The basics: Using flash
It's a huge subject, but here we'll talk about just your everyday pop-up flash. And if you read the post on ISO, you'll be able to use that too!
There are many circumstances in which you won't want to use flash. Most notably is when you have a reflective surface in the background of your shot or nearby.
These cases are pretty obvious; just turn off your flash when shooting in front of a window. But what about when you can't avoid it?
Reflections are only an issue when the light is directed back into the lens. If you can angle your shot or the object, many times you can continue to use flash.
For people with glasses, you can often have them turn or tilt their head, tilt their glasses, or do a combination of both. Similarly, watch out for jewelry and other accessories.
The other thing to look out for is distance. Especially with point and shoots, the little in-built flash is simply not going to have enough juice to light up distant objects. Save your batteries and push your ISO.
Speaking of ISO, doesn't that mean your camera is more sensitive to flash? That's right. So if you don't want to kill your batteries or you need to get more out of your flash, push it up a bit.
Finally, be aware of how close your subject is relative to you and the background. If they're close to you and far from a background, you'll get a "person in a black hole" effect. You want them to be close enough for your flash to reach, while close enough to a background to allow spill light to give you a point of reference.
If all else fails, find some better light and/or bump your ISO up. No more excuses for deer-in-the-headlights shots!
The basics: ISO
I'm going to be starting a short series on the basics of photography in (hopefully) just a few short paragraphs.
So to kick things off, one of the things I often hear questions asked about is ISO.
ISO is a way of measuring how sensitive your digital sensor in your camera is. The higher the ISO number, the more sensitive it is to light. However, this also means it is more sensitive to noise.
If you're getting a lot of blur in your low light photos, try increasing your ISO so that you (or your camera) can use a faster shutter speed.
On the other hand, if your photos have a lot of noise in them, try lowering it and holding your camera steady.
As a general rule I like to follow, if in doubt, go for the higher ISO than risking camera shake. There are plenty of tools out there for removing noise, but it's much harder to fix a blurry picture.
Have a go next time you're out in the evening and don't want to use a flash. You'll soon get the feel for how far you can push your ISO before the noise becomes noticeable.
Canon vs Nikon vs the world
When I wad asked the other day what brand I shoot with, I responded that while I'm a Canonite, I like to try out other brands every so often.
Now the topic of which brand to go with is not a new development, but I think that something that is quite often overlooked in the "mine is better than yours" battle is how fortunate we are that things are balanced, even to a limited extent.
I would be horrified if Canon took complete market share as this would no doubt put them in the position of being able to charge almost anything they want while not being pressured to keep up with the competition.
For example, I don't believe Canon would have released an in built wireless flash trigger in the 7D if this feature wasn't already available in Nikon units. Why would they if they can easily make money from their existing solutions of purchasing a separate wireless master, or better yet, their flagship speedlite?
No, I'm glad that Nikon is out there, because everyone needs to be kept in check and ultimately, competition fosters innovation and in many cases improves value for money.
The less reputable companies may well be scoffed at and may not contribute as much to the heavyweight competition, but they are the ones who can really drive new innovation.
Canon's own line of point and shoots aren't that great considering they are leaders in the SLR market, and does Nikon even make one? Bring on slim-line, but feature-packed cameras like the Panasonic LX series. What about the micro 4/3rd system?
So a little brand rivalry is healthy, but remember, be careful what you wish for.
Studio space
I've managed to find a great location for shooting that is close by and has heaps of room.
So I dropped by last night for a bit of an inspection and to fire off a few test shots with some of the new gear I received lately.
I'm looking forward to many awesome shoots there.
New gear
I received my set of wireless TTL triggers in the mail the other week as well as an RS-5 R-Strap. Really loving this strap, not that my Industry Disgrace one was bad, but there's just so many more options for storage.
There's some studio space in my area that I'm looking at hiring out in the upcoming month or two for an impromptu weekend or evening of portraits. I'm still tossing up the idea of going the full hog and purchasing a support system for some seamless. At the moment, there's not enough room where I shoot for it to be of much use unless I go and regularly hire space. On the other hand, I am a bit of a gear-head! =D
If you've been following my Seven in Sydney project, you would have noticed it's also been a bit blank lately. One of the problems I have is that I tend not to upload every-day stuff to Flickr in order to keep it clean and Seven in Sydney works by taking photos from Flickr. I'm hoping to re-work it to take images straight from my camera phone rather than my DSLR, which I normally post-process. A fast workflow is more important for that than looking pretty (and hopefully it provides a raw stream of photos that have to be based on composition rather than technique). So I've got an 8MP camera phone also on the way.
