12 Weeks to Better Photos Week 7: Shooting Outdoors

All 12 lessons can be viewed here . This tutorial was originally offered through the 2 Peas in a Bucket scrapbooking/photography website. Show them some love here.

Week 7 is Shooting Outdoors
I will admit I was somewhat perplexed by what they were asking for this week. Since few lenses are "macro" lenses, I didn't really get the instruction. Regardless, here is what they asked:

Challenge: The Close-up
This week we're going to experiment with macro mode. The good news is that this is a great challenge to try with your point & shoot camera!

1. With your point & shoot camera -- We want to see the difference between macro mode & another mode, so simply take a picture of an object after selecting macro mode on your camera. Move as close to the object as your camera will allow. Then take the picture again in a different mode.

2. With your SLR/ dSLR camera -- If you have a lens with macro, use it! (Use a tripod for more control and ease of use.) Unfortunately, if you don't have a lens with macro, the macro mode setting will just give you a shallow depth of field for your photos. You can still take a photo using this mode, but it's not the same as having a lens with a macro. To compensate, you could try "imitating" a macro shot by taking a photo and then cropping it very closely in a photo editing program.

Here is the chain link on my complex swing set. I was drawn to the "S" for my alphabet gallery too, but then realized I already have a lovely S in the collection.

settings:

Exposure Time:	1/1600
Aperture:	f/2.8
ISO:	800
Focal Length:	50mm (75mm in 35mm)

for perspective, here is the whole swing, complete with a toddler:

same settings

next up: motion!

Macro and Aperture: A field test

A few weeks back on a macro post, an interesting conversation emerged about what's the best aperture to use when shooting "macro" (I use quotations since I can't shoot true macro yet). An e-friend and resident expert recommends a narrower aperture (due to there being such a small space to focus when working with macro - most of the photo ends up being blurred), but if you are like me, you are addicted to shooting wide as possible for all the delicious bokeh.
So over the past week, I thought I would do a little experiment and shoot the same flower at slightly different apertures to see the result. I think its actually quite telling:
These are all SOOC.

Test 1: my normal aperture setting, f/2

I found it really hard to balance my settings and not blow out the colour at such a wide aperture. I lost a ton of definition in the flower because of this.

test 2: f/7.1

much easier to properly expose and get the entire flower head in focus, while still achieving some bokeh. I find it a bit too in focus though, to the point that the background is distracting.

test 3: f/5

getting better I think. still good definition, but still not quite enough separation from background

test 4: f/3.2

I think this is my favourite. good bokeh, the flower still retains its details. the head is still in focus. slightly overexposed, but I could salvage that in post if I wanted.

So there you have it! Even moving up a few stops does give you more leeway to achieve what you want, while still retaining the beauty that pulls us to do macro.
I am sure there are better examples of this on the net, but thought I would share my thought process with y'all. What do you think? How do you shoot macros?

Blogging from Bolivia: Macro Friday

Its Macro Friday over at Blogging from Bolivia!
I captured this sweet little lily during the Canada Day festivities yesterday:

Exposure Time:	1/2500
Aperture:	f/2.2
ISO:	200
Focal Length:	50mm (75mm in 35mm)

adjusted white balance and slight unsharp mask in GIMP

get up close and personal with more entries here:

Macro Fridays

I can't help it. I see my buddy Ashley entering a photo contest, and I have to do it too!

She pointed me in the direction of Macro Fridays, from Blogging from Bolivia. Thought I would throw this delectable entry out:

For more great entries, go to:

Bubble Fun

My single goal for the summer is to capture 2 things: K running through a sprinkler with utter abandon, highlighting each falling drop, and my reflection in a bubble.
So with this photo, I am 1/4 of the way there. Bubble - check. Reflection - still working on it.(I see the house behind me, but not me).

Stats:

SS:	1/1600
Aperture:	f/2.2
ISO:	200
Focal Length:	50mm (75mm in 35mm)

This was cropped slightly and colours enahnced via curves adjustment in GIMP

More Spring Blooms

Thought I would share some other spring blooms I have tried to capture around the city

The shrub in front of my house. This was actually back in February. it tends to bloom and rebloom throughout the year:

SS:	1/2000
Aperture:	f/2.5
ISO:	n/a (I had some weird setting turned off back then that didn't allow me to adjust the ISO)
Focal Length:	50mm (75mm in 35mm)

SOOC, no editing

First blooms in my little front garden. This is from March:

SS:	1/320
Aperture:	f/2.5
ISO:	n/a (still affected by weird setting)
Focal Length:	50mm (75mm in 35mm)

 auto white balance run in Gimp

And the first blooms in my back garden, from April:

SS:	1/80
Aperture:	f/5.6
ISO:	200
Focal Length:	105mm (157mm in 35mm)

brightened and increased contrast using curves, ran a slight unsharp mask at .50 in GIMP

Some beautiful tulips in a nearby park

SS:	1/125
Aperture:	f/5.6
ISO:	200
Focal Length:	105mm (157mm in 35mm)

brightened colours and increased contrast using curves, ran an unsharp mask at .50

Gerber Daisies

The Photoboard picture of the week challenge this week was Pink. I got what I thought was a really fun picture of Keira with a gerber daisy to submit. I also decided to shoot the daisy itself and practice my close-up / focus work. I cropped slightly, adjusted levels and ran an unsharp mask for viewing.
Photo Stats:

Exposure Time:	0.0062s (1/160)
Aperture:	f/2.8
ISO:	200
Focal Length:	50mm (75mm in 35mm)

and for fun, when editing in GIMP, I tried an auto white balance to see what happened. I think Andy Warhol called and wants his flower back.

