[ Photographing the seabed clarity ]

I take the example of shooting locations in the waters of Semporna, in the Sulu archipelago, Sabah, Malaysia.
Samporna beach is always calm, with small waves, a feature of this beach. In fact, virtually no wind waves caused the sea, because the location of islands in the middle of the ocean.
With these circumstances we can take pictures up to 600 meters from the edge of the beach (in this shallow area). As an illustration, at the time this picture was taken, the surface water level is only 1.5 meters or adult chest height.
to note are:

* Consideration of time
* Execution
* Additional Tools
* Lighting
* Diaphragm & speed

1. Consideration of time
shooting the morning, around 07.00 am local time, with the hope to be able to take advantage of the morning sun lighting side.

2. Execution
Done with handheld shooting, and be careful when stepping in the water to avoid camera spray. When a composition and the ideal point shooting, I set the aperture to maximize exposure to the still can be done with the handheld. I had wanted to impose use f/22 and gained speed 1 / 89 seconds, with the consideration that I could get a maximum depth of field of the boat as a foreground to infinity ..

3. Additional equipment
Warm CPL I use to manage water and a little reflection to maintain warm colors. Warm CPL played to get seabed visible in the foreground, tpi at the same time I also want to keep the light side for the house and the clouds. Finally my CPL tilted position (not perpendicular) to get the two effects mentioned above.

Speculation from my camera are:

Camera: Nikon D90
Lenses: Nikkor 18-200 VR f/3.5-5.6 G
Focal Length: 18 mm
ISO: 200
Speed: 1 / 100 sec
Apperture: f/20, 0 EV
WB: Direct Sunlight
Filter: Hoya CPL Warm
Metering: Matrix
Location: Semporna waters, in the Sulu archipelago, Sabah, Malaysia.

4. Lighting
Photography lighting conditions are perfect, because the sun is 90 degrees from the left, which is an ideal way for our CPL play optimally.

5. Diaphragm and Speed
As seen in the distance a child rowing boat, toward the house, I anticipate the directions and create a composition which I feel fit for the boat and his home, but still has a blank space on the left for the boat when it later passed. For more "secure" speed boat, my diaphragm down to f/20 and speed 1 / 100 second, which is estimated to be enough to freeze the boat.

* I say many thanks for the knowledge I got from your book ... thank you ... you JhonTefon is my inspiration.

source : Johntefon's secret of digital manipulation.

Photographing Cotton Soft Water

[ Photographing Cotton Soft Water ]

Shooting conditions, especially side lighting at sunset, is a favorite when I ligthing landscape pictures, because in addition to a side lighting (main lighting) from the sun which makes the dimension of the subject increased, we also will have the effect of sunlight reflected by the atmosphere of air layer, which will also help raise the subject of detail, especially for the midtones.

At the same time like this we will get the color and dimension of the beautiful sky.
Techniques must be used for landscape photography that I use Hyperfocal Distance here. Manually set the camera autofocus and put focus on the hyperfocal distance I will get the sharpness (depth of field) the maximum from the foreground to infinity.

My camera settings as follows :

Camera : Nikon D90

Lens : Nikkor 17-35 f/2.8 AF

Focal Length : 17mm

ISO : 100

Speed : 6 seconds

Apperture : f/22

Filter : ND 8 and Gradual ND 9 Hard Edge

Support tool : Tripod and Realease cabel

To reduce vibration / shake due to long exposure (slow speed) I use a tripod and cable release.

As a side note to shoot lighting like this, make sure that the lenses and the filters we are clean and free of dust or water droplets to prevent flare and a stain on our shots. Always provide a clean rag in your vest pocket.

To reduce exposure to the sky, the brighter the light quality, I use a gradual ND filter 0.9 (3 stops down) Hard Edge by placing the boundary line filter right in the middle horizon. Meanwhile, to reduce exposure (overall) for the purpose of softening the water flow when the tide comes I use ND filters 8. With a combination of ND filters 8, Gradual ND 0.9, f/22, ISO 100 I get a speed of about 6 seconds, enough to make the flow of water into blur.

