The BEST beach for PHOTOGRAPHY? | Auto Focus Settings for Max Performance | Videography in Low Light
Coming up in the next 30 minutes. We reveal one of the best beach locations in the UK. We tell you all you need to know about autofocus settings in your camera. And we do some low light video shooting. Welcome to another episode of Photography Online coming to you from where Skye meets the mainland as we head down south to our next filming location. More on that later on. This month we've got a milestone birthday in the team so as a special gift we're allowing Harry to present the entire show. More on that later but
first of all here is a quick photography question for you. Which famous photographer once said, “It's an illusion that photos are made with a camera. They're made with the eye, heart and head”. Was it A: Henri Cartier-Bresson B: Ansel Adams C: Steve McCurry or D: David Bailey. I'll be revealing that answer later on in the show. So we have just finished running several week-long photo trips on the Isles of Harris and Lewis and Harry thought he'd share one of the locations that we always take our customers to to guarantee dramatic beach photos… Who doesn't like a bit of beach photography? When it comes to shooting beaches I'm often first in line and I'm fortunate to have some of the best beaches in the UK right on my doorstep. Well almost. As you know I'm based on the Isle of Skye
which doesn't have much in the way of beaches but I only have to hop onto a ferry and head to the Outer Hebrides to get my beach fix. If you ask people to name a stunning beach in the UK then the chances are that most of them would be on the Isles of Lewis or Harris or on the west coast of Scotland somewhere. My favourite beach, certainly when it comes to photography, is somewhere far less obvious. It's so unobvious that you could easily drive right past it. You see that's the strange thing about this beach. To the naked eye it doesn't look like
much at all but look through a viewfinder and suddenly there are possibilities everywhere. This beach only has a gaelic name so here's Ruth to pronounce it properly. Traigh Bheag. That was easy. The literal translation is Small Beach, which admittedly is far easier to pronounce and remember so let's go with that. But what makes this place so good for photography? It's a number of factors. Firstly, it's got these black rocks dotted everywhere which make the perfect
foreground feature. These change almost on a daily basis as the tide comes in and out, moving the sand around, revealing and hiding different rock formations. Secondly, this beach has a steep rake. This means the movement of the waves is fast. As the waves crash onto the beach they form white bubbles which recede at a really nice pace. This makes it really easy to get pleasing foregrounds. Thirdly, we have a pleasing background. So often when you're photographing on a beach we have a
flat lifeless horizon but here we've got some pleasing hills which give the eye somewhere to go. It also doesn't really matter what the light is doing as this place works well in almost any lighting condition. The tides are also largely irrelevant as there's just as much potential at low tide as there is at high tide. The main factor is the movement in the water. You want this to be significant. There are lots of other reasons why this beach is great for photography but one of them is it's right next to the road meaning we've got a convenient parking location. And just a few steps and we're into position to shoot. The waves here are often quite dramatic so it's usually no problem to get enough movement in the water to achieve some great results. For the same reason though this beach should be treated with
respect. Rogue waves are not uncommon, which can take you by surprise, knocking you off balance and engulfing your camera bag. Try to keep your bag well away from the water and I do mean well away. To get the most from this location you want to shoot on a reasonably wide lens, something in the region of 24 to 35 mm on a full frame camera. If you go any wider than this then you're going to make the hills in the background almost irrelevant so avoid the temptation. Because I'm using a wide angle lens I need to get close to the action for it to work in my composition. This is where the risk comes in. I find the best thing to do is to leave my bag well up the beach, fix everything I
need to onto the tripod and then venture down to the edge of the water. I need to keep in mind at all times that I may have to retreat very suddenly up the beach so I always have an exit route planned. I want the water around the legs of the tripod but if I see a big wave coming then I'm ready to pick up the tripod and run up the beach to safety at a moment's notice. Due to the fast speed of the water here you will only need an exposure time of around a third to one second to get sufficient movement in the waves. A polariser helps to make white water stand out which is key to creating the lines in the foreground so you definitely want to be using one of these.
