This post on insect photography has been updated. It was originally published on October 10, 2016.

Most parents are not, as a rule, overjoyed when their kid comes home with head lice. But John Hallmén is different.

“This year in March my son finally came through with some head lice!” he gushed. So he photographed one of the little bugs (“I think it’s a female”) poised on a shaft of reddish brown hair. Looking at his image, you realize that what is ordinarily considered a repulsive creature is weirdly beautiful.

That’s what Swedish photographer Hallmén does. He shows us the incredible, strange beauty of tiny beings—insects, other arthropods like spiders and pillbugs, and worms—you get the picture.

From film photography to focus stacking

“I’ve been interested in bugs and other animals since I was very little,” he tells us. “If you look at video footage from my childhood you typically see me searching for frogs, snakes, or bugs underneath rocks in the background or holding some interesting find up to the camera. I got my first SLR when I was 13 years old, back in 1992, and made many attempts at macro photography. However, at that time I found it quite frustrating. Experimentation was expensive back in the analog days!”

This changed when Hallmén got his first digital camera—a Fujifilm superzoom model, with an add-on macro lens and external flash unit. Then came the next revolution, the one that has utterly changed macro photography—focus stacking. This involves taking multiple images of a subject with slight changes of focus with each, then combining the “stack” into a single image in software. This overcomes a fundamental problem of extreme close-up photography, the extremely limited depth of field, even with very small apertures. “I was a bit skeptical at first but quickly fell in love with the technique,” he says.

Today he makes his living by licensing images, teaching, and organizing workshops. He also has multiple books to his credit, including a children’s book, Minimonster, created in collaboration with his wife Hanna, with their son Bruno as a model. “I was lured into macro and bug photography by my passion for the interesting subjects and techniques, and then the hobby grew out of control and took over to the point where I simply didn’t have time for anything else.” While Hallmén often works with biologists on projects, he describes himself as “self-taught in biology.” His educational background was in engineering, which shows through in his DIY equipment setups.

Finding tiny subjects

Where does he find his insect photography subjects? “They are literally everywhere,” he says. “This may very well be one of the most compelling aspects of macro photography—you can find truly exotic-looking subjects right at your doorstep. And the vast majority of my images are made within cycling distance from my home in Stockholm.”

Hallmén frequents a nature preserve nearby, and, while he prefers shooting live species in the field, “I’ve made a habit of never leaving home without some kind of jar for catching presumptive subjects that, for some reason, can’t be shot in the field or that may need a closer examination to be able to be properly identified.”

His primary recommendation for shooting bugs in the field? Get up early on cold mornings. Arthropods, being cold-blooded, are lethargic, even inert, in the cold. “This is the reason why my alarm clock is one of the most important pieces of equipment,” he says. “As a bug photographer, you really benefit from being out and ready by dawn. Besides, nothing beats the natural morning light.”

But then it can be too cold. Sweden has long, cold winters, during which a “painfully limited” supply of bugs can be found. Hallmén, therefore, keeps some dead specimens in his freezer, sometimes sourcing more from entomologist friends. “This way I can keep occupied all year round,” he says. “Also, even though shooting dead subjects has some obvious downsides, it does let you shoot at much higher magnifications than what is possible in the field.” (For “sentimental reasons,” he says he is more likely to freeze “annoying species” like ticks and mosquitos rather than, say, butterflies.)

Specimen “preparation”

Dead specimens must be “prepared,” and this is more complex than you might think. “As soon as you look closely at a dead insect you realize how much time and effort they spend keeping themselves clean,” he tells us. “Because as soon as they’re dead they are rapidly covered in dust particles, fibers, etc. One of the most time-consuming parts of shooting dead specimens is the cleaning process. I sometimes need to spend an hour or so at the microscope picking off dust particles one by one with a fine needle before I can begin shooting.”

Before you try focus stacking

For macro insect photography newbies, Hallmén advises starting out simple. “Put stacking aside for a moment and focus on good old single-frame shooting,” he advises. When you’re starting out, learning to use a diffused flash—whether to avoid blur due to camera shake and/or subject movement—is more important than optics. “Out of the box, a flash will give harsh and unpleasant lighting, but with just minimum do-it-yourself effort you can turn a sheet of paper or a white plastic container into a simple but effective macro softbox,” he says. For continuous studio lighting, Hallmén commonly uses inexpensive gooseneck LED lamps.

Hallmén now generally prefers an interchangeable lens camera. With an ILC, there is no mirror slap (unlike DSLRs), whose vibration can cause blurring in extreme close-ups. Most can also be set for electronic, rather than mechanical, shutter firing, to further reduce vibration. Further, mirrorless cameras can be adapted to mount a wide variety of makes and models of lenses.

And oh, about the dénouement of the head lice shoot: “It went perfectly fine! The anti-lice treatments of today are extremely effective and completely non-toxic,” he explains. “Just spray it on, wait a few minutes and rinse—done. The lice get covered in this oily substance that clogs up their breathing and makes them suffocate. You almost feel sorry for them.”

We have the sneaking suspicion that John Hallmén really does feel sorry for them.

Insect photography gear

Here’s what you need to get closer to insects, whatever your level of experience.

Beginner insect photography

Go with what you’ve got. Use a prime lens with extension tubes or a front-mounting close-up lens such as the Raynox DCR-250. Even better, try a reverse-mounting ring. If your lens aperture is controlled electronically (most modern optics work this way), you’ll need a reverse adapter control. A variety of brands are available. You’ll probably want a focusing rail, too, because it’s far easier to focus extreme close-ups by moving the camera back and forth.

Intermediate insect photography

Get a dedicated macro lens. John Hallmén uses a 180mm Sigma macro, a long focal length that allows extra working distance—good for bugs. He also uses the Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 Macro, which can provide up to 5x life size without extra tubes or accessories. At that magnification, a bug 0.3 inches long fills a full-frame sensor.

At this point, you may want to try focus stacking. A number of programs (including Adobe Photoshop) will let you do this, but the de facto standard is Zerene Stacker (another is Helicon Focus). For extensive stacks, many macro photography enthusiasts use a Proxxon table—a device actually designed for fine machining. “In my experience, even the best fine-focusing rails simply aren’t fine enough to handle the small focus increments needed as you move beyond life-size magnification,” Hallmén says. “I recommend the Proxxon table to beginners as a low-cost, easy-to-find alternative.”

Advanced insect photography

Microscope objective lenses, typically used with bellows, can provide, well, a microscopic view. One hitch: ‘scope lenses are set to infinity focus, which won’t allow you to focus the image on a camera sensor. Macro photographers use a device called a morfanon tube lens to correct for this. Finally, for really extensive stacks (many hundreds of frames) Hallmén uses a fully automated, motorized setup, the Cognisys Stackshot.

The post Tips from a pro: How to improve your insect photography appeared first on Popular Photography.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

DSLR CAMERAS

Canon EOS Rebel XSi with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Canon EF-S IS lens

It may be last year’s model, but the Rebel XSi could be new for all it has going for it: 12.2MP CMOS sensor with 14-bit A/D conversion, live view on a big 3-inch LCD, speedy AF and burst rate, and image quality near the top of its class. Plus, the standard kit lens is image-stabilized. What’s missing? Video. But for $690 (street) for the kit, we’re cool with that. (www.canoneos.com)

Nikon D5000 with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Nikkor AF-S DX VR lens

The D5000 is this year’s model, but, at a street price with this kit lens now hovering at around $760, it is, at press time, the least expensive DSLR with HD video. That HD is 720p, not the higher-res 1080i, but in our tests of the camera, the video looked plenty good, thank you. On the still-image front, the D5000 inherits much from the Nikon D90: top-notch imaging for its class, rapid autofocus, speedy burst rates-and don’t forget that groovy flip-down-and-swivel LCD. (www.nikonusa.com)

Pentax K2000 with 18- 55mm f/3.5-5.6 SMC Pentax DA lens and AF-200FG flash

With a street price of $495, this kit is currently the rock-bottom deal in DSLRs, but far from a rock-bottom outfit. You get 10.2MP capture, ISOs to 3200, sensor-based image stabilization that works with any lens you can put on the camera (and there are a lot of them), and an accessory flash with output about double that of the built-in unit. It’s light, simple to operate, and a great way to wean yourself off compacts. (www.pentaximaging.com)

Sony Alpha 230 with 18-55mm f/3.5- 5.6 and 55-200mm f/4-5.6 Sony DT SAM lenses

We’ve seen a lot of sweet deals in twolens kits, but Sony’s latest 10.2MP outfit, at a street price of $750, is practically sugar-coated. Spanning an 11.1X range that’s equivalent to 27-300mm in fullframe terms, we can see this as an ideal backpacker’s kit. Given the light weight of the individual pieces, as well as the sensor-shift image-stabilization, you could get away with leaving your tripod at home. (www.sonystyle.com)

