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Posts Tagged ‘Short’

100 Famous Short Inspirational Photography Quotes

05 Mar

Inspiration comes in many forms for photographers, such as light falling on an object, the time of year, look on a person’s face and others. Below is our list of 100 inspirational photography quotes along with images and links to their authors.  We hope this large list inspires you and makes you take a moment to reflect on your photography.  Continue Reading
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Florian Ledoux’s ‘I Am Vital’ is a short film fit for Earth Day

23 Apr

Florian Ledoux is an award-winning photographer and filmmaker. His work documents the effects of climate change. DPReview featured some of his images, captured while traveling with the Arctic Arts Project, earlier this year. 2 months ago, his second short film ‘I Am Vital’ was released. It presents a timely message for today’s 50th annual Earth Day celebration.

‘Like all my work, and my previous documentary, ‘I Am Fragile,’ the beauty, power, and fragility of these polar regions inspire me,’ Ledoux explains to DPReview when asked about his inspiration behind the film. ‘I feel so many emotions when I find myself in the remote Arctic, co-existing in harmony with the wildlife that calls it home.’

‘I Am Vital’ was filmed across Greenland, Antarctica, Nunavut, Svalbard and Iceland over the course of 3 years. Its purpose is to remind viewers of the important role water plays in our ecosystems. Preventing glaciers and ice sheets, which hold almost 70% of the world’s water supply, from melting away is crucial for maintaining sea levels. 2019 was the second-hottest year in recorded history. Antarctica hit a peak temperature of 18ºC (64.9F), according to a reading from an Argentinian research station thermometer.

‘The main body of my work is still photography but over the last few years I have developed video skills. This allows me to use footage that creates an emotional atmosphere in my films. My aim is to connect people a little bit more with this part (Arctic) of the world,’ explains Ledoux about his choice to start filming up close, from an aerial perspective, with a combination of DJI Inspire, Phantom 4 Pro and Mavic 2 Pro drones. ‘The choice of an ultra short documentary is to keep people focused on the message that is clear and direct for a very short time mixed with powerful images,’ he tells us.

‘I believe in and aspire to share a new perspective of our incredibly resilient, yet fragile planet beyond what we’ve already seen through traditional photography. I hope my work allows viewers to observe our Mother Earth and wildlife from new angles and approaches never before possible,’ he concludes. ‘It is my goal to present a new way of learning about the great white North. It is more than time to act and I want my work to positively impact conservation and result in new and expanded Marine Conservation Areas.’

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Understanding Broad and Short Lighting in Photography

24 May

The post Understanding Broad and Short Lighting in Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by John McIntire.

There are a lot of lighting patterns for you to use in your portrait photography. Some of these are covered quite well. Rembrandt and butterfly lighting are two that are both easy to set up and yield great results a lot of the time. Of course, you can use just one lighting pattern all of the time and build a fantastic portfolio; however, if you want to have a full skillset with a variety of techniques to use in your portraits at any time, you will want to learn and understand as many of these lighting patterns as possible.

Broad and short lighting are often clumped together because of the similarities in how they are implemented and described, but they couldn’t be more different in how they affect your images.

This article will introduce you to the broad and short lighting patterns and explain when and why you might want to use them and what you can expect to achieve while using them. These are two very easy lighting patterns that can seem confusing at first, but once you get your head around them, they give you powerful tools to help shape the light and your subjects in your photos.

What is a lighting pattern?

First, let’s start with the very basics. A lighting pattern is any named lighting setup that gives you specific results. There is a fair list of these established lighting patterns for you to learn outside of the broad and short patterns discussed here. These include Rembrandt, Butterfly, split, cross, clamshell and more. Learning and understanding these lighting patterns can act as a shortcut to helping you get great results in your portraits. These lighting patterns apply to both natural light and artificial light, so it does not matter which you prefer.

Broad and short

The names of the broad and short lighting patterns refer to which side of the subject’s face is being lit first.

Sometimes, understanding what broad and short mean in terms of lighting can be confusing. To make it as simple as possible, imagine a face turned slightly away from you. That face now has two sides divided by the nose. The side of the face that is closest to you is the broad side because you see more of it than the other. The other side, the one that’s furthest from you, is the short side.