Just be careful not to get uneven polarisation across your sky. A polariser is most effective when the sun is off to 90 degrees. Any more or less than this and the polariser is going to have slightly less of an effect.
Here the sun's most likely to be off to the side but if you're shooting with a wide angle lens, watch out for a dark polarised band in the middle of your shot. It can very easily ruin the best compositions. A polariser also doubles up as a two-stop neutral density filter so this will help you achieve the slow exposure times you will need. If shooting in bright conditions then you may also need a three-stop ND but this place tends to work best at the end of the day when the light levels are low anyway so a polariser by itself is usually enough. Remember to constantly check the front of your lens or filter for any splashes of water or sea spray as this will certainly ruin your shot.
Another technical issue you might encounter is simply the stability of your tripod. When you first set up, make sure to push it as far down into the sand as you can go. Then let a few waves crash over the legs. This will help to settle everything down. Then you're ready to start taking shots. You will also want to extend the lower leg sections of your tripod to keep the joints out of the salt water. You're going to want your tripod quite low
so whatever you do don't shoot from eye level as this will reduce the depth and drama of the image. If you want to get lower, having extended the bottom leg sections, then simply spread the legs a little wider. Towards the end of the day during the summer, you may be shooting into the light, so a graduated ND may be useful too. So you're all set up. You've got your exit route planned. You can finally start shooting. The key really here is experimentation. Each wave is unique so even if you do the same thing twice you're gonna get a different result. The main thing though is to make sure you vary your exposure time. Anywhere between about a third
of a second and one second is going to work pretty well. There's no right or wrong though, whatever looks attractive to you. For me personally, I find about half a second works really well. The next thing to influence your image is timing. You will get a totally different effect when recording an incoming wave to an outgoing wave. Incoming waves tend to be too bright as they contain too much white water. Outgoing waves, at least here, tend to have a much better balance of white water
which then washes around black rocks, creating attractive lines, texture and contrast. You can also try some slightly longer exposures when the wave is stalling at its highest point. The water will be moving slower so a longer exposure time may be beneficial. When the wave is stalling it is often moving sideways which can open up a whole new world of creative options. Timing is key here so it's not somewhere where you want to use the camera's self-timer. The best option is to use a remote release, preferably one that's tethered, that's plugged into the camera.
If you use a wireless remote it's just something else to drop in the water, quite likely if you've got to suddenly pick up your gear and run for safety. Once you've got your shots it's a good idea to wash the saltwater from your tripod which can be done in the convenient stream which flows down the beach. It's then just a case of getting out of your wet boots, happy in the knowledge that it was all worth it for the amazing photos you now have. The Outer Hebrides are a real hot spot for photography at the moment and it's easy to see why. Our trips for 2023 are already full but we are looking to see if we can squeeze another trip into the diary so get in touch if you're interested as more places may become available very soon. Thank you to everyone that joined us for our PO LIVE show last week where, among many other things, we showed everyone how to make prints like this without the need for any ink or a darkroom. It's all done with UV light and you end up with something which is a unique
work of art. We showed the whole process live, as well as discussing lots of other topics and answered questions from the audience as they came in. PO LIVE is available to all supporters on our PO LIVE or above levels and can be watched at any time. It's brought to you in partnership with Kase Filters UK and on next month's show we've got a £100 Kase voucher to give away so if you want to join us, simply press the Join button or go to the relevant link below. Now last time on this show Marcus and Ben went through some of the basic yet most important menu functions you're likely to find in your camera.
One particularly comprehensive area of most menu systems is the autofocus chapter. This can be quite confusing if you don't know what all the options relate to. Here's Harry to point you in the right direction if you want your camera to focus to its full potential. If you'd like to photograph moving subjects, be that wildlife, motorsports or even your dogs then getting your cameras and lenses set up correctly can make a massive difference to your success rate. The autofocus menus though, are an array of complicated words and settings so hopefully I'm going to simplify the whole thing for you.
