Danie Bester talks about photography...

We have moved...

2011-08-12T13:53:00.000+02:00

Please note that we have moved to

http://wwww.digitalphotographycourses.co.za

Farewell to the old... Welcome to the New!!!

2010-05-04T23:43:00.003+02:00

Good afternoon fellow photographers! I am glad to anounce that I am indeed finished with our new website, Digital Photography Courses! You may visit it at http://digitalphotographycourses.co.za

Still a few minor cosmetics to be done, but I will continue to tweak it until we establish it as one of the top premier photography sites in the world!

But for now, it is just fine and allow me to say, that I feel really, really proud. Not only does it look professional, but browsing is so simple and quick! I would love to get your comments. Please go on and subscribe to our Blog and Articles. Click HERE to go to the subscription page. (Please check your email inbox for a confirmation link. Also check your junk email folder in case the subscribtion link have been spammed incorrectly.)

I promise that you will get quality posts and updates, which will certainly help you to improve your own photography!

I say cheers with the following HDR photo I took during a morning fieldtrip with some students to Kloofzicht Lodge, near Muldersdrift. The shot was taken out of hand, converted in Photomatix via Details Enhancer and then tweaked in Photoshop and Lightroom i.e. temperature enhanced, slight tonal contrast enhanced etc.

hdr image © danie bester

We will be moving...

2010-03-03T11:06:00.003+02:00

All of you probably thought; What's going on with this Photography Blog? I haven't posted for some time now... To be honest I have never been as busy in my life and I could barely breath between the photography assignments and the courses; working on average between 13-17 hours a day. For this reason, my wife Jenna has joined our full time staff. She will be doing the admin to give me time to do what I enjoy most; photography and teaching. My long time dream (took us 10 years) of having a family business has become a reality. We have been blessed by the Almighty God.

Deon who is lecturing full time on photography at one of the tertiary institutions, a truly knowledgeable photographer will be assisting me on a part time basis. We also streamlined some of the current courses and workshops. Our Studio Workshops will now take place more often and we will be introducing a separate workshop on Strobism. We're also working on new workshops i.e. "Visual Language". Then there is also the "Photoshop Workshops for Photographers", which unfortunately, will have to wait for the second part of 2010.

The real good news is that we have registered a new domain namely www.digitalphotographycourses.co.za which will be online within the next month or so. This time around, I left the design of the new site over to the pros and hopefully the design and content wil be really refreshing. We will also be deploying a new blog at http://digitalphotographycourses.co.za/blog/. Actually, it's already online, but in the design process now and I need to fill it with content. The new blog will continue to share information about photography; whereas this blog will be used exclusively for posting client images. This was neccesary and makes better business sense in ensuring better performance in terms of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). In other words we're starting our onlsaught to get first page and a top position on the popular search engines. I will inform you as soon as the new blog is ready and attempt to transfer your current subscribtions. Our target is to have 5,000 subscribers by the end of this year and I can really do with all of our readers help to promote the new Blog.

I close off with a few images I took during the past month on my visits to Kriel... I am conducting a photography course there, and boy, are the people eager to know more...

The images are all HDR and this time I used Nik's Colour Effex Fuji's Velvia 100 filter to simulate the colour of the Velvia film. Maybe too colourful? A penny for your thoughts?

See you on the new Blog!

Danie..

Stay original

2009-12-31T14:40:00.003+02:00

I came across this blog post by Kirk Tuck, "The flickr-ization-of-photography". You can read Kirk's post by clicking HERE. Kirk tackles the issue of conforming to trends; it seems like every single photographer out there are trying to imitate and mimic trendy techniques. Especially some of the strobist devotees whose work is all over online societies such as Flickr!

Now don't get me wrong, I am personally a huge fan of strobism and are currently reading Joe Mcnally's new book "The Hotshoe Diaries, Big Lights from Small Flashes". The book's really good by the way. I too, bought into the greatness of shooting on location with a few small flashes. I have nothing againts Flickr and joined the community recently. However, Kirk's blog made me realize how utterly important it is not to fall into the trap of conforming to standards that's dictated by particular photographic groups or societies. Do something because you like it, not because others are doing it. Do something you think is unique (even though there's really nothing new under the sun).

My quest for 2010 is to be as creative and original as I can be. If it means I must shoot with small lights; it's fine. If it means I must shoot with big 30,000 watt / sec lights, also fine. Just Fine! As long as I am original and keep on developing my own style and techniques.

I'm finishing my post with yet another (few) photo(s) I took of Minnette which was taken for Jenna's (my wife) make-up portfolio. No; these were not taken outside with small flashes; even though I did use a single 580 EX II in an array with other bigger studio flashes and light shapers i.e. a medium sized Octo box, a shoot-through umbrella and a smallish grid and barndoors. I ramped the speedlite against a large refelector for extra fill light.

Model, Minnette Bester. Images by Danie Bester. Make-up by Jenna. Hair styling by Minnette.

All shots were taken at full Manual settings. I used a double diffused octobox with a grid for most of the shots as my key-light. I played around with the background light (shoot-through umbrella) and used a small dish with grid and barndoors as a kicker and hair light. At one stage I removed the background light completely (to have a grey background) and had the grid and barndoors directly behind her to create backlighting. I believe that every photographer should have two backgrounds; a black one and a white one (no racism here). The great thing about a white background is that you turn it into a grey background if you soften the background light or remove it completely.

