Given today’s plethora of advanced DSLRs, mirrorless, and even cellphone cameras, you might be wondering why you need to know the basics, as in the exposure triangle, for most photography. In fact, today’s cellphones, even with their tiny sensors, have more capability than most journeyman DSLRs of a decade ago. So, why put yourself though the trouble to learn the basics?
It’s simple really. A technically correct exposure is rarely aesthetically pleasing. Not to mention if you count on the automated filters, you are limited to what the manufacturer thinks is best. If you leave it to your camera, you are at its mercy. Even the simplest aspects of exposure, using the built-in light meter, can produce drastically inferior results when left to the camera’s discretion.
For example, I captured these two exposures this morning
with my tripod-mounted Nikon D810.
Nothing special, just the canal that feeds our pond.
In the first, I let the camera do the work, including the light meter, which was set matrix. It lacks depth and richness of color; in short – it is washed out. It looks more in line with something you see in an engineering study than anything of artistic value. While it shows detail in the canal, it is flat and draw the view in.
Canal, taken with automated settings
In the second, I switched to Manual, left the shutter speed and aperture the same, 1/60” at f/4.0. All I changed was the metering mode to spot to and adjusted the ISO until I had a correct exposure with a portion of the reflection selected as the exposure meter’s target and pressed the trigger.
Canal, taken with same shutter speed and f-stop but light meter mode and ISO changed.
Neither image saw any post-processing whatsoever. They are as the fell out of the camera. Of course, both could use a little work in post,
but the latter is much closer to finished image than the first. For sure, as a snapshot, right out of a
camera, it has a better sense of depth, though technically under exposed in some
areas. In this exposure, the colors are rich and draw the focus to the
reflection as the center on interest. It
is true that the crepe and wax myrtles in the foreground are underexposed, but
that does not take away from the impact of the reflection, in fact it
highlights it. So, though not technically
perfect from a lighting point of view, it has a greater artistic impact.
That is sort of the point too, you as the photographer, need
to decide what is best for the exposure you want. You much decide what are the interesting bits
you wish to highlight and draw the viewer to.
Don’t leave it up to the camera.
While the problem we face today is not as perilous to life
and limb as when Jack Swigert immortalized those words in April of 1970, as Apollo
13 had its cascading failures, we still have an issue that has the potential to
lead to a cascading failure of our economy.
Perhaps it is better to put it “America, we have a problem here!”
That problem is our national debt. The current national debt exceeds $22-trillion.
It has never been that high before. To
service the debt (pay the interest and principle we owe) requires more and more
of the government’s annual income from taxation. The more we pay to service the debt, the less
there is for things like the military and the other departments of the
government.
It is easy to get caught up in pointing fingers at this President
or that, one Congress vs. another, but that does nothing to address the issue
before us. We must cut costs AND raise
income to reduce the huge debt we owe. If
we wish to avoid a financial crisis such as the one faced by Greece recently,
we must address the issue now.
Historically, we’ve used our national debt to spur the
economy, and it has worked, but what is too much debt? At what point is the burden of debt more
harmful than the upswing in the economy?
One of the common measures of national debt is as a percentage to Gross
Domestic Product (GDP). When looked at
like this, we can see some interesting trends since 1950.
The chart shows the GDP for each President’s last year in
office. Two datasets are used, the first
being the actual Last Year In Office (LYIO) and the second being the Last
Budget Year (Last BY). They very slightly
and illustrate our National Debt does correlate to the influence of the
President.
Here are the percentages using data from the US Bureau of
Economic Analysis:
*President Trump’s figures are estimated for end of 2019
What is interesting is what was going on with the US economy
when we increased the percentage of debt to GDP. When the Great Depression hit, and throughout
World War II, we increased our national debt to keep our economy growing. After the war, we were able to reduce the
percentage ratio by controlling spending, keeping revenues high (taxes) and
growing the economy and our GDP output. From President Truman through President
Carter, the ratio of National Debt to GDP either went down or took a slight
bump (i.e. the Nixon/Ford years) upwards.
