Avoiding cliches in landscape photography

Aug 262007

I love landscape photography. It is an amazing feeling to capture the majesty and splendor of the world around us in a photograph.

Of course, thousands of other photographers have felt the same way over the years. And plenty of ‘em are better photographers than me!

It is very easy to take the exact same snapshot as everyone else. Especially when it comes to beautiful, scenic locations and landscapes – The very thing that makes them so appealing to you, has almost definitely made them appealing to hundreds/thousands of other photographers over the years. The task of creating a unique photo is daunting – how does one find a distinguishing vision in a scene that has already been done thousands upon thousands of times?

Take for example, the lighthouse at Peggy’s Cove in Nova Scotia. It is a wonderful photo destination, the glacial rocks create an almost otherworldly landscape and the cutest of quaint little fishing villages surrounds it.

It is a spectacular landscape, wonderfully scenic -

and incredibly “over-photographed”

A quick flickr search reveals the following. (flickr search on “peggy’s cove lighthouse”. )
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=peggy%27s+cove+lighthouse&m=text

As one can see by the first few pages of the flickr results, it is quite beautiful and “photogenic” but one quickly gets tired of looking at essentially the same photo over and over… (not to put down any of those pictures, many of them are quite good, but it illustrates my point)

When I was at Peggy’s Cove I really wanted to get some nice photographs, however I also wanted to avoid the overused, “standard lighthouse shot”. This got me thinking about the technical elements of creating a good landscape photo and how to use them to create one’s own personal vision in a landscape, and hopefully avoid shooting the same shot over and over.

The following are just a few tips to hopefully help “break out” of the standardized landscape rut (we’ve all had ‘em!).

(BTW, this is the Peggy’s Cove lighthouse shot that I got. Despite a few technical flaws, I think it works overall – Note the use of tips #1, #3 and #4 – I was actually flat on my stomach to shoot this)
click for larger version:

Now, without further ado:

1. Try a different angle. (aka don’t be afraid to get dirty!). standing straight with the camera at eye level is actually a rather “boring” perspective – especially when it comes to landscapes. It is not conducive to either a dramatic foreground or background, and gives no dynamic perspective. Try something different. Even something as simple as crouching down or standing up on something tall can give a different angle of view that creates a more dramtic shot. I frequently just flop down on the ground to get my camera almost on the ground to create a dramatic foreground to juxtapose the elements of foreground and background. This works especially well with a wide angle lens (see tip #4). On the other hand, in contrast to this, we have tip 2…

2. Think long. Landscapes don’t always = wide angle. Often a moderate tele or even a telephoto lens has the effect of “compressing” the scene visually. It also allows to focus on one dramatic element – not all landscapes have to be wide, sweeping vistas!

3. Use “frames” within the frame. Often including some elements around your main subject to “frame” it within the frame of the photo can create visual tension and interest in the scene. I particularly like this example:
Window to the Sea #2

I was doing seascapes on the rocky shout shore of Bermuda, and I was getting bored of the standard “waves crashing on the rocks” shots. I saw this eroded “slit” in the rocks and I really wanted to use it in a way. I tried a few shots of the rock face etc… but nothing really “worked” then I got the idea to put on a wide angle lens, and get right up close to the crack so I could see through it to the sea beyond, while still including the “frame” of the rock face, emphasizing the strong diagonal lines etc…

4. dont forget the foreground. Using a very wide angle lens is actually surprisingly difficult – with such a large field of view, it is easy for the composition to “lose focus”. Use the perspective distortion to your advantage – include a dramatic foreground element to “anchor” the composition. Because of the wide angle perspective distortion, the foreground elements become large, and provide a point of focus in the overall composition.

5. remember the basics. Standard “rules” of photography also apply – remember the rule of thirds, and don’t put the horizon dead center. Of course all these rules are just guidelines – do not hesitate to break any of them if the composition calls for it, but remember – they are called “rules” for a reason. Most of the time they will add to the photo.

