January 28th, 2010 Rob Sheppard
There are a couple of podcasts coming up next month that you might be interested in. First, I’m going to be doing a live show this Tuesday, February 2nd at 8:00 p.m. EST with Juan Pons, Rick Sammon and Dave Warner. We will talk about lighting, flash photography, studio lighting and all things photography and answer your questions via telephone at 646-721-9811 or Twitter (by using hashtag #LF35-photog). You can also email your questions to editor@lensflare35.com ahead of time. If you just want to listen while we’re live, then go to www.blogtalkradio.com/lensflarelive and click on the Play button, which will only show up when the show is actually on the air.
If you can’t make the live time period, the show will be archived and available for play as a standard podcast from the dpexperience website at www.dpexperience.com later. I have also completed a podcast on the myths of digital imaging with Juan Pons that will also be available on dpexperience.com (DPE) early next month. Check out DPE for regular blogs from a whole bunch of fine photographers, including me.
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December 11th, 2009 Rob Sheppard
This past fall, I had a great group of photographers with me on a GAPW workshop in the Eastern Sierras (I will have one on the wildflowers of the Eastern Sierras next June). One morning we went to Mono Lake a little before dawn. Some of the group went right down to the water, some did not. I hung out with some photographing tufas not down by the water. The sun came up and there was beautiful light on the tufa formations. Then I decided to walk down to the lake and see how the rest of the group was doing.
On my way there, a whole mess of people were leaving, heading back to their cars. One person says, “You’re too late. The light is all gone. The good photos are over.”
Now let’s think about this for a moment. The light was still low and creating some wonderful shadows, and creating some excellent textured light on the tufa. The man who spoke, who seemed to reflect the whole group, was that there was only one possible way of photographing at Mono Lake and the tufas. I heard later from one of my students that there were a whole horde of folks all lined up facing the same direction, the sun rose, they finished shooting and all left.
I found this rather sad (as did my group who merrily continued shooting). Yes, light and color are affected by sunrise and conditions do change. And yes, it is possible to get to a light that is unattractive on a landscape. However, the latter had not happened. What seemed to be happening is that these folks were photographing according to some unwritten rules about how to photograph Mono Lake. Which is probably one reason why I found a lot of Mono Lake photography pretty, but also without a lot of originality. How often do we need to see the same sort of pre-dawn colored tufa? Or their silhouettes against the sunrise?
Whenever you do anything of a creative nature, whether that is photography, writing or somethings else, there are no absolute rules to guide you. Sure, there are things you must know about the craft of photography, etc. You need to know how to get a sharp photo, for example, or how to expose properly. But beyond that, “rules” tend to be more ideas that someone else wants you to do either because they have a limited sense of right or wrong or they are scared they are wrong if no one else follows what they are doing.
This can be very restrictive to a photographer’s growth, a photographer at any level, from beginner to expert. It is very true that as you try new things, you can feel a bit insecure about them. So when someone comes by with the “rules”, it is easy to quit doing what is true and right for you, just because it seems to be “against the rules.”
The photo above is not the typical shot of Mono Lake and I like it because of that. Before I ever visited Mono Lake, I thought that the tufa were so common that you saw them all over. Wrong! They are only in a few select areas. This photo shows Mono Lake and some tufa in early light, light that shows the lake and the setting well, and shows largely an open lake (which is truer to the location than many shots of only the tufa). To make the lake look stronger in the composition, I had to make the tufa look less dominant. Because they are tall, they cut through the lake and into the sky from normal camera heights. I put my camera on my tripod, set the self-timer, pressed the shutter and hoisted the camera on the tripod high over my head. I had to do a few shots to get it right. And to do this, you often need to shoot manually. But it does give a different view of the lake and its tufa, giving a perspective of what the place is really like. I like the strong, early light after sunrise here.
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October 19th, 2009 Rob Sheppard
I am finding there still is some confusion as to camera speeds and memory card speeds, so first, lets look at camera speeds. All cameras that shoot RAW and JPEG will shoot both formats in all drive speeds, but because of the file size differences, whether you shoot RAW, JPEG or both at the same time will affect how the camera handles multiple shots. As the camera shoots at high or low drive speeds, the camera will often shoot faster than the files can be put onto the memory card. The files are then put into a buffer (memory in the camera just for this purpose) to wait in line to get on the memory card. When that buffer is filled, the camera will stop shooting until room is made for the shots. With RAW, the buffer fills quickly because the image files are large, which means that after a certain number of shots, the buffer will be filled and there is no more room for additional image files, so the camera will quit shooting. With JPEG, the buffer fills more slowly because the files are much smaller, and often the memory card can keep up with the JPEG files so the camera does not quit shooting. This is a big reason for the L or low speed setting on many cameras — since shots are taken slower, the buffer fills more slowly, even with RAW, so you can keep shooting longer than with H or high speed.
