Florida beach photography

“Florida” and “beach” go together in most people’s minds, whether residents of the sunshine state or visitors on vacation. Even most vacationers to inland destination areas of the state such as Disney in Orlando plan to fit in at least one day on the coast. This post has some tips to help you get the best beach photographs possible.

The bright sand and sun of a Florida beach can cause the same exposure problems as snow. Many camera meters will try to under-expose, leaving the sand looking drab and the water too dark. Use the exposure histogram when available and know how to use exposure compensation and/or manual exposure to get the proper brightness. A polarizing filter can help make swimsuit, umbrella and sky colors pop. Use flash for people pictures to lighten facial shadows.

Remember composition basics. The rule of thirds works for subject placement within the frame. Diagonal, converging and s-shaped lines all work to draw the eye into an image and add a sense of depth. Having a strong foreground subject is another great way to imply depth in a photo. Be careful with lines and objects breaking the frame edges, which can be very distracting.

Try to add some subtle excitement to the shot. Wait until a wave in the background is just starting to break to trip the shutter. Wait for a sea gull or pelican to fly into the frame. Try a slower shutter speed(if possible) to catch the ripple of the wind in a swimsuit, towel or umbrella.

Add interest to shots by using an unusual viewpoint-place the camera at sand/water level(but watch out for waves). Use bright colors as focal points and take advantage of local architecture and vegetation for subjects and backgrounds. Detail shots imply a sense of place and involvement. Don’t be weather shy-stormy beaches can be very dramatic.

Finally, try to protect your camera. There is almost always at least a light breeze at the beach an anything exposed will become coated with salt. Keep the lens cap on the lens whenever the camera is not being used. Try to keep the camera itself out of the wind as much as possible. Be aware of waves when near the water line. Carry a dry cloth and/or blower brush in a pocket or case for cleaning/drying lenses and removing sand.

Sunday gear round-up 10/17/2010

*Look for much higher resolution images from cell phone cameras soon. Sony is now making 16.4-mega-pixel and 8.1 mega-pixel “Exmor R” back-illuminated CMOS sensor chips. Sony has also designed the world’s smallest and lightest high performance auto-focus lens modules to match the new sensors. The pixels on the 16MP chips are only 1.12 microns across. Sony claims high sensitivity and low noise by using a unique formation of photo diodes.

*Timbuk2 now has a “stealth” camera bag that looks like an ordinary messenger bag. It is designed for smaller SLR/DSLR cameras and accessories. The bag also has a slot for a small laptop computer. It will be offered in two sizes and three colors starting at around $130. Timbuk2 calls the new bag the “Snoop”.

*Fujifilm will begin selling a totally new “professional” quality compact digital camera early next year. The new camera will be called the “Finepix X-100” and is aimed at pros wanting a small and light back-up to a DSLR or a high quality travel camera. It will have a 12 mega-pixel APS-C sized CMOS sensor exclusive to this model. The fixed lens will be 23mm(35mm equivalent) with a maximum aperture of f/2. The lens uses aspherical elements, a nine blade diaphragm and can focus down to 10 centimeters. The camera will also have HD video capability. The closest competition will be Sigma’s “DP” models. This is the type of camera I like to take along on casual walks or errands in town when the SLR is too much but top quality is still required.

*Lensbaby has two new products on the market. The “Scout” is the company’s first lens without any tilt movements and comes standard with the 12mm fish-eye optic installed. It is also fully compatible with all of the other optic modules(double glass, single glass, etc…). The lens lists for $250.

Maybe even more interesting is Lensbaby’s new “Tilt Transformer” adapter. Currently available only for Micro-four-thirds and Sony alpha-NEX mounts, the Tilt Transformer gives any Nikon-mount lens tilt capability. I would really like to see this adapter is a Canon APS mount to accept Canon full-frame lenses.

*The social/art network Deviant Art is teaming up with the Fotolia stock-sales site. Deviant Art members will be able to sell their work through Fotolia and license Fotolia works for their own use. The partnership is being compared to the Getty Images/Yahoo partnership.

The Lensbaby

The Lensbaby company makes a very interesting line of lenses. The latest and greatest incarnations have interchangeable optics and a variety of accessories available. Three current models are all variations of the very first: a tilting lens for SLR/DSLR cameras with basic, old fashioned optics. The images produced by a Lensbaby are sharp in the center with progressively more softness, optical distortion and color aberrations towards the frame edges.

The size of the central “sweet spot” is controlled by the aperture. Lensbaby apertures are physical disks inserted into the front of the lens using a supplied tool. No disk in place corresponds to approximately f/2 and full-stop disks are supplied up to f/22. At f/22 nearly the entire frame looks reasonably sharp.

The placement of the “sweet spot” is controlled by the tilt of the lens. When the lens is straight the sharp area is centered in the frame. When the lens is tilted to the right, the sharp area moves to the right.

The “Composer” model I currently own has a ball-and-socket arrangement to control the tilt and is very easy and intuitive in use. There is a locking ring to hold the lens in position for repeatability. I have also used the older “IIIG” model, very similar to the latest “Control Freak”. The IIIG/Control Freak is like a view-camera bellows-and-lens on an SLR. It is more complicated to use than the Composer but also slightly more versatile.

There are as many reasons to use a Lensbaby as there are photographers. One I know uses his “Muse”, the base-model Lensbaby, as a substitute for a toy camera like a Diana or Holga for street shooting. I have seen excellent portrait and wedding work with Lensbabies from nationally known professional photographers. I love my Lensbabies because they are fun and they produce images that can’t be made using modern lenses or editing software.

