Back It Up

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Apr 242010
 

I’ve talked about the rule of thirds and the rule of three here as they relate to photography, but there’s yet another “rule” in digital photography that involves the number three. That rule states that you should always back up all of your digital photos to no fewer than three entirely separate destinations. Let’s face it, memory cards fail, CDs get scratched, hard drives inexplicably go “pfffffft.” You could easily lose every digital photograph you’ve ever taken in one fell swoop if you have them saved to only a single destination. 

Some options for your photo storage are: 

  • Your computer’s internal hard drive
    If you don’t take a TON of pictures, this is an OK option. It’s not an option for me, however, because my computer’s internal hard drive wouldn’t even come close to holding all of my photos.
  • An external hard drive
    This is currently my option of choice and I actually use two of these. I have a 500 gigabyte (GB) portable hard drive that I can (and do) take with me wherever I go. Then I periodically back that up to a 1 terabyte (TB) desktop external hard drive. Portable hard drives are available in the 1TB range these days, so I’m probably going to have to go with one of those next since I have just over 30GB of free space left on my 500GB hard drive.  If you don’t take a lot of pictures, a smaller portable hard drive would be more than adequate.
  • CDs or DVDs
    Some photographers apparently burn their photos to a CD or DVD as soon as they finish a photo shoot. I’ve just now read an article that recommended against using CDs because they supposedly start to degrade after 5 years or so. I don’t know about that. A lot of photographers who like to give advice do recommend the CD/DVD route, so I’m thinking maybe that route is OK as your third destination.
  • Online storage
    There are quite a few vendors who, for a certain monthly or annual fee, allow you to upload files to their servers “out there” somewhere. This is actually probably your safest means of backup. Keep in mind that online photo storage sites and online photo sharing sites are not the same thing. Photo sharing sites like Flickr do allow you to upload photos, but they generally compress them so your original photo in its original state is not saved. There are also usually limits on the amount of free storage and/or the number of photos you can upload each month.

Do yourself a favor – back up those irreplaceable photos to three different destinations on a regular basis… BEFORE erasing your memory card. 

Puffins, Grímsey, Iceland

Puffins, Grímsey, Iceland

Photographing Butterflies

 2 Responses »
Apr 062010
 

Butterflies are the beauty queens of the insect kingdom and capturing photos of them is extremely rewarding. But how? Following are a few tips to get you started:

  • Use a fast shutter speed to freeze the motion not only of the butterflies, but of the flowers they’ll be landing on.
  • Increase your camera’s ISO setting (400+), but keep in mind that the higher your ISO setting, the grainier your photo will be.
  • Experiment with a combination of settings – shutter speed, aperture, ISO, exposure compensation – until you hit on just the right mix.

  • Use continuous shooting if your camera has that feature and take a LOT of pictures.
  • A macro lens is best if you have an SLR, something in the 100-105mm range so you don’t have to get quite so close. If you have a point and shoot with a macro setting or a zoom lens, try those.
  • Shooting on a cool day or in the morning when the butterflies are moving slower is helpful.
  • Be mindful of the position of the sun. It’s best if the butterfly is frontlit, but be careful that your own shadow doesn’t get in the way.
  • Use a tripod if possible, but you’ll need to keep the head loose so you can move it easily as needed.
  • Be patient. Instead of trying to chase a single butterfly and hope that it lands on a gorgeous, perfect bloom long enough for you to compose a shot, find a gorgeous, perfect bloom, set up and wait.
  • It also helps if they’re otherwise occupied…

Guide to Buying a New Camera – DSLR

 3 Responses »
Apr 012010
 

The main reason to buy a digital single lens reflex (DSLR) camera over a point-and-shoot camera is photo quality. If you plan to produce high-quality prints that are 8×10 or larger or to make photo books or even sell your photos, DSLR is the way to go. Keep in mind that shooting with a DSLR camera will not make you a better photographer.

If you are considering taking the leap from a point-and-shoot camera into the realm of the DSLR camera, the primary questions to ask yourself are:

  • Just HOW interested am I in photography as a serious hobby?
  • How much am I willing to spend on a camera? And how much am I willing to KEEP spending on camera gear?

Unless you have a big pile of money sitting around to burn, I would say that you should be really REALLY interested in photography as a SERIOUS(ly expensive) hobby before you think about purchasing a DSLR. You should consider your first purchase of a DSLR camera as a commitment to improving your skills as a photographer as well as a commitment to spending most of your disposable income on camera gear. I’m only somewhat joking with that last statement.

