Photography tips

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LadyJaine

Photography tips

Post by LadyJaine »

Put your camera on a tripod. You don't want the camera to vibrate.

Point the camera to where there are lightning bugs and use a shutter release cable, or set it for a time delay release. You know, the one where you are supposed to set the timer, run around and get into the photo and then the camera takes the picture? You don't want the camera to vibrate. Since you aren't running to get into the photo, you should set the timer for only one or two seconds.

Turn off any autofocus. You don't want the camera to vibrate, and AF will shake the camera. In the dark, you'll just hear those motors whirring away, since the camera will be trying to focus on all sorts of odd things. Get a victim to stand in the middle of the lighting bug zone, holding a flashlight and focus on them. If you let the camera auto focus and then turn off AF, it should keep that focus.

Set the camera to manual mode.

Set your ISO to 200 at the maximum. Perhaps 400. But not 800, 1600 or anything like that.

Don't worry about the white balance, auto will be fine.

Set the f-stop for f-11.

Set the shutter speed to 3 seconds.

Take a few pictures.

Look at what you got in the LCD screen. Zoom in.

Try again. If it's too bright, use a 2 second shutter speed or decrease the ISO.

Look at what you got.

Try again.

Repeat, adjusting settings as needed.

Don't forget to carry a flashlight, so you can see the buttons on the camera at night, in the middle of the yard.

And bugspray for yourself. Mosquitoes and lightning bugs like the same weather.

Have fun!
LadyJaine

Re: Photography Class

Post by LadyJaine »

pbp908 wrote:Biggest prob with doing time lapse with lightning bugs (any light, for that matter) is that you're going to get an arc of light. It'll be interesting, but streaky. I think what I'd do if I were going to that much trouble (setting up tripod for time lapse) would be to have the person with the flash light either "draw" a pattern with the light or turn it on while pointing it at different things. That can give you some unusual pics.
Time lapse is more like a stop motion movie, with your camera set to take a picture at regular intervals. Long exposure is what I was describing, which is a single photo taken with the shutter open for a long time.

There are some ways to get around that streak, but I didn't think using a rear curtain flash would be easy to describe off the top of my head. Many cameras limit your settings if the flash is on. I'd use 1/60 of a second, and hand hold, or a 1/25 of a second and put it on a tripod, even with the flash, which will freeze the motion. What you should get is a trail of light following the bright bug.
LadyJaine

Re: Photography Class

Post by LadyJaine »

Here are a few things to keep in mind...

When framing up your shots, especially with things like clouds, think 'edges' because if you don't have something happening at the edges, what you end up with is a gray/blue blur. Put some horizon at the bottom edge. Capture the edge of the clouds in your shot. Get the edge of a building or a tree at the side of your shot. If you are on your back shooting up, include trees, buildings and perhaps even people at the edges. Otherwise, you won't have any frame of reference and your photo won't make sense.

You have to factor in the sun when you are setting your exposure. (Doh!) You have choices. Expose not including the sun and shoot not including the sun. That's the easiest. You can also expose including the sun and shoot not including it. You'll get a darker shot. You can brighten it up in post processing. You can expose not including the sun and then shoot including it. You risk overexposure near the sun but you might like the results anyway. I won't discuss HDR photography here.

Some cameras have AL, or AEL, which stands for Automatic Exposure Lock. You might have to press a button, or flip a switch to activate it, or even hold down the button while you are using it. Check the manual. To use it, you point the camera at the area of sky you want to use to set the exposure. Press the AL button and the camera will maintain those settings. Point the camera at the scene you want to capture at that exposure. Trip the shutter. Exposure is not the same as focus. It is a fairly standard feature to have focus lock when you half press the shutter button. Some cameras will keep both exposure and focus, most should not.

