All's Quiet on the Blog Front Today ...
... thought I'd post some photos I took yesterday evening near our house. Had to hurry to catch the light before it was totally gone.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
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A fun way to share our lives with each other... through photos, recipes, events, thoughts, feelings, essays, silliness or seriousness. Everyone welcome to contribute and pitch in as much or little as we want.
... thought I'd post some photos I took yesterday evening near our house. Had to hurry to catch the light before it was totally gone.
posted by Maureen
4 comments:
Maureen, these are really beautiful photos. It must be nice to have this kind of scenery so close to your house. If you don't mind my asking, what setting do you put your camera on when you are taking this kind of shot in low light? Do you use a tripod?
I don't mind your asking, MB :)
I would say 99% of the time I'm photographing, I have my camera set on the "P" setting, which stands for program I can't stand the way the flash makes photos look - they look totally artificial. At least, when I use flash, it does. Maybe someday I'll learn how to use the flash properly.
Anyway, I set it on program and then I have to manually set the exposure, film speed, focal length, etc.
For these I did not use a tripod, although if I had my druthers I would have. Gabe gave me his tripod when he was home in December, but it is a very short tripod so although I carry it around with me everywhere I'm not in the habit of using it that much. I would have been lying on the ground shooting these with my little tripod ;))
So, let's see ... the settings for these were probably ISO 50, manual focus, "cloudy day" exposure, E-Value -1.8 (I have learned to use a much lower Exposure Value to get the deeper richer shadows I love)
With ISO-50 you get camera shake unless you use the tripod, but in a pinch (which is usually the case for me) I brace my elbows on my chest, or on something like a rock ... or I at least lean against a tree or something to keep from shaking too much. I also take a breath and breath out just before I click the shutter button, then hold my breath. I've also practiced pressing the shutter button with a smooth movement analagous to the followthrough swing of a golfer. It minimizes camera shake that way.
Does that help? I use a CanonPowerShotA70 -- a simple, not-fancy beginners digital camera. What kind of camera do you have? If it's a PowerShot I could probably give you more tips.
I've read in many places it's not the camera but the skill of the photographer that makes good shots. I could also say the same for the "scenery" ... I should go up and take a few "ordinary" photos of this exact same place. You might not think it was beautiful scenery. I think 99.99999% of good photos has to do with how you see and not with what you're seeing. Just my opinion.
btw I downloaded your photo of Oliver in the snow on snowshoes and made a 1/2second adjustment to the photo to make it really zing. Want to see it?
yes, please, maureen!
okay, I'll email it to you later today. Gotta get another ad in to the publisher on a CD (ads for Tim's business) and go to the hospital for my biopsy. Later! :-D
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