January, 2012 - Storyteller

Ambient Light and Flash Combined

by Stanley LearyJanuary 31, 2012September 1, 2025fill-flash2 Comments

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Caption: Available Light only (Nikon D3S, ISO 12,800, f/5.6, 1/40, 28-300mm)

Hey Stanley, can you back up and explain this Ambient Light and under-stops thing you mentioned in that last post?

A few people wrote to me asking similar questions. So, let’s delve into ambient light and under—or over-exposure with a flash.

Step One: Get An Ambient Reading

It would be best to have a starting place, which will be your base exposure. Everything else will relate to this exposure. I, too, have a picture of the top of my Nikon D3S with a 28-300mm Nikkor lens. I just pointed across the room for this example. With SO 200, I have an f/3.5 aperture at a 1/10 shutter speed. This is my Ambient Reading with no flash.

Step Two: Use your Nikon SB900

You can use whatever hotshoe flash your manufacturer needs, but it must be a TTL flash, or this will not work as efficiently.

Step Three: Slow or Rear Curtain Sync

You need to set your flash setting to Slow or Rear Curtain Sync, as I have done in the above photo. This allows the flash and the camera to use the Ambient setting on the camera and then add the flash to the exposure without overexposing the image.

Could you take a picture with this setting, as I did in the photo above? This will light everything up. I am bouncing my flash with the diffusion dome on the flash for this photo. It is still getting light from the window, but the flash fills everything closest to the camera. The background is brighter but not as bright as the statue since it is further from the flash.

Step Four: Adjust the flash power under three stops

I choose to go three stops under because this is as low as I can go in TTL mode, and the camera is figuring it all out.

The results are obtained by keeping the camera set at -3.0 and telling the flash to underexpose.

You can adjust the camera and flash exposure to get even more results.

Silhouette and Reveal

Again, I must give credit to Dave Black for coining this terminology. I have been doing this for years, but I loved how he made it sound very artistic by using a French word.

Here is how you do this photo.

Step One: Take a regular ambient reading

Very similar to the above example. Everything will look normal.

Step Two: Underexpose the photo by two or three stops

Step Three: Set flash setting to just the opposite + stops

If you pick three stops under, you will set your flash to three stops over. You see now where the flash hits the subject, giving you perfect exposure.

[-3] + [+3] = 0 For the photo above, I had the Nikon SB900 off the camera, which was being fired by the SU800 on my camera.

12,800 ISO noise looks different with flash

by Stanley LearyJanuary 29, 2012September 1, 2025fill-flash2 Comments

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Dave Black spoke at a seminar about using his Nikon Speedlight SB900 flashes instead of his Studio heads to light a basketball court and an ice rink.

I was on the edge of my seat, absorbing what he was talking about. I didn’t go out and buy more SB900 flashes and use them instead of my strobes for one reason: clients were not paying for sports coverage as in years past.

But what I was listening to was some of the reasons it was working for Dave Black.

First, by having his strobes just a little over the ambient light level, he was able to get better color and avoid the problem with sodium vapor lights. The dynamic range under flash is the greatest light spectrum. Dave Black was shooting his flash just enough over the ambient to affect the color and help shift it to the 5000º Kelvin range.

Sodium vapor lights flicker, and when you shoot above 1/100 shutter speed, you can get color shifts throughout a photo, or just a band.

Another advantage of shooting with the Nikon Speedlights is that you can use just about any shutter speed. For example, Dave could freeze the puck in ice hockey by shooting at 1/200. His basketball shots were also sharper.

Available Light only (Nikon D3S, ISO 12,800, f/5.6, 1/40, 28-300mm)

I began experimenting with using strobes with high ISO, and found some benefits other than just for sports.

I shot the same photo here three different ways. I lit the statue with window light, and I shot it with nothing but the window light; any bounce backfill is just from the room. I shot it at ISO 12,800.

As you can see, the highlights look good, and you will notice more noise in the shadows.

