Tamron Blog: Angle of View

Creating Panoramic Images

By Ken Hubbard

 

Recently I started to collect some images for a Tamron Enewsletter on Letchworth State Park in Upstate New York, one of eight state parks Tamron USA will be holding photo workshops in this year. I came across one image that was completely different than the others, and I had forgotten I created on my last trip to the park. What made it different from the rest is that it was a panoramic image created from 5 separate vertical images, when viewing this image I realized this is a technique that I do not use often enough.

The definition of Panorama is “an unobstructed and wide view of an extensive area in all directions” and in photography it is capturing elongated fields of view using either specialized equipment or software. The simplest way to create a panoramic “style” image is to use an ultra wide lens like the Tamron’s 10-24mm at 10mm’s to capture your scene, then in Photoshop software crop the image so it appears elongated either horizontally or vertically. The issue I have with this technique is that when using an ultra wide-angle lens is that you get the expansion effect between foreground and background subjects, which usually makes your foreground subjects look larger than they should and your background subjects look smaller.

Since I did not want the look of an ultra wide lens, I needed to capture this scene in a different way. So to create this horizontal panoramic, I turned my camera to the vertical position and with a Tamron 28-300mm VC lens set at the 40mm focal length I took 5 separate images from left to right, each a small part of the entire scene I wanted to create a final panorama of. When capturing the images I overlapped parts of the scene in each image by 15 – 20%. You will need to do this so that the Photoshop software can create a seamless merge of all the images. Once I had the images captured I opened Photoshop and imported them into the program through the Photomerge section which is under the FILE dropdown, then under Automate. Once the images are imported you have a few options to create the Panorama, in the case of this image the settings were: auto layout, I checked the box for “blend images together”. Once that was done, I clicked OK and Photoshop did the rest by processing files and creating the panorama. Today there are a number of very sophisticated software options besides Photoshop, and depending on the level you want to take your panorama images you have many options.

High Wind Rocky Mountain Sunrise

By Rob Moody

I headed out with a headlight on a cold and breezy morning before sunrise. I wanted to get high on the unnamed point next to St. Mary’s Lake, Colorado to capture sunrise images. The sun emerged over the horizon as I neared the summit of the point. As I emerged from the tree-line, the cold breeze turned to bitter cold accompanied by extremely high wind.

I dropped my pack, removed my tripod and extended the legs. After hiking for almost an hour, I knew my camera and lens had made the adjustment to the cold conditions. For outings like this, I put it in a zippered case so it can gradually change to the outside temperature as I hike to the destination. I removed my camera and placed it on the tripod. The wind was so strong and continuous that I had to hold the tripod down as I photographed.

To keep your hands as warm as possible in these conditions, I try to anticipate the start settings I will use and set them in the camera before leaving the house. This way I will minimize removing my hands from gloves during the shoot. I also highly recommend using gloves with leashes that attach around your wrists so you don't accidentally have one blow out of your hands and down the mountain as you remove it. Guess how I figured that one out?

The settings I set in the camera before leaving are settings I know I want or I know will be correct. One of these is RAW+ small jpeg. I know I will process from RAW, but I like to have the small jpeg for immediate viewing. This way I can toss them on my phone or pad for easy quick review on the couch or on a plane. They may not be perfect, but are enough to review and choose for editing the RAW version.

Another setting is white balance or WB on your camera. I know I want the daylight, commonly the sun symbol, setting so I retain all the subtle hues in the sunrise. If left in auto white balance, the camera is likely to shift the setting from image to image washing out most as it attempts to turn yellow and magenta light into white as it would with a light bulb. Daylight white balance is a fixed setting that doesn’t change. 

For my nature landscapes, I like to use a quality circular polarizer. I rotate the polarizer to the dial in the look I’m after. Simply put, a polarizer removes or forces the reflection. I use it to remove undesired light reflection from atmospheric particles. In this case, mostly crystals of ice and snow blowing in the wind. They reflect the light, so I dial the polarizer to remove this reflection. Sometimes I dial to get the reflection. You can clearly see it through the camera as you turn the polarizer. Don’t forget to always turn your polarizer in the same direction it screws onto the lens to prevent it coming off, hitting the ground and rolling off a cliff! Guess how I figured that one out?

