Tips and Techniques

Tamron Macro Photography Workshop

noreply@blogger.com (Don Gale) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 19:59:00 +0000

The situation with depth-of-field is very unusual when shooting with a long (180mm) macro lens, even at very small apertures the focus will remain VERY shallow. Most of these shots were at f/22, and as you can see, there's certainly less than one inch of sharp focus. And, in most cases, it's significantly less. Focusing is critical, and a good tripod, like the Manfrotto Neo Tech makes life easier.

I had a great time last weekend near Philadelphia, teaching a Macro Workshop with my friends from Tamron.

We started off on Friday nite at New York Camera for the orientation session, where we had a technical discussion on the unique techniques used in macro flower shooting. The actual shooting session began on Saturday morning in Ottsville, at the Parkside Orchid Nursery, where the loaner lenses were divvied up among the attendees. And, what a cool place this is. They let us have free reign of their 14,000 square foot nursery / greenhouse set-up. Here in LA we can't hardly set-up a tripod without being attacked by over-zealous security guards. It's nice to be able to roam freely, and think about the artsy stuff.

These 2 identical images of this amazing, egg-shaped bloom were shot with one flash unit placed behind the orchid, to create a subtle glow. A second, soft light, was used directly above, and in really tight, just out of the frame. Both flash units were Metz 58's and the one to the rear was unmodified, on Manual power, at 1/64th power. The main, front light, had a LumiQuest Big Bounce attached, to increase the source size, and soften the light. This unit was manually set to 1/32nd power.

The image was shot in color, and converted, using NIK's Black and White Conversion, plug-in.

I've included a short video clip, so you get a feel of what the place looks like. You'll see all the lenses that were loaned out, as well as the big assortment of tripods provided by the guys (and Lydia) at Bogen. And, as usual, at all these Tamron weekend seminars Expo Disc had product to test....and tons of door prizes from all the sponsors, to wrap up the day. And to fill the group in on some Orchid Trivia, we had a really informative lecture from John, one of the owners, before the shooting began.

I've also included a few of the images I got on Saturday. They were all taken with Tamron's 180mm macro lens. Everything was lit with small, battery powered flash units, off camera, triggered by Skyports. And every one was lit with 2 lights....in very tight, at super low power.

The video below will show some of the behind-the-scenes activities at this 2 day seminar. If you'd like more info on these Tamron Weekends, give us a call, or check their website at www.Tamron.com

California Coastal Redwoods

noreply@blogger.com (Don Gale) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:03:00 +0000

Last month we spent a few days in the most amazing location.

The shots above were taken just a mile or so south of the coastal village of Trinidad. It's like all the cliche coastal-elements are gathered right here, in this easy to access location. About 15 minutes separated the timing of the images above. Both captured using Tamron's 18-250mm zoom. The upper at 250mm and the bottom file at 18mm. Both, using a tripod and mirror lock-up. A 3-stop Lee ND grad filter held the detail in the bright sky on the wider view.

The Northern California coast hosts an unusual merging of lush green, fern-filled tropical forests, butting right up against the classic, rocky, wave battered coast. All this drama, and its even more incredible when you see the addition of the massive redwood trees, herds of elk, and a world class wildflower display.

Three days wasn't nearly long enough....and, we tried to cram as much as possible into the time slot.

We witnessed a couple of the most breathtaking sunsets, ever. And, in this part of the state, famous for it's perpetual fog, it was a real treat. We DID have plenty of fog, but, just when we needed that extra visibility, everything cleared up, and it was quite a show! And, quite a load off my mind, as far as providing suitable photographic locations for the workshop group. Instructors have reputedly been pushed off cliffs after dragging the group to a remote location, only to witness a less than photogenic sunset. I was safe for awhile, anyway.

And, ironically, right in the heart of these towering redwoods are some macro-sized subjects that can easily be overlooked. Slimy and slippery, the majestic Banana Slugs are everywhere. You just don't see 'em, cause the other visual distractions are causing photographers to look for the

trophy landscape panoramics. And, as a result, our heroes, the under-rated slugs, often get overlooked. And, occasionally stepped on.

But, not by us. And, not today. We set up an external, off-camera Metz flash, shooting thru a Westcott pop-up scrim to light up this guy. And it worked out great for a couple macro shots.

