Michele Whitacre Photography | Blog: Tip & Tricks

Showing posts with label Tip & Tricks. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Equipment Doesn't Matter Or Does It?

I've been meaning to write this post for a while, but when I read another article about this today I was finally spurred into motion because I think it's high time someone set the record straight. If you live in the world of photography, you become bombarded with the phrase "equipment doesn't matter" over and over and over again.

And I'm here to tell you that is a big fat lie.

Now before I get crucified for that statement, let me be clear. I am not claiming that you can put high end gear in the hands of someone who has no clue how to use it and get amazing photos. Nor am I saying that an awesome photographer can't take incredible images with a cell phone camera. But what I am saying is that many in the industry spout off "equipment doesn't matter" like it is the end all be all golden rule of photography. But it's not, because let's be honest here... If the same image quality could be obtained with a cell phone camera verses a high end DSLR, pro photographers wouldn't be spending thousands of dollars to purchase them, and if a single lens could do an incredible job of capturing every photo imaginable, pros wouldn't own more than one.

Equipment does matter. It matters a lot.

All this phrase does is confuse those beginners who are just starting and leave them wondering why they can't get tack sharp images and amazing bokeh with their 18-55 mm f/5.6 stock lens that came with their entry level DSLR camera.

Three years ago, I was that beginner.

As I sat in my first photography class surrounded by more advanced students who owned better equipment than I did, I constantly wondered why my images didn't look like theirs. No matter what I did I couldn't get my photos to look as in focus as theirs, nor could I get a gorgeous out of focus background behind my subjects like they could. Then I bought my 70-200 f/2.8, attached it to my camera, and BAM! tack sharp images and amazing bokeh first time out.

For years, I admired a favorite photographer's indoor photos of her family, especially the ones taken in very dim lighting. Then I bought my DSLR camera and repeatedly failed to take similar photos. I had no idea why I couldn't make my images look like hers did. Then I bought my 50 mm f/1.2, attached it to my camera, opened it to f/1.2, pointed it at my dogs with nothing lighting the room but a single lamp, and BAM! great images.

Today I understand that the optical quality of the glass in that stock lens is not equal to the optical quality of the glass in my high end lenses, so the clarity of the images isn't going to be the same. Today I understand that the blurred background behind my subjects is created by the depth of field which is controlled by my aperture setting, so a lens with a widest aperture of f/5.6 is never going to create the same image as one with a widest aperture of f/1.2. Today I know that in a dimly lit environment my camera is going to produce very noisy images at ISO settings of 800 and above, so the only hope I have of shooting in dim light is with a very wide aperture or on a tripod with a slow shutter speed. Back then I didn't know any of those things. All I knew was that since equipment doesn't matter I must just suck.

And that didn't feel very good. Not good at all.

These days I am a bit smarter. Recently, I've been struggling to master a technique that I have been practicing over and over with zero success. So finally, I asked another photographer about it who does have it mastered. I showed him what I was trying to do, and simply asked, "Why can't I do this? Is it me or my lens?" His answer, "Your lens."

Awesome. Maybe I don't suck after all.

And neither do you! If you're new to photography and struggling to create an image, it is possible that your equipment is limiting your ability to capture the photos you are after. So before you get completely frustrated or even worse, give up, seek out a friendly, more advanced, photographer and ask for help. Because that "equipment doesn't matter" thing really needs to be taken with a grain of salt (and maybe a shot of tequila and a lime, too).

And just so we are clear...

I am absolutely not suggesting that an individual must run out and spend thousands on equipment to be an awesome photographer. Instead what I am saying is that you need to become the master of everything in your bag. You need to know what each and every piece of equipment you own can do. And what it can't. So that when you do purchase new equipment, you understand the limitations of what you already own and what you need the new equipment to do for you.

If you made it the end and are still with me, thanks for sticking around and reading my long winded post.

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer serving Phoenix, Arizona and the surrounding area.
Visit Michele's Website | Like Michele on Facebook | Follow Michele on Instagram | Follow Michele on Twitter © 2013 Michele Whitacre Photography LLC

Friday, May 18, 2012

Product Review | ExpoDisc

Before I get started, I want to state that the content of this post is my opinion based on the use of this product. I am in no way connected to the company that makes this product nor am I being compensated in any way for this review. If you've been around since the beginning of the blog, then you know that this is a first for me. But this product is just too good not to say a few words about it and pass on it's awesomeness to fellow photogs who may not know of it's existence.

