Getting the shot is not always easy in low light (sun was setting) and fast action.  Setting the camera on continuous focus is a must. First of all, it is nearly impossible to manually focus on a fast moving object like a bird in flight. You must pan the camera with the flight pattern of the bird. To add to the complication is the fact the the camera is zoomed out to 200mm. I shot these at 160 second at f/5.6.  This was fast enough to stop the action to an extent with enough depth of field to keep most of the large birds in focus.

Technorati Tags: low light, lighting, action, photo, photography, depth of field, sunset, wildlife, birds

Getting mobile with heavy studio lighting gear is no easy task. Studio strobes, heavy duty light stands, along with cords and other related equipment can be an unwieldy amount of gear to take on location.

However, going the “strobist” route, all of your lighting gear can fit into a single bag. You are mobile with your lighting.

The Strobist setup is the way to go. Here is what you’ll need for a one light setup:

• Hot shoe flash
• Lightweight light stand
• Umbrella swivel
• White umbrella
• Miniphone to miniphone cord
• Hot shoe universal translator
• 2- Pocket Wizard II transceivers (optional if you go “wired” and use a long miniphone to miniphone cord - your flash will have to have a female jack on it)

Here is a two light setup:

Here is the sort of photo you can get from this setup:

In addition to the strobist setup, you can obviously use the hot shoe flash with an off camera bracket for other lighting situations. The two light setup only take minutes to setup and minutes to take down. It all fits in a baseball bat, or large tripod  bag.  For more details on strobist lighting, check out the Strobist Blog.

You can purchase the whole kit and caboodle at Midwest Photo Exchange  if you are starting from scratch.

Technorati Tags: strobist, studio lighting, lighting, lights, photography, photos, location, portable

What is exposure? There are 2 parts involved in exposing your camer’s digital sensor to light.  The first is the intensity of the light and the second is the period of time the light is exposed to the sensor.

The calculation is Exposure= intensity x time.

The f stop or aperture is the iris in the lens that allows a measured amount of light to reach the sensor. This f stop is determined mathematically by the size of the iris opening of the lens, the lenses focal length, and the dimensions of the sensor.  Each of the f-stops either doubles or halves the amount of light allowed through the lens. Camera lenses these days are calibrated into thirds of a stop, such as 4, 4.5, 5, 5.6, 6.3, 7.1, 8. This divides each stop into thirds.  F4 means that basically the hole on the lens is ¼ the length of the lens.  F8 means the hole in the lens is 1/8 the length of the lens.  An f-stop is a factor and the divisor of a fraction.

One of the ambiguous parts of f-stops is the larger the number the smaller the opening. For instance, a hole that is 1/8th the length of the lens is smaller than a hole that is ¼ the length of the lens.

The other part of an exposure is the amount of time that the film is exposed. The longer the shutter is open, the longer the light has to reach the light sensor, the shorter the shutter is open, the less time there is to expose the sensor. The lens measures and focuses the light the camera opens and closes the shutter and stores the image.

Today’s camera shutters are now calibrated in thirds of a stop so you have shutter speeds like 1/30, 1/40, 1/50, 1/60, 1/80, 1/100, and 1/125th of a second.  Now the reason both f stops and shutter speeds are broken down into thirds of a stop is to allow for a more accurate exposure.

There is a relationship between f-stops and shutter speeds. Each full f-stop either halves or doubles the amount of light entering the camera and each full shutter speed stop either halves or doubles the amount of time of the exposure.  Modern cameras automatically do this for you.  It is possible to have the same exposure with a variety of different f stops and shutter speeds depending on what effect you want to achieve. In aperture priority, changing the f stop automatically changes the shutter speed for a proper exposure; conversly, in shutter speed priority, changing the shutter speed will automatically change the f stop for a proper exposure.  You don’t have to manually change both factors of an exposure with today’s cameras. New photographers have a hard time understanding the relationship.

If the camera automatically does automatically, why should you care what your f stop or shutter speed is? Shutter speeds stop action or blur it depending on how fast or slow of a speed you use.  Aperture controls depth of field (how much of an area in your photo is in focus). You use this to isolate subjects with a soft background or create images that are perfectly sharp near and far.  Knowledge of depth of field (f-stops) and shutter speed give you much more control over your camera. Letting the camera decide is like rolling the dice, you may or may not get what you want.

