the amateur photography blog

Moving to Wordpress :-)

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Styr) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:52:00 +0000

Hello Everyone.

Well, I know this blog kind of just up and died on you, but, I'm going to attempt a full revitalisation. I've got a hosting plan sorted, and I'm moving to a full on wordpress situation. The blog may be a bit of a shambles for a while, but hopefully this will mean that I myself take the blog more seriously and keep it more up to date.

I don't really know the length of time that this process will take, but it should be exciting enough for me and you, the readers, and that means more tips, reviews, comments et al. We shall see :-)

Hope you're well,

Charlie -

a new member to the team

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Styr) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 19:55:00 +0000

Hello Readers,

Well, I'm sure the inactivity pages that make up 'The AP Blog' have been noticed, and trust me, I've noticed too. I have just been overwhelmed by so much activity, in School, real life, and everything in between. But, I think we can hopefully think that this blog is going to get a much-needed kick start in the very near future.

A great friend that I met on Flickr, some time ago, John March, is going to be joining the AP blog. His work is some of my favourite work on Flickr, particularly his interesting techniques whilst taking photos, and also in Photoshop for post-processing. He will be able to provide some stark enthusiasm and incredible talent and teaching to this blog. And I think it is going to be a great success.

I'm sure you will hear from him near enough. Enjoy when you do. Check out his photos on Flickr, HERE.

Hope you're all doing good. Charlie -

pairing images for effect

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Styr) — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 20:59:00 +0000

You may often see photographs, or rather pairs of photographs which just click together. The decision making is often a tough one for photographers, and I will go over the ways in which to go into making what is often referred to as a 'diptych', ie. two photos in one image, or two in one frame if that's how you work!

Let me start with an example of one of my photographs. This one was taken in a field near my house, and I really like it:

This example of photograph pairing is very simple, and in my opinion one of the most effective forms of this, and that is, 'looking at the same subject, from a different perspective or distance'.

I'd say that this is the most common type of pairing that you will see, and when you are out shooting some photos, I urge you to have a look at the same subject again, and see if you could shoot it again from another angle, that would complement the previous. I feel that there are often potential pictures that appeal, or even scream to be shot twice and then paired up.

Another example of this double shot of the same subject, could be this fabulous photograph from 'notraces', a lovely shot:

This is a simple shot, of the front, and back of the same car, which is of amazing depth and simplicity, but yet, something unachievable in a regular photograph.

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The next area of this subject is what I can only describe as, 'pairing subjects'. This often means things of the same colours, such as a shiny dark blue car, and a beautifully dark blue sky with fluffy clouds, or a brown and reddish plant, and dead leaves on the ground. Furthermore, the photographs could be of a linking subject, such as winter, or flowers.

This is quite difficult to describe, and so I feel this photograph from 'rebeccamissing' will do the job just fine. It is entitled, 'the language of winter' and is a beautiful pairing of photos:

The complementing colours, and the matching subjects make for a simple superb photograph here, the subject in hand is clearly winter, and the photo is a wonderful pairing of two common subjects of wintertime.

The reason that this photo is particularly notable, is that although the photos look great individually, pairing the two brings out detail that you may not have noticed previously, and makes us link the two together.

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This post has come to a somewhat sudden end, however I feel that I have enlightened you into the prospects of pairing images together. You can pair them together in software such as Photoshop and Gimp, and if you even want, Paint, they'll all do.

So I urge you to think about next time, what photos would look nice together, not just how they look on their own, it is a less walked path, but it is one that I find, much more rewarding.

Hope you're well,

Charlie -

Site Update!

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Styr) — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 20:56:00 +0000

Hey Reader,

You may notice some changes around here! I got very fed up with default blogger settings and options so decided to go all out and start making my own stuff. Hope you like the new design, I love it personally. Any comments let me know!

I am pretty much done in the respect of overly busy school work, but that won't mean I'm completely free, I've got a separate project which may coincidentally contribute to this, but we'll see, it shall be interesting, and I'm sure you'll love it!

Hope you're well!

Charlie -

Digital-Photography-School: Group Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Styr) — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 12:15:00 +0000

Hey Everyone,

I know I haven't posted in a while, I've been amazingly busy, but I have to share a guide that I discovered recently on the art of taking a group photograph.

I feel that particularly with amateur photographers, you will often be taking group photos, and it is a ciritical skill when with friends, and other occasions.

Digital-Photography-School : Group Photos

Hope you're well,

Charlie -

Tutorial : Star Trails

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Styr) — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 16:59:00 +0000

Hi Everyone,

One thing I love in Long Exposure photography is the trails stars can leave in images. This quick tutorial will let you know the factors you need to get great results.

Firstly, I think you need to see the photography I'm talking about, (if you haven't already seen it, or imagined it). This photograph from 'velvet paw' shows the beauty star trails can show in images:

There are many physical factors that help hugely in taking a long exposure photograph with star trails, so before you can start to think about what you need kit-wise, you need to know about what weather and location is necessary.

Little or no Clouds

Clouds in a picture of star trails can be very attractive, but too much and it defeats the point of the image. Realistically, I'd probably only consider doing a long exposure with star trails if the weather was cloud free, and it there were clouds to come along, chances are they wouldn't be particularly ruining to the image.

Clear, dark Skies.

You'll find that to get the best shots it has to be very clear, even when there are no clouds, chances are, if you live anywhere near a built up area, that there will be significant light pollution preventing the best image possible, therefore, you may need to travel to get to the best location. I've found that on many occasions I've started off an exposure, and by the time its done have the shock of discovering the ambient light was too much, and the star trails have been washed out by it.

A subject is pretty much required.

