La Sagrada Familia

La Sagrada Familia
Barcelona, Spain

Canon Rebel XT
Focal Length 16
Aperture 5.6
Shutter 1/4000
ISO 1600

B/W Sculpture

Sculpture

Vienna, Austria

Canon Rebel XT

Focal Length 11mm

Aperture 6.3

Shutter 1/60

ISO 100

Madrid

Ruins
Madrid, Spain

Canon Rebel XT
Focal Length 11mm
Aperture 11
Shutter 1/200
ISO 100

Setting Your Shutter for Daytime Fountains

Park
Madrid, Spain

Canon Rebel XT
Focal Length 18mm
Aperture 5.6
Shutter 1/640
ISO 100

This was shot around the time that I got into digital photography and had much to learn.  With that being said I think that this photo turned out pretty good.

A cool effect for this photo would be to use a tripod and enough neutral density filters to be able to slow the shutter down to around 1-2 seconds.  This would give a flowing look to the water, as opposed the grainier feel of this picture.  Here the best think to do would be to set the ISO to 100, or it's lowest possible setting, and set the aperture to F22, or its smallest possible aperture.  Then the only adjustments that you would be able to make would be the shutter speed.  This is when you would need to dim the amount of light coming into the camera.  Neutral density filters are the best way to do this.

For this the shutter was set to 1/640th of a second.  Think of it like this - The shutter will be letting in light to expose the film for only 1/640th of a second.  Anything that moves within this period will be blurred, which would be very hard to do.  You would have to be swinging your camera around when you took the photo.  At this shutter speed you are able to see the individual water droplets in the air.

So if the shutter was open for a full 2 seconds it would be guaranteed that there would be motion blur if you hadn't been using a tripod.

Also I wouldn't have shot directly into the sun.  When this is done the sun basically makes the sky look like overexposed and white.  There will likely also be areas of different exposure needs like the foreground.  This presents problems.  By shooting closer to the end of the day, or earlier to the beginning you will have much more even and subdued lighting, and there should be little or no shadow because of the low trajectory of the sun.

Using a Shutter Release Switch

Interstate 5

San Diego, California, United States

Canon 5D Mark II

Focal Length 24

Aperture 22

Shutter 62 sec.

ISO 50

So here's a great chance to talk about a Shutter Release Switch.  The purpose of a manual switch is to hold open the shutter for an indefinite length of time, allowing the film/file to obtain the proper exposure.  For this instance I needed to manually hold the shutter open longer than the camera would allow normally (30 seconds) because I had set the ISO (Exposure) and the Aperture at the lower extremes of the cameras functionality.  Since the Exposure and the Aperture were set at their absolute minimum the only way to let in more light was to extend the shutter time.  Conversely, if I wanted I could set the shutter for 30 sec. and left the ISO at 50 and adjusted the Aperture.  If I had done that, I would likely have had to stop the shutter somewhere around F14.  

      - or - 

I could have left the Shutter at 30, and the Aperture at 22, but I would have had to bump the ISO up to over 1000 which would have sacrificed the quality of the image.  This is where the Shutter Switch shines.  With a shutter release you don't have to sacrifice either the Aperture or the ISO (Exposure).  Even when those (Aperture/ISO) were set at their minimum (F22 (for this lens) and ISO 50) you could lock the cameras shutter open for as long as needed to sync up with them.  To properly expose your shots you will need to use all of these (Aperture/Shutter Speed/Exposure (ISO)) in conjunction.

Also, for this picture I shot with a black card.  When I manually locked open the shutter for 62 seconds to capture only the light trails of the cars I was able to place a black card (many other black objects may do as well, but a card is easiest in my opinion) during the time that no traffic was present and omit those periods.  

The shutter length is deceiving for this picture however.  Even though the shutter was locked open for 62 seconds, it was likely only recording light for 40-45 seconds of that, because some of the time a black card was blocking any light from coming in which would have further exposed the film.  So, to properly expose your photo it may be good to take a reading/metering of the scene with the cameras light meter and keep that number in your head as the amount of time that will be needed without the black card in front of the camera.  Personally, I find it much easier to simply take a few shots of differing shutter periods.  