COMPACT CAMERAS

Samsung SL420

One look at the slim, elegant, brushed-metal SL420, a 10.2MP compact with 35-175mm equivalent 5X zoom, and you’d probably guess it cost way more than $180 (street). It’s designed as a people-snapper, with face detection, smile shutter, and blink detection. If those aren’t enough, a Beauty Shot mode automatically retouches portraits. Sensor-based image stabilization keeps the shots steady for all that cosmetic work, and Smart Auto figures out the best camera settings for the job. (www.samsungcamera.com)

Casio Exilim EX-S5

With most electronics, smaller means pricier, and ultraslim cameras are no exception. Casio, which essentially invented the ultraslim, counters the trend with the $130 (street) EX-S5. At just under ¾-inch thin, you could fit two of these metal-clad cuties in a shirt pocket. It has 10.1MP capture, 2.7-inch LCD, and plenty of modes, including one for YouTube. While it lacks HD video, you can shoot in 848×480-pixel standard-def that matches the 16:9 widescreen. And it comes in five colors. (www.casio.com)

Fujifilm FinePix S1500

You want a 10MP camera with a 12X optical zoom and lots of features-but don’t want to spend more than $200? Not the impossible dream with the $190 (street) S1500. The 33-396mm (equivalent) zoom is pretty bright at f/2.8-5, and images are stabilized via a shifting sensor. The S1500 can take bursts up to 7.5 frames per second at 2MP resolution, and it can stitch together three frames into a panorama right in the camera. Frame your shots in an electronic viewfinder- better for holding it steady-or on the 2.7-inch LCD. (www.fujifilmusa.com)

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS15

What we like about many Panasonic compacts is that they give you a little more of everything. For instance? Optical zoom range: the FS15 gives you 5X instead of 3X. Wider angle of view, with the 29-145mm (equivalent) zoom. A couple more megapixels; 12.1 instead of 10. Add the usual Lumix virtues of lens-based image stabilization, Intelligent Auto mode that adjusts everything according to the scene and subject, and a 2.7-inch LCD that automatically varies brightness for lighting conditions. You get a lot for $200 (street). (www.panasonic.com)

Kodak EasyShare M1093 IS

If you take all the features that make a good compact camera-10.1MP capture, 35-105mm (equivalent) 3X zoom lens, sensor-shift image stabilization, 3-inch LCD with wide viewing angle, plus clear and intuitive controls-and keep the price to $140 (street), you’ll get an EasyShare M1093 IS. What makes it all the more impressive is that it takes 1280×720-pixel HD video, and even provides some in-camera editing controls. Plus, it connects to an optional EasyShare G610 Printer Dock ($300, street) for simple 4×6 printing. (www.kodak.com)

CAMERA LENSES

Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX

Sometimes 35 is the new 50. This digital-only lens scales up to 52mm on APS-C-sensor Nikon DSLRs for a fast optic with normal perspective. How good can a $200 (street) lens be? In our test (June 2009), we found it “nearly flawless,” with stellar sharpness and control of distortion and light falloff. Forget your zoom and shoot with just this lens-you’ll become a better photographer fast. (www.nikonusa.com)

SIGMA 28-70mm f/2.8-4 DG

This lens has been around in some form for more than a decade. In our 1996 test of the original, we called it “hard to beat, or even to equal, at the price”-$250, then. Today, you can pick up the newest DG version for $160 (street), in mounts for Canon, Nikon, Pentax/Samsung, and Sigma. Note that the DG designation does not mean digital-only-this lens covers a full 35mm frame, making its fairly fast apertures all the more impressive. (www.sigmaphoto.com)

Olympus 35mm f/3.5 Macro Zuiko Digital

If 35mm sounds like an odd focal length for a macro lens, remember: On a Four Thirds system Olympus (or Panasonic), it’s the equivalent of 70mm-an ideal short tele that doubles as a tight portrait lens. And if you want to fill the frame with an eye, you can, because it focuses to a very satisfying 1:1. At $210 (street), this close encounter won’t close your bank account. (www.olympusamerica.com)

Sony 30mm f/2.8 DT SAM Macro

Sony’s SAM (Smooth Autofocus Motor) lenses are aimed squarely at budgetconscious shooters who want more than kit zooms. For APS-C-sensor Sonys only (every model save the Alpha 900), this lens scales up to an equivalent of 45mm, so you could use it as a fairly fast normal for everyday work. But close-ups are where this true macro shines, getting to a gnat’s-eye-view 1:1. Hard to beat at $200, street. (www.sonystyle.com)

Tamron 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Di LD Macro

Another old favorite whose current price-$170, street-is lower than when it first came out, this short-in-size but long-in-reach telezoom boasts genuine macro focusing: 1:2 at 300mm. While it carries the Di (digitally integrated) designation, indicating that it’s been tweaked for digital sensors, this is a full-framer, so it can work across formats. (APS-C cameras get an equivalent of 105-450mm, a boon for wildlife and sports.) Get it in mounts for Canon, Nikon, Pentax/Samsung, and Sony. (www.tamron.com)

Tokina 12-24mm f/4 AT-X Pro DX II

When we tested the original 2005 version, we noted its “superb performance at a great price.” The newer DX II costs the same $500 (street) but adds improved multicoating and one-touch manual focusing-just push or pull on the focusing ring to switch between AF and MF. Designed strictly for APS-C sensors, it scales up to equivalents of 19-38mm on Canon DSLRs and 18-36mm on Nikons, the two mounts available. Want an even better buy? You can still find the original DX version from some retailers for about $100 less. (www.tokinalens.com)

CAMERA BAGS/CASES

Adorama Commander Camera and Notebook System Bag

Want to carry your gear to work without looking like a camera geek, or worse, a target? The subtle black or gray Commander looks like a messenger bag, but it has a compartment with a padded camera cradle and dividers for lenses. Another pocket swallows a 15-inch notebook computer, and a third holds your office stuff. There’s a mesh water-bottle holder, and a Velcro strap to attach the bag to a wheeled trolley. And at $30, direct, you know you can afford it. (www.adorama.com)

Vanguard VGP-300W aluminum case

If you travel a lot- especially by plane-you need a hard-sided case, but prices can be stratospheric. Vanguard brings it down to sea level with this $100 (street) case. Measuring 14x21x8 inches (sufficient for one or two DSLR bodies and a few lenses), it has a customizable foam insert, well-padded shoulder strap, extendable handle, and wheels. It gives a new meaning to “hard bargain.” (www.vanguardworld.com)

LIGHTING/SUPPORT

Benro Travel Angels

This new line from the largest tripod maker in China has the weight and compactness that globetrotters look for. The four sizes, available in either aluminum or carbon fiber, also offer generous maximum load capacities and extended heights. Case in point: The 3.5- pound C-269M8 (shown) will bear loads of more than 26 pounds and extends to 61 inches. With a street price of $475, it’s a fraction of the cost of most comparable carbon-fiber ‘pods, and the price includes a B1 ballhead and carrying case. (www.benro.com)

Flashpoint 8 Channel Radio Remote Control Set

Remote strobe triggers keep your studio floor clear of sync cords; on location they let you put flash units anywhere within radio range. With this set ($34, direct), that’s 90 feet, and the eight channels help you avoid interference. The transmitter is rated for 20,000 firings on a single 12-volt alkaline battery, and the receiver works off the AC line voltage of the flash unit. No hot-shoe? You get a PC connector, too. (www.adorama.com)

Westcott Photo Basics 404 uLite Two Light Kit

Hot lights are hot again, thanks to their what-you-see-is-what-you-get lighting. This kit has a price that won’t singe you-$180 (street). You get two 500-watt lamps, two 20-inchsquare collapsible softboxes, two 7-foot lightstands, and a coupon for a free weeklong backdrop rental. Want an extra accent light? Add 50 bucks for the Three Light Kit. (www.photobasics.net)

PHOTO PRINTER

Epson Stylus Photo 1400

When the 1400 arrived a few years ago, we thought it was an excellent buy for about $375. Now that it costs $265 (street), it’s really a bargain. This 13-inch, six-color inkjet uses Claria dye-based inks, rated for a longevity of nearly 100 years. It produces photo-quality prints at very fast speeds on glossy, semi-gloss, matte, and even some uncoated papers not designed specially for inkjets. It prints on CDs and DVDs. Even though it doesn’t have a special driver for black-and-white, its b&w prints are impressive. (www.epson.com)

