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Archive for May, 2017

Beastgrip launches Kickstarter to fund next generation DSLR lens adapter for smartphones

31 May

Beastgrip has created a Kickstarter campaign to fund its latest series of adapters that allow smartphone photographers to shoot through SLR lenses and achieve the associated shallow depth of field. The company has not only officially launched the Mk2 model of its existing DOF Adapter but is also offering the new Pro Series 1.33x Anamorphic Lens and the Beastrail to attach focusing aids when using cinema lenses.

Beastgrip says that it has redesigned some of the build and handling aspects of the DOF MK2 but has also given it new optics that are said to reduce the occurrence of aberrations while at the same time making the system compatible with a wider range of lenses – including zooms.

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The new anamorphic lens compresses a wider view onto the smartphone’s sensor which can then be worked in post-production to create videos with a 2.4:1 aspect ratio and stills in the 16:9 format. The lens has a 58mm filter thread on the front and is prone to ‘cool horizontal lens flare that you get when the lens is pointed towards a bright light source.’

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The Beastgrip DOF MK2 will cost $ 269.99 on its own or $ 409.98 with the Beastgrip Pro housing, while the 1.33x Anamorphic Lens will cost $ 175 or $ 314.99 with the Beastgrip Pro. The Beastrail will be $ 159.99. Each of the items, and various kit combinations, will be offered at a discount on the Kickstarter page for ‘early bird’ investors. 

For more information see the Beastgrip DOF MK2 Kickstarter page or the Beastgrip website.

Press Release

Beastgrip is Releasing New Gear to Turn Your Smartphone Into a Pro Camera Rig

Beastgrip is proud to announce the DOF Adapter MK2, the next generation of the best-selling DOF Adapter that allows photographers and filmmakers to mount a real SLR or DSLR lens to a smartphone for a stunning bokeh, shallow depth of field and manual focus control.

“Smartphone cameras are great, but they have substantial limitations. Without true depth of field, larger sensors and/or the option to add lenses or camera gear, most photos/videos that are shot with one all look the same,” said CEO Vadym Chalenko. “We’re here to change that.”

“Using lenses and depth of field adapters with your smartphone give you an entirely new look, by changing the focal length, perspective, and emotion of your shot so you can focus the viewer’s attention on what’s most important,” VP of Business Development Sean Lawrence explains.

The original DOF Adapter has been a monumental advancement in “phoneography.” Since it was released on Kickstarter back in 2015, professional filmmakers have been pushing it to its fullest potential with films like Ghost Digital Cinema’s “MALTO,” Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros’ “No Love Like Yours,” National Geographic’s “Wasfia,” and Boat Magazine’s “Of Land and Sea.”

“We couldn’t be happier to be a part of these projects, but we knew that the DOF Adapter could be – and should be – better, so that creators of any skill level can harness its power in their workflow,” added Chalenko.

New Features for the DOF Adapter MK2

  • The new design dramatically improves the image quality from the first version and provides a simple, user-friendly experience. The MK2 also boasts the following new features:
  • Custom optics that dramatically reduce vignetting/hotspotting, chromatic aberration and distortion.
  • Compatibility with a much wider range of full-frame SLR/DSLR lenses, such as zoom lenses.
  • Sealed focusing screen and components for a maintence-free user experience.
  • Durable, black anodized aluminum casing with a rotating barrel that aligns the focusing screen and bayonet mount in one simple motion.

Beastrail

Beastgrip also created a rail support for attaching additional accessories like a follow focus to the DOF Adapter MK2 for a complete filmmaking system with the same features found on professional camera rigs.

Pro Series 1.33X Anamorphic Lens

Following the recent release of the Beastgrip x Kenko Pro Series .75X Wide Angle lens, Beastgrip is adding a 1.33X Anamorphic Lens to the Pro Series Lens Collection as well. This lens transforms videos into a widescreen 2.4:1 aspect ratio and adds a more dramatic perspective without the need to crop, resulting in a high resolution, cinematic look and creative lens flares like seen in Hollywood film

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Avoid These 5 Common Camera Setting Mistakes Made By Beginners

31 May

Over the years, I’ve taught many new photographers and observed how they used their cameras. I have noticed a handful of common mistakes that many of them make. While there is a lot more to learn about photography, if you can avoid or fix these issues alone, you will find that your photographs will be much sharper and of much better quality.

Avoid These 5 Camera Setting Mistakes Typically Made By Beginners

1. Not raising the ISO high enough

It used to be commonly taught that you always needed to go as low as possible with the ISO for digital cameras. This was because early digital cameras had horrible noise at higher ISOs. These days, that has completely changed. Newer digital cameras can shoot with incredible quality at ISO 800, 1600, 3200, and even 6400 for higher end cameras. The noise is much less noticeable than it used to be, and it is much more pleasant looking.

Avoid These 5 Camera Setting Mistakes Typically Made By Beginners

This has changed how we can shoot. While your ISO should still be as low as possible when the camera is on a tripod when you’re shooting handheld you will often want to raise your ISO up much higher. Unless I am purposely shooting with a very large aperture such as f/2.8, I typically keep my ISO at 400 in sunlight, 800-1600 in light to dark shade, and 3200 and 6400 when handheld at dusk or at night. This allows me to use a faster shutter speed to offset handheld camera shake or motion in subjects, along with a decent depth of field. My shots are much sharper because of this.

Unless you are shooting in Manual Mode, I suggest taking your camera off of auto-ISO. You never want to let your camera choose two of the three settings (shutter, aperture, and ISO) because it will mess up your photographs a lot of the time. The camera should only be choosing one of those three settings for optimal use.

2. Using a shutter speed that’s too slow

Avoid These 5 Camera Setting Mistakes Typically Made By Beginners

To offset the handheld camera shake, the shutter speed always needs to be ONE over the focal length of your lens. So if you are shooting with a 50mm lens, your camera will need to be at 1/50th of a second (or faster) to make sure the image is sharp. This comes even more into play with a zoom lens because a 300mm lens will need a 1/300th of a second shutter speed in order for the image to not look blurry. This is because slight vibrations are much more noticeable when you magnify a small area in the distance. This is also why I will often raise my ISO when zooming at far distances.

For subjects in motion, you will need a fast enough shutter speed to freeze them. I prefer a minimum of 1/250th of a second to freeze people walking. You will need an even faster shutter speed as you get to subjects such as cars.

3. Not using exposure compensation (+/-) or the right meter mode

Avoid These 5 Camera Setting Mistakes Typically Made By Beginners

If you are using Aperture or Shutter Priority mode, Exposure Compensation is your best friend, particularly in scenes with tricky lighting. Your camera’s light meter is not creative – it wants to make everything look a neutral gray, but that is problematic in images with lots of dark or bright tones. Maybe you want those tones to look gray for creative purposes, but most likely, you will want them to be true to the scene. This is where Exposure Compensation (+/-) comes into play.

For instance, in scenes with lots of bright snow or a bright sky, this could trick the camera into thinking that it needs to overly darken the image to make those white areas look gray. Or if you are shooting at night, or in a dark alleyway, the camera’s light meter will try to make those dark tones look like a lighter gray, thus brightening the image too much. Similar problems can also appear when shooting in areas with both bright highlights and dark shadows, or if your subject is backlit.

On a related note, many photographers keep their camera on the wrong metering mode. There are three main metering modes; Evaluative, Center-weighted, and Spot metering. Evaluative will expose for the entire scene, Center-weighted will expose based on the spot that you focus on and an expanded area around it, and Spot metering will measure the light based on only the spot that you point to. I personally find Evaluative to be too broad and Spot to be too focused, so I mostly use Center-weighted metering mode.

Read more here: Cheat Sheet: Understand Metering Modes On Your Camera

4. Not getting the focus point right

Avoid These 5 Camera Setting Mistakes Typically Made By Beginners

Some photographers leave their focusing completely up to the camera. This is a terrible idea as the camera will often focus on the wrong point, ultimately ruining your image. You need to be in control of your focusing and put the focus on the most important subject in the image.

On a similar note, it is common for photographers to get that new 50mm f/1.8 or f/1.4 lens and immediately think that they need to shoot everything at f/1.4 because they can. Some situations will be good for f/1.4, but it’s important to realize how shallow the depth of field is at that aperture.

