Creativity – CanonBlogger

5 Tips for Better Pano Photography

September 2, 2019April 2, 2025 Jason2 Comments

With Apple and Android phones, the ability to take panorama photographs has really changed the landscape (if you’ll pardon the pun 🙂 ) for still photography in this genre. You can get some truly stunning results without the need to stitch several photographs together in heavy desktop applications like Photoshop anymore. Like anything else though, there are things you can do to increase your keeper rate, and things to avoid (unless you like deleting tons of photos). Here are Five Tips To Improve Panorama Photos:

Tip #1 – Make sure you scope out the scene all around you. Believe it or not, the iPhone panorama photo feature goes to nearly 300 degrees from left to right. This means you will almost be doing a complete circle. Is there anything on your left or right that you particularly want to be in the photo, or the draw of your photo? Make sure that you initially face that particular person or scene. Then turn 90 degrees to your left before you start shooting.

(I wanted to make sure the plane on camera right was fully in the frame, and my first short, the pano ended right before the hallway on the right, so it looked like it was cut off…)

Tip #2 – Go slow! The iPhone will tell you to slow down if you start moving too quickly from left to right, but at that point, it’s likely too late. Stop the shot and start over. Don’t get impatient because your wife (or husband, or significant other or friend or whoever) wants to get to your ultimate destination. The amount of time it takes to completely capture the pano scene is about 15 seconds from left to right. Add another 15 seconds to review the image on screen before you leave the area (you may have to re-shoot). Finally, add another 15 seconds to your itinerary in case you really do need to re-shoot! Just as a buffer, I’d add a final 15 seconds in because…well, you never know! All in, that’s one minute of their lives that your S.O. will have to wait for you.

Tip #3 – Consider the lighting – If your scene varies a lot from dark areas to light areas, that will not bode well for capturing a pano with the iPhone. Why? Quite simply, it can’t capture the dynamic range of our eyes. Low light to bright light can be tough for the sensor to handle, and extremely low light scenes will introduce a lot of grain too. Most of the time, shots that result from these scenarios will be unusable. Exceptions to this would be city skyline shots. The bright lights will be blown out, and the skyline itself will be all in shadow, but that’s ok – that kind of contrast is actually a good thing for skyline shots!

dark pano - what not to do — dark pano – what not to do

(Clearly, the bright light of the lamp and the darker area of the living room made for a bad contrast between bright and dark areas here…this is a bad shot imho..pano or no pano! )

Tip #4 – Consider the framing from top to bottom. When shooting pano shots from the iPhone, you can’t rotate the camera to go into landscape mode – it must be recorded in portrait mode. This means you may get portions of your scene at the bottom, the top, or both that you might not otherwise want in a final photo. Re-frame accordingly as you conceptualize the shot!

Similarly, consider what’s off-camera to the immediate left and right. Is it the road you’re on or a coastline? Unless you take up several frames when viewing this kind of shot, it may end up looking a bit odd.

Finally, consider that you do not necessarily have to go the full range from left to right or right to left. Some the best types of scenes for panoramic photography are better off from perhaps just a little bit more than a standard picture. Here for example, an architectural shot, or perhaps a larger group of people. Everyone automatically presumes that panos are best utilized in landscape photography. While this is true, there are usages outside of that genre.

Wordless Wednesday #27: Boulder Tulips

April 10, 2018April 9, 2018 JasonLeave a comment

I’m coming out of silence for Wordless Wednesday…primarily because so many people are asking me questions via email, Twitter, and FB to share details about the composition, post production, and other details. Instead of just spitting out metadata and other information, I’ve got questions and answers from now on:

#1 – What rule of composition did I use and why?

I chose the Rule of Thirds for this shot, and specifically chose the lower left third to be the grabber. I didn’t want this to be an overpowering shot, for the eye to just enjoy the plethora of tulips…but the little tiny yellow and red amongst the larger red ones struck me for some reason, so I framed it to the lower left – thus giving more space for the eye to expand out from there to the rest of the scene.

