Guarding the Beaches of LA, by Stuck in Customs on Flickr

Old solution to this problem

If you were facing such a scene in the old days of film, you had to analyze the scene and determine what the key tones were. Often, you needed to hold the highlights and allow some clipping in dense shadows or other dark areas. Sometimes the key tones were dark and you were forced to allow blown highlights. And in some cases, you would decide that the scene couldn’t be compromised. In other words: you couldn’t capture it the way you wanted, so you didn’t!

Thank the spirits we now live in a digital age! Now you can capture this scene using HDR.

My two cents in the HDR argument

Before I move on, I want to address the fact that HDR is frowned upon by some people. There are several reasons for this. Some claim that bracketing or multi-exposure shooting is counter-skillful (elitists). Others think that using HDR is “cheating”, creating a falsified representation of “reality”.

Ignore those people.

HDR is not cheating. Nor is it the path to enlightenment. It’s just another tool in your photography toolbox, to be pulled out when you feel the situation demands it.

Enough ramble! Let’s get on with the subject!

What is HDR photography?

HDR photography is the principle of using multiple shots to capture a high range scene, and then merge these shots together digitally on a computer during post-processing.

The process involves using specialized software tools. These tools will use the different exposures to create an “optimal” representation of the scene, ensuring that the clipped shadows or highlights are excluded from the resulting image. A little simplified, this enables you to expose detailed information in the shadows from the brightest exposures, and details in the highlights from the darkest exposures.

Old suitcase scene analysis

As you can see in the above image, the scene has a high range between the sun on the wall and the suitcase interior. When the interior is correctly exposed, the wall light is completely blown out. And when the sun on the wall is correctly exposed, the photo is underexposed overall, and almost all detail inside the suitcase is lost. To capture this scene, HDR is necessary.

HDR is in its infancy

HDR is still in its infancy. This means that although we’ve had it a few years in still photography, the tools and techniques are going to grow a lot more mature in the future. Camera manufacturers will definitely make use of HDR in some sort in future models to increase their cameras’ ability to cope with high dynamic range scenes.

And also, the tools for post-processing will grow much more mature. Still, some of the tools we have today are already relatively sophisticated. With proper knowledge we are able to create high quality HDR images.

Building the scene

Our own vision is rather limited for taking in a scene as a whole. But our mind has a wonderful way of compensating for this. Our eyes rapidly move around the scene, registering it bit by bit, and our mind then combines these visual impressions into one experienced scene. The brain is also an expert in completing known things where only a part is visible. If we see a car where half of it is hidden by a corner, our brain completes the car for us.

When moving around like this, our eyes quickly adjust to the light and tones of the different areas. And that is pretty much the same as we do with multiple exposures for HDR, except that the camera captures the whole scene in every shot. But we expose for limited areas with each shot.

So, in a sense, one might argue that HDR is more “natural” than capturing a scene with one shot!

Capturing the scene

First and foremost; if you have the choice: use a tripod! Slight movement from hand-held shooting can be compensated by the software, but you will be so much better off by making sure your image data is of the highest possible quality!

How many exposures you need will depend on the given scene. Often, around five exposures are needed. Today, most SLR cameras have a clipping indicator you can enable on the screen, and most also have the option to show a histogram.

Start out by under-exposing the scene. Under-expose to such a degree that the histogram is jammed up on the left side of the histogram, clipping the shadows. Slow down the shutter 1 full stop, and take a second shot (yes, the shutter; the aperture is fixed during HDR shooting!). Slow down another full stop, and take another shot.

Continue shooting in full-stop steps until the darkest part of the histogram is around the center of the scale. (Yes, that means that I should have shot at least one, maybe two stops more in the example shot!) This ensures you record all details in the darkest shadows.

HDR shooting sequence with histograms

Pitfalls when shooting for HDR

There are some pitfalls when shooting for HDR. Among the most common are ghosting, flare, banding and haloing. Ghosting is caused by movement, flare by light from a bright light source. Haloing and banding usually occurs when there are sharp edges between light or dark in the scene. Common examples are around the edges of a window in interior scenes, and at the edge between a dark building wall or roof and a bright blue sky.

I will return to these pitfalls in a follow-up article on HDR tonemapping.

Merging into a HDR image

There are several tools on the market for generating HDR images. I will focus on Photomatix as this is the oldest (and probably best-known) tool out there.

In this introductory article I will not go into details on how to tonemap. I only adjusted a little, mostly the saturation slider. You can experiment with this a little on your own. In a follow-up article I will delve deeper into the technicalities of producing the best possible result using tonemapping.

In Photomatix, click the Generate HDR image shortcut. In the following dialog, browse and select the sequence of photos.

The next dialog is the Options dialog. I recommend that you always check the “Align source images” choice, even when a tripod was used.

Then click the “Generate HDR” button. Photomatix then merges the photos and generates an HDR image. The resulting temporary image then shown is unprocessed and does not show the full range. Your next step is to click the “Tone Mapping” button. This will produce an image where you see the full details in both shadows and highlights.

