How To Do Shutter Speed

October 25, 2014 Passy Leave a comment

Shutter Speed is one of the three key variables in Digital Photography. The other two are ISO Light Sensitivity and Aperture Light Levels.

We suggest that before going through this article on Shutter Speed, you go through our previous articles on Camera Settings, ISO and Aperture.

These lessons can be found at the following links:

How To Do Camera Settings

How To Do ISO Settings

How To Do Aperture Settings

Shutter Speed is mainly used for creating dramatic effects by either freezing action or blurring motion.

It is a good idea to read our previous articles listed above about Camera Settings before working through this Shutter Speed Article.

Understanding Shutter Speed is critically important to isolate items and have them crisply in focus without any motion blur occurring.

In normal conditions, such as outdoors in bright daylight, shutter speed is usually not a problem. We can simply set our camera to Auto Mode and its processor will calculate and use a shutter speed which gives good results.

However, in various other situations, we need to be critically aware of what needs to happen with Shutter Speed and how it affects our photos.

Shutter Speed, (also called “Exposure Time”), becomes critically important in situations outside of the norm, such as the following:

1) Fast Moving Sports Action

2) Dimly lit indoor areas such as Bars and Clubs

3) Night Time Photography

4) Theatre and Musical Performances

5) Indoor Photos using Flash

6) Indoors Photos where we do not use Flash

7) Photos where we want motion blur for fast moving objects

8) Bird and Wildlife Photography

9) Photographing Young Children

In this article we will show you what Shutter Speed is, what the speed numbers mean, and how to set shutter speeds to values which should produce great photos.

The article is a very long one, and so we recommend going through it several times, as well as watching the videos at the end of the article.

Definition of Shutter Speed

Every digital camera has a shutter which opens and closes quickly to let light through the lens to the image sensor. Think of the shutter as like being in a dark room during the daytime, and opening and closing a set of venetian blinds quickly to let a burst of light into the room.

Basically a camera shutter is like a curtain in front of the camera sensor that stays closed until the camera fires and goes “click click”.

When the camera fires, the shutter opens and fully exposes the camera sensor to the light that passes in through the lens.

After the sensor is done collecting the light, the shutter closes immediately, stopping any more light from hitting the sensor.

The button that fires the camera is called the “shutter” or “shutter button”, because it triggers the shutter to Open and Close.

The speed at which the shutter opens and closes is usually a fraction of a second, such as 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, 1/2000.

The bigger the number in the bottom of the Fraction, the faster the shutter opens and closes.

A “Fast Shutter Speed” is needed for Sports to freeze the action. But a fast speed lets in less light, and so we need good lighting conditions.

A “Slow Shutter Speed” lets in more light (for indoor lighting conditions).

However this can result in blurring if people are moving.

Usually we cannot shoot at speeds lower than 1/60, because we will get camera shake as well as blurring of our photos.

Shutter Speed is not usually a problem if we are in bright sunlight, but for other situations speed is critically important.

Standard Shutter Speeds

“Shutter Speed” is measured in seconds or fractions of seconds:

1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, 1/2000, 1/5000

Note that the bottoms of the fractions always double, except for the jumps between 1/8 and 1/15, and 1/60 and 1/125.

The jumping of 1/60 to 1/125, instead of 1/60 to 1/120, is deliberately designed that way so that the doubling pattern is simpler for the 1/125, 1/250, 1/500 end of the Range.

There is also the out of sequence jump between 1/8 and 1/15 for the same reason.

Note that the Speed is usually displayed as whole numbers on cameras, due to LCD and Viewfinder sizes.

Eg. 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 30, 60, 125, 250, 500, 1000, 2000, 5000.

Shutter Speed Geometric Progression

Typically, Shutter Speeds start from 1 to 1/60 (slow), and go up in in value following a “Geometric Progression” (with a Multiplying Factor of One Half).

Eg. Speed Sequence is: 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, then 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, then 1/125, 1/250, 1/500 etc.

As discussed previously, there are deliberate jumps in the sequence, (which do not follow a multiplying factor of 1/2).

These jumps are at 1/8 to 1/15, and 1/60 to 1/125, which keeps the shutter speed fractions at simple whole numbers.

So this means that the entire Sequence actually consists of three separate Geometric Progressions, with a Multiplying Factor of 1/2 in each of them.

The important consequence that photographers need to understand, is that each step between the numbers effectively halves the amount of light reaching the sensor.

Eg. If we give the shutter an open/close time which is twice as fast, we only let half as much light in.

Many modern Digital SLR cameras also have in between Shutter Speeds which can be dialled up and used.

For example in between 1/60 and 1/125, there might be speeds of 1/80, or 1/100, which are also available.

These in between values allow finer increments of speed increase and consequent light reduction.

Shutter Speed Guide

“Panning Blur” involves tracking the moving subject with the camera using multishot mode.

This creates motion blur in the background to give the viewer a sense of the speed.

Eg. For Panning Blur on a Runner in the Park, use speeds of 1/30, 1/60, or 1/100 so that the subject is captured, but the background is blurred.

The following video shows an example of how to do “Panning Blur”.

Fast Shutter Speeds for Sports

Capturing the action in Sports can be a trade off between freezing the action, and having enough light coming in through the shutter to get a good clear picture.

Outdoors in bright sunlight we are usually okay, and if we set our camera to “Sports” Mode, it will use a very fast speed like 1/2000 and get good clear shots.

However for Indoor Sports, even if the stadium appears to have good lighting, a Shutter Speed of 1/2000 will make our shots come out too dark.

We need to remember that our human eyes adjust extremely well to reduced lighting conditions, but cameras do not!

If in “Sports” or “Auto” mode, we take an indoor shot, and it comes out too dark, then we will not be able to use our camera in automatic mode.

In these situations we can do some basic mathematics and figure out that 1/2000 + 1/2000 = 2/2000 = 1/1000.

This means that if we reduce shutter speed from 1/2000 down to 1/1000 we will get twice as much light onto the camera’s sensor.

If we change 1/2000 to 1/500 we will get four times more light, and reducing 1/2000 down to 1/250 will give us 8 times more light.

We will need to put our camera into either “Manual” mode “M”, or “Shutter Priority” mode “S” to be able to make these changes.

The trade off will be that we might not freeze the action perfectly, but sometimes a slightly blurred ball can help show some fast movement in the photo, and so it is actually a good thing.

Using Multi Shot for Sports

For fast moving ball sports, especially tennis, a lot of shots will be unusable because the ball moves so fast it is often out of frame by the time the camera fires.

The solution to this issue is to make sure “Multi Shot” or “Rapid Fire” is turned on, so that several photos are quickly taken in a row, while the camera makes a machine gun type sound.

We can then pick the best photo from the multi shot sequence and use that one in our photo album.

