Autumn Care

Greetings and welcome to Hohenfels Volks, THE place for our place! Here in Hohenfels, the Sun made a couple cameo appearances but wasn’t able to stir up any kind of significant warmth. The rain put a damper on the spirits, as did the fact that it’s a workday!

With autumn’s brutally chilled arrival, we’re nearing the time to shoot some real color! There’s always some excitement about the colors, shapes, textures, and patterns that accompany autumnal photography. As I mentioned in yesterday’s quote, now’s a great time to think about negative space and the use of color to create tension, balance, and harmony in your photos, and bring about the connection you’d like to make.


ISO 800, f/11, 1/60
These flowers were shot at the Hermitage in Bayreuth. A Wratten #8, yellow, filter was used. By using the filter, the green was brought up slightly, and the white flowers separated from both the red flowers and green leaves. By allowing a rich grey-black to fall on the leaves and red flowers, a velvety feeling of negative space results. While fragmented and carrying visual detail, it is by no means the subject, and yet becomes a subject of its own.

Along with the march of color into the dreariness ahead, comes other factors that photographers should take note of. First, is the rapid decrease in temperatures, the drop in temperature can take the starch out of an exciting day. Another factor is the rain, always something to be ready for in our Hohenfels area. Getting your camera wet can lead to issues that no one wants!

One of the biggies, I’ve found, is the increase in static. For the most part, photographers don’t have to worry about while photographing with digital cameras. It’s when the time comes to change cards or clean your sensor, or even change your lens that it becomes an issue. A typical “zap” can have as much as 30,000 volts jumping from one surface to another. Enough to ruin your day if it arcs over onto your sensor. Since most folks don’t clean their sensors beyond a squirt from a bulb blower, it’s pretty reasonable to say that the standard precautions are sufficient.

With film, though, static can be a big problem. Advancing film, rewinding film, activating the shutter, removing a dark slide, all these things can cause an arc that will ruin your shot. The can also damage your shutter curtains if your camera uses cloth. In the driest and coldest weather, it could damage your sensor, but that’s unlikely.

The biggest threat to digital cameras during this time of year is the condensation from thermal transitions. That’s a fancy way of saying going inside from outside. I’ve found one of the best ways to protect anything is a Ziploc bag and 30 minutes. Don’t plug your camera in, put your card in your reader, or power on your camera when you first come in. The temperature change can cause moisture, which we all know, doesn’t sit well with electronics! Think about glasses fogging over when you come in from the cold!

Another awesome tip- when you get in from the cold, make a big cup of hot cocoa, with extra chocolate. It’ll warm you up, and give time for your gear to reach a suitable temperature! It helps if you have someone to share it with. A nice cup of cocoa with my little princess makes for some fun talk time, and 30 minutes is gone before you know it!

Now’s the time get scouting and planning your autumn shots. Figure out where and when, the rest will follow. Then, make your shot and share it with us on our Hohenfels Volks Facebook page. We’d love to see your work.

Is there anything you’d like to see here? Do you have a question? Share your thoughts here or at the Hohenfels Volks Facebook page. Of course, commenting on both Facebook and here is always appreciated, too! Don't forget, Hohenfels Volks is on Google+, too!

Cheat...

Greetings and welcome to Hohenfels Volks, THE place for our place! Wow, a long has passed since our last post! Hohenfels has been in the grip of a dark and dreary winter. The warmth of the holidays and time with loved ones speeds the passing of winter, although not nearly enough.

Today we’re going to discuss the possibilities of making a quick cheat sheet for our camera bag.

Our cheat sheet won’t have everything to make us better photographers, that’s the job of the individual, but it will make a handy reference for quick calculations in the field. We’re just sharing some common knowledge and quick facts to tuck away for when you’re out shooting.

The first thing to remember is the “Sunny 16” rule. This simply states that in full sunlight, on a clear bright day, with an average brightness, set your aperture to f/16, and your shutter speed to 1/film speed. You’ll almost nail most of the time. For instance, at ISO 100, shooting at f/16, you should be shooting at 1/100 second.

This can be extrapolated to the following combinations, based on lighting:
f/11 at 1/ISO for hazy sunlight with soft shadows,
f/8 at 1/ISO for cloudy bright conditions, without shadows and an obscure sun, and
f/5.6 at 1/ISO for dull and cloudy, dark skies and no sun.

These values pertain to daytime shooting only, and will get you in the right place for most situations. If you’re shooting in open shade, open your aperture 2-4 stops, depending on your subject brightness. This may mean shooting at slower speeds, so keep that in mind.

Another useful bit for you deals with motion. First, subjects at a distance will allow slower speeds. Second, direction of motion and speed of motion are important factors in shutter speed, as well. A subject moving directly toward or away from the camera allows a slower shutter speed. With a direction of motion at 45 degrees to the camera, you will usually shoot at double the head on speed, and at 90 degrees direction, at 4 times quicker.

For subjects moving directly toward or away, shutter speeds of up 1/25 allow for good images, at speeds of 5-10 MPH and distances at 100 feet or more. The same subject at 25 feet, doing 60 MPH at 25 feet requires 1/400 or faster. At 90 degrees, 100 feet, doing 5 MPH requires 1/400 shutter. Keep these in mind when out shooting action or motion, and you can generally get better shots.

Of course, the above information is in no way complete, or 100% accurate, but it does provide some general guidelines. Keep these couple tidbits in mind, and you can dial in your exposure manually and get the levels, and therefore, the image, you desire. Little bits of knowledge add up, and when put together, can make you one of the photographers who can make your shots match your vision.

I hope that everyone will try to out together their own cheat sheet, make the shot, and share it with us on our Hohenfels Volks Faceboook page.

Is there anything you’d like to see here? Do you have a question? Share your thoughts here or at the Hohenfels Volks Facebook page. Of course, commenting on both Facebook and here is always appreciated, too! Don't forget, we're on Google+, too!

10,000 Revisited

Greetings, volks. Welcome to Hohenfels Volks, THE place for our place! Everywhere you look, you’ll see white! Winter is here for the long haul, and that means it’s time to get some seasonal shots. I hope everyone is getting geared up for Christmas and some great photography.

Earlier today, we had blue skies and some nice clouds, perfect for the landscape shooter in all of us. Of course, things turned ugly quick, and left us in the midst of a dark and icy wall of snow. As often happens, the sun managed to beat back the snow and again we were ready for making some great shots.

Enough weather, that’s not what we’re here for, right? Today we’re going to talk about pride and accomplishment. It’s also a chance for an exercise in good old-fashioned photography. Even though we’re using our digital cameras, and often forget the importance of each shot we make, we can return to the old ways. Remember, as Henri Cartier-Bresson said, “You’re first ten thousand shots are your worst.” In a much older post, we addressed this and modified it to be about 100,000 to 1,000,000 shots. This is due to the inherent nature of instantaneous feedback and automatic cameras.

In the earliest days of photography, folks used glass plates for their negatives. Then film came along. In those early days, your film, or plate, was only sensitive to blue light. This made balancing your light and color very important. With the advent of thinner films and panchromatic emulsions, more sensitivity was added. Then, of course, came color film. When you shot either a sheet or roll, you couldn’t change your ISO or color balance. Film and digital sensors can be thought of as the same thing, and for the rest of this article will be used interchangeably.

