By Ian Magnuson
Executive Photos Editor
As the photographer of the Prospector, I will be posting photos each Wednesday night and explaining exactly how I captured the photograph for the aspiring photographer. (Note) I will try to water down the technical aspects, but this blog is directed towards people who have a basic understanding of cameras and how to compose a picture.
‘The Beat of it All’
This photograph was taken with a 50mm f/1.8.
Photo Stats: Shutter speed of 1/20 sec, F-Stop of f/1.8, ISO speed of 200, and no flash.
The Camera: I shot this photo with my Nikon D7000.
The Lens: I chose the ‘Nifty Fifty’ because it is so good at what it does…taking brilliant photos. The reason why it is called the ‘Nifty Fifty’ is because it is a relatively inexpensive lens (about $140). But “inexpensive” does not mean “cheap”. This lens is most likely faster than your own go-to lens, every photographer should have one in their bag.Pre-Shooting: I was just waiting for my ride to come pick me up when I saw Costabile practicing. I wanted
Light: Light is like one of those formulas in math that you must master early because it is the basis of the next fifteen chapters…
There was a lamp behind him which created a cool effect over his head. Since I was shooting against light, the photo would be more of a silhouette, unless i made the shutter longer to let in more light.
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Photo of the Week: The beat of it all
December 22, 2011
Shooting: When shooting, you want to look for the perfect angle that is both original and tells the full story. You should make sure the subject is completely in the photo.
Shoot often, but shoot smart.
I wanted Costabile’s face more in focus than the rest of him and I wanted a little bit of motion burr in his drum sticks so I let opened shutter a bit longer than I would have if I wanted everything to be still. I also put the ISO to 200 because it was getting late, but I didn’t want a lot of sound from an ISO of 2000, and with the f/1.8, I could get the light I needed without bumping up the ISO too much.
Post Shooting: I took this photo several weeks ago (when all you needed was a sweatshirt). But I did not really know how I wanted the photo to look. When experimenting with Photoshop, one of my friends showed me how to make a Duotone photo. After that I knew exactly what I wanted to do.
There is only orange and blue in this photo, hence ‘duotone’. To make this effect, you need to first gray scale the photo, then go into ‘Image’, then ‘Mode’, then click ‘Duotone’.
There you can choose the colors and the frequencies at which they come out. After a while the curves will look more like crazy waves. Drum to your own beat! (No pun intended)
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