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TIPS TIPS for photographers

@sir elmo
hindi ko po makita yung sa swan... kailan pa po ata mag log in
 
@ Julius

copy lang kasi ung link..pag iniba ung source nung pix..ganyan nalabas..sige gawan ko paraan..
salamat!
 
@Gutarlord

entry level camera..ok ung sa canon, nikon, Sony.

I'm a Nikon user kasi, halo ung satisfaction at regrets ehh
Iba iba kasi ung mga added features nila...pero same naman ung mga basic camera operations..tulad ng semi auto at full auto modes

kung ako tatanungin..ok ung D60 VR na kasi ung stock na lens..pero syempre..
consider mo kung para saan ba ung pag shoot mo? pang keepsakes lang ba sa family and friends o mag ve venture ka sa business side ng photography

ang mahalaga kasi me purpose ka para me motivation ka..



I'll make it as a hobby once mka bili na ko ng camera.. :D

Try ko muna mag research at canvas sa mga camera.. Total di naman masasayang ang cam kasi lam ko naman ang basics. Pero i want explore more about it.

Cge thanks sa Idea..
 
Learning Exposure the Old-Fashioned Way
December 15, 2009 by Ben Long
Filed under: General



The automatic features on today’s digital cameras greatly improve your chances of getting a good exposure in just about any situation. However, because these features provide an ever-present crutch, they can preclude an in-depth learning of basic exposure theory. It used to be that, when you didn’t have a light meter and only had manual exposure, you had to know your exposure theory inside and out. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to extoll the virtues of a "simpler timer" but the sink-or-swim reality of a meterless, manual camera forced a photographer to learn a lot of technical concepts. While those concepts aren’t required to get good shots nowadays, understanding them can help out – even with a fully automatic camera – when you find yourself in a situation that confuses your camera, or if you’re finding situations where the auto features of your camera aren’t delivering the type of images you see in your head.

If your camera offers a manual mode, then you might want to give the "old school" method of shooting a try. I won’t say that it’s going to suddenly unlock a world of better images for you – mostly it will slow you down and make you do a lot of work that you’re not used to. However, doing that work might help you understand some new things about exposure.

Before we get to the actual exercise that you might want to try, let’s do a quick review of some basic terms.

Exposure is simply the amount of light that strikes the image sensor in your camera. Too much light, and your image will be overexposed, and possibly washed out. Too little light, and your image will be underexposed.

Your camera has three mechanisms for controlling how much light strikes the sensor: shutter speed, aperture, and ISO.

Shutter speed is simply a measure of how long the shutter (a moving curtain that sits in front of the sensor) stays open. A shorter shutter speed will freeze more motion in your image.

Aperture is a measure of how wide the camera’s aperture is open. The aperture is just like the iris in your eye. When it’s open wider, more light gets in. Smaller apertures yield deeper depth of field.

ISO is a measure of how light-sensitive the camera’s sensor is. A higher ISO means more light sensitivity, which allows you to use faster shutter speeds, and narrower apertures.

All of these parameters have a reciprocal relationship. From Complete Digital Photography, 5th Edition, here’s an explanation of reciprocity.

Reciprocity

Earlier, you learned that a stop is a measure of light. When you double the amount of light that hits the sensor, we say that you have increased the amount of light exposure by one stop. Conversely, if you halve the light, you decrease the exposure by one stop.

Consider these shutter speeds:
1/60 1/120 1/250 1/500 1/1000 1/2000 1/4000


Each one is double (roughly) the previous shutter speed. In other words, there is a one-stop difference in the amount of light exposure generated by each successive speed.

Now look at this list of apertures:
F4 f5.6 f8 f11 f16 f22


Figure1.png



Because most of us aren’t familiar with calculating the area of a circle, the relationship between these numbers isn’t so obvious. But, trust me when I say that each one represents an opening that’s twice as big as the previous one. In other words, there’s a difference of one stop of light exposure between each successive aperture in this list.

When you encounter a situation where you need to balance motion stopping power with depth of field and overall illumination, you can take advantage of the fact that both shutter speed and aperture can be adjusted by the same amount in opposite directions. In other words, the two values have a reciprocal relationship.

Because of the reciprocal nature of exposure parameters, if you change one parameter in one direction, you can move the other parameter in the opposite direction, and still achieve the same overall exposure.

For example, let’s say your camera recommends an exposure of 1/500th of a second at f8. Because it can’t make any creative decisions, it has no idea how much motion stopping or depth of field you might want, so it simply tries to recommend a shutter speed and aperture combination that will give you a good level of illumination, and allow for a sharp image when shooting handheld.

