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Category Archives: Photography

A Bigger Cannon to Hunt the Light?

21 May

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I have photographed several musical shows in the last 5 days.  I will be taking time out to work on the pictures, but I’m not sure that I will be showing any of the pictures on my web.  So if I miss a few days with my blog, you now know why.

One thing that I ended up doing was using my 50mm f/1.8 lens on my K-5.  It wasn’t long enough but the lighting was poor and I needed a wide aperture lens so I am doing a lot of crop-zooming and tweaking.  I also had to use an ISO of 3200.  I think that my pictures will be OK, especially if I use them to make a video show; but I’m now thinking about how I could improve my gear for the next time.

As a result of the above, I have thought about switching to the Canon full-frame 6D which has 20MP and does better in lower light.  One major problem with this change, other than the cost, is that I would end up with an even heavier camera and lenses.  This goes against my wish to go lighter and smaller, but can I do that and increase quality?  I don’t think so.  With the Canon 6D I could use a higher ISO and have more room to crop-zoom while increasing the quality slightly.  My dilemma, “Is the extra cost and weight worth it?”  This is an especially hard decision to make when I would still need to have another smaller, lighter camera to carry on walk-abouts.  It’s probably a crazy idea, but it gives me something to think about.

Does anybody out there have any knowledge about making this change?

 
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Posted by on May 21, 2013 in Homewood at Plum Creek, Photography

 

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Prime or Zoom Lens

20 May

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These might not be the best pictures to illustrate this point but they do.  I was on the way down to the central building the other evening to take some pictures of an event.  Due to the lighting, the distance between me and the actors, etc. I had to take pictures with fast prime lenses.  On the way down I had the 50mm f/1.8 lens mounted on my K-5 and used it to take the first picture above.

On the way back I happened to have the 21mm f/3.2 lens on the K-5 and used it to take the second picture.  The 21mm lens was probably the best choice for both pictures but I just used the 50mm for the first picture since that is what was quickly available.  It is the nature of those scenes to not last long and I didn’t wish to take the time to change lenses.  Would I have been better off to have had a zoom lens mounted and ready?  Probably, but since I wasn’t using a zoom for the event I didn’t have one with me.  I was traveling light with my camera in hand with the other lens plus extra battery and memory card in vest pockets.

I wasn’t using a zoom lens because my zoom lenses are all slower, bigger, and heavier and I couldn’t use them to get acceptable pictures for the conditions I expected.  By acceptable I mean as good as I could get with my 50mm f/1.8 prime lens.  I had tested them out and found that it was better for me to use the 50mm lens and crop-zoom to get pictures without digital noise in the poor lighting.  The zoom lenses all required a higher ISO which resulted in less detail in the pictures after I removed the noise.

There is another reason that I didn’t switch lenses for the first picture.  I try not to change lenses any more than necessary to lessen the chances of getting dirt in the camera.  I also find that it isn’t the easiest thing to do, change lenses, when I’m walking.  I prefer to do it while sitting next to a flat clean surface to set the lens on.

My world of photography seems to revolve around the issue of what lens should I use.  When going out to take particular pictures under a known environment, I usually can pick the right one.  If the circumstances are unknown I will usually use a general purpose zoom lens, either the 18 – 135mm or the 55 – 300mm depending upon the likelihood of particular subjects … but, not always.  I don’t like the combined weight of a zoom lens on the K-5, so I often just go for a walk with the 21 or 50mm lens on it, or with the NEX-6 with a 35mm lens, which is much lighter, and just photograph what is appropriate for the lens.  This means I will be photographing landscapes and if a fox runs across the field, or a colorful bird lands in a tree, it isn’t photographed.

I really prefer a prime lens due to better speed, higher image quality, quicker response time, and lighter weight.

 
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Posted by on May 20, 2013 in Homewood at Plum Creek, Photography

 

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Spring Sky

19 May

Occasionally we get interesting cloud patterns in the spring and summer.  On this day, thunderstorms popped up suddenly around us but we didn’t get any more than a few sprinkles.

I like sky pictures.  I don’t have to go far to get them, and they are often quite different and beautiful.

 
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Posted by on May 19, 2013 in Homewood at Plum Creek, Photography

 

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Pounding the Pavement

18 May

This is a good time of the year to walk the back roads and take pictures of the shadows of the trees, at least when it isn’t cloudy or rainy.  Since the leaves aren’t fully out yet we still have nice patterns on the pavement.  Later they will just be big blobs of solid, but welcome shade.

 
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Posted by on May 18, 2013 in Hanover PA, Photography

 

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Problems with Using Tablets as Cameras

17 May

I went to a school play last evening to watch my youngest granddaughter.  It just so happens that there were two couples sitting in front of me who whipped out their identical Tablets and proceeded to film most of the play.  One problem is that they are huge, especially if you happen to be sitting behind them.  If any of you use your Tablets this way please be considerate of those behind you.

By the way, be careful of what you put up on your screen … like your contact addresses.  Maybe I should send all of them my web site so they can see this article.  I’m sure that the owners/users of these Tablets would be the first to “scream” and cry “invasion of privacy” if they had their address list distributed; but, is it if they flaunt them this way?  It is becoming an interesting question.  Note this article about being photographed through the windows.

