Photo Walk Reenroe Beach, Ballinskelligs

First photowalk after storm Henry. A lot of damage on the beach but sand will be back before summer.
©Michael Herrmann2016

Birds galore at Irish seashores

Razorbills

 

Guillemots

Fulmars

Here are photos I recently took from our regular seabird population.

It is not that easy to take pictures of birds, you need quite a good telelens and some special settings - if your camera allows for them.

Here is what I did (you need all those settings mainly for birds in flight, but you can use them for sitting birds also - they might take off after all):

First of all you need a short shutter speed of 1/1000 sec. 

Set your camera settings on this with shutter speed priority.

With that you want an automatic ISO, because you cannot predict or change it on very short notice (if you cannot set this automatically, use a highish ISO of 400 or 800 because of the very short shutter speed).

The aperture will be chosen automatically with shutter speed priority.

Now, the focus, last but not least, needs to be constantly changed with the flight of the bird, thats easiest taken care of with an Autofocus Servo Setting - it will adapt the focussing on moving subjects.
One more thing, if in flight, follow one bird, its easier to concentrate on and predict what one little fellow is going to do...

Consult your camera´s manual for the above mentioned terms, if you have not used them before...

Joy in the Morning

Camellia flower

To  take pictures of flowers, which is especially rewarding now in Spring, I use my 100mm macro lens and aim for a shallow depth of field with a big aperture, so as to blur the surroundings of the main subject - I only want the flower and the dew drops in sharp focus.

Macro lenses tend to have a shallower depth of field anyway, so for this photograph I used an f-stop of f/6.3 in aperture priority, the resulting shutterspeed was 1/300.

I had set the ISO to 100 first and of course I used a tripod, which is a habit of mine, not that you would need it by all means with this fast shutter speed.

I was also lucky, that there was absolutely no wind that morning, so the flower "sat" quite still.

If you cannot set your camera manually, there is actually a little flower on most compact cameras as a scene mode, so you want to use that for close-ups of flowers.
For a shallow depth of field the portrait mode is the nearest option but you might not get near enough to your flower, so try to experiment with these settings and then choose what you like best.

When the day goes

 

I went out pretty late this evening but still managed to get some photos of the heavy swell near St.Finians Bay. The light went very quick which gave me the chance to play a bit with long shutterspeed. The first image was taken with a 1/13 sec, f /13 . The picture at the bottom was taken with a pinhole cap that fits on my camera instead of a lens.

The pinhole has an aperture of  f /128, so I ended up with a shutterspeed of 50 seconds. Although the waves were scary high, there was no wind and my tripod was standing sound on the rocks.

Sun drenched...in France

For all of you who long for a bit of sunnier climes right now, maybe my new photobook about the South of France can cheer you up a little.
The pictures in this book were taken on a trip to the South of France in September 2009. The only camera I had with me was a Panasonic Lumix LX3, a camera that I really started to like after working with it for the last couple of month. The camera is very light compared with the DSLR that I usually use and the image quality is very good.
The great advantage of those small pocket-sized cameras is that you can carry them around with you all the time and use them as a kind of diary or sketchbook.
A particularly wonderful feature of the LX3 is the ability to set everything, including the focus, manually. I shot all images in aperture priority mode, for convenience.
After taking some hundred shots I changed the focus setting to manual focus and
took photos that are intentional blurred or seem to be out of focus. I like the blurred images actually more than the ones I had taken before, mainly because they remind me of some French Impressionist paintings and leave more space for imagination and phantasy . I am still experimenting with the manual focus and use different aperture settings to get some interesting shots with this great little camera.
A book with other images from the same trip will follow soon.

Click on the book to enlarge and to look at the photographs in your own time.