If you decide that you want more motion stopping power, and so increase shutter speed from 1/500th to 1/1000th (one stop), you’ll run the risk of darkening your image. But, you can open your aperture from f8 to f5.6 (one stop) to compensate for that one stop of darkening that you introduced with the shutter speed change. (Figure 6.10)

This reciprocal relationship means there are many different shutter speed/aperture combinations that yield the same overall exposure. That is, many combinations of shutter speed and aperture produce the same level of brightness in the final image. However, some combinations might produce an image with more depth of field than others, while others might yield an image that has blurrier motion than others.
Reciprocal ISOs

You’ve already learned about ISO, and how when you increase ISO, your camera’s image sensor becomes more sensitive. If your camera offers the ability to change ISO, and most do these days, then you probably will have a range of settings that goes something like this:
100 200 400 800 1600

As should be obvious, like aperture and shutter speed, each successive ISO setting is double the previous, meaning there’s a one-stop difference between each ISO. So, if you end up in a situation where your shutter speed and aperture choices have left your scene underexposed by a stop, you can increase your ISO setting by one stop to compensate.

Some cameras offer a wider range of ISOs then what you see here. On some cameras, ISO 50 is an option, while others push the opposite end of the scale all the way up to around 25,000. We’ll learn more of the details of ISO later.
Fractional Stops

If you’re coming from the film world, and you learned to shoot on a manual camera, then you might not recognize all of the shutter speeds and aperture choices on your digital camera. In the old days, shutter speed and aperture controls used the progression of settings that we’ve looked at here, with one stop of exposure difference between each setting. Like your digital camera, the range was usually wider than what I’ve shown.

It is possible, though, to adjust shutter speed and aperture by intervals that are smaller than a whole stop. By default, your camera probably adjusts in 1/3 stop intervals. So, as you adjust the shutter speed control on your camera, you might see a progression that goes like this:
1/15 1/20 1/25 1/30 1/40 1/50 1/60 1/80 1/100 1/125 1/160 1/200

Here, the one-stop increments are in bold. The other values are increases of a third of a stop. All the same reciprocal rules apply when dealing with fractional stops. These fractional values give you a more granular, finer level of aperture control.

On most cameras, apertures also progress in third-stop increments, as do ISOs.
Summing Up

Figure2.jpg


The relationship between shutter speed, aperture, and ISO setting can be confusing to new photographers. Hopefully, the chart below will clarify some of the information presented here.

Shutter speed, aperture, and ISO are the three exposure parameters over which you have control. Each provides a different way of controlling the amount of light that strikes the focal plane. Each adjustment, in turn, affects your image in different ways.

Remember, if you move any one of these parameters in one direction, you must move one of the others in the opposite direction to maintain equivalent exposure, because all three parameters are reciprocally related. Of course, you can choose to move one parameter or another without moving any others to create an intentional over- or underexposure. Later, we’ll learn why you might want to do this.

An Old Fashioned Exercise

With these concepts in mind, throw your camera into manual mode, and try the following exercise, also from Complete Digital Photography, 5th Edition.

If your camera has a manual mode, you might be interested in trying a truly all-manual exercise.

In the very old days, before light meters, photographers had to calculate exposure by hand (or rather, by eye). A lot of experience was necessary to properly assess exposure for a complicated scene, but there were a number of tricks that eased the process. Switch your camera to manual mode, and be sure you know how to alter shutter speed and aperture in manual mode, and you can give this type of shooting a try.

In most cases, when shooting in bright sunlight, you can use the “sunny 16 rule” for calculating exposure. Set aperture on f16, and use a shutter speed equal to 1 over your ISO. In other words, if you’re shooting at ISO 100, you would set aperture to f16, and shutter speed to 1/100th of a second. If you’re shooting at ISO 400 you would set aperture to f16, and shutter speed to 1/400th. Those settings should produce an image with correct brightness when shooting in bright sunlight.

The sunny 16 rule gives you a good baseline for calculating an exposure. From this baseline, you can think about how to over- or under-expose to compensate for lighting situations that aren’t completely sunny, or for times when you need to alter an exposure to improve tone.

For example, say it’s a sunny day, but you’re shooting in shade using ISO 100, and you think it might be shady enough to reduce the overall brightness of the scene by one stop. How do you know it’s one stop? After a while, you would know this by experience. When you’re starting out, you have to guess. Because your scene is one stop darker than bright sunlight, you need to overexpose.

Underexposure means you need more light. If you slow your shutter speed down by one stop, you’d get more light, but then you’d be shooting at 1/50th of a second, which might be too slow for handheld shooting. (Remember, because of the sunny 16 rule, at ISO 100 your baseline shutter speed is 1/100th.) So, a better approach might be to open your aperture wider. As you know, lower f numbers mean a wider aperture, so you could switch from f16 to f11, a widening of one stop (consult the list of apertures that you saw in Chapter 6 if you’re unsure as to what a 1-stop aperture change is).

Another option would be to leave shutter speed and aperture where they are, and increase ISO to 200.

Now let’s complicate things further and say that you’re shooting in shade that’s one stop darker than bright sun, but you want shallow depth of field. Because you need to overexpose by one stop, you’ve already decided to widen your aperture, so you’re shooting at 1/100th of a second at f11. But you want an even wider aperture, to ensure shallow depth of field. If you just keep opening the aperture, you’ll continue to brighten the exposure. So, as you widen the aperture, you want to make a corresponding shutter speed adjustment. Changing from f11 to f8 opens the aperture one more stop. To preserve your overall exposure, change your shutter speed from 1/100th to 1/200th. Opening from f8 to f5.6 gets your aperture one stop wider, and so you move your shutter speed to 1/400th. Finally, your lens can go one stop wider, so you open to f4, and make a corresponding shutter speed shift to 1/800th. Now you’ve got a wide aperture for shallow depth of field, and you’ve preserved your one stop of overexposure to compensate for the shade.

