Whether you’re just sharing clips with friends or you’re launching an online on-camera career, vlogging matters. We looked at cameras with selfie-friendly screens, wide-angle lenses, microphone inputs and great video quality, and Sony’s compact ZV-1 came out on top.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
The post Tips for Photographing Birds in Flight appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Bruce Wunderlich.
This article introduces some key concepts for photographing birds in flight.
One of the most necessary ingredients is patience; you may often photograph an entire day and not get a single usable image. In most cases, there is some luck involved – you have to be in the right place at the right time, after all!
But hopefully, this article will give you the tools you need to improve your luck and capture stunning birds in flight photos.
Let’s begin with how to choose the best location for your birds in flight shoot.
Near rivers or lakes is a great place to set up, because of the abundant food sources for the birds. Find a position on a hill that will put you at eye level with the birds.
And check out the position of the sun, because you should not be shooting into it. Light coming from behind you or from the left or the right of your position is preferred.
Also, birds will generally take off and land into the wind, so knowing the wind direction of your location will help you predict the flight direction of the birds you are photographing.
Good lighting plays a key role in successful birds in flight photography.
As with any other kind of outdoor photography, the golden light of morning and evening is best. However, because you are shooting birds in the sky, these times can be extended and you’ll still get nice lighting on your subject.
Some birds will not venture near humans, so you need to make yourself as invisible as possible.
In some cases, this might be as simple as not wearing brightly-colored clothing. However, avid bird photographers may also want to set up some kind of blind. Blinds can be purchased inexpensively from most hunting stores.
Also, sitting down will make you less noticeable to the birds than if you are standing.
Study the birds you enjoy photographing to learn their habits.
How does this help?
Knowing the birds can help you predict their movements. For instance, many birds, especially the larger species like herons or eagles, will relieve themselves just before they fly. Knowing this can help you be ready to shoot just before your subject takes off.
Choosing a good lens for birds in flight photography can be a challenge. I recommend you use the fastest and longest lens you can afford.
For your best chance at a great shot, you’ll need at least a 300mm lens, but a 500mm to 600mm prime lens is preferable.
(Unfortunately, these lenses don’t come cheap!)
A great tripod head for birds in flight, especially if you’re using a large lens, is a gimbal head. It balances your camera and lens while requiring very little force to pan left and right or up and down.
A less expensive option is a pan head, which also allows for movement in all directions on two different axes. And while ball heads can be used for birds in flight photography, they’re not a very stable solution for large lenses.
When setting up your camera to shoot birds in flight, keep in mind how the exposure triangle of shutter speed, aperture, and ISO plays an important part in getting the perfect exposure.
So how do you bring all three elements of your exposure triangle together to get the best exposure? You may consider simply using your camera’s Shutter Priority mode, in which you set the shutter speed and the camera sets the aperture (and ISO on some models).
However, I recommend you try this alternative method:
Now, here’s one final step to tweak your exposure:
Have you ever noticed how, when photographing birds in flight, your image will seem dark and be missing details, especially in dark feathers? To bring out more detail in dark areas, change your EV (exposure compensation) setting to +0.3. This will add a little more light (though depending on the lighting, you may need to add a bit more exposure compensation).
On the other hand, what if you are photographing a white bird, such as a swan? The white bird’s image will tend to get “blown out,” so that you’re missing detail in the whites. To compensate, adjust your EV value to -1.0 to -2.0. This will pick up the detail in those white-feathered birds. (If you are thinking that your background will be underexposed, you’d be right – but you are photographing the swan, not the background!)
To keep your flying bird in focus, set your camera’s focusing mode to continuous focus.
In this mode, as long as you have the shutter button depressed halfway and are focused on the bird, the camera will continuously acquire focus as the bird moves. Canon calls this function “Al Servo,” while Nikon calls it “Continuous Servo” or “AF-C.”
Also, both Nikon and Canon will allow you to expand your AF points so that your camera can identify moving subjects at adjacent points (which will help you keep your moving subject in focus).
Nikon also offers two AF area modes that can work for birds in flight:
The 51-point Dynamic Area AF and the 3D Tracking area mode.
Both of these AF area modes will search at all 51 AF points for the movement of your subject, although these modes can be a little too slow when focusing in some situations.
Composition can be the most difficult aspect of photographing birds in flight.
But all the basic rules of composition remain valid here. You always want to have more space in front of the bird than behind it; a good rule is to have a least two to three times the space in front of the bird.