Film costs money. It cost money in the old days, as well. When a photographer made shots, he weighed the value of the film and the shot. Every photograph was precious, and had to be made with care. Exposure, color balance, even composition had to be weighed and given some measure of value in relation to the photo. Photography took time, to both master, and in terms of the individual image created. Light meters for measuring exposure, going back to the 1800’s, are available on auction sites all over the internet. Focusing aids, powder flashes, apertures, and even shutters were part of the photographer’s knowledge. In many of the older lenses, the aperture was adjusted using an insert placed in the lens at the time of the photo.

Now that we see how valuable the image was, and the knowledge to make an image, we can see how those early photos, and those that have come down to us through the years, were not the product of guesswork or automation.

For the next few days, try doing an exercise in film. Choose one ISO for your camera, choose one color balance, and only limit yourself to 36 shots per session. Remember, getting your color balance and ISO right will require thought and planning. It will also require learning about your intended shooting situation. If you’re shooting outside, shoot in daylight or around 5200K, and inside shoot at tungsten or around 3200K. If you’re shooting in bright conditions, choose ISO 100, in the dark ISO 800. Finish your 36 shots before changing your settings. Also, don’t look at your images on the camera monitor, or delete any shot. Wait until you get home to see what you have. This will encourage you to value your images, while also helping you improve.


EI 500, f/5.6, 1/60, 56mm
I couldn't resist this shot, the mix of shapes, textures, and tones are intriguing! Shooting manual all day, let me have control of the camera, instead of the camera controlling me. It also allowed me to use my knowledge to get what I wanted.

This little exercise will require you to know your camera settings, it will require the knowledge to get the shot right, and it will allow for a sense of visualization to settle in. Visualizing your image is an incredibly useful tool in photography. This is a great time to undertake this exercise, as our changing weather conditions, and lighting, will challenge even the best without proving impossible with a little effort. As an added bonus, it’ll make every shoot an adventure, and every moment until the photos are loaded like Christmas. It’s a fun way to experience the anticipation of Christmas with a gift in every session! It’ll also make shorter work of getting the best shots, since you’ll be improving with each photo made. You’ll also develop your confidence, which always helps! Remember, a great camera doesn’t make a great photographer, any more than a great kitchen makes a great cook.

Please feel free to share your photos on our Facebook page. Everyone here would love the chance to see your work! Is there anything you’d like to see here? Do you have a question or an idea? Share your thoughts here or at the Hohenfels Volks Facebook page. Of course, commenting on both Facebook and here is always appreciated, too! Don't forget, we're on Google+, too!

Necessary Tools

Greetings, volks. Welcome to Hohenfels Volks, THE place for our place! The weekend, upon us, should lead to some exciting photo opportunities in and around the Hohenfels area.

I often talk about using accessories. A flash and some light modifiers can be essential tools in our kits. Today we’re going to talk about tools and not having them.

The first thing to know is that you don’t need it all. You don’t need a flash or lighting kit, you don’t need the wide fixed focal length lens, and you don’t need fancy intervalometers. In fact, you only really need your camera and your lens. Actually, you need 2 more things, your vision, and your knowledge.

Your vision is more than how you see things. It consists of how you see things and how you choose to express those things. It also consists of being able to visualize the intended final image and the steps to make it happen. Visualization allows us to plan and compose our image being we even approach our camera. It allows us to create a roadmap of our image’s creation and gives us the ability to follow through on our expression of the scene. One long time technique to aid in visualizing an image is to take an old 35mm slide frame and view your potential scene through the opening. You’ll see new ways to frame and compose an image. You can use a piece of black matting with a 1.5 to 1 ratio rectangle cut out. That opening can be 6x9, 10x15, or 4x6. The 1.5 to 1 is what 35mm film and today’s digital cameras use. This isn’t a tool in creating your image, but it is a tool in crafting your vision. Try it out, and let me know how it works for you. There are many nuances to vision and visualization that we’re not touching on in this post, so don’t think that’s all there is to it.

Our knowledge refers to our ability to use our camera for our purposes and art rather than letting the camera use us for its work. It’s knowing how to evoke a response to a scene and how to compose that scene for aesthetic rather that literal rendering. It involves knowing how our camera operates and how exposure works. Learning the exposure triangle and where along the range of values a brightness falls will be a giant step in mastering your vision. Knowing how and when to use DOF effects for impact and contrast to increase drama, knowing that a cloud should be exposed at about 2 stops over meter, maybe 3 if the your vision feels the need, is a key knowledge. So is knowing that long evening shadows cast by the low lying sun journeying home need to be at 2-3 stops below meter to capture the full range of detail.

Combining vision and knowledge can be a frustrating journey. It can also be incredibly rewarding. The key is to open yourself to learning and seeing every day. Once you feel your vision, you’ll start noticing things you never saw, and trying to figure out the best way to make your vision real. You’ll also notice that it isn’t about the gear, it’s about your image and art.

Do I still think of my tools as necessities? Of course I do. I love a portrait with shaped, directional light. I love getting a tiny bit of bounce into a shadow area. Using an umbrella to soften your light is a tried and true way to improve many photographs, not just portraits. Can I visualize an image without thinking about my tools? Of course I can. When I’m shooting large landscapes, a flash won’t help, neither will a reflector. The key is thinking the shot through before making it.

Enjoy the weekend, everyone. I hope you spend it capturing the moments that express your vision best!

Is there anything you’d like to see here? Do you have a question? Share your thoughts here or at the Hohenfels Volks Facebook page. Of course, commenting on both Facebook and here is always appreciated, too! Don't forget, we're on Google+, too!

Shooting What You Eat

Greetings, volks. Welcome to Hohenfels Volks, THE place for our place! Things have been rainy here, but that gives us the chance to show the stormy side of Hohenfels and our surrounds. I trust you’ve bagged some cloud shots!

One of our Facebook readers, Lili, asks “For those of us who don't own an external flash unit, or simply can't afford any sort of lighting equipment; what are the tricks to making food look more appealing and vibrant, and not so flat and 2 dimensional?” We’re addressing that in tonight’s post, so bring your appetite and let’s get going.

The first thing to know is that flash, while an important part of your kit, isn’t necessary for all types of photography, nor at all times. Flash can help by adding light, allowing the use of faster shutter speeds, and by allowing us to shape the feeling our images evoke by shaping the light. There are other ways to accomplish this, though. Let’s look at how we can achieve that.

There are multiple ways to shape existing light. Let’s start by moving your food toward an area that has plenty of the light you’d like. From there, you can modify that light with everyday household items. A pillowcase can be used to soften and spread the light, covering a larger area with nice gentle light. You can use it to shape the light by varying your angle and position. In a previous post, we mentioned the inverse square law that says doubling the distance between a light source and subject gives ¼ the light level. You can see that by tilting the angle between your pillow case diffuser and subject creates the illusion of distance and depth.

Another way to add or shape light is to use a reflector. You can use foil or a 5 in 1 kit to bounce light in from outside the immediate area. This allows you to concentrate your light where you want it, and increase your luminance levels. Again, tilting and angling your bounce can shape the light. A nice little thing to try is bringing your light in from about 45 degrees above your subject, illuminating the top and side. This allows the light to taper, and when you add the softness of the light, creates some depth. You can use a large white piece of gator foam, a piece of matting, or even a cookie sheet.

Another thing you can do is use your pop up flash. I never thought I’d say that, but with a little ingenuity, some foil, and a diffuser, you can add some depth. The trick to this is bouncing the light in from off the lens axis. I’ve used my external flash on camera to bring in lighting from 45 degrees to the side before, just with a piece of white mat. Remember, though, that bouncing your light costs you some of its power and range.

