Night Catalog

Last November I helped a friend make a catalog for a line of LED products for pubs and clubs.


I took this as an opportunity to learn more about product photography, although this project was very different than most product catalogs.


Since the whole point was to show the self-lit products, I wanted to make everything in a nocturnal environment. This made some things very easy (the backgrounds were easy to black out) but it also presented some problems. The main difficulty was that the LED lights are much weaker than my flash, and I had to go to very small apertures and very long exposures to get them at the same power.


So I had to resort to other lighting sources. Making sure the colors match and that the background stayed as dark as possible were also concerns that kept this shoot interesting.

The second part of the shoot was a month later at a pub, showing off the products at their intended surroundings.

Exposure part II: Know Your Limits

Today I will talk a little about unsharp pictures. Most people are happy with their camera and seem to get sharp, colorful images every time, even with a cheap point-and-shoot or a cell phone camera. At least, until they try to take a picture at a low light situation. This is usually when the blurriness starts.

Of course, buying a better (more expensive) camera might help. It might not (sometimes it's too dark). Maybe, just maybe, you just didn't make the right choice of aperture, shutter speed and ISO.

I don't intend to specify what the "correct exposure" for every situation is. For that we have a built in light meter, and a little screen on the back of the camera.


I do want to show some examples of what kinds of blurriness or noise we get from badly chosen exposure settings. Once you know what they look like, you might be able to get sharper images in the same situation, or at least know when too dark is just too dark.

Exposure part I: Proper Exposure

Today I will try to answer the following questions:

What is 'exposure'?

How to determine what a proper exposure is?

What does my camera's light meter do and why should I care about it?

What is the difference between SLR and pocket cameras when it comes to determining exposure?

and why do I need P,S,A and M modes, really?

For expert photographers these questions are trivial, but for people trying to get into the field these concepts always seem to be scary. I aim this post at people who want to know more, and I will try to explain the how-to's for SLR owners that are just starting up, and to pocket camera enthusiasts who want to get more out of pictures.

Freddie the Mantis

This week I have just a few pictures, which I have already uploaded (these were taken in September last year). I had shot these when I was travelling with National Geographic in the Amazon Rainforest of Brazil.

No, actually it was in my living room (on the basil plant, where it had really good camouflage). We named it Freddie (after the Elm street murderer) and I really wanted to keep it... only it turned out that mantises (mantii?) tend to get aggressive when you poke a lens and flash at them...

I did always want to take pictures of bugs with all the right equipment: macro lens, flash and tripod. I just never happen to have these things around when I see some interesting critters. Since Freddie was kind enough to come to my own living room, I made a few good shots before he started climbing the camera and jumping me (he was about half an inch tall, but really aggressive! ).

DUMBFSA

Today I want to talk to all the people who have digital cameras but never bothered to read the manual. Or tried to read it but it was too complicated. For all my friends who 'just put it on automatic'.

I know the internet is full of guides to help out beginners who want to get more out of their pictures, but I always think it must be too long/boring/complicated for most people - fact is, most people I know (that aren't serious photographers) never did read any of that stuff, and quite a few times ask me basic questions about photography, most of the time about how to work their camera. This includes SLR owners (not just point-and-shoot moms).

So here is the most basic things you should know to get the best shots off your camera.

D.U.M.B.F.S.A - Didn't Understand the Manual, But Felt Silly to Ask.

Zeelim en Film

Today I have another short one for you.

Don't worry, next week's post will be really long...

I recently came back from 'miluim' in the desert. Knowing how dusty it can get I didn't take along my DSLR. Last time I had gone I took my old Sony H7 and got pretty decent pictures.

This time I wanted to challenge myself so I brought my film camera, with three rolls of film (thats 108 pics more or less).

This proved to be a good limitation, prevented me from taking loads of copies of the exact same thing and got me really thinking about each photo I took. The fact that each shot costs a few cents (in film and developing) also makes you stop and consider your frame and settings.

A sample of the best out of ~80 shots I took that week: