DigicamJunkie.com

Reference sites when buying a dSLR camera

2011-06-19T22:02:00.001-04:00

Ok, here's a quick post.

If you're in the market for a dSLR camera, here's a list of websites to visit. Both to do some research on the different models, what people have to say about them, and (for the forums) to be able to ask users of the different brands of cameras what they think about them.

www.dpreview.com -- A site that I visit almost everyday to see what is new in the world of cameras, as well as a very good reference site to look up the specifications of any camera that I am considering (new or used.) Also has many forums where you can learn about photography, and ask questions.

www.steves-digicams.com -- Another site that is a very good reference site to look up specs and learn what's new. Also has many forums where you can learn about photography and ask questions.

www.dxomark.com -- A site that actually conducts test on dSLR cameras and then posts the results. Has a great feature that allows you to compare different brand and models against each other.

Hope this helps!

Take care, yours truly,
Glen
:)

(C) Copyright 2011 -- Glen Fujino

EXIF Data -- What is it, why should I care and how do I view it?

2011-05-15T08:29:00.000-04:00

Ok. It's been a while since my last post. 'been busy, but I'm back.

EXIF Data

What is it?
Ok. Technically, EXIF stands for EXchangable Image File format, which is a computer file format that describes how to store data for images and sound. In addition to the actual images and sound, there is more information that can (and usually is) stored with the picture which is often referred to as EXIF Data that records more details about how the image was captured. This includes such things as (but not limited to.) ...

Camera
Lens
Exposure (ie. What exposure mode was used, shutter speed, aperture and ISO setting.)
Flash (Did it fire or not?)
Focus (Was manual focus or auto focus used.)
Date / Time
File size and Image size
Focal Length
White Balance mode
etc.

[See a more technical description here . . . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchangeable_image_file_format ]

Why should I care?
Now, the obvious question is, "why should I care?"

The power is that when taking pictures, when you see a picture that really turned out well, you'll want to repeat the success. And the quickest way to repeat the success is to do the same things you did to take that great picture again. Such as going out at the same time of day, having your camera on the same exposure mode, with the same lens, etc. (Maybe not that extreme, but just painting a visual picture.)

Then again, if you see one of your pictures that didn't turn out at all well, you can go through the EXIF Data to guess at what you could have done better and try this out next time.

And this can go equally as well for any digital picture you come across. As long as the EXIF Data hasn't been removed either manually or by some photo editing software, you'll be able to get the EXIF Data from that amazing image and try to figure out how you could use your camera to recreate that success and make a more impact image yourself.

How do I view EXIF Data?
Ok. Now that you're all convinced that you really want to view the EXIF Data off your picture, the question now becomes, how do I view EXIF Data?

Well, if you still have the CDs that came with your digital camera, it may contain a picture viewer that not only lets you view the pictures, but can display some of the EXIF Data as well.

If you've lost your camera CDs, then you can always use the on-line website ( Jeffrey's Exif viewer - http://regex.info/exif.cgi ), which is what I usually do because as long as I have internet access, its always there. (If you can't remember the URL address, just go to www.google.com and type "exif data" and Jeffrey's page is usually right near the top. Click on it and you're good to go.)

Once you're on Jeffrey's page, then either provide it with the URL of an image on the internet or browser for the file on your computer and then click on the "View Image ..." button. Jeffrey's page will load the picture, chug away and then display a page with all the meaty details.

Another alternative is exifdata [http://exifdata.com], which only takes a picture from your computer. So if you want to view EXIF Data from an image on the web, you'll have to download it to your computer first. But once there, this page displays the most useful EXIF Data quickly and easily.

Additional Resources:
Here are a few additional pages I've come across ...
Using EXIF Data [http://www.digital-photography-school.com/using-exif-data]

Warning -- Don't use Old External Flash Units

2011-02-15T11:49:00.003-05:00

WARNING!

Don't attach any old external flash unit to your digital camera before you read this POST! You may end up frying your camera!

DON'T DO: Don't attach any old external flash unit to your digital camera unless you know it's safe to do so.
WHY: Older flash units can have higher trigger voltages. What this means is that when they are triggered by your camera, they can produce a lot of voltage at its trigger contacts, which can end up going back into your digital camera and end up frying it, turning it into an expensive paper weight.

Now, with that said, there are some older flash units that are ok to use. So, if you have an older flash unit and you want to determine whether its ok to use with your camera, there is this site . . . (http://www.botzilla.com/photo/strobeVolts.html) [NOTE: I've listed this site on my Links page here for easy reference.] , but as the site even says itself "Follow at your own risk."

You can also measure the trigger voltage yourself, which is described at the above mentioned site as well, which is a little safer.

But, really, the safest is to refrain from using older flash units and get a modern external flash unit, which will end up having more cool bells and whistles and communicate with your camera for TTL exposure control a lot better anyway!

NOTE: There are ways to trigger these older flash units off-camera, without them being directly hooked-up to your camera. But if you, or someone, ever forgets that the old flash unit can blow-up your camera and puts it on your camera, then you're back to square one. For me, I've justed stashed away all my old flash units and gotten newer ones to be safe.

Take care & Happy Shooting!
Glen - DigicamJunkie.com

How to get Clear Sharp Pictures

2011-02-08T12:50:00.010-05:00

[Click image to view large.]

Ok, here are some tips to getting really clear sharp pictures whether you're taking a portrait or scenic picture.