PS. I didn't do much in Photoshop. maybe softened the skin slightly, dodging and burning. The light did the trick on these shots.

Top International Wedding Photographers

2009-12-15T21:14:00.005+02:00

Like to know who are the best wedding photographers out there?

I've also created a new blog page which lists the world's best wedding photographers; including our own top South African wedding photographer, Jean Pierre Uys. You may access the link from my sidebar, or just click HERE to access it.

image by danie bester. www.daniebester.co.za

Top International Fashion & Beauty Photographers.

2009-12-12T13:11:00.000+02:00

Check out my list of some of the world's top Fashion and Beauty Photographers. You may access it from HERE, or simply follow the link on the sidebar.

Image by Danie Bester. www.daniebester.co.za

Course schedules for 2010

2009-12-12T09:54:00.004+02:00

I have worked out the new photography schedules for the first 6 months of 2010 and boy do I have a busy program or what!

After so many requests, I also scheduled a few one (1) day workshops in terms of basic flash and studio lighting as well as Photoshop for Photographers. For those that's inetrested in doing one of my basic photography courses or just a one day workshop; here's the dates. Check my website or email me should you have any questions:

Basic Photography Courses (9 sessions, part-time courses)

· Centurion (Starting 20 January 2010)

· West Rand (Starting 2 February 2010)

· Kriel (Starting 4 February 2010)

· East Rand / Boksburg (Starting 3 March 2010)

· Randburg / Sandton (Starting 18 March 2010)

· Johannesburg-South /Alberton (Starting 30 March 2010)

· Potchefstroom (Starting 5 May 2010)

One (1) Day Workshops

· Basic Lighting & Studio Photography (20 March 2010)

· Basic Lighting & Studio Photography (19 June 2010)

· Photoshop for Photographers (3 July 2010)

Your world in... Colour or Black & White (cont...)

2009-12-09T07:13:00.007+02:00

Keeping my previous two posts in mind which was about "Aperture" and "How you prefer to see the world..." I thought it would be great if I can converge on both topics by sharing the following two portraits with you...

This following portrait of my daughter is the result of inspiration I got from a portrait I've seen of the Italian actress, Christiana Capatondi. The portrait was taken by top photographer, Douglas Kirkland and you can read about him and view his portrait by clicking HERE. What I liked most about Douglas' image was the crispness and beautiful black and white tones. Then there is also the sharp focus on the eye and shallow depth-of-field, which I think is the greatest elements of portraiture.

Even though my compsition may not be as elegant as his, I think or rather hope, that I partly obtained similar crisp tones. My shot was taken by setting the widest aperture on my lens, which at f/1.4 left only the focus point sharp, and everything else soft and out of focus. (Remember the smaller the F/ number; the larger the aperture, and the shallower the field of focus or depth-of-field)

In taking the image, I dialed in minus (-) 2/3rds of a stop using my camera's exposure dial. A solo speedlite was positioned on a stand directly in front of her and triggered with my (very inconsistent) Pocket Wizards. I therefore used the Speedlite to literally "kick" my subject from the background. In other words, the camera was set to underexpose the scene slightly while the speedlite was used to "lighten up" the key subject. That easy!

"Minnette"

ISO 100, 1/2500 sec at f/1.4. Minus 0.7 exposure compensation, aperture priority, multipattern metering. Canon 7D, Sigma 50mm EX lens. In post editing, I did not do a lot apart from using Nik Silver Effex to do the black & white conversion by first using a green filter and then the standard filter.

This second image, obviously a colour image, was taken in our garden. I also used a single speedlite from a stand and angled it towards her face and slightly more to the away side of the camera (her right side). To concentrate the light even more, I manually zoomed the flash head to 105mm. Slightly tilting the flash head to soften the light. However, a hard nose shadow was indeed edged on the camera's side, but I was able to blend it in by using the patch tool in Photoshop.

To take the shot; I set the exposure in Manual mode and gradually stepped down the shutter speed until I got a good balance between her and the the sky. At 1/5000th of a second, the shutter speed was fast enough to render the sky and background with sufficient colour and detail, but it was too fast to expose the model. This would have resulted in her being underexposed. Therefore the Speedlite. Throwing a concentrated beam of light at her "kicked" her out from the dark claws of underexposure. Simple strobism.

"Minnette 2"

ISO 100 1/5000sec @ f/1.8. Manual mode, Multi-pattern metering. Canon 7D, Sigma 50mm EX lens. In post editing, I softened a hard edged nose shadow by using the patch tool. Slightly enhanced the contrast by using levels and Nik color effex' tonal contrast and masking some details back.

Penny for your thoughts

I personally like the black & white image. Not neccesarily beause it is black and white, but simply because it is so overwhelmingly authentic and if you are able to look at it in full resolution you can't help to stare at it for minutes at a time. The colour image may be more sophisticated in terms of technical aspect, but to me the authenticity of her expression, the simplicity, crisp tones and shallow depth of field makes me prefer the black & white.

Now, it's time to hear from you...

Your world in... Colour or Black & White?

2009-11-27T11:24:00.007+02:00

Over the past few weeks I have been focusing on basic, technical stuff like aperture, ISO speed; and I will continue with the basic technicalities into the new year. In the meantime; I thought it would be great to throw in a few more creative angles before we go on with the series.

