Week 6

Buildings and Architecture

We spend the majority of our time in buildings, but how often do we take the time to stop and really take a good look at them? We have all taken a photograph of a building, often  we find that we're happy with the result.  This evening we explored some different ways of approaching this type of photography.

Lighting

It may seem that every week I have something to say about lighting, but every week I stress that when it comes to taking a photograph it is all we've got.  When we take a photograph we capture light that is reflected from different objects, so if we are aware of the light, where it's coming from and it's quality, we are more likely to know how to deal with it as it enters the camera.

As with many photographic subjects, midday is not the best time to be looking for shots of buildings. You will fair much better by heading out early  for that clear, crisp light of morning or arriving late to catch the light coming from the side that creates  warmth and catches the highlights of the building. You will also get more interesting skies at these times of day.
As is so often the case, there's an exception and this is when the building consists of an expanse of glass.   Sun, blue sky and glass are a great mixture for colourful compositions.

Composition

It is tempting to try and get the whole building in the one shot, but you will not be surprised to find that that shot will have been tried many times before by other photographers resulting in dull and samey shots. By all means if that's what you want to record, take that photograph, but do try to obtain some other different shots that fewer photographers have attempted.  This is a particular favourite of mine. I took this shot in Chapel Street sitting on the step of the building looking straight up the side of it. 

The same building from a different angle

So set your camera on zoom, get in close and find some interest in the detail of the building. Explore the building from different angles.  Look out for interesting shapes and textures that you would not normally have noticed.  

Don't just take one or two shots, take dozens and when I say dozens you need to think about each one.  It's easy enough to fire off dozens of shots with a digital camera.  When we used to use film every shot needed to be considered, because each shot had a cost (film +developing) our cost now is in time of trawling through them and weeding out those shots that we don't need to keep.  But still consider each shot, is there a point of interest?  is everything in the frame relevant? is there clutter that can be removed?

Framing

We can use the edge of other objects to frame a shot, such as the foliage of a tree, an archway or the sides of some other buildings.  There are a few advantages here.

It puts the photograph in context.
It adds depth to the shot by providing a foreground layer.
It can lead the eye into the shot.

Eiffell Tower

Qutub Minar

Westminster Cathedral

Shutters

Night shots

Many buildings are lit at night, and look great but you will need to ensure that your flash is off, the camera is steady,  and you can experiment with the exposure.  For starters set the camera in a semi auto mode set your aperture and then try a shot.  The camera will probably keep the shutter open longer than necessary.  Look at the shot in the preview, it may look a bit washed out and not really how it appears to your eye, but it will give you a starting point.   Now set the camera to manual  and try the shot with a faster shutter speed, maybe reduce it by a quarter or third.  Take another shot and check the preview to see what it looks like.  If it starts to look too dark go for a slower shutter speed.

I took this one of South parkway station just after sunset while the sky was still lit, but it was dark enough for the building to be lit.  I started with an aperture of 22 and tried a 2 second aperture.  This was too dark so I doubled the shutter speed to 4 seconds, it was still just a touch too dark so I added another second and settled on that.  I did  tweak it in post-processing.  I've shown the original RAW image below it. 

I always go for an aperture of 22 because this gives a pleasing star effect around any light points and any movement, vehicles or people is blurred. 

Ugly can be good

Photos of buildings and architecture don't have to be beautiful. Buildings are lived in and get used and if not maintained begin to show signs of wear and tear.  So another tip is to look out for disrepair and decay, they're  all good subjects for our photographs.

A more detailed exposure triangle

The bold words within the triangle are the functions on the camera, at each side of these words are the extremes at which they can be set.  The bold words outside the triangle are the what is affected by what is inside the triangle. So  aperture  affects Depth of field (DOF).
At each side of  the effect is a word that describes the extent of the effect, small aperture - wide depth of field.

Funtography

This weeks task:  Detail and different viewpoints.   Be aware of where the light is coming from, look out for shapes and textures in buildings that are becoming dilapidated.

Week 5

Further Composition
This week we advanced further with some of the principles of composition and introduced the concept of balance.  In week 1 we studied the rule of thirds and in week 3 we considered how we
can use lines in our photographs.   This evening we began to look at how we can combine all of  these methods into our photographs.
When we visited  the rule of thirds, and asked  you  to practice using it I really asked you just to concentrate on one subject in your photograph, but photographs rarely consist of just one object.  If other objects are to remain in shot we need to ensure they are relevant to the or point of interest.  It is the way we arrange the elements in the frame in relation to the point of interest that will hopefully make a photo  pleasing to the eye.

