Light and fog

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 3 sec., f/8, ISO 400

Photographers are supposed to have a “thing,” a particular kind of subject or style to specialize in. I’m having too much fun with the art to settle down in any one area, but if I did have a “thing” it would probably be mist. I love how it feels to be out in it, and I love how it plays with light when it’s photographed.

Here’s a playful little piece I took last week. The neighbors’ Christmas lights looked so nice in the fog, I had to get a picture. Naturally this called for a slow exposure to get the light right.

Unfortunately, my good tripod was at work. So I used my travel tripod to brace the camera. Portable though it may be, it doesn’t hold the camera firm enough to avoid the small camera shake caused by pressing the shutter button. You can see the small dip the camera took, which shows up as little hooks at the bottom of the bright lights. Once the button pressure was off, the rest of the time the camera stayed still. Thus the dimmer parts of the picture (which took longer to expose) show no blur at all.

The Patriot

Nikon D7000, 72mm (28-200), 1/640, f/6.3, ISO 200, cropped

First rule of late season visits to Worlds of Fun: leave well before Haunt gets underway. None of the photos I tried to take after dark worked out. However, I did have some fun earlier in the day.

The first ride my group went on was The Patriot, one of the park’s many roller coasters. I managed to find a spot that gave me a couple of good angles. The shot above proved to be a good example of how to imply movement in a “frozen motion” shot via body angles. You can tell that the coaster is moving with some speed because otherwise the seats couldn’t be at that angle.

The other way to convey motion is through blur. I propped the camera on a fence so I could slow the shutter down enough to blur the moving coaster here:

Nikon D3000, 10.5mm, 1/10, f/22, ISO 100, adjusted

Then I decided to have a little fun with it. I shot a series of pictures with the coaster at several spots along the track. Then I used layers in Photoshop to combine them all into one picture that shows the whole sequence.

Nikon D3000, 10.5mm, 1/125, f/10, ISO 100, edited

Light painting

Nikon D7000, 48mm (18-55), 5 sec., f/5.3, ISO 100

Last week we took a look at photos of moving light sources shot at slow shutter speeds. Today’s example is traditional “light painting,” using a light and a long exposure to draw something in the darkness.

This is impromptu stuff, shot with the flashlight feature on my iPhone. If this had been anything besides an experiment, I probably would have at least changed the backdrop to a black muslin to reduce the chances that it would show up in the shot (as it does a little here). I should also have removed the UV filter from the lens, as it’s likely to be the source of the faint phantom lines in the shot.

And if I was really getting fancy, I could have thrown in some rear curtain flash so that I would be visible in the shot. Or at least practiced a bit so I could legibly write the word “hello” (and do it backward so it would read correctly in the photo).

Picasso was much better at this.

Awika

Nikon D7000, 45mm (18-55), 3 sec., f/5.3, ISO 800, cropped

For our fun class session last week, we killed the lights, slowed down the shutter and photographed some moving light sources.

Our first subject was Awika, relative of Cosmojetz. I neglected to shoot video with the lights on, but the folks who created it have a good, quick clip. With the lights off, the only visible part of the scene were the sparks shooting out the back.

The first attempt (above) was a little over-exposed. To be sure, it was still a cool effect. The winding key and Awika’s feet are faintly visible. But I was curious to see what we’d get if we played with the exposure a little. First I dropped the ISO:

Nikon D7000, 45mm (18-55), 3 sec., f/5.3, ISO 100, cropped

And then I closed the aperture down a bit:

Nikon D7000, 45mm (18-55), 3 sec., f/11, ISO 100, cropped

Unfortunately, for that test I put the subject on the table upside down, so its body hid most of the sparks. One more try:

Nikon D7000, 45mm (18-55), 3 sec., f/11, ISO 100, cropped

Now the only visible parts of the subject are the narrow light trails made by the sparks. They look like fine hairs or dandelion fluff. Sometimes it’s nice to just play around and see what you get.

