For this stitched composite, Brown positioned his strobes to make
the sun seem to be the main light, even though it’s clearly
backlighting the scene.
Patrick Cavan Brown
To add
punch and power to this stitched, panoramic portrait of a small-town
Texas police squad, Patrick Cavan Brown committed what is generally
considered a lighting faux pas: He shot with the bright midday sun high
and almost dead-center.
“I loved the way it looked and was determined to build my photograph
around it,” explains the Asheville, NC-based pro photographer. “Not only
is the sun beautiful, but it adds spectacular depth.”
Okay, we thought, but what about the deadly problems caused by
shooting directly into the sun, such as washedout and desaturated color,
missing-in-action subject detail, and comet-shaped lens aberrations?
Brown has the right techniques—and equipment—to overcome those pitfalls: Balancing sun- and strobe light.
“I knew when I saw the shadows created
by full sunlight, that if I wanted to fill them in with my Canon
Speedlites, the strobes would need to be powerful, plentiful, and
close,” says Brown.
He used the four Speedlites direct and undiffused at or near their
maximum power settings, so their specular effect would mimic sunlight.
Their output was bright enough that the photographer could underexpose
the scene by 2 stops, adding weight to the sky and shadows. Controlling flare with careful lens selection.
Aiming a lens directly into the sun creates image-degrading flare
that essentially fogs the sensor, eroding sharpness and detail. It can
also cause comatic aberration (coma)—a comet-shaped flaring along the
image edges. Because of their design and special coatings, some lenses
are better at controlling flare and coma.
Brown started with a Canon 24–70mm f/2.8L lens for the four vertical
images that went into this panorama. “That lens handled flare terribly,
though, so I switched to my much older Canon 17–35mm f/2.8L, which
proved far superior,” he recalls.
Polarizing to boost color and sharpness.
“The circular polarizing filter helped me shoot into the sun by
darkening and maintaining color in the sky and detail in the clouds,” he
says. “But it also acted as a neutraldensity filter, cutting light
transmission through to the image sensor by 2 full stops.”
The dimming effect helped Brown capture a sharper photo, too. The
reason? Instead of shooting at or near the minimum aperture on his lens,
which introduces softness due to diffraction, he could set f/11—the
sharpest aperture on his lens.
The diminished light transmission also let the photographer crank up
his Speedlites to their maximum output without blowing out highlights,
making it easier for him to balance strobe and bright sunlight.
To see Brown’s behind-the-scenes, time-lapse photography of this and other shoots, visit patrickcavanbrown.com.
Midday Sun Photography
For this stitched composite, Brown positioned his strobes to make
the sun seem to be the main light, even though it’s clearly
backlighting the scene.
Patrick Cavan Brown
1 of 4
3 of 4
How Patrick Cavan Brown Lit The Scene
After mounting his Canon EOS 5D (A) vertically on a Manfrotto 3415
tripod head and ancient gitzo tripod, Brown placed four Canon 580EX II
Speedlites (B) on lightstands at various heights and distances around
his subjects. He fired the camera and flashes wirelessly using a cable
release and Canon’s infrared Speedlite ST-E2 transmitter. The final
image, which he tweaked in adobe Lightroom, was made of four exposures,
which he stitched into a single panorama in Adobe Photoshop. Between
each of the four exposures, he moved some of the lights to best balance
highlight and shadow detail.
Kris Holland/Mafic Studios (illustration)
How To Use Histograms
For precise exposures that best capture a scene’s dynamic range,
ignore what the image preview looks like and rely on the histogram
As photographers, we rely so much on our eyes that it’s almost second
nature to decide whether a picture is too bright, too dark or just
right simply by the way the LCD preview image looks. But from leading
photo workshops for more than a dozen years, I’ve learned that the
single biggest cause of exposure mistakes is making decisions based on
the way the picture looks on the camera’s LCD.
The image preview your camera displays is great for checking
composition, but the brightness of the image varies both with the LCD’s
brightness setting and with the always-changing ambient light.
Compounding the problem, the picture you see is a JPEG that doesn’t
display the full range of tones captured. A much more reliable way to
determine exposure is to use the histogram your camera creates with
every click.
Histograms Explained
A histogram is a graph of the tones in an image. Its simplest form,
the monochrome version virtually all digital cameras display, is the
luminance (or luminosity) histogram. Understanding the luminance
histogram will improve your photography and make reading the (slightly)
more complex RGB (red, green, blue) histogram much easier.
For some, any graph has the potential to evoke flashbacks to the
trauma of high school science class. But a histogram is quite
simple—simple enough to be interpreted in the blink of an eye.
When an image is captured by a digital sensor, your camera’s
processor creates a JPEG preview image for display on the camera’s LCD.
As it creates the preview, the camera samples
the brightness of each photosite and assigns it a tone (brightness)
value ranging from 0 (absolute black) to 255 (absolute white). Every
tone value from 1 through 254 contains detail—the higher the number, the
brighter the tone.
Luminance histogram.
Armed with the tone values for each photosite, the camera builds the
image’s histogram. The horizontal (X) axis of the histogram has 256
discrete columns (0-255), one for each possible brightness value, with
the 0/black column on the far left and the 255/white column on the far
right. (They don’t display as discrete columns because they’re crammed
so close together.)