With broad lighting, your light is going to hit the broad side (or the side that’s closest to you) of the face first.

With short lighting, your light is going to hit the short side (or the side that’s furthest from you) of the face first.

Broad lighting

Broad lighting can be used to great effect to help widen faces or give you more contrast than some other lighting patterns.

When you choose to light the broad side of the face, it has several effects on your image. These include:

  • Broad lighting widens the face.
  • Broad lighting usually throws the short side of the face in shadow (dependent on light placement).
  • Broad lighting provides more contrast than some lighting patterns like butterfly lighting.

When you want to use it

Because broad lighting tends to broaden (go figure) the face, you’ll want to use broad lighting when you’re photographing subjects with a narrow face. Using it on subjects with a wider face can exaggerate that shape and you’ll want to avoid it there.

If there’s a feature on one side of your subjects face that you want to take the emphasis away from, you can pose your subject so that feature is on the short side of their face and use broad lighting to ensure that it’s in shadow, taking the emphasis away.

How to set it up

Setting up for broad lighting couldn’t be easier. Just have your subject turn away from the key light until you have the desired effect.

While there is no one way to set up broad lighting, here is a basic method to get you started.

As in the diagram above, place your light forty-five degrees from your subject. Ensure that you have your subject’s face posed away from the light source.

It really is as easy as that. Just remember that you can control the transition from highlight to shadow by changing the distance of the light from your subject and by using different modifiers.

Next steps

Adding fill to your broad lighting can help with extreme contrast while still retaining shadows for depth.

Lighting patterns are a starting point. This isn’t a zero-sum game. To take your broad lighting setups further, feel free to experiment with fill light. You can use reflectors or a second light to lift up the shadows and reduce the contrast in your images for more flattering portraits. Conversely, you can also choose to emphasize the shadows and the contrast for darker, bolder portraits. The best advice here is to know what result you are after before you start.

With a reflector as fill, you can now control the overall contrast in the image.

Short Lighting

Short lighting (depending on variables like your modifiers) tends to lend itself to dark, shadow-heavy imagery. This makes it the perfect lighting pattern when creating low-key images.

When you choose to light the short side of the face first, it also has several effects on your portraits:

  • Short lighting narrows the face.
  • Short lighting will throw the broad side of the face in shadow.
  • Short lighting provides heavy contrast and is ideal for low-key images. It is also useful when you are trying to create images with a lot of depth.
  • Short lighting can be used to hide imperfections.

How to set it up

Again, there is no one way to go about a short lighting setup.

Short lighting is trickier to set up than broad, but take your time and be deliberate in where the light is hitting your subject.

For this example, start with your light source forty-five degrees to your subject just like you did for the broad lighting setup. This time, have your subject face towards the light. If you have a modeling light, or you’re using natural light, watch the highlights on your subjects face carefully. Either move the light or your subject until the brightest part of your subject’s face is the short side.

Tip: If you’re having trouble seeing the contrast with your eyes, you can squint. I can’t even begin to tell you why this works, but it does. Squinting makes it far easier to see the contrast in a scene with your eyes.

That’s it. While short lighting is slightly trickier than broad lighting, it is still easy to accomplish. Once you have it figured out, it will become second nature.

Next steps

Because short lighting tends to be heavy on the shadows, you can use as much fill as you want to control them. Use a reflector for a gentle lift, or a second light to bring them close to the other tones in your images.

Since short lighting is so shadow-centric, you will almost certainly want to use fill light to control the contrast in normal situations. You can use a reflector, but if your shadows are quite deep, you may want to opt for fill light. Try exposing your fill light three stops less than your key (your main light) to retain your shadows while ensuring that all of the details are still there.

Using a reflector lifts the shadows in this example, but retains enough contrast for depth.

End matter

There you have it; two basic, but powerful lighting patterns that you can use to create bold dynamic portraits. I encourage you to go out and practice with each of these set-ups. Experiment liberally with your distances between your light and subject and try as many different fill lighting techniques that you can come up with. Once you have the basics down; if you want a real challenge: use the short lighting pattern to create a high key image.

 

The post Understanding Broad and Short Lighting in Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by John McIntire.