Waterfall

Nikon D7000, 44mm (18-55), 3 sec., f/29, ISO 100, on-camera filter, adjusted and cropped

Yesterday was the final in-class session of my fall Photography course. As usual, the last non-online meet was optional, and as nobody who showed up needed to get caught up on anything, we spent the time having some fun.

The main activity was a set of light painting experiments I’ll post next week. But after class I was still in a picture-taking mood so I decided to try a new filter I bought awhile back.

The main idea behind neutral density filters (other than protection for expensive lenses) is to reduce the amount of light getting into the camera without affecting the color or image quality. The new toy in this case was a Hoya 52mm 3-400 variable density filter.

Variable density filters can be adjusted to let in more or less light. The minimum setting for this one lets in 1/3 of the light that would otherwise get through the lens, the approximate equivalent of 1.5 stops. At the opposite end of the scale the filter screens down to 1/400 of the light, around nine stops.

The photo at the top of this post shows the filter near maximum strength. The ISO is down as far as it would go and the aperture closed up as tight as it would go. The result is not much light getting through and not much sensitivity to record what does get through. That’s how I got away with a three second exposure, which otherwise in bright sunlight would have over-exposed the shot so badly that I would have gotten nothing but an empty white frame.

At this speed the water (the only moving subject in the shot) turns into a hazy blur. Compare the long exposure to something closer to normal speeds:

Nikon D7000, 44mm (18-55), 1/125, f/5.6, ISO 100, on-camera filter, adjusted

Turning the filter down to its minimum allowed me to speed up the shutter and freeze the flowing water. Though the result is a great deal more “realistic” (i.e. more like what you’d perceive if you were actually looking at the scene), it’s arguably not as interesting to look at. The composition is  more chaotic, not as smooth as the longer exposure that records the general flow rather than individual drops.

Stars

Nikon D7000, 10.5mm, 30 sec., f/2.8, ISO 800

The whole time we were in New Mexico, I kept hoping for the chance to photograph the night sky. We were staying in Dixon, a small town far enough from city lights to allow me to get a good shot of some stars.

So naturally it was monsoon season. Every single day the sky clouded up late in the afternoon and stayed overcast until well after I’d gone to bed.

But on our second-to-last night there, I finally got some luck. The skies cleared almost entirely (you can still see some clouds toward the bottom of the shot) and I finally got the shot I was after.

I set up a tripod in the courtyard of the mission where we were staying and took the picture with a wide angle lens. So you can see roofs, trees, a pole and some power lines. The light in the window in the lower left-hand side is from my wife’s phone. A 30 second exposure will pick up just about any available light.

Exile in the rain

D3000, 10.5mm, 0.3 sec, f/8, ISO 200, adjusted

Around a month ago I got a rare confluence of events: a rainy night and the free time to go out in it and shoot some pictures. I promised Amy I’d photograph the neon at Exile Tattoos some damp evening, so this seemed like the perfect time.

Naturally I brought a tripod along so I could work in the dim light. I started with the 10.5mm lens, taking a few shots in the lobby (below) before moving outside for the pictures I came to get (above).

D3000, 10.5mm, 0.5 sec, f/8, ISO 200

The outdoor photos I took with the 18-55mm zoom didn’t turn out as well. While I remembered to bring the camera’s raincoat, I neglected to bring one for myself. Thus I ended up drenched before I got anything I was happy with.

On the other hand, it wasn’t raining indoors. So while I had the camera on the tripod, I decided to play around with a special effects trick: zooming with the shutter open. The technique produces a strange, streaky effect that draws attention to the center of the shot. I’d tried the trick a few times in the past, but this is the first time I got genuinely interesting results:

D7000, 18-55mm, 2.5 sec, f/13, ISO 100

State Fair - Midway miscellany

Nikon D7000, 48mm (28-200), 1/125, f/4.5, ISO 800

The best part of the fair – for kids and photographers alike – has to be the midway. As the sun goes down, the rides and booths become a festival of fascinating images. They also become a festival of tricky technical challenges.