PHOTO SOFTWARE

Adobe Photoshop Elements 7

We love Photoshop CS4, but its $640 street price? Ouch. For $90 ($80 for Elements 6 for Mac), you get much of what the big guy has: Layers, Adjustment Layers, and Levels, plus junior versions of such tools as Highlight/Shadow and Curves. Missing? The full Curves for meticulous color correction, Masks for heavy compositing, and other power tools. You may never miss them. (www.adobe.com)

STORAGE

Eye-Fi Share 4GB Wi-Fi SD card

Another way to save with last year’s model, the Eye-Fi Share Video card has almost all the capabilities of the newer Pro. It uploads your images automatically to such photo-sharing sites as Flickr, and it sends images to your computer via Wi- Fi. Unlike the Pro, this older card can’t transmit RAW files. If that’s not a dealbreaker, here’s the dealmaker: The 4GB Share card is $80, street; the Pro card, $150. ‘Nuff said? (www.eye.fi)

Western Digital 1TB My Book Essential Edition USB 2.0 External Hard Drive

Now that you shoot huge RAW images, it’s good that storage is getting cheap. This is one of our favorite low-cost byte boxes-the size of a large paperback, it holds a terabyte (about 1,000 gigs), costs $120 (street), and can make mirror backups of your files automatically (“RAID 1,” to geeks). Want to connect via FireWire or eSATA port? Throw in another 10 bucks and get the Triple Interface version. (www.wdc.com)

The post 24 Great Photo Gear Bargains appeared first on Popular Photography.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Deep Sea Basket Star

Imagine alien beings that live in a world with no light and little oxygen, in freezing temperatures, under pressure that would crush an earth animal, sometimes near volcanic vents spewing what we might well call brimstone. How would such deep sea creatures survive?

You don’t need to travel to a planet in the outer reaches of the galaxy to find such beings. They are right here, in earth’s inner space—the extreme depths of the oceans.

David Shale has been filming and photographing these deep sea creatures for nearly four decades, for both scientific research as well as TV nature programs. His experiences give him a long perspective on the advances in photography and exploration of this strange undersea world.

Shale, who holds a doctoral degree in marine biology, began photographing deep-sea animals in the 1970s for the U.K.-based Institute of Oceanographic Sciences (now the National Oceanography Centre). He left to become a wildlife filmmaker, but the two paths merged in the 1990s when The Blue Planet, the BBC oceanography series, took him on as a cinematographer. (He won a BAFTA award, the U.K. equivalent of the Oscar, for cinematography in 2002.) He then joined the Census of Marine Life project as photographer and videographer; the images seen here are from these expeditions.

While Shale has been down in a deep-sea submersible, virtually all his photography is done on the surface. In earlier days, benthic (sea floor-dwelling) animals would be brought up to the ship by nets. “It was a nightmare,” he recalls. “You’d drag a trawl over the sea floor for three hours, then you had to sort through the material. Most of [the animals] have mucus on them, so everything sticks to it; it would look like blobs of mud. They generally came up dead, so you had to get to them as quickly as possible; the longer you left them, the more they would change.”

And this was in the film era. “Taking pictures of black or silver animals in a tank of water with a black background was tricky,” he says. “When you were at sea for a month, you had to wait until you returned before sending off rolls of film. Often there was disappointment, and you could not take those pictures again.”

If video does not load, re-load page.

Then, the remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, was introduced. “The ROV is connected to the ship by a long conducting cable,” he says. “This allows the operators in the ship’s control room to ‘fly’ the ROV over the sea floor, collecting all sorts of data. The skilled operators can select specific animals and bring them back to the ship in near perfect condition.”

The ROV is equipped with robotic claws and collection tanks—and generally brings the deep sea creatures back alive—so Shale tries as much as possible to photograph living specimens. (Nets are still sometimes employed for gathering mid-water animals.)

Digital photography has also made a huge difference. “With a good digital SLR and the other gear tethered to a laptop, I can be certain of my subject,” he says.

Once the samples are brought aboard, they are taken to a “cold room” (about 40 degrees) and placed in aquarium tanks of cold filtered seawater. For video footage of live, moving animals, they are placed in a circular tank called a kreisel. In either case, the background is black, and subjects are illuminated from two sides, for a sort of dark-field illumination. If you want to try this setup, follow the steps in the first of our “5 Super Photo Projects,” (May 2014.)

“Being in a cold room for many hours is demanding,” Shale tells us. “You need a good supply of warm clothes, and friendly helpers providing cups of coffee. Laptops, cameras, and batteries don’t like the cold. And don’t forget this is not a static environment: The ship moves and so does the water in the aquaria and the subjects. Having said that, modern research ships are more stable, with less vibration than they had in the past.”

Shale, who professes to be “a Nikon man—and always have been,” uses a D2X, a D700, and D800. (“The trouble is you collect them as new models emerge.”) He uses 105mm f/2.8 and 60mm f/2.8 Micro Nikkor lenses, and extension tubes when necessary. Lighting comes from two Nikon SB800 Speedlights. Focus, exposure, and flash are manual. “Autofocus does not work, and neither do autoflash settings for this sort of work,” he says. He shoots at 1/60 sec or faster, at f/11 to f/22, with the flashes set to around 1/64 power.

Shale may handhold the camera, particularly when photographing animals in the kreisel. To keep the animals from settling, jets circulate the water in the tank. The animals drift around to the top, then downwards to the center—the sweet spot of the lighting setup. And it’s easier to follow the drifting creatures with a handheld camera.

“The camera is attached to my trusty Apple MacBook Pro,” he relates. “Images are seen immediately in JPEG format using Nikon Camera Control Pro, and I can make minor adjustments to lighting.” Shale then makes exposures in RAW, and once back on land, edits them and saves to TIFFs.

“I use the best specimens and clean them first,” he says. “The water has to be clean and free from bubbles—even a stray bubble can cause problems. Doing it this way means at least 90 percent of my pictures require no editing. Metadata is added as soon as possible before the next sample .”

Shale says there is little danger working on modern exploration craft. “The main features that stand out are the fact you are working on a moving platform, and often you work in a dark room with glass tanks, seawater and electricity—the last two don’t go together well.

“I do not remember any scary moments at sea,” he continues. “For some people, the thought of going down in a submersible to 1,000 meters sitting inside a 1.5-meter diameter Perspex sphere might be scary. I thought it was one of the most exciting things I had done in my life!”

Deep Sea Squid

Fangtooth

Acorn Worm

Hydro­medusa

Batfish

Sea Spider

Deep Sea Basket Star

The post Amazing Photographs of Deep Sea Creatures by David Shale appeared first on Popular Photography.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

The night sky has inspired artists for millennia, and it is no less a muse for photographers today. What’s more, digital technology, including lower-noise sensors and the ability to enhance and combine images during postproduction, makes shooting stars more accessible than ever—and requires no special equipment. Here’s how three stellar masters get their shots.

Matt walker has what might seem to be an ideal occupation for a photography enthusiast: he’s a horticulturalist who manages estate gardens in the San Francisco Bay area.

“Photography and gardening go really well together,” he says. “My job requires that I know the weather every day, and I became pretty good at understanding the weather early in my career. I love shooting landscapes with clouds, and being outdoors keeps me in tune with the conditions. I’m usually the first person to call out to my photographer friends about the approaching clouds.”

Walker, 47, has been photographing since his high school days, but began star photography only about two years ago. “I have always loved the stars, and after seeing some beautiful shots in magazines and on social photo sites, I had to try it for myself,” he says. “I have had the opportunity to shoot the night sky with some really good photographers this year, which helped me become a better star photographer.”

Walker often makes composite star images. “I want to be able to print my images large, and shooting the foreground at low ISO increases the sharpness and reduces noise,” he explains. “The stars at high ISO are not that bad printed large, but a foreground printed at high ISO looks horrible.” He adds, “All my shots are real, that is, the Milky Way was really there at the time, and I just shot the foreground in better light without moving my camera. I don’t want anyone to think I just blended a composite with some random Milky Way shot.”

His advice for photographers who want to try star shooting? “Just go for it, and experiment with different ISOs, and aperture settings,” he says. “A wide-angle lens that has a manual focus setting is mandatory—autofocus does not work at night.”

Besides having the obvious basics (camera and lens, tripod, remote-release cord), Walker urges careful planning ahead. “Finding a location with a good foreground—and making sure that you can remain in your location for a long time—is important,” he notes. “You don’t want to get kicked out by a park ranger when you are in the middle of your shoot. Dress for warmth, bring food and water, and a beach chair is nice when you are out in the field for several hours.”

