Natural Focus

my studio!

David Boag — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:43:28 +0000

Everyone has got a ’studio’

Only a few of us have a purpose built studio and the rest of us make do with a garden shed, a garage workbench or the dinning room table!

I demonstrates how YOU could easily take this picture of a toad! Take a look at my video demonstration >>>>>>

Investigate many other exciting ideas and challenges in Davids NaturalFocus video tutorial.

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Click here to view the embedded video.

Allowing water to flow

David Boag — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:23:18 +0000

Over the past few days I have been in touch with a new friend on flickr and as a result of her photography http://www.flickr.com/photos/hilaryannestephens/sets/72157619270609205/ I felt inspired to write this post about allowing water to flow.

Water has a great list of unique properties; there is nothing that can begin to equal it in the whole of creation. One of these properties is that it is the only substance that can be found easily and naturally, in the three different forms. But it is the liquid form that is the most familiar and most often referred to as water.

One of the main properties of a liquid is that it finds its own level; it flows!

As photographers we can portray the natural world in our own creative way and there are occasions when we can choose to use the movement of water for creative effect.

The scene in Switzerland to the right is almost two photographs, one could cut the image in half horizontally and have two acceptable images; and it is the bottom half that I am mainly referring to. I have allowed the water to move in the photograph which creates a flowing milky effect – ethereal and soft.

This effect is created by using a long exposure or a slow shutter speed (however you prefer to think of it).

Compare the two images below – the one on the left was using a long exposure, the right was using a fast shutter speed.

Right – The fast shutter speed (say 1/500th sec.) captured each water droplet suspended in the air.
Left – The aperture was open for a long time (say 1 sec.) and during that time the each individual droplet moved enough to create the blurred effect.

Useful thoughts

You will need a tripod – You will need to be using a very long shutter speed and there is no way that you can hold the camera steady enough without a good support.
The composition must be good – It is no good relying on the creative effect to make the picture work, it must have good composition.
Any solid objects such as rocks must be sharp – The contrast between the hard, solid, immovable rocks and the moving water is what makes these images work.
The exposure must be long – It is impossible to give a precise figure because it depends on your nearness to the water and how fast it is moving; but aim for over half a second.
It is best taken early morning or late evening – This is when the light is poor that you have greater flexibility to use long exposures.
Long exposures mean small apertures – This will provide you with great depth-of-field so there is no excuse for anything being out of focus.
A cable release will help – When using long exposures it is very easy to nudge the camera as you depress the button; a cable release will prevent that happening.

I have illustrated this effect in boulder strew rivers but anywhere water moves has potential to be treated in this way – a running tap – the movement of the lapping tide – only your imagination is the limiting factor.

Have YOU any illustrations of how YOU have used a slow shutter speed to allow water to move?

Highlight in the eye

David Boag — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:37:32 +0000

I took this picture about 25 years ago and so it was shot on 35mm transparency film. To be honest I am surprised it survived and didn’t end up in the rubbish bin, because the bird has no highlight in its eye.

The eye looks dead – empty – blank – a black hole in its head!

I always used to say (and this is still as relevant) “if the birds eye is right, then the rest of the bird is right”!

In those days we could do nothing about it, except watch the bird and press the button on the camera at the right time.

Obviously digital changes the situation.

Just roll your cursor over the bird and watch the birds eye.

It is very easy to dramatically improve a disappointing image simply by putting a highlight in the subjects’ eye.

Some people may consider this to be ‘cheating’ but in Photoshop we use expressions like ‘burn’, ‘dodge’ and ‘crop’. Where did these terms originate? Answer – in the darkroom of expert monochrome printers! They would ‘burn’ an area to make it darker and ‘dodge’ an area to create a highlight.

Looking through Flickr I see many pictures that could do with a little bit of ‘tender loving care’ to bring the best out of them.

So how about trying the same in Photoshop if you happen to have a picture of an animal with a ‘dead’ eye?

Start by making a copy of the image – by working on a copy there is no danger of ruining an image, because the original is safely in another folder.
Zoom into the eye to 100% – if you go too close you can’t see the overall effect.
Select the ‘dodge’ tool and I usually set the ‘exposure’ to around 30% – if you use a higher exposure it’s harder to keep control.
Set the ‘brush size’ to about a quarter of the size of the eye – so quite small.
As you carefully sweep the dodge tool over the eye, try to imagine the natural effect of the sun or light sky – therefore it is going to be the top of the eye because light comes from above.
You may need to use the dodge tool several times to get the best effect depending on the subject.
Be careful if you can see both of the creatures’ eyes that the highlights compliment each other – not boss-eyed!

That is only one way of creating a highlight and you may easily discover another way that suits you better – I have several different methods that I use depending on the subject and effect I want to create.

Monochrome workers always took a pride in their darkroom techniques, why shouldn’t we take equal pride in getting the best out of our images?

Painted ladies dancing in my garden!

David Boag — Thu, 28 May 2009 13:52:36 +0000

I cant be the only person to notice the vast numbers of Painted Lady butterflies that have arrived into the UK over the past couple of days. The pyracantha in the front of our house is covered with them.

It is remarkable to think that they almost certainly originated from Africa and having hatched only a week or so ago, took flight and headed to our wet and windy shores. One cannot help questioning the sanity of the creatures!

I guess most of us would think of the American Monarch butterfly if we think of migrating butterflies: a truly remarkable story. However, in some ways the Painted Lady has a more arduous journey, as it has to navigate the sea, where it certainly can’t rest. But unlike the Monarch, it is not a regular or predictable flight. Some years we may see comparatively few but in other years huge numbers arrive to feed in my garden and rest on the warm paving slabs.

They will breed and multiply but probably none will survive our winter and so next year there is nothing we can do but wait and see if a favourable wind brings us another influx to brighten our gardens and countryside.

Has anyone else noticed large numbers and if so where do you live?

The magic of ‘depth-of-field’

David Boag — Sun, 24 May 2009 18:59:10 +0000

By way of introduction to this subject you may wish to roll your cursor over the cowslips image to the right.

If you cannot see the difference then there is no point in worrying about depth-of-field but if you have an opinion about which image you prefer then you have made a creative decision. It is not a question of which one is ‘best’ – there is no ‘best’ they are just different and illustrate things in a different way.

I was privilaged to be involved with a guy that asked for some help regarding his photography. We were talking about equipment and I asked if he had a depth-of-field preview button on his camera. He smiled and said that he had only just discovered it the other day.

He was new to photography but many people that have been enjoying photography for years never use it! Why not? Playing with depth-of-field is one of the most creative tools we have with a camera.

I automatically check depth of field for nearly every image I shoot. That is because I like to make creative decisions rather than allowing the camera to do its own thing.

Points to ponder
Depth-of-field is the distance in front and behind the precise point of focus that is acceptably sharp.
Depth-of-field is controlled by the size of the lens aperture.
Aperture size is measured by f stops.
The smaller the aperture (e.g. f22) the greater the depth-of-field.
The larger the aperture (e.g. f2.8) the narrower the depth-of-field.
Depth-of-field is greatest with a wide-angle lens.
Depth-of-field is minimal with a long telephoto lens.
Depth-of-field can be miniscule when in very close with a macro lens.
Set your camera on aperture priority (probably the ‘A’ setting) select different apertures on the same subject and see the creative effect of depth-of-field.

In this situation I used a small aperture (f22). The great depth-of-field meant that the spider became confused with the background.

In this situation I used a large aperture (f4). The narrow depth-of-field meant that the background was thrown out of focus leaving the spider to stand out.

Do you regularly use depth-of-field in a creative way?

Do you find this sort of post stimulates your creativity?