Last Saturday, Jason, Jerry and I decided to hit the stations for Halloween. At first, we chose the Canada Line for its tunnels, but were quickly disheartened after officers told us tripods were not permitted on the platform. We then switched to the Expo Line, where we spent a lengthy amount of time at Chinatown trying to get the shot. In a sudden change of attitude we transferred back onto the Canada Line to get to the airport for sunset. Our original plan was to get to a runway and shoot planes landing, unfortunately we picked the wrong runway! Since the two were about half an hour apart (walking), we couldn't make it to the other runway before sunset, so we settled for the Sea Island Skytrain Station as our spot to shoot (this later turned out to be an expensive decision...) However, this turned out for the best, as an array of planes trains and automobiles were all visible in front of the glowing sun. What a way to spend Halloween! For more photos of our adventure, check out my Flickr:
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I continually strive to perfect my art and one thing that I think is really important when photographing nature and landscapes is including the sun. There are many ways to capture the sun, but I find the cleanest way possible is a sunburst (or sunstar) effect. To achieve this there are 3 main components that need to be taken care of. First, you need a lens with an odd number of aperture blades, since the number of blades determines how many bursts you get. With an odd number, you double the amount you can get (e.g: 9 & 18), whereas with an even number of blades you are stuck with that number (e.g: 6 & 6 bursts). After, you dial in a small aperture, I find values anywhere from f/11 to f/16 work well (anything over f/16 can compromise sharpness due to diffraction, especially on APS-C sized sensors). Finally, you want an object partially blocking the sun so the rays are present for the camera to pick up, if there are no objects in the way, you can always use the corner of your frame. And voila, a nice sunburst should appear on your LCD screen. Oh, and a UV filter works well too. :) For this post, I concentrated on the characteristics of Autumn. Like most people the first thing that came to my mind was leaves! So on Saturday, I hiked up (really high) some of my local creeks, and I got up far enough to catch a waterfall just before the downpour. Using luminosity masks (mentioned 2 posts ago), I blended two exposures: one for the water and one for the general scene. The other two images of the series were shot today on a macro lens, which is quickly becoming my favourite. Using a tripod for stability, I was able to focus on the water droplets and fire away worry free. This is one of my most satisfying posts as I feel like these photos represent my artistic ability alongside my technical ability. -RN What better way to spend your weekday evenings than edit your summertime photos? Answer: There is none! For this image I applied many masks to selective edit certain points in the composition. For example, I used the dodge and burn tool on the cathedral to enhance contrast, whereas I decreased contrast on the outer buildings. I adjusted the high pass filter and unsharp mask to ensure maximum sharpness (even though I was using a prime lens). I then increased vibrancy to make the colours ¨pop¨, which concludes this edit. Maybe I should start a series on before and after images, I like the look. -RN A simple image of some geese flying by the Burrard Bridge. Using 1/25 shutter, I quickly panned (handheld) and hoped for the best! The light was not perfect, but I was shooting in the early morning, so I could use a sharp aperture and relatively low ISO. This should probably be a technique I should work on :) -RN I recently read a blog post written by a favourite photographer of mine, Matt Donovan (itsworthashot.com). He says he uses luminosity masks to blend many exposures together, enhancing the overall dynamic range of an image. So on Sunday, when I was up on Grouse (where else?!), I decided to use his technique: I took two shots (one -1 EV; one +1 EV) and later I blended the two together manually to give a more complementary look to the scene. -RN I'll try to keep this short: In general, I was on the mountain way ahead of time (scouting or good spots, away from light pollution). I used a very handy tool to predict the exact spot of the moon rising (photoephemeris) and stood waiting patiently. My goal was to get a time- lapse effect in a single frame and looking back on my work I'm pretty satisfied. I know I pushed my camera to its limits (it has a very bad high ISO performance), so it was never meant to be used for astrophotography, that aside it was a good shoot. :) -RN For this shoot, I tried to go a little unconventional. I was directed to take a shot(s) of a place that I can shoot cliche/non-cliche. I then realised that every time I go to the city, I pass through a photo goldmine: the skytrain! My first composition was a simple photo of a parked train with people (un)loading, there's nothing wrong with it, but its a common way to shoot the station. For my second piece, I wanted to get up close and personal to the train, I set up the tripod and dialed in my settings (ISO:100, f/11, 13 sec) and fired away. Immediately I got more desirable, original results, and just in time too! A security guard approached me shortly afterwards, warning me that tripods were not permitted on the skytrain platform. But as Daniel Kerfoot says; you gotta risk it for the biscuit :p -RN Based on the works of Luigi B. I was inspired to shoot some still life. The photo below was captured on a smartphone and was quickly edited in photoshop. After looking at Luigi's art, I saw some general similarities between all of his work; they all had a dominant colour and a straight focal point. Overall, I think it mimics Luigi's work.
For this mini-shoot I stuck to a 16x9 crop, limiting my the amount of elements I could use in my composition. I took two photos, one with the dog in the middle and one with him on the right hand side. Personally, I prefer the second one, as the cushion can be used as a leading line to the subject, this is a perfect example of how the Rule of Thirds (or symmetry, asymmetry) can be used to enhance a photo |
Ryan NealeWildlife enthusiast, global nomad. Archives
October 2016
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