Fill Flash set -3.0 (Nikon D3S, ISO 12,800, f/5.6, 1/30, 28-300mm)

I got a slightly different result by putting my SB900 with the dome on the camera and bounce flash ng. By adjusting the setting on the back of the flash, I underexposed the flash by -3 stops.

As you can see, the shadows are now not black as in the first photo.

Then I shot one more photo with the flash at a normal setting, which gave me a lot more light. This completely wiped out the shadow detail. However, since I was using it in rear sync mode, it was still complementing the window light and not overpowering it.

Fill Flash normal setting (Nikon D3S, ISO 12,800, f/5.6, 1/20, 28-300mm)

You need to zoom in to see some of the noise issues with each photo. The noise shows up the most in the green background. You’ll see a lot of noise the more it is in the shadow.

Available Light only (Nikon D3S, ISO 12,800, f/5.6, 1/40, 28-300mm)

Fill Flash set -3.0 (Nikon D3S, ISO 12,800, f/5.6, 1/30, 28-300mm)

As you add more fill light (-3 stops), the noise diminishes greatly.

Fill Flash normal setting (Nikon D3S, ISO 12,800, f/5.6, 1/20, 28-300mm)

I noticed that noise diminishes when you add Nikon Speedlights to high-ISO photos like these, shot at 12,800 ISO.

Less Flash output at High ISO

When you raise the ISO setting on your camera, every stop you raise it, the flash only needs to put out half as much light as it did. If you leave a Nikon D3S on auto ISO and the lowest ISO is 200, then the minute you put on your flash and turn it on, the ISO will drop to 200.

You must manually set your ISO to the high ISO you desire. Here, choose ISO 12,800.

The light the flash needs to put out at this setting is 7 stops less than at 100. This also means your flash can increase its throw distance by 7 times. If your flash only works at 10 feet at f/4 and ISO 200, you can now get f/4 at 640 feet away at ISO 12,800.

Color Temperature affects noise.

From my experience, I have found that whenever you shoot with flash, you have the greatest dynamic range. Also, the noise is less with flash than with incandescent, fluorescent, or sodium vapor light.

Slow and Rear Shutter setting

On the Nikon system, when the flash balances with the existing light, the flash only needs to do a little work because it complements the light, not being the primary light.

Why do I shoot with Nikon?

The Canon Speedlight system is similar to the Nikon TTL Speedlight system. You use Slow and Rear Shutter settings, but the higher the shutter speed, the darker and less consistent the flash becomes than in the Nikon system.

My point is that if you want to shoot with shutter speeds of 1/8000 with your speed lights, you better have a Nikon.

Attaining good skin tones with digital cameras

by Stanley LearyJanuary 27, 2012September 1, 2025White Balance4 Comments

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Sepia Tone filter

The photograph’s color can take you back in time, create a mood, or make your work look amateurish.

In an homage to the Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid cameras, Instagram confines photos to a square shape. It lets you apply a filter and, combined with edge effects, the square format can make an image taken today look like a nostalgic piece. You can make it look like the 1920s, 1950s, or 1970s. The transformation is because the photo triggers memories for those who lived during this time or those who have found a shoebox or old family albums and looked through the pictures.

On the other hand, the amateur look creates a mood. This is where you have a color cast in your photos. If they are under fluorescent light, they may look green. While inside with incandescent lamps, they have an orange effect.

If you mix flash with the available light, you may have proper light on the objects closest to the camera, and then the background shifts.

How do you know if your color is off?

There are several ways to determine if your color is off. First, you can take a picture using the Macbeth Color Checker Chart, as I did in the photo above. Then, you can use the densitometer built into Photoshop or Lightroom to compare the RGB color patch numbers.

Skin Tone: The telling sign of good color

The first giveaway to the human eye that the color is off will likely be skin tone. Look at these photos here. I let the camera figure it out for the first one, which is acceptable on Auto White Balance. Next, look at the following ones.

