Using just one light source to create a photograph can be a fun challenge. You could take it as a chance to wonder what is lurking in the shadows. Anyway, I was trying it out the other day and I here is what I came up with:
ISO 100 50mm 0 ev f/1.8 1/5
My art supplies, one light, and a tripod.
Cheers!
Here is a subject that was hard to shoot:
ISO 1000 50mm 0ev f/2.2 1/25
This is Batty and Scar. They are Straw-Colored Fruit Bats that live at the World Bird Sanctuary in St. Louis Missouri. I set my white balance to florescent, because that seemed to get the truest to real life color result. The bats are in an enclosure, so I got as close as possible to get as much of that out of the picture as possible.
The lighting casts some pretty harsh shadows, so in Aperture I lightened the bat that is further back in the frame. I also messed with the curves slider to get the color the way I wanted it. The photo has also been cropped and sharpened.
Cheers!
This photo below I took for my digital photography class where we are working on artificial lighting and portraits.
ISO 3200 f/1.8 1/400 2ev 50mm
This photo was shot outside after dark using two flash lights for light. In order to get detail I boosted the ISO and the exposure. Not a typical portrait, but we were encouraged to experiment a bit and come up with something different.
Cheers!
I took this shot for a competition that has “Animals in Black and White” as its theme:
ISO f/3.2 1/6400 -1ev 50mm
The lighting was a bit tricky because there were a lot of shadows. This was originally shot in color and then converted to black and white in Aperture. I also lightened some of the shadows, cropped, and sharpened the image.
I used a 50mm lens, tripod, and high shutter speed to get the sharpest photo possible.
What do you think? Anything you would have done differently?
The image is also available for sale on my website.
Cheers!
One of these days this parrot is going to squawk, “get the picture right already!”:
ISO 160 f/1.8 1/15 50mm
So, what I have right here is the lens. I was using a 50mm, and given that the bird is close and has so many lovely colored feathers, I am using that lens to capture those details.
Here is what went wrong. I was taking a picture of something else with a lot less light, just a minute before, and I forgot to change the f-stop before taking the picture. The light in this place is crazy, but for this shot, there is no way a 1.8 is necessary or even a good thing. So, I am letting in light I don’t need and losing depth of field which I do need.
Also, my white balance was set to florescent, but I think I will try tungsten next time, just to see if I prefer it. It is a bit odd, because usually in this room, florescent works best. For this parrot, I have tweaked the settings in the post editing process.
So, because I was surprised by this bird, I also didn’t think enough about framing the shot, hence the huge blown out white behind its head, which in some cases might work, but not in this one.
In writing this all out, I am hoping to take the photo differently when I get the chance. Anything else I should consider? Thanks for reading!
Cheers!
I got these shots with a 50mm lens. The challenge here was the lighting and the movement of the eagle. With this first shot in particular, it was a question of not being quite close enough, but the water coming off the bird’s head is cool.
ISO 800 50mm f/1.8 1/2000
ISO 800 50mm f/3.2 1/400
ISO 800 50mm f/6.3 1/160
Looking at these photos, I think next time I will try shooting with a lower ISO.
Cheers!
ISO 100 50mm f/3.5 1/50
This owl was injured as a chick and has never lived in the wild. Blends nicely with the background here doesn’t it? This shot was taken with the 50mm lens I have borrowed. It chose to use it because there was not a lot of light and I wanted to freeze the motion of the bird as much as possible.
ISO 100 50mm f/2 1/100
This second photo was also taken using the 50mm lens.
ISO 100 125mm f/5.6 1/8
For this photo I switched to my 28-135mm lens. What I ended up liking about this shot was the sudden light that was on the owl’s face. I used my tripod for all these shots.
Cheers!
I am not certain what noise had caught this red kangaroo’s attention, but it was moving it’s ears around in an attempt to hear something.
ISO 250 135mm f/5.6 1/60
ISO 250 135mm f/5.6 1/60
As you can tell, the lighting was tough. There is quite a bit of detail missing in the kangaroo.
Cheers!
Slices of bread seemed to be a popular treat for these red kangaroos. I wasn’t the one feeding them, I’ll leave that to the professionals, but it did bring them closer to my camera.
ISO 250 135mm f/5.6 1/30
The lighting was difficult in this shot, but I ended up going with the sunny setting on my white balance to get what I thought was the closest representation of the right color.
Cheers!
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