Most cameras have a rapid shoot preset mode that can be dialled in, and/or they have “Sports” as one of their Scene Modes, and “Sports” mode will automatically turn multi shot on.

Multi Shot mode is also very useful to use at young Children’s Parties.

Kids move around a lot and are very easily distracted. It often takes several shots to get one where they are all sitting still and looking at the camera.

Shutter Speeds for Flash Photography

Photos of People need to be done at a shutter speed of 1/125 to 1/250 to ensure that all movement is frozen.

If we are indoors and we want to capture the indoor lighting background, (like at a Club or a Bar), then using 1/125 combined a High ISO of 800 to 1600 will usually do a good job of this.

The reason that it works, and the photo does not come out too bright, is because when we use Flash the camera basically takes two pictures and merges them.

Eg. The Flash freezes subjects that were initially dark.

The following two part video explains this concept, as well as setting Shutter Speed for Night Club Photos.

Here is the second part of the above video:

Very Slow Shutter Speeds

Some cameras also give you the option for very slow shutter speeds that are not fractions of seconds but are measured in full seconds.

Eg. 1 second, 10 seconds, 30 seconds etc.

These are usually used in very low light situations, and/or night time, to produce special effects, or for capturing a lot of movement in a shot.

In daylight, slow shutter speeds can be used to make seawater, rivers or waterfalls appear “milky” with blurred water, and many people find this effect visually pleasing.

However we also use to use an “ND Filter” over our lens to reduce the bright daylight coming in over such a long exposure time, so that the photos do not turn out way too bright.

Slow Shutter Speeds are also used to create an effect called “motion blur”, where moving objects appear blurred along the direction of the motion.

This effect is used quite a bit in advertisements for cars and motorcycles, where a sense of speed and motion is communicated to the viewer by intentionally blurring the moving wheels.

Slow Speeds also create interesting car light trails in night time city photos.

Some cameras also give you the option to shoot in ‘B’ (or ‘Bulb’) mode. Bulb mode lets you keep the shutter open for as long as you hold it down.

Bulb Mode can be used for getting photos of the Stars Moving Across the Night Sky.

The following video shows how to shoot car light motion at night.

Shutter Speed and Lens Size

Different Lenses are different sizes, and have various “Focal Lengths”, where Focal Length is basically the distance from the end of the lens to the sensor inside the camera body.

Longer focal lengths, (like when you zoom right to 200mm for a shot), have a reduced subject area, and are far more sensitive to camera shake.

If you have ever used Binoculars or a Telescope, you will know how hard it is to keep it steady when you have zoomed right in on a person or object.

To overcome the shake, we need to choose a faster shutter speed (unless we have very good image stabilization built into the lens, or our camera is mounted on a Tripod).

The ‘rule’ of thumb to use with focal length is to choose a shutter speed with a denominator that is larger than the focal length of the lens.

For example if we have a standard 50mmm or 55mm lens then 1/60th is probably ok. But if we have zoomed right in with a 200mm lens, we need to shoot at around 1/250 to be safe from shake blurring.

Shutter Speed and Lens Aperture

A Faster Shutter Speed will let us freeze the action, but will let less light into the camera.

In bright daylight sports this will probably not be a problem as there is plenty of bright light available.

For sunny outdoors, we can capture action sports using a cheap f3.5 to f5.6 Zoom Lens.

However for indoor sports, with less light, using a high / fast shutter speed to freeze the action can result in very dark pictures.

This is because we do not have enough light entering the camera when the shutter speed is higher than 1/250.

Increasing the ISO Light Sensitivity to lighten up the photo, will probably result in ugly dotty grainy effects on our photos.

The only solution is to get more light in using a wider aperture, and for this we need an expensive f2.8 lens.

This is why f2.8 zoom lenses, and f1.4 portrait lenses are called “Fast” Lenses.

It is because these lenses can supply enough light using their wide open apertures to allow us to use a high shutter speed of 1/500 to 1/1000.

f2.8 Fast Zoom lenses are very expensive: eg. $2500 to $15 000 to even $45 000.

These lenses can be used for both Indoor Sports and Outdoor sports and are usually White in Color, and can look like “Bazooka Guns” mounted on cameras.

The other great thing about expensive f2.8 zoom lenses is that they are great for shooting high quality clear videos indoors.

Shutter Speed ISO and Aperture

To get a great Photo, we need to manipulate the three key camera variables of Shutter Speed, ISO, and Aperture to values which are optimal for the given set of lighting conditions, and the speed at which subjects are moving.

Photography in bright sunlight conditions is not a problem, because there is an abundance of natural light to make great photos.

But Photography indoors without flash is always a trade off between these three variables.

The simultaneous manipulation of Speed, ISO, and Aperture is quite involved and is the subject of an entirely separate photography article at the following link:

How to Combine Exposure Settings

Videos About Shutter Speed

Here are some videos that cover everything we have discussed in this article and are well worth watching.

The following three minute video gives a basic explanation about Shutter Speed

This next eleven minute video fully explains shutter speed, and is well worth watching

Sony Video About Shutter Speed

Here is an excellent video all about Setting Shutter Speed on Sony Alpha Cameras.

References

Digital Photograpy School Shutter Speed Article

Photography Life Shutter Speed Article

Teachers Games 2014

October 1, 2014 Passy Leave a comment

Photos By Passy was the official photographer for the Victorian Teachers Games held in Bendigo during late September 2014.

The Teacher’s Games involves teachers from schools all across the state of Victoria competing in a range of Individual and Team Sports.

There are also nightly social and party activities to attend, and so it is always a week of very little sleep.

For this job I used nearly every piece of camera equipment that I own, and it all found a use somewhere.

My main Go To camera was the Sony A77II with the 16-50mm Sony Lens. Overall I was delighted with its performance, in spite of some of the indoor sports ISO difficulties.

What follows are separate write ups for the events and functions which were covered. These are discussed one by one, with notes about camera settings and shooting approach, as well as links to the final online photo albums.

If you are interested in attempting some sports photography, then you should find some useful tips and tricks in this article.

If you want to learn more about the technical side of photography, then check out the How To Guides on our website at the following link:

Photos By Passy – How To Guides

If you just want to see the pictures, then simply scroll down and click on the links to the various albums.

Games Registration

Games Registration and Check In was held in the Bendigo Stadium foyer, and the lighting was good enough for many of the camera shots to be done without flash.

The aim of the shoot was to get plenty of shots of people checking in, along with the tables of volunteers and officials in attendance.

Games Registration Photos

Games Registration Photos

Here are the links to the Games Registration Photos

Games Registration Photos on Flickr

If you would like to download copies of photos from Flickr, then use the following instructions:

How To Download Photos from Flickr

Games Registration Photos on Facebook

EQUIPMENT:

Sony Alpha A-77 Mk II Camera
Sony 16-50mm SSM F2.8
On board Camera Flash

The camera was set to Intelligent Auto and many of the shots were taken without flash.

