“Into the Blue” by laverrue.

“A Tint of Vancouver” by kennymatic.

“A Ship Passes Under the Brooklyn Bridge” by th.omas.

Blue Hour Site is a web application that takes a few simple inputs:

• A date
• Country/state/city

Given that information, the site will tell you when the blue hour will occur at that location, on that date. For example, today’s blue hour in New York City will last from 5:07 AM to 5:47 am & 8:13 PM to 8:52 PM.

Adams’ advice is simple, yet incredibly profound. If you find yourself caught up in gear, software, actions, presets and other such things, it would benefit you greatly to sit back, watch this short video and take the master’s words to heart. When it comes to creative photography, none of these things matter if you have not first connected with your own vision. A good photo is not made in Photoshop, it’s not even made in the camera. It’s simply something you see with your mind, and then use photographic tools to take that image from your mind’s eye and record it on a medium which others can see.

At slower shutter speeds, camera movement introduces blur to the photograph. This movement is usually the result of the photographer’s hand or body moving slightly as they shoot a frame hand-held. If a tripod or other apparatus is not used to stabilize the camera during a long exposure, it easily picks up on the slightest movement which directly translates to a lack of sharpness.

Image stabilization technology’s goal is to enable photographers to hand-hold their cameras at slower shutter speeds than what has normally been possible while stilling getting acceptably sharp photos. Modern IS/VR usually has a 3-4 stop advantage, meaning a shot that would have otherwise required a 1/200 sec. shutter speed is now possible between 1/25 – 1/50 sec.

The photos shown here clearly demonstrate the effects of IS/VR. They were both shot at the same shutter speed of 1/6 sec with the lens at 105mm. IS was turned off for the image on the left, then enabled for the image on the right. The difference in sharpness is extreme.

The image stabilization technology found in consumer cameras falls into two main categories: optical image stabilization and digital image stabilization.

Optical Image Stabilization

Optical I.S. moves elements inside the camera/lens to counteract the movements introduced by the photographer. This IS is implemented in either the lens or the camera body.

In lens-based image stabilization, the lens has an element inside that is capable of moving. The lens detects the camera’s movement and responds by moving around the lens element to stabilize the projection of the image.

In-camera image stabilization is implemented in the form of a sensor that moves. Again, the camera detects the movements being introduced by the photographer, and moves the sensor around in response to stabilize the image.

In-camera image stabilization is used my some manufacturers because it enables I.S. on every lens in their lineup. Canon and Nikon do not put IS/VR into their camera bodies, only their lenses. This means that only certain lenses can take advantage of the technology and the feature usually corresponds to a higher price tag. An advantage, though, is that a new camera body is not required in order to take advantage of advances in IS technology.

Digital Image Stabilization

Digital image stabilization operates on the image after it has been captured. There are two kinds of digital image stabilization: one which crops and rotates the image, and other which drops exposure time and boosts exposure.

The first type of digital image stabilization slightly crops the image so that it can then be rotated around in response to the movement, stabilizing the image. You can think of this like a digital implementation of the techniques used in optical image stabilization, except it takes place after the image has been captured and shifts around pixels instead of light.

The second type of digital image stabilization plays with exposure. The camera will use a shorter exposure time in order to eliminate the blur, but this will also cause the resulting photo to be underexposed. The camera will then correct the exposure by brightening up the photo artificially. An unfortunate side effect of this method is that it increases digital noise, especially in shadow areas. You will see this for yourself if you try to push the exposure too far on one of your own photos in post production — after a certain amount, the noise and grain in the photo becomes noticeable.

IS Modes

Many cameras and lenses implement two different modes of optical image stabilization. The first mode will correct for both horizontal and vertical movements of the camera, while the second mode will only sense and correct for vertical movements. This is useful when you want to use IS while “panning” — purposely dragging the shutter while following the subject across the scene to create motion blur.

Thoughts on IS

While IS corrects for movement introduced by the photographer, it cannot counteract blur from a moving subject. The only way to freeze a moving subject is to use a fast shutter speed.

Image Stabilization / Vibration Reduction is a popular feature because while it adds a little extra cost to the equipment, it also enables many photographers to leave the tripod at home. With IS you can obtain sharp photos at shutter speeds that were not previously possible without anchoring the camera to a tripod or stationary object.

