What a day! I have trouble sleeping today. Maybe doing something on the computer like writing this blog will make me feel sleepy again. Anyway, these past few days of shooting at night gave me some more challenges to the point of no-creativity even thou my start was not that bad - actually. I thought I can do this everyday but for some reason I'm beginning to lost my focus on my goal to complete the 365 pictures for 2011. This is so early for boredom! I almost can't do it at all. I'm still learning the art of street photography and it's not easy. Sometimes I think it's the gear that limits me but at the end of the day it's still my skill that counts. My 50mm lens was not that flexible when the subjects are far from me and when I'm close I can be caught.
New Lens
The next lens that I should have is a Nikon 85mm 1.8 or a 135mm F2.0 DC, I need to have a telephoto for this kind of work but not bulky. 70-200 lens is huge and will be cumbersome to me at night. Maybe I will settle for 85mm with a tele-converter x1.4 since this will be much more cheaper compared to 135mm F2.0 and smaller. D7000 is also a must have but the lens should be first on my list.
I hope I can be good with street photography since it's cheap to do and you don't need models to pose. The natural/candid moments and emotions are really something to enjoy capturing. The challenges are there for the conquering.
My photos today might not be the best that I can think of. They can be good or bad but at least I will remember what I have learned.
Great day! Thanks be to God! I have some new processed pictures today from shooting yesterday night.
Not everything is good so I selected only those that appeal to me (as always). On my previous post you may notice the cinematic mood that I impose on my photos, it is different on every photo and certainly can't just duplicate the processing of one shot to another. You may also notice there is a bit of miss focusing and that is because I chose to allow D90 decide on that matter. I thought the camera can detect people right away and prioritize that for focusing instead of other things. Although it's not that bad because the people are not always the subject, it's the cine.
My post-processing (PP) today is also similar in approach with just a little twist but I noticed most photos today are not that cinematic. I was thinking it was cinematic while holding the camera but the result was off or it can't be cinematic at all. I don't know what really happened but maybe I'm favoring shots that have street lights, car head-lights or the people are back-lit something like that. So I'm figuring it out why I only have 3 good cinematic photos. Few things I have in mind which I consider a learning experience. First, I should not shoot a frame with no evidence of light source at night. Evidence of light can be a light from a window on a background or street lights. Having no evidence that there is a light source makes the image flat or with no dimension. The light may not be in the frame but it should at least rim light people in the frame for the viewer to have a perception that a light is coming from the left, right or at the back. Frontal light is flat lighting, I'm not a fan of it but it can give fill light to lessen the shadows. I can't describe everything about evidence of source of lighting but if someone will try shoot at night you will notice that also. Second is, I should not include in the frame a substance that can take away the attention from the subject specially when it is being well lit also. For instance, let us take a scene of people entering the disco bar which you will place on the right of the frame but on the left there is a Christmas tree with lights on. In addition to that, there is a distance between the two that is dark. That exact picture makes your viewer pan their views from left to right or right to left making it more difficult to understand what the message of the photo is.
The two that I mentioned which I hope was explained well are in my opinion are something to keep on your pocket and maybe use it when the opportunity comes. Not all photographer will describe that amount of detail so if you need to clarify what I said just reply on my comments.
Nikon 50 1.8
Just woke up today from oversleeping but I feel refreshed and eager to exercise. Yesterday's work at the office was in very normal mode, not really hectic even it's my first day for 2011. What is great about yesterday is I bought a lens before going to the office! I have a Nikon 50 1.8 lens before end up selling it so this is the second. I was choosing between F1.4 and F1.8 with the later being 3 times more expensive. I tested both lenses, 1.4 has really creamy bokeh while the 1.8 has the octagon like bokeh or not perfect circle bokeh. The shutter speed advantage of the 1.4 over the 1.8 is just half a stop, lets say 1.8 meters 1/100 of a second then 1.4 will result to 1/160. Not that much of difference in shutter speed that is why I opted to have 1.8 instead. Depends on what you are shooting, the 1.4 will have it's maximum advantage if you are at the nearest point on your subject and the background is far from your subject, lets just say 1 meter away from a brick wall. But if you are far from your subject, your depth-of-field will increase also and that will minimize the bokeh or creamy background effect.
I got the 50 F1.8 for the following reasons. I want to do street photography and do post-processing to make it look cinematic. This kind of photography is not always about isolating the subject from the background so bokeh is just a plus. I will need some distance from the subjects for me not be caught taking photos of them. I need a fast shutter speed to capture the moment with minimum blur even at night. I need a light lens not my Nikon 24-70mm 2.8 which weighs more than a kilo. Of course I can't use flash. I want to do this everyday during break time or before going to work in the afternoon. I work night-shift so minimal gear will be an advantage. I'm paring this lens with D90 which was been replaced by D7000.
