Fireworks

I hope everyone that celebrates it had a Merry Christmas, or a Happy Hanukkah, Kwanza, Solstice, Yule, Bohdi Day, Pancha Ganapati, or any of the many other holidays celebrated in the Decemberish time. If I missed yours it is nothing personal.

So on to the topic, fireworks and how to capture them. As usual I recommend a tripod and a remote. It can be done without either it is more hit and miss. I will get an idea of where the fireworks will be exploding and if possible set up before nightfall. This is easier to do during the 4th of July than New Year’s Eve. This helps with setting up background and foreground if desired. Generally the fireworks are far enough away that focusing on infinity works well enough, if you aren’t a fan of that then focus on a building nearby the launch site then lock your focus. For aperture I use f8-f11 to keep the focus area large and a low ISO to keep the noise down. Here is where the tough decisions come in. If it is windy then a faster shutter speed will keep the definition of the fireworks better. Notice below the firework trails are being blown to the left and gravity is having it’s hand at pulling them down too.

iso 100 f6.3 11 seconds. I had a larger aperture to get more of the foreground lit.

Now I use a bulb setting so that I can control the shutter better. Sometimes I want a single firework other times I want multiple and often I am deciding while the shutter is open. If a set shutter speed is used the only way to control it would be to put a black card/think paper of the lens during the exposure. The few times that I used that technique I didn’t really enjoy it and took away from enjoying the show. It is an option though.

Another decision that needs to be made is whether a foreground interest will be in place. If so a way to do it is with two separate exposures. One of a properly exposed foreground then one of the fireworks. I recommend taking them around the same time so the blending process is easier. Using a rear curtain flash is also an option depending on how far the subject is.

iso 100 4 secs at f14

Above notice that the lines are more defined, it was at least partially because of the faster shutter speed. I can’t recall if or how fast the wind was that night so that is out of the equation.

If you have the means a reflection adds more interest to the image,

Above I took caught a picture with my Father in law and my nephew watching the fireworks. The first one is the composite, the second is the original, and the third is the orange firework. The same idea can be used with different foreground.

Lighting pictures are not hard once you know how to do them. Reading about it is one thing doing it is completely different. So with the New Year coming in there are usually some fireworks which is a good chance to try this technique out. Have a Happy New Year everyone. I would love to hear some comments or questions.

Shaped Bokeh

Good day,

Quite a few of us are planning on taking holiday photos. If we want something a little different shaped bokeh is a possibility.

I went with hearts, those are christmas lights in the back. In the front is a little dog my children made.

Hearts, stars, silhouettes, trees... Nearly any simple shape is an option. There are kits that can be bought from what I have seen the shapes are limited and the reviews say they work alright. Once we get the hang of making the cut out it is easy.

Required items are a large aperture lens (the larger the better), some black construction paper, tape, a sharp cutting instrument, a white crayon, lights, and a shape that is smaller than the largest aperture of the lens. Optional is a lens hood, step ring, or square filter holder.

I use a 50mm 1.7 Minolta lens, then cut out a square to fit the ring for a square filter holder, I draw the shape with a white crayon, cut it out with a sharp knife, then tape it to the ring (the paper could just be taped to the lens), I then set up the lights (candle flames, christmas lights, fairy lights, etc) and purposely put the lights out of focus. The distance from subject to lights in the above image was about 5-6 feet. Put them too close and there isn't a shape, put them too far and the image is too small.

Sorry this was late I was in Zion for a few days, updated pictures in the Zion folder will be in the next few days. We even took our family picture with only one take. Make some shapes and go out and shoot.

~Scott

Lenses: Focal Lengths

Good Morning,

Today we are going to talk about focal lengths and their effects on images. We have discussed different focal lengths and what they are generally used for. We have not talked about how they affect the image or rather the relationship between subject and background. Below is a series of a red rose with a praying mantis on it in my backyard. I tried to stay focused on the same spot of the rose but moving and changing lenses does not help, thankfully the wind didn't give me any issues. First image is at 11mm, some distortion can be seen on the wall and the area of focus is wide and it looks like the wall is pretty far away. The second is at 18mm and the wall looks closer, pretty much everything looks closer or tighter, the distortion at the wall is negligible, and praying mantis is still judging us. Third we have 50mm and we can barely see any of the wall, the image is a bit brighter, I didn't have it on manual and it changed shutter speed was changed in Av. The honeysuckle doesn't look as far as it did before and out area of focus seems to have shrunk.  Fourth is 100mm and it was switched to manual mode. The praying mantis is so judgemental and has been for a while. It appears that the honeysuckle is just behind the rose bushes leaves and is rather out of focus. Fifth and final image is at 300mm, sorry the angle changed a little to keep in the same size I had to go up a step. The mantis stared directly at the camera, finally. The leaves are hard to make out on the honeysuckle now and look pretty close.

As can be seen through the images. If a subject is kept the same size the relationship with the background can be greatly affected by the focal length of the lens. What we are trying to convey with our images can be changed by zooming. Now go out and shoot.

~Scott

Filter: Neutral Density Filters aka ND

Good Evening,

Today the little ones and I went to Red Rock Canyon. I brought along some ND filters to show what they can do.

ND filters are basically like putting sunglasses on a camera. They darken the whole thing. There are a few reasons to want to do this. Wanting to use a large aperture to have a shallow depth of field, wanting a long or longer exposure time, making flowing water silky, removing people from a busy location. They come in different strengths. Just like CPL filters they can be costly and we can buy one set for our largest thread lens and then step rings for the rest of the lens. Ultimately we want a filter that darkens the frame evenly without adding a color cast.