As stated previously, this article will not cover the tone mapping process. Feel free to play around with the various sliders and see how they affect the photo.

Old suitcase HDR (non-optimized), by Marius Waldal

As you can see above, the various exposures have merged into one photo where both the highlights and the shadows are held, and all details are shown.

I hope this introduction was helpful and that you are hungry for more! I will revisit this subject in a later post with more detailed info on how to perform successful tone mapping!

If you liked this post, you may also like:

1. How to simulate cross-processing in digital photography
2. How to create a black&white image with selective colors in Photoshop
3. Introduction to digital black & white photography

DSLR Camera Remote in Landscape mode

DSLR Camera Remote is not a new app. It has been around some time, and is now in version 1.2.0. I came across it by coincidence and was instantly impressed. Before I even installed it! It sounded wonderful, and so it turned out as well.

DSLR Camera Remote is, obviously, a remote control for your camera. I already have a remote for my camera:

But all this remote does is release the shutter. This definitely beats using the self-timer, of course, but I have to point it directly at the camera, and not be too far away either. Bright lights (i.e. sunlight) may interfere and reduce the working distance. But the DSLR Camera Remote is a remote control that is both more remote and gives the word “control” a whole new dimension when it comes to operating your camera remotely!

The timing couldn’t have been better discovering this app. I have just started a 52 Weeks project on Flickr, and this app makes this sooo much easier. And more fun!

Basic controls

Alright, enough babble. What does this baby do?

The Options page with intervalometer and auto bracketing

It lets you control your camera’s settings right from your iPhone. You can adjust shutter speed, aperture and ISO (the exposure triangle), white balance and image quality (JPEG, RAW etc). It tells you how many photos are left before you need to replace the memory card, what focus mode your lens is set to (auto or manual), and what exposure mode you are using (manual, aperture priority, shutter priority, auto etc). All this is immediately accessible from the main screen. If your camera is set to manual, you can easily make minor adjustments between shots and see the difference.

See, you say? That’s right. This is the best part:

Immediately view every photo you shoot

Ever positioned your camera on a Gorillapod SLR Tripod and used a remote? Maybe climbed a chair or worse to check the result on the LCD? No more

This feature is wonderful for self-portraits, or any situation where you’re tweaking on your subject. Take the shot, check the result on your iPhone after a couple of seconds, tweak some more, try another shot. Until you’re satisfied. You can even zoom in on your photo to see if it is properly focused.

I’m sure you can appreciate how much easier this makes my self-portrait project as I can immediately adjust my position to better catch the light, create shadows etc.

Intervalometer for series

The intervalometer can be useful in several situations. You can set it to shoot every 1-2 seconds and try different poses, you can set the intervals longer to shoot a series of photos of i.e. a flower opening up with the morning sun, or you can take one every hour for a series of photos documenting a full day and night.

Or set it to take a photo 2-4 times a minute for a few hours and make a QuickTime movie of it later.

Auto-bracketing for safety

Uncertain of your settings because of complex light or reflections? DSLR Camera Remote supports auto-bracketing of up to 5 stops above and below your chosen setting. You can choose if the photos will be 1 full stop apart, or 1/3 stop apart. Bracketing more than a couple of stops is seldom useful, unless you want to do some exposure blending.

You might also use it for a series of photos where you’re planning HDR treatment. But if you do, be sure to check the shots afterwards to ensure you have at least 1 photo without clipping!

What do you need?

Yes, that is my bathroom.
This was the setup for week 1 of my 52 Weeks project

It doesn’t have to be a laptop, but you really want to use a laptop. I’ll tell you why in a moment. And you’ll need a mini-usb cable to connect the camera to the laptop.

And you need a wireless network. Bummer! “That’s fine in the studio or at home”, I hear you say, “but that means it is useless on location, right?”. Not so.

Using DSLR Camera Remote on location

This is the moment when I tell you why you really want a laptop: Because you can bring it on location, setup an ad-hoc wireless network and you’re up and running just like when you’re in the studio or at home! If you like clicking around like a maniac, bring a Windows PC. If you like it fast and smooth, use a MacBook. I’m going to show you how easy this is using a MacBook right here. It’s a charm. If you want to know how it’s done on Windows, check this little screencast from onOne Software.

I’ve read that some have experienced problems using an ad-hoc network, and that onOne Software is guessing this might be interference with 3G communication. They are recommending setting the phone in Airplane mode and turning wifi back on if you’re experiencing this.

I don’t like the Airplane mode, even on an airplane. I would therefore recommend just going to Settings -> General -> Network and then turn off “Enable 3G”.

I would like to hear if any of you experience this, and whether this helps!

Possible improvements

A review like this should also include some negative points that should be improved. I must admit that there are not many things I don’t like about this app.

One thing I’ve experienced is that while I do have the ability to zoom in on the photo on my iPhone, I cannot pan it around to see different parts of the image. I’m not sure if this is a bug or by design, but I really don’t think the zoom-feature is very helpful if I can only see the center of the photo, as my main subject is often not dead center.

