Characteristics of a Great Image

I did not know if I was supposed to go out and take photos of what a "Great Image" should be and since I have been sick, I have not had that luxury. I also do not know if I have taken a "great" photo myself. Instead, there is a photo website called 1x.com that I have used for a long time. This site is a very good site in terms of what good photos should be. This site has very high restrictions of what can be posted, and unless you have an eye catching photo, it will not be posted. By looking through these photos, it is easy to obtain what a good photo should be.

1x.com

Guitar!

I decided to photograph my electric guitar the other week. I edited them quite a bit and did some more abstract things with them. I didnt really have a specific photo that I wanted to take, but I wanted to try something different. There have been so many shots of guitars, there seems like there are only so many things that you can capture, but I tried to do my best to be original.

Exposure

The photos in this blog show what different shutter speeds, ISOs and apertures look like. All the photos are untouched except for the white balance.

Shutter

The first two photos are a fast shutter speed and slow shutter speed. These were shot without a flash and with a desk lamp on right behind them.

60mm, 1/200sec @ f/11, iso 400

60mm, 1/30sec @ f/13, iso 200

Aperture

The next two photos demonstrate depth of field with different apertures. For some reason, my aperture on my lens would only open up to f/3.3. These were shot in relatively low light with just a table lamp on a few feet away. No Flash.

(Left)- 60mm, 1/2 sec @ f/20, iso 500

(Right)- 60mm, 1/20sec @ f/3.3, iso 500

ISO

These last two shots demonstrate ISO. The photos are taken in relatively low light once again with just a table lamp on in the room. The split section on the bottom shows the two images cropped at (1:1) 100%. This shows what the ISO actually does, because the normal pictures are fairly similar unless really looked at closer.

(Left)-60mm, 1/40sec @ f/3.3, iso 1600

(Right)-60mm, 1/2sec @ f/3.3, iso 100

The left photo shows a much grainier photo when cropped at 1:1. The right photo is more creamy and smooth.

Lazy EL Ranch

This past weekend, I went out to my fathers to the Lazy EL Ranch in Roscoe, MT. The weather warmed up just enough for us to go on a 15 minute walk, which by the end was freezing!! While out there I was able to photograph some horses and the landscape. The lighting was good for a bit and I feel some of these photos came out really well. I have been out there so many times, but have never taken many photos of the horses. This is a magical place, and being able to photograph it is very fun.

Trail Running

After resetting my camera and adding new firmware to it, the reds have not been a big problem yet, so we will see how that goes. I also began shooting in raw, so if it happens again, it might be easier to identify the problem.

I used some photos of my little (BIG) brother that have some reds that are really blown out, but I thought they worked anyways. I also used my roommate Jesse, to take more photos once I fixed my camera.

I feel some of these shots turned out decent. Nothing really stuck out to me as a very exciting photo, but they get the job done. I really like the colors in some of the photos. The corral that I had my brother in created nice lines and shapes that I thought add to the photos some.

I dont know why, but I really had trouble with this project. I guess its just one of those things that you have to keep doing to get better.

Blown out colors

During the reshoot of the trail running photograph, I have noticed that my camera has been blowing out reds and oranges to a point that the photos are not useable, because their is no definition in the area. I have added some photos of what went wrong. These are not good photos, but it gets my point across of what has been happening.

The photos both has some major problems color wise. They are both under exposed a little bit, but the main thing I wanted to point out is the shorts in the left picture has the blown out spot, and the orange hat in the right picture is really blown out.

There may be a few things that I figured could cause this. There was a vivid setting selected that i found that may have created this, but i doubt that is the main cause. I have turned it off and reset my camera to all defaults and after that the reds still seemed to have a problem. Some other blog posts made reference to Nikons all having a problem similar to this. I will need to go out some more and test it as soon as possible.

I dont know how to load them on here, but the historgrams from my camera show a spike red on the edges. This shows the blown out portion of the photo in this color. I am going to shoot in raw and post photos of how these turn out so that I can try and make adjustments.

Exposure

Exposure, is basically, the amount of light that hits the sensor of a digital camera or the film in a film camera. The main reason for correct exposure is to have the photo correctly balanced to the way the eye actually sees the moment captured. There may be some reasons why you would over or under expose a photo, but the most important aspect to a good looking photo, other than composition, would be the exposure.

In a digital camera, such as my Nikon D80, there is a light meter that reads the input of the light. This meter, wants to automatically adjust the light to a 18% gray scale (white balance). This is the auto calibration, and when it sees something, it automatically wants to adjust it to that color. This has to be manually adjusted in most instances, because the camera does not know what the subject is.

The exposure in a camera can be helped determined by using different apertures in the lenses, different ISOs or light sensitivity that the sensor can detect, and the shutter speed. By adjusting all of these, a correct exposure can be found. For example, in lower lights, you will most likely use a longer shutter speed, with a wider aperture, and quite possibly a higher iso. While in brighter lights, a quicker shutter speed can be used with lower ISOs and a smaller aperture if necessary.

My Nikon D80 has manual controls and automatic controls to make the adjustments made easier for the photographer. The A, S, and M modes are most used on my D80. The A mode, allows the aperture to be adjusted, while the camera automatically adjusts the shutter speed. The S mode adjusts the aperture, while you adjust to shutter speed to create a properly exposed photo. The manual feature, is probably the hardest to use on the camera, but it gives complete control to the photographer. By using this mode, the exposure completely depends on the photographers take on the light and how they feel it should be represented.

Exposure is a very important part of photography and must not be overlooked. By knowing the basics, it is easy to come up with a good photograph with good color, tones, and detail added to it.