Bedtime Shadows

My son, who was supposed to be sleeping, was instead quietly playing a very detailed army game in his bed last night.  I couldn't tell him to turn off his reading light because I wanted to run and get my camera! 

In order to see anything in the dark side of the specturm, my ISO was incredibly high (like 3200) but I decreased the noise in Lightroom after the fact.  Worth it.

Becky's Bokeh

I had a photo shoot in Massachusetts last week, and the location is absolutely gorgeous but can be a bit busy for portrait backgrounds.  For individual shots, I kept the f/stop lower than 3 and lower than 5 for both girls.

 The result is a sense of place and season, but no question as to what is the subject of my photograph and where my eye should focus.

I hope you ladies have been working on your bokeh this month, too!  Looking forward to seeing what you've done!  Don't forget to post and I'll see you next Tuesday the 24th for our photo walk in Woodstock!

Indoor Shadows

I was hired to take photos of this little boy to commemorate his 1st birthday.  His mother works at the Baker library at Dartmouth College (and she had her wedding photos taken there) so she asked if we could take some there indoors.  Normally I detest indoor photography, but what could I say?  I embraced the shadows that come from shooting indoors at 7:30 am.

The lighting (and metering) were challenging, but the location was so beautiful, I am happy with the result.  Happy I was able to go outside my comfort zone!

June 3rd Meeting Recap

Last night was the first night of the camera club's summer session, and Helen and I were pleased to spend the evening with Janice, who recently moved to the area from Florida.  Janice has some wonderful experiences (and Becky's dream lens!) and we are looking forward to having her contribute to the group.  Finnie and Christine were unable to join us, but hopefully all the new members will be able to go through the previous month's entries and posts to catch up with what the Artistree Camera Club has been up to and already covered.

If you need any help posting your photos, please let me know.  Really all you need to do is go to http://blogger.com and login to your account.  Once you are on blogger's main page, you will see Artistree Camera Club listed under the blogs you manage.  Just click on the orange square with a pencil to create a new post.  The toolbar is very simple to use for text, and simply click on the picture icon to insert a photo to the post.  If you click on the photo once it is uploaded, select the X-large size to have it displayed as large as possible, so we can all enjoy the smaller details of your shot.  Click on it again if you'd like to remove it.  Please leave comments below or email me at rubsomedirtblog@gmail.com if you have any questions at all!

For the month of June, we have two assignments: try to capture images with SHADOW and/or capture images with nice BOKEH.  Don't forget the tutorial on bokeh here and aperture here.  Digital Photography School is also a great place to start if you need some resources!

Looking forward to seeing you all at the photo walk on Tuesday, June 24th at 6 pm.  We are going to meet in front of the Norman Williams Library in Woodstock.  Hope to see you then!  Keep posting!

Lastly, the July meeting has been pushed back one week to Tuesday, July 8th at 6 pm.

Difficult Lighting And Metering

To achieve a classic portrait, you usually look for large areas of open, even shade, so your subject's face is exposed evenly without harsh shadows.  However, sometimes those conditions are not available (or undesirable), so you have to make the best of what you've got.  In those instances, it's best to understand metering well enough to expose your photo properly to achieve the desired effect.

Metering Modes (information found here)

Evaluative/Matrix Mode: 

Basically, in this mode the camera breaks your shot down into a grid, measures the brightness and darkness information, and finds the middle ground.  Many newer cameras take the focal points into extra account as well.  This would be completely acceptable in an evenly exposed photograph, where your lights and darks are consistent throughout the image.

Center-Weighted Mode: 

In center-weighted mode, the camera considers 75% of the frame, all in the very center, giving no importance to the corners of the shot.  This would be ideal in outdoor portraiture. With this mode, you would have to recompose the shot if you'd like to have it off-centered and still have the subject be correctly exposed. 

Partial & Spot Mode: 

This mode measures the light only from a very small area of the photo, usually less than 5% of the total area.  In many newer DSLRs, you can program where you would like the spot to measure (usually it follows where you focus).  It is the most effective in high contrast and backlit situations, where the light behind the subject is much brighter than the exposure of your subject.  It is also the best mode for silhouettes and lunar photography.

I choose to keep my camera on center-weighted all the time, mostly because of my work with portraits.  Consider what it is you photograph the most, and then take the time to consider which metering mode would make your work easier on both your camera and you!  Make your camera work for you!

nature up close

I've been trying out close ups.  Luckily when I saw this butterfly, I had my camera in my pocket, and was able to capture about 12 shots.

Another time when I had my camera in my pocket.  I've always thought the Japanese Cutleaf Maple was a beautiful tree, and the breeze stopped just in time as I clicked away.

Reminder

This is a friendly reminder that June 3rd will be the camera club's last meeting, unless any interested parties join up again (and I sincerely hope that you do!).  Mackenzie is sadly leaving us for great adventures in the southwest, so we need some new blood to infuse into our group.  Please spread the word to your friends, and if you are planning to, don't forget to sign up for the summer session of the camera club here!

If you can't or aren't planning to sign up for the camera club again, I will miss you and thank you for these very fun and memorable few months' of sharing our shared love of photography!

More Sun Flare

On the way home from the photo walk, I couldn't help but notice how much more agreeable the light was for sun flare and silhouette, mostly because it was lower in the sky and was casting a beautiful, warm glow on everything. So I stopped at the Base Lodge of the Quechee Club and captured the sun filtering through the leaves of a flowering tree, with my aperture set at f/22.

I wish I had done one with a lower f/stop as well, but I was enjoying the star shape so much I didn't stop to think of it.  Good thing there is plenty of sunlight left!

Photo Walk: Silhouette and Sun Flare

Mackenzie and I had a very nice time practicing our technique on backlit subjects Tuesday night.  We discussed metering and how to expose for a subject properly if the background is brighter than the subject's face.  After that we went inside to practice silhouettes against a window (where the light would be directly behind our subject rather than above, as it as outside).  Finally, we talked a bit about sun flare, and practiced on the wind chimes outside.  To achieve sun flare, one must put the sun directly behind a subject, with a bit of light peeking out around it.  The higher the f/stop (meaning the larger the number), the more star-like the sun flare will appear.

f/22

f/3.5

I think having my UV filter on my lens added to the light spots that appear in both photos.  If I had thought of it, I would have removed it, although I don't mind the appearance of them in the shot!

Late Afternoon Light

Afternoon and early morning light gets progressively kinder the closer you are to sunrise and sunset.  In these photos, Hannah was in direct sun, around 3:30 pm, but I overexposed them to compensate for the shadows on her face and just dealt with the consequences of blown out highlights.

It's a matter of preference as far as lighting styles.  Brightness works for me.  You have to figure out what works for you!