However, consider this… You’re going on a trip this holiday season, and you’ve always wanted to try the Canon EF 14mm f/2.8L II USM that costs a whopping $2,124.00 on Amazon.com but what if you could try it out for 10 days while on your trip? You’d get some excellent photographs!

I came across this BorrowLenses.com promo. They’re giving you 7 additional days to use their equipment when you rent gear for 10 days or more. See details below.

How It Works:

1. Go to our website and select a rental that is at least 10 days and will ship by January 31st!
2. At checkout, type FREEWEEK12 into the Promotional Codes box.
3. Enjoy an extra FREE 7 days on your rental!.

Note: This discount is good for rental duration of 10 days or more and for orders placed between
December 11, 2012 and January 6, 2013.

NOTE: Beyond Phototips is not affiliated with BorrowLenses.com in any way and is not receiving any remuneration for this post. If you’d like to support us, follow this link to Amazon when you buy your gear.

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Ramesh Raskar from MIT’s media lab talks about how they capture the movement of a single ray of light – by capturing data at the rate of 1 Trillion frames per second (Femto-Photography) – and how they’ve been able to look around corners (in 3D!).

This post was published on Beyond Phototips.com if you like what you’re reading, please visit the website.

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I’m no photographer, and therefore I’ve never understood what makes a photograph amazing? Nationalist sentiments aside, what’s in the photo – “Heroes of Iwo Jima” that makes it so awesome and memorable? Also, the National Geographic Magazine picture – “Afghan Girl“, what’s so special about that?

What’s special about those photographs? Why are they ascribed the words ‘awesome’, ‘memorable’, ‘special’? I have the answer for you. It’s all in the camera. Back in the day, they didn’t have cameras that counted megapixels. They had special films, and it’s the film and the cameras that make these photographs special. Also, the world was black & white. Really! Not kidding! That’s why I have the highest megapixel camera I can afford to buy today. And believe me… I’ve got some memorable photographs.

“Afghan Girl” by Steve McCurry

“Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima” by Joe Rosenthal

Ok, ok, so I really was kidding. I was trying to buy time, because the real answer isn’t as simple as that.

Step 1: The Image

The first step of creating an iconic image is actually the act of capturing it. Of course, the subject is important. Unless it evokes a sentiment in the viewer –  pity, hate, anger, lust … it stands no chance of being remembered. Think about it; do you remember any photograph from a newspaper or magazine that you don’t have some sort of emotional connection with? The stronger the emotion, the stronger the memory.

You’ll find that images with people are more memorable. Our protective instinct directs us even more towards children or vulnerable individuals.

Most photographers take a very high number of images at the time of shooting. Of these, only a few ever reach publication. These are the images that ever stand a chance of becoming ‘iconic’.

Step 2: Publication

You can’t have an image that has mass appeal if its not seen by the masses. Publishing images in places where thousands and millions of people see and talk about them is key. ‘Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima‘ by Joe Rosenthal, was published in innumerable newspapers less than 24 hours after it was photographed. It went on to win a Pulitzer Prize for Photography and later on caused controversy. Each time, it refreshed our memories, and association with it.

Associated Press, Rosenthal’s employer at the time says, “It has been called the greatest photograph of all time. It may well be the most widely reproduced. It served as the symbol for the Seventh War Loan Drive, for which it was plastered on 3.5 million posters. It was used on a postage stamp and on the cover of countless magazines and newspapers. It served as the model for the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Va., a symbol forever of the valor and sacrifices of the U.S. Marines.” Now that’s a LOT of showing.

‘Afghan Girl’ by Steve McCurry was published on the cover of the National Geographic in 1985. Everyone knows the National Geographic for the quality of the images their photographers produce. This haunting image of an unnamed, parent-less girl displaced from torn Afghanistan and living in a Pakistani refugee camp told a story and pulled at the heartstrings of thousands of people. It was used in fund raising campaigns for Afghanistan. Interest in it was raised again when Steve McCurry led a search for, and found her after many years, once more, gaining a huge number of views.

Step 3: Showing the Image Again, and Again, and Again: ad nauseum

When an image is published as much as these have, they get assimilated into our culture, into our conversations, everywhere that they find relevance (and sometimes even when they’re not relevant).

