Jun 29, 2009 | Landscape Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/startrail004.swf, 585, 414 [/swf]
I few emails have come in of late asking if I’ve shot any startrails with the D3x and if so, what I thought of the noise and quality of the final images. I have done quite a few with the D3x and 28f1.4 and quite happy with the results. But last night I thought I would switch things up a little and do a trail with the 24PC-E lens. It’s nothing fancy, a simple 5 hours, 100 image trail from the deck of our home.
The D3x is plugged into 120 via the EH-6 (luxury of doing it at home) with the timing being done with the MC-36. The settings on the D3x are M, f5.6 at ISO100. On the MC-36 they are Delay=0, Long=4min, Intvl=1sec and N=—. The 100 files are then processed using Image Stacker. Being it’s summer and so many are out and the nights are warm, give it a try if you never have. Keep in mind if you want dark skies and to see more stars, city lights and moon need to be minimal at best. You want the classic startrail of a circle of trails, point the camera towards the North Star. This particular trail, the camera was point due south. As to the D3x, it does a great job with startrails, the 24×30 print is very impressive.
Photo captured by D3x, 24PC-E on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jun 26, 2009 | Landscape Photography
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A very common and good question is “what do you take in the field?” When I say a 2nd body on my shoulder, I often get a funny look as if to ask why lug another body in the field. We are an amazingly fortunate group, us photographers. We are able to venture out and see things that many can’t imagine exist. This is especially true for wildlife photographers. And while we focus on the critter in the viewfinder, I often, sometimes to the detremint of the critter I’m chasing, miss that photo just enjoying the world around me. That’s why I have the 2nd body on my shoulder. A dabble of light strikes the landscape for only so long and then moves on. It’s those moments that are special and the 2nd body is very much apart of the gear that goes in the field with me.
Photo captured by D3x, 24-70AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jun 23, 2009 | Landscape Photography
It was once said of me that I photograph the world only through a wide angle lens. It’s true that I see the natural world as a grand and mysterious place and I often use wide angles to explore and relate my discoveries to others. I encourage others to likewise explore their world with wide angles, stretching their use beyond the realms of the basic landscape. The gift of the wide angle to photography is more than a mere stretching of our photographic horizon. They stretch our imagination!
Becoming absorbed in a panorama, our imaginations roam its every inch and very fiber. This is one of the greatest attractions to landscape portraits. How many times have you been lost gazing through your viewfinder at the grandeur captured by your wide angle? How many times when the film gets back, has that feeling not been preserved? The simple application of a wide angle doesn’t guarantee a great landscape photograph!
Our vision is captured on a two dimensional plane, film. To be effective communicators though, we must communicate in a three dimensional language! To accomplish this, our photographs must include a definite fore, middle and background. These three distinctive planes create a visual depth to our photograph. They provide a visual space for our minds to roam, to step into and explore the scene as if really standing on the threshold of the vista. But we need to go beyond this basic building block in our landscape portraits to really inspire others by our vision. We need to use lighting and other techniques to bring drama to our scene.
We start by understanding our limitations, physics. In the 35mm format, the 50mm lens is the “normal” lens (that “closest to our vision”) which has an angle of view of 46°. The effective focal length of a typical eye though is 17mm! This focal length combined with the curved retina produces an angle of view of approximately 180°! Photographically, the fisheye lens with its 180° coverage is the only lens that comes close to our binocular vision. Now examine the angle of view of the wide angles available to us. The Nikon 14mm has 114°, 15mm has 110°, 18mm has 100°, 20mm has 94°, 24mm has 84°, 28mm has 74° and 35mm has 62° of coverage. Adding to this angle of view disparity is that our eyes have about nine times more depth-of-field than they do. The challenge waiting for us when picturing that majestic panorama is to get all we see communicated on film.
Our wide angle technique starts with understanding what is the subject. The “landscape” itself is normally not the “subject.” Usually, there is an element in the landscape that originally attracted our attention to the scene. Whether it’s the grandeur of an incredible sky or the backlighting on a small bush, something stopped us in our tracks. Because our vision is so wide, we take in thousands and thousands of elements giving life to that one subject. We must isolate all our sensory input to focus on just that subject. We must photographically isolate that subject, making it pop to communicate about it and the world in which it lives.
