Please enable JavaScript to access this page.

6/27/2014

Poppy fields

No comments:

Transforming the landscape with a blanket of red, a rich and vibrant poppy field is the perfect photographic subject at this time of year. Offering a host of photo opportunities, from broad vistas to tight close-ups, they’re a great summer subject.

You’ll probably need to tap into a bit of local knowledge to f nd one, or failing that, Flickr is a great place to look for locations that other members have found in the past.

Try to check out the location beforehand in order to work out the best viewpoints, but be sure not to trespass on any private land. Then, when the light’s right, you’ll be ready to go. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

  1. To capture a whole field of poppies, look for a higher vantage point to accentuate the rich reds. You might even want to take a stepladder with you. A strong background focal point is useful for breaking up the horizon. 
  2. Don’t write off your chances of shooting if it’s a windy day. Experiment with neutral density filters to slow your shutter speed down and inject a bit of movement into the shot, resulting in a gentle swirl of red. 
  3. Don’t be afraid to shoot into the sun, especially if it’s low in the sky, as the backlighting will highlight the spikes and stem of the poppy. Use a reflector to bounce light back towards the poppy to balance the exposure.
  4. As well as a wideangle lens, shoot with a longer telephoto lens to really compress the perspective of the scene. It will allow you to crop in tightly and pick out individual flowers or areas of a field for a more graphical result.

ROUND-UP

Fuji 18-135mm lens  

Fujifilm has confirmed a July launch for its Fujinon XF18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR [weather-resistant] compact system camera lens. The new optic should deliver the 35mm equivalent of a 27-206mm zoom. First announced earlier this year, For details Click This





Compact tripods 

Manfrotto has released a new line of tripods and monopods, including Compact Light, Designed to be used with CSCs, it is ‘born to be with you always’. The Compact Action, meanwhile, features a joystick head and is aimed at those who also want to shoot movies. Top of the range is the Compact Advanced, built to carry an entry-level DSLR with a zoom up to 200mm. Its three-way head offers pan, tilt and level movements. For details Click This


EOS milestone 

Canon is celebrating 25 years of its EOS-1 series of SLRs. Launched in 1989, the EOS-1 was aimed at professionals and offered new levels of ergonomics, high durability and reliability. The first EOS was the film-based EOS 650, launched as the world’s first AF SLR in 1987. The latest addition to the family is the EOS-1D X (pictured), which was launched in June 2012. For details, Click This

The Brenizer method

No comments:

how to craf wideangle images with an ultra-shallow depth of feld that are impossible to achieve any other way on a DSLR

The Brenizer method is a really clever technique that allows you to create images with a wideangle view and an ultra-shallow depth of feld. The result is a lovely aesthetic that makes your subject really stand out in a wide viewing angle that is similar to a large-format image.

The technique takes its name from American wedding photographer Ryan Brenizer (www.ryanbrenizer.com), who is credited with developing the process – which is now also known as bokehrama and panoramic stitching – in 2008. It’s ‘panoramic stitching’ that reveals most about how this look is achieved: a sequence of frames is taken of the subject and the surrounding environment with a fast lens of 50mm or longer. The shots are then merged together using software to create the fnal image, in which the subject has a much greater sense of ‘place’ compared to a single shot taken with a telephoto lens. This kind of image is impossible to achieve with a single shot, even with the fastest and most expensive prime wideangle lenses.

SHOOTING

To make life much easier when it comes to merging the images in Photoshop, set as many variables to manual as possible to avoid variations in exposure between each of your shots. Once you’ve focused on your subject, lock the focus and set the camera to manual-exposure mode. To create the ultra-shallow depth of feld effect shown in our fnal composite, set the lens to its widest aperture and balance the exposure with the desired shutter speed and ISO combination.
At this stage, it is worth taking a few test shots of your subject to make sure you’re happy with the exposure and the white balance. Again, this needs to be locked, so use a preset white balance rather than auto, as this may vary as you pan around the scene. It’s a good idea to previsualise your fnal image and the edges of the frame, so that when you start shooting you have a good idea of what you need to cover with your sequence of images. Then start shooting, working from side-to-side, and top-to-bottom, ensuring you overlap your images not only to give a reference point for Photoshop to stitch them together later, but also to avoid returning home with holes in your sequence. Whether you shoot handheld or with a tripod is up to you, but the key thing to remember when shooting a sequence like this is to remain in the same position.

PROCESSING

With your sequence captured, it’s time to look at stitching the frames together to produce one fnal wideangle, shallow-depth-of-feld shot. In the same way as we might create a panoramic image, we’ll stitch the frames together using Photoshop’s Photomerge tool (also available in Elements). Now turn over for our complete step-by-step guide.