One thing that helps maintain this space is to place your focus point in the center of the frame and try to keep it on the bird’s eye. This method works really well on large-beaked birds, such as herons.
Also, while most birds in flight images include just one bird, look for those occasions where you can capture two or three birds at once (for a great result!).
As the bird is flying toward you, quickly get your focus locked.
Then, when the bird is close and in a position you like, fire away. Keep panning even after you’ve stopped shooting. This follow-through motion will keep your last image in focus better than an abrupt stop.
When panning as the bird flies by, you want to match your panning speed to that of the bird. And depending on your shutter speed, this will help keep the bird in focus while the background may be blurred.
You want to keep the bird’s eye in focus and sharp; this is key. If you are handholding your camera, try to keep your left hand under the barrel of your lens and your elbows close to your body, as this will help you maneuver the camera as steadily as possible. If you are standing, keep your legs spread out to create a good sturdy base.
If you are planning to hold your location and position for a time, I recommend using a tripod. This will help keep your camera steady, especially if you are using a very heavy lens.
So stay alert and look for opportunities to capture great birds in flight images. It will take lots of practice to get that perfect shot.
But once you get it right, you will be hooked!
Also, if you’re interested in more bird photography tips, check out these articles:
The post Tips for Photographing Birds in Flight appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Bruce Wunderlich.
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Chinese lens manufacturer 7Artisans has released a new 18mm F6.3 pancake lens for APS-C camera systems.
The ultra-compact fixed-focus lens is constructed of six elements in four groups. Its 18mm focal length is roughly a 27mm equivalent on most APS-C sensors, it has a minimum focusing distance of 35cm (1.1ft) and it weighs just 51g (1.8oz).
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The lens is being offered for Canon EF-M, Fujifilm X, Micro Four Thirds and Sony E mount camera systems. It’s available to purchase for on Amazon and other authorized 7Artisan retailers for $ 69.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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Those looking for a lens to help with architectural photography don’t have too many choices. Canon and Nikon provide tilt-and-shift lenses for the F and EF mount systems but it’s fair to say these are quite costly – as specialist products usually are. Samyang makes a 24mm that comes in a wide range of mounts, but beyond that options are limited to the adapters various independent brands, such as Fotodiox, offer.
This new lens from Laowa is currently the widest shift lens for full frame users. Where this lens also differs from those others available is that it only shifts – there is no tilt option. All other lenses in this segment offer tilt as well as shift, but Laowa says it hasn’t offered tilt in this 15mm model as it is designed for architectural photographers and they don’t need or use tilt features.
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As expected from Laowa, the lens is well made, solid and offers smooth mechanical movements. The barrel is all-metal and the lens comes with a metal twist-lock lens cap to protect the extremely bulbous front element. The 15mm focal length delivers an angle of view of 110° and the 17 elements-in-11-groups design produces curvilinear distortion corrected well enough for Laowa to include this in its Zero-D range of wide angles.
An image circle with a diameter of 65mm allows full frame users 22mm of shift in total – 11mm either side of the neutral position. And the shifting section of the lens can be rotated about 360° with click stops every 15°. The shift is achieved by unscrewing the locking pin and then turning the shift ring that sits between the camera and the aperture ring. Rotating this ring by 45° is enough to take the lens from the neutral position to the extreme of its shift at 11mm from Normal, and 45° the other way takes the barrel in the opposite direction.
As expected from Laowa, the lens is well made, solid and offers smooth mechanical movements
The mechanism for shifting the lens is smooth and, once unlocked, very easy to turn but with enough resistance to make it comfortable to control. A scale on the side of the barrel where the two sections meet makes it simple to measure the movement and then to repeat the same degree of movement in future shots. Conveniently, the lens clicks into place at the neutral position so you’ll know it has come home without looking at the scale.
The aperture ring clicks only at the full stop positions but allows users settings anywhere in between them, and the iris has only five blades – the same as the Laowa 9mm. At F4.5 the iris is round as the blades are fully retracted, but looks very pentagonal as the aperture is closed down. Considering this lens’ traditionally large and distant subjects, maybe the out-of-focus rendering isn’t as important as it might be in longer focal lengths.
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| Tilting the camera upwards while using ‘rising front’ or ‘drop front’ makes it possible to exaggerate or minimize converging verticals. Here from left to right we have extreme drop front, the lens in the normal position and then raised to its highest position. When the front is dropped down we have to tilt the camera back more to get the top of the building in, which exaggerates the ‘looking up’ perspective |
Obviously the main target for this lens is photographers wanting to avoid converging verticals in their architectural work, but it is also very good for exaggerating convergence as shifting the front of the lens down allows for angling the camera up more – a range of effects can be achieved.