Your camera builds a new histogram for each image, adding each
photosite’s brightness value to its corresponding column on the
histogram, like stacking poker chips. The more photosites of a
particular brightness value, the higher its corresponding column will
spike.
Reading A Histogram
Not only does the range of tones visible in the LCD preview vary with
ambient light and screen brightness, even in ideal conditions, more
information is captured by the sensor than the LCD preview can show. And
though the camera uses the same preview JPEG to build its histogram,
the histogram provides a more consistent, precise source of exposure
information that can be relied on regardless of external factors.
There’s no such thing as a “perfect” histogram shape. The histogram’s
shape is determined by the distribution of light in the scene, while
the histogram’s left/right position is a function of the amount of
exposure given the image. The histogram’s height is
irrelevant—information that appears cut off at the top of the histogram
just means the display isn’t tall enough to fit all the photosites
possessing that tone.
The amount of exposure you give an image is a creative choice, but as
a general rule photographers try to avoid clipping (cutting off) the
histogram’s graph on the left and right. A histogram clipped on the left
means some of the scene’s detail is pure black; a histogram clipped on
the right means some of the scene’s highlight detail is pure white.
An evenly-distributed histogram. I metered this El Capitan reflection to capture the tones similar to what my eyes saw.An intentionally overexposed histogram. I overexposed this backlit poppy to turn the blue sky into a white background.An
intentionally underexposed histogram. I underexposed this image of a
rising crescent moon to turn El Capitan and Half Dome in to silhouettes.
Managing A Histogram
In a perfect world, when you see your histogram clipped on the left,
you simply increase the exposure to shift the histogram right (brighter)
until no shadow data is clipped. And if you see your histogram is
clipped on the right, you decrease the exposure to shift the histogram left (darker) until no highlight detail is clipped. Problem solved.
Many scenes contain too broad a range of light, from the darkest
shadows to the brightest highlights, for the camera’s sensor to record.
In these scenes, you can blend multiple exposures that cover the entire
range of tones or apply a graduated neutral density filter to darken the
brightest areas of the scene.
When blending exposures or using GND filters isn’t practical or
available, I usually underexpose to sacrifice (clip) the shadows and
save the highlights. Not only are clipped shadows easier to recover in
processing (albeit with some noise) than clipped highlights, but also
the human eye is generally drawn to the brightest things in an image, so
lost highlight detail is much more damaging to an image.
When metering high-dynamic-range scenes, remember that the histogram
is built from the preview JPEG, so a RAW image actually contains more
image data than the histogram shows. Because the amount of recoverable
RAW detail varies with the camera, it’s important to know how much you
can clip your camera’s shadows and highlights and recover them later. On
the other hand, JPEG shooters have a much smaller margin of error and
need to be more conservative with their clipped shadows and highlights.
While the general goal is to ensure that none of the tone data is cut
off on the left or right side of the histogram, the exposure you choose
for a scene is ultimately a creative choice. Though I often expose my
scenes to match the amount of light my eyes see, sometimes I decide to
make the scene darker or brighter than what I see.
Experienced photographers who are comfortable reading and managing a
histogram will often expose their images so the histogram is as far as
possible to the right without clipping, then reduce the brightness later
in Lightroom or Photoshop. This “expose to the right” technique is a
valid approach that yields more image data and less noise, but it must
be done with care
because the margin of error is much smaller on the highlights side of
the histogram—even a small misjudgment can result in unrecoverable
highlights and a ruined image.
The RGB Histogram
While the luminance histogram tells you about the detail you
captured, the RGB (red, green, blue) histogram shows the color you
captured.
To capture color, each photosite on a digital sensor measures the
intensity of the light in one of three colors: red, green and blue. The
camera uses this color information, and the color information from
adjacent photosites, to interpolate the actual color for that location
on the sensor. It also uses the color brightness to assemble individual
red, green and blue histograms. Combined, they form the RGB histogram,
displayed as three separate graphs or all three colors overlaid on a
single graph.
If you’ve ever wondered why a sunset or blue sky appears washed out
when the luminance histogram looked fine, the answer is probably in the
RGB histogram. Even when one or two color channels are clipped, the
luminance histogram can still look fine, creating a false sense of
security. Photographers who use the “expose to the right” technique and
rely on the luminance histogram without checking the RGB histogram are
especially at risk of clipping colors.
RGB histogram. The green and blue channels are similar, but the red channel clearly shows the Grand Canyon's red rocks.
Most scenes have a fairly even color distribution (all three channels
have a similar histogram), but if you’re photographing a scene with one
vivid color, such as a sunset or a backlit flower, you may find one
color channel skewed far to the right. Even if just one channel is
clipped, the only solution is to adjust the exposure for the entire
scene.
A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words
The two Horseshoe Bend sunstar images here are from the same file.
The first is the way the image looked on my camera’s LCD, along with its
histogram; the second image is the same picture after just a few
minutes of adjusting highlights, shadows and curves in Lightroom and
Photoshop—no plugins, blending or other elaborate processing.
Horseshoe Bend — how the image looked on my camera’s LCD, along with its histogram.
If I had given the exposure enough light for the shadows to look good
(closer to how my eyes saw them) on my LCD, the highlights would have
been hopelessly overexposed. Similarly, if I had darkened my highlights
enough to look good on my LCD, the shadows would have darkened to an
unrecoverable and/or noisy black. I knew my best chance for capturing
this high-dynamic-range scene with a single click was to ignore my LCD
preview and trust the histogram.
