Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Just a quick note as we barrel down the Hume to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year.

I'm looking forward to 2012! I hope it will be the start of a couple exciting things!

Stay safe if you're traveling, relax if you're holidaying and work hard if you're unfortunate enough to be working!

As always, don't forget to visit my FB page (http://www.facebook.com/photographybywillbarton) and like it to stay in touch and keep up to date!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Just a quick note as we barrel down the Hume to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year.

I'm looking forward to 2012! I hope it will be the start of a couple exciting things!

Stay safe if you're traveling, relax if you're holidaying and work hard if you're unfortunate enough to be working!

As always, don't forget to visit my FB page (http://www.facebook.com/photographybywillbarton) and like it to stay in touch and keep up to date!

5 Ways to Improve Your Photography Without Spending a Fortune

Ok, I'm going to premise this blog with the notion that anyone who is interested in taking good quality pictures is going to own a dSLR; I think that's a fairly reasonable assumption given the cost for an entry level dSLR is now under $600 (the Canon EOS 1100D for example) and continues to plummet.

So, without further ado...

1. A tripod. Owning a tripod opens  up so many opportunities and possibilities for the advancement of your photography it is stupid. In fact a tripod shouldn't even make it onto this list as everyone should have one!

A tripod will immediately allow you to slow right down your shutter speed, bringing to life all manner of motion, blur and low light delights. Without a tripod you're limited to shutter speeds no slower than the inverse of your focal length (ie if you're shooting with a 100mm lens then you should be shooting at 1/100s or faster, 20mm - 1/20s, etc) which, if you think about it, can be pretty limiting if you're at the 200mm or greater end of the lens and not in full sun.

For a half decent tripod from a reputable manufacturer you'll be looking at prices starting around $90 or so.

A tripod allows you to slow down
your shutter speed, capturing the
motion of an object while retaining
sharp detail

Longer shutter speeds will allow you
to attempt lightning and other night
shots

2. Remote shutter release. You might not realise, but when you hit the shutter button there's a number of things that happen that can introduce camera shake, the largest of these being your hands as they depress the button and then let go. A remote shutter release, along with a function called mirror lock-up, will just about eliminate camera shake due to, well, you! It also has the benefit of allowing you to depress the shutter button  indefinitely in "bulb" mode. You need to be able to do this for such things as astro-photography (star trails anyone?) and less frequent lightning (see How to Shoot Lightning).

You can choose from a cable or wireless trigger. A wired trigger has served me well now for many years and to be honest I think is the better option for dollars spent. Remote triggers start at $35 and go all the way up to $900+.

3. Polarising filter. I'll be writing a blog on filters shortly (next blog in fact!) but a polariser will do wonders for your landscapes particularly. They also work to reduce reflections which can really make your water images pop!

The one draw back? If you have lenses with varying filter diameters then you are going to need a filter for each diameter. Polarisers start at around the $50 mark depending on size.

4. Speedlight. Does that little poky pop-up flash fall short of the line? Doesn't quite have the power you're after? Well the answer is a dedicated speedlight. 

A speedlight will not only increase the throw of light - the power of your flash - allowing you to light up scenes further from you, but introduces a lot more in terms of flexibility. Usually even the most basic speedlights will allow you to alter the power output to match ambient light levels. With this ability you can start to play with mixing natural and artificial light to create more exciting images.

A very basic speedlight will set you back in the order of $230 or so.

5. Off camera shoe cord. You wouldn't think being able to move your speedlight a metre or two from the camera would make much difference, but it does - a huge difference, an unbelievable difference. Suddenly small scale lighting setups can be achieved to capture fine-art type subjects such as the rolling figures of a smoke plume or freeze fast moving objects like liquid droplets. These are two such subjects which are actually quite intriguing to the viewer.

These sorts of cords come in a range of lengths for most brands and start around the $70 mark for a 2m cord.

An off-camera shoe cord gives you
the flexibility to begin shaping and directing
light to create more dynamic, interesting
and overall more pleasing images. In the shot
above of Kristy and Jo (my delightful sisters IL)
I have held my speedlight high and to the left
to act as a fill light, while the sun acts as my
key light.

