Photography by Kent Weakley Blog

Night Photography by Kent Weakley eClass

Kent Weakley — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 14:37:45 +0000

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Night Photography by Kent Weakley eClass

Well the time to sign up is here. This exciting, fun, and informative online Night Photography eClass is starting September 15. Take your photography skills to the next level. Like most of us, you’ve probably spent a bundle on your camera and equipment. Isn’t it time you invest in yourself? Here are all the details.

Night Photography eClass by Kent Weakley

September 15 – 28, 2010
only $97 for the complete course
Sign Up Now and Take Your Photography Skills to the Next Level!

Video Photo Tip ~ Sharp Shooting Part 3 of 5

Kent Weakley — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 06:01:23 +0000

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Video Photo Tip ~ Sharp Shooting Part 3 of 5

OK, if you’ve been following since Part 1, you know I said these techniques are simple. Now you’ll probably thinking this one is ridiculously simple. I assure you this technique alone, if overlooked can lead to many frustrating unsharp photos. PPP (see Part 1 for definition) of this step will quickly lead to consistently sharper images.

The technique is simple; gently rest your index finger tip across the shutter release button. When you’re ready to shoot, roll your finger gently across the release until it fires. Watch your finger, to know if you’re doing this right. You should NOT be able to see your finger move while the shutter fires. Practice, practice, practice. How light can you press and still take a photo?

We recently were out being tourists and asked a stranger to take a photo of us. We all (some reluctantly) fell into position and applied our tourist smiles. This nice stranger lady took my wife’s point and shoot delicately in her hands and then with her index fingers and thumbs, proceeded to strangle the living day lights out of the poor little camera. She throttled down so hard on the shuttle release, I could actually see the camera tremble in fear.

Try this – think of the shutter release as a cleverly engineered nuclear detonator with a hidden disarm switch. If you press the button ever so gently you will actually render the device harmless. If you press too hard it’s KABLAMO. The nice lady helping us with our photo clearly detonated earth and half of our solar system. Luckily for all of us, it was only an unsharp cheesy vacation photo.

Video Photo Tip ~ Sharp Shooting Part 2 of 5

Kent Weakley — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 06:27:01 +0000

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Video Photo Tip ~ Sharp Shooting Part 2 of 5

Welcome to the second installment of making your images consistently sharper. OK, the tripod seems obvious. What to do if you don’t have a tripod or a place to brace your camera? Simple – turn your body into a tripod. Think about what a tripod is doing. It’s holding the camera over a centrally balanced grounded point. Well we can do this with our body by spreading our legs a bit, standing straight, and cradling the camera lens with our left hand while holding the shutter release side of the camera with our right hand. Furthermore, firmly resting the viewfinder against our eyebrow anchors the camera to our now tripod-like body further reducing vibration.

The opposite of this of course is holding the camera out in front of you and leaning forward towards your subject. Why not just move forward and take a moment to get steady? A pet peeve of mine is watching someone shoot a one handed, extended arm photo. I think this is a natural extension of the cell phone camera. But guess what you can still take the time (and both your hands) to steady up a cell phone camera the same way.

This technique works the same way if you need to get low on your knees. Simple make your self straight, find your center of balance, and steady up. Need to get even lower, use your elbows, arms, and face as a sudo-tripod.

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Video Photo Tip ~ Sharp Shooting Part 1 of 5 <<<

Photo Tip ~ Red, White Lighthouse Conundrum

Kent Weakley — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 06:08:42 +0000

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Photo Tip ~ Red, White Lighthouse Conundrum

In the last couple years I’ve taken a great interest in lighthouses. There are many factors that make them interesting to me; the history and stories, their relationship with the sea, the symbolism of safety and guidance, and their unique characteristics. I often imagine what it would be like if the lighthouses could talk. Every lighthouse is different in one way or another specifically so sailors can identify each light, while traveling at sea.

We recently traveled to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (A.K.A. the U.P.). The people there call themselves “YooPers”. Ya gotta love that. The forecast called for a front with rain the following day, so we burnt the candle at both ends.

My youngest son, and fellow photographer, woke with me at 4 (yes, a.m.) and we drove an hour east to visit and shoot the Bete Grise Lighthouse (not shown here) for the a.m. “Blue Hour”. To me, blue hour is one of the most rewarding times of the day to shoot, it’s well worth the discomfort of getting up extremely early.

During the day we toured a variety of areas and had dinner at a little greasy spoon diner en route to the Eagle Harbor Lighthouse – yes, you guessed it, for the p.m. blue hour. And it was really P.M., being as far north as we were the blue hour didn’t start until after 10:00p.m. Needless to say we slept in, until 8:00a.m., the next morning.

