The best photo is often the difference is as clear as Night and Day

Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 400, ƒ/7.1, 1/600 [3 images stitched together in PhotoShop CS6] Hand held

It is a Night and Day difference between these photos. Maybe we need to remember that saying next time we travel.

I just find that few photos from the middle of the day stand up to dusk and night time photos.

Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/11, 1/5 seconds [three images stitched and the photo was shot on tripod with a 2 second delay to eliminate camera shake]

Major difference to me between the two photos.

Couple of quick tips for shooting the night time shot.

• Use Tripod
• Use cable release or shoot on delay [I used a 2 second delay]
• Shooting ƒ/22 will give you a star effect around the lights. I shot at ƒ/11
• Also this is a great way to eliminate many of those pesty power lines

Photographers love the triangle and for good reason

Rembrandt Lighting

Rembrandt is generally considered one of the greatest painters. Rembrandt lighting is characterized by an illuminated triangle under the eye of the subject on the less illuminated side of the face.

If you want to learn more about how to achieve this look then read my earlier blog post where I show some the student's work from a workshop I did in Kona, Hawaii with the School of Photography at Youth With A Mission here.

Create Triangle with Off Camera Flash

Another triangle used by professional photographers is the triangle created between the camera, subject and flash.

Here you can see the simple setup I used for the photo above. The sun was behind the clouds. I caught this photo just in between showers. The flash also helped give that needed pop on an overcast day.

Create Triangle with Subject

One other way the triangle is used in photography is in subject placement within a frame. Putting subjects in a group photo in triangles creates a pleasing composition.

Create Triangle with Gear

To make your camera stable we also use a triangle. Three legs to our tripods and light stands create very stable platform for our camera and light stands.

May the triangle be ever present in your photographs: from lighting, composition and support.

Remain Calm and Steady for great Travel Photos

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/22, 1.1 sec

One of the things many people decide to leave at home when traveling is there tripod. However, this is one of the most useful tools when traveling for this photo for example. I was able to stop down the lens to an aperture of ƒ/22 to then create a star effect from the lights.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/2.8, 1/35

The lower photograph doesn't have the star effect due to the shallow DOF [Depth-of-field].

One of my favorite thing to do in new locations is to shoot sunrises and sunsets. Just as fun is those photos just after the sunsets like the ones here that you can still see some blue sky.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/2.8, 1/30

You can see some in our group using the tripod to get their shot. I recommend carrying a cable release or to use about a second delay timer to trip the shutter so you do not introduce any camera movement when firing the camera.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 200, ƒ/3.2, 1/5

Here the shutter speed is 1/5 of a second which made the people in the train station in Lisbon, Portugal blur. In this situation I put the camera on a column to keep the camera perfectly still.

My recommendation is to find a tripod that folds up very small and yet will go up pretty high to around eye level when standing. They make carbon fiber tripods that are very light and just as good but not quite is light is some of the aluminum made tripods.

Christmas Trees and Cameras have something in common

Fuji X E2 with the 18-55mm on a ProMaster XC525 Tripod

Both Christmas trees and cameras do better with tripods that support them and hold them steady.

Now for the past few weeks I have been testing the Fujifilm X E2 camera. Lately I was taking Christmas tree ornaments and enjoying using the Wifi to help upload the JPEGs quickly through my iPad using the Camera App you can download.

I also was taking portraits which I posted on the blog earlier. What I noticed right away was my pictures were not as sharp with the Christmas tree ornaments as compared to the studio. Well of course the ƒ-stop was greater, but really the sharpness issue was with camera motion.

Sure the Fuji camera has vibration reduction, but even when this is flawless a camera on a tripod cannot be beaten.

ISO 6400, ƒ/4, 1/35

Once I started taking photos with a good tripod the photos looked so much better.  It wasn't camera error, it was operator error that was causing my photos to not appear as sharp as they could.

ISO 6400, ƒ/7.1, 1/10

The other thing I was able to do by shooting on a tripod was vary my depth-of-field since the camera movement at a slower ƒ-stop wouldn't affect the sharpness of the photos.

ISO 6400, ƒ/7.1, 1/9

ISO 6400, ƒ/4, 1/30

While the photos were definitely sharper there is another benefit with shooting on a tripod, composition.

While these photos don't win a pulitzer for composition, I was able to keep the camera still, which is hard to do when you are focusing as close as the camera will do on such small ornaments.

ISO 6400, ƒ/10, 1/7

Some of the ornaments like this of Snow White were tricky to shoot if you shot them wide open and that would be ƒ/4 on this camera and lens. I stopped the lens down to ƒ/10. How did I know that is what I wanted?

Fuji X E2 Feature Bonus

On the Fuji X E2 when you push the shutter release half way down the camera aperture closes to the setting you have and the viewfinder automatically adjusts in brightness so you can see your depth-of-field as it will look when you take the photo. On a traditional DSLR you have to wait for your eye to adjust to see the DOF. This is one of the really cool things about this new camera.

Now all these photos are using the existing light in the room, which was primarily the lights on the tree. By getting so close on all the ornaments the depth of field was pretty shallow and helped to pop them out from the tree and the background was cleaned up in the process.

My suggestion for any photographer who has a Christmas tree and a tripod is to take time and record some of your ornaments and maybe just post them to your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Pinterest account.  I have gotten more comments about these than many other posts I have done.

Maybe the reason is the ornaments is something many of us collect and understand.

At our house you are just as likely to see The Citadel ornaments, photography ornaments in addition to what the season is all about, those that remind us of Jesus.

Go get your tripod and let it slow you down this season to take the time to remember the reason for the season.

I always travel with a tripod

Gitzo GT-0531 Mountaineer 6X Carbon Fiber tripod

I always try and have a tripod with me at all times.  Finding a sturdy tripod was pretty easy to do.  However, once you start to fly and carry your tripod through airports worldwide you quickly will look for something much lighter.

Carbon fiber has high tensile strength, low weight, and low thermal expansion make it a perfect solution to make tripods strong durable and lightweight.  So a few years ago I researched and tried a few tripods before buying my Gitzo GT-0531 Mountaineer 6X Carbon Fiber tripod. 

Weighing only 1.6 lbs, 20.9” tall folded, extends to a height of 51.6" and can go as low as 10.6” with legs spread. 

Folded

When looking for a tripod the smaller it is folded and then combined with a really tall height when expanded will make a tripod cost more.  The carbon fiber cuts the weight by 1/3 as compared to a similar tripod made of metal.

Manfrotto 492 Micro Ball Head

This tripod doesn’t come with a head.  I liked ball heads and needed again something small yet strong.  I bought the Manfrotto 492 Micro Ball Head.

This combination fits in a small carry on bag and keeps my camera steady when I need it.