Lewisburg Photography Club

Dec

2019

How to make decorative lights twinkle like stars

December 16, 2019

How to make Christmas Tree Lights twinkle like stars as in the above image? Decorative lights are so pretty at night but it can be hard to recreate their sparkle in photographs. Here’s the technique for achieving just that—the secret is in the aperture! Here are the instructions to make the lights appear like starbursts.

First make it dark by turning off the room lights and shooting at night. Mount your camera on a sturdy tripod and use a cable release to reduce camera shake. If you don’t have a cable release, you can use your camera’s two-second timer to release the shutter. I set my camera’s ISO to 1600. Use aperture mode or Manual mode and set the aperture to f/22 (The camera’s aperture is a very small hole.).

In the dark your camera’s autofocus feature may be confused and continually search for focus or not work at all so set your lens to Manual Focus and focus manually on the lights. On my Canon 80D camera, I use Liveview mode so I can view the image on the screen on the back of my camera. Liveview helps me to compose the image and focus when the camera is on the tripod. Start with a long time exposure of 5 to 10 seconds and check the picture for exposure. Adjust the shutter speed if you need but leave the aperture at f/22. Experiment with different shutter speeds.

The key to the starburst effects is using the very small aperture of f/22. If you use an aperture that is narrow enough, e.g., f/22, the image captured will have obvious rays of light extend out from each light source, making them appear like stars. This is known as the “starburst effect.” The number of “points” that your starburst has (i.e., the number of rays of light that extend from the light source) is dependent on the number of aperture blades in your lens’ aperture diaphragm. An even number of aperture blades results in the same number of starburst points, whereas an odd number of blades results in twice the number of starburst points. My Canon 18-200mm zoom lens has six aperture blades which creates starbursts with six points as seen in the above image. Any lens you have will work. However, your lens may create starbursts with a different number of points.

Enjoy taking photos of decorative lights such as Christmas lights and candles.

Dan

Oct

2019

What’s a Macro photo?

Several members have asked “What’s a macro photo?” It is a closeup shot of something small, e.g., an insect such as the bee above, parts of flowers, stamps, coins, and paper clips.

Technically, a macro shot is one where the object’s image on the camera’s sensor or negative is larger than the object.

I like to relax the definition to the following: A macro shot is one where the object’s image when printed 4 by 6 inches is larger than the object. This way the photographer does not need to know how big the camera’s sensor or negative is. This also allows more photos to be macros in line with what most photographers consider macro shots.

This month’s Photo Quest is a follow up of last month’s excellent talk on Macro Photography. Here are links to Wayne Palmer’s talk:

PDF version of Wayne’s slides, six per page, of his presentation Macro Photography-6 – Great for printing.

PDF version of Wayne’s slides of his presentation Macro Photography – Great for viewing on screen.

Dan

May

2019

Images of Photo Walk down Market Street, Lewisburg, PA

Apr

2019

Open House at Brett Hosterman’s new Photography and Design Studio

Feb

2019

“What’s a Photographer?” Dan’s Talk at Milton, PA Rotary

Feb

2019

Using colored gels on your Speedlite flash

February 1, 2019

Today was the first day of the “Hearts of Lewisburg Ice Festival” in Lewisburg, PA. Many of the stores downtown have ice sculptures in front of their storefronts. I thought it would be a great opportunity to experiment with colored gels on a Speedlite flash. This note explains how to use colored gels on your Speedlite flash.

For the colored gels, I used several in my Vello EZ-FLIP GEL SET ($20). The set has 30 assorted colored gels that fit in a plastic holder that’s held on by velcro to the head of the Speedlite. The set comes with a small case.

First, you want control of the direction of the flash. That means getting the Speedlite off your camera! To achieve this, I used a RF transmitter/receiver setup between my Canon 80D DSLR camera and Canon 430EXIII-RT Speedlite. The transmitter (Yongnuo YN-E3-RT) fits on the hot shoe of the camera. The Speedlite fits on top of the receiver (Yongnuo YNE3-RX). This transmitter/receiver pair is a little more expensive (together $135) because they are compatible with Canon’s E-TTL (Through The Lens) protocol. This is the same protocol used by a Speedlite when it’s on top of your camera. This means the amount of flash will be determined by the light measured Through The Lens (TTL) by a pre-flash. Cheaper transmitter/receiver setups mean you have to control the flash manually with lots of trial and error.

