Borut tried newly acquired Voigtländer lens but we did not get good results. The portraits we made were not sharp and we decided to try with much smaller (still very big though) camera Kodak Brownie. With this camera a large format film can be used but we wanted to stick with the 19. century techniques so we used aluminium plates and a wet collodion technique called ambrotype or collodion positive. The difference is that you get a positive image as an end result and not negative as with glass plates.

It took us about four hours to set up everything and to make three portraits. The exposure time is very hard to determine as there is no light meter in the camera and the sensibility of the wet collodion is approximately 8-12 ISO equivalent. It also depends on the thickness of the layer you put on the plate itself and on the development of the photo in the darkroom. For these three photos below the exposure time was around 4-5 seconds at f11. You can notice Borut’s dog is all blurry cause he moved during the exposure. it gives the photo even more vintage feel.

We were both pleased with the results and somewhere in the future I might even try this technique myself – it’s quite addictive! Below you can check out few more shots from that day.

To read more about these cameras and techniques visit Borut peterlin’s blog where he describes his experiments in 19.century photography.

Shooting sunset is one of the most popular subjects among many photographers. It is very simple, you can do it with your mobile phone. Beautiful light, warm colours, romantic atmosphere – who could resist not to take at least few shots? But when the sun is down most people just put away their camera or sometimes wait for the last light of the sun to disappear from the clouds and horizon.

“Blue hour” is a short time after the sun has set and before complete darkness (or early in the morning before sunrise).

Usually it starts 15 – 20 minutes after sunset (or same time before sunrise) and it lasts for about 20 minutes. All this is just approximate timing and it can be different depending on location, time of the year and weather.

Yes, there are two blue hours – the morning one and evening one. I usually prefer the later one for two reasons. First, I am not a morning person and getting up even before the sunrise can be a challenge. Secondly and more important – in the evening there is more life in the cities – more artificial lights, cars driving on the roads, people walking around (great for long exposure shots) and most of the landmarks are beautifully lit.

Our eyes don’t see the light like digital cameras do. Most people don’t realize that after sunset when the sky becomes dark, you can still bring our blue colours of the sky using longer exposures.

So how to do it and what gear do you need?

Photographing blue hour does not require special gear; a digital camera and a tripod are enough. I do recommend a remote camera release to avoid camera shake. If you do not have it a timer is an alternative.

There is no rule what camera settings are best, but here are a few tips that will make it easier for you:

• Keep your ISO low for best image quality and for longer shutter speeds.
• F-stop should be closed down to about f11 or f16. This will give you enough depth of field plus it will create cool star effects on artificial lights (see the first shot of this article).
• The shutter time is the least important and can be adjusted according to f-stop and ISO. Personally I prefer longer exposures that give nice motion effects like lines of the cars driving by or moving clouds…
• Camera mode can be either Aperture priority or Manual.
• The blue hour photos should be slightly under-exposed – its darkness after all.
• White balance. Try out different WB settings and see how it affects the colours. Usually I set it to incandescent or fluorescent light. If your camera has a live view mode you can instantly see how the change of WB affects the photo.

Is it necessary to use HDR technique to make beautiful and even exposures? In some cases yes, but usually if you get the timing right there is no need to blend different exposures. Of all images in this post only two were made using multiple exposures (Old bridge in Mostar(two exposures) and Burj Khalifa tower(four exposures)). The trick is to shoot at the moment when artificial lights are more or less of even strenght as the ambient light. This time does not last long – 10-15 minutes at best. And sometimes the only way of getting great image is with using HDR post processing. But in majority situations a single exposure is enough.

How do you feel about blue hour photos? If you have some great shots, do share them on our facebook page!

Everybody is familiar with the “zoom effect” photos, but not many photographers use this technique. Maybe because most of us do not think of it when shooting. This is a shame, because the technique is actually quite easy to master with modern digital cameras. What is Zoom effect anyway? It is a photograph where subject looks like either moving towards or away from you with motion lines.

This effect can be achieved in post-production with programs like Photoshop, but we are not gonna talk about it here. We want to spend more time photographing, not sitting in front of computer all the time. Note that this effect can be done only with the cameras that allow zooming during the exposure time! So here are a few tips how to achieve zoom effect that looks great.

First of all – have fun! You can never be sure what the result will be and you will need to do many shots to get a few “useful” ones. For these Tulip shots I made more than hundred shots to keep five or six of them.

Work on your zooming technique. Zooming is crucial to make great effect. Zoom evenly throughout the exposure time and hold your camera as still as possible. A tripod is useful, especially if you use longer exposure times. What I usually do is to continuously shoot and zoom at the same time. Good idea is to begin zooming before you actually push the trigger – the effect will be smoother. If you use zoom lens with wide focal length (like 18-200 or 28-200) do not zoom the entire length, it will be too much. Zooming fast or zooming slow also makes difference.  You can zoom out or zoom in. It will give you similar effect, generally I find it easier to zoom out. Look at the two photos below – same camera settings but different effect. At the first shot I didn’t zoom throughout entire exposure time but only at the end.

Both photos: Nikon D300, 17-55 f2.8, f16. 1/8s, ISO200, Flash TTL

Right shutter speed. Zoom effect will require longer exposure than you would usually use. There is no perfect shutter speed for all situations so you should experiment a bit. I usually use shutter speeds between 1/15s and 1s, but it could easily be either shorter or longer. The general rule is when using shorter shutter speeds it is easier to handhold the camera but the effect is not that notable. With longer shutter speeds you will usually need a tripod to retain subject sharp and the motion lines straight.

Use your Flash unit. Firing your flash unit can make it a lot easier to make a great zoom effect and it can create interesting effects on its own. If you handhold your camera it will freeze the subject and it will be sharp, while the zoom effect will still be smooth. Set you flash unit to slow sync, which will allow you to use longer shutter speeds. If you are zooming in you should use “Rear curtain” flash setting, which will tell camera to fire the flash at the end of exposure. If you are zooming out you should use the “front curtain” – which is usually the default camera setting. And don’t worry if you have only on-board flash – it will do the job just fine!

Get creative! There are hundreds of ways how to do interesting zoom effects and thousands of subjects to photograph this way. Below there are two examples how can zoom effect be improved. The photo to the left was taken on a tripod. The exposure time was 10 seconds and when I pressed the shutter I waited five seconds and the I quickly zoomed out and left the camera for another five seconds still. The camera recorded two images that are blended into one exposure the “zoomed in” one and the “zoomed out” one. The photo on the right is also from the Tulip Spring exhibit like others above. To achieve the whirl effect I rotated AND zoomed the camera during the shot. Since I was zooming in I used Rear sync flash to freeze the subject. How to do it? With left hand hold your zooming ring on the lens tight and with the other hand hold the camera. Now turn both hands toward each other quickly and take the shot. It needs some practice, but the results are funny and rewarding.

D300, 10-20 f4-5.6, f16, 10s, no flash

D300, 17-55 f2.8, f16, 1/10s, ISO200. TTL Rear curtain

What do you think of this technique? Do you like it? Do you have any shots you would like us to see? Post it here under the comments section or post it to our FaceBook page!

UPDATE:
Here are two interesting images created by using the zooming technique:

D300, 70-200 f2.8, f16, 1/15s, ISO200, hand-hold

D300, 17-55 f2.8, f11, 1/10s, ISO400, tripod