Autumn in Killarney´s National Park

For truly colourful Autumn photographs I like to go to Killarney´s National Park.
Here are still vast stretches of dense, indigenous forests, with trees that right start showing lovely yellows, browns and reds. Near the entrance to Muckross House is Torc Waterfall and as the day was not too bright, I tried to capture the flowing water as a soft and milky blur which enhances the appearrance of a magigal, secret forest where strange little creatures might or might not live and be merry.
It is always a temptation to capture, in this case, the whole picture, waterfall, but as you can see with the three following pictures, the more you close in or crop in your subject, the more interesting it gets.
I gave the chosen aperture, shutterspeed, focal length and the lens with each picture.
The main decision here is to have a longish shutterspeed for the blurred feel of the moving water, for that you need to choose  a very small aperture (big number).
By the way, all photos were taken with ISO 100 and the help of a tripod of course.
If you want to go and try this yourself, be careful with the slippery stones and take some waders with you.

f/22, 2.0sec, 28mm with 17-40 mm lens

f/32, 25sec, 73mm with 70-200mm lens

f/32, 30sec, 125mm with 70-200mm lens

More details, even more cropped in:

f/32, 30sec, 120mm with 70-200mm lens

f/32, 30sec, 185mm with 70-200mm lens

 

For more reading on long shutterspeed and blurred effect, click here or check out the labels on the left.

Tips for Landscape and other Photography

After all the photo workshops and photo holidays of the last summer and September I would like to sum up what was important in teaching and guiding those who attended my photo tours here in South Kerry, Ireland.
I have written about most of this before, and you may want to read those articles from earlier blogs.
There are four main categories which are more or less to be considered before setting out and taking landscape or other photos
1. Location and time of the day
2. Composition
3. Exposure
4. Technical considerations

Location and time of the day

Of course you can take photos everywhere. I often see tourists who stop at some beauty spot along the Ring of Kerry, they take out their cameras, shoot a picture or two and then travel on to the next nice view.
If you are in the area for a little longer you can find out while driving or walking what spot is really worth your time taking a planned landscape photograph. Find out which way the sun is hitting that spot at a certain time of the day. It is easiest to take pictures with the sun from behind you, everything is lit evenly and there should be no problems with the light metering, wether your camera is in automatic mode or you do it manually. All the colours come strongest and most saturated with the sun light directly shining on them. Light from the sides allows for a more pronounced contrast, it will give you dark shadows and more interesting structures.
Find out which position makes a picture even more interesting or unusual, walk around a little, try an elevated position or go down with your camera (and knees).
Pictures taken during sunrise or sunset have a special quality of light and you should really try to get up early one morning. Again, think beforehand, where do you want to go, in which direction is the sun rising and at what time. Be there a little before the actual sunrise, give yourself time to set up everything without a rush.
For sunsets, again, find out the direction and time and do not only take a photo of the red ball sinking into the sea but also before and after, literally everything has a more dramatic colour, there are deep shadows and the actual sky is well worth being taken after the sun has gone, the blues and pinks and yellows can be quite extreme and beautiful.
If you go near the sea make sure you know the tide and the swell on that day, wear sturdy shoes on cliffs etc.and just be careful.

Composition

There are some rules for good composition of a picture (a photograph or a painting/drawing too). Try to think of some when you plan your picture, although nothing is set in stone here and of course you can experiment with everything.

The first and main rule is the Rule of Thirds. Position the interesting or important subjects of your overall picture not right in the centre but along some imagined lines or even better where those lines meet. Some cameras have this grid of lines built in the screen, if not, imagine your screen divided by lines into three equal parts of each rows and columns.

       
Another "rule" is to have some actual lines leading into your picture, ideally pointing towards the main feature. This highlights the main feature and also gives the picture some depths.

Another means of making your picture more interesting is to position something in the foreground, especially with big landscapes, like a beach and sky. With position I mean you either find something which is there already (a boat, a stone or some wood landed there by a storm) and use it as it is, or you can actually put something there, well nothing too heavy, please. Try several spots of elevation too, in this case rather from lower viewpoints.
Geometrical forms of features in your chosen subject play an important role too. Triangles can point at s.th. or if any forms are repeated within the picture make use of that. Something round or spheric, especially if it is big, does not need to be in the picture in full, parts of it are enough to let your eyes and brain recognize what it is.
And there we are, parts of it, parts of something or details are what I really like and encourage students to consider taking. It is about telling a story with a picture. A detail would rather evoce questions like what...,where...and why...?
Your mind will not just register a glimps of a nice landscape, which, ok yes, is beautiful but maybe get a bit boring after looking at it three times. To demonstrate this idea, here are three pictures of roughly the same subject and my favourite one is, you guess...

