This also teaches a great lesson: Never go out taking photos with someone who isn't patient or isn't another photographer. They usually don't understand the small nuances Simon is asking for, and if Mike weren't one himself, maybe he would've even got angry for it.

I absolutely love the idea of creating beautiful photos out of unpromising ingredients under less than ideal circumstances! Taking stunning pictures when the subject, background and lighting are perfect from start to finish, and one has some top-notch gear to work with, mainly requires the photographer to try and transfer as much of the beauty which sits gloriously in front of the lens for all to see to the sensor; but conjuring up a captivating image out of what at first glance appears to be a heap of nondescript, lacklustre objects is, in my opinion, where the magic of photography really operates, limited only by the photographer's imagination.

Absolutely amazing technique, trick and images. Thanks Mike for sharing these tricks with us.

A no non-sense way of presenting photography with your channel. I love it where other photography channels make a big production out of nothing or show too much ego. Keep up the great work you do Mike.

Oh, and well done Christina!

Great tutorial. Simple yet very effective. Thanks for sharing this tip...

WOW - that was AWESOME - love the 'out of the box' thinking and approach. Truly, the most important part of the camera is the 6" behind the camera - thanks again :)

Hello Mike, I started watching your videos the other night and l could not stop watching. The amount of information is unbelievable and is very helpful. I have a canon t2i and always used it in the auto mode. I read the manual several times and still didn't understand everything. After watching your videos I went to some of my favorite landscape spots with my t2i and used some of your tips and instructions, and what great results. Thanks so much for your very informative videos. I'm thinking about taking your beginners course and it might be time for a DSLR upgrade. Thanks again Mike.🇺🇸

Love these videos where you explain the thought process behind the picture. Thank you.

As always, a thoroughly enjoyable and illumnating video. Very interesting to see the attention to detail given by a pro and rather novel to see Maestro Mike seconded as the gofer for the session! Well done and thank you from DownUnder.

Great and simple tip by Simon and Mike. That was really impactful to the photo before and after. Thanks Mike!

I loved this video and the bokeh nonsense tip, which also has an excellent name! I'm a cinematographer and I often think about foreground, middle ground and background when I'm shooting, with the middle ground being in focus. Something about having an out of focus element in the foreground gives a pleasing sense of depth. Almost anything can be used for the foreground, whatever is in your way. I can't wait to see what I can accomplish using some drinking glasses the next time I'm filming food!

Very cool Mike. Thank you for sharing. I love how photos evolve if you put in the effort! Also love your attitude. Always learning and expanding.

Hi Mike, I have been watching your videos for years now. learnt most of the stuff from it and I come back to your videos every time I need to refresher's course. You make it so simple and easy to understand. Looking forward to many more videos to come. You ROCK !!!

My only complaint on your videos is that you don't make enough of them.. i love your channel!! Would love to see more!!

I prefered the pictures that weren't shot through the glasses but plenty of other top tips in the video like the reflections from the first table checking the background etc. Great vid.

Always recommending your videos to people starting their journey in photography. Keep it up Mike !

Mike, you're doing a wonderful job as a chip and chair mover! ;)

Terrific video, Mike. I really enjoyed this video, because I use a lot of 'nonsense glass objects in my own photos, usually taken in my 10' x 10' office, on a glass topped coffee table, or on a mirror ans sometimes a mirror behind the objects. I really enjoy photos that take a minute, or two to absorb by the viewer. Thanks.

Interesting idea and I've also watched other photographers show using prism and other items to create interesting effects like this. Brandon Woelfel and Mathieu Stern come to mind but mainly use this idea with portraits.

Free education and information and yet someone people (14 in fact) find the time to press thumbs down on this video. They mustn't get out much. Anyway, great technique again Mike and the kind of effect you would probably have to do with software. Looks great. I personally like the angle on it as it offers something different to the picture. Something I should be doing more myself. Thanks again Mike.

"Hey, that camera takes good pictures!" This line of thought is discouraging, as photography is another form of art, but most people think that our fancy cameras take good pictures by default, without effort, just because they're so expensive and nice. But it's just a tool, much like a Chef's knife or a painter's brush. I like to say that the sensor is your canvas and you paint with light; and also with your environment.

Great stuff as always Mike, it's awesome how such simple little hacks can change the feel of an image!

Nice one Mike, great technique Simon......... very inspiring

Simple, but so effective. Inspiring tips - thanks!

Mike, this hit on the right week with me. Doing your 7 Building Blocks of Photography course and this week is composition. The course is great and I am getting a lot out of the course. Peace

Thank you for all the passionate teaching you do. In this video alone i found a number of ideas to explore photography. PS i hope you will come to Italy too some day

I do not see a problem with the angle of the food photography, really when you are getting a good time with friend your position on a chair is not precisely straight (and I do mind to be drank), and this angle became natural. Do not overdo it and it add a dramatic effect to the photo. Great tutorial.