Trying a few shots this way in manual mode gets you deep into the interrelationship between shutter speed, aperture, and ISO, and can be good practice. Fortunately, for everyday shooting, you light meter does all of this thinking for you.

This is an easy exercise to try, and doesn’t require any special gear – just a camera with a manual mode. However, just to make things a little easier, wait for a sunny day before you try it. Cloud cover can throw off the sunny-16 rule, and until you get better at judging lighting changes by hand, you should start with full sunlight.

A deeper understanding of the reciprocal nature of all three parameters will help you when your camera’s automatic features aren’t yielding enough motion stopping power or depth of field. You won’t necessarily have to go all the way to manual mode to exploit this understanding – Program Shift, a priority mode, or even exposure compensation might be all you need to solve your problem. But whichever control you use, it’s essential to understand the relationship of the three exposure parameters.​
 
11 Tips to Succeed with a Photo365 Project
from Digital Photography School by Jim Goldstein
7 people liked this

Whether you call it a Photo 365 or a Photo A Day (PAD) project the net result is the same, a photo for every day of the year. These types of photo projects are menacing at first thought, but provide a fantastic opportunity to explore and learn not just photography, but creative seeing and post-productions skills. Here are 11 tips to get the most out of any future Photo365 / Photo A Day project you undertake this year.
1. Maintain A Heightened Awareness

At every moment of the day keep your eye open with a photo in mind. Look for the obscure moments or observations that you might otherwise let go by with out a second glance. Training your eye and brain in this way is where a Photo365 / Photo A Day project can help you improve as a photographer the most. Taking great photography can’t happen if you never see or never know when to react.
Featured are photos of a Photo365 project now on its 3rd consecutive year
taken by Noel Kleinman of his son from birth to today

noeltykay_1_365.jpg


Happy Feet – Day 1/365 Year 1
© Noel Kleinman, All Rights Reserved – Used With Permission
2. Always Have Your Camera With You

Always have your camera with you through out the day. Don’t feel self conscious. Don’t get lazy. Don’t ever take a break. The one time you don’t have your camera with you is the one time you’ll wish you never left it behind. While Murphy’s Law is something you normally encounter from time to time, the frequency of taking photos every day means you’ll have many more opportunities to experience it. With a little discipline you can easily avoid Murphy’s Law moments.

3. There Is No Time Like the Present

Never say, ‘I’ll take a photo of that later.” or “I’ll take a photo of that on my way back.” Take the photo while the idea is in your head and the light is right. Moments of inspiration seldom come at convenient times and light conditions are seldom ever exactly the same twice in a day.
4. Train Your Eye To See Light

Learn how to get the most out of the light whether sunny, overcast, or any thing in between. Learning how to get the most out of high contrast and low contrast lighting situations is a great way to broaden your photographic opportunities. In addition experiment and make use of off camera lighting to supplement the available light to you. I learned a lot forcing myself to take photos in all different lighting environments during my Photo365 / Photo A Day project several years ago and it helped make me a stronger photographer.

5. Experiment! Don’t Stay In Your Comfort Zone

Break out and risk the bad shot to learn something new. Taking the same photos over and over again because you’re comfortable taking them will not improve your photography and it won’t increase interest in your work. Step out of your comfort zone to try new things. Doing this is not dependent on buying new equipment rather opening your eyes to new styles and new subjects.
Jack & Barack 08 – Day 81/365 Year 1
© Noel Kleinman, All Rights Reserved – Used With Permission
noeltykay_81_365.jpg



6. Make Use of Weekly Themes

365 unique photos is a sizable goal. If you’re running thin on ideas think in terms of weekly themes. Take photos of a particular location, a color, portraits of family & friends, pet photos, macros, hidden letters, etc. Sometimes an infinite number of subjects are more easily pared down when thought of in terms of themes. Themes offer a sense of order and predictability providing incremental steps bringing you closer to your end goal.

7. Plan Ahead & Write Down Ideas

Rather than wait for inspiration to find you plan ahead and write down ideas for future photos in a notebook. This is great practice for normal photo shoots and will reinforce creative thinking. Reviewing previously documented photo ideas will prove to be a great resource when spontaneous ideas are few and far between.
8. Edit & Post-Process Every Week

In order to avoid backlogs edit & post-process you photos weekly if not daily. Getting into a rhythm on editing & post-processing is key to completing your Photo365 / Photo A Day project. For many taking photos is the easy part, but editing & processing the photos is the challenge. For every photo you publish you’re likely to have many others that don’t make the cut. Getting into a rhythm to select your final photos and processing them in a timely fashion will make the difference between success and failure.
9. Add Notes to Your Photos

When posting daily photos online add notes as to what you thought worked or didn’t from your days photos. Post general photo shoot and camera setting info from your EXIF data, you’ll look back on this later to refresh your memory or to see how far you’ve come. Anecdotal stories are also great information to look back on. Understanding how, why and when you photographed your subject provides insight to your creative thinking that you can’t get from EXIF data.
10. Get Into A Rhythm & Have Fun