Also, sometimes at smaller (larger numbered) apertures the shutter won't coincide with the aperture at the same degree of accuracy as it would at lower numbered (larger) apertures.  If you are shooting at larger numbered apertures (above F14) it is important to take several shots.  I think four shots would be safe.  Shoot one at where the light meter suggests and shoot three additional shots at either one F stop (Aperture stop) lower (lower numbered - ex. 20, 18, 16) or drop the shutter down slower (to a longer interval ex. 37, 49, 66 sec.) or bump up the ISO to a higher number (ex. 100, 135, 160).  These are all hypotheticals, but after reading this you should have a good idea of how these three elements of the camera work in conjunction with each other.

Moving the ISO to a higher number - Letting more light in.

Moving the Aperture (F stop) to a Lower number - Letting more light in.

Moving the Shutter to a slower (longer time period) setting - Letting more light in.

For this shot a Graduated Neutral Density Filter would have helped tremendously since the bright white church in the background was so much brighter than the highway below.  Here you would have put the dark/shaded section of the filter over the brighter church and the transparent/clear section of the filter over the traffic lanes.  When this is done the lanes are exposing at their normal rate as where the top of the filter that is covering the church is exposing at a slower rate (ex. 75% of, 60% of, 40% of, etc...) depending on the strength of the filter.  

This was part of the reason for using the black card.  Since I was only exposing during periods where the black card was absent I tried to maximize the amount of light that was coming in from the lanes of traffic.  There is more light when exposing off traffic on the road than exposing off of the road when there is no traffic.  Here, without the filter it was extremely difficult, even when using the black card to maximize the intensity of the light, to properly expose the church and the freeway.

Below is the original file (which I also slightly rotated).  Here you can see how dark the freeway originally was.  To correct this I used the "shadows" and the "exposure" adjustments in Aperture 2.0.  These functions are also available in Adobe Photoshop under the same headings.  I also adjusted the definition (Aperture 2.0), adjusted the luminosity of certain colors, namely yellow and red, independently by isolating their color channels, and slightly adjusted the contrast of the image.  A Graduated Neutral Density Filter would have greatly reduced the need for such drastic post production.

Palm Canyon

Palm Canyon

Balboa Park, San Diego, California, United States

Canon 5D Mark II

Focal Length 47mm

Aperture 10

Shutter 1/50

ISO 400

In San Diego you are able to grow pretty much anythings because of the excellent weather.  Even tropical plants like the King Palm trees, the Red Abyssinian Banana plants (a false banana), Canary Date Palms, and Elephant Ear plants.  This is a section of Balboa Park is called Palm Canyon.  There are over 50 different types of palms here.

Reflecting Pool

Reflecting Pool

Balboa Park, San Diego, CA, United States

Canon 5D Mark II

Focal Length 58mm

Aperture 20

Shutter 30 sec.

ISO 100

Cemetery

Cemetery 

San Diego, CA, United States

Canon 5D Mark II

Focal Length 24mm

Aperture 4

Shutter 1/60

ISO 50

Chicago Lakefront

Chicago Skyline

Chicago, IL, United States

Canon 5D Mark II

Focal Length 80mm

Aperture 22

Shutter 1/60

ISO 400

Palm Trees in Balboa Park

Palm Trees

Balboa Park, San Diego, CA, United States

February 2012

Canon 5D Mark II

Focal Length 50mm

Aperture 6.3 

Shutter 2.5 sec.

ISO 800

Intro to Prime Lenses and Bulb Exposures

Canal
Amsterdam, Holland

Canon Rebel XT
Focal Length 55
Aperture 22
Shutter 30 sec.
ISO 1600

Don't ever let anyone tell you that you need a high end camera to shoot great pictures.  This was shot with an entry level Canon DSLR.

For this photo however there are a few things that I would have done differently if I had the opportunity.  First, I would have used a prime lens.  Canon makes an excellent 50mm lens in it's entry level EOS lens series, as well as in it's upper end line of lenses - the L series.  Truthfully the difference isn't all that noticeable between Canon's higher end and entry level lenses.  This was shot with the lens that came with the camera - an 18-55mm.

Since there is fewer components and pieces of glass within prime lenses you will be able to get a much sharper image.  The disadvantage is that prime lenses are set at a fixed focal length, so you won't be able to zoom in or out.  Another advantage of a prime lens is that you are often able to shoot at lower apertures.  These are often referred to as "fast" lenses because you are able to use a faster shutter than other lenses.  Let's say you set your aperture to 4 (my maximum possible aperture for my 24-105 L) which had a corresponding shutter of 1/120.  With a prime lens (with a maximum aperture of 1.2), if you were to set the aperture to 4, you would be able to shoot at a much faster shutter - say around 1/250.

