Post By Wayne Robertson Sydney Wedding Photography

The Lightening Strike Photo of all time

Hello All,

    Well as most of you would know there was a storm across Sydney last night and I happened to get some pictures for you.

You need to read the story behind the pictures to realise the stupidity of some photographers and their quest for the greatest images.

It started in the west. I could see great cloud formations and lightening strikes everywhere. In my office it was like a fluro light was flickering outside. I couldn't hear the storm but knew it was in the distance. So I thought I'd wonder up to the roof to catch a picture or two. I have a few excellent lightening shots but never knew what was going to come about this night

The camera was getting pretty wet so I had to be quick. I had no tripod either. Just an old table to rest on...

As I took a few more pictures the wind came up really strong. then a few strikes to the south of Parramatta.

I knew it was on its way and I could see that our unit complex was almost right in line of the storm.....

I Rang my neighbour and asked if he would like to catch some pictures with me but it was a bit late and he was ready for bed. It had been a hot day and the cool breeze was not too bad to be in so I grabbed a memory card and spare battery and headed for my own balcony "with an umbrella". 

I started catching so many strikes that I became a little bored with how easy it actually was.

This shot below has a minimum of 7 strikes in total.....

SO !!  I decided to capture my own image with a lightening strike in the same shot. NOW how many of you have your picture with lightening....?

The camera was taking 20 - 30 second exposures and easily getting me and the lightening all at once and with multiple strikes....

The freaky part is that I am standing in the rain... On the rooftop... In a thunder storm.... with bare feet... In half an inch of water...holding a wire framed umbrella over my head!!!

My hair was lifting up into the area between the umbrella and my head... Just like one of those static machines or something....everytime a flash in the sky would light up.... This photo was the hardest 20 seconds I think I'll ever do again.....especially when you see what is about to happen.....

The decision was made to put down the umbrella...

I was having a chuckle to myself when I thought of this shot above.... I would take an image that appears to have me creating the thunder and lightening,  just like some 'lord of the rings'  wizard or something.....

Now I was getting scared !!! because the hairs on my arms where lifting straight up when the sky flashed above....

So I decided to come under cover and finish up my lightening photography for the night....

BUT..... I had to get just one more shot of the tremendous storm that had entertained me for over an hour so I set up the camera for one last shot.....

Timed it for a thirty second capture

Pointed it at where I had been standing only a moment ago..........

And pressed the button.........

1second.....

2seconds.....

3seconds.......

Then it happened !

 

Lightening only 20 feet away and right near where I had been standing.......

Lightning Specifics

·  Most lightning strikes occur either at the beginning or end of a storm.

·  The average lightning strike is six miles long.

·  Lightning reaches 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit, fours times as hot as the sun's surface.

·  A cloud-to-ground lightning channel can be 2 to 10 miles long.

·  Voltage in a cloud-to-ground strike is 100 million to 1 billion volts.

Just 20 feet away......

I hope to bring you more pictures in the future......

Regards

Wayne

Look For Light

Digital Photography Tips.

 Different lighting can change the mood and feel of a shot, or be the difference between a mediocre and stunning shot.

The light from the setting sun can produce wonderful lighting for a subject, as does sunlight through leaves. Maybe you see a shaft of light between two large objects such as buildings that can be a perfect backdrop for your subject.
Other options for different light sources at night include :

Neon lights make great night time subjects. You can silhouette your subjects in front of them, or use them as a subject themselves.

Use a long exposure on a tripod to capture streaks of car lights on a road or highway, or other moving lights like on a

ferry.                   

The attached shot was from the Star Room above IMAX Theatre. It was shot through glass and beleive it or not 'hand held ' for 0.3 seconds. Can you work out how i did this so steadily? Not too difficult when you think about it.

Next time : How to avoid red-eye in your photos.

Post By Wayne Robertson Sydney Wedding Photography

Give yourself a theme

Give Yourself A ThemeDigital Photography tips

Sometimes you need to think creatively to find better shots. Most people set out on a days adventure and have nothing in mind than take some photos.... This can be very frustrating if you have no subject in mind. You are very ambitious to take some shots but may find it difficult to locate the right things to photograph.
Set yourself a theme to give your brain a head start.

For example, on a vacation choose a different color every day and ensure all
your shots for that day have that color in that image. Or shoot only shots
with triangles in them.

Other examples of themes are:


a.. Fences

b.. Bright Colors

c.. Time

d.. Stones

e.. Rust

f.. Repeating Patterns

g.. sun beams

h..  Interesting shadows
Make sure your theme is simple otherwise you'll be more pre-occupied with
getting a shot in line with your theme than the image itself.

Next time : The most important aspect to create emotion/feel in your photos

Post By Wayne Robertson Sydney Wedding Photography

Use Continuous Shooting

Digital Photography Secret

Most digital cameras have a continuous shooting mode, where shots are taken one after the other in rapid succession.

When taking shots, there is often a short delay between when you press your finger on the button, and when the picture is actually taken. This delay may mean your subject has finished their action (eg blowing out candles on a cake) and you have missed the magic moment.
With Continuous Shooting you can take a sequence of shots and keep just the right one. Continuous Shooting also increases you chances of capturing a candid moment.
Where else can this be useful? Any shots of children or group shots will benefit from continuous mode.
The following 3 shots where on continues mode. Notice the middle capture is the one we'll keep. But the first snap at it was too early and the boy was still in the tube. It only takes a few moments to read your camera manuals to pick up a great setting on your camera that will change the way you photograph subjects.
 

Next time : This secret will help keep your photographs fresh and interesting to you as well as your audience.
Post By Wayne Robertson Sydney Wedding Photography

Photoshop editing, Real estate photography

Just another photoshop tweak needed in the field of real estate photography.
Turn up your sspeaker!