Sometimes, a person is surrounded by a dominant color, like a red wall. This will tell your camera you are seeing in red light and will try to compensate, giving your subject a cyan tone to their face.

I have done photo shoots where I used strobes, but I still needed to do a custom white balance because the ceiling, floor, or walls were all creating a color cast that made the skin tones not look correct.

You can find online skin tone swatches to compare a person’s skin to an approximate ethnicity color swatch. For example, the RGB value for Caucasian skin is R:239, G:208, and B:207. The numbers may be darker or lighter than the light on the skin, but they will generally go up and down uniformly.

I recommend shooting RAW, but constantly getting a custom white balance in every situation.

My favorite way to get a custom white balance is using my ExpoDisc.

If the subject is facing me and the light is from the side, I face the camera with the ExpoDisc on it so it is pointing toward the camera position. The chart above is to help you understand the concept, but you can modify it.

One way you can modify it is if the light is the same where you are standing. You could cheat and take a reading from where you are. The problem that can arise is if they are lit by Window light and the camera position is in the shade. Your color balance will be off if you do not take it from the subject’s perspective.

Use the wrong color sometimes.

Yes, I just said not to use the proper color sometimes.

Night scene

Most Hollywood movies that show nighttime scenes are often shot during the daytime. So, how do they achieve that look? First, set the camera to incandescent, giving you a blue cast and making everything look lit by moonlight. Next, underexpose the scene. This is where a spotlight on the subject and underexposing the rest of the scene can help you set the mood for a night scene.

High Tech Look

If daylight is in the scene, you light the subject with bright incandescent light and set the camera to incandescent. The issue with the correct skin color and the area illuminated by daylight will be blue.

Under fluorescent lights, if you have the camera set to incandescent, they will also turn blue, just a different blue than daylight. So, if you light the subject with incandescent, you get that blue effect.

CSI Miami lets the fluorescent light go blue by lighting the cast with incandescent and setting the camera to white balance for the incandescent. This way, everything illuminated by the fluorescent light goes blue while the skin tones look natural.

Sunset

You can fake a sunset by putting a CTO filter over the camera lens, making the scene look orange. Then, you can use a flash and put a CTB filter over the flash, which puts out a blue light. The subject seems to have the correct skin tones, but the rest of the scene is orange, like a sunset.

Amateur Look

When you are unsure what you are going for and just let the camera do it all, this is the surest way to have the color of your photos announce you are an amateur. Want to take your game up to the next level? Learn how to get the correct skin tones and when to go for an effect.

Why do so many photographers choose to
shoot Black and White

One of the most significant signs for pros who don’t know how to get good skin tones is to go to black and white. This is the easiest way to eliminate the sign that they are still amateurs regarding color balance.

So many wedding photographers shoot in black and white. They don’t use it much for effect or to create a mood, but they don’t know how to correct the color. Most likely, they shot everything in JPEG, and if you are off with the color in JPEG, fixing it in post-production is very difficult compared to working with a RAW image.

Burned once not twice

by Stanley LearyJanuary 26, 2012September 1, 2025Photography

Reading Time: 6 minutes

LSU #7 burns the UNC defense in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff game.

Editorial Note: This is written to help photographers, and I hope this helps you to learn from something I do when I am in a difficult situation.

I have just been burned again by a client. It happens and will probably happen again. I am writing about this because I have watched not just other photographers screw up in these situations, but I have as well.

Why?

In this business, I have seen that you can still get burned even with solid business practices and doing everything right. , you can be right and exercise that right only to burn yourself.

Micah Solomon’s blog today talks about “Digging in your heels… to destroy the customer experience.” I have stood up for certain principles and was right, but the customer was wrong. I lost some of those customers. It would be best to be very careful when you dig in your heels.

There are times when you must think strategically. Where do you want to go in your life? How will you grow your business if you are always right?

Just like the football game photos, if you get burned once, you can still win the game; get burned too many times, and you lose.