Make sure to have fun during your year long photo project. The moment it becomes work the more challenging completing a Photo365 / Photo A Day project becomes. Getting into a rhythm can help a great deal in lowering the perceived level of effort to get your daily photos in. Whether you’re heading out to explore during your lunch break, taking a 10 minute detour in your commute or even taking 365 self-portraits, knowing that you have time dedicated to get your photo(s) in takes a lot of stress out of the process. If you’re the more spontaneous type then build in an extra 10-20 minutes into your appointment schedule to stop and explore with your camera. As with life ones destination is often far less interesting than the journey.
Jack in the Box – Day 236/365 Year 3
noeltykay_236_365_yr3.jpg

© Noel Kleinman, All Rights Reserved – Used With Permission
11. Start Today

Here is the best thing about a Photo365 / Photo A Day project, you can start ANY day of the year. Most frequently people associate these projects with New Years, but there is no rule as to when you have to start a project such as this. While it may seem overwhelming take the plunge and start your Photo365 / Photo A Day project today.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.​
 
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nice thread sir elmo :salute: photo enthusiast din ako :) thanks for sharing these
 
nice .. meron din akong email na narereceive from mr.darren,, pero hindi ko masyadong nabibigyan ng notice .. wala kc akong pc sa bahay.. tnx ..
 
ang galing free tutorial ng photography,sali ako bossing! maraming salamat!
 
update lang mga fafs..

Apr 7, 2010 10:03 PM
10 Tips for Portrait Photography
by Guest Contributor
91 people liked this
In this tutorial Tuhin Subhra Dey shares some tips on taking portraits.



1. A photographer friend of mine once told me that “there should always be some “wow” elements in your photos, if you think that your photo lacks that characteristics, don’t show the photo to the others”!! Although I personally believe that it is not easy to capture “wow” moments in every shot, but keeping that goal in your mind always helps to get a better framing (for example, I took the picture (picture -1) of the angry Sadhu at Gangasagar fair, he was badmouthing the pilgrims for not giving him enough alms . I was watching his movement and preparing myself for the precise moment to press the shutter).

Portraits.jpg


Picture-3.jpg


2. Always try to capture a picture which itself tells a meaningful story (for example I took the photo (picture -2) of these schoolgirls during a heavy downpour when they were eagerly waiting for another friend of them to come!). Sometimes try to interact with the subject instead of being a mere voyeur, try to know the story behind and recompose, if possible. In picture -5, I captured a street orphan with a very painful face. Try to depict a specific mood of your subject. In picture -6, a Sadhu is glued in smoking.

Picture-4.jpg


3. Learn to compose the patterns. For “unaware or semi aware” type of pictures, I think the shot and composition has to be planned very quickly in most of the time. Train yourself (only way to do this is taking more and more photographs) to quickly measure the direction of the light, the unique interesting POV, shapes, the aperture and shutter speed. If there is enough light, I usually use Aperture priority mode, since it helps me to get the perfect DOF, but if I am not sure or I don’t have enough time to set the settings I switch to Program mode (P).

Picture-5.jpg




4. For “fully aware” type of pictures, you get more time to set your camera and composition, even then don’t make it just a posed lifeless photograph, get something meaningful out of it. For example in picture -4 the little girl is a cow trader’s daughter, everyday she helps her father to chase the cows to the market with her little stick.

Picture-6.jpg


5. Look for a relevant or clear background. If the background is disturbing, use smaller aperture values. In picture -7, I was very lucky to have a clean background , however in picture -10, I found the background where a lady is drying her saree as a very interesting one, because it seemed to me as if the Sadhu was remembering about his past life , his family and probably his wife as well, who knows!

Picture-7.jpg


6. If you need to take a closer shot, approach your subjects confidently. Show your camera to them and ask for permission (of course with a smile please!). I have shot

pictures in India, Nepal and Europe; I have always found it much easier to shoot in India. Usually common people feel flattered when someone takes their pictures, so it is easier to get close-up portraits most of the time. Although sometimes you may need to answer some curious and weird questions. However in Europe, I have always found it difficult, since people are not so free when a stranger is taking their photograph. A telephoto lens may be useful for taking portraits if you are not so confident about asking for close portraits. But I don’t encourage this idea of using telephoto lenses very much as I believe, to take a good portraits, someone should get closer as much as possible. A wide angle perspective can be used as well for capturing the street scenes. don’t be upset if someone says “No”. Respect that and try someone else. In Picture -9, I found that everyone (even the dog!) were glued in listening to his flute.

Picture-10.jpg


7. Avoid using flashes, they create unnecessary attentions. Use natural light. I prefer to shoot during the magic hours when the sunlight is very soft. Otherwise usually I use “Cloudy” white balance to get warm snaps. Sometimes you may need to boost up your ISO at the cost of not using flash. Do that, if necessary (for example: I took the shot (Picture-3) of the child beggar with a painted face inside a local train in Calcutta. There was very little available light and train was running and heavily shaking, hence I had to use very high ISO -1600).


