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Posts relating to general photography tips.

 

A Spring Bouquet

Saturday, May 23rd, 2009
Roses

Roses

I swear I’m going to get out this weekend and get some outdoor pictures, but with a bouquet of flowers in the house, I had to take advantage of the diversity and color contained in a collection of nature’s flowers.

In this shot, I separated the red roses from the bunch, and shot them against a black backdrop. There’s a little too much light coming from below the roses, but it does set them off quite dramatically.

Separating the flowers can provide a much more dramatic picture than just taking a photo of a flower surrounded by other flowers.

Sunflower

Sunflower

This second shot demonstrates this well, and I think I like this shot the best.

The sunflower is isolated, and in this case, I took a closeup of the flower with my Tamron 28-300 mm VC lens (shot at 300 mm). To keep as much in focus as possible, I used a small aperture (f/22) with a long exposure (2 seconds at ISO 200).

By keeping the flower in the corner, it gives a radiating feel to the picture, with the eye drawn to the center of the sunflower and then radiating out from there.

While these two pictures are my favorites, they are only 2 out of about 50 photos that I shot. My normal workflow is to go through a photo shoot, delete any obviously flawed photos (out of focus, etc.), and then pick a small percentage of the rest to continue to work on – correcting exposure, saturation, possibly cropping, etc.

In this situation, out of the 50 I shot, I found about 20 that I felt would benefit from post-processing, and of those only 2 that make the grade to public viewing. In trying something new, however, I thought I’d make some of the ‘outtakes’ available for those that want to see some additional photos. So if you’re one of those, click here to view the rest on my outtake page.

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The Quest Continues…

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

…for the perfect water balloon explosion.  And while not perfect, I think today I’ve come about as close as I can with the basic equipment and setup I have at my disposal.

Balloon & Pellet

Balloon & Pellet

Now that I’ve got the basic timing down, I was able to capture the picture at the left, with the pellet (fired from a pellet gun at about 400 feet/second) in the picture and about to hit the water-filled balloon.

Because the difference between a hanging balloon, a balloon that has deflated with the water still hanging, and a complete watery mess are milliseconds apart, my timing consists of moving the sound detector by a matter of inches.

Pellet Inside Balloon

Pellet Inside Balloon

In this next picture, the pellet has literally just entered the balloon on the right, but the balloon has not deflated yet.

Again, the difference between these two pictures is so short that it’s hard to imagine. So all that’s left is to capture the instance after the actual point of impact when the balloon has collapsed, but the water still retains its shape as gravity starts to pull it down.

I couldn’t decide which picture I thought represented that best, so here’s a series of water balloons punctured by shots fired from a pellet gun.

And finally, the setup.  Last week, I had a comment on one of my water balloon pictures, asking that I show the setup I use in taking these pictures. So here it is.

Water Balloon Setup

Water Balloon Setup

Not the most elegant of setups, essentially you can see the camera (Canon 20D) on a tripod to the left, with the Vivitar 283 flash just to the right and below it.

I have the balloon hanging from a shoe lace that’s dropped from a ceiling brace, with a matte black backdrop behind the balloon. I’m using a roasting pan to capture the water as it falls from the balloon, with an inverted funnel to (hopefully) lessen the impact of the water falling.

On the table is a plastic tablecloth, with my sound detector device (described here) on the front left corner. For the actual shot, I move the sound detector to get the delay I want. On the far edge of the table is the homemade backstop for the pellets (essentially a cardboard box stuffed with 2 pieces of 1/4″ plywood, magazines, and newspapers).

And finally, on the front edge of the table are the pellet gun (described here) and safety glasses.

When I take the picture, I set the camera on a 1 second shutter speed, manually focused, with as large an aperture as possible. I turn off the lights, using a small flashlight to provide a limited amount of light. I then take aim on the balloon, use a shutter release to trip the camera shutter, and fire the pellet gun.

If it all works to plan, the sound of the gun triggers the flash just as the pellet reaches the balloon. And since the flash has a duration of 1/30,000 second, the camera sensor just captures that instant in time when the flash exposes the scene.

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Short Duration Flashes

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

While I’ve been making progress exploring the world of High Speed Flash Photography, I felt the duration of my flash unit (1/1000 second while off camera) was too long to freeze the action well enough. After doing some research, I settled on acquiring a Vivitar 283 flash unit, which can be set for a flash duration of 1/30,000 second – a significant improvement. I was able to find a used one on eBay for $40, and so I was excited to give this a try.