I'll be out in the bush this weekend, so I'll take a few snaps with a lightweight cam if I can. Will see you next week!
Jam packed!
It's been a busy few weeks lately and I haven't had much of a chance to sit at my favourite cafe and write anything.
A few weeks back we were shooting for St John ambulance. Such a nice crowd of people.
They held their event at the Mercure. It's actually really close by to where I live so it was good to be able to literally walk to work that weekend.
One of my mates also took the plunge and bought a new bike. I put together a short video using footage from my DSLR -- something I've been wanting to do for a long time, but haven't been able to get around to doing. I can cross that one off my list =)
There were the crazy few days of trying to get my entries into the Canon EOS Photo5 competition. A friend told me one of my photos made it to the Canon Facebook wall, but it disappeared shortly after. There were a couple of things wrong with the pic that I wish I fixed, but oh well. I didn't make the finals, but there are some darn good pics in there that are certainly more well placed than mine.
There was a meet up with some friends from high school, celebrating the wedding of one of our class mates. Hadn't seen him in years since he moved to Korea, but it certainly feels like some things never change. The rest of that weekend was consumed by one of my mates' bucks night. Sorry, those pictures won't ever be seen on a public site!
Otherwise, there's been lots of food and drink from a recent ball held by my significant other's university school. They had a Hollywood-themed dress up. Naturally, I went as a member of the press, complete with suspenders, fedora, press card, camera and notepad.
In the past month or two, I've also been toying with the idea of setting up a studio as a workplace, to rent out, and to provide a place for other photographers to use. So far, it's looking good on paper.
I've also found a good-sized studio for holding future classes after the success of our first one at Australian Technology Park. My notepad is absolutely bursting with scribbles from all these ideas I have.
There should be a lot more to talk about in the coming month as the wheels continue to turn... and I've got a couple of new wireless TTL triggers coming in over the next few days!
November and December are looking jam-packed already!
Canon EOS Photo5
The reason I haven't been posting anything lately? My life has been a little consumed with, amongst other things, the Canon EOS Photo5 competition.
I registered a while back and received a box with four items in it -- Bubble gum, incense, confetti and an eye dropper. There's a brief for each of the items, the fifth one being a sound that can be heard online and is open to everyone, even those that didn't get a box.
To be honest, I didn't think I would even complete the competition. You know, I have that habit of not finishing what I start.
So here are my entries (click on through for descriptions):
Super busy
I've been super busy as of late. I'm working on the cover story for our company's flagship magazine and I've had a few very important dates to keep.
In brief I...
- passed my bike on to get sold to generate a bit of money to hopefully buy an upgrade.
- started to write a report on Animania, but am now unsure whether to continue given my previous history
- have been editing a heap of Animania photos. There's a little less than 400 from Saturday alone after cutting out dupes and ones that don't make the cut.
- celebrated my significant other's birthday
I'll be back into the full swing of things soon. In the meantime, you can always follow my updates on Twitter.
How to upgrade your lens to an “L”
I finally discovered tonight that all lenses can actually be upgraded to L-series lenses!
I was really working on something else when I accidentally found out.
You're going to need a few tools, but it can be done on just about any lens. Here's how you get started:
On the job: Professionalism
In the interim between writing up my report on Animania last weekend and now, I thought I'd bring up a little on-the-job topic on the matter of professionalism.
I wouldn't call myself a full-blown professional, but here's what I've experienced in the field:
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Twitter (mukimu)
- Clocking off this arvo with a #technolatte podcast -- Facebook's IPO, Optus TV Now and cyber crooks' tips and tricks. http://t.co/7upIRDEw 2 days ago
- http://t.co/MbDSdFG4 My SO: "went to make tea, came back to this" 2 days ago
- Saw Tower Heist last night. My fav line: You've only been a lawyer for 3 days and you're trying to bribe the FBI? / Sharks are born swimming 2 days ago
- Love it when peeps let me know they got my enquiry and are on it. Prevents that limbo-ness of not knowing if anything is actually happening. 2 days ago
- Do you think it's time we did more about mobile malware? Commentary: http://t.co/CuUSwPgM 3 days ago