Now go out and landscape!

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Photographing 2d artwork (part 2 of 2)

Jul 242007

NOTE: part one of this article is HERE (opens in a new window), read it first for a discussion of equipment and available light techniques

PART 2
artificial light:
Artificial light comes in two predominant flavors: strobes (flashes) and continuous (sometimes called “hot lights”)  the main problem with both of these (from a “photographing artwork”) perspective is that they tend to be very directional and rather harsh – leading to the dreaded, detail destroying GLARE!

Basically what we need to do is *modify* the light to make it:
1. soft
2. diffuse
3. give even coverage to the artwork.

Now there are any number of ways to do this.  Photographic lighting is all about modifying light by bouncing, reflecting, diffusing etc… there are reflectors, umbrellas (reflective & shoot through), softboxes, bouncecards for flash… There is a whole world of lighting modifiers for studio lighting, and it is easy to get overwhelmed, so we’re going to keep it simple!
Now, If you already happen to have studio strobes, you probably *already* have various lighting modifiers that can soften the light – softboxes, umbrellas, etc… If you don’t, fear not!  You don’t have to spend hundreds (thousands?) of dollars on professional lights to photograph your paintings.

The cheapest (and arguably easiest) way to diffuse and soften your light is to bounce it off something.   The reflected light, will be *much* softer than the harsh direct light.  Even better, you don’t need a lot of fancy equipment to do it.  (note that for the following techniques, strobes with brollys or softboxes will work just as well)

For the DIY-er, you will need:

- 2 photoflood lightbulbs, available at any photo store – these are balanced to 3200k, so you know what color temp. your light is.  (there are also daylight balanced bulbs, they work just as well, just remember to set your white balance!)
- 2 fixtures with reflector dishes, available at a hardware store (you know, the ones with the spring clamp on the back, with the big silver reflector dish?)
- 1 or 2 large pieces of white foamcore (generally comes in 32″x40″ sheets, a good size)

First thing is to set up the artwork.  I like to hang it against a background of black velvet, as the velvet will cut down even more on extraneous reflections.  I got a huge piece of black velvet fabric from a fabric store for <$20.  once the artwork is hung and straight (use a level)  set up the lights.

You want to position the lights on either side of the piece, at around a 45 degree angle, both equidistant from the artwork.   The trick is to position your lights pointing *away* from the artwork, and use the foamcore to reflect the light back to it, creating a much softer, diffuse light.   I like to use a plain old straight-backed dining chair.  Prop the foamcore against the back of the chair (where your back would go if you were sitting in it) and clip the light to the front, pointing at the foamcore.  The light will reflect and give even coverage to the artwork.  Move around the position and angle of the setup until you get proper coverage.

Another thing to keep in mind, although it may seem counter-intuitive, is that the *closer* the light source is to the subject, the larger the “apparent size” of the light souce will be, giving softer light. (Check out Strobist’s explanation of “apparent size” here:
http://strobist.blogspot.com/2007/07/lighting-102-unit-21-apparent-light.html

in other words, put the light sources closer rather than farther to get more even coverage!

Finally, use a polarizing filter on your camera lens.  This will cut down any remaining glare from the piece and give you a perfectly lit photo with no specular highlights.  (to use a polarizing filter, attach it to the lens, and while looking through the camera, rotate the filter -  when you see the glare go away, stop rotating :-)

with your setup in place, and your lighting ready, snap away and enjoy the fantastic results! (don’t forget that this technique applies equally to strobes, so if you’ve got a couple of speedlights or studio flashes they work just as well (if not better))

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Photographing lightning – followup!

Jul 202007

As a follow-up to my article on how to photograph lightning here are instructions on building a lighting activated camera trigger, to make it even easier!

I don’t have the electrical engineering experience to even attempt something like this- but if anyone does, I’d love to know how it performs.  Seems pretty cool.

http://www.solorb.com/elect/lightning/index.html

Powered by ScribeFire.