A story behind a picture can also be provoced when unexpectedly or with some patience and waiting on your part a live creature moves into the frame, like a bird or cat...
And finally, take photos of your chosen subject not only in landscape but in portrait format too.

Exposure

Aperture, Shutterspeed and ISO are the three components which determine the exposure (that is the amount of light which hits the film or sensor of your camera).
If your camera is in Automatic Mode, everything gets measured and set automatically. That is fine and works in most cases. Also  a lot of cameras have scene modes for different light situations, which can help getting the right exposure.
Nevertheless I always encourage students to set their camera partially in Manual Mode.
With the ISO set as low as possible, say ISO 100, you then need to consider what kind of photograph you want:
A) a picture that is in sharp focus everywhere or


 note the "lines" going into the picture,
giving it more depth



For (A) you need to set your aperture high, that means a small number in your f-stops, e.g.f/22 if your camera goes that far, and then focus on s.th. which is about one third into the picture. (Your camera will subsequently choose the apropriate shutterspeed automatically.)

B) a picture that has your main subject in sharp focus but not the rest.
 
also note rule of thirds
       and leading lines




For (B) you want a small aperture, that means a high number in your f-stops, e.g f/2.8 or f/5.6, then focus directly on your subject which is supposed to be in sharp focus.

There is one main reason to use your camera´s shutterspeed priority settings: to capture a movement either very sharp in focus,e.g. to freeze some action in sports pictures: for that you need a very fast shutterspeed, e.g. 1/2000 sec
Or you want some blurred image, which is appropiate e.g. for moving water or the lights of moving cars at night: for that you need a long shutterspeed, usually seconds or even minutes. Your aperture will subsequently open up, that means you cannot take this kind of blurred picture with lots of light, a filter might help, but it is safest to take these pictures in the evenenings.

 Water appears to be still,
Something of interest in the foreground

Technical Stuff

I have always one tripod (or more) at hand, here in Kerry you need a sturdy one, even better when you can fix some weight to it, another useful gadget for SLR cameras is a remote self timer. These two help you to avoid camera shake, the use of a tripod also lets you think about what exactly you want to frame.
Take photos which really matter to you in RAW format, there is more information to work with, although you need a fairly big memory card.You also have to convert this format at some stage with some editing software because not every program can read RAW.
Always have enough batteries, memory on card and maybe some rain protection bags for all your gear.
Certain filters cann be applied to some lenses, they are helpful when the sky is too bright or they bring out clouds in a dull, or overcast sky.

If this sounds all a bit overwhelming, I can assure you I am not a dry, lecturing type of teacher, all  the tuitions where practical and hands on and tailored on the spot to arising topics, needs or problems.

Heritage and Photography Workshop on Church Island

After a very rainy night I
opened my eyes in the
morning to see the
sun shining,what a day.
Greatest photography
weather,blue sky,
clouds that move and
a slight breeze,just right.
Our boat man,
Neil O´Shea, brought
us safely to the island
where the tripods
and the cameras had
a rest, while Paddy Bushe
gave an
interesting and detailed
talk about the history
and heritage of
Church Island,
or Oileàn an Teampaill,
the Island of the Nobles.
Most interesting are the
tomb stones,leachta and
of course the two main
buildings,St.Finians Church
and St.Finians Cell.
I liked the small
walls and steps
that are there after
all those hundreds of
years exposed to
the weather.



Here are a few tips
how to take images of details,
stone crosses and architecture.  

Set image quality to high or fine, or take the images as raw and jpg-files, so you will get more details in your images, particularly if you want big prints later on.
Also set ISO to 80 -100, for best results.

Use a tripod,it slows your movement down and makes you think about the image you are going to create.
Some of the tripods were a bit light for outdoor photography, but can always steady them with some kind of weight. Some tripods have a hook at the bottom of the center column where you can hang e.g.your camera bag as a weight or some fishing net filled with stones...

Follow the light. Look where the sun is and take pictures in the opposite direction. Most cameras on automatic settings get confused if you shoot in the direction of the sun, the sky will be pale or too dark,you won´t get this if you point the other way. Just make sure your own shadow is not in the picture.
You will get nice detailed images of inscriptions and carvings if you get the sun at an angle of 45 degrees or less.