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Olympus celebrates its 100th birthday with a short documentary on its imaging division

13 May

To celebrate its 100th anniversary, Olympus has shared a trio of short documentary videos showing the history and subsequent evolution of its three primary business divisions: medical, scientific solutions and imaging.

The above video, officially titled ‘Olympus 100th Anniversary Documentary: A Great Moment,’ shares not only the history of Olympus’ imaging division, but also interviews with Olympus research and development executives, camera store technicians and Pulitzer Prize-winning National Geographic photographer and Olympic visionary Jay Dickman.

Olympus has also created a dedicated website for its centennial celebration, which includes a timeline of the history of Olympus products, from the first microscope it produced to the launch of its mirrorless camera system and beyond.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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A Short Introduction to Basic Photo Editing for Beginners

23 Apr

The post A Short Introduction to Basic Photo Editing for Beginners appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Lily Sawyer.

If you’re a beginner, using editing software can be a daunting prospect. What if you can’t get a handle on the technology? What if it’s too complicated a process? What if it’s just too time-consuming? What if the images turn out horrible? So many what ifs! I get it; I’ve been there. In this article, I’m offering a very simple way of delving into editing if you’re a novice. These are basic principles that I hope will set you in good stead for more fancy editing in the future!

dps-basic-editing-tutorial-final-image

First things first.

You need to be able to see what is a good image and a bad image. The key is in your perception.

If you think heavily edited images are the perfect image, then your editing will lean that way and vice versa. If you think an overly-tinted image is perfect, then that would be your bar for perfection. We all have a bias towards something. However, for editing, I think we need to try and be as neutral as possible and leave our personal preferences for the moment.

To be able to see things objectively, we need to:

  1. See the differences between over-exposed and under-exposed images and decide as to what is the correct exposure
  2. Understand white balance where white looks white, as it should, and not yellow or blue or orange
  3. See the contrast between dark and light
  4. Decide on the noise

Once we have a basic grip of the above, then editing will be a breeze, and we can get more creative from a solid image base or what I’d like to call a clean edit.

But first, a word on shooting format. Shoot in RAW.

The images below are the original RAW images opened in Bridge without any edits applied.

You can see there is a choice of Adobe color profiles. See the difference between the standard profile below left and the color profile used on the image on the right.

You can choose which profile you prefer.

dps-basic-editing-tutorial-profile

To successfully understand the above, and make the edits towards them, it is important that you shoot in RAW format. If you shoot in JPEG, you are allowing the camera to process the image, discard pixels the camera deems unnecessary, and accept the color adjustments the camera has made. With a JPEG image, you have less control, are working on a great loss and compression of pixels at the very start and an already compromised image color.

You can read more about RAW processing in Bridge here.

Having said that, someone who is a really good, seasoned, experienced photographer may well shoot JPEGS and achieve the desired image they want. I am not there yet!

Secondly, the type of camera you use affects the original images you get.

A full-frame camera gives you the 35mm sensor – wider, more space, more light hitting the camera sensor and more pixels. What you see through the lens is pretty much what you get. A crop-sensor, on the other hand, works in the opposite way. The lens only allows you to use a portion of the sensor so that a 35mm lens mounted on a crop-sensor camera will only give you the point of view of a 52mm lens equivalent – a more zoomed-in longer focal length. You are losing some width, some light and some pixels.

Let’s dive in!

1. Correct exposure

Correct exposure means getting the balance right between the 3 components of the exposure triangle. Namely: aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. Balancing all three correctly will give you a perfectly exposed image. That means no blown highlights or details are lost entirely in the shadow or darker areas of the image that should still be visible.

A most useful tool in determining whether your exposure is perfect is to look at the histogram when you are editing. Alternatively, you can view the histogram when you have just taken the photo as there is also a histogram on the LCD of many cameras these days. Simply put, a histogram is a representation of the tonal value distribution across your image in the form of a visual graph. Just by looking at a histogram (that graph on the top right corner of the image below), you can immediately tell whether there is an even spread of tonal values on the image judging from the troughs and crests on the graph or a stark contrast.

