Category: Photography

Nikon Coolpix P520

It was love at first sight!

Totally smitten!

Pulled the P520 out of its unassuming box and there it was: a gleaming vision in deep cherry red.

At the outset, the red base colour and overlaid control ID texts picked out in white made everything abundantly clear … much better than the usual white text on black!
And what a piece of kit it is.

Hitting off with a 42x zoom that moves from a 35 SLR equivalent of 24mm at the wide end and slipping in to a tele of 1000mm, it’s quite a piece of glass, although I found the stabiliser to be wanting when I handheld the camera while shooting video.

The maximum still image size is 4896×3672 pixels, printing out to a final 41x31cm result.

Video can be recorded in Full HD at 1920×1080 resolution. While shooting video you can also shoot stills, with no interruption, although you will hear the click of the shutter.

Controls

Top: at the right end of the top deck you find the mode dial with auto, PASM, scene modes, night landscape, landscape, backlighting, special effects and special user settings.

There are 17 scene modes, including settings for beach, sunset, food shots, fireworks, panorama, 3D photography etc.

The five special effects include soft image, sepia, high contrast mono, high and low key shooting.

Forward and mounted on top of the pronounced speed grip is the shutter button, encircled by the zoom lever.

Behind is the Function button which gives access to the continuous speeds further to the rear is the on/off power switch.

Rear: next the top viewfinder is the display options button and further to the right is the video record button and the command dial; lower down is the replay button and the four way jog button which takes you to flash options, exposure compensation, macro and self timer; lower still is the menu and trash buttons.

To my mind the array of external controls is not at all intimidating. It’s only when you get to accessing the viewfinder menu that many more options become evident. Spend a few hours here and you will come away with a far better understanding of how the camera sings and dances.

Viewing is via the top finder or the rear, vari-angle LCD screen, variable by 180 degrees laterally and 225 degrees vertically.

There is built in GPS, so you can record and store shooting locations; there is also a pre-populated database of 1.86 million points of interest included.

Nikon Coolpix P520 ISO Tests

All OK until ISO 3200, when a little softness appeared. By ISO 6400 softness increased but, surprisingly, noise was very low.

Startup Time

It took about two seconds from startup to first shoot; follow ons about two seconds a shot.

Distortion

No problem at the wide or tele ends of the zoom.

Nikon Coolpix P520 Review Verdict

Quality: if you want to extract the full benefit of this camera, especially to enjoy the tele end of the zoom you need quite an amount of discipline (for ‘discipline’ read a tripod or firm shooting base!).

Most shots I took showed about average quality.

Why you would buy it: long zoom; easy to use; vari-angle screen.

Why you wouldn’t: long zoom can often lead to poor shots; AF at long tele a bit slow.

In spite of my generally glowing report, it’s not all a rosy picture: maximum lens aperture is f3.5, fully an f stop slower than many compacts; there is no support for RAW file format … JPEG is all you get in stills.

In two colours: red and black. Go for the red!

Nikon Coolpix P520 Specifications

Image Sensor: 18.1 million effective pixels.
Metering: Matrix, centre-weighted and spot.
Sensor: 11mm CMOS.
Lens: f3.5-5.9/4.3-180mm (24-1000mm as 35 SLR equivalent).
Exposure Modes: Program AE, shutter and aperture priority, manual.
Shutter Speed: 8 to 1/4000 second.
Continuous Speed: 7 fps.
Memory: SD/SDHC/SDXC cards plus 15MB internal memory.
Image Sizes (pixels): 4896×3672 to 640×480. Movies: 1920×1080, 1280×720, 960×540, 640×480 at 25 or 30fps.
Viewfinder: 8cm LCD (921,000 pixels).
File Formats: JPEG, MPO (3D), WAV, MPEG4.
ISO Sensitivity: Auto, 80 to 6400.
Interface: USB 2.0, AV, HDMI mini, WiFi, DC input.
Power: Rechargeable lithium ion battery, AC adaptor.
Dimensions: 125x84x102 WHDmm.
Weight: 550 g (inc battery and SD card).
Price: Get a price on the Nikon COOLPIX P520 at Amazon.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Nikon Coolpix P520

Digital Photography School

June 10, 2013
An Introduction to Bird photography

A Guest Post by Lithuanian Photographer Tadas Naujokaitis.

