Making beautiful photographs involves nothing more than a bit of thought. While it often helps to have decent equipment, all you really need is to take a moment before each shot to think clearly about what you are attempting to capture or create.
The following guidelines are intended to help novice, non-artistic, and/or non-technical picture-takers immediately improve their photography.
If you would like to:
* Bring home much more pleasing memories from your travels;
* Make more artistic portraits of your family, pets, or friends;
* Be satisfied and excited instead of disappointed every time you look at your photos; or
* Simply enjoy the process of making pictures more;
Then read, study, and implement these simple guidelines.
1)Move in Closer
Each time you spot a subject, snap a shot and then move in closer for a better shot. Having your subject almost fill the frame helps your viewer understand and appreciate your photo. Also, details are often more interesting than an overall view.
Keep moving in closer until you are sure the photo will successfully represent your subject.
2)Be Quick
If it is at all possible that your subject may move, bolt, fly away, stop smiling, or just get tired of waiting for you to take the picture, shoot once right away.
Practice getting quicker and quicker to the draw.
Do not worry about taking too many pictures and do not wait until you're absolutely certain all the knobs and buttons are in their correct position.
3)Compose Your Picture With Care
Even if you don't plan on selling your photo to the Smithsonian, make every effort to keep it balanced and beautiful. On one level or another, everyone responds better to a picture that has all elements in balance.
Strive to lead the eye along an interesting path through the photo, with the use of strong lines or patterns.
* Keep the horizon level;
* Crop out extra elements that you are not interested in (more on this is the next tip);
* Consciously place your subject where you think it most belongs rather than just accepting it wherever it happens to land in the photo;
* Play with perspective so that all lines show a pattern or lead the eye to your main subject;
* Work with the Rule of Thirds.
4) Be Selective
Discern what you are really interested in and center your efforts on getting the best photo of this subject, whether it a still life, your funny cat, your doggy, a friend, a family matter, a mood, a place or culture.
Then be sure to keep anything that would distract out of the picture. Go as far as Ansel Adams did to remove unwanted elements.
The easiest way to do this is to watch your borders - the edges of the view you see through the camera's viewfinder. Then recompose if anything - such as an unattractive telephone wire, an old soda can, a distracting sign, your finger, or your camera strap - hangs into your picture.
It can become more difficult if you want to, say, shoot a San Francisco cable car without a single distracting telephone line. But even in such a difficult case, you have many options.
You can:
* Focus in on a close-up that tells the whole story;
* Move around until you arrange the telephone lines into a neat pattern that leads to the subject; or
* Take a panning shot that makes the cable car remain in focus while the background goes blurry.
5)Focus on Your Subject
Practice shooting with different apertures and monitor the results afterwards to learn how depth-of-field affects your photo.
You will find that a smaller depth-of-field (and smaller f-stop #) focuses all the attention upon your subject. This is great for taking a picture of your child, your dog, or your husband - subjects stand out against a blurry background.
Likewise, you will find that a greater depth-of-field (bigger f-stop number) will make everything from here to eternity appear in focus. This will help make those landscapes fascinating and lovely.
You will also want to become familiar with the way your camera focuses. If it is a simple point and shoot camera, you will likely indicate which part of the picture to focus on by following these steps:
1. Aim so the object you want in sharp focus is in the center of the viewfinder.
2. Press the shutter button down half-way and hold it.
3. Move your camera until you have the composition you like best (see tip #3).
4. Press the button down the rest of the way to take the picture.
Showing posts with label DSLR Camera. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DSLR Camera. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Photography Equipment & Accessories
A remarkably-wide range of accessories for cameras and photographic applications is available to today’s photographer. Knowing what is generally available, what purposes the items serve and what your accessory needs are likely to be - based on the kinds of photography you intend to do - will help you to determine which ones you should consider acquiring.
Some accessories, like a solid tripod or a good camera bag, are considered essential for just about all serious photographers, while others, like a wireless remote, are for such specialized applications that most camera users will never have a need for them.
The beginning photographer who fills a shopping bag with a variety of gadgets and gizmos the day he or she buys a camera is likely to find that some items may sit on the shelf, gathering dust. You are better off to use your new camera for a while, assessing your needs as you come across situations in which a particular accessory would be useful. Then, do some research, studying the various characteristics of different makes of the accessory you have decided you need, and choose the one that is right for you, based on its quality, durability, suitability to your personal budget and how well it does what you need it to do. When you see the need for an accessory or camera equipment for a particular one-time application, you may be better off to rent it rather than buy it, unless you feel it will be regularly useful every now and then over time. Compare the rental cost versus the purchase price, and then conservatively estimate how often it will be useful to you. If it pays to buy it and especially if it will help you to make more money over time, then you should consider a purchase.