#2 – Are any rules of composition broken?

Here, I don’t think so – in general, the Rule of Thirds applies, and the Golden K also applies if you look at it for more than a second or two…see the K lines appear in the red tulips? Kinda neat, eh?

#3 – What camera/lens combo did I use?

For this shot, I was on my trusty Canon 40D, and the lens mount was none other than the Canon kit 18-55mm (nonIS)! I went with the 18-55 mm lens because this is a very good lens for approximating the equivalent of what the human eye sees, and for this photo shoot, I wanted that effect.

#4 – What lighting did I use?

Here, there were no lights…it was au naturale: S=1/60th, f7.1, focal length = 50mm, and an ISO of 1250! (Yep, ISO 1250 – I was hand holding and wanted to keep it bright! The scene was actually much darker, because the sun was going down, and I really wanted the colors to pop! Depth of field was also important to me, because all the flowers needed to stay relatively sharp. Since I was shooting light and on the fly (no tripod or monopod), my only option for getting the brightness in the scene that I wanted was to push the ISO settings up to maintain correct exposure.

#5 – How did I process it?

I processed this in Lightroom, using just a few tweaks on the right panel: I had under-exposed a little (especially given the fading lighting conditions), so upped that by .76. I also set Clarity, Vibrance and Saturation to 50, +10, and +10 accordingly. These settings helped bring out more of the color and vibrance that I was seeing but was not in the default raw file. My sharpening and noise levels were also set to +73 and +50…the sharpening was up that high because,w ell, we always have to sharpen at least a little, and a went a little higher to help define that depth of field. Lastly, the noise levels were pushed up to help counter the impact of the ISO when I was shooting.

Hopefully this will help those of you who are interested in learning what I see with my eye and why I capture certain images. If you have more questions, or thoughts on improvement, feel free to share those in the comments!

Software Subscription Models Revisited

October 16, 2017October 15, 2017 Jason1 Comment

Adobe Logo

As some die hard friends and colleagues are aware, Canon Blogger, suffered a catastrophic failure about a year or so ago now, and I’ve slowly been crawling along as I try to resurrect the archives, and get everything back online. The process has been a tedious one as with nearly ten years of content, some was lost for good when the server crashed, other content survived in the last backup that was performed. Be that as it may, I recently was reading an article on Medium about The Rise of the Rent Seeker and thought to myself, “Oh my GOSH, this nails on the head exactly what I was trying to say way back in 2011 when Adobe made the switch to the subscription model for their software licensing model. This was such a good read that I wanted to share it (thus realizing another two or three articles that were lost, but now recovered courtesy of The Wayback Machine) in the context of my original thoughts. You can read my original articles here and here.

In a nutshell, this most recent article from Medium explains that:

…the economy has two kinds of entrepreneurs: profit seekers and rent seekers, and those who participate in the latter are redistributing the wealth from the subscribers pocket to their own. Adobe has made the shift to this model, and as such, they are extracting value, but not giving any real value back….”

It goes on to elaborate about how the technical space is inherently badly suited for innovation and development when they convert to this model. But the statement made is pretty powerful:

Increasingly, mature software vendors who have run out of innovation runway turn to rent seeking, increasingly we are are told that the subscriptions will soon be everywhere and there is a real problem with that.

Toward that end, it raised the question in my mind: Does that mean Adobe has stopped innovating? What else can be added Photoshop or Photoshop Lightroom to improve our workflow? I honestly don’t know as I’ve stopped upgrading as of CS5 and LR 4. I’d love to hear others thoughts on whether or not Adobe has really been all that innovative over the past 3-4 years. It was telling though, that the author actually used Adobe in his illustration of the dangers of entering into a subscription model:

The article does give a little bit of validation to me though, in seeing someone else so much more eloquently than I as to why renting is almost always (in the long run) not in the best fiscal interest of the consumer.