When I mount a Lensbaby on my DSLR, I am suddenly using a 100-year-old folding-bed view camera with a hand-ground, uncoated doublet lens. I almost always shoot a Lensbaby at f/4 or f/5.6 to get a distinctive and distorted softness around the edges. Contrast is quite low and highlights are smeared into the shadow areas. I usually shoot in aperture-priority automatic exposure mode and often dial in -1/2 to -1 stops of exposure compensation to tame the highlights.

Occasionally I will want only the tilt function for focusing reasons. Using the f/16 or f/22 apertures nearly eliminates the edge softness and distortion. While certainly not the quality equivalent of a Canon or Nikon tilt/shift lens, a stopped-down Lensbaby can produce surprisingly sharp images. I also use my models on extension tubes for macro work and with a tele-converter for more reach, both with good results.

Available accessories include tele, wide and ultra wide adapter lenses that screw into the front filter threads. Internal optics choices consist of double-glass(sharpest), single-glass, plastic, soft-focus and fish-eye. These accessories provide a lot of versatility and choices of “look” for the final image. This is why Lensbabies have become so popular and lasted so long in a tough photography market.

Creative Zooming

Zoom lenses are popular with most photographers because of the added versatility they offer compared to fixed-focal-length(prime) lenses. A zoom lens allows the photographer to choose the point of view and then vary the perspective/background by changing the focal length and distance to the subject with a single lens. Zooms also let photographers change the subject size in the image and/or the framing without physically moving to get closer or farther away from the subject.

In addition to the conventional selling points, zoom lenses offer important creative possibilities not available when using prime lenses. One creative use of zooms is to change the focal length during a long exposure. The result is a subject centered in the frame appears to be exploding or imploding depending which direction the focal length changes. This technique has endless possible variations all starting from the same point.

A slow shutter speed is required, preferable at least ½ second or longer. Enough time is needed to smoothly change focal lengths during the exposure. If a sharper main subject is desired, part of the exposure should be at a constant focal length and only part of the exposure zoomed. Another way to get a sharper main subject is to use flash. The long shutter speeds required can be achieved by combinations of: low ISO speeds, small f-stops(f/16-f/22) and use of polarizing and/or neutral-density filters.

This technique is best accomplished with the camera locked down on a solid tripod. Hand-holding will produce much less predictable but possibly more interesting results. Unlike the usual compositional advice, zooming during exposure normally looks best with the main subject centered in the frame(that is where the explosion/implosion lines converge).

Every photographer should experiment with all of the variables to find the results they prefer. Once that result is achieved this is a very repeatable technique. Always try variations for different subject matter. If using flash, try both first-curtain and second-curtain synch to see the difference and decide which is preferred. Try zooming both short-to-long and long-to-short-the results will not be the same.

Another variation of this technique is to shoot many exposures at slightly different focal lengths and combining all exposures into one image(this could be done on one frame of film). The result will be a “stepped” zoom look without the streaks of a continuous zoom. This is also best done with the camera on a tripod to keep framing and focus constant.

Blurring the lines between types of photo products

This is a time of rapid innovation for photography. A previous post discussed the various types of digital cameras currently available. This post is about new image-making gadgets that are blurring the lines between camera types. Expect much more of this sort of innovation as the general public becomes more accepting of cameras that just don’t look like traditional cameras.

Panasonic has been making the Lumix line of digital cameras for many years. These cameras have been well received by both the general public and by photographers because of their good design, high quality construction and image quality. Panasonic has now introduced a new Lumix camera that is also a mobile phone, so far only for sale in Japan. The camera-back LCD functions for both camera and phone and slides to reveal a dialing/texting keypad. There is a 13 megapixel sensor behind a lens that starts at 27mm-equivalent. It is a pretty basic camera but still far ahead of any other camera/phone. Expect something similar, from someone, in the U.S. before too long.

Also from Panasonic is a 3-D lens to mount on micro-four-thirds camera bodies. There are the usual two lenses, no zoom and apparently no aperture control or low-light ability. Having only seen photos at this point, it looks quite thin and light, certainly smaller than the average micro-four-thirds “kit” zoom lens. For a few hundred dollars this would be a good way to try out 3-D without buying a dedicated camera. Assuming there was already a micro-four-thirds camera body in the bag, of course. To a large extent the future of 3-D will depend upon people willing to replace not-outdated flat-screen televisions with new, smaller, more expensive 3-D televisions that require glasses. This could be a tough sell.

Sony is also innovating and blurring product lines. The new Sony NEX-VG10 is a combination video/still camera accepting interchangeable lenses in the Sony E-mount. A-mount Sony and Minolta lenses can also be used with an adapter. The NEX-VG10 has the form-factor of a traditional video camera, the size of a very small DSLR and a very good top-mounted stereo microphone. The sensor is an APS CMOS capable or recording 14 megapixel still images at 7 frames per second and 1920x1080i HD video at 60 frames per second. Image stabilization is supplied by the lenses. The NEX-VG10 seems to pack in nearly all of the best features of Sony’s DSLR’s in a form more suited to video capture, including a side-mounted 3” LCD. Memory is the Sony-standard memory stick or SD/SDHC.

As the number of photographers who grew up using film cameras declines, acceptance of new camera shapes and combinations of functions will grow. A digital image sensor is much easier to work around than a roll of 35mm film. Video has become a popular feature on DSLR’s recently but is inconvenient to use with that camera shape. Cell phones that can surf the internet and cameras that can send photos or video directly to YouTube or Flickr are popular, so combining a phone with a high quality camera seems an obvious choice.