My studying notes

Ruby books & links

2011-12-03T07:01:00.001-08:00

I started studying Ruby with Ruby on Rails 3 Tutorial: Learn Rails by Example so here I will keep notes from the book. It is written that if the reader want to learn Ruby can go to www.ruby-lang.org or to rubylearning.com For this moment these are my only notes for later reading.

About pop-up flashes

2010-04-04T15:08:00.000-07:00

Ok when you buy a new Nikon DSLR like mine D60 you don't count to buy a flash because has a pop-up flash. But very soon you understand that this flash is like a light grenade. So I bought a Nikon SB-600 Speedlight to use it when I took pictures on chess tournaments that play halls usually have no enough light.
But what to do when you don't bring with you your flash?
Before a couple of days we met with friends in a pub and asked me to take some pictures. I was afraid that without flash I couldn't take pictures at all. I tried with iso at Hi1 but was impossible. So I need to use pop-up flash. My first test was this photo with +5.0 flash compensation

I couldn't take a better result. So I thought a tip what I'd read on the digital photography Book V2 find a way to diffuse the light. I used a napkin and I my photos become better.

Not like with my SB 600 but were ok and not overexposed.

Studying Drupal

2009-03-11T20:05:00.000-07:00

These days I am reading again a book about drupal. A very serious note that I had to had in mind is that when drupal is at maintenance mode only admin can login. And if you cannot find how to login you have to write your domain and /?q=user. This will take you to the login form.

Set right white balance

2009-02-08T18:35:00.001-08:00

Something that I didn't pay attention was white balance. I used to use auto. But if you see some photos that are too yellowish or too blueish indoor usually is because of this. The best way to avoid this is to shoot at RAW format and after to choose the right one at photoshop. But because of the HUGE size of raw format images maybe you choose one of preset of your camera and use jpef format. Have in mind that regular indoor lighting needs Incandescent or regular office lighting needs Fluorescent.
You can see the same photo with auto selection and using tungsten preset of photoshop.

Shooting outdoor portraits

2009-01-13T19:57:00.000-08:00

_{by photopedia}
Something that is simple to think but I made it many times mistake before this really helpful book of Scott Kelby gave me the tip. Ok outdoor there is a rule to shoot with sun back from your shoulder. But when shooting people sun makes them closing their eyes and feel uncomfortable.So just shoot against sun but with flash. So simple. Check the photo over the text and the one under. I think you can see the difference on the emotion of the "models"

_{by alisboa}

A vidcast about photoshop

2009-01-09T00:18:00.000-08:00

A note basically for me. Photoshop user TV. Is the vidcast of the author of Scott Kelby's Digital Photography that I am reading theses days. I found some really cool advices-recipes for shooting with flash and the one that I like it because all the time I am shooting in chess tournaments with flash. I had problem that even with flash direct 90⁰ from the direction of shooting I had dark background. So the solution is simple (if someone give you the tip). Just make slower 4 times you shutter speed and you got result like this.

How to do it? Go to Program mode. Check the aperture and shutter speed for the light of this room.(put half the shutter button and see viewfinder). For the Greek championship U20 the settings were shutter speed 1/60 and aperture f/4 so I went to manual mode and aperture made it again f/4 but shutter speed 1/15. So I hadn't more dark backgrounds.

Shooting flowers

2008-12-12T06:06:00.000-08:00

Just low as possible f and turn it to A mode(aperture priority) your camera so you can take pictures like this.
tip from book Scott Kelby's Digital Photography p.25