Hawaii Panorama

I'm back! For the past few months I've been caged up in the library studying for the GMAT. It was a hard test, but it's over now and I did well! While I was studying I found some time each day to work on photos from my recent trip to Hawaii. Here is one of my favorites pics.

Check your exposures
This panorama was made by combining five separate pics. During the actual shoot, I messed up; I completely forgot to check my exposures. It was a bad move and I paid for it when I got home; I came home to find that the whole sequence was under-exposed. It took a lot of work to correct my mistakes. Here is a copy of the pano before the edits. Big difference huh?
This just goes to show how important it is the get the exposure right the first time. I spent hours with layers to make this photo look right.

Solution - Hoodman
Okay, so I dropped the ball and I paid for it. But what pissed me off even more was the fact that I brought a Hoodman Loupe with me on the trip and I didn't use it. If you haven't heard of these, check them out. They're really helpful when it's super sunny (the display on the back of most digital cameras is usually completely illegible in these conditions). With the loupe you can see everything.

I learned a bunch on this trip. First, make sure that you check your exposures. A few seconds taken to get the perfect exposure is a lot better than a few hours taken to fix a bad one. Next, if you have a loupe, use it! And lastly, Hawaii is awesome! I want to go back :(

-Morgan

First Engagement Shoot

It has been a while since I last blogged, but I've been really busy. I got my camera back from the shop and I went right back to work. My first assignment was awesome; my good friends invited me to take their engagement photos. How could I say "No"? This turned out to be a great shoot, but I'll have to admit, I've never shot an engagement session and everything was done in ad-lib. This gave all the pics a nice relaxed feel which was exactly what the couple wanted. The picture above was their first pick.

This picture was fairly simple to create. Here's what I used:

• 1 flash set to half power triggered remotely
  
• Shoot-Thru Umbrella
• 1/4 CTO gel
• Beautiful assistant

The flash was up high and to my right. It was held by my lovely girlfriend/assistant. She is great and without her help it would have been hard to make this picture. She was holding the flash up high with the umbrella attached for some time before we got the perfect shot. Kudos to her for holding it up in the air for that long (nice guns babe :) ).
Other than that I added a 1/4 CTO gel on the flash to add some warmth. Remember the light coming out of most flashes has a blue tone. This isn't the most flattering color for skin tones so be sure add that CTO.

I know Zack Arias is probably going to lynch me (if you don't know Zack, you need to check out his blog; very inspirational), but I did the slanty Mcslant slant thing that he hates so much but I think it works here. I definitely try to stay away from the Dutch Angle if I can, but there are some instances where it just works and I think this is one of them. What do you think? If you're out there Zack I'd love to hear your opinion too.

Unfortunately I think this will be one of my last blog posts for some time. I've decided to put down the camera and study for the GMAT. This is the entrance exam for business school and I'm hoping this will lead me to a great career. Wish me luck and I'll definitely post again when the test is over.
-Morgan

5D not loving life:(

Sad day. So in the middle of a recent photoshoot, my Canon 5D went black...literately. I was looking through the viewfinder and all i saw was black. I checked the lens, seemed fine, but when I took the lens off, I found that the internal mirror came off! WTF! Luckily i had my old camera as a backup body and I was able to finish the shoot, but that was horrifying to see. Well it turns out this is a common situation for Canon 5Ds. I guess the adhesive that holds the mirror onto the camera is weak and deteriorates over time. Canon said they will fix this problem at no cost, so my camera is going into the shop tomorrow. I hope all goes well. Keep your fingers crossed for me. Thanks Alex for the link. Please post if this has happened to you too and how Canon handled it. Here's the official statement from Canon:

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=PgComSmModDisplayAct&fcategoryid=139&modelid=11933&keycode=2112&id=55659

MotoGP Weekend

Last weekend was pretty awesome! My girlfriend and I went to MotoGP at Laguna Seca. This was another first for me when it comes to photography and boy did I learn a lot. Okay, so I have to admit...I cheated...the photo above was photoshopped to give it the motion blur. This is actually easy to do. Just duplicate your layer and choose filter -> Blur -> Motion blur. Blur it and then add a mask to the bike and rider to make them sharp again.

Why did I use this technique? Well I couldn't get any of my pans to come out clear. These motorcycles move fast...I mean super fast and trying to pan with slow shutter speeds takes some real skill. Unfortunately none of my pans came out well so I dropped that idea and just shot at fast shutter speeds (1/1000+) to ensure that the pics were tack sharp. Here are a few more that I liked:
After the race I wasn't too stoked on my photos especially when I saw pics from the pros...Wow, they have some nice stuff! One pro in particular that made some sweet photos during that weekend was Drew Phillips. I actually wrote him an email for advice and he recommended that the next time I go out to shot to bring a 70-200mm and/or 400mm lens and shot at 1/125-1/160th for pans. I just had my walk around 28-135mm lens, so that may have been my downfall. I also could have used a pass to get closer to the action. Does anyone know a newspaper that can get me access. Any help is welcome! And thanks again Drew for all your help.

