Focus Stacking

 This week I wanted to write about a photography technique that I recently started playing with that I learned during my recent View Camera Theory class.

Every seen a photo in a magazine ad for a new watch or other small item and wondered “How do they get the entire item in such sharp focus?” They use a technique called Focus Stacking so that every part of that Rolex is in razor sharp focus, from the numbers and hands on the watch to the band attached to it.

Focus Stacking is where you set your camera up on a tripod so you are nice and stable, then you shoot the product or item, changing your focus point but not moving the camera or changing the focal length.

This is 5 captures of the same scene but with different focus points.

 By shooting multiple captures on the product with a different part in focus each time and them combining them in Photoshop, you end up with a finished image that had every part of the watch in sharp focus with high detail.

Once you have captured your images, import them into Lightroom and then go to the Develop module and activate your Len Profile Correction. Once you have that done then select all of the images in the group that you shot and select the Photo menu item, then go down and select “Open as Layers in Photoshop.”

Once they are opened in Photoshop, select all of the Layers at once, then click the Edit Menu and choose Auto-Align Layers. Then when that has completed, click the Edit menu again and choose Auto-Blend Layers. When the process has completed, you will have a single new image where everything is in sharp focus and with high details.

All 5 shots from above combined into this Stacked image

Now all you have to do is save the new image and you are done. Focus Stacking is a lot of fun and can give you fantastic result so grab your trip, cable release and tripod and give Focus Stacking a try!

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Studio Shooting with Limited Space

One of the challenges you might face while working on your shooting assignments for AI is needing to shoot in an indoor “studio” environment and if you are like I was during school, I had a house full of people, so I had limited space for my shooting.

There are ways to overcome this obstacle, if you have kids that are in school, shoot your assignments in the living room while they are in school during the day, or use a portion of your basement or attic. At the time I was attending classes, I had 6 people living in my home in Georgia and it was cramped even with 1,800 sq ft and 4 bedrooms and a large living room and dining room. I would sometimes shoot late at night while everyone was sleep, but sometimes I had to shoot during the day and if I could not use one of the rooms in the house, I would use the garage.

Simulated outdoor shot using my garage

For one of my classes, we had to simulate an outdoor shoot in soil, but shoot it indoors. This is something you will frequently have to do in many types of photography. It might be a situation where the client needs this shoot done on a deadline and the weather is bad, or for other reasons. For this assignment, we needed to replicate the same amount of light outdoors with our studio lights. I chose to use some small toy dinosaurs as the characters for the shoot and shot them in some of the soil from my flowerbed in front of my house.

Studio set up for this shoot

Now I am not saying these are 100% perfect, but I did get an ‘A’ on the assignment and I think I did a pretty good job considering it was my first attempt. One of the things you will find as you pursue a career in photography is often you have to adapt to overcome situations. One of my favorite photographers, Chase Jarvis is like the king of overcoming obstacles for photography. He shoots a lot of sports action photography and has designed and built many of the customer rigs and mounts that he uses for commercial shoots.

If you have limited space using a small portion of a room for your studio for class assignment, then don’t use your light stands, rig up your lights on the top of a door or curtain rod if you have strong ones. If you still don’t have enough room, try using Speedlights instead. A Canon or Nikon Speedlight on a small stand takes up a lot less space than the full size studio strobes but still give you tons of light power.


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Tripods

This week’s blog post I want to talk about a piece of equipment that is crucial for photographers. This item is the center of a certain amount of controversy, as some photographers will tell you that you never need one or your better off without one as it’s too much hassle to carry one with you. The item we are talking about today is the tripod and how it is used to make your photography more interesting.

Many photographers hate tripods because they are bulky and cumbersome to lug around all the time, but tripods are also one of the best ways to get great photos, especially in low light situations. Let’s say you want to shoot some long exposure images either in daytime or night, how are you going to use those long shutter speeds without having blurry images? Why use a tripod of course along with a cable or remote shutter release.

The reason long exposure requires a tripod is because you cannot hold a camera steady enough in your hands to shoot low shutter speeds. It doesn’t matter how small your camera is, let’s say you are using the Canon SL1 which is very small and light weight and even if you are a body builder by day, you cannot hold that camera perfectly still no matter how hard you try. The very slightest movement will cause the images to blur badly. Now don’t think I am picking on you, it’s just not possible to hold a camera steady enough for long exposure, especially since you have to be able to press the shutter without the camera even slightly flinching.

Wall of Light, Canon EOS 5D EF 40mm STM F/2.8 ISO 100 shutter 30 seconds on tripod

 A tripod is what will give you the strong, still platform with which to get those great long exposures that make water look like glass or a waterfall look like silk. The tripod is nothing more than a set of legs for your camera, three of them to be exact, and those legs will keep that camera steady. Now I am sure you are asking “What tripod should I buy, so that I can get a good one?”

