Don’t miss your chance to see the most requested, most anticipated live tour of 2011! Scott Kelby, award winning author of The Digital Photography Book and Editor of Photoshop User magazine, brings one of his all-time most popular Online classes to life in this amazing day where you learn it all; the lighting, the shooting, and the retouching, all live as it happens.

You’ll see everything unfold from scratch in each session, with different lighting set-ups and looks, as Scott starts with an empty stage, and then puts together the lighting for a live portrait shoot.

You’re right there as he takes you through the entire shoot, tweaking the lighting and working with the models, then he takes those very same images into Photoshop where he shares his very latest portrait retouching techniques, so you can see exactly how it’s all done from start to finish.

I thought this would be of interest to you.

Thanks to Larry Citra of the Bridge Lake Photo Group for the information Q & A’s

The Big Test …………

(you will find the answers at the bottom of the post)

1. Which is the largest lens opening or aperture, f-4 or f-22?

2. You get more depth of field with a small aperture ……… (meaning a smaller hole – see above)
True or False?

3. Which lens gives you the greatest apparent depth of field, a 28 mm lens or a 300 mm lens?

4. When you move your lens closer to the subject, depth of field decreases. If you want to maintain maximum depth of field in your shot at that distance, what would you do?

5. There are 3 things that influence depth of field in a photograph, name 2.

6. Which lens has the greater field of view (not to be confused with depth of field), a 135 mm or a 500 mm?

7. If you are trying to freeze action in a shot and you can’t get a fast enough shutter speed (assume that your aperture is already wide open), what can you do to get a faster shutter speed.

8. When taking a hand held shot with an 70-300 mm zoom lens set at 70 mm, what is the slowest shutter speed you can safely use and still be sure of maintaining a sharp image? What would the slowest shutter speed be if you had the lens set at 250 mm.

NOTE: Assume the lens does not have Image Stabilization or Vibration reduction.

9. Give 2 ways of over-exposing a photograph?

10. Give 2 ways of under-exposing a photograph?

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Answers:

1. Answer: f-4 is the larger lens opening, (the smaller the hole, the larger the number).

2. Answer: True – the smaller the hole, the greater the depth of field (the smaller the hole, the smaller the aperture, allowing less light to reach the sensor).

3. Answer: a 28 mm or wide angle would give more depth of field than a 300 mm lens no matter where your point of focus (what you are actually focused on) might be.

4. Answer: You would increase the f-number (make the hole smaller). If you wanted to maintain “MAXIMUM” Depth of Field, you would use the smallest hole available.

5. Answer: The 3 things are: 1. Aperture Size 2. Focal length of the lens ( i.e. 28 mm, 200 mm, 500 mm and so on) and 3. Lens to subject distance.
Pick 2

6. Answer: A 135 mm lens has the greater field of view. Wide angle lenses have a wide angle of view and telephoto lenses have a narrower field of view.

7. Answer: Switch to a higher ISO setting, this will allow you to choose a faster shutter speed by making the sensor more sensitive to the light entering the lens.

8. Answer: It would be 1/70th of a second when that lens is set at 70 mm and 1/250th of a second when the lens is set at 250 mm. To calculate this you use the reciprocal of the focal length you are using, or 1 over (1/focal length) the focal length you are using. A vibration reduction (VR) or image stabilized (IS) lens would allow you to reduce your shutter speed by 2 to 3 stops (depending on the lens) and still be able to get a shake free handheld shot.

9. Answer: To overexpose a photograph (and you might want to do this on purpose sometime!) you would either pick a slower shutter speed by changing from, say, 1/250th of a second to 1/125th of a second, which would slow the shutter speed down by 1 stop, allowing the shutter to stay open longer and allowing the light entering the lens to hit the sensor for a longer period of time. Or you could pick a wider aperture (remember: the larger the f-number the smaller the hole), for example changing from f-11 to f-8, making for a larger hole which would allow more light in, which would overexpose by 1 stop.
Note: You would have to have your camera set on Manual to do this.

10. Answer: You would do the opposite: Change the shutter from 1/250th to 1/500th (1 stop shorter), or change the aperture from f-11 to f-16, thereby making the hole smaller …………………… all on Manual of course!