Finally, in a situation like this with high wind, take two or three images of the same shot. I do this because I’m never sure how the wind will gust or momentarily ease. I’m using f/stops to maximize depth of field which means slower shutter speeds at a lower ISO. Taking multiple images of the same shot increases you chances of getting a sharp image in high wind. I keep my hand firmly on the neck of the tripod holding the legs down. There is no reason to leave your camera packed away until it is warm outside. With the right game plan, a little suffering and the right equipment you can create some incredible images in the winter.

The following images were taken with a Tamron SP 24-70 f/2.8 VC USD lens and a Nikon D800. Also used was a circular polarizer and a tripod. Keep warm and Enjoy! 

Long Exposures and Seaside Piers

By Ken Hubbard

One of my last blogs that I posted a few months ago, I was talking about the not so winter I was having on Long Island and having to travel to Montreal to see snow.  Well, that turned out to be a real bad idea, because mother nature decided to finally hit us with some bad winter weather and then follow me around for a while on my travels.  One of the places I was looking forward to was Myrtle Beach. The Carolina Nature Photographers Assoc. was having its annual convention there at a hotel right on the beach.  I thought to myself "boy, this is going to be nice... Beach, sand and warm weather".   The beach was there, and my room on the 12th floor looked over the beach nicely, but as far as the warm weather goes, I don't think it ever went past 55 degrees. A bummer for South Carolina!

No matter what the weather is, and after this past winter I can't believe I'm complaining about 55 degree weather, I still try to find some time to shoot where ever I am. In this case the Apache Pier was within a few hundred yards of my hotel and seemed like a good place to capture some long exposure night images.  I really liked the patterns in the support planks and noticed that I got a mirrored look to them when I put one of the posts directly in the center of the frame.  The image below is a 30 second exposure shot at F/22 and an ISO setting at 800.  I used an LED flashlight to light up the entire inner structure, since there was so much light coming from the pier itself my first few images without it came out very dark.  Since LED lights can sometimes come out a little on the cool side I used one of Rouge Light Modifiers warming gel filters, that normally go onto a speedlight, over my flashlight to warm up the color a bit.  Another thing to remember when using a flashlight on long exposures, always keep the flashlight moving and don't leave it pointing at one spot too long,  this will cause a hot spot on your image that will not look good.

Over Exposure

By Rob Moody

Most of the time when you are rock or ice climbing, you are either climbing or you are on belay with the other end of the rope to manage. This makes photographing these activities difficult if not impossible. On this day, there would be two other climbers allowing me to roam freely while photographing the ice climbing. 

I am myself a mountaineer and have climbed steep ice a few times. I am intimately familiar with all the moves, techniques and equipment involved with the sport. Even though this is the case, it doesn’t actually matter to me whether I am totally familiar or completely unfamiliar with a sport because I do the same thing before photographing. I read and learn about it taking in everything I can. I review past photographs from photographers who regularly shoot the sport to become familiar with the key moments to photograph. Then I actively pre-visualize the key moments and me releasing the shutter at exactly the right moment to get the shot! I do this every day until I am actually there to photograph the event.

One of the things about ice climbing that makes it difficult is the bone chilling cold. Of course, in order for waterfalls to exist, they must be out of the direct sunlight and very cold. For this reason, management of both equipment and personal comfort become the keys to freeing your creative energies for the shoot. I use zippered camera bags for this to manage the extreme change in temperature. As I walked from the warm car to the ice climbing routs in Vail, my equipment had over 30 minutes to slowly become the same temperature as the outside shooting environment. This helps to prevent fogging of your lenses and condensation inside your camera body.

As with snow, the key to ice climbing photography is exposure, over-exposure to be exact. While a modern camera is excellent at auto exposure most all of the time, snow or light sand will cause the cameras meter to under expose images. This is because images composed primarily of snow, ice and light sand are, as a whole, brighter than the gray value a cameras meter is set to base its exposure on. This is why we still need manual settings so we can compensate for this exposure difference. I can shoot it in manual mode, a challenge with gloves. Alternatively, I can use program or aperture priority mode along with exposure compensation to get the right exposure. I prefer aperture priority or aperture value on some cameras. 

