Bokeh...

So, while browsing photography topics the other day the subject of bokeh came up.  Bokeh is the blur beyond the in focus subject you see in photos.  Getting good bokeh depends on a lot of things including:
- aperture (f-stop)
- distance to the subject
- distance of the background beyond the subject that you want blurred.

I was intrigued so I grabbed my camera and plopped in front of the Christmas tree to try to figure it all out.   The first image was not what I was looking for.  While the background lights are kind of blurry, they're not blurry to the degree that I wanted.  That's when I figured out that my subject had to be further away from the background.  In this pic it was right on the tree the the lights were literally inches behind it.

So, my next attempt I hand held the subject further away from the tree but not so far from my camera lens (my 50mm lens btw).  Now it was starting to do what I wanted it to.  You get the nice blurry orb from the lights but the front subject is right in focus.  Because I was hand holding the object it was tough to get a really crisp picture just because our bodies naturally move even when we're trying to hold absolutely still.  So...

That led to the last few attempts here.  It required a wire hanger, a second tripod, and a strand of Christmas lights to help illuminate the subject.  The Christmas ball was about 3 feet from the tree hanging from the wire hanger that was wrapped around the second tripod.  I then held the lights up close to the ball to give it the side lighting.

All of these have been altered in LightRoom although they were pretty dead on SOOC (straight out of camera).  They were just a bit flat color wise so I punched it up a bit.  They were all shot with my 50mm lens at it's biggest aperture (1.8f or so - some were at 2.2f etc..regardless, they were wide open)

I still have a lot to learn about Bokeh.  My 50mm does not zoom and adding zoom to the equation adds more complexity and flexibility in the outcome.  I'll have to find more options to play with and see what I can come up with!

For those of you with a point and shoot rather than an SLR, getting good Bokeh is hard but not impossible.  You can try macro or portrait mode and hope for the best.  Just put your subject closer to you and the background further from your subject (so don't stand them against a brick wall and hope for the wall to be out of focus etc..).

A year in pictures...

I've not always been the best blogger this year but I vow to improve - heck, I'll have a brand new subject to take photos of come March!

As a response to a posted challenge on the photography board I frequent, I've assembled my year in review photo set.  It was a bit tricky because there were a few months in there where we had only one folder of photos!

Here goes nothing:

January - Hiking in Shenandoah National Park

February - Baby Shower #1 for my cousin-in-law, Jessica

March -My pasty white feet on their first foray in flip flops after a long winter.  Shot while in Miami, FL.

April - Washington D.C. Cherry Blossom festival

May - My first foray into TTV.  This was the lavender outside in my garden.

June - Trip to Germany and Switzerland.  Two weeks in the most amazing settings!

July - Surprise! We're expecting!

August - Macie, our Vizsla, was having a good time this day.

September - Last backpack trip for a while (18 weeks pg) to Yosemite National Park.  Fletcher Lake in the picture.

October - Jesse and Jessica's wedding (cousin and cousin in law).  Great pic of the family (yes, we're that strange)

November - Nephew B hamming it up for the camera

December - 30 weeks pregnant, home made maternity shots done in our foyer.

Metering...

I was on a photography board the other day and a poster asked about metering. Now, I'm no expert when it comes to getting lighting right in my photos but I thought I'd post something quickly about metering, spot metering and that fun stuff since I've been playing with it!

In high contrast situations it's difficult to get an evenly composed image.  The camera just can't adjust for the high tonal range.  There are a bunch of ways around this though I've not found a perfect solution yet - i often end up in PS trying to even things out manually.

Anywho, the images below are SOOC and not well composed at all but the illustrate what spot metering can do for you in a high contrast situation (without an ND filter - which has so far been the best work around outside of PS).

The first image I just focused on the dog and let the camera meter as it normally does.  This results in the window being way blown out but the dog is visible and in focus.

This image I used my spot meter button (the button on your camera that looks like a star or an asterisk) and metered on the window.  Once the meter was set, I recomposed, focused on the dog and shot.  Since I metered on the window and it was sooo bright, I lost the dog in the picture. (but the window is well exposed)

The last image is not the best example but I think it shows it a bit.  Instead of metering on the window or on the dog (the high and low tones in the picture, i found a middle tone - the back of the futon and metered there).  Once I had the meter set, i recomposed, focused on the dog and shot.  The result is a window that's not totally blown out (or at least not as blown out as the top image) and a visible dog (although not as visible as in the first picture).

In the end it takes alot of finesse, playing, and just plain experience to handle these situations.  I mean, I could have dropped in a split ND to block out some of the light from the window.  Or I could have metered on the window and added a fill flash so as to not lose the dog.  Or heck, I could have just picked a better lighting situation (but then how would I get to show you all this fun stuff?) or gotten all artsy and made this situation work for me.  But I think a lot of that is what photography is all about and what makes great photographers great and hobbyist always wanting to learn and get better.  It not only takes the artistic vision to compose the image but the technical know-how and experience to deal with tough situations like this one.

Sno-puppy...

Mother nature was very generous the past few days and bestowed a large amt of snow upon us in a very short period of time. She was courteous enough to do it over a weekend even! However, it happened to be the weekend before Christmas when we needed to shop the most. Oh well - at least we got some good shots of Macie playing in the snow!

Approximately 30 hours and 24 inches later, we woke to a winter wonderland where snow was a high as Macies shoulders.  Lucky for us, she loves the white fluffy stuff!

The shots below were out of our Point and shoot camera surprisingly (as I wouldn't let hubs take the big expensive camera across the creek and out to the soccer field in 2 feet of snow...)

The only post processing on this was to lighten her up a bit - in contrast to the white snow she was kind of dark.