8. While shooting in public, try to wear casual clothes and carry minimal gears. It will help you to stay unnoticed. I usually carry a Tamron 18-270mm and a Canon 50mm 1.8 lens with a Canon 450D camera body and sometimes, a Fujifilm S8000fd P & S camera.

Sadhu-and-his-follower.jpg


9. Although may not be essential for everyone, but for me , reading some good books on Photography , regularly viewing and “reading” good photos on flickr and other websites makes a lot of difference .

10. Keep yourself safe. Don’t risk your life.

About Tuhin Subhra Dey: I am an Indian and by profession, a Doctoral fellow of Economics at University of Padua, Italy, although a serious amateur now but I cherish a keen dream of becoming a full-fledged Pro photographer someday in future. Connect more with Tuhin Subhra on Flickr and Facebook.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.​
 
How to Capture Motion Blur in Photography

by Darren Rowse

Photo by bikeracer

motion-blur-1.jpg

Capturing movement in images is something that many photographers only think to do when they are photographing sports or other fast moving subjects.
While there is an obvious opportunity in sports photography to emphasize the movement of participants – almost every type of photography can benefit from the emphasis of movement in a shot – even when the movement is very small, slow and/or subtle.
Last week I featured 15 images that capture movement with creative blur – today I want to take a few moments to suggest some tips on how to do it.


Tips for capturing movement:

1. Slow Down Your Shutter Speed
The reason for movement blur is simply that the amount of time that the shutter of a camera is open is long enough to allow your camera’s image sensor to ’see’ the movement of your subject.
So the number one tip in capturing movement in an image is to select a longer shutter speed.
If your shutter speed is fast (eg 1/4000th of a second) it’s not going to see much movement (unless the the subject is moving mighty fast) while if you select a longer shutter speed (eg 5 seconds) you don’t need your subject to move very much at all before you start to see blur.

movement-2.jpg

Photo by Idle Type
How long should your shutter speed be? – Of course the speed of your subject comes into play. A moving snail and a moving racing car will give you very different results at the same shutter speed.
The other factor that comes into play in determining shutter speed is how much light there is in the scene you are photographing. A longer shutter speed lets more light into your camera and runs the risk of blowing out or overexposing your shot. We’ll cover some ways to let less light in and give you the option to have longer shutter speeds below.
So how long should your shutter speed be to get movement blur in your shot? There is no ‘answer’ for this question as it will obviously vary a lot depending upon the speed of your subject, how much blur you want to capture and how well lit the subject is. The key is to experiment (something that a digital camera is ideal for as you can take as many shots as you like without it costing you anything).

2. Secure Your Camera
There are two ways to get a feeling of movement in your images – have your subject move or have your camera move (or both). In the majority of cases that we featured in last week’s post it was the subject that was moving.
In this type of shot you need to do everything that you can to keep your camera perfectly still or in addition to the blur from the subject you’ll find that the whole frame looks like it’s moving as a result of using a longer shutter speed. Whether it be by using a tripod or have your camera sitting on some other still object (consider a shutter release mechanism or using the self timer) you’ll want to ensure that camera is perfectly still.

3. Shutter Priority Mode
One of the most important settings in photographing an image which emphasizes movement is the shutter speed (as outlined above). Even small changes in shutter speed will have a big impact upon your shot – so you want to shoot in a mode that gives you full control over it.
This means either switching your camera into full Manual Mode or Shutter Priority Mode. Shutter Priority Mode is a mode that allows you to set your shutter speed and where the camera chooses other settings (like Aperture) to ensure the shot is well exposed. It’s a very handy mode to play with as it ensures you get the movement effect that you’re after but also generally well exposed shots.
The other option is to go with Manual mode if you feel more confident in getting the aperture/shutterspeed balance right.
How to Compensate for Long Shutter Speeds When there is too Much Light
I mentioned above that one of the effects of using longer exposure times (slow shutter speeds) is that more light will get into your camera. Unless you compensate for this in some way this will lead to over exposed shots.
Below I’ll suggest three main methods for making this compensation (note – a forth method is simply to wait for the light to change (ie for it to get darker). This is why many shots that incorporate blur are taken at night or at dawn/dusk):

1. Small Apertures
So how do you cut down the amount of light that gets into your camera to help compensate for a longer shutter speed? How about changing the size of the hole that the light comes in through. This is called adjusting your camera’s Aperture.
If you shoot in shutter priority mode the camera will do this automatically for you – but if you’re in manual mode you’ll need to decrease your Aperture in a proportional amount to the amount that you lengthen the shutter speed.
Luckily this isn’t as hard as you might think because shutter speed and aperture settings are organized in ’stops’. As you decrease shutter speed by a ’stop’ you double the amount of time the shutter is open (eg – from 1/250 to 1/125). The same is true with Aperture settings – as you decrease the Aperture by one stop you decrease the size of the shutter opening by 50%. This is great because an adjustment of 1 stop in one means that you just need to adjust the other by 1 stop too and you’ll still get good exposure.
2. Decrease Your ISO
Photo by bikeracer
Another way to compensate for the extra light that a longer shutter speed lets into your camera is to adjust the ISO setting of your camera. ISO impacts the sensitivity of your digital camera’s image sensor. A higher number will make it more sensitive to light and a lower number will make the sensor less sensitive. Choose a low number and you’ll find yourself able to choose longer shutter speeds.

