Two photographs, taken moments apart. Same camera, same subject, same angle (the camera did not move), same lighting. Yet, dramatically different results. What gives?
I made one simple, yet important camera setting change. The top photo was taken with the camera set to "Automatic." The camera shutter speed was automatically set to 1/50 second (the camera decided what was the correct shutter speed and f-stop to give me an acceptable looking photo). The bottom photo was taken with the camera shutter speed manually set at 1.3 seconds. In other words, I took the camera off "Automatic." It made a BIG difference. Here's why.
1/50th of a second is pretty slow by camera standards (just fast enough to be hand-held without blur). It is almost fast enough to stop the water in motion (but not quite; the flowing water is blurred). If you had taken this same photo yourself, and you had your camera set to the "Automatic" setting (as I did), chances are your picture would look similar.
Sometimes though, there are good reasons to take the camera off the "Automatic" setting. The photo on the right benefited from an extremely slow shutter speed. I knew that if I changed the camera setting to "TV" (Canon's term for Time Value or Shutter-Speed) and set the camera shutter speed to a very slow - 1.3 seconds - I could achieve the "cotton-candy" effect I wanted.
In this case, the camera compensated for my slow shutter speed by automatically choosing the correct f-stop (lens opening) to give me a good exposure. The camera chose f-22 to compensate for that really long shutter time (the camera made the lens aperture hole very small).
Also, I did a couple of other things to improve my chances of a good (non-blurry) photo while using that 1.3 second exposure time. I used a tripod weighted with a sand bag for stability. I also set the camera's internal mirror to lock in the "up" position so it would not vibrate my camera while it was opening and closing during my exposure. I also set my camera's timer to ten seconds so I could step away from the tripod and let things settle down before the camera actually opened and closed the shutter.
This may all sound like a lot of work for a simple time-exposure photo. Like a lot of other things though, I am stubborn. I have tried to do this same photo multiple times by hand-holding the camera (no tripod) and using shorter shutter speeds. It just never worked. It was close at times, but close is only good when playing horseshoes.
So, there we have it. Take your camera off “automatic” and turn water into "cotton candy.".
I love old things; especially old signs. In 2010 I took these pictures of an old, run-down (and obviously closed) Texaco gas station, located on a back road, off of another back road, deep in the Texas hill country.
The scene is almost as if time stood still the minute the station closed for the last time. The gasoline price sign reads an amazing 16¢ a gallon (of which 1¢ was federal tax and 5¢ was state tax).
I am older than dirt, but I do not ever remember gasoline being that cheap. I am just guessing this station closed sometime in the early 1960s.
The two blue signs on the door read: “No Smoking” and “No Spitting.”
My family and friends had been riding the Mombasa to Nairobi train all night. The swaying and rocking of Kenya trains always put me to sleep early in the evening and kept me in dreamland all night. During the eighties, when we lived in Kenya, the trains were a wonderful way to travel.
Early in the morning I awoke when that wonderful swaying and rocking slowly ground to a halt. The train had stopped. No more clicky-clack. No more cool breeze. I had no idea where we were but a passing conductor told us that a very large herd of zebra was on the tracks. It might be a while before we could move on.
Our seven year old son Jeff could sleep through anything. He was in an adjacent sleeper car with other children from our group. Lynda and I got dressed and headed for the dining car. If I had to be awake, I might as well enjoy a cup of Kenya java.
Ahhhh, the wonderful smell of freshly brewed Kenya coffee. Dining in a Kenya Railways dining car was dining in style. Great service, white linen table cloths and nice china. What could possibly make this experience any better. Well, as it turns out, only one thing.
While we waited on our fried eggs, bacon and toast to arrive, I opened the window shade next to our table and this was the scene that met our eyes. The awesome Mt Kilimanjaro . . . the grandest mountain in Africa. Pinch me.
The photo below is interesting on several levels.
The image is a time exposure (the red swirls are caused by the glowing end of a burning stick). The girl (my wife Lynda when she was just a wee-young thing in college) was exposed (photographed) on the same frame of film as the glowing stick (double exposure), only she was lighted with a single electronic flash firing from the camera.
She was actually moving her arms around during the exposure (but you could not see that because she was totally in the dark and only the glowing sick was "visible" to the camera). When the flash fired, it stopped all the action. A flash "stops"the action because it goes on and off at about 1/10,000 of a second (give or take a few thousands of a second). If it is dark enough, and your shutter stays open long enough, you can actually have multiple firings of your flash and get multiple images.