If you don't have AEL, then use a combination of Program and Manual. Point the camera at the area of sky when it is set on Program. Make note of the settings. Put the camera on Manual. Set the camera to what you noted. Frame up the shot you want and trip the shutter. Remember, your camera might set things in Program that you can't take immediate note of. Try looking for that data on the LCD screen after taking a shot. You should be able to see more than just the picture you just took, you can often see what mode for exposure was set. Cloudy sky, sunny sky, settings like that.

Do you know the difference between Program and Auto? In Auto mode the flash will pop up automatically. In Program, the flash does not pop up by itself, you have to press the flash button and make it pop up. This is a consistent convention for camera makers. Both modes are Point and Shoot, but you control the flash in Program. You can also control some other settings, but that varies with camera. The flash is the consistent thing. You don't have to struggle with getting the flash to turn off, and then forgetting to turn the flash back on. Just switch modes and control the flash!

Try to get into the habit of checking settings each time you pick up your camera. Just like glancing at the battery indicator, or the card full indicator, check your mode setting. Don't just flip it on and start hitting the shutter. The few seconds spent glancing at settings will save you a lot of bad photos. If you just have to try for that once in a lifetime shot, take two or three shots and then check your settings. Either you got the shot or you didn't, but putting your camera in the right mode will make sure that you at least get the aftermath correctly exposed.
LadyJaine

Re: Photography Class

Post by LadyJaine »

flojo wrote:Jean, I use macro lens filters on my lens and I can stack them up to three at a time. What is the difference between that and the actual macro lens. Help!
A whole lot of surfaces to collect dust, for one thing. Mostly, what you are sacrificing is absolutely perfect focus. The macro filters just aren't designed as precisely as a single macro lens. To test this, take pictures of newspapers, all text, like a section of the Wall Street Journal or something. You don't want ads, you want lines of words. A newspaper is big, can be fastened down flat and it's cheap. Magazines have a glossy finish. Do the best you can for light, but work hard on the focus before you press the shutter release cable. Make sure that the focus is dead center. Make sure that the lens of the camera is 'square' to the surface of the newsprint. The lines of print will help with that as you look through the viewfinder.

When you look closely at the photo, you may see areas where the focus wavers slightly. There may be a pattern to it, like the corners are all slightly less sharp. You want to zoom in a lot and take your time looking at it. Comparing the different filters to the camera lens with no filters will also help you determine which filters you want to use or not.

If this sounds like a PITA, it can be, but it will also teach you a lot about why pros spend the big bucks for top quality lenses. I warn you, if you try this to compare a P&S with a DSLR, you will throw out the P&S.
LadyJaine

Re: Photography Class

Post by LadyJaine »

That assignment of the bug on the leaf would be a lot of fun. But here's the trick about f-stops. If you have plenty of light, you can play with the f-stop setting and control the depth of field. You can make it very short, so things are only in focus if they are right there, or you can set it very long, so that things that are close and things that are far away are both in focus.

Imagine I sit down at a table and in front of me I set three things. One is 18" away, one is 24" away and one is 30" away. Use little Lego people if you want, they are lots of fun. If I set the f-stop at f-22, and focus on the middle figure, all three are going to be in focus. If I set the f-stop for f-2.8 and focus on the middle figure, that's the only one of the three that will be in focus. The other two will be blurry.

If you have a lens that doesn't go down to f-2.8, you will be stuck using an f-stop like f-4.5, that won't have such a drastic effect and though you focus on the middle figure, all three will be in focus. You will have to spread them out to be farther apart to get the one in the middle to be the only one in focus. That's another reason people will pay more money for a better lens. They have more control, more choices.

Why do you care about depth of field? It will call the viewer's attention to the subject, instead of the background. In drastic cases, I've blurred the depth of field to the point that you don't notice the chain link fence nearly as badly as you might, and your attention is on the animal on the other side of the fence.

If you don't have enough light, you are going to be setting your shutter speed to the limit of what you can hand-hold steady, (usually about 1/30 of a second) and then you are going to use the f-stop that lets in the most light and you don't worry too much about depth of field.
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