I did not use an ND filter for either of these images. I was testing a new lens and seeing what I could get out of it. I was planning on taking some water images today but alas didn't get the chance as there hasn't been any recent rain. This does give an idea of what an ND filter can do to a scene though.

There are also graduated ND filters which are used to darken a bright sky over a landscape so both can be seen. They come in both screw on filters and in a square filter with a holder. Just like the regular ones also come in different strengths.

Here is what I shot today with the girls. Notice both are about even on the ground but with the grad ND the sky looks better and not as blown out. For a scene like this I should have had the grad tilted more toward the sun on the left. I tried it but wasn't paying attention and got my finger in the frame because I was talking to children.

As for removing people from scenes I have pictures of them removed but no before shots. If I go to a populated area where people are moving I will get it. Until then see where an ND might fit into your needs. Now go out and shoot.

~Scott

ISO

Good afternoon,

Now I will move onto ISO (International Standards Organization) or ASA (American Standards Association which might be seen in older publications) which is a measurement of how sensitive to light a sensor or film is. I sometimes shoot film still and enjoy it, I even have had my daughters use film.

The ISO can usually be changed in almost any setting on a DSLR type camera, and if I recall quite a few point and shoot cameras as well. Unless it is turned to auto. Auto from my experience doesn't use the whole range that the camera is capable of. I have cameras that are a few years old and they are both capable of 16,000 (more on this in a bit). I don't ever use them at that setting but it is there, I have gone up to 3200 with decent results though. ISO goes up/down in stops, it doubles every time for one full stop. 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, etc... from 12800 to 16000 isn't a full stop though and higher end cameras can go in between full stops (64, 120, and so on). If you are in A or S priority then the setting will double or half when decreasing or increasing the ISO in full stops accordingly. 

Some of you might be thinking "why not always use the highest ISO?" Well every increase in ISO adds noise or grain to the image. It is the price that we pay for more light gathering ability. Somethings the noise isn't an issue with (things not needing fine detail, documenting events or just needing to have a photo, night shots) and others it is (wanting fine detail, portraits, stationary items).

I kept the aperture at f5.6 while changing the shutter speed to compensate from 30 seconds at 50 ISO to 1/10 of a second at 16000 ISO. To see the detail lost look at the books and the wood grain. These are 100% crops of the pictures.

*I changed it from the previous pictures. I felt these demonstrated the ISO difference better.

The highest acceptable ISO depends on what we are taking pictures of and what we are using the image for. Landscapes low ISOs work well because we usually mount on a tripod for them for sharpness and high dof. Action we want a high ISO to stop the motion and get a sharp stopping of it. Indoor either high ISO or a flash, my personal experience is that an image taken at a get together is not usually going to be blown up to a large enough size to make higher ISO degrade the print.

I kept the aperture at f2.8 and the shutter at 30 seconds, the ISO was changed to show the difference between the light sensitivity. More stars can be seen until it gets blocked out by ambient light. At 400 there was a plane flying through the frame.

*I changed the image to 100% crops of the upper left corner so the stars would be more visible.

So far we have covered the points on the exposure triangle, next week I think that we should move onto the Histogram which more or less defines a "perfect exposure." Go on out and shoot, experiment with new knowledge. Change your settings and see what you can do.

~Scott

Shutter Priority

Good Evening,

Shutter priority is not one that I use often. There is nothing wrong with it I just never really used it. After taking this series of photos I will make an effort to use it. I have seen the times that it could be useful. Such as when being more worried about stopping motion in the image as opposed to having a certain amount of the photo in focus. You control the shutter speed and ISO then the camera sets the aperture (or tries to within the lens limits) to what would make a "perfect" aperture using the exposure triangle.

If you are taking pictures of cars in motion, people running or playing sports, you have an artistic idea that has some motion blur and you want to control how much is blurred, you are trying to make a busy place look empty, taking pictures of fans, etc, then this would probably be the way to go. It can be used for all of those and more.

These images were taken at 800 iso with a tripod mounted camera. The first was and last images had a blinking aperture which means each was outside of the "perfect" exposure. 1/640 sec was a stop below what the aperture could adjust for and 1/2 second was a stop above. If you notice the first one is dark compared to the others and the last is brighter. Again we can see the triangle at work in these captures. For each stop (keep in mind these are full stops) the the shutter speed changes the aperture changes one stop too. I know that Sony and Canon have the option, not sure about Nikon I haven't used them enough, to change the stop adjustment to either 1/3 stop or 1/2 stop when changing the shutter speed or aperture. I hope this collage provides a good example of shutter speed adjustments. Now go out and shoot.

~Scott

Aperture priority

Good Evening,

I figured that I would take a step into mode dial settings. I was discussing it with a fellow patron of the B&B the Wife and I stayed at to see the eclipse. He asked for some pointers and I gave him what I could in the short time we saw each other. The discussion went to the mode dial and how to use it.

Most of the time I use Aperture priority (A or Av). I like to have control of depth of field. This is again a personal preference, and just one corner of the triangle. If it doesn't work for me then I usually jump to Manual. I put together this image to illustrate the difference.

All were shot at 400 iso in jpeg from an a57 with a 28mm lend mounted on a small tripod. Each time I went up a full stop (smaller number smaller in focus area) in the aperture and in turn the shutter went up a full stop too, to compensate for the light change. The difference between all of them is how much of the keyboard is in focus. The aperture controls depth of field and is a great tool to isolate what we want in focus in an image. It is also good for low light situations as well. If you are in one you can open it wide which allows more light in a shorter period of time. Such as a birthday party when the candles are lighting up a face, with a wide aperture you can have other people blur away if you know what you are doing. Go out and shoot.

~Scott