Horseshoe Bend image after processing, using the histogram as my guide.
Despite an image that didn’t look good at all on my LCD, the
histogram on my Sony a7R II showed me that I’d captured virtually all of
the scene’s shadows and highlights. And because I captured this image
in RAW mode, careful positioning of the histogram kept both shadow and
highlight clipping minimal and in the recoverable range. Ignoring my
preview and trusting my histogram allowed me to achieve the final image
you see here with very little processing.
Classic Fall Color Photo Tips
Try these fall color photo tips that pros rely on to capture your own
beautiful images of the stunning displays of autumn foliage
One
of my favorite spots in the whole world is the Burgess Cemetery in
Grafton, Vermont. With the winding road and fall color, this photo just
shouts autumn. Nikon D3X, AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm F2.8G ED.
The fall season always fascinates me. As a professional photographer, I use my home
base of New England and the ability to make short trips at “peak” times
to capture the colors. With this flexibility, I can stay at one place
or move about the half-dozen states that are renown for this yearly
display of Mother Nature. In this article, I'll share with you the
essential fall color photo tips that will put you on the path to making
your own beautiful images of the season.
When you arrive at your destination, chances are you’ll be
overwhelmed by what you see in front of you. Many photographers will
argue that the first light is the best of the day. My take here is to
stay out all day—the autumn season has more than enough color for me to
photograph, especially on a bright fall day, and as the sun moves, the
opportunities in the landscape keep changing from sunrise to sunset. You
can experiment with side-lighting or backlighting for some impressive
results. Out west, the aspens absolutely light up with this type of
illumination. In my part of the country, New England, the red maples
combined with darker pines always are worth a second look. We get days
with brilliant blue skies accented with large, cumulus clouds.
An overcast day is the best lighting you can have for fall color
photography. Mother Nature provides us with a giant diffuser to soften
the light while at the same time allowing the colors to come through
with a soft saturation not possible with bright sunlight. Colors pop at
any angle without the annoying shadows. I like the depth of color on an
overcast day, and welcome the occasion to go outside and look for
patches of patterns in the trees and the groundcover. To add to the mix,
a light drizzle can boost the saturation, and with a polarizer you can
get rid of distracting reflections. When shooting on a cloudy, overcast
day, try to leave the sky out of the photo by composing tightly on the
subject. With no color to speak of, a gray sky is seldom an asset to a
radiant color photograph.
Think About More Than Just The Colors
Fall is a good time to set your goal on a project, self-assignment or
a favored location. Having published a book on the season, I am always
on the hunt for new locations to add to this tome. Waterfalls and
rolling streams are prime targets, especially on overcast days. Use a
good, sturdy tripod and a cable release, and employ the slowest shutter
speed you can, stopping the lens down to ƒ/16 or ƒ/22. On a sunny day, I
use a Singh-Ray Vari-ND filter that dials in any density up to eight
stops of light to allow longer shutter speeds that blur the motion of
the falls. On a dreary day, I often don’t even need the Vari-ND filter. I
simply set my camera’s ISO to 50 or 100 and use a polarizer to control
the light coming into the camera.
In
the fall, my wife and I take long weekends at local B&Bs here in
New England. After checking in, we went on a hike and found this
delightful setting around a small brook covered with leaves. The day had
a perfect overcast and an exposure of 4 sec. at ƒ/9.5 with a polarizer
beautifully captured the motion of the water.
Equipment & Lens Choices For Fall Color
For capturing a vast expanse of color, wide-angle lenses are a
natural. A 24-70mm is perfect for the job. For shooting up and into the
trees, wider lenses offer a unique perspective, and for shooting down to
include both the groundcover and trees, they’re ideal for scenes where
you want sharpness to extend from inches to infinity. With a wide angle,
I can draw attention to a colorful palette in the foreground, or I can
place something else in the foreground and make use of the vibrant
colors in the background.
Telephoto lenses, on the other hand, can help isolate parts of a
colorful forest into interesting shapes and colors, thanks to the
depth-flattening effect of the longer focal length. Again, use a sturdy
tripod and a cable release, and, if you’re shooting with a DSLR, use
live mode to raise the mirror before the shutter goes off for blur-free
photographs. Telephoto zooms offer the convenience of staying in one
place while you play with composing the forms, patterns and colors in
front of you. However, don’t let this versatility lead to complacency;
make sure you move around and look for new perspectives.
I always take along a true macro lens, as lulls in the day’s shooting
can be heightened by stretching out the legs of the tripod, getting
down and dirty on the ground and exploring for fallen leaves, acorns or
patterns formed by a combination of both. Or you can use close-up
attachments for occasions when the added weight of a dedicated macro
lens may not be desirable. I use a Canon close-up attachment with a 77mm
diameter on my Nikon 70-200mm lens to make a useful zoom macro. For
dedicated macro work, I like to use a right-angle finder, or, if your
camera has one, a swiveling LCD is incredibly convenient.
Taken
on a side road in Vermont. To me, white trees are always interesting
with fall foliage. Moving my Nikon D3X slowly in a vertical plane, I
used a 3-second exposure at ƒ/29 to create
the blur effect. Photos like this take multiple tries, and this one was
the best of 14 attempts. Printed on a textured paper, it has the
feeling of a fine watercolor or oil painting.
