How to photograph the Lunar Eclipse (Blood Moon)

How to photograph the Lunar Eclipse (Blood Moon) 

Tonights lunar eclipse will be the last for quite some time. It will be visible across most of Europe and America. The totality will be around 1 hour , while the whole eclipse will almost take 3 hours. During the totality phase, the moon is going to have a bright red color, hence the unofficial name "Blood Moon".

Why does it occur? 

Source: www.pacificsciencecenter.org

Usually we would see the moon in a white colour, as it reflects the light caused by the sun. During an eclipse, though, the moon enters the shadow of the earth. In the earths atmosphere blue light is filtered out, meaning that the bypassing light, which is reflected off the moon will be red.

How to photograph the lunar Eclipse?

What you will need for photographing the Milkyway:

- A DSRL or mirrorless camera, where you have the ability to set manual settings

- A tripod that keeps your camera steady during longer exposures.  

- A lens that has a high aperture of at least f/5.6, better would be f/4 or even as low as f/1.4

 - A lens with 200-400 mm focal length for close ups, you can go wider as well if you wish.

 - Clear Skies, check the weather forecast. Small clouds could ruin the shot!

 - Make yourself familiar when the moon rises and sets at your place!

A shot of the 2015 lunar eclipse, as seen from southern Germany! This was shot at 70mm and cropped!

What settings do I need? 

That's a hard question, and I will tell you why. During the eclipse the moon changes from white and bright to dim and red, meaning that you will have to adjust the camera during the eclipse. When photographing the standard full moon I usually start off with something like 1/300 to 1/400 of a second, wide open aperture and a low ISO, like 100. Especially when shooting with a 400mm lens you will need a fast shutter speed, if you want your images to be sharp. If you have a tracking mount you can expose for longer, of course. I suggest that you start off with the above settings and then just play around and see what works best with your camera and lens!

Once the the eclipse goes towards totality (the phase where the moon is way dimmer), your exposure can well be up to 1-2 seconds. Don't shoot longer than that, and rather increase your ISO to ensure sharp photos!

A photo of the full moon at 600mm by Steffen Eisenacher

Things to consider:

If you want to shoot the whole eclipse, be prepared, as it almost takes 3 1/2 hours. So pack something to snack and to drink, and ensure that you've got enough batteries and storage. Last time I photographed the eclipse I filled two 64 GB SD cards. 

The Lunar eclipse is a stunning astronomical occurrence and really easy to shoot. I wish you guys all the best of luck, especially weather wise. And don't forget to look up and take it all in!

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Was this quick tutorial any help for you? You are still confused and want to know more? Let me know in the comments below!

How to check whether your exposure is correct?

How to check whether your exposure is correct?

In this weeks article, we are going to talk about how check your exposure settings, and how to get the perfect exposure settings for each image. To correctly expose is often regarded as a difficult matter. Especially for beginners, it can be hard to grasp. After failing a couple of times, beginning photographers might resolve to the automatic mode of their camera again. With this article, I will try to show that it doesn’t have to be that difficult. With learning how to read the histogram you will see that it is a very good tool to find the best exposure and to manipulate and correct the exposure to get the image you want.

Image 1: Shooting toward the sun is a tricky thing to do. I is easy to get blown-out highlights or clipped shadows. Therefore the histogram is of great importance to shoot images like these. Tamron SP 24-70 F/2.8 @ 27 mm | F/18 | 2 Sec | ISO 100 with NiSi Medium GND8 & Landscape CPL

In photography, the basic element is light. You won’t get a good picture without a proper exposure; it’s as simple as that.  That used to be the case with analog cameras and it is no different in the digital era. If there is too little light on the sensor, the photo is underexposed. If there is too much light on the sensor, the picture will be overexposed. In the case of an underexposed photo, the details will disappear in the dark areas and, in an overexposed photograph, in the light areas. The room to correct this afterwards is very limited so it is best to get it right in camera. In contrast to the analogue era, however, we now have some amazing tools that we can use to guide us in finding the best exposure we need to get the results we desire.

Required shutter speed
The required shutter speed for a well-exposed photo is determined by the amount of light and the subject (still or moving), in combination with the aperture and the ISO value, plus the intended effect of the photo. If you want a waterfall to be sharp and detailed, you use a shorter shutter speed than when you want to emphasize the effect of moving water. The ‘correct’ exposure therefore depends on what you want to show. A good example of a ‘correctly’ exposed image is Image 2. Because the northern lights were moving constantly, I did not want to make the shutterspeed too long because that would mean the beautiful details in the aurora would be lost. Still, I did not want to lose too much light because then the photo would become too dark. By choosing a shutter speed of 5 seconds and setting the aperture and ISO accordingly, I succeeded in freezing the movement of the northern lights without losing detail in the foreground.