Birds are very interesting creatures, but it’s not so easy to photograph them. Wild birds usually don’t pose where you want and, moreover, it’s often difficult to get close enough to take quality pictures. But if you know some basics of bird photography, it becomes much easier to capture amazing moments of the birds’ life.

Equipment

It’s not necessary to have an expensive camera of lens, however the proper equipment lets to take bird photos easier.

Lens
Most birds are quite shy, so you need at least 200mm (300mm is better) to take pictures of them. Longer focal length not only lets to photograph birds from larger distance, it also gives more blurred background. However more millimeters (or larger aperture) means more expensive, larger and heavier lens. Knowing all that, I think that 400mm f/5.6 lens is the best, if you want to have as much millimeters as possible, not too small aperture and still want to be mobile. Of course, you can make magnificent bird images with 100mm or less, just you should find more courageous birds or compose them to landscape.

Grey Heron is landing far enough where it feels safe, but with 400mm it’s possible to capture it with all the details.

Camera
In bird photography, almost all DSLR’s will make a good job. However, if you’re planning to photograph birds in flight, pay attention to fps (frames per second), high ISO results and AF (autofocus) system’s accuracy. If you don’t have a DSLR camera, then bird photography becomes a bit more difficult (especially due to slow AF), but don’t give up – a good photographer, I believe, will make better bird photos with mobile phone than a poor one with the most expensive equipment.

Tripod, monopod, flash, even remote control sometimes help much, but usually aren’t necessary.

Camera settings

It’s very important to know what settings to choose in certain situation to get most from your camera.

Exposure
In bird photography lens with long focal length are usually used, so it’s very important to set not too long exposure, if you don’t want that camera shake would cause blurry pictures. The rule is to set expose not longer than focal length of your lens. For example, if your lens focal length is 400mm, you need to set at least 1/400 exposure to get sharp images. However, it is valid only if you have a full-frame camera. If your have a DSLR with smaller sensor (e.g. APS-C DSLR – with 1.6 crop factor), you need to multiply millimeters of your lens from the crop factor. This time that would be (400 x 1.6 = 640) 1/640 exposure. If you don’t have a DSLR, you usually won’t need to multiply anything – the focal length, written on your camera lens, usually already is multiplied (actually it’s 35mm equivalent). Today, most lens or cameras have image stabilization (IS, VR…), and that helps much in low light conditions. Using it, you can set as many steps longer exposure, as you find in your lens/camera specifications, and get sharp images. For instance, if there is a 2 steps 400mm lens stabilizer, you can set 2 steps longer exposure (1/400-1/200-1/100, with APS-C camera: 1/640-1/320-1/160). When using tripod, of course, these rules to minimize camera shake are not so important.

If you want so freeze action, set 1/1000 or shorter exposure, if you would like to show movement, use 1/60 or longer.

Aperture
As you may already knew, aperture controls DOF (depth of field). That means, if you want a more blurred background, set the largest aperture (the smallest number). However, when using telephoto lens, some parts of bird’s body may appear out of focus, so pay attention where exactly you are focusing (that usually is the bird’s eye). If necessary, close aperture a bit.

When photographing these young Swallows I needed to set f/8 aperture to get both birds in focus.

ISO
In bird photography, as in anywhere else, the lower ISO speed, the better. However, it’s much better to set ISO 800 or 1600 and get a sharp picture, than ISO 200, and get the blurry one.

This photo of Black Redstart was made with ISO 2000, because there wasn’t much light, and I believe it was worth it.

