Atlanta Photographer - Josh D. Weiss » Lessons

You look (tilt)-shifty

Josh D. Weiss — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 02:00:46 +0000

One of the less practical for every day use pieces of camera equipment is a tilt-shift lens. The lens lets you tilt or shift the plane of focus so its not parallel to the lens to create a number of effects. Normally this is used for distortion correction when shooting buildings from the vantage point of ground level or to draw emphasis to a subject.

Good versions of these lenses run upwards of $700 and thus aren’t’ exactly something I would run out to get given that its mainly used as a gimmick effect (think of how fish-eye lenses are used as a gimmick as well).

Anyways, I spent some time in Photoshop to see if I could recreate the effect to a reasonable level of success to save money. Turns out I could.

Let me start of by saying that these photos are only meant as examples and not meant to be passed off as photojournalism in any way shape or form. I looked through old photos I had and that’s why these all look familiar to long time readers of this blog.

One of the side effects of tilt-shift lenses is their ability to make aerial shots of things look like miniatures.

Starry Night

Josh D. Weiss — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 01:05:34 +0000

Awhile ago I made these cutouts that shape the bokeh (out of focus parts of a photo) of my shots. I’ve never really had a chance to use it, so I thought I’d give it a shot tonight.

Basically, I went outside and focused up close to throw a light in the background really out of focus and held the cutout up to the lens.

Van Gogh ain’t got nothin on this

The crudely-shaped star cutout I made.

HDR at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Ga.

Josh D. Weiss — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 02:35:41 +0000

I took the photos for this during the first few minutes of the third quarter during today’s game. There is a bit of ghosting on the bottom because the people were moving around a lot, obviously the affect is lessened the further away everyone gets.

I’m really aching to try this in a high contrast scenario. Since the game was at midday the lighting was pretty even, but one of these days I’ll find a scene begging for it.

Glory glory to Ole’ Georgia.

High Dynamic Range at Bobby Dodd Stadium

Josh D. Weiss — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:20:38 +0000

Tonight I’m shooting the Georgia Tech football game against Jacksonville State University, which I coincidentally helped cover when I was interning in Anniston. Anyways, I got to the game fairly early to avoid traffic and decided to play around with high dynamic range imaging.

HDR involves taking multiple photos of the same scene at different exposure levels and combining them digitally to increase the contrast and dynamic range of the image. This helps give punchier tones and colors as well as letting you keep detail in areas that would normally be underexposed or overexposed.

This scene kind of illustrates it a bit. Notice the color of the sky as well as the detail kept in the stands and field. Its not as extreme as it could be, but I think it helps show the possible applications for it.

This scene is a high dynamic range exposure created with a combination of 5 different exposures at one interval increments.

This is the middle exposure straight up.

Jacksonvillians do it a day early

Josh D. Weiss — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 04:27:32 +0000

Shot some fireworks that went on tonight in Jacksonville. This is the first time I’ve successfully shot fireworks, granted the last time I tried was last 4th of July, but having a year in between shoots gives you time to think about how you’ll do it.

I was basically exposing for the fireworks. I set ISO 200 at 2 seconds and f/20 manually focused on approximately where the fireworks would be. All this is done on a tripod of course.

Next was to figure out how to handle the foreground. 2 seconds isn’t really enough at those specs to pick up anything besides black. That is, unless you have a strobe. I triggered the camera manually then manually hit the strobe before the shutter closed. After some tests I found that 1/4 power provided the best exposure.

So I figured out how I was framing the shot then repeated till the show was over to make sure all the variables came out correctly.

Stephen and Belinda Johnson sit in the bed of their pickup truck as they watch the Jacksonville fireworks Thursday evening.

Local youths play monkey in the middle while as the sun sets in Jacksonville.

Albert Bennett sits backwards on his motorcycle as he talks with Linda Bennett, in the rearview mirror, as they wait for the Jacksonville fireworks to start.

(Left to Right) Jennifer, Shelbi and Trent Crosby shop for fireworks at Tommy Boy’s Friday afternoon.

Bill Sparrowhawk throws a blongoball during a game with his family while waiting for the fireworks to start in Jacksonville Thursday evening.

Middle School Math finally comes in handy

Josh D. Weiss — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:31:43 +0000

I found this tutorial today about how to turn a standard TI-83 graphing calculator into an intervalometer. An intervalometer lets you set the camera to shoot a frame at regular intervals over a predetermined amount of time. Afterwards, you use any video editing program to stitch the images together to get time lapse.

I found it interesting, and it made me want to snag my old graphing calculator when I go home this weekend.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Turn-a-TI-Graphing-Calculator-into-an-Intervalomet/

DIY – Snoots

Josh D. Weiss — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 03:10:16 +0000

At the Southern Short Course this weekend I got to listen to David Hobby, of Strobist.com fame, teach about using strobe flashes to replace the big light kits most photographers use.

Upon arriving home last night I decided to use his DIY approach to lighting and constructed a snoot for my 580 EX II. I found a mini-cereal box that my roommate had placed in our recycling bag and applied black gaffers tape to it.

For those who don’t know what a snoot is, check out the photos after the cut so I can better explain it.

The mini-cereal box now converted into a snoot. Price, virtually free. Money saved from not paying for one, about $23 before shipping.

Snoots work by directing the flow of light, the longer the snoot, the more restricted the light is. This is a photo lit with on-camera flash without a snoot.

Same scene as above, but with the snoot in place. Notice how the light is now restricted to that rectangle?

Now lets look at more practical purposes. A scene lit with off camera flash not bounced off of anything. Notice how the light spreads and illuminates everything in the area.

Same scene as above, but with the snoot on. Notice how the snoot turns the flash into a spotlight of sorts leaving the Rubik’s Cube lit and just about everything else completely dark. Also, the closer the light is to the object being lit the more isolated the light will be.

Although I used a Canon 580 EX II, the technique or even the cereal boxes themselves should still work on just about any other strobe out there. Here is my EX II without the snoot on.

Here is my EX II again with the snoot on.

Fun With Light (Part 1)

Josh D. Weiss — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 15:40:28 +0000

The lack of anything exciting to shoot led me to try and find new ways of entertaining myself. In this case, it was practicing light painting around my house.

These are shots of my living room that show the difference between a natural light exposure and a light painted exposure using a single strobe unit set off multiple times attempting to highlight different things.

I’m trying to figure out how to minimize the amount of shadows in the shot, so if you have any suggestions, leave a comment.

Before – 16mm, f/8, 30 sec, 3200 iso, all available light

After – 16mm, f/22, 30 sec, 400 iso, single strobe at 1/4 power set off multiple times