My Canon Speedlite came with a little plastic stand. I mounted the Yongnuo receiver on the plastic stand and attached the Speedlite to the receiver as shown above. For my ice sculpture pictures I placed the stand with receiver and Speedlite on the sidewalk near the bottom of the sculpture usually at a 45 degree angle on the right from where I stood with the camera. I pointed the head of the Speedlite approximately at the center of the sculpture.

Here is the plastic stand, the receiver, and Speedlite with a red gel inserted in the Vello EZ-FLIP gel holder.

The Vello gel holder easily flips up so you can shoot without the gel.

Here is example ice sculpture without a flash or gel.

Same sculpture with flash and a blue gel. The stand, receiver, and Speedlight setup was off to the left at 45 degree angle.

Dog sculpture without flash or gel.

The same dog sculpture with flash and red gel. The Speedlight was on right side. This sculpture is smaller than the previous one so I was able to get the flash closer and throw more red light on it.

Ice sculpture in front of Bucknell’s Bookstore without flash or gel.

The same sculpture with flash and red gel on right side. I think this image shows the real creative power that one can achieve with colored gels on a Speedlite.

If you live in the area, visit downtown Lewisburg and see the ice sculptures before they melt!

Dan

Jan

2019

Total Lunar Eclipse occurs January 20, 2019

January 13, 2019

Night Sky Photographers,

A total Lunar Eclipse will run from 9:30 p.m., on Sunday, January 20, 2019 until 2:45 a.m. on Monday, January 21, 2019, for those on US Eastern Standard Time. A Lunar Eclipse occurs when the Earth cast a shadow on her Moon during a full moon. The Moon doesn’t go completely dark but a blood red. A great photography opportunity if we have clear skies!

For more information, see the following website:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/outdoors/features/red-alert-total-lunar-eclipse-january-21-2019

Dan

Dec

2018

Holiday Lights at Weis Soccer Field in Shamokin, PA

December 22, 2018

This afternoon Mary Jane, our son Scott, and I traveled to Shamokin, PA to see the Lower Anthracite Model Railroad Club‘s display. This is the best model railroad display in the region! If you haven’t seen it, it’s a must! Here is their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Lower-Anthracite-Model-Railroad-Club-492602067525133/ Note that they are only open to the public in December. And there are only two days left to see the display: Wednesday December 26 from 2-6 pm and Saturday December 29 from 1-7 pm.

On our way back after visiting the Model Train display, we visited the LARGE outdoor Holiday Lights displays at Weis Soccer Field in Shamokin, PA. The Holiday Lights alone are well worth the drive to Shamokin! It’s about a 40 minute drive to Shamokin from Lewisburg. From Lewisburg you drive to Sunbury and travel Market Street (Route 61) and continue on Route 61 south to Shamokin. At the first red light just before Shamokin turn left and after one block turn left again. Just before you reach the red light, you can see the Holiday Lights off and down to your left.

Here are seven shots I took of the Holiday Lights tonight.

Have a safe and Happy Holiday!

Dan

The whole soccer field and more are covered in Holiday Lights!

This shot gives you an idea of the size of the displays.

Scott taking a shot with his smartphone.

Dec

2018

Photography Tricks Advertisers Use to Make Food Look Delicious

December 6, 2018

Watch this 3-minute video on nine photography tricks advertisers use to make food look delicious.

https://www.shutterbug.com/content/watch-these-9-photography-tricks-advertisers-use-make-food-look-delicious-video

Don’t try these photography tricks at home or the kids and your spouse will revolt! 🙂

Have a safe and happy holiday season! Dan

Nov

2018

What’s ICM?

November 28, 2018

Neat image isn’t it? How did I do it? I used ICM! Here are the details on how you can do it!