Now let me preface this by saying that getting clear sharp pictures is not the end all and be all of everything. It isn't always the way to get the best pictures. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm a little crazy as far as wanting sharp pictures, but sometimes the essence of a picture isn't sharpness. Sometimes its about the colour, or the atmosphere or the action of a scene, in which case, image sharpness is what is sacrificed to capture the more important essence of the scene. But knowing how to get sharp clear pictures is always good to know so that when you want it, you can do it.

With that said, here are the tips for sharper pictures.

Use a lower ISO setting to Reduce Noise
To Do: Manually select a lower ISO setting on your camera such as ISO 200 or 400. (Not ISO 1600 or 3200)
Why: Turning up the ISO on your camera (to ISO 800 or higher) is like turning up the volume on a stereo. It increases the signal, but also increases the noise. So, although it allows you to take pictures in low light (as described here), it introduces a lot of noise into the picture, which degrades image quality. Now, don't get me wrong, I love shooting at high ISO a lot, because I often want to preserve the existing light (and not replace it with flash), but if you want to go for really ultra sharp pictures, it's good to start with a low ISO so you'll end up with less digital noise in the final capture.
Side effects: Ok. The problem with turning down the ISO on your camera is that now the camera needs a lot more light. If it doesn't get lots of light, then its going to use a slower shutter speed in order to get a "proper exposure", which will often introduce motion blur. The ways around this is to get more light on your subject or to use flash, as described below.

Use a smaller Aperture setting for sharper focus
To Do: Choose a smaller aperture setting, such as f8 or f11.
Why: Choosing a smaller aperture setting, such as f8 or f11 versus a larger aperture such as f4 or f2.8 increases the depth-of-field that is captured in relatively sharp focus. This increases the chance that what you want to be in focus will be captured in focus. So, in the case of the picture of my daughter up top, even though she is moving around, there is a better chance that I'll get her face in focus.
Side effects: Ok. The problem with using a smaller aperture on your camera is that now the camera needs a lot more light. (Sound like deja vue, eh!) If it doesn't get lots of light, then its going to use a slower shutter speed in order to get a "proper exposure", which (again) will often introduce motion blur. The ways around this is to get more light on your subject or to use flash, as described below.

Get more light on your subject
To Do: Whatever way you can get more light on your subject, then do it. Whether it is opening up a window, turning on a light or moving your subject closer to the existing light. Or perhaps its deciding to take pictures outdoors on bright days. And if all else fails, or you really want to crank up the sharpness, consider using flash (especially an external flash unit, which I'll eventually write a post and link it here.)
Why: Basically, the more light available to the camera, the better and more sharp it is able to make the picture. This is because it allows you (and your camera) to use a lower ISO setting and/or a smaller aperture setting as mentioned above. A combination of both a lower ISO setting and a smaller aperture really do help to get sharper images.

Use Flash to reduce motion blur
To Do: Use flash.
Why: In addition to providing more light to help you use a lower ISO setting or smaller aperture, using flash can also help to freeze motion, and thus reduce motion blur. This can help get you sharper pictures. In a nutshell, when using flash, sometimes all (or most) of what gets recorded is the image that is lit by the light of the flash alone. Most of the ambient light (such as from the sun or lamps) does not contribute to the final image. (This is why the background ends up dark when using flash sometimes, like mentioned here.) And since the flash is delivered really quickly (measured in thousandths of seconds), it often freezes motion better than a really quick shutter speed.

If you're going to use flash, consider an external flash off-camera
To Do: If you're going to use flash, try using an external flash off-camera.
Why: Well, if you are going to use flash, I highly suggest looking at using it off camera. My biggest beef with using the flash unit built into most digital cameras is that it always remains in the same position. It's like that old saying, no matter where you go, there you are. With the built-in flash on your camera, since it's providing light from the same position all the time, all your flash pictures end up looking the same. And the light from built-in flash isn't always too flattering on your subject. (I'll probably write a post on why to use external flash and link it here.)

Use a Tripod
To Do: Use a tripod where you can.
Why: Using a tripod helps to reduce motion blur by being able to hold the camera still while it takes the picture. Something that is really hard to do if you are hand-holding the camera. So, if you use a tripod, you can use a lower ISO setting, as mentioned above, and get a less noisy capture, while the tripod reduces motion blur even at slower shutter speeds. This is especially helpful when you can't increase the light and your flash isn't powerful enough to light everything up.

Focus on the Eyes
To Do: If you are taking a picture of someone, try to make sure that at least their eyes are in focus.
Why: I've read this suggestion many, many times. And everyone suggest that when we see a picture of someone, especially of their face, that the first thing we look at is their eyes. If the eyes are out of focus, we tend to think the picture is out of focus. It's OK if their ears are out of focus, but less OK for their eyes to be out of focus.

Cheat with Post Processing (PP)
To Do: Use a graphics program, such as Google's Picasa or Adobe's Photoshop in order to sharpen your pictures. For Picasa, once you have the image loaded, you can go to "effects" and then select "sharpen". For Photoshop, you'd want to use the "unsharp mask" filter.
Why: Of course, its better to start with a really sharp picture up front (by using the tips and tricks listed above) than to try to take an out of focus picture and try to fix it up, but there will be times when you take that picture of someone and they have just that perfect pose and smile and you just want to clean it up as much as possible.

Take care and happy shooting!
Glen - DigicamJunkie.com
(C) 2011 - Glen Fujino

Format - Landscape vs. Portrait vs. ?