Being primarily a Canon user, I will be basing this off of the autofocus menus found on a Canon. But whilst the menus differ from camera to camera, the main themes and functions of the settings are the same, albeit with slightly different names. I want to make this as general as possible. Most telephoto lenses will have some form of image stabilisation or vibration reduction. This is normally in the region of 2 to 4 stops and it can help massively if you're handholding the camera at slower exposure times. You might also have a number of modes which you can switch between on
the body of the lens itself such as Mode 1, Mode 2 and Mode 3. While these may differ slightly from lens to lens a rough guide is that Mode 1 will correct for movement in all directions, Mode 2 is for panning so it will correct shake if panning from left to right or up and down, whilst Mode 3 only engages the stabilisation as you take the image. i.e fully depress the shutter button. For a lot of wildlife which can be erratically moving, then leaving it in Mode 1 will do just fine. Some lenses will also give you options on the distances you can focus at. For example, 3 metres to infinity or Full, the full range all the way through to infinity. What you set this to depends on the sort of subject you're photographing. If you know your subject it's
always going to be very far away then set it to 3 metres to infinity. But if your subject is going to be moving around a lot and possibly quite close to the camera, then set it to the full range. All cameras will give you the option of a single shot or one shot autofocus mode. This function allows the camera to lock the focus at a specific distance once you have the focus button engaged. That's useful for static subjects and it lets you quickly recompose the shot if you need to
as long as you keep the focus button engaged. Alternatively you can opt for a continual focus mode. What this is called depends on the camera. It could be AFC, it could be AI Servo. This is obviously useful if you want to continually track a moving subject, as is the case with pretty much all wildlife and sports photography. On Canon cameras for example, you may also have a mode which is called AI Focus which is meant to be an intelligent auto mode which will switch you between single shot and continual focusing.
I found this to be relatively unreliable so I typically just avoid it and choose either single shot focus or continual shot focusing. Which one you use obviously depends on the sort of subject you're going to be shooting most often. Selecting the right number of autofocus points is one of the most vital choices you can take when setting up your camera to focus correctly. On DSLRs at the focus points in the centre are usually the quickest and most accurate. So when getting focused just right is vital, using a single point in the centre is the best option. On mirrorless cameras, however, this doesn't apply, as all pixels on the sensor can be used as a focus point at equal performance.
A single autofocus point may give the best accuracy but if you have a moving subject it can be really quite challenging to keep that single point right over your subject and maintain focus. That's where some of the other options with focus areas come into play. If you have a subject that is moving but predominantly remaining in the same sort of area, you may be better off with an expanded selection of four auto focus points. This gives you the flexibility if the subject moves, while still retaining an element of accuracy in your selection.
With fast moving subjects you have a few different options on autofocus area modes depending on your skill and confidence level. As a general rule, try and use the smallest grouping you can possibly get away with. In an ideal world I'd always use one single auto focus point because then I have total control over where the camera is focusing. However if a puffin is whizzing past at 50 mph then I'm usually going to opt for a slightly larger grouping of nine, maybe more, auto focus points to give myself the best chance possible. Newer mirrorless cameras also come with an array of detection autofocus modes and smart modes. This can range from eye detection to vehicles,
pets, birds, you name it. However the reliability and accuracy of these modes is going to massively vary from brand to brand, camera to camera. I've personally been using the Canon R5 and have found them to be really quite accurate and dependable and I've also recently tested the new OM1 and found them to be excellent too. So these can be a great option if you're in a tricky auto focus
situation or you don't quite have the confidence to try just a single auto focus point yourself. Most cameras now have a lot of options when it comes to button configuration. This can include setting up things like back button autofocus which, while it's not something I use personally, there are a few shortcuts I find to be very, very useful. Firstly is having just one button to quickly switch between single shot and continual auto focus. That,
along with a button to quickly select how many auto focus points and groupings you have enabled, is one of the best ways you can work. If your camera has a joystick on the back, make sure this is set to choose the active autofocus point or area. It isn't set as default on many cameras. Finally, if you have an eye detection mode on your camera, then a shortcut button to turn this quickly on and off could be a real life saver too. Tracking sensitivity determines how quickly the camera will focus on a new subject. If set towards Locked On, the focus will stay on a moving subject even if it is moving quickly. If you bias this towards responsive then the camera will readily acquire new subjects as they appear.