To properly expose for the ice, I start at 2/3 (also shown as +0.7) of a stop over exposure and create a test shot of the ice with a climber included. Just as with snow, it is important to over expose enough to make ice lighter, but also to retain detail in the ice. My goal with this is to get the ice closer to its actual brightness without over exposing. Then, if needed, I go the rest of the distance in post production.

I want cut time at the computer to a minimum, so I believe it’s best to do all you can to create the best image possible in camera during the shoot. I refine all photographic processes to achieve this. Unlike the old days of film, I over shoot these kinds of activities because it doesn’t cost me a thing. I believe that once you own the equipment, shooting is free whether taking one shot or a million. For this reason, I fill my cards with images knowing the worst thing that will happen is that I will have to erase images. The images were created using a Tamron SP 70-300 f/4-5.6 Di VC and a Nikon D800.

SHEDDING LIGHT ON MEN!

 By Hernan Rodriguez

Whether shooting images for a commercial client, or to further my portfolio, I like to begin my images with a visual concept, drawing ideas from everywhere such as dreams, movies and just about anywhere. With my background as an Art Director, I illustrate most of my ideas on a sketchpad including diagrams, to illustrate where I would place my lights, and maybe what I want to portray in the final images. I find this technique to be a good practice and highly recommend it because it eliminates the guesswork. Even if I don’t use that particular idea, I save the notes and refer to it later, as a ‘tried and tested’ archive. It also comes in handy when I have a client wanting a specific look, which I might have already perfected.

A question was recently brought to my attention – ‘Do you ever photograph men’?

After reviewing my portfolio, I realized from my body of work that I do, however, probably not enough. I put a casting out for men, tested for hours, and finalized the shoot. It turned out great! So with that said, here is one of my approaches to photographing men. 

LIGHTING

First objective in this next lighting diagram was to have the largest wrap-around light source I could attain. I wanted to come up with a new approach in creating an image with a commercial feel and good transitions throughout the skin tone.           

For this reason, I chose to start my light set-up with the placement of my fill light. I decided to use 2 large 86” white satin Westcott oversized umbrellas. I placed both of these umbrellas directly to the left and to the right of my camera, feathered towards my subject. The umbrella from camera left coming across the front of the subjects left shoulder, and the umbrella from camera right coming across the front of the subjects right shoulder. Almost a type of criss-cross. Each light was close to six feet infront of subject, and each light needed a reading of F4 individually with a combined reading of F5.6 together.This gave me a beautiful wrap around fill which cannot be attained by just one light source.

Second objective was adding a bright accent on my subject’s face with quick fall-off. I wanted to highlight the upper region and let it graduate to darker.

For the key light, I placed a 22” beauty dish fitted with a honey comb grid and a sock (diffusor) over it to cut down the light further. This also allowed me to place the light closer to the subject for quicker fall-off. This was placed on a boom directly over camera approximately 36” above subject with a reading of F8 1/2.

Third I added two more lights from behind and on each side of my subject as accent. One was a 7” reflector with a 20 degree grid set at F11, and the other was a small 16x20 soft box with little diffusion set at F11.5.  A cyan Rosco gel was added for effect.

One last light 7” reflector with a 30 degree grid was used for the background. As these were a series of images, the background light metered between F11 and F16, depending on the “look”. 

TIP: When photographing men, this light setup creates contour, shape and shadows.

LENS CHOICE

I used a Tamron SP 90mm macro which allowed me some compression even at a small aperture. You can see where the focus falls off in the close-up of the hand. The distance from my lens to my focusing point was about four feet.  Elements behind that point would quickly fall off focus.

The overall exposure was set at 125th sec at F8 1/2 ISO 100

Cold Weather Camera Tips

by Jillian Bell

December 21, 2012 marked the start of our winter solstice. In Minnesota this means 20F temperatures, warm scarfs and beautiful winter landscapes. Anytime you are out photographing in below freezing temperatures, be weary of how your camera can react. Batteries deplete faster, condensation can build on fast warm ups, lenses can fog. To help keep your gear at its best, follow these guidelines.

