The Importance Of Understanding Manual Settings

I want to talk a little bit about why it is important to be able to put your camera in the ‘M’ or manual mode and how to adjust the settings to get the image you’re wanting. With today’s DSLR cameras you are able to go out and take a decent picture without knowing the first thing about how the settings are being utilized to create that image. While this is really nice for people who just dabble with photography, I am going to assume because you are reading this that you want more from yourself when it comes to photography.

I am not going to go into too many details in this post about manual mode, you can find those details out here. What I am going to do is show you why knowing these camera/exposure basics is important.

I was out in DC shooting with a friend one night, and after coming out from dinner in Chinatown I wanted to capture the energy of this area. So I set up my tripod and placed my camera on it. In manual mode, which my camera is in 95% of the time, I read the scene and got a meter reading. Knowing I wanted a long exposure to capture the cars and buses whizzing by I knew I would need to keep my ISO low, so I set it on 400. I also had the lens opened all the way up, this was my baseline to get a shutter speed reading.

First exposure 1/30 second at f/2.

My initial reading with my f-stop opened all the way up was 1/30 sec for a shutter speed. I know that at that shutter speed I will (almost) freeze a moving car at 25mph as you can see it did here. Not what I was looking for. But the exposure was correct, the scene overall looks fine. But as I said, I wanted to create energy by having the cars moving through the shot. So now I had to determine what I needed to do to get that. Do I open or close my shutter? Do I leave the shutter alone and close the f-stop? What?!?!

Because I know how to shoot in manual I already had the answers as my fingers began adjusting the settings. I knew I needed to slow the shutter speed way down, but by doing that I was going to get an over exposed image unless I closed the f-stop too.

My second exposure at 1 second @ f/13.

I decided to go with an f-stop of f/13 to not only gain depth of field and let most all of the scene be in focus, but to let less light through the aperture so I could focus on getting the right shutter speed for the image I wanted to create. I doubled the shutter speed and went with a 1 second exposure. Overall the image was a tad dark, but workable, and I did have some light trails. But not what I was envisioning, so I opened up the shutter even more.

A two second exposure.

I opened the shutter up for 2 seconds this time, but the first image was a bit over exposed, so I needed to close the f-stop some more. I went with f/16 to get the exposure back in line. Now I had better light trails, but still not what I wanted.

f/18 @ 4 seconds.

I doubled the exposure again, this time to 4 seconds and I closed the f-stop down a bit more to f/18. BINGO! The winning combination! Now all I had to do was wait for enough traffic to create my light painting image showing the energy of Chinatown.

Summary: Because of ALL of the lights hitting my sensor with the street lights and headlights of the cars coming closer to the camera, if I had tried to do this on auto I am sure I would’ve banged my head because the camera doesn’t know what it is you want to do. All it is doing to trying to get the scene to 50% grey, or average. You must have faith in yourself that you are much smarter than the camera. All it takes is learning how the pieces fit in shooting in manual mode…and practice!

 

Washington D.C.

The Lincoln Memorial at sunset

A Flickr friend of mine, Dan Huntley, came into DC for business Saturday and I met up with him downtown to shoot a bit around the mall area. It was an unusually warm day & night for us here in the Mid Atlantic area, so it made for a cool but pleasant evening of shooting.

The above shot was taken as Dan finally arrived by taxi from his hotel. Previously while I was waiting for him I was positioned with my tripod in the reflecting pool to try to get a better composition. This led to many smiles from people passing by…or was it laughter? LOL.

A capture of President Lincoln from the Reflecting Pool. I used my Nikon 70-300 VR mounted on a Benro Travel Angel Tripod to capture this.

Dan and I proceeded up to the Lincoln Memorial to get some shots of this magnificent memorial. I know I cannot come to town without stopping by here to shoot some.

This is from inside the memorial.

I was prepared for shooting around here and brought my 50mm and 35mm primes for handheld shooting. Using a tripod around DC, especially the Memorials is usually not tolerated. Though last night there were a ton of tripods around, which makes me wonder if they changed their rules.

A view from the top steps of the Lincoln Memorial looking east down the mall at the Washington Monument.

