tree canopy Archives -

Selecting the Shot. . .

March 24, 2014March 24, 2014 by karenulvestad, posted in Instruction, Location

Spring has sprung in parts of the world, and the flowers are coming forth. Often times, locations are crowded with people when the light is best for shooting. In the Puget Sound area, spring means cherry blossoms on the University of Washington campus, the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, and Washington Park Arboretum. Every season has its crowds. . .so, how do you find the photograph?

In the photo above, the throngs of people are obvious, and the garbage cans are over-flowing. The scene is quite noisy, and full of activity. Everyone is out because of the sunshine and the cherry blossoms. This is Sunday on the University of Washington campus (at the Quad). It is late afternoon light, which is warmer than mid-afternoon.

One way to cut-out the crowds is to choose selective portions of the buildings and cherry blossoms. The image above shows the Gothic architecture against a vivid blue sky, and framed with the subtle pink cherry blossoms in front. The crowds are below the bottom of the frame, and the photo takes on a peaceful quality. It exudes quite afternoon on campus.

Another way to exclude the crowds is to change perspective. This shot is looking straight-up under the cherry trees. The branches become a linear component of the composition with the repetitive pattern of the cherry blossoms. The only limit to the possibilities is one’s imagination. . .

Happy Shooting. . .Karen

Photographing Winter

February 6, 2013 by karenulvestad, posted in Instruction, Tips

Winter is a magical time to photograph the natural world. The world is changed with the white of snow or frost. Trees become dormant for the season, and visually become lines in the composition. The temperatures drop below freezing, and it is a different environment for operating a camera. Exposure changes to reflect white.

Below is a photograph of starlings in a tree covered with hoarfrost. The dark tone of the birds is in direct contrast to the white of the sky and tree limbs. For the frost to appear white, it is the time to over-expose the photograph. The dark tone of the birds will yield subtle colors and details. This image was shot at 100 ISO, 1/60 second shutter speed, and F8 aperture. I chose F8 to bring a larger depth of field to the image, yet knew sharpness didn’t matter for the background. The fog had not lifted too far from the ground, and was a mono-chromatic white.

The reason that snow or white subjects need to be over-exposed is due to the nature of the camera’s light meter. The light meter reads the world as 18% gray, when it reads 0 (or the center of the meter). To compensate, the exposure needs to let more light into the camera, so the whites look white.

This second image has foreground, midground and background. I wanted to show the fore and mid ground in focus, and let the fog become the backdrop for the image. This photograph was shot at 200 ISO, 1/60 second shutter speed, and F10 aperture. It gave me the depth of field I was wanting to show in the image. The use of the tree branches at the top helps create a feeling of depth in the image, and help show the subject.

This last image was a long-needle pine tree covered in hoarfrost. The ice crystals still maintained their crispness, and the cones were a nice contrast to the rest of the photo. I used a shallower depth of field to blur the background, and bring the viewer’s focus to the cones, needles and hoarfrost in the front of the image. The exposure for this one is 200 ISO, 1/60 second shutter speed, and F5.6 aperture.

Happy Shooting. . .Karen

Photographing Fall Colors. . .

September 10, 2012 by karenulvestad, posted in Instruction, Tips

One of my favorite times of the year for photography is coming up. In the fall, the leaves on the trees turn vibrant yellows, oranges, reds and sometimes purple. Each region has its own timing for the fall foliage. Ours is anytime between late September to mid-November. It all depends on the amount of rain, and when the first frost happens.

The shot below was taken on Whatcom Creek in northern Washington state. This is a long exposure (3 seconds) on a tripod. The depth of field (Aperture) is f22, for maximum sharpness throughout the photograph. The ISO was 100.

The day was over-cast, hence the lack of dark shadows and bright highlights. This can work two ways for a photograph. First, it give even lighting, since the clouds diffuse the sunlight. Second, too much sky showing becomes un-interesting, and can take away from the photograph. In this photo, I cropped out the sky, and focused on the creek, fall foliage and surrounding landscape.

This next example deviates from a traditional landscape photograph. The trees, leaves and stream become an abstract image. This effect is created in the camera by “zooming” the lens. In this case, I used my 17-40mm lens. In this case, I started at 17mm and zoomed to 40mm.

This is a 1 second exposure at f10. The ISO was 100.

This last photograph was taken on a sunny day. I chose a shaded bend in the river, and cropped out the brightly lit background forest from the frame (in camera). Composition can intensify the fall leaves, by surrounding the tree with a single color. In this case, it is the other green trees that have not turned color yet. I set my camera’s White Balance on Cloudy, which “warms” up the colors in the photograph. A polarizing filter is handy to cut the “glare” from the top of the leaves.

This was shot with my 100-400mm lens, at 100mm. The exposure was 1/60 sec, f4.5 and ISO 100.

For more information about locations, visit my Examiner.com articles, and subscribe to my updates.

Happy shooting. . .Karen

Photographing at Dusk

February 20, 2012February 20, 2012 by karenulvestad, posted in Instruction

Dusk is the time of day when the sunset is most brilliant. It is the time many animals and some birds come out to hunt and feed. Modern digital cameras offer us choices in exposure and flash to make the most of these opportunities.

This photograph of a barred owl was taken around sunset under the tree canopy. There was little light to work with, so the exposure for this image is ISO 2500, Shutter 1/80 and Aperture F5.6. I was using my 100-400mm lens at 400mm. This shot is not cropped, and is a full-frame sensor camera. The original file is shot in RAW.

I could have used a fill-flash in this situation, which would have allowed me to shoot with a lower ISO. It would have added light into the scene, and lit the owl. When I mention fill-flash, I am talking about adding a little light. Adding too much light in this situation would startle the owl, create shadows, and possibly over-expose parts of the scene.

On this photo, I did adjust the color and luminescent to reflect less noise, and desaturate the color to fit the time of day.

When photographing the sunset at dusk, the exposure is different. Usually, there is open space before the sunset, and it has more light.

This photo of the mountains at dusk shows the dynamic colors in the sky, which is reflected into the water. The hills and mountains become shades of blue-grey in the photo. The birds feeding in the water and on the mud flats become silhouettes against the reflected colors. The exposure on this image was ISO 100, Shutter 1/60 and Aperture F8. I was using my 100-400mm lens again at 400mm.

On this photo, I adjusted color and contrast.

More Later. . .Karen

Tag: tree canopy

Selecting the Shot. . .

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Photographing Winter

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Photographing Fall Colors. . .

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Photographing at Dusk

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