Walker’s night portfolio is not limited to star shots; he takes plenty of land-, sea-, and cityscapes between sundown and sunup (you can see more at flickriver.com/photos/rootswalker). “Night photography has worked out really well for me because I have a family,” he says, “so when they go to bed, that’s my time to shoot.”

Walker says…

•Watch the weather. Cloud cover is an obvious deterrent to star photography, but remember, too, that “wind is a nightmare for long exposures.”
•Fast lenses, please. “A lens of f/2.8 or faster is best, but not mandatory. F/4 is as slow as I would go shooting the stars.” The slower the lens, the longer your shutter times will be.
•Be careful out there. Bring a headlamp and flashlight for finding your way to and from your car, and be aware of wild animals and any other hazards that may be in an area. “I also recommend shooting the stars with another photographer for safety.”

“I became interested in the night sky at a young age, long before I even had a camera,” says Darren White, a full-time professional photographer who now teaches workshops in night photography. “And once I had a good camera I was always trying to photograph the sky.”

White, 38, who recently relocated to Colorado (“It’s a whole new adventure out here—I am ready!”) is something of a purist when it comes to star shooting. “None of the work on my websites are composites,” he tells us. “I do all my work in single images, with selective adjustments in postprocessing. Sometimes I will create multiple exposures or blends for my own fun.”

White, despite his (relatively) young age, owes his photo­graphic expertise to the film era, “My first real camera was a 35mm Vivitar that my mom got for free from a magazine subscription back in the mid ’80s,” he relates. “She gave it to me, and I put some film in and started photographing my friends skateboarding. I was hooked. After that I quickly upgraded to an SLR, and then to a pro SLR. I learned how to develop and print my own work; working in a darkroom is one of the biggest advantages to learning about exposure—understanding how much light you need to properly expose a scene.”

Exposure, of course, is a critical factor in star photography, where shutter time may range from several minutes to an hour or more. “When working with single exposures it’s best to get it right in the camera,” White says. “Know how to calculate out exposures up to an hour long. Start with 30 seconds at ISO 1600 at f/4 and go from there. If you don’t like star trails and want pinpoint stars, then you will need the widest, fastest lens you can afford. The wider the lens, the more time you can expose without seeing movement.”

The rule of thumb: Each time you cut your ISO in half, you’ll need to double your exposure time, given the same f-stop. So if your camera is providing a good (if noisy) exposure of 30 seconds at ISO 6400, you’ll need 60 seconds at ISO 3200, 120 seconds (2 minutes) at ISO 1600, and so on.

While star photography requires no special equipment—the camera and lens you own, plus a tripod and a cable release or similar, are all you really need—White notes that the early going in nighttime photography can be frustrating. “One of the biggest issues photographers have with photographing the night sky is how to focus,” he says. “Not all lenses will allow you to be crystal clear at infinity.” (Editor’s note: Since the advent of autofocus, manually setting an AF lens to the infinity mark may not guarantee sharp focus.) “Learn how to focus your camera on a moonless night so the stars are clear. I suggest you do this in the day, and put a mark on your lens so you know where ‘infinity’ is on that lens. This will save you considerable time.”

Another issue is digital noise, which is exacerbated by both the dark field of the sky and long exposure times. “I often see photographers get frustrated because they have way too much noise from a long exposure from their older crop-sensor camera,” White says. “I always suggest renting a camera that is a few steps up from your current model to see the difference it makes with night-sky photography.

Sensor heat is also a major issue. The longer the sensor is on, the more heat it creates, add that to a warm humid night in the desert, and it will increase your noise. Take the same picture with the same settings on a cold, clear, winter night and your noise will be much lower. As it was with the image I am sharing with you here—the temp outside that night was right at 10 degrees—very cold.”

Knowing geography (and star charts) helps too. In the image seen here of Mount Hood, taken from the Timberline Lodge in Oregon, White knew that “the North Star is always over Mount Hood, so I knew that a long exposure would give a circular effect to the star trails.”

And it helps to enjoy being outside, in the dark, away from the crowds. “I do love the outdoors,” White says. “I grew up on the Oregon coast, and once I could drive I would spend my evenings at the beach photographing the sunsets. I moved to the Portland, area in 1999 and fell in love with hiking to my destinations and just exploring in general.” You can see lots more of his excellent outdoor shots at darrenwhitephotography.com.

White says…

•Take a workshop. “Learn from the pros the how’s and why’s of night photography,” he says. “We have done all the research and learned from trial and error.”
•Get (and stay) in shape. The best places for star photography are away from civilization. “There are so many undiscovered places that people will never see because they simply don’t want to put forth the effort it takes to explore and do a little bushwhacking,” he says.
•Don’t assume it’s all your fault. Noisy images in nighttime shots? Maybe it’s your gear. Huge strides have been made in noise control in recent camera models. White suggests you rent a newer camera body (with larger sensor) to see if it makes a difference.

Masahiro miyasaka came to photography relatively late, with the purchase of a Canon EOS Kiss Digital (the name in Japan for the EOS Digital Rebel) 10 years ago, when he was in his mid-30s. It was purely by chance; Miyasaka had casually read about the camera in a magazine and thought he would give it a try.

But from the very first photograph he took, it was clear to Miyasaka that photography was, both figuratively and literally, in his stars. “I shot a rose. It was very beautiful. I felt the universe inside it,” he says.

With his discovery that star photography is relatively easy with a digital SLR, he has produced a stunning body of work that shows the universe in the smallest of objects, and the shape of tiny things in the pattern of stars.

“A lot of people are interested only in stars,” says Miyasaka, 46, a specialist in factory automation. “But the universe and the patterns of flowers and shells are similar. I think the universe is hidden in the familiar world. Look for both at the same time—the stars and the flowers on the ground. There will be a new discovery for you.”

Besides flowers and shells, Miyasaka includes leaves, trees, rocks, ice formations, bodies of water, temples, and even creatures like frogs in the foregrounds of his star shots, which are, as you might imagine, done primarily with wide-angle lenses such as the 16–35mm zoom used for the image here.

None of these photographs are composites. “I will not composite in processing, no. Only one shot for all of them,” he insists. This is not to say that Miyasaka’s images are straightforward one-click shots; far from it.

The image here is one of his simpler ones, a long exposure during which he painted in illumination on the cherry blossoms with a Panasonic LED flashlight.

Images of smaller objects can get considerably more complex. In one example, a photograph of three blossoms against a background of a mountain and stars, Miyasaka’s bulb exposure started at f/2.8, with focus at infinity for the background. About a minute into the exposure, he illuminated the flowers with an LED lamp, using a different power ratio according to the distance of the flowers from the camera. Then, with the shutter still open, he stopped down to f/22 and refocused the lens on the near flower, and again painted in light with an LED. In effect, the final image is a multiple exposure made during one opening of the shutter. Miyasaka diagrams the procedure on his Flickr website, www.flickr.com/photos/43894176@N07/. (Obviously, you need a lens with manual aperture and focusing rings for techniques like this.)

Miyasaka also color-coordinates his foreground lighting with the color of his subjects. “For yellow flowers, use a yellow LED. A white LED is beautiful for white or pink flowers,” he says. He will also use accessory flash units, such as his Canon Speedlites, to illuminate foreground elements.

It may surprise readers to learn that Miyasaka commonly uses a soft-focus filter, namely a Kenko Pro1D Pro Softon, which produces the most blurring of the point-light sources in the frame. “Digital imaging devices produce, small, sharp images of the stars,” he notes. “This is not interesting. A soft filter makes for bloated stars—the pale blur is beautiful.”

Another off-the-beaten-path technique that Miyasaka employs can be seen in the angle of view of his photographs. While he makes plenty of star shots at the traditional angle—toward the horizon, aimed slightly upwards to take in both earth and sky—some are taken straight up, or nearly so. And why not? Haven’t you ever, on a brilliantly clear night, stared straight up at the canopy of stars?

As far as advice for prospective star shooters, Miyasaka says the same thing all astrophotographers do: get out of town. “A lot of people live in the city,” he says. “The night sky of the city is so bright that there are very few stars. I live in the country, with many high mountains. And the air is clean in Nagano. Photographers need to go out to the mountains, and to the sea.”

Miyasaka Says…

•Sharpness isn’t everything. The dreamy, ethereal quality in his photos is due to deliberate softening of the stars with a Kenko Softon filter, which produces the most blur on point-light sources, leaving other elements relatively sharp.
•Use phosphorescent tape. Put bits of this on aperture rings, infinity focus marks, and any commonly used controls so that you can find them in the dark without resorting to a flashlight.
•Always include an element besides the stars. “I’m not interested in only stars. I’m interested in flowers and stars—because I feel the stars in the flower.”