“What’s in The Photo”?

Now, lets leave the other reasons behind. What about the photographs themselves? Why are they interesting as photographs? Here are 5 quick points.

1. Strong subject matter
2. Simple, striking composition
3. Emotional content
4. Tells a story
5. Leaves us with questions.

Here are some tips that will hopefully see you creating more memorable images.

1. Be there: Show up at events, places and activities that people will want to remember for a long time.
2. Be aware: Take note of your environment, the things that are really going on around yourself, and predict where you need to be for a great shot. This is hard, and is a lifelong pursuit for photojournalists, but the best make their own luck. Keep your eyes and your mind open, and sensitive.
3. Context: You can’t be everything to everyone. So don’t worry if you’re not… The photographs here were taken by photographers who were simply involved with either capturing the moment, or portraying something in the strongest possible manner. In the end it doesn’t matter if your family photographs don’t put Richard Avedon to shame, they will still mean a lot to you and your family. Still, if you’re trying to grab head-turns, try to find subjects and situations that have the potential to connect with and mean something to a great many people.
4. Uniqueness: How unique is your photograph? Were you the only photographer at a scene that the whole world wants to witness? Your photograph instantly becomes memorable if so. Being one of 50,000 photographers doing the same thing does not do that. At the same time remember that showing 5 photographs of the same moment dilute the uniqueness of each one of them. So edit down, and fix on the one photograph that says it all.
5. Show, Show again: Why do you still remember the nursery rhymes of your childhood? Because you repeated them over and over again – until it was nauseating to your parents. And then you repeated them again. A photograph that is seen again and again will automatically be remembered better.

Do you have other answers to why these images are so memorable? We’d love to hear them. Do leave your thoughts in the comments below.

This post was published on Beyond Phototips.com if you like what you’re reading, please visit the website.

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1. Try it out beforehand with the particular computer and camera that you will be using. Hardware has a way of doing strange things when you least expect it.
2. Shoot to CF card and hard disc simultaneously. That way if your file gets corrupted en-route to the computer, you’ll at least have a backup in the card.
3. Ensure that you have enough space in both locations.
4. Ensure that your power outlets and computers are well grounded. Improperly earthed outlets could end up sending a current through the camera’s body giving the photographer shocks and putting all your equipment at risk.
5. Have a backup cable in your camera bag, and an extension too. Bring a lot of tape to tape it down to a secure surface.

Photo by NET9

This post was published on Beyond Phototips.com if you like what you’re reading, please visit the website.

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Modern cameras don’t just have one metering mode, they usually have three or four different modes. How does one know which mode is most appropriate for any given situation? As with most things related to photography, the answer is to know what each of these modes does. Also remember, that a light meter does not know what you want the photograph to look like. It’s job is to make the picture an 18% grey (aka Mid Grey).

Let’s take a look at the various metering modes that you’re likely to encounter on a dSLR in order of decreasing difficulty.

Spot Metering

Hand held spot meters are expensive and very specialised. They read light from a very narrow angle of view; usually just 1 degree of view. Cameras replicate this functionality to some degree, by reading light off a very small area in the center of the focusing screen.

When should you use spot metering on your dSLR?

When exposure in a certain area is critical, and there is a lot of contrast in a scene. For example, you’re shooting  a concert, and because of the mostly dark, but also very bright areas, most regular metering modes have trouble getting the right exposure for just the artist’s face.

Now all you have to do is point the center dot at the spot that you want exposed correctly, set your exposure and take your photograph.

What else is it good for?

It’s good for measuring the contrast range of a photograph and deciding your exposure based on multiple readings. You’d do this when you want to get really technical about your exposure, but for most people and purposes, it’s not necessary with today’s technology.

Level of Difficulty

Difficult

Partial Metering

Partial metering is very much like spot metering, but reads light from a 10-15% area around the center of the viewfinder. Unlike Center Weighted metering, There is no weightage…

When should you use Partial Metering on your dSLR?