Tips for Shooting in the Cold

• Pack extra fully charged batteries. To extend rechargeable battery life, keep them warm in your pocket rather than in your camera bag. When possible, non rechargeable lithiums or alkaline batteries are preferred and have better cold weather resistance (an adapter might be needed for SLR cameras).
• Always travel and use rain covers. These keep cameras dry in the snow and sleet.
• Only change lenses outdoors when necessary. If possible go inside, or a sheltered area. If your equipment gets wet, dry as soon as possible.
• Keep microfiber cloths handy for cleaning, and keep dry within plastic bags / containers. Plastic film containers work well for this. Also, know where your cards are stored. Use a waterproof card case to keep cards dry if they ever are dropped into the snow. Brightly colored cases are easier to find.
• I prefer fingerless gloves for dexterity. Mittens can be worn over for warmth. Find a system that works best for you.
• MOST IMPORTANTLY - When you are bringing your electronics back inside, warm them up slowly. Put your camera inside a sealed plastic bag, or I put my whole case inside a cooler. Place them in the coldest area inside to warm equipment up slowly. This minimizes the risk for condensation and shock to the new environment.

Happy New Year Everyone, Enjoy these photos from our last snow fall - Jillian

Going With The Flow

By Jeff Allen

Every once in a while a new product comes along that really makes a difference in my shooting, and shooting enjoyment.

My recent revelation is a relatively new design innovation in neutral density (ND) filters, called a variable neutral density filter.

For years, photographers have used two polarizer filters stacked together to achieve the effect of infinitely adjusting the volume of light through the lens, primarily for being able to achieve long exposures even in bright light. Stacking filters is never ideal since the more glass you put in front of your lens, the more likelihood there is for loss of sharpness and in the case of stacking polarizer filters, the possibility of unwanted shifts or variations of color. Another option has been stacking conventional ND filters, but again possible loss of sharpness can occur. Both options also can cause vignetting, or darkening at the edges of the frame due to the protrusion of the filter hardware at the front of the lens. Unfortunately, these effects are not ideal

Now, variable ND filters, available from most major filter manufacturers, which are available at your favorite camera store, offer the benefits previously stacking polarizers or conventional ND’s all in one package and without the detriment of attaching multiple filters. At the twist of a wrist, you and I can now adjust from minimal light reduction to nearly complete blocking of the light through the lens. With one simple accessory. A very handy tool for many shooting situations, such as moving water and waterfalls, even midday allowing more shooting flexibility in a wider variety of conditions, more conveniently than ever. Here’s an example…

Tamron SP 24-70 F/2.8 VC USD at f22, ISO100, 2sec. bright morning light.

Try a Variable ND filter to expand your shooting capabilities soon.

Good Shooting.

Just Go Shoot Yourself!

By Rob Moody

I had an experience working at the Great American Scrap Booking Festival this year that caused me to think. I viewed literally hundreds of scrapping pages and a theme started to present itself. The theme was that the photographer/scrapper was in very few, if any, of the images in their own scrapbook. It was as if just the camera went on all these trips with a family that didn’t have a mother! I was shocked, but then thought about my photography and realized, I was guilty of the same thing.

After this experience, I started to look at the entire body of work that I’ve created as a photographer. As I spent time looking at various images from adventures past, I realized that when it comes to my passion, nature photography in the mountains, I have many great images, but unfortunately not very many that include me in the adventure.

I’m making a conscious effort to change this.

On every trip since then, I have made sure to either take images of myself or hand the camera to others to snap off a couple. I think often times we think of ourselves as the photographer, so naturally don’t think of ourselves as being in a potential part of the photograph. This is crazy because of the extensive selection of tripods, cable releases and remote controls available for every camera today. Alternatively, you can use your cameras self-timer and a tripod to get yourself in the image if you want to go lightweight and inexpensive.

Shooting yourself presents a couple of challenges:

One is how do you compose the image intending to include yourself?

Another is how do you focus the camera when you are not in the picture yet?

The answer to the composition question is to pre-visualize yourself in the image as if you were shooting another person doing the same thing. Realize that a great many things you do while adventuring might add interest to the body of work. Plan to record like a journalist to add more flavor and tell more of a full story about your adventures.

Another tip is to compose the image as if no one would be in it, and then include you as part of it. A self environmental portrait of you doing the things you love. Be your own model, it’s a great photographic learning exercise. Think about the magazines you read and the images included of people doing things you normally wouldn’t think to photograph, the behind the scenes stuff.