You think they look weird from a distance.....check 'em out thru the Tamron 180mm macro lens at 1:1 magnification. "Tack-sharp slime!" You won't read those words on any lens advertisements.

The footing in most of the Redwood forests is certainly questionable. And, almost never is there anything resembling a flat surface to place the tripod onto. The nice feature with the Manfrotto Neo Tech model is that the legs can be quickly adjusted for height, and the positions available as far as leg-spread are limitless. My friend, and student, Jesus Sousa, took this candid shot of the tripod in use, as I shot the image of the fallen log and ferns.

The reason for the wide variation between the color of the two images above is the White Balance settings used on the 2 different cameras. Jesus had his set for "shade" for the shot of me. And, I had used an Expo Disc on my camera to record the colors exactly as they appeared....pretty stunning comparison. And, it saves a lot of post production time getting the colors right.

Flash-Fill Demo in Austin

noreply@blogger.com (Don Gale) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 23:28:00 +0000

This video clip was shot by Ken Hubbard, a great photographer, who works in Tamron's marketing department. For this weekend seminar, he was wearing several hats....and what you'll watch shortly features him as the "video-guy" and "photo assistant".

The still images and story below, are also related to this video, and explain part of what's missing in the clip..........

Austin, Texas Photo Round-up

noreply@blogger.com (Don Gale) — Fri, 16 May 2008 22:41:00 +0000

Last weekend I had the pleasure of teaching a Tamron workshop with Precision Camera in Austin. And, in true Texas form, we had cowboys, horses and even a couple traditional bar-b-ques. Not to mention a model, and all the expert assistance from the very savvy staff at Precision

For one of the demonstrations, I wanted to get a photo of cowboy Bill and his trusty horse, Dusty.

Not just a picture, but a nicely lit portrait, using an off-camera soft box as a light source.

So, before the session started, Bill wanted to make sure that the bright flash from the Metz wouldn't spook ol' Dusty. So, I handed him the unit, and he simply showed it to the horse....and then we fired the flash a couple times to get him acclimated. The end result was a pretty nice shot, with an almost studio quality light on Bill's face. We also added a second, slaved flash....off camera to the left to add some sparkle and detail to the saddle.

The next session had Bill galloping along a trail as our group shot with slow shutter speeds to record an intentional blur. After a few test shots, the consensus was that a shutter speed of 1/30th of a second was perfect. And panning the camera during the shooting further blurred the background, while keeping the subject fairly sharp. In most cases, you'll need to set the ISO to the lowest option, and the aperture to the smallest f/stop possible. Doing both of these things will force the slower shutter speeds needed for this effect. And, if that's still not enough.....which may be the case on a bright day, adding a polarizer or a neutral density filter will further reduce the shutter speeds.

Macro Photography....with Off Camera Flash.

noreply@blogger.com (Don Gale) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:47:00 +0000

The California Central Coast is an unbelievable place to get some of the most classic "rock and trees meet water" shots anywhere in the world. But, it also holds a great variety of very small wildflowers...sometimes overlooked by the photographers looking toward the west.

The video clip below shows one technique for getting in REALLY close.....and modifying the ambient light with a tethered flash unit and a small soft box.

The flowers in the shots above are about one quarter inch in diameter! The camera position didn't change....only the lighting was modified to result in the three very differing results.

The German Alps

noreply@blogger.com (Don Gale) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:16:00 +0000

Italian Cat House

noreply@blogger.com (Don Gale) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 01:09:00 +0000

During our stay in Venice, Italy we had rented a second story apartment for the duration of the workshop. One morning, Cathy Laffin looked out the window and was laughing out loud. But, by the time we all ran over to see what was up, (or down) it was too late.

Our neighbor, also on the second floor, apparently found it easier to lower her cat out of the window, in lieu of a loo....or, in this case a litter box. So, several times each day, this is the unique circus-type entertainment we were provided.

When the flying feline was ready to return home, he simply jumped back in the basket and waited for a ride.

Not a real tecnnical challenging subject.....all we had to do was wait for the proper location of the basket, pre-frame the composition, and use a shutter speed fast enough to capture the action.

ISO at 400 / custom white balance, using an Expo Disc / Tamron 18-250 zoom at 60mm / f/5.6 at 1/200th

To see more of the shots from this trip, which also included a stint in the German Alps, check out the GALLERY section on the website.

