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| Round Bales in the Field |
Pat bought some simple sunflowers for the table yesterday. As I was getting out of bed, and fumbling for my first coffee, I couldn't help but notice how beautifully the morning sun was coming in through the dining room window. So, after a quick caffeine break, I grabbed my camera.
The scene could be set in so many ways - I could've arranged the flowers & draped a sheet or towel to create a neutral background, so the flowers were the focal point. But I decided to do what I could in-camera. No tricks, just pure photography.
This is the first image I took. It is dark in all the wrong places, and it almost looks like the vase full of stems was the focal point. But this is how it looked when I noticed the warm vibrancy of the sunlight. And look at the shadows on the apples - I really love the sense of depth.
This is the same image, gently re-touched. I'm not a huge fan of overdoing post-processing. I believe that the best photos happen in the first 2" behind the camera - the photographer's eye.
The image I captured has been cropped to 16X9, because I love the feel of that aspect ratio. I brought the exposure up about 2/3 of a stop, and played a little with the blacks & whites.
Some may feel that the vase now looks blown out, and that is OK. I like how it looks. The apples still have a nice sense of depth, but more of their colours are showing.
I could have messed with the saturation of colours in the flowers & stems. I could have, but I didn't. They have wonderful tonality (really... I did just say that !) that also gives them depth.
Rule of thirds, golden ratio, bah ! A nice, simple capture of something that caught my eye first thing in the morning.
It truly was the "golden hour".
It's truly a simple effect involving the use of flash (or sometimes called strobe) photography. Cameras have a maximum speed with which they can sync with the flash to achieve a nicely lit picture, it's usually around 1/250th of a second. Keeping that portion of the exposure triangle still, we next dial down the ISO (the sensitivity of the CCD) to 100. The only thing left that is adjustable is the aperture. All we do is close that down until a picture taken in the ambient light is completely black. Now, anything lit up by the flash will be nicely lit, while the background remains black.
The Setup
Nothing really complicated the Canon 60D, set at f/16, ISO 100, and a shutter speed of 1/250th of a second. The Cactus v5 was mounted in the hotshoe, so I could use the Canon 430EX II off-camera. I placed it on a basic tripod with the other Cactus v5, so I could move the light & the camera around freely.
The Photos
Believe it or not, this is a photo of Pat's flowers on the dining room table. I was setting the ISO, Aperture and shutter speed to get a black background. Got it !
Whoops ! The flash was spilling onto the background too much, so I elected to put a snoot on the flash, to more tightly focus the beam.
That's better ! Although you will notice the pen & paper on the tabletop still show up faintly. Now to play around a bit... ;-)
The first few pictures weren't as bright as I would have liked, so they came out a little dull. Time to up the power of the flash a notch, and move the light stand a little closer !
Much better ! I like the contrast created by the various petals on the flowers.
I think this is one of my favorite photographs of the shoot...
Lessons Learned
I thought I really understood this technique, but now with a little better tutorial, I think I know how to nail it whenever I need it. Certainly, implementing the snoot helped narrow the beam, and moving the light stand over to one side helped with not lighting the background. I really like this technique & see myself using it for portrait work.
The Setup
I shoot with a Canon 60D, and today opted to shoot with my Canon 40mm f/2.8. It has a nice wide aperture, allowing lots of light onto the sensor. I mated it with a 12mm extension tube, to allow me to get a little closer. The whole rig was mounted on a Manfrotto tripod, and I chose to go off-camera with my Canon 430EX II flash using a pair of Cactus v5 triggers.
Here's what the shot started off as. Later I chose to add the external light to accentuate the blooms.
The Photos
Whoops ! I totally blew out the photo by setting the flash at full power with a wide (28mm) beam. Let's try that again ! (Neat effect, though)
Better, but I still have too much light at 1/8 power. It blows out the left side, while creating a strange white rim on the right side. Once more...
I dialled down the power to 1/32, but the flash is showing up in the corner. I didn't see it when I shot it, but it is definitely there !
This is much better. The flash is low-power, and behind the bloom. It makes the flower positively glow ! I tried to balance the aperture so that the leaves in the background were blurry, while most of the bloom (the stamen is the focal point) is in-focus.
