iPhone pic of the day: Setting Sun #iphoneography #camerabag

hahaha http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQnT0zp8Ya4

iPhone pic of the day: Beautiful Evening #iphoneography #autostitch #camerabag

Tomorrow’s moon will be full, and at its closest point to the Earth. Just a FYI if you like to take pictures of the moon.

Use AutoISO for handheld lowlight HDR shots

I did the unthinkable the other day.  I’m a little ashamed to admit, but I used AutoISO… on purpose!

Before you stop reading, hear me out.  

So here was my dilemma:

I recently attended a car show and wanted to make some nice HDR photos (see photo).  Automobiles, especially when clean and shiny, make for great HDR subjects because they are colorful, reflective and usually have a wide range from dark to bright shades.

This event wouldn’t allow the use of tripods.  So my HDR attempts were going to be all handheld.  I went in knowing that I would be relying heavily on two things:

1.) My camera’s fastest frames per second (which in my case is 4.5).  Even then, I know the pictures wouldn’t be lined up as well as a tripod could do.

2.) PhotoMatix’s ability to line up the three images.

This isn’t ideal… but sometimes you find yourself with less than ideal conditions and you  work with what you have.

I quickly realized this indoor event was proving too dark for handheld HDRs.  The underexposed frame and regular exposed frame were fine, but the overexposed frame was too long to handhold.  All of my overexposed frames were blurry.  If I had adjusted my EV down 1 stop, I wouldn’t be getting the brighter end of the three exposures, and missing the point of bracketing for HDR.

In comes AutoISO to the rescue.  I set the minimum shutter to 1/60th of a second, knowing that anything longer than 1/60th of a second becomes real hard to handhold, thus, too blurry.  Then I just set the range of ISO from 100 to 3200.

Now, when I made my three shots, I knew that the camera would never fall below 1/60th of a second.

Since my camera does well with noise up to 3200, I didn’t have to worry as much as if my camera were a few years older.

Note: On other forums I have suggested that AutoISO is a setting that people should strive to not use unless it is serving a specific benefit like my example describes above.  This never fails to start an AutoISO flame war, half the people hate it and the other half love it.  In fact… if you’re bored and want to light a fire under people’s asses, go to a photography forum and say “people who use AutoISO don’t know what they are doing” and watch the war begin.

Here’s the truth.  If you’re using it as a crutch so that you don’t have to learn the settings on your camera, then you’re not “making” pictures and probably never will be.  If you use it to your benefit… if you’re using it as a tool, then love The AutoISO and make great pictures. 

MikeSene

Better is the enemy of good. ~ Voltaire

iPhone pic of the day: Smile #iphoneography #camerabag

iPhone pic of the day: CrossColor #iphoneography #camerabag #autostitch

iPhone pic of the day: Providence # iphoneography #autostitch #camerabag

iPhone pic of the day: Neon #iphoneography #camerabag