While working through the material for today and next week, a friend called up and asked if I’d be interested in joining him for a stroll through downtown during sunset. Being one to never turn down a sunset, or a photo walk, or city architecture, I readily agreed. So, we met near downtown Denver. Gregg and I had been talking about setting up a sunset shot of the city skyline for some time now and we’d had some ideas for a good place to scout it out. But, tonight his motive was different. Continue reading “Colorado – Not Just Sunsets!”
Tag: photography
Water and Light
The idea of writing with light is nothing new to photography, the very word itself means to paint with light (from the Greek photo, meaning light, and graphos meaning write), the most successful photographers through time are ones that have incorporated an effective use of light in their work.
While reading through the Sept. issue of Rangefinder, I found myself re-visiting the subject yet again, and with artists who I’ve seen and admired before, including Clark Little and Eric Curry (you may have seen Eric’s work featured over on David Hobby’s Strobist site periodically…brilliant lighting setups!). The whole idea gave me a moment of pause – how much of my own work has been cognizant of the power of light? (It was a very Joe McNally/National Geographic type of moment if such a moment could be attained by an aspiring one rather than successful ones like those mentioned above.)
Nevertheless, taking cue from their inspiration, I perused my own portfolio for the theme of light. It was actually quite extensive, so much so that another theme had to be incorporated to pare things down further. Since Clark Little’s work has always been a source of inspiration and envy, I decided to go with a water pairing. How have I managed to capture both water and light effectively? The exercise was a good one, and looking at your archives with a new vision or perspective has always been one I encourage. So, without further ado, here’s my take on combining the themes of water and light:
As inspiring as it was for me, take this cue as a source of inspiration for yourselves…pick a theme (or two), and peruse your archives (or go shoot with the theme in mind), and see where your creativity will take you. Got ideas for creativity along these lines? Share ’em in the comments too, as ideas for inspiration are all around us. Check out what everyone says in the comments section below!
Happy shooting all, and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!
Hardware Review: Rogue Flash Benders
One of the most common search criteria on Google that coincides with photography is that of lighting. It’s no surprise as photography really is all about the light, and when making and taking photos (yes, there’s a difference), one of the key things that people can grasp quite easily is the success of a photo is often very dependent on the lighting. Continue reading “Hardware Review: Rogue Flash Benders”
Five Ways to Deal with Harsh/Low Lighting
A common question I get here is how to deal with harsh or low light situations. This is a great question, and for event photographers, it’s simply part of the job to recognize various lighting conditions and address them accordingly. Today, I’d like to share Five Ways to Deal with Harsh/Low Lighting:
1. Cranking the ISO and hoping to fix in post
With advancements in technology, noise handling both in camera and in post production has resulted in some astonishing results that in previous years would have been literally unrecoverable. While we should always endeavor to make our images shine as best we can in camera – advancements in tools of the trade simply give us more options and we would be foolish not to use them.
Here’s a good example of a shot that was done at a high in-camera ISO setting, that was recoverable to a good quality image. It may not necessarily be of “stock photography” caliber (you really need every pixel to be perfect for stock photography), but for event photography, I would consider this acceptable quality.
2. Implementing additional light sources (Flash, video lights, etc.)
3. Using a tripod/monopod in conjunction with longer exposures to increase odds of sharp captures
4. Use a gray card to get good white balance/off-set the ambient lighting conditions.
Having your subject hold a color balance card (or even just a gray card) in the scene for one shot is a great way to counter-act the effect of difficult lighting, including everything from halogen lights, to fluorescent, tungsten-florescent mixes, and the garish hue from sodium vapor lights common in locales like stadiums and street light settings.
5. Use supports from the surroundings to brace your camera
Using a tree, a wall, or even the ground to help stabilize your camera can reduce the shutter speed considerably to help when shooting in low light situations.
As much as we may try to hand hold our cameras, blur is unavoidable due to our heartbeats, finger tremors, breathing, and a host of biological factors, the best we can do is help to minimize that blur by using supporting mechanisms and techniques to get as stable a shot as we can. Even when we can hand-hold, matching that color from the scene is much easier to do when you start from a known vantage point, whether it be your own flash, or a controlled ambient scene. So much to think about and so little time…where do you want to go from here?
