Lighthouse Darkroom

Category: Techniques

  • gotland by sunset

    gotland by sunset

    Spent a week on Gotland which is always a magical place and it was terrific this time. We stayed at a place where we got splendid sunsets every night.

    One of my favorite image from this week was a fisherman walking out in the sea. Mainly because there was a moment not planned at all. The image itself is not very dramatic – I caught him in the sunset moments later which has a lot more drama but this simple image stuck to me.

    The fisherman

    One favorite technique was to use a ND filter (10 stops) to smooth out the sea with long exposure times. I have used long exposure time before but ND filter is quite new to me and to be able to use it in brighter light was fun. I did find the hue to go a bit too red when aiming directly to the sun but the effect on reflected sunset where magical.

  • Macro

    Macro

    I have always been drawn to macro photography. It is fascinating with details of bugs and plants AND you can find a plethora of interesting things to shoot just around your house.

    My previous camera had a really good dedicated macro on the lens – and that is probably the only thing I miss about that camera. But I found some extension rings that make a cheap alternative.

    I read an blog post where five really good macro photographers gave there tips and it was interesting how little they stessed anything technical – they all seemed to have a DIY approach to it. The most common tip from these five was to shoot early in the morning – bugs are not as active or resting, and they often are covered in dew drops.

    Another thing was the flash – to get a diffused light – and they talked about tube shaped diffusers. I googled “macro photo flash diffuser” and found some shapes that I wanted to try to DIY.

    DIY:ed this monstrosity. Awkward and didn’t work very well
    This simple diffusor was better. Unsure if natural light is better.

    I tried all combinations of the extension rings and quickly found that the 21 mm will be the one I use the most – it has a clear effect on how close the lens can be to the subject but not too close, approximately 4 cm. The full length (47 mm) gets to approximately 1 cm distanse to the object which, under right conditions, are cool but would probably need a tripod and subjects that are not moving.

    Photo without extension rings and various combinations of the rings.

    With all rings there is a possibility for great detail but it requires planned conditions. The wasp was dead so I could pose it and take my time – there are some shots where the structure in the eye is wisible.