Glass Award Photo

Earlier this week one of my coworkers showed me this cool award the department received. An all glass plate engraved with this cool design. I couldn't help myself...I needed to take a picture of this thing. So here it is!

The setup - First I got a big piece of white paper roughly 3ft x 4ft long and taped it to the wall next to my desk at work. I placed the award around a foot away from the backdrop. Unfortunately I didn't have my tripod that day, but there were some big boxes around the office...ghetto tripod :). I needed to keep the camera still because I knew I couldn't light the award with just one pic (if someone knows how to do it in one pic, please let me know)...This picture is actually made from 3 different pics stitched together. Here they are:


...My bud Vasilis suggested that I use my flash really close to the glass. This worked, but it still didn't light the whole award properly. So I experimented with different flash angles and positions. In the end I chose three pics; one lighting the bottom, one for the leaves and one for the top. I used a single bare Nikon SB-28 (only $90 bucks at Samy's used) zoomed to 24mm triggered with my Skyport. I used the timer function on the camera so I could be away from the it to position the light by hand. The actual shoot was fairly easy, but the layers are what took some time...

Photoshop - Adobe Bridge CS4 makes it easy to layer multiple photos. Select the photos you want to layer and choose Tools ->Photoshop->Load Files into Photoshop Layers. In the past I would open each file individually into Photoshop and then use the move tool to stack all the files into one image. This is very tedious, but Adobe fixed this problem in the new version of Bridge CS4. Once imported, I used masks to hide the areas of each layer that I didn't want displayed...aka my arm :). DON'T DELETE stuff from your original layers, use masks...They're way better because they're non-descructive. If you masked too much, you can always bring back the content later, you can't if you use the eraser tool.

I hope this helps and if anyone knows better ways to get these results, please let me know. I'm completely self taught, so it would be good to get some advise from pros.

Santa Barbara Mission - Flashes and Layers

Last weekend I took this pic of the Santa Barbara Mission with the help of my friend Tuan. The day was perfect for a picture; a storm had just rolled through town and it cleared just around sunset...nice recipe for some moody light.

But there's a catch here... see the building? Grass? Cross? Well that stuff was lit with my flash...there were no lights on the building. Don't believe me? Well here's how I did it...

First things first:

So here's the shot with no modifications. There is no way I could get a good exposure for both the sky and the ground. I thought to myself, "why does this picture suck?"...

1)sky is too bright...no color
2)grass sucks...too dark..
3)building...dull

So how do I fix these problems?

Filters and flashes to the rescue! Forget HDR!
First, I put a Neutral Density Graduated Filter on my lens. If you have a camera, this is one of the best investments you can make if you want to shoot landscapes. Easy to use, balances the exposure and makes the colors in the sky come alive. But it's still not enough to bring out the detail in the building and the cross.

Time for flashes...With my camera on a tripod, I used two flashes with CTO filters (it's just orange plastic) on full power and this is the result I got. Wait wait, I know, the rest of the building is still dark and the grass too. So I took multiple exposures while my bud Tuan moved the flash to different positions on the building. This is one of about 7 shots to make the final image. The building, the cross and the grass in front were all lit independently...

Thank you photoshop... - With layers in Photoshop you can just take all those exposures and make them one by deleting the stuff you don't need. Also, as you can image, there are lots of people walking around considering the mission is a big tourist attraction. By taking multiple exposures I was able to take out all the people. Finally, I also boosted the contrast and made it a little brighter.

Hope this helps and this goes to show that you can use flashes for landscapes/architecture and get good results.

Studio Portraits

Studio lighting has always been intriguing to me, but I never really had the chance to work with them. Luckily my good friend Luke had access to some studio gear, so we had some fun.

Here is a photo that I did with a simple two light scenario. One huge softbox up high and another aimed at the background behind the model ...exposure was f/8 at 1/200th ISO 100


Studio lights rock!
These lights (monolights) are big in comparison to normal flashes and the size is shown in the power they put out. I hate when i have to wait...especially for small flashes. With the studio lights on the other hand, the power recycle times are so short. This allows the light to be ready quickly for the next shot so you don't miss expressions from you model.

