Isolation

Week 16

The subject is isolated here to draw attention to it. Sometimes what you leave out is as important as what stays in. This technique is frequently used in portraiture and there are several approaches you can use or combine:


1) use a longer lens,
2) control (open) the aperture,
3) simplify the background,
4) and get closer to the subject and further from the background.


I've used all four techniques here. It was wet, snowy, and windy this morning and generally not nice weather so I wasn't planning on going too far from the apartment. I was watching the snow from the patio when I notice how pathetic the berry bushes were. When the snow stopped I thought I would try to make a photo of one of the leaves on a bush and after 130 tries this is what I got. I tried different apertures, frames, natural light, a soft box, rimlight and various combinations.


The camera is in aperture priority at f/8 to get the depth of field I wanted - the lens is capable of f/2.8 but I am very close here. In fact, the leaf is not in sharp focus from front to back but I thought it was a good compromise. The lens is a AF-S Micro Nikkor 105mm 1:2.8 G ED VR on the Nikon D3 and I am maybe 50 to 60 cm or so from the leaf. The stucco wall of the apartment is about 1 m behind the leaf. I couldn't get the camera where I wanted it on the tripod, and the wind was blowing the leaf, so I hand held and put the sensor speed at ISO 800 to get a faster shutter. It ended up being at 1/250 second.


Natural light is from the right but is extremely diffuse from the clouds and light snow flurries. To pump up the shot I had a speedlight (SB-600) being controlled from a SB-800 on the camera from behind giving rimlight and putting a glow on the leaf. There is also a small LiteDome XS softbox with another SB-600 (you have to get all your equipment out every once in a while) dialed way down on the left just outside the frame.


Post was more than I normally do... In addition to isolating the leaf and darkening the background I added saturation and contrast to the leaf along with final sharpening.


I like this although it is not one of my better pictures. It tells a story though - it is the last leaf standing when the snow starts to fall. The berries are shriveled and the other leaves have fallen. Soon, it is going to be cold, cold, cold. I use this separation technique fairly often. For example, here is a fern frond in Australia where the background softened.

Idea based on In Isolation, pages 48 and 49 in the book 50 Photo Projects, by Lee Frost

Something Different

Week 15

This week is about getting away from it all but instead of travel to an exotic country we went to a wildlife festival in Waterton Park in Southern Alberta.

The wildlife festival had multiple speakers and fieldtrips and there was a two hour photo course on wildlife that we went on where I took this picture. I photographed a number of animals in Waterton, but this black bear was the best shot. Some of my most favorite photographs are of birds and wildlife so I enjoyed getting this one.

When we first saw the bear, he was maybe 100 meters away and pretty small in my 70-300 zoom at 300mm focal length. The pro had a 600mm Nikkor AF-S 1:4 with a 1.4 extender and I tried that with better results. He recommended aperture priority at f/8 to make sure the face was well focused front to back with the long lens and that is where I had it. Unfortunately, the bear was in grass and shrubs so they weren't great shots. I took my camera off the 600mm so someone else could try it and put the 70-300 zoom back on the D3.

In a minute or two he started to amble down the hill and to the left. He disappeared into a gully and then came out. Just before he climbed down to the road I made this shot. Light is from fairly low morning sun to the right. I took a string of shots at 3 frames a second while he was turning his head and caught the face lit nicely.

The camera is a Nikon D3, ISO 200, set in aperture priority and still at f/8 from the long lens. The lens is a AF-S Nikkor 70-300mm 1:4.5-5.6 G ED VR. The resultant shutter speed is 1/200 second which is probably a bit slow. The D3 lets you set a minimum shutter speed (it varies ISO in the case of fixed aperture if shutter speed drops too far) and I'll set that in future at 1/300 second probably. The bear is maybe 30 meters from me and moving away and to the left. I had the presence of mind to frame him pretty well at least.

The post was to tweak curves for contrast and I also put a vignette around it. I cloned out some small rocks in the lower right. I could have left them in or cropped them but found them distracting and liked the original composition. I did crop it to 8x10 starting in the far lower right up to the top of the frame.