6/25/2014

Technique Creating Depth For An Amateur Photographer

No comments:

Try a tele lens

Although a wideangle lens is very useful for adding depth, it isn't th eonly choice available to you. instead, why not try using a telephoto zoom such as a 70-200mm instead. A longer focal length will give a totally different look to your landscape images, appearing to compress the distance between the foreground and background rather than exaggerating it.

the narrow depth of field associated with telephoto lenses gives you some creative possibilities as well, in this examples on the right, i selected an aperture of f/4 and focused on the windmill. which had the effect of softening the foreground flowers to a yellow blur. you'll need to move back a lot further than you would with the wideangle lends so you can still freme your shot to include the foreground at a longer foal length, but this technique works well when the foreground is a lot closer to you than it is to the background subject anyway the windmill here was on the other side of the next field!

bold elements add a lot of impact to an image, there;s a danger of the foreground overpowering the image, so compose carefully and try to avoid blocking the viewer's path into the rest of the picture. Luckily, on the wide, empty East Anglian beaches that i frequent, the freground interest is often also the main subject of the picture, so this isn;t usually a problem

TECHNIQUE

Foreground interest is a compositional tricks that works especially well with a wideangle lens as it seems to stretch perpective. THis gives objects close to the lens the appearance of being larger than normal, while those further away appear smaller, helping the photographer to emphasise the feeling od distance.

These Lenses are not without their drawbacks, though, and need to be used with care to avoid certain pitfalls. Objects close to the edges of the frame have a tendency to distort, leaving straight lines learning at an unnatural angle, so when u are composing an image, try to position any foreground objects away from the edges. if this isn't possible and you have a line of groynes, for example, leading into the frame, any distortion can be easly fixed in Photoshop. However, this will result in some cropping, so bear this in mind when composing the shot and allow extra space around the edge of the frame for any cropping later.

Keep it simple

i've heard the saying "less is more", but it's especially true with photopgraphy. A successful composition not only relies on what has been included in the photo, but what has been left out can be just as important.

Harmony is the key to creating an eye-catching photo with a simple composition. Try to find foreground and background subjects that complement each other in some way, whether it be shape, colour or something else that links them visually, and compose your shot to include only those essential element. Before pressing the shutter, remember to look around the frame for any distractions and adjust your position to try to remove them from the composition

A clean composition can really make a strong image, but you could try taking it a step further. Go for a minimal look using the subtlest of foregrounds. such as ripples on the surface of a lake. to really simplify things and give the subject breathing space and create a feeling of cam.

While the effect of creating distance between the foreground and background is one of the things i Love about wideangle lenses, it's also a potential problem. Positioning the camera at the rignt height and angle is important for getting just the right amount of separation between the foreground and background to create a nice flow through the image. Position the camera too high and there isi a danger of ending up with a lot of empty space b
etween the two, but get too low and there could be too little space thus spoiling the sense of depth.

The short focal lengths that we are using have an inherently good depth of dield, but this can be maximised by using a hyperfocal distance chart to choose the point of focus. The hyperfocal distance is basically the optimum point of focus for a given focal

length and aperture to achieve the greatest depth of field, and you can download a chart to keep in your camera bag or use the DOFmaster app for your smartphone. I also find that live view is invaluable for precise focus, especially with the camera positioned low on a tripod. It certainly beats crawling around on what usually a wet or muddy floor trying to look through the viewfinder. With the lens set to manual focus (and stabilisation switched off), you can pick the exact spot you wish to focus on and magnify up to 10x to ensure it is sharply focused, which is especially useful in low. light.

Foreground interest is a particularly effective landscape technique and, as such, it can be easy to become repetitive in your approach. On the occasions that i have been guilty of working on autopilot, i've found that it shows in the resulting images, so keep thinking about what you are trying to convey in your photography and aim to reflect that in our compositions.

Watch this video.

The technique creates a depth for beginners

No comments:

I will explains how to add depth to your images by using foreground interest to lead the eye into frame

As landscape photographers, we often go to great length to be in the right place at the right time to get the shot. we set the alarm for the early hours, drive for miles and then walk, head torch on, through semi-darkness to be set up and ready for the first shades of dawn colour light the scene that we have usually spent many hours researching in advance. Every time we look at such a scene. we are faced with the difficult challenge of how to convy the feeling of depth in the three-dimensional view in a two-dimensional photograph.

One way to create a feeling of depth is to emphasise the foreground by composing the image to include a point of interest at the bottom of the frame. A strong element in the foreground gives the viewer a point of entry into picture - a place to start that will hopefully lead them through the composition to the subject of the image.

Just about anything can work as foreground interest, but while it may be tempting to use the first object you see, it's worth stepping back to consider the bigger picture for a moment. Taking time to find a physically of visually, with the rest of the image, rather than just being an object to fill the bottom of the frame, will result in a more satisfying photo.

The subject could be a strong object, such as a rock formation that nicely frames the bottom of a mountain view, a jetty leading the eye into a lakeland scene, or something more subtle like a shape or pattern of foreground plants that is repeated in distant trees. On the other hand, you could use a foreground with constrasting shapes or textures to the background. Whatever you choose, it's worth spending some time looking for the link that will lead the viewer into your photo to explore further.

As well as considering "what" you place in the foreground, it's also important to think carefully about "where" you place it in the frame. While