movement-blur-2.jpg

3. Try a Neutral Density Filter
These filters cut down the light passing through your lens and into your camera which in turn allows you to use a slower shutter speed.
It is sort of like putting sunglasses on your camera (in fact some people actually have been known to use sunglasses when they didn’t have an ND filter handy).
For instance, if you’re shooting a landscape in a brightly lit situation but want a shutter speed of a second or more you could well end up with a very over exposed image. A ND filter can be very helpful in slowing the shutter speed down enough to still get a well balanced shot.
It is the use of ND filters that enabled some of the shots in our previous post to get a lot of motion blur while being taken in daylight.
Another type of filter that can have a similar impact is a polarizing filter. Keep in mind however that polarizers not only cut out some light but they can impact the look of your image in other ways (ie cut out reflection and even change the color of a sky – this may or may not be the look you’re after).
Two More Technique to Try – one more technique to experiment if you’re wanting to capture images with motion blur is to experiment with Slow Sync Flash. This combines longer shutter speeds with the use of a flash so that elements in the shot are frozen still while others are blurry. Read more about Slow Sync Flash. Another technique worth trying out is panning – moving your camera along with a moving subject so that they come out nicely in focus but the background blurs.


Read more: http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-capture-motion-blur-in-photography#ixzz0loadWNh6
 
bumb ko lang
 
5 Common Mistakes Aspiring Travel Photographers Make (+ How to Avoid Them)
by Guest Contributor
23 people liked this
Later this week we will be launching a brand new dPS eBook on the topic of Travel Photography (update, this is now launched, you can find it here) – written by travel photographer Mitchell Kanashkevich. This post, written by Mitchell, is the first part of a short series introducing some of the mistakes many new travel photographers make.

As you can gather from the title, this post relates to travel photography. However, I want to note that travel photography is a broad topic and so for most part, the mistakes that I’ll discuss here are actually made by the majority of those of us who are in the beginning of our journey into the world of photography, regardless of the genre we’re involved in.

Because I wanted to go into some detail and to provide some visual examples, we’ve decided to split this post up into two parts. Without further ado, here’s part I and check back for part II tomorrow.

1. Having misconceptions about equipment

The two main misconceptions that we most often have about equipment when we’re starting out in photography are:

The latest, greatest gear results in better photos.
The gear you have is not good enough because your images are not. In other words you blame the equipment.
A camera doesn’t take the photo, nor does any piece of photographic equipment. Photos are made by you – the photographer. Sure in some very rare cases you might have a technical issue with a camera body or a lens, but for most part that’s not the concern. Most of the essential photographic gear is better than good enough these days, it has been for the last five years or so (with the development of affordable digital SLRs), one just has to know how to use it to its full potential.

My advice here in short is – forget about chasing the latest, greatest stuff. Get out there with what you have, figure out how to get the most out of your equipment, learn when to use one lens over another, when to use a tripod and of course, learn about the basics of photography – setting the aperture, shutter speed and ISO. This might seem like the most obvious advice imaginable, but somehow so many aspiring photographers still think that it’s all about the equipment you have, there’s just nothing further from the truth.

2. Not Researching

When I refer to research, I simply mean gathering as much information as possible about the place you’re traveling to. The best time/season to travel, the DOs and DON’Ts, the modes of transportation – these are the necessities, that we must find out about before every trip in order to have a smooth experience not only as far as photographing, but traveling in general.

Beyond the necessities, when photography is the main focus of your trip, it’s worth finding out as much as possible about what’s visually special in the place you’re going to. Sometimes this isn’t going to be obvious, you might have to dig a little, but when you do, a great number of photographic opportunities arise.


Traditional Vedhic school, Thrissur, India

I’ve chosen to include the image above because the story behind it is a good example of what even simple research can lead to. The photo depicts a Namboodiri boy (priest caste) chanting the Vedhas (which can be described in short ancient Indian bits of wisdom) in a traditional Vedhic school in the town of Thrissur. This place (the school) is not a major attraction, it’s not something that the regular visitor travels to Thrissur for, but to me it provided an incredibly interesting photographic opportunity. Despite the fact that I would have never just wandered in there by random chance, as the school is isolated from the main town, it wasn’t at all hard to find it or gain access to shoot there, it was simply a matter of knowing that it existed.

The reason I knew about it is very simple – I researched and by this I don’t mean that I did something complicated and difficult. I went into the tourist office and chatted to the staff there, telling them that I’m a photographer and that I’m keen to see anything that’s visually interesting and unique in their town. After “picking their brains” for about an hour I got a few bits of useful information and the traditional Vedhic school was one of the places I realised I just had to check out.

3. Not looking beyond the main attraction

A lot of travel destinations have “must see”, “must photograph” main attractions. Sometimes we get so obsessed with getting an image of these attractions that we fail to see the subjects around them which could be equally or even more photographically interesting.

