John W Jacobsen Photography

No, not that Twilight, I’m referring to the time of the day right after sunset, before it gets totally dark out. A recent trip to Las Vegas reminded me how much I liked shooting at twilight.

For photographers, twilight begins about 15 minutes after sunset. Light disappears quickly so you need to have a sense of urgency. At most, you will get a ten minute window of perfect light to get your shot. Once your shooting window passes, there isn’t much you are going to be able to do to salvage the photos. The skies will be too dark and your subject is going to blend in to the background leaving you with dull, lifeless images. You are trying to capture that dark blue sky that tells the viewer that yup, this is indeed night (but it’s not so dark that the viewer can’t make out your subject).

In order to take advantage of the light, you need to follow some simple rules and you will get the shot every time:

1. Get there early! I try to get to my location about 30 minutes before sunset so I can scope out the perfect shot and overcome any last minute obstacles.
2. Use your sticks! Because this is a low light situation, it’s nearly impossible to handhold your camera to get the shot – especially if you are shooting at a smaller aperture where the shutter speed could be 15 or 20 seconds. Set up a tripod to eliminate the blur!
3. Shoot in Manual mode. Your camera’s meter is going to try to overexpose the image. By shooting in manual you can control the exposure and get the desired look. Is the image in your LCD too bright? Crank up a faster shutter speed!
4. Take a lot of pictures! Don’t rely on your camera’s LCD screen to determine if you got the image you wanted. I often take 100 or more images of the same exact scene and throw most of them away when I get them back on the computer.
5. Enjoy the moment. Unless you are photographing a national treasure (Golden Gate Bridge perhaps?), you will very likely be the only person there. Enoy the time and have fun while you are shooting.

After you get the images on your computer, you can tweak the colors and composition as needed. I always try to get the image as close to perfect in camera as I can. Invariably, I will usually end up cropping an image and mess around with the settings in RAW a little bit.

Finally, if you really want to angle for some dramatic skies, try to shoot right before or after a storm. At the very least you will end up with some wicked looking clouds in your image and if you’re lucky, you might also get some spectacular colors to light up your image as well.

When it comes to having control over your exposures, you really need to understand aperture. A fundamental understanding of what aperture is and how it effects your photos is a basic foundation for taking your photography to the next level.

In a nutshell, aperture is defined as a hole or opening through which light travels. When you depress the shutter on your camera, light travels through the lens and is captured on the sensor (or film) of your camera. But what does aperture really mean?

The way aperture works on camera’s is somewhat counter-intuitive. A smaller aperture number (often referred to as the f-stop) means a bigger opening for light to travel through. A larger aperture (f-stop) means a smaller opening for light to travel through. The size of that opening greatly affects how an image will look.

A larger opening (smaller f-stop/aperture) will greatly decrease your depth of field. That means what you are focusing on will be in sharp focus, but other parts of the image might be blurry. In the above example, I used a relative small aperture (f/2.9). As you can see, the “control” key is in sharp focus, but the rest of the keys aren’t. The further away you get from the “control” key, the less in focus the image is.

Conversely, if I had taken that photo with a large aperture – say f/22 – all of the keys and the screen would be in critical focus. Of course there are trade-offs to aperture. Changing the aperture of your camera requires an equal, opposite change in shutter speed to maintain a properly exposed image. For example, if I had a properly exposed image at f/4.0 and a shutter speed of 1/60s and I decided to change the aperture to f/2.8. My image would require an equal, opposite change in shutter speed to remain properly exposed. Changing the shutter speed to 1/125s is the correct choice here.

Let’s take a moment to analyze that. If a smaller aperture really means a bigger opening for light to pass through. Then by creating a larger opening for light to pass through, we are allowing more light through to the sensor. If you have a properly exposed image, and allow more light, you get what’s called an over-exposure. One way to combat an over-exposure is to reduce the duration of time light is allowed to pass through the lens – a ha! A faster shutter speed will reduce the amount of light! By reducing your aperture one f-stop, you need to increase your shutter speed by one f-stop. Increase your f-stop, you would need to decrease your shutter speed by the same amount.

I’m sure many of you are thinking “whoa, this is waaaaay too complicated!”. Luckily, most manufactures have a special shooting mode called Aperture Priority. Aperture Priority allows you to choose what aperture you want, and the camera will automatically choose the correct shutter speed to make a properly exposed image. Check your camera’s user guide to find out if you have an Aperture Priority shooting mode on your camera – and figure out how to turn it on! When I’m out shooting, I can honestly say I’m in Aperture Priority about 90% of the time.

Aperture is a complex subject that can’t be covered in just a few paragraphs. I’ll be touching on this subject in more detail in the weeks to come. However, I was playing around with my old point-and-shoot tonight and snapped this picture and decided to share. While it certainly helps, this picture is also proof that you don’t need a $3000 camera to take a nice photo. My Nikon Coolpix P50 is over two years old and cost about $130 from B&H Photo   :)

One of the best kept secrets in photography also happens to be the best zoom lens money can buy. I’m certainly not the first photographer to say this, but it bears repeating – When you think you’re close enough to the subject, take two steps forward!.