If you are shooting with a really shallow depth of field, the focus needs to be perfect and exactly right on the most important subject. If you are photographing a person and you put the focus point on the person’s ear or nose instead of their eyes, it will be noticeable and it will mess up the photograph. Often, I prefer to shoot portraits like this at f/4 instead of f/1.8 or f/2.8. There is still a beautiful background with bokeh, yet more of the person is in focus. This minimizes any focusing mistakes as well.

5. Using image stabilization when using a tripod

Avoid These 5 Camera Setting Mistakes Typically Made By Beginners

The image stabilizer in your lens or camera will make your photographs sharper when handheld. However, it can also create minor vibrations while keeping the camera steadier, and these vibrations can actually backfire when you are on a tripod. Sometimes they will introduce blur. So always make sure to turn the image stabilizer off when you are using a tripod. If you ever notice your photographs on a tripod are slightly blurry, this issue and wind are the most likely culprits.

Conclusion

There you have it. The bottom line is that if you can learn to conquer and avoid these five common beginner mistakes, you’ll be on your way to better photography.

The post Avoid These 5 Common Camera Setting Mistakes Made By Beginners by James Maher appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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Sigma Quattro H Review

31 May

The Sigma Quattro H is a mirrorless interchangable lens camera with an APS-H (1.3x crop) sensor. It has a spacial resolution of 25.5MP but uses a sensor technology very different from other cameras, capturing around 38M pieces of information and capable of producing files with far higher levels of detail than you’d expect from a conventional 25.5MP camera.

Key Features

  • 25.5MP Foveon X3 Quattro APS-H sensor
  • Hybrid (combined phase + contrast detection) autofocus system
  • JPEG, X3F Raw or DNG file output
  • 2.36m dot (1024 x 768 pixel) LCD viewfinder
  • 1.62m dot (900 x 600 pixel ) LCD rear screen
  • Dust and splash-resistant magnesium alloy body
  • In-camera Raw conversion (X3F only)

In keeping with Sigma’s history of idiosyncratic innovation, there are two things that set it apart from the majority of mirrorless cameras: the use of a full-depth DSLR mount (the company’s own SA mount) and the use of a Foveon X3 Quattro sensor, which captures light and perceives color very differently from other cameras.

Full depth SA mount

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a camera maker build a camera around a full depth DSLR mount, rather than taking advantage of the lack of mirror to make the camera smaller: Pentax’s K-01 took the same approach.

There are two potential disadvantages of this approach. The first is, as you’d expect, the wasted space of building a mirror box for a camera with no mirror. The second, arguably more important downside, is that most DSLR lenses are designed and optimized for phase detection autofocus and they often perform poorly when asked to focus by contrast detection, meaning you have a wide choice of lenses but perpetually hamstrung performance. Sigma has tried to mitigate this by adopting on-sensor phase detection in the SD Quattro H.

If nothing else, the use of the full-depth SA lens mount means you can use any of Sigma’s impressive Art series of lenses.

The obvious appeal of using an existing mount is that the lenses already exist for it. Sigma produces SA mount versions of 39 of its lenses, which plausibly means the Quattro H has more native lenses available than any other mirrorless camera.

Foveon X3 Quattro Sensor

The X3 Quattro sensor is at the heart of what makes the SD Quattro H interesting and is, far more than any physical difference, the thing that most sets this camera apart from all its rivals.

As with all Foveon chips, the sensor interprets color based on the fact that different colors of light have different amounts of energy and so can penetrate the sensor to different depths. This is radically different from conventional designs that place filters in front of the sensor, throwing away around half of all the light so that each pixel only ‘sees’ light of a predetermined color.

Unlike previous Foveon chips, the Quattro design doesn’t attempt to capture full color information at every pixel, instead capturing more spatial resolution than color resolution. This is a fundamentally similar trade-off made by conventional sensors, so it’ll be interesting to see whether this latest design can maintain enough of what made Foveon distinctive while trying to offer more competitive results in other respects.

DNG capability

The other big difference is that the Quattro H can be set to shoot DNG files. These are produced by the camera deconvoluting its sensor’s output and writing them as ~150MB files with three 12-bit color channels. This means the files are significantly larger and theoretically less flexible than the camera’s native X3F Raw files.

The DNGs can’t be used with the camera’s in-camera Raw converter and you can’t shoot DNG + JPEG, but it hugely expands choice of software for processing the files. For this reason, the rest of the review will primarily be based on the camera’s DNG output.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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How to Remove Objects and Add Punch to Your Images with Photoshop

31 May

In this article, we’ll look at an image I reprocessed after my initial edit. I’ll also share with you some tips on how to use Photoshop to remove objects from your scene that are unwanted and add some punch to your image.

Original processed version

Have you ever created an image, processed it, shared it with the world, and then decided it wasn’t quite finished? I have! In fact, I do it more often than I’d like to admit. A while back, I created a video tutorial for On1 Software showing how I used that software to process an image I took at Queen’s Bath on the island of Kauai. I was super excited to share the image because it was an incredible sunset, at an incredible location, shot during some incredible conditions, with a completely random and unscripted local in the scene to top it all off. Here’s a look at the image after processing it and creating the initial video.

How to Remove Objects and Add Punch to Your Images with Photoshop

After watching the video and looking at the final image, I decided I wasn’t 100% satisfied with the edit. I’ve used On1 Software for nearly a decade now, and still use it in my everyday workflow. It wasn’t any fault of On1, I just felt the image could be taken up another notch so decided to take it over into Photoshop to give it another go. I decided the image needed two adjustments…

#1 Remove the local at the bottom climbing up the rocks.

  • Queen’s Bath is notorious for the massive waves that crash against the shore in the winter. Nearly 30 people have drowned at this location from being washed out to sea and this guy was close to being added to the list! I decided to remove him because his movements caused him to become blurred and I felt he ended up being more of a distraction in the image than a complementary part of it.

#2 Add a bit more contrast and punch to the overall image.

  • I felt the sky and rocks were still a bit too washed out and needed a very subtle boost to bring it all together.

Second edited version completed in Photoshop

After a few minutes in Photoshop, I came up with this final (really this time!) result.

How to Remove Objects and Add Punch to Your Images with Photoshop

After working extensively in Photoshop over the past decade, I’ve developed a few tricks along the way. I’m not sure how mainstream some of them are, so I like to share them in hopes that they’ll help you as well. One of those tricks is how I remove objects that are up against other objects(as opposed to being out in the open). To do this, I use a combination of the Quick Selection Tool, Masking, and the Clone Stamp. Adding contrast and punch to the image is a bit more basic in this case, but still advanced if you aren’t super familiar with masking and brush techniques.

Here’s the video where I walk through the process step-by-step.

Let me know what you think and if you have any questions please put them in the comments section below.

Get James’ video course POST II where he walks through his entire workflow in Lightroom, Photoshop, and more from start to finish with 10 of his favorite portfolio images. Be sure to use coupon code DPS25 at checkout for an exclusive DPS discount!

The post How to Remove Objects and Add Punch to Your Images with Photoshop by James Brandon appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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Full-frame Nikon 8-15mm F3.5-4.5E ED fisheye zoom now available

31 May

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The Nikon AF-S Fisheye Nikkor 8-15mm F3.5-4.5E ED is a circular fisheye for the company’s full-frame DSLR bodies. At its wide end it has a 180-degree vertical and horizontal angle-of-view, changing to a non-circular 180-degree diagonal AOV at its long end. The lens has three ED and two aspherical elements as well as Nano Crystal and fluorine coatings.

The 8-15mm F3.5-4.5E ED is available immediately for $ 1249.95.

