How did I find the best light on my Death Valley Workshop with my friend Hal Schmitt? I used my Photo Sundial app. It works even in the desert!
More Death Valley pictures to come . . . most have a lot of life, added by our model Amanda Valena.
All my workshops are listed here.
Explore the light,
Rick
Digital photography has opened up a world for many of us that has changed photography as we knew it. For those of us who grew up shooting film, especially slide film, the digital revolution was a change that many of us thought we would never make, but we made the change and have adjusted to it well.
Those photographers who never had the pleasure of working with film missed an adventure in image making.
The cameras we use today are so sophisticated and the sensors are so good and the meters so accurate, that you really don’t need to understand anything except how to look through your viewfinder and push the shutter button…then voila!…an image appears. If you don’t like it… press delete, and start again. Pretty easy. The images can be very good…most of the time.
If you are faced with extreme lighting conditions, most meters, regardless of how accurate and sophisticated they are, don’t always live up to your expectations. This is where I feel digital photography, if it has shortcomings, falls short.
In the days of film, exposures for the most part were made manually. You had to understand how your camera worked and what adjustments you as a photographer had to make to get the exposure you wanted.
Most of today's cameras do have a manual mode (M), the mode where you make all the decisions and don’t let the camera make them for you. I am a firm believer that all serious photographers, regardless of what their goals in photography are, should have an understanding of this mode. You may never make an exposure using the manual mode, but if you need it, you know how to use it. You need to know how to override the defaults of your camera, so you can create the images you want… repeatable images.
The purpose of this blog is not to preach, but to illustrate a point in image creation. The opening image was taken in Melbourne, FL at the “click” ponds adjacent to the Viera Wetlands. In the early hours of the morning, before sunrise, you sometimes have to be on the west side of the ponds, because that’s usually where the birds congregate before flying off to “greener pastures” to feed.
Unfortunately, you’re facing east and you have to contend with the rising sun and shooting into the sun is tricky at best. Fortunately, there is a tree line to the east of the ponds, which keeps the sun at bay for a short period of time. In the winter months, when he sun is to the south and rises lower in the sky, the reflections in the water can be very dramatic, as they were this particular winter morning.
The dilemma I faced was…the wood storks were in shadows, so even though the reflection on the water was beautiful, the side of the wood storks I was on was not illuminated enough to get a good image of them without blowing out the water…that is, if I used a programmed mode.
So what do you do when you are faced with this situation? Do you walk away and try again another day? Or, do you go back to your basic camera knowledge and try to get a viable image by overriding what the camera wants by making all the settings yourself to compensate effectively and get the image you want. To me the answer was simple…let’s make it work.
The arrangement of the storks in the water with the reflections was magical. It was simple, yet the fact that the storks were not in a straight line created the tension that made the image more magical. It was not your classic lineup of birds with the equal and opposite reflection.
When shooting wildlife and birds I normally spot meter in aperture priority mode, so I can get a more accurate exposure of my subject. So, I switched my camera to manual mode and spot metered on one of the birds, knowing that if I was in manual mode and spot metered and overexposed the bird it would give me a global overexposure, but an overexposure that I was controlling.
My end result was that the birds were lighter than they appeared to my eye, but so was the water and the resultant image showed what I envisioned in my minds eye. Yes, there were some trade offs, but the ultimate image was what I wanted. Had I spot metered using the aperture priority mode or any other programmed or semi-programmed mode, I could have maintained the color in the water, but would have lost he detail in the storks, so the trade off was worthwhile in my estimation.
Regardless of how sophisticated your equipment is, you will run across that occasional lighting situation that your camera cannot handle. This is where your knowledge of manual exposure can be invaluable.
For more of my work, please visit my site.
Wayne Bennett
At the CES show last month in Las Vegas, and during an after-hours shoot, I had the opportunity to take my new Canon EOS 70D on a test flight, so to speak. Here are some of my favorite images, along with some tips. But first, if you are interested in a great deal on this cool camera, check out this sale.
Above: Brandy Cox, Canon's on-stage MC at the show, takes a well-deserved break aboard the jet that was parked in the hanger in which we shot at the airport. Tip: Don't be afraid to boost the ISO on the awesome and affordable Canon 70D camera. I shot this picture at ISO 6400 and see very little noise. Also, when you remove the color from a scene, you remove some of the reality. When you remove some of the realty, a picture can look more artistic and creative.
Above: Here's another shot of Brandy, the enhance version and the original. Tip: Cropping can give an image more impact; plug-ins can soften and change the mood of a picture. Also, see the light, as well as the shadows in a scene. I teach that stuff in my KelbyOne class, Light - the main element in every photograph. All my KelbyOne classes are listed here.
Above: The awesome hanger in which we shot. The shoot was set up by my fellow Canon Explorer of Light Clay Blackmore. Tip: When you don't have a wide-enough lens to capture a scene, shoot a pano.
Above: Speaking of the awesome Clay Blackmore, here's Clay in action helping the photographers control the light. Tip: Control the contrast range of a scene by using a reflector or diffuser. I use a Westcott 6-in-1 kit.
Above: Thanks Clay for helping me make this cool image of one of our models who was posed on the Batmobile. I enhanced the image with the Duplex Filter in Nik Color Efex Pro. (I am teaching plug-ins at Photoshop World in Atlanta in April. Hope you can join the session, as well as my travel photography session.) Tip: Get Clay Blackmore as your assistant. :-)
Above: Here are two photographs I made on stage at the Canon booth at the show. Thank you Chip Pearce for all your help with the lighting. You are amazing, and fun. Tip: Remember that a photograph is not a picture of a subject or object, it's a recording of light on an object. Also, if you want an interesting photograph, don't light the entire subject.
Above: During my on-stage sessions I also invited people who had never used the Canon 70D on stage to shoot - to demonstrate the speed of the camera's AF system and the accuracy of the exposure system. Everyone got the shot – in less than one or two seconds, and that includes Jeff Cable, who is pictured shooting in this picture.
I also talked about the camera's Wi-Fi capabilities, filp out/touch screen, and full-HD video capabilities.
Above: That's me on stage at the show. (Pano by Canon's Steven Inglima, who heads up the Canon Explorer of Light program). Thanks to the folks who attended my talks. Tip: Come to one of my free seminars. As you will see, I like to make learning fun. For more hands-on learning, check out my workshops.
Explore the light,
Rick
P.S. At the show I met, for the first time, Shane Hurlbut. Check out the awesome work of this super talented Canon Explorer of Light.
I hope to see some of you at the Winter Wings Festival next month. I'm honored to be the keynote photographer.
See some more of my "wings" pictures in my Alaska Gallery.
Fly on over!
Rick Sammon
Canon Explorer of Light
