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Question:
I belong to a local photo club, and we will be doing night time and photography during winter. Any suggestions on best equipment to use besides tripod, gloves and coat.?? Will want to expose for interesting snow, maybe light decor from holidays, etc. any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks. eg film speed, filters, flash setting etc.
Answer:
Sorry for not responding sooner, but we have been swamped here with things to do before we leave. Which is tomorrow; we are leaving for Singapore and the Maldive Islands.
The information that you're asking for is an entire winter photography workshop. There are some basics like exposure and filters that should help everyone. For snow landscapes overexpose from what the meter recommends, by at least 3/4 to 1-1/3 stops for most scenes. Some scenes will require more or less exposure depending upon the amount of "white" in the scene. Night time exposures are more difficult. In fact if you are taking pictures when it is actually night (black sky) it is almost impossible to get a good picture. That is if you are including a large amount of the black sky in your image. The most successful night pictures are actually taken at twilight. At this time of day there is still enough light coming from the sky to bounce around and fill in the darker areas where the artificial lighting doesn't reach. The cobalt blue of the twilight sky also provides enough definition between the dark edges of your subjects; buildings - trees or whatever to give their outline and shape a definite form, which is something that you will not achieve with a black sky.
For the twilight exposures I use an 80B blue filter, this converts incandescent lighting to daylight, but it also gives a much deeper and saturated blue to the twilight sky. Here is a link to a page from my Workshop Participants Web Site that has tons of information about filters. http://www.garryblack.com/filters-1.htm
I am sorry, but with limited time right now that is all the advice that I can give for now. I hope that at least this little bit, it will help you.
Question:
Thanks for the useful and educational web site. After reading the section on filters by Benson and Wilson, I went out and bought their book and then bought a Cokin Blue-yellow filter. I tried using it in conjunction with graduated filters as Benson and Wilson seem to have done but commonly end up, after rotating the filter to an acceptable position, with the graduated filter at a useless angle. This can be corrected by removing and remounting the Cokin assembly taking the position of the blue-yellow polarizer into account but this is cumbersome if it must be done for every shot. Is there an easier way? I have tried to find a standard threaded circular B/Y polarizer but they don't seem to exist.
Many thanks in advance
Answer:
I am glad that you found my web site, it is good to hear from you again.
I also have found the same problem with the Cokin 173 in that it is in a square mount and if you are using other filters with it, it proves to be quite a challenge to manage everything without getting any vignetting or getting graduated filters straight. There is an inexpensive way to convert the square P-173 into a screw mount filter. Remove the square holder from the P-173 (gently pry the plastic edges apart). Once you have the holder open, you will see that the filter is round. Next get a Cokin P-77mm adapter ring, the filter is slightly larger than the ring, you may be able to get the filter part way into the adapter ring, but not all the way in. The trick here is to heat up the adapter ring so that it expands; I used the low-tech approach, by placing the ring on top of a standard light bulb (that's turned on). When the ring had heated up (5 minutes) I quickly put the filter into the adapter ring, so that it was flush with the top and bottom of the adapter. There is no time to waste here, as the ring quickly cools (you might want to use gloves). Once the ring has cooled the filter will be firmly set in place, and you will now have a screw-in type filter. I screw the Y/B filter completely into the lens or another filter then I adjust the amount of polarization by turning the filter through 180 degrees.
The only problem with this set up is that you can't screw another filter into the front of the adapter ring, but you can screw the adapter ring holding the P-173 into another filter. So if I am going to use it with another screw in type filter I always screw the Y/B filter in last. If you really want to place another filter in front of the adapter ring, you will have to glue another adapter ring onto the front of your existing ring (you should do this before you put the glass filter in the adapter ring). The way that I get around using grad filters with the Y/B filter is to hand hold the grads.
Hope this helps you out, if you have any further questions, just ask!
Question:
I'd be very grateful for any advice you could give me. I am thinking about buying Cradoc Caption Writer to label my slides but first I need to buy a printer to print the labels. Could you recommend a CHEAP printer that is capable of printing out neat professional looking slide labels? I eventually plan to buy an Epson Stylus Photo 1270 to produce prints from my slides. I'm using a notebook computer at the moment and am hoping to buy a desktop PC in the future when finances allow, along with the Epson printer, but I desperately need a printer now to use with the notebook computer so as I can start labeling my slides.