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Photographing 2d artwork (part 1 of 2)

Jul 192007

Every visual artist faces a similar problem at one point or another. While they may not necessarily be a photographer, photographs are a necessity in the art world. Websites, portfolios, slide, prints – all require high quality, accurate photos of the artist’s paintings/drawings/whatever. Any artist who has just thrown up a painting on the wall and snapped it with a camera knows that getting a good image of a painting *isn’t as easy as it sounds*

but fear not! with a little know-how and a few simple tools, anyone can take a portfolio-worthy photo of their artwork!

note: I started writing this as a single-piece article, but it began getting so long that I decided to split it into 2 installments. Part 1 (this) will deal with, equipment, setup and using natural light. Part 2 will deal with studio or artificial light.

First off,
EQUIPMENT:

While photographing artwork does not require a huge amount of gear, there are a few things that are necessities if you want the best results.

- a camera (obviously!) a dslr will give you more flexibility, especially in terms of lens selection, but a point-and-shoot is usable in a pinch
- a tripod. Photographing artwork is all about maximum detail, and camera shake will destroy any fine detail. a tripod will hold the camera steady, to avoid camera shake
- polarizing filter – especially when using artificial light, a polarizer will cut down on glare and reflections from the pice – the bane of photographing artwork!
- a cable release (optional) like the tripod, this will help cut down on camera shake. if your camer does “mirror lock up” when using the 2s timer, that is an acceptable substitute (check your camera manual for “mirror lock up”)
- optional – a tripod bubble level. This will help “square up” your image. it’s not necessary, especially with the vast amount of correction tools available in photoshop etc… but it will help avoid perspective skew when photographing what is essentially a flat plane.

For the rest of the article, I will assume you are using a dslr, but the techniques are equally applicable to a P&S.

lens selection:
Selecting a lens for photographing artwork is not as straightforward as for some other applications (eg. sports = fast telepohto, street=wide angle to normal etc…) what focal length is appropriate – do you use a telepohoto and back up from the piece? do you use a wide angle and get close in?

before even deciding on focal length, let us consider the 2 main criteria (in my opinion) to look for in an “art” lens:
1. sharp throughout the frame
2. low distortion

we need a sharp lens, because no one wants their painting to look blurry on the edges, and we need low distortion since we don’t want to warp the perspective of the artwork.

To me both of those criteria point to a singly type of lens: the macro lens. Macro lenses are *known* for their sharpness and low distortion, perfect for photographing art (who said macro lenses are only useful for super-close-ups!) Now when it comes to focal length, a lot depends on the size of the art, but the standard 50mm macro (which becomes appx 75mm on a cropped slr sensor) works for most applications. I have used a 50mm macro for everything from a 2″x3″ miniature all the way up to a 6′x6′ monster piece. Just back up as needed :-)

now if you don’t have a dedicated macro lens, and don’t want to spend the money on one, just pick your lens with the lowest distortion and field curvature (probably a standard zoom in the middle of it’s range or prime, and stop it down until the edges are sharp throughout. If you are using a P&S, set the zoom to wherever the image is the sharpest (probably somewhere in the middle of the range) and stop the aperture down to a mid-aperture (something like f/5.6 or f/8. “Stopping down” a lens usually increases it’s performance, as few lenses are at their best at max aperture.)

Now that we’ve got our camera and gear, lets get set up!

The primary concern when photographing artwork is to eliminate/minimize glare. 2d artworks, especially paintings are essentially flat, reflective surfaces (moreso if varnished!) When light hits them they tend to just reflect it back, causing ugly “hot spots” and blown out areas in the photo. NOT conducive to good reproductions!