Twisting the lens to the 90° position and using the shift to move the lens from side to side is an easy way to create a panoramic image that will stitch easily, and using the shift diagonally allows four images to be taken that can be stitched to make a high resolution super-wide view. With the camera upright side-to-side shifts again allow high resolution stitches to be made with a squarer format.
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| This image is made from two pictures stitched together, and demonstrates the full horizontal movement of the lens. The lens was mounted on the tripod and I used the full shift to the left and took a picture. I then shifted it to the full extent to the right and took the second shot. They align very easily in software and have a large overlap in the middle. The combined angle of view is somewhere between 160 and 170 degrees. |
I found the full 22mm side-to-side shift allowed me to create an image 13314 x 5499 with the Panasonic Lumix DC-S1R – that would allow a 44″ print at 300ppi. Single pictures from this camera are 8368 pixels on the longest dimension so the shift allowed me to add approximately 1.6x to the width of the frame. You don’t get double the width as there is a lot of overlap with such a wide lens. But overlap is good as it makes it easy to remove the aberrations at the edges of the frame – though vignetting is the only real issue.
As you’ll see from the samples the lens is pretty good, and retains decent resolution and sharpness through all but the most extreme movements. At the edges of the imaging circle you should expect a loss of clarity and some slight smearing in the corners, but if you keep away from the +/-11mm settings and don’t push it beyond 8 or 9mm you’ll have good performance right across the frame.
I was a little surprised and disappointed at first to find this lens doesn’t offer tilt, but in use I have come to appreciate why that movement hasn’t been included
All the pictures in this gallery were shot at F8 and F11, but F5.6 also gives good performance. There’s a slight drop of sharpness at F16 and a more noticeable decline at F22, as diffraction takes over. Vignetting is well-controlled and only comes into play at the more extreme settings and, as the Zero-D marking indicates, there is little curvilinear distortion.
I have to say that I was a little surprised and disappointed at first to find this lens doesn’t offer tilt, but in use I have come to appreciate why that movement hasn’t been included. While it would be fun to be able to tilt the lens there isn’t the same depth-of-field advantage in such a wide angle lens as you’d get in a regular focal length – depth-of-field is extensive at all apertures – and it likely won’t be used for product photography.
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| The lens was ideal for shooting the interior of this summer house in my neighbor’s garden. The wide view allowed me to fit it all in, and a bit of drop front allowed me to position the camera high up to could show the tops of the furniture while maintaining upright verticals. Rising front when shooting the outside let me position the camera low down so it could ‘look up’ and include more of the lit ceiling. |
Tilt would offer a few fun tricks, but its absence isn’t likely to put off the target market of those shooting the interiors and exteriors of buildings. In use I found the 15mm focal length too wide for many of the applications I was expecting to use this lens for, but was able to make the most of its charms shooting interiors rather than exteriors – though it did allow me to shoot tall buildings when there wasn’t much room to move backwards.
This is a very interesting, if somewhat specialist, lens that should find a place in the kit bags of those looking for its width, its lack of distortion and its ability to take an altered perspective while maintaining a parallel relationship between the imaging sensor and the subject.
The lens will ship from late November in mounts for Nikon F and Canon EF, and costs $ 1199. Other mounts will follow next year. For more information see the Venus Optics website.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
The post Clothing for Portraits – How to Tell your Subjects What to Wear appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Darlene Hildebrandt.
What is the best clothing for portraits? The clothes your clients or portrait subjects are wearing in their portraits can be a touchy subject to discuss with them, especially if you are just doing a portrait for them as “a friend with a good camera.” Even as pros, we have a hard time getting people to listen; they frequently show up in clothes that make us cringe and that even hurt our eyes.
This article will help you understand what to suggest your subjects wear for their portrait photoshoots. You’ll also learn how to help clients understand why your suggestions really are in their best interests so they actually listen and get it right.
What your subjects are wearing is just as important as all the other portrait details, such as lighting, location, and posing.
Poorly-selected clothing can really take away from an otherwise great portrait.
Here are the goals when helping your portrait subjects or clients select clothing:
Poorly-chosen clothing, or having no discussion about clothing for portraits at all, can result in just the opposite. This is not what you want to have:
I get asked for tips on clothing for portraits a lot in my portraiture classes. People hear funny things about what they should or shouldn’t wear for their portraits, and they show up in the damnedest things that sometimes make you shake your head and say, “What were they thinking?”