Day 033: rubber ducky you're the one

more bathtime fun.

cropped slightly, brightened and deepened using curves

Photo Stats:
SS: 1/30
f/5.3
ISO 800
Focal Length 65mm

Day 028: 12 Weeks to Better Photos Week 3

Week 3 of 12 Weeks to Better Photos - the Colour of Light.
The challenge this week? Understand your white balance options. Here are examples of mine:

Auto

Tungsten

Custom

Different lighting conditions can really throw the colour balance in photos off. Because your camera's idea of "white" remains static unless you tell it otherwise. You achieve custom by taking a picture of something white or grey in your current lighting conditions. then the computer scans that picture, and adjusts its colour chart to read that as white.

Day 027

This is a very belated shout-out and thank you to my secret elfster, Peeper.

She sent me the gift for someone who has everything - all the wishes in the world :)
Thank you Peeper. I have been ripping off each ticket and writing my wish across the back, hoping it will come true. I plan to look back on them once they are all done and see what my wishes brought me this year.

SOOC
 

Edit
Cropped, played with the curves to pop the colours, cloned out a few dirty spots and then ran an unsharp mask, which is definitely my newest favourite thing.

Photo Stats:

SS 1/15

Aperture f/5

ISO 400

Focal Length 50mm

Day 026

Just a little practice for Valentine's Day:

SOOC

Ack! super dark. I forgot to bump my ISO up before taking the shot. Then I probably could have bumped my SS too. Not a huge deal since it wasn't a moving target, but I really need to get in the habit of checking all 3 settings.

auto white balance, curves adjustment in GIMP

I would have preferred the background to go more white. it is still too blue. I also have a crease in the cardboard I was using and I couldn't figure out how to blur it out. Any suggestions on either of these?

Ideally, I should have sat the stool further away so the background blurred properly, and then that wouldn't have to be fixed in post. Live and learn.

Photo Stats:

Shutter Speed: 1/8

Aperture: f5.0

ISO: 200

Focal Length: 50mm

Flash & Lightscoop

Note: this was fully manual setting, finally!

Day 023

SOOC

One of my personal challenges for the year is to create my own photograph alphabet. Here is my first letter - S!

cropped, desaturated and increased contrast in GIMP

What do you think of this edit? Does it help or hinder the photo?

Photo Stats:

Shutter Speed: 1/200

Aperture f5/6

ISO 800

Focal Length 100mm

Day 021

SOOC

edited: just pumped up the contrast and brightness a bit in GIMP

This is a cherry blossom tree getting its first blooms. In January. 3 weeks before the city is supposed to host the Olympics. Not exactly a winter wonderland here, now is it?

Photo Stats:

Shutter Speed: 1/800
Aperture: f3.8
ISO: 800
Focal Length: 18mm

Day 011

In the interest of full disclosure, I missed taking a photo on Monday January 11. Technically this photo is from Tuesday. But hey, history is written by the victors right? :)
Blooms on a walk near my office:

Photo Stats:
Exposure: 1/125
Aperture: f5.6
ISO 400
Focal Length: 125mm

Day 008

Photo stats:
Exposure: 1/20
Aperture: f5.3
ISO: 400
Focal Length: 70mm

cropped, white balanced and blacks upped a bit in GIMP.

Day 004

One of the great lessons in life a mother can pass on to her daughter:

Which shoes go with this outfit?

Cropped and auto white balanced in GIMP. I should have lowered the ISO - it set to 1600 and so there is a fair amount of noise. Also, her right foot/leg is def. blurry. But I love her chunky little ankles!

Photo Stats:

Exposure: 1/10

Aperture: f4.5

ISO: 1600

Focal Length: 28mm

Day 002

K started to run a horrific fever this morning. When the forehead strip jumped immediately to 40 degrees +, I think my heart skipped a few beats. She basically slept on either R or I all day, waking briefly to breastfeed or moan incoherently. Thankfully it did come down before bed and she was almost back to her normal mischievious self. So, I didn't get a chance to work on my "hands" photo (a request to help a fellow nestie who is currently recovering from several strokes). Hopefully tomorrow before the deadline. I think I have a good idea that hasn't been posted yet!

In the meantime, here is what my life consisted of today:

I should have had the tylenol on the right so the 3 items were balanced better. Live and learn. Also, my bathroom has green walls so I tried to balance the white using the curves feature in GIMP, as the auto white balance still looked really green to me. Not sure I succeeded.

Photo stats:
Exposure: 1/6
Aperture: f5.6
ISO: 400
Focal Length: 86mm

Day 001

Today was brunch at the inlaws. Their house is freezing in the winter, but is also home to a living room that is glass on 3 sides and 2 overhead skylights. So the natural light is awesome all day.
Here is Keira playing on the ground with her aunty Tara:

This was cropped slightly, white balanced and colour enhanced in GIMP.

Photo stats:
Exposure: 1/10
Aperture: f3.8
ISO: 800
Focal length: 18mm