If the image you shot has incorrect exposure, then editing is your solution. You can move the sliders on your editing software to increase exposure if the photo is too dark or decrease your exposure if the photo’s too bright. You can usually recover some blown highlights in the case of overexposure.

dps-basic-editing-tutorial-color-raw

Take a look at the image above. This is the RAW image opened in Bridge. You can see it’s a little bright with the histogram showing a tall mountain almost touching the right edge. When the histogram touches both left and right edges, this would indicate the dark and light parts of your images are clipped and therefore there is overexposure and underexposure in the image. This is an okay image as nothing touches the edges, but it is too bright for me.

The image on the left below shows an overexposed image with the exposure turned up and the image on the right shows an underexposed image with the exposure turned down. See what the histogram is doing in these images.

dps-basic-editing-tutorial-color-raw

2. White balance

Simply put, white balance is the adjustment on your camera that reads the color temperature of the light you are shooting in in relation to neutral white. A perfect white balance should show white to be white as perceived in reality and there are no color casts that distorts the whiteness of white. You can, however, go for a warm white or a cool white by adjusting the white balance sliders. Generally speaking, what you don’t want is for white to look too yellow or orange or too cold like with a strong blue cast. Compare both photos below: too cool on the left and too warm on the right.

dps-basic-editing-tutorial-color-raw

3. Contrast

There is nothing rocket science about contrast in my opinion. It is simply to do with the strength of the blacks on the photo. After the adjustments above, our photo is still looking very flat. All that’s needed is a fiddle on the blacks, shadows, highlights and light areas. Just remember not to clip your blacks or whites or if you want a bit more contrast, not too much clipping. You can also use the curves tab (the one that shows a grid with a curvy line) for contrast adjustments.

dps-basic-editing-tutorial-finish

I also played with the other sliders to get the result I wanted on the images above. Just do so gently – a touch here and there rather than extreme adjustments.

Remember, you are only after a clean edit at this stage. The images above show the same edits on the standard and color profiles. The results are different so deciding on your color profile matters.

4. Noise and Sharpening

If you click on to the third tab which shows two black triangles, you get to the panel where you can adjust noise and sharpening. Again, gentle adjustments are needed here.

It is vital to view your photo at 100% so you can see what the adjustments are doing to the image.

Luminance has to do with the smoothness of the pixels. You don’t want to go too much, or you lose definition.

Color has to do with how much the RGB pixels show up and extreme adjustments will either strip your image of color or make the pixels appear too saturated.

dps-basic-editing-tutorial-sharpening-noise

Conclusion

Now I have a clean edit, there is still so much I can do to this photo. The eyes are a tad soft so I will need to adjust that. I could add vignettes or change the appearance of the background. I could add sunflares or textures. The possibilities are endless. But most of that has to happen in Photoshop.

I hope this has helped you understand the basics of editing.

Please share your comments below or if you have any questions!

The post A Short Introduction to Basic Photo Editing for Beginners appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Lily Sawyer.


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Video: A humorous short showing the struggle of waiting for pre-ordered camera gear

03 Feb

Regardless of whether or not you suffer from Gear Acquisition Syndrome, more commonly referred to as GAS, you know what it feels like to have to wait for camera get to your doorstep. This holds even more true for pre-ordered camera gear and SkyVista Productions has created a cheeky video making fun of the struggle of waiting for new gear.

The three minute film, titled Letter, pt.II pokes fun at the Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera 4K, a camera first announced back in April 2018 and is still being released on a limited schedule. It was shot in just two and a half hours according to SkyVista with ‘the impetus behind this short [being] to test the audio capabilities of the BMPCC4K in a real-world movie shoot setting,’ ironically enough.

Sit back, press play and enjoy a few laughs.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Behind the scenes: Shooting a cinematic short film with the iPhone X

19 Nov

Photographer Ryan Earl and filmmaker Nick Arcivos of AmnesiArt recently created an extremely impressive cinematic short film. Impressive not only because the shots were gorgeous, well-planned, and well-executed… but also because the entire thing was shot on an iPhone X.

The film is called ‘Made in Paris’, and it’s a cinematic portrait of Elise Lepinteur, protégée of world-famous pastry chef Christophe Adam.

It was shot and edited over the course of four days, but unlike Matteo Bertoli’s recent 4K iPhone X short film, Nick didn’t shy away from using a little bit of gear to help take the shots to the next level.