Relax!
I find that taking pictures of people is more about getting them to relax than anything...Sure, you have to light the scene and make them look good, but if they're uncomfortable this ain't gonna happen. I like just talking to the model, reassuring them the pictures are coming out well even if I know there's something wrong. I've been reading a lot of Joe McNally's new book and even in there he explains this. Many times I'm behind the camera and I'm thinking "Do I really know what I'm doing?"..."Is this going to work?"..."oh shit!, Is this thing on?"..."lens cap idiot...take off the lens cap!"...once your internal monologue goes public it's over. They are looking to you to make them feel confident and that their pics are going to be awesome. If they relax it's easy to get some great expressions and get a glimpse of what their personality is like. Just relax and they will too...

Reflectors for the win!
I use a large gold reflector to bounce light back up at the model. Some people call this clam shell lighting; One light is directly above the camera angled down and the reflector is directly below angled up creating a "clam shell"...easy lighting technique for portraits

I hope this helps and if you want a head shot, let me know :P

New Wacom Bamboo!

Computer tablets have been around for a while, but I never was into them, until now. What first caught my attention was all the buzz on the internet about the new Wacom Intuos4 tablets. My big question is why so many pros swear by them? Do they really make that much difference?

Problems!...
My problems:
1) I didn't want to buy one and then find out a hated it...$300+ ...ouch!
2) No one has these things on display so i could try it out...wtf?

So I went to the local graphic designer at my work. He's a cool guy and he let me borrow his Intuos3 for a week. Lesson learned...This thing is weird...the surface is slippery, the aspect ratio is square, not wide screen, and then there's getting used to the ergonomics. I switched my whole desk around! This sucked and even with everything I tried, I couldn't get my handwriting to look better than a kinder gardener's chicken scratch. WTF?! Why do people like these things? This made me even more intrigued and it pushed me to try other tablets.

Thank you Samy's!...
I did more research and the new Intuos addresses a lot of these issues. I needed to find one on display at a store, and I did. Thank you Samy's Camera in Santa Barbara. They actually have the large version of the Intuos4 on display with a crazy MacPro Tower. Sweet setup...Let's just say I was there for a while playing...that thing rocked, but it was huge! I don't have space for that beast on my desk...how are you supposed to bring it around...

Katarina to the rescue!!
Finally I spoke to my friend Katarina and she told me she has a Wacom Bamboo. This was the answer. She let me borrow it for a week and after that, I never looked back. This has all the cool stuff the intuos4s have without the big price tag...sure the 4s have more pressure levels, buttons galore and so on, but I'm not pro. I don't need all that. I just need something simple that works for photoshop post processing.

The Bamboo answers the questions that the Intous3 got wrong. It has a cool textured surface that feels more like real paper, wide screen aspect so you don't lose workspace to keep the proportions the same as your wide screen and it's small. It's basically a baby Intuos4. and the best part is it's only $70 bucks! Deal...

Recommendations!
If you decide to get a tablet I would recommend a few things.

1) Check out this guide first. It shows you proper ergonomics and will help a lot!!! I'm using the "trade-off" position for my purposes.
2) You need to have desk space...the Bamboo is small and I still could use more space on my desk. I couldn't imagine how to use the larger versions
3) Find one to try first. You need to feel a tablet before you buy it
4) I put my pen stand between my keyboard and the tablet. This way when I'm browsing, there is a fluid motion when I have to put the pen down and type.
5) When using the pen, I like to press the buttons with my thumb rather than my index finger. This is way more comfortable!

All this being said, I love my Bamboo...I use brush tools extensively and the pressure levels are priceless. If you use Photoshop, this is a great tool for post processing. I'm sure there are many other great uses for this tablet as well.

The Pic - the pic above was really easy to light...I basically used a Maglight L.E.D flashlight and zoomed it on the bamboo logo. The flash light was positioned high and slightly behind the unit and to the camera's right. No flash for this one :)

-Morgan

Polynesian Dance Portrait

Just last week I was asked to take some photos for a local Polynesian dance club that's based here in Santa Barbara. Well, the shoot went well but we had to battle a lot of problems...

1. Huge fire in SB = sky looks like a scene from Lord of the Rings! Straight Mordor status!
2. 30mph winds = Hair nightmare and umbrellas, softboxes and other big light modifiers are out of the question
3. Seaweed = girls don't like seaweed...enough said...
   

Considering the girls needed these pics for an upcoming flyer, they needed the photos right away. What to do? Find a shady spot! I saw another guy taking some photos near the rocks and I thought, "what a great idea!". So I moved the girls into a nice position on the rocks (where the wind was not so powerful) and I took this shot.

Settings: This is a fairly easy photo to take...I first exposed for ambient light in the scene and then I stopped down about 2 stops so I could darken the distracting rocks. I wanted to have the girls as the focal point so I dialed in my flash to expose them properly. This was with one bare flash gelled with a 1/2 CTO filter (to add some warth) up high off to the camera's left triggered wirelessly via Elinchrom Skyports (Cool little devices). I had my bud, Tuan, aim the flash high and at the girl in the back to feather the light. I had to dodge and burn a little in post processing to get everyone evenly lit, but I didn't have to use too much.