The camera I used was a 35mm Nikormat (which I still own) on a tripod, and as I remember the details (circa1969), I opened the camera shutter using the "B" (bulb) setting and did both exposures one right after the other. I believe I manually flashed the strobe using the test button. Regardless how I did it, the principal is still the same.
When I get time I want to do a future blog on "painting with light." In this technique, you open your shutter (using the "B" setting or the camera's timer set to several seconds or even several minutes if it is dark enough) and while it stays open, you walk around your subject (in the total darkness) and "paint" with a flashlight. It works best on stationary objects like rocks or buildings. Painting with light can create stunning photographs.
Oh yeah, back to my photograph; so what's all this "love" stuff in my blog title? Turns out this was the very night, while at a college fraternity party, I realized probably for the first time, that I REALLY had fallen for this lovely girl name Lynda. Shortly after that I asked her to marry me. Forty one years later, here we are . . . two love birds. And, there you have it — the night I fell in love (and coincidentally) the night I learned how to do a "double-exposure."
Let's face it, there are few things more traditional to Americans than fireworks on July 4th. As a photographer, capturing all those colorful sparkles, explosions and swooshes can can be pretty cool. But, photographing at night presents its own set of challenges.
Let's start with what equipment you need to pull it off. These tips are from our online partner Lifepics.
Bring a camera, tripod and flashlight to the fireworks display. It's dark and you'll need longer exposures, so use the tripod to avoid blurry pictures. The flashlight will help you adjust your camera settings in the dark.
Set your camera to Fireworks mode (if you have that feature), which will automatically take care of the settings. If you don't have Fireworks mode, set your camera to Manual mode: ISO 200, aperture f/8, and shutter speed between 5 and 15 seconds. After you take a few pictures, take a look at how they are turning out and adjust the shutter speed accordingly (leave the ISO and f-stop alone).
Take a lot of pictures! You can take over 100 pictures and only keep 2 great ones. The more pictures you take, the greater chance you have of capturing the perfect shot. Be a ruthless editor; you only need one or a few photos to frame and share!
Remember that fireworks come fast and furious during the finale of the show. Therefore, you may need to decrease your shutter speed. 15 seconds will likely be overexposed during the finale. Try 5 seconds instead.
Include a landmark in the photo, such as a statue, stadium, park, lake, or whatever the surrounding area includes. As the fireworks explode, they will light up the landmark beautifully.
If you really want to try your creativity, swirl your fireworks and look at the results. By swirling, I mean, move the camera in circular motions or pan the camera as the fireworks are going off. It takes a lot of practice, but the results can be stunning. I have included some examples below that I personally took in Grandbury, Texas on July 4th several years ago.
Enjoy!
I must admit, when I look back on my years living in East Africa, it seems like a lifetime ago. This particular day though, I remember the details like it was yesterday.
Lynda and I had been trekking across Tanzania's rugged Serengeti plains with our good friends Frank and Jerry Anne Pevey (plus their two young daughters Bethany and Ashley, and our son, Jeff). We were traveling in the Pevey's 4-wheel-drive Toyota Land Cruiser, windows down (most all-terrain vehicles in Africa are not air-conditioned). We were all hot, dirty and hungry. The kids were good troopers, but they wanted out of that vehicle and the sooner the better.
The tsetse flies were everywhere. We were eating red Serengeti dust like it was a fast-food snack. Occasionally, Jerry Anne, in an effort to appease us all, would pull out her stash of Nabisco Teddy Grahams, a treasure from the states, saved back for special occasions like this. Do not ever underestimate the power of Teddy Grahams to sooth the savage beast in a child (or adult for that matter). I still think of that very special trip every time I pass the cracker aisle at Brookshires.
As the evening sun began its final, rapid decent into the desert horizon, I was struck by the contrasts of survival in the Serengeti. The beauty of the orange sky became like a photographer's backdrop to a single, dead acacia tree, probably once a forest of acacias, long since succumbed to the constant badgering of elephant herds.
I am not looking for a spiritual seed behind every scene in nature, but I really was impressed that evening by the beauty and sheer size of this place called the Serengeti.
Our Creator God is an incredible artist with a canvas as big as all outdoors. His creativity is only matched by His love and Grace. Sometimes it takes a landscape like the Serengeti to make you realize the truth in that.
In a few fleeting moments though, that awesome painting would be gone, lost forever (not really, but I sometimes resort to hyperbole in situations like this). The sun was diving fast. It would soon be a missed shot. Shot? Was I deep in philosophical thought, or thinking of taking a picture? Yep! You guessed it. I had to act . . . fast!
"Frank! Stop the truck. Lynda, where's my camera? I have to get this shot."
