Official Photography Thread

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

HDR with some artistic license.

Is that portland?

[swampfrog]

Is that portland?

Yes.

[wuapinmon]

I know you're not one to get tripped up by literal definitions of words, but that seems like a hell of a lot of sunlight for "the last gasp of dusk." Forgive me.

.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Yes.

Beautiful shot. I mean I would've said that even if it wasn't Portland. I guess I should've complimented before questioning instead of after.

[Art Vandelay]

HDR with some artistic license.

I love that shot SF. I'm curious what your camera settings were. PDx is a hard temple to photograph (the one time I took photos at my nephews wedding). I struggled to get a good photo of the bride and groom and the whole temple due to the relatively small temple grounds and the height of the spires. It seemed I was either cutting off Moroni or shooting at an angle that made the couple look 10 feet tall.

[Northwestcoug]

Is that portland?

Sounds like it's time for HFNW to visit the temple again

[Katy Lied]

I love that shot SF. I'm curious what your camera settings were. PDx is a hard temple to photograph (the one time I took photos at my nephews wedding). I struggled to get a good photo of the bride and groom and the whole temple due to the relatively small temple grounds and the height of the spires. It seemed I was either cutting off Moroni or shooting at an angle that made the couple look 10 feet tall.

Well look at how close his camera is to the ground.

[creekster]

Well look at how close his camera is to the ground.

? How can you tell how close to the ground it is? With such a very wide angle lens it is hard to say, but it looks to m like it might be around chest or even shoulder high. Am I missing something?

[mtnbiker]

? How can you tell how close to the ground it is? With such a very wide angle lens it is hard to say, but it looks to m like it might be around chest or even shoulder high. Am I missing something?

I agree with you on the height, relative to the statues, but maybe Katy is thinking swampfrog's avatar is a selfie. ;-)

[swampfrog]

I love that shot SF. I'm curious what your camera settings were. PDx is a hard temple to photograph (the one time I took photos at my nephews wedding). I struggled to get a good photo of the bride and groom and the whole temple due to the relatively small temple grounds and the height of the spires. It seemed I was either cutting off Moroni or shooting at an angle that made the couple look 10 feet tall.

Well look at how close his camera is to the ground.

This was shot with an ultra-wide lens. 10mm on a crop sensor. Equivalent in some respects to 16mm on a full-frame sensor. Art is right in that getting the full temple into a shot on these grounds is difficult with even a typical wide angle lens. Shooting relatively non-distorted human subjects with an ultra-wide is tricky, but not impossible. You have to keep all of the people away from the edges, if the frame is divided into a 4x4 grid, keep the human subjects roughly in the middle four squares. The closer to the center, the less distorted they will be. You have to accept that the human subjects will be relatively small in the frame.

As Katy mentioned, shooting height is also critical. I'm not really low to the ground, but with respect to that first corner of the reflection pool, I'm probably 3 to 4 feet above that, with the camera tilted just slightly up. Much lower than I would typically be shooting hand-held on my feet (where my eyes are at just under 6 feet).

The real trick is to find a position (distance, angle, and height) where you can have the subjects in the middle area of the frame, get the whole temple in the picture, and find a framing where the distorted edges are at least acceptable, especially in the foreground. In this case I chose to meticulously embrace the symmetry of the reflection pool, so the distortions from the wide angle lens don't detract from the overall image. I ended up choosing to cut the corners off because not doing that left the nativity scene too small. I do have some shots including the corners, but I didn't like them as much. A tripod is essential to getting it exactly right and holding the camera fixed in that position. Using live view is also very helpful. I tried a variety of heights and some slightly off center also.

Good luck getting a bride and groom to wait patiently why you try all of these different options! A good wedding photographer that can work through this quickly is worth the price.

As for other settings, this was shot at f/8, focus was on the center spire. It's an HDR composite of 3 images of varying shutter speeds all shot at ISO 100.

[Art Vandelay]

This was shot with an ultra-wide lens. 10mm on a crop sensor. Equivalent in some respects to 16mm on a full-frame sensor. Art is right in that getting the full temple into a shot on these grounds is difficult with even a typical wide angle lens. Shooting relatively non-distorted human subjects with an ultra-wide is tricky, but not impossible. You have to keep all of the people away from the edges, if the frame is divided into a 4x4 grid, keep the human subjects roughly in the middle four squares. The closer to the center, the less distorted they will be. You have to accept that the human subjects will be relatively small in the frame.

As Katy mentioned, shooting height is also critical. I'm not really low to the ground, but with respect to that first corner of the reflection pool, I'm probably 3 to 4 feet above that, with the camera tilted just slightly up. Much lower than I would typically be shooting hand-held on my feet (where my eyes are at just under 6 feet).

The real trick is to find a position (distance, angle, and height) where you can have the subjects in the middle area of the frame, get the whole temple in the picture, and find a framing where the distorted edges are at least acceptable, especially in the foreground. In this case I chose to meticulously embrace the symmetry of the reflection pool, so the distortions from the wide angle lens don't detract from the overall image. I ended up choosing to cut the corners off because not doing that left the nativity scene too small. I do have some shots including the corners, but I didn't like them as much. A tripod is essential to getting it exactly right and holding the camera fixed in that position. Using live view is also very helpful. I tried a variety of heights and some slightly off center also.

Good luck getting a bride and groom to wait patiently why you try all of these different options! A good wedding photographer that can work through this quickly is worth the price.

As for other settings, this was shot at f/8, focus was on the center spire. It's an HDR composite of 3 images of varying shutter speeds all shot at ISO 100.

That is impressive - both the preparation and the picture. Thanks for explaining how you did it.

[clackamascoug]

Is that portland?

Sounds like it's time for HFNW to visit the temple again

I dunno why that struck me as funny. NWC busting HFNW's chops about his temple attendance.

[Northwestcoug]

I dunno why that struck me as funny. NWC busting HFNW's chops about his temple attendance.

Well when I can plainly see that it's the Portland temple and HFN is asking which one is it, there's something wrong!

[Katy Lied]

I am lusting after a ZhiYun Smooth Gimbal II for Christmas. $330 List. Sigh.

https://www.amazon.com/Zhiyun-Z1-Smo...hiyun+smooth+2

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Well when I can plainly see that it's the Portland temple and HFN is asking which one is it, there's something wrong!

I assumed it was but there are a couple that look the exact same. I also didn't realize swampfrog was a great PNWer.