“We produced and edited this short piece in only 4 days with the help of Gitzo monopods, a DJI Osmo Mobile gimbal and a Zhiyun Smooth Q gimbal,” he tells DPReview. “For the macro shots, we used iPro Lenses by Schneider Optics. The audio was recorded with a Rode Lavalier Mic, Rode NTG3 Shotgun and a Zoom H4N, and we also used a Marsace MT-01 table tripod and a cheap Andoer mini dolly.”

For lighting, Nick tells us they used three LED lights: a Litepanels MicroPro, a Yongnuo YN300 Air Pro, and a Litepanels Astra 1×1. For the interview, they only used the MicroPro and the Astra 1×1.

Here are a few behind the scenes photos that Nick shared with us, showing how some of the shots in the film above were captured:

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As for how the phone performed, Nick and Ryan were seriously impressed:

We were blown away by the quality of the OLED screen, its size is perfect for monitoring the shoot. Results are even better than last year iPhone 7, colors are more vibrant, and we found the dynamic range was improved.

Apple also finally provided the option of shooting 24 FPS in the Camera app. Before, we had to essentially rely on Filmic Pro, so this time we only used it for the fridge and flour (slo-mo) shots. It was the only way for us to monitor and start recording with the Filmic Remote app.

Does the final footage match what you could capture with a more serious video camera like the Panasonic GH5 or a cinema monster like the Arri Alexa? No, definitely not. But Nick and Ryan summed up our thoughts well when they said, “when we look at the results, even for us as pro filmmakers, it is hard to believe it was shot on a smartphone.”

Check out the full video up top, scroll through some beautiful screen grabs below, and then visit the AmnesiArt website and YouTube Channel for even more filmmaking goodness to inspire you this Friday afternoon.

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All photos by Ryan Earl and Nick Arcivos, and used with permission.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Video: Sony a9 falls short with Canon 300mm and 400mm lenses attached

24 Jun
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Sports shooters considering Sony’s speedy a9 have one major hurdle to overcome: glass. There’s a dearth of long, fast primes available to Sony FE shooters, and it seems like using off-brand glass while you wait for Sony to catch up just isn’t a great option.

In this video, photographer Dan Watson of Learning Cameras tried both the Sigma MC-11 and Metabones Mark IV lens adapters to test how well the a9 worked when attached to the Canon EF 300mm F2.8L IS II USM and Canon EF 400mm F2.8L IS II USM.

Watson mainly wanted to test the focusing capabilities, and unfortunately, the results were somewhat disappointing.

Before you dive into the video, it’s worth pointing a few things out. Our own Rishi Sanyal has tested the focus capability of the a9 with adapted lens, and points out a couple of caveats to Watson’s otherwise solid points:

First, the performance of far off-center AF points depends on the lens. While Watson is correct in pointing out that they don’t perform well with long lenses (despite working astonishingly fast with Sony’s own 100-400 F4.5-5.6), they do work well with shorter focal lengths (we’ve had success with a Sigma 85/1.4, Canon 35/1.4, 24-70/2.8, etc.). With these wider lenses, ‘Wide’ area mode will continue tracking subjects to the extremes of the frame.

Second, Sony A-mount lenses adapted with the LA-EA3 adapter do shoot at an impressive 10 fps with autofocus, something we confirmed with the 50/1.4 (as long as you’ve updated the firmware of the adapter).* With the Metabones and Sigma adapters though, as with all Sony FE bodies, only the L drive mode offers continuous focus. And it’s actually only 2.5 fps, not the 5 fps Watson mentions (technically L is 3 fps, but it slows to 2-3 fps with continuous focus).

With that out of the way, Watson’s video is a great resource for seeing how well (or not) the a9 performs when attached to the long, fast Canon primes sports shooters love. And while single-shot focus with central points is speedy and almost 100% accurate with long adapted lenses, the lack of true subject tracking (Lock-on AF modes) or continuous focus at speeds higher than ~2.5 fps (or in video) will probably be a deal breaker for many fast-action photographers.

Once you’ve lost the impressive high speed shooting advantages Sony baked into the a9, you might as well be shooting with any other camera. Moral of the story: stick to Sony glass and hope they keep churning out new lenses at break-neck pace.

You can watch the full demo for yourself up top. And if you’re considering jumping ship from Canon to Sony, keep this information in mind – like all previous Sony bodies, you’ll only have access to the a9’s slowest continuous drive mode when you’re adapting your own glass.