After we shot inside the Lincoln Memorial we turned our attention down the Reflecting Pool. There was quite a bit of haze for this time of year due to the temperatures, but it made for some nice reflective colors as the sun set behind us. I could easily sit here for hours and just look out at the city.

The Us Capitol sitting behind the Washington Monument.

We walked down to the reflecting pool and got a few closer shots of the US Capitol and Washington Monument. The Reflecting Pool makes for some wonderful evening compositions.

A detail shot of the inside of the WW II Memorial taken with my fish-eye lens.

We made our way to the World War II Memorial, unfortunately they are doing a lot of work on it right now so the fountains were not working. But I did mange a pretty cool shot from inside one of the entrances. This is looking straight up. I tool this with my fish-eye lens.

A shot of the Jefferson Memorial from across the Tidal Basin.

We decided that it was getting a bit cool and it was also about time to get something to eat. So we walked to where my car was parked and captured a few shots of the Jefferson Memorial looking across the Tidal Basin before heading to dinner.

We headed up to where Dan was staying, and eventually ended up in Chinatown. Dan treated me to a nice dinner at one of the Chinese restaurants there, “Thanks again Dan”! Dinner was excellent and my belly was stuffed all the way home.

The entrance to Chinatown with Dan getting a few shots.

When we exited the Chinese restaurant we decided to get a few shots of the entrance to Chinatown. I got a few with Dan in the shots as the cars and buses whizzed by us.

The Chinatown entrance.

I captured a quick grab from the middle of street. I had it timed out pretty good with the traffic lights as to not get hit by any cars *smile*.

At this point it was getting near 9pm and I am normally in bed by now, and with a 2 hour trip home I decided that I should be getting going. So I left Dan to do some more shooting without me. But I am sure I will be back down here soon enough to capture some more fun.

I will leave you with one more shot from inside of the Lincoln Memorial. Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday’s

I made a New Year Resolution to myself that I was going to ‘Blog’ at least once a week this upcoming year, and I decided last week to get an early jump on that resolution. This week I had planned on blogging about my planned trip to DC this Saturday with my friend Darren Barnes and shooting some festive Christmas/Holiday scenes, that was until Mother Nature decided to have winds blowing up around 50mph on Saturday *sigh*.  So we decided to let wiser heads prevail and cancel our plans.

Since I didn’t get out to DC yesterday, and our annual ‘Santa train ride’ is tonight, I thought I would post a few shots that I grabbed earlier this month and talk about the glass they were shot with.

This was shot with a Nikon D3S and Nikon 105 f/2 DC.

About a year and a half ago I had gotten rid of two VERY NICE pieces of glass because I wasn’t using them much and I needed to offset the purchase price of my Nikon D3S. Dumb ‘ol me! I realized afterwards that I shoot differently throughout the year and I was missing these two lenses. Though I could not bring myself to purchase them again (this year *wink*) I did upgrade my glass by finding some really nice primes. This shot was taken with a Nikon 105mm f2 DC lens. This lens is incredible! It is a specialty lens that is targeted at portrait photographers, and since I do some wedding work still this fits in my bag quite nicely.

Taken with a Nikon D3S and Nikon 60mm f2.8 micro lens.

One of the lenses I got rid of was a Nikon 105mm f2.8 VR. It was a great lens, but I didn’t like that focal length in macro as much. So I found an older Nikon 60mm f2.8 micro lens which I love! This thing is (IMO) even sharper than the 105 and my Nifty Fifty. I like the 60mm range, because it allows me to get more of the background in.

Shot with a Nikon D3S and Nikon 105mm f2 DC lens.

Another shot with the Nikon 105mm f2 DC lens. this time of year I really focus on details, and this lens specializes in separating the subject from the background or foreground.

Just some fun playing with textures.

I enjoy adding textures to images, especially this time of the year. It is always fun to push yourself to try new ideas. This was shot outside in my front yard with my Nikon 50mm f1.8 AF-S. I have a Nikon 50mm f1.5 D too, but sometimes a quiet lens is needed in places which is why I purchased the AF-S 1.8.

This started out as a quick Christmas/Holiday post, but turned into a nice reminder of why everyone should have a specialty lens or two in their bags. I buy (almost) all of my glass used through reputable dealers. A lot of people run out and buy the newest glass and then sell their wonderful older glass. A lot of times the older glass is just as good as the new.

