Motion and Shutter Drag!

December 08, 2023 • Leave a Comment

Hey Everyone! Salutations! Hope you're having a great week. I have and have been busy writing blogs. Its been a rainy week so I've got into the writing groove. This week I want to talk about a cool photography technique, trick, hack whatever you want to call it. And it's showing motion by using shutter drag. You can make very interesting photographs by showing motion in your shots. A silky smooth waterfall looks much better than a frozen in time one that was shot on a high shutter speed. Dragging the shutter is the act of keeping the shutter open while a moving object is moving through it. The object will blur a little showing motion. This technique can be used in street photography or landscape , sport or any style that the subject is moving and it makes a unique shot that gets peoples imagination going . It can be fairly simple to do and when you get the hang of doing it you can turn it on in just a second and get that unique shot while you're out shooting something else. Maybe you're shooting a dance class and you get all of the individual shots of the pretty dancers but now you take a few of them spinning or dancing and you drag the shutter you have art! Here is the technique and some tips.

To drag the shutter your camera should be stable relative to your subject. Tripods can come in handy. But when your out on the streets maybe a post or trash can will act as your tripod. Shooting in manual or shutter priority is the best setting for your camera. Then you slow down your shutter until you get the desired blur that you want. You may have to experiment a little to get that blend that you want and it depends on how fast your subject is moving . A car travels much faster than a person walking. So different shutter speeds. A cool way to practice this is to go out at night and set up your camera and tripod near a road and try to capture light trails from the cars. You get cool red ones from the tail lights and white ones from the headlights. Waterfalls of course are my favorite for me especially during the fall when all of the leaves are changing and you get that silky smooth water of the water fall. Be careful not to make it too Spring Fall Falls silky and experiment with the speeds. But a field of wheat swaying in the breeze or clouds passing by a old building would be good too. How do we get the low shutter speeds in the daylight?

Using Polarizers and ND filters for daylight shutter drag. A polarizer filter is usually 1 1/2 to 2 stops of light that is cut out. If its a very cloudy day this might be all you need. But you may need to add a Natural Density filter to it to get the shutter speed you need. A veritable ND filter could also come in handy. They come in ranges of stops and you can dial in the amount you want to get the speed of shutter and the perfect exposure. I try to under expose 1 to 2 stops and bring it back in post editing to get the look I like. You should experiment to find out what your settings will be to get that look you like. For bright days you might need a 10 stop ND filter which is black and focusing gets troublesome. But you can get some cool shots with this technique.

Panning. Panning is the art of moving your camera at the same speed as the subject so the subject is in focus and the surroundings blur. Remember I said your camera should be stable "relative" to the subject. Panning is a art but looks good for moving things like bicycles, cars , busses and almost anything. But it does take lots of practice to get it right. I'm so so at it . I probably need to practice more. LOL

Adding motion to your portfolio shots really brings your whole collection up a notch! And makes your time out shooting more exciting trying to get that cool blurry shot that shows motion. So until next week Get out and shoot! Some Motion.

Photography Should be Fun!

December 01, 2023 • Leave a Comment

Hey Y'all! Hope you're having a great day. Me Fantastic! Its a rainy day here so I thought I would sit down and talk a little bit to y'all about my favorite subject , Photography. If you follow my blogs I talk about lots of different area's of photography. And there are plenty. You can really get deep in the weeds talking photography. We can be talking about something technical or some new gadget or software that just came out but what we really don't talk about is how to have fun in photography. We get caught up in the "how to" of it all. Which is great but I think we just go a little overboard with whatever we are exploring at the time whether its technical or artsy. I am guilty of this as much as anyone else and maybe more. Being a photographer is much more than knowing how to use your camera (the technical aspect) or the Artsy side of it with composition ,lighting and all of the things that come with that. It should be fun also! My photo wingman (Robert) and myself have taken many adventures and we have a blast going out and shooting but we approach the shooting part different. Robert is a big reader of photography books and articles and when he goes out shooting he has a purpose. Maybe its showing motion , or a certain lighting aspect and that's what he looks for. Me I do less preparing and just go and shoot. I shoot everything from the fly on the wall to really thinking about a shot. Is his way wrong? No I don't think so and I think that I used to shoot like Robert does also. But I don't anymore. I've been shooting much longer than he has and maybe it's something we have to go through. We (me and Robert) some times have a discussion on a certain photo that I may have taken. And he'll say something like "oh I love the way you positioned that in your subject or I love the layers of this or this angle I never thought of that ", and he'll ask what I was thinking or how I thought of it. And I haven't . I haven't thought of any of it. I just shoot because to me shooting is most of the fun in photography. If you look at my photo's from a shoot you will see how many different things I look at and shoot and they mostly don't have a rhyme or reason to them. Its more of a "Squirrel" affect. I just see and shoot. I could be shooting a landscape and a fly lands on my leg and I shoot the fly. If I'm in a city and I walk by what I think is a silly sign I shoot and try not to think. And that's fun. If you know me thinking is not my strong point! LOL

