What My Filters Do

January 14, 2022 • Leave a Comment

Hey Everyone! Hope you are doing well this week. This week's topic came from one of my camera club members that read an earlier post about what filters I use. She wanted a description of when I use particular filters. So this is for you, Patricia. This is a list of the filters that I have and use, what they do, and when I would use them. And there are really only 3 types of filters I use. Polarizer, Neutral Density, and Graduated Neutral Density. I will list them in order of importance in my opinion.

Polarizer - The polarizer is the most important filter of them all in my opinion. It does what no other filter does, and it can't really be duplicated by Photoshop. You may have heard it called a circular polarizer also. It actually comes in two flavors - one is the linear and the other is circular. The circular is the more popular of the two and screws onto the front of your lens. It has a rotating part that you can turn to increase or decrease the effects of the polarizer. The linear polarizer is typically a square filter, and you will need some type of holder that attaches to the front of your lens. There are really only two positions. If it doesn't work, rotate it 90 degrees and it will be working. Both kinds will block 1 to 2 stops of light that travels through them, so you must make adjustments. Your camera will automatically do this if you have it in one of the auto modes.

A polarizer does a few things. The first thing it does is increase the saturation of things. You can make your Filters Filters blah skies turn bluer than blue. It will also increase the saturation in vegetation making leaves green. It also knocks the glare and reflection off of things. Looking through a storefront window, if you see yourself in the reflection, using a polarizer will make the reflection disappear. If you look at water and it's too shiny, when you use a polarizer it will let you see to the bottom of a clear lake. It's just like wearing polarized sunglasses when you're driving. Not only do they darken, but they knock the glare off of the windshield so you can see clearly. With a circular polarizer, you can adjust as you like by turning the ring. For best results, the sun should be 90 degrees from where you're pointing. So not behind or in front of you, but to the sides. This filter is great whenever you shoot around water, say shooting waterfalls. This is a must-have in any photographer's bag. Price will vary on the quality of the filter. Generally, you get what you pay for.

The Neutral Density Filter. These filters are used when you want to darken the scene to either do a long shutter release or you want to open up the aperture of your lens. This filter is used quite a bit for video work. But for photography, it's mainly for long shutter release or opening up your aperture to give that great bokeh in broad daylight. Say for example you wanted to take a portrait in bright sunlight but you wanted to use an open aperture of 2.8, which is pretty wide open. You would have to crank up your shutter speed to the thousands to get it to work if your camera would even get that high. But when you put on an ND filter which darkens the scene, the wide aperture would let in enough light and you could slow down your shutter speed. I mainly use these filters to show motion. I can do a long exposure in daylight and still blur a waterfall or have motions of the clouds drift across the sky giving a cool effect. These filters come in different strengths. They are measured in stops of light. Usually 3,6,8,10. You can double up and have a 6 and a 3 together to make a 9. Or a 3 stop and a polarizer to give a 4 or 5 stop light reduction. This is the combo that I usually use for waterfalls. These filters can come in either square or circular filters. For the square ones, you will need a holder of some sort to attach to the front of your lens. The circular ones just screw onto the front of your lens, so you need to know your filter thread size. (usually found on the front of your lens)

Graduated Neutral Density Filter. This filter can be duplicated in Photoshop or Lightroom in post-production, so it is not widely used as when film was king. This filter is usually a rectangular shape and goes from clear to dark. Sometimes it's a quick transition, called a hard graduation, and other times it's a slow transition, called a soft graduation. These filters are used for sunrise and sunset shots mainly, and you can hold them over the bright part of the sky with the dark part of the filter and the light part goes over the land. The hard grads are used for like at the beach where you have a clear cut horizon line, and the soft ones are for hills or trees where it is not as clear where the horizon is. Like I said earlier, these filters are not used as much anymore because you can do the same thing in post-production. These filters come in different strengths also, like the ND filters and by stops also. I haven't used one in a while but thought I would share. These can be handheld for the shot.

Well, there you go, Patricia. There are the different types of filters I use and when I use them. Until next week, keep shooting and get outside.

