The Blizzard Everyone can see the beautiful yet devastating winter we’ve had in Wisconsin. With 2 blizzards in the same season this has been a prime season for us as photographers. You can capture the beauty of fresh snow or document the effects that it has on us as our lives are turned upside down by mother nature. At the January meeting, the club had the distinct pleasure of getting a real inside look of how a portrait photographer goes about her business. Julie gave a fantastic presentation about portrait photography inside and out. From composition, gear, tips, posing and even post process, she covered a large portion of her work. I didn’t personally get to see the presentation but I’ve heard nothing but great reviews from other members. I think it is a real blessing to have such a diverse group of people in a club so dedicated to photography. People willing to share experiences and knowledge is what keeps me getting up before the sun to press that shutter button and try to make it better than the last time I pressed that button. Bring your friends and let them experience the club and all it offers. Presentations like Julie’s are one of the aspects of this club that makes us the best photography club in Wisconsin. Thanks Julie JULIE ZAHN - PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER CATCHING THE LIGHT SINCE 2009 T H E B L I Z Z A R D E D I T I O N NEWSLETTER At the next meeting we get words of wisdom from our very own club President, Tom Helfert. Please come and enjoy Tom’s presentation and if you know someone who loves taking photos invite them as well. Issue #11 FEBRUARY 13, 2011
Transcript
The BlizzardEveryone can see the beautiful yet devastating winter we’ve had in Wisconsin. With 2 blizzards in the same season this has been a prime season for us as photographers. You can capture the beauty of fresh snow or document the effects that it has on us as our lives are turned upside down by mother nature.
At the January meeting, the club had the distinct pleasure of getting a real inside look of how a portrait photographer goes about her business. Julie gave a fantastic presentation about portrait photography inside and out. From composition, gear, tips, posing and even post process, she covered a large portion of her work. I didn’t personally get to see the presentation but I’ve heard
nothing but great reviews from other members. I think it is a real blessing to have such a diverse group of people in a club so dedicated to photography. People willing to share experiences and knowledge is what keeps me getting up before the sun to press that shutter button and try to make it better than the last time I pressed that button. Bring your friends and let them experience the club and all it offers. Presentations like Julie’s are one of the aspects of this club that makes us the best photography club in Wisconsin.
Thanks Julie
JULIE ZAHN - PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER
C A T C H I N G T H E L I G H T S I N C E 2 0 0 9
T H E B L I Z Z A R D E D I T I O N
N E W S L E T T E R
At the next meeting we get words of wisdom from our very own club President, Tom Helfert. Please come and enjoy Tom’s presentation and if you know someone who loves taking photos invite them as well.
Issue #11FEBRUARY 13 , 2011
Image #1
White balance isn’t what it used to be in the film days. Now with Photoshop you can adjust the white balance infinitely. Most websites will tell you how to remove the color cast given when the wrong white balance setting was used. After you take the shot you wonder why it has a blue or yellow tint to the photo. You can get rid of that color cast by adjusting the setting on your camera or changing the setting in the RAW dialog box in Image #1. You can also drag the Temperature slider until it looks good. Generally you want anything that is supposed to be white to look white. There are also ways using the Curves or Levels Adjustment layers. Which ever way you do it, adjusting the white balance is pretty easy. I like to use the Temperature Slider most of the time.
Cooler than Whiteb y J o s h D o b b sCORNER
Now what if you don’t want the white to be white. There are plenty of reasons not to have the white balance set “correctly”. Essentially the white balance is how warm or cool the light is in the photo. Well you may want to warm up or cool down a scene. Keeping the light in an image pure white can make for a boring mood. So lets see an example you say. OK
Image #2
CORNER Here is an image I took of a stream flowing over some rocks in the winter. This white balance is “As Shot”, using the Daylight setting on my camera.
If you look the whites are white in the snow area but there is a little yellow in the water which is natural. The scene looks like it was a nice sunny day in the winter, not a bad thing. If this were a sunny day in the summer, I might warm this scene up a little, something like Image #3.
Image #3
Image #4
CORNER
Both of those may seem fine but they don’t portrait a cold winter day with ice and freezing water. So I’m going to drag that Temperature Slider down a few degrees until I get something like this.
There is an obvious blue tint to the image but blue conveys cold so it’s a good color cast for a winter scene.
You are the artist and you can set the mood of your image with the white balance, the way you seen it or the way you want to convey the scene. It’s totally up to you. Don’t be afraid to experiment.
GEAR SPOTLIGHT
Powerpax Battery Holders
Quickly change, carry, and protect your batteries with the Powerpax Battery Carriers. They hold batteries perfectly and they protect the contact points from touching anything. You can take each one out with one hand and put them inside in either direction so there is no fumbling around. They also come in many different colors and sizes for many different battery types. Everyone knows what happens when you open a new pack of batteries but only need a few, the rest fall all over inside your car or camera bag. After getting this simple tool you will say “I can’t believe I didn’t have one of these before.”