Take images of details, a lot.
To tell the story about the things you have seen, take as many photos of details as possible. Use portrait mode for details and get close to your subject or zoom in. For whole buildings landscape mode with a wide angle setting is better especially inside rooms.

Experiment with aperture!
If you like your images a bit different reduce your aperture from for instance f/13 down to f/6.3 or f/5.6
this will give you a nice blurred background and helps you focusing on your subject.
On the other side you can get some nice shots when you stay in wide angle mode and take pictures with apertures 16 or 22. Everything will be sharp and crisp.

If you are having a slr camera, try the mirror lock and a remote control. You will be surprised how much less camera shake you get. This is in particular great for long exposures, night shots or macro photography.
Better again if you put your camera on to a tripod.

Carry a second battery ,enough memory cards and your camera manual with you. A plastic bag weighs nothing and keeps your camera bag dry in the seldom event of some soft Irish rain.




Thank you all for taking part in the workshop, especially Peggy O´Shea who sent in these three pictures.

Little Beauties

Yes, I suppose I am a bogman and I like the bog any time of the year- but right now the bogcotton is a piece of art by nature. These very special plants are well adapted to the poor living conditions of the blanket bog, which is very much a feature of this part of Kerry.


To do these delicate fluffs justice, you need to get down with your camera and focus on one flower with a small depth of field or to get the "big picture" get a bigger depth of field.
Depth of field (the amount of sharpness throughout your picture) is a creative tool to put more or less emphasis on parts of the subject.
You can controll it by your aperture settings only;
A small aperture (f-stop=big number) brings more of the subject into sharp focus.


If you only want part of your subject to be in sharp focus, use a bigger aperture (f-stop=smaller number)and focus on the part of the picture you want to see sharp.

Short Glossary of Camera Settings and Techniques

This glossary is in alphabetical not in logical order,
You might want to use it before you buy a new camera or lenses or to come to terms with some of the important settings on your camera.


Aperture
The aperture in your camera is an opening of variable size where the light enters the camera (like the iris in your eye, only made of metal blades).
The size controls the amount of light coming in at a set time (shutter speed).
Now- the confusing part is the numbers on the standard scale, the f-stops:
f/1 f/2.8 f/3.5 f/5.6 f/8 f/11 f/16 f/22 f/16 f/22 f/32 f/45 and f/64
The higher the number - the smaller your aperture gets,
f/1 would let in the full amount of light and f/64 the least.
Aperture determines the sharpness of a picture:
the smaller the aperture (number becoming bigger) –
the more of a picture is in sharp focus.


Cameras
Compact camera:
Camera (mostly digital now) with fixed lens, often zoom.
SLR:
Single Lens Reflex camera using film.
DSLR:
Digital Single Lens Reflex camera using a sensor.
Both SLR and DSLR have interchangeable lens systems
that allow a wide range of different focal length lenses to be used with the camera.

Depth of field
This is the amount of sharpness throughout your picture.
It is controlled by your aperture settings only;
A small aperture (big number) brings more of the subject into sharp focus.
Depth of field is a creative tool to put more or less emphasis on parts of the subject.
If you only want part of your subject to be in sharp focus, use a bigger aperture (smaller number).

Exposure
The amount of light a picture receives controlled by lens aperture and shutter speed.
A picture gets the same exposure e.g. with
f/5.6 (aperture) and 1/125sec (shutter speed) as it would get with
f/8 (smaller aperture) and 1/60sec (slower shutter speed).
The ISO setting on your camera (digital) or on the film plays a roll too, a higher setting allows you to take pictures in darker environments but they will look more “grainy”.

Focal length of a lens
A lens focuses light at a specific distance.
It is normally marked on the lens barrel in millimeters:
lenses marked up to 35mm are a wide angle lenses (used to include large areas of a scene such as landscapes)
40-55mm are “normal” lenses (because they see about the same as the human eye)
above 75mm you have telephoto lenses (they allow you to isolate areas of a scene because the viewing angle gets smaller or take in distant subjects).

Lenses with fixed focal length:
Cover just that distance
(achieve better quality but you need more than one lens for
your camera depending on what kind of picture you want to take-
remember you cannot change lenses on compact cameras).