The post Photography Tips: Shooting Photos of the Stars appeared first on Popular Photography.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

This one came way out of left field—thrown to home plate by a mighty arm. The Sony Alpha 7R represents not only the most substantial refinement of the interchangeable-lens compact (ILC) camera to date, but also a redefinition of the entire concept of the high-end system camera. The camera that best refined or redefined photography in 2013? Unquestionably, it is the diminutive (but full-frame) high-resolution Sony Alpha 7R.

We pretty much know it’s going to be trouble when Sony people show up near the end of the year with a bag or two of new stuff. By October, our editorial team had settled on the finalists for 2013 Camera of the Year, and, with no other potential competition on the horizon, we were just about to decide the winner. In anticipation of the shoot for this January issue, we had booked our studio photographer. A few days later, out of the Sony bag came the Alpha 7R and 7 cameras. They looked like super-compact DSLRs, but they turned out to be mirrorless compacts. With full-frame sensors. The “gulp” in the room was audible.

But to get in under the wire for Camera of the Year eligibility, a production model had to be vetted in the Popular Photography Test Lab within that year. That’s the rule: It’s not enough that a camera is a groundbreaking design, or that it’s a substantial upgrade of an existing model. It must go through our full battery of tests to be eligible. It has to perform, and perform very well. The results of the 7R’s test can be seen in our report HERE.

The camera actually outperformed our expectations, given the relatively small size of its body—smaller in volume than the Leica M, with considerably more electronics inside. Given the cramped interior quarters, there’s not much of a heat sink for a 36.4MP full-frame sensor, and heat buildup is a major cause of digital noise, which can also rob resolution. But the 7R proved competitive on all our test criteria with the Nikon D800, the highest-resolution digital camera available short of going to a (far pricier) medium-format camera.

Impressive as the 7R’s imaging power is, it’s all the more impressive for the package it comes in. This camera was clearly designed for pros and serious amateurs, with its tough, weather-sealed body, logical and ergonomic controls, superb electronic viewfinder (who needs a pentaprism?), and built-in connectivity. And the 7R came out of the bag as part of a full system, including five lenses and more to arrive soon (see the test report for details). There’s a vertical battery grip, the HVL-F60M electronic flash/video light that allows for wireless radio TTL, stereo mics for video, and more. We’re confident that Sony will thoroughly build out the system.

We should note that this time, our Camera of the Year award is very much an award for the system as well as the individual camera. Sony’s Alpha 7 variant—with lower resolution (still, a beefy 24.3MP) but an enhanced autofocus system and a slightly faster burst rate than the 7R’s—might be a better choice those photographers who don’t need humongous resolution.

While we’re nitpicking, we’ll point out that the 7R’s resolution comes at the expense of more noise at higher ISOs. Canon’s EOS 5D Mark III, our 2012 Camera of the Year and still the reigning low-light champ, is way ahead of the 7R in this regard, with acceptable noise through ISO 25,600; the 7R hits this boundary at ISO 1600. We wish the Alpha 7R had some way of triggering accessory flashes without using another flash as a master. (Hint to Sony: how about a trigger unit for the hot-shoe?) And a camera at this level should have a second card slot rather than a single SD.

Runner-Up: Canon EOS 70D
The typical kit lens for the 70D, the 18–135mm f/3.5–5.6 Canon EF-S IS STM zoom shown on the camera, has a stepping motor for smoother video AF.

But overall, the 7R has us convinced that ILCs can fully cut it as pro cameras. The introduction of this camera system even has us wondering whether the days of the single-lens reflex are numbered. It certainly is a shot across the bow of the two DSLR biggies, Canon and Nikon, whose ILC offerings to date have seemed, to put it plainly, halfhearted.

And the Others…
Two other cameras made it to our list of 2013 finalists: The Canon EOS 70D and Sony’s own Cyber-shot RX1. (This isn’t the first time that two Sony models competed for Camera of the Year.)

The 70D marks the seventh generation of Canon’s double-digit-D series of midrange APS-C-format DSLRs—quite a run. But it’s a measure of how much we at Pop Photo have been spoiled by this decade-old line of cameras that we were a bit disappointed in the 70D’s Excellent-rated still imaging performance, which, with resolution of 2630 lines, was “only” incrementally better than its predecessor 60D‘s. Still, we were thoroughly impressed with the 70D’s so-far unique Dual Pixel CMOS autofocus system, in which twinned pixels can perform phase detection over most of the area of the sensor. The result is extremely smooth and sensitive video and live-view autofocus. Using a smartphone to trigger a Steadicam-mounted 70D via the camera’s built-in Wi-Fi connection, we were able to capture smooth, sharp video on the move.

Moreover, we’re pretty certain that Canon will be able to speed up the Dual Pixel CMOS AF for extremely fast autofocus for stills. (Hey, Canon, will that come in a firmware upgrade?) Beside that, the 70D gives you bursts of 7 frames per second, very fast conventional AF, an articulating 3-inch LCD, and a rugged build. For its $1,199 street price, it’s an attractive option for serious amateurs and budget-minded pros alike.

As for the Cyber-shot RX1, they said it couldn’t be done, and Sony said, “Oh yes, we can.” The only fixed-lens full-frame digital compact in cameradom, the RX1 is as much a showcase of technological know-how as it is a picture-taking device. While its 24.3MP CMOS sensor is very similar to that of the Sony Alpha 99, just about every other piece of the camera was purpose-designed for it. The lens, for instance: its 35mm f/2 Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* was formulated specifically for the sensor, and it extends more than halfway into the camera body for compactness.

Runner-Up: Sony Cyber-Shot RX1
For a properly upmarket viewfinder experience with the RX1, there’s the 2.4-million-dot EVM1K electronic viewfinder at $448, street.

The RX1 takes pretty good pictures, too. It resolved 2870 lines in our test for an Excellent rating, and kept noise at acceptable levels through ISO 3200—impressive, given that sensor heat buildup in small cameras can result in more noise. The camera fell short of an Excellent overall image quality rating because its color accuracy score, oddly, just missed the Excellent mark.

For most of us, the main drawback of the RX1 is its price—a sticker-shock-inducing $2,798, street. But despite the hefty pricetag, people are buying it for the great imaging, sturdy body, well-designed controls, and generally upscale vibe.

This Year’s Model
The competition for Camera of the Year 2013 couldn’t be more different from the previous year’s. In 2012, our three finalists were very closely matched; all three were high-end, high-megapixel DSLRs, and our editorial panel deliberated long and hard on the winner. In 2013, our three finalists were dramatically different cameras, from distinctly different classes.

Our sole criterion for Camera of the Year: That it be the model that best refined or redefined photography in the past year. Our finalists represented one important refinement, in Canon’s new AF system on the EOS 70D, and two astonishing redefinitions of what a compact camera—fixed lens or interchangeable—can do. But when our final test results came in, we realized it was simply no contest. And so with the Alpha 7R, Sony wins an unprecedented fourth Camera of the Year citation.

The Year of the ILC
If this year’s Camera of the Year award were limited to Micro Four Thirds cameras, it might well have been a tie. The year 2013 saw tests of the two best Micro Four Thirds ILCs you can buy today, the Olympus OM-D E-M1 and the Panasonic Lumix GH3.

When we awarded the 2008 Camera of the Year to the world’s first interchangeable-lens compact, the Panasonic Lumix G1, this was more in recognition of the exciting new path it promised to blaze rather than sheer imaging power.

In 2013, Olympus and Panasonic showed us just how much imaging power these cameras can actually muster. Both the E-M1 ($1,399, body only) and GH3 ($1,298, body only) earned Excellent overall image quality ratings from their lowest ISOs through ISO 400 in Pop Photo Lab tests. Those are impressive results, given the relatively small size of Four Thirds sensors (about one-quarter the area of the 24x36mm full frame). Both employ similar pixel counts (16.3MP for the Olympus, 16MP for the Panasonic) and both have robust, weather-sealed magnesium-alloy bodies.

The petite Olympus E-M1 maintains cleaner images at higher ISOs—acceptable noise levels through ISO 3200—whereas the Panasonic GH3’s images showed unacceptable noise at ISO 1600. The larger (some say too large) GH3 is a better video camera, with recording at 1920x1080p60. With phase-detection elements embedded in its sensor, the Olympus’ autofocusing proved faster than the Panasonic’s. The E-M1 is the knobbier camera of the two, with lots of buttons, dials, and levers for controls, while the GH3 has one of the best-designed touchscreens around (and plenty of external controls, too). Can’t decide? Buy them both—they use the same lensmount.

While these models are proof that Micro Four Thirds has matured into an enthusiast’s format, competition this time around was just too tough. for either to take home Camera of the Year honors.