I find that a long exposure performed solely or predominantly for capturing star trails can be incredibly uninteresting if there isn't a subject in the photograph. Again, returning to the fabulous image of Mt. Fuji, the subject makes the image. I find that you don't need an amazing subject, but having one is pretty much a necessity, cars can be cool subjects, if they are well cleaned, you get reflections of the star trails, and the same goes with water.

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Next is the kit you will need for the images. Realistically, you need a prosumer or SLR camera, (?), with a Bulb function, (often shown on the camera as B). You can easily discover if you camera has this function by turning it on, switching to the M position, (fully manual). Then turn the shutter speed as slow as possible, and often, after the slowest speed the camera does, you'll be shown a B, or Bulb:

You can see the display on my 400D above. The bulb function means that the shutter stays open as long as you have got the shutter button pressed down. This means that you would be holding down the shutter button for a long time, and thus you may wish to purchase a shutter release cable, that can allow you to lock the shutter button down and keep it open whilst you wait. An example of such a product can be found here.

If your camera has this function, and you've sorted out a way to hold your shutter open, I can move on to a quick list of what you will need:

Camera with Bulb Function
Tripod
A subject
Time :)

With those things you are pretty much set to go, oh, there is one last thing, you will find with digital cameras, the battery will run out eventually, so if you are planning to take many, try and take a few back up batteries, or if you can some form of mains power.

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The method for this 'genre' of photography is very simple really, you will want to set up your camera, looking at a subject that you have chosen for the photograph. The camera should be atop a tripod, and preferably have a cable release attached to it, to allow the camera to stay on for a while without your intervention.

Now, lock the shutter down, and your camera, well, most cameras will display a time on the screen like this:

This allows you to see how long your shutter has been open, and therefore how long your exposure has been so far. I find that it is best to leave your aperture wide open, (smallest f/number), and then to experiment with the timings, as the brightness of the stars varies from location to location. This part basically requires a lot of experimentation, and if it is quite bright and you want longer exposure times, then you get a smaller aperture, and try again. I recommend that you start at around 5-10mins, and depending on your results there, you can adjust aperture, (if necessary), and then increase the time to 30-40mins or more!

For a fairly extreme star trail, you will probably want about a half hour exposure, and something like the above Mt. Fuji photo was probably more along the lines of 10-15 minutes.

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I hope that this has been an informative introduction and tutorial into the world of star trail photography. Let me know if you get some good ones!

Charlie -

Quick Tip: Slow Sync Flash

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Styr) — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 11:52:00 +0000

Hi Everyone,

Obviously I haven't been posting much recently, but I've just been immensely busy, I thought I'd write a quick, kind of, 'tip' on Slow Sync Flash, because it's something I use quite a lot, and it's great for making flash photography look acceptable. And, I mean, more with built in flash, because obviously, a large professional flash wouldn't make photographs look that bad in the first place.

Basically, the theory behind this consists of how flash photography tends to work with built in flashes, if you just go on Auto and shoot someone with the flash on, you'll probably get a picture of just them, isolated from the background, and looking clammy and horrid, unnatural because of the flash. The genius behind slow sync flash is that it combines flash with a long exposure, meaning that you get the illumination of the subject, but you also get some natural tones in there, and of course the background starts to expose, meaning that your subject isn't just standing in a black abyss.

This photograph by Theodore Baschack shows the way in which using the 'Night Portrait' mode on many prosumer cameras and SLRs can work, (this is basically a slow sync shutter mode).

You can also use this method of photography for more artistic and amusing purposes, making strange but wonderful images. For example, you can kind of do double exposures in one photograph, which can lead to a lot of fun. Here is an example:

This photograph from Angela shows how you can use it for fun expressions and dual characters etc.

I'd like to finish discussing this by saying that this is really something that you will just want to play around with, experiment and have fun. There are many ways you can have fun doing this, serious and fun, so enjoy.

Hope you're well,

Charlie -

Timelapse: Sunset this Evening

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Styr) — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 19:20:00 +0000

Hi Everyone,

Well, I can only say sorry for not having posted much recently, I feel guilty that after buying the domain: theapblog.com, my posting has gone drastically down, but, there's nothing I can do, I've been completely downed with work from school, and have had no time to get anything done really,

but,

I did get a spare moment alone the 0ther day with an incredible sunset, that you must see, I love it, so I made a timelapse that you may find interesting, or not, we'll see...!

And you can view a high quality version at my Stage6 account, HERE.

Anyway, I hope you're all well, and, normal service shall resume at some point, (just don't ask when...).

Charlie - :)

Photography 101 : Portraiture

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Styr) — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 14:41:00 +0000

Hey Reader,

I'm sorry that as usual I haven't been posting very much, well, that's that, I don't often get that much done, as I'm very busy. But I thought I'd throw together a quickie on Portraiture. It is probably one of my favourite subjects in photography, and I think, when done well, it is really interesting, and I have some tips that I'd love to share with you.

Aperture
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The use of aperture correctly in portraits is very important. Using a wide aperture, (small f/number), you can get very shallow depths of field which can throw the background out of focus and isolate your subject in the frame.

This may sound slightly confusing, but it really is very simple and makes probably the biggest difference. Here is an example:

Photo credit: Ricarda (her Photography)

For example, in this wonderful photograph, we have the subject clearly isolated from the background, and instead the background is a subtle and 'un-distracting' array of colour and light. This will have been done by using a wide aperture, and I feel this is the first rule in portraiture.