Idea based on Take a Break , pages 132-133 in the book 50 Photo Projects, by Lee Frost

Peace Festival

Week 14

This week is about festivals but I've strayed from the book quite a bit. The chapter in the book is about going to Venice to photograph the Carnival. I don't think I'm going to get to Carnival this year, but it just so happens they were having the Calgary Community Peace Pole Unveiling Celebration this morning so I went there instead.

The Venice Carnival is brimming with people that are in costume and photogenic. The Calgary Celebration is a little lower key but I did photograph this lady. She goes by the name Shanti Amani Salaama, the Peace Fairy, at least for this festival. Festivals are a great place to photograph people though. You see a lot of real characters and they actually like to be photographed :-). Other good spots are Renaissance Festivals, Battle Reenactments, other Mardi Gras celebrations, you get the picture...

Light is from late bright afternoon sun over my right shoulder. You can see the hard shadow on her face. I was using a Nikon D3, ISO 200, at 1/2000 second in aperture priority. The lens is a AF Nikkor 300mm 1:4 at f/4 to minimize depth of field since the background wasn't too appealing. I've been working on reduced depth of field this week and here is another example with two blackbirds.

Post processing was minimal - basically a crop and slight contrast increase.

Idea based on Festival Spirit, pages 38-39 in the book 50 Photo Projects, by Lee Frost

Reflections

Week 13

I do reflections from time to time, but usually end up not caring too much for them - for one thing mine often seem too symmetric. Sometimes they seem best blurry - see for example this picture of Story Bridge. But today I was trying for a sharp reflection and something more offbeat.

The location is Kananaskis Upper Lake and the light is afternoon sun from the left. The lake has a lot of dead stumps along the shore and that was to be the main subject. Of course there is a lot more in the frame, maybe too much. But somehow it comes together for me. There is fair balance for one thing. I really like the roots on the tree, they look like an octopus' arms. I thought it might be good in square format and framed it with that in mind when I shot.

The camera is my D3 and was in aperture priority at f/22 - I might have set it a little more open but I wanted good focus from front to back. A lot of people worry about diffraction at small apertures but I don't for small pictures and the interntet. Probably should have set it at f/16 and taken a little more care anyway :-). The lens is a Nikkor 24-70 f/2.8 at 24mm. I took a couple of frames but thought this one worked best for a reflection. It is set at ISO 400 so I can hand hold at 1/80 sec. Probably should have had a tripod too :-).

Post processing consisted of the square crop and going into lab mode with soft light to get a bit more contrast and punchier color. I dialed lab color back to 50% to tone it down it a bit.

Idea based on On Reflection, pages 82-83 in the book 50 Photo Projects, by Lee Frost

The Normal Lens

Week 12

The 50mm prime lens, also known as a standard lens or normal lens, came on a lot of 35mm cameras and was mounted on the first Leica that made 35mm popular.

I have several 50mm lenses for my Nikons, both manual and auto focus. They are nice because they are small, have low distortion, usually are very sharp, and are fast - down to f/1.4 or even f/1.2. Even the slowest ones are faster than the amateur zooms that come on most cameras today. Here is a shot taken at night in very low light with Nikon's cheapest current lens - a 50mm f/1.8 autofocus. I had to pan to keep the boat sharp but it shows what is possible.

Why is a 50mm lens considered normal? Actually there is a range that fits in this category and it varies according to film or sensor size. Typically normal perspective as perceived by humans is taken to be equal to the diagonal distance of the frame. For a 35mm frame the actual dimensions are 24mm x 36mm so the diagonal is 43.2mm if I have done my math right. That means a 50mm is actually a slight telephoto in the 35mm format.

Older rangefinders often came with a lens around 42mm to 45mm in focal length, including the camera I used to take this picture - a Kodak Signet 35 from the early 1950's. This is closer to an ideal normal perspective, at least according to the mathematical definition I've used above.

Back to the photograph. It was taken in a hotel room as we were waiting to move into our apartment. I took it because of the quality of the filtered light coming through a large window on the left side of the frame and it gave me a chance to test the lens wide open (in this case only f/3.5). I thought it would probably be a bit dreamy and not too sharp given the age of the lens but actually it is pretty sharp. Film is modern Kodak 200 bought in a drug store.