Image 2, I wanted both the aurora and the foreground to have enough detail. Based on the speed of the aurora, I set the shutterspeed to 5 seconds. By adjusting the aperture and ISO accordingly, I managed to keep enough detail in the foreground. Tamron SP 24-70 F/2.8 @ 24 mm | F/2.8 | 5 Sec | ISO 1600

Back in the days of the analog camera, it was necessary to determine the correct exposure values using an external light meter. This was based on knowledge, experience and a certain dose of luck. This was really hard practice and you had to get a lot of experience to master this. Film was expensive so you wanted to have it correct right away. There was no way to preview your image. Fortunately, nowadays the camera has a number of very useful functions. We have the LCD-display, the built-in light meter, and the histogram. I deliberately put them in this order, because that is the way they should be used, as we will learn in the following part of this article.

LCD-display
Now you might think that the image on your LCD screen or digital viewfinder provides sufficient information about the exposure. Overall this might be true, but it is anything but accurate. Because you can set the brightness of the LCD screen, it is variable. Furthermore, environmental factors such as sunlight, reflections or darkness also influence what you see on the screen. It is a handy check to know if you’re getting there, but it’s not a reliable method to perfect your exposure. Therefore, the  LCD-display should only be used as a rough indicator.

Built-in exposure meter
To determine whether your settings are correct or not, you can use the built-in exposure meter. You do this by pressing the shutter button halfway down (as with autofocus). A bar with scale will now appear. This is the exposure indicator. The pointer indicates whether your exposure is correct (image 3). The camera thinks the picture is right when the pointer is in the middle. With an underexposed photo, the pointer is on the left. With an overexposed photo, on the right. The numbers are called stops. From 0 to -1 means half the amount of light, and 0 to 1 means a double the amount of light.

Image 3: This image clearly shows what the exposure meter does. With an underexposed photo, the indicator shows a negative value. With an overexposed photo a positive value.

Personally, I often use the outcome of the light meter as an indication. It often happens that my exposure turns out to be either above or below zero. This really depends on my subject and my intentions. For instance, photographing in snow or straight into the sun messes with the exposure meter. In those situations you need something else, something much more reliable. Luckily we have it! It is called the histogram!

Histogram
The histogram is an amazing tool! Unfortunately, it is also feared by a lot of people because of its seemingly complex appearance. For that reason, a lot of (beginning) photographers won’t use the it. This is a pity because it offers so much information and once you know what it means, it is really simple to use. As mentioned, the histogram is a much more reliable method to check whether your exposure is correct and to make sure you get the result you want. Let me begin by explaining what a histogram is by using a definition: the histogram is a compressed bar graph of a frequency distribution. This might sound a bit abstract but stay with me, it will be a lot easier once you know what the graph stands for. It is a graphical representation of an exposed image, which shows you how many pixels in your photo have a certain tone on a scale from 0 to 255. The horizontal axis runs from pure black (0, very dark) to pure white (255, very light), with mid-gray in the middle.

Image 4: The histogram is nothing more than a graphical representation of the number of pixels with a certain brightness.

Each tone is one pixel wide. The vertical axis shows the amount of pixels that have that certain tone. If you see a peak, then many pixels have that tone. If the photo is predominantly dark, then the weight of the graph is on the left. If the photo is light, then the weight is on the right (Image 4 & 5).

Image 5: The histogram explained

How to read and use the histogram
Using the histogram, it will become quite easy to see when details will be lost in either shadows (pure black) and/or highlights (pure white). A peak at the immediate left side means that image information disappears in pure black. A peak against the right side means information dissolves in pure white. Both are not desirable, but if you are forced to choose (because of extreme contrast difference for instance), go for a peak on the pure black side. In general, black shadows are experienced as less disturbing than blown out highlights. The shape of the graph depends on the subject and the amount different tones (light and dark areas). And, because all brightness information is displayed in this graph, we can use the histogram for checking our exposure because it accurately reflects the brightness levels. Moreover, you can clearly see what you are doing using live view and therefore prevent errors when fine-tuning your exposure (Image 6).

Image 6: Using the histogram allows you to easily check for errors.

Because each picture is different, your histogram will be different too. If the histogram shape doesn’t match the typical mountain shape with the center of gravity in the middle, it does not mean that it is poorly exposed. Do not compare your photos with a certain type of histogram. It is a tool that is useful for correcting over- or underexposure and to check whether all tones are represented or not. It is not a fixed rule that you should keep with every shot. The final exposure is determined by what you want to transfer with the photo and your creative vision. This means that you sometimes deliberately overexpose a photo and another time you will underexpose. Sometimes, you even have to over- or underexpose to get the correctly exposed image.