To avoid glare, we need “soft” light – something diffuse and indirect that will not create “hotspots” (or “specular highlights” if you want to get technical!) There are many approaches to this, and vary depending on whether you are using natural or artificial light. Both methods (natural and artificial) have pros and cons, lets examine them separately.

natural light:
The good thing about natural light is that it requires no special equipment or tools. It’s cheap and easily available. It also requires very little modification to make it nice and soft. The downside, of course is that it is not always available, and it can change rapidly – altering your exposure. Still, in terms of bang for your buck it’s hard to beat!

Now in terms of natural light, the softest light you can get (more or less) is from a northern exposure, preferably on a bright but overcast day. I *love* this light, it actually makes photographing paintings quite easy since it is so soft and even. Other artists have had good luck using natural light outside, in the shade (to avoid direct sunlight), but since I live in an apartment with a northern exposure and big windows, that’s usually the way I go!

I have also found the easiest (and most effective) way to photography small-to mid size pieces using natural light is to lay them flat on the ground, with the camera pointing straight down from above (obviously this won’t work for really big pieces, since you can’t practically get the camera high enough to get the whole thing in frame :-) This is good for 2 reasons 1) it provides an even more diffuse light and 2)it makes sure the piece is “flat” to the camera.

set up the camera on the tripod, use the level to make sure it is straight vertical and you are ready to go. Usually aperture priority works the best – set a medium aperture for optimal lens sharpness and to ensure the whole piece is in focus. zoom to fill the frame as much as possible with the artwork (without cutting off the edges, you can crop in PP) I usually use manual focus, as autofocus often has trouble locking on to a flat artwork. Set your cable release and timer, and you are good to go!

but wait! there is one more consideration before you begin snapping away – Assuming you are photographing something other than monochrome charcoal drawings, color balance is an issue. We need to make sure the white balance on the camera is set correctly, else there will be ugly color casts on the final product. Now you may rely on the camera’s auto setting for “daylight” or “shade” but for best results, it is good to set the white balance manually. There are 2 ways to do this:

1. if you camera has a “custom white balance” setting, turn it on. Put an 18% grey card (or a plain white piece of paper) in place of your artwork and photograph it using the same setup and lighting that you will use for the final piece. This will give the camera a “reference” point to base WB on for the rest of the shoot. Note: if you are using rapidly changing natural light, you may need to do this more than once, and option 2 might be better:

2. if you are shooting raw (and/or your camera does not have an custom-wb feature) simply include the edge of a greycard or pice of paper in the actual frame when you photograph the artwork (it is unlikely that the piece will fill up the entire frame of the camera). that way you can use your post-processors white balance feature to select the grey/white area of the picture and base white balance off that.

So now we’re set up, got our artwork flat and framed, got our natural diffuse light, set our white balance, focus, zoom. now grab your cable release and click away! Presto – professional quality slide results in your own home :-)

Personally I like natural light, and If I’m not in a rush to get my work repro’ed, I’ll save up a bunch of pieces waiting for a good day and photograph them all together. However, sometimes using natural light is just not an option (slide deadline, or at night or whatever), in which case we must resort to using artifical light which will be covered in part 2 of this article.

Click here for part 2 – using artificial light!

CLICK HERE to subscribe to the RSS feed to get the next installment as soon as it is published!

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Shoot fireworks like a pro!

Jun 282007

Philly Fireworks #1

Independence Day is coming up, and that means fireworks shows! Now admit it – we’ve all been guilty (at one point or another) of whipping out a little pocket camera and snapping away at the fireworks, handheld, in P mode, probably with the dinky little on-camera flash going too. Yeah, I’ve done it too…

BUT…

with a little effort and a bit of technical know-how you can go from blurry, underexposed, globs-of-color-on-film shots to beautiful, crisp, rainbow bursts that will be the envy of your friends and neighbors! (grin)

(note: a lot of the techniques here are similar to the ones in my article on photographing lightning, so you may want to read that as well (LINK -opens in new window))

First things first:

GEAR:
most of this will be assuming you are using an slr/dslr. You can shoot fireworks with a pocket digicam, but it is harder. If you have one with manual controls, most of this info will apply, but pocket cams have never been known for good long/low light exposures so YMMV.

you will need:
1. a camera (duh). at least something that lets you control the aperture and has a “bulb” mode (meaning the shutter stays open as long as the button is held).
2. a tripod. we’re talking exposures of several seconds, it is impossible to hold the camera steady. Tripod is a must (the sturdier the better to cut down on “mirror slap”)
3. a cable release. used for bulb mode. Note that most wireless remotes will *not* do “bulb”, only set exposures. There may be some out there that do, but most likely you will need a *corded* remote release.

