Long exposures

Since a long time ago I quite like to do exposures while I am taking photos. For those who don’t know what an exposure in photography is here you have a definition from Wikipedia.

In photographic jargon, an exposure generally refers to a single shutter cycle. For example: a long exposure refers to a single, protracted shutter cycle to capture enough low-intensity light, whereas a multiple exposure involves a series of relatively brief shutter cycles; effectively layering a series of photographs in one image. For the same film speed, the accumulated photometric exposure (H) should be similar in both cases.

To know more about it just go to the entire article by clicking here.

Going back to the topic of this post I would like to show you some exposures that I did in my last visit to London where I took my camera for a walk at night (this is something I don’t do quite often but that I like to do from time to time). Usually to do exposures you may need a tripod. In my case I didn’t want to carry with the tripod the whole day so instead of that I was using mainly my camera bag to build a stable surface to put the camera on.

With this small collection of exposures I didn’t want to express movement, which is one of the reasons why people does them. In this case I was capturing a city landscape so buldings, but I wanted to take the colour that I was seeing, so no flash at all to get  the correct amount of light. This fact makes this kind of photos such a challenge because don’t forget that in cities there are many different light sources and in many different colours, so get the light that you want is quite a difficult target.

To find out more go to my flickr gallery.

Intrusion into HDR

This is an idea that has been in my mind for quite a few time already but that until today, a sunny with cloud intervals in the sky I haven’t realized. So this morning, after being doing a few thins I had to wrap up I took my EOS 350d with the 18-55 lens and with my bike I went for a photo ride around Ipswich.

The topic I have chosen today it has been something very tipical in this country, the pubs. I haven’t taken a photo of all of them but I think that as a first approach you can figure out how they are. But let’s focus on the HDR which is what I wanted to try today.

As we can see on Wikipedia, this is a brief definition of HDR: In image processing, computer graphics, and photography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range of luminances between light and dark areas of a scene than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention of HDRI is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to shadows.

The way you do it is taking the same picture 3 times at least with a different set up on the camera, meaning that you take a normal photo as if you only want to take one photo of the scene and then you take a high exposure and a low exposure of the same item, therefore it is highly recommendable the use of a tripod when you make this kind of photography. However if it is in daylight and the speed you use is fast enough you can take them without it.

To get the more possibilities and the best marked effect with HDR you must shut your photos using RAW format. Then the image is not compressed and it is easier to handle into a wide range of colours and other settings by the program you use. As the photo is taken in RAW, the weigh of this one is way more than a compressed one in JPG as many people use to take them, so have this in your mind because it is esasy to notice that we are running out of space in the card. To compose the final image that will produce the effect. I have used Adobe Photoshop CS4 in Mac OX to compose the HDR photography. The way you do it is really easy, as the programs does all the work for you appart of the postprocess that you would like to add to the result. I haven’t done anything after that because I liked the result and because I am still learning this work.

There are more examples of my ride into my flickr gallery so I invite you go around and have a look to them

Technics in Street Photography II

Bruce Gilden has been doing street photography for years in New York. He has an special point of view of how street photography should be. He likes portraits more than full scenes, so he goes close to the people with a hand flash and the camera on the other hand. If we compare his way of taking pictures with the one we saw last week, his stile is way more aggressive with the people because of his approach. However the result is awesome. Just qualify that he also sees street photography in Black & White, as Joe Wigfall. Will more people see this photography as it is until now… we’ll find out in future post.

Just enjoy the video of Bruce Gilden working in his city:

Technics in Street Photography

I can show you today how somebody, in this case Joe Wigfall takes his pictures of street photography in New York. The way he shots is by not looking through the camera. Is it easy? Is it difficult? Well… that depends on the camera, the lens that you have on it and how you know it because when you spend a while with your camera you get to know what is in front of it and what is going to be recorded on the ccd or the film.

Ok, once I have said that, here is the video. Enjoy!!

Street photography

Last friday I started reading in xatakafoto some post about street photography. I have done just a few photos of this kind of photography because I was shy of photography people that I don’k know, but having a look to some galleries I have decided to start a serie of it.

For those that don’t know what street photography is about this is the definition that you can find in wikipedia:

Street photography uses the techniques of straight photography in that it shows a pure vision of something, like holding up a mirror to society. Street photography often tends to be ironic and can be distanced from its subject matter and often concentrates on a single human moment, caught at a decisive or poignant moment. On the other hand, much street photography takes the opposite approach and provides a very literal and extremely personal rendering of the subject matter, giving the audience a more visceral experience of walks of life they might only be passingly familiar with. In the 20th century, street photographers have provided an exemplary and detailed record of street culture in Europe and North America, and elsewhere to a somewhat lesser extent.

Many classic works of street photography were created in the period between roughly 1890 and 1975 and coincided with the introduction of portable cameras, especially small 35mm, rangefinder cameras. Classic practitioners of street photography include Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank, Alfred Eisenstaedt, W. Eugene Smith, William Eggleston, Brassaї, Willy Ronis, Robert Doisneau and Garry Winogrand.

So to got for this new challenge in my photography hobby I will use my 3 weapons:

1. My phone, as it is small, fits in the pocket and has got a camera, it is a good candidate to use it almost everywhere during the day.
2. My old compact camera, my sony DSC P7 with its 3,2 Mp is good to get this photos when you go out or you are in a concert or go for a ride with the bike wherever and you can find good shots.
3. But the main one is gonna be my digital-SLR, with the Canon EOS 350D I will do most of the work for obvious reason the quality would be better and you can play with more settings than with the other 2 that I have described above. However it is going to be the most difficult one due you cannot hide it and if you take a photo to people you don’t know they are going to notice it, but I have decided to do it and this is one of the risk that you have to assume.

Once I have told you all of this let me show you some examples of this kind of photography. And I hope you enjoy the galleries coming as the ones that are already in my public flickr gallery.

• http://www.streetphoto.fsnet.co.uk/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/patxiwan/
• http://www.streetphotography.co.uk/