Subject Position
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This is an interesting subject, and can be more complex. I find more often than not, that I keep going back to the rule of thirds, (previous POST), and this provides me with interesting results all the time. You will mostly shoot portraits in 'Portrait' orientation, here meaning that the photo is taller than it is wide, although in certain circumstances, you can get very interesting photos from 'landscape' orientations, such as this photo:

Photo Credit: Doug Sparks (his Photography)

Here we can see an excellent photo utilising the abnormal 'landscape' orientation, but making it work, using the rule of thirds we have the off centre face, here providing an interesting view. Furthermore, we are shown part of the subject, his character, by being shown his clothing and his hand.

It is important I feel that within a portrait you reveal a persons character, this can be done in many ways, for example, using a persons habits, or an object that reflects their personality, this can be something such as headphones, or a computer, and if it is something that that person is rarely seen without, for example a cigarette or a drink, then including that in the photograph can make it much more about that person, and not about the photo. This is important in a portrait, as the photo is not just a photo, it's personal.

The Subject's Actions
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Lastly I'll cover what someone can be doing within a photography, or more importantly, a portrait. You can have very simple 'Head and Shoulders' portraits, not dandruff free, but of, literally, a persons head and shoulders. This is very simple, but works well and is often the most effective portrait. Here is an example:

Photo Credit: Didier (his Photography)

Here, using the simple head and shoulders routine, there is a wonderful photograph, that, for a portrait, is simple but effective, and more often than not, is what people want from a portrait.

Of course though, photography always begs to be different, and it is oh so easy to make something different, for example, a more action-ish portrait, that captures someone doing what they love, which is often what people want. For example:

Photo Credit: Maurice Flower (his Photography)

Here showing someone singing, this can be just as interesting to people, and maybe more, as we are shown what this person loves to do.

I hope that this guide has been an interesting insight into Portraiture, I hope you're well, and have a happy Valentine's day.

Charlie - Teenage Photographer

Photography 101 : The Rule of Thirds

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Styr) — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 13:03:00 +0000

Hey Reader,

Now, I'm sure many of you have heard of the rule of thirds, and I thought that because it is such, 'genius', I should write a short but sweet post on it. The rule of thirds is the most simple but effective thing that you can do to enhance your photography, and it is instant, not much practice needed, you can jump right in.

The rule of thirds is based upon dividing up your image, into a grid a little like this:

It is a very crude diagram that I whipped up in paint, but it gets the point across. Basically, at the red points, a subject will appear much more dynamic and interesting than one say at the small circle at the centre of the image. I'll give you an example below. And whilst looking at the images, just keep in mind the diagram above and consider where the subject is:

Now, I know it's not the best example, but, at my desk I felt like using a new subject, not an old image. But I feel that it gets the point over, particularly by having the out of focus, (OOF), keys in the background, which I think adds context to what the mouse is actually belonging to.

I feel that the difference is that the first image is what would be used to sell the mouse. I mean, it shows what it looks like, and that's it. The second image makes the mouse the subject for a nice photograph, and that is the difference.

This tip has probably been my shortest so far, however, I feel it has probably been the most important, and I hope that you have found it interesting, I know that this will be incredibly useful for anyone who hasn't heard about the rule before, and hopefully a reminded for any of you who haven't.

I hope you're well,

Charlie -

Review: Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Styr) — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 15:35:00 +0000

Hello Reader,

I hope you're doing well, and I thought I'd get a nice lens review in here, as it's been quite desolate for a while. The lens that will be under the microscope will be the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II, which is a budget lens, although it with-holds a very nice surprise. So here goes...

Initial Impressions

Firstly, a new user to this lens will probably notice the amazingly compact size and weight of this lens, it's amazing really. I'm using it on my Canon 400D, and compared to the Kit lens, this thing is tiny! I'd say that this is a good factor for this lens, it's size and weight really complements the compact body of the 400D, and contrary to many peoples beliefs, the main lens body is surprisingly sturdy, at least at a parallel with the Kit lens. (18-55). There are quite a few reasons I bought this lens:

To learn how to work with a Prime Lens
It is EXTREMELY cheap, (around £52, or $80)
It had a very large aperture, f/1.8, ideal for low light
Huge image quality gain over the kit lens

As well as those benefits, many people on Flickr were also recommending it to me. And, I think I should say, I really don't regret it at all, it is an amazing piece of kit.

Image Quality

I guess that this it the main point of a lens, not the build quality etc, but, what's important in the end with photography, is the photo that comes out, and this lens is probably the best value for money lens on the market. Many people say that the lens has 'L' quality glass, (if you don't know what that means, it is that the Canon L series lenses, (the luxury ones), have great quality, and that this is on par with it). I feel that this is most certainly true, the lens gives amazing image quality, here is a shot I have taken with it:

This shot can tell us a lot about the lens, (please ignore the subject for the moment!), firstly, we can see the clarity, the nun is fully sharp, very crisp and clear. (Btw: the nun is about 8cm tall), and also, we can see the DOF, this photo was taken at f/1.8, the widest aperture, and you can clearly see the completely thrown out background, and also, the gradually 'blurring' table detail.

The DOF is very shallow with this lens, meaning that it is particularly great for portraits, and also for outdoors photography, of plants etc, because you can isolate the subject from the background.

The lens tends to perform best when it has been stopped down a bit, say, to f/5+, at which point it provides awesome detail, in particular, the sharpness peaks at around f/5 on my copy. In a summary, I guess I could say that the lens is most certainly great, and it is instantly noticeable when compared with the Kit lens, which I feel a LOT of people will be upgrading from. A last point I should make is that a lot of people will pass over this lens because they feel that since the Kit lens already covers the 50mm range, you shouldn't buy it, however, that is no excuse for ignoring this lens, because the low light potential pays for itself, seriously.

Build Quality

In my opinion, a far less important aspect of a lens, particularly in a first upgrade from the kit lens, when in the future you are much more likely to upgrade again, say to the f/1.4 variant. Here are some shots of the lens I just whipped up, to show the general aspects of it.