When the camera did choose to use Flash, there was a problem because I habitually left the lens shade hood on, resulting in some round lens hood shadow visible at the bottom of the photo.

While using the lens hood is great for protection, as well as using a clear UV filter, I need to remember to always remove it for any on-board flash photos!

Brownlow Medal Pub Night

This was a social night out involving dinner and watching the Brownlow Medal on the big screen televisions at the venue.

The brief was to get plenty of photos of patrons having fun dressed up in their favorite football team guernseys.

Brownlow Medal Night Photos

Here are the links to the Brownlow Medal Night Photos

Brownlow Medal Night Photos on Flickr

If you would like to download copies of photos from Flickr, then use the following instructions:

How To Download Photos from Flickr

Brownlow Medal Night Photos on Facebook

EQUIPMENT:

Sony Alpha A-77 Mk II Camera
Sony 16-50mm SSM F2.8
Sony HVL-F43M Flash
Gary Fong Gamma Blade Diffuser

The camera was set to Manual Mode with speed of 1/125 and ISO 1250, as we do for most of our standard night club photography.

Aperture was varied from 4.0 to 5.6, depending on the size of the group of people being photographed.

The flash power was also set manually for every shot, mostly to 1/8 power and 50mm width.

Trivia Night

Trivia Night consists of Tables of Teams answering questions and performinng random tasks deliberately designed to be embarassing.

It is a lot of fun!

Trivia Night Photos

Here are the links to the Trivia Night Photos

Trivia Night Photos on Flickr

If you would like to download copies of photos from Flickr, then use the following instructions:

How To Download Photos from Flickr

Trivia Night Photos on Facebook

EQUIPMENT:

Sony Alpha A-77 Mk II Camera
Sony 16-50mm SSM F2.8
Sony HVL-F43M Flash
Gary Fong Gamma Blade Diffuser

Panasonic Lumix LX7 Camera

The Sony camera was set to Manual Mode with speed of 1/125 and ISO 1250, as we do for most of our standard night club photography.

Aperture was varied from 4.0 to 5.6, depending on the size of the group of people we were photographing.

The flash power was also set manually for every shot, mostly to 1/8 power and 50mm width.

The Lumix LX7 was used for doing 16:9 aspect ratio wide angle photos of the novelty events, and at Aperture F1.4 required no flash to be used.

Mixed Basketball

The mixed basketball was held inside the Bendigo Stadium which has reasonably good artificial lighting on the center court, but not quite such good lighting on the adjoining courts.

I found the best position to stand was at one end of the center court, near the end of the basketball key line, and to frame up the shot with the rim and the backboard in it.

The only problem with this position is it is usually where the referee wants to be, because it gives the best vantage point.

Mixed Basketball Photos

Here are the links to the Mixed Basketball Photos

Mixed Basketball Photos on Flickr

If you would like to download copies of photos from Flickr, then use the following instructions:

How To Download Photos from Flickr

Mixed Basketball Photos on Facebook

EQUIPMENT:

Sony Alpha A-77 Mk II Camera
Sony 16-50mm SSM F2.8

Sony Alpha A-55 Camera
Tamron 24-70mm F2.8

Most shots were taken with the A-77 set to Sports Scene mode, and there were not many good shots obtained with the A-55.

The A-77 in SCN “Sports Mode” tends to go for a very high Shutter Speed of 1/2000th and an ISO of 3200 which leads to grainy and dark shots.

Rapid shoot to get multiple images was used on a number of occasions so as to end up with the best photo to choose from for action sequences.

I was able to get usable pictures by using Photoshop and making adjustments and sharpening each individual picture.

Next time I need to spend time experimenting in Manual Mode with a Speed of 1/500th which would let in four times more light, and allow for a lower ISO which would give clearer pictures.

The A-55 in Sports Mode did not produce very good shots, and the zoom range was not well suited for the task at hand.

Womens Netball

It was a bright sunny day for the Netball, but the action was fast paced and not that easy to photograph.

It seemed that every time I moved position the action went somewhere else!

Sports Photography is a percentage game, and it was a matter of shooting as many shots as I could in the hour or so time which was available. The best photos were then chosen by doing a massive cull of pictures that evening.

Ladies Netball Photos

Here are the links to the Womens Netball Photos

Womens Netball Photos on Flickr

If you would like to download copies of photos from Flickr, then use the following instructions:

How To Download Photos from Flickr

Womens Netball Photos on Facebook

EQUIPMENT:

Sony Alpha A-77 Mk II Camera
Sony 16-50mm SSM F2.8

Sony Alpha A-55 Camera
Sony DT 18-250mm F3.5-6.3

Although I had both cameras with me, the zoom range on the A-77 seemed to be sufficient, and so I hardly used the A-55 at all.

The A-77 reveled in the bright outdoor sunlit conditions. Most shots were done in multishot SCN “Sports Mode” and they came out crisp and clear.

The A-77 MkII is a great camera for bright light sports photos, and I was very happy with the results.

Singles Tennis

It was a perfect bright sunny day for the Tennis, and there were some good players which helped me get good photos.

It seems for sports in general, if the standard of the game is high, you are bound to get great photos, because the game play content is just so good to begin with.

If the standard and skills are low, then the photos simply do not look right, no matter how well you frame and shoot them.

Singles Tennis Photos

Here are the links to the Singles Tennis Photos

Singles Tennis Photos on Flickr

If you would like to download copies of photos from Flickr, then use the following instructions:

How To Download Photos from Flickr

Singles Tennis Photos on Facebook

EQUIPMENT:

Sony Alpha A-77 Mk II Camera
Sony 16-50mm SSM F2.8

Sony Alpha A-55 Camera
Sony DT 18-250mm F3.5-6.3

The zoom range was adequate on the A-77, and so it was used for the bulk of the photos with the camera set to SCN “Sports Mode” and the shutter held down to do multishoot.

It seems the best place to stand to take sports photos is often where the Umpire or Referee would stand or sit.

So for the Tennis, I positioned myself next to the net and framed and panned with the ball play.

It is certainly not easy to get action shots of tennis because the ball moves so fast. Often times a great shot would have the ball long gone out of frame and would have to be discarded.

It is a percentage game to get the right shots, and so I just put the multishoot on the fastest speed possible and got as many shots as I could.

From a massive cull that evening, I was really happy with the final shots I had for the album.

In fact I think that the Tennis was one of the best events photos-wise that I covered during the Teachers Games.

Lawn Bowls

I shot this event after doing three other events, and it was hard to find excitement in Lawn Bowls compared to some of the other sports.

The standard bowling the ball shots would get a bit boring after a while, but I was lucky enough to also have some measuring happen which broke things up a bit.