The pure act of shooting and having fun gets lost sometimes because photography is technical (not as much as it used to be) for the most part and you have to get past that. Photography should be just fun to do. Thats why we started in the first place. Because it was fun. Not because it was technical. It can be fun just shooting by yourself but its more fun in a group. Maybe you have a photography wingman like I do or maybe you are part of a photography club. Shooting with like minded people is great and you just have a ball. My photography club is getting ready to go on our annual fall colors trip to the North Carolina mountains and we just had a meeting about things we want to see and do while there. Not once did we talk about anything technical except where the sun might be coming up at at a certain place. We talked about the things we would be seeing and shooting and the smiles kept getting bigger and bigger the more we talked and planned. It was fun and photography should be fun. I just want you to remember why you started photography in the first place . Because it was fun! Not because you wanted to shoot weddings or sports or senior portraits. Because it was fun! So learn all of the technical stuff but don't forget to have fun!

To me having fun with my camera is the best! My camera has taken me to places that I may never have gone before! I have heard it said that the camera is the passport to the world and I believe it. But don't take it too seriously it should be FUN! It doesn't matter what kind of photography or how technical you are with it , it should be fun to shoot and not laborious or too technical. Remember its not just about the Keepers from a photoshoot but the whole shoot. The Keepers will come just keep shooting! Remember Keepers don't have be be works of art they could be the photo's that you post to Facebook or Instagram. Memories and fun are what your shooting for! So until next week get outside and shoot and have some fun!

My thoughts on buying used and MPB.

November 24, 2023 • Leave a Comment

Hey Y'all! Hope you're having a great week. This week I want to talk about gear. No surprise I am a gear head. LOL I do love gear! But like most of you I live on a budget and can't buy the newest and greatest thing that comes out every year. But I do like new gear even if its just new to me. For the last 5 or so years I haven't bought anything new. I've always chosen used. I have been very pleased with my purchases and have saved quite a bit of money that I could use on photography trips and adventures. But buying used can be scary because it's not brand new. I have been very successful in my used purchases some by luck when buying from an individual but from a company that I use called MPB.

MPB is a company that buys and sells used photography gear. The one in North America is located in New York City and they have one in Europe also. I have been dealing with the one in NYC exclusively and highly recommend it. This is how it works . You go on their website and find what you want say a camera body. You usually have a choice between "like new" condition "Excellent" , "Good". These condition ratings are explained in the website and I find them to be true. The things I got that were like new were like new and the things that were only good worked fine but maybe had some cosmetic scratches on them but didn't effect operation. I also like that I can sell or trade older equipment in to help purchase items knocking the already low price even lower. To me this is win , win! If your selling or trading equipment you give them what you think the estimate of your gear is they will send you a FedEx label and you ship it to them. When they get it they will let you know by email and inspect your equipment if they agree and they have with me so far. They will cut a check or take that amount off of your item. Your biggest problem is just packaging up your item and getting it to FedEx. If you can tell I love this company. As a matter of fact Sony just came out with a new camera body and I'm going to wait until they get them in stock before I buy it just to save some money and to be able to sell the camera body that I'm using now. Now the only question to answer is used equipment for you?

In my humble opinion if you are a stills photographer like I am I think that used is for you. If you shoot video or something that fast focus is a must like wildlife or Sports it may not be. Most of the advances in camera's now a days is in video and fast focusing but if you're like most of us that super fast focusing or video features is not a factor. If you're really like me you don't even care if your stills camera shoot video at all. That would be great a camera that only shoots stills with no frills camera and no video. I would be first in line. But I don't see that happening. So for me and most people I think that used is okay. I'm shooting a camera now that came out in 2015 and am pleased with the quality. Thats why I can wait to upgrade for when the new camera body gets in MPB. Buying used is a great way to save some of that hard earned cash and upgrade your equipment when needed.

So when you think it's time to upgrade your gear don't for get to think used instead of new. Until next week make sure you get out and shoot!

Bokeh What is it and how do I create it?

November 17, 2023 • Leave a Comment

Hey Y'all! Hope you're having a great week! This week I want to talk about this funny word we use in photography, Bokeh. The term “bokeh” comes from the Japanese word “boke,” which means “blur” in English. And that's just what bokeh refers to. It's the quality of the blurry parts of a photograph. So why would we want part of the photograph blurry when we spent all this money on sharp lenses? LOL Bokeh and the use of it can make a photograph visually pleasing. Everyone has scene this in portraits where the subject is in focus but the background is blurred out. But it can be used in other types of photography also. In landscape the main subject maybe a tree or a brook is in focus but the forest behind it is blurred. We can use this technique to isolate the subject in a busy scene. Maybe isolate a single sunflower out of a field of sunflowers . So we have "making the photo more visually pleasing" and " isolate the subject" and there is one more use and that is to use Bokeh as a artistic aspect of the photo. I'm sure you have seen Christmas lights all blurred out making a artistic glow or water on a glass blurred out . So there are three reasons to use Bokeh as I see it. #1 visually pleasing, #2 isolate the subject #3 Used as an artistic item.

