I was thinking about this as an idea for a blog post when I was writing my last ‘ramble’ about Flickr, which proved vaguely interesting as a topic of conversation. I will write up some ideas for Christmas presents that I think are good, and related to photography. There will be some expensive, and some less so, so it should hopefully cover many of you in terms of something potential, hopefully not too late!

I’ll start with some more expensive ones, Digital Cameras.

Someone’s first DSLR

I was sent a very nice email the other day by a reader asking about what a suitable upgrade to a DSLR from a compact camera was, and so I got doing some research and came to some conclusions.

The Nikon D60 is Nikon’s current entry level camera, and has achieved very favo

urable reviews across the internet. I decided that this is an excellent idea for a first DSLR, I also feel that c

urrently Nikon is ahead in many respects that Canon, particularly in terms of Design, they keep doing significant rebuilds, in comparison to what Canon appears to be doing which is shoving new parts into a body, (400D style), that has had complaints about quality/handling in the past.

Furthermore, for ~£329 the Nikon D60 comes with an image stabilised kit lens which has also achieved many positive remarks, about the glass, and the IS as an added bonus, (or VR as Nikon call it). Therefore I would say that if you are looking at buying a first DSLR for someone, either as their first camera, or as their first DSLR, this seems an excellent way to go.

- Great price in the UK (~£310)

- Great price in the US ($529)
On a side note, the D60 is replacing the D40 base model camera, so, if you are still looking at the idea of a DSLR as a gift, but the D60 is looking a bit too expensive, the D40 is also a great camera, and due to being ‘not the latest’ will be available for even less money.

- D40 UK (£199.99)

- D40 US ($368)

Ideas for a compact camera

This was something else I was thinking about whilst browsing Flickr the other day, and that is of compact cameras, and their capabilities. Realising that many of these cameras now have lots of manual control, and are surprisingly capable at getting detail out of their lenses/sensors.

So I explored the internet for a while and drew my conclusion on the compact cameras available, and thought of the Panasonic DMC-TZ5. It is a mid-rage compact camera, in terms of control, and quality, and price also, yet it is very highly regarded.

Again, it has achieved good reviews, but I was also considering the specs and therefore how it could apply to different people. I think it would be a fantastic first camera if you weren’t wanting an SLR or didn’t have the money, it has a huge 28-280mm zoom range, have a look HERE if you are confused by the zoom range values, which allows you to go from fitting in a big scene, to zooming right into some distant detail. Furthermore, the lens is made by Leica, a marque synonymous with quality glass, and it has Image Stabilisation to boot.

I think this would apply as a first camera, a great gift, but where I think this is also a good idea is as a gift for someone in your life who is a keen photographer, has an SLR maybe, but would find plenty of practical use for a decent compact to take everywhere, or even just situations where an SLR is imposing or impractical.

- UK (TZ5 & Case & 1GB card) (£186.99)

- US (TZ5 only) ($224.99)

For some less expensive gift ideas, I thought I’d start with some good books.

An author who I have a couple of books by is Tom Ang. A renowned writer on photography, his books inspired me, particularly when I was just starting out. One of his latest has received great reviews, and is about photographing ‘anything’, and is an interesting guide, it’s avilable at Amazon, so just have a search in your country for ‘Tom Ang’ and you can bring up a whole host of his books.

Click the book cover to the right if you are in the UK to visit the Amazon page for that book.

Something I think is an excellent idea for a gift is a subscription to a photography magazine. I am subscribed to the magaine to the left, and wholeheartedly recommend it, in the UK of course. HERE is their website, and you can probably subscribe online.

What I think is particularly good about this as a gift idea is that when you subscribe you often get a free gift, for example a Tripod is quite often the gift, or something similar, and that can double as an additional gift at the time, or the subscription for Christmas and then the tripod for the Birthday for example. A great idea.

I remember every time I receive the copy of the magazine, ie. once a month who gave me this gift, so it is a good way of getting yourself stuck in someone’s head as a gift giver too
There are of course other ideas in the lower cost area of photography, I’ll list a few ideas:

• Calendars
• Tripod
• Off-camera flash
• Lenses
• Photography Books, (photographs rather than guides)
• memory cards
• cases for cameras
• a film SLR!

So, I hope this has given your mind a little jolt when it comes to Christmas, or Birthday gift ideas for someone photographic in your family, or one of your friends. Please leave thoughts on this article, as it is my first of this ‘type’ really, so any analysis is greatly appreciated.

Also! feel free to email me, (contact link at the top of the blog), if you have any specific questions, I will answer! (and hopefully help!).