Lawn Bowls Photos

Here are the links to the Lawn Bowls Photos

Lawn Bowls Photos on Flickr

If you would like to download copies of photos from Flickr, then use the following instructions:

How To Download Photos from Flickr

Lawn Bowls Photos on Facebook

EQUIPMENT:

Sony Alpha A-77 Mk II Camera
Sony 16-50mm SSM F2.8

These shots were done in Intelligent Auto Mode, as well as SCN Sports Mode for some shots.

It was a nice and easy relaxed shoot.

Ultimate Frisbee

This is an extremely fast paced exciting action sport, requiring lots of shots to be taken to get the photos that are going to be good.

The shoot was compounded by having two games on fields right next to each other, as well as the ugliness of park cars and buildings in the background.

However the bright sunny conditions were good for fast shutter speed sports photography.

Ultimate Frisbee Photos

Here are the links to the Ultimate Frisbee Photos

Ultimate Frisbee Photos on Flickr

If you would like to download copies of photos from Flickr, then use the following instructions:

How To Download Photos from Flickr

Ultimate Frisbee Photos on Facebook

EQUIPMENT:

Sony Alpha A-77 Mk II Camera
Sony 16-50mm SSM F2.8

Sony Alpha A-55 Camera
Sony DT 18-250mm F3.5-6.3

The A-55 with the long reaching 18-250mmm zoom lens was used for nearly all of the photos done at Ultimate Frisbee.

The A-55 was set on SCN “Sports Mode” and the shutter held down to do multishoot.

The Sony DT 18-250mm F3.5-6.3 lens is fanstastic in bright conditions, considering that it is only a $600 lens, and it has such a long zoom range.

This lens is my usual travel photography lens, and has served me well for several years now. However it has to have bright daylight or flash to get the best results.

I was very happy with the photos that came from this setup, and even though the A-55 is an old camera and not generally as good as the newer A77II, I am going to keep it indefinitely as my second camera.

Mountain Bike

This was quite a full on event, with the bikes moving faster than I had expected. Multishoot was essential, and I tried to get corner points and squat down as low as I could to capture the wheels as an emphasis point.

In hindsight I should have scouted out the course better and tried to get some more jump shots, but I was reasonably happy with the shots which made the final album.

The brief was to get several photos of every rider in the event, and so this did not leave a lot of time to visit a number of different vantage points.

This was my first mountain bike shoot, and I am sure I will do a lot better next time.

Mountain Bike Photos

Here are the links to the Mountain Bike Photos

Mountain Bike Photos on Flickr

If you would like to download copies of photos from Flickr, then use the following instructions:

How To Download Photos from Flickr

Mountain Bike Photos on Facebook

EQUIPMENT:

Sony Alpha A-77 Mk II Camera
Sony 16-50mm SSM F2.8

There is a lot of dust kicked up during mountain biking and so a clear UV lens filter is essential, as well as regular checking and cleaning of this filter throughout the event.

It is essential to crouch down low and try to get good vantage points on jumps and turns, as well as shots from up high above of riders going up hill.

The A77II was used with fast multishoot and set to SCN “Sports Mode”.

The conditions were overcast, and it might have been a bit better if there was more sun, but I am not sure about what effect lots of forest shadows would have on the pictures.

Fishing Competition

This was a really good shoot because there was a run of fish caught during the half hour that I was covering the event.

For three hours before this, only one fish had been caught and released, and fishing photos would not have been too good without any fish in them!

Fishing Competition Photos

Here are the links to the Fishing Competition Photos

Fishing Competition Photos on Flickr

If you would like to download copies of photos from Flickr, then use the following instructions:

How To Download Photos from Flickr

Fishing Competition Photos on Facebook

EQUIPMENT:

Sony Alpha A-77 Mk II Camera
Sony 16-50mm SSM F2.8

Conditions were overcast, and so I set the A77II to “Intelligent Auto” and for some shots the onboard flash popped up and fired.

This time I remembered to have the shade hood off, and so there is no circular dark blurring on these photos.

An easy shoot where everything just came together with the greatest of ease.

Looking at the photos in view mode, the camera in Auto Mode used ISO 100 and F4 Aperture with a shutter speed of 1/160 on most of the shots and they exposed nicely.

The A77II seems to be very good at handling both bright sunlight and overcast conditions, but it does struggle with ISO graininess in low light indoors.

Indoor Soccer

This was the most difficult shoot of the whole Teachers Games.

I could not shoot through the netting, even with manual focussing, and I could not go onto the Pitch, as all areas of the court are constantly used.

This meant I had to poke the camera through the strongly elasticised slit that the players enter and leave the pitch from. Lucky I have been working at the gym and could hold the slit door open while using the camera!

Due to the fast moving ball, with continuous focus on, the camera kept wanting to set the shutter speed to 1/2000th, Aperture to F4, and use an ISO of 3200 when set to SCN “Sports Mode”.

This resulted in grainly dark photos for quite a few of the shots, until I set the camera into Manual Mode later on.

Indoor Soccer Photos

Here are the links to the Indoor Soccer Photos

Indoor Soccer Photos on Flickr

If you would like to download copies of photos from Flickr, then use the following instructions:

How To Download Photos from Flickr

Indoor Soccer Photos on Facebook

EQUIPMENT:

Sony Alpha A-77 Mk II Camera
Sony 16-50mm SSM F2.8

Photographing a court with horizontal lines marked on it results in levelling problems, and as the camera was crammed through a narrow slit in the netting, it was not easy to get the horizontal correct.

I used the “Disp” button to have levelling turned on, and did my best to try and keep the camera level so the horizonatal court lines and goals at the other end were not tilted.

Photos can be adjsuted in Photoshop to level them, (with a slight loss of quality), but it is much better to get it right on the original shot.

As mentioned previously, in SCN “Sports Mode” with the camera set to continuous “C” Autofocus, the camera picked the extremely high shutter speed of 1/2000th of a second.

This quickness of speed does not let much light in at all, and on the A77II is only really usable in bright sunny outdoor conditions.

The camera therefore compensated for the fast shutter speed by setting an ISO of 3200, which is too high for the A77II to get clear pictures. The highest usable ISO on the camera is probably ISO 1600.

The resulting photos, like the one shown at the start of this section were quite dark and grainy, and borderline usable.

Later on in the shoot I changed to Manual and set the shutter speed to between 1/160th and 1/250th, and Aperture of F4, which meant ISO’s of 250, 320, and 400 could be used. However this resulted in some photos that were a bit blurry because the shutter speed was not high enough.

The quality of the photos is not easy to see in the viewfinder, even when magnified, and is not until they are downloaded onto a PC that you really know what you have captured.

The actual lighting in the stadium was quite good, as they had both artificial lighting as well as plenty of skylights in the roof.

Next time I would try use a shutter speed of 1/500th, Aperture F4, and ISO’s between 400 and 800 and see what type of photos that might produce.

