Day 8 – 8th Jan

Day 8 – 8th Jan 2013

With a ‘nothing much doing’ day, and 116 photographs taken, how do I chose my photograph today?  Is it my daughter trying to pat the cat, her ride on her ladybeetle cart, when she was trying to escape across the road, my son playing tennis in the park with his dad.  It was a lovely day for us, a nice chilled out relaxed day.  That is what I need to show, not a full documentation of the day, but the feeling.

After looking through many Photo a Day blogs, I have been reminded that many people still use Black & White to really give an image some feel.  It brings out the emotion of the image, rather than being distracted by colour.  I used to use Black & White when I studied photography on film, then when I went professional I wasn’t photographing people, so colour was needed.  It hadn’t occurred to me to use more Black & White with my family photos, but I really need to show the feeling of my photographs better.  I need to focus on capturing the emotion rather than the perfect image.

In my quest to show one better photograph each day… how’s this?

f4.5 (I did this to get more clarity, because it was too easy to blur with a lower f-stop), ss 640, ISO 800 (I can’t remember why I went so high but I think it was because my f-stop was so high, I wanted the speed of the shutter, so needed to up the ISO). Natural outside light only, only edit was to Greyscale in Photoshop.

7th Jan to … slap in the face

So it has been a week now of sharing at my photographs, and demanding a good photo every single day.  I knew I wouldn’t love my photographs, but I am realising that it is a little embarrassing to post up photographs on a public internet site that I don’t think are that great.  I am really looking forward to seeing some improvement!

Day 7 – 7th Jan 

It took only 1 week of staring at my raw images to make me succumb to the lures of Photoshop!  You see it happened this very day, it was too hot to even open the blinds, so with them shut my youngest wanted a horsey ride.  It is a rocking horse that all of my children have used, and it was sitting in front of the blind in our lounge room.  It was a cute sight, so I clicked away as usual.  When I reviewed my photographs I realised the blind made a great backdrop, if only I could remove the lower part where it was slightly open, and that food off her face.  In creeped Photoshop.  A couple of quick Youtube tutorials, some memory refreshing from 10 years ago, and this is the result…

I will add more details of this soon… in a rush to finish this post

Jumping on the bandwagon

I have been following with interest some talented photographers, who have been doing the ‘photo a day challenge’.  It has been fun to see what they come up with each day, and has given me a great opportunity to ask about their photographs and how they achieved their results.  The most interesting part, has been seeing how their photography has improved through the challenge.

I am aiming to do the same this year, to jump on the Photo a Day bandwagon.  But my challenge is going to be a little different, I am going to see if I can bring it DOWN to 1 photo per day.  I tend to take a lot of photographs, and end up with a good amount of OK photographs, but never end up with any one singe photograph that I am totally thrilled with. So instead of posting one photo a day, I will post some of my better ones, and lets see if by the end of the year I can start to nail it?

I will also in continuation of the theme of this blog, not only do the usual Photo a Day thing of writing a little blurb about our day in photographs, but I will add thoughts and information on the photography learning aspect of my photographs… including when I finally start editing my photographs in Photoshop instead of showing you just the raw image.  Maybe we can learn together?

I don’t want to flood you with 7 (or 8 because I will continue with my slow learning photography blog as I go) posts per week.  I will try to group a few days at a time, for your viewing pleasure, or sigh of relief to not be flooded with blog posts, of course.

I would love to hear your opinions on any of my shots, and will gladly answer any questions

I have been making sure I at least take a photograph a day since Jan 1st to begin this blog with, and this I think is one of my favourites so far.  I still do though look at it and think, “blush am I really going to show this off”?  It is my baby girl looking out the window of our old retro Caravan at the glorious sea view we had outside.

PHOTOGRAPHY NOTES:  f1.8, ISO 100, ss 320, natural light only.

Using your DSLR on Manual

If you are using a DSLR, while it will still take good photographs on Auto, why are you lugging around a big DSLR if you aren’t going to use it to its full capability?  Using your DSLR on Manual Settings isn’t nearly as difficult as it may seem.  It does take some getting used to, but it will become second nature in no time.

So, how do you do it?

There are basically 3 settings in full Manual mode that you need to work with.  There is a 4th that I like to fiddle with, the White Balance setting, but most people just leave that on Auto.

The 3 settings in Manual mode are -

1. ISO
2. Shutter Speed
3. Fstop (Aperture)

Each time you take a photograph in a new situation, these are the 3 settings that you need to fiddle with.  I can’t tell you where on your camera they are as all cameras are different, you will need to refer to your manual for that.

