Wide Angle Wednesday

Much like a soldier is required to ensure his gun is clean and ready to use, a photographer should keep his equipment clean and ready to go. I usually clean my gear at least every other week. However, I have overlooked individual pieces every now and then.

One night after shooting an event in Midtown, I decided to do some long exposures. I had just picked up a MeFOTO tripod, and was excited to try it out on the streets of Manhattan. For some reason, I decided to screw on an old UV filter I had with me. I had failed to notice that there were some spots on the filter until I loaded the images into Lightroom.  

It is a shame that I failed to notice this minor defect, as it affected the final image.

Grand Central Blur
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/16, 15sec, 100ISO, 11mm

 

Long Exposures

Ferries and Planes
Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/16, 66sec, 100ISO, 40mm

A couple weeks ago, I was shooting an event that I produced for my company. I try to photograph all of my events, as I have found clients can lack an imagination. Since I sell lighting, it is a visual art form. If the clients can't see examples of your past work, they may have a hard time deciding to spend money on you and the service your company provides. Another benefit of documenting the work is that there is ever an issue where the client says something wasn't provided, you can refer them to a photograph and show that it was indeed present.

Sometimes we are unable to photograph events due to nondisclosure agreements, or the event photographer may have exclusive access. I don't mind these circumstances, but I always appreciate the chance to practice my craft, both lighting and photography. This blog will not show any of my event photography, as I save that for the company Facebook page and website. My event photography is very similar to interior architecture photography; I shoot the room with the goal of capturing the room and those design elements, not the guests. 

Ferry Streak
Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/16, 141sec, 100ISO, 40mm

This post is my experimenting with some long exposures. Having a sturdy tripod is a must, as the shutter will be open for many seconds, even minutes. A cable release is also recommended; even the pushing of the shutter button can cause the camera to move ever so slightly leading to a blurry image. And one final piece of advice I use is to utilize the mirror lockup feature, as again, the mirror snapping up may cause slight movement to the camera. 

When shooting at night, I will sometimes use the live image preview on the rear LCD screen, as the camera may have problems locking focus in the low light.  I am able to look on the back screen and zoom into a section of the landscape to ensure that focus is correct, something that is hard to do through the small viewfinder.

I also used a small aperture opening to let less light in, creating longer exposure time and then capturing the streaks of light. A goal of mine is to obtain a neutral density filter to try some long exposures during the daytime. Neutral Density, or ND, are much similar to sunglasses; they let less light in but don't change the color.

Verrazano Flight Path
Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/16, 151sec, 100ISO, 40mm

Wide Angle Wednesday Empire Views

This week's Wide Angle Wednesday post are some shots from last November. I was working on an event on the 58th Floor. I had the camera with me to take shots of the event for the company, but took a few for my personal portfolio of the scenery as well.

Sunset over Lower Manhattan
Canon Rebel T2i, EFS10-22mm f/23.5-4.5USM, f/5.6, 1/30s, 100ISO, 10mm

One of the perks of what I do for a living is getting to experience the city from different vantage points. I enjoy seeing the city from up high, the noise from the streets drops away, and you are left with a serene view. The city is especially magical as it transitions from day to night, when the lights come on and the sunsets. 

Gotham Night
Canon Rebel T2i, EFS10-22mm f/23.5-4.5USM, f/4, 1/60s, 1600ISO, 10mm

Wide Angle Wednesday

I neglected to post one last week. I'm not such a great blogger, as my posting is sporadic. This was supposed to post yesterday, but I neglected to publish it!

30 Rock
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/4, 1/30s, 1600ISO, 11mm

This past Saturday, I was in Midtown to shoot one of my company's events. After I left, it was that time of night when the sun is starting to set, the sky takes on a gorgeous blue color as the sun has disappeared, twilight, when day and night meet. This is one of my favorite times of the day, the blue hour. 

