Archive for the 'Photography Techniques' Category

Aquarium of the Pacific

Published by Bryan July 13th, 2008 in Photography Techniques. 0 Comments

Tropical Fish at Aquarium of the Pacific

How to shoot at an Aquarium

Step 1: Forget the Flash

When you go to an aquarium it is a courtesy to the sea life to not bombard them with fill flash. Besides the glass on the aquariums will bounce back the light and ruin your photograph. Yes you could shoot at an angle and reduce the bounce back but just be kind to the fishies and forget the flash.

Step 2: Use a fast lens

If you are using a point and shoot then you get to use the lens you have but if you have an SLR then use a fast lens. Another idea is to use a prime because usually these can be even faster then their zoom counterparts. Jamie used a 50mm f/1.8 prime lens on the photo above.

Step 3: Learn to set the ISO

The rule is to bump up the ISO last after everything else has been done to improve shutter speed. So if you are shooting at f/1.8 and you can’t turn on more light (which you can’t at the aquarium) and you can’t use a fill flash and you photos are still blurry then you might need to bump the ISO. The higher the ISO the more noise. With film this will translate to more noticeable grain. Either one is better than blur. Luckily reducing ISO noise is a top priority for the camera manufacturers so as time goes on this will improve.

Step 4: Be patient

Fish and Sea Mammals are not going to pose for the camera so sometimes you just have to be patient to get the shot. Next time you are at an aquarium put these four steps to practice and see what develops.

Be sure to check out our other shots in the gallery.

Self Portraits

Published by Bryan November 12th, 2007 in Photography Techniques. 0 Comments

Have you ever looked back at your photos and realized that you have a lot of pictures of places you have been but none of them have you in the picture? Well this is a common problem. remoteThere are of course solutions. You could pester people who happen to be passing by and get them to take the picture. Hopefully you have a camera that is easy to operate or you’re in for trouble. The second solution is to use a tripod/rig your camera on a solid object and use the timer mode. Some camera’s let you set the time the camera takes between pressing the shutter release and it taking a picture which should give you enough time to get in the shot. Still how many times do you laugh when you see people running in front of their camera only to never know if it even took the shot or if they got there in time? Still another option is to hold out your camera in front of your face and take the picture. This always results in something laughable. Unfortunately many people do this and it results in what I call the “Myspace Syndrome” since that’s how most people on Myspace get their photos in their profileportraits.
The third solution is the one I like. It involves getting a camera that supports a wireless remote and then purchasing the remote. I use the RC-1 for the Canon Digital Rebel XT. It’s a very simple device that works just like a television remote. It has a small infrared transmitter, a single button, and a mode selector. For the XT you simply put the camera in timer/remote mode and it will look for the remote. You can have the remote take a delayed picture or take the photo right away. I prefer the former as it allows me to hide the remote from the frame of the photo. As you can see in this photo I pretty well hid the remote behind Jamie.

Now the advantages of this method are many. Here are a few of them:

1) You don’t have to run from the camera to the scene

2) If you are the only subject of the photo then now the camera has something to focus on (assuming you don’t set the focus portrait2manually in which case you’re out of luck)

3) You can look way more relaxed in the photo

4) You can get great pictures with yourself in them and still get to claim credit for taking the photo as well

 Now using a remote is not without issues. For this remote, since it is infrared, it works via line of sight. I know there are some remote systems that work behind walls/obstructions but those are a little more expensive and your camera has to support it. Other then that it is clear sailing. Look forward to having more photos in your collection that have you in them. I picked my remote up at Samy’s Camera but you can find them anywhere like B&H, Amazon, or NewEgg to name a few of my favorite establishments.

Zoo Animals

Published by Bryan February 18th, 2007 in Photography Techniques. 0 Comments

Koala Bear Something about taking pictures at the zoo is so cliche. Still going to your local zoo is probably going to be your best opportunity to take photos of a great vatiety of interesting animals. You could always go on a Safari in West Africa but think of the expense. Jamie and I recently went to the Los Angeles Zoo and took our camera’s along with us. We used our 70-200mm L lens as our walk-around lens and our SD550 for closer shots. This worked out well since most of the exhibits allow for a lot of space between the animals and the visitors (for obvious reasons). Most of the shots were in open shade while a few were in the direct sun and a few were in dark shady areas. The dark shade was the only thing that posed a problem for me. If an animal was in dark shade then chances were I would not get the shot. While I’m sure zoo animals get camera flashes in the eyes all day long I just didn’t feel comfortable using a flash plus I doubt it would light the subject the way I wanted.

The only other thing that inhibited me was the zoo’s use of fences. In this case I could still capture an image but the autofocus would always focus on the fence. I found it was best to use manual focus in this case. Using manual focus takes some getting used to. I will never be as fast as the USM autofocus on my Canon lenses but I’m getting better. With some practice you can pull a subject in focus in a second or two.
Young Giraffe

When I was shooting animals in direct sunlight I made sure to set the camera to expose the shot by one stop more then it thought it should expose. I know it sounds backards but if your camera is evaluating the whole shot with it’s light meter it will tend to underexpose the shot. The only time you might not want to set the camera to expose the shot more is if any part of the shot is washed out or the highlights appear blown. You can check this on the histogram if your camera provides one. If the chart looks like it is pushed up against the right and some stuff looks cut off then the exposure was too long and you should compensate accordingly.

This brings me to my last point. If you are going to purchase a Digital SLR camera and spend at least $1000 between the camera and all the related accesories then why not learn how to use it. While I was at the zoo I saw all kinds of people with cameras. At least 6 people had SLR cameras and of those maybe two knew how to use them. The rest were shooting in Auto mode. I could tell because it would pop up the flash everytime they took a picture. Now even I do not shoot in full manual mode except in a few special occasions but I almost always am in aperture priority or shutter priority mode. Pink FlamingoThis allows me to control one aspect and let the camera use the light meter to choose the best setting for the other. If I want the flash I can manually pop it up. I also get some control over exposure compensation this way. If you own a DSLR or any SLR for that matter; do yourself a favor and invest some time into learning it’s features. Then go to the zoo and have some fun taking pictures of your favorite animals confident that you will get the shot.