Sometimes the best time to grab your camera is when most people consider the weather bad.

Fog, rain and even snow can make great photos.

I really like the effect of light through fog. It allows you to see the beam of light clearly. It makes a very

More on Bad Weather Equals Great Photos

How do you get great photos of outdoor Christmas decorations?

Well, your digital camera can help make it easier to get those pictures of the Christmas lights on your house to turn out.

There are 3 things you will need to get great photos of outdoor Christmas lights

1. A camera that can shoot long exposures.
2. A remote shutter release.
3. A tripod.

First, you need a camera that will allow you to shoot at long shutter speeds.

The first photo with this post is of New Glarus, WI. The shutter speeds I used while taking photos that night were from about 4 seconds to over 15 seconds long at an aperture setting of F11. The images of Michigan Aveneue Christmas lights in Chicago were from 1-5 seconds long at F11. You will need a camera that will do these long shutter speeds. It also helps if your camera has a noise reduction option for long exposures built in. In this case, I used a Canon 5D at ISO 100.

You will need a way to trigger the shutter without shaking the camera.

Ideally, you will have remote shutter release for your camera. If you do not, you can use the self-timer function.

You will need a tripod.

A tripod is one of the most important accessories you can purchase for your camera. The sturdier, the better. The trouble with photography in cold weather like this is those metal tripod legs get really cold. Some tripods come with foam to cover parts of the legs. A nice feature if you cannot afford the more expensive new composite tripods.

A tripod was also very handy while I slid down a steep, icy sidewalk in New Glarus, WI. A city that resemble Switzerland, not only in arcitucture, but in hilly terrain.

I suggest using your camera in aperture priority.

Set your aperture for resonable depth of field. Then, vary your shutter speed according to the light. This way, you can keep your composition in focus while you experiment with exposure with the shutter speed.

You should bracket your exposure.

With night-time photography, it can be hard to get detail in shadow areas while not overexposing the highlights. This is the trick. To find the best exposure for the scene you are photographing. Your cameras meter will give a good starting point. I usually shoot a stop over and under. A quick look at the preview screen can give you an idea if you are close or which direction you should bracket more in.

Using a RAW file format is ideal in this situation.

Using a RAW file format will allow you to fine tune the exposure a bit more. Also, you can adjust the color balance to your taste much better later while you are looking at a high resolution image on your computer. You can also make a bracket exposure from one RAW file.

For further improvement, you can use Photoshop to increase the dynamic range in your photo.

The latest versions of Photoshop CS2 and CS3 can combine different exposures of an image to get the best highlight and shadow detail a put it in one image. There are other programs that will add this feature to earlier versions of Photoshop. You may also be able to do this by hand. Have several bracketed shots on a tripod, or taken from a RAW file are needed for this technique. The photos in this post did not use this technique.

It might be a good idea to put a plastic bag over your camera to protect it if there is snow.

The photograph of the Christmas lights on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Il was shot during the first real snow storm of the season. After shooting for about 10 minutes, I looked down to discover I and my camera bag were coated with wet snow. Keep a towel ready for when you get back to the car to wipe excess moisture off your equipment.

Cold weather will also cause batteries to weaken faster.

Spare batteries can be kept in a pocket closer to your body so you can keep shooting. Check your camera manual for an idea how cold weather will affect the batteries. It can cut normal use in half.

Try to start taking photos of the Christmas lights right after sunset.

The leftover light at dusk will help balance the bright Christmas lights and fill shadows. This will provide more detail. Of course, sometimes it can be too early. Just after I spent 45 minutes photographing the lights around New Glarus, WI and got in the car, the lights on the church were finally turned on.

Photographing Christmas lights is a fun challenge.

Even better is to finish it up with a drink of something warm with a loved one while you warm up afterwards.

A video on how to use Adobe Photoshop Elements to crop and size a photo before emailing it.

You crop images the same way in Photoshop as well as many image editing software programs.

Why crop and size a photo before you email it?

