Foto Des Tages: On Hold For Weekend

I will be going on a nice vacation for the weekend so foto des tages will be put on hold until monday. I will post photos for the days I was gone when I get back. Time for a break, and a chance to recharge the photo stores.

Foto Des Tages #52

Foto Des Tages #51

Technik Der Woche #3

Shoot Manually With Out A Meter

If you have ever used a manual film SLR or rangefinder you may have encountered shooting without the aid of a meter. If so this guide may seem a little redundant. However if you've ever been interested in vintage photography and cameras this is a must tutorial. There is a rule in photography for meterless shooting called the Sunny 16 rule.

"On a sunny day set aperture to f/16 and shutter speed to the [reciprocal of the] ISO film speed [or ISO setting] for a subject in direct sunlight."

From this and the nature of shutter speeds one can derive the speeds and f/stop combinations. Here is the chart that I have had the best luck with.

The End Of Monthly Photo Of The Day Themes

I am ending the the monthly theme for photo of the day, mostly because, I am getting really bored with flowers. From here on out I am going to be shooting what ever I damn well please. Thanks alot. I know this will put a damper on the recap idea I had earlier, however I will only pick the best out for a non featured recap.

A Fellow Photographer

Just today I received a comment from a good friend of mine, Marcus Langevin, whom has just started a photo blog here on wordpress.com . He hasn't posted much of his work yet, however having seen many of his shots in person, I can tell you he has great talent.

I ask anyone interested to go check out his photo blog marcuslangevin.wordpress.com

Foto Des Tages #50

Foto Des Tages #49

Foto Des Tages #48

Foto Des Tages #47

Foto Des Tages #46

Foto Des Tages #45

Foto Des Tages #44

Technik Der Woche #2

This weeks technique entales something a bit different than last weeks. This photo was taken using my Olympus PEN using a plain of focus technique.

It isn't a very hard technique, however doing it correctly, and getting good results out of it can be a little difficult.

For this technique you well need a very bright medium telephoto lens. On standard  Digital SLRs a 50mm f/2 combined with the 1.5x frame of view crop will work perfectly. On my m4/3 PEN I used a pentax lens converted to the m4/3 mount in order to get the control I needed.

First thing I did was find a suitable subject. If you need one, look around for clover patches, or shoot grass like I did.

To compress the depth of field (DOF) set the aperture to f/2 anything smaller isn't going to work well. Set the lens focus to its closest setting (On a 50mm lens generally around 1.5 feet) if your lens is a macro set its focus to around 1 foot. Place your camera down on the ground and frame up your subject. On a true SLR you must be using the DOF button to see the depth of field, or use the live view setting.

Your looking for a narrow band of focus to keep only a few blades or blooms in focus. Adjusting the focus a little can help bring the blade of focus into sharper focus, but only adjust a little. Moving the camera back and forth is the best way to make large adjustments.

The low angle will make a line of trees in the background seem like out of focus mountains, and the blades of grass almost like a jungle.

Tips: Pick a subject that isn't to densely packed, shoot at different times of the day, adjust colour in post processing, to add to the effect. The effect works best a lower light try shooting just after dawn or just before dusk when the light isn' t too strong.

Foto Des Tages #43

Foto Des Tages #42

Foto Des Tages #41

Foto Des Tages #40

Foto Des Tages #39

Advice

No matter how I feel about the advice I ask for I always have to take it, I may defend my opinion but ultimately it will come down to advice is advice for a reason, if you admire the persons work, who's giving said advice, its best to take it, as they have the objective eye.

I want to thank Ula Kapala of Cropping Reality, for some great advice.

Foto Des Tages #38

Technik Der Woche #1

Shots like this aren't as hard to come by as one might think, its more a problem of location and timing.

In this first technique of the week, were going to look at how I got a shot like this.

The first issue was with location, for me it wasn't really a problem as I spend an exorbitant amount of time in Duluth Minnesota, which has amazing locals for seascapes.

The second issue was like I said time, which is probably the most important if you get the timing wrong your images won't come out. I recommend spending time between 8pm and 9pm at the location your are shooting and take several shots through out the time period.

I shot this photo using my Olympus PEN, at a moderate shutter speed of 1/30sec and an aperture of F16 which maximizes depth of field in the image, keeping everything in focus.

Processing brought out a lot of detail in the photo by using layer masks to enhance separate parts of the scene, and bust real world contrast. One could use HDR, and I have in the past, however it doesn't offer as much control.

Foto Des Tages #37

Introduction Of A Watermark

I have just introduced a watermark to my latest photo of the day. I would love to know what you, my followers think of it. Is it too large or too visible?

Foto Des Tages #36

Foto Des Tages #35

Foto Des Tages #34

Foto Des Tages #33

Equipment Begins To Arrive

I just wrote a post about a new lens I have
added
re-added to my collection, on my blog by using a pentax k-mount to micro 4/3rds adapter. This however wasn't the only equipment to begin arriving. I also recieved a replacement lens cap (I lost mine), and a Tiffen (their cheap and half decent) Uv lens protector. I have yet to recieve another Uv filter and a nice 5 in 1 reflector.

Foto Des Tages #32

Photo Of The Day #31

Photo Of The Day #30

Photo Of The Day #29

Photo Of The Day #28

Photo Of The Day #27

Photo Of The Day #26

Photo Of The Day #25