It is a bit overexposed and not on purpose. I determined exposure by taking a snap with my Nikon D3 which came up with f/3.5 and 1/15 at ISO 200. The Signet 35 doesn't have 1/15 but there is a 1/25 shutter speed so that is where it was set for this hand held picture. So why is a faster shutter speed overexposed? Probably because the shutter needs adjusting after all these years.

There is very little post processing in the picture. I straightened it a bit and took some shine out of the framed picture on the wall using the cloning tool. I like the way the out of focus areas look but can't tell how much of that comes from the film, the camera and lens, or the relatively low resolution scan. The D3 is quite a bit sharper and of course exposure is "better" but I like the Signet 35 look.

Idea based on Standard Bearer, pages 120-121 in the book 50 Photo Projects, by Lee Frost

Fits in a Pocket

Week 11

I enjoyed doing this one - looks like an old photograph doesn't it? This Chevy was stopped in the middle of the road on Stephens Avenue in Calgary just down from where we were about to go in and eat. I didn't know why he was stopped where he was but I liked the head on view so I walked down to where he was, stepped out in the road, and quickly composed and shot the picture.

But I am getting ahead of myself. The idea here is to try a digital point and shoot instead of your fancy SLR. I used a digital point and shoot for years before I got my first digital SLR and used to carry mine everywhere I went - that is the beauty of them. They are handy and they aren't near as conspicuous as a Nikon D3....

Of course the downsides are that they have shutter lag, don't do as well in low light (look at the noise in this photo), you can't swap lenses, most of them don't have as much artistic control, overall quality is lower at high enlargement, etc. Oh yeah though, I left out an important plus, they are way cheaper. Overall, in good light with subjects that aren't moving too much they do just fine and they also can be enlarged up to 5x7 and even 8x10 for prints.

Now, back to the picture. This guy wasn't moving because his car was broke down. I only figured that out because a wrecker pulled up and hauled him away. Nice car though....

The camera is a Canon IXY Digital 70 and it is a couple of years old now. I have owned a couple of Canon IXYs and they were all good - just don't drop them, especially with the lens extended. The camera was set on automatic and I don't know what the ISO speed or 35mm lens equivalent is. I know I composed by zooming in somewhat.

The light is late afternoon coming over my shoulder straight at the car and there are some fairly strong reflections as a result. The EXIF data says the camera chose f/4.9 and 1/125 of a second. The hood of the car is sharp, the background soft and grainy from the relatively low light. I like the composition and didn't crop it at all.

Post processing consisted of increasing contrast and applying a B&W adjustment layer in Photoshop with the infrared option selected. I usually use the B&W layer these day for B&W instead of other techniques and try the different filter options in it to get ideas before tweaking further. In this case, the infrared really darkens the car because it was cherry apple red to begin with (click here for the original photograph without any post). I put some vignette around it and that was that.

Idea based on Pocket Power, pages 86-87 in the book 50 Photo Projects, by Lee Frost

At a Loss for Inspiration

Week 10

This was a good week for quantity of photos posted in my travel blog but it was a struggle for One Photo a Week. But I ended up with this one that is interesting...

What do you do when the location is boring, the light is bad, it is raining, or all of the above. The things I tried weren't working but I spotted this bark and liked it. So I got close and blocked everything else out. Other things I try when the muse fails me include shooting in B&W (one of my favorites) and just looking harder and from different angles. When all else fails, go somewhere else :-).

The shot is of the bark of a tree located near the Bow River and I am around 2 feet (.6 M) away with nothing but bark in the frame. The light is late afternoon sun, the camera my D3 at ISO 200. The lens is a Nikkor 24-70 f2.8 at 70mm. The camera was in automatic mode and it selected an aperture of f7.1 and speed of 1/200 second.

There is very little post-processing in this picture other than cropping it square. I considered cloning out the partial splits at the edges of the frame but in the end just left them in.

Idea based on Desparate Measures, pages 30-31 in the book 50 Photo Projects, by Lee Frost

Panorama

Week 9

Panoramas are a great way to show wide horizontal scenes in my opinion and they sometimes work good on a vertical. Photoshop or similar software can be used to stitch together a series of pictures and I've used that technique successfully a number of times.