ICM or Intentional Camera Movement is when the photographer intentionally moves the camera while he or she presses the shutter. This is done for artistic reasons or special effects.

The first shot is an ICM image of our Christmas Tree. The camera was set in Manual mode, ISO of 100, aperture of f/3.5, with a exposure of five seconds. I held the camera in my two hands, pressed the shutter, and during the five seconds moved the camera in a circular motion. I had pre-focused on the lights on the tree and placed the lens in manual focus before I took the shot. That way, the autofocus mechanism didn’t try to find the focus in the dim light.

With ICM, start with a five second exposure. I find an exposure of five seconds to be about the amount of time for one to smoothly move the camera through the pattern one plans. You may need to adjust the camera’s aperture or ISO in your shots depending on your situation.

The first shot also demonstrates a common ICM problem. A jerky start! If you look at the top of the image you will see little “hooks” where I started the motion after I pressed the shutter. The way to avoid these jerky starts is to begin the motion of the pattern then gently press the shutter. I did that on the other three images. Performing a clean start and moving the camera in a smooth motion takes practice!

For this next ICM shot, I zoomed in closer to the middle of our Christmas tree. Again, I used a five second exposure where I moved the camera in a circular motion. Because I was closer to the lights, I needed to change the aperture to f/5.0. Actually I took a bunch of shots at different aperture settings and I liked the f/5.0 one the best.

Note: The dashed line effect is due to the blinking of the LED Christmas lights that we use on our tree. LED lights are like fluorescent lights, they blink 60 times a second in sync with the AC power.

The next shot is another ICM where I moved the camera in a circular motion during the five seconds but with an aperture of f/11. They look similar in exposure because I adjusted both in Lightroom.

The last shot was taken similar to the previous one–ISO 100, aperture of f/11, exposure for five seconds–but I moved the camera in a figure eight several times.

Use the holiday lights in your own home to take some ICM photographs! They are easy to take and lots of fun! And when you show them to your friends and relatives, they will be impressed by your photography skills! 🙂

With ICM photos, one needs to do a lot of experimentation. Typically one takes many shots and selects only a few good ones. But the results can be amazing!

Have a Happy Holiday Season!

Dan

Nov

2018

Watch great documentary movie on Street Photography.

November 22, 2018

Cheryl Dunn’s excellent 2013 documentary about street photography, “Everybody Street” is available for free on YouTube.

The one caveat to this free stream of “Everybody Street” is that there are about a dozen, skippable short commercials sprinkled throughout the movie but they’re not too distracting (most of the ones that popped up in our stream were photography related).

If you care at all about street photography, or any type of photography, “Everybody Street” is a must-see movie. It is very impressive!

The movie is 85 minutes in length so make sure you have the time to watch it with the care it deserves!

The link to the free version of the movie can be found at https://www.shutterbug.com/content/watch-landmark-street-photography-documentary-everybody-street-free-youtube

I highly recommend you watch the movie “Everybody Street!”

Dan

Nov

2018

Before Sunrise at Penn Commons Wetlands

November 12, 2018

A beautiful clear, crisp morning for photography! I was up before 6 a.m. and drove to the Penn Commons wetlands near Giant Foods in Lewisburg, PA. Temperature was 22 degrees with a heavy frost on everything. Nippy but very still! With no wind, it was very nice outside as long as one dressed warmly.

Here are some of my shots this morning. All the shots were taken with my Tamron 100-400mm zoom lens on my Canon 80D digital camera.

Dan

Skyline of Lewisburg taken from Penn Commons wetland. The glow in the sky at 6:18 a.m.

Some clouds had formed by 6:49 a.m.

The sky over Montour Ridge in the east just before the Sun rose. Taken at 6:56 a.m.

Sumac tree with frost on its leaves.

Since the next five images were almost monotone, I converted them to Black and White using Lightroom.

Frost on a plant on the gravel path.

Grasses sticking out of the ice on one of the ponds.

Neat reed sticking out of the ice and its reflection.