* We’ve not yet confirmed the performance of off-center points with long A-mount glass.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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How a Short Versus Long Exposure Will Affect Your Landscape Images

29 May

The shutter speed is probably the factor which has the greatest impact on an image. By adjusting the exposure time by only a few stops, you’re able to completely change the appearance of an image. But what exposure time is best for landscape photography? Should you use a  long exposure or should you work with shorter ones? When will adjusting the shutter speed have the greatest impact?

In this article, I’ll share three case studies where I compare how adjusting the shutter speed has impacted the final images. I don’t believe that either is better than the other (in each case) but it’s important that you’re aware of the differences so it becomes easier to convey the story or emotions you desire.

What is a Long Exposure?

I’ve had many discussions with fellow photographers regarding the exact definition of Long Exposure. At first thought, most consider a long exposure to be an image where the clouds are dragged across the sky or moving water looks like silk or ice. However, this is judging solely based on the visual aspect of the image. Is it not still considered a long exposure if you don’t see its effect? Wouldn’t a 20-second exposure be 20 seconds no matter what?

The definition most of my photography friends have agreed upon is that a long exposure begins when you can’t take a sharp image handheld. Normally, this is at about 1/50th of a second with a wide angle lens.

Using a tripod makes it possible to have a longer exposure.

Case Study #1 – Waterfalls

Waterfalls are often ideal to start experimenting with long exposures. Since the water is moving quickly, you don’t need an extremely long exposure just to capture some motion. In fact, you’ll need a very quick shutter speed to avoid capturing any motion at all.

The choice of shutter speed has an extremely high impact on the image. You might not even need a filter to begin capturing the motion of water in your shots. However, I find waterfalls to be tricky to photograph at times because of this. The different shutter speeds have such a big impact that the entire mood (and story you tell) of your image quickly changes. So, consider what you wish to convey.

If it’s a huge waterfall with a lot of power you might want to use a quick shutter speed to capture its raw power and beauty. While a smaller waterfall might be more appealing when you use a slow shutter speed (long exposure). Experimentation is always the key when working with shutter speeds.

waterfall case study

Rjukandefossen, Norway 1/5th of a second shutter speed.

For the image above, I chose to use a shutter speed slow enough to require the use of a tripod but not so long that the water would become completely blurred. The textures in the water help build the overall atmosphere of the image and it compliments the rawness. By keeping some texture in the water, I’ve also strengthened the composition. When a longer shutter speed was used (see below), many of the lines in the foreground were lost and the flow wasn’t as natural anymore.

long exposure waterfall

Rjukandefossen, Norway 20-second exposure.

When lengthening the exposure time to 20-seconds, the image lost a lot of its raw and natural feel, which was what I wanted to convey. Now, the image has an unnatural appearance and even though it’s still visually pleasing, it’s not as interesting anymore.

A long shutter speed wasn’t ideal since the river was flowing so quickly. Had the water been slower, a 20-second exposure might have done a better job. So, when photographing a waterfall make sure that you keep in mind how quickly the water is flowing, as this will have a great impact on your choice of shutter speed.

Had I used a faster shutter speed than on the first image (for example 1/500th) the image would have a different impact yet again. Such a quick shutter speed would freeze most of the water and remove the sense of motion shown in the first image. Instead, there would have been a lot of texture in the water but no movement to compliment it. That would have resulted in a messy and, again, less appealing image.

Case Study #2 – Seascapes

When working with images that have more than one moving element (for example the sky and the water), you’ve got multiple factors to consider when choosing a shutter speed. Not only will the choice of shutter speed determine how the sky appears but it’s also crucial for the appearance of the water. In fact, since the water is what’s moving the quickest, that is where you’ll see the biggest difference (just as with the waterfalls).

For the image above, I used a shutter speed of 0.6 seconds. In the grand picture of long exposures this is still a relatively short shutter speed, and for some, it doesn’t even qualify as a long exposure. However, despite the shutter speed being only 0.6 seconds, there’s quite a lot of motion in the image. Since the waves were coming in fast the camera was able to register a significant amount of motion within that short time.