Correctly exposing light scenes
In situations where you have predominantly light areas in your photo, such as a beach or in the snow, the automatic mode will produce an underexposed photograph. To illustrate this, I used a picture of the Paard van Marken lighthouse in the Netherlands (Image 7). At the end of the winter, there was a beautiful ice deposit due to prolonged cold and strong eastern wind. I wanted to capture this during blue hour (an hour before sunrise) to emphasize the icy cold even more. The first photo is exposed to the middle. The gravity point is exactly on medium gray. It can clearly be seen that the photo is underexposed. As a matter of fact, the pars that should be white turned out medium gray. In order to get the correct exposure, I’ve exposed this image towards the right, which means that the center of gravity within my histogram has shifted to the right side of the graph.

Image 7: It is easy to see that exposing towards the middle results in an underexposed image with a lot of tones missing.

Put it to use!
Almost all modern cameras have a means to view the histogram. Depending on the brand and type of camera, this can be live, which is awesome because it immediately shows the effect of adjusting the shutter speed, aperture and/or ISO. Your camera doesn’t have a live view of the histogram? That’s no problem; use the light meter of your camera as an indication, take a picture and view the histogram in the viewer. Adjust the exposure and repeat until you are satisfied.

Thanks a lot for reading
That’s it for this week’s article! Thanks a lot for reading! I hope you’ve enjoyed it and you learned that using the histogram isn’t scary at all. I hope it will help you to get better images. If you have any questions, please let me know! If you enjoyed this article please feel free to share on social media! And, if you like my photography, please follow me on Instagram @harmenpiekema

I would like to thank my buddy Cody Fjeldsted for proofreading this article! Your help is awesome and means a lot, thank you so much.

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Was this helpful to you? Are you still confused? Leave me a comment down below!

How to photograph the Lunar Eclipse (Blood Moon)

How to photograph the Lunar Eclipse (Blood Moon) 

Tonights lunar eclipse will be the longest we have seen in the 21st century. The totality will be around  1 hour and 20 minutes, while the whole eclipse will almost take 6 hours. During the totality phase, the moon is going to have a bright red color, hence the unofficial name "Blood Moon" 

Why does it occur? 

Source: www.pacificsciencecenter.org

Usually we would see the moon in a white colour, as it reflects the light caused by the sun. During an eclipse, though, the moon enters the shadow of the earth. In the earths atmosphere blue light is filtered out, meaning that the bypassing light, which is reflected off the moon will be red.

How to photograph the lunar Eclipse?

What you will need for photographing the Milkyway:

- A DSRL or mirrorless camera, where you have the ability to set manual settings

- A tripod that keeps your camera steady during longer exposures.  

- A lens that has a high aperture of at least f/5.6, better would be f/4 or even as low as f/1.4

 - A lens with 200-400 mm focal length for close ups, you can go wider as well if you wish.

 - Clear Skies, check the weather forecast. Small clouds could ruin the shot!

 - Make yourself familiar when the moon rises and sets at your place!

A shot of the 2015 lunar eclipse, as seen from southern Germany! This was shot at 70mm and cropped!

What settings do I need? 

That's a hard question, and I will tell you why. During the eclipse the moon changes from white and bright to dim and red, meaning that you will have to adjust the camera during the eclipse. When photographing the standard full moon I usually start off with something like 1/300 to 1/400 of a second, wide open aperture and a low ISO, like 100. Especially when shooting with a 400mm lens you will need a fast shutter speed, if you want your images to be sharp. If you have a tracking mount you can expose for longer, of course. I suggest that you start off with the above settings and then just play around and see what works best with your camera and lens!

Once the the eclipse goes towards totality (the phase where the moon is way dimmer), your exposure can well be up to 1-2 seconds. Don't shoot longer than that, and rather increase your ISO to ensure sharp photos!

A photo of the full moon at 600mm by Steffen Eisenacher

Things to consider:

If you want to shoot the whole eclipse, be prepared, as it almost takes 6 hours. So pack something to snack and to drink, and ensure that you've got enough batteries and storage. Last time I photographed the eclipse I filled two 64 GB SD cards. 

The Lunar eclipse is a stunning astronomical occurrence and really easy to shoot. I wish you guys all the best of luck, especially weather wise. And don't forget to look up and take it all in!

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Was this quick tutorial any help for you? You are still confused and want to know more? Let me know in the comments below!

How to shoot panoramic photos. A tutorial from shooting to editing.