Post By Wayne Robertson Sydney Wedding Photography

Night Photography

The following are some basic how-to tips for how to take a still photography at night (this is mainly for a cityscape or a landscape). The following photo was taken from a Wedding in Sydney.

1. Time of day. The time of day to take a night photograph is twilight, after sunset when the sky is still a dark blue color but not black. The photograph will have a definite appearance of nighttime but buildings and trees will show up nicely against the sky instead of fading into inky blackness. This is the time when professional night time photography is taken. You might notice if you look at some postcards sometime.
2. Sky: A clear or mostly clear sky is best if you can possibly get it.
2. Light: As in all photography, you will need a source of light. Your on-camera flash won’t help you here, it only lights up an area a few feet or meters ahead of you – not an entire landscape.
City lights are good. Outside of the city, a full moon is best but a crescent moon might also do, to shed enough light on your scene so that the camera can pick it up.
3. Tripod: You will definitely need to mount your camera on a tripod. Your lens aperture will have to be open for a long enough time to allow sufficient light into the camera and if you hold the camera by hand for that long, your camera shake will create a messy blur.
4. Low ISO (ASA) On most digital cameras, setting a high ISO (which is the indicator of how sensitive the camera is to light) will create a lot of digital noise. (Noise is the annoying ugly dots all over your photo that is so hard to get rid of). Digital noise especially shows up in dark areas of photographs, such as the night sky.
I suggest using an ISO of 100 or 200. If 100 lets in enough light, go for it. Otherwise try with 200. I usually use 200.
5. F-Stop F-Stop is an indicator of how big your camera aperture is. The lower the F-Stop number, the wider the aperture. A wide aperture lets in more light but it also decreases your focal length.
Focal length is the range the photograph that will be in acceptable focus. An example of a narrow focal length would be when everything that is between 10 feet away and 16 feet away from you is in acceptable focus but the rest is blurry.
In some cases you want a short focal length so that you can draw attention to the object you are photographing or drown out a messy, distracting background. But if you are photographing a scene, vista, house, or landscape, you probably want a long focal length.
For a long focal length, try a small aperture such as 16. Remember that different lenses create better images at one F-stop than another. This is a matter of getting to know your lens but if you are a beginner with your camera you don’t need to worry about that a lot right now.
6. Shutter Speed: Your shutter will need to be open long enough to get enough light into your photograph. With a digital camera, I always experiment and then check the image in the LCD screen. For some night time photographs I have kept the shutter open for up to 30 seconds. For others, such a long exposure wasn’t necessary. Remember not to touch or hold your camera during this time, as this will cause camera-shake and blur the photo. Check the photo and then adjust as necessary.
7. White Balance: In film cameras, we had different types of films for different lighting situations such as tungton lights, sunlight, fluorescent lighting, shade, cloudy day, etc. In digital photography, we have white balance. This tells the camera how to treat the colors and shades in the photo so that they turn out correctly (that’s my best way of explaining without going into lots of technical details).
For night time photography I usually use “auto white-balance” but you can experiment with different settings and see what result you like best.
8. Tighten your tripod: There is a little connector that attaches your camera to the tripod . It might seem tight but if the camera is able to weigh it down and move it slightly during the exposure, your photo will be a mess.
8. Summary: For a nighttime vista an example of settings you can start with would be ISO 200, Aperture 16, Shutter Speed 15 seconds. Then adjust as needed to get the exposure you want. You might try F 8 at around 10 seconds. Etc. Check the result in your LCD screen.
When you get what you think is a good exposure, take more than one shot at that exposure so that you can be sure to get a good one. You might try a few at a slightly higher or lower exposure, just in case (this is a long-time practice in professional photography, known as “bracketing.”)
Be patient and take lots of reshoots. When you get home and blow up your photo on a big screen you might notice that one shot was almost perfect but something blurred or there was an unseen tourist walking through the scene at just the wrong moment. Take lots of shots to make sure you get a good one. If the photo is important to you, the time is worth it.

Post By Wayne Robertson Sydney Wedding Photography

Photoshop editing. Watch me reducing shadows

This is a typical ceiling shadow that has to be removed form a sydney real estate photo. I will not be taking the time to teach the exact tools but will be showing more the end result that is acheived.. For more info on this editing visit http://www.weddingsbywayne.com.au/ and email me.

Post By Wayne Robertson Sydney Wedding Photography

Photography example for Stitching photos

Sydney wedding photographer. I sometimes use a stitch method to acheive a cool Panoramic from a
 wedding day.


Post By Wayne Robertson Sydney Wedding Photography

photoshop tutorial. adding a blue sky!

If you want to add a blue sky into any photo, here is a great way of doing so.. I use this in my sydney wedding photography work...



Post By Wayne Robertson Sydney Wedding Photography

Using Flash During The Day

 Interestingly, one of the best uses of your flash is during bright sunlight!
I know it sounds strange but it's true.

A flash helps to eliminate dark shadows (for instance under the eyes and
chin of faces). It also helps to emphasize your subject.

When you take pictures of subjects with bright light behind them, for
example a portrait that is backlit, or a duck swimming in water reflecting
the sun, the camera will be fooled by the bright surroundings so the subject
appears dark.

By turning flash on, you will fill in the shadow areas making the picture
much more pleasing.

It can also be used to add a sparkle to eyes, and to reduce shadows under
the nose and eyes when pictures are taken when the sun is bright and high in
the sky (eg at midday).

Nature photographers even use flash to ensure the nooks and crannies of
flower petals are properly lit - to reduce shadows.

Professional photographers use flash much more often than amateurs.

In the shot attached you can see the difference in the shadows on amy's
face.

 

Post By Wayne Robertson   Sydney Wedding PhotographyDigital Photography Secret