The Problem

The Eagle Harbor light caught me off guard and presented me with a problem that was a bit of a puzzle at first. In 1962 the original fourth order Fresnel lens (a large solid white light) was replaced with two DCB-224 aero beacons. This was part of the cross country lighthouse automation that eliminated the need for lighthouse keepers. Sadly most lighthouses today are unmanned and use electric automated lighting, but I digress.

Here’s the problem, there are two rotating lights, one red and the other white, and each is visible for about 10 seconds. At sunset it was no problem with a fast shutter speed. When the white light would come by I’d shoot it and then I’d get a shot of the red light. Well, when blue hour came, my exposure time slowed dramatically to thirty seconds. See the problem? With a thirty-second exposure and each light continuously rotating in ten-second intervals, the top of the lighthouse turned into a strange huge illuminated pink blob.

I wanted to get a shot of just the red light and a seperate shot with just the white light and I really didn’t want to have to mess with it in Photoshop. The sky went flat, like it often does at dusk. Some nice clouds earlier had disappeared and the sky was a pretty even blue. I had been using my neutral density (ND) split gradient filter to darken the top portion of the sky. I was looking at the filter and it’s protective case sleeve when it hit me. I could kill two birds with one stone.

The Solution

The solution was to take the ND filter off the lens, it wouldn’t be needed any more. Instead I used the ND filter case, which is black and larger than the lens, to “dodge” the image during the long exposure. Dodging and burning are darkroom terms for removing or adding, respectfully, extra light from or to an exposure.

Here’s how it worked ~ during the thirty-second exposure, when the red light rotated into sight I removed the case from in front of the lens. When the red light disappeared and just before the white light became visible again, I lowered the filter case down in front of the lens just far enough to cover the white light coming from the beacon. Thus, no white light was exposed to the camera. I gently moved the filter case up and down slightly during this time to soften the edge and make the gradation in the sky appear more natural, instead of hard edged.

The result was a single, in-camera image (posted at top), with just the red light visible and a nicely graduated deep blue sky. Two birds, one filter case. So, with a little luck and some improvisation I was able to get the shot at Eagle Harbor I wanted, one red beacon shining into the night.

If you’d like to learn more about Blue Hour and many other great techniques for photographing at night, please check out my Night Photography eClass. The eClass will be starting soon, so come and join us as we all learn together online!

Featured Photographer ~ Bob Soltys

Kent Weakley — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 06:18:14 +0000

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Bob Soltys is this week’s Featured Photographer.

My interest in photography was sparked by Alfred Eisenstaedt’s black and white images in The Eye of Eisenstaedt. Not long after reading that book, my aunts gave me a Kodak Instamatic camera for Christmas that I used during family trips and to photograph Robert Kennedy when he came through my home town while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Later, as a high school sophomore, my 35mm camera came along when I joined seniors at Lew Wallace High School who walked out to protest a teachers’ strike that would have cut short their school year and prevented them from graduating. The Glen Park Herald, a weekly newspaper in Northwest Indiana, bought my pictures, launching a 40-year career capturing people and events on film. Through associations with fellow news photographers, I began shooting weddings.

After years of shooting Kodachrome at the World Series and during trips to Europe and Asia, on a lark I took a roll of Tri-X on a trip to Wisconsin in February 2005 to photograph great grey owls. The black and white images from that trip rekindled my love of black and white photography, leading me to work exclusively with black and white film.

A bout with back and neck pain after an injury while serving as a Navy officer had already prompted me to downsize from countless lenses on several SLR’s to just two Leica M6 rangefinders and three lenses. Almost all of my pictures, however, are made with a 35mm 1.4 lens. This has not only simplified my photographic life, but allows me to quickly, quietly and unobtrusively capture magic moments on the street, in diners and cafes, and at weddings.

My approach to photography is simple: keep your eyes open, keep shooting, and keep out of the way.

Many thanks to those for their useful advice, most recently John Rehner here in NorthEast Ohio, Jay Dusard, and Alan S. Chin, with whom I spent a day in the darkroom honing gelatin silver printing skills.

Please add your comments about this photographer. Also be sure to subscribe to this blog for all the upcoming Feature Photographer, Photo Tip Friday, and other interesting photo posts. If you’d like to suggest a photographer, send me their link via email.

July Photo Contest Winner

Kent Weakley — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 12:31:57 +0000

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Photo Contest Winner for July ~ Joni

After many hours of review, decision making, and elimination, we have a winner for the July Photo Contest. Drum roll please…the winner, Joni with the bird on a wire image.

While there were many great photos entered, Joni’s image took the cake for several reasons; the simplicity, the graphic silhouettes of the birds, the texture and quality of the sky and the overall mood the image conveys.

Thank you to everyone who participated. You’re all winners.