2011-01-30T11:38:00.008-05:00

Ok. Back to composition this week. Once you've thought about what you want to capture (Think before you shoot) and you've picked where you're going to take your picture from (Perspective), one of the next things you can do is decide if you're going to take a Horizontal (landscape) or Vertical (portrait) format picture. (In other words, are you going to hold your camera sideways when taking the picture or not.)

Compositional use of different Formats

Changing the format really helps in your story telling with your pictures. There are many reasons to choose one over the other, and often they seem conflicting. But no matter how you look at it, exploring different formats will liven up your pictures and your photo album.

Filling the Frame: One of the reasons to change format is to help you fill the frame with your subject. If your subject is vertical, take a vertical shot. If your subject is horizontal, take a horizontal shot. Simple enough.

Cropping: You can change format in order to help you eliminate unsightly backgrounds or background noise that doesn't help tell your story.

Using the Format to emphasize your subject: Ok, lots of different reasons to use Horizontal vs. Vertical. I'll just list some below . . .

Horizontal (Landscape) Format

Horizontal Format goes really well with calm, tranquil scenes.
(Click on image to view large.)

Calming Effect: The horizontal format is suppose to be more tranquil than the vertical format. Of course, this is subject to how you use it and what your subject is, but it is something to keep in mind. Something about our minds thinking the horizontal format is more stable shape and thus less tension.

Can also emphasize horizontal movement: When taking pictures of moving cars, kids on bikes and other horizontal motion, using a horizontal format helps to keep the story moving. Its shape helps the viewer move along with the horizontal movement of what is happening in the picture and gives the viewer's eye (and imagination) a place to go.

Entering or exiting the frame: When taking pictures of people, and you don't have them looking at the camera, they'll either be looking / facing into the picture or out of the picture. When they are looking into the picture, it leads the viewer to look into the picture as well, emphasizing something within the picture. When they are looking out of the picture, it draws the attention of the viewer out of the picture, creating tension and the question, what are they looking at? Both are effective! (This works equally well with any format, but I thought I'd slip this in here. <grin>)

Vertical Format can emphasize height
and create tension.
(Click on picture to view large)

Vertical (Portrait) Format

Add Tension: The vertical format is suppose to create more tension than the horizontal format. Something about it making our mind think the picture is going to fall over or something. And when taking pictures from the ground of tall things, the perspective makes tall objects slant inwards, which does make them look like they are falling, like these trees.

Emphasize Height: The vertical format can also emphasize the height / size of your subject. This, in combination with changing your perspective, can be really effective.

Something Different: Also, if you're used to taking most of your shots horizontal, a vertical shot will stand out in your photo album. It can be a fresh new look at the same subject.

Other types of Formats

But why stop there? Why not take a picture and crop it square, round or diagonal for that matter?

Why not square format?
Old film cameras used to produce square pictures.
In this age of digital cameras with their rectangle images
seeing a square image can be a refreshing change.
(Click on image to view large)

Why not panorama (or extreme panorama)?
Panoramic pictures lets you tell your story in a slightly
different way. Something that can be really fun to explore.
I'll probably write a post on panoramas and link it here.
(Click on image to view larger)

Why not diagonal (or circle or diamond for that matter)?
Let your imagination go wild!
(Click on image to view larger)

How to do it! Read through the different reasons to choose Horizontal vs. Vertical below, and the next time you're out shooting, either stop before you pull the trigger and make a conscious decision on which format to use. Or try and shoot the same shot both horizontal and vertical (or some other format) and see what you like.

NOTE: Now-a-days it is so easy to share your pictures via. computer, digital picture frames or in picture shows on your television. But when you do this, you will quickly realize that vertical pictures don't display well on these digital devices. The solution: Whenever you take a vertical shot, try to sneak in a corresponding horizontal shot to use when you want to put together a digital slide show.

(C) 2011 -- Glen Fujino

Slow Sync Flash (a.k.a. Night Portrait Mode)

2011-01-22T12:00:00.000-05:00

Here's a picture I took at Universal Studios in Florida on our vacation. It was dark, I popped the flash up on my dSLR and took the shot. My daughter, posing with the "heros" of the show came out great, but what happened to the background? That fantastic stage that they performed on is lost in the darkness. Dope! That didn't turn out!

Using Flash on Normal Mode -- The people turn out, but the background is lost in darkness.

Ok. The reason the background was so dark is that the flash on my camera isn't powerful enough to reach the stage. The stage is just too far away. The flash on most cameras can only reach out a few meters. So I get properly exposed people, but the background is completely lost!

What I should have done was used the "Slow Sync Flash" mode on my camera (A.K.A. Night Portrait Mode on many cameras such as point-and-shoot cameras). [I'll explain how it works below.]

So, when I got a chance to take a picture with the villans, I made sure my flash was on "Slow Sync Flash" mode and low and behold the background turned out.

Using Flash on "Slow Sync Mode" -- The people turn out, and you get some detail in the background. On some cameras, such as point-and-shoot cameras, this mode is called "Night Portrait Mode".

What to do
So, just remember, if the background is too dark, try "Slow Sync Flash" or "Night Portrait Mode" on your camera. It doesn't always work. Sometimes it makes the people turn out a little blurry because of motion blur. But its worth a shot in order to capture the background.

Why it works
In the first picture, the camera fired and the flash was able to light up everything within its 3 meter range. But since the stage was much farther away, the flash wasn't able to light it up. And since the camera didn't know I wanted that to turn out as well, it just closed its shutter after its standard 1/200 sec. shutter time. Now, on the second picture, with the camera on Slow Sync Flash mode, the camera did almost the same thing. The difference is that rather than closing the shutter after only 1/200 sec, it left it open slightly longer. By doing this, it lets the sensor capture a little more of the light being reflected off the background, letting it turn out with a little more detail in the final image.

