 100 strangers. You can see all the portraits I've taken so far in my facebook page here or in my flickr set here.

Please provide our readers three quick tips to be successful in your field and genre.
1) Keep shooting and keep experimenting. A lot of my keepers were a product of "happy accidents".
2) The fear will never go away. Just shoot through the fear, and when you get that keeper, your going to want more.
3) Relentlessly look for inspiration online and in books. It's so easy to get stuck in a rut where you won't know what to do next. Constantly looking for inspiration keeps you looking forward to learning and trying new things.

My Blog: http://www.dannyst.com
My Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/dannyst.photography
My Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dannysantos/ Continue Reading

I'm just adding some practical, daytime and indoor examples with the same (human) subject for this topic. If you haven't done so, please read Part 1 and Part 2 of this article before continuing.

First of all, I'd like to thank Nick for replacing my stuffed horse as a subject during our lunch break.

Here is a set of photos shot indoors. The camera was set to program mode and the pop-up flash was left at 0-flash compensation. Let's play around with the camera's exposure first - remember that this affects the ambient light. Continue Reading

by David Tong

Continued from my previous article, Shedding Light on Flash - Part 1.

I discussed about using flash to lift up shadows in high contrast scenes and how to the camera's exposure and the flash's exposure are separate in my previous post. Now we'll provide some short examples on how to control flash and camera exposure indoors, in close quarters.

We've all experienced taking flash photos that made our subject look like a shocked deer in front of an approaching car at night. It's not flattering, it looks amateurish, it robs the environment of its atmosphere. The problem increases for dark-haired subjects as the hair will just blend with the dark background with no separation.Remember how the camera controls the ambient, and the flash controls the subject's exposure. Always keep that in mind.

If you're close to your subject, dial the flash way down while slow down the shutter speed and/or open up the aperture to allow more ambient light in. That's something you have to keep in mind.

Note: All images in this article used a built-in flash, not external flash. You’ll benefit more with an external flash unit, read more about why a flash is useful in my “Get a Flash First to Improve Your Photos” article. Continue Reading

by: David L. Tong

For many new photography enthusiasts, upgrading to a fast 2.8 zoom lens will be their first priority and their main reason is for low-light shooting capabilities. There's nothing wrong with that, it's a legitimate, worthwhile investment for those who can afford it and need it for their assignments.

Those of us can't afford fast zoom lenses without going through some serious budgeting will need to real consider the reasons to get one as when we do buy such a nice piece of equipment, most users fail to realize that a fast lens does have trade-offs as well, especially when it comes to depth-of-field and max shutter speed issue.

For most casual users, investing on a flash gun is a much better decision, in my opinion. A flash gun allows your basic kit lens to function well in low-light and fast-moving subjects regardless of lighting conditions.

If you're shooting a group of subjects in low-light, using a wide aperture (f/4 or larger) usually won't let you get a sharp image beyond the person your camera focused on. You'll most probably need f/6.3 to f/11 in most group shots - something even your fast lens won't be able to cope with in terms of shutter speed. Even high ISO won't help much, not to mention the loss of detail due to noise.

A flash will allow you to keep a high shutter speed (usually above 1/100) while keeping the aperture opening small (f/5.6 or smaller). Continue Reading