The Accidental Photographer » digital photography

Finding the Light in Night Photography

marsha — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 22:37:38 +0000

My husband and I were in the Australian Outback, watching a night presentation of Aboriginal cultural dances and ceremonies that began with sounds from the digeriedoo. We were sitting up high and back a little from the presentation, which allowed me to view the whole scene and think about the light. Flash photography here was out of the question. Besides being ineffective because of the distance, the flash would have disturbed everyone else present.

Fortunately, the spotlight was on the presentation. I turned off the flash, found the ISO settings – those control the light sensitivity of the digital flash card – and set it for a high sensitivity level, pushed my telephoto out to the maximum to get the reading and frame the shot, and went for it.

The light sensitivity reading was high enough to cause the camera to set a fast shutter speed. That froze the action. There was enough light on the people surrounding the presentation to give a good sense of what was going on. The internal light meter in the camera read the light on the demonstration, so that stood out.

In order to do this, you need to find three topics in your camera manual and learn how to use them: the icon settings – chosing one that will give you a fast shutter speed, such as sports or portrait, the telephoto controls, and the ISO controls in the menu options. Those three options will allow you to take control of your camera.

Shadow-y faces

marsha — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:21:12 +0000

Sutter’s Fort, in Sacramento CA, was the center of California Gold Rush history. Today it is a living history museum, with docents dressed in costume and taking the role of participants in that time and place. My husband and I visited the Fort one year as part of a photography workshop taught through our local camera store. The assignment was to practice photographing people, using the techniques we had learned about light, shadows, and telling the story of what people were doing. What a great place to do that!

This man was one of the docent participants, playing the role of one of the gold seekers stopping off at the Fort for provisions. I loved his hat and the character in his face. The problem was that the hat threw a huge shaddow on his face, intensified by the sunny day. What to do? I couldn’t ask him to remove his hat or tip it back to reduce the shaddows. I finally got down low, since he was sitting, and focused the exposure reading on his face. I cropped down with my zoom lens, hoping to even out the light between his face and hat so I wouldn’t lose too much detail in that wonderful hat.

This workshop was years ago, and I was shooting slide film with an analog camera. Slide film is a good teacher. There is very little room for error. When I reviewed the developed film, I was delighted to find I had achieved my goal. Today, I could brighten up his face in photoshop, but I didn’t. My purpose has always been to get the shot in the first place.

Introduction

accidentalphotographer — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 23:30:36 +0000

Golden Gate Bridge in Fog

Welcome to The Accidental Photographer blog – full of tips and fun ideas to help you take great photos when you are out and about anywhere.

I’m Marsha Black, author of The Accidental Photographer, a book full of tips written for people who carry a point and shoot camera but don’t have a clue about how to get good photographs out of it.

This photograph of the Golden Gate Bridge is one good example. I took this photo when we stopped briefly at the viewpoint. I used two simple concepts, light and lines, to turn this photo from “Yeah, it’s the Golden Gate Bridge” to “WOW, It’s the Golden Gate Bridge!”. Even if you feel like you are a klutz with a camera, you, too, can learn these tips quickly and easily so you can enjoy your photos as much as I do.