Lessons Learned
I am learning more about studio setup. Using my tripod, flash, triggers and shutter release to create visually interesting images is actually a lot of fun ! I wonder if Pat would let me convert one of the kids rooms into a studio ?!? =D
The Setup
I decided that I wanted to get closer, so that the blooms filled the frame. Similar to macro photography, I wanted to capture as much of the colour of the blooms as possible. So I outfitted my Canon 60D with my Canon 40mm f/2.8 Prime lens, and augmented it with 12mm extension tube. I shot handheld, so I could move around the vase at will, and used the ambient light as my only source. I started with the aperture wide open, and the ISO at 500, to create a very blurry background, and still allow me to dial up the shutter speed so as to eliminate camera shake.
The Photos
I love the way the open aperture creates a nice, blurry background, so the eye focuses on the bloom. I even managed a little bokeh in the background !
The soft lighting from the windows makes the delicate pink blooms appear to glow.
This photo underscores the issue of having the aperture setting too wide open. The depth of field is so narrow that the petals appear to be soft & blurry as well. Probably should have opened up a little to say f4 or f5.6
Lessons Learned
There IS such a thing as too narrow a depth of field. It made the shots a little fuzzier than I wanted. While I achieved my goal of creating much more colourful photos of the tulips for Pat, I am not overly pleased with the output. But that's why this project exists - to build experience and practice my craft !
Pat really loves tulips. Since we are able to get cut tulips relatively I expensively, we have agreed that they make a nice addition to our table. And since it's too darn cold outside to shoot, it's time to practice some strobism. You know, using my flash to provide extra lighting ?
The Setup
The table has excellent lighting, owing to the bay windows. It's a bright sunny day out, and we often have to close the blinds partway to keep from getting overwhelmed by the sunlight ! I know, nice problem to have... So this shoot has the vase about two feet in front of the partially-closed blinds. From there, I set up my Canon 60D on a Manfrotto tripod, with the trusty 25-105mm f/4 L lens. I also used the Cacyus v5 transmitters to take the Canon 430EX flash off the body. I wanted to experiment with different lighting strengths & positions.
The Photos
I took about 25 photos. They have the flash in various positions, and in varying strengths. Like the camera, I operate my flash in fully manual mode as well.
This first image was the test-shot. I set my aperture, ISO & shutter speed to create a "perfect exposure. As you can see, the lighting from the window is beautifully exposed, but the flowers & vase are dark. We need a "fill" light.
The second image has too much flash ! Set at 1/8 power, the flash is overwhelming the shot, creating harsh shadows in the leaves.
In the third shot, I have dialled back the flash to 1/16th, which is better, but still a little strong for my tastes.
This fourth shot has the powers knocked back to 1/32 strength, but I also moved the placement of the flash. The colours are still nice & bright, without overwhelming the scene.
In this final shot, I moved the flash further away, dialled it back up to 1/16 power, and have it at almost 90 degrees (on the left side) of the flowers. I think the lighting is OK, but not nearly as dramatic as the fourth shot.
Lessons Learned
I have a lot to learn about studio shooting. And this was shot with only two light sources - the ambient light from the windows and a fill flash. In the future, I'd like to pick up another flash to do multi-plane lighting. I also kept the setup really simple - no reflectors or other mods. About the only mod used was a diffuser on my flash to soften the fill lighting, which I included after the second shot.
Tonight, as I drove home from the hockey game (Calgary Hitmen beat the Kootenay Ice 4-2 ! ), we noticed how thick the ice fog was getting. As we got closer to home, we saw how the fog was causing ice crystals on the trees. Here are some photos I took of one of the trees.
The amber lighting of the street lamps makes this series look like the old sepia-tinted black & white photos from the turn of the century.
Each branch is finely lit by the overhead streetlight, accenting the shapes of the individual branches.
This is my favourite from the evening.
My friend Maggie has asked me how I will learn from the Project365 will help my photography. These images are technically fine. A nice balance of Aperture, ISO & shutter speed rendered what I consider to be vaguely romantic photos. What did I learn this evening ? To stop and shoot the wondrous beauty when & where I see it.
In this image, I was struck by how many shades of green were visible. And then I started seeing the yellow hues, too ! The composition is nothing to write home about, but I love how well my 40mm prime lens picked up the subtle shading.
This is the same plant, but from a different angle. The very large aperture really creates a visible depth of field - you can see that not all the leaves are in focus. My hope was that it would have an entirely different look & feel. It does, and it doesn't. Personally, I'm not sure I like this picture !
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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| Calla Lily |
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| Calla Lily #2 |
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| Calla Lily #3 |
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| Calla Lily #1 |
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| Calla Lily #4 |
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