I am pretty sure the ridiculousness and absurdity of my request was lost on nobody (especially the kids).
Frank stopped. You have to know Frank Pevey; understated, smart, patient . . .this is the man you want covering your back when you are in trouble. I piled out onto the desert floor and got my photo. Life went on and we made it to our destination. Twenty five years later, here I sit telling you about it.
I love to take pictures
Below, the Peveymobile loaded with all the essentials (including a box of Teddy Grahams).
When customers come into our imaging retail store (MotoPhoto in Tyler, Texas) to make prints and posters or visit us online to order prints (www.motophototyler.com) one of the most commonly asked questions we get is about the color of their pictures. After much discussion back and forth, the issues they are having most often boil down to light and more specifically, the "color of light."
Our partners at Lifepics have created a wonderful series of Tips for Digital Camera Owners that is e-mailed to our customers each week and I snagged one of them here. If you would like to subscribe, e-mail me here (ron@motophototyler.com). I will get you signed up.
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The human eye is an amazing thing in so many ways, and cameras work so hard to try to replicate it. However, no matter how much money you invest into your fancy new camera, the truth is that it will never equal the versatility of the eye. No matter what color of light nature throws us, the human eye converts it into a seemingly white balance. Of course, extreme color shifts are noticed, but more subtle shifts in color go pretty much unnoticed. For instance, we can be in our living room at night with only light bulbs to light the room and our eye sees that light as white. In reality, the color is very red (warm). We can walk on a beach before dawn and our eyes will once again balance to white, but if you took out your camera and took a picture, the scene would be very blue (cool).
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 Color Temperature
This all has a very technical explanation, but for the sake of simplicity, just know that the basic color temperature (Kelvin scale) runs from red to white to blue. So what light sources tend to the warm (red) side? Candlelight, tungsten light bulbs, sunrise, and sunset. White? High noon and electronic flash. What about cool (blue) tones? Overcast days, open shade, early morning or evening, and indirect window light. That is the color scale for most light; however, there are artificial light sources that will turn all sorts of funky colors. Vapor lights will glow greenish yellow. Some pulse green and magenta. From a photographer's perspective, all these variables are tricky.
Your camera does have a white balance, similar to the human eye, and sometimes it does a pretty good job. However, if you get into a mixed light situation, you get some pretty bizarre color shifts. For instance, if you were in that room at night with only light bulbs to light the room and then you used your flash, you would see some rich colors. The flash is white, but the light in the background will be very red.
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Color and Emotion
So how do you make all this work to your advantage? Color has all kinds of emotional tie ins. Blue tends to trigger a cold or moody feeling, while red and yellow are hot and full of hope. Your job as a photographer is to know how your camera will read those lights and make a decision how you want it to record. You can turn on your White Balance and try to bring it back to white. You can intentionally let that old tired building go blue to give a sense of cold and decay. You can let your portrait session go reddish to play up the heat. Don't ever let your camera make the call for you. Be in control and create your own work of art. 
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Camera Settings
Most cameras have different settings that correspond to color correction or white balance. They are normally illustrated with abbreviations or symbols.
Auto: Attempts to white balance any shot
Daylight: Adds a little blue
Shade: Adds red or yellow to warm up a photo taken in open shade
Cloudy: Similar to Shade but a different level of red is added
Custom: If you really want to control the tone you can set it anywhere from cool to warm
Flash: If you are using an external flash
White Fluorescent: Adds magenta to counter a green tint
Tungsten Bulb: Adds blue to counter a reddish light bulb
You can shift to one of these settings to instantly see the difference in tone. Use them to your advantage. Sometimes AWB isn't always what you intended to do. Ever photograph a gorgeous sunset and have your camera try to neutralize the tones? If you were set to AWB, your camera sees all that red and try to compensate to bring it back to white. .
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Look Around
As an experiment today, try to really watch the color of light as your day progresses. Pro photographers get very good at reading the subtle nuances. You can too. Notice the warm glow of morning and the white hot quality of high noon. See how blue it looks in the deep shade and watch it creep back to deep blue at twilight. You will be surprised at how good you can get at it. Besides, it's a nice way to look at the world around you. Take the time to notice, and you will be that much better as a photographer. 
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Using Motophoto's Online Prints
Ever had red eye ruin a great photo? Well, don't let that happen again. Use our red eye removal tool to restore people's eyes back to their natural color. In your account, click "My Web Photos," select the image to edit, click the "Edit" button, and choose "Edit/Crop Photo" from the list. This will open the editing tools. Choose the "Red Eye" option from the left and adjust the red eye as needed.
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technical series