I recently learned about the ExpoDisc White Balance Filter at a photography workshop I attended, and being introduced to this amazing product was worth every penny I paid for the seminar plus every penny I paid for my ExpoDisc. Yes, it's that amazing.

The ExpoDisc is crazy-easy to use. You simply hold the filter up to your camera, and take a photo in the light that you are going to be shooting in. Then you use the photo to set the custom white balance on your camera. This is huge for me because my camera body doesn't have a setting that allows me to set custom Kelvin temps. I can't tell you how excited I am to have found the ExpoDisc to solve this issue!

By taking the few seconds it takes to do this for each environment I shoot in, or every time the light changes, I have literally cut my editing time in half! Since beginning to use the ExpoDisc, I barely have to do any white balance or color correction edits on my photos. This is huge! Less time editing = faster turn around time for getting clients their proofs!

ExpoDisc is made by ExpoImaging, and comes in two versions - neutral and portrait. I actually opted to purchase the neutral option even though I shoot mostly portraits because personally I like photos that are a little on the cooler side. But I realize that I am a bit of an exception, so for those individuals who prefer portraits with a warmer appearance, the portrait option was designed for you!

I didn't take any photos of this product or any before/after images because ExpoImaging has already done it. To learn more about the amazing ExpoDisc, head on over to their website to read more about it and see the comparison images.

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer serving Phoenix, Arizona and the surrounding area. Visit Michele's website at michelewhitacrephotography.com. Become a fan of Michele's work on Facebook. Follow Michele's updates on Twitter.

Friday, May 11, 2012

Photography 101 | Think Like a Pro More Examples

Just joining in? Here's what you've missed:
Photography 101 | Coming Soon!
Photography 101 | Aperture
Photography 101 | Shutter Speed
Photography 101 | ISO
Photography 101 | Exposure Meter
Photography 101 | Depth of Field
Photography 101 | Motion
Photography 101 | Think Like a Pro
Photography 101 | Think Like a Pro Examples

Welcome back to my Photography 101 series! I'm so glad that you have decided to join me.

This week I am going to share some more examples with you. Again, I am hoping that these will help you to make a little more sense out of my previous post, Think Like a Pro. All of these are real life examples, where I created the photos under the given circumstances instead of making any attempts to stage the "perfect" shooting environment.

Example 3

Before we get started, here is the scene for the following photos. Again it is my backyard, only this time it was about 7:10 PM. This photo was taken from the opposite side of the yard from last week's examples and the setting sun is almost directly behind me...

I took the above photo with my 50 mm lens, set to 1/40 f/16 ISO 400. To select these settings, I recognized that nothing in my scene was in motion so I was going to focus on selecting my aperture opening first. I knew that I wanted my entire scene in focus, so I wanted a large depth of field, which is the result of selecting a small aperture opening. I knew that it was getting dark and I was going to have to use a fairly slow shutter speed in order to get enough light into the camera to properly expose my image and experience has taught me that I can usually hand hold this lens at 1/40 and still keep my shot in focus. The camera had automatically adjusted the ISO to 400 as I made my other selections and I decided that would work just fine for the above image and took the photo.

A few days ago, I put a post up on Facebook asking if anyone had any requests of shooting situations they would like me to address in these examples. Someone left a comment requesting that I show an example of photographing a moving subject (i.e. dogs or children) in low light. This was a great suggestion, as it presents a fairly difficult set of circumstances to consider and doesn't fit within the regular sequence of my considerations for determining manual settings. So, instead of addressing this example like I did the others, I'm going to take a different approach.

When you want to freeze the motion of a moving subject in low light conditions, you have two conflicting situations to consider. You have the motion of your target that you want to freeze, requiring a fast shutter speed and a reasonable aperture (so the depth of field isn't too narrow) and you have the low light conditions, requiring a slow shutter speed and a large aperture. So, what's a photog to do?

Well, let's consider our options, and the potential problems of each:

1. Use a larger aperture than you really want to use in an attempt to let more light into the camera. (This is assuming that you have a lens that will open up wide enough to consider this options. I was using my 50 mm f/1.2 lens for several of these example photos.)

Pro: Let in more light, allowing you to properly expose your photo and allowing you to shoot with a lower ISO to help eliminate noise.