Photography Location

May 1, 2017October 17, 2017 Jason1 Comment

A lot of the time people ask me what suggestions or recommendations I can give them when they look for a photographer. It’s usually because the person is not in an area I can get to, or it’s a family member or a friend that wants to pick my brain (even though it hurts sometimes! 🙂 ) When I get this question, I tell most people that choosing a photographer is much like choosing a house or real estate: It’s all about location!

What do I mean by this? Simply put: a photographer can shoot on-location. I see many photographers speak to their ability to shoot on-location, and this is an important aspect of many genres ranging from wedding photography, to band photography, and even architectural work. Heck, last week I did a maternity shoot that was “on location.” So, why is this such an important thing to be able to stake claim to? Three key things come to mind for me:

1. Adaptability – Being able to shoot on location means you can adapt. If the surroundings are beautiful, you can adjust your composition to include elements of the scene to give a sense of time and space to an image. If the surroundings aren’t so beautiful, then it equally means you are able to diffuse things so that you can’t tell where a shot was taken – only that it’s a beautiful shot!

2. Controlling – Yes, being able to shoot on location means you are adaptable, but it also means you can control for a number of factors, and of utmost importance here is the ability to control the light. You can bring flash to fill shadows, or scrims to bring shadows to harsh light. If a photographer can control for the light in a scene – the shot will improve by a factor of ten in most instances.

3. Fundamentals – Given the above two factors are in place, this also usually means that the photographer brings a certain set of fundamental skills to the table. He or she knows an aperture versus a shutter setting, and can likely tell you whether ISO 100 is better or worse than ISO 32000 (depending on the look of course!). Although many like to wax esoteric about photography in abstract terms (myself included), there are certain fundamentals that every photographer worth their salt would and should know. If you can shoot on location, you likely have these fundamentals.

These are just three of the factors that I think about when I see a photographer say they are an “on-location” photographer. Of course the proof is in the pudding, and while I certainly would not pick a photographer solely on whether or not that term is included in their online presence, the ability to back up statements with a solid portfolio (and yes, an interview if you have the time to talk to a potential photographer!)

While we all like to think we have these traits, and in enough of a capacity to “bring it” for any client – let’s face it…some photographers are better than others. Either they’ve got a natural knack for it where others have to work harder at it, or they’ve just simply been shooting a lot longer. Seriously…time means practice, and the more you practice, the better you are at anything! There are photographers who have been shooting for decades and some of us can’t hold a candle to them. Meanwhile, others have been shooting for days, and I often stand in awe of their work. So, consider the above three things when you decide to hang out your own shingle – because people will likely be looking for these traits. Do you have them? Do you have more? Less? Something different? Something new?

What traits do you bring to the table? Or better yet, what traits do you think are important for potential clients to consider when hiring a photographer? The above is just my opinion – but that doesn’t mean it’s the ultimate answer! Am I right or am I way off base? Sound off with your own thoughts as the conversation is always the best part about this blog! Can’t wait to hear what you have to say! Until next time, keep the comments coming – oh yeah, and keep on shooting!

Monopods can Make Music

November 4, 2012February 18, 2020 JasonLeave a comment

So often, photos that inspire you are ones taken from new angles, or from angles that you can’t normally get to, or think to get to. Monopods are great tools in this regard…you can extend a monopod up over your head for more of an aerial perspective, or even turn it upside down to get an angle that might be otherwise pretty awkward or uncomfortable to get into just to get a unique shot. I love my monopod!

While the good money will always add features and functions that don’t exist on lower end models, I do think that even the most basic of monopods can be useful – to the degree that even going with a Wal-mart brand or generic named vendor can be a sound investment. If you are talking about just getting to a place you can’t get to on your own (or even with a tripod), the difference between aluminum and carbon fiber on a monopod doesn’t have as much impact here in my opinion.