More What to do
Now, I was just using slow sync flash in order to try to get the background to have a little more detail in my pictures. But, there are tons of creative ways to use this mode, as seen here. In the above picture, I tried to hold my camera still in order to not get any motion blur, but there's no reason why you shouldn't pan your camera around and intentionally introduce motion blur into your pictures. I'll probably write a follow-up posting on some fun ways to use Slow Sync Flash and link it here.

Take care and happy shooting!
Glen - DigicamJunkie.com

SIDE NOTE: Using flash is like taking two separate pictures at the same time super imposed into the same picture. There is the flash picture and there is the ambient light picture. Its a strange concept, but once I got my head around this concept, using flash and playing around with how it works got really fun! I'll write up a separate posting on this concept and post it here.

(C) 2011 - Glen Fujino

Perspective -- ie. Get up and move around!

2011-01-16T21:27:00.002-05:00

An easy way to improve your pictures is to get up and move around as you're shooting. This changes your (and your camera's) perspective.

As you move around, watch what becomes the foreground vs. background and what ends up being captured in your picture. This is how you tell a story with your picture. Decide what is going to be in your picture and what you are going to leave out. Decide whether you want to include your background as a pretty backdrop, to help establish the environment for your subject, or if you are going to eliminate it because it is too distracting.

Fill the frame with your subject
Of course, you've read "Think before you shoot", so you've already decided what your subject is <grin>, so now move around in order to fill the frame with your subject for maximum impact. Decide what to include and what to exclude. Focusing in on what captured your attention and excluding elements that distract away from this idea will help to make your picture more impactful.

Check the background
When taking your picture, you may want to include the background as a nice backdrop or to explain where you are, or you may want to try to eliminate the background if its too distracting. If there is something distracting in the background, such as a tree or post sticking out of someone's head, a bunch of people you don't really need in the shot, move around to get rid of them. It can be as simple as moving one or two steps to one side, or holding your camera higher (or lower) in order to use the ground (or sky) as the background, rather than what you currently see. In this shot, I really didn't want to see all the parked cars around us. I just wanted to capture my two daughters all snuggled up ready for their trek through the zoo. So I shot from above and tried to fill the frame with them as much as possible.

Shoot from down low

Shooting from a low angle makes whatever you shoot seem bigger. You can use this to emphasis the size of a building or tower, or even just to isolate a building from surrounding buildings by shooting it against a nice blue sky. When shooting kids from down low it makes them seem larger than their surroundings, making it obvious that this is a picture of the child in their environment -- not a landscape that happens to have a kid in it.

Shoot from above
Of course, don't forget to shoot from above. Kids seem smaller and more cute (as if they need to be any more cute than they already are). Put to extremes it offers a fresh look (or perspective) on things.

Look for that "unique" angle
Getting that unique perspective on a subject will make for a picture that can really stand out.

Shoot from different angles!
Even after you've taken a few pictures, don't stop. Get up, move around and see if there is an even better angle to take the picture from. That's one of the great things about shooting digital is that you can take lots of shots and just delete the ones that don't turn out. And reviewing the pictures as you go will give you additional ideas of how to shoot the scene.

Take care and happy shooting!
Glen -- DigicamJunkie.com

Think before you shoot!

2011-01-09T15:53:00.001-05:00

With cameras now-a-days its so easy to simply pick one up, and point it and shoot. After all, that's what compact cameras are called -- point-and-shoot cameras. But, if you slow down and "Think before you shoot", the great pictures you are taking will become even better!

Here's why . . .

Photography is a way to communicate an idea visually.

Whether it is how cute some kids are, or how big and vast the Grand Canyon is, these are ideas to communicate and the trick is how to capture that idea with your camera.

Most of the time, before I shoot, I try to ask myself, "What is the subject and how do I want to communicate it?" Only after I have asked myself this do I start to explore the different possible ways to capture the scene.

For instance, when my daughter decided to run around the house, I instinctively grabbed my camera, but before I started shooting, I thought to myself, what do I want to try to capture? What do I want to communicate? And I thought to myself, "speed and motion". In order to do this, I decided to use a technique called "panning" (Which I'll eventually write an entry and post it here.). So I set-up my camera by turning off my flash, using a slightly slower shutter speed than usual and moving the camera along with Emma while I pulled the trigger. The picture is more blurry than if I had used flash, but its this blur (or motion blur) that gives this static image its sense of movement and motion.

Using a technique called "Panning" made the picture more blurry than if I had used flash, but it's this motion blur that gives this static image its sense of movement and motion which is what I wanted to capture. [Click on image to view larger.]

Or, as another example, while camping I decided to walk around one morning to take some photos. I noticed the morning mist on the lake beside our campsite and wanted to try to capture it, but before I starting shooting, I looked around and started to think about how the surroundings might be worked into the composition. I found this old abandoned dock which adds an interesting element that helps to lead the viewer into the picture and I composed the shot to make a natural frame around the picture with the leaves and branches of the surrounding trees. Both of these ideas are common "composition" elements, or what I call "photography tools".

Common "composition" elements, such as the natural border made by framing the picture with the leaves and branches of the surrounding trees, and the old abandoned dock used to add interest and help pull the viewer into the scene add interest to this scene capturing the morning mist on the lake beside our campsite. [Click on image to view larger.]