Shooting panoramic photos

Sometimes a landscape can be really overwhelming and beautiful, but when photographing such a scene, you might get disappointed. Imagine standing on top of a huge cliff overlooking the landscape. The view is absolutely breathtaking, but your images turn out rather boring. The result doesn’t look anything near what you see with your own eyes. How is this possible you might wonder. The explanation is that our field of view is much wider than the single frame from your camera. An ultra-wide angle lens will do the trick you might think! But if you would use, lets say a 14 mm lens in order to widen the field of view, everything will look small and far away. This of course reduces the impact of the photo too. So, what can we do to capture an image that is as stunning as the view itself (read: almost.. nothing is as stunning as being actually there of course). The answer is quite simple, we make a panoramic photo!

This panoramic image of Kvalvika and Vestvika beach, consists of three overlapping portrait oriented photos. I forgot my remote trigger so I had to use the 10 second timer and run to get the last frame. Tamron SP 24-70 F/2.8 @ 24 mm | F/9 | 1/13 sec | ISO 100

In this post I will try to explain how I make panoramic photos. I will talk about the things you have to keep in mind, and finally, I will show you how I stitch my images using Lightroom. There is plenty of good software that will do this for you, but I think Lightroom does an amazing job with just a few clicks.

Method

There are devices like smartphones and compact cameras that are capable of making panoramic photos by simply panning the camera along the horizon. This works fine if you just want a nice holiday photo, but we are going to focus on taking a panoramic photo with a dSLR. As with normal photos, you’ll get the best results when photographing in Raw. The file with get a lot bigger but you will have a much more information to work with, resulting in a higher quality panoramic image when post-processing.

The view you get when standing on top of Reinebringen is so overwhelming that a single-frame-photo won’t do it justice. Five images shot with a Tamron SP 24-70 F/2.8 @ 24 mm | F/9 | 1/125 sec | ISO 100.

When taking the photos for the panoramic, you can do two things. One, you can put your camera into landscape orientation, or two, you can put your camera into portrait orientation. Would you be shooting a panoramic image in landscape, the result will be a narrow image (less sky and foreground, lower resolution, lower margin of error in post). Whilst shooting in portrait mode will result in a broader panoramic image (more sky and foreground, higher resolution, higher margin of error in post). More of the sky and more foreground can make for a much more impactful image. A downside of this method is that it requires more photos (and thus a higher chance of making mistakes), and because of this the file gets much larger.

Level your tripod

If you want the photos to aline perfectly, you need a sturdy tripod. The next step is to make sure that the tripod is leveled. Most high-end tripods have a waterlevel which can be used to do this. It requires some practice but trust me, it’s really useful and worth your time. If the tripod is leveled, your photos will be straight and stitch perfectly without losing much of the top and bottom. If you have enough margin of error, you can come away with losing some of the photo, but sometimes you need the whole frame to fit everything. I learned this the hard way and had to trow away one of my panoramic images because my tripod wasn’t leveled!

Next to having your tripod leveled, it is important that your ballhead is straight. This way the horizon will be straight. Most ballheads have a waterlevel making it as easy as leveling the tripod. But a lot of ballheads (especially the cheaper ones) have a waterlevel that only works in landscape orientation. This means that if you want to shoot in portrait orientation, you need to use an L-bracket to be sure the horizon is straight. You can read this article for an explanation.

A beautiful early winter morning. When shooting panoramic photos like these, make sure your image doesn’t get too dark when moving away from the sun. Of course, de difference in light is something natural and is a consequence of the sunrise, therefore part of the difference should be left untouched. Five images shot with a Tamron SP 24-70 F/2.8 @ 24 mm | F/11 | 2.5 sec | ISO 100

Using filters

You can use filters when making a panoramic image but you have to be careful. With every shot you take, make sure to check whether the filter still does what is supposed to do. The filters I use the most are gradual ND filters and a polarizer.

Gradual ND filters

When you pan the camera, the relative angle with the horizon changes. And, as a consequence, the position of the gradual ND filter. This means you have to correct for this by adjusting the position of the filter. When using a medium- or soft edge filter you will get away with this but when using a hard edge filter a slight shift will introduce an error immediately. If this goes unnoticed, it will ruin your panoramic image. Furthermore, some parts of the photo may become too dark (if you pan away from the sun for instance) and you might need to swap the ND grad filter for a lighter one.

Polarizer

Another filter that might introduce errors is the polarizer. Although fantastic in landscape photography, you need to pay extra attention when using this filter for panoramic photography. The reason for this is that the strength of the polarization depends on its angle with the sun. The filter is at its strongest when in a 90 degrees angle, thus when moving the camera either towards or away from the sun, you have to correct this by adjusting the polarizer. If you forget this you will get a dark area in your stitched panoramic.