Some other notes
When photographing birds, three modes work the best. If you want to control aperture (depth of field), choose Av (aperture priority) mode. For shutter speed controlling (especially useful when photographing birds in flight) use Tv (shutter priority) mode. If you exactly know what settings you need, choose M (manual) mode.

If you photograph dark bird in light background or want to get more details from dark areas, set the positive exposure compensation value, if you want to avoid overexposed areas, set the negative one.
I recommend you to always shoot in RAW, if possible, because later you can easily fix such things as WB (white balance) with computer.

Ways to photograph birds

The next step is to learn, how to get to the birds closer, so then you will be able to take quality pictures of them.

So you can:

Don’t do anything exceptional
Some birds are courageous and let you to come close enough. The best example is Mute Swans.

Move carefully
Many birds let you to come close enough if you simply don’t make any sudden movements.

Stalk
Sometimes this really works, just make sure that bird doesn’t see you when you are getting close and then, very carefully, take picture.

Lie without any movements
Birds sometimes come surprisingly close, when you lie. Just find a good place or put some food and be patient!

Hide
When photographing a shy bird or wanting a small bird to come very close for a quality photo this is the best technique. You can hide using hunting blind, camouflage net or the blind you made yourself from surrounding materials. The lower is blind, the more courageous birds feel. If you use surrounding materials to camouflage the blind or to hide yourself, that is another advantage. You can hide near various objects, which attracts birds. Also, you can put some food where you want for birds to come. Sunflower’s seeds are the best food in most cases. If you want that bird would sit on the twig or something similar before taking food, put that twig above the food.

Here you can see the photo of Great Tit and how it was made.

Sometimes it’s enough to put some sunflower’s seeds on the grass! And this is the result.

It doesn’t matter which way you choose, be patient. Don’t wander from one bird (birds) to other (others), if you didn’t succeeded from the first time. Sometimes it’s a good idea to go back next day and try again.

The Image

Now, lets talk about the image itself. We know what equipment we need, what camera settings to choose, how to get to the bird closer, now it’s time to find out how to make the image of the bird look attractive.

The light
Everything starts with a good light. The best time for photography is morning or evening because the light is soft and has a pleasant hue, shadows are not so distinct, it’s easier to get details from very bright and dark areas.

In this example you can see that this White-winged Tern has both black and white feathers, but because it was photographed in the evening, there are no pure white or black areas.

Composition
It is usual to leave some space in the direction the bird is looking or flying. Rule of thirds sometimes helps too. Simply try some different framing to see when you get the best result. In addition, try to avoid any distracting elements, when you are taking the picture. And one more thing to mention: when you are taking the photo of the bird, try to be in it’s eye level.

The bird’s sitting place and the background
It’s the best, when the place, where the bird sits, shows bird’s natural habitat. It can be almost anything because birds live in very different habitats. The background shouldn’t be distracting and usually it looks better when it isn’t the sky (but not always!).

Capture something more

Ethics of bird photography

Birds are wonderful creatures. When you are taking photos, don’t harm them. I strongly advice you not to photograph birds near nests (except when the distance is large and bird isn’t sensitive to disturbance – there are only very few such species). Even if you don’t harm birds, you can show the place of the nest for predators. The life of bird is more important than a photo.

Conclusion

Bird photography is exciting and full of adventures. I hope after this article it will be easier for you to take beautiful bird photos.

About the Author: Tadas Naujokaitis lives in Lithuania. See more of his work at www.tadasnaujokaitis.tk and connect with him on his Facebook page.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

An Introduction to Bird photography

Digital Photography School

June 9, 2013
Exposing to the Right on Your EOS Camera

By Andrew S. Gibson – the author of Understanding Exposure: Perfect Exposure on Your EOS Camera (currently 36% off at SnapnDeals).

Over the years that I’ve worked as a photography writer I’ve noticed that people keep asking the same questions about exposure on their EOS cameras.

One of the most common is why doesn’t the camera doesn’t get the exposure right every time?

This is a reasonable question. Modern digital SLRs are advanced machines with built-in microprocessors that can handle complex calculations. So just why do they get exposure wrong?