Use Lighting To Boost Color
When the available light isn’t ideal, today’s TTL flashes are easy
and accurate to use. I like to cut back the power to add just a bit of
fill without overpowering the scene. I find
that if I dial back about a 2⁄3-stop on the flash, the subject gains a
feeling of luminance without being overpowering. Lightweight LED panels
are also incredibly useful because you can see the effect as you shoot.
Another solution is to carry a handheld reflector that folds to a
compact size to fit easily into your camera bag. Additionally, consider a
visit to your local glass shop, where you can often purchase “scrap”
mirrors, and, for a few dollars more, they may polish the edges and
round the corners for you. These can be used as reflectors to add light
to a scene.
In
the Green Mountains of Vermont, streams are abundant, with this one
being a prime example, begging for photography. An overcast day and a
2.5-second exposure at ƒ/11 yielded this pleasant photo. Nikon D3X, AF-S
NIKKOR 24-70mm F2.8G ED.
Use A Tripod, But Don’t Get Stuck
Purchase the best tripod you can afford and be aware that long center
columns that make for unsteady support if the wind comes up. There are
plenty of excellent models that are lightweight and sturdy and for
trekking. I am using a Gitzo GT2542L with an Acratech quick-release
ballhead that allows precise adjustments with one knob (as opposed to
three on other tripod heads).
When I’m photographing a colorful fall scene, I like to mount the
camera last, not first. I move around looking through the viewfinder,
often changing lenses to find the right composition. Then I pull out the
tripod and get everything locked down. Attaching the camera first just
plants the initial idea into your head that this is the only place to
be. Keeping an open mind before settling down is important. After
getting a shot you like, remove the camera from the tripod and keep
looking, repeating the process. A great fall color scene seldom has only
one photo opportunity.
Be Familiar With Your Equipment
Out in the field, I see more and more photographers with the latest
high-tech cameras. This is great, as long as you are familiar with the
workings of your new gear before you leave. Especially when on a
workshop or cross-country trip with a short season, bring and use the
tools that you are most familiar with, plugging in the newer gear as
time permits. You will find yourself less stressed and get better
images. You can thank me later!
Intuitive B&W Conversions
Try this simple step-by-step process for making beautiful monochrome images
A local gaucho with his horse, who happened upon the 2010 Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race and stopped to check out the action on the island of Tierra del Fuego in southern Chile.
1 ) The image as it was worked up in
Lightroom 3, with the black-and-white settings dialed in via the
Black&White and Basic dialogs in the Develop module.
Black-and-white photography seems to be more popular than ever in
this digital era. And in my opinion, it has never been easier to make a
professional-caliber black-and-white conversion, especially with the
new, easy-to-use tools. I happen to use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, and
in this article, I’ll show you my step-by-step process with it.
Lightroom has a before and after mode that, along with the individual
Black&White Mix sliders, allows you to see which colors each
Black&White slider correlates to, giving specific control of each
color channel and the resulting gray-scale toning of that color. To
convert an image to black-and-white, click on the Black&White option
at the top of the right Develop module in the Basic dialog box. Once
you select Black&White, the Black&White Mixer dialog appears in
the HSL/Color/B&W section, third down from the top. The Mixer shows
up with Auto adjustments already made, but you can adjust the sliders
individually to dial in the image. To access the before and after mode,
click on the “X|Y” icon in the toolbar, which is the second icon from
the left.
2 ) Before and after mode in the
Develop module. This is just one of the four ways you can set up the
before and after mode, which is a fantastic feature for converting
images to black-and-white.
Also, don’t forget that you can adjust your exposure, curves,
contrast and the amount of vignetting in the other dialog panels. In
addition, the Targeted Adjustment tool allows you to adjust the tones
directly on the image itself by clicking on that section and moving your
mouse up or down. Just click on the icon consisting of concentric
circles (it looks like a small target) located in the upper-left corner
of the Black&White panel to grab the Targeted Adjustment tool. It’s a
super-slick method for working directly on the image and one of the
incredibly intuitive features in Lightroom. As you move your mouse up or
down, the sliders also will move in the Black&White panel, as well.
To start off, I normally create
a Virtual Copy of my image before converting to black-and-white so that
I have both a color and a grayscale version of the image. Having both a
color and black-and-white version helps me to see if the image works
better in color or in black-and-white. Normally, I won’t know until I do
the conversion and look at them both, side by side.
3 ) Before and after mode zoomed into
the gaucho’s face to fine-tune the black-and-white conversion. To
maximize detail and contrast on his face, Clark used the Clarity slider
and localized adjustments.
For an example, let’s look at this image of a gaucho photographed
during the 2010 Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race in southern Chile.
Because it was overcast and stormy for much of the race, many of the
images from that assignment lent themselves to black-and-white. In this
image, the sky was pretty much blown out before I got started, so in
black-and-white, I just let it go and cranked up the contrast. As usual,
I used the before and after mode to adjust the Black&White sliders.
For this image, there were a large variety of colors and hues that
allowed me to accurately convert the image as I wanted it to look in
black-and-white. And using the multiple views available in the before
and after mode, I could concentrate on key parts of the image.
4 ) Clark finished the image in
Photoshop by doing a bit of retouching on the hat and face, as well as
adding some brightness and contrast and adjusting the Levels.
In my workflow, with both color and black-and-white images, I find
that to effectively finalize an image I need to continue the
postproduction in Adobe Photoshop once I export images out of Lightroom.