Now, on to the specifics:

TECHNIQUE:
first, set up your gear. make sure the tripod will not be disturbed/bumped during the exposures. Set up the camera on the tripod, attach the cable release. Frame the anticipated “action” area.
Before the show starts, put your camera in Aperture priority mode and take a few “test” shots to determine a good exposure, (I prefer slightly on the dark side). I like to adjust it to an aperture that will give me a decently exposed image at a shutter speed of about 2-4 seconds (since this is usually about how long I open the shutter with the release.) this isn’t an exact science, it’s just to get a rough estimate the the aperture needed for your approximate exposure time. Since the actual bursts of light will expose regardless, we are basically just calibrating the exposure for the ambient light here. Once you are comfortable with the exposure, leave the aperture set as it, and switch into M (fully manual) mode. Turn the shutter speed all the way down until it goes into “bulb” mode. Now you can manually control your shutter – when you press the button down on the cable release, the shutter will open, and stay open until you let go of the button. This way you can exactly control when the exposure stops and starts.
note: make sure you camera is set to manual focus, else you will lose shots while it “hunts” for a focus lock. Most likely focus will be set to infinity, but if you are really close/have a long lens you might need to adjust. Regardless, get it set and leave it.

There is a “rhythm” to photographing fireworks, once you get the feel for it, it’s pretty easy to “anticipate” the exposures. You can usually hear the rocket going up, a second or two before it bursts. This is when I like to start the exposure. Hear the rocket – CLICK – burst – wait a second or two for the “trails” of the burst to expose – release shutter. That’s basically it! I find most of my exposures are in the 3-5 second range. As the show goes on you will probably adjust your aperture, or even set a “preset” exposure as you find the “pattern” of the show. Either way, you still generally want to be starting your exposure right as the rocket goes up before it bursts. The exception to this is when the show gets really “intense” and many rockets are going at once, it can be difficult to tell by sound alone. In these cases, hopefully you have a general idea of the exposure needed, and I will sometimes just set an “average” exposure and just keep clicking the shutter. Kind of “spray and pray”, if you will :-)

TIPS AND TRICKS:

What lens to use?
- this really depends on 2 things: how far away from the action you are, and how tightly you want to frame the shot. Farther away = longer lens, closer = wider. The examples on this page were shot with an 85mm lens (equal to 127.5mm when using a 1.5x crop camera, like most dslrs) I was about 4 blocks away, shooting from a balcony of a high rise apartment building. I like a pretty tight framing, as it allows the actual fireworks to dominate the picture, rather than extraneous elements, so I tend toward longer rather than wider.

Framing the shot / vantage point
- This is a matter of personal taste, but I like to include the surrounding scenery in my shots to give “context” to the fireworks. (As opposed to pointing the camera up an having just the bursts against an empty sky). Usually the best way to do this is to get to a high point, so you have an unobstructed view of the surrounding area. I happen to be lucky in that my apartment’s balcony looks out over the Philadelphia Art Museum (where the fireworks show occurs), So I’ve got a great vantage point without leaving the home. But even if you don’t you can probably find something. If you live in an urban area, many high-rises have roof decks that make great spots. Tops of parking garages are also good. If you’re in a rural area, this might not be as much of an issue, since there is probably more space, and less “stuff” to get in the way of the shot, but a high vantage point is still good.

