It's "Hey Rick! What's Your F-stop?" Friday

“Hey Rick. What’s your f-stop?” That is the question I get asked most on my photo workshops.

I reply, with a smile, “My friend. What is your creative vision?” That’s the much more important question, because my aperture and shutter speed ISO combination (called the Exposure Triangle) may not result in the photographer’s vision of how the scene should be captured. Lens selection, lighting conditions and camera-to-subject distance are also important considerations in convey one’s vision.

I understand, and appreciate, a workshop participant’s quest for a pro’s recommendations when it comes to camera setting. So I share my settings, but I always suggest other possible settings so the photographer can capture his or her own creative vision.

In this Friday feature, which will run from time to time if you guys like it, I will share my settings, and why I chose those settings, for some of the images I made while teaching a workshop that I co-led with my friend Hal “Bull” Schmitt, director of Light Photographic Workshops, to Alaska earlier this month. 

Photograph: Beautiful Grounded Berg

Camera: Canon 5D Mark III

Lens: Canon 17-40mm lens

Exposure: ISO 125. f/11 @ 1/800th sec.

Reasoning: I had three goals in making this photograph:

1) to capture the beauty of a grounded berg (an iceberg that has broken off from a glacier and, at low tide, is grounded);

2) to get great depth-of-field;

3) to have separation between the main grounded berg and the grounded berg in the background. Careful composition and a small aperture allowed me to achieve my goal.

Concept: Use a very wide-angle lens and small aperture to get great depth of field.

Hal and I hope to see you on our 2015 Death Valley Workshop.

Explore the light,
Rick

P.S. If you can't make a live workshop, I offer several on-line classes. Good fun, too.