Press Release:

NIKON ANNOUNCES THREE NEW WIDE-ANGLE NIKKOR LENSES

  • AF-P DX NIKKOR 10-20mm f/4.5-5.6G VR – Compact Ultra-Wide-Angle Perspective DX-format Zoom Lens
  • AF-S Fisheye NIKKOR 8-15mm f/3.5-4.5E ED -Circular Fisheye Zoom for the Ultimate in Versatility and a Unique Perspective
  • AF-S NIKKOR 28mm f/1.4E ED – Outstanding Definition and High Resolution Wide-Angle Prime Lens

 MELVILLE, NY (May 31, 2017 at 12:01 A.M. EDT) — Today, Nikon announced three exciting new wide-angle NIKKOR lenses to give a diverse array of users brilliant image quality and maximum versatility whether shooting vast landscapes, architecture, interiors, events and many other wide-angle applications. The new ultra-wide zoom and lightweight DX-format AF-P DX NIKKOR 10-20mm f/4.5-5.6G VR is an excellent value for budding shutterbugs and novice shooters looking to explore a wide-angle point of view, while the new AF-S Fisheye NIKKOR 8-15mm f/3.5-4.5E ED is an FX-format circular fisheye zoom lens for photographers and content creators who desire a truly unique perspective. Lastly, the new AF-S NIKKOR 28mm f/1.4E ED is a superior prime lens that provides professional and advanced photographers the ultimate in wide-angle image quality. Both the AF-S Fisheye NIKKOR 8-15mm f/3.5-4.5E ED and AF-S NIKKOR 28mm f/1.4E ED are the latest additions to the Gold Ring Series of NIKKOR lenses, a mark identifying Nikon’s premium lens offerings.

“Nikon continues to push the limits of optical excellence, while making new perspectives more attainable than ever before with our latest wide-angle NIKKOR offerings,” said Kosuke Kawaura, Director of Marketing and Planning, Nikon Inc. “Whether a photographer is a novice learning the art of landscapes, an enthusiastic video creator or a working professional shooter, Nikon now makes the wide-angle perspective achievable for everyone.”

The AF-P DX NIKKOR 10-20mm f/4.5-5.6G VR – Ultra-Wide Zoom Lens That’s Compact and Portable

The new NIKKOR 10-20mm is an ultra-wide-angle DX-format zoom lens that opens new perspectives and possibilities for those new to photography, and is ideal for shooting travel and scenery, real estate, large group portraits or vlogging. This new lens combines superior image quality and an attainable price to give consumers wide-angle versatility with a lens that’s remarkably compact and lightweight.

Like all NIKKOR lenses, the new AF-P DX NIKKOR 10-20mm f/4.5-5.6G VR provides advanced optical technologies for stellar image quality in any light, whether shooting a sun-drenched coastal vista, tight spaces or the night sky. The lens features the equivalent of 3.5 stops1 of Vibration Reduction (VR) performance, to help capture sharp images while handheld or in challenging light. Additionally, it utilizes Nikon’s Pulse Motor technology for super-fast and whisper quiet AF operation- which is especially useful when recording video. The optical formula contains three aspherical elements for excellent image quality with minimal distortion even at the widest focal length.

This is a versatile lens that not only excels at shooting expansive horizons, but also offers a remarkably close working distance that’s useful for images or showing up-close details when making product-related videos or how-to content. To get closer to capture small objects with big details, the lens has a close minimum focusing distance of only 8.6 inches (0.22 meters), bringing small objects to life in glorious size.

AF-S Fisheye NIKKOR 8-15mm f/3.5-4.5E ED – Circular Fisheye for Photographers and Content Creators

Nikon’s first fisheye zoom gives photographers and filmmakers an FX-format lens with the look and feel of a circular fisheye and the versatility of a full-frame fisheye, all in one lens. The new lens design provides a creative circular 180-degree vertical / horizontal angle of view on full frame cameras, and zooms to a non-circular fisheye view (180-degree diagonal angle of view) on the long end of the focal range. The lens can also be used on DX-format cameras for a distinctive point-of-view and extreme wide-angle applications. When looking to push creative boundaries, the intriguing perspective from a fisheye lens should be considered to provide a distinct look to your photos and videos, such as a dramatic emphasis on a subject or an extremely wide interior point of view. 

The AF-S Fisheye NIKKOR 8-15mm f/3.5-4.5E ED is also the latest in Nikon’s Gold Ring Series of premier lenses and features a next-generation design for high-resolution Nikon DSLR cameras. Made for advanced photographers and creators, this durable lens is constructed of lightweight magnesium alloy, and employs internal focusing (IF) to retain its compact size, even while focusing. It is also Nikon’s latest lens to use an electromagnetic diaphragm for consistent exposure during high speed shooting, or smooth exposure control while capturing video. 

The optical formula of the Fisheye NIKKOR 8-15mm consists of three ED elements to reduce chromatic aberration, while two aspherical lens elements minimize coma even at the widest aperture, and enable a more compact lens size. Additionally, the front lens element is coated with Nikon’s non-stick Fluorine coat to help resist dirt, fingerprints and smudges, while Nikon’s exclusive Nano Crystal Coat helps reduce ghost and flare. 

AF-S NIKKOR 28mm f/1.4E ED – The Latest in The Gold Ring Series of f/1.4 Primes in the NIKKOR Line

The new AF-S NIKKOR 28mm f/1.4E ED is Gold Ring glass that provides maximum versatility for outstanding definition and sharpness regardless of shooting scenario. With a fast f/1.4 maximum aperture and nine blade rounded diaphragm, it affords a shallow depth of field with gorgeous bokeh and stellar low light performance, making it a great choice for shooting low light landscapes, interiors and events. 

The superbly balanced and solid body is composed of lightweight magnesium alloy, and features dust and water drop resistant sealing to withstand the elements, combined with a fluorine coating to resist dirt and smudges. The optical construction of the lens is engineered for the best possible wide-angle image quality. It consists of 14 elements in 11 groups, with three aspherical elements that virtually eliminate coma, aberration and distortion, with two ED glass elements that minimize chromatic aberration. The lens also uses Nikon’s Nano Crystal coat to reduce instances of ghosting and flare. 

The new AF-S NIKKOR 28mm f/1.4E ED is a welcome addition to Nikon’s stable of impressive f/1.4 primes that give professional photographers and creators the highest levels of image quality and performance, which also include; The AF-S 24mm f/1.4G ED, AF-S NIKKOR 35mm f/1.4G, AF-S NIKKOR 58mm f/1.4G, AF-S NIKKOR 85mm f/1.4G and AF-S NIKKOR 105mm f/1.4E ED.

Price and Availability

The Nikon AF-S Fisheye NIKKOR 8-15mm f/3.5-4.5E ED will be available immediately for a suggested retail price (SRP)* of $ 1249.95. The AF-P DX NIKKOR 10-20mm f/4.5-5.6G VR and AF-S NIKKOR 28mm f/1.4E ED will be available in late June for a suggested retail price (SRP)*, $ 309.95 and $ 1999.95, respectively. For more information on these NIKKOR lenses as well as the latest Nikon products, please visit www.nikonusa.com. 

1: Based on CIPA Standard. This value is achieved when DX-format compatible lenses are attached to a DX-format digital SLR camera and zoom lenses are set at the maximum telephoto position. 

*SRP (Suggested Retail Price) listed only as a suggestion. Actual prices are set by dealers and are subject to change at any time.

Nikon AF-S Fisheye Nikkor 8-15mm F3.5-4.5E ED specifications

Principal specifications
Lens type Zoom lens
Max Format size 35mm FF
Focal length 8–15 mm
Image stabilization No
Lens mount Nikon F (FX)
Aperture
Maximum aperture F3.5–29
Minimum aperture F4.5–29
Aperture ring No
Number of diaphragm blades 7
Optics
Elements 15
Groups 13
Special elements / coatings Three ED + two aspherical elements, Nano Crystal and fluorine coatings
Focus
Minimum focus 0.16 m (6.3)
Maximum magnification 0.34×
Autofocus Yes
Motor type Ring-type ultrasonic
Full time manual Yes
Focus method Internal
Distance scale No
DoF scale No
Physical
Weight 485 g (1.07 lb)
Diameter 78 mm (3.07)
Length 83 mm (3.27)
Materials Magnesium alloy
Sealing No
Colour Black
Zoom method Rotary (extending)
Power zoom No
Zoom lock No
Hood supplied Yes
Tripod collar No

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Nikon adds to fast prime series with AF-S Nikkor 28mm F1.4E ED

31 May

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Nikon has added a sixth lens to its collection of fast F1.4 primes (the others being 24mm, 35mm, 58mm, 85mm and 105mm). The AF-S Nikkor 28mm F1.4E ED lens features nine rounded aperture blades, two ED and three aspherical elements, and Nikon’s Nano Crystal Coating. The lens is made of magnesium alloy and is sealed against dust and moisture.