Leading lines

We looked at the following  photos that contain lines that lead to to point of interest, note positioning on thirds and the lack of clutter and non-relevant objects.

The rocks lead the eye to the point of interest.
Lighthouse

The lines on the lawn lead to the sculpture, note how this is the case even though they are behind the point of interest.
Lawn Sculpture

The line of the road leads to the vehicle
Happy Car

The shadow lines lead toward the gate.
Brandenburg Gate

Balance

Similarly we looked at compositions that incorporate balance. 


The Sailboat in the foreground, the point of interest is balanced by the boat in the distance.
Boats


This one actually incorporates leading lines and balance.  The patterns of the clouds lead the eye to the rock on  the left, the point of interest.  The small boulder in the foreground leads the eye to it.  The pillar on the left balances the shot.
Balanced Rock 

 The echo of the bird in the distance balances the point of interest, the bird which is in focus.
Birds


The city of Vancouver  in the distance is obviously the poit of interest, but the rock in the foreground balances out the rest of the photo which potentially could be bland if there was just the expanse of water in the lower two thirds.  Notice the rock is on the intersection of thirds.
Vancouver

Editing

Later we had a brief look at Picasa.  which is one a few free tools available to us to edit our photos.  If you look in the external links section of the blog, you'll find some links to this and other free photo-editing software.  I would encourage you to think about how you can use this type of tool to improve your shots. 


I also mentioned my admiration of the work of Klaus Herrmann, one of his photographs (Brandenburg Gate) featured in my ponderings about leading lines. He uses a technique known as HDR which allows the representation of more contrast in a photograph without losing detail in shadows or bright portions.  The thing about the work of Klaus Herrmann is that he manages to achieve the final product without it looking false, the same cannnot be said of many other examples of HDR work. 
Klaus Herrmann's Flickr Page

Task

This weeks Funtography:

I encourage you to think before taking a shot.

• Decide what your point of interest is
• Ensure there's no clutter - move your feet or zoom in to reduce clutter, or move it with your hands
• Get Closer - ensure your point of interest is prominent in the frame
• Lines leading the eye to the subject - try this if possible
• Balance - try this if possible
• Keep the eye in the picture - don't have lines or objects that lead the eye out of the shot
• Ask yourself "Is everything in the frame relevant to the point of interest?"
  
  Don't forget,  the point of interest in a face would be the eyes, rather than the whole face. If you are taking a photo of a flower, find a point of interest within the flower.

Next week and in fact any week, please bring along shots that you took in the past, that you weren't happy about and we can look at them and perhaps look at ways of improvement.


Thanks
Mark

Week 4

Previously we looked at the three ways we can control light entering the camera to create the photo.  Remember the exposure triangle and how we have to balance the three exposure aspects of the triangle to obtain correct exposure.  
This weeks task was to try and incorporate lines into your photograph.  Well done to everyone for having a go.
Tonight I wanted to talk about light and where it comes from and some of the problems that can occur, but while thinking it through I decided that I needed to mention White Balance and the Histogram first.

White balance 


The light in our photographs has a colour temperature.  The diagram below shows different light sources and their associated colour temperatures.  

We normally do not notice the change in lighting as our brains adjust accordingly, but you may have noticed an occasion when an item purchased in a shop appears to be a different colour once seen in daylight.
To produce a photograph with a “true” white light the camera must know what type of light it is receiving.  This is done by setting white balance.  The camera will have a Auto white balance setting which on the whole does quite a good job, but if we set it manual we will obtain much more accurate results.
If you investigate the settings available for white balance you will find direct sun, flash,  artificial light, cloud & shade.
To understand this whole white balance thing try and set your camera white balance to Sun.  Now set up a shot indoors with some artificial lighting, preferably the type from a tungsten bulb with a filament.  Now change the white balance to artificial and take some more shots.   Hopefully you will notice  a difference.

Here’s some shots I took.

Shot 1
Artificial light and Daylight white balance.

Shot 2 
Artificial light and Tungsten White Balance

Notice the white flowers are actually white in the second shot.