My latest experience

I have a couple of agencies that call me for work. This works because they get a cut of the gross. After all, they booked the job and found the client.

The agency was courting a new client. They contacted me before they had a signed contract to see my availability.

They then sent me a terms and conditions document that outlined the Usage Rights last Friday. I agreed to these terms.

I get the contact names and times they are available Tuesday afternoon. I then shot the assignment on Wednesday morning and transmitted the images late Wednesday afternoon to my agency.

Within a few minutes of the images being transferred to New York, I emailed them that everything was there, including the photos and model releases. I get this email:

Hi Stanley,

You are great !!! Made us look good.. here..:) I finally landed this corporate account, hoping she would give us more work; they want to try us out to see how we do regarding our services, good photographers, and professionals.. !!! She is talking about another round of 4 or 5, fingers crossed.

Re: Rights
The client couldn’t do __________. . .

There was a change in the agreement after the images were delivered. I was furious and steaming mad. I had to get up from my desk and take a walk outside. I knew from past experiences like this I needed to calm down and think this through before formulating a response, which was required.

I told her the rights change needed to be compensated typically and was very disappointed. Then she responded to my email:

You are right.. this just came to me last night before we signed the contract; we did not sign it as of yesterday, so either I pulled the plug or took the job.

In the future, with this client.. this is the right!

I can and still have the right to say they cannot use the photos because this is not what I agreed to in the terms.

My choices and possible outcomes

I have the right to say they can not use the photos. The terms and conditions that I agreed to are still in place, but if they do not live up to them, I can refuse to use the images for their purposes.

I can say nothing and take the deal. For many struggling photographers, this is where they are often caught. They have bills to pay and don’t have much room to turn down any offer–at least, that is what they think.

Phone call

I picked up the phone and called my good friend Robin Nelson, a very talented photographer. Both of us work for similar clients, and when I am booked, and someone calls for an assignment, Robin is one of the names I give to my clients.

Robin and I need each other as sounding boards. I think without someone like Robin, whom I can call and who helps me think through the scenarios, I would have screwed up even more relationships with clients than I have ever done.

This is why it is so important for photographers to join organizations like the American Society of Media Photographers. This is where you find colleagues who can be your sounding board, and you can be theirs.

When a photographer calls you, you will soon realize you can see the solutions that when you are the one in difficulty, you cannot see. You have nothing usually at stake, and you are not emotionally involved.

Who is to blame here?

The client isn’t the real problem here. It is the agency where the ball was dropped. They had time to communicate with the photographer.

I think it’s essential to understand what relationship is at stake here. The agency needs two things to survive. They need clients, and they need photographers to do the work.

I have lived long enough to understand how negotiations take place now. I have accepted terms and conditions that I usually wouldn’t do because I just had a car repair I didn’t expect or an unexpected medical expense.

I talked with the agency and wanted to be sure they understood I was pretty upset with the change in the terms. I also let this one go because I want an ongoing relationship with the agency.

Perfection wanted–Mercy needed.

The agency hires me and expects me to deliver every time, which I do for them. However, I have had cameras fail me in the past.

I had a Hasselblad camera screw up a photo shoot in the days of film. The lens had been left in a car and got so hot that the oil that lubricated it became like a liquid and flowed onto the aperture blades and made them stick. All of my photos using studio strobes were overexposed.

We had to reschedule some portraits and shoot again, but it wasn’t a pleasant experience.

Friends of mine have shot weddings, and the film was dropped off on a Monday at the post office and delivered to the lab. The semi-truck of many photographers’ weddings was on its way to the lab that week and caught fire. Hundreds of weddings were lost that week.

Thank goodness for digital. Both scenarios can’t happen now, but other things can go wrong.

If you want some mercy extended to you in the future, you must be careful about how you deal with forgiveness yourself.

The agency apologized, and while I still am disappointed, I can move on with my life.

