). The grads are essential though - they help get your skies darker while keeping your ground the same brightness - gets your exposure nicely balanced.
Hosting your photos on a website like http://www.flickr.com/ will allow you to share and catalogue your photos for free (or if you decide to go pro, at a small cost) - you can join groups which will boost your confidence when nice people say nice things about your photos, and you can see stats like how many people have looked at your photos, where they are being posted by others etc. It does make an OK backup source for your photos, but use something else like an external harddrive as well in case your house burns down - although your photo collection might be the last thing on your mind if your house burns down.
In its simplest form it's a new text layer in photoshop, text white, slight
drop shadow with opacity anywhere between 20-50% (depending on the photo).I've
made the text layer into a gif (transparent background) and set up a custom
action so when I hit CTRL-F12 it loads it up, copies it, switches to the
previous tab, pastes it and sets opacity - saves the repetitiveness.If you
follow that then coolin a bit more depth: http://www.photoshopsupport.com/photoshop-blog/09/cs4-03/create-action-watermark-images-photoshop.html
Some great and helpful tutorials:
http://www.layersmagazine.com/category/tutorials/
http://www.planetphotoshop.com/category/tutorials/
http://www.photoshopcafe.com/tutorials.htm
http://psdlearning.com/http://www.melissaclifton.com/tutorial-warholphoto.html
For setting up a DIY studio for macros:
http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07/how-to-diy-10-macro-photo-studio.html
http://www.photoanswers.co.uk/
Photographing smoke trails: - thanks to Uhuqle:
black background - - smoke - - camera
- - - - - - - - - - - - - ^ light ^
Just make sure the light is bright enough and not shining on the background or back at the camera. Ideally an external flash is best because you want good contrast but I just used some desk lights. When you process the picture invert it to get the white background and then play around with the colours.I didn't have an incense stick so I rolled up and twisted tight some paper towel, light it and then put it out and let it smoulder. Produced really good smoke trails. Hope that helps.
Candid Photography:
There's a number of ways you could approach it.
1) A 300mm lens, hide across the road, photograph people doing what they do, crop.
2) 50mm, right in their face, laugh about it with them afterwards
3) Find a tramp, give him a quid to take his photo, B&W the hell out of it, win.
4) Go to a party, introduce yourself as a photographer, explain you'll be taking photos. After 5 minutes they'll have forgotten about you. Take candid photos.
5) Shoot from the hip (in other words, aim the camera when it's by your side - don't raise it to your face)
There's a few ways you could do it without getting decked.Or, you could do the permission based version - 'Portraits'
As Diego says, B+W is a manufacturer of filters. German if I remember correctly. That means you're getting Teutonic Deutsch Efficiency and a top quality product. They're not cheap though - so make sure you get the biggest one you can afford otherwise you may be fooked later...I'll explain that further - when I started out, all my lenses were 58mm filter thread. So I bought the 58mm ND110. No problem with that - I didn't have any bigger threaded lenses.Now though I have a 5DMKII and I'll be buying a lens purely for landscapes - but that has a 77mm filter thread (I think). My B+W won't fit and I'll need to buy a 77mm ND110 You can buy 'step-down' rings which you can attach to your filter to get it to fit a smaller diameter thread - so you can make a 77mm filter fit a 58mm thread... but you may need to remortgage to get a 77mm B+W ND110.Yes, it was me who had some extreme waterscapes taken with it... but I've not done a 10 minute exposure yet... basically the 10 stop filter takes away 10 stops of light meaning you have to expose 10 stops longer to get a correct exposure.
In real world terms - if your camera meters a correct exposure of 1/125th at f16 without the filter on, the correct exposure with the filter on is only 8 seconds at f16. (And so on)Now, to be fair - if you're doing sunsets and whatnot then light is going to be fading fast and you may find that an ND4 or ND8 may give you the results that you want. If I remember rightly, an ND4 is a 2 stop filter, the ND8 is a 3. Normally this is plenty for already low-light shots, and it's what most of the sunset at the coast type pictures you see on the front of photo mags are taken with. These are cheaper than the ND110!Where the ND110 comes in handy is for daylight shots where you want the long exposure to smooth out the water, or blur a waterfall... Otherwise an ND8 or ND4 may work fine...Then you have the choice of whether or not you want a screw in filter (attaches to the front of your lens - the B+W only comes in screw in form) or a slot in one.