This is where deciding how wide is wide enough strikes fear in many. Remembering my first and only rule when using wide angles should help overcome this. Get Rid Of The Junk ! The relationship of subject and its world is how we select the right wide angle for the photograph. You must be honest to yourself and the scene, deciding what elements really communicate what the subject is. For example, if your subject is a small bush against a rocky slope, what does the tree branch framing the top of the photograph have to do with that bush? The drive to find something in the photograph to “frame” comes from not understanding what is the subject. It also comes from trying to kill apparent dead space. Of course there are always exceptions. But eliminating the junk in the photograph will make communicating about the subject much clearer, the photograph having greater impact!
When helping other photographers better define their landscape portraits, there is one thing I commonly suggest to help improve it. I recommend they move their tripods closer to the subject and lower to the foreground. No matter if working on the edge of the Grand Canyon or the plains of Montana , there is always enough room to get closer. This technique accomplishes a number of things, mainly eliminating a lot of unwanted elements confusing the issue of what is the subject. No matter the focal length, this technique improves a photograph. It also heightens the importance of the foreground (which may or may not contain the subject), thereby giving our photograph a visual depth.
What one element do all panoramas no matter how big or small have in common? They all have a sweeping area of land connecting where we’re standing to the horizon. Often in getting close and low to the foreground, we tilt the lens downwards. This “exaggerates” the middleground, the sweeping area connecting our foreground and background. The wide angle without any help from us will capture this, but we want more. We want to visually hit the viewer of our photograph on the head and say, “Look, this is really grand!” Providing an element or the subject in the foreground increases this feeling. This increases the visual depth of the photograph and even when photographing a physically small patch of land, can make it seem vast. This also de-emphasizes unwanted elements that we cannot eliminate from the scene.
Getting close and low helps communicate even more. Wide angles will make elements far away appear small no matter how large they are in reality. By having a large element in the foreground, we are emphasizing this size difference, reinforcing visual depth. We also create a certain tension in the photograph, a mental path for the viewer to travel back and forth through the photograph over the sweeping middleground. It’s often in these travels that the other elements that make the photograph unique are discovered. It’s not hard to see why capturing those stunning landscapes takes more than just attaching a wide angle and shooting.
One major technique for capturing everything in focus in that sweeping landscape is Hyperfocal Distance. The Encyclopedia of Photography defines Hyperfocal Distance as “Maximum depth of field in any situation is given by use of the hyperfocal distance set as focused distance on the focusing scale of the lens.” The gist of the theorem is Hyperfocal Distance’s has the ability to render everything, everything, in a photograph sharp.
Applying HFD requires first focusing on the closest element in the foreground included in the photograph. Second, take note of the footage on the distance scale for that distance of the element just focused on. Next, turn the focus ring as if focusing on infinity, stopping when the distance mark just determined in step two is opposite the f/stop mark on the depth-of-field scale (missing on many AF wide angles) for the aperture in use. This must be set on the mark on the minimum focus side of the scale and not on the infinity side. With this, the lens is set at Hyperfocal Distance. Everything from the closest element to infinity will be in focus.
This theorem can come across as confusing and complicated. Just reading about doesn’t help learning it like actually working through the procedure in the field. You can do like many (including myself), focus on the middleground and close the aperture down all the way. While not a perfect solution, it is a quick and dirty way of getting it right when time is against you. Hey, there are times when you can’t get the camera set up fast enough to capture that unique cloud or fleeting last ray of light to properly dial in every technique by the book. When time allows though, it sure can help to take advantage of all the tools and techniques available to us.
The most obvious difference (and probably the biggest) when comparing images taken with different focal length is the size of the subject. When selecting a wide angle, consideration for subject size is just as important as how much of the scene is to be captured. The wider the lens, the smaller the subject and vice versa. When the moon is out, madness seems to strike photographers. They go through incredible contortions to include it in the frame. When shooting a landscape with a wide angle, the moon will be no more than a mere white spec though (looks like a mistake from the lab). This is a time when honest consideration of what the real subject is becomes vital to success. If the subject is distant and small, consider using a longer lens, 28mm or 35mm. If the subject is large but still far away, consider using a 24mm to 35mm. And if the subject is large and close, try any of the really wide lenses.