“Burn me once, shame on you, burn me twice, shame on me” is what my good friend Tony Messano reminded me a few years ago. He, too, gets burned by clients. There is a certain amount of trust that you have to have in a business relationship. Tony said I will take a risk once, but not twice.

Next Time

I understand that I will not allow changes in our terms without compensation. If it happens again and I do not take action, I will communicate that I can be bought at any price.

I do not believe I have sold out by letting my agency slide on this one, but I would be a fool if I continued this behavior.

When it happens again, you will be better prepared. Football teams watch game footage of the teams they will play so that they will have seen most of the plays before. It is one thing to be beaten by a new play and another to lose by something you have seen before.

Got to be flexible

While you can try to run your business by a set of rules, everything is not so black and white. When you are flexible, you communicate your willingness to work with someone. You are considering the situation and not selling out but trying to make things work.

By sharing this with you, you know that negotiating is an art, not a science. You have to use your heart and mind and, as I often do, a community of other creatives to be my sounding board.

Website Tips for Photographers

by Stanley LearyJanuary 24, 2012September 1, 2025Photography

Reading Time: 5 minutes

I must have the navigation always visible so people can quickly find what they need.

If a potential customer were to find your website, would they hire you?

A photographer’s website is to showcase their work and helps them book jobs. I have been designing my website for 17 years and have learned a few things through those years.

Here are some tips I have for a photographer’s website.

Contact Information

Email: stanley@stanleyleary.com
LinkedIn: Stanley Leary
Skype: StanleyLeary
Twitter: Stanley Leary
Facebook: Stanley Leary

How does someone reach you? Contact information should be all through the website and not something hidden. Remember, at any point when the customer is ready to hire you after reviewing your work, they need to be able to find out how to do so with ease. Sometimes people already want to hire you and go to your website to find your contact information, don’t make them jump through hoops to find it.

I think there are two ways a customer wants to contact you: email and phone. Remember, you need this to be easy and not cumbersome. If you fear getting spam emails and do a lot to protect yourself, but in the process, make it burdensome for the potential customer—you may not have a customer.

http://www.stanleylearystoryteller.com/Education2/_files/iframe.html

Examples of your photography

I think people are searching for particular needs to fill. For example, if they need a headshot, they want to see some headshots. If they need an event photographer, they want to see examples of events you have covered.

I recommend dividing your work into categories that make it easy for someone to find examples of what they are looking to hire a photographer to do for them.

http://www.stanleylearystoryteller.com/Research/_files/iframe.html

Tear Sheets

Having a few examples of your work published by clients helps potential customers know they are not the first to take a risk on you. In addition, tIn addition, tear Sheets and other clients’ use of your work helps build some credibility.

Client Comments

Having a few of your past clients writing about your work also helps. There are a few things that can help make these better. When a customer talks about how you solved a problem, they assist potential clients in understanding something beyond your portfolio. They know something about how you work and your customer service.

They are having comments about how nice you are and easy to work with are nice but not as compelling as describing how you made their day.

The inverted pyramid is a metaphor used by journalists and other writers to illustrate placing the most critical information first within a text. The format is valued because readers can leave the story at any point and understand it.

Inverted Pyramid

Put your most muscular photos first. Then, when they go to the next image, let us show another skill. Look at these two examples for portraits. See how I would lead with the little boy and then follow with the lady.

I would most likely lead with this photo on portraits.

I might follow the photo with this one because it shows I can use strobes and mix them with daylight. Art directors would like to see a variety of skills.

This photo shows my ability to create a concept out of nothing and make it happen in the studio.

This photo helps to show how I can use light to photograph a very dark subject (the hand gun) and grab your attention.

This photo shows I know how to photograph lasers in a research lab, a skill few photographers have.

To get this photo, I had to gain access and show my sensitivity in intimate moments. The family gave me their permission.

Remember, your portfolio shows more than just that. Of course, you can take good photos. But, as you can see, each of the above images tells more about me than I can get an excellent picture.