Off Camera Lighting. Settings TTL vs Manual

January 07, 2022 • Leave a Comment

414BFcFy2sL Hey Everyone! Hope you had a super week! This week is a continuation of last weeks blog. Off camera lighting. If you haven't read that one please go and read. This week I want to talk about camera and flash settings for Off camera Flash. This can be kind of tricky so I'll try to keep it simple. As always when you're in doubt pull out the manual. The first thing you'll have to decide is TTL or Manual metering. This can be a simple answer if you only have manual strobes. But if your strobes can do both then you have to figure out which one you want to do. You can't really mix and match its either one or the other and I'll explain why later but first lets talk about TTL.

TTL (Through the lens metering). When you have the correct strobe set up you may be able to use TTL metering. This means that the camera meters the scene and then tells the flash how much to flash a little or a lot. This is how TTL works. When you have your flashes set to TTL and your camera on one of the automatic modes like say Aperture Priority mode. When you press the shutter button a signal goes from your trigger (mounted on your hot shoe) and it tells the flash to send a pre flash. The flash pops and the camera reads the signal through the lens and determines the shutter speed and how much flash to use. Then the trigger sends a signal to the flash to flash with the proper amount of flash. All of this happens so fast you don't even see the pre-flash only the final one. But the camera has made all of the decisions. This can work great if all of your lights are TTL. But lets say you only had one TTL flash and you were using it for your main flash. Your second or third flashes were manual and you had them 41zl9yX4ltL to trigger optically. Which means they see a flash and they flash. So you have everything set up and you go to take a photo and this is what happens. You only see all of the manual flashes and it looks like your TTL didn't flash at all. But this is what really happened. You pressed the shutter your TTL flash sent a pre-flash your other lights saw this and flashed. Your camera saw a lot of light because everything flashed at the same time. Your camera saw all of this and told your TTL flash to go to minimum power and flashed. So all of your manual flashes went off but the TTL was so weak that it looks like it didn't. Confused yet? The main point here is not to mix TTL and Manual its one or the other. The main advantage of using TTL is simplicity. You set them up turn them on and shoot. The disadvantage is cost and may not be as consistent light from frame to frame.

_MSP9577 Manual Metering- Manual metering is done with an external light meter. You can read my blog The Scoop on Light Meters and it will explain how they work. Using manual metering and your camera in Manual and a simple trigger you can set each light individually. And with a light meter there tends not to be a lot of guessing. That said I am biased since I learned how to to off camera lighting with a hand held light meter. The advantages in shooting totally manual is cost, and you have full control but there is a learning curve.

Its hard to give precise settings of your equipment because they are all a little different but I will give general guidelines.

Shooting TTL -Camera you can shoot in Automatic or Simi-Auto but I would shoot in manual if possible. ISO I would put at 100-400. If your shooting in one of the Auto modes I would put the flash to be set to high speed sync and TTL. This way if your shutter speed goes over the maximum sync speed of your camera it will still work. If in Manual mode your shutter cannot be over the high speed sync of your camera.

Shooting Manual- Camera in manual Shutter at maximum sync speed, ISO 100-400 and aperture set to meter setting and after lights are where you want them.

Trigger Settings- Depending on your trigger if a radio set all lights to same channel and if you can have individual control set the lights to different groups. This is pretty much dependent on the type of trigger you have.

Well as you can see there can be a lot to learning off camera flash. But its really not as hard as it seems especially when you get your hands into and figure it out its pretty easy. You just have to follow the directions of the equipment that you have and you should be ok. There are lots of good tutorials online and one guy that stands out is Mark Wallace he has lots of tutorials on Adorama TV.

Until Next week Get outside and shoot. If you have any questions or suggestions please leave a comment I would love to hear from you!

Updating Firmware on Everything!

December 31, 2021 • Leave a Comment

Hey Everyone! Hope everyone is well and healthy today. This week I want to discuss something I don't think I have talked about in my blog. Firmware. Back in the film days we really didn't have to worry about firmware because everything was mechanical but now in the electronic and computer age everything seems to have some sort of program in them. And for some reason there is always an update to be had. Firmware ( in simple terms) is the program that electronics use to do whatever they do. When you update your firmware you are altering the program that was in the device that your updating. Usually fixing some sort of bug or adding some sort of feature. Much like Lightroom or Windows updates they correct bugs or improve stuff. In your camera this could mean better focusing or faster focus. Maybe they add some sort of new software to make your camera like new. As long as the hardware can handle the upgrade the possibilities are endless. Some company's put out lots of firmware updates and some do not. Making sure your camera has the latest and greatest update can make the camera perform like brand new saving you from having to upgrade or buy a new one. If you haven't checked your firmware you should. If you have never updated the firmware you may tell a big difference in the way that it works. Installing the firmware is easy and all of the camera companies will have a step by step procedure for you to follow to make sure you have the latest and greatest. This usually involves installing on your computer some sort of program that when your camera is connected to your computer the program updates the firmware. On older cameras it was _DSC6277 installing the firmware on a SD card and inserting it into your camera and going through a series of procedures to update the firmware. In any case it's fairly easy to do .