On Sunday afternoon I went with a group of students to Sandton for our night photography fieldtrip. I was enthralled by the low light photo opportinuties the buildings yielded. So much so, that I went back there the following day to see if I could improve on the previous day's shots.

Today, I will be sharing a couple of very plain and simple compositions that was taken on Sunday afternoon, but unlike my other posts, I will not elaborate on any particular techniques, but rather leave you with a question.

The question is: "How do you prefer to see the world; in Colour or Black & White".

Click on any of the images to view it full screen:

Black and white images are all about contrast and tones. This image was "enhanced" in Photoshop, and using the Nik Silver Effex plugin. To me, this image is far more powerful than the colour version.

I prefer the colour between these. What's your take?

Looking forward to hear your opionions. Have your comments posted at the bottom of this post and tell us why you prefer the one over the other?

.

Aperture Explained

2009-11-26T10:41:00.012+02:00

Now, we have come to the next important element of exposure, namely “aperture”. Aperture is the fancy word for lens opening and is measured in F Stops.

It works as follows: the smaller the F number; the larger the lens opening (i.e. F/2.8). On the other hand, the higher the F number; the smaller the lens opening (i.e. F/22). So if your lens has a maximum aperture of F/2.8; that will be the setting you will use to allow the most light to flow into the camera through the lens. If your lens has a minimum aperture of F/22; that will be the setting you will use to allow the minimum light to enter the camera.

It may not make sense now, but if you look at the following visual illustrations you will get a better idea of how aperture works:

The lens I have used for this excersise is a 50mm f/1.4, which means that the largest aperture available on this particular lens is f/1.4. The image above shows a massive lens opening at f/1.4 that allows ample light through. Since the lens allows so much light rhrough it means that you can shoot with decent shutter speeds even in bad or deterioating light.

At f/16, this lens is "stopped down" to its smallest aperture. At f/16 it is therefore near impossible to take any sharp pictures out of the hand in deterioating light. The shutter speeds are so slow at f/16 that you have to use a tripod to prevent blurry shots.

If you carefully study the above images you will find that with each change in F stop to the next F stop; the light entering the camera is halved. Example, F/2 will allow twice the amount of light to enter the camera than with F/2.8, which is the next F stop in the chain. F/2.8 on the other hand, will allow twice the amount of light to enter the camera than with F/4. F/4 will allow twice the amount of light to flow into the camera than with F/5.6 etc...

The diagram below shows the standard F-stops, ranging from F/2 up to F/90:

F1.4

F2.8

F5.6

F11

F16

F22

F32

F45

F64

F90

Lens opening

Very large to large

Medium

Small to very small

Best suitable for

Low light shots and portraits where you want to render a single element in sharp focus and the fore and background out of focus.

For General shooting. Ideal for Group shots

Suitable for landscape shots where you would want all elements in the image in focus.

Take note that the whole range of F stops are not necessarily available on all cameras i.e. a lens may offer a maximum F stop of F/4 to a minimum F stop of F/22. Most cameras also have the capability to increase F stops in 1/3rds, i.e. F/4 – F/4.5 – F/5 to the next full stop, which is F5.6.

Our next lesson will cover the relationship between aperture and depth of field.

Canon EOS 7D

2009-11-12T12:28:00.006+02:00

I got myself one of these! A brand spanking new 7D. I'm impressed and already in love with it. Added focus points, ability to group focus points together, weather sealing, electronic level, new metering system, NTSC & PAL HD video etc. Did I even mention Dual Digic IV processors and 8 photos per second? That's insane. However, I will not do the honors in writing a complete review. For that, I leave you in the more capable hands of the experts at DP review. Click HERE to read the full review.

For those who wondered what happened to the series I am sharing on the basic aspects of photography; I have not forgotten. Will start posting next week wherein I will tackle aperture.

Till next week...

.

Nikon's new D3S

2009-11-05T09:03:00.006+02:00

For those Nikon users and fans among us; the Nikon D3S have been launched about 3 weeks ago. Nikon's D3 series pro cameras, including the D700 has made some serious leaps in terms of noise-handling ability. The Nikon D3S certainly pushes those boundaries even further. Insane!

Read a brief hands-on review from http://www.dpreview.com/news/0910/09101403NikonD3shandson.asp
Another short review from B&H Photo Video here: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/find/newsLetter/Nikons-D3S.jsp

ISO Explained (Cont...)

2009-10-21T09:09:00.001+02:00

For those of you that don't read the comments underneath my posts; please check out the following link by the Photophile http://thephotophile.blogspot.com/2009/09/at-restaurant.html where he advices on an alternative way to get sharp pictures when shooting in weak light. Thanks Mr. Photophile.

ISO Explained

2009-10-20T12:02:00.008+02:00

ISO (Also known as Film Speed or ASA if you’re really old!)

Setting the correct ISO for the prevalent lighting conditions is the first step in shooting manually.

ISO refers to the film or camera sensor’s sensitivity to light. Generally, when the light is good – i.e. outdoors, on a bright sunny day – you will set the lowest ISO available on your camera e.g. 50, 100 or 200. If the light is still good, but not overly bright, you will use an ISO of 400. Normally, you will also use an ISO of 400 and higher to capture fast action. One will start using an ISO of 800 if the light is deteriorating and 1600 or even 3200 in really low light.

