CITY ESCAPES
Nature Photography, LLC
Newsletter
June, 2013
Two Shows to Choose From in June
We’re back to Spokane this weekend for Artfest Spokane 2013. Come see us and swap a few stories about great places and fun critters. There will be lots to see and do in this outdoor art and music festival about a mile west of Spokane’s city center. Come to Coeur d’Alene Park (don’t let the name fool you – it’s in Spokane), in Browne’s Addition. We’ll be there all weekend, May 31 through June 2. We hope to see you there!
Hours:
Friday, May 31: 1pm – 8pm
Saturday, June 1: 10am – 8pm
Sunday, June 2: 10am – 5pm
Or come visit us in Blaine, WA, later in the month. We’ll be there for the International Art Festival at Peace Arch Park on June 22 & 23. The festival opens with a Tai Chi demonstration – you can’t get much more welcoming and relaxed than that. We’ll be in booth #48, but you don’t really need to know that – just come look around, take in all of the cool artists, music, food and performances, and find us in your meanderings. Don’t forget to practice your “Eh?”s; you’re bound to run into a plethora of Canucks here!
Hours:
Saturday, June 22: 10am – 7pm
Sunday, June 23: 11am – 5pm
Using Flash Outdoors
As summer nears, plans for family bbqs, camping trips, and outdoor sports kick into high gear. How often have we excitedly taken photos at such outings, only to discover that the sky is bright and beautiful, but the faces of our subjects are much too dark? One solution to this is quite simple, though perhaps a bit counter-intuitive: use your flash. “Use a flash in bright sunlight?” you might ask. “Are you crazy?” Believe it or not, no. To understand why, you need to know a bit about how your camera works.
Unless you are shooting in the manual mode, where you control absolutely all of the settings, your camera will evaluate a scene to determine the proper exposure. Most cameras will evaluate ALL of the scene and create an exposure that results in the median values (or sometimes, the brightest part) of the image properly exposed. Also, a camera can only “see” a limited range of tonal values, much fewer than the human eye can. This means that while we can see both the beautiful blue sky and the pitcher’s shaded face under his baseball cap, the camera can see only one or the other: to see one extreme, it loses the ability to see the other well. When you combine these two aspects, you end up with an image that has the bright sky properly exposed, but no detail in the faces. The answer: either darken the sky, or brighten the faces. (To read a discussion on the sky-darkening options, see our March 2013 newsletter.)
There are several techniques to add light to faces or other dark areas of your scene, but this month we will only discuss the simplest: popping that flash up. Most cameras, now even some smart-phone versions, have some sort of built-in flash. Turn it on, and fire away. That’s it. The added light hitting the foreground elements of your image will bring the tonal values between the foreground and the bright sky closer together, allowing your camera to see and capture them more accurately. If you have the ability to control the output of your flash, i.e., the amount of light it produces in a single flash, experiment with turning it down from full power. Lower flash outputs often end up providing a more natural look to the image while still contributing sufficient light to do the trick. You might only have the option to switch between full-powered flash and what is known as fill flash (not counting the red-eye reduction setting). You’re in luck; this entire process of adding light, via a flash, to the shadowy areas of an otherwise bright image is called using fill flash. So set your flash on fill flash and voila! You’re set.
There is an entire art (and a bit of physics) to properly placing flashes for the most effective results, and it almost always involves using off-camera flashes rather than the built-in versions. But for now, to dramatically improve your summertime shots, put this simple tip into practice. You will find that your family portraits with that gorgeous sunset in the background will be much closer to what you wanted to capture in the first place.
June Specials
Visit us at one of our shows, mention that you subscribe to our newsletter, and receive a free 5x7 greeting card of your choice!
Fun Facts
June 5th, 2013, is the 41st anniversary of World Environment Day. First created by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972, a different theme is chosen for WED each year, with the goal to not only raise awareness of environmental issues, but also to educate people about actions that they can take locally to support a healthy environment and alleviate environmental problems.
The theme for 2013: Think.Eat.Save. According to the United Nations’ website, “every year 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted. This is equivalent to the same amount produced in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa.” It is estimated that worldwide, a third of all food is wasted, while in the U.S. that percentage rises to 40%. 40%! Even if you don’t care about the environment, think of how much more money you would have in your pocket if 40% of your food bill vanished.
If you have any questions, or suggestions for future newsletters, please email us at: relationships@cityescapesphotography.com
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CITY ESCAPES Nature Photography, LLC
www.cityescapesphotography.com
774-277-9682