As you can clearly see, it is a fairly standard looking lens, but one thing, that although vain, I feel is quite useful about the lens, is the fact that it looks different to the kit lens. I feel that this is important, because, the amount of people that use the 400D as their family camera, and never take off the kit lens, (which is fine by the way, I prefer that to using some compact), and if you differentiate yourself from them, you can appear much more interesting.

Anyway, moving onto more real things... The build quality isn't amazing, but once again I must reiterate that, for what you're paying, it really is fine, the lens is fully plastic, (except for the glass), even the lens mount is plastic, (as is the kit lens), this allows for the extremely light weight which is really nice. There are some slightly tacky factors to the lens that I will comment on:

When attempting to focus below min. focus level, the lens ring literally 'jumps' up and down, and on top of that, the focusing noise is very excessive, you can get some very moaning sounds out of this lens.
The AF switch is quite uncomfortable, it is small and awkward and can sometimes get stuck when the clutch moves on and off of the motor.
The lens element extends considerably during focusing, which coincidentally zooms the image a surprising amount. I personally am a fan of focusing within the lens, not outside... But, that's not really a problem.

Realistically, these problems aren't critical, and most certainly shouldn't change your views on the lens, as it is an amazingly good value for money solution, and more importantly, an experiment into the real world of lenses, outside of the kit. Furthermore, the image quality is so high, that there need not be worries about the build quality.

Conclusion

Positives

Amazing image quality
Amazingly cheap
Very wide open allowing for good low light performance
Moves you on from the kit

Negatives

Build quality is average
Focusing noisy

These are pretty much the facts about this lens, and I think there are very VERY few people that actually wouldn't recommend this lens to you. Of course, if you have the money, you may as well go for the 50mm f/1.4, however, there are a LOT of people who don't want to spend that money without experimenting with Primes first of all, and this is most certainly the way to do this.

Recommended Sellers

eBay UK : Seller, 'Russian Blue' = £52

theapblog.com gives this lens: 96%
Reviewed by Charlie Styr, on 30/1/07 for 'theapblog.com'

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Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the review, please let me know what you think, and I recommend the lens wholeheartedly.

Charlie - Teenage Photographer

Again with the business...

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Styr) — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 15:16:00 +0000

Hey Reader,

Once again I'm apologising for being busy, I will attempt to resume normal service soon, but for now, I'm experimenting with some new themes etc. Let me know what you think of the current theme, I like it, but it's more important what YOU think!

Furthermore, I'm also considering getting a 'real' domain name for the blog, I was contemplating on: 'theapblog.com' or 'apblog.net' and at the moment, I'm leaning at the .com one...!? What do you think?

Hope you're all well,

Charlie -

Canon EOS 400D, Long Term Review #1

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Styr) — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 15:36:00 +0000

Hey Everyone,

I’ve had the Canon EOS 400D for three weeks now, and I want to implement the first section of a review that will conclude over a period of time, (I don’t want to rush out a review too quickly, and I know I wouldn’t want to read one that was). So, I think I’ll cover in this first one, what I think of the physical camera, (and the kit lens, EF-S 18-55mm), to get you down on the physical properties of this wonderful camera.

Features

First of all, if you are familiar with either the 300D/Rebel, or more so, the 350D/Rebel XT, then you will be familiar with the 400D/Rebel XTi, they are very similar cameras, with progressive growth through the generations. The latest installment, although widely viewed as a kind of ‘Facelift’ is significantly more than that, there are many physical changes, new features, improved features etc. The major ones of these are as follows:

2.5” Wide Viewing Angle Screen
All Black Body design, (unless you get silver), i.e. buttons now black
9 Point AF
10 MegaPixel count, (up from 8)
Canon DUST removal system

These are the prominent differences that you will notice between this and the 350D, and they are the major ones that Canon makes an effort to point out. I can say though, that there are other, slightly less important, and less publicised differences, such as a better thumb grip and hook, different mode dial, different material, (similar solidity, but different feel, nicer in my opinion).

I think I must make it clear, that unless you detest the screen on your 350D, (if that is your camera of choice), I don’t think it is really worth upgrading to this, I mean, it’s wonderful, but the increased pixel count and other little things really aren’t that amazing when you consider the hassle and cost of switching cameras.

Body and Design

Wow, what a truly lovely camera the Canon Rebel series is, many people complain of the small hand grip, and I have big hands, and I have to say that there really isn’t a problem there, you just change the way you hold the camera, nothing too complex as moving your fingers..!? The feel of the grip is simply fabulous, it has an almost, well, carpet-esque feel, although, it is rubbery really, but it is wonderful. The rest of the body is a very solid plastic, slightly shinier than the 350D which I wasn’t fond of in pictures, but in real life it looks great.

There are no creaks when handling the camera, in fact, I’m not sure if I’ve ever felt it creak, and which is a lovely feeling. Overall, I have to say that the body is amazing, considering the cost of course. I have to make this comment, as I read a lot of reviews before I got the camera, and I mean a LOT, I make sure that when I buy a product it is the best I can get for the money, (because I’m not the one to have lots of money to just throw around, and a lot of other reviews are too used to their D200s and the 5Ds and think that that is standard quality, and so by their standards, of course the 400D is going to feel like less of a camera, because it is, but in value to money, it is so much more.

Kit Lens

I would just like to make a quick section on the kit lens. A lot of people that buy this camera will be first time SLR users, and will almost certainly get it with the Kit lens, as I did, because that is the logical thing to do when you are getting an SLR for the first time, therefore I would like to state my comments on this surprising lens.