As Simon was shooting I was thinking of shooting thru the glasses. Maybe further back with F 11. So it appears like the inside of the glass is framing the steak sandwich. My problem at the shoot there would have to be two sandwiches. I would have eaten it. lol.

I guess I have watched this video three or four times now and I'm always getting something new from it. I don't think that I would have picked up that bit of blue. My brain would just have automatically edited that out. On this 4th time I was really impressed by the amount of looking and setup work done by Simon before he made that "simple" shot. To be honest, I don't think I would have conceptualized that shot at all. Or, thought of using a telephoto to compress the space to get the reflection of one table into the shot of what was essentially the table behind. The use of the foreground wine glasses to frame the background shot was really brilliant (again not something I would have thought of). I love the talking out of the thought process to make the shot that is really helpful. As an aside, I did see a shot of the roof of the Ship Inn that I thought might be interesting (but I'd have to be there to see if it was really a shot). Loved this didactic approach. Keep up with videos like this. It really makes on think. As always enjoyable but a good learning experience.

Moving things around is something that seldom occurs to me, but I am not a professional photographer, so that isn't quite as egregious as it might be if I were. I am generally quite willing to move myself around (as the body, balance and health allows) but I just don't think in terms of moving things around. I tend to see things as they are and something about whatever I am looking at will "click" and I'll think "that would make a good photograph" and I go from there. So the idea that I would start out by trying to place things so that they would make a good photograph instead of just stumbling upon it is something I should probably/definitely practice more. It's the same with people I'll bet. I have noticed that I like candid photos better than posed ones because posed ones are so much "fiddlier" as you would say, Mr. Browne.

The blue windmill exemplifies the mistake I make so often - concentrating on the subject rather than the entire composition. I forget which building block of photography covers that. :)

This is photography. To look and make. Thanks for your videos.

Fantastic. I will definitely try this. Thanks for sharing sir.

Cool! I actually did that once. I took a photo of a guitar player in a band using 2 pints of beer as the "nonsense".

Nonsense technique? What an expression! I don't exactly mind the term, but I don't think it describes what's going on very well. But the technique itsellf - wonderful! A very neat weapon to have in your arsenal. I must remember that one.

I love watching others work gives me a lot of ideas keep upthe work guys

I love this channel so much and I don't even practice photography! But your advices help me a lot for VFXs! Thanks Mike and Christine!

Love it... simple but very effective. Cheers from Canada.

Hi Mike. great video! The wine glass bokeh is almost like an effect I have just done for a video, 'prisiming'. The prism creates really interesting effects. I will have to try the wine glass soft edge look soon!

I love your work and video's. Learning so much from you. Thank you

I noticed this effect yeasterday while shooting butterflies and dragon flies on my property. I don't think anything came out but it does make an artistic look to ths photo. 👍 for your video 😁

THIS IS JUST SICK!!! I am going to the park to practice focal length. think I will just shoot at 5.6 . Brilliant Taplin ! Sometimes old dogs need new tricks.

Excellent technique. Thanks.

Mike and Simon, such a characters!

Fabulous video sir

(Alan Radley) Another very good video Mike. It looked as though it must have been a bit chilly when you shot it ? What I found interesting, was the attention to detail. So many people (including myself at times) forget to consider the minor details which can make or break a photograph, having then to spend ages in post processing to make corrections. Looking forward to your next video.

Thanks Mike, gave me some ideas Keep up the good work

Lovely photos, but I'm not a fan of Dutch angles in food photography, to me it feels like the food/drink are going to slide off the table, and I don't think it adds any dynamism to the shot IMHO.

Great tutorial, thanks Mike

Another awesome video, Mike! Thank you so much for all you do!

Wonderful. Really enjoyed.

Nice video and evolving sound too!

Congratulations for your awesome videos. Thanks from Venezuela!

I learned quite a bit from this video. Thanks.

Thanks Mike & Simon. I enjoy table shots and food photos so I'll keep this in mind. (Feel kind funny pulling out a 200mm in a restaurant, and knocking stuff off the table but ah well!) :)

Thank you so much for this

Great video Mike. First time here and already subscribed. Love the info. Having been a photographey major in college, many moons ago, I've just recently started aerial photography with a drone and videography. A completely different animal, but just as much fun all the same. Looking forward to going through the library and for future content. Thanks.

Great video, inspyring idea i gone try

Good concept and the method is sound, but so cheap not to make sure that the stems of the wine glass are upright. would look 100% better if they were vertical. angled photos look so cheap. You might as well have the ocean going uphill.