When you buy a point-and-shoot camera, you buy it and you’re pretty much done for a while, at least until some camera manufacturer comes out with a new camera with a new feature without which you absolutely cannot live . When you buy a DSLR, on the other hand, you never stop buying. You decide the 18-55mm kit lens doesn’t have the range you want so you need a lens with a higher zoom. You need a sharper lens. You need a macro lens. You need a wireless remote, a fancy-schmancy tripod set, UV filters, circular polarizers, graduated ND filters for each and every lens. You need a camera bag for this and a camera bag for that and a really long lens for photographing birds and other wildlife. Then they come out with a DSLR that can shoot video and you need one of those too. Whether they need it or not, serious photographers always want more GEAR. Consider yourself warned.

An entry level DSLR with a kit lens is generally available in the $550-750 range. A kit lens is often an 18-55mm starter lens, comparable in range to a 3x optical zoom in a point-and-shoot. If you are seriously serious about photography, the entry level camera with the kit lens will not make you happy for very long. If you are truly seriously serious about photography, I recommend that you save your pennies for a while longer until you can afford at the very least a mid-level DSLR in the $1,000+ range. It would be ideal if you could also save enough pennies to get a more useful lens, such as an 18-200mm, which, by the way, are not cheap (as in $600-700 for the Nikon and Canon brands, much cheaper for brands such as Sigma and Tamron. Personally, I’ll only buy Nikkor lenses for my Nikon cameras).

Consider very carefully before deciding on which brand of DSLR to buy. Switching brands can be costly since brands of camera lenses are NOT interchangeable (for example, a Canon lens won’t fit on a Nikon body). For reasons that escape me now, I decided on Nikon when I was making that decision, but I’m quite certain that I would have been just as happy with Canon. With apologies to Sony, Pentax and Olympus fans, I highly recommend either Canon or Nikon. 

There are lots of websites that do side-by-side comparisons of various DSLR brands and models. Read them and do your homework before stepping foot into a camera store. As with the point-and-shoot but even more so, I strongly recommend buying your DSLR at a camera store rather than from non-camera store or an online retailer. Again, you’ll spend just a bit more, but to me it’s worth it being able to deal with a real live photography-oriented human being, being able to handle some cameras to see how they feel, and to have a place to take your camera back to if there’s a problem. I’ve purchased many of my accessories and even lenses from online retailers, but my camera bodies always come from the camera store.

So that’s about it. Questions?

Intimate Landscapes

 1 Response »
Mar 272010
 

What do you think of when you hear the term “landscape photography?” Most people think of grand sweeping, panoramic views of canyons and beaches, mountains and valleys; vast expanses of flower-filled fields or sand dunes and the like.

But there’s another type of landscape photography that I’d like to talk about for a minute. Somewhere between the grand scenic landscape shot and the seeing-eye-to-eye-with-a-bug macro shot lies another type of nature photography referred to as the “intimate landscape,” a term attributed to American photographer Eliot Porter.

While really great scenic landscape photography makes you go “WOW!” intimate landscape photos are more likely to make you go “Hmmmm” or “Ooohhhhh.” One of the differences between the two for the photographer is that grand sweeping landscapes are right there in front on you. You can’t miss ‘em. You just have to stand in the right spot and wait for the perfect light. Intimate landscapes, on the other hand, are quite a bit more elusive. You really have to LOOK for intimate landscape scenes. They often involve subtle patterns and textures and interesting combinations of elements.

In an excellent article on intimate landscapes in Nature Photographers Online Magazine, photographer Guy Tal writes:

The Intimate Landscape does not rely on interesting subjects or optical effects alone – it encompasses a relatively small number of elements and draws its power from composition – the arrangement of the various elements relative to each other and to the frame boundaries. Intimate Landscapes do not dictate subject scale, or specific perspectives or focal lengths. Like a floral arrangement or a haiku it relies on establishing structure and order and ulterior meaning from an arrangement of elements – a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. As such, Intimate Landscapes provide a fine-art photographer with great freedom to express his or her vision. The image does not rely on any prominent landmark or any one particularly interesting element. It’s about the deliberate thought and insight of putting the elements together in that particular arrangement.

 (View Guy Tal’s Intimate Landscape set on Flickr HERE). 