My travels took me through Rockefeller Center. Unfortunately, my photograph of the SplitRocker installation by Jeff Koons wasn't as sharp as I had hoped, having to hold my camera above my head to capture it without the hoards of people blocking my view. It looked nice on a smaller screen, so I did upload it to my Instagram though.

Atlas
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/4, 1/40s, 1600ISO, 11mm

 

Photoshop Alternative

 

Symmetry Replicated
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/10, 1/50s, 100ISO, 11mm

Being an amateur photographer, my budget for gear and software is very limited. Everyone knows about Photoshop, made by Adobe, but used to be too expensive for someone like me. There is always the option to obtain a pirated copy, but being older now, I don't see pirated software as an option.Adaobe has since changed their pricing model, so now Photoshop is a subscription based program. The cheapest option is the Photographer's bundle, which is Lightroom and Photoshop for $10 a month.

When I first got my dSLR, I would use the included Canon software, the Digital Photo Professional. It was good software for simple editing of RAW files. But I was wanting more functionality. I ended up discovering Adobe Lightroom. It is a very powerful piece of software at a reasonable price, I believe I purchased it when it was on sale for less than $100.

Adobe Lightroom allows for editing of RAW files, settings such as white balance, contrast, tweaking shadows, highlights, whites, and blacks levels. You can adjust the Tone Curves, manipulate individual color channels (Hue, Saturation, and Luminance). Sharpening, noise reduction, lens correction as well. And cropping, simple cloning/healing, adding graduated filters, among other items.

Another great function of Lightroom is its catalog feature. I try to make sure I tag all of my photos soon after importing, using specific keywords. New York City pictures would get a tag NYC, New York City, the boro it was taken in, time of day, location if it is a landmark. I try to include keywords of the people in the photos as well, if it was a specific event, that becomes a keyword. 

But sometimes there are functions that Lightroom can't do, such as layers, complex cloning, among other things. I decided to give GIMP a try, an open source program. I had used other open source programs before, such as Open Office, Libre Office, Audacity, Thunderbird, Linux, Firefox, the browser I use to create these blog posts. Even my phone's OS, Android, comes from the Open Source movement. I found GIMP to be a little hard to get used to at first, but anyone trying Photoshop for the first time would think that was hard too. 

I have found GIMP to do exactly what I need. I'm not doing fashion shoots, or creating photographs for magazine covers, so my manipulation is mostly simple level tweaking, with the occasional cloning out of an object that got into the frame.

Would love to hear if anyone else has had experience with GIMP, or any other photography related open source software. Leave me a comment below!

Original Image before GIMP edit
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/10, 1/50s, 100ISO, 11mm

Emergency Vehicles

I was going to post something about always bringing your camera with you, but the three of the photos I had picked happened to be of emergency vehicles.

What's scarier, the dentist, or Homeland Security?
Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/5, 1/80s, 1600ISO, 40mm

It was a cold, long winter this year, with lots of snow. Even Fedreal Protective Service didn't shovel out their car.

FDNY Zooming down Broadway
Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/5, 1/160s, 640ISO, 40mm

 I captured the above image when walking to an event gig. Decided not to take the subway downtown since it was a beautiful autumn day. I took a lot of shots that day; some may end up here in the future.

Super Bowl Boulevard
Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/8, 1/1000s, 320ISO, 40mm

 I normally avoid Times Square, but Broadway between Herald Square and Times Square became Super Bowl Boulevard in the week leading up to the big game, so took a stroll after a meeting one day. This is looking downtown at 36th Street and Broadway, a video installation of columns to promote New York Tourism.

Shorty Forty

One of the things that every photographer suffers from at some point is gear lust. You want to buy every piece of gear available, more lenses, perhaps a better body, lots of accessories. I am no different. 
 

Underground
Canon EOS Rebel T3i, EF50mm f/1.8, f/1.8, 1/60s, 400ISO, 50mm

My first photography purchase was actually the Nifty Fifty, the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 lens. I used this lens with the company's Canon Rebel T2i, before I had purchased my first body, the Rebel T3i. It was great, I could shoot wide open (aperture at f/1.8) to get that oh so desirable bokeh. It is a cheap lens, I picked it for $109 before tax.
 