For me it is a treasure hunt, and I have found some great deals, and if I don’t like a lens that I have bought used I can always turn around and sell it for at least what I payed for it.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday’s!

New Year’s Resolution 2013

Just over a year ago I overhauled my website and turned my homepage into a blog. My goal was to not only keep people up-to-date on my shooting, but to pass along my knowledge of photography. I unfortunately let it fall to the curbside. It had been bugging me for a while that I let this happen, so I decided that I would ‘Start Fresh’ come 2013 and make every effort to post at least one blog a week.

So since 2013 is just over a week away I decided to get an early jump on my resolution *smile* and post a bit of a recap from this year. I hope everyone has/had a wonderful and safe Christmas, Hanukkah, and any other Holiday that you may celebrate this season.

**On a more somber note, whatever your religious or non-religious beliefs may be, I think we ALL can pray in our own way for the victims and relatives of the Sandy Hook Elementary School killings. As a parent this chilled me to my soul and makes me wonder how someone can purposely murder another human, more-less an innocent child. I do not have the words to express fully my grief, my sadness, or my sorrow for those involved other to say that they are in my thought and prayers.

“Under A Blood Red Sky”. My tribute shot to the Sandy Hook victims.

Back to the fun! One thing I try to do each year is to find new things to photograph. But I have learned that sometimes when you re-visit places you are sharper and come away with better images than previously. Even though I am a landscape and event shooter, I am a Daddy first and foremost and every year we take a family trip to Walt Disney World. Since I am also a Flickr member and there is a huge Disney community of photographers I cannot help myself but to join in the fun of Disney shooting. I especially enjoy ‘Dark Ride’ shooting. This is capturing images under the hardest condition possible, extreme low light while stuck in a seated moving car.

This is from ‘Peter Pan’s Flight’ and Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom.

This year I also went back to basics with my shooting and processing. I took a hard deep look at myself as an photographer/artist and decided that I had fallen into a ‘Over-processing hole or trap’. Part of the reason for this happening was that I was shooting in boring light, basically daylight. As I said, I am a Dad, so I shoot when I can and usually around a family schedule most times, but that doesn’t mean I needed to over-process my shots. I think that with the advancement of digital sensors dynamic ranges and HDR processing we have lost touch with the reality of how scenes look in life. Just because we ‘can’, should we ALL the time? That was a goal of mine as the year moved on, “Keeping It Real”.

A combination of HDR and manual blending to ‘Keep it Real’.

Here is another shot which has no HDR or tonemapping. I manually blended for several regions within the scene.

What a view! One of my favorite places in Canaan Valley. This guy walked into my comp and I asked him to stand there while I fired off 3 shots. He added not only perspective, but a visual impact to the scene.

This year I also attended my first NASCAR race at Dover International Speedway. I must admit, from a photographers point of view this was a really boring event since we were VERY limited to where we could shoot. If I ever do a race again I will make sure I get pit passes so I can walk around.

This is ‘The Monster Monument’.

I spent less time this year at Shenandoah National Park than I normally do. I am making it a goal of mine this year to get back up there more often. Even though I didn’t get there much, I did get a few good shots from there.

Dark Hollow Falls. Which is at MP 49 of the Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park.

Now what good Dad could go somewhere and not take a shot or 50 of his kid who love to hike too.

This is my ‘Lil Hiker and photo assistant.

I got to photograph something VERY special this year, the last flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery landing at Dulles Airport. It is housed at the Udvar-Hazy annex of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum located at Dulles.

This is from the first flyby at Dulles Airport. The Space Shuttle Discovery piggybacking on top of a NASA Boeing 747. A NASA T-38 Talon is flying above.

This was also a year where I went back and forth on what glass I was shooting with. In 2011 I upgraded my camera and added a Nikon D3S to my bag to go along with my Nikon D700. To help offset the purchase price I sold a few lenses that I wasn’t using much anymore. Well in 2012 I regretted that because after finding some lighter glass to go out on my hikes with I realized that I was craving better glass for finer shots when I wasn’t hiking. As I said, I am a landscape shooter along with a Wedding Photographer/Event shooter. So to be able to do ALL of that I need a wide assortment of glass.