Now, don't worry if you don't know many "photography tools". That's what my blog is about. Each week I'll introduce one of these "photography tools", explain why it works and how to incorporate it into your shooting.

Spend 5-10 minutes a week reading my weekly blog entry and your pictures will get better!

Now, my entries are pretty much random ramblings of whatever is on my mind that week, but I'm going to try to tie it together in a more logical order on this page called "How to take better pictures."

Shooting in low-light without flash.

2011-01-03T14:51:00.003-05:00

Ok. Here's a picture I shot last year of Helen and Madelyn during "Earth Hour" ( http://www.earthhour.org/ ), the global event where we turn out the lights to show our commitment of changing our ways to help save our resources, our planet and our children's future world.

Of course you can use Flash to get around many low-light situations like this (and I'll eventually write an entry for that and link it here.), but since this was Earth Hour, the whole point was to turn out the lights and thus be in the "dark". So, if I wanted to capture the "mood" of the event, I'd have to do it with nothing more than the light provided by two candles.

Here's how I did it.

1) Pump up the ISO.
The first line of attack in situations like this is to turn up the ISO setting on your camera, which in essence is the setting that controls the "sensitivity" of the sensor in your camera. Instead of having the camera set to ISO 200 or 400, try turning it up to ISO 800, 1600 or even higher. By turning up the ISO in your camera, the camera can get an adequately exposed picture faster than at lower ISO settings and thus helps to reduce the chance of a blurry picture caused by your subject moving or camera shake. Now, the images will get a little noisy / grainy as you turn up the ISO, but often capturing an intimate picture in dark moody lighting with less "motion blur" is worth it. And to me, the noise / grain is not unlike the feel of high speed film and gives the picture a very "artistic" look. In the picture above, I had my Pentax K100D camera set to ISO 3200, it's maximum ISO setting. If you zoom into the picture, you will noticed that the image is pretty grainy, but in this case I prefer that then having a blurry image. Now-a-days, cameras can go up to ISO 6400, 12800 or even higher, so their ability to capture amazing images in "low-light" is drastically improved over models released even just a few years ago.

2) Open up the Aperture.
The next thing to look at is making your camera use the biggest aperture size (or close to it) that it can. Check to see if your camera allows you to control the aperture setting on your camera. By opening up the aperture, you are setting the lens to allow the most amount of light through, which allows the sensor in your camera to capture the image as fast as it can. To control the aperture on dSLR (and some point-and-shoot) cameras select the Aperture Priority mode and change the aperture to the lowest number (such as f2.8 or f3.5 -- These will be the biggest aperture sizes). If your camera doesn't have an "Aperture Priority" mode, see if it has some sort of night mode, which will probably tell the camera to use the biggest aperture it can.

3) Go wide.
Standard Zoom lenses, such as the ones that come as kit lenses with dSLR cameras, or the lenses built into most point-and-shoot cameras are actually "faster" at their widest setting rather than their longest setting. As an example the standard 18-55 mm lens that comes with many dSLR cameras will let in more light at 18 mm (and let the camera capture an adequately exposed image faster) than at 55 mm (where less light gets through the lens and thus the camera takes longer to get an adequately exposed image.) In the image up top I used my Pentax 28-80 mm lens at a focal length of 28 mm (it's widest setting) so that the maximum aperture would be f3.5 (which is fairly good for a standard lens) rather than being f5.6 which it would have been if I had been zoomed in at a focal length of 80 mm.

4) Get a fast lens
Now, you could also get a "faster" lens for your camera which will let in more light, allowing your camera to capture the image faster, but this is quite an expensive option since "fast" lenses sell for many times more than their "standard" (aka slower) counter parts. For example, this Sigma 24-70 f2.8 lens ( http://www.sigmaphoto.com/shop/24-70mm-f28-if-ex-dg-hsm-sigma ) or this Sigma 70-200 f2.8 lens ( http://www.sigmaphoto.com/shop/70-200mm-f28-ex-dg-os-hsm-sigma ). Many professionals will have these type of lenses since it offers better quality and more flexibility in how they capture an image. If you have the budget, definitely take a look at these lenses. It will allow you to maximize your available light photography as well as open up creative possibilities galore. Now, if you don't want to spend this much on fast lenses, be happy that the newer cameras coming out have really fast ISO levels now, so you're able to take great pictures in low light with the cheaper "standard" lenses!

5) Maximize available light
If you have some control over the environment and your subject, look for available light sources that you can use. This may be a window that has a nice stream of light coming through, a lamp that your subject can be moved closer to (or the lamp moved closer to your subject). In the picture above, I simply asked Helen and Madelyn to move closer (but not too close) to the candles so that the only available light (the two candles) provided the most light possible on their faces. Now, you may not have control over the situation so that is when you use all the above tricks as much as possible.

6) Under expose slightly (and fix it up in post production)
Now, I don't use this trick much. But if I don't mention it, someone will probably point out that I didn't mention it. Basically this trick entails slightly underexposing the picture (which you can easily do by setting the exposure compensation on your camera to -0.7 (or so), if your camera has exposure compensation.) What happens is the camera slightly "under exposes" your picture which will help to reduce blur. But since it's under exposed, it will appear too dark. That is when you have to load it up into a photo editing software (such as Google's Picasa -- see my post here.) and brighten it up again. I've personally found that I haven't really been happy with how the images turn out after this trick, so I only use this as a really last resort. And with cameras coming out with ever increasing ISO sensitivity, I believe there will be even less need to resort to this trick as time goes on.