Some accessory manufacturers are known for the consistently-high quality of their products while others are known for their low prices. Generally-speaking, if you plan on using an accessory a good deal, you should buy a top-of-the-line brand name, one that is known to perform well in a variety of conditions and that is built to last. Your camera’s manufacturer may make a particular accessory itself, which, if you acquire it, will probably be a good match with your camera, at the same level of quality.
Some accessories, like a solid tripod or a good camera bag, are considered essential for just about all serious photographers, while others, like a wireless remote, are for such specialized applications that most camera users will never have a need for them.
The beginning photographer who fills a shopping bag with a variety of gadgets and gizmos the day he or she buys a camera is likely to find that some items may sit on the shelf, gathering dust. You are better off to use your new camera for a while, assessing your needs as you come across situations in which a particular accessory would be useful. Then, do some research, studying the various characteristics of different makes of the accessory you have decided you need, and choose the one that is right for you, based on its quality, durability, suitability to your personal budget and how well it does what you need it to do. When you see the need for an accessory or camera equipment for a particular one-time application, you may be better off to rent it rather than buy it, unless you feel it will be regularly useful every now and then over time. Compare the rental cost versus the purchase price, and then conservatively estimate how often it will be useful to you. If it pays to buy it and especially if it will help you to make more money over time, then you should consider a purchase.
Some accessory manufacturers are known for the consistently-high quality of their products while others are known for their low prices. Generally-speaking, if you plan on using an accessory a good deal, you should buy a top-of-the-line brand name, one that is known to perform well in a variety of conditions and that is built to last. Your camera’s manufacturer may make a particular accessory itself, which, if you acquire it, will probably be a good match with your camera, at the same level of quality.
Monday, May 10, 2010
The Art of Digital Photography
Many of the techniques used in traditional photography also apply to digital photography. The composition of the picture, use of light, line, shape, pattern, etc. also apply to digital photography. Three elements that are different in digital photography are white balance, picture resolution, and digital effects.
White Balance
In a traditional camera, film records and determines the colors of the scene captured in the photograph. As digital cameras have no film to interpret color, they use white balance settings for this purpose. These settings (called Kelvin temperature ratings) are represented by symbols for sun, indoor light, clouds and shade on most digital displays and can be manually selected. The Auto function, however, enables the camera to adjust the settings automatically. For most non-professional needs, this is quite satisfactory.
Some digital cameras contain a histogram function that will also help you adjust your light exposure.
Resolution
Digital cameras record images in pixels. If you expand a picture on your computer with graphic software by zooming in on the picture, you will eventually see the picture rendered as a series of colored dots. The more dots per inch in a picture, the higher the resolution. High-resolution photos have better image quality and bigger file sizes as well.
Many digital cameras on the market allow the user to select the low or high-resolution settings. Since resolution affects file size, more of the photos taken in low resolution can be stored in your camera at a time. High-resolution images may saved in BMP, TIFF, or RAW image formats. These are large file type images. High resolution settings vary with each camera. A low resolution setting on one camera is a high resolution setting on another. It all depends on the camera’s megapixel resolution that could be anywhere in the range of .1 megapixels to 9.1 megapixels.
Resolution is an important consideration when buying your digital camera. If you are only going to be using your images on the web, very high-resolution images will not be as mandatory for you (although high resolution graphics allow more manipulation of the graphic in graphics software programs). Web images are typically lower resolution images since file size is a consideration for the web. If you are going to be printing your images, however, high resolution is necessary for a quality print. To be able to expand an image for an 8x10 print is going to require a high-resolution graphic for a good quality photo.
Digital Effects
Many digital cameras also have built-in effects that can be used to change the presentation of your photos. Fisheye is an example of one such feature that will reshape an image giving it a totally different effect. Soft-focus, Portrait, Scene, Landscape, and Wide-angle are some of the focusing effect capabilities that your digital cameral may have. These are nice features to have fun with. If you have a graphics software program, your images can be further manipulated once you have downloaded your images to your computer.
White Balance
In a traditional camera, film records and determines the colors of the scene captured in the photograph. As digital cameras have no film to interpret color, they use white balance settings for this purpose. These settings (called Kelvin temperature ratings) are represented by symbols for sun, indoor light, clouds and shade on most digital displays and can be manually selected. The Auto function, however, enables the camera to adjust the settings automatically. For most non-professional needs, this is quite satisfactory.
