Focal Length

The focal length of a lens determines its angle of view, and also how much the subject will be magnified for a given photographic position.

Focal length also determines the perspective of an image.

Longer focal lengths require shorter exposure times to minimize burring caused by the shake of hands.

The Focal Length means how much can your camera see.

Aperture

The aperture range of a lens refers to the amount of light that the diaphragm can let inside the camera to reach the sensor.

Apertures are listed in terms of f-numbers (expresses the diameter of the entrance pupil in terms of the effective focal length of the lens; It is the quantitative measure of lens speed), which are marked on the lens.
On a camera, the f-number is usually adjusted in f-stops.
Each “stop” is marked with its corresponding f-number, and represents a halving of the light intensity from the previous stop. Modern electronically-controlled interchangeable lenses, such as those from Canon and Sigma for SLR cameras, have f-stops specified internally in 1/8-stop increments, so the cameras’ 1/3-stop settings are approximated by the nearest 1/8-stop setting in the lens. The F number can be displayed as 1:X instead of f/X(like in our example).


Lenses with larger apertures are faster because, for a given ISO speed, the shutter speed can be made faster for the same exposure. A smaller aperture means that objects can be in focus over a wider range of distance (depth of field).

Portrait and indoor (sports and theater also) photography often requires lenses with large maximum apertures in order to be capable of faster shutter speeds (and narrower depth of fields) in order to combat the low light problems with no camera shake.
The narrow depth of field in a portrait, as well as in macro photography, helps isolate the subject from the background.

Minimum apertures for lenses are almost as important as maximum apertures. This is primarily because the minimum apertures are rarely used due to photo blurring from lens diffraction, and because these may require long exposure times.

For cases where extreme depth of field is desired, then smaller minimum aperture (larger maximum f-number) lenses allow a wider depth of field.
It’s also good to know that lenses typically have fewer aberrations when they perform the exposure stopped down one or two f-stops from their maximum aperture.

Tags: lens, focal length, aperture, f number, f stop, depth of field, dof, angle of view, perspective, wide, tele, exposure time

Shooting against the light has always been a tricky thing in photography: if you choose to set a longer exposure or just to increase the exposure compensation in order to have plenty of light over the near subject, the background will appear burned (overexposed). The other way around, if you choose the right exposure for the background (the usual auto or program mode will do that), then your subject will appear too dark (underexposed).

The solutions I will present depends on the situation in which you will find yourself. Let’s look at them.

Solution 1 – Use Flash Even in a Sunny Day

If you are close enough to your subject, like for instance in portrait photography, using the flash even if it is a very sunny day will fix the problem in a very simple and effective way.

Solution 2 – D-light Function

But what if your subject is too far away (like far buildings) and you can’t or just don’t want to try a different angle with the sun behind you? Or what if it is night and a lamp illuminates the place? Will you be pleased with the overexposed lamp due to the long exposure needed in night conditions? Some new cameras (HP Photosmart R727, R827, R927, Nikon D80, Nikon Coolpix S50 and S50c, S200, S500, P5000, the Nikon L series, ) come with a function called D-Lighting (or adaptive lighting). This function will solve the problem automatically.

Solution 3 – Photoshop Manipulation

But what if your camera does not have this function? The salvation in this case is a Photoshop manipulation.
When shooting, make several frames with different exposures. In my example (with Canon PowerShot A520), the dark photo was made with: aperture F 3.2, exposure time 0.100 sec; and the light one with: aperture F 3.2, exposure time 0.400 sec. It’s much recommended to have a tripod and take the pictures using it because of 2 reasons: a brighter picture may require a longer exposure time (if you don’t want to deal with a lot of noise you will prefer a longer time instead of higher ISO and aperture) so you need to avoid camera shake (no matter how steady your hands are, night condition will always require a tripod), and the second reason: the frames should be taken from the same angle and viewpoint. Unfortunately, at the time I shot the images in this example, I did not have a tripod so the bright image is blured due to camera shake, but I somehow managed to take quite similar frames.
In a Photoshop document, place the 2 frames as different layers in such way that the darker one will be under the lighter one.
Choose the eraser with a size bigger than the lamp (or whatever your overexposed object is), low hardness and low opacity as shown in the figure. This will softly erase the area around the lamp in the lighter frame revealing the darker frame behind in such way that the 2 images will come together graduated, not suddenly. But the inner portion of the lamp from the darker image is not yet fully revealed. Change the eraser option like this: smaller size to fit only the interior of the lamp, full 100% opacity and 100% hardness.