To stop action you have to use a fast shutter speed and lose some depth of field. Each time you use a faster shutter speed, which cuts the length of time the film is exposed to light, you need to open up the aperture to let more light in to get a proper exposure.  If you want everything in your photograph to be sharp you use a small aperture (high number). In these situations, you may nee4d to use a tripod because the slower shutter speed is needed for a proper exposure. This is because little light is being allowed to pass through the lens you need to slow down the shutter speed to allow the sensor in your DLSR to be exposed for a longer time period.

I finally have made headway on getting my photo studio space in order. Ultimately, I would love to have more space - lots of space…but alas, it is not to be so at this time. However, as in all design situations, there are limitations, constraints, and parameters that have to be worked within. That is always the challenge and challenges are to be met head on.  In my case, I am using the “bonus” room of the house which had been built into the lines of the roof structure, so there are diagonal wall sections running from the vertical to the horizontal ceiling.

I have the tabletop setup for a closeup shot here. I am using one Lowell Ego light and a 300ws Alien Bees strobe head fitted with a snoot for the shot.  I have the softbox fitted with a 600ws Alien Bees strobe head with counterbalance arm attached to make the overall scene shot (above).

Here is the final shot using this setup:

MACRO PHOTO: The classical definition is that the subject projected on the “film plane” or digital sensor is approximately the same size as the subject. Recently, it has been used in advertising as a camera that is able to focus on a subject so that when a 4×6″ print is made, the subject fills the print (or larger).  I have decided that using the term “close-up” doesn’t have to explain itself like the term “macro” does. In either case, it is photography that captures more detail than we are normally used to seeing with our eyes without the aid of an optical device. Generally, the two terms are somewhat interchangeable; however, purists will go on and on about the differences between them.  Semantics have always been a moot point.

Someone recently asked about extension tubes and I created a brief entry on the subject. I also wrote an article relating to DSLR exposure modes.  Displayed below are image comparisons of shots made with macro lenses and extension tubes.  I used a Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens with the extension tubes  for simplicity’s sake.  I also took several shots using Nikon 105mm and 60mm prime lenses. The idea is to give an idea of the differences by using visual comparisons.  Although this project was not an extremely controlled setup, the criteria was to get as close as I could to the subject, in this case, playing cards, and focus on them. I used several different f-stops and their related shutter speeds.  The extension tubes render the aperture adjustment useless. So when taking closeup shots using the extension tubes, the only critical factors are shutter speed and focus.  The shots will be explained as you scroll down the screen; however, I started with the 105mm micro lens, attached all of the extension tubes with the 50mm lens, and finally, several shots using the 60mm macro lens with various aperture openings.

This shot above shows that at an aperture opening of F/9, the top half of the image is out of focus. Using a smaller aperture like f/22 would make more of the image in focus.

As you can see in this image, stacking all of the extension tubes really gets you close to your subject. Even with good lighting (daylight corrected fluorescent), the exposure time is rather long at 1/4 of a second. A tripod and remote shutter release is necessary to remove as much movement as possible.  In addition, you have to be careful to not move the camera/tripod as the focus point can be lost with only a fraction of inch of movement.

In this project, I connected a laptop to the D70 via USB and was running Nikon Camera Control software. This allows changing settings without touching the camera.  In addition, I have the camera powered with an AC/Adapter charger (EH-5) which allows me to forget about battery charge life during the session.

Extension tubes have no optics. They merely create distance between the camera’s sensor and the lens. The further the lens is from the camera’s sensor, the more the lens is forced to focus much closer to the subject. Since the distance is increased as more of the tubes are added, the exposure time has to be increased to compensate for this added length.

The next image is a crop of the full sized image with no reduction.  Obviously, all the other images have been reduced for browser display.

The image above was made the same as the last; however, the 36m extension tube was taken off the stack and the shutter speed was increased to 1/5 of a second.

The above image was taken with the 12mm extension tube coupled with the 50mm lens. This is the last shot using the extension tubes. Note that the depth of field is not as critical when the subject is shot head-on. This changes when shooting at an angle and across the plane.

The photo above compared to the one below show the effects of aperture size variations. The image point of focus was at the top of the card. In the photo above the aperture is set to f/9 and the foreground is out-of-focus. The 50mm lens is consider the lens that is closest to what the human eye sees.

The image above has the same setup as the previous image, but the aperture size was set to f/22 giving a greater depth of field. Noticed that the foreground is now in focus as well as the top portion of the photo.

