Photos

I survived the Photowalk

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I had a great time at the Fort Lauderdale Photowalk today, and the weather cooperated, at least most of the time. We met at Las Olas Riverfront at around 9:30 AM. After the introductions, we went north on Brickell Avenue to SW 2nd Street.

Riverfront

Fountain

We then went west, across the railroad tracks, to the Museum of Science & Discovery.

Railroad tracks

Old Fort Lauderdale

Museum of Science & Discovery

We then turned south to River Walk, where we continued back to the Riverfront plaza.

River Walk

River

Riverwalk Bricks

Double Tree

Under the bridge

At this point, we stopped for some group photos and a few people left. We decided to cut the route short, since it was hot and most of us were tired. Instead of continuing to Las Olas Blvd, we went to Briny Pub for lunch & drinks.

Briny Pub

The group

It turned out to be a good decision, since it started raining while we were having lunch. By this time we were down to only 8 people, including Paulo, his wife and his son.

We decided to wait until it stopped raining, but it didn’t show any signs of stopping.

Rain

Finally, Paulo had to leave, so the 5 of us who remained went indoors since we were getting wet on the covered patio. While we were waiting, we took some pictures of the fish tank.

Hiding in the coral

Finally, we made a run for it, even though it was still raining pretty hard. In all, we had a great time and I learned a lot from some of the professionals about focus, exposure, color balance, and photo processing.

There were more Canons than Nikons, and most of the Nikon owners had a D300 or other high end models.

I posted a full gallery of my photowalk pictures at Flickr.

Photo of the day

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When I was walking home from the gym this evening, the sunset was really spectacular, so I rushed home to get my camera and take a few shots. Since time was running out, I didn’t bother taking the tripod. Here’s a 3 exposure HDR made without a tripod, using Photoshop’s Merge to HDR & Photomatix Tone Mapping.

HDR Sunset 06-16-2008

Trust the focus indicator

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I’ve been working on my manual focus skills with the 50mm f/1.8 lens. I found that trusting the focus indicator light in the view finder is the key to proper focus. The subject will appear to be in focus across a range of settings, but it’s only in perfect focus when the indicator lights up. In order for it to work properly, it’s necessary for the subject to be in the proper focus area (which has a red indicator when you press the shutter halfway).

Frilly Hibiscus

Mystery Photo

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This is an old family photo I found and scanned. I have no idea who any of these people are but I know it’s from my mother’s family. It could have been taken either in New York or Odessa.

Old family photo

Focus & Depth of field

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One of the best things about DLSR cameras is that they give you a lot of control over focus, exposure, and depth of field, allowing you to choose exactly how you want your picture to look.

When I photograph flowers or plants, I usually like to use a very narrow depth of field to emphasize the subject. By shooting in Aperture Priority mode on my D40x, I have full control over the depth of field. Large apertures give a narrow depth of field, while smaller apertures put more of the picture in focus. In Aperture Priority mode, you can lock in a particular aperture setting while the camera chooses the appropriate shutter speed for the proper exposure. With most zoom lenses, the maximum aperture depends on the zoom settings. In that case, if changing the zoom level reduces the maximum aperture, it will reduce the aperture automatically to the maximum setting at that level.

For maximum aperture size, nothing beats a 50mm f/1.8 or f/1.4 prime lens. The zoom lenses I own only go up to f3.5 or f4.5, so I usually use my 50mm f1.8 if I want to work with depth of field.

After the break are some pictures I shot today illustrating different aperture settings.

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HDR plugin for Aperture

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Creaceed has released a new version of Hydra, which includes a new HDR plugin for Aperture 2.1.

It doesn’t offer as many options as Photomatix, but the results are very nice. These were created with the same source images I had previously processed with Photoshop and the Photomatix plugin. The results look very natural, although it can’t produce some of the more extreme effects.

Hydra HDR

HDR Aperture Plugin

On switching to a DSLR

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Dean Allen writes about his experience of switching to a Nikon DSLR after using point & shoot cameras for a long time:

I feel like someone handed a slice of hot toast spread with cultured butter after a lifetime breakfasting on Skittles and government cheese.

I can definitely relate. Using a D40x changed the way I think about photography. It feels so much more satisfying than using a point & shoot camera and it isn’t really any more difficult to use. In fact using it in full automatic mode is very similar to using a point & shoot.

Before I got the D40x, I took lots of photos, but I never really thought about the composition or technical details; I just wanted to capture the moment & memories. With a DSLR I think more about the quality and composition of the shot since I have a lot more control over it. I can still take a quick shot in auto mode or have someone who’s never used a DSLR take a picture as easily as they can with a point & shoot.

However, using full automatic mode doesn’t give you full control. The next step up from auto is the programmed automatic (P) mode, which also lets you adjust the white balance, ISO sensitivity, and change the exposure, yet it isn’t really any more difficult than full automatic.

I find that I prefer using Aperture Priority mode, since it lets me control the depth of field by specifying the aperture setting. Even this mode isn’t any more difficult, since it still produces the correct exposure by adjusting the shutter speed & ISO setting to match the chosen aperture setting.

The big win for a DSLR is the availability of raw format for photos, which allows a lot more adjustment to be done in Aperture or Photoshop to compensate for incorrect exposure and fix other problems to salvage a shot that isn’t quite perfect.

Rose