Now we’re going to move on to the best way to add some detail and vibrance. The big secret is DOF, depth of field. Using a longer focal length at a very wide aperture will give you a limited DOF. If you are shooting at 50mm, f/5.6, and focus at 2 feet, your DOF runs from about half an inch in front of your focal point to about the same behind it. You have a little over 1 inch of depth. Anything outside that range will become progressively out of focus. Taking into account the angle from which you’re shooting, you can create some nice little focal points within your scene. I like to think of it as pools of focus. When you place these at locations other than the center, you get some nice depth and intensity. Shooting outside in open or semi-open shade can also give more light and add elements of interest. The key to this is distance between the background and subject. You also want to make sure your focus is spot on where you want it, allowing your subject to leap out from the background in the finished image.

An easy thing to do is set up some Christmas lights or other small lights several feet behind your subject and shoot focused on your subject at your widest aperture. Do this in lower light, bringing in light with a flash or reflector. You’ll see some small circles of light that are incredibly out of focus, adding immediate interest to the scene if done right.

To boost the intensity of your color, shoot at about 1/3 to 1 stop lower that you meter for. By slightly underexposing your scene, you improve color density, saturation, and vibrance. It makes for less time spent editing and more time shooting.

Here are 2 images that show how using DOF can create an interesting sense of the meal or food.


ISO 800, f/5, 1/30, 44mm
Notice the DOF on this. By focusing toward the center of the ribs and allowing the highlights to fall higher than normal, interest is added in the meat, even though the pepper would seem to dominate. The pepper is diminished in strength through a shallow DOF, and the sharply blurred foreground end of it.


ISO 800, f/5, 1/60, 41mm
By focusing on the back edge of the meat, sharpness is retained along the kabob, while bringing down the interest in the cucumber and tomato through minimizing DOF. The spices and browning on the meat hold quite well. Having dominant, complimentary colors, such as red and green, can decrease interest in the main subject. By decreasing their dominance through either DOF or lighting values, interest is brought back to YOUR subject.

Thank you, Lili, for the great question. I hope this gives you some ideas and helps you shoot what you eat the way you like it!

Is there anything you’d like to see here? Do you have a question? Remember, I'll try to answer all your questions. Share your thoughts here or at the Hohenfels Volks Facebook page. Of course, commenting on both Facebook and here is always appreciated, too! Don't forget, we're on Google+, too!

Back to Basics...

Greetings, volks. Welcome to Hohenfels Volks, THE place for our place! I hope this lovely evening finds you relaxed and excited about photography here in Hohenfels.

Today we’re going back to basics. We’re talking about one side of the “exposure triangle,” shutter speed.

Shutter speed is, of course, how fast your shutter opens and returns to the closed position. That sounds simple, but like all things in photography, it involves much more than that. Because SLRs use a single moving mirror to allow the composing of an image through your lens, and focusing through the lens, also, that has to be factored in. In long exposures, this can lead to vibrations and shake.

The complexities that go into allowing super fast shutter speeds are too many to discuss here, but we will touch on a couple issues.

Today’s shutters are usually made of metal blades, allowing them slide behind one another and achieve faster speeds. Because they are firm, they are also more durable. Early SLRs used silk shutters, which could snag and tear, or even develop pinholes, causing a waste of entire rolls of film. Most of the SLRs you’re likely to have encountered have curtain shutters that slide up and down. On older cameras, leaf shutters were common, which allowed flash synchronization at all speeds. They generally couldn’t achieve reliable speeds above 1/500 at the top end. They also used clockwork like mechanisms to open the shutter exposing the entire shot or sensor simultaneously to whatever light was present and exposed for.

On today’s cameras, shutter speeds that are very fast do not expose the entire sensor at once. Instead, they use a pair of “curtains” that travel along the focal plane and are synchronized to create a slit of light that progresses until the entirety of the sensor has been exposed. Due to this fact, most entry-level cameras can flash synch anywhere from 1/60-1/200, with high-end dSLRs being capable of synching up to 1/250. If you use your flash at any shutter speed faster than your sync speed, you will have dark bands along part of your scene.

Each halving or doubling of your shutter speed causes a doubling or halving of the exposure to which your sensor is exposed. Most of our better modern cameras can shoot from 30 seconds to 1/8000 second, and include a bulb mode for manual exposures longer than 30 seconds.

The series of shutter speeds, in full stops goes like this:
30 seconds, 15 seconds, 8 seconds, 4 seconds, 2 seconds, 1 second, ½, ¼, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, 1/2000, 1/4000, and 1/8000. Notice the halving of exposure with each change of speed.

Adding in half stops gives you:
24 seconds, 12 seconds, 6 seconds, 3 seconds, 1.5 seconds, 1/3, 1/6, 1/10, 1/20, 1/45, 1/90, 1/180, 1/350, 1/750, 1/1500, 1/3000, and 1/6000.

Finally adding in the third stop increments gives you the following series:
13 seconds, 10 seconds, 6 seconds, 5 seconds, 3 seconds, 2.5 seconds, 1.6 seconds, 1.3 seconds, .6 second, .4 second, 1/5, 1/6, 1/10, 1/13, 1/20, 1/25, 1/40, 1/50, 1/80, 1/100, 1/160, 1/200, 1/320, 1/400, 1/640, 1/800, 1/1250, 1/1600, 1/2500, 1/3200, 1/5000, and finally 1/6400.

The complete range allows for shooting in all lighting situations. They also allow for shots that will freeze even the fastest action or blur even the slightest movement. The creative potential of using your shutter speed in combination with the other sides of the triangle is limited only by your imagination. Try some motion blur, or try panning with a moving object to get the sense of motion and speed. Try to capture a hummingbird’s wings without blur. Remember, though, that every change in one side of the triangle requires a change in another side to maintain the same exposure.

Here's a photo, taken at a local fest, that shows how shutter speed can be used creatively.


ISO 125, f/16, 4 seconds
The ferris wheel, with a long exposure for motion blur in the ride, turned into a color wheel!

Back to basics, get there and get the shot using the knowledge you have and your unique vision. I’m convinced that shooting for the basics can help keep us on top of our game and give us another way to expand our potential.

I’d love to know what you think and what you’re doing with your photography. Where are you headed, and is there anything you’d like to see here? Share your thoughts here or at the Hohenfels Volks Facebook page. Of course, commenting on both Facebook and here is always appreciated, too! Don't forget, we're on Google+, too!

Better Late...

Greetings, volks. Welcome to Hohenfels Volks, THE place for our place! Greetings, volks, from Hohenfels. Another weekend passes into the ether of memory, preserved with our cameras and vision.

I hope you’ve had a chance to explore the new layout. By adding our links to another page, we’re able to expand them without limit and improve on the resources we can present. I’m currently working on an advanced section, covering metering, lighting, and other things beyond the basics.

This past weekend provided some excellent opportunities to make some photos and spend some time relaxing. I trust everyone made their shots and got their chill on, as it were.

Here’s what I’m looking at from for future posts. Beginners and Basics, Advanced Concepts and Techniques, Q and A, Composition, both elements and advanced, Reviews, and of course, continuing with our ride along shots and other items. I’d love to hear from everyone out there, if you have a suggestion, idea, or question, let us know through our Facebook link.

I’m going to close this post today with the following photo, made Saturday in Munich. Ride along with me, as we explore the shot as laid out.


Olympiazentrum in Munich.

As you can see, this was taken at Olympia Zentrum, the compound built for the 1972 Munich Olympics. Given the amount of visitors that flow through Munich on any given day, not to mention annually, the difficulty is composing your image. The difficulty arises when one realizes that just about every conceivable way of showing the park and Zentrum has most likely been shot. Add the featureless sky, and you’re destined for disappointment.