So where do you start?

This is a very basic explanation of how to use these settings, simply to enable you to use them, rather than to understand them completely.

STEP 1 – set your ISO

You want to get this one as low as the situation will allow, because the higher it is, the more grainy your photograph becomes.  The higher the number of ISO, the more light is allowed in.  So in very dark situations you need to have the number higher, and in light situations you can put the number lower.

As an example, I go right down to 125 on an average day outside and up to 1600 for an image that is inside but not overly light, or higher if it is darker.  I use around 800 or less for good light inside.

STEP 2 – set your Fstop (Aperture)

This is the setting that controls how you want the overall image to look.  Are you wanting to focus on a single object or person, or a wide scene?  The more you want to focus on a single thing, the lower number you use, for example when you want a person in focus and the background blurry.  On my 50mm lense, I use F1.8 most commonly as I am photographing my children, and with that setting I can focus on a child with the background blurry.  If I am photographing two children, I go up a little, because unless they are at exactly the same distance from my camera, parts of them will be blurry if I stay at 1.8.

Also the distance from your subject can affect this.  If you are far away from your subject, more of it will be in focus at whichever setting you use.  The closer you are the more you can get your camera to focus on one item.  Note this image below for example, because it is really close, even the ears are out of focus because the face is really close, if the subject was further away, they would likely be more in focus.

STEP 3 – set your Shutter Speed

Your Shutter Speed determines how quickly your camera takes the photograph.  This setting affects both light and how clear the photograph is when there is movement.

As a general rule
Higher Number = Faster = good for movement, but less light in

Lower Number = Slower = not good for movement, but more light in

Here is a good guide on how big the Shutter Speed number needs to be in order to handle different types of movement -

2000 = fast moving thing like an Eagle flying, balls flying through the air

500 = people dancing, children running

125 = moderate, for example camels walking, babies moving their arms slowly

30 = slower, if you take a photo of horses riding their legs would be blurry

8 = still things, best to use a tripod

2 = still things, does give nice water effect over rock

LOWER =  extremely slow, this can create interesting effects

A very general guide – try to keep your shutter speed above 1/50^th (setting of 50) for indoors (low light), and above 1/200^th (setting of 200) for outdoors (bright light).  If you are shooting fast moving people choose above 500, slow moving like babies playing choose 125, or less for still objects in good light.  

When photographing children, I try to go as high as this setting will allow me to depending on the light.  The Shutter Speed chosen is based on the amount of movement the subject is doing as well as light.

IN BRIEF – THIS IS HOW I WORK WITH THESE SETTINGS WHEN I GO TO TAKE A PHOTOGRAPH.

Unless I am photographing a very low light situation such as a dark room or at night, I leave the ISO down to around 200.  If it is really bright and outside, I put it as low as it will go.

Next I choose my Fstop (Aperture), and I usually have this at 1.8, as most commonly I am focusing on a single object… I don’t usually photograph landscapes or big groups.  So most of the time I don’t look at or touch this setting.

Finally, I alter the Shutter Speed.  I usually set this as high as I think the photograph will handle, take a quick test shot to make sure it is as light as I want it, and if I need to because it is too dark, I will bring it down a bit.  I generally have it as high as I can before it goes too dark, as I am most often photographing children who are constantly moving.

I like nice light photographs, and it is the ISO first and the Shutter Speed next that I will use to make my images light.

EXTRA NOTE:  While I like light photographs, I NEVER use my on camera flash.  More about that in another post!

Is it set to Automatic?

To get the best out of your DSLR, to get control over your photographs, you really are cutting your options short if you do not take photographs in Full Manual Mode.  As discussed in previous posts it is common to let your camera focus the lens Automatically and that is fine, but for the settings…  if you manually control the actual settings of the camera you will have a better chance of getting the best photographs.

To do this you to set your camera into Full Manual Mode.  If you have it on any other setting, the camera will automatically change things on you.  You will need to look at your manual to see how to set your camera into Full Manual Mode, but on my Nikon there is simply a dial at the top of the camera that I set to ‘M’.

Photograph from http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d7000/users-guide/, a great online source for learning to use your Nikon.

Now, we are ready to roll!

The Full Manual Settings at first seem tricky, but once you understand them you will see that they are really just 4 simple settings (most people only control 3 of them).  It does take time, and a lot of playing around to really get them to become like second nature when taking photographs, but they offer incredible control over how your final image turns out.