Price: around $10
Dragging the shutter is a technique that can be used in low light situations to illuminate your subject (usually 6-15 feet away) while also allowing some ambient light into the background. In order to use this technique you will need to have a SLR camera, digital or film and a flash that mounts in the cameras hot shoe.
Have you ever been in a situation where there simply isn’t enough light to capture your subject using ambient light alone? Think wedding reception, indoor birthday parties etc. The first re-action to this situation is obviously to simply add light using our on camera flash. Unfortunately our first attempts at this often tend to deliver less than flattering results.
Dragging the S h u t t e ra camera flash technique
by Guy Yuker
Here is what often happens in the scenario above. We are in a large dimly lit area with insufficient light to properly capture our subject. So we activate our flash, either the one built into the camera or one attached via the hot shoe. We then point the camera and flash at the subject and press the shutter. At this point the camera flash sends out a pre-flash of light which bounces off of the closest objects in the scene, usually our subject. Some of this light bounces back to a sensor in either the flash or the camera via the lens, depending on the make and model of your DSLR. This is how the camera pre-meters how much light is needed. Then the second or primary flash goes off until the camera shuts it down based on the pre-metered light measurement. Viola, your subject (the closest object) is properly exposed.
This however creates its own set of issues. Typically the subject will be amply lit, but the hard light from the direct flash creates deep ugly shadows and specular highlights on the subjects face. Additionally, the light falls off rapidly and leaves a vast black hole where the background should be, as you can see in Image #1.
Dragging the shutter combined with bouncing the flash can resolve these issues.
Image #1
You already know that the ugly shadows and specular highlights are easy to fix. By bouncing the flash over our shoulder off of a white wall or ceiling, we can easily turn a small hard flash of light into a broad soft light source. So let’s look at the other issue, the black hole where the background should be.
The reason that we don’t have any light in our background is because when the camera determined that there was enough light on your subject, it shut off the flash. When it did that it also closed the shutter. The shutter is what determines how much light is recorded through out the entire scene, i.e. your background.
Therefore we will need to put the camera in the manual exposure mode and using the cameras built in light meter as a guide, set the background exposure so that it shows one to two stops under exposed depending on your scene and the effect you want to achieve. At wedding receptions, I usually set it at one and two thirds stops under exposed to start. This will allow some of the background light to be recorded, but not so much that it competes with the subject for attention. You can see in Image #2 the light looks balanced from foreground to background and there is no motion blur.
With an image stabilized lens like my EFS 17-55mm f/2.8 on my Canon 40D using proper holding techniques, I can get great pictures down to 1/15th of a
second with the aperture set at f/4 or f/5.6 at ISO 800. I have used this technique with my EFS 28 – 135mm f/3.5 – 5.6 image stabilized kit lens as well. This is because the flash will ‘freeze’ the action of your subject provided that they aren’t moving too fast. Also don’t be afraid to push your ISO up a little if you need to, especially if the largest print you are going to make from the shot is a 4x6 or 5x7. Many of today’s newer DSLRs handle higher ISOs extremely well. The only way to know your cameras limits is to try it and see what works for you.
Image #2
~ Guy Yuker
This section of the newsletter is where we are going to place upcoming events such as:
Photo Outings - if you are going out for a casual photo shoot and want to have some members come along, I can post the essential info here.
Other Photography Related Events - Do you have a Gallery Showing somewhere or are you speaking in a presentation and want the club to know about it.
Who: Light catchers photo club members and their families.
What: Self guided photography day with seminars and a pot luck lunch.
Where: Marsh Haven Nature Center located on Hwy 49 three miles east of Waupon. http://marshhaven.com
When: Sunday July 10, 2011 Rain date Sunday July 24, 2011
Why: Facilitate photography growth, get better aquainted with photo club members.
* The detail are still being worked out, I just wanted to let people know so they could make plans accordingly. Stay tuned for more information to come.
Photography Field Trips offered by the Natural Resources Foundation The Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin, Inc. (NRF) will be sponsoring 2 photography field trips in 2011. The field trips will once again be lead by retired WDNR staffer and photographer Dave Edwards. The first field trip is June 4 at Devils Lake State Park. Registration is required and slots are limited. Members of the NRF have first priority for attending this field trip. The NRF will also be sponsoring the "Best of the Best" field trips in 2011. This will include a second photography field trip being held on June 11 in the general Beaver Dam area. This field trip is for non-members. Edwards' photography field trips are very popular and early registration is strongly recommended. For more information on becoming a member and on 2011 field trips please visit the NRF website at http://wisconservation.org/
Committee NewsIf you haven’t seen it yet, Jim has setup the Lightcatcher Online Blog called the “Viewfinder”. It is a great place to maybe talk about some of the things that you would like to share or just to keep up with the things that are going on with the club. You can check it out here:
Editor - Josh Dobbs is a self taught photographer, with a passion for capturing a moment that will stir emotions in the viewer.
Send featured photo submisions, questions or comments to Josh at:[email protected]
This is a barn that can be found slightly hidden at the intersection of Hwy 151 and 73 near Columbus. Barns like this one are becoming antiques. Dave caught this shot in great light making the red color just pop out.
