Ride Along Shot- Avoiding the Cold

Greetings, Hohenfels, welcome to Hohenfels Volks, THE place for our place. I hope everyone is having a great week and looking forward to something great this weekend.

For our ride along today, I thought we’d stay in lovely Hohenfels. In fact, it’s so cold and gloomy; I thought we’d stay inside. Let’s go to the living room and get started.

This is my first Christmas photo of the season. There’ll be many more, I’m sure, but getting this one set up and in the camera is always exciting. Last year, it was a bottle of wine with a glass and the tree.


ISO 100, f/4.5, 15 Seconds, 53mm, 3000K
Merry Christmas!

Come Christmas season, I love to take creative shots that illustrate this time of year. I visualized this shot all day while cruising Nuernberg's Christkindlmarkt. Getting home, I rushed into the house to get the shot set up and going. Of course, this kind of shot requires shooting on a tripod with IS turned off. That means using a remote trigger. I like using a remote trigger cable, some folks prefer wireless. Locking up the mirror allowed for that little bit of extra sharpness in the glass and the decorations surrounding the candleholder. Focus was on the glass to minimize the DOF between tree and candle. Placing the candle holder in sharp focus at or near an intersection of thirds isolates it and makes it the obvious center of interest, while allowing the eye to wander through the tree and memories of long ago Christmases.

This shot proved more difficult than first glance implies. I’ll be trying this one a few more times to get it perfect, but I really enjoy the way it turned out. It just says “Merry Christmas!”

After several failed attempts using multiple flashes to light the tree some and the glass, I went with a longer exposure and used just one flash. After getting the exposure started, I manually fired the flash at 1/128th power with the head zoomed in to 110mm. The flash comes in from camera left at about 45 degrees to the candleholder. The second pop of the flash at the same level was again camera right, zoomed to 50mm almost dead at the tree. The third and final pop, again at 1/128th and 110mm zoom, was aimed at the platter and decorations around the candleholder from camera right.

By setting the flash at minimum power and adjusting the zoom, I was able to bring out the green of the tree, the colors of the decoration, and use the longer focal length with a wide aperture to create some nice boke, or blur, behind the glass. It also highlighted the edges of the glass, and shows the nice, almost home spun, texture of the candle glass. It also allowed some detail in the decorations around the base of the candle.

Shooting at 15 seconds allowed me to manually zoom, aim, and pop the flash. That brought the whole thing together, bringing out detail while allowing a warm winter night feel to the image. The highlights in the image were slightly overexposed to allow for detail in the shadows, and it was darkened during conversion from RAW in Canon Digital Photo Pro software. I lowered the color temperature to about 3000K to bring out the green in the tree and hint at the blue in the platter holding the decorations and candleholder.

The candleholder was one that Mrs. Hohenfels-Volks picked up at a local market. The little things you can pick up at Moebelhof and other such places can really add some flavor to your photos. I’ll definitely try this shot again, perhaps with a snoot over the flash and some black cards to darken the highlights in the glass, perhaps giving a more old timey feel to it.


Same settings as above image
Here’s another version with the color temperature raised to about 3500K. Adding in that little bit of red makes it feel almost as if a fireplace is blazing somewhere in the room.

Now on to other things, remember to get your votes in for next week’s theme. We have a 3-way tie right now, and that means it’s my choice if we end the week that way! This week our theme is “Morning Moments.” I hope to see everyone participating! Get shooting and start posting at the Hohenfels Volks Facebook page. Of course, commenting here is always welcome, too!

Visualization

Hello, again!

Welcome to another post. This time we’re going to talk about VISUALIZATION. I won’t be adding this to the Intro series, as this is more about the artistic side of photography.

Ansel Adams defined VISUALIZATION as "the ability to anticipate a finished image before making the exposure." In fact, he dedicated the first chapter of his book “The Negative” to the subject. VISUALIZATION covers more than the simple definition, but we’re dealing with it in a simple sense right now.

Most of us start out as what I call “See and Snaps.” You see something you like and just click the shutter until you get something that looks similar to what you saw. “See and Snaps” who never grow beyond that stage, usually end up giving up on photography or just settling for “seeing and snapping.” They never grow beyond it, because they never learn about VISUALIZATION.

Learning to VISUALIZE will improve your images with some certainty. The first step in VISUALIZATION is learning to separate what you see, from its context and surroundings. This sounds out of sync with reality, but as you will see, is actually easier to develop than you might think. When you take a photo, you are only capturing a piece of the whole scene, even if you go wide angle. See the scene and the piece you want to capture. Figure out how to show it with limited context and surroundings.

Another important part of VISUALIZATION is learning how to see the color, loss of color, and the effect of the light on your sensor and image. This will help you get the best exposure, DOF, and color possible. You need to get familiar with your camera to accomplish this one. This is more technical VISUALIZTION, but it is important in helping set up our shots. Remember, color can refer to the lack of color, too! Shooting black and white leads to some incredible shots, as the works of Ansel Adams, George Hurrell, Yousuf Karsh, and many of the old masters will attest and impress!

Using the technique of VISUALIZATION, you can create art from your photos; you can make some beautiful landscapes, portraits, still lifes, and keepsakes that will warm the heart later in life! VISUALIZATION leads you to think about every shot you take, and helps you to take the time to get it right. If you can’t take the time to get it right, what fun is it?

Here’s an exercise to try. Get a piece of matting or foam core about 8 inches by 10 inches and cut out a rectangle about 4 inches by 6 inches. Try to use black, as it will assist in the exercise, other colors may distract. Carry it around with you whenever you have your camera. Every time you wish to take a photo, first look at the scene, and then look at the image you want to capture through the card you made. Shift yourself, and look through the card again. Check to see if the perspective and framing are harmonious and work together to create something that will make you proud. Take your time and work the scene into what you VISUALIZE it to be. Sometimes that means waiting for the right light, sometimes it means moving, sometimes it means coming back later, but it also always means better pics! Who doesn’t want that? They used to do this exercise in photo courses and schools to teach a little bit about VISUALIZATION. It feels slightly silly, but you’ll be amazed at the outcome. Just using a small frame to get the feel of the image will aid you in developing and perfecting your VISUALIZATION, which will help you to share your vision! Eventually you can see without seeing, at least without seeing through the little card! There are so many places around Hohenfels to practice just VISUALIZING; Regensburg, Hohenfels, Grafenwoehr, Bamberg, Bayreuth, and Munich. Each one has unique things and sites to get you going!

The best source for VISUALIZATION is most likely “The Negative” by Ansel Adams. He writes quite a bit more than I can! Another great post is an article on Ron Bigelow’s Blog. Check it out and don't forget to look at the rest of his site!

Here’s hoping you’re visualizing a great week! Take care and all the best.