I’ve been guilty of this numerous times in the past and so these days I consciously force myself to look at what else there is to photograph besides the obvious. Sometimes this might even mean that I stay at a place for an extra day or two. I photograph the main attraction and then discover the lesser known yet still photo-worthy subjects. This is how the following image came to be. It was taken in Bromo National park.


Bromo National Park, Java, Indonesia

During my first couple of days I shot what everyone shoots there – the Bromo volcano and the neighbouring mountains, from different viewpoints. On the third day, rather than make my way to another viewpoint from which to photograph the volcano and mountains at sunrise, I decided to purposely focus my attention elsewhere. I rode around the area on a rented motorcycle and noticed the spectacular scene of these horsemen walking in the fog through the surrounding volcanic desert.

4. Not being aware of light

Not being aware of light means that you simply shoot whatever you see in any given lighting conditions without giving much thought to the whole matter. Your results might have impact on the viewer every now and then and they might sometimes reflect what you want to say and how you feel about what you see, but more often than not that won’t be the case.

Being aware of light means that you know there are different kinds of light and that the way your image looks will greatly depend on the light you shoot it in. This of course also means that you can make a conscious effort to photograph in the kind of light which will reflect what you want to say and how you feel about the subject you’re photographing.

Let’s look at a simple example.


Transylvanian countryside, Romania

The landscape in the image above looks beautiful, vibrant and dramatic because it is lit by the golden light during sunrise. I made a conscious decision to photograph in this kind of light because I knew that it would bring the colours present in this scene to life and it would basically “beautify” everything.

The light enabled me to create an image that reflected what I wanted to say – how beautiful Transylvanian countryside is, as well as to communicate the excitement which I felt. Had I photographed the same scene without considering light, I could have very well ended up with something much less dramatic. I would have likely just photographed the landscape the first time I saw it and that was on an overcast day, when the light made everything look rather grey and drab.

5. Avoiding artificial light

As we get a little more familiar with light and begin to develop an understanding of how it effects our photographs, a lot of us tend to move away from using artificial light, especially flashes.

The reason most of us do this is because we don’t have enough knowledge about artificial light. It’s true that the on-camera flash should indeed be avoided at all costs, but it’s not the only available artificial lighting option and avoiding artificial light altogether means you’ll never see what you can achieve with it, which in my opinion is a big mistake.

The artificial lighting tools that I consider a great addition to any serious travel photography enthusiast’s kit are an off camera flash in a softbox and/or a reflector. The reason these tools are great is that they allow you to control the light or to manipulate it. This opens one up to a whole range of creative opportunities or even opportunities to make photographs in situations where it would be impossible to do so otherwise. The following image is a good example of this.


Nomads at a camel fair, Kolayat, Rajasthan, India

The only reason I could make this shot was because I had the artificial light from an off-camera flash in a softbox “assisting” the light from the fire, which on its’ own was no where near strong enough to allow me to make the kind of photo I wanted.
 
very informative thread
btw im a eos 1000d user
more on fashion po ako

any tips naman about sa communication on the model para yung tipong pag pinapose mo xa eh
natural yung smile
 
very informative thread
btw im a eos 1000d user
more on fashion po ako

any tips naman about sa communication on the model para yung tipong pag pinapose mo xa eh
natural yung smile

Sorry Dude...di ko forte ang fashion...I've tried potraits with friends..since di naman sila pro model at kaibigan ko sila at desperado din sila mag model..binibigyan ko sila ng mga basic posing tips..at hindi 1X1 na picture ung kukunin...

Ung pose kasi madali lang..kung pano mo involve ung background ang mahirap..
 
sorry..took some time bago mag ka update..

anyways..medyo advance to ng onti
RAW, JPEG and TIFF
by Bob Atkins
There seems to be a lot of confusion among some new digital camera owners about exactly what the difference is between RAW, JPEG and TIFF files. This article is intended to be a very basic guide to these file types and how they are related in a typical digital camera.

First some basics
The digital sensor in the majority of digital cameras is what is known as a BAYER PATTERN sensor. This relates to the arrangement of red, green and blue sensitive areas. A typical sensor looks like this:



Each pixel in the sensor responds to either red, green or blue light and there are 2 green sensitive pixels for each red and blue pixel. There are more green pixels because the eye is more sensitive to green, so the green channel is the most important. The sensor measures the intensity of light falling on it. The green pixels measure the green light, the red the red and the blue the blue. The readout form the sensor is of the form color:intensity for each individual pixel, where color can be red, green or blue and intensity runs from 0 to 4095 (for a 12-bit sensor)

A conventional digital image has pixels which can be red, green, blue of any one of millions of other colors, so to generate such an image from the data output by the sensor, a significant amount of signal processing is required. This processing is called Bayer interpolation because it must interpolate (i.e. calculate) what the color of each pixel should be. The color and intensity of each pixel is calculated based on the relative strengths of the red, green and blue channel data from all the neighboring pixels. Each pixel in the converted image now has three parameters: red:intensity, blue:intensity and green:intensity. In the end the calculated image looks something like this:



RAW data
RAW data (which Nikon call NEF data) is the output from each of the original red, green and blue sensitive pixels of the image sensor, after being read out of the array by the array electronics and passing through an analog to digital converter. The readout electronics collect and amplify the sensor data and it's at this point that "ISO" (relative sensor speed) is set. If readout is done with little amplification, that corresponds to a low ISO (say ISO 100), while if the data is read out with a lot of amplification, that corresponds to a high ISO setting (say ISO 3200). As far as I know, RAW isn't an acronym, it doesn't stand for anything, it just means raw, unprocessed, data.

