November 15, 2009 - the Earth's Shadow

1/60

f5.6

ISO 400

27mm

RAW

To be honest, this wasn't the photo I wanted to take today. True, I planned on taking a photo of my church while standing from this exact location — just not at sunset.

I had seen this shot earlier in the day when I was leaving the church after the service was done. It was with a deep, clear blue sky behind the building with all of the Autumn leaves brightly illuminated by the mid-day sun. In fact, the sun was at an angle where the sky would have had good, deep blue even without a polarized lens.

That's the photo I wanted to take.

But sadly, I wasn't able to get back to the church until the sun was going down. So instead, I settled for a sunset shot with the effect called the "Earth's Shadow" coloring the sky behind the building. What causes this shadow? The Earth itself. The sun has gone done below the western horizon behind me, which causes a shadow to appear just above the horizon in the eastern sky. A lot of people don't notice this because the eye is drawn to the brighter part of the sky (which is the setting sun in the west). But it can be a dramatic effect.

I shot this with my 18-55mm zoom at ISO 400 and f5.6. This was the best combination to still get a fast enough shutter speed (1/60) to avoid any camera shake (blurriness) yet still have enough aperture to make sure everything was in focus. The film speed was slow enough to create a clean image and avoid the graininess that can come at higher speeds. I do wish, however, that I had a vantage point that would have been a few feet higher.

I did quite a bit of experimenting in Photoshop Elements (using my new favorite tool, Adjust Color Curves) to get the color to the point that I remembered it. But I am worried I overdid the effect. What do you think? Does this look unnatural? Or does it look like a photo taken just as the sun is setting?

October 30, 2009 - Happy haunting!

1/30

f2.0

ISO 3200

50mm

RAW

I know I am still behind in posting, but I got such a great photo last night I couldn't wait to share it. Hopefully, this will help motivate me to get fully caught up.

Tonight I got a great photo of one of the youth at our church's Halloween Trunk or Treat party. He had his face painted as if it was stitched up, and had fun walking around, staring and pointing at people in a quiet, yet menacing way.

I wanted to get a photo that I thought would portray his behavior in a more sinister way. Here's how I did it.

I set him up in a dark hallway beside an open door where the light was spilling from the room into the dark hallway. This illuminated him from the side, but it still left the hallway dark. The light coming from behind him is about 100 feet away. This light is reflecting on some of the woodwork and art along the walls.

I shot this with my 50mm f1.8 lens with the camera set in aperture priority mode. I set the aperture to f2.0 to get a fast enough shutter speed (at 3200 ISO) to get the photo sharp and clear without using a flash (which would have totally destroyed the lighting effect).

Finally, I edited the photo to be a little soft (in other words, I didn't do any sharpening) and off-color on purpose. I thought it made it look like more like a dream (or nightmare) type state.

There are two things that really bug me about the shot. First, there is a chair in the hallway, which you can see in the lower left of the photo. I wish I had noticed it and moved it first. Second, he hand is much blurrier than I thought it would be. I wish it had gotten into focus a little more.

But what's done is done. What do you guys think? How would you rate the photo?

October 16, 2009 - Curving tables

1/1000

f8.0

ISO 1600

24mm

RAW

Today was overcast, so I went about looking for good subjects for black and white photos. This is a set of tables outside a Chick-fil-A. I liked the symmetry of the composition, and I cropped out everything that was detracting from the tables.

I shot the photo at ISO 1600 to add a bit of graininess, and set the aperture to f8 to get all of the tables in focus. In Photoshop Elements, I increased the contrast and filled in the shadows a bit in an effort to mimic old-fashioned black and white film.

In retrospect, I think the photo is kinda plain. Not much to it. What do you think? I am trying to do more black and white photography, so I am going to keep plugging away and see what I can do.

October 1, 2009 - Well planned snapshots

1/40

f5.0

ISO 800

29mm

RAW

A little more simple of a shot today. I got this while my kids were browsing around for a book to buy at their school's book fair. But even with something that looks like a snapshot still has some thought and planning behind it.

Take this shot, for instance. I cheated a little by putting the camera in 'P' mode. This mode lets the camera make all the decisions but lets me influence them. In this instance my influences were setting the camera to ISO 800 and using the fluorescent white balance. The film speed gave it enough light to properly expose the shots without using a flash, while the white balance matched the lights in the library.

Now all I had to do was follow my kids around as they looked at books. But even there I used a specific technique. In this shot, I crouched down so the camera was on the same level as my kids. This simple change in angle of view really changes the whole feel of the photo because it is as if we are seeing the world from their perspective. It's subtle, but can have a powerful effect.

As to what I would change, I wish I had a little more shutter speed. The camera was fooled a little and overexposed the shot, but I was able to dial it back down using Adobe Camera Raw adn Photoshop Elements. If the camera hadn't been fooled, however, the shutter speed would have been a little faster and maybe I wouldn't have gotten the slight motion blur in Morgan's hands.

Oh, and one more thing — why in the world are they holding the book upside down?

September 20, 2009 - Making pumpkin muffins

1/60

f5.6

ISO 400

20mm

RAW

Tonight we made a treat — chocolate chip pumpkin muffins!