Then came President Reagan!
President Reagan had two primary priorities as President. The first, repair the damage to the office of the president caused by the resignation of President Nixon and Watergate. Second, stop the Soviet Union’s increasing influence in developing nations. It is the second priority that had such a drastic effect on our National Debt.
Regardless, if you agree or disagree with President Reagan’s
approach to the Debt, in the end, forcing the Soviet Union to match our
spending and buildup of our military did have the desired result, their economy
collapsed, and the Union fell apart. Of
course, there are a million other contributing factors for the collapse, but the
spending is one of the primary factors and certainly drove our National Debt up
– way up!
While President H.W. Bush was President in 1991 the Soviet Union formally dissolved, it was at the beginning of his term. We also fought the Gulf War in 1991, but as wars go, it did not have a huge impact on the National Debt. At that point, we could have started reducing the Debt but there was a push for “no new taxes” and President Bush’s signing of a modest increase into law cost him his reelection bid and Congress had little incentive to work on the issue and the National Debt went up.
Then it was President Clinton’s turn. Putting his personal failings aside, his term as President showed it is possible to grow the economy, eliminate the budget deficit and reduce the National Debt percentage when compared to GDP. We could have used the surplus to reduce the National Debt further by buying back a portion of our debt, much like companies are doing right now with stock buy-backs, instead, it was paid out more like a dividend through a reduction in the tax rate after President Clinton left office.
President George W. Bush entered office and a cacophony of events that upset everything followed. First, President Bush acted on the surplus in the budget by cutting taxes in Jun of 2001. Then the 9/11 tragedy happened. Not only did it cost a considerable number of lives, but it also damaged our economy. Airlines were the hardest hit, but industry, in general, took a punch and the country was in the mood to give business a break. That break came in the form of another tax cut in 2003. So, we began the war with Afghanistan, and while still underway, began one with Iraq, cut taxes and to no one’s surprise, our National Debt increased at a fast pace. At the same time, the budget deficit returned.
Unlike when FDR battled the Great Depression and World War
II, both of which drove up the National Debt, we did not raise taxes to offset the
increase in spending. We financed the
increase by selling government securities.
Securities have to be paid for at some point, with interest.
Also, under President GW Bush, deregulation, which was
started by President Clinton, picked up and our financial institutions followed
the same type of disastrous path they did in the 1920s. It all came to a head in 2008 with the worst financial
crisis since the Great Depression.
When President Obama took over, the economy was in the toilet, we were at war, and tax revenues were down. We needed to jump-start things and it was done with a very large economic stimulus package. Again, by increasing the National Debt. Again, just like FDR’s various programs, the economy recovered. Once our economy had legs, we began to reduce the deficit. At its highest in 2009, it was $1.4-trillion. In 2013 it was down to $753-billion, or about half of its highest.
It should be noted, to decrease the National Debt requires buying
back the debt. To buy back the debt a
surplus is required in the budget. We
will only have a surplus by cutting spending or raising taxes or better yet –
both!
Now it is President Trump’s turn. Rather than continue to reduce the deficit and
working towards reducing the National Debt, we have increased our rate of
borrowing money (over $2-trillion since President Trump took office) and we cut
taxes again increasing the deficit. Our
National Debt is getting to a dangerously elevated level.
By the end of 2019, our National Debt will be around 109% of
our GDP. When Greece had its financial collapse,
their National Debt was 143% of its GDP.
While our economy is much more
dynamic than Greece’s, we still need to fix this problem now, before we take on
more debt than we can repay.
We are beyond the typical liberal/conservative approaches to
governance. We need to work the problem
with every tool we have. Liberals will
not like cuts, conservatives will not like corporate taxes, but both are needed
to address this. What we don’t need is
companies, like Amazon, earning billions in profits and paying little to
nothing in taxes. Reports show Amazon
will earn about $11.2-billion in profit this year and pay zero in taxes.
