Sunshine and flash?!

What sorcery is this? Broad bright sunshine AND your on camera flash at the same time? What madness am I going on about? Simple as this. Sometimes, to get the angle you want and the exposure you want you need to pop off your flash (be it an attached flash or your on camera) to get a little bit of fill light to get the image where you want it. How does it end up looking? Well, something like this.

You start out with an image that is framed a lot like you want it to be, buuuuut when you expose for the sky and click that shutter you get this.

ISO400 14mm f/8 1/3200sec

NOW then, framing is alright, sky looks nice, the shore looks alright, but darned if those rocks don't just plain look dull, boring, and well, frankly, completely and totally worthless and underexposed. How do you fix it? You add some fill light!

ISO100 14mm f/22 1/160sec

So, now that we have added fill light you can see that the image just plain pops so much more. You get great highlights up front and a sky that is still nice and defined and not all washed out and overexposed. If you'll notice though, the settings have changed CONSIDERABLY. The reason I had to do this is to accommodate for the D600's maximum shutter sync speed of 1/200th of a second. This is rather inconvenient because in a situation like this where you have a gloriously sunny day, you really need to be able to pop that shutter off as quick as you can. So, I stopped down the lens as far as it would go, minimizing the light coming into the lens. Then, I reduced the ISO to 100 reducing the sensor's sensitivity to light, which allowed me to have the shutter slow down enough to get me the sky exposed correctly and still have the flash give me the right amount of fill. Also, because it was a very bright day, I had the flash bumped down to -3.0 so it wouldn't overwhelm the setting. 

The only unfortunate thing about using the on camera flash though is that with the Rokinon 14m lens the lens hood (which is quite solidly attached) casts a shadow, visible above, when using the built in camera flash on the D600. I could have pulled my bag around and pulled out my SB-900, but, I was balancing on two small rocks over the creek and didn't want to risk dropping something in the water. Oh the things we crazy photographers will do to get the shot, eh?

Starry Night

One of the sad things about living in the suburbs close to a couple of major cities is light pollution mucking up my attempts to see the stars. Last night was very gloriously clear and lovely outside. so I stepped out for a bit on my balcony and gave it a go. 

ISO800 14mm f/10 30sec

Now, here are some ins and outs of photographing the stars. To get sharp images (read not star trails) of them you're going to need a couple of things and to do a couple things.

#1 - A SOLID tripod. I'm not talking about a $20 job from walmart. You're going to need something that has a head which when locked into place is really firm and (if you're going to be out in it) something that won't go all wibbly wobbly if a mild gust of wind comes about.

#2 - High ISO. The above was shot at 800 to reduce inherent noise in the image. NOW THEN, the reason I was able to get away with this is just exactly because I'm in an urban area with a LOT of light pollution. If I was out somewhere gorgeous like Yellowstone with minimal light pollution I'd crank the ISO up to 1600 or maybe even higher to maximize the sensor's ability to pick up that gorgeous startlight.

#3 - A remote (optional, but preferred). Now, if you REALLY want to get nitty gritty and awesome, get a remote (corded or wireless) so you can shoot in mirror up mode and get absolutely no camera shake at all.

#4 - Weather appropriate clothing. Case and point for me I was doing this in shorts and a tshirt while it was a stunning 36*F outside. I could get away with it though by jumping in and out of my house through the patio door. Now, when I did some astral photography while I was in Japan it wasn't too cold, but I was doing it during the summer when I was acclimated to summertime heat so when it got a little chilly I actually had to bust into my hiking pack (I was on top of a mountain in the Hakkoda Mountains, Japan) and pull out my space blanket. Kind of inconvenient to hold it on and manipulate the camera at the same time.

SO, there you have it. Happy shooting and feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions!

ERMAGERD FLIKR!

Hey all! I'm updating to a dedicated Flikr just for Caffeinated Pixelations work. You can dig it HERE (aka http://www.flickr.com/photos/caffeinatedpix/ ) for full on tastiness of everything. Enjoy!