Con: Small depth of field makes it harder to capture subjects in motion, especially when they are close to your lens and moving perpendicular to you.

Example...

The above photo was taken with the following settings: 1/500 f/2.0 ISO 250. Lexi was running towards me and was fairly close to me when I took this photo. There is sort of a small plane of focus starting at the front of the wall near the left side of the photo and extending over to the middle of her back. (I was kneeling down at an angle when I took this so it's a little bit hard to envision the focal plane since it isn't straight on.) Everything else in the photo fell outside of the depth of field and is therefore out of focus.

2. Use a slower shutter speed than you really want to use in order to let more light into the camera.

Pro: Let in more light, allowing you to properly expose your photo and allowing you to shoot with a lower ISO to help eliminate noise.

Con: A slower shutter speed will probably result in some blur of the motion of your moving subject.

Example...

The above photo was taken with the following settings: 1/80 f/2.8 ISO 1600. Obviously this shutter speed was way too slow to freeze the motion of Zoe & Lexi as they were playing! If you are going for intentional blur, then you won't have as much of a problem with low slight conditions, but when you are trying to freeze the motion it makes it a bit tougher.

3. Use a higher ISO than you really want to use in order to increase the sensitivity of the camera sensor, allowing you to shoot in lower lighting conditions.

Pro: Increase the sensitivity of the camera sensor, allowing you to use a faster shutter speed and/or a smaller aperture opening to better freeze motion while properly exposing your photo.

Con: The higher the ISO the more noise will be in your photo. (Exactly how much noise will be present at each ISO is very dependent on your camera model.)

Examples...

The above photo was taken with the following settings: 1/500 f/2.8 ISO 3200. It this particular photo the noise in the image is starting to become noticeable but isn't too awful yet.

The above photo was taken with the following settings: 1/320 f/2.8 ISO 3200. As I was losing light, I had to slow down my shutter speed a little bit more, and I was still able to freeze the motion of Lexi running. However, in the lower light conditions the noise of the photo is more apparent. (I also cropped this photo slightly to help demonstrate the noise for anyone who didn't know what I was talking about when I mentioned noise in photos. It's impossible to miss it in this one!!)

4. Use a flash or another additional light source

Pro: Adding light to the scene will reduce or eliminate the issue of low light, allowing you to select the camera settings that you want to use to freeze the motion of your subject, and/or you can use the flash itself to freeze the motion of moving subjects.

Con: The flash on your camera doesn't have a very large range, so it probably won't illuminate your subject unless they are fairly close to your lens (and it does affect the shutter speeds you can use, but that's definitely a topic for way in the future), and other sources of light aren't all that easy to come by unless you happen to travel with some portable studio lighting every where you go. If you're reading this article, I'm guessing you're just getting your feet wet with photography and don't own any expensive lighting equipment yet.

Examples...

I didn't take any. :) Sorry, but I don't currently own the lighting equipment that would have been necessary for example photos, either.

5. Intentionally underexpose your image, knowing that you can edit it in Photoshop to brighten it up.

Yep, I said it.

I know that there are people that want to reach through the computer right now and strangle me at the mere suggestion of not "getting it right in the camera" but here's my thinking... we have a-maz-ing technology at our finger tips for editing photos today, so why not use it to our advantage every once in a while when it will help us to get the results we want out of our photos?

Pro: Allows more flexibility with the manual camera settings to freeze motion without inducing noise

Con: Requires the extra time and knowledge to edit the photo

Examples...

Before Photoshop:

(This photo was taken with these settings: 1/320 f/2.8 ISO 3200)

After a quick adjustment of the exposure and brightness in Photoshop:

So, I guess you're still waiting for me to tell you what I would do, huh? Honestly, there is no right answer. It all comes down to personal preference. For me, I don't love it when subjects that are in motion are blurry in my images when I didn't intend for them to be blurry. I also don't love it when my images have a lot of noise in them. And, I'm not really a big fan of shooting with my flash. However, I am a HUGE fan of blurred out backgrounds in photos, so I have a lot of experience shooting with my lenses wide open. As a result I know what to expect from them as far as depth of field. So.... I usually opt for the wide aperture opening option. I just try to keep in mind that if my subject is farther away from my lens, I will have a wider depth of field to work with. I also try to keep the path of my subject's motion parallel to me if at all possible. Here are a few examples...