A smoke trail eminating from a stick of
incense. Speedlight is to the camera's
right.

The impact from a droplet of milk (and a second
above) is frozen by a speedlight above the
camera

I hope this tips will be useful in the future for those just getting started.

If you have any ideas or comments, please post away below and don't forget to visit and LIKE my Facebook page Will Barton Photography.

New Branding

With a change in direction, no actually with a broadening of horizons, I thought a new, simpler, more refined image was needed for my photography business:

My new look

It is much brighter than the old one and in way lighter on the eyes. I certainly much prefer it!

What are your thoughts?

Stormage!

Tuesday evening saw some pretty impressive storms roll through the region. Unfortunately I could only dedicate about 20 minutes to photographing their approach before we were overcome by strong winds, rain and hellishly close lightning!

These storms led to Wagga experiencing its wettest November day on record and also resulted in the wettest November recorded.

A New Digital Process!

With the prospect of some important jobs coming up, I thought I'd better explore what options are out there in terms of modern processing of raw files.

Now when using a digital SLR, there are essentially two options for shooting: raw and jpeg. Raw, as the name would suggest, captures the raw data from the sensor. When shooting in jpg, the camera processes the raw image, compressing the image and shedding the raw data in the process. For those who demand full control of their images, raw is the suggested method with the shooter then using a software package to process that image.

Until now I had been using an old software package to process my raw images before exporting them as jpgs and then editing them in Photoshop; a rather drawn out and time consuming process!

With my interest in photography lagging for a number of years, I didn't take much interest in the advancements of  processing technology, so when I came back to it earlier this year, I resumed with my old ways.

But as I again became involved in the photographic community I began to notice how image quality had greatly improved, whether from the amateur or pro. So, I thought I'd better investigate!

From what I read the options were either Adobe's Lightroom or Apple's Apeture; the latter though requiring a Mac (from my brief reading). So Lightroom was the first port of call and as quickly as possible a trial version was loaded and ready to go. And after only a few minutes I was sold - and at the same time absolutley kicking myself for not trialling it sooner!

Here's a few comparisons from the shoot with the Turtons (all which, I might add have been reprocessed!)

(I might add that not every photos is a direct match, I wasn't about to go back to the old ways to process the exact matches)

And best of all, it is unbelievably fast to work through a shoot and end up with higher quality at the end!

What are others using these days?

Sun: Friend and Foe!

All to often I see happy snaps ruined by harsh, bright sunlight. Sometimes this mightn't matter too much; it may be one of hundreds of photos of that family member or friend. Sometimes though it might be a rare photo of a loved one or of a never repeated special moment; a photo that you want to be able to look back on with fond memories.

Now I know that in a past blog I briefly explored the idea of what makes a memorable image, and that the important thing is the memories that it brings back. To this end though there is a limit; sometimes a photo can be that bad that it simply isn't evern worth saving (or printing if your're still using film).

So how can we make the most of the least ideal conditions? What are ideal conditions and what are least ideal conditions?

Ask any photographer and they'll probably tell you their favourite times to shoot outdoors are the first couple of hours of the day and the last few hours. During these times (coined the "golden hours"), when the sun is low in the, sky the light is normally much softer (due to the increased depth of atmosphere through which the light must pass) and much warmer. And, with the sun low in the sky, it is also easier to work with.

But we're not always presented with opportunities at either end of the day; most outdoor family events are over lunch, we go down to the park with our kids either late morning or early afternoon, so we must adapt to these harsh lighting conditions and make the most of them.

First trick, and probably the most obvious, is seek out the shade!

Eliza (from An Arvo with the Turtons).
There is no use of artificial light or
reflectors in this shot, just expose for
the subject and let the background blow
out.

Shade, although much darker, provides a far more even quality of light. And with even light comes soft shadows and smooth exposures. Now "shadow" might extend to waiting for a cloud to block the sun (as with the photo left) and, depending on the extent of the shadow, bright sunlight from surrounding areas can still spill enough light in to keep your exposure up and provide a bit of interest.