Some digital cameras contain a histogram function that will also help you adjust your light exposure.
Resolution
Digital cameras record images in pixels. If you expand a picture on your computer with graphic software by zooming in on the picture, you will eventually see the picture rendered as a series of colored dots. The more dots per inch in a picture, the higher the resolution. High-resolution photos have better image quality and bigger file sizes as well.
Many digital cameras on the market allow the user to select the low or high-resolution settings. Since resolution affects file size, more of the photos taken in low resolution can be stored in your camera at a time. High-resolution images may saved in BMP, TIFF, or RAW image formats. These are large file type images. High resolution settings vary with each camera. A low resolution setting on one camera is a high resolution setting on another. It all depends on the camera’s megapixel resolution that could be anywhere in the range of .1 megapixels to 9.1 megapixels.
Resolution is an important consideration when buying your digital camera. If you are only going to be using your images on the web, very high-resolution images will not be as mandatory for you (although high resolution graphics allow more manipulation of the graphic in graphics software programs). Web images are typically lower resolution images since file size is a consideration for the web. If you are going to be printing your images, however, high resolution is necessary for a quality print. To be able to expand an image for an 8x10 print is going to require a high-resolution graphic for a good quality photo.
Digital Effects
Many digital cameras also have built-in effects that can be used to change the presentation of your photos. Fisheye is an example of one such feature that will reshape an image giving it a totally different effect. Soft-focus, Portrait, Scene, Landscape, and Wide-angle are some of the focusing effect capabilities that your digital cameral may have. These are nice features to have fun with. If you have a graphics software program, your images can be further manipulated once you have downloaded your images to your computer.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Top 10 Popular DSLRS
The following DSLRs are the most popular with our readers in their purchases over the last month. We’re listing them in the order of popularity in terms of sales and in the configuration (ie with or without lenses bundled) that they’re selling in best.
1. Canon EOS Rebel T1i
This camera has topped our best selling list for the last few months.
It’s a 15.1 megapixel DSLR which comes with an 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Image Stabilised Lens.
It has a 3.0 inch LCD, full HD video capture, live view framing of images, face detection autofocusing and a good range of features.
The T1i is currently priced at $718.56 at Amazon with the lens or $631.89 body only and is a great choice if you’re looking for an entry level DSLR.
2. Nikon D90 DX
The Nikon D90 DX is a 12.3 megapixel DSLR which comes bundled with an 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 ED AF-S VR lens.
While not Nikon’s newest camera it has many fans in our forums and it is no wonder when you see its feature set including 3.0 inch LCD (high res), Live View framing, Face Detection, Video recording Image sensor cleaning, 4.5 frames per second shooting and a lot more.
The Nikon D90 with it’s 18-105mm lens comes in at $1031.89 or you can grab it Body Only for $794.95. It’s probably one of the best cameras in the ‘enthusiast’ range of cameras and in most reviews I’ve read of it gets a very high rating.
3. Canon EOS 50D
The 50D is another mid range/enthusiast camera that is often put forward in our forums by users as one to consider and it is reflected in the sales figures among our readers. Featuring a 15.1 megapixel image sensor, 3.0 inch LCD, Live View Framing, DIGIC 4 processor and 6.3 frames per second shooting – this camera still packs a punch despite having been on the market for over a year (although no video which is becoming standard on DSLRs).
You can pick up the 50D as a body only unit for $940.89, with a 28-135mm lens for$1,131.89 or an 18-200mm lens for $1499.
4. Canon Digital Rebel XSi
Another popular entry level DSLR from Canon contineus to be the 12.2 megapixel XSi (also known as the 450D in some parts of the world).
Features on this DSLR include a 3.0 inch LCD, DIGIC III processor, dust cleaning, 3.5 frames per second shooting, Live View Framing and a range of other standard DSLR features.
Again – this gets great reviews but is perhaps starting to date a little (although is selling well according to our figures.
The Canon XSi retails on Amazon for $521.89 as a body only purchase (and a little more for a silver one). You can also pick it up with an 18-55mm lens for $556.80.
5. Nikon D5000
Nikon’s turn – with their 12.3 Megapixel DSLR.
It’s another entry level offering but this one a little more up to date than others, having been released this year – plus it has a few extra features and probably puts it in the upper end of the entry level spectrum.
Feature wise it has a 2.7 inch tilt and swivel LCD, 720p HD Movie capture, Live View, Face Detection, 11 AF points and 4 frames per second shooting.
The D5000 is getting great reviews and takes great images for something of this price point.
Speaking of price – the D5000 bundled with an 18-55mm lens (the most popular bundle we’ve seen sold) retails at Amazon for $651.89 or body only for $599.99.