Fallen Wood
Canon EOS Rebel T3i, EF50mm f/1.8, f/2.8, 1/250s, 100ISO, 50mm

The Nifty Fifty, and the Shorty Forty, are both prime lenses, meaning that they have a fixed focal length. Prime lenses are great photographers of all skill levels. They usually have faster apertures than a zoom lens, lighter, and cheaper as well. One of the things that a fixed focal length also forces a new photographer to do is think about composition. Zoom lenses allow you to be lazy, all you have to do is zoom in or out from your same vantage point. A prime lens forces you to zoom with your feet. If you want to get more of the scene in the frame, you have to physically walk back, if you want to fill the frame with your subject, you have to get closer. Sometimes, you are not able to physically get closer or further, so you will have to change your framing to compensate, look at the scene in a new way. 
 

From the Hip
Canon EOS Rebel T3i, EF50mm f/1.8, f/1.8, 1/60s, 100ISO, 50mm

I believe on of my best investements was a prime lens. Of course, when I first obtained my Nifty Fifty, I was shooting everything wide open, which at f/1.8, allows more light in, allowing for faster shutter speeds, but will create a shallow depth of field, so the part of the image in focus was minimal. When you move from a kit lens that only opens to f/3.5, you can't help yourself.

When my Rebel T3i was stolen, I had the Nifty Fifty mounted. I was glad that it was the cheap lens, though I was still bummed about the whole camera gear being stolen, I tried to look at the bright side of things and realize it could have been worse. The Rebel was replaced by a Canon 60D, so my primary lens was the Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens that was purchased with the now stolen Rebel. After Christmas about 8 months later, I had some gift cards, and decided I wanted a prime lens again.

Having owned the Nifty Fifty, I knew it was cheap, but there were somethings about it I didn't like. It felt cheap, the AF motor was noisy. My budget was low, as I only had a couple gift cards, so the EF 50mm f/1.4 was too expensive as were a few other primes.

Canon had released a pancake lens, called that because of how flat it was, and my interest was piqued.The pancake lens, the Shorty Forty, or EF 40mm f/2.8, was a little wider than the 50mm, but since I shoot on a crop body, I thought that would be fine. Many sites have said that 50mm on a full frame camera is about the equivalent of what your eye sees. On a Canon crop body, the 50mm is about 80mm, while the 40mm is about 64mm.

I ended up purchasing the Shorty Forty. Though the max aperture is f/2.8 as opposed to f/1.8, you end up stopping down the aperture anyways, so that wasn't too big of and issue. Reading reviews, time and time again they discussed how sharp it was for the price, even wide open. I decided to purchase it and am very happy I did.
 

Sunset over Manhattan from Queens
Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/8, 1/1000s, 100ISO, 40mm

One of the things I like most about the Shorty Forty is how small it is. I can leave it mounted to my 60D, and the camera isn't large or cumbersome to carry around when I go out with my family, or even if I just throw it in my bag on the way to work. I found myself wanting to take my camera more places. When shooting for work, I sometimes would just throw the Shorty Forty in my pocket while the camera body will have the wide angle attached, and it allows me to capture some details shots, as the minimum focusing distance is pretty close for a non-macro lens. 

Signs of Spring
Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/8, 1/125s, 160ISO, 40mm

There is one thing that I don't like about the lens. The lens focusing mechanics only work when the camera is on. This means that if you leave the lens protruding, though it doesn't that much, you can't manual focus it back when the camera is off. This also means that the lens can't focus when used with cheap macro extension tubes since those tubes don't have electrical contacts. Other than that though, this lens shines! 

Auburndale Snow
Canon 60D, EF40mm f/2.8, f/8, 1/50s, 640ISO, 40mm

I highly recommend this to anyone looking for their first foray outside of the kit lens their camera came with when purchased. It probably is attached to my camera more than any other lens at this point.