A huge improvement, though, would be the ability to replace the laptop with another iPhone! Imagine connecting an iPhone directly to the camera and then communicate with it from another iPhone! This would be great for those already carrying a lot of equipment out on location. It does involve 3rd party accessories, though, like a custom cable. Maybe someday…

Conclusion

And, for the record: I am not in any way affiliated with onOne Software.

Hopefully, you enjoyed the first part of this guest post on flash photography. Now it’s time for the last part, which I’m sure you’ll enjoy as well!

Lesson #6: Flashes are good at light, but great at creating shadows

Even though I was concerned with removing shadows in the last lesson, it’s important to remember that sometimes shadows can look cool.

Signs of life, by Jo Christian Oterhals on Flickr

I had noticed this little flower that was growing in the most unlikely of places, and knew that I had to photograph it. But the day I had time, the light was dull and grey and absolutely shadowless. It just didn’t look good. So what I did was that I placed a flash off camera, a few meters to the right of the flower. I didn’t use any softening devices at all; this was all direct flash.

The small blip of flash made the flower cast a nice shadow. In addition the flash added some color to the scene, so that what really was a gray day looked like a sunny afternoon.

Conscious use of shadows can be used with great success and effect when photographing people. Sometimes it elevates a scene from mundane to great. This nude photo by the Flickr user sneaks85 is a great example:

nude, by sneaks85; on Flickr

The light is great of course, but it’s the shadows that accentuates the model’s body and curves. So be aware of shadows: Shadowless lighting is not an ideal in itself. It can be, but surprisingly often it’s not.

Lesson #7: Sometimes light should come from behind

We’re so accustomed to seeing subjects lit from the front, that merely placing the light behind the subject you’ll create a more «edgy» look. Not only that, but sometimes you should think more about lighting little than much.

Don’t give up, by Jo Christian Oterhals on Flickr

In this case I just wanted to light the rim of the faces, so both models here hand-holds one flash each. They hold them just below the edge of the frame and tilts them a little upwards. The flame is caused by stray light from one of the flashes.

Even though in one of the lessons above I say that you should mix available light and flash light when you can, in this particular case I wanted to remove all available light. So the combination of a small aperture and high shutter speed rendered the parts that are not flash lit black. It was really only the edge of the faces that were lit (often referred to as edge lighting).

Eve and Adam 2009, by Jo Christian Oterhals on Flickr

This another example using the same technique, but with a twist: I keep enough available light to render the bodies somewhat, but an overexposed background creates a high-contrast silhouette look.

Lesson #8: Light can be colored

Flash light is white or neutral. The great thing about white light is that it can be colored. Wrap a sheet of colored plastic over the flash head, and you suddenly have a colored light.

Doing the dishes, Tron style, by Jo Christian Oterhals on Flickr

This can be used a lot of ways. One obvious way is to color whatever it is you’re trying to photograph. In this photo I’ve placed a blue plastic gel over the flash. The scene is as ordinary as running water from a tap, but the blue light gives the water an unreal, almost metallic look.

Lesson #9: Go manual

After dabbling with flash photography for a while, you’ll see that when the computer inside your camera makes every decision for you, the results will be pretty average. The computer will always try to expose perfectly, and a perfect result in a computer’s mind is a photo that includes as much tonality between totally white and completely blown-out as possible.

The strange thing is that the world is seldom as average as this. Now’s the time to take charge. Start with exposure compensation. Just as your camera has exposure compensation functions for letting in more or less light than what your camera has chosen for you, the flash will probably have the same possibility. So try to output more or less light from the flash using flash exposure compensation. Learn when your flash/camera combo makes good decisions for you, and when they don’t. You’ll soon see that you’ll get better photos once you’ve mastered this.

Halo, by Drippy2009; on Flickr

For many this will be enough fiddling around, but for those of you who want to take it a step further: Go manual. There are several reasons for going manual, one of them can be if you are using one of the eBay radio trigger sets. Then you have no choice but to go manual. But manual is also an option if your TTL/automatic system gets fooled by sudden changes in ambient light. With manual settings you’re ensured that flash output stays identical from exposure to exposure.

Manual control of flash is hard to grasp at first, because it involves some head calculations. But when you get the grip on it, you’ve got more control than ever. Flashes providing manual control gives you the opportunity to tell it to blast at 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, etc., of full power. Some flashes let you reduce as much as 1/128. The lower the power, the faster the flash will recharge. An unexpected but cool side effect of lowering output power, is that the time the flash is actually lit shortens. Imagine photographing droplets: The shorter time the flash lights, the more frozen the drop will be.

Final lesson: Experiment! Sometimes wrong is right!

This may be the most important lesson. Sometimes wrong is right. Experiment with output, with reflecting light off wrong-colored surfaces, overexpose, underexpose; be amazed by how things did not turn out like you thought (and make notes when these wrongs actually looks good).

