What's an extension tube anyway?

If you love close up/macro photos you may already know that a macro lens, even a cheap one, is going to set you back hundreds of dollars.   I totally will admit that I've had one on my amazon wish list for several years now, but the truth is, I really need other lenses more.

Gene sells jewelry online, and I really struggle with getting a great shot that shows the details of the piece. 

Introducing... the extension tube.

An extension tube is just that.  Basically a tube that moves the lens away from the camera base.  There's a couple different sizes that you can buy for a canon mount, but in reality, you can make your own out of some black pipe and some hose clamps.

However, I really wanted my camera to take readings while I got the shot so I went for the OEM product from Canon which costs around $140-$175.  A virtual steal when it comes to "lenses".

Essentially, what happens is that it moves the lens away from the body which reduces that minimum focal distance.  My 50 mm lens before was 1.5 feet minimum distance from the object, but now I can get down to about 4 inches from my subject.

Here's a couple examples of what the extension tube can accomplish.  Both photos below are as close as I can possibly get, no cropping of the image.

As you can see, the focal length greatly affects also how close you can get, but on some items you may not want to get that close so you can choose a lens with a longer focal length.

This has greatly improved my close up shots.

You don't want to forget, that with any lens, you need to narrow your aperture to increase your depth of field.  This will guarantee your subject will be nice and crisp.  You'll have to give up something else in return though - you'll need a lot of light the more you narrow your aperture.  (just increasing your ISO will cause grain unless you have a 1dx.  Which I don't)

My over all evaluation is that the ext tube was a great investment for my return.  Not the same as a macro lens, but pretty darn good anyway for what I need to accomplish.  If you're looking for a good photography gift for someone, this is a winner.

If you'd like to read more about extension tubes, here is a great article.

Tips for Momtographers - Does your photo tell a story?

It's been a while since I've done a "Tip for Momtographers" so I thought I'd bring you a quickie.

See the 2 photos above? Both were taken within a minute of each other at a wildlife refuge near here (mainly birds). I happened to notice a few of these cool looking bird "houses" (not sure of technical terms here) and decided to snap the picture on the let. It's then that I realized it was kind of boring, and didn't tell a story so I moved my car up a little bit (yep, I shoot out my window sometimes) and shot through the trees.

A good story has a beginning, a middle and an end. This story has a little something in the beginning that helps set the stage of where we are. Our main subject in the middle tells what it is, and an end that helps set the mood (in a forest).

So my tip is, if you feel like your subject is a little "boring" just sitting there, move yourself around your subject. Don't be afraid to get a bit of something else in the foreground of your photo, especially if it helps tell the story of your photo. It might be a tree, or a wall, maybe the chains on a playground swing, or flowers at a park at the bottom of the photo. It's a great way to add a little life and depth to a photo.

Did you try it? Share your links!

Thursday Sparks - Props

(forgot to post this last night! oops!)

I've been inspired by props lately. Props are a mainstay from most photographers. It gives the subject something to "do". Sadly I forget to drag along my bag of props most of the time, and then when I do, I forget to drag them out. DOH.

Click on the photo to see more by these photgraphers.


Balloons:

And these photos actually by me:

Maybe a few hats and crowns:

Even a piece of candy can be a prop:

and everyone has a basket:

an older one by me:

So if you're at a loss of how to take a photos, look around and see what you have that could be used for a prop.


Now, if I could JUST get someone.. anyone... to let me use a chicken as a prop.
Hmmm.

{I love you Tanner, but this is your punishment for not letting me take a proper photo of you. LOL. Complain and you're grounded. That is all.}

Tips for Momtographers - big scene, small lens

Every once in a while, you'll run across a situation where you really want to capture something huge and beautiful. That might be a sunset, the grand canyon, a redwood tree, or your nosey neighbor's butt.

scratch that.
(the suggestion, not the butt. yuck)

I found myself outside yesterday, with a camera, a beautiful sunset and a lens that wasn't wide enough to capture it all. In fact, the widest of wide lenses that I own, would have never captured the expanse of sky. So, I did the next best thing, I took several photos and stitched them together.

You can do this too! It's easy!

First, I will explain it if you have a DSLR. You need to set your focus on manual (infinity in most situations). You will also need to shoot in full manual, *including color balance*. Your color balance may shift between images making it harder to stitch them together. I forgot that part above and you can slightly tell where my stitching was. It's ok, I'm not hanging it in an art gallery.

Next, stand in one spot and shoot, overlapping your photos a bit until you cover the whole scene. If you are shooting something like a building or a tree, etc, you will find that your image may be distorted as you shoot upwards. Go with it! It'll make a cool shot.

