CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

Apart from the UV filters I have screwed to the front of the lenses to protect the front element of these expensive pieces of photographic equipment I have three types of filters in my camera bag. 1. Neutral Density Graduated Filters - Lee 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 soft grad 2. 10x ND Filter - Lee Big Stopper 3. Hoya Pro1 Polariser filter The polariser is a very useful filter as it performs more than one function.  The main one is it will boost the colour saturation of the landscapes, most noticeably it will boost the saturation of a blue sky.  A polariser also cuts through reflections, such as surface water and car paintwork.  And finally it cuts the light entering the lens by two stops so it can act as a 2x ND filter to allow a slower shutter speed to be used in bright light. The shot at the top of the page was taken with the X-Pro1 and 14mm f2.8 lens fitted with a polariser.  The shot below is the same scene without the polariser. Here is another scene t...

Almost all DSLRs have a 'Live View' function that allows the photographer to use the LCD screen rather than the viewfinder to compose the scene.  The Live View has several advantages, the most notable is you can see what the camera is 'seeing' - you have a better idea of the exposure and how the different elements in the scene will be rendered in the final image.  With an optical viewfinder your brain interprets what it is viewing, which isn't necessarily the same as the camera. This shot of the D800 taking the shot of the sunrise at Barns Ness on Wednesday morning clearly shows the use of the Live View.  The screen can also be overlaid with other information, in this case I have chosen the artificial horizon to ensure everything is level.   The shot below is the image taken on the D800 after the sun had risen above the horizon. The X-Pro1 has a similar live view system but the advantage with Fuji's premier CSC is the Live View can be transferred to ...

We all know that a telephoto zoom lens will bring faraway objects closer but another benefit of a long lens is the ability to compress the perspective ie: make the objects in the foreground appear closer to the objects in the background. The following two shots were taken on the Fujinon 55-200mm zoom lens, the top image was taken at 200mm and the bottom image at 55mm. The island is Bass Rock and the doorway is through the wall on the cliff top walk here in Dunbar. By walking further away from the doorway I was able to frame Bass Rock to give me the following composition at a focal length of 200mm - The second shot below was taken at a focal length of 55mm.  By moving closer to the doorway I have been able to keep it at about the same size in the frame while making Bass Rock appear smaller.  This effect is also called stacking and by using longer focal lengths you can make the various elements in the image appear a lot closer (stacked) t...

The first rule of composition is the Rule of Thirds but the first Rule of Photography is that there are no rules, just guidelines - remember that.  The Rule of Thirds applies to all the visual arts (design, films, paintings etc) and is where the frame is divided into nine parts and the important elements are placed on or near these lines. The following photographs taken on Belhaven Bay beach demonstrate the application of the rule of thirds. The horizon sits at the horizontal line dividing the upper third of the photo from the lower two-thirds. The shell in the image above sits at the intersection of two lines, sometimes called a power point or a crash point.  Points of interest in the photo don't have to actually touch one of these lines to take advantage of the rule of thirds as the stump shows in the image below. It falls near the intersection of two of the lines, close enough to take advantage of the rule. However the opening paragraph of this blog sta...

What happens when your subject you are trying to photograph is just that little bit too far away for the lens you have on your camera?  Do you - a) Not take the shot? b) Curse the fact that you don't have that longer lens and not take the shot? c) Go out and buy that £9000 600mm f4 lens to get the shot? d) Take the shot and see what you can do in post production? Well if you answered d) then give yourself a gold star.  If you answered a) or b) then I have to ask 'why not?' the only thing you've done is wasted a frame or two, which at worst, you will delete.  If you answered c) I will just think 'lucky person to have the money to go out and do that.  however I can recommend a good chiropractor which you will need after lugging that heavy bit of kit around. Now all joking aside, it is always best to get the image right in the camera, BUT the beauty of digital photography is there are plenty of ways to improve a photograph in post production.   I lo...

All digital cameras take images and save them in the JPEG format which is a compressed format that allows users to take more images for any give space on a memory card.  JPEG stands for  Joint Photographic Experts Group and the .jpg extension  is a fast and convenient format.   The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality.  However for photographers it isn't all a bed of roses. Every time an image is worked on and then resaved, the image quality is slightly degraded. The other issue is saving your images to JPEG in camera means you have less control over the image quality and there are not as many options to work with in post production.  Sports and News photographers tend to use JPEG because of the speed that the JPEG format offers.  They can shoot and send very quickly because of the limited need to edit the image. Some cameras give the option to save in other formats.  On...

The standard lens is one of those photographic legends, it is a relatively cheap addition to your camera bag that gives more bang-for-buck than any other photographic purchase you will ever buy. So what is a standard lens?  Well it is a lens that 'sees' the world with same field as vision as we do with our eyes.  Fujinon XF 35mm f1.4R In the film days this was a 50mm and this is the same today for full frame cameras such as the Nikon D800.  For crop frame sensors the standard lens has become the 35mm.  The advantages are they are relatively cheap to make because they don't need as many glass elements and they are a 'fast' lens with a wide aperture, usually f1.8 or f1.4 and some manufacturers have a f1.2, so they are great for shooting in low light.  They are also relatively cheap with Nikon and Canon 50mm f1.8 around the £100 mark brand new and dirt cheap second hand. They were the standard 'kit' lens that all cameras were sold wi...

90% of the time photographers are looking for an image that is sharp and in focus and the best way to acheive this is by selecting the correct shutter speed to ensure that the image is sharp.  As a photographer who specialises in landscapes I use a tripod which allows me the freedom to select whatever shutter / aperture combination I need but a tripod is not always convenient.  So what are the different options available to the photographer. Handheld Images - use the correct stance to support the camera Most images are taken handheld, either at arms length a la mobile phone / compact camera, or with the camera up to the face looking through the viewfinder.  The 'arms length' method is the least stable because movement in your arms will be transmitted to the camera.  With the camera against your face the photographer becomes a sort of tripod, especially if you stand correctly with your feet apart.  Supporting the camera with one hand under the...

One of the things I see a lot of photographers do when presented with a beautiful landscape is to grab the camera and take a picture standing up.  The camera will be either pressed to the photographers face or, more normally these days, with the camera / phone held out in front at arms length.  There is nothing wrong with this way of viewing the world, it's how we see it (ie normally between 5 and 6 feet above the ground), but a different point of view can change a picture dramatically. Rannoch Moor - Nikon D800 - Nikon 17-35mm f2.8 (@17mm) - 2s @ f11 - ISO100 The picture above was taken on Rannoch Moor. The Nikon D800 was attached to the tripod and placed into the water so the camera was almost level with the rocks.  The camera's live view screen was used to compose the shot and the shutter released using a remote cable. A word of warning. Make sure you had something tied to the tripod or camera and to your wrist when putting your gear n...