The video below shows what it looked like in real time, from the voyeur's perspective.

Desert Abstracts

noreply@blogger.com (Don Gale) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 22:11:00 +0000

After the really great light from sunrise has long passed, there's still plenty of stuff to shoot that doesn't require the warm, dramatic quality of that first few minutes of daylight.

The sand dunes of Death Valley offer endless opportunities to create some really unique compositions....especially right after a big wind storm has cleaned up the dunes. No footprints to deal with, other than the ones you make yourself.

Wide Angle Close-Ups at Death Valley

noreply@blogger.com (Don Gale) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:59:00 +0000

Sometimes you can walk right by some pretty amazing subject matter. Especially, if you're intent on finding a specific shot, or looking for a particular subject to shoot. And, that's what happened on this morning at Death Valley.

We were out looking for the huge, sand dunes images, and almost missed this really cool close-up opportunity. And, the super wide 11-18mm zoom made the drama of distortion even more interesting.

There's 2 different elements included in this snake's eye view of a VERY small dune. The small piece of dry, crusty, mud is just inches away from the front of the lens......and the small branch in the background is no more than 3 feet away. But, the visual distortion created by the super wide lens really expanded the perceived spacing, and created a nice illusion.

Panoramic Stitching in Death Valley

noreply@blogger.com (Don Gale) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:02:00 +0000

Here's a little, hand-held stitching demo from a recent trip to Death Valley.

The software used to create the final composite image was "Panorama Maker Pro"

It took only about 2 minutes, and it automatically compensated for the slight variances caused by the obvious lack of a tripod. You'll still get much better results using a tripod and bubble-level.....but, in a pinch this way works, too. There will simply be less usable area in the final composited file.....which means you'll need to do some cropping to clean up the perimeter.

Skool Dazed

noreply@blogger.com (Don Gale) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 22:09:00 +0000

Every so often we get hired to do some PR shots by the local school district, here in Friendly El Monte, California. The proverbial "End of the Santa Fe Trail" ...or, so we were taught, during all my years in grammer school, here in the town where I grew up.

For this session we needed to meet with some department heads for a quick outdoor, group shot .....for use as a large graphic wrap, on one of their district delivery vans. (Boy, will the graffitti artists have a field day with this one! Man! Life-sized likenesses of the school administrators... right there....just waiting to have moustaches added. Pretty easy targets.....hand me that magic marker, please. Where was this stuff when I was a kid ?)

Anyway, we used a fairly standard lighting set-up, to overpower the ambient light. The videos below show the lights and camera being set-up, as well as the actual photo session. We set up 2 main lights up high, and aiming down at the subjects....combined meter reading was f/11 at 200 iso. The other 2 lights were placed on either side of the group, behind them. These acted as kick, or separation lights....to add some highlights at the edges, and create a clean separation from the background....these were adjusted to meter at about an half stop under the main lights.

This must have been "FREE, all-you-can-drink Coffee Day" at school....cause everyone was really movin' fast......have a look

Solid Online Information

noreply@blogger.com (Don Gale) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 20:41:00 +0000

There's lots of good information to be found by surfing your favorite sites online. Here's one you may not know of. My friends at Tamron lenses have been producing a quarterly magazine for the past few years that's loaded with some very good tips from some of the leading photographers around the country. It's also got some ads for their lenses....but, whaddya expect....it's free. And their products are top notch.

They also provide a series of weekend workshops.....held all over the US. Click here for the schedule, and pricing info

If you'd like to receive this electronic magazine via email every few months....you can check out the current edition here...Tamron Viewfinder . It may take a few seconds to load.... And, after looking at the truly, wonderful article about this most amazing photographer's recent trip to Italy, you can sign up to receive it here

Shooting in Yosemite After a Snowfall

noreply@blogger.com (Don Gale) — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 18:52:00 +0000

Being able to take photographs in fresh snow is a dream come true for most of us who live in areas where the white stuff is a rarity.

But, being the first on the scene in a place as glorious as Yosemite valley is unbelievable. The opportunities for great images are everywhere. Even locations that would never grab your attention otherwise, become suitable subject matter for that large print on the living room wall.

