Photography equipment, gear and technical aspects
One advantage of shooting digitally is the higher dynamic range compared to slide film. This allows greater shadow and highlight detail, bringing photography one step closer to what the eye is capable of seeing. Sometimes, however, it’s still not enough. When this is the case, one option is to create an HDR, or High Dynamic…
I have long looked for a scene that embodied the mystery of the aurora in conjunction with the simplicity of wilderness living. This cabin, under a sky of wheeling and whirling color, needs little commentary. I accessed this location with a friend, and we both drove snow machines. While offloading my machine from the trailer,…
During the recent All Alaska Sweepstakes dog mushing race in Nome, Alaska, I took a few portraits that seemed good candidates for a sepia conversion. Not all images work for this color pallete, but I like the sense of time and history invoked by these few. Both Photoshop and Lightroom come with standard conversion parameters…
When printing from a digital source, sharpening is required for the most pleasing output. The technique we use may be familiar to anyone who uses Photoshop, but the degree to which we sharpen is often surprising. What you see on the screen is not what you see in printed media. This is the original file,…
In switching from the 1Ds Mark II to the Mark III, one should really read the camera manual. Now how many people actually do this? I glanced at it, but must admit that I feigned an entire read. Until, I ran into a few odd discoveries, which prompted further exploration. Most notably, was the reduced…
One challenge with indoor photography is shooting under mixed lighting conditions. The camera, whether digital or film, tends to pick up color variations in light sources with a much more dramatic effect than is noticeable with the human eye. If there is just one light source, the photo can be white balanced to correct for…
A desire to maximize the quality of photos on the website prompted a marathon endeavor of re-processing and fine-tuning nearly all of our RAW format digital files. This was no simple task, and it occupied the office for weeks. Our tool of choice for this process is Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. It offers the fine control…
Mount Augustine volcano, Cook Inlet, Alaska. Stitched panorama photo made with two images. It was selected for the ATT Alascom Calendar for 2007. March 14, 2006 brought clear skies to southcentral Alaska, and I ventured to Homer to attempt some photography of Mt. Augustine volcano for a book project. I was aware of the volcano…
This image illustrates one main advantage of fast wide angle lenses–they offer shorter shutter speeds. Shorter exposure times mean more detail. A five second shutter speed in this case captures more distinctive shapes commonly found during the coronal display. These shapes tend to get all blurred together with long exposures. To achieve this however, you…
While over/under photography is nothing new, I wanted to experiment with a few ideas last summer. Both returned usable results, but not without plenty of experimentation, and trial and error. The equipment to do this right, i.e., the underwater housing for a Canon 1D series camera costs between 5-10K! There are cheaper methods, for example,…