What are the settings?  They will feature in my next blog post…

The big Camera Decision!

When choosing a Digital SLR Camera, where do you start?

After speaking to many professional photographers, I became aware that although there are many great brands available, most professionals stick to two brands, Nikon and Canon.  Why?  Although many agreed that quality in other brands was good, these two brands are the leaders in quality and technology.  Plus once you start clicking it is very likely that you are going to want to add different Lenses to your Camera Kit.  In these two particular brands, the Lenses are much cheaper than others as a general rule, and yet their quality is superb.

So I set about my quest to learn about Nikon and Canon, to decide which Digital SLR would suit me best.  Although I probably couldn’t go wrong with either of them, this was a big investment for me, it was about 10x what I would normally spend on an Automatic, so I wanted to get it right.

I chose based on a few simple factors, and one of them was NOT the Mega-pixel value of the camera.  Why?  Cameras offer such high Mega-pixel values these days, that it really doesn’t matter any more.  You are going to be able to get a superb print quality out of any of them now, so unless you are a top professional artist wanting to create mammoth prints, you really don’t need to even worry about the Mega-pixel size of current DSLR’s these days.

STEP 1 – What was my budget?

My budget suited the Nikon D7000, or the Canon 7D.  However I wasn’t keen on the fact that the Canon 7D uses CF Cards to store photographs, as this is technology that is on its way out, as well as being easy to damage your camera if you put the cards in the wrong way.  So it was a definite ‘no’ for that Camera based on that simple fact, and instead I went down a model to the Canon 60D to use for comparison.

STEP 2 – Play and feel!

I could only really know what camera suited me best, by walking into a store and trying them out.  As somebody pointed out, it isn’t until you hold a camera that you know whether you will like using it.  Some people will like a bulky feel, others more compact.  Also you really need to play around with the settings to see whether the buttons and features suit the way that you like to use them.

STEP 3 – Choice time.

After playing and feeling them both in my hands, it all came down to features for me.  I had to think about how I like to use the camera, what I like to photograph, and which camera suited that best.  After holding them both, although I did like the more bulky feel of the Canon for my long fingers, I chose the Nikon D7000.

WHY THE NIKON FOR ME?

Here is my simple list of what I loved about the Nikon –

•   FOCUS POINTS – The Nikon has approximately 4x the amount of focus points as compared to the Canon.  This appeals to me as I love taking action shots and sports photography.
•   SETTINGS BUTTONS – The buttons to change the 4 features that are most important (Shutter Speed, Aperture, ISO and White Balance) are all there ready ‘at a click’, I don’t have to go into the menu to change any of them.  I need to be able to change the settings fast, particularly when chasing after children!
•   SCREEN ACCURACY – The accuracy of what is in the image is apparently, but only slightly, better in the Nikon.  While the Canon screen quality is better, the Nikon shows more accurately what would be IN the photograph.  I like to know what I am photographing.
•   TOUGH BODY – The Nikon has an alloy body, the Canon doesn’t.  To me, around children that seems tougher.
•   2 CARD SLOTS – The big selling point of the Nikon for me…. 2 card slots!  I want to be able to take photographs in both RAW and JPG at the same time.  This allows me to be able to capture a fully editable image in RAW, but also have the lower quality but ready to view JPG at hand for me to quickly post to Facebook or my Blog or out to friends, without having to convert the image from RAW to JPG first.  As a busy mum, I need to be able to do this fast and easily, or I will never get the images out there.However taking both formats for every image takes up a lot of memory.  I also like to be able to take LOTS of photographs before I fill my cards.  Having 2 card slots means that I can take JPG on one and RAW on the other, and get lots of images on my cards.  Not only does that provide convenience for me, but it also offers security.  As a very sentimental person, I love the security of having two copies of the images in case something happens to one of the cards.

There are a few other little factors that influenced my decision, however as you can see I chose based on what I personally like and what would suit what I am trying to photograph.

Of course what you would choose, should suit your needs.  So I would recommend that you think about what you are going to be photographing, and what you would like in a Camera.  Then go down to a good specialist Camera Store, find a Salesperson who understands their product, and play until you are sure.

WHAT WAS NEXT???

I also had the decision of Lenses… as Cameras are sold as Camera Bodies only and you need to add a Lens before you start using it… and Accessories, and I will put that in another Post!