Video Photo Tip ~ Sharp Shooting Part 1 of 5

Kent Weakley — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 06:05:06 +0000

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Video Photo Tip ~ Sharp Shooting Part 1 of 5

There isn’t much that’s more disappointing than coming back from a shoot only to find your images are less than sharp. This is a very common problem with some very simple solutions. Over the next few video blogs I’m going to cover some basic techniques that, when practiced on a regular basis, will turn your images consistently sharp. After all it’s consistence that will set you apart for the novice photographer faster than anything else.

OK, unless you’re shooting at a crazy fast speed in bright sunlight, like 1/1000th of a second or faster, you need to be always thinking stability. You need to be consciously thinking out loud (or in your head) “how can I make the camera more stable?” When the scene starts getting dim and the camera is asking for more time (a.k.a slower shutter speeds), it’s tempting to dial up the I.S.O. Do not be tempted. Unless you’re shooting with a super high end newer DSLR, there’s a good chance that higher I.S.O. will sacrifice quality both in resolution and noise artifacts in your images.

It’s also worth pointing out that is you’re shooting at a very low aperture, say f/4 or lower, there’s a go chance that you will have a shallow depth of field. Without getting sidetracked into a “depth of field” tutorial, the lower f-stop numbers will only allow sharp focus on the areas that your camera is focused on. Items in front of or behind the focus point will be less sharp, not because of vibration or movement, but because of depth of field. While this is a great technique, it unplanned it can lead to frustration. If you’re looking to have most the subject matter appear sharp in your photo us an f-stop of f/11 or higher (i.e. f/16, f/22, etc.) These higher aperture setting will require longer shutter release times, which will in turn demand PPP (what’s that you ask? read on) while executing the camera stability techniques we will be covering.

Steady shoots are all about Proper Pilot Performance (PPP). I’m trying to stay positive, as PPP is the opposite of Pilot Error (PE). So the first line of defense in a PPP is simple and straight forward – the trusty tripod. Tripods come in all sizes and prices ranges. You don’t need to spend a month’s salary on one. However, to offer the biggest bang for you buck look for these features;

height – will it be tall enough for you to stand (or sit) comfortably while working
capacity – will it easily hold your gear’s weight and size
weight – is it easy to transport, if you will be mobile. This may not matter in a studio setting

The next item to add additional stability is the cable release. The cable release allows you to fire the shutter release without touching the camera, which can cause slight vibration (a.k.a. PE) These come in various forms, usually to match your camera model. Third party substatutes are usually available as well at a much reduced price.

Alright, while a tripod and cable release might be obvious, what do you do when you have neither? Find something else that can offer stability; a post, a tree, a car. If you use a car or shoot from a car, turn it off to reduce vibration. And if you can’t turn off the engine because you’re moving, this will definitely fall under the PE category.

And if you have no cable release, set your camera up and simple use the shutter delay. This will give you enough time to get your hand off the camera before the shot occurs.

Some higher end cameras have a Mirror Up lock. This function, sometimes called M-lock, can be used to trip the mirror up long before the shutter is opened. These two steps usually happen together when shooting normally. By lifting the mirror up and pausing, this further reduces the vibration of the camera.

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Video Photo Tip ~ Sharp Shooting Part 2 of 5 >>>

The exciting eClass – Night Photography by Kent Weakley is coming

Learn more and sign up now!

Featured Photographer ~ Dawn Faught

Kent Weakley — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 06:15:15 +0000

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Dawn Faught is this week’s Featured Photographer.

“Nothing but air” was all Dawn Faught caught in her lens once while photographing a cattle drive in Montana – from horseback. She had dropped the reins to capture cowboys working the herd and when a calf decided to make a break for open country, her horse did her job and turned the errant bovine back. Luckily Dawn stayed in the saddle, shutter releasing throughout the exhilarating ride capturing only the clouds in the sky, and laughing – continued on with her shoot.

Dawn Faught, freelance photographer and writer, is an avid horsewoman who enjoys riding her horses through the rugged badlands of North Dakota along with taking pack trips through Montana, Colorado and other wilderness areas. Her writing and photography has taken her across the country to places of astounding beauty and fascination. She enjoys covering subjects such as equine and western lifestyles, personal profiles, historic hotels, and travel destinations.

“I originally started taking photographs to accompany my articles but now I find myself continually searching for that perfect shot, the perfect light. My camera is my constant companion, whether I am riding horse, driving down the road or working in the field.” Her photographs and articles have been featured in publications including Cowboys & Indians, Western Horseman, Heartland USA, AAA Living, Persimmon Hill, ND Horizons, Cowgirl Living, Trail Blazer, Trail Rider, Today’s Horse Magazines along with selling prints and stock photos. She also works with her husband Steve, and son Kyle, on the family farm near Amenia, ND. For more information on Dawn, her photography and writing samples, visit her website at www.rushridge.com