There are no hard and fast “rules” about what counts as an intimate landscape. They don’t usually include the horizon, however, and will often be below knee-level, but not always. The nice thing about intimate landscapes is that you don’t necessarily have to photograph in perfect light. In fact, when all you have is the diffuse light of an overcast day or you’re deep in the mottled shadows of a forest, that could be the best time to look around for the not-so-obvious scenes. Look down. Study the details. Explore the textures and the interplay between the shapes and colors of those details. It’s the relationship between the elements that will make or break the shot. Training yourself to really LOOK for the elements that make for an interesting intimate landscape shot will help fine-tune your “eye” as a photographer.

 

Guide to Buying a New Camera – Point-and-Shoot

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Mar 202010
 

In order to choose the right digital camera to suit your needs, you should know what your needs are. Ask yourself a few questions and know the answers by the time you go into a store to buy a camera.

  • How much do you want to spend? I’ve seen ‘em for under $50 and on up to $450 and beyond. Don’t forget to factor in the extra costs, like memory cards, extra batteries, a case, a tripod, the extended warranty. Of course, spending more generally gets you better features, so the next step is to decide on the features that will fit your needs.
  • How will you use your camera? Do you need a camera that you can just take quick snapshots with without worrying what “mode” you’re in or do you like to play around with different settings? If you’re only ever going to take a few snapshots here and there, you don’t need a camera that has loads of different settings. Figure out HOW you’re going to use your camera.
  • Does size matter? Do you need a camera that you can easily slip into your pocket or purse?
  • Do you need to zoom? Point-and-shoot cameras have anywhere from no zoom to 20x zoom. Keep in mind that the higher the zoom factor, the bigger and more expensive the camera will be. If you plan to take wildlife or sports photos, the higher the zoom factor, the better.

A few other features you might want to think about:

  • Image stabilization (aka vibration reduction)
  • Megapixels: I wrote about that HERE.
  • Viewfinder – yes or no? Many of the subcompact cameras don’t have a viewfinder – the LCD screen acts as your viewfinder. LCD screens use up more battery juice and it’s sometimes hard to see the LCD screen if you’re out in bright sunlight. I personally don’t like taking pictures while looking at the LCD screen.
  • LCD screen size 
  • Video mode: Do you want/need a camera that can take video clips? (A recent informal poll over at the Digital Photography School website revealed that 44% of the respondents whose cameras DO have video capability reported never using it).

Once you know WHAT you’re looking for, WHERE should you look for it? Camera shops are generally a little more expensive (and they’re getting harder to find these days), but they also offer much more personalized service. You’ll get to talk to someone who is most likely a photographer and actually knows something about cameras. The “look and feel” of a camera can’t be underestimated so it’s important to actually handle a few cameras and push a few buttons, something you obviously can’t do if you buy online. How does each one feel in your hand? Too big? Too small? Just right? Are the controls easy to manipulate?

A few more tips:

  • Stick with the known manufacturers such as Canon, Nikon, Sony, Panasonic, Kodak, etc. Don’t buy a brand you’ve never heard of just because it’s cheaper.
  • If you’re not likely to use a lot of “extra” features, then don’t buy a camera that has them. Don’t make things more complicated than they need to be.
  • Reading reviews at reputable websites ( Digital Photography Review and CNET for example)  might help you narrow down your selection. Also read reviews written by people who actually own the camera you’re considering buying (Amazon, B&H, Adorama all have user reviews). You’ll probably find comments ranging from “hate it” to “love it” for every camera out there, but pay attention to the specifics and pay attention if a lot of reviewers say the same thing.

So that’s about it. If any of you actually are in the market for or have recently purchased a new point-and-shoot, I’d be very interested in hearing what you end up buying/what you bought, why you chose it and how you like it.

Coming soon: Guide to Buying a New Camera – Digital SLR

Looking Sharp

 2 Responses »
Mar 072010
 

In his book  The Adobe Photoshop CS4 Book for Digital Photographers, photography and Photoshop guru Scott Kelby says, “I sharpen every digital camera photo, either to help bring back some of the original crispness that gets lost during the correction process, or to help fix a photo that’s slightly out of focus. Either way, I haven’t met a digital camera (or scanned) photo that I didn’t think needed a little sharpening.”

All photo editing programs have some sort of sharpening tool. Picasa’s is under the Effects tab and has a slider that you can move to increase or decrease the sharpening effect.