Part of the reason is that the light meter inside a camera measures reflected light. If a scene is darker or lighter than average, the camera may return an incorrect reading.

Optimum exposure

But think about this for a moment. Who gets to say whether a given exposure is correct or not? I don’t like using the word correct in relation to exposure because it implies that there is only one right answer.

I prefer the term ‘optimum exposure’. This is the exposure setting that is best suited to the scene that you are photographing and the medium you are using.

Imagine that you are photographing the same subject with four different cameras. One is loaded with black and white film, another with colour transparency film, the third with colour negative film and the last is a digital camera. Each has the same lens and frames the subject the same way. The quantity of light falling on the subject is also the same.

Potentially, the scene could require four different exposure settings. That’s because each camera is using a different medium which reacts to light in a slightly different way. Film users will know that black and white film, slide film and colour negative film all need to be treated differently. The same goes for digital cameras.

Put simply, the optimum exposure depends as much on the medium you are using as the quantity of light falling on the subject.

That’s another reason why cameras get exposure wrong. The metering system has yet to be invented that takes into account the medium being used as well as the amount of light entering the lens.

JPEG vs. RAW

Even with digital cameras, the optimum exposure may be different depending on whether you are using the JPEG or Raw format. In JPEG, the aim is to get the exposure as precise as possible. That’s because there isn’t much leeway in post-processing to make the image darker or lighter, and you certainly can’t bring back shadow or highlight detail lost due to poor exposure.

In Raw the aim is different. The idea is to create a file containing as much information as possible in preparation for converting to the JPEG or TIFF formats in Raw processing software. That may require different exposure settings.

Exposing to the Right

Exposing to the right (often referred to as ETTR online) is a technique used by photographers to create a Raw file containing the maximum amount of possible information.

The technique is simple – you use the exposure settings that allow the maximum amount of light possible to reach the sensor without clipping the highlights. The result is a histogram with a graph that is as close to the right hand side of the graph as possible without crossing it.

The main benefit of exposing to the right is that it reduces noise levels in your photos. It also ensures that you capture as much shadow detail as possible, without losing any highlight detail.

Lets take a look at how this works in practice:

Here’s a photo take at my camera’s recommended exposure settings. It doesn’t cover the full range of the graph. The right hand fifth is empty. This tell us we can increase exposure without clipping any highlights.

Here, I increased the exposure by a stop using exposure compensation. The histogram is further to the right, but no highlights have been clipped. These are the optimum exposure settings.

This is what happens if you increase exposure by too much. Here, I increased exposure by two stops. The histogram is cut off on the right hand side and the highlight alert (black region of photo) shows the clipped areas.

Exposure Technique

So, what’s the best way to put the exposing to the right technique into action?

A lot depends on what you are photographing. If your subject is static (such as a still life or a landscape) you have time to take a photo, look at the histogram, then change the exposure settings and take another one if necessary.

If you are shooting something like portraits or street photography you probably don’t have the luxury of time. But you should still check your histogram every now and then to see how your exposure is doing. If you notice that your camera is consistently under- or over-exposing the image, you can make an adjustment using exposure compensation. You may even find it easier to switch to manual mode. It’s your call – the most appropriate response depends on the situation.

High Contrast Scenes

The effectiveness of exposing to the right really depends on the contrast range of the scene that you’re photographing.

If you’re shooting a high contrast scene then you may find that you can’t successfully capture all the tones that you would like to, let alone use a technique like exposing to the right. The most common scenario where this might occur is in landscape photography, as the sky may be much brighter than the land.

If this happens to you, ask yourself whether the high contrast is a signal that you are shooting in the wrong light. It may be that you need to come back when the sun is lower in the sky. The quality of the light will be better and the contrast will be lower.

If the light is good, then there are two good options for dealing with the excessive contrast.

One is to use a graduated neutral density filter to reduce the brightness of the sky.

The other is to set the camera on a tripod and take two separate exposures, one for the sky and the other for the land, then merge the correctly exposed parts in Photoshop afterwards.