As I’ve shown above, with flash you can: turn dull days in to colorful days; freeze droplets; make bodies more interesting; simulate movement.

In short: Experiment. Flash photography is fun!

If you liked this post, you may also like:

1. 10 tips to get you started with flash photography, part 1
2. 9 tips to make this year’s Christmas photos better than last year’s

Used to the mediocre output of the built-in flash, lots of photographers dismiss using flash for lighting altogether. But if you upgrade to an external unit and you use it when and where it’s really useful, you’ll be able to achieve results you wouldn’t have otherwise.

These are the first 5 tips on this topic. The other 5 will be published in another article in a couple of days. So stay tuned!

High Speed Photography, by phatmax95 on Flickr

Days are (on the northern hemisphere at least) still dark. This means that for most amateur photographers, daylight’s gone by the time they’ve got a few minutes to spare for photography. If you’ve ever thought about venturing into flash photography, there’s probably no better time than right now.

But there are many myths concerning this, the two biggest being that flash light is always ugly and the second that it’s difficult to do right. This keeps many from using it. Personally I don’t find it particularly hard, neither do I find flash light particularly ugly.

Below you’ll find a few lessons that I personally find useful.

Lesson #1: If a built-in flash is all you have, use it

Although most of the lessons here will tell you that light looks best off-camera, sometimes on-camera flash is all you have. You may not get photos sutiable for publishing in fashion magazines this way, but at least you’ll get photos that are better than they could have been.

This sensational photo by Flickr user kittenmoon proves my point:

Shopping for dinner.., by kittenmoon on Flickr

A self portrait in front of a fantastic sunset made possible by a small P&S and a kiss of light from the built-in flash. Without the built-in flash, this would have been a photo of a silhoutte in front of a beautiful sunset. But with it, the photographer’s got a smashing self-portrait. In short, this may be one of the best examples that you should use whatever light you have with you.

The built-in flash can help you get rid of harsh shadows when photographing outdoors and in daylight, combined with high ISO it can help you get nicer indoor pictures, etc. You probably have a built-in flash. Use it.

Lesson #2: Equipment matters

Some people claim that great equipment doesn’t make great photographs. Up to a point they’re right. But when it comes to flash there’s still a minimum of equipment needed. At least you’ll need a flash, and regardless of what I said in lesson #1, you should preferably invest in an external unit.

If you don’t have one, now’s the time to buy. Go for an external flash with as much output power as you can afford. Preferably you should buy one that has a head that can be tilted and rotated. Canon, Nikon, Panasonic, etc., all produce flashes for their systems, but there are also lots of third-party vendors of flashes for your camera. This means that you have lots of options, and you’ll always be able to find something that suits your budget.

If you can, get one that can be triggered by your camera even when it’s off camera. Although most camera makers now have this facility built-in, some SLR models needs a second flash or a special triggering device to achieve this (most notably the Canon EOS series). If you’re on a tight budget, you can opt for radio triggers instead. They can be found on eBay for less than $50.

You’ll probably have to operate your flashes manually with these, but doing that is actually easier than it sounds at first. Personally, I use the triggers on the photo for just about anything now (click photo to see them on eBay). This kit may not suit you, but for me it does the job.

Lesson #3: Mix available light and flash when possible

If you normally shoot your photos using P or «green square», try flipping the command dial over to aperture priority.

Spread em, by Benny Vision on Flickr

On the fully automatic modes, the camera will normally shoot at your cameras flash sync speed – usually somewhere around 1/125 to 1/250 depending on what camera you have. It will completely disregard what shutter speed it should have chosen to expose the ambient light correctly.

Sometimes you may want to remove available light altogether, but in all I think those situations are fewer than the opposite. They do exist, however. See Lesson #7 for an example.

Lesson #4: Use second curtain flash sync

When mixing ambient light and flash, you’ll sometimes experience that shutter speeds drop too low to render everything sharp.

No need to panic, though. The flash will help freeze your subject and render it sharp or semi-sharp. The downside is if your subject moves. Then you’ll see «ghosting» or «speed trails».

This can look good, however, if your camera is able to synchronize flash to second shutter curtain (also called “rear curtain”), i.e fire the flash when the shutter’s closing instead of when it opens. With this function enabled, the frozen, sharp version of your subject will come after the ghosting has occured. The ghost effect will then look like speed trails and give you a natural sense of speed and direction.

Boom, by keithpyt on Flickr

Looking at the image I’ve used to exemplify this, taken by Flickr user keithpyt, you’ll see a great use of slow shutter speed and second curtain sync. The biker is nice and sharp, and the trails give you a feeling of speed. Had the photographer not used second curtain flash sync, however, it would have looked as if the biker flew backwards. The result is in this case a great photo.

