Taking the shot #photography

I took this shot yesterday evening as the sun was starting to go down. The light was warm and the shot is reasonable good. Although the sun was bright, it wasn't easy judging exactly how much light I had. There are a lot of dark areas in the frame.

[breakout title="Mike Maynard" align="right"]Mike is a photographer and blogger, and key contributor to the Express & Star's Star Witness section! He runs two blogs of his own

and

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Not all cameras have the ability to set shutter speeds and apertures these days. They are making cameras that are, more or less, fully automatic now. The enthusiast with a DSLR can try for better pictures by setting shutter speeds and apertures. A good way to get an idea of how much light there is for your shot is to set the camera on shutter priority at 1/100 of a second, then focus on your shot and check what aperture the camera has set for the shot. A wider aperture than F16 generally means not enough light for a landscape shot. That was the case with this shot, but rather than increasing the ISO, I took the shot at F11.

This is our wonderful Carnegie Library and it looks just as impressive on the inside as the outside. It used to have a spiral staircase inside as well as a sweeping grand staircase. The entrance was impressive too, with a wonderful revolving door. It has been made more utilitarian over the years. I took this shot in the afternoon and the sun was quite harsh. There were shadows, but later in the afternoon, those shadows would have been even longer and darker.

I took this photo on Sunday afternoon and the light was beginning to improve but still quite harsh and bright. Sometimes it is better to take photos on a cloudy day, than on a sunny day. A white sky gives a nice even light and sometimes it can be a pale petrol blue that reflects down on the water to give a nice effect.

Preparing for the shot

We have events through the weekend as part of the Queen's 90th birthday celebrations. I will be taking photos at midday and I'm expecting the light to be very bright and very harsh and so unless it changes I'm going to be using a warming filter on my 18 – 105mm lens. On Sunday, my shoot will be in the park and I will mostly be photographing people. I also hope to photograph the bands that will play in the bandstand where it can be dark and shadowy. I'm taking my Speedlight even though it might be sunny. I want at least one nice shot of Black Country Brass. There will be a parade so I have to think about my position to photograph that for the shot of the mayor and other dignitaries. It will be a historic occasion, I hope to capture some memories.