I used my dedicated flash to light up the kitchen. I pointed it straight up so it would bounce off the ceiling and create a brighter, broader light. It did a good job.

I set the camera on manual, with the shutter at 1/60, aperture at f5.6, and ISO at 400. For indoor shots with a flash, these are my favorite settings. The camera does a great job of figuring out how much flash to use, and my Sigma EF500 Super flash has plenty of power.

The 1/60 shutter speed does a good job of stopping action, while the f5.6 aperture usually creates a good depth of field for indoors. With the film speed set at ISO 400, it's fast enough to light up most of the room and have a slight (yet pleasant) light falloff towards the back.

I composed this shot specifically. I got in close to Tannah and down on her level so you could easily see her. I arranged the simple ingredients so you could see what they were. Because I focused in close, the depth of field in this shot was fairly shallow which helped put the messy counter behind her out of focus (which helps reduce its distraction yet convey enough to easily convey that this is a kitchen).

I like this photo. It really captures the idea well of making something with my kids. Leigh Ann was helping a little, too. And when she wasn't helping, she took my camera and took some photos of Tannah and I working side by side.

By the way, the recipe is really simple. One box of spice cake mix, one bag of mini chocolate chips, and one regular-sized can of pumpkin. Mix it all up (no water needed) with a teaspoon of nutmeg and put it in muffin tins. Cook them at 325° for 10 minutes (for miniature muffins, longer for regular ones) and enjoy!

Dinner date at home

1/15

f4.5

ISO 800

18mm

RAW

My wife and I had a dinner date at home, after the kids went to bed. We grilled up some New York Strip steak, along with some loaded baked potatoes and asparagus.

I shot this with my 18-55mm IS lens, which allowed to go handheld without a flash -- even with such a slow shutter speed. Even with the IS lens, I made sure to hold my elbows in close to my chest, control my breathing, and just squeeze the shutter.

Shooting RAW helped me with the color cast from the indoor lamps. The wide f4.5 aperture helped put the background plate nicely out of focus.

In hindsight, I wish I would have turned the plate so the steak was place in the 12 o'clock to 4 o'clock position (instead of the 8 o'clock to 12 o'clock position it is currently in. This would have made the steak larger in the image instead of the potatoes.

Basic Photo Tip: Aperture and ISO speeds

So you have a great shot to take, but you don’t have a fast enough shutter speed. What can you do without using your flash? There are actually two options – open up your aperture or change your film speed.

So what’s your aperture? The aperture refers to a numerical representation of how wide the lens opening is inside the lens. On all SLR and most point-and-shoot digital cameras, you can open or close your aperture to let more light or less through.

Many people think a lens has only one fixed opening for how much light gets through. But that is not true. The vast majority of cameras (some point-and-shoot film cameras being the lone exception here) have the ability to change the lens’ aperture and let more light through. This is commonly called the f-stop of a lens. The bigger the opening, the more light comes through, and the faster the shutter speed can be.

Similarly, you can change the film speed and get the same results. The higher the film speed, the more reactive to light the film or sensor is, and the faster the shutter speed can be.

This is where one of the biggest strengths of digital cameras comes in. Whereas with film cameras you can change the film speed only by changing the whole roll of film for a new one, with digital you can change the film speed through a camera setting. So if you are shooting at 100 ISO film speed and you notice it is getting a little dark, you can change a digital camera to 200 ISO in between shots and keep going. ISO 200 film is twice as reactive to light as 100 ISO, so it will double your shutter speed.

That is the key to understanding exposure. Being able to double your shutter speed is called one stop of exposure. Therefore, going from 1/125 of a second to 1/250 is one stop, going from 1/125 to 1/500 is two stops, and going from 1/125 to 1/1000 is three stops.

Keeping track of stops with shutter speeds is very simple. Aperture values, on the other hand, are more complex. They start with a very low number (like f2.0) and go up, but not in a scale you would think as logical. A f2 aperture setting creates a large opening in the lens and lets in a lot of light. A f2.8 aperture lets in half of the light as f2, and therefore is one stop less. Two stops less light will be f4, and f5.6 would be three stops less.

Below is a scale showing all of the normal shutter speeds and aperture values, set one stop apart. If your camera was saying that a photo will be properly exposed at 1/125 of a second with an aperture set to f8, then all of the settings below will result in exactly the same exposure.

Shutter	1/15	1/30	1/60	1/125	1/250	1/500
Aperture	f22	f16	f11	f8	f5.6	f4
ISO	100	100	100	100	100	100

Similarly, if you changed your film speed between shots, all of these would result in the same exposure, too.

Shutter	1/15	1/30	1/60	1/125	1/250	1/500
Aperture	f8	f8	f8	f8	f8	f8
ISO	100	200	400	800	1600	3200

Do you see the relationship? As your shutter speed goes up, your aperture value needs to go down. The opposite is also true. As your aperture value goes up, your shutter speed will go down. The key here is to remember that the higher the aperture value, the smaller the lens opening and the less light goes through to expose the photo.