Hankins Lawrence Images Photonotes March 2004\

HLI PhotoNotes Volume 2 Issue 3 March 2004

Published by Hankins-Lawrence Images, LLC of Bethesda, Maryland

http://www.hankinslawrenceimages.com

According to the calendar, spring arrived this weekend – although we’re not sure Mother Nature checked the calendar. We’re expecting temperatures below freezing in the mornings this week. We don’t know about you – but we’ve had enough winter and are ready for spring.

Here in the Washington, DC area, spring means time to photograph flowers. A spectacular orchid show just ended at the Botanical Gardens and the Cherry Blossoms will be blooming in the next week or so. The crocuses have been up for a couple of weeks, and the daffodils are popping up all over. Patty is hoping to get out with her macro lens in the next few days and get some flower photos. She did spend a morning at the Orchid Show a couple of weeks ago, and it’s got her ready for shooting outdoors.

One new tool she’ll be trying in the next few weeks is a bean bag. Usually we use a tripod to hold the camera steady, but with flowers that are low to the ground, getting the camera at the right angle when it’s mounted on a tripod can be a challenge. Before we go out and buy an official photographer’s bean bag – we’re going to use the homemade version – a gallon freezer bag filled with lentils <grin>. This should provide a sturdy base for the camera and let her use the camera’s cable release for the photos rather than trying to hold the camera steady by hand. We’ll let you know in a future issue how it works out.

In this issue, we’ve got two articles for you. One is on White Balance (we promised this one a few months ago) – the article explains what white balance is and why it’s important for photographers to pay attention to it. The second is an update to last year’s article on Photographing the Cherry Blossoms.

We hope spring arrives soon where you are – and that when it does, you take the time to stop and take some photos.

Your eyes are remarkably adaptable. They can adjust to a wide variety of lighting conditions. Anyone who has operated a camera which requires manual setting of shutter speed and aperture will be familiar with thinking about the amount of light available, so even though you can see clearly in situations from dim indoor lighting to bright mid-day sunshine, your camera needs to adjust for the amount of light to avoid overexposing or underexposing your film or digital sensor.

But the amount of light is not the only consideration; what about the color of that light? Again, the eyes (and the brain) can be quite adaptable, so that a scene light by greenish-tinged fluorescent lighting might look the same as one lit by orange-tinged incandescent lighting, but what you think you see might not be what your camera sees.

Light that isn’t pure white is going to affect the colors that your camera registers when you take a photo. Sometimes, this is desirable. Last month, we showed a couple of photos from early in the morning and late in the evening in Arizona, when we were specifically trying to get the landscape photos lit by the “golden” light when the sun is low on the horizon. However, when you want to accurately depict the color of the scene as if it were viewed in white light, you may need to think about white balance.

In film, adjusting for the color of lighting conditions is done using films made for specific light, and by using color correcting filters. Most digital cameras, however, have at least some ability to correct for specific lighting conditions; if you have a digital camera that has this feature, then it may be worth your time to check it out.

Many digital cameras have several common settings. Usually the default is auto white balance, in which the camera will try to estimate the light color based upon the average color in the exposure. Often, this is close enough, particularly in daylight conditions. However, for conditions strongly lit by one type of light source, you might try to match the source to your setting. Many cameras have settings for fluorescent lighting, tungsten lighting, and potentially daylight settings for sunny and for cloudy days. Another good option is custom white balance, in which you photograph a white or gray object in the light you’re going to photograph in, and use this photo to tell your camera how to set the white balance (exactly how you do this depends on he specific camera).

White balance is one reason that we shoot raw files (see January’s newsletter) when we use our digital cameras. Since the raw files are the raw digital sensor output, and not processed to adjust for white balance, we can adjust after the fact when we download the photos to our computer. That way, if we aren’t satisfied with auto white balance or a preset, we can adjust using a custom white balance. For difficult lighting situations, we’ll try to shoot a medium grey card or an object close to grey or white in order to have a reference to adjust white balance. We have a tabletop studio at home to take photos of small objects – to light it we use standard incandescent lights. This gives a very orange photo if not adjusted, but simply shooting a grey card and using this to set a custom white balance lets us correct the color. This lets us use $12 desk lamps (thank you, Ikea) to light our photo studio.

If your camera is set to take jpeg or tiff files, the white balance processing occurs at the time you take the photo, so make sure that you pay attention to your white balance settings.

Examples of different lighting situations and white balance settings can be found in the web version of this article, available in the newsletter archives.

One of the first sure signs of spring in the Washington, DC area is when the local press starts giving the Cherry Blossom Updates. The combination of the blooming of the cherry trees around the Tidal Basin on the Mall and the Annual Cherry Blossom Festival signal the beginning of the tourist season here in the nation’s capital.

According to the National Park Service, Peak Cherry Bloom this year will be from March 26 to April 4. Peak bloom is defined as when 70% of the trees are blooming. It can last for up to 2 weeks – and is a sight to be seen. Photographing the cherry blossoms is an annual event for many photographers in the area. Not only can you enjoy the flowers, but you can also check out what sorts of gear all the other photographers are using. It’s not uncommon for there to be 25 – 50 photographers with tripods lined up before sunrise on weekend morning waiting to catch the perfect light on the Jefferson Memorial surrounded by the blooming cherry trees. More information about the Peak Bloom is available on the National Park Service website at http://www.nps.gov/nacc/cherry/index.htm

If the Peak Bloom lasts as long as the Park Service is currently predicting, there may be a spectacular opportunity for some night photography in conjunction with this year’s bloom. There will be a full moon in Washington, DC the weekend of Apr 4. On the night of the 4^th, sunset is at 6:35 PM and moonrise is at 5:54 PM. The next night – on the 5^th, sunset is at 6:36 PM and moonrise is at 7:06 PM. If the weather is good, I’m sure there will be a line of photographers and tripods around the tidal basin, hoping for a photo of a full moon, cherry blossoms and the Jefferson Memorial. Schedule and weather permitting, we’ll be among them.

In conjunction with the blooming of the trees is the annual Cherry Blossom Festival. This year’s festival runs from March 27 to April 11 – so it looks like the tress will actually be in bloom for the festival this year. In addition to the blossoming tress, the Festival provides some great opportunity for photography. The Cherry Blossom Parade and the Japanese Street Festival are scheduled for April 3. In addition there are daily cultural performances at the Tidal Basin. More information about the Cherry Blossom Festival is available at http://www.nationalcherryblossomfestival.org/cms/index.php?id=390

One other Washington, DC event that is occurring at the same time as the Cherry Blossom Bloom this year is the 28^th Annual Smithsonian Kite Festival on Saturday March 27^th. The Kite Festival takes place on the National Mall, between the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building. We went to Kite Festival last year and were amazed at the colors and shapes of all the kites filling the sky. More info on the Smithsonian Kite Festival can be found at http://kitefestival.org/

So if you’ll be in the Washington, DC area in the next few weeks, be sure to bring your camera. There will be lots of great photo opportunities. Have fun!

For tips on Photographing the Cherry Blossoms, please visit our newsletter archives for an article that ran in the March 2003 issue of HLI PhotoNotes, available at www.hankinslawrenceimages.com .

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