To be clear, it is not Amazon’s fault. They are simply using the tax code to their best
abilities. Which is to be expected from
every person and company in the United States.
The problem is we have a Congress and Executive Branch that continue to
spend money while lowering taxes. That must
change and change now. Remember the old
axiom “When do you fix the roof? Before
it starts to rain.” My friends, look to
the horizon and see the coming storm. We
need to fix our roof, we need to acknowledge we have a problem.
We have several bird feeders in the backyard and it is
always interesting to see who visits, but sometimes things get as heated as a
K-Mart Blue Light Special on Black Friday.
The other morning was just such an occasion.
The Feeder in Question
It started out innocently enough, a bird
or two stopping by, taking their fill and flying off to parts unknown. That is the deal, we put out food, they
visit. We get to enjoy seeing them, they
get a full belly. It works out for
everyone. That is until two birds want
the same feeding station!
This is the feeder in question, a Stokes Select Large
Hanging Tube Bird Feeder, 6 Feeding Ports, 3.5 lb. Seed Capacity model we
recently purchased at Walmart of all places.
Six feeding ports! One would think
that would be plenty to go around. I
mean the birds tha use it weigh maybe about an ounce or two, and the damn thing
holds 3.5 pounds of food. There is more
than plenty to go around. If only the little
creatures would have the patience to wait their turn. And there’s the rub!
So, we hung the feeder, filled it with Wagner’s Deluxe Blend
Wild Bird Seed with 20% sunflowers, and a healthy sprinkling of mealworms. Only the best in our backyard eatery! As they say in their advertisement “TRUST YOUR BACKYARD BIRDS TO THE EXPERTS AT
WAGNER’S!” We did not have to wait
long, within a few minutes several sparrows, finches and chickadees stopped
by. We were all smiles.
Mr. Squirrel
OK, so if you are not
a bird enthusiast, you may not know the issue with squirrels. These backyard bandits can empty a bird
feeder in a matter of seconds. That’s
why you have to develop a strategy with feeding. Put too much on a platform feeder and it just
feeds the squirrels, put too little and the birds ignore the offering. That’s one advantage to the tube feeders, squirrels
don’t seem to put in the effort to get the goods. They try and spill some, for sure but with its
large capacity there is plenty for the birds.
This is where the fun began, the next morning I had just finished
restocking the cedar feeders, you know the type that look like a little house
with glass walls for the hopper and a rim around for the birds to perch while
feeding (squirrels make short work of these if you leave the full of seed), and
I decided to set up my camera on a tripod and see if I could capture some nice
images.
The Gathering Storm
Less than 10-minutes later, boom! Birds from everywhere arrived at all four of
the feeders. The new tube being of particular
interest. At
first, it was just busy and things we looking good to capturing the detail
images I was after. Of course, that did not last long!
The Approach!
We have a mental image of small birds and
being fast and crafty and they are. I
just never knew they could become so violent so quickly. You would have thought the sky was falling
the ruckus the two pugilists made.
Putting on the Breaks
At first, it just looked like a bird
coming in for a landing. After all, it’s
not like all the ports we occupied.
Silly me for thinking logically.
The one bird was minding it’s business then all of the sudden bird two
took a line right for it. Notice the one
bird is on the middle level. It was the
first bird approached but not the one in the fight. Things went very quick from
this point. The flying bird made not
sound, but the one on the perch realized trouble was on the way and let out a chirpy
screech that caused the flying bird to put on the breaks. It’s almost looked like the bird was flying
backwards like a hummingbird but that might just be my perception.
Thinking Twice!
I had my camera in continuous shooting, so I was able to
fire off pictures quickly, but even that missed a lot of the action. These guys are fast – very fast! The whole episode only lasted maybe a second.
It was on the second approach the action
really heated up. This time with a bird
on one of the lower ports. The amazing thing
is, all the other bird not involved, could not have me less interested in the
commotion just next to them. Somehow,
they knew it was not going to spill over and become some sort of bird riot at
the feeder.