I understand as students money is often tight, but you need to make sure you get a good tripod, one that will serve you well for years as a tripod is one piece of equipment that you do not need to upgrade all the time. If you are on a tight budget, I would recommend getting one of the lower cost plastic tripods from Amazon or Best Buy. Manfrotto and Sunpak come to mind as a couple of makers of some half way decent low cost tripods. You can get one of these tripods for around $50-$100. If you want to kill two birds with one stone, then buy a combination tripod/monopod so you get both camera mounting systems in one package. In this tripods, the center column (where you mount your camera) can be pulled out completely and used as a single leg monopod like this one from Sunpak.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/517979-REG/Sunpak_620_060TM_6601TM_Tripod_Monopod_with_3_Way.html

But there are a couple of other things to keep in mind with a tripod. The first one is really major and that is it’s weight rating. When buying a tripod, you need one that can support the combined weight of the camera body and lens you are going to shoot with. Say for example, I have the Tamron SP 150-600mm Di VC USD lens, which weighs 4.5 pounds on it’s own. I cannot buy a tripod that is only rated for 4-5 pounds as my camera also weighs 2-3 pounds with battery grip and memory card, I need a tripod rated for 10 pounds plus to be on the safe side.

Even if you are using a small lens like the EF 40mm STM lens also known as the pancake lens, which only weighs 4.6 ounces, your camera still weighs in at another 19 ounces without the battery or a memory card. Besides, even if you shoot most of the time with this kit, sooner or later you will run into a need to use a tripod with your heavier telephoto lens, trust me, it happens to the best of us.

EOS 6D EF 50mm F/2.5 Macro at F/4 ISO 100 Shutter 500 on Gitzo tripod lowered to ground

The second item I recommend you consider when buying a tripod is the weight of the tripod itself. Now the plastic tripods I mentioned earlier are fairly light weight, coming in at 4.2 pounds, but they can also only carry 4 pounds. If you can afford it, I would recommend an aluminum or carbon fiber tripod for strength. Both of these tripods can hold more weight and be completely steady for you. I have a Manfrotto professional grade tripod that can handle 18 pounds. I just recently bought a Gitzo carbon fiber tripod which only weighs 3 pounds but can safely hold 12 pounds. The Gitzo can do this because carbon fiber is very strong material, but there is a trade off, the price. My Gitzo cost around $700, but a good aluminum one can run that much as well, the difference is the aluminum tripods I have weigh a lot, like 6-10 pounds and the Gitzo is much lighter but can still hold a decent amount of weight.

The last thing I recommend when buying a tripod is get one with legs that allow you to drop the tripod to the ground. There are quite a few models that have releases at the top of the three legs that you press and you can fold the legs to the point where your camera is only inches off the ground. These tripods are great for Macro photography, or anytime you want to get a really interesting point of view. If you want one of the really good tripods for class (which you will need a tripod for some classes), but you cannot afford several hundred dollars for the aluminum or carbon fiber one, consider renting one. You can go to www.borrowlenses.com or www.lumoid.com and rent one for a few dollars a week and have a nice strong tripod for those classes that require one.

Now get out there and do some tripod photography!

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Night Time Long Expsoure

 So this week I thought I’d write about night time long exposure as it’s one of my favorite photographic styles. This type of photography can be lots of fun but you need to be careful, especially shooting along roads at night and police will often stop to see what you are doing late at night along a highway.

    I have had a lot of students ask me how to do night time long exposure and it’s really pretty easy and some trial and error. You will need the following equipment:

1. DSLR camera with a charged battery and memory card installed
2. Good, sturdy tripod
3. Remote shutter for your camera, I recommend a cable release or Triggertrap
4. A good, sharp lens, aperture doesn’t really matter but I prefer something like the Canon 40mm STM Pancake lens with F/2.8

    Now, just find a good location at night, I prefer to shoot after 11pm myself but your mileage may vary. Set your camera up on your tripod and hook up the cable release. You will need BULB mode on your camera as your shutter setting. Now, set your lens to as wide as possible and set your focus to manual mode and your ISO to 100.

    They way I do it, I wait until a nice stream of vehicles are coming and then press the cable and hold it for 20-30 seconds and you can get some pretty cool warp speed effects that makes the cars look like they are streaking by. The image below is one I shot I call Wall of Light. This image was actually chosen by AI to be in a school publication last year.

    Night time long exposure is not limited to shooting traffic along the road, you can use the exact same settings to shoot landscapes as well, say a nice home in your area or just about anything. I am also including one I did of a local lake at night I call this one Twilight Lake. This image was chosen by an independent judge to be in AI’s Veteran’s show last year in the Second Life gallery. As you can see, you can make some fantastic images at night, so don't think daytime is the only time you can shoot.

    Go on out there and try it for yourself!


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