Now if you are going for the stability factor, yes, a sturdier monopod would likely yield better results, but how much better do you expect from a single-legged support mechanism? Seriously – even with your own two feet, you can get pretty steady with your shots if you use a good holding technique, tucking your arms in, leaning on a wall or tree, and going between breaths (or shooting between heartbeats as my former Drill Sergeant said in the Army.) How is one foot going to get you more stability than two feet? On it’s own, not much, so I don’t sweat much over the vendor here…

Check out these low angle shots I got with just a Wal-mart tripod and some creative thinking:

The Denver Art Museum, shot near midnight. The camera again, was upside down (I rotated it in post), and I held the foot of the monopod to get this low view. EXIF Data: ISO 100 33mm f/8 8 second exposure (it’s a tad blurry when you zoom in…)

This serene harbor was shot with the monopod, and the camera braced up against a tack shop. EXIF data: ISO 100 18mm f/11 5 second exposure

I shot this waterfall with the camera upside down and me holding the foot of my monopod while the camera was as close as I felt comfortable putting it close to the base of the waterfall. EXIF Data: ISO 100 21mm f/11 2.5 second exposure

This shot was taken with my monopod and the camera braced against a streetlight. EXIF Data: ISO 800 22mm f/22 4 second exposure

Can You Shoot Thirteen Views

August 12, 2012September 30, 2019 Jason1 Comment

I was reading a book recently called “Beyond the Obvious” by Phil McKinney (great book by the way) that challenges people to think about concepts and questions, and then encourages people to look beyond the knee-jerk reactions and responses. This same mentality exists in the world of photography. We see a scene, a portrait, or something that catches our eye and our instinct is to capture that “something”.

McKinney illustrates his point in asking the reader to answer the question:

“What is half of 13?”

He then goes on to show that there are many responses to this. The canned answer is always 6.5, and that’s what came to my mind too. But in going “beyond the obvious”, he shows that if you think about it from the perspective of say, a deck of cards, and 13 cards in a suit. Since the ten, jack, queen and king all are values of 10, then really, half of thirteen in that scenario is 5.5, not 6.5. You could also say that half of thirteen is really “thir” with “teen” being the second half! By illustrating that you can divide either numerically or semantically, entirely different perspectives, thoughts, and answers can be right at the same time! Once I got on the mental plane of looking at things differently, my own result was that half of 13 could also be 1 or 3 – applying the semantic concept to the number…

That is such a great concept, and one I’ve always tried to help people understand here in many different ways. The “half of thirteen” way is probably one one the most succinct I’ve ever seen though. Let’s take that concept now and apply it to photography. Go get your camera! Right now…seriously! Go get your camera, and pick some random object in your room, office, or where ever you happen do be. I don’t care if it’s your SLR, P&S, or camera phone.

Now what? Take 13 pictures of that object. Make each one different! Change the angle, change the light, change the object itself. It doesn’t matter what you do, just do 13 different things. I can guarantee you that at least one of those photos will be something new, unique, and even compelling. Now, take the most compelling one, and post it here. To get you started on the right mentality, if you’re not already, here’s my own set of thirteen:

Wreck of the Peter Iredale 4
Wreck of the Peter Iredale 13
Wreck of the Peter Iredale 3
Wreck of the Peter Iredale 6
Wreck of the Peter Iredale 5
Wreck of the Peter Iredale 1
Wreck of the Peter Iredale 12
Wreck of the Peter Iredale 7
Wreck of the Peter Iredale 11
Wreck of the Peter Iredale 9
Wreck of the Peter Iredale 8
Wreck of the Peter Iredale 10

The shots above come from the “Wreck of the Peter Iredale” – on the coast of Astoria, Oregon. Now, granted, the setting sun, and the unique nature of the composition made my 13 shots a little easier, but there’s now reason you can’t do the same. Take a speaker and shoot it from as many angles as you can. Run out of angles? Try a different tack and change the lighting! What happens if you pop an on-camera flash? Try throwing your hand up to act as a barn door of sorts. There’s no end to potential…it just takes thinking outside the box!

What Is Zoom?

April 4, 2012September 4, 2022 JasonLeave a comment

A great question came up in my Twitter feed a while back, and felt it was worthy of putting together a short post to help explain the whole concept of zoom on cameras. The original tweet asked:

“What’s the best focal length on a lens to reach 400 yards so I can see a 1 inch square at that distance?”