Failing overcast conditions, or at least a cooperative cloud or two, then the shade from structures or trees is the next best thing, but be warned that things can get quite dark. To combat this you might want to use a bit of fill flash to just help boost the ambient light levels.

If you're confident with controlling your exposure then the soft dappled light found under the bigger trees can be very pleasant; just make sure you expose on the slightly darker side to avoid blowing out the lighter areas and ending up with brutal white splurges on your subject.

Shade not an option? Well if you're forced to shoot in full sun the first goal should be to avoid full sun on the face of your subject. This is especially true when the sun is high in the sky and will cast deep shadows around the eyes, under the nose and under the cheeks.

Try to get the sun behind your subject and expose for the face. You might end up with blown out rim lighting, but one hopes that you'll still get a half decent exposure on their face.

An excellent use of a reflector to bounce
light back onto the subject by Wagga
Photographer Belinda Fraser 

This situation can be improved by 'bouncing' light back into your subject. To achieve this photographers use refelctors - essentially a large, rigid sheet of aluminium either silver or gold - to bounce light back into the subject and in doing so balancing out the light from the sun and the light on the subject.

Reflectors are a pretty cheap bit of gear with a 3/4 length 5-in-1 reflector (silver, gold, white, translucent and black - the last being for soaking up light) available for around $100 and a bit cheaper on line. It is definitely a very useful bit of gear if you're shooting people and outdoor subjects.

But if you can't access one, or don't think it's worth the outlay, then look for bright reflective (but muted) surfaces and position your subject in such a way that the sunlight bounces back onto them from the reflective surface.

Finally, for the more advanced there is the option of strong artificial light (dedicated speedlight either on or off camera). This will act either as a primary light source or at least a very close secondary light source to the sun.

To use a speedlight effectively you're going to need something with a bit of oomph, after all it will be competing with the sun! So it pays to get a good brand and invest in good batteries! With the speedlight on the camera your creativity is limited, but if you get yourself an off-camera shoe chord that will really start to free you up with regard to creativity and quality. If you want to go that bit extra (and have the required deep pockets) then the ultimate is a set of radio triggers.

Radio triggers can be used to trigger speedlights, strobes (and even cameras) remotely and with some brands as far away as 400m. With these in your armament very quickly your only limit becomes your own imagination. A set of good radio triggers (and I emphasise good - last thing you want is unreliable triggers) will cost you up around $350-$500 depending on brand and retailer.

My lovely sisters-in-law Kristy (L) and Jo (R).
Sun is fairly low in the sky (3pm) over their left
shoulder. Speedligh is slightly off to the left of camera.
An off-camera shoe chord was used to free up
the speedlight.

A more creative use of off-camer flash.
As you can see the sun is behind and to the
left of Kristy while the flash is high and to her
right. An off-camera shoe chord was used to free up
the speedlight. 

An example of the creativity the freedom of radio triggers provides.
The speedlight is high and to my right and is exposed just under the
sun. The sunlight provides great rim lighting while a bit of post-processing
provides the cooler tone and strong contrast.

So there you go; hopefully you have got something out of this post and will see an improvement in your photography.

For more photos don't forget to check out my gallery and be sure to 'Like' my facebook page to keep up to date with these blogs and my work!

Talk About the Money Shot!

Well,  a new record price for a photograph at auction has been set in New York with the sale of Andreas Gursky's Rhein II going for a whopping $4.3 million...

And it's not even a one off print!

I have nothing further to say...

An Arvo With the Turtons

Answering my call for test subjects was Monique and her two lovely daughters, Molly and Eliza.

Both girls have a great sense of humour and kept the whole afternoon entertaining with their laughter and wisecracks (usually at my expense!).

Here's a few that I've managed to process tonight...

How to Shoot Lightning

Lightning in the hills West of Wagga Wagga 9/11/2011

So last night we had a half decent light show; the first of the season however fleeting it was. And while I was standing out on the side of the road, swatting the occasional mozzy and listening to the rolling waves of thunder, a comment from another weather enthusiast was on my mind: "I wish I knew how to photograph lightning..."