At the moment, IS is not usually found in lenses with very wide max apertures. For example, many Canon’s lineup of f/4 aperture zoom lenses have IS. A lot of f/3.5-5.6 kit lenses have IS. The technology is not, however, found in many f/2.8 zooms or fast prime lenses. You probably won’t find too many people complaining about this though*, since many photographers (legitimately) feel that IS is not a substitute for wide maximum apertures.

* Except those involved in the enteral rumor around Canon’s mythical EF 24-105 f/2.8 L IS, or perhaps the often rumored EF 24-70 f/2.8 IS.

Here is an example of a photo where the surface of the water is choppy. The photo was shot hand-held at 1/30 sec. The relatively fast shutter speed did a good job of freezing the motion of the water.

Canon EOS 5D w/ 24mm f/1.4 L @ f/1.4, 1/30 sec., ISO 1600

And now here is another shot of the NYC skyline with a smooth water texture:

Canon EOS 5D w/ 24mm f/1.4 L @ f/13, 30 sec., ISO 250

As you can see from my settings, the exposure time for this image was much longer than the first one. I set my camera on a tripod, selected a 30 second shutter speed and fired the shot. During the time that the camera was exposing, a great deal of water flowed past, creating a very smooth texture on its surface. You can try this yourself by simply setting up your camera on a tripod and using a long exposure.

Sometimes Choppy is Good

I do prefer this look for water surfaces, but that is not to say the opposite effect is always bad. Just for variety, here is a shot in which I think the fast shutter speed, choppy water version works better:

    

July 4^th is approaching quickly, and many Americans will be heading out with their cameras to capture the colors that will light up the night sky. If you have never shot this event before, you should get up to speed before going out so that you are not fumbling around with settings while everyone else is enjoying the show. Totally Sweet Photos has you covered though — this article will run through techniques for photographing fireworks.

Gear for Photographing Fireworks

There are two important items I suggest you have in order to photograph fireworks (besides a camera of course):

• A tripod
• A cable release

A tripod is useful because you will using long exposures to get the light trails of the fireworks. It will be important to keep the camera as steady as possible, which is where the tripod comes into play. If you do not have a tripod and cannot afford a good one, I do not however suggest you go buy a cheap tripod for this one-time use. A cheap tripod is likely to collapse under the weight of your camera and potentially break your equipment.

A cable release helps you trigger the shutter without touching the camera. This eliminates blur in the long exposure. You can get away with using the timer, but that introduces a lot of extra work in anticipating when to set off the camera. I think using a cable release just makes these types of shots much easier.

Pick Your Vantage Point Early

Where you choose to stand plays a huge part in any photography. Choose carefully where you plan to photograph from and make sure you get there early enough to beat any crowds that may show up.

One of my favorite ways to research photography ahead of time is with Flickr. I will input keywords related to my location and check out what other people have produced there before. I will also explore the Flickr World Map to find geotagged photos at the location.

Focal Lengths for Photographing Fireworks

This is really up to you, your style, and what types of images you are looking to get. A wide angle or normal lens will allow you to get much more of the surrounding environment in the shot — useful if the fireworks will be against and interesting backdrop such as a city skyline.

Telephoto lenses can get you some really interesting, different shots. Getting in for a tight framing can allow you to get just a single burst, or perhaps a small part of a display that would work as an abstract. The hard part about using telephoto lenses to photograph fireworks is that you need to anticipate where the fireworks will burst, and a telephoto lens leaves much less room for error in this department.

Framing Up Your Shots

Your fireworks photography strategy starts with predicting where the shot will be. With your camera mounted on the tripod, compose your shot ahead of time and then wait for the fireworks to enter the frame. This requires pre-visualization (and some guesswork), which is a good thing. Your skills as a photographer will grow when you are able to anticipate and see your photos before triggering the shutter.

Flash?

Turn it off. It’s not needed.

Focusing on Fireworks

Just like we are anticipating where the fireworks will appear in the frame, I suggest you focus ahead of time in order to prevent your lens from hunting around and missing the shot. Switch to manual focus mode and turn the focus ring to infinity. Take a few test shots to make sure the scene is in focus — use the zoom in/out controls to check the smaller details for sharpness on your camera’s LCD.