7) Do none of the above
On the other extreme, if blur is not a concern (because your subject or scene is relatively motionless, or blur is ok) you can use a lower ISO setting and a smaller aperture. The benefits to this is that A) You get better image quality at a lower ISO setting because the signal to noise ratio of your sensor is better and B) You will get a sharper picture with a smaller aperture because the depth of field is greater, thus more of the scene is in focus. But in order to be able to use a lower ISO setting and smaller aperture, you will need to give the camera a long time to get the exposure which can lead to a blurry picture. To reduce camera shake, use a tripod.

As an example, here's a picture I took one evening. Since everything in the scene was relatively still, I set-up my camera on a tripod, lowered the sensitivity of my camera down to ISO 200 and used a really small aperture size of F11. With these settings, the camera needed 15 (long) seconds to capture the image. If there was anyone in this scene, they would have been reduced to a blurry blob.

This last point shows that there can be different ways to approach taking pictures in low-light. So, if I'm putting my camera on one of those smart auto modes like "night mode", which approach is it taking? For the most part, it will probably take the high ISO approach. My philosophy is that if you learn a bit about how the camera's settings affect the end picture and picture quality, you can take more control over your camera and have more creative power over it.

Now, there are many situations where you will want to take pictures in low-light situations without flash. This may range from sporting events where flash is not allowed (such as the gymnastic meets my daughter attends) to school plays where sometimes the constant blast of a flash in a dark room might interfere with the enjoyment of the play to times where you just want to capture the intimate feeling of the environment and not completely replace it with the over powering effect of flash. Regardless of why you want to take low-light pictures without flash, now you have a frame work to explore these available light opportunities.

Take care,
Glen -- DigicamJunkie.com

Recover accidentally deleted pictures!

2011-01-01T22:56:00.000-05:00

What not to do!
Ok. Last night I decided to empty out my daughter's camera. I went into the menu and then selected "delete all" and pressed "OK". In about a second, the camera was empty. Then I got a sinking feeling. Had I copied the files off the SD memory card before erasing it? I quickly ran to my computer and realized that I hadn't! Oh, noooooo! I had just deleted the only copies of the pictures she had taken on the last day of school before Christmas Break!

A Solution
Well, I had heard about software that can recover accidentally deleted files (such as pictures) from memory cards, so I did a browse of the Internet and found many ( such as CardRecovery http://www.cardrecovery.com/ ) or Recuva ( http://www.piriform.com/recuva ) that would find the pictures for you, let you see previews of the pictures, but then required you to buy the program (anywhere between $40-70) to actually recover the files for you. That's a small price to pay for irreplaceable memories.

Helpful Tip!
The trick to recovering the files is not to use the memory card after deleting the pictures. As soon as I realized what I had done, I turned off the camera and took the memory card out of the camera. If I had left the memory card in the camera and started taking pictures, the new pictures would probably over-write the old pictures, making their recovery impossible.

Take care,
Glen -- DigicamJunkie.com

Learn to Control your Flash for Better Pictures!

2010-12-27T23:56:00.020-05:00

Flash is great! If things get too dark, flash will provide light and let you get the picture. And cameras are so smart that they will automatically use the flash when it thinks its needed. But as with anything automatic, it works, but isn't always the optimal solution.

If you learn how (and when) to override when your camera uses flash, you will have more creative control over how your pictures turn out and in many cases get pictures that are better than if you let your camera decide when to use the flash itself.

Case 1: Using Flash on Bright Sunny Days
Now, you don't need flash on bright sunny days, technically. But there are a couple of times when forcing your camera to use flash will get you better pictures. A) When you are taking a picture of someone, and their face is in the shadows. Using flash here will brighten up their face. B) Even if your subject is in full light, sometimes forcing your camera to use flash will brighten and saturate colours, making the photo much more impactful.

Photo taken on Bright Sunny Day -- No Flash
Here, I asked Helen to take a picture of me and Emma and just let the camera decide whether to use the flash or not. Technically the picture turned out. You can make out both mine and Emma's face, but check out the next photo!

Photo taken on Bright Sunny Day -- Flash
Here, I asked Helen to "force" the camera to use flash. Check out how the flash brightens up the colours (of anything close enough for it to light up) and brighten up our faces out of the shadows. Now the flash isn't strong enough to brighten up things in the background, but this, in a way, helps to make your subject stand out from the background!

Case 2: Not using Flash in low-light
And when you're taking a picture in low-light, your camera is going to want to use flash. But letting your camera use flash in some of these cases will obliterate the mood of the shot. For instance, I could have let my camera use flash while I took this picture of my daughter making her Birthday wish, but forcing the camera not to use flash and taking the picture by nothing but the light of the candle preserved the atmospheric feel of the picture. [Now, taking pictures in low-light situations is not always easy. I'll probably write something up next week about this, and link it here.]

Forcing the camera "not" to use Flash
Here, I manually disabled flash on my camera to take this shot. Sure, if I had let the camera use flash, I would of had a brightly lit capture, but I would have lost the atmosphere of the dark room lit only by candle light. Now, not all shots like this turn out, but its a fun challenge to try to capture low-light scenes like these and a real treat when they turn out.

Case 3: Using available (directional) lighting
The other thing about using flash (especially if you are using the built-in flash on your camera, or an external flash attached to your camera) is that . . . A) The light is always coming from the same position, so your pictures end up looking the same after a while, and B) The flash ends up lighting up both sides of people's faces evenly, so the faces end up looking wide. Where as having direction light, that is light from one side, lights one side of the face more than the other, making people's faces look a little more slim. [Now, if you get an external flash and use it off camera, then you can use flash, but get directional lighting. I'll probably write something up eventually about this, and link it here.]