Memory card speed affects how fast the camera can pull images out of the buffer and load them onto the card. A faster card will allow the buffer to be emptied faster as long as, and this is an important qualification, the camera has been designed to handle the speed of the card. If a card is faster than the capabilities of the camera, that speed is wasted as the camera cannot go that fast. Using a high-speed memory card with a camera that cannot work that fast will have no effect on camera speed and will give no better results than a lower speed memory card. Most mid-level to high-end cameras typically could handle the speeds of cards available at the time the camera first came to market, but then this capability will change over time as card speeds increase during the life of the camera model. Memory card speed has no effect on how fast the camera can shoot — that is purely a function of the mechanics and electronics of the camera. It can only affect how fast the buffer is cleared, which will affect how long the camera can shoot before it has to stop and allow the buffer to open up.
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September 29th, 2009 Rob Sheppard
“The camera is not the same as a person” may seem like an obvious statement, yet a common mistake many photographers make is that they want the camera to act like they do in terms of seeing the world. It is very important to understand that the camera does not see the world, and consequently, a scene the same way that you do. The camera is restricted by technological limitations that your eyes and brain do not have.
This is especially important with exposure. Photographers see a subject and take the picture with the expectation that the “right” exposure will give a good picture. When the photo does not cooperate and results are poor, they think that they just did not adjust the camera right. In fact, in many situations, it is impossible to get a good picture. The scene is simply beyond the capabilities of the camera, even though you can see it perfectly.
This is most common in extreme lighting conditions. Your eyes can handle a huge range of detail from dark to bright in situations such as a scene where the light goes from brightest sun to dark, dark shade. The camera simply cannot handle such conditions and no exposure will be “right.” While HDR can be helpful sometimes in such a situation, often it is important to recognize when a good photograph is not possible and then you move on to something that is.
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September 25th, 2009 Rob Sheppard
I am up in Maine to help my parents move into an assisted living place. Not much time for photography, but I am glad I made the trip. My sister lives here, but I think having both of us here has helped.
My sister lives in Freeport, and if anyone has been to Maine, they will typically associate Freeport with L.L. Bean. The store here is huge and open 24 hours a day. I love to just walk through it, especially at night now, because the main tourist season is past and the fall color season has not yet started.
I love L.L. Bean bags, especially the small bags. I am not sure why, other than they are nicely made, well-designed bags not specifically made for photography, but work well for that purpose anyway. I was looking specifically for a small bag because I had just purchased an Olympus E-620 as a small back-up camera for my E-3. Turns out, I love the E-620. I took it with me, and while I have not had a lot of time to use it, I am glad I brought it with me. I did get out at sunrise yesterday and it was a beautiful morning to be out photographing.
I had put the E-620 and a couple of accessories in a small bag I had. The bag was fine, but it was typical of most camera bags, over-padded and large for what it carried. I think the padding is fine for larger bags, but when I want to travel light and compact, which the E-620 lets me do, I want a smaller bag. At L.L. Bean, I saw a Continental Field Bag on the wall in the hunting department (hunting departments often have really great outdoor accessories). It looked to be the right size, but to be sure, I went back to the car to get my camera. It fit with room to spare. I know I can put the camera, an extra lens and a flash in the bag as well. It would fit most small digital SLRs. This bag is smaller than the padded bag I did have (which I gave to my sister), yet it holds more! And only cost $59.
The bag is a tough canvas bag and quite rich looking in brown and brown trim. Another big reason I like it is that it does not look like an obvious camera bag. I hate traveling with bags that look too obviously like camera bags — they are targets for thieves.
In addition, I went up to the fishing department. L.L. Bean has these great flyfishing reel bags that are perfect for small lenses and other accessories. I had a few neoprene bags I had gotten before, but I found some excellent small, zippered canvas reel bags that will work great, especially when carrying an extra lens in my new Continental Field Bag. These bags allow you to completely protect small gear thrown into any sort of bag.
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August 4th, 2009 Rob Sheppard
My son, Adam, passed along a cool website that he really likes, called Accidental Creative. He sent me a link to the “Manifesto” page that I thought was really well thought out. I think it is something that all photographers can gain from, too. Check it out:
http://accidentalcreative.com/manifesto/.
The photo here, for example, is of the common yucca that blooms throughout the chaparral in Southern California. This is not the usual shot of it, yet it is definitely true to who I am. This was shot at sunset. Normally shooting against a sunset would simply give you a silhouette. In this case, I used my flash to fill in the yucca flowering stalk so that it would stand dramatically light against the sunset. Like much of my work, it also shows the yucca in context with a setting (the silhouetted hills).
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June 11th, 2009 Rob Sheppard
This is not specifically a photo blog, but it is about something that all of us using computers and digital photos should be aware of. There is now something called “scareware” that can affect your Windows computer (it is not attacking Mac directly that I can tell). And even with the utmost of care on your part, this can get through and cause problems. Yesterday’s USA Today had a very good article about it that can be seen on the USA Today’s website.