The Nikon 60mm  macro (Nikon calls it Micro) lens creates tack sharp images. This image was taken at the closest focus point that I could manage to give an idea of what a photo looks like when you move the camera and lens in as close to the subject as possible. The following images were taken at an angle to emphasize the effects of varying the aperture size - f-stop.

This photo is relatively sharp across the plane. You can see a blurring effect moving up toward the top of the image. The following images will show how the depth of field decreases as the aperture opening increases.

Notice in this final image that the depth of field is so narrow at f/8 that the queen’s nose and mouth are all that are in focus.

Depth of field will allow you to emphasize specific areas in your photograph while making others nearly indistinguishable.

As you can tell from the images, it takes a lot of setup time as well as trial and error to get good images using extension tubes.  Good macro lenses are much easier to use when making close-ups.  However, they are much more expensive.

The 105mm macro lens is very useful for taking photos of skittish things like insects. It also works will as a portrait lens. The 105mm macro lens can focus as close as 1 foot from the subject.  The 60mm focuses as close as 1 7/8″ from the subject for 1:1 (meaning the subject is the same size on the photo sensor as it is in real life. Generally speaking, the shorter the focal length, the less expensive the lens.

The Nikon 60mm and the 105mm lenses are prime lenses. This means that they are a fixed focal length and will not “zoom”.  They are also “fast lenses“.  The speed of a lens is in reference to the maximum size of the opening of the iris in a lens or the minimum “f” number.   Both the 60mm and the 105mm Nikon micro lenses are considered fast lenses as they can open up to f/2.8.  The Nikon 50mm f/1.8 is an even faster lens.

Technorati Tags: macro, micro, closeup, close-up, nikon, lenses, extension tubes, aperture, shutter speed, exposure

What is exposure? There are 2 parts involved in exposing your camer’s digital sensor to light.  The first is the intensity of the light and the second is the period of time the light is exposed to the sensor.

Exposure= intensity x time

The f stop or aperture is the iris in the lens that allows a measured amount of light to reach the sensor. This f stop is determined mathematically by the size of the iris opening of the lens, the lenses focal length, and the dimensions of the sensor.  Each of the f-stops either doubles or halves the amount of light allowed through the lens. Camera lenses these days are calibrated into thirds of a stop, such as 4, 4.5, 5, 5.6, 6.3, 7.1, 8. This divides each stop into thirds.  F4 means that basically the hole on the lens is ¼ the length of the lens.  F8 means the hole in the lens is 1/8 the length of the lens.  An f-stop is a factor and the divisor of a fraction.

One of the ambiguous parts of f-stops is the larger the number the smaller the opening. For instance, a hole that is 1/8th the length of the lens is smaller than a hole that is ¼ the length of the lens.

The other part of an exposure is the amount of time that the film is exposed. The longer the shutter is open, the longer the light has to reach the light sensor, the shorter the shutter is open, the less time there is to expose the sensor. The lens measures and focuses the light the camera opens and closes the shutter and stores the image.

Today’s camera shutters are now calibrated in thirds of a stop so you have shutter speeds like 1/30, 1/40, 1/50, 1/60, 1/80, 1/100, and 1/125th of a second.  Now the reason both f stops and shutter speeds are broken down into thirds of a stop is to allow for a more accurate exposure.

There is a relationship between f-stops and shutter speeds. Each full f-stop either halves or doubles the amount of light entering the camera and each full shutter speed stop either halves or doubles the amount of time of the exposure.  Modern cameras automatically do this for you.  It is possible to have the same exposure with a variety of different f stops and shutter speeds depending on what effect you want to achieve. In aperture priority, changing the f stop automatically changes the shutter speed for a proper exposure; conversly, in shutter speed priority, changing the shutter speed will automatically change the f stop for a proper exposure.  You don’t have to manually change both factors of an exposure with today’s cameras. New photographers have a hard time understanding the relationship.

If the camera automatically does automatically, why should you care what your f stop or shutter speed is? Shutter speeds stop action or blur it depending on how fast or slow of a speed you use.  Aperture controls depth of field (how much of an area in your photo is in focus). You use this to isolate subjects with a soft background or create images that are perfectly sharp near and far.  Knowledge of depth of field (f-stops) and shutter speed give you much more control over your camera. Letting the camera decide is like rolling the dice, you may or may not get what you want.

