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...