Pro Photographer question thread
 

Ok, so you are a pro photograher and know your stuff? Here is your opportunity to help out some people and at the same time show how much knowledge you have.


I will start it off with a few questions:


If you perfer not to use a flash indoors then how do you work with low available daylight? You could just set the camera on a tripod and set a longer exposure, right? If you want to shoot a photo with only daylight from a window and want to shoot at F 5.6 then most likey you would have to have the camera on a tripod and set the shutter to 40, 30, or even lower than that? ( yes of course, it depends on the amount of daylight but I am speaking in genral terms, say it is a suny day but the sun is not shining directly into the window.)

What if you have a image stabilized lens? How much does this negate the need to put the camera on a triopod during lower light shooting?

This thread will definitly get good ;) Good questions = good answers

If you don't use a flash or a tripod, you can do two things to photo in availible light. Either bump up your ISO or open your lens up (the aperture/F stop) or sometimes both.

It all depends on how much availible light you have and what lenses you have to work with.

Thanks, but I just wish I would have spell-checked my first post. :1orglaugh

What camera do you use and what lenses do you have ?

Thanks for your response.

Let's say I have bumped up my ISO to the maximum (which is 200 on my D70) and also opened up my lens to the max at 2.8. The problem is that at 2.8 I am not getting a deep enough depth of field. I need at least a 5.6 to keep enough of the model in focus.

At that point I need to either

A) add more light
B) open up the shutter

IF I open up the shutter very far I need to put the camera on a tripod to avoid blur.

At what shutter speed to I need to use a triopod. Also, if I am using a image stabilized lens how much does this help?

(I am looking at getting a Canon 5D which has a much more sensitive ISO than my D70)

IS and low light have a subtle relationship. First, I don't think you can use IS with a tripod.

Second, if you intend not to use a flash (or external light), you can always get a good exposure, but turning down the shutter means that you will risk a subject with motion blurring.

You may not need a tripod at 1/40, depending on the length of the lense. Try a monopod first, you may be surprised with the results.

I have a Canon 20D, you will notice noise in ISO's of 800+.

Why not try using a Flash with a diffuser?

I'm currently shooting with an olympus e10 and usually work with available lighting both in-studio and on location.

I seldom go above 80 iso and usually keep the shutter speed around 1-1.5 secs. - almost always on tripod with cable release. The poses are static (not action/movement shots) so we tend to have the model 'freeze' poses.


SilentKnight

I am using soft boxes. But I want to explore the idea of using no flash. I see that some photogs don't ever use flash and I think the look of their photos can be extremely erotic.

I would say why bother?

Unless you're trying to create an arty picture why not just use a flash?

Canons and Nikons. Nikon D100, Canon D20, EOS 1, 3 and 5. With a mixture of fixed or zoom lenses. All professional fixed lens.

Great, am interested in working with models in much the same way. Do you feel that you get less "usable" photos this way then if you just used a flash?

I would imagine you take considerably less photos than if you had a flash or 2 in the room because you spend more time posing the models just perfect and more of the shots get tossed out due to blur even though the models were doing their best to "freeze".

The cool thing about photography is that not everyone does things the same way. My approach might be different then someone elses approach yet we may both get usable images from this "available light" situation that you speak of.

Expo, your D70's maximum iso setting is 1600 not 200. 200 is the minimum iso setting. You should only use 200 if you have PLENTY of light to work with. This can be available light or manufactured light (strobes, flash etc). The way that I would approach this scenerio is by using my handheld meter. I would set the meter at iso 200 for example and meter the light that would be hitting the model and see what it read. My target would be F4 ot F5.6. at a safe "motion-free" shutterspeed. If there wasn't enough light to use those F-stops, I'd up the iso to say 400 and then remeter. If that wasn't enough I'd push the iso up to 800, 1000 or maybe even 1600. If you can't get anywhere at that high an iso, I would suggest looking for another place to shoot your girl.

Pictures shot at iso 800 might exhibit some grain. I use a product called Noise Ninja to combat that problem. It's one of the best products on the market for removing high iso/asa grain from you pictures....check it out!

:thumbsup

[QUOTE=Paul Markham]I would say why bother?

Unless you're trying to create an arty picture why not just use a flash?


I often see photos shot this way and I think it looks erotic. I would not go so far as to use the term "artsy" but I guess that term could be used as well.

Of course I would still use strobes in many situations, it would just be nice to expore other ways of shooting.

WTF is this? Pretend land?

Let's say that the D70 is adjustable from 200 to 1600 ISO and try this again.

No offense meant but if you don't understand the basics of how ISO works and the advantages to HIGHER ISO in lower light then WTF are you doing buying a D70 with an f2.8 stabilized lens?

There's nothing wrong with wanting to learn and asking questions but for fucks sake, at least read the manual and understand the basics first.

Dean is much nicer about these things than I am. Now if he would just learn how to shoot better. ;)

And Noise Ninja is a great suggestion. For those of us who use Canon 20D's, we rarely see any noise at 800 or less. Not sure how the Nikon's are doing with that these days.

Aaron, I do understand ISO is the light sensitivity. I just flipped the terms "max and minimum around".

Lets move on.

You flipped the terms around and are still asking the same question?

Get real.

Aaron, you are a huge help. Thank you.

Flash on, Flash off.

Wax on, Wax Off.

Daylight comming into the room will very by the hour:)
I have found that daylight is what set's everything up for a picture to get personality and it is integral to what I am pursuing when shooting stills.

No hour has the same light in a day ( goes without saying), and when working with daylight you gotto understand how it can set the tone for everything.

So your answer may not be so much technical as what it is you are attempting to portray within the photo.

