Photography Zoom Effect: Racking the Lens Technique

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Photography Zoom Effect: Racking the Lens Technique Posted: 27 Aug 2014 09:28 PM PDT A zoom effect, in photography terms, is an effect in an image that looks like the subject is moving either toward you or away from you with lines of motion. It’s also known as racking the lens. The information in this article pertains to creating this look in-camera and not the post production technique (in Photoshop terms, it’s called “radial blur”). “Truro Cathedral Zoom Burst” captured by Simon Marsden (Click Image to See More From Simon Marsden) 3 Basic Steps to Achieve the Zoom Effect Set your shutter speed to a longer exposure. Compose and focus. While taking the shot, between when the shutter opens and actually closes, zoom in or zoom out. As usual, you need a lot of practice in order to capture a nice zoom effect, and that’s what fun about photography. Tips for Better Results Shutter Speed. Choose a shutter speed long enough to zoom your lens from one end to another. There is no one standard setting on your shutter speed in order to achieve the effect, but there are a few factors to consider: Level of available light Type of lens you are using Amount of movement from your camera or the subject Again, always experiment with different shutter speeds. Different settings may result in different levels of effect. “Zoom Burst of Colemen Bridge” captured by Joey (Click Image to See More From Joey) Aperture. While your aperture setting is not the most critical to obtain a nice zoom effect, when using a slower shutter speed you might have a problem with overexposure (depending on the overall lighting) as it lets more light into your camera. You can cope with the potential overexposed shot by selecting a smaller aperture (larger f number). Zooming. To get nice smooth motion lines in your image, you need to zoom smoothly and constantly. Do not speed up at one point and later slow down at another point while zooming. It does matter if you zoom in or zoom out to get the effect, as zooming in on a subject will give you a different result than zooming out. Try both ways, and you will see the different effects. Lights. Lights can produce really spectacular effects. On one occasion I captured a photo during a stage performance where the stage was well lit with colorful lighting, while the foreground was dark. In this situation, I fired my flash gun just enough to freeze the subjects in the foreground. During the long exposure, I managed to freeze part of the image—in this case the video crew and the audience—while getting movement behind and around them. Photo captured by Bob O’Lary (Click Image to See More From Bob O’Lary) Hope this is a useful tip. Keep a look out for more photography tips and tutorials. Remember to practice and keep practicing. About the Author: This article was written by Affendy Ahmad from affendy dot com, photographer for all occasions.

The Most Effective Way to Reduce Noise in Your Photos Using Photoshop (Video Tutorial) Posted: 27 Aug 2014 04:47 PM PDT Advancing technology has improved image quality, and while digital noise isn’t as much of a problem as it once was, it is still an issue that needs attention in some photographs. Watch as Bryan O’Neil Hughes walks us through the process he uses to reduce noise using Photoshop: (for those of you reading this by email, the video tutorial can be seen here) Hughes starts his noise reduction workflow in the Camera RAW plug-in. In Photoshop CC click Filter > CameraRAW. This will open the module where you can navigate to the adjustment sliders and make any corrections needed to exposure. O’Neil points out that, when working with luminance and sharpening, it’s best to zoom in to about 200 percent so you can be sure to get a close up look at how the image is being affected. There are several ways to reduce noise in Photoshop. Once you’ve settled on the basic image adjustments, you can open the Details Panel in Camera RAW. This will present you with options to adjust Sharpening and Luminance. Use the Color Noise slider to clean up the shadows and the Luminance Detail slider to fuzz out any leftover noise. Just be careful or your image will start to look like a painting. You can also hide some of the noise by pulling down the Blacks slider in the Basic panel. Hughes warns that the intuitive option of using Filter > Noise > Reduce Noise to reduce digital noise is no longer the best option. Use his other suggested techniques for best results.

Interesting Photo of the Day: Giant Whale Plays Hide and Seek with a Boat Posted: 27 Aug 2014 01:04 PM PDT What’s it like to play hide and seek with a 60-ton whale? Photographer Justin Hofman and his expedition crew found out in 2013 while diving just off of Argentina’s Patagonian coast: “Hide and Seek” (Via Imgur. Click image to see full size.) The whale pictured here is a Southern right whale, an endangered species native to the Southern Hemisphere. Once numbering in the mere hundreds, the Southern right whale population has rebounded to more than 10,000 in recent years thanks to the hard work of conservationists. Hofman and his expedition crew chanced upon multiple whales as the gentle giants completed their annual winter migration to raise their young in Argentina’s warm coastal waters. “I’ve gotten a lot of emails and comments about the over/under shot being fake,” Hofman told National Geographic. “This is not a composition of two photos and was only possible with the help of a skillful boat handler who placed the boat in the perfect position.” Hofman captured this image using a DSLR and an underwater video camera. He must also have employed some of his mad ninja swimming and/or animal whispering skills, since many of the images in this series were captured from within six feet of these shy creatures!

How to Use a Diffuser for Soft Portrait Lighting (Video) Posted: 27 Aug 2014 11:43 AM PDT When shooting outdoors, the sun often creates overly bright highlights and harsh shadows on the skin. A good portrait photographer knows just what to pull out of his camera bag to help him combat this commonly overlooked aspect of outdoor photo shoots. Join Joe McNally as he shares his setup and lighting theory with us in this ten minute video tutorial: (for those of you reading this by email, the video tutorial can be seen here) On this shoot, McNally photographed a football player from the UK and wanted to create a soft light. To do this, he set up a 3-foot by 3-foot Skylite Diffuser. Behind the diffuser he placed 3 Nikon SB-910 Speedlights on a tri-flash, all which are powered by battery packs. He chose the Skylite because it’s versatile; as he explained, it produces light that is more similar to a much larger diffuser. Shooting through a large diffuser softens the light. By removing the dome diffusers from the speedlights, he created a more punchy and contrasty light through the Skylight. In the image below, you can see how the light is somewhat directional, yet still maintains a soft look. Portrait Shot Using a 3 x 3 Diffuser Placing the diffuser between the sun and the subject eliminates sun dappling on the subject and softens the sun’s rays, giving the portrait a nice golden tone.

Exploring the Wonders of the World Through Timelapse, Microscopes, and High Speed Photography Posted: 27 Aug 2014 10:48 AM PDT Technology is expanding at extraordinary rates, and with these advances our cameras become more and more capable of capturing images at dizzying speeds. Some high speed cameras are capable of capturing 1,000 frames per second at an astounding 4K resolution. In the following TED Talk, Louie Schwartzberg shows us some hidden miracles in our world that can only be witnessed using these types of digital advancements: (for those of you reading this by email, the video can be seen here) High speed photography and timelapse video allow us to learn more about the natural world around us by allowing us to slow down time to a rate that is visible to the human eye. For example, high speed photography has taught us that dragonflies can actually move all four of their wings in different directions at the same time. Photographic Technology Lets Us Photograph Plant Growth This technology also allows us to observe the growth of plants, a process which happens so slowly it can’t be seen with the naked eye. Microscopic Photo of a Shark’s Skin In short, advancements in photographic technology let us see the unseen. “Who knows what waits to be seen and what new wonders will transform our lives. We’ll just have to see.”