Exposure mode that I use A (Aperture Priority), a consideration I would be more concentrated when a big wave comes and not have to mess around with changing the exposure because the quantity of light changes. And the most thrilling moment when the waves came, I immediately pressed the cable release, and so on from a shoot I choose this one.

* I say many thanks for the knowledge I got from your book ... thank you ... you JhonTefon is my inspiration.

source : Johntefon's secret of digital manipulation.

Portrait Photography Tips

[ PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS ]

Photography Posing Secrets
Improve your ability to produce and communicate posing ideas that will lift your portraiture to a higher standard.

I won’t provide you a standard “method” to shoot portraits: there are a lot of different opinions on that. The goal of this article is to give you some information on how I work, based on numerous questions I regularly receive. I will mainly focus on planned portraits with a model. I sometimes define my work as fashion portraits even though my main concern is to try to tell a story.

I will split my work into four phases: inspiration, preparation, session and post-processing.



In order to make a session run smoothly, it is safer to plan it as much as possible. Before picking up a model, it’s better to have a general and clear idea of what you’re aiming at. I start by looking around me for inspiration, reading books, looking at pictures in the street, magazines, or in the internet. I gather pictures that could help me explain what I’m looking for to the model.
Don’t neglect this phase. Almost all of my models are non-professional, and they like to know into which direction we’ll go together.

Preparation

Once I get the idea, it’s time to locate a place that could provide the required atmosphere and lighting. I’m almost always using available lighting during the session (no extra source). Sometimes, someone assists me and bounces the light with a reflector, but basically, what you see is what you get.
Consequently, the light often dictates the pose of the model: if the face is in the darkness while the rest of the body gets a heavy light, chances are that the photo won’t work.
Therefore, I always try to do some tests shots of the place prior to the session: this helps a lot!

Next step is the discussion with the model, prior to the session. Show her/him images, explain the atmosphere of the shots… This doesn’t mean that you have to plan every pose or every expression: but once you’ve defined the atmosphere and ideas that you’d like to convey, it’s way easier to play with these “rules” and change them on the fly. Furthermore, models are more confident if they know what the session will look like before starting it. The selection of clothes is also made at that time: I either pick up stuff from the model’s stock, rent it or buy it.

The session

The session itself lasts around 2 to 3 hours, resulting in approximately 150 pictures, from which usually 5 to 10 will be selected. As I said previously, I’m sometimes asking for external help (lighting with the reflector or makeup). We keep talking while working, the goal is also to have fun !

Light

Light makes the mood of the picture: without a good light, you won’t get anything good.
So what’s a good light then? Hm, tough question.
Well it must first match the atmosphere of the shots. I’m gonna take an example. If you’re looking for dark moody underground shots, it’s best to select the right place, say, a metropolitan station. OK, got the place? You’ll first notice that it’s very dark in there, and consequently ask the model to get closer to those nice green neon tubes. That’s it, the face is lit and everything will go fine…
Wrong.

Light is nothing without shadows. Having enough light on the model’s face is good but the neons on the ceiling are going to make deep shadows under the eyes of the model. In this particular case, I would advice to use a reflector on her chest, pointing the ceiling. This will fill the shadows and avoid them.

Always remember this: light and shadow go together and create the mood of your shot.


Background

Hey wait a minute. We’re about to shoot a model, and we don’t care about the background, right? Well, too bad: background might ruin a picture. The background must help you focus on the subject. Try to make it less sharp by using small aperture values such as f/1.8 or f/2.

Got a compact digicam? I’ve got bad news for you: changing aperture with these tiny sensors won’t give you nice results as the pictures tend to be too sharp. You’ll have to go for SLR or DSLR.

Speaking of SLR, I avoid zooms like plague: their aperture is too high for nice portraits. A good and cheap start is a 50mm f/1.8 lens. For close-ups, go for a 85m to 100m f/1.8 lens.
If your background is too visible and has lines or elements, don’t make these elements overlap the model’s face. Vertical lines touching will ruin the composition. Try to keep the background simple and out of focus.