It is basically a Trade Off between high enough shutter speed to have clear images of the players without blurring, versus keeping the ISO down to a level where there is not darkness and graininess.

So it is a matter of finding the “sweet spot” for the camera, by trying a lot of different settings in manual mode. However in a one hour timeframe this is extremely difficult. We would need to be spending at least two hours at the event to get everything perfect.

Obviously spending about $5000 to $6000 on a Professional Nikon Camera and Lens setup would solve all of these problems, because we could shoot clearly at much higher ISOs.

Unfortunately we have no budget to do this, and so we will have to make do with the equipment we have by shooting in Manual Mode and finding the optimum settings.

Beach Volleyball

Like the Indoor Soccer, this was not an easy shoot. The Referee was kind enough to let me into the netted court and stand at the side of the Net. So at least I did not have to squeeze the slit door open to put the camera through.

However the ball did hit me a couple of times and narrowly missed the camera on two or three occasions. But this did make for the following brilliant action shot:

Most shots had to be taken in Portrait mode because the ball is hit so high in the air during this game. A lot of shots were unusable because the ball moved so fast it was out of frame by the time the camera fired.

Unlike normal Volleyball, this is a netted cage where players can bounce the ball off the roof and sides, and so it is power hitting with hardly any spiking or the like at the Net.

This means that most of the photos show the players back-court with no Volleyball Net in sight, and so it is not obvious that they are playing an actual game of Volleyball and not just hitting up.

Again we had High ISO problems with the camera set in SCN “Sports Mode”, because based on tracking the ball’s speed the camera wants to use 1/2000th shutter and ISO’s above ISO 1600.

We did however get some clear shots in Manual Mode, but had problems with the ball blurring as in this shot:

Beach Volleyball Photos

Here are the links to the Beach Volleyball Photos

Beach Volleyball Photos on Flickr

If you would like to download copies of photos from Flickr, then use the following instructions:

How To Download Photos from Flickr

Beach Volleyball Photos on Facebook

EQUIPMENT:

Sony Alpha A-77 Mk II Camera
Sony 16-50mm SSM F2.8

As dicussed there were ISO problems just like the Soccer, resulting in some dark exposure pictures.

However the reflection of light off the white sand helped a lot, and in SCN “Sports Mode” the 1/2000th shutter speed photos were at ISO 1600 which is more usable than 3200.

Like for the soccer, I tried taking a few shots on manual mode, (using shutter speed of 1/250th and ISO 400) and it can be seen in the album that these are clearer and brighter, but often the ball is blurred.

Beach Volleyball is not at all easy to Photograph, as the only available vantage point is crammed up against the side of the net can be used, and a lot of the play does not occur near the net anyway.

Maybe a Go-Pro strapped to somebody’s head shooting video would produce a better story of what actually happened during the game!

Op Shop Party Night

Op Shop Night is a Social Event where people dress up in clothes they have purchased from the charity stores for poor people. The bright colors and interesting outfits make for a great photoshoot.

Op Shop Party Night Photos

Here are the links to the Op Shop Party Night Photos

Op Shop Party Night Photos on Flickr

If you would like to download copies of photos from Flickr, then use the following instructions:

How To Download Photos from Flickr

Op Shop Party Night Photos on Facebook

EQUIPMENT:

Sony Alpha A-77 Mk II Camera
Sony 16-50mm SSM F2.8
Sony HVL-F43M Flash
Gary Fong Gamma Blade Diffuser

Panasonic Lumix LX-7 Low Light Camera

The “Party People” photos were taken mainly at the Star Bar, but some non-flash photos were taken with the Lumix LX7 at The Foundry Hotel.

Using the Sony A77II this was basically our standard night club venue shoot, done in manual mode using ISO 1250 with shutter speed of 1/125th of a second.

Aperture was varied from 4.0 to 5.6 depending on the size of the group of people we were photographing.

The flash power was also set manually for every shot, mostly to 1/8 power and 50mm width.

The Star Bar had a smoke machine going which caused problems on many photos.

However the highly reflective cloudy smoke particles were almost entirely removed in Photoshop using Image > Adjustments > Exposure and then sliding the “Offset” to the left a little.

Photoshop is brilliant and makes all the difference when working with Digital Images.

Being Official Photogragher for the Victorian Teachers Games was a great experience, and apart from the Photoshopping into the early hours of the morning, a really fun time.

It was great to get out and about and use all of my camera equipment in different sports settings.

The Sony A77II with the 16-50mm F2.8 Sony Lens is as good as the reviews say for doing high speed sports photography, as long as you are outdoors in bright light. However, Indoors the camera is hampered by its lack of high ISO capabilities.

There are quite a few things I would change when doing Indoor Sports, as I have found that you cannot trust the camera to choose the right settings. That is unless you have a very expensive $6000 plus, High ISO capable professional setup.

As for many scenarios, it is necessary to get the camera into full Manual Mode and try your best to find some optimal settings which produce bright and clear pictures which capture the sport’s action.

Additional Reading

If you want to learn more about the technical aspects of photography, then check out the articles and how to guides on our website at the following link:

Photos By Passy – How To Guides

Like Us On Facebook

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Enjoy,
Passy

How To

How To Do Aperture

September 18, 2014 Passy Leave a comment

Aperture is one of the key variables in Digital Photography. The other two are ISO Light Sensitivity and Shutter Speed.

It is a good idea to read our previous article on “How To Do Camera Settings” before working through this Aperture Article.

You can access this article at the following link:

How To Do Camera Settings

An understanding of Aperture is critically important to isolate subjects in portraits and get full detail in Landscape pictures.

The Aperture Scale consists of a seemingly odd set of decimal and whole numbers, and getting your head around these values is not at all easy for Beginner Photographers.

In this article we examine Aperture in detail, and mathematically explain where the Aperture “f-numbers” come from. The mathematics might be challenging for some people, but do not worry too much about the detail if it is challenging for you.

The main thing we need to understand as Photographers is how the “f-stop” number values relate to the amount of light made available for our image, and how the background can be deliberately blurred using Aperture settings.

Definition of Aperture

Camera Aperture basically imitates the function of the human eye.

In dark conditions we require more light entering our eyes and camera, but in bright light we need far less light.

Our eyes adjust to these conditions using our “pupils”, (the central dark circles inside our eyes).

A camera mimics the action of our pupils using a setup that creates various size circles; and we call this camera function “Aperture”.

Using Camera Aperture Values

We go to detail about this later in this article, but just as a starter, here are a couple of examples where we use different sized Apertures, which mimic the function of the human eye.

Lens Aperture Values

The Aperture function is performed in the Lens of the camera, and not in the Digital Camera Body. (The “Lens” is the cylindrical barrel on the front of the camera, and the “Body” is the back part of the camera with all the buttons and dials on it.

Each lens we mount onto a DSLR camera has its own Aperture System, and as we will see later on, different sized lenses need to have their own particular Aperture systems.

