The Moon

I hope anyone reading this is staying safe. I am doing my best to which is staying away from as many people as I can and wearing a mask when I can’t.

So I went out to get pictures of NEOWISE with a friend at Seven Magic Mountains outside of Las Vegas. We got some pictures of it. While we were there I pointed my camera at the moon and he seemed surprised when I told him my settings. They were 210mm, iso 400, f4.0, and 1/1250. From my experience of taking pictures of the moon only manual exposure works. If I had a greater focal length then it might not be an issue, currently though I am limited to 300mm max well technically it would be 450mm with the crop factor. It might work with adjusting the exposure compensation. I am of a mind that if I have the time I might as well go full manual if I need to adjust exposure comp.

The problem with small bright objects in a night frame is that they get blown out. The camera tries to bring the whole screen to an even exposure. A night scene generally doesn’t want that. A night sky is supposed to look nearly black. At 300mm the Moon doesn’t take up enough room in the frame to make a big difference to the sensor. So it treats it as a mostly dark frame and over exposes the moon, which leaves a bright spot in a black frame because the sensor is trying to get a curve in the histogram. It can’t because there is to much difference between the bright Moon and the dark sky. So you get an overexposed moon with very little detail. This was taken at 210mm 1/15 second iso 400 f5 which is what my camera meter said was was exposed properly. Click on it to zoom in for detail.

As seen above the camera doesn’t always know what is correct. Granted this has limited editing, I only changed the WB. If I wanted I could bring down some of the highlights and get more detail. Or I could not listen to the camera and get a better exposure. I took it again with what looked correct to me in manual. The camera said it was very under exposed. Click to zoom.

I included the full image in here to illustrate how little of the frame the moon will fill. With a longer focal length this might be a non issue. Even with a 300mm lens attached to a crop sensor it is still an issue. I hope this was informative. If you have any questions feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer. Again stay safe and wear a mask.

~Scott

Eclipses

Good morning,

There is an eclipse coming up on the 20th. I am hoping that it is not cloudy and I can see/photograph it. This is not my first go around with an eclipse. I have some photographs posted in the Celestial section on here. The set up for a Lunar and a Solar eclipse are a little different. I am just going to go with the Lunar right now.

There are a few ways to shoot an eclipse, a telephoto lens will capture it and show it off by filling the frame, a regular lens can capture some more of it and possibly a tight foreground, a wide angle can get a sprawling landscape with the moon in it as well. There can be a combination and photoshoping of multiple of these.

210mm and cropped to fill more of the frame. Without anything around it is rather plain.

Here is the blood moon that everyone raves about at 300mm and cropped as well.

I like these and the memories associated with them however there is not much depth to them. What we can do to add more depth is add buildings, cars, or some other foreground interest. There is also another option. Long exposure.

This is a 6415 second exposure of a lunar eclipse at 50mm.

Notice above I only have about half of the eclipse in the frame. If I would have been using a wide angle or super wide I could have gotten the whole thing in. The batteries probably would not have lasted the double the length of the exposure though. Make sure your batteries are charged completely.

Another option is to take multiple pictures and put them on a background in photoshop with layers. Spacing is key here and an intervalometer comes in handy for that part. I haven’t done this technique, I do plan on trying it. It should be roughly the same as the layer masks that I discussed back in December using car trails.

Good look with viewing the eclipse. I should have some pictures of it if the clouds stay away.

~Scott

Bokeh

Good evening,

Today we are going to get into bokeh. I probably should have done this one before the shaped bokeh one.

Bokeh is a dramatic sci-fi movie that did not get good reviews (sorry it popped up while searching for the actual definition). Bokeh comes from the Japanese word boke which has multiple meanings such as stupid, unaware, or clueless. It can also mean funny man in a double act comedy. As for photography though it is used in regards to the out of focus area in a photograph. It shows up as bokeh with an "H" to show that it is pronounced bok-ay. 

It is a lens trait and not the camera. Some lenses produce a nice smooth looking blurred area others not so much. The effect can be seen in movies too, just keep an eye out during dramatic scenes with a limited area of focus. The lights in the background will be a blur but have a shape, octagon, heptagon, hexagon, pentagon, and every once in a while a circle. In a movie it is not as noticeable because of the moving images. Pictures though can be studied and savored so more focus can be placed on it.

Below is a series of pictures of a wind spinner with yellow flowers in the background. Going through them we can see that they come into focus but also loose that nice round blurry shape.

Lenses and aperture are the creator of bokeh. Wide aperture (f1.8 or less) lenses are more common to have good bokeh. However it depend on the aperture blades too, the number and whether they are curved or not. 

Here is my 50mm f1.7 Minolta lens aperture. It is open about 1/3 or maybe 1/2 of the way. I am using it to show the blades and how bokeh changes through the range. 7 blade which appear to have a curve.

Here we have lenses wide open and back lit with a white translucent cap on them. First is a a Minolta 50mm at f1.7 notice how it looks like a perfect circle. Next is a 70-210 (Beercan) at f4 it still looks round there are a couple of dark spots around the edges which I believe are the corners of the aperture obscuring the light it still has good bokeh. Last is the 75-300 at f5.6 and the 9 aperture blade edges are obvious depending on the subject this could have a visible effect, for most things it would probably be fine. These photos of the aperture were a little rushed, just wanted to get this out today.