The other thing that I would have done differently would have been to use a shutter release switch.  With most Canon EOS models you are only able to set the shutter to a maximum of 30 sec.  Typically this is enough, unless it is especially dark as this scene was.  A shutter release switch would allow me to manually hold the shutter open for an indefinite amount of time.

For me, since I was determined to keep the aperture at 22, I was forced to bump up the ISO to a level that was higher than I had wanted.  This resulted in unwanted grain in the photo.  The benefit of using smaller (larger numbered) apertures is that you are able to obtain starburst patterns around lighting which can be quite appealing.  Conversely, if you are using larger (smaller numbered) apertures you will let more light into the scene which will look better if you are trying to add more light to the foreground.  However, you may get orb looking objects surrounding the light sources.  I would recommend shooting in black and white if you are planning on using larger apertures at night - although it's personal preference at that point.  Another advantage of using larger apertures is that with so much more light coming in you will rarely need to use a manual shutter release to hold the shutter open longer than 30 seconds, and you will also be able to keep the ISO at a manageable rate.

Graduated Neutral Density Filters

The Swiss Alps
Innsbruck, Switzerland

Canon Rebel XT
Focal Length 40
Aperture 5
Shutter 1/500
ISO 100

This is a picture that I shot mid-day in Switzerland, which has been retouched.  Mainly in the sky to compensate for the difference in the brightness of the scene.  I used the polygonal lasso tool in adobe photoshop to isolate the sky and selectively darken it with the brightness/contrast slider.  You can see my original below.  Not a huge difference.  Any further darkening would run the risk of giving the photo an artificial or unrealistic look.  Above is a good example of how the picture would have turned out had I been using a graduated neutral density filter.  For this case a 2 stop filter would likely be necessary.

In my original the sky was correctly exposed leaving the foreground darker than I would have liked.  If I had exposed for the lighting in the foreground the sky would have been overexposed.  You can't win. Unless you are using a graduated neutral density filter.  These filters have little to no shading on one side and a darker tint/shade on the other.  The purpose of this is to make the foreground (for this example) the same brightness as the sky.  So in this instance you would use the unshaded/untinted side of the filter for the foreground, and the shaded/tinted side of the filter.  Think of it like this.  If the top side of the filter (the shaded side) is facing the sky it will allow less light in during the same time period (depending on the opacity of the filter).  So here, you would want to expose the shot for the foreground using the transparent side of the filter, and depending on the level of light present in the sky, use the proper strength of shading.

There are also different types of graduated neutral density filters - hard and soft edged.  These are just like they sound.  A hard edged filter will have a rather distinct line where there is a much shorter transition from the shaded part of the filter, where the soft will have a very gradual transition form the darkest part at one side to the opposite side where there is no shading/tinting at all. 

Bicycle

Bicycle

Amsterdam, Holland

Canon Rebel XT

Focal Length 11

Aperture 4.5

Shutter 125

ISO 200

I shot this with my wide angle Tamron 11-18mm lens.  The lower number of the range (in this case 11-18) signifies the magnification involved.  The lower the number at the bottom of the range (11), the closer you are able to get, whereas the higher the number at the other end of the range (18), the further you are able to "zoom."  For this shot since there was room behind me could have stepped farther back and cropped the shot.  Doing so however would result in a loss in quality.  The more that is cropped out of the original picture, the greater the loss.  Because of this I try to avoid cropping unless it as absolutely necessary.

Silhouette

Silhouette
Ocean Beach, San Diego, CA, United States

Canon EOS 20D
Focal Length 24
Aperture 4
Shutter 1/500
ISO 100

Making silhouette shots is rather easy given you have the right condition.  The background of the photo will need to be much brighter than the foreground.  Then, you just expose for the background.  For this shot the background wasn't all that much brighter and the silhouette wasn't as pronounced.  In Aperture 2.0 (or any photo editing software for that matter) I adjusted the contrast which naturally darkens the image.  Just make sure not to overdue it because you will want to leave much of the brightness in the background of the shot.  Also, in post production editing you could isolate the subject and selectively darken only that part of the image, which would be easy for a picture like this with easily distinguishable objects.