Basically, what is happening is that “crooks” (for lack of a better word) hijack websites so that a fake warning appears on your screen saying you may have problems with your computer so that it needs to be scanned. Clicking either Scan or Cancel will cause unwanted action to occur. The bogus scan will claim to find viruses and direct you to a shopping cart for some sort of virus protection software. Now the problem is that if you decline, you will continue to get endless warnings that can be hard to get rid of.
The answer is to get rid of that first warning when it first appears. The only way to do this successfully is to use Task Manager. Press Ctrl-Alt-Delete to access a menu that activates Task Manager. Click the applications tab, scroll to the offending message application in the list, click it, then click End Task. This seems to be the only way to get rid of this scareware.
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May 29th, 2009 Rob Sheppard
For many of you, I know this is way basic. But several questions in recent classes have made me rethink what new photographers know. This is very basic information about f-stops and ISO settings, but it is critical to know, and not everyone knows this.
Aperture priority is a fine way to use auto exposure. Many pros do exactly that (including me). I know some photographers would have you always do manual exposure. I used to feel that way years ago, but having worked with so many great camera models over my years at Outdoor Photographer magazine, I don’t feel that way at all. You can use auto exposure just as effectively as manual exposure if you pay attention to such things as highlight warnings and histograms. You can be just as accurate as manual exposure and faster in many cases. This is not a case for quitting using manual exposure if that works for you, but for feeling guilt-free if you don’t use manual exposure.
The challenge is in what apertures to use and how to balance ISO settings for the best shutter speeds and image quality. Here are some ideas:
ISO settings:
- 100-400 good for all around use, lower number for bright daylight, higher number for lower light.
- 800-1600 (depending on camera) good for low light and higher shutter speeds when some noise is not bad
- above 1600 for really dark situations only when this is the only way to get a shot.
And some ideas for choosing and using f-stops:
- f/5.6 and larger (such as f/4, f/2.8) — used when limited depth of field is needed, i.e., to make a subject stand out from background or when faster shutter speeds are needed.
- f/8-f/11 — mid-range f-stops used when depth of field or shutter speed is not critical as this is usually the sharpest range for a lens. Distant scenes can always be shot at these f-stops.
- f/16-f/22 — small f-stops used for maximum depth of field or sharpness from foreground to background; limitation is slower shutter speed is often needed.
- smaller than f/22 — avoid if possible as these are usually not as sharp; you may find that some lenses, especially wide-angle lenses, have a distinct drop in sharpness at even f/22
The photo shown here is of a flowering yucca in the chaparral north of Los Angeles California in the amazing Santa Monica Mountains. A wide-angle lens and a small f-stop were used for max depth of field, plus a low ISO of 100 was used for best image quality. Olympus E-3, 8mm full-frame fisheye.
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April 29th, 2009 Rob Sheppard
The North American Nature Photography Association sponsors a series of traveling Road Shows every year that bring together a group of professional nature photographers speaking about all sorts of subjects from wildlife photography to Lightroom for nature photographers. I am one of the speakers this year.
The next NANPA Road Show will be in Sacramento, California, from May 15-17. After that there will be shows in Rhode Island and Minnesota in June and August respectively. These Road Shows are a great opportunity to get a lot of information about nature photography over a weekend. You can learn more about them on the NANPA website at www.nanpa.org.
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April 22nd, 2009 Rob Sheppard
I sometimes get questions on basic camera setup for beginners. Here are some ideas:
1. Try using your camera on Aperture priority — use small f-stops (e.g., f/11, f/16) for more depth of field (sharpness in depth) but watch that your shutter speed does not get too slow (pay attention to the sharpness in the LCD when you enlarge the photo); use large f-stops (e.g., f/4, f/5.6) for narrow depth of field to emphasize your subject and to gain a faster shutter speed with Aperture priority.
2. Set your white balance to daylight or cloudy when you are outside (try both and see which you like better for most conditions). Set it to tungsten or fluorescent when you are inside.
3. Pay attention to where and what the camera is focusing on.
4. Watch your exposure so that it is neither too low (big gap on right side of histogram) or too high (washed out important highlights).
5. Be aware of the potential of camera movement during exposure causing sharpness problems. Use faster shutter speeds when shooting handheld, use a tripod when shutter speeds are slow. A good rule of thumb is that you need fast shutter speeds when shooting zoomed in to a telephoto focal length — minimum of 1/125 or even 1/250 second. Wide angles allow for slower shutter speeds.
6. Be sure you set your camera so that vertical photos do not auto rotate in the LCD. When they do, they only use about half of the actual LCD, so you are wasting that display.
Posted in Digital Photo Techniques, Digital camera techniques, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