Client List

If you have been working with various clients, this is good to showcase. It helps to separate you from the photographer just starting out and not having much experience. It also allows clients to call their friends at those companies and see their experience with you and whether they would hire you again. Don’t list a company if they are not in good standing with you.

Bio

It would help if you introduced yourself to your audience. Your bio is where you help set yourself apart from other photographers in ways that your pictures cannot. The biography is where you may give some reasons why you pursue certain subjects. Finally, It is where you may want to tell everyone you have degrees in the topics you cover regularly. You are helping them understand how you are an expert on maybe what they want to hire you to photograph.

Some clients will hire you because of things you have in common in your bio. All clients visiting this page want to know as much as they can about you to help them feel more comfortable about the decision to hire you. You give them talking points when they justify to their superiors why they are hiring you.

Wait, there’s more

I like using that phrase. When we moved to our new house, our daughter enjoyed taking some of our close friends through the house. The place is more significant than our previous home, so she was excited to say after a few rooms, but wait, there’s more.

There are more things to do, but I will stop here for now and blog about other tips later.

One Week of Studio Lighting in Kona, Hawaii

by Stanley LearyJanuary 23, 2012September 1, 2025lighting / studio strobes

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Students work from 2006

YWAM School of Photography 1

Students go from not knowing how to turn on the strobes in one week to doing incredible work. My job is to take the fear out of trying new things and teach them some basics upon which they can build.

Take a look at these shows showing you some of the student’s work through the years. I think you will be impressed as I was with their first time shooting with studio strobes.

Here are the students’ work from 2006

These photos are from the students’ work in 2007.

We shoot and let everyone see each other work on monitors, this way; we are learning not just by doing but observing as well.

The school has a variety of lights for the students to practice within the class. Here we have the JTL battery pack system letting you shoot outside with studio lights and radio remotes.

Students learn they can shoot at dusk and night with the strobes. Next, the students mixed strobes with available light and added a flashlight to write the word “Viking” beside the subject, his nickname.

Photo Tips I learned from Don Rutledge

by Stanley LearyJanuary 21, 2012November 6, 2025Don Rutledge

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Don Rutledge has visited Russia a few times, and this is his second trip. The reason I am using his work as an example is that, in my opinion, his work is stellar and has had a significant impact on my work, as well as that of many of my colleagues.

While many would wait until the lady in front walked out of the frame, Don included her in the shot. The two men resemble Americans, but the woman bears a striking resemblance to the stereotype of a Russian woman.

What is essential is how Don utilized the entire frame for his work. He also used it so well that artists were complaining that they couldn’t crop his photos. This usually led to some good discussions. When a designer crops a well-composed picture, they change its meaning.

A great designer working with a writer and photojournalist on a journalistic coverage project will lay out the story after reviewing the images and selecting those that help tell the story. Laying out the spread and then finding images to fill the gaps is using photography as decoration, rather than as a means of communication.

Visiting the vertical photo above again, note how the men are looking in one direction and the woman is looking in the other. Do you notice the tension that the composition helps to create?

Don uses the entire frame to help contain the message and to draw the reader into the photo.

The photo of the crowd walking towards you, take a moment and look at the far left and right of the frame. Don has meticulously positioned the man to the left and the woman on the far right in the photo. Many photographers would often slice into the folks or have it too loose. The bottom of the frame is positioned just below their feet, providing extra space at the top of the frame. The top of the frame is where you have a sense of depth.

While the angle of the building’s roof line creates depth, it is the open sky that opens the photo even more from front to back. Just cover the photo at the top and block off the open sky part, and you will see how much that makes a difference in the depth of the photograph.

Balance and context are achieved here in this photo of the pianist and the choir to the right.

In art class, they teach about asymmetric balance. In the photo, pianist Don employs this technique to create a sense of calm and tranquility. The beams in the ceiling extend towards the windows, which helps create a sense of depth. Some of the ladies in the choir are watching the pianist play, which helps reconnect the choir with the pianist.

