Hi everyone.

It’s been a while since I last posted something on my blog. Well, I’ve been very busy with work, family and photography (and running ).

Anyway, I wanted to let you know of an upcoming show. It runs between May 29 and June 10. It’s in Malmö, in a park called Pildammsparken. I’ll have three images, the ones you see below. Please stop by if you have the opportunity.

Click here to see the poster.

Here are the framed versions:

When you are out shooting with a DSLR you can quite, no sorry, very easily determine the correct exposure. Just look at the back of the camera. Look at the preview and at the RGB histograms and they will tell you all you need to know.
Let’s say you shoot at 1/30 @ f/11 and the image turns out a little dark. Simply use the exposure compensation dial and booom you’re done. It basically takes 1 second or maybe 2 if you’re a little slow and you can move on to the next subject.

However, when shooting really long exposures you need to be certain you have the correct exposure directly. You can not rely on using the exposure compensation feature.
Why is there a difference? Simply because it will take too long. If you are shooting a 3 min exposure the camera is going to need about the same time (3 min) to save the file to your memory card. So, for a 3 min shot you will need to wait about 6 minutes before you know if your exposure is correct. Plenty of things can change in 6 minutes. The whole scene can be different. Also, it’s boring to shoot the same image twice when every exposure takes 6 min…

Ok, but how about doing a test shot with a faster shutter speed and/or higher ISO and use that to get the correct long exposure. Well, unfortunately this is not as easy as it may seem.
Let’s say you are using a 10 stop neutral density filter. In theory if you are doing a test shot that gives you a correct exposure at 1/30 @ f/11 and ISO 200 you should, after screwing on the filter, use 30 sec @ f/11 and ISO 200. You simply slowed the shutter by 10 stops. Well, this is going to give you an underexposed image even if the test shot was ok.
The reason is that for long exposures you need to compensate by adding 1/2 stop or 1 stop. So, in the example above you need to go to 60 sec to get a proper exposure.

To make it easier for you to do this in the field I’ve created a simple conversion table. Just refer to it when you are out shooting and you don’t need to calculate this in your head.
If your camera has ISO 100 use page 1. If your camera goes down to ISO 200 use page 2.

Download Shutter speed conversion table.

Here’s how it works.

1. Pick your working aperture
2. Compose and focus
3. Switch over to manual focus
4. Adjust ISO if needed and make a test exposure
5. Adjust exposure if the image is over/under exposed
6. Find your ISO/shutter speed combination in the table
7. Move to the right in the table to find your new shutter speed
8. Switch over to manual and set the shutter, aperture and ISO
9. Screw on the filter (if you are using one)
10. Make the exposure

Hope this helps. Please note that I haven’t verified all the shutter speeds so I don’t guarantee all of them are 100% correct.

Btw, please don’t forget to view my The making of videos.

Thanks for stopping by and as always your comments are very welcome.

Hi everybody,

Unfortunately I’m forced to take a photography time out. Well, at least photography editing time-out.
The reason is that my graphics card has died. He has been good to me all these years but now he’s gone

Anyway, I’m going to be without my computer for about two weeks. That’s a long time if you ask me.

So, what does this mean? Well, you are not going to see any new images during these two weeks.
What may happen though is that you are going to see a new pdf file describing the very basics in image workflow and editing. Very basic! I’m probably going to call it something like “From RAW to Master file” or something similar.

Also, maybe, maybe, maybe I’ll record another video and post it today before my comp. is gone.

The reason I’m going to do this is that I have a 2 h session at my camera club showing my way of doing this. And I thought that given the participants something in writing may help a bit.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hi,

Friday last week was a good Friday. I delivered three canvas prints to Malin. We are both very happy about the quality!!! They were printed by Drewex in Malmö.

Today was also a good day. A few weeks ago I contacted an online gallery and asked if they were interested in showcasing and selling some of my images and this morning I saw an e-mail from them and they thought some of my images were good.
We’ll see how that goes after Christmas.

Do you want to develop your photography? I assume the answer is yes. I mean, who doesn’t want to get better at what we are doing? Be it photography or chess…

I recommend watching videos of other photographers reviewing images. It can be images they have taken themselves or images sent in by other people.
It’s very interesting since it provides you with information on how other photographers think and see images.  You will also get a good insight into how other photographers edit images.

The site that I first of all want to recommend is The Mindful Eye. This site is run mainly by Craig Tanner. I think there are 5 contributors but Craig does most of the work. On The Mindful Eye you’ll find different types of videos.
“The Daily Critique” videos is where Craig discusses other site member’s images. These are very interesting. “From start to finish” is where Craig discusses the thought process and the technique used when editing an image sent in by other members or taken by himself.

Another great site that I just recently found is Beautiful Landscape. Alain Briot is a Frenchman living in the US. He’s a fine art photographer that makes his living out of selling fine art landscape images.
Compared to Craig Tanner, Alain’s got a slightly different way of seeing and a totally different way of editing. I, myself, have adopted Craig’s way of working. Maybe Alain is not showing the techniques he’s using on his own images. I don’t know. Anyway, you’ll find Alain’s photography reviews here.

If you want your website to be critiqued have a look at Zack Arias blog. You’ll find the critiques here.
Zack is in my opinion a very good photographer. He’s shotting portraits in the music business for a living. He’s a flash kind of guy.
The  critiques are mostly about a photographer’s website and how the photographer’s portfolio is displayed. Zack (and his wife) also makes comments about individual photos and if they are keepers or non-keepers.
Zack’s videos are loooong but very funny and informative. He’s giving quite a few very important points.

Enjoy. You have a few hundred hours of video watching ahead of you.