Now, if you have a point and shoot, set it on landscape mode (those are the little mountains). If you have a more advanced P&S then you can set your ISO, shutter speed, etc just like a DSLR. Shoot the same way above.

When you get back, open up your photo editing program. There are programs that will stitch the photo together for you but I just do it by hand since it doesn't take me all too long if I only have 3-4 photos. I will create a new canvas that is much larger than I will need and then I copy/paste the images into the new canvas lining up the overlapping photos. If I notice that there is a slight color difference, I'll create a new layer and then adjust my colors or darken/lighten them until they match.

With the above photo, I could see the line where the images overlapped so I used my eraser tool to soften the sharp overlapping photos. I then popped the saturation a bit, and voila! An image that photographs a sky that is at least 5-6 miles wide! I can't capture that with a 35 mm lens.

If you don't have photoshop, try out Gimp which is a very "photo shop like" free download.

For more Tips for Momtographers - Click here or the tag at the bottom of any momotographer post.

Tips for Momtographers - Fixing a blechy photo

Yesterday, I ran to town to pick up some newspapers, and on my way back, I decided that I was going to go on an explore. I knew I was going to be having a difficult discussion with a state government official shortly, and I wanted to blow off steam and guarantee a good day.

I explored some back roads near my home that I'd never been on before (pics soon), and discovered this beautiful little spot, on the crest of a hill, miles from town.

I turned to leave and saw the jeep nestled in some trees and thought *awesome pic*. *click* What was baffling me was that the display showed the photo kind of dark, and had been most of the day, but often in bright outdoor light it will look that way until I get it home and download it onto the desktop and see it looks great.

No such luck this time.

I hadn't caught that I had changed the settings on my metering causing my photos to look much darker than usual. That's fixed now, but in the meantime, I had some cool photos that were mediocre at best. They needed fixed.

A few minutes in a couple of programs and I took a photo that you might normally delete and turned it into something that (imo) is magazine worthy.

I decided I should show you how I did it.

Keep in mind, I use 2 antiquated programs, and no actions or presets. I know I should, but I'm cheap and this works for me so it's what I do!


I start buy opening the photo in an old version of Photoshop Elements.

I love the "fill flash" option, and add around 20% light.

It's flat, so I increase the contrast. I don't go too crazy because I know some of the steps down the road will help with the contrast too.

I want all that green to pop, so I increase the saturation about 30%

I then add some vignetting around the edges so it looks like it's nestled in the woods.



Now I save the file, and open it in Paint Shop Pro. Version I use is Ollllllld, however, it is a beloved version and some say one of the best ones ever made, and I agree so I keep using it.

I create a new layer and add an orange color over the whole image 35% opacity.

Then lastly, in the layer properties, I set it to "overlay". It mergest the 2 layers together, gives it a tiny bit of a yellowish cast and makes the light just pop.

It's about 7-8 steps, but it literally takes me 2 minutes to do this.

If you don't want to invest hundreds of dollars on Photoshop, you can try elements, it's around $100. Or, you can go on ebay and search for the software of a version that might be a year or two older than what the current version is. I have saved hundreds this way.

Lastly, there's a free program available called Gimp that is supposed to be similar to Photoshop, but is FREE. I have never used it myself so I can not give you a review, but I have seen some very talented photographers create some amazing stuff with it.

My best advice? Make a copy of your original photo and just play and see what all the buttons do. Control+z (undo) will fix pretty much everything you screw up!

Tips for Momtographers - Free Lensing

I heard about this cool technique on one of my photography groups today, and just had to give it a shot. It's called "Free Lensing", and on the "Tips for Momtography" scale, this is going to be one of those things that you're only going to be able to do with a detachable lens. Sorry :(

Essentially, when a camera lense is attached to the body, the focal plane is straight ahead perpendicular to the camera. So if something is close, middle, and far away, and you focus on the middle item, the close and far away items will most likely be in some degree of out of focus.

Got that part?

Well, with free lensing (and tilt shift lenses) the focal plane shifts. Imagine taking a photo of a brick wall standing straight in front of it.. With a regular camera, the whole wall will be in focus, but with free lensing, either the left, right, top, bottom or middle can be in focus while the rest is out of focus.

If you want a more detailed and technical explaination (ie: more understandable) read here.


So I popped out my lens (literally) and decided to give it a shot on the only willing subjects available:

Pink rooster and Mr. Bear!!
(told you that you'd see the rooster again)

As you can see in the before, the rooster is sharp, and the bear is slightly out of focus. Just as expected.