While Don would have found this composition, he would have stayed here for a while until he had enough different frames. He is looking for the pianist to be playing and the choir to have a moment where they are paying attention to her. Remove all those blinks or instances of someone picking their nose (which happens frequently, especially during prayers), and you will then be selecting a moment that best captures the worship tone Don was aiming for in this photograph.

Examine the edges of Don’s photo. Why did he choose those edges? Then start looking for a subject. After you find the main subject, look for something like a verb. After finding the verb, look for secondary subjects. What about some adjectives and adverbs, do you see any?

I love the little girl singing here in church. How do you know it is a church? Look at the pulpit to the right. Don left this in to help establish this as not a school play. Notice the woman to the far left. Look especially at the lady in the front row. She really helps the photo because her expression really helps. You can see the lady to the right of her, closest to the girl singer, and her expression also helps set the tone. The small portion of the objects at the top of the frame gives a sense of a much larger room.

As you watch the slide show, look at the edges and see if you would change anything. Look to see if Don used things to help create depth and not make the photo look too flat.

While there is a primary subject, look and see how the other subjects in the photo complement the main subject. Do they create tension or help establish a mood?

See if you can spot one guy lying in the background. This was the translator who was thinking he was getting out of the way, but Don included him to add a little perspective.

Here is a slideshow of his coverage.

If any of these photos moved you, please comment on them below. Tell me why it moved you.

Creating images that recruit new students

by Stanley LearyJanuary 20, 2012September 1, 2025storytelling

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Colleges and schools hire me to help them recruit new students. There are a few reasons I hear over and over why they bring me in to capture their campus.

Capturing a moment

Every school I have photographed used someone before me. Many of these photographers were very competent. They had excellent exposure, reasonable composition, and lovely light, but the photos were boring.

Getting the “moment” requires the photographer to take more than a couple of photos of any situation. You need to connect with the subject and get where you can anticipate them. For example, I might notice a teacher who walks over to a student and bends to get close to hear them and see what they need. They may only do this for 20 – 30 seconds. If I miss them doing this once, I can move quickly to get into position the next time by seeing a student raise their hand. I am moving before the teacher to get to the place to capture the “moment.”

I like this image because the student is engaged in the subject and enjoying their time in school. (Nikon D3s, ISO 6400, f/5.6, 1/100, 28-300mm)

Color Correct

Here is an excellent example of how many photographers shoot inside. See the greenish color cast in the photo.

This photo is color correct, and the skin tones look more natural. However, the above image is not color-corrected. (Nikon D3S ISO 2500, f/5.6, 1/100, 28-300mm)

When someone has screwed up, you can see banding of color in the photo. For example, shooting under fluorescent or sodium vapor lights, you get bands across your photos. I know the problem and adjust how I shoot to avoid color issues with my photos.

Context

You need to do more than get closeup photos of people’s faces showing them enjoying themselves.

I like including posters on the walls to help give an idea of what the students are studying. It helps also communicate more than they are in a classroom. (Nikon D3S, ISO 1600, f/5.6, 1/100, 28-300mm)

One-on-One

One of the most important things colleges and schools report is the teacher-to-student ratio. It is essential to show students interact with the teachers and not just sit and listen to lectures all day long. Capturing this interaction requires you to wait for those moments. Like some people, you stick your head in, take a few snaps, and leave. You would miss so much by just documenting.

Engaging

Students need to be shown challenged by the course work and not bored. However, it can be fun in pre-school to show a child yawning. Sometimes humor is cute and just as engaging. Unfortunately, in older grades, it isn’t quite as appealing.

The student’s body language shows deep thought and interest in the class. (Nikon D3S, ISO 4000, f/5.6, 1/100, 28-300mm)

Individualism

I look for moments where I can show the student is still independent and comfortable in being independent in their work and thoughts.