- The clearest shots often come at the beginning of the show, and after pauses in the shooting (of fireworks that is, not photos!) this is because the accumulated smoke will either not be too bad yet, or have had some time to dissipate (respectively).

-Speaking of smoke; if possible, is is advantageous to set up in an orientation where the wind is blowing at a 90 degree angle to your position. This way, the accumulated smoke from the rockets will blow out of the picture frame as quickly as possible, leaving less to “muddy” your shots.

Capturing multiple bursts.
- A cool trick if you are using bulb mode is to capture multiple bursts in one exposure. Basically they way you do this is to use bulb mode to keep the camera’s shutter open, expose one burst, then cover the lens with something to block out extraneous light, but *keep the shutter open* until the next burst, uncover the lens to expose the burst, re-cover it and so forth…

The trick here is to have something that will block light out of the lens, but NOT TOUCH IT, as the vibrations of bumping/touching the lens will ruin the shot. One common method is to use a black/dark colored baseball cap – the “bowl” of the cap will block light from entering the lens without touching it (this is what I do). You could also use a black piece of cloth, a black cardboard cylinder with one end capped etc…

Basically the sequence goes like this:
- As the first burst starts, expose normally using bulb, however, when the burst ends, instead of releasing the shutter, leave it open and with your other hand, cover the lens with your cap/coth/whatever, being careful not to bump/touch it.

-Wait

-As the next burst starts, remove the covering for the lens, expose the burst.

Repeat as desired (note,you may have to close down the aperture for these kinds of shots to compensate for the increase in ambient light over the length of the exposure)

Finally when you have enough bursts, release the shutter to finish the exposure.

CONCLUSION:
I hope these tips help you all get the most out of your holiday fireworks pictures. Photographing fireworks is not all that difficult once you get the hang of it, and can yield some spectacular results.

Enjoy the holiday everyone!
philly fireworks 2

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Photographing Lightning.

Jun 252007

Lightning 1

I love storms. I love the scent in the air as one approaches. I love the feel of “electricity” in the air. I love the lull right before, and I love to watch the rain “break”. But most of all I love lightning. The awe-inspiring spectacle of a lightning storm truly makes one appreciate the raw power and beauty of nature. Like I said, I love storms (as long as I’m not stuck out in one without an umbrella)! Now maybe you like storms too, and have tried to take some pictures of lightning bolts, only to discover that this is easier said than done!

Taking pictures of lightning is like photographing fireworks, only harder.

Consider:
a bolt of lightning appears only for a fraction of a second, it is entirely unpredictable in shape or intensity, and you have no idea where one will appear. Not to mention that a lightning storm, usually including pouring rain and wind, is not the best environment for camera gear!

Still, photographing lightning can be a very rewarding pursuit and can yield some spectacular images! Here are a couple of techniques and pointers to get the best out of your lightning shots

GEAR:
1. A camera. More specifically, a camera where you can control the aperture and shutter speed manually. Some pocket cameras can do this, but a dslr will most likely yield better results (pocket cams generally aren’t that great at long exposures).

2. A sturdy tripod. necessity. Lightning shots involve long exposures, and you need something to hold the camera steady. The tripod should be as sturdy as possible, since where there is lightning, there is likely wind. Cameras blowing over = bad, generally speaking.

3. A remote release. As mentioned, we are dealing with long exposure times, so vibrations become a major issue. A remote shutter release (wired or wireless) will help cut down on vibrations be removing the physical button press on the camera. Alternatively, if your camera has a 2 second timer that does “mirror lock up” (ie the camera raises the mirror, waits 2 seconds, then opens the shutter) you can use that to eliminate “button press induced vibrations”

4. Some way of keeping your gear dry. Pretty self explanatory; water and electronics don’t mix. If you are fortunate to have a “weather sealed” camera and lens, this may not be as much of an issue, but generally you’ll need some way of keeping the camera dry. this may be as simple as wrapping a plastic bag around it, or as expensive as a custom underwater housing. Personally I like to just set up under an awning/overhang or some enclosed space to stay dry (I happen to have an enclosed balcony off my apartment, so that works well!)