Once you erase the red marked area, you will notice that even if the pictures come together softly, the colors are not the same. You can adjust the gradient by moving onto the dark image layer, in the menu “Image” -> “Adjustments” select Selective Color. Play around with the “neutrals” until you are satisfied with the color gradient around the lamp. When all this is done, go to the menu “Layer” and select “Merge Visible” (or press Shift + Ctrl+E). This step will merge the 2 images and now, if you are still not satisfied with this result, you can play around with blur tool and healing brush before saving the final image.

If you are interested in digital cameras with D-light function check them on Amazon. They are quite amazing and useful.

- HP PhotoSmart R727
– HP Photosmart R827
– HP Photosmart R927
– Nikon D80 Kit
– Nikon Coolpix with Vibration Reduction Zoom
– Nikon Coolpix S50c 7 is Wifi Capable
– Nikon Coolpix S200
– Nikon Coolpix S500, Vibration Reduction Zoom
– Nikon Coolpix P5000, Vibration Reduction Zoom
– Nikon Coolpix from 74$

When you go out shooting, be sure to take one of your Izod shirts, my favorite brand.

Tags: D-Lighting, Adaptative Lighting, Photoshop, Exposure Correction, Shooting Against the Light

The truth is, I should have started the blog with this article. After choosing a camera (this a huge subject too…), once you start taking photos and before considering lighting, exposure, noise and other settings, you should take good care of composition.
There are some “rules” (never call them rules because from definition art is free from rules) that make your pictures “better”, depending on the photography type.

Rule of Thirds
This “rule” applies for everything: landscape, macro and portraits, but exception would be the classic portrait. This means that instead of placing the subject (main focus of interest) in the centre of the frame put it on an intersection of the thirds. For me it is much simple to consider this “mind drawing” where my subject is placed either in point 1 or 2 or 3 or 4:

Cropping
Sometimes cropping a subject to make the viewer focus on some specific detail is an extremely good idea. But other times, when it’s not about details, it’s good to have the entire subject inside the picture and don’t take a shoot as if the subject is just about to leave, but rather just about to come if it is not standing. If you are in hurry or not so sure about what you want and you also got a high megapixel camera, you can afford thinking about cropping after shooting in the post-editing process. Otherwise, get closer and if getting closer will scare away your subject (hehe) then use your zoom.

Straight Horizons
Even if the Earth is not plane, we are walking on a plane land. Therefore, if the pictures are meant to reflect reality, just keep the horizontal and vertical the way you see it with the eyes. The most common example of the placement of the horizon line is in landscape photography. Sometimes, however, the pictures are not meant to depict reality and just by questioning your imagination you’ll be able to find situations (frequent in architecture photography) when shapes look more interesting deformed.

Using Diagonals
For an unknown reason, this is my favourite “rule”. No matter of what or who your subject is, imagine a diagonal (I’ve been once told that down left -> up right is better than up left -> down right because it appears like going up instead of going down but I wouldn’t care too much about that). This is very easy if you have a road or a river or some other natural “line”, and harder if don’t have anything alike.

Viewpoint
Most people keep the camera at the level of their eye but this is just the classic way of shooting. The perspective can change quite drastically, especially with wider angled lenses. Sometimes the subject requires you to get down. I’m a short person so I ask people to take pictures of me that way because it makes me look taller. Pointing up->down is a quite more seen situation than pointing down->up. Some cameras come with rotating LCD-s and I find this quite useful: you don’t need to stretch yourself and the camera to get a down->up photo, you only rotate the LCD until it meets your eyes.

