Bracketing Those Shots

Round Bales in the Field

Lately, I have changed my photography process. It started when I discovered that Magic Lantern was available for my Canon 60D. For those wondering what that is, think of a firmware add-on which extends the capabilities of your camera. Near and dear to my heart, it is open source software that the camera reads from the memory card as it starts up, so no concerns about "bricking" my camera ! More importantly, it has added a host of options that I am really starting to enjoy using.

The default Canon firmware has a setting called "Auto Bracket", which allows the photographer to set up a three-shot bracket around the optimal exposure, and the photographer then sets the number of EV (in 1/3 stop increments) between captures. With Magic Lantern, the photographer has a lot more control - either choosing how many shots in the bracket manually, or letting the software determine what it needs in-camera.

On the back end, Lightroom CC has the ability to take the bracketed shots and merge them into one, creating an HDR-style photograph without all of the weird side-effects. There is also a nifty function called "anti-ghosting" which will attempt to eliminate any elements that occur in one of the frames but not all of them - like a truck or bird passing through the frame !

So all the way through, my choices have encouraged me to create bracketed photos, which bring out an added feeling of depth and warmth. These various functions, when properly mixed, have made complex techniques very straight-forward, allowing me to concentrate on the composition more. And that I where I know I need to focus more of my attention !

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Project365 - Wildlife Photography

Introduction

Wildlife photography can be an especially challenging, and therefore rewarding genre within photography. Depending on your subject, you could traipse all over the world in search of an elusive "prey". Then, a skilled photographer needs to understand his subject's behaviours - where do they live? What do they eat? When are they most active ? Understanding the animal's behaviour is key to capturing compelling photographs.

We have been busy with moving (hence so few posts lately - sorry !) and the new house has a beautiful backyard, with trees & shrubs. Further, it is secluded away from any high-traffic streets, making it calm & peaceful - a perfect venue for photographing birds !

I will readily admit - I cheated ! I hung a couple of bird-feeders to attract the local "cheep cheeps". It gave me the ability to get them relatively stationary, as well as attracting a variety of different kinds of birdies.

The Setup

I set my Canon 60D on top of my Manfrotto tripod. The feeder is at the back of the yard, so I wanted all the stability I could get - I even used the shutter-release cable ! Then, in order to get nice & tight, I mounted my Canon 70-200mm f/4 L series lens, but I fronted it with a Canon 1.4X TeleConverter. Some fast math makes it: 200mm X 1.4 (the TC) X 1.6 (the crop factor for the APS-C sensor). That comes out with an effective lens length of 448mm of telephoto goodness.

At that length, camera shake is a real concern. I had already physically stabilized the camera with the tripod, but just to be safe, I made sure to shoot at no less than 1/400 of a second. I didn't want to create any bokeh effects, or worry about Depth of Field issues, so I set up at f/11. In order to achieve decent exposures, I ran the ISO up to 2000 !

Finally, because it is getting chilly out, I elected to stay indoors. Shooting through a window means you have to be careful with reflections & dirty windows, but we made out OK. See for your self !

The Photos

I took about 30 exposures, and kept about half. Of those, there were really only half a dozen which caught my eye. Here they are, for your enjoyment:

I apologize, but I know almost nothing about birds. This fancy little red fellow caught my eye right away !

 

This handsome pair stayed for most of the 30 minute shoot. Perhaps they knew they were being photographed ?

 

 

The little red fellow took turns keeping watch as the other birds ate.

 

 

 

 

W.C. fields made a name for himself & referred to all women as "my little chickadee !" .

See what I mean ? That little fellow kept a silent vigil for the other birds...

 

Finally, he came and are himself, after all the other little birdies ate !

 

 

 

 

Lessons Learned

This was a straight-forward shoot. I would have liked to capture the birdies as they landed, perhaps if I drove up the shutter speed, I might capture some fantastic wing-action ! Next time... The feeders aren't going anywhere... ;-)

 

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Project365 - Freddie & Mercury

Introduction

I saw some works of a fellow who had taken some stunning images of Betta fish (sometimes called a Siamese Fighting Fish). Since we have a Betta and a Dwarf African Frog (Freddie & Mercury), I though I would see what I could come up with.

 

The Setup

Camera - Canon 60D, Lens - Canon 24-105mm f/4 L series, Flash - Canon 430EX II, Transmitter - Cactus V5

The shoot had a coupe of challenges. First the fish tank is a tall cylinder of glass, so the light bends tremendously ! Second, the glass is highly polished, making it very reflective, so I had to be careful with where I could place the remote flash.

The Photos

The tank, bathed in reflected light from behind. Freddie is foraging for food at the bottom of the tank.

Mercury lazing at the bottom of the tank. I'm quite sure he didn't know what to make of the flash.

While Freddie is facing away from the camera, I'm impressed by the detail in the tail fins.

 

Freddie, seen from above. His scales are luminous in the light !

Lessons Learned

The challenge with this shoot was in the lighting. I couldn't place the flash too far to one side or the other, as it would simply refract into the camera lens. Also, the subject do NOT take instruction well, so it became an exercise in patience. The bonus idea was to feed them, which made them a little more animated.

 

Project 365 - Doing It Manually

As you no doubt recall, I am embarking on a new project. Called a 365 Project, the object of the exercise is to shoot new photographs every day. With most projects, they tend to follow a theme. Mine is a little different, in that I want to use the project for two purposes:

1) to make the basic techniques of photography second nature

2) to allow me to spend more time thinking about composition than technique

With out further ado, here's my first day's offerings:

This is Sandy. She doesn't seem too impressed. It's a simple shot, using my wide-angle lens, using her eyes as the focal point.

This is also Sandy. You can see Annie in the background.

 

 

This is Pat's beautiful Christmas Cactus, in full bloom, enjoying a sunny window. The following shots are "macro-style" - the best I can do without an actual macro lense.

Here is a bud, as seen almost in the centre of the photograph above. You can see the extremely narrow depth of field. The only way to get the whole bulb in focus is to use a post-processing method called "focus stacking". I don't like to do much in post, as it seems to be "cheating" to me...

Here's the same bulb, from the other side. I managed to capture a little more detail of the forming petals in the bulb.

Here is a photo of the stamen of the flower. You can't really make it out on the first picture, as it is so tiny. I took this using a 24mm extension tube in front of my 40mm prime lens.

 

And that's the end of my first day's offering. I hope you continue to check in regularly on my 365 Project. Hopefully, you'll see some improvement !

 

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