But now a days its not just camera bodies that get the firmware update its also Lenses. Newer lenses have small computers in them also that can be tweaked to give that lens a sharper focusing and quicker focusing. So check your lenses especially if they are fairly new. The firmware updates that you do to them can make them really nice lenses. If you have a new body that has super fast focusing powers but your lens is still using the old way of focusing a firmware update to that lens could make it perform just like a brand new lens. I just got through checking all of my lenses for the firmware updates and they were all up to date. Its a good feeling to know that all of your equipment is up to date and running as efficient as it can. I think this should almost be an annual event or even a simi-annual event to check the firmware of all of your electronics.

What about other types of photography gear? I just checked on some of my newer flashes and strobes and they can all have a Firmware updates that can be installed. I am currently shooting Godox and Flashpoint mono lights and they can have firmware updates too. That's one of my projects for this weekend is to check all of my flashes and see if there are any updates and then update all of the firmware in my lighting systems. With our camera bodies getting so smart and sophisticated we need all of the supporting equipment to be up to the task. So what else what about GoPro's or any action type camera's. They definitely have firmware and need to be to the latest version to get the best performance out of them. What about drones? I don't personally have one but I bet the firmware update on these devices can be critical to their operation and stability. Anything to improve communication between the drone and the controller or phone that it's flying it will be a needed update.

So I have rambled on enough about Firmware updates. Please check your camera's and equipment and get on your google machine and see if you have the latest updates installed. If not install them and you may have yourself a new piece of camera equipment in your hands without buying anything. So until next week get outside and shoot!

2021 Help Portrait Recap

December 24, 2021 • Leave a Comment

Hey Everyone! Hope everyone is doing well this week. This week I want to talk about the way I do community service as a photographer. As a photographer it seems all about us whether we're taking photo's of Landscapes or Wildlife its what we can get! As portrait or wedding photographers its how we want it to look our creative vision. Its always what we can get out of our craft. Now I'm not saying that's a bad thing we want what we want. But just giving! We don't do that too much. The Help Portrait Project is all about giving! So what is Help Portrait?

Help-Portrait was founded by celebrity photographer Jeremy Cowart in 2008. While doing some street photography as a personal project he found a homeless person. He asked if he could take his photo and he agreed. He told the person that he would bring a print for him. The person said Okay but really didn't believe it . When Jeremy came back and gave him the photo he was so happy and appreciated the jester. Jeremy got the Idea of why cant we do this on a larger scale. So he set up the 1st event in Nashville TN. The event grew each year and is a world wide event held on the first Saturday of December each year. Help-Portrait is about GIVING the pictures, not taking them. These portraits aren’t for a portfolio, website, or sale. It’s about giving people who otherwise couldn’t afford photography, a chance to capture a moment, a memory…and a whole lot more. Photographers, hairstylists and makeup artists all around the world will find people in need, take their picture, print their picture and then deliver it—free of charge. Here is a link to the Help Portrait website for more info. I did get some of my info for this directly from this website. Help Portrait Website Link

My Camera Club has been doing this event for quite a while 8 or 9 years. It started very slow. The first year or so we only got a few customers. I think in 2019 we had almost 60 portraits done. We were on a roll but then came COVID. We had to skip a year. So when we decided to do it this year we were hopeful that we would get a lot of customers but in reality we really didn't expect much. The last year we sponsored it we had three photo stations set up with two editors and printers and we stayed busy all day. This year we had only two stations but that seemed to be enough. The final count was 22 family's portraits were made. Not too bad after a year off. We had to practice social distancing and wearing of mask. After photo's were taken we had the customers wait in their cars if they had them and delivered the Photo to them. We supplied a 8X10 photo in a photo sleeve and offered an email digital copy also if they had an email address. Overall it was a great day and we got to GIVE back to the community. Next year I hope it is bugger and better than this or any year.