Background
Even if your eye caught something that makes you say “this is worth shooting”, after a while, you or other people looking at the picture may spend minutes until realising where in that photo is the thing… This is happening when shooting against a busy background with many elements and colors (ex: people on the street). Macro and product photography mostly deal with background problems: it should be something as simple as possible not to disturb the attention from the main (and only!) subject.

Simplicity
I say the main and only subject because: another “rule” in photography spokes that one subject is better than two and also better than none. You must definitely have a subject, which means you are not shooting without thinking of something, and, if you really like to catch more objects that are not related to each other, just take separate shots.

Contrast
The subject pops out when its colors and/or tones are in contrast to the background and/or other elements of the picture. This adds to the simplicity and background “rules”.

A book I recommend on this subject is Master Composition Guide for Digital Photographers .

In addition to these you may consider natural framing.

What do you have in mind when taking pictures on a highway? Maybe the road signs. Yes, it’s a good idea but here I’m not talking about that.
Road construction requires the creation of a continuous right-of-way, overcoming geographic obstacles and having grades low enough to permit vehicle or foot travel. This means you will find interesting sinuous shapes of roads.

Notice that in most of the cases the road should be free of cars and walkers. Two exceptions are noticeable: the pictures depicting intense city traffic and the night roads when a car leaves behind a rail of light.

As for the composition, it’s always a good idea to start the road from a corner of the picture up to the middle or the other corner. In most of the cases it will appear larger in the starting corner and thinner at the end. However, sometimes, when symmetry allows, you can start and end your road line in the middle of the picture.

As I said many times before, following the weather helps a lot: fog or rain give special effects, and, in the case of train rails, sunrise is also creating a mystical atmosphere.

Tip 1 Forest Road

Tip 2 City Road

Tip 3 Mountain Road

Tip 4 Desert Road

Tip 5 Night Road

Tip 6 Train Rails

1. Move in closer
“Having your subject almost fill the frame helps your viewer understand and appreciate your photo.”

2. Be quick
As the motto of one of BetterPhoto old t-shirts states, “Shoot First, Ask Questions Later.”

3. Compose with care
“Strive to lead the eye along an interesting path through the photo, with the use of strong lines or patterns.”

4. Be selective
“Then be sure to keep anything that would distract out of the picture.”

5. Focus on your subject
“Smaller depth-of-field (and smaller f-stop) focuses all the attention upon your subject.”

6. Experiment in time
“Play with shutter speed” to obtain different views of moving objects.

7. Look at the light
“Unless you want a silhouette effect, where your subject is black against an interesting background, it’s generally best to shoot with the sun behind you.”

8. Watch the weather
“If it’s overcast, simply keep the sky out of your pictures as much as possible.” About this i have allready some tips and examples here.

9. Keep it simple
“Instead of relying on a fully automatic program, pick a simple, semi-automatic program.”

10. Be Bold
“If you are afraid of upsetting someone by taking their picture, just go up and ask if it’s okay.” Oh, i’m glad they pointed at this.

BetterPhoto.com concluded (for full pictures check their website) that those are the top 10 techniques for better pictures.

I agree about this list, but, maybe not in the same order. With today’s ultra zoom cameras, i don’t think that moving closer should take place nr.1 (even if i accept that moving closer will always provide higher quality images than zooming). For me, composition and good focusing are more important than being quick.

Tags: photography tips, photo tips, photo techniques, photography techniques

Fire is extinct with water and water vanishes at high temperature.
You can imagine shooting fire and water in a similar relationship: faster shutter speed for fire and slower shutter speed for water will give different results than slower shutter speed for fire and faster shutter speed for water. Both fire and water are elements that move, so these following examples can serve to further ideas about moving objects.

With fast shutter speed for fire you will capture one instance of the burning flame (just hit the burning woods before you shoot and get a magical sparkle). Slower shutter speed on water will create a smooth silky surface used usually on waterfalls, rivers and the see.

Slow speed over fire is rarely used as slow speed over light: it creates burning shapes of fire light. Fast speed used with water pictures will give the well-known droplet effect. You can also consider dropping objects in water to obtain creative shoots.

Some realy good images of water droplets.