Whenever you shoot manual or in one of your camera's creative modes, like Aperture or Shutter Priority – or your camera does not have an “auto” ISO setting – you will have to set your ISO manually. In some cases, you may find that Auto ISO may not be accurate as well and you best revert to set the ISO manually. This is where many photographers who made the brave leap to shoot manual falters. It normally happens when you have changing light conditions; i.e. when shooting indoors, in dimmed light, you may set your ISO to 400 or 800. Then later when you go back outdoors, under bright conditions, you may forget to change the ISO back to 100 or 200. Suddenly your photos are totally overexposed as the camera’s sensor will be too sensitive for the bright conditions outside!

The opposite is also quite true. If you shoot outside under sunny skies with an ISO of 100, and suddenly the sun’s rays are blocked by a giant, stormy cloud you will have to set your ISO higher i.e. ISO 400 to cope with the deteriorating light. If you don’t, your images may come out blurry or underexposed.

The relationship between ISO & Noise

This brings me to the next point; the relationship between ISO and noise. Think of a TV set that’s not tuned in well, all that grain and flickering makes it nearly impossible to see what’s happening on the screen. Camera noise is the same; it spoils your image. Noise is that coloured specks you often see on photos that were taken in low light or with high ISO speeds. Noise is more visible in the dark or shadow areas of a photo and may totally ruin it. Noise is the digital equivalent of grain that was found in film cameras. However, modern digital cameras are far less susceptible to noise than film cameras. Most digital cameras are equipped with a noise reduction feature to curb noise in shadow areas during long exposures. Some of the newer high-end cameras perform exceptionally well in low light, with barely any noise visible at even ISO 1600 and 3200! With film cameras, this was not possible as ISO speeds of 800 and higher yielded very grainy images.

Fortunately, you may use digital editing software to sufficiently reduce the noise in an image. On the other hand, noise reduction may also negatively affect the quality and sharpness of the image and especially the edges may appear soft. For this reason, you will have to use sharpening software such as Photoshop’s “Unsharp Mask”, after you applied noise reduction, but within bounds.

I would recommend that you enable your camera’s noise reduction feature from the menu command if you shoot anything at 800 ISO and higher. Also note that the “in-camera noise reduction” function will certainly need more processing time, and your camera will take longer before it’s ready for the next shot, especially with very long exposures, but it’s best leaving it on. Then again, be mindful that digital noise is really more evident and distracting when you print or view images on a large scale; and if you are going to need only smaller prints, you may just get away by shooting with a high ISO sensitivity.

On closer inspection of the above image (if zoomed-in or enlarged) it is clear that the image to the right (taken at ISO 3200) clearly suffers in terms of noise; especially in the shadow areas. The noise will not be apparent at this size, but will become annoying as soon as you print or view it in larger sizes.

To give you a better picture of how noise degrades the quality of an image, I have cropped and enlarged samples of the shadow areas from the above images.

At ISO 100, noise is barely visible in normal print. On the other hand, at ISO 3200, the shadow area definitely suffers from noise; in particular the red and green channels.

I also included series of snips covering ISO 100 right through to ISO 3200. Click on the image to get a closer view:

How to combat noise?

· Some cameras or lenses offer image stabilizers, which will allow you to shoot handheld with really slow shutter speeds i.e. 1/30^th sec without any image blur. Modern image stabilizers may save you between 3-4 stops and if you don’t need to capture any movement in low light you may keep your ISO speed at a reasonable level, i.e. ISO 400 / 800. Take note that no camera will perform the same as another camera, and you may have to test your camera to obtain the best possible results.

· Set you camera’s noise reduction to “On”.

· Use noise reduction and sharpening software afterwards, and edit the image to obtain a good balance between noise and sharpness.

· If you are forced to shoot with a high ISO and really need the best possible quality, shoot in RAW. RAW shots have a higher dynamic range and you will have more options in fixing the noise with your RAW software afterwards.

· Another option to deal with high noise is to apply a software filter that simulates grain effects to obtain an old fashioned look.

· Digital SLR cameras have less noise than Digital Compacts at the same ISO setting because of their larger sensors which are more light sensitive (a large window will allow more light in than a small one). For the same reason, full frame SLR’s will nearly always outperform smaller APS-C sized SLR’s in terms of noise.

