Tamron Blog: Angle of View

Adventures with Tamron: Great Music in a Dark Venue

By Jillian Bell

This adventure highlights the lowlight capabilities of Tamron's SP 17-50mm F2.8 VC. Its F2.8 minimum aperture is ideal when faced with a dark venue. Talking about low light photography, a cameras high ISO quality is equally important in making a great, clear photograph.

I was out in Minneapolis one night; the Melvilles were playing in a local venue where I frequent. They are a local band with an Americana rock sound. Providing upbeat, toe tapping music and a stage presence showing how well the members play together. With their permission, I was able to photograph the set. Whenever faced with a difficult photographic situation, it is important to simplify your setting, keeping many variables in your exposure the same shot per shot. I start with the first song, shooting in shutter speed priority, setting the shutter to 1/90 sec. This is slightly slower than recommended (min 1/125 for movement), but with proper timing it was not an issue. Having a minimum F2.8, ended with a slightly underexposed photograph at ISO800. I underexposed the image on purpose wanting the true black values of the background to be as dark as possible. Underexposing slightly also helps maintain a manageable shutter speed and results in better contrast. Now knowing my desired exposure to be 1/90, F2.8, ISO800; I turn the camera to manual exposure, plug in my values and leave it alone for the rest of the night. All variables have been managed; all I worry about now is timing, and composition. Simple :)

They had two different lighting schemes, blue/magenta and green/red. On stages, skin tones will not look natural. The colored lights add character and setting to each photograph. Exaggerate this with over saturated, high contrast images. Here are my favorite three photographs. You can find the rest on Tamron's my photo exhibits app.

Copy Link - http://tamron.myphotoexhibits.com/exhibits/6924-melvilles-of-minneapolis-mn

For more information on the Melvilles, please check out their website at http://www.melvillesmusic.com

Under The Rainbow

By Jeff Allen

I recently attended a destination wedding. OK, it was for one of my daughters.

As a photographer I always observe rules for shooting weddings.

So first rule…Hire another professional to shoot a relative's event. Don't even think of doing it yourself.

Second rule…Resist the urge to offer said photographer advice and critiques as he or she works. Relax and enjoy the day.

Third rule… Do take a camera along and invite other guests to bring cameras for candid shots during the reception but again, let the pro do their work and invite the guests to stay out of the pro’s way as they work. That is what they are paid for, and interference from well meaning guests just slows them down.

The day of the event brought rain off and on all day. Fortunately since the ceremony was outdoors, Mother Nature gave in to my daughter’s wishes and the rain stopped long enough to have the outdoor ceremony. Our pro got the group portraits in after the ceremony, and before the next shower hit. It passed quickly and the sun came out before setting for the day. As the guests made our way to the reception, the pro was capturing additional portraits of the bride and groom. A rainbow appeared in the sky. It was brought to my attention, so my camera, equipped with my trusty go-to lens, the Tamron 18-270 VC PZD came out, and I grabbed a few shots. The rainbow wasn’t particularly intense, but I thought it would make some nice flavor for the back of the album.

As I walked further, one of my other daughters asked me if I had seen the rainbow. I said that I had, and showed her my shots. She was carrying her bouquet and mentioned that we should use that in a shot. Brilliant! Additionally, as we turned to look at the rainbow, the sun had changed angle slightly and the clouds behind the rainbow had taken on a golden hue. Since we were in the shade, I popped on the camera’s built-in flash to illuminate and add contrast to the bouquet.

After the fact, I noticed some hotel employees in the background, so for the final image, I cropped them out.

Tamron AF 18-270 VC PZD at 1/60, f5.6,

The camera’s built in flash was activated

(set at -1/3stop) for fill on bouquet.

So while we didn’t quite find the “pot ’o gold” at the end of the rainbow, we did find a way to turn a nice snapshot into a memorable photograph.

Be patient, keep shooting, always look for something unique, and you can make more memorable photographs too.

Good shooting!

Sometimes All It Takes Is A Look Back

 By Ken Hubbard

Whenever I go without shooting images for a week or two, I know it's time to commit myself to looking through images that I had taken a few years ago. I do this in order to take a fresh look at images from the past, and more often than not I find 1 or 2 images that I placed in a DNU (Do Not Use) folder that end up being pretty good. For all of us, our tastes and styles of what we like or dislike is constantly changing. So, going back to images every so often is a good habit to get into. For the photographer that is new to digital retouching this is even more important to do, since your abilities to color correct and retouch images will get better with time. You will be able to go back to images that may have been beyond your abilities in the beginning but may be much easier to deal with now, allowing you to make them look the way you want. So, don't just put your images in a folder on your desktop or external hard drive and forget about them, I can almost guarantee there are some great images just waiting for you to take a second look at them.