Lens Apertures are specified using f Numbers which are called “f-stops”.

These numbers make little sense at all when we first look at them, as they are what seems to be some weird random collection of decimal and whole number values.

A first look at these strange f-numbers reveals that there are doubling patterns in the list of numbers from f1.4 to f22.

Another very confusing aspect of these f-numbers is that as they go up in value, the size of the circular Aperture openings actually goes down in value, and the cicular “Aperture” openings become progressively smaller.

In fact each circle becomes exactly half the size of the one before it.

This is indeed very confusing, as the smallest number 1.4 represents a large fully open camera lens letting in lots of light, but the largest number at f22 represents a tiny cicular opening in the lens which is not letting much light in.

Mathematical Patterns

The standard f-numbers are: 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22 .

We can always form the next number in the pattern by multiplying by 1.4, which is the square root of 2 as a rounded off decimal value.

1.4 x 1.4 = 1.96 = 2

2 x 1.4 = 2.8

2.8 x 1.4 = 3.92 = 4

4 x 1.4 = 5.6

5.6 x 1.4 = 7.84 = 8

and so on.

In the f-numbers we have a sequence of numbers, where we always multiply by a common value of 1.4 to generate the next number.

In mathematics this is called a “Geometric Sequence” or a “Geometric Progression”

The common multiplying value, in this case 1.4, is called the “Geometric Ratio”.

The 1.4 (Square Root of 2) value results because we are dealing with Circles when we are doing Apertures.

If we want to make a Circle twice as big, it turns out that we need to increase its Radius by a factor of Square Root of 2, which in decimal is 1.4.

So if you are wondering where the 1.4 multiplying factor comes from, it is all due to the way the area of circles is doubled.

The f-numbers sequence is set up so that in real terms the amount of light due to the circular opening halves as we move up through the f-numbers.

F-Stop Formula

We are nearly through the Mathematics of Aperture.

As a Photographer you do not need to memorise all this mathematics, you simply need to understand the consequences in relation to light entering your camera.

There is a Mathematical Formula for f-stop which relates the 1.4,2,2.8,4,5.6, etc values to the actual Aperture Circle Diameter, and the size of the Lens you are using.

Aperture is not just related to how wide we make our circular opening, (the “Diameter”), but it is also related to the size of the Lens we are using which is specified as the Lens “Focal Length”.

We will confine our discussion to fixed size lenses, called “Prime Lenses”, and talk about “Zoom” lenses later on.

A 28mm Lens is a short lens, which gives a very wide angle of viewing.

A 50mm or 55mm lens is a standard size which is supposed to be a lot like the angle of viewing, or field of vision that is in focus when we are looking at something with human eyes.

A 200mm lens is a “Telephoto” type lens which will make distant objects look a lot closer, just like a set of Binoculars would.

The 28mm lens with its wide view lets in the most light, and the 200mm long lens lets in the least light.

Thinks of it like being at the Beach.

If you were at the beach looking at the whole scene there would be lots of light from the sun, and its reflection on the water. This is what a 28mm lens gives you, a nice wide picture where you can see everything, and there is plenty of light.

If you were just looking at some children building a sand castle, then this is the type of view from a 50mm lens.

If you were using a 200mm lens to look at some guys fishing in a boat off the shore, then this is a zoomed in type situation, and you only get the light from the boat and people, and not lots of light like when you are looking at the whole beach scene.

This is the reason why we need to take “Focal Length” or lens size into account. To get the same f-stop amount of light, we actually need different sized circular openings on different sized lenses.

In the example shown below, the two lenses are set to the exact same f-stop, so that the exact same amount of light can reach the interanl camera sensor.

However, to get the exact same amount of light into the camera body, we need to use a much larger physical Aperture opening on the long 200mm lens.

Video About Aperture

By now you might be totally overwhelmed by all of this Mathematics, but do not worry about it, because the main thing you need to understand is that Aperture changes the circular lens opening to let in more light or less light.

If we adjust our current F-Number UP to the next F-Number we HALVE the light.

If we adjust our F-Number DOWN to the previous F-Number we DOUBLE the light.

We need to adjust the light to get a picture that is not overly bright and washed out, and not overly dim and too dark to see its contents.

The following 15 minute video explains what we have covered so far.

Some Final Mathematics

Here is one last set of Mathematical calculations to show how Aperture works for different sized lenses.

We will work backwards to find the actual mm diameters of the circlular openings we would need in two different lenses to get the same amount of light which would mean we had the same f-number or “f-stop” set on each of the lenses.

To find the Diameters required, we rearrange our previous f-stop formula as follows:

Once we have the diameter required, we can halve it to get the circle radius and then calculate the actual Area of the circular opening we would need in the lens to create given f-stop amounts of light.

These calculations are shown below:

The above calculations were obtained from an excellent article on Camera Mathematics from Mr Martin which can be viewed in full at the following link:

Mr Martin Mathematics of Photography Article

By examinng the results of the above calculations we can see the following patterns and results:

One Third F-Stops

Finally just to add another layer of complexity to everything, if you check the Aperture f-number values on your actual camera, it is likely that there will be more than just the standard values we have been discussing:

1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22

Your camera (thanks to the wonders of modern technology) will have the standard values, plus a whole lot of extra in between values.

These values allow you to change your Aperture light up or down by 1/3. This way you can open the Aperture up to 1 and 1/3, then to 1 and 2/3, and then up to Double the amount of light.

Your camera will possibly have this full set of one third f-stops, resulting in a sequence like this:

1.4, 1.6, 1.8, 2, 2.2, 2.5, 2.8, 3.2, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5.0, 5.6, 6.3, 7.1, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22

Aperture Blades

Anyone who has ever tried to draw a perfect circle freehand knows exactly how hard it is to do.

It is also very difficult to mechanically make circles of different sizes, and often the Aperture openings are not actually circular, but might be Pentagons, octagons, or other multisided geometries.

The lens uses a series of adjustable “Aperture Blades” to make the best circles it can.

Basicially the more you pay, the more blades in the system, and the better the circles will be.

Two lenses sitting side by side might have drastically different prices, because one of them has a many blades quality system inside it.

If you have a cheap lens with not many blades, blurred lights in the background will not be round, and you may also get some slightly dark tinges in the four corners of your photos.

Aperture and Zoom Lenses

Most people have an adjustable zoom lens on their camera, which can do wide angle shots, through to zoomed in telephoto pictures.

As we saw previously, the field of vision narrows as we increase lens focal length, and so it is tricky for the Aperture system to continually adjust to different focal lengths as you zoom in and out.

This is why there are cheap and very expensive zoom lenses.

A Cheap Zoom Lens for $300 might only allow Apertures from f4 to f8 and the picture will darken as you zoom in.