The arrows mark a dark area in my photo. This is caused by the polarizer, I had forgotten to adjust my polarizer while panning. This illustrates that you have to adjust the amount of polarization when panning.

In order to know where the darkest spot (the 90 degree angle) will be, you can form a pistol with your thumb and index finger and point towards the sun. Keep pointing straight towards the sun and If you now rotate your hand clockwise or counterclockwise. Your thumb will point towards the area with the maximum amount of polarization. Take this into account when making your panorama and check with every photo. It would be such a pity if you get home and discover an ugly dark spot in your photo like the one shown above.

Exposure

When shooting panoramas in low-light conditions, for instance at sunrise, the difference between the image closest to the sun and the image furthest away, can be too big. If this happens, you can balance the exposure by adjusting your exposure. This can be done by adding stops (1 stop is the doubling of halving of the amount of light let in by the camera). For example, if we make a panoramic that consists of 5 photos, with the sun in the first frame, we set our exposure in a way we’ll get a pleasing result, than if we move to the second photo, we adjust the exposure with 1/3 stop, the third photo will get 1/2 a stop, the fourth will get 2/3 and the fifth 1 full stop. This is just as an example, again, the best way is by checking every image. Of course, the difference in light is something natural and is a consequence of the sunrise, therefore part of the difference should be left untouched. Otherwise you will end up with a flat and unnatural looking image.

The night I took this photo, the aurora was quite boring. It didn’t move but just formed a large band in the sky (and a few flares behind the mountains). A single image of this scene was uninteresting, therefore I decided to shoot a panoramic photo. Five images shot with a Tamron SP 24-70 F/2.8 @ 24 mm | F/2.8 | 20 sec | ISO 2500

Focus

It sounds obvious but make sure that every single shot is in focus. It might be that when panning the camera, the foreground gets out of focus. If this is your main subject, than your panoramic is ruined. But also take notice of the wind. A panoramic consisting of long-exposure shots, can easily be ruined by camera movement. It would be a real pity if you get home, stitch your shots and discover that one of the images is softer than the others because of the wind. Furthermore, if plants (trees, reeds, flowers etc.) are in your frame and it is windy, they will become blurred.

The wind can cause another problem that can even be evident at lower shutter speeds. If the wind changes the shape of a tree for example, and this tree happens to be close where the frame gets stitched, an error will occur leaving an artifact in your panoramic shot. Wait for the wind to settle or make sure no movable objects are within the range of the stitched area.

Stitching

As I mentioned in the introduction, there is plenty of software (both free and paid) to do the stitching for you. I like to use Lightroom because it works in a convenient way and does an amazing job. It is really simple too. First you choose and edit the images you want to stitch. When editing for a panoramic, only stick to global adjustments first, then use synchronize to apply the settings to all the images, and manually adjust each image if necessary to make them fit perfectly. Lightroom will only use global adjustments when stichting. If you want to make local adjustments like a radial or graduated filter, you can do this after the image is stitched. Next you select all images you want to use and right-click one of them. Choose Photo Merge –> Panorama. Now you will see a dialogue box with 3 different projections, an option to auto crop, and a boundary warp slider. On the left side you’ll see the preview of your stitched panoramic.

Spherical

This projection stitches your image as if placed onto the inside of a sphere. Best option for really wide, multi-row and 360 panoramas.

Cylindrical

This projection stitches your image as if placed onto the inside of a cylinder. Best option for very wide panoramas. This option tries to keep vertical lines straight and works really well with landscape photography.

Perspective

This projection stitches your image as if was placed onto a flat surface. Tries to keep vertical lines straight and works best for architectural photography. Doesn’t work very well for very wide panoramas because it tends to distort the edges a lot.

After choosing the projection mode that fits best to your image, you can either choose the Auto Crop function (to crop the white edges off) or use Boundary Warp (to fill the frame by folding the edges). Press Merge when you are satisfied. Depending on the amount of photos and the size of the raw files this might take a while. The output file is a Digital Negative Raw file (DNG). This file can be edited like a normal Raw file. Now you can do local adjustments as well. For instance to remove small stitching errors or to brighten or darken the sky.

A post shared by Harmen Piekema (@harmenpiekema) on May 28, 2018 at 11:25pm PDT

Filters on drones?

Filters on drones?

ARE DRONE FILTERS WORTH IT FOR PHOTOGRAPHY?

I often see a lot of people asking “what filters did you use?” and also spending money to buy them. Therefore to help clear up any confusion, set the right expectations and hopefully save some peeps a few bucks here’s a quick little brain dump on filters. It might be of some help to those who may be new to photography. 

I tend to think of filters in two groups. Optically altering and non-optically altering. Filters such as UV and polarising filters literally change or modify the light. ND and Grad ND Filters do not modify the light. 