Here’s a landscape with a bright sky.

I created this version by taking separate images for the sky and the land and blending the two in Photoshop.

Flat lighting

If the light is flat then your camera will have no trouble capturing all the tones of your subject. The histogram occupies just part of the graph, and you can push it to the right by increasing exposure.

In this photo you can see that the histogram occupies just part of the graph. It is possible to increase exposure and push the histogram to the right to create a better quality Raw file.

Where Histograms come From

Finally, it helps to understand where the histogram comes from. When you take a photo on your EOS camera, even if you have selected the Raw format, the camera embeds a JPEG version of the photo you have just taken in the Raw file. The JPEG file is processed by the camera using the Picture Style and White Balance settings you have selected. The camera displays the JPEG file on your camera’s LCD screen when you play back your images.

The important thing to understand is that the histogram is generated from the JPEG file, not the original Raw file. This is significant for two reasons.

The first is that Raw files contain more highlight detail than JPEG files. If the histogram indicates that there are clipped highlights, that just means that the clipped highlights exist in the JPEG file. The highlight detail might be intact in the Raw file.

Some photographers may use this fact to encourage you to increase exposure to the point where the histogram shows clipped highlights, on the basis that you can pull back the lost detail when you process the Raw file. You can try that if you wish, but you’re taking bit of a risk, as you never really know at what point your highlights will clip.

The other thing to be aware of is that if you go into your Picture Style settings and increase the contrast, that only affects the JPEG thumbnail and not the Raw file. The more you increase contrast, the less accurate the histogram becomes in relation to the Raw file.

Understanding Exposure

My ebook Understanding Exposure: Perfect Exposure on Your EOS Camera covers everything you need to know in relation to exposure on your EOS camera. It’s on special now for a limited time at Snapndeals.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Exposing to the Right on Your EOS Camera

Digital Photography School

June 8, 2013
Converging Lines: Weekly Photography Challenge

This week we published a tutorial on using converging lines in the composition of your photos so today we thought it might make a good theme for our weekly challenge.

So – your challenge is to grab your camera and head out to find some converging lines to shoot – and then to share those photos with us.

You can see some examples of converging lines in shots in the post from earlier in the week but as you get out and about you’re sure to see them all around you – once you start looking you’ll be amazed how many they are.

Once you’ve taken your converging lines photo upload it to your favourite photo sharing site either share a link to them even better – embed them in the comments using the our new tool to do so.

If you tag your photos on Flickr, Instagram, Twitter or other sites with Tagging tag them as #DPSCONVERGE to help others find them. Linking back to this page might also help others know what you’re doing so that they can share in the fun.

Also – don’t forget to check out some of the great shots posted in last weeks Critique Yourself challenge – there were some great shots submitted.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Converging Lines: Weekly Photography Challenge

Digital Photography School

June 8, 2013
Minimalist Photography ~ 4 Tips To Keep It Simple With A Maximum Impact

Minimalism is a very subjective concept in the art world. The Webster dictionary defines it as follows: A style or technique that is characterized by extreme spareness and simplicity. Some love it, others hate it, but no one seems to be indifferent. Many artists thrive in the openness of the concept, others have a problem with the lack of definition and direction. Many of us are drawn to ‘less is more’ with simple lines, geometric patterns, strong shadows, contrasting colors, lone subjects, etc. For others, deciding what to leave out of the frame to make a stronger image is a difficult exercise. Here are a few tips and examples to get you started in your quest for minimalist imagery.

©Valerie Jardin ~ Bright colors make great minimalist subjects.

1. Composition

“Keep it simple” doesn’t mean “keep it boring”. Contrary to what you may think, a minimalist approach requires a lot of creativity. The use of negative space is an integral part of minimalist photography. A well placed subject doesn’t have to be large to have a big impact. Deciding what to leave out of the frame and create a stronger image can be challenging and often requires a lot of practice until it becomes the way you see. I recommend training yourself to make those decisions in camera instead of cropping unwanted distractions in post processing. A clever use of depth of field will also isolate your subject from the background by shooting with an aperture as wide (smallest number) as your lens will allow.