But with the lens detached and tilted slightly (and I mean literally like a millimeter), you get the cool tilt shift effect.



I also wanted to give it a good go outside and thought the "cool alley" might look interesting on a whole new focal plane.

I've also noticed that when I detach the lens, it throws the white balance off a bit, but I liked the reddish tones in the right photo so I left it.

I really think the detached image is much more interesting and artistic. A win, considering I saved around a grand not buying a tilt shift.

Go me.

If you'd like to try this, you can read more at the link provided above, which will tell you what to do in each brand of camera. You can also see examples of other (and better) work in a free lensing flickr group.

If you try, share your links!

Tips for Momtographers - What if?

Yesterday, I had to make my usual errand runs which of course, always includes a trip to the Walls-mart. Right inside the front door, there's a bin where they keep the discounted flowers, and as I walked in the door, I saw an older lady carrying a bouquet of tulips.

Stellar idea!

So, I bought myself a bouquet of tulips too. It was easy since they were pink and all, and the fact that I've been a little obsessed with spring lately. I can't help it. I'm itching for warmer weather.

So I bring it home, and decide that I should take a photo, the pink is so pretty. Here's a normal photo that I would have taken:

Please note the dish strainer in the background.
Thank you.


Then I picked up the vase, set it on the counter in that 5 p.m. light that burns my left cornea during late Jan, early Feb each year. This is because it streams perfectly through my dining room window into my EYE.

I'm surprised I don't have a walking cane and dark glasses...

or curtains.


ANYWAY...
The light hit the flowers and I said "what if?"

What if I shot up, into the light, letting the light flare across the lens.

What if I took a photo of just one tulip, hanging down into the light? Expose the background, so the tulip is just a silhouette.

What if I took a photo of the tulip from a different angle? This being the bottom of the tulip base, and the petals cast an unusual shadow across the inside of the tulip.

{Note: I just found out yesterday that some photographers use this method to create shadows on 3rd party objects... referred to as a cookie. Not like the one you eat, or the one that tracks every move you make on the internet.}

What if I let the petals play second fiddle to a leaf? This pretty little leave had the cutest little curl. Forget the petal, that gets all the glory. But you still know what you're looking at, even tho the leaf is taking center stage.

And what if you just get a little weird, and layer some texture on top? Fade the photo 15% to make it look more vintage. Hate it? No worries, there's no wrong if you're just playing and saying "what if".

My point?
Well, look at your subject (be it a flower, a toddler or your cat, whatever) and think "what would happen if I would do this completely different?" What's the worst that could happen? You delete some duds?


** As an aside, I'd like to note that all that flare is real. I know, I have no right cornea now either as proof. Not that I would ever *fake* flare. Not me.
I never do stuff like that.

You know.

Just sayin.

Tips for Momtographers - capturing a great sunrise/sunset

It's been a while since I've brought you a segment from "Tips for Momtographers". I was talking to the very lovely, Heather, the other day and she mentioned (oh lord, I hope it was Heather lol) about taking sunset/sunrise photos and having them look right.

In my head, I said "I can do that!" and realized later, that there are a couple simple things that can make a sunrise look even better.

Below are 3 samples.

{#1, ISO200, F4, 1/4000th}

{#2, ISO200, F4, 1/500th}

{#3, ISO200, F4, 1/125th}

Now, something you should know, is that these three photos were taken within 1 minute of each other. No, there was not a quick shift in the light. I only did one little thing different.

I'm sure you can see, that the first photo, the shutter was open the least amount of time at 1/4000th of a second, the second at 1/500th of a second and the third the longest at 1/125th of a second.

Now, you could just manually set your camera to each increment until you get the look that you want. I'm entirely more lazy than that. LOL.

I do the easy way. First, I ALWAYS set my focus point to the center. I will point at the point I want to focus and recompose my shot. This is also the point where your camera will meter for the light.

So essentially, if you want a dark moody photo, pick a light spot and meter for that spot. {I metered for the sun in the photo#1} That will force the shutter to open and close fastest letting in the least amount of light to expose the rest of the photo, this will make your darker parts of the photo, darker than in real life. This might be the dramatic look that you're looking for.

If you want your photo to be bright, or you want to see the details in a darker area of photo, point, focus/meter off of the darkest areas {photo #3, I metered the trees}

I prefered something in between, that felt like what the real sunset was like, so I might pick something of a medium light or tone to meter off of, like a cloud or the edge of the tree line.