Histogram
The histogram is available on many of the lower end cameras now and can be very useful in deciding if exposure is correct for a particular photo.  The histogram can be read easily, it represents the brightness levels in the scene.  The left hand side represents the very dark levels and blacks, the right hand side represents the very light levels and the levels in between are distributed between them.

Photo 1

The histogram shows a large peak on the right, this shows the blackness of the night sky, the small peak at the right is due to the small amount of bright levels in the skeleton and  white tree.

 

Photo 2

The histogram shows some peaks near the right, these are due to the dark foliage in the back ground. There is then a good distribution of levels and a tail off towards the brighter end on the right.

Photo 3

This photo taken on a sunny day part in sun and part in shadow gives a histogram shows a large peak of darkness on the left, a distribution in the middle but then a small peak on the right

 

Photo 4

This is a real example of what happens when settings are not correct.  I took this at a wedding a few years ago and had left a setting incorrect. ( Maybe I should have left it on auto)  Some of the faces and the detail on the white shirts are completely over exposed and nothing can be done on the computer later to fix this problem.  If you look at the histogram there is a large peak on the right which equates to these overexposed areas.

Photo 5 

The histogram for this photo shows a nice peak in the centre which conventionally  denotes a well exposed photo.

Direct Midday Sunlight

This light is harsh and does not create desirable shadows.  Photographers can potentially struggle with shadows and lit subjects to create exposure headaches. Try to get your subjects into shade if possible.   Flash can be used to fill in shadows or white reflective material can be used to fill-in the darker areas of your subject.

Afternoon / Morning Light.

Coming from a more favourable angle the light creates interesting shadows.

 

Sunrise / sunset - Golden hour. 

The hour before sunset or after sunrise.

With clouds lit from above and below this light creates skies in the background, but also a lovely soft warm light for your subjects.   But to capture the warmth of the scene you will need to ensure that you set your white balance yourself.  

Dawn / Dusk - Blue hour

 The hour after sunset or before sunrise.

Natural light levels are low so slow shutter speeds become necessary.  A tripod or resting the camera on a stable surface is essential.  If you allow the camera to set the exposure, it will probably overexpose the whole scene,  and we'll lose the saturation of the colours so we need to take control and tell the camera what we want.

Overcast

One tip is to leave the sky out of your shots if at all possible as it will just look white and uninteresting.  But at least you will not have to struggle with shadows.  Use this diffuse light to your advantage and pick subjects for their colour rather than texture / shape that would be better displayed with some shadow.

Indoor lighting

This is relatively low level, so slow shutter speeds are the order of the day.  Keep the camera steady.

You do have full control over this light so use it to your advantage.  Don't forget to set your white balance.

I've added a Printer Friendly Button 
John and Joyce noticed that if you try to print the blog, you end up with one long list of each weeks post.  Potentially this means that by Week 12 you could be using a lot of paper.
So after some poking around down the back of the internet sofa I found a button that is added after each weeks post.  Take a look. . . . .

Take a external links and have a look at Cheap Camera - Pro Photographer.

 

This Weeks Task

This weeks Funtography  (Task) -    find the white balance setting on your camera, set it on sunshine and take some shots  indoors with tungsten lighting.     This is so that you to notice the difference that  white balance makes.

Wherever you are, be aware of where the light is coming from. Can you move your position?, the position of the subject?, can you move the light source or wait until the sun/weather changes?

Indoors (get your white balance correct again)   try and set up a shot and control the light you use.  The light may be from a window or an artificial source, and / or use a reflective surface to compensate for shadows.

 

See you next week.

Mark

Week 3

Last week's task

I wanted to encourage you to use obtain a shallow depth of field.  To add a little challenge I suggested using a colour or colours and the number five.  It has probably not been easy to get outside  and take photographs because the weather has been so awful, but you don’t necessarily need to leave the house to take photographs providing there is enough light.  I hope that even just trying to take on the tasks will help you understand the settings of the camera even if you don't

As we learnt last week, aperture is the size of the hole that lets light through to the CCD .  The larger the number of the aperture (f-stop) the smaller the hole and  the less light will pass through.  The shutter speed is the time that the shutter is open to let light through to the CCD.  We normally see numbers such as 60 or 125 etc, but remember they are numbers that appear at the bottom of a fraction such as 1/60 and 1/125.