Once again I will reflect against other reviews and say that they are too used to their L lenses of superior quality, (optically and physically), but with me upgrading from a Fuji Film S7000 Prosumer camera, the lens is great. One of the main points of a DSLR over a Prosumer is the fact that you can get specific lenses, and the Kit lens is a specific lens. When it was being designed, it was designed as a lens, and more time would have gone into this side of things. When Fuji were making the lens for the S7000, of course they would have been considering the optics, but as much as that they would have been concentrating on making it fit in with the camera, and be small and retractable etc, the Kit lens is born as a lens, not as a part of the camera, which I think is a critical difference that no one concentrates on, so whatever your previous camera, (non SLR), the lens would have been designed to fit, and the Kit lens is FAR superior to built in lenses in almost all cases, of course, the range can be less, (28-88mm compared to my Fuji’s 35-210), but I don’t feel that important when the optics are so much better, and the extra wide angle is so amazingly useful!

This is a lesson I have learnt by having the camera, and that I haven’t read anywhere, so I feel it my responsibility to make this point to anyone looking at DSLRs, purpose built lenses are always going to be better than the ones stuck on a compact, period. The kit lens is a 28-88mm, (equiv. don’t understand? Read THIS), with a maximum aperture range of f/3.5 – 5.6, so a bit slow, but nothing critical.

Image Quality or, IQ

Obviously a critical point of any camera, and somewhere where the 400D can sit very comfortably, of course it varies with lenses used, but I only have the kit lens, so I will be doing all description of image quality with the kit lens. I’ll start by saying, amazing! A nice start it is indeed, and one that can be built upon, the 10 MegaPixel CMOS sensor in the 400D is amazingly good, I have been very impressed with it so far.

One of the major things I notice when in comparison with my S7000 is noise, at ISO100-400 there is nothing, well, unless of course you blew it up stupidly large, but realistically, nothing, and it is something that really impresses me, I mean, the lowest setting on my S7000 was ISO 200 which was annoying to start with, and at that level, it became apparent when viewing the images full screen, the true amount of detail present in the images, with the 400D I most certainly don’t have that problem, even blowing up an ISO 1600 image to full screen, the ISO doesn’t bother me, (although I’m not ludicrously scrutinizing like some people may be, I feel myself to be more of a realistic reviewer, I look at a product and decide what I think the buyers of the product are really going to consider, and in this case, it is whether the noise truly intrudes on the images, and I think, well, I know, the answer is no.

Sharpness is something that should always be discussed, and unfortunately once again is heavily dependent on the lens attached to the camera. I have found that I wanted the camera’s default setting to be a bit sharper, so in the menus I put the sharpness up a notch, which I feel, with the kit lens gives very detailed and comfortable results, and is most certainly on par with some very good cameras. Overall, on the image quality front, there is definitely nothing to worry about, and the quality is VERY impressive.

My General Views

After the first three weeks with my first SLR I can only say that I am amazed, it is incredible the difference between using a Prosumer camera and the SLR, there is such difference, so when I see adverts on the back of my Photography Monthly magazine, saying things like: “Compact or SLR?” “Have the Best of Both Worlds” etc, I think, well, I’m holding this 400D, and I look at this ad and think, I don’t want only the best of each, I want it all SLR, I want no shutter lag, real, ‘through the lens’ viewfinder, I want to be able to change my lenses!

There is no substitute for an SLR, none. And I urge anyone considering getting one, to get one, namely the 400D, but if something else takes your fancy, maybe you’ve got a little extra to spend, then go ahead, as I cannot believe the difference it is already making to my photography, it’s amazing!

I think I will update this ‘Long-Term-Review’ sometime within the next three weeks, and we’ll see how I’m doing with it then, will I have another lens? Will there be something detracting from the experience? We shall see, but right now, there most certainly isn’t.

If you'd like to see some example images from the Canon EOS 400D, then I'd like to point you in the direction of this group on Flickr, all to do with the 400D, there is also a discussion of the camera if you join the group! HERE

Hope you’re all well,

Charlie -

Sorry for the Break

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Styr) — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 12:17:00 +0000

Hey Everyone,

I just need to drop a post to alert you that I am still alive lol, but I've been amazingly busy recently, Mock exams getting in the way of everything, and I've been in Austria as well... Anyway, I will get some stuff up soon, don't worry.

Here are some photographs I've taken since last time:

Foggy weather in Austria

A shot of some Christmas Sparklers

On The Wing

So, if you like any of those, please check it out on my Flickr page, (a link to the right)..!

I'd just like to say that I've got a random surge of Traffic, which is cool, it all seems to be coming from Reddit.com, (?), which is cool, must be a big site, so thanks for that, I'll be getting some guides up soon, oh yeah,

I GOT MY 400D!!!!

Anyway, I've done some time lapse, so I'll get that on here at some point for you to see, it's pretty damn cool, so that's good. Anyway, not much else to say, but I'll get some guides up, wait I've already said that, oh yeah! MacWorld today, how exciting, I can't wait to see what comes out of Steve Jobs today... looking forward to it...!

Sorry, back to the blog, again, I'll get a guide up on lenses, the types of lenses, uses, and choosing what you'd need, which I think would be good, as the amount of people using DSLRs now is huge, and the amount still using the kit lens is also huge!!! (I'm one of those, although I just bought a 50mm f/1.8 of eBay), so, we'll see how that goes, it probably won't be for a while, as I've got so many exams coming up soon, but we'll find out soon,

Hope you're well,

Charlie -

A couple of Admin Notes..!

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Styr) — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 17:13:00 +0000

Hey Everyone,

Just a few things I want to cover!

Firstly, thanks to everyone who has visited the blog, now over 400 hits, which makes me very happy. Also I want to thank 2 people who are always subscribed to me by feed reader, very big thank you! And also to the people who comment, that is always a lovely surprise in my Gmail, a comment!

