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.
Friday, December 19, 2008
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
50mm, ISO 400, f/2.0 for 1/60 second.
A Family Ornament.
50mm, ISO 400, f/2.8 for 1/60 second.
An Angel In The House.
50mm, ISO 400, f/2.8 for 1/50 second.
A Glowing Penguin.
50mm, ISO 400, f/2.2 for 1/60 second.
A Cup Of Timmy's On The End Table.
50mm, ISO 400, f/1.8 for 1/125 second.
So far that's all I have. More to come I'm sure.
Chris.
Here are some photos of the things that have been fascinating my kids lately.
A Santa Hat.
50mm, ISO 400, f/2.0 for 1/60 second.
A Family Ornament.
50mm, ISO 400, f/2.8 for 1/60 second.
An Angel In The House.
50mm, ISO 400, f/2.8 for 1/50 second.
A Glowing Penguin.
50mm, ISO 400, f/2.2 for 1/60 second.
A Cup Of Timmy's On The End Table.
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.
50mm, ISO 800, f/5.6 for 1/15 sec.
64mm, ISO 800, f/5.6 for 1/50 sec.
26mm, ISO 400, f/4.5 for 1/15 sec.
Chris.
50mm, ISO 800, f/5.6 for 1/15 sec.
64mm, ISO 800, f/5.6 for 1/50 sec.
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.
No Exif provided.
Chris.
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!
56mm, ISO 1600, f/5.6 for 1/60 seconds.
24mm, ISO 1600, f/5.6 for 1/125 seconds. (with just a kiss of fill in flash)
17mm, ISO 1600, f/4 for 1/60 seconds.
17mm, ISO 1600, f/4 for 1/250 seconds.
38mm, ISO 1600, f/6 for 1/125 seconds.
22mm, ISO 1600, f/4 for 1/60 seconds.
Chris.
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!
56mm, ISO 1600, f/5.6 for 1/60 seconds.
24mm, ISO 1600, f/5.6 for 1/125 seconds. (with just a kiss of fill in flash)
17mm, ISO 1600, f/4 for 1/60 seconds.
17mm, ISO 1600, f/4 for 1/250 seconds.
38mm, ISO 1600, f/6 for 1/125 seconds.
22mm, ISO 1600, f/4 for 1/60 seconds.
Chris.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
More 50D Thoughts
Alright, It's been just over a month that I've had the 50D. Anyone who knows me will tell you I've taken a lot of photos with it. Mostly just snap shots for testing purposes but a lot none the less.
I was at first a little disappointed about the high ISO performance. I was expecting too much I think. I was looking to get perfect pictures in very low light hand held at a decent shutter speed. Ya, that's not going to happen.
I did discover though that Noise Ninja will clean up my images very well. So well that I am not at all hesitant to use ISO 3200 where needed.
This was my biggest concern about the camera and I had some trouble getting over it.
As for the rest of the camera's performance I could not be happier. The burst rate of 6.3 fps is awesome. The focusing is dead on. The camera has the ability to fine tune the focusing but I have not tried that out yet. The build of the body is solid. It feels really good in the hand. The image quality is amazing. 15 mega pixels compared to 10 is a big difference. The camera still handles the larger file size well but downloading and post processing them is a longer procedure.
Well that's it for now. I'll write some more as I play with more of the features.
Here are some of my more recent photos.
56mm, ISO 1600, f/5.6 for 1/60 sec. Early morning window light very heavy overcast. The room was moody, dimly lit. Very impressed at the ISO performance and Noise Ninja's cleanup of the noise.
53mm, ISO 200, f/6.3 for .4 seconds (the exif tells me 2/5 seconds Odd). This is a shot for my course. Still life using 45 degree light and a reflector. Light from camera right and reflector camera left.
Chris.
I was at first a little disappointed about the high ISO performance. I was expecting too much I think. I was looking to get perfect pictures in very low light hand held at a decent shutter speed. Ya, that's not going to happen.
I did discover though that Noise Ninja will clean up my images very well. So well that I am not at all hesitant to use ISO 3200 where needed.
This was my biggest concern about the camera and I had some trouble getting over it.
As for the rest of the camera's performance I could not be happier. The burst rate of 6.3 fps is awesome. The focusing is dead on. The camera has the ability to fine tune the focusing but I have not tried that out yet. The build of the body is solid. It feels really good in the hand. The image quality is amazing. 15 mega pixels compared to 10 is a big difference. The camera still handles the larger file size well but downloading and post processing them is a longer procedure.
Well that's it for now. I'll write some more as I play with more of the features.
Here are some of my more recent photos.
56mm, ISO 1600, f/5.6 for 1/60 sec. Early morning window light very heavy overcast. The room was moody, dimly lit. Very impressed at the ISO performance and Noise Ninja's cleanup of the noise.
53mm, ISO 200, f/6.3 for .4 seconds (the exif tells me 2/5 seconds Odd). This is a shot for my course. Still life using 45 degree light and a reflector. Light from camera right and reflector camera left.
Chris.
East West Office View AM November 26 2008
Hmmm. These look very much like yesterday. Perhaps I'll hold off until something noticeable changes.
East
West
Chris.
East
West
Chris.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
East West Office View AM November 25 2008
Just for something to photograph at work I've decided to show what the city looks like each morning from my office facing west and the BBQ deck facing east. Now that I'm on the top floor I get a better view. Keep in mind though that I work in an industrial area so the view is not that great but it is nice to see how the seasons change.
East
West
Chris.
East
West
Chris.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
I have a domain!!!
Those of you who have come to my blog via the normal route of chrislemmen.blogspot.com don't realize it yet but those who ended up here via www.chrislemmenphotography.ca well here you are.
I have registered www.chrislemmenphotography.ca as my own domain. Why you ask? Well I needed a presence on the web other than this blog. A more permanent one. One I can use when I get Chris Lemmen Photography up and running. That will be the name of my photography company. I was going to use Patterns In Light but that was getting to be a headache.
There is a new email address too. chris@chrislemmenphotography.ca
So for now the domain will be forwarded to this blog until such time that I require a more robust website.
If you followed www.chrislemmenphotography.ca here then please click on the blog name at the top of this page and you will be taken to the full blog in all its glory. Well at least to the full blog.
Thanks for visiting.
Chris. (new link to my new photography email address.)
I have registered www.chrislemmenphotography.ca as my own domain. Why you ask? Well I needed a presence on the web other than this blog. A more permanent one. One I can use when I get Chris Lemmen Photography up and running. That will be the name of my photography company. I was going to use Patterns In Light but that was getting to be a headache.
There is a new email address too. chris@chrislemmenphotography.ca
So for now the domain will be forwarded to this blog until such time that I require a more robust website.
If you followed www.chrislemmenphotography.ca here then please click on the blog name at the top of this page and you will be taken to the full blog in all its glory. Well at least to the full blog.
Thanks for visiting.
Chris. (new link to my new photography email address.)
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