Well, what an excellent topic for a blog!

The thing about lightning is that it happens quickly, damn quickly. Occasionally you'll be lucky to get a storm that produces pulsating lightning (where the bolt travels from the cloud to the ground a number of times) and when this happens you almost have a shot at reacting fast enough to capture it just as you would any other scene.

But these are rare occurences and certainly in my time it has not happened more than once or twice. So we need other methods to try and capture these fleeting demonstrations of Mother Nature's power.

Essentially there are two methods: a lightning trigger and long exposures (you can read about exposures here).

Lightning triggers - and I won't go into the electronics because I wouldn't have the foggiest - work by sensing the pulse of light and relaying a signal to the camera. These are almost essential for capturing lightning during bright daylight conditions (the above photo, although it appears to be during the day, was a 15s exposure. So the scene, to the naked eye was actually quite dark) unless you are willing to fire away like a machine gunner under attack and hope that you catch one by fluke. Now for most people (including myself) a lightning trigger, which can set you back as much as $400, is simply not worth the few occasions a year you might actually get a chance to use it. That leaves us with long exposures...

Lightning over Coolamon - luck of the Irish!

For a long exposure to work (and I'm probably suggesting anything over 5 seconds, depending on how frequent the lightning is) it needs to be fairly dark. Of course you could stop down your appeture, thereby restricting the amount of light that gets through, but this will really limit you to close up lightning; probably too close for comfort! Ideally you want to be working with appetures f/8 and under.

In terms of exposure, you want to start thinking about trying to get 5s or longer. Once it gets really dark - as in during the night - if you want any chance of capturing a bit of detail in the foreground or  the clouds you're also going to need to start looking at exposures longer than 30s. For this you will need a camera that has a "bulb" option for the shutter. This allows you to hold open the shutter indefinitely. Of course you won't be able to physically hold down the shutter button indefinitely, so to overcome this problem you need to get yourself a suitable remote. This can be anywhere from $10 for a grey import through to a couple of hundred for a genuine fully featured remote. This will also solve blur issues of handling your camera while the shutter is open.

Now with long exposures comes the need for a solid rest for your camera; a tripod is an absolute must. You can pick up a great one for under $200 and for anyone serious about photography, they're simply priceless.

The toughest part of all this (not an issue during the day) is focusing. I've had many a rip-snorting lightning strike ruined because I hadn't yet got the focusing spot-on. Of course your best bet is to hope that there are some lights on which to focus at about the same distance from you as the lightning, but in the rural and regional areas this can be pretty tough to find. If you don't have any lights or objects on which to focus, you can try focusing to infinity (a symbol like an 8 on its side) and then bringing the focus back just a tad, taking a photo and checking it out (again, the beauty of digital!) before adjusting it and repeating.

One little trick is to - during the day - grab your lens and a whiteout pen and make some very small marks on the barrel of the lens and the focus ring (if you have a lens with no markings and making sure you don't gum up the lens) at varying distances. The distances vary from person to person and personally I have just one that corresponds to lightning ~40km away on my common landscape lens. You can then use that during the night to arrive at the correct focus sooner, minimising the number of superb strikes that you miss out on while getting the focus right.

So that is pretty much it; all you have to do now is wait patiently for a storm in the right spot, at the right distance and without rain effecting you to give it a go - and that happens all the time doesn't it?!

One quick note on safety though: lightning is deadly and unpredictable. A bolt can strike tens of kilometres ahead of, to the sides or rear of a thunderstorm. There are no real rules for lightning, it will hit high points, it will hit low points and it can just as easily hit you if you're too close. Keep in mind too that you will probably be running around with a long metal pole (your tripod) so just keep your distance and don't be afraid to pull back if you think it's getting too close.

Be prepared for disappointment: in a small version this
doesn't look too bad, but unfortunately the focus is way
out, ruining an otherwise terrific lightning shot!

Expose Yourself!

Ever wanted to get that little bit more oomph out of your shots, to get rid of those bleached highlights or murky shadows? Chances are its the exposure letting you down. So grab your camera, read on and be prepared to expose yourself!