A look back at some of our past winner:

2012 Camera of the Year: Canon EOS 5D Mark III
2011 Camera of the Year: Sony NEX-7
2010 Camera of the Year: Sony A55
2009 Camera of the Year: Nikon D3X
2008 Camera of the Year: Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1
2007 Camera of the Year: Nikon D300
2006 Camera of the Year: Sony Alpha 100

The post 2013 Camera of the Year: Sony a7R appeared first on Popular Photography.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

As humans, and as photographers, we’re drawn to structures. Cloud-kissing skyscrapers, simple suburban houses, cathedrals, ramshackle garden sheds—any kind of structure can make a great subject. Here, four masters of the genre explain how to make your architectural photographs soar.

“It’s what makes us human,” says Adrian Gaut of our fascination with making pictures of our structures, “the ability to transcend the environment.”

Gaut, a New York City–based commercial pro, whose images appear on pages 52 and 53, represents a breed of architectural photographers who make pictures not primarily for a design firm, but as part of larger projects or personal work.

Such artists combine their literal representations of buildings with an overlay of metaphor. As Christopher Griffith, also based in New York, puts it, photographing architecture is “a testament to the idea, the sensation, that it’s even possible to build these kinds of things—the sort of awe that human beings have at the ability to create [them].”

Anyone who feels this awe can learn to express it in photographs.

Developing a Style

Your point of view, both in terms of where you set your camera and what the structure means to you, will be a defining feature of your architectural photographs. Shoot to find out what you are drawn to, and go from there.

Gaut’s style, for example, is dominated by angles and a closer perspective than is typically seen in architectural photography—a characteristic born of necessity. He had purchased a used 4×5 rig on eBay that he thought came with a 90mm lens (extra-wide on this large-format camera), but in fact was outfitted with a 210mm (short telephoto) lens. “At the time I couldn’t afford to buy other lenses,” he says. “So I started shooting with the longer lens and found I was able to get something more unique, and more consistent with my vision of architecture. It also allowed me to shoot buildings that I considered not necessarily interesting as a whole—but [whose details] held a lot of potential. Once I could afford more lenses, I still felt connected with that way of working.”

If Gaut is all about angles, Ashok Sinha, another New York–based photographer, is all about curves. His picture of the staircase in the Frank Gehry–designed Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto is above. “I find a curve to be a strong visual element, especially for architecture, where everything is [usually] very straight. It adds a bit of flavor to the pictures—it makes them pop.”

Griffith, in the meantime, focuses on repeating patterns, as can be seen in his shot of the Shanghai Grand Theatre at right.

Matthias Haker, a Dresden-based commercial photographer, is clearly drawn to spirals and tubes, as can be seen in his photo of a station in the London underground on the facing page. “I’m fascinated by spiral staircases,” he says. “It’s a typical situation that I photograph a spiral staircase in some office building. . .and as the people who work there see me lying on the floor, they start to look up and actually realize how beautiful it [is]—even though they’re used to seeing it every day.”

The lesson? Think about what visual elements in the built environment most draw your own eye, and frame the scene in
a way that brings these elements to the forefront.

Finding Subjects

Identifying structures to photograph is “a mixture of serendipity and some planning,” Gaut says. “I travel a lot, and sometimes I’ll have a list of things that look interesting, sometimes from guidebooks. Sometimes I’ll file subjects away for future trips, but I’ve always got my eyes open.” His advice: Take a look at the building next to the one you were interested in. “Sometimes flagship buildings by major architects are less interesting than the ones that don’t get the press.”

For the image above, Sinha had a free day in Toronto on a commercial shoot, so he headed out. “I always love going to art galleries. The Art Gallery of Toronto is not only known for the collections but the architecture in general. And I had always wanted to see Gehry’s staircases.”

Like these two photographers, Haker tends to research buildings to photograph for his personal work, which he does on top of commercial assignments. “Before I travel, I spend a lot of time searching online for places of interest,” he says. “Photo communities have made that research easy. Besides those, I check books about architecture as well as architectural websites or forums.”

But some shooters find subjects without much of a search—you just have to look up. With mundane buildings, the challenge lies in transforming them through photography. “I’m never particularly concerned about the representation of reality,” Griffith says. “It’s very rare that I look at a building and say, ‘I want to be true to how it sits and lives in the environment and the horizon.’ I’m much more about how the three-dimensional world fits into a two-dimensional box. I’m always trying to make things look larger than life, more monumental.”

Selecting Gear

Because these four photographers are busy pros, they work a wide variety of jobs. And so they have settled on full-frame DSLRs and ILCs, primarily with zoom lenses. Gaut uses the Nikon D810-series cameras; Sinha prefers the Canon EOS 5D series; and Haker is a Sony man, working with Alpha 900, Alpha 7R, and Alpha 99.

“It gives me the right amount of flexibility across a lot of different jobs,” Gaut says of a full-frame DSLR system. “Still life, portraits, aerial—it’s a real boon for me.” For architectural work, he commonly uses a longer-than-expected 70–200mm f/2.8 AF Zoom Nikkor.

Griffith is the outlier of the bunch. For his architectural studies he uses a 4×5 Linhof Master Technika, Rodenstock lenses, and—take a deep breath—film. Architectural work is, he says, “oddly enough, not something that I necessarily make a living at. I do it for myself. There’s no crew, there’s no producer; it’s you and a 4×5 camera. It lets you get back to a solitary way of shooting.”

While for most of his commercial work, he’s all digital (Nikon As humans, and as photographers, we’re drawn to structures. Cloud-kissing skyscrapers, simple suburban houses, cathedrals, ramshackle garden sheds—any kind of structure can make a great subject. Here, four masters of the genre explain how to make your architectural photographs soar. By Dan Richards and D810s and a Hasselblad H4 with Leaf back), for personal work he likes shooting with film because, he says, it “forces you to make decisions. I can shoot everything under the sun if I shoot digital. With film, I’ll shoot two or three things and I’m done.” Griffith does make one concession to speed—he uses a Linhof viewfinder, similar to cinematographers’ framing optics, to establish starting compositions.

Making Decisions

None of our four shooters are equipment-obsessive. As with most types of photography, making a great architectural image depends not on the subject or the gear you shoot it with but on the decisions you make while shooting. For that, these pros offer some nuggets of wisdom.

“Work with the equipment that you have, the equipment you’re comfortable with, and find an approach that works for you—in my case, shooting with longer lenses,” says Gaut.

Sinha urges you to pay attention to light. “I’m always observing light,” he says. “I am always making notes about light and looking at the shadows.” And don’t shy away from backlight. As he points out in his picture of the Frank Gehry staircase, the backlight coming from the ceiling and glinting off the wooden banisters defines the form.

Griffith has an unusual piece of advice: Shoot less. During a location still-life workshop he led, he directed participants to limit the number of pictures they would take in any given session to 50 clicks. As everyone was shooting digital, he relied on the honor system. “It’s like having 50 sheets of film,” he says. “That kind of discipline, and those kinds of exercises, really force you to home in on not the picture that you can take, but the picture that you want to take. The problem [with digital] is that it doesn’t hone your eye. I’m guilty of this as well. I’ll be shooting a commercial job, and after a day I’ll have shot 800 to a thousand pictures—how the hell did I shoot that many? This is not an anti-digital argument at all. It’s purely the exercise of patience, the patience of taking photographs and forcing yourself to really make decisions.”

“You don’t need amazing buildings to make interesting pictures,” adds Gaut. “The big lesson is to work with what you have and go from there. You can take a great picture with a so-so lens—if you’ve got the vision.”

The post Building Photos: How to Craft Amazing Architectural Shots appeared first on Popular Photography.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

If photography is writing with light, darkness is the punctuation. Darkness defines shapes, makes two dimensions look like three, and heightens drama. It can even be a subject in itself. Here are 10 ways to achieve dark victory.

1. Take silhouettes

This time-honored (and often clichéd) technique defines forms by reducing them to dead black. It’s easiest to do when your subject is backlit; for a perfect sillo, meter off the bright background.

•Tip: Increase dimensional interest by allowing the edges of the subject to be rimlit; shoot bursts for a moving animal such as the bear above.

2. Exploit dark shade to define the shapes of trees

While direct overhead or near overhead sunlight is usually considered a no-no, photographing globular-shaped trees in full leaf and full sun can produce dramatic results. The small shadows cast by the trees make great design elements, particularly in wider-angle scenes with multiple trees as subjects.

•Tip: Shoot beach umbrellas or café umbrellas at high noon to allow the shadows to define their form. This is especially effective from above.

3. Use “negative reflectors” to define form

Black cards or panels, also known as flags, are popular among portrait and product photographers. They can tone down too-bright areas, prevent spillover from studio lights, and add shape-defining shadows. A more specialized device, called a gobo, fits over a studio light either to narrow the beam with a partial black covering or to project a pattern in black.