Charlie -

I thought I would try and start a new kind of regular post to the blog, in which I analyse a photo that I have taken recently, and that I like, and try and work out what’s great about them, in my mind, and then hopefully hear back from you if you agree, and if you like them too.

This photo were taken in Edinburgh, with my Canon AE-1 Film SLR, and the standard 50mm f/1.8 lens. Let’s have a look!

This photograph was taken in the ‘honesty bar’ or lounge of the Glass House hotel in central Edinburgh.

It is a photograph I really like, and am glad I took some time to take a photograph of it. Of course, in this case, the subject really is fantastic, and therefore the image is bound to be quite nice, but I think there are a few interesting aspects to how I took the photo that are worth noting:

Firstly, the focal point; You can see that I focused on the papers that were in the rack, I did this, because of what I think many people will do in this lounge, you will look at the papers, and, so the photograph does too.

This coupled with the shallow depth of field has made it seem like the rest of the room is simply the background, but yet, you can still make out much of the detail. I particularly like little points of out of focus, (OOF), light, such as the candle, and the fireplace, they are very aesthetic.

The textures in the image I think also play a key aspect, there are so many crammed into the frame: shiny metal, plush carpet, hanging fabric (background), paper etc. All of this coupled with the really warm atmosphere created in the room, makes what I really think, is a nice photo.

So what key points can we pick up from this photo?

• Focus on what people would focus on in a certain scene
• Pick a suitable aperture for the DoF you want
• Maybe try and capture some OOF highlights
• Combine textures within your image

It may all seem incredibly basic how we are looking through photographs in this way, and picking out points that you may think are incredibly simple, but I really think it is worthwhile to think of all these things for every photograph you take, and it’s definitely something that using a film camera has reminded me of, to read more on that, have a look HERE.

Thanks a lot for reading, and please, let me know what you think of this idea, whether it’s worth continuing!?

Charlie -

I thought it’d be worth a moment of your time to look at this site I came across. It is definitely worth a look if you’d be interested in submitting your photographs to be used ‘commercially’ and for financial or otherwise rewards. Here’s a little about how it works:

Publishers come to the website, join, and create an ‘assignment’ for example, a musician may want a photograph to go on the front of his new album cover, and he’ll give some description of what he wants, for example, something based on lomography.

Then, (after you’ve joined!), you can submit images for that assignment, (the creator of the assignment chooses how many you are allowed to submit). And that’s it!

The end result for the publisher is he/she has a collection of images that people think are appropriate for his assignment, and also, he’ll see votes on each image. (You are allowed to vote for pictures that have been submitted, to give the creator an idea of what some people like), and then he picks a winner, (or more than one winner if he wants), and that photo gets used!

This isn’t some dodgy referral thing or anything, I’m just sharing this idea with you, so visit Pixish.com now and sign up! (It needs the support, it’s just starting out!)

Here’s a great little read I found on ZachisHere, another photography based blog, and I thought I should share it with you:

• Why Don’t my Photos look cool?

So, enjoy and leave him a comment

So, welcome to the completely revamped AP Blog. Hosted on it’s own, running on WordPress, hopefully this will be an exciting rebirth for the blog.

This first post is going to be on a thought I had the other day, about how since I bought my AE-1 I have rediscovered photography, (the AE-1 being a film camera, as aposed to Digital). So, here it is. It’s a story/article that I hope you will find interesting.

Nowadays, photography is becoming numbed, by it’s own evolution. The digital age, and your cheap digital cameras are flooding this art form with so many new ‘artists’ that it’s touch is being lost. People are firing off their cameras thousands of times and maybe leaving themselves with one or two likeable shots. I see this as a problem, purely because it’s in essence destroying photography, whilst aiding it too. So, I think there is also hope in this problem.

Film photography is becoming scarce, because, for the most part people just use a camera to record their lives, their family and friends, but to photographers, digital has managed to force newcomers to the art form to lose all basic training, instead of working out what composition would be best for a single frame, they take a hundred photos and see which one turns out best. You and I both know this can’t be a good thing.

A shot I took with the AE-1 (click for flickr page)

So, I’ve decided to follow my own story, and share it with you with a method that I think will change your whole view on photography. I feel it has helped me, and that it is something all new photographers should do.

I decided that a 35mm film SLR would be the next thing I would like to purchase. I looked around on Flickr and asked various people, and came up with a short list of SLRs that I thought could work:

• Canon AE-1, AV-1, A-1.
• Olympus OM10, OM20, OM30, OM40.
• Various Nikon film SLRs

This is by no means the complete list, and there will be plenty of other options by many brands, Pentax for example. You may have a brand preference, but I went by what was a reliable camera, and a popular camera, (thus meaning there would be lots available to buy, that were reliable).