So grab a large aperture lens then go out and shoot.

~Scott

Situational Packing

Good morning,

Sorry it has been so long, work and holiday stuff has been taking  a toll. Today we are going to talk about packing gear. Most photographers have more gear than can easily be packed into something that is portable like a backpack. Take the example below.

This is digital cameras a57 on top and a77 on the bottom, then lenses and flashes. This is just the basics not counting chargers, batteries, filters, etc. For size reference each square is 6 inches.

Now most of us probably don't want to have a rolling suitcase in tow or have the ability to have an assistant carry our gear. Most people opt for a backpack or an over the shoulder bag for storage.

Here is my trusty camera bag with a storage area on top. With kids as travel companions it is quite handy. Even with the flap open is doesn't cover the same amount of 6x6 tiles that my gear does.

Situational packing is key for this situation. We can't always bring every piece of gear that we have. First off we can knock out one long zoom, not great lighting anticipated take the faster 70-210 f4, or do we need a little extra zoom the 75-300mm f4.5-5.6 is better. Is macro photography the goal, take the 50mm f2.8 macro if not then the 50mm f1.7. Just those 2 drop it to 6 from 8. Now comes the trickier part. Are wide landscapes or getting the whole room in the frame the goal? If so take the 11-18mm instead of the 35-70mm. If not then we can switch those. If we are taking the 35-70 then the ultra wide and 50mm can be left at home unless you need the 50 for macro. Keeping one lens with a wide aperture is a good rule, in this case it is either one of the 50mm lenses or the 28mm f2.8. The 35-70 covers the 50mm range so the 28mm would be in the bag, if the 11-18 is going then so is a 50mm. Through our image processing software we can see which lenses we use the most to help decide what to pack. Just what has been covered with the lenses cuts them by half.

Not everyone has more than one camera body. So this might not pertain to everyone. If we do though then this is a choice to be made as well. If the situation requires a quick lens change or missing the shot (wedding, sporting event, children playing, etc) then bring two if not then one should suffice. If the environment is not a place we want to change a lens (windy, sandy, dusty, etc) then bring two with the lenses attached that will most likely be used. Most times one camera is fine.

Now to the flashes. If you need them bring them if you don't then don't. If people indoors or in shaded areas are the subject being them though. There are so many times that a fast lens doesn't suffice in those situations.

I will be adding a picture soon of typical packing for different situations.

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

Equipment: Lenses

Good Evening,

We haven't really talked about primary equipment. It probably should have been done before filters. Let's start with lenses. The camera lens focuses light onto the sensor through an assortment of different shaped lenses inside of it. The eye changes focus by changing the shape of the lens with small muscles and this is how we have such a wide range of focus, from around 6 inches in front of our eyes to infinity. Glass lenses can't, at this time, change shape like that so they change the distance between the pieces of glass for a similar effect. The aperture takes the place of the pupil, opening and closing to let more or less light in as the situation demands. The aperture affects the image as well with things such as bokeh and starbursts.

There are many types of lenses which can be broken down pretty far. I am trying something new with the blog, carousels. Click on the pictures to cycle though the images.

Below is the same shot of the moon at 11mm, 18mm, and 35mm.

Wide angle - used for landscapes, cityscapes, and interiors (this would also include ultra wide lenses). Depending on the person this is anything less than 35mm in crop sensor and 50mm in full frame there is wiggle room in those numbers though. There is a wide angle of view on these lenses, not as wide as the human eye though which is about 180 degrees if you have both eyes functioning. For example an 11mm lens on a crop sensor has 104 degree angle of view, a 35mm has 42 degree, and a 50mm has 32 degree.

Below is the moon at 50mm and 70mm.

Normal angle - used for portraits, general shooting. This focal length is more or less how the eye sees the world. If we open both eyes while looking though the view finder each eye will see everything about the same size. For full frame I always heard 50mm and I have heard the same for crop sensors too which doesn't make sense. I just picked up a full frame (FF) and crop sensor (crop) camera and found it to be around 50mm for the crop and 70mm or so for the FF. More or less anything between wide and telephoto.

Below is at 100mm and 300mm which is about a typical or so range for a telephoto zoom.

Telephoto lens - used for sports, wildlife, celestial events, aviation. This type of lens brings everything in close. On the lower focal end they have use in portrait photography and macro photography. The price that we pay to get far away object closer is we loose wide angle of view. As an example a 75-300mm lens has field of view range of 21 - 5 degrees on a crop. If we want a close up of a bird or the moon then we don't need those extra degrees though.

Then there are zooms and fixed. Fixed lenses can often have wider aperture, can cost less, and can be sharper. We have to have many of them though or decide to "zoom" with our feet. Zoom lenses cover many focal lengths, the downside is that they are usually more expensive, they might have apertures that aren't as wide, and less expensive ones might not be as sharp. We come to a point where we make a decision of one over the other and deal with the downsides. I have both zooms and fixed and take which ones I need on each outing that I feel will be suit me. Now lenses don't only have to fit into these boxes. A telephoto lens can be used for landscapes and a wide angle can be used for sports and celestial events. Be creative and see what works for each situation.

I feel that lenses are worth more of an investment than the camera. I have multiple lenses that are still functioning fine that were discontinued in the mid 80s. It was all film back then. If a lens is taken care of it will last longer than the camera it came with. We can get into specialty lenses at a later date. Now go out and shoot.