17. August 2010 by Friedhelm.

This image follows the same composition principle than yesterday’s image. I put the rocks into the foreground which create a nice implied line towards the tree and the mountain in the background.

This image was photographed on the other side of Hwy 120 at Olmstedt Point in Yosemite National Park. Enjoy and happy photographing!

Posted in Feeling of depth | No Comments »

16. August 2010 by Friedhelm.

This weeks exercises are about depth in an image. I challenge you to create image that shows maximum feeling of depth.In order to archive this you need to determine a foreground and a background that jumps into your eyes.If you create the composition in your mind consider that the foreground and the background could be an image in itself.

In this images I use the rocks as my foreground, the lake itself serves as a “connector” between the rocks and the mountains. The mountains and blue skies are the background.

Enjoy and happy photographing

Posted in Feeling of depth | No Comments »

12. August 2010 by Friedhelm.

This is the wall imprint of my door knob. The door stopper did not work properly. This is my favorite subject and it is so obvious how a little change of direction from right to left has such a profound impact on this image.

Enjoy!

Posted in Light studies | No Comments »

11. August 2010 by Friedhelm.

This is the top of an old coffee grinder. My family received it as a gift in 1952 and we keep it on our fire place. Again, the only thing I changed was the direction of the light. I used an 85mm portrait lens at f 2.8.

Posted in Light studies | No Comments »

10. August 2010 by Friedhelm.

This is my wife’s purse. I was laying around our living room. I mounted the camera on my tripod and photographed it twice. I only changed the direction of the light. Observe carefully how this changes the image!

Have fun with this exercise!

Posted in Light studies | No Comments »

9. August 2010 by Friedhelm.

This weeks photographic exercises emphasise the usage of light. Take your camera and pick one lens that you use for all the shots. I picked my 85mm portrait lens and a 12mm extender because I wanted to shoot close-ups. The pick a f stop that you use for all your shots. I picked f2.8 because I wanted a very narrow depth of field. The use of a tripod is highly recommended to keep the camera stable. The pick a light source. I picked a small umbrella with a daylight (5600k) light bulb. You may choose any other light source even a flashlight. Then set up and focus your camera and take at least two shots. The only difference between the shots should be the direction of the light. Your subject can be anything in your house or apartment. Here is my first example:

My subject is a knob of my wife’s drawer. As you can clearly see there is a very shallow depth of field and the light is coming from about 1o’clock.

In the second example the light is coming from 11 o’clock giving the image a totally different feeling. All the settings are the same, only the light comes from a different direction.

Happy photographing and don’t forget “photography” means painting with light!

Posted in Light studies, Uncategorized | No Comments »

6. August 2010 by Friedhelm.

The dominant subject doe not necessarily be the largest part in the composition. This flower is dominant for two reasons:

1st: The yellow color distinct the subject from the rest of the image which is green. Yellow is also “lighter” than green and our eyes usually go to the lightest part of the photograph.

2nd: The yellow flower in in focus. I purposely chose a small f-stop to keep the subject in-focus and blow out the rest of the image.

Enjoy and happy Friday!

Posted in Dominance | No Comments »

5. August 2010 by Friedhelm.

In this image dominance is achieved through color and focus. White is the lightest color and our eyes tend to go there. In addition I used a wide open lens to blur the leave as much as possible. The lines in the leave also point to the flower.

Enjoy and happy photographing!

Posted in Dominance | No Comments »

4. August 2010 by Friedhelm.

I photographed this old lamp at Bodie, CA. Bodie is a ghost down which became later a state park in California. The lamp definitely dominates the entire image. It is the only subject in focus and therefore your eye just goes to it. By the way this image was shot with the cheapest of Canon’s 70-200 L lenses. This lens always amazes me. It is extremely light and therefore great for hikes in the mountains and it is extremely sharp as you can see in this image.

Happy photographing!

Posted in Dominance | No Comments »

3. August 2010 by Friedhelm.

The Peacock is definitely dominating this image. There is hardly any background if you even want to consider the lawn the background of this image. You might even say that the Peacock created his own background with his beautiful feathers.

Enjoy and happy photographing!

Posted in Dominance | No Comments »