Jubilation Photography

Chapter Ten: Through the Looking Glass (and Fence)

noreply@blogger.com (newgen) — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 03:00:00 +0000

Taken through a chain link fence

I had the opportunity to visit the local zoo recently and I don't know about how the animals are contained at your zoos but a lot of them are kept behind chain link fences in mine so shooting pictures of them can get kind of tricky. There is a simple trick to make chain link fences almost disappear from the pictures but it does require some gear. You're going to need a telephoto lens. Something over 100 mm. Preferably 200 mm +. Here's the part that may be a little scary to some new photographers - you're going to have to switch your lens from automatic to manual (there should be a switch probably on the lens itself somewhere). You see, the reason the chain link shows up in the pictures is because the camera thinks that is what you're trying to focus the camera on which makes focusing on the animals difficult in automatic mode. You'll want to shoot zoomed out towards the telephoto end. Then you'll want to manually focus the image so that the chain link disappears while the animal is still in focus (there should be a ring somewhere on your lens for this). That's the tricky part. Since you'll be manually focusing, you'll definitely want to make sure you review the photo on the LCD screen and zoom in to 100% and look around to make sure the photo is in focus.

Lesson Nine: Pay attention to where you are shooting

noreply@blogger.com (newgen) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 04:24:00 +0000

Something that may or may not be obvious is that you want to pay attention to where you are shooting. Are you shooting indoors or outdoors? One thing that I frequently forget to do is to remove the polarizing filter I have in front of my lens. All of my lenses have polarizing filters in front of them to protect them from scratches. This is great if I'm shooting outdoors because it protects the lens as well as gets rid of unwanted reflections but if I'm shooting indoors, it also prevents light from entering the camera body and sensor. This means that I have to hold the camera steady for a longer amount of time to get a decent looking shot and to prevent camera blur. The easiest way to prevent this is to obviously remember to take the polarizing filter off when shooting indoors. This will ensure that you can shoot with a faster shutter speed and still get non-blurry images even in lower-light settings.

Lesson Eight: Shoot in Raw

noreply@blogger.com (newgen) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 02:46:00 +0000

Save yourself some time and a lot of headache and just shoot in Raw format. The standard format for most pictures you've seen on the web or elsewhere is jpeg and most of the pictures you'll take will eventually be converted to jpeg. So, why bother shooting in Raw if you have to convert to jpeg eventually anyways? Well, there's a couple of reasons. First off, when you shoot in Raw, the camera captures a lot more data than if you were to shoot in jpeg. This does, however, lead to one of the few drawbacks in shooting in Raw - it takes up a lot of memory on your memory card. I mean a LOT! You can search the internet if you're interested in how much more memory Raw files take up than Jpeg files. The main reason to shoot in Raw format is that you can undo many of the mistakes you may have made as far as choosing settings on the camera. Because of this ability, people commonly refer to your Raw file as your digital negative. There are very few feelings worse than a picture ruined because you forgot to change a setting back to where it's supposed to be and very few feelings better than pulling a photo out of photo oblivion by shooting in Raw.

Lesson Seven: The Sharpness Triad, Part III

noreply@blogger.com (newgen) — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 01:59:00 +0000

So you've opened the aperture as wide as you can and you've set the appropriate shutter speed and you still can't get a sharp picture. What can you do? Well, as a last resort, you can try increasing the ISO. What exactly does that do? Well, it increases the sensitivity of the camera's sensor to light so you don't need to open the aperture as wide or keep the shutter open as long. So you're probably asking yourself if it can do all that, why not just shoot constantly in the highest ISO your camera can shoot? Well, it turns out that the higher the ISO (i.e. the more sensitive the sensor is to light), the more grainy the picture turns out which is not always a bad thing especially if that is the kind of look you're going for and, of course, a grainy picture is better than no picture at all.

Lesson Six: The Sharpness Triad, Part II

noreply@blogger.com (newgen) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 00:33:00 +0000

Last time we talked about aperture which is the first part of the sharpness triad. If you've tried to open your aperture to its widest setting and still can't get the picture sharp, the next thing you can try is to adjust the shutter speed. Here's the way the relationship between aperture and shutter speed works. The bigger the aperture, the less the amount of time the shutter should have to remain open to let enough light in to get a sharp picture. Here's a little experiment you can try at home. Set your camera mode to shutter priority (Tv mode). Now set the shutter speed to it's fastest setting which should be 1/x second where x is a number. You want x to be the largest number on your camera. Go ahead and take a picture. Now change the shutter speed to the second fastest setting. Take the same picture. Now keep doing this, decreasing the shutter speed. You should notice that as the shutter remains open longer, the picture will get brighter up to a certain point where you'll start noticing blurry pictures (usually when the camera is hand-held and the shutter speed is set to a couple of seconds or more). What's happening here is the camera is taking the picture even though there is not enough light (leading to the dark pictures). You've told the camera (by selecting Tv mode) that I don't care that there's not enough light. Just take the picture and close the shutter after x seconds has passed. As the shutter remains open longer, you are letting more and more light in (accounting for the picture getting brighter) until you get to a point where you can no longer hold the camera perfectly still for the full duration that the shutter remains open (leading to the blurry image).