First, though, I wanted to make some improvements to my sound detector device. As originally built (see High Speed Photography), it’s a bit exposed to the elements – and by elements, I mean the cornstarch, water, and whatever else I come up with as I expand my range of pellet gun targets.

Sound Detector

Sound Detector

So, as seen in the picture to the right, I enclosed the electronics in a plastic box with a metal lid. I drilled holes in the box for the wires that extend out, and velcroed the sound pickup device on the side.

I added a dip switch so that I could turn the device on and off, while keeping the battery connected.

And lastly, I put in a new potentiometer for controlling the length of the sound delay, connecting it to a knob on top of the device, and eliminating the need to use a screwdriver to make adjustments.

Balloon and Pellet

Balloon and Pellet

To test the new flash, I went back to the beginning and fired the pellet gun at an inflated balloon.

As you can see in this picture, the shorter flash really improved the stop action feel to the picture. The balloon is clearly popping, but has not completly deflated. The pellet (traveling at about 400 feet/second) can be seen exiting the balloon on the left. In fact, you can see the exit hole in the balloon.

There is still some blur – even at 1/30,000 second, things are moving fast. And there is a side effect to such a short duration – less light is thrown from the flash, and hence, less light is reaching the camera sensor. This can partially be compensated for by moving the flash closer to the subject. The only other controls are to open the aperture as much as possible (f/4 in this particular case) and/or adjust the ISO. Using a high ISO does help, but it also increases noise in the picture – so for this picture I kept it as low as possible (ISO 200).

Now that I think I have the basic pieces I need, and understand the basic mechanics that work in my environment, I hope to explore more subjects in the coming weeks in order to create some truly unique pictures.

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Farmers Market

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

A little early in the year to think about Farmers Markets in the midwest, but they’re prevalent in other parts of the country – and offer a great opportunity for pictures with lots of different colors and textures.

These pictures were taken during a driving trip out west last year, specifically at the Farmers Market in San Francisco on Fisherman’s Wharf.

Using close ups on the various types of produce can create vibrant colors that stand on their own, but also display well in a collection. Lighting conditions on this day were varied, with some of the produce in bright sunlight (requiring a shutter speed of 1/1000 second at f/11 using ISO 200), while others were in the shade requiring a much slower shutter speed – as slow as 1/20 second.

I was able to shoot at such a slow speed without a tripod because I was using a lens with vibration control (Tamron 28-300 mm VC). I love this lens because it is so versatile. If I can only carry a single lens, it’s this one. I always feel comfortable that I’ll be able to handle any lighting condition with a great choice of focal lengths.

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Cornstarch and Water Balloons

Saturday, May 9th, 2009

I was hoping to give you a break from exploding balloons today, but it didn’t work out that way.  I had two events planned for yesterday – first, I planned to take pictures at a college baseball game and work on my sports photography. Unfortunately, the game was being played in a different state.

Next, I planned to take in the Danny Gokey mini-concert on Milwaukee’s lakefront, and take some concert photos. This plan failed when, after spending an inordinate amount of time in traffic to get to the event, I discovered that I didn’t have a memory card for the camera with me.  0 for 2…

The Big Bang

The Big Bang

So, back to exploding balloons. Playing around with the placement of the sound detecter, I’ve gotten better on timing the flash – although the flash duration is still a challenge. However, because the balloon deflates so quickly, I decided to try putting a little bit of cornstarch in the balloon, hoping the cornstarch would retain the balloon’s shape for a split-second as the balloon deflates.

My first lesson here was: don’t wear a black shirt while exploding balloons with cornstarch. The pictures were interesting, though.

Balloon with Cornstarch

Balloon with Cornstarch

The two pictures shown here are similar shots, taken of a balloon with a small amount of cornstarch inserted before inflating. The timing is slightly different between the two shots, giving a very different feel to each. In the first picture, the balloon is completely deflated and the cornstarch has exploded outwards.

In the second picture, the pellet (moving from right to left) has just exited the balloon, pulling the rubber with it. The balloon is in the process of deflating, but hasn’t gotten too far, yet.

Not to be put off by a little dusting of cornstarch, I decided to up the stakes a little by taking aim at a water balloon.

Water Balloon

Water Balloon

In contrast to the cornstarch where only a little is used, this requires that the balloon be completely filled with water.

As you can see in the picture, the balloon has almost disappeared, but the water has retained the shape of the balloon. The water is blurred by the flash duration, but I’m happy to get this far in just one week of experimentation.

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