Mar 01
Posted: under Wheeler Images, photography.
Tags: flash, lighting, photography, sailboat, Wheeler Images
I tend to use my flash sparingly. I even have a SB600 that I have used very little. This is not because of any kind of “anti-flash” stance. I DO think the camera flash can overwhelm a photo, and as a result I try to make use of the light I have [...] [...more]
I tend to use my flash sparingly. I even have a SB600 that I have used very little. This is not because of any kind of “anti-flash” stance. I DO think the camera flash can overwhelm a photo, and as a result I try to make use of the light I have near me (ie “Ambient Light). I also know the flash can be an important tool, but it’s not one I understand as well as I would like.
Here are a couple of photos of my husband working on our boat at night.
| The photo with the flash helps capture the mast on the left and the boat stand on the right. The shop light and my husband are given the same or less importance as those two objects. |
Next we have a shot with a covered flash and a slower shutter speed. The shop light does all the lighting work. |
 Photo using Flash |
 Photo using Ambient Light |
Now, because I am me, I can point out a number of items wrong with the second photo. Mostly that the focus is VERY soft. But I think this photo does a better job of emphasizing the important elements of the photograph and minimizes those elements (the mast and the boat stand) that are of secondary importance. This was actually taken with my first digital camera and it was NOT a DSLR. If had a tripod or had done anything to improve the stability of the camera when taking this photo, I would have been very happy with this shot. The camera is a tool, and getting creative with it is a big part of the fun of photography.
Jan 17
Posted: under Wheeler Images.
Tags: boat, photography, sailboat, water, Wheeler Images
I was feeling a little desperate coming up to Christmas. We needed to get our Christmas cards out soon and in my semi-obsessive, back-asswards kind of way I was bound and determined to have my 2nd year with a sailing-themed photograph. Couldn’t I just find a Christmas card with a sailboat on it? [...] [...more]
I was feeling a little desperate coming up to Christmas. We needed to get our Christmas cards out soon and in my semi-obsessive, back-asswards kind of way I was bound and determined to have my 2nd year with a sailing-themed photograph. Couldn’t I just find a Christmas card with a sailboat on it? No, I wanted to do my own thing…
And this is what I came up with.
To get the lighting right, I used a tripod. I wanted to use the soft illumination that came from the tree, and hid some of the tree lights behind the sail so it would be nicely backlit, but that meant that the front of ornament would be not be as well lit. So I took some prelit garland that used that same type of lights as the tree and plugged it in. During the long exposure I directed (as best I could) the light from the garland to the hull of the ornament. I got this idea from photographers who “paint with light”.
I also merged together multiple exposures. By “multiple” I mean two or three…I’m not high tech HDR girl, but I’ve come to appreciate what can be done when you can pick from the best elements of differently exposed photographs. I was able to have brighter lights and more intense colors.
It’s really pretty amazing what we have to do with cameras and computers to recreate what our eyes do naturally. I may touch on this in another post that talks about white balance.
Final touches included minimizing the impact of the electric cords, straightening the boat so it was level, and other small tweaky things.
The water effect was done with the help of the “Flood” filter from Flaming Pear. Once I had the “Hey, put the boat in water” epiphany, that actually was pretty easy.