This close-up of a trash can lid gets in tight to reduce the face to abstract form and color. It also brings out the surface texture and the glittery paint.

Nikon D7000, 135mm (28-200), 1/1250, f/7.1, ISO 800

The colors everywhere were wonderful. Booths full of stuffed animal prizes provided no end of bright patterns.

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/125, f/5.6, ISO 800, cropped

As usual, I had two cameras with me. I put a fisheye lens on my D3000, but I didn’t use it anywhere near as often as I expected to. Here’s one spot where it produced a good result:

Nikon D3000, 10.5mm, 1/80, f/2.8, ISO 400

I took two photos of this basketball booth, one from the front and one from the back. This one proved to be the more visually interesting of the two, the strong backlight giving the scene an almost ghostly feeling.

Nikon D3000, 10.5mm, 1/80, f/2.8, ISO 800

As usual, I found that when I carefully planned shots that I ended up with something completely unexpected. My plan was to shoot this large ride with a slow shutter speed, letting it paint long streaks of light in my image (as I did with the Scrambler). Though I got a few shots that captured what I was aiming for, I ended up liking this relatively still image the best. I loved the strange combination of table lamp and War of the Worlds Martian death machine. I also liked the blue color the lights spread over the whole image.

Nikon D3000, 10.5mm, 1/20, f/4.0, ISO 800

When I first started editing the State Fair photos, I didn’t care much for this one. But Amy liked it, so I gave it a chance. And she was right.

Nikon D7000, 28mm (28-200), 1/60, f/5.6, ISO 800, cropped

My initial objection was that the lights in the background were blurry. But that lends the scene a quality in which the prosaic foreground full of vendors is set apart from the dreamlike realm of the midway.

State Fair – The Scrambler

Nikon D3000, 10.5mm, 0.4 sec, f/18, ISO 100

I didn’t catch this ride’s actual name. But I’ve seen this sort of thing called a Scrambler elsewhere, so we’ll go with that.

I shot this set under some unusual lighting conditions. The day was getting on toward dusk and the sky was overcast. The result was outdoor light that looked normal but wasn’t intensely bright. And that allowed me some leeway with my settings. I was also able to brace the camera on a rail, which meant I could slow the shutter down farther than I could have with a strictly hand-held shot.

Thus I was able to capture some interesting light trails while freezing the objects and people around the ride. On the first shot (above), the orange trails and blurred car looked sorta like a tornado.

Nikon D3000, 10.5mm, 1/8, f/22, ISO 400

The ride moved around in patterns that were difficult to predict. So some of the shots were mostly blur while others featured clearer images of the riders.

Though I framed most of the set horizontally, I also managed to capture a few good ones with the camera turned 90 degrees.

Nikon D3000, 10.5mm, 0.4 sec, f/20, ISO 100

State Fair – The Screamer

Nikon D7000, 28mm (28-200), 1/15, f/8, ISO 400, adjusted

For the next month or so, the blog will feature photos I took at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia in August. Most of the photos will be examples of “street photography” of people. But a few, such as the ones we’ll start with, focus more on technical issues.

The picture at the top of this post is The Screamer, one of those rides that takes folks more adventurous than me for a long, upside down swinging ride. I took the shot just as the car full of riders was speeding past.

This provides a good example of motion blur. If the entire image is blurry, then the photo looks like a mistake. But if you can avoid camera shake and freeze the parts of the shot that aren’t moving, the parts that are on the go give your viewers a strong sense of motion.

For what it’s worth, this is what the ride looks like at rest:

Nikon D7000, 28mm (28-200), 1/80, f/3.8, ISO 400

I took several pictures in this series, because at shutter speeds this low I tend strongly to get a lot of camera shake into the shot. Of the pictures that came out with un-shaky foregrounds, this one is my favorite:

Nikon D7000, 28mm (28-200), 1/15, f/8, ISO 400, adjusted

The framing is slightly better than the one at the top of this post. I also like the ride attendants looking on.