Trigger Your Long Exposure

My preferred mode for photographing fireworks is Bulb mode. In bulb mode, the camera will expose for as long as the shutter button is head down. With the cable release in-hand, I will hold down the button when the fireworks enter the photo and let it go a second or two after they have burst. This enables me to expose just long enough to get the light trails, and use slightly different exposure times for each shot without having to fiddle with shutter speeds.

Bulb mode requires you to manually set the aperture and ISO. Choosing a relatively smaller aperture will make sure most of the scene is in focus, and give some leeway if your focus is a little off. Go with the lowest ISO setting you can manage in order to keep noise and grain to a minimum.

If you have never practiced this method before, it may take a few frames before you get used to bulb mode. If you get so many fireworks trails that your photo is just a mess of bright light then you are exposing for too long. Try waiting until the fireworks get a little farther into the frame before triggering the exposure, and/or let go sooner after the burst.

Change things up

With your camera mounted on the tripod, you might be tempted to leave it be and click away. Try changing up your framing every once in a while to get some variety in your shots. This will increase your rate of “keepers”.

Also make sure you review your photos in order to make sure your settings are producing the results you want, and if not, adjust accordingly. If your photos come out too dark with this Bulb method, either open up your aperture or choose a higher ISO setting. And if they’re overexposed, choose a narrower aperture and/or lower ISO setting.

So now that we can usually bring a compact digital camera into most concerts without a hassle, how do you take better concert photos? This piece is inspired by a couple of music fans I met last night at a concert in Central Park who were struggling to get a good photo of the band — we had been chatting all night, so I offered them a few pointers and they were able to drastically improve the quality of their concert photos. This article contains the advice I offered.

Before I get into the details, here are the results possible using these tips. First, here is a photo of my vantage point at the concert:

Here are two photos of the band that I took from the exact same spot:

There was no expensive camera, and no fancy lenses and no Photoshop involved here. Just a small point & shoot Canon Powershot SD880 IS and the techniques I describe below. Here is how I took these photos, and what I taught my fellow fans:

Turn off the flash

Light from a camera flash falls off over distance. The inverse square law explains how this works with a bit of math, but basically what you need to know is that the light from the tiny little flash on your camera is not going to make it as far as the stage to light up the performers. It is useless. The only thing your camera’s flash will do is light up the head of the person in front of you. Turn it off.

Use exposure compensation

Here is a mantra I learned from renowned wedding photographer Cliff Mautner: what matters is the quality of light, not the quantity. Yes you are in a big, dark stadium or amphitheater, or perhaps outdoors at night. The house lights are dim and you can’t see the people around you very well. But who cares? You aren’t photographing them. You are photographing the band, who is on a stage lit up by expensive lighting gear controlled by skilled lighting professionals. There isn’t much light around, but what light is present is probably of a very high quality.

The fact that you are in a big dark open space is going to throw off your camera, confuse it, and trick it into trying to make the scene really, really bright. You do not want this to happen because the camera will end up keeping the shutter open for a long time in order to gather as much light as possible, which will cause your photos to turn out blurry. To counteract this you must adjust the exposure compensation — instruct the camera to make the scene darker.

Various cameras control this setting differently. Some call it “EV”, some call it “Brightness”, others by its full name “Exposure Compensation”. The common factor is usually a number line that goes from -2 to +2. By default your camera will be set in the middle of the number line at 0. Turn this setting down, perhaps to -1, take a few shots and see how they look. If you are still getting blur, go down even further towards -2. The features of the arena that are in darkness will come out black, but the band on stage probably be lit up well — try to zoom in and fill the frame with the band.

Use high ISO

Low light photography, such as concerts, is often high ISO territory. By turning up the ISO setting, you make your camera more sensitive to light. Since more light can be gathered at once, the shutter speed can be faster and therefore blur is minimized.

ISO is measured in numbers, with lower numbers corresponding to less sensitivity, and higher numbers corresponding to higher sensitivity. Turn the ISO up to a high setting to gather as much light as possible… perhaps in the range of 400, 800, or even 1600+. Some cameras will let you manually select these numbers, while others might have just a simple “High ISO” or “High Sensitivity” setting. If you cannot find either of those, look for a scene preset with a name along the lines of “low light without flash”.

There is a trade-off with high ISO: grain. Photos taken at high ISO settings appear grainy and their lose sharpness. In general this is not a desirable effect. Some cameras do a better job than others of controlling grain at high ISO. You should experiment with your camera in these shooting modes to determine the highest sensitivity level at which you are still comfortable with the image quality so you know which settings to choose at a concert.

