Camera Exercises

[CG415]

Thanks Pat,

These will deffinetly give me something to work from. Now I just need to find some flowing water here in North Florida. I thinking about coming up with something that with let me practice here at the house. Garden hose, some rocks, and maybe a wash tub of some sort. I'll get it figured out.

Thanks for your help,

Chirs

[bob_r]

Chris,

There's a book that I just finished by Freeman Patterson called "Photographing the World Around You" that you would probably find helpful. Part of it explains visual design concepts, but it is also written as a workshop with various assignments.

It doesn't focus on any one aspect of photography such as landscapes or people, but includes many different types of photography and includes some very interesting excercises.

Just as an example, one of them was to roll a hulla hoop and then take 20 images of things within the hulla hoop and then to step into the hulla hoop and take 20 images of things outside of it. It makes you examine things that you normally wouldn't and from different perspectives.

Bob R

[Bonish Photo]

Chris, check out the Hurricane Lake area, and the Black River. They are both in the Northern Florida Panhandle area and are beautiful!

Another cool thing to do is long exposures of the waves, it really makes them look wild and was one of the things I used to love to experiment with when I lived in South Florida where there was no flowing water to speak of.

Long exposures near a pier on a foggy morning can look really cool!

[CG415]

Pat and Bob,

Thanks for the suggestions! I will deffinetly check out the book, and I am planning a trip one Saturday or Sunday up the Oclawaha River right here at Palatka. I am also interesting in the other two places that you suggested.

Thanks,

Chris

[Mstee4eva]

This is to Bonish Photo, Would you happen to know the name of that rest stop in NC? I live in NC and would love to get a shot of that.

[Bonish Photo]

I cant remember the exact road it was on. We were staying in Ashville and were driving around looking for some of the bigger ones that you had to hike to when we drove past this.

http://www.romanticasheville.com/waterfalls.htm

http://www.ncwaterfalls.com/links2.htm

Those links show a few cool ones in the area. I know we were within a half hour of Ashville and were on our way to one of the big ones that are well known, and that one wasnt on any of the maps our hotel had given us.

Good luck, that area is amazing when it comes to waterfalls!!

[Mstee4eva]

I am going to try and get to some of them when it gets a lil warmer will post as soon as I do, thanks again.

[Walczak Photo]

Hey Chris,
Another quick suggestion or two on the long exposure/water shots...

Along with using a polarizer and/or neutral density filter, first of all make sure you're using a smaller aperture as well (I didn't notice if anyone mentioned that or not). If you're shooting "wide open", even with a neutral density filter, you can still over-expose your shots. In fact, I've gotten a couple of silk shots of water falls on overcast days without using an ND filter just by bumping the aperture up.




This shot of Wallace Lake Falls (also in Berea) was taken with my old Olympus C-4000 p&s. I was able to get a 4 second exposure on this just by using a polarizer and bumping the aperture up to it's minimum setting (f/22 I think...it's been a few years and I don't even have that camera any more). I probably would not have been able to get this shot on a bright sunny day, but cloudy and overcast were just enough to get a longer exposure. I'm very proud of this shot if for no other reason than that this was the shot that everyone said I couldn't do without a ND filter...and I did. I just love proving people wrong .


Now here's another nifty little trick...in lieu of having an ND filter, try shooting around or just after sunset! Very simply, as the sun goes down, you'll need to use longer and longer shutter speeds to get the proper exposure...and it tends to make for some rather surreal colors and such to boot.

Here's one I took that was actually well after sunset...



This was shot at Berea Falls up here in Ohio and was taken well after dark. The only ambient light came from a couple of street lights up at the top of the hill over-looking the falls (hence the orange hue). This was shot at f/7.1, ISO 800 with a 10 second shutter speed...yes those people sat that still for that long! LOL!!! Another advantage of shooting after dark (in my opinion at least) is that you don't have to worry about the angle of the sun or anything...hard light, soft light, morning light, evening light, etc., because...well...there is no sun! I guess one could say that in this case, a good way to get a nice even lighting is to not use any at all! LOL!!!!!!!

Another little tip here...if your shooting digital (sorry...can't remember), don't be afraid to experiment. Try different shutter speeds and apertures and as you review your photos on the camera, you'll get an idea of what's working and what's not. Do remember though that if you do try this at night, that images on a camera LCD will look "brighter" on that LCD at night then they actually are and will end up looking a little under exposed when you get them home on the computer.

I kind of hate to admit it, but this is usually my aproach...I'll shoot a couple of "test shots" and let the conditions dictate my exposure settings (both at night and during the day time as well). I'm sure somewhere there is a precise mathematical formula for determining the precise exposure settings for a given light meter reading in this kind of situation, but for me it's just easier to "play with it a bit" until I get what I'm looking for...after all, the water fall isn't going anywhere! LOL!!! Unlike trying to shoot animals where "the perfect shot" may pass at a moments notice, in this kind of situation you can take your time and play with things a little until you have it just right.