2. Textures and colors

A bright color or contrasting colors make great minimalist subjects. The same applies to textures. The viewer should be able to almost feel the texture. Sometimes it’s all about finding a creative angle to make the photograph. Don’t be afraid the experiment. Shoot straight on, shoot high or low, work your frame until you get the shot that will speak to you.

3. Lines and geometric patterns

Strong lines make strong images. A good place to get started with minimalist photography is by paying attention to modern architecture around you. Leading lines, and other geometric shapes, can make great backdrops for minimalist pictures. Isolating a bird on a power line, if done well, can make a great minimalist shot. There are great opportunities around you all the time, you just have to learn to see them and that requires practice.

4. Telling a story

Push your minimalist photography to the next level by telling a story. Minimalist street photography showcases an interesting urban landscape with a human element. The human element, however small, becomes the focal point of the image. Yet, it’s the interesting background that draws the photographer to make the shot. Symmetry, lines, curves, shadows all play a vital part in making the photograph. Sometimes the story and the environment come together spontaneously and it’s the photographer’s job to see it and respond quickly. Other times it require a bit of patience for the right subject to walk through the frame. A minimalist approach to photography can be applied in nature as well as in an urban environment. You can practice anywhere, so get out there and open yourself to a different way of seeing with your camera!

©Valerie Jardin ~ The use of negative space is an integral part of minimalist photography.

©Valerie Jardin ~ Using a shallow depth of field will allow you to isolate your subject from a distracting background.

©Valerie Jardin ~ You can use a minimalist approach in nature as well as in an urban environment.

©Valerie Jardin

©Valerie Jardin

©Valerie Jardin

©Valerie Jardin ~ Strong lines make strong images.

©Valerie Jardin

©Valerie Jardin

©Valerie Jardin ~ The viewer should be able to almost feel the texture. Sometimes it’s all about finding a creative angle to make the photograph.

©Valerie Jardin ~ Minimalist street photography showcases an interesting urban landscape with a human element.

©Valerie Jardin ~ The human element, however small, becomes the focal point of the image.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Minimalist Photography ~ 4 Tips To Keep It Simple With A Maximum Impact

Digital Photography School

June 8, 2013
Abstract Photography Techniques Worthly Of The Gods

Photography has been used as a medium for artistic expression since its initial inception some hundred or so years ago. In this digital age, photography offers not just great picture taking open access to all, but it can also unlock the bounds of an artist’s imagination, incorporating the natural and synthetic world around them to produce images of stunning artistic Continue Reading

The post Abstract Photography Techniques Worthly Of The Gods appeared first on Photodoto.

Photodoto

June 8, 2013
How to Make Your Photo Experience on the Web Better and Faster

As a fan of the new Flickr redesign, I’ve been particularly impressed with how fast so many images load — an impressive feat given the new image rich, justified, mosaic view, with infinite scroll. Seeing more images, faster, invites more engagement and makes the site a more compelling place to visit. I think Flickr engineers have done a lot of optimizing behind the scenes and are continuing to tweak the site in new ways to make it even faster.

There are some users in the Flickr Help Forum, however, who moan about the newer version of Flickr being slow for them. While it makes some sense to me that a more image intensive design would impact speed, as fast as the new Flickr is for me, (on both my own account and other test accounts), I think there is more to it than just that.

In a new image intensive internet, companies can’t always design and optimize for the lowest common denominator. At some point engineers and designers must just let the Internet Explore 6.0 crowd go. If they haven’t upgraded by now, it now becomes their problem not yours.

Staying on top of the most current technology can help optimize your internet experience. Some of these things that I’m doing are free and some cost money. I do understand that not everybody has the money to just go out and buy a new computer and am not suggesting that it’s your responsibility to do all of these things. These are just some ideas that might help you make your internet experience better and faster.