Lesson Five: The Sharpness Triad, Part I

noreply@blogger.com (newgen) — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 04:55:00 +0000

In general, whether a picture turns out sharp or blurry will depend on three things. If it does not turn out well, you can adjust one, two, or all three of these things to increase your chances of getting a better/ sharper picture. The first thing to look into is the aperture. As mentioned before, the aperature is the hole that lets light into the camera and since photography (literally 'light-writing'), at its most base level is dependent on light, the size of the aperature is an extremely important element in this equation. The other two elements which we will discuss at a later time are shutter speed and ISO. The bigger the aperature (remember, an aperture of f/4 is bigger than an aperture of f/8, see Lesson Two for a refresher), the more light gets in which means that the shutter has to remain open for a shorter amount of time to get a sharp picture.

Lesson Four: Cameras need batteries

noreply@blogger.com (newgen) — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 02:20:00 +0000

I learned this lesson the hard way. My wife and I were watching the changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetary when my batteries died. Luckily, my camera also takes standard AA batteries so I got some at the souvenir shop so I could continue shooting the rest of the day but I missed getting pictures of the changing of the guard. So, before you head out to take photos, make sure you charged your camera batteries the night before.

More than likely, your camera came with one battery. You'll definitely want to invest in a second one. You can probably get a generic battery for your camera on Amazon.com for about $20. Keep in mind that there are several factors that determine how long your battery will last. If you have your LCD screen on, your batteries will drain a lot faster than if you didn't. If you use flash, that will drain your batteries more quickly. If you are shooting in a cold environment, your batteries will drain faster than shooting in a warm enviroment. The older your battery is, the faster it will drain. Keep all of this in mind before you leave so you'll know how many batteries you'll need to bring.

Facebooked!

noreply@blogger.com (newgen) — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 01:41:00 +0000

Hi everyone! Just a quick note to let everyone know that we are now on Facebook. You can find samples of pictures I've taken by searching for Jubilation Photography on Facebook.

Lesson Three: Shutter Priority Mode

noreply@blogger.com (newgen) — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 22:39:00 +0000

Now on to the Shutter Priority or Tv mode. Like I mentioned before, for the most part, you'll want to use Aperture priority mode. However, there are some instances in which Shutter Priority mode is preferable. If you're shooting sports photography or the subject of your photo is moving quickly, you'll want to shoot in Shutter priority mode. This is because if you shoot it in Av mode, you'll more than likely get a photo with motion blur. If you shoot in shutter priority mode, there's one thing you'll want to keep in mind - make sure that the shutter speed is faster than the inverse of the focal length of the lens you're using otherwise your photo will still be blurry. Sounds complicated but it really isn't. Here's an example. If I'm shooting with a 100-300mm lens and I shoot at a focal length of 120mm, I'll want to make sure that my shutter speed is AT LEAST 1/120 second. Since my camera doesn't have a shutter speed of 1/120 second, I'll want to shoot at 1/125 second.

There are two other reasons for choosing Tv mode over Av mode. Both of these are for artistic purposes. The first reason is if you want that milky-looking water fall or cloudy-looking moving water such as lakes/streams. To do this, you'll want to set the shutter speed to a couple of seconds. The other reason is if you want light streaks such as car headlight/tail lights. Just like with moving water, you'll want to set the shutter speed for a couple of seconds. If you are planning on doing either of these, make sure your camera is on a stable tripod.

Review: Tamrac 3385 Aero Speed Pack 85 Dual Access Photo/Laptop Backpack

noreply@blogger.com (newgen) — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 03:27:00 +0000

This review will cover the backpack that I use to lug around my camera gear when I travel. I love this thing so we'll start off with the two negatives about this bag first: 1) It ain't cheap. Very few things in the digital SLR hobby are. This bag set me back $145 on Amazon.com but you get what you pay for and when you're shelling that much money for the gear, you want to make sure it is protected and secure when you travel. You can get cheaper bags but you're just tempting fate. 2) You'll probably want to shell out the extra $10 for straps so you can attach things like a tripod. $10 isn't bad but when you're shelling that kind of money for the pack, it would've been nice if it came with them.

On to the pros: This bag is very well padded so your gear is safe. I flew around a lot for work for a couple of months when I first got the bag and they fit underneath the seats on most planes effortlessly. There were one or two flights that I did have to apply a little extra force to make it fit but the plane was really small. The shoulder straps are nice and wide and padded so it is comfortable to carry the pack around for long amounts of time. The section that you see that is opened in the photo is where you'll be keeping most of your gear. There's enough space for a camera with battery grip attached as well as several additional lenses and a flash. The padded section is attached via velcro so you can easily adjust the padding to suit your needs. In the back section, there's space for a laptop up to 17". My netbook fits back there without any problems. This section is padded as well. The area above where you keep your camera gear unzips and is great for storing ponchos and other trekking gear. One small complaint about this area is that it really is just one compartment. There aren't really any large pockets to separate the gear you keep in this area. There's two cargo net-ish pockets that are really only wide enough to keep the camera manual and maybe some granola bars in there. The nice thing about this pack is that it is compatible with Tamrac's Strap Accessory System system so you can purchase things like an additional wallet that holds extra memory cards and attach it to the shoulder straps for easy access. With the backpack on your back, on the right side, there is a pocket for you to keep a water bottle or umbrella. Now on to the main selling point for this pack. While wearing the backpack, if you slip off your right shoulder strap, you can actually access your camera body through a side panel on the left side so you don't have to take the pack completely off to access. The body of the pack itself is water resistant (not sure if it's waterproof but I haven't had any issues with it so far but then again, I haven't had it out in pouring rain yet, just a few sprinkles). Once again, I love this thing and would highly recommend it.