Hint: Sound off in the comments – would love to hear others thoughts, tips, and tricks for dealing with low and/or harsh lighting! Special thanks to Kerry Garrison of Kerry Garrison Photography for sharing a sample image from his own portfolio when I couldn’t track my own down in the library (bad me for not keywording fully!)…
kL2HNZVO
Copyright Isn't Just for Photographers….
The web makes for an interesting place, and often I get emails from folks asking for suggestions and recommendations on how to best protect their images from being used without their permission (and let’s not mince words here – nobody wants to have their work stolen). Often my response is a bit of this and that, suggesting to make images “web-safe” (i.e. low resolution so they can’t really be re-printed), and to limit the images you publish. (The more you put out there, the more you have to monitor.) Continue reading “Copyright Isn't Just for Photographers….”
3 Years down! What’s Next?
In the blogging community, a year is a significant milestone, as most bloggers don’t make it to this point. Interests wax and wane, jobs and passions change, and audiences swell and sag as the community of readers often will gravitate toward new topics and content. The idea behind retention of readership is to change with the times. Here at CB/LDP, that has not been a problem. From the beginning, this blog has always been about sharing my experiences in photography with the larger community. So, as new technologies develop, and I learn about them, the writing reflects changes and advances in my knowledge base. Continue reading “3 Years down! What’s Next?”
Digital Photography: Where do we go from here?
I’ve often wondered about the development of technology and the patterns that go with it. As technology has advanced in other areas such as computing, the World Wide Web, and mobile platforms, cameras have also seen similar changes in recent years. The difference between cameras and the rest of the industry though is that with cameras, it’s been a very recent development. Photography has been around a lot longer than the digital world, and the underlying principles and foundations that are the basis for the craft haven’t changed much. Shutter speed and aperture size are still the dominant forces that control exposure in images (along with ISO – which when combined gives us the exposure triangle): Continue reading “Digital Photography: Where do we go from here?”
Raquette Lake Rendezvous
Every year, the men in the family (cue Tim Allen-esque Home Improvement style grunts) depart from their women and the rigmarole of daily lives to embark on a quest to re-connect with nature. We build fire, we eat man food, we emit bodily sounds not allowed in most social circles, tell jokes that are decidedly not PC or appropriate for most audiences and all sorts of other debauchery.
This year I had the chance to attend (I missed a few years due to work), and with a new generation of men-in-training to initiate, it was quite the sojurn! We also dealt with survival skills in the wild – land navigation/compass courses, intentionally over-turning canoes and kayaks to recover, and all sorts of hair-raising experiences for the single-digit aged crowd. They learned quite a bit!
In all the ruckus, I did manage to sneak my SLR into the forest for what I anticipated to be some possible chances at some nice scenery. I was not disappointed…here’s a few sample shots from said trip:
In addition to spending some good quality time with family, some “man-bonding” and such, a few decent shots came out of the trip too! Plus, with my packing list, and preparations for keeping everything dry, as well as some other trip-specific details, a few posts worth of content will likely be coming down the road later this week too!
In the meantime, don’t forget to set your alerts for the first free webinar that Kerry Garrison and I are hosting tomorrow night from our joint venture with Lightroom Dudes. That starts tomorrow at 6:30pm Pacific, 7:30pm Mountain, and 9:30pm Eastern(More are coming after that for only $20 a session…) The Denver workshop is also fast approaching , and there are still seats available. You can register for only $79 here: 
Hope you enjoy the pics, and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!
Where in the world am I?
Thanks to the timely receipt of the Photoshop Guys Q&A sets, I was effectively able to go “off the grid” for nearly a week! That’s right – completely off the grid! No email, no Twitter, no Facebook, no phone, no internet – nada! It was quite the enjoyable experience. While a select few people did have a “need to know” before I left, I did try to keep this on the down low… Continue reading “Where in the world am I?”
Q&A With Dave Cross!!
That’s right, you read that right – I got a chance to get with none other than the Photoshop Guys and ask a few questions about Photoshop, their own projects, and tackle everything from product preferences to personal projects and activities, and even a few personal perspectives thrown in for fun! Here’s a chance to catch up on the latest with them including their podcasts and shows. So, let’s just get right down to the brass tacks here…with so much content, it’s broken into three separate posts for today through Wednesday. Getting things started is Mr. Dave Cross!!! Continue reading “Q&A With Dave Cross!!”