Night Photography - downtown Fort Lauderdale
In low light conditions the camera's light meter recommends a longer time to expose the sensor. With shutter speeds of 4 seconds, 2 seconds or even 1/15th second, handholding the camera produces extremely blurry photos. Therefore night photography requires a tripod or sturdy support to get acceptable images. Low light also requires flash in some cases. Before I took the series of photographs of downtown Fort Lauderdale, I made the conscious decision to use a tripod, use 2 second self-timer, use a slow shutter speed to capture light trails, set the camera to ISO 400 and to do without a flash. I used the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L lens set at 24mm. I used shutter-priority mode so I could control the shutter speeds and compare the effects. The camera automatically chose the aperture for an acceptable exposure. The shutter speed for this shot was .8 sec and the aperture was f/10. I did not use a flash because I wanted the image to look as close as possible to the scene I saw with my eyes. Flash would have washed out the foreground. Without the flash I was able to capture the "golden" street and the red light trails of cars moving away from the camera. In summary, this image was captured with a slow shutter speed of about 1 second, a tripod, no flash and the presence of vehicles moving away from the camera. Photographing the Clock Tower at Central Park (FL)
This image was captured around 3:00 pm in the afternoon. There was enough natural light so there was no need for flash lighting. The subject - the clock tower - was intriguing. I decided to capture all of it. To fill the frame I used a wide-angle lens, the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L. With the lens set at 43mm I was able to use a shutter of 1/400 second and handhold the camera without worrying about camera shake. The Sun was to the left of the clock tower providing a soft sidelighting under a partially cloudy sky. The default Evaluative metering was good enough under these conditions. I pointed the camera at an area of the tower that is neither too dark nor too light. With the camera set to Aperture Priority (Av) I took a few photographs at f/8.0, f/9.0 and f/11.0 to ensure most of the scene is sharp. A wider aperture (f/2.8, f/4.0) would have resulted in a smaller area of sharpness. I have a preference for ISO 400 and under for most scenes/subjects taken in daylight. I chose ISO 400 for this subject. While aligning the camera in the portrait mode, I pressed the camera firmly against my forehead, filled the frame with the clock tower and gently depressed the shutter button. ADDITIONAL NOTES Photographing a Beach Area at Snyder Park
Lighting condition is one of my primary concerns when taking a photograph. Is the light harsh? Is it "soft" or diffused? Will I be shooting in natural light or artificial light? Also taken into consideration is the type of lens to be used. Will I need a wide-angle lens to include most of the scene? Will I need a telephoto lens to capture an object or scene far away? What metering mode is best suited for my subject? What exposure setting is appropriate? Do I need a filter, a tripod and a backup memory card? To get a certain perspective, I consider whether its best to stand, kneel or get to a vantage point like a ladder, the back of a pick-up truck or a hill/slope. As I was entering Snyder Park, I noticed that the light was very good. It was not harsh nor was it dull. There were clouds in the sky that contributed to a pleasant diffused lighting. If the lighting was harsh I would have considered a neutral density filter to reduce the strong sunlight. I wanted to capture as much as this scene as possible so I decided to use a wide-angle lens. I own a Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L zoom lens and a Tamron SF AF17-50mm f/2.8 DiII zoom. On my Canon EOS 40D digital camera the Canon 24-70mm lens is effectively a 38-112mm lens. The Tamron lens was specifically made for a digital "crop" camera so 17mm field of view is just that, 17mm. I opted for the Tamron lens for this scene. I took most of the images of this scene while standing. A few were taken while kneeling and some from a high vantage point. The image I chose for this article was taken while standing and with my camera set to partial metering and Aperture Priority (Av) mode. For greater depth of field I used f/11. (The camera automatically set the shutter speed at 1/200 sec.) I also used a polarizer filter to give the blue sky a little "pop" and to cut glare from the surface of the water. Here are a few minor details to note. I did not use a tripod because a shutter speed of 1/200sec with a 17mm lens cancelled the effects of camera shake. However, I secured the camera against a palm tree to ensure the sharpest image possible. I metered off the sand and I pointed the camera at or near the first lifeguard station. During post processing I changed the White Balance from Auto to Daylight and changed Picture Style from Standard to Daylight. Camera settings
Photographing a Phone Booth
Looking at the scene I could have opted for a telephoto lens and stand back several feet. But there is no danger in getting close to this subject. (Getting close to a tiger would have been different.) So, I decided to use a wide angle lens and get close to the booth. I used a Tamron SF AF17-50mm f/2.8 lens set at 20mm. I took a meter reading from a part of the scene that's not too dark or too bright. I chose to meter off the grey concrete and the camera in Av (aperture priority) mode suggested 1/250 sec and f/8.0. I allowed the camera to set the ISO automatically at ISO 400. The booth is in the shade so I could have selected White Balance (WB) "Shade" but left it at "Daylight." I was shooting RAW which gives me the option of changing the WB while processing the image.
I wanted to fill the scene with a little light. So I decided to use my Canon 420 EX flash and set the camera to manual mode to control the exposure. The original exposure setting of 1/250 sec and f/8.0 was used to produce the image to the right. I is a bit overexposed but I consider it an acceptable image. Let's compare both images. At a glance the first image is dark while the second one is bright. There are many shadows in the first image. These shadows were reduced or eliminated by the flash as seen in the second image. The dark area just below the ceiling in the first image is not seen in the second image. Again this is due to the flash used to create the second image. I am not sure how Adobe PhotoShop or a similar software could have brighten the first image. I prefer to get the shot right the first time if possible and depend less on softwware manipulation. For me the fun is in capturing the image rather than "fixing it up" with a software. Photographing an Iguana
When you are photographing an animal, getting the eye(s) in sharp focus improves the image greatly. This is much better than pointing the camera at the animal with the central focus point covering the mid-section of the animal. For animal photography you normally need a telephoto lens like 200mm or 300mm, since getting close is either dangerous or will scare the animal away. For this iguana image I used my Canon 70-200mm f4L lens set at 104mm. The distance between my camera and the iguana was about 10 feet (3 metres). This allowed me to fill the frame and get a very good view of the animal's head. I was hand-holding my camera so I decided to use a fast shutter-speed to get a sharp image. I opted for 1/500 sec to cancel out the effects of camaera shake. Camera settings
Click here to see a large image of the iguana's head. (This image is about 1 MegaBytes in size.) |
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