I bought the lens yesterday and I started taking pictures yesterday also to test it. Shutter speed is my biggest problem when using a 2.8 lens because it forces me to use 3200 ISO at night. 2.8 is not for night time street shooting, it is slow and the noise is unbearable. I started shooting in manual and my shutter speed was 1/80, my ISO was 1600 and of course F1.8 as the opening. I did not use AV mode because it will adjust the exposure on different environment depending on the available light. Making it manual makes the camera behave like those expensive hollywood film cameras. Exposure should be consistent in my case, anyway if it is dark the photo should be dark mimicking the exact perception on what we see. SLR Auto exposure is not really honest about the available light so to avoid that I must use manual. My exposure setting last night was just a guess but I was happy with the setting but not happy when I was shooting.
Here in the city almost everybody is sensitive when there is a camera pointing at them. So to avoid that I placed the camera on my chest while holding the shutter button. The result was I got blurred shots most of the time because of my movement. I have tried the proper way of shooting and that did result in a good picture. It seems I won't be successful with the camera on my chest approach. Now I'm thinking, I planned this a long time ago and now it is not feasible. But since this is my first time I would like to give it some practice until I get the hang of it and maybe learn how to know what people are thinking when they see a dslr and maybe adjust to that scenario to have a better picture.
Photos
The photos is about night life in Makati where people are having their break from work, going to work, going home or just jogging for those living near by. You will notice the skin tone is a bit dark but given that I'm still happy with the result. Giving a proper exposure on the people on the picture will also blown out the highlights coming from the street lights which is more problematic on my opinion. Blown out highlights tend the viewer eyes to squint and that is not good for photography. The more the viewer opens their eyes the more they are interested on the photo. You can also notice the amount of noise, well it's a D90 and ISO 1600 I don't know what to do with that. If I will continue this and have acceptable results I might buy the D7000 this year but I'm still waiting for some funds, good luck to me.
Date and time of writing: Jan 1, 2011 11:00 PM GMT +08:00
Blogger
Hi I'm Carl. This marks my first blog of my life. I'm into photography as a hobby and my business at the same time - serving as the reason of doing this blog. I've been studying stuff about photography for almost almost 2 years now and I have provided my services to not so many friends who needed a photographer for special events and I'm just here to blog about it.
Year 2011
Year 2010 has been great to me and my family, some got married, everyone has jobs, has good relationships and most of all healthy. But as for me I will start year 2011 taking pictures while my wife will review it.
Here in our town Metro Manila, people are carrying cameras almost all the time because of smart phones. Point-n-shoot camera is an essential gadget on every gathering. Iphones are even more popular because you can take pictures, edit it and post it right away on Facebook. People are happy with that even if the pictures are redundant in nature. For me there is nothing wrong with low resolution photos because of the medium used but I think people also should think about quality, content and the audience. They might not know about theories in photography but maybe while thinking of the three that I mentioned they may think twice before posting.
Quality
Quality of pictures is not about resolution but about answering the question, is it worth remembering?
Will you remember it right away what happened on that event or celebration when looking at the picture maybe a year from now? If there is a party and you took a picture of yourself at the washroom of your friend's house, will you remember what happened on that party? Perhaps not. You can only remember that you're at the washroom - that is something you can forget and not remember at all. Some of you might say, I just want to check if I look good, fine but keep it private on your facebook dont show it right away. If you really are good looking try not too post every angle of your face in a series of similar clothes and similar background this promotes boredom you know. Taking pictures is about sharing it but try to filter those that are worth sharing.
Content
Content is about the subject and next in line is the background or foreground. When people travel and they don't have someone to take their pictures, the initial thought is to hold their camera pointing to their faces and then having the place as their background. Do that once and that will be fine but overdoing it will take away the interest of the viewer on the place you had your vacation. Here is the problem, when we hold the camera pointing to our faces and the background is the hotel where you stayed, your face covers most part of the frame. Your viewers can see the name of the hotel but they don't see the establishment's beauty at all and when you do it on several photos it may seem you are rubbing it into their faces that you can afford that vacation. This is the trick, try to put your camera on a mini tripod and in timer mode, include the hotel as the main subject and stand somewhere the camera can see you and making sure you are just occupying below 20% of the frame and don't look at the camera. That will make photo candid and will not make to much of attention to you. There is more chance for your viewers to appreciate that compared to the dominant face.
Audience/Viewers
Since Facebook is becoming a norm these days and everybody uploads their photos on it, applying filters like everyone, friends, family or custom is really essential. If it is a family gathering perhaps not all your friends should see it. This is common sense so you will be the judge.
Those 3 that I mentioned are not about my idea of photography, it is more than that. I hated pictures before I bought my first DSLR, I hated photos maybe because I dont see photos of photographers.
That's it for now. I may start taking pictures on Monday.