We started talking about different long length lenses, such as the 400mm, 800mm, and 1200mm lens options from Canon. All were (are) very pricey and beyond the budget for my friend. he then started asking why a 35x zoom point and shoot wouldn’t be an option. So, the discussion turned to a teachable moment! How exciting for a teacher! The recap is two simple points:

Point #1 When manufacturers refer to the zoom of a lens, whether it’s a P&S camera, binoculars, or digiscopes, they are referring to how much of a magnification one can get over “normal viewing conditions”. Notice how I put the last part in quotes. What are normal conditions anyway? What kind of vision is normal? 20/20 vision? And what are we looking at? Something 10 yards away or 400 yards away. The point here is that there are so many subjective factors, the “zoom” isn’t really has hard and fast a number as one would think. We can approximate sure, but it’s not set in stone, and certainly a measurable distance is nothing more than a rough guess.

Point #2 The zoom of an SLR lens isn’t at all on par with the zoom of other equipment – it actually is a hard and fast number. Simply put, the zoom of a lens is the ratio of it’s longest reach to it’s shortest reach. A 70-200mm lens starts with a focal length of 70mm and ends with a focal length of 200mm. This is the distance from the focusing point to the sensor. So, a 70-200 lens has a “zoom” of 200/70 or almost 3x. A 100-400 lens would have a zoom factor of 4. it’s simple math for SLR lenses.

This is a classic example of where the same term can mean different things to different people.

So, my answer to him? Well, to see something at 400 yards large enough to take a decent picture you would likely need an 800mm lens or 1200mm lens. You also probably need a 1x or 2x TC to really get far enough. The problem with taking a picture at this distance is that heat, atmospheric conditions, and just the physical limitations of optics would not make for appropriate conditions to capture decent images. Most wildlife photographers I know of like to get closer than 400 yards from a subject to take their picture, and for good reason. The distance to subject is of prime importance in capturing wildlife photos. Zoom or no zoom (prime lenses), there’s no substitute for proximity! Photography all too often comes down to something along the lines of real estate mentalities…location, location, location!

My best example? A hummingbird I shot from a mere 15 feet away!

Adobe Acknowledgement

January 17, 2012October 15, 2017 JasonLeave a comment

Whether tacit or not, Adobe seems to have listened to the concerns voiced by many in the creative community over their impending pricing and licensing policy changes. As you may recall, I ran three posts late last year, first calling attention to the new policy. Secondly, as discussed on Scott Kelby’s video podcast “The Grid“, called “Why Scott Kelby and Crew are Wrong“ Finally, I started running a poll to tally people’s thoughts on the policy shift. Scott himself ran an entire post as an Open Letter to Adobe shortly thereafter, both addressing the issue squarely, as well as offering an alternative. Apparently, Adobe was listening!

A news post came to my attention a few weeks ago, and while in the midst of the holiday fracas, I did not want to minimize both the significance and importance of this change. So, with the holidays behind us and a new year ahead, I’d like to give some kudos to Adobe for recognizing the painful effect their new policy would have on legacy customers. They’ve made a change to their plans, allowing CS3 and Cs4 customers to upgrade at a reduced pricing schedule (very much in keeping with what Scott Kelby suggested), thus easing the cost of upgrading for them. The full release is here:

Adobe Special Upgrade Announcement

For those not wishing to follow in-post links, here’s the full text of that announcement:

Upgrade offer for CS3 and CS4 customers

We’re very excited about the upcoming release of Adobe® Creative Suite® 6 software and Adobe Creative Cloud™. CS6 will be a major new release of our creative desktop tools, with huge improvements for every type of creative professional. Adobe Creative Cloud will be our most comprehensive creative solution ever, giving members access to all of the CS6 desktop software plus additional services, new tools, Adobe Touch Apps, and rich community features. In addition, Creative Cloud members will receive continuous upgrades and updates to all products and services as part of their membership.

