Tricking the light and other shots of interest

[ziparumpazoo]

So I'm by no means an expert on photography. I don't even know half the terms I probably should. I learn by experimentaion. "If I adjust this dial, the pictures look like this." "Oooh! That button does that, but don't ever do that in broad daylight or you'll burn your eyes out fool!" Stuff like that. I dislike Photoshop, not because I'm a purist, but because I don't have the patience (or spare time!) to learn how to make it do what I want it to do. So, I hack and slash at it until I can figure out how to make the pictures I want to make with the least amount of special equipment. At the risk of sounding pompous, one of my favorite tricks demonstrated below the cut:



So you snap a picture and once you get home and upload it to your computer is just looks blah and washed out, and just not as vivid or rich as you remember the day to be. It's not your camera's fault, entirely, and it's not something that upgrading your equipment will fix. It's a case of too much light being allowed to hit the photo sensor at once. Tricking your camera's light sensor is something you can do with your iPhone, DSLR, digital point-and-shoot, and even your old school 35mm film camera.

The first step is to pick your auto-focus point. Your owner's manual should be able to tell you how to switch from multi-point auto-focus (or whatever the manufacturer calls it for your brand), to single point. Most cameras use the focal point of the picture to determine the level of lighting and decide what shutter speed and aperture to use (don't worry, you won't need to know this unless you're shooting on full manual, and if that's the case, you probably know all this already). There's more to the technology, but this is all you need to keep in mind - focus on your light source.

"Well Zip," you're probably thinking, "that's well and great, but I don't want that big bright shiny thing to be the center of my picture. I don't even want it in there at all."

And that's okay. Here's the trick - if you want richer, deeper colors, point your auto-focus dot at the brightest part of the sky (if you're shooting a landscape, for example), press the shutter release (aka, picture-taking-button) half-way and hold it. Then move your camera to point it at what you really want to take a picture of, and push it all the way to snap the shot. In the shot below, I pointed my auto-focus dot off the frame and to the right where the sun was actually setting, then swung it back (after half-pressing and holding the button) to cut the sun out of the shot altogether:




Here, I pointed the auto-focus dot on the clouds themselves for a reverse effect, tricking the light sensor into thinking it needed a longer exposure to pick up the clouds, and thus allowing more light in (for a softer, paler effect) when it snapped the picture:



Two shots taken seconds apart from exactly the same spot. This also works with camera phones that allow you to select a focal point by tapping the screen. You don't have the flexibility to move your camera around after you've selected your brightness, but it can help, especially in low-light or overly-bright situations.

Things to keep in mind: Since you're using your auto-focus to accomplish this, try to select a "light meter spot" at the same distance from you as the subject you actually are trying to photograph. Once you half-press the button, the camera not only locks in the light meter reading, but also the auto-focus reading.

I also use this technique when I'm in a hurry and don't have time to adjust things like film speed or shutter speed or I'll miss the shot, like in this picture taken from a moving car:


In this case, I locked my auto-focus dot on the biggest cloud in the background. Sometimes I get lucky, like here. Sometimes I need about a dozen shots to get exactly the lighting I want. The most important thing is to experiment until you get comfortable with what your camera is capable of doing.

And now for some completely random shots taken in the last couple of days:

We're finally coming back to that time of the year where it's not quite dark when we leave in the morning, and still just a bit of light left when we get home at night, which makes it easy to capture the moon setting and not have to get up at the butt-crack of dawn.


Such a lonely mailbox. (note the distinct lack of snow for a January)


I have no idea how she even breathes when she sleeps like this, but sleep she does...even snores.

Comments

[monanotlisa]

The windpark shot is gorgeous -- it could be in a brochure! Hell, it should be. *g*

Thanks for the advice; I do the same thing. ;)

[ziparumpazoo]

Thank you. I was fairly pleased with that one. It's not in a brochure, but it is blown up and framed on my wall. *g*

I just get frustrated with photography blogs that talk about the technical aspects of a shot and all the gear you must absolutely have, but don't explain in a generalized way why it works so the reader can extrapolate on their own. Hopefully it sheds a little light on the subject (ha ha, I kill me sometimes) for people who aren't so familiar with their cameras.

[monanotlisa]

(ha ha, I kill me sometimes)

You are HILARIOUS.

:P

I just get frustrated with photography blogs that talk about the technical aspects of a shot and all the gear you must absolutely have, but don't explain in a generalized way why it works so the reader can extrapolate on their own.

100% with ya.