For those of us lucky enough to be in this valley for February's record dump, the only problems were that everywhere we wanted to shoot meant we had to be the lead-dog, and break the new trail through the 3 foot drifts. This can be a daunting task with no snowshoes, and a full arsenal of photo gear in tow. But, it was worth it every time. To see some of the images from this trip click HERE

The following clip was spontaneously shot at a logical resting place along the Merced River. And,“logical” in this case, meaning where we were both stuck!

I handed off the pocket sized video camera to Mike Meisinger, who works with me at the studio, and said, “while we're both standing here, up to our butts in snow....lets tape a quick instructional bit” I figured both of our batteries would die any minute in the cold weather, but, everything held up fine camera-wise. However, I think Mike's looking into some Gore-Tex pants and boots for the next winter adventure.

Death Valley Nite Portrait

noreply@blogger.com (Don Gale) — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 16:38:00 +0000

After getting the final shots of the desert sunset at the Mesquite Dunes, it's still not too late for a portrait session, before heading to the only restaurant in town.

Although, when it seems like there's just not enough light left.....there is! And, with a tripod, long shutter speeds and off-camera flash units handy, it's pretty amazing what you might come up with.

There's always a willing subject or two along at our classes, and this evening's model was the lovely and talented.... Samara.

The main light here is an umbrella mounted to a lightweight 8 foot stand, with the brilliant usage of my second camera as ballast, hanging on the stand. You'd think that in the sand dunes, a sand bag would be the proper tool. No wind was blowing this evening so it worked fine.

The second light, which was acting as a kick, or separation source, was placed behind Samara, and off to camera right, with no modification..just the basic, on camera light, this time being held by a human stand...a 5 foot ten-inch model. ( her face is intentionally blocked by the flash unit, as part of her arrangement with the Witness Protection Program)

The metering is pretty straight forward, here. Before even thinking about the flash units, I simply metered, in-camera for the ambient light. And, at iso 400, the reading at f/5.6 was 2 seconds. So, the camera was manually set for those exact settings.

Now, we simply turned on the umbrella source, did a couple test pops, with the external meter, and set the power manually on the flash unit, to get a reading of 5.6. Same deal for the kick light....except, since I didn't want this light to be quite as dominant, we set it up at one stop under the main, and got this reading set at f/4.

As time moved on, and we made a couple minor tweaks to her hair, etc....the ambient light continued to slowly dim....resulting in a need for a slightly longer shutter speed of 3 seconds....but, the flash units remained constant, so we kept the aperture at 5.6. And, for no reason whatsoever, I turned off the kick light for the close-up.

Gear-wise: the lights were triggered by the Elinchrom Skyports. The flash units are both the newest model of the Metz on-camera units, which are amazingly accurate with TTL exposure...

Mono Pod saves Tourist

noreply@blogger.com (Don Gale) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:09:00 +0000

In the midst of one of the heaviest snowfalls in Yosemite Valley, we recently pulled into the parking lot of the Ahwahnee Hotel for their legendary Sunday brunch. Now, if you haven't been here, this is one classy joint....and with a price per nite to prove it. Around four hundred bucks will get you in.

But, FYI, they do allow the rest of us in to snoop around. And if you're properly dressed, even eat dinner in their amazing dining hall. Well, there's no dress code for brunch, so here we were. And as we made our way across the icy parking lot, we spotted several tourists, in their vehicles.....stuck in the snow. None of them had chains on their tires, and all were having trouble negotiating the slippery surface in their wingtips and heels.

One fellow, in particular, caught my eye. He was in the driver's seat, with the car in reverse, and the pedal FLOORED! Tires were smokin', and he was going nowhere.....but, if he ever DID gain any traction, he'd be off like a rocket, in reverse, across the parking lot.

So, we stopped to see if we could help out. And, apparently just because you can afford to stay here doesn't mean you have a proportionately high quantity of common sense.

That's where the video below comes into play. Thank God for the little-known Manfrotto combo monopod / ice- pick.

The clip doesn't show the happy ending...but, he made it out safely.

Now, my only problem will be explaining to my friends at Manfrotto why they should send me a replacement monopod for the one I have with all these factory defects.

Yosemite Winter Workshop

noreply@blogger.com (Don Gale) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:30:00 +0000

Shooting in cold weather can be a real challenge by itself. But, trying to continue to get some great shots while it's raining or even snowing, takes it up a notch.

