f.Light Photography

This week we are watching a pet tortoise for people as they are on holiday. It is quite fascinating to watch this little creature. I’ve already observed a few things about his lifestyle and although I have no real knowledge about tortoises or their habits, I’ve noticed that he only becomes active when it’s sunny and warm. On cloudy days he stays in his little dark corner and only quickly ventures out to eat some lettuce. But when the sun’s out he eats more, crawls around his little box and tries with all his might to climb out.

So, watching him I decided to take some photos. Easier said than done. He manages to always move at the moment when I want to take a shot and most of the time turns his back on me. So I had to wait until he was relatively still and turned in the right direction. I have managed to get a few pictures though, which turned out alright. Most of the time they are slightly blurred, because he moves his head around alot. The angle is also not ideal, as I can’t go down on eye-level with him and I’d rather not interfere with him too much and take him out of his box.

I am fascinated by how different animals are and how different the approach is to capturing them on a photo. A while ago I tried to take a photo of some ducks, and all I did was sit there with my camera and the one duck walked right up to me. I guess some animals are just more curious than others.

These are now some of my better photos so far. I will try again on the next sunny day :) I have edited them a bit, adding texture to two of the pictures and playing around with the saturation and crop of the third one. (Textures courtesy of dog ma) And just to show the difference, I’ve included the shot that I took of the duck.

In a previous post I wrote about creating HDR (high dynamic range) images from a single RAW file. Today I decided to try the real thing. So I packed my tripod and my compact camera (as I don’t have a tripod for my DSLR yet), and went to the Natural History Museum in London. I chose that museum as it has a beautiful interior that works well with HDR imaging. The colours are so rich and the details in the architecture are stunning and ideal for photography.

I decided to go with 5 shots in 1 ⅔ EV steps. So I had a shot each at -3 ⅓, -1 ⅔, 0, 1 ⅔ and 3 ⅓.

In post processing I played around with the settings in Photomatix quite a bit before I was happy with the result. I realise that I could have made the end result a bit more dramatic, but somehow that would have detracted from the realism of the scene and I rather like understated HDR. Somehow the garish HDR images that are made a dime a dozen are most often a disappointment and don’t appeal to me. So my attempt is maybe not as dramatic as it could have been, but I think it looks more authentic that way. (Which to me is kind of what photography is all about – capturing and interpreting life as it is in its many beautiful or not so beautiful moments). I also really liked the shaft of light coming in from the top window and wanted to preserve that as it gave the photo a much more dramatic effect than if it had been lit equally.

To show the difference between what the shot at normal exposure looked like and how that compares to the HDR image, I’m posting both images here. Of course the HDR was created from 5 images, as I stated above, but for illustrating purposes I’m only posting the one shot that shows the scene as a single shot would have recorded it.

At normal exposure:

The HDR image:

I have realised more and more how necessary it is for me to get a decent tripod. Taking photos with an SLR is very different to a compact camera and eliminating camera shake, especially with slightly longer exposures is virtually impossible. I’ve been frustrated time and time again after coming home from a photo-walk and finding half my photos blurred. I’ve also been baulked when trying out long-exposure shots, because they never turn out right, due to camera shake.

At the moment all I have is a Hama Mini Tripod (the Traveller Compact) that I used with my compact camera, and although it’s supposed to support 3kgs, it often tilts when I try to take a photo and I’m constantly afraid of it falling over (which it has tried to do on several occasions, as the SLR makes it too top heavy). The other disadvantage is that its max height is only 43cm, so I need something to stand it on, or I need to crouch really low. Thus a new tripod is essential.

In order to find out which tripod to get on my budget (which is around £80), I asked in the DeviantArt forums and got some answers, but I still don’t know which to take. I got some input about the most important aspects to look out for, but not quite definite suggestions.

The facts of what I need:

General:

• Must have a maximum height of at least 150cm
• Must not be too heavy as I will be walking with it
• Easy to set up
• Quick release shoes (with new shoes easy to get hold of)

Legs:

• Tubular with collets (threaded rings)
• Long legs and short center column (more stable than short legs and long center column)
• Part where legs join should be made of metal not plastic

Head:

• 3-way pan head (best for my purpose of landscape, architecture and macro photography)

Those are the basic things I need in a tripod, now the big task is finding a tripod which offers this along with fitting in my budget. If anyone has suggestions, I’d appreciate you sharing them!