So use second curtain sync as often as possible. You should probably leave your flash on second curtain sync all the time. (If you use a radio trigger set like the one I mentioned above, you may experience that second shutter sync is impossible)

Lesson #5: Light looks best when it come from anywhere else but the camera

You’ve seen it outdoors: Light almost never comes directly from behind your back. As long as you just have a built-in flash you don’t have much choice in the matter. But if you also own an external flash: Why insist that flash light should come from your forehead?

Direct flash will create harsh light and shadows, that more often than not is unflattering for your subject. If your subjects are close to a wall, deep shadows will dominate the background. And in dark rooms they’ll get the dreaded red eyes. In short: Unless that’s the effect you’re going for, avoid direct flash.

The solution is to get the light to come in from somewhere else but the top of your camera. What’s great is that you can do this without taking the flash off your camera. If you’ve got the rotatable and tiltable kind of flash you’ve got plenty of possibility to bounce light of walls, ceilings, etc. The ability to bounce will alone open a world of possibilities for creating more subdued indirect light effects.

Portrait before Christmas, by Jo Christian Oterhals on Flickr

In this example I’ve fixed a flash on my camera. I’ve rotated the head 180 degrees and tilted it a little upwards, so that it actually fires partly into the ceiling and a wall behind me. A nice side effect of this technique is that it creates a soft, nice shadowless light, almost like a large softbox. No deep shadows in the face here, and none in the background. A great side effect is nice and large catchlights in his eyes.

One shortcoming of this technique is that the walls should be white or as close to white as possible. If they’re not, the reflected light will have added some of the color of the surface it reflects from. Unless you’re converting your images to black and white later on, this is something you’ll have to be aware of.

If you’ve got the kind of flash that can be remotely controlled by your camera, this problem can be avoided by placing the flash off camera somewhere to the left or right of the subject.

End of part 1. Check out part 2 next week!

If you liked this post, you may also like:

1. 10 tips to get you started with flash photography, part 2
2. 9 tips to make this year’s Christmas photos better than last year’s
3. Take pictures in aperture-priority mode

Graffiti bridge, by Marius Waldal on Flickr

A community this huge is difficult for members to handle. There are so many members and so many photos. How do you find photos you’re interested in, and members that share that interest? Flickr has some tools to compensate for this.

Current tools for finding your way on Flickr

One is Explore; a showcase of the 500 currently most interesting photos on Flickr. Explore gives you a window into Flickr, a way to see a selection of popular photos (I recommend flickriver if you want to view the explored photos).

Another is groups. Members are free to start their own groups, and decide what type of photos are welcome in the group. A group admin can remove photos that are inappropriate, or even establish a moderation layer so that photos must be approved by an admin to be displayed.

A common way to find photos, of course, is to search. You use tags to describe your photo, and people can search those tags. But, mind you, as the Flickr home page states when I write this: 160,129 things tagged with morning. So you might not get exactly what you’re looking for

An important part of the social aspect of Flickr is the comment section underneath every photo. This enables you to receive comments, insights and tips from other members.

All good? Sure, but things could be better. These are the 3 improvements I would like to see, which would make Flickr a photo sharing service that kicks, well, ass…

1. Discussion-capabilities in the comments section

For me and many others, the comments section is often used for two-way communication; not only for “critique-and-run” comments. If I leave well-considered thoughts on other members’ photos, I would like to see how they respond to this. Today, the only way to do this is to regularly check the “Recent activity” function. This, though, has obvious limitations. Mostly because if there are more than 10 comments after mine, a potential reply from the photographer can only be seen if I go to the photo-page again and scroll down to see if there is a comment from the photographer (hassle!).

Suggested solution: Flickr could add basic discussion capabilities to the comments section, allowing threaded comments. An obvious feature would then be to offer the opportunity to receive a Flickr mail if any of my comments are replied to. Or at least enhance the Recent activity view to display discussion threads that include me, regardless of how many other comments the photo have received after mine.

This functionality is a must-have! Social services is all about communication, and functionality that cultivates this one-on-one “open” communication is therefore important (bear in mind: not even the “Discussion”-section support threaded discussions!)

2. Functionality for limiting who can comment on a photo

Yes, I know that I can limit this to my friends and/or family, or any contact. This, however, is insufficient. Many Flickr users have tons of contacts. It is not uncommon that these users receive hundreds of comments on a photo. I must admit: when I look at a photo and have constructive critique I would like to offer, I usually bail out if there are already gazillion comments there (often with blinking GIFs, awards etc). How will the photographer notice my critique in the middle of all that “noise”?

While it is nice to see that others like your photo (“awesome”, “stunning”, “fantastic” etc), it doesn’t give you much in terms of learning what works and what doesn’t work in your photo. Because of this “superlative abundance”, some members create their own “private” groups where only select members are allowed to participate. However, this does nothing to limit the number of comments from a person’s other contacts on a photo.

Some may say that one can add the group members as “Friends”. That is not a good solution, as many use the “Friends” role for other purposes, and this may contradict that use.

Suggested solution: Flickr could add another permission layer: Only allow comments from other members of groups where this photo is added. If I add a photo to a specific group for well-considered critique, only other members of this group can comment. If I add it also to “the world through my eyes”-group, all the thousands of members there suddenly get permission to comment.