1. Upgrade your computer. My rule is that I upgrade my primary computer (a MacBook Pro) every three years. As a heavy computer user (and as someone who makes money from my photography and must consider time as a resource in that), this is a no brainer. If it’s been over three years, and you can afford it, consider buying a new machine. Get a Mac.

2. Upgrade your computer’s operating system. I’m currently running the latest version of Apple’s OS Mountain Lion, Mac OS ~~10.8.3~~ 10.8.4. Make sure you are using whatever is the most current OS for your machine.

3. Consider your internet connection. Are you getting the fastest possible speeds? Years ago when I was on DSL, it was announced that they were putting U-verse fiber into the neighborhood. I was the first guy to jump on that and make sure I got it. Survey each of the internet service providers in your neighborhood and find out what their upload/download speeds are. Don’t stop there though. Also make sure you are on the fastest plan that they offer. The U-verse plan that I have is their Max Turbo and provides 24 Mbps download speeds. Consider the value of your time and make sure you are on the fastest plan possible from your ISP.

4. FREE! Make sure you are running the latest version of Google’s Chrome browser. Once you finally get rid of IE, Safari or Firefox, you will learn to love Chrome — it’s faster and better.

5. FREE! Change your DNS settings to Google’s public DNS, 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4 A lot of people don’t know about this trick, but it will dramatically speed up your internet. Google gives you instructions on how to do this here.

6. If you use your computer remotely a lot (like I do) in places where you don’t always have good, fast, wifi, consider getting a Sprint 4G card. Heavy computer internet surfing takes a lot more bandwidth than cell phones. Using your cell phone to tether to your computer probably works if you just need an occasional log in (I use FoxFi for this on my Android phone which is free) — but this data counts towards your bandwidth limits. Sprint is the only current wireless provider that I’m aware of that offers truly unlimited, unthrottled mobile bandwidth in the U.S. Their 4G service, is a bit more expensive, but is generally speaking very reliable and very fast.

Thomas Hawk Digital Connection

June 7, 2013
How to Blend Exposures to Enhance Your Composition

Exposure blending is a popular technique often used to create high dynamic range photography.

This article is about using the same technique but for the purposes of creating an image that contains all of the elements of a scene that you might not have been able to capture in one exposure.

Of course, we would all like to capture what is in our mind’s eye in one exposure and we strive to do so to reduce the amount of time we spend post-processing. But that doesn’t always work out and blending exposures can be a quick and easy way of creating the image you want.

Here’s an example. I was recently visiting Cape Kiwanda on the Oregon coast and I wanted to make a long exposure image that would show the motion of the water rushing back out into the sea before each incoming wave.

I started out by taking some fast exposures to discover the composition I would ultimately use. This is what the scene looked like when I first got to the location — in fact, this is my first frame.

I quickly decided on the long exposure technique so I put on my 10 stop neutral density filter which would allow me to make a 4 second exposure in the middle of a sunny afternoon.

The difficulty was that the wave had to be just right and I had to open the shutter at exactly the right moment to get the effect I was after.

This attempt turned out okay but it wasn’t as dramatic as what I hoped for.

After making this image, I decided that I wanted more foreground in my composition so I used a wider focal length and tilted my camera down a bit.

I made a number of images that were close to what I wanted but the foreground was not exactly as I had hoped.

Then, I finally got the big wave I was waiting for!

Unfortunately the wave was too big and even though I had pushed my tripod down in the sand the amount of water caused my tripod to sink a little while the shutter was open. That wasn’t a problem for the foreground, since it was blurred anyway, but the background was blurred in that image as well.

I spent half an hour making images at this location trying to get exactly what I wanted in camera. That is not a particularly long period of time — often I spend much longer in one location. But since I had the components I needed to make my final image, I decided to move on to other subjects.

These are the two images I ended up combining for the final product.

You can see how the rock in the image above is out of focus due to my tripod sinking in the sand.