 
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Posted by on May 17, 2013 in Photography

 

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Depth of Field at f/1.8 and 35mm

16 May

On my walk the other day in the bright sun I was trying something different.  I wanted to see how my 35mm Sony lens did on the NEX-6 at an aperture of f/1.8 in bright sun.  I wanted to deliberately move as much of the image (other than what I focused on) out of focus.  The NEX-6 handled it very well since it had a 1/4000 max. shutter speed.  I only had exposure problems (without using a neutral density filter) in a couple of pictures but I was able to shift the exposure in LR4.  The above pictures aren’t especially notable but they represent examples of my focusing at different ranges so I could observe the degree of non-focus both in front and behind the focus point.  Some people like this effect, others don’t.  I only plan to use it under certain situations.

My only real problem was that I couldn’t see the LCD well enough in the bright sun to determine the effect while I was taking the pictures.  I now need to go back and try some more specific types of images.  It is all part of my desire to get better in selecting the appropriate aperture for different subjects in different lighting situations.  It is also part of my desire to use faster prime lenses more often since they give me more latitude along these lines.

For those of you who would like to calculate the depth of field (DoF) … the in-focus range … for your camera, lens, aperture, and subject distance, you can use this on-line calculator.  Click here.  You will learn that it is a very narrow range when the subject is close.  That is one reason that you really need to use a tripod if the subject is close and the aperture is large in order to get the focus correct.  Since I don’t use a tripod when out shooting, I have to be very careful to hold the camera still.  I really have a problem when I’m trying to use a narrow depth of field when taking pictures of flowers if they are blowing in the wind.  Since we have a lot of wind here, I often miss.

I have three events coming up starting tonight where I will be taking pictures and DoF is just one of my many problems that I will have since the subjects will be in motion and I will be using wide open apertures due to poor lighting.  Since I will be traveling and working with lots of pictures it is also why you might not see too many posts for a while.

 
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Posted by on May 16, 2013 in Hanover PA, Photography

 

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Problems with Viewfinders in the Sun

15 May

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I took a walk down Cooper’s Lane yesterday.  As you can see, the leaves are coming out on the trees and some of the fields are plowed and ready.  It was around 58 degrees F. and sunny, and in the middle of the day, and that was a problem.  There are multiple reasons for why photographers prefer to take pictures early and late in the day.

I had put the NEX-6 with a 35mm lens on it in my jacket pocket while walking and I was wearing a cap with a short bill as well as my sunglasses.  When I stopped to take some pictures I couldn’t see the LCD so I used the EVF to compose the pictures.  Even that wasn’t great with my dark sunglasses so I took them off while taking pictures.  My problem is that I have never found the ideal arrangement for shooting in bright sun with an electronic viewfinder.  My sunglasses darken the screens too much to see the details.  I was also trying out some different settings on the camera and I could not see the effects on the LCD so I had to pretty much shoot blind and wait until I got home to see the results.

The jury is still out relative to EVFs as far as I am concerned.  I really like the lighter weight, smaller cameras with them, but I usually get frustrated with them in bright sun.  But, I also have problems with my K-5 hitting my hat as well as problems seeing the whole viewfinder when wearing my glasses when using it.  My optimum way to see is to use my K-5’s optical viewfinder when I’m not wearing glasses or a hat, but I need sunglasses and a hat for protection from the sun.  So far, the best camera I have used for this problem was the Fujifilm X100 or X100s.  I would switch back and forth between optical and electronic with the hybrid viewfinder depending upon the sun, etc.

 
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Posted by on May 15, 2013 in Hanover PA, Photography

 

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Life’s a Bed of Roses

14 May

Life’s a bed of roses when viewed appropriately.  Just pay no attention to the thorns.

 
3 Comments

Posted by on May 14, 2013 in Photography

 

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Loving 135mm

13 May

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I’m still learning the pros and cons of the Pentax 18 – 135mm WR lens, and falling in love with the 135mm focal length.  I have been using it on the K-5 and shooting primarily in the program mode setting for MTF Priority which biases the program line for optimum lens sharpness.  At 135mm it chooses f/8 aperture with 1/200 sec shutter and varies the ISO.  The indoor picture above was at ISO 1600 and the outdoor duck picture was at ISO 200.

Since I’m using the 18 – 135 primarily at the long end, I have to ask myself why use that lens and not my 55 – 300mm?  Yes, if the weather is bad, the 18 – 135 wins, but what about other times.  I really need to do something I have been putting off … testing and comparing lenses.  I prefer to just use them and see which I prefer rather than to pixel peep comparison shots.

 
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Posted by on May 13, 2013 in Homewood at Plum Creek, Photography

 

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Filtered Interpretations

13 May

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This is a picture of the clouds with some coloring added along with some selective contrast treatment.  You might have missed it if you didn’t have the vision to imagine it.  It happened at 0901 EST on May 5, 2013 over Hanover, PA, U.S.A.

One of my biggest challenges is to either find new things to photograph or new ways to see and show what you might have missed.  Many photographers like to talk about the necessary ingredients to produce interesting pictures.  The first ingredient they say you need is the vision to imagine how the picture will look after it is developed.  I have fun seeing how different techniques will affect the view.

Usually we don’t realize how our lifetimes of experiences filter our opinions of what is happening around us.  At least in photography I don’t suffer from this blindness.

 
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Posted by on May 13, 2013 in Hanover PA, Photography

 
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