In the video below, the image was origianally over 8MB as a Jpeg file. This would take a long time for the person you are emailing to download. It would take even longer to send it. Nearly all the time, these images are only looked at on the computer. There is no need for a big file. Croping and resizing your photography before you email it is a nice thing for the people you are sending it to.

Why not just shoot a lower quality image setting?

I recommend that you always use the highest quality image setting your camera offers you. This way, you will be ready when that once in a life time image occurs (it happens a lot more than once in a lifetime). You can always make a photograph smaller but if you do not have the detail to begin with, you cannot make it larger. Keep your camera at the highest quality setting.

I made the video below to show both cropping the photograph and compressing it.

This is nearly the same in Photoshop as it is in Photoshop Elements. I am also using an early version of Elements. Later versions work the same way. The save for Web feature is somewhat unique to Adobe products. It is very convienient as it allows you to see the effect of compression as you try to make the image smaller.

In the following video I take an 8MB file and shrink it down to about 17k.

This makes it very fast to download. If you think someone might want get a print of the photo, let them know you can send a higher resolution version if they want to print it.

I hope you find the video useful.

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We woke up this Thanksgiving to see the ground covered with snow.

Unfortuanately, it was not thick enough to cover the ground completely. Fortunately, there was no need to shovel the driveway either.

How do you get pictures of snow when there is not that much?

I used my Canon 100mm macro lens to get in real close. I often like to get in real close and look at things in a way that people otherwise never get to see.

The snow had  melted a bit and refroze by the time I got around to photgraphing it.

I found this particular patch that also seemed to have a frosty look to it. Almost like a sea of diamonds.

The best way to focus using a macro lens:

The trick to getting macro photos in focus is to set the lens to manual focus. Set the lens to it's closest focusing distance. Then move the whole camera back and forth to focus on the spot you want. This way, you can keep the magnification the highest.

I wanted to see what would happen with a bit of image adjustment on the computer.

I used the levels adjustment in Photoshop Elements to make make an adjustment. Moving the shadow slider up, I noticed the dark areas turn blue. I then switched the levels to adjust the blue channel and got the final result below.

I like the way this looks with the blue shadows.

You will often find a lot of blue in the shadows of snow photos. This is usually a reflection of the sky. Our eyes tend to fool us into thinking everything is white.

It is easy to compensate for this blue cast with a digital camera.

Often, just the auto white balance will take care of it. You can also set your white balance manually to something like cloudy.

The best way is to use a RAW file format and fix the color cast on your computer.

This way, you can fine tune the color and make sure you get a good balance between the blue in the shadows without making the white too yellow or warm.

If you are shooting film, it is a bit harder.

With color negative film, the printer can make a correction when making a print. With slide film, a warming filter must be used when you take the photograph.

Which photograph do you prefer?

 

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to be with family.

For many, it is also a great time to try to take family photos. Many family members who are normally out of town are together and visiting. It's a great time to get a picture of the whole family at once.

For many, it is time to take the annual Christmas card picture.

For others, is just a time when everyone is together and they want to treasure the memories. After all, family is one thing to be very thankful for. It is often nearly too late to have a professional portrait done in time for Christmas.

A couple years ago, I decided Thanksgiving would be a great time to get a portrait of my grandpa and grandma.

While they were both still in reasonably good health, I knew that there would not be too many more chances to get a great photo of both of them together. Although I had access to professional equipment that few people can use, I made a few mistakes that prevented me from getting the portrait that I wanted. My grandfather died recently, and I was never able to get that last portrait that I wanted.

Here are five rules for getting great family photos this Thanksgiving.

5. Don't try to take the family photo at the table.

   It can be very difficult to get everyone in focus while sitting at a table.  Those closer to the camera will appear larger in the photograph and those that are back farther away from the camera will look smaller. Find a place where you can keep everyone closer together and about the same distance from the camera.  Also, your flash will tend to be too bright on the people in front and to dark on the people in back.  Bouncing the flash off the ceiling can help with this problem if you still want to take photos at the table.

4. Try to find a simple background that will not be too distracting.

You want to make sure the emphasis is on the people in the photograph and that they are not getting lost in a distracting background. If the weather is nice, you may want to try a photo outdoors. Again, try to find a place outside that looks nice, but is still not going to be too busy of a background.