1/500 f/2.0 ISO 200

1/500 f2.0 ISO 250

1/500 f/2.0 ISO 320

And there you have it! We have now covered everything you need to know to begin using the manual settings on your camera. I really hope that you have found these Photography 101 posts helpful as you begin to navigate your own path toward creating gorgeous photos in manual mode. I still have several more topics that I would like to cover in future Photography 101 posts, so stay tuned!

As always, thanks for stopping by and for reading. If you have any questions or suggestions for future Photography 101 topics, please leave me a comment or send me an email. I love hearing from readers!

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer serving Phoenix, Arizona and the surrounding area. Visit Michele's website at michelewhitacrephotography.com. Become a fan of Michele's work on Facebook. Follow Michele's updates on Twitter.

Friday, May 4, 2012

Photography 101 | Think Like a Pro Examples

I took the above photo using my 18-55 mm lens at 18 mm. I opted to use this lens because it is the widest lens I own, and therefore would show the largest amount of the yard. The above photo was taken with the following settings: f/16 1/200 ISO 200. Here is how I came up with those settings: I evaluated my scene and nothing in it is in motion, so the first setting I considered was my aperture setting. I wanted my entire scene to be in focus, so I wanted a large depth of field. I thought that an aperture of f/16 would provide a large enough depth of field to keep the entire scene in focus, but also allow me to select a reasonably fast shutter speed so I could hand hold the camera with no risk of inducing any blur, and to keep my ISO in the range I like to shoot in with my camera. I then adjusted my shutter speed, while watching my exposure meter and ISO setting that the camera was automatically adjusting for me. When the exposure meter read a proper exposure at 1/200 and ISO 200, I knew that would work for this photo.

Could I have picked different settings? Yes! For every photograph, there are multiple combinations of settings that will result in a properly exposed image. I could have closed down the aperture a stop or two, and compensated by slowing the shutter speed by an equivalent adjustment and still captured the same image. I probably could have opened up the aperture slightly, and increased the shutter speed as well, but if I opened up the aperture too much it would have affected the depth of field and resulted in the background of the photo becoming blurry.

OK, now on to the photos that I took in the above scene. I decided that I wanted to use my 24-70 mm lens for these photos. I picked a zoom lens because I wanted the flexibility to be able to change the focal length of my lens as the dogs were in motion. Both of the photos below were taken with the following settings: f/3.2 1/2000 ISO 100. Here is how I came up with the settings: I knew that I was going to be photographing the dogs in motion, and I wanted to show the motion by freezing it, therefore, I needed a fast shutter speed. I knew I could have selected a speed that was slower, like 1/500 or 1/1000, and still frozen the motion in the photos. However, I also knew that I wanted a fairly narrow depth of field because I wanted to blur out whatever ended up in the background as much as possible. So, I thought 1/2000 would freeze the motion, while allowing me to use the aperture setting I wanted to use. I opted for f/3.2 because it would give a narrow depth of field which would blur out a lot of the background and help to isolate my subject(s), yet wide enough that I thought I could still manage to capture the dogs as they were racing around. After picking my first two settings, the camera had automatically adjusted the ISO to 100 for a proper exposure.

Example 2

This second example was taken while I was attending a law school function with my husband. I was sitting across the table, watching the amazing light pouring in from the windows behind me, and asked Jeff if he would be nice enough to allow me to take a few photos of him. He agreed, so I captured a few candid images of him while he was conversing with the others at the table.

To start with I took a photo of my scene, to help you see where I was shooting and the lighting conditions I had to consider. This is inside of a restaurant at about 4:30 PM. I was sitting at the table directly across from my subject, and the entire wall behind me was windows...

I took the above photo using my 18-55 mm lens at 24 mm. I opted to use this lens because it is the widest lens I own, and therefore would show the largest amount of the scene. The above photo was taken with the following settings: f/5.6 1/100 ISO 100. Here is how I came up with those settings: I evaluated my scene and nothing in it is in motion (or at least not in much motion - yes Jeff was moving a little as he was talking but he wasn't exactly racing around the table or anything), so the first setting I considered was my aperture setting. I wanted enough of the scene to be in focus to show what was behind my subject, but the wall and the door were only about 3-4 feet behind Jeff. I knew an aperture of f/5.6 would provide enough depth of field for the scene I was working with, and allow me to select a shutter speed that would allow me to hand hold the camera with no risk of inducing any blur. I then adjusted my shutter speed, while watching my exposure meter and ISO setting that the camera was automatically adjusting for me. When the exposure meter read a proper exposure at 1/100 and ISO 100, I knew that would work for this photo.

