Sunday, December 16, 2012

Photo Insight:Lights

In case you guys are wondering - this is Paul writing (for a change) I thought to myself that most(if not all) our blog posts doesn't have much information on how the photos were taken. 

So I think I'll start my 'how to' section with this post, and call blog posts focusing on Photography 'Photo Insight'.  I'll put in what I did on the photo(before shot, EXIF data, and what was used) I'll critique my work and you can join in on this as well (be gentle please). 

The lighted path.
Lights and greenery - Louisse Private Resort
ISO 100, 15 sec, f/9 at 18mm




Back story:  My wife's co-workers were planning to go out and have an overnight stay some place out of town.  The original plan was a road trip to Cavite.  When my wife caught the news, she suggested a resort that they already stayed in and it was in Taytay, an hour drive from Eastwood, Quezon City.  They agreed and arranged an impromptu get together since they didn't have to report for work for the long weekend. (Thanksgiving Weekend)  And that is the reason why we came to Louisse Private Resort - to P-A-R-T-Y!

Working in low light situation has always been difficult for people who would like to get a decent photo.  You'll either get a blurry shot, or will be needing some flash.  

The question arises: What if you don't want to use your flash and prefer to use natural light? 


 Answer: You'll need to shoot long exposure and to do this you need a tripod or something to put your camera on to keep it sitting still while the shutter is open.

In this case, you'll be needing a tripod to keep your camera stable. The shots that you see here were shot in M mode(manual).  You can shoot on either Av(aperture priority) or Tv(shutter priority) modes.  Either way, keep in mind the camera will decide which setting will be compensated.

What I did: Camera mounted on a tripod.  The tripod that I used here is the cheap light tripod, it shook and had a hard time to keep the camera and battery grip still.  So I took the battery grip off, remounted the camera and now the tripod can keep the camera in a better state than it was

After getting the camera mounted, I got down to metering. I had the camera meter on the details that I would like to get exposed properly. Example, on the first image, Lights and greenery I metered on the top of the tent, probably a few stops (-1, maybe) down so that we can see whats in the end of the steps.  


Under the tent  - Louisse Private Resort
ISO 800, 1/13 sec, f/3.5 at 18mm

As for this photo(above), I shot this as a test.  As you can see, it is set at high ISO(800) and a wide open aperture(f/3.5), to me this is just a base line to see how much I need to expose for reference for longer exposure. 

Also, in case you'll be shooting long exposure, make sure you have a still subject or any still objects that will be the basis of moving objects.  

Bottomline: Tripod, or anything to stable to put your camera on.  Set the camera on Tv/Shutter priority/M, set your shutter speed to get the proper exposure(depending on the situation you may need to get it down to 30s), set ISO to 100 for non grainy effect.

This may take a little bit of trial and error but once you get the desired effect, you'll see a new and interesting way of shooting.  As always, keep on shooting, and practice, practice and practice! 

Enjoy!







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