Summary of various ISO sensitivities

ISO 50-80	For shooting in bright light; excellent for close-ups, landscape, and portraits. Produces fine detail and image quality.	Not many cameras offer an ISO of 50 or 80.
ISO 100	Shooting in bright light; excellent for close-ups, landscape, and portraits. Produces fine detail and image quality. If you’re into landscape, or night photography ISO 100 is the only way to go, but you have to use a sturdy tripod and preferably use your camera’s self-timer or a remote control to ensure zero camera shake. You should also enable noise reduction to reduce very noisy, shadowy areas.	ISO 100 or 200 is normally the lowest ISO setting you get on modern cameras. As long as your exposures are fine, use the lowest ISO settings to produce the best possible quality. Note, ISO 100 is too slow for fast action.
ISO 200	Cloudy and slightly overcast days (yet still bright enough). Acceptable image quality, with some visible noise. With certain modern day cameras it yields the same quality as ISO 100 with barely any noise.	ISO 200 is the next best quality setting on modern cameras and you may use it to capture slow movement, i.e. a person walking etc.
ISO 400	Suitable for dimly lit scenes, heavy overcast days, or shooting indoors with flash. Fast enough for action and sports photography in bright light. ISO 400 is pretty much the most common ISO speed used for general purpose photography with its ability to capture action and a good quality versus speed ratio.	If you have the extra benefit of an external flash gun, use ISO 400 when you shoot indoors or in a dark environment. This will normally yield the best possible results. If you use powerful flash (studio lighting) you better minimize the ISO to 100 to obtain the best possible quality. Ensure that you stand close enough to your subject so that sufficient light will reach them. However, watch out for ugly shadows against the backgrounds. Take note that with most Digital Compacts, ISO 400 is still too noisy for any quality work.
ISO 800	Suitable for dark scenes and moving subjects in deteriorating light. In high-end modern cameras, noise only really becomes evident at this sensitivity.	With certain new digital SLR’s, ISO 800 pose excellent quality and mostly perform better than ISO 200 or even 100 with digital compacts.
ISO 1600	Suitable for scenes where an acceptable shutter speed may not be obtained with ISO 800 and for very dark scenes.	Be careful to use ISO 1600. It is normally impossible to take high quality images with Digital Compacts on this setting. However, new SLR’s may provide sufficient quality for general shooting purposes, especially if you intend to print smaller sizes.
ISO 3200 - 6400	These two ISO sensitivities should only be used in really low light conditions; say for night-time photography or to freeze the action at a concert if you are too far away to use flash or want to be unobtrusive. However, if you own a very high-end camera such as the Nikon D3 with superb low light capabilities, you may not have a problem. Lucky you!	Only use ISO 3200 to ISO 6400 if your camera can handle noise exceptionally well, and when it is more important to bag the shot than to achieve outstanding quality i.e. when capturing a newsworthy event.

Important reminders to consider when selecting an ISO speed

· When setting your ISO, make sure that you obtain the correct Shutter Speed. General rule for wide-angle to short telephoto lenses are between 1/60^th to 1/25^th of a second. Longer lenses may need much faster shutter speeds, say at around 1/200^th of a second and higher.

· Test your camera and lens combination for optimum ISO versus Quality ratio.

· If your camera or lens has an image stabilizer, use it, especially when shooting hand held.

· Choose a low ISO setting (50-200) when shooting in bright light to ensure best quality.

· Choose a medium ISO setting (400) to capture action in bright conditions.

· Choose a high ISO 800-1600 when shooting dark scenes or when you need to capture action in deteriorating light.

· ISO 3200 – 6400 is normally a no-go area, except if you have a really high-end camera like a Nikon D3, D700, or Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III, 5D mark II, Sony Alpha 900...

Canon's new Flagship: EOS 1D Mark IV

2009-10-20T11:09:00.006+02:00

Just a quick anouncement. Canon's new flagship, the 1D Mark IV, has just been released. I don't have the time to give you any insights, but from what I could gather; the Mark IV is a fantastic Pro camera. I would love to get my hands on one of these (sigh). Read all about it on DPREVIEW.

What does expsoure means?

2009-10-18T18:51:00.009+02:00

ISO – Aperture - Shutter Speed – Perfect Exposure - VOILA!
It is the relationship between ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed – how all these elements work together – that forms the underlying basis of photography. Only when you understand how these different elements work together in making an exposure; will you be able to take full and manual control of your camera. With a solid understanding of exposure; will also come a mountain of creative options and will set you worlds apart from the normal point-and-shooter.

Painting with light
The word photography literally means to “paint with light”. Light is as important to photography as water is to the ocean. Without adequate light your camera cannot see and capture a clear image. It is important to choose accu-rate camera settings to photograph a scene or subject, as you are taking various light options into account.Most of the time, we may use the sun as our main light source. However, in the absence of adequate natural light we may also use artificial light, like flash, to capture images.

What is Exposure?
An exposure takes place when light enters through the aperture or lens opening and through the shutter curtains and then strike the sensor (film) of the camera. It is simple. The larger the aperture, the more light enters the camera. In this case the shutter may remain open for only a small period as ample light is allowed through. If the aperture is wide open and the shutter doors stay open for only a fraction too long, too much light would strike the camera’s sensor and the scene would be overexposed or too bright. The opposite is also true; your image will be underexposed if the aperture is set too small and the shutter remains open for a short period. Properly exposed images are always the result of the right combination of shutter speed and how wide the aperture opens.

Aperture & Shutter Speed / Overexposure & Underexposure
Overexposure takes place if too much light is allowed through the lens opening and the shutter remains open for too long; resulting in excessive amounts of light striking the camera’s sensor. Underexposure takes place when there is not enough light allowed through the aperture and the shutter shuts down the available light too quickly.

ISO Speed
Then there is also the matter of ISO speed. ISO refers to the film or camera sensor’s sensitivity to light. The brighter the scene, the lower you can set the camera’s sensitivity or ISO (e.g. ISO 50 – 100 – 200). Darker scenes need a higher ISO (e.g. ISO 400 - 800 – 1600 – 3200) to ensure that the film or sensor make most of the poor light.