OK, now on to the photo I took in the above scene. The photo below was taken with my 50 mm lens, which I selected because it opens up to a wider aperture than any of my other lenses. With that crazy wall as my background, I knew I wanted to narrow my depth of field in order to blur that wall as much as possible in an attempt to isolate my subject from it. So, I opted for an aperture setting of f/1.2. I then adjusted shutter speed while watching my exposure meter and ISO setting that the camera was automatically adjusting for me. When the exposure meter read a proper exposure at 1/250 and ISO 100, I knew those settings would work for the photo I wanted to create.

Again, I know that is a lot to take in! So, I'm going to leave you with these two examples and next week I will return with another example or two taken in different lighting conditions.

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer serving Phoenix, Arizona and the surrounding area. Visit Michele's website at michelewhitacrephotography.com. Become a fan of Michele's work on Facebook. Follow Michele's updates on Twitter.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Photography 101 | Think Like a Pro

Just joining in? Here's what you've missed:
Photography 101 | Coming Soon!
Photography 101 | Aperture
Photography 101 | Shutter Speed
Photography 101 | ISO
Photography 101 | Exposure Meter
Photography 101 | Depth of Field
Photography 101 | Motion

Welcome back to my Photography 101 series! I'm so glad that you have decided to join me.

You may remember from the discussion about your camera's exposure meter that there are several different combinations of aperture, shutter speed, and ISO that will create a properly exposed photograph, so how do you know which combination to select?

That's what I'm hoping to help you figure out with today's post! It's time to put together everything we have discussed over the past 6 weeks, and learn how to think like a pro!

What I am going to share with you today is the process that got me started with learning how to select my camera settings. I'm not claiming that this way is the only way, or even the best way, to take photos, nor is it the way that I use today, but I do think it is a good place to begin as you develop the method that works best for you. Mainly, I'm hoping it will help you to recognize the questions you need to ask yourself as you prepare to create your own amazing photos.

When I first started shooting, I always did so with my camera in full manual mode. The exception being that I almost always left my ISO set to auto. This doesn't mean that I just let the camera select the ISO for me. Instead, I would allow the camera to adjust the ISO as I adjusted the aperture and shutter speed, and then I'd evaluate the camera's selection. I felt like it was less overwhelming during the learning process to control two settings instead of three. Now that I have more experience, I no longer use auto ISO. However, I still think using the auto ISO setting is a great tool as you get started, and have included it the process description below.

It took me a long time to figure out just how to write this post! Usually I am doing many of these things simultaneously as I'm adjusting my settings, so it was rather difficult to detail a thought process in linear form in writing. This was what I came up with, and I really hope that it is straight forward enough to make sense!

Below is the series of questions and considerations that I ask myself as I prepare to take each of the photos that I create:

1. The very first thing I do is ask myself, is the subject in motion?

Yes - Continue to Step 2
No - Skip to Step 6

2. What do I want to do with this motion?

Freeze it - Continue to Step 3
Intentionally blur it - Skip to Step 4

3. Any time the subject is in motion, my first priority is going to be to select the shutter speed I want to use. If my goal is to freeze the motion of my subject, I am going to select a fairly fast shutter speed.

Select my best estimated shutter speed - Skip to Step 5

4. Any time the subject is in motion, my first priority is going to be to select the shutter speed I want to use. If my goal is to intentionally blur my subject, I am going to select a fairly slow shutter speed (which may require a tripod).

Select my best estimated shutter speed - Continue to Step 5

5. Once I have selected the shutter speed that I think will show the motion the way I want, I ask myself how large I want the depth of field to be (or how much of the scene do I want in focus)?

Small depth of field - Select a large aperture opening and continue to Step 8
Large depth of field - Select a small aperture opening and continue to Step 8

6. If my subject isn't in motion, my first priority is going to be to choose my aperture setting. To do that I ask myself, how large do I want the depth of field to be (or how much of the scene do I want in focus)?