This was taken with a Nikon 70-300 VR. This is a great lens for hiking with.

While I compromised on a ‘little’ quality for travel size when hiking, I also added some really great primes to my bag this year. One of them is a Nikon 105mm f/2 DC. This lens is basically a portrait lens, but I found that it is also the bokeh king. So there are times that I want to minimize or have softer images.

This was taken with the Nikon 105mm f/2 DC lens.

I also added a Nikon 85mm to my bag as well. These super fast primes let you create such a shallow depth of field that no zoom can. As I said, I went back to basics and I am so much happier for it, though a little lighter in the wallet. HA!

Not only is he my ‘Lil Helper with the camera, he also is my favorite model. Taken with the Nikon 85mm f/1.8

As much as I love my primes, sometimes having a ‘slower’ zoom lens is better if it has VR or IS. I went to Luray Caverns and in a place like this when you don’t have the time to change lenses or set up a tripod having a zoom like the Nikon 24-120 is wonderful.

This is inside of Luray Caverns which is located in Virginia. Taken with my Nikon 24-120 f/4 VR lens.

Probably the best thing I did all year was to force myself to get out and start shooting again in the better light. These times of the day, predawn and sunset, offer so many magical scenes that if shot during the daylight would be boring.

Taken along the Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.

Even though I could’ve posted many more images, i wanted to keep this as brief as I could. If you want to see more of my work and where I have been shooting please visit my Flickr page. The link is located on my homepage. Thanks for reading, and hears hoping I can keep my resolution! See you throughout 2013!

Capturing History

This is from the first flyby at Dulles Airport. The Space Shuttle Dicovery piggybacking on top of a NASA Boeing 747. A NASA T-38 Talon is flying above.

On Tuesday April 17th I had the chance to photograph a piece of history. The Space Shuttle Discovery made it’s final flight piggybacked on top of a specially designed NASA Boeing 747. It flew from Cape Canaveral Florida to Dulles Airport in Chantilly Virginia. Once it got into the Dulles Airport airspace it made a loop around the DC Metropolitan area and then landed for the last time at Dulles Airport to become part of the Smithsonian’s collection at the Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum annex located at Dulles Airport.

What made this event even more special for me is that I got to witness it from the ‘Front Row’ without having any type of media credentials. I was only 100 yards away from the runway that the Discovery landed on, and right across from the media  conglomeration situated on the adjacent runway which was there to video the landing. I was one of only a handful of people that were able to capture this historic event from the angle that I did.

From The first Flyby at Dulles Airport.

How did I manage such a feat? I was working at my day job at the time if you can believe this. I work for one of the top Power companies in the United States, and because we ‘feed’ the airport I need to be badged to have access within the airport property to help maintain our equipment and keep them ‘with lights’. It turned out that on that Monday we have a small project that needed to be done at our substation on the airport property, and that project would most likely take 3-4 days to complete. When I was told of this news I was ecstatic which surprised the two supervisors who had decided that this was going to happen because they had no idea that the Space Shuttle Discovery was going to be landing on that Tuesday.

On Tuesday morning I brought to work with me my Nikon D3S and my 70-200mm f/2.8 VR with a 2x tele. As I drove to work that morning I tried to keep my expectations low because I know that anything can happen when you work for a utility, and with the event of the day happening at the airport I didn’t know if the ‘Powers that Be’ had gotten wind of it and decided to keep us away. I also didn’t know if the airport security would be tightened down and try to keep the whole area ‘sterile’.

At 9:40am we decided to head out of our secure substation with our trucks to see what it was like along the road. That was when we heard the NASA T-38 Talon rocket by. We looked to our left and there they were making a flyby the airport. They were only about 150ft off of the deck as they cruised over top of the runway. What a grand sight that was! So as they flew off we all raced out to the road excited that we were mere moments from seeing them land.

A Fox New video grab. We are sitting in the background, see those for vehicles. LOL!