I ended up buying a Canon AE-1, an SLR from the late ’70s which had a semi-automatic, Tv/S shutter speed mode, or fully manual, (manual focus of course). It works perfectly, I’ve run black and white, and colour film through it, and it set me back £21.

Photo of the AE-1 (click for flickr page)

If I can just put that price into perspective, I have got a Camera, with a lens, (battery too), that was £21, when I got my Canon EOS 400D, it was retailing at £500, and already from the rolls of film I’ve done, I am loving the work I’m doing with it. So, the investment for this fun really is minimal.

So, what am I really rambling on about here, well, it’s about photography, and your skills in that area. I feel that having a film camera will really connect you with photography, it all becomes much more real when you know there are slides of celluloid in your camera with images waiting to be seen on them.

A photo of my dog, from the AE-1 (click for flickr page)

The inability to look at your picture straight away and maybe delete it will put you in a completely different mindset. You will want to make sure that that picture you are about to take will be right, you don’t want to waste a frame of that film, you contemplate composition, lighting, you think about the exposure, everything. And I have noticed this in my own photography, with the AE-1, I find that my pictures are so much more ‘classically’ correct in terms of photographic technique, with my digital camera I often end up going for strange orientation, odd composition, excessive contrast, ‘incorrect’ exposure, with the AE-1 I get pure results, that are ‘right’, and they work on a much more simple basis.

Furthermore, in this time when it seems everyone and their dog has a digital SLR or at least a compact, how can one differentiate oneself in the photographic ‘market’. If you try and sell your photographs, there would be nothing more interesting to people than seeing a section in your portfolio of purely film photography, it separates you from the crowd in a big way.

Black and White film is also Lovely (click for flickr page)

Once you have used your film camera for a while, there is another big advantage: you will inherit your technique straight into your digital camera too. Of course, over time you may slip back to taking five shots of a single idea, but, the likelihood is that you would put more thought into those photographs.

If I can just slip back to what it means to use film, and people will inevitably bring up the fact that it is costly, and awkward to get your pictures etc. I mean, if we think about this for a second, if you live anywhere near a town, you can get your films processed, and printed in an hour, and nowadays you could just get them thrown on a CD as well. To start with, this quality will be fine, but after a while if you are yearning for higher quality, as you do, you could still get the film processed, but then have a film scanner, and get some high quality scans by yourself.

Furthermore, if you live away from a place to get your rolls developed, there are plenty of post based options, all over the world, you needn’t worry, you can send it away and get it back all done, simple!

The whole idea of this is to reinspire yourself for your photography, and I hope you will be able to do so. For a modest investment on eBay, you can really pick up some lovely cameras, the feel of the hefty metal AE-1 against the comparatively light 400D is also strange.

Hopefully this little article has been of interest to you, let me know if you liked it
Charlie -

Hey Reader,

I’m sorry that as usual I haven’t been posting very much, well, that’s that, I don’t often get that much done, as I’m very busy. But I thought I’d throw together a quickie on Portraiture. It is probably one of my favourite subjects in photography, and I think, when done well, it is really interesting, and I have some tips that I’d love to share with you.

Aperture
=======

The use of aperture correctly in portraits is very important. Using a wide aperture, (small f/number), you can get very shallow depths of field which can throw the background out of focus and isolate your subject in the frame.

This may sound slightly confusing, but it really is very simple and makes probably the biggest difference. Here is an example:

Photo credit: Ricarda (her Photography)

For example, in this wonderful photograph, we have the subject clearly isolated from the background, and instead the background is a subtle and ‘un-distracting’ array of colour and light. This will have been done by using a wide aperture, and I feel this is the first rule in portraiture.

Subject Position
===========

This is an interesting subject, and can be more complex. I find more often than not, that I keep going back to the rule of thirds, (previous POST), and this provides me with interesting results all the time. You will mostly shoot portraits in ‘Portrait’ orientation, here meaning that the photo is taller than it is wide, although in certain circumstances, you can get very interesting photos from ‘landscape’ orientations, such as this photo:

Photo Credit: Doug Sparks (his Photography)

Here we can see an excellent photo utilising the abnormal ‘landscape’ orientation, but making it work, using the rule of thirds we have the off centre face, here providing an interesting view. Furthermore, we are shown part of the subject, his character, by being shown his clothing and his hand.