On my last look back at images from years past, I found this dramatic road image which was taken while driving to Zion National Park. For some reason I had completely ignored it and never gave it a second glance until now. At the time, I had been driving through some pretty good thunderstorms from the moment I left Las Vegas on highway 15. As I made my way closer to Zion, now on Route 9 somewhere between the towns of La Verkin & Virgin, UT  the rain stopped and the clouds started to break a little. All of a sudden there was a bright light in my rear view and side mirrors, and when I looked back this is what I saw. Of course I immediately pulled to the side of the road grabbed my camera (Nikon D700 with the Tamron 28-300mm VC lens) and started shooting. I can't tell you why I left it in a folder till now, but what I can say is don't forget to look back!

Macro Flowers Part 2, Keep it Simple

By Ken Hubbard

 

Some orchids can be very complex flowers with curving lines overlapping one another and colors galore. Having so much to work with, in such a small flower, sometimes it can be difficult to find a point of focus. So I am going to keep this blog nice and short with a simple technique I use to keep myself from getting frustrated.

Keep it simple

We all go through periods where we look at something we want to photograph but just don't know where to start. When I have a tough time finding an interesting image with the more complex orchids, I turn to the very simple ones. A perfect example is the image above, what caught my eye was the perfect curve of the fuzzy stem leading to the slightly opened bud which revealed just a little bit of pink color. That's it, nothing more, so I framed the flower nice and tight accentuating the curve and size of the bud.

I captured this image using Tamron's SP 180mm 1:1 Macro lens with the following settings: ISO 400, F/32 at a 1/2 sec. shutter speed. This was shot in one of Parkside Orchids (Ottsville, PA) greenhouses, so the sunlight was nicely diffused by its translucent roof. I placed a yellow piece of craft paper about 24" behind the flower to add some color and a white panel reflector to bring in a touch more light.

Macro Flowers Part 1: Backlit Painting with Light

By Ken Hubbard

 

A little while back I was capturing some images for a macro photography seminar and I was thinking of some different ways to light my subjects, which in this case was a variety of flowers. At first I headed outside with a diffusion panel and some reflectors to work with the natural sunlight. Then I headed back inside to work with some nice soft window light, using sheer curtains as a diffuser. After capturing some nice traditionally lit images I decided to change things up a bit and started to capture some images by painting with light, using an old maglite flashlight in a completely dark studio. The image above was captured by painting with light, but with a small twist.

Photography is defined as "Drawing with Light" and in this image that is a literal definition, I used a maglite flashlight as my sole light source and "drew" the light where I wanted it. First, with the lights on I set up my subject (the flower) on a black background sweep, I set up my camera on a tripod and framed then focused the camera on the flower. I then set my camera using the Tamron 180mm 1:1 Macro lens to F/22 with a shutter speed of 30 seconds and an ISO of 200. Next I turned off all the lights, with flashlight in hand so I could see what I was doing. I fired the cameras shutter using a release cable (to prevent camera shake). Once the shutter was released I started to paint/draw the flower with light, continuously moving the light across the flower. Making sure not to stop in one spot for too long which would cause a hot spot in the final image. My first few shots were taken by painting the light only on the front of the flower, which looked nice, but wasn't what I was looking for. The small twist with this image was that for most of the 30 second exposure I was backlighting the flower to make it glow and only about 5 seconds of painting of light on the front red center of the flower to make sure I get some detail there as well. This is a fun way to capture some really unique looking images of flowers, just remember there will be some trial and error to getting the correct setting on your camera and how and where you want the light on your subject.

Bethlehem Steel Mill

By Ken Hubbard

At one time the Bethlehem Steel Mill was the second largest steel producing company in the United States. The steel produced from this plant was used in the construction of the Golden Gate & George Washington Bridges, as well as buildings such as Chrysler Building, Madison Square Garden, Rockefeller Center and Alcatraz Island. It was also used to build parts of The Hoover Dam. This once amazing and mighty symbol of U.S. manufacturing operated from the mid 1850's to the early 2000's and was also one of the world's leading ship builders as well.

Today, there is an amazing revitalization to downtown Bethlehem and the Steel Stacks area. A contemporary performing arts center, called the ArtsQuest Center, and the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem have been already built on the site while the 5 blast furnaces have been left standing and serve as the lasting reminder to a forgotten time and a backdrop to the Levitt Pavilion which hosts concerts and shows.