A standard screw in UV lens filter

Just part of my personal Lee Filters landscape  kit.

Whilst there’s literally hundreds of filter variants not all of them are applicable to aerial photography so I’ll explain the four different types of filters I often see people ask about or buy for drones. 

1. UV: A UV filter was traditionally used to block UV rays from the film. Digital camera sensors have an IR or UV filter built in making UV filters completely redundant for this purpose. Many still like using a UV filter to protect the lens of their camera from scratches. Personally, I’ve never used a UV / clear filter for protection.

I’ve never scratched a lens and the lens of a drone camera would be even harder to scratch (given they’re used in the air). I’ve seen a lot of people buy UV / Clear filters for their drones and IMO this is of no benefit and in-fact will degrade image quality. 

2. Polarising filters: Of all the filters available for drones, a polarising filter is the single filter I agree has the most value for photography. The type of polariser filter used is a circular polariser (circ.pol) 

These could be seen to benefit aerial photography in a number of ways. They remove reflected light waves, reducing glare and helping improve clarity in things such as water and clouds. They can also help improve the natural saturation of colours. 

There are a lot of people who swear by polarises but IMO they’re not worth it for aerial photography. Here’s why:
-They work when they are perpendicular to the direction of the sun. This is controlled by manually rotating the filter which obviously one cannot do when their lens is in the air. 
-The guessing game of ‘putting her on and sending her up’ can impair the image with uneven areas of polar reduction. 
-Photographers compose their shots to ensure uniformed saturation with polarises. Again, this isn’t possible when the lens is in the sky. 
-Polarises reduce approx. 2 exposure stops of light which has subsequent impacts when your camera is airborne (I’ll get to this below). 

So – I agree, circ.pol filters can absolutely have an impact on the photo. IMO, the results aren’t worth it and with the above limitations in mind, are probably better achieved in post-production. This is a personal preference though 🙂

3. Neutral Density (ND) filters. I think ND filters are one of the more misunderstood filters in the drone community. ND filters are optically neutral, meaning, they don’t change the light like polarises or UV filters do. ND filters are literally just darkened glass (perspex, plastic etc). Landscape photographers will have many times when they need to reduce the amount of light entering their lens. This comes down to the basic principles of exposure. Ie. Exposure is a product of three variables. Shutter speed, aperture and ISO (film sensitivity). 

If a photographer wishes to reduce their shutter speed they are then allowing more light into their lens, this is compensated by closing the aperture. For example. 1/1000th of a second and f2 is the same exposure as 1/500th second and f2.8 and the same exposure as 1/250th second and f4 and so on. All variables work in sync. So if a photographer needs their shutter speed to be slow (ie 1/8th second) they need to compensate this with their aperture. In the above example 1/8th sec would be an aperture of f22). 

This isn’t always achievable or ideal, so, enter ND filters. 

IMO, this isn’t valuable in drone photography because the only value of slowing the shutter speed would be for long exposures (to blur water for example) which requires a tripod. Some might say their gimbals are magic and can allow for this, and whilst it’s a fun novelty, the image won’t be sharp or useable for anything other than phone size screens.

So why do ND filters serve no other purpose? Some drone camera’s such as the P4P and Inspire camera’s allow for aperture control. Even on drones without aperture control and fixed at f2.8, if you need to reduce the exposure you can simply dial up the shutter speed. 

(I'll pause here to make it clear I'm talking to photography and not videography. I absolutely agree some videographers will want ND filters for many other reasons). 

4. Grad ND: Grad ND’s are filters which gradually change from clear to a darker number of exposure stops. These are invaluable for landscape photographers when they want to balance their foreground light with the higher exposure of the sky. 

Could you do that on a drone when airborne? I guess maybe. Would I spend money on a filter for it for my drone. Nope. I’d take two exposures and blend them. It’d be easier than trying to balance the horizon along the grad line in the air.

Interview With a Photographer | Steffen Eisenacher

Where’s home?

For me home is Germany, but with having lived in Australia during my teenage years, I would call Australia my second home. 

What is the favourite place you’ve travelled to?

Definitely the arctic. I know, Arctic isn’t very specific, but I couldn’t quite decided between Iceland, Lofoten and Lappland. These place are so diverse and always look different during the different seasons. You can shoot the same place 4 times a year and it would always look different! 

How did you get started as a photographer?

That’s an interesting question. For me it all start with a passion for meteorology. I have always been interested in severe weather, such as thunderstorms since I have been a kid. At the age of 8 years I got my first very cheap digital camera and from there on my goal was to capture lightning. I remember when I finally scored my first bolt, I was smiling for days. To compensate the lack of severe weather in winter, my focus slowly shifted towards classic landscape photography! 