Picasa's sharpening interface

The Photoshop sharpening options give you much more control over sharpening an image than just “more” or “less.” However, I know that most people reading this aren’t going to shell out $700 for Adobe Photoshop, so today I’m going to introduce a photo editing program that I’ve recently discovered called GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). The cool thing about GIMP is that it offers a LOT of the functionality of Photoshop and a very similar look, but it’s open-source software. In other words, it’s FREE. Like Photoshop, it’s a rather complex program so it has a fairly steep learning curve, but performing some of the basic photo editing tasks isn’t too difficult.

To sharpen a  photo in GIMP, open your photo in the program, then go to Filters–> Enhance –> Unsharp Mask. (You could try just the Sharpen feature, but even the creators of GIMP advise their users to ignore that feature because it’s lame).

Go to Filters--> Enhance --> Unsharp Mask

There are three variables under Unsharp Mask: Radius, Amount and Threshhold. Scott Kelby recommends the following values for various situations:

  • For people: Radius 1, Amount 150%, Threshhold 10
  • For cityscapes, urban photography, travel: Radius 3, Amount 65%, Threshhold 2
  • For general everyday use: Radius 1, Amount 85%, Threshhold 4

Unsharp Mask variables

Since Scott mysteriously failed to mention the recommended variables for photos of stunningly beautiful cats, I’ll try these: Radius 1, Amount 1.51 (151%), Threshhold 10

So I’m starting with this original photo:

Original photo of my stunningly beautiful cat, Halle

After applying the Unsharp Mask settings shown above, I end up with this:

Original photo with Unsharp Mask applied

Now I happen to think that that’s just a bit TOO sharp, so I can go in and “fade” the effect by any percentage I choose by going into Edit –> Fade Unsharp Mask:

Go to Edit--> Fade Unsharp Mask

After fading the previously-applied Unsharp Mask variables by 50%, I end up with this:

Final perfectly sharpened photo of my stunningly beautiful cat, Halle

The amount of sharpening that is “just right” is very subjective, so regardless of the photo editing program you use, play with the settings until you get the amount of sharpening that looks right to you.

Oh, one other thing: sharpening should be the very LAST thing you do when you’re working on a photo in post-processing. Do all of your other tweaking first, THEN do the sharpening.

For some REALLY detailed and technical info on the subject of sharpening, you might like to read the article Sharpening 101 by Thom Hogan.

If you’d like to give GIMP a whirl, go to http://www.gimp.org/ and click on the orange Download button near the top of the page.

Shooting Macros with a Point-and-Shoot

 6 Responses »
Mar 042010
 

If you like to get in close to your subjects and capture details that people don’t usually see, then macro is the mode for you.

Your point and shoot camera very likely has a built-in macro mode. Check your user’s manual to learn how to activate the macro mode – somewhere on your camera (if your camera has the function) there will be a button or some other sort of setting that looks like this:

How close you can get to the subject will vary, so check your manual for that info as well. Following are a few tips to maximize your macro results:

  • Use a tripod if possible. When you’re shooting close up, any amount of movement will affect your results. If you’re shooting something that’s moving, like a bug, a tripod isn’t necessarily possible. In that case use whatever you can to brace your arms/elbows to steady the camera.
  • Use the self-timer setting on your camera to minimize camera shake.

  • If you are able to manually set your aperture, choose a large aperture so your subject is in focus but the background is blurry. (Keep in mind that where aperture is concerned, the smaller the number, the bigger the aperture).
  • Focus carefully on exactly the spot that you want to be sharp. There will be lots of blurry areas in your macro photos and that’s ok, but you do want the main part of the subject to be in focus.

 

  • It’s best to take point-and-shoot macros in natural lighting since using your flash will generally cast unwanted shadows onto the scene. If you are shooting indoors and need extra light, try using a lamp or other light source and bounce the light off another surface.

Taking macro photos takes a lot of practice and patience, but the results can be simply amazing.

Snow Photography

 No Responses »
Feb 262010
 

I’m going on one of my every-other-Friday excursions today so I thought I’d read up on snow photography and share that info with you.

Taking photographs of scenes where much of the view is covered in snow is a challenge for even the best photographers. The bright snow basically acts as a big ol’ secondary light source and can totally mess up the colors, white balance and overall exposure of your photographs.