Large ice crystals have formed on the surface of one of the ponds. Some are more than a foot long!

Large ice crystals have formed on the surface of one of the ponds. Some are 6-8 inches long!

Nov

2018

Calibrate your computer monitor!

November 11, 2018

Do you print your own photos? Do you sell or share your images with others? Have you calibrated your computer monitor lately?

I had read “Calibrate your monitor before you print your images or share them with others!” I have an iMac computer and the colors on the monitor’s screen looked fine with me. So why bother?

However, since I was having trouble with colors when printing my images, I decided to take the plunge and buy a device to calibrate my monitor. I purchased a Spyder5pro from B&H on sale for about $100. After I ran the software to calibrate my iMac’s monitor, I was amazed by the difference! First, like many people I had the monitor’s brightness too high which means when I adjusted my images in Lightroom they would print too dark. Also, the colors were slightly off! And, the calibration solved the weird colors that I was seeing when I printed an image!

On the left is a sample image that I had adjusted in Lightroom before the monitor was calibrated. On the right is the same image adjusted again in Lightroom AFTER the calibration. The one on left should appear a little dark with a slight change in colors. Of course, the appearance depends on if the monitor you are using is calibrated properly! 🙂

The bottom line: You need to calibrate your monitor before you adjust them in a program like Lightroom or Photoshop if you plan to print them, sell or share your images with others. It really does matter!

Dan

Nov

2018

“Monster on the Stairs!” – Storytelling

November 9, 2018

What do you do on a dark and gloomy rainy day? Why not take a sequence of photos to tell a story? Here is one I photographed today. Try your hand at storytelling!

Dan

I saw a monster on the stairs!!

Oh! It’s only Socks!

Nov

2018

Halloween Spirits in Lewisburg, PA

November 1, 2018

Good morning Photographers,

I hope you all had a chance to photograph some Halloween Spirits last night! Here are several I took Tuesday evening (October 30th) in Lewisburg, PA. I used a sturdy tripod and cable release with my Canon 80D on Manual setting.

Keep taking pictures!

Dan

Oct

2018

Did you see the sundog this evening?

October 16, 2018, Lewisburg, PA

Did you see the sundog this evening? I was on my walk around 5:15 pm and I saw a sundog or mock Sun in the west and ran for my camera.

I took the images with my Canon 80D digital camera and Canon 18-200mm zoom lens. I also used a circular polarizer filter screwed on the front of the lens. The polarizer brings out the rainbow colors. The first image was shot with the lens at 50 mm. In the later images, I zoomed into the swirling clouds at 70, 90, or 200 mm!

“A sundog is a concentrated patch of sunlight occasionally seen about 22° to the left or right of the Sun. Sundogs often form in pairs on either side of the Sun when sunlight refracts through icy clouds containing hexagonal platecrystals aligned with their large, flat faces parallel to the ground. Technically known as parhelia (singular parhelion) they are often white but sometimes quite colorful, looking like detached pieces of rainbow, with red on the inside, toward the Sun, and blue on the outside.”

Sundogs typically means snow is on the way!

Keep your camera handy!

Dan

Oct

2018

More pictures of T&D’s Cats of the World Photowalk

October 13, 2018

Kevin Stroble sent me five images to share that he took on the Scott Kelby Photowalk at the T&D’s Cats of the World wildlife refuge last Saturday. Kevin is a member of the Williamsport Shutterbugs.

Kevin – Thanks for sharing!

Dan

Oct

2018

Pictures of T&D’s Cats of the World Photowalk

October 7, 2018

On Saturday morning October 6th, Lewisburg Photography Club member Louise Higgins led ten photographers on a tour of T&D’s Cats of the World wildlife refuge. We spent two hours photographing the animals and the park’s environs. It was cloudy but a very pleasant 68 degrees. We had a fun time!

Here are 14 of my images. The last image was not taken in the T&D’s Cats park but on my drive home. The combine is in a field on New Berlin Mountain Road just south of Furnace Road.

Dan Hyde

Group shot

Combine in field on New Berlin Mountain Road just south of Furnace Road.

