As promised(though I'm sure no one was keeping record) here is my monthly picture post.
Every day I am learning more and more about photography. I truly think this is the hobby I've been missing out on my entire life. I've played guitar, piano, attempted sports, had a hand at writing -- all of these I enjoy and feel I am comfortable with, but I have never felt that spark that drives me to peruse each on a deeper level. This is not the case with photography though. The whole process is incredibly therapeutic to me. From scouting locations to composing a shot to processing and tinkering, each step in developing a final picture is sublimely enjoyable and just makes me feel good.
To add to the personal enjoyment of the workflow is the amount of knowledge I still DON'T know about photography. I've recently joined a few photo forums and taken upon myself to embed deeper in flickr and Google+ now and the sheer amount of techniques, styles, and nuance to both composition and processing I do not understand is astounding. I love this though -- having a field I can so readily thrown myself in to head first is a joy to me. Each day is a new quest for knowledge and I have an unquenchable thirst for it. Photoshop, Lightroom, masking, hues, exposures, layers. It's all mindblowing and far beyond my reach....for now. Watch out world, here I come.
Oh. And my title is a request for Anonymous from my last picture post to reappear. Who are you? More advice please? I relish it.
First HDR shot
hey, sorry i didn't see this earlier. for some reason the RSS bookmark doesn't work anymore; i thought you had stopped posting (the last post date is around maybe a month ago).
ReplyDeleteit looks like you're foraying into the world of digital manipulation; i have to say i don't know a lot about that— i use film only and to me it's more interesting to set up the shot manually and have it come out beautiful. but it's very difficult, i won't lie. it's definitely a hit-or-miss process that involves a lot of experimenting. pushing and pulling the film, trying different types of film (print film is not good unless you want retro-looking shots with odd colour), and using a tripod.
by the way, it looks like you got a tripod from the waterfall picture. how long did you time that one? very nice effect. i didn't know you were even allowed to swim there what with the old mill parts still around.
the picture of the moth is amazing. did you use a telescopic lens for that, or did you get right up close and personal? for some reason, my camera's autofocus doesn't work when the subject is extremely close, so i have to manually focus the thing and i usually have to use a tripod for that also (since i typically use very low ISO film).
the one with the girl in front of the waterfall is very nice, it looks like a professional portrait. very wide aperture from the looks of it. huh, the background is so blurry it looks almost surreal.
it also looks like you're experimenting with smaller apertures also from the look of the bridge picture (both of them, different bridges).
by the way, where is that cottage? it looks beautiful.
i think you may have discovered something else on your own looking at the foggy bridge picture— time of day. it doesn't seem like it would matter but time of day can be crucial for a lot of shots. in the middle of the day the sunlight can be pretty harsh, and while it definitely works for some subjects, such as if you're under tree leaves for example, it can have a very nice effect, or on the bug shot. but sunrise and sunset pictures can bring a lot of depth to your photography, especially by increasing something as seemingly bland as the length of shadows.
i see also that you're trying to create layers with the larger aperture, some in focus, some not. very cool.
do you have any questions in particular? have i discussed ISO at all?
Yes it had been a long time since my last post, I try to keep this updated regularly but sometimes the life just gets too busy keep up with, you know? Anyways I promise I don't plan on abandoning this blog even if my posts are far and in between. Too much time invested to leave it alone!
ReplyDeleteAnd let me say, as I have before, that I appreciate your comments! It makes all the difference having someone to converse with on the subject.
I've recently joined a photo forum and have been reading up on people's opinions about digital vs. film. Though the discussion seems to be more about digital and/or film, every photographer seems to have their unique opinion and it really depends on preference in process rather than advantages and disadvantages. I definitely see the allure of film -- each shot being developed uniquely gives it something special you can't reproduce with digital methods. It's an avenue I'd like to explore some day, but for now I'll still with digital as I'm sure I'd be burning through my money wasting shots with incorrect settings!
I just got the tripod, it's a cheapo aluminum setup but does the job and even has a detachable monopod which is great for portability(fits in my backpack). Unfortunately, being cheap, one of the legs has already popped out and I'm trying to get the plastic pieces back in the right clasps so it'll work again. Might have to buy a new one :/
EXIF for the waterfall shot
ISO: 200
Exposure: 1/13 sec
Aperture: 22.0
Focal Length: 18mm
I took bracketed shots and then combined them with some applications on Windows to make an HDR shot.
The moth shot was with the kit lens actually. I had to get pretty close but the bush was swarming with them so there were plenty of opportunities to sit and wait for the right timing. That reminds me, I picked up an old Vivitar macro lens and am waiting for the lens adapter in the mail right now. Hopefully will be able to pick it up before leaving for Sweden.
The portrait was a fluke, I just happened to have good lighting when I took the picture :) I feel like I'm getting a hang of wide aperture shots, framing a subject is becoming more natural but I'm still learning.