Great tips guys, thank you

Great video

Interesting, informative and relative. Given the time it took to take the shots and it was January - I bet your chips were cold!

Really enjoyed this!

Awesome sauce. Thanks for this.

Motivating!

So cool. You rock as always Mike. :)

LOVE IT

I had the same problem as Kerry B link says video not available,frustrating.Graham

That's so kool, love it ! 😃

Mike, I would like to understand how to add depth to a shot the way Taplin is here. I think I have a rough understanding, but still unsure. How does one add this depth to a shot?

Very nice. Your presentations are always very informative. Can you tell me the name of the dual screen slide show you are using? Thanks.

great stuff.........

Great stuff as usual Mike! Woops I just smashed a glass...

Looks like the glass is about to slide off the table.

Mike, Mike, Mike...what nonsense!! (Thanks for the inspiration!)

Lovely... love it!

"Fiddly diddlyness" is good. I must remember that. Also, this is August and those are might thick coats!

Hey Mike, question. I've did my homework and now want to film tutorial youtube films about dancing Argentinian tango. Free films for on youtube to share the skills. My livingroom is small. Portrait shot's will not show my whole body explaining and showing it. Wide shot wil show a big part of my room that I do not want in the video. I also would like to create depth in the shots. I've thought about a big sheet, fabric of a kind. But that's a lot of fabric to buy and install every time. What would you recommand? I can't seem to get a picture in my mind what will work.

one bulb lit my jazz vocalist friend Sofia and various other light sources did a lesser job supplying light for the two other musicians that were in the room playing with her. I often manually focus in these environments for reasons i will not go into deeply: I wanted to grab a shot of all three of these wonderful people, but, Sofia was the main focus. I had a choice, 24-70mm zoom, and the usual 50 and 85 lenses with super wide apertures: believe it or not a Taplin appeared in my head to bang out my exposure and from where to stand sit or whatever to achieve it: I needed speed, iso was at 10,000 already. Monster arsepain sized heavy cameras i use can take on super high iso. I jacked one to 12,800 to grab speed...okay shutter was fast enough. 1 ball of exposure (iso) was sorted I looked through the 50mm....nah, did not cut it. I wanted some more space. so i took out the whopping zoom lens and tried 35mm....bingo, the focal length was chosen and speed matched it to avoid camera shake. another ball (shutter speed) of exposure juggling was set. Spot metered because i wanted to ensure light was on Sofia so i opened the aperture wide as possible and inherntly 35mm would give me enough depth...bang, last ball (aperture) of exposure was in place. meter was reading a little low but it is low in there anyway... and WAMM!! my exposure was ready. if you are just beginning with photography THIS IS THE BASIC STUFF THAT MIKE BROWNE"S COURSES WILL TEACH YOU. NO HE CANNOT COME AND TEACH YOU IN PERSON BUT HE CAN STILL BE YOUR GUIDE> AND WHAT BETTER GUIDANCE CAN YOU OBTAIN IF NOT FROM MIKE BROWNE? LITTLE TO NONE> his courses are fantastic. and have helped many jungle their balls.....of exposure. GET DOWN ON IT. the courses will not cost you and arm and a leg. I've met the man in person and he his the real deal:) cross my Brooklynese heart. Thank you for your wonderful courses MIKE

Great idea here. Many of the compositions are found by playing with focal length. What would you in this case if you only had a kit lens with a 80mm zoom equivalent and f/4?

What is the screensaver your using at the beginning?

that was cool

Brill... as ever!

What is your tripod mate!! Looks like it has been to war ! ;-)

How do I find Paul?

interesting.

0:13 anybody know what photo screensaver mike has here ????

Great video as usual, but, man, that clicky knees are really driving me nuts!!!

Just subscribed! 😍

Hi Mike, great video as always. Off topic I know but what is the screen saver you are using int he opening scene >

Just been to the website Mike to watch the video, but it says that it isn't available?

Hello Mike ! is always focal length, not apperture!

What gear did he use?

Great! Something to jiggle with in the mind for the future.... I must ask Mike, why is there always food and drink somewhere in the videos? - maybe you take after me in liking food, which is great except for the waistline :-( Always a downside eh?... Great video as usual Mike.........

Excellent videos but how do I subscribe to your e_mails?

Creative gins are the best kind. No one likes boring gin.

Hi Mike. I really liked the video and would pay for courses save for the fact that I cringe at the overuse by almost all of the global population using ‘kinda’ by way of a lazy pause or mild stutter. Replay the video and count the number of times you use it. Other than that... nice one.

This time I think it's just your comment to make that pic great. Sorry Mike.

Sorry, but I hate the angle, the composition "nonsense" I get but can't help think the shot would have been perfect if it was level..... just my opinion of course. 👍🏻