Want to know more about lightning photography? Check out our blog here

What camera equipment / software / tech do you use?  Any must haves?

I use a Canon 6D with the Canon 24-70mm f4, the Samyang 24mm 1.4 and the Samyang 14mm 2.8. 

For editing I use Lightroom, Photoshop and Starry Landscape Stacker. 

I don’t think there are any must haves. Up until 2 years ago I was shooting with a Canon 500D (you can get that used for less than $200) and a lot of the images you see on my feed and website are still shot with that camera. First improve on your photography, take the gear to the absolute limit and if there is absolutely no way around upgrading, then it’s time to do so! 

What photographers have influenced you, how you think and shoot?

Thinking about this now, I have always tried to keep my style, so I wouldn’t quite say I was influenced, but more inspired by the work of others. If I was to name some of them, it would be Micheal Shainblum (@shainblumphotography) , Jonas Piontek (@jonaspiontek) and Marc Adamus (@marcadamus).

Any top tips for Instagram?

2 things: 

1. Stick to your style. I have seen many good photographers that started to adopt too much to the style that other instagrams are doing. I’m not saying you shouldn’t be inspired, but some people try to follow, what they think will make them most successful on this platform. Nothing wrong with being successful, but I can guarantee you that you won’t be happy, if you’re only doing what you do for the gram. 
2. Interact, talk and collaborate. Don’t be afraid to reach out to big features pages, such as @canon_photos, if you have quality content on your feed! I, for example got my first ever feature on @canon_photos by sending them a DM. 

What are you trying to communicate through your photographs?

I am always trying to tell a story with my images. The most important part in doing so, is to find a composition. If you want to know more on how you can achieve that, check out my tutorial on composition! (Here) 

What motivates you to continue doing what you’re doing?

Uffff.. that’s a good one. Sometimes I do get phases where my motivation is down and I don’t feel like doing much. That’s when it is more important than ever to get inspired. Usually I search through Google, Instagram etc. to find images that I would have loved to capture myself. My competitive self will then want to take a better shot than I had just seen. That’s kind of what keeps me going explained easy 

Are you a bathroom singer?

Haha not really, but I do have my moments where I just start singing. Also, I’m really bad with lyrics, so I often just make them up. 

Do you have any advice for young aspiring photographers?

As already stated above, it is most important to stick to what you most love. If you have always taken colourful images, don’t start to edit your images with whiteout sky, just because a lot of people are doing well with it. You’re giving up your individuality just in oder to get more likes. In the long run, people will always look up to people that are different, people that are individual, people that differ from the mainstream content everyone creates. 

What are your goals for the future, regarding your work?

I don’t really have any specific goals, I’m a person that believes that everything happens for a reason. I’m open for everything, and I’ll let my self surprise as to what my future holds. 

Any Questions for Steffen? Ask away ↓

The Ultimate Travel Guide To Bali

You may not like Bali at first. Especially if you’re coming off a plane after having spent the last 24 hours travelling, arriving just after midnight with a massive, almost impossible to be moved 30kg suitcase, wearing a completely unsuitable outfit for the boiling heat outside, and the taxi driver who’s giving you a ride from the airport to the hotel hasn’t got a single clue where your hotel is (and not using a GPS either.) You won’t like Bali too, if you don’t fancy street dogs, cats, rats and bats, and massive traffic all day, every day.

Even if you decide to do a quick meditation in the taxi to release the stress and focus on some positive affirmations, it may still come as a bit of a shock to you when the taxi driver pulls the car over, explaining in broken English that the traffic is too much (at 1am on Sunday!) and he is not able to drive you to the hotel (which, he is still unsure exactly where it is situated). Welcome to Bali!

Yeah, as I said, Bali is not a love at first sight. But it’s this kind of love that lasts forever.

Do I need a visa for Bali?

Depends on where you are from. If your country is in this list, then you’re allowed to stay in Indonesia for 30 days visa-free. You also don’t need to pay any tax when you arrive or depart the country, as the airline companies include the fee in your flight purchase.

Where can I exchange money?

My advice here is always to exchange money in the country you’re visiting. It was quite a struggle for us to find Indonesian Rupiah in the U.K, so my boyfriend and I exchanged a little amount at the airport that would do us for the first couple of days. Don’t do it! (Obviously, unless you really don’t have any other option!) The commission is over the top, the exchange rate is awful, and it’s simply not worth it. When we arrived in Bali, we found out that there are Money Exchange desks at pretty much every corner and the currency rate they were offering was even better than the official one stated on Internet! Here’s a pro tip - don’t exchange all of your holiday budget at once. At least not in Bali! Do it in parts, otherwise you might end up coming back home with a lot of Indonesian rupiah left. Everything in Bali is amazingly cheap! 

