[thechat] Digicam advice

[Martin Burns]

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On 23 Jul 2004, at 21:21, Luther, Ron wrote:

> Anyway, to piggyback onto
> that tip for a second ... if you can guess how far away your subject  
> will
> be when you want to take the picture, then you can prepare in advance  
> by
> focusing on a tree or a skinny gal's behind at that same distance to
> "lock" the focus. This trick works well at sporting events that have a
> finish line or to let you already be in focus at the apex of the corner
> and waiting for that car to come drifting into the viewfinder ...  
> sometimes
> it even works with taking pictures of kids.]

Evidence:
http://www.easyweb.co.uk/photos/family/morgan/summer_2004/ 
photoalbum_photo_view?b_start=7

f4.5, 1/500s. Short shutter speed, wide aperture, so a fairly shallow  
depth of field. Lens zoom set to 37mm, which helps somewhat, but even  
so, if you miss your focus point, you're stuffed.

> Light:
> It's all about the light, dude!
>
> {An award winning outdoor photographer once told me: (Okay, he probably
> told me several times cuz I can be kinda hard-headed.) "Put your camera
> away between 10am and 2pm.  If you want a dramatic outdoor shot you  
> *have*
> to have low angle light. That means early in the day or late in the day
> when the sun is low in the sky.  Midday sun causes harsh shadows that
> give you crappy pictures."  More on why that's relevant in a flash.  
> (Heh.)

http://www.easyweb.co.uk/photos/family/ruaridh/summer_2004/ 
photoalbum_photo_view?b_start=10

Check the timestamp...

At that time in the evening (assume sunshine), most of our garden is in  
shade, but you've got two light sources:
1) The blue sky above, with a very, very high colour temperature. Tip:  
if you're taking pics in the shade under a blue sky, colour correct  
very strongly away from blue! A Skylight filter is a good place to  
start, or you can add a low-opacity pink layer in Photoshop to give the  
same effect. A number of digicams let you specify the colour  
correction, rather than just auto-guessing it. Mine (Canon D10) does,  
and it also lets you specify the *exact* colour temp in K. Swweeeet.  
For this shot I'm using the standard 'in shadow' correction

2) The reflections back off our house. Our house is finished with a  
fine cream coloured pebbledash, which acts as *the* perfect reflector  
for evening light. It's a big gold thing the size of a house!

Reflector also in play here:
http://www.easyweb.co.uk/photos/family/morgan/summer_2004/ 
photoalbum_photo_view?b_start=8
balancing out the direct sunlight

Cheers
Martin
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