As new cameras are invented, their high ISO image quality gets better, but nothing is perfect (yet?). I always say though, I would rather have a grainy photo than no photo at all.

Control your posture

In low light concert photography, your body movement has a direct negative impact on your picture quality. As your body sways and hands tremble with the camera is exposing the shot, blur is introduced to the photo. To counteract this effect you must adopt a good photography posture and control your body movement:

• Hold the camera with both hands.
• Steady it against the palm of your hand or a stationary object such as a wall.
• Don’t hold the camera far out in front of you — bring it in close.
• Tuck in your elbows close to your chest and keep your arms steady.
• Take a deep breath in, breathe out, hold your breath and squeeze the shutter.

Notice I said squeeze the shutter. Tapping the shutter button nonchalantly moves the camera. A camera that moves takes a blurry photo. Hold the camera tight in both hands and gently squeeze the shutter button to keep the camera steady.

Take lots of frames

Thankfully digital cameras are not limited to just a few frames on a roll of film. Take advantage of the fact that you can fire away for free as long as your memory card has space. Don’t intend on keeping every single frame. Rather, take many frames of the same photo to increase the probability that at least one will come out sharp. When you get home you can sort through a mountain of images and keep the best ones.

If you are experimenting with taking ambient lit photos — photos without a flash — indoors, you may notice that the colors often come out very yellow. This has to do with color temperature and white balance, and is very easy to fix both in-camera and in post processing.

Why They Look Yellow

All light has a color temperature that affects how it appears in photos and on video. Outdoor sunlight is very “cool” and close in color to what is output by you camera flash, while indoor lighting is often very “warm”. Our eyes are very good at adjusting to these differences in color temperature, but cameras are not so advanced and will pick up on these warm and cool color temperatures. The result is that you see a yellow color cast on indoor ambient light photos when the white balance has not been set accurately.

Fix Yellow Photos In-Camera

In order to fix this yellow color cast in-camera, you must adjust your white balance setting. You are probably set to auto white balance, which, depending on your camera model, can do a poor job of adjusting for warm color temperatures. How this is done varies from camera to camera, but there are thee basic ways of adjusting white balance:

1. Choose the Tungsten white balance preset.
2. Manually set the color temperature to 3000K. If it still looks off, experiment by going lower to perhaps 2800K, or higher to around 3200K.
3. Some cameras have a feature that allows you to manually set the WB by photographing something gray and choosing which area of the frame is neutral.

Some live view-equipped DSLRs have a handy function that allows you to dial the color temperature up and down while instantly previewing the results on the LCD.

Point & shoot cameras that do not allow you to directly change the white balance usually still have a shooting mode optimized for these kind of light conditions. It is often named something like “Indoor photos without flash”.

Fix Yellow Photos in Post Processing

Setting white balance in camera is great if you are shooting JPEGs, but many RAW shooters prefer to leave the camera on auto WB and correct the colors later in post production. The easiest way to do this is to use your software’s white balance presets: Lightroom, Adobe Camera RAW, Aperture and most other software have presets you can choose from, which will include a “Tungsten” white balance setting. I have also found that most software’s “Auto” white balance algorithm does a better job that the in-camera auto white balance.

Many post processing programs also have an eye dropper for correcting colors. Choose the white balance eye dropper, click on a neutral gray area of the photo and the software will be able to correctly read the scene’s color temperature and adjust the white balance accurately.

In the following version of this article’s test photo, I used Adobe Lightroom and manually chose a temperature of 2400K and tint of +25. I arrived at these settings by dragging the WB sliders until I thought the image looked correct.

The Photoshop Levels Tool can correct your white balance. Press CMD/CTRL-L and look for the three eye droppers. Choose the black on and click on an area that should be pure black, choose the white one and click on an area that should be pure white, or choose the gray one and click on an area that should be neutral gray (do one of these, not all three).

In the following version, I chose the white levels eye dropper and click the area of the wall in the center of the photo behind the cat’s head.

You can also hit the Levels’ “Auto” button, or choose “Auto Levels” from the “Image” menu and let Photoshop automatically adjust your colors.

