Fodor's Part 2

Because the Fodor’s website has so many wonderful tips, I want to share a few more with you on here- tips that I, as an amateur photographer, find interesting and helpful.

1- Under the category “Classic Vacation Shots”, the “Around the Campfire” article is great. Fire can be a really fun thing to photograph because it is beautiful and unpredictable, but also because it allows for a very unique lighting situation. However, getting the right exposure for the picture can be extremely difficult because it often seems like the scene around the fire is underexposed or that the fire itself is washed out. The site provides a great tip for setting your exposure just right:

“Whether or not you want the fire itself in your shots, be careful not to include it when you take your meter reading, because the flames will fool the camera into grossly underexposing your subjects. Instead, use your spot-metering mode to take readings directly from a well-lighted face; alternatively, move in close and fill the frame with just a face. This will provide good exposure setting for skin tones, though it may tend to wash out the colors of the fire. You can take a second reading of just the flames; setting an exposure that's midway between the two readings will keep faces well exposed while retaining the intensity of the flames.”

2- Under the “Lighting” category, click on “Lights in Motion”. This article details how to effectively take a long exposure shot. Ever since I learned how to take a long exposure shot, I have become slightly obsessed with taking them. Every shot you take is unique because the light you are capturing may never move exactly the same way again. My favorite thing to photograph using long exposure is fireworks- not the professional sort, but the kind that anyone can go and buy at the store. When using color film, keeping the shutter open for a long period of time (10 seconds or longer) allows me to capture the awesome patterns of light the fireworks give off. I have always depended simply on trial and error to get my camera settings (mainly the aperture) correct for these shots because getting an accurate exposure reading is terribly difficult, if not impossible. In the article, though, the author suggests that the photographer should set the aperture to f/11 or smaller because you will at least have an adequate depth of field.

Some great ways to play with long exposure: photographing the night sky, at carnivals, cars driving by, fireworks, etc.

That's all for today.

-Valerie