As you might imagine, this is a pricey lens – it’ll go on sale in late June for $ 1999.95.

Press Release:

NIKON ANNOUNCES THREE NEW WIDE-ANGLE NIKKOR LENSES

  • AF-P DX NIKKOR 10-20mm f/4.5-5.6G VR – Compact Ultra-Wide-Angle Perspective DX-format Zoom Lens
  • AF-S Fisheye NIKKOR 8-15mm f/3.5-4.5E ED -Circular Fisheye Zoom for the Ultimate in Versatility and a Unique Perspective
  • AF-S NIKKOR 28mm f/1.4E ED – Outstanding Definition and High Resolution Wide-Angle Prime Lens

MELVILLE, NY (May 31, 2017 at 12:01 A.M. EDT) — Today, Nikon announced three exciting new wide-angle NIKKOR lenses to give a diverse array of users brilliant image quality and maximum versatility whether shooting vast landscapes, architecture, interiors, events and many other wide-angle applications. The new ultra-wide zoom and lightweight DX-format AF-P DX NIKKOR 10-20mm f/4.5-5.6G VR is an excellent value for budding shutterbugs and novice shooters looking to explore a wide-angle point of view, while the new AF-S Fisheye NIKKOR 8-15mm f/3.5-4.5E ED is an FX-format circular fisheye zoom lens for photographers and content creators who desire a truly unique perspective. Lastly, the new AF-S NIKKOR 28mm f/1.4E ED is a superior prime lens that provides professional and advanced photographers the ultimate in wide-angle image quality. Both the AF-S Fisheye NIKKOR 8-15mm f/3.5-4.5E ED and AF-S NIKKOR 28mm f/1.4E ED are the latest additions to the Gold Ring Series of NIKKOR lenses, a mark identifying Nikon’s premium lens offerings.

“Nikon continues to push the limits of optical excellence, while making new perspectives more attainable than ever before with our latest wide-angle NIKKOR offerings,” said Kosuke Kawaura, Director of Marketing and Planning, Nikon Inc. “Whether a photographer is a novice learning the art of landscapes, an enthusiastic video creator or a working professional shooter, Nikon now makes the wide-angle perspective achievable for everyone.”

The AF-P DX NIKKOR 10-20mm f/4.5-5.6G VR – Ultra-Wide Zoom Lens That’s Compact and Portable

The new NIKKOR 10-20mm is an ultra-wide-angle DX-format zoom lens that opens new perspectives and possibilities for those new to photography, and is ideal for shooting travel and scenery, real estate, large group portraits or vlogging. This new lens combines superior image quality and an attainable price to give consumers wide-angle versatility with a lens that’s remarkably compact and lightweight.

Like all NIKKOR lenses, the new AF-P DX NIKKOR 10-20mm f/4.5-5.6G VR provides advanced optical technologies for stellar image quality in any light, whether shooting a sun-drenched coastal vista, tight spaces or the night sky. The lens features the equivalent of 3.5 stops1 of Vibration Reduction (VR) performance, to help capture sharp images while handheld or in challenging light. Additionally, it utilizes Nikon’s Pulse Motor technology for super-fast and whisper quiet AF operation- which is especially useful when recording video. The optical formula contains three aspherical elements for excellent image quality with minimal distortion even at the widest focal length.

This is a versatile lens that not only excels at shooting expansive horizons, but also offers a remarkably close working distance that’s useful for images or showing up-close details when making product-related videos or how-to content. To get closer to capture small objects with big details, the lens has a close minimum focusing distance of only 8.6 inches (0.22 meters), bringing small objects to life in glorious size.

AF-S Fisheye NIKKOR 8-15mm f/3.5-4.5E ED – Circular Fisheye for Photographers and Content Creators

Nikon’s first fisheye zoom gives photographers and filmmakers an FX-format lens with the look and feel of a circular fisheye and the versatility of a full-frame fisheye, all in one lens. The new lens design provides a creative circular 180-degree vertical / horizontal angle of view on full frame cameras, and zooms to a non-circular fisheye view (180-degree diagonal angle of view) on the long end of the focal range. The lens can also be used on DX-format cameras for a distinctive point-of-view and extreme wide-angle applications. When looking to push creative boundaries, the intriguing perspective from a fisheye lens should be considered to provide a distinct look to your photos and videos, such as a dramatic emphasis on a subject or an extremely wide interior point of view. 

The AF-S Fisheye NIKKOR 8-15mm f/3.5-4.5E ED is also the latest in Nikon’s Gold Ring Series of premier lenses and features a next-generation design for high-resolution Nikon DSLR cameras. Made for advanced photographers and creators, this durable lens is constructed of lightweight magnesium alloy, and employs internal focusing (IF) to retain its compact size, even while focusing. It is also Nikon’s latest lens to use an electromagnetic diaphragm for consistent exposure during high speed shooting, or smooth exposure control while capturing video. 

The optical formula of the Fisheye NIKKOR 8-15mm consists of three ED elements to reduce chromatic aberration, while two aspherical lens elements minimize coma even at the widest aperture, and enable a more compact lens size. Additionally, the front lens element is coated with Nikon’s non-stick Fluorine coat to help resist dirt, fingerprints and smudges, while Nikon’s exclusive Nano Crystal Coat helps reduce ghost and flare. 

AF-S NIKKOR 28mm f/1.4E ED – The Latest in The Gold Ring Series of f/1.4 Primes in the NIKKOR Line

The new AF-S NIKKOR 28mm f/1.4E ED is Gold Ring glass that provides maximum versatility for outstanding definition and sharpness regardless of shooting scenario. With a fast f/1.4 maximum aperture and nine blade rounded diaphragm, it affords a shallow depth of field with gorgeous bokeh and stellar low light performance, making it a great choice for shooting low light landscapes, interiors and events. 

The superbly balanced and solid body is composed of lightweight magnesium alloy, and features dust and water drop resistant sealing to withstand the elements, combined with a fluorine coating to resist dirt and smudges. The optical construction of the lens is engineered for the best possible wide-angle image quality. It consists of 14 elements in 11 groups, with three aspherical elements that virtually eliminate coma, aberration and distortion, with two ED glass elements that minimize chromatic aberration. The lens also uses Nikon’s Nano Crystal coat to reduce instances of ghosting and flare. 

The new AF-S NIKKOR 28mm f/1.4E ED is a welcome addition to Nikon’s stable of impressive f/1.4 primes that give professional photographers and creators the highest levels of image quality and performance, which also include; The AF-S 24mm f/1.4G ED, AF-S NIKKOR 35mm f/1.4G, AF-S NIKKOR 58mm f/1.4G, AF-S NIKKOR 85mm f/1.4G and AF-S NIKKOR 105mm f/1.4E ED.

Price and Availability

The Nikon AF-S Fisheye NIKKOR 8-15mm f/3.5-4.5E ED will be available immediately for a suggested retail price (SRP)* of $ 1249.95. The AF-P DX NIKKOR 10-20mm f/4.5-5.6G VR and AF-S NIKKOR 28mm f/1.4E ED will be available in late June for a suggested retail price (SRP)*, $ 309.95 and $ 1999.95, respectively. For more information on these NIKKOR lenses as well as the latest Nikon products, please visit www.nikonusa.com. 

1: Based on CIPA Standard. This value is achieved when DX-format compatible lenses are attached to a DX-format digital SLR camera and zoom lenses are set at the maximum telephoto position. 

*SRP (Suggested Retail Price) listed only as a suggestion. Actual prices are set by dealers and are subject to change at any time.

