My Photography Blog: July 2012

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Sun Dried Tree in Desert

Desert

Ocotillo, California, United States

January 2010

Canon 5D Mark II

Focal Length 28mm

Aperture 4

Shutter 1/160 sec.

ISO 50

Wrigley Building and Chicago River

Wrigley Building, Chicago River

Chicago, Illinois, United States

September 2009

Canon 5D Mark II

Focal Length Varied

Aperture 22

Shutter 30 sec.

ISO 200

Bangkok Skyline

Lumpini Park

Bangkok, Thailand

May 2009

Canon 5D Mark II

Focal Length 58mm

Aperture 13

Shutter 30 sec.

ISO 50

Downtown San Diego at Night

Downtown San Diego
San Diego, California, United States
July 2009

Canon 5D MarkII
Focal Length 24mm
Aperture 20
Shutter 30 sec.
ISO 100

Desert Sunset Silhouette

Power Lines
Buckeye, Arizona, United States
January 2010

Canon 5D Mark II
Focal Length 95mm
Aperture 18
Shutter 4 sec.
ISO 200

Snowy Pond

Rocky Mountains

Denver, Colorado, United States

Canon 5D Mark II

Focal Length 24mm

Aperture 9

Shutter 1/50

ISO 800

Thursday, July 26, 2012

San Diego Skyline

San Diego Skyline
San Diego, California, United States
August 2009

Canon 5D Mark II
Focal Length 50mm
Aperture 16
Shutter 3.2 sec.
ISO 50

The Bean

The Bean, Millenium Park

Chicago, Illinois

September 2009

Canon 5D Mark II

Focal Length 70mm

Aperture 16

Shutter 1/320 sec.

ISO 320

Lion

Lion
Paris, France
October 2008

Canon Rebel XT
Focal Length 11mm
Aperture 8
Shutter 1/100 sec.
ISO 400

Temple

Bangkok, Thailand

April 2010

Canon 5D Mark II

Focal Length 24mm

Aperture 10

Shutter 1/200 sec.

ISO 100

Icy Waterfall

Boulder Canyon
Denver, Colorado, United States
January 2010

Canon 5D Mark II
Focal Length 28mm
Aperture 13
Shutter 1/60 sec.
ISO 800

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Florence Skyline

Florence, Italy
November 2008

Canon Rebel XT
Focal Length 38mm
Aperture 32
Shutter 100
ISO 400

Monday, July 9, 2012

805 Freeway at Night

Bridge Over the 805 Freeway

San Diego, California, United States

July 2012

Canon 5D Mark II

Focal Length 105 mm

Aperture 10

Shutter 30 sec.

ISO 50

The Arno River

The Arno River
Florence, Italy
November 2008

Canon Rebel XT
Focal Length 28mm
Aperture 29
Shutter 1/50 sec.
ISO 400

Statue by Pond

Statue by Pond
Florence, Italy
November 2008

Canon Rebel XT
Focal Length 11mm
Aperture 4.5
Shutter 1/1000 sec.
ISO 400

Freeway at Night in Color

Bridge Over 805 Freeway
San Diego, California, United States
July 2012

Canon 5D Mark II
Focal Length 24mm
Aperture 6.3
Shutter 30 sec.
ISO 50

Statues in Garden

Gardens

Paris, France

October 2008

Canon Rebel XT

Focal Length 11mm

Aperture 4.5

Shutter 1/100 sec.

ISO 100

Austria

Innsbruck, Austria

November 2008

Canon Rebel XT

Focal Length 55mm

Aperture 13

Shutter 1/100 sec.

ISO 100

Florence

Statue
Florence, Italy
November 2008

Canon Rebel XT
Focal Length 18mm
Aperture 5.6
Shutter 1/800
ISO 400

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Fireworks 2

Fireworks, Mission Bay

San Diego, California, United States

July 2012

Canon 5D Mark II

Focal Length 105mm

Aperture 10

Shutter 6 sec.

ISO 1600

Fireworks

Fireworks, Mission Bay

San Diego, California, United States

July 2012

Canon 5D Mark II

Focal Length 105mm

Aperture 6.3

Shutter 8 sec.

ISO 400

It's quite difficult to correctly set your shutter when shooting fireworks. For this shot i shot with a shutter of 8 seconds. This allowed me to catch several explosions in one image. The difficulty in shooting fireworks occurs because the intensity of the light is ever changing. While you may be able to meter for say - the skyline. You could meter off of that with out any fireworks going off. However since you will be capturing added light in the form of fireworks, there will be overexposure in the skyline. This is a good time to use exposure bracketing. You also may want to anticipate the extra light that will be coming in and over expose. My suggestion - correctly expose for the skyline while there is a break in fireworks. Then use your 3 exposure bracketing increments (or however many you have, Canons have 3 typically) and purposely underexpose your 3 shots. this way you can pick the best one. Since you are shooting with a tripod (hopefully) you could experiment with HDR techniques. If you have an exposure compensation function you could also use that to capture additional exposures of the same picture. Me personally, I don't have the patience to do all of that, but if you do, it may be well worth the wait

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Playing With Color Post-Production

Grand Palace

Bangkok, Thailand

April 2009

Canon 5D Mark II

Focal Length 24mm

Aperture 22

Shutter 1/100 sec.

ISO 250

The easiest way to adjust the colors of your photograph is to isolate each color channel and adjust them one at a time. The tint of the photo can also be adjusted. Try it before and after making color adjustment. Playing with the color temperature is also an easy way to adjust the color. Generally speaking, when you shoot the sky with a lower color temp Ex. 3500k (kelvin) you will have a blue/bluish look. If you shot around say 8000k you will have more of an Orangish look. Playing with the tint and the color temp. is a great way to give your photos more of a vintage, or film look.

Bridge and River

Tiber River
Rome, Italy
November 2008

Canon Rebel XT
Focal Length 25
Aperture 10
Shutter 1/1600
ISO 400

For this picture I had been walking around and wasn't paying much attention to my settings. If I was able to set the shutter to 1600, I clearly could have shot at a lower ISO. I could have went to an ISO (exposure) of 100 and kept a fast shutter. Surely above 1/320. Then I probably could have closed the aperture a bit as well giving me a greater depth of field. I shot this around mid-day. If you had the patience, it would look best about 30 minutes before the sun goes down. If you brought a tripod you could get a crystal clear, even looking image. You could set your ISO to 100 and set your shutter and aperture as slow as you want.