Kölner Dom

Der Kölner Dom
Köln, Germany


Canon Rebel XT
Focal Length 15
Aperture 18
Shutter 30 sec
ISO 800

Bridge at Nighttime

Szabadság híd (Liberty Bridge)
Budapest, Hungary
October 2008

Canon Rebel XT
Focal Length 28
Aperture 22
Shutter 6.0
ISO 200

The Stone and Chain Bridge

The Stone and Chain Bridge
Budapest, Hungary

Canon Rebel XT
Focal Length 11
Aperture 20
Shutter 10 sec.
ISO 200

Statue

Statue
Berlin, Germany

Canon Rebel XT
Focal Length 18
Aperture 9
Shutter 1/100
ISO 400

Mountains

The Eiger
Bernese Alps, Switzerland

Canon Rebel XT
Focal Length 11
Aperture 16
Shutter 1/2000
ISO 1600

For this shot a wide angle lens was a good option.  I was using a 11-18 Tamron wide angle lens.  A good aftermarket wide angle.  If I was forced to use my 24 - 105 telephoto lens I would have been cropped much further in, which would have excluded much of the foreground.

Bird of Paradise

Bird of Paradise

Balboa Park

San Diego, CA, United States

Canon 5D Mark II

Focal Length 24

Aperture 4

Shutter 1/60

ISO 50

This is a good example of a wide aperture (F 4) shot.  This isolates the flower and sets it apart giving it a clean crisp image.

Balboa Park Nighttime

Laurel Street Bridge
San Diego, CA, United States

Canon 5D Mark II
Focal Length 24
Aperture 18
Shutter 30 sec.
ISO 400

White Balance at Sunset

These are eight different color temperatures (white balance) ranging from bluish (2500) to reddish/orangish (10000).  The tint of the white balance will be different depending on the time of day and the placement of the sun.  This is a decent guide for interpreting what different color temperatures will look like around sunset.

In my opinion the sweet spot would been anywhere from 5000 - 7000.  It's personal preference at that point.

La Jolla Cliffs
San Diego, CA, United States

Canon 5D MarkII
Focal Length 105
Aperture 18
Shutter 0.6 sec.
ISO 50

(Color Temp. 2500)

(Color Temp. 4182)

(Color Temp. 4972)

(Color Temp. 5304)

(Color Temp. 6005)

(Color Temp. 7336)

(Color Temp. 7967)

(Color Temp. 10000)

La Jolla Cliffs

I shot this shot facing Southwards from close to the Torrey Pines State Preserve.

La Jolla Cliffs
San Diego, CA, United States

Canon 5D Mark II
Focal Length 105
Aperture 18
Shutter 5.0
ISO 50

Reflecting Pool 2

Reflecting Pool

Balboa Park, San Diego, California, United States

Canon 5D Mark II

Focal Length 24

Aperture 18

Shutter 30 sec.

ISO 400

Arizona Sunset

This is one of my favorite photos.  I shot this at sunset in the Arizona around Buckeye.

Arizona Sunset

Buckeye, AZ, United States

Canon 5D Mark II

Focal Length 24

Aperture 22

Shutter 4

ISO 50

Cropping Photos in Aperture 2.0

Shown above are two photos that I shot of the San Diego skyline.  The first one is the original, and the second one is a crop of the second one.  There are two ways to crop a photo in Aperture.  If you select "Constrain to Master Aspect Ratio" your cropping cursor will adjust to the same ratio as your original photo.  So if your photo was originally say the "pixel size" was  3000 by 4000 pixels your cropping options will be along the lines of 1500 by 2000, 750 by 1000, and so on.  This would be a 3:4 ratio.

If you choose to deselect this, as I have here, you can crop to more of a panoramic format. The top photo was 5616 by 3744.  This is similar to 4:3 ratio.  After cropping and resizing, by exporting to a smaller, more manageable size 2808 by 903.

San Diego Skyline

San Diego, CA, United States

Canon 5D Mark II

Focal Length 55

Aperture 20

Shutter 30 sec

ISO 1000

Photography in "The Golden Hour"

This is a photo I shot in Chicago Park in San Diego's "Barrio Logan" district.  Later in the day the light is much more even and warmer (higher color temperature).  This photo was taken about an hour before sunset.  In photography this is known as "The Golden Hour" because of the yellowish/gold hue that is cast upon your subject(s).  This term is also used for the first hour or so after sunrise.  These are the most ideal times for photography as the light is much less harsh and unflattering.