I export images from Lightroom as 16-bit ProPhoto RGB color files at
300 ppi. Then in Photoshop, I can convert the files to grayscale, set
the black and the white points
in the image, make the final Levels adjustments and perfect the
contrast with either the Curves dialog or with the Brightness/Contrast
tool. And if an image needs it, I can extend the exposure latitude by
masking and compositing different pieces of the image together. For this
image of Francisco, all the image needed in Photoshop was a Levels
adjustment, some precise cloning on the hat and a brightness/contrast
adjustment.
Most images will be improved if there’s a part of the image that’s
pure white and another part that has some pure black. Many of the images
I choose to convert to black-and-white are images that in color have
little contrast. Perhaps they were shot in the fog or on an overcast
day. In either case, converting them to black-and-white allows me to
really crank up the contrast and fashion the image in a way that may
look a little strange in color, but works well in black-and-white. Adventure-sports photographer Michael Clark is based in Santa Fe, N.M. This article is an excerpt from his comprehensive digital workflow e-book Adobe Photoshop Lightroom: A Professional Photographer’s Workflow, available at www.michaelclarkphoto.com.
Continuing the Black and White Photography theme we’ve been on lately in the latest forum assignment (where the photos featured in this post were submitted) I thought I’d share five pretty random Black and White Photography Tips.
Black and White Photography Tips
1. Shoot in RAW
I know many readers of DPS can’t shoot in RAW (because their camera
doesn’t offer it) or don’t shoot in RAW (because they either don’t know
how or don’t like to) but for the most control in the post production
phase of converting your color images into black and white ones – you’ll
want to shoot in RAW if your camera does allow it. Of course shooting
in JPEG doesn’t stop you shooting in black and white – but if it’s an
option, give RAW a go, you might be surprised by what it offers you in
post production. More on RAW vs JPEG here.
2. Shoot in Color
If your camera doesn’t allow you to shoot in RAW (or you choose not
to) – shoot in color and do your conversion to black and white later on
your computer.
While most digital cameras offer you the option to shoot in Black and
White (and can produce some reasonable results) you have more control
over your end results if you have the color data to work with in your
conversion on your computer. (read more on the choice between shooting in black and white or post production conversion). Update:
There is an exception to shooting in Color and it’s when you’re taking
note of point 1 above (shooting in RAW). When shooting in RAW and
switching to Black and White mode you see your results in the LCD in
black and white but the camera actually records all of the information
(including color) – the best of both worlds. But if you’re shooting in
JPEG – shoot in color and do the conversion later. Thanks to Joost (in
comments) for the reminder to include this.
3. Low ISO
Shoot with the lowest possible ISO possible. While this is something
that most of us do in color photography it is particularly important
when it comes to black and white where noise created by ISO can become
even more obvious. If you’re after this ‘noise’ (or grain) you can
always add it later in your post production – but it’s harder to go the
other way and take noise out.
4. When to Shoot
Many digital photographers actually prefer to shoot images for Black
and White in low contrast situations. So an dark or overcast day can be a
great time to shoot out door shots.
Ironically these are the days that those who shoot only in color sit
at home complaining about the ‘poor light’. So next time you find
yourself with a dark and gloomy day – shoot some black and white shots.
5. Composition
Most of the general tips on how to compose or frame a good shot apply
just as well to black and white photography as they do when shooting in
color – however the main obvious difference is that you’re unable to
use color to lead the eye into or around your shot. This means you need
to train yourself to look at shapes, tones and textures in your frame as
points of interest. Pay particularly attention to shadows and
highlights which will become a feature of your shot.
Read more on Black and White Photography at Key Ingredients for Black and White Photography. UPDATE: Learn more about Black and White Photography with our new Essential Guide to Black and White Photography.
To find
the right amount of motion blur, Miralle played with exposures. He
started at 1/60 sec, and worked his way down to 1/10 sec before settling
on 1/15 sec at f/13 (ISO 50). He also bracketed each frame by 0.67 EV. A
neat trick: He chose a bike with a shiny gas tank to bounce fill light
up onto the rider’s face.
Donald Miralle
When the German magazine Stern approached Donald Miralle (www.donaldmiralle.com)
to shoot a new line of Harley-Davidson motorcycles, the Carlsbad,
CA-based commercial and editorial photographer was thrilled. Then it hit
him: "I'd had very little experience shooting moving vehicles!"
It helped, though, that Miralle had a particular image in mind-the
one shown here. "My aim was to find an angle on this subject that no one
had yet documented," he says. "While I may not have entirely succeeded,
I feel I did place my own perspective and spin on it."
Capturing that image required some very specialized gear. Miralle attached his camera
to the Harley using a redundantly secured set of clamps and brackets
from Manfrotto. Riding just ahead, in the back of a fiatbed pickup, he
tripped the shutter using a pair of PocketWizard Plus II Transceivers
($170, street).
If you try this, start slow. Even motorcycle speeds of 5-10 mph can produce thrilling motion blur. And they're safer.
