'bellafoto' 101

Hot Shoe flash techniques

2010-04-08T01:13:00.001-05:00

When I first decided to evolve my photography, and invest towards more advanced gear outside my original Canon Digital Rebel and k2 film body, I dropped a small amount of money on a canon 20d, a few lenses, and a 420ex hot shoe flash unit.

Having not had any formal training, I 'learned by doing' with some of my later projects at various mission sites and early career weddings. I can say now knowing what I do, someone should not jump right in and start shooting weddings: it is way too much responsibility. That aside, it is happening more and more often everyday on craigslist with individuals getting new equipment and wanting to challenge themselves (or make money by lowballing the other photographers). So hear this now, if you consider yourself a learning photographer, be very careful before jumping in with both feet, get advice on how to protect yourself and how best to minimize your losses 'in the field.' Do it now before you end up losing in court for mistakes that can be chalked up to none other than inexperience, like this guy.

Sorry to delude to my own fears in what could have been, on to our first lesson in lighting!

Before my first job with paying customers, I had at the very least learned what hard light is. If you attach your flash and aim it directly at your subject, you are working with hard light. This creates blown out, over exposed patches, harsh shadows, poor contrast ratios, and if there is a wall behind your subject, an outline shadow: the most blatant clue you are new to this (we want to avoid that ;-)

This is where light modifiers come into play. The first 'light modifier' I purchased was a miniature 'softbox'

My goal here was to soften light, and this is what seemed familiar to me. Only, with the mini softbox, it needs to be aimed directly at your subject resulting in overly harsh light than what you might expect. It definitely has its strengths, but when working quick and on the fly, its a bit much to worry with.

The next modifier I picked up is my favorite, and useful in almost any situation. Bounce diffusers create a 'dome' cap around the end of the speedlite.

I usually set this in a vertical position so the light can then emit from all around. It weakens the light and does a great job of evenly lighting a room with no harsh shadows. It is also strong with evenly lighting multiple subjects in party/reception scenarios.

The next modifier I actually made myself. I wanted to try something new and liked others results. If the picture doesn't give it away, I no longer have it. After hauling it around with me to many different jobs with all my other bags they just didn't make it.

For some reason or another, I did not get the results I had wanted. What I found with the reflector-diffuser was that the direction of light was a bit too direct. The edges of the light on the subject and background were a little too defined, and it created too harsh of shadows. With a bit wider of a template on on the foam backing this could be a very useful addition to your working equipment.

It never hurts to have too many tools, so long as you can carry and manage them. You never know when something will come in handy.

What is RAW?

2010-04-01T11:28:00.000-05:00

What is RAW?

For canon the extension is .CR2, for Nikon it is .NEF. You have been told by someone at some point if you are shooting with a DSLR you need to shoot in RAW. At some point you learned the hard way that a RAW image is not an actual photo in and of itself -at least not yet!

So what is it? In my layman's words, a RAW image file is an unprocessed capture of a shot you have taken. It is always a proprietary extension relative to the manufacturer of the camera. The image data is unprocessed, and uncompressed. Meaning, an 8mp camera will capture an 8Mb (roughly) photo.

The benefits here are that as it is unprocessed image data, it can be imported into Photoshop or comparable programs for processing. You have a lot more room to work with contrast, brightness, and even EV (read about EV or Exposure Value here)

A few drawbacks to shooting in raw:

Speed: the larger image takes longer for the camera to process, rapid shooting will have a higher ceiling of how many shots you can take before your camera freezes on you. This will depend on your camera, the latest greatest cameras have incredibly high rates of processing and high cache size. In a lot of cases they can allow you to shoot in a dual format, RAW and .JPEG simultaneously. Though, this will greatly reduce speed.

If you are just looking to shoot a family gathering or carrying your camera on vacation, if you are more interested in capturing the moment rather than having to dabble in post-processing, shoot in JPEG. It is still great quality, faster, and easier to work with. If you want to shoot to impress, read about white balance here, and use a custom WB to have your self proclaimed professional photographer friends scratching their heads at how you did it!

Shutter Speed

2010-03-29T23:03:00.003-05:00

It has been a busy weekend! But, today's lesson is short and sweet.

Today I am going to wrap up the basic photographic settings tutorials with shutter speed, to move on to bigger better things.

Shutter speed determines the speed at which the shutter or what is sometimes called a curtain opens, then closes again, exposing the sensor (or film) to the light.

The TV mode which was discussed here deals primarily with adjusting the shutter speed only, the camera letting all else fall into place.

Depending on the optical length of your lens, the minimum you want your shutter speed to be when hand-holding your camera shooting still or relatively immobile objects is 1/60. This is roughly 1/60th of a second that the sensor (or film) is exposed to the light in front of it.