Omaha Zoo – Miscellany

Nikon D3000, 10.5mm, 1/640, f/13, ISO 1600

This last Omaha-centered blog entry picks up a handful of miscellaneous photos I took during our visit. Though I had my wide angle lens with me, I ended up not using it for all that much. Every once in awhile I got a good result from it, however. I was pleased by the strangely-bending lines of the dome atop the desert building.

Nikon D7000, 125mm (28-200), 1/13, f/5.6, ISO 6400, adjusted

I honestly thought I’d walk away with pretty much nothing from the nocturnal exhibit, but a shot or two sorta worked. For this picture of an alligator I cranked the ISO way up and braced the camera on a railing to avoid as much shake as possible. Still, you can see some camera shake in the shot. Look at the small points of light such as the reflection in the gator’s eye, which should be single points but turn into tell-tale crescents because of camera motion.

I should also note that the gator shot was seriously level-adjusted in Photoshop. Straight out of the camera, the frame was mostly black.

Nikon D7000, 28mm (28-200), 1/800, f/9, ISO 400

I hoped for some good wide angle shots while we were up on the sky tram (the cables for which you can see in shadow running through the middle of the picture). However, the 10.5mm lens kept getting my feet or another part of the tram in the shot, so I had to settle for sorta-wide-angle 28mm pictures from my other lens.

At least this photo demonstrates the value of getting up above your subject for a “lay of the land” picture.

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/30, f/5.6, ISO 500, cropped

I had to optically zoom in as far as I could and then “digitally zoom” by cropping in order to capture these dour residents.

Nikon D7000, 112mm (28-200), 1/125, f/5.3, ISO 800, adjusted

A wider group shot was less technically demanding.

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/50, f/5.6, ISO 500, adjusted

Some of the most dramatic residents of the rainforest building were giant (like serious shark sized) carp with beautiful gold edges on their scales. The viewing angle and water surface reflections made any kind of documentary shot impossible, and I almost gave up on photographing them at all. But once I gave up the notion of trying to get a clear shot and just went with the beautiful, abstract forms of line, shape and color, I ended up with some pleasing pictures.

Omaha Zoo – Penguins

Nikon D7000, 32mm (28-200), 1/60, f/3.8, ISO 2500

If I had to pick one favorite part of the zoo experience, the penguins would be strong contenders. I could sit for hours and watch them swim gracefully back and forth.

As a photographer, however, they give me nightmares. The lighting is extremely tricky in Omaha’s penguin area. I was after a wider angle shot of the birds swimming, but even with the ISO cranked way up I was still at a 1/60 shutter speed. Any slower and camera shake would have been a problem, as would motion blur on the swimming subjects.

Also note the extreme hot spot in the background. Proper exposure of the main subjects underwater drastically over-exposed the brightly lit surface area at the top of the shot. And if I crop down (thus “enlarging”) the birds at the bottom, the ISO grain will become an issue.

Nikon D7000, 122mm (28-200), 1/250, f/5.3, ISO 2500

We were lucky to be there when the keepers came in to dish out the fish. This shot is actually part of a series in which the keeper gives the bigger penguin a gentle shove and scoots him back into the water so his smaller companions can get some fish. I love this frame the best because of the invisible leading line between woman and bird, giving the scene a strong sense of interaction.

Omaha Zoo – Lemurs

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/3200, f/7.1, ISO 400, cropped

The zoo featured a good-sized, outdoor lemur enclosure. This was the best of photographic conditions: outdoor light and no bars between the lens and the subject. As a result, none of the photos in this post have been retouched.

One of the first shots I got was the walking lemur above. However, for some reason the majority of the little guys seemed to be going the other way. That led to a lot of pictures like this:

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 400, cropped

While Cute Overload goes crazy for this sort of thing every year during “Tocktober,” I’m not the world’s biggest fan of the critter butt shot.

Fortunately for me, the zoo train came by, made a lot of noise and spooked the lemurs. So I got some pictures of them headed the other way in a hurry.