Use it in situations where you need to accurately meter  a certain region, but where the area that is under similar lighting is slightly larger

Level of Difficulty

Intermediate

Center Weighted Averaging

This is the kind of metering cameras had when I was growing up. It reads about 80% of the scene, giving more weightage to the center of the frame. This is because most people compose their photographs with the subject in the center. Think of an oval area in your viewfinder with it’s edges almost touching the 4 sides. That’s the approximate area that this mode reads light from, but with more importance given to the center of the frame. Some manufacturers also add a little extra weightage to the the bottom of the oval. I guess that they’re assuming that in  a scene being photographed, the subject would not be pointing down from the sky.

When should you use the Center Weighted Averaging metering mode on your camera?

Use this metering mode when you’re shooting with a more or less even lighting in your scene; for example, when the light is behind you, and you’re shooting with your subject in the center of your frame. Most family and group pictures fall into this category. It’s an all purpose light metering mode, but one that has now become outdated because of the invention of multi-zone metering systems.

Level of Difficulty

Normal

Multi-Segment Metering

Also known by proprietary names such as Matrix Metering (Nikon), Evaluative Metering (Canon), Honeycomb Metering (Minolta of old), and others…

Multi-segment metering divides up the frame into different parts, which are then evaluated for exposure separately and compared against a database of lighting situations that is stored in the camera’s brain. The camera then selects an appropriate exposure setting.

When Should I use Multi-Segment Metering

Today, the cameras we use are quite well programmed, and for most purposes, there’s no need to ever take your camera off whichever Multi-Segment  option your camera manufacturer provides. However, there are some lighting scenarios that prove to be too difficult for the camera to handle. Knowing this comes from knowing your equipment, and from using it often.

Level of Difficulty

Easy

Let us know if you’ve got any questions about metering light for photography. Also feel free to leave suggestions in the comments.

This post was published on Beyond Phototips.com if you like what you’re reading, please visit the website.

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There are some people who upload their work for others to dissect it, and there are those who love doing just that. They’ve made a hobby out of it. You’ll find them at places like the original DeleteMe! group on Flickr, photo.net critique forum, DPS critique forum, and a host of other places (let us know your favourite critique forum in the comments).

Groups like “Delete Me!” on flickr revel in picking apart people’s photographs. They go to the extent of directly assaulting the photographer’s ego. Does this help? Is that kind of critique even needed? I like to think that sometimes it is. Sometimes, our egos need to be bruised. And that can be a good thing…

You Need Harsh, Realistic Critique When:

1. You ask your friends what they think and they say: ‘Wow! Those photographs of your kids are FANTASTIC!’ or ‘I wish I had your camera’.
2. Everyone on your Facebook page (“yourname photography”) tells you that you’re brilliant, and ask you what you think of their pics.
3. When you expect people to ooh! and aah! over your latest photography escapade, and are disappointed when they’re not so thrilled after the first 50 photographs of your 250 picture slideshow.

7 Tips on How to Take Critique:

1. Be humble; listen: You can’t receive something when your hands are already full. Don’t be full of yourself, don’t try to defend your work. Open up, listen. Yes, it’s your art, and criticism can hurt, but remember that you’ve asked for critique, zip your lips and listen. Also, nobody wants to suggest stuff to someone who’s not going to listen anyway…
2. Ask questions: Clarify what the critic really means. Asking a question also gives you time to process what they’ve said, clarify your own thoughts and ask for further information or suggestions. Asking questions could turn a one way critique into an exciting dialogue with ideas flowing like water.
3. Watch for patterns: When you’ve got some feedback on a few different photographs, watch for patterns… Ensure that you don’t repeat your mistakes. DO repeat your successes.
4. Go back to basics: It pays to revisit the basics now and then… People may try to teach you something you think you already know fully. Stay open to what they say: you never know when you may find a new perspective on using an old technique or tool. It may be directly from what they say, or their input could spark a new creative thought. It pays to know your basics inside and out, and twice as well on a Sunday or wedding day.
5. Thank the Critic: If someone has shared their thoughts and experience with you, and has taken the time to evaluate your work and respond, it’s only fair that the person is thanked.
6. Respond in Kind: Once you’ve benefited, be sure to respond in kind… Take the time to critique someone else’s work and keep the spirit alive…
7. Don’t take it personally: Sometimes critique can become a personal attack. Don’t take it personally, and don’t feed the fire. Trolls will always trudge this earth. Feeding them never helps.

