August 18, 2009.................................................................................HOME................................................"Alignment: Not Just For Planets"
Lorem
Lorem
The process of capturing great images is so complex, it’s no wonder I feel compelled over and over to write about it here. And I’m not talking about the technical details. As an element of making a fine image, technology pales in comparison to the challenge of crafting the loosely defined vision floating around inside your head into something frozen by your camera. So let’s walk down the creativity path again and see how things lined up...
Leading the Mentor Series Worldwide Photo Treks gives me an amazing opportunity to visit locations and shoot subject matter that makes for great pictures. Besides the opportunity to meet new people and the satisfaction in teaching them photography, it’s a treat because someone else has done the hard work (kudos Erica). Planning where to go, what the best of time of day will be, arranging the logistics of transportation, admission, etc., it’s no wonder that wonderful photographs happen on every trek much more easily than when I go shooting on my own. Add to that time carved out of everyday life just for photography and you see why it can’t help but improve your work.
Earlier this month I was on a trek in Montreal. The itinerary had several wonderful venues, including an international fireworks competition. The event is held at an amusement park which we knew would be crowded on Saturday night. To be sure and have time to scout and secure good positions we went a couple of hours early, always a good idea if you have the option.
Now, imagine a large group of photographers, walking from the bus toward the admission gate from the parking lot. For the most part our minds were already planning the fireworks setup, yet even before we reached the entrance, something unusual presented itself. Just because of where the parking lot sidewalk was in relation to a major roller coaster ride, we found ourselves standing within 10 feet of the columns supporting the track. We were still outside the park, separated from the ride by a chain link fence, but as you looked up, the ride was so close you felt the rumble and heard the screams with each pass of the cars. Every trek participant walking past looked up, enthralled by the spectacle, but most kept walking even as they glanced at the ride, because they were on a mission: get to the entrance. A few of us stopped to watch, and as soon as I understood the opportunity this location presented I had my camera in my hand and left the sidewalk to get closer to the fence.
The alignment was coming into place. It started as soon as I realized the proximity we had to an exciting subject. The alignment came into sharper focus as I sensed that timing was going to bring the subject back over and over and getting the shot would not take more than a couple of minutes. The real alignment came from moving my feet as I moved the zoom setting on my 18-200 Nikon lens. I decided at the moment that I wanted a frame packed with the energy of a roller coaster fall... people screaming, arms in the air, hair blowing in the wind. So I choose to shoot vertically and planned a composition using just the empty track perched along the support columns. With no pressure I had plenty of time to optimize settings, balancing ISO with an appropriately fast shutter speed and reasonable aperture to ensure good depth of field (see the Tech Details sidebar). High speed motor drive capture ensured I would get a sequence from which to pick the perfect composition. I waited and then captured a burst of images I knew would work.
...
Leading the Mentor Series Worldwide Photo Treks gives me an amazing opportunity to visit locations and shoot subject matter that makes for great pictures. Besides the opportunity to meet new people and the satisfaction in teaching them photography, it’s a treat because someone else has done the hard work (kudos Erica). Planning where to go, what the best of time of day will be, arranging the logistics of transportation, admission, etc., it’s no wonder that wonderful photographs happen on every trek much more easily than when I go shooting on my own. Add to that time carved out of everyday life just for photography and you see why it can’t help but improve your work.
Earlier this month I was on a trek in Montreal. The itinerary had several wonderful venues, including an international fireworks competition. The event is held at an amusement park which we knew would be crowded on Saturday night. To be sure and have time to scout and secure good positions we went a couple of hours early, always a good idea if you have the option.
Now, imagine a large group of photographers, walking from the bus toward the admission gate from the parking lot. For the most part our minds were already planning the fireworks setup, yet even before we reached the entrance, something unusual presented itself. Just because of where the parking lot sidewalk was in relation to a major roller coaster ride, we found ourselves standing within 10 feet of the columns supporting the track. We were still outside the park, separated from the ride by a chain link fence, but as you looked up, the ride was so close you felt the rumble and heard the screams with each pass of the cars. Every trek participant walking past looked up, enthralled by the spectacle, but most kept walking even as they glanced at the ride, because they were on a mission: get to the entrance. A few of us stopped to watch, and as soon as I understood the opportunity this location presented I had my camera in my hand and left the sidewalk to get closer to the fence.
The alignment was coming into place. It started as soon as I realized the proximity we had to an exciting subject. The alignment came into sharper focus as I sensed that timing was going to bring the subject back over and over and getting the shot would not take more than a couple of minutes. The real alignment came from moving my feet as I moved the zoom setting on my 18-200 Nikon lens. I decided at the moment that I wanted a frame packed with the energy of a roller coaster fall... people screaming, arms in the air, hair blowing in the wind. So I choose to shoot vertically and planned a composition using just the empty track perched along the support columns. With no pressure I had plenty of time to optimize settings, balancing ISO with an appropriately fast shutter speed and reasonable aperture to ensure good depth of field (see the Tech Details sidebar). High speed motor drive capture ensured I would get a sequence from which to pick the perfect composition. I waited and then captured a burst of images I knew would work.
...
Technical Details
Nikon D300
Nikkor 18-200 F/3.5-5.6 lens
150mm (225mm equivalent)
ISO 400
1/2000 second @ f/5.6
NEF capture
Lexar 4G compact flash card
Thunderbolt CF card reader
Apple MacPro 3GHz
Mac OS X 10.5
Adobe Photoshop CS4
Now let me throw out some food for thought... The vertical composition was great for allowing me to zoom in and get wonderful detail, really filling the frame with subject. But it also was limiting in the sense that from a commercial perspective, there was no negative space. Negative space is area in a photo either devoid of subject (think open blue sky) or where there is no primary subject. This gives an editor space for text placement, to title an article for example. After crafting the vertical image, I decided to then shoot several vertical overlapping sky frames, with clouds, allowing me to use panoramic technique to create a horizontal image. I would then include the original vertical at the edge of the new horizontal image. I didn’t want a panoramic shot, so matched the aspect ratio of the combined images to that of a native horizontal D300 capture. Since the D300 frame is 4288 x 2848, this meant my original was 4288 tall. By combining images to create my horizontal vision, I ended up with a 6456x4288 pixel frame. If you do the math, that is a 27.6 MP image at native resolution! Yowza! Who says you have to wait for Nikon to release the D300x with 28 megapixels? Just imagine the print quality... it will leave you speechless. Now I have both a sweet vertical and a jaw dropping horizontal with a roller coaster ride dropping out of the sky. Too cool. All it took was good alignment and some forward thinking. Who’d have thought two minutes in the amusement park parking lot could be so productive!
...
...
...
...
This is not to say the fireworks that night played second fiddle... they were dazzling...
...
...
...
... or that as I walked out of the amusement park, I shut off my camera or my right brain.
The alignment for these shots was good too, but they are stories for another day.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, sapien platea morbi dolor lacus nunc, nunc ullamcorper. Felis aliquet egestas vitae, nibh ante quis quis dolor sed mauris. Erat lectus sem ut lobortis, adipiscing ligula eleifend, sodales fringilla mattis dui nullam. Ac massa aliquet.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, sapien platea morbi dolor lacus lacusn.r sed dHOME