{"id":134,"date":"2013-09-12T22:43:05","date_gmt":"2013-09-12T22:43:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.pixgaga.com\/?p=134"},"modified":"2013-09-12T22:58:54","modified_gmt":"2013-09-12T22:58:54","slug":"6-ways-to-photograph-the-invisible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.pixgaga.com\/?p=134","title":{"rendered":"6 Ways To Photograph The Invisible"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photography is commonly thought of the way to make an image of something seen by the eyes.\u00a0 This is commonly true, of course.\u00a0 However, photography is also capable of capturing images, not exactly visible to the eye.\u00a0 In this post, I shall talk about six of them.\u00a0 I call this post “6 Ways To Photograph The Invisible”.\u00a0 By “invisible”, I mean that which cannot be seen exactly as depicted in the photograph.\u00a0 Let’s begin.<\/p>\n

1. ADJUSTING FOCAL LENGTH DURING A SLOW EXPOSURE<\/p>\n

Consider this image I made at an apparel store, when my family was trying on clothes.<\/p>\n

\"Apparel

Apparel in Mall<\/p><\/div>\n

This image was created by using a slow shutter speed and zooming in (changing the focal length), during the exposure.\u00a0 The metadata for this image is the following: Nikon D300, Nikkor 17-35mm f2.8 lens, Aperture Priority, ISO 200, f10, 1\/5 s, Hand-held, zooming the focal length constantly during the exposure.<\/p>\n

While this photograph is interesting (at least to me), can you really see something like this with your eyes?\u00a0 Therefore, I consider this to be the first way to photograph the invisible.<\/p>\n

2. MOVING THE CAMERA DURING A SLOW EXPOSURE<\/p>\n

Now, consider this image.<\/p>\n

\"Road

Road seen from a moving car<\/p><\/div>\n

To make this photograph, I was sitting comfortably and legally in the passenger seat of a moving car, while a good friend drove the car.\u00a0 The tripod was setup inside the car with the tripod\/ball-head sticking out from the sunroof.\u00a0 An electronic shutter release cable reached me comfortably.\u00a0 Before starting the drive, I positioned the camera to look straight ahead, composing carefully to avoid the hood of the car, while at the same time pointing downwards, just enough to achieve the right balance between the ground, horizon and the sky.\u00a0 After the drive began, I clicked over a thousand shots in that drive, to find a few keepers eventually.\u00a0 The metadata for this shot is as follows: Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 lens, ISO 200, Aperture Priority, f25, 1\/8 s, Gitzo 1340 Tripod, Kirk BH-1 Ballhead, Nikon electronic shutter release cable.<\/p>\n

Such a scene is never visible to our naked eyes and therefore, I consider this to be my second way to photograph the invisible.<\/p>\n

3. ALLOWING THE SUBJECT TO MOVE DURING A SLOW EXPOSURE<\/p>\n

Consider this image of an Anise Swallowtail Butterfly.<\/p>\n

\"Anise

Anise Swallowtail Butterfly<\/p><\/div>\n

I shot using my telephoto lens and adjusted the shutter speed to be slow enough to allow the movement of the wings to be captured.\u00a0 The metadata for this image is as follows: Nikon D300, Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 lens, Nikon 2x Teleconverter, 400mm, ISO 200, Aperture Priority, f11, 1\/80 s, Gitzo 1340 Tripod, Kirk BH-1 Ball-head.\u00a0 In this case, it is also important to note that although the wings are not sharp indicating a sense of movement, the eyes are still sharp.\u00a0 An entirely blurred butterfly will not cut it.\u00a0 The sharp eyes allow you to connect with it, while the blurry wings indicate motion.<\/p>\n

Since our eyes and memory do not have the ability to retain the past and combine it with the present, visually, one cannot see what this image has captured.\u00a0 To me, this is the third way of photographing the invisible.<\/p>\n

4. USING VERY HIGH SHUTTER SPEED DURING FAST ACTION<\/p>\n

While we have so far seen how a slow shutter speed creates images not usually seen by the naked eye, a very high shutter speed can create equally interesting images that our eyes cannot see.<\/p>\n

Take for example, this image of a snowy egret splashing water to catch its prey.\u00a0 The high shutter speed has frozen the water in air.<\/p>\n

\"Snowy<\/a>

Snowy Egret and frozen splash<\/p><\/div>\n

The metadata for this image is as follows: Nikon D300, Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 lens, Nikon 2x teleconverter, ISO 200, Aperture Priority, f5.6, 1\/800 s, Gitzo 1340 Tripod, Kirk BH-1 Ball-head.<\/p>\n