It is important I feel that within a portrait you reveal a persons character, this can be done in many ways, for example, using a persons habits, or an object that reflects their personality, this can be something such as headphones, or a computer, and if it is something that that person is rarely seen without, for example a cigarette or a drink, then including that in the photograph can make it much more about that person, and not about the photo. This is important in a portrait, as the photo is not just a photo, it’s personal.

The Subject’s Actions
===============

Lastly I’ll cover what someone can be doing within a photography, or more importantly, a portrait. You can have very simple ‘Head and Shoulders’ portraits, not dandruff free, but of, literally, a persons head and shoulders. This is very simple, but works well and is often the most effective portrait. Here is an example:

Photo Credit: Didier (his Photography)

Here, using the simple head and shoulders routine, there is a wonderful photograph, that, for a portrait, is simple but effective, and more often than not, is what people want from a portrait.

Of course though, photography always begs to be different, and it is oh so easy to make something different, for example, a more action-ish portrait, that captures someone doing what they love, which is often what people want. For example:

Photo Credit: Maurice Flower (his Photography)

Here showing someone singing, this can be just as interesting to people, and maybe more, as we are shown what this person loves to do.

I hope that this guide has been an interesting insight into Portraiture, I hope you’re well, and have a happy Valentine’s day.

Charlie - Teenage Photographer

Hey Guys,

I just was taking a great HDR image, and I thought that a lot of people still ask me, ‘Wow, how did you do that?!’ So, I thought, time for a blog post! Anyway, this guide will quickly cover the basics for making interesting HDR images.

By the way, HDR stands for ‘High Dynamic Range‘ here meaning that you are capturing all different levels of light into one image, which you cannot do in a normal single shot photograph.

Getting the Images
==============

Firstly, you will have to collect the images that you want to turn into an HDR. This can consist of a certain amount, (here, 3), of photos taken at different shutter speeds, (different exposures), (or Apertures, but preferably shutter speeds), which you will have to take in a manual mode, (either Tv/S or M), (not sure what those mean? check HERE). You will have to take these photos with a tripod, or from a firm rest to keep the image the same each time. To start with, you’ll want to take a photo using the correct exposure, maybe even take this in automatic, to find out what shutter speeds it uses, you’ll get something like this:

Correctly exposing the grass, the fence etc. Now, the problem with this is, that I am not getting any of the beautiful orange sky here, so, I must take an underexposed shot to correctly expose the sky, so I click three stops too many and press the shutter to get this:

We can now clearly see the orange sky, and the beauty of the feather into lighter orange, yellow and eventually blue. This will end up being the sky in the end image. Now to get an even spread of light you have to do a slightly overexposed shot as well, which will bring up the detail on the plant in the foreground, and the frost etc, this looks like this:

Now, we have the makings of a great HDR image, ready for use. What will we need to do to get the combined? I will explain to you how I do it, which I feel is the simplest way to do so. Oh, and by the way, you can do more than three images if you want, if you can capture even more detail, (say if you were doing a midday HDR), you could do 5, 7, even 9 if you wanted. It all depends on the situation.

Combining the images to an HDR
=========================

I use a piece of software called, Photomatix. This software is available in a free trial version for you to use to try out your skill in HDR, and then you can buy the full version.

You can read about the software on it’s website, but basically, it provides a simple means for you to combine images, as many as you wish, and I have been using it for a while now, and it’s always left me with great images.

Firstly, you need to gather your HDR images into a folder somewhere on your computer, or you can load them straight off of your camera if you wish, and to start off with, click here:

This will bring up a walk through stage of the program in which you can follow through easily, it isn’t very complicated. When it asks you whether or not you want Photomatix to align the photographs, check the box if you didn’t take the photos with a tripod, but if you did, and you’re confident they’re all pretty much of the same image, you can ignore this.

Now you will be left with what will probably be an uninteresting image. Using the photos from above, I’ve been left with this:

Obviously, this is in no way interesting, so what you will have to do now, is tone map the image. Firstly, click here:

And with the menu that comes up:

You will already be presented with a much more attractive image, displaying most of the light and what will already be a much more interesting and dramatic photograph. You can then tweak setting such as colour saturation, and HDR strength, I find it’s different for all images, so you just fiddle with everything until you’re happy.

Once this is done, you simply press ‘OK‘ and save the image, so that you can do whatever you want with it, upload it to Flickr for example, or post it on your blog! This is the final image that came out of the software above:

Neat, don’t you think? Anyway, I hope that this guide has been quick, yet informative, and let me know what you think!

Thanks a lot, and have a great Christmas if I don’t post before then!

Charlie - Teenage Photographer