Farm photography has unique challenges and needs to be approached analytically.
Industrial documentary farm photographs, as opposed to pictorial farm photographs, are taken in restricted environments with high-contrast natural and artificial lighting. As they document a working farm the photographic process cannot control or limit the workflow. The technology should not disturb the staff or animals or create any hazards. A working farm is not a film set and there is a limitation on lighting options. The option chosen is determined by the existing lighting, the ability to use photographic lighting and the story that is being told.
In this series, I will be exploring lighting and exposure options for capturing a range of people, processes and places. Below is an overview of the techniques I have used for farm photography.
Available Light
High ISO
Generally, I use a Nikon Z6 for handheld portraits like this with a 24-120 f4 S lens. Even with the cage, it feels lighter and more hand-holdable than the Nikon D810 which is used for panoramas and other tripod-mounted images.
The Z6 has an indicated ISO range of 100 to 51,200 with an extended range up to 2024,800 ISO and down to 50 ISO. If I am going to shoot below 100 ISO I will be shooting for detail, often multi-frame or HDR images and the D810 on a tripod is better for these with its higher resolution.
I generally avoid high ISO beyond 800 but I have never systematically explored if this is a valid limitation. This series of articles is an opportunity to consider that.
Long Exposures
Long exposures, which I classify as longer than I can hand hold, of more than 1/30th of a second are a common tool for communicating the action in a farm photograph. The shutter speed chosen will be determined by the speed of the element to be blurred across the frame and the level of residual recognisability required. The need to restrict motion blur in the main subject, generally the personnel, will influence shutter speed chosen and the useful of targeted supplementary lighting e.g. strobe.
This is a very useful technique to communicate the industrial nature of farm photography and will be explored further in a future article.
Wide Apertures
The challenge in taking farm photographs under poor lighting conditions is often a combination of avoiding blur caused by slow shutter speeds and a narrow band of depth of field. The challenge is often ensuring that a foreground subject and a background subject are both in focus when they must be linked to tell the story. The pregnancy scanning photograph below is an example of that.
When purchasing lenses I have chosen lenses with a maximum aperture of f4 as the premium for a wider aperture, f2.8 or wider, seemed unnecessary as the use of lenses at these apertures was impractical. Restriction of depth field seemed useful for farm portraits but this wasn’t my focus in this project. Restricted depth of field and the potential to isolate subjects on farms is an area I will explore in a future article.
Good Natural Light
Effective natural light is unpredictable when photographing within a farm building. Farming activities are undertaken throughout the year during all weather and at all times of the day. Modern facilities are much better lit than older ones. A head torch is a useful accessory when photographing early morning milkings or doing them.
The photograph above is very nicely lit by natural light but the dairy shed is unusual in having a ring-shaped roof above the rotary platform with a circular aperture above the inner concrete pad. The tonal range and detail is great. White latex gloves are a good indicator of a well-exposed image.
Natural light can’t be relied on for securing an effective photograph.
Strobe Photography
On Camera Strobe With Diffuser
A large hot shoe-mounted iTTL strobe with diffusion simplifies the process of taking well-exposed photographs in a rapidly changing situation like a caesarean. A caesarean is the response to an emergency and often occurs in poor or harsh lighting. The ability of iTTL to balance strobe and natural light reduces the time spent analysing a lighting design. Choosing an aperture that gives good naturally lit background exposure does help to improve the aesthetics of the images.
On-camera flash suits the emergency nature of the procedure and communicates the documentary style of the series. There is an opportunity for experimentation in determining a good balance of shutter speed, aperture and ISO with a particular strobe unit that gives the most effective image.
Lens Filter Ring Mounted Mini Strobes
The Godox system of radio-triggered ring-mounted mini strobes has a handy feature that assists in creating a lighting design that does not look like a straight on-camera flash. Each mini strobe can be pointed in a different direction. The convenience of units attached to the camera and moving with the camera with the power of selectively illuminating different areas of the frame gives a more complex lighting design.
Battery Powered Studio Flash With Light Modifiers
The Godox AB600M is a manual high-powered battery studio-style strobe. When there is time to set up a shot it is great for creating interesting images. This image of pregnancy scanning was set by choosing a position in the herringbone milking platform, setting up the lights and camera to the correct exposure and taking a photograph each time the vet scanned a cow in that position. This has made the scanning equipment the focus of the photograph while exposing the outside of the farm correctly.
Using the radio control unit the power output of the AB600M ( and all other Godox strobes ) can be adjusted manually which I have found is the best way of getting the lighting design I want.
Mixed Daylight Strobe Light
This section of a panorama required control of the timing of exposures to capture the foetus & cows on race, depth of field to cover the entire set and illumination of the scanning inside the shed. A radio-controlled AB600M was inside the shed to illuminate the vet platform. A previous shoot had issues with colour balance caused by the fluorescent lighting inside the shed. The AB600M is closer to daylight, even if that daylight is sunrise-warm.
Milking often starts at 5 am and we arrive on-site at 4:45 am. As the best time to shoot this image is during 20 minutes after sunrise there is variability in the amount of set up time available.
High Dynamic Range Photography
High dynamic range panoramas have been effective at delivering images that include, for example, outside yards and inside sheds. The potential of high dynamic range people photographs to achieve an effective photograph without strobe is exciting. Clear limitations on subject and camera movement but the test above indicates there is potential.
From the trials I have done, I think that the ideal number of source frames is: a correct exposure for the main subject and then +1 EV & +2EV. Shot on either manual or aperture priority metering maintaining the same aperture while decreasing the shutter speed. Focus set to manual.
I have programmed the FN-2 button on the Z6 to set the bracketing steps and the FN-1 button for the automatic bracketing release mode. With the focus set on the manual, I believe this captures the frames at Continuous High.
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