Nov 12, 2014 | Wildlife Photography
It’s been a few weeks since getting back from Africa and I’m still getting through all my images from the Safari. At this point, I’ve forgotten which drive I ended up with a horrible dust spot on my sensor (Sensor Gel was a life saver!), so I’m checking all my images. Even though I was shooting D4s / 800mm wide open, this one dust spot is HUGE! Well, got to the lion shots and I started seeing all these additional, new spots and I started to mumble to myself. I hate dealing with dust in post … boring! I’m in ACR doing this, kinda machine like looking at the black and white outlines on the prowl for dust. I then turned off the preview to realize that the dust spots I was so diligently removing weren’t dust spots at all, but flies! So, I had to go back and undue all the “dust” spots I removed so the flies can live. Argh!
Oct 30, 2014 | Wildlife Photography
I have a whole new appreciation and admiration for the very endangered African Wild Dog. No, never once felt threatened by the Dogs or any critter at anytime on safari. This adult who’s pack had just made two kills, was as well fed as Wild Dogs can be. It’s one of those moments I look for in my files after a shoot like this where I’ve laid down on the hammer and taken 50+ images in a few seconds. Shooting the D4s / 800mm, it’s the tilt of the right ear that connects with my warp sense of humor. As I go through my images, I just see things like this and most of the time, just say the caption with an inside voice. Then there are times I let it out.
Oct 28, 2014 | Wildlife Photography
We have such marvelous tools available to us, but in order to select the right one for the task at hand, we have to first ask, “The problem is …” and then come up with the answer. We all approach our photography differently, that’s how it is supposed to be! And while that is true, there are many aspects of the craft we all have in common. One of those is this thing called exposure. The light and how it falls on our subject and then is related by our meter to the pixels is a magical and maddening process at times. There are many aspects to this formula but the one that is the hardest for most to wrangle with is the light. While we can see with our eyes/brain a range of 14 stops of light with a single glance, most cameras can only hold detail in 5 stops, and a couple, 6 stops, in a single click. And I know right there, in that one sentence, I just lost many of you. That’s why I think I was flooded with questions from the confusion generated by my post yesterday. To get the full, long winded explanation to this, I encourage you to get our FREE Photography FUNdementals. But here’s the abridge version.
If we were to measure the light using a spot meter (this is a “IF” proposition, I DO NOT use a spot meter) falling on the top and front of this Leopard, keeping a constant f/stop, we would see the shutter speed change by just less than 5 stops. That tells us we have a 5 stop range of light on the subject. The camera can hold all the detail in one click. The background, which is shadow, if we measured it the same way using the top of the Leopard’s head and just the background behind the head, we would see we have a 7 stop range in the shutter speeds. And because of this, the background shadow is going black, loosing detail in that busy bush. I have no doubt this very, very, very brief description of the problem is just as confusing to many. That is to be expected because we are trying to use words to describe a visual issue that manifests itself technically. Yuck! That’s why in the 90’s I came up with the Teddy Bear Exercise in my own process of mastering this very important part of our visual storytelling. In grasping this limited 5 stop range of light, you have three important variables: Light, Camera, You! Exposure = Emotion but to get to this point in your photography, you must master light, camera and your storytelling. So before you try to grasp how the D4s works with a 6 stop of light of light, master how your camera you have now works and communicates light through exposure to tell your story. There is no race, time is your friend, you just gotta remember to find the right answer for your photography when you ask, the problem is …
Oct 28, 2014 | Photography, Wildlife Photography
Twenty years of shooting and submitting 35mm slides to clients, not cropping an image after it was taken is firmly planted in my storytelling consciences. I “compose” and tell the visual story within the borders of the viewfinder, arrange the elements so the eye sees the subject and then moves through the frame ending back up at, the subject. Part of that arranging of elements and that path of travel is done with lens selection and exposure. And that’s influenced by the environmental factors that have unfolded while I was taking the photo. Simply put, the photo for me is a glorified memory, a couple steps up from those photos you put on the refrigerator with a magnet. That comes from my own personal desire to share the wild world I am so fortunate to witness with my camera with you, the world. So that brings up a question that popped into my mind this past week looking at the photos of another photographer. I asked the photographer, “Does size matter?”
This photographer cropped in post everyone of her photos, every single one! After realizing this, I asked why, why did she crop every single image? She said, “Because I like them better.” That’s a really valid answer and one I have no comment to. If you like it, then to me, that’s a done deal. But for me, the cropping was so random and often, created such an awkward visual path, I finally asked if I could see the whole image, the uncropped photo. When she showed me the first uncropped image, I saw this wonderful, wonderful photo. We spent a whole lot of time talking about why it was so wonderful and at the end, I asked why she cropped this marvelous photo down to a piece of &$*#()? She said something to the effect, “I thought that’s what we were supposed to do to get a big subject size.” That sent my mind a spinning, cycling through all the cropped images I’ve seen over the years (it drives photographers nuts when I look at their photo and say, “You cropped this didn’t you?” It often shows, badly.)
Subject size in the frame, that seems to be the core reason why photographers crop their images. There is nothing wrong with that, I am not trying to have an open season on the debate about cropping. I am hoping though to start a debate within your own mind if you’re a post cropper, especially for just the sake of subject size in the frame. I put up these two examples of a Little Bee-Eater as an example of my point. The top frame is the full sensor, FX, and the bottom image is with HSC, what most think of DX crop, both shot in the camera (shot with D4s / 800mm w/tc-.25). The top frame, you can’t help but see the subject, there is a path for the eye to travel and the story of the open African Woodland habitat in which we were working is being told. You see basically the same thing in the bottom frame, but the openness of that habitat to me is lost. Now why you can’t help see the subject in the top frame, well I wrote a book, Captured, to explain that. All I want to do here is to make you think about why you crop in post rather than compose in the viewfinder? Can your photography improve if you ask yourself that question next time the camera goes to your eye? It’s your story, your memory, you need to do it so you like it. Make the most of all the tools you have especially the heart and perhaps, size doesn’t matter.
Oct 27, 2014 | Wildlife Photography
There is a rule in wildlife photography I follow pretty faithfully. “Don’t shoot critters against a flat gray sky.” The reason is pretty simple. If you expose for the critter the sky is a wash of gross white. Yuck! Expose for the sky and the critter is a black shape at best. Yuckie! The reason is real simple, range of light. The range is too great so there has to be a compromise with either the highlights or shadows taking it in the shorts. Step in the D4s (or D4 or Df). These cameras can capture a six stop range of light, one stop more that other bodies and that one extra stop can make all the difference in the world. What is hard to grasp is how you get this six stop ability to kick in (and remember to use it!). You can see the difference in these two photos of a Leopard laying in a tree with its kill. The gray sky is a killer and shooting normally, the subject is lost in shadow. The gray sky just looks boring at best. But when you dial in overexposure, yes overexposure, totally the opposite of what common sense tells you to do, these three bodies hold the exposure in the highlights (the sky) and opens up the shadows. This is huge to me and is just another reason why I love these bodies.
Is there any other such “tricks” other bodies can do coming up with the same results? I know of one that in theory should come up with the same basic results in a slightly different way. While on safari there were a couple of folks shooting with the D810. To them I suggested shooting in the Flat Picture Control setting using the Matrix Highlight metering. This combo should provide nearly the same results though not shooting with the same range. Those who tried the combo liked the results and they were better than not using it. As long as you remember that photography is all about telling a story with light and exposure = emotion, these tools are at your bidding and do work magic!