When we got to the main access road it turned out that few handful of Dulles employees were there parked along the side of road next to the runway, and so we drove to the middle-ish south end of the runway feeling relieved that we were not going to be bothered with the airport security (which by the way are Federal Police). Once parked we climbed on top of the trucks which gave us a great sightline above the fence and we were set to watch history happen.

At the time we thought we were going to see them land shortly, but it turned out that because they were almost a half an hour early it gave them time to give the DC region a better show. So they flew out of our sight for nearly an hour as they flew over the landmarks of DC. That gave me the needed time to situate myself and prep for how I was going to shoot this and remain safe without falling off of the truck. We were about 12-13 feet off of the ground and the wind was blowing at a good steady 15-20mph, and because I wanted to have a clear sighline of the entire landing it meant that I was going to be on the edge of the top of the truck. So what I did was wrap my leg around one of the secured ladders that was on the side of the truck. That gave me the needed security of safety and it allowed me to brace myself when I was shooting to help give me a steadier hand.

The Space Shuttle Discovery in its last moment of flight.

Then around 10:40 we saw them flying south of the airport making their way for a final flyby of Dulles before landing. Those final moments watching the 747 line up for the runway was amazing. Seeing the landing gear down knowing that “this was it” had my heart racing. I had gone over all of my settings and checked them 3 times so that I would not miss this opportunity.

Touching down.

 It was truly amazing. What a rush being there live to see this that I feel my words do not do it justice. I know several days afterward I was still floating around about this that it got me thinking. Why was it such an euphoric event for me? I grew up here and have seen many things happen, but what made this one so special. I believe it was because I had a special seat, which gave me a unique vantage point to photograph from. The only other images from this side of the landing that I have seen were taken by NASA. I know there were a handful or two of others who had their cameras out shooting, but I can pretty sure gaurantee maybe on one or two had the lens that I had to get the clear shots that I got. Then as I was thinking about this I realized why the real reason is that I loved this SO much. It is what I had always wanted to do, be a photojournalist. That gave me the greatest satisfaction, being there to capture the event.

 

Mission Accomplished. The Space Shuttle landing at Dulles Airport.

 

  

 

Dark Ride Shooting

I have been asked by quite a few people to share my Dark Ride Shooting Secrets, so I decided that I would put all that I know into a comprehensive post which I hope will help everyone.

Shooting on the Dark Rides is one of the toughest places to attempt to photograph. There is the combination of extreme low lighting and the fact that you are moving, and most of the animatronics are moving too. So there is a real challenge with getting the right settings for your camera to handle these extreme situations.

Even though the equipment you use does matter, it isn’t all about the equipment you have but it is also about how you control that equipment to make it work for you.

There are four areas that you need to focus on to be able to shoot well on the Dark Rides and get good images from those shots. They are your equipment, the camera settings you use, your shooting technique, and your post processing.

You can finish reading the rest of the post by clicking HERE. Thank you.

Luray Caverns

I decided to take my new Nikon 24-120 f/4 VR lens for a real test run today. So I put it on my Nikon D3S and headed out. I was hoping to get up to Skyline Drive and the Shenandoah National Park, but it was closed due to some snow and ice along the drive the sign said at the entrance station. So I decided to head somewhere I have been meaning to get to for a few years, Luray Caverns. It has been close to 21 years since my last time there and I have passed it numerous times on my drives out to Skyline Drive and Shenandoah National Park. 

I decided that Luray Caverns would actually provide a better testing ground for this lens than shooting outdoors, so happily off I went. Once I got to Luray Caverns I paid my $24 entrance fee and was soon headed down the staircase on one of the group tours. The tour is a guided tour of the largest caverns on the east coast. Luray Caverns covers roughly 64 acres and the tour walk is about a mile which takes around 1 hour. The tour guide reminded me not to lag behind as the lights will automatically go off shortly after the group leaves a certain area. I can attest to this fact as I got caught once lagging and all but a few walkway lights remained on. I was sure to keep up after that. 

I had brought along my Benro Travel Angel tripod hoping to shoot a few bracketed series for a few HDR’s. But once I realized that the guided tour was going to be at a relatively quick pace tour, like me trying to keep up with my family at Disney *LOL*, I just kept it folded up and bumped up my ISO to 2000 and handheld all of my shots. I believe a monopod would be a great alternative to a tripod here. 