Walking around the lake and park presented some wonderful shots, some of which I took. The problem was in trying to make an image that was different from all the cookie cutter see and shoot snapshots you see everywhere. We all see the same shots and most of take them. Without ever moving around or seeing with a slightly different point of view, we cut our cookie with our neighbor’s dime store mold.

Stopping to view the flowers and see if I could work them into a shot, I was presented with this view. I knew this shot would give my cookie a life of its own, I metered the flowers at about 500 c/ft2, or about 1 ½ stops brighter than the sky. Setting my camera to f/11 at 1/60 gave me about M+3 on the flowers and M+2ish on the sky. It also allowed the trees and building detail to come through and hold their values quite well. I edited the shot for N-1, giving a nice separation to the sky and flower values, while allowing the trees to retain a large amount of color. Shooting slower allowed some nice DOF softening at the building and trees, without detracting from their form or impact.

This image gives me, what I feel is a departure from the everyday scenes of the place, without removing the ability to tell where it was taken, and at the same time departs slightly from a literal rendering of the scene by placing the values where I visualized them. Visualizing is an important part of any image-creating endeavor, and must be practiced. This little exercise allowed me to improve my skills while on a family outing.

This week's exercise is to visualize a shot of something mundane; creating a scene that you can take ownership of with pride. See the scene as you want to show it, think through the steps to make it a reality, and then make the shot. Practice this, shoot for your vision, and exercise your creativity, you’ll love what starts happening. You’ll love your creations that stand apart from every other shot of the same thing.

I’m looking forward to seeing your results and hearing from you. Get the comments, thoughts, and questions coming. Let me know what you think and how you’re using your camera! Share your thoughts here or at the Hohenfels Volks Facebook page. Of course, commenting on both Facebook and here is always appreciated, too! Don't forget, we're on Google+, too!

Exercise, Not Just for the Body!

Greetings, volks. Welcome to Hohenfels Volks, THE place for our place! I hope everyone had a great Easter, and enjoyed the weekend, snow and all.

This week’s exercise is going to go hand in hand with our last post. Last week, we shot only on a single prime, or if you only have a zoom, at a single focal length. Keeping that limitation in place, we’re moving on to this week’s.


ISO 400, f/11, 1/50, HP5+ developed normal with tea for slight compensation in shadows.
Looking down the alley between the bakery and St. Ulrich in Hohenfels towards the priest's residence. One of 48 taken at 75mm with the fixed focal length Ikoflex TLR.

Friday we spoke of the golden hour and the blue hour, and the quality of light present during these times. Have you given any thought to shooting at these times? Perhaps you’ve shot a magnificent sunset, but didn’t stick around to see the amazing light after that. Don’t worry; with this exercise, the chance is here to do just that.

This week, you should choose a very narrow window of time during the day, either the golden hour or the blue hour, and only shoot at that time during the entire week. Maybe every day, or maybe just one, but every shot during the week should be at about that same time every day over the course of the week.

Of course, to add depth and a challenge to the exercise, you can, and maybe should, continue using one focal length or prime lens. By learning to use only 1 length or lens, and only shooting at 1 time of day, you learn to see the light and how you can make it work for you.

Learning to see the possibilities of lighting, and equipment limitations can vastly improve your compositional skills and make for some unexpected awesomeness. You may need to use a flash or some other artificial light source, but that’s to be expected. Use what tools you have. Silhouettes work great during the blue hour, and during the golden hour, partial silhouettes can make for some great expressions of your vision.

I hope everyone will be out doing the exercise this week and share the wonderful results that they create. I also hope you’ll look beyond the limitations and see the opportunities.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Don’t forget to post any of your images you’d like to see here at the Hohenfels Volks Facebook page. Of course, commenting on both Facebook and here is always appreciated, too! Don't forget, we're on Google+, too!

Announcing...

Greetings, volks. Welcome to Hohenfels Volks, THE place for our place! Welcome to another post.

With the wonderful weather and some time to relax, I haven’t done much posting lately. I apologize, but keeping up with family, work, and photography has kept me busy. I hope everyone has been enjoying the last week or so of great weather and the joy of spring! With the start of Spring and better weather, I know I’ll be out more with my cameras and family making some great shots.

Speaking of great shots, it’s time to talk about some ways we can improve our photography. One of the best ways we can improve is to learn to look, see, and use what we have to get the shot we visualized. To that end, we’re going to start a new weekly exercise here at Hohenfels Volks. Rather that going back to themes right now, I thought we’d try this to see how it works out.

The exercises may involve themes, but will revolve around techniques and learning by placing limitations or requirements for certain shots. Should anyone want to post your results, we’d be more than happy to accept and put them up here. Of course, your pics do not have to be related to themes or exercises to be put up, we’d love to see what you’re doing with your camera!

Here's a pic from Prague to get the juices going!


ISO 800, f/5.6, 1/25, 55mm
The Bread Basket. Rustic rye break in a restaurant in Prague. Metered for the bread shadows, and stopped down 2 stops.

That’s about it for today. Tomorrow we’ll do something on limitations and expectations, leading into Monday’s exercise. I hope everyone will tune in and start to look for some great shots. Have a great evening and see you tomorrow!

Don’t forget to post any of your images you’d like to see here at the Hohenfels Volks Facebook page. Of course, commenting on both Facebook and here is always appreciated, too! Don't forget, we're on Google+, too!

Shot Records

Greetings, volks. Welcome to Hohenfels Volks, THE place for our place! The wonderful weather has given rise to many photographic opportunities; I hope you’ve taken advantage of it to create some art.

Today we’re going to discuss the importance if shot records. No… not a transcript of your vaccinations. We’re going to talk about recording information about your shots as a learning tool.


A sample shot record

In the above shot, you have fields for all the important information. If you remember in a previous post, we discussed the exposure formula. If you recall, your shutter speed should be the reciprocal of the luminance in foot-candles, at your key stop. Your key stop is the square root of your ISO, or the nearest stop to it. For ISO 100, it’s f/10, ISO 125 it’s f/11, ISO 400 it’s f/20 and so on. In the sample record, we see that shot 3 was ISO 125, metered at f/11. At our mid-tones, we metered 1/200, which means we have 200 foot-candles in the middle of the scale. Notice that trying to keep the middle values properly exposed, we changed to f/16 at 1/100, which gives us the same exposure, but more DOF.

By tracking your shots with something similar, you can keep track of what levels you want to record at the desired exposures and refer back to it once your images are on the computer. Another nice thing about it is the ability to recall where and when you took a shot.

By recording your meter readings, you know how to move your image areas to the desired exposure, according to your vision. In the same example, we see the shadows read 1/25 at f/11. That would expose for 18% gray, as we all know by now. By stopping down 2 stops, say to 1/100, we keep our texture in the shadow areas of the image, while allowing our gray to move up to 18% +1 stop, giving a brighter overall appearance to our image and creating a bit of glow about our middle values. This is especially true when they are surrounded by slightly darker tones, and an even, soft light.

The simple fact is that shot records help us learn, as we examine our images and review our settings, we see how to improve our exposures. We also see how to create better lighting and impact by changing values. I am often remiss in keeping records of my settings as I take the shot, but have a form that I use taken from Ansel Adams’s book, The Negative. It uses zones and luminance values, and includes details on development and the like.

As we move through the phases on our journey toward crafting and making the perfect photo, we can see where we’ve been, and where we’re headed if we keep records. In today’s digital age, EXIF gives us our ISO, f/stop, shutter speed, and other information. The things it can’t give us are our luminance values, meter readings for other than middle gray, and it certainly can’t tell us the real subject of the shot.