An expensive f2.8 Zoom for $1500 to $15000 will allow you to use all Apertures no matter how far you are zoomed in or out.

Those giant white “bazooka” looking lenses you see at sports events can cost anywhere from $5000 to $25000 !

Aperture and Blurring

Well that is all the Mathematics and Technical stuff done with, and now we can talk about actually taking some photos!

A really nice side effect of using wide open Apertures is that we end up with our subject at the front of the picture crisply in focus, and the background we are not interested in all blurred out for us.

However, if we want to see our whole photo in clear focus, like on a landscape shot, we need to do the opposite and set a very narrow (high f-number) Aperture.

Group Shots and Blurring

However, with taking “Group Shots” of people we run into a problem.

If we use f1.4, or f2, or f2.8 to get nice background blurring, we will find that people in the back row of the group will be blurred out of focus.

To get the whole group in focus we typically need to use an Aperture of f4 or f5.6, which will make sure everybody in the group is in focus.

However, the background we are not interested in will also be in focus and clearly visible.

The way aorund this problem is to use Blurring Tools in Photoshop, as has been done below.

Aperture and Sunsets

Sunset Photos can also be interesting for setting up the Aperture correctly.

We might use a really narrow Aperture like for a landscape, and our image will be too dark; or we might use a wide open Aperture and have our photos turn out too bright and look like daylight.

The best Aperture to use is between f8 and f11, as shown below in these great photos taken by our friend Nicole Cooper.

The following page has thirty great tips for taking good sunset photos:

30 Tips for Taking Sunset Photos

Video About Aperture and People Shots

Finally here is a two part video totalling around 25 minutes all about how to set your Aperture when doing Night Club Photography, or really any Photos at Events like Birthdays, Baptisms, Parties, and so on.

Here Part 2 of the above Video.

Sony Video About Aperture

Here is an excellent video all about Setting Aperture on Sony Alpha Cameras.

References

Click the following links for more articles on the web about Aperture.

Digital Camera Mathematics

Very Technical Maths Explanation of Aperture

Mathematics of Aperture

How Aperture Blades Work

Mathematical Explanation of F-Stops

Morgan Evans – Sept 12th

September 18, 2014 Passy Leave a comment

Morgan Evans and his country rock band did a great show at Revolver in Melbourne recently.

One of the support acts was Jessica Jade who is a very talented Melbourne singer, and known to my assistant photographer Michael.

It was great to see her band perform as the support act, as we have been meaning to check out her music for a while now.

A full Flickr Gallery of Photos of Jessica Jade and her band can be viewed here:

Flickr Photo Gallery of Jessica Jade September 12th 2014

Last time Morgan played at Revolver, we experienced white balance problems on one of the cameras, resulting in a blueish tinge to a lot of the photos, and we were not really happy with the results overall.

However, this time we made sure we got everything right, and we were pleased with the resulting pictures of the show.

Several photos that were taken while red and orange light were on the band, were successfully converted to Black and White during post processing.

For the colour pictures, we did some Desaturating in Photoshop, to reduce down some overly bright colours, especially those from the red spot lights.

We also found that the A77 photos are often darker than they look on the camera preview once they are downloaded to PC. These pictures were easily brightened up in Photoshop during post-processing, using the Brightness/Contrast function.

A full Flickr Gallery of Photos can be viewed here:

Flickr Photo Gallery of Morgan Evans September 12th 2014

As well as shooting the band, we also did the post show “Meet and Greet” photos for the fans.

A full Flickr Gallery of “Meet and Greet” Photos can be viewed here:

Flickr Photo Gallery of Morgan Evans Meet and Greet

Further information about Morgan Evans can be found at their Facebook Page:

Morgan Evans Facebook Page

There is also an official website for Morgan:

Morgan Evans Website

The Band’s Official Fan Page is also on Facebook here:

Morgan Evans Fan Club Facebook Page

EQUIPMENT:

Sony Alpha A-77 MkII Camera
Sony 18-55mm F2.8

Sony Alpha A-55 Camera
Tamron 24-70mm F2.8

Sony HVL-F43M Flash

Gary Fong Gamma Blade Diffuser

Panasonic Lumix LX7 Compact Camera

On this shoot we used the Lumix LX7 for the band playing to the crowd shots, and it is a great compact camera for low light with its 1.4 Aperture.

The Sony A77II was used for band shots, and all of the Meet and Greet photos.

Shooting with the A77II was done in full manual mode at f2.8 and 1/60 to 1/125 speed, and ISO varied from ISO 400 for bright spotlight shots, to ISO 1600 for other shots.

The Sony A55 works brilliantly teamed with the Tamron lens and set to “SCN” Sports Mode. I give this camera to my assistant Micheal so that he can effectively just “Point and Shoot” close up photos of band players, especially the drummer. He was also able to get some good non-flash photos of people in the crowd using the A-55.

In post processing we tried something new and sized the longest side of photos at 850 pixels, rather than 960 pixels, and saved them as WEB photos at 90% (11/12) quality, rather than the usual 85% we have been using for previous shoots.

We are not really sure whether this made a huge difference, but the photos seemed to be okay when loaded up to Facebook and Flickr online.

If you enjoy visiting Photos By Passy, why not get a free subscription to the website.

You can then receive notifications of new items and updates directly to your email address.

Go to the subscribe area on the left hand sidebar, (or down the bottom of the page if using a mobile phone), fill in your email address and then click the “Subscribe” button.

Enjoy,
Passy

Birthday Parties, How To

How To Photo Booth

August 30, 2014 Passy Leave a comment

“Photo Booth” has become more popular recently, and is a great way to get fun photos at formal events such as Weddings, 21st Birthday Parties, Engagemnent Parties, and so on.

In the olden days, and for some events, there is an actual closed curtained off Booth where the photos can be taken, but this is expensive to set up and takes up a lot of space at a party or venue.

Photos can also be immediately Printed out and glued into a Guest Book, and a message written next to them.

Other times, Photos are just taken out in the open, or in front of a Curtain or Backdrop of some kind.

Before the photos are taken, people “Dress Up” in either Cardboard Disguises held on sticks, along with Speech Bubbles; and/or in cheap fancy dress props.

Cardboard Props Only Photo Booth

Shown above is a photo of this type of Cardboard Props only “Photo Booth”.

The Cardboard Props and Speech Bubbles can be purchased Online, but often need to be assembled.

Attaching the flat cardboard props to the sticks can be best done using a hot glue gun, but if you do not have one, just use normal glue and meshed gaffa tape.

If we are printing out props from PDFs from the Internet, then we need to make the speech bubbles text reasonably large.

Eg. Enlarge the images on a colour photocopier first.

We then cut out a photocopied image roughly, and then glue it onto either the foam bottom of a meat tray, or the hard plastic cover of an old display book.

Once it is glued onto the backing, we then cut it out properly and attach it to the stick.