Your camera’s light meter will assist you with your exposures and most of the time, make correct decisions on how long to expose a certain scene or picture. Modern day digital cameras offer a wide range of features that can assist you in making decisions; there is everything from Auto ISO speed, auto shooting modes, exposure bracketing and many more tools. Most importantly, you also have an LCD screen on which you can check your exposure. However, even the best camera’s light meters are sometimes fooled. Issues like backlighting and high contrast scenes are not always correctly interpreted and your camera’s auto settings will certainly make mistakes under difficult circumstances. If you truly want to shoot accurately and creatively you have to set some of these elements yourself.

This is what makes photography difficult. One will need to understand how these various elements work together to ensure perfect exposures. If you get to grips with how these elements work together, then you will be able to make informed decisions on how to correctly expose your images. You may find then, that photography is not difficult at all.

Click here for our more in-depth discussion of ISO speed and Noise..

Introduction: Basic Photography Aspects

2009-10-18T18:13:00.014+02:00

"Candid". ISO 400, 1/100 sec @ f/8, Manual Mode. Canon 20D, Canon 17-85 mm lens at 83 mm.

Nowadays, there are countless people taking images everywhere. They post their pictures on the internet, publish it on blogs and sell their images to news and stock agencies. Every second person is in possession of some kind of camera, but not everyone is a photographer. Few people realize that there’s more to photography than aiming and pressing a button.

Photography is both science and art. We have seen a lot of advances in the science of image capturing coming into the digital age. Yet, the age old principles of photography remain the same. Maybe our tools have become better and easier to use, but in essence nothing has really changed. We are still reliant on the science of capturing an image with light. Terms like aperture, shutter speed, ISO, have been around for donkey years now and are still as valid as 70 years ago. Even a thousand page manual will merely scratch the surface and even if you do come to terms with the science part of it; will you realize that the art of photography may be equally formidable. The one area depends on calculating correct exposures; the other area depends on being an artist. True photography, I believe, only happens when a person who understands the basic rules of these two different worlds release the shutter of a camera and captures an image. It is only when a person makes an informed decision about which exposure to set, and how to compose a picture, that he can truly call himself a photographer.

This is the first installment of a series of notes that covers the basic aspects of photography. My aim is to assist novices and advanced amateur photographers to improve their own knowledge and skills and reach a place where they are able to make informed decisions and use their cameras more creatively. For this reason, we will start out with the more technical aspects wherein I will attempt to assist you with matters like Exposure, White Balance, Focusing etc.. Therafter we will embark on a more creative journey, where I will discuss more artistic terms like Lighting, Composition, Creative Camera Techniques etc.

So, if you are starting out, or working on becoming a better photographer watch this space...

Matric Farewell Portraits

2009-10-06T01:27:00.009+02:00

We've been setting up a new editing base at our home studio. I've been working day in and day out to get the new studio computer working. I eventually managed to get it up and running after several attempts to install an Operating system. I eventually figured out to do a BIOS update and thereafter Windows 7 installed with no glitches. I am still waiting for the 64 Bit edition so that we can make use of all that extra RAM that's not being utilized. For those who did not know; computers running on 32 Bit systems can only address about 3.25 GB RAM and that includes the memory on the graphics card. So, if you have an 8 GB beast and running 2 x 1 GB SLI Geforce cards you're actually left with only about 1 GB to do the job. Running applications like Photoshop and Lightroom may literally pulverize your workflow into the ground as the remaining 7 GB's are wasted through the limitations of 32 bit processing. But if you run a 64 Bit operating system your machine will utilize all 8 GB; enabling you to grind through that 100 MB Tiff files like a warm knife through butter. (What a clichè!).

Oh yes and a confession to all you MAC snobs. I don't do MAC. Way too expensive and really overrated!(My humble insignificant opinion)

What does that have to do with portraits? Nothing really. I was just trying to make yet another excuse for not Blogging so often. Getting to the point; it is that time of the year when all the Seniors (called matriculants or Grade 12's in good old South Africa) having their expensive matric farewells and geting rid of Dad's spare cash in the process. I am sometimes asked to take a few pictures of some of these young money wasters. Joking!

Those of you, who want to venture into the world of fashion and portraits should never underestimate matric farewell portraits to hone your skills and build a great portfolio. I think they call it Senior portraits in the US. We talk about expensive dresses, suits, extravagant hairdos, make-up and, and.... While the big Boyz and Gilrz look at their best and you're an aspiring fashion photographer get a few of them to pose for you. Get a great location, and take a speedlite or two with if you're really cocky. Maybe they will pay you next year to take more pictures!

I would rarely say no to the opportunity to take a few creative shots. For this reason, after having to change my time schedule, I eventually agreed to take a few shots of Christopher Geel. He's quite a handsome fellow while his partner Chanel is even prettier. Not that you ever get a pretty man for Pete's sake!

I only had about a half an hour to take the shots as the clouds threatened with rain. The light fast disappearing. I asked Ben Kruger to assist me. We were armed with a camera (obviously), a Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 lens, and a simple speedlite. I had the speedlite in one of Graham Robertson's small 40x40cm softboxes. I triggered the speedlite with a cheap, but effective chinese receiver and transmitter. You may purchase these softboxes and triggers directly from Graham Robertson Photographic

I had to shoot fast - sounds like a Western - setting the speedlite and my camera to manual mode. I had them edged against the lifeless, greyish sky. I had Ben holding the softbox on a light stand and with every few shots changing the angle of light. Here's a few shots to inspire you with, and show you that it's not too difficult at all. Go on, try it yourselves:

Chanel. ISO 200, 1/200 sec at f/5.6, Sigma 70-200 EX at 70 mm. Manual Mode, Canon 50D. Speedlite off camera in a softbox. I did not do much in Photoshop apart from minor tweaks.