TECHNIQUE:
Note:
photographing lightning is best at night or dusk, since we need long exposure times, and during the day there will probably be too much ambient light to achieve these. You can try using neutral density filters, but YMMV.

First, set your camera to the lowest ISO, generally 100 or 200. This may be counter-intuitive, but since we are opening the shutter for a long time, we need to prevent too much light from overexposing the image.
Next, pick a relatively small aperture, most likely f/11 or greater. Again, this will allow the long exposure times needed to increase the chance of capturing a bolt. Bear in mind though, that if the aperture gets *too* small, image quality will begin to suffer due to diffraction effects. I find f/9 through f/16 usually work for me depending on the level of ambient light Now, identify where most bolts are striking in the sky, and aim the camera in that general direction. Frame it up however you want. I generally like a wide angle lens to maximize the field of view.

Calibrate the exposure time. Once you’ve set your aperture, you need to find a shutter speed that will give you a good ambient exposure. I generally start with about 6-8 seconds, depending on ambient light. Check the LCD/histogram, and adjust from there. You want to wind up with an aperture/shutter combination that will leave you enough time to capture a bolt, yet expose the rest of the image properly too. I am usually shooting from my balcony in the city, so there is a lot of artifical ambient light. I usually wind up with an exposure of f/9-f/11 @ between 10-15 seconds.

Another thing to consider when deciding on exposure time is that the longer the exposure, the longer it takes to process (in many cases). This is because most dslrs use a noise reduction method called “dark frame subtraction” that increases the time to write for long exposures. The longer the exposure, the longer you get stuck “writing” and can’t take more images. This can become very frustrating, as Murphy’s law states that the best bolt of lightning will always strike *right* after your exposure finishes, while the camera is processing. Turning off noise reduction will alleviate this problem, but you may start getting a lot of noise in the images if they get really long. On my camera exposures of 10-15 seconds (what I normally use for lighting) are not a problem even with NR off. Test it both ways, YMMV…
Now you’ve got your exposure set, just start shooting! As long as a bolt hits within the camera’s field of view while the shutter is open, you’ve got a lightning photo! Yes, it’s a lot of hit-or-miss. I probably average 10-15 exposures for every bolt I capture. You can of course maximize your chances by shooting when the frequency of strikes peaks, and determining which direction most of the strikes seem to be coming from.

FINALLY:
HAVE PATIENCE. photographing lightning takes a lot of patience. You will probably miss far more than you “hit”. You will lose tons of great bolts while your camera is processing, or pointed in the wrong direction. Keep at it, and don’t get frustrated. Eventually you will get a shot that will make it all worth it.


TO BULB OR NOT TO BULB?
If you have ever used a cable release for your camera, you are probably familiar with the “bulb” mode. This simply means that when you press the button on the release, the camera’s shutter will stay open as long as you hold down the button. I generally use this method for photographing fireworks, but not for lightning – why? With fireworks, you know exactly where they are going to occur (more or less) and you can even anticipate the timing with a bit of practice. This lets you get into a rythm of longer or shorter exposures, depending on the “flow” of the fireworks show. With Lightning, on the other hand, you have no way of predicting it – it’s pretty much entirely click and pray (after you’ve set up to maximize your chances, of course). In this case, I find it better to simply adjust the shot for the ambient exposure, and let the bolts fall where they may!

And of course, the standard silly disclaimer: I am not advocating anyone going out and standing anywhere in a storm. If you get hit by a bolt of lightning, it’s not my fault :-)

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I has a bukket! (an analogy for the basics of aperture, shutter speed and exposure)

Jun 212007

As I frequently find myself in the position of advising friends/folks getting their first dslr, I am often trying to come up with good ways to explain the basics of photographic exposure.