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 28mm F1.4E ED specifications

Principal specifications
Lens type Prime lens
Max Format size 35mm FF
Focal length 28 mm
Image stabilization No
Lens mount Nikon F (FX)
Aperture
Maximum aperture F1.4–16
Minimum aperture F1.4–16
Aperture ring No
Number of diaphragm blades 9
Optics
Elements 14
Groups 11
Special elements / coatings 3 aspherical + 2 ED element, Nano Crystal and fluorine coatings
Focus
Minimum focus 0.28 m (11.02)
Maximum magnification 0.17×
Autofocus Yes
Motor type Ring-type ultrasonic
Full time manual Yes
Focus method Internal
Distance scale No
DoF scale No
Physical
Weight 645 g (1.42 lb)
Diameter 83 mm (3.27)
Length 101 mm (3.98)
Materials Magnesium alloy
Sealing Yes
Colour Black
Filter thread 77.0 mm
Tripod collar No

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Thoughts and Field Test of the Sigma 12-24mm F4 DG HSM Art Lens

31 May

In November 2016, Sigma introduced the world to its widest zoom lens offering to date: the Sigma 12-24mm f/4 DG HSM Art lens. This is actually Sigma’s third version of the 12-24mm DG (full frame) lens, but it is the first to have the “Art” designation and a constant aperture. Previous lens versions share the same focal length but differ in maximum aperture, weight, size, and price.

Priced at $ 1,600, this isn’t the cheapest lens, but it is a steal compared to Canon’s EF 11-24mm f/4L USM, which runs just under $ 2,700. Here are some more details on the Sigma 12-24mm lens and reasons why it may or may not be for you.

Sigma 12-24mm Art Lens

Thoughts and Field Test of the Sigma 12-24mm F4 DG HSM Art Lens

Sigma 12-24mm mounted on a Canon 6D.

Specs of the Sigma 12-24mm

  • 12-24mm focal length
  • Maximum aperture of f/4
  • Minimum focusing of 0.24 m (9.45″)
  • Available in Canon EF, Nikon F (FX) and Sigma mounts
  • Ring-type hypersonic motor
  • Item dimensions of 3.3 x 4.7 x 3.3 inches
  • Item weight of 1.5 lbs
  • Weather sealing, dust and splash proof
  • Comes with a solid lens cap and a zippered carrying case with shoulder strap
Sigma 12-24mm Art Lens

A phenomenal lens for architecture and interiors. Shot at 12mm.

Pros of the Sigma 12-24mm

Solid build quality

The build quality of the Sigma 12-24mm is impeccable. Constructed mostly of metal and glass, this is a solid and rather heavy lens. It takes up quite a bit of space in your bag and can make it difficult to travel with (more on that below). On the plus side, I would expect it to hold up well over time. Also, it is dust and splash proof as well as being weather sealed.

Thoughts and Field Test of the Sigma 12-24mm F4 DG HSM Art Lens

Excellent distortion control

Ultra-wide angle lenses often suffer from distortion, where straight lines may appear more curved, and proportions may seem off. This can often be corrected in post-processing. Shots that were taken with my previous wide-angle lens, the Canon 16-35mm f/2.8, often needed quite a bit of Photoshop post-processing to straighten lines and correct distortion. The Sigma 12-24mm, however, does an outstanding job of keeping photo subjects pretty free of distortion, no matter what focal length you’re using.

Sigma 12-24mm Art Lens

Interior image shot at 12mm.

Sigma 12-24mm Art Lens

Same photo subject from above, but shot from a slightly closer angle at 24mm.

Things to consider

Not for everyday shooting situations

Shooting with an ultra-wide angle lens takes a certain eye for composition. Not everything will photograph well at 12mm due to perspective distortion. People, for example, may end up with body parts that appear much larger or longer than they should be when they are photographed at wide focal lengths. Thus, it’s important to manage your expectations with a wide-angle lens and realize that not everything will photograph well with it. Generally speaking, ultra-wide angle lenses suit the needs of architecture and landscape photographers. Portrait and product photographers, not so much.

Thoughts and Field Test of the Sigma 12-24mm F4 DG HSM Art Lens

Not a great image due to poor composition and distortion of shooting at 12mm.

Sigma 12-24mm Art Lens

With better composition and positioning, 12mm can work in certain situations, like landscape or cityscape photos.

Curved front lens element

The Sigma 12-24mm f/4 has a bulbous, curved front lens element that makes it impossible to use standard, threaded filters. This might be a hindrance to landscape photographers needing to use circular polarizers and neutral density filters, or the average photographer who likes to stick a UV filter on for added lens protection. There are other filter solutions such as slip-in rear gel filters, but those can be quite large and cumbersome to deal with.

Heavy lens

While a solid lens is great in terms of being reliably built, the weight and bulk of this lens are undeniable. Combined with the aforementioned con of not being able to add a protective filter to the glass, the Sigma 12-24mm becomes very unfriendly as a travel lens. If you do travel with it, you’d need to be extremely careful to avoid damaging the glass.

Thoughts and Field Test of the Sigma 12-24mm F4 DG HSM Art Lens

Other Lens Options

Since this is the third iteration of Sigma’s 12-24mm lens, there are two previous models to consider if you are looking for alternatives.

  • Sigma 12-24mm f/4.5-5.6 EX DG HSM lens (version 1)
  • Sigma 12-24mm f/4.5-5.6 DG II HSM lens (version 2)

This Sigma lens is also going up against the Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM lens ($ 2699), the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G ($ 1899), and Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8 ($ 1199). Focal lengths, apertures, and prices all vary, so it really depends on which features are most important to you.

In Conclusion

In terms of image quality, I found the Sigma 12-24mm to be incredible for shooting architecture and interiors in particular. However, its weight and fragile, bulbous lens make it tricky to travel with.

Would you pull the trigger on investing in this lens? Let me know in the comments below!

The post Thoughts and Field Test of the Sigma 12-24mm F4 DG HSM Art Lens by Suzi Pratt appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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Sigma Mount Converter MC-11 experiences focus bug when used with Sony a9

31 May

Sigma has warned that the use of its Mount Converter MC-11 and certain Sigma zoom lenses with the Sony a9 may result in missed focus. According to a notice recently published by Sigma, the issue may arise ‘occasionally’ when using AF-S mode and while shooting ‘in the telephoto range.’

The phenomenon, according to Sigma, affects both the EF-E and SA-E versions of the MC-11. The company says it is investigating the issue and that it will publish an update ‘shortly,’ presumably with a software fix in the pipeline.

Via: Sigma Photo

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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PocketWizard FlexTT6 Transceiver launched for Canon DSLRs and flashes

31 May

PocketWizard has announced the launch of its FlexTT6 Transceiver compatible with more than 20 Canon DSLRs and flashes, including the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV and EOS-1D X Mark II, as well as both the 430 EX III-RT and 600 EX II-RT flashes. PocketWizard calls the Flex TT6 a flagship TTL radio that is ‘future-proof,’ as well as ‘forward, backward and cross-compatible’ with the company’s other wireless radios.

The new FlexTT6 brings with it the same HyperSync technology found in the FlexTT5 model, as well as HSS and TTL while being compatible with newer, faster cameras. The transceiver works on the 340 – 354MHz frequencies and has a range of 366m / 1200ft for basic triggers and 243m / 800ft for TTL. The transceiver is powered by a pair of AA batteries and likewise features a mini USB port.

The PocketWizard FlexTT6 is currently listed as available for preorder on B&H Photo for $ 186. The company says its new transceiver will be available online and in retail stores starting on June 8 in both the US and Canada.

Via: The Phoblographer

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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The dPS Ultimate Guide to Photography for Beginners

31 May






 

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Photography can be a fun and rewarding thing to learn, but where do you start? How should you set up your camera, what skills should you work on first, how should you be processing your photographs? This in-depth guide for photography beginners aims to answer those questions and help you create a foundation for success as you pick up this exciting new hobby of photography.

Setting up Your First Camera

When you unpack your first camera you may be intimidated with the various menus, settings, and options for customization. The camera user manual, while it does contain valuable information, is often dry and technical which only compounds the issues of learning this new technology.

Manual - The dPS Ultimate Guide to Photography for Beginners

While you could embrace the good old “play with it” method of learning it can lead to frustration if your early results don’t live up to expectations. This method can also lead to learning less than optimal ways of using your camera making it more difficult to fix bad habits later on.

Each camera manufacturer has its own design, terminology, and specifications. So, it’s difficult to provide you with an exact guide for setting up your specific camera. As a result, for detailed instructions about your camera, I suggest searching YouTube or specific guides found on the internet. Just Google the brand and model of your camera to find more specific help.