Taken with D90 on a foggy day

A study in snacks

ISO 640 50mm f1.8 1/800 sec

Because sometimes you just wanna have fun. A study in snacks today. Shooting fruits and vegetables in the grocery store provides a good challenge for balancing existing light and glare on your subject. As many fruits and vegetables sold today in stores have a wax coating to help preserve them, you can get unwanted highlights. To counterbalance this shoot a little to the underexposed side of what your camera's meter reads at. However, only shoot one or two stops down so you don't lose too much image data. If you shoot where it meters, you will most likely get subjects that seem overexposed with overblown highlights.

Everything shot at ISO 640 with the 50mm.

HIGH DEF

ISO200 28mm f8 1/1600sec

Want to see more in full on awesome quality? Want to buy a print? You're in luck! Check out my Flikr or over on 500px.

Chasing the wildlife

ISO200 50mm f3.5 1/200sec

So, one of the greatest challenges for me is interacting with children. Then, you add on top of that the trouble with photographing children at play in a park. For me, this is the most intimidating thing I could possibly imagine. Of course I had to ask a close friend to do a shoot with his kids so we could send photos to his wife who is overseas for a while. Obviously. Because that is totally how I'm comfortable working!

The key with photographing kids is to make sure that you're ready before you even meet up with them. Make sure you have the right lens for the job. Then, if your light isn't going to behave, bring your flashgun. Finally, patience. Lots of patience.

ISO200 50mm f3.5 1/400sec

 My choice for this shoot was a D90 with a 50mm f1.8D. The prime for this sort of shoot in a playground makes sure you keep up with your subject. Kids move at approximately 1.5x the speed of light at a playground and if you are shooting a zoom, you can almost guarantee you will end up with a piece of playground equipment between you and your subject, thereby missing the shot. 

However, the longer you spend with the kids on the shoot the more you will see that they tend to move in patterns around the playground. They all have a particular slide that they like more than any of the others and will make their way back to it frequently. So, at that point you can set yourself up at the base and wait for the perfect moment as they come down. Burst mode is recommended so you can catch the varying stages of static cling in their hair. Parents can't help but smile when you give them the shot with their kiddo's hair all fuzzed up.

Just don't forget, the thing that will make your shoot go smoothest of all is to relax, smile and go with whatever happens. Let the parent handle any problems that arise, and you'll have a great day. Kids are great to work with and always exciting, especially when you let them do what they love to do best, play. I've never had much success with getting kids posed, but, if you're willing to work around how they like to play, you'll find you'll get the best images from them.

All Flamingo'd up

ISO 400 200mm at f5.6 1/1250sec

In a recent trip to the National Zoo I had a scene unfold perfectly before me to snag a great shot of a flamingo. Here I will give a quick walk through of how I achieved this image.

I went to the zoo mid day and as it is already December the sun starts setting early, moving "golden hour" up a little bit. This image was a combination of great luck with unblocked sunlight and fortunate positioning of the Flamingo in its enclosure.

I watched the flamingo enclosure for about twenty minutes before a bird finally moved into the position I wanted. Along the right side there was a section of bushes casting a fairly deep shadow but also with a mostly unobstructed pool of light in front of them. After a few test shots to make sure the contrast would turn out as I was hoping, I sat down quietly to wait for a flamingo to get in place.

The main thing with images like this really is patience. You can't make the birds move anywhere they aren't planning on moving, so, you may as well just get comfy and watch their antics while you wait for the shot you want to arrive.

The reason that this shot was able to work is because the sunlight was extremely bright and direct, allowing me to meter for the flamingo with a fast shutter speed even at a smaller aperture but still have the background be underexposed enough to create a natural version of a blacked out studio backdrop. Then, a little tweaking of white balance and color levels in Lightroom and you end up with a wonderfully contrasty photo of a very regal looking flamingo.

Here are a few of the other shots I grabbed while waiting for Mr. Right to sidle into place:

Testing out the light while I waited.

These guys spent a whole lot of time bickering. Highly entertaining to watch though.