Quick recommendation when taking pics with multiple people: take a bunch of shots at the same location...i took about 5 shots of this scene and each one had a problem or two. Someone wasn't smiling, someone blinked, someone was looking somewhere other than the camera, etc. Doh! By taking multiple shots I was able to clone one girl's face from another picture into this one so everyone looked nice. It's a bit of work in photoshop, but can you tell which one has been worked on?

I hope this helps and remember if you're flashing, try to get the flash off of the camera and the results will be way more dynamic. You don't need to get a wireless system like me. I actually started with a simple wire solution. Even if your camera doesn't have a flash output, you can buy an adaptor that goes on your hotshoe and it will convert it for you so you can use an off camera wire. Check out Strobist for more in depth info on off camera flash. Lastly I've been reading Joe McNally's new book "Hotshoe Diaries". This is a really cool book if you want to learn more about off camera flash.

Hiking in Ithaca

Last week I went over a pic I took on my way to Ithaca to visit my girlfriend. This week I want to go over a pic that was taken while I was there. It was a great weekend and we spent a lot of time hiking around Ithaca and taking pictures of the waterfalls. Then I was like "Wait! I need to take a pic of you hun!". She is awesome and doesn't mind when I want her to model. So this is the shot that I came up with. What do you think? Isn't she beautiful?! I think so :) I wanted it to look like something out of a hiking magazine or maybe an ad for Northface...haha!

1) Off camera flash - The way I got this photo was with off camera flash. We were in a valley that was blocking the sun, so we were in a good amount of shade, but the waterfall was still lit nicely by the sun. At first I tried the shot without the flash and I got her sillouette. Then I remembered I had my flash! I read a lot of Strobist and the guys at that site swear by off camera flash and for good reason. Basically, direct flash blows. Well I shouldn't say that, it's good for some things, but if you want to add dimension to the lighting off camera is the way to go. If you want to learn more about lighting, go to Strobist. The guys over there are great and there is a lot to be learned there. I brought my Canon 580EX and I was holding it camera left as high as I could reach. My camera was on a tripod which helped with this one. I triggered the flash with Elinchrom Skyport triggers.

2) Setting up the exposure - This exposure was fairly easy. I started by metering for the waterfall in the background without my girl in the shot. Then I underexposed about one stop to bring out the blues in the sky. Once I got a nice exposure I just added the flash. The flash was in manual mode so I just dialed in a power level that exposed her properly. This takes some guessing at first, but it's fairly easy to find the right exposure.

Hope this helps with your environmental portraiture...here's a diagram of how I set things up...

Using slow shutter to get rid of people

Last week I visited my girlfriend in NY. It was a great trip and I was able to get some really nice photos. On the way, I had a layover in Chicago and while I tried to find my gate I stumbled upon this really cool hallway. Just think, neon lights that stretched nearly a football field or more with abstract translucent walls. Problem was there were so many people walking around it was hard to get a good shot. And it was dark. The lights only came on in short bursts. What to do? Slow shutter to the rescue!

Tripod is key - When i first walked in the room I thought to myself "How cool!". Everyone was busting out their camera phones, but I had my new 5D! Haha...so I busted it out and the first shot sucked...this is what I got. Not a good pic in my opinion. I couldn't get the lights to "pop" just hand-holding and the people were killing the composition. What to do? Tripod! I threw my camera on a tripod, which i had with me (a small one that fits in my carry-on), lowered the ISO (100) and stopped down to a small aperture (f/11) resulting in a shutter speed of 3.2 seconds. I moved to a center location, recomposed and the shot above is what I got. I photoshopped some of the highlights and shadows to bring out the lights, but by lowering the shutter speed all the people blurred away even in a busy airport. Hope this helps and be sure to bring your tripod on your next trip! I know it helped me out :) check out a better quality version on my porfolio site...www.morganmessina.com

Auto Photography the cheap way - Go to the dealership!

I have to admit, I love cars. They are beautiful, fast and expensive. So that being said, I don't know that many people that have really nice cars. So how can you improve your auto photography you may ask? I just went down to my local Porsche, Mercedes, and BMW dealership :) I got this tip from a good friend of mine...Vasilis Inembolidis...you should check out his work too...Here are some tips...

1) Time of day - It stays bright here in California until about 7:00pm now. The "Golden light" starts before sunset and lasts past sun down. I'd say from around 6-6:30 through 7:30 is your window. This way you can get some shots with direct sunlight (at this time the sun gives a nice warm glow) or after the sun goes down(the sky becomes one big soft box). This is great for cars considering they reflect everything! and I mean that, everything!