Those new to wide angle are often concerned with distortion. Let me ask one question, who will ever know if what you photographed was straight? If you are photographing buildings that’s one thing, but we’re talking about landscapes here. How many have seen a perfectly straight tree? Aren’t most of them imperfect, leaning in some way? What land mass, fence line or shrub is straight? The point is, even if distortion is present, who will know? This one problem stops many from ever trying ultra wides or fisheyes when it shouldn’t. Test yourself and look at the photographs with this article, can you tell which ones were taken with the fisheye? Did you know that if you place the horizon line through the middle of the frame, the fisheye’s affect on the horizon line is nullified?
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One technical problem inherent with wide angles is wide exposure ranges. Including the entire world in a photograph can bring with it a seven stop or greater exposure range. Landscape portraits are easiest when taken during those magical hours of light, early morning and late evening. It’s during these hours that the exposure range is naturally compacted within the general realm of film. These are also the hours when light has the greatest amount of mood and drama. The warm color and long shadows can often create a photograph where there was none before. It can also be fleeting, gone before the camera can ever be set up and fired. Never take for granted the importance of light in making or breaking a landscape photograph!
The capturing of light is the true essence of photography. In landscape portraits, that’s especially true. Generally, we need a certain amount of contrast, shadows, to visually communicate shape, distance and depth in a scene. That contrast can be effective when very low and we can see detail in the shadows. It can also be effective when the shadows are inky black. Often in landscapes, shadows which fall at an angle to the scene are the most dramatic. Using shadows to isolate subjects, eliminates unwanted elements and creates visual depth. This is a very important use of light to communicate. Volumes can easily be written about light. But for this article and this application, I feel understanding shadows and shadow control is important.
An important tool in compacting exposure is the split graduated neutral density filter. They come in many forms; Tiffen manufactures both square glass and screw-in, rotating frame versions. The idea behind them all is the same: hold back exposure on one half of the photograph while normally exposing the other half. Generally, these filters are used to underexpose the sky since it is normally the brightest in a scene. Bringing it into the exposure range of the film, the foreground is correctly exposed then. But the filter can be turned to add drama and give direction to the lighting, even if there is none. Since it underexposes by two stops at the darkest part of its filtration (they come in 1 and 3 stop as well), this can be used to darken a portion of the photograph. This in itself can add visual depth to a photograph.
With all these techniques, ideas and tools, is anything carved in granite? Not even! Mother nature has created such a tremendous variety that anything is possible. Leading lines in a scene has been a common theme in landscape portraits since the dawn of photography. Light itself can change or make its own rules. A scene that one moment can look like ….. can the next minute be the photograph of a lifetime, transformed simply by the light. So never pigeon hole your wide angle or imagination to what I’ve or anyone else has written!
The photographs that accompany this article have a purpose, to visually illustrate the strengths and difference of various focal lengths. No matter the focal length of your wide angle, 18mm, 24mm or 35mm, or a wide angle zoom, all these techniques apply. I would love to say that when you have a scene containing X, Y, and Z you must use this focal length. But it doesn’t work that way. The spectacular panoramas of Mono Lake serve to visually illustrate how various focal lengths communicate differently. Notice in them how much is included in a scene and how small or large elements are rendered. Studying the photographs of others is still a very valid method of learning more about our own photographs. I hope these photographs open up doors to your wide angle imagination and stretch it to the limit.
The subject, the true subject, will always be what dictates the lens to be used. That’s a limiting factor enough, I surely don’t want to strap your imagination further with my thoughts. But rather, I’d like you to use your wide angle to its fullest to help you stretch your imagination, make your own rules. The world is a grand and glorious place, one in which we are uniquely suited to render and express to others. Take what is written here and make it the first word in exploration with wide angles. Make the final word those beautiful pictorials that bring to life the magic of the landscape portrait!
Jun 23, 2009 | Landscape Photography
…Let Your Imagination Loose!