Getting Critique When Not Requested

Sometimes people offer critique even when it’s best not offered. When that happens it pays to slow down your reaction, think about what the other person is really saying and figure whether you’ll be better off accepting it or leaving it. Often, you’ll find that if you put yourself in the other person’s shoes, you’ll understand what they’re saying much better. Of course, this is easier said than done.

Do you ask for your work to be critiqued? Where do you ask? and do you have any more tips? Let us know in the comments below.

This post was published on Beyond Phototips.com if you like what you’re reading, please visit the website.

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It’s a word of Japanese origin used to describe the aesthetic quality of the ‘out-of-focus’ area of a photograph. Typically referring to the more visible ‘circles of confusion’ that are visible in shallow depth of field photographs.

To get the best bokeh possible, do this:

1. Use a fast lens, with the aperture wide open.
2. Shoot subjects that are close to the minimum focusing distance.
3. Focus correctly. Having sharp, un-blurred areas in a photograph helps to make the un-focussed areas all the more beautiful.
4. Use prime lenses. While zooms also can produce fine bokeh, prime lenses have the habit of producing bokeh with an ethereal quality. If you have a choice, definitely choose a prime lens.
5. Bokeh shows up best when there are some light areas (or points of light) on a relatively dark background. In the case of points of light, they appear as circles of confusion, in other cases, it appears as a pleasing variation of light and shade, the tonality of this area affects the quality of the bokeh.
6. Keep interesting shapes in your frame even though they’re out of focus. Often, these are called ‘out of focus elements’. They lend context and atmosphere to a photograph.

This post was published on Beyond Phototips.com if you like what you’re reading, please visit the website.

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The online experience is a little different, and that’s expected; but how can you create the best ambience for an artist’s work to showcase itself online?

By clearing screen clutter.

If you’re like most people, your browser has a few toolbars, tabs and windows open. To add to this, there are the usual Twitter & Facebook notifications. In short, it’s not the best environment to take-in an artist’s work.

Here’s how you can clear up your browser screen quickly.

Full Screen shortcuts for Browsers

Mac

Google Chrome 14+ – Shift+Cmd+F – Presentation Mode
Mozilla Firefox – Shift+Cmd+F – Full Screen Mode
Plainview – Full Screen Browser

Windows

Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer - F11 – Full Screen Mode

I’m sorry, but Opera and Safari don’t seem to have full screen options. If you know a work-around for these browsers, do leave us a comment.

Photo by: eschipul

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Back in May I finally treated myself to a Canon G12, a piece of kit that I’ve wanted since it was released the previous year, and I set myself a challenge: use it to photograph a friend’s wedding.

My good friend Ruth was getting married not far from Aviemore in the Highlands of Scotland. Not having an official photographer she had asked all guests to take a load of snaps and share them afterwards. I was traveling up on the Caledonian Sleeper from London (highly recommended) and, given that my arrival was before 8am on the morning of the wedding, it made sense to head to the venue early, lend a hand with whatever needed doing and take lots of photographs of the preparations.

Normally, on the rare occasion that I photograph a wedding, I shoot with a Canon 5D, an EF 24-70mm, an EF 16-35mm, a Speedlight EX580 with extension cable, a pair of Pocket Wizards, a Vivitar 285 with light stand, and a reflector. Stripping this down to a compact camera was going to be interesting especially as I’d not used it before.

I read most of the manual on the way up on the train. Knowing how the autofocus and auto-exposure operates was crucial. I made sure that all face recognition was switched off and kept it simple. In the middle of the display is a box; point it at what you want to focus/expose on, half press, recompose, full press. 90% of the time, the thing you want in focus is the thing you want exposed correctly. In more tricky circumstances I knew that all of the G12’s controls would be right under my fingers, now even moreso with the appearance of the additional wheel next to the shutter release.

You have to work quickly at weddings and automatic settings on any camera are a godsend. This can of course present various issues, but if you know how and when they will arise, you can make sure you’re ready and react accordingly.

