Same cloud, same time, similar locations

I was looking through my Instagram feed today and saw these 2 photos taken by my friends. Look closely and you can see the two are of the same cloud formation, taken at the same time (almost), using the same iPhone app, except from slightly different locations. Instagram is indeed making it easy for everyone to take a snapshot of every fleeting moment and share it with the world.

Amazing time-lapse video taken during the Singapore National Day Parade on August 9th, 2011. The added perspectives from multiple cameras and locations made it even more impressive, even more so than watching the broadcast on TV. Lookout for the awesome fireworks display that marked the end of the parade, synced with precision to match the soundtrack of the video. It’s a must watch if you are a fireworks or time-lapse fan. It makes me want to do a time-lapse myself.

Olympus recently launched an ad campaign in Australia named “Get a Real Camera”. The campaign revolves around the idea of criticizing camera phone users and telling them to get a real camera. The link getarealcamera.com redirects to Olympus’ new Pen range of Micro Four Thirds system. Now the question is whether it’s a good idea to criticize the potential market Olympus’ trying to convert by telling them their photos suck?

Now these are the common segments of camera users today:

• Pro DSLR users
• Amateur DSLR users like me
• Micro four thirds users who wants a compact interchangeable lens system
• Advanced point and shoots the likes of Canon Powershot S or G series and Fuji X or F series
• Leisure snapshotters who bring a compact point and shoot everywhere
• Finally the camera phone users.

This campaign assumes that most camera phone users take rubbish photos or it attempts to convince the masses of this idea. It seeks to invoke an emotional reaction from the audience and to react by getting a real camera. Let’s see how it will affect each of the segment and how successful it is in converting them into a micro four thirds users.

The professionals, honestly I doubt they would be affected by such campaign. First of all, the message contained within the campaign doesn’t apply at all since they don’t use camera phones for professional purposes. Second, their photos aren’t rubbish. Next, they already own an interchangeable lens system and if they are looking for a more portable camera, I’d think that they would go for a top-end all-in-one compact, Canon Powershot S95 for example, to meet their needs. Afterall, having another interchangeable lens camera seems to defeat the purpose of filling the gap between having a professional system and a portable camera that can be carried anywhere. So they’d probably just laugh off the advert and move on.

How about amateur DSLR users? If I’m representative of other users in this segment, I’d think it’s funny and it certainly grabs my attention (why would I be writing this post otherwise?). Is it effective on me? I’m happy with my DSLR and I’m not looking for a micro four thirds system so there’s no decision-making behavior for the ad to affect me. For others who might be considering the system, perhaps the ad gives them an additional product range to their consideration set, but the message about getting a real camera again isn’t really applicable.

For existing micro four thirds users, it’s clear. They are already using a real camera. Not so real if it’s from Sony or Panasonic, but close.

The advanced users perhaps might be aspiring to move on to a higher level of photography by equipping themselves with an interchangeable lens system, either a DSLR or Micro Four Thirds. But again, the effect of the ad campaign would be just to add more information to their consideration set which probably also includes Sony NEX and Panasonic Lumix G. Seeing this campaign alone wouldn’t really convince them that Olympus is superior. The compact users aren’t likely to be affected at all, for they are probably happy where they are or are aspiring to be better just like the advanced users.

Now let’s consider the exciting segment of camera phone users. There could be two types of camera phone users, those using it as an alternative to their existing DSLRs or compacts and those using it as their sole camera.

For the former, a camera phone isn’t their main tool for the trade and they know that they’re trading off image quality for portability. They are likely to feel secure with their current photo skills and know that they can still take good pictures even with a camera phone. True that the photos might be more noisy or less sharp or lack vibrance, but they know that’s what they get for leaving their main cameras at home.

The second group that uses only camera phone would be the one that’s most emotionally affected by this campaign. They know that they’re not using the best cameras in the market for one reason or another. Perhaps they seek to improve in photography and wish to get a better camera. This would be the perfect group of people for the micro four thirds to target for they need a better camera, they are open to all options of camera systems and they have no attachments to any existing camera brands. Now they come across this campaign that cruelly criticizes them and implies that their photos suck.

Would they feel any better about themselves? Would they be more determined to improve their skills? Perhaps some do, but how many would be put off, demoralized and give up altogether? Then is this campaign a success? Why not inspire them instead, like I am Nikon did.