How far can your imagination stretch? Can it take you on a magical journey to the horizon and back, making stops along the way to explore all the glorious wonders you might pass? It’s the invitation into that journey and the path it takes that makes the great landscape photographs great. That invitation all begins with a click of a button as the imagination, passion and talent of the person behind the camera are captured in a fraction of time. Are you such a photographer? Would you like to be such a landscape photographer? I think that when you explore landscape photography with a digital camera and use its unique tools, you can take others on your journey of imagination and passion!
How can a change in mediums take your landscape photography to such levels? It really depends on the person behind the camera and their knowledge of the medium to make the vast improvements. The key to why digital can make a difference is because it places no bars on your imagination; you can capture what you see with your eyes and mind. I can honestly say that the switch to digital has radically improved my own photography. This is how I make the most of the magic of digital in my landscape photography.
The Monitor
What’s affectionately called Chimping (so named after folks heard some photographers at a US Open making ooh…aah sounds when looking at their monitors), looking at your newly created image on the camera’s monitor is essential feedback to success in landscape photography. I’m not talking about looking at the monitor to see your exposure or color, but rather selective chimping to see what you can improve in your photograph. How can looking at an image on the monitor improve your landscape photography?
Just taking your eye away from the viewfinder is a start. The personal attachment photographers form with their image while looking through the viewfinder can be a powerful one. For example, we typically attach our widest lens when going after that spectacular landscape. We look through the viewfinder and see all of that view in the viewfinder and then click away. In order to show that grandeur in our photo though, we have to eliminate all the junk that the ultra wide captures, which for most is incredibly difficult to do when looking through the viewfinder. But when that image appears on the monitor, that junk smacks you right in the face. Recognizing it, taking the appropriate measures such as changing camera angle, focal length, depth of field or any combination of these or other techniques can eliminate the junk and capture the beauty you’re trying to communicate. But using the monitor effectively goes beyond just this.
I rarely run across a photographer who doesn’t have a polarizer in their camera bag, but correctly using a polarizer for most is a real challenge. Typically, the polarizer is attached and rotated until the sky turns blue. That’s not really what the polarizer is meant to do (though at times that can be an aid). The polarizer is meant to remove reflections and in the case of landscape photography, we use the polarizer to remove the reflection of the blue sky from our subject so the bright, vibrant colors are captured by the film. Many have a hard time seeing this removal of blue reflection, which is where the monitor comes in. You can take a series of four images, each one with the polarizer being rotated 90 degrees. You can then look at these four images on your monitor and instantly see the before and after images, seeing the effect the polarizer has. Until you learn to see the polarizer’s effect through the viewfinder, this is a great learning tool that only digital offers.
Before you go out and think that the monitor is the next best thing to sliced bread, realize it has flaws. You cannot, I repeat, you cannot judge correct exposure or color by looking at the monitor! A great example is using a monitor (with Highlight Warning turned off) to determine if you’re correctly using a split graduated neutral density filter. You carefully slide the filter in the right position, it looks perfect in the viewfinder and you click the photo. You quickly look at the monitor and see you’ve made the top of the image too dark and the bottom of the image too light. Most make the mistake of adjusting the filter according to the monitor and not until they get back to the computer and the calibrated monitor do they realize the camera monitor lied to them and then it’s too late. (Having a calibrated monitor is essential in the quest for the perfect landscape.)
The camera monitor is essential and great for looking at the placement of elements in the photograph. In checking for correct polarization or the presence of vignetting, the monitor can’t be beat. But the monitor’s greatest benefit to the digital landscape photographer is learning light and exposure! Exposure? I just said you can’t judge proper exposure by using the monitor. What gives?
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Blinkies: A Landscape Photographer’s Best Friend!
What in the heck are blinkies and more importantly, what can they do for your photography? You will only find blinkies (that’s what I call them), or more commonly called Highlight Warning, on digital cameras. Blinkies visually indicate the areas of a photograph where the exposure is beyond the range of the film. Blinkies literally blink black and white at you. You have to turn the blinkies on to make them flash, but when this feature of your monitor preview is active, you will know instantly and visually where you have an exposure problem!
Blinkies are a visual clue to exposure problems. You visually can see exactly where in your image you have lighting problems. There are no numbers to decipher, no Histograms to analyze, just black blotches that blink at you, telling you your pixels are saying, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch!