Focus

Portrait has to focus on the face or an element of the face. Most often eyes need to be sharp. As I said, separate the face from the background with a shallow depth of field (DOF). You must be able to control this factor on your camera by setting manually the aperture, in order to blur the background. Most of my images are shot around f/1.8 or f/2.

Exposure

I’ve already written a whole tutorial on that so I won’t go into details this time. Just switch to manual exposure so that the sequence of shots have the same settings. Exposure was manually set so that the skin is bright enough. Don’t try this with auto-exposure: the camera will compensate for backlighting and the subject will remain pretty dark.

Post-processing

All of my pictures are digitally post-processed. I mainly do color changes and local darkening. I like Photoshop’s adjustment layers, especially Curves: you can easily darken one specific area with them. Most people ask me how I’m correcting colors. I can’t give you answers because I use all types of adjustment layers.

Keep this in mind: there is NO general recipe! Don’t think that I always do the same operations. I could show you my adjustment layers but you won’t get the same results with your pics, simply because the initial colors will be different.

So what’s to do? Well, experiment and learn by yourself what are the possibilities of each tool. Then decompose your problem into smaller adjustments and apply them.

That’s it, I hope that this’ll be useful

Source : www.dphotojournal.com

How to Use Bounce Flash to Improve Your Photography

[ How to Use Bounce Flash to Improve Your Photography ]

Professional studio photographers rarely use direct flash to illuminate a subject, because the results are harsh, unnatural and unattractive. Most cameras designed for amateurs have a built-in flash which blasts light directly at the subject, creating the same kind of "deer in the headlights" effect. Fortunately, the addition of an inexpensive flash unit for bouncing flash can reduce this harshness and give your pictures a professional look. Another solution is a device called Professor Kobre's Lightscoop, which allows the pop up flash on some 35mm SLR cameras to be bounced -- an inexpensive and lightweight alternative to buying another piece of electronic equipment and learning to use it...

[ STEP BY STEP ! ]

1. Make sure your camera has either a hot-shoe for an external flash, or a socket for plugging one in. Most cameras have at least one of the two.

2. Invest in an external flash unit with a 90 degree swivel (bounce) head. All major camera makers sell reasonably-priced units with this feature. Some models also rotate, adding even more functionality.



3. When taking a flash picture indoors, turn off the camera's built-in flash. Point the bounce flash head at the ceiling (rather than at the subject) and take the picture. This will provide a soft, diffused light and it will cut down on red-eye.

4. For even better results, buy a cable which connects your camera to the flash unit. You can then remove the flash from the camera and bounce the light off walls, a reflector, or whatever you want.

5. While Professor Kobre's Lightscoop is not advertised to replace external flash units, some photographers may be interested in its low-tech but effective approach to bouncing the built-in flash itself. To bounce the built-in flash with the Lightscoop (no external flash necessary) :

- Slide the Lightscoop onto the camera's hot shoe.
- Set the camera to work in Manual mode.
- Set the camera's exposure mode to Spot meter.
- Set the ISO to 800.
- Set the shutter speed to 1/200.
- Set the aperture to the lens's maximum.

6. As is the case when bouncing an external flash (see "Warnings"), the Lightscoop works best with light-colored ceilings approximately 8-10 feet tall or walls (when camera is in vertical orientation). It will NOT work in rooms with cathedral ceilings, paneled wood ceilings, in gymnasiums or churches, or in places like nightclubs with dark ceilings. When ceilings are too high or too dark, not enough light can bounce back to reach the scene below.

7. If you do own a hotshoe flash with a head that can tilt upwards consider getting a diffusor such as a Sto-fen Omnibounce or a Lightsphere these allow for a bounce-like effect when there is no handy surface to bounce flash from. A budget alternative is creating one yourself.

Source : www.wikihow.com