Iconic photographs that immediately identify a location, such as this traditional Chinese junk in front of the Hong Kong skyline, tell a story as well as increase the potential for sales if you want to market your work. To get this shot, I asked the hotel concierge where and when I could position myself to capture this classic image. He gave me a schedule when the boat sails, and I was ready at the appointed time. It is this type of research that has proved invaluable in getting many marketable images all over the world. Even though thousands of other photographers have taken this, mine will be somewhat different simply because there are so many variables, such as lighting, time of day, composition, color, and so on. My settings for this were 1/80th, f/5, 640 ISO, and I used a 24-105mm lens hand held.
5 Comments
Oct 7, 2015, 10:34:19 AM
Stan Greenberg - Of course!
Sep 29, 2015, 10:44:26 AM
Jim - Thank you very much for your kind words, Maria. Your enthusiastic appreciation of my work is very generous. Jim
Sep 29, 2015, 8:36:53 AM
Jim - Hi Stan,
Because it was getting quite dark and I didn't want to raise the ISO. Plus, the focal length of the lens wasn't that long and the boat was far enough away that f/5 would render both the boat and the skyline sharp. Had I used a longer lens, I would have then raised the ISO and used a smaller aperture to maintain sufficient depth of field. The choice of aperture is dependent on (1) the focal length of the lens, (2) the distance from the camera to the foreground, and (3) the distance of the boat to the background. This situation told me that f/5 would be enough to give me what I wanted, which was complete DOF.
May I use your question and my answer in my eMagazine?
Sep 29, 2015, 7:41:31 AM
Maria - Jim,
Every day I look forward to getting your picture. And every day I have to say WOW. You are my photo hero. Thanks for sharing your beautiful and inspiring pictures. And for the tips.
Maria Coulson
Sep 29, 2015, 6:31:03 AM
Stan Greenberg - Jim:
Did f/5 give you enough depth of field? Why did you choose that aperture?
Stan