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 400, cropped

Some of the lemurs had the misfortune (or perhaps fortune on a hot day) of living indoors in the Madagascar building. A few of them – such as this pensive-looking subject – were in somewhat well lit areas.

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/50, f/5.6, ISO 4000

Quick technical note: the combination of a wide aperture and longer focal length leads to a narrow depth of field, which is why the lemur is the only thing in clear focus in the shot. In this case, that’s actually a good thing, as I don’t want the tree or the background to draw attention away from the subject.

Others were in a nocturnal area. I’d pretty much given up any hope of shooting in the dark when I noticed a handful of lemurs hanging out next to a light. They ended up being one of the best shots I got all day. I even made an I Can Has Cheezburger post out of this, though as of this writing it hasn’t gotten enough likes to make the main page.

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/250, f/5.6, ISO 4000

Omaha Zoo – Sea Lions

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/1000, f/5.6, ISO 400, cropped and retouched

The sea lions were a study in harsh lighting. They’re outdoors in an area with little shade. Further, their tank was being cleaned (to the considerable chagrin of the largest among them), and with most of the water gone the sun reflecting off the walls and bottom of the enclosure made good exposures a real challenge. All the pictures in this set have been treated to a level adjustment of one kind or another.

Still, the sea lions make great subjects. Proper exposure brings out their textures, slick if they’re wet and furry if they’re dry.

Nikon D7000, 135mm (28-200), 1/1250, f/9, ISO 400, cropped and retouched

As with people, look for shots of animals interacting. It brings out personality that you might not see in individuals by themselves.

Nikon D7000, 42mm (28-200), 1/500, f/11, ISO 400, cropped and retouched

This was a fun shot. The water wasn’t quite deep enough for the large sea lion to make it back up to the rocks. Though his attempt made a splash. Literally.

Nikon D7000, 135mm (28-200), 1/800, f/5.6, ISO 400, cropped and retouched

The last one is my favorite of the set. This sea lion looks so comfy and happy swimming around.

Omaha Zoo – Cats

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/200, f/5.6, ISO 1000, cropped and retouched

For the next few weeks The Photographer’s Sketchbook is going to consider the fine art of taking pictures of animals in zoos, using shots I took during a recent trip to the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha. Let’s start with the big cats, such as the fine specimen above.

Here we have a tiger in close to ideal circumstances for indoor zoo photography. Reasonably good light. No bars. And the subject appears at ease. The photo required a bit of cropping to eliminate some foreground clutter. And the image had an odd blue tint that fortunately came right out with a minor color level adjustment.

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/20, f/5.6, ISO 1000, cropped

That isn’t to say that a bar-free indoor shot is always low hanging fruit. This puma was posing perfectly (she actually seemed to respond positively to being photographed), but the light in her enclosure was so shadowy that the low shutter speed required for the shot added some camera shake and marred the image.

At least it gave me an excuse to try the new shake reduction filter in Photoshop CC:

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/20, f/5.6, ISO 1000, retouched

Still, it’s better to get the shot to start with rather than rely on editing to fix mistakes. I’ve tried the shake filter on some other photos with less impressive results.

Nikon D7000, 35mm (28-200), 1/60, f/4, ISO 400, cropped

Speaking of bars, they’re one of the biggest problems you’ll face photographing in zoos. Outdoor light couldn’t have been any better when we were there. But if the subject is close to her bars, the bars are going to end up in the shot.

Nikon D7000, 72mm (28-200), 1/320, f/5, ISO 200

Even the best pose won’t help an image that says “jail” way more than “magnificent creature.”

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/160, f/5.6, ISO 400, cropped

On the other hand, if the subject is farther away from his bars, then you may be able to zoom in, focus tight on the subject and make the bars so blurry that they practically disappear. You can see a little fuzziness caused by the out-of-focus mesh of this jaguar’s cage, but for the most part they’re invisible.

Nikon D7000, 32mm (28-200), 1/200, f/7.1, ISO 1000, cropped

However big a pain those bars can be, they’re still a good idea. As I’m sure the kids in this photo would agree (especially the kid on the right).