The images I have posted were taken on a very clear and chilly late afternoon where the light got better and better as we walked around the grounds and tried to stay warm. You can see the change in color of light in the images below. The image on the left has a blueish cast and then only 20 minutes later you can see the warmth the setting sun casts upon the furnace stacks. It is difficult to keep straight lines when photographing such tall structures, especially when you are close and using a wide angle lens. To keep the lines straight on the stacks I shoot from further away and with a more telephoto lens (Tamron 28-300mm Di VC @ 150mm), this keeps the angle of your lens more parallel to the stacks and thus straighter in your image.

The image above is all about texture and colors. The yellow gold reflections of the setting sun in the windows against the deep blue fire escape. All three images were taken with Tamron's AF28-300mm zoom lens.

South Platte Moon Shot

By Rob Moody

One of the things that used to frustrate me about nature photography was that whenever a picture included the moon, it was always washed out. To me, having the moon in a landscape adds interest and balance to the composition. Ironically, many people think you added the moon in a computer when it is properly exposed in your image.

While you can just show up anytime and hope for the best, for optimum results plan in advance to shoot images of the moon with a little knowledge beforehand. Look up the moon phase on your computer or smart phone, there is an app for that. You may have noticed that you can see the moon in the sky during daylight hours. This only happens during certain parts of the year. Sometimes it’s in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon. Furthermore, with programs like Google Earth, you can determine the path of the moon and the sun in the landscape. This helps you to determine the location and the time that will give you the best chance at getting the shot.

I’m often asked what settings I use in the camera to do this. The answer is the same settings I use for the landscape. The trick to making this easier is changing your thinking about a picture of the moon. It’s easy to think that you have to expose for the moon and that it’s complicated. However, the solution is to shoot the moon in the landscape when they are both in the same light. Notice in the images included that the same value of light is falling on the landscape, rocks and the moon. When this is happening, I shoot several images in various compositions.

The time of day is key because there is a limited time that both the landscape and the moon will be close together in exposure value. It’s best to show up an hour before you think will be the right time for insurance. This is where homework on the computer saves time and enables better results. As you move further away from this key time window, the exposure becomes more about the moon and less about the landscape limiting the types of images you can create. That doesn’t mean you have to quit shooting, you just have to change your exposure if you want detail in the moon instead of a bright blob. I have found that after the key time window has closed, changing my plan to silhouettes in the foreground with a properly exposed moon creates compelling images.

This is where photography can be more difficult to understand and knowledge of how your camera obtains exposure readings can be a plus. Using full or whole screen metering will result in an over-exposed moon because your camera is considering more of the landscape for the exposure and less of the moon. Using spot metering on the moon can be difficult because it’s challenging to put the spot meter on the moon and even when you can, you usually still have to compensate for over or under exposure of the moon. Therefore, while there are several ways to arrive in the same place with a camera, I have found that using center-weighted metering in combination with over/under exposure compensation quickly gets me the images I’m after. I take the first shot like a Polaroid and analyze it. Then I over or under compensate to dial in the exposure of the moon. Once I have it dialed in, I shoot several images in various compositions.

For best results, I use a tripod. If reflections in water are in the image, I use a hot-shoe bubble level to level the camera. A hot-shoe bubble level is better than a bubble level on the tripod for landscape photography because it can be used to level the camera no matter how the tripod is positioned. If you don’t own a cable release or a remote yet, use your cameras self-timer to release the shutter. Use a circular polarizer to remove any unwanted reflection from the scene.

These images were taken in the South Platte River area of Colorado using a Tamron 18-270mm VC PZD lens. This is a great place to photograph during the winter months and it is close to Denver. From a pebble to as big as a stadium, the size and the quantity of rocks in this area will amaze you. With over 310 days of sunshine every year, it seems the sky is always blue around here.

Shooting Ice Abstracts In Streams

By Mike Moats

With the above average temps that we have been having here in Michigan, the stream ice is about five weeks late, but better late then never. I always look forward to shooting the ice as it is my time to shoot abstracts. I've mentioned in the past that the abstract don't sell, but I like them and it's just fun being out in the woods. Here is a nice shot of the stream and how I set up at the edge to shoot. 

My camera is the Nikon D7000.

For these long shots where you need to reach out, use your Tamron 180 macro.

 

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This first image was shot in the area you see me in above.

If I'm shooting out into the ice a ways, I will be at an angle that sometimes needs a little extra depth of field, so I will set the f-stop at f/16. With all these cool details, you want to get it all in focus.

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Found another nice group of patterns.

If I can get the lens fairly parallel with the ice, I will set the f/stop at f/8.