The Attack!
The flying bird took it’s best shot but the bird on the lower perch had the advantage and held its ground. I think it was more show than an actual strike, but I bet those little talons could so some damage if they really wanted.
Regrouping
The attacking bird figured out it was not going to work and
needed to regroup. So much energy was
used up by it in such a brief time there was no way it could attack again. It was time to thing of the next move. A
stern look from the first bird warned it off trying anything new on that
front.
Pretty much, just that quick the fight, for lack of a better
word, was over. The attacker was
repelled, the victors watched the retreat with a sense of satisfaction. All the other birds still could not be
bothered to look up. It’s as if the
little fight never took place. I guess
for them it is all too common an event to give it much notice.
Seeking Higher Ground
Still, the retreating bird had to do
something. It just could not hang out in
mid-air. It was time to move on. Still, it did not seem the bird was willing
to abandon the feeder.
In another instant, the choice was obvious. Just find a spot and wait it out. Afterall, there was plenty of food, it’s not
like it was going to all be eaten before a port opened up, not to mention the
feeder was never really full in the first place.
So, in the end, it was “much ado about nothing,” and the whole event could have been avoided, but then I would not have had the chance at getting some interesting images.
I really enjoy the backyard. We have lots of birds but none more intersting than the red-tailed hawks that visit. They are always up to something and unlike the golden eagles, they don’t mess my our chihuahuas.
We have several dead pines back there and the hawks take up a perch and survey the grounds for something to snatch. And they do! These guys even go after snakes.
Hawk with snake
Still, I like seeing them fly or sitting watching what is going on. They seem stately somehow.
On the look out!Off he goes!
They are just very cool birds to watch. I know the world is worried all about conservation and I am sure on the band-wagon but I have to say we have more birds here today than when I was a kid. Big birds that is, the hawks and eagles.
Each day is a new adventure with them. This is a great place to live!
I’m often asked what the best way is to capture images of
birds. That is a big question with more
and one right answer. A better question
is to ask where to start when capturing birds with a camera.
Here is how I go about it:
When shooting birds, I use the larges lens I have available
to me. Most of the time I use my Nikkor
70 – 300mm 4-5.6 G. It is not as crisp
as a prime but gives great results and in 99% of the cases, I do not need to go
shallower than f5.6. For the camera
body, use what you have, of course, but if you can choose between a crop or
full sensor, go with the full. It makes
a huge difference in post-processing.
First off, I want to control the camera, so I shoot in Manual most of the time. Sometimes I will use Shutter Priority, but I find it easier to just pick my settings,
then let the ISO float as needed with ISO-Auto
on. Either way, manual or shutter priority,
I set the ISO to at least 800, then keep the ISO-Auto on so it goes higher as
needed.
A note about JPG vs. RAW:
If you have the ability to shot in RAW, do so. I only shoot in raw and never have my camera
create JPGs. Relating back to the days
of film, JPGs are like the finished print and RAW is like the negative. The print (JPG) is done, little can be done
to fix issues with it, the negative (RAW) give us the ability to change almost
everything in post-processing. I am the photographer,
not my camera. I control my images, not the little silicon brain in my camera.
Next, you have to understand how your camera focuses. In most DSLRs and some point and shoots, you
can control how the lens focuses on a subject.
I will either use small-group or single-point focus. I use single-point unless I anticipate the
subject flying away. I have found my Nikon
D810 keeps focus better with a small-group setting than single-point when birds
are flying. Single-point will give you
the sharpest image if your subjects cooperate.
However, what I pick I stay with as I don’t like to change in the middle
of a shoot. That works for a small group
or single bird. For a flock or large
group, selecting the multi-point focus options will give reliable results but
they are not required by any means.
