Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Good bye 2008!

Well here it is, the last day of 2008. It was snowing pretty good outside today so I thought I'd head outside and take some photos.

IMG_2725 50D 12312008
50mm, ISO 400, f/8 for 1/400 sec.

IMG_2728 50D 12312008
56mm, ISO 100, f/8 for 1/80 sec.

IMG_2733 50D 12312008
44mm, ISO 100, f/8 for 1/100 sec.

IMG_2737 50D 12312008
85mm, ISO 100, f/5.6 for 1/80 sec.

Tomorrow begins 2009. I have high expectations for the year. I'm also beginning my photo a day project with some of the other students in my NYIP course. You can find the link to those postings on the right side of this page.

I wish you all a great 2009 and hope you succeed in all your endeavors!

Chris.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Whew! I'm glad all that running around is over!

I really like the holidays. All the visiting of people you may not see too often, the food, the drink, the presents.... But, I'm sure glad it's over. I get so run down from all that running around.

Anyway, enough whining. I hope you had a great Christmas and I hope your new year is good as well.

Here are a couple of the better shots I was able to take this Christmas.


IMG_2485 50D 12252008
33mm, ISO 400, f/4.5 for 1/25 sec.

IMG_2514 50D 12252008
44mm, ISO 400, f/5 for 1/15 sec.

IMG_2649 50D 12272008
50mm, ISO 400, f/2.8 for 1/50 sec.

IMG_2654 50D 12272008
50mm, ISO 400, f/1.8 for 1/100 sec.

I wish I had realized I should have been on shutter priority when I was using fill flash. I would have gotten less motion blur. Oh, well, they are nice shots anyway.

Chris.

Friday, December 19, 2008

New Blog Page Comming Jan 1 2009!

I am starting a new blog in page conjunction with this one. I've accepted a photo a day challenge from a contact of mine on flickr. A group of us will be taking a photo a day for the entire year of 2009.

You can find that blog in my page links. The title is Photo A day 2009.

Check often starting Jan 1 2009. I will post one every day.

Chris.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Digital Photography Tip #007 - Natural Light

I'm going to venture into the often confusing and frustrating topic of lighting. First the easy one. Natural light.

What is natural light? Natural light is the light that occurs naturally in the scene. Daylight, or in some cases, Moonlight. Any light produced by a man made source is not natural light. We will get to them later.

Ok, how do we handle this lighting? This gets frustrating at times. There is a school of thought that bright sunny days are great for pictures. Not so. Bright sunny days lead to way more contrast than your camera can handle. This holds true for digital or film. What happens is you either expose for the highlights and the shadows go very dark with no detail or you expose for the shadows and the sky and highlights are blown completely out. Also the shadows are very harsh. How do we handle that? I'll get to that a little later on.

What kind of lighting then if not bright sunny days? Overcast! Or at least a day with some clouds. The clouds will diffuse the sun and produce a softer more even light with softer shadows. Have a look at the following examples.

Front lighting.

IMG_4346
Here it was bright sun behind me. You hear all the time you should put the sun behind your back to light your subject. Well he is lit alright. So bright he is squinting hard and look at the harsh shadows on his face from his glasses and on his neck from his chin. Not a very flattering picture.

Diffused sunlight.

Unit 2 Photo 1
In this photo, I waited for a cloud to cover the sun. Notice the almost complete lack of shadows. Only a slight shadow just under the cat tail at the stem. The light was very even. The contrast was less and the colors were more natural. Quite a difference from the harsh lighting in the previous photo.

Open shade.

IMG_8887
This one was taken on a very bright day but in the open shade of a tree. Open shade is a great place to beat the brightness of the day. It can be behind a building or under a tree or some such place that has nice shade. Be careful with trees that you don't get sunlight popping through the leaves and leaving bright patches on your subjects. That makes for some odd looking effects.

Back lighting.

IMG_5964
In this picture of my Mom and my daughter we see an example of back lighting. The light is coming from behind them not behind me. Notice how it produces a bit of a halo effect around them which really pulls them from the background.

IMG_9174
Here is another example of back lighting that is on the extreme side. The sun is literally right behind the subject. I used the cat tail to block the sunrise which produces a great halo effect on the cat tail.

Back lighting is one of my favorite effects.

Side lighting.

IMG_0135 50D 10262008-4
Side lighting is a great way to show texture in your subject. Notice the vain in the leaf how the shadows fall and show the texture of the leaf and on the grains of sand.

The best thing I can suggest is practice and experiment and have fun with it. If you like the photo then it is a good photo. Dark shadows or not.

Chris.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year 2008

Well it's almost here. Christmas. Anyone who is even remotely as immature as I am gets excited at this time of the year. For me it's not so much about the gifts but being able to see it through the eyes of a child. Having kids opened me up to so many things. I see everything differently now and I try to take each moment as it comes and savor it. Remember when you were a kid and everything seemed to take so long. Now as an adult time flies by.

Here are some photos of the things that have been fascinating my kids lately.

A Santa Hat.
IMG_1949 50D 12132008
50mm, ISO 400, f/2.0 for 1/60 second.

A Family Ornament.
IMG_1945 50D 12122008
50mm, ISO 400, f/2.8 for 1/60 second.

An Angel In The House.
IMG_1939 50D 12122008
50mm, ISO 400, f/2.8 for 1/50 second.

A Glowing Penguin.
IMG_1915 50D 12122008
50mm, ISO 400, f/2.2 for 1/60 second.

A Cup Of Timmy's On The End Table.
IMG_1909 50D 12122008
50mm, ISO 400, f/1.8 for 1/125 second.

So far that's all I have. More to come I'm sure.

Chris.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Christmas At Work

I love to see decorations at work. Everyone is in a better mood just because they see the decorations. What a great idea! Here are a few pictures from around my day job.

IMG_1849 50D 12092008
50mm, ISO 800, f/5.6 for 1/15 sec.

IMG_1854 50D 12092008
64mm, ISO 800, f/5.6 for 1/50 sec.

IMG_1857 50D 12092008
26mm, ISO 400, f/4.5 for 1/15 sec.

Chris.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Photo For Now #11

Well, It's been 4 days now and this pretty much sums up my week so far, not just the day.

IMG_1768 50D 12032008
No Exif provided.

Chris.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Christmas Lights 2008 - #1

I'm trying to figure out just how to take pictures of outdoor Christmas lights. I know to switch my white balance to tungsten but beyond that, who knows. I shall research this.

Anyway, we were out this past weekend to take the kids to a house here in Edmonton, 97st and 144 ave. This guy goes overboard on a grand scale. It's amazing how much Christmas stuff this guy can put in his yard.

Here are some of my better ones from the evening.

Let me just mention that I love the combination of the high ISO of my 50D and Noise Ninja to clean it up!

IMG_1750 50D 11302008
56mm, ISO 1600, f/5.6 for 1/60 seconds.

IMG_1751 50D 11302008
24mm, ISO 1600, f/5.6 for 1/125 seconds. (with just a kiss of fill in flash)

IMG_1740 50D 11302008
17mm, ISO 1600, f/4 for 1/60 seconds.

IMG_1739 50D 11302008
17mm, ISO 1600, f/4 for 1/250 seconds.

IMG_1735 50D 11302008
38mm, ISO 1600, f/6 for 1/125 seconds.

IMG_1724 50D 11302008
22mm, ISO 1600, f/4 for 1/60 seconds.

Chris.