So if you're a member of a camera club and the club is not doing this talk them into to it. Its a great event and all kinds of jobs for everyone to do. There are editors and printers. Someone to cut and put the photo's in the Sleeve's . There are of course the Photographers. Runners take the people through the process from registration to the hair and make up if you have them to the photographer and to a waiting area. You may have snacks and food so someone has to take care of that. The registration has all the forms to fill out from release forms etc... My job most of the time is shooting the event. I use still photo's, video and time lapse and make a short video of the event to put on our Facebook website. Here is a link to the video that I created. 2021 Goldsboro Help Portrait Video Link

As you can see there is lots to do and learn. If you haven't taken many portraits before this is a great place to learn. Maybe help one of the photographers and have them teach you along the way. Its a great way to learn especially how the photographer interacts with the customers. So until next week be safe and think about next years Help Portrait. Get outside and shoot!

Using Camera's as Tools

December 17, 2021 • Leave a Comment

Hey Everyone! I hope this week finds you healthy and excited about photography! This and every week I give you my thoughts on photography and the different aspects of it as I see it . This week will be no different. If you have followed my blogs you have heard me say that photographers get emotional about the equipment they use. And that is understandable we spend a lot of money and time and effort in the purchase of this equipment. Then we take it to some of our most memorable places. So I can see the connect to emotion. So we try to use one camera for every situation because we just love our camera's. But I have approach. I think of them as tools and try to match the best camera to the specific job its going to do. I actually have 4 camera systems to do this with . I know it sounds crazy but just hear me out.

My with me all the time camera. Of course we all have this its my smart phone. I use the camera on this _MSP9570 mostly for reference photo's. Maybe I'm out shopping for my wife and I need to know if I'm buying the right thing I'll take a photo of it and send it to her " is this the right thing?". Or maybe I'm working on something and I need the model number instead of writing it down I'll just take a photo of it. We've all done this. On occasion I'll take a photo of where I am just so I can share it easily to the web. But thats pretty much the extent of my first camera the smart phone.

My second season is the camera that goes with me. When I go to work this camera is in my truck. It travels everywhere I go and it also goes with me when I'm out with my wife and I don't want the camera to be a distraction. For example my wife and I went to Washington DC a couple of years ago and this is the camera that I took with me. It is a point and shoot and has a 1 inch sensor much better than a smart phone. I even have filters that I can put on the lens to polarize it or do a longer exposure. It can shoot in manual and raw. Its a Canon G7XII. Its a great little point and shoot. It takes great photo's and is easy to use and small. It has a 20MP 1inch sensor.

My next camera is my newest one. It is used for street, portrait photography. Things that a shallow depth of field my come in handy. It is a full frame sensor. It is a older camera that I bought used but is great for photography. Its the Sony A7II full frame. I plan and have been using only primes on this camera to keep the weight and size down. It does great in low light and a shallow depth of field which works great for street and portrait work where everything in focus can be distracting. This camera is mostly handheld and it has a stabilized sensor that works great. I'm really having a good time with this camera and its working great. It has a 24mp full frame sensor.

My main Camera. This is the camera that I shoot almost everything else with from Landscape , wildlife to travel photography. It is a crop sensor camera that has a larger depth of field which is great for landscape photography. I have three great zoom lenses that I use with this camera that give me a range from 15mm to 525mm. It shoots at 11 frames per second and has a image stabilized sensor. This is what I call my main camera because I use it most of the time. Its the Sony A6500 crop sensor Camera . I have had this type of camera from when I went mirrorless and love the form factor . Its small and the lenses are small compared to their big brother the full frame sensor cameras and for landscape and travel they are great!

So there are my 4 cameras (tools) that I use for different jobs. Smart Phone I use for reference type of photo's. My Point and shoot I use when I'm on the go at work and when I don't want photography to be a distraction to our trip. My full frame camera is my street and portrait camera because of the shallow depth of field it works great and the combo of prime lenses makes this a great kit and fun to use. My main camera for all of my Landscape, wildlife and travel is my crop sensor camera and its large depth of field makes this work great. The right tool for the specific job really works for me. Might not work for you but for me its great. So until next week take lots of photo's with the right camera!

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What My Filters Do

Off Camera Lighting. Settings TTL vs Manual

Updating Firmware on Everything!

2021 Help Portrait Recap

Using Camera's as Tools