Photo Blog | 'PhotosExplained'

Panning

rubenvd — Wed, 11 May 2011 15:50:17 +0000

Vaporetto in Canal Grande. Venice, Italy, originally uploaded by RvDario.

Panning is a technique that allows the photographer to blur the background while keeping a fast moving subject sharp. The boat is obviously moving at speed. The background is a blur of colour, with all distracting details lost in a featureless smear. The boat in the foreground, though, is sharp.

Hipshot – shooting at waist level -

rubenvd — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 10:47:58 +0000

Berber woman in Chefchaouen, Morocco, originally uploaded by Ruben van Duin.

Chefchaouen is a city in northwest Morocco and is noted for its buildings in shades of blue. It’s hard to shoot good spontaneous portrait in Arabic countries since locals don’t like to be photographed. That’s why I tried a hipshot (shooting at waist level) without using the finder. This one worked out just fine! It’s a matter of percentages – sometimes you get the framing just right, and sometimes you don’t. Even if you’re not interested in being a street photographer, it’s good training if you can frame the photo without the camera.

“If your photos aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough”

rubenvd — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:37:02 +0000

Tinehir, originally uploaded by e.ruben.

Camera:	Canon EOS 40D	ISO Speed:	200
Exposure:	0.006 sec (1/160)	Flash:	Flash did not fire
Aperture:	f/6.3	Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Focal Length:	17 mm

“If your photos aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough”

Magnum photographer Robert Capa once said, “If your photographs aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.” Capa wasn’t advocating the use of longer lenses; he was telling us to physically get closer — to become more involved and intimate with our subjects.

Getting up early and skip your diner!

rubenvd — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:14:07 +0000

Paradiso, originally uploaded by e.ruben.

This region in Italy – Cinque Terre – and this town – Vernazza – in particular is by far the most amazing spot along the Mediterranean sea!

Diffuse light please

A rule of thumb or maybe a commandment for land- and cityscape photographing is shooting at sunrise and sunset. Although one would think that a bright shining sun during mid summer adds vivid colours to your photos, the opposite is true! Especially on a clear day in spring and summer when the sun rises quickly high above the horizon and will casts harsh shadows into your scenery and washes out all of the color. And last but not least it is difficult to see the shape of the landscape when the sun is directly overhead. Our eyes rely on shadows to recognize shapes.

Planning
To avoid all of this we have to get up early before sunrise and skip our diner during sunset to make sure we capture these warm soft shadowed shots. In between we can read a book or get some extra sleep! Be aware that the available time with suitable light quickly passes during sunset and sunrise. During the day you can think over de scenes you want to capture. This day in Vernazza I had to choose between shooting in the narrow streets and squares or find myself a good spot up high above the village. For this shot I didn’t used a tripod so I had to find a firm spot to stand on waiting for the sun to set above the Ligurian sea. I waited for the train to leave the tunnel (lower right corner) to add some interesting detail.

Post processing
In Aperture i’ve adjusted the overall contrast and added some more saturation to the green tones to lift the grass in the foreground.

Angelo Betti

rubenvd — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:30:57 +0000

Angelo Betti, originally uploaded by e.ruben.

Plac Bohaterów Getta

rubenvd — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 21:52:34 +0000

Plac Bohaterów Getta, originally uploaded by e.ruben.

First learn the rules – then break them

rubenvd — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 15:32:22 +0000

Family in Jericho – Westbank, originally uploaded by e.ruben.

Camera:	Canon EOS 5D	ISO Speed:	800
Exposure:	0.125 sec (1/8)	Flash:	Flash did not fire
Aperture:	F 5.6
Focal Length:	50 mm

Cup of thea
During a walk in Jericho – Westbank – this family invited us for a cup of tea. I was lucky with this amazing artificial light coming from the door opening at the right and a gorgeous background with pink and purple tones!

High ISO
No tripod, no flash! A group portrait with a wider aperture then F 5.6 would definitely result in unacceptable focus. While my friend was interacting with the kids I quickly adjusted the ISO setting to ’800′. High ISO with a fullframe sensor – especially my Canon 5d – will result in photos without a severe penalty in noise/grain.

Controlling ‘Depth of field’
Since I prefer to shoot in aperture priority mode – in most situations the aperture controls most of the aesthetics in my shots – the first thing I did after adjusting the ISO was choosing an aperture with a depth of field which was wide enough to make sure everybody in the scene was in focus. A good explanation that will give you a visual idea of depth-of-field for various camera/lens/aperture settings can be found at this page. As a rule of thumb for multiple rows in a group portrait you need at least f5.6 if not f8 or f11, depending on other things such as subject distance and how wide the angle of view is. An aperture of f 5.6 was the smallest I could choose with these lightning conditions. Another rule of thumb when it comes to exposure time is shooting at 1/60 or 1/30 the longest to avoid blur when no image stabilizing or tripod is used.

Break the rules
But sometimes rule of thumb just don’t work out because conditions are not ideal. And then what? Leave your camera in your bag? Off course not! Just take the shot with the maximum or minimum available variables. ISO 800, f 5.6 and an exposure time of 1/8! The result is acceptable for on screen presentation. Ok this capture won’t be appropriate for billboard size advertising but 9 times out of 10 it won’t leave the screen!

Colourfull Hijab

rubenvd — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 15:05:43 +0000

Colourfull Hijab, originally uploaded by e.ruben.

In opposite of most Muslim women in Europe the majority of women in Arab countries wear beautiful colour rich clothes. The typical clothing for this Muslim women can be described as ‘Hijab’ (حجاب) which means ‘to cover’ or ‘to shelter’. More conservative women wear fully black dresses (burqa) but in cities like Cairo this is rarely seen.

the Dutch on ice

rubenvd — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:17:47 +0000

the Dutch on ice, originally uploaded by e.ruben.

After some cold nights and days the dutch canals were ready for thousands of people enjoying winter on their ice-skates! I didn’t found my old skates but what I did found was an old 100-300mm lens! I used it to capture this shot. The aperture (f5.6) makes sure that there’s a nice DOF and with a shutterspeed of 1/500 all the movement is nicely ‘frozen’.

Enjoying wintertime

rubenvd — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:11:11 +0000

Enjoying wintertime, originally uploaded by e.ruben.

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