A great place to buy some pre-made Photo Booth props which are a good size are “TYPO” paper products shops in major shopping centres.

Curtain Background Photo Booth

In this type of Photo Booth we have people pose in front of a backdrop, such as a blue curtain as shown in the picture above.

Also note the use of a Blackboard Speech bubble. These can be purchased, or made out of plywood, and they are great for people to add their own Personal Messages.

For our curtain setup we purchased a premade blue curtain with large ring holes already in it, and we hang it on an aluminium tent poles frame lent up against a wall.

The frame is actually part of a cabin tent we own, and has adjustable leg height. We also run Gaffa tape along the pole insertion joins so they cannot pop undone.

It needs to be steadied with Gaffa Tape, and/or sand bags placed at the base around the legs.

Note that around 3 meters of wall space is required for the curtain, even though it is only around 2.5 meters wide.

For backgrounds it is important to use a non-reflective cloth background. If you use a plastic stick up background, or a Poster you have made, there is a significant risk that there will be falsh reflection off it which is impossible to remove in Photoshop later on.

Photo Booth Dress Up Props

These can be purchased at $2 Shops, Op Shops, Party Shops, and eBay. It takes a bit of shopping around to find the right ones.

The more colour the better, and Mexican Hats, Police Hats, and giant Fake Gold Rapper Bling are great items to have in your kit.

Hawaiian Flower dress ups are also very cheap on eBay and make for good fun.

For our Booth, we also obtained some toy guns and giant Mexican Gringo Moustaches at a Party Costume Shop.

A Fold up table and some boxes are also needed at the Party to put the props into. Shoe Boxes are good for storing props, because the removable lids can be used to display props in as well as the shoe box.

Something which is very important is to have the host of the Party give you a Money Deposit for the Props in case any go missing, as will sometimes be the case.

It is not so much the dollar value of the stolen props which is annoying, but the inconvenience and personal time running around to a number of shops to find replacements.

A good idea is to have some spare props in reserve at home, in case items go missing, and you have another function to do in the near future.

Chroma Key Photo Booth

Chroma Keying involves filming or taking pictures with a special bright Green or Blue cloth background which is non reflective.

The idea is to get a consistent background color that is not likely to be found in any skin tones, so Green and Blue are best.

Green is probably the best, because people do not wear any green clothing usually, and so the background can be easily removed in Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Fireworks using the Magic Wand tool.

Our approach is not exactly professional, as we use a Blue Curtain, with fold/creases in it which is not professionally lit up, and not a uniform color because of the darker curtain folds.

The reason for us doing this is mainly Economy, as well as dual purpose functionality, where we can also use the blue curtain as a background for “Photo Frame” pictures like this one.

Note that it helps not to have people directly up against the curtain. Try and get them to stand around one meter or so forward of the curtain which minimises getting any blue glow onto them around their edges and hair.

The following video shows how to do Chroma Key background removal with a smooth green backdrop.

This video also demonstrates the use of “Photokey 5” Software for removing the Green background, and then inserting a different background.

“Photokey 5” software looks like it does a good job, but the same thing can be done with the Magic Wand and Eraser Tools in Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Fireworks.

For our Background Removal, and Replacement, we use Adobe Fireworks, simply because we find it quicker and easier to use than Photoshop.

However, if you want to do the same thing in Photoshop, then here is a great three minute video (with some annoying dub step background music) on how to do this.

Removal of Blue Background Curtain

This is the original picture taken with the Blue Curtain Backdrop as it was straight out of the Camera.

We took this picture into Adobe Fireworks, and removed the background curtain and surrounds using the Magic Wand and the Eraser Tool, to create the following .PNG file clear background picture.

The next step was to create a new layer in Fireworks, and then File > Import onto this layer, a new background image, (in this case some Party Streamers).

We then made a separate Photo Frame in Fireworks, using the Criss Cross Gradient with a Texture added into it. This frame was then imported as a new layer into our composite picture.

Flattening all the layers, and saving it as a JPG file then resulted in this as our final Photo Booth Image:

Problems With Blue Items

Removing the Blue Background from the original of this image was a problem because of the Blue Police Cap, as well as the Blue hue in the dress.

The trick here was to first use the eraser tool to carefully rub out around the cap and the dress, so that the Magic wand would not be able to reach them and remove any of their blue colour.

We were then able to use the Magic Wand to remove the remaining blue and grey in the background, and add in the night city background which we purchased from “123RF” to make the completed picture shown previously.

Background Images

It is quite cheap to buy some medium sized stock images from companies such as “123RF”, “Dreamstime”, “Getty Images”, or “Istock”, and use these as your Background Images.

If you just grab some backgrounds from Google Images, there is always the risk that you should have paid for them, and there will be a resulting infringing on Copyright.

A person has taken the time to make the Background image, and so it is only fair that they should be paid something for it.

So if you are posting Photo Booth pictures to the web which contain background images, you should purchase these background images to make sure everything is legal.

Photo Booth Sample Pictures

To see a full Album of Photo Booth Pictures we did for a 21st Party, Click the following link:

Photo Booth Pictures Album

Videos About Chroma Keying

The following eleven ninute Video is all about Green Screen Tips and Setup.

For pictures taken using an unlit Green or Blue Curtain backdrop, Photoshop can be used to remove the Green or Blue background colour.

The way we did this for our photos was to use the Magic Wand to get rid of most of the blue, and then zoom in and use the Eraser tool to remove the dark parts in the curtain folds and so on.

HOWEVER:

If you want to be a perfectionist on the removal of the background colour, (and deal with background green or blue being behind the edges of long hair), then watch the following twenty minute video on how to do this in Photoshop.

The following video shows how to cheaply light a green screen with shop flourescents at placed at 45 degrees on the left and right.

And while we are looking at cutting setup costs, here is a Video on how to make an ultra cheap Green Screen using Green Poster Paper:

Rather than replacing the Green background image, we can change its color in Photoshop.

This is an interesting way to create a bit of variety in a set of Photo Booth pictures, and one we will definitely try out sometime.

Here is a video showing how to change the green color of the background to other colors using Hue and Saturation:

Hire Us for Photo Booth

Photos By Passy would be delighted to do a Photo Booth for you at your Party, Wedding, or Function.

We supply all the props and can make some great fun chroma keyed images for you to post on social media and anywhere else online.

Get in touch using the “Contact” link on our website.

If you enjoy visiting Photos By Passy, why not get a free subscription to the website.

You can then receive notifications of new items and updates directly to your email address.

Go to the subscribe area on the left hand sidebar, (or down the bottom of the page if using a mobile phone), fill in your email address and then click the “Subscribe” button.

Enjoy,
Passy

PBP – Photos By Passy

How To Do Shutter Speed

Teachers Games 2014

Morgan Evans – Sept 12th

How To Photo Booth

Music and Special Events Photography and Video