Once I took a shot or two, I quickly realized that I would need to set me camera to manual versus aperture priority that I usually like to use and that I would need to use spot metering due to the wicked lighting that is there to get accurate readings. They use spotlights ALL over the place and due to the spaciousness of the caverns and placement of the lights you will get varying light so it was very important for me to be totally conscious of the highlights in each scene and meter them correctly. Also if I had shot on ‘matrix’ metering instead of spot I would have lost the nice rich blacks and shadows which gives an image depth due to the meter trying to average out all of the scenes.

 As the tour progressed the 24-120 on my D3S felt very comfortable and didn’t weigh me down, and I was glad I had that zoom range in one lens due to the over 50% humidity that is present in the caverns. I would have hated to have had to change lenses constantly in those conditions.  It was also refreshing to only have a fanny pack on with an extra battery, memory cards, and lens cloth.  I was so enjoying traveling light without a real camera bag of extra lenses. It also made it nice to be able to walk through the people on the tour too and not be worried about feeling like I may hit them with a heavy camera bag.

 As I had said, I bumped my ISO up to 2000 and was handholding all of the shots, so this was a great test for the VR capabilities of this lens. Well I am happy to report that it came through with flying colors. And speaking of colors, this lens renders some amazing color clarity. That must be due to the Nano coating on the lens. The colors are rich and accurate and the images also have a wonderful contrast to them too. But the biggest challenge was going to be the lens sharpness. That too is amazing. While it shows a little softness in the corners, I can easily live with that. Even though this lens is only an f/4 at its widest, shooting with it on a full frame camera with iso capabilities like my D700 and D3S offer more than make up for the lens speed.

 So to sum it up, I really am enjoying this lens for a nice walk around lens and one that I won’t hesitate to use in most shooting situations. It will pair nicely alongside my 16-35 and 70-200. And if you are ever in the Shenandoah Valley area I would encourage you to visit Luray Caverns too. It really is a sight to behold.

Expose for the highlights

Expose for the highlights and process for the shadows. This is what the Zone system taught us ‘old’ film photographers, well it is still true in the digital age. 

I have no problem sharing my exif info on my images, it offers a starting place for certain situations, but it doesn’t teach why those settings were chosen. This shot for instance, 1/250 sec @ f/2.8 with an iso of 1000. Yes you could set your camera to these setting and when you shot it you would expect a similar result…you would be disappointed. You would get a totally DIFFERENT result on your monitor than this because I shot for the highlights and processed for the shadows. So on your monitor with these settings this image would look very dark in the shadows, but Buzz’s face would look nice.

 Why did I do this? Because in some tough lighting situations such as this, if I just got an ‘average’ overall exposure the face of Buzz would end up totally blown out. Yes, the rest of the image would look nice, but you would have zero detail in the face to be able to anything with it. So I chose to expose for the highlight area which is Buzz’s face so I could keep the details in that area knowing that I could easily open up the darker areas and make a nice image.

 So understanding exposure and the basics of the zone system you can get a good starting exposure so you too can get wonderful images in tough lighting situations.

Benefits of Rim Light

With added rim light from the right.

Have you ever been discouraged when taking a picture with a flash because the subject, even though lit nicely, blends into the background? There is a way to seperate the subject from the background, and that is with Rim Lighting. Rim Lighting is a technique where you add extra light to the backside(s) of the subject which will add light along the ‘rim’ of the subject. By adding this extra light the subject is seperated from the background.

Read more about Rim Light.

Focus Stacking

This time of year I probably do more macro photography than any other time because I want to capture the fine details of the Christmas decorations and especially the Christmas tree ornaments. And while most times I love the shallow depth of field a good macro lens offers, sometimes it can interfere with the details of the ornaments themselves because of how big some of these ornaments are. Yes you could deepen the DOF by stomping down the f/stop, but that also takes away that wonderful Bokeh that separates the subject from the background.

 

Adobe CS5 offers a wonderful tool to help solve this problem and it is called FOCUS STACKING. By shooting several images of the same scene with different focal points you can combine them into one image where the subject will be in focus and you can keep the background out of focus.

Please read more about how to Focus Stack.