Christopher. ISO 200, 1/160 sec at f/5.6. Sigma 70-200 EX at 83 mm. Manual Mode. Canon 50D, Speedlite off camera in a softbox. After sharpening the edges, I used Nik Silver efex Pro to do the mono conversion.

Christopher. ISO 200, 1/160 sec at f/5.6. Sigma 70-200 EX at 70 mm. Manual Mode. Canon 50D, Speedlite off camera in a softbox. Except for tweaking the contrast through the tonal contrast filter in Nik Color effex and nasking the skin and sky back I didn't do that much in post editing. The light did the trick here.

Drive-In. By now, the light was almost completely gone, but I had the car parked and Ben standing to the front and pointing the softbox from the top. The image quality is not that good, due to the high noise levels. However, I like the feeling of this shot. Especially the strong directional light caused by the relatively small light source. I took the image through a few photoshop tricks like increasing the tonal contrast, sharpening the edges and eventually applying a black & white filter. ISO 400, 1/160 sec at f/8. Sigma 70-200 EX at 83 mm. Manual Mode. Canon 50D, Speedlite off camera in a softbox.

Side Lighting for your Landscape Photos

2009-09-22T12:31:00.003+02:00

I have recently bought a lensbaby II. Have to fight off my son to get a turn to use it though. On Sunday, after seeing a client at the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens in Roodepoort; I took my lensbaby and the wife out for a drive towards the Hekpoort and Cradle areas. Catch my drift?

Focusing with the Lensbaby is still difficult for me and after trying several shots on and off the road and not achieving anything; I stopped at a grove of poplar trees and took a few shots of the tree trunks. I tried shooting the trees with the sun at my back, but the images was too flat. Knowing that side lighting helps to emphasize form and texture I took another few bracketed shots with the setting sun flowing into the grove from the right side. The shot is not that spectacular, but demonstrate how side lighting helps to create depth and dimensionality.

Untitled. ISO 250, 1/640th sec @ f/5.6. Canon 50D with Lensbaby 2. In Lightroom I slightly increased the exposure, and brightness and pushed the contrast up to 70. Thereafter in Adobe Photoshop I enhanced the tonal contrast by using Nik Color Effex and pushed the midtones up with curves.

Canon 7D Versus Canon 5D Mark II

2009-09-16T09:32:00.007+02:00

Watch this video. Hitler's not happy with the realease of the new Canon 7D with better video options than the 5DM2. Real funny!

I also gathered a couple of reviews and comparisons between the amiable Canon 5D Mark II and its younger, feature packed sibling, the 7D:

Featuring Tom Wells' Photographs

2009-09-11T06:54:00.005+02:00

I had the liberty to ask Tom Wells to write a blog post for me on his experience of our photography course and also show off some of his favourite shots. Herewith his review, which shows off his talent as both a writer and a photographer.

Danie's Randburg course ended a few weeks ago, and he kindly asked me to write a few words on the experience and show off a couple of my favourite pictures taken on each of the outings.

The first photoshoot felt like being dropped into the deep-end initially. Most of us were still getting the hang of our cameras, and switching from "auto" to "aperture priority" mode seemed like a pretty scary prospect. But after a brief pep-talk we quickly settled in to a comfortable rhythm and it was great fun to direct a real photoshoot! The early morning light was really good and produced some very nice soft portraits, but soon the sun became quite harsh which had most of us battling against the highlights. However, our models were absolutely brilliant and in the end it was difficult to get a bad picture.

Soft Portrait

This portrait was taken around 10:00am, f/5.6 (as wide as possible), 1/60s, 135mm at ISO200 on a Nikon D80 with 18-135mm f/3.5-f/5.6 kit lens. I like how relaxed the model looks, and I think I nailed the composition perfectly. I softened the entire scene slightly in Lightroom, and adjusted the shadows to bring more contrast onto the right side of her face. Looking at it now, 6 weeks later however, I feel I probably over-processed this.

Our next assignment was a very early morning at Key West (next door to Pecanwood) at Hartebeespoort Dam. Danie chose a great location where he knew the sun would rise over the mountains on the far side of the very still dam water. This was a magical experience, and I especially enjoyed the planning and anticipation of getting the perfect shot at the perfect moment. Long exposures and tripods were essential before sunrise but were quickly discarded as the sun broke the surface of the water.

Significant

This picture was directed by Dimitri, and we each had almost identical shots (with each other posing on the pier). Although bordering on cheesy, I love this pictures simplicity and strong message. Post production include a graduated filter to control the blown out sun, and a boosting of colour, bringing the blue back into the water and sky. f/29, 38mm, ISO400, 1/80s, Nikon D80, 18-135mm f/3.5-f/5.6 kit lens.

