Hey Reader,

You may notice some changes around here! I got very fed up with default blogger settings and options so decided to go all out and start making my own stuff. Hope you like the new design, I love it personally. Any comments let me know!

I am pretty much done in the respect of overly busy school work, but that won’t mean I’m completely free, I’ve got a separate project which may coincidentally contribute to this, but we’ll see, it shall be interesting, and I’m sure you’ll love it!

Hope you’re well!

Charlie -

Hey Everyone,

I know I haven’t posted in a while, I’ve been amazingly busy, but I have to share a guide that I discovered recently on the art of taking a group photograph.

I feel that particularly with amateur photographers, you will often be taking group photos, and it is a ciritical skill when with friends, and other occasions.

Digital-Photography-School : Group Photos

Hope you’re well,

Charlie -

Hi Everyone,

One thing I love in Long Exposure photography is the trails stars can leave in images. This quick tutorial will let you know the factors you need to get great results.

Firstly, I think you need to see the photography I’m talking about, (if you haven’t already seen it, or imagined it). This photograph from ‘velvet paw‘ shows the beauty star trails can show in images:

There are many physical factors that help hugely in taking a long exposure photograph with star trails, so before you can start to think about what you need kit-wise, you need to know about what weather and location is necessary.

• Little or no Clouds

Clouds in a picture of star trails can be very attractive, but too much and it defeats the point of the image. Realistically, I’d probably only consider doing a long exposure with star trails if the weather was cloud free, and it there were clouds to come along, chances are they wouldn’t be particularly ruining to the image.

• Clear, dark Skies.
  

You’ll find that to get the best shots it has to be very clear, even when there are no clouds, chances are, if you live anywhere near a built up area, that there will be significant light pollution preventing the best image possible, therefore, you may need to travel to get to the best location. I’ve found that on many occasions I’ve started off an exposure, and by the time its done have the shock of discovering the ambient light was too much, and the star trails have been washed out by it.

• A subject is pretty much required.

I find that a long exposure performed solely or predominantly for capturing star trails can be incredibly uninteresting if there isn’t a subject in the photograph. Again, returning to the fabulous image of Mt. Fuji, the subject makes the image. I find that you don’t need an amazing subject, but having one is pretty much a necessity, cars can be cool subjects, if they are well cleaned, you get reflections of the star trails, and the same goes with water.

—

Next is the kit you will need for the images. Realistically, you need a prosumer or SLR camera, (?), with a Bulb function, (often shown on the camera as B). You can easily discover if you camera has this function by turning it on, switching to the M position, (fully manual). Then turn the shutter speed as slow as possible, and often, after the slowest speed the camera does, you’ll be shown a B, or Bulb:


You can see the display on my 400D above. The bulb function means that the shutter stays open as long as you have got the shutter button pressed down. This means that you would be holding down the shutter button for a long time, and thus you may wish to purchase a shutter release cable, that can allow you to lock the shutter button down and keep it open whilst you wait. An example of such a product can be found here.

If your camera has this function, and you’ve sorted out a way to hold your shutter open, I can move on to a quick list of what you will need:

• Camera with Bulb Function
• Tripod
• A subject
• Time :)

With those things you are pretty much set to go, oh, there is one last thing, you will find with digital cameras, the battery will run out eventually, so if you are planning to take many, try and take a few back up batteries, or if you can some form of mains power.

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The method for this ‘genre’ of photography is very simple really, you will want to set up your camera, looking at a subject that you have chosen for the photograph. The camera should be atop a tripod, and preferably have a cable release attached to it, to allow the camera to stay on for a while without your intervention.

Now, lock the shutter down, and your camera, well, most cameras will display a time on the screen like this:

This allows you to see how long your shutter has been open, and therefore how long your exposure has been so far. I find that it is best to leave your aperture wide open, (smallest f/number), and then to experiment with the timings, as the brightness of the stars varies from location to location. This part basically requires a lot of experimentation, and if it is quite bright and you want longer exposure times, then you get a smaller aperture, and try again. I recommend that you start at around 5-10mins, and depending on your results there, you can adjust aperture, (if necessary), and then increase the time to 30-40mins or more!

For a fairly extreme star trail, you will probably want about a half hour exposure, and something like the above Mt. Fuji photo was probably more along the lines of 10-15 minutes.

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I hope that this has been an informative introduction and tutorial into the world of star trail photography. Let me know if you get some good ones!

Charlie -

Hi Everyone,

Obviously I haven’t been posting much recently, but I’ve just been immensely busy, I thought I’d write a quick, kind of, ‘tip’ on Slow Sync Flash, because it’s something I use quite a lot, and it’s great for making flash photography look acceptable. And, I mean, more with built in flash, because obviously, a large professional flash wouldn’t make photographs look that bad in the first place.

Basically, the theory behind this consists of how flash photography tends to work with built in flashes, if you just go on Auto and shoot someone with the flash on, you’ll probably get a picture of just them, isolated from the background, and looking clammy and horrid, unnatural because of the flash. The genius behind slow sync flash is that it combines flash with a long exposure, meaning that you get the illumination of the subject, but you also get some natural tones in there, and of course the background starts to expose, meaning that your subject isn’t just standing in a black abyss.

This photograph by Theodore Baschack shows the way in which using the ‘Night Portrait’ mode on many prosumer cameras and SLRs can work, (this is basically a slow sync shutter mode).

You can also use this method of photography for more artistic and amusing purposes, making strange but wonderful images. For example, you can kind of do double exposures in one photograph, which can lead to a lot of fun. Here is an example:

This photograph from Angela shows how you can use it for fun expressions and dual characters etc.

I’d like to finish discussing this by saying that this is really something that you will just want to play around with, experiment and have fun. There are many ways you can have fun doing this, serious and fun, so enjoy.

Hope you’re well,

Charlie -

Hi Everyone,

Well, I can only say sorry for not having posted much recently, I feel guilty that after buying the domain: theapblog.com, my posting has gone drastically down, but, there’s nothing I can do, I’ve been completely downed with work from school, and have had no time to get anything done really,

but,

I did get a spare moment alone the 0ther day with an incredible sunset, that you must see, I love it, so I made a timelapse that you may find interesting, or not, we’ll see…!

And you can view a high quality version at my Stage6 account, HERE.

Anyway, I hope you’re all well, and, normal service shall resume at some point, (just don’t ask when…).

Charlie - :)