Author Archives: Michael Willems

Question of the day

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A reminder that I welcome questions on photography. From pros or from beginners, or from anyone in between. I shall answer (it may be a while, but I promise I will).

Here’s a recent question, answered belatedy:

What do you look for when you are judging the quality of an image?

Dpreview has recently published some sample images from the “entry level” Leica X1. See http://bkkphotographer.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/leica-x1-preview-samples-gallery-on-dpreview-com/.

I’d like to hear your opinion on how to evaluate the quality of the samples relative to other cameras. One good thing is that Dpreview keep all their samples on their web site going back years. And often they are of similar subjects – e.g. Tower Bridge, London.

Mmm. Tough one.

When I look at quality I compare subject and composition, moment, and light. But that is not what you mean, is it? You mean to compare cameras. Tough, because it is difficult to compare apples with oranges, and since different cameras address different needs, they are not always directly comparable.

And yes, there it starts with using the same subject. DPreview has Tower Bridge and the British museum as frequent subjects. Here’s my version:

Fortunately, DPreview also have their standard studio setup (with the Martini bottle) designed to test the important camera quality items.

I think for me these important items include:

  • High ISO performance
  • Noise, especially in shadow areas
  • Dynamic range: how many stops from black to white?
  • Sharpness
  • Colour saturation
  • Lack of moiré
  • Long exposure capabilities
  • Vignetting (lack thereof being good)

Note that “RAW shows the camera’s actual capabilities, while JPG shows that plus the in-camera processing capabilities”. One of those can be good while the other can be less so, or both can be good or both can be less stellar.

Does that help, at all?

Question of the night

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Reader BKKPhotographer asked:

We’re having some lovely clear nights in Bangkok now it is the cool season. The moon often looks great but I have had limited success photographing it. Do you have any tips for good lunar photography?

The moon is remarkably bright, but it is in a remarkable dark background. So it is hard to photograph.

I would start here:

  • Shoot RAW.
  • Use the longest lens you have. This makes the moon look larger in relation to items on the horizon, like trees and builings.
  • Use the steadiest tripod you can find.
  • Focus manually – or autofocus, then switch to manual and leave it there (“infinity”)
  • Spot meter off the moon, and then vary from there – a stop should do it.
  • Try low ISO: the moon is bright so you will not need very long exposures.
  • Shoot all phases, not just full moon
  • Use a wire release, or the 2s self timer.

Here’s some exposure settings to start with:

  • 100 ISO
  • F/11
  • 1/125 – 1/250

You see, it’s really very bright, the moon.

Try that!

Add a splash

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I recommended recently that you might want to add a  splash of colour every now and then. So here’s an example.

Our Christmas “tree”, lit with just a bounce flash. The background is exposed properly (I used -1.3 stops exposure compensation in Av mode). But still: kinda bland, no?

So let’s add a dash of colour. A pocketwizard connected to the camera, and one behind the tree connected via a hotshoe cable to a 430EX flash. The flash was on manual at 1/16th power, and on the flash I had a Honl Photo speed strap with a Honl Bright Red gel conveniently velcro’d on. Now we’re talking!

If I had had more cables (I am awaiting a shipment of hotshoe cables…) I would have added a green one as well. But this is already much better thwanwhat I had before.

Oh and just to show what the flash alone would have done: if I disable the bounce flash, here’s what that same shot would look like:

Bit overly dramatic, but add some more light and it has potential!

Here’s the setup:

(Small note: I have, I must admit, found the X-sync to Pocketwizard contact unreliable and I am not entirely sure why: Maybe the connector itself? But the hotshoe contact is flawless.)

And finally. I wanted red and green, but had only one working flash I could drive with a pocketwizard.

Solution?

Which, after a bit of back and forth with manual exposure, flash compensation, and remote flash power, gives me this:

Or, if you prefer a brighter room, this:

You see how much fun playing with colour and light can be?

Happy holidays

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Whatever you are celebrating, do it well and enjoy. And take lots of photos, in which you fill the frame and expose well, perhaps using fast lenses and a mix of flash and available light. And did I mention “fill the frame”?

Oh and who spotted me reflecting in that ball, at the Wyndham hotel in Phoenix (avoid it: “free high-speed Internet” is free LOW speed: high speed is $10 more – and in a city with free parking, the only parking at the Wyndham is compulsory $24 valet parking)?

And that is also a reminder to hold your camera upright for shots that need this (we call that “portrait orientation”, because it is suitable for…..)

Back to today: Merry Christmas!

It's good when you fail

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As a news shooter, I get into my car whenever there is a possibly significant accident or fire in the vicinity. But it is good when you fail to get a picture because the fire fails to spread, like just now.

And if the fire brigade manages to put out the chimney fire before it spreads significantly, you can afford to think “hey, that looks kind of festive, the red lights mixed with the Christmas lighting”.

So although that family needs to spend the night elsewhere because of smoke- and water-damage, the home can be fixed.

And since this is a photography blog: 3200 and 1600 ISO at f/2.8 with a 70-200 f/2.8L IS lens. That gave me shutter speeds of around 1/30th second. Which with IS is doable.

Next year again

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Here’s the setup I described earlier, that I used to shoot the Santa pics. My tripod-mounted (and cable-fired) Canon 1Ds MkIII and twin Bowens Gemini 400 Ws strobes into umbrellas, fired with Pocketwizards. The camera is powered with the mains adapter so it never turns off.

And here for good measure is pone ore shot I took there, showing Santa and an admirer:

Ho Ho Ho!

A portrait technique

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One very good portrait technique is to have a person in the foreground, and then to have one or more people in the background, out of focus, adding to the mystery, the story. So you wonder what the story is.

A bit like this picture of two lovely students at my recent Phoenix workshop:

Ideally, the second person would be even farther and would perhaps be looking at the subject instead of looking at the camera, but you get the idea.

How do you do this?

  • You use a “fast” lens (low f-number), open wide to, say, f/1.8.
  • You would be using aperture mode or perhaps manual for this.
  • You can use flash, although at f/1.8 you would most likely not need to.
  • You would accurately focus on the closest eye. Using one focus point.
  • If the ISO is very hiogh and the lught low you can get some noise (“grain”) – in that case consider making the picture black and white, which “likes” a bit of noise.

Have fun taking holiday season portraits of all your visiting relatives!

Holy

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Santa shots all day today. I love those shoots.

We had the fortune of having the Real Santa at Hopedale mall (check his beard, that is how you can tell – yes, it’s real, so it’s Santa himself).

I have no idea why some photographers scoff at this type of photography. I love it. And so do the customers, and so does Santa himself.

Family snapshot tip

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If you are new to cameras, let me give you a quick tip for the holidays.

When you shoot pictures of your family, use “slow flash” (enable “slow” on Nikon, or use Av mode on Canon)  and an ISO of 400 or even more if it is dark indoors. That allows the background light to show, as well.

You will need flash, too, around the tree. But rather than the popup flash, use an external flash. And above all, do not do this with that flash:

Instead, do this:

That’s right – point the flash backward above you. Your happy snaps (photojournalists call them “grip and grins”)  will be infinitely better.