Source: Gizmodo, PetaPixel.

Interested to dabble in high dynamic range (HDR) photography, but not sure what exactly it is? Take some time to watch this video of Trey Ratcliff speaking to an audience at Google. Starting with a brief overview of HDR photography, he talks about what goes on in our brains when we see something and the techniques to achieve a high dynamic range with our cameras. If you’re looking to get started on HDR yourself, do take a look at his free HDR tutorials at Stuck in Customs.

Photo by Bjarne Winkler

Today let’s take a look at some photos that hit it right with the rule of thirds. This composition rule states that we should divide the frame into thirds and use these divisions as a guide to place the important elements in our photographs. There are differing views on the validity of this rule among photographers, with some who thinks that this rule is meant to be broken. While it’s true that the rule is more of a guideline, it’s good to understand it first before going on breaking it. Take a look at these photos and see how we can apply the rule of thirds into a photograph. Do read through to find my favorite of the lot.

Photo by Usman Mani

Photo by Eric Sorkow

Photo by John Mueller

Photo by Claire Wroe

Photo by Stacy

Photo by where to willie

Photo by Brandon Watts

Photo by cortoboy

Photo by Looking Out

Photo by Looking Out

Photo by Abby

Photo by Lama Mousa

Photo by Martin Cook

Photo by Victoria Kuti

Photo by Mathjis Delva

Photo by Larry HB

As promised, this is my favorite of the entire set. I love what he did with the window frames here to create rule-of-thirds grids within the photo. That’s not all, the perspective on the trees is so perfect that they scale down neatly along the grid lines.

Getty Images founder, Jonathan Klein, talked about the power of an image and the impact an image has on society in this Ted video.

Canon Digital SLR

In this second part of the How to Use a DSLR series, we will cover four more buttons found on your camera. They are the exposure compensation, metering modes, autofocus and shutter mode. Some of these settings can be a little difficult to understand at first, but understanding what they are used for will help you in taking better photographs.

Exposure Compensation

Every modern camera comes with an built-in light meter that measures the amount of light that enters the camera and feed the information to the camera. The amount of light measured is used to calculate the appropriate exposure level.

As this calculation is performed by the processor in the camera, it will result in an exposure level that the processor assumes right for the situation. However, there are situations when the environment and lighting sources are tricky and the camera exposes differently from what we want. For example, in scenes where the majority of the frame is very bright or very dark, the camera will compensate for the excess brightness or darkness and give an averaged exposure, resulting in a less than ideal image.

The exposure compensation (EV) now gives us an option to correct this error by manually increasing or decreasing the exposure. The +/- signs on the EV button allows us to do this in increments of 1/3 of a stop. A +1 EV will tell the camera to adjust its shutter speed and aperture to increase the exposure by 1 stop, depending on your camera mode. In aperture priority, the camera will keep the desired aperture and adjust the exposure by changing its shutter speed. Similarly, in shutter speed priority, it will open or close the aperture to achieve the desired compensation while keeping the same shutter speed.

Exposure at 0 EV - f/2.5 1/250s

Exposure at -1 EV - f/2.5 1/500s

Exposure at +1 EV - f/2.5 1/80s

The illustrations above show the changes to the exposure when exposure compensation is used. I used aperture priority mode to keep the aperture at f/2.5 on a 50mm lens. Note how the camera then change the shutter speed accordingly for each EV value, resulting in a brighter and dimmer exposures in each case.

Metering Modes

As explained above, the function of a light meter is to measure the amount of light entering a camera. Having this information, the camera still needs to know which part of the frame needs to be exposed correctly, whether it’s the entire frame or certain parts of it.

We the users can tell the camera where we wish to emphasize by using the metering mode button. There are three common metering methods found in most DSLRs: evaluative or matrix metering, center-weighted average metring and spot or partial metering. The actual names used in the camera might vary from one manufacturer to another, but they would fall into these three categories.

Average metering

Average metering is the most commonly used mode as it takes in all the information from the entire scene in metering the exposure. As it does not give any weightage to any particular part of the scene, it can be used often when you are not sure about which metering to use.

Matrix metering

Center-weighted average metering

Center-weighted average metering places more importance to the center portion of the scene in assessing the exposure. The peripheral area of the scene is still taken into consideration but given less weightage. This mode is useful when the subjects are located towards the center of the scene, as often is the case. As such, the subjects will usually be exposed correctly while the background surrounding the subjects would not affect the exposure much.