Regardless of manufacturer, there are a few important steps you should take to make sure your camera is set up to your liking. Let’s go through those individually.

Image Quality

Determining what image quality to capture your photographs in can be a confusing task when you’re first starting out. What is JPEG, NEF (RAW), JPEG+RAW?

Image quality - The dPS Ultimate Guide to Photography for Beginners

The simplest route to take is to save your photographs in the highest quality JPEG option your camera offers. This will allow you to focus on learning how to take photographs while allowing the camera to handle the bulk of the image processing. You’ll still have the ability to add some minor touchups if you want to later, but you won’t have to process your images on your computer.

As you progress and become more comfortable with your camera and the techniques you’ll learn in the rest of this article, you may want to switch this setting to capture your images in a RAW format. The advantage of RAW format is that your images are left unprocessed by the camera, allowing you to choose the processing that reflects the image you saw when you captured it, not the preset processing that your camera performs when saving a JPEG (sharpening, contrast and saturation levels).

Due to this unprocessed nature of a RAW file, it turns out to be a much larger file. Depending on the size of your camera’s sensor this could be more than 10 times larger than your JPEG images. This means you’ll notice that the number of images you can capture on your SD card will drop substantially, so you may need to purchase additional or larger memory cards.

File Naming

Determining a file naming system for images is something that most people gloss over, but choosing this early on will help you start an organizational system that works for you.

This setting is primarily going to rest on your personal taste. You could save the image file with the date the image was captured. Or you could save images with a sequential numbering system. There’s no wrong way to set this up, it depends on whether you prefer to keep track of the dates of your shoots or the number of photographs you’ve taken.

Time and Date

Time date - The dPS Ultimate Guide to Photography for Beginners

Even if you don’t save your images by date, you’ll still want to set the time and date of your camera. This information will be recorded in the metadata (hidden in the properties of the file) of each image, which will allow you to search and find images based on date even if you don’t name them as such. However, if the date and time are set incorrectly, it could become very difficult to match up your events with the dates your camera thinks they were taken (although you can correct this in most photo editing software).

Metadata

Metadata - The dPS Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Photography

With each photograph, you take your camera records a lot of information about that exposure. This information is known as the metadata of the image. When you are setting your camera up, you can customize this to some extent. For example, you can embed your copyright information right into the metadata of every image you take.

Reading the metadata later can be a little confusing, but it can also tell you a great deal about the photographs you’ve taken. If you ever want to go back and try to reproduce it later or troubleshoot ones that went wrong, this data can be very useful.

Inside a program like Lightroom, the metadata is displayed and you can even add to it if you so choose. Lightroom will even let you search your library based on this information so if you want to see all photographs taken at 18mm, or shot using f/2.8, you can do that!

Metadata 2 - The dPS Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Photography

If you’re not using any software to process your photography, you can still view your metadata. The process is similar on both Windows and Mac. Find your image file and right click on it. On Mac you’ll want to navigate to “Get Info” and inside the window that pops up will be all the data attached to this image. Windows works in the same manner, but they call it “Properties” instead, and you navigate to the “Details Tab”.

As mentioned earlier, for more information on getting your specific camera set up, YouTube is a great place to start. You’ll be able to find walkthroughs of all the various menus, what they mean, and how to customize them.

For more on setting up your new camera read: 

  • Top 10 Things to do When Your New Camera Arrives
  • Getting to Know Your New Camera

Understanding How Your Camera Works

Now that your camera is set up, it’s time to understand a bit about how it actually works. When you take a photograph, what exactly is happening inside the camera that allows the scene to be saved to your SD card?

A camera is a simple device which is really only comprised of a few key parts. For standard DSLRs, there is the camera body with a lens attached. Your camera body contains everything needed to capture and process an image, while the lens is what focuses your image onto the sensor inside the camera.

The way these two components (the camera and the lens) work together is as follows. Light comes through the opening in your lens. When you are not shooting there is a mirror inside that reflects that light up through a prism (think periscope) and through the eyepiece, so you can view the image as seen exactly by the lens. When you press the shutter button to take a picture, the mirror flips up out of the way, and the lens adjusts to the chosen aperture (opening in the lens, more on that later). The shutter in the back of the camera then opens, allowing light to hit the sensor, creating your image. The camera saves the image to your memory card, the mirror returns to its original place and it’s all reset ready for you to shoot again. This all happens in less than the blink of an eye.

Looking viewfinder - The dPS Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Photography

Taking photo - The dPS Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Photography

If you have a Mirrorless camera they work a little differently. They do not have a moving mirror system. Instead, what you see in the viewfinder is a live feed of exactly what the image sensor is processing. This allows you to see things like Depth Of Field, the exposure, White Balance, and more before you even take the photograph. When you press the button of a Mirrorless camera, the lens adjusts to the chosen aperture, the shutter opens, and the image file is saved to your card.

Mirrorless versus dslr - The dPS Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Photography

Mirrorless camera (top) versus a DSLR (bottom) as a size comparison.

Your First Skills as a Photographer

Now that you have a basic understanding of how your camera captures a photograph, it’s time to start developing your skills as a photographer. There are three major concepts that you’ll need to develop; technical skills, artistic skills, and personality. These three skills break down in a number of ways, this guide will try to give you a place to start with each of them.

Technical Skills

The technical skills of a photographer revolve around what settings you choose to take the photo. That includes: just knowing how to use the camera and change settings, getting a good exposure, focusing a sharp image, getting the right color, etc. These are the things you need to learn to understand how to make your photographs sharp and properly exposed.

The Exposure Triangle

As you may guess by the name, the exposure triangle is made up of three components. These three components are; the aperture, the shutter speed, and the ISO. Learning to control these three settings is vital to achieving a properly exposed photograph.

Exposure triangle - The dPS Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Photography

Aperture

The aperture is simply the opening in your lens. Just like the pupil of your eye, it opens and closes to adjust the amount of light coming through the lens, and hitting the sensor. If your scene is dark, you can open it to let more light through the lens. When your scene is bright, you might make the aperture smaller to let less light pass through to the sensor

The aperture inside the lens opens and closes to control the amount of light entering through the lens.

The aperture not only allows you to control the amount of light passing through the lens, but it also affects the depth of field (amount of your image that is in sharp focus). You will learn more about this later just keep it in the back of your mind for now.

Shot at f/16. A small opening that provides lots of depth of field (in focus area of the image).

Shot at f/10.

Shot a f/5.6.

Shot at f.2/8.

Shot at f/1.8, a very large aperture which has a shallow depth of field. You can see how little of this image is sharp.

Shutter Speed

The amount of time that the shutter is opened allowing the imaging sensor is exposed to light is called your shutter speed.

Typically the shutter speed is measured in fractions of a second, for example, 1/200th or 1/8th of a second. However, there are cases where you may even allow your shutter speed to be open for seconds at a time. Extremely low light photography, shooting light trails, or capturing photographs of the stars are examples of where this might be the case. Make note that most cameras display two seconds like this – 2”.

Shutter 1 4000th - The dPS Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Photography

A shutter speed of 1/4000th of a second is needed to freeze fast moving subjects like this moth.

Shutter speed 1/3rd of a second.

Shutter speed 1/13th of a second.

Shutter speed 1/50th of a second.

ISO

The final leg of the triangle is often the most confusing to new photographers primarily because it’s not as easy to visualize as the other two. With aperture, you can picture the opening in the lens and with shutter speed, you can picture it moving faster or slower. ISO on the other hand – is a measure of sensitivity to light.

When you increase the ISO on your camera what essentially happens is that you are telling the image sensor to be more sensitive to light. This means that for the same size opening (aperture), and the same amount of exposure time (shutter speed), you capture more light, and thus achieve a brighter image.

The trade-off is that with a higher sensitivity you also get a great chance of generating more noise (unwanted grain or speckles) in your images. Camera manufacturers have come a long way in improving this, though, and many new cameras are capable of shooting at very high ISOs with minimal noise.

Shot with a low ISO.

Shot with a high ISO.

Shot at ISO 100.

ISO 100 at 100% crop.

Shot at ISO 5000.