Expsoure is the coming together of two wonderful things: shutter speed and appeture. Oh and a  third, minor hanger-on'er: ISO. What are these mysterious terms I hear you ask? Well, here it is broken down really quick...

The shutter is the click we here when we hit the shutter button; it is essentially how long the camera "sees" for. The faster the shutter speed the less light that enters the camera, the longer the more light. Why is this important? Well if you want to capture something like the movement of the ocean or the blinding strike of lightning then you need a loooong shutter speed. If you want to capture something that might happen in the blink of an eye or is moving really fast like a droplet of milk frozen mid air (it's far more beautiful than it sounds!) or the plume of a smoke stream then you need a really fast shutter speed to freeze the action. The shutter speed is measured in whole or fractions of a second eg 30s, 1/30s, 1/4000s, etc.

The appeture essentially mirrors the role that your iris (the coloured bit of your eye) plays in controlling the size of your pupil. The larger the appeture the more light is allowed through and logically the smaller, the less light. The appeture must be balanced with the shutter to allow for the correct exposure and there's a number of combinations that will result in a good exposure. Just as with the shutter, the appeture has an effect on the image: the larger the appeture the shallower the depth of field (ie less of the image is in focus), the smaller the appeture the deeper the depth of field (ie more of the image is in focus). Appeture is measured or referred to by the "f stop" number and just to confuse you a bit more, the smaller the number the bigger the appeture: f/1.8 (big hole), f/32 (small hole).

And a quick mention of ISO: this is the sensitivity of the sensor in your digital camera (or film in your coal fired, steam powered film camera!). The lower the number the less sensitive the sensor or film and the finer the quality of the image. The higher the number the more sensitive and the noisier or grainier the image.

Really that is it in a nutshell. There's probably just a couple more tips that might come in handy:

• A slow shutter speed will capture movement in a scene, but it will also capture movement of the camera itself. If you want to slow it down, make sure you have a steady rest like a tripod.
• If you read or hear about "stops" that is referring to, I guess what you could call a unit of exposure. One stop is the doubling (or halving) of either the shutter speed or appeture. If you have an exposure of 1/60s @ f/8 and you increase the exposure by a stop you end up with either 1/30s @ f/8 (careful of camer-shake!) or 1/60s @ f/4
• If you want to play around with trying to capture lightning or star trails (both of which usually requiring exposure in excess of 30s) then you're going to need a camera with a "bulb" function. This allows you to hold open the shutter indefinitely (well as long as your batteries will last) and unless you want to test out the stamina of your index finger, you'll also need some sort of remote.
• If you can't adjust the appeture and shutter speed on your camera (and with many point and shoot style cameras you can't) you can still control the overall exposure by utilising exposure compensation. This allows you to increase or decrease the exposure in set increments. The classic example of where this can be very useful is where you're taking a photo of someone against a really dark background and your first image comes out with the person really, really light; washed out and without detail. The exposure compensation allows you to force the camera to reduce the exposure, thereby getting a nicely exposed image of your BFF!

From here my suggestion is to play around and experiment with whatever settings you have available. After all that is one of the great benefits of digital; the results are always immediate!

Lightning over Junee. Two critical aspects to this exposure:
the shutter speed was in excess of 30s to give me the
best opportunity to capture the intermittent lightning, and an
appeture value large enough (small number remember!) to allow
the light from the lightning through.

What Makes a Memorable Image?

I remember having a discussion, rather heated too if my memory serves me correctly, with another photographer about the merits of an image and what makes it important, memorable or special in any way to the intended viewer.

He was always critical of the technical elements of an image and judged the quality accordingly. He was very firmly of the opinion that if it wasn't tack sharp, exposed beautifully (read more on exposures here) and composed imaginatively then it couldn't be a good image.

I would agree that for some images this is true; art images, landscapes, still lifes etc. But given that the overwhelming number of image "transactions" are between photographers and clients (portraits and special events such as weddings, christenings, birthdays, etc) for me at least a good image, a memorable image is all about the memory and the emotion that it conveys and invokes.

