4 am I open my eyes, I look at the clock and realize I am not going back to bed. I turn on the tv and its forensic files, I look at the clock and its 5:30 am. At this point I’m thinking about the ocean and an amazing sunrise but I’m glued to my bed, next thing you know I get this image in my head. I look at the clock ant its 6:15am. I jump out of bed throw on some shorts grab my camera and go to the beach. The sky was perfect.
The first image is what I had in my head while laying in my bed, but when I got there and I started walking around I realized there was lots more potential and more awesome angles to be had.
The clouds were moving and the colors were saturated and alive. Next thing you know people started coming from all directions.
Everyone just wanted a peek of the sunrise…
Once I took all my photos and took all this in I picked up my bike form the sand and started walking away, then I turned my head and had to pull out my camera for one last shot…
If this isn’t the start of a perfect day I don’t know what is. Which one is your favorite photo? I made a video on editing this photos, it will be up shortly….
In this video I will show you how to bring out the shadows on your under exposed photographs, I will also cover graduated filters and show you how to make your photos pop with a few simple sliders in Lightroom 5.
I love racing, there is so much action going on, the sound of a car going 200+ miles per hour 30 feet from you its just indescribable, your heart drops to the asphalt and you can feel the car vibrate inside you making your hear beat double. I often go to the Sonoma Raceway in California (formerly Sears Point Raceway and Infineon Raceway) to watch the races, indi cars, nascar, or drag cars, I love them all.
So how do you take a photo of a car blazing by and give it that feel of movement? Its not as hard as you might think but it does take a bit of practice.
Here are a few simple tips to get you started out at the race track (or on the streets).
Camera settings: When you are looking for an action shot such as this you need to have a slow shutter speed, you can achieve this in Manual (M) Mode or in Shutter Priority Mode (the S dial on your Nikon or Tv on your Canon Camera)
The shutter speed should be anywhere from 1/40 of a second to 1/80 of a second. This will create the blur effect in the back ground making the car feel like its going really fast in the photo.
1. Find a secure spot to take the photos.
First thing you need to do is find a secure spot where you can stand and where you are able to move around. By that I mean you need to make sure there is no one (or nothing) next to you (you need about 2-3 feet of space to be comfortable when learning) who you are going to bump with your camera every time you rotate. When you take this kind of photograph you have to follow the car with your lens and take it at a slow shutter speed, not run after the car but rotate with it as it passes you.
2. Observe the cars going by, try to get used to the speed and follow the subject with your eyes. Do this a few times before doing it with your camera. If you are on the streets, get used to the traffic and how its circulating.
3. Do it with your camera. Gain focus, rotate with the car and take the shot.
When the car is approaching you have to gain focus on it, so follow it from the far and the closer it gets thats when you want to gain focus. You can achieve this by pressing the shutter button (the button you use to take a picture) in your camera half way down, this will get the car in focus, then you start rotating with the car and when you feel right you snap the shot. Now remember this all happens very fast and it takes practice, so give it a few tries and don’t get frustrated its going to take a few fails before you get the killer shot. Be persistent and you will get it.
4. Repeat 1 and 2.
5. Remember to have fun, if you can’t get it walk away for a few and come back and try again, its really not that hard. Practice makes perfect.
Thats it, thats how you take a photo of a moving car giving it that motion feel, but what if you want to do the complete opposite and freeze the entire frame?? Well let me tell you thats even easier.
Here is a photo of a 4×4 race I shot in Costa Rica. I wanted to get the feel of the race and the mud and the environment so I wanted to freeze everything in my frame specially the mud flying all over the place.
How did I achieve this?
Thats easy, all you have to do is shoot this at a fast shutter speed, so instead of 1/40 of a second you have to be at about 1/200 of a second or more, this will ensure that everything on the photo gets captured perfectly still.
Camera settings for this particular shot:
Shutter speed 1/1250 of a second f/5.6 ISO 160
Thank you so much for dropping in guys, if you have any questions or suggestions please leave them in the comments below. Don’t forget to pick up your free Video below.