I stet the DOF to something on the shallow side of middle, f7.1 or lower, f9 is as deep as I go for single birds or a couple of birds unless
I have something specific I want to achieve. Because I have ISO-Auto on, I set my shutter to 1/1000” to start and shot some
test images. I then adjust up or down as
needed. A stationary water bird might
get an 1/800” or even a 1/650”, but never lower than that handholding a lens
with the reach to shoot birds. For fast
birds, like hummingbirds, I set the shutter speed as high as 2000 but will keep
my eye on the ISO to make sure it is not maxed out and giving improper
exposure.
Often, it is desired to drop out the background in an image which
normally needs a shallower DOF than 5.6.
The trick to solving this problem is decreasing the distance to the
subject. For most of us, our 300mm
lenses only go as low as 4 or 5.6.
The DOF for a Nikkor 70-300mm at 300mm, using f5.6 is:
Distance (ft)
DOF (inches)
10
1.37
20
5.47
30
12.30
40
21.86
50
34.17
As you can see, the sweet spot for dropping out the
background will be between 20 and 30 feet.
Anything less and you will loose focus on parts of the bird being shot,
anything more and you will need to post-process and edit in Photoshop or the
like to get a decent result.
Now that the DOF is set and you know your target distance,
most often at 20 feet of greater, you will need to crop your image to get the
desired detail and to mimic the goal of filling the frame, this is where the
use of a full-frame sensor pays dividends.
At 20 ft, the field of view for the Nikkor 70-300mm at 300mm is around 3
feet horizontally. At 30 feet it’s
around 3.5 feet. Most likely, cropping
will be needed to produce an image that is artistically appealing. Because of this, it is critical than the
subject be in focus. Imperfections will
be amplified. Single point of focus and
a higher shutter speed will give you crisp results.
Keep in mind, hand-holding a 300mm lens requires a shutter
speed of at least 1/600”, even with a FX (full-frame) camera body. Purists will point out that with a full-frame
1/300” is all that is needed. That is true enough, if you don’t crop, but cropping
is the trick in getting the effect of a lower DOF lens with a f5.6 lens that
fills the frame. Given that you will not
know if cropping is needed until post-processing, it’s best to shot as if it is
needed. What you give up in shutter
speed you can make up for in in sharpness.
As for white-balance, shooting in RAW allows me to change it
in post-processing but it is better to get the right balance from the
start. I use an expodisk 2 to set the Kelvin
value for me. Otherwise I simply place
it in AUTO and adjust in post. I also
set the exposure metering to spot, this is key in dropping out the background
as the exposure will be set to enhance the bird and not the background.
Another benefit to shooting stationary birds with a higher
shutter speed is they do not stay stationary long, especially when moving
closer. You will not have time to adjust
your setting, so it best to be prepared for the inevitable. Some of my best images came from exactly this
scenario, I wanted to capture something like a Blue Heron feeding, only to have
them fly off. It was being ready for 5 or 6 seconds of
flight that allowed me to capture the image.
Had I worried about camera settings, it would have been too late.
Click Image to enlarge
Now that all that is set up, it’s time for you to get
creative. Before I shoot, I see in my
mind the image I want to create. I frame
my shoot and focal point to give me that image.
For example, I shot this image of the egret at the pond using my D810
and Nikkor 70 – 300mm at 300mm, ISO-Auto (220) f9, 1/1000” white balance in AUTO and spot metering. I rotated my camera to portrait to include the
reflection of the egret. In landscape,
it is just a bird on a green background. I also used the rule of thirds and set
both the bird and reflection on the right third line. I only cropped the image to a 5×7 format with
no enlargement at all. The only
non-standard post-processing was to tone down the greens to give them more
contrast adding to the image’s depth.
In the end, that are many ways to achieve the results you
want and this is truly just a starting point.
This is how I do it with the equipment I have. Not all of us can plop down 6-grand on a
600mm f1.2 lens. There are no hard
rules that cannot be broken. Shot what
works for you but shot! You will not get
the shot sitting on your couch. You
might take a hundred images to get the one you want to share. So what, as long as you get the one!