Last month we had an amazing trip to Yosemite Valley. And, as always, in the winter months, were hoping for a little snow. Well, be careful what you wish for! There was a near record dump in the valley, right while we were there. And, none of the park employees could remember ever seeing this much snow in the valley.

All valley traffic and shuttle busses came to a screeching halt for a few hours, until the plows could do their thing. This gave us a perfect opportunity to go for a hike in the snow. And, since we were staying at "The Lodge At The Falls", what better place to head for than the falls? It's only about a 10 minute walk to the base of Lower Yosemite Falls, and the opportunities along the ice-covered path were extraordinary.

The video clip below shows our group shooting, actually while it's snowing. And as often happens here, there was no wind. Luckily, once your camera body has cooled down to match the ambient temperature, the snow won't stick, or cause any moisture damage. The only concern is getting snowflakes on the front element of the lens. It's almost impossible to effectively clean the glass under these conditions. So, that's where the big plastic bags, and Lee lens shades pay off.....

Death Valley Photography Workshop

noreply@blogger.com (Don Gale) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 22:54:00 +0000

The Winter light in Death Valley is amazing. From pre-dawn right thru dusk. I usually like to start the day with a walk out into the Mesquite Sand Dunes about an hour before sunrise.....pick a cool spot to shoot, based on where the sun will emerge from...and wait.

Those first few minutes of direct, low, warm rays cross-lighting the surface of the dunes are unbelievable.

Then, after we've had our fill of sand, we'll head out into the salt.....at Badwater. This involves about an hour's drive, and a short walk on a VERY flat valley floor. The shooting and the overall feeling of this place is truly other-worldly. Just like the sand dunes. It makes for a very eerie morning, and provides some really diverse photo ops.

The video clip below was shot right in the middle of the main salt flat area in Badwater..about a 10 minute walk from the parking area. We used the Canon G-9, which is really a point and shoot still camera, to record the video. The quality suffers from the You Tube compression....but, at least we can do this cool stuff now. The original clip is over 240mb !! And it took over 2 hours just to upload the file online.

If you decide to make the journey to Death Valley....winter is the time to go. It wasn't named Death Valley for nuthin'

Monkeying Around In Costa Rica

noreply@blogger.com (Don Gale) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 20:37:00 +0000

We just got back from a great photo workshop in Costa Rica. It's a real diverse source for wildlife and scenic shooting.....everywhere you look is a potential shot. And, the unique thing is that the animals show up in the strangest places. Right outside your hotel door....or, in some cases, INSIDE your room.

The shots of these monkeys were taken from a Mangrove Swamp boat trip, on the Pacific coast, near Quepos. Shot handheld, with the Tamron 200-500zoom, from a rather unstable position. I've included a short video clip to provide a sense of how it went.

Tamron Macro Seminar at B & H

noreply@blogger.com (Don Gale) — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 23:59:00 +0000

A couple months ago, I was invited by the good folks at Tamron to do a "day o' demos" at the new Event Room at B&H Camera, in New York City. The video clip below shows a portion of the Macro session.

We had a pretty typical set-up, gear-wise. It was what I always use in the field.....Fuji S-5 DSLR, a Tamron 180mm Macro lens, with a Lee lens shade. All mounted on the trusty Neo-Tech tripod from Manfrotto. And to fire the off-camera remote flash units, the new Sky Port transceiver system from Elinchrom....VERY small, and no misfires, so far.

Since it was right in the middle of winter, in the northeast, Gregg Maniaci from Tamron, thought some tropical, real delicate, exotic Orchids would be great subject matter. Apparently, he missed the Botany memo. Luckily, a couple of these babies survived the treacherous "nite in the freezing car trunk" ordeal, and we had some suitable flowers to shoot, afterall.

This 1:1 macro lens let us get in really tight on one of the blooms....and with some strong backlighting from one of the remote flash units, we ended up with some nice abstract images.