How to do it!
Now, most cameras have different flash modes that you can choose from. They are usually as follows . . .

1) Auto - Which lets the camera choose when to use flash or not.
2) Force Flash On - Which forces the flash to fire when taking a picture. This is useful to make it fire on bright days when you want to use the flash to fill in shadows or make colours really pop-out!
3) Force Flash Off - Which forces the flash not to fire, even if you are taking a picture in a low-light situation, such as when you want to take a picture by candle light, a window or if you are not allowed to use flash.

And many cameras also have additional flash modes such as . . .

4) Red eye reduction - Which fires a pre-flash in order to shrink people's pupils down so to reduce "red-eye" in the final picture, although sometimes you want to turn this off if you have a "blinker" (A person or pet that blinks their eyes whenever there is a pre-flash.)
5) Slow Shutter Flash - Which leaves the shutter open a little longer so that when you take pictures in a dark room or outdoors, instead of just getting your subject and foreground lit up, it will try to capture the background which is often much more dimly lit.

Now, what you need to do is learn how to force your camera to use or not use flash when you decide to. Read your manual and learn how to do this. It may mean taking your camera off the fully auto "green" mode, and using a less intelligent "program" mode such as "P", "Av" or "Tv" mode.

Links
Here are some useful links on the subject.
1) KenRockwell - Fill Flash -- What Ken Rockwell has to say about Fill Flash. [ http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/fill-flash.htm ]
2) Kodak - Flash, Fill Flash and Flash Off -- Kodak's quick and concise guide on the subject. [ http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=38/13915/39/6370/421&pq-locale=en_US ]

Take care,
Glen -- DigicamJunkie.com

Picasa - Google's FREE photo editing software

2010-12-15T06:30:00.000-05:00

Picasa, Google's FREE photo editing software, is a great way to help you organize your photos, fix them up (if they need slight tweaks here and there) and edit them to get them ready for print. And since it's FREE, even if you have another photo editor software, it still makes sense to download Picasa anyway!

Download it at www.google.com/picasa !

Picasa the Photo Organizer
One of the great things about Picasa is that it's also a photo organizer. When you run Picasa for the first time, it will actually look through your computer and find all your photos. It then allows you to browse through the photos either by folder / location, by date -- or by person!

Picasa has face recognition built-in so that it organizes your pictures by "who" is in them as well. There's also a cool "face movie" feature that makes a movie of all the pictures of one person, with each picture slowly appearing, but super imposed so that that person's face lines up with each picture. It's so cool! Ok. It's hard to explain, just go check it out.

Picasa the Photo Saver
Although Picasa lacks pixel level editing (like Adobe's Photoshop), it has a menu of common "tuning" controls that let you lighten up the picture, lighten up just the highlights, darken the shadows and change the colour temperature (which I find really comes in handy.) And there are various "effects" that let you convert your picture to black and white, sepia, tint, etc. And one of my favourites is the "sharpen" effect that actually lets you make pictures seem a little sharper.

Picasa the Photo Editor
Now, Picasa itself doesn't have pixel level editing, so you can't move things around in the picture, or add text or things like that. But Picasa now has a built-in button to be able to edit your pictures through http://www.picnik.com/. PicNik expands what you can do through Picasa to do things like . . .

Convert your picture to black and white, sepia, tint, invert, duo-tone
Give your pictures a stylized look by applying different filters or actions such as soften, vignette, infrared film, lomo-ish, holga-ish, cross process, etc.
Add text (and there are a lot of fonts to choose from)
Apply "digital" stickers
Touch-up your pictures with Blemish fix, shine-be-gone, airbrush, wrinkle remover, sunless tan, dodging, burning, clone, etc.
Add a frame

Picasa the Collage Maker
Another really neat feature of Picasa is the ability to make photo collages. Pick a bunch of photos that you want to print out on a single sheet. Select one of Picasa's Collage templates and Picasa will automatically place your photo in the collage. Don't like the layout? Then swap pictures around until you are happy.
Picasa the Movie Maker
And Picasa can make a movie / slide show from pictures that you pick. And it does it in Picasa-easy fashion as well.

Go ahead! Download Picasa and have some fun!

Take care,
Glen -- DigicamJunkie.com

Secrets to taking great Close-up shots!

2010-12-08T17:41:00.001-05:00

Want to take a great portrait shot that everyone will think is amazing, but really didn't take that much effort? Then try taking a "close-up" shot! By taking a head and shoulders shot, you can get a great picture without having to fiddle so much dealing with posing and background.

Here are the secrets of why it works, and the tips-and-tricks to make it even better.

Secrets
1) Fill the picture with just Head and Shoulders -- Focusing in on your subject's face (and a bit of their shoulders) really makes for a bold and dynamic picture. Something that can really breakthrough the sea of regular snapshots!
2) Eliminate distracting background -- By filling the picture with mostly the person's head and shoulders, you are getting get rid of any distracting background, allowing your viewer to concentrate on the portrait.
3) Eliminate arms and hands -- It can be difficult to get your subject to move their arms and hands in a "natural" looking position, so by cropping them out of the picture you don't have to worry about them!

