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Archive of ‘Photography’ category

Ballroom Dance, Event, Photography, Technology | 0 comment

Changing Backgrounds in Photos – Tech Thursday

Wide angle lens pointed upwards - ©TimeLine Media

Chantilly, Virginia

If you were doing an internet search for this topic, you may expect to have an extended Photoshop tutorial. This is definitely not a selection/replacement background tutorial as I am really not the most creative with software. The post comes from looking over backgrounds in ballroom dance photos. This idea works best from the last Arthur Murray Spring Freestyles event that was held at the Westfields Marriott hotel in Chantiily, VA.

The main ballroom has some interesting lights hanging from the ceiling. They are pyramid shape, and hung with the small pointed side facing downwards towards the floor. Moreover, they have very large plain sides creating their shape which makes them an interesting background element in the photos. They do not have the small, rounded out of focus circles that you get from chandelier or smaller light sources. Here, the entire shape can take on a different look depending on the focal length of the lens used. This first image is taken at a very wide angle of 17mm:

Wide angle lens pointed straight ahead- ©TimeLine Media
Wide angle lens pointed straight ahead- ©TimeLine Media

Working the Angles

This makes the lights clearly in focus along with the dancers on the floor. You can clearly see all the detail, mounting, and edges of the lights. From this angle which was taken from a standing height with the lens pointed towards the dancers. It is possible to drastically change the background in the photo by changing only the angle of the camera. In this next photo, the focal length is still 17mm, but I changed my position by going to my knees, and pointing the lens up towards the ceiling. With this wide angle lens, the lamps on the ceiling become much more elongated looking much larger than in the previous photo!

Wide angle lens pointed upwards - ©TimeLine Media
Wide angle lens pointed upwards – ©TimeLine Media

This can be to your advantage when shooting events. You can to give viewers different looks from the event by changing backgrounds. Once you already have one angle, change where you are shooting and more around the scene to see what different looks you can get when the action is not changing much. It keeps your eyes looking through the frame and avoiding fatigue. It will also make for different looks to see when post processing later.

Spring Freestyles Photos Released - ©TimeLine Media
Spring Freestyles Photos Released – ©TimeLine Media

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

Event, Photography, Sports, Travel | 0 comment

Middleburg 2014 Point to Point

Tailgate Competition judges at the Middleburg Point to Point - ©TimeLine Media

Virginia Horse Country

It was a beautiful April Sunday for the Middleburg Hunt Point to Point this year. Last year, some wet weather put a damper on the festivities, but this year was a cool, sunny day. It was perfect for dressing your best for a tail gate with friends, and watching horses race on the beautiful steeplechase course at Glenwood Park. The overhead sun was strong and bright all day, so there was a lot of strong shadows in all the images.

Tailgate Competition judges at the Middleburg Point to Point - ©TimeLine Media
Tailgate Competition judges at the Middleburg Point to Point – ©TimeLine Media

People commonly think that having a lot of sun is perfect for making photos. It is true that the camera does like to have as much light as possible to make good exposures. The problems with sun in the middle of the day and early afternoon, is that it is not falling in a good direction for good portraits. With the sun right above, there will be hard shadows that darken faces, horses making post processing necessary to bring out details that you want to see. With such bright sun, many people attending the Point to Point were wearing fashionable hats to lessen their direct exposure to the sun which added additional challenges to photos.

2014 Middleburg Point to Point - ©TimeLine Media
2014 Middleburg Point to Point – ©TimeLine Media

Middleburg, Virginia

2014 Middleburg Point to Point - ©TimeLine Media
2014 Middleburg Point to Point – ©TimeLine Media

For all of these, a fill flash was necessary to get the faces lit. If not used the details could not be brought out from the shadows. This is a very blunt light when moving and shooting while walking around the park. There was no time to setup an off-camera flash to get more dimension to the light. You can see some hard shadows where the direct flash was firing towards the subjects. It is not the prettiest, but it did get the job done. Also, it was the easiest way to get quick photos with all the impromptu group poses. Thanks to the weathermen that brought us a great day!

Panorama of Glenwood Park in Middleburg, VA - ©TimeLine Media
Panorama of Glenwood Park in Middleburg, VA – ©TimeLine Media

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

Personal, Photography, Travel | 0 comment

Missing Cherry Blossoms

Cherry Blossoms and the Capitol Building in Washington, DC - ©TimeLine Media

Washington, DC

It just happened, but I am already missing the cherry blossoms this year. The photos from this year’s blooms were really satisfying. The weather, and the amount of time that I had to take advantage of their peak really came together nicely. Morning, afternoon, and evening, were all available to me this time. Moreover, I did not have to rush around as in other years. There were so many photographers around the Tidal Basin this year, with all kinds of gear! There were so many that were trying different angles, and strategies to get the perfect photo. I joined them with my own attempts. Of course, not everything will work when you first try, and this was probably my biggest disappointment.

Cherry Blossoms and the Capitol Building in Washington, DC - ©TimeLine Media
Cherry Blossoms and the Capitol Building in Washington, DC – ©TimeLine Media

From this spot, most images are of the blossoms in the foreground with either the Washington Monument in the background towards the left, or the Jefferson Memorial towards the right. In between these two familiar sites is a clear view of the Capitol Building that is much further away. Because of the distance, it is much smaller than the other two memorials in the frame. Consequently it is not as popular a subject from here.

But I wanted to try going for it since it seemed really easy to see this morning. I used the longest lens I had in the bag, a 105mm focal length. This was giving me what I wanted as anything much longer would have made the building larger, but the blossoms would have been harder to distinguish. In the first frame above without any added light, the blossoms were really in shadow, and look like really ugly clouds or debris in front of the lens.

Sunrise Blossoms

Cherry Blossoms and the Capitol Building in Washington, DC - ©TimeLine Media
Cherry Blossoms and the Capitol Building in Washington, DC – ©TimeLine Media

My next thought was that I should add some light from a speedlight to illuminate the blossoms, and show off more of their color. I held the flash off of the camera with a sync cord so that the light would not be positioned directly in front of the blooms. Here is the result:

Cherry Blossoms and the Capitol Building in Washington, DC - ©TimeLine Media
Cherry Blossoms and the Capitol Building in Washington, DC – ©TimeLine Media

It was as expected, but not that great to my eye. I tried a few more frames changing the flash power, the angle of the flash, but it did not change much. Perhaps I could have tried “painting” on the light with a small flashlight or had a softer modifier for the speedlights, but I did not have any more time as the sun started to rise quickly out of the horizon really changing the look of the overall scene. Turns out – THAT was what I needed to make a better frame.

Cherry Blossoms and the Capitol Building in Washington, DC - ©TimeLine Media
Cherry Blossoms and the Capitol Building in Washington, DC – ©TimeLine Media

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

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