Some good magazines, websites, etc…

Here are some good magazines and websites that really helped me a ton with technique, and how to:

Mags:

pophoto is a great general magazine with all about photography. It treats almost every subject, is easy to read, and comparatively doesn’t have a whole lot of ads.

shutterbug is a more specialized magazine, but just as good. I encourage you to check out both of them.

Lab:

MPIX is by far the best lab I have found. Their customer service is fantastic, and I have never been disappointed by their prints. They offer several specialties items, and are geared towards advanced amateurs/pro people. Don’t let that fool you, they will fulfill your order. I will not print anywhere else anymore.

Website, sharing and critiques.

I highly encourage anyone who wants to better their photography to get on one of these sites. They are free (you can pay $25 to get a year subscription, and it’s worth it. If you’re a poor student like me, that may be a lot. Up to you. More upload and privileges with the membership, but free is just fine for me) and are a great source a knowledge, with actual amateur and pros telling you how you could improve your pics. Great deal.

Photosig is a forum/critique forum I used to go to. I really don’t go there anymore, it has become slightly annoying and elitist over the last year. I am not dismissing it however, this is where I learned the most. You can post pics, critique, and see the genres you like, what you would like to emulate, etc. Please go check it out. The critiques might be rough, but that’s the nature of the game. To learn, you need to stay humble.

photo.net is a huge community that will help you as well. It is the same principle as photosig, just a different genre. That may be the best site to sart with.

There are plenty of other sites that are worth visiting. If you know any other ones that have helped you, please post a comment. I’ll either add them or make them public. These are the sites and mags I am familiar with.

Shutter priority mode

Shutter priority is the second semi automated mode that may make you love your camera even more. As we saw, aperture controls the  the depth of field, or DOF. Shutter speed is the mode that lets you chose how fast you want the shutter to close. Why is it useful? If you ever shoot sports, or wildlife/birds, you will want to have a fast shutter speed. To freeze a moderate action, you need at least 1/160.  To counter any hand shake, you need to use (focal length x1.5 ) shutter speed.  So if you use a 50mm (focal length) lense, you need 1/60th (closest to 1/50) to get decent results. Of course, experience and degrees of handshakes will make these results vary.

But back to the story. If you want some motion blur (part sharp, part blurry, usually used to indicate a lot of action) dial the shutter speed down. If you want it to be tack sharp, capture a ball or a puck, you need a fast shutter speed. So dial to T or S mode, and enjoy. You may need to adjust for light conditions etc, by adjusting your ISO, or use a tripod. More about that in next post.

Aperture mode

Aperture priority (A mode) is probably the most usefull mode of them all. It is the mode that I use the most to tell my stories. It is the mode that will allow you to either blur a lot of background to make a portrait stand out, or take great crisp landscape pics where everything is in focus. It is truely the best mode to tell your story. The downfall? You may not have enough light to make the picture as in focus as you would like, without blur…

remember that exposure is shutter speed, aperture and ISO combined… When you control the aperture, the camera will tell you what shutter speed is needed according to the ISO selected and the available light… And the rule for hand holding is to have a shutter speed at least equal to your focal length…

But provided you do have enough light, this mode will make you happy. You can have more control over the camera, and don’t have to do too much. It is an ideal stepping ground to learn more about your camera, and about photography in general. DO NOT GO INTO MANUAL MODE RIGHT AWAY UNLESS YOU HAVE TO!

It is very confusing and gives mixed results… After months of practice. Take it slow… Use the A mode first.

Sorry

Sorry I haven’t written in a while. It’s been almost 4 months, I have been super busy… Again, not an excuse. I’ll try to post again soon.

Flash Photography

Here is a crucial point in flash photography: know where your flash light will land. Randomly pointing your flash to a wall to broaden your light won’t necessarily work, you need to remember how to orientate your camera, and where to bounce your light. In the first example, the light comes from behind (bounced on left wall from me), and produces little detail in the face, and above all a very distracting and harsh shadow on the wall. The second one shows the same shot, seconds later, with my camera inverted: the light is fairly flattering, creates 3 D, and doesn’t add any distraction. In this particular snapshot, no problem. It could make a world of a difference in a wedding, as an example, where the moments can not be recreated.

Here is a slideshow of my Christmas vacation. Not all shots are great, but I thought you might enjoy it.

Another example

Originally uploaded by duckiemonster

Same photographer, same lens… What do think happened?
The DOF is definitely more pronounced. The lens was closer to the paper.
Any try out yet?

DOF

Originally uploaded by duckiemonster

Depth of field is a crucial aspect of telling your story. You will either, as explained earlier, tell the story focused on one point of view, or tell the whole story of every element in your picture.
In the case of this picture, that I found very interesting, the DOF is shallow (very little is in full focus). You can see the sharpest point is on the word “child” (compare the word Child with the foreground word “for” as an example).
Several things will influence your DOF:
*aperture: the bigger the aperture, the smaller your DOF: f2.8 will leave a lot out of focus, f22 will try to keep everything in focus.
*Focal length: the is where the mm on your lens count. At 50 and under, the DOF will be “normal”. It will depend on your subject, and a couple other factors we’ll discuss in a sec. With a telephoto lens, it will be hard to keep everything in focus.
*subject distance to your lens. In this case, the book is very close to the photographer’s lens. This creates a much smaller DOF. At the same aperture, a subject taken from a distance will have more in focus.

So, you can experiment, keeping these facts in mind: use a tripod, or make sure your camera stays at a relative distance of a person or object. Take a picture at the same focal length, same distance, changing the DOF. See what happens.
Next, zoom in, and do the same. See what happens.
Finally, get close to your subject, and do the same 2 assignments. (remember that lenses might not focus really close to your subject, know your minimal focusing distance).
Let me know what happened!

rule of thirds, update

rule of thirds
Originally uploaded by noor abdallah

Here’s a great illustration on the rule of third, easy to understand. Hope that helps…

Le BigMac (the only one you’re allowed to eat)

Le BigMac (the only one you’re allowed to eat)
Originally uploaded by zitronvert

Now that is just for laughs… Loving the humor…