Lesson Two: That funny dial at the top

noreply@blogger.com (newgen) — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 23:00:00 +0000

By this point, I'm sure you've gotten the chance to play with the camera a little bit and have probably noticed that funny dial at the top. You know, the one with the funny pictures (such as the flower) and letter combinations (such as Av) on them. I highly suggest you play around with each setting and get a feel for what each one does and when to use each one. When you first start out, playing with just the settings that have symbols on them is just fine but eventually, you'll want to start experimenting with the semi-automatic settings of the camera, such as Av mode or Tv mode. These settings are the reason you shelled out all that money for a digital SLR instead of a point and shoot camera. The settings with the symbols on them will have the camera make all the setting adjustments for you. Sure, you'll get decent enough pictures most of the time but to get excellent shots all the time, you'll want to start with either aperture priority (probably labeled Av mode, no, I don't know why it's labeled Av) or shutter priority (probably labeled Tv mode on Canons. I believe some other companies may refer to it as Sv mode). Most of the time Av mode will be your best choice. In Av mode, what the camera does is have you set the aperture (Terminology Alert: opening in the camera that lets light through). The camera will automatically adjust all other settings such as shutter speed based on the aperture setting you choose. Often, you'll see aperture setting denoted as f/x where x=a number. For instance f/3.5. An aperture of f/3.5 is bigger than f/8 and so lets more light in. A trick that I use to remember this is to pretend that the f =1. So, just like in math, 1/3.5 is greater than 1/8. This mode is great for all around shooting and especially for landscapes and other non-moving objects or slow-moving objects. However, there are a couple of cons to using this mode. Since the aperature is what takes priority in this setting, the camera may have to keep the shutter open longer which increases the chance of having a blurry image aka motion blur. Also, as previously mentioned, this mode works well for non-moving or slow moving objects but if the object you're trying to photograph is moving fairly fast, you'll probably end up with motion blur. That's probably when you'll want to switch over to Tv or shutter priority mode which we'll cover next time.

Lesson One: Read the Manual

noreply@blogger.com (newgen) — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 05:43:00 +0000

This may seem obvious but I can not stress this enough. If you've just received your DSLR, one of the first things you'll want to do is read the manual. You are in possesion of a very expensive, highly fine-tuned machine. You don't want to damage it because you were in too much of a hurry to read the section in the manual on how to attach the lens correctly. They put the manual in the box for a reason. Use it! Do this while you're charging the camera's battery. Read the thing from front to back. You don't necessarily have to memorize everything, just make sure you read it so you'll know where in the manual to refer back to for specific sections later on. You never know when you'll need to refer back to it. For instance, just today, I had to refer back to the section on where to locate AEB (Auto Exposure Bracketing) on my camera's settings. After you've finished reading the manual, don't toss it away. Keep it with the rest of your photography supplies (Terminology Alert: also called your 'kit') for quick reference.

Introductions

noreply@blogger.com (newgen) — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 05:33:00 +0000

Well, now that you know what this blog is about, I suppose you should know a little about me. I'm in my early thirties and, as I have previously mentioned, have had my digital SLR camera for almost seven months now. I have a full-time job that keeps me busy in addition to starting/maintaining this blog. I am a novice in every sense of the word when it comes to digital SLR photography. Although I've had the camera for almost seven months, I've only been actively using it for about two. I have very little experience with Photoshop but hope to improve on that in the next couple of months. The camera body I use is the Canon Digital Rebel XS (otherwise known as the 1000D), the most basic entry-level DSLR Canon makes and the version of Photoshop I have is Adobe Photoshop Elements 9.

Post, the First

noreply@blogger.com (newgen) — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 04:37:00 +0000

Well here it is, as I am writing this it is currently 12:25 AM ET. My wife and I are vacationing in DC. She's lying next to me asleep and here I am clicking away at the keyboard. If you're here, it's probably because of one of two reasons: 1. You accidentally stumbled onto this blog or 2. You're genuinely interested in digital photography and want to learn more. In this blog, I'll cover the lessons I've learned as well as the mistakes I've made (so you won't make them as well); review some of the products I use (as of this writing I am not being sponsored by any of them so the reviews will be fair and unbiased); and post some of my own photos. I will tell you up front that I have and use a Canon camera so I will not attest to, nor defame, any of the products Nikon or any other competitor company uses. I simply do not use their products so cannot give a fair review on them. However, the lessons I have and will learn, I think will apply to any camera you use. If you enjoy this blog, please subscribe to it and tell any friends you think may be interested. Well, shall we get started?