Any advice on this matter would be a big help
Many thanks
Answer:
I use the Cradoc Caption Writer for my slide labels as well; it is a very good program. I don't have an expensive printer (it wasn't expensive either when I bought it new 3 years ago), it is an Epson "Stylus Color 600". While the printer wasn't expensive, what is expensive are the replacement ink cartridges, but for all ink jet printers they are expensive.
My advice for you would be to either look for a used printer or pick up an inexpensive new printer for now. The quality of printers today, even the cheapest printers, will be good enough for slide labeling.
I know of a couple of photographers that have the Epson 1270, they love it.
Question:
I am new to Photography. I love taking pictures. One of my dreams is to get some of my work published one day. I always stop for a while, then get back into photography. What stops me is this little voice that says what would a stock photo agency want with my photo, after all they must have billions of them by now...why pay for new pictures when they can archive? What is the drive behind photo's? or why high demands? Here I sit at home with a stack of 35mm color slides wondering what to do with them... :) If you could shed some light on my thinking, I would highly appreciate it.
Answer:
The market for new pictures will never stop. As it will never stop for novels, music and all other art work. What you should be asking yourself is not why a stock agency would be interested in your work, but rather, would an advertiser be interested in your work.
Go to the web sites of the major stock agencies
http://www.masterfile.com/
http://www.imagebank.com/
http://www.tonystone.com/
and compare your work to the images that are at those sites. If you feel that your work is as good or even better than the material on those sites, then by all means you should approach an agency with your portfolio.
What your portfolio will do is show the agency that you are proficient in technical ability and what your vision (artist ability) is like, and whether they think they can market your material. Most stock agencies are not that overly concerned with the material that you have in your files right now, they are more concerned with the material that you will be providing them in the years to come. Only Royalty Free agencies are really interested in existing material.
As to "What is the drive behind photo's? or why high demands?" People always want something newer and better, no matter what the product. As for the demand, how many pictures do you see in a day, now think about that globally.
Hope this has given you an incentive to do something with your pictures.
Question:
Hi, I came across your site looking for tips on shooting in the desert. As I am from New York this will be a totally new experience for me. I was thinking I would overexpose a stop similar to snow...but is that correct? Do you have any tips or ideas? This is my first big trip west and I'd hate to get home and see that my pics weren't what I was hoping for.
Thank You for your time.
Answer:
You're right, shooting in the desert is like shooting snowy landscapes. How much you will overexpose will depend on the tone of the sand. The lighter the tone the more you overexpose, the darker the less you overexpose.
Since the best shooting occurs with early morning or late afternoon/evening light, there will be areas in your picture that will be in heavy shadow. Keep this in mind when determining your exposure as well.
For the image at http://www.garryblack.com/scenic004p.htm if I remember correctly, I underexposed this shot by 1/2 a stop, maybe even 3/4.
For http://www.garryblack.com/scenic003p.htm I shot this directly on what the meter recommended, I figured that the dark shadows balance out the lighter sand.
One item that you will definitely need for shooting in the desert is a polarizing filter. It makes a remarkable difference.
Have a great trip!
Question:
I hope you don't mind me asking you a few questions. I was wondering how can I take photos of aquarium tanks without having the glare. At the Monterey Bay Aquarium there is this beautiful tank with sea turtles. I was hoping there is a way to get it photo of it without the glass glare. Oh, and all I have is a point and shoot camera with some cool functions. Hope you can help me in some way.
Answer:
I have never been to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, but I imagine that it is similar to the other aquariums that I have visited and photographed in. The technique that I use to photograph in aquariums is also the same technique that I use when photographing out of a window in a plane.
The most common problem, which causes the glare, is reflections off the glass. It is basically the area around and behind you that is reflecting off of the glass, in fact you are probably even reflecting as well. The solution to this is to get right next to the glass, so that your camera lens is flush with the glass surface. By doing this you will eliminate the glare/reflections (none of the background light will be reflecting, as the camera lens will be covering that area of the glass). But in order to do this your camera will have to be completely parallel with the glass surface. Although, from my experience this is not very practical, as you will often want to move the camera to either side or up and down, which lets the light from the background in and again you will have the reflections and glare.
The best solution that I have come up with is to still get as close to the glass surface as possible as well as darkening the area around the camera. I accomplish this by dressing in dark colours - black is the best. Then you will need a dark sweater/sweatshirt or something else that you can wrap over your head and cover the area around the back of the camera. This will stop all of the background light from hitting the glass and therefore the reflections.
You'll probably get some strange looks from people, but at least your pictures will turn out. |
