This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
In the previous post, I listed a couple ways in which photographers digitally alter firefly photographs. How nefarious of them!
I admit, however, the post was a wee bit facetious. Photoshop can be used to alter the appearance of an image, of course, but cameras themselves have enough variables that a photographer can exercise tremendous creative control before an image file even hits the computer.
Consider the following images, both composite long exposures taken in ambient light with a 50mm f/1.4 lens fully open on a Canon 6D. I took them a couple nights ago, pointed at the same dusk scene at Homer Lake in central Illinois. The principal difference between the images was the focusing distance.
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1. Focused near, about 10 feet from the camera:
2. Focused far, on the distant trees:
All I did was adjust the focus ring, and the captured firefly orbs changed utterly in character. While I used photoshop to composite the long exposures and to make some minor levels adjustments, the biggest creative decision was analog.
As an aside, a fast lens with a large aperture and a narrow depth of field is essential for creating firefly images with these large glowing orbs. A cell phone camera with its endless depth of field, or even with the kit lens that comes with an SLR, won't have the blur to deliver.
