Camera Basics 101: ISO

ISO is a very basic setting, that should be considered one of the top settings you will need to regularly adjust.  With digital cameras, the ISO pertains to how sensitive the sensor is to light.  The higher the ISO, the more sensitive the sensor will be and the brighter the image.  However, higher ISO's will introduce more noise.  Noise is the added grain that can ruin the sharpness and soften the image.

In the day's of film, ISO pertained to the film's sensitivity.  It used to be that you would have to change a roll of film to get a different sensitivity.

So how do you know which ISO to choose for an image?  Look at your content.

Noisy Image at ISO 3200 captured with Nikon D50

Camera Basics 101: Aperture Explained

Aperture is a fairly simple concept to understand, and once you know the basics of it, you are well on your way to capturing the images you want to create.  The aperture that you set determines how wide open your lens is and how much light can get in.  A smaller aperture therefore needs a longer exposure to capture light than a larger one.

The numbers are backwards from what you might think, much like golf.  If your number is smaller, your aperture is larger and more open, letting more light in at once.  If the number is higher, the more closed and smaller your aperture.  Inside your lens there is a series of blades that come closer together or spread out more depending on these numbers.

f/1.8

Anatomy of an Image #2

This image is actually very simple to setup and make.  The first and most important detail, is to find a corner that has fairly good natural light on it.  You can tell by the shadow under the biker that the sun is providing a lot of light for the image, and that it was captured towards the middle of the day.  To freeze the action, I set my camera up to it's highest sync without going into FP sync mode.  This way I have more power to work with from the strobe, which in the case of this shot, is a Nikon SB-800 powered by a quantum battery pack for super fast recycle times.  The flash is placed just out of the left side of the frame, and because I knew the rider would be leaning inwards, is set on the ground.  If you raise the flash, you lose some of the accent lighting on the bike frame, and right leg of the athlete.  It was also placed low, since I was shooting at almost ground level.   The closer you get to the action, at a lower angle, the more aggressive a biking shot will become.  Set the flash at about 1/4 power to blend well with the pre-existing natural light.  I also put it far enough in front of the rider, to catch and light his eyes.  For midday, the lighting is already harsh, so throw the flash zoom at about 70mm or more, to give it more punch.  Send the rider through once and test your light output.  You can also have the rider stand on the corner and test.  Pre-focus on the spot where the rider looked most aggressive and tilted before each shot.

This shot was captured at ISO 125 with an aperture of f/5.6.  It helps secure focus, and darkens the background to shoot with the aperture a little more closed.

Thanks to Kyle Green for hiking a bit to get the shot.

Moving into a new neighborhood with a bang!

Come on Vail Police, is three officers the best you have??!!  Your going to need more than that to take Daniel and I out of business!  (At least that's what I would have said if I was more of a badass).


I had just finished moving into my new neighborhood on Saturday evening.  Sunday I needed a shot of myself with my LumiQuest gear for an upcoming ad campaign.  Luckily I had an idea for a location that was just outside my apartments window, under a bridge.  My friend Daniel Milchev (Check out his AMAZING work at www.photovenom.com) was on hand to help capture the photo.  We walked over to the bridge around 9 PM last night with two LumiQuest Softbox III's (For soft even light that allows me to look beautiful) on Nikon Sb-800's, and a LumiQuest FXtra gel pack (For creating a red light on the wall behind me) on a Nikon Sb-600.   We captured the shots using the Nikon Creative Lighting System which allows settings for flashes to be changed in camera, and automatically determines the necessary amount of light for each flash group.


When we arrived at the location, we immediately noticed the wall covered in graffiti.  This would make a  great backdrop for the shot!  I stepped into position, holding the Softboxs in each hand, and with the gel on a flash right next to and behind me.  Daniel controlled camera and flash settings, and was shooting my Nikon D300 with the 50mm Nikkor 1.8D (One of the sharpest, cheapest lens you can buy).  


We decided that we were almost done and were going to shoot 1-2 more shots just as a precaution, when the shoot took an interesting turn.  Two flashlights came peaking around the corners under the bridge, and a loud "POLICE" was yelled at us.  Though this may be shocking the first time it happens, I'm fairly used to it by now due to shooting urban skiing on rails at night.  The police had received a call from one of my new neighbors (thank you whoever you are, now everyone will know me as the troublemaker).   Daniel and I had to leave the location, and carry the flashes up to meet with the police.  By this time there were three squad cars and officers because it must have been a slow night.  Or maybe because other photographers were out and they had the whole force on looking for those troublemakers. The officers ran our ID's (thankfully no warrants out for me or Daniel).  And told us that this looked suspicious.  They also checked for spray paint cans because they believed we had painted the graffiti.  We were drilled with questions and were asked repeatedly why we would be shooting under a bridge. Finally they left, and we called it a night.  Today I will probably meet my neighbors, and hopefully they will know me already from my reputation due to the "Grand Entrance"!

Senior Portraits, Moving to a new place, running business, sales.... soo much to do so little time!