Most cameras have a range of a 30 second shutter up to about 1/8000 and higher.

See? Short and sweet!!

I just acquired a set of transmitter/receivers by elinchrom, look for some basic and intermediate lighting tutorials and a review on the elinchrom universal receivers soon.

F-Stop, speed, and aperture

2010-03-26T12:09:00.004-05:00

Yesterday we discussed relatively in-depth about ISO, and how best to use it to your advantage. If you are just joining us feel free to read all about it here.

Today's topic is F-Stop. It is referred to in many different ways, and on its own, can tell us a lot about style, performance, and even equipment itself.

F-Stop and Focal Distance

F-Stop, when concerning what is called 'Depth of Field' adjusts the focal distance of your lens. At a low F-Stop number of F/1.8-F/2.8 your focal plane is very narrow, this would be good when shooting objects, or close-ups of a single subject.

(Click image to see full size)

As your F-Stop increases to F/2.8 - about F/5.6 the focal plane widens allowing multiple objects to remain in focus.

F-Stop Settings approaching F/16, F/22, and F/32 (depending on the optical length of the lens the minimum/maximum aperture can vary) allow very wide focal planes ideal for landscape shots or a long exposure shot of a starry sky.

F-Stop and 'Speed': Aperture

F-Stop can also refer to how 'wide' open the aperture of your lens is (one thing that has not significantly changed from film to digital, if at all). Given a lens with a maximum aperture (the lowest F-Stop number) for F/1.8, the lens would be considered to be 'wide' or 'fully' open, allowing the most light possible in the shortest amount of time (fastest shutter speed).

If you have ever heard the term 'fast lens' or someone asks you the question of how 'fast' your lens is, etc., this too would tie back into F-Stop and Aperture. A lens' speed is determined by its maximum aperture. For example, given a lens with a long optical length, it is typical for the minimum Aperture/F-Stop to be as high as F/5.6 when zoomed in; this is considered a slow lens. To contrast, a faster lens ideal for indoor or low light usage with a comparable zoom range could be a 70-200mm (shorter than a 70-300) with a minimum F-Stop of F/2.8; this is considered a fast lens.

Learning when to change your ISO

2010-03-25T01:53:00.003-05:00

In the interest of building my habit of writing daily (and to wind down from 5 hours of studying for a Corp Finance exam) I am going to share some quick info on some technical jargon, lingo, etc.

My previous entries discussed things such as ISO, F-Stop, Shutter Speed, EV (exposure value) without going into too much detail about what they all mean.

I discussed a couple days ago about utilizing some under appreciated modes (read about AV and TV modes Here). Today we will go more in depth to some backing knowledge about ISO to lend support to mastering these.

ISO is a measurement that actually stems from actual film's sensitivity to light, commonly referred to as the 'Speed' of the film. Vaguely how car engines themselves are not made of literal horses, the sensors of modern Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) cameras continue this standard of measurement.

Standard consumer cameras typically have an ISO range of 100-1600, some as low as 50 and as high as 3200. Professional series cameras, such as the Canon 1D, 5D or Nikon D300, D700, D3, etc. commonly have ISO as low as 50 and as ridiculously high as 25,600.

To typically achieve the best clarity (some would argue here also color quality) and least amount of noise in your shots, you want to keep the ISO as low as is possible. When the light meter on your camera tells you a bound (depending on your mode) is not favorable for a proper exposure through blinking that number (if you have seen your F-Stop or shutter speed blinking) then you should then adjust your ISO to get a more proper exposure at the cost of adding noise to the photo. Most modern DSLR cameras within the last year or two are very good at handling and reducing noise, you will typically only see very poor noise quality at 800 -1600 ISO and higher.

ISO 200 - 400 you can see little to no difference, at 800 you can see some noise begin to appear at the top of the stairs and along the walls. (click to see full size in a new window)

At 1600 and especially 3200 ISO the noise increases dramatically, proving these settings should only be used when necessary.

Of course, take some test shots of your own at the earliest opportunity of different types of settings and subjects, you may very well find your camera manages noise to your liking to handle a higher ISO, though, it will never look quite as good as a lower ISO.

As with all things manual on your camera body, regardless of what you are shooting with, practice now and practice often getting in the habit of double checking your settings every time you change your conditions. If you have the ISO high indoors and step outside into the sunlight, make sure you dial that back down to get the best shots possible!

Note: Those test shots turned out kind of crummy, I will get some better ones up soon.

White Balance - Canon 'D Series' tutorial

2010-03-23T23:55:00.008-05:00

If you want to ensure that your pictures come out as accurately as possible, you need a reference. There are many different ways to achieve an accurate white balance, most of them difficult and relatively expensive (though a worthwhile investment and learning tool).

