How I shot It: Fall Don't Leaf me Now

[fstopMike]

I recently posted this thread on Share Your shots: http://digital-photography-school.co...af-me-now.html

I'd like to thank all of you who took the time and left a comment. Many asked how I did it. I was going to post this in the How I Took It section, but I read the rules there and one can only post one photo in that section and I felt like I needed more than one to fully explain. So here it is:

I was on my lunch break at a park near work. The time was around 2 in the afternoon, so the sun was getting lower in the sky. With winter coming on, there's not a whole lot to shoot and fall color is rapidly waning. This is what I saw.



Not much there at all, but notice the beautiful backlit leaves glowing in the sunshine and the "sparklies" of the sunlight shimmering on the riplets in the lake. That's all the elements needed to produce the image.

I took this next shot with my 17-10 f2.8-f4 Sigma "macro". Notice the silvery blue background in the upper part of the shot and the brown in the lower part of the shot. the silvery blue is the water of the lake, the brown is the shoreline, and the "sparklies" are the sun's reflection right at the shoreline. The distance from the leaf to the water is about 10 feet.




Camera: Nikon D40X
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/1250)
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 70 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: -2/3 EV

Here you can see all of the elements ready to be put together. I exposed for the leaf and ignored everything else. I have to set the default Exposure Value on the camera to -0.7EV because in my opinion, Nikki Sue (my D40X) overexposes everything so I decrease the EV so I can just read the meter when I'm setting exposure and don't have to think about compensating.

Here is an attempt at taking a shot with the 17-70 at 60 mm.



Camera: Nikon D40X
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/1250)
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 60 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: -2/3 EV

Not terrible, but not that great. I included this shot so one can see that not only do the composition and lighting elements have to come together, but to get the great bokeh, proper lens selction is also important. Notice that while there are interesting spectral highlights here they are smaller due to the focal length of the lens and the distance involved.

Another factor here, is that the wind died down and I lost some of the riplets and thus some reflections. The shots I originally posted were from the day before and I could see the light dancing in my viewfinder from the reflections in the riplets.

For the next shot, I changed to my Sigma 105 f2.8 Macro (I love this lens!). You can see the spectral highlights are much greater, the leaves are the definite subject of the photo and the background is all water and "sparklies" (my low tech term for spectral highlights).



Camera: Nikon D40X
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/1250)
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 105 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: -2/3 EV

Still not as good as the one I took the day before, but enough to get the point across. I hope this helps those who were curious! Once again, thanks to all of you who comment and encourage me. I couldn't take the pictures I'm taking now without learning from all of you and without your encouragement

Thanks to all of my friends at DPS!

http://digital-photography-school.co...af-me-now.html

[FromtheBackofaHorse]

Thanks, Mike, for taking the time to explain that. I am one of those people that tries to duplicate what others have done and see if I can get the same results. Now you have made it easy for me with step by step instructions. Where do I need to send my tuition payment?

[equilution]

Super shots, Mike. I loved these then, and I love these now! Great explanation, and some of the best bokeh shots I've seen. I know how you feel about 105 f/2.8. I think that's probably the best length and f-stop combination out there!!

Thanks for sharing your "how" on these shots!!

[JustJim]

Thanks for sharing that. I had thought in the first thread that you were shooting from below the leaf looking up to the sky. I thought you had managed some bokeh lens flare somehow.

[Heaterguy]

Well done and thanks for the instructions.

[Tenzin'sMom]

Mike, this is wonderful! I loved your original post, and it is really fun to be able to walk alongside you as you take those photos. Thanks for your generous sharing and clear teaching -- you're showing me how to go beyond taking pictures to thinking like a photographer. I'm grateful!

[pjflan7]

I love lunch breaks! I had to look at an article online about good/bad bokeh and how you get those hexagonal highlights......apparently they are bad to have but they look cool anyways. I think they can make the scene so much more artistic especially how you caught it where the hexagons balance the leaf......

[fstopMike]

Deb, I'm really cheap! Buy me a Tommyknocker's someday when I'm in your neighborhood!

[windrider86]

Wow Mike. I really love how you did these. And an even bigger thanks for taking the time to tell us how.
Hmmm, I need to run out and try it now!

[mpascal]

Thanks for the explanation Mike, I really liked the photos and the effect, and now this explanation has really helped me appreciate the hard work and dedication needed to produce a top class photo like this.

Michael