The cottage is actually a store in historic roswell. I am a huge fan of eccentric architecture, if I had any talent for drawing or visual arts it might have been a career choice. Sadly stick figures are the scope of my artistic skills.
Time of day has been one of the more surprising finds for me in terms of picking a place/time to find a shot. It's one of those things I've never thought about until seriously undertaking photography. I wish I had the time to plan out more shoots like that bridge but they come far and in-between with my work schedule!
As far as questions go, I was wondering if you have any advice on 1) framing small aperture shots 2) using the flash appropriately
On framing -- I enjoy finding shots with deep fields of depth such as the bridge or roads, and am beginning to see how to shoot wide landscapes, but I still struggle with framing the final shot. I've played around with cropping a little but for the few shots I've attempted I never end up with decent results.
Example: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/qWeT7Y_5Rx620MusT8lC8A?feat=directlink
How can I bring out the most "depth" in a long shot like the bridge, and how do I encompass the grandeur of a wide landscape shot(or just landscapes in general) without creating a flat image?
On flash -- I've been reading up on some tutorials for how to use a flash appropriately - such as bouncing off walls and creating a more diffused lighting situation. However most of the guides I see suggest using a flash I can reposition, all I have is the fixed flash on my EOS. I've tried using tissue paper to diffuse the lighting and play with the three iso/shutter/aperture combos but can't find anything optimal. For either indoor or outdoor. What can I do?
Thanks for the advice and reading through!
oh yeah, absolutely, it's more about one or the other, not one over the other. digital has tons of advantages in that you don't have any physical media to worry about getting developed, lower cost, immediate ability to view the image, etc. etc. i just personally prefer film because it's what i've always used and i love the colours.
ReplyDeletegoing to get off on a rabbit path here— did you know that all colours (not infared or ultraviolet or any of that) cannot be represented in an RGB colour space?
in particular, one entire colour, not a shade or a tint, cannot be represented on a screen (or on paper in CMYK format)— the colour is violet. ever seen a flower that looks so blue that it almost looks purple? that's violet, and computer screens can't represent it. when you take a picture of it with a digital camera, it will either show up as some kind of a royal blue or a lavender. i find that fascinating. interestingly enough, this limitation extends to film, but since every type of film uses a slightly different colour space (it's because of the mixture of organic compounds and chemicals used to make up the colours), some films display it better than digital and some worse.
back to the subject, yeah, honestly a somewhat cheap tripod would be the best thing probably because if you get a very expensive one, i mean, it's much less likely that it will break, but if it does, you're out a ton of cash.
lol, let me ask you a question— do you actually find the "monopod" useful? i had that same tripod a while back (yeah, it broke on me too— except up top, the screw in lever wouldn't screw in and the camera would tilt over) and i found that thing totally useless. i can't think of any instance where i would want to use an unstable pole instead of the entire tripod.
i'm not sure what you mean by bracketed shots and HDR— like i said i'm kind of limited on my digital knowledge. i'd love to know, though.
about the framing, it's always good to use the borders you can find in the shot, such as the bridge itself or treelines. you could also lower the camera itself to make the world around you seem "bigger". another idea could be, now i don't know if yours does this or not, but some macro lenses double function as a wide-angle lens. if you're able to focus out of that small range you could try that. i like the way you cropped the picture, you used perspective pretty well but it is an odd size. maybe you could try taking the picture a little bit off center and see how that looks.
about flash, honestly the only good use you're going to have for the kit that's on the camera itself is artsy looking lomography style shots. besides that it's basically just an addition they put on there for people who want an automatic camera.
oh, one more thing. i checked your photo album (google+, nice— wasn't able to get in quick enough), and you took some pictures of an abandoned school— do you have the address for that school? i love stuff like that.
ReplyDeleteI'd be happy to get you an invite if you give me your email address! The abandoned school is in John's Creek, I don't have an exact address but I'll try to get it today.
ReplyDeleteI have found the monopod to be somewhat useful! While maybe not perfect for lower light settings or long exposures it has been a life saver when using the telephoto lens at max zoom.
For HDR shots you take a bracketed series of photos in order to get the full range of light for a frame. So on my body I set the exposure settings to take three shots: normal exposure, +1 or 2 stops up, and -1 or 2 stops up. Then I use an application on Windows to combine all three exposures and get a full range of lighting.
And I did not know about violet! :O
ahh okay, i see what you're talking about. i've taken what you call bracketed shots in the past but i've never put them together. in the north georgia mountains, for example, during the winter, you can either get a lovely picture of a snow covered mountain or you can get the cold blue sky full of wispy clouds— but not both. so i have some "matched" pictures that i guess are "bracketed".
ReplyDeletehey matt— can i have your e-mail?
ReplyDeleteSure! It's matt.duncan13@gmail.com
ReplyDeletehope you made it to sweden alright. looking forward to some neat pictures!
ReplyDeletedaniel