The slot in ones (usually Cokin 'P' series - or something labeled 'P type' - for amateurs) have one benefit in that they are square/rectangular and slide into a holder - meaning that no matter what thread size you have on your lens you can use the filter!You do need to buy some bits though... you need a holder for the filters, and a mounting ring for the lens. You buy a mounting ring to match the thread size of the lens you're using, screw it in, attach the filter holder, then slide your filter in. If you have different size thread lenses you just buy different mounting rings - everything else is the same... You do get a much more varied range of filters though...The Kood series (compatible with the 'P' format), while cheap, is quite good - have a look at http://www.premierink.co.uk/ for pricing.
Finally you have the ND Grads. These are filters (again ND4, ND8 etc) which are grey one half, the other half clear. These are typically used for landscapes - as the sky is usually much brighter than the ground if you use an ND grad with the grey bit over the sky then you can get nicely detailed clouds without blowing the highlights. As there is no filter over the ground then that exposes perfectly as normal.In my camera bag I have...Cokin P filter holderCokin P 58mm mounting ringCokin P ND8Kood 'P' ND8 gradB+W ND110
Ahh - but it depends on what you want your filter to do.
If I remember correctly, an ND8 = 0.9 which is about a 3 stop of light reduction. The ND110 = 3.0 which = 10 stops of light.So, if you're shooting at night, and want to go a bit longer with the exposure an ND8 will probably suffice, it'll get you a 30 sec exposure. But - if you want a daytime long exposure your ND8 won't do a damn thing. The ND110 will give you around a 30 sec exposure into bright sunlight, minutes elsewhere during the day. Sunsets you're talking minutes as well. But it depends on what you want to do with it. If you're after late eve - night time 30 sec exposures flattening out water, ND8, maybe two stacked together is the way to go. Obviously if you buy 3 of them and stack them you're getting close to a 10 stopper...If you want daytime long exposures then get yourself a 10 stopper The prices for the 110 are expensive - but it gets the job done
Basically, that filter gets rid of 10 stops of light and you've got to get
them back somewhere in order to have a correctly exposed photo. So, you could up
the ISO, have a larger aperture or slow down the shutter speed.What I do is
compose the shot with the filter off and make a note of the readings. Then I put
the filter on, camera to manual focus and manual settings. I make the aperture
the same as I took the reading from, the shutter 10 times slower than before and
take the pic.Then I check the histogram to see if there's a nice even spread or
any blown out or underexposed areas. If so I adjust accordingly.It's not an
*exact* science and it's all down to experimentationPolarizing Filters:
Polarizing filter removes reflections and increases color saturation without affecting the overall color balance. It’s the most useful filter for landscape photographer, followed by the graduated neutral density filter, which could be replaced by the high dynamic range technique. Polarizer filter reduces haze and reflected sunlight. It has the most effect when shooting at a 90 degree angle from the sun. Get the best result when sun is overhead or behind you and close to the horizon. Polarizer filter has an attached rotating ring for orienting the polarization angle, rotate the ring will adjust the effect. There are exceptions, when the field of view is too wide, you will see uneven blue in the sky, or, you are taking multiple exposures for photo stitching, polarizer filter should not be used in these cases. (cheers to photo 96.com)
Lenses come in all shapes and sizes - listed below are some types of lenses and what they do, I will talk as if you have a cropped sensor as most people who need advice on lenses and focal lengths will probably be using a cropped sensor body:
Wide angle lenses - from 10mm - 50mm. those at 10mm-15mm are usually 'fish-eye' lenses where they are so wide, you'll struggle to keep your feet out of the frame. have a very wide angle of view - sometimes up to 180 degrees and beyond
'Normal' lenses - around the 35mm mark (50mm on a Full Frame) - see roughly what the human eye sees, hence photos have a very natural feel about them
Portrait/Short telephoto Lenses - The photography gods say that a good portrait length is roughly between 50mm and 105mm on a full frame camera, so roughly 75mm to 113mm on a cropped sensor. This sort of focal range is good for portraits, weddings and as a general walkabout lens. usually 18-55mm would be a short telephoto, alternatively 24-70mm etc etc
medium/long telephoto lenses - These are generally for wildlife and sports photography, although 200-300mm top end can also be used as a wedding/portrait lens. They tend to be very heavy, and the better/faster lenses (constant F/2.8 aperture) are very very heavy and very very expensive. Someone aptly described them somewhere as a 'paedo lens', cos they look quite noncey.
Prime / fixed focal length lenses - do not zoom at all, hence you have to 'zoom with your feet', but they generally offer excellent picture quality (even the cheaper primes), and they are generally extermely fast (opening up to 1.8/1.4/1.2 in expensive lenses). You can get primes lenses at all types of focal lengths, and photogrpahy 'purists' often only use these and not zooms, although the quality of zooms now is such that you don't need to have lots of primes, unless you are a poncy geek.
