Shooting Reflections with Digi Pixels

By Digi Pixels

Greetings Fellow Photographers!

Sometimes reflections can cause distractions or reflecting light into the scene where we may not want it. But this tip is about making use of the reflective surfaces we encounter in life to make more interesting and powerful photographs.

It takes a little practice to find interesting reflections and how they may be used effectively. Possibly the most common reflection photo is that of the mountain scene reflected in a lake. It is beautiful, strait forward and easy enough shot to take. Just setup a camera with a wide-angle lens on a tripod, then set the camera to a long exposure to get that wonderful calendar shot! But lets look beyond the most obvious shots and look at how reflective surfaces can play a very important part of your photography.

What is HDR?

What is HDR?

by Joe Myeress

I’ve had many people ask me, “What is HDR?” So I thought I would show an example of one of my finished images. I used 3 exposures, a normal exposure, an exposure underexposed by 2 stops, and an exposure overexposed by 2 stops. Then by using software, I like Photomatix or Nik HDR Efex Pro 2, the images are merged into one.

PHOTOGRAPHING HOT AIR BALLOONS

Photographing Hot Air Balloons by Joe Myeress

If you are looking for something different and very colorful to photograph, start making plans to attend the annual Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta in New Mexico.  The “most photographed annual festival in the world” according to Kodak, begins Oct. 6 and runs until Oct 14.

CREATING BACKGROUND BLUR

This was taken with a 18-200 Nikon VR lens, the tent in the background is for an outdoor wedding reception.

By Sheila Pack


One of the things I get asked about fairly often, is how to make the background blurry in an image. This is accomplished by using a wide open aperture (aka fstop) on the camera, sometimes by using specialty lenses, and focusing fairly close to the subject desired to be sharp in the image. The open aperture creates a shallow depth of focus, or depth of field, and allows the background to go soft. There are lenses available which have a maximum aperture of 2.8 (for zooms) or 1.8, 1.4, and even 1.2 prime (non-zoom) lenses. The lower the number, the shallower the depth of field when used wide open, creating that gorgeous, creamy bokeh, and, the higher the price tag. However, as you can see from the examples below, the look can be created (usually to a lesser degree of softness) even with an all-around lens like the 18-200 VR. The key is using the lens wide open.