Bee on marigolds

iPhone, cropped

Last week’s trick-intensive work left me longing for a simple, straightforward, contemplative photo.

I took this shot with my iPhone, a good reminder that you don’t need a thousand-dollar camera, a fancy lens or studio lighting to produce good photography.

RoboRoach

Nikon D7000, 55mm (18-55), 1/2, f/13, ISO 100, cropped

Once a semester I like to devote a class period to useless photo techniques. To be sure, these tricks have their uses. But in Intro to Photography I put a premium on pictures that capture perceptions. For me, saving a moment in time is the ultimate photographic experience. Elaborate set-ups and “fake” photos don’t do as much for me. Thus I don’t generally use techniques that require a lot of prep work.

Still, some of them are fun to play with. This semester I decided to try one I’d never done before: rear curtain flash. This technique combines a long exposure with a flash to create a double exposure without actually exposing the frame twice.

To get this effect, start by slowing the shutter way down (I’m using a half second exposure here), which of course requires a tripod. A rapidly-moving object such as this small robot – dubbed RoboRoach by one of my students – will move a lot in half a second, resulting in a photo that looks like this:

Nikon D7000, 55mm (18-55), 1/2, f/13, ISO 100, cropped

In order to get the subject itself to actually show up, I need a shorter exposure as well. Normally that means a short shutter speed, but here that isn’t an option. However, I can fake it by firing the flash right at the end of the exposure. In the photo at the top of this entry, you see the extreme motion blur of the half second shutter combined with a flash that lasts for a fraction of a second at the end of the shot. The flash freezes RoboRoach, combining the clear, frozen shot with the blurry “vapor trail” of light reflected from the shiny spots.

The trick is to fire the flash at the very end of the shot, which is called “rear curtain flash.” Normally cameras fire the flash at the front end of the exposure, based on the assumption that what you want is what you’re looking at exactly when you press the shutter button, not at the end of the exposure. In truth, most flash photography is done at higher shutter speeds (use 125 as a default), so the “curtain” doesn’t matter much.

But to create this effect, I want the streaky blur to trail out behind RoboRoach. If the flash fires at the start of the shot, the vapor trail will extend out in front of the subject. Thus I need a camera with a Rear Curtain Flash setting, which my D7000 just happens to have.

Practicing with statues

Nikon D3000, 30mm (18-55), 1/60, f/5.6, ISO 3200, filtered

I encourage my students to take plenty of pictures of statues. I consider these photos “sketches,” practicing for real photography. The problem with shooting statues is that the sculptor already did most of the work for you. Statues hold perfectly still, giving you all the time you need to line your shot up perfectly. In short, they aren’t much of a challenge.

However, they patiently wait while you practice focusing, composing shots, fiddling with zoom and so on. So use them when you get the chance, and remember the lessons you learn while shooting “real” pictures.

The example above suffers from several technical defects. The worst is the ISO problem. The light at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art is designed to avoid damage to the art from over-exposure to harsh light. For viewing, the light is fine. For photography, it’s far too dark. And of course flashes aren’t permitted (again, that harsh light problem). Cranking up the camera’s light sensitivity allows me to get the shot, but the resulting grainy texture does the smooth marble a disservice. Even filtered in Photoshop to remove some of the grain, it’s still obviously there.

Quick note: if you’re going to use statues to practice shot composition and the like, you can find a lot of them in outdoor locations where you don’t have to worry so much about the light.

Defects aside, this shot allowed me to practice composing a shot with three or more people in it, shooting at an angle that allows me to get everyone in. I put this technique to work in an actual photo a few months later at Topeka’s Day of the Dead celebration.

Nikon D7000, 55 mm (18-55), 1/250, f/8, ISO 100

Note that the composition doesn’t exactly mirror what I did with the statues. I might have cropped this down to increase emphasis on the foreground figure (as I did with the statue shot), but then I would have lost the slightly blurry background thus costing myself the nice, three-dimensional look.

Day of the Dead

Nikon D7000, 55mm (18-55), 1/30, f/13, ISO 100

These dancers at the Topeka Day of the Dead celebration moved a lot. Thus getting the right shot required either frozen motion or – as in this shot – motion blur. A good motion blur shot requires a slow shutter, a steady hand and just the right mix of motion and stillness. Of all the shots I took that afternoon at slower speeds, this one came closest to the perfect combination of elements.

Notice that the background and the figure lying in the street are all still. A blurry background screams “I can’t hold my camera still,” but here I don’t have that problem. The dancers are blurred in ways that communicate their motion. The guy in blue is obviously either standing up or squatting down. The woman to the right is frozen except for her rapidly-moving arm.

But the best motion is on the skull-faced woman in the center of the shot. Her head is in circular motion, freezing her face (thus giving good facial detail) and getting a strong sense of rotating motion from her feathers.

The K

Nikon D3000, 10.5mm, 1/250, f/8, ISO 100, adjusted.

In honor of the waning days of the baseball season, here’s a shot I took in May of Kauffman Stadium. The panoramic view comes courtesy of the 10.5mm lens.

The shot was slightly tilted, which looks really bad in a symmetrical, wide-angle shot with a clearly visible horizon. Fortunately it was an easy fix in Photoshop.

So farewell to baseball for another year. Next year we’re going to fewer games, but I’ll still try to get some more shots.

Car fire

Nikon D7000, 18-55mm (55mm), 1/250, f/8, ISO 200, cropped and adjusted

Having a bad day? At least this isn’t happening to your car.

I associate square aspect ratios with Polaroids, but here it makes for an interesting composition. Cropping down from 4:3 focuses attention on the important part of the scene, capturing an image that matches my perception.

Friday night football

Nikon D3000, Sigma 150-500mm (150mm), f/5, 1/100, ISO 3200, cropped and filtered

This is the first time I’ve ever shot a football game. It’s also the first time I’ve used my Sigma 150-500mm lens for action shots. So it was a good learning experience for me.

The photos in this blog entry are a sequence of shots of the same play. The first one (above) has been filtered to compensate for the 3200 ISO setting. I needed the camera to be highly sensitive to light so I could afford to speed the shutter up, but the higher ISO produces a grainy look. None of the rest of the shots in this set have been filtered, so you can see the grain in them.

Nikon D3000, Sigma 150-500mm (150mm), f/5, 1/100, ISO 3200, cropped

This shot demonstrates a couple of ways to capture motion in a still shot. The players’ postures clearly indicate that they’re moving. The dust they’re kicking up also helps the effect.

Nikon D3000, Sigma 150-500mm (150mm), f/5, 1/100, ISO 3200, cropped

One of the disadvantages to football is that the helmets tend to obscure facial expression. But every once in awhile a little emotion peeks through. I’m particularly fond of the “I’ve got you now” look in the eyes of the guy on the right.

Nikon D3000, Sigma 150-500mm (150mm), f/5, 1/100, ISO 3200, cropped

Of the shots of this set, this last one is my favorite. Despite the grain and the slight excess of blur, the action is hard to beat.