In other words, it controls how long the camera will wait before refocusing. If you are tracking an animal moving quickly for example, and it disappears behind some bushes, if your tracking sensitivity is set to very responsive then the camera will quickly switch focus from the animal to the bush. If you have the sensitivity set towards locked then it will wait longer, usually allowing you to maintain focus until the animal reappears on the other side.
Tracking sensitivity is probably the most important option you can configure correctly based on the sort of subjects that you shoot. As a rough guide, if you're expecting quick moving or quickly approaching subjects, then having your tracking sensitivity set to responsive can be a big help. If you tend to shoot on quite long focal lengths like 500 mm and upwards, then I would personally set the tracking sensitivity to less responsive in order to help the camera maintain and keep focus. This setting allows you to optimise the autofocus to capture fast moving subjects that may suddenly stop or move in random or erratic ways. As default, many cameras are set up to capture subjects moving at a constant speed, so this can be adjusted to have faster acceleration or deceleration if you shoot subjects like most wild animals, that will stop and start suddenly and sometimes without warning.
One last option you may see when flicking through focus menus relates to the focus or shutter priority. The camera can take an image without having fully locked on or will wait to take a shot until obtaining focus. If you want the full frames per second your camera offers then you have to enable priority to the shutter.
In the space of just a few years we've seen relatively mediocre autofocus systems transition all the way through to high speed, high accuracy AI systems. Despite all of this however, it's important to have your own input and control how the focus is operating on your camera. Hopefully now you'll have the confidence to go and set up your camera based on the subjects you like to shoot. So I hope that was useful. Combined with all the information from our last show too, you should
now have the knowledge to set up your camera to its full potential so that it works at its best for you. Obviously such settings only apply to digital cameras. When it comes to film cameras, these are much simpler but there is the added decision of which film to use. We'll be looking at why some photographers still shoot film in 2022 on our next show which will be coming from a rather special place and more details on that in a moment. So I mentioned that this month sees a
milestone birthday for Harry. He is off for a week or two celebrating so we thought we'd make him work a bit before he skives off which is why he's hogging all the features today. Happy Birthday to Harry. If you've been watching some of our recent shows we have been sharing some of our tips on how to shoot video using the tools most of us have at our disposal. Thank you to everyone who's letting
us know how much you're enjoying this series. One such area that is particularly challenging when it comes to videoing is in low light situations. Guess who's back to tell us all we need to know… So far in our Video Academy series we've looked at how to make the most of movement, be that with our subject, with the camera or of course, with both. Today we're going to be looking at another challenge when it comes to videography. Shooting in low light conditions. When we take stills, shooting low light scenes is not often a problem as we can just select longer exposure time to achieve the desired result. But when it comes to video, our exposure time is pretty much
fixed. As I explained before, this is ideally twice your frame rate. So assuming you're shooting at 25 frames per second then your ideal exposure time is 1/50th of a second. However, for low light we can extend our exposure time but only so far as is physically allowed. This is never less than the frame rate, so if shooting at 25 frames per second we are limited to a 1/25th or 1/30th of a second as it's obviously not possible to be taking 25 captures per second if each one is longer than a 25th of a second. To increase our exposure we can only use the other two sides of the exposure triangle, ISO and aperture. This is where fast primes come into their own, allowing us to go as wide as f/1.2 to let in loads of light to the camera. But this comes at the
price of a super shallow depth of field, something we may or may not want. When we reach the limit of the lens aperture all we have left is to increase the sensitivity of the sensor by ramping the ISO. Doing this will increase the noise in our content as well as reduce the dynamic range so we tend to only increase the ISO when our hands are tied with the other two factors. As we have discussed before, a great tool for shooting video is a phone. The latest models work great in low light conditions and if using one of the more recent iPhones, then it will be pre-loaded with Dolby Vision HDR which makes shooting in low light a breeze. You won't need to worry about all the settings I've just covered. Simply point
and shoot. This allows you to concentrate on the all-important creative process of your videography and capturing those important moments. Dolby Vision renders sharper contrasts and rich details, both key when recording in low-light situations. It's like extending your colour palette of whites, greys and blacks. When we think of low light, we either imagine an outdoor scene at twilight or at night or possibly an indoor scene. If outdoors at twilight then we need to remember
that this is a transient stage of the day and it will not last very long or be consistent. At dawn it won't be long before low light becomes bright light, whereas at the end of the day low light becomes no light. For this reason it's essential to be well planned in what you want to shoot so you can maximise the limited time to good effect.
