Juxtapose!

What I mean, in today’s tip, is this: your pictures look interesting if there is a juxtaposition in it – a contrast, an unusual difference between opposites.Big and small. Ugly and Beautiful. Organic and technical. red and green.

Or like in this picture, old and new:

Old and New

Old and New

When a juxtaposition is combined with another “interest”, such as “curves”, or here, “reflections”, so much the better.

And here one more, with blue and an intriguing shadow: intrigue (making the viewer work it out) is always good in pictures!

Old and New and Blue and Shadow

Old and New and Blue and Shadow

ISO rule of thumb

I am often asked about ISO. So here is a “rule of thumb” post on that subject.

Michael’s standard starting points:

  • Outdoors: 200 ISO
  • Indoors (even when using flash): 400 ISO
  • “Difficult Light” (eg museums, dark halls): 800 ISO

Michael’s exceptions:

  • Using a tripod: 100 ISO (as long as nothing moves)
  • Hockey, etc: 1600 ISO

In each case, go lower if you can, and go as high as you need to, when you need to.

Scale and grandeur

It is important to add both a sense of scale and a sense of grandeur to landscape photos.

You add grandeur by using a wide lens and getting close to something (even the ground). That shows the size.

And you add scale by helping the viewer. Adding people is a common technique, as I did in this image of Sedona, AZ, in December last year:

Sedona, AZ

Sedona, AZ

You need to see that image real size to really see it (click through, then select full size). And that brings me to today’s last tip: make it big. Large prints are sooo much better than 4×6 prints.

Size matters (2)

As I said earlier, in sensors, bigger sizes are better.  Let me expand on that a little.

A bigger sensor means five essential things:

  1. Lower “noise” (and hence, greater ability to shoot in low light).
  2. Greater ability to use selective focus (“blur the background”).
  3. Better use of the maximum resolving power of the lenses’ glass.
  4. On an SLR, a bigger, brighter viewfinder.
  5. Greater ability to use small apertures (high F-numbers”), which otherwise lead to distortion due to the bandwidth of light – so this is physics, and will not be overcome. This is why lenses have a “sharpness sweet spot” – say, at around f/8 on a full-frame camera with a typical lens.

And less fundamentally, but very importantly in practical terms, for those of you choosing between full-frame and crop sensor SLRs, a larger sensor also means that the same wide angle lenses are wider on the full-frame camera.

So what sensor sizes are there?

  • A typical point-and-shoot: 6 x 4 mm
  • Four Thirds (as used in Four Thirds and Micro Four Thirds cameras): 18 x 13.5 mm
  • APS-C, the sensor used on a typical crop SLR, like a Canon 60D or a Nikon D90: around 22 x 15 mm
  • APS-H, a Canon format, as in my 1D Mark IV:  28.7 x 19.1 mm
  • And “full frame”, as in a negative: 36 x 24mm

And every step smaller means less ability to close down the aperture and stay sharp, less ability to blur the background, and more noise.

The benefits of small sensors are the small size, weight and cost; the ability to use small and hence cheap lenses; the fact that they make lenses appear longer (which is good if you are a sports shooter, but bad if you are a wide-angle shooter); and the ability to get close, so point-and-shoots are usually very good macro cameras.

Flash power

A few notes on speedlites today.

How does a flash set its power level? Not by making itself brighter or darker, but by shining for longer or shorter. Using light in pictures is like using a spray can: the longer you spray, the more you get.

So how long is a flash? That depends. It is 1/1000th second on full power. 1/2000th second on half power, 1/4000th on quarter power, and so on. So if you want very short flashes, fire at low power.

How do I fire at low power? Just get closer to your subject or use higher ISO settings. Then set low power (if you use TTL, the camera will do that automatically for you).

But what if I use high-speed flash? Then rather than firing one flash, it fires many very short flashes, at a rate of around 40 kHz. This simulates continuous light, which you need when using fast shutter speeds (over, say, 1/200th sec), where the shutter does not open all the way at any time.

Product release: Those of you who shoot Nikon can go get SB-600s while they last, and then upgrade to the SB-700, a major improvement, if slightly less powerful than the SB-600. And hopefully it will not overheat too easily, like the SB-900 does.

Another event…

As you know, I, both at Henrys and by myself, and with colleague Joseph Marranca, teach beginners and advanced users all manner of photography topics.

And then… sometimes I see a course that complements my courses very nicely. One of those is the upcoming Henry’s Ivan Otis Pro Shoot event on 23 September. Ivan, a well-known and incredibly talented commercial photographer, spends a day with up to 20 people teaching them the mechanics of a full commercial campaign, including working with a full creative team. I happen to know that as I write this, there are a few spots left. Check it out!