2) It's all about the details - It would be really hard to take a good full body shot of a car at the dealership...other cars everywhere, distracting buildings, trees everywhere...the list goes on....so zoom in and get those details. Expensive cars have all these fine details and clean lines. Take advantage of that and you'll get a nice detail pic without all those distractions...

3) Ask nicely - The dealerships close at 6pm on the weekends here. That means I didn't have to deal with sales people, but I was prepared to ask anyway. I figure just ask before shooting. While I was on one shoot a security guard asked me what I was doing. I told him that I was just taking shots for personal use and he was okay. He was a little skeptical at first; he explained that there was some vandalism that had taken place there, but I just stayed cool and he was okay with it.

4)Reflections - Car paint acts like a big mirror. You will see everything surrounding the car in your shots if you're not mindful about the reflections. I tried to position myself at an angle where the only reflection was the sky. On clear days this is easy so you may want to wait for a clear day or a day where the clouds are even.

Good luck with your car shots! I know this technique has definitely added to my portfolio. Check out all my auto pics at www.morganmessina.com. Now I just need to find a Ferrari dealership :D

Flowers...

It's spring...what can I say? Flowers are everywhere right now and they make great subjects...Here's what I used in this shot...They make great gifts for the special someone in your life too! Bonus points :)

1st...Whibal...i just recently bought a whibal...this is basically a grey card so you get the right colors during post processing...I used one for this shot and I find that the results are a lot warmer than what the camera produces. Cool tool and easy to use...

2nd...Reflector...Believe it or not but this was shot in midday sunlight...usually this light is super harsh, but I have a 5in1 reflector. I used the translucent panel which softens the harsh light to a soft glow. Cheap and easy...just hold the panel above the subject and bam! instant soft light. They come in tons of different sizes so get the one that's best for you...

3rd...Macro...Get as close as you can...some lenses (macros in particular) allow you to get really close to the subject allowing you so see all the fine details.

My first HDR

HDR - This is my very first HDR photo ever...I'm stoked! For those of you that don't know what an HDR photo is, it stands for High Dynamic Range. Basically you take different exposures of the same scene to make a single photo that has both defined highlights and shadows. A result like this is usually impossible with only a single photo due to the limitations of the cameras themselves. For those that know HDR, I know it's not Chromasia quality, but it's a start. I haven't really been a fan of HDR because most of the time people go overboard and the results look too cartoonish. Although, I appreciate HDR because there are a lot of times when the camera just doesn't have the dynamic range needed to make a clean photo. So here it is...

Storke Tower - This is the main tower and the symbol for UCSB (University of California Santa Barbara). This was a combination of 5 photos all taken on a tripod...I've never HDR'd before so I kept it simple...I brought it all into Photomatix and let it do its magic. It's an easy program...just slap in the jpegs and you're good...it has a lot of options to change the "cartoonishness" of the photo...I tried to keep this shot dynamic but not too cartoonish...any thoughts...well hope you like this pic and I'd definitely recommend trying HDR if you have a tripod. Photomatix is cheap too...

(Update) - Some people have asked to see what the pics looked like before I did the HDR conversion. Well here they are...

Click the image to see a larger version. These were not post-processed in anyway other than putting them together in a jpeg. As you can see i took 5 different pics, each at a different exposure. Each exposure was exactly 1EV above the previous image. There was no way to get the clouds exposed properly and the tower exposed properly all in one shot. This is why HDR is so cool. You can combine all the different pics together and the software figures out what to keep and what to discard to make a balanced photo. I hope this helps and if anyone has any other questions, let me know.

I did it...I got a 5D!

The Canon 5d...what more can I say...It's awesome. And I couldn't resist. For the past few months I've been ogling at the new Canon 5d Mark II, but I just couldn't justify making that kind of investment. I'm not a pro and I definitely know I'm still learning. For me, the Mark II seems like more of a pro camera. Okay, so I'm justifying my purchase, but still, the original 5D is still great. I've been shooting with it for the last week or so and I'm really impressed.

What a deal!!!...Price was one of my big concerns when I was researching the purchase of a new camera body. I've been using a Canon XT for the last 5 years and I really felt like it was holding me back. The Mark II is just too expensive for me. Body only is around $2700 everywhere I look. So I started looking for alternative and found a great deal at Samy's Camera. It turns out some rich guy decided that he really didn't need a 5D and traded it in at my local Samy's store here in Santa Barbara (we're lucky here, lots of big spenders with no clue). The body was super clean and most of the packaging wasn't even opened. To make things better, Samy's said they would fully backup the camera if anything went wrong. Drum roll please...so nearly mint 5D used for $1400!!! out the door! I'm stoked...I know there are some selling even cheaper online, but I don't know if i would trust random camera gear on craiglist or ebay. With the release of the Mark II the price point of the original 5D has gone down considerably, but it's still a great camera that is capable of making some awesome pics. If you can find one at a local retailer or online store I would jump on it!