Center Average Metering

Spot metering

Spot metering is on the other end of the metering spectrum, giving much weight to a very small area in the scene. Usually this area is at the very centre of the scene or at the focusing point if you have chosen an off-centre focusing point. The small area gives us the ability to meter for precise points in the scene, making it very useful in high-contrast situations such as those with strong backlight or a bright object in a dark background like the moon. In this illustration, the camera meters at the center spot which is relatively brighter. For this spot to be metered correctly, the exposure is reduced, leaving the rest of the scene a little darker.

Spot Metering

Autofocus

Most modern cameras come with both manual and auto focus, but within auto focus alone, there are multiple autofocus modes available.

Single-servo (AF-S or Single)

In AF-S mode, the camera only focuses when the shutter release button is pressed halfway down. It then locks the focus while the button remains pressed, allowing you to recompose the scene and keep the focus on the object. This mode should be used when objects are stationary. The drawback of this mode is that the camera must find a focus point before you can fully press the shutter release to capture the scene. Nevertheless, I personally keep my camera on this mode as it is very versatile and allows me to focus wherever I want.

Continuous-servo (AF-C or AF-Servo)

AF-C mode will enable continuous focusing while the shutter release button is halfway pressed. This means that if you recompose the scene or if the object moves, the camera will focus on what is now in the focus area. The advantage of this mode is that you can press the shutter release anytime as the camera has not locked its focus and exposure. This is very useful when the object you are capturing is constantly on the move such as in sports photography.

Auto select (AF-A or AF-Focus)

This mode is a combination of both AF-S and AF-C. In this mode, the camera will decide which mode is appropriate for the given scene.

Shutter Mode

The shooting mode button gives you the option of choosing between the various shooting modes. The basic modes available in most DSLRs are Single Frame, Continuous, Self-Timer and Remote. Some higher-end DSLRs come with additional modes such as Continuous High and Low or Delayed and Quick-Response Remote, giving you more control over how the shutter release is activated.

How to Use a DSLR Series:

• Camera Mode Dial
• Exposure Compensation, Metering, Autofocus and Shutter Modes

This is a truly inspiring commercial by Nikon. It’s about time we go beyond superficial celebrity endorsements which impact lasts as long as the celebrity’s popularity and move towards more meaningful adverts that touch consumers’ hearts. Instead of idolizing celebrities, more adverts should inspire viewers to achieve their biggest dreams, with the help of the advertised products.

(via PetaPixel)

DSLR cameras are indeed becoming the preferred choice in filmmaking. In this video, artist Landis Fields recorded a short movie featuring cyclist Pete Billington using two Canon 7Ds and a Canon 5D. A variety of lenses were used to capture the intensity of the grueling training.

In this humorous music video, The Photo Club shows us what happens when the issue of Canon vs Nikon is brought up in a relationship. The lyrics of the song can be found below.

Nikon Girl, The Photo Club

This is a story from not long ago
about a boy and a girl who fell in love like whoa
but there was a problem I didn’t count on
the fact I was a Canon and she was a Nikon

The photo community was too far gone
they couldnt appreciate what we had goin’ on
we had similar features, made similar pictures
we really weren’t that different but they still couldn’t see

I auto focused on her sexy body
buttons to push didn’t know where to get started
I never thought I’d fall for a D200
but she was so hot, she was all that I wanted

[Chorus]
My 1DS mark III
felt more complete
when we were together she said my shots were so unique

But soon you’ll see
we could never be
like Romeo and Juliette
our families disagreed

Ohh Ahh Polish my lens girl
oooahh polish my lens girl
ohh-ahh polish my lens girl
dont leave a thumb print on that lense girl

The two sides always at war
all across the message boards
Dpchallenge what the fuck yo
they could never let go
of the hate no thats for ‘sho
the Nikon gang whooped my ass and made me go

The 70-200 in my pants wouldnt fit inside her Nikon body
made me wear a UV-filter, which I’m against, but shes my shawtay
Mount her on my tripod and screw her on and off and on again
make her take my picture and say I’m the best thats ever been

[Chorus]

Cause I’m a Canon gangsta and your a Nikon shawtay
I wanna take a picture of that rockin bootay

We couldnt keep the act up we just had to face the facts
but hey look on the bright side at least we’re not a Pentax