3. Twitter-like lists of contacts

People use the concept of contacts for several purposes on Flickr. Whatever the reason, you may end up having lots of contacts. This makes it near-impossible to follow all contacts’ uploads (which you probably don’t want to anyway). And it also makes it very difficult to keep an eye on your “closest” contacts; i.e. those you communicate most with.

For those of you using Twitter, you may recognize the challenge: How to stay up to date with those 20 most interesting people when you follow 1000? Twitter solved this elegantly with “lists”. A Twitter user can create a list called “Photography” and add only those they follow that are into photography and tend to tweet about it. And a list can be compiled for any area of interest. Today I might be interested in reading my photography list. Tomorrow it might be rock climbing.

Suggested solution: Flickr should implement a similar functionality that Twitter did. This way, I can choose to follow only my “strobist” contacts for a while, or those into black & white photography. Or those who are Photoshop wizards. Or whatever. I’m in control.

Do you have other suggestions? Do you agree on mine? Please have your say in the comments!

If you liked this post, you may also like:

1. Explore yourself with a self-portrait project on Flickr
2. Fast and easy Flickr upload with FlickrExport for Aperture

Photo by DaveJ86 on Flickr

I didn’t know Nodar. He was only 21 years old, which means he was only 5-6 years old when I quit competing. But as a former luge athlete, I feel somewhat related to him.

The accident is a tragedy. For the Olympics and Luge, of course, but most of all for Nodar and his family. I think it’s rather scandalous of the International Luge Federation (FIL) to acquit the track of any guilt in the accident so quickly, apparently without thorough investigation. Would that be the case had it been a Canadian or American athlete who died?

The track is the fastest in the world, and FIL president Josef Fendt even said the track was too fast a few days earlier, and called this a planning mistake. How can they so quickly put all the blame on Nodar himself?

I have crashed numerous times in many different tracks. Many of these crashes had similar causes to Nodar’s crash. None of them have been close to throwing me anything like that. I have watched the accident over and over again, feeling my stomach churn, to try and understand it. An important question is, of course, how would this have turned out had the track been slower?

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying the track is to blame for anything. But I suspect the real background for the acquittance is the fact that without it, the competition would probably have been stopped. Many of the athletes have expressed concerns about the track.

I understand the terrible anguish his family must have felt hearing the news back in their poor village in Georgia. Without any economic means to watch their son in his (their) moment of honor. And with no possibility to go there after the accident, stuck in Georgia waiting for their son to return home in a coffin.

I hope the IOC take the necessary responsibility and give Nodar and his family a worthy treatment. Their honor depends upon it!

Hips on green velvet, by Marius Waldal

What is aperture?

The aperture is the opening – the hole if you like – in the lens. The opening is adjusted by a diaphragm that controls the size of the hole, stopping various amounts of the light entering the lens from passing through to the sensor/film (the focal plane). Thus, the various aperture sizes refer to “f-stops”.

What many inexperienced photographers have problems grasping is the concept of the f-numbers, or more precisely, the seemingly unintuitive “reverse scale”: higher f-number means smaller opening. The f-number scale is actually dimensionless, meaning that f/4 or f/16 does not refer to a specific size, like 4 and 16 millimeters. If you like techie-stuff, read why in the box to the right. If not, just accept this fact and move on!

What happens when you adjust the aperture is that you increase or decrease the amount of light that is allowed to reach the sensor. This means that wider apertures allows for faster shutter times. Large-aperture lenses is therefore often referred to as fast lenses.

Aperture controls depth of field

While larger aperture makes your lens faster, it also reduces your depth of field (DOF). In some situations, this can be limiting. But most of the time, this is something you can actively choose to use to your advantage.

Small thoughts, by Marius Waldal

Another example is macro or close-up photography. You want the viewer’s attention only on your subject, or maybe just a part of it.

The parts of the photo that are not in focus, is called bokeh. Shallow DOF in a photo may create large amounts of bokeh. In many situations, this can be used actively to “paint” a background for your subject, like in the top photo where the green bushes in the background are so blurred out that they create a soft green colored background.

In other situations, you want as much depth in your photo as possible, e.g. you want most or all of the scene to be sharply focused. The most notable type of scene is of course landscapes. To achieve this you would use a small aperture, like f/16 or even f/22.

The corners of the triangle affect each other

Getting a good grip on all the corners of the triangle is essential, as adjustments to one have impact on the others.

Adjusting the aperture one stop wider or smaller doubles or halves the amount of light reaching the sensor, respectively. Following the same pattern, adjusting the shutter speed one step up or down has the same effect. Let’s say your light meter says your settings will produce a correct exposure. You realize that your aperture is so large that your depth of field will be too shallow for the scene you want to capture. By stopping your aperture down two stops, you need to increase your shutter speed equally two stops to achieve the same exposure. These two settings follow like hand in glove.