Photoshop’s Photo Filters can also be used to adjust color temperature. Click Image → Adjustments → Photo Filter… and choose an appropriate filter. For the following test image, I applied Cooling Filter (82) at 35%.

Effect of ISO on exposure

ISO has a direct effect on exposure. Think of the camera sensor as “absorbing” more or less light at one time as the ISO is set higher or lower. A low ISO setting means less light is picked up, so you will need to use a longer exposure time and/or a larger aperture to get more light in order to capture the image. Conversely, if you choose a higher ISO setting, you need less exposure time and/or a narrower aperture.

Units of Measure

Without getting too technical, a digital camera’s ISO setting is expressed as a simple number. The higher the number, the more sensitive the setting, the faster the film speed. By doubling the ISO rating you double the sensitivity, and by halving the ISO rating you cut the sensitivity down by half.

For example, ISO 200 is twice as sensitive to light as ISO 100. By changing from ISO 100 to 200, you become able to use a shutter speed that is twice as fast as what was needed at ISO 100 to get the same exposure.

Let’s say you’re outside and the scene requires the camera to expose at ISO 100, f/16 and 1/100 sec. You see a moving subject and want a little faster shutter speed. If you just increase your shutter speed and nothing else, the image would be too dark. But if you double the ISO to 200 you can now shoot at ISO 200, f/16 and 1/200 sec. Because your ISO setting of 200 is now twice as sensitive, your exposure time can be twice as fast.

Digital camera noise

There is a trade-off of image quality when shooting at high ISO settings. On film, photographers saw grain appear. In digital photography, we see noise. The general consensus is that noise reduces image quality and is not desirable, therefore photographers in general tend to choose the lowest ISO possible while still getting a good exposure.

The ISO race

The current trend in digital camera design is to produce sensors capable of imaging at high ISO sensitivity. With a camera that is able to sense a great deal of light at once, photographers can use faster shutter speeds which makes it possible to shoot sharp hand-held photos without a tripod, and even photos of moving subjects, in low-light environments.

As of Spring 2010 we are seeing cameras like the Nikon D3s and Canon EOS 1D Mark IV, both of which are capable of shooting at speeds up to ISO 102,400. These kinds of cameras get increasingly acceptable image quality at incredibly high ISO settings, opening the doors to shooting environments in which it was previously incredibly difficult to get good images.

The photographer controls the aperture by adjusting the f number. In modern digital cameras this is done by turning a dial or pressing a button, while older lenses require the photographer to manually adjust an aperture ring on the lens barrel. Here are the key points to remember with regard to choosing an aperture setting:

Smaller f numbers correspond to a wider opening; larger f numbers correspond to a narrower opening. Therefore, smaller f numbers let in more light; larger f numbers let in less light.

Beginning photographers often find this confusing, so spend some time committing the idea of the last paragraph to memory — lower number, larger opening, more light. Higher number, smaller opening, less light. f/1.8 lets in more light than f/32.

If you put your camera into full manual mode, chose a shutter speed and ISO setting, then took a series of photos using a lower f number each time, each successive frame would be brighter than the last. This is because as you chose lower f numbers, you increased the size of the aperture opening and permitted more light to hit the sensor. Conversely, if you chose a higher f number each time then each successive frame would be darker than the last.

Fast Lenses

Lenses with wide maximum apertures are considered fast lenses because the aperture can be opened up to a very large diameter in order to let in a great deal of light, thereby enabling the use of a faster shutter speed. Think about taking a photo in a dark bar. If your lens is only capable of f/3.5 then you will need to keep the shutter open for a long time in order to take a photo. But if you switch to an f/1.2 lens you can choose a wider aperture to let in more light at once, which in turn gives you the option to use a faster shutter speed.

Fast lenses are helpful for hand-holding your camera in dark environments (as opposed to using a tripod). The fast shutter speed minimizes the blur that would otherwise result at a slower shutter speed from your shaking hands.

Depth of Field

Aperture has a direct effect on depth of field:

• Wider apertures (low f numbers) result in shallower depth of field.
• Narrow apertures (high f numbers) result in deeper depth of field.

You can create a blurry background behind a single subject by choosing a wide aperture such as f/1.8, or get everything sharp and in-focus for a landscape photo by choosing a narrow aperture such as f/22. See “How to Get the Most Background Blur Possible in Your Photos” to learn more about getting creative with depth of field.