When you’re photographing faces, your model’s eyes can evoke an emotion, set a mood, or tell a story. Paying attention to your model’s eyes and where they’re looking can make the difference between a good photograph and a great photograph, so consider carefully whether or not your model should make eye contact with the camera.

Check out the eyes in these three photographs. In each photograph, the eyes “say” something different. In the first shot, the model is looking off camera, resulting in a distant feeling between the subject and the viewer.

About this photo: © Rick Sammon.

In the second shot, the model’s closed eyes evoke a sense of intimacy.

About this photo: © Rick Sammon.

In the final shot, the model is looking directly at the camera, engaging the viewer — you!

About this photo: © Rick Sammon.

Most models need directing. Don’t be shy about offering suggestions, including what to do with the eyes.

Speaking of eyes, subjects with wide-open pupils (as in the third shot) seem more “open” and “warm” than subjects with closed-down pupils. Shooting with strobe lights in a dimly lit studio is the way to go for the wide-open pupil look. This is because the strobes fire and shut off before the pupils have a chance to close down. Hot lights, which provide a constant bright-light source, close down the subject’s pupils.

For beauty shots, you may want to see more of the iris (the color part of the eye).

The point is to pay attention to the size of the pupils; it will affect how the subject comes across in your photograph.

For more tips on taking great studio shots, check out Studio and Location Lighting Secrets for Digital Photographers by Rick Sammon and Vered Koshlano.

Photographing flowers close up on a black background is perhaps the most dramatic setting for floral imagery. On black, you can photograph flowers with the aim of displaying their delicacy; yet it also provides opportunity to bring out the drama in flower coloration.

When photographing flowers on a black background, try underexposing and aiming for left-biased histograms. Some underexposure deepens the black background and adds to the saturation of colors in the flowers. (The opposite is true when photographing flowers on a white background; overexpose and aim for a rightward-biased histogram.)

If you are planning to photograph flowers on black, consider the material of the background and how the flowers will be positioned on it. Black velvet cloth works well because it doesn’t reflect light. You can drape it as a background for larger flower arrangements or pin single blossoms to it using a pin inserted in the flower stem. Also, you can suspend a flower or branch over a black background using a thin wire and light it from behind; the wire can be retouched out later in post-processing.

Hellebores are delicate flowers that bloom close to the ground in partial shade. They are typically among the first of the spring flowers to bloom. This flower was cut from its stalk and then mounted with a pin on black velvet backed with cardboard.

Lighting is even from both sides of the flower and the photograph was shot straight down, taking care to underexpose with a histogram biased to the left. This exposure let the background go completely black, which brought out the detail in the delicate white flower.

About this photo: 100mm macro, four exposures at shutter speeds from 2 seconds to 8 seconds, combined in Photoshop; each exposure at f/22 and ISO 100, tripod mounted. © Harold Davis.

With bougainvilleas, the actual flowers are not very interesting. The real action is in the bract, the specialized leaf structure that hosts the somewhat-uninspiring flowers.

To photograph this bougainvillea bract, the photographer placed it on a black background, suspending it with tiny wires that he later retouched out. He lit the bract evenly from both sides. Then he brought out the transparency of leaf portions with a small LED spotlight positioned behind the leaf.

About this photo: 200mm macro, 1.6 seconds at f/36 and ISO 100, tripod mounted. © Harold Davis.

These roses were photographed on a black velvet background using sunlight that was focused using window shades. In this kind of situation, it is important to underexpose relative to an overall meter reading; because you want the background to go completely black, and you want the flowers to appear as saturated as possible.

About this photo: 35mm, 1.6 seconds at f/29 and ISO 100, tripod mounted. © Harold Davis.

To read more about macro photography, check out a copy of Creative Close-Ups: Digital Photography Tips and Techniques by Harold Davis

Taking candid photos in public is similar to shooting candid photos of friends and family: Keep your camera always ready to shoot, so that when a great shot happens you are prepared to capture the image. Using black and white for street photography often makes a photograph look timeless, as if it could have happened yesterday or 50 years ago, as in this first photo below. Using black and white can also help mask distractions in a scene like colorful trashcans or the like.

Black and white can enhance the mood of a dreary day, or it can accentuate contrast and excitement on a sunny day. Black and white images can be created in the computer, but many cameras have a black and white option. This image was taken with the latter:

About this photo: 1/125 second, f/5.6 at ISO 400. © Chris Bucher

 Using a telephoto lens allows a photographer to capture moments that otherwise might cause people to look too posed or staged if they knew realize you’re there. After a while, you can become part of the scenery and people just go about their business. When watching things happening on the street, take a look at what others are watching; interesting photos might be all around.

Using a fast aperture with your telephoto lens, such as f/2.8-f/5.6, might isolate a subject against a background, putting further focus on that subject, such as this smile in a marketplace:

About this photo: 1/500 seconds, f/2.8 at ISO 100. © Chris Bucher

In many cases, taking a few minutes to set up for an image or waiting for a while for the shot to develop can help create more dynamic shots. Then, you can just wait for the right person/people to enter the scene. The color in the photo below is vivid but without the wave of the conductor, the image feels flat. Using a cloudy white balance when shooting on an overcast day lets the colors of the scene be true to life:

About this photo: 1/125 second, f/5.6 at ISO 200. © Chris Bucher

Taking some time to wait on a shot also gives you a few moments to try different exposures and white balances to determine what might look best before the action happens. In the following image, using +2/3 exposure compensation makes the white marble of the U.S. Capitol appear totally white, giving the scene a very high contrast look.

Waiting and trying different exposures gets you ready for when action does happen. By waiting for the action, the urgency of the man in the suit creates tension with the massive and solid feel of the building:

About this photo: 1/125 seconds, f/9 at ISO 100, along with exposure compensation of +2/3. © Chris Bucher

Learn more from Lighting Photo Workshop by Chris Bucher