Category Archives: Technique

Al's Not Home

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Canon cameras have several ways of deciding where to focus (these have to do with the focus spots), and two ways of deciding how to focus.

You call the latter “focus modes”, and there are two: “One Shot” and “AI Servo”.

  • One Shot means that the focus locks (you hear a beep and as long as you keep your finger on the shutter, that distance remains locked.
  • “AI” is A I, as in “Artificial Intelligence”, not “Al” as in “Alan”; and a servo motor is a closely controllled motor with feedback loop. So that mode just means “continuous focus”.

One Shot is for static subjects. AI Servo is for moving subjects,like these:

I shot that yesterday, for the local newspaper. So since the young lady would not stand still, I had set my camera to AI Servo mode.

Stage

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When you shoot someone on a stage, it’s all dark and stuff, right, so you need to go to, like, 3200 ISO? Dude!

Well, yes and no. It can be dark, but usually that is not the real problem. The person on stage is usually quite well lit. Like professor Richard Dawkins when I shot him recently in Toronto:

MVWS9278

As you can see, prof Dawkins himself is well lit. This meant I was able to use my 1Ds MkIII and 50mm lens to shoot at 1/100th second, 400 ISO, and f/2.8. That is not super-fast: 400 ISO, not 1,600. And f/2.8, not f/1.4.

The bigger challenges are:

  • Metering. The dark background might very easily have caused the camera to overexpose prof Dawkins.
  • Consistency. The light can go up and down; or rather, as you swing the camera to include more or less Dawkins and less or more background, the exposure will change, and perhaps drastically so.
  • Focus is tough in low light.

So the solution is to:

  • Spot meter off the person and go up a stop, or meter using the “manual” meter.
  • Use MANUAL mode. After metering and adjusting visually (using LCD and histogram), leave the setting there. As long as the person does not move into different light, you’ll be fine.
  • Focus carefully with one focus point. Test before the presentation starts!
  • Shoot RAW so you can make small adjustments later where needed.

That way, your stage shoots will be just fine.

Event shoot

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The other day I shot an event. So that meant dark light, high walls, hard to bounce.

“Crisp” means “bright pixels”, so you will sacrifice some crispness when it is dark.

Still – I never point my flash at subjects when it is the main light. So instead, I bounce. I use the wall or ceiling – but when that is too far (and at 800 ISO “too far” is quite far!), I use a Honl bounce card, or a Fong lightsphere, or I just bounce off my hand:

MVWS0730

Um yeah, the theme was “70’s”.

  • I was using a 1Ds MkIII and a 16-35mm f/2.8L lens.
  • I did not want too much noise so I stayed at 800 ISO.
  • I used 1/30th second, f/2.8
  • A wide angle lens means that even at f/2.8, I get nice depth of field.
  • And the slow exposure means I get some nice background light.
  • Flash pointed behind me to the right, and bouncing (I saw a wall not too far).

Everyone else got dark backgrounds; I get this. A fast lens (f/2.8) is quite essential.

 

Eye

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Portraits? Then use a 50mm f/1.8 lens (affordable, fast, sharp) and shoot in Aperture (A/Av) mode with it wide open (preferably by window light).

Look at this recent available-light shot of a student:

MVWS0799

This gets you the dual advantages of low-light ability (no flash needed!) and blurry backgrounds. As long as you make sure the closest eye is the sharpest.

So, set your camera to the widest aperture (the smallest F-number), use high enough ISO (indoors this might be 400-800 ISO), and use one focus spot, and aim that spot at the closest eye. Click!

I bet you haven't all…

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…set your cameras’ clocks (all your cameras’ clocks) to winter time?

That is, if you live in Europe or North America or some other place where we use Summer and Winter time.

If you do, and you have not yet corrected your cameras’ time, then do it now. Otherwise your EXIF data will be wrong all winter. (Or summer if you live down under, but I do not want to hear about that).

 

ISO Rule of thumb

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What ISO setting to use? High is good for shooting without blur or shooting in the dark but gives you noise (“grain”). What is optimal?

The following may help.

If you do not use AUTO ISO, my rule of thumb for starting points is:

  • Outdoors, or when you are using a tripod: 200 ISO
  • Indoors: 400 ISO (whether or not you are using flash)
  • Problem light, such as museums or hockey arenas: 800 ISO

You can vary from there of course, but you will not be far off.

Here’s an 800 ISO handheld image (it won me a media award):

Secret

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When you are shooting flowers, it has to be on a spring morning after a spring rain has gently deposited soft, gentle drops of spring precipitation on every bud:

Or, bring a little plant water spray, with glycerine+water. Just saying!

Blurry backgrounds

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…can be achieved by setting our lenses to a low aperture value (a large aperture) like f/1.4 (if you don’t know how to do this, you could use your camera’s Portrait Mode).

But that is not the only way to get these blurry backgrounds. The effect can also be achieved or enhanced by reducing the distance between us and our close object. Because it is the relative distance between the close and the far that determines the far object’s blurriness.

So if I move my hand really close, as close as I can focus, then even at f/5.6 I can get dramatic blurring in the background. And that is what is happening here:

Canon 7D, f/5.6, 1600 ISO

Canon 7D, f/5.6, 1600 ISO

Remember that whenever you want blurred backgrounds: get close to your object, and/or zoom in on it.