Zoom lenses: cover a range of focal length, e.g. 70-210mm
(but the bigger the range of a zoom lens the harder to keep image quality-
the quality of an image taken with a fixed lens of 135mm is better than with a zoom lens
set at 135mm)


ISO
States a films sensivity to light and has been adopted to digital photography to represent the response of a digital sensor to light.
With ISO 400 you get 4 times the light sensitivity of an ISO 100 setting,
so the lower an actual light level the higher ISO you might want to use.

Raw or Jpeg
Shoot RAW and you get a file with all the data captured by the image sensor
but you need more capacity on your memory card and you need to process the RAW file before you can print it.
JPEG images can be used and printed immediately, they need less capacity, so more will fit on your card.

Shutter speed
The length of time light is allowed to fall on the sensor inside the camera, represented in seconds and fractions of seconds.
1/8000sec is the shortest possible time and 30 seconds the longest in preset. If you want longer times in dark conditions press B(bulb).
Be careful to avoid camera shake, with longer times you might want to use a tripod.
Shutter speed is used to control the overall exposure (together with aperture).
It can also be applied to get special effects, e.g. with a slow shutter speed subjects which are moving begin to blur, like flowing water or moving car lights -
On the other hand you can freeze an action in sports with a fast shutter speed.

White balance
Allows to adjust the way in which a camera records the colours in a scene.
There are usually preset settings for sunshine, overcast, day light or tungsten, which is artifical light, etc.

Summary Portmagee Workshop 04/04/2009

Hello photographers,

thank you very much for taking part in the Portmagee workshop. To give you some reminder what we did on Saturday and to enable you to repeat this in your own time, here is a summary.

1.Camera setting

Always have your camera on the best image quality setting, this is very significant as this setting is responsable for the look of your photos, particularly if you order prints or print out yourself.

If your camera supports raw files, take the pictures in raw and convert them later to jpgs with the software that came with your camera .

If you have to shoot jpgs, select the finest quality setting. Look at your camera manual how to change the settings.

Always switch off the flashlight. Natural light is a wonderful source and gives your images this special touch.

We are very lucky to live in a region with changing light, fast moving clouds and clear air, perfect for landscape photography.

2.Going shooting photos

When going outdoors, wear some clothes that keep you warm and the camera dry. Sturdy shoes or boots make you independent in any rough environment.

Make sure you have the batteries in your camera charged and enough space on your memory card or bring spare ones. Remeber that once you have bought the memory card there are no other cost involved in taking the photos so you can try things out as long as you like.

• Use a tripod, it allows you to take pictures under any light conditions, even in complete darkness. By using a tripod you are slowing down the process of taking the picture. You look more carefully at your composition and the lens and camera settings.

• Follow the light for strong colours. Have a look where the sun stands, keep the sun behind you but make sure your own shadow is not part of your photo.

• If you are working with a zoom lens, work in the telezoom mode. This allows you to get closer to your subject.

• Take a lot of details, they are telling the story and you can bring your personal taste into play. Those photos will make the difference when you compare your work with others.

• When you compose your image move the main subject of your photo out of the center. Your images will simply look more interesting. Apply the Golden Rule (or Rule of Thirds). That means that you divide your image in three rows and three columns. Place something important where those lines meet or along the lines. (The problem is that you can not see those lines although some cameras have a grid included for the screen. If you have the opportunity - switch it on.

• Take pictures in landscape and portrait format of the same subject.

• If you have strong lines in your image make them part of your composition.

• Go for strong colours. Place the strongest colours where the Golden Rule applies, out of the center of your viewfinder.

• Bring important objects to the foreground. And keep the horizontal line level.

A word about shape.

Big spheres and round shapes in general can be quite domineering in a picture so crop them in instead of taking the whole.

Have a look at horizontal and vertical shapes in your photo. If you see them repeating include them in your composition.

Make the best of high contrast i.e. light and shadow.

Be carefule not to underexpose - if you point your camera at bright surfaces your camera gets confused when you work in automatic mode.

(You can compensate against over or under exposure with the settings of your camera, look at the manual how to do it.)

I hope you all had a good time at the workshop and feel inspired to take the camera and go out shooting. I`ve enjoyed the day with you very much.