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And here is the shot.

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Here are a few more from this shoot.

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I like when I find bubbles.

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The Creole Plantation Named Laura

By Ken Hubbard

Bourbon Street, beignets with chicory coffee, crawfish, Jazz music and oh those hurricanes at Pat O'Briens! They are all classic visions of the wonderful city that is New Orleans, but there is so much more to experience when you take a trip down to the Big Easy. NOLA is a city that explodes upon every sense of your body with the taste of the food, sounds of the music, sights of multicolored buildings, the smell of Cajun spices & vibrant heat upon your skin. This southern city is an amazingly complex mixture of cultures & beliefs that is rich with history. I am lucky enough to travel down to this bend in the Mississippi river every year, and to see some good friends and to experience all that makes up New Orleans.

One piece of advice from someone who has been to New Orleans a number of times, please don't spend all of your time on Bourbon Street, get out of the french quarter and experience all that New Orleans has to offer. For me, one of the areas I love to visit is St. James Parish and the plantations along River Road. On my last trip to the Crescent City I was able to take a very quick trip out to a plantation that I have wanted to visit for a number of years. It's name is Laura, and it is a true Creole Plantation with a uncompromising historical tour of its past. It is hard to describe in a short newsletter, the vast history of this amazing plantation, just know you are getting a real account of the history of the area and what really happened on these plantations. For more information please visit their website at www.lauraplantation.com

So, now for the images, and how to create good images while on a guided tour that lasts 1 1/2hrs and does not allow you to walk around on your own. For me, it's about preparation and keeping my gear down to a minimum. On this visit I brought one camera body and two lenses, a Tamron 18-270mm VC PZD and a Tamron SP 10-24mm Di II and in the end I only used one lens, the 18-270mm, you move around the property too quickly to be worrying about changing lenses . Starting with the outside of the building, I usually start with wide angle shots of the entire building, shooting it straight on and then at different angles. I then start to zoom in on specific features of the exterior, taking tighter and tighter images. It's a process I use consistently to make sure I get a variety of images at different focal lengths, start wide then zoom in. Once you go inside, images become tougher because the quarters are tight, people walk in your frame and lighting is usually dark and changes from room to room. Shooting in aperture priority will be the easiest way to capture good exposures and controlling your depth of field. Try to shoot at at least F/11 so your foregrounds and backgrounds are in focus, even if this means bumping your ISO up to 800. Make sure your lenses Vibration Compensation is turned on, even with these settings chances are you will have some slow shutter speeds. Stay to the back of the pack and take a few test shots while the guide is speaking and get your framing and exposures down. Once the guide and main group move on to the next room, you should be ready and able to quickly capture images while the room is empty and not fall too far behind. Pay attention to the lines in your frames as well, for example the bed posts in the image below. Try to keep them as straight as possible in your frame, I use the edges of the frame to line them up, you should also turn on the grid feature in your viewfinder. Remember to look at the small details as well, such as the kneeling bench and small cross image below. Capturing only the kneeling bench without the cross in the frame, leaves you without a reference to what it was actually used for. Lastly, the best way to be courteous and not be a distraction to all others and the guide, is to stay in the back of the group even if this means falling a little behind.

Brook Forest Backlight

by Rob Moody

I really enjoy the mountains and the forest. Whether it is on skis, snowshoes or on foot, there is something mystical about hiking through it on a crisp winter day. I often marvel at the way the sunlight looks through the trees as it paints its path. Late in the afternoon a few days ago, I drove to a close by trail near Brook Forest, Colorado to take a hike. I always bring a tripod when I intend to shoot in the forest. While it seems bright as you hike along, it’s amazing how dark it is when you shoot into the trees.

For me, there is something compelling about the challenge of shooting into the sun. This is probably because I was always taught not to do it by my father and eventually teachers as I grew up. Just like touching your tongue to a freezing metal light post outside in the winter, I had to try it at least once. While I found out the hard way that others were right most of the time, today I still shoot into the sun.

Here are a few things to think about while shooting. Blocking the sun out entirely with part of a branch or trunk can be compelling. Partially blocking the sun can also be interesting. If you want the direct sun to be more like a star burst, use higher f-stops or close down your aperture. If your color is getting messed up, use daylight white balance. Use your over/under exposure compensation to dial it in. Make sure to set the over/under exposure compensation back to 0.0 afterwards.

If you haven’t tried this before, consider it. The worst thing that can happen is you have to delete the image. It’s a lot of fun, especially when you get a really good one. Good shooting. Both images were created using a Tamron 18-270 VC PZD.