But this metaphor is actually not very good, as there is a third element here; the ISO. Your ISO setting has the same effect on exposure “correctness”, meaning that if you stop down your aperture 1 stop, you can go from ISO 100 to ISO 200 to achieve the same exposure.

Shooting in aperture priority mode

Normally when I’m out shooting, I first decide what aperture will fit the scene. If the lighting conditions are not complex (as with strong reflections, large dense shadows etc), I sometimes go for aperture priority mode (A or Av on the mode wheel, depending on your camera). This is faster, as I don’t have to constantly adjust the shutter speed as I move around exploring the scene from different angles. The camera measures the light and determines the shutter speed automatically. This will give me a consistent scene and depth of field and save me some time (and also ensure I don’t freeze my fingers off during the winter. Today, it’s minus 16 degrees (celcius) outside!).

Hettie, Nettie and Lettie, by Marius Waldal

Notice that in the above photo, only the middle duck (Nettie) is in focus. The other two are slightly out of focus, while the background is completely thrown out, revealing only a hint of what is there. When photographing these ducks I had to react quickly to movements, so I chose to use aperture priority mode to reduce the hassle whenever I found a nice scene. As you can guess, the ducks didn’t hold this lineup for a long time…

Although I normally shoot in full manual mode, I’ll definitely recommend those of you that are taking the step from fully automatic to manual modes to use this as a starter. It will give you less to think about, and at the same time all the benefits of shooting in RAW (you are shooting RAW, right? If not, stay tuned for an upcoming article on RAW!).

Large-aperture (fast) lenses

Most “budget”-type zoom lenses are relatively slow, with a maximum aperture around f/4.0. For Canon, if you step up to the “L” lenses, they start at f/2.8. Primary lenses are often even faster.

If you need a lens to take photos hand-held in low-light (like in a wedding, I would recommend a 50mm primary. Canon has three of these:

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II – This lens is very fast, and extremely cheap. If you want a fast lens but don’t have the money for it, this gives you a lot of speed for a low price.

My recommendation, though, would be this lens:
Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM – This is a very sharp lens with good quality, and with a price that can be justified by many. I use this myself, and I love it.

Canon has an L-series 50mm as well, for those of you with serious needs (or seriously fat wallets):
Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L USM – This is a high quality lens aimed at professionals, and priced accordingly.

Conclusion

When adjusting your exposure, the aperture is the setting that will more often than not have an “artistic” impact on your composition. Using large aperture will create areas of bokeh in your photo. It is also the most important setting for portrait photography, to separate your subject from the background.

Nevertheless, the two other settings on the exposure triangle, shutter speed and ISO, are settings that you need to know innately to be able to adjust correctly and fast for any given scene. So stay tuned for articles on these settings in the near future!

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1. Take pictures in aperture-priority mode

365 days, 365 photos.

Think about it for a minute. It sounds easy doesn’t it? I mean, it only takes a minute or so every day, and you’re done, right?

#TwPhCh is Scary! (#222/365), by Christian Mohn

How I got my 365 project started

I decided, in the spur of the moment, to start my own 365 project on the 1^st of January 2009. To be honest, I hadn’t really thought it through nor really considered what was involved or how much work it really was. Perhaps that’s why I also managed to pull it off, the distinct lack of planning and complete spontaneity that triggered it. I gave myself little or no restrictions, only that I would shoot at least one photograph each day for the whole of 2009. I did not limit myself to a specific theme or technique, the main idea was to force myself into getting somewhat creative with my photography.

For me, the intention was two-fold;

1. Become a better photographer
2. Be creative

The basic idea was that if you repeat something often enough, you will get better at it. Lather, rinse, repeat.

The thing is, it sounds easy but as the days go by, you suddenly realize that you might be running out of ideas and inspiration. After all, most of us don’t lead spectacular lives with lots of traveling and new places to explore every day. Some days are just that, days that has no particular meaning nor did anything special happen. In my opinion, those are the days that are really interesting, at least when it comes to this project. It’s easy to document exciting things, family events and other “big” events that happen in our lives.

The normal, somewhat mundane, day is a different matter all together. These are the days that challenge you, almost dare you to do something creative and think outside the box.

Take Me to Your Leader (#48/365), by Christian Mohn

The important thing to remember is this; Don’t Stop! There will be times you want to give up. There will be times that you think that there is nothing left to take a photo of, but you are wrong. There is always a great photo right in front of you, just waiting for you to see it and capture it.

4 tips for a successful 365 project

1. Don’t forget your camera

   Bring your camera with you. Self explanatory, but important none the less. If you don’t bring your camera with you, how are you supposed to be able to photograph anything? Turn it into a habit. Take it with you everywhere, no trip is too small. There are photo-ops everywhere, and I mean, everywhere.