In post processing, I took both of the above images and opened them in Photoshop Elements. I selected the one with the foreground I wanted, copied it, and pasted it on top of the other image so each image was on it’s own layer. Then I created a layer mask and used the gradient tool to blend the two images together.

Watch this video to see me blend these two images together in Photoshop Elements.

After blending the exposures, I made some final adjustments to contrast and colour to create the final image:

Remember, photography is an art and you have the artistic license to do whatever you want whether that is documenting a scene exactly as you see it in front of you, or creating something that is different than what you saw with your own eyes using any technique you see fit.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

How to Blend Exposures to Enhance Your Composition

Digital Photography School

June 7, 2013
Introducing Snapsation: Connecting Photographers And Clients

Every once and a while a site comes along that makes the rest of us think, “Well duh, why didn’t I think of that!?” Snapsation is the brain child of Chris Chabot, one of the founding members of the Google+ team, a developer for Google before that and a lead engineer for OpenSocial before that. It’s safe to say that Chris is an internet bad-a and that’s apparent when you look at this new website.

Snapsation is pretty simple and straight forward. It exists to be a place for clients to find photographers for what they need. Simply do a search for your area (example: Fort Worth, TX) and you’ll find all the photographers in that area and their available offers. If the potential client sees an offer they’re looking for, they can click the offer to get more information about what’s included, ask the photographer a question and/or place an order. From the looks of it, no money will be collected up front until the work is done. I’m not sure how that works yet but I’m assuming once the images are ready from an event, the client will make a payment to Snapsation and then the images will be delivered.

How Do Photographers Make Money?

As far as money goes, photographers can link their checking/savings or PayPal account to Snapsation for direct payment. Whatever you charge for your services, Snapsation will add an additional 10% to the price for their cut. Seems plenty fair to me. If you charge $ 100 for a headshot, Snapsation will make the price $ 110. You decide how much YOU want to make, and Snapsation takes care of the rest.

Changes I’d Like To See

I really don’t have any complaints right now, it’s too early to tell! The one thing I wonder about is if the website starts getting big, and tons of photographers from my area start using it, what’s going to happen to my offers? Will the eventually get lost in a sea of other offers? So far I don’t see any rhyme or reason to the ordering of the offers in a specific area. It doesn’t look alphabetical, it doesn’t seem to be sorted by price or person and it doesn’t even seem to give preference to photographers with good reviews. The site just launched and I’m sure things like this will get addressed eventually as more and more people start using it. I’d like to eventually be able to sort offers by things like price and average rating by customers.

Another update I’d like to see is the ability to update the number of items a client wants to purchase. That way photographers could offer things at an hourly rate or something like that. Not a big deal but it would be nice to have.

Finally, I’d really like the ability to tag my offers with keywords. I have two offers that revolve around teaching: A private workshop and a portfolio critique. Neither of which show up when I do a Fort Worth, TX search for the word “Lessons” or “Teaching.”

Conclusion

Snapsation is of course a brand new website. It was in BETA for a short time and officially launched on Wednesday, June 5th. The success of this website depends largely on the photographers using it, by telling others about it and helping to drive traffic to it. I didn’t receive anything for doing this review, I heard about it and set up a profile and liked what I saw. I think this could be a great resource for booking clients and am excited to see where it goes.

What are your thoughts? Have you set up a profile yet? If so, be sure to add me to your ‘Favorite People’ list by clicking the little heart icon on my profile and I’ll see you there!

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Introducing Snapsation: Connecting Photographers And Clients

Digital Photography School

June 7, 2013
Quick Hands-On: $100 “Polaroid” PL135 Bare-Bulb Flash

Has the venerable Sunpak 120J bare bulb flash been reincarnated? By a world-famous company, no less?

Well, no. Not exactly. It's no Sunpak 120J (doesn't have the extra stop of power) and, strictly speaking, it's not really a Polaroid flash per se. Keep reading for the bare facts (rimshot!) on the Polaroid PL-135.

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Strobist

June 6, 2013