6. Nikon D3000
The little brother to the D5000, this 10.2 megapixel camera has been a popular buy with those right at the entry level of DSLR purchases. In fact at present the D3000 is the top selling DSLR on Amazon.
Features include a 3.0 inch LCD, Image sensor cleaning, 11 AF points and 3 frames per second shooting. Missing in comparison are a number of features including Live View, no automatic chromatic aberation correction, slower burst shooting, no tilt and swivel LCD. It also does not have a video mode.
The price of the D3000 will be attractive to many – with an 18-55mm lens it is $469.99 and body only it’s just $419.95.
7. Canon EOS 7D
One of the newest cameras on this list is Canon’s 18 megapixel 7D – a camera that has had ALOT of press this year.
This is a camera for the serious enthusiast (in fact I know a couple of pros who have this as their 2nd camera) and it is feature rich (a true big brother to the 50D mentioned above). Features include – Dual DIGIC 4 processors, 100% viewfinder, 19 point AF system, 8 frames per second shooting, built in flash (that can control external flashes), 1080p HD video, 3.0 inch LCD and environmental sealing.
In some ways this is actually a better camera than the Canon EOS 5D Mark II – and if you don’t need a full frame sensor this could be one to consider.
Getting very high ratings – the Canon EOS 7D is priced at $1699.95 as a body only package or with a 28-135mm lens is $1899.99 (although if I were spending that much on a body I’d want to grab an L series lens to put on it).
8.Nikon D300S
In a similar space to the Canon EOS 7D we find the D300S. While lower megapixels (it has a 12 MP sensor) it’s got a great feature list. The D300 (its predecessor) was widely regarded as the top of its class by many and the 300S is a worthy update.
Features include – 720p 24 frames per second HD video (with some in camera movie editing), 7 frames per second shooting, 3.0 inch LCD, image sensor cleaning, 51 AF points, Live View and a lot more.
A camera for those who are serious about their photography the Nikon D300S is priced at $1575.95 as body only or for an 18-200mm lens bundled with it you’ll be paying $2,427.70.
9.Pentax K-7
Yay! Finally a non Canon or Nikon in the list. We promise we’re not biased, we’re just reporting what people are buying from our readership!
The Pentax K-7 DSLR is a 14.6 megapixel DSLR. It has a 3.0 inch LCD, Live View framing, Moving Mode (1280×720p 30fps moview), 5.2 frames per second shooting and weather/dust/cold resistant body.
The K-7 has a retail price on Amazon of $1,114.95 when bundled with a 18-55mm lens.
10. Olympus Evolt E520
Rounding out our top 10 list is a DSLR from Olympus which will appeal to the entry level DSLR buyer.
This camera was released this year and features a four-thirds 10 megapixel sensor, in body image stabilization, face detection, shadow adjustment, Live View and more.
While it’s features are not as advanced as some of the other cameras above for its price it’s going to be very attractive to many – Body Only it is $399.92 and bundled with a 14-42mm lens it is $449.95.
Have Your Say
There you have it – the top 10 most popular DSLRs among our readers when it comes to purchases over the last couple of months.
Of course as with all of these types of posts there will be debate over whether the cameras should be ordered in that order or whether others should have made the list – but in the end this is just a list based upon our community’s spending patterns.
Is your camera in the list? If so – which one is it? If not – what have you bought?
How to Decide Which DSLR Camera is for You?
So how do you decide which DSLR to buy? There are an increasing array of them on the market so you have a real choice ahead of you.
Here are a few factors to consider when looking for a DSLR:
1. Price – a good place to start when thinking about buying a DSLR is obviously price. DSLRs price range in price from some quite affordable deals at the lower end to extremely high prices at the professional end. Set yourself a budget for your purchase early on but make sure that you keep in mind that you’ll need to consider other costs of owning one including:
* Lenses (some deals offer ‘kit lenses’ but you should consider upgrading – see below for more on this)
* Batteries (all models will come with one but if you are travelling you might need a spare)
* Memory Cards (some models come with one but most are inadequate in terms of size. Even if you’re lucky enough to have one included you’ll probably want to upgrade to at least a 1 gigabyte card).
* Camera Bag (some dealers will throw one in – but once again don’t expect a high quality ‘free’ bag. Your DSLR is something worth protecting – invest in a good bag)
* Filters (at the least you’ll want to get a UV filter for each lens you purchase – but you might also want to consider other types down the track also).
* Extended Warrantees (there’s a variety of opinions on whether they’re good or not – but they’re worth considering)
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