Chicano Park
San Diego, CA, United States

Canon 5D Mark II
Focal Length 24
Aperture 16
Shutter 1/100
ISO 800

Adjusting the Definition (Sharpening) a Photo In Aperture 2.0

[Definition Slider at 100%]

This was a photo I took of my English Mastiff puppy.  The lighting in this situation was terrible, but I made it work.  I set the white balance to 2700 to give the photo a cooler look as the lights gave off a unsightly yellow cast.  If I had more control of the scene I would have added extra lighting and used a flash.  This would have added much needed illumination to the scene and allowed me to set a faster shutter, and step down to a smoother, lower ISO.  Given the conditions I think the picture turned out pretty good.

In Aperture 2.0 I moved the definition slider to 100% which sharpened the picture, but added slight halation around some areas of Zeus's head and the edge of the black blanket, although it is negligible.  Flash would have solved all of these problems, and there would have been no need to sharpen the photo as it would have brought out more texture within the photo.  The Mark II's photo's are remarkable sharp as is, and can be further tweaked by using the camera's custom presets.  However, the Mark II is ideal for portrait photography and give a softer, gentler feel and sharpening wouldn't be advised.  This is the camera of choice for many professional portrait/wedding photographers, as well as serious photo enthusiasts in general.

"Zeus"
Male English Mastiff
Nine weeks old

Canon 5D Mark II
Focal Length 45
Aperture 4
Shutter 1/25
ISO 1600

This is the same photo in black and white without any sharpening via the Aperture 2.0 definition slider/toggle.  Sometimes black and white photography that has been sharpened through this feature will be more noticeable. There is a slight halation on the edges of objects such as Zeus's head and the black blanked the background.  Generally speaking, the more contrasted an object is the more this will be noticed.

[Definition Slider at 100%]

[No Adjustment in Definition]

Below are the same three photographs.  They are cropped for a closer look at Zeus's head and the effects of using the definition slider at 100%.

[Cropped at 100% Definition]

[Cropped at 100% Definition]

[No Adjustment in Definition]

So as you can see there is very little quality lost when making adjustments in Aperture 2.0 with the definition slider.  As expected, there would be even less if you made an adjustment by increasing the definition by 50 points or by 25 points.  Even at roughly a 300% crop the Canon 5D Mark II shoots razor sharp images.  The main difference that can be seen is a smoother texture in Zeus's fur in the untouched photo.  This is personal preference.

There are seven levels of sharpness that can be shot with the Canon 5D Mark II.  This photo was shot at level 5.  For even crisper images you can go all the way up to level 7.  There is very slight halation at these levels, and you likely won't notice it unless you are looking at an image that is highly magnified. 

In shooting close ups of my dog I prefer to adjust the definition post production, however if I was shooting a person I would likely leave the camera to it's own devices and let it do what it does best - shoot incredible portraits by creating a smooth even surface on the subjects face.  Changing the definition will bring out wrinkles in your subject.

Shooting Conditions at Night

Ferry Landing
Coronado, CA, United States

Canon 5D Mark II
Focal Length 28
Aperture 20
Shutter 13 sec.
ISO 200

This is a photo that I shot at the Ferry Landing shopping center in Coronado, CA.  The below photo is the original.  The biggest problem with this picture was that light was trapped in what I hoped would be a nicely contrasted black sky.  There are a number of reasons that this may happen.  In this case there was a higher than normal level of humidity in the air.

I try to keep my photoshopping to a minimum but in this example more drastic, but simple, changes were needed.  I did all of my post-production in Aperture 2.0 (For Mac) and enhanced the black point.  This is a great basic way to darken the sky in night photography.  This is best used sparingly however because the rest of the scene will also be darkened.  You could also adjust the contrast, but this may have a dulling/flattening effect on certain parts of the scent.  By using the black point adjustment I feel that a smoother, more luminous image is obtained.

A better technique would have been to stand from farther away and crop the shot after the fact.  This would have greatly reduced the lens flare.  There would have been a loss in resolution (depending on how much cropping was needed) but it would have yielded cleaner image that would have needed less post-production.  By excessive adjustments to black point you are running the risk that your image will look overproduced, as in my opinion, is the case here.  Far from comprehensive, but an easy, quick fix none the less.

Zebra in Black and White

San Diego Zoo

San Diego, CA, United States

Canon 5D Mark II

Focal Legnth 105

Aperture 4

Shutter 1/4000

ISO 400