To stop action you have to use a fast shutter speed and lose some depth of field. Each time you use a faster shutter speed, which cuts the length of time the film is exposed to light, you need to open up the aperture to let more light in to get a proper exposure.  If you want everything in your photograph to be sharp you use a small aperture (high number). In these situations, you may nee4d to use a tripod because the slower shutter speed is needed for a proper exposure. This is because little light is being allowed to pass through the lens you need to slow down the shutter speed to allow the sensor in your DLSR to be exposed for a longer time period.

Technorati Tags: exposure, f-stop, shutter speed, camera, DLSR, modes

Someone recently asked whether extension tubes are worth the expense. My short answer is YES.

For around $100, you can get “several’ lenses in one set. The Kenko extension tube set comes in 12, 20, and 36mm tubes. All of which can be interlocked and create a full 70mm. You can put any two, all three, or each one between your camera and the lens that you choose.  Although these are sold as autofocus, it is near useless as your camera will probably “hunt” when trying to gain focus.  It has been my experience that using manual focus is the only reliable way to achieve satisfactory results.

Macro photography inherently has a very narrow depth of field.  Extension tubes add to the light “fall off” as well and unless you are using additional lighting, such as a macro flash ring, or other lighting device, the exposures will be rather long.

The photo above illustrates how narrow the depth of field can be.  On the other hand, the photo above almost has that “Lensbaby” look to it.

The fun part, in my opinion, it that you can use it with any lens in your toolkit.  There are Kenko extension tubes for Nikon and Canon mounts.  This is a great way to get into macro (or actually close up) photography for much less than the cost of a true macro lens.   Along with the extension tubes, you’ll need a tripod and a remote shutter release mechanism (or the internal time) because the exposures can be quite long. With the extreme narrow depth of field, even the slightest movement can render an image highly blurred.  On top of that, you will have to be very patient as it takes a lot of setup to get good images.

Technorati Tags: macro, micro, closeup, lens, extension tubes, photos, photography

Another piece done in Corel Painter

Technorati Tags: corel painter, photo, photography, images, digital, alterations, art

Here are a few points on small venue concert photography.  Here is the gear that I used:

• Nikon D70 w/50mm f/1.8 Nikon lens
• Nikon D80 w/70-200mm f/2.0 lens
• Domke F-2 camera bag (olive)
• Charged batteries in camera, extra in bag
• Extra memory cards (unless you have a large one - obviously we all have various gear and budgets)

Camera settings:

• 1600 ISO
• 1/60th second  - f/8 - set your camera to manual you can move the speed/aperture up and down as needed
• Single spot exposure setting - don’t use matrix it will throw things off
• Auto-focus on continuous - because the band is on the move

NOTES:

• Get close and move around
• Take lots of photos - many do not turn out and you don’t have time to check them on site

• Switch between the two camera/lenses
• Stay on the band and continue to look at them through the viewfinder
  • Look for group interaction
  • Look for expressions
  • Wait for exciting “build-ups” and then take the shots
• The reason that I mentioned the bag was because it does not raise any attention to itself. The shoulder strap allows you to sling it onver your shoulder and do whatever you need to do. The flap can be clipped op at will to allow you to easily switch cameras.

In my case in this shoot, the lights did not vary a great deal. The lighting stayed low and there were few times the band was well lit. I had to wait for the occasional times when the lights “were up”. In my case this was rare.

Post Processing:

• Backup everything to disc right off the bat
•  Mark all of your shots with stars (I use Adobe Bridge).
• Select all of the 3-4 stars or more shots
• You’ll most probably need to run filters to reduce the noise
  • Noise -> Reduce Noise
  • I set my strength at 10, reduce color noise 100%, sharpen details 15%, and set the preserve details based on the image

These are not hard rules, just the ones that I used; however, you WILL need to reduce the noise level.  I do not own Noise Ninja, and you may have this filter/software. I have heard it works very well.  Since these images will end up online, it is not that critical.  Should you make prints, you’ll have to take extra special care as the noise will be much more apparent at full size.

On a final note, using a flash unit won’t work very well in this setting. First of all, if you take a lot of shots, which you should, the flash will drive everyone (in and out of the band) crazy and you will be irritating. Secondly, flash lit shots don’t give the look that you want, which is a natural, “what you really see” look to the images.

Technorati Tags: concert, photography, photos, small venue, music, night, images, imagery, photoshop, reduce noise

105mm 1/25 Sec  f/6.3

 
105 mm 1/30th f/16

Technorati Tags: closeup, macro, nikon, 105mm, Nikkor, lens, mouse, photo, photograph