That’s enough for today. I hope everyone has the chance to work on crafting their images and creating their masterpiece! Just remember to record the details. Enjoy the rest of your week!

Don’t forget to post any of your images you’d like to see here at the Hohenfels Volks Facebook page. Of course, commenting on both Facebook and here is always appreciated, too! Don't forget, we're on Google+, too!

Jot...

Greetings, volks. Welcome to Hohenfels Volks, THE place for our place! I hope everyone is warm and well, and with all this snow, is staying dry! We were hit by a virus, which limited updating of our site for a few days. All is now well, and photography never rest in Hohenfels!

Today’s post is going to just be a quick one. First, we’re not doing a theme this week. Only 2 votes were cast, and people are quite busy.

The second thing is a quick tip, making this a very short post. Always bring a notebook when you’re shooting. Even when you’re shooting digital, many of the details aren’t recorded. What was the lighting like, how did you choose you’re settings, why did you choose your position? There are any number of details that may be lost if you don write it down!

You’re camera settings are written in the EXIF information, but not why you chose them. Even notes about what you were thinking about can help bring certain things to mind. This can be a real Godsend when you encounter something similar. It also helps share the wealth of knowledge you may have about a place or time, and make your photos even more meaningful to you or someone else! It's also a great way to track your inspirations and visualization, too!

We’ll bring back the weekly theme poll next week; hopefully more volks will get involved! Hohenfels has so much to offer, and your input can make this thing of ours great! Keep shooting, and remember, write it down!

Don’t forget to post any of your images you’d like to see here at the Hohenfels Volks Facebook page. Of course, commenting on both Facebook and here is always appreciated, too! Don't forget, we're on Google+, too!

Home On the (Tonal) Range

Greetings, volks. Welcome to Hohenfels Volks, THE place for our place! I hope you’re staying warm; this cold can be a killer.

Today we’re introducing a new concept. We’re going to discuss tonal range. Usually tonal range is a term used in monochrome photography. But it can also be used in color, with a slightly expanded meaning.

Tonal range in B&W photography refers to the range from darkest black to whitest white. This is a vague definition; so let’s get more detailed here.

First, tonal range is limited by 3 factors. The first is your camera or film, the second is your monitor in digital photography, and the third is the printer or paper selected.

A film or image sensor can have wide tonal range, allowing for many levels between zone transitions. Though it has a wide range, it may not be capable of recording more than a few ranges at a time, which gives it more contrast. If you remember, there are 11 zones and that we generally want to get the bulk of our image in zones 2 through 8, with our true blacks in zone 0 and whites in zone 10. Zones 0 and 10 have no tone or texture; therefore convey no usable information to the image. This means we should be placing our extremes in zones 1 and 9 if we want any kind of detail. Tonal range in this context allows for more gradual shift between the extremes of each zone. As in the image “A Shot in the Dark,” narrow tonal range can increase the visual impact of an image immensely. Wider tonal range can be flat and lacking in impact if consideration isn’t given to the ranges you want to emphasize. You can use a wide tonal range, while limiting most of your imagery to one end of that range for more impact.

In film, light is recorded on a strip of film and silver halides. Where the light hits, the silver halides are concentrated, creating a thicker negative. This is referred to as your density. The greater your density, the greater the light recorded. A film's tonal range often corresponds to its density. A wide range of densities in a shot means a wider tonal range.

Your monitor also has a limited tonal range. The more modern LCDs have an incredible range, perhaps more than your camera or film. This will have an impact on your presentation and editing when using different monitors. This is part of the reason for calibrations for monitors and printers. We won’t discuss that here beyond this.

Your printer and paper also are limiting factors. As with monitors, papers and in digital, inks have different tonal ranges. One type of paper may have a wider tonal range and be capable of allowing the entire range of your image to be printed beautifully. Another type may not. The same with printers and inks.

In color photography, tonal range refers to all the above, but is applied to each of the colors, Red, Green, and Blue. Each color may have a different tonal range, in each of the devices we’ve discussed. That’s why on most newer cameras, your histogram can either show RGB, luminance, or both. This allows you to see each color in relation to the other colors.

When displaying your final image, you choose your presentation format- monitor, CRT, print, and so on. Giving the output and its tonal range the right consideration can go a long way to creating what you visualize and making your vision a reality. When you wish to print an image out, it’s best to have a test print from the target printer to ensure your monitor matches, then your image can be edited to match and you’ll get a great print. The same goes with film and silver based paper printing. Match your film to the paper that will achieve the results you desire and your photos will be better for it.

Later, we’ll look at more about this subject. In future posts, we’ll examining individual influences on, and aspects of, your tonal range. I’m looking forward to you joining us on our journey through photography.

I hope you’ll be posting your photos for this week’s theme, and get your vote tallied for next week’s theme!

Don’t forget to post any of your images you’d like to see here at the Hohenfels Volks Facebook page. Of course, commenting on both Facebook and here is always appreciated, too! Don't foget, we're on Google+, too!

Nostalgia or Something Else?

Greetings, volks. Welcome to Hohenfels Volks, THE place for our place! Over the last 2 or 3 posts, we’ve discussed some stuff that seems outdated and unnecessary.

Today’s digital cameras do everything for us. They meter, set the shutter speed, set the aperture, set the ISO, focus, and tell us when to push the button. Using all the bells and whistles in your camera makes taking photos easy, right? All the hard parts are a thing of the past, isn’t that so? Why do it, when the camera can?

There are a couple answers. The first one is probably the simplest, although they both go together. ALL photography, notice the emphasis, is built on light. Whether you shoot your shot on an old view camera, making a daguerreotype or you shoot digital, your images are ALWAYS built the same. Light strikes a surface that is sensitive to it, and there is a reaction creating something. To have an image you need the light to have form and varying intensities. If you’re using color film or a digital camera, the color information is recorded as well. That is what all photography is. Because those who shot before us went through the pains of creating the systems we have today and discovering the rules and methods, we have a way to be on the same sheet of music. By knowing these methods, formulae, and standards, we can create great images.

If you’re using a digital camera or a film camera, ISO 100 is the same. When shooting both types with identical lenses and lighting, f/16 will allow the same amount of light for film or digital. 1/125 second on a film camera takes the same amount of time as 1/125 second on a digital. Time didn’t change for digital photography. Neither did light, nor the laws of physics change. DOF is still determined the same way it was when Hurrell shot Hollywood’s most glamorous. Exposure is still figured out the same way it was when Ansel Adams made his images. Lighting is still used by us; the same way Karsh used it to capture royalty and great figures of his day. The theory hasn’t changed because the camera can do it, the camera can do it because these things don’t change.

The second answer is only slightly more complicated. Throughout the history of photography, those who picked up the camera strive to learn more, to prefect their photography, and to share their vision. This knowledge gives us the tools to do just that, as it did for those who came before us. See and shooters don’t care, but those who appreciate a good photo or enjoy making something great do care. The more control we take away from the camera, the more control over our vision we have. You wouldn’t let your stove cook your dinner, would you? So why let your camera take a picture, when you can make one. Remember, Ansel Adams said, “You don't take a photograph, you make it.”

Start using the tools available, visualize your image, and when the 2 come together, you can make something so much more than you thought. Remember to work on making your images for this week’s theme, and don’t forget to vote for next week. While you’re at it, check out the great new images in Your Works.