Here are some tips on how to make a beautiful Black and White photograph. I live by this when shooting Black and White.
1. When shooting B&W photography it’s important that you learn to see in black and white. Remember you don’t have color to draw the eye when shooting B&W photography, so you have to find shapes and tones to compose your photo. Study the colors and study the your environment picture all the gray tones and picture everything in B&W. I will keep it short and sweet. If you have any others please share on the comments below.
2. Always shoot in color, it is important that you always shoot in color. Most cameras out there have a B&W setting DO NOT USE IT. If you shoot everything in color you will have more control of the gray scale in post production once you convert it.
The Man In White
3. Always use the lowest ISO setting possible. This will get rid of the noise in the photograph and you will end up with a great clear photograph. If you are looking for noise do it in post production. I like to add noise to (some) B&W but I always do it in post production that way I still have a very high resolution high quality photo.
4. Always shoot RAW, most DSLRS shoot in RAW (and any camera now a days), again this gives you more control of the image in post production thus making a better B&W photograph. If you don’t have this setting on your camera, don’t worry, you can still make an amazing B&W photograph shooting JPEG.
5. Contrast is very important when shooting B&W photography, it sets the mood it, it defines your lines, it brings out shapes and shadows you would never be able to see in color photography. Play around with it and make it work for you.
Did I miss any? Please leave them in the comments below.
Always remember that practice makes perfect, and always have fun out there.
How to create the starburst effect on your photographs.
I get lots of questions about how to create the starburst effect on photographs, some people think I do this in post production but the truth is I do it all in the camera in the field, and you can too.
Getting this effect is not nearly as hard as you think it is. I recently did an article with Nikon about this particular topic. You can see the full article here.
Star Noir
A dark night in a city that knows how to keep its secrets. But one man is still trying to find ideal places to shoot night images. He’s Edin Chavez, and the starburst effect is his intention—but so is getting the reflections and heightened textures of Central Park in the rain.
The cold, windblown rain falling right after sunset that December day drove tourists from the benches and the roadway to give Edin a picture-perfect scene for his D800 and AF-S FX Zoom-NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8 lens. “But with the wind, no really long exposures were possible,” he says. “I set 2.5 seconds and had to bump up my ISO to 1250 to shoot at f/10 for the starburst and for the depth of field to make the leading lines work to [the] best advantage.”
Edin shoots a good number of starbursts, so he was confident of his settings. “I knew that between f/8 and f/16 I’d get a pretty decent light burst and a decent depth of field for the whole cold, wet feel of the park.” Manual exposure and Matrix metering completed the setup. “I did a three-bracket series using exposure compensation,” he adds, “but for this photo, which was the best one I got, there was no exposure comp. I just checked the LCD.”
Edin’s general advice for both cityscape and countryside starburst images: “Experiment until you’re comfortable enough to know what you’re doing and what you’re likely to get, and then confirm it on the back of the camera. Generally, the smaller the aperture, the better the result. On a nice day, maybe f/32, but not on that day in the park.”
Good afternoon and happy Saturday people (Sunday to my Indian Peeps). As you know I just got back from a fantastic trip to Kerala India, I came back a changed man, so many stories, so many experiences, so many photos, but most importantly, so many new friends, some that will be in my life until the day I die. I am so grateful and lucky to have gotten the opportunity to go on this trip with so many talented, incredible people. I am forever thankful.
I have so many photos that I will be sharing with you. I will also be releasing a new series from this trip soon, so I think I’ll kick this off by giving you a Lightroom Preset that I made to edit this series. (watch the video where I tell you why I chose to use color and how to upload the preset)
I shot these photos the first day I was there, I was very green to India and a bit timid, I wasn’t sure how people were going to react. I quickly learned that people in India are more friendly than most places I have been to. I love shooting street photography, especially in India, its so fun and the people have so much character. Please drop me a line on the comments below :)