With these great new releases coming in the first half of 2012, we want to make sure our customers have plenty of time to determine which offering is best for them. Therefore, we’re pleased to announce that we will offer special introductory upgrade pricing on Creative Suite 6 to customers who own CS3 or CS4. This offer will be available from the time CS6 is released until December 31, 2012. More details on this offer, as well as any introductory offers for existing customers to move to Creative Cloud membership, will be announced when CS6 and Creative Cloud are released later this year.

The only caveat here is that we still do not know when the CS6 suite will be released (well, some of us do…but as they say, those that don’t know guess, and those that do know – can’t say a word!). All we can ascertain from this is that CS6 is coming in the first half of the year. No surprise there, but if it is released closer to June, then that shortens the window for Cs3 and CS4 customers to take advantage of the reduced cost upgrade that Adobe is offering. Still, better to not look a gift horse in the mouth. Adobe has heard our concerns, and responded in what I think will be an appropriate manner. While we don’t know the specifics of the pricing offer, we do know that they have heard us and are giving customers an opportunity to upgrade for a limited time. So, start saving pennies now to make your eventual upgrade that much easier to swallow!

Of course, Cs5 or Cs5.5 customers will be able to upgrade at normal rates, so this announcement doesn’t really affect you – but it’s a welcome sign that companies and and do listen to their customer base! So, thanks Adobe for listening!

Take Time to Play

September 23, 2011September 24, 2017 JasonLeave a comment

Ever feel like your creativity is at a standstill? Something got it on hold? The common belief is that creative or mental blocks come from trying too hard to actually be creative. So, how can we stop trying to hard? It’s not that we should stop trying per se. It’s more that we need to stop trying to make every image a powerful image. Being playful often starts with just laughing at yourself. Seriously…laugh at yourself. Do something stupid or silly. That becomes infectious and can move you forward to play.

In being playful with your work, it’s often even more helpful to put down the tripods, and SLR’s. Put down the lenses and filters. Put down the soft boxes and fill flashes. Being playful means letting go of the “rules” of photography. I’m reading David DuChemin’s book, The Inspired Eye (available now on his website – use EYE3Free for 20% off through Sat.), and in it, he speaks to this idea that that inspiration can come from play.

Some ideas from David include taking a day and try taking pictures whenever the mood hits. Even if you are shooting through wet glass, or in a moving car. Take a picture with your focus ring taped down. The softness from the out of focus shot can force you to look at something more generic like the lines and energy of a scene. It really is inspired capture that David is going for here, and that can definitely come from play.

One of my favorite images from my own library is a niece – I was literally playing. I wasn’t expecting anything great, or show-stopper quality. Just goofing around. I was laughing and being silly, and so was she. I took the camera to ridiculous angles, knowing it wouldn’t work (or so I thought). Just goes to show you the power of play in photography:

The upshot? Take time to play – only good things can come from it!

Shooting Shadows

August 31, 2011September 24, 2017 JasonLeave a comment

Most of the time the subject of the a photo is easy to see – whether it’s a portrait, landscape, travel, or architecture. While these subjects are easy to identify, the use of shadows in these topics is not discussed as often as it should be. We spend so much time trying to get the lit portion of our images in focus, composed to our satisfaction, making sure things are sharp, and all the rest, we sometimes miss the value of shadows in our imagery.

The shadows of an image can be just as important to the composition as the lit parts are. When talking about how to light images with strobes and studio lights, the use of shadows to give definition is often discussed, but the same discussions can be germane to naturally lit photos too. Remember, the word photography means to paint with light (photo and graphos), so even the absence of light can be significant in defining our images.

Whether you shoot portraiture, architecture, landscapes, or even abstracts, shadows can and do play a role in how you compose your images. Do you look at the shadows in your images? What story do shadows tell in your work?

Share your own thoughts on how to accomplish a story by shooting with shadows below in the comments – would love to hear others feedback. In the meantime, keep on shooting.