2. Be public

   Be very public about your project. Let people know, and even better get more people involved. Chances are that if you team up with others, publicly announce the project and otherwise market it in a way that people notice, you are more likely to actually be able to pull it off. After all, it’s much easier to give up of no-one knows you even started, right? You can even turn it into a competition if you like, all just to make sure you get the proper incentive to keep on shooting. Also, you do want people to see your photos, don’t you?

3. Publish as soon as you can

   Try to post your images online as soon as possible. I generally tried to post the photos the same day they were taken, but sometimes that’s just not possible. You might be traveling without online access, and that’s fine. If you can’t publish for a day or two, don’t worry. Just make sure you have taken the shots, and upload them as soon as you can. If you wait too long, your backlog will come back and bite you and perhaps even overwhelm you, and you don’t want that. Make sure you have an easy method of posting the images too, either to Flickr or some other service. The most important thing is that it should be quick and easy to get your photos published.

4. Play, learn and have fun

   This might be, besides having your camera with you at all times, the best tip I have to offer. Have fun! Play! Learn! Don’t be afraid to try out something new, and don’t be afraid of posting a less than perfect picture. This project should be all about enjoying photography and learning how to master your camera.

Tunnel Vision (#301/365), by Christian Mohn

What did I get out of it?

For one, I’ve proven that my interest for photography is genuine. Pushing through this project has solidified it as something I’m really interested in continuing to invest time and resources to. In fact, this project was pretty much the driving force behind replacing my old, and somewhat beat-up, Canon 350D camera and replace it with a shiny new Canon 50D.

Secondly, I’ve proven to myself that I can persevere and undertake ambitious projects. Sure, there were times I was certain that I wouldn’t, but in the end I’m very glad I did.

Has it made me a better photographer? I think it has, but you can judge that by going through my Project 365 on Flickr.

Editor’s choice

Thank you for an interesting article, Christian! These 5 photos are my favorites from your 365 Days project:

Everyday Attrition

Ghouls in my Coffee

Blue (Wants to be Real)

Plant of Color

Art Imitates Life

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1. Explore yourself with a self-portrait project on Flickr

(Every image is linked to the photograph’s page on Flickr. Do click to see other photos!)

(yes, I actually had the nerve to include one of my own… )

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Others share my thoughts. Therefore, someone started the group “52 weeks“; a project where you shoot and post one self-portrait every WEEK instead.

Missing you, by Marius Waldal

Even this requires a great deal of self-discipline, but it is achievable (for me). And there is another reason I prefer this: I imagine the quality of the portraits will be higher, as you have more time to plan and execute them.

One of the beauties of self-portraiture is that you always have a model at the ready! And you don’t need to feel self-confident when asking your model to perform certain tasks or acquire certain postures (at least if nobody’s watching!).

Doing self-portraits will teach you loads about portraiture and probably a few things about yourself as well. Also, I found it quite interesting to brainstorm ideas for self-portraits. Some of them will likely not be implemented, but some of them I’m really looking forward to try out!

Abandoned, by Marius Waldal

8 tips for a successful 52 Weeks project

1. Brainstorm ideas – Before you start, brainstorm ideas for types of portraits you can shoot. I myself have jotted down more than 20 achievable ideas up front.

2. Save ideas for a rainy day – Sort out 3-5 easy-to-accomplish ideas and put them away. You save these for upcoming weeks where you will either have little time to do something fancy, or little motivation. This will increase you chances of actually succeeding. Because if you fail one week, you have lowered the bar for allowing yourself to fail again. And if you do, you might lose motivation completely and throw in the towel. And you won’t be happy about it.

3. Get a smooth start – Sort out another easy-to-accomplish idea and choose this as your first-week portrait! When you begin such a project, your motivation is high. Getting a good start will solidify this motivation, while a poor start can be a killer.

4. Get moral support – If you’re already on flickr, talk to some of your contacts and tell them about your upcoming project. Explain that you are a little anxious about the whole thing and that you need their support! If they are good at encouraging you in the beginning, your confidence will build much more quickly!

5. Be active on the 52 Weeks flickr group! – Be generous with comments on other photographers’ self-portraits. You can get some tips on how to do photo critiques in this article, but as a general advice I recommend being less critical on peoples’ self-portraits than on their other photos.

6. Collect ideas from other participants – As you browse the group, write down ideas you get when seeing what others have done. Try to make your own twist on the idea. Just copying an idea from another is also ok, but it is polite to write in your description that you were inspired by another user and include a link to that photo.

7. Keep brainstorming – Every other month, sit down and brainstorm for new ideas. Don’t be picky. Any idea is fine at this stage. Even ideas that seem far out may trigger other great ideas later on.

8. From ideas to plans – Every week, spend some time going through your ideas from tip #7 and see if you can mold some of them into real assignments that you can use in your project.

I will do this project now! Will you?

February 1st 2010, week 5, I will begin my 52 Weeks project! I look forward to it, and I will be writing something about it here as well.

How about joining 52 Weeks yourself? You know you want to…

Have you done this already? Are you doing it now? Great! I would love to hear what you think!

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1. Why I did a 365 project, and why you should too!
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