Secondly, I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, it is that time for some people already, but, Merry Christmas, and have a great new year, I'm going away on Boxing day, so I'm afraid you cannot expect anything from me in a while, but don't worry, I'll see you in the new year!

Thanks again for everything!

Charlie -

How to: HDR Photography

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Styr) — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 16:52:00 +0000

Hey Guys,

I just was taking a great HDR image, and I thought that a lot of people still ask me, 'Wow, how did you do that?!' So, I thought, time for a blog post! Anyway, this guide will quickly cover the basics for making interesting HDR images.

By the way, HDR stands for 'High Dynamic Range' here meaning that you are capturing all different levels of light into one image, which you cannot do in a normal single shot photograph.

Getting the Images
==============

Firstly, you will have to collect the images that you want to turn into an HDR. This can consist of a certain amount, (here, 3), of photos taken at different shutter speeds, (different exposures), (or Apertures, but preferably shutter speeds), which you will have to take in a manual mode, (either Tv/S or M), (not sure what those mean? check HERE). You will have to take these photos with a tripod, or from a firm rest to keep the image the same each time. To start with, you'll want to take a photo using the correct exposure, maybe even take this in automatic, to find out what shutter speeds it uses, you'll get something like this:

Correctly exposing the grass, the fence etc. Now, the problem with this is, that I am not getting any of the beautiful orange sky here, so, I must take an underexposed shot to correctly expose the sky, so I click three stops too many and press the shutter to get this:

We can now clearly see the orange sky, and the beauty of the feather into lighter orange, yellow and eventually blue. This will end up being the sky in the end image. Now to get an even spread of light you have to do a slightly overexposed shot as well, which will bring up the detail on the plant in the foreground, and the frost etc, this looks like this:

Now, we have the makings of a great HDR image, ready for use. What will we need to do to get the combined? I will explain to you how I do it, which I feel is the simplest way to do so. Oh, and by the way, you can do more than three images if you want, if you can capture even more detail, (say if you were doing a midday HDR), you could do 5, 7, even 9 if you wanted. It all depends on the situation.

Combining the images to an HDR
=========================

I use a piece of software called, Photomatix. This software is available in a free trial version for you to use to try out your skill in HDR, and then you can buy the full version.

You can read about the software on it's website, but basically, it provides a simple means for you to combine images, as many as you wish, and I have been using it for a while now, and it's always left me with great images.

Firstly, you need to gather your HDR images into a folder somewhere on your computer, or you can load them straight off of your camera if you wish, and to start off with, click here:

This will bring up a walk through stage of the program in which you can follow through easily, it isn't very complicated. When it asks you whether or not you want Photomatix to align the photographs, check the box if you didn't take the photos with a tripod, but if you did, and you're confident they're all pretty much of the same image, you can ignore this.

Now you will be left with what will probably be an uninteresting image. Using the photos from above, I've been left with this:

Obviously, this is in no way interesting, so what you will have to do now, is tone map the image. Firstly, click here:

And with the menu that comes up:

You will already be presented with a much more attractive image, displaying most of the light and what will already be a much more interesting and dramatic photograph. You can then tweak setting such as colour saturation, and HDR strength, I find it's different for all images, so you just fiddle with everything until you're happy.

Once this is done, you simply press 'OK' and save the image, so that you can do whatever you want with it, upload it to Flickr for example, or post it on your blog! This is the final image that came out of the software above:

Neat, don't you think? Anyway, I hope that this guide has been quick, yet informative, and let me know what you think!

Thanks a lot, and have a great Christmas if I don't post before then!

Charlie - Teenage Photographer

Time Lapse Photography

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Styr) — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 12:34:00 +0000

Hi Everyone,

Well, Christmas is almost upon us, personally I just finished decorating the tree, and it put me in a very holiday-ish mood, and anyway, I've always had a thing for Time-Lapse photography, but I've never been able to do it with my Fuji, so, upon looking forward to Christmas, I'm even more excited by the fact that I may be getting a Canon EOS 400D, which is capable of Time Lapse photography, and I cannot wait, it's going to be very cool, and to show you what I mean by cool look at this:

That is most certainly interesting, and being able to do things like that will make me very happy. It's quite simple really, all you need is:

A DigiCam capable of Time Lapse photography
A Computer, (Mac or PC), preferably a laptop
Compiler tool, (I will use Quicktime Pro)

And that is all it takes for some cool time lapse work. I say, preferably a laptop, because that means that you could do this outdoors. With Nikons, I believe, (however don't know for sure), that you can set it to timelapse for you, with no computer, the advantages are obvious, however, it's not hard to realise you'll need a big memory card if you do that.

I think that Canon's bundled software has a timelapse recording capability with it, which means, out of the box timelapsing. If it does not, you can easily download software, for example, GBTimelapse, which allows timelapsing with most canon cameras.

Once you have the software sorted, it is a simple case of getting the shots. The subject can be of almost anything, for example, mountains with clouds rolling through them, a road with traffic on it. Somebody working, all sorts of things. And then you set up the camera, on a tripod preferably, or on a solid rest, taking the pictures. You'll probably want to take a lot of shots to make sure the video isn't only a few seconds worth of footage, maybe taking pics of the subject for hours, even days.

With the final pictures you can use quicktime, (very quick and easy), to go, File>Open Image Sequence, then you just select the pictures, and there you go.

Of course, the advantage of doing all these pictures with a new digital camera, rather than with an old fashioned video camcorder, and then speeding it up, is that you are left with a sequence of images that are already HD, and can be cut to any resolution you want, 1980x1080, 1280x720, 640x480, anything! Ready for use in any situation.