The third part of the triangle

As with aperture, the larger the shutter speed number, the less light passes through for the exposure.  It should help you to remember that  for aperture and shutter speed the larger the number, the less light is available for the photo.

Both aperture and shutter speed affect exposure, but these are only two points on a triangle which we call the exposure triangle.  The third point is ISO.

ISO

 ISO is like a  joker/ trump  in a game of cards, we can use it to gain an advantage when aperture  and shutter speed try to beat us.  Non SLR cameras may have little or no control over ISO, it may be that the ISO is purely automatic, but understanding that is working behind the scenes  will help you use it to your advantage.  In an ideal world we would keep ISO  on its lowest setting, because as we increase it we begin to see noise in the photograph. Although there are times when you may want to introduce noise for effect.

Evesdropping

To try and explain what is happening, imagine this:
If we place a microphone in the next room to listen to what’s being said through an amplifier and some speakers in this room,  we’ll hear clearly if the person speaking is within a metre or two of the microphone.  If someone speaks who is right across the other side of the room, they’ll sound faint.  So we can turn up the volume on the amplifier in our room and their speech will be louder, but there will be an element of noise amplified also.  Some of this sound will be a hiss or a rumble.  Even if the room is completely quiet there will still be some noise because the amplifier is amplifying noise generated in the circuitry.

This is exactly like  what happens when we increase the ISO of the camera we are turning up the amplification of the CCD, the resulting photo begins to lose detail and we begin to see tiny specs of colour that were not present in our subject and are actually generated inside the camera.

 
Look at these two photos:

The picture at the top was taken at 200 ISO and a 2.5 second shutter speed.
The picture on the bottom was taken at 3200 ISO 0.6666 second shutter speed

You can see  that the lower  has lost the fine detail in the petal and has coloured speckles.  The one above  is well detailed.

All the settings of the camera, aperture, shutter and ISO are related so that we need to balance the settings to get correct exposure.  

Suppose the meter in our camera has  set the camera at 200 ISO, the aperture is 2 and shutter speed is 15.  This shutter speed is slow for a handheld shot, but if we take the shutter speed up by two stops to 60, we’ll be able to get a shot without shake, but we’ve reduced the light coming into the camera  so we can compensate by increasing the ISO by 2 stops to 800. This will give the same exposure.

Or perhaps we wish to catch something moving, we know that the shutter will have to be no less than 500.  When we set our aperture to 5.6 we see the light metre is telling us that the exposure is underexposed by two stops.  we can increase the ISO by two stops to 800 ISO and this will give the correct exposure.

Exif info.

Exif info is data that is stored by the camera with the photo.  It will include  shutter speed, exposure compensation, F number, what metering system was used, if a flash was used, ISO number, date and time the image was taken, whitebalance, auxiliary lenses that were used and resolution.

Camera Simulator

This website has a fantastic simulator with which you can try out your camera settings

 http://camerasim.com/

 Lines Lines Lines

We had a quick look at another compositional  technique, that of lines.  Follow the links below to see the examples that I drew together.



Vertical Lines

Vertical lines create a sense of power and strength, this can be emphasised by framing in a portrait format.  Keep the lines parallel with the sides of the frame.

Horizontal Lines 

Horizontal lines convey a feeling of peace and calm.  It's important to ensure that  horizontal lines remain parallel with the  frame. 

Diagonal Lines 

Diagonal lines can convey a sense of action or make an image more dynamic.  They may grab the attention of the eye and can be seen  in  roads, streams, waves and branches.

Curved Lines 

Curved lines present a sense of grace,  smoothness, and dignity  They don’t create as much action as diagonals and other straight lines. When the eye follows a curvy line, it’s a slower, more relaxed pace. 

Leading Lines 

Leading lines can be curved or straight and are used to draw the viewer’s eye through a photograph. They work well when a point of interest is positioned at the end of the line.

Implied Lines 

Implied lines are not actual lines, but exist because of the way things are arranged in a photograph. We can also imply a line when an object views another object. e.g. in the example photos, the girl taking a photograph we are interested in what she is photographing so our eye is drawn up the line of her view.


This weeks task:

Look out for lines (there are six examples above) and try and incorporate them into some shots.
You can even leave your camera on auto if you want.  But you could try to incorporate using a centred focus. 


See you next week, enjoy the extended weekend. 


Thanks
Mark