Our eyes are incapable of freezing visual information that happened in a very short span of time such as 1\/800 s.\u00a0 Therefore, this is my fourth way of photographing the invisible.<\/p>\n

Here is another image of a boy splashing water in the pool.\u00a0 This cannot be seen by the human eye and yet can be captured by the camera.<\/p>\n

\"Boy

Boy splashing water in pool<\/p><\/div>\n

The metadata for this image is as follows: Nikon D300, Nikkor 50mm f1.4 lens, Aperture Priority, ISO 200, f5.6, 1\/160 s, Hand-held.<\/p>\n

5. LONG EXPOSURE OF TRAFFIC TRAIL LIGHTS AT NIGHT<\/p>\n

Traffic trail lights at night is quintessential image-making demonstrating the capture of that which cannot be seen.\u00a0 Consider this Las Vegas Image.\u00a0 The long exposure enables capture of the bright traffic lights (without exposing for the significantly darker vehicles themselves).<\/p>\n

\"Las<\/a>

Las Vegas at Night<\/p><\/div>\n

The metadata for this image is: Nikon D300, Nikkor 17-35mm f2.8 lens, ISO 200, Aperture priority, f22, 14 s, Gitzo 1340 Tripod, Kirk BH-1 Ball-head, Nikon electronic shutter release cable (several exposures stacked together in Photoshop).<\/p>\n

This is my fifth way to photograph the invisible.<\/p>\n

Yet another traffic trail image of a local street near my home in San Jose, CA.<\/p>\n

\"Traffic<\/a>

Traffic trails at night, San Jose, CA<\/p><\/div>\n

The metadata for this image is as follows: Nikon D300, Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 lens, Aperture Priority, ISO 200, f16, 15 s, Gitzo 1340 Tripod, Kirk BH-1 Ball-head, Nikon electronic shutter release cable (several exposures stacked together in Photoshop).<\/p>\n

6. FINE APERTURE EXPOSURE OF NIGHT LIGHTS<\/p>\n

Consider this image of Austin Downtown at Night.<\/p>\n

\"Austin<\/a>

Austin Downtown at Night<\/p><\/div>\n

The most prominent foreground of this image is the star pattern from the nearest street light.\u00a0 Can you see a star pattern when you look at street lights with your naked eye?\u00a0 Of course, not.\u00a0 This is simply an optical phenomenon manifested in lenses.\u00a0 If your aperture is f22, point light sources convert themselves into stars.\u00a0 No, a star filter is not essential to get this effect (I have never used a star filter).\u00a0 The metadata for this image is as follows: Nikon D300, Nikkor 17-35mm f2.8 lens, Manual exposure mode, f22, Several exposures (1s, 2s, 4s, 8s, 15s, 30s, 1min, 2 min) composited using the HDR technique, Gitzo 1340 Tripod, Kirk BH-1 Ball-head, Nikon electronic shutter release cable.<\/p>\n

This is my sixth way to photograph the invisible.<\/p>\n

ABOUT ME – Hello, I am Satish Menon, founder of http:\/\/pixgaga.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Visit my website to learn more about me, see my image gallery or to listen to my student testimonials.<\/p>\n

MY REQUEST TO YOU – If you have enjoyed reading this post and if this has perhaps triggered an expansion of your photographic vision, please forward this post to a photographer friend.\u00a0 Also, if you practice other ways in which you photograph the invisible, please reply and share it here.\u00a0 Lastly, if you are interested to receive digital photography tips from me on a regular basis, register at my website at: http:\/\/www.pixgaga.com\/users\/new<\/a>.\u00a0 I do conduct digital photography webinars (free), seminars and workshops, announced exclusively to my mailing list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photography is commonly thought of the way to make an image of something seen by the eyes.\u00a0 This is commonly true, of course.\u00a0 However, photography is also capable of capturing images, not exactly visible to the eye.\u00a0 In this post, I shall talk about six of them.\u00a0 I call this post “6 Ways To Photograph […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[87,78,89,88,90,81,57,77,80,82,79,86,83,84,91,85],"class_list":["post-134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exposure","tag-action-photography","tag-exposure-2","tag-fast-action-photography","tag-fast-photography","tag-focal-length","tag-movement","tag-night-photography","tag-photographic-exposure","tag-photographing-motion","tag-slow-photography","tag-slow-shutter-speed","tag-sports-photography","tag-star-pattern-photography","tag-traffic-lights","tag-traffic-pattern","tag-traffic-trails"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.pixgaga.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.pixgaga.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.pixgaga.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.pixgaga.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.pixgaga.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=134"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blog.pixgaga.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":143,"href":"https:\/\/blog.pixgaga.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134\/revisions\/143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.pixgaga.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.pixgaga.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.pixgaga.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}