Let me just say:  I LOVED THIS WEEK'S THEME!

I have been doing so much portrait work with the typical prime lenses, that I have not been using my wide angle lenses lately.  Silly me, I should actually be using them in my portrait work sometimes as well.  I forgot how much I like what a wide angle lens has to offer.

Using different lenses often requires using a different approach to setting up a photo.  When using a wide angle lens, with a wider field of view, more elements are a part of the photo, so you have to make an executive decision about how to set the photo up and what elements you want to include.  Also, wide angle lenses often make close objects appear larger than distant objects in a way that lends energy to the photo.

I used an 18-70 Nikkor lens this week.  I decided, due to the monsoons of Pennsylvania, to stay indoors and to just use everyday life as my subject base.  This would be especially difficult in our house with a wide angle lens.  To make it even more challenging, I took the bulk of my shots in a cluttered area (view-wise) and nearing twilight.  I used a camera mounted flash with a diffuser, and bounced light off of my white ceiling.

For the first set of images, I used Luke, and didn't go to any great lengths to color coordinate the scene.  I wanted to see what I could do to use a wide angle creatively and go with all of the elements that were present.  You can see in the photo on the left, I simply took a head on shot using little imagination.  There were many more elements in this photo, but I cropped it down to the subject.  It's an okay photo, and because Luke is a very cute dog with big ears, even though the photo is pretty straight forward, it might cause you to go "Awww."   However, the photo on the right definitely has energy.  I sat on the ground very close to Luke to distort the perspective a little bit with the wide angle lens.  I angled my camera upward so there are more elements in the photo, but the time of day and my one flash, makes them darker and less obtrusive.  You see less of the ottoman due to my crop, and I feel this photo shows Luke to his advantage.  This is not a shot I would have been able to achieve with a regular prime lens, as I would not have gotten the angle distortion and/or the appearance of Luke being so much larger than the items behind him.

I asked our illustrious (and often hell-raiser) cat, Matty, to help me out for my next photo series.  Here you can see Matty enjoying some quiet (this is a blessing really and I almost left him there with no interruption) time away from the dogs in our front room area.  The lens, again, took in a great deal more in this photo, but I cropped it down a bit so you can't see the window behind the couch.  Again, an okay photo, but nothing overly exciting.  Now, let's change the angle of the camera again, get closer with the wide angle lens and see the dynamic that results below.

Matty is now framed by the couch, and his paws appear larger (the better to swat you with, my dear).  The incidental items behind him lend themselves to the ambiance, and you can now see a bit of the window frame behind the couch.  A much better perspective.  Right after this Matty went and chased a dog for fifteen minutes.  I knew I should have let well enough alone.

Two things which our author noted this week, which I believe are the most important thoughts about using wide angle lenses: 

• Because they diminish the size of the elements in the frame relative to real life, wide-angle lenses must be pushed in closer to a subject to keep the subject larger in the frame, thus exaggerating the lines.
• Wide-angle lenses are harder to use because they allow so much to be included in the frame, which means greater care is needed to choose a point of view. (The Visual Toolbox: David Duchemin)

If you own a wide angle lens, get it out and experiment with it.  See if you can change the dynamic and energy of your photos.

My final photo is of our little Beth, because she ultimately decided Luke was getting too much attention.  I left lots of the background elements in this photo, but Beth is still up front and the major attraction, thanks to getting in close with the wide angle lens.  Yes that is a squirrel on her collar tag.  Yes, she chases them.

For more on using wide angle lenses, start here with Teann Dhariwal, Edmonton Pet Photographer - Mutt Love Photography.

Having been AWOL last week, I am happy to be back.  Last week's lesson was all about The Triangle (shutter speed, ISO, and aperture).  I hope some of you got to read through the blogs of the other participants that I included on my Facebook page.  There were some fantastic examples and great images all around.

This week, I am going to start with Slow Shutter Speed and then move to Panning.  While I have done some of the latter, I am not a real user of the former, so this gave me a chance to play.  Since it has been cold again, I decided to photograph using slow shutter speeds during a nightly round of the game we call "Feed The Dogs."  There is always plenty of activity by some members of our group, and that activity is pretty predictable, so I knew I had a good chance of capturing workable images. 

Our text asked us to keep shutter speeds at or below 1/60.  I started out with a speed of 1/60 to capture Burton becoming aware that dinner time was imminent, and his tail began wagging. You can see that tail blur in the photo below.

I did not use a tripod or any other light besides what was available in our kitchen.  The image is a bit soft, but as you turn down the shutter speed, this is often the result, especially inside with ambient light.  I turned up the ISO a bit to 1000, so there is noise in the background of this photo.  I did not edit it out, but left it as an example.  I probably could have taken the ISO down a bit more, as the top of Burton's head is a bit blown out, but I like his expression and the general feel of the photo.

Next I took the shutter speed down to 1/30.  I sat with my camera on my knees and/or moved to lay on the floor braced on my elbows, with camera braced against my face.  I am not great with hand-held below 1/100, but I was too lazy to run for my tripod and set that up.

We have our movers and shakers, and Billie (that front blur) is one of our movers.  Luke (who looks like he is going to start a load of dishes in the dishwasher) is new to our group, and he doesn't quite have the "sit-out-of-the-way-until-dinner-is-ready" down yet, but he will get there soon.