Tags: water droplet, fire, water, shutter speed, slow sutter speed, fast shutter speed, waterfall, tips, photo tips

I’ve come across an interesting article tonight I want to talk you about. Many beginners ask what’s with the ISO? It looks complicated at the first glance and especially if they get complicated answers like these:
ISO is the number indicating a digital camera sensors sensitivity to light. The higher the sensitivity, the less light is needed to make an exposure.
On film cameras it’s an indicator of the selected film speed on film cameras, on digital cameras it’s an indication of the imaging chip’s light sensitivity.

How to Choose the Right ISO for your Digital Photography is an article that puts the accent on the practical side of the meaning of ISO: As a general rule you should choose the lowest ISO possible for smooth and grain-free shots.

What I liked most from this article is the way it explains the use of ISO behind that general rule, by putting suggestive questions:
Am I hand holding the camera?
Is my subject moving?
Do I need a big Depth of Field?
Can I use some Artificial Light?
Can I get away with Grain?
How big will the image be enlarged?

Also, in order to complete the answers to those questions, you should know how to correlate the ISO number to the identified situation (according to digicamhelp):
AUTO ISO – digital camera automatically sets the ISO speed according the the brightness of the scene, increasing or decreasing the sensitivity. User has no control over which ISO number is used.
ISO 50 – 80 – for taking photos in bright light; excellent for close-ups, landscape, and portraits. Produces fine detail and image quality.
ISO 100 – for extra sensitivity with little, if any, reduced image quality.
ISO 200 – cloudy and overcast days. Acceptable image quality, with some visible noise.
ISO 400 and above – suitable for indoor photography whether or not a flash is used. Useful for “stop-action” and sports photographs. Most compact digital cameras produce high to very high image noise.

Tags: ISO, ISO sensitivity, sensitivity to light, digital photography, photo tips, low noise, image quality

For this week’s tip:
Natural Framing.

Natural Framing is a composition technique you can find very useful in many situations.

Let’s take a look at these examples: the walls of a cave, the trees, the doors and walls of buildings.

What else can I say… I’ll let the images talk
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Tags: photo tips, natural framing

Tip (1) Wake up early, very early. You may find lower clouds and fog as well as water droplets at macro level. In summer 6 am will do, in winter around 8 am.

Tip (2) Always carry your camera with you. Sun rays truth clouds are short moments you don’t want to miss.

Tip (3) If it’s autumn, it may even be foggy all day long and shooting towards the sun and distant objects will give special effects in sepia and B&W, even colored filter effects.

Tip (4) Instant lightning requires much more: a steady tripod, continuous shooting and big summer storm.

Tip (5) Rain is interesting to shoot on streets when some people are walking by – that’s what you think. But weather is more than just that: in summer get ready to hunt rare sun rains like this:

Tip (6) Ice formations and snow flakes form an entire world that photographers can explore with powerful macro lenses during winter.

Tip (7) Are you asking for adrenaline? If you live near stormy lands like Florida, there’s much to see and live about the weather. Hurricanes and tornados are like candies for journalist photographers.

All these are known as common snapshots because basically nature does the hard job and the photographer does the easy job. Still it’s also more than point-and-shot to get the right composition and most of all exposure, and I recommend using a polarization filter to enhance the sky. This snapshooting will still be delightful for human eyes as long as nature continues to be the supreme force over mankind.

Tags: weather, fog, rain, sunrise, clouds, storm, lightning, snow, ice, photo, photography, snapshot

Blue, by it’s meaning, it’s an important color in art, and therefore in photography. Anyway, it’s present all over: sky, water… (we live on the Blue Planet, right?). If you use a polarization filter, light blue turns into dark blue.
Note: the filter effect is greater if the angle between the sun light and the direction of the photographer is 40 to 60 degrees.
The blue tone of the evening creates a mystical atmosphere. That for the natural blue. But artificial blue goes to architecture and technical objects.
Truth blue you create the illusion of perspective (human brain identifies objects with fuzzy colors as being farther). If we can say that an image done only in blue tones gives a feeling of calm and peace, if you also use a complementary color (red, orange, yellow), the red spots tend to appear closer than the blue-green background.
Tip: A red filter in front of the flash will highlight a tone in a blue illuminated environment.