A few rules applied

This morning, I shot a product introduction: Samsung’s NX-20 point-and-shoot camera. Here’s one shot:

For a shot like this, a few things need to come together.

  • Composition: Filling the frame, and using the rule of Thirds.
  • Exposure: Right for the balloon, and hopefully for the sky – in this case, both, because I poisitioned myself right w.r.t. the light
  • Moment: the moment the flame is visible is the moment to shoot.

Remember that a photo is a combination of light-subject-moment. Get all three and you have a worthwhile snap. A good subject certainly helps – but it is not enough.

 

Of blurry backgrounds and slow lenses

Slow lenses? For blurry backgrounds?

Yes, you can create blurred backgrounds even with slow lenses – an f/1.4 lens is great, but even an f/8 lens can give you blurry backgrounds.

How?

By zooming in (using a long focal length lens) or getting close.

Very close. Look at this shot taken at f/8.0:

Not bad, eh. Taken with my Fuji X100 in macro mode-  very close. So yes, you can do blurred background as long as you get close to your subject, relative to the background. Remember that, next time you are regretting not having an f/1.4 lens and having to do with an f/5.6 lens.

 

Outdoors Light

Outdoors, a flash, a powerful one, will often make good images into great images. Because you can make the background darker:

Here’s how we took a shot at a creative light workshop last year:

Which leads to this shot:

As always:

  1. Get the background right first; remember to keep the shutter speed below your maximum flash sync speed (like 1/250th sec).
  2. Then add flash.
  3. Set the flash power to the aperture you have gotten to in step 1.

Really simple, no? Provided that you have a powerful enough flash to overpower the sun, of course.

 

 

 

Shot of the day

Here’s my Picture of the Day, taken last night:

For a picture like this, what are the challenges?

First and foremost: to get the exposure right for the candles, while still keeping the room dark. The usual “flash only” setting of 100 ISO, 1/125th sec, f/5.6 will not work: the candles would be dark. Too wide open, and the entire room would be bright. You have the find the right “in between” setting: in my case, 1/30th sec at f/5.6, 400 ISO. Room lights were dimmed slightly, to avoid dark areas from becoming light.

Second, to avoid flash hitting the entire room. I fitted the single flash, an off-camera 580EX, with a Honlphoto 1/4″ grid. This lit up the side of the model, and the centre of the floor, only. (You can work out where the flash is by seeing where the shadows converge.)

Third, to aim the flash correctly. This is of course a matter of taste: I like side lighting to emphasize round shapes (the arm, leg, and toes in this picture).

Finally, to get the flash to the right level of brightness. I used TTL with flash compensation, though normally I would have used manual flash power setting for a creative flash shot like this.

Try a shot like this, if you are up to the challenge!


Prime primer

Again, a word about prime lenses, i.e. “non-zoom” lenses. I have said it before and it needs saying again.

Until the 1980s we used primarily prime lenses. Today, we use quality zooms – but quality or not, pros still use primes in many cases. I uses prime lenses whenever I can. Here’s why:

The main points for me are the lens speed – f/1.4 is better than f/2.8 as a maximum aperture – the sharpness, and the consistency of my shots. Zooms lead to laziness, while primes enforce discipline!

So if you only have zooms, then today get yourself a fast prime – a 24, 35 or 50mm lens perhaps – and go shoot some cool shots with that. On a crop camera, use 24 for events, 35 for general purpose, and 50 for portraits.

 

Crop factors

If you use a “crop factor” camera, one with a smaller sensor than a 35mm negative, you need to use smaller lens focal lengths to achieve the traditional effect a lens gives you with a 35mm sensor or negative. Like so:

So to get a “standard 50mm picture”, use a 35mm lens if you have a Digital Rebel, say (an “APS-C sensor” camera, which is the common size). And so on. You may want to copy down this table!

 

 

IOU

Busy times here at Speedlighter Central… I owe you a couple of posts. They’ll come late today… meanwhile: shoot manual today.

Remember the “Sunny Sixteen” rule if  you are outside, or the Willems 4-4-4- rule if you are shooting indoors with flash.

Sunny Sixteen

You have heard me talk about the “Sunny Sixteen” rule before. This is a rule of thumb that says:

If your shutter speed is set to 1/ISO (e.g. 125 ISO at 1/125th sec, or 400 ISO at 1/400th sec), then on a fully sunny day at noon, f/16 will give you the right exposure.

Like this, at f/16:

And if it is not sunny?

f/16 Sunny Distinct
f/11 Slight Overcast Soft around edges
f/8 Overcast Barely visible
f/5.6 Heavy Overcast No shadows
f/4 Open Shade/Sunset No shadows

(Source: Wikipedia)

This rule is a rule of thumb, so feel fre to vary – I often expose two thirds of a stop higher – but since the sun is always the same brightness, it holds well. And it is nice to be able to expose without light meters, if only in order to be able to check your camera.

Bonus question: how do you expose the moon?

Answer: f/16. The moon at noon is as bright as the earth at noon- they are the same distance from the sun!

 

 

Need an intern?

An off-topic post, for which you will forgive me!

Many of my readers are in business, perhaps even as engineers. Hence my question: if anyone in the Oakville, Ontario area needs an intern for the summer, consider my son Jason. He is an Electrical Engineering student, in his final year at McGill university, and is home in Oakville for the summer. Resumé on request – he is experienced, having worked at various companies before. Let me know – email if you are interested in seeing his resumé: michael@mvwphoto.com