Again, the photo has noise, but you really get the feel for what is happening based on Billie's movement, thanks to the slower shutter speed.  And while we typically do not let her do what is depicted below, I left the shutter at 1/30 and encouraged my husband to let her show her exuberance at getting fed, so that I could capture this photo.

I opened up my aperture more on this shot, and you can see how bright it is based on the slower shutter speed.  While I do not consider these images technically correct, I do think they are fun.  It would take quite a bit more practice on my part to master the slower shutter image potential.  It is something I have on my TO-DO list, but have not really had time for.  Now that I've done this week's lesson, you can bet I will be practicing more with slower speeds and you will probably see the results in the future.

Now, on to PANNING.  With panning you have to take into account the speed in which your subject is moving and set your shutter speed accordingly.  The speed is usually going to be below 1/100.  You plant your body and bracing your camera you follow your subject as they move to keep them somewhat focused, while at the same time blurring the background.

After spending countless amounts of time in my back yard in the freezing cold, I can tell you that doing a panning shot with a horse and rider in a show ring is FAR FAR EASIER than trying to predict the trajectory of a dog with a ball or toy.  Nevertheless, little Luke was game to try to run past me and be cooperative.  Here is my panning shot of Luke.

Had my speed matched his a little better, I might have gotten those back legs a bit more in focus, but I also would have gotten whiplash.  I love his little shadow.  You definitely get a sense of movement in this photo.  Luke is one very fast dog.

Finally let me share an image I did over the summer of 2015. It is a horse show image and shows that if you can keep your speed of movement at the same level as your subject while panning, you get a much crisper image.

I see a lot of potential for slow shutter speeds and panning.  Dog agility courses come to mind.  I will be practicing this more and looking to attend some outdoor agility events where I can continue to try out both of these techniques.  You only get better with practice!

For more on movement, slow shutter speeds and panning, start here with Little White Dog Pet Photography - Sioux Falls, SD, Kelly Middlebrooks.  Enjoy!

Last week I mentioned that I do 80% of my photograph work with my image quality setting at RAW or NEF (Nikon).  Twenty percent of my work is done using JPEG.  I have very real reasons for the times I use JPEG, and most of them have to do with the size of the file, how many shots I will be taking and how much time I need to put into editing, but RAW is my choice for studio and client work.

I must admit that I do use histograms.  Early on in the 2012 timeframe, I took a very good class locally that covered reading histograms and using them correctly.  If you are wondering what a histogram is, it looks like this:

My instructor at the time told us our best bet was to "shoot for the midtones" and to try to have your histogram somewhat evenly spaced and spread out across the image (depending upon the image and lighting, of course).  He also warned us against large peaks or lines to the far right and far left of the histogram, which could signify too dark or too light (with no details in either) areas in the photo. 

In the book, The Visual Toolbox, our author says much the same things, but has thrown in the fact that there is often more detail (and data) to the right of the image than to the left.  That makes sense to me, because the right holds data from the light, which (except for blown out highlights) can be much more malleable than data to the left.

Now just to play devil's advocate, here is an article by Ken Rockwell concerning histograms. Ken is pulling no punches about what histograms mean to him.

So where do I fall?  I fall somewhere in the middle of these two discussions.  I believe that placing all your weight on a histogram may not cut it for the photo you are seeing, and the same goes for placing all your weight on just the image in the back of the camera.  I think you have to use both, plus experience gained from practice.

Let's use this example.  I have used Billie this week as my model because she is the HARDEST dog to photograph.  Not only does she constantly move around all the time, but she has this super-large range of white-to-black colors in her fur. The top of her head can often get blown out due to the highlights there.  It's only through experience that I know what the RAW image and histogram need to look like for Billie, and, again, it depends on the lighting that surrounds her.  In the image below, I had a little bit of a "highlight warning" on the top of her head, but I know that if I try to expose for the top of her head in this light, her dark eye circles would be even darker and you might not see the detail there.  Remember, that lighter data, for Billie, is more usable for me than the darker data, so I am not going to pay attention to the highlight warning here.  I let Moe photo bomb her because I knew the additional white to the right would also highlight Billie's coloring, and Moe, even as a blob, is cute.

What I did to this photo in post processing:  brightened, increased saturation, brightened Billie's eyes, straightened it, and used a color brush on the filtered sunlight in the trees and the grass to the left. I then cropped it, and sharpened to 20%.  And that is my goal.....minimal post processing by getting the histogram and LCD image to cooperate fully. 

Now, here is another image. In this image, my histogram leaned more toward the middle range (midtones).  This was taken in a different light situation (mid-day as opposed to end of day). There were absolutely no in-camera warnings while making this photo.  You can see how a midtone-range image fares once edited.

I applied much the same type of edit to this photo.  Adjustments to brightness, saturation, contrast, sharpness and a whisk of the color brush.  RAW images allow for more data manipulation than JPEG, and with the right combination of histogram and LCD, even Billie becomes an easy target.

For more on this week's theme, start with Pet Love Photography, serving Greater Cincinnati and the San Francisco Bay Area, then continue to follow the blog ring until you are right back where you started.  Enjoy!