This week it was brought home to me again about how important it is to always carry your camera.
I was on my way home from work. Part of my commute involves a ferry ride across Howe Sound to get to Bowen Island. As I stepped out of the terminal onto the gangplank, I looked up and saw the most amazing sunset happening. The light was changing fast and in a jiffy I had my camera out and put my wide angle lens on. I had enough time to get a few dozen hand held images in the fading light. I hoped one of them would be sharp enough to be of use.
The key thing was firstly that I had my camera, that the settings in the camera were all correct and there was space on the memory card in the body. I shoot in manual, usually at the lowest ISO so that I can use images for stock if it does not become a fine art image and if it is suitable for stock. That means that I often shoot on a tripod with the Pentax IR remote. However, I have gotten into the habit of adjusting the settings on the camera back to continuous shooting with the shake reduction on before I put the camera back into my bag. That way I am ready for hand held shooting if a sudden opportunity arises.
This is a handy little tip to keep in mind when you shoot hand held slow shutter speeds. Set the camera on continuous shooting and fire of bursts of 4 to 6 images on a row. You will often find that the images in the middle of the burst is far sharper than a single image, because one's body can move slightly at the beginning or end of the the shot and impact on the first or last image.
7 Feb 2009
Being prepared
This week it was brought home to me again about how important it is to always carry your camera.
I was on my way home from work. Part of my commute involves a ferry ride across Howe Sound to get to Bowen Island. As I stepped out of the terminal onto the gangplank, I looked up and saw the most amazing sunset happening. The light was changing fast and in a jiffy I had my camera out and put my wide angle lens on. I had enough time to get a few dozen hand held images in the fading light. I hoped one of them would be sharp enough to be of use.
The key thing was firstly that I had my camera, that the settings in the camera were all correct and there was space on the memory card in the body. I shoot in manual, usually at the lowest ISO so that I can use images for stock if it does not become a fine art image and if it is suitable for stock. That means that I often shoot on a tripod with the Pentax IR remote. However, I have gotten into the habit of adjusting the settings on the camera back to continuous shooting with the shake reduction on before I put the camera back into my bag. That way I am ready for hand held shooting if a sudden opportunity arises.
This is a handy little tip to keep in mind when you shoot hand held slow shutter speeds. Set the camera on continuous shooting and fire of bursts of 4 to 6 images on a row. You will often find that the images in the middle of the burst is far sharper than a single image, because one's body can move slightly at the beginning or end of the the shot and impact on the first or last image.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment