Re: Getting better photos -how?

Roger N. Clark (change username to rnclark) wrote:


1) Everything sharp, from near foreground to the most
distant background. Example:
http://www.clarkvision.com/galleries/gallery.large_format/web/c072099_L4_01a2-600b.html

Wow! That's an awesome picture!!
How do you get such vivid colors? My photos mostly seem very dull in
comparison, no matter what I do.

(The above example is with large format film and was shot
at f/64, but gives results similar to f/16 on 35mm).

I understand that a higher f-number should be chosen, but how do you
know if you should use f/16 as opposed to say f/12 or f/22?


2) The subject is in focus, but the background is very out of focus.
This is generally done a lot with wildlife images, such as
this one:
http://www.clarkvision.com/galleries/gallery.bird/web/great.blue.herons.the.kiss.JZ3F8149.f-700.html

Again, a fantastic, almost unreal picture!
Has it been manipulated in Photoshop, or did you shoot it that way? The
feathers of the leftmost bird has this amazing texture. It doesn't look
like a regular photo.
Is it all because of the lighting (sunset) or have you used a special
technique?


The key in such photos is to have the subjects eyes be the main
focal point. This requires the widest apertures, but how wide
depends on how far back the background is. The above image was
at f/5.6 but the background are trees several times further away than
the birds.

Does it make a big difference if I'm close to the subject (not with
birds, but with say, flowers) and us f/5.6 as opposed to a distance
away with a powerful zoom lens (I'm considering getting a Canon 70-300
IS USM) zoomed close to the subject with f/5.6 as well?

Focusing on the birds' eyes must be tricky if you weren't really close
and they stood pretty still so you could focus.


In using a camera, I recommend only two modes: aperture priority
and manual. That way you control everything. Aperture controls sharpness,
and that is a key to the technical aspect of photography.
If you want fast shutter speed, open the aperture to its maximum.
If that is not fast enough, then increase the ISO value.

I've spent a few days playing around with the manual controls, trying
to get to know them. I now think I understand the basics of aperture
vs. shutter speed, and how aperture affects sharpness in a picture, and
I know which controls on my camera to use in order to change both of
these, following the meter, or deliberately deviating from it.
What I don't understand is how to determine what I should set my camera
to when I can't rely on the meter. I also don't quite get the metering
and focusing modes.

I'm glad you mention only two modes that are necessary to learn,
because then I can concentrate on them.
Manual control takes time. Especially if I've taken a picture of a
sunset, and the next day there's bright sunlight etc. and I have to
adjust shutter/aperture to very different values. It takes time to
rotate the dial from say f/4.5 to f/22, or 0.5 seconds to 1/125 second,
so what do you do if a bird comes along that you have to shoot right
away?
Change the mode selector to one of the auto modes (or "P" mode, which I
believe is actually the same thing as "fully auto" or "green" mode
except you can deviate from it if you want?


Camera meters are only an estimate. You need to learn to examine
the image data (e.g. view the image and look at the histogram), and
adjust exposure to compensate for the meter when it does not do
the best job (e.g. a small white bird in the scene may be
overexposed). Then use the exposure compensation dials on
the camera to adjust to get a better exposure, or change to manual mode.

This is the tricky part which I don't understand.
I've uploaded some examples. First, here's a sunset which is more or
less correctly exposed as far as I know (1/1000s, f/7.1):
http://home.c2i.net/w-460389/exposure/IMG_1407.jpg
But if I want to see more of the building (i.e. not just as a
silhouette) and shoot with 1/250 f/7.1:
http://home.c2i.net/w-460389/exposure/IMG_1408.jpg
the sky becomes overexposed.

Here's another example of a sunset (1/1000s, f/6.3):
http://home.c2i.net/w-460389/exposure/IMG_1393.jpg
I can barely see any of the buildings, even though in reality there was
quite a lot of light, sufficient to see them.
And now with the camera set to 1/500s, f/6.3 the sky is over-exposed,
but I can see more of the buildings:
http://home.c2i.net/w-460389/exposure/IMG_1392.jpg

A third example is a tunnel which I've shot from the outside. Here the
sky and the entrance looks properly exposed while the tunnel itself is
very dark: http://home.c2i.net/w-460389/exposure/IMG_1457.jpg (1/500s,
f/5.6)
But if I change it to 1/15s, f/5.6 the tunnel is visible, but the sky
and everything else is over-exposed:
http://home.c2i.net/w-460389/exposure/IMG_1456.jpg

What I want to know is if there's a way I can get a proper expose for
the dark and light sections at the same time, or is this physically
impossible?

Moving on to contrasts, such as a black/white cat which I find hard to
shoot (to all the animal lovers out there; not literally ;-)
I believe this is one of those situations I shouldn't rely on the meter
as you talk about, but how?
Here are a couple of photos of that cat, and in addition, to make it
even trickier I have the same problem as with my abovementioned photos:
the cat is inside, and the sky is bright outside the window, so the
background is over-exposed:
http://home.c2i.net/w-460389/exposure/IMG_1194.jpg (1/50s, f/7.1)
http://home.c2i.net/w-460389/exposure/IMG_1195.jpg (1/50s, f/7.1)


Once you've learned the technical aspects, you are then open to learning
the creative aspects of photography, which if you are like most of us,
will take the rest of our lives ;-). I'm still learning.

Yeah, it's pretty tricky. I often find myself pretty clueless. For
example, I'm at a holiday destination and have a great time, so I want
to capture the moment, but I really don't know what I should take a
picture of, so I end taking a "snapshot" of everything all at once. An
overview of the place in other words.
But I do believe I've become a little better now than since I first got
my EOS-350D about a month ago and started asking questions here. At
least many of my photos are more in focus now, even though I'm still
struggling to figure out which f-value to use, so many photos are still
unsharp in different places, but hey, I'm taking all the advice I can,
practicing with my camera and open for any advice on the subject.
Here are some shots I've taken recently which I'm reasonably happy
with:

http://home.c2i.net/w-460389/img_impr/

what do you think? What's good and what can I improve on?

.

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