Small depth of field - Select a large aperture opening and continue to Step 7
Large depth of field - Select a small aperture opening and continue to Step 7

7. Once I have selected the aperture that I think will provide the depth of field that I want, I ask myself what shutter speed should I select? To be honest, the shutter speed really isn't all that critical as long as it will allow for a proper exposure of the image and is fast enough to prevent me from moving the camera while taking the photo. If I'm shooting with a tripod, then I can pick even slower shutter speeds if I want.

Select the shutter speed, and continue to Step 8

8. After I have selected the shutter speed and aperture settings that I think I want to use, I do two things:

I look at my exposure meter to ensure that it is showing a proper exposure. If the exposure meter is showing me that my exposure is going to be off, I start back at the beginning and re-ealuate my selections to compensate for what the exposure meter is telling me

If the meter is showing a negative reading (underexposed photo), I will open up my aperture, slow my shutter speed, or both.

If the meter is showing a positive reading (overexposed photo), I will close down my aperture, increase my shutter speed, or both.

I consider my ISO setting. Since I leave the ISO set to auto, the camera will have automatically selected an ISO setting to match the combination of the other two settings I selected to create a properly exposed photograph. Personally, I opt to keep my ISO setting between 100 - 800 because my particular camera doesn't do well at high ISO levels. If I shoot a photo using ISO 1600 or greater, I'm going to end up with noise in my photo. This may or may not be an issue, depending on what I want to use the photo for, so I usually just try to avoid the higher ISO settings.

ISO between 100 - 800 - take the photo

ISO 1600 or greater - Continue to Step 9

9. If my ISO setting with my first choice of shutter speed and aperture settings is 1600 or above, I have a choice to make: I can re-evalaute my settings and see if maybe I can slow my shutter speed slightly or open my aperture slightly to increase the light entering my camera, which will let me decrease the ISO. If I think this will still allow me to capture the image that I want to create, I will modify the settings. If I think changing the settings will sacrifice the image or if lighting conditions won't allow me to change the settings, I opt to take the photo and live with the possible noise.

And there you have it! I know that is probably a lot to take in! I'm going to let you digest all of this information over the coming week and begin practicing with it if you would like, and I will return next week with an example or two.

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer serving Phoenix, Arizona and the surrounding area. Visit Michele's website at michelewhitacrephotography.com. Become a fan of Michele's work on Facebook. Follow Michele's updates on Twitter.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Photography 101 | Motion

Or intentionally blurring the motion of your subject, like I've done in this photo...

By learning how to capture motion in different ways, you can create different types of images that will evoke different responses. Do you want to show the force behind the waterfall as the water crashes over the edge in sharp detail? Or do you want to show the serenity in the waterfall by turning it into a peaceful stream of flowing water? The choice is yours once you learn how to create these different types of motion in your photos!

The key to creating motion in your photos is learning how to use different shutter speed settings to either freeze or blur objects that are in motion. The first image above was taken using a shutter speed of 1/4000 and the second image above was taken using a shutter speed of 1/5. Both were taken while my camera was on a tripod, using the timer feature on my camera.

Freezing Motion

faster shutter speed = less blur of moving subject
slower shutter speed = more blur of moving subject

In general, a faster shutter speed is going to freeze motion and a slower shutter speed is going to blur motion. However, the definition of "fast" and "slow" shutter speed is relative to the subject that you are photographing. Consider a car driving down the road and a person walking down the sidewalk - it is going to take a much faster shutter speed to freeze the motion of the car compared to the person.

Below are several examples of instances where I have chosen to photograph the object in motion by freezing the action. Above each of the images I've listed the shutter speed I used to take the photo. As you can clearly see, there is a large range of shutter speeds represented, meaning that there isn't one specific shutter speed you can use to capture every type of motion. I really wish there was a hard and fast rule I could share about how to pick the proper shutter speed to freeze motion, but the truth is that it just takes practice. The more you experiment, the better you will get at predicting what settings will give you the results you desire...

1/200

1/350

1/800

1/2000

1/2500

1/4000

Blurring Motion

faster shutter speed = less blur of moving subject
slower shutter speed = more blur of moving subject

Again, a faster shutter speed is going to freeze motion and a slower shutter speed is going to blur motion. So if you want to show motion in your photos by intentionally blurring moving subjects, you are going to have to use a slower shutter speed.

When creating intentional blur the big question you need to ask yourself is, what part of your photograph do you want to blur?