3. Decide who is going to be in the photo before you start.

If you are going to be in the photograph, make sure you have a tripod ready.  This might be a good time to invite a friend with no family over for Thanksgiving if you don't have a tripod. In my case, I just wanted to get Grandpa and Grandma together and before I got a real good photo everyone else got into the photo. If you are going to do a group, I always start with the biggest group first and then work to the smaller groups unless there is something that is more important the the whole group photo.

2. Make sure you can see everyone in the picture.

Make sure you have everyone posed so that they can see the camera and the camera can see them.  Also make sure that no one will be hidden in a dark shadow.  Make sure that everyone will be looking at the camera.  This can be especially hard with children.  At the same time, you don't want a picture of mom pointing at the camera what she is trying to get the child to look at. Be patient and keep a good sense of humor.

1. Most importantly!  Take the photo before anyone eats.

This will avoid that red cranberry stain on dad's white shirt.  They hand out napkins at restaurants because accidents do happen.  Also, after everyone eats that wonderful meal, no one is going to feel like going through the work of taking a photo.  Everyone can just relax after they eat then.  It also ensures that grandma won't be fainting from grandpa's onion breath!

Enjoy your Thanksgiving and remember to be thankful for the other blessings in your life.

 

Have you ever had a ghost in your photo?

It looked like you had it in focus. You used a flash. Still, there seems to be an additional person in the picture?

Does it look like this?

It's called ghosting.

It is nothing to call Ghostbusters Inc about. It's just a double exposure. One exposure is made by the flash. The other is made from the ambient light.

Many modern cameras try to balance ambient light and flash to make a more natural looking photograph.

Sometimes, it is just too balanced and it does not turn out the way we want. If there is just enough light in the room to make an exposure but not enough to get a fast enough shutter speed, you will see pictures like the one above. I have made it a bit exaggerated so it is easy to see the problem here.

There is a sharp image.

In parts of the photo, there is also a blurry double of the image (the ghost). The ghost is blurry because of movement during the exposure. Sometimes this is subject movement. More often, it is camera movement. It can be hard to know exactly when it will strike. It often seems to happen during really important pictures.

There are two different ways to fix ghosting in photos and exorcise those ghosts from your photography.

• Reduce the blur in the photo.
• Reduce the exposure of the ghost till it disappears. Sometimes, this also reduces the blur too.

You can reduce the blur by using a wider lens.

Often the blur is because the shutter speed the camera balanced the ambient light with is too slow to hand hold. A wider lens (zoom out) will not blur as much as a telephoto lens (zoom in).

You can reduce the ghost blur by using a tripod.

Often, you are using the flash because a tripod is not convienient to use. The photograph below has the same shutter speed as the picture with the ghost in it. Notice that the ghost has disappeared.

You can reduce the ghost blur by using a shorter shutter speed.

Use the fastest shutter speed your flash will sych at. This will prevent the blur from camera movement during the exposure just like using a tripod. Using a faster shutter speed may also reduce the exposure of the ghost.

Reducing the exposure of the ghost will also work.

You can increase flash power and make the exposure using flash at higher shutter speeds and smaller aperatures. In the photo below, the exposure setting was raised and flash power was increased to compensate. The reduces the exposure from the ambient light. Notice that the wonderful warm incadencent lighting is gone from the image.

 

You can reduce the exposure of the ghost with a lower ISO setting.

This also reduces the ambient light in the photo.

Like I said, it can be hard to expect when ghosting will happen.

If you need to use flash, but there is a lot of light in the room, you may see ghosts. If you are zooming in or using a long lens with flash, that can increase the chance of ghosting. If you are using flash and high ISO settings for subjects that are not far away, ghosting can occur.

Checking your preview on your digital camera once in while in these situations can let you know if you need to change the way you are using your camera.

For some cameras, you will not be able to make any of the exposure changes. How to take sharp photosUse the wider part of your zoom and try to hold the camera as still as possible.

Don't forget to have a good time and make the real memories the ones you remember no matter what the photos look like.