Diamond Branch

[bashfulsue]

I just took some shots of snow crystals on branches . I like them but there not very good. I would like some help on how I can fix them or how to take them better. I do not know much about PP, usually all I ever do is just crop. I do have Photoshop Cs, Photoshop Elements 6, Coral Paintshop Pro x2. I'm not sure where to post it to get the kind of help I'm after. I kind of want more than just the crop, straighten, etc...
Can you please direct me?



Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT
Exposure: 0.002 sec (1/500)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO Speed: 160
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off

File Size: 714 kB
File Type: JPEG

[PhotoNewt]

This photo would look much better against a dark background. I know someone will suggest doing this on PS but I am more old fashioned and like to get it done in camera when possible.

There are two tricks I used in these situations.

The first is to "cheat" by preparing a dark background - perhaps a piece of cloth material over a cardboard held by an assistant behind the subject. Move it back enough to keep it out of focus and take the picture.


The second involves playing with the exposure. You will need a tripod for this; a macro ring-type flash is ideal, but if not available a regular one should do just fine.

1. Set you camera to shutter priority mode. Set the shutter speed to maximum sync speed - 1/250 for most Canon SLRs.

2. Turn on your flash and after focusing the subject, take a flash exposure. The E-TTL will calculate and deliver the right amount of light to render the subject well lit. If not, use the flash exposure compensation to adjust the level of illumination to your liking.


If you want yet more control and better results you will need a dedicated flash unit with manual power control:

1. Set the camera to manual exposure and dial the shutter speed to 1/250 and apreture to about 8.

2. Set the flash unit to manual and select about 1/4 power to begin with.

3. Take a shot, adjust the power as neede to get an apporpriate exposure of the main subject.

4. If you have enough power on your flash, try a photos at f/11 and f/16 so you can enjoy maximum DOF on the main subject.

Hope this helps...

[bashfulsue]

Originally Posted by PhotoNewt

This photo would look much better against a dark background. I know someone will suggest doing this on PS but I am more old fashioned and like to get it done in camera when possible.

There are two tricks I used in these situations.

The first is to "cheat" by preparing a dark background - perhaps a piece of cloth material over a cardboard held by an assistant behind the subject. Move it back enough to keep it out of focus and take the picture.


The second involves playing with the exposure. You will need a tripod for this; a macro ring-type flash is ideal, but if not available a regular one should do just fine.

1. Set you camera to shutter priority mode. Set the shutter speed to maximum sync speed - 1/250 for most Canon SLRs.

2. Turn on your flash and after focusing the subject, take a flash exposure. The E-TTL will calculate and deliver the right amount of light to render the subject well lit. If not, use the flash exposure compensation to adjust the level of illumination to your liking.


If you want yet more control and better results you will need a dedicated flash unit with manual power control:

1. Set the camera to manual exposure and dial the shutter speed to 1/250 and apreture to about 8.

2. Set the flash unit to manual and select about 1/4 power to begin with.

3. Take a shot, adjust the power as neede to get an apporpriate exposure of the main subject.

4. If you have enough power on your flash, try a photos at f/11 and f/16 so you can enjoy maximum DOF on the main subject.

Hope this helps...

Thank you I will try it. I do have a speedlite 430 ex that I just got. So new I haven't tried it yet. I did ran back out to try and take some shots ... they were gone. Will try again in the morning. I'm sure there will be more. Thank you.

[PhotoNewt]

The 430EX has full manual power control so should work quite well for this. You can go an select another subject for now and practice the technique so you can get a feel of how it will work/look. This will allow you to adjust the parameters to your liking.

The objective, if using the exposure method, is to get a well lit subject against a darker background by manipulating ambient vs. flash exposure independently. A few additional points to consider.

1. Ambient light exposure will be controlled by your shutter speed - by selecting 1/250 your camera will open the shutter for a brief time thereby limiting the amount of natural light the sensor can register. If you want a lighter background, then increase the shutter speed as needed until the background is to your liking.

2. The flash exposure will be controlled mostly by the aperture - as long as you leave the shutter speed constant. For a brighter subject, dial a larger aperture (i.e., f/5.6), for a darker one a smaller aperture (f/11). The trick is that aperture also control how much of your subject will be in sharp focus during a close up and you want to use a smaller aperture to get as most of it in focus as possible - something around f/8 - f/16 should work best. That is where variable flash power is useful. If the subject is well lit at 1/4 flash power at f/8 but the DOF is too shallow, then change the aperture to f/11 but at the same time increase power of flash to 1/2 - this should yield approximately the same exposure.

3. Also note that if you decrease shutter speed to make your backgorund lighter, you need to adjust the flash power to avoid over exposure, so if you change from 1/250 to 1/60 (that's 2-stops: 1/250 -> 1/125 -> 1/60), then you need need to compensate by changing the flash output power to 1/16 (2-stops: 1/4 -> 1/8 -> 1/16) and leave the aperture unchanged - this will also yield the same approximate exposure.

4. You can also make simultaneous changes on all parameters, be careful to keep track of the final exposure if you do so - this can get a bit tricky until you fully master the concept of exposure.

A lot of experimentation for you there. Have fun!