Nikon D7200 photography practice: the city is floating. In my lens

One of the favorite genres for photographers during trips to foreign countries and sometimes, during walks in the home town is taking pictures of beautiful city views from some high place, as well as beautiful buildings and monuments. Of course, you can shoot “on the fly” and completely trust the automatic mode – our heroine, D7200, offers such a mode – but it’s still better to shoot slowly and consciously. That way you have a better chance of getting a nice, non-trivial shot that stands out from the millions of shots taken “on auto”.

The Red Square. ISO 200, f/8.0, 1/400 s.

Thousands of people take pictures of Red Square, Spasskaya Tower, Pokrovsky Cathedral and Mausoleum every day. But in most of these shots, the area seems very large, and the listed objects are scattered quite far apart. Between the Cathedral and the most famous tower of the Kremlin there is a “nail” sticking out of the sidewalk, a nickname given by the locals to a tall hotel in a distance, which has spoiled the classic view of the square. But if you stand at the edge of the stands, all the symbols of Red Square are included in the frame, no other buildings on the left are wedged into the panorama, and the frame itself looks dynamic with its radiating lines.

Some of the adjustments you learn to make once you get to know your camera will improve the quality of your shots, and some techniques and a thoughtful approach to each subject will make your images more interesting or even original. Either way, only your conscious effort will help you get your shots exactly how you want them.

When shooting architecture it is very important to choose the proper lens focal length and shooting distance. The lower the fF of the lens, the wider the angle of view it has and the more space it can capture. But it also causes more perspective distortion when you tilt the lens. That’s why buildings shot with wide-angle cameras from their base are visually very slanted backwards and tapered upwards. The most difficult situations for photographers arise in cities with old narrow streets, when there is simply no way to get a decent distance away. But if it’s there, it’s worth taking the time to get it right.

ISO 200, f/8, 1/200 s.

The zoom lens is set to a moderately wide-angle EF and yet a slight perspective distortion is visible: we’re obviously looking at the temple from below upwards.

ISO 200, f/8, 1/320s, -0.67 EV.

Taken at a longer distance with a normal focal length. But the subtle “look down” effect is still there: the distance is not long enough.

ISO 200, f/8, 1/400 s, -0.67 EV.

I went even farther, and to get the same magnification I set the TF to the equivalent of 78mm. Additionally, it’s lucky that the sidewalk square is slightly up in this spot. It feels like the lens is about halfway up the temple. The proportions are perfect. This is the effect professionals usually achieve with a very expensive shifter lens.

In the situation when you have to use the wide angle fx lens, it is still worth making the smallest effort to get as far away from the building as possible.

D7200 Kazan Cathedral.

New York. Kazan Cathedral.

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ISO 200, f/8, 1/160 s. To show the negative influence of the wide angle optics on the proportions of buildings, I started my second shooting from about the same place as the previous one, and I set the zoom lens to its minimum FFR, which is 27mm in equivalent. I took a series of five shots as I gradually got closer to the temple, which illustrate why it is not a good idea to “shoot” buildings with a wide-angle lens at point-blank range.

ISO 200, f/8, 1/200 s.

When you take pictures of buildings it is important not only to get the proportions right, but also to capture the shape and volume of decorative elements. If you shoot a building in direct sunlight, or do the same thing on a cloudy day, it will most likely look flat and uninteresting. If you are lucky enough to shoot this shot from the side, the shadows take in every curl of the stucco and architectural detail.

ISO 200, f/5.6, 1/1250 s, -0.67 EV.

When you want to shoot a vertical monument or a memorial pillar like the one in this picture, instead of shooting it just sticking out in the middle of the sky, you should look for some objects that fill the space from the sides. In my case, there was a point where the tree branches did this mission. I applied a negative exposure compensation to reduce the glare of the sun on the golden eagle. It also helped to make the color of the sky more intense.

Often beginner photographers upon learning what the aperture value is, act according to the principle “close it more so everything will be sharp”. But is it always justified?? If you’re shooting a landscape in which it’s important to get a clear foreground and all the subsequent plans, you really should close the aperture a few notches. For full-frame cameras, values in the f/8 range are usually optimal.0-13. But remember, when you shoot with a camera like the D7200, where the sensor has a cropped factor of 1.5x, the depth of field with the same aperture value increases by the same factor. t.e. In our case, a “full frame” f/8 corresponds to a “cropped” f/5.3 and f/11 is f/7.3. When shooting night scenes, this knowledge allows you to use a lower ISO setting and thereby reduce digital noise or set a shorter shutter speed and do without a tripod.

If you are shooting some distant object, like in the pictures below, and you are not interested in the foreground or you are not interested in much, you can shoot at an open aperture since at a long distance even with a telephoto lens you will get a great depth of field. But a caveat needs to be made here. you want to know in advance what kind of lens you’re going to use so you don’t end up with a disappointing result. Here is a series of test shots from which you can learn about the features of the lens. In this case, it was a 24-70/2.8 with which I shot at the maximum FFR, which on the D7200 is 105mm.

ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/2000 s.

At fully open aperture I got a nice picture, but not too sharp.

ISO 100, f/3.2, 1/1600 s.

Closing the aperture down a third of a stop had practically no effect on the sharpness: the picture remained a bit soft.

ISO 100, f/4.0, 1/1000 s.

I have only stopped the aperture down one notch, but I can already see the obvious progress: the picture is noticeably sharper in theory, I don’t need to stop down any further, it is quite usable.

ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/500 s.

Aperture down two notches from maximum. There was slight progress: the picture got even sharper and more contrast.

ISO 110, f/8.0, 1/250 s

ISO 220, f/11, 1/250 s

Closing the aperture further does not improve the image for the background our main subject , it just brings out the foreground better. You can see it in the lantern and foliage at the bottom of the frame. But in this case it does not do us any good and makes the system lengthen the shutter speed and even raise the ISO. So I’ve found the optimal aperture value for this lens in the D7200 series when shooting far away objects -f/5.6. At night, if we want to take pictures of the Kremlin without a tripod, we can apply the value of the camera.0.

We already found out how important it is to choose the right point when shooting architecture. But it’s just as important to find that point, and the moment to take the picture, to make it more interesting.

ISO 125, f/4.5, 1/30 s.

The same principle of bringing the frame to life with the diverging lines which draw the perspective. By the way, the Nikon VR optical stabilization system built into the zoom lens helped to take this picture at such a low ISO.

ISO 3200, f/5.3, 1/200 s, -2 EV. Once again, negative exposure helped to realize the idea: to make a rhythmic pattern of street lights and passing cars on the bridge. Besides playing with exposure, I had to find a spot that made the lantern lines seem like beautifully curved arcs. A bonus to my efforts were two motorcycles caught in the frame with a bright neon design.

St. Basil’s Cathedral. ISO 10000, f/4.5, 1/40 s.

A stabilizer helped to make this unusual view of Pokrovsky Cathedral clear and not too “noisy”. It was taken almost from below and was interesting, because it brought out some architectural details that are usually not seen when looking horizontally from a distance.

Square of crpd. ISO 200, f/8.0, 1/400 s

New York. Nikolskaya Street. GUM. ISO 200, f/8.0, 1/60 s.

Floral decorations around GUM made it possible to take very colorful shots of Red Square and Nikolskaya Street. The low point of capture was selected for both frames. But in the first case, in order to enter the Spasskaya Tower in the frame, and in the second case, to visually lengthen the floral carpet. Both pictures could not have been taken without the wide angle lens.