With my camera that is. Recently attending a photo workshop at the Washington National Cathedral, there were a few things that I learned that are simply magical.
First, when taking photographs of a building – KEEP THE CAMERA STRAIGHT ! You may need to walk quite a bit away from the structure, but so long as you keep your camera straight, the building will also look straight.
Tilting your camera up to try to get the building into your frame creates a warped structure that seems like it’s on some illegal drug.
Of course, with today’s new tilt-shift lenses, you can advert this building warp. However, since taking tons of photos of buildings is not my thing, I don’t it’s worth the investment for my shooting. I’ll let my feet do the walking for me to keep the camera straight.
My best trick?
Making people disappear !
Did you know that with a very slow shutter speed, people disappear and just the frozen building structure remains. A super trick when you’re out in high tourist areas when you want to capture a beautiful structure without people. Of course, a tripod is required.
The settings for the photo below are ISO 100, f/18, with 30 seconds. My friend walked back and forth across the frame six times. Voila ! He has disappeared!
So go forth and try these new tricks. You too can be a magician!
Categories: Foot Prints
Emily Carter ~ Nature as Art 
Very interesting, especially the advice re long shutter speeds. I need to remember that. As to buildings being warped if you tilt your camera upwards: that sometimes cannot be avoided as in some places you simply can’t walk away far enough. Bit that can easily be corrected later on the computer. For that, I use ACDSee [5.0], which makes that absolutely easy.
Best regards,
Pit
Thanks Pit ! I hadn’t heard of that software before. You can do some adjustments in lightroom easily as well, but sometimes it’s not enough.
You’re welcome. I like the programme a lot, as it’s perfectly suited to my (limited) purposes, and much easier to handle than Photshop. Besides the fact that it is much cheaper than PS. About $90, I think. And that’s what I can afford.
Very cool, I like that!
Thanks Phil ! Somehow I think you may to keep your subject in your frame. 🙂
Great people trick!
Isn’t it though? Truly amazes me and I still can’t figure out how the trick works. Magicians never tell their secrets.
It’s kind of up there with shooting through a chain link
fence with a zoom lens and the fence disappears.
Right ! Figure that one out too ! Should have added that one, I forgot about that!
What great advice!! My buildings always look weird because I do tilt the camera up. Amazing, too, that you can remove people. I’ve wasted loads of photos because there was a stray person or two on them. Thank you. I’ll save this info in my favourites for future reference.
Sometimes the best thing to do is to make the people part of your photo. There are many situations that it’s unavoidable. Try to find someone wearing a bright color, or even a child to make it interesting.
Thank you. I’ll remember that.
Fabulous! But what if you want a crazy drug-induced warped building? Visit Barcelona?
I haven’t tried altering the shutter speeds to remove people from images yet… But that’s great to see it worked so beautifully!
You got it ! Barthelona. I had never done it before that shot either. Still can’t figure out why it happens. Doesn’t make sense to me or my engineering hubby.
These are some very interesting tricks! I want to try that making people disappear one! I am going to need a tripod, though. . . Hm. . . maybe I can try something else, like putting the camera on a stable thing. I will try, but thanks for sharing the info! ^_^
It’s my pleasure Venom, I can’t wait until I see some cool stuff from you.
I am afraid you will have to wait. I haven’t been able to take any decent photos lately, though I’ve been experimenting with longer exposure times and whatnot. It’s amazing what a little Sony CyberShot camera can do.