Your camera’s exposure meter automatically assumes that pretty much every scene you shoot averages out to 18% gray (aka “medium gray”). Snow is much brighter than that so you can’t rely on your camera’s automatic metering to give you properly exposed photos. Here are a few things you can try to get better snow pics:

  • Your camera just might have a Snow setting. Try that.
  • If your camera has an exposure compensation button, bump that down by -1.3 to -2.0 or so.
  • If you have a DSLR, use Center-weighted or Spot metering.
  • If you have a DSLR, make sure your Highlights warning function is activated, keep an eye on it and make corrections as necessary.
  • Set your White Balance appropriately depending on whether it’s cloudy or sunny. Don’t use Auto White Balance.
  • If the scene you’re trying to shoot has both light and dark areas, you might just have to choose which area you want to be exposed correctly because you really can’t have it both ways.
  • Try bracketing your shots (shooting the same scene at different exposures).

The trail to Dream Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park

The trail to Dream Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park

Another important thing to remember when you’re shooting in a snowy environment is that your batteries don’t deal with cold well so keep your camera and your extra batteries as warm as possible. Try to keep yourself warm too.

Come back tomorrow to see how my latest batch of snow pics turns out! :)

Exposure Compensation

 No Responses »
Feb 222010
 

When you take a photo, your camera takes a meter reading of the light situation and decides how light or dark to make the picture based on some secret camera algorithm or the alignment of the stars or something that we’re not really meant to understand. Most digital cameras do a pretty good job most of the time of gauging the proper exposure, but when the scene you’re shooting has areas of unusual lightness or darkness, your camera;s exposure meter can get confused and you end up with a photo that is too bright (overexposed) or too dark (underexposed).

The exposure compensation button on your camera (if there is one) is your way of overriding what your camera thinks the exposure should be. If you do have an exposure compensation button on your camera, it will look like this:

I searched through my archives to find photos to illustrate this concept and this is the best I could come up with.

Note that in the photo on the left, the clouds are overexposed to the point where a lot of the detail is lost. (Those are called “blown highlights”). So I dialed down on the exposure compensation (toward the – side) and took the shot again to get the cloud detail back.

If your camera does allow you to manually override the exposure, experiment with that feature just to see how it works. Find a scene with a variety of light and dark areas. Take a shot where the camera decides the exposure, then take a shot a couple of stops on the + side and another shot a couple of stops on the – side. That’s called “bracketing” your shot. Compare the photos. Once you get comfortable using this feature, you’ll start getting much better shots.

Be Prepared

 3 Responses »
Feb 212010
 

There’s nothing worse than missing an amazing but fleeting photo op because you weren’t ready for it. Well, there ARE things worse than that, like when you’re grating cheese and accidentally grate your knuckles instead, but that’s another story. Following are a few tips to help you minimize the chances of missing that one great moment:

  • Always have your camera with you.
  • Don’t just have it with you, but have it accessible. If you have to dig your camera out of the bottom of a bag or retrieve it from the back of your car, you will have missed the moment.
  • Don’t just have it with you and accessible, but have it on. Some cameras take several seconds to achieve a state of readiness once the ON button is activated, so be sure to turn the camera on before The Moment arrives.
  • Make sure you have your batteries charged at all times and keep spares handy. Batteries slowly lose their charge when they just sit around unused so if you’ve charged a battery but haven’t used it in a while, toss it on the charger periodically.
  • Make sure you have a memory card in your camera and that it is either empty or has plenty of room on it and keep spares handy.
  • Give your camera/lens a quick once-over before you start out. Keep your camera/lens clean. Always have a cleaning cloth handy to wipe off the inevitable spots and smudges. Check for anything out of the ordinary about your camera. I took sunset photos for about an hour at a park once before realizing that my UV filter was shattered. I couldn’t tell by looking through the viewfinder, but a quick inspection would have revealed the breakage.
  • Check your settings. The settings you used the last time you took pictures may not be the right ones for THIS time.
  • Always keep your eyes open for new scenes and unexpected photo ops.
  • If you’re waiting to take a shot of a specific moment, be patient and stay focused. The second you take your eye off the scene is the second that that once-in-a-lifetime moment will happen.
  • Don’t spend too much time “chimping” (ooohing and aaaahing over the image you just took). You just might miss the best shot while you’re admiring your handiwork. A quick check should suffice, then get ready for the next shot.
Peacock, San Diego Zoo

Peacock, San Diego Zoo

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