•Tip: Create a sense of mystery in portraits by partially blocking studio lighting so that an area of the scene is thrown completely into shadow. Try it on the diagonal!

4. Tone down image noise with dark-frame noise reduction

Dark areas of a photo get far noisier than the lighter areas, which can be a problem in late-day or night photography. Long-exposure noise reduction in DSLRs and ILCs (it’s a menu option) takes a second frame that is black—no exposure—then uses this frame to subtract much of the noise from the actual exposure. It typically doubles your exposure times, but they’re going to be longish anyway.

•Tip: In photos with heavy shadows taken at high ISOs, convert to black-and-white—the noise gain is far less objectionable.

5. Use shadows to give dimension to landforms

There’s a reason landscape photographers love the “golden hours” after sunrise and before sunset, and it’s not just the color. The low-angled light creates dark shadows that create a three-dimensional effect; shoot from the north or south for effective sidelighting.

•Tip: For shadowy landscapes, spotmeter on medium-bright areas and let the shadows fall where they may.

6. Employ exposure compensation

If the scene is dark, the exposure should be dark (within reason). Use exposure comp to maintain darkness—and remember, it works in all modes, even manual. Don’t worry about a perfectly centered histogram—it should, in fact, fall off the cliff in the shadows—that is, get clipped on the left side of the graph.

•Tip: Don’t forget about white balance—set a tungsten WB on your camera in daylight to simulate the bluish light of late day or heavily shaded scenes.

7. Use day for night

This is handheld night photography made easy. To make a daytime scene look like nighttime, simply underexpose it. We mean seriously underexpose it—by as much as four stops. You can make city scenes more realistic by dodging highlights into streetlamps or windows during postproduction to make them look lit.

•Tip: To add a dreamy quality to a day-for-night scene with moving water or windblown trees, reduce the light hitting your sensor by using an overall neutral-density filter. This will allow you to set a long exposure.

8. Add light to the dark

For added drama, use flash for the foreground in dark outdoor scenes. Flash shots of people near the end of the blue hour, for example, can be particularly effective. Be sure to keep the background exposure dark; for a somewhat more realistic effect, dial down your flash unit to – 1 to –2 EV.

•Tip: Simulate the light of the setting sun (even if there is none) by putting an amber gel over your flash head. Keep the camera’s white balance at daylight.

9. Use shadow patterns to create texture

A portrait or still life taken with window light streaming through open blinds, for example.“Venetian blind lighting” became a staple of film noir in the ’40s and ’50s.

•Tip: Create shadow patterns with the use of a cuculoris, or “cookie.” Simply create a panel with patterns cut out in it, and place it in front of a studio light. It’s an easy DIY project.

10. Define a frame with darkness

Use a tunnel, a dark interior window frame, or a backlit foreground landform as a natural framing device. Be sure to expose for the scene that’s inside the frame, not for the frame itself.

•Tip: Use features in dark shadow to define the planes in cityscape photography.

The post 10 tips for using darkness in your photography appeared first on Popular Photography.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

1. The Rebate Game
Rebates offer opportunities for big savings, but you have to look for them. Companies use rebates when a product will soon be discontinued, to cut down on excess inventory, or as an inducement for buyers to get into a camera system. They can be the mail-in type, but these are being supplanted by the instant rebate (especially at online retail sites), by which the buyer gets the rebate on the spot. Instant rebates are less unwieldy than mail-ins, which are administered by third-party fulfillment companies.

Rebates may come in cycles; some companies are known to offer a spate of rebates in the spring and fall. But beware the non-rebate rebate—for example, a camera priced at $1,100 eligible for a $100 rebate—but which was $1,000 before the rebate offer.

2. “Priced too low to advertise”—gimmick or legit?
No, it’s not a gimmick or a come-on. Manufacturers may establish “minimum advertised prices” (MAPs) for their products, and retailers are contractually obligated to adhere to them. (A 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision ruled that these “vertical price restraints” were legal.) Manufactures can—and do—retaliate against retailers who undercut MAPs, even by withholding merchandise from them.

But that doesn’t stop retailers from discounting from MAPs. You just have to add the item to your online cart, click on a pop-up, or email or phone the retailer. And it’s worth your while to do so.

3. We ❤ Discontinued!
Discontinuation is a boon for bargain hunters (if the company isn’t going out of business). With product cycles so short, a discontinued model may be a great deal if you don’t need the latest features.

Of course, bargain hunters are on to this, so these items can sell out fast. With the introduction of Canon’s EOS 5D Mark III, for example, Canonites were ready to pounce on a price drop on the EOS 5D Mark II. And indeed, as we went to press, one retailer was selling that camera with a 24–105mm f/4L Canon EF IS lens for $2,699—a cool $1,400 less than with the Mark III.

4. Sales cycles
Promotions by camera makers come at the year-end holiday season, and Dads and Grads in late May through mid-June. These sales and/or rebates may be good deals—but monitor prices before these seasons to make sure.

Once upon a time, camera gear followed fairly predictable cycles—most introductions occurred at the big photo trade shows, notably Photokina in Germany. Not anymore. If there’s any kind of cycle, it’s technological—when one camera maker introduces a new capability, you know other brands will follow. Case in point: Nikon introduced DSLR video in the D90 in 2008. Canon came out with the video-capable EOS 5D Mark II three months later.

5. Should you buy The extended warranty?
Extended warranties come in two flavors: One type, usually offered by manufacturers themselves, extends the same warranty protection. The other, offered by third-party companies, expands coverage to include damage through accident or negligence. There is debate on their value; some consumer advocates recommend never to buy them. But if you’re an outdoor adventurer, or if you’re buying a camera for your kid, or if you’re just clumsy, these may be a good value. But buy them from a reputable retailer, and check online reviews before purchase.

6. If it sounds too good to be true…
… it probably is. Any online entity that offers photo gear at prices substantially lower than those offered by established discount retailers should be suspect. We have received reports of outright fraud and thievery by some of these dealers, and, in other cases, misrepresentation of kit components—a third-party manual-focus lens in Nikon mount being called “a Nikon lens,” etc. And watch out for steeply discounted name-brand memory cards; they may be counterfeit.

The post 6 Tips For Bargain Hunters appeared first on Popular Photography.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

Art Wolfe

**Earth Is My Witness is a nearly 400-page book with more than 400 photos. It seems a statement of your career. Why this book, and why now? **

I met a publisher [Raoul Goff], and he said, “I would like to do your opus,” and I said, “What the hell is an opus?”

I think it was good timing. My career has been noted for variety, and it’s not the most prudent way to market oneself, if you’ve got subjects ranging from nudes to abstracts to culture to birds on a stick. [Goff] suggested a look back over 40 years, and so I started looking though the archives, and when I pulled out some of my historic best photos and compared them to anything I’m shooting today, they fell apart—the best and sharpest images just wouldn’t stand up. So rather than being a retrospective, this is really a look at these three genres [Desert/Savannah, Ocean /Islands, Tropical/Subtropical], many of which have been shot over the last two years.

So I’ve been running around the world upgrading the quality of the images, and in many cases shooting subjects I hadn’t even shot five years ago. I took it on as a brand-new project, not really looking back but looking forward.

In the book’s afterword, you say you’d like to photograph as many places and see as many things as you possibly can before your life ends. But I detected a sense of urgency.

When you’re in your thirties or forties your entire life seems ahead. I’ve never acted my age or felt my age. But yet, it’s inevitable that in your sixties, you realize, even in the best of circumstances, there are probably 20 years of travel left. So there is that sense that there is a limited amount of time to do what you want to do.

_**But it goes beyond that. In that afterword you also express an obligation to get out there and photograph. **_

Absolutely. In my seminars I’m as much an evangelist on stage as trying to teach—it’s really teaching life, and living the passion. Then, if you are in fact contributing to the greater society, there is an obligation to highlight stories that need to be told. And to bring insight and inspiration to other people.

Some say that beautiful pictures of landscapes and animals and indigenous cultures are essentially a form of nostalgia—that it’s all going to be over very soon, and that there is fundamentally no point to it, other than making pretty pictures. How would you respond?

I think that those people who say things like that would probably say that not only about photography but also a litany of other subjects. They are the doubters, the downers.

I could respond in many ways. One point is that there are photographers who are journalists, who are documenting the degradation. I also think that you can inspire, and win someone’s interest, through a positive image as well. I happen to shoot both, but inspiring people through a positive story is probably even more effective than showing the destruction.