Since I rarely use flash, I don't really have a comparative basis to say whether I get more or less usable images. Typically I'll shoot about 250-300 shots in a 3-4 hr. photoshoot and on average count on 10-15 frames to be blurred.

Results will vary, of course. Some models are better at freezing a pose than others.

I just prefer shooting this way because I tend to like the more natural overall look of the image. Slave/synch flashes have a harsher look and flatten an image. Sometimes I'll use a pair of diffusion softboxes depending on the setup...but that's rare.

SilentKnight

It's a stupid question if you already know about ISO and so forth. The way you stated it is that you have ISO at 200. Why would you do that under those conditions if you understood how ISO works?

Have you consulted with a light meter and tried stepping the ISO up?

As far as shutter speed goes, rule of thumb is no slower than 1 over focal length without a tripod. Say you have 50mm lens the slowest recommended shutter speed is 1/50 sec, but since there isn't that setting in a camera you round up to 1/60 of a sec.

If you have a steady hand you can shoot at a slower speed.

Yes, I know...I'm a prick.

Juicy keeps telling me to talk to his shrink about that. :glugglug

Quite true. We often lease an old factory in town on a monthly basis to use as studio space...and it has skylighting in one area that provides some excellent natural light. But as you say, it shifts throughout the day and we often have to move around with the setups to accomodate it.

The hour just before sundown is usually the best with the light at a steep angle. It hits the walls just right and highlights the textures beautifully (old brick with peeling paint - the building is over 100 yrs. old and has that wonderfully photogenic decrepit look).

SilentKnight

This is going to be one of those threads of people trying to shoot porn with the wrong equipment or trying to shoot erotica without the necessary knowledge and skills.

But as we all know, all you need is to point a camera to be a photographer. :1orglaugh

Quite true, my grey haired friend. :thumbsup :1orglaugh

Yes, we did that one day and the photos ended up grainy. I am not sure how far we pumped it up because I was shooting video but I understand that the 20D is much better in that regard so that is one of the reasons I am switching to Canon.

By the way, I have not had to shoot stills until recently so never needed to really "know my stuff".

I will make sure to check out noise ninja as well.

You mean I can't use my new camera? It just got here this week...

http://www.grafxpress.com/images/Dis...e%20Camera.jpg

It even came with a nice case.

No, IS can be used with a tripod, of course.
Unless you've got great IS, though, IE, 2nd Gen, you'll find that it slides around.

The long and the short of it - if you're shooting in low light, you're going to have to compensate in one of these areas:

ISO: Pro- Easy to do on digital. Con- Noise.
Shutter Speed: Pro- Easy enough, again. Con- Slow, and you blur. Even if your model hold really, really still, you're still going to notice it.
Apature: Pro- easy enough. Con - Depth of field. See above for more explanations of this one.

The long and the short of it is this - If you shoot a photo in low light, you're going to notice it. Doesn't matter how great oyur photos are, if you can't meet the hard fundamentals for a properly exposed photo, it's not going to happen.

From above - you're going to end up blurred / noisy / bad DOF / or, a low contrast, low sharpness photo.

As a final - if you're shooting near a window, chances are it will overexpose, and that will leak into the rest of the frame.

http://www.ninjito.com/dump/oe.jpg

Shot in low light: blur + lack of contrast etc
http://www.ninjito.com/dump/unhappy.jpg

Now i'm sure there are people who can 'prove me wrong' with photos etc, this is gfy.
These are my opinions. Who knows, i could have this hptography thing all wrong!

These are all work arounds, imo.
If you're relying on noise ninja to fix your photos, something is wrong.

If this is gonig to be something you're doing a lot, invest in lighting ;)

I'm tired of cameras stealing my soul.

How can I avoid this? :)

You SURE about that 200 ISO on a good camera like a D70?
See below:

Shutter speeds of 30 to 1/8,000 sec. ensure full creative control. The built-in auto pop-up flash can synchronize at shutter speeds of up to 1/500 sec. for great fill flash effects. Its new optimized design also increases flash coverage to support lenses as wide as 18mm. Sensitivity can be set between ISO 200 to 1600 or controlled automatically (AUTO ISO) across the same range of settings to maximize available light.

FROM:
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0504/05042003nikond70s.asp

Fitz

There are lots of productions where there are separate videographers and photographers. I have been shooting only video up until recently.

It seems that most people, even if they shoot both photos and video, tend to be "better" at one or the other. I know there are some very good photographers who shoot amazing photos but when it comes out to shooting video they just whip out their handycam and set it to "full auto" and let the camera do it's thing.

So while I may sound like a moron for asking questions about details of you guys think are elementary - I am more than capable of creating video content makes clients very happy.

I agree with Quantum that Noise Ninja is a work-around. However, I look at it more as a tool....just like photoshop. I do very little available light work but on occasion I'll shoot something in available light because the direction of the light is beautiful but the amount of light might not be such that I can use the ideal iso/asa setting. So I bump up the iso (which gives me a little grain) and then I'll use NN to remove some of that grain and the pics are beautiful and nobody is the wiser. :thumbsup

Wtf
 

seems like you learned a lot from this. I guess you can RTFM but the best way to figure out what works for you and what doesn't is to just go try it. In this millenium digital can help you teach yourself really fast. Jesus if I had that back when I was learning. Holy shit! You can learn more in an hour than in 10 years.
Was it my notes that were wrong, was it my developing, did I not print the same way, was I consistant.
Get a grip, you will learn nothing about photography on GFY. spend some more time with your camera.

Yes the lowest a D70 can go is ISO 200. If you want a lower ISO you need to look at the D2H or D2X, or a Canon :thumbsup

I like you.

Not everyone here is an asshole as you seem to infer!

why is that? been there done that?