ISO 5000 at 100% crop. Notice the presence of heavy noise (grain) in this image compared to the one at ISO 100.

For more information on the technical skills you need to learn, check out the following articles: 

  • Mastering the Exposure Triangle for Newbies
  • Understand Exposure in Under 10 Minutes
  • The Exposure Triangle Visualised: Cheat Sheet
  • How to Read and Use Histograms
  • How to Understand the Mysteries of ISO for Beginners
  • 6 Tips for Using ISO Effectively With Your Camera
  • Seeing in Depth of Field: A Simple Understanding of Aperture
  • Getting off Auto; Manual, Aperture and Shutter Priority modes explained
  • Demystifying Shutter Speed
  • An Exercise to Learn and Practice Shutter Speed at Home
  • 6 Ways to Use Shutter Speed Creatively

You may also want to have a look at our dPS beginner course Photo Nuts and Bolts – Know your camera, take incredible photos.

Putting it Together

It’s easy to talk about each of these elements individually, but when you’re in the field taking a photograph, it’s not good enough to only know about one of them. The key is to learn how each one affects the other two, and how they work together to allow you to capture the images you want. There are also a few other key settings you’ll want to know. Let’s look at them.

White Balance

The white balance of your photograph relates to both the color temperature and the tint of your image. The color temperature will affect the yellow to the blue (warm to cold) color of your images, while tint will affect the green to magenta of your images. Your camera has different white balance settings for you to choose from including an auto option as well as several presets.

All light sources and types of light have a color. Think about fluorescent light bulbs; you can get them in cool white, natural, or warm light – each having a slightly different hue. Other light sources are the same. For example, daylight and flash are fairly neutral, tungsten or incandescent bulbs are quite orange, shade is bluer, fluorescent is often a bit green. What the white balance setting in your camera attempts to do is to neutralize any tint from the light source so that your subject is rendered accurately.

So if you are shooting under tungsten lighting (incandescent or regular light bulbs) which is very orange – when you select the Tungsten White Balance preset the camera adds a blue filter which is the opposite color, to neutralize the orange tint. You can also use White balance creatively to add color such as in the case of shooting a sunset if you want it more orange choose the Shade preset on your camera.

The good thing about white balance is that it is consistent and predictable, so as a new photographer Auto White Balance is a good place to start. If you choose to shoot RAW format you’ll actually have a lot of control over the white balance of your images in post-production allowing you to make corrections should you need to later on. If you shoot JPG you need to make sure you get the white balance right in-camera.

White balance as shot in camera.

White balance adjusted to cloudy in post-processing.

White balance adjusted to daylight in post-processing.

White balance adjusted to custom in post-processing.

Learn more about White Balance here:

  • Demystifying White Balance
  • How Auto White Balance Can Hinder Your Photography
  • Setting The Mood By Adjusting Your White Balance
  • Guide to Creative White Balance for Landscape Photography

Learning How to Focus

In addition to learning how to properly expose your photographs, you’ll need to learn how to achieve the proper focus. Achieving sharp focus may be even more important than the perfect exposure simply because software is still unable to truly correct for soft focus.
Focus Modes

Your camera allows you to tailor the type of focusing it will do, to the subjects you want to photograph. Each manufacturer picks their own way to describe these modes, but they work in the same manner on all cameras.

  • Single Focus Mode: AF-S(Nikon) / One Shot (Canon) – When you specify this mode the camera assumes that your subject is not moving. When you press the shutter button half way down the camera will snap into focus and lock onto the subject. You can then recompose your image while holding the shutter button part way down to maintain this focus. Once you depress the shutter button fully your image will be captured.
  • Continuous Focus Mode: AF-C (Nikon) / AI Servo (Canon) – This is a continuous shooting mode which automatically tracks your initial focus point as the subject or camera moves. Use this mode for photographing active children, pets, sport, or other action related subjects.
  • Auto Mode: AF-A (Nikon) AI-Focus (Canon) – This option tries to guess which of the above two options is right for the situation you are currently photographing. While this may seem easier and more intuitive to use, it can also be frustrating as your camera starts doing one thing. It also has the chance of getting it wrong.

Focus Points

Focus points with the center one selected. This is where your camera will focus.

Your camera is also capable of focusing on a single point within your viewfinder’s frame or by using multiple points within that frame. In most cases you when your subjects are slow moving or stationary you’ll want to use single point focus mode. You’ll switch to a multiple focus point mode when you’re photographing action such as birds in flight or sports.

Learn more about focusing your camera here:

  • Getting Sharper Images; an Understanding of Focus Modes
  • 5 Beginner Tips for More Autofocus Success
  • How to Avoid Blurry Photos by Choosing the Right Autofocus Mode
  • 9 Mistakes That Can Cause Blurry Photos
  • Understanding Normal and Cross-Type Focusing Points
  • 4 Tips for Using for Live View to Get Sharper and More Creative Images

The Shutter Speed Rule

It’s simply a matter of physics, you can only hold a camera still for so long without the motion of your hands (camera shake) being detectable in the image you’ve captured. When this happens your image will look blurry. Nine times of out ten with newbie photographers a blurry image is caused by a slow shutter speed, not improper focus. The good news is that there’s a very easy formula to remember which will allow you to rarely worry about this dreaded issue.

Take the focal length of your lens and that becomes the shutter speed you cannot go below. For example, if you’re photographing at 50mm, your minimum shutter speed is 1/50th of a second. If you’re photographing at 200mm your minimum shutter speed is 1/200th of a second or faster.

Shutter speed rule - The dPS Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Photography

A couple of notes about this rule: These numbers are for 35mm equivalent focal lengths so if you are using a crop sensor camera (one which is not full frame) multiply by that first, and then apply the shutter speed rule (Nikon’s is 1.5x so if you’re shooting with a 200mm lens on a Nikon crop factor camera body go with 200 x 1.5 = 300 or 1/300th as your minimum shutter speed.)

Also, this rule tends to break down at the extreme end. For example, 1/20th may be too slow of a shutter speed even if you’re photographing at 20mm. The same goes for 1/500th with a 500mm lens because the weight and sensitivity to movement are so magnified at this end that you’ll probably need to shoot even faster – or use a tripod.

Many modern lenses have a setting called VR or IS. This stands for Vibration Reduction or Image Stabilization and they essentially do the same thing, try to minimize camera shake at slow shutter speeds when hand holding. High-quality systems may let you get away with even slower shutter speeds.

All this said, because everyone’s different, the best thing to do is to try to find your own personal shutter speed limits by taking test shots. If your photographs are soft or blurry, odds are good that it’s not the lens’s fault, but rather, that you’re not able to hold the lens still enough to capture a sharp image.

Proper Tripod Use

Investing in a sturdy tripod is important, but that’s only half the battle. You also need to learn how to use the tripod effectively in order to ensure you get sharp photographs.

There are situations when you’ll absolutely need a tripod. For example, if you want to create silky waterfall photographs, shoot photographs of the stars, or do any sort of light painting a tripod will be your new best friend.

Tripod waterfall - The dPS Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Photography

Some common errors many new photographers make are; extending the legs from the thin segments first. The thicker upper segments will provide more support so use those first, then use the thinner segments if you need more height. Only as a last resort should you extend the center column as it is the least stable piece of your tripod and any instability can result in camera shake, or worse, a damaged camera.

Another common mistake made with tripods is not balancing the center of gravity. A good quality tripod will allow you to adjust each leg’s angle independent of the others. By doing this you can negotiate difficult terrain. It might look awkward to have one leg at 45 degrees and the other two at 20 and 30 degrees, but if that’s what it takes to get the camera’s center of gravity straight down the middle then make sure that’s what you’re doing.

Mega article tripod - The dPS Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Photography

Use a High ISO When Necessary

There is a lot of fear among some photographer in using higher ISO settings. This may be the result of a hold-over from the days when digital cameras first made their appearance and high ISO settings were truly terrible. But today’s cameras are substantially more improved, meaning that you can get very usable images well above ISO 1000 on even most entry-level DSLRs.

This means that if you are in a low light situation or if you are trying to freeze fast motion and need a faster shutter speed, don’t be afraid to bump the ISO. Even if you do get a little bit of noise in the photograph, post-production software has gotten very good at removing and smoothing out noise that it probably will be recoverable in the end.