Personally, I’m a big fan of exposures between 0.5 seconds to 1.5 seconds when photographing seascapes (especially when using a low perspective like this). The shutter speed is long enough to capture the motion but it’s also fast enough that there’s still a lot of texture in the water. The lines that come as a result of the slow shutter speed do a significant job in improving the composition.

long exposure seascape

In the second image, I increased the exposure time to 30 seconds, allowing the camera to register motion for a longer period of time. As you can see, the texture that was the previous image is lost and the water has completely changed its appearance. Now it looks more like ice, or some sort of solid state.

However, the clouds are also considerably different than in the first seascape. By using a 30-second exposure the camera has also registered motion in the clouds, resulting in a more dynamic sky. When the clouds are dragged across the sky, such as above, you’ve got an extra factor to consider for your composition. In this scenario, the clouds are moving towards the horizon, creating a series of extra lines that help lead your eye through the image. Often this can be a great advantage.

I don’t believe that one is necessarily better than the other but, again, it’s important to understand how the choice of shutter speed (exposure time) will impact the image. When working with a slow shutter speed you’re introduced to several new factors (such as the helpful leading lines in the sky) and being aware of them will make the process of learning long exposure photography easier.

Case Study #3 – Generic Landscape

Once you remove the second element of motion, the choice of shutter speed becomes somewhat less crucial. Still, there will be a big difference between a 30-second exposure and a 1-second exposure if you’ve got some movement in the clouds. But the difference between a 0.5 second and 5-second exposure is less significant for a generic landscape and a seascape or waterfall photo.

It’s not uncommon for me to see someone using an ND Filter when photographing a mountain on a cloudless day. This is very common when first using filters, as you want to use them all the time. However, a 2-minute exposure won’t look any different than a 1/100th of a second exposure when there aren’t any moving elements in the image. After all, an ND filter doesn’t create motion, it registers it.

The image above is a typical example of when a long exposure wouldn’t make a big difference. I used a 1/5th second exposure time for this particular image but had I used a 30-second exposure with filters instead, it still would have looked more or less the same. Simply put, it wouldn’t have been beneficial to use a long exposure on this scene.

It isn’t until you’ve got at least one moving element that the true power of a long exposure photography appears (remember, this can be something as simple as grass moving in the wind). In the image below, you see the same scene but this time with clouds in the sky. The shutter speed I used for this image was 1/15th of a second, which means that I wasn’t able to capture any motion – yet.

short exposure generic landscape

Once clouds had appeared and there was one element of movement in the frame, a long exposure would have an impact on the image. Since the clouds were moving I was able to capture the motion and, again, create a more dynamic image.

For the image above I increased the exposure time to 30-seconds. By increasing it that much you can clearly see how the sky has changed and how the overall mood of the image has changed along with it. Unfortunately, the clouds were moving sideways. Had the clouds moved towards or away from me, the image would have greatly benefited from a long exposure and taken advantage of the leading lines that would have helped to lead the eyes towards the structure. Since the clouds were moving sideways, the extra leading lines in the image aren’t as helpful, even though they look nice.

Summary and Conclusion

After reading this article I hope you have a better understanding of how the shutter speed will affect an image and when increasing or decreasing it will be beneficial. There’s no “correct” way of doing it, and in the end, which image you prefer depends on what you’re looking for in your image. However, as I’ve mentioned multiple times, it’s extremely important that you understand how a longer or shorter shutter speed will impact the image. By understanding this, you’ll be able to save a lot of time in the field and ultimately create better images.

Remember, a slower shutter speed can affect the appearance of an image when there’s more than one moving element within the frame. A slow shutter speed is not going to make a difference when there are no moving elements.

The post How a Short Versus Long Exposure Will Affect Your Landscape Images by Christian Hoiberg appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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Sony releases short film showing off Xperia XZ Premium super-slow motion mode

12 May

Sony Mobile has released the first super-slow-motion short movie that has been completely recorded on a smartphone. All of the movie’s scenes were recorded by 120 amateur videographers from 21 countries on the Tróia peninsula near Lisbon, Portugal. The footage was shot under the direction of award-winning director Chris Cairns and using the new Motion Eye mode of the Sony Xperia XZ Premium smartphone that is capable of capturing moving images at 960 frames per second.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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