Have a great weekend, everyone, and try to keep warm with the cold weather coming in! Don’t forget to post any of your images you’d like to see here at the Hohenfels Volks Facebook page. Of course, commenting on both Facebook and here is always appreciated, too!

Quick Touch Ups

Greetings, volks. Welcome to Hohenfels Volks, THE place for our place! Time for a quick post.

With the announcement and release of Lightroom 4 Beta, I thought we’d have a quick hit on image editing. We’ll be short; there won’t be anything in depth here.

Let’s start out by saying shooting RAW is the best way to go. It gives you more control and latitude in your exposure and color. The best way to edit is in head, then in camera. What does that mean? It means get it right before your expose your image. Make sure your settings are correct for your exposure and focus. It means less time fixing and more time shooting. I know we all love shooting more than we love fixing our images.

Once the image is on the computer, you have to convert from RAW to JPEG. I use Canon’s DPP. It was bundled with my camera, and I’ve updated it whenever a new version is available. Once your Raw is in your converter, make any exposure corrections you feel are needed. Then adjust your contrast, followed by minor levels adjustments.

To adjust levels, drag in the top, bottom, and sides of your histogram to get the contrast and levels right. I usually do a little crushing of the highlights and shadows, nothing more. This pops your contrast without affecting the entire image as much as the contrast adjustment. By clipping your shadows to black a little and your highlights slightly less, you create some pop to a properly exposed photo.

A touch (+1) to saturation, then finish with sharpening to make the image crisp, and that’s it. For most images, this is all you need! Convert your image and save it, and you’re done. Remember to make your resolution match your intention.

That’s all I’m going to cover for editing today. Everyone has there own vision and style. I just wanted to get the idea of getting it right in camera across, and to get folks thinking about their own editing styles.

Editing is a lot more than this, though. The amount of tools available in applications ranging from Corel’s Paintshop Pro and Adobe’s Lightroom is enough to create magic with your images. Maybe we’ll touch on that editing in another post, how we can fix minor issues and make our work that much better!

Vote now for the next theme, get your pics going, and submit them to our Facebook page. Let’s try to get more Volks participating, the more we have going on, the more opportunities we’ll have to make our photos better, and to share that love we all have of photography with others like us! Have a great weekend and enjoy the shooting!

Don’t forget to post any of your images you’d like to see here at the Hohenfels Volks Facebook page. Of course, commenting on both Facebook and here is always appreciated, too!

Exposure and Exposing?

Greetings, Hohenfels, welcome to Hohenfels Volks, THE place for our place. Monday in Hohenfels, the start of a new week, finds the children going to school, the adults going to work or the fields, and the rest of us going in 10 different directions.

Of course, here in Hohenfels, Monday also means another theme. Based on the voting, this week’s theme will be “Expose Yourself (Umm, NOT like that!),” with 50% of the votes. 50% sounds so much nicer than 3 votes. This week, we should get a lot more votes, and a lot more participation, I hope!

The purpose of last week’s theme was to see the light, the way light moves, and the way it rises and falls. I hope, even if you didn’t participate, you were able to do some work with lighting. One of the tips I offered was to place an IPad with a white screen under a semi-transparent bowl. The bowl creates a half dome, allowing for easier viewing of the “bubble” created by the light. This “bubble” is not so much a thing you see, but something you notice in the way it interacts with the scene. I’ll have more about the nature of light and what I call “the bubble effect” in another post.

Moving on to this week’s theme, it should be easier than last week’s! At least, it should be somewhat easier. Because photography is an art, this week’s theme deals less with the technical side, and more with the expressive and artistic side of photography. This is where it may be harder, too. Because to do a shot that meets this week’s theme, "Expose Yourself (Umm, NOT like that!)," means injecting your self into the image. Notice how I separated yourself into 2 distinct words here, your self. By injecting your self into an image, you can create an impact with your photos and control the reaction of the viewer.

Here are some thoughts to make it easier for you to Expose Yourself. One way is to think of that which you value, it may be a possession, a person, or an ideal. Some ideas are a family member, the relationship you share with a special friend, integrity, hard work, and liberty, just something positive in which you place high stock. Think about how that which you value makes you feel, and how you can best show, and share, the feeling you get. The key here is not to be in or part of the image, beyond its creation.

Perhaps your memories of long ago Christmases with family gathering, and the smell of the tree can bring a feeling to you like nothing else. Share that feeling by creating an image that represents the memories. Maybe you hate the way the politicians use the commoditization of poverty to stay in power; it really gets your goat to see people enslaved to the greed of the powerful elite. Capture something that shows that, that shows us the way these people bring you down, that makes us angry right beside you. Of course, it could just be as simple as that magnificent golden pink glow as the sun sets over an idyllic village somewhere in the heart of Bavaria. Tinged with light pinks, purples, and bold fiery reds, the sunset made you feel like the magic of childhood. Share that feeling!

The most important thing for this week is to bring your feelings to fruition through your work, to share that feeling and moment with us, to make us feel something you felt when you viewed the scene before taking the image, to wow us the way you were wowed. Now doesn’t that make you feel better than what you were expecting when you saw “Expose Yourself” as one of the choices?

Remember to cast your vote for next week’s theme. Don’t forget to get your pics posted at the Hohenfels Volks Facebook page. Of course, commenting on both Facebook and here is always appreciated, too!

Tools of the Trade- More on Lenses

Greetings, Hohenfels, welcome to Hohenfels Volks, THE place for our place. Here’s hoping today sees you starting on the downhill run of a great week!

Today it’s time to talk a little about lens attributes and traits.

We’ve already talked a little about lenses, so today we’re going to concentrate on some of the quality issues and features of your lenses. It’s a little long, for which I apologize.

One of the first things most folks need to know is that your old film lenses will work on digital cameras. They may have a crop factor, for instance 1.6X for APS-C, but if they can mount on your camera, you can use them. On the other hand, your newer digital lenses are unusable on full frame or film cameras. When you put a film lens on an APS-C sensor, the crop factor comes from the distance from the back of the lens to the sensor. The film lenses cover a larger area than the sensor; this in turn causes an apparent increase in focal length and the crop. Canon’s recent systems, the EOS cameras, use EF lenses, which have a 1.6X crop on your APS-C sensor. Their digital line of lenses for the EOS system is the EF-S line. They require no crop factor and apparent focal length is actual focal length. The reason the digital series of lenses don’t work on full frame or film cameras is due to their smaller projection of the image onto a smaller sensor. They won’t fill the frame or film, and most likely won’t even focus properly even if they could be mounted.

Another concern about your lens on zoom lenses is often the aperture. Less expensive lenses read something like 28-135 f/3.5-5.6. This is because the aperture size doesn’t change during zooming, that is the largest it can go. The area of the aperture remains constant, requiring a change in f-number. If you remember, your f-number is a ratio of focal length and aperture. It represents the focal length divided by that number, that’s why it’s written f/2, f/5.6 etc. The longer a lens is, the less light reaches the sensor. That’s why the f/number changes throughout the range of zooms. If your area doesn’t change, your f-number must. The reason for this is the cost and weight added to vary the aperture size throughout the zoom range. That doesn’t mean a constant aperture means a cheap lens, it doesn’t mean less quality, it just means less light as you zoom in.

A great feature of lenses over the past few years is the addition of IS. The affordability of technology has made it possible to use feature that used to be unavailable to the hobbyist. IS allows slower shutter speeds when enabled. Using it hand held, you can get down to about 3 stops lower that the handheld limits. The systems work by compensating for motion with motion in the opposite direction. When hand holding your shot, using proper shooting styles, with arms tucked in etc, will enable the IS to really slug it out with vibration. The most important thing to remember is turning it on for handheld, and ALWAYS turn it off for tripod shots. When on a tripod, the IS searches for motion in the lens and can cause vibration rather than reducing it. The big drawback to IS is that it uses your camera’s battery for power.