Now one of two things can be done with the RAW data. It can be stored on the memory card, or it can be further processed to yield a JPEG image. The diagram below shows the processes involved:



If the data is stored as a JPEG file, it goes through the Bayer interpolation, is modified by in camera set parameters such as white balance, saturation, sharpness, contrast etc, is subject to JPEG compression and then stored. The advantage of saving JPEG data is that the file size is smaller and the file can be directly read by many programs or even sent directly to a printer. The disadvantage is that there is a quality loss, the amount of loss depending on how much compression is used. The more compression, the smaller the file but the lower the image quality. Lightly compressed JPEG files can save a significant amount of space and lose very little quality. For more on JPEG compression see http://www.photo.net/learn/jpeg/index.html

RAW to JPEG or TIFF conversion
If you save the RAW data, you can then convert it to a viewable JPEG or TIFF file at a later time on a PC. The process is shown in the diagram below:



You'll see this is pretty similar to the first diagram, except now you're doing all the processing on a PC rather than in the camera. Since it's on a PC you can now pick whatever white balance, contrast, saturation, sharpness etc. you want. So here's the first advantage of saving RAW data. You can change many of the shooting parameters AFTER exposure. You can't change the exposure (obviously) and you can't change the ISO, but you can change many other parameters.

A second advantage of shooting a RAW file is that you can also perform the conversion to an 8-bit or 16-bit TIFF file. TIFF files are larger than JPEG files, but they retain the full quality of the image. They can be compressed or uncompressed, but the compression scheme is lossless, meaning that although the file gets a little smaller, no information is lost. This is a tricky concept for some people, but here's a simple example of lossless compression. Take this string of digits:

14745296533333659762888888356789

Is there a way to store this that doesn't lose any digits, but takes less space? The answer is yes. One way would be as follows

1474529653[5]6597628[6]356789

Here the string 33333 has been replaced by 3[5] - meaning a string of 5 3s, and the string 888888 has been replaced by 8[6] - meaning a string of 6 8s. You've stored the same exact data, but the "compressed" version takes up less space. This is similar (but not identical) to the way lossless TIFF compression is done.

I said above that the data could be stored as an 8 or 16-bit TIFF file. RAW data from most high end digital camera contains 12 bit data, which means that there can be 4096 different intensity levels for each pixel. In an 8-bit file (such as a JPEG), each pixel can have one of 256 different intensity levels. Actually 256 levels is enough, and all printing is done at the 8 bit level, so you might ask what the point is of having 12 bit data. The answer is that it allows you to perform a greater range of manipulation to the image without degrading the quality. You can adjust curves and levels to a greater extent, then convert back to 8-bit data for printing. If you want to access all 12 bits of the original RAW file, you can convert to a 16-bit TIFF file. Why not a 12-bit TIFF file? Because there's no such thing! Actually what you do is put the 12 bit data in a 16 bit container. It's a bit like putting a quart of liquid in a gallon jug, you get to keep all the liquid but you have some free space. Putting the 12 bit data in a 8 bit file is like pouring that quart of liquid into a pint container. It won't all fit so you have to throw some away.

When to shoot RAW, when to shoot JPEG?
The main reason to shoot JPEG is that you get more shots on a memory card and it's faster, both in camera and afterwards. If you shoot RAW files you have to then convert them to TIFF or JPEG on a PC before you can view or print them. If you have hundreds of images, this can take some time. If you know you have the correct exposure and white balance as well as the optimum camera set parameters, then a high quality JPEG will give you a print just as good as one from a converted RAW file, so you may as well shoot JPEG.

You shoot RAW when you expect to have to do some post exposure processing. If you're not sure about exposure or white balance, or if you want to maintain the maximum possible allowable post exposure processing, then you'll want to shoot RAW files, convert to 16-bit TIFF, do all your processing, then convert to 8-bit files for printing. You lose nothing by shooting RAW except for time and the number of images you can fit on a memory card.

Note that some cameras can store a JPEG image along with the RAW file. This is the best of both worlds, you have a JPEG image which you can quickly extract from the file, but you also have the RAW data which you can later convert and process if theres a problem with the JPEG. The disadvantage is, of course, that this takes up even more storage space. Many cameras also store a small "thumbnail" along with the RAW file which can be read and displayed quickly without having to do a full RAW conversion just to see what's in the file.

I'll add the illustrations later...dito pa sa office
 
thanks for this thread! this will be of great help especially to beginners like me.. Tanong ko lang guys, ok lang ba ang nikon d3000 for a beginner lyk me? And ano mas maganda between d3000 and can0n eos 500d?
 
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