Quick Note

Notes to Readers:

  • I see that some of you still come here via the old address, http://blog.michaelwillems.ca. Please note that the address is now http://www.speedlighter.ca
  • All old articles are here too: just search!
  • And you can search this blog by search word, by category, or by “tag”. See on the right. USE those resources: there is much useful information here.

Why bother?

A friend just pointed me to the new Canon PowerShot SX30 IS, a newly announced super zoom.

“Why bother with something like a micro four thirds camera?”, he asked. All he needs is the super zoom capability. “It has a 14.1 megapixel sensor; why do I care whether it is micro four thirds or not?”

Well… you know I’ll weigh in on that.

When not using an SLR, I like Micro Four Thirds cameras like my Panasonic Lumix GF-1:

Panasonic GF1, photo Michael Willems

Panasonic GF1, photo Michael Willems

And for some very specific reasons.

  1. A larger sensor means lower noise. The higher the pixel density (pixels per square mm), the lower the signal-to-noise ratio, and hence, the higher the noise in any given picture. That is why Canon very sensibly went down in Megapixels between the G10 and the G11 (by the way, the G12 was just announced).
  2. Hence, less ability on small sensor cameras like the Powershot to go to higher ISO settings. I can take good pictures on my full-frame camera at 3200 ISO. Forget even 800 ISO on a typical small frame camera. And that’s physics, so there’s not much to be done about this.
  3. Inability on small sensor cameras to go to selective depth of field. The aperture as a ratio of the sensor size determines “how blurry I can make the background”. Large sensor = ability to really blur the background. On my micro four thirds Panasonic, which has a sensor almost as large as many SLRs have now, I can create really blurry backgrounds at f/1.7. On a small point and shoot: forget that, even at the lowest “F-number”, your background is still crisp and sharp.

So that is why zoom ability and small size are not everything.

See me…. hear meheeee….

OK, sorry for the “Tommy” reference above. I am inviting people to see me and hear me, though perhaps not necessarily to touch or feel me.

As most of you know, I teach. Everything from one-on-one classes to small groups (like the recent events in Phoenix and Las Vegas, where I was joined by David Honl), to mega-shows like the upcoming Henry’s Photographic and Digital Imaging Show.

Sometimes in a store, like at the special event at Henry’s last Saturday:

Michael Willems Teaching

Michael Willems Teaching, Mississauga, 11 November 2010

And sometimes outdoors:

Hands-on photography training, Mono, Ont, 2010

Hands-on photography training, Mono, Ont, 2010

And sometimes to large crowds:

Michael addresses a large crowd

Michael addresses a large crowd

Depending on the nature of the event, audiences range from one to 500. And regardless, in all cases, hearing photography explained by a live person who knows how to explain (and in smaller classes, also practicing hands-on), is much better than reading the manual (do not start me on camera manuals). You would be surprised at how much you can learn in how little time.

So I thought I would outline a few of my coming teaching events, for those of you interested.

Apart from the regular courses, these include:

  • The all-day “Advanced Lighting” course in Mono, Ontario, which I teach with colleague Joseph Marranca: two dates, 3 October and 20 November, and both have availability (these are limited to ten students each).
  • Canada’s big photography event: The Henry’s Photographic and Digital Imaging Show, Mississauga, 15-17 October. I shall be speaking pretty much all day, every day. Don’t miss this show!
  • Henry’s Creative Urban Photography walks in Oakville on 23 and 31 October.
  • Great news: Dave is coming to Toronto! I am teaching a workshop with David Honl on Saturday, 19 March 2011. (Details soon, and let me know if you are interested in pre-booking: seating will be limited).

There is more, but that is a start. Come see how much you can learn in a few hours. I promise you will be delighted – and inspired.

Vomit, or silk?

So when I shoot a flow, like a rapidly moving car, or a gently flowing river, or a famously gushing fountain (uh oh, I am beginning to sound like Dan Brown), should I “freeze” that motion? Or should I somehow show it?

This is a shot from the other day’s Creative Urban Photography walk, shot as an instant, a moment in time (using S/Tv mode, shot at 1/500th second):

Fountain, moment in time (Photo Michael Willems)

Fountain, moment in time

Uh oh. Matter of taste – but to me, that looks like vomit. Or perhaps a chainsaw.

And here’s the same, now using S/Tv mode at 1/10th second, so it shows a  stream:

Fountain, as a flow (Photo Michael Willems)

Fountain, as a flow

Ahhh…. a beautiful silky flow.

So now you tell me. Matter of taste, yes. So according to your taste, should a flow be portrayed as a moment, or as a flow?