This is not a review...I'm not going to get into all the details about the camera, but if you want a full review check out The Digital Picture. This site is really good if you want to read comprehensive reviews of canon camera bodies and lenses. You can even compare lenses for sharpness and vignetting at all major apertures. The pic of the 5D above was taken from their site. Definitely check them out...

Taking Photos at the Aquarium

Recently I visited the Monterrey Aquarium with my girlfriend. It was an awesome trip and I had loads of fun but taking photos in the aquarium is hard. Maybe not hard, but it takes some getting used to and I wish I had better gear to take advantage of the great exhibits. Here's some things I learned...

1) It's dark in there! - And i mean really dark. Here's a shot of some corrals. This was probably one of the brightest exhibits i saw there. To show you how dark it was, here are some figures for you. This shot was taken at 85mm at f/5.6 ISO 800 and 1/30th of a second (my 17-85 can't go any faster than that at 85mm : ( ). If I didn't have image stabilization on my lens, I think the shot would have been worse. Image stabilization or IS is good for these low light situations when you subject ISN'T moving. Luckily these corrals were moving very slowly and I was able to get a fairly sharp shot. If your subject is moving Image Stabilization doesn't do a thing...You need either a fast lens or you need to bump the ISO to get a faster shutter speed. Unfortunately my camera can't do anything higher than ISO 1600, but even at that speed there's too much noise. So I had to work with what I had.

Here's another shot that was taken at low speeds. I think the jellyfish tanks are great, but there are loads of people around and I felt bad for hogging the glass.

2)Flashes - Some exhibits allow flashes. Some don't. I actually didn't flash at all during my trip. I found that just the ambient lights were enough to cause annoying reflections in the glass. I would think with a flash it would be even worse, but I didn't try it. If you do use flash, I think it would be best to put the flash and camera as close to the exhibit glass as possible to cut down on reflections. Almost the whole time I was there I was glued to the glass with my lens...kinda felt like one of those sucker fish. The fish must of thought I was crazy :P

3) Slow shutter - When all else fails be creative...at least that's what I tried to do. Considering I couldn't freeze the motion of most of the fish with the equipment I had, I went for a more abstract look. In this pic, there were lots of fish going in the same direction. They were going fairly quick, so I went for a slow shutter speed (.6 secs) and kept the camera steady. This made a cool blur effect.

4) Panning - Another technique that I tried was panning. This is very hard, but with some practice I was getting some fairly decent shots. I know this shark photo isn't tack sharp, but the blur from panning creates a nice sense of motion IMO. This shot was taken at 1/2 sec.

5) Metering - Metering for the right light source is key in the aquarium, but it's hard with the contrasting light sources. In this pic my camera was metering for the whole shot and I was getting some weird results. I wanted the corral to be exposed properly and I wanted everything else to go black. In this case I changed my metering mode to center weighted and aimed at the corral. I locked in my exposure and recomposed. This was my result.

Ideal equipment? - I'd say a camera body with good high ISO plus fast lens are key. I was shooting ISO 800 most of the time and I could have gone higher if my camera could do it. I think either of the 5Ds, Nikon D700 or any pro body would work well. As for lenses, there are some very small things like corrals and some very big stuff like shark tanks. If I could do it again, I'd bring a 5D with one fast wide...maybe the 24mm 1.4 II and a fast telephoto...maybe the 85mm 1.8 or 100 macro.

I hope this helps anyone going to the aquarium to take photos. Anyone have good shots at the aquarium? I'd love to see other photos and see what I did right and what I did wrong. Any help appreciated...

Utah Pano

I haven't blogged in a while, but it's been a crazy few months. I recently updated my portfolio with this image that was taken in Utah. I've been getting into panoramic photography and I've learned a bunch. Here are some tips and some questions if anyone can help out.

1)Hardware - first things first...what equipment do you need for a good pano?

1. Lens - I use either a prime 24mm or a wide zoom with my Canon XT. You want to use a lens that doesn't have a lot of distortion so I find that primes do the best job, but zooms will work too. The main thing is to go wide!
   
2. Filters - I hate taking pics and the ground is exposed properly and the sky is all white or you expose for the sky and the ground is all black. You can fix this with neutral density grads, but you'll need a holder to attach the filters to your lens. I have a Cokin P holder that I use with neutral density grads to balance to exposure.