Next thing was to make sure the flash was off and didn’t mysteriously switch itself on. On-board flash is a truly horrible thing. I’d been tempted to take my Speedlight (compatible with the G12 hotshoe) and cable, but this was not in the spirit of the challenge and I have a habit of traveling light when possible. Typically at a wedding I shoot reportage parts of the day using available light but sooner or later the flash needs to go on. At this point you pray that the venue has white ceilings: point the Speedlight straight up and get a very flattering, diffused light. Compact cameras do not have a reputation for performing well in low light levels and with the G12 in hand, I was relying on recent technological progressions that have reduced grain at high ISO settings.

The G12 did an excellent job under the circumstances. On the odd occasion lack of light or a reflective surface would confuse the autofocus. If I did ignore its ability to focus, it still seemed to do a pretty good job. Its massive depth of field means that it’s tricky to mess it up completely.

This depth of field is also one of its disadvantages, however: it’s an inevitable aspect of any compact camera unless you’ve got a spare five grand lying down the back of the sofa and you buy yourself a Leica M9. The smaller sensors in compact cameras mean that you don’t get the gorgeous differential focus that you get with an SLR. This has its advantages (greater likelihood that your shots will be in focus) and disadvantages (can’t use out-of-focus regions for artistic emphasis).

Most wedding photographers will keep an eye out for any small details that make a wedding distinctive: flowers, table decorations, the bride’s corsage, the groomsmen’s button holes, etc. With an SLR, getting close and/or zooming in narrows the depth of field considerably which means that some regions will not be in focus. Sometimes this can be effective but often it means taking a number of versions to ensure that you can then pick the best one during post production. An option I will now consider is shooting any close-ups with the G12 as, yes, it will flatten the subject but it will mean that I can rule out differential focus when I don’t want it.

The G12 really impressed me when it came to shooting strongly back-lit subjects. Light creep was surprisingly controlled and even when I was careless with my initial ‘half-press’, it still made the right decision most of the time. Clever stuff.

Shooting at low light levels was impressive but I did run into a few problems that I hadn’t considered beforehand. Typically when shooting hand-held on a DSLR, your shutter speed can’t be allowed to drop below 1/60th of a second unless you’re in a situation where you can burn off a number of shots in the hope that you’ve held the camera steady enough in at least one photograph to be acceptable. Because of the physically smaller lens on the compact, slower shutter speeds are possible and I happily shot all the way down to 1/30th of a second without any camera shake blurring my shots. However, subjects’ movement became an issue and in my ‘keep everything auto’ approach, this was one occasion where I had to override, switching to AV mode to ensure a slightly quicker shutter speed.

The other massive difference is the lag on the shutter release. Weddings are about moments that convey emotion and not being able to rely on my own instinct was a frustration at times. The G12 comes with a ‘Quick Shot’ mode whereby the LCD is switched off and the lag between shutter release being pressed and the image being taken is dramatically reduced. This means relying on the viewfinder – not something I was prepared to do, especially wearing glasses. It also means that the autofocus and auto-exposure can’t be locked by half-pressing; instead, it readjusts constantly. I would have preferred some half-way house whereby I could focus and expose, trigger Quick Shot mode (ie, disabling the LCD) and shoot when the moment was right. All of that said, I was able to get used to the lag and get some half decent action shots.

Shooting the compact format of 4:3 as opposed to the SLR format of 3:2 was not a problem at the time but it’s something that frustrated me a little in post production as it just didn’t feel right. I massively prefer the 3:2 format but it seemed ridiculous not to use all of a compact camera’s sensor. Something I will get used to, no doubt.

The battery was superb. I took a spare but didn’t pack a charger and was a little apprehensive about my decision. As it turned out, I didn’t even dent the first battery despite shooting and reviewing over 400 shots.

Given its price you are likely to wonder whether it’s worth the investment; these days you can buy an incredible, entry-level DSLR for a very similar price. For me it is a great way to be able to chuck a camera in a bag full of other stuff, grab spontaneous, non-intrusive photos and still have a huge amount of control over what’s in my hands. I could easily have bought a smaller, less expensive compact but there’s something about the G12 that makes me feel more like a photographer.

So will I be shooting any future weddings with the G12? Probably not but it will certainly be in my bag.

This post is written by Andy Day. He is a professional photographer who primarily photographs the movement disciplines of Parkour and Buildering. He is well renowned for his skill and his photographs have appeared routinely in a number of magazines. Follow him on Twitter, Tumblr,

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If you’re buying your first dSLR camera, you are probably considering the purchase of a single lens that allows you to do ‘everything’ as you take a walk, a ‘walkabout lens’. Granted, this may not be the best quality lens around, but at least you won’t have to feel like your brand new dSLR camera is less capable than your old point and shoot.