The last thing I’ll bring up for now is a quality issue. The problem is chromatic aberration or CA. This is distortion caused by different colors, or wavelengths, of light focusing at differing areas on your sensor. There are several types and names, but we’re not going into it that deep here. It often causes the purple fringing that you see along borders with bright highlights and dark shadows together. Using a smaller aperture can help mitigate this, as can a longer lens. Low dispersion glass and good coatings can combat this effectively. There seems to be many complexities involved in CA, including the types and calculations. The best practice when purchasing a lens, if possible, is to take a test shot using that lens of a high contrast area, and zoom in looking for fringing. CA can also cause blurriness in Black and White photography, so keep that in mind. You can see examples on Google to get more information and some idea of what to look for. According to the reviews I’ve read, Canon makes the most advanced software correction to mitigate CA and other distortions available. Because Canon’s EF lens system is actually all electronic, and records the information on individual lens models, Digital Photo Pro can compensate for it. Yet another advantage of shooting RAW!

Whenever you look to purchase a lens, make sure you read a variety of reviews, and look at loads of test photos taken with that lens, it could save you some headaches! If you have a lens that you favor and would like to write it up here, let me know, and I’ll get it posted for you!

Now on to other things, remember to get your votes in for next week’s theme. This week our theme is “Morning Moments.” Dazzle me with your work! Get shooting and start posting at the Hohenfels Volks Facebook page. Of course, commenting here is always welcome, too!

Gear Day- Pop Goes the...

Greetings, Hohenfels, welcome to Hohenfels Volks, THE place for our place and our Volks. Another day, trees covered in white and ready for the icy grip of winter, closes around us.

Today we’re going to talk about flash. Learning to use flash is one of the major steps you should take in getting your photos gallery ready.

Today’s electronic flashes work amazingly well and can put a great deal of light right where you need it. The secret to using flash to get the right exposure is knowing how to meter and knowing how to balance your lighting.

First, let’s talk about several terms and features of an average flash.

The first term to know is Guide Number or GN. This is an indication of your flash’s power. It means your flash can provide light up to that distance at maximum zoom, for ISO 100. It’s usually measured in meters. The Canon 580EXII has a guide number of 58, as does the Yongnuo YN-560. This is used to calculate manual flash settings for your camera.

The second term is zoom. Your flash can often zoom to a preset distance to match the zoom of your lens, allowing it to throw light more in line with what you are shooting. This is extremely useful in auto flash; the drawback to that is the camera must be connected to the flash. The longer the zoon, the further the light will travel, and the less it will spread out.

The third term is sync speed, or shutter sync speed. On most higher end cameras, like the EOS 7D and 60D this is 1/250. For the lower end cameras, like the Digital Rebel series, this is 1/200. Some cameras won’t sync above 1/125 to 1/160. The slower the maximum sync speed, the slower you have to shoot. At speeds above the sync speed, either you will need a flash with high-speed sync, or you will get dark bands on your image.

The fourth term is rear or front curtain sync. In rear curtain sync, your flash fires at the end of the exposure, and in front curtain it fires at the start. This really only applies beginning at 1/30 – 1/60, depending on your model.

The last term I’ll introduce is TTL. Most of today’s automatic flashes are capable of being controlled by the camera, provided they are mounted to the camera. Today’s cameras meter through the lens, and pass that information to the flash to set output power and zoom. Many cameras use a more advanced feature called E-TTL, which is electronic metering through the lens. Using this method can improve your flash exposures. The downside is using your flash on camera can be disappointing, as it flattens the light and removes depth and character.

The range of a flash is limited by inverse square law, which states that light drops off from a source rapidly. For instance, a flashlight shined into the dark starts out quite bright, but ends up not even visible beyond some distance based on its power. This law states that doubling the distance from a subject to a source reduces light to ¼ its original level. Almost all light sources follow this rule.

When using your flash on camera, use your E-TTL features to get the best exposure. To correctly expose flash manually, you will need to adjust your aperture to control exposure for the light from the flash and your speed to control ambient light. To find the required to take a photo of a subject use this formula- f-stop number = GN/distance to subject. To figure out the distance to place your flash for a preset aperture use this formula- distance = GN/f-stop number. These are usually measured in meters, so remember to set up accordingly. Guide number is at ISO 100, so any change in ISO, must be accounted for.

A couple points- on camera flash gives a hard light, which results in a loss of shadows in the image making the subject appear flattish. On camera, or flash on the axis of the lens, gives red-eye effect, which is when the eye reflects red light straight back in the direction it came from.

Another thing to mention about off camera flash, besides adding depth, character, and bringing out detail, when used properly it can bring out the eye colors and make them stand out a little. This is especially true in brown and dark eyes. It takes some practice, but the results are worth it!

I like to use the YN-560, as this a nice, inexpensive, and powerful manual flash, paired with my with radio triggers. This allows for shots on camera can’t get, and it creates a nice direction to the light. Having directional lighting on a portrait really adds to the magic. That’s why you see it even in the paintings from the old masters. Next time we talk about flash, we’ll discuss fill, main, and lighting ratios. We’ll also discuss basic lighting patterns for portraits, and how to take the guesswork and mathematics out of getting your manual flash exposures.

I hope this information brings you another tool in our quest for the perfect picture. Let me know if it has! Remember to share your pics and post your questions at the Hohenfels Volks Facebook page, and or by commenting here!

Composition- Seeing in Color

Hello, Volks, welcome to Hohenfels Volks. Another week is almost over here in Hohenfels, and we’re onto another post!

Following up on yesterday’s post about color, today we’re going to talk about how color theory can work for you. Using complimentary and adjacent, or analogous, colors can really improve your compositions. The masters, including the painters and old time photographers knew how to get the most from the colors available to them.

Color theory is an extensive subject, and involves a lot more than we’re going to discuss. If you remember back in grade school, you learned there are 3 primary colors, red, yellow, and blue. They are primary because they cannot be made from combinations of other colors. Here’s a basic primary color wheel.


The 3 primary colors

The secondary colors, made from equal parts of 2 primary colors are orange, green, and purple. Here’s another chart showing the relationship between primaries.


The 3 primaries with the secondary colors

Colors opposite each other on the wheel are called complimentary colors. If you stare at one of the colors for some time, and then shift your view to solid white, the compliment, or opposite, of the stared at color will appear.

Beyond that, you have tertiary colors and other more complex blends and hues. Here is a 12-color wheel showing some of the basic ones.


12 colors, including primary, secondary, and tertiary.

Just as colors opposite each other are complimentary, colors next to each other are analogous, which means they are analogs of or for each other.

In normal human color vision, red focus beyond the focal plane, green directly on it, and blue focuses short of it. This is why red appears to advance and blue seems to recede. Another effect of normal human color vision is that the same color appears brighter and larger against a dark background than against a lighter one. Another interesting fact along that same line is that Da Vinci observed, "Colors appear what they are not, according to the ground that surrounds them." Handy stuff for the photographer!

With all that information, feeling overwhelmed can be a problem. So, to make this subject easier, we’re going to show a couple example of how to combine colors into a harmonious composition, and have them add to your image rather than distract from it.


Analogous color scheme. Using this scheme can create calm scenes and photos. Make sure you have enough color contrast, though, to keep your image interesting.