This method works best for a landscape photo where you are focusing on infinity. If you are wanting to focus on one thing, but meter for another, then you should expose for part that you'd like to meter for, pay attention to what your readings are in your camera and go into manual mode, THEN focus on the closer item.

This makes no sense if you're not using a DSLR. This CAN work if you're using a point and shoot to a certain extent. If you want more dramatic skies, point more towards the sky, if you want lighter sky, try to point more towards the skyline. If this doesn't work for the composition of the photo, you can crop the photo in your photo editing programs at home, or if your just uploading to a photo processor, they always allow you to crop with their software.

Hopefully this will help your photos when you take us to the bahamas this January!

Anyone?

Hello?

I miss squirrels - tips for momtographers

I'm not a bird person. I'm a squirrel person.

Really.

I always say if I were to die and come back as an animal, I would never pick being a cat like 90% of ppl say, I'd be a squirrel. Dude those things have the most fun, they can climb like mad, fly without wings, cute as a button, they have FUN, and they usually go out with a blaze of glory. Yeah. I wanna be a squirrel.

But the down side is, there's no squirrels out here. Oh, maybe down the road there is, but *right here*, nothing. Probably because they like that whole "tree" thing, and I have lots of trees, but they are all about 8 feet all.

What I didn't expect was birds. In town, there were tons of sparrows, occasionally a robin or a cardinal, and nothing else. Here? I'm seeing birds I've never seen before.

A few days ago, I saw a bird I DID recognize. The Goldfinch, I know that one because I'm from Iowa, and it's the Iowa state bird - and I think they are one of the prettiest birds ever.

So I stopped in at Walter-mart, and found this sock thing, full of finch food. I had shepherds hooks left over from the wedding, and stuck it out in the yard. It was a matter of ONE day, and there were the goldfinches eating away. Manna from heaven. I question how they can even fly they eat so much.

Tanner has been picking up my camera lately and taking photos himself.

Sunday, he took the above photo with my long telephoto lens, then came to me and asked me a good question.

"How do I make the camera not be so shaky when taking pictures with the big lens?"

Good question!

Here's the answer. If you want to take a photo and you're using a long lens, you have a couple problems. The closer you get in lens, the more you'll notice a fraction of movement. It also is a lot heavier, so that fraction of movement is very easy to make happen.

The best thing to do is use your tripod. What? You don't have a tripod? OK, you have alternatives. You could get one of those fancy bean bags from a photography store that you set on a solid object like your fence, or your car and then place your camera on it. Those are cool, and something you could even use with your point and shoot, put one in your camera bag or in the trunk of your car.

OR

You could be cheap and lazy like myself, and just buy a bag of dry beans. It'll do the same thing, and then when you crash your car into a snowbank in February, you'll have some beans to live on.

what? you got caught with no tripod, and no beans?
*sigh*
Are you my husband or child?

Anyway...

You can make yourself into a makeshift tripod. First, stand with your feet apart, one slightly in front of the other. Tuck your elbows in tight to your sides, take a deep breath, exhale half way, then shoot. Now take 5 pics if you can because odds are at least one will be pretty clear.

If that still doesn't seem to be enough, try growing a third leg, -or- you can lean against your car, a wall, the fence, etc.

*****If using a DSLR or SLR - crank up your ISO, increase shutter speed, shoot f-stop wide open. ie: get as much light in your camera as possible to make it as fast as possible.

We're still not getting close enough for super sharp photos to make me happy, so the master plan is to buy a remote for the camera, set it outside, and then in air conditioned comfort, take super close up photos of the birdies from the kitchen window.

In my jammies.

Tips for Momtographers - get down low

My new favorite camera angle is one where I'm not even looking through the eyepiece.

This is a perspective that anyone can shoot, with any camera at all. All you do, is sit it on the floor, and push the button. Now my camera is a DSLR (digital single lens reflex) so my lens is close to the bottom of the camera, so if you have a point and shoot, your perspective might be slightly different but just play until you get something you really like.

You'll need your camera to be on auto focus, unless of course, you'd like to lay on the floor. Also, if you're using an slr, be sure to put your finger over the eyepiece as light can leak into sensor and make your photos very under exposed.

The resulting effect is a distinct depth of field (DOF) that's extreme and helps draw more dramatic attention to your subject.

You don't have to do this angle just on the floor or ground either.

Try sitting it on a table top, dashboard, counter, on a vertical wall or any flat surface. You can have fun and get some really cool "from the hip" perspective photos of your friends while you're out for dinner or the kids at the park while they think the camera is sitting in the grass.

So don't be scared to get your good pants dirty, get down in the grass and look at your world from a different angle