So what are these magical creations, and which are the best walkabout lenses for your camera system?

Walkabout Lenses: What are they?

If you take a look at the old photography books, you won’t find a section on Walkabout Lenses. Instead, you’ll find lenses classified under Wide Angle, Telephoto, Zoom, and Special Purpose (Lenses like fish-eye lens, tilt-shift lenses, and catadioptric lenses). The walkabout lens is a relatively new concept to SLR photography. Quickly defined, it is a lens with a very large zoom range, with an emphasis on convenience instead of quality.

Walkabout lenses usually have a wide focal length range often between 7x and 14x. So, instead of carrying about 4-5  prime and zoom lenses, you have just one versatile lens mounted on your camera no matter what the subject. Modern optics allow for pretty decent image quality through the entire range of focal lengths.

On an APS-C sensor or crop-frame sensor the lenses start around 18mm and end around 135mm – 250mm. On a full-frame sensor, this corresponds to something like 28mm and 200mm-300mm. So expect to see focal lengths that look like 18-135mm or 28-300mm.

Positives:

1. One lens fills all (or almost all) needs.
2. Less bulk in the camera bag.
3. No clumsy swapping of lenses to get the right focal length.
4. Faster and more intuitive framing of photographs.
5. Less lens swapping means less dust in the camera, and on the sensor.
6. Less ‘walking about’ to frame your photograph just right. Easier.

Negatives:

1. Image quality is not the best, and can suffer badly at some focal lengths and apertures, usually the telephoto end of the lens.
2. Need to settle for f/3.5 or smaller apertures. (not good for low-light use).
3. Variable aperture means that f/5.6 is often the widest aperture available when zoomed in.
4. Less thought goes into previsualising your photograph.
5. Less ‘walking about’ to frame your photograph just right. You discover less.

Do you really need a walkabout lens?

The answer depends on where you are with your photography. If you’ve just upgraded from a bridge camera, or a point & shoot to  a dSLR, you may find the transition less restrictive if you get yourself a ‘walkabout’ lens. The wide range of focal lengths of a walkabout lens will help you understand composition and the range of possibilities that your new camera can offer you. For example, with just a twist of the zoom ring, you can either take a wide angle photograph of the African Savannah as you roll across it in a dusty jeep, or you could zoom in to take close-up photographs of a pride of lions as they relax in the shade of a rock cluster.

Do remember that while these lenses do offer ‘lower’ quality images at some focal lengths, the term ‘quality’ is relative. For most people, the sharpness and colour that most of these lenses offer will be quite sufficient, and indeed superior to that of a point and shoot camera. At the same time, some more particular photographers would find that these lenses do not stack up to their quality needs, especially in comparison with some of their higher quality prime, and zoom lenses. This is only to be expected, given that the lenses are not really optimized for any one given focal length, but are tuned to perform decently across a range of focal lengths.

A novice dSLR photographer can later shift to either prime lenses or zoom lenses with a smaller range of focal lengths as they become more skilled, demanding and discerning in their photography.

What kinds of photography are they good for?

The beauty of the walkabout lens is that it’s good for almost any kind of photography – with a few exceptions, of course. You can easily use them for Landscape and Cityscape Photographs, Candid Street Photographs, Portraits, maybe even Macro Photography… The point of having this lens on your camera is to give you the widest range of opportunities when your camera is with you.

Top Walkabout Lenses

Canon

1. Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS - Buy on Amazon
   | Buy on BH Photo
2. Canon EF 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6L IS USM - Buy on Amazon
   | Buy on BH Photo

Nikon

1. AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II - Buy on Amazon
   | Buy on BH Photo
2. AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR - Buy on Amazon
   | Buy on BH Photo

Do you use a camera system other than Nikon or Canon? Do let us know which lenses you think fit this category.
What walkabout lens do you own? Do you like it?
Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Photos: Chaval Brasil, mainblanche, Stuck in Customs, zaqi

This post was published on Beyond Phototips.com if you like what you’re reading, please visit the website.

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