The other point is that there are so many positive stories out there that we fail to hear about. We tend to hear the sensational headlines—those things command attention. But there are more eagles in Seattle than there ever have been. They are nesting in every city park. There are more mountain lions in America now than there have been probably in the last hundred years.

And there are cultures to this day that have never had Western contact. There is an organization in the Amazon whose job is to protect indigenous cultures. There are shots that I took 25 years ago that I could never replicate today, because maybe that tribe has changed or, more likely, you can’t even get into these tribes today because they are being protected by organizations.

Whether we have the capacity to thwart all the ills that could face human beings, that’s something that you won’t rally support for by saying,“What’s the use?” Let’s roll up our sleeves and see what we can do.

You describe yourself as a cultural photographer, as opposed to a landscape or a wildlife or a nature photographer. What was the a-ha moment for that?

I was on the first Western expedition into Tibet, by invitation of the Chinese government, in 1984. I took the opportunity to go to this forbidden kingdom. While I was there, I put more interest in the people, the tribes, the mountain villagers, than even photographing Mount Everest and the beautiful land. I remember seeing, in a small town called Shegar, people cramming their heads into a tiny building to watch a black-and-white TV, and it was like they were staring into the light of a train coming their way. And I said, “When I come off this mountain, I want to go to places where tradition is still intact.” Shortly thereafter I started work on a book called Endangered People.

At what point did you go digital?

I went digital exactly when my colleagues told me it’s on par with film. I went on a trip to Antarctica, when the first Canon 12-megapixel full-frame camera came out [the EOS-1Ds]. I got one, went with that plus 500 rolls of film with my film camera and a little laptop—I had never used a computer prior to that.

Leaving South America onto the Drake Passage, I went outside on the boat and I took a picture with the digital camera, just to see what the exposure would look like, brought it back and figured out how to download it onto the computer, and up it came. I saw that and realized I had shot it five minutes before. I have never shot a single exposure of film since. It was like a meat cleaver coming down. It was that immediacy that really connected with me. There was no longing or looking back toward film. It was about “How can I take better pictures and be more efficient?” and digital was just that.

Earth Is My Witness, his 17th book, is due from Insight Editions in October with a list price of $95.

It’s astonishing how many older people who fell away from photography have come back because of digital.

My audiences in seminars are generally between 40 and 70, some even older. And I say congratulate yourself: You’ve got an interest in photography; now make that interest a passion—love it, drink it, and you will live a longer life. People who think, who are creating, who are passionate, tend to live longer. I’m like a role model for the retired set.

How do you put up with all the travel and the usual hassles involved—luggage getting lost, cameras getting lost?

Drugs and alcohol [laughter]. All those flights, getting delayed, it’s part of the business. I cannot just put brakes on and decide I want to retire—I can’t afford to do it, nor would I want to—but boy, the psychology of getting through all those lines and all those delays and all the nonsense of world-travel people… If there were an easier way for me, I would do it. But I don’t have that luxury.

That transporter on the Enterprise…

My god, wouldn’t that be sweet!

Art Wolfe is an award-winning 
photographer based in Seattle.

Huli Man

Camel Trail, Sahara Desert

Women of Thar Desert

African Elephants, Okavango Delta, Botswana

Thai Tattoo, Bangkok

Monks in Myanmar

Active Volcano

Humpback Whale, Vava’u, Tonga

Halema’uma’u, Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii, USA

Chimbu Men

Cheetahs

The post Interview: Photographer Art Wolfe on Earth Is My Witness appeared first on Popular Photography.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

A mega-optic such as the 500mm f/4L IS Canon EF lens sells for nearly $13,000, but rents for less than $500.

Equipment rental has always provided both amateurs and pros an affordable alternative to purchasing expensive gear. But the rental business has undergone a sea change, due to both economic upheavals and the emergence of the Web as a commercial powerhouse. (In the past few years, several big-name New York City rental houses have closed up shop, including Allkit, Calumet, and Lens and Repro.) Now the action is very much with the Internet rental outfits—such as lensrentals.com, borrowlenses.com, and others. The remaining brick-and-mortar rental stores are usually also big retail operations, such as Adorama in New York City and Unique Photo in Fairfield, NJ, and they’ve adapted to the new environment by also offering rentals online. Websites for rental firms typically provide details about their individual procedures. Here are the most important basics:

•Plan ahead. Contact the rental firm as early as possible to make sure the equipment is available; this is especially important if you have, say, a big sporting event coming up in your area. First-time renters: Don’t hesitate to phone or Internet chat with any questions or concerns.

•Insure it. Most rental firms require you pay for insurance on the item while it’s in your possession. There may be several levels of insurance—higher levels are recommended if you’re bringing the item out of the country. And on high-ticket items, you may be required to show proof of independent insurance, particularly if the replacement value of the item exceeds the credit limit of your credit card. Rental firms will tolerate minor scratches or scrapes on barrels or bodies, but if you break it, you buy it (or pay the cost of repair). Insure accordingly.

•Getting the item. The rental firm will ship by FedEx or UPS or other carrier, and the rental period is generally considered to start the day of the first delivery attempt. The company will provide a prepaid shipping label that can go right on the box the item was delivered in.

•****Check it out. Examine the item carefully to make sure it’s fully functional and came with all accessories it was supposed to (e.g., lens cap). Notify the rental outfit immediately of any problems. Ditto if something bad happens to the lens.

Renting can offer an affordable ticket to high-end gear such as the Nikon D4s, the Sony HVL-F60M flash, or the Redrock Micro DSLR Cinema Bundle.

Some Renting Scenarios

The Dream Lens

The 14–24mm f/2.8G Nikon lens for full-frame is such a great optic that Canon shooters have been known to have them custom-adapted to their cameras. You could rent one for $125 to $150 for a week’s worth of landscape shooting, rather than buying it for $1,996 (street).

The Monster Lens

You’re going on that once-in-a-lifetime safari tour and would love to bring a 500mm lens along—but it will cost more than the trip you’ve booked. A 500mm f/4L IS Canon EF lens, to be specific, will drain your personal wealth of nearly $13,000. A week’s rental will run you $400 to $500. Do you have a tripod and head that can stand up to it? It’s a dream trip—so throw in another $150 to $200 for a heavy-duty tripod with a gimbal head.

The Big Bad Body

You’re a proud owner of a mid-level Canon or Nikon DSLR but have this nagging feeling… What am I missing out by not having a Canon EOS-1D X or Nikon D4s supercamera? Satisfy your curiosity by renting one of them for about $325 to $400 a week, as opposed to the $6,800 (1D X) or $6,500 (D4s) you’d shell out for purchase.

Flash Power to Go

You’ve promised a dear friend that you would shoot her wedding as a gift, but she’s not so dear that you’d want
to drop $550 to $600 for a top-tier TTL flash (Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT, Sony HVL-F60M, etc.) and another $350 for a Quantum Turbo SC battery pack. But you can rent a combination like that for $75 for a long weekend.

Your Inner DeMille

Your present DSLR or ILC captures HD video, of course, but maybe you have a yearning for a little more capability. You could try out 4K video by renting a Panasonic Lumix GH4 with a kit lens for about $100 for a long weekend. Really catching the cinematography bug? Kits like the Redrock Micro DSLR Cinema Bundle ($250 a week at borrowlenses.com) include a shoulder mount and follow-focus mechanism that will work with most DSLRs.

Places to Rent Photo Gear

•Lensrentals.com: This well-regarded Internet-only rental house has a large inventory of every type of gear and much information on its site.

•Borrowlenses.com: This is another big Internet-only rental outfit in the vein of lensrentals.com; inventory includes some very high-ticket items.

•Gassersphoto.com: San Francisco retailer Adolph Gasser also sells used equipment on consignment.

•Adorama.com: Big Manhattan retailer Adorama offers rentals via in-store pickup, messenger service within New York City, or overnight carrier nationwide.

•Backscatter.com: Backscatter Underwater Video & Photo, based in Monterey, CA, sells and rents all things underwater, notably housings.

•Fotocare.com: A retailer in New York City’s photo district, Foto Care caters to professionals for rentals; it offers rental rebates on purchase of new gear.

•Uniquephoto.com: New Jersey brick-and-mortar store Unique Photo rents equipment nationwide; it also offers rental rebates on purchase.

•Prophotosupply.com: Pro Photo Supply, based in Portland, OR, rents a wide variety of equipment locally as well as nationwide via overnight carrier.

•Csirentals.com: With locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn, CSI Rentals caters to professional videographers; it will also rent by mail order.

•Scheimpflug.net: Manhattan-based video specialists Scheimpflug will rent you anything from a DSLR body to a grip truck (including grips).

The post How-To: Renting Gear Like A Pro appeared first on Popular Photography.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.