Complementary. Very vibrant and exciting images. Don't overdo it and you can get something really appealing.


This is called a split complementary scheme. This has a strong visual appeal like complementary colors, but with less risk of overdoing it.

Remember, there are other schemes as well. You could do a three color scheme using colors equally spaced through the wheel, which can create a dynamic image, especially when one is given a greater weight in the composition. A great way to get more information is to use Google "color theory." Another great source is Tiger Color. They also have some nifty software and such that will help you understand color.

Look for an assignment related to this post on Facebook in the next couple days. Hopefully we can get everyone posting a couple photos, and get more assignments going. Drop us a comment and let us know what you think of the idea.

Remember to share your pics and post your questions at the Hohenfels Volks Facebook page, and or by commenting here!

Tools of the Trade- Filters

Hello, Volks! Welcome to Hohenfels and to our newest post. In today’s Tools of the Trade, we’re going to talk about filters.

Filters are glass that goes on the end of your lens. There are many types of filters, some for artistic purposes, some are for technical purposes, and some are to protect your lens.

The 2 basic set-ups are the square filter, which uses a holder that fits onto your lens, and the screw-in.

Most people use the screw-in filter. When selecting a screw-in filter, you must ensure that the filter’s diameter matches that of your lens. A 58mm lens requires a 58mm filter. The threads are universal, so moving from lens to another of the same diameter is not a problem. They come in many types, and are usually more widely available.

Square filters use an adapter ring that screws into your lens just like a screw-in filter. The ring remains in place when you switch your filters to another lens. Having one adapter for each lens allows you to move your filters easily from lens to lens, and back. Cokin makes the most common square filters, and they have several types and varieties. The basic and most common ones for our needs are the P series. With square filters, you have the extra advantage of staking several together without vignetting on your image.

The first filter you either did, or should, purchase is a UV. This is a cheap filter to place over the end of your lens. It limits UV radiation, but the main reason for having it is that it will protect the glass in your lens. Breaking a filter costs just a small amount to replace, whereas breaking a lens costs considerably more.

The next in the line of types is the circular polarizer, or CP. You can replace your UV with a CP and prevent vignetting caused by stacking your filters. It increases contrast and darkens blue skies. It can do a lot more than that, including improving the color contrasts. The main feature beyond that is that when properly turned, it can remove reflections from glass, water, plastic, and most sources, except metal and mirrors. This effect is strongest when your light is approximately 90 degrees to your left or right with the lens facing forward. You use this lens by turning the filter’s twist ring until you obtain the desired results. Look for one that has good coating and no impact on your color balance.

Next up is the neutral density filter. These little gems can help reduce the light to your sensor, allowing for slower shutter speeds and nice effects in fog, or when shooting running water. They are great landscape tools, and properly placed in a shot can darken the sky, while allowing the landscape portion to be shot at a decent shutter speed. They come in numbers like 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. When numbered this way, the numbers refer to stops of light. 1 being a 1-stop reduction in light, and so on. The other system used to rate them in their density, in .3 increments. Each .3 increments equates to one stop. ND filters do not change the colors, as they pass light of all colors equally. When used on extremely bright objects, they increase contrast and improve image detail. There is also a graduated ND, which is an ND filter with reduction only about halfway down the length of the filter. This allows for darkening a sky while allowing the remaining portion of the image to remain unaffected.

Black and white photographers use colored filters to change to light hitting the film or sensor. Red filters pass red light and darken green and blue. Green filters pass green light and darken red. There are a whole series of color filters for both black and white and color photography. Most are labeled by their Wratten numbers, for instance 81A is a light warming filter. The Wratten system is available online and filters using this designation can be purchased online.

There are filters to soften the contrast, and other special effects, including adding starbursts, grids, and to increase the magnification of a lens. By knowing something about filters, you can get the right kind, and the best one for you and your photography.

There are shops in the local area, including Amberg and Regensburg that carry the different types of filters, and you can any of them online. Try to get a decent one, as low-end filters can add colorcasts and vignetting that will leave you wishing you hadn’t used a filter.

Enjoy the rest of your week! Surrounding the Hohenfels area are towns and sites worth shooting and adding a filter can make your art that much better.

Remember to get out and shoot with your filter and share your pics and questions by posting at the Hohenfels Volks Facebook page, and or by commenting here!

Color Balance

Welcome back, Volks! Today we're bringing the subject of white balance to Hohenfels Volks.

Generally, white balance is an adjustment made to an image to make your neutral colors, neutral. What we really mean when we speak of white balance is color balance. Color balance removes colorcasts, or imbalances, caused by shooting in light of differing temperatures. Color temperature theory is a little too much for me to explain, so simply put; blue light has a high temperature in degrees Kelvin, as it requires more heat to create. Red requires less, so it has a lower temperature. Who knew engineers would create such a complex way of thinking about colors?

The sensor in your digital camera measures the temperature of the overall light to create a general color balance when set to automatic. It then adds or removes colors that remove the colorcast. In single lighting conditions, automatic can do a good job for you.

The difficulty comes in when we realize that we really don’t shoot with one color light. If you’re shooting on a nice sunny day, there is still light that is differently colored than the sunlight. This is caused by the nature of light. Light has no respect for your boundaries, and doesn’t stop only on your subject. Light tends to reflect and bounce everywhere. So, on this bright day, you’ll have light from the sun, light bounced off buildings, trees, grass, windows, and many other sources. Yikes, time for “white balance.”

When you use a preset white balance, you are telling the camera what type of light you used. The camera then adjusts for that type of light. For tungsten, it removes yellow and/or adds blue. For fluorescent, it adds green and/or removes red. You may end up with a bad colorcast if you have multiple color temperatures that vary by too much.

Shooting in RAW mode allows the most control, so what I describe will work best on images shot in RAW format. There are several options to deal with color temperature in RAW images. The first is to use a preset, as mentioned above. The second is to adjust your color temperature manually. The third is to click a neutral color. This last one can do a good job if you have a large enough neutral area. It samples a variety of pixels around your selection and applies the adjustment to the entire image. There are 2 more that I will mention here. The first is to use an Expodisc, or something similar. This fits onto the end of your lens, and then you take a photo of either your light source or your subject, and apply the resulting image as a custom white balance to your camera. The other and probably better way, at least for most, is a white card. You can use plain white paper, but it tends to have variations in the tone and colors, even between sheets. Your best bet is to get a white balance card. They are made to ensure your neutrals stay neutral. When using a custom white balance, if the lighting changes, you must do a new custom balance source to ensure accuracy.

For best results, take your white balance card and place it with, or near, your subject. Ensure the lighting is the same you will use for your subject, and fill your frame with the card. Make sure there are no colors in the frame, and click your shot. Then go into your menu and select custom white balance. You will have to choose the image you just created, and then apply it. All your shots taken in that lighting will be properly color balanced.

You can also batch color balance in your RAW conversion software by selecting your white card shot and selecting the source, then applying it to all your shots taken in that lighting.


The order of white balance settings in this sample chart is from left to right; as shot, Daylight, Flash, Shade, Cloudy, Color temp 5800k, Click on white, Tungsten, Fluorescent, with the last square white for reference.

There is a lot more to color balance, but this should get you going. Just remember that getting it right takes some practice and knowing your camera.

Thanks to Jennifer O for the suggestion for today's topic. I hope to hear more suggestions and comments! Your input will make this thing of ours great!

Here’s hoping the rest of your week is filled with loads of photos of Hohenfels, and lots of joy! Don't forget to share your pics and questions by posting at the Hohenfels Volks Facebook page, or commenting here!