Arrive on location early, plan out and rehearse everything before the light is at its best potential. If close to the equator this window of opportunity may only last a couple of minutes, whereas here in Scotland, which is at 57 degrees above the equator, this window can be up to an hour long. Basically, the further from the equator you are, the more time you'll have. Here at Photography Online we always plan and rehearse and have everything completely under control. Honest. If shooting outdoors in an environment which is artificially lit, then time of day is less relevant as it may be possible to shoot well into the night but there will be a sweet spot where the artificial and the natural light levels balance out to give a more pleasing result. One thing to be aware of when recording video in low light environments is how bright the screen on your camera or your phone is going to appear. It's going to appear much brighter than if you're shooting in bright conditions and that's because your eyes get more sensitive. The same as increasing the ISO in camera or opening up the
aperture in your lens. If using a digital camera this can make it easy to underexpose your footage so always ensure you check the histogram to make sure you are correctly exposed. If using the iPhone and Dolby Vision then it will take care of all of this for you but you may still want to manually adjust the brightness of the screen so that it looks correct to your eye. Shooting video in low light is great fun and opens up a whole array of amazing creative opportunities. This is simple to achieve if using Dolby Vision on an iPhone
but if you're shooting on a digital camera, just remember that the options for post processing are going to be limited so try to get it right at the capture stage. So that'll be the last time that you see Harry as a young lad. Next time you see him that boyish innocence will be nothing more than a fading shadow and he’ll probably have started shaving and his voice may have broken! You never know, he might even have grown out of his "student hair” stage. Okay, well I have been dropping hints that the next show is coming from somewhere a little bit different. As you can see this is the Skye bridge, the only permanent connection between our island and the mainland. The crew and I now have an eight-hour drive to Ilford HQ, where we are going to see the process of how film is made and see what's driving the resurgence of film photography. We'll be getting access to all areas of the production process
and chatting to some of the people who make the film that gets shipped all around the world. I am really looking forward to it so I hope that you can join me for that. I need to get on the road. Until I see you at the other end of my journey, take good care but most of all take good photos.
Welcome to another episode of Photography Online, coming to you from where Skye meets the mainland as woo hoo! Sorry. Welcome to another episode of Photography Online, coming to you from where Skye meets the mainland. Dammit! All we can do is increase the sensitivity of the…bloody hell! This can be quite confusing if you don't know what all the options relate to. Here's Harry to point you in the right direction if you want to camera your focus to its full potential… It's essential to be well planned in what you want to shoot so you can maximise the limitedited…limitibidy… Which famous photographer once said, “It's an illusion that phototo photographers… …the sand and formations around these change almost on a daily basis as the tide comes in and out, covering and and… you know doing stuff. ...if I just wave my arms about enough… So what you thought we forgot and that's because… yeah we forgot to give you the answer to today's question so I am doing it on route to the Ilford factory. Which famous photographer once said that it's an illusion that photos are made with a camera they're made with the eye heart and head was it A: Henri Cartier-Bresson B Ansel Adams C Steve McCurry or D David Bailey.
The correct answer was A. It was Henri Cartier-Bresson. Well done if you got that right. Okay, well, only seven hours to go but fortunately I've got a great magazine to read. Bye.
2022-03-29 16:24