The advantage of that approach is you get great resolution and you don't need an ultra wide lens. The disadvantage is that if things are moving fast it might show, especially in the stitching. I always photograph in Manual with fixed iso, fixed speed, fixed focus, and fixed aperture so that the blending is smoother when I use this technique. It also helps to put your camera on a tripod but I've done OK handheld.

My D3 can make reasonable 20 to 30 inch wide frames though if you don't stand too close without stitching and that is what I've done here. The scene is an old grain silo in the Badlands east of Calgary near the town of Drumheller. I'll post some more pictures of the area in my other blog, Apparently Random Travel Blog. Anyway, when I took the shot I thought it might make a good panorama.

The lighting is coming from the late afternoon sun on the left. The cliffs in the background were dark from shadow so I lightened them up a bit in Photoshop. I bumped up contrast on the grain silo to show the texture and writing on the side better. I also put a slight vignette around the edges to draw the eye to the center.

The camera is a Nikon D3 at ISO 200 and 1/400 sec, lens is a Nikkor 24-70 f2.8 (my new present to myself) at f10 and 24mm.

Idea based on Stretch Your Imagination, pages 128-131 in the book 50 Photo Projects, by Lee Frost

H20

Week 8

This week is about water. I've pointed my camera at it lot of times - rivers, boats, waterfalls, reflections, rain.... But there had to be a way to photograph water in a way I hadn't tried before.

This is a rock in the Bow River downstream of the spillway on the lagoon that forms Prince Island in the Eau Claire district in Calgary. I am standing above the rock on other rocks shooting more or less straight down from 2 feet or so as the water rushes by. Click on it and have a closer look at the strings of light in the water. I'm not sure what caused that but for me it is the best part of the picture and although this one doesn't grab attention right away I like the abstract quality.

I wanted to smooth out the water with a slow shutter speed. I didn't have a polarizer or neutral density filter so I just set the aperture as small as I could and the ISO as slow as I could. The camera is a D3 at ISO 100 (L1.0) and the lens is a Nikkor 50mm f1.8 set at f22. Exposure time was 1/10 of a second. Post processing in Photoshop consisted of darkening and increasing the contrast with curves.

Idea based on Just Add Water, pages 56-59 in the book 50 Photo Projects, by Lee Frost

Agfa Optima Societe

Week 7

This is what passes for a sidewalk cafe in Kingwood, Texas. Actually, it is a nice place and I like the breakfast and coffee. I just don't care much for 38 degrees C Texas heat. The view of Kingwood Drive and the parking lot isn't that great either but c'est la vie. Anyway, this table and chair outside caught my eye and I kind of liked the lines and shapes.

The Lomo LC-A is a somewhat low tech Russian camera with a sharp lens but no real creative control settings other than zone focus. Exposure is set automatically. A society, called the Lomograph Society, was formed to take advantage of this freedom in a creative way (and maybe make a buck). They market a new version of the Lomo and some other inexpensive cameras including the Holga.

Well, I am a radical and I refuse to participate in this mainstream "art" of the masses. I am forming my own society and calling it a societe because it sounds more high brow. The societe is based on the original 35mm point and shoot camera with automatic exposure control, the German made Agfa Optima. As best I can tell the model Ia that I have came out about 1962.

What would you expect to pay for this camera? I paid $6.01 in an Ebay auction plus $5.50 for shipping. It still looks good after all these years, including the leather case, and everything works except the leaf shutter sticks open from time to time, and that is not a good thing. I made it through this roll without a mishap though. It has a self timer, fixed aperture at 1/30 shutter for flash, and Bulb. I even tried it with my Nikon SB-800 speedlight setting flash duration in the hot shoe and that worked. There is a picture of me stylin' with this camera here.

The picture was taken outdoors in early morning with Kodak Gold 200 film in automatic mode. The zone exposure was set at "two heads" on the dial or 2 meters. I have no idea what the exposure was since it was in automatic and doesn't show any information other than a red dot that turns green as you depress the "magic release lever" and hold it for "approximately 1 second" thereby letting you know it has enough light. Actually, it has surprised me with how well it works. For this shot I cropped in Photoshop, turned it B&W with a blue filter if I remember correctly in a layer, and upped the contrast with Curves.

Idea based on Life Through a LOMO, pages 66-69 in the book 50 Photo Projects, by Lee Frost