The answer to the focus part is method. If another person is going to be in the image with you, you can simply focus on them and then run over and place yourself next to them in the image. If you are the only one in the picture, focus on something in the area where you will stand for the image. To do this, place your AF point selector to single point AF and move it to the item in the picture where you will be standing, for example a rock or a patch of grass. Then use your self-timer or remote/ release to trigger the shutter with you in the picture on that spot.

Another method you can use is to set a specific distance on the lens. Most lenses still show distance identification markers in both meters and feet. For this, set the focus to manual and turn the focus ring to your preferred distance. For example, set the focus to 6ft and then stand approximately 6 feet away from the camera.

The key to both methods is to take several images so you have something to choose from. Also, this will improve your chances of getting a focused image with you in the right place in the composition. Greater depth of field with an f/stop like f/8 – f/16 will make it more likely everything will be in focus. The less depth of field the less chances of getting exactly what you want in focus. This is somewhat trial and error at first, but with a little practice in the backyard you’ll get the hang of it. Have a little fun and shoot yourself. I hope to see you out there.

Macro Images & Controling Your Depth of Field

By Ken Hubbard

 

A few days ago a questions was asked of me on Facebook about one of the images I posted. The question asked if I used focus stacking software on the posted image of orchids which were taken while conducting a workshop at Parkside Orchids in Pennsylvania earlier this year. For those of you who don't know, focus stacking software allows you to create a larger depth of field than is normally attainable by merging images taken of the same subject with the same cropping, but with different focus points. When the images are merged the depth of field increases. The image above was the image in question, and no, there was no focus stacking done to this image. Anyone can obtain the same look by understanding the 3 things that effect depth of field, aperture, focus point & focal length.

First, lets look at aperture (or in other words your F-stop), the larger your aperture (F/1.4, F/2.8...) the smaller the depth of field & the smaller the aperture (F/16, F/22...) the larger the depth of field. This image was taken at f/32, which helped maximize my depth of field. Next is focus point, or how close you are to the subject you focused on. Keep this in mind, the closer you get to your focus point the shallower depth of field and images taken at the minimum focus distance of a lens, the DOF will be extremely shallow. This image was taken with the 90mm Macro lens which has a minimum focus distance of about 11 inches. I did not like the composition when shooting that close so I moved away from the flowers to about 22 inches. As I move away from my subject from 11 inches to 22 inches my DOF increased. Lastly, the focal length of the lens also affects your depth of field, the wider the angle of the lens the larger the depth of field. For example a 10mm lens will have a much larger depth of field than a 500mm lens.

In conclusion, to maximize the depth of field of this image, I stopped down the aperture to F/32, moved a little further away from the subject (22 inches) and used a 90mm focal length lens (instead of the 180mm Macro lens which would have had a shallower depth of field).

Aspen Last Stand

  By Rob Moody

Living in the Rocky Mountains is so amazing! The majestic landscapes with clear lakes, cascading waterfalls and rugged mountains are so beautiful to me. I love to photograph no matter the season, but one of my favorite times of the year is the fall color change. The brilliant contrast between the bright golden aspen trees and the vivid blue sky is like a fireworks display that lasts for weeks. Some years it’s more orange, other years it’s more yellow.

This is a good time of the year to do some driving to view the color change in different areas. I plan to shoot primarily from the car for these trips. This way I can see something I like and just pull over. I then grab a tripod and a lens, move into position and work the subject.

I just love the results I’m getting with the new Tamron SP 24-70 f/2.8 Di VC USD, it is quickly becoming my primary lens of choice. It is so sharp! It has the perfect zoom range on my full-frame camera for most of my shooting needs. The lens has great even brightness across the entire image with virtually no distortion all the way to the edges and corners. For me, this makes it a great lens for landscape photography. I also love the fact that I can use Vibration Compensation when I’m off tripod to reduce blur issues.

Here are a couple of images from a recent trip. I used a circular polarizer to remove undesired reflection from the scene and a tripod for maximum sharpness. I also used an on camera bubble level to level the scene. I captured the images at sunset and used daylight white balance. All three images were taken with the Tamron SP 24-70 f/2.8 Di VC USD. I find that underexposing slightly dials in the look I was after. Usually between a third to two-thirds of a stop does it just about right. Enjoy, I hope to see you out there.