Two Manfrotto Magic Arms ($110, street) and three Super Clamps ($27, street, shown here) held his Canon EOS-1Ds and 15mm fisheye lens on the bike. Step 1 Get The Right Gear: A full-frame camera
(Miralle used a Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II) captures a wider view than
APS-C-sized sensors. To get full views of both the bike and the
background, Miralle chose a 15mm f/2.8 Canon EF fisheye lens. Step 2 Scout Locations:
Shady sites will allow the slower shutter speeds you need to record
motion blur. "Here, I liked the way the trees and blips of sky created a
visual texture," says Miralle. "A plain blue sky wouldn't have conveyed
speed or motion." For sharpness, seek out smooth roads. Step 3 Secure And Stabilize The Camera:
Miralle attached two Manfrotto Super Clamps to the bike's front fender
rail. Then he used two Manfrotto Magic Arms extended from the Super
Clamps, attaching one to the base of the camera and the other, with
another Super Clamp, to a metal stud in the hot-shoe. Finally, he
secured everything possible using safety cables that he'd attached to
the bike.
Step 4 Play With Shutter Speeds: You need a long
shutter speed for beautiful motion blur. But set it too long and you
risk a blurry biker. Best: 1/10 to 1/30 sec. Final Step Shoot Like Crazy: The cool part about this assignment? Miralle only needed one good shot. The uncool part? It took hundreds of pictures and two days to get it.
How to Create the Misty Water Effect in Photography
Have you looked at a landscape photographer’s photo and
wondered how they got the water coming down from a waterfall to look so
misty? Or how they got the ocean in a seascape photograph to look so
smooth?
My guess is that if you’re starting out in landscape photography it’s
probably one of the first things you’ve tried to do. If you got it
right the first time, that’s great. If you didn’t, then let me show you
just how easy it can be to create the misty water effect.
There is every chance that if you are just starting out that you
won’t have purchased yourself any filters yet. Filters will make it
easier for you to create the misty water effect, but they aren’t
essential; it just means you’ll have to get up a little earlier in the
morning and stay out a little later in the evening.
The first thing you’re going to need to do is to get up early in the
morning to get your misty water shot. It’ss pretty much impossible to
get the misty water effect during full daylight conditions unless you
have the new breed of neutral density filters that are extremely dark.
Even then I wouldn’t recommend shooting during full daylight, as you
just aren’t getting the best available light. You should be ready to
start shooting your subject at least 30 minutes prior to sunrise or 30
minutes after sunset. You will also need to have your camera mounted on a
tripod, as you’ll need to keep your shutter open for quite a few
seconds to create the effect.
Once you’re ready to go, it’s probably easiest to set your camera on
aperture priority mode and use the lowest ISO setting that you possibly
can. Set your aperture to a setting around f/16. It goes without saying
that your next step should be to focus on your chosen subject to make
sure your photo will be as sharp as possible. You should also consider
getting a remote shutter release and using mirror lockup to make sure
that your camera doesn’t shake. Now for the fun part; take the photo! If
your shutter is open long enough, you’ll see that you too have created
the misty water effect that you have been after. How hard was that?
If you decide that landscape or seascape photography is something that you definitely want to continue
doing, then you should at some stage consider purchasing a few neutral
density filters—the darker the better. The darker a neutral density
filter the longer you can shoot your subjects after the sun has risen or
the earlier you can take a photo before the sun sets.
Over the years, I have found that the best shutter speed for creating the misty water effect is anywhere between 1 to 4 seconds.
Anything less than this and the water doesn’t have that silky smooth
look, and anything more than that flattens the water almost entirely and
makes it look almost boring. Of course, every scene is different. You
may need to hold your shutter open longer or shorter depending on what
you’re trying to achieve. Now for my last tip: make sure that you focus
on your subject before putting on your neutral density filter, otherwise
it’s almost impossible to focus. About the Author
Landscape and seascape photographer Jamie Paterson
is based in Australia. He is always trying to capture those elusive
perfect moments that nature shares with us and loves to share his
knowledge to enhance others’ photographic abilities.
http://www.photography-jobs.net/?hop=darryl54
The Complete Guide For Photographing Live Insects At Home
I
started toying around with insect macro photography about 18 months
ago. And to be honest, those first few months produced some amazingly
bad photographs. But as scientists say, there is no such thing as a
failed experiment – as long as it yields data. Well, I’ve managed to
amass quite a lot of “data”. And I am grateful that I am able to share
some of that knowledge with the DIY community.
As bad as they were, those first few macro shots opened my eyes to the
amazing detail and intricacies that lay just beyond the capabilities of
our vision. Watching the insects move through the viewfinder was – and
still is – a fascinating experience. So, from my earliest attempts, I
decided I was going to only shoot live insects.
Of course, the advantage of shooting dead insects is that they hold
really still for you. The downside is that – well – they’re dead – and
often, a keen observer can tell. You also miss out on watching the bugs
in action – and sometimes capturing that action in stunning detail.
For starters, I’ll walk you through the gear I am shooting with and some
basic technical tips, then I’ll wrap this up by sharing some ideas on
working with the insects and most importantly “containment” during the
shoot.
Until recently, I was shooting with a Canon 10D, but this Spring I treated myself to a “major” upgrade … a used Canon 20D bought off ebay for $325. So, it’s safe to say that just about any DSLR will be adequate for this.
Lenses
For lenses, I typically shoot with one of two set ups.
1. Extension Tubes Canon 50mm f/1.8 (it can be bought for about $95) mounted in front of some Kenko extension tubes. The multiplier effect gained from the extension tubes allows me to count the hairs on an ant’s head.