Sep

2018

Great day for spiderwebs!

September 29, 2018

Great morning for spiderwebs in Lewisburg, PA. Want to take pictures of spider webs? Wait for an early morning with heavy fog then walk around your yard and search for spider webs.

The traditional “Halloween” spider webs are made by Orb spiders. Here are several shots of Orb spider webs that I took this morning.

For the first three images with the brown fence in background, I used a tripod and an ISO of 100. The last two were handheld with ISO of 1600. I used my Canon 80D camera with a Canon 18-200mm zoom lens.

Dan

I like how the heavy fog has formed large beads of water especially near the bottom of the web.

Sep

2018

Local Scott Kelby Photowalk at “T&D’s Cats of the World” on Sat. Oct 6, 10 am

Dan Hyde is the “Walk Leader” for the local Walk that is part of the world-wide Scott Kelby Photowalk contest on Saturday October 6, 2018. Our local Scott Kelby Photowalk will be concurrent with the Lewisburg Photography Club’s photo tour at T&D’s Cats of the World in Penns Creek, PA. You can take the Photo Club tour with us and ignore the local Scott Kelby Photowalk contest or you can enter the contest for fun and awards. The contest is free but you MUST register on the website to win any awards. For details on the international Scott Kelby Photowalk, see https://worldwidephotowalk.com/

To register for our Scott Kelby Walk contest, go to

https://worldwidephotowalk.com/walk/tds-cats-of-the-world-wild-animal-refuge/

Or you can find the Walk on the Scott Kelby Photowalk World map by entering the location Penns Creek, PA.

The Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk, dubbed the world’s largest global and social photography event, has grown immensely in size and popularity since the inaugural walk in 2007. Last year, more than 25,000 photographers of all walks of life and skill level converged to explore their corners of the world through photography and social community. The winning image of each local Walk contest is displayed on a website for all to see and to be judged for many prizes. For info on the prizes, see https://worldwidephotowalk.com/prizes/

The concept of a Photowalk is simple. Photowalks are created by Walk Leaders in cities all over the world. Walkers meet up at a pre-designated location – downtown areas, zoos, business parks, you name it! – to spend a few hours socializing, capturing images and sharing with like-minded people. Participants later share their best photos and select a Walk’s winning image. The Walk’s winning image wins a modest prize and is submitted to the contest at the international level. Last year I won the local Walk and received a copy of one of Scott Kelby’s e-books (worth about $40). Last year, it was very interesting to view the over 6000 Walk winning images. They were very high quality and very international!

Who is Scott Kelby? See https://scottkelby.com/announcing-my-11th-annual-worldwide-photo-walk/

Photo Tour at T&D’s Cats of the World WildLIfe Refuge

We have arranged a Lewisburg Photography Club photo tour at T&D’s Cats of the World starting at 10 a.m. on Saturday October 6, 2018.

For those who have never been to T&D’s Cats of the World, it is a wild animal refuge park in Penns Creek, PA (13 miles from Lewisburg). For information, visit their website at http://www.tdscats.com/

When you visit their website, you will notice T&D’s Cats closes to the public in September. Lewisburg Photo Club member Louise Higgins, who is a long time volunteer at T&D’s Cats, has arranged a special tour for the Photo Club. Basically, we will have the park to ourselves with no one else in the park to cause distractions. We are to meet in the T&D’s parking lot at 10 am. The cost is $10 per person. Louise will lead our tour and one requirement is that we must stick together as a group. Since Louise is a photographer and understands that photographers need time to take pictures, she will give us plenty of time for photos. Louise will explain other rules before we start the tour. Most are easy for us to follow such as “No running.”

If you have never been to T&D’s Cats of the World, this is a great chance to visit. Individuals with you such as family members may join our tour as long as they understand they must follow the rules and pay the $10 fee.

If you are interested in the photo tour at T&D’s Cats of the World, give me your name, email address, and a phone number where I can reach you in case we must cancel because of terrible weather.

Louise led this photo tour last year and we had a great time!

I hope to see you on the Walk!

Dan Hyde