Something Different..again

Today's post is a bit different than normal. I didn't set up and take one photo like I usually do. The 1000 New Gardens club/group in Bozeman had a Dig Day today, and so I went with them and documented it.

I'll share my favorite photos from the day and then talk a bit about what I was thinking when I took them.

First off though is camera settings. I was shooting in Av or aperture priority mode. This is where you set your desired aperture and the camera calculates the shutter speed for you. I did this because the light was constantly changing all day, and I wanted to be able to move fluidly between shots and not have to constantly check my exposure. I set my Ev (exposure value) to -2/3 of a stop just because I think the camera tends to over expose just a tad.

I shot with my 50mm set to auto focus. I like using prime lenses for this sort of thing because in limiting you to one focal length, it forces you to really concentrate on angle and perspective rather than playing with distortions created by wide or telephoto lenses. Plus, I could shoot at f2.5 to give my self an awesomely shallow depth of field and tons of light to work with. My shutter was consistently over 1/2000, so I had tons of stopping power and didn't have to worry about getting blurry images.

To edit these, I did HDR processes of them in Lr. They are not bracketed HDRs, I just manipulated the tonal ranges to make them in to HDRs. To do this, I lowered the whites all the way and raised the shadows. I also raised the clarity and contrast, which brings back the textures and, well, the contrast. It's a really simple trick that I applied to all the images. They look awesome though, so I don't feel that any more editing is really needed. Maybe if I was only outputting one image or I really liked one image would I put more time into post with it.

So now for the photos.

One of the first  photos I took all day. This was our first sight, you can see the places where the beds will soon be built. So why does this photo work and why do I like it? I love the light in it. With the HDR edit done in Lr, there is an excellent tonal range created. The sun was out and shinning, and so we get this beautiful rim/edge lighting going on. There is also a tone of detail in what is the shadow side of things too. There must have been some reflections going on, because the faces and even bodies in this are perfectly lit. Nothing in the image is totally blown out or totally black. There is a complete range of tones. The way the people are looks also helps draw your eye to the center of the image.

This dog was awesome. I mean, it crosses it's legs when it lies (lays?) down. When composing a shot like this, you want to make sure you're not coming from too high or too low an angle. This can have cool effects, but most of the time it just distorts the image and makes it look bad. A head on shot is your best bet most of the time. Make sure you obey the rule of thirds, and place your subject on the opposite side of the frame that they are looking. The dog is looking camera right, so I placed it on the left side of the frame. This is called looking room.

 I also obeyed these rules for this image. In fact, everything I said about the previous image applies to this one. In addition, I used the boards and their angles to draw the viewers eyes to the parts of the images that I wanted to be seen. The geometry of your image plays a huge role in making your photo interesting or not.

Speaking of geometry, use things like windows or door ways to help frame your subject!

That's all, see you tomorrow!