Sled in Parking Lot With The Lights On

noreply@blogger.com (Don Gale) — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 00:49:00 +0000

I spotted this guy just a few days before Christmas in a local store

SoCal Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Don Gale) — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 22:56:00 +0000

Southern California is a great place to spend the Holiday season. We don't get snow right in the city, but, there's always a lot of creative lighting on some of the landmark buildings. And, one of these is the Spanish style resort in Riverside....The Mission Inn. It never really WAS a mission, but no one seems to care. It seems authentic, and, being this close to Hollywood, close-enough is just fine. It sure LOOKS like a real mission.....and to a photographer, how the prints look is all that matters. My wife Sue, (who has a REAL job) had her company banquet here in late December. And since I got to tag along, a camera was mandatory. Because tonite's shooting was all for my own amusement, the weapon of choice was the new Canon G-9 point-and-shoot. This is my first experience with anything less than a full-on SLR. It really feels strange using such a small and amateurish looking piece of gear. But, man, the results are unbelievable! 12 megapixels, shoots RAW, and has a very impressive video option, with the standard 640x480.....and, if you don't mind sucking up storage-space at a fast rate, a really high quality 1024x 768 option! The digital audio is really incredible, too. The photo above was taken right at dusk. The white balance was on "Tungsten" No tripod here, so it was handheld, with the ISO set at 400. Aperture was 3.2 and the shutter was manually set at 1/15th. I made a 13x19 print, and it's smokin' sharp, with minimal noise! As we entered the banquet room to the sounds of a live band....I was able to grab the camera, twist the dial to the icon of a Movie Camera, and start shooting in about 2 seconds! No warm-up time, and really good results in low light. And, the great thing is....whether you're shooting stills or video, this camera is so small and simple looking....no one even notices that you're shooting! A far cry from schlepping around a huge DSLR with an external flash.

Reptile Portraits, Anyone?

noreply@blogger.com (Don Gale) — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 22:54:00 +0000

Last weekend I met my son, Johnny, at an event which represents Heaven-on-Earth for him....the west coast's biggest reptile show. Held annually at the Anaheim Convention Center, this certainly has to be the largest indoor collection of the weirdest looking creatures I've ever seen.
Well, there was this ZZ Top concert in the late 70's.

As far as you could see....an endless sea of caged and uncaged snakes, lizards, spiders, turtles....and their equally interesting-looking uncaged owners.

My son and his lovely wife certainly fall well within the definition of "normal people"....you just wonder about some of these people who make a living raising and breeding these crazy animals. Overall, though, a really nice bunch of folks. And all the vendors were more than happy to let me get in close and get shots of whatever they were selling.

Since we were moving around a crowded convention hall, it's very congested, and tough to maneuver and get the exact angles needed for the best shots.

But, with the monopod, and external flash unit attached to a stick, we must have looked pretty important, cause everyone let us move right in... and they all seemed to enjoy watching this old guy getting excited about photographing a gecko.

Most of these images employed a 2-light set up, which consisted of a mini softbox attached to my new Metz flash, which was tethered to the Fuji S-5 body for full TTL functions. The second light (firing always from behind the subject) was a similar flash unit, which was fired simultaneously with a slave unit attached to the base. This light was set on "manual" power, and the settings were frequently adjusted, depending on the placement of the main-light, which was the soft-box. Two of my sons were there, so each one got the thrill of assisting by holding one of the flash units.

Typically, the ISO was 400, and the aperture set at f/11. In order to render the background a SOLID black, a shutter speed of 1/250th was used to restrict any of the ambient light from being recorded.

Now, I hear the biggest show is in Orlando, right in the middle of the summer. Wow....mosquitos, alligators AND reptiles.

Johnny's already lobbying me to make a trek there in '08.

Great

Sunflower Flash

noreply@blogger.com (Don Gale) — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 23:51:00 +0000

A couple weeks ago, on our way home from conducting a seminar for Samy's in Santa Barbara, we pulled over at a farm that my wife, Sue, had spotted earlier in the day. She had seen the vivid yellow flowers and stunning blue sky from the coast highway, and remembered exactly where to pull off. She commented on the amazing light.

Well, the lighting wasn't so amazing when we arrived to do some shooting. The sky was still blue in areas, but the Sunflowers were almost totally in shade by this time. This presented an opportunity to use an off-camera flash, modified with a medium sized LumiQuest soft box.

Once the tripod-mounted camera was framed-up and focused, I had the freedom to move about the cabin, and place the light EXACTLY where it needed to be.

For these examples here, there was no change in the aperture or shutter speeds...the only change was the addition of the flash. I experimented with the flash power aet to "Manual"...and 1/2 power seemed to work best when competing with the direct sun, and allowing for the light loss from the soft-box.

Initially the scene was metered, and underexposed by 1/3 stop, to add saturation to the sky.