Anyway, I'll let you know if/when I get my 400D, and when I do any time lapse work.

Hope you're well,

Charlie -

Microsoft Windows Vista

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Styr) — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 15:02:00 +0000

Hey Everyone,

I just got my hands on a copy of RC2, and I must say, wow, it really is a beautiful operating system, I haven't had any dodginess yet, although I must stress yet, but compared to XP this thing is STABLE! I mean, with XP I used to have BSODs, and other cock-ups, but with Vista, my only problems seem to be with apps that haven't been updated to support vista yet, (basically, Logitech setpoint, (for my KB and Mouse)). So, this is just a quick not to alert everyone that it is pretty darn good, although, I'm sure I'll post soon enough on how evil and satanic it really is, just you wait...!

Anyway, hope you're well,

Charlie -

Christmas is Coming

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Styr) — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 13:03:00 +0000

Hey Everyone,

You may remember I posted a nice autumnal shot a while ago, as an inspiration to go out and get some great shots down in the Autumn, well, not that there isn't still time, but Christmas is here now, and you can get some incredibly moving, and interesting shots around this time of year, I personally love it!

Lights
=====

Lights are one of the things that make Christmas nowadays, whether it be a really nice candle, or the lights on your Christmas tree, even one of those houses drenched in lights, they can all make interesting pictures, for example, this picture I took:

In my opinion this just oozes Christmas time, and I think that it was just so simple to take, all it is is a slightly long exposure of some lovely little Christmas candles, and you too can take photos just like this.

When you start getting out all your decorations, and getting things up, just try taking some pictures, although I advise that, taking pictures like this either requires a tripod, or something solid to rest your camera on, as for the beautiful glows, you really need to makes sure you have quite a long exposure, say, 1/2 to 1 second.

Ornaments
=========

Here you can put Macro Mode into action, the little ornaments hanging of the tree, or on the Christmas table, anything really with a twinkle, and you can make it into a lovely picture, for instance:

Just a simple shot of some Christmas sweets, but with a shallow dof, and very close in with the light shining off the foil, you can get a decorative, and attractive image. I really think that these are some of the really great Christmas pictures you see, if you look in shops, selling Christmas ornaments, I'm sure there'll be blown up pictures, of extremely closeup ornaments and decoration.

People
=====

Nearly everyone is happy at Christmas, meaning it is the perfect time to get shots of the family, and of your friends, particularly if you get them without people knowing, because the result will be real happiness, none of this 'cheese' stuff, you'll get peoples actual emotions into an image, and a piece of advice that rarely fails, is try not to have people staring down the lens, get them off center, looking away, looking at someone else, anything like this will leave you with a much more natural and attractive picture that will make you want to frame it.

A little advice though, is that taking people will be a little harder around this time of year, sure, because people are hard anyway, but to get them from a distance generally means zoom, and with zoom you get shake, and no-one likes blur... so, jack up the ISO, wide open the aperture, and, there you go, you can get some, fairly crisp shots. Well, nothing that a bit of photoshop can't fix.

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A quick insight into Christmas photography, brief, but hopefully factual.

Have a good one.

Charlie -

Microsoft Office 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Styr) — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 16:44:00 +0000

Hello Everyone,

I know it is slightly irrelevant, but I felt this to be rather important. Microsoft office 2007 is out now, and I have just got my copy of it. Firstly, I'll start with a nice, wow.

This is probably the first office you should upgrade to after 2000. 2003, XP, and all those random ones in between were just time fillers, for the big one, 2007. This is truly a wondrous piece of software, and when I first used it, I was convinced this is something Apple designed, it is that beautiful.

Word. That is what I use most out of the office suite, with Excel following not far behind, and I must say that Word, is completely different, and not so much that old-time users will get lost, but in enough of a way to really show you how horrific the older versions looked. First of all, your 'desk' (ie. the background below the paper), is no longer depressing grey, nor solid grey, it is now a lovely blue, with a small wisp in the corner for interesting, and there is a really elegant, 'OSX-esque' shadow around the piece of paper. Looks, very nice. Furthermore, the new features, I mean, it's awesome, Mathematics is finally possible with Microsoft Word, there is a whole section on equations offering everything you could imagine, and trust me, as Steve Jobs would say, 'it just works'.

I don't have time to rattle through everything, as this is just a brief note really, to say how great it is. Excel, isn't to be honest that different, it's just a lot prettier, with some nice features thrown in. The graphs are much nicer to look at, and I prefer all, that's all the icons associated with office now.

And that's another note to make, is the new default font, I want to use it on this blog! It's so nice, (btw, I'm not using it on this blog), it is called 'Calibri' and it looks truly awesome, and there is a Calibri for the body of text and the headers, and it looks really nice.

Anyway, I don't really, wait! Sorry, before I forget, the new Publisher is really great, everything is so much easier to find and do, and everything is animated in an oh, so beautiful way. Trust me, if you've been waiting to get out of Office 97 or 2000, now is the time, this is finally an upgrade worth bothering to get. Trust me.

Anyway, sorry for the short, slightly meaningless post, but I'll get a much more detailed one in here at some time!

Hope you're well,

Charlie - New Office '07 Fanboy

Photography 101 : Understanding Camera Modes

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Styr) — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 08:36:00 +0000

Hello Everyone,

I thought I'd just write a quick one to cover the functions of most vaguely advanced cameras. (Here meaning, SLRs, and Prosumer cameras, check out which cameras there are, HERE). There are some modes that can help make a subtle difference to your pictures, and also make it easier on you. I will explain the basic modes and then you can choose what you want to do...!

Program
======

Program, is very similar to that of the 'Automatic' function, this basically means that the camera will work everything out to do with the shutter speed and the aperture.