Getting closer will allow you to capture more detail, highlight your subject further, and often times, you will be rewarded with a photo that many others wouldn’t get.

The second image shows a much more intimate shot of the bee with a lot more detail than the first image. Next time you are out taking photos, give it a try. Frame up your subject and get your image properly exposed, and then take two steps forward and fire away!

One of the best tips I can give is to be prepared. Being prepared includes knowing how to change the settings on your camera, understanding what settings you’ve chosen, and understanding the scene you are trying to capture. If you like shooting wildlife, you are occasionally presented those special ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ opportunites to get a great image. If you are busy fiddling with camera settings – the shot will likely evaporate before your very eyes.

One of the things I like to do to combat that is is to practice my technique at the local zoo. Being able to take your time and practice in a controlled environment will help build skills that will become second nature to you. With that in mind, I headed to the Denver Zoo this past weekend to hone my wildlife photography skills!

The temperature was perfect – for January anyways! It was mid 50′s but unfortunately, it was also fairly overcast. It’s always a struggle to make images that don’t appear flat and lifeless when the clouds are out – or to a photographer who likes a challenge, a perfect opportunity to practice new techniques to better prepare for real life situations.

After several hundred captures, these three are my favorite. The top image is of an infant hyena playing. The middle image is of a napping black bear, and the bottom image is a close-up of a male lion’s eye. By using different focal lengths, exposure settings, and lighting conditions, I was able to capture images that weren’t flat and lifeless. I can certainly take what I learned from this trip and put it in practice the next time I’m in the mountains on some obscure trail. Practice. Practice. Practice.

Now that some of that winter cold has passed, it’s time to take some pictures! If you find yourself hard-pressed to find a subject matter, here’s a little trick that I use with great results. I give myself an ‘assignment’. Typically, I will confine myself to a small area and give myself a hard time frame in which to come up with at least 10 great photos.

The shot above is from one of these personal photo assignments. Is it going to win a photo contest? No – but it’s better than any photo I got while sitting on the couch watching TV. In this particular instance, I gave myself an hour and a 2 square block area of downtown Clearwater, FL and came away with a full memory card of images – many more than the required 10 great photos.

So next time you find yourself in a rut, give yourself an assignment! Not only is this a great way to hone your skills, but there are plenty of things to photograph if you look hard enough – you just need to get out there and work it!

Capturing whites can be one of the hardest aspects of exposure for beginners. Typically, when left to the devices of your digital SLR, bright whites normally appear as though they are dull grays. It’s an easy problem to fix, but first a little detour to explain why it happens.

Today’s digital SLR’s are designed to meter properly to 18% gray. Regardless of the metering mode you choose, whether it be Matrix/Evaluative, center-weighted or spot metering, the dSLR assumes that whatever it is exposing should be 18% gray. This works great for scenes that are devoid of bright whites and jet blacks. But what about a scene that has extreme whites or blacks? They come out an ugly shade of gray!

The fix for this is easy. If you are shooting something white – like a blizzard – use your cameras exposure compensation. By adding exposure compensation in the range of +1 stop to +2 stops, you are forcing the camera to over expose the scene. Over exposing a scene introduces more light to the final exposure – which brightens your whites!

In this example, I used +1.5 exposure compensation with Matrix metering on my Nikon D300. The end result – whites that actually look white!

The next time you are presented with bright whites, start at +1 exposure compensation, take a shot and view the results on your LCD. If I need to brighten the whites, continue adding exposure compensation until you get the desired effect.

It goes without saying that today’s cameras are so advanced. If all you are interested in is taking great snapshots, leave your camera on Auto and shoot away. If you want to have more creative control over the images you capture, one of the first steps is understanding the different metering modes and how they affect the photos you take.

The good folks at Digital Photography School posted a great summary of the different metering modes this morning. If you want to get a better understanding of what the difference is between evaluative/matrix vs center-weighted vs spot metering, check out their link.

With apologies to American Express, this is one item I don’t leave home without – a bubble level! I’ve viewed thousands upon thousands of photos over my lifetime and one of the first things I notice is whether or not the horizon is straight when it should be. It’s easily one of the biggest distractions of photos. I always carry my bubble level with me and if I’m in a situation where I have to get the horizon straight, I’m good to go. Simply attach the level to your camera’s hotshoe and you have instant straight horizons.

Yeah, I know. I could straighten the horizon in post processing. Sometimes I do just that. However I’d rather spend time in the field with my camera in hand taking photos than sitting on the computer cleaning up straight lines. If you can get it right in camera, that is where it should be done.

You can grab a bubble level from B&H Photo for less than $40 in most cases. Here is the model that I use. B&H has several different models to choose from though.

In the end, it doesn’t matter which one you select as they all work about the same. Pick one up when you can afford to and start getting those horizons straight in camera!