Digital has exposure latitude just like conventional film and when you go beyond that range, you literally will have no information, zero, which is what causes the blinkies. If the exposure range is extreme, you could suffer not only from over exposure but also pixel bloom. But you don’t have to worry about any of this if you have Highlight Warning (blinkies) active and you know to look for them. Because when you see blinkies you then know you have a problem with exposure.
Going back to the split graduated neutral density filter, it’s a snap to use it using the monitor with blinkies active. Take your first image when you think you need to use the filter and then look at the monitor. Blinkies will occur in those areas where there are highlights blown out; blinkies are the area of the image that must have the help of that split filter. Now attach that split graduated neutral density filter, slide it down and take the next photo. If you’ve done it right you now have no blinkies and you have a technically perfect exposure (which might not be the same as the perfect exposure, but that’s another article). If you still have blinkies, adjust your filter accordingly. With digital, you know instantly if you’re doing it right or wrong. You can take blinkies to another level in creating the perfect landscape, which takes us into the digital darkroom.
There are certain situations where there is no way, no matter what tools, techniques and talents we might bring that we can capture in just one image the exposure range our brain is exposing on our mind. A perfect example is a waterfall. When photographing waterfalls, our subject is the falling water. Photographing them in no direct light, before the sun even rises, there is no way we can capture the highlights of our subject, the water, and the shadows of the world around it, in just one image. This is not a problem with digital.
We take our first image at the proper exposure for the whole scene and then look at the monitor and see what blinkies appear. With the camera on a tripod and locked into place, we dial in exposure compensation to properly expose for just the highlights and take a second photo. We check our results on the monitor and if we’ve dialed in the correct exposure comp, we have no blinkies. We now have two images, pin registered by the very nature of digital that we can now combine in the digital darkroom to have a full tonal print, preserving all highlight detail of our subject.
Blinkies are the most magical way for any photographer to learn light and exposure. Since light is what makes the landscape before us magical, it’s the perfect marriage of technology and talent!
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The Digital Effect
With the advantages that digital brings to landscape photography, I’m always saddened when I hear a photographer fret over the digital effect on ultra wides. Digital cameras by their nature change the effective focal length of a lens so an ultra wide is not as ultra wide on a digital camera. While this is true, it should not stop the digital photographer from capturing the perfect landscape image. All that is really required to make it work is that a PHOTOGRAPHER be behind the camera! The digital effect does not stop the imagination from stretching or the invitation from being sent!
Merely attaching an ultra wide does not guarantee the perfect landscape image anyways. Being able to truly look at the image in the viewfinder, include important elements and exclude the junk as I’ve already mentioned is essential. When you can’t do that in the viewfinder, the monitor can help. But when it comes to the digital factor and effective focal length, it’s up to you the photographer and your imagination that limits what you capture, not the camera body! I think digital brings way more to the landscape photographer that out weighs by tons anything it might seem to take away!
Great landscape photographs contain many elements. First and foremost is light as light brings shape, depth and drama to our world. As visual communicators we take advantage and manipulate light and the elements it touches to capture in the split second of the shutter the image of a lifetime. When you combine your talent, imagination and passion with the tools digital brings to landscape photography, you’re inviting others to travel on the journey you made when you clicked that shutter. With a photographer behind the camera, the digital landscape lets the imagination loose!
Jun 17, 2009 | Landscape Photography
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There are those days in this business when everyone just wants to rain on your parade. That’s just the nature of the business. As my dear friend Roger likes to remind me, “Pioneers always have arrows in their back.” Fortunately these days don’t last long, that’s the great side of photography.
Case in point, we’re up in Reno, NV for the Reno Air Race photog school, now a annual event we so look forward to. Here we get to not only photograph gorgeous planes, but spend time with great friends, friends we made through photography. We started off the event with a great dinner with Scott Diussa & Bill Fortney, great friends who take the edge of any day and put a silver lining to everything. It’s truly one of the blessings of photography that just doesn’t get highlighted enough.
The photo above is a photo taken in the US of Canada. It’s the edge of a storm that we found after being stuck in rain for hours and then by chasing the light, the photography began. That’s how it works, you just gotta get through the rain and you’ll find that silver lining!
Photo captured by D3x, 200-400VR on Lexar UDMA digital film