The moral of the story is that sharp photographs don’t require expensive lenses, but rather a solid understanding of the fundamentals of what causes blur in the first place. Know your camera’s focus settings and options, use the minimum shutter speed when hand holding and use a tripod properly when needed.

Mega article high iso - The dPS Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Photography

11mm lens, ISO 1250, f/2.8, 30 seconds.

More on using a high ISO here:

  • How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Auto ISO
  • Reasons to Shoot High ISO Images
  • Use a High ISO to Create Grainy Shots
  • Three Uses for High ISO you Might Not Know

Artistic Skills

While technical skills will allow your images to be sharp and well exposed, they won’t help you to capture interesting photographs. This is where your artistic skills will come into play. Things like composition, subject matter, and creating drama with light all play a role in determining the interest level of the photographs you capture.

Composition

There are a number of techniques you can use for composing your photographs and it is important that every new photographer learns at least a solid foundation in composition theory.

The composition of your photograph is arguably more important than the subject itself. After all, interesting subjects can be made to appear boring, while boring subjects, can be made to look quite interesting, all due to the way the photographer has chosen to compose the photograph.

The first rule of composition you will want to learn is the rule of thirds. This rule is one that is talked about over and over again. It’s such a fundamental part of photography that your camera manufacturer has more than likely provided a grid (that looks like a tic-tac-toe board) in your viewfinder to enable you to quickly compose images using this rule.

The basic concept of the rule of thirds is to place your subject, or your primary area of focus, (basically where you want your viewer to look) on one of the four cross sections of the grid in your viewfinder.

Thirds no overlay - The dPS Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Photography

A Couple of Key Things to Note

Leave room in front of your subject, not behind. In most cases, you will want to leave room in front of (i.e. where your subject is looking or leaning) rather than behind it.

Use one-third of your image for providing structure or grounding your viewer to the scene that you are presenting, and two-thirds to showcase the reason for photographing the scene.

Mega article humingbird - The dPS Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Photography

There are many more advanced composition techniques but get really comfortable with this rule before you venture out to more complex techniques. Plus, there are a number of composition tools that you can use within just this one technique. You will learn about those next.

Composition tools are what you use within your frame to drive your overall composition. These tools can be elements within your scene, or it can be the absence of these elements that drives the composition. It’s all about how you use them to your advantage when you compose a scene.

Leading Lines

Leading lines is a tool that you can use to pull your viewer into and through your photograph. On the most basic level, a leading line is simply a line within your photograph that leads the viewer to something interesting. The last word in that sentence is what’s important.

Important note: You cannot just photograph leading lines – they are just a compositional tool, not the subject of the photograph.

Snow leading lines - The dPS Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Photography

To compose with leading lines you’ll first want to find a good subject, anything that interests you. Next time you raise your camera to photograph first stop and ask yourself, “Is there something within this scene that I can use to lead my viewer towards this subject?”. Remember, the person viewing the photograph doesn’t have all the context that you had while you were on this scene. Therefore, any additional help you can provide to the viewer about what it was that caught your eye and made you take the photograph will help make the image more interesting.

Curves

Curves are similar to leading lines in a way but rather than straight, they are rounded. The great thing about curved lines is that they can meander through a photograph allowing you to hit upon multiple interesting elements across the entire frame. Curved lines work really well in landscape photographs as a result. This allows you to capture both interesting foreground elements and distant background elements while tying it all together.

River sunset - The dPS Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Photography

Symmetry

When you have a symmetrical subject, odds are good that you’ll want to use this tool in your photograph. Reflections are a great way to fill your scene with interesting elements. You can have a sunset reflected in a river, which leads toward the sunset itself for example.

Mega article symmetry - The dPS Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Photography

For more on composition read:

  • Five Ways to Improve Your Composition Skills
  • Tips for Using Natural Framing to Improve Your Composition
  • How to Improve Composition by Placing your Subject Off-Center
  • 10 Ideas to Instantly Improve Your Photography Composition
  • 6 Advanced Composition Techniques to Improve Your Photos
  • 4 Steps to Creating Images With More Meaningful Composition
  • How to Create Strong Compositions Using Color Contrast
  • How to Use Leading Lines Effectively in Landscape Photography

Your First Time Post-Processing Photographs

Your post-production skills are what can take a great photograph to the next level, but processing does not create great photographs. A great photograph is created the moment the shutter is released, not on within a computer, hours or days later. Therefore it is important for you to have at least a fundamental understanding of post=production as you begin taking you first photographs.

Software Choices

So many choices - The dPS Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Photography

There are a number of free image processing tools available and if money is extremely tight these options might be where you’ll want to start learning. However, if you can afford to invest in post-production software, I would highly recommend Adobe’s Creative Cloud package for photographers. This gives you access to both Lightroom and Photoshop CC which will allow you to process photographs with the same tools the pros use for roughly the same cost as a Netflix subscription. Considering the costs associated with lenses and cameras it is truly one of the best deals you will find in photography.

Post-production 101

No matter what software you end up choosing the initial learning experience will often result in a lot of experimentation. At the deepest level, post-production is a form of art. It is where you are able to add your own flavor to the images you’ve captured and make them your own.

While you can learn tricks and tips on how to process images and mimic these things in your own photographs, the best advice I can give you about processing is to experiment fearlessly. You will find that some experiments fail miserably, while others are truly magnificent. But because each photograph is different, learning high-level concepts of how the various sliders, buttons, and drop-down menus affect your image is more important than remembering +33 Exposure, -14 Shadows, etc.

Image before processing, right out of the camera.

Image after processing.

For more on post-processing images read these dPS articles:

  • Post-Processing Tips for Beginners
  • Understanding the Difference Between Photoshop and Lightroom
  • Photoshop Versus Lightroom Which is Right for You?
  • Post-Processing Tips for Overcoming Beginners Acts of Omission
  • The dPS Ultimate Guide to Getting Started in Lightroom for Beginners
  • 5 Common Post-Processing Mistakes to Avoid
  • 5 Easy Photoshop Tips for Beginners
  • 10 Things Photoshop Beginners Want to Know How to Do
  • The Beginners Guide to Lightroom Presets
  • 6 Photoshop Tools Every Newbie Should Learn
  • 5 Practical Lightroom Tips for Newbies

For more in-depth learning check out our dPS course: Lightroom Mastery.

What Makes a Great Photograph

Understanding the concepts explained earlier is a great starting point. But great photographers, and ultimately great photographs rely on more than just the ideas and concepts. It’s about how these all interact with one another.

Great photography relies on a thoughtful composition. This means that you as the photographer are choosing the right composition for the specific subject you’re photographing. Just because The Rule Of Thirds is a great type of composition, it doesn’t mean that it’s the right one to use for every photograph.

The same can be said about other aspects of photography. Finding the right way to tell the story, the right way to expose the scene, the right way to process the final image – these all affect the final outcome. It takes a lot of practice, time, and energy to do these things as second nature, but that’s part of the reason you learn something new.

Finally – Never Stop Learning

Remember, photography is truly fun and can be extremely rewarding to learn as a skill, but it is a skill that can take a long time to develop. Over time you’ll find yourself asking questions about your composition or the exposure that you’ve chosen for a particular photograph. You’ll start to hear yourself analyzing the light in a scene as you’re walking down the street with friends. Photography can change the way you see the world if you let it.

Over the next several months if you continue to work at improving the skills mentioned in this article you should see improvement in your photography. Remember to compare your photographs with those that you’ve taken in the past and not against other photographers, even if they are starting at the same time as you are. We all learn at different speeds, so all you need to focus on is improving your own images.

Leading line fog - The dPS Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Photography

The final suggestion is for you to join a photography community. Whether it’s a Facebook Group, an online forum, or a local club, the support and encouragement you will get from other photographers will be priceless as you build upon these basic skills with more advanced techniques. Join us at the dPS Facebook group here, there’s usually a good discussion happening and lots of image sharing.

The best way to improve your photography is through developing a solid foundation of skills that you can build upon. This beginner’s guide was designed in a way that hopefully achieves that and as a result, we’ve made it into a printable PDF download which you can get here for free.






 

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