Cannon 50mm 1.8 'nifty fifty' - An absolute no brainer if you have a cannon DSLR - £75 quid new, just buy one already
Cannon 'L' Glass - Top of the range lenses from Cannon - built like brick shithouses, fast as you like (constant f/2.8 throught the focal range) and crisp across the focal range and wide open. Will potentially get you divorced due to the massive cost, but you get what you pay for - i.e. great photos and envious looks from the proles.
I have attached a link here for ALL Nikon lenses in existence - if you can't find it here, it doesn't exist:
http://www.photosynthesis.co.nz/nikon/lenses.html if you visit this website and it's helpful please thank the guy or click on his ad links please
Here is a similar list for Canon Lenses before i get shouted at:
http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/reviews/best_canon_eos_lenses.html
again, if this is helpful to you please click on the guys ad links or say ta if you can
I'd personally go either the nikon/canon route. They're market leaders for a
reason, but i know others have brands they're happy with. If you really get the
bug and want to upgrade, i dont think any of the other manufacturers
camera's/lenses are as good. There probably isnt a great deal of difference at
entry level though.I'm a canon user so would happily recommend them. A 2nd hand
camera would be fine and you could easily pick one up for under £400, possible
with a couple of lenses too. But i'd personally go for a camera with live view,
where the picture you're about to take is shown on the LCD, and older cameras
tend not to have it. I dont have it on mine and its something i think would
really come in handy.Question: Evening gents, I don't want to hi-jack this thread but I've got a really quick question. If I'm not a pro photographer and don't want to be will I be able to tell the difference in quality between the likes of the D90, 1000D and the D300, 7D?I just need to be able to justify the extra cost!
If you don't want to be, then start off with something like a 1000D (or better a 450/500D) and then if you get into it you can move up to a 7D or something tasty like that - the lenses will still fit... (unless you buy EF-S lenses and try to
put them of a full frame camera - but you don't need to worry about that yet).If you prefer Nikon then go for a D60 or D5000 to start with - but I can't help you out with those as I'm a Canon 500D user (who will be upgrading to a 7D in April)
Edit - watch out with Nikons, the D60/D40 and D5000 don't have autofocus motors built in, you need to buy lenses with af motors in them instead - otherwise you'll have to manually focus everything. - Rodney Trotter
Canons: Effectively. x00d's are the beginner - amateur range, x0d's are serious amateur -semi pro and xd's are the daddies.Depending on budget, look at the about to be released 7d. Looks like it's the replacement for the 40/50d but on steroids - Rodney Trotter
Once again thanks to Redharzo for the sterling work
Reciprocal rule: how to minimise camera shake when you don't have a tripod.
Ok, this is just a general purpose rule. We need to start back in olden days when film was still used. The rule states:- you can handhold a camera with lens of length X mm provided your shutter speed is 1/X or quicker
NB - this is without a tripod.
eg: you're using a 100mm lens. To minimise shake, you need a shutter speed of 1/100
eg: you're using a 200mm lens. To minimise shake, you need a shutter speed of 1/200
eg: you're using a 300mm lens. To minimise shake, you need a shutter speed of 1/300
However, that only works for full frame. Most digital camera sensors aren't as big as a 35mm negative. The usual multiplier is 1.5x or 1.6x. We'll use 1.5x for simplicity of counting.
So when a film lens is used on a digital camera body:-
a 100mm lens is effectively 150mm-
a 200mm lens is effectively 300mm-
a 300mm lens is effectively 450mm
Therefore: -
rather than using your 100mm lens at 1/100, you must use it at 1/150-
rather than using your 200mm lens at 1/200, you must use it at 1/300-
rather than using your 300mm lens at 1/300, you must use it at 1/450
So, in summary - for a digital body with a film lens:- you can handhold a camera with lens of length X mm provided your shutter speed is 1/1.5X or quicker
The rule of thirds is a compositional rule of thumb in photography. The rule states that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections. Proponents of the technique claim that aligning a subject with these points creates more tension, energy and interest in the composition than simply centering the subject would.
FOLLOWING THE RULE OF THIRDS WILL MAKE YOUR PHOTOS LOOK MUCH BETTER - A LOT OF PEOPLE IGNORE THIS INITIALLY AND REALISE AFTER A WHILE THEY SHOULD HAVE FOLLOWED THE RULE OF THIRDS - TRUST US.