Or do you want to keep the moving object in focus, and show the background as a blur?...

1/30

Or do you want to show the object in motion as the portion of your photograph that is a blur, while the background is in focus?...

1/20

And if you want the object in motion to be the portion that is blurred, how blurry do you want it to be?...

1/10

The first photo above was taken using a method called panning. In panning, you focus on the moving object and follow the path of motion with your camera while taking the photo using a slow shutter speed. The second two photos were both taken with my camera on a tripod, and my focus set for the background. As the cars went by, I took the photos with slow shutter speeds. I opted to vary the shutter speed between the bottom two photos to show the difference in the amount of blur created by the different settings.

Since freezing motion requires fast shutter speeds, it is usually fairly easy to create those photos while hand holding your camera. However, intentionally blurring motion often requires shutter speeds that are too slow to capture without using a tripod. There is a limit to how slow of a shutter speed you can use and still hold your camera steady. The general rule is that the focal length of your lens is about equivalent to the shutter speed you can use without inducing unintentional blur. For example, for a 50 mm lens, you can hand hold the camera at about 1/50; for a 200 mm lens, you can hand hold the camera at about 1/200; etc. This is because the longer the focal length of the lens, the more the lens magnifies things - including motion of the camera while you are taking the photograph. However, every photographer is different, and as you practice you will learn your own personal limits. Also, unintentional blur can be caused by simply pushing the shutter button to take the photo. For this reason, it is sometimes useful to use a remote control or to set the self-timer on your camera to trigger the shutter button without having to touch the camera.

With that being said, sometimes you can create some really fun abstract images by intentionally moving your camera while photographing every day objects. Take a look at this photo that I took of some rocks while moving my camera at a slow shutter speed. Kinda fun, right?...

1/50

Here are just a few more examples of images where the object in motion was intentionally blurred. Both of these images were taken with a hand held camera...

1/100

1/500

There is one more thing to keep in mind while capturing intentional blur in your photographs: the lens to subject distance and the focal length of your lens will also affect the amount of blur in your photo. If your subject is closer to your lens, or if it is magnified using a longer lens, it doesn't have to move as much to cross enough of the plane of the photo to result in blur on the image. Conversely, if your subject is farther from your lens, or isn't being magnified, it will have to move a greater amount to cross enough of the plane of the photo to result in blur on the image.

Now it's your turn! Grab your camera and head on out to capture your own motion photos. Then join me back next week, to put it all together! I'm going to teach you to think like a pro, as I share with you the thought process I go through for each image I take to determine which settings to select.

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer serving Phoenix, Arizona and the surrounding area. Visit Michele's website at michelewhitacrephotography.com. Become a fan of Michele's work on Facebook. Follow Michele's updates on Twitter.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Photography 101 | Depth of Field

Just joining in? Here's what you've missed:
Photography 101 | Coming Soon!
Photography 101 | Aperture
Photography 101 | Shutter Speed
Photography 101 | ISO
Photography 101 | Exposure Meter

Welcome back to my Photography 101 series! I'm so glad that you have decided to join me. Today the fun begins, as we learn about depth of field (DOF).

If all you wanted was to have properly exposed photos, you could just set your camera on automatic and most of the time your camera would do just fine. If you are taking the time to learn how to use your camera in manual mode, I’m guessing you want to have more creative control over your photos, and a large part of this control comes from understanding depth of field and how to use it in your images.

Depth of field is essentially the portion of your photograph that is in focus. You can use depth of field to isolate your subject from the background by keeping it in focus and making the background out of focus, like I’ve done in this photo…

Or you can use depth of field to keep your entire scene in focus, like I’ve done in this photo…

By learning how to control depth of field, you can choose what to focus on and decide how much of each photo will be in focus. To demonstrate this idea, the next series of photographs are photos I took during my Intro to Photography class, when I was first learning about depth of field. The instructions were to take four photographs of the same scene. In the first photo we were supposed to focus on the foreground, and blur the rest of the image. In the second photo we were supposed to focus on the middle ground, and blur the rest of the image. In the third photo we were supposed to focus on the background, and blur the rest of the image. In the fourth photo we were supposed to keep the entire scene in focus. I wasn't using a tripod, so my scene isn't exactly the same from one image to the next, but it still demonstrates the point...