2)Technique -

1. Orientation - When I shoot panos I always shoot vertically to get more of the foreground and sky. I find that when I shoot in landscape orientation it doesn't give me enough space to work with once i stitch the pics in Photoshop.
2. Exposure - I set my camera to Manaul mode. Don't use Av or Tv modes or you will get different exposures for each pic in the scene. I usually start by scanning the entire scene to find the brightest and darkest areas. Once I have these two points, I choose an exposure in the middle. I take a test shot somewhere in the middle of the scene and check the exposure. I rely on my in-camera histogram to make adjustments to the exposure if needed. Once you get a good exposure you're ready to go.
3. Focus - Manual focus...kinda. Let's say you have a cool mountain range way off in the distance or a really cool building. It may be tempting to focus on that, but don't! Focus on the foreground and use hyperfocal apertures to get a clean result. If you want more info on hyperfocal distances check out this site. I usually autofocus on the foreground first. Once I get autofocus lock I'll switch to manual focus on my lens and shoot the rest of my sequence. With my 24mm I usually try to focus on something ~10ft away. With my aperture set to f/8 or f/11, everything ~5ft and farther will be in focus. This is key to get everything in the frame in focus. I usually don't use apertures smaller than f/11 (say f/16 or f/22) because you will get softer images due to diffraction.
   
4. Sequencing - My camera doesn't have a "Pano" mode, but I've seen it on some cameras. If you have it, use it. If you don't have that option you'll need to eye ball it. Once I get my exposure and focus spot on, I'll start my sequence usually from left to right. In my first shot I'll try to look for an object on the right side of the frame that I can easily identify, for argument sake let's say a rock. I use that rock as a marker so I know when to stop in my next shot. In the second shot I try to put that rock on the left of the frame, but not to close to the edge. You want some overlap so photoshop can easily stitch the images. After I take the second shot I look for another object in that frame, once again on the right side that can be a good marker for the next shot. Repeat until the sequence is finished. Of course this takes some practice, but it can be done handheld.
   
5. Post-production - this is where you keep your fingers crossed and pray your pano comes out okay. I've used both Photoshop CS3 and CS4 and both work well. Just open all your pics in photoshop and go to File ->Automate -> Photomerge. It will ask you which layout you want ( I usually use auto), what files you'd like to use and some extra options. If you already have all your photos in photoshop just click "Add Open Files" and then Okay. Make sure the "blend images together" box is checked. Photoshop will do its voodoo on the pics and stitch them together for you.
   

3)Questions? - There are some things I still haven't figured on with panos. Can anyone help?

• Moving objects - How do you account for moving objects like waves? Is there a particular way to make these panos better, or do you just need to clone out the mess.
• Filters - Has anyone compared Cokin and Singh-ray filters? The Singh-ray filters are nearly 3 times expensive and I'm wondering if they make that much difference.
  

Surfing Photography

Two weeks ago I had the chance to shoot the 2009 Rincon Classic. Luckily Rincon isn't far from me and during that weekend we had a very nice swell. You need a few things in order to get a good surf shot. I'm no pro at this, but these are the things that I found helped when shooting this great sport.

1st) Equipment - Rent a long lens - Preferably a 300mm or longer. For the 2009 Rincon Classic I used a Canon 400mm 5.6L. You can rent a lens like this from Samy's for cheap, so it's good to rent when you need specialized glass rather than buying it for $1000+. If this is going to be your profession, I'd say go 400mm or above.

2nd) Equipment - Tripod - You'll need a solid tripod or monopod to support that big lens you rented. They may not seem very heavy, but after a few hours, you'll be happy you brought the tripod. I like Manfrotto gear, but that's just me. As for tripod vs monopod, I'm glad I brought my tripod. With a monopod you always need to hold on to it. With my tripod, i could take a break and my gear was ready for the next shot. Just get a good ball head for the the tripod and you have the flexibility you'll need for surfing.

3rd) Camera Settings - AI Servo Focus - This focus type tracks your subject as they are moving. Even using this setting, focus on my little Canon Rebel XT was stugglin'. You should be using a 30D,40D,50D or a pro body if you want better focusing and speed.

4th) Camera Settings - Continuous Shooting - Most cameras will have a continuous shooting setting that lets you hold down the shutter and it will fire rapidly. I'd say this is a good option because the action is so fast you just can't react fast enough to catch the action (at least I can't).

5th) Camera Settings - ISO - You need to shoot at 1/1000 sec or faster in order to freeze the action. If you don't do this all your shots will be blurry. I learned this the hard way during the first day of the competition. Depending on the weather, I'd say use ISO 200 or 400 so you can get a faster shutter speed. Use whichever setting that allows you to shoot 1/1000 sec or faster in your lighting conditions.