Quite a lot of people in the past have shown me a photo and asked for my opinion. I used to give a nice critique (it's nicely exposed, interesting subject matter, it helps if Aunty Beryl is looking toward the camera) but after pondering this now for some time, I think this was the wrong way to go about it.

Now, when someone is after my opinion (and funilly enough it isn't as common an occurence!) I ask them, simply, what the photo means to them. Sometimes a smile spreads across their face as the reminisce, sometimes they stare blankly and have no feeling toward it. It is that reaction that I think is important.

What are your thoughts? What makes an image special to you, makes it memorable? I'd really like to get a feel for whether I'm just blowing hot air in a touchy feely group hug way, or wheather there's something to it.

Technically a fairly poor image: crooked horizon, boring sky,
slightly out of focus. But the emotion conveyed is simply
so powerful and as it turned out, sufficiently powerful
to help a nation win a war...

A Bit of Change in Style

For a change, I thought I'd try my hand at writing a series of informative/tutorial type posts to help out the 3 F's: Family, Friends and Fans.

Now I haven't ventured into this style before so I hope I don't make it too painful to read, but I promise I'll try my best!

Ok. The plan is to only cover a few basic areas - exposure, lighting, composition and finally a bit generally about cameras and all those mysterious things like white balance, ISO etc with the aim of just improving your happy snaps and to make the most of your camera. For each subject I'll start out at the basics before moving through into the more advanced areas for those keen to play around and experiment (and who have the spare time to!).

So, keep an eye out for them in the coming days/weeks/months and in the mean time check out this pretty impressive digital art by Scott Black.

Blowing the Dust of the Strobes

Just a bit dusty...

With the prospect of a small job that would be greatly improved by the addition of some off-camera flash, I decided to pull the old light kit, wipe off the dust (literally!) and have a crack.

Now the frustration with this kit in the past has been the unreliability of the radio triggers; sometimes they work, sometimes they don't or sometimes the sync is out leading to a black shot or a half a curtain in the frame. So it was with some misgivings that I started to set up the lights; hoping that it would all come together and work.

Yesterday I mentioned the arrival of my captive subject, I mean my daughter and where, in the past I would search around for a hapless stuffed  animal to test the setup, there she was, on her jungle gym floor mat looking innocent and rather cute (well she always looks cute).

The first few we terrible; the lighting wasn't too bad (when it worked) but for the first 10-15 shots only two were a success; luckilly Lilly has learnt that I don't give up till I get a cracker smile so now she just about breaks one out as soon as she sees the lens!

How's that for a smile?!

For those interested in the setup, it was pretty simple: umbrella in front and to Lilly's right and a beauty dish behind her set about a stop brighter to provide a hint of rim lighting. The post processing isn't too crash hot, but in my defense I finished it whilst she was attempting to eat my Wacom tablet...

So, after a bit of fiddling, I think I've managed to solve the failed firing issue. It appears to be a problem with the contacts on the hot-shoe and the trigger. A bit of elbow grease and it is now firing three quarters of the time instead of the 1 in 10 or so before.

I'm hoping to upgrade the triggers before long anyhow. Ideally I would love to get a set of pocket wizards, but we'll just have to wait and see what happens with this next prospective job!

Wow! Just over three years since I last posted; how slack is that!

To be fair, things have been pretty busy, since September 2008 I/we have: graduated from uni, moved 400km and started new jobs, bought a house, got married and most importantly became a father with the arrival of my little girl Lillian in March this year. So you could say I was justified in laying down the camera for a while!

Lillian Grace

But, now that things have settled into a nice routine, I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things with the camera in hand. Of course having your own little captive subject (in the form of Lilly) certainly helps with the motivation!

And with Spring underway here's hoping that Hughey comes to the party and gives us a good storm season for the opportunity grab some cracking shots of nature's tempest over this great country.

Lightning over Junee

So, keep an eye out for the new stuff that will hopefully grace your screens, be sure to "Like" my Facebook page and check out the prints for sale at Will Barton Photography.

Until next time...