People often ask me why there is an Automatic mode, and then also a Program mode. The short answer is that the Program mode leaves you to configure 'Soft' settings, by which I mean, White Balance, Metering, ISO etc. Whereas in most cases, Automatic will leave you with nothing to change yourself and it will do everything for you.

Tv / S
====

Known as Tv, (Time Value), on Canon cameras, and S, (shutter), on everything else this option gives you one variable to control, Shutter Speed.

This is quite useful if you want to either capture movement or not, and basically means that when you choose a shutter speed, the camera chooses the aperture to suit, and the end result will be a correct exposure. Of course, you have to remember that you cannot choose extreme values, as these will not work...!

Av / A
====

Known as Av, (Aperture Value), on Canon, and A, (aperture), on everything else, this gives you the opposite variable to Tv/S. Here, you control the Aperture.

This is what I use nearly all the time, it is the most useful for me. And it will be for you too if you wish to create dramatic images with shallow depths of field, say using an f-stop of around 2.8, or if you want to shoot landscapes at f/16/32. If the aperture things are confusing, I've written a 101 article explaining it: HERE.

M
=

Known as M on everything, (that I know of), this function is complete manual control. I.E. you have complete control over every function.

As far as I'm concerned, this function is only really useful when you wish to take extreme shots, for example, night shots, or HDR images. Otherwise, I feel that it is safer for you to stick in the one variable sections.

------

I hope this has been a quick but concise guide explaining your camera's modes for you.

Thanks a lot for reading,

Charlie - Teenage Photographer

How to buy a Digital Camera in time for Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Styr) — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 08:17:00 +0000

Hey Everyone,

As the holiday season approaches, a LOT of people are going to be going out and investing in digital cameras. This short but hopefully useful article will leave you with a slight advantage over the average consumer, and I hope it does. You first have to decide exactly what camera you want, now, to help you choose what kind of digital camera you need, I am going to refer you to a previous article I wrote on choosing your ideal digital camera, HERE.

After you have decided on what kind of camera you want, you've then got to buy it, now, realistically, many people are going to want to go into their local photography shop and buy it, but may I please ask that you have a look on the Internet first, as there is nearly always a chance to save money.

Firstly, you will want to go to a price comparison website, examples are:

PriceRunner (International)
Froogle (UK, US)
Ciao (Europe)

These are the majors as far as I am concerned, and you will probably always find some very good details on a cheap price in there. I find PriceRunner has the largest amount of products listed, although not as many retailers as Froogle. Ciao is very useful in the respect that nearly all major products have reviews attached by very well written people.

Another place you may want to look is the good old, eBay. Now I still feel that a lot of people have some serious misconceptions about eBay, and they are entirely unnecessary, seriously, it is extremely safe, you just have to make sure you deal with renowned dealers, very easy.

eBay (UK, International)

I won't go into the details about what eBay is, as I'm sure the visitors to a site like this will know what it is, and how good it is, and if you really don't, just Google it...!

Now, I feel that I have gone over anything you may want to know about where to buy your product, you then have to go through the simple process of paying for it, usually by credit card, (most sensible), and you're off.

I hope you get your cameras in time for Christmas, and I'm sure you will!

Thanks for reading,

Charlie - Teenage Photographer

It's Autumn, get Snapping!

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Styr) — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 20:16:00 +0000

Hey Everyone,

I just thought I'd say that, with all these wonderful oranges, reds, yellows, and still some greens, there is the making for some awesome photos. Check out my latest:

Let me know if you do anything special, I'd love to see it.

Hope you're well,

Charlie - Teenage Photographer

Photography 101 : Understanding Lens Zoom Ratings

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Styr) — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 11:31:00 +0000

Hey Everyone,

Continuing in this 101 theme, I thought I'd bring up the idea of lens magnification and the such, a lot of people think that they'll get the best zoom because it says: 8x or the like on the side of the barrel, this may not always be the case, and I'll write a short entry on this now.

Firstly though, I must thank all the visitors to the site, because this week we broke 200 visitors, and I'm really pleased, thanks a lot to everyone who has helped me continue the blog this far!

---

I must start explaining what you see on the side of lenses and on P&S (point and shoot) cameras. When you see, say, '10x Zoom', this means that from the lowest level of zoom, (or, the wide end), to the longest zoom is 10x larger.

The number that is being magnified, or enlarged, is the 'mm'. The 'mm' is really how the zoom is measured, and typically on an 'average' camera, the zoom could be say, '35mm - 105mm'. That would be considered normal, and around 3x.

So I hope you can see that the zoom is the mm-mm which also equates the magnification. I'll give you a real example, my Fuji S7000, has a zoom magnification on the side of the barrel stating, 6x optical zoom. The mm states 35-210mm.

---

Now, more often than not, people would prefer a wider angle of view than 35mm, and this is were a lot of compact cameras really do fall very short, I mean, 28mm makes a big difference, and can be a lot more useful to a lot of people. You'll notice that some of the latest Panasonic digital compact cameras offer their 28mm wide angle as a major selling point, and this clearly reveals how important it is.

Most photographers will use a wide range of focal-lengths, say from 20-200mm. (10x).

---

I hope this has been a short but informative post to the 101 scheme of things. I hope you're all well.

Charlie - Teenage Photographer

Subscibe!

noreply@blogger.com (Charlie Styr) — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 14:51:00 +0000

Hi Guys,

I thought I'd let everyone know that I've finally sorted out an easy way for people to subscribe to the blog, on the right of this post, (until I post again!), you'll see an email subscriptions box, in which you can subscribe!

Hope you do, and I look forward to your returning visits!

See you around,

Charlie - Teenage Photographer