As I work photo assignments at various public political events it is not uncommon to entertain questions about the equipment on my shoulder, especially when the candidate is late. Usually it is a fun way to meet people and pass the time. Typically the questions involve lens types, equipment costs, or requests for suggestions on upgrading gear. Unless I’m pressed for time, I am usually happy to engage in a bit of conversation. But today was a weird one, even for Friday the 13th.
A disheveled guy in the crowd asked his first question, then made a disparaging remark at my answer. Then came a second question. He responded with another differential comment. By the time the third question came around, I was not sure what to expect. As he finally seemed to be ready to get lost in the crowd he tossed the following comment over his shoulder, “Oh, I’m a photographer, too.”
Now it was my turn to ask him, “Where’s your camera?”
He responded, “I just didn’t feel like bringing it today.”
As he disappeared into the milling crowd I sadly wondered to myself, “What kind of photographer comes to meet a candidate for the office of President of the United States and doesn’t bring any sort of camera?”
In today’s photo, a foreign press member grabs a personal photo from outside the Spartanburg GOP Bronze Elephant Dinner at James F. Byrnes High School. My camera was a Nikon D3 with an AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm 1:2.8G ED lens set to 29mm. The exposure was an aperture of f/4 ,with a shutter speed of 1/125th of a second, and a film speed of 6400 ISO.
Candidate for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination Willard Mitt Romney speaks during a town hall meeting at The Hall at Senate’s End in Columbia in advance of the South Carolina GOP Primary. The former Massachusetts Governor comes to the Palmetto State fresh off a primary win in New Hampshire.
One of the great challenges of working on the campaign trail is finding an advantageous angle for presenting the size of an audience. There is much more involved than just bolting on a wide angle lens and releasing the shutter.
In general, composing a crowd follows the same rules as composing a landscape. Using the Rule of Thirds creates a much more interesting composition than simply targeting the candidate in the center of the frame. In this photo, the horizon is along the line dividing the top one-third of the frame, allowing the audience to fill the bottom two-thirds of the frame. Then, the candidate breaks the top one-third line and sets the left one-third.
For this exposure, a Nikon D3 camera was fitted with an AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm 1:2.8G ED lens set to 52mm. The manual exposure settings included an aperture of f/4, shutter speed of 1/320th of a second, at 3200 ISO.
If this is what you were seeing on New Year’s Eve, then maybe you had too much celebration for the end of 2011. Were you glad to see the start of a new year?
And no, this was not done in post-production. This is how the photograph came out of the camera. The exposure was 1/25th of a second. That’s the time it took to create this photograph. How long would it take to recreate this same effect with photo editing software?
Not every scene lends itself to this type of exposure technique. Highlights and shadows and a central focal point are critical to success.
A zoom lens is required to reproduce this effect during the exposure. In this case, an AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm 1:2.8G ED lens was attached to a Nikon D3 body.
Stability is key during the exposure. A monopod or tripod is very helpful, but the physical movements required during the exposure can cause unwanted shakes in the zoom line.
For this photograph, a Las Vegas hotel and casino was selected to be the focal point of the exposure. Without a reasonably strong focal point, the eyes are drawn to nothing in particular and the creative effect is wasted.
The trick is to do a smooth and consistent changing of the focal length during the exposure and keep the focal point in the absolute middle of the frame. For this exposure, the lens was set at 24mm and zoomed to about 50mm. The aperture was f/4.5 with film speed of 3200 ISO.
In post production, the image was cropped. The focal point was moved from the center of the frame to a more interesting position toward the bottom right of the frame.
Add this to your lists of New Year’s resolutions: “Do it right, right now!”
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