Lastly, I wouldn't even think about trying to use a point n' shoot for this kind of photography. They just don't have the reach needed and they aren't fast enough to catch the action. I'd say this is one style that you'll need an SLR to get good results. Sorry Point N' Shooters :(

To check out more of my surfing pics, visit my portfolio at www.morganmessina.com

What is ISO?

The other day a buddy of mine asked me about iso. I don't want to go too in depth about iso considering there are a bunch of resources online, but here are a few key things to know.

1) Sensitivity - ISO is the sensitivity of your film or your digital sensor. It's easy to think about...the higher the ISO # the more sensitive the sensor is to light (ie ISO 100 is less sensitive than ISO 1600).

So why would I want to change ISO?

2)Lighting conditions - During a bright sunny day there will be a lot of light hitting your sensor. In this case you can use a lower ISO because there is lots of light. If you were to go inside though, you don't have as much ambient light. Therefore you would want your sensor to be more sensitive to light and you would increase your ISO.

3)Noise - The problem with ISO is that as you increase your ISO the more visible noise you will get in your pictures. Easy rule; Higher ISO=More Noise. Noise appears as little dots on your pics. Not cool! This is especially true with point n' shoots where you will be limited to using lower ISO to get clean images. Here are some examples (thank you www.cameralabs.com for these images):In this example the left pic was taken with a point n' shoot (Canon G10) and an SLR (Canon 450D) on the right. Even at ISO 100 you can notice that the 450D pic is cleaner, with less dots than the G10.

In this example the pics were now taken at ISO 400. On the left, the point and shoot is starting to show a lot of visible noise (click the image to see higher res). The SLR on the right is still clean with little additional noise.
...and finally ISO 1600. The point and shoot on the left is stugglin'. Many cameras will try to fight noise with software, but this noise reduction "smears" the image making it less sharp. The SLR on the right is now showing some noise, but the detail is still there and usable.

NOTE: the G10 is the top of the line point and shoot from Canon going for ~$500!!! Lower end cameras will probably display even greater noise at high ISOs. The 450D is the bottom of line DSLR. It goes for ~$560...check out B and H for camera prices. You can even find used equipment there. Here's a good deal on a base DSLR (Canon XTi). Only $329 used!!!

I don't like noise!!! If you have a point and shoot you're probably getting a lot of noisy pics...well buy a digital SLR...they're cheap now!! These cameras allow you to use higher ISOs without nearly as much visible noise as point n' shoots. If you really like your point and shoot, and don't want to make the switch to an SLR, then here's your rule of thumb:

Use the lowest ISO possible for the conditions you're shooting in.

This is the key rule whether or not you have a point and shoot to get the cleanest images possible. Some newer cameras now even have an "Auto ISO" setting that does this for you. The camera senses how much light there is in the picture and then automatically chooses the lowest ISO possible to accomplish the best exposure. Use it if you have it!

Here are some more resources on ISO if you really want to learn all the intricacies:

http://www.photoxels.com/tutorial_iso.html

http://www.cameratown.com/guides/iso.cfm

Sunset Portrait Basics

Sunset/Sunrise Portrait Basics - Over the holiday break a few friends and I went up to Lake Tahoe to go snowboarding. On the way we encountered a beautiful sunrise. What a great backdrop for a portrait shot!!! It's actually really easy to make a good sunset shot. Here are the steps...(keep in mind, this is for people with point and shoots or any camera for that matter that has a built in flash; you could get really elaborate with off camera flash if you had the time/equipment. Check out Strobist if you want to learn more about off camera flash techniques)

1st - Flash!!!
Make sure your flash is on or you're going to get silhouettes. If you're going for the silhouette look don't flash, but in every other case you need to flash if you want to expose correctly for the people and the sunset.

2nd - Focus!!!
Focus on the subject not the sunset!!! A lot of times the auto-focus in the camera will want to focus on the sunset and not your subject. This will result in the sunset being in focus but your subjects are blurry. Many cameras allow you to pick your focus point. Be sure to choose a focus point that will accurately focus on your subjects and not the background.

3rd - Compose!!!
Try to stay away from putting your subject's head in the middle of the picture; put their head on the upper or lower third of the frame. This rule also applies if you were going to take a picture of the landscape alone. Be sure to put the horizon line on a third and not directly in the middle of the frame.

4th - Exposure (Advanced)
Expose for the sunset first without the flash! Once you get the sunset exposed properly then turn on your flash and adjust it to expose your subjects properly. Most cameras will use built in auto-flash exposure for this (aka ETTL) but you could do it manually too if you had an external flash.

I hope this helps with your sunset shots. These rules can also be applied to pictures taken during the day. The basic idea is Use your Flash!