Tech Tuesday: Shooting fireworks

Nope, not talking about how to set them off but how to capture them in a photograph. I shot the local show then when I posted them on FacebookI got a comment saying ” My photos never look like this” Perfect reason for a tutorial.

How to achieve this look

First you must shoot them correctly. I shoot only RAW format. The show was to start at 9 PM and as I had never been to the show I got there early to scout out a good location. There was a pond, at the base of the levee and I sat up at the end of it. I first mounted my 55-250 not knowing exactly how far away I would be.

I always shoot in manual exposure and pre-focus at the expected distance. I set f11 and 3.2 seconds as my exposure figuring they would be firing pretty fast and I didn’t want to many explosions per shot. I also put on my Vivitar wireless remote shutter release and took a test shot. Once the shooting started I was constantly checking and adjusting the exposure. After the first few shots I changed to the 18-55 and ended up at 5 seconds, firing the shutter as soon as it closed from the previous shot.

Once home I imported to lightroom, keyworded and added them to a collection. then I selected the best to develop. Here is a video of that.

I hope this helps and you are ready for your next show.

Tech Tuesday: Exposure

No, I am not talking about being seen on the latest social scene. I mean the exposure of a photo. I was asked recently about how I approach taking a photo? The first is to determine the exposure. Whether using a P&S on auto or the newest most sophisticated DSLR you still need to understand what exposure is.

Exposure is the sum of the three main elements of photography. Aperture, Shutter speed and ISO. I call this the triangle pf exposure They are interconnected and you can not change one without effecting at least one other. In the coming weeks we will look at all three more in depth, right now I want to give an overview of what makes an exposure.

ISO is the speed in which the film or sensor absorbs light. From the old film days you had ISO/ASA 100, 200, 400 etc. the larger the number the faster the film absorbs light.

Aperture is the diameter of the hole in the lens expressed in f stops, such as f2.8, f4, f5.6 etc. The smaller the number the larger the opening thus the more light allowed in. conversely the larger the number the smaller the opening and the less light allowed in.

Shutter speed is the time that the shutter is open, to allow in light and expose the film/sensor. It is expressed in fractions of a second such as 1/60, 1/125 etc.

As I said you can not change one without effecting at least one other side of the triangle. Let’s say either you or the camera set ISO 100, f16, 1/125 for an exposure, by the way this is the sunny 16 rule and more about that when we post about metering. now if the light changes or you decide to change one of the settings what will happen ?

I should explain that all three are measured in what is called stops. ISO 100 is one stop slower than ISO 200, f2.8 is one whole stop more open than f4 and 1/125 is one whole stop slower than 1/250.

From our basic settings lets say we change to f8 instead of f16. F8 is one whole stop more open than f16 so the shutter speed increases by 1 whole stop to 1/250. Same thing would happen if we increased the ISO to 200. To keep the same exposure the aperture would have to increase to f32 or the shutter speed up to 1/250. You see one stop of change must result in one stop of change in one of the other two. It is Newtons law for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Why does it matter which one changes? We will delve into that when discussing choosing the correct exposure for a given situation.

Maybe by the end of the summer most of you will have gotten your camera off of the green square.

Photo Friday: Bald river

I have had a lot of comments on this photo

Click to see larger

I thought I would expound on it more.

After you leave the Bald river falls you can either turn around and go back to the Cherohala skyway or continue on and take a left on North river road.

This is what we did and it runs along side the river through the Cherokee national forest.

There are many primitive camp sites and about halfway there is a picnic ground with tables and restrooms right on the river.

because of the light many have assumed it was early morning but it was almost straight up noon. The forest is so thick it filters the light. You are also down in the river gorge with mountains on each side.

After we ate I took my shoes and socks off and waded out in the river. I wanted a low perspective and this could only be achieved midway the stream. Yes, it was very cold.

I set the camera to f22, ISO 100 with a two stop polarizer and achieved a 5 second exposure even at noon. I told you it was dark. I can not express how beautiful the creeks and rivers are. There is no mud as they all run on bedrock.

Tip Thursday: What you going to do when the light goes out

Well in this case if your light meter goes out?. I was reminded of this, recently when my camera meter went on the fritz. Luckily I know exposure enough to know that on a bright day at f8 the shutter speed should be more than 1/30.

Many of today’s electronic wonder photo photographers have never used a camera that does not meter the exposure. along with making all other decisions. I started my photography with an old Yashica mat 124 that had no light meter. back then you just used the ” Sunny 16″ rule

Most of the Kodak film had a little exposure chart printed on the inside of the box. The sunny 16 rule stated : bright sunshine day between 10am and 3 pm exposure would be f16 @ 1/ISO or if using ISO(ASA) the exposure would be f16 @ 1/125 or f11@1/250 etc. It came down for open shade, deep shade etc. With the exposure latitude of print film this worked quite well. We all got quite good at “guesstimating” I liken it to my sister asking, on a hot and humid day, what did we do before air conditioning? I said back then we didn’t know anything different. The same holds true for exposure. We didn’t have anything else.

Now the people that used slide film and had a little extra jingle, in their pocket, used a hand held light meter. Which brings us to my tip. Get one and learn to use it.

The built in meter, in your camera, uses what is called reflective metering, therefore it reads reflected light. Thus, it can be fooled by exceptionally bright or dark subjects, metering them to make them all neutral gray. That is why you get gray snow. That is also why the cameras have exposure compensation.

when my camera meter quit I got out my Shepherd Polaris light meter and took an ambient reading. unlike a reflective this is a true measure of the amount of light falling on the subject.

Here is a short video on how to use it. Light meter. Reviews here Don’t pay any attention to the ones that says it looks “fragile” I have had one for 5 years that I bought used, and I don’t baby my equipment.

A flash meter is also essential for setting your studio flashes, if you decide to do some studio work.

Here is a photo I shot with the light meter.With the cameras built in light meter I would have added plus 1-2 stops of exposure to compensate for the meter reading the “bright” reflective sky. With the hand held I just metered and shot. When imported into lightroom the exposure was spot on.

If you are serious about your photos or if you decide to try medium format or large format you should think about getting a good hand held light meter.