After a well deserved Wimpy breakfast, the remaining die-hards decided to hunt for more pictures and decided to visit the Wondercaves at the Lion Park nearby. Although the caves presented some beautiful opportunities for very long exposures, my favourite picture turned out to be a very experimental shot I took on our way out.

Escape!

My camera was still tripod mounted, and set to 30 seconds, so I set two of the tripod legs onto the steel steps, opened the shutter and rocked the camera from right to left, holding it at some angles for longer than others. The result: A gift from the photography gods! I was tempted to fix some of the light spots, but didn't - you don't mess with perfection! :)

The following evening we found ourselves on the Northcliff Koppies, overlooking a scene of Johannesburg lit by a slowly setting sun. Finding a point of interest here is difficult, and I found myself overwhelmed by the massive water-tower. This tower presented many HDR opportunities and very interesting architectural perspectives, but my best shot did not come out of these, but instead involved silhouetting a small bush onto the light of the vibrant city lights behind.

Silhouette on Sky

Very low mounted tripod, f/9.0, 30.0s, ISO100, 10.5mm, Nikon D80, 10.5mm f/2.8 fisheye. Treatment included enhancing sky colour, and clipping the blacks heavily. If there is any reason to prefer shooting RAW over JPEG, this is it.

Certainly an amazing experience, it was great to hang out with a bunch of like-minded passionate photographers, and get the opportunity to shadow a real pro like Danie.

Keep chasing the light :)

Article by Tom Wells

Just another HDR shot?

2009-09-09T14:29:00.008+02:00

I took this shot with my Randburg class when we visited "Northcliff Koppie" a few week's back. I felt that some of the students, like Tom Wells actually beat me to the game and got a few shots I would be proud of. I will attempt to gather the best shots from my students and post them on the blog for you to see.

The following image is an HDR image. I shot three images by using my camera's auto bracketing function. If you don't know anything about HDR shots, you may refer back to a previous post dated 1 May 2009 which provide a more detailed description on how to create HDR images.

The image looks quite surreal with the most magnificent colours and tones. I did not do too much in post editing except for levels, sharpening the edges, and increasing the tonal contrast significantly. I would like to hear your take on HDR images and whether you think it forms part of "real" photography, or whether you think it is a hoax.

I used Aperture priority with my aperture set to f/8. The three shots from which I created this image exposure times were 6 sec, 25 sec and 30 sec respectively. My ISO was set to 100 to combat noise and provide the best possible quality. Obviously, for such long exposures, I had to use a tripod. Canon 50D, EF-s 17-85mm lens at 41mm.

Simple Shots or Hotshots?

2009-09-08T22:43:00.012+02:00

I haven't been posting any new work for some time now. Have done a few fieldtrips over the past few weeks with my students and decided to share some shots with you over the next few days.

This shot was taken with the Randburg group in August at Hartebeespoort Dam just after sunrise from there the fiery glow. Nothing spectacular; a simple shot. But simple can go far I think.

Didn't do much in Photoshop. Cleaned up the top right corner slightly and then the basics; levels, contrast, burning in the shadows (just slightly) and dodging some highlights. Then converted one copy into a mono shot (using Nik's Silver Effex) and another Sepia (also Nik Silver Effex). Then placed the colour, sepia and mono images on one canvas. A penny for your thoughts:

ISO 200, 1/2000 sec @ f/2.8. Evaluative (multipattern) metering. Handheld. Canon 50D, Sigma 70-200 EX APO lens.

Black & White Portraits

2009-07-25T15:07:00.013+02:00

Just thought I would share my favourite two mono shots of this morning's fieldtrip with my photography class.

This shot of my son, Mia-Daniel. The harsh winter sun etched a striking shadow on the wall, which adds dimension and depth to the composition. Since the high contrast scene fooled my camera's light meter to underexpose the model in attemting to expose for the bright wall, I had to dial in exposure compensation of 1 and a 2/3rd of a stop. ISO 100, 1/1600th sec at f/2.8 @ 70mm. Canon 50D, Sigma 70-200 EX APO HSM Lens

This head shot of Dimitri was taken inside with a black background. I used a Canon Speedlite EX430 in a small softbox for key light and a silver reflector for fill. The key light slightly to the front and Dimitri's right. The silver reflector very close to his left. ISO 100, 1/250th sec at f/2.8 @ 126mm. Canon 50D, Sigma 70-200 EX APO HSM Lens

A simple portrait...

2009-07-25T13:17:00.017+02:00

Last Saturday, we've been taking photos for a 40th Birthday at Montè Casino. I was summoned to take photos of all the guests on arrival. There was not enough space in the Club to take the photos and we moved to the outside. I wanted to use a wall, which was about 1o-12 meters back, for background. We used two studio flashes for key and fill light. After taking a few test shots, I realised that the wall was simply too far away and came out too dark. I then put a 430 EX speedlite in a small 40mm x 40cm softbox and directed it towards the wall. I set it to Manual and Full Power. It sufficiently brightened up the dark background. Here's one of my favourite shots of the day:

This woman, unknown to me, was one of the guests at the party. I saw her, and was immediatly arrested by her classical beauty. I thought she would just fit in with the setting. After taking the initial shot, I couldn't resist to ask her for another few shots. She rather pensively agreed to pose for a few more shots, of which this image is my best. Canon 50D, Sigma 70-200 EX APO HSM

Here's a schematic of the lighting setup I've used: