Just a quick note to wish you all a very merry christmas, have a wonderful break, and snap lots of nice photos.

Charlie -

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 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!)

Well, there’s a surprise, the world leader in photo sharing has jumped on the video bandwagon. To be honest, it’s not all that surprising, we’ll have a think about why not. In the mean time, this is an embedded Flickr video, the quality is really not bad at all. (YouTube esque, except they now have higher quality).

What’s interesting about this move on Flickr’s behalf is that they obviously want to get people staying with them for every bit of media they want to share. I recently joined the site ‘Vimeo‘, which has a lovely interface, and does HD video, et al.

I think that Flickr wants to make sure that they keep people that could potentially leave, even though this wouldn’t happen since their photography based anyway, but it gives people that may have the odd video to upload, the option to just upload them to Flickr now.

However, the videos are limited to 90s which is a little short, and 150mb, which I think is less of an issue. So, I think these really are meant to be just little snap shots, or ‘elongated photographs’ if you will!

Check it out: Flickr

Charlie -

Hey Everyone,

I know I haven’t posted in a while, I’ve been amazingly busy, but I have to share a guide that I discovered recently on the art of taking a group photograph.

I feel that particularly with amateur photographers, you will often be taking group photos, and it is a ciritical skill when with friends, and other occasions.

Digital-Photography-School : Group Photos

Hope you’re well,

Charlie -

Hi Everyone,

One thing I love in Long Exposure photography is the trails stars can leave in images. This quick tutorial will let you know the factors you need to get great results.

Firstly, I think you need to see the photography I’m talking about, (if you haven’t already seen it, or imagined it). This photograph from ‘velvet paw‘ shows the beauty star trails can show in images:

There are many physical factors that help hugely in taking a long exposure photograph with star trails, so before you can start to think about what you need kit-wise, you need to know about what weather and location is necessary.

• Little or no Clouds

Clouds in a picture of star trails can be very attractive, but too much and it defeats the point of the image. Realistically, I’d probably only consider doing a long exposure with star trails if the weather was cloud free, and it there were clouds to come along, chances are they wouldn’t be particularly ruining to the image.

• Clear, dark Skies.
  

You’ll find that to get the best shots it has to be very clear, even when there are no clouds, chances are, if you live anywhere near a built up area, that there will be significant light pollution preventing the best image possible, therefore, you may need to travel to get to the best location. I’ve found that on many occasions I’ve started off an exposure, and by the time its done have the shock of discovering the ambient light was too much, and the star trails have been washed out by it.

• A subject is pretty much required.

I find that a long exposure performed solely or predominantly for capturing star trails can be incredibly uninteresting if there isn’t a subject in the photograph. Again, returning to the fabulous image of Mt. Fuji, the subject makes the image. I find that you don’t need an amazing subject, but having one is pretty much a necessity, cars can be cool subjects, if they are well cleaned, you get reflections of the star trails, and the same goes with water.

—

Next is the kit you will need for the images. Realistically, you need a prosumer or SLR camera, (?), with a Bulb function, (often shown on the camera as B). You can easily discover if you camera has this function by turning it on, switching to the M position, (fully manual). Then turn the shutter speed as slow as possible, and often, after the slowest speed the camera does, you’ll be shown a B, or Bulb:


You can see the display on my 400D above. The bulb function means that the shutter stays open as long as you have got the shutter button pressed down. This means that you would be holding down the shutter button for a long time, and thus you may wish to purchase a shutter release cable, that can allow you to lock the shutter button down and keep it open whilst you wait. An example of such a product can be found here.

If your camera has this function, and you’ve sorted out a way to hold your shutter open, I can move on to a quick list of what you will need:

• Camera with Bulb Function
• Tripod
• A subject
• Time

With those things you are pretty much set to go, oh, there is one last thing, you will find with digital cameras, the battery will run out eventually, so if you are planning to take many, try and take a few back up batteries, or if you can some form of mains power.

—

The method for this ‘genre’ of photography is very simple really, you will want to set up your camera, looking at a subject that you have chosen for the photograph. The camera should be atop a tripod, and preferably have a cable release attached to it, to allow the camera to stay on for a while without your intervention.

Now, lock the shutter down, and your camera, well, most cameras will display a time on the screen like this:

This allows you to see how long your shutter has been open, and therefore how long your exposure has been so far. I find that it is best to leave your aperture wide open, (smallest f/number), and then to experiment with the timings, as the brightness of the stars varies from location to location. This part basically requires a lot of experimentation, and if it is quite bright and you want longer exposure times, then you get a smaller aperture, and try again. I recommend that you start at around 5-10mins, and depending on your results there, you can adjust aperture, (if necessary), and then increase the time to 30-40mins or more!

For a fairly extreme star trail, you will probably want about a half hour exposure, and something like the above Mt. Fuji photo was probably more along the lines of 10-15 minutes.

—

I hope that this has been an informative introduction and tutorial into the world of star trail photography. Let me know if you get some good ones!

Charlie -

Hi Everyone,

Obviously I haven’t been posting much recently, but I’ve just been immensely busy, I thought I’d write a quick, kind of, ‘tip’ on Slow Sync Flash, because it’s something I use quite a lot, and it’s great for making flash photography look acceptable. And, I mean, more with built in flash, because obviously, a large professional flash wouldn’t make photographs look that bad in the first place.

Basically, the theory behind this consists of how flash photography tends to work with built in flashes, if you just go on Auto and shoot someone with the flash on, you’ll probably get a picture of just them, isolated from the background, and looking clammy and horrid, unnatural because of the flash. The genius behind slow sync flash is that it combines flash with a long exposure, meaning that you get the illumination of the subject, but you also get some natural tones in there, and of course the background starts to expose, meaning that your subject isn’t just standing in a black abyss.

This photograph by Theodore Baschack shows the way in which using the ‘Night Portrait’ mode on many prosumer cameras and SLRs can work, (this is basically a slow sync shutter mode).

You can also use this method of photography for more artistic and amusing purposes, making strange but wonderful images. For example, you can kind of do double exposures in one photograph, which can lead to a lot of fun. Here is an example:

This photograph from Angela shows how you can use it for fun expressions and dual characters etc.

I’d like to finish discussing this by saying that this is really something that you will just want to play around with, experiment and have fun. There are many ways you can have fun doing this, serious and fun, so enjoy.

Hope you’re well,

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 Reader,

Now, I’m sure many of you have heard of the rule of thirds, and I thought that because it is such, ‘genius’, I should write a short but sweet post on it. The rule of thirds is the most simple but effective thing that you can do to enhance your photography, and it is instant, not much practice needed, you can jump right in.

The rule of thirds is based upon dividing up your image, into a grid a little like this:

It is a very crude diagram that I whipped up in paint, but it gets the point across. Basically, at the red points, a subject will appear much more dynamic and interesting than one say at the small circle at the centre of the image. I’ll give you an example below. And whilst looking at the images, just keep in mind the diagram above and consider where the subject is:

Now, I know it’s not the best example, but, at my desk I felt like using a new subject, not an old image. But I feel that it gets the point over, particularly by having the out of focus, (OOF), keys in the background, which I think adds context to what the mouse is actually belonging to.

I feel that the difference is that the first image is what would be used to sell the mouse. I mean, it shows what it looks like, and that’s it. The second image makes the mouse the subject for a nice photograph, and that is the difference.

This tip has probably been my shortest so far, however, I feel it has probably been the most important, and I hope that you have found it interesting, I know that this will be incredibly useful for anyone who hasn’t heard about the rule before, and hopefully a reminded for any of you who haven’t.

I hope you’re well,

Charlie -

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