Here’s a good analogy that I’ve come up with (yeah, I’m sure others have come up with the same idea- sue me.) I know this may be basic for some of you but here goes anyway.

First off: some basic concepts – aperture and shutter speed. Pretty much everything in photography comes down to these two things.

Most everyone understands shutter speed- it is simply the length of time the camera “opens up” to let light in to the sensor/film. It is represented in fractions of a second (1/10th of a second, 1/20th, 1/40th, 1/80th and so on).

Aperture is also fairly straightforward: it is simply the size of the “hole” in the lens that lets light through – the wider the whole, the more light gets through to the sensor, the smaller the hole, the less gets through. Aperture is also represented by a number, often called the “f-number” or “f-stop”. These don’t seem to be as logical as shutter speed, you will generally see apertures of 2.8, 3.5, 4, 5.6 etc… (there is a mathematical reason for these though, although it is beyond the scope of this article). Generally all you have to remember is that the smaller the number, the bigger the hole – i.e. an aperture of f/2.8 means the hole in the lens is wide open to let as much light as possible in, whereas an aperture of f/22 is practically a pinhole – a tiny dot of opening. I know it’s counter-intuitive, but just remember it :-)

Ok, now concept #3 which is also slightly counter-intuitive: there is only one “amount” of light that will give a “correct” exposure. Just hold that thought.

On to the analogy:

Imagine the camera is one of those 5gal Rubbermaid buckets, and the light that exposes the sensor is water from a hose.

Now there are 2 ways you can fill the bucket – you can either do it with a small garden hose or with a fire hose.

The garden hose has a small opening (think: aperture) so less water come through, ergo it takes more time (shutter speed) to fill the bucket.

the fire hose is a huge diameter opening, (aperture) so a lot of water comes through very quickly (shutter speed) and it fills the bucket in no time at all.

In both cases though, you still get 5 gallons in the bucket – the only difference is that in one case you are using less water over a longer period of time and in the other, you are giving it a huge blast of water very quickly. However, it is still the same amount in both cases.

This is essentially the basics of exposure – you are “filling up” your camera’s sensor with light. There is a set amount that you camera needs, and you control that by determining how long you will let it “fill up” and how big the hole is that the light gets through. The smaller the hole, the longer needed to fill up the bucket, the larger the whole, the less time needed.

That’s it – that wasn’t so bad, huh?

Now if you think about the above relationship – it is an *inverse* relationship – i.e. as the diameter of the aperture increases the length of time needed (shutter speed) decreases, and vice versa.

Further, it is a linear inverse relationship – i.e. if you let twice as much light in (double the size of the aperture) you need half as much time (shutter speed) and vice versa.

In other words, if you adjust your shutter speed from 1/10th of a second to 1/20th of a second you are halving the exposure time, therefore you must double the aperture to get the same exposure.

Now of course, you are asking – so what? Why is this important? The answer is, plenty of time it’s not. A great deal of the time, you can simply leave the camera on “fully auto” mode and let it determine the correct shutter speed and aperture for you. However much of the creative control in making a photo comes from manipulating these two variables, and they both have effects on how the final picture will look. As one progresses in skill and *wants* to have more direct control over the end product, it becomes critical not only to understand the concepts of exposure, but also to understand how they affect the image.

fin.

P.S. Yes, I know some of my definitions/explanations are not *technically* precise, but this is simply trying to be a basic explanation. there is plenty of time for esoteric nuances down the road…

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if you use flickr…

Jun 152007

I love flickr, I think it’s a great photo hosting and sharing site. I especially like the fact that it has an open API to facilitate people writing cool plugins and utilities for it.on that note, if you use flickr, you should definitely have “betterflickr”:

http://lifehacker.com/software/lifehacker-code/upgrade-flickr-with-the-better-flickr-firefox-extension-263985.php

basically just a greasmonkey script, it provides a whole new level of functionality for flickr users (I think the most useful thing is the drop down “view all sizes” menu – awesome!)

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