Camera: Nikon D80
Exposure: 0.05 sec (1/20)
Aperture: f/2.0
Focal Length: 35 mm
ISO Speed: 1000
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: No Flash

How I got this shot

I love my 35mm f/1.8 prime lens. No, it doesn’t zoom–I use my legs for that–but it does give me some great bokeh.

For this shot, I placed the stuffed snowman on the floor. I then placed myself on the floor, so that I was at the same level–actually, looking up at the snowman. I then adjusted my aperture from 1.8 to 2.0, as I’ve read many articles that suggest you get a sharper shot when you step down from your camera’s maximum aperture.

I took a few test shots and made the following adjustments. I increased my ISO to the point that I could get enough light while still hand-holding the camera. You can see that I ended up at an ISO of 1000 and an exposure time of 1/20 second. Any higher ISO and I risked too much noise in the pic. Any slower shutter and I risked not being able to hold my camera still enough to avoid blurring.

Lastly, I positioned the snowman about 6 feet from the Christmas tree. The combined aperture and depth of field gave me that pretty “bokeh” effect on the lights. They were out of focus and hence, you get that flared look.

Processing

Not much processing in Apple’s Aperture software. I boosted the vibrancy and contrast a little, but not much else. The only other thing I did was to clone one of the lights and paste it twice on the right of the picture. I did this because I realized that I had a small black area with no lights. To keep the image balanced, I added these lights. That’s about as sophisticated as I get with “photoshop” (although I actually used Aperture’s clone feature).

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Camera: Nikon D60
Exposure: 0.002 sec (1/500)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: No Flash

I took this photo late on a sunny and windy afternoon of my summer holidays spent in Sardegna (Italy).

Inspiration came from some pictures taken by a deviant user (cycoevolution) I’m following. I choose to use a pretty short exposure time in order to achieve this frozen-sand effect and an aperture of 5.6, wide enough to produce a blurry background and a nice zone of focus.

While shooting I was lying down prone and this helped me on keeping my camera in a safe and static position. In post production I used Lightroom to add a little bit of contrast, just to make the picture more dramatic.

Export done with Picasa 3.0

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By PRM Photography

Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 0.02 sec (1/50)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 85 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire

This was shot at the Neon Boneyard (Neon Museum) in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Most of my shots from this interesting museum were fairly wide angle shots of the different signs but I did get some close-ups as well. I had this shot all planned out when I was looking at it and I knew that I wanted to keep the focus of the bulb further back while blurring the foreground. I did this by setting the camera to Av mode, selecting the largest aperture my lens allows, and manually selecting the focus point. I didn’t get the extreme depth of field a f/1.8 or f/1.4 prime lens would have given me but I am still happy with how it came out and it’s an example of getting what I was seeing in my mind to turn out almost exactly how I had imagined it.

Shot in RAW and edited in ACR and Photoshop CS4. I adjusted levels and boosted saturation and contrast. I also turned the clarity slider up quite a bit in ACR.

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By Gary A. Stafford

Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Exposure: 1/320 second
Aperture: f/4.5
Focal Length: 100 mm
ISO Speed: 125

Bright amber-colored morning sunlight, illuminating frost-covered leaves in Corbett’s Glen Nature Park, late Fall.

HDR image using a 3-shot bracket in Photomatix Pro 3.2. Photographed with Canon EOS 5D and Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Lens from tripod. Exposure of f/4.5 for 1/320 second, +/- 1 2/3 EV, at ISO 125. Processed in Adobe Lightroom 2.5, with post-processing in Photomatix Pro 3.2 and Adobe Photoshop CS3.

Using HDR really helped me hold detail in the highlight and the quarter-tones, while not loosing the mid- and three-quarter tones. I also like bokah, which is enhanced by both the slight movement of objects in the background and by combining the three shots in Photomatix.

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By Matt Siltala

Camera: Canon EOS 20D
Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO Speed: 400
Exposure Bias: 0/2 EV
Flash: Flash fired, auto mode, red-eye reduction

I wanted to test selective focusing to achieve a very shallow depth of field–also known as bokeh. Even though the largest aperture I could achieve was f/5.6, by using a zoom lens at 55mm, I was still able to get that bokeh effect.

I was actually trying to focus on the tip of the snowflake, but ended up focusing on the center. I ended up liking this shot regardless–and liked the out of focus at the front and back.

I added a little flash to make the snowflake sparkle.

The image was captured in JPEG with no post processing or enhancements.

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