2. Reverse Lenses setup
The standard “kit lens” that came in the box with the 10D (28-105mm f/3.5-4.5)
mounted in front of the extension tubes. Then, using a macro coupler
ring, I mount an old Minolta 50mm f/1.7 BACKWARDS in front of the 28-105
lens.
The first time I heard about this reversed lens technique,
I was sure it was voodoo. But if you think about what goes on inside a
lens when you mount it correctly – it takes a large scene and reduces it
down to fit on the camera’s sensor. So, when you mount it backwards,
the opposite is true. Tiny objects suddenly appear rather large. Add to
that the multiplier effect gained from the extension tubes and suddenly,
you can count the cells in a fly’s eye.
I won’t bore you with a lot of math, but basically, if you divide the
focal length of the main lens by the focal length of the reversed lens
that is the degree of magnification you are getting. So w/ a 50mm lens
reversed in front of a 100mm lens, an object that measures 12 x 8mm will
completely fill a 24 x 16 mm CMOS sensor. By stacking extension tubes
between the main lens and the camera body the magnification factor is
further increased. Now, go reverse mount that same 50mm lens in front of
a 300 mm lens and you are bordering on the microscopic.
Below you can see a typical setup: Canon
EOS 20D with 3 Kenko extension tubes (12mm, 20mm & 36mm), Canon
28-105mm lens and Minolta 50mm f/1.7 reverse mounted via macro coupler
ring. Also depicted are 2 LumoPro 120 flashes.
But all this magnification comes at a cost
It’s going to cost you three ways actually…
1. Less light hits the sensor. When I add the reversed
lens, I know I’ve just given up 2 stops of light. For each 20mm of
extension tubes I add, I give up roughly another stop. I’ve got a couple
of standard lighting setups that produce consistently good results for
me, but I’ll cover those later on. For now, just know that you’re going
to want to get a hold of 1-2 strobes that you can adjust manually. I use
LumoPro 120s from mpex.com (the new 160s are available!) These lights cost about $125 apiece and are adjustable in 1-stop increments down to 1/32 power.
2. Depth of field. Trust me, you want to ease into this. Start
with a 12m extension tube, then gradually work your way up. I am
regularly working with a depth of field that is less than 1mm – even at
f/29. That’s hard enough to deal with when your subject is inanimate –
but live insects tend to be quite active. As a result, I have to shoot
these things handheld. Now, I can already hear you saying, “Wait a
minute, Scott! Everybody who writes about macro photography says you’ve
got to use a sturdy tripod.” If I were shooting an inanimate object, I
would absolutely agree – but when your subject is running around and you’ve got a 1mm DOF, you learn to ditch the tripod in a hurry.
3. Forget that your camera has an auto-focus feature.
Extension tube manufacturers will tell you that their tubes work with
your camera’s auto-focus system. While the tubes may allow the
auto-focus system to communicate with the camera, there is little chance
that you will actually be able to acquire focus at these close
distances. In fact, I don’t even use the focus ring – I switch to manual
focus, set the lens to its “macro” setting and I acquire focus by
moving the camera closer to or further from the subject. This is only
possible because I am not bolted to a tripod.
A big disadvantage of shooting handheld is, of course, camera shake.
But, welcome to the world of small off-camera flashes. Those cheap
little LumoPro 120s fire at 1/30,000 of a second when they are set to
1/32 power. Even though my 20D may only syncs at 1/250 sec., the flash
duration is what is exposing the scene and when you get into exposure
times less than 1/5,000 sec. even a moderate hand tremor can be
imperceptible.
Lighting set ups
Because of the tremendous loss of f-stops and the fact that I want my
lights firing as quickly as possible to reduce the negative effects of
hand holding the camera, I usually want to get my lights in fairly tight
to the subject. This allows me to fire the lights at a low setting (low
power = faster flash duration). But of course, there is a downside to
this (there is always a downside to everything in macro photography it
seems).
The downside is that if the key light is 2 inches away from the subject,
and the subject scurries 3/4 of an inch away from the light, I’ve just
lost another stop of light. So I have had to find ways to restrict the
insect’s movements to a small surface area, and then light that surface
area as evenly as possible.
Since I typically try to shoot my insects isolated on white, I like to
start out with one light coming almost straight down, but just a little
bit behind the subject and angled towards the camera slightly. The
second light will usually sit approximately 60° off camera axis. Both
flash heads are usually within 3-5 inches of the subject area and each
flash head is oriented horizontally so as to spread the beam evenly over
as wide an area as possible. I usually place the insect inside a white
ceramic bowl or casserole dish. Casserol dishes have the extra added
benefit of having a glass lid which can come in handy when working with
live insects.
Refer to the set up photo above to see how these lights are arranged.
Restricting the insect’s movements
Each type of insect offers its own unique set of challenges with respect
to restricting its motion. I have discovered that earwigs and several
types of spiders absolutely refuse to step into Vicks® Vap-O-Rub™. These
creatures can be held in place simply by smearing the greasy, stinky
goo in a circle around the spot you want the action to take place.
However, other insects – ants, for instance – will just walk right
through Vicks like it’s not even there.
I have discovered that ants love to swim in water. Swimming in vinegar,
however is not high on their list of “likes”. They don’t like swimming
in bleach either, but I’d rather not use that if it can be avoided. So,
for ants, I build a little suspension bridge out of a couple paperclips
and some clear tape.