The flash-on-a-stick was set to manual power of 1/2 and, once the proper distance-to-subject was established, it worked for every ensuing shot. Very simple, and totally predictable. For shooting up into a very bright sky....especially with the possibility of some direct sunlight hitting the lens, I always use as LONG a lens shade as possible. Stray light can ruin a good image.

Back-Lit Spider Web

noreply@blogger.com (Don Gale) — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 00:13:00 +0000

On a recent trip to California's Central coast, the warm days and cool nites created lots of early morning dew. The condensation on flowers and other foliage can really provide some great subjects for macro work.

Dew filled mornings usually mean overcast skies...at least for awhile. This type of soft light is great for water drops on Poppies, and blades of grass....but, not the ultimate in spider web illumination. For these "suspended-in-mid-air" droplets, there's nothing better than a good, strong backlight. And that definitely wasn't happening this morning.

Without the added contrast and snap of some strong, directional light, this spider web would be pretty mundane. But, luckily, one of the advantages of working in-close with macro gear is that if changes need to be made in the contrast levels or direction of the main light source, it's pretty easy. The "live" area is SO small that it's a cinch to make a modification of the entire scene....sometimes with a small reflector or, in this case, by adding an off-camera flash unit to add the needed punch.

Recent developments in wireless TTL flash accuracy have really made this pretty simple.

In this case I was able to hand-hold the Metz unit behind the web, and direct the light through the backside of the very small scene. And by using the flash-compensation feature on the camera, nailing the exact exposure was easy.

The background brightness levels were modified by changing the shutter speeds to control the amount of ambient light that was recorded. Shorter shutter speeds resulted in a darker background....without affecting the flash exposure on the drops. It's exactly the same technique used for flash-filled portraits.

Too Dark? Probably Not.

noreply@blogger.com (Don Gale) — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 22:32:00 +0000

Every year, my wife, Sue and I take a week off and travel to northern California for a 4 day music festival. It's located just outside the western entrance to Yosemite. And over the years we've gone from being regular members of the audience... and then being asked to be part of the photo crew. And for the last couple festivals, I've been teaching a morning photo workshop.

It's a magical event, and probably the easiest thing to shoot on the planet. If you didn't get your fix of Tie-Dye in the 60's, it's still alive and well, believe me.........at least among this typical northern california crowd.

And, I've never met a friendlier group of folks, anywhere. I return to the studio completely refreshed, year after year. Cheap therapy. Try it out, if you can.

Google "Strawberry Music" for a more detailed description.

Anyway..... we hung around for a couple days, after the music ended, and went into Yosemite valley to do some exploring......just the two of us. What a novel idea.

And, while driving down into the valley, we noticed the Dogwoods were still blooming at around the 6500 foot elevation. And specifically, there was an amazing section, that was terribly lit in the mid day light. So, we made a mental note to stop and shoot em on the way back later that afternoon.

Well, as expected, we got sidetracked with my constant photography on the way back.....and by the time we reached the Dogwoods again, it was practically dark.

But, the good news was..... absolutely NO wind. And, I had my new Fuji S-5, with absolutely great low-noise levels at high ISO's, combined with long shutter speeds. And, the lens was Tamron's new 18-250, which is proving to be a real gem.

So, out came the tripod. Lets test this new camera under these adverse conditions.

Focusing was difficult in the near dark conditions. But, using a flashlight, the footage guides on the lens barrel let me manually set the focus at 20 feet. That was the approximate distance to the closest blooms. I knew we'd need lots of depth-of-field, so f/16 was chosen. White balance was set for "shady" And, my only option on the ISO was 400....because, even at 400, the shutter was going to be open for 15 seconds. I didn't want to risk anything longer for 2 reasons: Longer exposures would have run the risk of a stray car passing by, and getting the exposure ruined by headlights, and branch movement with the ensuing wind. And, the second reason: as the light fades quickly at dusk: you sometimes get only one shot at something like this...where the shutter is open so long, that by the time you could pull off a second frame..it's REALLY too dark.
Kind of a scary set of options.

But, it worked. And when the shutter closed on the final shot, I couldn't even see the 2 trees in the background. The only visible elements within the frame was a faint image of the white Dogwood blooms. Unbelievable what we can now do with a high end digital camera.

So much for dinner.