So, let's talk about how how you can control the depth of field in your photos. There are 3 things that affect depth of field: lens aperture size, lens to subject distance, and lens focal length.

Lens Aperture Size

larger aperture size = smaller depth of field
smaller aperture size = larger depth of field

As you increase the size of the lens aperture, the depth of field gets smaller resulting in a smaller portion of your photo being in focus. The flower photo above was taken with an aperture of f/2.8, and the first three photos in the DOF series were taken with an aperture of f/4.

As you decrease the size of the lens aperture, the depth of field gets larger resulting in a larger portion of your photo being in focus. The mountain photo above was taken with an aperture of f/18, and the final photo in the DOF series was taken with an aperture of f/22.

Changing the size of the lens aperture is the only way to change the depth of field without changing the composition of your photo. For this reason, lens aperture size is the first thing that I use to control the depth of field when I shoot.

As you can plainly see, the composition of the following two photos is roughly the same, even though what is in focus varies greatly between them. The first image was taken at an aperture size of f/2.8 and the second at f/11. As I decreased the size of the aperture I caused the depth of field to increase resulting in an increase in the the amount of the scene that is in focus.

You will notice in the first photo above that the yellow flower is in focus as well as the edge of the leaf down near the left corner of the image. The reason these two things are in focus as the same time is because they are both in the same plane (or in other words they are both the same distance from the camera lens). This becomes important when you are shooting portraits and trying to get multiple people in focus at once.

For example, take at a look at the image below, where I was trying to take a photograph of Lexi and Zoe. I couldn't quite convince them to lay right next to each other, so Zoe was slightly farther away from my camera lens than Lexi was. My lens aperture was set at f/2.8 which resulted in a depth of field too small for both of them to be in focus at the same time. I was focusing on Lexi, and Zoe ended up out of focus.

While I prefer to adjust my depth of field using my aperture size, there are times when lighting conditions will not allow me to use my first choice for lens aperture size. In those instances, one or both of the next two things will help me to achieve the depth of field results that I want for my photo.

Lens to Subject Distance

shorter lens to subject distance = smaller depth of field
longer lens to subject distance = larger depth of field

(As a side note, this also changes perspective, which I will talk about in a future post.)

Lens to subject distance is easy to change unless you are shooting in a confined space. If you want to decrease the depth of field in your photo, move closer to your subject. If you want to increase the depth of field in your photo, move farther away from your subject. But keep in mind that as you move closer to or farther away from your subject you are going to be changing the composition of your photo.

I took this first photo, and then backed up about 5 ft and took the second one. You can plainly see the difference in how out of focus the back branch is between the two photos. By lengthening the distance between my camera lens and my subject, I made the depth of field get larger. I also changed the composition of my photo rather drastically.

Lens Focal Length

longer focal length = smaller depth of field
shorter focal length = larger depth of field

Lens focal length is usually the last thing I use to control the depth of field in my photos. I don't always carry all of my lenses with me when I am out shooting, plus changing lenses can be difficult and time consuming depending on the circumstances. So, I usually try to get the shot with the lens that is already attached to my camera body. However, this can come in handy when I am using a zoom lens and have a range of focal lengths readily available. Again, changing the depth of field by changing the lens focal length will also change the composition of your photo.

The following three photos were taken using my 70-200 zoom lens. The first photo was taken at a lens focal length of 170 mm, the second photo was taken using a lens focal length of 115 mm, and the third photo was taken using a lens focal length of 70 mm. As I shortened the focal length, the depth of field increased for each photo resulting in more of the scene being in focus for each subsequent image. Of course, the composition for each photo was changed, as well.

(Depth of field is also affected by the size of your camera's sensor. However, you do not have control over this, with the exception of purchasing a new camera with a different sensor size, so I am opting not to discuss it in detail.)

One other thing to keep in mind is that the farther away something is from the subject you are focusing on, the more out of focus it will be. So, if you want to decrease the focus of the background behind your subject, you can simply move your subject farther away from whatever is behind it.

I would recommend spending some time with each of your lenses and practice changing the lens aperture size, the lens focal length, and the distance between your lens and your subject to get a feel for how all of these work to create depth of field in your photos. Then join me back next week to learn about photographing motion.

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer serving Phoenix, Arizona and the surrounding area. Visit Michele's website at michelewhitacrephotography.com. Become a fan of Michele's work on Facebook. Follow Michele's updates on Twitter.

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