To achieve a near 95-99% accurate white balance, all you need is an 18% neutral gray card which can be picked up at any local camera shop for an overpriced $10-12. Whats even better is the card also comes with a quick reference and tips on how to use it.

18% gray is the color assumed of all other colors, in short: if you mixed every color of the spectrum together, this is the hue you would achieve. Some people call it the 'color of art.'

To get started, simply hold the card to arms length and take a shot of it under the same conditions you plan to shoot. If you are inside and a lamp is turned on, plan to leave it on, etc. Do not adjust any elements after you have set your reference to your white balance.

To get started, make sure your camera is set to AWB. Hold your card at arms length (I shot with my 50mm @ F/1.4) and take a clear shot of it. Adjust your White Balance to custom: go into your menu on the LCD screen, navigate to 'Custom White Balance' and hit 'Set.' Select the shot you took similiar to mine and you are ready to go!

Try taking a test shot of something, then switching back to AWB (Auto White Balance) try and take the exact same shot. Comparing the two you should get results like these:

Don't forget, as soon as you change your environment, you need to change your white balance. For example, if you set your white balance to shoot indoors as the examples above, and then you move outside to shoot, you need to either switch to AWB or reset your CWB to the given lighting. Always be aware of this or you could end up with some really off-putting colors!

While this tutorial is designed around the Canon 'D' series bodies, this can be done with any camera. Do not be afraid to play around with the settings, just be wary and well read before dabbling in too many of the Custom Functions!

Quick AV and TV mode how-to

2010-03-23T12:31:00.008-05:00

Ever wonder what the different modes on your camera are for?

Do you find yourself struggling in 'M'anual mode because your brother-in-law said you have to use it, missing shots as a result?

Today I am going to discuss some very useful modes you can use in certain situations to limit certain aspects of your exposure to allow you work quickly, but get the results you have envisioned in your head, be it the bride walking down the aisle, the layup at the basketball game, or the high school senior perched by the pond.

A couple of points to start (look for more detailed blogs soon!)

ISO: Sensitivity of 'film' to light, also the speed of the 'film.' This should always be as low as is possible, higher ISO = more noise, though sometimes you have to take the good with the bad

EV: Exposure Value, a combination of all elements totaling to your final result.

AV - Aperture Value

This mode gives priority to the Aperture Value, allowing you to actively adjust your F-Stop while your camera dynamically adjusts Shutter Speed to give you a proper exposure. EV and ISO are manually adjustable, but typically need only be changed a couple times to get your ideal working conditions. This mode will be best suited in a well-lit environment, working with or without flash. An example of an applicable use for the aperture value priority mode would be shooting family and individual portraits simultaneously, or any situation where you switch from shooting a close-up of one subject, to two, three and more characters in the scene.

F/1.4-1.8-2.2 are a great stop to shoot an individual or glamor shot up close, but is too shallow if there are more characters in the scene, resulting in the others to be slightly (or significantly) blurred. If you are working with one subject and quickly throw in a few more family members, simply adjust your F-Stop to F/2.8-3.5 and you are ready to go, your exposures should all be relatively close to one another.

Tip: If you dial up or down more than a couple stops and you find the exposure to be too dark or too light quickly adjust the EV +/- or ISO.

TV - Shutter Priority

This mode gives priority to the shutter speed, who saw that coming? This mode in my opinion is underused. Photographers today will scoff at most people discussing it, maintaining the opinion that anyone trying to enter into photography should be more concerned about lighting, depth of field, and content, rather than just trying to 'catch the moment.' If there is a fast approaching scene about to occur and you simply are concerned about catching the action itself, you should be very familiar with this mode.

Sure, a perfect depth of field and EV combined with the perfect moment creates the perfect photo, those shots that will propel into a long-term career, but those are few and far between (not that you shouldn't be working your pants off to get them)

TV mode is going to prevent your otherwise perfect shots from turning out blurry (owed by an otherwise dynamically changing shutter speed that cannot take into full account your flash unit) Depending on the focal length of your lens, no hand-held shot can be taken with crystal clear results at less than 1/60. Dial down to this at a minimum to ensure every shot is at least this speed. Your camera will automatically adjust the F-Stop to ensure you are getting as much light in as possible. If your ISO is tuned in a 1600 or 3200 and your shots are coming out dark, without substantial fill-flash or turning on the lights, this shot cannot be taken (at least not without a tripod and no moving characters or objects).

I personally use this mode most in conjunction with my flash in party scenes, when artistic fluency and factors such as depth of field are not a concern to myself or my clients. The goal is to capture the goings-on at the party or reception.

Thanks for joining me in my first blog. As I mention in my profile, I am a learning and growing photographer. I believe a photographer is never finished learning. If I am inconsistent in anything or left anything out, commentators please make note.