Category Archives: Technique

Commentary, Technique

Accidental Photograph

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Imagine that you had been planning a particular shot for a few months. The time was right – or so you thought – so you went to photograph it. Just as you were just finishing you turned around and saw another shot that you hadn’t noticed before. “Wow. I’d like to shoot that one!”

Let’s say that you figured that a focal length of about 100mm would be right for it so you reached into your bag and pulled out a lens to replace the lens that was on the camera. After attaching this lens something seemed odd when you looked through the viewfinder; the subject seemed a lot smaller than you expected. Undismayed you zoom in but can’t get “close” enough. But then you think, “Hey, wait. I kinda’ like the way it looked zoomed out.” So you shoot at the wide end anyway. You finish and put your camera away – and realize that instead of shooting at 100mm you were shooting at 17mm. Wrong lens. And you didn’t even notice. Sheesh.

You get home and go through the photos from the day’s shoot – and this oddball 17mm shot seems to get your attention. In fact, by the time you are done it not only seems like the best shot of the day but perhaps one of the better photographs that you’ve made recently.

By accident. As the result of a dumb mistake.

Would you admit this? Neither would I.

Technique

Creating Frames for Online Photos: My Method

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Someone recently emailed to ask what method I use to create the frames for the photographs that I post here and elsewhere on the web. There are quite a few ways to do this – there are even products available for creating frames. I’ve adopted a method that works well for me, and my basic explanation is found below. Continue reading Creating Frames for Online Photos: My Method →

Equipment, Technique

Sharpness and Aperture Selection Post Updated

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I have updated my post on Sharpness and Aperture Selection on Full-Frame DSLRs to include a list of my conclusions.

Equipment, Technique

Using the Wrong Tool for the Job: Which Lens is ‘Best’?

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These are things that everyone knows about picking the right equipment for the subject, right?

Use wide angle lenses to shoot landscapes. When people ask what lens to get, I always ask them what they’ll be shooting. If they say landscape I generally recommend something wide rather than something long. Here’s an example of use of a very wide angle lens on a landscape shot:

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First Light, Banner Peak and Thousand Island Lake

Use long lenses to shoot sports. Everyone notices all of the Really Big Lenses at sporting events. I sure saw plenty of them at this week’s Amgen Tour of California bike race. Heck, I even used one myself to get shots like this one:

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Riding to the Starting Line, Prolog Time Trial, 2008 Tour of California

But wait a minute…

Sometimes the “common wisdom” can be exactly wrong, or at least it is possible to get interesting results by doing the opposite of the obvious thing. How about a landscape shot with a very long lens:

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Big Sur Fisherman, Winter Surf

And here is another bicycle racing shot, done with an ultra wide lens. (That’s Mario Cipollini banking into this turn, for the cycling fans out there.)

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The Peloton Enters San Jose – 2008 Amgen Tour of California

I’ll share one bit of technical information here. All four shots were made with two lenses. Both of the wide angle shots – landscape and cycling – were done with a 17-40mm zoom at the wide angle end. Both of the telephoto shots were done with a 100-400mm telephoto at the long end.

Just to tweak another assumption about “the right equipment,” both bicycle racing shots were done with a Canon 5D – and everyone knows that the 5D is only useful for landscapes and that you can’t shoot action subjects with it. ;-)