But people won’t know what is right (or what is best) unless you tell them. And you must help them understand why.
(I added a few bonus pointers on hair and makeup, but they go right along with the clothing.)
Did you notice how I did not use the word “Don’t” anywhere in the list above?
There’s a reason for that.
People’s brains actually don’t register the words “Don’t,” “Not,” or “No.” So when you say them, the brain just disregards that part and registers what comes after. For example, if I say, “Do not think of a lemon,” what did you just do? Of course, you thought of a lemon. So when you are explaining clothing (or anything, for that matter) and giving suggestions on what to wear, take great care to always say what you do want.
If you tell people, “Okay, don’t wear stripes, flowers, or bright colors,” what will they remember? “I think my photographer said something about stripes and bright colors, so that’s what I’ll wear.”
Your subjects also probably heard somewhere that, for photography, you need to put your makeup on extra dark and heavy. Even people that normally wear no makeup or very little makeup can show up to a photoshoot with black eyeliner and raccoon eyes.
(I know because this has happened to me when I didn’t discuss makeup with my subjects ahead of time. And if it does happen, your subject will hate their photos because they won’t look like them. They likely won’t say anything; they just won’t pick any photos and you’ll think they didn’t like your work.)
It is your job as the photographer, even if you are just doing it for fun and for friends, to help people look their best in the portrait you take. So let’s look at the points above and how you should explain portrait clothing to your subjects so they get on board!
I actually had a hard time coming up with examples of what not to wear for portraits. I’ve been doing this for so long that I don’t have any subjects that come unprepared. So I’ve found a couple of group images just so you can see the difference clothing makes.
The image below is from a wedding, so the subjects weren’t all planning on having this group portrait done. But it shows what happens when the clothes have not been planned. There are multiple colors, some dark and some light. We have a few bright patterns and a short skirt. We have a lot of short sleeves (it was a hot day) and some white shoes. Can you see how all of those things make an impact? Overall, the effect actually isn’t that bad, and I’ve seen a lot worse. But let’s see what a little refinement can do to help.
The family shown below chose all black and denim, and for the most part, it is working really well. I’d only suggest that the mother wear longer sleeves. Notice how much attention her arms get? For her, it’s fine, but for someone self-conscious about their arms or their weight, short sleeves will make their arms look larger.
In the image below, everyone is in black except for the baby. Babies are always tough, because finding plain colors or black for a baby is almost impossible.
Notice two things here:
The image below shows my sister’s family, so they’ve been well-trained on what to wear.
Once again, dark tones have been selected: grays, deep purple, and navy. Those all work well with jeans. Can you see the difference between me wearing long sleeves (left) and my sister wearing short sleeves (upper right)? What does it do to the bare arms? How do they look compared to mine?
The key to explaining all this and getting people to agree and go along with your suggestions is in how you tell them. If you just list off all this stuff, it can seem a bit pushy, like you’re telling them what to do. Most people assume they know how to dress; giving them a list could make them feel a tad insulted, so they get defensive rather than listen to your suggestions.
Photography is part technical stuff, part artistic stuff, and part psychology!
Let’s look at my recommended list again, but this time add in the why. By stressing the benefits to your subjects, they will get it in a big way.
As I said:
I’ve had very few subjects that I’ve photographed in the last ten years who showed up in poor clothing – simply because I’ve prepped them so well. They know that, if they want to look their best, they must follow these guidelines:
See a common thread in my notes above? Most people have the same fears about being photographed – yes, fears! Being photographed is right up there on the fear list, next to public speaking and going to the dentist. I kid you not!
People’s fears are about looking stupid, not knowing how to stand or pose, and looking fat or old. So if you can help them see that these clothing tips will allow them to eliminate at least one of their fears before you even start, then you just have to deal with all the rest later!
Most of these clothing suggestions have to do with helping subjects look slimmer and not stand out. How to stand and pose to minimize weight issues is another question entirely.
You may notice that most of the “good” examples here are wearing dark colors.
That’s pretty common, as most people have heard that dark colors or black makes you look slimmer. To some degree, that’s true. But light colors can work, too.
In fact, if everyone in the group dresses similarly, then the one person in dark clothes would stand out. Little kids in denim and white tops with bare feet are super cute, as are little girls in white sundresses.
So don’t be afraid of other colors or tones. Just keep them similar. Some of my largest extended family groups that have done the best went so far as to put each family unit in their own color scheme (one in browns, one in greens, etc.), with the mother and father in another color scheme – all with dark jeans. I’ve also had some ladies buy everyone a matching shirt.
