October 7, 2009 - Gorgeous sunset photo

2 sec

f11

ISO 100

18mm

RAW

We just had a strong front go pushing through today and it turned into a beautiful, clear day. From past experience, I knew this would produce some strong colors at sunset, so I planned out this shot in advance.

My son and I hiked through a field with waist high grass in order to get on the other side of this massive, old oak tree. We set the camera up on a tripod to insure stability, and took a bunch of photos.

Each shot was done on 'M' so we could alter each shot slightly from the previous one. We mostly experimented in longer or shorter shutter speeds, but we also changed angles and orientations.

Sunset photos are the best when you include something in the sunset. It doesn't matter much what it is (like a silhouetted tree, your best friend, or reflections off of a surface), but its inclusion is vital.

For this shot, I put the silhouetted oak down in the lower corner to also use the rule of thirds. As for the other settings, I wanted a good, deep depth of field, so I went with f11. ISO 100 insured the photo would be smooth and grain-free, and the tripod prevented any blurriness on such a long exposure.

I liked this one the best. There was still enough light so the field wasn't thrown into complete darkness, and the clouds had a little hint of pink in them at the top of the frame. But when I loaded it up into Photoshop Elements, however, I couldn't quite get the color that I wanted. Either the sky wasn't blue enough at the top, the clouds weren't bright enough, or the horizon wasn't yellow enough. And I totally couldn't see any pink in the clouds.

So what did I do? I pulled out The Photoshop Elements 6 Book for Digital Photograhers (here's a link to the same book for the latest version of Photoshop Elements). I reviewed the book for ideas on getting the missing colors, and found the solution &mdash the 'Adjust Color Curves' tool. It's amazing! I'm going to need to use this one more. Not only did it bring out all of the color that was missing, but it also helped me keep the field from going completely black. It completely saved me from going into depression (because I was so frustrated with the lackluster look of the photo).

What do you guys think? Did I go to far? Is the color unreal? Or did I get it right?

August 16, 2009 – Movie night

4 sec

f4.0

ISO 200

25mm

RAW

Last night the girls were crowded around the TV watching Coraline, a claymation movie that reminded me a lot of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. Thanks to the spooky nature of the film, my youngest snuggled up to her older sister, and my next youngest grabbed one of her favorite stuffed animals, Bedtime Bear.

I turned out all of the lights and set up the camera on a tripod right beside the TV. I took a bunch of shots (since the TV was putting out varying amounts of light, depending on what was being shown in the movie) in order to find a few goods one where the kids didn't move.

I used a low ISO to avoid noise/grainyness, and purposefully picked a shot that was a little underexposed to reinforce the idea of watching a movie in the dark. Finally, I cropped it to a wide 2 to 1 ratio to emphasize the kids and eliminate most of the distracting background.

In all, I like the photo. But others may think it could have been better if all the girls were sitting side by side. I wasn't going to pose them, however, because I wanted to capture more of their natural tendencies. Some may wonder why my 9-year-old is sitting off by herself on the right. To me, it fits here independent personality perfectly.

Photo Tip: How to shoot a ghost

Just in time for Halloween, here's tip sure to fire up the kids. Turn them into ghosts!


Here's how I did it, in general terms. I put the camera on a tripod and set it so it would properly expose the shot without the flash, but had the flash fire anyway. As soon as the flash fired, the kids walked out of the picture. The flash illuminated the kids, and the rest of the scene was illuminated with the natural lighting through a long exposure.

Now for the specifics. With the camera on a tripod, I set the film speed to the lowest setting (ISO 100 for my Canon 20D). Then I put the camera in manual mode and set it to 3.2 seconds for the shutter speed and f5.6 for the aperture. You may need to play around with the aperture and shutter speeds to see what works best for your situation -- f5.6, ISO 100, and 3.2 seconds worked for my lighting situation, but may not for you.


I was taking the photos in our church's parking lot after a Halloween Party. They posed under an oak tree, which helped shade the light from the parking lot lights. I positioned the kids where the illuminated signs were directly behind them.


You need to do something similar. Find a dark place without much light (but enough to see). Figure out how long the exposure needs to be. The idea works better with dark clothing instead of light (light-colored clothing will possibly streak as the subject walks away). Finally, have something bright or light-colored behind the subjects so it will easily shine through their bodies, creating the illusion that they are ghosts.

Be prepared to experiment some to find what works best. And most of all, have some fun!