Tips for Setting up a Shot in Photography |  |
- Tips for Setting up a Shot in Photography
- Interesting Photo of the Day: Magnificent Autumn Colors of Wisconsin
- Hot Air Balloon Festival Timelapse Photography (Video)
- How to Photograph a Smoking Lightbulb (Video)
| Tips for Setting up a Shot in Photography Posted: 21 Nov 2013 04:33 PM PST When you hear the word workflow, you automatically think about the editing process. However, there is a workflow when it comes to taking photographs too. It’s the few simple things you think about while getting ready to take your photographs.  Photo captured by Lena Bulgakova (Click Image to See More From Lena Bulgakova) These steps are in the order I think about my photographic workflow, but you can certainly do these in any order. 1. Consider the situation. What sort of situation am I in? Each situation will call for different ways for me to take the photographs and will have different ways on how I interact with the subject matter. How I set up my compositions. How long can I spend with the subject? What attention span does the subject have? How creative can I be? What lens(s) am I going to use? 2. Next, I consider the composition. Will portrait or landscape work better? Are there foreground elements or other elements I can use for framing or leading lines? How is the background? Does the background/foreground clash with my subject? 3. Then I consider motion and depth of field. If I am shooting fast action – I may want to freeze the action or pan and show motion blur. If I am shooting portraits or macro nature, I may want to have a deep depth of field. Knowing which I am trying to capture, motion or depth of field, lets me know what I will be using to control light. If I am using shutter speed to control motion, then I will be using aperture and ISO to control light. If I am using aperture to control my depth of field, I will be using shutter speed and ISO to control light. 4. Flash on or off? The first thing I like to do is decide if I’m going to use my flash or not. If I’m going to use a flash, more than likely it will be an external flash. On the rare occasions when I use onboard flash, I use my Prof. Kobre Light Scoop to bounce the onboard flash and to soften the background shadows. 5. Set my White Balance. I usually shoot in AWB. However, if it’s really sunny outside, if I’m shooting in the shade, photographing in a banquet hall, or inside a gymnasium, I’ll set a different white balance setting. Depending on how harsh the lighting conditions and the surrounding, I may even set a custom white balance. 6. Finally – I set my ISO. I usually start around 400 and go from there. If I’m outdoors and it’s really sunny, I’ll back off to 200 or 100. If I’m shooting indoors under low lighting, I’ll bump up to 800. I try not to shoot over 1000.  “Space Needle” captured by Joe Thompson (Click Image to See More From Joe Thompson) This is simple workflow for photography. It helps you take the few moments you need to compose your scene carefully and also gives you the time to think about what and how you are going to be shooting. Next time you are out and about shooting, give it a try. About the Author: Go to full article: Tips for Setting up a Shot in Photography |
| Interesting Photo of the Day: Magnificent Autumn Colors of Wisconsin Posted: 21 Nov 2013 03:15 PM PST A perfect autumn morning: sunlight filtering through the trees casts a soft orange glow, a sparkling little stream bubbles out of the rocks. The location? Pewit’s Nest near Devil’s Lake in Wisconsin:  Pewit’s Nest, Wisconsin (via imgur; click for larger image) The product of an early-morning (4:30 am) excursion, the image was captured and edited by photographer Robert Stebler with a Nikon D5000 and a AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 lens. It is actually made up of 15 photos stitched together to create a 50,000 px by 50,000 px image. Go to full article: Interesting Photo of the Day: Magnificent Autumn Colors of Wisconsin |
| Hot Air Balloon Festival Timelapse Photography (Video) Posted: 21 Nov 2013 01:48 PM PST In the pre-dawn darkness, dozens of vividly colored globes start to flicker and float up into the sky. They’re hot air balloons, and more than 700 of them will fill the skies over the nine days of Albuquerque’s 42nd annual International Balloon Fiesta, the largest hot air balloon festival in the world. This past October, Joel Schat captured the festivities with a timelapse video showing the journey of the brightly colored balloons from dawn until dusk: They come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Some look like cartoon characters taking a walk through the clouds. Seeing one or two balloons on a late summer evening might be a lovely sight, but seeing hundreds of them littered across the horizons looks a a rainbow exploded in the sky—a photographer’s dream. And according to Schat, many photographers arrive at the event as early as 4 a.m. to catch the very first balloons—called “The Dawn Patrol”—lighting up the still-dark sky.
To shoot the timelapse sequence, Schat used a Canon 6d with the following lenses: Rokinon 14mm f/2.8, Canon 16-35mm f/2.8, Canon 24-70mm f/2.8, with an Emotimo TB3 Black for motion control. For Further Training on Timelapse Photography:There is a COMPLETE guide (146 pages) to shooting, processing and rendering time-lapses using a dslr camera. It can be found here: The Timelapse Photography Guide Go to full article: Hot Air Balloon Festival Timelapse Photography (Video) |
| How to Photograph a Smoking Lightbulb (Video) Posted: 21 Nov 2013 11:50 AM PST Here’s your cool photo exercise for the day: A smoking light bulb. It’s an awesome experiment for not only the photographer, but also the electrician, the carpenter, and even the physicist in us. Light bulbs work because their inside is a vacuum – it contains no oxygen, which keeps the fragile filament from bursting into flame (instead, it only glows brightly with its own heat energy). If the seal of the vacuum is broken, though, that is exactly what it does – the tungsten wire succumbs to the electrical charge being pumped through it, producing smoke and eventually igniting – with some very beautiful results. In this video, photographer Craig Colvin walks us through his technique of creating and capturing this phenomenon: The basic idea is to puncture the bulb, breaking the vacuum and allowing it to fill with air. Colvin shows us two methods of doing this: smashing the globe, and drilling a hole into it. The first option allows the smoke to float freely, while the second leaves the shape of the bulb intact, trapping it all inside.
Trying to photograph light itself introduces a lot of problems though, ie. how do you light, light? Or more specifically, how do you not light it. Photographic lighting is just as much about removing unwanted or excess light as it is about adding it. In the video, Colvin explains how he places the bulb against a dark background but still manages to light it from behind – the backdrop is a black gobo, attached to the front of a large soft box.
If you don’t have a large soft box, this lighting technique could be mimicked using a white sheet over a bright window, with a black card taped onto it. Alternatively, you could place two separate lights behind the bulb, one on either side. The important part is the background -it should be pitch black for maximum contrast, so it’s important to position the gobo in front of the light source to ensure that the light doesn’t spill onto it and turn it grey.
Colvin goes on to explain how he created the simple dimming light socket, and how he carefully breaks his light bulbs to get the effect he’s after. What he doesn’t mention, though, is how to screw the smashed bulb into and out of the socket. “Be careful” goes without saying – make sure you unplug it first, and consider wearing protective rubber gloves. The pieces of a light bulb are very delicate, and sharp when they break. Use needlenose pliers to grip the edges of the threads. When using a drill, it’s best to hold the bulb lightly in a vice grip – keep your hands clear and use extremely light force to avoid smashing the bulb and/or slicing your fingers. Squeeze the trigger very gently to drill slowly.
Colvin’s complete instructions can be found at his website, including the electrical map for his dimmer light (yes, you can probably build it – it’s about as hard as hooking up a TV). Go to full article: How to Photograph a Smoking Lightbulb (Video) |
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