Now a quick safety tip here...if you do try this "at night", first and foremost make sure you are familiar with the surrounding area and that you KNOW how to get back out when you're done shooting! If you're not an experienced night time hiker, it's very easy to get lost even if you do know the area well. I mention this because sometimes even us folks who have been doing this for a while can have accidents...these are the exact same falls in the photo where I fell thru the ice a couple of months ago! I do know this area very well, but sometimes sh*t happens when you get careless. Of course, make sure you bring a flash light to boot...and make sure the freakin batteries are charged! I've had that happen too...once on a night time hike with my wife out at Findley State Park, our flashlight batteries went dead about half way thru the hike and we ended up finding our way back to the car in pitch blackness. I'm not kidding either...moonless night in the woods and we literally could only see 2 or 3 feet in front of us. Fortunately, we had our dogs with us, so we just told them to find the car and we followed them...if it hadn't of been for the dogs, we'd probably have ended up spending the night in the woods. Again this was at an area that my wife and I have been to many times. Things change after dark and it's really easy to get disoriented very quickly.

With that said, shooting water/falls after dark (or just before dawn if your a morning person) is a great way to get those real "silky" shots without having to invest in an ND filter.

Peace,
Jim

[CG415]

Thanks Pat and Jim for all of your help. While I was at my mother-in-laws house over the weekend I was playing around with some long exposures. She has a couple of fountains and at night I would go turn them on and shoot some just to get out of the house.

I promise I am going to post some pics before to long but my computer is going stupid on me and I haven't had time to work on it to much. But just so you know I am practicing!

Jim, I know what it feels like to try and find your way back to the car in the pitch black. As an avid hunter there has been many a time that we have either been coming out of the swamps, and woods in the darkest of nights.

This is to everyone that has posted on here. Thank you very much for the help that you have been giving us newbies. With out your knowledge I don't think that I would have improved my shooting as much as I have. Again thank you and I hope that I can help a beginner in a few years the way that y'all have helped me!

Thanks and Peace,

Chris

[Photography~girl~]

I really need to check all threads/topics on this forum. Went a whole month without even seeing this thread. Hahaha. anywho! I think its great and i believe i shall put some of the advice given to Chris into action. (though i dunno if i'll start the flowing water yet...isn't it a good idea to have a tri-pod for that? wonder if a table would work...hmm.)
I liked Pat's advice in his first post - about taking a picture of the same 'theme' all week or until you get a "WOW" shot...it went something like that anyway. lol.
anywho! thanks chris for making a thread like this! And for everyones comments. I want to learn everything i possibly can about photography so i can take those "wow" shots more often.
now i shall go off and find my first vict- i mean, subject.
a.k

[Walczak Photo]

I really need to check all threads/topics on this forum. Went a whole month without even seeing this thread. Hahaha. anywho! I think its great and i believe i shall put some of the advice given to Chris into action. (though i dunno if i'll start the flowing water yet...isn't it a good idea to have a tri-pod for that? wonder if a table would work...hmm.)
I liked Pat's advice in his first post - about taking a picture of the same 'theme' all week or until you get a "WOW" shot...it went something like that anyway. lol.
anywho! thanks chris for making a thread like this! And for everyones comments. I want to learn everything i possibly can about photography so i can take those "wow" shots more often.
now i shall go off and find my first vict- i mean, subject.
a.k

Dude...don't worry about missing this thread. If you look at the date, the last post was almost a year ago and certainly before you even joined the forum! LOL!!! It just got trudged up to the top by a fly by spamming...happens around here occasionally!

L8r,
Jim

[Photography~girl~]

I really need to check all threads/topics on this forum. Went a whole month without even seeing this thread. Hahaha. anywho! I think its great and i believe i shall put some of the advice given to Chris into action. (though i dunno if i'll start the flowing water yet...isn't it a good idea to have a tri-pod for that? wonder if a table would work...hmm.)
I liked Pat's advice in his first post - about taking a picture of the same 'theme' all week or until you get a "WOW" shot...it went something like that anyway. lol.
anywho! thanks chris for making a thread like this! And for everyones comments. I want to learn everything i possibly can about photography so i can take those "wow" shots more often.
now i shall go off and find my first vict- i mean, subject.
a.k

Dude...don't worry about missing this thread. If you look at the date, the last post was almost a year ago and certainly before you even joined the forum! LOL!!! It just got trudged up to the top by a fly by spamming...happens around here occasionally!

L8r,
Jim

hahaha. and i just looked at the month and day. for once...i'm happy with the spam - found great thread! lol.

[diglloyd]

Hello all!
I want to know if any of the more experianced people out there can give us beginners some exercises, practice tips, or something like a weekly lesson that we may take part in, in order to start advancing in the world of photography?

Here are some tips/challenges:
http://diglloyd.com/diglloyd/2008-11-bl ... ipFastLens

[Graham Owen]

This is a great topic. Whenever I buy a new lens, I set up a small white table in the middle of my back yard, put a small ball on it, and start, by seeing what the limit is on close focus abilities. I’ll take shots at every aperture available, then move away a couple of feet (less with a macro lens), take the series of shots over again, and keep working further away from the table, until my back hits the wall. Later I study all of the photos and metadata, examining DoF, bokeh, and if things stand out, I’ll take notes. Sometimes I confuse myself, which I actually enjoy…lol.. because it’s usually things I found to be interesting, such as, my 200 Nikkor macro lens, which I love dearly, and use for wildflowers. If I stop down more than f/22, more of the scene comes into focus, but to me, the DoF is reduced, because the scene becomes flatter. If I stop down to f/40, pretty much everything is sharp, but small background objects appear next to, or sometimes even appear to be in front of the main subject. I practiced this with a fake grasshopper on a fern leaf, was interesting to see the focus differences at different distances and apertures, but little fern berries six inches behind the grasshopper, off to the side, look like they are hanging parallel to or in front of the grasshopper when fully stopped down. Very strange, and I keep this in mind while doing macro flower photography.

Graham