NOTE: You can over/under expose while in Auto/Program mode, Aperture priority/Shutter priority mode by using the Exposure Compensation feature on your camera. (see your operating manual)

Another NOTE: Memorizing the shutter speed sequence and the f-stop sequence will greatly improve your understanding of, and your ability to manipulate these settings, in a meaningful way, on your camera!!!

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Which means…………….. If you don’t take the time to learn these concepts you will effectively be …………

“Up aperture creek without a buck to buy a paddle”!!!

But I do have a list – what I call my Photo Bucket List – of all the photos I hope to one day capture – no matter how cliche and overdone some of them are, I don’t care, I want them.”
See his list at: http://digital-photography-school.com/my-photography-bucket-list

So, do any of you have a photography bucket list?? What’s on yours?

http://photoinf.com/General/Robert_Berdan/Composition_and_the_Elements_of_Visual_Design.htm

Have a quick read of Strobist and then come back here:

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101.html

I cannot stress enough that you can be VERY creative on the cheap. Example is $40 work lights from Canadian Tire or Army & Navy. Have a look:

http://www.diyphotography.net/introduction-to-worklights-photography

Here is a GREAT image of some remote or “off camera” lighting or flash that combined with a lowered exposure adds dramatic effect to what would be a busy background with DULL light:

Your homework is to replicate an image such as above. Get some dramatic light from a challenging subject. Stage it, create it. I want you to MAKE a photograph.

Now as you are doing this plan out your setup and print/post what you’ve done using lighting diagram creator. Share your success.

http://www.lightingdiagrams.com/creator

Also is there a place or does anyone have a cheat sheet for DOF settings that they could share.  Thanks for any input.

1. Use proper capitalization and spelling. Please try to use Canadian spelling. 2. Don't use all caps of course. PLEASE 3. Paragraphs are nice. Titles are nice. Don't forget them
4. Please…. try.. to avoid…trailing periods…
5. Type like you are writing a letter to you dear old Grandma. She'll cane you for not using the Queen's English. Keep it simple and clear.

Media and cut/paste:

1. Don't embed MP3 files please. It's in bad taste to force sound on a viewer. Wastes bandwidth as well.
2. Embed only your pictures. If you want to link to another site's picture that's agreeable.
3. Let's try and keep it to JPG files. TIF, GIF, PNG are unacceptable. JPG is the photo standard.
4. Keep the photo size to 1024 pixels wide. The site has real estate for 1280 but we need the sidebar. The site will resize pictures to suit people with CNIB monitors, but 1024 is the max width please. Just like most other photo sites.
5. Use a space (carriage return) before and after a picture. It's easier to read.

Content:

1. Let's keep this site photography related.
2. Keep in mind it's a family site.
3. Don't post anything you would not yell out at a dinner party.
4. SEARCH. See if it has been posted before. Use Google to see if this is an old internet thing and we've all seen it before.
5. If you want to post humour, please keep it photo related. I would err on the side of "don't".

My blog is not the most shining example, but have a look to see how I keep mine "clean" and mostly on topic. If I've missed anything, please post a "comment" at the bottom. Don't forget to look and see if anyone has commented on a post. Also, never fear editing soomething to fix a speeling error or whathave you.

http://www.jasonhollister.com

My suggestions to stop down a bit and expose a bit more worked. I added this to the discussion:  "You're getting the idea that bokeh and noise are the harbingers of death to many a photograph. People want razor thin DOF, zero noise and are sacrificing great shots every day crossing the lines. Photography is a lifelong obsession/fight with compromises. You trade bokeh for DOF control, you trade noise for killing motion blur, you trade x for y, y for x. Canon's strong point is the noise area where you have to trade less. That for me is why I am a Canon shooter. Push the limits of sharpness, contrast, dullness, dof – but be mindful that you will lose technically perfect shots if you compromise too much. I am VERY guilty of doing this when I get a new fast lens. I shoot wide open and go on a bokeh binge. Then I get home, upload and %75 of my subject is out of focus because I risked DOF control. Unsellable or unusable shots. I keep them for memories etc. or two show others I borked them. Learn to balance your compromises in your favour and not lose shots. You'll be doing this until they close the casket. "  

The hardest part for me in shooting is this balancing act. It's where good or great shots are made.