(Note: ALL IMAGES ARE UNEDITED AND NOT RETOUCHED AS OF NOW)

I Know that my posts have been lacking lately.... but I will tell myself right now that it is OK because I am so busy.   Saying that will at least let me sleep tonight (can't disappoint my fans!).  The last two nights I've been shooting a couple of senior portraits.  When I went out to capture these shots, I decided that I wanted some traditional, and some very unique shots.  My results are posted above.  Going out to shoot, there was no set location, and we drove to places I believed might be good at this time.  Normally, I like to have gone out and scouted everything in advance, but this is not a perfect world....  I used my Alienbees B1600 lights, a 32"x40" softbox, and some lastolite trigrip diffusers and reflectors.  If the sun was shining on the subjects face, I would place the softbox to the side that needed the largest boost.  This is known as fill light, and helps even the lighting and get rid of harsh shadows.  I would get more into the technical details, but I will save that until I have more time!  Look for more posts on this subject soon and enjoy these shots.  Any comments or feedback is greatly appreciated and can be posted by clicking the link at the bottom of this post.  Now it's time for me to get back to packing, and editing!

Camera Basics 101: Shooting RAW

(If you've just arrived for the first time at All Photo Buzz, there is an index on the right side that will allow you to look at only the articles that interest you.  There is a LOT of free information here, so take some time and look around.)


I remember when I first started shooting.  The camera arrived at my house, and I had no idea where it would honestly take me!  About 4-5 years has passed since that day, and I still feel there are a million more things for me to learn.  Today, shooting in RAW format almost all the time is the most important lesson for my career.  Almost every commercial client is looking for either a RAW file straight from the camera, or a TIF file after being edited in photoshop.  


When you shoot in JPEG, your camera automatically makes all the editing calls. It adjusts the exposure, shadow brightness, highlight darkness, curves, sharpening, and many others.  Then it compresses the image down by saving only a few details in similar areas.


This can be great for those shoots where the client doesn't require the highest quality images, and for shoots that involve repetition.  If I'm shooting a bike race to sell images directly to the racers, I will shoot in a mode that records a RAW file and a JPEG.  This way I can get the photos online for sale as soon as I am home.  If the JPEG doesn't look right, I can still open the RAW file and do my own edit.


The rest of the time I am ALWAYS shooting in RAW mode.  One day several years back, I received a call from Powder Magazine.  They were interested in using one of the photos I had submitted!  The file was originally a JPEG, that I had upscaled(never do this!!!) to a TIF file to meet their submittal requirements.  The editor asked that I send him a RAW file.  When he heard that the original was  a JPEG, he almost instantly turned down the image. I sent him the actual JPEG, and he realized that I had done a lot of editing to make it look like what he was seeing.  


It's extremely disappointing to lose a sale simply because you didn't know any better, although I'm sure this happens to everyone at some point in their early career.  Think of a RAW file as an untouched image.  The file is still full size, and has the capacity for a lot of editing.  It's also far more forgiving if your original is over or under exposed.  If you are becoming serious and still shooting JPEG all the time, switch the file setting in your camera to RAW now.  Through all the control you gain and potential for MANY more sales, you will never look back again!


Remember:  All RAW files require some degree of editing.  They will generally lack contrast when you first open them, and will always need some degree of sharpening.  They are also very large files, so get a large external hard drive.  Once you learn to edit them however, you will never want to shoot any other way.

Spontaneous shopping cart shoot

8 PM: Model arrives, no image is planned, lets brainstorm!

8:30 PM: Driving around using headlights looking for random location.

8:35 PM: Decided on shot! Shopping cart in the woods with model asleep and posing in it!

From here, we had to decide the best way to "borrow" a shopping cart from the grocery store. This involved dropping the model off, having him take a cart around back, driving to the road up a hill behind the store, and hiking up it with the cart. For future reference, metal shopping carts are freaking heavy and awkward to load on top of a Toyota Corolla's bike rack. Without bungie cords we managed to strap it down with the bike tire straps. Surprisingly no damage was done to my car, and the cart barely moved.

I knew a 4wd road nearby that we could access via back roads so as not to be stopped by the police(they would not understand that we were just borrowing the cart). The road was definitely not meant for a corolla, but we managed to get pretty far up it, and shoot with the cart.

For these shots, I used 2 nikon SB-800's on the sides, my Quantum Battery packs, a Lumiquest Softbox III on the right, and a Lastolite Trigrip Diffuser, and silver panel on the left. I would set the camera on self timer, then run and hold the trigrips. For most of the shots I fired at ISO 100, F/4.5, and a shutter speed of 1/50th. The temperature was in the upper 40's Fahrenheit, so the shoot did not last too long. Not bad for a random night with no plan whatsoever! My advice from this shoot: It's better to go out and shoot with no plan at all, than to forget the shoot altogether. Also, look everywhere for props and unique locations! This shoot was finished by 10:30 PM, and the cart was safely delivered back to the store. Gotta love free props!

One more note: The images above are all unedited RAW files(I will be editing and updating them soon!)