Using a very shallow depth-of-field helps to isolate this student. (Nikon D3, ISO 720, f/1.6, 1/100, 85mm f/1.4)

Using a shallow depth-of-field, I can make the student pop out from the other students. I see how this helps show they are an individual and part of the class. You do not have the same visual communication if you crop everyone out. (Nikon D3, ISO 200, f/1.4, 1/125, 85mm f/1.4)

It is about communication and not pretty pictures.

Too many photographers are trying to make art and not communicate. For a photograph to do its purpose, the photographer had to know what they were trying to share, or it will often fail. This approach doesn’t mean communication photos are boring. It just means they need to convey a message. They can do this and be just as much a fine art piece.

Understanding people is why I studied social work as my undergraduate and then did my master’s in communication in the education department. I wanted to understand how to use visuals to tell a story.

When hiring a photographer, look for someone who understands education.

Russia from Don Rutledge’s Eyes

by Stanley LearyJanuary 17, 2012September 1, 2025Photography

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Don Rutledge covered Christians in Russia in the late 1980s, and we can learn a few things from his coverage.

Don can tie things together in a photo like few photographers have ever done. Here, he has the pastor with the kids signing. What is so remarkable is the Last Supper photo on the wall. It just ties it together with the symbolism.

Don Rutledge could go to a different culture and cover it even tho he didn’t speak their language or understand their customs. During his career, Don covered more than 150+ countries and all 50 of the United States. Here are some Don audio recordings and links to his published stories.

John Howard Griffin and Don Rutledge during the production of *Black Like Me*.

Let’s review his work on Russia to see how a photojournalist can use images to connect the subject to the audience.

Background

Don didn’t speak Russian and had not been to Russia before. He knew little from reading and talking to missionaries who traveled the area. Don wasn’t an expert on the culture but had read a great deal before he went to Russia.

The slide show is a snippet.

Don Rutledge would typically go on coverage like Russia for about 21 to 27 days. He would pack about 300 rolls of color slide film and about 300 rolls of black and white film. Each of these rolls was a 36-exposure roll of 35mm film.

He usually returned with some film, so he didn’t shoot all 21,000 possible frames. He would quickly shoot half to three-fourths of the film.

The slide show I worked on in 1987 for Don to use when he spoke to groups about his coverage.

I liked using this as the opener for the Slide Show because I think it says Russia and announces where this story takes place.

How it is divided

The slide show is divided into an overview of the country, a section on the culture, a section on the Russian Orthodox Church, and a series of pastors and leaders with their families.

When this was done, the story was distributed in The Commission Magazine. The magazine regularly competed with and beat magazines like National Geographic Magazine.

The magazine typically started stories with 1 to 3 double-truck spreads to introduce the country. Don captured things that not only showed what the country looked like but, in a way, contrasted it to the audience in the United States.

You can see the architecture and the man trimming the tops of the trees. What struck Don was how neat everything was, which showed what it looked like: the man who gave size and scale to the photo and how they kept everything so groomed.

Don ended up taking tours of the churches in Moscow to help show the Americans how they viewed the church. On the tours, they showed all the gold and artwork in the previous church buildings. They would tell the people this is how the church acted in the past: they took all their money and then used it to decorate.

Showing the theater helped connect the Americans to something we had in common. Our love of the theater and the Opera in Moscow is considered one of the best in the world.

Then Don helps us transition through the Russian Orthodox Church to help the Baptists in the States see some sense of faith in Russia.

Baptists in Russia are so many, and the church buildings are so small that they overflow into the street. Here, you see how they listen to the service inside the building.

Don continues to show artistic moments that communicate something similar yet different in almost every frame. The Russians outside in worship look like Americans, but we don’t sit outside our churches to hear the worship service.

Don helps the audience connect with the subject using everyday life moments. He captures people cooking in their homes and with their families.

Pastor enjoys going around town with his family.

This is just a taste of what I learned from Don’s coverage of Russia.