Through the Trees

Once again I’m uploading another photo from the wildlife photo shoot I went on during the weekend. For this photo I was trying to capture the bird up against the blue sky, but when I took the photo the meter had metered for the sky and the whole photo was underexposed. When I came back to look at this photo I actually liked the effect that this created.

I had the camera in aperture priority with an aperture of F8 selected, and ISO 400 locked in. The camera selected a shutter speed of 1/200^th of a second for this photo. I wasn’t using the flash as I wanted to expose for both the foreground and the background (although this turned out to be impossible).

When looking back at this photo I actually really liked the underexposed effect. So to enhance the effect I increased the contrast and lowered the shadows until the bird and the foreground turned into a silhouette. I didn’t change anything else as I was happy with how everything else looked.

Hopefully I will have more happy-accidents with my photos! Because they generally work out to be very interesting photos!

Mat

Resting Robin

This photo has to be my shot of the day! We were walking along the path when I spotted movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned to look round and just saw this robin fly into the bush. I immediately stopped at turned round to take a photo. I thought it would fly off very quickly so i rushed to take the first photo. To my surprise the robin didn’t move, so I crept a little closer, took a few more photos. I kept closing in until I was about 10 feet away from the robin! This meant I could set up the composition that I wanted.

To capture this image I set the camera to 1/400^th of a second shutter speed and I locked the ISO at ISO200. The camera selected an aperture of F5.6. I had also manually selected the focus point and moved it onto the robin’s eye to ensure that it was pin-sharp.

To edit the photo I increased the contrast and then lowered the highlights to retain an even exposure. I didn’t crop the photo as I was happy with how I had framed the photo at the time. The colours had been replicated accurately and really show off the red-orange colour of the robin.

This is definitely my shot of the day; none of the other photos that I had taken on the day are as good as this one. I will still be uploading more photos from my trip over the next week.

Mat

Flying Off

I managed to get out for the wildlife photo shoot yesterday; I went through the nature reserve down to the duckpond. I managed to catch a lot of the local birds in the forest, and when I got down to the duckpond it was full of swans and ducks and moorhens.

There was a male mallard duck that was chasing a female mallard duck, the female mallard decided to fly off and I just managed to capture the male mallard chasing after her. I was already in shutter priority with a shutter speed of 1/640^th selected. I had left the camera in auto ISO, which the camera selected at ISO800. I wasn’t using the flash at this point as I needed to take a lot of photos in a series.

I didn’t edit the photo as I was happy with how the photo was straight from the camera. The colours where exactly as I wanted them to be. Faithfully reproducing the bright colours of both the male and female mallard ducks. The exposure was also calculated exactly how I wanted it to be.

I’m glad I got a chance to go out on a wildlife photography wander, I tried out some of the flash gun ideas I’ve been meaning to try out for quite some time. I shall upload the best of the photos that I took over the next few days.

Mat

Silhouette

This is another photo from my walk to the top of the hill in the nature reserve a few days ago. I tried to take a mixture of both wide shots, and close ups. For the close ups, I tried to focus on teasels, using them as a silhouetted foreground against the dark sky. I tried a mixture of focusing on several, and single plants, but decided that single plants had the most impact.

I used an aperture of F16, as I wanted the entire image to be in focus, so each of the spines could be seen individually. This amount of detail makes the image much more dramatic, as it emphasises each part of the photo equally. I wanted to use a low ISO, so had to base the shutter speed around these two values. I wanted to under expose so, after some experimentation, I decided to use a shutter speed of 1/320.

I increased the contrast in Photoshop, as I wanted the range of tones in the clouds to be prominent; decreasing the brightness slightly aided this. I then sharpened the image, in order to pick out the patterns in the clouds and to make the spikes of the teasel more prominent.

Bex
x

Field Walk

I was once again looking through my computer when I found this photo from one of the many walks that Bex and I have been on. We were walking along a country walk when I saw this view across the field opposite us. I instantly liked the composition that the fence and tree created.

To make the most of the composition I had the camera in aperture priority and selected an aperture of F11. I locked the ISO at ISO 100 to make sure the quality was as good as it could be. The camera chose a shutter speed of 1/60^th to match; this was fast enough because I was using a focal length of 40mm. I made sure that the photo was taken vertically because the fence posts would have made this very obvious otherwise.

I didn’t edit the photo as I was happy with how the photo was straight from the camera. The colours had been reproduced perfectly and the exposure was exactly how I wanted it to be. I liked the composition so I didn’t crop the photo down.

I’m very much looking forward to the wildlife photo-shoot tomorrow. I’ve got all my camera gear ready and waiting, I’ll let you know how it goes, and I’m sure I’ll upload some photos to show you.

Mat

Pink Rose

I was looking through some of my previous photo shoots, when I remembered about this photo. I wanted to upload it at the time but I must have forgotten about it. It’s very similar to one I have already uploaded but with a different lighting technique.

For this photo I had the camera in manual mode with a flash gun set up underneath the flower. I had the flash gun underneath as I wanted the flower to be lit from the bottom left corner of the frame. I set the aperture at F6.3 as this gave me the depth of field I wanted. I had already locked the ISO at 100 for maximum image quality. I then selected a shutter speed of 1.3 seconds to complete the exposure.

The only editing I did to the photo was to increase the contrast and to lower the highlights slightly as the whites were just starting to become clipped. I didn’t change anything else as I was happy with the overall effect.

I should be going out for a wildlife photo shoot this Saturday if the weather is good enough for photography. Otherwise I’m sure I will find plenty more photos in my computer.

Mat

Gloomy

I went for a walk through the local nature reserve today. In contrast with the last few days of bright sunshine (along with the cruel jokes aimed in my direction and VERY red skin), the weather was quite dreary. It didn’t rain as expected, but provided some interesting cloud formations.

I tried to capture this by walking to the top of the large hill in the nature reserve (the highest point in my town), in order to avoid any rooftops or other unwanted objects. I used manual mode, for complete control over the composition. I tried to under-expose, as I wanted the foreground to be a silhouette against the dark clouds. I used a shutter speed of 1/400, with an aperture of F11 at ISO 100. I used a narrow aperture in order to ensure the sharpness of every detail throughout the image. I wanted to minimise the amount of visible noise in the image, so used ISO 100. This means that the only option I had was to change shutter speed to get the correct exposure.

I have edited the image in Photoshop before uploading. I increased the contrast and decreased the brightness by equal amounts to make the clouds more striking. I also sharpened the image, but apart from this I haven’t changed anything. I seem to get both good and bad photographer days. By this, I mean whether I take a lot of photos that I am pleased with, with not too much fiddling of the settings, and the opposite on a bad day. Today was definitely a “good photographer” day, and I look forward to sharing some other images with you in the following posts.

Bex
x