The thing is:
Once you get your subjects on board and understanding the logic behind portrait clothing choices – the “why” – they will go to great lengths to make it work, because they know it’s for their benefit!
If all this portrait clothing advice sounds like a lot and is overwhelming, feel free to copy my list and make a little sheet to hand out to people. Just make sure you add the benefits, as shown in my second list!
The post Clothing for Portraits – How to Tell your Subjects What to Wear appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Darlene Hildebrandt.
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The Sony a7S III is optimized for video, but its 12MP sensor is very capable and performs well in low light. Our new a7S III sample gallery includes everything from night shots to portraits.
View the Sony a7S III sample gallery
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Watch our review of the Sony a7S III to find out why Jordan calls it ‘the best camera for run and gun videography’ available today.
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The Sony a7C is a full-frame mirrorless camera that’s closer to the size and shape of an a6000-series APS-C model. In fact, its impressively small form factor and highly capable AF helped earn it a Silver Award in our recent review. Take a look at our updated sample gallery, which we’ve updated with images taken throughout the course of our testing, as well as some new Raw conversions.
Read our full Sony a7C review
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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The second season of the hit Disney+ series The Mandalorian premiered today and there is fascinating photography associated with the production of the Star Wars spinoff show. For starters, some scenes in the show were shot using the Canon EOS 5D Mark III DSLR camera.
As Digital Camera World points out, not only were scenes shot using the Canon 5D Mark III, but an adapted Nikon 28mm lens was used and the camera operator was John Knoll, co-creator of Photoshop and current effects supervisor and chief creative officer at Industrial Light and Magic (ILM).
If you watched the first season of The Mandalorian and felt like scenes were reminiscent in overall appearance to the original trilogy of Star Wars movies, there’s a good reason for that. While modern technology and computer-generated imagery plays a large role in the production of The Mandalorian, showrunner and series creator Jon Favreau wanted to retain the look and feel of classic Star Wars films. As fans of the franchise are likely aware, the original Star Wars trilogy relied heavily upon physical models to film many of its iconic scenes.
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| Here you can see the Canon 5D Mark III camera mounted on a rail toward the right edge of the frame. The model of the Razor Crest ship is surrounded by foam board and desert imagery is being projected onto the board. |
To recapture the spirit of the older Star Wars movies with The Mandalorian, Industrial Light and Magic created the titular character’s spacecraft, the Razor Crest, in its studio. John Goodson, a longtime ILM model maker created the ship using a 3D printer and tinfoil and Knoll built a 50-foot motion control rig.
In the video above, you can follow along with the team at ILM as they created the Razor Crest ship. This includes its beginnings as concept art to it being physically built and filmed as a practical miniature. We also see Knoll at work filming the first motion control shots at ILM in 15 years. It’s a fascinating look at how iconic objects, such as a protagonist’s ship in a Star Wars series, are created and brought to life.
Of creating the Razor Crest model for filming as a practical miniature, Knoll says that it’s important to strike a balance with the size of the model. You want it large enough that its details hold up when close to the camera, but not so large that it’s difficult to create a dynamic motion shot when running it along a rigged track. Ultimately, the team settled on a model around 24″ long.
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| The team used a Nikon 28mm lens on the Canon camera. And the man behind the controls? The creator of Photoshop. The production is a blend of photographic history. |
Goodson remarked that one of the biggest differences between scenes shot using computer generated graphics versus a scene shot using miniatures is that when using a physical model, you are limited by the availability of mounting points for objects. There are certain angles and shots you simply can’t achieve when using models. However, that look and certain types of motion are also ingrained in people’s memories of older Star Wars movies. The team at ILM worked very hard to make sure that shots of the Razor Crest model evoked that same look as old shots. From the perspective of this Star Wars fan, they nailed it.
(Via Digital Camera World)
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Grey appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.
Very simply – this week’s dPS Weekly Challenge Theme is ‘Grey’ and that can be a sky or a scene or anything that you want to find and photograph, creatively, that is grey or mostly grey! My example is the work table I was using at a recent (pre-covid) food shoot.
Or you can work on your greyscale (More here!)
Simply upload your shot into the comments field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see. Or, if you’d prefer, upload them to your favourite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them.
You can also share your images in the dPS Facebook group as the challenge is posted there each week as well.
If you tag your photos on Flickr, Instagram, Twitter or other sites – tag them as #DPSGrey 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.
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The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Grey appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.
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