Tips-and-Tricks
1) Back up about 7-10 feet and zoom in on your subject using your camera's Telephoto position on the lens. -- When you take a picture at longer focal lengths (ie. "telephoto" position), rather than shorter focal lengths (ie. the "wide-angle" position), the lens takes a more flattering picture. When you take a close-up picture at the wide-angle setting, it tends to make people's faces look fatter. When you take a close-up picture at the telephoto setting, it makes faces narrower and appear more natural and pleasing.
2) Move your subject away from distracting background -- The other thing about taking a picture at longer focal lengths (ie. "Telephoto" position) is that it has a better chance of throwing any distracting background out of focus better, again focusing your viewer's attention on your subject. To make this even better, move your subject away from the background (ie. wall, tree, or anything else behind them.). And if your camera has the option to change the aperture setting, then try to use a low setting.
3) Turn off your flash and get some natural side lighting, such as from a window -- If at all possible, try to take the picture without using your flash. If there is a window providing lots of light, position your subject to one side. Or if there is a lamp, re-position it to provide some direction light on one side of your subject's face. This directional light ends up lighting only one side of a persons face, making the dimensional rendering much more impactful and because only half the person's face is lit up, their face may seem more slim.
4) Pick a North Facing Window with Sheer Drapes -- Also, if you decide to use window light as your main lighting, try to pick a north facing window, and especially pick a window with sheer drapes. Doing this reduces the chance of strong direct sunlight from making your portrait too contrasty.

And have some fun with it! Try zooming in and zooming out and trying out different things!

Take care,
Glen -- DigicamJunkie.com

PhotoNews Magazine

2010-12-05T06:27:00.003-05:00

Hey! Want a free subscription to a photography magazine that gets delivered right to your door? (At least for us Canadians.)

Go to http://www.photonews.ca/ and click on "subscribe".

Of course its filled with news about new gear that you're going to want to buy as well as "informational" articles about gear that you're going to want to buy, but it also has pretty good articles that really explain either some aspect of photography, how to use different types of gear or how to improve your photography and/or photographs.

And this magazine is printed on really nice, high gloss paper, which lets the pictures that they publish (and talk about) come out beautifully saturated with bright eye dazling colours!

There's also a seasonal "Photonews Challenge" that gets played out on their Flickr.com account.

Check this out!
Take care,
Glen -- DigicamJunkie.com

Making Blue Skies Blue! [Underexposing a bit.]

2010-12-01T06:39:00.018-05:00

Ok. So what's the secret to making the sky in your photos more dramatic, more impactful? There are many tips-and-tricks, but today I'm just going to cover one of the easiest -- slightly underexposing the picture.

Background
When I think of a photograph with a dramatic sky, I think of a sky with lots of nicely saturated colours. Not a sky that is pale white. If you look through your photos and notice that the sky doesn't seem as dramatic as when you were there taking it, then read on.

The reason that skies end up looking pale (white) in photographs is usually because the sun (and the sun light reflected in the sky) is just so powerful that it ends up overpowering the sensor in your camera. Instead of the blue sky that you see when taking the picture getting recorded, the camera's sensor gets maxed out. All the Red, Green and Blue sensors all reach maximum. And the combination of maximum Red, Green and Blue is . . . white! The sky is over exposed.

What needs to happen is that the sky needs to be exposed slightly less in order to bring its light within the range of your sensor.

When you underexpose the picture, what happens is that not as much of the sunlight gets captured, and so the sensor on your camera doesn't get maxed out. Some of the pixels will become white, but a lot of them will become various shades of the sky that you see. Instead of a wall of white, you'll get an interesting and dynamic sky.

How to underexpose a picture when taking it.
Ok, some cameras have a "Sunrise or Sunset" scene mode. When you select this mode on your camera, it will automatically underexpose the picture a bit.

Now, if your camera doesn't have this scene mode or if you're not happy with the result, you have another option.

If you're using a point-and-shoot camera or a dSLR in one of its auto modes, you can use "exposure compensation" (if your camera has this feature) to force the camera to underexpose the picture slightly. Read your camera manual (yes they are actually useful for something) and change the "exposure compensation" to "-1.0" and take a picture. If the picture seems a little too dark, change it to "-0.7 or -0.3". If the picture seems a little too light still, change it to "-1.3 or -1.7". In essence, the "exposure compensation" feature on your camera lets you tell the camera to under (or over) expose the picture, giving you creative control to get the photo you want.

This also works if you use flash. If you do turn down your "exposure compensation" when using flash, you may want to experiment turning up the "flash compensation" on your camera slightly as well. So, although you are underexposing the picture, you are turning up the flash so that your close subject matter gets properly lit. I often hear this described as "minus-one, plus-one" (ie. -1 exposure compensation, +1 flash compensation).

If you are using a dSLR camera in its manual mode and are controlling both the aperture and shutter setting, then simply change one or the other in order to underexpose the picture. For instance, if you are shooting at a shutter speed of 1/500 sec, then use 1/1000 sec instead.

Hope this helps!
Take care,
Glen -- DigicamJunkie.com

Useful Sites, Links and Resources

2010-11-25T13:33:00.004-05:00

There is so much useful information already out there on the Internet about cameras. The problem is finding them and keeping track of them. So I figure the 1st thing I'm going to do is create a page on my site listing all the sites that I find most useful!

http://digicamjunkie.blogspot.com/p/links.html

Take care!
Glen
:)

Welcome to DigicamJunkie.com!

2010-11-25T11:32:00.003-05:00

Well, everyone seems to have a blog! So I've decided to start one up myself.

What will you find here? It will be the miscellaneous ramblings and thoughts of cameras, photography and how to take better pictures. Hopefully something interesting and useful to you!

Take care,
Glen
:)