The bridge then gets placed into a bowl of vinegar. The ants will
scurry all over the surface, even climbing down the paperclips to the
vinegar. Most often, the ants will try to swim away once, but instead of
swimming they just end up twitching a lot instead. I simply lower a
tooth pick which the ant will invariably grasp gratefully, and I lift
the ant back onto the bridge. Most ants don’t go back for a second dip
after that.
After an ant has taken a vinegar bath, it will spend a few minutes
grooming itself to remove the droplets of vinegar from the antennae and
legs – so be ready with the camera!
Flying insect present a whole different set of challenges. Since I do
most of these shots on my kitchen counter, I clearly don’t want to let
dragonflies loose in the house. Even if I was working outside, I
wouldn’t want the insects to be flying away constantly, either. That was
problematic until I ran across some information that indicated insects
need the air temperature to be at least 52°F in order to achieve flight.
Shooting on the kitchen counter is one thing … shooting inside the
refrigerator is an entirely different matter, however. And I am not THAT
committed. By refrigerating a flying insect for 20 minutes prior to
shooting, I can usually get 2-3 minutes of shooting before the insect
will exhibit signs that it is considering flight. I then recapture and
stuff it back in the fridge for another few minutes.
I have also discovered that by placing the ceramic bowl inside of a
larger bowl filled with ice, the ambient air temperature around the
insect is much lower while I am shooting and this can greatly extend the
length of time I can work with an insect before it starts thinking
about taking off.
There is so much more that I would like to share, but I’m afraid this
post has already gone on too long. I just want to close by encouraging
you to experiment and explore.
I’d love to hear of any insect photography tips you may know. Share them on the comments.
Wednesday, October 10, 2018
Photographing Young Children with Low-Key Lighting – Tutorial
Tips for Photographing Children
There is no doubt that photographing young children can be a
challenge, and never more so than when using a low-key lighting setup.
So why bother? Because the drama and richness inherent in this type
of lighting is SO worth it and because it’s unexpected for high energy
children’s photography. For the purposes of this post, young and active
will be defined as children between the ages of one and four
(toddlers).
The good news about this type of lighting is the comfort and ease with
which it can be set up. You only need one light and a dark background.
Most of the time I use black seamless paper or dark gray seamless paper.
To provide the widest possible latitude for movement on the child’s
part, the light should be positioned as close to the center as
possible. See diagram:
I prefer a soft box for this particular situation, as it provides a more directional, slightly ‘harder’ light than that bounced out of an umbrella.
This does not mean you cannot use an umbrella. As a matter of fact,
you could use a white, translucent shoot-through umbrella to great
effect.
Okay, let’s say you’ve got your victim…er subject lined up. So now
what? Well, just tell that two-year to go on out there to the ‘middle’
of the background and do something interesting while you photograph
them. Sure thing Mz Photog, but…what’s a background and where’s the
middle and what am I supposed to do out there all by my lonesome? I am
about to introduce you to the very best friend you will ever have. Meet
Mister Smiley Face:
Draw him on the ‘sweet spot’, your pre-determined perfect lighting
zone. Might as well go ahead and draw him in with a sharpie marker, so
toddlers can find it easily, and make him at least one inch in diameter.
This next step is very important. Make sure the
child knows about Mister Smiley. Get down on their level and show them
‘their’ smiley face. Make a big deal out of it. If you have a fresh
roll of paper, you might even wait until they are in the camera room and
draw it in front of them. In any event, make a big production of
Mister Smiley Face, emphasizing it is just for them. You now have a way
to direct the toddler.
This may seem overly simple, but trust me. I have been photographing
toddlers for almost 20 years. They don’t know from backgrounds and
lighting zones, nor do they care to learn. They have other things to
do. Like moving around. A lot. All over the place. You will save
yourself and the child an enormous amount of unnecessary stress
if you have a non-combative, non-confrontational way to direct them.
It allows you to remain in position to shoot and allows them a certain
amount of freedom and distance from you. If you’re very clever, you can
get some killer shots of them looking for ‘their’ smiley face.
Mister Smiley Face works well for slightly older children, in the
four, five and six year old range, as they love having a ‘mark’ to hit.
It’s a wonderful, stress free device that can easily be erased via
Photoshop. Another great device for keeping busy toddlers in place is
anything they can climb into, such as THE BOX.
I found this box at Pier One and knew immediately it was a great
prop. It’s heavy, well made and has a lid that will stay open and won’t
fall and chop off little fingers. The great thing about the box is, if
they won’t get inside it, they’ll get on top of it. Either way,
they’re in your lighting sweet spot and all’s right in the world.
If you don’t have a box, try a simple stool, like this one I
purchased at IKEA for under $20. The plain, simple lines and blond wood
make it an unobtrusive prop. Don’t assume the possibilities are
limited with this type of prop either. I’ve had kids turn it over and
sit in between the ‘legs’ or even try to crawl through it, which affords
a great opportunity to photograph them peaking out. Just make sure you
and your light source are closer to the ground when photographing this
way.
As photographers, we rely so much on our eyes that it’s almost second
nature to decide whether a picture is too bright, too dark or just
right simply by the way the LCD preview image looks. But from leading
photo workshops for more than a dozen years, I’ve learned that the
single biggest cause of exposure mistakes is making decisions based on
the way the picture looks on the camera’s LCD.