Where to stay in Bali?

When it comes to accommodation in Bali, the choice is great. You can stay the night in a hostel or motel for as little as £6 per night. Or go to an average to nice 3 or 4-star hotel for £13 per night. There are also incredibly fancy villas and spa resorts with private beaches for the people with the finest taste (and fattest wallets). There is a trick here though! Most of the cheap places (including the “average to nice” hotels I mentioned above) are not always as great as shown in the photos and described on the Internet! So here is my tip - when you’re booking your holiday online, book only one-night stay regardless how long you’re visiting for and when you arrive, if you’re happy with the place, you can always extend your stay. If you’re not happy though, as I said, there is plenty of choice around. We personally used www.lastminute.com but I probably won’t use them for our next trip.

What to do in Bali

Everything! You can literally do everything! From exploring the culture by visiting temples, museums, coffee and rice plantations, and indulge yourself with spa treatments, such as massages, manicure and pedicures, ear candles, and anything you wish really. To surfing, bodyboarding, skydiving, jet skiing, scuba diving, river rafting, safari and breakfast with elephants, sacred monkey forest, and turtle conservations. The list is never-ending, guys! My personal advice is: rent a scooter for a week (it costs about £25) and explore the island for yourself! There is so much to be seen! Little villages with local people doing their daily activities, women carrying massive baskets with fruits on their heads (so impressed by the body balance they’ve got!), hidden waterfalls, stunning private white sand beaches, magical sunsets and sunrises, and so much more.

What are the best beaches in Bali?

It really depends on your personal taste. For example, if you’re all about surfing, you’ll love the Kuta beach. If you’ve never done in before, but always wanted to try, here is some good news! The price for a surfing lesson with instructor and board is just under £9 per hour!

On the other hand, if you’re like me and looking for something rather Instagrammable, like blue waters and white sands, but don’t have a big budget to spend, then I’d recommend visiting the Nusa Dua Beach. There is no entrance fee for the public side of it and I was surprised to find out that there were barely any visitors, despite the fact the beach was so nice and fully accessible.

If you don’t mind spending £20 and want something super chic, go to the Dreamland Beach! Come back to thank me later! ;)

What to eat in Bali?

Similar to the activities, I was amazed by the choice of food in Bali! The island offers cuisines from all over the world. Italian, Spanish, Mexican, American, Indian, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, traditional Indonesian, British, French, Greek, Russian… the choice is unlimited. We personally had a really lovely dinner at this Greek restaurant called Warung Souvlaki in Legian, Kuta. Something very important to mention here is - don’t drink any tap water in Bali and be careful with the fresh fruits and salads in the restaurants in general. Unless you don’t mind spending your holiday on the toilet, I’d advise using mineral water, even when you’re brushing your teeth!

What are the secret spots in Bali?

Here is my list. The description and address of the places are under each photo!

1)      Jl.Pantai Gumicik, Ketewel, Indonesia - stunning black sand beach!

2)   The Dream Museum (DMZ), Kuta, Indonesia

3) The Stones Hotel, Legian Bali (Psst, the rooftop pool is free entry not only for hotel guests!)

4) Jalan Raya Tegalalang, Gianyar, Coffee Plantation (It's entry free and you get to try a complimentary set of different coffee and tea flavour shots, whilst enjoying a magnificient view!)

5) Gianyar Bali, Indonesia - Rice Plantation

What’s the best thing about Bali?

To me personally, that would have been the energy in the air, the vibe of the local people. There was something so calming and magical about this place that had nothing to do with the environment or the weather… Let me tell you a little story. 

On our second day, we met this Indonesian guy called Roberto. He was working on the street as a promoter. He told us that his biggest dream was to work in a hotel. I have never met such a passionate, honest and warm person as Roberto. The simplicity of his dream was so inspirational! He didn’t want to conquer the world, have a 7-figure income or be well-socially known, approved and admired by everybody. All he wanted was to earn just enough so he can be able to support his family (as he shared with us, he was the oldest brother) and to find a girl that he can make a family with. As simple as that. He seemed so happy! He also seemed more passionate about his dreams than most of the people I am surrounded by, and surely happier than all the successful (and wealthy) people I know. That made me seriously rethink a lot of my values, but that’s a subject for another post.

To summarize, the best thing about Bali for me was indeed the whole experience with a completely different culture and a different code of behavior, and way of living. This energy coming from the people was so pure and relaxing in a way, that it was making you forget about everything you already know and believe, and completely change your mindset about life. That, together with the breathtaking views and places we visited, will surely leave Bali in my heart forever.

Have any questions? Leave a comment below!