So how do we create Bokeh when we are out and about taking photo's? There are a few things that can control Bokeh and they can be used by themselves or in combination to create this effect. One way to control Bokeh is with Aperture . The smaller "F" stop number the smaller the depth of field and the greater the Bokeh. Depth of field is the amount of the photo that is in focus. So the part that isn't in focus is the Bokeh. By using a fast lens one that has an maximum aperture of f2.8 or smaller can create great Bokeh. You can take a photo of a person and only the tip of their nose is in focus and everything else be out of focus. So the opposite can also be said the larger the f-stop number the more of the photo will be in focus. So f22 more of the photo will be in focus than f2.8. So Aperture is one thing that can control Bokeh. The next thing that can control bokeh is the type of lens used. The Leaf Leaf longer the lens the easier it will be able to create bokeh. For example a wide angel lens say 14mm is almost built to make everything in focus and it is difficult to make things within the photo blur. On the other hand a telephoto lens say 200mm is built to isolate things and Zoom into something. These lenses are much more easier to make things blur in the photograph. Combining a low aperture with a longer lens makes it easer to make parts of the photo blur. The final thing that can help is being close to the subject will make it easier to blur everything else. So there are the three ways to create Bokeh. Aperture, type of lens, and proximity to the subject. By using these three things together and adjusting them you can control the Bokeh in your photo to make it more pleasing to look at , to isolate the subject or to use Bokeh as an artistic subject.

Using Bokeh as a creative technique can make your photo's stand out of the crowd. Until next week Get out and Shoot!

Treat Photography like a Sport?

November 10, 2023 • Leave a Comment

Hey Everyone! How's it going this week? Me? Not bad thanks for asking. This week I wanted to talk about improving your photography. But how do we improve? Well there are lots of ways to improve but what if we looked at our photography skills like a sport? If we wanted to get better at a sport what would we do? We would practice, but practice what? We must practice the parts that we are not good at. Here is an analogy for you. I've recently just started playing golf again and like photography its a solo sport. If I analyze my game I can see where I need to improve to get better. Maybe I drive the ball okay but I don't putt well then I need to practice on my putting. You practice and try to improve the things that you are not good at. So first you must analyze your photography skills and what you're good at and what you're not. This takes a lot of honesty on your part and when you identify the weak parts of your Photography game then you can take actions to improve them.

Photographers seem to search for improvements in equipment much like in golf that new Driver or Putter will improve my game. The answer is Lightbulb Water Lighthouse the same for both golf and Photography. It's probably not the equipment. If your camera was purchased in the last 8-10 years and working properly its not the camera. It may be in the skills we use when we use the camera. Maybe we are only taking advantage of 10% of what the camera can do. Learning how to use our gear will make us better photographers. Read the manual or watch a video of how to do things on your brand/model of camera. Modern cameras are amazing and many of us will become better just by learning our camera.

Maybe the technical aspect of your Photography game are solid. You know your camera and how it works but you're not creative with it. Much like in golf. You can hit your clubs well on the practice range but getting good results on the course isn't happening. Photography like golf is more than just pushing the shutter button, creativity needs to be more focused on to be creative. In golf being able to curve the ball at will and making creative shots will save a round. In photography different Points of View, Perspective will create more story telling photo's . So try shooting from a worms view, around a corner, through something to make more interesting photographs.

EYES EYES The act of taking the photograph may not be your weak point. Maybe its the editing the photograph that you are weak at. I think that editing is at least 50% of the end result of a great photograph. I don't have a good golf analogy for this one creative scoring is just a fancy way of cheating. LOL To improve this part of the Photography game you might need to take a workshop, watch tutorial videos and practice . Maybe get with someone that is good at editing to help you along. Which brings me to my next point.

When you go out and shoot with others you will learn a lot. Just by watching and observing others you can learn a lot. Photography with others will help your Photography game. Like in golf playing with a group even folks you don't know will make you play or photograph better. I encourage all of you to join some sort of camera club. I have improved so much after joining the camera club that I belong to now. We have monthly meetings with presentations, printed contest, monthly challenges. We also have monthly outings and workshops where we travel around and try different types of photography. You get to shoot and learn with people with the same interest in _DSC4702 photography and make friends that you can go out and shoot with.

So my advice is to treat your photography like a sport. Practicing what your weak at will bring your whole game up and you will make fantastic photographs. Trying to improve and try new things in photography is not only fun but will make you better. Getting out of your comfort zone will also help. So until next week analyze your Photography Game and get outside and shoot!

Home»Blog

Motion and Shutter Drag!

Photography Should be Fun!

My thoughts on buying used and MPB.

Bokeh What is it and how do I create it?

Treat Photography like a Sport?